A35812	----	Devotions for the helpe and assistance of all Christian people in all occasions and necessities. This text is an enriched version of the TCP digital transcription A35812 of text R24992 in the English Short Title Catalog (Wing D1238). Textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. The text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with MorphAdorner. The annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). Textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. This text has not been fully proofread Approx. 74 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 33 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. EarlyPrint Project Evanston,IL, Notre Dame, IN, St. Louis, MO 2017 A35812 Wing D1238 ESTC R24992 08712873 ocm 08712873 41631 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A35812) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 41631) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1256:1) Devotions for the helpe and assistance of all Christian people in all occasions and necessities. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. Hatton, Christopher Hatton, Baron, 1605-1670. 63 p. s.n.], [Oxford? : 1644. Caption title: Devotions for severall occasions. Variously attributed to Jeremy Taylor and Christopher Hatton. Reproduction of original in the Huntington Library. eng Devotional exercises. A35812 R24992 (Wing D1238). civilwar no Devotions for the helpe and assistance of all Christian people: in all occasions and necessities. [no entry] 1644 14436 18 0 0 0 0 0 12 C The rate of 12 defects per 10,000 words puts this text in the C category of texts with between 10 and 35 defects per 10,000 words. 2005-02 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-03 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-04 Judith Siefring Sampled and proofread 2005-04 Judith Siefring Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion DEVOTIONS FOR THE Helpe and assistance OF ALL CHRISTIAN PEOPLE : In all occasions and necessities . Printed in the Yeare , 1644. A Prayer against wandring thoughts , to be said at the beginning of our devotions . ALmighty God , who hast commanded us to pray unto thee without ceasing , and hast added many glorious promises for our incouragement , let thy holy Spirit teach me how to pray ; give me just apprehensions of my wants , zeale of thy glory , great resentment of thy mercies , love of all spirituall imployments that are pleasing unto thee ; and do thou helpe mine infirmites , that the Devill may not abuse my fancy with illusions , nor distract my minde with cares , nor alienate my thoughts with impertinencies , but give me a present minde , great devotion , a heart fixed upon thy divine beauties , and an actuall intention and perseverance in my prayers , that I may glorifie thy Name , do unto thee true and laudable service , and obtain reliefe for all my necessities . Heare me , O King of Heaven , when I call upon thee , for thou hast promised mercy to them that pray in the Name of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ . Amen . Penitentiall Prayers , and a Forme of Confession of sinnes to God , to be said upon dayes of publique or private humiliation . O Lord God of mercy and pardon , give me a just remembrance and sad apprehensions of my sinnes ; teach me to bewaile them with as great an indignation and bitternesse , as I have committed them with complacency and delight . Let my prayers and my confession come into thy presence , and obtaine a mercy for me and a pardon . Let not thy justice and severity so remember my sinnes , as to forget thine own mercy ; and though I have committed that for which I deserve to be condemned , yet thou canst not loose that glorious attribute whence flowes comfort to us and hopes of being saved . Spare me therefore , O mercifull God , for to give pardon to a sinner that confesseth his sinnes , and begges remission , is not impossible to thy power , nor disproportionate to thy justice , nor unusuall to thy mercy and sweetest clemency . Blessed Jesu , acknowledge in me whatsoever is thine , and cleanse me from whatsoever is amisse . Have pittie on me now in the time of mercy , and condemne me not when thou commest to judgement ▪ for what profit is there in my bloud ? Thou delightest not in the death of a sinner , but in his conversion there is joy in Heaven ; and when thou hast delivered me from my sinnes , and saved my soule , I shall praise and magnifie thy Name to all eternity . Mercy , sweet Jesu , Mercy . Lord have mercy upon us . Christ have mercy upon us . Lord have mercy upon us . Our Father which art in Heaven , &c. I am not worthy , O Lord , to look up to Heaven , which is the Throne of thy purity , for my sins are moe in number than the haires upon my head , and my heart hath failed me . Lord be mercifull to me a sinner . I have not lived according to thy will , but in the vanity of mine own thoughts , in idle , sinfull , and impertinent language , in foolish actions , in blindnesse of heart , in contempt of thy holy Word and Commandments : I have not loved thee my God with all my heart , nor feared thee with all my soule , nor served thee with all my might according to thy holy precept , nor loved my neighbour as my selfe . Lord be mercifull to me a sinner . I have been unthankfull to thy Divine Majesty , forgetting that thou madest me and preservest me ; to thy Son my blessed Saviour , forgetting the bitter paines he suffered for me ; and to the holy Ghost , forgetting how many gracious influences I have received from him for my helpe , comfort , and promotion in the wayes of holy Religion , but have rebelled against thee my Maker , have sold my selfe to worke wickednesse from whence by the passion of thy holy Son I was redeemed , and have resisted the holy Ghost . Lord be mercifull to me a sinner . I have offended thee my God in an inordinate estimation of my selfe , in vaine complacencies , and desires to be esteemed as much or more than others , in not suffering with meeknesse , indifference , and obedience , the humiliations sent to me by thy divine providence , in haughty deportment toward my superiours , equals , and inferiours , and in accepting such honours as have been done to me without returning them to thee the Fountaine . Lord be mercifull to me a sinner . I have offended thee my God in impatience , in anger intemperate in degree , inordinate in the object , growing peevish and disquieted by trifling inadvertencies of others , and slight accidents about me . Lord be mercifull to me a sinner . I have offended thee my God , by being envious at the prosperous successes and advantages of my neighbours , and have had resentments of joy at their displeasures and sadnesses . Lord be mercifull to me a sinner . I have been negligent in performance of my charge , idle in doing my duties , soft and effeminate in my life , indevout in my prayers , slothfull in the exercises of Religion , weary of their length , displeased at their returne , without advertency in the execution of them , and glad at an occasion of their pretermission . Lord be mercifull to me a sinner . I have been diligent and curious in pleasing my appetite of meat , and drinke , and pleasures , loosing my time , pampering my flesh , quenching the Spirit , making matter both for sin and sicknesses , and have not been sedulous in mortifying my body for the subduing mine owne intemperances and inordination . Lord be mercifull to me a sinner . I have been an improvident steward of the good things thou hast given me , I have loved them inordinately , sought them greedily , and unjustly , dispensed them idlely , & parted with them unwillingly : I have not been so charitable to the poore , or so pittifull to the afflicted , or so compassionate to the sicke , or so apt to succour and give supply to the miseries of my neighbours as I ought , but have too much minded things below , not setting mine affections upon Heaven and heavenly things , but have been unlike thee in all things , I have been unmercifull and unjust . Lord be mercifull to me a sinner . Mine eyes , O Lord , have wandred after vanity , beholding and looking after things unseemly without displeasure , despising my neighbours , prying into their faults , but have been blinde not seeing mine own sinnes , and infinite irregularities . Lord be mercifull to me a sinner . I have not with care kept the doore of my lips , nor bridled my tongue , but have been excessive in talking , immoderate in dissolute and wanton laughter , apt to lie , to deny truth , to accuse others , to scoffe at them , to aggravate their faults , to lessen their worth , to give rash judgement , to flatter for advantage , to speake of thy Name irreverently , and without religious or grave occasions , our discourses have been allayed with slander and backbiting , not apt to edifie , or minister grace unto the hearers . Lord be mercifull to me a sinner . Mine eares have been greedy after vanity , listening after things unprofitable , or that might tend to the prejudice of my neighbours , and have not with holy appetite listened after thy holy words and conveyances of salvation . Lord be mercifull to me a sinner . I have offended thee by the entertainment of evill thoughts , thoughts of uncleannesse and impurity , and have not resisted their first beginnings , but have given consent to them explicitely and implicitly , and have brought them up till they have grown into idle words and actions . Lord be mercifull to me a sinner . I have made my selfe guilty of the sinnes of others by consent , by approving , by not reproving , by cooperating , by encouraging their ill actions , so making mine owne heape greater by pulling their deformities upon mine own head . Lord be mercifull to me a sinner . I have imployed all my members and faculties both of soule and body in the wayes of unrighteousnesse , I have transgressed my duty in all my relations , and in all my actions and traverses of my whole life , even where I might have had most confidence I finde nothing but weaknesse and imperfections . Lord be mercifull to me a sinner . I have broken my vowes and purposes of obedience , and holy life , I have been inconstant to all good , refractory to counsels , disobedient to commands , stubborne against admonition , churlish and ungentle in my behaviour , mindfull and revengfull of injuries , forgetfull of benefits , seeking my own ends , deceiving my own soul . Lord be mercifull to me a sinner . My secret sinnes , O Lord , are innumerable , sins secret to my selfe through inadvertency , forgetfullnesse , wilfull ignorance , or stupid negligence ; secret to the world , committed before thee only , and under the witnesse of my own conscience . I am confounded with the multitude of them , and the horror of their remembrance . Oh Jesu God , be mercifull unto me . I. SOn of Daivd , Blessed Redeemer , Lamb of God , that takest away the sinnes of the world have mercy upon me . O Iesu , be a Iesu unto me , thou that sparedst thy servant Peter that denyed thee thrice , thou that did'st cast seven Devils out of Mary Magdalen , and forgavest the woman taken in adultery , and didst beare the convert thief from the Crosse , to the joyes of Paradise , have mercy upon me also ; for although I have amassed together more sinnes , then all these in conjunction , yet nor their sinnes , nor mine , nor the sinnes of all the world can equall thy glorious mercy , which is as infinite , and eternall as thy selfe . I acknowledge , O Lord , that I am vile , but yet redeemed with thy precious bloud ; I am blinde , but thou art the light of the world ; I am weak , but thou art my strong rock ; I have been dead in trespasses and sinnes , but thou art my resurrection and my life . Thou , O Lord , lovest to shew mercy , and the expressions of thy mercy , the nearer they come to infinite , the more proportionable they are to thy essence , and like thy selfe . Behold then O Lord , a fit object for thy pitty : my sinnes are so great and many that to forgive me , will be an act of glorious mercy , and all the praises which did acrue to thy name , by the forgiuenesse of David , and Manasses , and S. Paul , and the adultresse , and the thiefe , and the Publican will be multiplyed to thy honour , in the forgiuenesse of me so vile , so unworthy a wretch , that I have nothing to say for my selfe , but that the greatnesse of my misery , is a fit object for thy miraculous and infinite mercy . Despise me not , O Lord , for I am thy creature , despise me not , for thou didst dye for me , cast me not away in thine anger , for thou camest to seek me , and to save me . Say unto my soul I am thy salvation ; let thy holy spirit lead me from the errours of my wayes , into the paths of righteousnesse , to great degrees of repentance , and through all the parts of a holy life , to a godly & a holy death . Grant this , O blessed Iesu , for thy mercies , and for thy pitty sake . Amen . II. O Lord God , Blessed Iesu , Eternall Iudge of quick and dead , I tremble with horror at the apprehension when I call to mind with what terrors and Majesty thou shalt appeare in judgement ; a fire shall go out from thy presence and a tempest shall be stirred up round about thee , such a tempest as shall rend the rocks levell the mountaines , shake the earth , disorder and dissolve the whole fabrick of the heavens , and where then shall I , vile sinner , appear , when the heavens are not pure in thy sight . Lord I tremble when I remember that sad truth , If the righteous scarcely be saved , where then shall the wicked and the ungodly appeare ? I know , O Lord , that all my secret impurities shall be laid open before all the Nations of the world , before all the orders and degrees of Angels , in the presence of innumerable millions of beatified spirits . There shall I see many that have taught me innocence and sanctity , many that have given me pious example , many that have dyed for thee , and suffered tortures rather then they would offend thee . O just and dear God , where shall I appeare , who shall plead for me that am so loaden with impurities , with vanity , with ingratitude , with malice , and the terrors of an affrighting conscience ? Lord what shall I do , who am straitned by my own covetousnesse , accused by my own pride , consumed with envy , set on fire by lust , made dull with gluttony , and stupid by drunkennesse , supplanted by ambition , rent asunder with faction and discord , made dissolute with lightnesse and inconstancy , deceived with hypocrisie , abused with flattery , foold with presumption , disturb'd with anger , and disordered by a whole body of sinne and death ? But thou shalt answer for me , O Lord my God , thou art my judge and my advocate , and thou art to passe sentence upon me for those sinnes , for which thou diedst . O reserve not my sinnes to be punished in the life to come , for then I dye eternally , but bring me in this world to a holy , a sharp and Salutary repentance . Behold I am in thine hands ; grant I may so weep , and be contrite for my sinnes , that in the houre of my death I may finde mercy , and in the day of judgement I may be freed from all the terrors of thy wrath , and the sentence of the wicked , and may behold thy face with joy and security , being set at thy right hand , with all thy saints and Angels to sing an eternall Alleluiah to the honour of thy mercies . Amen , sweet Iesu. Amen . III. MOST Mercifull and indulgent Iesu , hear the complaint of a sad and miserable sinner , for I have searched into the secret recesses of my soul , and there I finde nothing but horror , and a barren wildernesse , a neglected conscience overgrown with sinnes and cares , and beset with fears and sore amazements . I finde that I have not observed due reverence towards my superiors , nor modesty in my discourse , nor discipline in my manners . I have been obstinate in my vain purposes , cosen'd in my own semblances of humility , pertinacious in hatred , bitter in my jesting , impatient of Subjection , ambitious of power , slow to good actions , apt to talke , ready to supplant my neighbours , full of jealousies and suspition , scornfull and censorious , burdensome to my friends , ingratefull to my benefactors , imperious to my inferious , boasting to have said what I said not , to have seen what I saw not , to have done what I did not , and have both said , and seen , and done what I ought not , provoking thy divine Majesty with a continuall course of sinne and vanity . And yet , O Lord , thou hast spared me all this while , and hast not taken away my life in the midst of my sinnes , which is a mercy so admirable and of so vast a kindnesse , as no heart or tongue can think , or speak . If thou hadst dealt with me according as I had deserved , and might justly have expected , I had been now , now at this instant seal'd up to an eternity of torments , hopelessely miserable , fearing the revelation of thy day with an insupportable amazement : and now under the sweet influences of thy mercies , J am praying to thee , confessing my sinnes , with shame , indeed at my basenesse and ingratitude , but with a full hope and confidence in thy mercy . O turne the eyes of thy divine clemency with a gracious aspect upon a wretched sinner , open the bowels of thy mercy , and receive me into favour . O my dear God , let thy grace speedily worke that in me for which thou so long hast spared me , and to which thou didst designe me in thy holy purposes and mercies of eternity , even a true faith , and a holy life , conformable to thy will , and in order to eternall blessednesse . I remember , O Lord , the many fatherly expressions and examples of thy mercies to repenting sinners , thy delight in our conversion , thy unwillingnesse to destroy us , thy earnest invitation of us to grace and life , thy displeasure at our dangers and miseries , the infinite variety of meanes thou usest to bring us from the gates of death , and to make us happy to eternity . These mercies , O Lord , are so essentiall to thee , that thou canst not but be infinitly pleased in demonstrations of them . Remember not , O Lord ▪ how we have despised thy mercies , sleighted thy judgements , neglected thy Commandments ; but now at length establish in us great contrition for our sinnes , leade us on to humble confession and dereliction of them , and let thy grace make us bring forth fruits meet for repentance , fruits of justice , of hope , of charity , of religion and devotion , that we may be what thou delightest in , holy , and just , and mercifull , vessels prepared for honour , temples of the holy Ghost , and instruments of thy praises to all eternity , O blessed Iesu , who livest and reignest , ever one God , world without end . Amen . O Lord Jesu Christ , Son of the eternall God , interpose thy holy Death , thy Crosse and Passion between thy judgement and my soule , now and in the houre of my death , granting unto me grace and mercy , to all faithfull people pardon and peace , to the Church unity and amity , and to all sinners repentance and amendment , to us all life and glory everlasting , who livest and reignest ever one God , world without end . Amen , A Forme of thankesgiving , with a particular enumeration of Gods blessings . MOst glorious Lord God , infinite in mercy , full of compassion , long suffering , and of great goodnesse , I adore , and praise , and glorifie thy holy Name , worshipping thee with the lowliest devotions of my soule and body , and give thee thankes for all the benefits thou hast done unto me ; for whatsoever I am , or have , or know , or desire as I ought , it is all from thee , thou art the Fountain of being and blessing , of sanctity and pardon , of life and glory . Praise the Lord , O my soule , and all that is within me praise his holy Name . Thou , O God , of thine infinite goodnesse hast created me of nothing , and hast given me a degree of essence next to Angels , imprinting thine Image on me , enduing me with reasonable faculties of will and understanding , to know and chuse good , and to refuse evill , and hast put me into a capacity of a blessed immortality . O praise the Lord with me , and let us magnifie his Name together . Thou , O God , of thy great mercy hast given me a comely body , a good understanding , streight limbes , a ready and unloosed tongue , whereas with justice thou mightest have made me crooked and deformed , sottish and slow of apprehension , imperfect and impedite in all my faculties . O give thankes unto the God of Heaven : for his mercy endureth for ever . Thou , O God , of thy glorious mercies , hast caused me to be borne of Christian parents , and didst not suffer me to be strangled in the wombe , but gavest me opportunity of holy Baptisme , and hast ever since blessed me with education in Christian Religion . Thy way , O God , is holy , who is so great a God as our God ? Thou , O God , out of thine abundant kindnesse hast made admirable variety of creatures to minister to my use , to serve my necessity , to preserve and restore my health , to be an ornament to my body , to be representations of thy power and of thy mercy . Vnto thee , O God , will I pay my vowes : unto thee will I give thankes . Thou , O God , of thine admirable and glorious mercy hast made thine Angels ministring spirits for my protection and defence against all the hostilities of the Devill ; thou hast set a hedge about me , and such a guard as all the power of hell and earth cannot overcome : thou hast preserved me by thy holy providence and the ministery of Angels from drowning , from burning , from precipice , from deformities , from fracture of bones , and all the snares of evill , and the great violations of health , which many of my betters suffer . I will give thankes unto thee , O Lord , with my whole heart : even before the gods will I sing praise unto thee . Thou , O most mercifull God , hast fed me and clothed me , hast raised me up friends and blessed them , hast preserved me in dangers , hast rescued me from the fury of the sword , from the rage of pestilence , from perishing in publike distemperatures and diseases epidemicall , from terrours and affrightments of the night , from illusions of the Devill and sad apparitions ; thou hast been my guide in my journies , my refreshment in sadnesses , my hope and my confidence in all my griefes and desolations . O give thankes unto the Lord of lords : for his mercy endureth for ever . But above all mercies it was not lesse than infinite , whereby thou lovedst me and all mankinde when we were lost and dead , and rebells against thy Divine Majesty ; thou gavest thine owne begotten Son to seek us when we went astray , to restore us to life when we were dead in trespasses and sinnes , and to reconcile us to thy selfe by the mercies and the atonement of an everlasting covenant . He is our God , even the God of whom commeth salvation : God is the Lord by whom we escape death . O most blessed Iesu , I praise & adore thine infinite mercies , humility , and condescension , that for my sake thou wouldest descend from the bosome of thy heavenly Father into the pure wombe of an humble maid , and take on thee my nature , and be borne , and cry , and suffer cold , and all the incommodities which the meannesse of a stable could minister to the tendernesse of thy first infancy . Lord , what is man that thou art mindfull of him : and the Son of man that thou so regardest him ? I adore thee , blessed Iesu , and praise thee for thine immaculate sanctity , for all thy holy precepts and counsels , for thy Divine example , for thy miracles and mysterious revelations of thy Fathers will , for the institution of the holy Sacraments , and all other blessings of thy Propheticall Office . O praise the Lord , for the Lord is gracious : sing praises unto his Name , for it is lovely . I adore and love thee , most blessed Iesu , for all the parts of thy most bitter Passion , for thy being betrayed and accused , buffeted and spit upon , blindfolded and mocked , crowned with thornes and scourged , for thine agony and bloudy sweat , for thy bearing the sad load of the Crosse , and sadder load of our sinnes , for thy Crucifixion three long houres , when the weight of thy Body was supported with wounds and nailes , for thy Death and Buriall , for thy continuall intercession and advocation with thy heavenly Father in behalfe of me and all thy holy Church , and all other acts of mediation and redemption , the blessings of thy priestly Office . O praise the Lord for his goodnesse : and declare the wonders he hath done for the children of men . I adore and magnifie thy holy Name , O most blessed Iesu , for thy triumph over death , hell , sin , and the grave , for thy opening the Kingdome of Heaven to all believers , for thy glorious resurrection and ascension , for thy government over all the creatures , for the advancement of thy holy Kingdome , for thy continuall resisting and defeating the intendments of thine enemies against thy Church , by the strength of thine arme , by the mightinesse of thy power , by the glories of thy wisedome ; for those blessed promises thou hast made & performest to thy Church of sending the holy Ghost , of giving her perpetuity of being in defiance of all the gates and powers of Hell and darknesse , and blessing her with continuall assistances , and all other glories of thy Regall Office and power . O sing praises , sing praises unto our God ; O sing praises , sing praises unto our King : for God is the King of all the earth , sing yee praises with understanding . O most holy Spirit , Love of the Father , Fountain of grace , Spring of all spirituall blessings , I adore and praise thy divine excellencies which are essentiall to thy glorious Selfe in the unity of the most mysterious Trinity , and which thou communicatest to all faithfull people , and to me thy unworthy servant in the unity of the Catholike Church . O magnifie the Lord our God , and fall down before his footstoole : for he is holy . O blessed Spirit , I praise and magnifie thy Name for thy miraculous descent upon the Apostles in Pentecost in mysterious representments , for those great graces and assistances comming upon their heads , and falling downe upon us all in the descent of all ages of the Church , for confirmation of our Faith , for propagation of the Gospel , for edification and ornament of thy Family . Thou O God , shalt endure for ever , and thy remembrance throughout all generations . O most glorious Spirit , I praise and magnifie thy Name for thy inspiration of the Apostles and Prophets , for thy providence and mercy in causing holy Scriptures to be written , and preserving them from the corruptions of Heretickes , from the violences of Pagans and enemies of the Crosse of Christ . I will alwayes give thankes unto the Lord : his praise shall ever be in my mouth . I blesse thy Name for those holy promises and threatnings , those judgements and mercies , those holy precepts and admonitions which thou hast registred in Scriptures , and in the records and monuments of the Church , for all those graces , helpes , and comforts whereby thou promotest me in piety , and the wayes of true Religion , for baptismall and penitentiall grace , for the opportunities and sweet refreshings of the Sacrament of the Eucharist , for all the advantages thou hast given me of good society , tutours , and governours , for the feares thou hast produced in me as deleteries and impediments of sin , for all my hopes of pardon , and expectation of the promises made by our Lord Iesus Christ to incourage me in the pathes of life and sanctity , for all the holy sermons , spirituall bookes , and lessons , for all the good prayers and meditations , for those blessed waitings and knockings at the doore of my heart , patiently tarrying for , and lovingly inviting me to repentance , without ceasing , admonishing and reproving me with the checkes of a tender conscience , with exteriour and interiour motives , and for whatsoever other meanes or incentive of holinesse thou hast assisted me withall . I magnifie , and praise , and adore thee and thy goodnesse . All Nations whom thou hast made and sanctified shall come and worship thee , O Lord , and shall glorifie thy Name , for thou art great and doest wondrous things , thou art God alone , and great is thy mercy towards me , thou hast delivered my soule from the nethermost Hell , therefore shall every good man sing of thy praise without ceasing : O my God , I will give thankes unto thee for ever with Cherubims , and Seraphims , and all the companies of the heavenly Host , saying , Holy , Holy , Holy , Lord God of Sabbaoth , holy is our God , holy is the Immortall , holy is the Almighty , the Father , the Son , and the holy Ghost , to whom be all honour and glory and dominion and power ascribed of all spirits , and all men , and all creatures , now and for evermore . Amen . I. Prayers preparatory to the receiving of the blessed Sacrament . O Most immaculate and glorious ▪ Iesu , behold me miserable sinner , drawing neare to thee with the approaches of humility , and earnest desire to be cleansed from my sinnes , to be united to thee by the nearest and most mysterious union of charity and Sacramentall participation of thy most holy Body and Bloud : I presume nothing of mine owne worthinesse , but I am most confident of thy mercies and infinite loving kindnesse . I know , O Lord , I am blinde and sicke , and dead , and naked , but therefore I come the rather : I am sicke , and thou art my Physitian , thou arisest with healing in thy wings , by thy wounds I come to be cured , and to be healed by thy stripes : I am unclean , but thou art the Fountain of purity , I am blinde , and thou art the great Eye of the world , the Sun of righteousnesse , in thy light I shall see light : I am poore , and thou art rich unto all , the Lord of all the creatures . I therefore humbly begge of thy mercy that thou wouldest be pleased to take from me all my sinnes , to cure my infirmities , to cleanse my filthinesse , to lighten my darknesse , to clothe my nakednesse with the robe of thy righteousnesse , that I may with such reverence , and faith , and holy intention receive thy blessed Body and Bloud in the mysterious Sacrament , that it may be unto me life , and pleasantnesse , and holy nourishment , and that I may be firmely and indissolubly united to thy mysticall Body , and may at last see clearly and without a vaile thy face in glory everlasting , who livest and reignest , ever one God world without end . Amen . II. I Adore and blesse thy glorious Majesty , O blessed Iesu , for this great dignation and vouchsafing to me , that thou art pleased for all the infinite multiplication of my sinnes , and innumerable violations of thy holy Law , still to give thy selfe unto me , to convey health , and grace , and life , and hopes of glory in the most blessed Sacrament . I adore thee , O most righteous Redeemer , that thou art pleased under the visible signes of Bread and Wine , to convey unto our soules thy holy Body and Bloud , and all the benefits of thy bitter Passion . O my God , I am not worthy thou shouldest come under my roofe , but let thy holy Spirit with his purities prepare for thee a lodging in my soule . Thou hast knocked often , O blessed Iesu , at the doore of my heart , and wouldest willingly have entred ; behold , O Lord , my heart is ready to receive thee , cast out of it all worldly desires , all lusts and carnall appetites , and then enter in , and there love to inhabit , that the Devill may never returne to a place that is so swept and garnished , to fill me full of all iniquity . O thou lover of soules , grant that this holy Sacrament may be a light unto mine eyes , a guide to my understanding , and a joy to my soule , that by its strength I may subdue and mortifie the whole body of sin in me , and that it may produce in me constancy in Faith , fulnesse of wisedome , perfection and accomplishment of all thy righteous commandments , and such a blessed union with thee , that I may never more live unto my selfe , or to the world , but to thee onely , and by the refreshment of an holy hope , I may be lead through the pathes of a good life , and persevering piety to the communion and possession of thy Kingdome , O blessed Iesu , who livest and reignest ever one God , world without end . Amen . III. O Lord God , who hast made all things of nought , producing great degrees of es●ence out of nothing : make me a new creature , and of a sinfull man , make me holy , and just , and mercifull ; that I may receive thy precious Body , devoutly , reverently , with meeknesse , contrition , and great affection , with spirituall comfort and gladnesse at thy mysticall presence . Feed my soule with Bread from Heaven , fill me with charity , conform me to thy wil in all things , save me from all dangers bodily and ghostly , assist and guide me in all doubts and feares , prepare and strengthen me against all surreptions and sudden incursion of temptations , cleanse me from all staines of sin , and suffer nothing to abide in me but thy selfe onely , who art the Life of soules , the Food of the Elect , and the joy of Angels . Give me such a gust and holy relish in this Divine nutriment , that nothing may ever hereafter please me but what savours of thee and thy miraculous sweetnesse . Teach me to loath all the pleasures and beauties of this life , and let my soule be so inebriated with the pleasures of thy Table , that I may be comprehended and swallowed up with thy love and sweetnesse : let me thinke nothing but thee , covet nothing but thee , enjoy nothing but thee , nothing in comparison with thee , and neither do nor possesse any thing but what leades to thee , and is in order to the performance of thy will and the fruition of thy glories . Transfixe my soule , O blessed Jesu , with so great love to thee , so great devotion in receiving the holy Sacrament , that I may be transformed to the Fellowship of thy sufferings , and admitted to a participation of all the benefits of thy Passion , and to a communion of thy graces and thy glories . I desire to be with thee , dissolve all the chaines of my sin , and then come Lord Jesus , come quickly . Let my soule feed on thee greedily , for thou art the spring of light and life , the Fountaine of wisedome and health , a torrent of divine pleasure and tranquillity , the Authour of peace and comfort : enter into me , sweet Jesu , take thou possession of my soule , and be thou Lord over me and all my faculties , and preserve me with great mercy and tendernesse , that no doubting or infidelity , no impenitence or remanent affection to a sin , no impurity or irreverence may make me unworthy and uncapable of thy glorious approach . Let not my sinnes crucifie the Lord of life again , let it not be said concerning me , the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the table : that this holy Communion may not be unto me an occasion of death , but a blessed peace-offering for my sinnes , and a gate of life and glory . Grant this , O blessed God , for his sake who is both Sacrifice and Priest , the Master of the Feast , and the Feast it selfe , even Iesus Christ , to whom with thee , O Father and the holy Spirit , be all honour and glory , now and for ever . Amen . A Prayer after receiving the consecrated Bread . I Give thankes unto thee Almighty and eternall God , that thou hast not rejected me from thy holy Table , but hast refreshed my soule with the salutary refection of the Body of thy Son Iesus Christ . Lord if I had lived innocently , and had kept all thy Commandments , I could have had no proportion of merit to so transcendent a mercy ; but since I have lived in all manner of sin , and multiplied provocations against thy Divine Majesty , thy mercy is so glorious and infinite , that I am amased at the consideration of its immensity . Go on , O my deare God , to finish so blessed a redemption , and now that thou hast begun to celebrate a marriage and holy union between thy selfe and my soule , let me never throw off the wedding garment , or stain it with the pollutions of deadly sin , nor seek after other lovers , but let me for ever , and ever be united unto thee , being transformed into thy will in this life , and to the likenesse of thy glories in the life to come , who livest and reignest , ever one God , world without end . Amen . After receiving the Cup . O Iust and deare God , who out of the unmeasurable abysses of wisedome and mercy hast redeemed us , and offered life ▪ and grace , and salvation to us by the reall exhibition of thy Son Iesus Christ in the sacrifice of his Death upon the altar of the Crosse , and by commemoration of his bitter agonies in the holy Sacrament ; Grant that that great and venerable sacrifice which we now commemorate sacramentally , may procure of thee for thy whole Church mercy and great assistance in all trials , deliverance from all heresies , schismes , sacriledge , and persecutions , to all sicke people health and salvation , redemption for captives , competency of living to the indigent and necessitous , comfort to the afflicted , reliefe to the oppressed , repentance to all sinners , softnesse of spirit and a tender conscience to the obstinate , conversion to the Iewes , Turkes , and remedy to all that are in any trouble or adversity . And grant to us , O Lord , that this blessed Sacrament and sacrifice of commemor●tion in vertue of that dreadfull and proper Sacrifice upon the Crosse may obtain for me , and for us all who have communicated this day , pardon and peace ; and that we may derive from thee by this ministery grace to expell all our sinnes , to mortifie all our lusts , to exterminate all concupiscence , to crucifie all inordination and irregularity , to produce in us humility , and chastity , and obedience , and meeknesse of spirit , and charity , and may become our Defence and Armour against the violences and invasions of all our ghostly enemies , and temporall disadvantages ; and give us this grace and favour , that we may not die in the guilt and commission of a sin without repentance , nor without receiving the blessed Sacrament , but that we may so live and die , that we may at last rest in thy bosome , and be imbraced with the comprehensions of thy eternall charity , who livest and reignest , ever one God , world without end . Amen . All blessing , and praise , and honour , be unto thee , O blessed Redeemer : to thee we the banished and miserable sonnes of Adam , do call for mercy and defence , to thee we sigh and cry in this valley of teares ▪ O dearest Advocate , turne those thy mercifull eyes towards us , & shew us thy glorious face in thy Kingdome , where no teares , or sighing , or feares , or sadnesses can approach . Amen , sweetest Iesu , Amen . Prayers preparatory to death . I. A Prayer for a blessed ending , to be said in time of health or sicknesse . O Blessed Iesu , Fountaine of eternall mercy , the Life of the soule , and glorious Conquerour over Death and sin , I humbly beseech thee to give me grace so to spend this transitory life in vertuous and holy exercises , that when the day of my death shall come , in the midst of all my paines , I may feel the sweet refreshings of thy holy spirit comforting my soul , sustaining my infirmities , and releeving all my spirituall necessities : and grant , that in the Vnity of the holy Catholique Church , and in the integrity of Christian faith , with confidence and hope of thy mercy , in great love towards thee , in peace with my Neighbours , and in charity with all the world , I may through thy grace depart hence out of this vale of misery , and go unto that glorious country , where thou hast purchased an inheritance for us , with the price of thy most precious bloud , and raignest in it gloriously , in the Vnity of thy Father and ours , of thy holy Spirit , and our Ghostly Comforter , ever one God world without end . Amen . II. A Prayer to be said at the beginning of a sicknesse . O Lord my God , who chastisest every one whom thou receivest , and with thy Fatherly correction smitest all those whom thou consignest to the inheritance of sonnes ; write my soul in the book of life , and number me amongst thy Children , whom thou hast smitten with the rod of sicknesse , and by thy chastisements hast brought me into the Lot of the righteous . Thou , O Blessed Iesu , art a helper in the needfull time of trouble ; lay no more upon me then thou shalt enable me to beare , and let thy gentle correction in this life prevent the insupportable stripes of thy vengeance in the life to come . Smite me now that thou mayest spare me to all eternity : and yet , O blessed High Priest , who art touched with a sense of our infirmities , smite me friendly , and reproove me with such a tendernesse as thou bearest unto thy Children , to whom thou conveyest suppletory comforts , greater then the paines of chastisement , and in due time restore me to health , and to thy solemne assemblies again , and to the joy of thy Countenance . Give me patience and humility , and the grace of repentance , and an absolute dereliction of my selfe , and a resignation to thy pleasures and providence , with a power to do thy will in all things , and then do what thou pleasest to me ; only in health or sicknesse , in life or death , let me feel thy comforts refreshing my soul , and let thy grace pardon all my sinnes . Grant this , O Blessed Iesu , for my trust is in thee onely , thou art my God , and my mercifull Saviour and Redeemer . Amen . III. A Prayer to be said in the progresse of a sicknesse . O Lord my God , Blessed Iesu , who by thy bitter death and passion hast sweetned the cup of death to us , taking away it's bitternesse and sting , and making it an entrance to life and glory , have pitty upon me thy servant , who have so deep a share in sinne , that I cannot shake off the terrors of death ▪ but that my nature with it 's hereditary corruption still would preserve it selfe in a disunion from the joyes of thy Kingdom . Lord I acknowledge my own infirmities and begge thy pitty . It is better for me to be with thee , but the remembrance of my sinnes doth so depresse my growing confidence , that I am in a great streight between my feares and hopes , betwen the infirmities of my Nature , and the better desires of conforming to thy holy will and pleasure . O my Deare Redeemer , wean my soul and all my desires from the flatteries of this world ; pardon all my sinnes , and consigne so great a favour by the comforts , and attestation of thy divinest Spirit , that my own feares being masterd , my sinnes pardoned , my desires rectified , as the Hart thirsts after the springs of water , so my soul may long after thee , O God , and to enter into thy Courts . Heavenly Father , if it may be for thy glory , and my ghostly good , to have the dayes of my pilgrimage prolonged , I begge of thee health and life ; but if it be not pleasing to thee , to have this cup passe from me , thy will be done : my Saviour hath drunk off all the bitternesse . Behold , O Lord , I am in thine hands , do with me as seemeth good in thine eyes ; though I walke through the vally of the shadow of death , I will fear no evill , for thou art with me , thy rod , and thy staffe comfort me . I will lay me downe in peace , and take my rest , for it is thou Lord only who shalt make me to dwell in everlasting safety , and to partake of the joyes of thy Kingdom , who livest and raignest eternall God , world without end . Amen . IV. A Prayer for a sick Person , in danger of death . O Lord Iesus Christ , our health and life , our hope , and our resurrection from the dead : I resigne my self up to thy holy will and pleasure , either to life , that I may live longer to thy service and my amendment ; or to death , to the perpetuall enjoyment of thy presence , and of thy glories . Into thy hands I commend my spirit , for I know , O Lord , that nothing can perish , which is committed to thy mercies . J believe , O Lord , that I shall receive my body again at the resurrection of the just ; I relinquish all care of that , only I beg of thee mercy for my soul ; strengthen it with thy grace against all temptations , let thy loving kindnesse defend it , as with a shield against all the violences and hostile assaults of Sathan : let the same mercy , be my guard and defence , which protected thy Martyrs , crowning them with victory in the midst of flames , horrid torments , and most cruell deaths . There is no help in me , O Lord , I cannot by my own power , give a minutes rest to my wearied body , but my trust is in thy sure mercies , & I call to mind , to my unspeakable comfort , that thou wert hungry , and thirsty , and wearied , & whipt , and crown'd with Thornes , and mock'd , & crucified for me . O let that mercy which made thee suffer so much , make thee do that for which thou sufferedst so much , pardon me , and save me . Let thy merits answer for my impieties , let thy righteousnesse cover my sinnes , thy bloud wash away my staines , and thy comforts refresh my soul . As my body growes weak let thy grace be stronger , let not my faith doubt , nor my hope tremble , nor my charity grow cold , nor my soul be affrighted with the terrors of death ; but let the light of thy countenance enlighten mine eyes , that I sleep not in death eternall ; and when my tongue failes , let thy spirit teach my heart to pray , with strong cryings and groanes that are unutterable . O Let not the enemy do me any violence , but let thy holy mercies , and thy Angels repell and defeat his malice and fraud , that my soul may by thy strength triumph in the joyes of eternity , in the fruition of thee , my life , my joy , my hope , my exceeding great reward , my Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ . Amen . V. For a dying Person in , or neare the agonies of death . MOst mercifull and Blessed Saviour , have mercy upon the soule of this thy servant ; remember not his ignorances , nor the sins of his youth , but according to thy great mercy remember him in the mercies and glories of thy Kingdome . Thou , O Lord , hast open'd the Kingdom of Heaven to all beleivers , let the everlasting gates be open'd , and receive his Soul : let the Angells , who rejoyce at the conversion of a sinner , triumph , and be exalted in his deliverance and salvation . Make him partaker of the benefits of thy holy incarnation , life and sanctity , passion and death , resurrection and ascension , and of all the prayers of the Church , of the joy of the elect , and all the fruits of the blessed communion of Saints ; and dayly adde to the number of thy beatified servants such as shall be saved , that thy comming may be hastned , and the expectation of the Saints may be fulfilled , and the glory of thee , our Lord Iesu , be advanced , all the whole Church singing prayses to the Honour of thy name , who livest and raignest ever one God world without end . Amen . VI . O Most mercifull Iesu , who didst dye to reredeem us from death and damnation , have mercy upon this thy servant , whom thy hand hath visited with sicknesse : of thy goodnesse be pleased to forgive him all his sinnes , and seal his hopes of glory , with the refreshments of thy holy Spirit . Lord give him strength and confidence in thee , asswage his pain , repell the assaults of his Ghostly enemies by thy mercies , and a guard of holy Angels : preserve him in the unity of the Church , keep his senses intire , his understanding right , give him great measure of contrition , true faith , a well grounded hope , and abundant charity : give him a quiet and a joyfull departure , let thy ministring spirits convey his soule to the mansions of peace and rest , there with certainty to expect a joyfull resurrection to the fulnesse of joy at thy right hand , where there is pleasure for evermore , Amen . VII . A Prayer for the joyes of Heaven . O Most glorious Iesu , who art the portion and exceeding great reward of all faithfull people , thou hast beautified humane Nature with glorious immortality , and hast carried the same above all Heavens , above the seat of Angels , beyond the Cherubims and Seraphims , placing it on the right hand of thy heavenly Father , grant to us all the issues of thy abundant charity , that we may live in thy feare , and die in thy favour . Prepare our soules with heavenly vertues for heavenly joyes , making us righteous here , that we may be beautified hereafter . Amen . A MORNING PRAYER . In the Name of the Father , and of the Son , and of the holy Ghost . Our Father which art in Heaven , &c. I. O Eternall son of righteousnes , who camest from the bosome of thy Father the Fountain of my glorious light , to enlighten the darknesses of the world ; I praise thy Name that thou hast preserved me from the dangers of this night , and hast continued to me still the opportunities of serving thee , and advancing my hopes of a blessed eternity . Let thy mercies shine brightly upon me , and dissipate the clouds and darknesses of my spirit and understanding , rectifie my affections , and purifie my will and all my actions , that whatsoever I shall do or suffer this day , or in my whole life , my words and purposes , my thoughts and my intentions may be sanctified , and be acceptable to thy divine Majesty . Amen . II. GRant that my understanding may know thee , my heart may love thee , and all my faculties and powers may give thee due obedience and serve thee . Preserve me this day from all sin and danger , from all violences and snares of mine enemies visible and invisible : let thy holy feare be as a bridle to my distemperatures , and thy love so enkindle and actuate all mine endeavours , that no pleasure or allurements of the world may draw me from thy service , nor any difficulty or temptation may be my hinderance : let the profound humility and innocence of my blessed Saviour keep from me all pride and haughtinesse of minde , all selfe-love and vain-glory , all obstinacy and disobedience , all fraudulency and hurtfull dissimulation , and let the graces of the holy Ghost take so absolute possession and seizure of my soule , and all it's faculties , that I may tread down and cast out the spirit of intemperance and uncleannesse , of malice and envy , of idlenesse and disdaine , that I may never despise any of thy creatures , but my selfe ; that so being little in mine own sight , I may be great in thine . Amen , III. CLoth my soule with the wedding garment , the habits of supernaturall Faith and Charity , that I may believe all thy holy promises and revelations without all wavering , and love thee my God with so great devotions and affections , that neither life nor death , prosperity nor adversity , temptations within , nor without , may ever disunite me from the love of thee ; but that I may have the most intimate adhesion to thy glories and perfections , of which my condition in this world is capable . Make me to choose vertue with the same freenes of election , entertaine it with as little reluctancy , keep it with as much complacency , actuate it with as many faculties , serve it with as much industry , as I have in time past my vices and pleasures of the world ; and grant that all inordinate affection to the transitory things of this life may daily decay in me , and that I may grow in spirit and ghostly strength , till I come to a perfect man in Christ Iesus . Amen . IV. GIve unto thy servant true humility , great contrition , a tender conscience , an obedient heart , an understanding alwayes busied in honest and pious thoughts , a will tractable and ever prone to do good , affections eaven and moderate , a watchfull custody over my senses , that by those windowes sin may never enter in , nor death by sin . Make me to watch over my tongue , and keep the doore of my lips , that no corrupt or unseemly communication proceed out my mouth , that I may never slander , calumniate or detract from the reputation of my neighbour ; that I be not busie in the faults of others , but carefull to correct mine own , being gentle and mercifull to others , and severe towards my selfe , that I may speake much of thy praises , and what I can for the edification of my brethren . Amen . V. GIve me understanding in thy Law , that I may know thy will ; and grace , and strength faithfully to fulfill the same . Give me a feare of thy Name , and of thy threatnings , and a love and hope of thy promises , let me daily : feele thy mercies , and remove thy judgements farre from me . Imprint in my heart a filiall reverence and awfulnes towards thy Divine Majestie , that I may studie to please thee with diligence , to worship thee with much devotion , to submit to the disposition of thy providence with thankfulnesse ; and that in conscience of my dutie towards thee I may honour the King , obey Magistrates under him , love the Saints , and do all acts of charitie according to my opportunitie and abilitie , directing all my actions and intentions , not according to custome , or in pursuance of mine owne ends and temporall advantages , but in thy feare and in holy religion to the advancement of thy honour and glorie . Amen . VI . GIve me a soule watchfull in the services of Religion , constant in holy purposes , ingenuous and free from sordid ends or servile flatterie , a modest gravitie in my deportment , affabilitie and faire curteous demeanour towards all men , austeritie in condemning mine own sinnes , sweetnesse in fraternall correction and reprehending others , mature judgement , a chaste bodie and a cleane soule , patience in suffering , deliberation in my words and actions , good counsels in all my purposes : make me just in performing promises , and in all my duties , sedulous in my calling , profitable to the Common-wealth , a true Son of the Church , and of a disposition meek and charitable towards all men . Amen . VII . LEt this be my portion , and the comfort of my pilgrimage , so long as I am detained in the condition of mortality , and exiled from my heavenly Countrey , that being free from all feare of mine enemies , and from vexations , cares and solicitudes of this life , I may be wholly devoted to thy service , that I may attend thee onely , and what tends to thee , that I may rejoyce onely in thee , and my soule may rest in thee ; that without distractions I may entertain thy heavenly Doctrine , and the blessed motions of thy holy Spirit , spending my time in the duties of necessity , in the workes of charity , and the frequent office of Religion , with diligence , and patience , and perseverance , and hope , expecting the accomplishment of my dayes in peace ; that when I go unto my dust , I may be reckoned amongst those blessed soules , whose worke it is to give thee praise , and honour , and glory , to all eternity . Amen . Blessed be the holy and undivided Trinity , now and for evermore . Amen . An EVENING PRAYER . In the Name of the Father , and of the Son , and of the holy Ghost . Our Father which art in Heaven , &c , I. O Lord God , who art the light and splendour of soules , in the brightnesse of thy countenance is eternall Day that knowes no night , in thy armes , and in thy protection is all quietnesse , tranquillity , and everlasting repose , while the darknesse covers the face of the earth , receive my body and soule into thy custody ; let not the spirits of darknesse come neare my dwelling , neither suffer my fancy to be abused with illusions of the night . Lord , I am thy servant , and the sheep of thy pasture , let not the Devill , who goeth up and down seeking whom he may devoure , abuse my bodie , or make a prey of my soule , but defend me from all those calamities which I have deserved , and protect my soule , that it consent not to any worke of darknesse , least mine enemy say , he hath prevailed over me , or do mischiefe to a soule redeemed with thy most precious Bloud . Amen . II. PArdon and forgive me all the sinnes and offences of my youth , the errours of mine understanding , the inordination of mine affections , the irregularity of all mine actions , and particularly whatsoever I have transgressed this day in thought , word , or deed . Lord , let not thy wrath arise , for although I have deserved the extremest pressure of thine indignation , yet remember my infirmity and how thou hast sent thy sonne to reveale thy infinite mercies to us , and convey pardon and salvation to the penitent . I beseech thee also to accept the heartiest Devotion and humblest acknowledgement of a thankfull heart , for thy blessing and preservation of this Day , for unlesse thy Providence and Grace had been my Defence and Guide , I had committed more and more grievous sinnes , and had been swallowed up by thy just wrath , and severest judgements . Mercy sweet Iesu. Amen . III. LOrd , let thy grace be so present with me , that though my body sleep , yet my soule ma● for ever be watchfull , that I sleep not sin , in or p●termit any opportunity of doing thee service ▪ let the remembrances of thy goodnesse and glories be first and last with mee , and so unite my heart unto thee with habituall charity , that all my actions and sufferings may be directed to thy glory , & every motion and inclination either of soule or body , may in some capacity or other , receive a blessing from thee , and do thee service ; that whether I sleep or wake , travell or rest , eat or drinke , live or dye , I may alwaies feel the light of thy countenance shining so upon me , that my labours may be easie , my rest blessed , my food sanctified , and my whole life spent with so much sanctity and peace , that escaping from the darknesses of this world , I may at last come to the land of everlasting rest in thy light , to behold light and glory through Iesus Christ our Lord . Amen . Blessed be the holy and undivided Trinity , now and for evermore . Another Prayer for Evening . I. VIsit we beseech thee , O Lord , this habitation with thy mercie , and us thy servants with thy salvation , and repell farre from us all the snares of the Enemy . Let thy holy Angells dwell here to keep us in peace and safety , and thy blessing be upon us for ever , through Jesus Christ our Lord . Amen . II. O Lord Jesu Christ , the lively Image of thy Fathers mercies and glories , the Saviour of all them that put their trust in thee ; we offer and present to thee all our strengths , & powers of our soules and bodies , and whatsoever we are , or ●ave to be preserved , governed , and possest by thee . Preserve us from all vitious , vaine , and proud cogitations , unchaste affections , and from all those things which thou hatest . Grant us thy holy charity , that we may love thee above all the world , that we may ; with sincerity of intention and zealous affections , seek thee alone , and in thee onely take our rest , inseparably joyning our selves unto thee , who art worthy ▪ to be beloved and adored of all thy creatures with lowest prostrations , and highest affection , now and for evermore . Amen . III. O Father of mercies , and God of all comforts , let this blessing be upon us , and upon all the members of thy holy Church : all health and safety both of body and soul , against all our enemies , visible and invisible , now and for ever . Send us a quiet night , and a holy death in the actuall communion of the Catholique Church , and in thy charity , through Iesus Christ our Lord . Amen . Our Father which art in heaven , &c. Now , and in all dangers and afflictions of soul and body , in the houre of death , and in the day of judgement , save us and deliver us , O sweet Saviour and Redeemer Iesu. Collects to be added upon Various occasions . I. For the Church . ALmighty and everlasting God , who hast revealed thy glory to Iewes and Gentiles in our Lord Iesus Christ , extend thy hand of mercie over all the world , that thy Church may spread like a flourishing vine , and enlarge her borders to the uttermost parts of the earth , that all Nations partaking of the sweet refreshings of thy Gospell , thy name may be glorified , the honour of our Lord Iesus advanc'd , his prophecies fullfilled ; and his comming hastened . Blesse , O Lord , thy holy Church with all blessings of comfort , assistance , and preservation ; extirpate heresies , unite her divisions , give her patience and perseverance in the faith , and confession of thy name , in despite of all Enmities , temptations , and disadvantages ; destroy all wicked counsells intended against her , or any of her children , by the Divell or any of his accursed instruments . Let the hands of thy grace and mercy lead her from this vale of misery , to the triumphant throne of her Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ . Amen . II. For the King . O Lord our heavenly Father , High and Mighty , King of Kings , who in thy hands hast the hearts of Kings , and can'st turne them as the rivers of water , send the light of thy countenance , and abundance of blessings upon thy servant , our Soveraigne Lord King Charles , make him as holy , valiant , and prosperous as King David , wise and rich like Solomon , zealous for the honour of thy Law and temple as Josiah ; and give him all sorts of great assistances , to enable him to serve thee , to glorifie thy name , to protect thy Church , to promote true religion , to overcome all his enemies , to make glad all his leige people , that he serving thee with all dilligence and the utmost of his possibility , his people may serve him with honour and obedience , in thee , and for thee , according to thy blessed word and ordinance , through Iesus Christ our Lord . Amen . III. For the Queen . O God of heaven , Father of mercies , have mercy upon our most gracious Queen , unite her unto thee with the bands of faith and love , preserve her to her lives end in thy favour , and make her an instrument of glory to thy Name , of refreshment to the Church , of joy to all faithfull people of this Kingdome , of a plenteous and blessed Issue to his Majesty , and Crowne her with an eternall weight of glory , through Iesus Christ our Lord . Amen . IV. For the Prince of Wales . O Most blessed Iesu , Sonne of God , who camest from thy Fathers bosome with myriads of blessings to the sonnes of men , blesse us all by thy especiall care and providence , over the body and soul of the most Illustrious Prince , CHARLES . Prepare him with plenty of thy grace , and with great abilities to succeed his Royall Father , in the service of thy Majesty , in defending the Catholique Faith , in comforting thy holy Church , in governing all the people prudently , justly , and religiously , that being partaker of all thy mercies here , in proportion to his necessitie and capacity , he may enjoy a fulnesse of thy glory hereafter , through Iesus Christ our Lord . Amen . V. For the Bishops . O Thou great sheep-heard and Bishop of our soules , most glorious Iesu , blesse all holy and religious Prelates , especially the Bishops of our Church . O God let abundance of thy grace and benediction descend upon their heads , that by a holy life , by a true and Catholique beleife , by a confident confession of thy Name , and by a Fatherly care , great sedulity and watchfullnesse over their flock , they may glorifie thee our God , the great lover of Soules , and set forward the salvation of their people , and of others by their example , and at last after a plentifull conversion of soules , they may shine like the Starres in glory , through Iesus Christ our Lord . Amen . VI . For our Parents . O Almightie God , and mercifull Father , who from the loines of our first Parents Adam and Eve , hast produced mankinde , and hast commanded us to honour our Parents ; in pursuance of thy holy Commandment and of our dutie to thee our God , and in thee to them , do with all humilitie begge a blessing of thee for our Parents , who from thy mercie and plentie have conveyed many to us ; pardon and forgive all their sinnes and infirmities , increase in them all goodnesse , give them blessings of the right hand , and blessings of the left ; blesse them in their persons , in their posteritie , in the comforts of thy holy Spirit , in a persevering goodnesse , and at last in an eternall weight of glorie , through Iesus Christ our Lord . Amen . VII . For our Children . O Father of Heaven , God of all the Creatures , by whose Providence mankinde is increased , I blesse thy Name for bestowing on me that blessing of the righteous man , the blessing of Children . Lord blesse them with health ▪ with life , with good understanding , with faire opportunities and advantages of education , societie , tutours , and governours ; and above all with the graces of thy holy Spirit , that they may live and be blessed under thy protection , grow in grace , and be in favour with God and Man , and at last may make up the number of thine elect Children , through Iesus Christ our Lord . Amen . VIII . For our Patron , our Friends , and Benefactours . O Almightie God , thou Fountain of all good , of all excellencie both to Men and Angels , extend thine abundant favour and loving kindnesses to my Patron , to all my Friends and Benefactours ; reward them and make them plentifull compensation for all the good which from thy mercifull Providence they haue conveyed unto me . Let the light of thy countenance shine upon them , and let them never come into any desertion , affliction , or sadnesse , but such as may be an instrument of thy glorie and their eternall comfort , in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ . Amen . IX . A Prayer of a wife for her Husband . O My God , who hast graciously pleased to call me to the holy state of Matrimonie , blesse me in it with the grace of chastitie , with loyaltie , obedience , and complacencie to my Husband ; and blesse him with long life , with a healthfull bodie , with an understanding soule , with abundance of all thy graces , which may make him to be and continue thy servant , a true son of the Church , a supporter and a guide to me his wife , a blessing and a comfort to his children , through Jesus Christ our Lord . Amen . X. Of a Husband for his Wife . O Mercifull God , who art a Father to us thy Children , a Spouse to thy holy Church , a Saviour and Redeemer to all mankinde , have mercie upon thy Handmaid my wife , endue her with all the ornaments of thy heavenly grace , make her to be holy and devout as Hester , loving and amiable as Rachel , fruitfull as Leah , wise as Rebeccah , faithfull and obedient as Sarah , that being filled with thy grace and benediction here , she may be partaker of thy glorie hereafter ▪ through Iesus Christ our Lord . Amen . XI . For a Curate to say in behalfe of his Parish . O Blessed Jesu , thou that art an eternall Priest , an universall Bishop , and the Fountain of all ghostly good , have mercy upon this Parish which thou hast concredited to my charge . Lord , I am unfit for so great a burden , but by thy aide and gracious acceptation I hope for mercy , pardon and assistance . O Lord , send thy holy Spirit to dwell amongst us : let here be peace and charity , and true Catholike Religion , and holy Discipline . Comfort the comfortlesse , heale the sicke , relieve the oppressed , instruct the ignorant , correct the refractory , keep us all from all deadly sin , and make them obedient to their superiours , friendly to one another , and servants of thy Divine Majestie , that so from thy favour they may obtain blessings in their bodies , in their soules , in their estates , and a supply to all their necessities , till at last they be freed from all dangers and necessities in the full fruition of thy everlasting glories , O blessed Saviour , and Redeemer Iesu. Amen . XII . For a Parishioner to say in behalfe of his Curate . O God Almighty , who art pleased to send thy blessings upon us by the Ministration of the Bishops and Priests of thy holy Church , have mercie upon thy servant , to whom is committed the care of my soule , that he , by whose meanes thou art graciously pleased to advance my spirituall good , may by thy grace and favour be protected , by thy providence assisted , by thy great mercies comforted and relieued in all his necessities bodily and ghostly , through Iesus Christ our Lord , Amen . XIII . For safe Child-birth . O Blessed Iesu , Son of the eternall God , who according to thy humanitie wert borne of a holy Maid , who conceived thee without sin , and brought thee forth without pain , have mercie upon me thy humble servant , and as by thy blessing I have conceived , so grant that by thy favourable assistance I may be safely delivered . Lord , grant me patience , and strength , and confidence in thee , and send thy holy Angel to be my guardian in the houre of my travaile . O shut not up my soule with sinners , nor my life with them that go down into the pit . I humbly also begge mercie for my childe , grant it may be borne with it's right shape , give it a comely bodie , an understanding soule , life , and opportunitie of Baptisme , and thy grace from the cradle to the grave , that it may increase the number of Saints in that holy Fellowship of Saints and Angels , where thou livest and reignest eternall God , world without end . Amen . XIV . Before a journey . O God , who didst preserve thy servants Abraham and Jacob , thy People Israel , thy servant Tobias , and the wisemen of the East in their severall journies , by thy Providence , by a ministerie of Angels , by a pillar of fire , and by the guidance of a Starre , vouchsafe to preserve us thy servants in the way we are now to go . Be ( O Lord ) unto us a Guide in our preparation , a shadow in the Day , and a covering by Night , a rest to our wearinesse , and a staffe to our weaknesse , a patron in adversitie , a protection from danger , that by thy assistance we may performe our journey safely to thy honour , to our owne comfort , and with safetie may returne , and at last bring us to the everlasting rest of our heavenly Countrey , through him who is the way , the truth , and the life , our blessed Lord and Saviour Iesus . Amen . XV . For afflicted persons . O Lord God , mercifull and gracious , whose compassion extends to all that are in miserie and need , and takest delight in the relieving the distresses of the afflicted , give refreshment to all the comfortlesse , provide for the poore , give ease to all them that are tormented with sharpe paines , health to the diseased , libertie and redemption to the captives , chearfulnesse of spirit to all them that are in great desolations . Lord , let thy Spirit confirme all that are strong , strengthen all that are weake , and speake peace to afflicted consciences , that the light of thy countenance being restored to them , they may rejoyce in thy salvation , and sing praises unto thy Name , who hast delivered their soules from death , their eyes from teares , and their feet from falling . Grant this for the honour of thy mercies , and the glorie of thy Name , through Iesus Christ our Lord . Amen . XVI . For our Enemies . O Blessed Iesu , who wert of so infinite mercies , so transcendent a charitie , that thou didst descend from Heaven to the bowels of the earth , that thou mightest reconcile us who were enemies , to the mercies of thy heavenly Father ; and in imitation of so glorious example hast commanded us to love them that hate us , and to pray for them that are our enemies ; I beseech thee of thine infinite goodnesse , that thou wouldst be pleased to keep me with thy grace in so much meeknesse , justice , and affable disposition , that I may , so farre , as concernes me live peaceably with all men , giving no man occasion of offence , and 〈◊〉 them who hate me without a cause , I beseech thee give thy pardon , and fill them with cha●i●●e towards thee and all the world , blesse them with all blessings in order to eternitie , that when they are reconciled to thee , we also may be united with the bands of Faith , and Love , and a common hope , and at last we may be removed to the glories of thy Kingdome , which is full of love and eternall charitie , and where thou livest 〈◊〉 reignest , ever one God , world without end . Amen . XVII . A Prayer to be said upon Ember-dayes . O Mercifull Iesu , who hast promised perpetuitie to the Church , and a permanencie in defiance of all the powers of darknesse , and the gates of hell , and to this purpose hast constituted severall orders , leaving a power to the Apostles , and their Successours , the Bishops , to beget Fathers of our soules , and to appoint Priests and Deacons for the edification of the Church , the benefit of all Christian People , and the advancement of thy service ; have mercie upon thy Ministers the Bishops , give them for ever great measure of thy holy Spirit , and at this time particular assistances , and a power of discerning and trying the spirits of them who come to be ordained to the Ministerie of thy Word and Sacraments ; that they may lay hands suddenly on no man , but maturely , prudently , and piously , they may appoint such to thy service and the Ministerie of thy Kingdome , who by learning , discretion , and a holy life are apt instruments for the conversion of soules , to be examples to the People , guides of their manners , comforters of their sorrowes , to sustaine their weaknesses , and able to promote all the interests of true Religion . Grant this , O great Shepheard 〈◊〉 Bishop of our soules , ●●essed Iesus , who livest and reignest in the Kingdome of thin●●●●rnall Father , one God , world without end 〈◊〉 . Sanctus Deus . Sanctus Fortis . Sanctus Immortalis . FINIS . 
A63735	----	The Copie of tvvo letters vvritten by two friends, one to another, concerning a pretended dispute had betwixt Doctor Taylor with a young Batchelour of Divinitie attending him, and Master Alexander Henderson, commissioner for the Kirk of Scotland at Oxford. This text is an enriched version of the TCP digital transcription A63735 of text R1773 in the English Short Title Catalog (Wing T307). Textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. The text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with MorphAdorner. The annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). Textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. This text has not been fully proofread Approx. 7 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 5 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. EarlyPrint Project Evanston,IL, Notre Dame, IN, St. Louis, MO 2017 A63735 Wing T307 ESTC R1773 12627663 ocm 12627663 64682 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A63735) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 64682) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 336:15) The Copie of tvvo letters vvritten by two friends, one to another, concerning a pretended dispute had betwixt Doctor Taylor with a young Batchelour of Divinitie attending him, and Master Alexander Henderson, commissioner for the Kirk of Scotland at Oxford. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. [2], 6 p. [s.n.], London : Aprill the 11, 1643. An account of a dispute at Oxford between Dr. Jeremy Taylor, the Kings's chaplain, and the best known of the Scottish Kirk commissioners about Episcopacy. Cf. Madan. Authorship uncertain; attributed to Jeremy Taylor by Wing. Reproduction of original in Bodleian Library. eng Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. Henderson, Alexander, 1583?-1646. Episcopacy. A63735 R1773 (Wing T307). civilwar no The copie of tvvo letters; vvritten by two friends, one to another, concerning a pretended dispute had betwixt Doctor Taylor with a young Ba [no entry] 1643 1208 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 A This text has no known defects that were recorded as gap elements at the time of transcription. 2005-02 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-03 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-04 Emma (Leeson) Huber Sampled and proofread 2005-04 Emma (Leeson) Huber Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion THE COPIE OF TVVO LETTERS ; VVritten by two friends , one to another , Concerning a pretended Dispute had betwixt Doctor Taylor with a young Batchelour of Divinitie attending him , and Master Alexander Henderson , Commissioner for the Kirk of Scotland at Oxford . London , Printed Aprill the 11. 1643. SIR , A Few dayes ago there came to my hands a Pamphlet intituled , Mercurius Aulicus , the weeke thereof ; wherein I found mention made of a certaine dispute made betwixt one Doctor Taylor with a Batchelor of Divinitie , and our good friend Mr. Alexander Henderson . In reading over of which part of the paper , I find the expression and discourse of the businesse a little to Mr. Henderson his disadvantage , nor lacketh there divers who really think so , and make great brags therof : the man his worth I well know , and shall ever honour ; being of the mind that he may bee wronged in that Printed relation . And because you are daily conversant with him , and cannot be ignorant of what have passed in that kind , I shall esteem it as none of the least of the obligements I owe to you , if by the first sure bearer you send me a true account how that businesse went for satisfying the iudgement of divers , and the curiositie of Your very loving friend . London , 15. March . 1642. The Answer to the said Letter . SIr , the 15. of March , there lately came to my hands , and I shall be glad to resolve your doubts , by shewing the true progresse so farre as I can remember unpartially . April the first . IN this confused and miserable time of warre , while truth suffereth exile with peace , and all sinewes of humane societie are dissolved , you are more wise then to judge of your old acquaintance by the report of Mercurius . I have inquired from those that were present , what did passe betwixt Master Henderson , and the Doctor , And have learned that the Doctor did begin indeed with much civility , saluting him , presenting him with a book , and speaking more of his reputation then he could willingly heare ; But without the smallest provocation , did suddenly grow to such procacitie , that as he boasted of his new arguments in his booke , which had not been heard of before , so spared he not to say , that our best Arguments were swords and gunnes ; that Master Henderson had given proofe at Aberdene , how much might be said in an evill cause . To which nothing was answered but that it beseemed him who was a young man to speake more modestly of a nationall Kirk , and a nationall Cause ; He replyed , that he was a Presbyter , as he told before , that he was a Doctor of Divinitie , which could not be knowne by his booke , although printed in the yeare 1642. The other who is called a Batchelour of Divinitie added , Let no man despise thy youth ; which speech had it been directed to the Doctor , had not been non-sense . It is true , he came to Master Henderson on the 19 of Feb. in the morning , but Mercurius telleth not that this 19. of Feb. was the Lords day , a circumstance so considerable , that it made those who were present for the time , thinking it no Iudaisme to keepe the Sabbath , and preparing themselves after a long Iourney for the Kirk , weary of his discourse , in so much , that at last it was told the Doctor , that it was the Sabbath . But the Doctor was so pregnant and confident , that he was readie to argue , that he was about a worke of the Sabbath : it may be , because it is not unlawfull to fight on the Sabbath day . Had the Doctor come in the termes of Mercurius , desiring Master Henderson to give a reason either of his faith , or hope , or demands ; or had an amica collatio been his desire , he might have obtained all that he desired , and possibly more . But coming with faenum in cornu , and no word in his mouth , but Dispute , dispute , concertation , concertation , such a way as was more sutable for schoole-boyes , then great Divines . And wherewith Mr. Henderson , although the most part of his life conversant with Vniversity men , had never been acquainted . It was told him , that in the Synode which was expected , he and others might have disputing their fill , or if that failed , there were many learned men in England to answer his Book , or if it pleased him to send to Scotland , it would finde an answer there . But that Master Henderson was come to supplicate the Kings Majestie , not to answer Bookes , nor to dispute Propositions in the Vniversitie . Whether this humour in the Doctor proceedeth from the condition of the times or some individuall cause , I dispute not . This I know , that a Scripturient Engine , may finde matter enough for exercise in Gerson , Bucerus , Altare Damascenum , the learned Salmasius , and other moderne Authors , which yet lye unanswered , but I confesse it is a more easie worke ferram contentionis reciprocare , by writing a new booke . Had the Doctor perused the paper exhibited in the late Treatie , or the Declaration of the Nationall Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland , for unitie of Religion , and uniformitie of Kirk government , with the reformed Kirks , he would not have challenged us of any obtrusion or anrichristian usurpation , nor would he have compared our Christian way of charitie , not of authoritie , of supplication , not of usurpation , with the obtruding of the Service-Booke , so full of Popery upon the Kirk of Scotland , but this he and his fellow did retractate . Not onely Master Henderson and many better then he , but the Kirk of Scotland , and all the reformed Kirks at their first reformation , were resolved upon the Question , that Antichristian doctrine , worship , and government , should all downe together . And we wish that the Kirk and Kingdome of England were resolved also . But beside the will of God that scandalls must be ; and beside the judgement of God upon people for the abuse of the Gospel ; the avarice and ambition of the corrupt Clergie is a maine hinderance of the resolution which could it be as easily satisfied , as their Arguments answered , it would be quickly resolved upon the Question ; It is right that Episcopacie goe downe , because it standeth not by divine right . FINIS . 
A13414	----	A sermon preached in Saint Maries Church in Oxford. Vpon the anniversary of the Gunpowder-Treason. By Ieremy Taylor, fellow of Allsoules Colledge in Oxford Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. 1638 Approx. 154 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 48 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2003-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A13414 STC 23724 ESTC S118171 99853380 99853380 18762 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A13414) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 18762) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1475-1640 ; 1085:12) A sermon preached in Saint Maries Church in Oxford. Vpon the anniversary of the Gunpowder-Treason. By Ieremy Taylor, fellow of Allsoules Colledge in Oxford Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. [10], 34, 37-52, 45-64 p. Printed by Leonard Lichfield printer to the Vniversity, Oxford : M.DC.XXXVIII. [1638] Reproduction of the original in the British Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. 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Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Sermons, English -- 17th century. 2000-00 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2001-06 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2001-09 TCP Staff (Michigan) Sampled and proofread 2001-10 TCP Staff (Michigan) Text and markup reviewed and edited 2001-11 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A SERMON PREACHED IN SAINT MARIES Church in OXFORD . Vpon the Anniversary of the GUNPOWDER-TREASON . By IEREMY TAYLOR , Fellow of Allsoules Colledge in OXFORD . Nolite tangere Christos meos . OXFORD , Printed by LEONARD LICHFIELD Printer to the Vniversity . M. DC . XXXVIII . TO THE MOST REVER END FATHER IN GOD WILLIAM by Divine providence LORD ARCH-BISHOP OF CANTERBURY His Grace , Primate of all England , and Metropolitane . CHANCELLOUR of the University of OXFORD , and one of his MAIESTIES most Honourable Privy Councell . My most Honourable good LORD . May it please your GRACE , IT was obedience to my Superiour that ingaged me upon this last Anniversary commemoration of the great Goodnesse of God Almighty to our King and Country in the discouery of the most damnable Powder-Treason . It was a blessing which no tongue could expresse , much lesse mine , which had scarce learn'd to speake , at least , was most unfit to speake in the Schooles , of the Prophets . Delicata autem est illa obedientia que 〈◊〉 quaerit . It had beene no good argument of my obedience to have disputed the inconvenience of my person , and the unaptnesse of my parts for such an imployment I knew God , out of the mouth of Infants , could acquire his praise , and if my heart were actually as Votive as my tongue should have beene , it might bee one of Gods 〈◊〉 to perfect his owne praise out of the weaknesse and imperfection of the Organ . So as I was able , I endeavour'd to performe it , having my obedience ever ready for my excuse to men , and my willingnesse to performe my duty , for the assoylment of my selfe before God ; part of which I hope was accepted , and I have no reason to thinke , that the other was not pardoned . When I first thought of the Barbarisme of this Treason , I wondred not so much at the thing it selfe as by what meanes it was possible for the Divell to gaine so strong a party in mens resolutions , as to move them to undertake a businesse so abhorring from Christianity , so evidently full of extreame danger to their lives , and so certainly to incurre the highest wrath of God Almighty . My thoughts were thus rude at first ; but after a strict inquisition I fond it was apprehended as a businesse ( perhaps full of danger to their bodies , but ) advantagious to their soules , consonant to the obligation of all Christians , and meritorious of an exceeding weight of Glory , for now it was come to passe which our dear Master foretold , men should kill us , and thinke they did God good service in it . I could not thinke this to be a part of any mans religion , nor doe I yet believe it . For it is so apparently destructive of our deare Master his Royall lawes of Charity & Obedience , that I must not be so uncharitable as to thinke they speake their owne minde truly , when they professe their beliefe of the lawfullnesse and necessity in some cases of rebelling against their lawfull Prince , and using all meanes to throw him from his kingdome , though it be by taking of his life . But it is but iust that they who breake the bonds of duty to their Prince , should likewise forfeit the lawes of charity to themselves , and if they say not true , yet to bee more uncharitable to their owne persons , then I durst be , though I had their own warrant . Briefly ( Most R. Father ) I found amongst them of the Roman party such prevailing opinions , as could not consist with loyalty to their Prince , in case hee were not the Popes subiects , and these so generally believed , and somewhere obtruded under perill of their soules , that I could not but point at these dangerous rocks , at which I doubt not , but the loyalty of many hath suffered shipwrack , and of thousands more might , if a higher Starre had not guided them better , then their owne Pilots . I could not therefore but thinke it very likely that this Treason might spring from the same Fountaine , and I had concluded so in my first meditations , but that I was willing to consider , whether or no it might not bee that these men were rather exasperated then perswaded , and whether it were not that the severity of our lawes against them might rather provoke their intemperate zeal , then religion thus move their setled conscience . It was a materiall consideration , because they ever did and still doe fill the world with outcries against our lawes for making a rape upon their consciences , have printed Catalogues of their English Martyrs , drawn Schemes of most strange tortures imposed on their Priests , such as were unimaginable , by Nero , or Dioclesian , or any of the worst and cruellest enemies of Christianity , endeavouring thus to make us partly guilty of our owne ruine , and so washing their hands in token of their owne innocency , even then when they were dipping them in the blood Royall , and would have emptyed the best veynes in the whole Kingdome to fill their Lavatory . But I found all these to be but Calumnies , strong accusations upon weake presumptions , and that the cause did rest where I had begun , I meane , upon the pretence of the Catholique cause , and that the imagin'd iniquity of the Lawes of England could not be made a vaile to cover the deformity of their intentions , for our Lawes were just , Honourable , and Religious . Concerning these and some other appendices to the businesse of the day , I expressed some part of my thoughts , which because happily they were but a just truth , and this truth not unseasonable for these last times , in which ( as S. Paul prophecyed ) men would be fierce , Traytors , heady , and high minded , creeping into houses , leading filly women captive , it pleased some who had power to command me , to wish me to a publicatiō of these my short and sudden meditations , that ( if it were possible ) even this way I might expresse my duty to God and the King. Being thus farre encouraged , I resolved to goe something further , even to the boldnesse of a dedication to your Grace , that since I had no merit of my own to move me to the confidence of a publike view , yet I might dare to venture under the protection of your Graces favour . But since my boldnesse doth as much neede a defence , as my Sermon a Patronage , I humbly crave leave to say , that though it be boldnesse , even to presumption , yet my addresse to your Grace is not altogether unreasonable . For since all know that your Grace thinks not your life your owne , but when it spends it selfe in the service of your King , opposing your great endeavours against the zelots of both sides who labour the disturbance of the Church and State , I could not think it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to present to your Grace this short discovery of the Kings enemies , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and proper to your Grace who is so true , so zealous a lover of your Prince and Country . It was likewise appointed to be the publike voice of thanksgiving for your Vniverfity ( though she never spake weaker then by so meane an instrument ) and therefore is accountable to your Grace to whom under God and the King we owe the Blessing and Prosperity of all our Studies . Nor yet can I choose but hope , that my Great Obligations to your Grace's Favour may plead my pardon , ( since it is better that my Gratitude should be bold , then my diffidence ingratefull ) but that this is so farre from expressing the least part of them , that it layes a greater bond upon me , either for a debt of delinquency in presenting it , or of thankfulnesse , if your Grace may please to pardon it . I humbly crave your Grace's Benediction , pardon , and acceptance of the humblest duty and observance of Your GRACES : most observant and obliged CHAPLAINE IER . TAYLOR . A SERMON PREACHED VPON THE Anniversary of the GUNPOWDER-TREASON . LUK. 9. Cap. vers . 54. But when Iames and Iohn saw this , they said , Lord , wilt thou that we command fire to come from Heaven and consume them even as Elias did ? I Shall not need to strain much to bring my Text and the day together , Here is fire in the text , consuming fire , like that whose Antevorta we doe this day commemorate . This fire called for by the Disciples of Christ : so was ours too ; by Christs Disciples at least , and some of them intitled to our Great Master by the compellation of his holy name of IESUS . I would say the paralell holds thus farre , but that the persons of my Text , however Boanerges , sonnes of thunder and of a reproveable spirit , yet are no way considerable in the proportion of malice with the persons of the day . For if I consider the cause that mov'd Iames and Iohn to so inconsiderate a wrath , it beares a fair excuse : The men of Samaria turn'd their Lord and Master out of doores , denying to give a nights lodging to the Lord of Heaven and Earth . It would have disturbed an excellent patience to see him , whom but iust before they beheld transfigured , and in a glorious Epiphany upon the Mount , to be so neglected by a company of hated Samaritans , as to be forc'd to keep his vigils where nothing but the welkin should have been his roofe , not any thing to shelter his precious head from the descending dew of heaven . — Quis talia fando Temperet ? It had been the greater wonder if they had not been angry . But now if we should levell our progresse by the same line and guesse that in the present affaire there was an equall cause , because a greater fire was intended , wee shall too much betray the ingenuity of apparent truth , and the blessing of this Anniversary . They had not halfe such a case for an excuse to a farre greater malice ; it will prove they had none at all , and therefore their malice was somuch the more malicious because causelesse and totally inexcusable . However , I shall endeavour to joyne their consideration in as 〈◊〉 a paralell as I can ; which if it be not exact ( as certainly it cannot , where we have already discovered so much difference in degrees of malice , ) yet by laying them together we may better take their estimate , though it be only by seeing their disproportion . The words as they lay in their own order , point out , 1. The persons that ask't the question . 2. The cause that mov'd them . 3. The person to whom they propounded it ; 4. The Question it selfe . 5. And the precedent they urg'd to move a grant , drawn from a very fallible Topick , a singular Example , in a speciall and different case . The persons here were Christs Disciples ; and so they are in our case , design'd to us by that glorious Sir-name of Christianity : they will be called Catholiques , but if our discovery perhaps rise higher , and that the See Apostolique prove sometimes guilty of so reproveable a spirit , then we are very neer to a paralell of the persons , for they were Disciples of Christ , & Apostles . 2. The cause was the denying of toleration of abode upon the grudge of an old schisme , Religion was made the instrument . That which should have taught the Apostles to be charitable , and the Samaritans hospitable , was made a pretence to justify the unhospitablenesse of the one and the uncharitablenesse of the other . Thus farre we are right , for the malice of this present Treason , stood upon the same base . 3. Although neither Side much doubted of the lawfulnesse of their proceedings ; yet S. Iames and S. Iohn were so discreet as not to think themselves infallible , therefore they ask'd their Lord : so did the persons of the day , aske the question too , but not of Christ , for he was not in all their thoughts ; but yet they ask'd of Christs Delegates , who therefore should have given their answer eodem tripode , from the same spirit . They were the Fathers Confessors who were ask'd . 4. The question is of both sides concerning a consumptive sacrifice , the destruction of a Towne there , of a whole Kingdome here , but differing in the circumstance of place whence they would fetch their fire . The Apostles would have had it from Heaven , but these men's conversation was not there . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , things from beneath , from an artificiall hell , but breath'd from the naturall and proper , were in all their thoughts . 5. The example , which is the last particular , I feare I must leave quite out , and when you have considered all , perhaps you will look for no example . First of the persons ; they were Disciples of Christ and Apostles . [ But when Iames and Iohn saw this , ] When first I considered they were Apostles , I wondered they should be so intemperatly angry ; but when I perceived they were so angry , I wondred not that they sinned . Not the priviledge of an Apostolicall spirit , not the nature of Angels , not the condition of immortality can guard from the danger of sinne , but if we be overrul'd by passion , we almost subject our selves to its necessity . It was not therefore without reason altogether , that the Stoicks affirm'd wisemen to be void of passions , for sure I am , the inordination of any passion is the first step to folly . And although of them , as of waters of a muddy residence wee may make good use , and quench our thirst , if wee doe not trouble them , yet upon any ungentle disturbance we drinke down mud in stead of a cleere streame , and the issues of sinne and sorrow , certaine consequents of temerarious or inordinate anger . And therefore when the Apostle had given us leave to be angry , as knowing the condition of human nature , hee quickly enters a Caveat that we sinne not ; hee knew sinne was very likely to be hand-maid where Anger did domineer , and this was the reason why S. Iames and S. Iohn are the men here pointed at , for the Scripture notes them for Boanerges , sonnes of thunder , men of an angry temper , & quid mirum est filios tonitrui fulgurâsse voluisse ? said S. Ambrose . But there was more in it then thus . Their spirits of themselves hot enough , yet met with their education under the Law , ( whose first tradition was in fire and thunder , whose precepts were just but not so mercifull ; ) and this inflam'd their distemper to the height of a revenge . It is the Doctrine of S. a Hierome and b Titus Bostrensis ; The Law had beene their Schoole-master , and taught them the rules of justice both Punitive and Vindictive : But Christ was the first that taught it to be a sinne to retaliate evill with evill , it was a Doctrine they could not read in the killing letter of the Law. There they might meete with precedents of revenge and anger of a high severity , an eye for an eye , and a tooth for a tooth , and let him be cut off from his people : But forgiving injuries , praying for our persecutors , loving our enemies , and relieving them , were Doctrines of such high and absolute integrity , as were to be reserved for the best and most perfect Law-giver , the bringer of the best promises , to which the most perfect actions have the best proportion ; and this was to be when Shiloh came . Now then the spirit of Elias is out of date , — Iam ferrea primum Desinit , ac toto surgit Gens Aurea Mundo . And therefore our blessed Master reproveth them of ignorance , not of the Law , but of his spirit , which had they but known or could but have guessed at the end of his comming , they had not been such Abecedarij in the Schoole of Mercy . And now we shall not need to look farre for persons , Disciples professing at least in Christs schoole , yet as great strangers to the mercifull spirit of our Saviour , as if they had been sonnes of the Law , or foster-brothers to Romulus and suck't a wolse , and they are Romanists too ; this daies solemnity presents them to us , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & yet were that wash'd off , underneath they write Christian and Iesuit . One would have expected that such men , set forth to the worlds acceptance with so mercifulla cognomentum , should have put a hand to support the ruinous fabrick of the worlds charity , and not have pulled the frame of heaven & earth about our eares . But yet — Necredite Teucri ! Give me leave first to make an Inquisition after this Antichristian pravity , and try who is of our side , and who loves the King , by pointing at those whose Sermons doe blast Loyalty , breathing forth Treason , flaughters and cruelty , the greatest imaginable contrariety to the spirit and Doctrine of our Dear Master . So we shall quickly finde out more then a pareil for S. Iames and S. Iohn the Boanerges of my Text. It is an act of faith , by faith to conquer the enemies of God and Holy Church , saith Sanders our Country-man . Hitherto nothing but well ; If Iames and Iohn had offered to doe no more then what they could have done with the sword of the spirit and the shield of Faith , they might have beene inculpable , and so had he if hee had said no more ; but the blood boyles higher , the manner spoyles all . For it is not well done unlesse a warlike Captaine be appointed by Christs Vicar to beare a Croisade in a field of blood . And if the other Apostles did not proceed such an angry way as Iames & Iohn , it was only discretion that detain'd them , not religion . For so they might , and it were no way unlawfull for them to beare armes to propagate Religion , had they not wanted an opportunity ; if you believe the same author : for fighting is proper for S. Peter and his Successors , therefore because Christ gave him Commission to feed his Lambs . A strange reason ! I had thought Christ would have his Lambes fed with the sincere milk of his word , not like to Canibals , solitisque 〈◊〉 Lac potare Getis , & poculatingere venis , To mingle blood intheir sacrifices ( as Herod to the Galilaeans ) and quaffe it off for an auspicium to the propagation of the Christian faith . Me thinks here is already too much clashing of armour and effusion of blood for a Christian cause ; but this were not altogether so unchristian like , if the sheepe , though with blood , yet were not to be fed with the blood of their sheepheard 〈◊〉 , I meane their Princes . But I finde many such Nutritij in the Nurseries of Rome , driving their Lambes from their folds unlesse they will be taught to wory the Lion. Emanuel Sà , in his Aphorismes , affirmes it lawful to kill a King , indeed not every King , but such a one as rules with Tyranny , and not then , unlesse the Pope hath sentene'd him to death , but then he may ; though he be his lawfull Prince . Not the necessitude which the Law of nations hath put betweene Prince and people , not the obligation of the oath of Allegeance , not the Sanctions of God Almighty himselfe , must reverse the sentence against the King when once past , but any one of his subjects , of his owne sworne subjects , may kill him . This perfidious treasonable position of Sà , is not a single Testimony . For 1. it slipt not from his pen by inadvertency ; it was not made publique , untill after forty yeares deliberation , as himselfe testifies in his Preface . 2. After such an avisamente it is now the ordinary receiv'd manuall for the Fathers Confessors of the Iesuits Order . This Doctrine , although — Titulo res digna sepulchri — yet is nothing if compared with Mariana . For 1. he affirms the same Doctrine in substance . 2. Then he descends to the very manner of it , ordering how it may be done with the best convenience : He thinks poyson to be the best way , but yet that for the more secrecy , it be cast upon the chayres , saddles , and garments of his Prince . It was the old laudable custome of the Moores of Spaine . 3. Hee addes examples of the businesse , telling us that this was the device , to wit , by poyson'd boots , that old Henry of Castile was cur'd of his sicknesse . 4. Lastly , this may be done , not only if the Pope judge the King a Tyrant ( which was the utmost Emanuel Sà affirm'd ) but it is sufficient proofe of his being a Tyrant if learned men , though but few , and those seditious too doe but murmure it , or beginne to call him so . I hope this Doctrine was long since disclaim'd by the whole Society , and condemned ad umbras Acherunticas . Perhaps so , but yet these men who use to object to us an infinity of divisions among our selves , who boast so much of their owne Vnion and consonancy in judgment , with whom nothing is more ordinary then to maintaine some opinions quite throughout their Order ( as if they were informed by some common Intellectus agens ) should not be divided in a matter of so great moment , so much concerning the Monarchy of the See Apostolike , to which they are vowed leigemen . But I have greater reason to believe them Vnited in this Doctrine , then is the greatnesse of this probability . For 1. There was an Apology printed in Italy , permissu superiorum , in the yeare 1610. that sayes , They were all enemies of that holy Name of Iesus that condemned Mariana for any such Doctrine . I understand not why , but sure I am that the Iesuits doe or did thinke his Doctrine innocent : for in their Apology put forth in the name of the whole Society against the accusations of Anticoton , they deny that the Assasine of Henry 4. I meane Ravaillac , was mov'd to kill the King by reading of Mariana , and are not ashamed to wish that he had read him . Perhaps they meane it might have wrought the same effect upon him which the sight of a drunkard did upon the youth of Lacedaemon , else I am sure it is not very likely he should have beene disswaded from his purpose by reading in Mariana that it was lawfull to doe what he intended . 3. I adde they not only thought it innocent , and without positive hurt , but good and commendable ; so that it is apparent that it was not the opinion of Mariana alone , but that the Moores of Spaine had more disciples then Mariana . 1. Hee sayes it himselfe , for commending the young Monke that killed Henry 3. he sayes , he did it having beene informed by severall Divines that a Tyrant might lawfully be killed . 2. The thing it selfe speaks it , for his book was highly commended by a Gretser & b Bonarscius both for stile & matter , higher yet by Petrus de Onna , provinciall of Toledo who was so highly pleased with it , hee was sorry hee wanted c leisure to read it the second and third time over , and with this censure prefixed was licens'd to the Presse . Further yet , for Steven Hoyeda Visitor of the Iesuits for the same Province approved it not only from his own judgment , but as being before approved by grave and learned men of the Iesuits Order , and so with a speciall commission from Claudius Aquaviva their generall , with these approbations and other solemne Priviledges it was Printed at a Toledo and b Montz ; and lastly inserted into the Catalogues of the Books of their Order by Petrus Ribadineira . What negligence is sufficient that such a Doctrine as this should passe so great supravisors , if in their hearts they disavow it ? The children of this world are not such fooles in their generations . The Fathers of the Society cannot but know how apt these things of themselves are to publike mischiefe , how invidious to the Christian world , how scandalous to their Order ; and yet they rather excuse then condemne Mariana : speaking of him at the hardest but very gently , as if his only fault had beene his speaking a truth intempore non opportuno , something out of season , or as if they were forc'd to yeelde to the current of the times , and durst not professe openly of what in their hearts they were perswaded . I speak of some of them , for others you see are of the same opinion . But I would faine learne why they are so sedulous and carefull to procure the decrees of the Rector & Deputies of Paris , Rescripts of the Bishop , Revocation of Arrest of the Parliament which had been against them , and all to acquit the Fathers of the Society from these scandalous opinions ; as if these laborious devices could make what they have said and done , to be unspoken and undone , or could change their opinions from what indeed they are , whereas they never went ex animo to refute these Theorems , never spake against them in the reall and serious dialect of an adversary , never condemned them as hereticall , but what they have done they have been sham'd to , or forc'd upon , as Pere Coton by the King of France , and Servin to a confutation of Mariana , ( from which he desir'd to be excused , and after the Kings death , writ his declaratory letter to no purpose ; ) the Apologists of Paris by the outcryes of Christendome against them ; and when it is done , done so coldly in their reprehensions with a greater readinesse to excuse all , then condemne any , I say these things to a considering man doe increase the suspicion if at least that may be called suspicion for which we have had so plain testimonies of their own . I adde this more , to put the businesse past all question , that when some things of this nature were objected to them by Arnald the French Kings Advocate , they were so farre from denying them or excusing them , that they maintained them in spite of opposition , putting forth a Book intitled Veritas defensa contra actionem Antonii Arnaldi . What the things were for which they stood up patrons , heare themselves speaking , Tum enim id non solum potest Papa , 〈◊〉 etiam debet 〈◊〉 ostendere superiorem illis [ Principibus . ] 〈◊〉 stomacham tibi commovet , facit ut 〈◊〉 , sed oportet 〈◊〉 , & de 〈◊〉 fatiaris tibi nec rationem esse , nec 〈◊〉 . Hard words these ! The Advocate is affirm'd to be void both of reason and honesty for denying the Popes dominion over Kings . The reason followes , The Pope could not keep them to their duties , unlesse he kept them in 〈◊〉 with threatning them the losse of their Kingdomes . But this is but the least part of it . They adde , If the subiects had been but disposed as they should have been , there was no time but it might have been profitable to have exercised the sword upon the persons of Kings . Let them construe their meaning , those are their words . But see farther . The damned act of 〈◊〉 Clement the Monk upon the life of Henry the third of France , of Iean Chastel and Ravaillac upon Henry the fourth , are notorious in the Christian world , and yet the first of these was commended by * F. Guignard in a discourse of purpose , & by Mariana as I before cited him . The second had two Apologies made for him , the one by a Constantinus Veruna , the b other without a name indeed , but with the marke and cognizance of the Iesuits order , and the last was publiquely commended in a Sermon by a Monk of Colein , as it is reported by the excellent Thuanus . Not much lesse then this is that of Baronius , just I am sure of the same spirit with Iames and Iohn , for he calls for a ruin upon the Venetians for opposing of his Holinesse . Arise Peter , not to feed these wandring sheep , but to destroy them , throw away thy Pastorall staffe and take thy sword . I confesse here is some more ingenuity , to oppose Murdering to Feeding then to make them all one , as Sanders doth , but yet the same fiery spirit inflames them both , as if all Rome were on fire , and would put the world in a combustion . Farther yet . Guignard a Iesuit of Clerimont Colledge in Paris was executed by command of the Parliament for some conclusions he had writ which were of a high nature treasonable , and yet as if , either there were an infallibility in every person of the Society , or as if the Parliament had done in justice in condemning Guignard , or lastly as if they approved his Doctrine , hee was Apologiz'd for by a Lewes Richeome , and b Bonarscius . I know they will not say that every Iesuit is infallible , they are not come to that yet , it is plain then they are of the same mind with Guignard , or else ( which I think they dare not say ) the Parliament was unjust in the condemnation of him , but if they doe , they thus proclaim their approbation of these Doctrines he was hanged for ; for that he had such , was under his own hand , by his own confession , and of it selfe evident ; as is to be seen in the Arrest of the Parliament against him . Lastly , more pertinent to the day is the fact of Garnet , who because a Iesuit could have done nothing for which he should not have found an Apologist , for even for this his last act of high treason he was Apologiz'd for , by a Bellarmine , b Gretser , & c Eudamon Johannes . Thus farre we have found out persons fit enough to match any malice ; Boanerges all , and more then a pareil for Iames and Iohn : but I shall anon discover the disease to be more Epidemicall , and the pest of a more Catholike infection , and yet if we summe up our accounts , we shall already finde the doctrine to be too Catholike . For we have already met with Emanuel Sá a Portugall , Mariana & Ribadineira Spaniards , Bonarscius a bas Almain , Gretser a German , Eudaemon Iohannes a false Greek , Guignard , Richeome and the Apologists for Chastell , Frenchmen , Bellarmine and Baronius , Italians , Garnet and Sanders , English. The Doctrine you see they would fain make Catholike , now if it prove to be but Apostolique too , then we have found out an exact parallel for Iames and Iohn , great Disciples and Apostles , and whether or no the See Apostolique may not sometime be of a fiery and consuming spirit , we have so strange examples , even in our own home , that wee need seek no farther for resolution of the Quare . In the Bull of excommunication put forth by Pius quintus against Q. Elizabeth of blessed memory , there is more then a naked incouragement , as much as comes to a Volumus & Iubemus ut adversus Elizabetham Angliae Reginam subditi arma capessant . Bone Iesu ! in que nos reservasti tempora ? Here is a command to turne rebels , a necessity of being Traitors . Quid co infelicius , cui iam esse malum necesse est ? The businesse is put something farther home by Catena and Gabutius , who writ the life of Pius quintus , were resident at Rome , one of them an advocate in the Roman Court ; their Bookes both printed at Rome , con licenza , and con privilegio . And now hear their testimonies of the whole businesse between the Queen and his Holinesse . Pius quintus published a Bull against Q. Elizabeth , declared her a Heretique , and deprived her of her Kingdome , absolv'd her subiects from their oath of Allegeance , excommunicated her , and gave power to any one to rebell against her &c. This was but the first step , he therefore thus proceeds , He procures a gentleman of Florence to move her subiects to a rebellion against her for her destruction . Farther yet , he thought this would be such a reall benefit to Christendome to have her destroied , that the Pope was ready to aid in person , to spend the whole revenew of the See Apostolique , all the Chalices and crosses of the Church , and even his very cloths to promote so pious a businesse as was the destruction of Q. Elizabeth . The witnesses of truth usually agree in one . The same story is told by b Antonius Gabutius , and some more circumstances added . First he names the end of the Popes designe , it was to take her life away , in case she would not turn , Roman Catholique . To atchieve this , because no Legat could come into England , nor any publique messenger from the See Apostolique he imployed a Florentine Merchant to 〈◊〉 her subiects to a rebellion for her perdition . Nothing but Sollevamento , Rebellion , Perdition and destruction to the Queen could be thought upon by his Holinesse . More yet ; for when the Duke of Alva had feiz'd upon the English Merchants goods which were at Antwerp , the Pope took the occasion , instigated the King of Spain to aid the pious attempts of those who conspir'd against the Queen : they are the words of Gabatius . This rebellion was intended to be ; under the conduct of the Duke of Norfolk , Viro Catholico , a Roman Catholique , Gabutius notes it , for fear some Heretik might be suspected of the designe , and so the Catholiques loofe the glory of the action . However Pius quintus intended to use the utmost and most extreme remedies to cure her heresy , & all means to increase and strengthen the rebellion . I durst not have thought so much of his Halinesse , if his own had not said it ; but if this be not worse then the fiery spirit which our blessed Saviour reproved in Iames and Iohn , I know not what is . I have nothing to doe to specify the spirit of Paulus quintus in the Venetian cause ; this only , Baronius propounded the example of Gregory the seaventh to him , of which how farre short he came , the world is witnesse . Our own businesse calls to mind the Bulls of Pope Clemont the eight , in which the Catholiques in England were commanded to see that however the right of succession did intitle any man to the Crown of England , yet if he were not a Catholique , they should have none of him , but with all their power they should hinder his coming in . This Bull Bellarmine doth extreamly magnify , and indeed it was for his purpose , for it was ( if not author ) yet the main encouragor of Catesby to the Powder Treason . For when Garnet would willingly have known the Popes minde in the businesse , Catesby eased him of the trouble of sending to Rome , since the Popes mind was cleere . I doubt not ( said Catesby ) at all of the Popes mind , but that he , who commanded our endeavours to hinder his coming in , is willing enough we should throw him out . It was but a reasonable collection . I shall not need to instance in the effects which this Bull produc'd ; the Treason of Watson & Cleark ; two English Seminaries are sufficiently known , it was as a Praeludium or warning peice to the great Fougade , the discharge of the Powder Treason ; Briefly , the case was so , that after the Publication of the Bull of Pius quintus , these Catholiques in England durst not be good Subjects till F. Parsons and Campian got a dispensation that they might for a while doe it , and rebus sic stantibus with a safe conscience professe a generall obedience in causes Temporall : and after the Bull of Clement a great many of them were not good subjects , and if the rest had not taken to themselves the Priviledge which the Pope sometimes gave to the Arch-bishop of Ravenna , either to doe as the Pope bid them , or to pretend a reason why they would not : we may say as Creswell in defence of Cardinall Allen ; certainly we might have had more bloudy tragedies in England , if the moderation of some more discreetly temperd had not been interposed . However it is no thank to his Holinesse , his spirit blew high enough . But I will open this secret no farther , if I may have but leave to instance once more . If I mistake not , it was Sixtus Quintus who sometimes pronounced a speech in full Consistory , in which hee compares the assasinat of Iaques Clement upon Henry the third , to the exploits of Eleazar & Iudith , where after having aggravated the faults of the murdred King , concluded him to have diedimpenitent , denyed him the solemnities of Masse , Dirge and Requiem , for his soule , at last he ends with a prayer , that God would finish what in this ( bloudy ) manner had been begun . I will not aggravate the foulenesse of the thing by any circumstances ( though I cannot but wonder that his Holinesse should say a prayer of so much abhomination . ) it is of it selfe too bad . If his Holinesse be wrong'd in the businesse I have no hand in it ; the speech was printed at Paris three months after the murder of the King , and avouched for authentick by the approbation of three Doctors , Boucher , Decreil , and Ancelein ; let them answer it , I wash my hands of the accusation , and only consider the danger of such Doctrines , if set forth with so great authority and practis'd by so uncontroulable 〈◊〉 If the Disciples of Christ , if Apostles , if the See Apostolique , if the fathers Confessors prove 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 , I 'le no more wonder if the people call for fire to consume us , but rather wonder if they doe not . And indeed although it be no rare or unusuall thing for a Papist to be de facto loyall and duteous to his Prince , yet it is a wonder that he is so since such Doctrines have beene taught by so great Masters , and at the best hee depends but upon the Popes pleasure for his Loyalty , which upon what security it rests , you may easily guesse from the antecedents . Thus much for consideration of the persons who ask'd the Question ; they were Christs Disciples , they were Iames and Iohn . But when Iames and Iohn [ saw this ] Our next inquiry shall be of the cause of this their angry Question . This we must learne from the fore-going story . Christ was going to the feast at Ierusalem , and passing through a Village of Samaria ask'd lodging for a night ; but they perceiving that hee was a Iew would by no meanes entertaine him , as being of a different Religion . For although God appointed that all of the seed of Iacob should goe up to 〈◊〉 to worship , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , yet the Tribes of the separation first under 〈◊〉 worship'd in Groves and High places , and after the captivity being a mixt people , halfe Iew , halfe Gentile , procur'd a Temple to be built them by 〈◊〉 their President , neare the City 〈◊〉 upon the mountaine Gerezim , stiling themselves pertinentes 〈◊〉 Montem benedictum , by allusion to the words of God by Mofes , they shall stand upon the Mount Gerezim to blesse the people , and these upon Mount Ebal to curse . And in case arguments should faile to make this schisme plausible , they will make it good by turning their Adversaries out of doores . They shall not come neere their blessed Mount of Gerezim , but fastning an Anathema on them let them goe to Ebal , and curse there . And now I wonder not that these Disciples were very angry at them who had lost the true Religion , and neglected the offices of humanity to them that kept it . They might goe neere now to make it a cause of Religion ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( as Nazianzene speaks ) might seem to Apologize for them , and so it might if it had not led them to indiscreet and uncharitable zeale . But men care not how farre they goe if they doe but once thinke they can make God a party of their Quarrell . For when Religion which ought to be the antidote of our malice , proves its greatest incentive , our uncharitablenesse must needs runne faster to a mischiefe , by how much that which stopt it's course before , drives it on with the greater violence . And therefore as it is ordinary for charity to be called coldnesse in Religion , so it is as ordinary for a pretence of Religion to make cold charity . The present case of the Disciples and the same spirit which , for the same 〈◊〉 cause , is takenup by the persons of the day , proves all this true ; with whom fire and fagot is esteem'd the best argument to convince the understanding , and the Inquisitors of hereticall pravity , the best Doctors and subtlest Disputants , determining all with a Vir is ignem , fossā mulieribus . For thus wee had like to have suffered , it was mistaken Religion that mov'd these Traytors to so damnable a Conspiracy , not for any defence of their owne cause , but for extirpation of ours . For else what grievances , did they groan under ? In quos corum populum exaestuantem sollicit a vimus ? quibus vitae periculum attulimus ? It was Nazianzen's question to the Apostate . Give me leave to consider it as appliable to our present case , and try if I can make a just discovery of the cause that mov'd these Traytors to so accursed a Confpiracy . 1 Then there was no cause at all given them by us ; none put to death for being a Roman Catholique nor any of them punish'd for his Religion . This hath beene the constant attestation of our Princes and State since the first Lawes made against Recusants & the thing it selfe will bear them record . From primo of Elizabeth to undecimo , the Papists made no scruple of comming to our Churches , Recusancy was not then so much as a Chrysome , not an Embrio . But when Pius quintus sent forth his Breves of Excommunication and Deposition of the Queen , then first they forbore to pray with us , or to have any religious communion . This although every where knowne , yet being a matter of fact and so as likely to be denied by others as affirmed by us without good evidence , see it therefore affirmed expresly by an Act of Parliament in Decimo tertio of Elizabeth , which specifies this as one inconvenience and ill consequence of the Bull. [ Whereby 〈◊〉 grown great 〈◊〉 and bolonesse in many , not only to 〈◊〉 and absent themselves from 〈◊〉 service , now most 〈◊〉 set forth and used within this Realme , but also have thought themselves discharged of all 〈◊〉 & c. ] Not only Recusancy , but likewise disobedience ; therefore both Recusancy and disobedience . Two yeares therefore after this Bull , this Statute was made if it was possible to nullify the effects of it , to hinder its execution , and if it might be , by this meanes to keep them , as they had been before , in Communion with the Church of England , and obedience to her Majesty . This was the first Statute that concerned them in speciall , but yet their Religion was not medled with ; For this Statute against execution of the Popes Bulls was no more thē what had been established by Act of Parliament , in the 16 th yeare of Richard the second , by which it was made 〈◊〉 to purchase Bulls from Rome , and the delinquents in this kinde with all their [ 〈◊〉 , fautors , 〈◊〉 , and maintainers to be referred to the Kings Councell for farther punishment . ] There was indeed this severity expressed in the Act of 130 of the Queene , that the putting them in Execution should be Capitall ; and yet this severity was no more then what was inflicted upon the Bishop of Ely in Edward the thirds time , for publishing of a Bull against the Earle of Chester without the Kings leave , and on the Bishop of Carlile , in the time of Henry the fourth , for the like offence . Thus farre our Lawes are innocent . But when this Statute did not take the good effect for which it was intended , neither keeping them in their ancient Communion nor obedience , but for all this , Mayne , Campian , and many others , came as the Popes Emissaries for execution of the Bull , the State proceeded to a farther severity , making Lawes against Recusancy , against Seditious and Trayterous Bookes , and against the residence of Romish Priests in England , making the first fineable with a pecuniary mulct , the two later , Capitall , as being made of a Treasonable nature . Of these in order . 1 The mulct which was imposed for Recusancy , was not soul mony , or paid for Religion ; and that for these reasons . 1. Because it is plaine Religion did not make them absent themselves from our Churches , unlesse they had changed their Religion since the Bull came over . For if Religion could consist with their Communion with us before the Bull ( as it 's plain it did ) then why not after the Bull , unlesse it be part of their Religion to obey the Pope , rather then to obey God commanding us to obey our Prince ? 2. Their Recusancy was an apparent mischiefeto our Kingdome , and it was the prevention or diversion of this that was the only or speciall end of these Lawes . The mischiefe is apparent these two waies . 1. Because by their Recusancy they gave attestation that they held the Bull to be valid ; for else why should they after the Bull deny their Communion , which before they did not ? Either they must think the Queen for a just cause , and by a just power excommunicate , or why did they separate from her Communion ? Now if the Queen by vertue of the Bull was excommunicate , why should they stop here ? She was by the same deposed , they absolved from all Allegeance to her , and commanded to take arms against her . I confesse it is no good argument of it selfe , to say , The Pope might excommunicate the Queen , therefore depose her from her Kingdome ; But this concludes with them sufficiently , with whom excommunication not only drives from Spiritualls , but deprives of Temporalls , and is not to mend our lives but to take them away ; I speak how it is in the case of Princes , ( and I shall anon prove it ) for they being publike persons from whose Deposition more may be gotten , are like to suffer more , ut ex tunc ipse ( 〈◊〉 ) vasallos ab ejus fidelitate denuntiet absolutos , & terr am exponat Catholic is occupandam , as they are taught by Pope Innocent the third , in the eight Later an Councell : such is their Excommunication for matter of Heresy , as was this pretended in the Queenes case , so that in respect of them the danger was apparent . 2 It is plaine that Recusancy and disobedience came actually hand in hand ; I say not that one was the issue of the other , but that they were coetaneous , for the same persons that moved them to Recusancy by vertue of the Bull , moved them to the execution of it per omnia . Now see whither this would tend ! They by Recusancy were better able to judge of their forces in England , and what party they were able to make for execution of the Bull , whilest by that as by a discriminative cognisance they were pointed at , as Abettors of the Catholike cause . Thus farre they suffered not for their Religion or conscience , unlesse it were against their conscience to be good subjects , and then it was not Religion , at least not Christian , that was inconsistent with their Loyalty , & so hitherto inrespect of us , their machination was altogether causelesse . 2. For the second ( of which sometimes they accuse our laws ) I mean the writing & publishing of Seditious & Trayterous Books , I shall not need to say any thing in defence of its being made Capitall , for they were ever so , & of a high nature Treasonable , and the Publishers of them by the Canons of the Church were ipsofacto excōmunicate . This I noted , because the same 〈◊〉 involves more , by vertue of the same Canon : I mean , not only the seditious Libellers but impugners of the Kings Regalties , as also the Bringers , Publishers , and Executioners of the Bull ; as is to be seene in the constitution of Arch-bishop Stephen , in a Coar cell held at Oxford . But secondly , whether they were or were not , it matters nothing ; this I suppose was no part of their Religion , therefore this might be made Treason , and yet their Religion and peace of conscience undistarbed . 3. But the next is the main outcry of all , the very Conclamatum est of the Catholique cause , if suffered ; it was made Treason to be a Priest , or at least if any of their Priests should be found in England he should be adjudged a Traytor , and these Lawes were not yet repealed , but then in execution . When certaine Sycophants told Philip of Macedon , that some of his discontented Subjects called him Tyrant , his answer was , Rudes sunt Macedones , & scapham vocant scapham . I wish these men who object this , had the same ingenuity , and would acknowledge that the rudenesle of a Macedonian tel-troth is no apparent calumny . And truly , as the case then stood , it was no worse . For consider that the statute against Priests was not made till sixteen years after the Bull of Pius quintus , and after much evidence both by the confession of some Priests themselves , and divers Lay-persons , that at least , many of them came into England with this errand , that they might instigate the Queenes liege people to the Execution of it . This is very plaine in the case of Mayne the lesuit , and M. Tregion who were executed at Launston for the same businesse . The state could not certainly know what would be the issue , but yet could not but think it likely to produce more and worse consequences for the future . Leges autē justa in factaconstituuntur quiafutura in incerto sunt . The Queen then providing for her safety banished these Priests out of her dominions . This was all , and this done with so much lenity and moderation as if of purpose to render good for their evill ; such was her innocence , and yet to provide for her safety , such was her prudence . She gave them forty daies time of preparation for their journey , impos'd no penalty for their longer stay incase that any of them were lesse healthfull , or that the winds were crosse , or that the wether serv'd not : provided that during their stay , they gave security for their due obedience to her laws , and that they should attempt nothing against her person or government , for this was all she aim'd at ; but if they obeyed not the Proscriptiō , having no just cause to the contrary , such as were expressed in the Act , then it should be adjudged their errand was not right , & therefore ( not their Religion , but ) their disobedience Treasonable . This was the highest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the severity of this state against them , now first I shall briefly shew that this proscription which was the highest penalty , was for just cause as the case then stood , and deserved on their part . 2. It was but reasonable , in case they obeyed not the proscription , their stay should be made Treason . 1. Because the Priests did generally preach the Popes power either directly over temporalls , or else in order to spiritualls , of which the Pope being judge it would come to the same issue , and this was dangerous to the peace of the Kingdome , and intrenched too much upon the Regalty . In particular , the case of bringing from the See of Rome , and publishing of Bulls , was by the Lords of the Parliament in the sixteenth year of Richard the second , judg'd to be [ cleerely in 〈◊〉 of the Kings Crown and of his Regalty , as it is well known and hath been of a long time known , ] and therefore they protested [ together and every one 〈◊〉 by himselfe , that they would be with the same Crown and Regalty inthese cases specially , and in all other cases which shall be attempted against the same Crown and Regalty in all points with all their power , ] I hope then if the State in the time of Queen Elizabeth having farre greater reason then ever , shall judge that these Bulles , the publishing of them , the Preaching of their validity , and reconciling by vertue of them her Subjects to the See of Rome , be derogatory to her Crown and Regalty , I see no reason She should be frighted from her just defence with the bugbear of pretended Religion , for if it was not against Religion then , why is it now ? I confesse there is a reason for it , to wit , because now the Popes power is an Article of Faith ( as I shall shew anon ) but then it was not with them , any more then now it is with us : but whether this will convince any man of reason I leave it to himselfe to consider . But one thing is observeable in that Act of Parliament of Richard the second , I meane this clause [ as it is well 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 been of a long time knowne . ] The Popes incroachments upon the State of England had been an old sore , and by its eld almost habituate ; but yet it grieved them neverthelesse , nor was the lesse a fever for being hecticall : but so it is that I am confident upon very good grounds , it may be made as apparent as the noon Sunne , for these 600 years and upwards , that the Bishops of Rome have exercised so extream and continuall Tyranny and exactions in this Kingdome , that our condition was under him worse then the State of the Athenians under their thirty Tyrants , or then our neighbors are now under their Belgick Tributes . So many greivances of the people , expilations of the Church , abuses to the State , intrenchments upon the Royalties of the Crown were continued , that it was a great blessing of Almighty God , our Kingdome was delivered from them upon so easy termes , which Grosthead Bishop of Lincolne thought would never be done , but in Ore gladii cruentandi : and now to have all these mischiefes returne with more strength upon us by the attempts of these Priests , had been the highest point of indiscretion and sleepinesse . I said [ with more strength ] because what anciently at the highest was thought but a priviledge of the Church began now to be an Article of Faith , and therefore if admitted would have bound stronger and without all possibility of redresse . And now if after all this any man should doubt of the justice of these Lawes against the Priests obtruding upon the State the Popes power , I only referre him to the Parliament of Paris , where let him hold his Plea against those great Sages of the Law , for their just censures upon Florentinus Iacobus , Thomas Blanzius , and Iohn Tanquerell , who were all condemned to a solemne honorary penance and satisfaction to the State , and not without extreme difficulty escaped death , for the same cause . But this is hot all . I adde . Secondly , the Pope had his Agent in England to stirre up the Subjects to rebell against the Queene , as I proved before by the testimonies of Catena and 〈◊〉 . It is not then imaginable that he should so poorely intend his own designes , to imploy one on purpose , and he but a Merchant , and that the Priests who were the men , if any , most likely to doe the businesse , should be un-imployed . I speak not of the argument from matter of fact , ( for it is apparent that they were imployed , as I shewed but now , ) but it is plain also that they must have been imployed , if we had had no other argument but a presumption of the Popes ordinary discretion . Things then remaining in this condition what security could the Queen or State have without the absence of those men who must be the instruments of their mischiefe ? Thirdly , there was great reason those men might be banished who might from their own principles plead immunity from all Lawes , and subordination to the Prince . But that so these Priests might , I only bring two witnesses , leading men of their own Side . Thus Bellarmine : The Pope hath exempted all Clerks from subiection to Princes . The same is taught by Emanuel Sà in his Aphorismes , 〈◊〉 Clericus . I must not dissemble that this Aphorisme however it passed the Presse at first , yet in the Edition of Paris it was left out . The cause is known to every man : For that it was meerely to serve their ends is apparent ; for their French freedome was there taken from them , they durst not parler tout so neere the Parliament ; but the Aphorisme is to this day retain'd in the Editions of 〈◊〉 and Colein . If this be their Doctrine , as it is plain it is taught by these leading Authors , I mean Sà and Bellarmine , I know no reason but it may be very just and most convenient to deny those men the Country from whose Lawes they plead exemption . Secondly , it was but reasonable , in case they obeyed not the proscriptiō , their disobedience should be made Capitall . For if they did not obey , then either they sinned against their conscience in disobeying their lawfull Prince , and so are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and inexcusable from the Lawes penalty , which may be extended at the pleasure of the Lawgiver , where there is no positive injustice in the disproportion ; or if they did not sinne against their conscience , then of necessity must they think her to be no lawfull Prince or not their lawfull Prince , nor they her Subjects , & so ipso 〈◊〉 are guilty of high Treason , & their execution was for Treason not Religion , and so the Principall is evicted which I shall beg leave to expresse in S. Cyprians language , Non erat illa fidei Corona , sed poena 〈◊〉 ; nec 〈◊〉 virtut is exitus gloriosus , sed desperation is 〈◊〉 . For if Valentius banish Eusebius from 〈◊〉 , and Eusebius obey not the edict , if Valentius puts him to death , it is not for his being a Christian that he suffers death , but for staying at 〈◊〉 against the command of Valentius . Such was the case of the Priests , whom for just cause ( as I have proved ) and too apparent proofe of seditious practices the Queen banished . Now if the Queen was their lawfull Soveraigne , then were they bound to obey her Decree of exile , though it had been unjust as was the case of Eusebius ; or if they did not obey , not to think the Lawes unjust for punishing their disobedience . I say again , their Disobedience , not their Religion : for that it was not their Religion that was struck at by the justice of these Lawes , but the security of the Queen and State only aim'd at , ( besides what I have already said , ) is apparent to the evidence of sence . For when Hart , and Bosgrave , Iesuits both , came into England against the Law , they were apprehended and imprison'd : ( for the Lawes without just Execution were of no force for the Queenes safety ; ) but when these men had acknowledg'd the Queenes legitimate power , and put in their security for their due obedience , they obtain'd their pardon and their liberty . The same proceedings were in the case of Horton and Rishton , all which I hope were not 〈◊〉 from their Order or Religion , but so they must have been or not have escap'd death , in case that their Religion had been made Capitall . Lastly , this Statute extended only to such Priests who were made Priests since Primo of Elizabeth , & were born in England . It was not Treason for a French Priest to be in England , but yet so it must have been if Religion had been the thing they aim'd at . But 't is so foule a Calumny , I am asham'd to stand longer to efute it . The proceedings of the Church and State of England were just , honourable and religious , full of mercy and discretion , and unlesse it were that as C. Fimbria complain'd of Q. Scaevola , we did not open our breasts wide enough to receive the danger , there is no cause imaginable , I mean on our parts , to move them to so damned a conspiracy , or indeed to any just complaint . Secondly , if these were not the causes ( as they would faine abuse the world into a perswasion that they were , ) what was ? I shall tell you , if you will give me leave 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to derive it from its very head , and then I will leave it to you to judge whether or no my Augury failes me . First , I guesse that the Traitors were encouraged and primarily mov'd to this Treason from the preuailing opinion which is most generally receiv'd on that side of the lawfulnesse of deposing Princes that are Hereticall . I say generally receiv'd , and I shall make my words good , or else the blame shall lay on themselves for deceiving me when they declare their own mindes . I instance first in the Fathers of the Society . a Bellarmine teacheth that Kings have no wrong done them if they be deprived of their Kingdomes when they prove Heretiques . Creswell in his Philopater goes farther , saying , that if his Heresy be manifest he is deposed without any explicite judiciall sentence of the Pope , the Law it selfe hath passed the sentence of deposition . And therefore Bonarscius is very angry at Arnald the French Kings Advocate for affirming that Religion could be no just cause to depose a lawfull Prince , If hee had beene brought up in their Schooles hee might have learnt another lesson ; papa Potest mutare regna & uni auferre atque alteri conferre tanquam summus Princeps spiritualis , si id necessarium sit ad animarum salutem , saith Bellarmine . Hee gives his reason too , quia alioqui possent mali Principes impunè fovere Haereticos , which is a thing not to be suffered by his Holinesse . This Doctrine is not the private opinion of these Doctors , but est certa , definita , atque , indubitata virorum clarissimorum sententia , saith F. Creswell , I suppose hee meanes in his owne Order ; and yet I must take heed what I say , for Eudaemon Iohannes is very angry with Sr Edward Cooke for saying it is the Doctrine of the Iesuits . Doe they then deny it ? No surely , but Non est Iesuitarum propria , it is not theirs alone , sed ut Garnettus respondit , totius Ecclesiae , & quidem ab antiquissimis temporibus consensione recepta Doctrina nostra est , and there hee reckons up seven and twenty famous Authors of the same opinion . Creswell in his Philopater sayes as much , if not more : Hinc etiam infert Vniversa Theologorum & Iuris consultorum Ecclesiasticorum Schola & est certum & de fide , quemconque Principem Christianum si à religione Catbolicá manifestè deflexerit , & alios avocare voluerit , excidere statim omni potestate ac dignitate ex ipsà vi juris tum Humani tum Divini . You see how easily they swallow this great camell . Adde to this that Bellarmine himselfe prooves that the Popes temporall power , or of disposing of Princes Kingdomes is a Catholique Doctrine , for hee reckons up of this opinion , one and twenty Italians , fourteene French , 〈◊〉 Germans , seven English and Scotch , nineteen Spaniards , & these not è faece plebis , but e 〈◊〉 , all very famous and very leading Authors . You see it is good Divinity amongst them , and I have made it good that it is a generall opinion received by all their Side if you will believe themselves and now let us see if it will passe for good Law as well as good Divinity . It is not for nothing that the Church of France protests against some of their received Canons ; if they did not I know not what would become of their Princes . Their Lillies may be to day , and to morrow be cast into the oven , if the Pope either call their Prince 〈◊〉 , as he did Henry the fourth , or Tyrant as Henry the third , or unprofitable for the Church or Kingdome , as he did King Childeric , whom Pope 〈◊〉 , de 〈◊〉 did depose for the same cause , and inserted his act into the body of the Law as a precedent for the future , quod etiam ex 〈◊〉 frequenti agit sancta Ecclesia , it is impaled in a 〈◊〉 in the body of the Canon , least deposition of Princes should be taken for newes . The law is cleere for matter of fact ; the lawfulnesse followes . [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est auferri 〈◊〉 habent , ] and this not only from a private man , but even from Princes , [ nam qui in majore dignitate , est plus punitur ] or take it if you please in more proper termes . [ Dominus Papa Principem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 propter haeresim , ] & so another may be chosen like the 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 in Poland , just as if the King were dead , 〈◊〉 per haeresim 〈◊〉 civiliter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith Simancha , and that by vertue of a constitution of 〈◊〉 the ninth , by which every man is freed from all duty , homage , allegeance or subordination whatsoever due to a Heretick , whether due by a naturall , civill , or politicall right ; [ aliquo pacto , aut quâcunque firmitate vallatum . ] Et sic nota ( saith the glosse ) quod Papa potest absolvere Laicum de iuramento fidelitatis . I end those things with the attestation of Bellarmine , Est res certa & 〈◊〉 at a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 maximum iustis de causis temporalibus indicare , atque ipsos Temporales Principes aliquando deponere . And again that we may be sure to know of what nature this doctrine is , he repeats it ; Sic igitur de potestate in Temporalibus quod ea sit in Papa non Opinio , sed Certitudo apud Catholices est . And now let any man say if this be not a Catholike Doctrine , and a likely antecedent to have Treason to be its consequent . But I fixe not here , onely this , it is plain that this proposition is no friend to Loyalty ; but that which followes is absolutely inconsistent with it , in case our Prince be of a different perswafion in matters of Religion . For , 2 It is not only lawfull to depose Princes that are hereticall , but it is necessary , and the Catholiks are bound to doe it sub mortali . I know not whether it be so generally , I am sure it is as confidently taught as the former , and by as great Doctors . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 erraret si admitteret aliquem Regem , qui vellet impunè fovere quamlibet Sectam , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . So Bellarmine . And again , Non licet Christianis tolerare Regem haereticum , si conetur pertrahere subditos ad suam haeresim . But F. Creswell puts the businesse home to purpose , Certè non tantum licet , sed summâ etiam iuris Divini necessitate , ac praecepto , imò conscientiae vinculo arctissimo , & extremo animarum suarum periculo ac discrimine Christianis omnibus hoc ipsum incumbit , si praestare rem possint . Vnder perill of their soules they must not suffer an hereticall Prince to reigne over them . Possunt & debent 〈◊〉 arcere ex hominum Christianorum dominatu , ne alios inficiat &c. 3 He that saith Subjects may and are bound to depose their Princes , and to drive them from all rule over Christians , if they be able , meanes something more : For what if the Prince resist still he is bound to depose him if he be able . How if the Prince make a 〈◊〉 The Catholike subject must doe his duty neverthelesse , and warre too , if he be able . He that 〈◊〉 he may wage a warre with his Prince , I doubt not but thinks he may kill him ; and if the fortune of the warre lights so upon him , the subject cannot be blamed , for doing of his duty . It is plain that killing a Prince is a certain consequent of deposing him , unlesse the Prince be bound in conscience to think himselfe a Heretick , when the Pope declares him so , and be likewise bound not to resist , and besides all this will performe these his obligations , and as certainly think himselfe hereticall , and as really give over his Kingdome quietly , as he is bound . For in case any of these should faile , there can be but very sleder assurance of his life . I would be loth to obtrude upon men the odious consequences of their opinions , or to make any thing worse which is capable of a fairer construction ; but I crave pardon in this particular , the life of Princes is sacred , and is not to be violated so much as in thought , or by the most remote consequence of a publike doctrine : But here indeed it is so immediate and naturall a consequent of the former that it must not be dissembled . But what shall we think if even this blasphemy be taught in terminis ? See this too . In the yeare 1407. when the Duke of Orleans had been slaine by Iohn of Burgundy , and the fact notorious beyond a possibility of conccalement , he thought it his best way to imploy his Chaplaine to justify the act , pretending that Orleans was a Tyrant . This stood him in small stead ; for by the procurement of Gerson , it was decreed in the Councell of Constance , that Tyranny was no sufficient cause for a man to kill a Prince . But yet I finde that even this decree will not stand Princes in much stead . First , because the decree runnes [ ut nemo privatâ Authoritate &c. ] but if the Pope commands it , then it is Iudicium publicum , and so they are never the more secure for all this . Secondly , because 〈◊〉 tels us , that this Decree is nothing . 〈◊〉 id decretum ( Concilij 〈◊〉 ) Romano Pontifici Martino quinto probatum non invenio , non Eugenio 〈◊〉 Successoribus , quorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ecclesiasticorum sanctitas stat . Thirdly , because though the Councell had forbidden killing of Tyrannical Princes even by publique authority , though this Decree had beene confirmed by the Pope , which yet it was not , yet Princes are never the more secure if they be convict of Heresy , and therefore let them but adde Heresy to their Tyranny , and this Councell Non obstante they may be killed by any man ; for so it is determin'd in an Apology made for Chastel , Licitum esse privatis & singulis Reges & Principes Hareseos & Tyrannidis condemnatos occidere , non obstante Decreto Concilij Constantiensis ; And the Author of the Book de iustâ abdicatione Henrici . 3. affirmes it not only lawfull but meritorious . How much lesse then this is that of Bellarmine ? Si obsint fini Spirituali , Spiritualis potestas potest & debet coercere Temporalem , omni ratione ac viâ . If omniratione , then this of killing him in case of necessity or greater convenience , must not be excluded . But to confesse the businesse openly and freely ; It is knowne that either the Consent of the people , or the Sentence of the Pope , or Consent of learned men is with them held to be a publicum 〈◊〉 , and sufficient to sentence a Prince and convict him of Heresy or Tyranny . That opinion which makes the people Iudge is very rare amongst them but almost generally exploded , that opinion which makes the learned to be their Iudge is I thinke proper to Mariana or to a few more with him , but that the sentence of the Pope is a sufficient conviction of him , and a compleate 〈◊〉 act , is the most Catholique opinion on that Side , as I shall shew anon . Now whether the Pope , or learned men , or the people be to passe this sentence upon the Prince , it is plaine that it is an Vniversall Doctrine amongst them that after this sentence ( whosesoever it be ) it is then without Question lawfull to kill him , and the most that ever they say is , that it is indeed not lawfull to kill a King , not lawfull for a private man , of his owne head , without the publike sentence of his Iudge , but when this Iudge ( whom they affirme to be the Pope ) hath passed his sentence , then they doubt not of its being lawfull . That I say true I appeale to a Gregory de Valentia , a Tolet , a Bellarmine , d Suarez , e Salmeron , f Serarius , g Molina , h 〈◊〉 Sà , i 〈◊〉 , k Martinus 〈◊〉 , l Lessius , m Gretser , n 〈◊〉 , o 〈◊〉 Heissius , p 〈◊〉 , q 〈◊〉 Iohannes , r Salianus , s Filliucius , t Adam Tanner , and their great u Thomas Aquinas . All these and many more that I have seene teach the lawfulnesse of killing Kings after publike sentence , and then to beautify the matter professe that they deny the lawfulnesse of Regicidium , by a private authority . For if the Pope sentence him then he is no longer a King , and so the killing of him is not Regicidium , and if any man doth kill him after such sentence , then he kills him not privatâ Authoritate , or 〈◊〉 judicio publico , which is all they affirm to be unlawfull . And thus they hope to stop the clamour of the world against them , yet to have their opinions stand intire , the way to their owne ends fair , but the Prince no jot the more secure of his life . I doe them no wrong , I appeale to the Authors themselves , thereI will be tryed . For that either the People , or that a Company of learned men , or to be sure the Pope may license a man to kill the King , they speake it with one voyce , and tongue . And now after all this we may better guesse what manner of counsell or threatning ( for I know not which to call it ) that was which Bellarmine gave sometimes to K. Iames of B. M. Si securus regnare velit Rex , si vitae suae & suorum consulere cupiat , sinat Catholicos frui religione suâ ! If this be good counsell , then in case the Catholiques were hindred from the free profession of their Religion , at the best it was full of danger if not certaine ruine . But I will no more rake this Augaean Stable , in my first Part I shewed it was too Catholique a Doctrine , and too much practis'd by the great Cisalpine Prelate . I adde no more , least truth it selfe should blush , fearing to become incredible . Now if we put all these things together , and then we should prove to be 〈◊〉 in their account , we are in a faire case both Prince and people , if wee can but gusse rightly at this wee shall need I thinke to looke no further why fire was called for to consume both our King and Country , nor why we may feare it another time . The Author of the Epistle of comfort to the Catholiques in prison printed by authority in the year of the Powder Treason , is very earnest to perswade his Catholiques not to come to our Churches or communicate with us in any part of our divine service , affrighting them with the strange terriculamenta of halfe Christians , Hypocrites , Denyers of Christ , in case they joyn'd with us in our Liturgy . Strange affrightments these yet not much more then what is true if they esteeme us Heretiques . For if they thinke us so , we are so to them , and they communicating with us doe as much sinne , as if wee were so indeed . But if wee be not Heretiques what need all this stirr permissu Superiorum . the Counsell of Recusancy was unreasonable , dangerous , schismaticall , and as the case then stood , very imprudent . In charity to their discretion wee cannot but thinke them uncharitable in their opinion of us . But there is no need we should dispute ourselves into a conjecture , themselves speake out and plaine enough . Heare Ballarmine under the visor of Tortus , affirming that the Kings Edict commanded the Catholiques , to goe to Heretiques Churches , speaking of ours But more plaine is that of Champ the Sorbonist in his Treatise of Vocation of Bishops . Therefore as Arrianisme is a condemn'd Heresy , & the Professors thereof be Heretiques , sa likewiseis Protestantisme a condemn'd Heresy , and those that Professe it be also Heretiques . By this time wee see too plainly that the state of Protestant Princes is full of danger where these men have to doe . They may be deposed and expelled from the Government of their Kingdomes , they must be deposed by the Catholiques under perill of their soules , it may be done any way that is most convenient , they may be rebelled against , fought with , slaine . For all this , it were some ease , if here we might fixe a 〈◊〉 . For perhaps these Princes might put in a 〈◊〉 for themselves , and goe neere to prove themselves to be no Heretiques . All'sone , for though they doe , yet unlesse they can perswade his Holinesse not to judge them so , or declare them Heretiques , all is to no purprse , for to him they must stand or fall . Namiudicare an Rex pertrahat ad haresim 〈◊〉 pertinet ad Pontificem . So Bellarmine They need not stay till his Heresy be of it selfe manifest , he is then to be us'd like a Heretique when by the rope of Rome he shall be judg'd Hereticall . But what matter is it if the Pope be judge , for if they may be deposed , as good he as any else . What greivance then , can this be to the state of Princes more then the former ? Yes , very much . 1. Because the Pope by his order to spiritualls may take away Kingdomes upon more pretences then actuall heresy . It is a large title , and may doe any thing . Bellarmine expresses it handsomely , and it is the doctrine of their great Aquinas . The Pope ( saith he ) by his Spirituall power may dispose of the Temporalties of all the Christians in the World , when it is requisite to the end of the Spirituall power . The words are plain that he may doe it for his own ends ( for his is the Spirituall power ) that is , for the advancement of the See 〈◊〉 , and thus ( to be sure ) he did actually wish Frederick Barbarossa , Iohn of Navarre , the Earle of Tholouse , and our own King Iohn . 2. The Pope pretends to a power that to avoid the probable danger of the increase of heresy he may take away a Territory from the right owner , as is reported by the Cardinall D'Ossat , and this is soon pretended , for who is there that cannot make probabilities , especially when a Kingdome is at stake ? 3. We finde examples that the Pope hath excommunicate Princes , and declar'd them hereticks when all the heresy hath been a not laying their crownes at the feet of S. Peter . The case of Lewis the fourth is every where known , whom Iohn the twenty third Excommunicated . Platina tels the reason . He called himselfe Emperour without the Popes leave , and aided the 〈◊〉 deputies to recover Millaine . Doubtlesse a most damnable and fundamentall heresy . 4. How if it proves in the Popes account to be a heresy to defend the immediat right of Princes to their Kingtholiques , dependant only on God , not on the See 〈◊〉 If this be no heresy , nor like heresy to say it , I would faine learn the meaning of Baronius concerning the book of Iohannes de Roa , who sometimes had been a Iesuit , but then chang'd his order , and became 〈◊〉 , saying , it was sentenc'd to the fire before it had escaped the presse . And good reason , Nihil enim tale à Patribus societatis didicit . Good men , they never taught him any such doctrine as is contained in that pestilent book , de iuribus principalibus defendendis & moderandis iustè . Now if this be heresy or like it , to preach such a Doctrine , then likely it will be judg'd heresy in Princes to doe so , that is , to hold their crownes without acknowledgment of subordination to S. Peters chaire . And if it be not heresy to doe so , it is in their account as bad , for so the Iesuits in their Veritas defensa against the Action of Arnald the Advocate affirme in terminis , that the actions of some Kings of France against the Pope in defence of their Regalties , were but examples of rebellion , and spots to disgrace the purity of the French Lillies . 5. Put case the Pope should chance to mistake in his sentence against a Prince , for the cause of heresy , yet for all this mistake , he can secure any man to take away the Princes life or Kingdome . His Lawyers will be his security for this point . For although in this case , the deposition of the Prince should be , and be acknowledged to be against Gods law , the Prince being neither Tyrant nor heretick , yet his Holinesse commanding it , takes away the unlawfulnesse of it , by his dispensation . So D. Marta , and for this doctrine he quotes Hostiensis , Felinus , Cratus , the Abbat , the Arch bishop of Florence , Ancharanus , Iohannes Andreas , Laurentius de Pinu , and some others . Indeed his Divines deny this , sed contrarium 〈◊〉 observatur , as it 's very well observed by the same Doctor , for he brings the practise & example of Pope Martin the fifth , Iulius the second , Celestine the third , Alexander the third , and Sixtus quintus , all which dispensed in cases acknowledged to be expressely against Gods law . 6. Lastly . How if the Pope should lay a claime to all the Kingdomes of the world , as belonging to S. Peters patrimony by right of spirituall preheminence ? I know no great security we have to the contrary . For first , It is known he hath claimed the Kingdome of England , as feudatary to the See Apostolike . Which when I considered I wondred not at that new and insolent title which Mosconius gives his Holinesse of Desensor fidei . He might have added the title of Rex Catholicus , & Christianisstmus . For D. Marta in his treatise of Iurisdiction , which he dedicated to Paulus quintus , hath that for an argumēt why he dedicated his Book to him , because , for sooth the Pope is the only Monarch of the World. But of greater authority is that of Thomas Aquinas affirming , the Pope to be the verticall top of all power Ecclesiasticall and Civill . So that now it may be true which the Bishop of Patara told the Emperor , in behalfe of Pope Sylverius . Multos esse Reges , sed nullum talem , qualis ille , qui est Papa super Ecclesiam Mundi totius . For these reasons I think it is true enough that the constituting the Pope the judge of Princes in the matter of deposition , is of more danger then the thing it selfe . The summe is this . However schisme or heresy may be pretended , yet it is but during the Popes pleasure that Kings or subjects shall remain firme in their mutuall necessitude . For if our Prince bee but excommunicate or declar'd heretick , then to be a good subject will be accounted no better then irreligion and Anti-Catholicisme . If the conclusion be too hard and intolerable then so are the Premises , and yet they passe for good Catholike doctrine among themselves . But if truly and ex animo they are otherwise affected , they should doe well to unsay what hath been said , and declare themselves by publique authority against such doctrines . And say whether or no their determinations shall be de fide ? If they be , then all those famous Catholique Doctors , Thomas Aquinas , Bellarmine , Creswell , Mariana , Emanuel Sà , &c. are heretiques , and their Canons teach heresy , and Many of their Popes to be condemn'd as hereticall , for practising and teaching deposition of Princes by an authority usurp't against , and in prejudice of the Christian faith . But if their answers be not de fide , then they had as good say nothing , for the danger is not at all decreased , because if there be Doctors on both sides by their own * assertion they may without sinne follow either , but yet more safely if they follow the most received and the most authorized , and whether this rule will lead them , I will be judg'd by any man that hath considered the premises . Briefly either this thing must remain in the same state it is , and our Princes still expos'd to so extream hazards , or else let his Holinesse seat himselfe in his chaire , condemne these doctrines , vow against their future practise , limit his ordo ad spiritualia , containe himselfe within the limits of causes directly and meerely Ecclesiasticall , disclaime all power , so much as indirect over Princes temporalls , and all this with an intent to oblige all Christendome . Which when I see done , I shall be most ready to believe that nothing in Popery , doth either directly or by a necessary consequence destroy Loyalty to our lawfull Prince , but not till then , having so much evidence to the contrary . Thus much was occasion'd by consideration of the cause of the Disciples Quaere which was when they saw this , that their L. and M. for his difference in Religion was turned forth of doores , which when they saw , They said Lord ] It was well they ask'd at all , and would not too hastily act what they too suddēly had intended , but it was better that they ask'd Christ , it had been the best warrant they could have had , could they have obtain'd but a Magister dixit . But this was not likely , it was too strange a Question to aske of such a Mr. A Magistre 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 crudelitatis ? Nothing could have come more crosse to his disposition . His spirit never was addicted to blood , unlesse it were to shed his owne . Hee was a Prince of peace and set forth to us by all the Symboles of peace and gentlenesse , as of a sheepe , a lambe , a hen , a gentle twining vine , the healing 〈◊〉 . and is it likely that such a one should give his placet to the utter ruine of a company of poore Villagers for denying him a nights lodging moved thereto by the foregoing scandall of a Schisme ? Hee knew better what it cost to redeem aman , and to save his life from destruction then to bee so hasty for his ruine . And if the Fathers Confessors who were to answere the Question of the day had but reflected upon this Gospell , they might have informed their penitents better then to have engaged them upon such Antichristian , and Treasonable practises , as to destroy an assembly of Christians , as to depose or kill a King. It is the proper cognisance of Mahumetanisme , by fire and sword to maintain their cause , and to propagate their Religion , by ruine of Princes and conquering their Kingdomes . But it is the excellency of Christianity , that by humility and obedience it made Princes tributary to our Deare Master , and homagers to his Kingdome . When Valentinian sent Calligonus his Chamberlaine to S. Ambrose to threaten him from his faith , his answer was , Deus permittit tibi ut impleas quod minaris . Ego patiar , quod est Episcopi , 〈◊〉 facies quod est spadonis . He did not stirre up the numerous people of his Diocesse to rebell against the Emperour , or depose him , imployed no agent in his Court to undermine his security , nor assasine to take his life . He and the rest of those good Fathers , would not have lost their possibility of being Martyrs , for the world , unlesse it were by perswading the Emperours to the Christian faith . Wee pray for all our Governours , that they might have long life , a secure government , a safe house , strong armies , good subjects , quiet world . So 〈◊〉 . I had thought that the Doctrine and example of our B. Saviour , the practise Apostolicall and primitive , had beene tyes enough to keep us in our obedience to God and the King , and in Christian charity to all , but I finde that all these precepts come to nothing , for the Apostles and primitive Christians did not actually depose Kings , nor alter states , nor call for fire to consume their enemies : not because it was simply unlawfull so to doe , or any way adverse to the precepts of Christ , but because they wanted Power . So Bellarmine : The Church gave leave that the faithfull should obey Iulian , because then they wanted forces . And F. Creswell is very confident of the businesse , They might without all Question have appointed to themselves other Kings and Princes , if the Christians had beene strong enough to bring their intendments to passe . But because they could not , therefore it was not lawfull for them to goe about it , nor is it for us in the same case , especially if the Prince hath quiet possession , and a strong guard about him , then by no meanes is it lawfull for a single man by then by no meanes is it lawfull for a single man by his owne authority to assault his Prince that rules Tyrannically . So Salmeron . But who sees not that this way murder may be lawfull . For true it is God commanded us , saying , Thou shalt not kill , that is , if thou art not able to lift up thy hand , or strike a stroake ; thou shalt not blaspheme , that is , if thou beest speechlesse , thou must be obedient to thy Prince , that is , if thou canst not tell how to helpe it . Good Doctrine this ! And indeed it might possibly be something if God had commanded our subordination to Princes only for wrath , for then si vires 〈◊〉 , if wee can defend our selves we are secure , wee need not feare his wrath , but when he addes , also for conscience sake , I cannot sufficiently wonder that any man should obtrude so 〈◊〉 , so illiterate , and so impious an interpretation upon the Christian world , under the Title of Catholique Doctrine . Christ when he was betrayed and seized upon by his Murderers could have commanded twelve Legions of Angels for his Guard , Non defuerunt vires ; and in all humane likelyhood such a Satellitium as that would have mov'd them to a beliefe in him , or else I am sure , might have destroyed the unbelievers . Shall I say more against this rude 〈◊〉 Then thus . It is false that the Primitive Christians had not power to defend themselves against their Persecutors , Heare S. Cyprian ; Nemo nostrum quando apprehenditur reluctatur , nec se adversus iniustitiam , & violentiam vestram quamvis nimius & copiosus noster sit Populus , ulciscitur . They could have resisted and that to blood , but they had not so learned Christ. Prayers and teares were the armes of Christians , and then they had a defence beyond all this , when they were hard put to it , Mori potuerunt , a submission of their bodies to Martyrdome was their last refuge . Thus S. Agnes , Lucia , Agatha , Christina , Domitilla sav'd both their faith and chastity , non armis , sedignibus & carnificis manu , the tormentors last cruelty defended them from all succeeding danger . I will not yet conclude , that , that which these men obtrude for Catholique Doctrine is flat and direct heresy , I will instance but once more and then I shall . In the fourth Councell of Toledo which was assembled when the usurping and Tyrannizing Goths did domineere in Europe , the most whereof were Tyrants , Vsurpers , or Arrians ; the Councell decreed that if any man did violate the life or person of his King , aut potestate Regni exuerit , kill him or depose him , Anathema sit &c. He should be accursed in the sight of God and his Holy Angels , and together withall the companions of his iniquity , hee should be separated from the Catholique Church . And now I hope I may say that these men who either practise or advise such practises as killing or deposing Kings , areas formally condemn'd for heresy , and anathematiz'd , as ever was Manichee or Cataphrygian . I know not , but perhaps this might be thought of when the 〈◊〉 were inscrib'd heretiks upon the publike pillar before the Louure in Paris , upon their banishment : however , let them answer it as they may , it concernes them as much as their being Catholiques comes to , Et considerent , quia quae praedicant tantoperè verba , aut ipsorum summorum Pontificum sunt suas fimbrias extendentium , 〈◊〉 illorum qui eis adulantur , as said Aeneas Sylvius , but at no hand can it be Christian Doctrine . I instanc'd in these things to shew the 〈◊〉 between the spirit of our B. Saviour who answer'd the Question of the text , and the Fathers Confessors of whom was ask'd the Question of the day . But give mee leave to consider them not only as mis-informing their penitents , but as concealing their intended purpose , for even this way , the persons to whom the Question was propounded made themselves guilty of the intended machination . For by all Law Ecclesiasticall and Civill hee that conceales an intended Murder or Treason makes himselfe as much a party for concealing , as is the Principall for contriving . Ob. But these Fathers Confessors could not be accused by vertue of these generall Lawes , as being exempt by vertue of speciall case , for they received notice of these things only in confession , the seale of which is so sacred and inviolable , that he is sacrilegious who in any case doth breake it open , though it be to avoid the greatest evill that can happen , so Bellarmine , to save the lives of all the Kings in Christendome , so Binet ; though to save a whole common wealth from dammage temporall or spirituall , of body or soule , so Suarez . A considerable matter ! On the one side wee are threatned by sacriledge , on the other by danger of Princes and common-wealths , for the case may happen , that either the Prince and whole State may be suffered to perish bodily and ghostly , or else the Priest must certainly damne himselfe by the sacrilegious breach of the holy Seale of confession . Give me leave briefly to consider it , and , both for the acquittance of our state in its proceedings against these Traytors , and for the regulating of the case it selfe , to say these two things . 1 This present Treason was not revealed to these Fathers Confessors in formall confession . 2. If it had , it did not bind to secresy in the present case . Of the first , only a word . 1 It was only propounded to them in way of Question or consultation ( like this in the text ) as appeared by their owne confessions , and the attestation of then Sr Henry Mountague Recorder of London to Garnet himselfe . It could not therefore be a formall confession , & therefore not bind to the seale . It is the common opinion of their owne Doctors : Non enim inducitur obligatio sigilli in confessione quam quis facit sine ullo animo accipiendi absolutionem , sed solum consilij pettendi causâ . 2 It was propounded to these Fathers Confessors as a thing not subjicible to their penitentiall judicature , because it was a fact not repented of , but then in agitation , and resolved upon for the future . How then could this be a confession , whose institution must certainly be in order to absolution , and how could this be in any such order , when it was a businesse of which they could not expect to be absolved unlesse they hop'd to sinne with a pardon about their necks ; and on condition God would be mercifull to them in its remission , would come and professe that they were resolved to anger him ? In reason this could be no act of repentance , neither could it , by confession of their own side . It is the doctrine of Hostiensis : and b Navarre , and c Cardinall Alban confesse it to be most commonly received . 3 It was not only not repented of , but by them reputed to be a good action , and so could not be a matter of confession . I appeal to any of their own Manuals and penitentiary bookes . It is culpable say they . I am sure it is ridiculous in any man to confesse and shrive himselfe of a good action , and that this was such in their opinion , it 's plaine , by that impious answer of Garnet , affirming it a businesse greatly meritorious , if any good might thence accrue to the Catholique cause . 4 By this their pretended confession they endeavoured to acquire new complices , as is evident in the proceedings against the Traitors . They were therefore bound to reveale it , for it neither was nor could be a proper and formall confession . That this is the common opinion of their own Schooles , see it affirmed by Aegidius 〈◊〉 . The first particular then is plain . Here neither was the forme of confession , nor yet could this thing be a matter of confession , therefore supposing the seale of confession to be sacredly inviolable in all cases , yet they were highly blameable for their concealement in the present . 2 But the truth of the second particular is more to be inquired of . That is , that though these things had been only revealed in confession , and this confession had been formall and direct , yet they were bound in the present case to reveale it , because the seale of confession is not so inviolable , as that in no case it is to be broken up , and if in any , especially it may be opened in the case of treason . I never knew any thing cryed up with so generall avoyce upon so little ground , as is the Over hallowed seale of confession . True it is that an ordinary secret committed to a friend in civill commerce is not to be revealed upon every cause , nor upon many , ( but upon some it may as they all confesse . ) If thus , then much rather is this to be observed in the revelation of the secrets of our consciences , not only from the ordinary tye to secrecy , but likewise least sinnes should grow more frequent , if so great a remedy of them be made so odious , as to expose us to a publike infancy or danger of the law . The Councell therefore that first introduc'd this obligation was very prudent and reasonable , pleads a thousand yeares prescription , and relies upon good conveniences . This is all that ever could be prov'd of it ( as may appeare anon ) but these are too weak a base , to build so great a structure on it , as to make it sacriledge , or any sinne at all , to reveale confessions in some cases . 1 For first , if because it is delivered as a secret , and such a secret , it is the more closely and religiously to be kept ; it is true , but concludes no more , but that it must be a greater cause that must authorize a publication of this , then of the secrets of ordinary commerce between friend and friend . 2 If the licensing of publicatiō of confession be a way to make confession odious , and therefore that it may not be publish'd , I say if this concludes , then on the contrary it concludes farre more strongly , that therefore in some cases it may be published , because nothing can make a thing more odious and intolerable , then if it be made a cover for grand impieties , so as to engage a true subject , quietly & Knowingly to see his Prince murdred . 3 If it be discouragement to the practise of confession that some sinnes revealed in it must be published though with perill to the delinquents same & life , then it will be a farre greater discouragement to the sinne , when that it shall by an universall judgement be so detested , that its concealement may not be permitted , though it be with the hazard of discouraging the Holy duty of confession : and when the being guilty of such a sinne , shall reduce men into such streights , that either they shall want the benefit of absolution , or submit themselves to a publike satisfaction , and so even in this particular the benefit is farre greater then the imaginary inconvenience . The conveniences of the 〈◊〉 force no more then that it is convenient to be observed , not simply and absolutely in all cases necessary . And perhaps Suarez the great patron of it perceived it , however he laies the burden , super communi consensu Ecclesiae , 〈◊〉 perpetuâ traditione . If then I can shew , that there is no such Catholike consent of the present Church , nor any universall tradition of the ancient Church for the inviolable Seale , but plainly the contrary , then our Church in her permission of the Priests to reveale some confessions is as inculpable as those of the present Church , who ( besides her selfe ) teach and practise it , and as the Primitive Church whose , example in this ( as in other things ) she strictly followes . Of the first . The Church of England , which observes the seale of confession as sacredly as reason or religion it selfe can possibly permit , yet forbids not disclosure in case of Murder or Treason , but in these particulars leaves us intire in our obedience to the common lawes of England , and these command it . That the Church of England gives leave in some cases to reveale confessions , is argument enough to prove that the Seale is not founded upon the consent of the present Catholike Church . For it is no more a begging of the Question ( nor apparently so much ) to say , the Church of England is a part of the Catholike Church , and therefore her consent is required to make a thing universall , then to say , the Church of Rome is the whole Catholike Church , therefore her consent is sufficient to make a thing Catholike . But I shall not need to proceed this way . For , 1 It is apparent that of their own side Altisidiorensis largely and professedly proves the lawfulnesse of publication in some cases as is to be seen . Lib. 4. Summae tract . 6. cap. 3. q. 7. and Garnet himselfe , the man who if any had most need to stand in defence of the Seale that the pretence of it might have defended him , yet confessed of his own accord , Leges quae celare haec prohibent apprimè esse justas & salutares . He addes his reason , and that is more then his authority , for ( saith he ) it is not fitting that the life and safety of a Prince should depend upon the private niceties of any mans conscience . If two , nay if one dissent , it is enough to destroy a consent . But see farther . There are many cases , generally confessed amongst themselves , in which the seale of formall and ( as they love to speak ) Sacramentall confession may be broken open . I instance but in two or three . First , confession may be reveal'd to clear a doubtfull case of marriage . It is the opinion of many great Canonists , as you may see them quoted by Suarez de Paz. and 〈◊〉 , and the case of the Venetian who married a Virgin that was both his sister and daughter : and that at Rome under Pope Paul the third almost to like purpose , were long disputed on both sides , whether they were to be revealed or not , so that at most , it is but a doubtfull matter in such cases , whether the tye of secrecy doth oblige . Now if for the proofe of marriage the seale may be broken up , that man and wife might live contentedly and as they ought , strange it should be unlawfull to reveale confessions in case of Treason , for the safety of a Prince or State ! 2 In case of herely the seale binds not , by their own generall confession . It is a rule amongst them , Haeresis est crimen quod non confessio celat . Now I would fain learn why Treason is not as revealeable as Heresy ? Is heresy dangerous to soules ? Then surely , so is Treason , unlesse it be none , or a very small crime . May heresy infect others ? So may Treason , as it did in the present . It may then as well be revealed as heresy . Now that it may something rather , I have these reasons . 1. Because it is not so certaine that such an opinion is heresy as that such a 〈◊〉 is Treason . 2. Because although both Treason and reall heresy be damnable and dangerous to soules , yet heresy killes no Kings as treason doth . I confesse that heresy may , and doth teach it , but then it degenerates into Treason . Now if some heresy may be Treason , then that Treason is heresy , & so a case of Treason may occurre , in which from their own confession , treason is revealeable . 3 By the most generall voice of their own side any man may licence his confessor to reveale his confession . It is the doctrine of Scotus , Durandus , Almain , Navarre , Medina , and generally of all the Thomists . I inferre , if a private man may licence his Consessor to reveale his consession , then the seale of confession is not founded upon any divine commandement , for if it were , the penitent could not give the Priest license to break it . But if the penitent may give his Confessor leave , because the tye of secrecy is a bond in which the Priest stands bound to the penitent , & he giving him leave , remits of his own right , then much rather may a whole State authorise this publication , for what ever personall right a private man hath , that the whole State hath much rather , for he is included in it as a part of the whole , and in such cases as concerne the whole commonwealth ( as this of treason doth most especially ) the rule of the Law holds without exception , Refertur ad 〈◊〉 quod publicè fit per maiorem partem , the delinquent gives leave to the publication of confession , therefore because the whole state doth , whereof he is one member . I adde , that in the case of Treason this is much rather true , for here the delinquent looseth all his right whatsoever , praediall , personall , and of priviledge , & therefore the Commonwealth can the better license the publication , and the breach of the bond of secrecy , in which the Confessor stood tyed to the penitent by vertue of implicit stipulation . 4 Lastly , even in speciall in the very case of Treason confessed , many of their owne doe actually practise a publication , when either they are loyall of themselves , or dare not be otherwise . I instance first in the Church of France . For this See Bodinus , who reports of a Norman Gentleman whom his Confessor discovered for having confessed a Treasonable purpose he sometimes had , of killing Francis the first , of which hee was penitent , did his penance , craved absolutiō obtain'dit but yet was sentenc'd to the axe by expresse commission from the King to the Parliament of Paris . The like confession was made by the Lord of Haulteville when he was in danger of death , which when he had escaped , he incurred it with the disadvantage of publike infamy upon the Scaffold . I instance not in the case of Barriere , it is every where knowne as it is reported partly by Thuanus , but more fully by the Authour of Histoire de la paix . Nor yet is France singular in the practise of publication of confessed Treason . For at Rome there have been examples of the like , I meane of those who confessed their purpose of killing the Pope , who were revealed by their Confessors , and accordingly punish'd . Thus then the first pretence proves a nullity , & either our Laws are just in commanding publication of confession in case of Treasō , or themselves very culpable in teaching & practising it in the same , & in cases of lesse moment . The 2 d is like the first for it is extremly vain to pretend that the seale of confession is founded upon Catholike traditiō . Iudg by the sequel . The first word I heare of concealing confessions is in Sozomen , relating how the 〈◊〉 Church about the time of Decius the Emperor , set over the penitēts a publike penitentiary Priest , who was bound to be Virbonae conversationis , 〈◊〉 , secretum , a good man and a keeper of secrets , for indeed he was bound to conceale some crimes , in particular those which an Adulteresse had confessed , I meane concerning her Adultery , as appeares in the Canons of S. Basil. But yet this Priest who was so tyed to a religious secrecy did publish many of them in the Congregation before the people , that they might reprove the delinquent and discountenance the sinne . The same story is reported by Cassiodore , and Niccphorus from the same Authour . The lawfulnesse and practise of publication in some cases is as cleere in Origen . If ( saith he ) the Physician of thy soule perceives thy sinnes to be such as to need so harsh a remedy as to have them published before the assemblies of the people , that others may be admonished , & thou the better cured , he need be very deliberate , and skilfull in the application of it . Hitherto no such thing as an Vniversall tradition for the pretended inviolable sacramentall seale , for Origen plainly , and by them confessedly speakes of such sins as first were privately confessed to the Priest ; how else should hee deliberate of their publication ? but yet he did so , and for all the seale of confession , sometimes opened many of them , to no sewer witnesses then a whole assembly . Thus it was in the Greeke Church both Law and Custome . But now if we look into the Latine Church wee shall find that it was taken up from example of the Greeks and some while practis'd , that some particular sinnes should be published in the Church before the Congregation , as it is confessed in the Councell of Mentz , and inserted by Burchard into his Decree . But when the Lay piety began to coole , and the zeale of some Clergy men waxe too hot , they would needs heighten this custome of publication of some sinnes to a Law of the publishing of all sinnes . This being judg'd to be inconvenient , expressed the first decree for the seale of confession in the Latin Church . Now see how it is utter'd , and it wil sufficiently informe us both of the practise and the opinion which Antiquitie had of the obligation to the seale . Illam contra Apostolicam regulam praesumptionem , &c. that is , it was against the Apostolicall ordinance that a Law should enjoyn that the Priest should reveale all those sinnes which had beene told him in confession . It might be done so it were not requir'd and exacted , and yet might be so requir'd , so it were not a publication of all . Non enim omnium 〈◊〉 sunt peccata ; saith S. Leo , some sinnes are inconvenient to be published , it is not fit the world should know all , therefore , some they might , or else hee had said nothing . The reason which he gives makes the businesse somewhat clearer , for hee derives it not from any simple necessity of the thing or a Divine Right , but least men out of inordinate love to themselves , should rather refuse to be wash't then buy their purity with so much shame . The whole Epistle hath many things in it excellently to the same purpose . I say no more , the Doctrine and practise of antiquity is sufficiently evident , and that there is nothing lesse then an Vniversall tradition for the seale of confession to be observed in all cases , even of sins of the highest malignity . Thus these Fathers Confessors are made totally inexcusable by concealing a Treason which was not revealed to them in a formall confession , and had been likewise culpable though it had , there being as I have showne , no such sacrednesse of the Seale as to be inviolable in all cases whatsoever . I have now done with the severall considerations of the persons to whom the Question was propounded , they were the Fathers Confessors in the day , but it was Christ the Lord in my text . The Question it selfe followes . Shall we command fire to come from heaven and consume them ? The Question was concerning the fate of a whole Towne of Samaria , in our case it was more ; of the Fate of a whole Kingdome . It had been well if such a Question had been silenc'd by a direct negative or ( as the Iudges of the Areopage used to doe ) put off ad diem longissimum , that they might have expected the answer three ages after . De morte hominis nulla est 〈◊〉 longa , No demurre had been too long in a case of so much and so royall blood , the blood of a King , of a Kings Children , of a Kings Kingdome . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 King and Kingdome should have & been made a solemn sacrifice to appease their solemn deliberate malice . I said deliberate , for they were loth to be malicious without good advice , and therefore they askt their question , worthy of an Oracle , even no lesse then Delphick , where an evill spirit was the Numen , and a Witch the Prophet . For the Question was such of which a Christian could not doubt though he had been fearefully scrupulous in his resolutions . For whoever question'd the unlawfulnesse of murder , of murdering innocents , of murdering them who were confessed righteous ? for such was their proposall , being rather willing that Catholiks should perish with those whom they thought , hereticks , then that their should be no blood spilt . But to the question : it was fire they called for . The most mercilesse of all the Elements . No possibility of relenting when once kindled and had its object . It was the fittest instrument for mercilesse men , men of no bowels whose malice like their instrument did agere ad extremum suarnm virium , worke to the highest of its possibility . Secondly , It was fire indeed they called for , but not like that in my text , not fire from heaven , They might have called as long and as loud as those Priests did , who contested with Elisha , no fire would have come from heaven to have consum'd what they had intended for a sacrifice . Gods 〈◊〉 post not so fast as ours doe . Deus non est sicnt homo . Man 〈◊〉 often when God blesseth , men condemne whom God acquits , and therefore they were loath to trust God with their cause , they therefore take it into their own hands . And certainly if to their Anathemas they adde some fagots of their own and gunpowder , 't is oddes but then we may be consum'd indeed , and so did they , their fire was not from heaven . Lastly , it was a fire so strange , that it had no example . The Apostles indeed pleaded a mistaken precedent for the reasonablenesse of their demand , they desir'd leave to doe but even as Elias did . [ The Greekes only retaine this clause , it is not in the Bibles of the church of Rome ] and really these Romano-barbari could never pretend to any precedent for an act so barbarous as theirs . Adrimelech indeed kil'd a King , but he spar'd the people , Haman would have killed the people , but spared the King , but that both King and people , Princes and Iudges , branch , and rush and root should dye at once ( as if Caligula's were actuated and all England upon one head ) was never known till now , that all the malice in the world met in this as in a center . The Sicilian 〈◊〉 , the mattins of S. Bartholomew , known for the pittilesse and damn'd massacres , were but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the dream of the shadow of smoake if compar'd with this great fire . In tam occupato saeculo fabulas Vulgaris nequitia non invenit . This was a busy age ; Herostratus must have invented a more sublim'd malice then the burning of one Temple , or not have been so much as spoke of since the discovery of the Powder-Treason . But I must make more hast I shall not else clime the sublimity of this impiety . Nero was sometimes the populare odium was popularly hated , and deserv'd it too , for he slew his Master , and his wife and all his family once or twice over , opened his mothers wombe , fired the Citty , laught at it , slandred the Christians for it , but yet all these were but principia malorum , the very first rudiments of evill . Adde then to these , Herods Master-piece at Ramah as it was deciphred by the teares and sad threnes of the Matrons in an Vniversall mourning for the losse of their pretty infants , yet this of Herod will prove but an infant wickednesse , and thar of Nero , the evill but of one citty . I would willingly have found out an example , but I see I cannot , should I put into the scale the extract of all the old Tyrants famous in Antique stories , Bristonij stabulum Regis , Busiridis aras , Antiphatae mensas & Taurica regna Thoantis , Should I take for true story the highest cruelty as it was fancied by the most hieroglyphicall Egyptian , this alone would weigh them down , as if the Alpes were put in scale against the dust of a ballance . For had this accursed Treason Prosper'd , we should have had the whole Kingdome mourne for the inestimable losse of its chiefest glory , its life , its present joy , and all its very hopes for the future . For such was their destind malice , that they would not only have inflicted so cruell a blow , but have made it incurable , by cutting off our supplies of joy , the whole succession of the line Royall . Not only the Vine it selfe but all the Gemmulae , and the tender Olive branches should either have been bent to their intentions , and made to grow crooked , or else been broken . And now after such a sublimity of malice , I will not instance in the sacrilegious ruine of the neighbouring Temples which needs must have perished in the flame , nor in the disturbing the ashes of our incomb'd Kings devouring their dead ruines like Sepulchrall dogs , these are but minutes , in respect of the ruine prepared for the living Temples . Stragem sed istam non tulit Christus cadentum Principum Impune , ne for san sui Patris periret fabrica . Ergo quae poterit lingua retexere Laudes Christe tuas , qui domitum struis Infidum populum cum Duce persido ? Let us then returne to God the cup of thanks-giving , he having powred forth so largely to us of the cup of salvation . We cannot want where withall to fill it , here is matter enough for an eternall thankfulnesse , for the expressiou of which a short life is too little , but let us here begin our Hallelujahs hoping to finish them hereafter , where the many quires of Angels will fill the consort . Praise the Lord ye house of Levi , ye that fear the Lord , Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord out of Sion , which dwelleth at Hierusalem . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A13414-e590 Verse 53. a Epist. ad Algis . b 〈◊〉 Lucam . 〈◊〉 de Clave David Lib. 2. 6. 15. Ibid. cap. 14. Tyrannicè gubernans iustè 〈◊〉 dominium non potest spoliari fine publico iudicio : Latâ 〈◊〉 sententiâ 〈◊〉 potest fieri executor . Potest autem à populo etian qui iuravit ei obedientian , 〈◊〉 monitus non vult corrigi . Verb. Tyrannus . Praesertim cum in hoc opus per annos ferè quadraginta diligentissime 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . De Rege & R. instituit . lib. 1. c. 6. Qui est l'artifice dont ie trouue que le Roys Mores ont souuent usè . Cap. 7. Postquam à paucis seditiofis , sed doctis caeperit Tyrannus appellari . Quodamodo optandum esse ut ille Alastor Marianam legisset . Gap. 6. Cum cagnito à 〈◊〉 quos erat sciscitatus , 〈◊〉 jure interimi posse . a Chauue sauris polit . b Amphith . honoris lib. 1. cap. 12. c Iterum & tertio facturus siper otium & tempus licuisset . Vt approbatos priùs a viris Doctis & gravihus ex eodem 〈◊〉 Ordine . a By Petrus Rhodriques . 1599. b By Balth. Lippius 1605 Pag. 7. 1. edit . Pag. 67. 1. edit . * Voyez . le proces de Parliam . de Paris contre le perc Guignard prestre Iesuit . a Vid. cap. 3. b Lugduni de iusta abdicatione Henr. 3. 1610. De clave David cap. 14. Vide pag. 7. Arrest . de Parliam . 7. de Tanv . 1595. a Expostul . Apologet . pro Societ . Iesus . b Amphith . honor . lib. 1. a Apol. adv . R. Angliae . b Stigm . Miseric . c Apol. pro Garnetto . 1588. 1605. Pio publicò una bolla & sentezza cōtra Elisabetta , dichiarandola heretica , & priva del regno , ... in tal forma concedendo che ciascuno andar contra le potesse &c. Girolamo catena p. 114. Il quale .... muovesse gli usimi al sollevamento per distruttione d' Elizabetta . b De vitâ & Giftis Pii 5. lib. 3. cap. 9. Pag. 113. L'andare in persona , inpegnae tutte le sostanze della sede Apostolica , & calici , e. i. proprii vestimenti . Pag. 117. Qui incolarū animos ad Elizabethae perditionem . rebellione fact â commoveret . Efflagitabat ab Rege ut Anglorum in Elizabetham pie conspirantium studia soveret . Hildebrand . Apol. adv . R. Angl. Proced agt. Traytors . Innoc. Decretal de rescript cap. si quando . Philop pag. 212 , n. 306. Scp. 11 , 1589 By Nichol. Nivelle , and 〈◊〉 Tbierry . Ver. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in hunclocum . Iosephi antiq . 〈◊〉 . 11 , c. 6. 〈◊〉 de linguis . lib. 12 Deut. 27. Orat. 12. Decret . Carolquinti , pro Flandris . Orat 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Vid. L. Burleighs booke called Execution for Treason not religion . King Iames his declaration to all 〈◊〉 Kings and Princes , and the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury his speech in Starre-chamber in Burtons case . Apud 〈◊〉 de senten . excommunicat . Item omnes illos excommunicationis innodamus sententia qui pacem & tranquillitatem Domini Regis & Regni , iniuriose perturbare 〈◊〉 , & qui iura Demini Regis 〈◊〉 detincre contendunt . 1577. Tacitus lib. 3. Annal. 1561. Lib. 1. cap. 28. 〈◊〉 Clericis . De simplic . 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . l. 4. c. 14. a Necullaeis injuria fiet si 〈◊〉 . Lib. 5. de Rom. 〈◊〉 . cap 7. Exipsa vi juris & ante 〈◊〉 sententiam fupremi Pastoris ac Iudicis 〈◊〉 sum prolatam . Lugduni impres . 1593. p. 106. n. 157. Amphith honor . p. 117. Sedheus Arnalde à 〈◊〉 institutione 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 posse intercidere causam quae regem cogat abire regno ? Non 〈◊〉 ? Bellar. de Pont. R. c. 6. lib. 5. Cap. 71. Vbi suprà p. 107. Apol. pro Garnet . c. 3. Num. 157. Contra 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 . ferè . Can. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 15. 9. 6. Cl. 1. in Summa . 23. 9. 7. Gl. cap. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . de haereticis . l. 5. Cap. 45. de 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 Barclaiumc . ap . 3. Lib. 5. de Rom. 〈◊〉 c. 7. Ibid. Philopat p. 110 n. 162. 〈◊〉 . 106. n. 157. De Reg & R. instit . lib. 1. c. 6. Franc. Verum . Const. p. 2. c. 2. De Pont. R. lib. 5. c6 . Vide P. D. M. Image of both Churches . a Tom. 3. disp . 5. q. S. punct . 3. a In sum . 〈◊〉 . 5. c. 6. A polog ad a R Angl. c. 13 d Defens fidei lib. 6 c. 4. e in 13 cap. ad Rom. disp . 5. f Quest p. in c. 3. 〈◊〉 . g De iust . & inre . 〈◊〉 m. 4. 〈◊〉 . 3. d. 6. h Aphoris . verb. Tyran . nus . 1. Instit. Moral 2. p. lib. i 1. c. 5. q 10. k In Hercul . Furent . l de Iustit . & jure . c 9 dub 4 m Chauue sauris polit n in resp ad Aphoris . Calvinistarū o Contr. Calvinist . Aphcrism . c. 3. ad Aphor. 1. p In expostul . ad Henrici . 〈◊〉 . pro Societate q in Apolog. pro Henrico Garnetto . r Ad annum Mundi . 2669. n. 7. s Tract . 29. p. 2. de quinto praecepro Decal . n. 12. t tom . 3. disp . 4. q 8. dub . 3 u 32 , u. opusc . 20. & lib. 1. de 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 c. 6. In lib. sub 〈◊〉 Torti . edit . Colon. Agrip . 1610. pag 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apol ad R. Angl. Cap. 11. pag. 149 Doway . 1616. Vbi supra . De regim . Princip . In Clement . 〈◊〉 . Baron . tom , 6. Annal. An Dom 447. n 8 De Iurisd cas . 64 , 〈◊〉 , 14. Num. 17. a Rex 〈◊〉 est subditus Romano Pontisici 〈◊〉 directi dominii quol in Regnum Angliae & Hibernie Romana 〈◊〉 Ecclesia . Bellarm. Apol. alv . R. Angl. c. 3. b De Maiest . milit . Eccles. c. 1. pag. 25. c Tibi à quo emanat omuis 〈◊〉 , unicus in orbe Pontisex , Imperator & Rex , omnium Principum superior , 〈◊〉 & personarum supremus & Dominus . Epist. Dedicat . d 2 Sent , dist . 44. & lib. 3 de Regim . Princ. Lib. erat . in Breviar . de 〈◊〉 Nestorian cap. 21. * Charity maintained by Cath. cap. 7. Apologet. De Pontif. R. l. 5. c. 7. Philopater P. 107. n. 158. Disp. 5. inc . 13. ad Roman . De gestis consil . Basil. lib. 1. a Cap 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . excom . & . c. delicto ibid. in 〈◊〉 13. q. 3. q. 3. b l. 1. Occisorum ad 〈◊〉 . c. 〈◊〉 & l 1. §. 1. ad l. Cornel. de falsis l. quisquis ad l lub . Maiest . Apol. adv . R. Angl. Casaub. ad Front. Duc. In 3. part . D. Thom. disp . 33. Sect. 1. 〈◊〉 . 2. Vide Casaub. ep . ad Frent . D. p. 133. D. Soto . in 4. l. Sent. d. 18. q. 4 art . 5. concl . 5. Navar. 6. 8. n. 18. Suarez . disp . 33 Sect 2. Coninck 〈◊〉 conf . 〈◊〉 1. n. 7. b Cap Sacerdos . 3. q. n. 116. c In lucubrat : ad Barrolum . in L. ut Vim . n. 22 ff . de iuftitia & iure See proceed . against late Traitors . Vbi supra . In 3. part . D Thom disp . 33. sect . 〈◊〉 , n , 2 Can. 113. A. D. 1604. Actio in prodit . lat . p 99 Practic . crim . Ecclesiast . cap. 109. Resol . de Matrimon . L. quod Maior ff . ad Municipalem . ff . de regul 〈◊〉 . ad §. refertur . L. 7 §. ult . ff . de pact . De republ . lib. 2. cap. 5. Histoire de 〈◊〉 . Dominic . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . memb . 3. q 4 concl . 2 derat . regendi secret . Lib 7. hist. c. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epist. ad Amphil. 〈◊〉 . 2. in 37. Psal. Cap. 10. & 21. l. 19 c. 37. Decret 〈◊〉 Leonis . P. M. Epist . 80. ad 〈◊〉 . Campan . Prudent , 〈◊〉 . Psal. 135. v. 20. 21. 
A41783	----	The Pædo-baptists apology for the baptized churches shewing the invalidity of the strongest grounds for infant baptism out of the works of the learned assertors of that tenent, and that the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins is a duty incumbent upon all sinners who come orderly to the profession of Christianity : also the promise of the Spirit [b]eing the substance of a sermon on I Cor. 12, I, to which is added a post-script out of the works of Dr. Jer. Taylor in defence of imposition of hands as a never failing ministery / by Tho. Grantham. Grantham, Thomas, 1634-1692. 1671 Approx. 118 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 60 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2009-03 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A41783 Wing G1541 ESTC R39521 18425811 ocm 18425811 107603 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A41783) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 107603) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1634:5) The Pædo-baptists apology for the baptized churches shewing the invalidity of the strongest grounds for infant baptism out of the works of the learned assertors of that tenent, and that the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins is a duty incumbent upon all sinners who come orderly to the profession of Christianity : also the promise of the Spirit [b]eing the substance of a sermon on I Cor. 12, I, to which is added a post-script out of the works of Dr. Jer. Taylor in defence of imposition of hands as a never failing ministery / by Tho. Grantham. Grantham, Thomas, 1634-1692. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. [6], 112 p. s.n.], [London : 1671. Place of publication suggested by Wing. Imperfect: cropped, tightly bound and slightly faded with some loss of print. Reproduction of original in the British Library. 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Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Bible. -- N.T. -- Corinthians, 1st, XII, 1 -- Sermons. Infant baptism. Baptists -- Apologetic works. Imposition of hands. 2007-11 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2007-11 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2008-02 John Latta Sampled and proofread 2008-02 John Latta Text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-09 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion THE Paedo-Baptists Apology FOR THE Baptized Churches , Shewing The invalidity of the strongest grounds for Infant Baptism out of the works of the learned assertors of that tenent . AND That the Baptism of Repentance for the remission of sins is a duty incumbent upon all sinners who come orderly to the profession of Christianity . ALSO The Promise of the Spirit ●eing the substance of a Sermon on 1 Cor. 12. 1. To which is added A POST-SCRIPT . Out of the works of Dr. Jer. Taylor in defence of imposition of hands as a never failing Ministery . By Tho. Grantham . Mr. Perkins on Gal. 3. 27. Baptism alone is no mark of Gods Child , but Baptism joyned with Faith , for so must the text be consideres . All the Galations that believe are baptized into Christ . Printed in the Year . 1671. To the Reader . Friend , I Have a few things to say before thou read this ensuing Apology , and first , The occasion of it is from the late unkind usages which the Baptized Churches have received from the Paedo-Baptists , by violently dispersing their Assemblies , by defacing and taking away their meeting places , by imprisoning their persons , seizing and wasting their Estates , by injuring them in their Trade by means of excommunications , by Writs de Capiendo and other penall proceedings both confining their Persons and exposing them to great inconveniencies . And all this only ( as I conceive for their conscionable observance of the will of God in Preaching the Gospel to sinners ●●r the obedience of faith , and for adhearing to that form of Doctrine once deli●ered to the Saints Heb. 6. 1 , 2. In which Doct●ine and sufferings being through the mercy of God a pertaker with them , I thought I might lawsully write an Apology for them , or at least for the Truth professed by them . And that I might the ●ore effectually do this I chose to speak ●o their advers●ries by the learned ●ens of their own Doctors . 2. My design in writing this Apo●ogy , is to abate ( if it may be ) that great enmity which hath appeared generally between the parties concerned ; and more perticularly that spirit of opposition and disresp●ct which too much appears in the more refined sort of the Paedo-Baptists , against such as labor to reform ( or rather to restore ) the Doctrine of Baptism , to its first integrity and estimation among all that profess the name of our Lord Jesus Christ , under what Epethets or den●minations soever . And me thinks th● truth should prevail with all that do consider the authority and force thereof to be such that men are constrained ( as it were to speak for it though to the overthrow of their dearest errours , so that we may say their Rock is net as our Rock , our enemies being judges . 3. I have not injured the sense of my authours , and where I have added any thing for explycation of any word or passage , I have distingushed the same partly by a different Letter , and partly by this Character [ ] nor have I said much in the Apology , as indeed it was not necessary , considering the evidence of the word of God for us , and the Record which our opposers do bear in favour of our Cause ; and beside they that will may see what may be further said in the case depending , if they please to peruse the Learned works of those of our way , viz. Denn his Answer to Dr. Featley , Tombs , his Antipaedo-Baptist , Fisher his Christianismus Rediv●vous , and many others . 4. The second part intitled Of the Promise of the Spirit , I though fit to be annexed , because Acts 2. 38 , 39. such as are Baptized with the Baptism of Repentance for Remission of fins , have the promise of the Spirit made to them , which being sought for in the way ordained of God , shall be received according to his will for he is faithfull that promised . Thy servant in Christ , Tho. Grantham , THE Paedo Baptists Apologie FOR The Baptized Churches , &c. THere is no point of the Christian Faith , of greater importance in order to the composure of Divisions among such as conscientiously profess the Name of Christ , then the Doctrine of holy Baptisme , in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins ; for as many as have been Baptixed into Christ have put on Christ . And where this foundation truth hath been neglected or essentially corrupted , there hath ensued great disorder in Religion , because the being of the Church ( as visible ) is so concern'd therein , that there can be no orderly proceeding in any Church Act , nor participation in any Church Priviledge , where Sacred Baptisme is not Antecedent . And though Reformation ( or rather the restoration ) of this Truth be hard to accomplish , yet must we not be discouraged , but still pursue all lawful and probable wayes to effect it in this , as well as in other cases . And the way which I have chosen to help on this needful work at this time is to shew , that ( notwithstanding the discord in point of practice , yet ) there is a very great concord in doctrine , touching the main questions which concern this Heavenly Institution , between the Paedo-Baptists , and the Baptized Churces . The questions are these . 1. What are the Qualifications required of all such as are to be bapt●zed . 2. What is the aue Act or right Form to be observed and done in this solemn rite of Baptisme . Touching the first , the doctrine of the Baptized Churches is well known , namely , That Repentance toward God , and Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ are prerequisites to the baptisme of every sinner . And to this agrees the holy Scripture with full consent , ●aying , Repent and be baptized every one of you . They were all baptized confessing their sins . When they beleived Philip preaching the things concerning the Kingdome of God &c. They were baptized both men and women , many of the Corinthians hearing , believe'd and were baptised . And hence this holy Ordinance is well called the Laver of Regeneration ; the Baptisme of repentance , fo●th● r●mis●ion of sins . Now let us hear the doctrine of the Paedo-Baptists touching this question . 1. The Church of England both in her Articles and vulgar Catechism , delivers her mind clearly to this purpose , that such repentance whereby sin is forsaken , and such Faith as by which the promises of God are stedfastly beleived , is required of persons ( meaning all persons ) which are to be baptized , and that in Baptism Faith is confirmed &c. 2. M● . Perkins ) a Learned Son of ●he same Church ) upon these words , ●each all Nations baptizeing them . saith , I explain the words thus ▪ ( mark , first of all it is said Teach them , that is make them my Disciples by calling them to believe , and to repent . Here we are to consider , the order which God observes in makeing with man the Covenant in Baptism , first of all he calls them by his word and commands them to beleive and repent , then in the second place God makes his promise of mercy and forgiveness ▪ and thirdly he feals his promise by Baptism — they that know not , nor consider this order which God used in Covenanting with them in Bapti●m deal preprosterously , oversliping the commandment of repenting and b●leiving — this is the cause of of so much profaneness in the world — we see what is done in Baptism , the Covenant of grace is solemniz'd between God and the Party baptized , and in this Covenant something ▪ belongs to God , some to the Party baptized , the actions of the Party baptized is a certain stipulation , or obligation , whereby he bindeth himself to give homage to the Father , Son , and holy Ghost . This homage standeth IN FAITH , whereby all the promises of God are beleieved , and in OBEDIENCE to all his commandements . The sign of this obligation , is that the Party baptized WILLINGLY yeilds himself to be washed with water . 3. Diodate on the same Text , teaches that Baptism is a Sacrament of grace in remission and expiation of sins , and regeneration to a new life . And likewise for a token that they are bound on there side ( meaning such as are baptized ) to consecrate themse●ves to God , and to give themselves over to the conduct of 〈◊〉 Spirit , and to CONFESSE his name PERPETUALLY . [ Thus these three witnesses do concurre with the truth and therein do hold a concord with the baptized Churches . And one would think there should now be no place for such a conceit , as that Infants are fit subjects for the sacred ordinance of baptism , because wholly uncapable of these qualifications . Now whereas div●r● things are pretended as grounds for Infant Baptism , we shall briefly recount the particulars which are chiefly insisted on , and then show how the same are refelled or made void by some of the most learned Asserters of Paedo-baptism . The grounds pretended are these . 1. The Covenant which God made with Abraham and his seed , Gen. 17. who were to be circumcised ( to wit the makes only ) in their Infancy , this is thought to be a Type of baptism , and hence 't is conceived that Infants ought ●o be baptized . 2. Christs permi●●ing Infants to be brought to him , as persons to whom the Kingdome belongs . 3. They being tainted with original sin , must be cleansed from it , which is supposed to be done by baptism . 4. Because it is said except a man be born of water &c. he cannot enter into the kingdome of God. John 3. 5. Because Infants do not ponere obicem , and so are more fit for baptism then adult Persons , as 't is thought . 6. Because without baptism Parents can not hope the salvation of dying Infants ( as some think . ) 7. The promise of the holy Ghost , Acts 2. 39 , is thought to belong to Infants , and so they ought to be baptized because they are said to be holy . 8. Unless Infants be baptized 't is thought God is worse to Infants in the Gospel , then in the Law. 9. Infants are a par● of all Nations , and the command for baptizing is of extent to all Nations . 10. 'T is thought the Apostles baptized Infants because they baptized whole housholds , and 't is said , it hath descended to this very age as a Tradition Apostolical . To all which , Doct. Jer. Taylor ( and others ) in behalf of the baptized Churches , do give answer as followeth . That this is a goodly Harangue , which upon strict examination will come to nothing ; that it pretends fairly , and signifies little ; that some of those allegations are false , some impertinent , and all the rest insufficient . For the argument from circumcision , is invalid ( or of no wright ) upon infinite considerations , figures and types prove nothing , unless a commandment go along with them , or some express ●o signifie such to be their purpose : for the deluge of waters and the ark of Noah were a figure of Baptism s●id Pe●●r : and if therefore the Circumstances of one should be drawn to the other , we should make Baptism a Prodigie , rather then a rite . The Pascal Lamb was a Type of the Eucharist which succeeds the other as Baptism doth Circumcision , but because there was in the manducation of the Pascal Lamb , no prescription of Sacramental drink , shall we thence conclude that the Eucharist is to be ministred but in one kind ? and even in the very instance of this argument supp●sing a correspondence of analogie betwen Circumcision and Baptism , * yet there is no correspondence of Identity : for although it were granted that both of them did consign the Covenant of Faith , yet there is nothing in Circumstance of Childrens being Circumcised that so concerns that M●stery , but that it might very well be given to Children , and yet Baptism to men of reason ; because Circumcision left a Character in the flesh , whi●h being imprinted upon Infants did its work to them when they came to age , and such a Character was necessary , because there was no word added to the sign ; but baptism imptints nothing that remains on the body , and if it leaves a Character at all it is upon the soul to which also the word is added , which is as much a part of the Sacrament as the sign it self is * for both wch reasons it is very requisite that the Persons baptized should be capable of reason , that they may be capable of both the word of the Sacrament and th● impress made upon the Spirit . Since therefore the reason of this pa●ity does wholly fail , there is nothing left to infer a necessity , of complying in this circumstance of age , any more then in the other anexes of the Type : and the case is clear in the Bishops question to C●p●iu● , for why should not Infants be baptized just upon the eight day as well as Circumcised , if the correspondence of the rites be an argument to infer one circumstance which is impertninent and accidental to the misteriousness of the rite , why should it not infer all [ especially such a material thing as the time of baptism , for if the eight day be not determined , no man is able to assign the day of baptism , which being delayed till the tenth or twentieth day , may by the same reason be deferred till the Child have passed through its infancy , and become capable of e●udition ] and then also females must not be baptized because they were not circumcized , but it were more proper , if we would understand it aright , to prosecute the analogie of the type to the antitipe by way of letter and spirit , and signification , and as circumcision signifies baptism so also the adjuncts of circumcision shall signifie something spiritual in the adherences of baptism . And therefore as Infants were circumcised , so spiritu●l Infants shall be baptized , which ( according to some ) is spiritual circumcision [ which yet is better expounded by St. Paul. Phil. 3. Where he makes the spiritual circumcision to be the mind and spirit renewed , and the putting of the body of the sins of the flesh ] for therefore babes had the ministery of the type to signifie that we must when we give our names to Christ , become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Children in malice , [ for unless you become like one of these little ones you cannot enter into the Kingdome of Heaven ] said our blessed Saviour , and then the ●ye is made compleat , and this seems to have been the sence of the p●imative Church , for in the ages next to the Apostles , they gave to all baptized persons mi●k and hony to represent to them their duty , that though in age and understanding they were men , yet they were babes in Christ , and Children in malice . But to infer the sence of the Paedo Baptists , is so weak a manner of arguing , that Augustin whose device it was ( and men use to be in love with their own fancies ) at the most pretended it but as probable [ Lo here the newness of the argument , from Infant circumcision , to Infant baptism . [ As for the Catholicks they hold it an absurd thing to argue as the Protestants do , from the Covenant made with Abraham and his seed , Gen 17. 7. Thus they speak . That prom●se concerns literally pecuculiar pro●●ction , and ●orldly felicity , not the remission of sins and everlasting Life , neither can we be sons of Abraham by carnal generation , or by our carnal Paren●s ( we are not Jews but Gentiles ) but only by spiritual generation ( to wit Baptism ) by which we are born to God , and made the brothers of Chr●●t● the Sons of Abraham , th●se ( saith St. Paul ) are the sons of Abraham , not who are the Sons of the flesh but of Faith Rom. 4. 12. 13. Again they deride the Argument drawn from Infants being circumcised in order to their being baptized , calling it a cunning argument by which it will follow that Females are not to be baptized , &c. ] And as ill success will they have with the other Arguments as with this for from the action of Christs blessing Infants to inser that they are to be baptize , proves nothing so much as that there is a great want of better arguments , The Conclusion would be with more probability derived thus ; Christ blessed Children and so dismissed them , but baptized them not , therefore Infants are not to be baptized , but let this be as weak as it's enemy , yet that Christ did not baptize them , is an argument sufficient that Christ hath other wayes of bringing them to Heaven . He passed his act of Grace upon them by benediction and imposition of hands . And therefore though neither Infants nor any man in puris naturalibus can attain to a supernatural end without the addition of some instrument or means of Gods appointing ordinarily , yet where God hath not appointed a rule nor an order , as in the case of Infants , we contend he hath not , this argument is invalid ▪ And as we are sure that God hath not commanded Infants t● be baptised , so we are su●e God will do them no injustice , nor damn them for what they cannot help . And therefore let them be pressed with all the inconveniences which a●e consequent to Original sin , yet either it will not be laid to their charge , so as to be sussicient to condemn them ; or if it could , yet the mercy and absolute goodness of God will secure them , if he take them away before they can glorifie him by a free obedience . Quid ergo fostivat innoceus alis ad remissionem p●ccatorum ? Was the question of Tertullian ( lib. de bapt . ) he knew no such danger from their Original guilt , as to drive them to a laver of which in that age of innocence they had no need , as he conceived ▪ and therefore there is no necessity of flying to the help of others , for tongue , and heart , and faith , & predispositions to baptism ; for what need all this stir ? as Infants without their own consent , without any act of their own . And without any exteriour solemnity , contracted the guilt of Adams sin , and are lyable to all the punishment which can with Justice descend upon his posterity who are personally innocent ; so Infants shall be restored without any solemnity or act of their own , or any other for them , by the second Adam by the redemption of Jesus Christ by his righteousness and mercies , applyed either immediately , or how , or when he pleases to appoint [ and to this agrees that saying of the Apostle as in Adam all dye , so in Christ shall all be made alive ; and as by the disobedience of one many were made sinners , so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous ] And so Austins argument will come to nothing without any need of God-fathers , or the faith of any body else . And it is too narrow a conception of God Almighty , because he hath tyed us to the observation of Ceremonies of his own institution , that therefo●e he hath tyed himself to it . Many thousand ways there are by which God can bring any reasonable soul to himself : but nothing is more unreasonable , then because he hath tyed all men of years , and discretion to this way , therefore we of our own heads shall carry Infants to him that way without his direction : the conceit is poor and low , and the action consequent to it , is too bold and ventrous , mysterium meum mihi & filiis domus meae . Let him do what he please to Infants we must not . Only this is certain , that God hath as great care of Infants as of others , and because they have no capacity of doing such acts , as may be in order to acquiring salvation , God will by his own immediate mercy bring them thither , where he hath intended them ; but to say that therefore he will do it by an external act and ministry , and that confin'd to a particular , viz. This rite & no other , is no good argument unless God could not do it without such means , or that he had said he would not : and why cannot God as well do his mercies to Infants now immediately , as he did before the Institution either of Circumcision or Baptism ? [ ●his query is worthy of serious consideration ] however there is no danger that Infants should perish for want of this external Ministry , much less for prevaricating Christs precept , nisi quis renatus fuerit &c. For first the water and spirit in this place [ according to some learnéd expositers ] signifie the same thing : and by water is ment the ●ff●ct of the spirit clensing and purifying the soul , as appears in its parralel place of Christs baptizing with the holy Ghost and Fire — ( but to let pass this advantage and to suppose it to be ment of external Baptism [ as that is the most likely sense ] yet this no more infers a necessity of Infants Baptism , then the other words of Christ infer a necessity to give them the holy Communion , nisi comediritis carnem filii hominis , & brberitis sanguinem non introibitis in regnum ●aelorum ; and yet we do not think these words sufficient Argument to communicate them ; if men therefore will do us justice , either let them give both Sacraments to Infants as some Ages of the Church did , or neither , for the wit of man is not able to shew a desparity in the sanction , or in the evergie of its expression ; and therefore they were honest , that understood the obligation to be parralel , and performed it accordingly , and yet because we say they were deceived in one instance , and yet the obligation ( all the world cannot reasonably say but ) is the same : they are as honest and as reasonable that do neither . And since the antient-Church did with an equal opinion of necessity give them Communion , and yet men now adays do not , why shall men be mor● burthened with a prejudice and nam● of obloquy for not giving the Infant● one Sacrament , more then they ar● disliked for not affording them the other . If Anabaptist shall be ● name of disgrace , why shall not som● other name be invented for them that deny to communicate Infants , which shall be equally disgraceful , or else both the Opinions signifyed by such names , be accounted no disparagement , but receive their estimate according to their truth ? Of which truth since we are now taking account from pretences of Scripture , it is considerable the discourse of St. Peter which is pretended for the intitleing Infants to the promise of the holy Ghost , and by consequence to Baptism , which is supposed to be its instrument of conveyance , 't is wholly a fancy , and hath nothing in it of certainty or demonstration and not much probability . For besides that the thing it self is unreasonable and the holy Ghost works by the heighting and improveing our natural faculties , and therefore is a promise that so concerns them , as they are reasonable Creatures , and may have a tittle to it , in proportion to their nature , but no possession or reception of it , till their faculties come into act , besides this , I say , the words mentioned in S. P●t●rs ●rmon ( which are the only record of the promise are interpreted upon a w●a● mistake ; the promise belongs to you and to your Children therefore Infants are actually receptive o● it in that capacity , that 's the argument : but the reason of it is not yet discovered nor never will [ For indeed it is without reason ] To you and your Children , i●s you and your posterity , to you and your children when they are of the same capacity in which you are effectually receptive o● the promise . [ Beside the promise of the Spirit in this place is refer'd to the gift● of the holy Ghost , an● is therefore made t● those who had alread● received it in the quic●ning , or illuminating opperation of it , an● is the po●tion of beleivers as such , and i● consequent to baptism . Acts 2 38 , 39 ▪ and is therefore wrongfully made an argument for the baptizing of Infants , wh● ( what ever they may have of the g●aces of the spirit * yet ) have neither need of , nor any capacity to use the gifts of the spirit and therefore evident it is that this promise of the Spirit belongs not to Infants at all ] And for the Allegation of St. Paul , that Infants are holy if their Parents be faithful , it signifie nothing , bu● that they are holy by designation , — [ or according to Erasmus they ( to wit Infants born of such Parents as the o●e being a Christian the other not ) are holy leg●●●●ately ; for the conversion of either wife or ●●sband d●th not disso●ve the marriage which was made when both were in u●b●●eif . And however it is true , that Au●tin was a great stick●er for Paedo-Bap●ism , yet he denys that any such thing can ●e deduced from the text in hand , his words ●re these . lib. 3 De pec . mer. remi● . It is to be held without doubling , whatsoever that sanctification was , it was not of power to make Christians and remit sins . He might well say so considering that the holiness of the child is derived from the sanctity of the unbeleiver , as the word else being rightly refer'd doth evince , 1 Co. 7. 14. ] And as the promiss appertains not ( for ought appears ) to Infants in that capacity and consistance , — yet Baptism is not the means of conveying the holy Ghost , for that which Peter sayes be baeptized and ye shall receive the holy Ghost , signifies no more then this ; first be baptized and then by imposition of the Apostles hands , ( which was another mistery and rite ) 〈◊〉 shall receive the promiss of the Father and this is nothing but an infinuation of the rite of Confirmation , a● to this sense expounded by diver● antient Authors ; and in ordinary Ministry , the effect of it is not bestowed upon any unbaptized persons , for it is in order next after baptism : and upon this ground Peters argument in the case of Cornelius was concluding enough , a mojori ad minus , thus the holy Ghost was bestowed upon him and his Family , which gift by ordinary ministry was consequent to baptism , not as the effect is to the cause , or to the proper instrument , but as a consequent is to an antecedent , in a chain of c●uses accidentally , and by positive institution depending upon each o●her ) God by that miracle did give Testimony that the persons of the men were in g●eat dispositions towards Heaven , and therefore were to be admitted to these rites which are the ordinary inlets into the kingdome of Heaven . But then from hence to argue that where ever there is a capacity of receiving the same grace , there also the same sign is to be administred , and from ●ence to infer Paedo-Baptism , is an argument very fallatious upon several grounds ; first because Baptism is not the sign of the holy Ghost , but by another mistery it was conveyed ordinarily , and extraordinarily , it was convey'd independently from any mistery , and so the argument goes upon a wrong supposition . 2. If the supposition were true , yet the proposition built upon it is false , for they that are capable of the same grace , are not alwayes capable of the same sign , for women under the law of Moses although they were capable of the righteousness of Faith , yet they were not capable of the sign of Circumcision , for God does not alwayes convey his graces in the same manner , but to some mediately , to some immediately ; and there is no better in●tance in the the World of it , then the gift of the holy Ghost ( which is the thing now instanc'd in , in this cont●station . ) And after all this least these arguments should not ascertain their cause , they fall on complaining against God , and will not be content with God , unless they may baptize their children but take exceptions that G●d did more for the children of the Jews , But why so ? because God made a Covenant with their children actually as Infants , and concin'd it by circumcision : well so he did with our children too in their proportion . He made a Convenant of spiritual promises on his part , and spiritual and real services on ours ; and this pert●ins to children when capable , but made with them as soon as they are alive , and yet not so as with the Jews b●bes , for as they rite consign'd them actually , so it was a national and temporal blessing and covenant , and a separation of them from the portion of the Nations , a mark●ng them for a peculiar people , and therefore while they were in the Wilderness and sep●rate from the commixture of all people they were not at all ci●cumcised but as that ri●e did seal the righteousness of Faith , [ Which whe●her it did any such thing to an● s●ve to ●braham only ●n m●ch doubten ] so by vertue of i●'s 〈…〉 , and remanem●y in their fl●sh , it did that work when the 〈◊〉 came to age , But in Christian Infants t●e case is otherwise , for the new Covenant being estab●ished upon better promises , is not only to be●ter purposes , but also in a distinct manner to be understood , when their spirits are as receptive of a spiri●ual act or impress as the bodies of jewish children were of the sign of circumcision then it is to be consign'd ; but the business is quickly at an end by saying that God hath done no less for ours , then for their children , for he will do the mercies of a Father and Creator to them , and he did no more to the other , but he hath done more to ours , for he hath made a Covenant with them and built it upon promises of the greatest concernment . — [ And note further we have as much ground of comfort concerning our dying Infants , as the faithful had for the first two thousand years , during all which time , the Covenant of grace reached to Infants , though there was no external ceremony to consign it to Infants . ] — For the insinuation of the precept of Baptizing all Nation , of which children are a part , does as little advantage as any of the rest , because other parallel expressions of the Scri●ture do determine and expound themselves to a sence that includes not all persons absolutely , but of a capable condition as ado●ate ●um omnes gentes , & persallirae Deo omnes Nationes terra . [ And Nation shall rise against Nation , where Infants are excluded ] and divers more . [ But Erasmus hath well expounded this text , where he restrains the baptizing to such as are repentant of their former life . As for the Conjecture concerning the Family of Stephan●s , at the best it is but a conjecture , and besides that it is not prov'd that there were children in the Family ; yet if that were granted it follows not that they were baptized , because by [ whole Families ] in Scripture is ment all Persons of reason and age within the Familie , for it is said of the Ruler at Capernaum , that he beleived a●d all his house . Now you may also suppose that in his house were little babes , that is like enough , and you may suppose that they did beleive too , before they could understand , but that 's not so likely ; and then the argument from baptizing Stephen's Family may be allowed just as probable : but this is unmanlike to build upon such slight and airy conjectures . But tradition by all means must supply the place of Scripture , and there is pretended a Tradition apostolical that Infants were baptized : but at this we are not much moved , for we who rely upon the written word of God , as sufficient to establish all true Religion , do not value the allegations of Traditions ; and however the World goes none of the reformed Churches can pretend this argument against this opinion , because they who reject T●adition when 't is against them , must not pre●end it at al● for them . But if we should allow the Topick to be good , yet how will it be verified ? for so far as it can yet appear , it relies wholly upon the Testimony of Origen , for from him Austin had it . Now a Tradition apostolical if it be not consign'd with a fuller testimony then of one person , whom all after ages have condemn'd of many errours , will obtain so little reputation among those that kn●w that thing , have upon greater authority pretended to derive from the Apostles , and yet f●sly , that it will be a great argument that he is credulous and weak , that shall be de●ermined by so weak probation , in matters of so great concernment . And the truth of the business is , as there was no command of Scripture to obliedge children to the susception of it , so necessity of ●ae●o-baptism was not determined in the Church till the eight age after Christ , but in the year 418. in the Mileritan cou●cel ( a principal of A●r●ca , there was a Cannon made for Paedo Bapt ▪ never till then , I grant it was practised in Africa before that time , and they or some of them thought well of it , and though that be no Argument for us to think so , yet none of them did ever before , pretend it to be necessary , none to have been a precept of the Gospel , St. Austin was the first that ever preach'd it to be abso●utely necessary , and it was in his heat and anger against Pelag●us who had warm'd and chafed him so in that question ; that it made him innovate in other doctrines , possibly of greater concernment then th●s , And that although this was practic'd antiently in Africa yet that it was without an opinion of necessity , and not often there , nor at all in other places , we have the testimony of a learned Paedo Baptist Ludovicus Vives who in his annotations upon Augustin De Civit. Dei. l. 1. c. 27. afirms . Neminem nisi adultum antiquitus sol●re baptizari . [ And because th●s Testimony is of great import I will set down the very words of Augustine and Ludovicus Vives , as I find them in the English Edition of the said book of the City of God , cap. 26. Where Augustine puts forth this question . What is the reason then that we do spend so much time in our exhortations , endeavouring to annimate th●se whom we have bapt●zed , ei●her unto Virginity , or c●●st widdow-●ood or honest and honourable marriage ; Now upon these words [ ●hose whom we have baptiz●d ] Vives comments t●us , Least any man should mistake this place , understand tha● in times of old , no man was brought unto baptism , but he was of s●fficient years , to know what that mistical water meant , and to require his baptism , and that sundry times . — I hear that in some Cityes of Italy they do for the most part observe the antient Custome as yet . And it is to be observed that in the Margent are two Notes , the 1. is that this is the old manner of baptizing . The 2 , That all this is left out in the Paris Edition , whence we may note how the writings of the Antients are abused , and how ingeniously it is confessed , Paedo-Baptism is not the old manner of baptizing . And here we will insert some other testimonies from the learned Paedo-Baptists , touching the Novelty of Infant baptism . The first is out of Robertus Fabianus his Chron. 4. part in fol. 107. where he brings in Augustine the Monk speaking thus to the Brittain Bishops ▪ Since ye will not assent to my H●sts generally assent ye to me specially in three things , the first is that ye keep Easter-day in due form and time as it is ordained The second , THAT YE GIVE CHRIS●ENDOM TO CHILDREN , &c. But THEY WOULD NOT THEREOF . This was about the fifth Age after Christ whence its remarkable that Infant bap●ism was then opposed by ●he joynt consent of the Brita●n Bish●ps which were sent to the Assembly to consul● the affairs of Religion at that time . Our next testimony is from the Learned Casuist Hugo Grotius who tells us , To defer baptism till ripe years was in old time left at liberty , now the observation is otherwise . Plainly giving the case that Paedo-baptism is not the old way but a new observation . But here we will again give place to Doctor Taylor , who saith . That besides that the tradition cannot be proved to be Apostolical , we have very good evidence from antiquity that it was the opinion of the primitive Church that INFAN●S OUGH● NOT TO BE BAPTIZED . And this is clear in the six●h Cannon of the C●unsel of Ne●●aesarea . The words * have this sence . A woman 〈…〉 may be baptized when she please ; for her baptism concerns not the Child . The reason of the connection of the parts of that Cannon is in the following words . Because every one in that confession is to give a demonstration of his own choice and election , meaning plainly , that if the baptism of the mother did pass upon the Child , it were not fit for a pregnant woman to receive baptism , because in that Sacrament , there being a confession of faith which confession supposes understanding , and free choyce , it is not reasonable the child should be consign'd with such a mistery , since it cannot do any act of choice or understanding . The Cannon speaks reason , and it intimates a practice which was absolutely universal in the Church of interrogating the catechumens concerning the Articles of the Creed , which is one argument that either they did not admit Infants to baptism , or that they did prevaricate egregiously , in asking questions of them , who themselves knew were not capable of giving answer . and to supply their incapacity by the answer of a Godfather , is but the same unreasonableness acted with a worse circumstance ; and there is no sensible account can be given of it , for that which some imperfectly murmure concerning stipulations civil performed by tutors in the name of their pupils is an absolute vanity ; for what if by positive constitutions of the Romanes such solemnities of Law are required in all stipulations , and by indulgence are permitted in the case of a notable benefit acruing to Minors . Must God be tyed , and Christian Religion transact her misteries by proportion and complyance with the Law of the Romanes ? I know God might if he would have appointed Godfathers to give answer in behalf of Children , and to be F●de-jussors for them , but we cannot find any authority o● ground that he hath and if he had then it is to be supposed he would have given them comission to have transacted the solemnity with better circumsta●ces , and given answers with more truth ▪ and if the Godfathers answer in the Name of the Child [ I do believe ] it is notorious they speak false and ridiculously : for the Infant is not capble of be●ieving , and if he were , he were a so capable of dissenting , and how then do they know his mind And therefore Tertullian gives advice that the bap●ism of Infants 〈◊〉 be deferred till they could 〈◊〉 an account of their faith , and the same also is the counsel of * Gregory bishop of Naziazum , although he allows them to hasten it in case of necessity , for though his reason taught him what was fit , [ Namely that none should b● baptized till they were of understanding yet he was overborn with the practi●● and opinion of his Age which began to bear too violently upon him , and yet in another place he makes mention of some to whom baptism was not administred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by reason of infancy . To which if we add that the Parents of St. Austin , St. Jerome , and St. Ambrose , although they were Christian , yet did not baptize their Children before they were thirty years of age it will be very considerable in the example , and of great efficacy for destro●ing the supposed necessity or derivation from the Apostles [ and for further evidence we may well alledge in this place , that of Theodosius the Emperor born in Spain his Parents being both Christians , and he from his youth educated in th● Christian Faith , who falling sick at Thess●onica , was baptized and recovered of his sickness . but however ( Paedo baptism ) it is against the perpetual analog● of Christs Doctrine to baptize Infants , for besides that Christ never gave any precept to bap●ize them , nor never himself nor his Apostles ( that appears ) did baptize any of them , all that either he or his Apostles said concerning baptism , requires such pretious dispositions to it , of which Infants are not capable , and these are faith and repentance , and not to instance in those innumerable places that require faith before baptism , there needs no more but this one saying , he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved , but he that believeth not shall be damned . Plainly thus , fai●h and baptism in conjunction will bring a Man to Heaven , but if he have not faith baptism shall do him no good . So that if baptism be necessary , then so is faith , and much more ; for want of Faith damns absolutely , it is not said so of the want of baptism . Now if this decretory sence be to be understood of persons of age , and if Children by such an answer ( which indeed is reasonable enough ) be excused from the necessity of Faith , the want of which regularly does damn , then it is sottish to say the same incapacity of reason and Faith , shall not ●xcuse them from the actual susception of baptism which as less necessary , and to which faith and many other acts are necessary predispositions when it is reasonably and humanely ●eceived . The conclusion is that bap●sm is also to be defer'd till the time of ●aith , and whether Infants have faith or no , is a question to be disputed by ●ersons that care not how much they 〈◊〉 ▪ nor how little they prove . 1. Personal and actual faith they have none , for they have no acts of ●nderstanding , and besides how can ●ny man understand that they have , since he never saw any sign of i● neither was he told so by any o●● that could tell . 2. Some s●y they have imputativ● Faith , but then so let the S●cramen● be too , that is , if they have the Parent faith or the Churches , then so le● baptism be imputed by derivatio● from them also . — For since faith 〈◊〉 necessary to the susception of baptis● ( and they themselves confess it b● striving to find out new kinds of fait● to daub the matter up ) such as th● faith is , such must be the Sacramen● for there is no proportion betwee● an actual Sacramen , and an imputative faith , this being in immedia●● and necessary order to that , an● whatsoever can be said to take o● from the necessi●y of actual Faith , a● that and much more may be said t● excuse from the actual ●usception 〈◊〉 baptism . 3. The first of these devices wa● that of Luther and his Schol ar● the 2 of Calvin and his ; And yet there is a third device which the Church of Rome teaches , and that is , that Infants have habitual faith , but who told them so ? how can they prove it ? what Revela●ion , or reason teaches such a thing ? Are they by this habit so much as disposed to an actual belief without a new Master ? ●an an Infant sent into a Mahumetan Province be more confident for Christianity when he comes to be a , Man , then if he had not been baptized , are there any acts precedent Concomitant , or consequent to this pretended habit ? this strange invention , is absolutely without Art , without Scripture , Reason or Authority . But if there were such a thing as this abitual Faith , then either all Infants have ● or some only if all why do they deny bap●●sm to the Infants which are horn of unbe●evers ? must the child bear the unbelief of 〈◊〉 Parents ? * if s●me only have it , how know they these from 〈◊〉 rest , sith when they come to years , there found a like barrenness of this grace 〈◊〉 means be used to beget it ? but third where doth the Scripture make an habit●● Faith that which intitles any person to ba●tism ? Surely according to these conc●●● no man can ever tell to whom , or when 〈◊〉 dispence baptism . ] But the men are ●● be excused unless there were bett●● grounds ; but for all these stratage● the Argument now alleadged agai● Infant baptism is demonstrable a● unanswerable . To which also this considerati●● may be added , that if baptism be ●●cessary to the Salvation of Infant upon whom is the imposition lai● To whom is the command give● To Parents or to the Children , not 〈◊〉 the Children , for they are not cap●ble of a Law ; not to the parents , 〈◊〉 then God hath put the salvation 〈◊〉 innocent babe● into the power of ●thers , and Infants may then be damn●● for their Parents carelessness or m●lice . It follows that it is not necessary at all to be done to them , to whom it cannot be prescribed by a Law , and in whose behalf it cannot be reasonably intrusted to others with the appendant necessity , and if it be not necessary , it is certain it is not reasonable , and most certain it is no where in terms prescribed , and therefore it is to be presumed , that it ought to be understood and administred according as other precepts are with reference to the capacity of the subject , and the reasonableness of the thing . For I consider that the baptizing of Infants does rush upon such inconveniences , which in other questions we avoid like Rocks which will appear if we discourse thus . Either baptism produces spiritual effects , or it produces them not : If it produces not any , why is such contention about it ? — But if ( as without all peradventure all the Paedo-baptists will say ) Baptism does a work upon the soul , producing spiritual benefits and advantages ; These advantages are produced by the externa● work of the Sacrament alone , or b● that as it is helped by the co-operation and predispositions of the suscipien● . If by the external work of th● Sacrament alone , how does this diffe● from the opus o●eratum of the Papist● save that it is worse ? For they sa● the Sacrament does not produce in effect , but in a suscipient disposed b● all requisites and due preparatives 〈◊〉 piety , faith , and repentance , thoug● in a subject so disposed they say th● Sacrament by its own vertue does i● but this opinion says it does it of 〈◊〉 self without the help , or so much 〈◊〉 the coexistence of any condition bu● meer reception . But if the Sacrament does not d● its work alone , but per modum recipien●es according to the predispofition● of the suscipient , then because Infant can neither hinder it , nor do an● thing to further it , it does them no benesit at all . And if any man runs for succor to that , exploded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Infants have faith or any other inspired habit of I know not what how , we desire no more advantage in the world then that they are constrain●d to an answer without Rev●lation , against reason , common sence and all experience in the world . The sum of the argument in short , is this though under another rep●esentment . Either baptism is a meer Ceremony or it imploys a duty on our part , if it be a Ceremony only , how does it sanctifie us or make the comers thereunto per●ect ? If it imploy● a duty on our part how then can Children receive it who cannot do duty at all . And indeed this way of Ministration makes baptism to be wholly an outward duty , a work of the Law , a carnal ordinance it makes us adheare to the Letter , without regard of the spirit , to be satissied with the shadows , to return to bondage . To relinquish the misteriousnes , the substanc● and spirituallity of the Gospel , which argument is of so much the more consequence , because under the spiritual Covenant , or the Gospel of grace , 〈◊〉 the mistery goes not before the Symbol ( which it does when the Symbol● are seales and consignations of th● grace , as it is said the Sacraments are ) yet it always accompanies it , bu● never follows in order of time , an● this is clear in the perpetual analogy of holy Scripture . For Baptisme is never propounded mentioned or enjoyned as a mean of remission of sins , or of eternal life , but something of duty choice or sanctity is joyned with it , in orde● production of the end so mentione● k●ow you not that s● many as are Baptis● in●o ●hr●st Jesus an● Baptised into his death ? There i● the mistery and the Symbol together and declared to be perpetually united 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . All of us who were Baptised into one ▪ were Baptised into the other , not only in the name of Christ , but into his death also ; but the meaning of this , as it is explained in the following words of St. Paul , makes much for our purpose : for to be baptised into his death , signifies , to be buried with him in baptisme , that as Christ rose from the dead ; we also should walk in newness of life , That 's the full mistery of Baptisme ; for being baptised into his death , or which is all one in the next words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into the likeness of his death , cannot go alone ; if we be so planted into Christ we shall be pertakers of his resurrection , and that is not here instanced in precise reward but in exact duty for all this is nothing but Cruc fiction of the old man , a destroying the body of sin , that we no longer serve sin . This indeed is truly to be baptized both in the Symbol and the Mistery what is less then this , is but the Symbol only , a meer Ceremony , an opus operatum , a dead Letter , an empty shadow , an instrument , without an agent to manage ; or force to actuate it . Plainer yet whosoever are baptized into Christ have put on Christ , have put on the new Man. But to put on the new Man , is to be formed in Righteousness , holiness , and truth . This whole argument is the very words of St. Paul. The major proposition is dogmatically determined , Gal. 3. 27. The minor in Ephes . 4. 24. The conclusion then is obvious . That they who are not formed a new in Righteousness , holyness and truth , they who remaining in the present in incapacities , cannot walk in newness of life , they have not been baptized into Christ , and then they have but one member of the distinction used by St. Peter , they have that baptism which is a putting away the fi●th of the flesh [ if yet an human institute may be so called ] but they have not that baptism which is the answer of a good Conscience towards God , which is the only baptism which saveth us , and this is the case of Children and then the case is thus . As Infants by the force of nature cannot put themselves into a supernaturall condition ( and therefore say the Paedo baptists they need baptism to put them into it [ as if the ●●re ●e●e●ony of which only they are capa●'le could put them into a supernaturall con●ition ] so if they be baptized before the use of reason , before the works of the Spirit , before the opperations of grace , before they can throw of the works of darknes , and live in ri●hteousness ond newness of life , they are never the nearer ; from the pains of Hell they shall be saved by the mercy of God and their o●● innocence though they dye in puris naturalibus , and baptism will carry them no further for that baptism that saves us , is not the only washing with water , of which only Infant are capable , but the answer of a good Conscience towards God , of which they are not capable till the use o● reason , till they know to chuse the good and refuse the evill . And from thence I consider a new that all vows made by persons unde● others names stipulations made b● minors ▪ are not valid till they by ● supervening act , after they are of sufficient age do ratifie the same , wh● then may not Infants as well mak● the vow de novo as de novo ratifie th●● which was made for them ab antiqu● when they come to years of choyce ▪ If the Infant vow be invalid till th● manly confirmation , why were it 〈◊〉 as good they staid to make it till th● time , before which if they do ma●● it , it is to no purpose , this would 〈◊〉 considered . And in conclusion our way is the surer way , for not to baptise Children till they can give an account of their faith is the most proportionable to an act of reason and humanity , and it can have no danger in it : for to say that Infants may be damn'd for want of baptism ( a thing which is not in their power to acquire they being yet persons not capable of a Law ) is to afirm that of God which we dare not say of any wise and good man. Certainly it is very much derogatory to Gods justi●e and a plain defiance to the infinite reputation of his goodness . And therefore who ever will pertinatiously persist in this opinion of the paedo-baptists , and practise it accordingly they polute the blood of the everlasting Testament . They dishonor and make a pageantry of the Sacrament . They Ineffectually represent a sepulture into the death of Christ , and please themselves in a sign without effect , making baptism like the Figtree full-of Leaves but no fruit , &c. Thus far the Anabaptists may argue , and men have disputed against them with so much weakness and conf●dence , that they have been eucouraged in their error [ alias in th● truth ] more by accidentiall [ alia● real ] advantages we have given them by our weak arguings , then by any truth of their cause or excellency o● of their wit [ so the Dr. is pleased t● say but the evidences of our side sp●ak otherwise ] but the use I make of it as to our ppesent question ( saith the Dr. ) is this , that since there is no● direct impiety in the opinion no● any that is apparently consequent to it , and they which so much p●obabillity , do or may pretend to true perswasion they are with all means , Christian , fair , and human , to b● redargued , or instructed , but if they cannot be perswaded they must be left to God , who knows every degree of every mans understanding , all his weaknesses and strength's what impress each argument makes upon his spirit . and how unresistable every reason is , and he alone judges his in●oce●cy and sincerity : And for the question , I think there is so much to be petended [ he might say really urged ] against that which I believe to be truth that there is much more truth then evidence on our side [ a strange saying of so wi●e a man as if the truth in this case doth not wh●lly depend upon evidence , sith its a positive and no morall precept ] and therefore we may be confident as for our own particulars but not too forward premtorily to prescribe to others muchless damn , or kill or to persecute them that only in this particular disagree . Thus far Doctor Taylor , for our appollogie . To whom to add any more witnesses ( though more might be brought ) would be superfluous . I therefore proceed to the next question , viz. What is the due act , or outward form to be used in this sollemn rite of holy baptism ? It may well be the admiration of every wise and good man how it should come into the mind of such as pretend to be followers of Christ that holy baptism should be performed by aspertion , or casting a few drops of Water upon the subject , by the fingers of the administrator . The scriptures every where teaching us that the originall form was by imversion in Rivers or places of much Water , Ma●● . 1. John. 3. Christ himse●f who surely would do nothing superfluous or in vain , was baptized in the River , by John the first baptist , who had his direction from Heaven , and his approbation from on high in that very action Mall . 3. and chuss who were under the immediate direction of the holy spirit the leader into all truth , found it necessary for the administrator and subject to go both into the Water , for the due performance of this holy Ordinance . Add thereunto that the proper signification of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when used to express the action done in this service , is to dip or imm●rge the party in the Element as is confessed by the learned Paedo-baptists themse●ves as we shall see in the sequel . And here we will still prefer the Church of England who teacheth us that the outward Sign or Form in baptism , is Water wherein the party baptized is dipped , &c. And though she add [ or sprinkled with it ] yet that her Conscience tells her that is not the right way appeareth , in that she only assigns that by indulgence to such Infants as are in danger of death , &c , The Church of Rome also confesseth by a learned Pen , that she changed dipping the party baptized over the head and Ears to a little sprinkling upon the Face . Erasmus paraphrasing on the words , baptizing them , Mat. 28. saith thus , if they believe that which you teach them and begin to be repentant of their former Life , &c. Then dip them in Water , &c. Walfridus Strabo de rebus Eccl●s●●c 26. tells us , that we must know at ●h● fi●st believers were baptized simply in Floods and Fountains . The learned Grotius tel's us in his judgement on Infant baptism , That the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to dip over the head and ears . To whom we will joyn T●lenus whose Testimony is in these words * Baptism is the first Sacrament of the new Testament instituted by Christ , in which with a most pat and exact analogy between the sign and the thing signified , those that are in Covenant are by the Minister washed in Water . The outward Rite in baptism is threefold immersion into the Water , abiding under the water , and resurruction out of the water , the form of baptism , to wit internal and essential ▪ is no other then that analogical proportion , which the signs keep with the things signified thereby , for as the properties of the water in washing away the defilements of the body , do in a most suitable similitude , set forth the efficacy of Christs blood in blotting out of sins , so dipping into the Water doth in a most lively similitude set forth the mortification of the old man , and rising out of the water the virification of the new . — That same plunging into the water holds forth to us that horrible gulf of divine Justice in which Christ for our sins sake , which he took upon him , was for a while in a manner swallowed up . Abode under the water how little a while soever , denotes his descent into Hell , even the very deepest degree of livelesness , while lying in the sealed and guarded sepulchre he was accounted as one truly dead , rising out of the water holds out to us a lively similitude of that conquest , which this dead man got ●ver death , which he vanquished in his own Den , as it were , that is the grave . In like manner therefore it is meet that we being baptized into his death , and buried with him , should rise also with him and so go on in a new Life , Rom. 6. 3. 4. Col. ● . 12. Th●● far Tile●●s . Bishop Jewell in his defence , Appol . ● . 5. p. 308. brings the councel of Worms determining the manner of baptism ; thus , In aquas demersio in 〈◊〉 , & ●u●sus ab aquis ●emersio R●surrectio est . The dipping into the water is the going down into Hell [ i. e. the grave ] The coming out from of the water is the Resurrection . From all which Testimonies ( and many more that might be brought ) it is evident beyond all doubt our opposers being Judges ) that whether we respect the signification of the word baptizor the signification of the ordinance it self , or the consent of the primitive . Churches in their practice of holy baptism , dipping the subject ( or party baptized ) in the Element Water , is the due form of baptism , and therefore sprinkling or crossing the face ; is an humane innovation . Or , Upon the whole matter these ten particulars are very apparent . First , That Infant baptism was innovated , after the holy Scriptures were written which appeareth both from the deep silence of the Scripture in that case , and the confession of learned Paedo-baptists themselves . 2. That it came in stealing ( as it were ) being for a considerable time left at liberty ( a sign it was not from Heaven ) * and was disliked by the Antients who therefore disswaded from it . 3. That which gave it its great advantage for a more general reception , was this false opinion , that without baptism none could be saved . This saith Mr. Perkins doth St. Augustine every where assirm . 4. That the Lords Supper was as eagerly pressed , to be necess●ry sor Infants as baptism , and they continued in use together about the space of six hundred years , this conceit was confirmed ( saith Mr. Perkins ) by the councel of Toledo , Can. 11. And Augustine was so earnest for this also that he boldly sayes in vain do we promise Infants salvation without it . Aug ep : 23. & ep . 107. & contra ep . pelag . l. 1. c. 22. & contra . 〈◊〉 . l. 7. c. 2. l. 3. c. 12. 5. That divers in the Greek Church have all along to this day refused Infant baptism . Gro●ius his words are these ( as Mr. T●mbs quotes them ) In every age many of the Greeks unto this day keep the custome of deferring baptism to little ones till they could themselves make a confession of their Faith. And the Armenians are confessed by Heylin in his Macrocos . p. 575. To defer baptism to their Children till they be grown to years of knowledge . 6. Those foolish and sinful adjuncts , which the Authors and promoters of Infant baptism , were constrained to invent to make it look like baptism ( for example their device of Godfathers , &c. ) do sufficiently declare it to be of an infirm and humane Original . 7. The grounds upon which Paedo-baptism was at first urged , are now in a manner wholly declined , and new grounds daily invented whereon to built it . which are no sooner laid , but raized again by some of it's own favorites . 8. That the stoutest assertors of Infant baptism , hath ever met with as stout opposers ; Thus Agustine , met with the Donatists and Pelagius whose arguments he could not avoid but by running into greater absurdity , and though they are blamed ( and perhaps justly ) for holding some errours , so also is Augustine and that not undeservedly . 9. That many of the Learne● have much abused this age in telling them the Anabaptists ( i. e. the baptized Churches ) are of late edition a new sect , &c. When from their own writings the clean contrary is so evident . Tenthly and Lastly . Observe how the baptism of repentance for remission of Sins , which is that one and only baptism commanded in holy Scripture hath been neglected , traduced ; and its affertors frequently abused , and that chiefly by thi● device of Paedo-baptism which now hath so lost it 's first form , that it cannot with any shew of truth o● good sence be called baptism , and ought therefore to cease with its follow errors , viz. the giving the ●ords Supper to Infants , &c. That God may be justified in the submissi●n of all sinners to the baptism of repentance for remission of sins , Luke 7. 39. The Second Part Of the Promise of the Spirit . Delivered in a Sermon upon 1. Cor. 12. 1. To which is added A post-script out of the works 〈◊〉 Dr. Jer. Taylor , touching the layin● on of Hands , chiefly declaring ho● Religiously it was observed by th● Antient Christians , as it is now revived by divers of the baptize● Christians of this age . 1 Cor. 12. 1. Now concerning spiritual gifts brethren I would not have you ignorant . THere was never more need for th● Church of God to seek and searc● for all those things which God hat● promised for her strength and encou●agement then now partly for that her ●pposers are men of exquisite parts by ●eans of all Arts and Sciences which ●●e not more profitable when used in 〈◊〉 way of subserviency to the truth , ●●en pernitious when used in opposi●●on to it ( as it often falleth out they ●re ) and partly for that ignorance of ●hat God hath promised for his Churches comfortable subsistance , ●roves a great occasion and temptati●● to Christians to trust to failing and ●●comfortable helps in the great bu●●ness of the Ministry of the word and ●rayer , &c. Now in the words which we have ●●osen the Apostle shews his care for ●●e Church at Corinthus ( and in them 〈◊〉 all Churches ) that they should not 〈◊〉 ignorant concerning spiritual gifts ●●d labours in three Chapters toge●●er to instruct them fully in that point ●●der several considerations , and ●●●st , 1. By giving them a definition of those gifts , or shewing what they are , verse 8. 9. 10. viz. A word of Wisdom , a word of knowledge , faith , the gifts of healing , the working of miracles , prophesie , discerning of spirits , divers kinds of Tongues , interpretation of tongues , which definition or enumeration of gifts he seems to inlarge , Chap , 13. 26. a Psalm , a Doctrine , &c. 2. By shewing that the Church hath a perpetual right to , and interest in all these gif●s , Chap. 14. 1. Desire sor be zealous after spiritual gifts , Chap. 12 ▪ 31. Covet earnestly the best gifts Chap. 14. 39. Covet to prophesie and forbid not to speak with tongues . 3. By shewing whereto these gifts d●serve , or to what end they were given ▪ Chap. 14. 12. Forasmuch as ye are zealous of the spiritual gifts , seek tha● ye may excel to the edification of th● Church , ver . 31. that all may learn , and all be comforted , Eph. 4 12. fo● the perfecting the Saints for the wor● of the Ministry , for the edifying of the body of Christ . 4. By distinguishing of gifts as they are more or less necessary and accordingly gives direction which to prefer in our asking them ( yet so as not to forbid the use of any of them , so it might be done with edification ) Chap. 14. 1. Desire spiritual gifts but rather that ye may prophesie . Ver. 5. I would have ye all speak with tongues but rather that ye prophesied , for greater is he that prophesieth , then he that speaketh with tongues . Ver. 5. He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifyeth himself , but he that prophesieth edifyeth the Church . 5. By shewing that all these gifts , how excellently soever any are endowed with them , yet therein he is not to rest satisfyed because there is yet a far more excellent way of receiving the s●irit , without which all gifts are as nothing . This more excellent way he refers to the fruit of the Spirit , which he both distinguisheth by its several branches , 1 Cor. 13. 4 , 5 , 6 , 7. compar'd with Gal. 5. 22. 23. and also comprehends the whole in that excelling grace of Charity follow after Charity , Chap. 4. 1. The greatest of these is Charity . 6. By giving a notable Rule to know who are indeed spiritual Christians from such as only pretend to be so , Chap. 14. 35. If any man think himself to be a Prophet or spiritual , let him acknowledge the things I write unto you are the commands of the Lord. Those then are not truly spiritual , or true Prophets who ( as many on the right hand ) do not only lay aside the commands of the Lord , but prescribe to others their own Traditions , neither those on the other hand , who prefer their poor conceits and Notions , as if the word of God came out from them , when though ( perhaps ) it came to them , yet it came not to them only , ver . 36. Thus much briefly to shew what the Apostle means in this place by spiritual gifts , and in what respects he would not have the Church to be ignorant concerning them . Nor shall I insist upon all those particulars now , but only that which may be most needful to be demonstrated , and that is the second particular . For I find , it is not only a general conceit among the National Churches , that the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit were only Temporary , and now ceased , but also very many in the baptized Churches are doubtful ( at the least ) in this matter , as if that glorious promise of pouring out of the Spirit according to the prophesie of Joel , and the reception thereof by the primitive Churches , were taken away long since from the Churches which succeed them , and not to be so much as looked for in these days ! But that this is a very great mistake , and that the contrary , even that , that very promise of the spirit and every part of it , from the time of its first effusion upon the day of Pentecost , Acts 2. belongs to the Church throughout all Ages to the end of the World. I hope to evince to the satisfaction such as desire to see the Truth in this matter . And First from the scope of the Apostle , in these three Chapters . Where as it is his designed subject to discourse of the gifts of the Spirit , so he informs us that God hath set them there , namely in his Church , that is , he hath placed , setled or fixed , that one spirit in that one body , nor for a few days only , and then to leave her as a body without a spirit for ever after , in respect of spiritual gifts , but to abide there as in his temple * both by gifts and graces , even the same which Christ by vertue of his assention obtained when he ascended on high , which gifts are given to the Church for the work of the Ministry , for the edification of the body till the whole be compleated . See to this purpose Ephes . 4. from vers ▪ 4. to 16. Again , The promise of the holy spirit is made by our Lord himself to the Church for ever . John 14. 16. I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever &c. I say with the Church , for it were a strange exposi●ion to restrain this for ever to the age of the Apostles ( as some do ) for sith the Apostles and first Churches could neither pray nor prophysie as they ought , but as that spirit did help their infirmity , it were strange the subsequent should be able to do it though destitute of that distance , seeing prophysie is expresly one of those spirituall gifts , as before we have shewed . That great Apostle Peter , dates the promise of the holy spirit very largely , Acts , 2. 38. &c. As descending to the very Skirt , or last age of the Church of God , even to as many as the Lord our God shall call , and he here takes the promise in t●at sence wher● in Jo●l meant it , and the Church had then received it , which clearly intends both the gifts and graces of the Spirit , for as 't is sure they received then very great gifts , so 't is said great grace was upon them all . Act● . _____ This very p●omise of the Father is by this Apostle appropriated to all the called of the Lord , even the servants and hand maids in th●se days . Now these days must either be a few days at the beginning of the Gospel , or it must be referred to the whole time of that glorious dispens●●ion if the first , then how shall all the called of the Lord receive it ? Or who will tell us when these days expired ? But we know that These days the latter days last time , and last days are used with some frequency in Scripture , to point out the time of the Gospel as it succeeded the time of the Law. During all which time we are sure that the duties in generall ( and perhaps some difficult duties which were not formerly known ) which were imposed upon the first Churches , are laid upon the Churches to the end of the World , Mat. 28. 20. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you , &c. Must the Churches now contend earnestly for the faith ( and that both against old and new errors ) must she be the Salt of the Earth , the Light of the World must she strive to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom to all Nations , must she keep her self in the Love of God building up her self in her most holy faith , praying in the Holy Ghost ? Surely , if these duties remain , and the Lord requires that she should glorifie him in the faithful and constant discharge hereof as also in suffering for his sake ; It cannot reasonably be imagined that he should recall his holy spirit , in the gifts thereof from her who when she had them all , had nothing that was superfluous , but stood in need of all to furnish her for the work she stood ingaged to do , in these forementioned and other like considerations , sith then our God doth require the same service of his Churches now , which he required of his Churches in the first ages of the Gospel , let us not imagine he will require the same Brick , and not allow the same Straw . That the gifts of the spirit here intendby our Apostle are the portion of the Church in every age ( as her right ) appeareth , from the nature of these exhortations she is under to ask them . Luk. 11. 13. How much more shall your Heavenly Father give his holy spirit to them that ask it — ask and it shall be given unto you . vers , 10. How frequent is our Apostle in these 3. Chapters in his exhortations to this Church ( and in them to all others ) to desire spirituall gifts , to covet earnestly the best gifts , to covet to prophesie , wishing that they may speak with tongues , and warning them not to prohibet that gift . Now to what purpose is all this if these gifts be ceased and that the Church may not now expect them ? I hope no man will say these exhortations are now out of date least in so doing he deprive us of the exhortation to Charity , for they are so linked together as the one cannot cease as 't is an exhortation ) before the other . Follow after Charity and desire spiritual gifts and rather that ye may prophesie . Thus we see the Church being under perpetual exhortations , to seek for spiritual gifts without any restirction , necessarily infers her perpetual right to them and every of them , which consideration alone is sufficient ( as I conceive ) to satisfie any Christian , that the promise of the Spirit ( even the same that was given to the first Churches ) in respect of gifts as well as graces belongs to the Church of Christ throughout all ages . Let us now consider , whether the Church of God do not even now injoy the promised spirit in the gifts and graces of it at this day , for the latter , I think there is none do●h question it , and yet should the graces or fruits of the spirit which now appear , be strictly considered by what did formerly shine forth in the Churches , it might peradventure put us to some pause , yet not thence to conclude that we have not that spirit of grace , or that the graces thereof are ceased , but it would surely become a provocation , to cry mightily to God for an enlargement of what we have received in that behalf . And as I intend not to boast of the gifts of any , so I may safely presume that the gifts received in these days are far more then I can set down , or give you account of because the Church is diffused through many Nations , and her gifts there unknown to me ; I will then restrain my observations to the Churches in this poor Island , who may not vie with all Churches , but rather in humility conclude themselves to be short of many concerning spirituall gifts . And yet , shall we say she hath none ( or may we not rather say she hath many that are endowed with a word of knowledge and that meerly by a gift from God , having otherwise , no capacity or fa●ulty more then others , but therein far short of many of their brethren ; only the gift of God , and no naturall faculty hath made the differance : How have men of knowledge in this world , been found to have no skill , and the foolish to attain knowledge , and some to excell so far , as to confound the wisdome of the wise and to bring to nought the understanding of the prudent , yet out of the mouth of Babes hath our God ordained strength , and thereby hath sometimes stilled the enemy . And as Wisdome is usefull to direct , so hath God given it to such as fear him ; who if we respect their education &c. could never have acquired it ; some by a word of wisdome here understand , the well ordering of affaires in the Church , others the right or usefull applycation of the word &c. surely according to these expositions the Church hath some , even by the gift of the spirit of God to go before here in these respects . Neither is the gift of Healings so abnegated , but that something of it hath appeared , as many living witness by experience have testified , and how far faith ( over and beside the common faith ) hath therein appeared , as also in some other memorable undertakings against Sathan himself , or against his designs , with some good success , becomes others to consider more then it doth me to write ! as for me I rest satisfied , that miracles are not ceased as a gift to the Church of God , though perhaps they are but rarely found , as being ( in the wisdom of God ) not so necessary now in many places as in times past . Now for the gift of p●ophesie , which the Apostle here intends , 't is certain the Church enjoys it very gratiously in these days sith she hath them that by the gift of Gods spirit ( and not by acquired Arts ) do minister to her the word of life , by exhortation , to her edification and comfort ; which yet she could not have if the gifts were ceased seeing prophesie is not only one of the spirituall gifts but the very best of them , and the greatest of them all . Nor is the spirit of our God removed in the gift of discerning of spirits ; for if it had false spirits had by their subtilty ere this day made havock of the Churches , but through the grace of God , notwithstanding all their cunning craftiness they have been discerned , and their designs prevented ; and though perhaps charity for some time hath born with such , in hope of the best , yet this is no other thing then ought to be , as may be seen by the carriage of our Lord toward Judas , and his Apostles towards fome others . The gifts of Doctrine and praising our God with a Psalme is not yet removed , our Teachers ( as taught of God ) remaining in every Church ; where also are some that are skillfull in praisiing the Lord to the edification of the Church ; As for Revelations , there might perhaps sometimes be strange or hidden things made known by some speciall gift of God and why may not God do such things now ? However it is not unsafe to understand the Revellations here ment , by Chap. 14. 30. If any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by let the first hold his peace &c. which cannot so well be understood af a new Oracle as of some further subject or more full explication of the matter treated on by him that spake first ; according to which interpr●tation we may say the Church hath yet the gift of Revellations . And thus far we seem to be got safe , not any thing so materiall intervening , as to conclude against the continuance of these spirituall gifts in the Church to this day , so that the present repairers of the House or City of God may comfort themselves by the consideration of the words of the Prophet , Hagg. 2. 5. According to the word which I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt , so my SPIRIT REMAINETH amo●g you , fear ye not . But now the g●ft of Tongues and interpretation of Tongues , these ! where shall we find them . Doubtless these gifts are rarely if at all found in these days , and in this Nation , so as to sute with those who frequently in some Churches at first received those gifts ; the reasons are many ( but none such as conclude the Church from under the promise of these gifts ) as first these gifts differ much from the rest , chiefly in this that they may be supply'd another way , for the conversion of persons of all Languages , or such as can speak other Languages and interpret the same to others , doth supply the absence of those gifts ; 2. The Churche ( in this and I suppose other Nations ) have very little need of these gifts , and therefore considering that they are not so necessary as the rest , the Apostle leaves these with a forbid them not , whilst the rest he wills us to c●v●t earnestly . But 3 ? one great cause ( as I conceive ) why these g●fts are so much absent , and the other no more received , i● because we either ask them not at all , or else we ask them amiss . For many have been so ●ar from a king these gifts of the spirit , that in truth they have been arguing that these gifts are not attainable , and then t is no wonder they have not been received . Again where there hath been some understanding of the interest we have in those gifts , there faith in asking hath been and is very low , and atended ( perhaps ) with great wavering , and then little can be expected at the hand of the Almighty Jam. 1. And here let me premonish you of one thing which ( by my little reading ) I perceive to have been a great provocation to the Lord to wi●hdraw his gifts in times p●st ( and I fear it again ) And that was ●and and I doubt is ) an over curious performance , of that which God gave spirituall gifts for , to wit the ministering of the word , when the Churches grew populous , and great personages came to her communion , the unwary pastours , let go the simplicity of th● Gospell enclining so much to curiosities that some Counsells decreed tha● a B●shop should not read Heathen Authors and Gra●ian is said to have this passag● viz. Doth not he seem to wa●k in vanit● and da●kness of mind , who vexing himself day a●d night in the studies of Logick in the persuite of physicall specula●ion one while elevates himself above the highest Heavens and afterward throws himself below the nethermost part of the Earth True , the use that may be made o● reading is one thing , and the abuse another ; however let the least gift o● God be preferred in the ministry o● the word , above the greatest of human Arts , otherwise we are in danger to incur the guilt of despising Prophysyings ▪ Lastly the truth in hand appeareth from the silence of Scriptures , touching th● privation of any of the gifts of the spi●it till that which is perfect become , 1. ●or . 13. 8. 9. Charity never faileth but whether there be prophesies they shall fail , whether there be tongues they shall cease , whether there be knowledge it shall vanish away , for we know in part and we prophe●●e in part . But when that which is perfect is come THEN that which is in part sha'l be done away . Hence observe a finall determination of the matter in question , If any ask when the gifts of prophysie , knowledge and tongues &c. Shall cease ? The Apostles answer is , even THEN , when that which is perfect is come , or when we come to see face to face , or as we are seen . So then seeing the gifts of the spirit do yet remain to the Church , and every of them ( as her need requires ) are attainable , it remains that we humbly consider our wants , and desire spirituall gifts , you ●ove● earnestly the best gifts . From these considerations I conclude , that howsoever it is too true that the gifts received by the present Churches are but low ( and truly so are her graces ) yet thence we may not , we ought not to infer , that the gifts promised are ceased , or that the Church hath now no interest therein . But contrarywise as the promise of gifts ( as well as graces ) pertains to us as we are the called of God , we ought to ●tir one another up , to seek with all dilligence and full assurance for the spirit of promise , which being received , will abundantly supply our wants , help our infirmities , convince the contrary minded by its powerfull evidence and demonstration in the ministry of the word and prayer . There be two things objected against that which is said , the first . Ob : If the promise of the spirit do thus belong to the Church , then this will follow , that the doctrines delivered by such gifted men must pass for Oracles of God being the effects ●f the spirit of truth whose propertie it 〈◊〉 to lead into all truth . And hence ●ome have conceived the decrees ●f their Counsells to be infallible , and ●thers have given out of their private ●tters or books that they were as in●allibly the word of God as the Scrip●ure &c. Ans . 1. Those gifts do not argue ●he infallibillity of him that hath them , ●or then all the gifted brethren at Co●inth had been infallible which yet they ●ere not , witness their great want of Wisdom how to use their gifts to edi●ication , as also the Apostles refer●ing what they delivered to Tryal , telling ●s of gifted person in general ( and as ●uch not excluding himself ) that they ●ee but darkly , prophesie but in part , know but in part , so that perfection ●erein is not to be pretended . 2. That the Apostles did deliver infallible and undoubted verities for all to submit to , as the very word of God &c. proceeded not hence , viz. because they were gifted men . But as being the chosen witnesses of God , purposely ordained to that very end , for which cause they saw that just one , heard the words of his mouth , and by infallible proves were assured of the Resurrection of our Lord and of his will concerning his Kingdom , John 15 ▪ 16. Ye have not chosen me , but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit , and that your fruit should remain , that whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my Name he may give it you , see Acts 10. 40. 41. and Acts 22. 14. 15. The God of o●r Fathers hath chosen thee that thou should kn●w his will , and see that just one , and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth . FOR thou shalt be his witness unto all men of what thou hast SEEN AND HEARD . These are the Fathers of the Churches , the Foundation layers , the Master-builders in such an elevated consideration , as that the authority of one is to be valued above the authority of ten thousand subsequent teachers , which is a greater number then ever yet convened in a generall councell , 1. Cor. 4. 15. 16. These were such Fathers as laid up such a stock of doctrine for their Children , as whoso bringeth not along with them is not to be received . 2. John. 8. 9 , 10. And whosoever corrupteth by adding takeing away or perverting is to be held accursed , to be nameless in the City of God and the book of Life , The conclusion is this , gifted persons , on whom the Holy Ghost fell as it did on the Apostles , were not thereby impowered , to propose new Oracles , or to be the Apostles Competitors , and if any presume to these things ( as some did in the Apostles dayes ) they shall fulfill that sentence , 2. Tim. 3. 9. They shall proceed no further for their folly shall be made manifest to all men as theirs also was . Ob. 2. If the gifts of the spirit , 1. Cor. 12. Have continued in the Church as you teach , 't is strange we have no account of them since their days , unless we regard the papacy who have claim'd the gift of Miracles in every age , which they urge as an undoubted proof that they only are the Church of Christ . Ans . 1. It is true that people do pretend , as 't is said in the objection and it is now my business to examine the goodness of that pretence , only this I say they cannot find their Church to have had a being in every age since Christ , and therefore very unlikely to prove what they say in the case of Miracles . But put case that since they have had a being in the world , some signs or wonders have been done among them , yet hence to infer the truth of their Church state is very unsafe , sith before an equall judge others will be found to have as clear a claim to Miracles as themselves . * Mat. 7. 22. Many w●ll say unto me in that day have we not prophesi●d in thy Name , and in thy name have we cast out Devils and in thy name have done many wondrous works . And then will I profess un●o them I never knew you , depart from me ye workers of iniquity , And though our Saviour saith , no man can do a miracle in his Name and lightly speak evil of him , yet that very speech supposes the thing possible . It doth not follow therefore that wheresoever miraculous gifts are there is the true Church , but she is only known by her Conformity to the Doctrine of God our Saviour , chiefly in the principles of Religion , Heb. 6. 1. 2. For we are his House if built upon that foundation of Repentance , faith , &c ▪ and pa●takers of him , IF we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast to the end otherwise not . Heb. 3. 6. 14. If any come unto you and bring not this doctrine receive him not to house , no , though he work miracles , for thus saith the Lord. If there arise among you a Prophet or a Dreamer of Dreams , and giveth thee asign or a wonder , and the sign or the wonder come to pass , whereof he spake unto thee [ now note if he do this ] saying let us go after other Gods ( which thou hast not koown ) and let us serve them , thou shalt not hearken to the words of that Prophet — For the Lord your God proveth you to know whether you love the Lord your God , with all your heart , and with all your Soul. And hence learn this one thing that Gods Truth is not to give place to any gifts , but all gifts are to subserve to the furtherance of his Truth . To conclude as we ought not to be ignorant of the gifts of the spirit , so neither of the means ordain'd of God to obtain those gifts . The primitive Churches are herein our best guide as the word directs . T is well known ( and I think granted on all hand● ) that they used the solemn Ordinance of prayer and imposition of hands for obtaining the promised Spirit , at least with respect to these gifts . Now be it so ( though I say for the Graces or Fruits also ) then seeing these gifts are promised to us as well as unto them , and are attainable , and in part ( at least ) attained by many , what should hinder the Churches , but that now they should tread in this path , with faith and full assurance that a blessing is in it ? As in holy baptism we are placed ( as it were ) among those whose sins are washed away in the blood of the Lamb. So in this Holy Ordinance of prayer and imposition of hands we are in a solemn manner ushered , into the promise of the holy spirit , and as the pardon of our sins signified in baptism doth not prevent , but better capaciate us to pray daily forgive us our ●●espasses , so imposition of hands doth put us into a better capacity to seek dayly for the gifts and graces of the spiri● , b●cause now solemnly intercessed in the promise , by that very way the primi●ive Saints were intercessed therein , Acts 8. 15 , 17. Acts 19. 2. 6. 2 Tim. 1. 6. Heb. 6. 12. Who when they were down prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost , then laid they their hands on them and they receithe Holy Ghost . Have they received of the Holy Ghost since the believed ? And when Paul had laid his hand is on them , the Holy Ghost 〈◊〉 on them . Wherefore I put th●e in rem●mb●ance that thou stir up the gift of God which is in thee by the putting o● of my hands . — The foundation of Repentance , and of faith towards God of the D●ctrine of bap●ism and of laying on of hands , of the resurrection of the dead , and of Eternal Judgement . What shall I 〈◊〉 , the Scriptures are evidence sufficient that this Ordinance is of divine institution , is from Heaven ; the promise which it leads to ●s perpetual , and Universal , it belong , to the whole body . There is one body and one Spirit even as ye are called i● 〈◊〉 hope of your calling . A POST-SCRIPT . Taken out of the Works of Dr. Jer. Taylor , in defence of laying on of Hands , as a never-failing Ministery . WE have seen the Original [ of laying on of hands ] from Christ the practice and exercise of it in the Apostles , and the first converts in Christianity , that which I shall now remark is , that this is established and passed into a Christian Doctrine . The Waranty for what I say is the words of St. Paul where the holy Rite of confirmation , so called from the effect of this Ministration , and expressed by the Ritual part of it , imposition of hands is reckoned a Foundamental point 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not laying again the foundation of Repentance from Deas works , and of faith towards God , of the Doctrine of baptism , and of laying on of hands , of Resurrection from the dead and of Eternal Judgement ; Here are six foundamental points of St. Pauls Catechism which he said as t●e foundation or beginning of the institution of the Christian Church , and amongst these imposition of hands is reckoned as a p●rt of the foundation and therefore they who deny it , dig up foundations . Now that this imposition of hands is that which the Apostles used in confirming the baptized and invocating the Holy G●ost upon them rem●ins to be pro●●● . — Absolution of penitents cannot be meant here , not only b●cause we never read that the Apostles did use that Ceremony in their absolutions , but because the Apost●e speaking of the foundation in which baptism is . — There need●d no absolution but bap●ismal ; for they and we believi●g gone baptism for the rem●ssion of sins , this is al the absolution that can be at the first and in the foundation . The * other was secunda post 〈◊〉 frag●●m tabula . 〈◊〉 me in after when men had m●de Shipwrack of their good Conscienscience and were as St. Peter saith — unmindful of the former cleansing . 2. It cannot be meant of Ordination and this is also evident . 1. Because the Apostle saves he would thence forth leave to speak of the foundation and go on to perfection , that is to higher misteries . Now in Ri●uals of which he speaks , there is none higher then Ordination . 2. The Apostle saying he would speak no more of laying on of hands goes presentl● to discourse , of the misteriousness of the Evangelical Priest-hood , and the honor of that vocation , by which it is evident he spake nothing of Ordination in the Catechism , or Narrative of Foundamentals . 3. This also appears from t●e context , not only because laying on of hands is Immediately set after baptism but also because in the very next words of this discourse , he does enumerate and apportion to baptism , and [ imp●sition of hands ] their proper and proportioned effects . To b●ptism il●umira●ion , — And to Confirma●ion he reckons tasting the Heavenly gift and being made par●akers of the Holy Ghost ▪ By the thing sig●ified declaring the sign , and by ●he miste●y the 〈◊〉 ▪ Upon these words ●t Chrisostom● discoursing sayes , That all these are foundamental Articles : that it that ●e ought to repent from dead works ; to be baptized ●●to the Faith of Christ , and be made worthy of the gift of the spirit , who is given by imposition of hands and we are to be taught the misteries of the Resurrection and Eternal Judgement . This Catechism ( sayes he ) is perfect , so that if any Man have Faith in God , and being baptized is also confirmed and so tasts the Heavenly gift , and partakes of the Holy Ghost , by hope of the resurrection tasts of the good things of the World to come , if he falls away from this state — digging down and turning up these foundations he shall never be built again , he can never be baptized again — Confirmed again . God will not begin again , &c. He cannot be made a Christian twice . — This is the full explication of this excellent place , and any other ways it cannot be reasonably exp●icated . — I shall observe one thing more out of this Testimony of St. Paul He cal●s it the Doctrine of baptism and laying on of hands , by which it does not only appear to be a lasting Ministry , because no part of the Christian Doctrine could change or be abolished but hence also it appears to be divine Institution . For it were not St. Paul had been guilty of that which our blessed Savior reproves in the Scribes and Pharises , and should have taught for doctrines the Commandements of Men. Which because it cannot be supposed , it must follow that this doctrine of confirmation , or imposition of hands is Apostolicall and divine . The argument is clear , and not easily to be reproved . Yea but what is this to us ? it belong'd to the days of wonder and extraordinary . The Holy Ghost breathed upon the Apostle● and Apostolicall men , but then he breath'd his last ; vecendente gratiae recessit disiplina ; when the grace departed we had no further need of the cerimony . In Answer to this I shall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by divers particulars evince plainly , that this Ministry — was not temporary and relative only to the Acts of the Apostles , but was to descend to the Church for ever . This indeed is done already in the proceeding Sect in which it is clearly manifested , that Christ himself made the baptism of the spirit necessary to the Church ▪ He declar'd the fruits of this baptism , and did particularly relate it to the descent of the holy spirit upon the Church at and after that glorious Pe●tie●st . He sa●ctified it and commended it b● hi● example ; just as he sanctified the flood Jordan , and all other waters to the misticall washing away of sin , viz. by his great example , and fulfi●ling this righteousness also . This doctrine the Apostles first found in their own persons , and experience , and practised to all their Converts , by a solemn , and externall rite ; And all this p●ssed into an Evangelicall , doct●ine the whole mistery being signified by the externall rite in the words of the Apostle , as before it was by Christ expressing only the internall . So that there needs n● more strength to this argument . But that there may be wanting no moments to this t●uth which the holy scripture affords , I shall add more weight to it ; And , 1. The perpetuity of this rite appears , because this great gift of the Holy Ghost was promised to abide with the Chu●ches for ever . And when the Je●s hea●d the Apostles speak with tongues at the first and miraculous d●s●ent of the spirit in Pen●●c●st , to take of the stra●ge●ess of the wond●r , and the envy of the power . St. Pe●er at that very time tells them plainly . Re●●nt and be baptiz●d eve●y one of you — and 〈◊〉 shall rece●●e the gift of the Holy Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not the meanest person among you all , but shall receive this great thing , which ye observe us to have received and not only you , but your Children too , not of this ●eneration only , sed nati natorum et q●i n●centur ab illis , but your Children for ever . For the promise is to you and to your Children and to all that are affar off , even to as many as the Lord your God shall call ▪ now then let it be considered . 1. This gift is by promise , by a promise not made to the Apostles alone , but to all ; to all for ever . 2. Consider here at the very first as there is a verbum , a word of promise , so there is a sacramentum too I use the word — — in a large sence only , and according to the stile of the primitive Church ) It is a rite partly morall ; and partly cerimoniall , the first is prayer , the other is laying on of the hands : and to an effect that is but transient and extraordinary , and of a little abode , it is not easily to be supposed that such a solemnity should be appointed . I say such a solemnity ; that is , it not imaginable that a solemn rite , annexed to a perpetuall promise should be transient and temporary for by the nature of relatives they may be of equall abode , the cerimony or rite was anexed to the promise , and therefore also must be for ever . * 3 : This is attested by St. Paul who reduces this argument to this mistery saying , In home after that you believed — ye were sealed with the holy spirit of promise . He spake it to the Ephesians who well understood his meaning , by remembring what was done to themselves by the Apostle , Act. 19. 6. But a while before , who after he had baptised them did lay his hands upon them , and so they received the holy spirit of promise ; for here the very matter of fact is the clearest comentary on St. Pauls words — — But fourthly . What hinders any man from a quick consent at the first representation of these plain reasonings and authorityes ? is it because there were extraordinary effects accompanying this ministration , and because now there are not , that we will suppose the whole oeconomy must cease ? if this be it , and indeed this is all that can be pretended in opposition to it , it is infinitely vain . 1. Because these ex●raordinary effect , did continue even after the death of all the Apostles . St. Frenoeus saies they did continue even to his time , even the greatest instance of miraculous power . et infraternitate , sap●ssimc propter aliquid necessarium , &c. When God saw it necessary , and the Church prayed and fasted much , they did miraculous things , even of reducing the Spirit to a dead Man. 2. In the days of the Ap●stles the spirit did produce miraculous effects , but neither always , nor at all in all men , are all workers of miracles , &c. No , the spirit bloweth where it listeth , and as he listeth he gives gifts to all , but to some after this manner , and some after that . 3. These gifts were not necessary at , all times any more then to all persons , but the promise did belong to all and was made to all , and was performed to all . — And therefore if the grace be given to all , there is no reason that the ritual ministration of that grace should cease upon pretence that the spirit is not given extraordinarily . Other arguments he hath ( many ) to the same purpose , and a● I conceive well worthy the consideration of all Christians * specially those that are doubtfull in this principle of religion but I shall sh●t up all with a few of his citations out of the works of antient writers , in behalf of this point of faith . And first noteing How that originally it came from the Apostles . In the second Century he brings Thophilus , Antiochenus and ●ertullian , the latter saith thus , D● hinc manus imponitur , &c. After baptism the hand is imposed by blessing , calling , and inviting the holy spirit . — Being cleansed by baptismal water , we are dispos'd for the holy spirit under the hand of the Angel of the Church , and to this effect the rest , &c. For the third Century he brings Origen , Cyprian , Dionis , and Eusebius , The first Testimony set down is out of Cyprian who Writing upon the passage in Acts 8. 14. saith , which custome is also descended to us , that they who are baptized might be brought by the rulers of the Church and by prayer and imposition of hands receive the Lords signature , &c. For the Fourth hundred he brings Melchiades , Optatus , Civil , and others speaking very highly of the use of this ministration and then brings Urba● the first , as more plainly setting down what the rest delivered more siguratively , in these words Omnes Fideles , &c. All faithful people ought to receive the holy spirit by imposition of the Bishops hands after baptism . And having added yet more witnesses of this kind , he alleadges six Counsells , to evince the same thing , viz. That this Ordinance of prayer , laying on of hands were received together with the other principles by Christians generally . The decree of one of these Counsels ( concerning such as had received baptism in a regular form ) is in these words manus ●antum eiis imponatur ut accipiant spiritum sanctum . Let there be imposition of hands that they may receive the Holy Ghost . Afterwards the Dr. concludes thus . So many Fathers testifying the practice of the Church and teaching this Doctrine , and so many more Fathers as it were assembled in six Councells , all giving witness to this holy Rite AND THAT IN PURSUANCE OF SCRIPTURE are too great a blood of witnesses to be despised by any man that calls himself a Christian . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A41783-e410 Gal. 3. 27. Heb. 6. 2. Act. 2. 38. Mark 1. 5. Acts 8. 12 , Acts 18 , 8. Libert . proph● . p , 228. to pag. 246. * Which yet the Baptists do not grant . * It is a saying of Augustin , De trahe verbum quid est aqua &c. Take away the word and what is water , nothing but water joyn the word to the Element and it is made a Sacrament . This consideration is very concluding against Paedo Baptism , for to the Infant , the word is as it were taken away from the Element , a●d cons●quent y accordirg to Aug. it can be no Sacrament to them at all . Ex manu controv● under the probation of divers of their Doctors , Professors and Students in Theology . p. 372. to 377. S. N. Antid . Se Diod te . in act 2. * a thing wholy unknown that they have any such receit of the Spirit . Eras. parrap . ●n 1 Cor. 7. Eraz. par . on Math. 28. Ludovicus Vives . Fabian . Hugo Grotius Anno 315. Con Ne●caes . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tertul. lib. de Bap. cap. 18. Tertull. lib. de baptis . cap. 18. * 〈◊〉 . to quest . in ● . Baptisma . Mark 6. Perseverence in Faith must here be understood , with the Fruits of Faith a●so . * For they do ●●t only deny such Infants the Act , but the ●ight to baptism because the children of ●nbelievers . Verse . 4. Litturgy . Marq. of Worcest . Certam . Relig. * Secundum ▪ Fisher . * for Gods ways are not to be left to mans will be commands and t is mans duty to obey . Ex opp . Perk. S●e the Scholast . discourse against Symbol with Antichrist . Notes for div A41783-e4610 The poynt to be proved . 1 From the Apostles scope . * 1 Cor. 3. 16. 2 Cor. 6. 16. 2. From the extent of the promise . 3. From the Nature of the duties of the Church . 4. From the nature and perpetuity of the exhortations to seek for the spirit . 5. From the continuation of spiritual gifts in the Church to this day . It is probable that Paul made use of his education in speaking divers Languages , as may be perceived by his discou●ses in the acts of the Apostles , and by the Epistles which he wrote to severall Churches , useing therein ( as 't is confessed ) frequently the Greek Tongue . 6. From the silence of the Scriptures , as to the privation of the gifts of the Spirit &c , 1. Cor. 2. 4. * Which yet shall avail them nothing , because they wanted truth with their gifts . Notes for div A41783-e6520 * Me●ning that laying on of hands used by some at the absolving penetents . * [ I think this wi●l abide tryall , sith we may not expect a change of the dispensation we are under ; otherwise the promise might continue under some other rite or elce without it ] * Who know how to read men without being scandi ized if they meet with phraises , and some nothing which are doubtful as its the case of most that write . ● Con. Arles . c. 8. 
A63729	----	A copy of a letter written to a gentlewoman newly seduced to the Church of Rome by the Reverend J.T. D.D. late Bishop of Down and Connor. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. 1687 Approx. 47 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 12 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2003-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A63729 Wing T306 ESTC R77 11940683 ocm 11940683 51266 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A63729) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 51266) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 516:30) A copy of a letter written to a gentlewoman newly seduced to the Church of Rome by the Reverend J.T. D.D. late Bishop of Down and Connor. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. [2], 21 p. Printed for L. Meredith ..., London : 1687. Signed: Jer. Taylor. Reproduction of original in Union Theological Seminary Library, New York. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Church of England -- Controversial literature. 2000-00 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2001-08 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2001-09 TCP Staff (Michigan) Sampled and proofread 2001-09 TCP Staff (Michigan) Text and markup reviewed and edited 2001-11 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A COPY of a LETTER WRITTEN To a Gentlewoman Newly Seduced to the Church of ROME . By the Reverend J. T. D. D. late Bishop of Down and Connor . IMPRIMATUR , Guil. Needham . June 3. 1687. LONDON , Printed for L. Meredith at the Angel in Amen Corner . MDCLXXXVII . Price Two Pence . A Copy of a Letter written to a Gentlewoman newly seduced to the Church of Rome . M. B. I was desirous of an opprtunity in London to have discoursed with you concerning something of nearest concernment to you , but the multitude of my little affairs hindred me , and have brought upon you this trouble to read a long Letter , which yet I hope you will be more willing to do , because it comes from one who hath a great respect to your person , and a very great charity to your soul : I must confess I was on your behalf troubled when I heard you were fallen from the Communion of the Church of England , and entred into a voluntary , unnecessary schism , and departure from the Laws of the King , and the Communion of those with whom you have always lived in charity , going against those Laws in the defence and profession of which your Husband died , going from the Religion in which you were Baptized , in which for so many years , you lived piously and hoped for Heaven , and all this without any sufficient reason , without necessity or just scandal ministred to you ; and to aggravate all this , you did it in a time when the Church of England was persecuted , when she was marked with the Characterism of our Lord , the marks of the Cross of Jesus , that is , when she suffered for a holy cause and a holy conscience , when the Church of England was more glorious than at any time before ; Even when she could shew more Martyrs and Confessors than any Church this day in Christendom , even then when a King died in the profession of her Religion , and thousands of Priests , learned and pious Men suffered the spoiling of their goods rather than they would forsake one Article of so excellent a Religion ; So that seriously it is not easily to be imagined that any thing should move you , unless it be that which troubled the perverse Jews , and the Heathen Greek , Scandalum crucis , the scandal of the Cross ; You stumbled at that Rock of offence , you left us because we were afflicted , lessened in outward circumstances and wrapped in a cloud ; but give me leave only to remind you of that sad saying of the Scripture , that you may avoid the consequent of it ; They that fall on this stone shall be broken in pieces , but they on whom it shall fall shall be grinded to powder . And if we should consider things but prudently , it is a great argument that the sons of our Church are very conscientious and just in their perswasions , when it is evident that we have no temporal end to serve , nothing but the great end of our souls , all our hopes of preferment are gone , all secular regards , only we still have truth on our sides , and we are not willing with the loss of truth to change from a persecuted to a prosperous Church , from a Reformed to a Church that will not be reformed ; lest we give scandal to good people that suffer for a holy conscience , and weaken the hands of the afflicted ; of which if you had been more carefull , you would have remained much more innocent . But I pray , give me leave to consider for you , because you in your change considered so little for your self , what fault , what false doctrine , what wicked and dangerous proposition , what defect , what amiss did you find in the Doctrine and Liturgy and Discipline of the Church of England ? For its doctrine , It is certain it professes the belief of all that is written in the Old and New Testament , all that which is in the three Creeds , the Apostolical , the Nicene , and that of Athanasius , and whatsoever was decreed in the four General Councils , or in any other truly such , and whatsoever was condemned in these , our Church hath legally declared it to be Heresie . And upon these accounts above four whole ages of the Church went to Heaven ; they baptized all their Catechumens into this faith , their hopes of Heaven was upon this and a good life , their Saints and Martyrs lived and died in this alone , they denied Communion to none that professed this faith . This is the Catholick faith , so saith the Creed of Athanasius ; and unless a company of Men have power to alter the faith of God , whosoever live and die in this faith , are intirely Catholick and Christian. So that the Church of England hath the same faith without dispute that the Church had for 400 or 500 Years , and therefore there could be nothing wanting here to saving faith , if we live according to our belief . 2 For the Liturgy of the Church of England , I shall not need to say much , because the case will be very evident ; First , Because the disputers of the Church of Rome have not been very forward to object any thing against it , they cannot charge it with any evil : 2. Because for all the time of King Edw 6. and till the eleventh year of Queen Elizabeth , your people came to our Churches and prayed with us , till the Bull of Pius Quintus came out upon temporal regards , and made a Schism by forbidding the Queens Subjects to pray as by Law was here appointed , though the prayers were good and holy , as themselves did believe . That Bull enjoyned Recusancy , and made that which was an act of Rebellion , and Disobedience , and Schism , to be the character of your Roman Catholicks . And after this , what can be supposed wanting in order to salvation ? We have the Word of God , the Faith of the Apostles , the Creeds of the Primitive Church , the Articles of the four first general Councils , a holy Liturgy , excellent Prayers , perfect Sacraments , Faith and Repentance , the Ten Commandments , and the Sermons of Christ , and all the precepts and counsels of the Gospel ; We teach the necessity of good works , and require and strictly exact the severity of a holy life ; We live in obedience to God , and are ready to die for him , and do so when he requires us so to do ; We speak honourably of his most holy Name , we worship him at the mention of his Name , we confess his Attributes , we love his Servants , we pray for all Men , we love all Christians , even our most erring Brethren , we confess our sins to God and to our Brethren whom we have offended , and to God's Ministers in cases of Scandal , or of a troubled Conscience . We communicate often , we are enjoyned to receive the holy Sacrament thrice every Year at least ; Our Priests absolve the penitent , our Bishops ordain Priests , and confirm baptized persons , and bless their people and intercede for them ; and what could here be wanting to Salvation ? what necessity forced you from us ? I dare not suspect it was a remporal regard that drew you away , but I am sure it could be no spiritual . But now that I have told you , and made you to consider from whence you went , give me leave to represent to you , and tell you whither you are gone , tht you may understand the nature and conditions of your change : For do not think your self safe , because they tell you that you are come to the Church ; You are indeed gone from one Church to another , from a better to a worse , as will appear in the induction ; the particulars of which before I reckon , give me leave to give you this advice ; if you mean in this affair to understand what you do ; it were better you enquired what your Religion is , than what your Church is ; for that which is a true Religion to day , will be so to morrow and for ever ; but that which is a holy Church to day , may be heretical at the next change , or may betray her trust , or obtrude new Articles in contradiction to the old , or by new interpretations may elude ancient truths , or may change your Creed , or may pretend to be the Spouse of Christ when she is idolatrous , that is , adulterous to God : Your Religion is that which you must , and therefore may competently understand ; You must live in it ; and grow in it ; and govern all the actions of your life by it ; and in all questions concerning the Church , you are to choose your Church by the Religion , and therefore this ought first and last to be enquired after . Whether the Roman Church be the Catholick Church , must depend upon so many uncertain enquiries , is offered to be proved by so long , so tedious a method , hath in it so many intrigues and Labyrinths of Question , and is ( like a long line ) so impossible to be perfectly streight , and to have no declination in it when it is held by such a hand as yours , that unless it be by material enquiries into the Articles of the Religion , you can never hope to have just grounds of confidence . In the mean time you can consider this ; if the Roman Church were the Catholick , that is , so as to exclude all that are not of her communion , then the Greek Churches had as good turn Turks as remain damned Christians , and all that are in the communion of all the other Patriarchal Churches in Christendom , must also perish like Heathens , which thing before any Man can believe , he must have put off all reason , and all modesty , and all charity ; And who can with any probability think that the Communion of Saints in the Creed is nothing but the Communion of Roman Subjects , and the Article of the Catholick Church was made up to Dispark the inclosures of Jarusalem , but to turn them into the pale of Rome , and the Church is as limited as ever it was , save only that the Synagogue is translated to Rome , which I think you will easily believe was a Proposition the Apostles understood not . But though it be hard to trust to it , it is also so hard to prove it , that you shall never be able to understand the measures of that question , and therefore your salvation can never depend upon it . For no good or wise person can believe that God hath tied our Salvation to impossible measures , or bound us to an Article that is not by us cognoscible , or intends to have us conducted by that which we cannot understand ; and when you shall know that Learned men , even of the Roman party are not agreed concerning the Catholick Church that is infallibly to guide you , some saying that it is the virtual Church , that is , the Pope ; some , that it is the representative Church , that is , a Council ; Some , that it is the Pope and the Council , the virtual Church and the representative Church together ; Some that neither of these , nor both together are infallible ; but only , the essential Church , or the diffusive Church is the Catholick , from whom we must at no hand dissent ; you will quickly find your self in a wood , and uncertain whether you have more than a word in exchange for your soul , when you are told you are in the Catholick Church . But I will tell you what you may understand , and see and feel , something that your self can tell whethr I say true or no concerning it . You are now gone to a Church that protects it self by arts of subtilty and arms , by violence and persecuting all that are not of their minds , to a Church in which you are to be a Subject of the King so long as it pleases the Pope : In which you may be absolved from your Vows made to God , your Oaths to the King , your Promises to Men , your duty to your Parents in some cases : A Church in which Men pray to God , and to Saints in the same Form of words in which they pray to God , as you may see in the Offices of Saints , and particularly of our Lady : a Church in which Men are taught by most of the principal Leaders to worship Images with the same worship with which they worship God and Christ , or him or her whose Image it is , and in which they usually picture God the Father , and the holy Trinity , to the great dishonour of that sacred mystery , against the doctrine and practice of the Primitive Church , against the express doctrine of Scripture , against the honour of a Divine Attribute ; I mean , the immensity and spirituality of the Divine Nature ; You are gone to a Church that pretends to be Infallible , and yet is infinitely deceived in many particulars , and yet endures no contradiction , and is impatient her children should enquire into any thing her Priests obtrude . You are gone from receiving the whole Sacrament to receive it but half ; from Christ's Institution to a humane invention , from Scripture to uncertain Traditions , and from ancient Traditions to new pretences , from prayers which ye understood to prayers which ye understand not , from confidence in God to rely upon creatures , from intire dependence upon inward acts to a dangerous temptation of resting too much in outward ministeries , in the external work of Sacraments and of Sacramentals : You are gone from a Church whose worshipping is simple , Christian and Apostolical , to a Church where Mens consciences are loaden with a burden of Ceremonies greater than that in the days of the Jewish Religion ( for the Ceremonial of the Church of Rome is a great Book in Folio ) greater I say than all the Ceremonies of the Jews contained in Leviticus , &c. You are gone from a Church where you were exhorted to read the Word of God , the holy Scriptures from whence you found instruction , institution , comfort , reproof , a treasure of all excellencies , to a Church that seals up that fountain from you , and gives you drink by drops out of such Cisterns as they first make , and then stain , and then reach out : and if it be told you that some Men abuse Scripture , it is true , for if your Priests had not abused Scripture , they could not thus have abused you , but there is no necessity they should , and you need not , unless you list , any more than you need to abuse the Sacraments or decrees of the Church , or the messages of your friend , or the Letters you receive , or the Laws of the Land , all which are liable to be abused by evil persons , but not by good people and modest understandings . It is now become a part of your Religion to be ignorant , to walk in blindness , to believe the Man that hears your Confessions , to hear none but him , not to hear God speaking but by him , and so you are liable to be abused by him , as he please , without remedy . You are gone from us , where you were only taught to worship God through Jesus Christ , and now you are taught to worship Saints and Angels with a worship at least dangerous , and in some things proper to God ; for your Church worships the Virgin Mary with burning incense and candles to her , and you give her presents , which by the consent of all Nations used to be esteemed a worship peculiar to God , and it is the same thing which was condemned for Heresie in the Collyridians , who offered a Cake to the Virgin Mary ; a Candle and a Cake make no difference in the worship ; and your joyning God and the Saints in your worship and devotions , is like the device of them that fought for King and Parliament , the latter destroys the former . I will trouble you with no more particulars , because if these move you not to consider better ; nothing can . But yet I have two things more to add of another nature , one of which at least may prevail upon you , whom I suppose to have a tender and a religious Conscience . The first is , That all the points of difference between us and your Church are such as do evidently serve the ends of Covetousness and Ambition , of Power and Riches , and so stand vehemently suspected of design , and art , rather than truth of the Article and designs upon Heaven I instance in the Pope's power over Princes and all the World ; his power of Dispensation , The exemption of the Clergy from jurisdiction of Princes , The Doctrine of Purgatory and Indulgences which was once made means to raise a Portion for a Lady , the Niece of Pope Leo the Tenth ; The Priests power advanced beyond authority of any warrant from Scripture , a doctrine apt to bring absolute obedience to the Papacy ; but because this is possibly too nice for you to suspect or consider , that which I am sure ought to move you is this . That you are gone to a Religion in which though through God's grace prevailing over the follies of men , there are I hope , and charitably suppose many pious Men that love God , and live good lives , yet there are very many doctrines taught by your Men , which are very ill Friends to a good life , I instance in your Indulgences and pardons , in which vitious men put a great confidence , and rely greatly upon them . The doctrine of Purgatory which gives countenance to a sort of Christians who live half to God and half to the World , and for them this doctrine hath found out a way that they may go to Hell and to Heaven too . The Doctrine that the Priests absolution can turn a trifling repentance into a perfect and a good , and that suddenly too , and at any time , even on our Death-bed , or the minute before your death , is a dangerous heap of falshood , and gives licence to wicked people and teaches men to reconcile a wicked debauched life , with the hopes of Heaven . And then for penances and temporal satisfaction , which might seem to be as a plank after the shipwrack of the duty of Repentance , to keep men in awe , and to preserve them from sinking in an Ocean of Impiety , it comes to just nothing by your doctrine ; for there are so many easie ways of Indulgences and getting Pardons , so many con-fraternities , stations , privileg'd Altars , little Offices , Agnus Dei's , amulets , hallowed devices , swords , roses , hats , Church-yards , and the fountain of these annexed Indulgences the Pope himself , and his power of granting what , and when , and to whom he list that he is a very unfortunate man that needs to smart with penances ; and after all , he may choose to suffer any at all , for he may pay them in Purgatory if he please , and he may come out of Purgatory upon reasonable terms , in case he should think it fit to go thither ; So that all the whole duty of Repentance seems to be destroyed with devices of Men that seek power and gain , and find errour and folly ; insomuch that if I had a mind to live an evil Life , and yet hope for Heaven at last , I would be of your Religion above any in the World. But I forget I am writing a Letter : I shall therefore desire you to consider upon the premises , which is the safer way . For surely it is lawfull for a Man to serve God without Images ; but that to worship Images is lawfull , is not so sure . It is lawfull to pray to God alone , to confess him to be true , and every Man a liar , to call no man Master upon Earth , but to rely upon God teaching us ; But it is at least hugely disputable and not at all certain that any Man , or society of Men can be infallible , that we may put our trust in Saints , in certain extraordinary Images , or burn Incense and offer consumptive oblations to the Virgin Mary , or make vows to persons , of whose state , or place , or capacities , or condition we have no certain revelation : we are sure we do well when in the holy Communion we worship God and Jesus Christ our Saviour , but they who also worship what seems to be bread , are put to strange shifts to make themselves believe it to be lawfull . It is certainly lawfull to believe what we see and feel ; but it is an unnatural thing upon pretence of faith to disbelieve our eyes , when our sense and our faith can better be reconciled , as it is in the question of the real presence , as it is taught by the Church of England . So that unless you mean to prefer a danger before safety , temptation to unholiness before a severe and a holy Religion , unless you mean to lose the benefit of your prayers by praying what you perceive not , and the benefit of the Sacrament in great degrees by falling from Christ's institution , and taking half instead of all unless you desire to provoke God to jealousie by Images , and Man to jealousie in professing a Religion in which you may in many cases have leave to forfeit your faith and Jawfull trust , unless you will still continue to give scandal to those good people with whom you have lived in a common Religion , and weaken the hearts of Gods afflicted ones , unless you will choose a Catechism without the second Commandment , and a Faith that grows bigger or less as men please , and a Hope that in many degrees relies on men and vain confidences , and a Charity that damns all the World but your selves ; unless you will do all this , that is , suffer an abuse in your Prayers , in the Sacrament , in the Commandments , in Faith , in Hope , in Charity , in the Communion of Saints , and your duty to your Supreme , you must return to the bosom of your Mother the Church of England from whence you have fallen , rather weakly than maliciously , and I doubt not but you will find the Comfort of it all your Life , and in the Day of your Death , and in the Day of Judgment . If you will not , yet I have freed mine own Soul , and done an act of Duty and Charity , which at least you are bound to take kindly if you will not entertain it obediently . Now let me add this , that although most of these objections are such things which are the open and avowed doctrines or practices of your Church , and need not to be proved as being either notorious or confessed ; yet if any of your Guides shall seem to question any thing of it , I will bind my self to verifie it to a tittle , and in that too which I intend them , that is , so as to be an objection obliging you to return , under the pain of folly , or heresie , or disobedience , according to the subject matter . And though I have propounded these things now to your consideration , yet if it be desired I shall represent them to your eye , so that even your self shall be able to give sentence in the behalf of truth . In the mean time give me leave to tell you of how much folly you are guilty in being moved by such mock-arguments as your men use when they meet with women and tender consciences and weaker understandings . The first is ; where was your Church before Luther ? Now if you had called upon them to speak something against your Religion from Scripture , or right Reason , or Universal Tradition , you had been secure as a Tortoise in her shell ; a Cart pressed with sheaves could not have oppressed your cause or person , though you had confessed you understood nothing of the mysteries of succession doctrinal or personal . For if we can make it appear that our Religion was that which Christ and his Apostles taught , let the truth suffer what eclipses or prejudices can be supposed , let it be hid like the holy fire in the captivity , yet what Christ and his Apostles taught us is eternally true , and shall by some means or other be conveyed to us ; even the enemies of truth have been conservators of that truth by which we can confute their errors . But if you still ask where it was before Luther ? I answer it was there where it was after ; even in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament ; and I know no warrant for any other Religion ; and if you will expect I should shew any society of Men who professed all the doctrines which are now expressed in the confession of the Church of England ; I shall tell you it is unreasonable ; because some of our truths are now brought into our publick confessions that they might be oppos'd against your errors ; before the occasion of which there was no need of any such confessions , till you made many things necessary to be professed , which are not lawfull to be believed . For if we believe your superinduc'd follies , we shall do unreasonably , unconscionably , and wickedly ; but the questions themselves are so useless abstracting from the accidental necessity which your follies have brought upon us , that it had been happy if we had never heard of them more than the Saints and Martyrs did in the first ages of the Church ; but because your Clergy have invaded the liberty of the Church , and multiplied the dangers of damnation , and pretend new necessities , and have introduc'd new Articles , and affright the simple upon new pretensions , and slight the very institution and the Commands of Christ and of the Apostles , and invent new Sacramentals constituting Ceremonies of their own head , and promise grace along with the use of them , as if they were not Ministers but Lords of the Spirit , and teach for doctrines the commandments of men , and make void the Commandment of God by their tradition , and have made a strange body of Divinity ; therefore it is necessary that we should immure our Faith by the refusal of such vain and superstitious dreams : but our faith was completed at first , it is no other than that which was delivered to the Saints , and can be no more for ever . So that it is a foolish demand to require that we should shew before Luther a systeme of Articles declaring our sense in these questions : It was long before they were questions at all ; and when they were made questions , they remained so a long time ; and when by their several pieces they were determined , this part of the Church was oppressed with a violent power ; and when God gave opportunity , then the yoke was broken ; and this is the whole progress of this affair . But if you will still insist upon it , then let the matter be put into equal ballances , and let them shew any Church whose Confession of Faith was such as was obtruded upon you at Trent : And if your Religion be Pius Quartus his Creed at Trent , then we also have a question to ask , and that is Where was your Religion before Trent ? The Council of Trent determined that the Souls departed before the Day of Judgment enjoy the Beatifical Vision . It is certain this Article could not be shewn in the Confession of any of the ancient Churches ; for most of the Fathers were of another opinion . But that which is the greatest offence of Christendom is not onely that these doctrines which we say are false were yet affirmed , but that those things which the Church of God did always reject , or held as uncertain , should be made Articles of Faith , and so become parts of your Religion ; and of these it is that I again ask the question which none of your side shall ever be able to answer for you : Where was your Religion before Trent ? I could instance in many particulars ; but I shall name one to you , which because the thing of it self is of no great consequence , it will appear the more unreasonable and intolerable that your Church should adopt it into the things of necessary belief , especially since it was only a matter of fact , and they took the false part too . For in the 21. Sess. Chap. 4. it is affirmed , That although the holy Fathers did give the Sacrament of the Eucharist to Infants , yet they did it without any necessity of salvation ; that is , they did not believe it necessary to their salvation , which is notoriously false , and the contrary is marked out with the black-lead of every man almost that reads their Works ; and yet your Council says this is sine controversiâ credendum ; to be believed without all controversie : and all Christians forbidden to believe or teach otherwise . So that here it is made an Article of faith amongst you , that a man shall neither believe his reason nor his eyes : & who can shew any confession of Faith in which all the Trent doctrine was professed & enjoyned under pain of damnation ? and before the Council of Constance , the Doctrine touching the Popes power was so new , so decried , that as Gerson says , he hardly should have escaped the note of Heresie that would have said so much as was there defined : so that in that Article which now makes a great part of your belief , where was your Religion before the Council of Constance ? and it is notorious that your Council of Constance determined the doctrine of the half communion with a Non obstante to Christ's institution , that is , with a defiance to it , or a noted , observed neglect of it , and with a profession it was otherwise in the Primitive Church . Where then was your Religion before John Hus and Hierom of Prague's time , against whom that Council was convened ? But by this instance it appears most certainly that your Church cannot shew her confessions immediately after Christ , and therefore if we could not shew ours immediately before Luther , it were not half so much ; for since you receded from Christ's Doctrine we might well recede from yours ; and it matters not who or how many or how long they professed your doctrine , if neither Christ nor his Apostles did teach it ; so that if these Articles constitute your Church , your Church was invisible at the first ; and if ours was invisible afterwards , it matters not ; For yours was invisible in the days of light , and ours was invisible in the days of darkness . For our Church was always visible in the reflections of Scripture , and he that had his eyes of faith and reason might easily have seen these truths all the way which constitute our Church . But I add yet farther , that our Church before Luther was there where your Church was , in the same place and in the same persons ; for divers of the errors which have been amongst us reformed , were not the constituent Articles of your Church before Luther's time ; for before the last Councils of your Church a man might have been of your Communion upon easier terms ; and Indulgences were indeed a practice , but no Article of Faith before your men made it so , and that very lately , and so were many other things besides . So that although your men cozen the credulous and the simple by calling yours The old Religion , yet the difference is vast between Truth and their affirmative , even as much as between old Errors and new Articles . For although Ignorance and Superstition had prepared the ore , yet the Councils of Constance and Basil , and Trent especially , were the forges and the mint . Lastly , If your men had not by all vile and violent art : of the World stopped the mouths of dissenters , the question would quickly have been answered , or our Articles would have been so confessed , so owned and so publick , that the question could never been asked ; but in despight of all opposition , there were great numbers of professors who did protest and profess and practice our doctrines contrary to your Articles ; as it is demonstrated by the Divines of Germany in Illyricus his Catalogus testium veritatis , and in Bishop Mortons appeal . But with your next objection you are better pleased , and your Men make most noise with it . For you pretend that by our confession , salvation may be had in your Church ; but your men deny it to us ; and therefore by the confession of both sides you may be safe , and there is no question concerning you ; but of us there is great question , for none but our selves say that we can be saved . I answer , I. That salvation may be had in your Church , is it ever the truer because we say it ? If it be not , it can add no confidence to you , for the proposition gets no strength by our affirmative . But if it be , then our authority is good or else our reason ; and if either be , then we have more reason to be believed speaking of our selves ; because we are concerned to see that our selves may be in a state of hope ; and therefore we would not venture on this side if we had not greater reason to believe well of our selves than of you . And therefore believe us when it is more likely that we have greater reason , because we have greater concernments , and therefore greater considerations . 2. As much charity as your Men pretend us to speak of you , yet it is a clear case our hope of your salvation is so little that we dare not venture our selves on your side . The Burger of Oldwater being to pass a River in his Journey to Daventry , bad his Man try the Ford ; telling him he hoped he should not be drowned , for though he was afraid the River was too deep , yet he thought his Horse would carry him out , or at least , the Boats would fetch him off . Such a confidence we may have of you , but you will find that but little warranty , if you remember how great an interest it is that you venture . 3. It would be remembred that though the best ground of your hope is not the goodness of your own faith , but the greatness of our charity ; yet we that charitably hope well of you , have a fulness of assurance of the truth and certainty of our own way ; and however you can please your selves with Images of things as having no firm footing for your trifling confidence , yet you can never with your tricks out-face us of just and firm adherencies ; and if you were not empty of supports , and greedy of bulrushes , snatching at any thing to support your sinking cause , you would with fear and trembling consider the direct dangers which we demonstrate to you to be in your Religion rather than flatter your selves with collateral , weak , and deceitfull hopes of accidental possibilities , that some of you may escape . 4. If we be more charitable to you than you are to us , acknowledge in us the beauty and essential form of Christian Religion ; be sure you love as well as make use of our charity ; but if you make our Charity an argument against us , remember that you render us evil in exchange for good ; and let it be no brag to you that you have not that charity to us ; for therefore the Donatists were condemned for Hereticks and Schismaticks because they damned all the world , and afforded no charity to any that was not of their Communion . 5. But that our charity may be such indeed , that is , that it may do you a real benefit , and not turn into Wormwood and Colloquintida , I pray take notice in what sense it is that we allow salvation may possibly be had in your Church . We warrant it not to any , we only hope it for some , we allow it to them as to the Sadducees in the Law , and to the Corinthians in the Gospel who denied the Resurrection ; that is , till they were sufficiently instructed , and competently convinced , and had time and powers to out-wear their prejudices and the impresses of their education and long perswasion . But to them amongst you who can and do consider and yet determine for error and interest , we have a greater charity , even so much as to labour and pray for their conversion , but not so much sondness as to flatte them into boldness and pertinacious adherencies to matters of so great danger . 6. But in all this affair , though your men are very bold with God and leap into his Judgment-seat before him , and give wild sentences concerning the salvation of your own party and the damnation of all that disagree , yet that which is our charity to you , is indeed the fear of God , and the reverence of his judgments ; we do not say that all Papists are certainly damn'd ; we wish and desire vehemently that none of you may perish ; but then this charity of judgment relates not to you , nor is derived from any probability which we see in your doctrines that differ from ours ; but because we know not what rate and value God puts upon the Article ; It concerns neither you nor us to say , this or that man shall be damn'd for his opinion ; for besides that this is a bold intrusion into that secret of God which shall not be opened till the Day of Judgment , and besides that we know not what allays & abatements are to be made by the good meaning and the ignorance of the man ; all that can concern us is to tell you that you are in error , that you depart from Scripture , that you exercise tyranny over Souls , that you leave the Divine institution , & prevaricate Gods Commandment , that you divide the Church without truth and without necessity , that you tye Men to believe things under pain of damnation which cannot be made very probable , much less certain ; and therefore that you sin against God and are in danger of his eternal displeasure ; but in giving the final sentence as we have no more to do than your men have , yet so we refuse to follow your evil example ; and we follow the glorious precedent of our Blessed Lord ; who decreed and declared against the crime , but not against the Criminal before the day . He that does this , or that , is in danger of the Council , or in danger of judgment , or liable , and obnoxious to the danger of hell fire , so we say of your greatest errors ; they put you in the danger of perishing ; but that you ●hall or shall not perish , we leave it to your Judge : and if you call this charity , it is well , I am sure it is piety and the fear of God. 7. Whether you may be saved , or whether you shall be damned for your errors , does neither depend upon our affirmative nor your negative , but according to the rate and value which God sets upon things . Whatever we talk , things are as they are , not as we dispute , or grant , or hope ; and therefore it were well if your men would leave abusing you and themselves with these little arts of indirect support . For many men that are warranted , yet do eternally perish , and you in your Church damn Millions who I doubt not shall reign with Jesus eternally in the Heavens . 8. I wish you would consider , that if any of our men say salvation may be had in your Church , it is not for the goodness of your new Propositions , but only because you do keep so much of that which is our Religion , that upon the confidence of that we hope well concerning you . And we do not hope any thing at all that is good of you or your Religion as it distinghishes from us and ours : we hope that the good which you have common with us may obtain pardon directly or indirectly , or may be an antidote of the venome , and an amulet against the danger of your very great errors , so that if you can derive any confidence from our concession , you must remember where it takes root ; not upon any thing of yours , but wholly upon the excellency of ours ; you are not at all safe , or warranted for being Papists , but we hope well of some of you , for having so much of the Protestant : and if that will do you any good , proceed in it , and follow it whithersoever it leads you . 9. The safety that you dream of which we say to be on your side , is nothing of allowance or warranty , but a hope that is collateral , indirect and relative ; we do not say any thing whereby you can conclude yours to be safer than ours , for it is not safe at all , but extremely dangerous ; we affirm those errors in themselves to be damnable , some to contain in them Impiety , some to have Sacriledge , some Idolatry , some Superstition , some practices to be conjuring and charming and very like to Witchcraft , as in your hallowing of Water , and baptizing Bells , and exorcizing Demoniacks ; and what safety there can be in these , or what you can fancy we should allow to you , I suppose you need not boast of . Now because we hope some are saved amongst you , you must not conclude yours to be safe ; for our hope relies upon this . There are many of your Propositions in which we differ from you , that Thousands amongst you understand and know nothing of ; it is to them as if they were not , it is to them now as it was before the Council , they hear not of it . And though your Priests have taken a course that the most ignorant do practise some of your abominations most grosly , yet we hope this will not be laid upon them who ( as St. Austin's expression is ) cautâ sollicitudine quaerunt veritatem , corrigi parati cùm invenerint : do according as they are able warily and diligently seek for truth , and are ready to follow it when they find it ; Men who live good lives , and repent of all their evils known and unknown . Now if we are not deceived in our hopes , these Men shall rejoyce in the eternal goodness of God , which prevails over the malice of them that misguide you ; but if we be deceived in our hopes of you , your Guides have abus'd you , and the blind leaders of the blind will fall together . For , 10. If you will have the secret of this whole affair , this it is . The hopes we have of any of you , ( as it is known ) principally relies upon the hopes of your repentance . Now we say that a Man may repent of an error which he knows not of ; as he that prays heartily for the pardon of all his sins and errors known and unknown ; by his general repentance may obtain many degrees and instances of mercy . Now thus much also your Men allow to us ; those who live well , and die in a true though but general repentance of their sins and errors even amongst us , your best and wisest Men pronounce to be in a savable condition Here then we are equal , and we are as safe by your confession as you are by ours . But because there are some Bigots of your faction fierce and fiery who say that a general repentance will not serve our turns , but it must be a particular renunciation of Protestancy ; these men deny not only to us but to themselves too , all that comfort which they derive from our Concession , and indeed which they can hope for from the mercies of God. For be you sure we think as ill of your errors as you can suppose of our Articles ; and therefore if for errors ( be they on which side it chances ) a general repentance will not serve the turn without an actual dereliction , then flatter not your selves by any thing of our kindness to your party ; for you must have a particular , if a general be not sufficient . But if it be sufficient for you , it is so for us , in case we be in error as your men suppose us ; but if it will not suffice us for remedy to those errors you charge us with , neither will it suffice you ; for the case must needs be equal as to the value of repentance and malignity of the error : and therefore these men condemn themselves and will not allow us to hope well of them ; but if they will allow us to hope , it must be by affirming the value of a general repentance ; and if they allow that , they must hope as well of ours as we of theirs : but if they deny it to us , they deny it to themselves , and then they can no more brag of any thing of our concession . This only I add to this consideration ; that your men do not , cannot charge upon us any doctrine that is in its matter and effect impious ; there is nothing positive in our doctrine , but is either true or innocent , but we are accus'd for denying your superstructures : ours therefore ( if we be deceived ) is but like a sin of omission ; yours are sins of commission in case you are in the wrong ( as we believe you to be ) and therefore you must needs be in a greater danger than we can be supposed , by how much sins of omission are less than sins of commission . 11. Your very way of arguing from our charity is a very fallacy and a trick that must needs deceive you if you rely upon it . For whereas your men argue thus : The Protestants say we Papists may be saved ; and so say we too : but we Papists say that you Protestants cannot , therefore it is safest to be a Papist ; consider that of this argument if it shall be accepted , any bold Heretick can make use , against any modest Christian of a true perswasion . For , if he can but out-face the modesty of the good man , and tell him he shall be damn'd ; unless that modest man say as much of him you see impudence shall get the better of the day . But it is thus in every error . Fifteen Bishops of Jerusalem in immediate succession were circumcised , believing it to be necessary so to be : with these other Christian Churches who were of the uncircumcision did communicate : Suppose now that these Bishops had not only thought it necessary for themselves but for others too ; this argument you see was ready : you of the uncircumcision who do communicate with us , think that we may be saved though we are circumcised , but we do not think that you who are not circumcised can be saved , therefore it is the safest way to be circumcised : I suppose you would not have thought their argument good , neither would you have had your children circumcised . But this argument may serve the Presbyterians as well as the Papists . We are indeed very kind to them in our sentences concerning their salvation ; and they are many of them as unkind to us ; If they should argue so as you do , and say , you Episcopal men think we Presbyterians though in errors can be saved , and we say so too : but we think you Epistopal men are Enemies of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ ; and therefore we think you in a damuable condition , therefore it is safer to be a Presbyterian : I know not what your men would think of the argument in their hands , I am sure we had reason to complain that we are used very ill on both hands for no other cause but because we are charitable . But it is not our case alone ; but the old Catholicks were used just so by the Donatists in this very argument , as we are used by your men . The Donatists were so fierce against the Catholicks , that they would re-baptize all them who came to their Churches from the other : But the Catholicks , as knowing the Donatists did give right Baptism , admitted their Converts to Repentance , but did not re-baptize them . Upon this score , the Donatists triumphed , saying , You Catholicks confefs our Baptism to be good , and so say we ; But we Donatists deny your Baptism to be good ; therefore it is safer to be of our side than yours . Now what should the Catholicks say or do ? Should they lie for God and for Rellgion , and to serve the ends of T●●th say the Donatists Baptism was not good ? That they ought not . Should they damn all the Donatists , and make the rent wider ? It was too great already . What then ? They were quiet , and knew that the Donatists sought advantages by their own fierceness , and trampled upon the others charity ; but so they hardned themselves in error , and became evil , because the others were good . I shall trouble you no further now , but desire you to consider of these things with as much caution as they were written with charity . Till I hear from you , I shall pray to God to open your heart and your understanding , that you may return from whence you are fallen , and repent , and do your first work : Which that you may do , is the hearty desire of Your very affectionate Friend and Servant , JER . TAYLOR FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A63729-e200 De Potest . Eccles . cons. 12. 
A63684	----	Christ's yoke an easy yoke, and yet the gate to heaven a strait gate in two excellent sermons, well worthy the serious perusal of the strictest professors / by a learned and reverend divine. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. 1675 Approx. 80 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 53 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-12 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A63684 Wing T295 ESTC R38275 17286795 ocm 17286795 106307 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A63684) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 106307) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1103:30) Christ's yoke an easy yoke, and yet the gate to heaven a strait gate in two excellent sermons, well worthy the serious perusal of the strictest professors / by a learned and reverend divine. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. Hove, Frederick Hendrick van, 1628?-1698. [6], 87, [5] p., [1] leaf of plates : port. Printed for F. Smith ..., London : 1675. Attributed to Taylor by Wing and NUC pre-1956 imprints. Includes engraved frontispiece portrait of Jeremy Taylor by F. H. Van Houe. Reproduction of original in the Cambridge University Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. 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Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Bible. -- N.T. -- Matthew XI, 30 -- Sermons. Sermons, English -- 17th century. 2005-02 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-04 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-05 Jonathan Blaney Sampled and proofread 2005-05 Jonathan Blaney Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion CHRIST'S YOKE AN EASY YOKE , And yet the Gate to Heaven a Strait Gate . In two excellent SERMONS , Well worthy the serious perusal of the strictest Professors . By a Learned and Reverend Divine . HEB. 11.4 . Who being dead , yet speaketh . LONDON : Printed for F. Smith , at the Eliphant and Castle near the Royal Exehange in Cornhil . 1675. D. IER . TAYLOR OBIIT AVG 13. 1667. F. H. Van Houe fec Wee Speak not great things , But Liue them , Variety in Opinion & unity In affection are not Inconsistent Printed for f. smith at y e Elephant ● . Castle in Cornhill . TO THE READER . READER , THese Sermons need no Epistle of Commendation before them ; the Works of this Reverend Author ( already extant praise him in the Gates : By means of a Person of Honour yet living , they are now come into the Press for Publick use and benefit . For the subject matter of these excellent Sermons , it is of all other the most necessary , to make the Way of Christ pleasant to us , and to assure us of a blessed and glorious Reward at the end : Both which are handled by a Workman that needeth not to be ashamed . What can more endear a Christian to the obedience of Christ , than to find his very Yoke made easie , none of his Commands grievous , but his Ways , ways of pleasantness , and all his Paths peace ; besides the great and everlasting Reward to all them that walk in them ? And to quicken our diligence , that we be not slothful , but followers of them , who through faith and obedience inherit the promises , the Author hath added another serious and weighty Discourse , to shew us , That strait is the Gate , and narrow is the Way that leadeth unto life . Though Christs Precepts are plain and easie to a sincere heart , that truly loves him ; yet his Promises are not to be obtained but by a universal endeavour , in a uniform obedience to all his Commands . In a word , Christs Yoke is easie ; this should invite us to take his Yoke upon us : The Way is narrow that leadeth unto life , this should provoke us with care and circumspection to walk in it . The Reward is certain and infinite , this should encourage us , with greatest diligence , that we may at last obtain the Promise . This we dout nobt was the design of the Author in preaching these Sermons ; and we do assure thee no less in printing of them : Which that they may conduce to so happy and blessed an end , is the hearty desire , and shall be the sincere prayer of thy Friend , to serve thee , CHRIST'S YOKE An Easie YOKE . Matth. 11.30 . For my Yoke is easie , and my Burden is light . THE Holy JESUS came to break from off our necks two great Yokes : the one of sin , by which we were fettered and imprisoned in the condition of Slaves and miserable persons ; the other of Mose's Law , by which we are kept in pupillage and minority , and a state of imperfection , and asserted unto us the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God. The first was a despotick Empire , the Government of a Tyrant ; the second was of a School-Master , severe , but it was in order to a further good , yet nothing pleasant in the suffering and load . And now Christ having taken off these two , hath put on a third : he quits us of our burden , but not of our duty , and hath chang'd the former Tyranny , and the less perfect Discipline , into the sweetness of paternal Regiment , and the excellency of such an Institution , whose every Precept carries part of its reward in hand , and assurance of after Glories . Moses Law was like sharp and unpleasant Physick , certainly painful , but uncertainly healthful . For it was not then communicated to them by Promise and universal Revelation , that the end of their Obedience should be Life Eternal . But they ere full of hopes it might be so ; as we are of health , when we have a learned and wise Physician : But as yet the reward was in a cloud , and the hopes in fetters and confinement . But the Law of Christ is like Christ's healing of Diseases , he does it easily , and he does it infallibly . The event is certainly cons●quent , and the manner of cure is by a touch of his Hand , or a word of his Mouth , or an approximation to the hem of his Garment , without pains and vexatious Instruments . My meaning is , that Christianity is by the assistance of Christ's Spirit which he promised us , and gave us in the Gospel , made very easy to us : and yet a reward so great is promised , as were enough to make a lame Man to walk , and a broken Arm endure the burden : a Reward great enough to make us willing to do violence to all our Inclinations , Passions and Desires . A hundred weight to a Giant is a light burden , because his strength is disproportionably great , and makes it as easie to him , as an ounce is to a Child . And yet if we had not the strength of Giants , if the hundred weight were of Gold or Jewels , a weaker person would think it no trouble to bear that burden , if it were the reward of his portage , and the hire of his labours . The Spirit is given us to enable us , and Heaven is promised to encourage us ; the first makes us able , and the second makes us willing : and when we have power and affections we cannot complain of pressure . And this is the meaning of our Blessed Saviour's invitation in my Text , Mat. 11.30 . Which St. John also observed , 1 John 5.4 , 5. For this is the love of God , that we keep his Commendments ; and his Commandments are not grievous . For whatsoever is born of God , overcometh the World ; and this is the Victory that overcometh , even our Faith ; that is , our belief of God's Promises ; the promise of the Spirit for present aid , and of Heaven for the future reward , is strength enough to overcome all the World. But besides , that God hath made his Yoke easie by exterior supports more than ever was in any other Religion , Christianity is of it self , according to humane estimate , a Religion more easie , and desirable by our natural and reasonable appetites , than Sin in the midst of all its pleasures , and imaginary felicities . Vertue hath more pleasure in it than Sin , and hath all satisfaction to every desire of Man in order to humane and prudent ends , which I shall represent in the consideration of these particulars . I. To live according to the Laws of Jesus , is in some things most natural and proportionable to the desires and first intentions of nature . II. There is in it less trouble than in Sin. III. It conduces infinitely to the content of our lives , and natural and political satisfaction . IV. It is a means to preserve our temporal Lives long and healthy . V. It is most reasonable ; and he only is prudent that does so , and he a fool that does not ; and all this , beside the consideration of a glorious and happy Eternity . I. Concerning the first I consider , that we do very ill , when instead of making our natural infirmity an instrument of humility , and of recourse to the Grace of God ; we pretend the Sin of Adam to countenance our actual sins ; natural infirmity to excuse our malice , either laying Adam in fault for deriving the disability upon us , or God for puting us into the necessity . But the evils that we feel in this , are from the rebellion of the inferior appetite against Reason , or against any Religion that puts restraint upon our first desires . And therefore in carnal and sensual instances , accidentally we find the more natural aversness , because God's Laws have put our irrascible and concupiscible faculties in fetters and restraints : yet in matters of Duty , which are of immaterial and spiritual concernment , all our natural reason is a perfect enemy and contradiction to , and a Law against Vice. It is natural for us to love our Parents , and they that do not , are unnatural , they do violence to those dispositions which God gave us to the constitution of our Nature , and for the designs of Vertue ; and all those tendernesses of affection , those bowels and relenting dispositions , which are the endearments of Parents and Children , are also the bands of Duty . Every degree of love makes Duty delectable , and therefore either by Nature we are inclined to hate our Parents ( which is against all Reason and Experience ) or else we are enclined to do them all that , which is the effect of love to such superiors , and principles of being and dependency ; and every prevarication from the Rule , Effects and Expresses of Love , is a contradiction to Nature , and a mortification , to which we cannot be invited by any thing from within , but by something from without , that●s violent and preternatural . There are also many other Virtues even in the matter of sensual appetite , which none can lose but by altering in some degree the natural disposition ; and I instance in the matter of carnality and uncleanness , to which possibly some natures may think themselves apt and dispos'd ; but yet God hath put into our mouths a bridle to curb the licentiousness of our speedy appetite , putting into our very natures , a principle as strong to restrain it , as there is in us a disposition apt to invite us ; and this is also in those who are most apt to the Vice. Women and young Persons , to whom God hath given a modesty , and shame of nature , that the entertainment of Lust may become contradictory to our retreating and backward modesty , more than they are satisfactory to our too forward appetites . It is as great a mortification and violence to Nature to blush , as to lose a desire ; and we find it true , when persons are invited to confess their sins , or to ask forgiveness publickly ; a secret smart is not so violent , as a publick shame . And therefore to do an action which brings shame all along , opens the sanctuaries of Nature , and makes all her retirements publick , and dismantles her inclosure , as Lust does ; and the shame of carnality hath in it more asperity and abuse to Nature , than the short minutes of pleasure , to which we are invited , can repay . There are unnatural Lusts ; Lusts , which are such in their very condition and constitution , that a Man must turn a Woman , and a Woman become a Beast in acting them : and all Lusts that are not unnatural in their own complexion , are unnatural by a consequent and accidental violence . And if Lust hath in it dissonancies to Nature , there are but few Apologies left to excuse our Sins upon Natures stock ; and all that system of principles , and reasonable inducements to Virtue , which we call the Law of Nature , is nothing else but that firm ligature and incorporation of Virtue to our natural principles and dispositions , which whoso prevaricates does more against Nature , than he that restrains his appetite . And besides these particulars , there is not in our natural discourses any inclination directly or by intention of it self contrary to the love of God , because by [ God ] we understand that fountain of being , which is infinitely perfect in it self , and of great good to us , and whatsoever is so apprehended it is as natural for us to love , as to love any thing in the world ; for we can love nothing but what we believe to be good in it self , or good to us . And beyond this there are in Nature many Principles and Reasons to make an aptness to acknowledge and confess God ; and by the consent of Nations , which they also have learned from the Dictates of their Nature , all Men in some manner or other worship God. And therefore when this our Nature is determined in its own indefinite principle to the manner of Worship , all acts against the Love , the Obedience , and Worship of God , are also against Nature , and offer it some rudeness and violence . And I shall observe this , and refer it to every Man's Reason and Experience , that the great difficulties commonly apprehended , commence not so much upon the stock of Nature as of Education , and evil habits . Our Virtues are difficult , because we at first get ill habits ; and these habits must be unrooted , before we do well , and that 's our trouble . But if by the strictness of Discipline , and wholsome Education , we begin at first in our Duty , and practice of vertuous Principles , we shall find Vertue made as natural to us , while it is customary and habitual , as we pretend infirmity to be , and propensity to vitious practices . And this we are taught by that excellent Hebrew ; who said : Wisdom is easily seen of them that love her , and found of such as seek her : she preventeth them that desire her , in making her self first known unto them . Whoso seeketh her early shall have no great travel , for he shall find her sitting at his doors , Wisd. 6.12 , 13 , 14. II. In the strict observance of the Law of Christianity there is less trouble , than in the habitual courses of Sin. For if we consider the general design of Christianity , it propounds to us in this world nothing that is of difficult purchase , nothing beyond what God allo●s us by the ordinary and common providence , such things which w● are to receive without care and solicitous vexations ; So that the ends are nothing , and the way is easie ; and this walk●d over with much simplicity and sweetness , and those obtained without difficulty . He that propounds to live low , pious , humble and retir'd , his main imployment is nothing but sitting quiet , and undisturb'd with variety of impertinent affairs . But he that loves the World & its acquisitions , entertains a thousand businesses , and every business hath a world of imployment , and every imployment is multiplied and made intricate by circumstances , and every circumstance is to be disputed , and he that disputes , ever hath two sides in enmity and opposition , and by this time there is a genealogie , a long descent and cognation of troubles , branch'd into so many particulars , that it is troublesome to understand them , and much more to run through them The wayes of Virtue , are much upon the defensive , and the works one , uniform and little : they are like War within a strong Castle , if they stand upon their guard , they seldom need to strike a stroke . But Vice is like storming of a Fort , full of Noise , Trouble , Labour , Danger and Disease . How easie a thing it is to restore the pledge ! but if a Man means to defeat him that trusted him , what a world of Arts must he use to make pretences ? to delay first , then to excuse , then to object , then to intricate the business , next to quarrel , then to forsware it , and all the way to palliate his Crime , and represent himself honest . And if an oppressing and greedy person have a design to cozen a young Heir , or to get his neighbours Land , the cares of every day , and the interruptions of every nights sleep are more , than the purchase is worth ; since he might buy Virtue at half that watching , and the less painful care of a fewer number of dayes . A plain story is soonest told , and best confutes an intricate Lye. And when a Person is examined in Judgment , one false Answer asks more Wit for its support and maintenance , than a History of Truth . And such persons are put to so many shameful retreats , false colour , fucus's , and dawbings with untempered mortar to avoid contradiction or discovery , that the labour of a false story seems in the order of things to be design'd the beginning of its punishment . And if we consider how great a part of our Religion consists in Prayer , and how easie a thing God requires of us , when he commands us to pray for blessings , the duty of a Christian cannot seem very troublesome . And indeed I can hardly instance in any Vice , but there is visibly more pain in the order of acting and observing it , than in the acquist or promotion of Vertue . I have seen drunken persons in their seas of Drink and Talk , dread every Cup as a blow , and have used devices and private arts to escape the punishment of a full draught ; and the poor wretch being condemned by the laws of drinking to his measure , was forced and haled to execution , and he suffered it , and thought himself engaged to that person , who with much kindness and importunity invited him to a Fever ; but certainly there was more pain in it than in the strictness of holy and severe Temperance . And he that shall compare the troubles and dangers of an Ambitious War with the gentleness and easiness of Peace , will soon perceive that every Tyrant and usurping Prince , that snatches at his Neighbours Rights , hath two Armies , one of Men , the other of Cares . Peace sheds no Blood but that of the pruned Vine , and hath no business but modest and quiet entertainments of the time opportune for Piety , and circled with reward . But God often punishes Ambition and Pride with Lust , and he sent a Thorn in the flesh as a corrective to the Elevations of St. Paul , growing up from the multitude of his Revelations ; and it is not likely the Punishment should have less trouble than the Crime , whose Pleasures and Obliquity this was design'd to punish . And indeed every Experience can verifie , that an Adulterer hath in him the impatience of Desires , the burnings of Lust , the fear of Shame , the apprehensions of a jealous , abus'd and enraged Husband . Heendures affronts , mistimings , tedious waitings , the dulness of delay , the regret of in●erruption , the confusion and amazements of discovery , the scorns of a reproached Vice , the debasings of contempt upon it ; unless the Man grows impudent , and then he is more miserable upon another stock . But David was so put to it , to attempt , to obtain , to enjoy Bathsheba , and to prevent the shame of it , that the difficulty was greater than all his Wit and Power , and it drove him into base and unworthy Arts , which discovered him the more , and multiplied his Crime : But while he enjoyed the innocent pleasures of his lawful Bed , he had no more trouble in it , than there was in inclining his Head upon his Pillow . Vertue hath not half so much trouble in it , it sleeps quietly without startings and affrighting fancies , it looks cheerfully , smiles with much serenity ; and though it laughs not often , yet it is ever delightful in the apprehentions of some faculty . It fears no Man , nor nothing , nor is it discomposed ; and hath no concernments in the great alterations of the World , and entertains Death like a Friend , and reckons the issues of it as the greatest of his hopes : But Ambition is full of distraction , it teems with stratagems as Rebecca with struggling Twins , and is swell'd with expectation as a Tympany , and sleeps sometimes as the Wind in a Storm , still and quiet for a minute , that it may burst out in an impetuous blast , till the chordage of his Heart-strings crack ; Fears when none is nigh ; prevents things , which never had intention , and falls under the inevitability of such accidents , which either could not be foreseen , or not prevented . The wayes of Sin are crooked , desert , rocky and uneven ; they are broad indeed , and there is variety of ruins , and allurements to entice Fools , and a large Theater to act the bloody Tragedy of Souls upon , but they are nothing smooth , or safe , or delicate . The wayes of Vertue are strait , but not crooked ; narrow , but not unpleasant . There are two Vices for one Vertue , and therefore the way to Hell must needs be of greater extent , latitude and dissemination . But because Vertue is but one way , therefore it is easie , regular , and apt to walk in without errour or diversions . Narrow is the Gate , and strait is the way : It is true , considering our evil customs and depraved Natures , by which we have made it so to us . But God hath made it more passable by his Grace and present Aids ; and St. John Baptist receiving his commission to Preach Repentance , it was expressed in these words , make plain the paths of the Lord. Indeed Repentance is a rough and a sharp Vertue , and like a Mattock and Spade breaks away all the roughness of the passage , and hindrances of sin ; but when we enter into the dispositions which Christ hath design'd to us , the way is more plain and easie than the wayes of Death and Hell. Labour it hath in it , just as all things that are excellent , but no confusions , no distractions of thoughts , no amazements , no labyrinths , and intricacy of counsels ; But it is like the Labours of Agriculture , full of health and simplicity , plain and profitable , requiring diligence , but such , in which crafts and painful stratagems are useless , and impertinent . But Vice hath oftentimes so troublesome a retinue , and so many objections in the event of things , is so intangled in difficult and contradictory circumstances , hath in it parts so opposit to each other , and so inconsistent with the present condition of the Man , or some secret design of his , that those little pleasures , which are its fucus and pretence , are less perceiv'd and least enjoyed , while they begin in phantastick Semblances , and rise up in smoak , vain and hurtful , and end in dissatisfaction . But it is considerable , that God , and the Sinner , and the Devil , all joyn in increasing the difficulty and trouble of Sin ; upon contrary design 's indeed , but all cooperate to the verification of this Discourse . For God by his restraining Grace , the checks of a tender Conscience , the bands of publick Honesty , the sense of Honour and Reputation , the customs of Nations , and the severities of Laws , makes , that in most Men the choice of Vice is imperfect , dubious and troublesome , the pleasures abated , the apprehensions various , and in differing degrees ; and Men act their Crimes , while they are disputing against them , and the Ballance is cast by a few Grains ; and scruples vex and disquiet the possession ; and the difference is perceived to be so little , that inconsideration and inadvertency is the greatest means to determine many Men to the entertainment of a Sin. And this God does with a design to lessen our choice , and disabuse our perswasions from Arguments and weak pretences of Vice , and to invite us to the trials of Vertue , when we see its enemy giving us so ill conditions . And yet the sinner himself makes the business of Sin greater ; for its Nature is so loathsome , its pleasure so little , and its promises so unperformed , that when it lies open and easie , and apt to be discern'd , there is no argument in it ready to invite us ; and Men hate a Vice , which is every day offered and prostituted ; and when they seek for pleasure , unless difficulty present it , as there is nothing in it really to perswade a choice , so there is nothing strong , or witty enough to abuse a Man. And to this purpose ( among some others which are malicious and crafty ) the Devil gives assistance , knowing that Men despise what is cheap and common , and suspect a latent excellency to be in difficult and forbidden objects ; and therefore the Devil sometimes crosses an opportunity of Sin , knowing that the desire is the iniquity , and does his work sufficiently ; and yet the crossing the desire by impeding the act heightens the appetite , and makes it more violent and impatient . But by all these means Sin is made more troublesome , than the pleasures of the Temptation can account for : and it will be a strange imprudence to leave Vertue upon pretence of its difficulty , when for that very reason , we the rather entertain the instances of Sin , despising a cheap Sin , and a costly Vertue ; choosing to walk through the Brambles of a desert , rather than to climb the Fruit-Trees of Paradise . III. Vertue conduces infinitly to the content of our lives , to Secular felicities , and Political satisfactions ; and Vice doth the quite contrary . For the blessings of this Life are these , that make it happy , Peace and Quietness , Content and Satisfaction of desires , Riches , love of Friends and Neighbours ; Honour and Reputation abroad ; a healthful Body and a long Life . Th●s last is a distinct Consideration , but the other are proper to this Title . For the first it is certain . Peace was so design'd by the Holy Jesus , that he fram'd all his Laws in complyance with that design . He , that returns good for evil , a soft answer to the asperity of his Enemy , kindness to injuries , lessens the contention alwayes , and sometimes gets a Friend , and when he does not , he shames his Enemy . Every little accident in a family , to peevish and angry persons , is the matter of a quarrel , discomposes the Peace of the House , and sets it on Fire , and no Man can tell how far that may burn ; it may be , to a dissolution of the whole Fabrick . But whosoever obeys the Laws of Jesus , bears with the infirmities of his Relatives and Society , seeks with sweetness to remedy what is ill , and to prevent what it may produce , and throws water upon a spark ; and lives sweetly with his Wife , affectionately with his Children , providently and discreetly with his Servants , and they all love the Major domo , and look upon him as their Parent , their Guardian , their Friend , their Patron , their Proveditor . But look upon a person angry , peaceless and disturbed , when he enters upon his threshold , it gives an alarm to his house , and puts them to flight , or upon their defence ; and the Wife reckons the joy of her day is done when he returns ; and the Children enquire into their Father's Age , and think his Life tedious ; and the Servants curse privately , and do their service as Slaves do , only vvhen they dare not do otherwise ; and they serve him , as they serve a Lyon , they obey his Strength , and fear his Cruelty , and despise his Manners , and hate his Person . No Man injoyes content in his Family but he that is peaceful and charitable , just and loving , forbearing and forgiving , careful and provident . He that is not so , his House may be his Castle , but it is mann'd by his Enemies ; his House is built not upon the Sand , but upon the Waves , and upon a Tempest , the Foundation is uncertain , but his Ruine is not so . And if we extend the relations of the Man beyond his own Walls , he that does his duty to his Neighbour , that is , all offices of kindness , gentleness and humanity , nothing of injury and affront , is certain never to meet with a wrong so great , as is the inconvenience of a Law-Suit , or the contention of Neighbours and all the consequent dangers and troubles . Kindness will create and invite kindness ; an injury provokes an injury . And since the love of Neighbours is one of those beauties , which Solomon did admire , and that this beauty is within the combination of precious things , which adorn and reward a p●aceable charitable disposition , he that is in love wi●h Spiritual exc●llencies , with intellectual rectitudes , with Peace and with blessings of Society , knows they grow among the Role-bushes of Vertues , and holy Obedience to the Laws of JESUS . And for a good Man some will ev●n dare to dye , and a sweet and charitable disposition is received with fondness , and all the endearments of the Neighbourhood . He that observes how many Families are ruin'd by contention , and how many Spirits are broken by Care , and Contumely , Fear and Spight , which are entertain'd as Advocates to promote a Suit of Law , will soon confess , that a great loss and peaceable quitting of a considerable Interest is a purchase and a gain , in respect of a long Suit , and a vexatious Quarrel . And still if the Proportion rises higher , the Reason swels and grows more necessary and determinate . For if we would live according to the Discipline of Christian Religion , one of the great Plagues , which vex the World , would be no more . That there should be no Wars , was one of the designs of Christianity , and the living according to that Institution , which is able to prevent all Wars , and to establish an universal and eternal Peace , when it is obeyed , is the using an infallible instrument toward that part of our political happiness , which consists in Peace . This World would be an image of Heaven , if all Men were Charitable , Peaceable , Just and Loving . To this excellency all those Precepts of Christ , which consist in Forbearance and Forgiveness , do cooperate . But the next instance of the reward of Holy Obedience and conformity to Christ's Laws is it self a duty , and needs no more but a meer repetition of it . We must be content in every State ; and because Christianity teaches us this lesson , it teaches us to be Happy : for nothing from without can make us miserable , unless we joyn our own consents to it , and apprehend it such , and entertain it in our sad and melancholy retirements . A Prison is but a retirement and opportunity of serious thoughts to a person whose Spirit is confin'd , and apt to sit still , and desires no enlargement beyond the cancels of the Body , till the state of separation calls it forth into a fair liberty . But every Retirement is a Prison to a loose and wandring fancy , for whose wildness no precepts are restraint , no band of duty is confinement , who , when he hath broken the hedge of duty , can never after endure any enclosure so much as in Symbol . But this Precept is so necessary , that it is no more a Duty than a rule of Prudence , and in many accidents of our Lives it is the only cure of sadness : for 't is certain , that no Providence less than Divine can prevent evil and cross accidents ; but that is an excellent Remedy to the evils , that receives the accident within its power , and takes out the sting , paring the Nails , and drawing the Teeth of the Wild-beast , that it may be tame or harmless , and Medicinal . For all content consists in the in the proportion of the Object to the appetite . And because external accidents are not in our power , and it were nothing excellent that things happened to us according to our first desires , God hath by his Grace put it into our own power to make the happiness , by making our desires descend to the event , and comply with the chance , and combine with all the issues of Divine Providence . And then we are noble persons , when we borrow not our content from things below us , but make our satisfactions from within . And it may be considered , that every little Care may disquiet us , and may encrease it self by reflexion upon its own Acts ; and every discontent may discompose our Spirits , and put an edge , and make afflictions poynant , but cannot take off one from us , but makes every one to be two . But content removes not the accident , but complyes with it ; it takes away the sharpness and displeasure of it , and by stooping down makes the heights equal , proportionate and commensurate . Impatience makes an Ague to be a Fever , and every Fever to be a Calenture , and that Calenture may expire in madness : But a quiet Spirit is a great disposition to Health , and for the present does alleviate the Sickness . And this also is notorious in the instance of Covetousness . The love of money is the root of all evil , which while some have coveted after , they have pierced themselves with many Sorrows . Vice makes poor , and does ill endure it . For he , that in the school of Christ hath learnt to determine his desires when his needs are served , and to judg of his needs by the proportions of Nature , hath nothing wanting towards Riches . Vertue makes Poverty to become rich , and no riches can satisfie a covetous mind , or rescue him from the affliction of the worst kind of Poverty . He only wants , that is not satisfied . And there is great infelicity in a Family , where Poverty dwells with discontent ; there the Husband and Wife quarrel for want of a full Table , and a rich Wardrobe ; and their Love , that was built upon false Riches , sinks , when such temporary supporters are removed . They are like two Milstones , which set the Mill on fire when they want Corn. And then their combinations and society were unions of Lust , when not supported with Sacramental and Religious Love. But we may easily suppose St. Joseph , and the Holy Virgin Mother in Egypt poor as hunger , forsaken as banishment , disconsolate as strangers ; and yet their present lot gave them no affliction , because the Angel fed them with a necessary Hospitality , and their desires were no larger than their Tables , their Eyes look'd only upwards , and they were carless of the future , and careful of their duty , and so made their life pleasant by the measures and discourses of Divine Philosophy . When Elisha stretch'd himself upon the body of the Child , and laid hands to hands , and applied mouth to mouth , and so shrunk himself into the posture of commensuration with the Child , he brought life into the dead Trunk : and so may we by applying our Spirits to the proportion of a narrow fortune , bring life and vivacity into our dead and lost condition , and make it live till it grows bigger , or else returns to health and salutary uses . And besides this Philosophical extraction of Gold from Stones , and Riches from the dungeon of Poverty , a holy life does most probably procure such a proportion of Riches which can be useful to us , or consistent with our felicity . For ( besides that the Holy Jesus hath promised all things , which our Heavenly Father knows we need ( provided we do our duty ) and that we find great securities and rest from care , when we have once cast our cares upon our God , and plac'd our hopes in his bosome : besides all this ) the Temperance , Sobriety and Prudence of a Christian is a great income , and by not despising it a small revenue combines its parts , till it grows to a heap big enough for the emissions of Charity , and all the offices of Justice , and the supplies of all necessities . Whilest Vice is unwary , prodigal , indiscreet , throwing away great revenues , as tributes to intemperance and vanity , and suffering dissolution and forfeiture of estates , as a punishment and curse . Some Sins are direct improvidence and ill-husbandry . I reckon in this number Intemperance , Lust , Litigiousness , , Ambition , Bribery , Prodigality , Gaming , Pride , Sacriledge , which is the greatest spender of them all , and makes a fair estate evaporate , like Camphire , turning it into nothing , no Man knows which way . But what a Roman gave as an estimate of a Rich Man , saying , He that can maintain an Army is Rich , was but a short account : for he that can maintain an Army , may be begger'd by one Vice ; and it is a vast revenue that will pay the Debt-Books of Intemperance or Lust. To these if we add , that Vertue is honourable , and a great advantage to a fair reputation ; that it is praised by them that love it not ; that it is honour'd by the followers and Family of Vice ; that it forces Glory out of shame , Honour from contempt ; that it reconciles Men to the fountain of Honour , the Almighty God , who will honour them that honour him . There are but a few more Excellencies in the World to make up the Rosary of temporal felicity . And it is so certain , that Religion serves even our temporal ends , that no great end of State can well be served without it ; not ambition , not desires of wealth , not any great designs ; but Religion must be made its usher or support . If a new Opinion be commenc'd , and the Author would make a Sect , and draw Disciples after him , at least he must be thought to be Religious , which is a demonsration how great an instrument of Reputation Piety and Religion is ; and if the pretence will do us good offices among Men , the reality will do the same , besides the advantages which we shall receive from the Divine benediction . The Power of Godliness will certainly do more than the form alone . And it is most notorious in the affairs of the Clergy , whose lot it hath been to fall from great riches to poverty , when their wealth made them less curious of their Duty ; but when Humility and Chastity , and no exemplary Sanctity have been the enamel of their holy Order , the people , like the Galathians , would pull out their own eyes to do them benefit . And indeed , God hath singularly blessed such instruments , to the being the only remedies to repair the breaches made by Sacriledge and Irreligion . But certain it is , no Man was ever honoured for that which they esteemed vitious . Vice hath got money and a curse many times , and Vice hath adhered to the instruments and purchases of honour . But among all Nations , whatsoever they call'd Honourable , put on the face and pretence of Vertue . But I chuse to instance in the proper cognisance of a Christian [ Humility ] which seems contradictory to the purposes and reception of Honour , and yet in the world nothing is a more certain means to purchase it . Do not all the World hate a proud Man ? And therefore what is contrary to Humility is also contradictory to Honour and Reputation . And when the Apostles had given command , that in giving Honour we should one go before another , he laid the foundation of Praises , Panegyricks , and Triumphs . And as Humility is secure against affronts , and tempests of despite , because it is below them : So when by employment , or any other issue of Divine Providence , it 's drawn from its sheath and secresie , it shines clear and bright as the purest and most polish'd Metals . Humility is like a Tree , whose roots , when it sets deepest in the Earth , rises higher , and spreads fairer , and stands surer , and lasts longer ; every step of its descent is like a rib of Iron , combining its parts in unions indissoluble , and placing it in the Chambers of security . No wise Man ever lost any thing by cession ; but he receives the Hostility of violent persons into his imbraces , like a stone into a lap of Wooll , it rests and sets down soft and innocently : but a stone falling upon a stone makes a collision , and extracts Fire , and finds no rest : And just so are two proud persons , despis'd by each other , contemn'd by all , living in perpetual dissonances , alwayes fighting against affronts , jealous of every person , disturb'd by every accident , a perpetual storm within , and daily hissings from without . The Gate to Heaven a Strait Gate . Luke 13.23 , 24. Then said one unto him , Lord , are there few that shall be saved ? And he said unto them ; Strive to enter in at the Strait Gate , for many , I say unto you will seek to enter in , but shall not be able . THe life of a Christian is a perpetual contention for mastery , a continual strife : Indeed we usually strive too much , and that for trifles and rewards inconsiderable ; Nay , we strive for things that ruine us ; whereas if we would strive lawfully , that is , for that Crown that is laid up for us , & run that race which is set before us , our strivings would be as good as peace and rest ; for they would bring us peace at the last ; Victory and Peace , Security and Eternity , Joy and infinite Satisfactions , and these are things worth striving for . But here plainly is our Duty . I. We must strive to enter . And this Duty enforc'd by a double Argument . 1. From the order of the end , and nature of the thing : the Gate is strait , and therefore we must strive . 2. From the caution and example of them , that have fallen short for want of due striving . Many sought , and fain would have entred , but for want of striving they were not able . 1. And first of the duty it self , Contendite intrare : strive to enter in at the strait Gate . And here I consider , That besides the extension of our Duty , there being more Duties required of us than of any sort of men before the preaching of the Gospel ( the Jews themselves , who reckon that Moses gave to them six hundred and thirteen Precepts , having received no precept at all concerning Prayer , Faith , or Repentance ) besides this I say , I consider , that not only in respect of the extension , but by reason of the intension of our Duty , and the degrees of Holiness that the holy Laws of Christianity require of us , it is necessary that we strive with great earnestness . Qui enim Sanctitatem Sanctê custodiunt , judicabuntur Sancti , saith the Wisdom of Solomon . cap. 6. v. 10. A Man may do holy things unholily . There are some that preach Christ out of envy , there are many that get Proselytes for gain ; there are some that are zealous to get Disciples , that they may glory in their Flesh , as some fase Apostles did to the Galatians ; there is some zeal in an evil matter ; and many times , when a Man hath done good actions , he is the further off from the Gates of Heaven , not because he did the good actions , but because he wanted those formalities & circumstances , those manners and degrees , those principles and ends , which make good actions in themselves be good in us , which crown the actions and make us to be accepted . It was well done in the Pharisees to Pray often , and to Fast twice in the week , and to give Alms ; and yet these very good actions were so far from being commended , that they became the object of his anger , and the matter of reproof , and it was because they did it with a design to be accounted holy . Indeed they blew a Trumpet , but that was to call the poor together , that was the external end . But there was a little Ivy crept up on this goodly Oak , till it suckt its heart out ; they themselves would be taken notice of , and that spoil'd all ; their actions went no further than the end which they propounded to themselves . For that which Men make their principal end , that God will suffer shall be their end . If they seek the praise of Men , that being their purpose , that shall be their reward ; but if they aim at the pleasure of God , and the rewards of Heaven , thither will God's Mercy and their own good deeds bear them . A little leaven it is that sowrs the whole lump . Who would have thought , that our Blessed Saviour should have found fault with the Pharisees for giving God thanks for his Graces , or not have been satisfied with the exactness of their Justice and Religion , that they would give Tith , even of Mint and Anise and Cummin seeds ; or have reprov'd Judas for having care of the poor , or discountenanc'd the Jews for accusing the Woman taken in Adltery ; or have been discontented at the Doctors of the Law for being strict and severe exactors of the Law of God at the people's hands , or check'd them for observing the innocent customs of their Nation , and Tradition of their fore-Fathers ? Since all these acts were Pious , or Just , or Charitable , or Religious , or Prosecutions of some part or other of their Duty . The several reasons of these reprehensions our Blessed Saviour subjoyns at the end of every of them respectively . They wanted a circumstance , or a good manner ; their actions were better than their intentions , and sometimes their malice was greatest in their very acts of Charity . And when they gave God thanks , they did despite to their Brother ; something or other did envenom the face of these acts of Piety ; Their heart was not upright , or their Religion was imperfect ; their Piety wanted some integral part , or had an evil Eye . A word , a thought , a secret purpose , a less holy intention , any indirect circumstance , or obliquity in an accident makes our Piety become impious , and deprives us of our reward . Here therefore we had need to Watch , to Strive , to Pray , to Contend , and to do all diligence that can be express'd by all the Synonyma's of care and industry . 2. We had need to Strive , because though Vertues be nice and curious , yet vitia sunt in facili et propinquo , Sin lies at the door , and is thrust upon us by the violence of Adversaries , or by the subtilty and insinuation of its own nature , which we are to understand to the following sence . For when we are born of Christian Parents , we are born in puris naturalibus , we have at first no more promptness to commit some sort of Sins , than to commit some good acts . We are as apt to learn to love God , as to love our Parents , if we be taught it . For though Original Sin hath lost to us all those supernaural assistances , which were at first put into our Nature per modum gratiae ; yet it is but by accident that we are more prone to Sin , than we are to Virtue . For after this it happened that God giving us Laws , made his restraints and prohibitions in materia voluptatis sensualis , he by his Laws hath enjoyn'd us to deny our natural Appetites in many things . Now this being become the matter of Divine Laws , that we should in many parts and degrees abstain from what pleases our sense , by this supervening accident it happens that we are very hardly wean'd from Sin , but most easily tempted to a Vice ; our Nature is not contrary to Virtue , but the instances of some Vertues are made to come cross our Nature . But in things intellectual and immaterial , we are indeed indifferent to Virtue and Vice ; I say , where neither one , nor the other satisfies the sensual part . In the Old Law , when it was a duty to Swear by the God of Israel in common Causes , Men were indifferent to that , and to swear by the Queen of Heaven ; they had no more natural inclination to the one , than to the other , except where something sensual became the argument to determine them . And in sensual things , if God had commanded Polygamy or promiscuous concubinate , and indifferent unlimited Lust , Men had been more apt to obey that Commandment , than to disobey it . But then the restraint lying upon our natural appetites , and we being by ill Education determin'd upon , and almost engag'd to Vitious Actions , we suffer under the inconveniences of idle Education , and in the mean time rail upon Adam and Original Sin. It is indifferent to us to love our Fathers , and to love strangers . And if from our Infancy we be told concerning a stranger that he is our Father ; we frame our affections to Nature , and our Nature to Custom and Education , and are as apt to love him , who is not , and yet is said to be , as him who is said not to be , and yet indeed is our natural Father . The purpose of this Discourse is this , that we may consider how Sin creeps upon us in our Education so tacitely and undiscernably , that we mistake the cause of it ; and yet so effectually and prevalently , that we guess it to be our very Nature , and charge it upon Adam , when every one of us is the Adam , the Man of Sin , and the Parent of our own Iniquities . We are taught to be revengeful even in our Cradles , and taught to strike our neighbours as a means to still our frowardness , and satisfie our wranglings . Our Nurses teach us to know the greatness of our birth , or the riches of our inheritance , or they learn us to be proud , or to be impatient , before we learn to know God , or to say our Prayers . After we are grown up to more years , we have Tutors of impiety , that are stronger to perswade , and more diligent to insinuate , and we are more receptive of every vicious impression . And not to reckon all the inconveniencies of evil company , indulgence of Parents , publick and authoriz'd customs of Sin , and all the mischiefs and dangers of publick Society , and private retirements , when we have learn'd to discern good from evil , and when we are prompted to do a good , or engaged to it by some happy circumstance or occasion , our good is so seldom , and so little , and there are so many ways of spoyling it , that there are not more ways to make an Army miscarry in a Battle , than there are to make us perish even in our good actions . Every Enemy that is without , every weakness and imperfection we have within ; every temptation , every vitious circumstance , every action of our life mingled with interest and design , is as a particular argument to engage our earnestness and zeal in this Duty ut contendamus acriter , that we strive and make it our business , to enter into the Strait Gate . For since the Writers of Moral Institutions and Cases of Conscience have made no such abbreviatures of the Duty of a Christian , but that I think there are amongst them all without hyperbole five thousand Cases of Conscience , besides the ordinary plain Duty of a Christian , and there may be five thousand times five thousand , and the wit of Man can no more comprize all Cases , which are or may be within their Books , than they can at once describe an infinity , or set down the biggest number that can be ; it will follow that it is a nice thing to be a Christian , and all the striving we can use , will be little enough towards the doing of our duty . And now if you enquire , what is meant by striving in this place ? and what is the full intention of this Precept ? I Answer ; it is an infinite or indefinite term , and signifies no determinate degree of labour and endeavour , but even as much as we can , supposing our weaknesses , our hindrances and avocations ; that is , to make it the business of our Lives , the care of our Thoughts , our study and the greatest imployment of the whole Man to serve God. Holy Scripture gives us general notions and comprehensions of the whole Duty of Man , that may be excellent guides to us in this particular , Heb. 12.1 . Let us lay aside every weight , and the Sin that doth so easily beset us . For he that contendeth for Mastery is temperate in all things , saith St. Paul. There is first an obligation of all Sin whatsoever , every weight , every Sin , every hindrance ; abstaining from all things whatsoever that are impediments . And we do not strive to do this , unless we use all the means we can to learn what is our Duty , and what infinite variety of Sins there are that so easily beset us . And let me desire you to observe one thing ; make a tryal in any one Sin that is or hath been most pleasing to any of you , and according to your Duty set upon its mortification heartily and throughly , and try whether it will not be a hard strife with flesh and blood , and a great contention to kill that one crime ; I mean in the midst of your temptations to it , and opportunities of acting it ; and by this you may make a short conjecture , at the greatness of this Duty . And this is but the one half ; For the extirpation of Vices is not always the introduction of Virtues . For there are some Men that have ceased from an act of Sin , that still retain the affection , and there are others who have quitted their affection to Sin , who yet are not reconciled to the difficulty and pains of acquiring Vertues . I thank God I am no Extortioner , no Adulterer , not as this Publican , saith the Pharisee : So far many go , and then they think themselves fairly assoiled , who are only like misguided Travellers , that upon discovery of their error cease to wander further , but are not yet returned , nor have made any progress in the true way . Some Men cease to oppress their Neighbours , and will do so no more ; but they think not of making restitution of what wrongs have been done by them long since . Some Men will leave off from Drunkenness ; but they think not of fasting , and enduring Hunger and Thirst and Pains to punish their past Intemperance . There is a further striving , or we shall not enter into the narrow Gate . St. Peter gives an excellent account of it ; 2 Pet. 1.4 . Having escaped the corruption that is in the World through Lust ; that 's one half : but he adds , And besides this , giving all diligence , add to your Faith , Vertue , and to Vertue Knowledge , to Knowledg Temperance , to Temperance Patience , to Patience Godliness , to Godliness Brotherly kindness , to Brotherly kindness Charity : these things must be in you and abound , saith St. Peter ; and therefore , as himself prefaces , you had need give all diligence , and strive earnestly to all these purposes . In the mean time I pray remember , that this is not to strive , when we only do perform those Offices of Religion , which Custom or the Laws of a Church enjoyn us to : nor this when our Religion is cheap and easy , when we use arts to satisfie our Conscience , and heap up Teachers of our own to that purpose , that by a stratagem they and we may bend the Duty to our Conscience , not measure our Conscience by our Duty ; when we call security a just peace , want of understanding a sufficient warrant for quietness , the not-committing of deformed and scandalous Sins a pious Life ; this is far from striving , here is no striving in this , but how to cozen and abuse our selves . If the affairs of the World ( I do not say ) take up not only most of our time , but most of our affections ; if the returns of Sin be frequent , and of Religion be seldom and unpleasant ; If any Vice hath got possession of us , or that we have not got possession of all those Virtues we have use of , we have not striven Lawfully . Shall I tell you , how St. Paul did strive ? that thence we a so may have a fair patern and president to imitate , 2 Cor. 6. you have his course of Life largely described : Giving no offence in any thing , but approving our selves in much Patience , in Afflictions , in Labours , in Watchings , in fast●ngs , by Pureness , by Knowledge , by Long-suffering , by kindness , by the Holy Ghost , by Love unfeigned , by the Word of Truth , by the Power of God , by the Armour of Righteousness , and by an evenness of Temper in the midst of an uneven , unquiet and contradictory condition : this was his course of Life , thus did he labour Mortifying his Soul , heightening his Devotion , bringing his Body under , and advancing the interests of the Gospel , lest by any means he had run , or should run in vain . I speak not these things to discourage you , but to provoke you to good Works and a Holy Life . For if you ask , who does all this , or indeed who is able ? I answer ; it is no good argument of an affection to God , when we make such scrupulous questions concerning his Injunctions . He that loves God , does all this ; Love is the fulfilling of the Commandments : Love hopeth all things , endureth all things , thinketh nothing impossible ; attempteth those things as most easie , which to natural Reason seem impossible . For consider , that as without God's Grace we can do nothing ; so by his Grace strengthening us we can do any thing . Faith works Miracles , and Charity does more . Through Christ that strengthens me I can do all things , saith St. Paul , and Christ's Grace is sufficient for me , sufficient to all God's purposes , and to all mine . For it is not commanded to us to remove Mountains from their places , which we never plac'd there ; but to remove our Sins which we our selves have made . We are not commanded to do things , which are not in our Power ; but such things which God enables us to , and to which we disable our selves by cowardice , & intimidating our own Spirits , by despairing of God's Grace , by refusing to labour , by deferring our endeavours till the weight of our sin grows great , and our strength grows less ; till our iniquities are many , and our days are few ; and then indeed we have some reason to say , we cannot strive in such measure , as the greatness of these Duties does require . And yet remember 't is but striving , that is , doing the utmost of our endeavour ; the best Man in the World can do no more than use all his endeavour , and he that is weakest can do so much , that is , he can do his endeavour . And although a Boy cannot strike so great a stroke as a strong Man , yet he can put forth all his strength ; and the just and merciful Lawgiver never requires more of us than all we have upon the stock of Nature , and all he hath given us in the Banks of Grace . So that the Duty we are here engaged upon , is but an earnest endeavour to do our best , and all we can ; and every Man can do that : But because they will not , because Men have habitual aversations from the practices of a holy life , because to do actions of severe Religion and strict Piety is troublesom to their affections , because contrariant to their wills , therefore it is they call it hard and impossible ; whereas it is not the impossibility of the thing , but their own disaffections , that have heightned the difficulty to a seeming impossibility . And thus I have done with the first Part of the Text , the Duty it self , with its manner of performance : We must strive to enter into the narrow Gate of Life , and Blisful Immortality . II. And that leads to the second Part , or the first Argument to engage our endeavours and earnest strivings ; because the passage is hard and difficult , and not to be acquir●d by men that love their ease ; but by those that with Christian fortitude encounter all difficulties and oppositions . Porta est angusta , the Gate is narrow ; therefore strive . And 1. I consider that Virtues and Vices many of them are so very like , that it is very often extreamly difficult to distinguish them exactly , and pursue the Virtue curiously . Virtue lies between two Vices , not as a mediocrity , but as a thing assaulted by two enemies ; for one Vertue two Vices , and each of the extreams hath something of the Virtue in it . A Prodigal hath the open-handedness of a liberal person ; and a covetous person is as wary , as he that spends nothing in vain , and both these would think themselves uncivilly dealt withal , if the freeness of the one , or the restraint of the other should be called vicious . And there are some Precepts , which some will think they have Reason to say they have strictly observed , when they have been most notorious Prevaricators of it : For may not a vain-glorious person , that gives Alms out of the promptness of his Spirit , think he hath done his Alms well , although he hath done them publickly ; it being a Divine Precept , That our Light so shine before Men , that other Men seeing our good Works , might glorifie our heavenly Father . And if this be a Precept , possibly also some who transgress this Precept , may think themselves safe on the surer side of Humility . And truly that we may see how dangerous our condition is , and yet how safe our imaginations are , I think no Man will doubt , but all God's Commandments have been broken , and this of Luceat lux vestra , ( Let your Light shine ) amongst the rest ; and yet I never read or heard any man , in the greatest and largest of his Confessions ever acknowledge that Crime , that he had not done his good deeds publickly . But between the Duty of publication of good Deeds , and the Duty of Humility , the way is so narrow , that it is hard to hit it right ; and when , and how , and in what manner , and in what circumstances to do either , is the work of great understanding and much observation . I consider yet further ; many times a Virtue and a Vice differ but in one degree : For there is a Rule of Justice to which if any Man adds but one degree of severity more it degenerates into cruelty ; and a little more than mercy is remisness ; and want of Discipline introduces licentiousness , and becomes unmerciful as to the publick , and unjust as to the particular . Now this Consideration is heightned , if we observe that Vertue and Vice consist not in indivisibili , but there is a latitude for either , which is not to be judg'd of by any certain Rules drawn from the nature of the thing , but to be estimated in proportion to the persons , and other accidental circumstances . Vertue and Vice dwell too near together , unless they were better friends . All the Learning of the Sanhedrim could not distinguish between the Humiliation of Ahab and Manasses , nor between the Zeal of Jehu and Josiah , nor between Joshuah's and David's numbring the people ; and yet A●ab was but an imperfect penitent ; Jehu was a furious Zealot , and David sinned grievously ; whereas Manasses was truly contrite ; and Josiah was a zealous Reformer , and Joshuah in the same action was a wise and provident Captain . Abraham was called the friend of God for offering Isaac at God's command . Now God commanded men to perform their Vows , and yet Jepthah for offering up his Daughter , hath left to Posterity the reputation of a temerarious and inconsiderate person . There is a right hand and a left in the paths of our life , and if we decline to either we are undone . And therefore pious and holy persons are called upright men , and the Precept in Scripture is frequently ingeminated , to walk in all God's Commandments with an upright heart . For on the right hand of Man is ruine , and on the left is destruction ; and in all the infinite variety of sins , there is no other variety of conditions , but either to perish , or to be undone . For every one Vice kills the Soul , but every Vertue does not make alive . Adultery condemns a Man to the lowest misery , but Chastity alone does not keep our Souls from death : Because we are forbidden to commit any sin . Every crime lies under a prohibition , and the same Laws of God command us to pursue all Vertues , and enjoyn the integrity of a holy life . Now as he that commits one sin , or entertains a single Vice , breaks the Commandment , which enjoyns him to forsake all sin ; so he observes not the Precept of God concerning Vertues , that does not acquire and entertain all , universally all . A Man is spotted although he have but one stain ; but he is not clean , unless he be all clean . A Cup is broken , if only the top be broken , but is not entire unless every part of it be inviolate . One Disease can make a whole man sick , but the taking away one Disease will not make all men well ; and there are a hundred wayes to wander in , but one only way to Life and Immortality . So that I shall not need to urge the variety of Temptations , the subtilty of Sin , the watchfulness and malice of the Devil , the infirmities of our Spirits , the Ignorance of our Understandings , the obliquity of our Will , the mutiny and disorder of our Affections , the inconstancy of our good Purposes , the unstableness of our Resolutions , the pleasingness of sensual Objects , the variety of evil Occasions , the perpetual readiness of Opportunities for evil , our unwillingness to Good so great , that we are loth to beg Blessings and Benefits of God Almighty . These , and thousands more are but the particular Instances of this first Argument to engage our striving . For the Gate , that is strait enough in its own abstract consideration , is made ten thousand times straiter by the supervening enmities of the Devil , the allurements of the World , the solicitations and impudent temptations of the Flesh , and the imperfections and great weaknesses of Mortality . III. I now come to the last Notandum of the Text , or the second Argument to enforce our striving , the Caution and Example of such persons , who have fallen short of entring , for want of due striving ; For many , I say unto you , will seek to enter in , and shall not be able . Many shall seek . The five foolish Virgins sought , and they who shall tell Christ , that they did Miracles in his Name , they sought , and the Pharisees sought , but all seeking you see shall not find . Some seek themselves alone , and they shall never find any thing to satisfie them . Some seek God and themselves together . When Religion and their own ends can stand together , well and good ; when Ease and Devotion , Charity and good Husbandry , Repentance and no restitution can stand together , we will seek to enter into Heaven ; but if Heaven cannot be had but upon hard terms , they will not paenitentiam tanti emere ; they will not buy Repentance at so dear a rate , as to part with their goods unjustly gotten , that they may become true Penitents ; neither will they love God and hate themselves , that is no good Charity they think ; and therefore when God and our selves come to dispute the Question , whose interest shall be served ; these men surely will serve themselves first . No wonder that these men enter not . But there are some that seek more heartily , that throw away all incumbrances , that set upon the work of holy Life with much zeal and fervour of Spirit in the beginning of their Conversion and Resolutions of Piety ; but their fervours cool , their zeal grows from very hot to be tepid , from tepid to be cold , from cold to be quite frozen and incrustated ; and at last comes to have no heat about them but zeal which is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Envy , and the heats of Lust , and of a seared Conscience . For the more furiously new Converts drive in their first on sets of Piety , if they once begin defervescere , to take off from their heights , their tediousness is greater , their weariness more , their anger is more impatient ; and to take off from the shame of remisness and relaxation they often justifie it , and thence degenerating by degrees come at last to induration . For if we observe the nature of Moral Alterations , and the malice of some persons , when they are provok'd by shame , and consider also the secret wayes , and just Counsels of God in taking away all those Graces , which men have slighted and rejected ; and commonly great zeals , if they degenerate , prove either absolutely furious , or meerly Atheistical ; and to all these add the probability of induration and obstinacy in such persons , and the Moral impossibility of curing such distemperatures , or rising from such deaths , we may well believe it impossible : Such Zealots who once grow cool for want of perseverance in the strict courses of Piety , although they did seek to enter , yet erunt exclusissimi , they shall not be able . Some are disabled and stopt in their first setting out ; some go half way , and then turn back again ; nay some there are that have as I may say , set one foot in Heaven , and have drawn it back , and carried both to Hell. God's Counsels are secret , but they are ever just . But it is full of horror to consider , that some persons , who have lived holily and justly all their life , have at last yielded in a temptation to a single Act , and by the just judgment and severity of God have been taken away in that one act of Sin , whose condition then is most sad and deplorable . It is not good to tempt God. If we will forget God in one act , possibly he may with his Judgment so remember us , as to forget his Mercy towards us to all Eternity . And Palladius tells of divers old Hermits , who lived fifty or sixty years in the strict service of God , and at last in some peevish humour dispoil'd themselves of all title and hopes of a Crown . Was it not a sad sight to have observed amongst the forty Martyrs , one of them , that had endured torments almost till the expiration of his last breath , and then to fall away to renounce Jesus Christ , and to go out of his torments into a warm Bath immediately to dye and to perish ? A thought , a minute may destroy all our Glories , and our hopes of a blissful Immortality , which twenty or forty years have been with great labour in erecting . There are some that deny hopes of Heaven to persons that live excellent lives , upon pretence , that they are very good Moral Men , but not of the houshold of Faith ; that is , not of their belief in all matters of Opinion . The mistake is stupid enough ; for the distinction of persons Morally good , and Religiously or Divinely good , is not a distinction of subjects , but of degrees . For a moral life is not a distinct life from a Theological , but a part of it , and that Christian which is just to his Neighbour , and sober and temperate in his life , hath done some part of a Theological and Religious Life . Indeed it is not revealed to us , how the good lives of Heathens without the Faith of Jesus Christ shall be accepted in order to Eternity : But to undervalue the good lives of Christians by saying they are only good moral Men , because they are not of such a Sect , when they do those good actions in obedience to the Laws of Jesus Christ , is a profane device , to advance Faction and discountenance Piety . Indeed is to our moral Vertues we add not also others which are more Spiritual ; that is , if we strive not to acquire all habits , which are good in genere morum , morally good , we shall not enter into Heaven : not because we were only good moral Men , but because we were not moral enough ; we did not reform all our manners , we did not do our Religion and Charity to God , as well as Charity to our Neighbours . Our Piety must be universal , our Morality must be intire , and then the good moral Man shall go to God , when the Religious Man , as he accounts himself , shall never see him . And indeed one of the greatest dangers of miscarrying is , in actions and undertakings , and intermixtures spiritual . For besides that the whole Institution of a spiritual Life is a nice and a busie thing , the purgative way being troublesome and austere , the illuminative being mysterious and apt to be abused , the unitive way not to be understood till it be felt , and therefore liable to all miscarriages , as not to be guided by Rule : besides all this , I say , spiritual Vices are most dangerous , and yet most apt to insinuate themselves in the actions of greatest perfections , and when they are mixt , 't is extremely difficult to discern them and make a separation . How hard is it for a Man that hath lived holily , and one that rejoyces in and thanks God for his Graces , for his Deliverances from the power of the Devil ; how hard , I say , is it for him to conserve either his Conscience and Truth , or his Humility and Modesty , when he shall , or shall not say with St. Paul , I am the least of good Men , and the greatest of Sinners ! for if he says so , and does not think so , he dissembles ; If he thinks so , how can he acknowledg God's Goodness in the manifestation of his Graces , and the deliverance of him from Sin ? If he does neither think so , nor say so , how is he so humble as his patern ? for we are so to follow St. Paul , as he followed Christ. But then on the other side , how apt are Men when they humble themselves , to do it with greater pride ? Est qui nequiter humiliat se , there is that humbleth himself wickedly . I cannot insist upon the particulars ; but actions Spiritual are of so nice and immaterial consideration , that both not to be deceiv'd , and to discover it when we are deceived , are matters of no small difficulty . You may see in little , that a Man may go a great way in Piety , and yet not enter into Heaven . What then shall we think of such persons , whose Piety hath no more age than a Fly ; no more labour in it than walking in a shadow ; no more expence than in the farthing-alms of the street or high-way ; no more Devotion than going to Church on Sundays ; no more Justice than in preserving the rules of Civil Society , and obeying the compulsion of Laws ; no more Mortification than fasting upon a Friday , without denying one Lust , and the importunity of sinful Desires ? These certainly are far from entring into the Gate , because they are far from striving to enter . And yet there want not some Men , will not do a quarter of this , and yet would spit in your face if you should put them in doubt or question their Salvation . Some Men are so fond as to think Heaven is intail'd upon a Sect or an Opinion , and then nothing is wanting to them , when they once have entred their name into that perswasion . Some are confident they shall be saved because of their good meaning ; and they think they mean well , because they understand nothing , and in the mean time refuse not any opportunity to an evil . Alas , they cannot help it , Flesh and Blood is frail ; for who can forgive him that hath undone me and my Family ? 'T is true indeed , I should , if you speak like a Divine , but we have Flesh and Blood about us : Alas , I hate Drunkenness , and I am never intemperate for love of the Drink ; but when a Man is in company he cannot do as he would do . And yet , these Men will think to go to Heaven , and yet will not do so much for it as either decline the company and opportunity of it , or the inconveniences of it . Flesh and Blood is the excuse , and yet we remember not , that Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God ; but we by m●king it to be our excuse , hope to enter the rather for it . Remember those great words and terrible , spoken by an Oracle , by the Blessed St. Peter ; If the Righteous scarcely be saved , where shall the wicked and Sinner appear ? If after much striving many fall short , and the Best is to work out his Salvation with fear and trembling , What confidence can they have , that are indifferent in their Religion , that have no engagement to it but custom , no monitors but Sermons and the checks of a drowsy Conscience , no fruits of it but not to be accounted a Man without a Religion ? But as for a holy life they are as far from it as from doing Miracles ; and he that is so and remains so , no Miracle will save him . These are the Men that when the Eternal scrutiny shall come , then they shall seek , for they never seek till then to enter ; and then it is as fruitless as it is late , as ineffectual as unreasonable . Christ is the Way , and the Truth , and the Light , and he that openeth only the way for us to go in there , whither himself is entred before : if we strive according to his holy Injunctions , we shall certainly enter according to his holy Promises , but else upon no Condition . FINIS . A TABLE OF THE CONTENTS . CHrist's Yoke , though easie , quits us not of Duty . Page 2 Christian Duties carry along with them a Reward so great as to wake the Considerate willing to do violence to all their passions . Page 4 Vertue hath more pleasure in it than Sin. Page 5 Every degree of love makes Duty delectable . Page 8 There is even in our very nature a principle as strong to restrain from Vice , as disposition to invite thereto . Page 9 , 10 Our Vertues are difficult , because we at first get ill habits . Page 13 In the strict observance of the Law of Christianity , there is less trouble , than in the habitual courses of Sin. Page 14 The ways of Vertue are much upon the defensive part . Page 15 There is more pain in Sin , than in the strictness of holy and severe Temperance . Page 18 , 19 The ways of Vertue are strait , but not crooked ; narrow , but not unpleasant . Page 21 Peaceless spirits give an Alarm to all about them . Page 28 If we would live according to the discipline of Christian Religion ; one of the great plagues that vex the world would be no more Page 31 A Prison is but a retirement , to a person of a peaceable spirit . Page 32 All Content consists in the proportion of the object to the appetite . Page 34 Impatience makes an Ague become a Fever , and a Fever a Calenture . Page 35 He only wants that is not satisfied . Page 36 Humility the ready way to Honour . Page 42 The Gate to Heaven a strait Gate , and cvlls for a continual striving . Page 45 Good Ends are the Crown of good Actions . Page 48 , 49 We are apt to learn to love God , as to learn to love our Parents if we be taught it . Page 52 , 54 All striving in Christianity is little enough towards doing our Duty . Page 57 , 58. A man may cease from the act of Sin , and yet retain the Affection . Page 59 , 60 A bad sign , when returns of Sin is frequent , and of Religion seldom , and unpleasant . Page 62 Faith works Miracles ; but Charity works more . Page 64 God requires no more than he gives us Nature and Grace to perform . Page 65 Many Vertues and Vices are so alike , that it 's often difficult to distinguish them exactly . Page 67 , 68 Sometimes Vertue and Vice differ but in one degree . Page 69 There is a right hand and a left in the paths of our Life , and if we decline to either , we are undon . Page 71 There 's an hundred ways to wander in , but one only way to Life and Immortality . Page 73 God's Counsels are secret , but they are ever just . Page 78 A thought a minute may destroy all our hopes of a blissful lmmortality , which twenty or forty years have been with great labour in erecting . Page 79 Spiritual Vices are most dangerous , and yet most apt to insinuate themselves in the actions of greatest perfections . Page 82 A Man may go a great way in Piety , and not enter into Heaven . Page 83 If after much striving , many fall short , and the best is to work out his Salvation with fear and trembling ; what confidence can they have that are indifferent in their Religion . Page 86 FINIS . 
A64020	----	Bishop Taylor's judgment concerning the power of parents over their children in his Ductor dubitantium, &c., edit. IV, 1696 Ductor dubitantium. Selections. 1696 Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. 1690 Approx. 3 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 1 1-bit group-IV TIFF page image. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-12 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A64020 Wing T347 ESTC R38329 17309695 ocm 17309695 106361 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A64020) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 106361) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1104:2) Bishop Taylor's judgment concerning the power of parents over their children in his Ductor dubitantium, &c., edit. IV, 1696 Ductor dubitantium. Selections. 1696 Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. 1 broadside. s.n., [London : 169-?] Imprint suggested by Wing. Extracts from the author's Ductor dubitantium, 1696 edition, p. 700-701. "Possibly published in connection with the controversy in May-June 1714 over 'An act to prevent the growth of schism', directed against Dissenters' educational institutions"--NUC pre-1956 imprints. Reproduction of original in the Cambridge University Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. 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In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Religious education -- Law and legislation -- England. Children's rights -- England. Dissenters, Religious -- England. 2005-02 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-03 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-04 Emma (Leeson) Huber Sampled and proofread 2005-04 Emma (Leeson) Huber Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion BISHOP TAYLOR's Judgment concerning the Power of Parents over their Children in His Ductor Dubitantium , &c. Edit . IV. 1696. SO long as the Son is within the Civil Power of his Father , so long as he lives in his House , is subject to his Command , is nourish'd by his Father's Charge , hath no distinct Rights of his own , he is in his Father's Possession , and to be reckoned by his Measures . In the Law of the Twelve Tables it was written , Sacra privata perpetua manento , that the Private Religion of a Family should not be alter'd : which CICERO Lib. 2. de Legibus expounds to mean , That all those to whom the Care of the Father of the Family did appertain , were tied to the Celebration of the same Rites ; and the Lawyers say , that Filii sunt in Sacris Parentum , dum sunt in eorum potestate ; Children are within the Holy Rites of their Parents , while they are in their Power . The Father's Commands are exacted before the Laws of GOD or PRINCES do require Obedience ; because the Government of Children is like the Government of the Sick and the Mad-men , it is a Protection of them from Harm , and an Institution of them to Obedience of GOD and of KINGS ; and therefore the Father is to Rule the Understanding of his Child , till it be fit to be ruled by the Laws of GOD ; that is , the Child must Believe and Learn , that he may Chuse and Obey . The Father hath the Prerogative of EDUCATION . A Turk , a Jew , a Heathen can reckon their Children in Sacris Parentum ; they have a Power , a natural and proper Power to breed up their Children in what Religion they please , but not to keep them in it ; for then when they can chuse , they are under no Power of Man , GOD only is the Lord of the Understanding . In the Countries of the Roman Communion , — if the Father be an Heretick in their Accounts , they teach their Children to disobey their Parents , and suppose Heresie to destroy the Father's Right of Power : and Government . Between Christian and Christian there is no difference , as to Matter of Civil Rights , no Law allows that . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A64020-e10 P. 701. P. 700. Ibid. Ibid. P. 700. P. 701. P. 701. 
A63653	----	An apology for authorized and set forms of litvrgie against the pretence of the spirit 1. for ex tempore prayer : 2. formes of private composition. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. This text is an enriched version of the TCP digital transcription A63653 of text R7631 in the English Short Title Catalog (Wing T289). Textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. The text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with MorphAdorner. The annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). Textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. This text has not been fully proofread Approx. 183 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 50 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. EarlyPrint Project Evanston,IL, Notre Dame, IN, St. Louis, MO 2017 A63653 Wing T289 ESTC R7631 13515718 ocm 13515718 99870 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A63653) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 99870) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 478:3) An apology for authorized and set forms of litvrgie against the pretence of the spirit 1. for ex tempore prayer : 2. formes of private composition. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. [6], 92 p. Printed for R. Royston ..., London : 1649. Reproduction of original in Cambridge University Library. eng A63653 R7631 (Wing T289). civilwar no An apology for authorized and set forms of liturgie: against the pretence of the spirit. 1. For ex tempore prayer, and 2. Formes of private Taylor, Jeremy 1649 34311 4 325 0 0 0 0 96 D The rate of 96 defects per 10,000 words puts this text in the D category of texts with between 35 and 100 defects per 10,000 words. 2000-00 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2001-09 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2002-07 Mona Logarbo Sampled and proofread 2002-07 Mona Logarbo Text and markup reviewed and edited 2002-08 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion AN APOLOGY FOR AUTHORIZED and SET FORMS OF LITVRGIE : AGAINST THE PRETENCE OF THE SPIRIT . 1. For ex tempore Prayer , AND 2. Formes of Private composition . Hierocl : in Pythag. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . LONDON , Printed for R. Royston in Ivie-lane . 1649 To His most Sacred Majesty . IT is now two yeares , since part of these ensuing Papers , like the publike issue of the people , imperfect and undressed , were exposed , without a Parent to protest them , or any hand to nourish them . But since your Most Sacred Majesty was pleased graciously to looke upon them , they are growne into a Tract , and have an ambition ( like the Gourd of Jonas ) to dwell in the eye of the Sunne from whence they received life and increment . And although , because some violence hath been done to the profession of the doctrine of this Treatise , it may seem to be verbum in tempore non suo , and like the offering Cypresse to a Conquerour , or Palmes to a broken Army , yet I hope I shall the lesse need an Apology , because it is certaine , he does really disserve no just and Noble interest , that serves that of the Spirit , and Religion . And because the sufferings of a KING and a Confessour are the great demonstration to all the world that Truth is as Deare to your MAJESTY as the Iewells of your Diademe , and that your Conscience is tender as a pricked eye , I shall pretend this onely to alleviate the inconvenience of an unseasonable addresse , that I present your MAJESTY with a humble persecuted truth , of the same constitution with that condition whereby you are become most Deare to God , as having upon you the characterisme of the Sonnes of God , bearing in your Sacred Person the markes of the Lord Jesus , who is your Elder Brother , the King of Sufferings , and the Prince of the Catholique Church . But I consider that Kings , and their Great Councels , and Rulers Ecclesiasticall have a speciall obligation for the defence of Liturgies , because they having the greatest Offices , have the greatest needs of auxiliaries from Heaven , which are best procured by the publike Spirit , the Spirit of Government and Supplication . And since the first , the best , and most Solemne Liturgies and Set formes of Prayer were made by the best and greatest Princes , by Moses , by David , and the Sonne of David ; Your MAJESTY may be pleased to observe such a proportion of circumstances in my laying this [ Apology for Liturgy ] at Your feet , that possibly I may the easier obtaine a pardon for my great boldnesse ; which if I shall hope for , in all other contingencies I shall represent my selfe a person indifferent whether I live or die , so I may by either , serve God , and Gods Church , and Gods Vicegerent , in the capacity of , Great Sir , Your Majesties most humble , and most obedient Subject and Servant , TAYLOR . An APOLOGY for LITURGY . I Have read over this Booke which the Assembly sect. of Divines is pleased to call , [ The Directory for Prayer . ] I confesse I came to it with much expectation , and was in some measure confident , I should have found it an exact and unblameable modell of Devotion free from all those Objections which men of their owne perswasion had obtruded against the Publike Liturgy of the Church of England ; or at least , it should have been composed with so much artifice and finenesse , that it might have been to all the world , an argument of their learning and excellency of spirit , if not of the goodnesse and integrity of their Religion and purposes . I shall give no other character of the whole , but that the publike disrelish which I find amongst Persons of great piety , of all qualities , not onely of great , but even of ordinary understandings , is to me some argument that it lies so open to the objections even of common spirits , that the Compilers of it , did intend more to prevaile by the successe of their Armies , then the strength of reason , and the proper grounds of perswasion , which yet most wise and good Men beleeve to be the more Christian way of the two . But because the judgment I made of it from an argument so extrinsecall to the nature of the thing , could not reasonably enable me to satisfie those many Persons who in their behalf desired me to consider it , I resolv'd to looke upon it nearer , and to take its account from something that was ingredient to its Constitution , that I might be able both to exhort and convince the Gainsayers , who refuse to hold fast {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , that faithfull word which they had been taught by their Mother the Church of England . I shall decline to speake of the efficient cause of this sect. 2 Directory , and not quarrell at it , that it was composed against the Lawes both of England and all Christendome . If the thing were good and pious , and did not directly or accidentally invade the rights of a just Superiour , I would learne to submit to the imposition , and never quarrell at the incompetency of his authority that ingaged me to doe pious and holy things . And it may be when I am a little more used to it , I shall not wonder at a Synod , in which not one Bishop sits ( in the capacity of a Bishop ) though I am most certaine this is the first example in England since it was first Christned . But for the present it seems something hard to digest it , because I know so well that all Assemblies of the Church have admitted Priests to consultation and dispute , but never to authority and decision , till the Pope enlarging the phylacteries of the Archimandrites , and Abbots , did sometime by way of priviledge and dispensation give to some of them decisive voices in publick Councels ; but this was one of the things in which he did innovate and invade against the publike resolutions of Christendome , though he durst not doe it often , and yet when he did it , it was in very small and inconsiderable numbers . I said I would not meddle with the Efficient , and sect. 3 I cannot meddle with the Finall cause , nor guesse at any other ends and purposes of theirs then at what they publikely professe , which is the abolition and destruction of the Booke of Common Prayer ; which great change because they are pleased to call Reformation , I am content in charity to believe they thinke it so , and that they have Zelum Dei , but whether secundum scientiam , according to knowledge or no , must be judg'd by them who consider the matter , and the forme . But because the matter is of so great variety and sect. 4 minute Consideration , every part whereof would require as much scrutiny as I purpose to bestow upon the whole , I have for the present chosen to consider onely the forme of it ; concerning which , I shall give my judgment without any sharpnesse or bitternesse of spirit , for I am resolved not to be angry with any men of another perswasion , as knowing that I differ just as much from them as they doe from me . The Directory takes away that Forme of Prayer sect. 5 which by the authority and consent of all the obliging power of the Kingdome , hath been used and enjoyned ever since the Reformation . But this was done by men of differing spirits , and of disagreeing interests ; Some of them consented to it , that they might take away all set formes of prayer , and give way to every man's spirit ; the other , that they might take away this Forme , and give way and countenance to their owne . The First , is an Enemy to all deliberation . The Second , to all authority . They will have no man to deliberate , These would have none but themselves . The former are unwise and rash ; the latter are pleased with themselves , and are full of opinion . They must be considered apart , for they have rent the Question in pieces , and with the fragment in his hand , every man hath run his owne way . First , of them that deny all set Formes , though in sect. 6 the subject matter they were confessed innocent and blamelesse . And here I consider that the true state of the Question sect. 7 is onely this , Whether it is better to pray to God with Consideration , or without ? Whether is the wiser Man of the two , he who thinks and deliberates what to say , or he that utters his mind as fast as it comes ? Whether is the better man , he who out of reverence to God is most carefull and curious that he offend not in his tongue , and therefore he himselfe deliberates , and takes the best guides he can ; or he who out of the confidence of his owne abilities , or other exteriour affistances , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} ; speaks what ever comes uppermost . And here I have the advice and counsell of a very sect. 8 wise man , no lesse than Solomon , Be not rash with thy mouth , and let not thy heart be hasty to utter any thing before God , for God is in Heaven and thou upon Earth , therefore let thy words be few . The consideration of the vast distance between God and us , Heaven and Earth , should create such apprehensions in us , that the very best and choicest of our offertories are not acceptable but by Gods gracious vouchsasing and condescension : and therefore since we are so much indebted to God for accepting our best , it is not safe ventured to present him with a dowbaked sacrifice , and put him off with that which in nature and humane consideration , is absolutely the worst ; for such is all the crude and imperfect utterance of our more imperfect conceptions ; Hoc non probo in philosopho cujus oratio sicut vita debet esse composita , said Seneca , A wise mans speech should be like his life , and actions ; composed , studied , and considered . And if ever inconsideration be the cause of sinne , and vanity ; it is in our words , and therefore is with greatest care to be avoided in our prayers , we being most of all concerned that God may have no quarrell against them , for folly , or impiety . But abstracting from the reason , let us consider sect. 9 who keeps the precept best , He that deliberates , or he that considers not when he speaks ? What man in the world is hasty to offer any thing unto God , if he be not , who praies ex tempore ? And then adde to it but the weight of Solomon's reason , and let any man answer me if he thinks it can well stand , with that reverence we owe to the immense , the infinite and to the eternall God , the God of wisdome , to offer him a sacrifice , which we durst not present to a Prince or a prudent Governour in re seriâ , such as our prayers ought to be . And that this may not be dash'd with a pretence sect. 10 it is carnall reasoning , I desire it may be remembred , that it is the argument God himself uses against lame , maimed and imperfect sacrifices , Go and offer this to thy Prince , see if he will accept it ; implying , that the best person is to have the best present ; and what the Prince will slight as truly unworthy of him , much more is it unfit for God . For God accepts not of any thing , we give or doe , as if he were bettered by it ; for therefore it's estimate is not taken by it's relation or naturall complacency to him , for in it self it is to him as nothing : but God accepts it by it's proportion and commensuration to us . That which we call our best , and is truly so in humane estimate , that pleases God , for it declares that if we had better , we would give it him . But to reserve the best , saies too plainly , that we think any thing is good enough for him . As therefore God in the Law would not be served by that which was imperfect in genere naturae : so neither now , nor ever , will that please him which is imperfect in genere morum , or materiâ intellectuali , when we can give a better . And therefore the wisest Nations , and the most sect. 11 sober Persons prepared their Verses and Prayers in set formes , with as much religion as they dressed their sacrifices , and observ'd the rites of Festivalls and Burialls . Amongst the Romans it belong'd to the care of the Priests , to worship in prescrib'd and determin'd words . In omni precatione qui vota effundit Sacerdos , Vestam & Janum aliosque Deos praescriptis verbis & composito carmine advocare solet . The Greeks did so too , receiving their prayers by dictate word for word . Itaque sua carmina suaeque precationes singulis diis institutae sunt , quas plerunque nequid praeposterè dicatur , aliquis ex praescripto praeire & ad verbum referre solebat . Their hymnes and prayers were ordained peculiar to every God , which , lest any thing should be said preposteroufly , were usually pronounced word for word after the Priest , and out of written Copies ; and the Magi among the Persians were as considerate in their devotions ; Magos & Persas primo sempèr diluculo canere Diis hymnos & laudes , meditato & solenni precationis carmine , The Persians sang hymnes to their Gods by the morning twilight in a premeditate , solemne and metricall forme of prayer , faith the same Authour . For since in all the actions and discourses of men , that which is the least considered is likely to be the worst , and is certainly of the greatest disreputation , it were a strange cheapnesse of opinion , towards God and Religion , to be the most incurious of what we say to him , and in our religious offices . It is strange that every thing should be considered but our Prayers . It is spoken by Eunapius to the honour of Proaeresius Schollars , that when the Proconsul asked their judgments in a question of Philosophy , they were {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , they with much consideration and care gave in answer those words of Aristides , that they were not of the number of those that used to vomit out answers , but of those that considered every word they were to speake . Nihil enim ordinatum est quod praecipitatur & properat , said Seneca . Nothing can be regular and orderly , that is hasty and precipitate , and therefore unlesse Religion be the most imprudent , trifling , and inconsiderable thing , and that the worke of the Lord is done well enough , when it is done negligently , or that the sanctuary hath the greatest beauty , when it hath the least order , it will concerne us highly to thinke our prayers and religious offices are actions fit for wise men , and therefore to be done as the actions of wise men use to be , that is , deliberately , prudently , and with greatest consideration . Well then ! in the nature of the thing ex tempore sect. 12 formes have much the worse of it . But it is pretended that there is such a thing as the gift of prayer , a praying with the spirit ; Et nescit tarda molimina spiritus sancti gratia , Gods Spirit ( if he pleases ) can doe his worke as well in an instant , as in long premeditation . And to this purpose are pretended those places of Scripture which speak of the assistance of Gods spirit in our prayers , Zech. 12. 10. And I will poure upon the house of David , and the inhabitants of Hierusalem the spirit of grace and supplication . But especially Rom. 8. 26. likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities , for we know not what we should pray for as we ought , but the Spirit it selfe maketh intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered , &c. From whence the Conclusion that is inferred is in the words of Saint Paul , that we must pray with the Spirit , therefore not with set formes , therefore ex tempore . The Collection is somewhat wild , for there is sect. 13 great independency in the severall parts ; and much more is in the Conclusion then was virtually in the premises . But such as it is , the Authours of it , I suppose , will owne it . And therefore we will examine the maine designe of it , and then consider the particular meanes of its perswasion quoted in the Objection . It is one of the Priviledges of the Gospel , and the sect. 14 benefit of Christ's ascension , that the Holy Ghost is given unto the Church , and is become to us the fountain of gifts and graces . But these gifts and graces are improvements and helps of our naturall faculties , of our art and industry , not extraordinary , miraculous , and immediate infusions of habits and gifts . That without Gods spirit we cannot pray aright , that our infirmities need his help , that we know not what to aske of our selves is most true : and if ever any Heretick was more confident of his owne naturalls , or did ever more undervalue Gods grace , than the Pelagian did , yet he denies not this ; but what then ? therefore without study , without art , without premeditation , without learning , the Spirit gives the gift of prayer , and it is his grace that without any naturall or artificiall help makes us pray ex tempore ? no such thing : the Objection proves nothing of this . 15. Here therefore we will joyne issue , whether the sect. 15 gifts and helps of the Spirit be immediate infusions of the faculties and powers and perfect abilities ? Or that he doth assist us onely by his aides externall , and internall , in the use of such meanes which God and nature hath given to man to ennoble his soule , better his faculties , and to improve his understanding ? ** That the aides of the Holy Ghost are onely assistances to us , in the use of naturall and artificiall meanes , I will undertake to prove , and from thence it will evidently follow , that labour , and hard study , and premeditation , will soonest purchase the gift of prayer , and ascertaine us of the assistance of the Spirit , and therefore set Formes of Prayer studied and considered of , are in a true and proper sense , and without Enthusiasme , the fruits of the Spirit . First , Gods Spirit did assist the Apostles by waies extraordinary , sect. 16 and fit for the first institution of Christianity : but doth assist us now by the expresses of those first assistances which he gave to them immediately . Thus the Holy Ghost brought to their Memory all sect. 17 things which Iesus spake and did , and by that meanes we come to know all that the Spirit knew to be necessary for us , the Holy Ghost being Authour of our knowledge , by being the fountaine of the Revelation , and we are therefore {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , taught by God , because the Spirit of God revealed the Articles of our Religion that they might be known to all ages of the Church ; and this is testified by S. Paul , he gave some Apostles , and some Prophets , &c. for the perfecting of the Saints , for the work of the Ministry , for the edifying of the Body of Christ , till we all come in the unity of the faith , and of the knowledge of the of Son God unto a perfect man , &c. This was the effect of Christ's ascension , when he gave gifts unto men , that is , when he sent the Spirit , the verification of the promise of the Father . The effect of this immission of the Holy Ghost was to fill all things , and that for ever ; to build up the Church of God , untill the day of consummation ; so that the Holy Ghost abides with the Church for ever , by transmitting those revelations , which he taught the Apostles , to all Christians in succession . Now as the Holy Ghost taught the Apostles , and by them still teaches us what to believe ; so it is certaine he taught the Apostles how , and what to pray ; and because it is certaine that all the rules concerning our duty in prayer , and all those graces which we are to pray for are transmitted to us by Derivation from the Apostles ; whom the Holy Ghost did teach even to that very purpose also , that they should teach us ; it follows evidently that the gift of prayer is a gift of the Holy Ghost , and yet to verifie this Proposition we need no other immediate inspiration or extraordinary assistance than that we derive from the Holy Ghost by the conveyance of the Apostolicall Sermons and Writings . The reason is the same in Faith and Prayer ; and if sect. 18 there were any difference in the acquisition , or reception , faith certainly needs a more immediate infusion , as being of greatest necessity , and yet a grace to which we least cooperate , it being the first of graces , and lesse of the will in it , then any other . But yet the Holy Ghost is the Authour of our faith , and we believe with the Spirit , ( it is Saint Paul's expression ) and yet our belief comes by hearing , and reading the holy Scriptures , and their interpretations . Now reconcile these two together , Faith comes by hearing , and yet is the gift of the Spirit , and it saies that the gifts of the Spirit are not extasies , and immediate infusions of habits , but helps from God , to enable us upon the use of the meanes of his owne appointment , to believe , to speake , to understand , to prophesie , and to pray . But whosoever shall looke for any other gifts of the sect. 19 Spirit besides the parts of nature helped by industry and Gods blessing upon it , and the revelations , or the supplies of matter in holy Scripture , will be very farre to seek , having neither reason , promise , nor experience of his side . For why should the spirit of prayer be any other than as the gift and spirit of faith ( as Saint Paul calls it ) acquired by humane meanes , using divine aides ? that is , by our endeavours in hearing , reading , catechizing , desires to obey , and all this blessed and promoted by God , this produces faith . Nay , it is true of us what Christ told his Apostles , sine me nihil potestis facere : not nihil magnum aut difficile , but omninò nihil , as Saint Austin observes . Without me ye can doe nothing , and yet we were not capable of a Law , or of reward or punishment , if neither with him , nor without him , we were able to doe any thing . And therefore although in the midst of all our co-operation we may say to God in the words of the Prophet , Domine omnia opera operatus es in nobis , O Lord thou hast wrought all our works in us , yet they are opera nostra still ; God works , and we work ; First is the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , Gods grace is brought to us , he helps and gives us abilities , and then expects our duty . And if the spirit of prayer be of greater consequence then all the works God hath wrought in us besides , and hath the promise of a speciall prerogative , let the first be proved , and the second be showne in any good Record , and then I will confesse the difference . The Parallel of this Argument , I the rather urge , because sect. 20 I find praying in the Holy Ghost joyned with graces which are as much Gods gifts and productions of the spirit as any thing in the world , and yet which the Apostle presses upon us as duties , and things put into our power to be improved by our industry , and those are faith , ( in which I before instanced ) and charity . But ye ( beloved ) building up your selves on your most holy faith , praying in the Holy Ghost , keep your selves in the love of God . All of the same consideration , Faith , and Prayer , and Charity , all gifts of the Spirit , and yet build up your selves in faith , and keep your selves in love , and therefore by a parity of reason , improve your selves in the spirit of Prayer , that is , God by his Spirit having supplied us with matter , let our industry and co-operations per modum naturae , improve these gifts , and build upon this foundation . Thus the Spirit of God is called the Spirit of adoption , sect. 21 the Spirit of counsell , the Spirit of grace , the Spirit of meeknesse , the Spirit of wisdome . And without doubt he is the fountaine of all these to us all , and that for ever , and yet it cannot reasonably be supposed , but that we must stir up the graces of God in us , co-operate with his assistances , study in order to counsell , labour and consider in order to wisdome , give all diligence to make our calling and election sure in order to our adoption , in which we are sealed by the Spirit . Now these instances are of gifts , as well as graces , and since the daies of wonder and need of miracles is expired , there is no more reason to expect inspiration of gifts , then of graces , without our endeavours . It concerns the Church rather to have these secured than those , and yet the Spirit of God puts it upon the condition of our co-operation , for according to the Proverb of the old Moralists , Deus habet sinum facilem non perforatum , God's bosome is apt and easie to the emission of graces and affistances , but it is not loose and ungirt ; something must be done on our part , we must improve the talents , and swell the bank ; for if either we lay them up in a napkin , or spend them , suppresse the Spirit , or extinguish it , we shall dearly account for it . In the meane time if we may lose the gifts by our sect. 22 owne fault , we may purchase them by our diligence : if we may lessen them by incuriousnesse , we may increase them by study : if we may quench the spirit , then also we may reenkindle it : all which are evident probation that the Holy Ghost gives us assistances to improve our naturall powers , and to promote our acquisite , and his aides are not inspirations of the habit , or infusions of a perfect gift , but a subliming of what God gave us in the stock of nature and art to make it in a sufficient order to an end supernaturall and divine . The same doctrine we are taught by Saint Paul's exhortation sect. 23 to Timothy , Neglect not the gift that is in thee , which was given thee by prophesie with the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery . And againe , stirre up the gift of God which is in thee by the laying on of my hands . If there be any gifts of the Holy Ghost , and spirituall influences , dispensed without our co-operation , and by inspiration of the intire power , it is in ordination , and the persons so ordeined are most likely to receive the gift of prayer , if any such thing be for the edification of the Church , they being the men appointed to intercede , and to stand between God and the people , and yet this gift of God even in those times when they were dispensed with miracle , and assistances extraordinary , were given as all things now are given , by the meanes also of our endeavour , and was capable of improvement by industry , and of defaillance by neglect , and therefore much rather is it so now in the daies of ordinary ministration and common assistances . And indeed this argument , beside the efficacy of its sect. 24 perswasion , must needs conclude against the Men to whom these adversaria are addressed , because themselves call upon their Disciples , to exercise the gift of prayer , and offer it to consideration , that such exercising it , is the way to better it ; and if naturall endowments and artificiall endeavours are the way to purchase new degrees of it , it were not amisse they did consider a little before they begin ; and did improve their first and smallest capacities before they ventured any thing in publike by way of addresse to Almighty God . For the first beginnings are certainly as improveable as the next degrees , and it is certaine they have more need of it , as being more imperfect and rude . Therefore when ever Gods Spirit hath given us any capacities , or assistances , any documents , motions , desires , or any aides whatsoever , they are therefore given us with a purpose we should by our industry , skill , and labour , improve them , because without such co-operation , the intention is made void , and the worke imperfect . And this is exactly the doctrine I plainly gather from sect. 25 the objected words of Saint Paul , The Spirit helpeth our infirmities , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , it is in the Greek , collaborantem adjuvat . It is an ingeminate expression of our labours . And that supposes us to have faculties capable of improvement , and an obligation to labour , and that the effect of having the gift of prayer depends upon the mutuall concourse , that is , upon God blessing our powers and our endeavours . And if this way the Spirit performes his promise sufficiently , and does all that we need , and all that he ties himself to ; he that will multiply his hopes farther then what is sufficient , or what is promised , may possibly deceive himself , but never deceive God , and make him multiply and continue miracles to justifie his phansie . Better it is to follow the Scriptures for our guide , as in sect. 26 all things else , so in this particular , Ephes. 6. 17 , 18. Take the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God , Praying alwaies with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit . The word of God is the sword of the Spirit ; praying in the Spirit is one way of using it , indeed the onely way that he here specifies . Praying in the Spirit then being the using of this Sword , and this Sword being the word of God , it follows evidently , that praying in the spirit , is praying in , or according to the word of God , that is , in the directions , rules , and expresses of the Word of God , that is , of the holy Scriptures . For we have many infirmities , and we need the spirit to help ; as doubting , coldnesse , wearinesse , disrelish of heavenly things , indifferency ; and these are enough to interpret the place quoted in the Objection , without tying him to make words for us to no great religious purposes when God hath done that for us in other manner then what we dreame of . ** So that in effect , praying in the Holy Ghost , or with the sect. 27 spirit , is nothing but prayer for such things , and in such manner which God by his Spirit hath taught us in holy Scripture . Holy Prayers , spirituall songs , so the Apostle calls one part of prayer , viz. Eucharisticall or thanksgiving , that is , Prayers or Songs which are spirituall in materiâ . And if they be called spirituall for the Efficient cause too , the Holy Ghost being the Authour of them , it comes all to one , for therefore he is the cause and giver of them , because he hath in his word revealed , what things we are to pray for , & there also hath taught us the manner . And this I plainly prove from the words of sect. 28 Saint Paul before quoted , The Spirit helpeth our infirmities , [ for we know not what we should pray for as we ought ] In this we are infirme , that we know not our owne needs , nor our owne advantages : when the Holy Ghost hath taught us what to aske , and to aske that as we ought , then he hath healed our infirmities , and our ignorances in the matter and the manner ; then we know what to pray for as we ought , then we have the grace of Prayer , and the Spirit of supplication . And therefore in the instance before mentioned concerning spirituall songs , when the Apostle had twice enjoyn'd the use of them in order to Prayer and Preaching , to instruction and to Eucharist , and those to be done by the aide of Christ , and Christs spirit ; What in * one place he calls , [ being filled with the Spirit : ] In the other he calls , [ * the dwelling of the word of Christ in us richly ] plainly intimating to us , that when we are mighty in the Scriptures , full of the word of Christ , then we are filled with the Spirit , because the Spirit is the great Dictatour of them to us , and the Remembrancer , and when by such helps of Scripture we sing Hymnes to Gods honour and our mutuall comfort , then we sing and give thanks in the spirit . And this is evident , if you consult the places , and compare them . And that this is for this reason called a gift , and grace , sect. 29 or issue of the Spirit , is so evident and notorious , that the speaking of an ordinary revealed truth , is called in Scripture , a speaking by the Spirit , 1 Cor. 12. 8. No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost . For though the world could not acknowledge Jesus for the Lord without a revelation , yet now that we are taught this truth by Scripture , and by the preaching of the Apostles to which they were enabled by the Holy Ghost , we need no revelation or Enthusiasme to confesse this truth , which we are taught in our Creeds and Catechismes ; and this light sprang first from the immission of a ray from Gods Spirit , we must for ever acknowledge him the fountaine of our light . Though we coole our thirst at the mouth of the river , yet we owe for our draughts to the springs and fountains from whence the waters first came , though derived to us by the succession of a long current . If the Holy Ghost supplies us with materials and fundamentals for our building , it is then enough to denominate the whole edifice to be of him , although the labour and the workmanship be ours upon another stock . And this is it which the Apostle speaks , 1 Cor. 2. 13. Which things also we speake , not in the words which mans wisdome teacheth , but which the Holy Ghost teacheth , comparing spirituall things with spirituall . The Holy Ghost teaches , yet it is upon our co-operation , our study and endeavour ; while we compare spirituall things with spirituall , the Holy is said to teach us , because these spirituals were of his suffestion and revelation . For it is a rule of the Schoole , and there is much sect. 30 reason in it , Habitus infusi infunduntur per modum acquisitorum , whatsoever is infused into us is in the same manner infused as other things are acquired , that is , step by step , by humane meanes and co-operation , and grace does not give us new faculties , and create another nature , but meliorates and improves our owne . And therefore what the Greeks called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , habits , the Christians used to call {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} & {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , gifts , because we derive assistances from above to heighten the habits , and facilitate the actions , in order to a more noble and supernaturall end . And what Saint Paul said in the Resurrection , is also true in this Question , That is not first which is spirituall , but that which is naturall , and then that which is spirituall . The graces and gifts of the Spirit are postnate , and are additions to art and nature . God directs our counsels , opens our understandings , regulates our will , orders our affections , supplies us with objects and arguments , and opportunities , and revelations in scriptis , and then most when we most imploy our owne endeavours , God loving to blesse all the meanes , and instruments of his service , whether they be natural , or acquisite . So that now I demand , Whether , since the expiration sect. 31 of the age of miracles , Gods spirit does not most assist us , when we most endeavour and most use the meanes ? He that saies , No , discourages all men from reading the Scriptures , from industry , from meditation , from conference , from humane ars , and sciences , and from whatsoever else God and good Lawes , provoke us to by proposition of rewards . But if Yea , ( as most certainly God will best crowne the best endeavours ) then the spirit of prayer is greatest in him , who ( supposing the like capacities and opportunities ) studies hardest , reads most , practises most religiously , deliberates most prudently ; and then by how much want of meanes , is worse then the use of meanes , by so much ex tempore prayers are worse then deliberate and studied . Excellent therefore is the Counsell of Saint Peter , 1. Epist. Ch. 4. v. 11. If any man speake let him speake as the Oracles of God ( not lightly then and inconsideratly ) If any man minister , let him doe it as of the ability which God giveth , ( great reason then to put all his abilities and faculties to it ) and whether of the two does most likely doe that , he that takes paines , and considers and discusses , and so approves and practises a forme , or he that never considers what he saies , till he saies it , needs not much deliberation to passe a sentence . Onely me thinks it is most unreasonable that we should be bound to prepare our selves with due requisites to hear what they shall speak in publique , and that they should not prepare what to speak , as if to speak were of easier or of lesse consideration , than to heare what is spoken ; or if they doe prepare what to speak to the people , it were also very fit they prepar'd their prayers , and considered before hand of the fitnesse of the Offertory they present to God . Lastly , Did not the Pen-men of the Scripture , write sect. 32 the Epistles and Gospels respectively all by the Spirit ? Most certainly , holy Men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost , saith Saint Peter . And certainly they were moved by a more immediate motion , and a motion neerer to an Enthusiasme , then now adaies in the gift and spirit of Prayer . And yet in the midst of those great assistances and motions they did use study , art , industry , and humane abilities . This is more than probable in the different stiles of the severall Bookes , some being of admirable art , others lower and plaine . The words were their owne , at least sometimes , not the Holy Ghosts . And if Origen , Saint Hierome , and especially the Greek Fathers , Scholiasts and Grammarians were not deceived by false Copies , but that they truly did observe , sometimes to be impropriety of expression in the language , sometimes not true Greek , who will think those errours or imperfections in Grammar , were ( in respect of the words , I say , precisely ) immediate inspirations and dictates of the Holy Ghost , and not rather their owne productions of industry and humanity ? But clearly some of their words were the words of Aratus , some of Epimenides , some of Menander , some of S. Paul [ This speake I , not the Lord . ] Some were the words of Moses , even all that part of the Leviticall Law which concerned divorces , and concerning which , our blessed Saviour affirmes , that Moses permitted it , because of the hardnesse of their hearts , but from the beginning it was not so : and divers others of the same nature collected and observed to this purpose , by a Origen , b S. Basil , c Saint Ambrose ; and particularly , that promise which S. Paul made of calling upon the Corinthians as he passed into Macedonia , which certainly in all reason is to be presumed to have been spoken humanitùs , & not by immediate inspiration and infusion , because S. Paul was so hindred that he could not be as good as his word , and yet the Holy Ghost could have foreseen it , and might better have excused it , if Saint Paul had laid it upon his score ; but he did not , and it is reasonable enough to believe there was no cause he should , and yet because the Holy Ghost renewed their memory , improved their understanding , supplied to some their want of humane learning , and so assisted them that they should not commit an errour in fact or opinion , neither in the narrative nor dogmaticall parts , therefore they writ by the Spirit . Since then we cannot pretend upon any grounds of probability to an inspiration so immediate as theirs , and yet their assistances which they had from the Spirit did not exclude humane arts and industry , but that the ablest Scholar did write the best , much rather is this true in the gifts and assistances we receive , and particularly in the gift of Prayer , it is not an ex tempore and an inspired faculty , but the faculties of nature , and the abilities of art and industry are improv'd and ennobled by the supervening assistances of the Spirit . And if these who pray ex tempore , say that the assistance they receive from the Spirit is the inspiration of words and powers without the operations of art and naturall abilities and humane industry , then besides that it is more then the Pen men of Scripture sometime had ( because they needed no extraordinary assistances to what they could of themselves doe upon the stock of other abilities ) besides this , I say , it must follow that such Prayers so inspired , if they were committed to writing , would prove as good Canonicall Scripture as any is in Saint Paul's Epistles , the impudence of which pretension is sufficient to prove the extreme vanity of the challenge . The summe is this . Whatsoever this gift is , or this sect. 33 spirit of prayer , it is to be acquired by humane industry , by learning of the Scriptures , by reading , by conference , and by whatsoever else faculties are improved , and habits enlarged . Gods Spirit hath done his worke sufficiently this way , and he loves not either in nature or grace ( which are his two great sanctions ) to multiply miracles when there is no need . And now let us take a man that pretends he hath the sect. 34 gift of Prayer , and loves to pray ex tempore , I suppose his thoughts go a little before his tongue ; I demand then , Whether cannot this man , when it is once come into his head , hold his tongue , and write downe what he hath conceived ? If his first conceptions were of God , and Gods Spirit then they are so still , even when they are written . Or is the Spirit departed from him , upon the sight of a Pen and Inkhorne ? It did use to be otherwise among the old and new Prophets , whether they were Prophets of prediction , or of ordinary ministery . But if his conception may be written , and being written , is still a production of the Spirit , then it followes that set forms of prayer , deliberate , and described , may as well be a praying with the Spirit , as sudden formes and ex tempore out-lets . Now the case being thus put , I would faine know what sect. 35 the difference is between deliberate and ex tempore Prayers , save onely that in these there is lesse consideration and prudence ; for that the other are ( at least as much as these ) the productions of the Spirit , is evident in the very case put in this Argument : and whether to consider and to weigh them be any disadvantage to our devotions , I leave it to all wise men to determine ; So that in effect since after the pretended assistance of the Spirit in our prayers we may write them downe , consider them , try the spirits , and ponder the matter , the reason and the religion of the addresse ; let the world judge whether this sudden utterance and ex tempore formes be any thing else but a direct resolution not to consider before hand what we speake . Sic itaque habe , ut istam vim dicendi rapidam , aptiorem esse circulanti judices , quam agenti rem magnam & seriam docentique . They are the words of Seneca , and expresse what naturally flowes from the premises . The pretence of the Spirit , and the gift of prayer is not sufficient to justifie the dishonour they doe to Religion in serving it in the lowest and most indeliberate manner , nor quit such men from unreasonablenesse and folly who will dare to speake to God in the presence of the people , and in their behalf , without deliberation , or learning , or study . Nothing is a greater disreputation to the prudence of a Discourse , then to say it was a thing made up in haste , that is , without due considering . But here I consider , and I wish they whom it concerns sect. 36 most , would doe so too : that to pretend the Spirit in so unreasonable a manner to so ill purposes , and without reason , or promise , or probability for doing it , is a very great crime , and of dangerous consequence . It was the greatest aggravation of the sin of Ananias and Saphira , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , that they did falsely pretend and belye the Holy Spirit , which crime bestdes that it dishonours the holy Ghost , to make him the president of imperfect and illiterate rites , the author of confusion , and indeliberate Discourses , and the parent of such productions which a wise person would blush to owne : it also intitles him to all those Doctrines which either Chance or Designe shall expose to the people in such prayers , to which they entitle the holy Spirit as the Author and immediate Dictator . So that if they please , he must not onely own their follies , but their impieties too ; and how great dis-reputation this is to the Spirit of Wisdome , of Counsel , and of Holinesse , I wish they may rather understand by Discourse then by Experiment . But let us look a little farther into the mysterie , and sect. 37 see what is meant in Scripture by [ praying with the Spirit . In what sense the holy Ghost is called the Spirit of Prayer , I have already shewn , viz. by the same reason as he is the Spirit of Faith , of prudence , of knowledge , of understanding , and the like , because he gives us assistances for the acquiring of these graces , and furnishes us with revelations by way of object and instruction . But praying with the Spirit hath besides this , other senses also in Scripture . I find in one place , that we then pray with the Spirit , when the holy Ghost does actually excite us to desires and earnest tendencies , to the obtaining our holy purposes , when he prepares our hearts to pray , when he enkindles our desires , gives us zeal & devotion , charity and fervour , spirituall violence , and holy importunity . This sense is also in the latter part of the objected words of S. Paul , Rom. 8. The Spirit it selfe maketh Intercession for us with groanings . And indeed this is truly a praying with the Spirit , but this will doe our Reverend Brethren of the Assembly little advantage as to the present Question . For this Spirit is not a Spirit of utterance , not at all clamorous in the eares of the people , but cryes loud in the eares of God with [ groans unutterable , ] so it followes , and onely [ He that searcheth the heart , he understandeth the meaning of the Spirit . ] This is the Spirit of the Sonne , which God hath sent into our hearts , ( not into our tongues ) whereby we cry , Abba , Father , Gal. 4. 6. And this is the great {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} for mentall prayer , which is properly and truly praying by the Spirit . Another praying with the Spirit I find in that place of sect. 38 Saint Paul , from whence this expression is taken , and commonly used , I will pray with the spirit , and I will pray with the understanding also . It is generally supposed that Saint Paul relates here to a speciall and extraordinary gift of Prayer , which was indulg'd to the Primitive Bishops and Priests , the Apostles and Rulers of Churches , and to some other persons extraordinarily , of being able to compose prayers , pious in the matter , prudent in the composure , devout in the formes , expressive in the language ; and in short , usefull to the Church , and very apt for devotion , and serving to her religion and necessities . I beleeve that such a gift there was , and this indulged as other issues of the Spirit to some persons , upon speciall necessities , by singular dispensation , as the Spirit knew to be most expedient , for the present need , and the future instruction . This I beleeve , not because I finde sufficient testimony that it was so , or any evidence from the words now alledged , but because it was reasonable it should be so , and agreeable to the other proceedings of the holy Ghost . For although we account it an easie matter , to make prayers , and we have great reason to give thanks to the holy Ghost for it , who hath descended so plentifully upon the Church , hath made plentifull revelation of all the publike and private necessities of the world , hath taught us how to pray , given rules for the manner of addresse , taught us how to distinguish spirituall from carnall things , hath represented the vanity of worldly desires , the unsatisfyingnesse of earthly possessions , the blessing of being denyed our impertinent , secular , and indiscreet requests , and hath done all this at the beginning of Christianity , and hath actually stirred up the Apostles and Apostolicall men to make so many excellent Formes of Prayer , which their successors did in part retaine , and in part imitate , till the conjunct wisdome of the Church saw her offices compleat , regular and sufficient . So that now every man is able to make something of Formes of Prayer , ( for which ability they should do well to pay their Eucharist to the holy Ghost , and not abuse the gift to vanity or schisme ) yet at the first beginning of Christianity , till the holy Spirit did fill all things , they found no such plenty of forms of Prayer : and it was accounted a matter of so great consideration to make a Form of Prayer , that it was thought a fit work for a Prophet , or the Founder of an Institution . And therefore the Disciples of John asked of him to teach them how to pray ; and the Disciples of Christ did so too . For the Law of Moses had no rules to instruct the Synagogue how to pray ; and but that Moses , and David , and Asaph , and some few of the Prophets more , left formes of Prayer which the Spirit of God inspired them withall upon great necessities , and great mercy to that people , they had not knowne how to have composed an office , for the daily service of the Temple , without danger of asking things needlesse , vaine , or impious , such as were the prayers in the Roman Closets , that he was a good man that would not owne them , Et nihil arcano qui roget ore Deos. — Pulchra Laverna Da mihi fallere , dajustum , sanctumque videri Noctem peccatis & fraudibus objice nubem . But when the Holy Ghost came downe in a full breath , and a mighty wind , he filled the breasts and tongues of men , and furnished the first Christians not onely with abilities enough to frame excellent devotions for their present offices , but also to become precedents for Liturgy to all ages of the Church , the first being imitated by the second , and the second by the third , till the Church being setled in peace , and the records transmitted with greater care , and preserved with lesse hazard , the Church chose such Formes whose Copies we retaine at this day . Now since it was certaine that all ages of the Church sect. 39 would looke upon the first Fathers in Christ , and Founders of Churches as precedents , and Tutours , and Guides , in all the parts of their Religion , and that prayer with its severall parts , and instances , is a great portion of the Religion ( the Sacraments themselves being instruments of grace , and effectuall in genere orationis ) it is very reasonable to think that the Apostolicall men , had not onely the first fruits , but the elder Brothers share , a double portion of the Spirit , because they were not onely to serve their owne needs , to which a single and an ordinary portion would have been then ( as now ) abundantly sufficient , but also to serve the necessity of the succession , and to instruct the Church for ever after . But then , that this assistance was an ability to pray ex sect. 40 tempore , I find it no where affirmed by sufficient authentick Testimony , and if they could have done it , it is very likely they would have been wary , and restrained in the publike use of it . I doubt not but there might then be some sudden necessities of the Church , for which the Church being in her infancy had not as yet provided any publike formes , concerning which cases , I may say as Quintilian of an Oratour in the great and sudden needs of the Common-wealth , Quarum si qua non dico cuicunque innocentiam civium , sed amicorum ac propinquorum alicui evenerit , stabítne matus , & salutarem parentibus vocem , statim , si non succurratur , perituris , moras & secessum & silentium quaeret , dum illa verba fabricentur , & memoriae insidant , & vox ac latus praeparetur ? I doe not thinke that they were oratores imparati ad casus , but that an ability of praying on a sudden was indulged to them by a specall aide of the Spirit to contest against sudden dangers , and the violence of new accidents , to which also possibly a new inspiration , was but for a very little while necessary , even till they understood the mysteries of Christianity , and the revelations of the Spirit , by proportion and analogy to which they were sufficiently instructed to make their sudden prayers when sudden occasions did require . This I speak by way of concession and probability . sect. 41 For no man can prove thus much as I am willing ( relying upon the reasonablenesse of the Conjecture ) to suppose ; but that praying with the Spirit in this place , is praying without study , art , or deliberation , is not so much as intimated . For , 1. It is here implyed that they did prepare some of sect. 42 those devotions to which they were helped by the Spirit , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , when you come together each of you ( peradventure ) hath a Psalme . {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , not every one makes , but when you meet , every one hath , viz. [ already ] which supposes they had it prepared against the meeting . For the Spirit could help as well at home in their meditation , as in the publike upon a sudden : and though it is certaine , the Holy Spirit loves to blesse the publike meetings , the communion of Saints , with speciall benedictions ; yet I suppose my Adversaries are not willing to acknowledge , any thing that should doe much reputation to the Church , and the publike authoriz'd conventions ; at least , not to confine the Spirit to such holy and blessed meetings . They will ( I suppose ) rather grant the words doe probably intimate they came prepared with a Hymne , and therefore there is nothing in the nature of the thing , but that so also might their other formes of Prayer ; the assistance of the Spirit ( which is the thing in Question ) hinders not , but that they also might have made them by premeditation . 2. In this place , praying with the Spirit , signifies , no sect. 43 other extraordinary assistance , but that the Spirit help'd them to speake their prayer , in an unknowne Tongue , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , If I pray in a tongue , my spirit prayeth , but my understanding is without fruit , what then ? I will pray with the spirit , and I will pray with the understanding also . Plainly here , praying in the Spirit , which is opposed to praying in understanding , is praying in an unknown tongue ; where by the way observe , that praying with the Spirit , even in sense of Scripture , is not alwaies most to edification of the people . Not alwaies with understanding . And when these two are separated , Saint Paul preferres five words with understanding , before ten thousand in the spirit . For this praying with the Spirit was indeed then a gift extraordinary and miraculous , like as prophecying with the Spirit and expired with it . But while it did last it was the lowest of gifts , inter dona linguarum , it was but a gift of the tongue , and not to the benefit of the Church directly or immediately . This also observe in passing by . If Saint Paul did so sect. 44 undervalue the praying with the Spirit , that he preferred edifying the Church a thousand degrees beyond it ; I suppose he would have been of the same mind , if the Question had between praying with the Spirit , and obeying our Superiours , as he was when it was between praying with the Spirit and edification of the Church , because ( if I be not mistaken ) it is matter of great concernment towards the edification of the Church , to obey our Superiours , not to innovate in publike formes of worship , especially with the scandall and offence of very wise and learned men , and to the disgrace of the dead Martyrs , who sealed our Liturgy with their bloud . But to returne . In this place , praying with the Spirit , sect. 45 beside the assistance given by the Holy Ghost to speake in a strange tongue , is no more then , [ my spirit praying , ] that is , it implies my co-operation with the assistance of the Spirit of God , insomuch that the whole action may truly be denominated mine , and is called ( of the Spirit ) onely by reason of that collaterall assistance . For so Saint Paul joynes them as termes identicall , and expressive one of anothers meaning , as you may please to read , ver. 14 , & 15. 1 Cor. 14. I will pray with the Spirit , and my spirit truly prayeth . It is the act of our inner man , praying holy and spirituall prayers . But then indeed at that time there was something extraordinary adjoyned , for it was in an unknown Tongue , the practise of which Saint Paul there dislikes . This also will be to none of their purposes . For whether it were ex tempore , or by premeditation is not here expressed ; or if it had , yet that assistance extraordinary in prayer , if there was any beside the gift of Tongues , ( which is not here , or anywhere else expressed ) is no more transmitted to us , then the speaking tongues in the Spirit , or prophecying ex tempore and by the Spirit . But I would adde also one experiment which S. Paul sect. 46 also there adds by way of instance . If praying with the spirit in this place be praying ex tempore , then so is singing too . For they are expressed in the same place in the same manner , to the same end , and I know no reason why there should be differing senses put upon them to serve purposes . And now let us have some Church Musique too , though the Organs be pull'd down , and let any the best Psalmist of them all , compose a Hymn in Metricall form ( as Antipater Sidonius in Quintilian , & Licinius Archias in Cicero could doe in their Verses ) and sing it to a new tune with perfect and true musick , and all this ex tempore . For all this the Holy Ghost can doe if he pleases ; But if it be said that the Corinthian Christians , composed their Songs and Hymnes according to art and rules of Musick , by study and industry , and that to this they were assisted by the Spirit ; and that this together with the devotion of their spirit , was singing with the Spirit , then say I , so composing set formes of Liturgy by skill , and prudence , and humane industry , may be as much praying with the Spirit , as the other is singing with the Spirit . Plainly enough . In all the senses of praying with the Spirit , and in all it 's acceptations in Scripture , to pray or sing with the spirit , neither of them of necessity implies ex tempore . The summe or Collecta of the premises is this . Praying sect. 47 with the spirit , is either , ( 1 ) when the Spirit stirres up our desires to pray , per motionem actualis auxilii : or ( 2 ) when the spirit teaches us what , or how to pray , telling us the matter , and manner of our prayers . ( 3 ) Or lastly , dictating the very words of our prayers . There is no other way in the world to pray with the Spirit , or in the Holy Ghost , that is pertinent to this Question . And of this last manner the Scripture determines nothing , nor speaks any thing expresly of it , and yet suppose it had , we are certain the Holy Ghost hath supplied us , with all these , and yet in set formes of Prayer best of all , I mean , there where a difference can be ; For ( 1 ) as for the desires , and actuall motions or incitements to pray , they are indifferent to one or the other , to set formes , or to ex tempore . 2. But as to the matter or manner of prayer , it is clearly sect. 48 contained in the expresses , and set formes of Scriptures , and there it is supplied to us by the Spirit , for he is the great Dictatour of it . 3. Now then for the very words . No man can assure sect. 49 me that the words of his ex tempore prayer are the words of the holy Spirit : it is not reason nor modesty to expect such immediate assistances to so little purpose , he having supplied us with abilities more then enough to expresse our desires aliundè , otherwise then by immediate dictate ; But if we will take David's Psalter , or the other Hymnes of holy Scripture , or any of the Prayers which are respersed over the Bible , we are sure enough that they are the words of Gods spirit , mediately or immediately , by way of infusion or extasie , by vision , or at least by ordinary assistance . And now then , what greater confidence can any man have for the excellency of his prayers , and the probability of their being accepted , then when he prayes his Psalter , or the Lords Prayer , or any other office which he finds consigned in Scripture ? When Gods spirit stirres us up to an actuall devotion , and then we use the matter he hath described and taught , and the very words which Christ & Christs spirit , and the Apostles , and other persons , full of the Holy Ghost did use ; If in the world there be any praying with the Spirit ( I meane , in vocall prayer ) this is it . And thus I have examined the intire and full scope of sect. 50 this First Question , and rifled their Objection , which was the onely colour to hide the appearance of its naturall deformity at the first sight . The result is this , Scribendum ergo quoties licebit ; Si id non dabitur cogitandum : ab utroque exclusi , debent tamen adniti , ut neque deprehensus orator , neque destitutus esse videatur . In making our Orations and publike advocations , we must write what we meane to speake , as often as we can ; when we cannot , yet we must deliberate , and study ; and when the suddennesse of the accident prevents both these , we must use all the powers of art and care that we have a present mind , and call in all our first provisions , that we be not destitute of matter and words apt for the imployment . This was Quintilian's rule for the matter of prudence , and in secular occasions ; but when the instance is in Religion , and especially in our prayers , it will concern us nearer , to be curious and deliberate what we speak in the audience of the eternal God , when our lives and our soules , and the honour of God , and the reputation of Religion are concern'd , and whatsoever is greatest in it self , or dearest to us . THe second Question hath in it something more sect. 51 of difficulty ; for the Men that owne it will give leave that set formes may be used , so you give leave to them to make them ; but if authority shall interpose and prescribe a Liturgy , every word shal breed a quarrell , and if the matter be innocent , yet the very injunction is tyranny , a restraining of the gifts of the Holy Ghost , it leaves the spirit of a Man sterile and unprofitable , it is not for edification of the Church , and is as destitute of comfort , as it is of profit . For God hath not restrain'd his Spirit to those few that rule the Church in prelation above others , but if he hath given to them the spirit of government , he hath given to others the spirit of prayer , and the spirit of Prophesie . Now the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withall , for to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdome , to another the word of knowledge , by the same Spirit . And these and many other gifts are given to severall members that they may supply one another , and all joyne to the edification of the body . And therefore that must needs be an imprudent sanction that so determines the offices of the Church , that she cannot be edified by that variety of gifts which the holy Spirit hath given to severall men to that purpose , just as if there should be a Canon , that but one Sermon should be preached in all Churches forever . Besides , it must needs be , that the devotion of the suppliants must be much retarded by the perpetui●y , and unalterable reiteration of the same forme ; For since our affections will certainly vary and suffer great alteration of degrees , and inclinations , it is easier to frame words apt to comply with our affections then to conforme our affections in all varieties to the same words : When the formes are dayly changed , it is more probable that every Man shall find something proportionable to his fancy , which is the great instrument of Devotion , then to suppose that any one forme , should be like Manna fitted to every tast ; and therefore in prayers , as the affections must be naturall , sweet , and proper , so also should the words expressing the affections , issue forth by way of naturall emanation . Sed extemporalis audaciae atque ipsius temeritatis vel praecipua jucunditas est . Nam in ingenio sicut in agro quanquam alia diu serantur , atque elaborentur , gratiora tamen quae suâ sponte nascuntur . And a garment may as well be made to fit the moone , as that one forme of Prayer should be made apt and proportionable to all men , or to any man at all times . This Discourse relies wholly upon these two grounds ; sect. 52 A liberty to use variety of formes for prayer , is more for the edification of the Church . Secondly , it is part of that liberty which the Church hath , and part of the duty of the Church to preserve the liberty of the spirit in various formes . Before I descend to consideration of the particulars , I sect. 53 must premise this , that the gift or ability of prayer given to the Church is used either in publike or in private , and that which is fit enough for one , is inconvenient in the other , and although a liberty in private may be for edification of good people , when it is piously and discreetly used , yet in the publike , if it were indifferently permitted , it would bring infinite inconvenience , and become intolerable , as a sad experience doth too much verifie . But now then , this distinction , evacuates all the former sect. 54 discourse , and since it is permitted that every man in private use what formes he please , the Spirit hath all that liberty that is necessary , and so much as can be convenient ; the Church may be edified by every mans gift , the affections of all men may be complied withall , words may be sitted to their fancies , their devotions quickned , their wearinesse helped and supported , and whatsoever benefit can be fancied by variety & liberty , all that , may be enjoyed , and every reasonable desire , or weaker fansie be fully satisfied . But since these advantages to devotion are accidentall , sect. 55 and doe consult with weaknesse and infirmity , and depend upon irregular variety for which no antecedent rule can make particular provision ; it is not to be expected , the publike constitution , and prescribed formes , which are regular , orderly , and determin'd , can make provision for particulars , for chances , and for infinite varieties . And if this were any objection against publike formes , it would also conclude against all humane Lawes that they did not make provision for all particular accidents , and circumstances that might possibly occurre . All publike sanctions must be of a publike spirit and designe , and secure all those excellent things which have influence upon societies , communities of men , and publique obligations . Thus , if publike formes of Prayer be describ'd whose sect. 56 matter is pious and holy , whose designe is of universall extent , and provisionary for all publike , probable , fear'd , or foreseen events , whose frame and composure is prudent , and by authority competent and high , and whose use and exercise is instrumentall to peace and publike charity , and all these hallowed by intention , and care of doing glory to God , and advantages to Religion , express'd in observation of all such rules , and precedents as are most likely to teach us best , and guide us surest , such as are Scriptures , Apostolicall Tradition , Primitive practise , and precedents of Saints , and holy Persons , the publike can doe no more , all the duty is performed , and all the care is taken . Now after all this there are personall necessities and sect. 57 private conveniences or inconveniences , which , if men are not so wise as themselves to provide for , by casting off all prejudice and endeavouring to grow strong in Christianity , men in Christ , and not for ever to be Babes in Religion , but frame themselves to a capacity of receiving the benefit of the publike , without needing other provisions , then what wil fit the Church in her publick capacity ; the Spirit of God and the Church taught by him , hath permitted us to comply with our owne infirmities , while they are innocent , and to pray in private in any forme of words , which shall be most instrumentall to our devotion in the present capacity . Neque hoc ego ago ut extempore dicere malit , sed ut possit . And indeed sometimes an exuberant , and an active affection , sect. 58 and overflowing of Devotion may descend like anointing from above , and our cup run over , and is not to be contained within the margent of prescribed forms ; And though this be not of so great consideration as if it should happen to a man in publike , that it is then fit for him , or to be permitted to expresse it in formes unlimited and undermin'd . ( For there was a case in the daies of the inundation of the Spirit , when a man full of the Spirit was commanded to keep silence in the Church ; and to speake to himselfe and to God ) yet when this grace is given him in private , he may compose his owne Liturgy , pectus enim est quod disertos facit , & vis mentis . Ideoque imperit is quoque , si mode sint aliquo affectu concitati , verba non desunt . Onely when in private devotion we use forms of our own making or chusing , we are concern'd to see , that the matter be pious , apt for edification and the present necessity , and without contempt of publike prescriptions , or irreverence to God , and in all the rest we are at liberty ; * onely in the Lord , that is , according to the rule of faith , and the analogy of Christian religion . For supposing that our devotion be servent , our intention pious , and the petition {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , according to the will of God , Whatsoever our expressions are , God reads the petition in the Character of the Spirit , though the words be brevia concisa , & singultantium modo ejecta . But then these accidentall advantages , and circumstances of profit , which may be provided for in private ; as they cannot be taken care of in publike , so neither is it necessary they should : for those pleasures of sensible devotion are so farre from being necessary to the acceptation of prayer , that they are but compliances with our infirmities , and suppose a great weaknesse in him that needs them ( say the Masters of spirituall life ) and in the strongest prayers , and most effectuall devotions , are seldomest found ; such as was Moses prayer when he spake nothing , and Hannah's and our blessed Saviour's when he called upon his Father , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , with strong cries , in that great desertion of Spirit , when he prayed in the Garden ; In these praiers the Spirit was bound up with the strictnesse and violence of intention , but could not ease it self with a flood of language , and various expression . A great devotion is like a great grief , not so expressive as a moderate passion , teares spend the grief , and variety of language breathes out the devotion ; and therefore Christ went thrice , and said the same words ; he could just speak his sense in a plaine expression , but the greatnesse of his agonie was too big for the pleasure of a sweet and sensible expression of devotion . So that let the devotion be never so great , set formes sect. 59 of prayer will be expressive enough of any desire , though importunate as extremity it self ; but when the Spirit is weak , and the devotion imperfect , and the affections dry , though in respect of the precise duty on our part , and the acceptation on Gods part , no advantage is got by a liberty of an indifferent , unlimited , and chosen form ; and therefore in all cases , the whole duty of prayer is secured by publike formes ; yet other circumstantiall and accidentall advantages , may be obtained by it , and therefore let such persons feast themselves in private with sweet-meats , and lesse nourishing delicacies , weak stomackes must be cared for , yet they must be confessed to have stronger stomackes , and better health , that can feed upon the wholesome food prepared in the common refectories . So that publique formes ( it is true ) cannot be fitted sect. 60 to every mans fancie , and affections , especially in an Age wherein all publike constitutions are protested against ; but yet they may be fitted to all necessities , and to every mans duty , and for the pleasing the affections and fancies of men , that may be sometimes convenient , but it is never necessary ; and God that suffers drynesse of affections many times in his dearest servants , and in their greatest troubles , and most excellent Devotions , hath by that sufferance of his , given demonstration that it is not necessary such affections should be complyed withall , for then he would never suffer those sterilities , but himselfe by a cup of sensible Devotion would water and refresh those drinesses ; and if God himselfe does not , it is not to be expected the Church should . And this also is the case of Scripture , for the many sect. 61 discourses of excellent Orators and Preachers have all those advantages of meeting with the various affections and dispositions of the hearers , and may cause a teare , when all S. Pauls Epistles would not ; and yet certainly there is no comparison between them , but one Chapter of S. Paul is more excellent and of better use to the substantiall part of Religion , then all the Sermons of Saint Chrysostome : and yet there are some circumstances of advantage which humane eloquence may have , which are not observed to be in those other more excellent emanations of the holy Spirit . And therefore if the Objection should be true , and that conceived formes of Prayer in their great variety might doe some accidentall advantages to weaker persons , and stronger fancies , and more imperfect judgements , yet this instance of Scripture is a demonstration that set and composed devotions may be better ; and this reason does not prove the contrary , because the Sermons in Scripture are infinitely to be preferred before those discourses and orations , which doe more comply with the fancies of the people . Nay , we see by experience , that the change of our prayers , or our bookes , or our company , is so delightfull to most persons , that though the change be for the worse , it more complies with their affections then the peremptory and unaltered retaining of the better ; but yet this is no good argument to prove that change to be for the better . But yet if such compliance with fancies and affections sect. 62 were necessary , what are we the neerer if every Minister were permitted to pray his own formes ? How can his forme comply with the great varity of affections which are amongst his auditors , any more then the publick forms described by authority ? It may hit casually , and by accident be commensurate to the present fancy of some of his Congregation , with which at that time possibly the publick forme would not : This may be thus , and it may be otherwise , and at the same time , in which some feele a gust and relish in his prayer , others might feele a greater sweetnesse in recitation of the publike formes . This thing is so by chance , so irregular and uncertaine , that no wise man , nor no Providence lesse then Divine can make any provisions for it . And after all , it is nothing but the fantastique and sect. 63 imaginative part that is pleased , which for ought appears , may be disturbed with curiosity , peevishnesse , pride , spirit of novelty , lightnesse , and impertinencie : and that to satisfie such spirits , and fantastique persons , may be as dangerous and uselesse to them , as it is trouble some in it selfe . But then for the matter of edification , that is considerable upon another stock : for now adaies men are never edified , unlesse they be pleased , and if they mislike the Person , or have taken up a quarrell against any forme , or institution ; presently they cry out , They are not edified , that is , they are displeased : and the ground of their displeasure is nothing from the thing it selfe , but from themselves onely : they are wanton with their meat , and long for variety , and then they cry out that Manna will not nourish them , but prefer the onions of Egypt before the food of Angels ; the way to cure this inconvenience is to alter the men , not to change the institution ; for it is very certain that wholesome meat , is of it self nutritive , if the body be disposed to its reception , and entertainment . But it is not certain that what a sick man fancies out of the weaknesse of his spirit , the distemper of his appetite , & wildnesse of his fancy , that it will become to him either good , or good physick . Now in the entertainments of Religion and Spirituall repasts , that is wholesome , nutritive , and apt to edifie , which is pious in it selfe , of advantage to the honour of God , whatsoever is good Doctrine , or good Prayers , especially when it is prepared by a publick hand , and designed for publick use , by all the wisdome of those men who in all reason are to be supposed to have received from God all those assistances which are effects of the spirit of Government ; and therefore it is but weaknesse of spirit , or strength of passion , impotency in some sense or other , certainly , that first dislikes the publique provisions , and then , say , they are not wholsome . For I demand concerning the publike Lyturgies of a sect. 64 Church , whose constitution is principally of the parts , and choisest extracts of Scripture , Lessons and Psalmes , and some few Hymnes and Symbols , made by the most excellent persons in the Primitive Church , and all this , in nothing disagreeing from the rules of Lyturgie given in Scripture , but that the same things are desired , and the same persons prayed for , and to the same end , and by the same great instrument of addresse & acceptation , [ by Jesus Christ ] and which gives all the glory that is due to God , and gives nothing of this to a Creature , and hath in it many admirable documents ; whether there be any thing wanting in such a Lyturgie towards edification ? What is there in prayers that can edifie , that is not in such in a Lyturgie so constituted ? Or what can there be more in the private formes of any Minister , then is in such a publick composition ? By this time , I suppose , the Objection with all its sect. 65 parts is disbanded so farre as it relates to edification , profit , and compliance with the auditors : As for the matter of liberty , and restraint of the Spirit ; I shall consider that apart . In the mean time I shall set down those grounds of Religion and Reason , upon which publick Lyturgie relies , and by the strength of which it is to be justified , against all opposition and pretences . 1. The Church hath a power given to her by the Spirit sect. 66 of God , & a command to describe publick forms of Lyturgie . For I consider that the Church is a Family , Jesus Christ is the Master of the Family , the holy Spirit is the great Dispensatour of all such graces the Family needs , and are , in order to the performance of their Duty ; the Apostles , and their Sucoessors , the Rulers of the Church are Stewards of the manifold Graces of God , whose office is to provide every mans portion , and to dispence the graces and issues Evangelicall by way of Ministery . Who is that faithfull and wise Steward , whom his Lord shall make ruler of his Houshold ? It was our blessed Saviours Question , and Saint Paul answered it : Let a man so account of us , as of the Ministers of Christ , and Stewards of the mysteries of God . Now the greatest Ministery of the Gospell is by way of prayer , ( most of the graces of the Spirit being obtained by prayer , and such offices which operate by way of impetration , and benediction , and consecration , which are but the severall instances of prayer ) Prayer , certainly , is the most effectuall and mysterious ministery : and therefore since the Holy Ghost hath made the Rulers of the Church , Stewards of the mysteries , they are by virtue of their Stewardship Presidents of Prayer and publike Offices . 2. Which also is certaine , because the Priest is to stand sect. 67 between God and the People , and to represent all their needs to the throne of grace ; He is a Prophet and shall pray for thee , said God , concerning Abraham to Abimelech . And therefore the Apostles appointed inferiour Officers in the Church that they might not be hindred in their great worke , but we will give our selves to the word of God and to prayer ; And therefore in our greatest need , in our sicknesse , and last scene of our lives , we are directed to send for the Elders of the Church , that they may pray over us ; and God hath promised to heare them : and if prayer be of any concernment towards the finall condition of our souls , certainly it is to be ordered , guided , and disposed by them who watch for our soules , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , as they that must give account to God for them . 3. Now if the Rulers of the Church are Presidents of sect. 68 the rites of Religion , and by consequence of Prayer , either they are to order publike prayers , or private . For private , I suppose , most men will be so desirous of their liberty as to preserve that in private , where they have no concernments but their owne , for matter of order or scandall : But for publike , if there be any such thing as Government , and that prayers may be spoiled by disorder , or made ineffectuall by confusion , or by any accident may become occasion of a scandall , it is certaine that they must be ordered as all other things are in which the publike is certainly concerned , that is , by the Rulers of the Church , who are answerable if there be any miscarriage in the publike . Thus farre I suppose there will not be much Question with those who allow set formes , but would have themselves , be the Composers ; They would have the Ministers pray for the people , but the Ministers shall not be prescribed to ; the Rulers of the Church shal be the Presidents of religious rites , but then they will be the Rulers , therefore we must proceed farther ; and because I will not now enter into the Question who are left by Christ to govern his Church , I will proceed upon such grounds which I hope may be sufficient to determine this Question , and yet decline the other . Therefore 4. Since the Spirit of God is the spirit of supplication , sect. 69 they to whom the greatest portion of the Spirit is promised are most competent persons , to pray for the people , and to prescribe formes of prayer . But the promise of the Spirit is made to the Church in generall , to her in her united capacity , to the whole Church first , then to particular Churches , then in the lowest seat of the Category to single persons ; And we have title to the promises by being members of the Church , and in the Communion of Saints ; which beside the stylus curiae , the form of all the great promises , being in generall and comprehensive termes , appears in this , that when any single person is out of this Communion , he hath also no title to the promises ; which yet he might , if he had any upon his own stock , not derivative from the Church . Now then I infer ; if any single persons will have us to believe without possibility of proof ( for so it must be ) that they pray with the Spirit , ( for how shall they be able to prove the spirit actually to abide in those single persons ? ) then much rather must we believe it of the Church , which by how much the more generall it is , so much the more of the Spirit she is likely to have : and then if there be no errors in the matter , the Church hath the advantage and probability on her side ; and if there be an errour in matter in either of them , neither of them have the Spirit , or they make not the true use of it . But the publike Spirit in all reason is to be trusted before the private when there is a contestation , the Church being prior & potior in promissis , she hath a greater and priour title to the Spirit . And why the Church hath not the spirit of prayer in her compositions as well as any of her Children , I desire once for all to be satisfied upon true grounds either of reason or revelation . And if she have , whether she have not as much as any single person ? If she have but as much , then there is as much reason in respect of the divine assistance , that the Church should make the forms , as that any single Minister should , and more reason in respect of order and publike influence , and care , and charge of soules : but if she have a greater portion of the Spirit than a single person , that is , if the whole be greater then the part , or the publike better than the private , then it is evident , that the spirit of the Church in respect of the divine assistance , is chiefly , and in respect of order , is onely to be relied upon for publike provisions and formes of prayer . But now if the Church in her united capacity makes sect. 70 prayers for the people , they cannot be supposed to be other than limited and determined formes ; for it is not practicable , or indeed , imaginable , that a Synod of Church Governours ( be they who they will , so they be of Christs appointment ) should meet in every Church , and pray as every man list ; their Counsels are united , and their results are Conclusions , and finall determinations , which like generall propositions are applicable to particular instances ; so that ( 1 ) since the Spirit being the great Dictatour of holy prayers , and ( 2 ) the Spirit is promised to the Church in her united capacity , and ( 3 ) in proportion to the Assembly caeteris paribus , so are measures of the Spirit powred out , and ( 4 ) when the Church is assembled , the Prayers which they teach the People are limited and prescribed formes ; it followes that limited and prescribed formes , are in all reason , emanations from the greatest portion of the Spirit , warranted by speciall promises , which are made to every man there present that does his duty , as a private member of the Christian Church , and are due to him as a Ruler of the Church , and yet more especially , and in a further degree to all them met together ; where ( if ever ) the holy Spirit gives such helps and graces which relate to the publike government , and have influence upon the communities of Christians , that is , will blesse their meeting , and give them such assistances as will enable them to do the work for which they convene . But yet if any man shall say , What need the Church sect. 71 meet in publike Synods to make formes of Prayer , when private Ministers are able to doe it in their severall Parishes ? I answer , it is true , many can , but they cannot doe it better then a Councell ; and I think no man is so impudent , as to say , he can doe it so well ; however , quod spectat ad omnes ab omnibus tractari debet , the matter is of publike concernment , and therefore should be of publike consultation , & the advantages of publikely describ'd formes I shall afterwards specifie . In the mean time , 5. As the Church , I mean the Rulers of the Church , sect. 72 are appointed Presidents of religious rites , and as the Rulers in conjunction are enabled to doe it best by the advantages of speciall promises , and double portions of the Spirit ; so she alwayes did practise this , either in conjunction , or by single dictate , by publick persons , or united authority ; but in all times , as necessity required , they prescribed set Formes of Prayer . If I should descend to minutes , and particulars , I sect. 37 could instance in the behalf of set Formes , that . * 1. God prescribed to Moses a set Forme of Prayer , and benediction to be used when he did blesse the people . * 2. That Moses composed a Song , or Hymne for the children of Israel , to use , to all their generations * 3. That David composed many for the service of the Tabernacle , and every company of singers was tyed to certain Psalmes , as the very titles intimate ; and the Psalmes were such limited and determinate prescriptions , that in some , Gods Spirit did bind them to the very number of the Letters , and order of the Alphabet . * 4. That Solomon , and the holy Kings of Judah brought them in , and continued them in the ministration of the Temple . * 5. That in the reformation by Hezekiah , the Priests and Levites were commanded to praise the Lord in the words of David & Asaph . * 6. That all Scripture is written for our learning ; and since all these , and many more set Formes of Prayer are left there upon record , it is more then probable , that they were left there for our use , and devotion ; and certainly , it is as lawfull , and as prudent to pray Scriptures , as to read Scriptures ; and it were well , if we would use our selves to the expression of Scripture , and that the language of God were familiar to us , that we spake the words of Canaan , not the speech of Ashdod ; and time was , when it was thought the greatest Ornament of a spirituall Person , and instrument of a religious Conversation ; but then the consequents would be , that these Prayers were the best Formes which were in the words of Scripture , and those Psalmes and Prayers there recorded , were the best devotions , but these are set Formes . * 7. To this purpose I could instance in the example of Saint John Baptist , who taught his Disciples a Forme of Prayer . And that Christs Disciples begged the same favour , and it was granted as they desired it . And here I mean to fix a little , for this ground cannot sect. 74 fail us . I say Christ prescribed a set Form of Prayer to be used by all his Disciples , as a Breviary of Prayer , as a rule of their devotions , as a repository of their needes , and as a direct addresse to God . For in this Prayer God did not onely command us to make our Prayers , as Moses was bid to make the Tabernacle , after the patterne which God shewed him in the Mount , and * Christ shewed his Apostles ; but he hath given us the very tables written with his own hand , that we should use them as they are so delivered ; this Prayer was not onely a precedent and pattern , but an instance of addresse , a perfect forme for our practice , as well as imitation . For 1. When Christ was upon the Mount , he gave it for sect. 75 a patterne {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . So pray ye , or after this manner ; which if we expound onely to the sense of becomming a pattern , or a Directory , it is observable , that it is not onely Directory for the matter , but for the manner too ; and if we must pray with that matter , and in that manner , what does that differ from praying with that forme ? however it is well enough , that it becomes a precedent to us , in any sense , and the Church may vary her formes according as she judges best for edification . 2. When the Apostles upon occasion of the Forme sect. 76 which the Baptist taught his Disciples , begg'd of their Master to teach them one , he againe taught them this , and added a precept to use these very words , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , when ye pray , say , our Father , when they speak to God , it was fit they should speake in his words , in whose name also their prayers onely could be acceptable . 3. For if we must speak this sense , why also are not the sect. 77 very words to be retained ? Is there any errour or imperfection in the words ? was not Christ Master of his language ? and were not his words sufficiently expressive of his sense ? will not the Prayer do well also in our tongues which as a duty we are oblig'd to deposite in our hearts , and preserve in our memories , without which it is in all senses uselesse , whether it be onely a pattern , or a repository of matter ? 4. And it is observeable that our blessed Saviour doth sect. 78 not say , Pray that the name of your heavenly Father may be sanctified , or that your sinnes may be forgiven , but say , Hallowed be thy name , &c. so that he prescribes this Prayer , not in massa materiae , but in formâ verborum , not in a confused heap of matter , but in an exact composure of words , it makes it evident he intended it not onely pro regula petendorum , for a direction of what things we are to aske , but also pro forma orationis , for a set form of Prayer . Now it is considerable that no man ever had the fulnesse of the Spirit , but onely the holy Jesus , and therefore it is also certain , that no man had the Spirit of prayer like to him , and then , if we pray this prayer devoutly , and with pious and actuall intention , doe we not pray in the Spirit of Christ , as much as if we prayed any other forme of words pretended to be taught us by the Spirit ? We are sure that Christ and Christs spirit taught us this Prayer , they onely gather by conjectures and opinions , that in their ex tempore or conceived formes the Spirit of Christ teacheth them . So much then as Certainties are better then Uncertainties , and Gods words better than Mans , so much is this Set forme , besides the infinite advantages in the matter , better then their ex tempore and conceived Formes , in the forme it selfe . And if ever any prayer was , or could be , a part of that doctrine of faith by which wee received the Spirit , it must needs be this prayer which was the onely forme our blessed Master taught the Christian Church immediately , was a part of his great and glorious Sermon in the Mount , in which all the needs of the world are sealed up as in a treasure house , and intimated by severall petitions as diseases are by their proper and proportioned remedies , and which Christ published as the first emanation of his Spirit , the first perfume of that heavenly anointing which descended on his sacred head when he went down into the waters of Baptisme . This we are certain of , that there is nothing wanting , sect. 79 nothing superfluous and impertinent , nothing carnall or imperfect in this prayer , but as it supplies all needs , so it serves all persons , is fitted for all estates , it meets with all accidents , and no necessity can surprize any man , but if God heares him praying that prayer , he is provided for in that necessity : and yet if a single person paraphrases it , it is not certain but the whole sense of a petition may be altered by the intervention of one improper word , and there can be no security given against this , but qualified and limited , and just in such a proportion as we can be assured of the wisdome and honesty of the person , and the actuall assistance of the holy Spirit . Now then I demand whether the Prayer of Manasses , be sect. 80 so good a prayer as the Lords Prayer ? or is the Prayer of Judith , or of Tobias , or of Judas Maccabeus , or of the Sonne of Sirach , is any of these so good ? Certainly no man will say they are ; and the reason is , because we are not sure they are inspired by the Holy Spirit of God ; prudent , and pious , and conformable to Religion they may be , but not penn'd by so excellent a spirit as this Prayer . And what assurance can be given that any Ministers prayer is better then the prayers of the Sonne of Sirach , who was a very wise , and a very good man , as all the world acknowledges ; I know not any one of them that has so large a testimony , or is of so great reputation . But suppose they can make as good prayers , yet surely they are Apocryphall at least , and for the same reason that the Apocryphall prayers are not so excellent as the Lords prayer , by the same reason must the best they can be imagin'd to compose fall short of this excellent pattern by how much they partake of a smaller portion of the Spirit , as a drop of water is lesse then all the waters under , or above the Firmament . Secondly , I would also willingly know , whether if sect. 81 any man uses the forme which Christ taught , supposing he did not tie us to the very prescript words , can there be any hurt in it ? is it imaginable that any Commandement should be broken , or any affront done to the honour of God , or any act of imprudence , or irreligion in it , or any negligence of any insinuation of the Divine pleasure ? I cannot yet think of any thing to frame for answer , so much as by way of an Antinomy or Objection . But then supposing Christ did tye us to use this Prayer pro loco & tempore , ( according to the nature and obligation of all affirmative precepts ) as it is certaine he did , in the preceptive words recorded by S. Luke , [ When ye pray , say , Our Father ] then it is to be considered that a Divine Commandment is broken , by its rejection ; and therefore , if there were any doubt remaining , whether it be a command or no ; yet since , on one side there is danger of a negligence , and a contempt , and that on the other side , the observation & conformity cannot be criminall , or imprudent ; it will follow , that the retaining of this Prayer in practice , and suffering it to doe all its intentions , and particularly becomming the great {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , or authority for set formes of Prayer , is the safest , most prudent , most Christian understanding of those words of Christ , propounding the Lords Prayer to the Christian Church . And because it is impossible that all particulars should be expressed in any forme of prayer , because particulars are not onely casuall and accidentall , but also infinite ; Christ , according to that wisdome he had without measure , fram'd a Prayer , which by a general comprehension should include all particulars , eminent , and vertually ; so that there should be no defect in it , & yet so short , that the most imperfect memories might retaine , and use it . And it is not amisse to observe , that our blessed Saviour sect. 82 first taught this Prayer to be as a remedy , and a reproof , of the vaine repetition of the Pharisees ; and besides , that is was so , à priori , we also in the event , see the excellent spirit and wisdome in the Constitution ; for those persons who have laid aside the Lords Prayer , have been noted by common observation ; to be very long in their forms , and troublesome , and vaine enough in their repetitions , they have laid aside the medicine , and the old wound bleeds afresh , the Pharisees did so of old . And after all this , it is strange imployment , that any sect. 83 man should be put to justifie the wisdome and prudence of any of Christs institutions ; as if any of his servants who are wise upon his Stock , instructed by his Wisdom , made knowing by his Revelations , and whose all that is good , is but a weak ray of the glorious light of the Sun of Righteousnes , should dare to think that the Derivative should be before the Primitive , the current above the Fountain ; and that we should derive all our excellency from him , and yet have some beyond him , that is , some which he never had , or which he was not pleased to manifest ; or that we should have a spirit of prayer able to make productions beyond his Prayer who received the Spirit without measure . But this is not the first time man hath disputed against God . And now let us consider with sobriety , not onely of sect. 84 this excellent Prayer , but of all that are deposited in the primitive records of our Religion . Are not those Prayers and Hymnes in holy Scripture , excellent compositions , admirable instruments of devotion , full of piety , rare and incomparable addresses to God ? Dare any man with his gift of Prayer pretend , that he can ex tempore , or by study , make better ? Who dares pretend that he hath a better spirit than David had ? or than the Apostles and Prophers , and other holy persons in Scripture , whose Prayers and Psulmes are by Gods Spirit consigned to the use of the Church for ever ? Or will it be denied but that they also are excellent Directories and Patterns for prayer ? And if Patterns , the nearer we draw to our example , are not the imitations and representments the better ? And what then if we tooke the Samplers themselves ? Is there any imperfection in them , and can we mend them , and correct the Magnificat ? The very matter of these , and the Authour no lesse then Divine cannot but justifie the Formes , though set , determin'd and prescribed . In a just proportion and commensuration , I argue so sect. 85 concerning the primitive and ancient formes of Church service , which are composed according to those so excellent Patterns , which if they had remained pure , as in their first institution , or had alwaies bin as they have been reformed by the Church of England , they would against all defiance put in for the next place to those formes of Liturgy , which mutatis mutandis , are nothing but the words of Scripture . But I am resolved at this present not to enter into Question concerning the matter of Prayers . Next , we must enquire what the Apostles did in obedience sect. 86 to the precept of Christ , and what the Church did in imitation of the Apostles . That the Apostles did use the Prayer their Lord taught them , I think need not much be questioned , they could have no other end of their desire , and it had been a strange boldnesse to aske for a forme which they intended not to use , or a strange levity not to doe what they intended . But I consider they had a double capacity , they were of the Jewish Religion by education , and now Christians by a new institution ; in the first capacity they used those Set formes of Prayer which their Nation used in their devotions . Christ and his Apostles sang a Hymne , part of the great Allelujah which was usually sung at the end of the Paschall Supper , After Supper they sang a hymne , saies the Evangelist . The Jewes also used every Sabbath to sing the XCII Psalme , which is therefore intit'led , A Song or Psalme for the Sabbath , and they who observed the hours of Prayer , and Vowes , according to the rites of the Temple , need not be suspected to have omitted the Jewish formes of prayer . And as they complied with the religious customes of the Nation , worshipping according to the Jewish manner , it is also in reason to be presum'd they were Worshippers according to the new Christian institution , and used that forme their Lord taught them . Now , that they tied themselves to recitation of the very sect. 87 words of Christ's Prayer pro loco & tempore , I am therefore easie to believe , because I find they were strict to a scruple in retaining the Sacramentall words which Christ spake when he instituted the blessed Sacrament , insomuch that not onely three Evangelists , but S. Paul also not onely making a narrative of the institution , but teaching the Corinthians the manner of its celebration , to a tittle he recites the words of Christ . Now the action of the Consecrator is not a theatricall representment of the action of Christ , but a sacred , solemne , and * Sacramentall prayer , in which since the Apostles at first , and the Church ever after did with reverence , and feare , retaine the very words , it is not onely a probation of the Question in generall , in behalf of set formes ; but also a high probability that they retain'd the Lord's Prayer , and used it to an {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , in the very forme of words . And I the rather make this inference from the preceding sect. 88 argument , because the cognation one hath with the other ; for the Apostles did also in the consecration of the Eucharist , use the Lords Prayer , and that together with the words of institution was the onely forme of consecration saith Saint Gregory , and Saint Hierome affirmes , that the Apostles , by the command of their Lord , used this * prayer in the benediction of the Elements . But besides this , when the Apostles had received sect. 89 great measures of the Spirit , and by their gift of Prayer composed more Formes for the help and comfort of the Church , and contrary to the order in the first Creation , the light which was in the body of the Sun , was now diffused over the face of the new Heavens , and the new Earth ; it became a precept Evangelicall , that we should praise God in Hymnes , and Psalmes , and Spirituall Songs , which is so certaine , that they were compositions of industry and deliberation , and yet were sung in the Spirit , that he , who denies the last , speakes against Scriptures , he who denies the first , speakes against Reason , and would best confute himself , if in the highest , of his pretence of the Spirit , he would venture at some ex tempore Hymnes . And of this , we have the expresse testimony of Saint Austin , De Hymnis & Psalmis canendis haberi Domini & Apostolorum documenta , & utilia praecepta . And the Church obeyed them , for as an Ancient Author under the name of Dionysius Areopagita relates , the chief of the Clericall , and Ministring Order offer bread upon the Altar , Cum Ecclesiastici omnes , laudem hymnumque generalem Deo tribuerint , cum quibus Pontifex sacras preces ritè perficit , &c. They all sing one Hymne to God , and then the Bishop prayes ritè , according to the rituall or constitution , which in no sense of the Church , or of Grammar , can be understood without a solemne and determin'd forme ; {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} sayes Casaubon is cantare , idem saepiùs dicere , apud Graecos {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} ; they were formes of praising God used constantly , periodically , and in the daily Offices . And the Fathers of the Councell of Antioch complaine against Paulus Samosatenus , Quod Psalmos & cantus qui ad Domini nostri Jesu Christi honorem decantari solent tanquam recentiores , & à viris recentioris memoriae editos exploserit . The quarrell was , that he said the Church had used to say Hymnes which were made by new men , and not deriv'd from the Ancients ; which , if we consider that the Councell of Antioch was in the 12 year of Gallienus the Emperour , 133 years after Christs Ascension , will fairly prove , that the use of prescrib'd Formes of Prayer , Hymnes and formes of Worshipping , were very early in the Church ; and it is unimaginable it should be otherwise , when we remember the Apostolicall precept before mentioned . And if we fancy a higher precedent , than what was manifested upon earth , we may please to see one observ'd to have been made in Heaven ; for a set forme of Worship , and addresse to God , was recorded by Saint John , and sung in Heaven ; and it was composed out of the Songs of Moses , ( Exod. 15. ) of David , ( Psal. 145. ) and of Jeremy , ( Chapt. 10. 6 , 7. ) which , certainly , is a very good precedent for us to imitate although but revealed to Saint John , by way of vision and extasie , that we may see , if we would speak with the tongue of Men and Angels , we could not praise God in better Formes , then what are recorded in holy Scripture . But besides the metricall part , the Apostle hath described sect. 90 other parts of Lyturgie in Scripture , whose composition , though it be in determined forme of words , yet not so bound up with numbers , as Hymnes : and these Saint Paul calls supplications , prayers , intercessions , and giving of thanks , which are severall manners of addresse distinguish'd by their subject matter , by their forme and manner of addresse . As appears plainly by [ intercessions and giving of thanks ] the other are also by all men distinguish'd , though in the particular assignment they differ , but the distinction of the Words implies the distinction of Offices , which together with the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , the Lectionarium of the Church , the Books of the Apostles , and Prophets spoken of by Justin Martyr , and said to be used in the Christian Congregations , are the constituent parts of Liturgy ; and the exposition of the words we best learn from the practise of the Church , who in all Ages of whose publike offices any record is left to us , tooke their pattern from these places of Scripture , the one for Prose , the other for Verse ; and if we take Liturgy into its severall parts , or members , we cannot want something to apply to every one of the words of Saint Paul in these present allegations . For the offices of prose we find but small mention of sect. 91 them in the very first time , save onely in generall termes , and that such there were , and that S. James , S. Marke , Saint Peter , and others of the Apostles and Apostolicall men made Liturgies , and if these which we have at this day were not theirs , yet they make probation that these Apostles left others , or else they were impudent people that prefixed their names so early , and the Churches were very incurious to swallow such a bole , if no pretension could have been reasonably made for their justification . But concerning Church Hymnes we have clearer testimony in particular , both because they were many of them , and because they were dispersed more , soone got by heart , passed also among the people , and were pious arts of the Spirit whereby holy things were instilled into their Soules by the help of phansie , and a more easie memory . The first civilizing of people used to be by Poetry , and their Divinity was conveyed by Songs and Verses , and the Apostle exhorted the Christians , to exhort one another in Psalmes and Hymnes , for he knew the excellent advantages were likely to accrue to Religion by such an insinuation of the mysteries . Thus Saint Hilary , and Saint Ambrose composed Hymnes for the use of the Church , and Saint Austin made a Hymne against the Schisme of Donatus , which Hymnes when they were publikely allowed of , were used in publike Offices ; not till then ; For Paulus Samosatenus had brought Women into the Church to sing vaine and trifling Songs , and some Bishops took to themselves too great and incurious a license , and brought Hymnes into the Church , whose gravity and piety was not very remarkeable ; upon occasion of which , the Fathers of the Councell of Laodicea , ordained , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , No Psalmes of private composition must be brought into the Church , so Gentian Hervet renders it ; Isidore Translates it [ Psalmos ab Idiotis compositos , ] Psalmes made by common persons ; ] Psalms usually sung abroad , so Dionysius Exiguus calls them , [ Psalmos Plebeios ] but I suppose by the following words is meant , That none but Scripture Psalmes shall be read there , for so the Canon adds , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , nothing to be read in the Church but Books of the Old and New Testament . And this Interpretation agrees well enough with the occasion of the Canon which I now mentioned . This onely by the way , the reddition of {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} sect. 92 by Isidore to be Psalmes made by common persons , whom the Scripture calls {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , ignorant , or unlearned , is agreeable enough with that of Saint Paul , who intimates , that Prayers , and formes of Lyturgies are to be composed for them , not by them , they were never thought of , to be persons competent to make Formes of Prayers themselves : For Saint Paul speakes of such a one as of a person comming into the Church to hear the Prophets , pray , and sing , and interpret , and prophecy , and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , he is reproved of all , and judged of all ; and therefore the most unfit person in the world to bring any thing that requires great ability , and great authority , to obtrude it upon the Church , his Rulers , and his Judges . And this was not unhandsomely intimated by the word sometimes used by the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} of the Greek Church , calling the publike Lyturgie {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , which signifies prayers , made for the use of the Idiotae , or private persons , as the word is contradistinguished from the Rulers of the Church . For {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} signifies contum , and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , is as much as {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , to live in the condition of a private person , and in the vulgar Greek ( sayes Arcadius ) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} & {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} signifie a little man , of a low stature , from which two significations {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} may well enough design a short form of Prayer , made for the use of private persons . And this was reasonable , and part of the Religion even of the Heathen as well as Christians ; the presidents of their Religion were to finde prayers for the people , and teach them formes of addresse to their Gods . Castis cum pueris ignara puella mariti Disceret unde preces , vatem ni Musa dedisset ? Poscit opem chorus , & praesentia numina sentit , Caelestes implorat aquas , doctâ prece blandus , Carmine dii superi placantur , carmine Manes . But this was by the way . But because I am casually fallen , upon mention of sect. 93 the Laodicean Councel , and that it was very ancient , before the Nicene , and of very great reputation , both in the East , and in the West ; it will not be a contemptible addition to the reputation of set formes of Lyturgie , that we finde them so early in the Church , reduced to a very regular and composed manner . The XV Canon suffers none to sing in the Church , but the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , they that sing by book , and goe up into the Pulpit ; they were the same persons , and the manner of doing their office , was their appellative , which shews plainly , that the known custome of the Church , was for them who were in the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , in the Pulpit to read their offices , and devotions . They read them {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , that 's the word in the Canon . Those things which signifie the greatest , or first Antiquity , are said to be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , was spoken proverbially , to signifie ancient things : And {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} : So that if these Fathers chose these words as Grammarians , the singers {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} were such as sung ancient Hymnes of Primitive antiquity , which also is the more credible , because the persons were noted and distinguished by their imployment , as a thing knowne by so long an use , till it came to be their appellative . * The 17. and 18. Canons command that Lessons and Psalmes should be said interchangeably {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , and the same Liturgie that 's the word ) or office of prayers to be said alwayes at Nones and Vespers . This shews the manner of executing their office of Psalmists , and Readers , they did not sing or say ex tempore , but they read Prayers and Psalmes , and sung them out of a Booke ; neither were they brought in fresh and new at every meeting , but it was {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , still the same forme of prayers , without variation . But then if we remember how ancient this office was sect. 94 in the Church , and that the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} & {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , the Readers and Singers were Clericall offices , deputed for publike ministry about prayers and devotions in the Church ( for so we are told by Simeon Thessalonicensis in particular concerning the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , he does dictate the hymnes to the singers , and then of the singers there is no question ) and that these two offices was so ancient in the Church , that they were mentioned by S. Ignatius , who was contemporary with the latter times of the Apostles ; We may well beleeve that set and described formes of Liturgie were as early as the dayes of the Apostles , and continued in the continuation of those and the like offices in all descending ages . Of the same designe and intimation were those knowne offices in the Greek Church , of the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which Socrates speaks of as of an office in the Church of Alexandria , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , &c. Their office was the same with the Reader , they did ex praescripto praeire , & ad verbum referre , the same which ab Alexandro notes to have beene done in the religious rites of Heathen Greece , They first read out of a Book the appointed prayers , and the others rehearsed them after . Now it is unimaginable that constant officers should be appointed to say an office , and no publike office be described . I shall adde but this one thing more , and passe on sect. 95 ad alia . And that is , that I never yet saw any instance , example , or pretence of precedent of any Bishop , Priest , or Lay person that ever prayed ex tempore in the Church , and although in some places , single Bishops , or peradventure , other persons of lesse Authority did oftentimes bring prayers of their * owne into the Church ; yet ever they were compositions , and premeditations , and were brought thither , there to be repeated often , and added to the Lyturgie ; and although the Lyturgies , while they were lesse full then since they have been , were apt to receive the additions of pious and excellent Persons , yet the inconvenience grew so great , by permitting any forms but what were approved by a publike Spirit , that the Church , as She alwaies had forms of publike Prescription , so She resolved to permit no mixture of any thing but what was warranted by an equall power , that the Spirits of the Prophets might be subject to the Prophets , and such Spirits , when they are once tryed whether they be of God or no , tryed by a lawfull Superiour , and a competent Judge may then venture into the open aire . And it were a strange imprudence , choosingly to entertaine those inconveniences which our wiser Fore-fathers felt , and declar'd , and remedied . For why should we be in love with that evill , against which they so carefully arm'd their Churches , by the provision and defence of Lawes ? For this produc'd that Canon of the Councell of Mileuis in Africa , Placuit ut preces quae probatae fuerint in Conoilio ab omnibus celebrentur , nec aliae omninò dicantur in Ecclesiâ , nisi quae a prudentioribus factae fuerint in Synodo . That 's the restraint and prohibition ; publike Prayers , must be such as are publikely appointed and prescribed by our Superiors , and no private formes of our conceiving must be used in the Church . The reason followes , Ne fortè aliquid contra fidem , vel per ignorantiam vel per minus studium sit compositum , left through ignorance , or want of deliberation any thing be spoken in our Prayers against faith , [ & good manners ; ] Their reason is good , and they are witnesses of it who hear the variety of Prayers , before and after Sermons , there where the Directory is practised , where ( to speak most modestly ) not onely their private opinions , but also humane interests , and their own personall concernments , and wilde fancies , born perhaps not two dayes before , are made the objects of the peoples hopes , of their desires , and their prayers , and all in the mean time pretend to the holy Spirit . Thus farre we are gone . The Church hath ( 1 ) power sect. 96 and authority , and ( 2 ) command , ( 3 ) and ability , or promise of assistances to make publike formes of Liturgie ; and ( 4 ) the Church alwaies did so ; in all descents from Moses to Christ , from Christ to the Apostles , from them to all descending Ages ; for I have instanced till Saint Austine's time ; and since , there is no Question , the people were {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , as Balsamon saies of those of the Greek Communion , they used unalterable formes of Prayers , described out of the Books of publike Liturgy ; it remains onely that I consider upon what reason and grounds of prudence and religion the Church did so , and whether she did well or no ? In order to which , I consider , 1. Every man hath personall needs of his owne , and sect. 97 he that understands his owne condition , and hath studied the state of his Soule in order to eternity , his temporall estate in order to justice and charity , and the constitution and necessities of his body in order to health , and his health in order to the service of God , as every wise and good man does , will find that no man can make such provision for his necessities , as he can doe for his owne , ( caeteris paribus ) no man knowes the things of a man but the spirit of the man , and therefore if he have proportionable abilities , it is allowed to him , and it is necessary for him to represent his owne conditions to God , and he can best expresse his owne sense , or at least best sigh forth his owne meaning , and if he be a good man , the Spirit will make intercession for him , with those unutterable groanes . Besides this , every Family hath needs proper to it in the capacity of a Family , and those are to be represented by the Master of the Family ; whom men of the other perswasion are apt to consesse to be a Priest in his own Family and a King , and Sacrorum omnium potestas sub Regibus esto , they are willing in this sense to acknowledge ; and they call upon him to performe Family duties , that is , all the publike devotions of the Family are to be ordered by him . Now that this is to be done by a set forme of words sect. 98 is acknowledged by Didoclavius . Nam licet in conclavi ( Paterfamilias ) verbis exprimere animi affectus pro arbitrio potest , quia Dominus cor intuetur , & affectus , tamen publicè coram totâ familia idem absque indecoro non potest . If he prayes ex tempore , without a Set forme of prayer , he may commit many an u●decency ; a set and described forme of prayer is most convenient in a Family that Children and Servants may be enabled to remember , and tacitely recite the prayer together with the Major domo . But I relie not upon this ; but proceed upon this Consideration . As private Persons and as Families , so also have Churches sect. 99 their speciall necessities in a distinct capacity , and therefore God hath provided for them Rulers and Feeders , Priests and Presidents of religion , who are to represent all their needs to God , and to make provisions . Now because the Church cannot all meet in one place , but the harvest being great it is bound up in severall bundles , and divided into many Congregations , for all which the Rulers and Stewards of this great Family are to provide , and yet cannot be present in those particular Societies , it is necessary that they should have influence upon them by a generall provision , and therefore that they should take care that their common needs should be represented to God , by Set formes of Prayer , for they onely can be provided by Rulers , and used by their Ministers and Deputies ; such as must be one in the principe , and diffused in the execution ; and it is better expression of their care and duty for the Rulers to provide the bread and blesse it , and then give it to them who must minister it in small portions and to particular companies , ( for so Christ did ) then to leave them who are not in the same degree answerable for the Churches , as the Rulers are , to provide their food , and breake it , and minister it too . The very Oeconomy of Christ's Family requires that the dispensations be made according to every man's capacity . The generall Stewards are to divide to every man his portion of worke , and to give them their food in due season , and the under-servants are to doe that work is appointed them ; so Christ appointed it in the Gospel , and so the Church hath practised in all Ages , inde enim per temporum & successionum vices Episcoporum ordinatio & Ecclesiae ratio decurrit , ut Ecclesia supra Episcopes constituatur , & omnis actus Ecclesiae per eosdem Praepositos gubernetur , when the Rulers are few ( for the Ecclesiasticall regiment is not Democraticall ) and the under offices many , and the companies numerous , for all which those few Rulers are bound to provide , and prayer and offices of devotion , are one of the greatest instances of provision , it is impossible there should be any sufficient care taken or caution used by those Rulers in the matter of prayers , but for them to make such prescript formes which may be used by all companies , under their charge ; that since they are to represent all the needs of all their people , because they cannot be present by their persons in all Societies , they may be present by their care and provisions , which is then done best when they make prescript Formes of prayer , and provide pious Ministers to dispense it . 2. It is in the very nature of publike prayer that it be sect. 100 made by a publike spirit , & performed by a publike consent . For publike , and private prayer , are certainly two distinct duties ; but they are least of all distinguished by the place , but most of all , by the Spirit that dictates the prayer , and the consent in the recitation ; and it is a private prayer which either one man makes , though spoken in publike , as the Laodicean Councell calls {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , private Psalmes , or which is not attested by publike consent of minds , and it is a publike prayer , which is made by the publike spirit , and consented to by a generall acceptation ; and therefore the Lords prayer , though spoke in private , is a publike forme , and therefore represented plurally ; and the place is very extrinsecall to the nature of prayer ; I will that men pray every where , lifting up pure hands ; and retiring into a Closet is onely advised for the avoiding of hypocrisie , not for the greater excellency of the duty . So that if publick Prayer have advantages beyond private Prayer , or upon its own stock , besides it , the more publick influences it receives , the more excellent it is . And hence I conclude , that set Formes of Prayer compos'd and used by the Church ; I mean by the Rulers in Conjunction and Union , of Heads and Councells , and used by the Church ; I mean the People in Union , and society of Hearts in Spirits , hath two very great advantages which other Prayers have not . For first , it is more truly publick , and hath the benefit sect. 101 of those helps which God ( who never is deficient to supply any of our needs ) gives to publick persons in order to publick necessities , by which I mean , its emanation from a publick , and therefore a more excellent spirit . And secondly , it is the greatest instance of union in the world ; for since God hath made Faith , Hope , and Charity , the ligaments of the communion of Saints , and Common prayer , which not onely all the Governours have propounded as most fit , but in which all the people are united , is a great Testimony of the same Faith , and a common hope , and mutuall charity , because they confesse the same God whom they worship , and the same Articles which they recite , and labour towards the same hope , the mighty price of their high calling , and by praying for each other in the same sense , and to the same purpose , doing the same to them , that I desire they should doe for me , doe testifie and preserve , and increase their charity ; it followes , that common , and described prayers are the most excellent instrument , and act , and ligament of the Communion of Saints , and the great common terme of the Church in its degrees of Catholike capacity . And therefore saith S. Ignatius , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , All meet together , and joyne to common Prayers , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , let there be one minde , and let there be one prayer . That 's the true Communion of Christians . And in pursuance of this , I consider , that if all Christian sect. 102 Churches had one common Lyturgie , there were not a greater symbol to testifie , nor a greater instrument to preserve the Catholick Communion ; and when ever a Schisme was commenc'd , and that they call'd one another Heretick , they not onely forsook to pray with one another , but they also altered their Formes , by interposition of new Clauses , and Hymnes , and Collects , and new Rites and Ceremonies ; onely those parts that combin'd kept the same Lyturgie ; & indeed the same Formes of Prayer , were so much the instrument of Union , that it was the onely ligament of their Society , ( for their Creeds , I reckon as part of their Lyturgie , for so they ever were : ) so that this may teach us a little to guesse , I will not say into how many Churches , but into how many innumerable atomes , and minutes of Churches those Christians must needes be scattered , who alter their Formes according to the number of persons , and the number of their meetings , every company having a new Forme of Prayer at every convention . And this consideration will not be vaine , if we remember how great a blessing unity in Churches is , and how hard to be kept , with all the arts in the world ; and how every thing is powerfull enough for its dissolution . But that a publick Forme of Lyturgie was the great instrument of Communion in the Primitive Church , appeares in this , that the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , or excōmunication , was an exclusion , à communicatione orationis , & conventus , & omnis sancti commercii , from the participation of the publick meeting and Prayers ; and therefore the more united the Prayer is , still it is the greater instrument of Union ; the Authority and Consent , the publick Spirit , and common Acceptation , are so many degrees of a more firme and indissoluble Communion . 3. To this I adde , that without prescribed Formes , issues sect. 103 of the publick Spirit and Authority , publick Communion cannot be regular and certain , as may appear in one or two plain instances . It is a practise prevailing among those of our Brethren that are zealous for ex tempore , or not enjoyned Prayers , to pray their Sermons over , to reduce their Doctrine into Devotion and Lyturgie . I mislike it not for the thing it self , if it were regularly for the manner , and the matter alwayes pious & true . But who shall assure me , when the Preacher hath disputed , or rather dogmatically decreed a point of predestination , or of prescience , of contingency , or of liberty , or any of the most mysterious parts of Divinity , and then prayes his Sermon over , that he then prayes with the Spirit ? Unlesse I be sure that he also Preached with the Spirit , I cannot be sure that he Prayes with the Spirit , for all he prayes ex tempore . Nay , if I hear a Protestant preach in the Morning , and an Anabaptist in the Afternoone , to day a Presbyterian , to morrow an Independent , am I not most sure , that when they have preached contradictories , and all of them pray their Sermons over , that they do not all pray with the Spirit ? More then one in this case cannot pray with the Spirit , possibly all may pray against him . 4. From whence I thus argue in behalfe of set formes sect. 104 of prayer . That in the case above put , how shall I , or any man else , say Amen to their prayers that preach and pray Contradictories ? At least , I am much hindered in my devotion . For besides that , it derives our opinions into our devotions , makes every School-point , become our Religion , and makes God a party so farre as we can , intit'ling him to our impertinent wranglings ; Besides this , I say , while we should attend to our addresses towards God , we are to consider whether the point be true , or no ? and by that time we have tacitely discours'd it , we are upon another point , which also perhaps is as questionable as the former , and by this time our spirit of devotion , is a little discompos'd and something out of countenance , there is so much other imployment for the spirit , the spirit of discerning and judging , All which inconveniences are avoided in Set formes of Liturgy . For , we know beforehand the conditions of our communion , and to what we are to say , Amen , to which if we like it , we may repaire ; if not , there is no harme done , your devotion shall not be surpriz'd , nor your communion invaded , as it may be often , in your ex tempore prayers , and unlimited devotions . 5. And this thing hath another collaterall inconvenience sect. 105 which is of great consideration , for upon what confidence can we sollicite any Recusants to come to our Church , where we cannot promise them , that the devotions there to be used shall be innocent , nor can we put him into a condition to judge for himself ? If he will venture he may , but we can use no argument to make him choose our Churches , though he would quit his owne . 6. So that either the people must have an implicite sect. 106 faith in the Priest , and then may most easily be abused , or if they have not , they cannot joyne in the prayer , it cannot become to them an instrument of communion but by chance , and irregularly ; and ex post facte , when the prayer is approv'd of , and after the devotion is spent , for till then they cannot judge , and before they doe , they cannot say Amen , and till Amen be said there is no benefit of the prayer , nor no union of hearts and desires , and therefore as yet no communion . 7. Publike Formes of prayer are great advantages to sect. 107 convey an Article of faith into the most secret retirement of the Spirit , and to establish it with a most firme perswasion , and indeare it to us with the greatest affection . For , since our prayers are the greatest instruments and conveyances of blessing and mercy to us , that which mingles with our hopes , which we owne to God , which is sent of an errand to fetch a mercy for us , in all reason will become the dearer to us for all these advantages . And just so is an Article of belief inserted into our devotions , and made a part of prayer , it is extreamly confirmed by that confidence and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , fulnesse of perswasion that must exclude all doubting from our prayers , and it insinuates it self into our affection by being mingled with our desires , and we grow bold in it by having offered it to God , and made so often acknowledgement of it to him who is not to be mooked . And , certainly it were a very strange Liturgy in sect. 108 which there were no publike Confession of Faith , for as it were deficient in one act of Gods worship , which is offering the understanding up to God , bringing it in subjection to Christ , and making publike profession of it , it also loses a very great advantage which might accrue to Faith by making it a part of our Liturgique devotions ; and this was so apprehended by the Ancients in the Church , our Fathers in Christ , that commonly they used to oppose a Hymne , or a Collect , or a Doxology , in defiance of a new-sprung Haeresie . The Fathers of Nice fram'd the Gloria Patri , against the Arians . Saint Austin compos'd a Hymne against the Donatists . Saint Hierome added the [ sicut erat in principio ] against the Macedonians . S. Ambrose fram'd the [ Te Deum ] upon occasion of Saint Austine's Baptisme , but tooke care to make the Hymne to be of most solemne adoration , and yet of prudent institution and publique Confession , that according to the advice of Saint Paul we might sing with grace in our hearts to the Lord , and at the same time teach and admonish one another too : Now this cannot be done but in Set formes of prayer ; for in new devotions and uncertain formes we may also have an ambulatory faith , and new Articles may be offered before every Sermon , and at every convention ; the Church can have no security to the contrary , nor the Article any stable foundation , or advantageous insinuation either into the judgment or memory of the persons to be informed or perswaded , but like Abraham's sacrifice , as soone as his back is turn'd , the birds shall eate it up . Quid quod haec oratio quae sanandis mentibus adhibetur , descendere in nos debet . Remedia non prosunt nisi immorentur . A cursory Prayer shall have a transient effect ; when the hand is off , the impression also is gone . 8. Without the description of publike formes of prayer sect. 109 there can be no security given in the matter of our prayers , but we may burne assa foetida for incense , and the marrow of a Mans bones in stead of the fat of Rammes ; and of all things in the world we should be most curious that our prayers be not turned into sinne , and yet if they be not prescribed and preconsidered , nothing can secure them antecedently , the people shall go to Church but without confidence that they shall returne with a blessing , for they know not whether God shall have a present made of a holy oblation , or else whether the Minister will stand in the gap , or make the gap wider ? But this I touch'd upon before . 9. They preserve the authority and sacrednesse of Government , sect. 110 and possibly they are therefore decried that the reputation of authority may decline together . For as God hath made it the great Cancell between the Clergy and the People , that they are deputed to speake to God for them , so is it the great distinction of the persons in that order , that the Rulers shall judge between the Ministers and the People in relation to God , with what addresses they shall come before God , and intercede for the People , for so Saint Paul enjoynes , that the spirits of the Prophets , should be submitted to the Prophets , viz. to be discern'd and judg'd by them , which thing is not practicable in permissions of every Minister to pray what formes he pleases every day . 10. Publike formes of Liturgy are also the great securities sect. 111 and basis to the religion and piety of the people ; for circumstances governe them most , and the very determination of a publike office , and the appointment of that office at certain times , engages their spirits , the first to an habituall ; the latter , to an actuall devotion . It is all that the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , many men know of their Religion , and they cannot any way know it better , then by those Formes of prayer which publish their faith , and their devotion to God , and all the world , and which by an admirable expedient reduces their faith into practice , and places their Religion in their understanding , and affections . And therefore Saint Paul when he was to give an account of his Religion , he did it not by a meer recitation of the Articles , but by giving account of his Liturgy , and the manner of his worship . After that way which they call haeresie , so worship I the God of my Fathers . And the best worship , is the best religion , and therefore I am not to trust any man to make my manner of worshipping , unlesse I durst trust him to be the Dictator of my Religion ; and a Forme of Prayer made by a private man , is also my Religion made by a private man . So that we must say , after the manner that G. the Minister of B. shall conceive and speak , so worship I the God of my Fathers , and if that be reasonable or pious , let all the world judge . 11. But when Authority shall consider and determine sect. 112 upon a forme of Liturgy , and this be used and practised in a Church , there is an admirable conjunction in the Religion , and great co-operation towards the glory of God . The authority of the injunction adds great reputation to the devotion , and takes off the contempt which from the no-authority of single and private persons must be consequent to their conceived prayers ; and the publike practise of it , and union of Spirits in the devotion , satisfies the world in the nature of it , and the Religion of the Church . 12. But nothing can answer for the great scandall sect. 113 which all wise persons , and all good persons in the world must needs receive when there is no publike testimony consigned , that such a whole Nation , or a Church , hath anything that can be called Religion , and those little umbrages that are , are casuall as chance it self ; alterable , as time ; and shall be good when those infinite numbers of men ( that are trusted with it ) shall please to be honest , or shall have the good luck not to be mistaken . 13. I will not now instance in the vain-glory that is appendant sect. 114 to these new made , every-dayes forms of prayer , and that some have been so vaine , like the Orators Quintilian speaks of , ut verbum petant quo incipiant , that they have published their ex tempore faculty upon experiment , and scenicall bravery , you shall name the instance , and they shall compose the forme : Amongst whom also the gift of the man is more then the devotion of the man ; nor will I consider that then his gift is esteemed best , when his prayer is longest ; and if he takes a complacency in his gift ( as who is not apt to doe it ? ) he will be sure to extend his prayer till a suspitious and scrupulous man would be apt to say , his Prayer pressed hard upon that which our blessed Saviour reprehended in the Pharisees , who thought to be heard for their much babling . I know it was observed by a very wise man , that the vanity of spirit and popular opinion that growes great , and talks loudly of his abilities that can speake ex tempore , may not onely be the incentive , but a helper of the faculty , and make a man not onely to love it , but to be the more able to doe it . Addit ad dicendum etiam pudor stimulos , addit & dicendorum expectata laus , mirumque videri potest , quod cum stylus secreto gaudeat , atque omnes arbitros reformidet , extemporalis actio auditorum frequentiâ , ut miles congestu signorum excitatur . Namque & difficiliorem concitationem exprimit , & expolit dicendi necessitas , & secundos impetus auget placendi cupido . Adeò praemium omnia spectant omnia eloquentia quoque quanquam plurimum habeat in se voluptatis maximè tamen praesenti fructu laudis , opinionisque ducatur . It may so happen that the opinion of the people as it is apt to actuate the faculty , so also may encourage the practise , and spoile the devotion . But these things are accidentall to the nature of the thing , and therefore though they are too certainly consequent to the person , yet I will not be too severe , but preserve my self on the surer side of a charitable construction , which truly I desire to keep , not onely to their persons , whom I much reverence , but also to their actions . But yet I durst not doe the same thing even for these last reasons , though I had no other . In the next place we must consider the next great objection , sect. 115 that is with much clamour pretended , viz. that in set Formes of Prayer we restrain and confine the blessed Spirit ; and in conceived Formes , when every man is left to his liberty , then the Spirit is free , unlimited and unconstrained . I answer , either their conceived formes ( I use their own sect. 116 words , though indeed the expression is very inartificiall ) are premeditate and described , or they are ex tempore . If they be premeditate and described , then the Spirit is as much limited in their conceived Formes , as in the Churches conceived Formes . For as to this particular it is all one who describes and limits the Forme , whether the Church , or a single man does it , still the Spirit is in constraint and limit . So that in this case they are not angry at set Forms of Prayer , but that they do not make them . And if it be replied , that if a single person composes a set Forme , he may alter it if he please , and so his Spirit is at liberty ; I answer , so may the Church , if She see cause for it ; and unlesse there be cause , the single person will not alter it , unlesse he do things unreasonable , and without cause . So that it will be an unequall challenge , and a peevish quarrell to allow of set Formes Prayer made by private Persons , and not of set Formes made by the publick Spirit of the Church . It is evident that the Spirt is limited in both alike . But if by [ conceived Formes ] in this Objection they sect. 117 mean ex tempore Prayers ( for so they would be thought most generally to practise it ) and that in the use of these , the liberty of the Spirit is best preserved ; To this I answer , that the being ex tempore , or premeditate will be wholly impertinent to this Question of limiting the Spirit . For there may be great liberty in set Formes , even when there is much variety ; and there may be great restraint in extempore prayers , even then when it shall be called unlawfull to use set formes . That the Spirit is restrained , or that it is free in either , is accidentall to them both ; for it may be either free or not free in both , as it may happen . But the restraint is this , that every one is not left to sect. 118 his liberty to pray how he list , ( with premeditation or without , it makes not much matter ) but that he is prescribed unto by the spirit of another . But if it be a fault thus to restrain the Spirit , I would faine know , is not the Spirit restrained when the whole Congregation shall be confined to the Forme of this one mans composing ? Or shall it be unlawfull , or at least a disgrace and disparagement to use any set Formes , especially of the Churches composition ? More plainly thus . 2. Doth not the Minister confine , and restrain the sect. 119 Spirit of the Lords People , when they are tyed to his Forme ? It would sound of more liberty to their Spirits , that every one might make a prayer of his own , and all pray together , and not be forced or confined to the Ministers single dictate , and private Spirit . It is true , it would breed confusions , and therefore they might pray silently till the Sermon began , and not for the avoiding one inconvenience run into a greater , and to avoid the disorder of a popular noise restrain the blessed Spirit , for even in this case as well as in the other , Where the Spirit of God is , there must be liberty . 3. If the spirit must be at liberty , who shall assure us sect. 120 this liberty must be in Formes of Prayer ? And if so , whether also it must be in publick Prayer , and will it not suffice that it be in private ? And if in publick Prayers , is not the liberty of the Spirit sufficiently preserved , that the publick Spirit is free ? That is , the Church hath power , upon occasion , to alter and increase her Litanies . By what argument shall any man make it so much as probable , that the holy Ghost is injured , if every private Ministers private spirit shall be guided , ( and therefore by necessary consequence limited ) by the authority of the Churches publick Spirit ? 4. Does not the Directory that thing which is here called sect. 121 restraining of the Spirit ? Does it not appoint every thing but the words ? And after this , is it not a goodly Palladium that is contended for , and a princely liberty they leave unto the Spirit , to be free onely in the supplying the place of a Vocabulary , and a Copia verborum ? For as for the matter , it is all there described and appointed ; and to those determined senses the Spirit must assist , or not at all , onely for the words he shall take his choise . Now I desire it may be considered sadly and seriously : Is it not as much injury to the Spirit to restrain , his matter , as to appoint his words ? Which is the more considerable of the two , Sense or Language , Matter or Words ? I mean when they are taken singly , and separately . For so they may very well be , ( for as if men prescribe the matter onely , the Spirit may cover it with severall words and expressions ; so if the Spirit prescribe the words , I may still abound in variety of sense , and preserve the liberty of my meaning ; we see that true in the various interpretations of the same words of Scripture . ) So that , in the greater of the two , the Spirit is restrained when his matter is appointed ; and to make him amends , for not trusting him with the matter without our directions and limitations , we trust him to say what he pleases , so it be to our sense , to our purposes . A goodly compensation surely ! 5. Did not Christ restrain the spirit of his Apostles , sect. 122 when he taught them to pray the Lords Prayer , whether his precept to his Disciples , concerning it , was , Pray this , or Pray thus , Pray these words , or Pray after this manner ? Or though it had been lesse then either , and been onely a Directory for the matter ; still it is a thing which our Brethren in all other cases of the same nature , are resolved perpetually to call a restraint . Certainly then , this pretended restraint , is no such formidable thing . These men themselves doe it by directing all of the matter , and much of the manner , and Christ himself did it , by prescribing both the matter , and the words too . 6. These restraints ( as they are called ) or determinations sect. 123 of the Spirit , are made by the Spirit himself . For I demand , when any Assembly of Divines appoint the matter of Prayers to all particular Ministers , as this hath done , is that appointment by the Spirit or no ? If no , then for ought appears , this Directory not being made by Gods Spirit , may be an enemy to it . But if this appointment be by the Spirit , then the determination and limitation of the Spirit , is by the Spirit himself , and such indeed is every pious , and prudent constitution of the Church in matters Spirituall . Such as was that of Saint Paul to the Corinthians , when he prescribed orders for publick Prophecying , and Interpretation , and speaking with Tongues . The Spirit of some he so restrained , that he bound them to hold their peace , he permitted but two or three to speak at one meeting , the rest were to keep silence , though possibly six or seven might at that time have the Spirit . 7. Is it not a restraint of the Spirit to sing a Psalme in sect. 124 Meeter by appointment ? Cleerly , as much as appointing Formes of prayer , or Eucharist ; And yet that we see done daily , and no scruple made . Is not this to be partiall in judgement , and inconsiderate of what we doe ? 8. And now after all this strife , what harme is there sect. 125 in restraining the Spirit in the present sense ? What prohibition ? what Law ? What reason or revelation is against it ? What inconvenience in the nature of the thing ? For , can any man be so weak as to imagine a despite is done to the Spirit of grace , when the gifts given to his Church are used regularly , and by order ? As if prudence were no gift of Gods Spirit , as if helps in Government , and the ordering spirituall matters were none of those graces which Christ when he ascended up on high gave unto men . But this whole matter is wholly a stranger to reason , and never seen in Scripture . For , Divinity never knew any other vitious restraining sect. 126 the Spirit , but either suppressing those holy incitements to vertue and good life , which Gods Spirit ministers to us externally , or internally ; or else a forbidding by publike authority the Ministers of the Word and Sacraments , to speake such truths as God hath commanded , and so taking away the liberty of prophecying . The first is directly vitious in materia speciali : The second is tyrannicall and Antichristian . And to it persecution of true Religion is to be reduced . But as for this pretended limiting or restraining the Spirit , viz. by appointing a regular Forme of prayer , it is so very a Chimaera , that it hath no footing or foundation upon any ground where a wise man may build his confidence . 9. But lastly , how if the Spirit must be restrained , and sect. 127 that by precept Apostolicall ? That calls us to a new account . But if it be not true , what meanes Saint Paul , by saying , The spirits of the Prophets must be subject to the Prophets ? What greater restraint then subjection ? If subjected , then they must be ruled ; if ruled , then limited ; prescribed unto , and as much under restraint as the spirits of the superiour Prophets shall judge convenient . I suppose by this time this Objection will trouble us no more . But perhaps another will . For , why are not the Ministers to be left as well to sect. 128 their liberty in making their Prayers as their Sermons ? I answer , the Church may if she will , but whether she doth well or no , let her consider . This I am sure , there is not the same reason , and I feare the experience the world hath already had of it will make demonstration enough of the inconvenience . But however , the differences are many . 1. Our Prayers offered up by the Minister , are in behalf , sect. 129 and in the name of the People , and therefore great reason they should know beforehand , what is to be presented , that if they like not the message , they may refuse to communicate , especially since people are so divided in their opinions , in their hopes , and in their faiths ; it being a duty to refuse comunion with those prayers which they think to have in them the matter of sin or doubting . Which reason on the other part ceases , for the Minister being to speak from God to the people , if he speaks what he ought not , God can right himself , however is not a partner of the sin as in the other case , the people possibly may be . 2. It is more fit a liberty be left in Preaching than sect. 130 Praying , because the addresse of our discourses and exhortations are to be made according to the understanding and capacity of the audience , their prejudices are to be removed , all advantages to be taken , and they are to be surprized that way they lie most open , [ But being crafty I caught you , ] saith Saint Paul to the Corinthians . And discourses and arguments ad hominem , upon their particular principles and practises may more move them than the most polite and accurate that doe not comply and wind about their fancies and affections . Saint Paul from the absurd practise of being baptized for the dead , made an excellent Argument to convince the Corinthians of the Resurrection . But this reason also ceases in our prayers . For God understandeth what we say , sure enough , he hath no prejudices to be removed , no infirmities to be wrought upon , and a fine figure of Rhetorick , a pleasant cadence and a curious expression move not him , at all : No other twinings and compliances stirre him , but charity , and humility , and zeale , and importunity , which all are things internall and spirituall . It was observed by Pliny , Deos non tam accuratis adorantium precibus , quam innocentiâ & sanctitate laetari : gratioremque existimari qui delubris eorum puram castamque mentem quam qui meditatum carmen intulerit . And therefore of necessity there is to be great variety of discourses to the people , and permissions accordingly , but not so to God , with whom a Deus miserere prevails as soon as the great Office of 40 houres not long since invented in the Church of Rome , or any other prayers spun out to a length beyond the extension of the office of a Pharisee . 3. I feare it cannot stand with our reverence to God sect. 131 to permit to every spirit a liberty of publike addresse to him in behalf of the people . Indeed , he that is not fit to pray , is not alwaies fit to preach , but it is more safe to be bold with the people , then with God , if the persons be not so fit . In that there may be indiscretion , but there may be impiety and irreligion in this . The People may better excuse and pardon an indiscretion , or a rudenesse , ( if any such should happen ) than we may venture to offer it to God . 4. There is a latitude of Theology , much whereof is sect. 132 left to us , so without precise and cleare determination that without breach either of faith or charity men may differ in opinion : and if they may not be permitted to abound in their owne sense , they will be apt to complaine of tyranny over Consciences , and that Men Lord it over their faith . In prayer this thing is so different , that it is imprudent , and full of inconvenience , to derive such things into our prayers which may with good profit be matter of Sermons . Therefore here a liberty may well enough be granted , when there it may better be denied . 5. But indeed , if I may freely declare my opinion , I sect. 133 thinke it were not amisse if the liberty of making Sermons were something more restrain'd then it is , and that either such persons onely were intrusted with the liberty , for whom the Church her selfe may safely be responsive , that is , to men learned , and pious , and that the other part , the Vulgus Cleri should instruct the People out of the fountaines of the Church , and the publike stock , till by so long exercise and discipline in the Schooles of the Prophets , they may also be intrusted to minister of their owne unto the People . This I am sure was the practise of the Primitive Church , when preaching was as ably and religiously performed as now it is ; but in this , I prescribe nothing . But truly I think the reverend Divines of the Assembly are many of them of my mind in this particular , and that they observe a liberty indulg'd to some Persons to preach , which I think they had rather should hold their peace , and yet think the Church better edified in their silence , then their Sermons . 6. But yet methinks the Argument objected so farre sect. 134 as the ex tempore Men make use of it , if it were turned with the edge the other way , would have more reason in it ; and instead of arguing [ Why should not the same liberty be allowed to their spirit in praying as in preaching ? ] it were better to substitute this , If they can pray with the Spirit , why doe they not also preach with the Spirit ? And it may be there may be in reason or experience something more for preaching and making Orations by the excellency of a mans spirit and learning , then for the other , which in the greatest abilities it may be unfit to venture to God without publike approbation : but for Sermons they may be fortunate and safe if made ex tempore . Frequenter enim accidit ut successum extemporalem consequi cura non possit : quem si calor ac spiritus tulit , Deum tunc adfuisse cum id evenisset veteres Oratores , ut Cicero dicit , aiebant . Now let them make demonstration of their Spirit by making excellent Sermons ex tempore : that it may become an experiment of their other faculty , that after they are tried and approv'd in this , they may be considered for the other : And if praying with the Spirit be praying ex tempore , why shall not they preach ex tempore too , or else confesse that they preach without the Spirit , or that they have not the gift of preaching ? For to say that the gift of Prayer is a gift ex tempore , but the gift of Preaching is with study and deliberation , is to become vain and impertinent . Quis enim discrevit ? Who hath made them of a different Consideration ? I mean as to this particular , as to their Efficient cause ? nor Reason , nor Revelation , nor God , nor Man . To summe up all . If any man hath a mind to exercise sect. 135 his Gift of Prayer , let him set himself to work , and compose Bookes of Devotion , ( we have need of them in the Church of England , so apparent need , that some of the Church of Rome have made it an objection against us ) and this his Gift of Prayer will be to edification . But otherwise , I understand it is more fit for oftentation , then any spirituall advantage . For God hears us not the sooner for our ex tempore , long or conceived Prayers , possibly they may become a hindrance , as in the cases before instanced . And I am sure , if the people be intelligent , and can discerne , they are hindred in their Devotion ; for they dare not say Amen till they have considered , and many such cases will occurre in ex tempore , or unlicenc'd Prayers , that need much considering before we attest them . But if the people be not intelligent , they are apt to swallow all the inconveniences which may multiply in so great a licence : and therefore it were well that the Governours of the Church , who are to answer for their souls should judge for them , before they say Amen ; which judgement cannot be without set Formes of Lyturgie . My sentence therefore is , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , let us be as we are already , few changes are for the better . For if it be pretended , that in the Lyturgie of the sect. 136 Church of England , which was composed with much art and judgement , by a Church that hath as much reason to be confident She hath the Spirit and Gifts of Prayer as any single person hath , and each learned man that was at its first composition can as much prove that he had the Spirit , as the Objectors now adayes ; ( and he that boasts most , certainly hath the least : ) If I say it be pretended that there are many errours and inconveniences both in the Order and in the matter of the Common-prayer-Book , made by such men with so much industry : how much more , and with how much greater reason may we all dread the inconveniences and disorders of ex tempore and conceived Prayers ? Where respectively there is neither conjunction of Heads , nor Premeditation , nor Industry , nor Method , nor Art , nor any of those Things , ( or at least not in the same Degree ) which were likely to have exempted the Cōmon-prayer-booke from errours and disorders . If these things be in the green tree , what will be done in the dry ? But if it be said the ex tempore and conceived Prayers sect. 137 wil be secured from error by the Directory , because that chalkes them out the matter . I answer , it is not sufficient , because , if when men study both the matter and the words too , they may be ( and it is pretended are actually deceived ) much more may they , when the matter is left much more at liberty , and the words under no restraint at all . And no man can avoid the pressure and the weight of this , unlesse the Compilers of the Directory were infallible , and that all their followers are so too , of the certainty of which , I am not yet fully satisfied . And after this , I would faine know , what benefit sect. 138 and advantages the Churches of England in her united capacity receives by this new device ? For the publique it is cleare , that whether the Ministers Pray before they Study , or Study before they Pray , there must needs be infinite difformity in the publique Worship , and all the benefits which before were the consequents of Conformity and Unity will be lost , and if they be not valuable , I leave it to all them to consider , who know the inconveniences of Publick disunion , and the Publick disunion that is certainly consequent to them , who doe not communicate in any common Formes of Worship . And to think that the Directory will bring Conformity , is as if one should say , that all who are under the same Hemisphere are joyned in communi patriâ , and will love like Country-men . For under the Directory there will be as different religions , and as different desires , and as differing formes , as there are severall varieties of Men and Manners under the one half of Heaven , who yet breathe under the same half of the Globe . But I ask again , what benefit can the publick receive sect. 139 by this Forme , or this no Forme ? For I know not whether to call it . Shall the matter of Prayers be better in all Churches , shall God be better served ? shal the Word of God , and the best Patternes of Prayers be alwayes exactly followed ? It is well if it be . But there is no security given us by the Directory ; for the particulars , and speciall instances of the matter are left at every Mans dispose for all that , and we must depend upon the honesty of every particular for it : and if any man proves an Heretick , or a Knave , then he may introduce what impiety he please into the publick Formes of Gods Worship : and there is no Law made to prevent it , and it must be cured afterward if it can , but before hand it is not prevented at all by the Directory which trusts every man . But I observe , that all the benefit which is pretended , sect. 140 is , that it will make an able Ministry . Maximus vero studiorum fructus est & praemium quoddam amplissimum longi laboris ex tempore dicendi facultas , said an exccellent person . And it is very true ; to be able to speak excellent things , without long considering is an effect of a long industry , and greatest learning : but certainly the greatest enemy in the world to its production : Much learning , and long use of speaking may enable a man to speak upon sudden occasions , but speaking without consideration , will never make much learning . Nec quisquam tantum fidit ingenio ut sibi speret incipienti statim posse contingere , sed sicut in cogitatione praecepimus , ita facilitatem quoquè extemporalem a parvis initiis paulatim perducemus ad summam . And to offer that , as a meanes of getting learning , which cannot be done at all as it ought , but after learning is already gotten in a very great degree , is highest mistaking . I confesse I am very much from believing the allegation , and so will every man be that considers what kinde of men they are that have bin most zealous for that way of conceived Prayer . I am sure , that very few of the learnedst , very many ignorants , most those who have made least abode in the Schooles of the Prophets . And that I may disgrace no mans person , we see Trades-men of the most illiberable arts , and women pretend to it , and doe it with as many words , ( and that 's the maine thing ) with as much confidence , and speciousnesse of spirit as the best among them . Sed nec tumultuarii nec fortuiti sermonis contextum mirabor unquam quem jurgantibus etiam mulierculis superfluere video , said Quintilian . And it is but a small portion of learning that will serve a man to make conceived Formes of Prayer , which they may have easily upon the stock of other men , or upon their own fancy , or upon any thing in which no learning is required . He that knows not this , knowes nothing of the craft that may be in the Preachers trade . But what ? Is God better served ? I would fain see any authority , or any reason , or any probability for that . I am sure , ignorant men offer him none of the best sacrifices ex tempore , and learned men will be sure to deliberate and know , God is then better served when he is served by a publick , then when by a private Spirit . I cannot imagine what accruements will hence come to the Publick : it may be some advantages may be to the private interests of men . For there are a sort of men whom our Blessed Saviour noted , Who doe devour Widowes houses , and for a pretence make long prayers . They make Prayers , and they make them long , by this meanes they receive double advantages , for they get reputation to their ability , and to their piety . And although the Common-prayer-Book in the Preface to the Directory be charged with unnecessary length , yet we see that most of these men , they that are most eminent , or would be thought so , make their Prayers longer , and will not lose the benefits which their credit gets , and they , by their credit , for making their Prayers . Adde this , that there is no promise in Scripture that sect. 141 he , who prayes ex tempore , shall be heard the better , or that he shall be assisted at all to such purposes , and therefore to innovate in so high a matter without a warrant to command us , or a Promise to warrant us , is no better then vanity in the thing , and presumption in the person . He therefore that considers that this way of Prayer is without all manner of precedent in the Primitive Church , against the example of all famous Churches in all Christendome , in the whole descent of XV Ages , without all command or warrant of Scripture , that it is unreasonable in the nature of the thing , against prudence and the best wisdome of humanity , because it is without Deliberation , that it is innovation in a high degree , without that authority which is truly , and by inherent and Ancient right to command & prescribe to us in external Formes of Worship , that it is much to the disgrace of the first Reformers of our Religion , that it gives encouragement to the Church of Rome to quarrell , with some reason , and more pretence against our Reformation , as being by the Directory confessed to have been done in much blindnesse ; and therefore might erre in the excesse as well as in the defect , throwing out too much , as casting off too little , ( which is the more likely , because they wanted No Zeal to carry them far enough : ) He that considers the universall difformity of publick Worship , and the no means of Union , no Symbol of publick Communion being publickly consigned ; that all Heresies may , with the same authority , be brought into our Prayers , and offered to God in the behalf of the people , with the same authority , that any truth may , all the particular matter of our Prayers being left to the choice of all men , of all perswasions , and then observes that actually , there are in many places , Heresie , and Blasphemy , and Impertinency , and illiterate Rudenesses put into the Devotion of the most solemne Dayes , and the most publick Meetings ; and then lastly , that there are diverse parts of Lyturgie , for which no provision at all is made in the Directory ; and the very administration of the Sacraments let so loosely , that if there be any thing essentiall in the Formes of Sacraments , the Sacrament may become ineffectuall for want of due Words , and due Administration ; I say , he that considers all these things ( and many more he may consider ) will finde that particular men are not fit to be intrusted to offer in Publike with their private Spirit , to God , for the people , in such Solemnities , in matters of so great concernment , where the Honour of God , the benefit of the People , the interest of Kingdomes , the being of a Church , the unity of Mindes , the conformity of Practise , the truth of Perswasion , and the salvation of Souls , are so much concerned as they are in the publick Prayers of a whole nationall Church . An unlearned man is not to be trusted , and a Wise man dare not trust himselfe ; he that is ignorant cannot , he that is knowing will not . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A63653e-330 Quest . 1. Isocrat . in Panathen . Eccles. 5. 2. Alex. ab Alex. l. 2. c. 14. Idem , l. 4. c. 17. Ibidem . In vita Proaeresii . Ephes. 4. 12. Ephes. 2. 8. 1 Cor. 12. 9. 2 Cor. 4. 13. Epist. Iud , v. 20 1 Tim. 4. 14. 2 Tim. 1. 6. So as that hereby they become not slothfull and negligent in stirring up the gifts of Christ in them . But that each one by meditation , by taking heed , &c. may be carefull to furnish his heart and tongue with further or other materials , &c. Preface to the Directory . Rom. 8. 26. * Eph. 5. 18 , 19. * Col. 3. 16. Vid. Act. 19. 21. & 16. 7 , 8 , 9 , 10. Etiam Veteres Prophetae disposuerunt se ad respondendum propheticè . Et vaticinia admoto plectro , aut hausto calice , dederunt . ( Gen. 44. 5. ) Scyphus quem furati estis ipse est in quo Dominus meus bibit , & in quo augurari solet . Dixit Oeconomus Iosephi . Et afferte psalterium . Dixit Eliseus ( 2 Reg. 3. 15. ) Domi●●on interrogaturus . Vid. Erasmi Epist. ad Jo. Eckium . Epist. 1. 20. i Cor. 7. a Homil. 16. in Numer . b Lib. 5. contr. eunom. . c. penult . c Lib. 8. in Lucā . c. 16. Sunt ne mei ? sunt ne tui ? imo sunt gemitus Ecclesiae , aliquando in me , aliquando in te August . eodem modo quo S. August . dixit Deo , Conqueror tibi Domine lachrymis Jesu Christi , de quo dictum est , Heb. 5. 7. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . De extemporali dicendi facultate Quintil. l. 10. c. 7. Quest . 2. 1 Cor. 12. 7. Quintil. dial . de Oratorib . Quintil : 1 Cor. 14 18. Quintilian . * Quale ect illud apud Tertull : de privatìs Christianorum precibus , non quidem ab alio dictatis , sed à Scripturarum fontibus , derivatis . Illuc suspicientes Christiani manibus expansis , quia innocui ; capite nudo , quia non erubescimus : denique sine monitore quia de pectore : oramus pro omnibus Imperatoribas , vitam illis prolixam , imperium securum , domum tutam , exercitus fortes , senatum fidelem , populum probum , orbem quietum , & quaecunque hominis & Caesaris vota sunt . 1 Cor. 4. 1. Gen. 20. 7. Act● 6. 4. 2 Chron. 29. 30 * Mat. 5. 1. Mat. 6. 9. Luke 11. 2. Proaeres . ap. Eunapium . Gal. 3. 2. Vid. Scalig. de emend. . tempor . de Judaeor . magn. Allelujah . * Imò totus Canon consecrationis tam similis est & ferè idem in verbis apud . Graecos , Latinos , Arabas , Armenios , Syros , Egyptios , AEthiopas , ut nisi à communi fonte , qui nisi Apostolorum non est , manare non potuerit . Unde intelligi datur quia multum erat ut in Epistolâ , totum illum agendi ordinem insinuaret , quem Vniversa per orbem servat Ecclesia , ab ipso ordinatum esse , quod nulla morum diversitate variatur . S. Aug. ep. 118. Greg. l. 7. cp. 63. Hier. lib. contr. Pelag. * Eligo in his verbis hoc intelligere , quod omnis , vel pene omnis frequentat Ecclesia , ut precationes accipiamus dictas quos facimus in celebratione Sacramentorum antequam illud quod est in Domini mensâ incipiat benedici ; orationes cum benedicitur , & ad distribuendum comminuitur : quam totam orationem , pene omnis Ecclesia , Dominica oratione concludit . 8. Aug. cp. 59. q. 5. ad illud Pauli , Obsecro primum omnium fieri obsecrationes . Col. 3. 16. Epist. 119. c. 18. In theophrast. . charact . Ap. Euseb 1. 7. c. 24. Et Walafr . Strab. c. 25. de reb. Eccles. Apoc. 15. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Hesych . vide S. August . ep. 59 q. 5. in hunc locum . descripsi verba ad §. 86. ut quisque de Scripturis sanctis , vel de proprio ingenio potest , provocatur in medium Deo canere . Tertull. Apolog : 1 Cor. 14. Horat. Epist. l. 2. cp. 1. Epist. ad Antiochen . memorantur etiam in 25 Canone Apostolorum . * De proprio ingeuio ] [ de pectore ] sine monitore ] we finde once in Tertullian . Altare Damas cenum . S. Cyprian . op. 27 1 Tim. 2. 5. Seneca . l. 5. ep. 40 Quintil. lib. 10. cap. 7. Plin. Panegyr . Trajan dictum . Quintilian . de extemporal . facult. l. 10. c. 7. Quint , l. 10. c. 7. Idem ibid. Lucian . Rhetor . praecept . {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . Quint , l. 10. 7. 
A63673	----	Chrisis teleiōtikē, A discourse of confirmation for the use of the clergy and instruction of the people of Ireland / by Jeremy, Lord Bishop of Down ; and dedicated to His Grace James, Duke ... and General Governor of His Majesties kingdom of Ireland. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. 1663 Approx. 191 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 52 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-12 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A63673 Wing T293 ESTC R11419 13298889 ocm 13298889 98912 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A63673) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 98912) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 439:20) Chrisis teleiōtikē, A discourse of confirmation for the use of the clergy and instruction of the people of Ireland / by Jeremy, Lord Bishop of Down ; and dedicated to His Grace James, Duke ... and General Governor of His Majesties kingdom of Ireland. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. [12], 90, [1] p. Printed for John Crooke ..., Dublin : 1663. Title transliterated from Greek. First ed. Cf. Wing. "Publish'd by order of convocation" Advertisement on p. [1] at end. Reproduction of original in Cambridge University Library. Marginal notes. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. 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Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Confirmation -- Early works to 1800. 2005-02 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-03 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-04 Emma (Leeson) Huber Sampled and proofread 2005-04 Emma (Leeson) Huber Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion ΧΡΙΣΙΣ ΤΕΛΕΙ●ΤΙΚΗ . A DISCOURSE OF Confirmation . For the use of the Clergy and Instruction of the People of Ireland . By Jeremy Lord Bishop of Down . Publish'd by Order of Convocation . AND Dedicated to His Grace James Duke , Marquess and Earl of Ormonde , &c. Lord Lieutenant General , and General Governour of His Majesties Kingdom of Ireland , DUBLIN , Printed by John Crooke , Printer to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty , and are to be sold by Samuel Dancer next door to the Beare and Ragged-staffe in Castle-street , 1663. To His Grace , James Duke , Marquess and Earl of Ormonde , Earl of Ossory and Brecknock , Viscount Thurles , Lord Baron of Arclo and Lanthony , Lord of the Regalities and Liberties of the County of Tipperary , Chancellor of the University of Dublin , Lord Lieutenant General , and General Governour of His Majesties Kingdom of Ireland , Lord Lieutenant of the County of Sommerset , one of the Lords of His Majesties most Honourable Privy-Councils of His Majesties Kingdoms of England , Scotland , and Ireland , Lord Steward of His Majesties Houshold , Gentleman of His Majesties Bed-Chamber , and Knight of the most Noble Order of the Garter . May it please Your Grace , IT is not any Confidence that I have Dexterously performed this charge , that gives me the boldness to present it to Your Grace . I have done it , as well as 〈◊〉 For I took not this task upon my self , but was entreated to it by them , who have power to Command me . But yet it is very necessary that it should be addressed to Your Grace , who are , as Sozomen said of Theodosius , Certaminum Magister , & orationum Judex constitutus , You are appointed the great Master of our arguings , and are most fit to be the Judge of our Discourses , especially when they do relate and pretend to publick Influence and Advantages to the Church . We all are Witnesses of Your Zeal to promote true Religion ; and every day find You to be a Great Patron to this very poor Church , which groans under the Calamities and permanent effects of a War acted by Intervals for above 400. years ; such which the Intermedial Sun-shines of Peace could but very weakly repair : our Churches are still demolished , much of the Revenues irrecoverably swallowed by Sacriledge , and digested by an unavoidable impunity ; Religion infinitely divided , and parted into formidable Sects , the People extreamly ignorant , and wilful by inheritance ; superstitiously irreligious , and uncapable of reproof , and amidst these , and very many more inconveniences , it was greatly necessary that God should send us such a KING , and he send us such a Viceroy , who wedds the Interests of Religion , and joynes them to his heart . For we do not look upon your Grace , only as a favourer of the Churches Temporal interest , though even for that , the Souls of the relieved Clergy do daily bless you ; neither are You our Patron only as the Cretans were to Homer , or the Alenadae to Simonides , Philip to Theopompus , or Severus to Oppianus ; but as Constantine and Theodosius were to Christians ; that is , desirous that true Religion should be promoted , that the interest of Souls should be advanced ; that Truth should flourish , and wise Principles 〈…〉 In order to which excellent purposes it is hoped , that the reduction of the Holy Rite of Confirmation into use and Holy practice may contribute some very great moments . For besides that the great usefulness of this Ministry will greatly endear the Episcopal order , to which ( that I may use S. Hierom's words ) if there be not attributed a more than common Power and Authority , there will be as many Schisms as Priests ; it will also be a means of endearing the Persons of the Prelates to their Flocks , when the People shall be convinced , that there is , or may be , if they please , a perpetual entercourse of Blessings and Love between them , when God by their Holy hands refuses not to give to the People , the earnest of an eternal inheritance ; when by them , he blesses , and that the grace of our Lord Jesus , and the Love of God , and the Communication of his Spirit , is conveyed to all Persons capable of the grace , by the Conduct , and on the hands and prayers of their Bishops . And indeed not only very many single Persons , but even the whole Church of Ireland hath need of Confirmation . We have most of us contended for false Religions and un-Christian propositions ; and now that by Gods mercy , and the prosperity and piety of his Sacred Majesty the Church is broken from her cloud , and many are reduc'd to the true Religion , and righteous worship of God ; we cannot but call to mind , how the Holy Fathers of the Primitive Church , often have declar'd themselves in Councils , and by a perpetual Discipline , that such Persons , who are return'd from Sects and Heresies into the Bosom of the Church , should not be rebaptiz'd ; but that the Bishops should impose hands on them in Confirmation . It is true , that this was design'd to supply the defect of those Schismatical Conventicles , who did not use this Holy rite ; For this Rite of Confirmation hath had the fate to be oppos'd only by the Schismatical and Puritan Parties of old ; the Novatians or Cathari , and the Donatists ; and of late by the Jesuits , and new Cathari , the Puritans , and Presbyterians ; the same evil spirit of contradictions keeping its course in the same channel , and descending regularly amongst Men of the same principles . But therefore in the restitution of a Man or company of Men , or a Church , the Holy Primitives , in the Council of C. P. Laodicea , and Orange , thought that to confirm such persons was the most agreeable Discipline ; not only because such persons did not in their little and dark assemblies use this rite , but because they alwayes greatly wanted it : For it is a sure Rule in our Religion , and is of an eternal truth , that they , who keep not the Unity of the Church , have not the Spirit of God ; and therefore it is most fit should receive the ministery of the spirit , when they return to the bosom of the Church , that so indeed they may keep the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace . And therefore Asterius Bishop of Amasia compares Confirmation to the ring , with which the Father of the Prodigal adorn'd his returning Son ; Datur nempe prodigo post stolam , & annulus , nempe Symbolum intelligibilis signaculi spiritus , And as the Spirit of God , the Holy Dove extended his mighty wings over the Creation , and hatch'd the new-born World , from its seminal powers , to Light and Operation , and Life , and Motion , so in the Regeneration of the souls of Men , he gives a new being , and heat and life , Procedure and Perfection , Wisdom and Strength , and because , that this was ministred by the Bishops hands in Confirmation , was so firmly believ'd by all the Primitive Church , therefore it became a Law , and an Vniversal practice in all those ages , in which Men desir'd to be sav'd by all means . The Latin Church , and the Greek alwayes did use it , and the Blessings of it , which they believ'd consequent to it , they expressed in a holy prayer , which in the Greek Euchologion they have very anciently and constantly used . a Thou O Lord , the most compassionate and Great King of all , graciously impart to this Person the seal of the gift of thy Holy , Almighty , and adorable spirit . For as an Ancient Greek said truly and wisely . b The Father is reconcil'd , and the Son is the Reconciler ; but to them who are by Baptism and Repentance made friends of God , the Holy Spirit is collated as a gift . They well knew what they received in this ministration , and therefore wisely laid hold of it and would not let it go . This was anciently ministred by Apostles , and ever after by the Bishops , and Religiously receiv'd by Kings , and greatest Princes ; and I have read that St. Sylvester confirm'd Constantine the Emperour , and when they made their children servants of the Holy Jesus , and Souldiers under his banner , and bonds-men of his Institution , then they sent them to the Bishop to be confirm'd , who did it sometimes by such Ceremonies , that the solemnity of the ministry might with greatest Religion addict them to the service of their Great Lord. We read in Adrovaldus , that Charles Martel , entring into a League with Bishop Luitprandus , sent his Son Pipin to him , ut more Christianorum fidelium , capillum ejus primus attonderet , ac Pater illi Spiritualis existeret , that he might after the manner of Christians , first cut his hair ( in token of service to Christ ) and [ in confirming him ] he should be his spiritual Father . And something like this we find concerning William Earl of Warren and Surrey , who when he had Dedicated the Church of St. Pancratius , and the Priorie of Lewes ; receiv'd Confirmation , and gave seizure per capillos capitis mei ( sayes he in the Charter ) & fratris mei Radulphi de Warrena , quas abscidit cum cultello de capitibus nostris Henricus Episcopus Wintoniensis ; by the hairs of my head and of my Brothers , which Henry Bishop of Winchester cut off before the Altar ; meaning ( according to the Ancient custome ) in confirmation ; when they by that solemnity addicted themselves to the free servitude of the Lord Jesus . The ceremony is obsolete and chang'd , but the mystery can never ; and indeed that is one of the advantages in which we can rejoyce concerning the ministration of this Rite in the Church of England and Ireland ; that whereas it was sometimes clouded , sometimes hindred , and sometimes hurt , by the appendage of needless , and useless ceremonies ; it is now reduc'd to the Primitive and first simplicity amongst us ; and the excrescencies us'd in the Church of Rome are wholly par'd away ; and by holy Prayers and the Apostolical Ceremonie of imposition of the Bishops hands it is worthily and zealously administred . The Latins us'd to send Chrism to the Greeks , when they had usurped some jurisdiction over them , and the Popes Chaplains went with a quantity of it to C. P. where the Russians usually met them for it ; for that was then the ceremony of this ministration ; But when the Latins demanded fourscore pounds of Gold besides other gifts , they went away , and chang'd their custom rather than pay an unlawful and ungodly Tribute . Non quaerimus vestra sed vos ; we require nothing but leave to impart Gods blessings with pure Intentions , and a spiritual ministery . And as the Bishops of our Churches receive nothing from the People , for the Ministration of this Rite , so they desire nothing but Love , and just Obedience in spiritual , and Ecclesiastical duties ; and we offer our Flocks spiritual things without mixture of Temporal advantages from them ; we minister the rituals of the Gospel , without the inventions of Men , Riligion without superstition , and only desire to be believ'd in such things which we prove from Scripture expounded by the Catholick practice of the Church of God. Concerning the Subject of this Discourse , the Rite of Confirmation ; It were easie to recount many great and glorious expressions which we find in the Sermons of the Holy Fathers of the Primitive Ages ; so certain it is , that in this thing we ought to be zealous , as being desirous to perswade our People to give us leave to do them great good : But the following Pages will do it , I hope , competently : only we shall remark ; that when they had gotten a custom anciently , that in cases of necessity , they did permit Deacons and Lay-men sometimes to baptize , yet they never did confide in it much ; but with much caution and curiosity commanded that such Persons should , when that necessity was over , be carried to the Bishop to be confirm'd , so to supply all precedent defects relating to the past imperfect ministry , and future necessity and danger , as appears in the Council of Eliberis . And the Ancients had so great estimate and veneration to this Holy rite , that as in Heraldry , they distinguish the same thing by several names , when they relate to Persons of greater Eminency , and they blazon the Armes of the Gentry by Metals , of the Nobtlity by pretious stones , but of Kings and Princes by Planets , so when they would signifie the Vnction which was us'd in confirmation , they gave it a special word , and of more distinction & remark , and therefore the oyl us'd in baptism , they call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . but that of confirmation was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and they who spake properly kept this difference of words , untill by incaution , and ignorant carelessness the names fell into confusion , and the thing into disuse and dis-respect . But it is no small addition to the Honour of this ministration , that some wise and good men , have piously believed , that when baptiz'd Christians are confirm'd , and solemnly bless'd by the Bishop , that then it is that a special Angel Guardian is appointed to keep their souls from the assaults of the spirits of darkness . Concerning which , though I shall not interpose mine own opinion , yet this I say , that the Prety of that supposition is not disagreeable to the intention of this Rite ; for since by this , the Holy Spirit of God ( the Father of Spirits ) is given , it is not unreasonably thought by them , that the other good Spirits of God , the Angels who are ministring spirits , sent forth to minister to the good of them that shall be Heirs of Salvation , should pay their kind offices in subordination to their Prince and fountain ; that the first in every kind , might be the measure of all the rest ; But there are greater and stranger things than this that God does for the souls of his Servants , and for the honour of the ministeries which himself hath appointed . We shall only add that this was ancient , and long before Popery entred into the World , and that this rite hath been more abus'd by Popery , than by any thing : and to this Day the Bigots of the Roman Church are the greatest Enemies to it ; and from them the Presbyterians ; but besides that the Church of England and Ireland does religiously retain it , and hath appointed a solemn officer , for the Ministery , the Lutheran and Bohemian Churches do observe it carefully , and it is recommended and establish'd in the harmony of the Protestant Confessions . And now , may it please Your Grace to give me leave to implore Your Aid and Countenance for the propagating this so religious , and useful a Ministery , which , as it is a peculiar of the Bishops office , is also a great enlarger of Gods gifts to the People ; it is a great instrument of Vnion of hearts , and will prove an effective deletory to Schism ; and an endearment to the other parts of Religion : it is the consummation of Baptism , and a preparation to the Lords Supper ; it is the vertue from on high , and the solemnity of our spiritual adoption . But there will be no need to use many arguments to enflame Your zeal in this affair , when Your Grace shall find , that to promote it will be a great service to God ; that this alone will conclude Your Grace , who are so ready , by Laws , and Executions , by word , and by example , to promote the Religion of Christ , as it is taught in these Churches . I am not confident enough to desire Your Grace , for the reading this Discourse , to lay aside any one hour of Your greater Employments , which consume so much of Your Dayes and Nights . But I say , that the Subject is greatly Worthy of Consideration . Nihil enim inter manus habui , cui majorem sollicitudinem praestare deberem ; and for the book it self , I can only say what Secundus did , to the wise Lupercus , Quoties ad fastidium legentium , deliciasque respicio , intelligo nobis commendationem ex ipsâ mediocritate libri petendam , I can Commend it because it is little , and so , not very troublesome ; and if it could have been writen according to the worthiness of the thing Treated in it , it would deserve so great a Patronage ; but because it is not , it will therefore greatly need it , but it can hope for it on no other account , but because it is laid at the feet of a Princely Person , who is Great and Good ; and one who not only is bound by Duty , but by choice hath Obliged Himself to do advantages to any Worthy instrument of Religion . But I have detain'd Your Grace so long in my address , that Your Pardon will be all the Favour , which ought to be hop'd for by Your Grace's most Humble and Obliged Servant . Jer. Dunensis . A DISCOURSE OF CONFIRMATION . The Introduction . NExt to the Incarnation of the Son of God and the whole Oeconomy of our Redemption wrought by him in an admirable order and Conjugation of glorious mercies , the greatest thing that ever God did to the World , is the giving to us the Holy Ghost : and possibly , this is the consummation and perfection of the other . For in the work of Redemption Christ indeed made a new World ; we are wholly a new Creation , and we must be so : and therefore when S. John began the Narrative of the Gospel , he began in a manner and stile very like to Moses in his History of the first Creation . In the beginning was the word , &c. All things were made by him , and without him was not any thing made that was made . But as in the Creation the matter was first : there were indeed Heavens , and Earth and Waters ; but all this was rude and without form , till the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters : So it is in the new Creation . We are a new Mass , redeem'd with the blood of Christ , rescued from an evil portion ; and made Candidates of Heaven and Immortality ; but we are but an Embryo in the regeneration , until the Spirit of God enlivens us and moves again upon the waters : and then every subsequent motion and operation is from the Spirit of God. We cannot say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost . By him we live , in him we walke , by his aids we pray , by his emotions we desire : we breath and sigh , and groan by him : he helps us in all our infirmities , and he gives us all our strengths ; he reveals mysteries to us , and teaches us all our duties : he stirs us up to holy desires , and he actuates those desires ; he makes us to will and to do of his good pleasure . For the Spirit of God is that in our spiritual life , that a Mans soul is in his Natural : without it , we are but a dead and liveless trunke . But then , as a Mans soul in proportion to the several operations of life obtains several appellatives ; it is Vegetative , and Nutritive , Sensitive , and Intellective , according as it operates : So is the Spirit of God. He is the spirit of Regeneration in Baptism , of renovation in Repentance : the spirit of love , and the spirit of holy fear , the searcher of the hearts , and the spirit of discerning : the spirit of wisdom , and the spirit of prayer . In one mystery he illuminates ; and in another he feeds us : he begins in one and finishes and perfects in another . It is the same spirit working divers operations . For he is all this now reckoned , and he is every thing else that is the principle of good unto us ; he is the beginning , and the progression , the consummation and perfection of us all ; and yet every work of his is perfect in it's kind , and in order to his own designation ; and from the beginning to the end is perfection all the way . Justifying and sanctifying grace is the proper Entitative product in all ; but it hath divers appellatives and connotations in the several rites : and yet even then also , because of the identity of the principle , the similitude and general consonancy in the effect , the same appellative is given , and the same effect imputed to more that one ; and yet none of them can be omitted , when the great Master of the family hath blessed it , and given it institution . Thus S. Dionys calls Baptism . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the perfection of the Divine birth ; and yet the baptized person must receive other mysteries which are more signally perfective : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; Confirmation is yet more perfective , and is properly the perfection of Baptism . By Baptism we are Heirs , and are adopted to the inheritance of sons , admitted to the Covenant of repentance , and engag'd to live a good life ; yet this is but the solemnity of the Covenant which must pass into after-acts by other influences of the same Divine principle . Until we receive the spirit of obsignation or Confirmation , we are but babes in Christ in the meanest sense , Infants that can do nothing , that cannot speak , that cannot resist any violence , expos'd to every rudeness , and perishing by every temptation . But therefore as God at first appointed us a ministery of a new birth ; so also hath he given to his Church the consequent Ministry of a new strength . The spirit moov'd a little upon the waters of Baptism , and gave us the principles of life , but in Confirmation he makes us able to move our selves . In the first , he is the spirit of life ; but in this he is the spirit of strength and motion . Baptisma est nativitas , unguentum vero est nobis actionis instar & motus said Cabasilas . In Baptism we are intitled to the inheritance ; but because we are in our infancy and minority , the Father gives unto his Sons a Tutor , a Guardian and a Teacher in Confirmation , said Rupertus : that as we are baptized into the death and resurrection of Christ : So in Confirmation we may be renewed in the inner man , and strengthned in all our Holy vows and purposes by the Holy Ghost ministred according to Gods ordinance . The Holy Rite of Confirmation is a Divine ordinance , and it produces Divine effects , and is ministred by Divine persons , that is , by those whom God hath sanctified and separated to this ministration . At first , all that were baptiz'd were also confirm'd : and ever since , all good people that have understood it , have been very zealous for it ; and time was in England , even since the first beginnings of the reformation , when Confirmation had been less carefully ministred for about six years , when the people had their first opportunities of it restor'd ; they ran to it in so great numbers ; that Churches and Church-yards would not hold them ; insomuch that I have read * that the Bishop of Chester was forc'd to impose hands on the people in the Fields , and was so oppressed with multitudes , that he had almost been trod to death by the people , and had dyed with the throng , if he had not been rescued by the Civil power . But Men have too much neglected all the ministeries of grace ; and this most especially , and have not given themselves to a right understanding of it , and so neglected it yet more : But because the prejudice which these parts of the Christian Church have suffered for want of it , is very great ( as will appear by enumeration of the many and great blessings consequent to it ) I am not without hope that it may be a service acceptable to God , and an useful ministery to the souls of my charges , if by instructing them that know not , and exhorting them that know , I set forward the practise of this Holy rite , and give reasons why the people ought to love it , and to desire it , and how they are to understand and practise it , and consequently , with what duteous affections they are to relate to those persons , whom God hath in so special and signal manner made to be for their good and eternal benefit , the Ministers of the Spirit and salvation . S. Bernard in the life S. Malachias my Predecessor in the See of Downe and Connor , reports that it was the care of that good Prelate to renew the rite of Confirmation in his Diocess , where it had been long neglected and gone into desuetude . It being too much our case in Ireland , I find the same necessity , and am oblig'd to the same procedure , for the same reason , and in pursuance of so excellent an example , Hoc enim est Evangelizare Christum ( said S. Austin ) non tantùm docere quae suut dicenda de Christo , sed etiam quae observanda ei qui accedit ad compagem corporis Christi . For this is to preach the Gospel , not only to teach those things which are to be said of Christ ; but those also which are to be observed by every one who desires to be confederated into the Society of the body of Christ , which is his Church : that is , not only the doctrines of good life , but the mysteries of godliness ; and the Rituals of Religion , which issue from a Divine fountain , are to be declar'd by him who would fully preach the Gospel . In order to which performance I shall declare 1. The Divine Original , Warranty and Institution of the Holy Rite of Confirmation . 2. That this Rite was to be perpetual , and never ceasing ministration . 3. That it was actually continued , and practis'd by all the succeeding Ages of the purest and Primitive Churches . 4. That this Rite was appropriate to the Ministry of Bishops . 5. That prayer and imposition of the Bishops hands did make the whole Ritual ; and though other things were added , yet they were not necessary , or any thing of the institution . 6. That many great Graces and blessings were consequent to the worthy reception and due ministration of it . 7. I shall add something of the manner of praeparation to it , and reception of it . SECT . I. Of the Divine Original , warranty and institution of the Holy Rite of Confirmation . IN the Church of Rome they have determin'd Confirmation to be a Sacrament proprii nominis , properly and really , and yet their Doctors have , some of them at least , been paulò iniquiores a little unequal and unjust to their proposition , in so much that from themselves we have had the greatest opposition in this article , Bonacina and Henriquez allow the proposition , but make the Sacrament to be so unnecessary , that a little excuse may justifie the omission and almost neglect of it . And Loemelius , and Daniel à Jesu , and generally the English Jesuits have , to serve some ends of their own family and order , disputed it almost into contempt , that by representing it as unnecessary , they might do all the ministeries Ecclesiastical in England without the assistance of Bishops their Superiours , whom they therefore love not , because they are so . But the Theological faculty of Paris have condemn'd their doctrine as temerarious and savouring of Heresie : and in the later Schools , have approov'd rather the Doctrine of Gamachaeus , Estius , Kellison , and Bellarmine ; who indeed doe follow the Doctrine of the most eminent persons in the Ancient School ; Richard of Armagh , Scotus , Hugo , Cavalli , and Gerson the Learned Chancellor of Paris , who following the Old Roman order , Amalarius and Albinus , doe all teach Confirmation to be of great and pious use , of Divine original , and to many purposes necessary according to the Doctrine of the Scriptures , and the primitive Church . Whether Confirmation be a Sacrament or no , is of no use to dispute ; and if it be disputed , it can never be proov'd to be so as Baptism and the Lords Supper , that is , as generally necessary to Salvation : but though it be no Sacrament , it cannot follow that it is not of very great use and holiness ; and as a Man is never the less tyed to Repentance , though it be no Sacrament ; so neither is he ever the less oblig'd to receive Confirmation , though it be ( as it ought ) acknowledg'd to be of an use and Nature inferiour to the two Sacraments of Divine , direct and immediate institution . It is certain that the Fathers in a large Symbolical and general sense call it a Sacrament ; but mean not the same thing by that word , when they apply it to Confirmation , as they doe , when they apply it to Baptism and the Lords Supper . That it is an Excellent and Divine ordinance to purposes spiritual ; that it comes from God , and ministers in our way to God , that is all we are concern'd to inquire after : and this I shall endeavour to prove not only against the Jesuits , but against all opponents of what side soever . My first argument from Scripture is what I learn from Optatus , and S. Cyril . Optatus writing against the Donatists hath these words . Christ descended into the water , not that in him , who is God , was any thing that could be made cleaner , but that the water was to precede the future Vnction , for the initiating and ordaining , and fulfilling the mysteries of Baptism . He was wash'd , when he was in the hands of John , then followed the order of the mystery , and the Father finish'd what the Son did ask , and what the Holy Ghost declar'd , The Heavens were open'd , God the Father anointed him , the spiritual Vnction presently descended in the likeness of a Dove , and sate upon his head , and was spread all over him , and he was called the Christ , when he was the anointed of the Father . To whom also , least imposition of hands should seem to be wanting , the voice of God was heard from the could , saying . This is my Son in whom I am well pleased , hear ye him . That which Optatus sayes is this ; that upon and in Christs person , Baptism , Confirmation , and Ordination were consecrated and first appointed . He was baptized by S. John ; he was confirm'd by the Holy Spirit and anointed with spiritual Unction in order to that great work of obedience to his Fathers will ; and he was Consecrated by the voice of God from Heaven . In all things Christ is the head , and the first fruits : and in these things was the Fountain of the Sacraments and spiritual grace , and the great exemplar of the Oeconomy of the Church . For Christ was nullius poenitentiae debitor ; Baptism of Repentance was not necessary to him who never sinn'd , but so it became him to fulfil all righteousness , and to be a pattern to us all . But we have need of these things , though he had not ; and in the same way in which Salvation was wrought by him for himself and for us all , in the same way he intended we should walk . * He was baptized because his Father appointed it so : we must be baptized because Christ hath appointed it , and we have need of it too . He was Consecrated to be the great Prophet , and the great Priest , because no man takes on him this honour , but he that was called of God , as was Aaron : and all they , who are to minister in his prophetical office under him , must be consecrated and solemnly set apart for that ministration , and after his glorious example . He was anointed with a spiritual Unction from above after his baptisme ; for after Jesus was baptized , he ascended up from the waters , and then the Holy Ghost descended upon him ; it is true , he receiv'd the fulness of the spirit ; but we receive him by measure ; but of his fulness we all receive , grace for grace ; that is , all that he receiv'd in order to his great work , all that in kind , one for another , grace for grace , we are to receive according to our measures , and our necessities . And as all these he receiv'd by external ministrations ; so must we ; God the Father appointed his way , and he , by his example first , hath appointed the same to us ; that we also may follow him in the regeneration ; and work out our salvation by the same graces in the like solemnities . For if he needed them for himself , then we need them much more . If he did not need them for himself , he needed them for us , and for our example , that we might follow his steps , who by receiving these exteriour solemnities and inward graces , became the Author and finisher of our Salvation , and the great example of his Church . I shall not need to make use of the fancy of the Murcosians and Colabarsians , who turning all mysteries into numbers , reckoned the numeral letters of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and made them co-incident to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but they intended to say , that Christ , receiving the Holy Dove after his Baptism , became all in all to us ; the beginning and the perfection of our Salvation ; here he was confirm'd , and receiv'd the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the consummation to his initiation , the completion of his baptism , and of his headship in the Gospel . But that which I shall rather and is what S. Cyril from hence argues . When he truly was baptized in the River of Jordan , he ascended out of the waters , and the Holy Ghost substantially descended upon him , like resting upon like . And to you also in like manner , after ye have ascended from the waters of baptisme , the Vnction is given , which bears the image or similitude of him by whom Christ was anointed — that as Christ after baptism , and the coming of the Holy Spirit upon him , went forth to battle ( in the Wilderness ) and overcame the adversary : so ye also after holy baptism , and the mystical Vnction ( or confirmation ) being vested with the Armour of the holy Spirit are enabled to stand against the opposite powers . Here then is the first great ground of our solemne receiving the Holy spirit , or the Unction from above after Baptism , which we understand and represent by the word Confirmation , denoting the principle effect of this Unction , spiritual strength : Christ , who is the head of the Church , entred this way upon his duty and work ; and he who was the first of all the Church , the head and great example , is the measure of all the rest , for we can go to Heaven no way , but in that way in which he went before us . There are some who from this story would infer the descent of the Holy Ghost after Christs Baptism , not to signifie that Confirmation was to be a distinct rite from baptism , but a part of it , yet such a part as gives fulness and consummation to it . S. Hierom , Chrysostom , Euthymius and Theophylact go not so far ; but would have us by this to understand that the Holy Ghost is given to them that are baptized . But reason and the context are both against it . 1. Because the Holy Ghost was not given by Johns baptism ; that was reserv'd to be one of Christ's glories ; who also , when by his Disciples he baptiz'd many , did not give them the Holy Ghost ; and when he commanded his Apostles to baptize all Nations , did not at that time so much as promise the Holy Ghost : he was promis'd distinctly , and given by another ministration . 2. The descent of the Holy Spirit was a distinct ministery from the baptism ; it was not only after Jesus ascended from the waters of baptism ; but there was something intervening , and by a new office or ministration . For there was prayer joyn'd in the ministery . So S. Iuke observes ; while Jesus was praying , the Heavens were open'd , and the Holy spirit descended , for so Jesus was pleas'd to consign the whole office and ritual of Confirmation , prayer for invocating the Holy Spirit , and giving him by personal application , which as the Father did immediately , so the Bishops doe by imposition of hands 3. S. Austin observes that the apparition of the Holy Spirit like a Dove was the visible or ritual part ; and the voice of God was the word to make it to be Sacramental , accedit verbum ad elementum , & fit Sacramentum : for so the ministration was not only perform'd on Christ , but consign'd to the Church by similitude , and exemplar institution . I shall only add , that the force of this argument is established to us by more of the Fathers . S. Hilary upon this place hath these words . The Fathers voice was heard , that from those things , which were consummated in Christ , we might know that after the baptism of water the Holy Spirit from the gates of Heaven flies unto us and that we are to be anointed with the Vnction of a coelestial glory , and be made the Sons of God by the adoption of the voice of God , the Truth by the very effects of things prefigur'd unto us the similitude of a Sacrament . So S. Chrysostom . In the beginnings alwayes appears the sensible visions of spiritual things for their sakes , who cannot receive the understanding of an incorporeal nature ; that if afterwards they be not so done ( that is , after the same visible manner ) they may be believ'd by those things which were already done . But more plain is that of Theophylact . The Lord had not need of the descent of the Holy Spirit , but he did all things for our sakes , and himself is become the first fruits of all things which we afterwards were to receive , that he might become the first fruits among many Brethren . The consequent is this , which I express in the words of S. Austin , affirming , Christi in baptismucolombam unctionem nostram praefigurâsse . The Dove in Christ's Baptism did represent and prefigure our Unction from above , that is , the descent of the Holy Ghost upon us in the rite of Confirmation . Christ was baptized , and so must we . But after Baptism ; he had a new ministration for the reception of the Holy Ghost ; and because this was done for our sakes , we also must follow that example : and this being done immediately before his entrance into the Wilderness to be tempted of the Devil , it plainly describes to us the order of this ministry , and the blessing design'd to us ; after we are baptiz'd , we need to be strengthned and confirm'd propter pugnam spiritualem ; we are to fight against the flesh , the World and the Devil , and therefore must receive the ministration of the Holy spirit of God ; which is the design and proper work of Confirmation . For ( they are the words of the Excellent Author of the imperfect work upon S. Matthew imputed to S. Chrysostom ) The Baptism of Water profits us , because it washes away the sins we have formerly committed ; if we repent of them . But it does not sanctifie the soul ; nor precedes the concupiscences of the heart and our evil thoughts , nor drives them back , nor represses our carnal desires . But he therefore , who is ( only ) so baptized , that he does not also receive the Holy Spirit , is baptized in his body , and his sins are pardon'd , but in his mind he is yet but a Catechumen ; for so it is written ; he that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his : and therefore afterward out of his flesh will germinate worse sins , because he hath not receiv'd the Holy Spirit conserving him ( in his baptismal grace ) but the house of his body is empty ; wherefore that wicked spirit finding it swept with the Doctrines of Faith , as with besomes , enters in , and in a seaven fold manner dwells there . Which words , besides that they will explicate this mystery , do also declare the necessity of Confirmation , or receiving the Holy Ghost after baptism in imitation of the Divine precedent of our Blessed Saviour . 2. After the example of Christ , my next Argument is from his words , spoken to Nicodemus in explication of the prime mysteries Evangelical ; Vnless a man be born of Water and of the Holy Spirit , he shall not enter into the Kingdom of God. These words are the great Argument which the Church uses for the indispensable necessity of Baptism , and having in them so great effort , and not being rightly understood , have suffered many Convulsions ( shall I call them ) or Interpretations : Some serve their own Hypothesis by saying that Water is the Symbol , and the Spirit is the Baptismal Grace : Others , that it is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one is onely meant , though here be two Signatures . But others conclude , that water is onely necessary , but the Spirit is super-added as being afterwards to supervene and move upon these Waters : And others yet affirm , that by Water is onely meant a Spiritual ablution , or the effect produced by the Spirit ; and still they have intangled the words , so that they have been made useless to the Christian Church , and the meaning too many things , makes nothing to be understood . But truth is easie , intelligible and clear , and without objection , and is plainly this . Unless a man be Baptized into Christ , and confirmed by the Spirit of Christ , he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Christ ; that is , he is not perfectly adopted into the Christian Religion , or fitted for the Christian Warfare ; and if this plain and natural sense be admitted the place is not onely easie and intelligible , but consonant to the whole Design of Christ and Analogy of the New Testament . For first , Our blessed Saviour was Catechising of Nicodemus , and teaching him the first Rudiments of the Gospel , and like a wise Master-builder first layes the foundation , The Doctrine of Baptism , and laying on of Hands , which afterwards St. Paul put into the Christian Catechism , as I shall shew in the sequel . Now these also are the first principles of the Christian Religion taught by Christ himself , and things which at least to the Doctors might have been so well known , that our blessed Saviour upbraids the not knowing them , as a shame to Nicodemus . St. Chrysostom and Theophylact , Euthymius and Rupertus affirm that this Generation by Water and the Holy Spirit might have been understood by the Old Testament , in which Nicodemus was so well skilled . Certain it is , the Doctrine of Baptismes was well enough known to the Jews , and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the illumination and irradiations of the Spirit of God was not new to them , who believed the Visions and Dreams , the Daughter of a Voice , and the influences from Heaven upon the Sons of the Prophets , and therefore although Christ intended to teach him more than what he had distinct notice of , yet the things themselves had foundation in the Law and the Prophets , but although they were high mysteries and scarce discerned by them , who either were ignorant or incurious of such things , yet to the Christians they were the very Rudiments of their Religion , and are best expounded by observation of what St. Paul placed in the very foundation . But , 2. Baptism is the first mystery , that is certain ; but that this of being born of the Spirit is also the next , is plain in the very order of the words , and that it does mean a mystery distinct from Baptism will be easily assented to by them , who consider , that although Christ Baptized and made many Disciples by the Ministry of his Apostles , yet they who were so Baptized into Christs Religion did not receive this Baptism of the Spirit till after Christs Ascension . 3. The Baptism of Water was not peculiar to John the Baptist , for it was also of Christ , and ministred by his command ; it was common to both , and therefore the Baptism of Water is the less principal here . Something distinct from it is here intended . Now if we add to these words , That St. John tells of another Baptism , which was Christs peculiar ; He shall Baptize you with the Holy Ghost , and with Fire ; That these words were literally verified upon the Apostles in Pentecost , and afterwards upon all the Baptized in Spiritual effect ( who besides the Baptism of Water , distinctly had the Baptism of the Spirit in Confirmation ) it will follow that of necessity this must be the meaning and the verification of these words of our B. Saviour to Nicodemus , which must mean a double Baptism : Transivimus per aquam & ignem , antequam veniemus in refrigerium , we must pass through Water and Fire before we enter into rest , that is , We must first be Baptized with Water , and then with the Holy Ghost , who first descended in Fire ; that is , the onely way to enter into Christs Kingdom is by these two Doors of the Tabernacle , which God hath pitched , and not Man , first by Baptism , and then by Confirmation ; First by Water , and then by the Spirit . The Primitive Church had this notion so fully amongst them , that the Author of the Apostolical constitutions attributed to St. Clement , who was St. Pauls Schollar , affirms , That a man is made a perfect Christian ( meaning Ritually and Sacramentally , and by all exterior solemnity ) by the Water of Baptism and Confirmation of the Bishop , and from these words of Christ now alledged , derives the use and institution of the Rite of Confirmation . The same sense of these words is given to us by St. Cyprian , who intending to prove the insufficiency of one without the other , sayes , tunc enim plenè Sanctificari & esse Dei filii possunt , si Sacramento utroque nascantur , cum Scriptum sit , nisi quis natus fuerit ex aquâ & Spiritu , non potest intrare regnum Dei. Then they may be fully Sanctified and become the Sons of God , if they be born with both the Sacraments , or Rites ; for it is written , Vnless a Man be born of Water and the Spirit , he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. The same also is the Commentary of Eusebius Emissenus a ; and St. Austin b tells , That although some understand these words onely of Baptism , and others of the Spirit onely , viz. in Confirmation , yet others ( and certainly much better ) understand utrunque Sacramentum , both the mysteries of Confirmation as well as Baptism : Amalarius Fortunatus c brings this very Text to reprove them that neglect the Episcopal imposition of Hands [ Concerning them who by negligence lose the Bishops presence , and receive not the imposition of his Hands , it is to be considered , least in justice they be condemned , in which they exercize Justice negligently , because they ought to make haste to the imposition of Hands ; because Christ said , Vnless a Man be born again of Water and the Spirit , he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God : And as he said this , so also he said , Vnless your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees , ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven . ] To this I fore-see two Objections may be made : First , That Christ did not institute Confirmation in this place , because Confirmation being for the gift of the Holy Ghost , who was to come upon none of the Apostles till Jesus was glorified : These words seem too early for the consigning an effect that was to be so long after , and a Rite that could not be practised till many intermedial events should happen . So said the Evangelist , The Holy Ghost was come upon none of them , because Jesus was not yet glorified , intimating that this great effect was to be in after-time , and it is not likely that the Ceremony should be ordained before the Effect it self was ordered and provided for ; that the solemnity should be appointed before provisions were made for the mystery , and that the outward , which was wholy for the inward , should be instituted before the inward and principal had its abode amongst us . To this I answer . First , That it is no unusual thing ; for Christ gave the Sacrament of his Body before his Body was given , the memorial of his death was instituted before his death . 2. Confirmation might here as well be instituted as Baptism , and by the same reason that the Church from these words concludes the necessity of one , she may also infer the designation of the other ; for the effect of Baptism was at that time no more produced than that of Confirmation . Christ had not yet purchased to himself a Church , he had not wrought remission of sins to all that believe on him ; the death of Christ was not yet passed , into which death the Christian Church was to be Baptized . 3. These words are so an institution of Confirmation , as the sixth chap. of St. John is of the blessed Eucharist : It was designativa , not ordinativa , it was in design , not in present command ; here it was preached , but not reducible to practice till its proper season . 4. It was like the words of Christ to St. Peter : When thou art converted confirm thy Brethren . Here the command was given , but that Confirmation of his Brethren was to be performed in a time relative to a succeeding accident . 5. It is certain that long before the event and grace was given , Christ did speak of the Spirit of Confirmation , that Spirit which was to descend in Pentecost , which all they were to receive who should believe on him , which whosoever did receive , out of his Belly should flow Rivers of Living Waters , as is to be read in that place of St. John now quoted . 6. This praedesignation of the Holy Spirit of Confirmation was presently followed by some little ante-past and donariola , or little givings of the Spirit ; for our blessed Saviour gave the Holy Ghost three several times . First , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 obscurely , and by intimation and secret virtue , then , when he sent them to heal the sick , and anoint them with Oyl in the Name of the Lord. Second , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more expresly and signally after the Resurrection , when he took his leave of them , and said , Receive ye the Holy Ghost : And this was to give them a power of ministring remission of sins , and therefore related to Baptism and the ministeries of Repentance . But , 3. He gave it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more perfectly , and this was the Spirit of Confirmation ; for he was not at all until now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , sayes the Text ; The Holy Ghost was not yet : So almost all the Greek Copies Printed and Manuscript ; and so St. Chrysostom , Athanasius , Cyril , Ammonius in the Catena of the Greeks , Leontius , Theophylact , Euthymius , and all the Greek Fathers read it : So St. Hierom a and St. b Austin among the Latines , and some Latine Translations read it : Our Translations read it , The Holy Ghost was not yet given , was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in them , as some few Greek copies read it ; but the meaning is alike , Confirmation was not yet actual , the Holy spirit , viz. of Confirmation was not yet come upon the Church , but it follows not but he was long before promised , designed and appointed , spoken of and declared . * The first of these collations had the Ceremony of Chrisme or Anointing joyned with it , which the Church in process of time transferred into her use and ministry , yet it is the last onely that Christ passed into an Ordinance for ever ; It is this onely which is the Sacramental consummation of our Regeneration in Christ ; for in this the Holy spirit is not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 present by his power , but present 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Gregory Nazianzen expresses it , to dwell with us , to converse with us , and to abide for ever , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . So St. Paul describes this Spirit of Confirmation , the Spirit which he hath poured forth upon us , richly or plentifully , that is , in great measures , and to the full consummation of the first mysteries of our Regeneration . Now because Christ is the great Fountain of this blessing to us , and he it was who sent his Fathers spirit upon the Church , himself best knew his own intentions , and the great blessings he intended to communicate to his Church , and therefore it was most agreeable that from his Sermons we should learn his purposes and his blessing , and our duty : Here Christ declared re● Sacramenti , the spiritual Grace which he would afterwards impart to his Church by exterior ministry , in this as in all other Graces , Mysteries , and Rituals Evangelical : Nisi quis , Vnless a Man be born both of Water and the Spirit , he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. But the next objection is yet more material . 2. For if this be the meaning of our Blessed Saviour , then Confirmation is as necessary as Baptism , and without it ordinarily no man can be saved . The solution of this will answer a case of conscience , concerning the necessity of confirmation ; and in what degree of duty and diligence we are bound to take care that we receive this Holy rite . I answer therefore , that , entring into the Kingdom of God , is , being admitted into the Christian Church and warefare , to become Sons of God , and Souldiers of Jesus Christ ; and though this be the outward door , and the first entrance into life , and consequently the Kings high way , and the ordinary means of Salvation , yet we are to distinguish the external ceremony from the internal mystery , The Nisi quis is for this , not for that ; and yet that also is the ordinary way . Vnless a Man be baptized ; that is , unless he be indeed regenerate , he cannot be sav'd ; and yet baptism , or the outward washing is the solemnity , and Ceremony of its ordinary ministration ; and he that neglects this , when it may be had , is not indeed regenerate ; he is not renewed in the spirit of his mind , because he neglects Gods way , and therefore can as little be sav'd , as he , who having receiv'd the external Sacrament , puts a bar to the intromission of the inward grace . Both cannot alwayes be had ; but when they can , although they are not equally valuable in the Nature of the thing , yet they are made equally necessary by the Divine Commandment . And in this there is a great but general mistake in the doctrine of the Schools disputing concerning what Sacraments are necessary necessitate medii , that is , as necessary means , and what are necessary by the necessity of praecept , or Divine Commandment . For although a less reason will excuse from the actual susception of some than of others , and a less diligence for the obtaining of one will serve than in obtaining of another , and a supply in one is easier obtain'd than in another , yet no Sacrament hath in it any other necessity than what is made meerly by the Divine Commandment . But the grace of every sacrament , or rite or mystery which is of Divine ordinance is necessary indispensably , so as without it no man can be sav'd : And this difference is highly remarkable in the words of Christ recorded by S. Mark. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved : but he that believeth not shall be damned . Baptism it self , as to the external part , is not necessary necessitate medii , or indispensably ; but baptismal Faith for the remission of sins in person capable , that indeed is necessary ; for Christ does not say that the want of baptism damns as the want of Faith does : and yet both Baptisme and Faith are the ordinary way of Salvation ; and both necessary ; baptism , because it is so by the Divine Commandment , and faith as a necessary means of salvation , in the very Oeconomy and dispensation of the Gospel . Thus it is also in the other Sacrament . Vnless we eat the flesh of the Son of Man , and drink his blood we have no life in us ; and yet God forbid that every Man that is not communicated , should dye eternally . But it means plainly , that without receiving Christ , as he is by Gods intention intended we should receive him in the Communion , we have no life in us . Plainly thus , without the internal grace we cannot live ; and the external ministery is the usual and appointed means of conveying to us the internal ; and therefore although without the external it is possible to be sav'd , when it is impossible to be had ; yet with the wilful neglect of it , we cannot . Thus therefore we are to understand the words of Christ declaring the necessity of both these Ceremonies : they are both necessary , because they are the means of spiritual advantages and graces , and both minister to the proper ends of their appointment , and both derive from a Divine Original : But the ritual or ceremonial part in rare emergencies is dispensable ; but the Grace is indispensable . Without the grace of Baptism we shall dye in our sins ; and without the grace or internal part of Confirmation we shall never be able to resist the Divel , but shall be taken captive by him at his will : Now the external or ritual part is the means , the season and opportunity of this grace ; and therefore is at no hand to be neglected , least we be accounted despisers of the grace , and tempters of God to wayes and provisions extraordinary . For although when without our fault we receive not the sacramental part , God can and will supply it to us out of his own stores ; because no man can perish without his own fault ; and God can permit to himself what he please , as being Lord of the Grace and of the Sacrament ; yet to us he hath given a law and a rule ; and that is the way of his Church in which all Christians ought to walk . In short : The use of it is greatly profitable ; the neglect is inexcusable ; but the contempt is damnable . Tenentur non negligere si pateat opportunitas , said the Bishops in a Synod at Paris : If there be an opportunity , it must not be neglected . Obligantur suscipere , aut saltem non contemnere , said the Synod at Sens. They are bound to receive it , or at least not to despise it . Now he despises it that refuses it when he is invited to it , or when it is offered ; or that neglects it without cause . For , causelesly and contemptuously are all one . But these answers were made by gentle Casuists ; he onely values the Grace that desires it , that longs for it , that makes use of all the means of Grace , that seeks out for the means , that refuses no labour , that goes after them as the Merchant goes after Gain ; and therefore the Old Ordo Romanus admonishes more strictly ; Omnino praecavendum esse ut hoc Sacramentum confirmationis non negligatur , quia tunc omne Baptisma legitimum Christianitatis nomine confirmatur . We must by all means take heed that the Rite of Confirmation be not neglected , because in that every true Baptism is ratified and confirmed , which words are also to the same purpose made use of by Albinus Flaccus . No man can tell to what degrees of diligence and labour , to what sufferings or journeyings he is oblig'd for the procuring of this ministry ; there must be debita sollicitudo ; a real providential zealou scare , to be where it is to be had , is the duty of every Christian according to his own circumstances , but they who will not receive it unless it be brought to their doors , may live in such places and in such times where they shall be sure to miss it , and pay the price of their neglect of so great a ministry of salvation , Turpissima est jactura quae per negligentiam , sit , He is a Fool that loses his good by carelesness : But no man is zealous for his Soul , but he who not onely omits no opportunity of doing it advantage when it is ready for him , but makes and seeks and contrives opportunities . Si non necessitate , sed incuriâ & voluntate remanserit , as St. Clements expression is , If a man wants it by necessity , it may by the overflowings of the Divine Grace be supplied , but not so if negligence or choice causes the omission . 3. Our way being made plain , we may proceed to other places of Scripture to prove the Divine Original of Confirmation . It was a Plant of our Heavenly Fathers planting , it was a Branch of the Vine , and how it springs from the Root Christ Jesus we have seen ; it is yet more visible as it was dressed and cultivated by the Apostles . Now as soon as the Apostles had received the Holy spirit , they preached and baptized , and the inferiour Ministers did the same , and St. Philip particularly did so at Samaria , the Converts of which place received all the Fruits of Baptism , but Christians though they were , they wanted a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 something to make them perfect . The other part of the Narrative I shall set down in the words of St. Luke : Now when the Apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the Word of God , they sent unto them Peter and John , who , when they were come down , prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost , for as yet he was fallen upon none of them , onely they were Baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus ; Then laid they their hands on them and they received the Holy Ghost . If it had not been necessary to have added a new solemnity and ministration , it is not to be supposed the Apostles Peter and John would have gone from Jerusalem to impose hands on the Baptized at Samaria . Id quod deerat à Petro & Johanne factum est , ut Oratione pro eis habitâ & manu impositâ invocaretur & infunderetur super eos spiritus sanctus , said St. Cyprian : It was not necessary that they should be Baptized again , onely that which was wanting was performed by Peter and John , that by prayer and imposition of hands the Holy Ghost should be invocated and poured upon them . The same also is from this place affirmed by P. Innocentius the First , St. Hierom , and many others ; and in the Acts of the Apostles we find another instance of the celebration of this Ritual and Mystery , for it is signally expressed of the Baptized Christians at Ephesus , that St. Paul first Baptized them , and then laid his hands on them , and they received the Holy Ghost ; and these Testimonies are the great warranty for this Holy Rite . Quod nunc in confirmandis Neophytis manus impositio tribuit singulis , hoc tunc Spiritus sancti descensio in credentium populo donavit universis , said Eucherius Lugdunensis , in his Homily of Pentecost . The same thing that is done now in imposition of hands or single persons , is no other than that which was done upon all Believers in the descent of the Holy Ghost ; it is the same Ministry , and all deriving from the same Authority . Confirmation or imposition of hands for the collation of the Holy spirit we see was actually practised by the Apostles , and that even before and after they preached the Gospel to the Gentiles , and therefore Amalarius , who entred not much into the secret of it , reckons this Ritual as derived from the Apostles per consuetudinem , by Catholick custom , which although it is not perfectly spoken as to the whole 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Authority of it , yet he places it in the Apostles , and is a witness of the Catholick succeeding custom and practise of the Church of God ; which thing also Zanchius observing , though he followed the sentiment of Amalarius , and seemed to understand no more of it , yet sayes well : Interim ( sayes he ) exempla Apostolorum & veteris Ecclesiae vellem pluris aestimari . I wish that the example of the Apostles and the primitive Church were of more value amongst Christians , it were very well indeed they were so , but there is more in it than mere example . These examples of such solemnities productive of such spiritual effects are , as St. Cyprian calls them , Apostolica Magisteria , the Apostles are our Masters in them , and have given Rules and Precedents for the Church to follow . This is a Christian Law , and written as all Scriptures are , for our instruction : But this I shall expresly prove in the next Paragraph . 4. We have seen the Original from Christ , the practise and exercise of it in the Apostles , and the first Converts in Christianity ; that which I shall now remark is , that this is established and passed into a Christian Doctrine . The warranty for what I say is the words of St. Paul , where the Holy Rite of Confirmation , so called from the effect of this ministration , and expressed by the Ritual part of it , Imposition of Hands , is reckoned a Fundamental point 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Not laying again the foundation of Repentance from dead works , and of Faith towards God , of the Doctrine of Baptismes and of laying on of Hands , of Resurrection from the Dead and Eternal judgement . Here are six Fundamental points of St. Pauls Catechism , which he laid as the foundation or the beginning of the institution of the Christian church , and amongst these imposition of hands is reckoned as a part of the foundation , and therefore they who deny it , dig up foundations : Now that this imposition of hands is that which the Apostles used in confirming the Baptized , and invocating the Holy Ghost upon them , remains to be proved . For it is true that imposition of hands signifies all Christian Rites except Baptism and the Lords Supper ; not the Sacraments , but all the Sacramentals of the Church : It signifies Confirmation , Ordination , Absolution , Visitation of the Sick , blessing single persons , ( as Christ did the Children brought to him ) and blessing Marriages , all these were usually ministred by imposition of hands . Now the three last are not pretended to be any part of this foundation , neither Reason , Authority , nor the Nature of the thing , suffer any such pretension : The Question then is between the first three . First , Absolution of Penitents cannot be meant here , not onely because we never read that the Apostles did use that ceremony in their Absolutions ; but because the Apostle speaking of the foundation in which Baptism is , and is reckoned one of the principal parts in the foundation , there needed no Absolution but Baptismal , for they and we believing one Baptism for the Remission of Sins , this is all the absolution that can be at first and in the foundation . The other was secunda post naufragium tabula , it came in after , when men had made a shipwrack of their good conscience , and were as St. Peter says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 forgetful of the former cleansing and purification and washing of their old sins . 2. It cannot be meant of Ordination , and this is also evident . 1. Because the Apostle sayes he would thenceforth leave to speak of the foundation , and go on to perfection , that is , to higher mysteries . Now in Rituals , of which he speaks , there is none higher than Ordination . 2. The Apostle saying he would speak no more of Imposition of Hands , goes presently to discourse of the mysteriousness of the Evangelical Priesthood , and the honour of that vocation , by which it is evident he spake nothing of Ordination in the Catechism or Narrative of Fundamentals . 3. This also appears from the context , not onely because laying on of hands is immediately set after Baptism , but also because in the very next words of his Discourse he does enumerate and apportion to Baptism and Confirmation their proper and proportioned effects : To Baptism , illumination , according to the perpetual stile of the Church of God , calling Baptism 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an enlightning , and to confirmation he reckons , tasting the Heavenly gift , and being made partakers of the Holy Ghost ; by the thing signified declaring the Sign , and by the mystery the Rite . Upon these words St. Chysostom discoursing , sayes , That all these are Fundamental Articles ; that is , that we ought to repent from dead works , to be Baptized into the Faith of Christ , and be made worthy of the gift of the Spirit , who is given by Imposition of Hands , and we are to be taught the mysteries of the Resurrection and Eternal Judgement . This Catechism ( sayes he ) is perfect ; so that if any man have Faith in God , and being baptized is also confirmed , and so tastes the Heavenly gift and partakes of the Holy Ghost , and by hope of the Resurrection tastes of the good things of the World to come , if he falls away from this state , and turn Apostate from this whole Dispensation , digging down and turning up these Foundations , he shall never be built again ; he can never be Baptized again , and never be Confirmed any more , God will not begin again , and go over with him again , he cannot be made a Christian twice ; if he remains upon these Foundations , though he sins , he may be renewed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Repentance and by a Resuscitation of the Spirit , if he have not wholly quenched him : But if he renounces the whole Covenant , disown and cancel these Foundations , he is desperate , he can never be renewed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Title and Oeconomy of Repentance . This is the full explication of this excellent place , and any other wayes it cannot reasonably be explicated , but therefore into this place any notice of Ordination cannot come ; no Sense , no Mystery can be made of it or drawn from it , but by the interposition of Confirmation the whole context is clear , rational , and intelligible . This then is that imposition of hands of which the Apostles speaks . Vnus hic locus abundè testatur , &c. saith Calvin : This one place doth abundantly witness that the Original of this Rite or Ceremony was from the Apostles , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith S. Chrysostom ; for by this rite of imposition of hands they receiv'd the Holy Ghost . For though the spirit of God was given extra-regularly , and at all times , as God was pleas'd to do great things ; yet this imposition of hands was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , this was the Minstery of the Spirit . For so we receive Christ when we hear and obey his word : we eat Christ by Faith , and we live by his Spirit ; and yet the Blessed Eucharist is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the ministery of the body and blood of Christ. Now as the Lords Supper is appointed ritually to convey Christ's body and blood to us : So is Confirmation ordain'd ritually to give unto us the Spirit of God. And though by accident and by the overflowings of the spirit it may come to pass that a man does receive perfective graces alone , and without Ministeries external : yet such a Man without a miracle is not a perfect Christian ex statuum vitae dispositione ; but , in the ordinary wayes and appointment of God , and until he receive this imposition of hands , and be confirmed , is to be accounted an imperfect Christian . But of this afterwards . I shall observe one thing more out of this testimony of S. Paul. He calls it , the Doctrine of Baptismes and laying on of hands ; by which it does not only appear to be a lasting ministery , because no part of the Christian Doctrine could change , or be abolished ; but hence also it appears to be of Divine institution . For if it were not ; S. Paul had been guilty of that which our Blessed Saviour reproves in the Scribes and Pharisees , and should have taught for Doctrines the Commandments of Men. Which because it cannot be suppos'd ; it must follow , that this Doctrine of Confirmation , or imposition of hands is Apostolical and Divine . The argument is clear , and not easie to be reproov'd . SECT . II. The Rite of Confirmation is a perpetual and never ceasing Ministery . YEa , but what is this to us ? It belong'd to the dayes of wonder and extraordinary : The holy Ghost breath'd upon the Apostles and Apostolical men ; but then he breath'd his last : recedente gratiâ , recessit disciplina : when the Grace departed we had no further use of the Ceremony . In answer to this I shall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by divers particulars evince plainly , that this ministery of confirmation was not temporary and relative only to the Acts of the Apostles , but was to descend to the Church for ever . This indeed is done already in the preceding Sect. In which it is clearly manifested ; that Christ himself made the Baptism of the Spirit , to be necessary to the Church ; he declar'd the fruits of this Baptism ; and did particularly relate it to the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Church at and after that glorious Pentecost . He sanctifyed it , and commended it by his example ; just as in order to baptism , he sanctified the Flood Jordan , and all other waters to the mystical washing away of sin ; viz. by his great example , and fulfilling this righteousness also : This Doctrine the Apostles first found in their own persons and experience , and practised to all their Converts after Baptism by a solemn and external Rite , and all this passed into an Evangelical Doctrine , the whole mystery being signified by the external Rite in the words of the Apostle , as before it was by Christ , expressing onely the internal ; so that there needs no more strength to this Argument : But that there may be wanting no moments to this truth , which the Holy Scripture affords , I shall add more weight to it ; And , 1. The perpetuity of this Holy Rite appears , because this great gift of the Holy Ghost was promised to abide with the Church for ever . And when the Jews heard the Apostles speak with Tongues at the first and miraculous descent of the Spirit in Pentecost , to take off the strangeness of the wonder and the envy of the power ; St. Peter at that very time tells them plainly , Repent and be Baptized every one of you , — and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not the meanest person amongst you all but shall receive this great thing , which ye observe us to have received ; and not onely you , but your Children too ; not your Children of this Generation onely , sed Nati natorum , & qui nascentur ab illis , but your Children for ever : For the promise is to you and to your children , and to all that are afar off , even to as many as the Lord our God shall call . Now then let it be considered . 1. This gift is by promise , by a promise not made to the Apostles alone , but to all ; to all for ever . 2. Consider here at the very first as there is a verbum , a word of promise , so there is sacramentum too : ( I use the word as I have already premonished in a large sense onely , and according to the stile of the Primitive Church ) it is a Rite partly Moral , partly Ceremonial , the first is Prayer , and the other is laying on of the hands , and to an effect that is but transient and extraordinary , and of a little aboad , it is not easie to be supposed that such a solemnity should be appointed . I say , such a solemnity , that is , it is not imaginable that a solemn Rite annexed to a perpetual Promise should be transient and temporary , for by the nature of Relatives they must be of equal abode . The promise is of a thing for ever , the Ceremony or Rite was annexed to the Promise , and therefore this also must be for ever . 3. This is attested by St. Paul , who reduces this Argument to this Mystery , saying ; In whom after that ye believed signati estis spiritu sancto promissionis , ye were sealed by that holy spirit of promise . He spake it to the Ephesians , who well understood his meaning by remembring what was done to themselves by the Apostles * but a while before , who after they had Baptized them did lay their hands upon them , and so they were sealed , and so they received the Holy spirit of promise ; for here the very matter of Fact is the clearest Commentary on St. Pauls words : The spirit which was promised to all Christians they then received , when they were consigned , or had the Ritual seal of Confirmation by Imposition of hands . One thing I shall remark here , and that is , that this and some other words of Scripture relating to the Sacraments or other Rituals of Religion do principally mean the Internal Grace , and our consignation is by a secret power , and the work is within , but it does not therefore follow that the External Rite is not also intended ; for the Rite is so wholly for the Mystery , and the outward for the inward , and yet by the outward God so usually and regularly gives the inward , that as no man is to rely upon the External Ministery , as if the opus operatum would do the whole Duty ; so no man is to neglect the External , because the Internal is the more principal . The mistake in this particular hath caused great contempt of the Sacraments and Rituals of the Church , and is the ground of the Socinian errors in these Questions . But 4. what hinders any man from a quick consent at the first representation of these plain reasonings and authorities ? Is it because there were extraordinary effects accompanying this ministration , and because now there are not , that we will suppose the whole Oeconomy must cease ; if this be it , and indeed this is all that can be supposed in opposition to it , it is infinitely vain . 1. Because these extraordinary effects did continue even after the death of all the Apostles . St. Irenaeus sayes they did continue even to his time ; even the greatest instance of miraculous power , & in fraternitate , saepissimè propter aliquid necessarium ea quae est in quoquo loco Vniversa Ecclesia postulante per jejunium & supplicationem multam , reversus est spiritus , &c. When God saw it necessary , and the Church prayed and fasted much , they did miraculous things , even of reducing the Spirit to a dead man. 2. In the dayes of the Apostles the holy spirit did produce miraculous effects , but neither alwayes , nor at all , in all men : Are all workers of Miracles ? Do all speak with Tongues ? Do all interpret ? Can all heal ? No , the Spirit bloweth where he listeth , and as he listeth ; he gives gifts to all , but to some after this manner , and to some after that . 3. These gifts were not necessary at all times any more than to all persons , but the promise did belong to all , and was made to all , and was performed to all . In the dayes of the Apostles there was an effusion of the Spirit of God , it run over , it was for themselves and others , it wet the very ground they trode upon , and made it fruitful ; but it was not to all in like manner , but there was also then , and since then , a diffusion of the Spirit , tanquam in pleno . St. Stephen was full of the Holy Ghost , he was full of faith and power : The Holy Ghost was given to him to fulfil his Faith principally , the working miracles was but collateral and incident : But there is also an infusion of the Holy Ghost , and that is to all , and that is for ever , The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withall , saith the Apostle ; and therefore if the Grace be given to all , there is no reason that the Ritual ministration of that Grace should cease , upon pretence that the Spirit is not given extraordinarily . 4. These extraordinary gifts were indeed at first necessary : In the beginnings alwayes appears the sensible visions of spiritual things for their sakes , who cannot receive the understanding of an incorporeal Nature ; that if afterward they be not so done , they may be believed by those things which were already done , said St. Chysostom in the place before quoted . That is , these visible appearances were given at first by reason of the imperfection of the state of the Church , but the greater gifts were to abide for ever ; and therefore it is observable that St. Paul sayes , That the gift of Tongues is one of the least and most useless things ; a meer sign , and not so much as a sign to Believers , but to Infidels and Unbelievers ; and before this he greatly prefers the gift of Prophecying or Preaching , which , yet all Christians know , does abide with the Church for ever . 5. To every ordinary and perpetual ministery at first , there were extraordinary effects and miraculous consignations . We find great parts of Nations converted at one Sermon . Three thousand converts came in at once Preaching of S. Peter ; and five thousand at another Sermon : and Persons were miraculously cured by the prayer of the Bishop in his visitation of a sick Christian ; and Divels cast out in the conversion of a sinner ; and blindness cur'd at the Baptism of S. Paul , and Aeneas was healed of a Palsie at the same time , he was cur'd of his infidelity ; and Eutychus was restor'd to life at the Preaching of S. Paul : and yet that now we see no such extraordinaries , it followes not , that the visitation of the sick , and Preaching Sermons , and absolving penitents are not ordinary and perpetual ministrations : and therefore to fancy that invocation of the Holy Spirit , and imposition of hands is to cease when the extraordinary and temporary contingencies of it are gone , is too trifling a fancy to be put in ballance against so sacred an institution relying upon so many Scriptures . 6. With this Objection some vain persons would have troubled the Church in S. Austins time ; but he considered it with much indignation , writing against the Donatists . His words are these . At the first times the Holy Spirit fell upon the Believers , and they spake with tongues which they had not learned , according as the Spirit gave them utterance . They were signs fitted for the season ; for so the Holy Ghost ought to have signified in all tongues , because the Gospel of God was to run thorough all the Nations and Languages of the World : so it was signified , and so it pass'd thorough . But is it therefore expected that they , upon whom there is imposition of hands that they might receive the Holy Ghost , that they should speak with tongues ? Or when we lay hands on Infants , does every one of you attend to hear them speak with Tongues ? And when he sees that they do not speak with Tongues , is any of you of so perverse a heart as to say , They have not received the Holy Ghost ; for if they had received him , they would speak with Tongues , as it was done at first ? But if by these Miracles there is not now given any testimony of the presence of the holy Spirit , how doth any one know that he hath received the Holy Ghost ? Interroget cor suum , si diligit fratrem , manet spiritus Dei in illo . It is true the gift of Tongues doth not remain , but all the greater gifts of the holy Spirit remain with the Church for ever ; Sanctification and Power , Fortitude and Hope , Faith and Love : Let every man search his Heart , and see if he belongs to God ; whether the love of God be not spread in his heart by the spirit of God : Let him see if he be not patient in Troubles , comforted in his Afflictions , bold to Confess the Faith of Christ crucified , zealous of good works : These are the miracles of Grace , and the mighty powers of the Spirit , according to that saying of Christ ; These signs shall follow them that believe : In my Name shall they cast out Devils , they shall speak with new Tongues , they shall tread on Serpents , they shall drink poyson , and it shall not hurt them ; and they shall lay their hands on the sick , and they shall recover . That which we call the miraculous part is the less power ; but to cast out the Devil of Lust , to throw down the pride of Lucifer , to tread on the great Dragon , and to triumph over our spiritual enemies , to cure a diseased Soul , to be unharmed by the poyson of Temptation , of evil Examples and evil Company : These are the true signs that shall follow them that truly and rightly believe on the Name of the Lord Jesus ; this is to live in the spirit , and to walk in the spirit ; this is more than to receive the spirit to a power of miracles , and super-natural products in a natural matter : For this is from a super-natural principle to receive super-natural aids to a super-natural end in the Diviner spirit of a man ; and this being more miraclous than the other , it ought not to be pretended that the discontinuance of extraordinary miracles should cause the discontinuance of an ordinary ministration ; and this is that which I was to proove . 6. To which it is not amiss to add this Observation , That Simon Magus offered to buy this power of the Apostles , that he also by laying on of hands might thus minister the spirit . Now he began this sin in the Christian Church , and it is too frequent at this day , but if all this power be gone , then nothing of that sin can remain ; if the subject matter be removed , then the appendant crime cannot abide , and there can be no Simony , so much as by participation ; and whatever is or can be done in this kind , is no more of this Crime , than Drunkenness is of Adultery ; it relates to it , or may be introductive of it , or be something like it : But certainly since the Church is not so happy as to be intirely free from the Crime of Simony , it will be hard to say , that the power ( the buying of which was the principle of this sin , and therefore the Rule of all the rest ) should be removed , and the house stand without a foundation , the relative without the correspondent , the accessary without the principal , and the accident without the subject . This is impossible , and therefore it remains that still there abides in the Church this power , that by Imposition of the Hands of sit persons , the Holy Ghost is ministred : But this will be further cleared in the next Section . SECT . III. The Holy Rite of Imposition of Hands for the giving the Holy Spirit , or Confirmation , was actually continued and practised by all the succeeding Ages of the purest and Primitive Church . NExt to the plain words of Scripture , the traditive interpretation and practise of the Church of God is the best Argument in the World for Rituals and Mystical ministrations ; for the tradition is universal , and all the way acknowledged to be derived from Scripture : And although in Rituals the tradition it self , if it be universal and primitive , as this is , were alone sufficient , and is so esteemed in the Baptism of Infants , in the Priests consecrating the Holy Eucharist , in publick Liturgies , in Absolution of Penitents , the Lords Day , Communicating of Women , and the like ; yet this Rite of Confirmation being all that , and evidently derived from the practise Apostolical , and so often recorded in the New Testament , both in the Ritual and Mysterious part , both in the Ceremony and Spiritual effect , is a point of as great certainty , as it is of usefulness and holy designation . Theophilus Antiochenus lived not long after the death of S. John , and he derives the name of Christian , which was first given to the Disciples in his City from this Chrisme or spiritual Unction , this Confirmation of baptized persons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , We are therefore called Christians because we are anointed with the Vnction of God. These words will be best understood by the subsequent testimonies , by which it will appear that confirmation ( for reasons hereafter mention'd ) was for many Ages called Chrisme or Unction . But he adds the usefulness of it . For who is there that enters into the World , or that enters into contention , or Athletick combats , but is anointed with oyl ? By which words he intimates both the Unction anciently us'd in Baptisme , and in confirmation both : for in the first we have our new birth ; in the second , we are prepar'd for spiritual combate . Tertullian having spoken of the Rites of Baptism , proceeds . Dehinc ( saith he ) manus imponitur , per Benedictionem advocans & invitans Spiritum Sanctum : Tunc ille sanctissimus Spiritus super emundata & benedicta corpora libens à patre descendit . After baptism , the hand is impos'd , by blessing , calling and inviting the Holy Spirit . Then that most holy spirit willingly descends from the Father upon the Bodies that are cleans'd and blessed ; that is , first baptis'd , then confirm'd ; and again . Caro signatur , ut anima muniatur . Caro manus impositione adumbratur , ut anima spiritu illuminetur . The flesh is consign'd , or seal'd ( that also is one of the known primitive words for Confirmation ) that the soul may be guarded or defended : and the body is overshadowed by the imposition of hands , that the soul may be enlightned by the Holy Ghost . Nay , further yet . If any Man objects that Baptisme is sufficient ; he answers ; It is true , it is sufficient to them that are to dye presently , but it is not enough for them that are still to live and to fight against their spiritual Enemies . For in baptism we do not receive the Holy Ghost ( for although the Apostles had been baptiz'd , yet the Holy Ghost was come upon none of them untill Jesus was glorified ) sed in aquâ emundati , sub Angelo Spiritui Sancto praeparamur ; but being cleans'd by Baptismal water , we are dispos'd for the Holy Spirit under the hand of the Angel of the Church , under the Bishops hand . And a little after he expostulates the article . Non licebit Deo in suo Organo per manus sanctas sublimitatem modulari spiritalem ? Is it not lawful for God , by an instrument of his own , under Holy hands to accord the heights and sublimity of the spirit . For indeed this is the Divine Order ; and therefore Tertullian reckoning the happiness and excellency of the Church of Rome at that time , sayes , she believes in God , she signes with water , she cloths with the spirit ( viz. in Confirmation ) she feeds with the Eucharist , she exhorts to Martyrdom ; and against this order or institution she receives no Man. S. Cyprian , in his Epistle to Jubajanus , having urg'd that of the Apostles going to Samaria to impose hands on those whom S. Philip had baptized , adds : Quod nunc quoque apud nos geritur , ut qui in Ecclesiâ baptizantur , per praepositos Ecclesiae offerantur , & per nostram orationem ac manus impositionem , spiritum sanctum consequantur , & signaculo dominico consummentur . Which custom is also descended to us , that they , who are baptiz'd might be brought by the Rulers of the Church , and by our prayer and the imposition of hands ( said the Martyr Bishop ) may obtain the Holy Ghost , and be consummated with the Lords signature . And again , Vngi necesse est eum qui baptizatus est , &c. Et super eos qui in Ecclesiâ baptizati erant , & Ecclesiasticum & legitimum baptismum consecuti fuerant , oratione pro iis habitâ , manu impositâ invocaretur & infunderetur Spiritus Sanctus . It is necessary that every one who is baptiz'd should receive the Unction that he may be Christ's anointed one , and may have in him the grace of Christ. They who have receiv'd lawful and Ecclesiastical Baptism , it is not necessary they should be baptiz'd again ; but that which is wanting must be supplyed , viz. that prayer being made for them , and hands impos'd , the Holy Ghost be invocated and pour'd upon them . S. Clement of Alexandria , a Man of Venerable Antiquity and admirable Learning , tells that a certain young Man was by S. John delivered to the care of a Bishop , who having baptiz'd him : posteà verò sigillo Domini tanquam perfectâ tutâque ejus custodiâ * eum obsignavit . Afterwards he sealed him with the Lords signature ( the Church word for Confirmation ) as with a safe and perfect guard . Origen in his seventh Homily upon Ezekiel expounding certain mystical words of the Prophet ; saith , Oleum est quo vir sanctus Vngitur , oleum Christi , oleum Sanctae Doctrinae . Cum ergo aliquis accepit hoc oleum quo Vngitur Sanctus , id est , Scripturam sanctam instituentem quomodo oporteat baptizari , in nomine Patris , & filii , & Spiritus sancti , & pauca commutans unxerit quempiam , & quodammodo dixerit , jam non es Catechumenus , consecutus es lavacrum secundae generationis ; talis homo accipit oleum Dei , &c. The Unction of Christ , of holy Doctrine is the Oyl by which the Holy Man is anointed ; having been instructed in the Scriptures , and taught how to be baptized ; then changing a few things he sayes to him , now you are no longer a Catechumen , now you are regenerated in baptism ; such a Man receives the Vnction of God. viz. He then is to be confirmed . S. Dionys commonly called the Areopagite in his excellent book of Ecclesiastical Hierarchy speaks most fully of the Holy rite of Confirmation or Chrism . Having describ'd at large the office and manner of baptizing the Catechumens , the trine immersion , the vesting them in white Garments ; adds ; Then they bring them again to the Bishop , and he consignes him ( who had been so baptiz'd ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , with the most Divinely operating Unction , and then gives him the most Holy Eucharist . And afterwards he sayes . But even to him , who is consecrated in the most holy mystery of regeneration , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the perfective Unction of Chrism gives to him the advent of the Holy Spirit . And this rite of Confirmation , then called Chrism , from the spiritual Unction then effected and consign'd also and signified by the Ceremony of anointing externally , which was then the ceremony of the Church ; he calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the holy consummation of our baptismal regeneration ; meaning that without this , there is something wanting to the baptized persons . And this appears fully in that famous censure of Novatus by Cornelius Bishop of Rome reported by * Eusebius . Novatus had been baptized in his bed being very sick and like to dye : but when he recover'd he did not receive those other things which by the rule of the Church he ought to have receiv'd : neque Domini sigillo ab Episcopo consignatus est ; he was not consign'd with the Lords signature by the hands of the Bishop ; he was not confirmed : Quo non impetrato , quomodo spiritum sanctum obtinuisse putandus est ? Which having not obtain'd , how can he be suppos'd to have receiv'd the Holy Spirit ? The same also is something more fully related by Nicephorus , but wholly to the same purpose . Melchiades in his Epistle to the Bishops of Spain argues excellently about the necessity and usefulness of the Holy Rite of Confirmation . [ What does the mystery of Confirmation profit me after the mystery of Baptism ? Certainly we did not receive all in our Baptism , if after that lavatory we want something of another kind . Let your charity attend . As the Military order requires , that when the General enters a Souldier into his list , he does not only mark him , but furnishes him with armes for the Battle . So in him that is baptiz'd , this blessing is his Ammunition . You have given ( Christ ) a Souldier , give him also Weapons . And what will it profit him if a Father gives a great Estate to his Son , if he does not take care to provide a Tutor for him . Therefore the Holy Spirit is the Guardian of our regeneration in Christ , he is the Comforter , and he is the Defender . ] I have already alleaged the plain Testimonies of Optatus and S. Cyril in the first Section . I adde to them the words of S. Gregory Nazianzen speaking of Confirmation or the Christian signature ; Hoc & viventi tibi maximum est tutamentum . Ovis enim quae sigillo insignita est non facilè patet insidiis ; quae verò signata non est , facilè à furibus capitur . This signature is your greatest guard while you live . For a sheep , when it is mark'd with the Masters sign , is not so soon stollen by Thieves ; but easily if she be not . The same manner of speaking is also us'd by S. Basil , who was himself together with Eubulus confirm'd by Bishop Maximinus . Quomodo curam geret tanquam ad se pertinentis Angelus ? Quomodo eripiat ex hostibus si non agnoverit signaculum ? How shall the Angel know what sheep belong unto his charge ? How shall he snatch them from the Enemy ; if he does not see their mark and signature ? Theodoret also and Theophylact speak the like words : and so far as I can perceive ; these and the like sayings are most made use of by the Schoolmen to be their warranty for an indelible Character imprinted in Confirmation . I do not interest my self in the question ; but only recite the Doctrine of these Fathers in behalf of the practice and usefulness of Confirmation . I shall not need to transcribe hither those clear testimonies which are cited from the Epistles of S. Clement , Vrban the first , Fabianus and Cornelius ; the summe of them is in those plainest words of Vrban the First . Omnes fideles per manus impositionem Episcopórum Spiritum Sanctum post baptismum accipere debent . All faithfull People ought to receive the Holy spirit by imposition of the Bishops hands after Baptism . Much more to the same purpose is to be read , collected by Gratian de consecrat . dist 4. Presbyt . & de consecrat dist . 5. Omnes fideles & ibid. Spiritus Sanctus . S. Hierom brings in a Luciferian asking : why he that is baptiz'd in the Church does not receive the Holy Ghost , but by imposition of the Bishops hands ? The answer is , hanc observationem ex Scripturae authoritate ad Sacordotii honorem descendere . This observation for the honour of the Priesthood did descend from the authority of the Scriptures ; adding withal , it was for the prevention of Schismes , and that the safety of the Church did depend upon it . Exigis ubi scriptum est ? If you ask where it is written ; it is answered , in Actibus Apostolorum . It is written in the Acts of the Apostles . But if there were no authority of Scripture for it , totius orbis in hanc partem consensus instar praecepti obtineret ; the consent of the whole Christian World in this article ought to prevail as a commandment . But here is a twofold Chord , Scripture and Universal Tradition : or rather Scripture expounded by an Universal traditive interpretation . The same observation is made from Scripture by S. Chrysostom : The words are very like those now recited from S. Hierom's Dialogue , and therefore need not be repeated . S. Ambrose calls Confirmation , Spiritale signaculum , quod post fontem superest , ut perfectio fiat . A spiritual seal remaining after Baptism , that perfection be had . Oecumenius calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , perfection , Lavacro peccata purgantur , Chrismate Spiritus sanctus superfunditur , ; Vtraque verò ista manu & ore Antistitis impetramus , said Pacianus Bishop of Barcinona . In Baptism our sins are cleans'd ; in Confirmation the holy Spirit is pour'd upon us ; and both these we obtain by the hands and mouth of the Bishop ] : and again ; vestrae plebi unde spiritus ; quam non consignat unctus Sacerdos ? The same with that of Cornelius in the case of Novatus before cited . I shall add no more least , I overset the article , and make it suspicious by too laborious a defence : only after these numerous testimonies of the Fathers , I think it may be useful to represent that this Holy rite of Confirmation hath been decreed by many Councils . The Council of Eliberis , celebrated in the time of P. Sylvester the first , decreed , that whosoever is baptiz'd in his sickness , if he recover , ad Episcopum eum perducat , ut per manus impositionem perfici possit ; let him be brought to the Bishop , that he may be perfected by the imposition of hands . To the same purpose is the 77th . Can. Episcopus eos per bendictionem perficere debebit . The Bishop must perfect those , whom the Minister baptiz'd , by his benediction . The Council of Laodicea decreed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . All that are baptized , must be anointed with the coelestial Unction , and [ so ] be partakers of the Kingdom of Christ. All that are so , that is , are confirm'd ; for this coelestial Unction , is done by holy prayers , and the invocation of the Holy Spirit , so Zonarus upon this Canon : all such who have this Unction shall reign with Christ , unless by their wickedness they praeclude their own possessions . This Canon was put into the Code of the Catholick Church ; and makes the 152. Canon . The Council of Orleans affirms expresly ; that he who is baptiz'd cannot be a Christian ( meaning according to the usual stile of the Church ; a full , and perfect Christian ) nisi confirmatione Episcopali fuerit Chrismatus ; unless he have the Unction of Episcopal confirmation . But when the Church had long disputed concerning the re-baptizing of Hereticks and made Canons for and against it , according as the Heresies were , and all agreed that if the first baptism had been once good , it could never be repeated ; yet they thought it sit that such persons should be confirm'd by the Bishop , all supposing Confirmation to be the perfection and consummation of the less perfect baptism . Thus the first Council of Arles decreed concerning the Arrians , that if they had been baptized in the Name of the Father , Son and Holy Ghost , they should not be re-baptized . Manus tantùm eis imponatur ut accipiant Spiritum Sanctum ; That is , let them be confirm'd ; let there be imposition of hands that they may receive the Holy Ghost . The same is decreed by the second Council of Arles in the case of the Bonasiaci . But I also find it in a greater record ; in the General Council of Constantinople ; where Hereticks are commanded upon their conversion to be received , secundùm constitutum Officium , there was an Office appointed for it ; and it is in the Greeks Euchologion , sigillatos , primò scil . Vnctos Vnguento Chrismatis , &c. & signantes eos dicimus , Sigillum doni spiritus sancti , It is the form of Confirmation used to this day in the Greek Church . So many Fathers testifying the practise of the Church , and teaching this Doctrine , and so many more Fathers as were assembled in six Councils , all giving witness to this holy Rite , and that in pursuance also of Scripture , are too great a Cloud of Witnesses to be despised by any Man that calls himself a Christian. SECT . IV. The BISHOPS were alwayes , and the onely Ministers of Confirmation . SAint Chrysostome asking the reason why the Samaritans , who were Baptized by Philip , could not from him and by his ministry receive the Holy Ghost ? answers , Perhaps this was done for the honour of the Apostles , to distinguish the supereminent dignity which they bore in the Church , from all inferiour Ministrations ; but this answer not satisfying , he adds , hoc donum non habebat , erat enim ex septem illis , id quod magis videtur dicendum . Vnde meâ sententiâ hic Philippus unus ex septem erat secundus à Stephano , Ideo & Baptizans , spiritum sanctum non dabat , neque enim facultatem habebat , hoc enim donum solorum Apostolorum erat . This gift they had not who Baptized the Samaritans , which thing is rather to be said than the other ; for Philip was one of the seven , and in my opinion next to St. Stephen ; therefore though he baptized , yet he gave not the Holy Ghost ; for he had no power so to do , for this gift was proper onely to the Apostles , Nam virtutem quidem acceperant ( Diaconi ) faciendi signa , non autem dandi aliis spiritum sanctum , igitur hoc erat in Apostolis singulare , unde & praecipuos , & non alios videmus hoc facere , The Ministers that Baptized had a power of doing Signs and working Miracles , but not of giving the holy spirit ; therefore this gift was peculiar to the Apostles , whence it comes to pass that we see the cheifs * in the Church , and no other to do this . St. Dionys sayes , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , There is need of a Bishop to confirm the baptized , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for this was the ancient custome of the Church , and this was wont to be done by the Bishops for conservation of Unity in the Church of Christ , said St. Ambrose : A solis Episcopis , By Bishops onely , said St. Austin ; For the Bishops succeeded in the place and ordinary Office of the Apostles , said St. Hierom : And therefore in his Dialogue against the Luciferians it is said [ That this observation for the honour of the Priesthood did descend , that the Bishops onely might by Imposition of Hands confer the Holy Ghost ; that it comes from Scripture , that it is written in the Acts of the Apostles , that it is done for the prevention of Schismes , that the safety of the Church depends upon it . ] But the words of P. Innocentius I. in his first Epistle and third Chapter , and published in the first Tome of the Councils , are very full to this particular , De consignandis infantibus , manifestum est non ab alio quàm ab Episcopo fieri licere , Nam Presbyteri , licèt sint sacerdotes , pontificatus tamen apicem non habent , haec autem pontificibus solis deberi , ut vel consignent , vel paracletum spiritum tradant , non solùm consuetudo Ecclesiastica demonstrat , verùm & illa lectio Actuum Apostolorum , quae asserit Petrum & Johannem esse directos , qui jam Baptizatis traderent spiritum sanctum ; Concerning Confirmation of Infants , it is manifest , it is not Lawful to be done by any other than by the Bishop ; for although the Presbyters be Priests , yet they have not the Summity of Episcopacy : But that these things are onely due to Bishops , is not onely demonstrated by the custom of the Church , but by that of the Acts of the Apostles , where Peter and John were sent to minister the Holy Ghost to them that were Baptized . * Optatus proves Macharius to be no Bishop , because he was not conversant in the Episcopal Office , and imposed hands on none that were Baptized . Hoc unum à majoribus fit , id est , à summis Pontificibus , quod à minoribus perfici non potest , said P. Melchiades : This ( of Confirmation ) is onely done by the greater Ministers ; that is , by the Bishops , and cannot be done by the lesser . This was the constant practise and Doctrine of the Primitive Church , and derived from the practice and tradition of the Apostles , and recorded in their Acts , written by St. Luke . For this is our great Rule in this case , what they did in Rituals , and consigned to Posterity is our example and our warranty : we see it done thus , and by these men , and by no others , and no otherwise , and we have no other authority , and we have no reason to goe another way . The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St. Luke , the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St. Chrysostome , the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Philo , and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the chief Governour in Ecclesiasticals , his Office is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to teach such things as are not set down in Books ; their practise is a Sermon , their example in these things must be our rule , or else we must walk irregularly , and have no rule , but chance and humour , Empire and Usurpation , and therefore much rather , when it is recorded in Holy writ , must this Observation be esteemed sacred and inviolable . But how if a Bishop be not to be had , or not ready ? St. Ambrose * is pretended to have answered , Apud Egyptum Presbyteri consignant , si praesens non sit Episcopus : A Presbyter may consign , if the Bishop be not present ; and Amalarius affirms , Sylvestrum Papam praevidentem quantum periculosum iter arriperet , qui sine confirmatione maneret , quantum potuit subvenisse , & propter absentiam Episcoporum , necessitate addidisse , ut à Presbytero Vngerentur , That Pope Sylvester fore-seeing how dangerous a Journey he takes , who abides without Confirmation , brought remedy as far as he could , and commanded that in the absence of Bishops they should be anointed by the Priest ; and therefore it is by some supposed , that factum valet , fieri non debuit . The thing ought not to be done but in the proper and appointed way ; but when it is done , it is valid , just as in the case of Baptism by a Lay-man or Woman : Nay , though some Canons say it is actio irrita , the act is null , yet for this there is a salvo pretended ; for sometimes an action is said to be irrita in Law , which yet nevertheless is of secret and permanent value , and ought not to be done again . Thus if a Priest be promoted by Simony , it is said , sacerdos non est , sed inaniter tantùm dicitur ; he is but vainly called a Priest , for he is no Priest. So Sixtus II. said , That if a Bishop Ordain in anothers Diocess , the Ordination is void ; and in the Law it is said , that if a Bishop be consecrated without his Clergy and the Congregation , the Consecration is null ; and yet these later and fiercer constitutions do not determine concerning the natural event of things , but of the legal and Canonical approbation . To these things I answer , That St. Ambrose his saying that in Egypt the Presbyters consign in the Bishops absence , does not prove that they ever did confirm or impose hands on the Baptized for the ministry of the holy spirit , because that very passage being related by St. Austin , the more general word of consign is rendred by the plainer and more particular , consecrant , they consecrate , meaning the blessed Eucharist ; which was not permitted primitively to a simple Priest to doe in the Bishops absence without leave , onely in Egypt it seems they had a general leave , and the Bishops absence was an interpretative consent : But besides this , consignant is best interpreted by the practise of the Church , of which I shall presently give an account , they might in the absence of the Bishop consign with Oyl upon the top of the head , but not in the fore-head , much less impose hands , or confirm , or minister the holy Spirit , for the case was this . It was very early in the Church , that to represent the grace which was ministred in Confirmation , the Unction from above , they us'd Oyl and Balsom ; and so constantly us'd this in their Confirmations , that from the ceremony it had the appellation ; Sacramentum Chrismatis ; S. Austin a calls it ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Dionysius . Now because at the Baptism of the adult Christians , and ( by imitation of that ) of Infants , Confirmation and Baptism were usually ministred at the same time ; the Unction was not only us'd to persons newly baptiz'd ; but another Unction was added as a ceremony in Baptism it self ; and was us'd immediately before Baptism ; and the oyle was put on the top of the head , and three times was the party sign'd ; so it was then , as we find in the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy . But besides this Unction with oyl in baptismal preparations ; and pouring oyl into the baptismal water ; we find another Unction after the baptism was finished . For they bring the baptized person again to the Bishop , saith S. Dionys ; who signing the man with hallowed Chrisme , gives him the Holy Eucharist . This they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the perfective or consummating Unction ; this was that which was us'd when the Bishop confirmed the baptized person : For to him who is initiated by the most holy initiation of the Divine generation ( that is , to him who hath been baptiz'd , saith Pachimeres the Paraphrast of Dionysius ) the perfective Vnction of Chrisme , gives the gift of the Holy Ghost . This is that which the Laodicean Council calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be anointed after baptism . Both these Unctions were intimated by Theophilus Antiochenus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Every man that is borne into the World , and every man that is a Champion is anointed with oyl . That to baptism , this alluding to Confirmation . Now this Chrisme was frequently ministred immediately after Baptism ; in the Cities where the Bishop was present . But in Villages and little Towns where the Bishop was not present , it could not be . But Bishops were forc'd at their opportunities to go abroad and perfect what was wanting , as it was in the example of Peter and John to the Samaritans . Non quidem abnuo hanc esse Ecclesiarum consuetudinem , ut ad eos qui longè in minoribus Vrbibus per Presbyteros & Diaconos baptizati sunt , Episcopus ad invocationem Sancti Spiritus manum impositurus excurrat . It is the custom of the Church that when persons are in lesser Cities baptiz'd by Priests and Deacons , the Bishops uses to travel far , that he may lay hands on them , for the invocation of the Holy Spirit . But because this could not alwayes be done , and because many baptized persons dyed before such an opportunity could be had ; the Church took up a custome , that the Bishop should consecrate the Chrisme , and send it to the Villages and little Cities distant from the Metropolis , and that the Priests should anoint the baptized with it . But still they kept this part of it sacred and peculiar to the Bishop . 1. That no Chrisme should be us'd but what the Bishop consecrated . 2. That the Priests should anoint the head of the baptized ; but at no hand , the forehead , for that was still reserved for the Bishop to do when he confirmed them . And this is evident in the Epistle of P. Innocent the first , above quoted . Nam Presbyteris , seu extra Episcopum , seu praesente Episcopo baptizant , Chrismate baptizatos Vngere licet , sed quod ab Episcopo fuerit consecratum . Non tamen frontem ex eodem oleo signare , quod solis debetur Episcopis cum tradunt Spiritum Paracletum . Now this the Bishops did , not only to satisfie the desire of the baptized , but by this ceremony to excite the votum confirmationis , that they , who could not actually be confirmed , might at least have it in voto in desire , and in Ecclesiastical representation . This ( as some think ) was first introduc'd by Pope Sylvester : and this is the consignation , which the Priests of Egypt us'd in the absence of the Bishop ; and this became afterward , the practice in other Churches . But this was no part of the Holy Rite of Confirmation ; but a ceremony annexed to it ordinarily ; from thence transmitted to baptism , first by imitation , afterwards by way of supply and in defect of the opportunities of Confirmation Episcopal . And therefore we find in the first Arausican Council in the time of Leo the first and Theodosius junior , it was decreed , That in baptism every one should receive Chrism : de eo autem qui in baptismate , quâ cunque necessitate faciente Chrismatus non fuerit , in confirmatione sacerdos commonebitur . If the baptized by any intervening accident or necessity was not anointed , the Bishop should be advertiz'd of it in Confirmation , meaning that then it must be done . For the Chrisme was but a ceremony annexed ; no part of either rite essential to it ; but yet thy thought it necessary ; by reason of some opinions then prevailing in the Church . But here the rites themselves are clearly distinguish'd ; and this of Confirmation was never permitted to mere Presbyters . Innocentius III , a great Canonist and of great authority , gives a full evidence in this particular . Per frontis Chrismationem manus impositio designatur , quia per eam Spiritus Sanctus per augmentum datur & robur . Vnde cum caeteras unctiones simplex sacerdos vel Presbyter valeat exhibere , hanc non nisi summus Sacerdos vel Presbyter valeat exhibere , id est , Episcopus conferre . By anointing of the forehead , the imposition of hands is design'd , because by that the Holy Ghost is given for increase and strength ; therefore when a single Priest may give the other Unctions , yet this cannot be done but by the chief Priest , that is , the Bishop : And therefore to the Question , what shall be done if a Bishop may not be had ? The same Innocentius answers [ It is safer and without danger wholly to omit it , than to have it rashly and without authority ministred by any other , cum umbra quaedam ostendatur in opere , veritas autem non subeat in effectu ; for it is a meer shadow without truth , or real effect , when any one else does it but the person whom God hath appointed to this ministration ; and no approved man of the Church did ever say the contrary , till Richard Primate of Ardmagh commenced a new Opinion , from whence ( Thomas of Walden sayes that ) Wicl●f borrowed his Doctrine to trouble the Church in this particular . What the Doctrine of the ancient Church was in the purest times , I have already ( I hope ) sufficiently declared ; what it was afterwards , when the Ceremony of Chrisme was as much remarked , as the Rite to which it ministred , we finde fully declared by Rabanus Maurus . Signatur Baptizatus cum Chrismate per sacerdotem in capitis summitate , per Pontificem verò in fronte , ut priori Vnctione significetur , spiritus sancti super ipsum descensio ad habitationem Deo consecrandam , in secundâ quoque ut ejus spiritus sancti septiformis gratia , cum omni plenitudine sanctitatis & scientiae & virtutis , venire in hominem declaretur : Tunc enim ipse spiritus sanctus post mundata & benedicta corpora atque animas liberè à patre descendit , ut unà cum suâ visitatione sanctificaret & illustraret , & nunc in hominem ad hoc venit , ut signaculum fidei , quod in fronte suscepit , faciat cum donis coelestibus repletum , & suâ gratiâ confortatum intrepidè , & audacter coram Regibus & Potestatibus hujus saeculi portare , ac nomen Christi liberâ voce praedicare . In Baptism the baptized was anointed on the top of the head , in Confirmation on the fore-head , by that was signified that the Holy Ghost was preparing a habitation for himself ; by this was declared the descent of the Holy Spirit , with his seven-fold gifts , with all fulness of knowledge and spiritual understanding . These things were signified by the appendant Ceremony , but the Rites were ever distinguished , and did not onely signifie and declare , but effect these Graces by the ministry of Prayer and Imposition of Hands . The ceremony the Church instituted and us'd as she pleas'd , and gave in what circumstances they would choose ; and new propositions entred , and customes chang'd , and deputations were made ; and the Bishops , in whom by Christ was plac'd the fulness of Ecclesiastical power , concredited to the Priests and Deacons so much as their occasions and necessities permitted ; and because in those ages and places where the external ceremony was regarded ( it may be ) more than the inward mystery , or the Rite of Divine appointment , they were apt to believe that the Chrism , or exteriour Unction delegated to the Priests Ministery after the Episcopal consecration of it , might supply the want of Episcopal confirmation ; it came to pass that new opinions were entertain'd ; and the Regulars , the Fryers and the Jesuits , who were alwayes too little friends to the Episcopal power , from which they would fain have been wholly exempted , publickly taught ( in England especially ) that chrisme ministred by them with leave from the Pope did doe all that which ordinarily was to be done in Episcopal confirmation . For as Tertullian complain'd in his time , Quibus fuit propositum aliter docendi , eos necessitas coëgit aliter disponendi instrumenta Doctrinae . They who had purposes of teaching new Doctrines , were constrain'd otherwise to dispose of the Instruments and Rituals appertaining to their Doctrines . These men to serve ends , destroyed the article , and overthrew the Ancient Discipline and Unity of the Primitive Church . But they were justly censur'd by the Theological faculty at Paris ; and the censure well defended by Hallier , one of the Doctors of the Sorbon ; whether I refer the Reader that is curious in little things . But for the main : It was ever call'd Confirmatio Episcopalis , & impositio manuum Episcoporum , which our English word well expresses , and perfectly retains the use ; we know it by the common name of Bishopping of Children . I shall no farther insist upon it , onely I shall observe that there is a vain distinction brought into the Schools and Glosses of the Canon Law , of a Minister ordinary , and extraordinary ; all allowing that the Bishop is appointed the ordinary Minister of Confirmation ; but they would fain innovate and pretend that in some cases others may be Ministers extraordinary . This device is of infinite danger to the destruction of the whole Sacred order of the Ministry , and disparks the inclosures , and layes all in common , and makes men supream controulers of the Orders of God , and relies upon a false principle ; for in true Divinity and by the Oeconomy of the spirit of God , there can be no Minister of any Divine Ordinance , but he that is of Divine appointment , there can be none but the ordinary Minister . I do not say that God is tied to this way , he cannot be tied , but by himself ; and therefore Christ gave a special Commission to Ananias to baptize and to confirm St. Paul , and he gave the Spirit to Cornelius even before he was baptized , and he ordained St. Paul to be an Apostle without the ministry of man : But this I say , That though God can make Ministers extraordinary , yet Man cannot , and they that goe about to do so , usurp the power of Christ , and snatch from his hand what he never intended to part with . The Apostles admitted others into a part of their care , and of their power , but when they intended to imploy them in any ministry , they gave them so much of their Order as would enable them , but a person of a lower order could never be deputed Minister of actions appropriate to the higher , which is the case of Confirmation , by the practise and tradition of the Apostles , and by the Universal practise and Doctrine of the Primitive Catholick Church , by which , Bishops onely , the successors of the Apostles , were alone the Ministers of Confirmation , and therefore if any man else usurp it , let them answer it ; they do hurt indeed to themselves , but no benefit to others , to whom they minister shadows instead of substances . SECT . V. The whole procedure , or Ritual of Confirmation , is by Prayer and Imposition of Hands . THE Heart and the Eye are lift up to God to bring Blessings from him , and so is the Hand too ; but this also falls upon the People , and rests there , to apply the descending blessing to the proper and prepared suscipient . God governed the People of Israel by the hand of Moses and Aaron . Et calidae fecére silentia turbae Majestate manus , and both under Moses and under Christ , when ever the President of Religion did bless the People , he lifted up his hand over the Congregation ; and when he blessed a single person he laid his hand upon him . This was the Rite used by Jacob and the Patriarchs , by Kings and Prophets , by all the eminently Religious in the Synagogue , and by Christ himself when he blessed the Children which were brought to him ; and by the Apostles when they blessed and confirmed the baptized Converts ; and whom else can the Church follow ? The Apostles did so to the Christians of Samaria , to them of Ephesus ; and St. Paul describes this whole mystery by the Ritual part of it , calling it the foundation of imposition of hands . It is the solemnity of blessing , and the solemnity and application of Paternal prayer . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; said Clement of Alexandria ; Upon whom shall he lay his hands ? Whom shall he bless ? Quid enim aliud est impositio manuum , nisi Oratio super hominem ? said St. Austine . The Bishop's laying his hands on the People , what is it but the solemnity of Prayer for them ? that is , a prayer made by those sacred persons , who by Christ are appointed to pray for them , and to bless in his Name ; and so indeed are all the ministeries of the Church , Baptism , Consecration of the B. Eucharist , Absolution , Ordination , Visitation of the Sick ; they are all in genere orationis ; they are nothing but solemn and appointed Prayer by an intrusted and a gracious Person , specificated by a proper order to the end of the blessing then designed ; and therefore when Saint James commanded that the sick Persons should send for the Elders of the Church , he adds , and let them pray over them ; that is , lay their hands on the sick , and pray for them ; that is , praying over them : It is adumbratio dextrae , ( as Tertullian calls it ) the right hand of him that ministers over-shadows the person for whom the solemn Prayer is to be made . This is the Office of the Rulers of the Church ; for they in the Divine Eutaxy are made your Superiours ; they are indeed your servants for Jesus sake ; but they are over you in the Lord , and therefore are from the Lord appointed to bless the People ; for without contradiction , saith the Apostle , the less is blessed of the greater , that is , God hath appointed the Superiours in Religion to be the great Ministers of Prayer , he hath made them the gratious Persons , them he will hear , those he hath commanded to convey your needs to God , and Gods blessings to you , and to ask a blessing , is to desire them to pray for you ; them , I say , whom God most respecteth for their piety and zeal that way , or else regardeth , for that their place and calling bindeth them above others to do this duty ; such as are Natural and Spiritual Fathers . It is easie for prophane persons to deride these things , as they do all Religion , which is not conveyed to them by sense , or natural demonstrations ; but the Oeconomy of the spirit , and the things of God are spiritually discerned ; the spirit bloweth where it listeth , and no Man knows whence it comes , and whether it goes ; and the Operations are discerned by Faith , and received by Love and by Obedience , Date mihi Christianum , & intelligit quod dico : None but true Christians understand and feel these things ; but of this we are sure , that in all the times of Moses Law , while the Synagogue was standing , and in all the dayes of Christianity , so long as men loved Religion , and walked in the Spirit , and minded the affairs of their Souls , to have the prayers and the blessing of the Fathers of the Synagogue , and the Fathers of the Church , was esteemed no small part of their Religion , and so they went to Heaven : But that which I intend to say is this , That Prayer and Imposition of Hands was the whole procedure in the Christian Rites ; and because this ministery was most signally performed by this ceremony , and was also by St. Paul called and noted by the name of the Ceremony , imposition of hands ; this name was retained in the Christian Church , and this manner of ministring Confirmation was all that was in the commandment or institution . But because in Confirmation we receive the Unction from above , that is , then we are most signally made Kings and Priests unto God , to offer up spiritual sacrifices , and to enable us to seek the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness of it , and that the giving the holy spirit is in Scripture called the Unction from above , the Church of God in early Ages made use of this Allegory , and passed it into an External ceremony and representation of the mystery , to signifie the inward Grace . Post inscripta oleo frontis signacula , perque Vnguentum Regale datum est , & Chrisma perenne . We are consigned on the fore-head with Oyl , and a Royal Unction , and an Eternal Chrisme is given to us ; so Prudentius gives testimony of the ministry of Confirmation in his time , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said S. Cyril . Preserve this Unction pure and spotless , for it teaches you all things , as you have heard the blessed S. John speaking and philosophying many things of this holy Chrism . Upon this account the H. Fathers used to bless and consecrate Oyl and Balsome , that by an external signature they might signifie the inward Unction effected in Confirmation . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . This Chrism is not simple or common when it is blessed , but the gift of Christ , and the presence of his H. Spirit , as it were effecting the Divinity it self ; the body is indeed anointed with visible Oyntment , but is also sanctified by the holy and quickning Spirit ; so St. Cyril , I finde in him , and in some late Synods , other pretty significations and allusions made by this Ceremony of Chrisms , Nos autem pro igne visibili , qui die Pentecostes super Apostolos apparuit , oleum sanctum , materiam nempe ignis ex Apostolorum traditione ad confirmandum adhibemus , This using of Oyl was instead of the Baptism with Fire , which Christ baptized his Apostles with in Pentecost ; and Oyl being the most proper matter of Fire , is therefore used in Confirmation . That this was the ancient Ceremony is without doubt , and that the Church had power to do so hath no question , and I add , it was not unreasonable ; for if ever the Scripture expresses the mysteriousness of a Grace conferred by an exteriour ministry , ( as this is , by imposition of hands ) and represents it besides in the Expression and Analogy of any sensible thing , that expression drawn into a ceremony will not improperly signifie the Grace , since the Holy Ghost did chuse that for his own expression and representment . In baptism we are said to be buried with Christ. The Church does according to the Analogy of that expression , when she immerges the Catechumen in the Font ; for then she represents the same thing which the Holy Ghost would have to be represented in that Sacrament , the Church did but the same thing when she used Chrism in this ministration . This I speak in justification of that ancient practise , but because there was no command for it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said St. Basil , concerning Chrisme there is no written word , that is , of the Ceremony there is not , he said it not of the whole Rite of Confirmation ; therefore though to this we are all bound , yet as to the anointing the Church is at liberty , and hath with sufficient authority omitted it in our ministrations . In the Liturgy of King Edward the VI. the Bishops used the sign of the Cross upon the fore-heads of them that were to be confirmed . I do not find it since forbidden , or revoked by any expression or intimation , saving onely that it is omitted in our later Offices ; and therefore it may seem to be permitted to the discretion of the Bishops , but yet not to be used , unless where it may be for Edification , and where it may be by the consent of the Church , at least by interpretation , concerning which , I have nothing else to interpose , but that neither this , nor any thing else , which is not of the nature and institution of the Rite , ought to be done by private Authority , nor ever at all but according to the Apostles Rule , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , whatsoever is decent , and whatsoever is according to Order , that is to be done , and nothing else ; for prayer and imposition of hands for the invocating and giving the holy spirit , is all that is in the foundation and institution . SECT VI. Many great Graces and Blessings are consequent to the Worthy reception and due ministery of Confirmation . IT is of it self enough , when it is fully understood , what is said in the Acts of the Apostles at the first ministration of this Rite . They received the Holy Ghost , that is , according to the expression of our Blessed Saviour himself to the Apostles , when he commanded them in Jerusalem to expect the verification of his glorious promise : they were endued with virtue from on high ; that is , with strength to perform their duty , which although it is not to be understood exclusively to the other Rites and Ministeries of the Church of Divine appointment , yet it is properly and most signally true , and as it were in some sense , appropriate to this . For as Aquinas well discourses ; the grace of Christ is not tyed to the Sacraments ; but even this Spiritual strength and vertue from on high can be had without Confirmation : as without Baptism remission of sins may be had : and yet we believe one Baptism for the remission of sins ; and one Confirmation for the obtaining this vertue from on high , this strength of the spirit . But it is so appropriate to it by promise and peculiarity of ministration , that as without the desire of baptism our sins are not pardon'd , so without , at least , the desire of Confirmation , we cannot receive this vertue from on high , which is appointed to descend in the ministery of the spirit . It is true , the ministery of the Holy Eucharist is greatly effective to this purpose ; and therefore in the ages of Martyrs the Bishops were careful to give the people the Holy Communion frequently , ut quos tutos esse contra adversarium volebant , munimento Dominicae Saturitatis armarent ; as S. Cyprian with his Collegues wrote to Cornelius ; that those whom they would have to be safe against the contentions of their adversaries , they should arme them with the guards and defences of the Lords fulness . But it is to be remembred , that the Lords Supper is for the more perfect Christians , and it is for the increase of the graces receiv'd formerly , and therefore it is for remission of sins , and yet is no prejudice to the necessity of baptism , whose proper work is remission of sins ; and therefore neither does it make Confirmation unnecessary , for it renews the work of both the precedent Rites ; and repairs the breaches , and adds new Energy , and proceeds in the same dispensations ; and is renewed often , whereas the others are but once . Excellent therefore are the words of John Gerson the Famous Chancellor of Paris , to this purpose . It may be said that in one way of speaking Confirmation is necessary , and in another it is not . Confirmation is not necessary as Baptism and Repentance , for without these , Salvation cannot be had . This necessity is absolute but there is a conditional necessity . Thus if a Man would not become weak , it is necessary that he eat his meat well . And so Confirmation is necessary , that the spiritual life , and the health gotten in Baptism may be preserv'd in strength against our spiritual enemies . For this is given for strength . Hence is that saying of Hugo de S. Victore . What does it profit that thou art raised up by Baptism , if thou art not able to stand by Confirmation ? Not that Baptism is not of value unto Salvation without confirmation ; but because he who is not confirmed will easily fall , and too readily perish . The spirit of God comes which way he please , but we are tied to use his own Oeconomy , and expect the blessings appointed by his own ministeries : And because to prayer is promised we shall receive whatever we ask , we may as well omit the receiving the holy Eucharist , pretending that prayer alone will procure the blessings expected in the other , as well I say , as omit confirmation , because we hope to be strengthned and receive virtue from on high by the use of the Supper of the Lord : Let us use all the ministeries of Grace in their season ; for we know not which shall prosper , this or that , or whether they shall be both alike good ; this onely we know , that the Ministeries , which God appoints , are the proper seasons and opportunities of Grace . This power from on high , which is the proper blessing of Confirmation , was expressed , not onely in speaking with Tongues and doing Miracles , for much of this they had before they received the Holy Ghost , but it was effected in spiritual and internal strengths ; they were not onely enabled for the service of the Church , but were indued with courage and wisdom , and Christian fortitude , and boldness , to confess the Faith of Christ crucified , and unity of heart and minde , singleness of heart , and joy in God , when it was for the edification of the Church , miracles were done in confirmations ; and St. Bernard in the life of St. Malachias tells , that St. Malchus , Bishop of Lismore in Ireland , confirmed a Lunatick child , and at the same time cured him : but such things as these are extraregular & contingent . This which we speak of is a regular ministery , and must have a regular effect . St. Austin said , That the holy spirit in confirmation was given ad dilatanda Ecclesiae primordia , for the propogating Christianity in the beginnings of the Church . St. Hierom sayes , it was propter honorem sacerdotii ; for the honour of the Priesthood ; St. Ambrose sayes , it was ad confirmationem Vnitatis in Ecclesiâ Christi , for the confirmation of Unity in the Church of Christ , and they all say true : But the first was by the miraculous consignations , which did accompany this ministery , and the other two were by reason that the mysteries were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they were appropriated to the ministery of the Bishop , who is caput unitatis , the head , the last resort , the Firmament of Unity in the Church . These effects were regular indeed , but they were incident and accidental : There are effects yet more proper , and of greater excellency . Now if we will understand in general what excellent fruits are consequent to this Dispensation , we may best receive the notice of them from the Fountain it self , our blessed Saviour . He that believes , out of his Belly ( as the Scripture saith ) shall flow Rivers of Living waters . But this he spake of the spirit , which they that believe on him should receive . This is evidently spoken of the spirit , which came down in Pentecost , which was promised to all that should believe in Christ , and which the Apostles ministred by imposition of hands , the Holy Ghost himself being the expositor ; and it can signifie no less , but that a spring of life should be put into the heart of the confirmed , to water the Plants of God ; that they should become Trees , not onely planted by the water side ( for so it was in David's time , and in all the ministery of the Old Testament ) but having a River of living water within them to make them fruitful of good works , and bringing their fruit in due season , fruits worthy of amendment of life . 1. But the principal thing is this . Confirmation is the consummation and perfection , the corroboration and strength of baptism , and baptismal Grace ; for in baptism we undertake to do our duty , but in confirmation we receive strength to do it : In baptism others promise for us , in confirmation we undertake for our selves , we ease our God-fathers and God-mothers of their burden , and take it upon our own shoulders , together with the advantage of the Prayers of the Bishop and all the Church made then on our behalf . In baptism we give up our names to Christ , but in confirmation we put our seal to the profession , and God puts his seal to the promise . It is very remarkable what St. Paul sayes of the beginnings of our being Christians , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the word of the beginning of Christ : Christ begins with us , he gives us his word , and admits us , and we by others hands are brought in , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it is the form of Doctrine unto which ye were delivered . Cajetan observes right , That this is a new and Emphatical way of speaking : we are wholly immerged in our fundamentals ; other things are delivered to us , but we are delivered up unto these . This is done in Baptism and Catechism , and what was the event of it ? Being then made free from sin , ye became the Servants of Righteousness . Your baptism was for the remission of sins there , and then ye were made free from that bondage , and what then ? Why then in the next place , when ye came to consummate this procedure , when the baptized was confirmed , then he became a servant of righteousness , that is , then the Holy Ghost descended upon you , and enabled you to walk in the spirit ; then the seed of God was first thrown into your hearts by a coelestial influence . Spiritus sanctus in Baptisterio plenitudinem tribuit ad innocentiam , sed in confirmatione augmentum praestat ad gratiam , said Eusebius Emissenus . In baptism we are made innocent , in confirmation we receive the increase of the spirit of grace ; in that we are regenerated unto life , in this we are strengthned unto battle , Dono sapientiae illuminamur , aedisicamur , erudimur , insiruimur , confirmamur , ut illam sancti spiritus vocem audire possimus , intellectum tibi dabo , & instruam te in h●c vitâ , quâ gradieris , said P. Melchiades ; We are inlightned by the gift of wisdom , we are built up , taught , instructed and confirmed ; so that we may hear that voice of the holy spirit , I will give unto thee an understanding heart , and teach thee in the way wherein thou shalt walk : For so , Signari populos effuso pignore sancto Mirandae virtutis opus , — It is a work of great and wonderful powers when the holy pledge of God is poured forth upon the people : This is that power from on high which first descended in Pentecost , and afterward was ministred by prayer and imposition of the Apostolical and Episcopal hands , and comes after the other gift of remission of sins . Vides quod non simplicitèr hoc fit , sed multâ opus est virtute , ut detur spiritus sanctus . Non enim idem est assequi remissionem peccatorum , & accipere virtutem illam , said St. Chrysostom . You see that this is not easily done , but there is need of much power from on high to give the holy spirit ; for it is not all one to obtain remission of sins , and to have received this virtue or power from above . Quamvis enim continuò transituris sufficiant regenerationis beneficia , victuris tamen necessaria sunt confirmationis auxilia , said Melchiades ; Although to them that die presently the benefits of regeneration ( baptismal ) are sufficient , yet to them that live the Auxiliaries of confirmation are necessary ; for according to the saying of St. Leo in his Epistle to Nicetas the Bishop of Aquileja , commanding that Hereticks returning to the Church should be confirmed with invocation of the holy spirit and imposition of hands , they have onely received the form of baptism sine sanctificationis virtute , without the virtue of sanctification , meaning that this is the proper effect of Confirmation : For , in short , Although the newly listed Souldiers in humane warfare are enrolled in the number of them that are to sight , yet they are not brought to battle till they be more trained and exercised : So although by baptism every one is ascribed into the catalogue of believers , yet he receives more strength and grace for the sustaining and overcoming the temptations of the Flesh , the World , and the Devil , onely by imposition of the Bishops hands . They are words which I borrowed from a late Synod at Rhemes ; that 's the first remark of blessing ; in confirmation we receive strength to do all that which was for us undertaken in baptism : For the Apostles themselves ( as the H. Fathers observe ) were timorous in the Faith , until they were confirmed in Pentecost , but after the reception of the Holy Ghost , they waxed valiant in the Faith , and in all their spiritual combats . 2. In Confirmation we receive the Holy Ghost , as the earnest of our inheritance , as the seal of our salvation , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith Gregory Nazianzen : we therefore call it a seal or signature , as being a guard and custody to us , and a signe of the Lords dominion over us . The confirmed person is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a sheep that is mark'd , which Thieves do not so easily steal and carry away . To the same purpose are those words of Theodoret , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Remember that holy mystogogy , in which they , who were initiated after the renouncing that Tyrant ( the Devil and all his works ) and the confession of the true King ( Jesus Christ ) have received the Chrism of spiritual Vnction , like a Royal signature , by that Vnction as in shadow , perceiving the invisible grace of the most holy Spirit . That is , in Confirmation we are sealed for the service of God , and unto the day of Redemption ; then it is , that the seal of God is had by us , The Lord knoweth who are his . Quomodo verò dices , Dei sum , si notas non produxeris , said S. Basil. How can any man say , I am Gods sheep , unless he produce the marks . Signati estis Spiritu promissionis per Sanctissimum Divinum Spiritum , Domini grex effecti sumus said Theophylact. When we are thus seal'd by the most Holy and Divine spirit of promise : then we are truly of the Lords Flock , and mark'd with his seal : that is , when we are ritely confirm'd , then he descends into our souls , and though he does not operate ( it may be ) presently ; but as the reasonable soul works in its due time and by the order of Nature , by opportunities and new fermentations and actualities , so does the spirit of God ; when he is brought into use , when he is prayed for with love and assiduity , when he is caressed tenderly , when he is us'd lovingly , when we obey his motions readily , when we delight in his words greatly ; then we find it true , that the soul had a new life put into her , a principle of perpetual actions ; but the tree planted by the waters side , does not presently bear fruit ; but in its due season . By this spirit we are then seal'd ; that whereas God hath laid up an inheritance for us in the Kingdom of Heaven , and in the faith of that we must live and labour , to confirm this faith , God hath given us this pledge : the spirit of God is a witness to us , and tells us by his holy comforts , by the peace of God , and the quietness and refreshments of a good Conscience , that God is our Father , that we are his Sons and Daughters , and shall be co-heirs with Jesus in his eternal Kingdom . In baptism we are made the Sons of God , but we receive the witness and testimony of it in Confirmation . This is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Holy Ghost the Comforter , this is he whom Christ promis'd and did send in Pentecost , and was afterwards ministred and conveyed by prayer and imposition of hands : and by this Spirit he makes the Confessors bold , and the Martyrs valiant , and the tempted strong , and the Virgins to perfevere , and Widows to sing his praises and his glories . And this is that excellency which the Church of God called the Lords seal , and teaches to be imprinted in Confirmation : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a perfect Phylactery or Guard , even the Lords seal , so Eusebius calls it . I will not be so curious as to enter into a discourse of the Philosophy of this . But I shall say , that they who are Curious in the secrets of Nature , and observe external signatures in Stones , Plants , Fruits and Shells , of which Naturalists make many observations , and observe strange effects ; and the more internal signatures in minerals and living bodies , of which Chymists discourse strange secrets ; may easily , if they please , consider that is infinitely credible that in higher essences , even in Spirits ; there may be signatures proportionable , wrought more immediately , and to greater purposes by a Divine hand . I only point at this , and so pass it over , as ( it may be ) not fit for every mans consideration . And now , if any Man shall say , we see no such things as you talk of ; and find the confirm'd people the same after , as before , no better , and no wiser ; not richer in gifts , not more adorned with graces , nothing more zealous for Christs Kingdom ; not more comforted with hope , or established by faith , or built up with charity ; they neither speak better , nor live better . And what then ? Does it therefore follow that the Holy Ghost is not given in Confirmation ? Nothing less . For is not Christ given us in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper ? Do not we receive his body and his blood ? Are we not made all one with Christ , and he with us ? And and yet it is too true , that when we arise from that holy feast , thousands there are that find no change . But there are in this , two things to be considered . One is , that the changes which are wrought upon our souls are not after the manner of Nature , visible , and sensible , and with observation . The Kingdom of God cometh not with Observation : for it is within you , and is only discerned spiritually , and produces its effects by the method of Heaven , and is first apprehended by faith , and is endear'd by charity , and at last is understood by holy and kind experiences . And in this there is no more objection against Confirmation than against Baptism , or the Lords Supper , or any other ministery Evangelical . The other thing is this . If we do not find the effects of the spirit in Confirmation , it is our faults . For he is receiv'd by moral instruments ; and is intended only as a help to our endeavours , to our labours , and our prayers , to our contentions and our mortifications , to our faith and to our hope , to our patience and to our charity . Non adjuvari dicitur , qui nihil facit . He that does nothing , cannot be said to be help'd . Unless we in these instances do our part of the work , it will be no wonder if we loose his part of the co-operation and supervening blessing . He that comes under the Bishops hands to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost , will come with holy desires , and a longing soul , with an open hand and a prepared heart : he will purifie the house of the spirit for the entertainment of so Divine a guest : he will receive him with humility and follow him with obedience , and delight him with purities : and he that does thus , let him make the objection if he can , and tell me ; Does he say that Jesus is the Lord ? He cannot say this , but by the Holy Ghost . Does he love his Brother ? If he does , then the Spirit of God abides in him . Is Jesus Christ formed in him ? Does he live by the lawes of the spirit ? Does he obey his commands ? Does he attend his motions ? Hath he no earnest desires to serve God ? If he have not , then in vain hath he receiv'd either Baptisme or Confirmation . But if he have , it is certain that of himself he cannot do these things : he cannot of himself think a good thought . Does he therefore think well ? That is from the Holy Spirit of God. To conclude this inquiry : The Holy Ghost is promised to all Men to profit withall . That 's plain in Scripture . Confirmation , or prayer and Imposition of the Bishops hand is the Solemnity and Rite us'd in Scripture for the conveying of that promise , and the effect is felt in all the Sanctifications and changes of the Soul , and he that denies these things hath not faith , nor the true notices of Religion , or the spirit of Christianity . Hea● what the Scriptures yet further say in this mystery . Now he which confirmeth or stablisheth us with you in Christ , and hath anointed us is God : who hath also sealed us , and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts . Here is a description of the whole mysterious part of this rite . God is the Author of the grace : The Apostles and all Christians are the suscipients and receive this grace : by this grace we are adopted and incorporated into Christ : God hath anointed us ; that is , he hath given us this Unction from above , he hath sealed us by his Spirit , made us his own , bored our ears thorough , made us free by his perpetual service , and hath done all these things in token of a greater ; he hath given us his Spirit to testifie to us that he will give us of his glory . These words of S. Paul , besides that they evidently contain in them the spiritual part of this Ritual , are also expounded of the Rite and Sacramental it self , by S. Chrysostom , Theodoret and Theophylact ; that I may name no more . For in this mystery , Christos nos efficit , & misericordiam Dei nobis annunciat per Spiritum Sanctum , said S. John Damascen ; he makes us his anointed ones , and by the Holy Spirit he declares his eternal mercy towards us . Nolite tangere Christos meos . Touch not mine anointed ones . For when we have this signature of the Lord upon us , the Devils cannot come near to hurt us , unless we consent to their temptations , and drive the Holy Spirit of the Lord from us . SECT . VII . Of preparation to Confirmation , and the circumstances of receiving it . IF Confirmation have such gracious effects , why doe we confirm little children , whom in all reason we cannot suppose to be capable and receptive of such Graces ? It will be no answer to this , if we say , that this very question is asked concerning the baptism of Infants , to which as great effects are consequent , even pardon of all our sins , and the new birth and regeneration of the soul unto Christ : For in these things the soul is wholly passive , and nothing is required of the suscipient but that he put in no bar against the grace , which because Infants cannot doe , they are capable of baptism ; but it follows not that therefore they are capable of confirmation , because this does suppose them such as to need new assistances , and is a new profession , and a personal undertaking , and therefore requires personal abilities , and cannot be done by others , as in the case of baptism . The aids given in Confirmation are in order to our contention and our danger , our temptation and spiritual warfare , and therefore it will not seem equally reasonable to confirm children as to baptize them . To this I answer , That in the Primitive Church Confirmation was usually administred at the same time with baptism , for we find many Records that when the Office of baptism was finished , and the baptized person devested of the white Robe , the person was carried again to the Bishop to be confirmed , as I have already shewn out of Dionysius , and divers others . The reasons why anciently they were ministred immediately after one another , is , not onely because the most of them that were baptized were of years to choose their Religion , and did so ; and therefore were capable of all that could be consequent to baptism , or annexed to it , or ministred with it , and therefore were also at the same time communicated as well as confirmed ; but also because the solemn baptismes were at solemn times of the year , at Easter onely and Whitsontide , and onely in the Cathedral or Bishops Church in the chief City ; whither when the Catechumens came , and had the opportunity of the Bishops presence , they took the advantage ut sacramento utroque renascantur , as St. Cyprian's expression is , that they might be regenerated by both the mysteries , and they also had the third added , viz. the Holy Eucharist . This simultaneous ministration hath occasioned some few of late to mistake confirmation for a part of baptism , but no distinct Rite , or of distinct effect , save onely that it gave ornament and complement , or perfection to the other : But this is infinitely confuted by the very first ministry of Confirmation in the World ; for there was a great interval between St. Philip's baptizing and the Apostles confirming the Samaritans , where also the difference is made wider by the distinction of the Minister ; a Deacon did one ; none but an Apostle , and his successor a Bishop could do the other ; and this being of so universal a Practise and Doctrine in the Primitive Church , it is a great wonder that any learned men could suffer an errour in so apparent a case . It is also clear in two other great remarks of the practise of the Primitive Church , the one is of them who were baptized in their sickness , the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , when they recovered they were commanded to address themselves to the Bishop , to be confirmed , which appears in the XXXVIII . Canon of the council of Eliberis , and the XLVI . Canon of the council of Laodicea , which I have before cited upon other occasions ; the other is , that of Hereticks returning to the Church , who were confirmed not onely long after baptism , but after their apostacy and their conversion . For although Episcopal confirmation was the inlargement of Baptismal grace , and commonly administred the same day , yet it was done by interposition of distinct ceremonies , and not immediately in time . Honorius Augustodunensis tells , That when the baptized on the Eighth day had laid aside their Mitres , or proper habit used in baptism , then they were usually confirmed , or consigned with Chrism in the Fore-head by the Bishop . And when children were baptized irregularly , or besides the ordinary way , in Villages and places distant from the Bishop , confirmation was deferr'd , said Durandus . And it is certain , that this affair did not last long without variety : Sometimes they ministred both together ; sometimes at greater , sometimes at lesser distances ; and it was left indifferent in the Church to do the one or the other , or the third , according to the opportunity and the discretion of the Bishop . But afterward , in the middle and descending Ages it grew to be a question , not whether it were lawful , or not , but which were better , To confirm Infants , or to stay to their childehood , or to their riper years ? Aquinas , Bonaventure , and some others say it is best , that they be confirmed in their Infancy , quia dolus non est , nec obicem ponunt , they are then without craft , and cannot hinder the descent of the Holy Ghost upon them ; and indeed it is most agreeable with the Primitive practise , that if they were baptized in Infancy , they should then also be confirmed , according to that of the famous Epistle of Melchiades to the Bishops of Spain : Ita conjuctna sunt haec duo sacramenta , ut ab invicem nisi morte praeveniente , non possint separari , & unum sine altero ritè perfici non potest . Where although he expresly affirms the Rites to be two , yet unless it be in cases of necessity they are not to be severed , and one without the other is not perfect , which , in the sense formerly mentioned , is true , and so to be understood ; That to him who is baptized and is not confirmed , something very considerable is wanting , and therefore they ought to be joyned , though not immediately , yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , according to reasonable occasions and accidental causes : But in this there must needs be a liberty in the Church , not onely for the former reasons , but also because the Apostles themselves were not confirmed till after they had received the Sacrament of the Lords Supper . Others therefore say , That to confirm them of riper years is with more edification . The confession of Faith is more voluntary , the election is wiser , the submission to Christs discipline is more acceptable , and they have more need , and can make better use of their strengths then derived by the holy spirit of God upon them ; and to this purpose it is commanded in the Canon Law , that they who are confirmed should be perfectae aetatis , of full age ; upon which the gloss sayes , Perfectam vocat forte duodecim annorum ; Twelve year old was a full age , because at those years they might then be admitted to the lower services in the Church . But the reason intimated and implied by the Canon is , because of the preparation to it ; They must come fasting , and they must make publick confession of their Faith. And indeed that they should do so is matter of great edification , as also are the advantages of choice , and other preparatory abilities and dispositions above-mentioned : They are matter of edification , I say , when they are done ; but then the delaying of them so long before they be done , and the wanting the aids of the Holy Ghost conveyed in that ministry , are very prejudicial , and are not matter of edification . But therefore there is a third way , which the Church of England and Ireland followes , and that is , that after Infancy ; but yet before they understand too much of sin , and when they can competently understand the fundamentals of Religion , then it is good to bring them to be confirmed , that the spirit of God may prevent their youthful sins , and Christ by his word and by his spirit , may enter and take possession at the same time . And thus it was in the Church of England long since provided and commanded by the Laws of King Edgar , cap. 15. ut nullus ab Episcopo confirmari diù nimium detrectârit ; That none should too long put off his being confirmed by the Bishop , that is , as is best expounded by the perpetual practise almost ever since , as soon as ever by Catechism and competent instruction they were prepared , it should not be deferred . If it have been omitted ( as of late years it hath been too much ) as we do in baptism , so in this also ; it may be taken at any age , even after they have received the Lords Supper , as I observed before in the practise and example of the Apostles themselves , which in this is an abundant warrant : But still the sooner the better . I mean , after that Reason begins to dawn : but ever it must be taken care of , that the Parents and God-fathers , the Ministers and Masters see that the Children be catechised and well instructed in the fundamentals of their Religion . For this is the necessary preparation to the most advantageous reception of this holy ministry : In Ecclesiis potissimùm Latinis non nisi adultiore aetate pueros admitti videmus , vel hanc certè ob causam , ut Parentibus , susceptoribus , & Ecclesiarum praefectis occasio detur pueros de fide , quam in baptismo professi sunt , diligentiùs instituendi , & admonendi , said the excellent Cassander . In the Latine Churches they admit children of some ripeness of age , that they may be more diligently taught and instructed in the Faith. And to this sense agree St. Austin , Walafridus Strabo , Ruardus Lovaniensis , and Mr. Calvin . For this was ever the practise of the Primitive Church to be infinitely careful of catechising those , who came and desired to be admitted to this holy Rite ; they used Exorcisms or Catechisms to prepare them to baptism and confirmation . I said Exorcisms or Catechisms , for they were the same thing ; if the notion be new , yet I the more willingly declare it , not onely to free the Primitive Church from the suspicion of superstition in using Charms or Exorcismes ( according to the modern sense of the word ) or casting of the Devil out of innocent Children but also to remonstrate the perpetual practise of catechising children in the eldest and best times of the Church . Thus the Greek Scholiast upon Harmenopulus renders the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Primitive Exorcist was the Catechist : And Balsamon upon the 26th . Canon of the Council of Laodicea sayes ▪ That to Exorcise is nothing but to catechize the unbelievers , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , some undertook to Exorcise , that is , ( sayes he ) to Catechise the unbelievers : And St. Cyril in his Preface to his Catechisms , speaking to the Illuminati ; Festinent ( sayes he ) pedes tui ad Catecheses audiendas , Exorcismos studiosè suscipe &c : Let your feet run hastily to hear the Catechismes , studiously receive the Exorcisms , although thou beest already inspired and exorcised ; that is , although you have been already instructed in the mysteries , yet still proceed : For without Exorcismes ( or Catechisms ) the soul cannot goe forward , since they are Divine and gathered out of the Scriptures : And the reason why these were called Exorcismes , he addes : [ Because when the Exorcists or Catechists by the spirit of God produce fear in your hearts , and do inkindle the spirit as in a furnace , the Devil flies away , and salvation and hope of life Eternal does succeed , ] according to that of the Evangelist concerning Christ ; They were astonished at his Doctrine , for his word was with power : And that of St. Luke concerning Paul and Barnabas : The Deputy , when he saw what was done , was astonished at the Doctrine of the Lord. It is the Lords Doctrine that hath the power to cast out Devils and work miracles ; Catechismes are the best Exorcismes : [ Let us therefore , Brethren , abide in hope , and persevere in catechisings ( saith St. Cyril ) although they be long , and produced with many words or discourses . ] The same also we finde in St. Gregory Nazianzen , a and St. Austin . b The use that I make of this notion is principally to be an exhortation to all of the Clergy , that they take great care to catechise all their people , to bring up Children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord , to prepare a holy seed for the service of God , to cultivate the young plants , and to dress the old ones , to take care that those , who are men in the World , be not meer Babes , and uninstructed in Christ , and that they , who are children in age , may be wise unto salvation ; for by this means we shall rescue them from early temptations , when being so prepared they are so assisted by a Divine ministery ; we shall weaken the Devils power , by which he too often , and too much prevails upon uninstructed and unconfirmed youth : For , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , confirmation is the firmament of our profession ; but we profess nothing till we be catechised ; catechisings are our best preachings , and by them we shall give the best accounts of our charges , while in the behalf of Christ we make Disciples , and take prepossession of Infant-understandings , and by this holy Rite , by prayer and imposition of hands we minister the holy spirit to them , and so prevent and disable the artifices of the Devil ; for we are not ignorant of his devices , how he enters as soon as he can , and taking advantage of their ignorance and their passion , seats himself so strongly in their hearts and heads . Turpiùs ejicitur , quàm non admittur hostis , It is harder to cast the Devil out , than to keep him out . Hence it is that the youth are so corrupted in their manners , so Devilish in their Natures , so cursed in their conversation , so disobedient to Parents , so wholly given to vanity and idleness ; they learn to swear before they can pray , and to lie as soon as they can speak . It is not my sense alone , but was long since observed by Gerson and Gulielmus Parisiensis , Propter cessationem confirmationis tepiditas grandior est in fidelibus , & fidei defensione : There is a coldness and deadness in Religion , and it proceeds from the neglect of confirmation ritely ministred , and after due preparations and dispositions . A little thing will fill a childs head : Teach them to say their prayers ; tell them the stories of the Life and Death of Christ ; cause them to love the holy Jesus with their first love , make them afraid of a sin , let the principles , which God hath planted in their very Creation , the natural principles of Justice and Truth , of honesty and thankfulness , of simplicity and obedience be brought into act , and habit , and confirmation by the holy Sermons of the Gospel . If the Guides of Souls would have their people holy , let them teach holiness to their children , and then they will ( at least ) have a new generation unto God , better than this wherein we now live . They who are most zealous in this particular will with most comfort reap the fruit of their labours , and the blessings of their ministery , and by the numbers which every Curate presents to his Bishop fitted for confirmation , he will in proportion render an account of his Stewardship with some visible felicity ; and let it be remembred , that in the last Rubrick of the Office of Confirmation in our Liturgy it is made into a Law , that none should be admitted to the holy Communion , until such time as he could say the Catechism , and be confirmed ; which was also a Law and Custom in the Primitive Church , as appears in St. Dionysius his Ecclesiastical Hierarchy , and the matter of fact is notorious . Among the Helvetians they are forbidden to contract marriages before they are well instructed in the Catechism : And in a late Synod at Bourges , the Curates are commanded to threaten all that are not confirmed , that they shall never receive the Lords Supper , nor be married ; and in effect the same is of force in our Church ; for the married persons being to receive the Sacrament at their marriage , and none are to receive but those that are confirmed ; the same Law obtains with us , as with the Helvetians or the Synodus Bituricensis . There is another little inquiry , which I am not willing to omit ; but the answer will not be long , because there is not much to be said on either side . Some inquire whether the holy Rite of Confirmation can be ministred any more than once ? St. Austin seems to be of opinion that it may be repeated . Quid enim aliud est impositio manuum nisi oratio super hominem ? Confirmation is a solemn prayer over a man ; and if so , why it may not be reiterated can have nothing in the nature of the thing ; and the Greeks do it frequently , but they have no warranty from the Scripture , nor from any of their own ancient Doctors . Indeed when any one did return from Heresie , they confirmed them , as I have proved out of the first and second Council of Arles , the Council of Laodicea , and the second Council of Sevil : But upon a closer intuition of the thing , I find they did so onely to such who did not allow of Confirmation in their Sects , such as the Novatians and the Donatists . Novatiani poenitentiam à suo conventu arcent penitùs , & iis qui ab ipsis tinguntur sacrum Chrisma non praebent . Quocircà qui ex hâc Haeresi corpori Ecclesiae conjunguntur benedicti Patres ungi jusserunt : So Thedoret . For that reason onely the Novatians were to be confirmed upon their conversion , because they had it not before . I finde also , they did confirm the converted Arrians ; but the reason is given in the first Council of Arles , quia propriâ lege utuntur . They had a way of their own ; that is , as the Gloss saith upon the Canon , de Arrianis consecrat . dist . 4. their baptism was not in the name of the holy Trinity ; and so their baptism being null , or at least suspected , to make all as sure as they could , they confirmed them . The same also is the case of the Bonasiaci in the second council of Arles , though they were ( as some of the Arrians also were ) baptized in the name of the most holy Trinity ; but it was a suspected matter , and therefore they confirmed them : But to such persons who had been rightly baptized and confirmed , they never did repeat it . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; the gift of the Spirit is an indelible seal , saith St. Cyril , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , St. Basil calls it , it is inviolable . They who did re-baptize , did also reconfirm . But as it was an error in St. Cyprian and the Africans to do the first , so was the second also , in case they had done it ; for I find no mention expresly that they did the latter , but upon the fore-mentioned accounts , and either upon supposition of the invalidity of their first pretended baptism , or their not using at all of confirmation in their Heretical conventicles : But the repetition of confirmation is expresly forbidden by the council of Tarracon , cap. 6. and by P. Gregory the second : and sanctum Chrisma collatum & altaris honor propter consecrationem ( quae per Episcopos tantùm exercenda & conferenda sunt ) evelli non queunt , said the Fathers , in a council at Toledo . Confirmation and holy Orders ( which are to be given by Bishops alone ) can never be anulled , and therefore they can never be repeated ; and this relies 〈◊〉 those severe words of St. Paul , having spoken of 〈◊〉 ●oundation of the Doctrine of Baptisms and laying on of hands , he sayes , if they fall away , they can never be renewed ; that is , the ministery of baptism and confirmation can never be repeated . To Christians that sin after these ministrations , there is onely left a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Expergiscimini , that they arise from slumber , and stir up the Graces of the Holy Ghost . Every man ought to be careful that he do not grieve the holy Spirit ; but if he does , yet let him not quench him , for that is a desperate case , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The holy Spirit is the great conservative of the new Life , onely keep the Keeper , take care that the spirit of God do not depart from you ; for the great ministery of the spirit is but once ; for as baptism is , so is confirmation . I end this discourse with a plain exhortation out of S. Ambrose ; upon those words of S. Paul , He that confirmeth us with you in Christ is God ; Repete quia accepisti signaculum spirituale , spiritum sapientiae & intellectus , spiritum consilii atque virtutis , spiritum cognitionis atque pietatis , Spiritum Sancti timoris & serva quod accepisti . Signavit te Deus Pater , confirmavit te Christus Dominus . Remember that thou ( who hast been confirmed ) hast receiv'd the spiritual signature ; the spirit of wisdom and understanding , the spirit of council and strength , the spirit of knowledge and godliness , the spirit of holy fear , keep what thou hast receiv'd . The Father hath seal'd thee , and Christ thy Lord hath confirmed thee by his Divine Spirit ; and he will never depart from thee , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , unless by evil works we estrange him from us . The same advice is given by Prudentius . Cultor Dei memento , Te fontis & lavacri Rorem subiisse Sanctum Et Chrismate innotatum . * Remember how great things ye have received , and what God hath done for you ; ye are of his flock , and his Militia ; ye are now to fight his battles , and therefore to put on his armour , and to implore his auxiliaries , and to make use of his strengths , and alwayes to be on his side , against all his and all our Enemies . But he that desires grace , must not despise to make use of all the instruments of grace . For though God communicates his invisible spirit to you , yet that he is pleas'd to do it by visible instruments is more than he needs , but not more than we do need . And therefore since God descends to our infirmities , let us carefully and lovingly address our selves to his ordinances ; that as we receive remission of sins by the washing of water , and the body and blood of Christ by the ministery of consecrated Symbols , so we may receive the Holy Ghost sub Ducibus Christianae militiae , by the prayer and imposition of the Bishops hands , whom our Lord Jesus hath separated to this ministery . For if you corroborate your self by baptism ( they are the words of S. Gregory Nazianzen ) and then take heed for the future , by the most excellent and firmest aids consigning your mind and body with the Vnction from above ( viz. in the Holy Rite of Confirmation ) with the Holy Ghost , as the Children of Israel did with the aspersion on the door-posts in the night of the death of the first-born of Egypt , what ( evil ) shall happen to you ? Meaning that no evil can invade you : and what aid shall you get ? If you sit down , you shall be without fear , and if you rest , your sleep shall be sweet unto you . But if when ye have received the Holy spirit , you live not according to his Divine principles , you will lose him again ; that is , you will lose all the blessing , though the impression does still remain till ye turn quite Apostates , in pessimis hominibus manebit , licèt ad judicium ( saith S. Austin ) the Holy Ghost will remain either as a testimony of your Vnthankfulness unto condemnation , or else as a seal of grace , and an earnest of your inheritance of Eternal glory . FINIS . Books Printed at the Kings Printing-house , and are to be sold by Samuel Dancer Bookseller in Castle-street Dublin . DR . Jeremy Taylors ( Lord Bishop of Down and Connor ) three Sermons Preached at Christ-Church Dublin . viz. The Righteousness Evangelical described . The Christians Conquest over the body of Sin , and Faith working by Love. Octav. His Funeral Sermon at the Funeral of the Lord Primate . 40. This present Treatise of Confirmation . 40. There will shortly be published his Treatise against Popery , of the necessity of which no man can be ignorant . Dr. Lightburne's Sermon at Christ-Church on 23. of October . 40. A perfect Collection of Acts of the late Parliament , to be sold together or severally . fol. All sorts of Proclamations . Jacobi Waraei Equitis Annales Henrici Octavi . 80. The Lord Lieutenants Speech to the Parliament . The Church Catechisme at 1 d. for children . 80. Pompey , a Tragedy , often acted in the New Theatre in Dublin . and written by a Lady . 40. The Counter-scuffle . 80. Poems by several Persons of Quality and resined Wits . 40. The Seven Wise Masters . 80. The Acts of Custom and Excise with the Book of Rates to each of them annexed in a small Pocket Volumn for the use of Merchants and others . A Letter to a Person of Quality concerning the Traytor Leckey . 40. The Accidence . Sententiae Pueriles . 80. Acts of Parliament made XV. Caroli . fol. Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A63673-e170 a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . De miraculis . St. Benedict . l 1. c. 1. 14. Notes for div A63673-e1020 De divin . offic . l. 5. c. 17. * Vindic. Ecclesiast . hierarch . per Franc. Hallier . Cap. 9. de fide & operib . Notes for div A63673-e1620 De sacram . disp . 3. qu. Vnic . punct . 3. 2. Lib. 3. de sacram . * Joh. 2. 6. Cateches . 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Tract . 80. in Johan . S. Hilar. can . 4. in ●ine . In Matthaeum . Ibid. Homil. 4. John 3. 5. S. Clem. Ep. 4. Constit. Apost . Ad Stephanum . a Homil. in Dominic . prim . post . ascens . b Epist. 108. ad Seleucianum . c C l. c. 2● . John. 7. 39. Cap. 7. v. 39. a Qu. 9. ad Heditiam . b In Joan. tract . 22. Mark 16. 16. John 6. In offic . Sab. Pasch. post orat . quae dicitur Data confirm . De offic . divin . in Sabb. S. Pasche . Seneca . Acts 8. v. 14 , 15 , 16 , 17. Ad Jubaian . Epist. 1. c. 3. Adv. Luciferian . Hebr. 6. 1. 2. Symbol . Nicaen . & C. P. 2 Pet. 1. 9. In hunc locu● . Notes for div A63673-e5040 John 3. 5. Acts 2. 38 , 39. Ephes. 1. 13. * Acts 19. 6. Lib. 2. cap 57. 1 Cor. 12. 29. Acts 6. 8 ▪ 1 Cor. 12. 7. In Matthaeum . Tract . 6. in Canonicam . Johan . circa med . & lib. 3. contr . Donatist . 16. Marc. 16. 17. Notes for div A63673-e5930 A. D. 170. A. D. 200. De baptismo . c. 6. De resur . carn . cap. 8. Vbi supra de bapt . De Praescript . cap. 36. A. D. 250. Epist. 73. Epist. 70. & 73. A. D. 200. Apud Euseb. l. 3. c. 17. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . A. D. 210. De Eccles. Hier. c. 2. Et cap. 4. * Lib. 6. Hist. Eccles. c. 43. A. D. 260. Lib. 6. cap. 3. A. D. 320. A. D. 370. Adhort . ad S. lavacrum . In cap. 1. ad Ephes. Dial. adv . Lucifer . Homil 18. in Act. Lib. 3. de sacram . c. 2. In Hebr. 6. Lib. 3. contr . Novat . Can. 38. Can. 38. Habetur apud Gratian. de Consecrat . dist . 5. cap. jejun . Cap. 8. Cap. 17. Can. 7. Notes for div A63673-e7570 Homil. 18. in Acta . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Cap. 5. Eccles. Hier. In Hebr. 6. Qu. 44. in N. T. * Contr. Parmen . lib. 7. Epist. ad Episc. Hispan . Voluit Deus dona illa admiranda non contingere Baptizatis , nisi per manus Apostolorum , ut Authoritatem testibus suis conciliaret quam maximam ; quod ipsum simul ad retinendam Ecclesiae unitatem p●rtinebat . Grotius . Videtur ergo fuisse peculiare Apostolorum munus dare Spiritum s●nctum . Isidor . Clarius in 8. Actuum Apostolorum . * In Ephes. 4. De offic . Ecles . Cap. 27. 1 Qu. 1. cap. qui vult 1. & 2. Epist 2. de Episc . ordinante . 1 Qu. 2. C. in multis . Clement . de elect cap. in plerisque Qu. v. & N. T. Qu. 101. a Lib. 2. contr . liter . Petiliani . c. 104. Eccles. hier . cap 2. Can. 48. C. Hieron adv . Lucifer . ante med . Cap. 1. De instit . Cleric . l. 1. c. 30. Notes for div A63673-e9270 Hebr. 6. 2. Paedag. l. 3. c. 11. Hebr. 7. 7. Hooker . Eccl. Pol. lib. 5. ● . 66. Prudent . in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . A. D. 400. Catech. Mystag . 3. Synodus Bituricensis , apud Bochel . l. 1. decret . Eccl. Gal. lit . 5. Lib. de Spir. S. cap. 17. Notes for div A63673-e10030 Part. 3. qu. 72. art . 6. ad prim . Epist. 54. In opusc . art . de Confirmat . John 7. 38. Rom. 6. 17. V. 18. Serm de Pentecoste . Habetur ap●d Gratian. de consecrat . dist . 5. c. spiritus S. Tertull ad●●● . 〈…〉 . l. 1. ca● . c. 3. Homil. 18. in Acta . Comment . in Cantic . c. 1. 2. In adhort . ad baptis . Apud . Euseb. 1 Cor. 12. 7. 2 Cor. 1. 21. Lib. 4. de fide cap 10. Notes for div A63673-e11500 Cap. 4. part 3. De Eccles Hier . Melchiad . Epist. ad episc . Hispan . Ordo Rom. cap. de die Sabbathi . S. Pasch. Alcuin . De divin . offic . c. 19. Vide Cassandrum Schol. ad Hym. Eccl. De consecrat . dist . 5. c. ut jejuni . A. D. 967. Consultationis . cap. 9. Serm. 116. inramis Palmarum . De lib. Ecclesiast . c. 26. Luke 4. 32. Acts 13. 12. a Orat. de baptism . b In Psal. 68. De exterminat . Schism . Lib. 3. de bapt . c. 16. Lib. 3. haeret . Fabul . Cyril . Hieros . in Procatech . Apud Gratian. de consecrat . dist . 5. cap. Dictum est . & cap. De homine . Concil . Toletan . 8. can . 7. Hebr. 6. Zonar . in Can. Laodican . 48. * Innovatum . Orat. in Sanctum lavacrum . Lib. 2. contr . lit . Petil. c. 104. 
A63941	----	A funerall sermon preached at the obsequies of the Right Hon[oura]ble and most vertuous Lady, the Lady Frances, Countesse of Carbery who deceased October the 9th, 1650, at her house Golden-Grove in Carmarthen-shire / by Jer. Taylor ... Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. This text is an enriched version of the TCP digital transcription A63941 of text R11725 in the English Short Title Catalog (Wing T335). Textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. The text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with MorphAdorner. The annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). Textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. This text has not been fully proofread Approx. 69 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 21 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. EarlyPrint Project Evanston,IL, Notre Dame, IN, St. Louis, MO 2017 A63941 Wing T335 ESTC R11725 13574510 ocm 13574510 100406 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A63941) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 100406) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 804:2) A funerall sermon preached at the obsequies of the Right Hon[oura]ble and most vertuous Lady, the Lady Frances, Countesse of Carbery who deceased October the 9th, 1650, at her house Golden-Grove in Carmarthen-shire / by Jer. Taylor ... Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. [4], 36 p. Printed by J.F. for Royston ..., London : 1650. Reproduction of original in the Huntington Library. eng Carbery, Frances Vaughan, -- Countess of, 1621?-1650. Church of England -- Sermons. Funeral sermons. Sermons, English -- 17th century. A63941 R11725 (Wing T335). civilwar no A funerall sermon, preached at the obsequies of the right honble and most vertuous lady, the Lady Frances, Countesse of Carbery: who decease Taylor, Jeremy 1650 13740 5 15 0 0 0 0 15 C The rate of 15 defects per 10,000 words puts this text in the C category of texts with between 10 and 35 defects per 10,000 words. 2000-00 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2001-09 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2002-06 John Latta Sampled and proofread 2002-06 John Latta Text and markup reviewed and edited 2002-07 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A Funerall Sermon , PREACHED At the Obsequies of the Right Honble and most vertuous Lady , THE LADY FRANCES , Countesse of CARBERY : Who deceased October the 9th . 1650. at her House GOLDEN-GROVE in CARMARTHEN-SHIRE . By JER. TAYLOR , D. D. LONDON , Printed by I. F. for R. Royston at the Angel in Ivie-lane . M.DC.L . To the right Honorable , and truly Noble , Richard Lord Vaughan , Earle of Carbery , Baron of Emlim and Molinger , Knight of the Honorable Order of the Bath . My Lord , I Am not asham'd to professe that I pay this part of service to your Lordship most unwillingly : for it is a sad office to be the chief Minister in a house of mourning , and to present an interested person with a branch of Cypresse and a bottle of tears . And indeed , my Lord , it were more proportionable to your needs to bring something that might alleviate or divert your sorrow , then to dresse the hearse of your Dear Lady , and to furnish it with such circumstances , that it may dwell with you , and lie in your closet , and make your prayers and your retirements more sad and full of weepings . But because the Divine providence hath taken from you a person so excellent , a woman fit to converse with Angels , and Apostles , with Saints and Martyrs , give me leave to present you with her picture ; drawn in little and in water-colours , sullyed indeed with tears and the abrupt accents of a reall and consonant sorrow ; but drawn with a faithfull hand , and taken from the life : and indeed it were too great a losse , to be depriv'd of her example and of her rule , of the originall and the copie too . The age is very evil and deserv'd her not ; but because it is so evil , it hath the more need to have such lives preserv'd in memory to instruct our piety , or upbraid our wickednesse . For now that God hath cut this tree of paradise down from its seat of earth , yet so the dead trunk may support a part of the declining Temple , or at least serve to kindle the fire on the altar . My Lord , I pray God this heap of sorrow may swell your piety till it breaks into the greatest joyes of God and of religion : and remember , when you pay a tear upon the grave , or to the memory of your Lady ( that Deare and most excellent Soule ) that you pay two more : one of repentance for those things that may have caus'd this breach ; and another of joy for the mercies of God to your Dear departed Saint , that he hath taken her into a place where she can weep no more . My Lord , I think I shall , so long as I live , that is so long as I am Your Lordships most humble Servant TAYLOR . A Funerall Sermon , &c. 2 SAMUEL 14. 14. For we must needs die , and are as water spilt on the ground which cannot be gathered up again : neither doth God respect any person : yet doth he devise means that his banished be not expelled from him . WHen our blessed Saviour and his Disciples viewed the Temple , some one amongst them cried out , Magister aspice , quales lapides ! Master behold what faire , what great stones are here ! Christ made no other reply but foretold their dissolution and a world of sadness and sorrow which should bury that whole Nation when the teeming cloud of Gods displeasure should produce a storm which was the daughter of the biggest anger , and the mother of the greatest calamity which ever crush'd any of the sons of Adam . [ The time shall come , that there shall not be left one stone upon another . ] The whole Temple and the Religion , the ceremonies ordained by God , and the Nation beloved by God , and the fabrick erected for the service of God , shall run to their own period and lie down in their severall graves . Whatsoever had a beginning can also have an ending , and it shall die , unless it be daily watered with the purles flowing from the fountain of life , and refreshed with the dew of Heaven and the wells of God . And therefore God had provided a tree in Paradise to have supported Adam in his artificiall immortality : Immortality was not in his nature , but in the hands , and arts , in the favour and superadditions of God . Man was alwaies the same mixture of heat and cold , of dryness and moisture ; ever the same weak thing , apt to feel rebellion in the humors , and to suffer the evils of a civil warre in his body naturall : and therefore health and life was to descend upon him from Heaven , and he was to suck life from a tree on earth ; himself being but ingraffed into a tree of life , and adopted into the condition of an immortall nature : But he that in the best of his daies was but a Cien of this tree of life , by his sinne was cut off from thence quickly , and planted upon thorns , and his portion was for ever after among the flowers , which to day spring and look like health and beauty , and in the evening they are sick , and at night are dead , and the oven is their grave . And as before , even from our first spring from the dust of the earth , we might have died if we had not been preserved by the continuall flux of a rare providence ; so now that we are reduced to the laws of our own nature , we must needs die . It is naturall , and therefore necessary ; It is become a punishment to us , and therefore it is unavoidable , and God hath bound the evil upon us by bands of naturall and inseparable propriety , and by a supervening unalterable decree of Heaven : and we are fallen from our privilege , and are returned to the condition of beasts , and buildings , and common things : And we see Temples defiled unto the ground , and they die by Sacrilege : and great Empires die by their own plenty and ease , full humors , and factious Subjects : and huge buildings fall by their owne weight , and the violence of many winters eating and consuming the cement which is the marrow of their bones : and Princes die like the meanest of their Servants : and every thing finds a grave and a tombe ; and the very tomb it self dies by the bigness of its pompousness and luxury , — Phario nutantia pondera saxo Quae cineri vanus dat ruitura labor , and becomes as friable and uncombined dust as the ashes of the Sinner or the Saint that lay under it , and is now forgotten in his bed of darkness : And to this Catalogue of mortality Man is inrolled with a [ Statutum est ] It is appointed for all men once to die , and after death comes judgment ; and if a man can be stronger then nature , or can wrestle with a decree of Heaven , or can escape from a Divine punishment by his own arts , so that neither the power nor the providence of God , nor the laws of nature , nor the bands of eternall predestination can hold him , then he may live beyond the fate and period of flesh , and last longer then a flower : But if all these can hold us and tie us to conditions , then we must lay our heads down upon a turfe and entertain creeping things in the cells and little chambers of our eyes , and dwell with worms till time and death shall be no more . We must needs die ] That 's our sentence . But that 's not all . We are as water spilt on the ground , which cannot be gathered up again ] Stay . 1. We are as water , weak and of no consistence , alwaies descending , abiding in no certain place , unlesse where we are detained with violence : and every little breath of winde makes us rough and tempestuous , and troubles our faces : every trifling accident discomposes us ; and as the face of the waters wafting in a storm so wrinkles it self that it makes upon its forehead furrows deep , and hollow like a grave : so doe our great and little cares and trifles , first make the wrinkles of old age , and then they dig a grave for us : And there is in nature nothing so contemptible , but it may meet with us in such circumstances , that it may be too hard for us in our weaknesses : and the sting of a Bee is a weapon sharp enough to pierce the finger of a childe , or the lip of a man : and those creatures which nature hath left without weapons , yet they are arm'd sufficiently to vex those parts of men which are left defenselesse and obnoxious to a sun beame , to the roughness of a sowre grape to the unevenness of a gravel-stone , to the dust of a wheel , or the unwholsome breath of a starre looking awry upon a sinner . 2 But besides the weaknesses and naturall decayings of our bodies , if chances and contingencies be innumerable , then no man can reckon our dangers , and the praeternaturall causes of our deaths . So that he is a vain person whose hopes of life are too confidently increased by reason of his health : and he is too unreasonably timorous , who thinks his hopes at an end when he dwels in sicknesse . For men die without rule ; and with , and without occasions ; and no man suspecting or foreseeing any of deaths addresses , and no man in his whole condition is weaker then another . A man in a long Consumption is fallen under one of the solemnities and preparations to death : but at the same instant the most healthfull person is as neer death , upon a more fatall , and a more sudden , but a lesse discerned cause . There are but few persons upon whose foreheads every man can read the sentence of death written in the lines of a lingring sicknesse , but they ( sometimes ) hear the passing bell ring for stronger men , even long before their own knell cals at the house of their mother to open her womb and make a bed for them . No man is surer of tomorrow then the weakest of his brethren : and when Lepidus and Aufidius stumbled at the threshold of the Senate and fell down and dyed , the blow came from heaven in a cloud but it struck more suddenly then upon the poor slave that made sport upon the Theatre with a praemeditated and foredescribed death : Quod quisque vitet , nunquam homini satis cautum est in horas . There are sicknesses that walk in darknesse , and there are exterminating Angels that fly wrapt up in the curtains of immateriality and an uncommunicating nature ; whom we cannot see , but we feel their force , and sink under their sword , and from heaven the vail descends that wraps our heads in the fatall sentence . There is no age of man but it hath proper to it self some posterns and outlets for death , besides those infinite and open ports out of which myriads of men and women every day passe into the dark and the land of forgetfulnesse . Infancie hath life but in effigie , or like a spark dwelling in a pile of wood : the candle is so newly lighted , that every little shaking of the taper , and every ruder breath of air , puts it out , and it dies . Childhood is so tender , and yet so unwary ; so soft to all the impressions of chance , and yet so forward to run into them , that God knew there could be no security without the care and vigilance of an Angel-keeper : and the eies of Parents and the armes of Nurses , the provisions of art , and all the effects of Humane love and Providence are not sufficient to keep one child from horrid mischiefs , from strange and early calamities and deaths , unlesse a messenger be sent from heaven to stand sentinell , and watch the very playings and the sleepings , the eatings and the drinkings of the children ; and it is a long time before nature makes them capable of help : for there are many deaths , and very many diseases to which poor babes are exposed ; but they have but very few capacities of physick ; to shew , that infancy is as liable to death as old age , and equally exposed to danger , and equally uncapable of a remedy : with this onely difference , that old age hath diseases incurable by nature , and the diseases of childhood are incurable by art ; and both the states are the next heirs of death . 3 But all the middle way the case is altered . Nature is strong , and art is apt to give ease and remedy : but still , there is no security ; and there , the case is not altered . 1 For there are so many diseases in men that are not understood . 2 So many new ones every year . 3 The old ones are so changed in circumstance , and intermingled with so many collaterall complications . 4 The Symptoms are oftentimes so alike . 5 Sometimes so hidden and fallacious . 6 Sometimes none at all ( as in the most sudden and the most dangerous imposthumations . ) 7 And then , the diseases in the inward parts of the body , are oftentimes such , to which no application can be made . 8 They are so far off , that the effects of all medicines can no otherwise come to them , then the effect and juices of all meats , that is , not till after two or three alterations , and decoctions , which change the very species of the medicament . 9 And after all this , very many principles in the art of Physick are so uncertain , that after they have been believed seven or eight ages , and that upon them much of the practise hath been established ; they come to be considered by a witty man , and others established in their stead ; by which , men must practise , and by which three or four generations of men more ( as happens ) must live or die . 10 And all this while , the men are sick , and they take things that certainly make them sicker for the present , and very uncertainly restore health for the future : that it may appear of what a large extent is humane calamity ; when Gods providence hath not onely made it weak and miserable upon the certain stock of a various nature , and upon the accidents of an infinite contingency ; but even from the remedies which are appointed , our dangers and our troubles are certainly increased : so that we may well be likened to water ; our nature is no stronger , our abode no more certain ; If the sluces be opened , it falls away and runneth apace ; if its current be stopped ; it swels and grows troublesome , and spils over with a greater diffusion ; If it be made to stand stil it putrefies : and all this we doe . For 4. In all the processe of our health we are running to our grave : we open our own sluces by vitiousness and unworthy actions ; we powre in drink , and let out life ; we increase diseases and know not how to bear them ; we strangle our selves with our own intemperance ; we suffer the feavers and the inflammations of lust , and we quench our soules with drunkennesse ; we bury our understandings in loads of meat and surfets : and then we lie down upon our beds and roar with pain and disquietness of our soules : Nay , we kill one anothers souls and bodies with violence and folly , with the effects of pride and uncharitablenesse ; we live and die like fools , and bring a new mortality upon our selves ; wars and vexatious cares , and private duels , and publike disorders , and every thing that is unreasonable , and every thing that is violent : so that now we may adde this fourth gate to the grave : Besides Nature and Chance , and the mistakes of art , men die with their own sins , and then enter into the grave in haste and passion and pull the heavy stone of the monument upon their own heads . And thus we make our selves like water spilt on the ground : we throw away our lives as if they were unprofitable , ( and indeed most men make them so ) we let our years slip through our fingers like water ; and nothing is to be seen , but like a showr of tears upon a spot of ground ; there is a grave digged , and a solemn mourning and a great talk in the neigbourhood , and when the daies are finished , they shall be , and they shall be remembred , no more : And that 's like water too , when it is spilt , it cannot be gathered up again . There is no redemption from the grave . — inter se mortales mutua vivunt Et quasi cur sores vitäi lampada tradunt . Men live in their course and by turns : their light burns a while , and then it burns blew and faint , and men go to converse with Spirits , and then they reach the taper to another ; and as the hours of yesterday can never return again , so neither can the man whose hours they were , and who lived them over once , he shall never come to live them again , and live them better . When Lazarus , and the widows Son of Naim , and Tabitha , and the Saints that appeared in Jerusalem at the rusurrection of our blessed Lord , arose ; they came into this world , some as strangers onely to make a visit , and all of them to manifest a glory : but none came upon the stock of a new life , or entred upon the stage as at first , or to perform the course of a new nature : and therefore it is observable that we never read of any wicked person that was raised from the dead : Dives would fain have returned to his brothers house ; but neither he , nor any from him could be sent : but all the rest in the New Testament ( one onely excepted ) were expressed to have been holy persons , or else by their age were declared innocent . Lazarus was beloved of Christ : those souls that appeared at the resurrection were the souls of Saints : Tabitha raised by S Peter was a charitable and a holy Christian : and the maiden of twelve years old , raised by our blessed Saviour , had not entred into the regions of choice and sinfulnesse : and the onely exception of the widows son , is indeed none at all ; for in it the Scripture is wholly silent ; and therefore it is very probable that the same processe was used , God in all other instances having chosen to exemplifie his miracles of nature to purposes of the Spirit , and in spirituall capacities . So that although the Lord of nature did not break the bands of nature in some instances , to manifest his glory to succeeding , great and never failing purposes ; yet ( besides that this shall be no more ) it was also instanced in such persons who were holy and innocent , and within the verge and comprehensions of the eternall mercy . We never read that a wicked person felt such a miracle , or was raised from the grave to try the second time for a Crown ; but where he fell , there he lay down dead , and saw the light no more . This consideration I intend to you as a severe Monitor and an advice of carefulness , that you order your affairs so that you may be partakers of the first resurrection , that is , from sin to grace , from the death of vitious habits , to the vigour , life and efficacy of an habituall righteousnesse : For ( as it hapned to those persons in the New Testament now mentioned , to them ( I say ) in the literall sense ) Blessed are they that have part in the first resurrection , upon them the second death shall have no power : meaning that they who by the power of Christ and his holy Spirit were raised to life again , were holy and blessed souls , and such who were written in the book of God ; and that this grace happened to no wicked and vitious person : so it is most true in the spirituall and intended sense : You onely that serve God in a holy life ; you who are not dead in trespasses and sins ; you who serve God with an early diligence and an unwearied industry , and a holy religion , you and you onely shal come to life eternall , you onely shall be called from death to life ; the rest of mankind shall never live again but passe from death to death ; from one death to another , to a worse ; from the death of the body , to the eternall death of body and soul : and therefore in the Apostles Creed there is no mention made of the resurrection of wicked persons : but of the resurrection of the body to everlasting life . The wicked indeed shall be haled forth from their graves , from their everlasting prisons , where in chains of darknesse they are kept unto the judgement of the great day : But this therefore cannot be called in sensu favoris , a resurrection , but the solennities of the eternall death ; It is nothing but a new capacity of dying again ; such a dying as cannot signifie rest ; but where death means nothing but an intolerable and never ceasing calamity : and therefore these words of my text are otherwise to be understood of the wicked , otherwise of the godly : The wicked are spilt like water and shall never be gathered up again ; no not in the gatherings of eternity ; They shall be put into vessels of wrath and set upon on the flames of hell ; but that is not a gathering , but a scattering from the face and presence of God . But the godly also come under the sense of these words . They descend into their graves , and shall no more be reckoned among the living ; they have no concernment in all that is done under the sun . Agamemnon hath no more to do with the Turks armies invading and possessing that part of Greece where he reigned , then had the Hippocentaur , who never had a beeing : and Cicero hath no more interest in the present evils of Christendome , then we have to doe with his boasted discovery of Catilines conspiracie . What is it to me that Rome was taken by the Gaules ? and what is it now to Camillus if different religions be tolerated amongst us ? These things that now happen concern the living , and they are made the scenes of our duty or danger respectively : and when our wives are dead and sleep in charnel houses , they are not troubled when we laugh loudly at the songs sung at the next marriage feast ; nor do they envy when another snatches away the gleanings of their husbands passion . It is true they envy not , and they lie in a bosome where there can be no murmure , and they that are consigned to Kingdomes , and to the feast of the marriage supper of the Lamb , the glorious and eternall Bride-groom of holy souls , they cannot think our marriages here , our lighter laughings and vain rejoycings considerable as to them . And yet there is a relation continued stil . Aristotle said , that to affirm the dead take no thought for the good of the living is a disparagement to the laws of that friendship which in their state of separation they cannot be tempted to rescind . And the Church hath taught in generall that they pray for us , they recommend to God the state of all their Relatives , in the union of the intercession that our blessed Lord makes for them and us : and S. Ambrose gave some things in charge to his dying brother Satyrus , that he should do for him in the other world : he gave it him ( I say ) when he was dying , not when he was dead . And certain it is that though our dead friends affection to us is not to be estimated according to our low conceptions , yet it is not lesse , but much more then ever it was ; it is greater in degree , and of another kind . But then we should do well also to remember , that in this world we are something besides flesh and bloud ; that we may not without violent necessities run into new relations , but preserve the affections we bear to our dead when they were alive : We must not so live as if they were perished , but so as pressing forward to the most intimate participation of the communion of Saints . And we also have some waies to expresse this relation , and to bear a part in this communion , by actions of intercourse with them , and yet proper to our state : such as are strictly performing the will of the dead , providing for , and tenderly and wisely educating their children , paying their debts , imitating their good example , preserving their memories privately , and publikely keeping their memorials , and desiring of God with hearty and constant prayer that God would give them a joyfull resurrection , and a mercifull judgement , ( for so S. Paul prayed in behalf of Onesiphorus ) that God would shew them a mercy in that day , that fearfull , and yet much to be desired day , in which the most righteous person hath need of much mercy and pity , and shall find it . Now these instances of duty shew that the relation remains still ; and though the Relict of a man or woman hath liberty to contract new relations ; yet I doe not finde they have liberty to cast off the old ; as if there were no such thing as immortality of souls . Remember that we shall converse together again : let us therefore never doe any thing of reference to them which we shall be asham'd of in the day when all secrets shall be discovered , and that we shall meet again in the presence of God : In the mean time , God watcheth concerning all their interest , and he will in his time both discover and recompense . For though , as to us , they are like water spilt , yet , to God , they are as water fallen into the sea , safe and united in his comprehension , and inclosures . But we are not yet passed the consideration of the sentence : This descending to the grave is the lot of all men , [ neither doth God respect the person of any man ] The rich is not protected for favour , nor the poor for pity , the old man is not reverenced for his age , nor the infant regarded for his tenderness ; youth and beauty , learning and prudence , wit and strength lie down equally in the dishonours of the grave . All men , and all natures , and all persons resist the addresses and solennities of death , and strive to preserve a miserable and an unpleasant life ; and yet they all sink down and die . For so have I seen the pillars of a building assisted with artificiall props bending under the pressure of a roof , and pertinaciously resisting the infallible and prepared ruine , Donec certa dies omni compage solutâ Ipsum cum rebus subruat auxilium , till the determin'd day comes , and then the burden sunk upon the pillars , and disorder'd the aides and auxiliary rafters into a common ruine and a ruder grave : so are the desires and weak arts of man , with little aides and assistances of care and physick we strive to support our decaying bodies , and to put off the evil day ; but quickly that day will come , and then neither Angels nor men can rescue us from our grave ; but the roof sinks down upon the walls , and the walls descend to the foundation ; and the beauty of the face , and the dishonours of the belly , the discerning head and the servile feet , the thinking heart and the working hand , the eyes and the guts together shall be crush'd into the confusion of a heap , and dwell with creatures of an equivocall production , with worms and serpents , the sons and daughters of our own bones , in a house of durt and darkness . Let not us think to be excepted or deferred . If beauty , or wit , or youth , or Nobleness , or wealth , or vertue could have been a defence , and an excuse from the grave , we had not met here to day to mourn upon the hearse of an excellent Lady : and God only knows for which of us next the Mourners shall go about the streets or weep in houses . {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . We have liv'd so many years ; and every day and every minute we make an escape from those thousands of dangers and deaths that encompasse us round about : and such escapings we must reckon to be an extraordinary fortune , and therefore that it cannot last long . Vain are the thoughts of Man , who when he is young or healthfull , thinks he hath a long thread of life to run over , and that it is violent and strange for young persons to die ; and naturall and proper onely for the aged . It is as naturall for a man to die by drowning as by a feaver : And what greater violence or more unnaturall thing is it , that the horse threw his Rider into the river , then that a drunken meeting cast him into a feaver ; and the strengths of youth are as soon broken by the strong sicknesses of youth , and the stronger intemperance , as the weaknesse of old age by a cough , or an asthma , or a continuall rheume : Nay , it is more naturall for young Men and Women to die , then for old ; because that is more naturall which hath more naturall causes ; and that is more naturall which is most common : but to die with age is an extreme rare thing ; and there are more persons carried forth to buriall before the five and thirtieth year of their age , then after it . And therefore let no vain confidence make you hope for long life . If you have liv'd but little , and are still in youth , remember that now you are in your bigg'st throng of dangers both of body and soul ; and the proper sins of youth to which they rush infinitely and without consideration , are also the proper and immediate instruments of death . But if you be old you have escaped long and wonderfully , and the time of your escaping is out : you must not for ever think to live upon wonders , or that God will work miracles to satisfie your longing follies , and unreasonable desires of living longer to sin and to the world . Goe home and think to die , and what you would choose to be doing when you die , that doe daily : for you will all come to that passe , to rejoice that you did so , or wish that you had : that will be the condition of every one of us ; for God regardeth no mans person . Well! but all this you will think is but a sad story . What ? we must die , and go to darknesse and dishonour ; and we must die quickly , and we must quit all our delights , and all our sins , or doe worse , infinitely worse ; and this is the condition of us all from which none can be excepted ; every man shall be spilt and fall into the ground , and be gathered up no more . Is there no comfort after all this ? shall we go from hence , and be no more seen , and have no recompense ? Miser , ô miser , aiunt , omnia ademit Una die infausta mihi tot praemia vitae . Shall we exchange our fair dwellings for a coffin , our softer beds for the moistned and weeping turfe , and our pretty children for worms , and is there no allay to this huge calamity ? yes , there is . There is a [ yet ] in the text : [ For all this , yet doth God devise meanes that his banished be not expelled from him . ] All this sorrow & trouble is but a phantasme , and receives its account and degrees from our present conceptions and the proportion to our relishes and gust . When Pompey saw the Ghost of his first Lady Iulia who vexed his rest and his conscience for superinducing Cornelia upon her bed within the ten months of mourning , he presently fancied it , either to be an illusion , or else that death could be no very great evil , Aut nihil est sensus animis in morte relictum , Aut mors ipsa nihil — Either my dead wife knows not of my unhandsome marriage , and forgetfulnesse of her ; or if she does , then the dead live . — longae , canitis si cognita , vitae Mors media est — Death is nothing but the middle point between two lives between this and another : concerning which comfortable mystery the holy Scripture instructs our faith and entertains our hope in these words . God is still the God of Abraham , Isaak , and Iacob ; for all doe live to him : and the souls of Saints are with Christ : I desire to be dissolv'd saith S. Paul ) and to be with Christ , for that is much better : and , Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord ; they rest from their labours , and their works follow them : For we know , that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolv'd , we have a building of God , a house not made with hands , eternall in the heavens : and this state of separation S. Paul calls , a being absent from the body , and being present with the Lord : This is one of Gods means which he hath devised , that although our Dead are like persons banished from this world , yet they are not expelled from God : They are in the hands of Christ ; they are in his presence ; they are , or shall be clothed with a house of Gods making ; they rest from all their labours ; all tears are wiped from their eyes , and all discontents from their spirits ; and in the state of separation before the soul be reinvested with her new house , the spirits of all persons are with God , so secur'd and so blessed , and so sealed up for glory , that this state of intervall and imperfection is in respect of its certain event and end , infinitely more desirable then all the riches and all the pleasures , and all the vanities , and all the Kingdomes of this world . I will not venture to determine what are the circumstances of the abode of Holy Souls in their separate dwellings ; and yet possibly that might be easier then to tell what or how the soul is and works in this world , where it is in the body tanquam in alienâ demo , as in a prison , in fetters and restraints : for here the soul is discomposed and hindred , it is not as it shall be , as it ought to be , as it was intended to be ; it is not permitted to its own freedome , and proper operation ; so that all that we can understand of it here , is that it is so incommodated with a troubled and abated instrument , that the object we are to consider cannot be offered to us in a right line , in just and equall propositions ; or if it could , yet because we are to understand the soul by the soul , it becomes not onely a troubled and abused object , but a crooked instrument ; and we here can consider it , just as a weak eye can behold a staffe thrust into the waters of a troubled river ; the very water makes a refraction , and the storme doubles the refraction , and the water of the eye doubles the species , and there is nothing right in the thing , the object is out of its just place , and the medium is troubled , and the organ is impotent : At cum exierit & in liberum coelum quasi in domum suam venerit , when the soule is entred into her own house , into the free regions of the rest and the neighbourhood of heavenly joyes , then its operations are more spirituall , proper , and proportion'd to its being ; and though we cannot see at such a distance , yet the object is more fitted if we had a capable understanding ; it is in it self in a more excellent and free condition . Certain it is , that the body does hinder many actions of the soul : it is an imperfect body , and a diseased brain , or a violent passion that makes fools : no man hath a foolish soul ; and the reasonings of men have infinite difference and degrees by reason of the bodies constitution . Among beasts which have no reason , there is a greater likeness then between men , who have : and as by faces it is easier to know a man from a man , then a sparrow from a sparrow , or a squirrel from a squirrel : so the difference is very great in our souls ; which difference because it is not originally in the soul ( and indeed cannot be in simple and spirituall substances of the same species or kind ) it must needs derive wholly from the body , from its accidents & circumstances : from whence it follows , that because the body casts fetters and restraints , hindrances and impediments upon the soul , that the soul is much freer in the state of separation ; and if it hath any act of life , it is much more noble and expedite . That the soul is alive after our death , S. Paul affirms [ Christ died for us , that whether we wake or sleep , we should live together with him . ] Now it were strange that we should be alive , and live with Christ , and yet do no act of life : the body when it is asleep does many : and if the soul does none , the principle is less active then the instrument ; but if it does any act at all in separation , it must necessarily be an act or effect of understanding ; there is nothing else it can doe . But this it can . For it is but a weak and an unlearned proposition to say , That the Soule can doe nothing of it self , nothing without the phantasmes and provisions of the body . For 1. In this life the soule hath one principle clearly separate , abstracted and immateriall , I mean , the Spirit of grace , which is a principle of life and action , and in many instances does not at all communicate with matter , as in the infusion , superinduction and the creation of spiritual graces . 2. As nutrition , generation , eating and drinking are actions proper to the body and its state : so , extasies , visions , raptures , intuitive knowledge , and consideration of its self , acts of volition , and reflex acts of understanding are proper to the soule . 3. And therefore it is observable that S. Paul said that he knew not whether his vision ; and raptures were in or out of the body : for by that we see his judgment of the thing , that one was as likely as the other , neither of them impossible or unreasonable ; and therefore that the soule is as capable of action alone as in conjunction . 4 If in the state of blessedness there are some actions of the soule which doe not passe through the body , such as contemplation of God , and conversing with spirits , and receiving those influences and rare immissions which coming from the H. and mysterious Trinity make up the crown of glory ; it follows that the necessity of the bodies ministery is but during the state of this life , and as long as it converses with fire and water , and lives with corne and flesh , and is fed by the satisfaction of materiall appetites ; which necessity and manner of conversation when it ceases , it can be no longer necessary for the soul to be served by phantasmes and materiall representations . 5. And therefore when the body shall be re-united , it shall be so ordered that then the body shall confesse it gives not any thing , but receives all its being and operation , its manner and abode from the soul , and that then it comes not to serve a necessity , but to partake a glory . For as the operations of the soule in this life , begin in the body , and by it the object is transmitted to the soule : so then they shall begin in the soule and pass to the body ; and as the operations of the soule by reason of its dependence on the body are animall , naturall and materiall : so in the resurrection , the body shall be spirituall by reason of the preeminence , influence , and prime operation of the soule . Now between these two states , stands the state of separation , in which the operations of the soule are of a middle nature , that is , not so spirituall as in the resurrection , and not so animal and naturall as in the state of conjunction . To all which , I adde this consideration . That our soules have the same condition that Christs soule had in the state of separation ; because he took on him all our nature , and all our condition ; and it is certain , Christs soule in the three daies of his separation did exercise acts of life , of joy and triumph , and did not sleep , but visited the souls of the Fathers , trampled upon the pride of Devils , and satisfied those longing souls which were Prisoners of hope ; and from all this we may conclude that the souls of all the servants of Christ are alive , and therefore doe the actions of life , and proper to their state ; and therefore it is highly probable that the soul works clearer , and understands brighter , and discourses wiser , and rejoyces louder , and loves noblier , and desires purer , and hopes stronger then it can do here . But if these arguments should fail , yet the felicity of Gods Saints cannot fail . For suppose , the body to be a necessary instrument but out of tune , and discomposed by sin and anger , by accident and chance , by defect and imperfections , yet , that it is better then none at all ; and that if the soul works imperfectly with an imperfect body , that then she works not at all when she hath none ; and suppose also that the soul should be as much without sense or perception in death , as it is in a deep sleep which is the image and shadow of death ; yet then God devises other means that his banished be not expelled from him . For , 2 God will restore the soul to the body , and raise the body to such a perfection , that it shall be an Organ fit to praise him upon ; it shall be made spirituall to minister to the soul , when the soul is turned into a Spirit ; then the soul shall be brought forth by Angels from her incomparable and easie bed , from her rest in Christs Holy Bosome , and bee made perfect in her beeing , and in all her operations ; And this shall first appear by that perfection which the soul shall receive as instrumentall to the last judgement : for then she shall see clearly all the Records of this world , all the Register of her own memory . For all that we did in this life , is laid up in our memories : and though dust and forgetfulness be drawn upon them , yet when God shall lift us from our dust , then shall appear clearly all that we have done , written in the Tables of our conscience , which is the souls memory . We see many times , and in many instances , that a great memory is hindred and put out , and we thirty years after come to think of something that lay so long under a curtain ; we think of it suddenly and without a line of deduction , or proper consequence : And all those famous memories of Simonides and Theodectes , of Hortensius and Seneca , of Sceptius Metrodorus and Carneades , of Cyneas the Embassadour of Pyrrhus , are onely the Records better kept , and lesse disturbed by accident and disease . For even the memory of Herods son of Athens , of Bathyllus and the dullest person now alive is so great , and by God made so sure record of all that ever he did , that assoon as ever God shall but tune our instrument , and draw the curtains , and but light up the candle of immortality , there we shall find it all , there we shall see all , and all the world shall see all ; then we shall be made fit to converse with God after the manner of Spirits , we shall be like to Angels . In the mean time , although upon the perswasion of the former discourse it be highly probable that the souls of Gods servants do live in a state of present blessednesse ; and in the exceeding joyes of a certain expectation of the revelation of the day of the Lord , and the coming of Jesus ; yet it will concern us onely to secure our state by holy living , and leave the event to God ; that ( as S. Paul said ) whether present or absent , whether sleeping or waking , whether perceiving or perceiving not , we may be accepted of him : that when we are banished this world , and from the light of the sun , we may not be expelled from God , and from the light of his countenance , but that from our beds of sorrows , our may passe into the bosome of Christ , and from thence to his right hand in the day of sentence : For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ , and then if we have done well in the body , we shall never be expelled from the beatificall presence of God , but be domesticks of his family , and heires of his Kingdome , and partakers of his glory . Amen . I Have now done with my Text , but yet am to make you another Sermon . I have told you the necessity and the state of death ; it may be too largely for such a sad story ; I shall therefore now with a better compendium teach you how to live by telling you a plain narrative of a life , which if you imitate and write after the copy , it will make , that death shall not be an evill , but a thing to be desired , and to be reckoned amongst the purchases and advantages of your fortune . When Martha and Mary went to weep over the grave of their brother , Christ met them there and preached a Funerall Sermon , discoursing of the resurrection , and applying to the purposes of faith , and confession of Christ , and glorification of God : We have no other , we can have no better precedent to follow : and now that we are come to weep over the grave of our Dear Sister , this rare personage , we cannot chuse but have many virtues to learn , many to imitate , and some to exercise . I chose , not to declare her extraction and genealogy . It was indeed fair and Honourable ; but having the blessing to be descended from worthy and Honoured Ancestors , and her self to be adopted and ingraffed into a more Noble family , yet she felt such outward appendages to be none of hers , because not of her choice , but the purchase of the virtues of others , which although though they did ingage her to do noble things , yet they would upbraid all degenerate and lesse honourable lives then were those which began and increased the honour of the families . She did not love her fortune for making her noble ; but thought it would be a dishonour to her if she did not continue a Noblenesse and excellency of virtue fit to be owned by persons relating to such Ancestors . It is fit for all us to honour the Noblenesse of a family : but it is also fit for them that are Noble to despise it , and to establish their honour upon the foundation of doing excellent things , and suffering in good causes , and despising dishonourable actions , and in communicating good things to others . For this is the rule in Nature : Those creatures are most Honourable which have the greatest power , and do the greatest good : And accordingly my self have been a witnesse of it , how this excellent Lady would by an act of humility , and Christian abstraction strip her self of all that fair appendage of exteriour honour which decked her person and her fortune ; and desired to be owned by nothing but what was her own , that she might onely be esteemed Honourable according to that which is the honour of a Christian , and a wise person . 2 She had a strict and severe education , and it was one of Gods graces and favours to her . For being the Heiresse of a great fortune , and living amongst the throng of persons in the sight of vanities and empty temptations , that is , in that part of the Kingdome where greatnesse is too often expressed in great follies , and great vices , God had provided a severe and angry education to chastise the forwardnesses of a young spirit , and a fair fortune ; that she might for ever be so far distant from a vice , that she might onely see it and loath it , but never tast of it , so much as to be put to her choice whether she would be virtuous or no . God intending to secure this soul to himself , would not suffer the follies of the world to seize upon her by way of too neer a triall , or busie temptation . 3 She was married young ; and besides her businesses of religion seemed to be ordained in the providence of God to bring to this Honourable family a part of a fair fortune , and to leave behind her a fairer issue , worth ten thousand times her portion : and as if this had been all the publike businesse of her life ; when she had so far served Gods ends , God in mercy would also serve hers , and take her to an early blessednesse . 4 In passing through which line of providence , she had the art to secure her eternall interest , by turning her condition into duty , and expressing her duty in the greatest eminency of a virtuous , prudent and rare affection , that hath been known in any example . I will not give her so low a testimony , as to say onely , that she was chast ; She was a person of that severity , modesty , and close religion ( as to that particular ) that she was not capable of uncivill temptation ; and you might as well have suspected the sun to smell of the poppy that he looks on , as that she could have been a person apt to be sullyed by the breath of a foul question . 5. But that which I shall note in her , is that which I would have exemplar to all Ladies , and to all women . She had a love so great for her Lord , so intirely given up to a dear affection , that she thought the same things , and loved the same loves , and hated according to the same enmities , and breathed in his soul , and lived in his presence , and languished in his absence : and all that she was or did , was onely for and to her Dearest Lord , Si gaudet , si flet , si tacet , hunc loquitur . Coenat , propinat , poscit , negat , innuit , unu ; Naevius est : — and although this was a great enamell to the beauty of her soul , yet it might in some degrees be also a reward to the virtue of her Lord : For she would often discourse it to them that conversed with her ; that he would improve that interest which he had in her affection to the advantages of God , and of religion : and she would delight to say , that he called her to her devotions , he incouraged her good inclinations , he directed her piety , he invited her with good books : and then she loved religion , which she saw was not onely pleasing to God , and an act or state of duty , but pleasing to her Lord , and an act also of affection and conjugall obedience : and what at first she loved the more forwardly for his sake ; in the using of religion left such relishes upon her spirit , that she found in it amability enough , to make her love it for its own . So God usually brings us to him by instruments of nature and affections , and then incorporates us into his inheritance , by the more immediate relishes of Heaven , and the secret things of the Spirit . He onely was ( under God ) the light of her eies , and the cordiall of her spirits , and the guide of her actions , and the measure of her affections , till her affections swelled up into a religion , and then it could go no higher , but was confederate with those other duties which made her dear to God . Which rare combination of duty and religion , I choose to express in the words of Solomon : She forsook not the guide of her youth , nor brake the Covenant of her God . 6 As she was a rare wife : so she was an excellent Mother . For in so tender a constitution of spirit as hers was , and in so great a kindness towards her children , there hath seldome been seen a stricter and more curious care of their persons , their deportment , their nature , their disposition , their learning , and their customes : And if ever kindness and care did contest , and make parties in her , yet her care and her severity was ever victorious ; and she knew not how to doe an ill turn to their severer part , by her more tender and forward kindnesse . And as her custome was , she turned this also into love to her Lord . For she was not onely diligent to have them bred nobly and religiously , but also was carefull and sollicitous , that they should be taught to observe all the circumstances and inclinations , the desires and wishes of their Father ; as thinking , that virtue to have no good circumstances which was not dressed by his copy , and ruled by his lines , and his affections : And her prudence in the managing her children was so singular and rare , that when ever you mean to blesse this family , and pray a hearty and a profitable prayer for it , beg of God , that the children may have those excellent things which she designed to them , and provided for them in her heart and wishes , that they may live by her purposes , and may grow thither , whither she would fain have brought them . All these were great parts of an excellent religion as they concerned her greatest temporall relations . 7 But if we examine how she demeaned her self towards God , there also you will find her , not of a common , but of an exemplar piety . She was a great reader of Scripture , confining herself to great portions every day ; which she read , not to the purposes of vanity , and impertinent curiosities , not to seem knowing , or to become talking , not to expound and Rule ; but to teach her all her duty , to instruct her in the knowledge and love of God and of her Neighbours ; to make her more humble , and to teach her to despise the world , and all its gilded vanities ; and that she might entertain passions wholly in design and order to heaven . I have seen a female religion that wholly dwelt upon the face and tongue ; that like a wanton and an undressed tree spends all its juice in suckers and irregular branches , in leafs and gumme , and after all such goodly outsides you should never eat an apple , or be delighted with the beauties , or the perfumes of a hopefull blossome . But the religion of this excellent Lady was of another constitution ; It took root downward in humility , and brought forth fruit upward in the substantiall graces of a Christian , in charity and justice , in chastity and modesty , in fair friendships and sweetnesse of society : She had not very much of the forms and outsides of godlinesse ; but she was hugely carefull for the power of it , for the morall , essentiall , and usefull parts ; such which would make her be , not seem to be religious . 8 She was a very constant person at her prayers , and spent all her time which Nature did permit to her choice , in her devotions , and reading and meditating and the necessary offices of houshold government , every one of which is an action of religion , some by nature , some by adoption . To these also God gave her a very great love to hear the word of God preached ; in which because I had sometimes the honour to minister to her , I can give this certain testimony , that she was a diligent , watchfull and attentive hearer : and to this had so excellent a judgement , that if ever I saw a woman whose judgement was to be revered , it was hers alone : and I have sometimes thought that the eminency of her discerning faculties did reward a pious discourse , & placed it in the regions of honour and usefulnesse , and gathered it up from the ground , where commonly such homilies are spilt , or scattered in neglect and inconsideration . But her appetite was not soon satisfied with what was usefull to her soul : she was also a constant Reader of Sermons , and seldome missed to read one every day ; and that she might be full of instruction and holy principles , she had lately designed to have a large Book in which she purposed to have a stock of Religion transcrib'd in such assistances as she would chuse , that she might be readily furnished and instructed to every good work . But God prevented that , and hath filled her desires not out of cisterns and little aquaeducts , but hath carried her to the fountain , where she drinks of the pleasures of the river , and is full of God . 9. She alwaies liv'd a life of much Innocence , free from the violences of great sins : her person , her breeding , her modesty , her honour , her religion her early marriage , the Guide of her soul & the Guide of her youth , were as so many fountains of restraining grace to her , to keep her from the dishonors of a crime . Bonum est portare jugū ab adolescentiâ : it is good to bear the yoke of the Lord from our youth ; and though she did so , being guarded by a mighty providence , and a great favour & grace of God from staining her fail soul with the spots of hell , yet she had strange fears & early cares upon her ; but these were not only for her self , but in order to others , to her neer'st Relatives . For she was so great a lover of this Honorable family of which now she was a Mother , that she desired to become a chanel of great blessings to it unto future ages , and was extremely jealous lest any thing should be done , or lest any thing had been done , though an age or two since , which should intail a curse upon the innocent posterity ; and therefore ( although I doe not know that ever she was tempted with an offer of the crime ) yet she did infinitely remove all sacrilege from her thoughts , and delighted to see her estate of a clear and disintangled interest : she would have no mingled rights with it ; she would not receive any thing from the Church , but religion and a blessing : and she never thought a curse and a sin farre enough off , but would desire it to be infinitely distant ; and that as to this family God had given much honour and a wise head to Govern it , so he would also for ever give many more blessings ; And because she knew that the sins of Parents descend upon Children , she endevoured by justice and religion , by charity and honour to secure that her chanel should convey nothing but health , and a faire example and a blessing . 10. And though her accounts to God was made up of nothing but small parcels , little passions , and angry words , and trifling discontents , which are the allayes of the piety of the most holy persons , yet she was early at her repentance ; and toward the latter end of her daies , grew so fast in religion as if she had had a revelation of her approaching end ; and therefore that she must go a great way in a little time : her discourses more full of religion , her prayers more frequent , her charity increasing , her forgiveness more forward , her friendships more communicative , her passion more under discipline , and so she trimm'd her lamp , not thinking her night was so neer , but that it might shine also in the day time , in the Temple , and before the Altar of incense . But in this course of hers there were some circumstances , and some appendages of substance , which were highly remarkable . 1. In all her Religion , and in all her actions of relation towards God , she had a strange evenness and untroubled passage , sliding toward her ocean of God and of infinity with a certain and silent motion . So have I seen a river deep and smooth passing with a still foot and a sober face , and paying to the Fiscus , the great Exchequer of the Sea , the Prince of all the watry bodies , a tribute large and full : and hard by it a little brook skipping and making a noise upon its unequall and neighbour bottom ; and after all its talking and bragged motion , it payd to its common Audit no more then the revenues of a little cloud , or a contemptible vessel : So have I sometimes compar'd the issues of her religion to the solemnities and fam'd outsides of anothers piety . It dwelt upon her spirit , and was incorporated with the periodicall work of every day : she did not believe that religion was intended to minister to fame and reputation , but to pardon of sins , to the pleasure of God , and the salvation of souls . For religion is like the breath of Heaven ; if it goes abroad into the open aire , it scatters and dissolves like camphyre : but if it enters into a secret hollownesse , into a close conveyance , it is strong and mighty , and comes forth with vigour and great effect at the other end , at the other side of this life , in the daies of death and judgment . 2. The other appendage of her religion , which also was a great ornament to all the parts of her life , was a rare modesty and humility of spirit , a confident despising and undervaluing of her self . For though she had the greatest judgment , and the greatest experience of things and persons that I ever yet knew in a person of her youth , and sex , and circumstances ; yet as if she knew nothing of it she had the meanest opinion of her self ; and like a fair taper when she shin'd to all the room , yet round about her own station she had cast a shadow and a cloud , and she shin'd to every body but her self . But the perfectnesse of her prudence and excellent parts could not be hid ; and all her humility , and arts of concealment , made the vertues more amiable and illustrious . For as pride sullies the beauty of the fairest vertues , and makes our understanding but like the craft and learning of a Devil : so humility is the greatest eminency , and art of publication in the whole world ; and she in all her arts of secrecy and hiding her worthy things , was but like one that hideth the winde , and covers the oyntment of her right hand . I know not by what instrument it hapned ; but when death drew neer , before it made any show upon her body , or reveal'd it self by a naturall signification , it was conveyed to her spirit : she had a strange secret perswasion that the bringing this Childe should be her last scene of life : and we have known , that the soul when she is about to disrobe her self of her upper garment , sometimes speaks rarely , Magnifica verba mors propè admo●a excutit ; sometimes it is Propheticall ; sometimes God by a superinduced perswasion wrought by instruments , or accidents of his own , serves the ends of his own providence and the salvation of the soul : But so it was , that the thought of death dwelt long with her , and grew from the first steps of fancy and feare , to a consent , from thence to a strange credulity , and expectation of it ; and without the violence of sicknesse she died , as if she had done it voluntarily , and by design , and for feare her expectation should have been deceiv'd , or that she should seem to have had an unreasonable feare , or apprehension ; or rather ( as one said of Cato ) sic abiit è vitâ ut causam moriendi nactam se esse gauderet , she died , as if she had been glad of the opportunity . And in this I cannot but adore the providence and admire the wisdome and infinite mercies of God . For having a tender and soft , a delicate and fine constitution and breeding , she was tender to pain , and apprehensive of it , as a childs shoulder is of a load and burden : Grave est tenerae cervici jugum ; and in her often discourses of death , which she would renew willingly and frequently , she would tell , that she fear'd not death , but she fear'd the sharp pains of death : Emori nolo , me esse mortuam non curo : The being dead , and being freed from the troubles and dangers of this world , she hop'd would be for her advantage ; and therefore that was no part of her feare : But she believing the pangs of death were great , and the use and aids of reason little , had reason to fear lest they should doe violence to her spirit and the decency of her resolution . But God that knew her fears and her jealousie concerning her self , fitted her with a death so easie , so harmlesse , so painlesse , that it did not put her patience to a severe triall . It was not ( in all appearance ) of so much trouble , as two sits of a common ague ; so carefull was God to remonstrate to all that stood in that sad attendance , that this soule was dear to him : and that since she had done so much of her duty towards it , he that began , would also finish her redemption , by an act of a rare providence , and a singular mercy . Blessed be that goodness of God , who does so carefull actions of mercy for the ease and security of his servants . But this one instance was a great demonstration that the apprehension of death is worse then the pains of death : and that God loves to reprove the unreasonablenesse of our feares , by the mightinesse , and by the arts of his mercy . She had in her sickness ( if I may so call it , or rather in the solemnities , and graver preparations towards death ) some curious and well-becoming feares , concerning the finall state of her soul . But from thence she pass'd into a deliquium , or a kinde of trance , and as soon as she came forth of it , as if it had been a vision , or that she had convers'd with an Angel , and from his hand had receiv'd a labell or scroll of the book of life , and there seen her name enrolled , she cried out aloud , [ Glory be to God on high : Now I am sure I shall be saved . ] Concerning which manner of discoursing we are wholly ignorant what judgment can be made : but certainly there are strange things in the other world ; and so there are in all the immediate preparations to it ; and a little glimps of heaven , a minutes conversing with an Angel , any ray of God , any communication extraordinary from the Spirit of comfort which God gives to his servants in strange and unknown manners , are infinitely far from illusions ; and they shall then be understood by us , when we feel them , and when our new and strange needs shall be refreshed by such unusuall visitations . But I must be forced to use summaries and arts of abbreviature in the enumerating those things in which this rare Personage was dear to God & to all her Relatives . If we consider her Person , she was in the flower of her age , Iucundum cum aetas slorida ver ageret ; of a temperate , plain and naturall diet , without curiosity or an intemperate palate ; she spent lesse time in dressing , then many servants ; her recreations were little & seldom , her prayers often , her reading much : she was of a most noble and charitable soul ; a great lover of honourable actions , and as great a despiser of base things ; hugely loving to oblige others , and very unwilling to be in arrear to any upon the stock of courtesies and liberality ; so free in all acts of favour , that she would not stay to hear her self thank'd , as being unwilling that what good went from her to a needfull or an obliged person should ever return to her again ; she was an excellent friend , and hugely dear to very many , especially to the best and most discerning persons , to all that convers'd with her , and could understand her great worth and sweetnesse : she was of an Honourable , a nice and tender reputation ; and of the pleasures of this world which were laid before her in heaps she took a very small and inconsiderable share , as not loving to glut her self with vanity , or to take her portion of good things here below . If we look on her as a Wife , she was chast and loving , fruitfull and discreet , humble and pleasant , witty and complyant , rich and fair , and wanted nothing to the making her a principall and a precedent to the Wives of the world , but a long life , and a full age . If we remember her as a Mother , she was kinde and severe , carefull and prudent , very tender , and not at all fond , a greater lover of her Childrens soules , then of their bodies , and one that would value them more by the strict rules of honour and proper worth , then by their relation to her self . Her Servants found her prudent , and fit to Govern , and yet open-handed and apt to reward ; a just Exactor of their duty and a great Rewarder of their diligence . She was in her house a comfort to her dearest Lord , a Guide to her Children , a Rule to her Servants , an example to all . But as she related to God in the offices of Religion , she was even and constant , silent and devout , prudent and materiall : she lov'd what she now enjoyes , and she fear'd , what she never felt , and God did for her what she never did expect . Her fears went beyond all her evil ; and yet the good which she hath receiv'd was , and is , and ever shall be beyond all her hopes . She liv'd as we all should live , and she died as I fai● would die — Et cum supremos Lachesis perneverit annos , Non aliter cineres mando jacere meos . I pray God I may feel those mercies on my death-bed that she felt , and that I may feel the same effect of my repentance which she feels of the many degrees of he● innocence . Such was her death that she did not die too soon ; and her life was so usefull and so excellent that she could not have liv'd too long . Nemo parum diu vixit qu● virtutis perfectae perfecto functus est munere : and as now in the grave it shall not be inquired concerning her , how long she liv'd , but how well ? so to us who live after her to suffer a longer calamity , it may be some ease to our sorrows , and some guide to our lives , and some security to our conditions , to consider that God hath brought the piety of a yong Lady to the early rewards of a never ceasing , and never dying eternity of glory . And we also , if we live as she did , shal partake of the same glories ; not only having the honour of a good name and a dear and honour'd memory , but the glories of these glories , the end of all excellent labours , and all prudent counsels and all holy religion , even the salvation of our souls in that day , when all the Saints , and amongst them this excellent Woman shall be shown to all the world to have done more , and more excellent things then we know of or can describe . Mors illos consecrat , quorum exitum & qu● timent , laudant : Death consecrates and makes sacred that person whose excellency was such , that they that are not displeased at the death , cannot dispraise the life ; but they that mourn sadly , think they can never commend sufficiently . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A63941e-300 a 2 Tim. 1.18 . {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . Eccle 1 Cor. 15. 18. 1 Thess. 4. 16. Rev. 14.13 John 5.24 . 2 Cor. 5. 8. & 6. 1 Thes. 5.10 . Prov. 2. 17. 
A63778	----	A discovrse of baptisme its institution and efficacy upon all beleevers : together with a consideration of the practice of the church in baptizing infants of beleeving parents and the practice justified / by Jer. Taylor. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. This text is an enriched version of the TCP digital transcription A63778 of text R27533 in the English Short Title Catalog (Wing T316). Textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. The text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with MorphAdorner. The annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). Textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. This text has not been fully proofread Approx. 157 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 33 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. EarlyPrint Project Evanston,IL, Notre Dame, IN, St. Louis, MO 2017 A63778 Wing T316 ESTC R27533 09929015 ocm 09929015 44363 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A63778) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 44363) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1369:4) A discovrse of baptisme its institution and efficacy upon all beleevers : together with a consideration of the practice of the church in baptizing infants of beleeving parents and the practice justified / by Jer. Taylor. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. [2], 60 p. Printed by J. Flesher for R. Royston, London : 1653. Reproduction of original in the Trinity College Library, Cambridge University. With: Treatises of 1. the liberty of prophesying ... / Jer. Taylor. London : Printed for R. Royston, 1650. eng Infant baptism. Baptism -- Church of England. A63778 R27533 (Wing T316). civilwar no A discourse of baptisme, its institution, and efficacy upon all beleevers. Together with a consideration of the practise of the church in ba Taylor, Jeremy 1653 30129 2 335 0 0 0 0 112 F The rate of 112 defects per 10,000 words puts this text in the F category of texts with 100 or more defects per 10,000 words. 2005-02 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-02 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-04 John Latta Sampled and proofread 2005-04 John Latta Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A DISCOVRSE OF Baptisme , ITS INSTITUTION , and Efficacy upon all Beleevers . Together with A CONSIDERATION of the Practise of the CHURCH IN BAPTIZING INFANTS of BELEEVING PARENTS : And the Practise justified . By JER : TAYLOR D. D. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . Suffer little children to come unto me , and forbid them not , &c. LONDON , Printed by J. Flesher for R. Royston , at the Angel in Ivy-Lane . MDCLIII . To the Reader . BEe pleased to take notice , That this Discourse was not intended by the Author to have been sent abroad thus by it self , but was fitted by him to the ayr and mode of other Discourses , wherewith he had designed it to be joyned . But some persons of judgement , to whose perusal it was committed , supposing that if this should be kept in till those other could be finished , some disadvantage might arise to the cause which it asserts , wished and advised it might be published by it self . To whose desires the Author ( against his first design ) hath condescended , upon this perswasion , That though it appears thus without some formalities and complements requisite to an intire Treatise , yet , as to the thing it self , there is nothing wanting to it which he believed material to the Question , or useful to the Church . And as for those Arguments which in The Liberty of Prophecying , Sect. 18. are alledged against Paedobaptism , and in the opinion of some , doe seem to stand in need of answering , he had it once in thought to have answered them : but upon these considerations he forbore , 1. Because those Arguments are not good in themselves , or to the Question precisely considered : but onely by relation to the preceding Arguments there brought for Paedobaptim , they may seem good one against another , but these in the Plea for the Anababaptists , have no strength , but what is accidental ( as he conceives . ) 2. Because in this Discourse he hath really laid-such grounds , and proved them , that upon their supposition all those Arguments in The Liberty of Prophecying , and all other which he ever heard of , will fall of themselves . 3. Because those Arguments , to his sense , are so weak , and so relying upon failing and deceitful Principles , that he was loath to do them so much reputation , as to account them worthy the answering . 4. But because there may he some necessities which he knows not of , and are better observed by them who live in the midst of them , then by himself , who is thrust into a Retirement in Wales , therefore he accounts himself at rest in this particular , because he hath understood that his very worthy friend Dr. H. Hammond hath in his charity and humility descended to answer that Collection ; and hopes , that both their hands being so fast clasped in a mutual complication , will doe some help and assistance to this Question , by which the Ark of the Church is so violently shaken . A DISCOURSE Of BAPTISM . WHen the holy Jesus was to begin his Prophetical Office , and to lay the foundation of his Church on the Corner-stone , he first temper'd the Cement with water , and then with blood , and afterwards built it up by the hands of the Spirit ; Himself enter'd at that door by which his disciples for ever after were to follow him ; for therefore he went in at the door of Baptism , that he might hallow the entrance which himself made to the House he was no building . As it was in the old , so it is in the new Creation ; out of the waters God produced every living creature : and when at first the Spirit moved upon the waters , and gave life , it was the type of what was designed in the Renovation . Every thing that lives now , is born of Water and the Spirit ; and Christ , who is our Creator and Redeemer in the new birth , opened the fountains and hallowed the stream : Christ who is our life went down into the waters of Baptism , and we who descend thither finde the effects of life ; it is living water , of which who so drinks , needs not to drink of it again , for it shall be in him a Well of water springing up to life eternall . But because everything is resolved into the same principles from whence they are taken , the old world which by the power of God came from the waters , by their own sin fell into the waters again , and were all-drowned , and onely eight persons were saved by an Ark : and the world renewed upon the stock and reserves of that mercy , consigned the Sacrament of Baptism in another figure ; for then God gave his sign from Heaven , that by water the world should never again perish : but he meant that they should be saved by water : for Baptism , which is a figure like to this doth also now save us by the resurrection of Jesus Christ . After this , the Jews report that the world took up the doctrine of Baptisms , in remembrance that the iniquity of the old world was purged by water ; and they washed all that came to the service of the true God , and by that Baptisme bound them to the observation of the Precepts which God gave to Noah . But when God separated a family for his own especial service , he gave them a Sacrament of initiation , but it was a Sacrament of blood , the Covenant of Circumcision : and this was the fore-runner of Baptism , but not a type ; when that was abrogated , this came into the place of it , and that consigned the same faith which this professes : but it could not properly be a type , whose nature is by a likeness of matter or ceremony to represent the same mystery . Neither is a Ceremony , as Baptism truly is , properly capable of having a type , it selfe is but a type of a greater mysteriousness : and the nature of types is , in shadow to describe by dark lines a future substance ; so that although Circumcision might be a type of the effects and graces bestowed in Baptism , yet of the Baptism or absolution it selfe , it cannot be properly ; because of the unlikeness of the symboles and configurations , and because they are both equally distant from substances , which types are to consign and represent . The first Bishops of Ierusalem , and all the Christian Jews for many years retained Circumcision together with Baptism ; and Christ himselfe , who was circumcised , was also baptized ; and therefore it is not so proper to call Circumcision a type of Baptism : it was rather a seal and sign of the same Covenant to Abraham and the Fathers , and to all Israel , as Baptism is to all ages of the Christian Church . And because this Rite could not be administred to all persons , and was not at all times after its institution , God was pleased by a proper and specifick type to consign this Rite of Baptism , which he intended to all , and that for ever : and God , when the family of his Church grew separate , notorious , numerous and distinct , he sent them into their own Countrey by a Baptism through which the whole Nation pass'd : for all the fathers were under the Cloud , and all passed through the Sea , and were all baptized unto Moses in the Cloud , and in the Sea ; so by a double figure foretelling , That as they were initiated to Moses Law by the Cloud above and the Sea beneath : so should all the persons of the Church , Men , Women and Children , be initiated unto Christ by the Spirit from above and the Water below : for it was the design of the Apostle in that discourse , to represent that the Fathers and we were equall as to the priviledges of the Covenant ; he proved that we doe not exceed them , and it ought therefore to be certain that they doe not exceed us , nor their children ours . But after this , something was to remain which might not only consign the Covenant which God made with Abraham , but be as a passage from the Fathers through the Synagogue to the Church ; from Abraham by Moses to Christ : and that was Circumcision , which was a Rite which God chose to be a mark to the posterity of Abraham , to distinguish them from the Nations which were not within the Covenant of Grace , and to be a seal of the righteousnesse of faith , which God made to be the spirit and life of the Covenant . But because Circumcision although it was ministred to all the males , yet it was not to the females ; and although they and all the Nation was baptized and initiated into Moses in the Cloud and the Sea , therefore the Children of Israel by imitation of the Patriarchs the posterity of Noah , used also Ceremonial Baptisms to their women and to their Proselytes , and to all that were circumcised ; and the Jews deliver , that Sarah and Rebecca when the were adopted into the family of the Church , that is , of Abraham and Isaac , were baptized : and so were all strangers that were married to the sons of Israel . And that we may think this to be typical of Christian Baptism , the Doctors of the Jews had a Tradition , that when the Messias would come , there should be so many Proselytes that they could not be circumcised , but should be baptized . The Tradition proved true , but not for their reason . But that this Rite of admitting into mysteries , and institutions , and offices of religion by Baptisms , was used by the posterity of Noah , or at least very early among the Jews , besides the testimonies of their own Doctors , I am the rather induced to believe , because the Heathen had the same Rite in many places and in several Religions : so they initiated disciples into the secrets of a Mithra ; and the Priests of Cotyttus were called b Baptae , because by Baptism they were admitted into the Religion ; and they c thought Murther , Incest , Rapes , and the worst or Crimes , were purged by dipping in the Sea , or fresh Springs ; and a Proselyte is called in Arrianus , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , intinctus , a baptized person . But this Ceremony of baptizing was so certain and usual among the Jews , in their admitting Proselytes and adopting into institutions , that to baptize and to make disciples are all one ; and when Iohn the Baptist by an order from Heaven went to prepare the way to the Coming of our blessed Lord he preached Repentance , and baptized all that professed they did repent . He taught the Jews to live good lives , and baptized with the Baptism of a Prophet , such as was not unusually done by extraordinary and holy persons in the change or renewing of Discipline or Religion . Whether Iohn's Baptism was from heaven , or of men , Christ asked the Pharisees . That it was from Heaven , the people therefore believed , because he was a Prophet , and a holy person : but it implyes also , That such Baptisms are sometimes from men , that is , used by persons of an eminent Religion , or extraordinary fame for the gathering of Disciples and admitting Proselytes : and the Disciples of Christ did so too , even before Christ had instituted the Sacrament for the Christian Church , the Disciples that came to Christ were baptized by his Apostles . And now we are come to the gates of Baptism . All these till Iohn were but types and preparatory Baptisms , and Iohn's Baptism was but the prologue to the Baptism of Christ . The Jewish Baptisms admitted Proselytes to Moses and to the Law of Ceremonies ; Iohn's Baptisme called them to believe in the Messias now appearing , and to repent of their sins , to enter into the Kingdom which was now at hand , and preached that Repentance which should be for the remission of sins . His Baptism remitted no sinnes , but preached and consigned Repentance , which , in the belief of the Messias whom he pointed to , should pardon sins . But because he was taken from his office before the work was compleated , the Disciples of Christ finished it : They went forth preaching the same Sermon of Repentance , and the approach of the Kingdom , and baptized or made Proselytes or Disciples , as Iohn did ; onely they ( as it is probable ) baptized in the Name of Iesus , which it is not so likely Iohn did . a And this very thing might be the cause of the different forms of b Baptism recorded in the Acts , of baptizing In the Name of Iesus , and at other times In the Name of the Father , Son , and holy Ghost ; the former being the manner of doing it in pursuance of the design of Iohn's Baptism ; and the latter the form of institution by Christ for the whole Christian Church , appointed after his resurrection : the Disciples at first using promiscuously what was used by the same authority , though with some difference of Mysterie . The Holy Jesus having found his way ready prepared by the preaching of Iohn , and by his Baptism , and the Jewish manner of adopting Proselytes and Disciples into the Religion , a way chalked out for him to initiate Disciples into his Religion , took what was so prepared , and changed it into a perpetual Sacrament . He kept the Ceremony , that they who were led onely by outward things , might be the better called in , and easier inticed into the Religion , when they entred by a Ceremony which their Nation alwayes used in the like cases : and therefore without change of the outward act , he put into it a new spirit , and gave it a new grace and a proper efficacy : He sublim'd it to higher ends , and adorned it with stars of Heaven : He made it to signifie greater mysteries , to convey greater blessings , to consign the bigger Promises , to cleanse deeper then the skin , and to carry Proselytes further then the gates of the institution . For so he was pleased to do in the other Sacrament ; he took the Ceremony which he found ready in the custome of the Jews , where the Major domo after the Paschal Supper gave Bread and Wine to every person of his family ; he changed nothing of it without , but transfer'd the Rite to greater mysteries , and put his own Spirit to their Sign , and it became a Sacrament Evangelical . It was so also in the matter of Excommunication , where the Jewish practise was made to passe into Christian discipline : without violence and noise old things became new , while he fulfilled the Law , making it up in full measures of the Spirit . By these steps Baptism passed on to a divine Evangelical institution , which we finde to be consigned by three Evangelists . Goe ye therefore and teach all Nations , baptizing them in the Name of the Father , and of the Son , and of the Holy Ghost . It was one of the last Commandements the Holy Jesus gave upon the earth , when he taught his Apostles the things which concerned his kingdome . For he that believeth and is baptized , shall be saved : but , Unlesse a man be born of Water and the holy Spirit , he cannot enter into the kingdome of Heaven ; agreeable to the decretory words of God by Abraham in the Circumcision , to which Baptism does succeed in the consignation of the same Covenant , and the same Spiritual Promises ; The uncircumcised child whose flesh is not circumcised , that soul shall be cut off from his people ; he hath broken my Covenant . The Manichees , Seleucus , Hermias , and their followers , people of a dayes abode and small Interest , but of malicious doctrine , taught Baptism not to be necessary , not to be used ; upon this ground , because they supposed that it was proper to Iohn to baptize with water , and reserved for Christ as his peculiar , to baptize with the holy Ghost and with fire . Indeed Christ baptized none otherwise . He sent his Spirit upon the Church in Pentecost and baptized them with fire , the Spirit appearing like a flame : but he appointed his Apostles to baptize with water , and they did so , and their successors after them , every where and for ever , not expounding , but obeying the praeceptive words of their Lord , which were almost the last that he spake upon earth . And I cannot think it necessary to prove this to be necessary by any more Arguments . For the words are so plain , that they need no exposition ; and yet if they had been obscure , the universal practise of the Apostles and the Church for ever , is a sufficient declaration of the Commandement : No Tradition is more universal , no not of Scripture it self ; no words are plainer , no not the Ten Commandements : and if any suspicion can be superinduced by any zealous or lesse discerning person , it will need no other refutation , but to turn his eyes to those lights by which himself sees Scripture to be the Word of God , and the Commandements to be the declaration of his Will . But that which will be of greatest concernment in this affair , is to consider the great benefits are conveyed to us in this Sacramnet ; for this will highly conclude , That the Precept was for ever , which God so seconds with his grace and mighty blessings ; and the susception of it necessary , because we cannot be without those excellent things which are the graces of the Sacrament . 1. The first fruit is , That in Baptism we are admitted to the Kingdome of Christ , presented unto him , consigned with his Sacrament , enter into his Militia , give up our understandings and our choice to the obedience of Christ , and in all senses that we can , become his Disciples , witnessing a good confession , and undertaking a holy life : and therefore in Scripture {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , are conjoyn'd in the significations , as they are in the mystery : it is a giving up our names to Christ , and it is part of the foundation of the first Principles of the Religion , as appears in S. Pauls Catechism ; it is so the first thing , that it is for babes , and Neophytes , in which they are matriculated and adopted into the house of their Father , and taken into the hands of their Mother . Upon this account Baptism is called in antiquity , Ecclesiae janua , Porta gratiae , & primus introitus sanctorum ad aeternam Dei & Ecclesiae consuetudinem . The gates of the Church , the door of Grace , the first entrance of the Saints to an eternall conversation with God and the Church . Sacramentum initiationis , & intrantium Christianismum investituram , S , Bernard calls it : The Sacrament of initiation , and the investiture of them that enter into the Religion ; and the person so entring is called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , one of the Religion , or a Proselyte and Convert , and one added to the number of the Church , in imitation of that of S. Luke , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , God added to the Church those that should be saved ; just as the Church does to this day and for ever , baptizing Infants and Catechumens : {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , they are added to the Church , that they may be added to the Lord , and the number of the inhabitants of Heaven . 2. The next step beyond this , is Adoption into the Covenant , which is an immediate consequent of the first presentation , this being the first act of man , that the first act of God . And this is called by S. Paul , a being baptized in one spirit into one body , that is , we are made capable of the Communion of Saints , the blessings of the faithful , the priviledges of the Church : by this we are , as S. Luke calls it , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , ordained , or disposed , put into the order of eternal life , being made members of the mystical body under Christ our Head . 3. And therefore Baptism is a new birth , by which we enter into the new world , the new creation , the blessings and spiritualties of the Kingdome ; and this is the expression which our Saviour himselfe used to Nicodemus , Unlesse a man be born of Water and the Spirit : and it is by S. Paul called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , the laver of Regeneration ; for now we begin to be reckoned in a new Census or account , God is become our Father , Christ our elder Brother , the Spirit the earnest of our inheritance , the Church our Mother , our food is the body and blood of our Lord ; Faith is our learning , Religion our imployment , and our whole life is spiritual , and Heaven the object of our Hopes , and the mighty price of our high Calling . And from this time forward we have a new principle put into us , the Spirit of Grace , which besides our soul and body is a principle of action , of one nature , and shall with them enter into the portion of our inherirance . And therefore the Primitive Christians , who consigned all their affairs and goods and writings with some marks of their Lord , usually writing {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , Iesus Christ the Son of God our Saviour ; they made an abbreviature by writing onely the Capitals , thus : {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . which the Heathens in mockery and derision made {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , which signifies a Fish , and they used it for Christ as a name of reproach : but the Christians owned the name , and turned it into a pious Metaphor , and were content that they should enjoy their pleasure in the Acostrich ; but upon that occasion Tertullian speaks pertinently to this Article , Nos pisciculi secundum {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} nostrum Iesum Christum , in aquâ nascimur , Christ whom you call a fish , we knowledge to be our Lord and Saviour ; and we , if you please , are the little fishes , for we are born in water ; thence we derive our spiritual life . And because from henceforward we are a new creation , the Church uses to assign new relations to the Catechumens , Spiritual Fathers and Susceptors ; and at their entrance into Baptism , the Christians and Jewish Proselytes did use to cancel all secular affections to their temporal relatives , Nec quicquam prius imbuuntur quàm contemnere Deos , exuere patriam , parentes , liberos , fratres vilia habere , said Tacitus of the Christians : which was true in the sense onely as Christ said , He that deth not hate father or mother for my sake , is not worthy of me ; that is , he that doth not hate them prae me , rather then forsake me , forsake them , is unworthy of me . 4. In Baptism all our sins are pardoned , according to the words of a Prophet : I will sprinkle clean water upon you , and ye shall be clean from all your filthinesse . The Catechumen descends into the font a sinner , he arises purified ; he goes down the son of death , he comes up the son of the resurrection ; he enters in the son of folly and praevarication , he returns the son of reconciliation ; he stoops down the childe of wrath , and ascends the heir of mercy ; he was the childe of the Devil , and now he is the servant and the son of God . They are the words of Ven. Bede concerning this Mystery . And this was ingeniously signified by that Greek inscription upon a Font , which is so prettily contriv'd , that the words may be read after the Greek or after the Hebrew manner , and be exactly the same , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , Lord wash my sin , and not my face , onely . And so it is intended and promised , Arise and be baptized , and wash away thy sins , and call on the Name of the Lord , said Ananias to Saul ; for , Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it , that he might sanctify and cleanse it , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , with the washing of water in the word , that is , Baptism in the Christian Religion : and therefore Tertullian calls Baptism lavacrum compendiatum , a compendious laver ; that is , an intire cleansing the soul in that one action justly and rightly performed : In the rehearsal of which doctrine , it was not an unpleasant Etymology that Anastasius Sinaita gave of Baptism ; {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} quasi {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , in which our sins are thrown off ; and they fall like leeches when they are full of blood and water , or like the chains from S. Peters hands at the presence of the Angel . Baptism is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , an intirefull forgivenesse of sins , so that they shall never be called again to scrutiny . — — — Omnia Daemonis arma His merguntur aquis , quibus ille renascitur Infans Qui captivus erat — the captivity of the soul is taken away by the blood of Redemption , and the fiery darts of the Devil are quenched by these salutary waters ; and what the flames of hell are expiating or punishing to eternal ages , that is washed off quickly in the Holy Font , and an eternal debt paid in an instant : for so sure as the Egyptians were drowned in the Red sea , so sure are our sins washed in this holy flood : for this is a Red sea too ; these waters signifie the blood of Christ , these are they that have washed their robes , and made them white in the blood of the Lamb , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . The blood of Christ cleanseth us , the water cleanseth us , the Spirit purifies us ; the Blood by the Spirit , the Spirit by the Water , all in Baptism , and in pursuance of that baptismal state . These three are they that bear record in earth , the Spirit , the Water , and the blood , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , these three agree in one , or are to one purpose ; they agree in Baptism , and in the whole pursuance of the assistances , which a Christian needs all dayes of his life : And therefore S. Cyril calls Baptism {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , the Antitype of the Passions of Christ : it does preconsign the death of Christ ; and does the infancy of the work of grace , but not weakly ; it brings from death to life ; and though it brings us but to the birth in the new life , yet that is a greater change then is in all the periods of our growth to manhood , to a perfect man in Christ Iesus . 5. Baptism does not onely pardon our sins , but puts us into a state of pardon for the time to come . Eor Baptism is the beginning of the New life , and an admission of us into the Evangelical Covenant , which on our parts consists in a sincere and timely endeavour to glorify God by Faith and Obedience : and on Gods part , he will pardon what is past , assist us for the future , and not measure us by grains and scruples , or exact our duties by the measure of an Angel , but by the span of a mans hand . So that by Baptism we are consigned to the mercies of God and the graces of the Gospel ; that is , that our pardon be continued and our piety be a state of Repentance . And therefore that Baptism which in the Nicene Creed we profess to be for the remission of sins , is called in the Ierusalem Creed , The Baptism of Repentance ; that is , it is the entrance of a new life , the gate to a perpetual change and reformation , all the way continuing our title to , and hopes of forgiveness of sins . And this excellency is clearly recorded by S. Paul , The kindeness and love of God our Saviour toward man hath appeared ; not by works in righteousness which we have done : that 's the formality of the Gospel-Covenant , not to be exacted by the strict measures of the Law , but according to his mercy he saved us , that is , by gentleness and remissions , by pitying & pardoning us , by relieving and supporting us , because he remembers that we are but dust ; and all this mercy we are admitted to , and is conveyed to us , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , by the laver of regeneration , and the renewing of the holy Ghost . And this plain evident doctrine was observed , explicated and urged against the Messalians , who said that Baptism was like a razor , that cut away all the sins that were past , or presently adhering , but not the sins of our future life ; {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . This Sacrament promises more and greater things , It is the earnest of future good things , the type of the Resurrection , the communication of the Lords Passion , the partaking of his Resurrection , the robe of Righteousness , the garment of gladness , the vestment of Light , or rather Light it selfe . And for this reason it is , that Baptism is not to be repeated , because it does at once all that it can doe at a hundred times : for it admits us to the condition of Repentance and Evangelical Mercy , to a state of pardon for our infirmities and sins , which we timely and effectually leave : and this is a thing that can be done but once , as a man can begin but once ; he that hath once entred in at this gate of life is alwayes in possibility of pardon , if he be in a possibility of working and doing after the manner of a man , that which he hath promised to the Son of God . And this was expresly delivered and observed by S. Austin . That which the Apostle sayes , Cleansing him with the washing of water in the word , is to be understood , that in the same laver of regeneration , and word of sanctification , all the evils of the regenerate are cleansed and healed : not onely the sins that are past , which all are now remitted in Baptism ; but also those that are contracted afterwards by humane ignorance and infirmity : Not that Baptism be repeated as often as we sin , but because by this which is once administred , is brought to pass that pardon of all sins , not onely of those that are past , but also those which will be committed afterwards , is obtained . The Messalians denyed this , and it was part of their Heresie in the undervaluing of Baptism ; and for it they are most excellently confuted by Isidore Pelusiot , in his third Book , 195 Epistle to the Count Hermin : whither I refer the Reader . In proportion to this Doctrine it is , that the holy Scripture calls upon us to live a holy life , in pursuance of this grace of Baptism . And S. Paul recalls the lapsed Galatians to their Covenant , and the grace God stipulated in Baptism : Ye are all children of God by faith in Iesus Christ ; that is , heirs of the promise . and Abrahams seed : that promise which cannot be disannulled , increased or diminished , but is the same to us as it was to Abraham ; the same before the Law and after . Therefore doe not you hope to be justified by the Law , for you are entred into the Covenant of Faith , and are to be justified thereby . This is all your hope , by this you must stand for ever , or you cannot stand at all ; but by this you may : for you are Gods children by faith ; that is , not by the Law , or the Covenant of Works : And that you may remember whence you are going , and return again , he proves , that they are the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ , because they have been baptized into Christ , and so put on Christ . This makes you children , and such as are to be saved by faith , that is , a Covenant , not of Works , but of Pardon in Jesus Christ , the Authour and Establisher of this Covenant . For this is the Covenant made in Baptism , That being justified by his grace , we shall be heirs of life eternal : for by grace , that is , by favour , remission and forgiveness in Jesus Christ , ye are saved . This is the onely way that we have of being justified , and this must remain as long as we are in hopes of heaven : for besides this we have no hopes , and all this is stipulated and consigned in Baptism , and is of force after our fallings into sin and risings again . In pursuance of this , the same Apostle declares , That the several states of sin , are so many recessions from the state of baptismal grace ; and if we arrive to the direct Apostasie and renouncing of , or a contradiction to , the state of Baptism , we are then unpardonable , because we are falne from our state of pardon . This S. Paul conditions most strictly , in his Epistle to the Hebrewes ; This is the Covenant I will make in those days , I will put my laws in their hearts , and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more , Now where remission of these is , there is no more offering for sin ; that is , our sinnes are so pardoned , that we need no more oblation , we are then made partakers of the death of Christ ; which we afterwards renew in memory and Eucharist , and representment . But the great work is done in Baptism : for so it follows ; Having boldnesse to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Iesus , by a new and living way , that is , by the vail of his flesh , his incarnation . But how doe we enter into this ? Baptism is the door , and the ground of this confidence for ever : for so he addes ; Let us draw near with a true heart , in full assurance of faith , having our hearts sprinkled from an evill conscience , and our bodies washed with pure water . This is the consignation of this blessed state , and the gate to all this mercy : Let us therefore hold fast the profession of our faith ; that is , the Religion of a Christian ; the faith into which we were baptized : for that is the faith that justifies and saves us ; Let us therefore hold fast this profession of this faith , and doe all the intermedial works , in order to the conservation of it , such as are assembling in the Communion of Saints , ( the use of the word and Sacrament is included in the precept ) mutual exhortation , good Example , and the like : For if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth , that is , if we sin against the profession of this faith , & hold it not fast , but let the faith and the profession goe wilfully , ( which afterwards he cals a treading under foot the Son of God , a counting the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified , an unholy thing , and a doing despight to the Spirit of Grace ; viz. which moved upon these waters , and did illuminate him in Baptism ) if we do this , there is no more sacrifice for sins , no more deaths of Christ , into which you may be baptized ; that is , you are faln from the state of pardon and repentance , into which you were admitted in Baptism , and in which you continue , so long as you have not quitted your baptismal Rights , and the whole Covenant . Contrary to this , is that which S. Peter calls making our calling and election sure , that is , a doing all that which may continue us in our state of Baptism , and the grace of the Covenant . And between these two states , of absolute Apostasie from , and intirely adhering to , and securing this state of Calling and Election , are all the intermedial sins , and being overtaken in single faults , or declining towards vitious habits ; which in their several proportions , are degrees of danger and insecurity ; which S. Peter calls , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , a forgetting our Baptism , or purification from our sins . And in this sense are those words , The just shall live by faith ; that is , by that profession which they made in Baptism : from which , if they swerve not , they shall be supported in their spirituall life . It is a grace , which by vertue of the Covenant consign'd in Baptism does like a Centre , transmit effluxes to all the periods and portion of our life : our whole life , all the periods of our succeeding hopes are kept alive by this . This consideration is of great use , besides many other things , to reprove the folly of those who in the Primitive Church deferr'd their Baptism till their death-bed : Because Baptism is a laver of sanctification , and drowns all our sins , and buries them in the grave of our Lord , they thought they might sin securely upon the stock of an after-Baptism ; for unlesse they were strangely prevented by a sudden accident , a death-bed Baptism they thought would secure their condition : but early some of them durst not take it , much lesse in the beginning of their years , that they might at least gain impunity for their follies and heats of their youth . Baptisme hath influence into the pardon of all our sins committed in all the dayes of our folly and infirmity ; and so long as we have not been baptized , so long we are out of the state of pardon , and therefore an early Baptism is not to be avoided , upon this mistaken fancy and plot upon Heaven : it is the greater security towards the pardon of our sins , if we have taken it in the beginning of our dayes . 5. The next benefit of Baptism , which is also a verification of this , is a sanctification of the baptized person by the Spirit of Grace : Sanctus in hunc coelo descendit spiritus amnem , Coelestique sacras fonte maritat aquas : Concipit unda Deum , sanctámque liquoribus almis Edit ab aeterno semine progeniem . The holy Ghost descends upon the waters of Baptism , and makes them prolificall , apt to produce children unto God : and therefore Saint Leo compares the Font of Baptism , to the Womb of the blessed Virgin , when it was replenished with the holy Spirit . And this is the Baptism of our dearest Lord : his ministers baptize with water ; our Lord at the same time verifies their Ministery , with giving the holy Spirit : They are joyned together by S. Paul , We are by one Spirit baptized into one body ; that is , admitted into the Church by Baptism of Water and the Spirit . This is that which our blessed Lord calls a being born of Water and of the Spirit ; by Water we are sacramentally dead and buried , by the Spirit we are made alive . But because these are mysterious expressions , and according to the style of Scriture , high and secret in spiritual significations , therefore that we may understand what these things signifie , we must consider it by its real effects , and what it produces upon the Soule of a man . 1. It is the suppletory of originall Righteousnesse , by which Adam was at first gracious with God , and which he lost by his prevarication . It was in him a principle of wisdome and obedience , a relation between God and himself , a title to the extraordinary mercies of God and a state of friendship : when he fell , he was discomposed in all , the links of the golden chain and blessed relation were broken ; and it so continued in the whole life of man , which was stained with the evils of this folly , and the consequent mischiefs : and therefore when we began the world again , entring into the Articles of a new life , God gave us his Spirit , to be an instrument of our becoming gracious persons , and of being in a condition of obtaining that supernatural end , which God at first designed to us . And therefore as our Baptism is a separation of us from unbelieving people : so the descent of the holy Spirit upon us in our Baptism , is a consigning or marking us for God , as the sheep of his pasture , as the souldiers of his Army , as the servants of his houshold : we are so separated from the world , that we are appropriated to God , so that God expects of us duty and obedience ; and all sins are acts of rebellion and undutifulnesse : Of this nature was the sanctification of Jeremy and Iohn the Baptist from their mothers womb ; that is , God took them to his own service by an early designation , and his Spirit mark'd them to a holy Ministery . To this also relates that of S. Paul , whom God by a decree separated from his mothers womb to the Ministery of the Gospel : the decree did antedate the act of the Spirit , which did not descend upon him untill the day of his Baptism . What these persons were in order to exterior Ministeries , that all the faithful are in order to faith and obedience , consigned in Baptism by the Spirit of God , to a perpetual relation to God , in a continual service and title to his Promises . And in this sense the Spirit of God is called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , * a seal , in whom also after that ye believed , ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of Promise . {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . The Water washes the body , and the Spirit seals the soul ; viz. to a participation of those Promises which he hath made , and to which we receive a title to our Baptism . 2. The second effect of the Spirit , is Light , or Illuminations ; that is , the holy Spirit becomes unto us the Authour of holy thoughts and firm perswasions , and sets to his seal that the Word of God is true ; into the beliefe of which we are then baptized , and makes Faith to be a grace , and the Understanding resigned , and the Will confident , and the Assent stronger then the promises , and the propositions to be believed , because they are belov'd , and we are taught the ways of godlinesse after a new manner , that is , we are made to perceive the secrets of the Kingdome , and to love Religion , and to long for heaven and heavenly things , and to despise the world , and to have new resolutions , and new preceptions , and new delicacies , in order to the establishment of Faith , and its increment and perseverance , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . God sits in the soul when it is illuminated in Baptism , as if he sate in his Throne ; that is , he rules by a firm perswasion , and intire principles of obedience . And therefore Baptism is called in Scripture , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , and the baptized , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} illuminated : Call to minde the former days , in which ye were illuminated : and the same phrase is in the 6 to the Hebrewes , where the parallel places expound each other . For that which S. Paul calls , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , once illuminated ; he calls after , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , a receiving the knowledge of the truth : and that you may perceive this to be wholly meant of Baptism , the Apostle expresses it still by its Synonymas , Tasting of the heavenly gift , and made partakers of the holy Ghost , sprinkled in our hearts from an evill conscience , and washed in our bodies with pure water : All which also are a syllabus or collection of the severall effects of the graces bestowed in Baptism . But we are now instancing in that which relates most properly to the understanding , in which respect the holy Spirit also is called anointing or unction ; and the mystery is explicated by S. Iohn , The anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you , and ye need not that any man teach you ; but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things . 3. The holy Spirit descends upon us in Baptism , to become the principle of a new life ; to become a holy seed , springing up to holinesse , and is called by S. Iohn , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , the seed of God : and the purpose of it we are taught by him , Whosoever is born of God ( that is , he that is regenerated and entred into this new birth ) doth not commit sin ; for his seed remaineth in him , and he cannot sin , because he is born of God . The Spirit of God , is the Spirit of life ; and now that he by the Spirit is born anew , he hath in him that principle , which , if it be cherished , will grow up to life , to life eternall . And this is the Spirit of Sanctification , the victory of the world , the deletery of concupiscence , the life of the soul , and the perpetual principle of grace sown in our spirits in the day of our adoption to be the sons of God , and members of Christs body . But take this mystery in the words of S. Basil ; There are two ends proposed in Baptism , to wit , to abolish the body of sin , that we may no more bring forth fruit unto death ; and to live in the Spirit , and to have our fruit to Sanctification . The water represents the image of death , receiving the body in its bosome , as in a sepulchre . But the quickning Spirit sends upon us a vigorous {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , power or efficacy , even from the beginning renewing our souls from the death of sin unto life . For as our mortification is perfected in the water , so the Spirit works life in us . To this purpose is the discourse of S. Paul ; having largely discoursed of our being baptized into the death of Christ , he addes this as the Corollary of all , He that is dead , is freed from sin * ; that is , being mortified , and buried in the waters of Baptism , we have a new life of righteousnesse put into us ; we are quitted from the dominion of sin , and are planted together in the likenesse of Christs Resurrection , that henceforth we should not serve sin . 4. But all these intermediall blessings tend to a glorious Conclusion , for Baptism does also consign us to a holy Resurrection . it takes the sting of death from us , by burying us together with Christ ; and takes off sin , which is the sting of death , and then we shall be partakers of a blessed Resurrection . This we are taught by Saul , Know ye not that so many of us as are baptized into Iesus Christ were baptized into his death ? For if we have been planted together in the likenesse of his death , we shall be also in the likenesse of his resurrection . That declares the real event in its due season . But because Baptism consigns it , and admits us to a title to it , we are said with S. Paul , to be risen with Christ in Baptism ; buried with him in Baptism , wherein also you are risen with him , through the faith of the operation of God , which hath raised him from the dead : which expression I desire to be remembred , that by it we may better understand those other sayings of the Apostle , of putting on Christ in Baptism , putting on the new man , &c. for these onely signifie {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , or the design on Gods part , and the endevour and duty on mans : we are then consigned to our duty , and to our reward ; we undertake one , and have a title to the other : and though men of ripeness and reason enter instantly into their portion of work , and have present use of the assistances , and something of their reward in hand ; yet we cannot conclude , that those that cannot do it presently , are not baptized rightly , because they are not in capacity to put on the new man in righteousnesse , that is , in an actual holy life : for they may put on the new man in Baptism , just as they are risen with Christ : which because it may be done by faith , before it is done in real event , and it may be done by Sacrament and design , before it be done by a proper faith ; so also may our putting on the new man be . It is done sacramentally , and that part which is wholly the work of God , does onely antedate the work of man , which is to succeed in its due time , and is after the manner of preventing grace : but this is by the by : In order to the present article , Baptism is by Theodoret called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , a participation of the Lords Resurrection . 5. And lastly , by Baptism we are saved ; that is , we are brought from death to life here , and that is the first Resurrection , and we are bought from death to life hereafter , by vertue of the Covenant of the state of Grace , into which in Baptism we enter , and are preserved from the second death , and receive a glorious and an eternal life : He that believeth and is baptized , shall be saved , said our blessed Saviour ; and , according to his mercy he saved us , by the washing of regeneration , and renewing of the holy Ghost . After these great blessings so plainly testified in Scripture , and the Doctrine of the Primitive Church , which are regularly consigned add bestowed in Baptism , I shall lesse need to descend to temporal blessings , or rare contingencies , or miraculous events , or probable notices of things lesse certain : of this nature are those stories recorded in the writings of the Church , that Constantine was cured of a Leprosie in Baptism , Theodosius recovered of his disease , being baptized by the Bishop of Thessalonica ; and a paralytick Jew was cured as soon as he became a Christian , and was baptized by Atticus of C. P. and Bishop Arnulph baptizing a Leper , also cured him , said Vincentius Bellovacensis . It is more considerable , which is generally and piously believed by very many eminent persons in the Church , That at our Baptism God assigns an Angel Guardian : for then the Catechumen being made a Servant and a Brother to the Lord of Angels , is sure not to want the aids of them who pitch their tents round about them that fear the Lord : and that this guard and mininistery is then appointed , when themselves are admitted into the inheritance of the Promises , and their title to Salvation is hugely agreeable to the words of S. Paul , Are they not all ministring spirits , sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation ? where it appears , that the title to the inheritance is the title to this ministery , and therefore must begin and end together . But I insist not on this , though it seeems to me hugely probable . All these blessings put into one syllabus , have given to Baptism many honourable appellatives in Scripture , and other divine Writers , calling it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , Sacramentum vitae & aeternae salutis . A new birth , a regeneration , a renovation , a charret carrying us to God , the great Circumcision , a Circumcision made without hands , the Key of the Kingdome , the paranymph of the Kingdome , the earnest of our inheritance , the answer of a good Conscience , the robe of light , the Sacrament of a new life , and of eternal salvation . {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . This is celestial water , springing from the sides of the Rock , upon the which the Church was built when the Rock was smitten with the Rod of God . It remains now , that we enquire what concerns our duty , and in what persons , or in what dispositions Baptism produces all these glorious effects ? For , the Sacraments of the Church work in the vertue of Christ , but yet onely upon such as are servants of Christ , and hinder not the work of the Spirit of grace . For the water of the Font , and the Spirit of the Sacrament , are indeed to wash away our sins , and to purifie our souls : but not unlesse we have a minde to be purified . The Sacrament works pardon for them that hate their sin , and procures grace for them , that love it . They that are guilty of sins , must repent of them , and renounce them , and they must make a profession of the faith of Christ , and give , or be given up to the obedience of Christ , and then they are rightly disposed . He that believeth , and is baptized , shall be saved ; saith Christ ; and S. Peter call'd out to the whole assembly , Repent , and be baptized every one of you . Concerning this , Iustin Martyr gives the same account of the faith and practise of the Church . {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , &c. Whosoever are perswaded , and believe those things to be true , which are delivered and spoken by us , and undertake to live accordingly , they are commanded to fast and pray , and to ask of God remission of their former sins , we also praying together with them , and fasting . Then they are brought to us where water is , and are regenerated in the same manner of regeneration , by which we our selves are regenerated . For in Baptism , S. Peter observes there are two parts , the body , and the spirit ; that is , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , the putting away the filth of the flesh , that is , the material washing : and this is Baptism , no otherwise then a dead corps is a man : the other is , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , the answer of a good conscience towards God ; that is , the conversion of the soul to God , that 's the effective disposition in which Baptism does save us . And in the same sense are those sayings of the Primitive Doctors to be understood , Anima non lavatione sed responsione sancitur . The soul is not healed by washing , viz. alone , but by the answer , the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in S. Peter , the correspondent of our part of the Covenant : for that 's the perfect sense of this unusuall expression . And the effect is attributed to this , and denied to the other , when they are distinguished : So Iustin Martyr affirms ; the onely Baptism that can heal us , is Repentance , and the knowledg of God . For what need is there of that Baptism that can onely cleanse the flesh and the body ? Be washed in your flesh from wrath and covetousness , from envy and hatred , and behold the body is pure . And Clemens Alex andrinus upon the Proverbial saying , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , be not pure in the laver , but in the minde ; addes , I suppose that an exact and a firm repentance , is a sufficient purification to a man ; if judging and considering our selves for the facts we have done before , we proceed to that which is before us , considering that which follows , and cleansing or washing our minde from sensual affections , and from former sins . Just as we use to deny the effect to the instrumental cause , and attribute it to the principal in the manner of speaking , when our purpose is to affirm this to be the principal , and of chief influence . So we say , It is not the good Lute , but the skilful hand that makes the musick : It is not the body , but the soul that is the man ; and yet he is not the man without both . For Baptism is but the material part in the Sacrament , it is the Spirit that giveth life ; whose work is faith and repentance begun by himselfe , without the Sacrament , and consigned in the Sacrament , and actuated and increased in the cooperation of our whole life : and therefore Baptism is called in the Ierusalem Creed , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , one Baptism of repentance for the remission of sins ; and by Iustin Martyr , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . The Baptism of Repentance and the knowledge of God , which was made for the sins of the people of God . He explains himself a little after , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . Baptism that can onely cleanse them that are penitent . In Sacramentis Trinitati occurrit Fides credentium & professio quae apud acta conficitur Angelorum , ubi miscentur coelestia & spiritualia semina , ut sancto germine nova possit renascentium indoles procreari , ut dum Trinitas cum side concordat , qui natus fuerit saeculo , renascatur spiritualiter Deo. Sic fit hominum pater Deus , sancta fit mater Ecclesia , said Optatus . The faith and profession of the Believers , meets with the ever-blessed Trinity , and is recorded in the Register of Angels , where heavenly and spiritual seeds are mingled ; that from so holy a Spring , may be produced a new nature of the regeneration , that while the Trinity ( viz. that is invocated upon the baptized ) meets with the faith of the Catechumen , he that was born to to the world , may be born spiritually to God . So God is made a Father to the man , and the holy Church a Mother . Faith and Repentance strip the old man naked , and make him fit for Baptism ; and then the holy Spirit moving upon the waters , cleanses the soul , and makes it to put on the new man , who grows up to perfection and a spiritual life , to a life of glory , by our verification of the undertaking in Baptism on our part , and the graces of the Spirit on the other . For the waters pierce no further then the skin , till the person puts off his affection to the sin that he hath contracted ; and then he may say , Aquae intraverunt usque ad animam meam , The waters are entred even unto my soul , to purifie and cleanse it , by the washing of water , and the renewing by the holy Spirit : The sum is this , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , being baptized , we are illuminated ; being illuminated , we are adopted to the inheritance of sons ; being adopted , we are promoted towards perfection ; and being perfected , we are made immortal . Quisquis in hos fontes vir venerit , exeat inde Semideus , tactis citò nobilitetur in undis . This is the whole Doctrine of Baptism , as it is in it selfe considered , without relation to rare circumstances , or accidental cases : and it will also serve to the right understanding of the reasons why the Church of God hath in all ages baptized all persons , that were within her power , for whom the Church could stipulate that they were or might be relatives of Christ , sons of God , heirs of the Promises , and partners of the Covenant , and such as did not hinder the work of Baptism upon their souls . And such were not onely persons of age and choice , but the Infants of Christian Parents . For the understanding and verifying of which truth , I shall onely need to apply the parts of the former discourse to their particular case ; premising first these Propositions . PART . II. Of Baptizing INFANTS . BAPTISM is the Key in Christs hand , and therefore opens as he opens , and shuts by his rule : and as Christ himself did not do all his blessings and effects unto every one , but gave to every one as they had need , so does Baptism . Christ did not cure all mens eyes , but them onely that were blinde : Christ came not to call the righteous , but sinners to repentance ; that is , they that lived in the fear of God , according to the Covenant in which they were debtors , were indeed improved and promoted higher by Christ , but not called to that repentance to which he called the vitious Gentiles , and the adulterous persons among the Jews , and the hypocritical Pharisees . There are some so innocent , that they need no repentance ( saith the Scripture ) meaning , That though they doe need contrition for their single acts of sin , yet they are within the state of grace , and need not repentance , as it is a conversion of the whole man : and so it is in Baptism , which does all its effects upon them that need them all ; and some upon them that need but some : and therefore as it pardons sins to them that have committed them , and doe repent and believe ; so to the others who have not committed them , it does all the work which is done to the others , above , or besides that pardon . 2. When the ordinary effect of a Sacrament is done already by some other efficiency or instrument , yet the Sacrament is still as obligatory as before , not for so many reasons or necessities , but for the same Commandement . Baptism is the first ordinary Current , in which the Spirit moves and descends upon us ; and where Gods Spirit is , they are the sons of God : for Christs Spirit descends upon none , but them that are his ; and yet Cornelius , who had received the holy Spirit , and was heard by God , and visited by an Angel , and accepted in his alms , and fastings , and prayers , yet was tyed to the susception of Baptism . To which may be added , That the receiving the effects of Baptism beforehand , was used as an argument the rather to minister to Baptism . The effect of which consideration is this , That Baptism and its effect may be separated , and doe not always go in conjunction ; the effect may be before , and therefore much rather may it be after its susception ; the Sacrament operating in the vertue of Christ , even as the Spirit shall move , according to that saying of S. Austin . Sacrosancto lavacro inchoata innovatio novi hominis perficiendo perficitur , in aliis citiùs , in aliis tardiùs . And S : Bernard , Lavari quidem cito possumus , sed ad sanandum multâ curatione opus est . The work of regeneration that is begun in the Ministery of Baptisme , is perfected in some sooner , and in some later : we may soon be washed , but to be healed , is a work of a long cure . 3. The dispositions which are required to the ordinary susception of Baptism , are not necessary to the efficacy , or required to the nature of the Sacrament ; but accidentally , and because of the superinduced necessities of some men . And therefore the conditions are not regularly to be required , but in those accidents . It was necessary for a Gentile Proselyte to repent of his sins , and to believe in Moses Law , before he could be circumcised ; but Abraham was not tyed to the same conditions , but onely to faith in God ; but Isaac was not tyed to so much : and Circumcision was not of Moses , but of the Fathers : and yet after the sanction of Moses Law , men were tyed to Conditions , which were then made necessary to them that entred into the Covenant , but not necessary to the nature of the Covenant it selfe . And so it is in the susception of Baptism : if a sinner enters into the Font , it is necessary he be stripp'd of those appendages which himselfe sewed upon his Nature , and then Repentance is a necessary disposition . If his understanding hath been a stranger to Religion , polluted with evill Principles , and a false Religion , it is necessary he have an actual faith , that he be given in his understanding up to the obedience of Christ : and the reason of these is plain , Because in these persons there is a disposition contrary to the state and effects of Baptism ; and therefore they must be taken off by their contraries , Faith and Repentance , that they may be reduced to the state of pure receptives . And this is the sense of those words of our blessed Saviour . Unlesse ye become like one of these little ones , ye shall not enter into the kingdome of heaven ; that is , ye cannot be admitted into the Gospel-Covenant , unlesse all your contrarieties and impediments be taken from you , and you be as apt as children to receive the new immissions from heaven . And this Proposition relies upon a great Example , and a certain Reason . The Example is our blessed Saviour , who was Nullius poenitentiae debitor , he had committed no sin , and needed no repentance ; he needed not to be saved by faith , for of faith he was the Author and Finisher , and the great object , and its perfection and reward , and yet he was baptized by the Baptism of Iohn , the Baptism of Repentance . And therefore it is certain , that Repentance and Faith are not necessary to the susception of Baptism , but necessary to some persons that are baptized . For it is necessary we should much consider the difference . If the Sacrament in any person may be justly received , in whom such dispositions are not to be found , then the dispositions are not necessary or intrinsecal to the susception of the Sacrament ; and yet some persons coming to this Sacrament , may have such necessities of their own , as will make the Sacrament ineffectual without such dispositions : These I call necessary to the person , but not to the Sacrament ; that is , necessary to all such , but not necessary to all absolutely . And faith is necessary sometimes where Repentance is not , and sometimes Repentance and Faith together , and sometimes otherwise . When Philip baptized the Eunuch , he onely required of him to believe , not to repent . But S. Peter , when he preached to the Jews , and converted them , onely required Repentance : which although in their case implyed faith , yet there was no explicit stipulation for it : they had crucified the Lord of life , and if they would come to God by Baptism , they must renounce their sin : that was all was then stood upon . It is as the case is , or as the persons have superinduced necessities upon themselves . In children the case is evident , as to the one part , which is equally required ; I mean , Repentance : The not doing of which , cannot prejudice them as to the susception of Baptism ; because they having done no evil , are not bound to repent ; and to repent , is as necessary to the susception of Baptism , as Faith is : but this shews , that they are accidentally necessary , that is , not absolutely , not to all , not to Infants : and if they may be excused from one duty , which is indispensably necessary to Baptism , why they may not from the other , is a secret which will not be found out by these whom it concerns to believe it . And therefore when our blessed Lord made a stipulation and expresse Commandement for faith , with the greatest annexed penalty to them that had it not , He that believeth not shall be damned ; the proposition is not to be verified or understood as relative to every period of time : for then no man could be converted from infidelity to the Christian faith , and from the power of the Devil to the Kingdome of Christ , but his present infidelity shall be his final ruine . It is not therfore {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , but {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , not a sentence , but a use , a praediction and intermination . It is not like that saying [ God is true , and every man a lyar ] [ Every good , and every perfect gift is from above : ] for these are true in every instant , without reference to circumstances : but He that believeth not shall be damned , is a prediction , or that which in Rhetorick is called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or a use , because this is the affirmation of that which usually or frequently comes to passe : such as this . He that strikes with the sword , shall perish by the sword ; He that robs a Church , shall be like a wheel , of a vertiginous and unstable estate ; He that loves wine and oyle , shall not be rich : and therefore it is a declaration of that which is universally or commonly true ; but not so , that in what instance soever a man is not a believer , in that instant it is true to say he is damned ; for some are called the third , some the sixth , some the ninth hour , and they that come in , being first called , at the eleventh hour , shall have their reward : so that this sentence stands true at the day and the Judgement of the Lord , not at the judgement or day of man . And in the same necessity as faith stands to salvation , in the same it stands to Baptisme ; that is , to be measured by the whole latitude of its extent . Our Baptism shall no more doe all its intention , unlesse faith supervene , then a man is in possibility of being saved without faith ; it must come in its due time , but is not indispensably necessary in all instants and periods , Baptism is the seal of our Election and Adoption ; and as Election is brought to effect by faith , and its consequents ; so is Baptism : but to neither is faith necessary , as to its beginning and first entrance . To which also I adde this Consideration , That actual faith is necessary , not to the susception , but to the consequent effects of Baptism , appears , Because the Church , and particularly the Apostles , did baptize some persons who had not faith , but were hypocrites , such as were Simon Magus , Alexander the Coper-smith , Demas and Diotrephes ; and such was Iudas when he was baptized , and such were the Gnostick Teachers . For the effect depends upon God , who knows the heart , but the outward susception depends upon them who doe not know it ; which is a certain argument , That the same faith that is necessary to the effect of the Sacrament , is not necessary to its susception ; and if it can be administred to hypocrites , much more to Infants ; if to those who really hinder the effect , much rather to them that hinder not . And if it be objected , That the Church does not know but the pretenders have faith , but she knows Infants have not . I reply , That the Church does not know but the pretenders hinder the effect , and are contrary to the grace of the Sacrament ; but she knows that Infants doe not . The first possibly may receive the grace , the other cannot hinder it . But beside these things , it is considerable , That when it is required persons have faith : it is true , they that require Baptism , should give a reason why they doe : so it was in the case of the Eunuch baptized by Philip . But this is not to be required of others that doe not ask it , and yet they be of the Church , and of the Faith : for by Faith is also understood the Christian Religion , and the Christian Faith is the Christian Religion ; and of this a man may be , though he make no confession of his faith ; as a man may be of the Church , and yet not be of the number of Gods secret ones : and to this more is required then to that ; to the first it is sufficient that he be admitted by a Sacrament or a Ceromony : which is infallibly certain , because hypocrites and wicked people are in the visible Communion of the Church , and are reckoned as members of it , and yet to them there was nothing done but the Ceremony administred ; and therefore when that is done to Infants , they also are to be reckoned in the Church Communion . And indeed in the examples in Scripture , we finde more inserted into the number of Gods family by outward Ceremony , then by the inward grace : of this number were all those who were circumcised the eighth day , who were admitted thither , as the womans daughter was cured in the Gospel , by the faith of their mother , their natural parents , or their spiritual : To whose faith it is as certain God will take heed , as to their faith who brought one to Christ who could not come himself , the poor Paralytick ; for when Christ saw their faith , he cured their friend : and yet it is to be observed , That Christ did use to exact faith , actual faith , of them that came to him to be cured [ According to your faith be it unto you . ] The case is equal in its whole kinde . And it is considerable what Christ saith to the poor man that came in behalfe of his son , All things are possible to him that believeth , it is possible for a son to receive the blessing and benefit of his fathers faith : and it was so in his case , and is possible to any ; for to faith all things are possible . And as to the event of things , it is evident in the story of the Gospel , That the faith of their relatives was equally effective to children , and friends , or servants , absent or sick , as the faith of the interested person was to himselfe : As appears beyond all exception in the case of the friends of the Paralytick , let down with cords through the tyles ; of the Centurion in behalf of his servant ; of the nobleman , for his son sick at Capernaum ; of the Syrophoenician , for her daughter : and Christ required faith of no sick man , but of him that presented himselfe to him and desired for himselfe that he might be cured , as it was in the cure of the blinde men . Though they could believe , yet Christ required beliefe of them that came to him on their behalfe . And why then it may not be so , or is not so in the case of Infants Baptism , I confess it is past my skill to conjecture . The Reason on which this further relies , is contained in the next Proposition . 4. No disposition or act of man can deserve the first grace , or the grace of pardon : for so long as a man is unpardoned , he is an enemy to God , and as a dead person : and unlesse he be prevented by the grace of God , cannot doe a single act in order to his pardon and restitution : so that the first work which God does upon a man , is so wholly his own , that the man hath nothing in it , but to entertain it , that is , not to hinder the work of God upon him : and this is done in them that have in them nothing that can hinder the work of grace , or in them who remove the hinderances ; of the latter sort are all sinners , who have lived in a state contrary to God ; of the first are they who are prevented by the grace of God , before they can choose , that is , little children , and those that become like unto little children . So that Faith and Repentance are not necessary at first to the reception of the first grace , but by accident . If sin have drawn curtains , and put bars and coverings to the windows , these must be taken away ; and that is done by faith and repentance : but if the windows be not shut , so that the light can pass through them , the eye of heaven will pass in and dwell there . No man can come unto me , unlesse my Father draw him ; that is , the first accesse to Christ is nothing of our own , but wholly of God ; and it is as in our creation , in which we have an obediential capacity , but cooperate not ; onely if we be contrary to the work of grace , that contrariety must be taken off , else there is no necessity : and if all men , according to Christs saying , must receive the Kingdome of God as little children , it is certain , little children doe receive it , they receive it as all men ought , that is , without any impediment or obstruction , without any thing within that is contrary to that state . 5. Baptism is not to be estimated as one act , transient and effective to single purposes , but it is an entrance to a conjugation and a state of blessings . All our life is to be transacted by the measures of the Gospel-Covenant , and that Covenant is consigned by Baptism ; there we have our title and adoption to it , and the grace that is then given to us is like a peece of leaven put into a lump of dow : and faith and repentance doe in all the periods of our life , put it into fermentation and activity . Then the seed of God is put into the ground of our hearts , and repentance waters it , and faith makes it subactum solum , the ground and furrows apt to produce fruits : and therefore faith and repentance are necessary to the effect of Baptism , not to its susception ; that is , necessary to all those parts of life in which Baptism does operate , not to the first sanction or entring into the Covenant . The seed may lye long in the ground , and produce fruits in its due season , if it be refreshed with the former and the latter rain , that is , the repentance that first changes the state , and converts the man , and afterwards returns him to his title , and recalls him from his wandrings , and keeps him in the state of grace , and within the limits of the Covenant : and all the way faith gives efficacy and acceptation to this repentance , that is , continues our title to the Promise , of not having righteousnesse exacted by the measures of the Law , but by the Covenant and Promise of grace , into which we entred in Baptism , aad walk in the same all the dayes of our life . 6. The holy Spirit which descends upon the waters of Baptism , does not instantly produce its effects in the soul of the baptized ; and when he does , it is irregularly , and as he please : The Spirit bloweth where it listeth , and no man knoweth whence it cometh , nor whither it goeth ; and the Catechumen is admitted into the Kingdome , yet the Kingdome of God cometh not with observation : and this saying of our blessed Saviour was spoken of the Kingdome of God that is within us , that is , the Spirit of Grace , the power of the Gospel put into our hearts , concerning which , he affirmed , that it operates so secretly , that it comes not wiih outward shew , neither shall they say , Lo here , or lo there : which thing I desire the rather be observed , because in the same discourse which our blessed Saviour continued to that assembly , he affirms this Kingdome of God to belong unto little children , this Kingdome that cometh not with outward significations , or present expresses ; this Kingdome that is within us . For the present , the use I make of it is this , That no man can conclude that this Kingdome of Power , that is , the Spirit of Sanctification , is not come upon Infants , because there is no sign or expression of it . It is within us , therefore it hath no signification . It is the seed of God ; and it is no good Argument to say , Here is no seed in the bowels of the earth , because there is nothing green upon the face of it . For the Church gives the Sacrament , God gives the grace of the Sacrament . But because he does not alwayes give it at the instant in which the Church gives the Sacrament , ( as if there be a secret impediment in the suscipient ) and yet afterwards does give it , when the impediment is removed ( as to them that repent of that impediment ) it follows , that the Church may administer rightly , even before God gives the real grace of the Sacrament ; and if God gives this grace afterwards by parts , and yet all of it is the effect of that Covenant which was consigned in Baptism : he that defers some , may defer all , and verify every part as well as any part . For it is certain , that in the instance now made , all the grace is deferred ; in Infants it is not certain but that some is collated , or infused : however , be it so or no , yet upon this account the administration of the Sacrament is not hindred . 7. When the Scripture speaks of the effects of , or dispositions to Baptism , it speaks in general expressions , as being most apt to signify a common duty , or a general effect , or a more universal event , or the proper order of things : but those general expressions doe not supponere universaliter , that is , are not to be understood exclusively to all that are not so qualified , or universally of all suscipients , or of all the subjects of the proposition . When the Prophets complain of the Jews , that they are faln from God , and turned to Idols , and walk not in the way of their Fathers ; and at other times , the Scripture speaks the same thing of their Fathers , that they walked perversly toward God , starting aside like a broken bow : In these and the like expressions the holy Scripture uses a Synecdoche , or signifies many onely , under the notion of a more large and indefinite expression ; for neither were all the Fathers good , neither did all the sons prevaricate : but among the Fathers there were enough to recommend to posterity by way of example ; and among the Children there were enough to stain the reputation of the age : but neither the one part nor the other was true of every single person . S. Iohn the Baptist spake to the whole audience , saying , O generation of vipers ! and yet he did nor mean that all Jerusalem and Iudaea that went out to be baptized of him , were such ; but he under an indeterminate reproofe , intended those that were such , that is , especially the Priests and the Pharisees . And it is more considerable yet , in the story of the event of Christs Sermon in the Synagogue , upon his Text taken out of Isaiah , all wondred at his gracious words , and bare him witnesse . And a little after , All they in the Synagogues were filled with wrath , that is , it was generally so ; but hardly to be supposed true of every single person , in both the contrary humors and usages . Thus Christ said to the Apostles , Ye have abidden with me in my temptations ; and yet Iudas was all the way a follower of Interest and the Bag , rather then Christ : and afterwards none of them all did abide with Christ in his greatest Temptations . Thus also to come nearer the present Question , the secret effects of Election and of the Spirit , are in Scripture attributed to all that are of the outward communion . So S. Peter calls all the Christian strangers of the Eastern dispersion , Elect , according to the fore-knowledge of God the Father : and S. Paul saith of all the Roman Christians , and the same of the Thessalonians , that their faith was spoken of in all the world ; and yet amongst them it is not to be supposed , that all the professors had an unreproveable faith , or that every one of the Church of Thessalonica was an excellent and a charitable person : and yet the Apostle useth this expression , Your faith groweth exceedingly , and the charity of every one of you all towards each other , aboundeth . These are usually significant of a generall custome or order of things , or duty of men , or design , and natural or proper expectation of events ; such are these also in this very Question . As many of you as are baptized into Christ , have put on Christ ; that is , so it is regularly , and so it will be in its due time , and that is the order of things , and the designed event : but from hence we cannot conclude of every person , and in every period of time ; This man hath been baptized , therefore now he is clothed with Christ , he hath put on Christ : nor thus , This person cannot in a spiritual sense as yet put on Christ , therefore he hath not been baptized , that is , he hath not put him on in a sacramentall sense . Such is the saying of S. Paul , Whom he hath predestinated , them he also called ; and whom he called , them he also justified ; and whom he justified , them he also glorified : this also declares the regular event , or at least the order of things , and the design of God , but not the actual verification of it to all persons . These sayings concerning Baptism , in the like manner are to be understood , that they cannot exclude all persons from the Sacrament , that have not all those real effects of the Sacrament at all times , which some men have at some times , and all men must have at some time or other , viz. when the Sacrament obtains its last intention . But he that shall argue from hence , that Children are not rightly baptized , because they cannot in a spiritual sense put on Christ , concludes nothing , unless these propositions did signifie universally , and at all times , and in every person , and in every manner : which can no more pretend to truth , then that all Christians are Gods Elect ; and all that are baptized , are Saints ; and all that are called , are justified ; and all that are once justified , shall be saved finally . These things declare onely the event of things , and their order , and the usuall effect , and the proper design , in their proper season , in their limited proportions . 8. A Negative Argument for matters of fact in Scripture , cannot conclude a Law , or a necessary , or a regular event . And therefore supposing that it be not intimated , that the Apostles did baptize Infants , it follows not that they did not : and if they did not , it does not follow that they might not , or that the Church may not . For it is unreasonable to argue : The Scripture speaks nothing of the Baptism of the holy Virgin Mother , therefore she was not baptized . The words and deeds of Christ are infinite which are not recorded ; and of the acts of the Apostles we may suppose the same in their proportion : and therefore what they did not , is no rule to us , unless they did it not because they were forbidden . So that it can be no good argument to say , The Apostles are not read to have baptized Infants , therefore Infants are not to be baptized : but thus ; We do not find that Infants are excluded from the common Sacraments and Ceremonies of Christian Institution , therefore we may not presume to exclude them . For although the Negative of a Fact is no good Argument , yet the Negative of a Law is a very good one . We may not say , the Apostles did not , therefore we may not : but thus , they were not forbidden to do it , there is no Law against it , therefore it may be done . No mans deeds can prejudicate a Divine Law expressed in general terms , much lesse can it be prejudiced by those things that were not done . That which is wanting cannot be numbred , cannot be effectual ; therefore , Baptize all nations , must signify all that it can signify , all that are reckoned in the Capitations and accounts of a Nation . Now since all contradiction to this Question depends wholly upon these two grounds ; The Negative Argument in matter of Fact , and the Pretences that Faith and Repentance are required to Baptism : since the first is wholly nothing , and infirm upon an infinite account , and the second may conclude , that Infants can no more be saved then be baptized ; because Faith is more necessary to Salvation then to Baptism ; it being said , He that believeth not shall be damned ; and it is not said , He that believeth not shall be excluded from Baptism : it follows , that the doctrine of those that refuse to baptize their Infants is upon both its legs weak and broken , and insufficient . Upon the suppositions of these grounds , the Baptism of Infants , according to the perpetual practise of the Church of God , will stand firm and unshaken upon its own base . For , as the Eunuch said to Philip , What hinders them to be baptized ? If they can receive benefit by it , it is infallibly certain , that it belongs to them also to receive it , and to their Parents to procure it : for nothing can deprive us of so great a grace , but an unworthiness or a disability . They are not disabled to receive it , if they need it , and if it does them good ; and they have neither done good nor evill , and therefore they have not forfeited their right to it . This therefore shall be the first great argument or combination of inducements ; Infants receive many benefits by the susception of Baptism , and therefore in charity and in duty we are to bring them to Baptism . 1. The first effect of Baptism is , That in it we are admitted to the Kingdome of Christ , offered and presented unto him . In which certainly there is the same act of worship to God , and the same blessing to the children of Christians , as there was in presenting the first-born among the Jews . For our children can be Gods own portion , as well as theirs ; and as they presented the first-born to God , and so acknowledged that God might have taken his life in Sacrifice , as well as the Sacrifice of the Lamb , or the Oblation of a beast : yet when the right was confessed , God gave him back again , and took a Lamb in exchange , or a pair of Doves . So are our children presented to God as forfeit , and God might take the forfeiture , and not admit the babe to the Promises of Grace : but when the presentation of the childe , and our acknowledgement is made to God , God takes the Lamb of the World in exchange , and he hath paid our forfeiture , and the children are holy unto the Lord . And what hinders here ? cannot a creeple receive an almes at the Beautiful gate of the Temple , unlesse he goe thither himself ? Or cannot a gift be presented to God by the hands of the owners , and the gift become holy and pleasing to God without its own consent ? The Parents have a portion of the possession : Children are blessings , & Gods gifts , and the Fathers greatest wealth , and therefore are to be given again to him . In other things we give something to God of all that he gives us ; all we doe not , because our needs force us to retain the greater part , and the less sanctifies the whole : but our children must all be returned to God ; for we may love them , and so may God too , and they are the better our own , by being made holy in their presentation : whatsoever is given to God is holy , every thing in its proportion and capacity ; a Lamb is holy , when it becomes a Sacrifice ; and a Table is holy , when it becomes an Altar ; & a House is holy , when it becomes a Church ; and a man is holy , when he is consecrated to be a Priest ; and so is every one that is dedicated to Religion : these are holy persons , the others are holy things ; and Infants are between both : they have the sanctification that belongs to them , the holiness that can be of a reasonable nature , offer'd and destin'd to Gods service ; but not in that degree that is in an understanding , choosing person . Certain it is , that Infants may be given to God ; and if they may be , they must be : for it is not here as in goods , where we are permitted to use all or some , and give what portion we please out of them ; but we cannot doe our duty towards our children , unless we give them wholly to God , and offer them to his service and to his grace . The first does honour to God , the second does charity to the children , The effects and real advantages will appear in the sequel : in the mean time this Argument extends thus far , that Children may be presented to God acceptably , in order to his service . And it was highly praeceptive , when our blessed Saviour commanded , that we should suffer little children to come to him : and when they came , they carried away a blessing along with them . He was desirous they should partake of his merits : he is not willing , neither is it his Fathers will , that any of these little ones should perish . And therefore he dyed for them , and loves , and blessed them : and so he will now , if they be brought to him , and presented as Candidates of the Religion and of the Resurrection . Christ hath a blessing for our children , but let them come to him , that is , be presented at the doors of the Church , to the Sacrament of Adoption and Initiation ; for I know no other way for them to come . Children may be adopted into the Covenant of the Gospel , that is , made partakers of the Communion of Saints , which is the second effect of Baptism ; parts of the Church , members of Christs Mystical body , and put into the order of eternal life . Now concerning this it is certain the Church clearly hath power to doe her offices in order to it . The faithfull can pray for all men , they can doe their piety to some persons with more regard and greater earnestnesse : they can admit whom they please in their proper dispositions , to a participation of all their holy prayers , and communions , and preachings , and exhortations : and if all this be a blessing , and all this be the actions of our own charity , who can hinder the Church of God from admitting Infants to the communion of all their pious offices , which can doe them benefit in their present capacity ? How this does necessarily infer Baptism , I shall afterwards discourse * . But for the present I enumerate , That the blessings of Baptism are communicable ro them ; they may be admitted into a fellowship of all the Prayers and Priviledges of the Church , and the Communion of Saints , in blessings , and prayers , and holy offices . But that which is of greatest perswasion and convincing efficacy in this particular , is , That the children of the Church are as capable of the same Covenant , as the children of the Jews : But it was the same Covenant that Circumcision did consign , a spiritual Covenant under a veil , and now it is the same spiritual Covenant without the veil , which is evident to him that considers it ; thus : The words of the Covenant are these [ I am the Almighty God , walk before me , and be thou perfect ; I will multiply thee exceedingly . Thou shalt be a father of many Nations : Thy name shall not be Abram , but Abraham . Nations and Kings shall be out of thee . I will be a God unto thee , and unto thy seed after thee ; and I will give all the Land of Canaan to thy seed , and all the Males shall be circumcised , and it shall be a token of the Covenant between me and thee : and he that is not circumcised ; shall be cut off from his people . The Covenant which was on Abrahams part was , To walk before God , and to be perfect : on Gods part , To blesse him with a numerous issue , and them with the Land of Canaan ; and the sign was Circumcision , the token of the Covenant . Now in all this , here was no duty to which the posterity was obliged , nor any blessing which Abraham could perceive or feel , because neither he nor his posterity did enjoy the Promise for many hundred yeers after the Covenant : and therefore as there was a duty for the posterity which is not here expressed ; so there was a blessing for Abraham , which was concealed under the leaves of a temporall Promise , and which we shall better understand from them whom the Spirit of God hath taught the mysteriousnesse of this transaction . The Argument indeed , and the observation is wholly S. Pauls , Abraham and the Patriarchs died in faith , not having received the Promises , viz. of a possession in Canaan . They saw the Promises afar off , they embraced them , and looked through the Cloud , and the temporal veil , this was not it ; they might have returned to Canaan , if that had been the object of their desires , and the design of the Promise : but they desired and did seek a Countrey , but it was a better , and that a heavenly . This was the object of their desire ; and the end of their search , and the reward of their faith , and the secret of their Promise . And therefore Circumcision was a seal of the righteousnesse of faith , which he had before his Circumcision , before the making this Covenant ; and therefore it must principally relate to an effect and a blessing , greater then was afterwards expressed in the temporall Promise : which effect was forgivenesse of sins , a not imputing to us our infirmities , Justification by faith , accounting that for righteousnesse : and these effects or graces were promised to Abraham , not onely for his posterity after the flesh , but his children after the spirit , even to all that shall beleive and walk in the steps of our father Abraham , which he walked in , being yet uncircumcised . This was no other but the Covenant of the Gospel , though afterwards otherwise consigned : for so the Apostle expresly affirms , that Abraham was the father of Circumcision ( viz. by virtue of this Covenant ) not onely to them that are circumcised , but to all that believe : for this promise was not through the law of works , or of circumcision , but of faith . And therefore as S. Paul observes , God promised that Abraham should be a father ( not of that Nation onely , but ) of many Nations , and the heir of the world ; that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Iesus Christ ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith . And , if ye be Christs , then ye are Abrahams seed , and heirs according to the Promise . Since then the Covenant of the Gospel , is the Covenant of Faith , and not of Works ; and the Promises are spiritual , not secular ; and Abraham the father of the faithfull Gentiles , as well as the circumcised Iews ; and the heir ef the world , not by himselfe , but by his seed , or the Son of Man , our Lord Jesus : it follows , that the Promises which Circumcision did seal , were the same Promises which are consigned in Baptism ; the Covenant is the same , onely that Gods people are not impal'd in Palestine , and the veil is taken away , and the temporal is passed into spiritual , and the result will be this , That to as many persons , and in as many capacities , and in the same dispositions as the Promises were applyed , and did relate in Circumcision , to the same they doe belong , and may be applyed in Baptism . And let it be remembred , That the Covenant which Circumcision did sign , was a Covenant of Grace and Faith ; the Promises were of the Spirit , or spiritual , it was made before the Law , and could not be rescinded by the Legal Covenant . Nothing could be added to it , or taken from it ; and we that are partakers of this grace , are therefore partakers of it being Christs servants , united to Christ , and so are become Abrahams seed ( as the Apostle at large and professedly proves in divers places , but especially in the 4. of the Romans , and the 3. to the Galatians . ) and therefore if Infants were then admitted to it , and consigned to it by a Sacrament which they understood not any more then ours doe , there is not any reason why ours should not enter in at the ordinary gate and door of Grace as well as they . Their children were circumcised the Eighth day , but were instructed afterwards , when they could enquire what these things meant . Indeed their Proselytes were first taught , then circumcised ; so are ours , baptized : but their Infants were consigned first , and so must ours . 3. In Baptism we are born again ; and this Infants need in the present circumstances , and for the same great reason , that men of age and reason doe . For our natural birth is either of it selfe insufficient , or is made so by the fall of Adam , and the consequent evils , that nature alone , or our first birth , cannot bring us to heaven , which is a supernatural end , that is , an end above all the power of our nature as now it is . So that if nature cannot bring us to heaven , grace must , or we can never get thither ; if the first birth cannot , a second must : but the second birth spoken of in Scripture , is Baptism ; A man must be born of water and the spirit . And therefore Baptism is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , the laver of a new birth . Either then Infants cannot go to heaven any way that we know of , or they must be baptized . To say they are to be left to God , is an excuse , and no answer : for when God hath opened the door , and calls that the entrance into heaven , we doe not leave them to God , when we will not carry them to him in the way which he hath described , and at the door which himself hath opened : we leave them indeed , but it is but helplesse and destitute : and though God is better then Man , yet that is no warrant to us , what it will be to the children , that we cannot warrant , or conjecture . And if it be objected , That to the new birth is required dispositions of our own , which are to be wrought by and in them that have the use of reason : besides that this is wholly against the Analogy of a new birth , in which the person to be born is wholly a passive , and hath put into him the principle that in time will produce its proper actions : It is certain , that they that can receive the new birth , are capable of it ; the effect of it is a possibility of being saved , and arriving to a supernatural felicity . If Infants can receive this effect , then also the new birth , without which they cannot receive the effect . And if they can receive salvation , the effect of the new birth , what hinders them , but they may receive that that is in order to that effect , and ordained onely for it ; and which is nothing of it self , but in its institution and relation , and which may be received by the same capacity in which one may be created , that is , a passivity , or a capacity obediential ? 4. Concerning pardon of sins , which is one great effect of Baptism , it is certain , that Infants have not that benefit which men of sin and age may receive . He that hath a sickly stomach drinks wine , and it not onely refreshes his spirits , but cures his stomach . He that drinks wine and hath not that disease , receives good by his wine , though it does not minister to so many needs ; it refreshes him , though it does not cure him : and when oyle is poured upon a mans head , it does not alwayes heal a wound , but sometimes makes him a chearful countenance , sometimes it consigns him to be a King or a Priest . So it is in Baptism : it does not heal the wounds of actual sins , because they have not committed them ; but it takes off the evil of Original sin : whatsoever is imputed to us by Adams prevarication , is washed off by the death of the second Adam , into which we are baptized . But concerning Original sin , because there are so many disputes which may intricate the Question , I shall make use onely of that which is confessed on both sides , and material to our purpose . Death came upon all men by Adams sin , and the necessity of it remains upon us , as an evil consequent of the disobedience . For though death is natural , yet it was kept off from man by Gods favour , which when he lost , the banks were broken , and the water reverted to its natural course , and our nature became a curse , and death a punishment . Now that this also relates to Infants so far , is certain , because they are sick , and dye . This the Pelagians denied not . But to whomsoever this evil descended , upon them also a remedy is provided by thesecond Adam , That as in Adam all dye , even so in Christ shall all be made alive ; that is , at the day of Judgement : then death shall be destroyed . In the mean time , death hath a sting and a bitterness , a curse it is , and an express of the Divine Anger : and if this sting be not taken away here , we shall have no participation of the final victory over death . Either therefore Infants must be for ever without remedy in this evil consequent of their Fathers sin , or they must be adopted into the participation of Christs death , which is the remedy . Now how can they partake of Christs death , but by Baptism into his death ? For if there be any spiritual way fancied , it will by a stronger argument admit them to Baptism : for if they can receive spiritual effects , they can also receive the outward Sacrament ; this being denyed onely upon pretence they cannot have the other . If there be no spiritual way extraordinary , then the ordinary way is onely left for them . If there be an extraordinary , let it be shewn , and Christians will be at rest concerning their children . One thing onely I desire to be observed , That Pelagius denyed Original sin , but yet denyed not the necessity of Infants Baptism ; and being accused of it in an Epistle to Pope Innocent the first , he purged himself of the suspicion , and allowed the practise , but denyed the inducement of it : which shews , that their arts are weak that think Baptism to be useless to Infants , if they be not formally guilty of the prevarication of Adam : By which I also gather , that it was so universal , so primitive a practise , to baptize Infants , that it was greater then all pretences to the contrary : for it would much have conduced to the introducing his opinion against Grace and Original sin , if he had destroyed that practise which seemed so very much to have its greatest necessity from the doctrine he denyed . But against Pelagius , and against all that follow the parts of his opinion , it is of good use which S. Austine , Prosper , and Fulgentius argue ; If Infants are punished for Adams sin , then they are also guilty of it in some sense . Nimis enim impium est hoc de Dei sentire justitiâ quod à praevaricatione liberos cum reis voluerit esse damnatos . So Prosper . Dispendia quae flentes nascendo testantur , dicito quo merito sub justissimo & omnipotentissimo judice eis , si nullum peccatum attrahant , arrogentur , said S. Austin . For the guilt of sin signifies nothing but the obligation to the punishment : and he that feels the evil consequent , to him the sin is imputed ; not as to all the same dishonour , or moral accounts , but to the more material , to the natural account : and in holy Scripture the taking off the punishment , is the pardon of the sin ; and in the same degree the punishment is abolished , in the same God is appeased , and then the person stands upright , being reconciled to God by his grace . Since therefore Infants have the punishment of sin , it is certain the sin is imputed to them ; and therefore they need being reconciled to God by Christ : and if so , then , when they are baptized into Christs death , and into his Resurrection , their sins are pardoned , because the punishment is taken off , the sting of natural death is taken away , because Gods anger is removed , and they shall partake of Christs Resurrection : which because Baptism does signifie and consign , they also are to be baptized . To which also adde this appendant Consideration , That whatsoever the Sacraments do consign , that also they do convey and minister : they do it , that is , God by them does it ; lest we should think the Sacraments to be meer illusions , and abusing us by deceitful ineffective signs : and therefore to Infants the grace of a title to a Resurrection , and Reconciliation to God by the death of Christ is conveyed , because it signifies and consigns this to them more to the life and analogy of resemblance , then Circumcision to the Infant sons of Israel . I end this Consideration with the words of Nazianzen , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . Our birth by Baptism does cut off every unclean appendage of our natural birth , and leads us to a celestial life : and this in children is therefore more necessary , because the evil came upon them without their own act of reason and choice , and therefore the grace and remedy ought not to stay the leisure of dull Nature , and the Formalities of the Civill Law . 5. The Baptism of Infants does to them the greatest part of that benefit which belongs to the remission of sins . For Baptism is a state of Repentance and pardon for ever . This I suppose to be already proved , to which I onely adde this Caution , That the Pelagians to undervalue the necessity of supervening grace , affirmed , That Baptism did minister to us grace sufficient to live perfectly , and without sin for ever . Against this S. Ierome sharply declaims , and affirms , a Baptismum praeterita donare ●●ccata , non futuram servare justitiam : that is , non statim ju●tum facit & omni plenum justitiâ , as he expounds his meaning in another place . Vetera peccata conscindit , novas virtutes non tribuit ; dimittit à carcere , & dimisso , si laboraverit , praemia pollicetur . Baptism does not so forgive future sins , that we may doe what we please , or so as we need not labour and watch , and fear perpetually , and make use of Gods grace to actuate our endevours ; but puts us into a state of pardon , that is , in a Covenant of Grace , in which so long as we labour and repent , and strive to doe our duty , so long our infirmities are pityed , and our sins certain to be pardoned upon their certain conditions ; that is , by virtue of it we are capable of pardon , and must work for it , and may hope it . And therefore Infants have a most certain capaciry and proper disposition to Baptism : for sin creeps before it can go , and little undecencies are soon learned , and malice is before their yeers , and they can do mischief and irregularities betimes ; and though we know not when , nor how far they are imputed in every moneth of their lives , yet it is an admirable art of the Spirit of grace , to put them into a state of pardon , that their remedy may at least be as soon as their necessity . And therefore Tertullian and Gregory Nazianzen advised the Baptism of children to be at three or four yeers of age ; meaning , that they then beginning to have little inadvertencies & hasty follies , and actions so evil as did need a lavatory . But if Baptism hath an influence upon sins in the succeeding portions of our life , then it is certain , that their being presently innocent , does not hinder , and ought not to retard the Sacrament ; and therefore Tertullian's Quid festinat innocens aetas ad remissiionem peccatorum ? what need Innocents hasten to the remission of sins ? is soon answered . It is true , they need not in respect of any actual sins , for so they are innocent : but in respect of the evils of their nature , derived from their original , and in respect of future sins in the whole state of their life , it is necessary they be put into a state of pardon before they sin , because some sin early , some sin later ; and therefore unlesse they be baptized so early , as to prevent the first sins , they may chance dye in a sin , to the pardon of which they have yet derived no title from Christ . 6. The next great effect of Baptism , which children can have , is the Spirit of Sanctification , and if they can be baptized with Water and the Spirit , it will be sacriledge to rob them of so holy treasures . And concerning this , although it be with them , as S. Paul sayes of Heirs , The heir so long as he is a childe differeth nothing from a servant , though he be Lord of all ; and children , although they receive the Spirit of Promise , and the Spirit of Grace , yet in respect of actual exercise , they differ not from them that have them not at all , yet this hinders not but they may have them . For as the reasonahle soul and all its faculties are in children , Will and Understanding , Passions , and Powers of Attraction and Propulsion , yet these faculties doe not operate or come abroad till time and art , observation and experience have drawn them forth into action : so may the Spirit of Grace , the principle of Christian life , be infused , and yet lye without action till in its own day it is drawn forth . For in every Christian there are three parts concurring to his integral constitution , Body , and Soul , and Spirit ; and all these have their proper activities and times , but every one in his own order , first that which is natural , then that which is spiritual . And as Aristotle said , A man first lives the life of a plant , then of a beast , and lastly of a man , is true in this sense : and the more spiritual the principle is , the longer it is before it operates , because more things concur to spiritual actions , then to naturall : and these are necessary , and therefore first ; the other are perfect , and therefore last . And who is he that so well understands the Philosophy of this third principle of a Christians life , the Spirit , as to know how or when it is infused , and how it operates in all its periods , and what it is in its being and proper nature ; and whether it be like the soul , or like the faculty , or like a habit , or how or to what purposes God in all varieties does dispense it ? These are secrets which none but bold people use to decree , and build propositions upon their own dreams . That which is certain , is , that * The Spirit is the principle of a new life , or a new birth . * That Baptisme is the laver of this new birth . * That it is the seed of God , and may lye long in the furrows before it springs up . * That from the faculty to the act , the passage is not alwayes sudden and quick . * That the Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance , that is , of Resurrection to eternal life : which inheritance because children we hope shall have , they cannot be denied to have its Seal and Earnest , that is , if they shall have all , they are not to be denyed a part . * That children have some effects of the Spirit , and therefore do receive it , and are baptized with the Spirit , and therefore may with Water : which thing is therefore true and evident , because some children are sanctified , as Ieremy and the Baptist , and therefore all may . And because all signification of persons is an effect of the holy Ghost , there is no peradventure , but they that can be sanctified by God can in that capacity receive the holy Ghost : and all the ground of dissenting here , is onely upon a mistake , because Infants do no act of holiness , they suppose them incapable of the grace of Sanctification . Now Sanctification of children , is their adoption to the inheritance of sons , their presentation to Christ , their consignation to Christs service , and to Resurrection , their being put into a possibility of being saved , their restitution to Gods favour , which naturally , that is , as our nature is depraved and punished , they could not have . And in short the case is this : * Original Righteousness was in Adam after the manner of nature , but it was an act or effect of grace , and by it men were not made , but born righteous ; the inferior faculties obeyed the superior , the minde was whole and right , and conformable to the Divine Image , the Reason and the Will alwayes concurring , the Will followed Reason , and Reason followed the Laws of God , and so long as a man had not lost this , he was pleasing to God , and should have passed to a more perfect state . Now because this , if Adam had stood , should have been born with every childe , there was in Infants a principle which was the seed of holy life here , and a blessed hereafter ; and yet the children should have gone in the road of nature , then as well as now , and the Spirit should have operated at natures leisure ; God being the giver of both , would have made them instrumental to , and perfective of each other , but not destructive . Now what was lost by Adam , is restored by Christ , the same Righteousnesse , onely it is not born , but superinduc'd , not integral , but interrupted , but such as it is , there is no difference , but that the same or the like principle may be derived to us from Christ , as there should have been from Adam , that is , a principle of obedience , a regularity of faculties , a beauty in the soul , and a state of acceptation with God . And we see also in men of understanding and reason , the Spirit of God dwells in them , ( which Tatianus describing , uses these words , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , The soul is possessed with sparks , or materials of the power of the spirit ) and yet it is sometimes ineffective and unactive , sometimes more , sometimes lesse , and does no more doe its work at all times , then the soul does at all times understand . Adde to this , That if there be in Infants naturally an evill principle , a proclivity to sin , an ignorance and pravity of minde , a disorder of affections ( as experience teaches us there is , and the perpetual doctrine of the Church , and the universal mischiefs issuing from mankinde , and the sinne of every man does witnesse too much ) why cannot Infants have a good principle in them , though it works not till its own season , as well as an evill principle ? If there were not by nature some evill principle , it is not possible that all the world should choose sin : In free agents it was never heard , that all individuals loved and chose the same thing to which they were not naturally inclined . Neither doe all men choose to marry , neither doe all choose to abstain : and in this instance there is a natural incclination to one part ; but of all the men and women in the world , there is no one that hath never sinned . If we say that we have no sin , we deceive our selves , and the truth is not in us , said an Apostle . If therefore nature hath in Infants an evill principle , which operates when the childe can choose , but is all the while within the sou ; either Infants have by grace a principle put into them , or else sin abounds where grace does not superabound , expressely against the doctrine of the Apostle . The event of this discourse is , that if Infants be capable of the Spirit of grace , there is no reason but they may and ought to be baptized , as well as men and women ; unlesse God had expressely forbidden them , which cannot be pretended : & that Infants are capable of the Spirit of grace , I think it made very credible . Christus infantibus infans factus sanctificans infantes , said Irenaeus , Christ became an Infant among the Infants . and does sanctify Infants : and S. Cyprian affirms , Esse apud omnes sive infantes sive majores natu unam divini muneris aequitatem . There is the same dispensation of the divine grace to all alike , to Infants as well as to men . And in this Royall Priesthood , as it is in the secular , Kings may be anointed in their Cradles ; Dat ( Deus ) sui Spiritus occultissimam gratiam , quam etiam latentèr infundit in parvulis , God gives the most secret grace of his Spirit , which he also secretly infuses into Infants . And if a secret infusion be rejected , because it cannot he proved at the place and at the instant , many men that hope for heaven will be very much to seek for a proof of their earnest , and need an earnest of the earnest . For all that have the Spirit of God cannot in all instants prove it , or certainly know it : neither is it yet defined by how many indices the Spirits presence can be proved or signified . And they limit the Spirit too much , and understand it too little , who take accounts of his secret workings , and measure them by the material lines and methods of natural and animal effects . And yet because whatsoever is holy , is made so by the holy Spirit , we are certain that the children of believing , that is , of Christian parents , are holy , S. Paul affirmed it , and by it hath distinguished ours from the children of unbelievers , and our marriages from theirs : and because the children of the Heathen when they come to choice and reason , may enter to Baptism and the Covenant if they will , our children have no priviledge beyond the children of Turks or Heathens , unlesse it be in the present capacity , that is , either by receiving the holy Ghost immediately , and the Promises , or at least having a title to the Sacrament , and entring by that door . If they have the Spirit , nothing can hinder them from a title to the water ; and if they have onely a title to the water of the Sacrament , then they shall receive the Promise of the holy Spirit , the benefits of the Sacrament : else their priviledge is none at all , but a dish of cold water , which every village nurse can provide for her new-born babe . But it is in our case as it was with the Jews children : our children are a holy seed ; for if it were not so with Christianity , how could S. Peter move the Jews to Christianity , by telling them the Promise was to them and their children ? For if our children be not capable of the Spirit of Promise and Holiness , and yet their children were holy , it had been a better Argument to have kept them in the Synagogue , then to have called them to the Christian Church . Either therefore 1. there is some holiness in a reasonable nature , which is not from the Spirit of holiness ; or else 2. our children do receive the holy Spirit , because they are holy ; or if they be not holy , they are in worse condition under Christ then under Moses : or if none of all this be true , then our children are holy by having received the holy Spirit of Promise , and consequently nothing can hinder them from being baptized . And indeed if the Christian Jews , whose children are circumcised , and made partakers of the same Promises and Title , and Inheritance and Sacraments , which themselves had at their conversion to the faith of Christ , had seen their children now shut out from these new Sacraments , it is not to be doubted but they would have raised a storm , greater then could easily have been suppressed : since about their Circumcisions they had raised such Tragedies and implacable disputations : and there had been great reason to look for a storm ; for their children were circumcised , and if not baptized , then they were left under a burthen which their fathers were quit of , for S. Paul said unto you , Whosoever is circumcised , is a debtor to keep the whole Law . These children therefore that were circumcised , stood obliged for want of Baptism to perform the Laws of Ceremonies , to be presented into the Temple , to pay their price , to be redeemed with silver and gold ; to be bound by the Law of pollutions and carnal ordinances : and therefore if they had been thus left , it would be no wonder if the Jews had complained and made a tumult : they used to do it for less matters . To which let this be added , That the first book of the New Testament was not written till eight years after Christs Ascension , and S. Marks Gospel twelve years . In the mean time , to what Scriptures did they appeal ? by the analogy or proportion of what writings did they end their Questions ? whence did they prove their Articles ? They onely appealed to the Old Testament , and onely added what their Lord superadded . Now either it must be said that our blessed Lord commanded that Infants should not be baptized , which is no where pretended ; and if it were , cannot at all be proved : or if by the proportion of Scriptures they did serve God , and preach the Religion , it is plain , that by the Analogy of the Old Testament , that is , of those Scriptures by which they proved Christ to be come , and to have suffered , they also approved the Baptism of Infants , or the admitting them to the society of the faithful Jews , of which also the Church did then principally consist . 7. That Baptism ( which consigns men and women to a blessed Resurrection ) doth also equally consign Infants to it , hath nothing , that I know of , pretended against it , there being the same signature and the same grace , and in this thing all being alike passive , and we no way cooperating to the consignation and promise of grace : and Infants have an equall necessity , as being lyable to sickness and groaning with as sad accents , and dying sooner then men and women , and less able to complain , and more apt to be pityed and broken with the unhappy consequents of a short life , and a speedy death , & infelicitate priscorum hominum , with the infelicity and folly of their first Parents : and therefore have as great need as any , and that is capacity enough to receive a remedy for the evil which was brought upon them by the fault of another . 8. And after all this , if Baptism be that means which God hath appointed to save us , it were well if we would do our parts towards Infants final interest ; which whether it depends upon the Sacrament and its proper grace , we have nothing to relye upon , but those Texts of Scripture which make Baptism the ordinary way of entring into the state of salvation : save onely we are to adde this , that because of this law Infants are not personally capable , but the Church for them , as for all others indefinitely , we have reason to believe , that their friends neglect shall by some way be supplyed ; but Hope hath in it nothing beyond a Probability . This we may be certain of , that naturally we cannot be heirs of Salvation , for by nature we are children of wrath , and therefore an eternal separation from God , is an infallible consequent to our evil nature : either therefore children must be put into the state of grace , or they shall dwell for ever where Gods face does never shine . Now there are but two wayes of being put into the state of grace and salvation ; the inward , by the Spirit , and the outward , by Water , which regularly are together . If they be renewed by the Spirit , what hinders them to be baptized , who receive the holy Ghost as well as we ? If they are not capable of the Spirit , they are capable of Water ; and if of neither , where is their title to heaven , which is neither internal nor external , neither spiritual nor sacramental , neither secret nor manifest , neither natural nor gracious , neither original nor derivative ? And well may we lament the death of poor babes that are {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , concerning whom if we neglect what is regularly prescribed to all that enter heaven , without any difference expressed , or case reserved , we have no reason to be comforted over our dead children , but may weep as they that have no hope . We may hope when our neglect was not the hinderance , because God hath wholly taken the matter into his own hand , and then it cannot miscarry ; and though we know nothing of the children , yet we know much of Gods goodness : But when God hath permitted it to us , that is , offered and permitted children to our ministery , whatever happens to the Innocents , we may well fear left God will require the souls at our hands : and we cannot be otherwise secure , but that it will be said concerning our children , which S. Ambrose used in a case like this , Anima illa potuit salva fieri , si habuisset purgationem , This soul might have gone to God , if it had been purified and washed . We know God is good , infinitely good , but we know it is not at all good to tempt his goodness : and he tempts him , that leaves the usual way , and pretends it is not made for him , and yet hopes to be at his journeys end , or expects to meet his childe in heaven , when himself shuts the door against him , which for ought he knows is the onely one that stands open . S. Austin was severe in this Question against unbaptized Infants , therefore he is called durus Pater Infantium : though I know not why the original of that opinion should be attributed to him , since S. Ambrose said the same before him , as appears in his words above quoted in the margent . And now that I have enumerated the blessings which are consequent to Baptism , and have also made apparent , That Infants can receive these blessings , I suppose I need not use any other perswasions to bring children to Baptism . If it be certain they may receive these good things by it , it is certain they are not to be hindred of them without the greatest impiety , and sacriledge , and uncharitableness in the world . Nay , if it be onely probable that they receive these blessings , or if it be but possible they may , nay unless it be impossible they should , and so declared by revelation or demonstratively certain , it were intolerable unkindness and injustice to our pretty innocents , to let their crying be unpityed , and their natural misery eternally irremediable , and their sorrows without remedy , and their souls no more capable of relief , then their bodies of Physick , and their death left with the sting in , and their Souls without Spirits to go to God , and no Angel guardian to be assigned them in the Assemblies of the faithful , and they not to be reckoned in the accounts of God and Gods Church . All these are sad stories . There are in Scripture very many other probabilities , to perswade the Baptism of Infants , but because the places admit of divers interpretations , the Arguments have so many diminutions , and the certainty that is in them is too fine for easie understandings , I have chosen to build the ancient doctrines upon such principles which are more easie and certain , and have not been yet sullied and rifled with the contentions of an adversary . This onely I shall observe , That the words of our blessed Lord [ Unless a man be born of Water and the Spirit , he cannot enter into the Kingdome of heaven ] cannot be expounded to the exclusion of children , but the same expositions will also make Baptism not necessary for men : for if they be both necessary ingredients , Water and the Spirit , then let us provide water , and God will provide the Spirit ; if we bring wood to the Sacrifice , he will provide a Lamb . And if they signifie distinctly , one is ordinarily as necessary as the other , and then Infants must be baptized , or not be saved . But if one be exegetical and explicative of the other , and by Water and the Spirit is meant onely the purification of the Spirit , then where is the necessity of Baptism for men ? It will be as the other Sacrament , at most but highly convenient , not simply necessary , and all the other places will easily be answered , if this be avoided . But however , these words being spoken in so decretory a manner , are to be used with fear and reverence ; and we must be infallibly sure by some certain infallible arguments , that Infants ought not to be baptized , or we ought to fear concerning the effect of these decretory words . I shall onely adde two things by way of Corollary to this Discourse . That the Church of God ever since her numbers are full , have for very many ages consisted almost wholly of Assemblies of them who have been baptized in their Infancy : and although in the first callings of the Gentiles , the chiefest and most frequent Baptisms were of converted and repenting persons and believers , yet from the beginning also the Church hath baptized the Infants of Christian Parents ; according to the Prophecy of Isaiah , Behold , I will lift up my hands to the Gentiles , and set up a standard to the people , and they shall bring thy sons in their arms , and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders . Concerning which , I shall not onely bring the testimonies of the matter of fact , but either a report of an Apostolical Tradition , or some Argument from the Fathers , which will make their testimony more effectuall in all that shall relate to the Question . The Author of the book of Ecclesiastical Hierarchy , attributed to S. Denis the Areopagite , takes notice , that certain unholy persons , and enemies to the Christian Religion , think it a ridiculous thing that Infants , who as yet cannot understand the Divine Mysteries , should be partakers of the Sacraments ; and that professions and abrenunciations should be made by others for them and in their names . He answers , that Holy men , Governors of Churches , have so taught , having received a Tradition from their Fathers and Elders in Christ : by which answer of his , as it appears , that he himself was later then the Areopagite ; so it is so early by him affirmed , that even then there was an ancient Tradition for the Baptism of Infants , and the use of Godfathers in the ministery of the Sacrament . Concerning which , it having been so ancient a Constitution of the Church , it were well if men would rather humbly and modestly observe , then like scorners deride it , in which they shew their own folly as well as immodesty . For what undecency or incongruity is it , that our parents natural or spiritual should stipulate for us , when it is agreeable to the practise of all the laws and transactions of the world , an effect of the Communion of Saints and of Christian Oeconomy ? For why may not Infants be stipulated for as well as we ? all were included in the stipulation made with Adam ; he made a losing bargain for himself , and we smarted for his folly : and if the faults of Parents , and Kings , and relatives , do bring evil upon their children , and subjects , and correlatives , it is but equal that our children may have benefit also by our charity and piety . But concerning making an agreement for them , we finde that God was confident concerning Abraham , that he would teach his children : and there is no doubt but Parents have great power , by strict education and prudent discipline , to efform the mindes of their children to vertue . Joshua did expresly undertake for his houshold , I and my house will serve the Lord : and for children we may better do it , because till they are of perfect choice , no Government in the world is so great , as that of Parents over their children , in that which can concern the parts of this Question : for they rule over their understandings , and children know nothing but what they are told , and they believe it infinitely : and it is a rare art of the Spirit , to engage Parents to bring them up well in the nuriure and admonition of the Lord ; they are persons obliged by a superinduced band , they are to give them instructions and holy principles , as they give them meat ; and it is certain that Parents may better stipulate for their children , then the Church can for men and women ; for they may be present Impostors and Hypocrites , as the Church story tells of some , and consequently are {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , not really converted , and ineffectively baptized : and the next day they may change their resolution , and grow weary of their Vow : and that is the most that children can do when they come to age : and it is very much in the Parents , whether the children shall do any such thing , or no ; — purus & insons [ Ut me collaudem ] si & vivo carus amicis , Causa fuit Pater his — Ipse mihi custos incorruptissimus omnes Circum Doctores aderat ; quid multa ? pudicum ( Qui primus virtutis honos ) servavit ab omni Non solùm facto , verùm opprobrio quoque turpi : — ob hoc nunc Laus illi debetur , & à me gratia major . Horat , For Education can introduce a habit and a second nature , against which children cannot kick , unless they do some violence to themselves and their inclinations . And although it fails too often when ever it fails , yet we pronounce prudently concerning future things , when we have a less influence into the event , then in the present case , ( and therefore are more unapt persons to stipulate ) and less reason in the thing it self ( and therefore have not so much reason to be confident . ) Is not the greatest prudence of Generals instanced in their foreseeing future events , and guessing at the designs of their enemies , concerning which they have less reason to be confident , then Parents of their childrens belief of the Christian Creed ? To which I adde this consideration , That Parents or Godfathers may therefore safely and prudently promise , that their children shall be of the Christian faith , because we not onely see millions of men and women who not onely believe the whole Creed onely upon the stock of their education ; but there are none that ever do renounce the faith of their Countrey and breeding , unless they be violently tempted by interest or weakness , antecedent or consequent . He that sees all men almost to be Christians , because they are bid to be so , need not question the fittingness of Godfathers promising in behalf of the children for whom they answer . And however the matter be for Godfathers , yet the tradition of baptizing Infants passed through the hands of Irenaeus , Omnem aetatem sanctificans per illam quae ad ipsam erat similitudinem . Omnes n. venit per semetipsum salvare , omnes inquam qui per eum renascuntur in Deum , infantes , & parvulos , & pueros , & juvenes , & seniores . Ideo per omnem venit aetatem , & infantibus infans factus sanctificās infantes , in parvulis parvulus , &c. Christ did sanctifie every age by his own susception of it , and similitude to it . For he came to save all men by himself , I say all who by him are born again unto God , Infants , and children , and boyes , and yong men , and old men . He was made an Infant to Infants , sanctifying Infants , a little one to the little ones , &c. And Origen is express , Ecclesia traditionem ab Apostolis suscepit etiam parvulis dare baptismum . The Church hath received a Tradition from the Apostles to give Baptism to Children . And S. Cyprian in his Epistle to Fidus , gives account of this Article : for being questioned by some lesse skilfull persons , whether it were lawfull to baptize Children before the eighth day ; he gives account of the whole question , and a whole Councell of sixty six Bishops upon very good reason decreed , that their baptism should at no hand be deferred , though whether six , or eight , or ten dayes , was no matter , so there be no danger or present necessity . The whole epistle is worth the reading . But besides these authorities of such who writ before the starting of the Pelagian Questions , it will not be useless to bring their discourses , of them and others , I mean the reason upon which the Church did it both before and after . Irenaeus his argument was this ; Christ tooke upon him our nature to sanctifie and to save it ; and passed through the severall periods of it , even unto death , which is the symbole and effect of old age ; and therefore it is certaine he did sanctifie all the periods of it : and why should he be an infant , but that infants should receive the Crowne of their age , the purification of their stained nature , the sanctification of their persons , and the saving of their soules by their Infant Lord and elder Brother ? Omnis enim anima eousque in Adam censetur donec in Christo recenseatur : tamdiu immunda quamdiu recenseatur . Every soul is accounted in Adam till it be new accounted in Christ ; and so long as it is accounted in Adam , so long it is uncleane ; and we know no uncleane thing can enter into heaven ; and therefore our Lord hath defined it , Unlesse ye be born of water and the spirit , ye cannot enter into the Kingdome of Heaven : that is , ye cannot be holy . It was the argument of Tertullian ; which the rather is to be received , because he was one lesse favorable to the custome of the Church in his time of baptizing Infants , which custome he noted and acknowledged , and hath also in the preceding discourse fairely proved . * And indeed ( that S. Cyprian may superadde his Symbol ) God who is no accepter of persons will also be no accepter of ages . * For if to the greatest delinquents sinning long before against God ; remission of sins be given when afterwards they beleive , and from Baptisme and from Grace no man is forbidden , how much more ought not an Infant be forbidden , who being new born , hath sinned nothing , save onely that being in the flesh , born of Adam in his first birth ; he hath contracted the contagion of an old death ? Who therefore comes the easier to obtain remission of sins , because to him are forgiven not his own , but the sins of another man . None ought to be driven from Baptism and the Grace of God , who is mercifull , and gentle , and pious unto all ; and therefore much lesse Infants , who more deserve our aid , and more need the divine mercy , because in the first beginning of their birth crying and weeping , they can do nothing but call for mercy and reliefe . For this reason it was ( saith Origen ) that they to whom the secrets of the Divine mysteries were committed , did baptize their Infants , because there was born with them the Impurities of sin , which did need material absolution as a Sacrament of spiritual purification ; for that it may appear that our sins have a proper analogy to this Sacrament , the body it self is called the body of sin : and therefore the washing of the body is not ineffectual towards the great work of pardon and abolition . Indeed after this absolution there remains concupiscence , or the material part of our misery and sin : For Christ by his death onely took away that which when he did dye for us , he bore in his own body upon the tree . Now Christ onely bore the punishment of our sin , and therefore we shall not dye for it , but the material part of the sin Christ bore not . Sin could not come so neer him ; It might make him sick and dye , but not disordered and stained . He was pure from Original and Actual sins ; and therefore that remains in the body , though the guilt and punishment be taken off , and changed into advantages and grace ; and the Actual are cured by the Spirit of grace descending afterwards upon the Church , and sent by our Lord to the same purpose . But it is not rationally to be answered what S. Ambrose sayes , quia omnis peccato obnoxia , ideo omnis aetas Sacramento idonea : For it were strange that sin and misery should seize upon the innocent and most unconsenting persons ; and that they onely should be left without a Sacrament , and an instrument of expiation . And although they cannot consent to the present susception , yet neither do they refuse ; and yet they consent as much to the grace of the Sacrament , as to the prevarication of Adam and because they suffer under this , it were but reason they should be relieved by that . And * it were better ( as Gregory Nazianzen affirms ) that they should be consigned and sanctified without their own knowledge , then to dye without their being sanctified ; for so it happened to the circumcised babes of Israel : and if the conspersion and washing the doore posts with the blood of a lamb , did sacramentally preserve all the first-born of Goshen , it cannot be thought impossible or unreasonable that the want of understanding in children should hinder them from the blessing of a sacrament , and from being redeemed and washed with the blood of the Holy Lamb , who was slain for all from the beginning of the world . After all this it is not inconsiderable that we say the Church hath great power and authority about the Sacraments ; which is observeable in many instances . She appointed what persons she pleased , and in equal power made an unequal dispensation and ministery . The Apostles first dispensed all things , and then they left off exteriour ministeries to attend to the word of God and prayer : and S. Paul accounted it no part of his office to baptize , when he had been separated by imposition of hands at Antioch , to the work of preaching and greater ministeries ; and accounted that act of the Church , the act of Christ , saying , Christ sent mee not to baptize , but to preach the Gospel : they used various forms in the ministration of Baptism , sometimes baptizing in the name of Christ , sometimes expressely invocating the Holy and ever Blessed Trinity : one while [ I baptize thee ] as in the Latine Church , but in Greek , [ Let the servant of Christ be Baptized : ] and in all Ecclesiastical ministeries the Church invented the forms , & in most things hath often charged them , as in absolution , excommunication , and sometimes they baptized people upon their profession of repentance , and then taught them ; as it hapned to the Jaylor and all his family ; in whose case there was no explicit faith afore hand in the mysteries of Religion , so far as appears ; and yet he , and not onely he , but all his house were baptized at that hour of the night when the earthquake was terrible , and the fear was pregnant upon them , & this upon their Masters account , as it is likely : but others were baptized in the conditions of a previous faith , and a new begun repentance * . They baptized in rivers or in lavatories , by dipping or by sprinkling ; for so we finde that S. Laurence did as he went to martyrdom , and so the Church did sometimes to Clinicks , and so it is highly convenient to be done in Northern . Countries according to the prophecy of Isaiah , So shall he sprinkle many Nations , according as the typical expiations among the Jews were usually by sprinkling : and it is fairly relative to the mystery , to the sprinkling with the blood of Christ and the watering of the furrows of our souls with the dew of heaven , to make them to bring forth fruit unto the Spirit and unto holinesse . The Church sometimes dipt the Catechumen three times ; sometimes but once : some Churches use fire in their baptisms , so do the Ethiopians , and the custome was antient in some places . And so in the other Sacrament ; sometimes she stood and sometimes kneeled , and sometimes received it in the mouth , and sometimes in the hand : one while in leavened , another while in unleavened bread : sometimes the wine and water were mingled , sometimes they were pure ; and they admitted some persons to it sometimes , which at other times she rejected : sometimes the Consecration was made by one forme , sometimes by another : and to conclude , sometimes it was given to Infants , sometimes not : and she had power so to do ; for in all things where there was not a Commandment of Christ expressed or imployed in the nature and in the end of the institution , the Church had power to alter the particulars , as was most expedient , or conducing to edification : and although the after ages of the Church which refused to communicate Infants , have found some little things against the lawfulnesse , and those ages that used it found out some pretences for its necessity ; yet both the one and the other had liberty to follow their own necessities , so in all things they followed Christ . Certainly there is infinitely more reason why Infants may be communicated , then why they may not be baptized . And that this discourse may revert to its first intention ; although there is no record extant of any Church in the world , that from the Apostles dayes inclusively to this very day ever refused to baptize their children , yet if they had upon any present reason they might also change their practise , when the reason should be changed ; and therefore if there were nothing els in it , yet the universal practise of all Churches in all ages , is abundantly sufficient to determine us , and to legltimate the practise , since Christ hath not forbidden it . It is sufficient confutation to disagreeing people to use the words of S. Paul , We have no such custome , nor the Churches of God , to suffer children to be strangers from the Covenant of Promise , till they shall enter into it as Jewes or Turks may enter , that is , by choise and disputation . But although this alone to modest and obedient , that is , to Christian Spirits , be sufficient , yet this is more then the question did need . It can stand upon its proper foundation . Quicunque parvulos recentes ab uteris matrum baptizandos negat , anathema est . He that refuseth to baptize his Infants , shall be in danger of the Councel . The PRAYER . O Holy , and Eternall Iesus , who in thy own person wert pleased to sanctify the waters of Baptism , and by thy institution and Commandment didst make them effectual , to excellent purposes of grace and remedy , be pleased to verify the holy effects of Baptism to me and all thy servants whose names are dedicated to thee in an early and timely presentation , and enable us with thy grace to verify all our promises , by which we were bound , then when thou didst first make us thy own portion and relatives in the consummation of a holy Covenant . O be pleased to pardon all those undecencies and unhandsome interruptions of that state of favour in which thou didst plant us by thy grace , and admit us by the gates of Baptism : and let that Spirit which moved upon those holy waters never be absent from us , but call upon us and invite us by a perpetual argument and daily solicitations and inducements to holinesse ; that we may never return to the filthinesse of sin , but by the answer of a good conscience may please thee and glorify thy name , and doe honour to thy religion and institution in this world , and may receive the blessings and the rewards of it in the world to come , being presented to thee pure and spotlesse in the day of thy power when thou shalt lead thy Church to a Kingdome , and endlesse glories . Amen . The End . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A63778e-330 §. 1. §. 2. John 4. 14. §. 3. 1 Pet. 3. 21. §. 4. §. 5. Umbra in lege , imago in Evangelio , veritas in coelo . S. Ambr. §. 6. 1 Cor. 10. 2. §. 7. §. 8. a Tertui . de praescrip. . c. 40. b scholiast. . in Ju. Sat. 2. l. 1. c O nimium faciles qui tristia crimina caedis Tolli flumineâ posse put at is aquâ . §. 9. Joh. 4. 14. §. 10. Audi quid Scripturae doceant : Johannis Baptisma non tam peccata dimisit , quam Baptisma poenitentiae fuit in peccatorum remissionem , idque in futuram remissionem quae esset postea per sanctificationem Christi subsequutura . Hieronym . adv. Luciterian . a Vide suprà . Sect. 9. n. 1. b Acts 8. 16. Acts 2. 38. §. 11. §. 12. Mat. 28. 19. Mark 16. 16. John 3. 5. Gen. 17. 14. S. August . haeres . 46. 59. §. 13. §. 14. Heb. 6. 1. S. August . l. 2. c. 1. de Cate. rudib . Just . Martyr . Apol. 2. Acts 2. 47. §. 15. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . Cyril . Hierosol . Catec . 2. 1 Cor. 12. 13. Acts 13. 48. §. 16. John 3. 5. Titus 3. 5. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . Damasc. l. 4. orth . fid. c. 10. Lib. de c. 1. Lib. 5. Hist. §. 17. Ezek. 36. 25. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . Symb. Nicen. lib. 1. c. 3. in Johan . Acts 22. 16. Eph. 5. 26. Lib. 4. adv. Marc. c. 9. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . Gr. pro . Annon ita credimur quia omne genus peccati cùm ad salutare lavacrum venimus aufertur ? Origen . homil. 15. in Jesu . Ecce quicquid iniquitatum sempiternus ignis excoqucre & expiare vix posset , subito sacro fonte submersum est , & de aeternis debitis brevissimo lavacri compendio cum indulgentissimo creditore transactum est . Ambros. l. 1. c. 7. de poen . Qui dicit peccata in Baptismo non funditùs dimitti , dicat in mari rubro AEgyptios non veraciter mortuos . S. Greg. M. l. 9. ep. 39. Phavorin . l. 2. Arator . l. 2. Hist. Apostal . Rev. 7. 14. 1 Joh. 1. 7. Acts 22. 16. Tit. 3. 5. Heb. 9. 14. 1 Joh. 5. 8. §. 18. Titus 3. 4 , 5. Theodoret. Ep. de divin. Decret , cap. de Lib. de Nuptiis . cap. 23. & Tract. 124. in Johan . Vide Salmeron . tom. 13. p. 487. §. 19. Gil. 3. 26. Verse 29. Heb. 10. 16. &c. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , scil. ad fururum respiciens {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . 2 Pet. 1. 9. Vide part . 2. dis 6. 9. of Repentance , num . 9. ad 31. §. 20. Paulin. Ep. 12. ad Serenum . 1 Cor. 12. 13. John 3. 5. S. Basil. de Spir. S. cap. 15. §. 21. * 2 Cor. 1. 22. Eph. 1. 13. 4. 30. John 6. 27. S. Cyril . Hieros . Catech. 3. §. 22. S. Basil. in Psal. 28. Heb. 10. 32. Heb. 6. 4. 1 Joh. 2. 20. 27. §. 23. 1 John 3. 3. Lib. de Spir. S. c. 13. Rom. 6. 7. ver. 5. 6. * {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . Plutar. vide Disc. 9. of Repentance n. 46. §. 24. Rom. 6. 3. 5. Col. 2. 12. §. 25. Mark 16. 16. Tit. 3. 5. Niceph. l. 7. c. 35. Socr. l. 5. c. 6. Idem lib. 7. c. 7. Psal. 34. 7. Heb. 1. 14. Basil. Theodor . Epiphan. N azianz . Col. 2. 2. Cyril . Heros . Dionys. Arcop . Aug. l. 2. c. 13. Contra Crescon. Gram. §. 27. Mark 16. 16. Acts 2. 28. Apol. ad Anton. Caes. 1 Pet. 3. 21. Tertull. de resur. Carn . Ad Tryphon . Jud. Dial. eum Tryph. Lib. 2. adv. Parm. Clem. Alex. lib. 1. paedag. . c. 6. §. 28. Notes for div A63778e-5630 §. 1. §. 2. Acts 1047. Aug. de mor b. Eccles. Cath. l. 1. c. 35. Bern. Serm. de coena Dom. §. 3. Acts 8. 37. Acts 2. 38. Act. 3. 15. §. 4. S. 5. Mat. 9. 28. Mark 9. 23. Mat. 8. 13. John 4. 50. Mat. 9. 28. §. 6. John 6. 44. Mark 10. 15. 7. §. 8. Luke 17. 20 , 21 Luke 18. 16. §. 9. Iuke 4. 22. 28. 1 Pet. 1. 2. 2 Thess. 1. 2. Rom. 8. 30. Eccles. 1. §. 11. §. 12. §. 13. * §. 25. &c. §. 14. Gen. 17. 2 , &c. Heb. 11. 13. 14. 15. Rom. 4. 11. 7. 12. §. 15. Rom. 4. 11 , 12 V. 17. V. 13. Gal. 3. 14. 29. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , Epiphan l. 1. haeres . 8. scil. Epicuraeor . §. 16. Tit. 3. 5. §. 17. Rom. 5. 17 , 18. Vide August . l. 4. cont. duas Epistolas Pelag. c. 4. l. 6. contr. Jur. c. 4. Prosper . contra Collatorem . cap. 20. Orat. 40. in S. §. 18. a Lib. 3. adv. Pelag. 6. lib. 1. in initio . Lib. de c. 18. §. 19. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . Dionys. AErop . Eccles. Hier. cap. 3. part . 3. Ut quod perdideramus in Adam , i. e. secundum imaginem & similitudinem esse Dei , hoc in Jesu Christo reciperemus . Irenaeus lib. 3. c. 30. 1 John 1. 8. Ep. ad Fiden . lib. 3. cp. 8. S. Aug. lib. de pec . Mer. & remiss . c. 9. §. 20. §. 21. §. 22. §. 23. §. 24. Nisi qui renatus fuerit &c. utique nullum excipit , non infantem , non aliqua praeventum necessitate . Ambr. de Abrah . patr. lib. 2. c. 11. Lib. 2. c. 11. de Abrah . patriare . §. 25. §. 26. §. 27. Isa. 49. 22. §. 28. §. 39. L. 2. c. 39. Vide etlam Constit. Clementis . {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Lib. 5. ad Rom. c. 6. idem homil . 14. in Lucam & lib. 8. hom 8. in Levitic . §. 30. §. 31. Irenaeus . §. 32. Tertullian . Lib. de anima : c. 39. & 4a S. Cyprian epist. ad Fidum . Cyprian . Origen . lib. 5. ad Rom. C. 6. §. 33. S. Ambros. de Abraham patriar. . l. 2. c. 11. * S. Greg. Naz. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . Or. c. 40. in S. §. 3. 4. * Non ut delinquere desinant , sed quia desierunt , as Tertul. phraseth it . Isa. 52. 15. 1 Pet. 1. 2. Aqua refectionis & haptisms lavacrum quo anima sterilis ariditate peccati ad bonos fructus inferendos divinis muneribus irrigatur . Cassidor . m. 23. ps. 2. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , dixit Heracleon apud Clem. Alex. Concil. Milevit . Can. 2. 
A63784	----	A discourse of the nature, offices, and measures of friendship with rules of conducting it / written in answer to a letter from the most ingenious and vertuous M.K.P. by J.T. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. This text is an enriched version of the TCP digital transcription A63784 of text R27531 in the English Short Title Catalog (Wing T317). Textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. The text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with MorphAdorner. The annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). Textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. This text has not been fully proofread Approx. 143 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 91 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. EarlyPrint Project Evanston,IL, Notre Dame, IN, St. Louis, MO 2017 A63784 Wing T317 ESTC R27531 09928965 ocm 09928965 44361 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A63784) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 44361) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1369:2) A discourse of the nature, offices, and measures of friendship with rules of conducting it / written in answer to a letter from the most ingenious and vertuous M.K.P. by J.T. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. Two letters written to persons newly changed in their religion. 176 p. Printed for R. Royston, London : 1657. "To which are added Two letters written to persons newly changed in their religion, the first to a gentlewoman seduced to the Roman Church, the other to a person returning to the Church of England, by J.T." Reproduction of original in the Trinity College Library, Cambridge University. eng Catholic Church -- Controversial literature. Friendship. A63784 R27531 (Wing T317). civilwar no A discourse of the nature, offices and measures of friendship, with rules of conducting it. Written in answer to a letter from the most inge Taylor, Jeremy 1657 27738 7 150 0 0 0 0 57 D The rate of 57 defects per 10,000 words puts this text in the D category of texts with between 35 and 100 defects per 10,000 words. 2000-00 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2001-08 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2002-02 TCP Staff (Michigan) Sampled and proofread 2002-02 TCP Staff (Michigan) Text and markup reviewed and edited 2002-03 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A Discourse of the Nature , Offices and Measures of Friendship , With Rules of conducting it . Written in answer to a Letter from the most ingenious and vertuous M. K. P. By J. T. D.D. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . Dion . orat . 1. de regno . LONDON , Printed for R. Royston at the Angel in Ivie-lane . 1657. To which are added Two Letters written to persons newly changed in their Religion . The first to a Gentlewoman seduced to the Roman Church , The other to a person returning t the Church of England . By J. T. D.D. Volo Solidum Perenne . A Discourse of the Nature and Offices of Friendship . In a Letter to the most ingenious and excellent M. K. P. Madam , THe wise Bensirach advised that we should not consult with a woman concerning her of whom she is jealous , neither with a coward in matters of warr , nor with a merchant concerning exchange ; and some other instances he gives of interested persons , to whom he would not have us hearken in any matter of Counsel . For where ever the interest is secular or vitious , there the bias is not on the side of truth or reason , because these are seldome serv'd by profit and low regards . But to consult with a friend in the matters of friendship is like consulting with a spiritual person in Religion ; they who understand the secrets of Religion , or the interior beauties of friendship are the fittest to give answers in all inquiries concerning the respective subjects ; because reason and experience are on the side of interest ; and that which in friendship is most pleasing , and most useful is also most reasonable and most true ; and a friends fairest interest is the best measure of the conducting friendships : and therefore you who are so eminent in friendships could also have given the best answer to your own inquiries , and you could have trusted your own reason , because it is not only greatly instructed by the direct notices of things , but also by great experience in the matter of which you now inquire . But because I will not use any thing that shall look like an excuse , I will rather give you such an account which you can easily reprove , then by declining your commands , seem more safe in my prudence , then open and communicative in my friendship to you . You first inquire how far a Dear and a perfect friendship is authoriz'd by the principles of Christianity ? To this I answer ; that the word [ Friendship ] in the sense we commonly mean by it , is not so much as named in the New-Testament ; and our Religion takes no notice of it . You think it strange ; but read on before you spend so much as the beginning of a passion or a wonder upon it . There is mention of [ friendship of the world , ] and it is said to be enmity with God ; but the word is no where else named , or to any other purpose in all the New-Testament . It speakes of friends often ; but by friends are meant , our acquaintance , or our Kindred , the relatives of our family or our fortune , or our sect ; something of society , or something of kindness there is in it ; a tenderness of appellation and Civility , a relation made by gifts , or by duty , by services and subjection ; and I think , I have reason to be confident , that the word friend ( speaking of humane entercourse ) is no otherwayes used in the Gospels or Epistles , or Acts of the Apostles : and the reason of it is , the word friend is of a large signification ; and means all relations and societies , and whatsoever is not enemy ; but by friendships , I suppose you mean , the greatest love , and the greatest usefulness , and the most open communication , and the noblest sufferings and the most exemplar faithfulness , and the severest truth , and the heartiest counsel , and the greatest Union of mindes , of which brave men and women are capable . But then I must tell you that Christianity hath new Christened it , and calls this Charity . The Christian knows no enemy he hath ; that is , though persons may be injurious to him , and unworthy in themselves , yet he knows none whom he is not first bound to forgive which is indeed to make them on his part to be no enemies , that is , to make that the word enemy shall not be perfectly contrary to friend , it shall not be a relative term and signifie something on each hand , a relative and a correlative ; and then he knows none whom he is not bound to love and pray for , to treat kindly and justly , liberally and obligingly . Christian Charity is friendship to all the world ; and when friendships were the noblest things in the world , charity was little , like the sunne drawn in at a chinke , or his beames drawn into the Centre of a burning-glass ; but Christian charity is friendship , expanded like the face of the sunne when it mounts above the Eastern hills : and I was strangely pleas'd when I saw something of this in Cicero ; for I have been so push'd at by herds and flocks of people that follow any body that whistles to them , or drives them to pasture , that I am grown afraid of any truth that seems chargeable with singularity : but therefore I say , glad I was when I saw Laelius in Cicero discourse thus . Amicitia ex infinitate generis humani quam conciliavit ipsa natura , contracta res est , & adducta in angustum ; ut omnis charitas , aut inter duos , aut inter paucos jungeretur . Nature hath made friendships , and societies , relations and endearments ; and by something or other we relate to all the world ; there is enough in every man that is willing , to make him become our friend ; but when men contract friendships , they inclose the Commons ; and what Nature intended should be every mans , we make proper to two or three . Friendship is like rivers and the strand of seas , and the ayre , common to all the world ; but Tyrants , and evil customes , warrs , and want of love have made them proper and peculiar . But when Christianity came to renew our nature , and to restore our lawes , and to increase her priviledges , and to make her aptness to become religion , then it was declared that our friendships were to be as universal as our conversation ; that is , actual to all with whom we converse , and potentially extended unto those with whom we did not . For he who was to treat his enemies with forgiveness and prayers , and love and beneficence was indeed to have no enemies , and to have all friends . So that to your question , how far a Dear and perfect friendship is authoris'd by the principles of Christianity ? The answer is ready and easy . It is warranted to extend to all mankind ; and the more we love , the better we are , and the greater our friendships are , the dearer we are to God ; let them be as Dear , and let them be as perfect , and let them be as many as you can ; there is no danger in it ; only where the restraint begins , there begins our imperfection ; it is not ill that you entertain brave friendships and worthy societies : it were well if you could love , and if you could benefit all mankinde ; for I conceive that is the sum of all friendships . I confess this is not to be expected of us in this world ; but as all our graces here are but imperfect , that is , at the best they are but tendencies to glory , so our friendships are imperfect too , and but beginnings of a celestial friendship , by which we shall love every one as much as they can be loved . But then so we must here in our proportion ; and indeed that is it that can make the difference ; we must be friends to all : That is , apt to do good , loving them really , and doing to them all the benefits which we can , and which they are capable of . The friendship is equal to all the world , and of it selfe hath no difference ; but is differenc'd only by accidents and by the capacity or incapacity of them that receive it : Nature and the Religion are the bands of friendships ; excellency and usefulness are its great indearments : society and neighbourhood , that is , the possibilities and the circumstances of converse are the determinations and actualities of it . Now when men either are unnatural , or irreligious , they will not be friends ; when they are neither excellent nor useful , they are not worthy to be friends ; when they are strangers or unknown , they cannot be friends actually and practically ; but yet , as any man hath any thing of the good , contrary to those evils , so he can have and must have his share of friendship . For thus the Sun is the eye of the World ; and he is indifferent to the Negro , or the cold Russian , to them that dwell under the line , and them that stand neer the Tropicks , the scalded Indian or the poor boy that shakes at the foot of the Riphean hills ; but the fluxures of the heaven and the earth , the conveniency of aboad , and the approaches to the North or South respectively change the emanations of his beams ; not that they do not pass alwayes from him , but that they are not equally received below , but by periods and changes , by little inlets and reflections , they receive what they can ; and some have only a dark day and a long night from him , snowes and white cattel , a miserable life , and a perpetual harvest of Catarrhes and consumptions , apoplexies and dead-palsies ; but some have splendid fires , and aromatick spices , rich wines , and well digested fruits , great wit and great courage ; because they dwell in his eye , and look in his face , and are the Courtiers of the Sun , and wait upon him in his Chambers of the East ; just so is it in friendships : some are worthy , and some are necessary ; some dwell hard by and are fitted for converse ; Nature joyns some to us , and Religion combines us with others ; society and accidents , parity of fortune , and equal dispositions do actuate our friendships : which of themselves and in their prime disposition are prepared for all mankind according as any one can receive them . We see this best exemplified by two instances and expressions of friendships and charity : viz. Almes and Prayers ; Every one that needs relief is equally the object of our charity ; but though to all mankind in equal needs we ought to be alike in charity ; yet we signifie this severally and by limits , and distinct measures : the poor man that is near me , he whom I meet , he whom I love , he whom I fancy , he who did me benefit , he who relates to my family , he rather then another , because my expressions being finite and narrow , and cannot extend to all in equal significations , must be appropriate to those whose circumstances best fit me : and yet even to all I give my almes : to all the world that needs them ; I pray for all mankind , I am grieved at every sad story I hear ; I am troubled when I hear of a pretty bride murdered in her bride-chamber by an ambitious and enrag'd Rival ; I shed a tear when I am told that a brave King was misunderstood , then slandered , then imprisoned , and then put to death by evil men : and I can never read the story of the Parisian Massacre , or the Sicilian vespers , but my blood curdles and I am disorder'd by two or three affections . A good man is a friend to all the world ; and he is not truly charitable that does not wish well , and do good to all mankind in what he can ; but though we must pray for all men , yet we say speciall Letanies for brave Kings and holy Prelates , and the wise Guides of souls ; for our Brethren and Relations , our Wives and Children . The effect of this consideration is , that the Universal friendship of which I speak , must be limited , because we are so : In those things where we stand next to immensity and infinity , as in good wishes and prayers , and a readiness to benefit all mankind , in these our friendships must not be limited ; but in other things which pass under our hand or eye , our voices and our material exchanges , our hands can reach no further but to our arms end , and our voices can but sound till the next air be quiet , and therefore they can have entercourse but within the sphere of their own activity ; our needs and our conversations are served by a few , and they cannot reach to all ; where they can , they must ; but where it is impossible it cannot be necessary . It must therefore follow , that our friendships to mankinde may admit variety as does our conversation ; and as by nature we are made sociable to all , so we are friendly ; but as all cannot actually be of our society , so neither can all be admitted to a speciall , actuall friendship ; Of some entercourses all men are capable , but not of all ; Men can pray for one another , and abstain from doing injuries to all the world , and be desirous to do all mankinde good , and love all men ; Now this friendship we must pay to all because we can , but if we can do no more to all , we must shew our readinesse to do more good to all by actually doing more good to all them to whom we can . To some we can , and therefore there are nearer friendships to some then to others , according as there are natural or civil nearnesses , relations and societies ; and as I cannot expresse my friendships to all in equal measures and significations , that is , as I cannot do benefits to all alike , so neither am I tied to love all alike : for although there is much reason to love every man ; yet there are more reasons to love , some then others , and if I must love because there is reason I should ; then I must love more , where there is more reason ; and where ther 's a special affection and a great readiness to do good and to delight in certain persons towards each other , there is that special charity and indearment which Philosophy calls friendships ; but our Religion calls love or charity . Now if the inquiry be concerning this special friendship . 1. how it can be appropriate , that is , who to be chosen to it ; 2 how far it may extend ; that is , with what expressions signified ; 3 how conducted ? The answers will depend upon such considerations which will be nei●her useless nor unpleasant . 1. There may be a special friendship contracted for any special excellency whatsoever , because friendships are nothing but love and society mixt together ; that is , a conversing with them whom we love ; now for whatsoever we can love any one , for that we can be his friend ; and since every excellency is a degree of amability , every such worthiness is a just and proper motive of friendship , or loving conversation . But yet in these things there is an order and proportion . Therefore 2. A Good man is the best friend , and therefore soonest to be chosen , longer to be retain'd ; and indeed never to be parted with ; unless he cease to be that for which he was chosen . {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . Where vertue dwells there friendships make , But evil neighbourhoods forsake . But although vertue alone is the worthiest cause of amability , and can weigh down any one consideration ; and therefore to a man that is vertuous every man ought to be a friend ; yet I doe not mean the severe , and philosophical excellencies of some morose persons who are indeed wise unto themselves and exemplar to others : by vertue here I do not mean justice and temperance , charity and devotion ; for these I am to love the man , but friendship is something more then that : Friendship is the nearest love and the nearest society of which the persons are capable : Now justice is a good entercourse for Merchants , as all men are that buy and sell ; and temperance makes a Man good company , and helps to make a wise man ; but a perfect friendship requires something else , these must be in him that is chosen to be my friend ; but for these I do not make him my privado ; that is , my special and peculiar friend : but if he be a good man , then he is properly fitted to be my correlative in the noblest combination . And for this we have the best warrant in the world : For a just man scarcely will a man die ; the Syriac interpreter reads it , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} for an unjust man scarcely will a man die ; that is , a wicked man is at no hand fit to receive the expression of the greatest friendship ; but all the Greek copies that ever I saw , or read of , read it as we doe ; for a righteous man or a just man that is , justice and righteousness is not the nearest indearment of friendship ; but for a good man some will even dare to die : that is , for a man that is sweetly disposed , ready to doe acts of goodnesse and to oblige others , to do things useful and profitable , for a loving man , a beneficent , bountiful man , one who delights in doing good to his friend , such a man may have the highest friendship ; he may have a friend that will die for him . And this is the meaning of Laelius : Vertue may be despised , so may Learning and Nobility ; at una est amicitia in rebus humanis de cujus utilitate omnes consentiunt : only friendship is that thing , which because all know to be useful and profitable , no man can despise ; that is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , or {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , goodnesse or beneficence makes friendships . For if he be a good man he will love where he is beloved , and that 's the first tie of friendship . {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . That was the commendation of the bravest friendship in Theocritus They lov'd each other with a love That did in all things equal prove . — {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The world was under Saturns reign Wen he that lov'd was lov'd again . For it is impossible this neerness of friendship can be where there is not mutual love ; but this is secured if I choose a good man ; for he that is apt enough to begin alone , will never be behinde in the relation and correspondency ; and therefore I like the Gentiles Letany well . {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Let God give friends to me for my reward , Who shall my love with equal love regard ; Happy are they , who when they give their heart , Find such as in exchange their own impart . But there is more in it then this felicity amounts to . For {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the good man is a profitable , useful person , and that 's the band of an effective friendship . For I do not think that friendships are Metaphysical nothings , created for contemplation , or that men or women should stare upon each others faces , and make dialogues of news and prettinesses , and look babies in one anothers eyes . Friendship is the allay of our sorrows , the ease of our passions , the discharge of our oppressions , the sanctuary to our calamities , the counsellor of our doubts , the clarity of our minds , the emission of our thoughts , the exercise and improvement of what we meditate : And although I love my friend because he is worthy , yet he is not worthy if he can do no good . I do not speak of accidental hinderances and misfortunes by which the bravest man may become unable to help his Childe ; but of the natural and artificial capacities of the man . He only is fit to be chosen for a friend , who can do those offices for which friendship is excellent . For ( mistake not ) no man can be loved for himselfe ; our perfections in this world cannot reach so high ; it is well if we would love God at that rate , and I very much fear , that if God did us no good , we might admire his Beauties , but we should have but a small proportion of love towards him ; and therefore it is , that God to endear the obedience , that is , the love of his servants signifies what benefits he gives us , what great good things he does for us . I am the Lord God that brought thee out of the Land of Egypt : and does Job serve God for nought ? And he that comes to God , must believe that he is , and that he is a rewarder : all his other greatnesses are objects of fear and wonder , it is his goodness that makes him lovely : and so it is in friendships . He only is fit to be chosen for a friend who can give me counsel , or defend my cause , or guide me right , or relieve my need , or can and will , when I need it , do me good : only this I adde : into the heaps of doing good , I will reckon [ loving me ] for it is a pleasure to be beloved ; but when his love signifies nothing but Kissing my Cheek or talking kindly , and can goe no further , it is a prostitution of the bravery of friendship to spend it upon impertinent people who are ( it may be ) loads to their families , but can never ease my loads : but my friend is a worthy person when he can become to me instead of God , a guide or a support , an eye , or a hand ; a staffe , or a rule : There must be in friendship something to distinguish it from a Companion , and a Countryman , from a School-fellow or a Gossip , from a Sweet-heart or a Fellow-traveller : Friendship may look in at any one of these doors , but it stayes not anywhere till it come to be the best thing in the world : and when we consider that one man is not better then another , neither towards God nor Man , but by doing better and braver things , we shall also see , that that which is most beneficent is also most excellent ; and therefore those friendships must needs be most perfect , where the friends can be most useful . For men cannot be useful but by worthinesses in the several instances : a fool cannot be relied upon for counsel ; nor a vitious person for the advantages of vertue , nor a beggar for relief , nor a stranger for conduct , nor a tatler to keep a secret , nor a pittiless person trusted with my complaint , nor a covetous man with my childes fortune , nor a false person without a witness , nor a suspicious person with a private design ; nor him that I fear with the treasures of my love : But he that is wise and vertuous , rich and at hand , close and mercifull , free of his money and tenacious of a secret , open and ingenuous , true and honest , is of himself an excellent man ; and therefore fit to be lov'd ; and he can do good to me in all capacities where I can need him , and therefore is fit to be a friend . I confess we are forced in our friendships to abate some of these ingredients ; but full measures of friendship , would have full measures of worthiness ; and according as any defect is in the foundation ; in the relation also there may be imperfection : and indeed I shall not blame the friendship so it be worthy , though it be not perfect ; not only because friendship is charity , which cannot be perfect here , but because there is not in the world a perfect cause of perfect friendship . If you can suspect that this discourse can suppose friendship to be mercenary , and to be defective in the greatest worthiness of it , which is to love our friend for our friends sake ( for so Scipio said , that it was against friendship to say , ita amare oportere ut aliquando esset usurus , that we ought so to love , that we may also some times make use of a friend : ) I shall easily be able to defend my self ; because I speak of the election and reasons of choosing friends : after he is chosen do as nobly as you talke , and love as purely as you dream , and let your conversation be as metaphysical as your discourse , and proceed in this method , till you be confuted by experience ; yet till then , the case is otherwise when we speak of choosing one to be my friend : He is not my friend till I have chosen him , or loved him ; and if any man enquires whom he shall choose or whom he should love , I suppose it ought not to be answered , that we should love him who hath least amability ; that we should choose him who hath least reason to be chosen : But if it be answered , he is to be chosen to be my friend who is most worthy in himself , not he that can do most good to me ; I say , here is a distinction but no difference ; for he is most worthy in himself who can do most good ; and if he can love me too , that is , if he will do me all the good he can , or that I need , then he is my friend and he deserves it . And it is impossible from a friend to separate a will to do me good : and therefore I do not choose well , if I choose one that hath not power ; for if it may consist with the nobleness of friendship to desire that my friend be ready to do me benefit or support , it is not sense to say , it is ignoble to desire he should really do it when I need ; and if it were not for pleasure or profit , we might as well be without a friend as have him . Among all the pleasures and profits , the sensual pleasure and the matter of money are the lowest and the least ; and therefore although they may sometimes be used in friendship , and so not wholly excluded from the consideration of him that is to choose , yet of all things they are to be the least regarded ; {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} When fortune frowns upon a man , A friend does more then money can . For there are besides these , many profits and many pleasures ; and because these only are sordid , all the other are noble and fair and the expectations of them no disparagements to the best friendships . For can any wise or good man be angry if I say , I chose this man to be my friend , because he is able to give me counsel , to restrain my wandrings , to comfort me in my sorrows ; he is pleasant to me in private , and useful in publick ; he will make my joyes double , and divide my grief between himself and me ? For what else should I choose ? For being a fool , and useless ; for a pretty face or a smooth chin ; I confess it is possible to be a friend to one that is ignorant , and pitiable , handsome and good for nothing , that eats well , and drinks deep : but he cannot be a friend to me ; and I love him with a fondness or a pity , but it cannot be a noble friendship . {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . said Menander . By wine and mirth and every dayes delight We choose our friends , to whom we think we might Our souls intrust ; but fools are they that lend Their bosome to the shadow of a friend . {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . Plutarch calls such friendships , the Idols and Images of friendship . True and brave friendships are between worthy persons ; and there is in mankind no degree of worthiness , but is also a degree of usefulness , and by every thing by which a man is excellent , I may be profited : and because those are the bravest friends which can best serve the ends of friendships , either we must suppose that friendships are not the greatest comforts in the world , or else we must say , he chooses his friend best , that chooses such a one by whom he can receive the greatest comforts and assistances . 3. This being the measure of all friendships ; they all partake of excellency , according as they are fitted to this measure : a friend may be counselled well enough though his friend be not the wisest man in the world , and he may be pleased in his society though he be not the best natured man in the world ; but still it must be , that something excellent is , or is apprehended , or else it can be no worthy friendship ; because the choice is imprudent and foolish . Choose for your friend him that is wise and good , and secret and just , ingenuous and honest ; and in those things which have a latitude , use your own liberty ; but in such things which consist in an indivisible point , make no abatements : That is , you must not choose him to be your friend that is not honest and secret , just and true to a tittle ; but if he be wise at all , and useful in any degree , and as good as you can have him , you need not be ashamed to own your friendships ; though sometimes you may be ashamed of some imperfections of your friend . 4. But if you yet enquire further , whether fancy may be an ingredient in your choice ? I answer , that fancy may minister to this as to all other actions in which there is a liberty and variety ; and we shall finde that there may be peculiarities and little partialities , a friendship , improperly so called , entring upon accounts of an innocent passion and a pleas'd fancy ; even our Blessed Saviour himself loved S. Iohn and Lazarus by a special love , which was signified by special treatments ; and of the young man that spake well and wisely to Christ , it is affirmed , Iesus loved him : that is , he fancied the man ; and his soul had a certain cognation and similitude of temper and inclination . For in all things where there is a latitude , every faculty will endeavour to be pleased , and sometimes the meanest persons in a house have a festival ; even sympathies and natural inclinations to some persons , and a conformity of humors , and proportionable loves , and the beauty of the face , and a witty answer may first strike the flint and kindle a spark , which if it falls upon tender and compliant natures may grow into a flame ; but this will never be maintained at the rate of friendship , unless it be fed by pure materials , by worthinesses which are the food of friendship . Where these are not , men and women may be pleased with one anothers company , and lie under the same roof , and make themselves companions of equal prosperities , and humour their friend ; but if you call this friendship , you give a sacred name to humour or fancy ; for there is a Platonic friendship as well as a Platonic love ; but they being but the Images of more noble bodies are but like tinsell dressings , which will shew bravely by candle-light , and do excellently in a mask , but are not fit for conversation , and the material entercourses of our life . These are the prettinesses of prosperity and good natur'd wit ; but when we speak of friendship , which is the best thing in the world ( for it is love and beneficence ; it is charity that is fitted for society ) we cannot suppose a brave pile should be built up with nothing ; and they that build Castles in the aire , and look upon friendship , as upon a fine Romance , a thing that pleases the fancy , but is good for nothing else , will doe well when they are asleep , or when they are come to Elysium ; and for ought I know in the mean time may be as much in love with Mandana in the Grand Cyrus , as with the Countess of Exeter ; and by dreaming of perfect and abstracted friendships , make them so immaterial that they perish in the handling and become good for nothing . But I know not whither I was going ; I did only mean to say that because friendship is that by which the world is most blessed and receives most good , it ought to be chosen amongst the worthiest persons , that is , amongst those that can do greatest benefit to each other ; and though in equal worthiness I may choose by my eye , or ear , that is , into the consideration of the essential I may take in also the accidental and extrinsick worthinesses ; yet I ought to give every one their just value ; when the internal beauties are equal , these shall help to weigh down the scale , and I will love a worthy friend that can delight me as well as profit me , rather then him who cannot delight me at all , and profit me no more ; but yet I will not weigh the gayest flowers , or the wings of butterflies against wheat ; but when I am to choose wheat , I may take that which looks the brightest : I had rather see Time and Roses , Marjoram and July flowers that are fair and sweet and medicinal , then the prettiest Tulips that are good for nothing : And my Sheep and Kine are better servants then race-Horses and Grayhounds : And I shall rather furnish my study with Plutarch and Cicero , with Livy and Polybius , then with Cassandra and Ibrahim Bassa ; and if I do give an hour to these for divertisement or pleasure , yet I will dwell with them that can instruct me and make me wise , and eloquent , severe and useful to my selfe , and others . I end this with the saying of Laelius in Cicero : Amicitia non debet consequi utilitatem , sed amicitiam utilitas . When I choose my friend , I will not stay till I have received a kindness ; but I will choose such a one that can doe me many if I need them : But I mean such kindnesses which make me wiser , and which make me better ; that is , I will when I choose my friend , choose him that is the bravest , the worthiest and the most excellent person : and then your first Question is soon answered ; to love such a person and to contract such friendships is just so authorized by the principles of Christianity , as it is warranted to love wisdome and vertue , goodness and beneficence , and all the impresses of God upon the spirits of brave men . 2. The next inquiry is how far it may extend ? That is , by what expressions it may be signified ? I finde that David and Ionathan loved at a strange rate ; they were both good men ; though it happened that Ionathan was on the obliging side ; but here the expressions were ; Ionathan watched for Davids good ; told him of his danger , and helped him to escape ; took part with Davids innocence against his Fathers malice and injustice ; and beyond all this , did it to his own prejudice ; and they two stood like two feet supporting one body ; though Ionathan knew that David would prove like the foot of a Wrastler , and would supplant him , not by any unworthy or unfriendly action , but it was from God ; and he gave him his hand to set him upon his own throne . We finde his paralels in the Gentile stories : young Athenodorus having divided the estate with his Brother Xenon ; divided it again when Xenon had spent his own share ; and Lucullus would not take the Consulship till his younger brother had first enjoyed it for a year ; but Pollux divided with Castor his immortality ; and you know who offer'd himselfe to death being pledg for his friend ; and his friend by performing his word rescued him a bravely : and when we finde in Scripture that for a good man some will even dare to die ; and that Aquila and Priscilla laid their necks down for S. Paul ; and the Galatians would have given him their very eyes , that is , every thing that was most dear to them , and some others were neer unto death for his sake ; and that it is a precept of Christian charity , to lay down our lives for our Brethren , that is , those who were combined in a cause of Religion , who were united with the same hopes , and imparted to each other ready assistances , and grew dear by common sufferings , we need enquire no further for the expressions of friendships : Greater love then this hath no man , then that he lay down his life for his friends ; and this we are oblig'd to do in some Cases for all Christians ; and therefore we may do it for those who are to us in this present and imperfect state of things , that which all the good men and women in the world shall be in Heaven , that is , in the state of perfect friendships . This is the biggest ; but then it includes and can suppose all the rest ; and if this may be done for all , and in some cases must for any one of the multitude , we need not scruple whether we may do it , for those who are better then a multitude . But as for the thing it selfe , it is not easily and lightly to be done ; and a man must not die for humor , nor expend so great a Jewel for a trifle : {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} : said Philo ; we will hardly die when it is for nothing , when no good , no worthy end is served , and become a Sacrifice to redeem a foot-boy . But we may not give our life to redeem another : unless . 1. The party for whom we die be a worthy and a useful person ; better for the publick or better for Religion , and more useful to others then my selfe . Thus Ribischius the German died bravely when he became a Sacrifice for his Master , Maurice Duke of Saxony ; Covering his Masters body with his own , that he might escape the furie of the Turkish Souldiers . Succurram perituro , sed ut ipse non peream , nisi si futurus ero magni hominis , aut magnae rei merces ; said Seneca . I will help a dying person if I can ; but I will not die my selfe for him , unless by my death I save a brave man , or become the price of a great thing ; that is , I will die for a Prince , for the republick , or to save an Army as David expos'd himself to combat with the Philistin for the redemption of the Host of Israel : And in this sense , that is true ; Praestat ut pereat unus , quam Unitas , better that one perish then a multitude . 2. A man dies bravely when he gives his temporal life to save the soul of any single person in the Christian world . It is a worthy exchange , and the glorification of that love by which Christ gave his life for every soul . Thus he that reproves an erring Prince wisely and necessarily , he that affirms a fundamental truth , or stands up for the glory of the Divine attributes , though he die for it , becoms a worthy sacrifice . 3. These are duty , but it may be heroick and full of Christian bravery , to give my life to rescue a noble and a brave friend ; though I my selfe be as worthy a man as he ; because the preference of him is an act of humility in me ; and of friendship towards him ; Humility and Charity making a pious difference where art and nature have made all equall . Some have fancied other measures of treating our friends . One sort of men say that we are to expect that our friends should value us as we value our selves : which if it were to be admitted , will require that we make no friendships with a proud man ; and so farre indeed were well ; but then this proportion does exclude also humble men who are most to be valued , and the rather because they undervalue themselves . Others say that a friend is to value his friend as much as his friend values him ; but neither is this well or safe , wise or sufficient ; for it makes friendship a mere bargain , and is something like the Country weddings in some places where I have been ; where the bridegroom and the bride must meet in the half way , and if they fail a step , they retire and break the match : It is not good to make a reckoning in friendship ; that 's merchandise , or it may be gratitude , but not noble friendship ; in which each part strives to out-do the other in significations of an excellent love : And amongst true friends there is no fear of losing any thing . But that which amongst the old Philosophers comes nearest to the right , is that we love our friends as we love our selves . If they had meant it as our Blessed Saviour did , of that general friendship by which we are to love all mankind , it had been perfect and well ; or if they had meant it of the inward affection , or of outward justice ; but because they meant it of the most excellent friendships , and of the outward significations of it , it cannot be sufficient : for a friend may and must sometimes do more for his friend then he would doe for himself . Some men will perish before they will beg or petition for themselves to some certain persons ; but they account it noble to doe it for their friend , and they will want rather then their friend shall want ; and they will be more earnest in praise or dispraise respectively for their friend then for themselves . And indeed I account that one of the greatest demonstrations of real friendship is , that a friend can really endeavour to have his friend advanced in honour , in reputation , in the opinion of wit or learning before himselfe . Aurum & opes , & rura frequens donabit amicus : Qui velit ingenio cedere rarus erit . Sed tibi tantus inest veteris respectus amici Carior ut mea sit quam tua fama tibi . Lands , gold and trifles many give or lend ; But he that stoops in fame is a rare friend : In friendships orbe thou art the brightest starre Before thy fame mine thou preferrest far . But then be pleas'd to think that therefore I so highly value this signification of friendship , because I so highly value humility . Humility and Charity are the two greatest graces in the world ; and these are the greatest ingredients which constitute friendship and expresse it . But there needs no other measures of friendship but that it may be as great as you can express it ; beyond death it cannot goe , to death it may , when the cause is reasonable and just , charitable and religious : and yet if there be any thing greater then to suffer death ( and pain and shame to some are more insufferable ) a true and noble friendship shrinks not at the greatest trials . And yet there is a limit even to friendship . It must be as great as our friend fairely needs in all things where we are not tied up by a former duty , to God , to our selves , or some pre-obliging relative . When Pollux heard some body whisper a reproach against his Brother Castor , he kill'd the slanderer with his fist : That was a zeal which his friendship could not warrant . Nulla est excusatio si amiei causâ peccaveris said Cicero . No friendship can excuse a sinne : And this the braver Romans instanced in the matter of duty to their Country . It is not lawful to fight on our friends part against our Prince or Country ; and therefore when Caius Blosius of Cuma in the sedition of Gracchus appeared against his Country , when he was taken he answered , that he loved Tiberius Gracchus so dearly , that he thought fit to follow him whithersoever he lead ; and begg'd pardon upon that account . They who were his Judges were so noble , that though they knew it no fair excuse : yet for the honour of friendship they did not directly reject his motion : but put him to death , because he did not follow , but led on Gracchus and brought his friend into the snare : For so they preserved the honours of friendship on either hand , by neither suffering it to be sullied by a foul excuse , nor yet rejected in any fair pretence . A man may not be perjured for his friend . I remember to have read in the History of the Low-countreys , that Grimston and Redhead , when Bergenapzoom was besieged by the Duke of Parma acted for the interest of the Queen of Englands forces a notable design ; but being suspected and put for their acquittance to take the Sacrament of the Altar , they dissembled their persons , and their interest , their design and their Religion , and did for the Queens service ( as one wittily wrote to her ) give not only their bodies but their souls , and so deserved a reward greater then she could pay them : I cannot say this is a thing greater then a friendship can require , for it is not great at all , but a great villany , which hath no name , and no order in worthy entercourses ; and no obligation to a friend can reach as high as our Duty to God : And he that does a base thing in zeal for his friend , burns the golden thred that ties their hearts together ; it is a conspiracy , but no longer friendship . And when Cato lent his wife to Hortensius , and Socrates lent his to a merry Greek , they could not amongst wise persons obtain so much as the fame of being worthy friends , neither could those great Names legitimate an unworthy action under the most plausible title . It is certain that amongst friends their estates are common ; that is , by whatsoever I can rescue my friend from calamity , I am to serve him , or not to call him friend ; and there is a great latitude in this , and it is to be restrained by no prudence , but when there is on the other side a great necessity neither vitious nor avoidable : A man may choose , whether he will or no ; and he does not sin in not doing it , unless he have bound himself to it : But certainly friendship is the greatest band in the world , and if he have professed a great friendship , he hath a very great obligation to do that and more ; and he can no wayes be disobliged but by the care of his Natural relations . I said , [ Friendship is the greatest bond in the world , ] and I had reason for it , for it is all the bands that this world hath ; and there is no society , and there is no relation that is worthy , but it is made so by the communications of friendship and by partaking some of its excellencies . For friendship is a transcendent , and signifies as much as Unity can mean , and every consent , and every pleasure , and every benefit , and every society is the Mother or the Daughter of friendship . Some friendships are made by nature , some by contract , some by interest , and some by souls . And in proportion to these wayes of Uniting , so the friendships are greater or less , vertuous or natural , profitable or holy , or all this together . Nature makes excellent friendships , of which we observe something in social plants ; growing better in each others neighbourhood then where they stand singly : And in animals it is more notorious , whose friendships extend so far as to herd and dwell together , to play , and feed , to defend and fight for one another , and to cry in absence , and to rejoyce in one anothers presence . But these friendships have other names less noble , they are sympathy , or they are instinct . But if to this natural friendship there be reason superadded , something will come in upon the stock of reason which will enoble it ; but because no Rivers can rise higher then Fountains , reason shall draw out all the dispositions which are in Nature and establish them into friendships , but they cannot surmount the communications of Nature ; Nature can make no friendships greater then her own excellencies . Nature is the way of contracting necessary friendships : that is , by nature such friendships are contracted without which we cannot live , and be educated , or be well , or be at all . In this scene , that of Parents and Children is the greatest , which indeed is begun in nature , but is actuated by society and mutual endearments . For Parents love their Children because they love themselves , Children being but like emissions of water , symbolical , or indeed the same with the fountain ; and they in their posterity see the images and instrument of a civil immortality ; but if Parents and Children do not live together , we see their friendships and their loves are much abated , and supported only by fame and duty , by customes and religion which to nature are but artificial pillars , and make this friendship to be complicated , and to pass from its own kind to another . That of Children to their Parents is not properly friendship , but gratitude and interest , and religion , and what ever can supervene of the nature of friendship comes in upon another account ; upon society and worthiness and choice . This relation on either hand makes great Dearnesses : But it hath special and proper significations of it , and there is a special duty incumbent on each other respectively . This friendship and social relation is not equal , and there is too much authority on one side , and too much fear on the other to make equal friendships ; and therefore although this is one of the kindes of friendship , that is of a social and relative love and conversation , yet in the more proper use of the word ; [ Friendship ] does doe some things which Father and Son do not ; I instance in the free and open communicating counsels , and the evenness and pleasantnesse of conversation ; and consequently the significations of the paternal and filial love as they are divers in themselves and Unequal , and therefore another kinde of friendship then we mean in our inquiry , so they are such a duty which no other friendship can annul : because their mutual duty is bound upon them by religion long before any other friendships can be contracted ; and therefore having first possession must abide for ever . The duty and love to Parents must not yeeld to religion , much less to any new friendships : and our Parents are to be preferred before the Corban ; and are at no hand to be laid aside but when they engage against God : That is , in the rights which this relation and kind of friendship challenges as its propriety , it is supreme and cannot give place to any other friendships ; till the Father gives his right away , and God or the Laws consent to it ; as in the case of marriage , emancipation , and adoption to another family : in which cases though love and gratitude are still obliging , yet the societies and duties of relation are very much altered , which in the proper and best friendships can never be at all . But then this also is true : that the social relations of Parents and Children not having in them all the capacities of a proper friendship , cannot challenge all the significations of it : that is , it is no prejudice to the duty I owe there , to pay all the dearnesses which are due here , and to friends there are somethings due which the other cannot challenge : I mean , my secret , and my equal conversation , and the pleasures and interests of these , and the consequents of all . Next to this is the society and dearness of Brothers and Sisters : which usually is very great amongst worthy persons ; but if it be considered what it is in it self , it is but very little ; there is very often a likenesse of natural temper , and there is a social life under the same roof , and they are commanded to love one another , and they are equals in many instances , and are endeared by conversation when it is merry and pleasant , innocent and simple , without art and without design . But Brothers pass not into noble friendships upon the stock of that relation : they have fair dispositions and advantages , and are more easie and ready to ferment into the greatest dearnesses , if all things else be answerable . Nature disposes them well towards it , but in this inquiry if we aske what duty is passed upon a Brother to a Brother even for being so ? I answer , that religion and our parents and God and the laws appoint what measures they please ; but nature passes but very little , and friendship less ; and this we see apparently in those Brothers who live asunder , and contract new relations , and dwell in other societies : There is no love , no friendship without the entercourse of conversation : Friendships indeed may last longer then our abode together , but they were first contracted by it , and established by pleasure and benefit , and unless it be the best kind of friendship ( which that of Brothers in that meer capacity is not ) it dies when it wants the proper nutriment and support : and to this purpose is that which was spoken by Solomon : [ better is a neighbour that is near , then a Brother that is far off : ] that is , although ordinarily , Brothers are first possessed of the entries and fancies of friendship , because they are of the first societies and conversations , yet when that ceases and the Brother goes away , so that he does no advantage , no benefit of entercourse ; the neighbour that dwells by me , with whom if I converse at all , either he is my enemy and does , and receives evil ; or if we converse in worthinesses and benefit and pleasant communication , he is better in the laws and measures of friendship then my distant Brother . And it is observable that [ Brother ] is indeed a word of friendship and charity and of mutual endearment , and so is a title of the bravest society ; yet in all the Scripture there are no precepts given of any duty and comport which Brothers , that is , the descendents of the same parents are to have one towards another in that capacity , and it is not because their nearness is such that they need none : For parents and children are neerer and yet need tables of duty to be described ; and for Brothers , certainly they need it infinitely if there be any peculiar duty ; Cain and Abel are the great probation of that , and you know who said , Fratrum quoque gratia rara est : It is not often you shall see Two Brothers live in amity . But the Scripture which often describes the duty of Parents and Children , never describes the duty of Brothers ; except where by Brethren are meant all that part of mankind who are tied to us by any vicinity and endearment of religion or country , of profession and family , of contract or society , of love and the noblest friendships ; the meaning is , that though fraternity alone be the endearment of some degrees of friendship , without choice and without excellency ; yet the relation it selfe is not friendship and does not naturally infer it , and that which is procured by it , is but limited and little ; and though it may pass into it , as other conversations may , yet the friendship is accidental to it ; enters upon other accounts , as it does between strangers ; with this only difference that Brotherhood does oftentimes assist the valuation of those excellencies for which we entertain our friendships . Fraternity is the opportunity and the preliminary dispositions to friendship , and no more . For if my Brother be a fool or a vitious person , the love to which nature and our first conversation disposes me , does not end in friendship , but in pity and fair provisions , and assistances ; which is a demonstration that Brotherhood is but the inclination and address to friendship ; and though I will love a worthy Brother more then a worthy stanger ; if the worthiness be equal , because the relation is something , and being put into the scales against an equal worthiness must needs turn the ballance , as every grain will do in an even weight ; yet when the relation is all the worthiness that is pretended , it cannot stand in competition with a friend : for though a friend-Brother is better then a friend-stranger , where the friend is equal , but the Brother is not : yet a Brother is not better then a friend ; but as Solomons expression is , [ there is a friend that is better then a Brother , ] and to be born of the same parents is so accidental and extrinsick to a mans pleasure or worthiness , or spiritual advantages , that though it be very pleasing and usefull that a Brother should be a friend , yet it is no great addition to a friend that he also is a Brother : there is something in it , but not much . But in short , the case is thus . The first beginnings of friendship serve the necessities ; but choice and worthiness are the excellencies of its endearment and its bravery ; and between a Brother that is no friend , and a friend that is no Brother ; there is the same difference as between the disposition , and the act or habit : a Brother if he be worthy is the readiest and the nearest to be a friend , but till he be so , he is but the twi-light of the day , and but the blossom to the fairest fruit of Paradise . A Brother does not alwayes make a friend , but a friend ever makes a Brother and more : And although nature sometimes findes the tree , yet friendship engraves the Image ; the first relation places him in the garden , but friendship sets it in the Temple , and then only it is venerable and sacred : and so is Brother-hood when it hath the soul of friendship . So that if it be asked which are most to be valued , Brothers or friends ; the answer is very easie ; Brotherhood is or may be one of the kinds of friendship , and from thence onely hath its value , and therefore if it be compared with a greater friendship must give place : But then it is not to be asked which is to be preferred , a Brother or a Friend , but which is the better friend ; Memnon or my Brother ? For if my Brother sayes I ought to love him best , then he ought to love me best ; * if he does , then there is a great friendship and he possibly is to be preferred ; if he can be that friend which he pretends to be , that is , if he be equally worthy : but if he sayes , I must love him only because he is my Brother , whether he loves me or no , he is ridiculous ; and it will be a strange relation which hath no correspondent : but suppose it , and adde this also , that I am equally his Brother as he is mine , and then he also must love me whether I love him or no , and if he does not ; he sayes , I must love him though he be my Enemy ; and so I must ; but I must not love my Enemy though he be my Brother more then I love my Friend ; and at last if he does love me for being his Brother , I confess that this love deserves love again ; but then I consider , that he loves me upon an incompetent reason : for he that loves me only because I am his Brother , loves me for that which is no worthiness , and I must love him as much as that comes to , and for as little reason ; unlesse this be added , that he loves me first : but whether choice and union of souls , and worthiness of manners and greatness of understanding , and usefulness of conversation , and the benefits of Counsel and all those endearments which make our lives pleasant and our persons Dear , are not better and greater reasons of love and Dearness then to be born of the same flesh , I think amongst wise persons needs no great enquiry . For fraternity is but a Cognation of bodies , but friendship is an Union of souls which are confederated by more noble ligatures . My Brother , if he be no more , shall have my hand to help him , but unless he be my friend too , he cannot challenge my heart : and if his being my friend be the greater nearnesse ; then friend is more then Brother , and I suppose no man doubts but that David lov'd Ionathan far more then he lov'd his Brother Eliab . One inquiry more there may be in this affair , and that is , whether a friend may be more then Husband or Wife ? To which I answer , that it can never be reasonable or just , prudent or lawful : but the reason is , because Marriage is the Queen of friendships , in which there is a communication of all that can be communicated by friendship : and it being made sacred by vows and love , by bodies and souls , by interest and custome , by religion and by laws , by common counsels , and common fortunes ; it is the principal in the kind of friendship , and the measure of all the rest : And there is no abatement to this consideration , but that there may be some allay in this as in other lesser friendships by the incapacity of the persons : if I have not chosen my friend wisely or fortunately , he cannot be the correlative in the best Union ; but then the friend lives as the soul does after death , it is in the state of separation , in which the soul strangely loves the body and longs to be reunited , but the body is an useless trunk and can do no ministeries to the soul ; which therefore prayes to have the body reformed and restored and made a brave and a fit companion : So must these best friends , when one is useless or unapt to the braveries of the princely friendship , they must love ever , and pray ever , and long till the other be perfected and made fit ; in this case there wants only the body , but the soul is still a relative and must be so for ever . A Husband and a Wife are the best friends , but they cannot alwayes signifie all that to each other which their friendships would ; as the Sun shines not upon a Valley which sends up a thick vapour to cover his face ; and though his beams are eternal , yet the emission is intercepted by the intervening cloud . But however , all friendships are but parts of this ; a man must leave Father and Mother and cleave to his Wife , that is [ the dearest thing in Nature is not comparable to the dearest thing of friendship : ] and I think this is argument sufficient to prove friendship to be the greatest band in the world ; Adde to this , that other friendships are parts of this , they are marriages too , less indeed then the other , because they cannot , must not be all that endearment which the other is ; yet that being the principal , is the measure of the rest , and are all to be honoured by like dignities , and measured by the same rules , and conducted by their portion of the same Laws : But as friendships are Marriages of the soul , and of fortunes and interests , and counsels ; so they are brotherhoods too ; and I often think of the excellencies of friendships in the words of David , who certainly was the best friend in the world [ Ecce quam bonum & quam jucundum fratres habitare in unum : ] It is good and it is pleasant that Brethren should live like friends , that is , they who are any wayes relative , and who are any wayes sociall and confederate should also dwell in Unity and loving society , for that is the meaning of the word [ Brother ] in Scripture [ It was my Brother Ionathan , said David : such Brothers contracting such friendships are the beauties of society , and the pleasure of life , and the festivity of minds : and whatsoever can be spoken of love , which is Gods eldest daughter , can be said of vertuous friendships ; and though Carneades made an eloquent oration at Rome against justice , yet never saw a Panegyrick of malice , or ever read that any man was witty against friendship . Indeed it is probable that some men , finding themselves by the peculiarities of friendship excluded from the participation of those beauties of society which enamel and adorn the wise and the vertuous might suppose themselves to have reason to speak the evill words of envie and detraction ; I wonder not for all those unhappy souls which shall find heaven gates shut against them , will think they have reason to murmur and blaspheme : The similitude is apt enough , for that is the region of friendship ; and love is the light of that glorious Countrey , but so bright that it needs no Sun : Here we have fine and bright rayes of that celestiall flame , and though to all mankinde the light of it is in some measure to be extended , like the treasures of light dwelling in the South , yet a little do illustrate and beautifie the North , yet some live under the line , and the beams of friendship in that position are imminent and perpendicular . I know but one thing more in which the Communications of friendship can be restrained ; and that is , in Friends and Enemies : Amicus amici , amicus meus non est : My friends friend is not alwayes my friend ; nor his enemy mine ; for if my friend quarrell with a third person with whom he hath had no friendships , upon the account of interest ; if that third person be my friend , the nobleness of our friendships despises such a quarrel ; and what may be reasonable in him , would be ignoble in me ; sometimes it may be otherwise , and friends may marry one anothers loves and hatreds , but it is by chance if it can be just , and therefore because it is not alwayes right it cannot be ever necessary . In all things else , let friendships be as high and expressive till they become an Union , or that friends like the Molionidae be so the same that the flames of their dead bodies make but one Pyramis ; no charity can be reproved , and such friendships which are more then shadows , are nothing else but the rayes of that glorious grace drawn into one centre , and made more active by the Union ; and the proper significations are well represented in the old Hieroglyphick , by which the antients depicted friendship : In the beauties and strength of a young man , bare-headed , rudely clothed , to signifie its activity , and lastingness , readiness of action , and aptnesses to doe service ; Upon the fringes of his garment was written Mors & vita , as signifying that in life and death the friendship was the same ; on the forehead was written , Summer and Winter , that is , prosperous and adverse accidents and states of life ; the left arm and shoulder was bare and naed down to the heart to which the finger pointed , and there was written longè & propè : by all which we know that friendship does good farre and neer : in Summer and in Winter , in life and death , and knowes no difference of state or accident but by the variety of her services : and therefore ask no more to what we can be obliged by friendship ; for it is every thing that can be honest and prudent , useful and necessary . For this is all the allay of this Universality , we may do any thing or suffer any thing , that is wise or necessary , or greatly beneficial to my friend , and that in any thing , in which I am perfect master of my person and fortunes . But I would not in bravery visit my friend when he is sick of the plague , unless I can do him good equall at least to my danger , but I will procure him Physicians and prayers , all the assistances that he can receive , and that he can desire , if they be in my power : and when he is dead , I will not run into his grave and be stifled with his earth ; but I will mourn for him , and perform his will , and take care of his relatives , and doe for him as if he were alive , and I think that is the meaning of that hard saying of a Greek Poet {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . To me though distant let thy friendship fly , Though men be mortal , friendships must not die . Of all things else ther 's great satiety . Of such immortal abstracted pure friendships indeed there is no great plenty , and to see brothers hate each other , is not so rare as to see them love at this rate . The dead and the absent have but few friends , say the Spaniards ; but they who are the same to their friend {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , when he is in another Countrey , or in another World , these are they who are fit to preserve the sacred fire for eternal sacrifices , and to perpetuate the memory of those exemplar friendships of the best men which have filled the world with history and wonder : for in no other sense but this , can it be true ; that friendships are pure loves , regarding to do good more then to receive it : He that is a friend after death , hopes not for a recompense from his friend , and makes no bargain either for fame or love ; but is rewarded with the conscience and satisfaction of doing bravely : but then this is demonstration that they choose Friends best who take persons so worthy that can and will do so : This is the profit and usefulnesse of friendship ; and he that contracts such a noble Union ; must take care that his friend be such who can and will ; but hopes that himselfe shall be first used , and put to act it : I will not have such a friendship that is good for nothing , but I hope that I shall be on the giving and assisting part ; and yet if both the friends be so noble and hope and strive to doe the benefit , I cannot well say which ought to yield , and whether that friendship were braver that could be content to be unprosperous so his friend might have the glory of assisting him ; or that which desires to give assistances in the greatest measures of friendship : but he that chooses a worthy friend that himself in the dayes of sorrow and need might receive the advantage , hath no excuse , no pardon , unless himself be as certain to do assistances when evil fortune shall require them . The summe of this answer to this enquiry I give you in a pair of Greek verses . {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . Friends are to friends as lesser Gods , while they Honour and service to each other pay . But when a dark cloud comes , grudge not to lend Thy head , thy heart , thy fortune to thy friend . 3. The last inquiry is , how friendships are to be conducted ? That is , what are the duties in presence and in absence ; whether the friend may not desire to enjoy his friend as well as his friendship ? The answer to which in a great measure depends upon what I have said already : and if friendship be a charity in society , and is not for contemplation and noise , but for materiall comforts and noble treatments and usages , there is no peradventure , but that if I buy land , I may eat the fruits , and if I take a house . I may dwell in it ; and if I love a worthy person , I may please my selfe in his society : and in this there is no exception , unless the friendship be between persons of a different sex : for then not only the interest of their religion , and the care of their honour , but the worthiness of their friendship requires that their entercourse be prudent and free from suspicion and reproach : and if a friend is obliged to bear a calamity , so he secure the honour of his friend , it will concern him to conduct his entercourse in the lines of a vertuous prudence , so that he shall rather lose much of his own comfort , then she any thing of her honour ; and in this case , the noises of people are so to be regarded , that next to innocence they are the principal . But when by caution and prudence and severe conduct , a friend hath done all that he or she can to secure fame and honourable reports ; after this , their noises are to be despised ; they must not fright us from our friendships , nor from her fairest entercourses ; I may lawfully pluck the clusters from my own vine , though he that walks by , calls me thief . But by the way ( Madam ) you may see how much I differ from the morosity of those Cynics who would not admit your sex into the communities of a noble friendship . I believe some Wives have been the best friends in the world ; and few stories can out-do the nobleness and piety of that Lady that suck'd the poisonous , purulent matter from the wound of our brave Prince in the holy Land , when an Assasine had pierc'd him with a venom'd arrow ; and if it be told that women cannot retain counsell , and therefore can be no brave friends ; I can best confute them by the story of Porcia , who being fearful of the weakness of her sex , stabb'd her self into the thigh to try how she could bear pain ; and finding her selfe constant enough to that sufferance , gently chid her Brutus for not daring to trust her , since now she perceived that no torment could wrest that secret from her , which she hoped might be intrusted to her . If there were not more things to be said for your satisfaction , I could have made it disputable whether have been more illustrious in their friendships men or women ? I cannot say that Women are capable of all those excellencies by which men can oblige the world ; and therefore a femal friend in some cases is not so good a counsellor as a wise man , and cannot so well defend my honour ; nor dispose of reliefs and assistances if she be under the power of another : but a woman can love as passionately , and converse as pleasantly , and retain a secret as faithfully , and be useful in her proper ministeries ; and she can die for her friend as well as the bravest Roman Knight ; and we find that some persons have engag'd themselves as farre as death upon a less interest then all this amounts to : such were the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as the Greeks call them , the Devoti of a Prince or General , the assassins amongst the Saracens , the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} amongst the old Galatians : they did as much as a friend could do ; and if the greatest services of a friend can be paid for by an ignoble price , we cannot grudge to vertuous and brave women that they be partners in a noble friendship , since their conversation and returns can adde so many moments to the felicity of our lives : and therefore , though a Knife cannot enter as farre as a Sword , yet a Knife may be more useful to some purposes ; and in every thing , except it be against an enemy . A man is the best friend in trouble , but a woman may be equal to him in the dayes of joy : a woman can as well increase our comforts , but cannot so well lessen our sorrows : and therefore we do not carry women with us when we go to fight ; but in peacefull Cities and times , vertuous women are the beauties of society and the prettinesses of friendship . And when we consider that few persons in the world have all those excellencies by which friendship can be usefull and illustrious , we may as well allow women as men to be friends ; since they can have all that which can be necessary and essentiall to friendships , and these cannot have all by which friendships can be accidentally improved ; in all some abatements will be made ; and we shall do too much honour to women , if we reject them from friendships because they are not perfect : for if to friendships we admit imperfect men , because no man is perfect : he that rejects women does finde fault with them because they are not more perfect then men , which either does secretly affirm that they ought and can be perfect , or else it openly accuses men of injustice and partiality . I hope you will pardon me that I am a little gone from my undertaking , I went aside to wait upon the women and to do countenance to their tender vertues : I am now return'd , and , if I were to do the office of a guide to uninstructed friends , would adde the particulars following ; Madam , you need not read them now , but when any friends come to be taught by your precept and example how to converse in the noblest Conjugations , you may put these into better words and tell them 1. That the first law of friendship is , they must neither ask of their friend what is Undecent ; nor grant it if themselves be askt . For it is no good office to make my friend more vitious or more a fool ; I will restrain his folly , but not nurse it ; I will not make my groom the officer of my lust and vanity . There are Villains who sell their souls for bread , that offer sin and vanity at a price : I should be unwilling my friend should know I am vitious ; but if he could be brought to minister to it ; he is not worthy to be my friend : and if I could offer it to him , I do not deserve to claspe hands with a vertuous person . 2. Let no man choose him for his friend whom it shall be possible for him ever after to hate , for though the society may justly be interrupted , yet love is an immortal thing , and I will never despise him whom I could once think worthy of my love . A friend that proves not good is rather to be suffered , then any enmities be entertained : and there are some outer offices of friendship and little drudgeries in which the less worthy are to be imployed , and it is better that he be below stairs then quite thrown out of doors . 3. There are two things which a friend can never pardon , a treacherous blow and the revealing of a secret , because these are against the Nature of friendship ; they are the adulteries of it , and dissolve the Union ; and in the matters of friendship which is the marriage of souls ; these are the proper causes of divorce : and therefore I shall adde this only , that secrecy is the chastity of friendship , and the publication of it is a prostitution and direct debauchery ; but a secret , treacherous wound is a perfect and unpardonable Apostacy . I remember a pretty apologue that Bromiard tells . A Fowler in a sharp frosty morning having taken many little birds for which he had long watched , began to take up his nets ; and nipping the birds on the head laid them down . A young thrush espying the tears trickling down his cheeks by the reason of the extreme cold , said to her Mother , that certainly the man was very merciful and compassionate that wept so bitterly over the calamity of the poor Birds . But her Mother told her more wisely , that she might better judge of the mans disposition by his hand then by his eye ; and if the hands do strike treacherously , he can never be admitted to friendship , who speaks fairly and weeps pittifully . Friendship is the greatest honesty and ingenuity in the world . 4. Never accuse thy friend , nor believe him that does : if thou dost , thou hast broken the skin ; but he that is angry with every little fault breaks the bones of friendship : and when we consider that in society and the accidents of every day , in which no man is constantly pleased or displeased with the same things ; we shall finde reason to impute the change unto our selves ; and the emanations of the Sun are still glorious , when our eyes are sore : and we have no reason to be angry with an eternal light , because we have a changeable and a mortal faculty . But however , do not think thou didst contract alliance with an Angel , when thou didst take thy friend into thy bosome ; he may be weak as well as thou art , and thou mayest need pardon as well as he , and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . Theog . that man loves flattery more then friendship , who would not only have his friend , but all the contingencies of his friend to humour him . 5. Give thy friend counsel wisely and charitably , but leave him to his liberty whether he will follow thee or no : and be not angry if thy counsel be rejected : for , advice is no Empire , and he is not my friend that will be my Judge whether I will or no . Neoptolemus had never been honoured with the victory and spoiles of Troy if he had attended to the tears and counsel of Lycomedes , who being afraid to venture the young man , fain would have had him sleep at home safe in his little Island . He that gives advice to his friend and exacts obedience to it , does not the kindnesse and ingenuity of a friend but the office and pertness of a Schoolmaster . 6. Never be a Judge between thy friends in any matter where both set their hearts upon the victory : If st●angers or enemies be litigants , what ever side thou favourest , thou gettest a friend , but when friends are the parties thou losest one . 7. Never comport thy self so , as that thy friend can be afraid of thee : for then the state of the relation alters when a new and troublesome passion supervenes . ODERUNT quos METUUNT . Perfect love casteth out fear , and no man is friend to a Tyrant ; but that friendship is Tyranny where the love is changed into fear , equality into empire , society into obedience ; for then all my kindness to him also will be no better then flattery . 8. When you admonish your friend , let it be without bitternesse ; when you chide him , let it be without reproach ; when you praise him , let it be with worthy purposes and for just ca●ses , and in friendly measures ; too much of that is flattery , too little is envy ; if you doe it justly you teach him true measures : but when others praise him , rejoyce , though they praise not thee , and remember that if thou esteemest his praise to be thy disparagement , thou art envious , but neither just nor kind . 9. When all things else are equal preferre an old friend before a new . If thou meanest to spend thy friend , and make a gain of him till he be weary , thou wilt esteem him as a beast of burden , the worse for his age ; But if thou esteemest him by noble measures , he will be better to thee by thy being used to him , by tryall and experience , by reciprocation of indearments , and an habitual worthiness . An old friend is like old wine , which when a man hath drunk , he doth not desire new , because he saith the old is better . But every old friend was new once ; and if he be worthy keep the new one till he become old . 10. After all this , treat thy friend nobly , love to be with him , do to him all the worthinesses of love and fair endearment , according to thy capacity and his ; Bear with his infirmities till they approach towards being criminal ; but never dissemble with him , never despise him , never leave him . * Give him gifts and upbraid him not , † and refuse not his kindnesses , and be sure never to despise the smallness or the impropriety of them . Confirmatur amor beneficio accepto : A gift ( saith Solomon ) fastneth friendships ; for as an eye that dwells long upon a starre must be refreshed with lesser beauties and strengthened with greens and looking-glasses , lest the sight become amazed with too great a splendor ; so must the love of friends sometimes be refreshed with material and low Caresses ; lest by striving to be too divine it becomes less humane : It must be allowed its share of both : It is humane in giving pardon and fair construction , and opennesse and ingenuity , and keeping secrets ; it hath something that is Divine , because it is beneficent ; but much because it is Eternall . FINIS . Postscript . MADAM , IF you shall think it fit that these papers pass further then your own eye and Closet , I desire they may be consign'd into the hands of my worthy friend Dr. Wedderburne : For I do not only expose all my sickness to his cure , but I submit my weaknesses to his censure , being as confident to finde of him charity for what is pardonable , as remedy for what is curable : but indeed Madam I look upon that worthy man as an Idea of Friendship , and if I had no other notices of Friendship or conversation to instruct me then his , it were sufficient : For whatsoever I can say of Friendship , I can say of his , and as all that know him reckon him amongst the best Physicians , so I knew him worthy to be reckoned amongst the best friends . Two Letters to Persons changed in their Religion . A Copy of the First Letter written to a Gentlewoman newly seduced to the Church of Rome . M. B. I Was desirous of an opportunity in London to have discoursed with you concerning something of nearest concernment to you , but the multitude of my little affairs hindred me , and have brought upon you this trouble to reade a long Letter , which yet I hope you will be more willing to do , because it comes from one who hath a great respect to your person , and a very great charity to your soul : I must confesse I was on your behalf troubled when I heard you were fallen from the Communion of the Church of England , and entred into a voluntary , unnecessary schism , and departure from the Laws of the King , and the Communion of those with whom you have alwaies lived in charity , going against those Laws in the defence and profession of which your Husband died , going from the Religion in which you were baptized , in which for so many years you lived piously and hoped for Heaven , and all this without any sufficient reason , without necessity or just scandall ministred to you ; and to aggravate all this , you did it in a time when the Church of England was persecuted , when she was marked with the Characterismes of her Lord , the marks of the Crosse of Jesus , that is , when she suffered for a holy cause and a holy conscience , when the Church of England was more glorious then at any time before ; Even when she could shew more Martyrs and Confessors then any Church this day in Christendome , even then when a King died in the profession of her Religion , and thousands of Priests , learned and pious men suffered the spoiling of their goods rather then they would forsake one Article of so excellent a Religion ; So that serioufly it is not easily to be imagined that any thing should move you , unless it be that which troubled the perverse Jews , and the Heathen Greeks , Scandalum crucis , the scandall of the Crosse ; You stumbled at that Rock of offence , You left us because we were afflicted , lessened in outward circumstances and wrapped in a cloud ; but give me leave only to reminde you of that sad saying of the Scripture , that you may avoid the consequent of it ; They that fall on this stone shall be broken in pieces , but they on whom it shall fall shall be grinded to powder . And if we should consider things but prudently , it is a great argument that the sons of our Church are very conscientious and just in their perswasions , when it is evident , that we have no temporall end to serve , nothing but the great end of our souls , all our hopes of preferment are gone , all secular regards , only we still have truth on our sides , and we are not willing with the losse of truth to change from a persecuted to a prosperous Church , from a Reformed to a Church that will not be reformed ; lest we give scandall to good people that suffer for a holy conscience , and weaken the hands of the afflicted ; of which if you had been more carefull you would have remained much more innocent . But I pray , give me leave to consider for you , because you in your change considered so little for your self , what fault , what false doctrine , what wicked or dangerous proposition , what defect , what amiss did you finde in the Doctrine and Liturgy and Discipline of the Church of England ? For its doctrine , It is certain it professes the belief of all that is written in the Old and New Testament , all that which is in the three Creeds , the Apostolical , the Nicene , and that of Athanasius , and whatsoever was decreed in the four General Councels , or many other truly such , and whatsoever was condemned in these , our Church hath legally declared it to be Heresie . And upon these accounts above four whole ages of the Church went to Heaven ; they baptized all their Catechumens into this faith , their hopes of heaven was upon this and a good life , their Saints and Martyrs lived and died in this alone , they denied Communion to none that professed this faith . This is the Catholick faith , so saith the Creed of Athanasius ; and unless a company of men have power to alter the faith of God , whosoever live and die in this faith , are intirely Catholick and Christian . So that the Church of England hath the same faith without dispute that the Church had for 400 or 500 years ; and therefore there could be nothing wanting here to saving faith , if we live according to our beleef . 2. For the Liturgy of the Church of England , I shall not need to say much , because the case will be very evident ; First , Because the disputers of the Church of Rome have not been very forward to object any thing against it , they cannot charge it with any evil : 2. Because for all the time of K. Edw. 6. and till the 11th year of Q. Elizabeth , your people came to our Churches and prayed with us till the Bull of Pius Quintus came out upon temporal regards , and made a Schism by forbidding the Queens Subjects to pray as by Law was here appointed , though the prayers were good and holy , as themselves did beleeve . That Bull enjoyned recusancy , and made that which was as an act of rebellion and disobedience , and schisme , to be the Character of your Roman Catholikes . And after this , what can be supposed wanting in order to salvation ? We have the Word of God , the faith of the Apostles , the Creeds of the Primitive Church , the Articles of the four first generall Councels , a holy Liturgy , excellent prayers , perfect Sacraments , Faith and Repentance , the ten Commandements , and the Sermons of Christ , and all the precepts and counsels of the Gospel ; We teach the necessity of good works , and require and strictly exact the severity of a holy life ; We live in obedience to God , and are ready to die for him , and do so when he requires us so to do ; We speak honour of his most holy Name , we worship him at the mention of his Name , we confess his Attributes , we love his Servants , we pray for all men , we love all Christians , even our most erring Brethren , we confess our sinnes to God and to our Brethren whom we have offended , and to Gods Ministers in cases of scandall , or of a troubled Conscience , We communicate often , We are enjoyned to receive the holy Sacrament thrice every year at least ; Our Priests absolve the penitent , our Bishops ordain Priests and confirm baptized persons , and blesse their people and intercede for them ; and what could here be wanting to Salvation ? what necessity forced you from us ? I dare not suspect it was a temporal regard that drew you away , but I am sure it could be no spirituall . But now that I have told you , and made you to consider from whence you went , give me leave to represent to you , and tell you whither you are gone , that you may understand the nature and conditions of your change : For do not think your self safe , because they tell you that you are come to the Church ; You are indeed gone from one Church to another , from a better to a worse , as will appear in the induction , the particular of which before I reckon , give me leave to give you this advice ; if you mean in this affair to understand what you do ; it were better you enquired what your Religion is , then what your Church is ; for that which is a true Religion to day , will be so to morrow and for ever ; but that which is a holy Church to day , may be heretical at the next change , or may betray her trust , or obtrude new Articles in contradiction to the old , or by new interpretations may elude ancient truths , or may change your Creed , or may pretend to be the Spouse of Christ when she is idolatrous , that is , adulterous to God : Your Religion is that which you must , and therefore may competently understand ; You must live in it , and grow in it , and govern all the actions of your life by it ; and in all questions concerning the Church you are to choose your Church by the Religion , and therefore this ought first and last to be enquired after . Whether the Romane Church be the Catholique Church , must depend upon so many uncertain enquiries , is offered to be proved by so long , so tedious a method , hath in it so many intrigues and Labyrinths of Question , and is ( like a long line ) so impossible to be perfectly strait , and to have no declination in it when it is held by such a hand as yours , that unless it be by material enquiries into the Articles of the Religion , you can never hope to have just grounds of confidence . In the mean time you can consider this ; if the Romane Church were the Catholike , that is , so as to exclude all that are not of her communion , then the Greek Churches had as good turn Turks as remain damned Christians , and all that are in the communion of all the other Patriarchal Churches in Christendome , must also perish like Heathens , which thing before any man can beleeve , he must have put off all reason , and all modesty , and all charity ; And who can with any probability think that the Communion of Saints in the Creed is nothing but the Communion of Roman Subjects , and the Article of the Catholike Church was made to dispark the inclosures of Ierusalem , but to turn them into the pale of Rome , and the Church is as limited as ever it was , save only that the Synagogue is translated to Rome , which I think you will easily beleeve was a Proposition the Apostles understood not . But though it be hard to trust to it , it is also so hard to prove it , that you shall never be able to understand the measures of that question , and therefore your salvation can never depend upon it . For no good or wise person can beleeve that God hath tied our Salvation to impossible measures , or bound us to an Article that is not by us cognoscible , or intends to have us conducted by that which we cannot understand , and when you shall know that Learned men , even of the Romane party are not agreed concerning the Catholike Church that is infallibly to guide you , some saying that it is the virtual Church , that is , the Pope ; some , that it is the representative Church , that is , a Councel ; Some , that it is the Pope and the Councel , the virtual Church and the representative Church together ; Some , that neither of these , nor both together are infallible ; but only , the essential Church , or the diffusive Church is the Catholique , from whom we must at no hand dissent ; you will quickly finde your self in a Wood , and uncertain whether you have more then a word in exchange for your soul , when you are told you are in the Catholike Church . But I will tell you what you may understand , and see , and feel , something that your self can tell whether I say true or no concerning it . You are now gone to a Church that protects it self by arts of subtlety and arms , by violence and persecuting all that are not of their mindes , to a Church in which you are to be a Subject of the King so long as it pleases the Pope : In which you may be absolved from your Vows made to God , your Oaths to the King , your promises to men , your duty to your Parents in some cases : a Church in which men pray to God and to Saints in the same Form of words in which they pray to God , as you may see in the Offices of Saints , and particularly of our Lady : a Church in which men are taught by most of the principal Leaders to worship Images with the same worship with which they worship God and Christ , or him or her whose Image it is , and in which they usually picture God the Father , and the holy Trinity , to the great dishonour of that sacred mystery , against the doctrine and practise of the Primitive Church , against the express doctrine of Scripture , against the honour of a divine attribute ; I mean , the immensity and spirituality of the divine Nature ; You are gone to a Church that pretends to be infallible , and yet is infinitely deceived in many particulars , and yet endures no contradiction , and is impatient her children should enquire into any thing her Priests obtrude . You are gone from receiving the whole Sacrament to receive it but half ; from Christs Institution to a humane invention , from Scripture to uncertain Traditions , and from ancient Tradition to new pretences , from prayers which ye understood to prayers which ye understand not , from confidence in God to rely upon creatures , from intire dependance upon inward acts to a dangerous temptation of resting too much in outward ministeries , in the external work of Sacraments and of Sacramentals : You are gone from a Church whose worshipping is simple , Christian and Apostolical , to a Church where mens consciences are loaden with a burthen of Ceremonies greater then that in the dayes of the Jewish Religion ( for the Ceremonial of the Church of Rome is a great Book in Folio ) greater I say then all the Ceremonies of the Jews contained in Leviticus , &c. You are gone from a Church where you were exhorted to reade the Word of God , the holy Scriptures from whence you found instruction , institution , comfort , reproof , a treasure of all excellencies , to a Church that seals up that fountain from you , and gives you drink by drops out of such Cisterns as they first make , and then stain , and then reach out : and if it be told you that some men abuse Scripture , it is true , for if your Priests had not abused Scripture , they could not thus have abused you , but there is no necessity they should , and you need not , unless you list ; any more then you need to abuse the Sacraments or decrees of the Church , or the messages of your friend , or the Letters you receive , or the Laws of the Land , all which are liable to be abused by evil persons , but not by good people and modest understandings . It is now become a part of your Religion to be ignorant , to walk in blindeness , to beleeve the man that hears your Confessions , to hear none but him , not to hear God speaking but by him , and so you are liable to be abused by him , as he please , without remedy . You are gone from us , where you were only taught to worship God through Jesus Christ , and now you are taught to worship Saints and Angels with a worship at least dangerous , and in some things proper to God ; for your Church worships the Virgin Mary with burning incense and candles to her , and you give her presents , which by the consent of all Nations used to be esteemed a worship peculiar to God , and it is the same thing which was condemned for Heresie in the Collyridians , who offered a Cake to the Virgin Mary : A Candle and a Cake make no difference in the worship ; and your joyning God and the Saints in your worship and devotions , is like the device of them that fought for King and Parliament , the latter destroys the former : I will trouble you with no more particulars , because if these move you not to consider better , nothing can . But yet I have two things more to adde of another nature , one of which at least may prevail upon you , whom I suppose to have a tender and a religious Conscience . The first is , That all the points of difference between us and your Church are such as do evidently serve the ends of covetousness and ambition , of power and riches , and so stand vehemently suspected of design , and art , rather then truth of the Article and designs upon Heaven . I instance in the Popes power over Princes and all the world ; his power of dispensation , The exemption of the Clergy from jurisdiction of Princes , The doctrine of Purgatory and Indulgences which was once made means to raise a portion for a Lady , the Neece of Pope Leo the tenth ; The Priests power advanced beyond authority of any warrant from Scripture , a doctrine apt to bring absolute obedience to the Papacy ; but because this is possibly too nice for you to suspect or consider , that which I am sure ought to move you is this . That you are gone to a Religion in which though through Gods grace prevailing over the follies of men , there are I hope , and charitably suppose many pious men that love God , and live good lives , yet there are very many doctrines taught by your men , which are very ill Friends to a good life . I instance in your Indulgences and pardons , In which vitious men put a great confidence , and rely greatly upon them . The doctrine of Purgatory which gives countenance to a sort of Christians who live half to God and half to the world , and for them this doctrine hath found out a way that they may go to Hell and to Heaven too . The Doctrine that the Priests absolution can turn a trifling repentance into a perfect and a good , and that suddenly too , and at any time , even on our death-bed , or the minute before your death , is a dangerous heap of falshoods , and gives licence to wicked people , and teaches men to reconcile a wicked debauched life , with the hopes of Heaven . And then for penances and temporal satisfaction , which might seem to be as a plank after the shipwrack of the duty of Repentance , to keep men in awe , and to preserve them from sinking in an Ocean of Impiety , it comes to just nothing by your doctrine ; for there are so many easie waies of Indulgences and getting pardons , so many con-fraternities , stations , priviledg'd Altars , little Offices , Agnus Dei's , amulets , hallowed devices , swords , roses , hats , Churchyards , and the fountain of these annexed indulgences the Pope himself , and his power of granting what , and when , and to whom he list , that he is a very unfortunate man that needs to smart with penances ; and after all , he may choose to suffer any at all , for he may pay them in Purgatory if he please , and he may come out of Purgatory upon reasonable terms , in case he should think it fit to go thither ; So that all the whole duty of Repentance seems to be destroyed with devices of men that seek power and gain , and finde errour and folly ; insomuch that if I had a minde to live an evil Life , and yet hope for Heaven at last , I would be of your religion above any in the world . But I forget I am writing a Letter : I shall therefore desire you to consider upon the premises , which is the safer way . For surely it is lawful for a man to serve God without Images ; but that to worship Images is lawful is not so sure . It is Lawful to pray to God alone , to confess him to be true and every man a Liar , to call no man Master upon Earth , but to rely upon God teaching us ; But it is at least hugely disputable and not at all certain that any man , or society of men can be infallible , that we may put our trust in Saints , in certain extraordinary Images , or burne incense and offer consumptive oblations to the Virgin Mary , or make vows to persons of whose state or place or Capacities , or Condition we have no certain revelation : we are sure we do well when in the holy Communion we worship God and Jesus Christ our Saviour , but they who also worship what seems to be bread , are put to strange shifts to make themselves believe it to be Lawful . It is certainly Lawful to believe what we see and feel ; but it is an unnatural thing upon pretence of faith to disbelieve our eyes , when our sense and our faith can better be reconciled , as it is in the question of the real presence , as it is taught by the Church of England . So that unless you mean to prefer a danger before safety , temptation to unholiness before a severe and a holy religion , unless you mean to lose the Benefit of your prayers by praying what you perceive not , and the Benefit of the sacrament in great degrees by falling from Christs Institution , and taking halfe instead of all ; unless you desire to provoke God to jealousie by Images and Man to jealousie in professing a religion in which you may in many cases have leave to forfeit your faith and lawful trust , unless you will still continue to give scandal to those good people with whom you have lived in a common religion and weaken the hearts of Gods afflicted ones , unless you will choose a Catechism without the second Commandment and a faith that grows bigger or less as men please , and a hope that in many degrees relyes on men and vain confidences , and a Charity that damns all the world but your selves , unless you will do all this , that is , suffer an abuse in your prayers , in the Sacrament , in the Commandments , in faith , in hope , in Charity , in the Communion of saints , and your duty to your supreme , you must return to the bosome of your Mother the Church of England from whence you have fallen , rather weakly then maliciously , and I doubt not but you will find the Comfort of it all your Life , and in the Day of your Death , and in the day of Judgment . If you will not , yet I have freed mine own soul , and done an act of duty and Charity , which at least you are bound to take kindely if you will not entertain it obediently . Now let me adde this , that although most of these objections are such things which are the open and avowed doctrines or practises of your Church ; and need not to be proved as being either notorious or confessed ; yet if any of your Guides shall seem to question any thing of it , I will bind my selfe to verify it , to a tittle and in that sense too which I intend them , that is , so as to be an objection obliging you to return , under the pain of folly or heresy , or disobedience according to the subject matter . And though I have propounded these things now to your consideration , yet if it be desired I shall represent them to your eye , so that even your self shall be able to give sentence in the behalfe of truth . In the mean time give me leave to tell you of how much folly you are guilty in being moved by such mock-arguments as your men use when they meet with women and tender consciences and weaker understandings . The first is ; where was your Church before Luther ? Now if you had called upon them to speak something against your religion from Scripture , or right reason or Universal Tradition , you had been secure as a Tortoise in her shell ; a cart pressed with sheavs could not have oppressed your cause or person ; though you had confessed you understood nothing of the mysteries of succession doctrinal or personal . For if we can make it appear that our religion was that which Christ and his Apostles taught , let the truth suffer what eclipses or prejudices can be supposed , let it be hid like the holy fire in the captivity , yet what Christ and his Apostles taught us is eternally true , and shall by some means or other be conveyed to us ; even the enemies of truth have been conservators of that truth by which we can confute their errors . But if you still aske where it was before Luther ? I answer it was there where it was after ; even in the Scriptures of the Old & New Testament ; and I know no warrant for any other religion ; and if you will expect I should shew any society of men who professed all the doctrines which are now expressed in the confession of the Church of England ; I shall tell you it is unreasonable ; because some of our truths are now brought into our publick confessions that they might be oppos'd against your errors ; before the occasion of which there was no need of any such confessions , till you made many things necessary to be professed , which are not lawful to be believed . For if we believe your superinduc'd follies we shall do unreasonably ; unconscionably , and wickedly ; but the questions themselves are so useless abstracting from the accidental necessity which your follies have brought upon us , that it had been happy if we had never heard of them more then the Saints and Martyrs did in the first ages of the Church ; but because your Clergy have invaded the liberty of the Church , and multiplyed the dangers of damnation , and pretend new necessities , and have introduc'd new articles , and affright the simple upon new pretensions , and slight the very institution and the Commands of Christ and of the Apostles , and invent new sacramentals constituting ceremonies of their own head , and promise grace along with the use of them , as if they were not Ministers but Lords of the Spirit , and teach for doctrines the Commandments of men , and make void the Commandment of God by their tradition , and have made a strange body of Divinity , therefore it is necessary that we should immure our faith by the refusal of such vain and superstitious dreams : but our faith was compleated at first , it is no other then that which was delivered to the saints , and can be no more for ever . So that it is a foolish demand to require that we should shew before Luther a systeme of Articles declaring our sense in these questions : It was long before they were questions at all ; and when they were made questions , they remained so , a long time , and when by their several pieces they were determined , this part of the Church was oppressed with a violent power ; and when God gave opportunity then the yoke was broken ; and this is the whole progress of this affair . But if you will still insist upon it ; then let the matter be put into equal ballances , and let them shew any Church whose confession of faith was such as was obtruded upon you at Trent : and if your religion be Pius quartus his Creed at Trent , then we also have a question to aske , and that is , where was your religion before Trent ? The Councel of Trent determined that the souls departed before the day of judgement enjoy the beatifical vision . It is certain this Article could not be shown in the confession of any of the antient Churches ; for most of the Fathers were of another opinion . But that which is the greatest offence of Christendom is not only that these doctrines which we say are false were yet affirmed , but that those things which the Church of God did alwayes reject , or held as Uncertain should be made Articles of faith ; and so become parts of your religion ; and of these it is that I again aske the question which none of your side shall ever be able to answer for you , where was your religion before Trent ? I could instance in many particulars ; but I shall name one to you which because the thing of it selfe is of no great consequence , it will appear the more unreasonable and intolerable that your Church should adopt it into the things of necessary belief , especially since it was only a matter of fact , and they took the false part too . For in the 21. Session , the fourth Chapter it is affirmed , that although the holy Fathers did give the Sacrament of the Eucharist to Infants , yet they did it without any necessity of salvation ; that is , they did not believe it necessary to their salvation , which is notoriously false , and the contrary is marked out with the black-lead of every man almost that reads their works ; and yet your Councel sayes this is sine controversiâ credendum ; to be believed without all controversie : and all Christians forbidden to believe or teach otherwise . So that here it is made an Article of faith amongst you that a man shall neither believe his reason nor his eyes : and who can shew any confession of faith in which all the Trent doctrine was professed and enjoyned under pain of damnation ? and before the Councel of Constance , the doctrine touching the Popes power was so new , so decried , that as Gerson says he hardly should have escaped the note of heresy that would have said so much as was there defined : so that in that Article which now makes a great part of your belief , where was your religion before the Councel of Constance ? and it is notorious that your Councel of Constance determined the doctrine of the halfe communion with a Non obstante to Christs institution , that is , with a defiance to it , or a noted , observed neglect of it , and with a profession it was otherwise in the primitive Church . Where then was your religion before Iohn Hus and Hierom of Pragues time ; against whom that Councel was convened ? But by this instance it appears most certainly that your Church cannot shew her confessions immediately after Christ , and therefore if we could not shew ours immediately before Luther , it were not halfe so much ; for since you receded from Christs Doctrine we might well recede from yours ; and it matters not who or how many or how long they professed your doctrine , if neither Christ nor his Apostles did teach it : so that if these Articles constitute your Church , your Church was invisible at the first , and if ours was invisible afterwards it matters not ; For yours was invisible in the dayes of light , and ours was invisible in the dayes of darkness . For our Church was alwayes visible in the reflections of Scripture , and he that had his eyes of faith & reason might easily have seen these truths all the way which constitute our Church . But I adde yet further , that our Church before Luther was there where your Church was , in the same place and in the same persons ; for divers of the errors which have been amongst us reformed , were not the constituent Articles of your Church before Luthers time ; for before the last Councels of your Church a man might have been of your Communion upon easier terms ; & indulgences were indeed a practise but no Article of faith before your men made it so , and that very lately , and so were many other things besides . So that although your men cosen the credulous and the simple by calling yours the old religion , yet the difference is vast between truth and their affirmative even as much as between old errors and new Articles . For although ignorance and superstition had prepared the oare , yet the Councels of Constance and Basil , and Trent especially , were the forges and the mint . Lastly , if your men had not by all the vile and violent arts of the world stopped the mouths of dissenters , the question would quickly have been answered , or our Articles would have been so confessed , so owned and so publick , that the question could never have been asked ; but in despite of all opposition , there were great numbers of confessors who did protest and profess and practise our doctrines contrary to your Articles ; as it is demonstrated by the Divines of Germany in Illyricus his Catalogus testium veritatis , and in BP. Mortons appeal . But with your next objection you are better pleased and your men make most noise with it . For you pretend that by our confession salvation may be had in your Church ; but your men deny it to us ; and therefore by the confession of both sides you may be safe , and there is no question concerning you ; but of us there is great question , for none but our selves say that we can be saved . I answer ; 1. That salvation may be had in your Church , is it ever the truer because we say it ? If it be not , it can adde no confidence to you , for the proposition gets no strength by our affirmative . But if it be , then our authority is good or else our reason ; and if either be , then we have more reason to be believed speaking of our selves ; because we are concerned to see that our selves may be in a state of hope ; and therefore we would not venture on this side if we had not greater reason to believe well of our selves then of you . And therefore believe us when it is more likely that we have greater reason , because we have greater concernments , and therefore greater consideration . 2. As much charity as your men pretend us to speak of you , yet it is a clear case our hopes of your salvation is so little that we dare not venture our selves on your side . The Burger of Oldwater being to pass a river in his journey to Daventry , bad his man try the ford ; telling him he hoped he should not be drowned for though he was afraid the River was too deep yet he thought his horse would carry him out , or at least , the boats would fetch him off . Such a confidence we may have of you , but you will find that but little warranty , if you remember how great an interest it is that you venture . 3. It would be remembred that though the best ground of your hope is not the goodness of your own faith , but the greatness of our charity ; yet we that charitably hope well of you , have a fulness of assurance of the truth and certainty of our own way ; and however you can please your selves with Images of things as having no firm footing for your trifling confidence , yet you can never with your tricks outface us of just and firme adherencies ; and if you were not empty of supports , and greedy of bulrushes snatching at any thing to support your sinking cause , you would with fear and trembling consider the direct dangers which we demonstrate to you to be in your religion rather then flatter your selves with collateral , weak , and deceitful hopes of accidental possibilities , that some of you may escape . 4. If we be more charitable to you then you are to us , acknowledge in us the beauty and essential form of Christian Religion ; be sure you love as well as make use of our charity ; but if you make our charity an argument against us , remember that you render us evil in exchange for good ; and let it be no brag to you that you have not that charity to us ; for therefore the Donatists were condemned for Hereticks and Schismaticks because they damn'd all the world , and afforded no charity to any that was not of their Communion . 5. But that our charity may be such indeed , that is , that it may do you a real benefit , and not turn into Wormwood and Colliquintida , I pray take notice in what sense it is that we allow salvation may possibly be had in your Church . We warrant it not to any , we only hope it for some , we allow it to them as to the Sadduces in the Law , and to the Corinthians in the Gospel who denied the resurrection ; that is , till they were sufficiently instructed , and competently convinced , and had time and powers to out-wear their prejudices and the impresses of their education and long perswasion . But to them amongst you who can and do consider and yet determine for error and interest , we have a greater charity , even so much as to labour and pray for their conversion , but not so much fondness as to flatter them into boldness and pertinacious adherencies to matters of so great danger . 6. But in all this affair though your men are very bold with God and leap into his judgment-seat before him , and give wild sentences concerning the salvation of your own party and the damnation of all that disagree , yet that which is our charity to you , is indeed the fear of God , and the reverence of his judgments ; we do not say that all Papists are certainly damn'd ; we wish and desire vehemently that none of you may perish ; but then this charity of judgment relates not to you , or is derived from any probability which we see in your doctrines that differ from ours ; but because we know not what rate and value God puts upon the article ; It concerns neither you nor us to say , this or that man shall be damn'd for his opinion ; for besides that this is a bold intrusion into that secret of God which shall not be opened till the day of judgement , and besides that we know not what allayes and abatements are to be made by the good meaning and the ignorance of the man ; all that can concern us is to tell you that you are in error , that you depart from Scripture , that you exercise tyranny over souls , that you leave the Divine institution , and prevaricate Gods Commandement , that you divide the Church without truth and without necessity , that you tie men to believe things under pain of damnation which cannot be made very probable much less certain ; and therefore that you sin against God and are in danger of his eternal displeasure ; but in giving the final sentence as we have no more to do then your men have , yet so we refuse to follow your evil example ; and we follow the glorious precedent of our Blessed Lord ; who decreed and declared against the crime , but not against the Criminal before the day . He that does this , or that , is in danger of the Councel , or in danger of judgment , or liable and obnoxious to the danger of hell fire ; so we say of your greatest errors ; they put you in the danger of perishing ; but that you shall or shall not perish , we leave it to your Judge , and if you call this charity , it is well , I am sure it is piety and the fear of God . 7. Whether you may be saved , or whether you shall be damned for your errors , does neither depend upon our affirmative nor your negative , but according to the rate and value which God sets upon things . Whatever we talke , things are as they are , not as we dispute , or grant , or hope ; and therefore it were well if your men would leave abusing you & themselves with these litle arts of indirect support . For many men that are warranted , yet do eternally perish , and you in your Church damne millions who I doubt not shall reign with Jesus eternally in the Heavens . 8. I wish you would consider , that if any of our men say salvation may be had in your Church , it is not for the goodness of your new propositions , but only because you do keep so much of that which is our Religion , that upon the confidence of that we hope well concerning you . And we do not hope any thing at all that is good of you or your Religion as it distinguishes from us and ours : we hope that the good which you have common with us may obtain pardon directly or indirectly , or may be an antidote of the venome , and an amulet against the danger of your very great errors , so that if you can derive any confidence from our concession , you must remember where it takes root ; not upon any thing of yours , but wholly upon the excellency of ours ; you are not at all safe , or warranted for being Papists , but we hope well of some of you , for having so much of the Protestant : and if that will do you any good , proceed in it , and follow it whither soever it leads you . 9. The safety that you dream of which we say to be on your side is nothing of allowance , or warranty , but a hope that is collateral , indirect and relative ; we do not say any thing whereby you can conclude yours to be safer then ours , for it is not safe at all , but extremely dangerous ; we affirm those errors in themselves to be damnable , some to contain in them impiety , some to have sacriledge , some idolatry , some superstition , some practifes to be conjuring and charming and very like to witchcraft , as in your hallowing of water and baptizing bels and exorcizing demoniacs ; and what safety there can be in these , or what you can fancy we should allow to you , I suppose you need not boast of . Now because we hope some are saved amongst you , you must not conclude yours to be safe ; for our hope relies upon this . There are many of your propositions in which we differ from you , that thousands amongst you understand and know nothing of , it is to them as if they were not , it is to them now as it was before the councel , they hear not of it . And though your Priests have taken a course that the most ignorant do practise some of your abhominations most grossely , yet we hope this will not be laid upon them who ( as S. Austin's expression is ) caut â sollicitudine quaerunt veritatem , corrigi parati cum invenerint : do according as they are able warily and diligently seek for truth , and are ready to swallow it when they finde it ; men who live good lives , and repent of all their evils known and unknown . Now if we are not deceived in our hopes , these men shall rejoyce in the eternal goodness of God which prevails over the malice of them that misguide you ; but if we be deceived in our hopes of you , your guides have abus'd you , and the blind leaders of the blind will fall together . For , 10. If you will have the secret of this whole affair , this it is . The hopes we have of any of you , ( as it is known ) principally relies upon the hopes of your repentance . Now we say that a man may repent of an error which he knows not of ; as he that prayes heartily for the pardon of all his sins and errors known and unknown ; by his general repentance may obtain many degrees & instances of mercy . Now thus much also your men allow to us ; these who live well , and die in a true though but general repentance of their sins and errors even amongst us your best & wisest men pronounce to be in a saveable condition . Here then we are equal , and we are as safe by your confession as you are by ours . But because there are some Bigots of your faction fierce and fiery who say that a general repentance will not serve our turns , but it must be a particular renunciation of Protestancy ; these men deny not only to us but to themselves too , all that comfort which they derive from our Concession , and indeed which they can hope for from the mercies of God . For be you sure we think as ill of your errors as you can suppose of our Articles ; and therefore if for errors ( be they on which side it chances ) a general repentance will not serve the turn without an actual dereliction , then flatter not your selves by any thing of our kindness to your party ; for you must have a particular if a general be not sufficient . But if it be sufficient for you , it is so for us , in case we be in error as your men suppose us ; but if it will not suffice us for remedy to those errors you charge us with , neither will it suffice you ; for the case must needs be equall as to the value of repentance and the malignity of the error : and therefore these men condemn themselves and will not allow us to hope well of them , but if they will allow us to hope , it must be by affirming the value of a general repentance ; and if they allow that , they must hope as well of ours as we of theirs : but if they deny it to us , they deny it to themselves , and then they can no more brag of any thing of our concession . This only I adde to this consideration ; that your men does not , cannot charge upon us any doctrine that is in its matter and effect impious ; there is nothing positive in our doctrine , but is either true or innocent , but we are accus'd for denying your super-structures : ours therefore ( if we be deceived ) is but like a sin of omission ; yours are sins of commission in case you are in the wrong ( as we believe you to be ) & therefore you must needs be in the greater danger then we can be supposed , by how much sins of omission are less then sins of commission . 11. Your very way of arguing from our charity is a very fallacy and a trick that must needs deceive you if you rely upon it . For whereas your men argue thus . The Protestants say we Papists may be saved ; and so say we too : but we Papists say that you Protestants cannot , therefore it is safest to be a Papist ; consider that of this argument if it shall be accepted , any bold heretick can make use , against any modest Christian of a true perswasion . For , if he can but out-face the modesty of the good man , and tell him he shall be damn'd ; unless that modest man say as much of him , you see impudence shall get the better of the day . But it is thus in every error . Fifteen Bishops of Ierusalem in immediate succession were circumcised , believing it to be necessary so to be : with these other Christian Churches who were of the uncircumcision did communicate : Suppose now that these Bishops had not onely thought it necessary for themselves but for others too ; this argument you see was ready : you of the Uncircumcision who do communicate with us , think that we may be saved though we are circumcised , but we do not think that you who are not circumcised can be saved , therefore it is the safest way to be circumcised : I suppose you would not have thought their argument good , neither would you have had your children circumcised . But this argument may serve the Presbyterians as well as the Papists . We are indeed very kinde to them in our sentences concerning their salvation ; and they are many of them as unkind to us ; If they should argue so as you do ; and say , you Episcopal men think we Presbyterians though in errors can be saved , and we say so too : but we think you Episcopal men are Enemies of the Kingdome of Jesus Christ ; and therefore we think you in a damnable condition , therefore it is safer to be a Presbyterian ; I know not what your men would think of the argument in their hands , I am sure we had reason to complain that we are used very ill on both hands for no other cause but because we are charitable . But it is not our case alone ; but the old Catholicks were used just so by the Donatists in this very argument , as we are used by your men . The Donatists were so fierce against the Catholicks , that they would rebaptize all them who came to their Churches from the other : But the Catholicks , as knowing the Donatists did give right baptisme , admitted their converts to repentance , but did not rebaptize them . Upon this score , the Donatists triumphed , saying ; you Catholicks confess our Baptism to be good , and so say we : But we Donatists deny your Baptism to be good ; therefore it is safer to be of our side then yours . Now what should the Catholicks say or do ? should they lie for God and for religion , and to serve the ends of truth say the Donatists baptism was not good ? That they ought not . Should they damne all the Donatists , and make the rent wider ? It was too great already . What then ? They were quiet and knew that the Donatists sought advantages by their own fierceness , and trampled upon the others charity ; but so they hardned themselves in error , and became evill , because the others were good . I shall trouble you no further now , but desire you to consider of these things with as much caution , as they were written with charity . Till I hear from you , I shall pray to God to open your heart and your understanding , that you may return f●●m whence you are fallen , and repent , and do your first work , which that you may do , is the hearty desire of Your very affectionate Friend and Servant , I●●● Taylor . The Second Letter : Written to a Person newly converted to the Church of England . Madam , I Bless God I am safely arrived where I 〈…〉 after my unwilling departure from the place of your abode and danger , and now because I can have no other expression of my tenderness , I account that I have a treble Obligation to signifie it by my care of your biggest and eternal interest . And because it hath pleased God to make me an Instrument of making you to understand in some fair measure the excellencies of a true and holy Religion , and that I have pointed out such follies and errours in the Romane Church , at which your understanding being forward and pregnant , did of it self start as at imperfect ill-looking Propositions , give me leave to do that now which is the purpose of my Charity , that is , teach you to turn this to the advantage of a holy life , that you may not only be changed but converted . For the Church of England whither you are now come is not in condition to boast her self in the reputation of changing the opinion of a single person , though never so excellent ; She hath no temporal ends to serve which must stand upon fame and noises ; all that she can design , is to serve God , to advance the honour of her Lord , and the good of souls , and to rejoyce in the Cross of Christ . First , Therefore I desire you to remember that as now you are taught to pray both publikely and privately , in a Language understood , so it is intended your affections should be forward , in proportion to the advantages which your prayer hath in the understanding part . For though you have been often told and have heard , that ignorance is the Mother of devotion , you will finde that the proposition is unnatural and against common sense and experience ; because it is impossible to desire that of which we know nothing , unless the desire it self be fantasticall and illusive : it is necessary that in the same proportion in which we understand any good thing , in the same we shall also desire it , and the more particular and minute your notices are , the more passionate and materiall also your affections will be towards it , and if they be good things for which we are taught to pray , the more you know them the more reason you have to love them ; It is monstrous to think that devotion , that is , passionate desires of religious things , and the earnest prosecutions of them should be produced by any thing of ignorance or less perfect notices in any sence . Since therefore you are taught to pray , so that your understanding is the praecentor or the Master of the Quire , and you know what you say ; your desires are made humane , religious , express , material ( for these are the advantages of prayers and Liturgies well understood ) be pleased also to remember , that now if you be not also passionate and devout for the things you mention , you will want the Spirit of prayer , and be more inexcusable then before . In many of your prayers before ( especially the publique ) you heard a voice but saw and perceived nothing of the sence , and what you understood of it was like the man in the Gospel that was half blinde , he saw men walking like Trees , and so you possibly might perceive the meaning of it in generall ; You knew when they came to the Epistle , when to the Gospel , when the Introit , when the Pax , when any of the other more generall periods were ; but you could have nothing of the Spirit of prayer , that is , nothing of the devotion and the holy affections to the particular excellencies which could or ought there to have been represented ; but now you are taught how you may be really devout , it is made facil and easie , and there can want nothing but your consent and observation . 2. Whereas now you are taken off from all humane confidences , from relying wholly and almost ultimately upon the Priests power and external act , from reckoning prayers by numbers , from forms and out-sides , you are not to think that the Priests power is less , that the Sacraments are not effective , that your prayers may not be repeated frequently ; but you are to remember , that all outward things and Ceremonies , all Sacraments and Institutions work their effect in the vertue of Christ , by some morall Instrument ; The Priests in the Church of England can absolve you as much as the Romane Priests could fairly pretend ; but then we teach that you must first be a penitent and a returning person , and our absolution does but manifest the work of God , and comfort and instruct your Conscience , direct and manage it ; You shall be absolved here , but not unless you live a holy life ; So that in this you will finde no change but to the advantage of a strict life ; we will not flatter you and cozen your dear soul by pretended ministeries , but we so order our discourses and directions that all our ministrations may be really effective , and when you receive the holy Sacrament of the Eucharist , or the Lords Supper , it does more good here then they do there , because if they consecrate ritely , yet they do not communicate you fully ; and if they offer the whole representative Sacrifice , yet they do not give you the whole Sacrament ; ) only we enjoyn that you come with so much holiness , that the grace of God in your heart may be the principal , and the Sacrament in our hands may be the ministring and assisting part : we do not promise great effects to easie trifling dispositions , because we would not deceive , but really procure to you great effects ; and therefore you are now to come to our offices with the same expectations as before , of pardon , of grace , of sanctification ; but you must do something more of the work your self , that we may not do lesse in effect then you have in your expectation ; We will not to advance the reputation of our power deceive you into a less blessing . 3. Be careful that you do not flatter your self , that in our Communion you may have more ease and liberty of life ; for though I know your pious soule desires passionately to please God and to live religiously , yet I ought to be careful to prevent a temptation , lest it at any time should discompose your severity : Therefore as to confession to a Priest ( which how it is usually practised amongst the Romane party , your self can very well account , and you have complain'd sadly , that it is made an ordinary act , easie and transient , sometime matter of temptation , often times impertinent , but ) suppose it free from such scandal to which some mens folly did betray it , yet the same severity you 'l finde among us ; for though we will not tell a lye to help a sinner , and say that is necessary which is only appointed to make men do themselves good , yet we advise and commend it , and do all the work of souls to all those people that will be saved by all means ; to devout persons , that make Religion the business of their lives , and they that do not so in the Churches of the Roman Communion , as they finde but little advantage by peridiocal confessions , so they feel but little awfulness and severity by the injunction ; you must confess to God all your secret actions , you must advise with a holy man in all the affairs of your soul , you will be but an ill friend to your self if you conceal from him the state of your spiritual affairs : We desire not to hear the circumstance of every sinne , but when matter of justice is concerned , or the nature of the sinne is changed , that is , when it ought to be made a Question ; and you will finde that though the Church of England gives you much liberty from the bondage of innumerable Ceremonies and humane devices , yet in the matter of holiness you will be tied to very great service , but such a service as is perfect freedom , that is , the service of God and the love of the holy Jesus , and a very strict religious life ; for we do not promise heaven , but upon the same terms it is promised us , that is , Repentance towards God and Faith in our Lord Iesus : and as in faith we make no more to be necessary then what is made so in holy Scripture , so in the matter of Repentance we give you no easie devices , and suffer no lessening definitions of it , but oblige you to that strictness which is the condition of being saved , and so expressed to be by the infallible Word of God ; but such as in the Church of Rome they do not so much stand upon . Madam , I am weary of my Journey , and although I did purpose to have spoken many things more , yet I desire that my not doing it may be laid upon the account of my weariness , all that I shall adde to the main businese is this . 4. Reade the Scriptures diligently , and with an humble spirit , and in it observe what is plain , and beleeve and live accordingly . Trouble not your self with what is difficult , for in that your duty is not described . 5. Pray frequently and effectually ; I had rather your prayers should be often then long . It was well said of Petrarch , Magno verborum freno uti decet cum superiore colloquentem . When you speak to your superiour you ought to have a bridle upon your tongue , much more when you speak to God . I speak of what is decent in respect of our selves and our infinite distances from God : but if love makes you speak , speak on , so shall your prayer be full of charity and devotion , Nullus est amore superior , ille te coget ad veniam , qui me ad multiloquium ; Love makes God to be our friend , and our approaches more united and acceptable ; and therefore you may say to God , the same love which made me speak , will also move thee to hear and pardon : Love and devotion may enlarge your Letanies , but nothing else can , unless Authority does interpo●e . 6. Be curious not to communicate but with the true Sonnes of the Church of England , lest if you follow them that were amongst us , but are gone out from us , because they were not of us ) you be offended and tempted to impute their follies to the Church of England . 7. Trouble your self with no controversies willingly , but how you may best please God by a strict and severe conversation . 8. If any Protestant live loosely , remember that he dishonours an excellent Religion , and that it may be no more laid upon the charge of our Church , then the ill lives of most Christians may upon the whole Religion . 9. Let no man or woman affright you with declamations and scaring words of Heretick , and Damnation , and Changeable ; for these words may be spoken against them that return to light , as well as to those that go to darkness , and that which men of all sides can say , it can be of effect to no side upon its own strength or pretension . The End . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A63784e-240 Martial . l. 8. ep. 18. Prov. 27. 10. * Vt praestem Pyladen , aliquis mihi praestet Oresten Hoc non fit verbis , Maree ut ameris , ama . Mart. l. 6. ep. 11. * Extra fortunam est quicquid donatur amicis Quas dederis solas semper habebis opes . Mart. l. 5. ep. 43. Et tamen hoc vitium , sed non leve , sit licet unum , Quod colit ingratas pauper amicitias . Quis largitur opes veteri , fidoque sodali . ep. 19. † Non bellè quaedam faciunt duo : sufficit unus Huic operi : si vis ut loquar ipse tace . Crede mihi quamvis ingentia Posthume dones Authoris pereunt garrulitate sui . ep. 53. Notes for div A63784e-4710 De potest . Eccles. cons. 12. 
A42480	----	A discourse of artificial beauty, in point of conscience between two ladies with some satyrical censures on the vulgar errors of these times. Gauden, John, 1605-1662. 1662 Approx. 288 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 137 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-12 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A42480 Wing G353 ESTC R8975 12418135 ocm 12418135 61772 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A42480) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 61772) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 277:18) A discourse of artificial beauty, in point of conscience between two ladies with some satyrical censures on the vulgar errors of these times. Gauden, John, 1605-1662. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. [9], 262 p. : ill. Printed for R. Royston ..., London : 1662. Written by John Gauden. This is a later ed. of Discourse of auxiliary beauty, which has been attributed to both Gauden and J. Taylor. Cf. Halkett & Laing (2nd ed.). Reproduction of original in Yale University Library. Marginal notes. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Beauty, Personal. Cosmetics -- Moral and ethical aspects. 2005-02 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-03 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-04 Emma (Leeson) Huber Sampled and proofread 2005-04 Emma (Leeson) Huber Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion Νουν χρη θεασαθαι . Euripid. A DISCOURSE OF Artificial Beauty , In point of CONSCIENCE , BETWEEN TWO LADIES . With some Satyrical Censures on the Vulgar Errors of these Times . LONDON , Printed for R. Royston at the Angel in Ivy-lane . M DC LXII . THE PUBLISHER To the Ingenuous READER . READER , THIS Discourse ( of which ( as I am certainly informed ) a Woman was not onely the chief occasion , but ( the Author and Writer ) coming to my hands , and seeming to referre onely to some ornamental toyes , fitter for Ladies Cabinets and fingers then for the rougher hands and severer eyes of this Martial Age , I had almost condemned , upon the view of the Title , to eternal silence ; partly out of a Principle of Piety , as loth to adde to the vanity of a very vain Age ; but chiefly out of a worser temper which I had of a long time contracted , by reason of many popular prejudices and sinister censures , which had vehemently set me against all things of Art used by any women , whereby to repair or advance the quickness of their Complexions , or beauty of their Looks , beyond that portion which God and Nature had given them . Not that I am a Cynical or Stoical enemy to that softer Sex , ( which tempers humane spirits and societies with so much sweetness and civility : ) but ( I confess ) I was so perfectly scandalized against all Auxiliary Beauty ( which applies any colouring or tincture to set off the Face ) that I condemned this piece ( after the mode of vulgar and precipitant Zeal ) unread and unheard , to be burned , as Judah did Tamar , Gen. 38. 24. concluding it to be the Essay of some wanton wit and idle pen , which was more a parasite to Female fooleries and vanities , then a lover of pristine gravity and sobriety . Yet by a principle of innate Justice which I owe to Self-preservation , ( making me very loth to be hanged without a legal trial ) I was secretly ashamed to condemn it till I had made some examination of its guilt . Hence I ventured the loss of so much time as to arraign and read it . Which act of high Justice ( before I had farre advanced ) taught me , to my great reproach and shame , how unjust Judges , how cruel Tyrants Prejudice and Custome are , which condemn all they disaffect , and disaffect before they understand , and are loth to understand contrary to prepossessions ; like Procrustes , either cropping or stretching all new comers to the stinted measure of their wonted fancies and opinions . But not trusting to the Balance of my own judgement ( which now began by a secret charm to be strongly enclined to approve the whole Discourse , for its manner Ingenuous , and for its design Innocent ) I put it to the Test of two or three severe Censors , persons of Socratick brows and Catonian looks , wholly bred up in Academical Shades , and no way partial to the delights of Women . These having at first ( as I did ) with very much coyness and prejudice begun to peruse it , yet , upon sober and second views , they laid aside their ponderous brows , and exchanging their terrible frowns for unaffected smiles , with joynt and liberal suffrages they assured me , That never any thing on so slight a Subject was discoursed and written with more ingenuity and elegancy : That although it undertook fairly to discuss things which were but skin-deep and superficial ; yet it brought them so home to a profound and notable case of Conscience , that it could not justly be denied its weight and place among the more serious Discourses of this Age , and the more meritorious pieces of that Sex ; having that in the Floridness , Candor , and Acuteness of its disputation , which might more then compensate the seeming slightness and inconsiderableness of the things disputed ; endeavouring by a gentler kind of Piety and civiler Sanctity ( then were heretofore used in England ) to reconcile Ladies Countenances with their Consciences , which some either more rustick or rigid spirits have ( a long time ) sought to keep at most deadly fewds and implacable distances , condemning all women ( without miraculous help ) for ever to lie under the burthen and discountenance of either natural or accidental defects , not allowing them to use the least relief , never so obvious in Nature , and not less innocent then easie in Art. The justice or injustice of which severities is here so soberly and impartially considered , that I do not only look upon it as a noble Essay what great wits can doe in small matters ; but ( in good earnest ) I esteem it a very necessary debate in a case so much ( they say ) practised by many women of unspotted worth and honour , and yet so much censured as sinful and abominable by others of very warm and commendable piety . This Discourse ( as an impartial glass ) lets the world see what oppositions and what solutions may be made in point of Conscience , as to any artificial helps of handsomness ; that accordingly every one may practise , either chearfully and discreetly using them as other innocent ornaments , if hereby satisfied of the lawfulness , or wholly forbearing them if they find the Objections overweigh the Answers . It is pity sober women should be denied such reliefs and advantages as God's indulgence allows them : And it is a shame they should use them ( though never so privately and undiscernably ) if God hath in Scripture or Nature and Conscience forbidden them . Besides this great design of stating Ladies Consciences in a case so much concerning their Faces and Looks ( which they cannot but highly consider while they see themselves , or appear to others ) some ( it may be ) will be pleased ( as I was ) at that generous freedom & civility in it , which dare encounter and discuss so popular and prevalent an opinion as that is which ( among us ) denies all Subsidies or aids to womens beauties or complexions . Lastly , finding it was none of the most dangerous Problems which the audacious liberty of these times hath ventured upon , I conceived it might be as worthy of sober persons leisure to read it , as of my pains to publish it . These three motives , Conscience , Civility and Gain , meeting together , tempted me beyond all resistance to make it what I am , Ingenuous Reader , Yours to serve you . The Objections contained in this Book . OBject . 1. Against all Painting the Face as unlawful . P. 1. Object . 2. Jezebel ' s sad fate urged against all Painting the Face . p. 7. Object . 3. Other places of Scripture urged against Painting the Face . p. 18. Object . 4. Urged against all superfluous Ornaments of women , and so against Painting . p. 33. Object . 5. Painting the Face against the Seventh Commandment forbidding all Adultery . p. 44. Object . 6. Painting the Face argues an heart unsatisfied with God's works and disposings , Jam. 4. 7. p. 66. Object . 7. Painting the Face a badge of Vanity and appearance of evil . p. 101. Object . 8. Painting the Face a mark of Pride , Arrogancy and Hypocrisie . p. 126. Object . 9. The Fathers and modern Divines much against all Painting the Face . p. 138. Object . 10. Painting the Face very scandalous , and so unlawful . p. 178. Object . 11. Painting the Face a thing of ill ▪ report , and so not to be followed . p. 194. Object . 12. Painting the Face unlawful , because doubtful at best , and not of faith . p. 228. Object . 13. Of Peter Martyr against Painting the Face , from many Scripture instances . p. 247. The moderate and charitable Conclusion of the Dispute . p. 258. Eccles. 9. 8. Let thy garments alwayes be white , and let thy head lack no oyntment . Prov. 31. 30. Favour is deceitful , and beauty is vain ; but a woman that feareth the Lord she shall be praised . A DISCOURSE OF Artificial Handsomness , In point of CONSCIENCE , between two Ladies . OBJECTION I. Against all Painting the Face , as unlawful . MADAM , I Am not more pleased to see you look so well beyond what you were wont , then I am jealous ( to be free with you ) lest a person so esteemed as you are for modesty and piety , should use some colour or tincture to advance your Complexion ; which indeed I take to be no better then that odious and infamous way of Painting , every where in all ages so much and so justly spoken against , both by God and good men ; being a most ungodly practice , though generally ( as they say ) now used in England ( more or less ) by persons of quality , who not content with Natures stock of Beauty , do ( not by a fine , but filthy , art ) adde something to the advantage , as they think , of their Complexions ; but I fear , to the deforming of their Souls , and defiling of their Consciences . ANSWER . I Do not onely approve your Ladiships friendly freedome , but I take it as some degree of special favour that you speak your thoughts to my face , and not after the secret censurings or back-biting whispers of some , who ( less able to confute what they blame , then to justifie what they suspect ) arraign before the rash Tribunal of their judgements every face whose handsomness they either envy , if natural , or grievously reproach , if they think it hath any thing artificial beyond what themselves are wonted to or acquainted with ; who ( yet ) in other things do as much contend against the defects , deformities and decaies of nature and age , as may be , by washings , anointings and plasterings , by many secret medicaments and close receits , which may either fill and plump their skins , if flat and wrinkled , or smooth and polish them , if rugged and chapt , or clear and brighten them , if tann'd and freckled : onely in the point of colour or tinctures added in the least kind or degree they are not more scrupulous then censorious ; as if every one that used these had forsaken Christ's banner , and now fought under the Devil's colours . Your Nobleness ( Madam ) is more just and civil , in giving me opportunity to answer for my self , that either I may confess and forsake what you suspect , if you convince me of the evil of it ; or continue with a good conscience to doe what you are jealous of , if I can assert it to be lawful and good . First then , if I should deny what your Ladiship suspects , it would be very hard to prove it ; since what you fancy as additional , is not beyond the ordinary proportion of what is natural to my age and complexion . Besides , the looks ( you know ) of our Sex , as to paleness or redness , admit as many changes as the Moon , by natural variations ; which are many times in women not more sudden , then much to their injury or advantage : So impertinent must they needs be , whose eyes are over-curious to find fault at Art there where they have no cause but to commend Nature , unless they were made womens Confessors , which I believe few are in this case ; so that they must needs blame most-what rashly , and oft unjustly , because they onely guess uncertainly . But because I perceive your Ladiship hath a great zeal in this particular , ( which I must interpret a commendable and Christian tenderness against any thing suspected for Sin , which cannot be small to a gainsaying conscience , whose eye will not endure the least mote any more then the heart can the least wound ) I will deal so liberally with your Ladiship as to grant you this supposal , whereupon to fix any discourse which may ( as you think ) batter down with a mighty Engine all auxiliary Beauty or additional Handsomness . And truly it is not my fear , but my request to you , ( of whose pious abilities the world hath a great and just account ) that your Ladiship would let me see , by rational and clear arguings , what you have against it , beyond those vulgar flashes and easie flourishes of some great sticklers and declaimers against all such female arts ; ( to which I have been much wonted ) who with shame and folly , as Solomon sayes , ( even sometimes in the Pulpit as well as in the Press ) resolve of matters of sin and cases of Conscience , before they consider or understand them , calling for fire from Heaven upon all they dislike , as the Disciples did , without ever advising with Christ : which confidence hath made many well-meaning people very much startle at and condemn all such complexionary adornings , as if they impudently outfaced God and man , as if they fought with an high hand and brazen forehead against Reason and Religion , Nature and Grace , Humanity and Christianity . After this rate of bold Oratory many women have been more scared then convinced , more distracted with scruples and terrours then satisfied with truth , as to the nature of many things pretended to be sins and violations of Conscience ; which must be measured not by the bulk , but weight , not the noise , but force of mens words : 'T is not the cry , but the fleece , which sober persons regard . But I will in this rather suspect at present my own incapacity , then any want of solidity or charity in the Sermons and censures of so many as bitterly inveigh against all Artificial Beauty ; hoping to learn from your Ladiship what may , upon just grounds , make me subscribe to their and your severities in this point : Though , I confess , after some diligent search into other books , and chiefly the holy Scriptures , I am as yet so remiss and charitable in my censure of those little artifices used by many sober persons , that , as I will not undertake to justifie all those that use them , so nor dare I condemn all who may use and doe the same things with farre different minds and to very distant ends . OBjECTION II. Jezebel's sad fate urged against all Painting the Face . TRuly , Madam , I absolutely think ( without any mincing or distinction ) all colour or complexion added to our skins or faces , beyond what is purely natural , to be a sin , as being flatly against the Word of God ; which I suppose you grant to be the indispensable and unchangeable Rule of all moral Holiness , from which we may not warp in the least degree upon any pretensions to advance our Honors , Estates , Healths , or Beauties . First then , if your Ladiship look into 2 Kings 9. 30. you shall see wicked Jezebel , though a Queen , yet not tolerated or excused , but foully branded and heavily punished , for painting her eyes or face : for which she was afterward , by a most deformed destiny , justly devoured of dogs ; as the most Reverend Lord Primate of Armagh observes in his larger Catechism upon the 7th Command . Which fearful stroke of divine vengeance , and censure of so Learned and Pious a person , ( making that her painting a most meritorious and principal cause of her so sad destiny ) are sufficient , I think , to scare the most adventurous woman from any such sinful and accursed practice . ANSWER . MAdam , as I allow your Rule , the Word of God , which is the only balance of the Sanctuary where sins are to be weighed ; so I am not ignorant of that story to which your Ladiship ( as all others in this dispute ) doth much referre : nor am I a stranger to that gloss or observation thence made against all painting or tincturing of the face by that most worthy Prelate , with whose so quick and sharp a stroke I was ( at first reading that passage ) so startled , that I had no rest , till I advised with another person of great judgement and sober piety , who made it clear to me , That that excellent Bishop , however then he thought fit ( after the wonted oratory and freedome of some of the Fathers ) to make a popular pass or stroke of his potent pen against what he might suspect to be then much used , and abused too , in the English world ; yet ( for certain ) he was too wise and judicious a Divine , to fix that signal and heavy judgement of God onely , or chiefly , ( or indeed at all ) upon Jezebel's painting , which was an after-act , and as to that time or instant in the story , comes at least 14. years behind that dreadful doom which was by the Prophet Elisha foretold upon the score of Naboth's blood unjustly shed , and his inheritance cruelly usurped ; which is 1 Kings 21. 23. So that her painting her eyes or face , mentioned in the place you urge , is indeed ( among other occasional circumstances ) recorded , but to a farre different end or use , then either to lay the weight of the subsequent punishment , or the guilt of any sin , upon that act more then upon the other concomitant actions therewith recited . Among which this of her painting is indeed set down chiefly , to shew , That no advantages of outward Beanty , natural or artificial , ( though set off with the curiosity and Majesty of a Queen ) are sufficient to make any person the object of either love or pity , where foul and enormous sins have so debased and deformed their Souls to God , as Murther , Idolatry and Oppression had done Jezebel's ; for which sins ( as is expresly said ) that Tragedy befell her ( which was foretold long before she is brought in so dressed and adorned . ) Which thunderbolt of God's vengeance she in vain sought to disarm or avoid by using any charms , attractives or lenitives of outward beauty , if that were her design : which truly is not very probable , at her years ; and toward Jehu , a declared enemy . Nor do indeed the actions of Jezebel signify ( as that gentleman tole me ) any amorous intention whereby to allure Jehu ; since her words reproach him with so just and bitter a Sarcasme as that is , Had Zimri peace who stew his master ? So that Jezebel at this time seems rather resolved not so much to court , as to scorn , Jehu , disdaining to deprecate her ruine , or owe her life to such an enemy : and therefore she puts her self into a posture of Majesty ; as shewing that height and greatness of Mind , which could own her self in the pomp and splendor of a Princess , even then when she expected her enemy and her end ; that she might at least perish ( as she thought ) with the more reputation of a comely person and undaunted spirit , which abhorred to humble and abase it self , after the manner of fearful and squalid suppliants , in sackcloth , or to abate any of those accustomed ornaments with which she used ( as a Queen ) to entertain her self in her prosperity . So that my learned friend concluded ( in my opinion very rationally ) that the Lord Primate's inference ( for which she was justly eaten up by dogs ) may no more be applied to this particular of Jezebel's painting her eyes or face , then to her adorning or dressing of her head , or her looking out of a window , or her speaking such words as she did to Jehu's face : all which are recorded in the same story , immediately before her precipitate ruine . Which actions in themselves cannot be branded for sins , nor are they noted there for such , further then they may be relatively considered as to the mind and end of the doer or speaker , whereby to gratifie pride , passion , or any other wickedness . And in this respective consideration , not onely Jezebel's painting and dressing , but her very eating and drinking , her sleeping and clothing , her native strength and beauty , her civil honor and power might be relatively sins ; as the Scripture tells us , the plowing of the wicked is sin , and his praying is abomination ; so his prosperity becomes a snare , and his plenty a poison to his Soul , when the good gifts and creatures of a good God are by evil minds perverted to be weapons of unrighteousness , and instruments of sin , to satisfie those lusts , whose inordinateness , and not their desire , fights against God and the Soul. So then your Ladiship cannot be so blind , as not to see that the bare historical narration of Jezebel's painting her eyes , among other actions , ( which you confess to be innocent in themselves , and whereof you make no scruple ) if it did referre to any wanton design ( which is very unlikely at that time , in a Queen whose proud and violent spirit might ( now ) justly be carried away with other passions and transports then those of Lust , ) yet it doth no way argue or import the use of that or other things therewith mentioned to be in themselves any sins to all that then did , or after should , use the like applications , words or actions , out of far different minds , and to far different ends ; which are beyond all dispute the proper grounds and rules of all moral denominations as to good or evil , in those mediate actions , agents and instruments , whose freedome in nature falls not under any special restraint of God's command , forbidding them by any positive Law : ( as he did many things in point of food , clothes , fashions , and other civil actions among the Jews . ) It is a gross mistake in Architecture , to think that every small stud bears the main stress and burthen of the building , which lies ( indeed ) upon the principal timbers : And it is an horrible wresting of Scripture , to make every recited circumstance in any place to bear the whole weight of the story and event . You cannot think that Dives went to hell onely because he was a rich man clothed in purple and fine linen , and faring deliciously or sumptuously every day ; all which things many persons of as good as great quality , of no less vertue and piety then honour and estate , daily enjoy without any blame . Nor was it Lazarus his poverty and dunghil , or his sores and the charitable tongues of the dogs , that brought him to heaven . The luxury , pride , and uncharitableness of the one ; the patience , humility , and sanctity of the other , made that grand discrimination of their fates . Nor may your Ladiship think , that the beheading of John Baptist is any valid argument ( however it be popularly used by some ) against all Dancing , as if it were absolutely evil and unlawful in it self ; not onely mixt of both sexes , but alone and single , as that of Herodias was , who is said ( there ) to have danced , not with , but before Herod and the company , ( which yet I know your Ladiship and other sober persons , not onely use themselves , but also approve , as to the breeding and behaviour of their children . ) That sad event ( which is odiously , but fallaciously , laid to the charge of Dancing ) was the proper effect not of the orderly motions of Herodias her feet , but of the inordinate strokes of her affections ; her wanton pride and impious despite against not so much the person as the doctrine of that holy man , who never reproved ( that we read ) hers or others Dancing , ( as to the civil custome of the Countrey or Court ) but her adulterous compliances with Herod's lust : John was not a stumbling-block to her feet , but an eye-sore to her eyes , and a corrosive to her ears , by his chast monitions and holy severities . So Herod's sudden crumbling into worms , may be justly urged against the pride and arrogance of any mortal in God's sight : but it is misapplied against the purple , Thrones and orations of Princes . In like sort I believe Jezebel's painting , and otherwaies dressing or adorning her self , set down in that place , to be no more prejudice in point of sin , against a sober , modest and ingenuous use of those things , then Leah's bargaining with Rachel for her sons mandrakes was any charm or cause of her conceiving that night with childe by her hired husband . If all that Jezebel , or other notorious sinners mentioned in Scripture , did at any time , in order to accomplish any evil design , is therefore to be branded and avoided as a sin , we may not call a solemn assembly or keep a fast , because Jezebel did both , in order to palliate with shews of Justice and prefacings of Religion her detestable murther and dis-inherison of Naboth . Nor may we use fair words and affable gestures , because Absalom's ambition did abuse those popular arts . We must not kiss or embrace a friend , because Joab did so when he basely kill'd both Abner and Amasa ; as also Judas did when he betrayed Christ : nay staves , and lanthorns , and torches must not be used , because they sometime waited upon that ingrateful Traitor . We may not weep , because Ismael's treachery did so when he intended to slay Gedaliah . In all which cases the designs were apparently wicked and base ; yet are not all those concomitant actions such , much less these here recorded of Jezebel : whose aim ( certainly ) was not any allurement , but a defiance and affront to Jehu , shewing how little she was terrified by his presence , power , and success , at which she appeared neither dejected nor deformed , after the manner of those squalid suppliants , who poorly and pitifully stoop below themselves to beg their lives ; which she scorned to doe , by any the least diminution or abatement of her wonted grandeur , glory , or splendour . As the mentioned circumstances receive no credit or honour by Jezebel's name , so nor any disparagement , since different minds make the difference of manners : Nor is it strange for the wicked to doe the same things that worthy persons doe to diverse ends . OBJECTION III. Other places of Scripture urged against painting the Face . BUT Painting the face ( good Madam ) is mentioned in two other places of Scripture , as the practice of lewd and wicked women , and justly falling not onely under the reproach of the Prophet and all holy men , but under God's dislike and displeasure , who not onely abhorres to see the deformities of our hearts , but also of our looks and outsides , when they are altered by any art from what God and nature have made them , whose works must needs be best , and beyond mans amendment . You see Ezek. 23. 40. how with a sacred taunt and irony the Spirit of God reproves the Jewish Church in her lewdness and Apostasie : Lo , they come for whom thou didst wash thy self , paintedst thy eyes , and deckedst thy self with ornaments , and satest in a stately bed , with a table prepared before it . So Jer. 4. 30. Though thou clothest thy self with crimson , and deckest thy self with ornaments of gold , though thou rentest thine eyes ( or face ) with painting ; in vain shalt thou make thy self fair , &c. By which expressions , alluding to the customes of those times , the Lord seems extremely to blame and abhorre those practices there mentioned , among which that of painting is expressed . ANSWER . IF these places be all the strength your Ladiship can produce from Scripture against any colouring of the face , or helping of the complexion , because this , as other usual waies of comely , curious or stately adornings , are there mentioned as the practices of wanton & imperious women ; yet your Ladiship will not hence conclude , That onely such women did then use those things , who are alwaies so cunning , as not to render themselves notorious by any such outward differences from grave and sober women ( as they say the common curtisans of Rome are commanded to doe , for distinction sake : ) but rather you must conclude , That wanton women did cast themselves into the same outward mould or civil garb and fashion wherein persons of honour and good repute appeared , not with more beauty , state or comeliness , then with chastity , gravity and vertue . For sin is generally so apishly crafty , as to hide it self under the colours and masks of goodness and honesty ; as well knowing that it is not onely deformed , but very fulsome , if it appear impudently like it self . Besides , if your Ladiship thinks the sharp style of that place strikes so severely against all painting and complexioning as a sin , why may you not also by the same severity destroy and disallow all other things there expressed in that same tone and tenour ? as dressing and decking your self with any costly and comely ornaments , all sweet perfumes , all sitting on rich and stately beds , with tables before them , &c. From all which I do not find your Ladiship or others do abstain , either as to your persons or your houses ; who yet with great eagerness single out and hunt to death that one particular there mentioned , of painting the face , which seems to have no worser marks on it then the rest of the herd or company , which you are content to spare and preserve for your use . But ( Madam ) it is unworthy of your candour and discretion thus to rack and disjoint Scriptures , whose sense for the most part is not to be taken in the broken parts and severed or distracted limbs , but in the juncture and intireness of the whole discourse , which shews the scope and design of the Spirit of God ; which is not either to condemn or commend every particular mentioned in the procedure of any place , where yet the main design is to commend or condemn something there eminently proposed , and chiefly aimed at . We read our Saviour Christ commending the providence and self-preservation of the unjust steward ; but not his falsity and injustice : which yet is there brought in as the fraudulent method of this worldly wisdome and forecast . So Jacob by his mothers craft and imposture obtained the blessing from his cheated and aged father beyond any revocation ; yet the sinister arts there used are not to be imitated or approved , however the desire of a paternal blessing ( which was then solemn and Sacramental ) might be as commendable in him , as the undervaluing of it was a profane temper in Esau . If commendable ends do not justifie evil means in any , no more may evil ends in some blemish the use of lawful and permitted things in others , who apply them to sober and good ends . These places are very general and loose arguments to condemn all ingenuous arts and helps of handsomness , either to the face and other parts of the body , or to the adorning of civil state & Majesty . Nor do they any way amount to so much as a positive Law , either Ceremonial or Political , such as those were against linsi-woolsie garments , sowing with diverse seeds , abstaining from swines flesh , and other beasts , birds , or fishes , which yet in their nature are not unclean or unlawful . How much less can your Ladiship or any other , by the Chymistry of your wits , extract from these places any drop or quintessence of a moral command , which shall be ever binding to the Conscience , as from sin ? Truly , I cannot but believe that the most holy God , who hath not been wanting to reveal his whole will to his Church in his written Word , so farre as is necessary for faith and good manners , who even in very small matters gave an express law to the Jews in things less pleasing to him , not in their nature , but in their use or significancy among the Jews , such as were , the not cutting the corners of their heads and beards , the not seething a kid in its mothers milk , the not cutting down fruit-trees in a siege , the not taking the old bird with the young , she not leaving their excrements uncovered , &c. I cannot ( I say ) but believe that this gracious God would either in the Old or New Testament have positively and expresly forbidden all such additionals to Beauty , or helps to handsomness , both as to the face and other parts of the body , if they had been in the use and nature of the things as abominable to him as Idolatry , Theft , Lying , Murther and Adultery ; which some men have passionately , but very impotently , pretended . Certainly his goodness would not in a case of sin , and so high a sin as some clamour this to be , have onely made such oblique and general reflexions upon it in this and other places , not as a thing any where forbidden , but onely as a general custome , used by many , and abused by some ; not perstringing the nature of that more then other things there mentioned , but onely setting forth how farre vain and vicious minds were prone to abuse those things to God's displeasure , which vertuous minds ( no doubt ) did according to the modes and civil customes of the times and places use soberly , without any offence to God or man. Who doubts but Queen Esther , a devout and gracious woman , might lawfully use , as we reade she did , all those purifications appointed her ? that she applied to her advantage all the attractives of sweet unguents and perfumes , of costly raiment and beaitiful colours , of rich and accurate dressings or lovely adornings , such as were usual to the Persian delicacy , softness and luxury , hereby to win and confirm more the Kings affection and sensual love to her ? Her using all these was so far from being her sin , that it had been so far a sin not to use them , as she had rather tempted God then pleased him , by neglecting to use those means which might ( most probably ) in ordinary providence conduce to those great and good ends which her holy , chaste and charitable heart intended to God's glory and the Churches good . We reade Rebekah ( in the primitive plainness and shepherdly simplicity of those times ) accepted bracelets and other ornaments to be put on her arms , neck and eares , without any disparagement to her Virgin-modesty : so Solomon's chief wife and Queen , Pharaoh's daughter , turning proselyte , is brought in as a type of the Church of the Gentiles espoused to Christ , and adorned with all princely riches and costly curiosities , that the king might take pleasure in her beauty . That good and lawful things , both in Nature and Art , have been and daily are abused by evil minds to evil ends , is no doubt or wonder , since where-ever God hath his hand , the devil seeks to set his foot : and in that sense or aspect both the things themselves , and the abusive use of them , may be branded with marks of God's dislike . But this rather justifies and approves the sober and honest use of them , as the right end of God's creation and donation for mans use . Our Lord Jesus bidding us beware lest our hearts be overcharged with eating and drinking , and his Apostle forbidding us wine wherein is excess , also unlawful dalliances in chambering and wantonness ; yet they do not hereby deny the lawful and loving sportings of Isaac with Rebekah , or the rejoycings with the wife of ones youth , or the moderate use of meats and drinks , even to a festival mirth and satiety of wine ; which Christs presence and bounty at a wedding feast , supplying , by a miracle , great quantities of excellent and inviting wines , ( after men had well drunk ) to an holy superfluity , do sufficiently vindicate , as allowed to Christians , notwithstanding the morose and cynical severity of some spirits . The Jews are indeed blamed for their unseasonable gluttony and Epicurean profaneness , under the reproaches of joy and gladness , slaying of oxen , killing of sheep , eating of flesh , drinking of wine , and singing to the viol ; Which iniquity ( saith God ) shall not be purged from them till they die . Yet were not these things in themselves unlawful , but therefore evil because unseasonable , and used by unsanctified and impenitent hearts , then when God called for fasting and mourning , for sackcloth and ashes : which outward forms and signs of penitence and humility there required , are yet otherwhere taxed and highly blamed , when they were but the masks and visards of hypocrisie ; as in Ahab and other Jews . If we should therefore think all things unlawful to be used because they have been , or are abused , ( which is a most pitiful piece of vulgar sophistry and superstitious fear ) the devils and wicked mens incroachments would wholly abridge us of all God's bounty and Christian liberty . How have the Sun , Moon , and Starres , yea almost every creature on which are any remarkable characters of the Creatours goodness and glory ( in their beauty and usefulness ) how ( I say ) have they been ravished and abused by Idolatry or other sensual excesses ? Yet must not wise and good men be therefore wholly divorced or estranged from them ; which were as fond and irrational a part of superstition , as to forbear to eat beef and veal , or their sawces , garlick and onions , because the Egyptians worshipped the Oxe and those herbs , as the Jews did their golden Calf after that example . Upon this principle all must abstain from marrying , because some husbands and wives have adulterously profaned that holy covenant , and broke the vow of God which was upon them . We shall never be able to reconcile the clashings and diversities of the Scripture style and expressions , sometime complaining of , otherwhile commending the same things , unless we distinguish of the same things in their several uses and abuses , as it were into their cross and pile , their day and night , according as the mind of the user or abuser either lightens or darkens them . For you cannot but reade in Ezekiel that God ( on the other side ) sets forth his transcendent favour and bounty to the Church of the Jews under all those names and notions , by which either a fond parent or an amorous suitor are wonted to express their loves to any daughter , or spouse and mistress ; by bestowing on them all the accomplishments and treasures of amorous delicacy , as sweet washings , anointings , clothings with embroidery , silk , fine linen , forehead Jewels , ear-rings , bracelets , neck-lace , crown , works of gold and silver , precious in nature , ( at least in humane esteem ) and rare for art or workmanship : by all which additional beauties provision was made to hide deformities , supply defects , and set off the comeliness as of other parts of the body , so of the Face also : Which is the chief Theatre , Throne and Centre of Beauty , to which all outward array is subservient ; every part of the body studying as it were to pay ( by adorning it self to its best advantage ) some tribute of comeliness as an homage to the face : which is not onely the Queen and soveraign of humane and visible Beauty , but the Regent and directrix of the whole bodies culture , motion , and welfare . In that place then of Ezekiel , your Ladiship sees the rich Cabinet of feminine ornaments and additionals of Beauty set forth as the fruit of divine munificence , and this under the Character or test of God's approbation ; who as he hath made all these things ( both for their substance and accidents , their matter and their forms , their mass and their colours ) good in their nature or kind ; so , as to their use , he hath fitted mankind with invention , knowledge , fancy , skill , curiosity and art , many wayes to apply and improve them : which is also a good gift of God , and peculiar to mankind , unto whom God hath thus manifested , both by nature and art , his special love and indulgence , inviting them by an holy use of his bounty to praise and serve him , as his children , with all faithfulness and chearfulness , even in this valley of mortality , which is the Churches continual infancy , and a Christians momentary minority . Nor do we find the Jewish Church blamed there , or elsewhere , for using and enjoying all these divine donations , even to the renown of her comeliness , and to a perfection of Beauty ; but onely for that self-pride and pomp which drew her to trust in her riches and comeliness , so as to seek other lovers , and play the harlot against God. OBjECTION IV. Urged against all superfluous ornaments of women , and so against Painting . BUT we reade the same God , in the third of Isaiah , with displeasure reckoning up those many arts and instruments of dressing and adorning , which either ingenuity and civility , or delicacy and luxury had found out , and fashionably used , to gratifie the curiosity , pride and petulancy of the women of Jerusalem , onely with those additional ornaments which do not pretend to be natural , as all paint and complexioning doth ; wherewith we may very well conclude God is much more displeased , then he is with any of those things which were but professedly artificial additaments to nature , and not counterfeits of nature . ANSWER . IF the Lord had a greater displeasure against the use of any colouring or complexioning of the face or skin , it is strange that it is not expressed in this place , which is the Bill of womens ornaments , ( and with some special note of dislike ) when in all probability the women of Jerusalem did as much use that as any other thing , as more nearly contributing to their Beauty ; which appears by those other places you formerly alledged . So little reason you have to suppose it more offensive then those other things here mentioned , that I may better argue , It is not at all offensive in it self , because not at all here expressed , where you think God purposely and particularly quarrels with all things that were offensive in feminine curiosity : this of complexioning being therefore not mentioned , because it may be used by many as an help of infirmity , without any pride or vanity . But I will not make any advantage of God's silence in this particular , but rather answer with more certainty , That God in this place enumerates all those particulars , not as absolutely finding fault with or forbidding the use of them , but as reproaching the ingrateful pride and abuse of them in those to whom he had indulged so many superfluities . Therefore the Lord , to prevent any mistake , first gives the account of his displeasure , verse 16. Because the daughters of Zion are haughty , and walk with stretched-forth necks , and wanton eyes , &c. Therefore , that is for their haughtiness and abusing of God's bounty in nature and art , he threatens to punish them by depriving them of those things , as he doth otherwhere of his corn , wine , flax , and oil ; which the divine indulgence had afforded , not to pamper wanton and proud minds to rebel against God , but to serve either natural necessities , or civil conveniencies , or ingenuous delights , or modest decencies , or honorable state , as befitted mankind in their sociable , orderly and religious living , to their own content , to others benefit , and to the Creators glory . God would not have threatned to deprive those women of all those things if they had been evil or poisonous in themselves ; for then it had been a mercy to take them quite away , and a punishment to have continued them . Nor is the menace of stripping them of all those ornaments in order to scare them wholly from the use of them ( which are otherwhere , as I shewed you , allowed ) but to teach them how to prize and use them with more humility and modest piety , as things appointed to farre better uses then to serve sensual , impudent and impious either minds or ends . God asserts his right in all these ( even so small bagatellos or toyes comparatively ) that we may learn to take heed not to misapply these , or any other the least of God's creatures , to perverse and sinister ends , of which a sober and good use may be made to God's glory as well as our own delight and content , while we own him in all , and bless him for all , even the least help and ornament of life . It is an undoubted Maxime both in Reason and Religion , That the Devils or wicked Mens usurpation is no prejudice to God's dominion or donation , nor to that right use and end of all things which he hath granted to mankind throughout the whole latitude and empire of his visible works . If all things are therefore vain , sinful and unlawful which vain and wicked minds have or do abuse , what I pray will there be left for sober and vertuous persons to use or enjoy ? They must neither eat , nor drink , nor clothe , nor dress themselves to any decency , sweetness , costliness , or delight . Tamar an harlot will dress her self with a vail of modesty , as well as chast Rebekah . The wanton and cunning woman , whom Solomon describes so to the life , decketh her self to all extern advantages , applieth with all amorous civilities , perfumeth her bed and chamber , pretendeth great love , offereth her holy festivities and peace-offerings ; at last wipeth her mouth with great demureness and sobriety : Yet may we not think all these actions are hereby made scandalous and unlawful to sober women , to chast and loving wives . We may as well forbid the use of a staffe and a signet to honest men , because Judah in his blind and extravagant desires pawns them as pledges of his love to a woman whom he took and used as an harlot , not common , but incestuous . Youth , Riches , Honour , Beauty , Strength , Policy and Eloquence might be all arraigned and condemned before such unjust and unjudicious Judges , who would cry down all use of things because of some abuses , which flow not from the nature of the things abused , which are good , but from the malice of the persons or minds abusing that native good which God diffused to every creature . Nabal's churlish Covetousness , Absalom's beautiful Rebellion , Achitophel's politick Treachery , Joab's valiant Cruelty , Jehu's zealous Ambition , Tertullus his eloquent Malice , are all carried upon the wings or wheels of God's gifts and framing . Who sees not that the corrupt hearts of men oft turn God's streams to drive the devils mill ? What Truth so glorious which hath not been sometime sullied & eclipsed by the smoke of the bottomless pit , the prejudices or scandalous imputations of some black or foul mouths ? On the other side , what Error is so rotten and putrid which some Oratorious varnish hath not sought to colour over with shews of Truth and Piety ? It is a great part of calm and sober wisdome to resolve all things into their rational and pure principles , of which this is one , That whatever is in nature , is good in its kind ; That the goodness of all things in nature is reducible to a good end in Reason and Religion ; That no person is abridged in a right and holy use of things by anothers abuse of them ; That the just use of things may be restrained , though the abuse cals for reformation , and the excess for moderation ; That since God doth not annihilate what he hath made ( as all ) good in nature because of mans abuse of things , no more have we any cause to annul or deny our sober use of any thing for others petulancy and abuse : What things vice or vanity are most prone to usurp , as to the most sweet , fair and inviting delights of life , no doubt vertue and modesty may lawfully challenge , and vindicate to their propriety . We must not pull out our Eyes , because some mens and womens are , as S. Peter sayes , full of adultery ; not think Sight and Light unlawful to be enjoyed , because some imploy them only to objects of sin and vanity : But we must the more cautiously set holy bounds to all our thoughts , desires and actions , which may have their occasion and fewell from the ministry of the Eyes , but their kindling and flames are from the inward inordinacy of the Heart , where sin is ( as our Saviour tels us ) first conceived and brought forth , before it is nourished , suckled , or swadled in the gifts of God , either natural or artificial . Heal that root and fountain , there is no doubt but the branches or streams flowing either from or to will soon be pure and healthful . Whatever God's indulgence offers us in art or nature , ought to put us in mind to ask that grace of God the giver , which may give us the right use of all his sensible gifts , so as not to hinder us of his spiritual and eternal gifts . Thus have I ( good Madam ) with all plainness , freedome and integrity , furthest from any thing of fallacy and sophistry , answered as I could what you were pleased to urge from Scripture-instances , which obviously mention painting or colouring the eyes , among other customary ornaments of those times and places , but with no token of God's dislike as to that particular , more then of other wonted adornings of the head , face , and the rest of the body , whereof your Ladiship makes no scruple , as to any sin : So that whatever frown may seem to be in the face of the words , doth fall only on the abuse of that , as other things , to sinful excesses and inordinate satisfactions , beyond the bounds of civility , modesty and honesty . But this doth not amount to the force of any positive command forbidding the use of that and other helps to handsomness : nor doth it import any dislike of outward comeliness when joyned with humility and holiness , conform to the divine mind , or will ; which must be the only touchstone of sin , and test of Conscience , wherein no great curiosity is necessary to discern God's meaning as to things importing sin or duty . Which are ( I think ) alwayes set forth in the holy Scriptures , not by dubious reflexions , oblique and obscure intimations , but by such clear direct precepts , and authoritative sanctions , ( in some place or other ) as becomes the majesty of the King of heaven , and is most proportionate to the dimness and infirmity of humane understanding ; who shall never be charged for that as a sin , which he could not either by innate principles of moral light or by Scripture-prescripts evidently see to be such . Nor is there almost any thing of gross impiety which doth not discover to us its offensiveness against God by that check , regret , and disgust which it oft gives to our selves either before , in , or after the sin done : which I believe this never did or doth to any modest and judicious users of it , unless they be more scared and guided by the ignis fatuus of popular superstition then the clear and constant light of true Religion , which moves not by Fancy and Opinion , ( as Puppets do with gimmers ) but by Reason and divine revelation , as the Body doth by its living Soul. OBJECTION V. Painting the Face against the Seventh Commandment forbidding all Adultery . BUT , Madam , I have been informed by some Divines and other godly Christians , that all painting the face , or adding to our handsomness in point of Complexion , is directly against the 7th Commandment , which forbidding to commit adultery with others , as the highest ascent or degree of sin in that kind , doth also forbid all Means and occasions , either necessarily tending to , or studiously intending , that evil End ; all leading others , or exposing our selves into Temptations of Amorous solly , by adding to our comeliness then , when either God in our formation , or age and infirmity , have brought us as it were into the safer harbour or retreat of deformity , either natural or accidental . What folly is it to seek to rig up our crazy vessel , or to expose our selves by art on new hazards , by putting out again to that tempestuous and ( oft ) naufragous Sea , wherein youth and handsomness are commonly tossed with no less hazard to the body and Soul too , then S. Paul's voyage was to the lives of himself and his company ? What true-hearted Israelite would have returned back to Egypt , when God had brought them out into the wilderness , whose barrenness was compensated with Safety and God's society ; as Egypt's plenty was corrupted with Servility , Luxury and Idolatry ? Deformities may be as great blessings to our Souls , as bolts and barres are to our Houses ; which keep thieves not onely from rifling , but from attempting those that are thus fortified with lessinviting looks . Besides , if all Adultery and adulterating arts ( as injurious to others ) by the rule of equity and charity are forbidden to us , how much more any such plots and practices as tend to a Self-adulterating , while we disguise and alter our faces , not onely as to God's and mans aspect , but even as to our own ? so that we are not what we seem to be to our selves ; and being once altered by Art from what is native , we must look for another face , before we can find or see our selves in that glass which at once flatters , upbraids and deceives us , while it represents our looks other then God hath made them and us : whereas the wise Creator hath by nature impressed on every face of man & woman such characters either of beauty , or majesty , or at least of distinction , as he sees sufficient for his own honour , our content , and others social discerning or difference , whereby to avoid confusions or mistakes ; so as there shall not need any further additionals of Art , which put a kind of metamorphosis or fabulous change on God's and Natures work , whose wisdome and power ( yet ) purposely ( no doubt ) orders some to be less well-favoured , that they may be as foiles to set off the beauty he bestows on others ; as we see leaves are to the brighter flowers , or clouds to the Starres . Thus he makes black Night to commend the lightsome Day , the Winters horror to double the Summers welcome sweetness and serenity . So that in that variety which God hath chosen to set forth his noblest Creatures in ( which are after his own Image ) even mankind , ( in a kind of checquer-work of some handsome and others unhandsome , some pallid and others ruddy ) every one ( I think ) ought to content themselves with that colour and complexion , as well as feature , which God hath given them , not onely in order to their particular subsisting , but as to the general symmetry of his works ; in which he hath ( as skilful Painters do in their pictures ) set forth his more quick and lively colours ( which are in some faces ) by those deep and darker shadows which are in others . If the most accurate pencils were but blottings which presumed to mend Zeuxis or Apelles works ; who may presume to adde any thing where God hath put to his last and compleating hand , which is both able and wise to doe what he sees best ? ANSWER . I Most willingly grant that the same pure and perfect God who hath forbidden all evil ends , or sins of the ripest age and highest stature , hath also forbad all means desired by us to those ends , as to the immorality and perverseness of the agents mind and intent , whose first fancies and most infant conceptions of sin are sinful , if designed , approved , or delighted in ; notwithstanding he hath no power either to act , nor yet any matter whereupon to work , for the accomplishing or carrying on of his sin , but onely from the power , bounty and goodness of the Creator , who is good in all his works : though we have evil hands or eyes , yet doth not God tempt us to evil , by giving us those good things which we abuse to sin by the inordinateness of our minds , more then the activity of our hands or outward enjoyment ? It is indeed a great Truth your Ladiship urges , but very little to your purpose , as I conceive ; yea it makes directly against you . For if it be ( as it is confessed ) most unlawful to abuse good things to evil ends , or to gratifie any desire in order to violate God's express Command : then where the heart is upright , without any sinful warpings as to piety , purity and charity , it must follow , that the use of any thing God hath made and given to mankind must needs be good and lawful , both in nature and in art . Neither natures bounty , nor the additions of modest and ingenuous art can be blamed , or so much as questioned , where the heart is sound and honest ; as in those loves or complacencies whose Chastity useth all kinds of ingenuous Elegancy . If nothing can be materially evil , either in nature or in art , but onely as related to the inordinacy of the mind , will and intent of a voluntary and moral agent ; it must necessarily follow , that as to the use of colour and complexion to the face , there can be no evil in it as against the 7th Commandment , where no adulterous , wanton or evil purpose is harboured in the Soul of those that use it , but it is ( as all things ought to be ) kept within the bounds of Piety to God , Purity to our selves , and Charity to our neighbours . Which holy limits must be precisely set , as in the use of this , so of all other ornaments and enjoyments afforded us by the Creator's indulgence in nature , which are as prone to be abused to Adulterous incentives as this ; yea farre more , as being more inviting : yet are they not forbidden to be used or enjoyed , but onely confined to honest , pure and holy ends ; not onely the last and highest , of God's glory , but also those of the creatures life , health , delight and chearfulness . That in many Countreys , and almost in all ages , something which your Ladiship would call painting or complexioning , as washings , anointings , fomentations , tinctures and frictions , &c. have been used by very sober , chast and vertuous persons , both maids , wives and widows , I think your Ladiship is not so uncharitable as not to grant ; since even whole nations ( not only the Jews of old , but Christians also ) have and do at this day by customary and civil fashions use it , without any reproach , scruple or scandal of sin , any more then it is to wash their faces , to comb their hair or to braid it , to anoint their heads and faces , to perfume their clothes , &c. which things do neither necessarily tend , nor are studiously intended to any sinful end . The Greek Churches generally , and most of the Latin Casuists ( as I have heard from Learned men and Travellers ) do allow even this complexionary art and use of adorning by some light tincture the looks of women eminent for vertue , modesty , piety and charity , when they are not recluse or votaries : And yet even these are not denied ( as I suppose ) those things which may innocently please themselves even in their retirements ; where every one is yet a Theatre and society to themselves , and cannot willingly live at any odds with their looks , or dislike of themselves . Some use these helps who are rarely seen of any men ; others of none but their husbands , in reference to whose honest satisfactions they use these customable adornings of the Country as a testimony of their love and respect , besides as an attractive or conservative of their affections , which never receive greater Checks then when they meet with any object that represents either sordidness , negligence or undervaluing . Your Ladiship cannot think it unlawful for wives to please and gratify their husbands , no less by quickning their complexion then by hiding any other defect and deformity , or using such ways of sweetness , neatness and decency ( which are potent Decoyes to love ) as may best keep their husbands from any loathing or indifferency , also from any extravagancy . To which end I have heard that S. Austin's civility allowed those feminine ornaments and elegancies of fine clothes , sweets , dresses and anointings to wives , or such as would be wives , as farre as the limits of chast and conjugal love extended . All which S. Jerom's rigor ( who they say more loved then favoured our sex ) would less approve . Sure if lewd and wanton women find the use of such adornings to be advantageous to vicious ends , ( which make all things so applied unlawful ) I see no cause why sober and modest women should despair , or be denied to turn them to a better use and honester account ; since they are as apt for the one as the other , and fall as much under the power of good as evil minds to have them . If that oracle hold true ( as it must , because Divine ) in all things of free and indifferent natures and use , ( that is , upon which no restraint of God's special command is laid ; as none is upon the Churches Christian in outward things ) That to the pure all things are pure , and , That nothing is unclean ( that is , morally and sinfully ) in it self , as the blessed Apostle was perswaded by the Lord Jesus ; these will include in their large circumference whatever is used to advance the complexion , or hide the defects of the face , as well as any other parts of the body , both as to the nature of the things used , and the Conscience of those who purely use them : since we see that the highest abuse of God's creatures to Idolatrous services and sacrifices ( which was the most provoking sin ) did no way prejudge or hinder the liberty of a believer to eat or drink of those things to farre different ends . As there was no Idolatry in eating things offered by others to Idols , if there was no regard to the Idol , whose it properly was not , but to God , whose rightly it was ; so nor can I see any Adultery in the use of those helps to handsomness where there is no adulterous intent or evil thought in the heart , whose prime motor or spring ( as to its end and purpose ) being set true to the measure of God's will , the outward wheels , motions and indications cannot goe amiss ; since the end of the command in that , as in all things , is a pure heart , faith unfeigned , and a good Conscience . What your Ladiship objects , That the use of any artificial beauty may be an occasion to anothers sin , a snare and temptation to them ; Truly so may all outward adornings ( which have something in them of a complaisance and takingness ) yea and the most innocent native beauty may be made a bait to the devils hooks : Yet do I not think your Ladiship will therefore either deform your beauty , or not both own , esteem and improve it to your civil advantages ; else in vain had handsomness been given by God as a favour to so many sober women , who were as conspicuous for their beauty as their vertue , being every way compleatly lovely , like apples of gold set in pictures of silver : Such were Job's daughters , &c. Thus I have ( I hope ) answered the Weight of your Ladiships Argument drawn from the 7th Commandment , which forbids onely the abuse of things by depraved and adulterous minds , not the use of them to sober and civil ends . As to the Wit of it , which makes all mending the complexion or looks of our faces to be a kind of Self-adultery , a metamorphosis of God's work , a confuting of his distinctions set upon his creatures , a re-kindling the fire which God hath quenched , and adventuring again into the storm whence one is happily escaped , &c. My first Answer is , That it is hard to extract one drop of spirits or quintessence of reason and right argumentation ( as to point of sin , and stating the Conscience ) from many handfuls and heaps of Rhetorical flowers and parabolical allusions , which are but light skirmishings , and not serious contendings in matters of Religion : Such sparks and flashes of Oratory ( which are the main stock and strength of most opposers in this case ) are rather like the hedge-creeping light of glo-worms , then that celestial vigor of divine Truth , whose beams have a star-like sublimity , and constancy of shining . As to the change and Alteration which is odiously called a Self-adulterating ; 'T is true , there is some little change of the complexion from a greater degree of pallor to a less , possibly to some little quickning of redness ; yet not so as to make any greater change on the face or cheeks then is frequently made by the blushings of those that are of most modest looks and tenderest foreheads . This makes no more a new face or person , ( so as to run any hazard of confusion or mistake ) then usually befals women in their sicknesses and ordinary distempers , incident both to single and married persons ; who sometimes appear pallidly sad , as if they were going to their graves ; otherwhiles with such a rosy chearfulness , as if they had begun their resurrection : so that this artificial change is but a fixation of natures inconstancy , both imitating its frequent essays , & helping its variating infirmities . Nor doth all this so terrible a change amount to more then a little quickness of colour upon the skin ; it alters not the substance , fashion , feature , proportions , temper or constitutions of nature ; which is oft done , or at least endeavoured , by several applications , both inward ( as to physical receipts of all kinds ) and outward , by more gross and mechanick arts , which strive by many ways to conceal , cover and supply natures grosser deformities and defects , even as to the very substance of parts , no less then to the additions of borrowed ornaments . Thus the baldness , thinness , and ( as both men and women think ) the deformity of their Hair , is usually supplied by Borders and combings ; also by whole Perukes ( like artificial sculls ) fitted to their heads . Some highly please themselves in those artificial Eyes , Hands , Leggs , Noses , Teeth and Hair , which make up those breaches of the body which age or sickness or other accidents have occasioned , either to the inconveniency of motion , or the deformity of their aspect . How many both men and women , who pretend to high piety and strictness , do ( yet without any scruple ) by a thrumm'd stocking , a bumbast or bolstered garment , by iron bodies and high-heel'd shoes , endeavour to redeem themselves from that may seem less handsome , and ( vulgarly ) ridiculous or antick ; levelling hereby the inequality of crooked backs and crump shoulders , setting up one foot parallel to the other , filling out the leanness of their dwindled leggs , and the like ? wherein Art studiously and speedily either encounters Natures enemies , or fortifies its out-works against all assaults , or repairs its breaches , and every way kindly comes in as its Second and Auxiliary to assist it against all infirmities original or accidental . Yet this Quantitative Adultery , which by such patching and piecing of the body makes farre more gross alterations and substantial changes of nature , your Ladiship and all persons of sound senses do allow in their daily use , ( as much as the Romans did Caesar's wearing of a Laurel Coronet , to hide the baldness of his head ) without any reproach to any ones honour , chastity or piety : yea , how many grave and godly matrons usually graff or re-implant on their now-more-aged heads and brows the reliques , combings or cuttings of their own or others more youthful hair ? Whence the weakness & self-confuting invalidity of this flash or flourish against all use of art to the face appears ; as if there were more adulterating in colours then in features , in quality then in quantity , in a little tincture then in solid composures . Truly ( Madam ) a smile or silence were the best and justest confutation of such partial allegations , which allow the greater , and yet scruple the lesser changes . Nor is there more solidity as to matter of Sin or Conscience in the other popular terror , of adulterating God's and Nature's workmanship to his diminution and reproach : For ingenuous Artifices , honest applications and civil alterations to the advantages of humane nature as single or social , in things placed under our natural power , and left free as to our religious or moral power , ( that is , where no divine prohibition intervenes ) these are no more to be called or counted any adulterating of God's works , or reproach to his power and wisdome , then it is to dy woollen , linen or silk , out of their native simplicity ; or to wash that scurf and filth off which riseth naturally from our bodies by sweating or evaporation ; or then the polling of mens hairs , and trimming of their beards , or paring their nails , which suffers not natures excrescencies to run out to that horror and uncomeliness ( like Nebuchadnezzar's when he had run long at grass ) to which they would grow ; where Art ( we see ) doth daily turn , according to the several fancies and various fashions of times and Countreys , those things which are but excremental , to be ornamental to our bodies . The same Sarcasm of adulterating nature may be as justly used against all sweet smells or sents applied to our hair , clothes , bodies , or to our breath ; not onely as a delight , but as a remedy to the native ranckness or offensiveness which some persons are subject to both in their breath and constitutions ; which not to cure or alter by art is to condemn such persons ( otherways not ill company ) to solitudes , by reason of those ill savours , which make them fitter for cells then for society . How impertinent and ungrate must that superstition be , which out of a needless nicety of offending the God of nature , ( by altering any Characters or Impressions he hath set on our bodies , in colour , favour , or feature , ) dreads to use even those helps and remedies which both God and Nature have prepared and liberally offered to our both civil and religious use of them ; not more to our own pleasure and innocent advantages , ( besides others social content ) then to the glory of God ? So farre is the use of such helps from any detriment or diminution to the Creators glory or work ; who oft suffers Nature in its ordinary road or tract to erre , or fail of those proportions which are most perfect and agreeable , purposely to incite and exercise those gifts of art and ingenuity which God hath superadded in reason to mankind , above all those second causes and effects which are moved by more blind instincts and confused impulses . Nor is the wisdome , power and goodness of God less manifested at the second hand by humane operation upon and alteration of some works of Nature , then in the first productions of things : yea that rational empire , liberty , dispose and use wherewith God hath invested mankind over all his works , in the inventions of art and manufacture , doth more magnify and set forth the munificence and indulgence of God , then that substance and subject matter which he offereth to us , as to other creatures , in all those things whose grosseness and confusions are onely to be polished , distinguished , improved and disposed of by the art and industry peculiar to man : wherein if children of the world and darkness are so polite , ingenious and industrious , in order to obtain evil ends ; how much more may the children of God use their Fathers liberality in order to their own & others honest complacencies and compleatings ? Certainly , true piety permits us to pay an honour , love and reverence to our selves , as well as to others ; and to our bodies , as well as to our Souls : Nor is the face more to be unconsidered or neglected then other parts of our bodies ; which we generally either protect from injury and contempt , or supply their wants , or help in their infirmity , by whatever art and means we can learn to be proper for their relief , without any fear or suspicion of sin . As to the jealousy of baiting anew the devils hooks , or leading our selves and others into fresh temptations , when women seem to be in point of Beauty faded and almost out of date ; as to the fear of raising up new storms , when the amorous tempest of youth is well allayed ; Truly these are as babies or children , rather pretty then strong objections , and are then easily answered and fully confuted , when the heart meditating no mischief yet studies comeliness . The honestest beauty in its native simplicity may be as a bait ; though it must not purposely set the devils traps or snares : Nay , on the contrary , the use of some pretty artificial reliefs to nature may be a great means to keep , as our selves from the temptations of envy and discountenance , ( which is always attended with discontent ) so others too , whom these honest frauds and pious guiles may hinder from those by-ways and extravagancies to which more curious eyes and touchy tempers are prone to run , if they be not happily deceived , and so confined to sober and holy affections . So that I do not see but that in the ingenuous use of colour and complexion to the face , there may be the wisdome of the serpent , without the least of its poison ; where the Dove-like innocency of the users mind preserves not only the native goodness which is from God in all things that can be used , but also the civil and moral goodness of their use , from all contagion of sin , while the heart is kept within the confines of vertue and civility . Though some vain and wanton minds may turn this , as all things , to a Serpent ; yet others of modest tempers use it as a staff and stay both to their own minds , and others , whom they most value , and to whom they endeavour to give all ingenuous content , even to the extent of their curiosity , without being any way injurious to God , themselves , or others . OBJECTION VI. Painting the Face argues an heart unsatisfied with God's works and disposings . BUT ( good Madam ) laying aside the flourishes of wit and colours of speech , ( whereof I am not prone to be guilty ) in plain English , ought not a Christian to rest humbly content and satisfied with the will of God , submitting thereto without any such contending in patching and painting ways , which shew a mind so far unsanctified , as it seems unsatisfied with what God hath ordered ? Can it be other then an insolence and impatience flowing from a refractory and rebellious spirit , which seeks to cure , remove , or cover what God sees fit to inflict on us and expose to others sight , thereby ( as by the man born blind ) to set forth his glory in our deformity or defects ? which to remedy what can it be but flatly to resist and contradict his will , to run counter to God's providence , which is his real word , and as it were an Eventuall Oracle , which is sealed with the signet of his hand , which is armed with power , and guided by wisdome ? Which considerations may seem sufficient in reason and religion to forbid all face-repairings to any alterations in any kind and in the least degree , if there were no Scripture-testimonies flatly against those arts , which our blessed Saviour intimates to be beyond the moral or lawful power of any one ; since he tells us we cannot ( that is , we may not ) make one hair of our head white or black . If power of alteration be not granted us over hairs , how much less over our cheeks or faces , our skins and complexions ? Again , he tells us , that we cannot adde to our stature one cubit ; intimating that we must rest content with that size to which God hath seen fit to confine us in shape , stature and feature , since God doth all things in number , weight and measure . ANSWER . IT is most true , that a good Christian , who remembers himself to be as clay in the hands of the potter , ought to carry in all things either a thankful contentation , or an humble submission toward the will of God , ( not onely in their natures , constitutions and beings , but also in those external contingencies or events which are as it were the voice and dictates of providence ) so farre as not to use any means forbidden by the written Word of God , whereby to remove or alter what God hath so inflicted upon them either in mind , body , or estate . But yet ( dear Madam ) this patience or contentedness of spirit , which only forbids us all unlawful remedies , or wicked endeavours for relief , is no hinderance to pious and ingenuous industry , by which we not only may , but ought to use all those means , spiritual , natural and civil , ( as prayer , good counsel , physick , and the like applications , which are as holy as they may be wholesome ) to remove or remedy any pain , sickness , maim , misfortune or inconvenience which happens to us in our health , strength , motion , or estates ; and why not ( also ) in our looks or beauties and complexions , wherein women do think themselves as much concerned as in their riches , health , or almost life it self ; so that many had as lieve dye as be much deformed , and would as willingly part with their bodies as their beauty , which is as the soul of the face and life of womens looks ? Certainly those honest endeavours which in fair wayes study to relieve or supply our wants in any kind are no rude contestings with God's Providence , nor are to be called crossings or opposings of his will ; but rather they are servings and obeyings of it , in those dictates of reason , prudence and discretion , which God hath given to mankind ( as he hath the various motions and instincts to other creatures ) in order to preserve our selves from any evils , either falling or resting upon us : which voice of God within us , sounding with both Reason and Religion , is to be listned to and followed , no less then those silent intimations or blinder characters we read in providential events , which may admit of various interpretations or readings ; but never such , as either cross or put stop to those divine directions or permissions which are given us both in prudence and in piety for our ease and help . Else we may not by a sacrilegious soberness seek to cure those whom God hath seen fit to afflict with the highest temporal misery , which is frenzy or madness , which deprives them of the noblest jewel and ornament of the Soul , Reason ; nay , we must not restrain them from any of those desperate extravagancies to which their distemper ( which is natural and providential ) doth dispose them : which were indeed to be more mad then those poor creatures are ; while having Reason beyond them , we scruple to apply those means which are proper for their good and our own , merely for fear lest we should contest against God , and contrariate his providential will. So by this paradox of superstitious submission , a sick man must lie and languish under his sickness , sending a bill of defiance to all Physicians , Chirurgions and Apothecaries , as so many bold Giants or Cyclopick monsters , who daily seek to fight against heaven by their rebellious druggs and doses , prescribed in strange affected terms of art and ill-scribled bills , which seem to be as so many charms or spells and conjurations . So lame men may not either use crutches to supply the weakness of their leggs , or to shore up the tottering frame of their body : nor may they , as the poor man in the Gospel , covet to have the benefit of any suppling and healing Baths , which would by this argument rather seem inchanted by some evil spirit or Demoniack Water-nymph , then moved by the healing virtue of any good angel . By this soft and sensless fallacy of resting so satisfied with the events and signatures of Providence , as to use no lawful means or industry that may seem to traverse the sentence or present decree , we may not rise out of a ditch or pit when we are once faln into it , nor so much as cry to Jupiter to help us ; we may not quench those fires which casually seise on our houses , nor extinguish those flames which Incendiaries kindle of Faction and Sedition in Church or State ; we may not row against any stream , nor ascend by any ladder upward , when our native tendency is downward : we must not repair our decayed houses , nor mend our torn garments , or honestly seek to recruit our decayed estates ; but content our selves with our ruined and illustrious houses , we must wrap our selves ( as we can ) in our lazy ragges , with the sluggard turning upon the hinges of holy idleness , as those that are providentially condemned to eternal and irreparable poverty . After these methods of holy ill husbandry , we must let our fields and gardens lie oppressed under the usurpations of brambles and the tyranny of all evil weeds , which are the products of providence as well as the best herbs and flowers ; yea Nature seems rather a stepmother and dry nurse to these then to the other : nay , you may not by the inventions of artificial day supply the Sun's absence with Candle or Torch-light , nor dispel the horror of that darkness which providence brings over the face of the Earth in the night : you may not seek to obtain your liberty , if once cast into prison , which cannot be without a providence , since a sparrow falls not without it upon the ground , as Christ tells us . So many absurd and indeed ridiculous consequences do follow the fondness of this argument , ( that we may not seek to mend what God hath made , nor alter what he hath ordered ) that it is best confuted by continued sickness , lameness , beggery , baldness , and deformity ; under which not to have any sense , or having a quick sense not to desire and endeavour any remedy and redress , were such a super - Stoical piece of Philosophy as is not at all of kin to Christianity , whose complexion is of a farre more soft and tender skin then that of the Stoick , Cynick , or Epicurean ; nor doth Religion require stupor , but onely a patience , so farre as is not transported beyond the holy and allowed bounds granted to humane and Christian industry , to relieve it self by God's permission and blessing . The Providence of God however it declare at present his will and pleasure to us by those events which are naturally less welcome and pleasing to us , yet it doth not so confine and determine either it self or us , as not to admit us to use lawful means of honest variations and happy changes ; which your Ladiship sees are not more frequently applied by us then prospered by God with desired successes . So farre is it that we should by any sad events be confined onely to a silent and passive submission , ( which is necessary and just indeed when our afflictions exceed the help of second causes ) that we are rather obliged , both in Reason and Religion , to use those means which may obtain blessed recoveries , without violation of good Consciences , which are not injured but there where God is disobeyed . Nor is the divine Goodness less to be seen , venerated and praised , in those emendations which follow to our ease and comfort the lawful applications of art and ingenuity , then his Power and Justice ( or possibly his special displeasure ) may sometimes appear in those unpleasing events which some would fain set up ( beyond God's intent ) as Idols , to such an unmovable fixation , as if it were impious to endeavour to remove them , because Providence hath once permitted them to take place amidst the changes and contingencies incident to this mortal & mutable state . There may be holy contradictions and humble contraventions , ( as to God's silent providence , so to his declared will ) either discovered by effects , or by his express word . Thus Jacob wrestled with the Angel , and would not let him go ( when he desired ) till he had by a pious importunity and holy insolence extorted a blessing from him . So Moses prayes with extraordinary fervency , when God had bid him Let him alone . Hezekiah , though under the declared doom of his instant and approaching death , yet is not more bold then welcome , when by prayers and teares he seeks to repeal , or at least reprieve , the sentence already passed upon his life by the Prophet . Religion is no friend to Laziness and stupidity , or to supine and sottish despondencies of mind , under the pretence of compliances with Providence , as afraid to remove the crosses or burdens incumbent upon us , ( wherein the sluggard might have some plea for his sloth : ) For these befall us many times ( as indeed all necessities of life do ) not more to exercise our patience , then to excite our inventions and industry . Nor doth the infirm life of man require less active then passive graces ; the one to remedy what we may , the other to bear what we cannot cure . But ( Madam ) in vain do I listen to your words , when I see your contrary actions , by which you give your self the fullest answer , and save me the labour . Who ( I beseech you ) is more speedily , curiously and earnestly solicitous to encounter the afflictions and cross events of providence then your love and care is , when any thing threatens or urgeth upon the health , strength , sight , hearing , shape or straightness of your children and nearest relations ? yea how auxiliary are you to your servants and neighbours ? how importunely do you pray for remedy ? how are you ( as Martha ) incumbred with receits , plaisters and medicines of all sorts , which you think most potent and soverain to remove any pressure or danger ? Yea , as to those helps which are most mechanick & artificial , having nothing of native virtue , but merely such a formal application as makes but a shew of help to natures defect ; whom did your Ladiship ever blame ( if in other things unblameable ) for using a glass Eye , which is but an honest mocking of the world , while it pretends to the place and office of a natural one , which God saw fit to take away as to our own sight and use ? But he did not withall take away either our wits , our hands , or our freedome , to make and use ; if we list , a Crystal , painted eye , both to hide our own defect and deformity , also to remove from others the less pleasing prospect of our blemish . When was your Ladiship scandalized with any grave and sober matron , because she laid out the combings or cuttings of her own or others more youthful hair , when her own ( now more withered and autumnal ) seemed less becoming her ? How many both mens and womens warmer heats in Religion do now admit not onely borders of forein hair , but full and fair Perukes on their heads , without sindging one hair by their disputative and scrupulous Zeal , which in these things of fashion is now grown much out of fashion ? Your Ladiships Charity doth not reprove , but pity , those poor Vulcanists who balance the inequality of their heels or badger Leggs by the art and help of the shoemaker ; nor are those short-legg'd Ladies thought less godly who flie to Chopines , and by enlarging the phylacteries of their coats , conceal at once both their great defects in native brevity , and the enormous additions of their artificial heights , which make many small women walk with as much caution and danger almost as the Turk danceth on the ropes . Who ever is so impertinent a bigot as to find fault when the hills and dales of crooked and unequal bodies are made to meet without a miracle , by some iron bodies , or some benign bolsterings ? Who fears to set straight or hide the unhandsome warpings of bow Leggs , and baker Feet ? What is there as to any defect in nature , whereof ingenuous art , as a diligent handmaid waiting on its mistress , doth not study some supply or other , so farre as to graff in silver plates into crackt sculls , to furnish cropt faces with artificial Noses , to fill up the broken ranks and routed files of the Teeth with ivory adjutants or lievtenants ? Yet against all or any of these and the like reparative Inventions , by which art and ingenuity studies to help and repair the defects or deformities which God in nature , or Providence is pleased to inflict upon our bodies , no pen is sharpened , no pulpit is battered , no writ of Rebellion or charge of forgery and false Coinage is brought against any in the Court of Conscience ; no poor creature ( who thankfully embraceth , modestly useth , and with more chearfulness serveth God , by means of some such help which either takes away its reproach , or easeth its pain ) is scared with dreadful scruples , or so terrified with the threatnings of sin , hell and damnation , as to cast away ( much against their wills ) that innocent succour which God in nature and art had given them ; from which they part with as much regret , as the poor man did from his darling lamb , which the rich mans insolence , not his indigence , not his want , but wantonness , forced from him . Rather we are so civilly pious in these cases , as to applaud others no less then please our selves in those happy delusions , whereby we conceal or any way compensate those our deformities or defects in any kind , which seem to us less convenient , or to others less comely , in this our mortal and visible pilgrimage . Onely , if the face , ( which is the Metropolis of humane Majesty , and as it were the Cathedral of beauty or comeliness in the little world or Polity of our bodies ) if this have sustained any injuries ( as it is most exposed to them ) of time or any accident , if it stand in need of any thing that our charity and ingenuity in art can help it to , though the thing be never so cheap , easie and harmless , either to enliven the pallid deadness of it , and to redeem it from mortmain , or to pair and match the inequal cheeks to each other , when one is as Rachel , the other as Leah , or to cover any pimples and heats , or to remove any obstructions , or to mitigate and quench excessive flushings , hereby to set off the face to such decency and equality as may innocently please our selves and others , without any thought to displease God ( who looks not to the outward appearance , but to the heart , ) what censures and whispers , yea what outcries and clamors , what lightnings and thunders , what Anathemas , excommunications and condemnations fill the thoughts , the pens , the tongues , the pulpits , of many angry ( yet it may be well-meaning ) Christians , both preachers and others , who are commonly more quick-sighted and offended with the least mote they fancy of adding to a Ladies complexion , then with many Camels of their own customary opinions and practices ? Good men ! though in other things , not onely of fineness and neatness , but even of some falsity and pretension , they are so good-natured and indulgent as to allow their lame or their crooked wives and daughters whatever ingenuous concealments and reparations Art and their purses can afford them ; yet as to the point of face-mending , they condemne them like Paul's Church to sink under everlasting ruines . The most of your plainer-bred and as it were home-spun Professors and Preachers , who never went far beyond their own homes , can with less equal eyes behold any woman , of never so great quality , if they see or suspect her to be adorned any whit beyond the vulgar mode , or decked with feathers more gay and goodly then those birds use which are of their own Countrey nest . In which cases of feminine dressing and adorning , no Casuist is sufficient to enumerate or resolve the many intricate niceties and endless scruples of Conscience which some mens and womens more plebeian Zelotry makes , as about Ladies cheeks and faces if they appear one dram or degree more quick and rosy then they were wonted ; so about the length and fashion of their clothes and hair . One while they are so perplexed about the curlings of Ladies hair , that they can as hardly dis-intangle themselves as a Bee engaged in honey ; otherwhile they are most scrupulous Mathematicians , to measure the arms , wrists , necks and trains of Ladies , how farre they may safely venture to let their garments draw after them on the ground , or their naked skins be seen . Here , however some men can bear the sight of the fairest faces without so much as winking , ( where the greatest face of beauty is displayed ) yet they pretend that no strength of humane virtue can endure the least assaults or peepings of naked necks , if they make any discovery or breaking forth below the ears . Not that any modest mind pleads for wanton prostituting of naked breasts , where the civiller customes of any Countrey forbids it ; but some mens rigor and fierceness is such , that if they espy any thing in the dress , clothes , or garb of women , beyond what they approve or have been wonted to , presently the Tailours , the Tire-women , the Gorget-makers , the Seamstresses , the Chambermaids , the Dressers , and all that wretched crew of obsequious attendants , are condemned as Antichristian , and onely fit to wait upon the whore of Babylon . Nor do the poor Ladies ( though otherwise young and innocent , though as vertuous as handsome ; or if possibly elder , every way exemplary for modesty , gravity and charity , yet they do not ) without great gifts and presents , ( as by so many fines & heriots ) redeem themselves from some mens severe censures : and if they do take any freedome to dress and set forth themselves after the best mode and fashion , it costs them as much as the Romane Captain's freedome did him ; when indeed they are ( as S. Paul pleaded ) free-born , not onely in nature , but as to grace and the new birth , which is no enemy to what fashions modesty may bear , and which decency , civility and custome do require . Yet your Ladiship hath often heard some persons in point of clothes as highly incensed against all such fashionable alterations and various adornings , as Saul was against Jonathan's tasting a little honey ; as if all these things of feminine culture , art and invention were no less under a curse or execration then Saul's rash vow and devotion had made that Honey , the tasting of which enlightned Jonathan's eyes , and the liberty of eating it might have refreshed the wearied spirits of his wandering Souldiers . Truly in these quarrellings of some severer spirits against all auxiliary beauty and helps of handsomness in women , I observe that commonly what they want in force of arguments , rational or religious , they make up in clamor and confidence . As the Pope is said to have expressed in his Bull against the Knights Teutonick or Templars , when he confiscated their estates , Although of right and justice we cannot , yet out of our plenary power and will we do dissolve them : so these many times in stead of convincing the judgements of sober persons ( like learned Divines and serious Christians ) fall to cavillings and menacings , to bitter and scurrilous reprochings , imagining that what bumbast stuff or voluble ratling will serve to scare the superstitious and easy vulgar ( who have always an envy and malignity against their betters ) will also serve to resolve more serious judicious souls of those persons who are blest with better breeding and exacter understanding . Such was that Sarcasm which your Ladiship may remember was used by a witty and eloquent Preacher , whom we both heard at Oxford , who speaking against ( not the absolute use , but ) the wanton abuse of womens curiosities in dressing and adornings , instanced in Jezebel's being eaten up of doggs ; as shewing , saith he , that a woman so polished and painted was not fit to be mans meat . Which expression had more of wit and jest in it then of weight or earnest , and might seem to repress either fondness or impudence abusing such ornaments , but it was not valid as to the conviction of any sin in the use of them . Which many boldly assert , raising strange terrors and most Tragick outcries , as if every touch of colouring added to the cheeks were a presage of hell-fire , every curled hair or braided lock were an Embleme of the Medusa's head is not pictured more terrible with her snaky tresses , then these men would represent every Lady ( never so modest and vertuous ) whose either hair , or complexion , or tiring is not natively their own . Yea so angry or envious is the rusticity or simplicity of some against all that either soberly please themselves , or civilly appear less unpleasing to others , by the help of any artificial beautifyings , ( though with never so much discretion and modesty ) that when they have nothing to object against the Intellectuals or Morals of women , they vehemently quarrel with their artificials , their dressings , clothes and fashions , their looks and complexion , if they list but to suspect them to have any thing adventitious to them , liking them the worse because they look well , and censuring them for evil hearts because they aim at having good faces ; as if the Heart received sinful infection by any colour or tincture put to the face , more then it doth moral defilement by any thing that enters into the mouth : against which error our Saviour expresly teacheth us , counting those but Pharisaical fools and supercilious hypocrites who judge and teach men otherwise ; as we read , Mark 7. 18. Yet by a like magisterial rigor do some men seek to confine all women to their pure and simple naturals : as if Art and Nature were not sisters , but jealous rivals , and irreconcileable enemies against each other ; whereas indeed they are from the same wise God and indulgent Father , from whom comes every good as well as every perfect gift , as S. James tells us ; who hath given to mankinde , as he did to Bezaleel , Exod . 31. 3. the invention and use of many curious arts , that man might know how with most discretion and advantage to dispose of and improve the great variety of God's bounty , which is first set forth in Natures either plainness or beauty , so as to court and please every of our senses , and to accommodate every of our occasions , in those several ways and methods which mans industry likes best : who , although he cannot create the matter and inward essence of things ( but works onely upon God's and Natures stock ) yet he is in some sense a superficial Creator of several outward forms and shapes , of various use and applications of things ; farre beyond that rustick grossness , primitive simplicity and confusion , which either is in the first rudiments or in the effects of Nature , before its materials are subdued , softned and digested by Art , which is as much the good gift of God , and tends to his glory , as Nature , and which to deprive mankind of , is to reduce them from the politure and improvement of after-times and long experience to their first caves and cottages , their primitive skins and acorns . Nor may we think , that the God of Art and Nature , ( who gives us liberally ( without any envy or grudging ) all things to enjoy in a vertuous and sober way , that is , to good ends ) hath so curbed us up by religious severities , as to forbid us the use and enjoyment of the fruits of his wisdome , power , and paternal bounty , so as may best please our selves and others , without displeasing him , who is to be glorified even in that sensible glory of beauty , feature , colour and proportion , which is but superficial , and must be done away when a more durable and eternal glory shall appear ; of which it hath some embleme , type and prefiguration , as the Tabernacle had of Solomon's Temple . All which superstitious rigor and preciseness is not more contrary to God's munificence and indulgence , then to the very nature and fancy of mankind , which is so set beyond all creatures , that even grace and vertue themselves receive some varnish and gloss , a kind of silent commendation , by the cleanliness and comeliness of our outsides ; yea , we think to doe an honor to Religion in its publick services , by putting our selves , even as to our vestures and gestures , into those forms and fashions which we think are most civil , reverential and comely . As nothing is more humane then the delight in handsomeness ; so it cannot be either irrational or irreligious to hide those our deformities and defects , which we think are prone to diminish us in the eyes and acceptance of those with whom we do converse , either as to civil or religious society . If a civility both to the living and the dead invites us to wash the bodies and faces of the dead ( as they did Tabitha's ) ( to which custome of being baptized for the dead the Apostle seems to referre , 1 Cor. 15. 29. ) as forespeaking and hoping for an after-resurrection of the body to an eternal purity and incorruption ; also we close the eyes and compose the countenances of our dead friends , so as may most remove them from that gastly and unpleasing aspect which is in the vale and shadow of death : what ( I pray ) hinders , while we are living and among the living , but that we may study to adorn our looks so as may be most remote from a deathfulness , and most agreeable by their liveliness to those with whom we live ? If it was piety of old to repair the Temple of God , and is still good husbandry to mend the decaies of those houses of clay in which our bodies dwell ; why should it seem Sacriledge to relieve these Tabernacles of our bodies , which are the Hosteries of our Souls and Temples of the holy Ghost , so long as they may be in any decorum serviceable to them both ? Not that I am for those gross Soloecisms of Art , which by unseasonable and unsutable affectations ( as so many pitiful props and underpinnings ) strive in vain to skrew and set up lapsed and tottering age to the semblance and prospect of youthful beauty and vigor ; when old women , and men too , with the great neglect of their Souls adorning and preparation for Heaven , seek , as it were by Medea's charms , to recoct their corps , as she did Aeson's , from feeble deformities to spritely handsomeness . When gray hairs are here and there , it is fit the more to lay to heart our frail estate : but when the pillars of the house do fail , when loud summons of aged Infirmities call loud upon poor mortals to make haste for heaven and eternity , to prepare to meet their God , and adorn their souls ( with aged and devout Anna ) for their spouse and Saviour Jesus Christ , in all those gracious augmentations of piety and holy improvement of vertue which may make them beautiful and lovely in God's sight ; there is then no place or season to be curiously patching and superfluously mending , to be painting , polishing and pruning ( beyond a matronly comeliness or gravity , which is always lawful while we are alive ) our Gibeonitish carkases , those rotten posts which are mouldring themselves away : 'T is impertinent to trim our cabin with cost and pains when we are upon shipwrecking , or poorly to furnish a room when the whole house is shortly to be pull'd down . To be deploredly old and affectedly young , is not only a great folly , but a gross deformity . 'T is ridiculous to spend much of a moments remnant in contending with the invincible wrinkles and irreparable ruines of old age , which nothing but a vizard can quite hide , or a miracle can wholly overcome . It is fit for us humbly to yield to those decaies and oppressions of time to which sinful mortality hath exposed us . Many times we must be content to be first buried even in the rubbish and ruines of our own vile bodies , whose sad decaies , incurable diseases , and irreparable deformities , ought to serve rather as foils , the more to set off , and less to hinder our meditations of eternal life , health and glory ; not impediments or bluntings , but rather as Whetstones , to set an edge on our desires after higher and more permanent beauty . My plea ( Madam ) is only so farre as Nature and years may both sutably and seasonably bear those discreet and ingenuous assistances of Art , which may give a decency and conformity to our education and other proportions of civil life : where specially there may be some such decaies as are precipitant as to years , and exorbitant in one part beyond all the rest , through natural infirmity resting thereon , or by some outward occasion that hath befallen us . Who doubts but if by the numme palsie one legge or arm be as it were mortified , while the rest of the body is yet strong and vigorous , we may by fomentations and other convenient means seek to revive and recover it ? Who scruples but that if one or two or more gray hairs grow up on a youthful head ( as is frequent in some colours and constitutions ) by an over-early non-conformity to the rest of our hairs that are round about , who ( I say ) scruples but that they may lawfully be pluckt out ? I confess I am prone ( civilly ) to gratify sober and vertuous minds as long as they live , with those ornaments to their out-sides which may keep them in all civil comeliness and cleanliness ; which to preserve is not onely great discretion , but even good conscience ; at least in Wives , who ought not to be either prodigal or negligent of themselves as to outward decency , so farre as it may prudently be obtained , and modestly maintained . To these ( I humbly conceive ) that indulgence in point of artificial handsomeness may be allowed , which was permitted by S. Paul to Timothy as to drinking a little wine for his often infirmities : yet am I herein as farre from indulging vanity , pride and wantonness , as the Apostle is there from encouraging riot , excess and drunkenness . Nor would I only vindicate the innocent use of auxiliary beauty from the unjust suspicions and rash censures of being absolutely and in the very nature of the thing a sin , ( which some assert , beyond what I can yet see by my own eyes , or the best spectacles they afford me ) but my design is to have it so used , as may no more blemish a modest womans discretion then burthen her conscience ; that she may be not onely commendable for the innocent purity of her heart , but unblamable for the elegancy and decency of her hand , which useth these , as all things , not only lawfully , but expediently , piously and prudently , conscienciously and becomingly , onely to conceal or supply such defects as , you confess , may in many other cases admit the help of art without any sin or shame . As for the words of our Saviour which your Ladiship cites , when forbidding us to swear by our heads , he signifies how little power we have of them , since we cannot make one hair white or black ; his meaning is , not either to shew the impotency or unlawfulness of all humane skill , as if man could not or might not by any art change the outward colour of his hairs , which is daily and easily done : but our blessed Lord truly urgeth , that as to the inward temperament we cannot make one hair grow otherwaies then it doth , either black or white : All dyes and tinctures do but alter the outward form or colour , by hiding what is native , from an internal and ( by us ) unchangeable principle , which is out of the reach of Art. So when our blessed Saviour tells us we cannot by our taking thought adde to our real stature one cubit , he doth not hereby deny the possibility or lawfulness of setting our selves higher then naturally we are , either by the heels of our shoes , or by patens , or seats , and the like inventions , which seek to give an advantage of procerity and comeliness to our stature ; which if shrunk to a dwarfishness and epitomized to a Decimo-sexto , makes the persons of men and women subject to be as little in the eyes and esteem of others as they are in their own inches or size . Nothing is more obvious then for tall Goliah to despise little David . But as to the augmenting of our seeming height and stature either by heels , or high-crown'd hats , or seats , none are ( I think ) so silly as to be scrupulous . Nor do I think it much to be doubted , but if in our youth by sickness or fear ( in one night , as I have read ( in Master Howell's Epistles ) befel a youthful man in the Low-Countreys upon the false terror he had of being the next day executed by the command of the Duke of Alva ) our Hair should turn white , ( like snow in Summer falling on green and florid trees ) to a kind of monstrosity and deformity ; such an one ( I doubt not ) might lawfully redeem himself from the uncomeliness of such untimely accidents , either by dying his hair , or by using a Peruke sutable to his graver years , without any enterfearing with our Saviour's meaning , which onely shews the unchangeable bounds and principles of Nature as to God's fixation and providence in all things , but not to forbid the ingenuous operations of humane art and invention , to which the works of God in Nature are subjected , so farre as they are manageable within the limits of moral intentions and religious ends . So that I see no reason or authority , Madam , that the preciser ignorance of any hath from heaven to set either our Leggs in the Stocks , because we wear Polony heels , or it may be Chopines ; nor yet to set our Heads in the Pillories , either because we wear Hair which is not natively our own , or use , it may be , some little colour and tincture which is not more adventitious to our natural Complexions , then utterly a stranger to all wicked and unworthy intentions . And thus I have not more largely then fully ( I hope ) answered this objection your Ladiship was pleased to make against all auxiliary Handsomness . OBJECTION VII . Painting the Face a badge of vanity , and an appearance of evil . I Do not ( indeed ) deny but that in many cases , as lameness , crookedness , blindness , baldness , want of teeth , and dwarfishness , the defects or unwelcome deformities incident to our bodies may be artificially repaired or covered , to the best advantages of our motions and civil conversations ; wherein the practice of very grave and godly Christians , no less then the approbation ( or connivence at least ) of the best Ministers , do confirm me : And truly it were as uncharitable to deny these innocent and ingenuous reliefs to them , as to deny an alms to a poor man , or crutches to one that is lame . But as to the helping of the colour or complexion of the face in the least degree , as I do not see it any way necessary or convenient upon a vertuous account , so nor can I think it tolerable for any modest and gracious women , who profess the Gospel of Jesus Christ , which your Ladiship knows is a doctrine of such singular purity and modesty , that both the Apostle of the Jews , and the Gentiles , ( S. Peter and S. Paul ) injoyn those holy severities even to women , as allow them none but modest apparel , with shamefacedness and sobriety in their looks and gestures ; forbidding them broided or well-set hair , also gold , pearls , and costly apparel . How much more , may you inferre , do they forbid all painting , patching and powdering , which become none but proud , or light and bold women , who proclaim to the world that they are not yet redeemed from their vain conversation ? Whereof these inventions of artificial beauty seem infallible badges , as being servient and accessary to all other vanities ; from all which we must needs be divinely forbidden by the force of that one Apostolical Canon , of abstaining from all appearance of evil , which may cast any blemish or reproach on the modesty , purity and sanctity of Christian religion ; which ( as Truth ) needs none but its own native beauties , but teacheth us to turn ( by an holy and humble Chymistry of patience and contentedness ) the very deformities and decayes of the outward man to the advantages and daily renewings of the inward man. ANSWER . MAdam , I will not captiously reply upon your Ladiship , by putting you to plead for your own and your childrens wearing of well-set , curled , gummed , braided and powdered hair , according as the fashions vary ; nor will I retort upon your gold - jewels , ear-rings , and costly apparel : in all which your Ladiship , with many other persons of honour and piety , seem either to have some dispensation for the use of those things , which ( by your own allegation ) are more expresly against the letter of those Scriptures then any thing you have yet urged against tincture or complexioning , which you so much dread and abhorre : Or else you must interpret those and the like negative places in a soft and right-handed sense , not in a severe and sinister meaning : not as absolutely forbidding all those and the like things of riches and ornaments to all Christian men and women , ( for so even putting on of apparel would seem prohibited , and we must run to an Adamitick nakedness or madness ) but the injunctions or exhortations are only comparatively , so as not to make them the objects of their chief study , desire and delight , to the undervaluing and neglect of those gracious and internal ornaments which only beautifie the Soul , and are of great price in the sight of God , who only esteems those things as our moral , full and real beauty , which do most assimilate us to himself in true Holiness . Not but that his bounty hath given , and his indulgence allows us , all things of outward splendor , riches and ornament , as tokens of God's munificent goodness to us ; also as ensigns of civil honor , and notes to distinguish the places and qualities of persons ; yea further , to conciliate hereby from the vulgar something of majesty and reverence to their superiors , either Princes or Priests . So that since all wise and holy men have granted thus much as to the lawful and civil use of those things that are for fine clothing or costly adorning our bodies , ( notwithstanding those prohibitions , which are onely limited and respective as to the main end and design of a Christian ) truly I see no cause why they may not with as favourable an indulgence permit to women those modest and discreet helps of beauty as to the face ; since there is no letter of the New Testament which bears any shew of forbidding these more then those , which by a just candor of interpretation are allowed . Yea in particular , as to the advantaging of our faces , and adding to the lustre and beauty of our looks , our blessed Saviour we see is so farre from being against the Eastern custome of anointing the head and face , ( which doubtless added something to the visible beauty and shining of the countenance ) that he bids the Jews even in their fastings to use it as at other times , not peremptorily and absolutely , but rather then , by Pharisaical and affected abstinence from washing and anointing the face , to bely a fast with hypocritical sadness and sowreness of looks , which are not accompanied with humble and contrite hearts . That these anointings of the head and face were apparent , and tended to set forth the beauty and chearfulness or serenity of their faces who used them , is most evident , by Joab's forbidding the widow of Tekoah to use it when she was to personate a suppliant or mourner ; and by Naomie's advising Ruth to use it in order to conciliate the love of Boaz to her . Yea , although it is evident in Histostories , both sacred and civil , that the custome of anointing , ( oftentimes , no doubt , mixed with such tinctures as did colour or paint the face and body ) was usual among all Nations , civil and barbarous , Greek and Romane , Southern and Northern , East and West Indians , insomuch that the Picts here in Britannie had their Names from their being painted ; ( not onely as a terror to their enemies in Warre , but as an ornament in peace ) though ( I say ) this fashion be almost epidemical and connate , or at least customary , to all Nations ( to which the Grecian and Romane Luxury added ( no doubt ) whatever wit and art could devise , in order to the setting off of their beauties and handsomeness , according as each Country fancied ; ) yet we never read either the great Doctor of the Jews , or Gentiles , any where giving any dash of their Pens against these customes , which were so frequent ; no , not there where regulations are set to feminine coverings and adornings . Nor do we find that in the great pomp or Princely parada used by Queen Berenice and her train of women , ( among whom , no doubt , all the Romane and Asiatick fashions of improved beauty did appear , as S. Luke intimates ) we find not the blessed Apostle either at all taken , or scandalized with that exquisiteness and glory , of which he wisely takes no notice : so farre is he from finding fault or expressing any dislike , thinking it more becoming the Apostolick gravity to preach those great points of Christian graces and duties , in righteousness , temperance , and judgement to come , then by impertinent and unseasonable severity to declaim against such civil and venial vanities as women use ; which are such , not absolutely in the nature and use of them , but in the mind and intention of the user of them . Agreeable to which methods of Apostolical prudence , I think the heats of some Preachers in their Sermons and writings were farre better spent in urging the great things of the Law and Gospel ( which have moral and clear foundations in Scripture , and so make both easy & potent convictions in Consciences ) then with a looser zeal and blinder boldness to inveigh most impetuously against those things of extern mode & fashion , which will either cease to be doubted of and used when once they appear to a gracious heart any way evil , or else they will cease to be suspected for evil when once they are found to fall under the lawful use and management of an heart that is truly good in its holy ends and gracious habits , doing all things , as in the fear of God , so farre as it sees God allows , so also to the glory of God , as giving him thanks for all things in Nature and Art which are afforded to our necessity , or delight and ornament ; securing it self in the use of all these things by those two great assertors of a Christians liberty in use of outward things ; the one of the Apostle Paul , who assures us that nothing is of itself unclean , as to any moral defilement ; the other of our blessed Saviour , who tells us , that no extern applications to our bodies defile us , but the inward fedities of the heart onely ; whose emanations if poisonous , poison all things through which they pass , but if pure , they purify all things that come within their streams . As to that dash your Ladiship gives to this quickning of complexion , as if it were an infallible token of a vain mind by this vain conversation ; it will then be best taken off , when we both understand what the Apostle means by vain conversation . For either you must interpret it for flatly vicious and wicked ; or so impertinent and extravagant as is not to be reduced to any rules or bounds of reason and religion , no , not under any intentional piety and habitual or dispositive holiness , to which a gracious heart can and will referre all things , even of superfluity , civility and decency , which are still within the general order and proportions of Reason , and no less within the skirts and suburbs of Religion ; being then kept from the blemish or brand of any such vain conversation as is vicious , when they are short of sinful intentions , and hold within the compass of ingenuous recreations and pleasures . On the other side , if your Ladiship opposeth vanity to mere necessity or fancy , that by that expression of being redeemed from vain conversation we are forbidden all things of cost or comeliness , of bravery and elegancy , of pleasure and recreation , beyond what the mere necessities or rigidest conveniencies of humane nature and life require ; if this be your sense , truly I think ( under favour ) the spirit of the Gospel is not so Cynical : God treats his children with more indulgence . Besides , your Ladiships own conversation makes me believe this is not the meaning of vain ; for then you are apparently guilty of as many forbidden vanities as you have superfluities of cost and care , of dressing and lacing , of curling and pleating ; you must abate much in your own person and your childrens , in your clothes and furniture ; in your buildings , gardens , &c. But truly I think piety hath so much candor in it , ( especially out of cels and cloisters ) not onely in Kings courts , but in meaner persons houses , as to admit of costly and gorgeous apparel , of fine linen , and other things at that rate and proportion , as to the beauty , ornament and elegancies of life : Which things ( even of a light and lesser nature ) though they be not of the immediate substance of Religion , or solider parts of piety and vertue , yet they are as the fringe and accessaries to them ; like the feathers and colours of the Dove , which adde indeed nothing to its internal innocency , but something to its outward decency ; from which Religion is so farre from being an enemy in civil conversation , that the Apostle exacts order and decency even in religious duties and devotion . True Piety is not pleased with sordidness or sluttery ; nor is God's Spirit grieved with modest care and sober study of outward handsomeness in all kinds . So that it seems to me no better then a streight-laced superstition which thus pinches God's bounty and a Christians liberty , which makes Christianity such a captive to unnecessary rigors and pedling severities , as if it were never in a due posture and habit till its nails be pared to the quick and its hair shaven to the skull . Many things certainly are allowed to those that are godly , in this life , not as they are God's children so much as they are the children of men , that is , in a condition of frailty , a kind of infancy and minority ; in which God ( as Jacob ) clothes his Josephs , and his spouse too , not onely with garments of necessity , but of beauty , variegated and embroidered . And this he doth , as to the honour of his bounty , so with no blemish to his love , nor diminution to his childrens holiness , of which outward ornaments or sordidness are a very false measure ; though some silly souls are prone to place much piety in their mawkingly plainness , and in their censoriousness of others who use more comely and costly curiosities . 'T is true , Solomon's ( now more severe , refined and sublimated ) wisdome passeth his penitential censure upon all things under the Sun , to be vanity of vanities ; that is , apart from and in comparison of that true and eternal light , life , beauty , riches , strength , love , honor , glory and happiness , which are onely to be enjoyed in a nearer union to and communion with God the supreme and incomparable Good. Yet he was farre from diminishing or reproaching the Creators power , wisdome , bounty and providential disposure of all things ; who made them all very good , in their forms , use and ends , however the sin of man hath drawn over them a black shadow of vanity , and of misery upon himself , until he be redeemed by Christ from that vanity of vanities , Sin , which makes all to be vanity and vexation to impenitent sinners , while such , but not to an humble and holy Christian , who sees and adores God and Christ in all things , and no less in this , which may adde to the momentary comfort and content of its looks , then in other things , which are not therefore sinful vanity , because not of absolute necessity . As for the last place your Ladiship voucheth , of Abstaining from all appearance of evil , which you think as a large net must needs include in its capacious bosome all these modes of auxiliary beauty ; even this , as all other Scriptures , must be seasoned with the salt of a right and restrained sense , lest it be corrupted by a loose and false interpretation : else we must call no man master or father , nor take care for to morrow , nor labour for our livings , &c. It cannot be meant that we must abstain from all those actions or things wherein evil minds do oft appear , as most studiously , so most wickedly , while they appear under the mask , colours & pretensions of piety , vertue and sanctity , by most affected and rotten hypocrisies : this were to forbid us all those appearances which most become us : for there is no form or fashion of holiness so severe , demure and precise , but it often falls under the devils counterseit and imitation . We must not abstain from being and appearing as Angels of light , because Satan transforms himself to that appearance : our light must shine before men , though some call their darkness light , and put the beams of light on their darkness . The Pharisees pride and hypocrisie appears in Moses chair , in long prayers , in fastings and alms ; we must not therefore wholly abstain from these : The sheep must not flea off his skin because the wolf many times puts on its fleece . No , our Saviour teacheth there to adde sincerity to the solemnity , and the power of godliness to the form . I remember in my small reading of the Ecclesiastical stories , both ancient and modern , that the holy severities of watching , fasting , hard lodging , course fare and homely clothing , used by Orthodox Christians , were usurped by most damnable Hereticks and desperate Schismaticks , the better to cover over their rotten manners and pernicious doctrines ; they will oft give all away to the poor , in order to get greater estates by rapine ; they will be , like John of Leiden , Reformers of Church and State , that by sacrilegious arts and rebellious crafts they may mend their own fortunes : Yet these fallacious appearances must not deterre good Christians from real charities and just reformings . So then , those appearances of evil from which we are bidden to abstain are such , wherein sin and vice do generally appear as in their genuine and proper colours . A Christian must not onely avoid gross sins with open and impudent foreheads , but also keep aloof from the very suspicion of those pregnant sins , as well as from the spot ; as Caesar required of his wife . Further , the Apostles meaning may be this , that we must abstain from all sin , which is notoriously and confessedly such , whatever fair semblances and appearances it makes ; where sins are so putrid and unsavoury , that no fair pretensions can so perfume them , as to make them pleasant to Christians , that have their senses awake and exercised to discern true holiness . As to this duty then of abstaining from all appearance of evil , Christians must be first wisely and exactly informed , as of the natures , so of the appearances of sins ; that they be not gulled and deluded with the devils baits and shews , nor yet scared with every scare-crow , and take every boil for a plague-sore , or every scab for a leprosy : which superstitious fancies are prone to mistake , not grounding their fear upon judgement , but guiding their judgements by their fears ; not therefore abstaining , because God hath forbidden , but therefore imagining God hath forbidden things , because they have been accustomed to abstain from them . Whence ariseth not real and true , but false appearances and misprisions of evil , which fall not under the Apostles caution , whose aim is to deterre Christians as well from misapprehensions of good or evil , as from misapplications to them : nor would he have us to abstain from other then those appearances , wherein evil commonly appears like it self , in its proper colours , not onely as to its malice and mischievousness , but also as to its disorder and impudence . For to avoid all those customes and manners , civil or sacred , in which sin and superstition may and oft do appear , we must either go out of the world , or not at all appear in it . As all is not good which good men doe or say , so nor is all evil which wicked men make shew of : As infinite shadows make not up one substance , so nor many appearances onely make up one sin . 'T is not what superstitiously appears as evil to weak and simple eyes , but what really is and so appears evil to serious and judicious minds , which we must avoid ; else ignorance , superstition and hypocrisie will ( as I said ) obstruct and put in a prejudice against all things , under the seemingness or appearance of evil , which are not onely allowed of God , but necessary in the outward shews and expression of either civility or religion . As in all other cases ( then ) so in this of Auxiliary beauty , it must first be convincingly proved that all use of such helps is in its nature a sin ; that none can use them in any case , or the least degree , without either breaking an express command of God in right Reason or Scripture , or without a secret purpose and sinister intent to sin ; that there must be either a sin in use of the nature of the thing absolutely prohibited , or in the inevitable depravedness of the users intention , if in nature it be allowed . For the nature of the thing , it is in vain cried down for sin , when nothing is produced against it in Reason or Scripture ; nor more pretended against it then may as well be urged against the use of many other things , as helps to natural defects , or ornaments to civil life , of which they make no doubt who most deny this of tincture and complexioning . So that either they must condemn other things ( with this ) which they approve , or approve this with other things which they do not condemn or disuse . As to the end and intent of the user , I presume your Ladiship and others too have so much charity , as not to censure or condemn all those for wicked and wanton who use any help to their complexions ; nor can you justly blot out or forget all the piety , charity , modesty and gravity of those who ( otherwise constant & conspicuous for those graces & vertues ) have yet either undiscernibly as some , or suspectedly as others , or declaredly as many , ( according to the general custom of countreys ) used such additaments to their faces as they thought most advanced the beauty or comeliness of their looks . And however it be true that a tender conscience is prone to a commendable jealousie in the point of sinning against God , ( whereof a good Christian cannot be too cautious ; ) yet it is as true that in the Church of God there is so clear a light and constant a rule to discern good and evil , sin and no sin by , that there is not any thing really a sin but it is easily demonstrated to be such , by such pregnant and constant testimonies of moral light or divine truth as our own consciences must needs consent unto them . Nor is it easie to elude the pregnant convictions of immorality , which appear in all gross sins , either as injurious to God , or our neighbours , or our own souls : Against none of whom ( as farre as I can yet find ) this use of any relief or additament to our colours and complexions can or doth offend , more then other things , of which no doubt is made , so long as the heart is holy and the mind pure ; which yet are either ingenuous reparations of Natures defects , or concealments of what we think deformed . Nor can I see any cause why we should think God less allows us any advantages for our looks or faces , then for other parts of our bodies : since the greatest sweetness , honour and agreeableness , as to humane society , are ( as waters in the Sea , or light in the Sun ) gathered together by Nature , and bestowed on the face of mankind ; where to appear lovely or comely is no appearance of evil in nature , nor more in art , which keeps the decorum and ends of God and Nature , which I am sure are always good : Nor would God have made any faces beautiful , if there had been evil in beauty , which yet evil minds may abuse , as other good things , that are the fruits of God's bounty and indulgence in Nature and Art. Which is all I have to reply as to these cautious scruples of vanity and evil , which your Ladiship makes against all Artificial beauty or helps of handsomness , by way of colour or tincture , rather , I suppose , from vulgar or common jealousies , then your own convictions . For sure if it had been so gross and palpable a sin as some suspect and report , it would not have been hard for so many learned , wise and holy men and women to have proved it to be such by undeniable arguments : whereas your Ladiship shall easily perceive , if you look near to their discourses upon this thing , that generally those who vehemently fight against Ladies faces , crying down all auxiliary or artificial beauty , doe it more by their Rhetorick then their Logick ; they rather strike them upon the cheeks with their palms , then under the eyes with their fists : they make them blush , but not black and blew , by specious more then ponderous arguments , shewing themselves in this point ( for the most part ) rather pretty Orators then profound Divines ; using not the sharp two-edged sword of God's word , but the blunt foils of humane fallacies and declaimings . All which amounts to no more then a kind of verbal painting , or oral colouring ; which may be more dangerous to truth and conscience then that which they inveigh against can be to the faces or complexions of sober and modest women , while they slide from the abuse of things to decry the use of them ; drawing conclusions from suspicions of evil , jealous of the honesty of all minds , because of the pravity of some ; denying all ingenuous liberties , because of some persons licentiousness : which is a vile and weak way of searching or discovering sin ; especially , when it is , I think , a most infallible Truth , That whatever may be abused , may also be well used ; what is good in nature , may be so in art : since all things are in their kind , they may be so in their various applications , which is their end , and best serve by the aptitudes which are in them for such ends and uses . OBJECTION VIII . Painting the Face a mark of Pride , Arrogancy and Hypocrisie . BUT ( good Madam ) though you may avoid other strokes made against all artificial beauty as to the nature of the things so used , yet as to the mind of the user it is not to be denied , but all adding of colour and complexion to the face comes from Pride , though it do not tend to wantonness , having its rise and temptation from that height of mind , which thinks we deserve more handsomeness then God hath thought fit to give us , glorying inordinately in that which is indeed below the greatness of a Christians spirit and ambition . If it be allowed us to take any humble and modest complacency in those outward gifts and ornaments which God hath bestowed on our persons , to which we have a good title of divine donation , as natively and properly ours ; yet sure it cannot avoid the brand of arrogancy , as well as hypocrisie , to challenge and ostentate that beauty or handsomness of complexion as ours , which indeed is none of ours by any genuine right and property , but onely by an adventitious stealth , a furtive simulation , and a bastardly kind of adoption . So that if painting be not rank poison , yet ( as mushromes ) it seems to be of a very dubious and dangerous nature ; and ( to be sure ) it cannot be very savoury , wholsome or nutritive to a good Christian : If it be not in the pit of hell , it may be on the brink ; if it be not the house , it may be the threshold of death ; if it be not of an intoxicating nature , yet it seems to be as a bush , or red latice , which gives neither honour nor ornament to any beyond the degree of a Tap-house or a Tavern . If nothing else could be said against it , this is enough , that it is an Emblem or token of Pride and Self-conceit , which is barre sufficient to all grace , and overdrops all true vertue . ANSWER . 'T Is true , nothing less becomes Christians then pride , since they profess to follow the example of an humble Saviour , who was content for our sakes to have the beauty of his face marred , and to appear without form or comeliness , to expiate the spiritual deformities which sin hath brought on our souls , and bodies too . Yet since Christ came to repair nature , and not to destroy it ; since his main design is to reform our inward decayes , without any wast or reproach to our outward comeliness ; since to be godly it is not necessary to be ugly , nor doth deformity adde any thing to our devotion ; I see no reason why we should imagine that God's mercy to our Souls denies us due care and consideration of our bodies : or that , while he forbids us to be proud , by an overvaluing of our selves or any thing we have beyond our and their due proportion , that he requires us to be so abject and neglective of the outward man as not to know , value and use the gifts he hath given us for his glory and our comfort of life ; which none can thankfully and rightly doe , who do not see or dare not use what God in nature or art hath afforded to them . So that it is not pride , but justice and gratitude , that owns and improves to right ends the fruits of God's bounty : not a resting in them , or boasting of them , as our chief blessings and happiness , but referring them as subordinate to superiour ends . It doth not grieve God to see us pleased with our selves and what we use of his creatures , provided we abuse them not : there may be humble self-complacencies without pride ; nor have we cause but to joy in our selves , and what we doe , at all times and in all things , except then when our conscience tells us we offend God. Nor may the least suspicion of pride fall upon many women , who while they modestly use help to their complexions , are the more humbled and dejected under the defects they find of native beauty or lively colour : the remedying of which by artificial applications can be no more temptation to pride , then the use of crutches or spectacles to those that are lame and dim-sighted , or the applications of other delights and ornaments to our outward man or senses , with an humble agnition of God's bounty and indulgence to either our necessities or infirmities . Nor may it more justly be taxed for pride and arrogancy , because in the matter of beauty we challenge to our selves something as contributive to handsomeness , which is not ours by a native , personal and individual title ; since many things belong to the use and service of mankind which are forain and besides himself , not as usurped by his arrogancy , but as accumulated upon him by the Creators bounty , who is willing mankind should serve themselves of all his creatures various excellencies , in their strength , weight , light , sweetness , warmness , tinctures , beauties , and colours , not onely to necessity and plainness , but also curiosity and gayness . Otherwise , I know neither your Ladiship nor any others who are so severe censurers of all extern helps to beauty , would be so partial to your selves in other things , as to allow your selves without any blame or guilt of pride many ornamental actions as well as materials , both private and publick , whereby to set off your self in a farre different posture of neatness and handsomeness , of beauty and majesty , beyond what you have or are in the native desolation and simplicity of your persons . Else , why do you ( without any scruple ) chuse such Stuffs , such Colours , such Tailors , such Laces , such Tires , such Fashions , as you fancy best become you ? You never are jealous of scarlet , crimson , or purple tinctures in your clothes , wherein you please your self at present more then in any other deader colours , as best becoming you : onely you are scared with the least touch of such orient colours on your face , though they become you never so much , and though you think you need them not a little . Can such tinctures and colours of light be honourable and graceful to your body , and onely shameful and disparaging to your face , when they are but the simple juyce or extract of some innocent herb , leaf , flower or root , of which no other use ( in food or Physick ) can be made , as we see in many things of Natures store , whereof no other benefit can be made but the extracting and communicating of their tinctures and colours , whereto Nature doth invite Art and ingenuity ? Nor is indeed any thing ( as I have heard ) more easy and cheap then those applications which advance or quicken the ruddy life of the face , which is done with very little expence of time , without others pains or our own labour ; and no doubt both may , and very oft is used to very sober ends by humble minds , who venerate God in this , as all his creatures , whereof he hath given man the use and command in all honest and vertuous waies . And however God challenges his own right and propriety , where wicked minds sacrifice to their own net , and glory in God's flax , and wine , and oil , and corn , as if it were their own merit or acquisition , forbidding us ungratefully or excessively to use these his gifts to his dishonour and the detriment of our souls , while we pamper our bodies and our sensual lusts ; yet where the heart is pure and grateful to God , he no where commands nor expects we should neglect the body , ( which is God's too ) in the culture of it , for nutriment or ornament , for necessity or decency , so farre as we make these no hinderance of holiness , and no designed occasion to sin . Nor do I see any reason why this help to complexion or beauty in the face may not be used , as farre short of any sinful pride as any other adorning your Ladiship useth , who , though plentifully furnished with Natures stock of beauty , ( of which ( like the rich mans barns ) your Ladiships face hath great store laid up for many years ) yet as I think you are not proud or conceited of it , to any ingrateful neglect or affront to God the giver ; so nor do I believe you are so great an undervaluer or slighter of it , as not to preserve it tenderly and thriftily , but fence it against Sun , dust , air , and fire , by masks , fannes , scarfs and hoods ; yea , if you find any decaies by wrinckles or roughness , by freckles or tanne , you speedily endeavour by unguents and washes , by forehead-clothes and cereclothes to clear and smooth your skin , to recover your fresh and orient colour , and to fetch back that Angel which seems to have fled , or to be flying from your face , which even sober and modest women are as loth to let go , as Jacob was that Angel with which he wrestled , because they think it ( and not unjustly ) a great blessing among these little momentary ones which our dust is capable of . Yet in thus doing , endeavouring and desiring to preserve or recover your beauty , neither your own heart nor any others tongue is so cruelly austere , as to smite you or accuse you for any pride or arrogance , nor yet for any inordinate esteem of this fading blossom , beauty . And truly since your plenty and liberty exempts you from all envy of others handsomeness , why should you deny your pity and charitable indulgence to those that do want native colour , or forbid them the ingenuous use of artificial complexioning , which may innocently relieve them , without any sin or shame ? since God and Nature have as it were offered such helps , which are obvious , cheap , easy , and every way safe . I do not believe your Ladiship wishes all your neighbours poor , that they may the more value , set off and admire your riches . There may be greater pride in the want of charity , and in severe censuring of others for pride in that which they use , as from God , so in his fear and to his glory . It is good to look to the beam in our own eyes of rashness and censoriousness , which is an high arrogating of God's judicial power , and ascending up to his Throne or Tribunal , before we quarrel too earnestly with the mote in anothers eye . Why should any be judged of Pride for that wherein he owns and venerates God , praising him for his bounty , and keeping within his bounds ? Since God's eye hath been good to poor mortals , not onely in native gifts , but in artificial and adventitious supplies , why should any Christian's eyes be evil , repining at or disdaining anothers benefit , who want what God hath not denied ? which is as if one should grudge them a plank to save themselves who have made shipwreck . 'T is possible for Diogenes his Cynical slovenliness to trample on Plato's splendid garments with more pride then Plato wore them . Nor is it any strange effect of pride , to deny others that which may make them any way our peers or rivals in handsomeness ; which is as strong a leaven to puff the mind as any thing , and no less fermentive when natural , then when artificial . And indeed artificial helps of beauty carry with them their own antidote , while they are monitors of our wants and infirmities , which ( like the swallowing down the stone ) keep us from surfeiting of the Cherries we eat . We read no where in Scripture that the beauty and bravery of colours is either forbidden or reproved , unless unseasonably worn , when God calls for sackcloth and blackness of faces . Lydia , a seller of purple , ( whose dye or finer tincture was of more worth then the substance or stuff it self ) yet is not forbidden , when she was converted to be a Christian , either to dye or to sell any more of that rich and orient colour . Since other diseases or distempers incident to our faces are industriously to be cured without any thought or blame of pride , as flushings , redness , inflammations , pimples , freckles , ruggedness , tanning and the like ; what hinders , that paleness , sadness and deadness may not be remedied ? since God hath given to mankinde not onely bread to strengthen , and wine to cheer mans heart ; but also oil and other things proper to make him a serene and chearful countenance . And where oil is not used , other things may be , according to that virtue and property is in them to such an end . Against which honest liberty I see nothing wars so much as prejudice , and a kind of wontedness to think the contrary , because they never knew how innocent , as well as convenient , the use of such helps is to sober minds and more pallid looks . OBjECTION IX . The Fathers and modern Divines much against all Painting the Face . BUT ( good Madam ) although you may safely contend with my weakness of understanding and want of memory , which are prone to betray the strength of a good cause ; yet I beseech you beware how you dash against that great rock , which I confess gives me such terror as I dare not touch it , any more then the people or beasts might Mount Sinai : I mean the uniform judgement and concurrent Testimony of very many learned and godly men , both the holy Fathers of old , and the most reformed Ministers of later times , who ( as I am informed ) almost with one voice absolutely cry down and even damn to hell all painting or colouring the face in order to advance the beauty of it , as a sin not small and disputable , but of the first magnitude . Which dreadful censure my self have read ( not without some horror ) as in others of our English Divines , so especially in Mr. Downam's Christian Warfare , the first Book and 14th Chapter ; where from the Fathers sense he calls painting of the face , The Devil's invention , absolutely a sin , not onely in the abuse , but the very use ; in the nature of the thing , and not onely in the intention of the doer : that it is utterly wicked and abominable , against the law of God , the light of nature , against self-shame and conviction ; a reproach of God , a perverting of his works in nature , a cheat of others , a lure and bait to sin , a fruit of pride and vanity , poisonous to the body , and pernicious to the Soul : That it is the proper practice of harlots and lewd women ; that it is inconsistent with a Christian profession and a good conscience . He brings Tertullian arguing against it , as the Devil 's counterfeiting and mocking of God , by seeking to mend his works , as if God needed his enemies help to compleat his creatures . So he cites S. Cyprian , telling the veiled Virgins , that the devil by these arts doth but distort and poison what God hath made handsome and wholesome . He might have added many more , as I find otherwhere in our English Authors , who produce the authority of S. Ambrose , S. Austin , S. Chrysostome , and S. Jerome , against all additional beauties . Thus I perceive English Divines ( for the most part ) are as Boanerges , sons of Thunder , against these Complexionary Arts : nor do I find any ( almost ) that are Barnabasses , or sons of comfort , as to the use of it in any kind , at any time , or by any person that pretends to piety . Which makes me wonder how your Ladiship hath the courage and confidence to encounter such an host of Worthies , men of renown ; or whence you are furnished with such Arms both offensive and defensive in this contest , beyond what I have heard or read from any one , in defence of Auxiliary beauty ; which must not seem to me any beauty , since to so many pure eyes it appears deformity ; so that a painted Lady is to be looked upon rather as some Spectre or Empusa , then as an handsome woman . ANSWER . THis black and ponderous cloud of witnesses which your Ladiship produceth against all artificial beauty , from the suffrages of ancient and later Divines , did , I confess , a long time so scare me , that I feared a Deluge of divine wrath in no case to be more unavoidably poured forth upon the Soul then in this of giving any assistance to the face and complexion ; so terrible presages of storms did the thunder and lightning give both from the Press and Pulpits of grave and godly men . No soul was more shaken then I was , in the minority of my judgement ; when I had more of traditional superstition then of judicious religion , and valued more the number of mens names then the weight of their reasons . But at length , finding by my greater experience in the world that many , if not most , women of more polished breeding , every way vertuous , and most commendable for all worthy qualities , yet did use more or less ( privately , and it may be less discernibly to vulgar eyes ) something of art to retard age and wrinckles , to preserve or recover a good complexion , to quicken that colour which is the life of the face , and to dispel the death of an excessive paleness , notwithstanding what was with so great zeal and terror urged by some against all such practices , which are not the less evil because less discovered ; I began seriously to examine the grounds of their opinions who were such enemies against it , and what dispensations in private those vertuous and modest women had , who more or less used some art , without which their beauty and good complexion would be much abated , if not quite destroyed . And now out of that nonage and minority which kept me in the wardship and awe of mens names and numbers , I considered , that these alone signify no more to make up any reason , or to prove any thing a sin , ( in point of conscience ) then so many cyphers can make up a summe which have no figure before them . In matter of godliness , as to intellectual light and darkness , or moral good and evil , it is not to be regarded who , or how , or when men affirm or deny any thing , but why . This made me at once curious and serious to examine what strong reasons were alledged by them , and on what grounds a thing so small , easy , cheap , safe , and for the most part both inoffensive to and undiscerned by others , should merit so bitter and odious invectives , so as to be banished from all Christian society ; which yet admits so many curiosities , elegancies , superfluities , ornaments and delicacies of life , in clothing and dressing , in building and Cookery , in gardening , and all adornings by hangings , pictures , carvings , guildings , and tincturings . And truly , Madam , after the best search and examining I could make of all that was written , preached , or privately discoursed of by any men against Artificial beauty , ( as now by your Ladiship ) it seems very strange to me how , if the case were so clear as to a notorious sin and so flagitious a crime , ( which not like the slie fox crops the grapes , but like a wild bore roots up the very plants of all piety and vertue ) how neither your Ladiship from them , nor any of them from one another in a continued track , do ever produce such valid Scripture reasons or grounds of Morality ( as to piety , equity , charity , or purity ) as may make up one solid and pregnant demonstration , rather then multiply long and specious , yet dubious , declamations ; which are like ropes drawn out to a length , but not bound or girt about things ; having much in shew and extention , nothing in the binding or convincing power . And such ( I must freely tell your Ladiship and all the world ) are all those sharp , satyrical and popular invectives which hitherto I have met withall any where ; to which your Ladiship hath given as much ( or more ) edge and smartness as ever I found from any . For otherwhere one shall find , that those good men ( without any new strength of arguments ) commonly use the same borrowed phrases , those wonted flowers of Oratory , one after another , as so many corresponding Echoes ; by which they make loud and fierce Declamations against all artificial helps to beauty rather in a sequacious and credulous easiness , then after the rate of any perswasive strictness , either from principles of right Reason , or from Scripture precept and authority , with which your Ladiship began discourse upon this subject between us ; where I think your Ladiship found no such penetrating and confounding thunderbolts as were vulgarly imagined , to be cast in the faces of all women that any way helped the defect of their beauty by ingenuous and modest arts . So soft and good-natured , for the most part , are good men , as to be easily led away by the authority and reputation of other mens names and opinions , which ( under favour ) is but a credulous kind of superstition and presumption , the sap , not the heart of Religion , whose grounds as to matters of conscience , binding or loosing the soul from sin or to judgement , are not the fancies , conjectures , or oratories of men , but the mind , will and oracles of God , whose rule is , To the Law and to the Testimony : if they speak not according to this word , it is because there is no light in them ; if they speak not contrary to these , there is no sin or darkness in them . I do humbly acknowledge , it becomes not the weakness of my sex to contend or argue with those holy Fathers of old , men of incomparable learning and sanctity , whom I wish I could as well study and read in their own writings as I do highly venerate their names , for that great authority which they have justly obtained in the Church of Christ , by their zealous and industrious pains to deliver to us the great things of God , and those weighty matters of Religion which are necessary to salvation . Yet I know they were so holy and humble men , as not to think themselves infallible , nor to obtrude their opinions as dictates , or their Commentaries for sacred texts , and their writings for indisputable oracles upon the Church of God , or any believers conscience . Who is there in these days of so observant a respect to the Fathers , as to forbear as sin all they forbad , or to perform as duty all they then required ? I have heard and read that every one of them had their Errors , greater or lesser , even in points of greater concern then this of Ladies beauties : that most of them were Antagonists in some point or other against some other of like piety and learning with themselves . Good and great men are not set beyond mistakes . Nor is it seldome that passion or prejudice or custome biasseth their judgements wide of truth : Like Eli , a grave and venerable person , mistaking that for drunkenness in Hannah which was devotion . S. Peter was dissemblingly divided between scandal and conscience from off the Jews and his judgement , in point of eating meats and conversing with the Gentiles , till God better informed him . The primitive Christians were dubious and abstaining from many things under the notion of sin , till they were better informed of Christian liberty . 'T is as easie for the conscience to shrink to an over-nice and rigid strictness ( as , Touch not , tast not , handle not , ) as to be dilated to an over-stretched looseness . But saving the merited honor and respect I bear to those holy men , what wise man now urgeth all the primitive rigors of Discipline , yea or all the tenets of Doctrine which the Fathers sometime imposed on Christians as their several judgements ? No doubt , the Fathers of the Church , after the severity of those times when Christian Religion was most-what in or very near to the furnace of persecution , did worthily study the extern honour and gravity of it , so as to decry all those costlinesses , delicacies and softnesses bestowed on clothes , or houses , or bodies , or heads and faces , ( which must daily prepare to marry with the flames and fagots ) as superfluous and less seasonable , and so no way sutable to that Christian simplicity , mortifiedness , modesty and humility which those times required , which gave daily summons to mortification by the sad and frequent alarms of others sufferings , and their own being exposed to like hazards of death or persecution . So this of auxiliary beauty ( among other things ) they might possibly then decry and deny with some vehemency to Christian women , not as absolutely evil , and in it self unlawful at all times , but as inexpedient and needless at those times , when ( as precise virgins ) they had more need prepare the lamps of their heart for Christ , then the beauty of their looks and faces for their suitors or husbands . Things may be less wholesome to some tempers and constitutions , which yet are not in themselves poisonous or pernicious . How zealous were some of them for vowed and perpetual Virginity , even so farre as sometime to speak less honorably of Marriage , yea to some bitterness against second marriages ? How do they exclaim as against false hair or Perukes , so against braiding or laying forth , and powdering or colouring their hair ; some against cutting or shaving close the beard , against cost , splendor and curiosity of clothes and diet ? &c. Not that they thought these things evil in themselves , but they observed many Christians made an evil ( that is , a scandalous and unseasonable ) use of them , the abuse of which was not so easily regulated , as the use was utterly decried . Nor do they ( as farre as ever I could perceive , by what is urged out of the Fathers by our English Writers ) oppose things of this nature argumentatively so much as oratoriously ; not denying the nature and use of them to some persons , in some cases , and at some times , but onely that usual pride , levity or impudicity which they observed or suspected in many , who ( as they represent it ) used then such gross and dangerous dawbings of black , red and white , as wholly changed the very natural looks and difference of the person . Nor did it seem to them onely vain and superfluous in most , also irreligious in many , but very fulsome , and even uncomely , in all that used so loathsome fashions . Besides , the greatest strictness of those holy Fathers seems to have been to Votaries or resolved Virgins , in whom they thought it a kind of Apostasie to return to those secular toyes and curiosities of extern ornaments , and study of worldly beauty , when they made a profession to abandon them , and to live farre above them , as studious not to please men , but God. Nor is it strange if those men who generally chose celibacy or single life , were more tetrical or less indulgent in such things to women , whom they most feared , because they less loved or used their company , yea whose conversation they sought wholly to avoid , casting what damps they could on their own inclinations by their distances from them , and Declamations not onely against all feminine arts and ornaments , but even against the very Sex. Yet in their more calm temper there is no question but they made great difference as to times and persons in the use of the same things . As the several censures and opinions of the Fathers must give way to the Scriptures authority ( out of which nothing of validity is produceable against Auxiliary beauty : ) so they may ( without injury ) be looked upon as farre inferiour to the joynt suffrages or resolves of Councills ; without whose concurrence with the Fathers sense , I can hardly think any thing a sin , or violation of that modesty required by Ecclesiastical Canons and the Discipline of the ancient Churches , from whom I find nothing ever cited by any Writer against the use of these feminine helps of complexion , as by a joynt suffrage and determination of the Church against them ; either looking upon such toyes as below the animadversion of so venerable Assemblies , or leaving them to the freedome of every one , whose vertuous or vicious minds best resolved the lawfulness or unlawfulness of them in particular cases and consciences , whose nature and use in general was ( as all outward things ) indifferent . I find no woman ( otherwise unblameable ) either censured or excommunicated for her colouring and dressing : nor did the ancient Confessors or Casuists ( any more then at this day ) either examine or condemn the use of tincture and complexion to the face as any sin in it self , but onely in reference to the mind and end of the use . Private mens opinions may not charge the Soul with sin in things of outward use and fashion , where Scriptures and Councils are silent . Nothing is more usual then for single persons ( otherwise very learned and godly ) to be strangely wedded and vehemently addicted to their own wonted modes , their customary opinions and fashions ; of which they at length begin to make some conscience , as if they ought ever to approve and never to recant what they have long liked or disliked , esteeming those things next to sin which are new and unwonted to them . Which temper ( I think ) was not only observable in many of those holy Fathers , whose venerable ashes I leave to their rest , ( hoping to find them more friends and suffragans to the vertues and modesty of sober women , then enemies to their beauty , or condemners of those things they sometime innocently use , to conceal the defects or help the infirmities of their faces in point of beauty : ) but ( I am sure ) nothing hath been more frequent then such high and affected severities taken up by some of the later and lesser edition of Divines , who would be counted great Reformers of the times , because they were vehement censurers and condemners of whatever they listed to dislike or not to fancy . Thus many of them have not only followed the tract of some of the ancients , in their strictnesses urged upon women as to their dresses , fashions , clothes and adornings ; but they have horribly inveighed ( at first ) against many other things of new , yet civil and convenient , use , as against starch , especially if yellow , ( as if there were sin in that colour more then in white or blew ) to which at length they were so reconciled , that they affected to use nothing more in their ruffs and linen . How earnest were some Preachers against careless ruffs , yea and against set ruffs too ? Both which they ( at length ) came to wear , rather then pickadilloes ( which they thought had too much of the Courtier ) or little plain bands , which they liked not because the Jesuites wore such . How was Tobacco mistaken by many great Masters of the Pulpit & peoples ears , before they generally fell to taking of it themselves , fancying ( at last ) that they never had more devout meditations or sharp inventions then those which were begotten , or at least brought forth , by the midwifery of a pipe of good Tobacco ; which at last perfumed their clothes , their books , their studies , and their Sermons ? What enemies were some Ministers to Perukes , to high-crown'd or broad-brimmed Hats , to long Clokes and Canonical Coats , and now to long Cassocks , since the Scotch Jump is looked upon as the more military fashion , and a badge of a Northern and cold Reformation ? How have some cried down all Dancing , which most sober persons now use ? Many are at discord with all Musick and Singing with art and curiosity , in sacred psalmody , from which neither David nor the devoutest Jews of old , nor the holy Christians of former times did abhorre ; yea they highly adorned it , and devoted it to God's glory , as one of his special and diviner gifts to manking , which the Church knows best how to improve . How bitter have some been against all lusory use of Lots , or any play with chance ; so against all playing at Cards , though merely recreative , as Bowls and other sports are ? Lastly , against all Usury , or profit upon interest from dry money , how vehement hath the torrent of some mens judgements been ? which yet others reconcile of late ( by some distinctions ) with God's Laws and a good conscience , as finding that civil commerce cannot else be well carried on . Some can digest the first-fruits of a simple usury upon the principal , but by no means use upon use from the same hand ; which yet is but the same thing with the first , unless it alter the case to put out the interest-money to a new hand , or continue it in the old . Such hasty and over-early blossomes of precipitant censures and preposterous zeal do oft arise in very godly minds , out of a principle not onely venial , but so farre commendable , as it argues a cautious tenderness of offending God : which blossomes yet do oft fall off in time upon further trial of truth , as abortives to truth , never bearing ripe fruits as to any thing of grace and vertue , though they flourish ( for a while ) in the warm opinions and devout fancies of some Ministers and others , till time correct and cool them , or contrary custome prevailing confute them , as to those clamors they made against them for sins , and a good conscience ; when indeed the chief thing that moved their passion and prejudice was but unwontedness and tradition , with want of due consideration . And certainly , if those eminent Heroes of Religion , ( the ancient Fathers ) will give us leave to stand as Pygmies on the shoulders of such Giants , that we may the better take a free , full and advised prospect of their private opinions ; much more freedome may I or any one take to examine the magisterial censures and Anathemaes which those men use who are of later edition and lesser print , who bear themselves in some things ( as in this case of aiding the complexion by any tincture ) as much upon the name and authority of the Fathers , the Fathers , as the Jews did upon The Temple of the Lord , the Temple of the Lord ; when yet they urge neither pregnant Reason , nor any Scripture-proof from the store-houses of the Fathers , but onely follow them more by a credulous easiness of spirit then by any discerning or convincing power , using their bowes and powder rather then their arrows and bullets , more repeaters of their popular Oratorious vehemencies then urgers and confirmers of their argumentative strength , which either they find not in those Fathers who have been vehement as to this point , or else they cannot tell how to manage it . Yea I am informed by a person of learned integrity , with whō I conferred oft in this case , that one man of great repute , namely Peter Martyr , is so partial an enemy against what he cals painting of the face in any sort or degree , that writing upon the occasion of Jezebel's fate against this practice in women , he not onely urgeth , but stretcheth to a falsity , a story out of S. Jerom , as if it were a dreadful hammer by which to demolish all painting : when indeed S. Jerom doth not in that place so much as mention painting the face ; when he tells Laeta ( in order to her daughters education , becoming an intended Nun or Recluse ) of a woman who , having designed her daughter to be a votary Virgin without her husbands consent , was by the husbands command moved to alter the childs veiled dress and over-grave habit , to the wonted fashion and civility of other young Gentlewomen , as to clothes , hair , gemms , &c. For which deed ( saith S. Jerome ; for painting her daughters face , saith Peter Martyr , besides the text and story ) the mother was the following night terrified with dreams and visions , and threatned with speedy death , if she did not restore her daughter to the former mode of votal habiliments . Truly the report seems fitted to the pulse and bent of those times , which were high venerators of vowed Virginity : But it is strange that a wife should be threatned by God with death for obeying her husband in such a thing , the contrary to which ought not to have been carried so farre on without or against the husbands and fathers will. But for the more odium of the business , this story is brought in by P. Martyr against all painting of the face , under the name , but not from the true authority , of S. Jerome . Your Ladiship farther instanceth in one of our later English Divines , to whom I am no stranger , Mr. Downam , a person of primitive piety and great learning ( no doubt ; ) whom who so shall read , in the place you cited , crying down with so great fervour all painting the face , ( for so he calls and counts all helps to complexion ) must needs be ( as I was ) much startled , fearing lest so great Ordances discharged with so much noise and terror should be loaden not with powder onely , to scare poor souls , but also with deadly bullets , to daunt and destroy them . Yet with the peace and favour of so good a man , even my simplicity can easily discern ( having oft seriously perused that his vehement discourse and rough Satyr against all helps of beauty ) that there is more of sound and terror then of force or execution in what he there sayes against them . The good man rather took it for granted and indisputable , then seriously pondered the grounds of other mens and his own heavy censures , which rank it in the number of absolute and utter sins of a gross nature ; never so much as distinguishing between the thing done , and the end or mind of those that doe it : as if the sober relief of a pallid infirmity , or the modest study of outward decency , were the same things with levity , pride and wantonness . At the same rate he might have inveighed against quenching ones thirst , or drinking to chearfulness , because of the sordid consequences of drunkenness , riot and debauchery . This worthy man ( after S. Cyprian ) calls all painting or colouring the face an Invention of the devil : but he proves no such thing by any due reason or authority , onely he seems in this case to believe ( what otherwise he wholly disbelieves ) that old fabulous fancy , which they say some of the Fathers had from the Jews , of Devils being Incubusses , and that in their courtships to women they gratified them with these inventions which might help their decaying beauties , and make those wanton devils still inamoured of them . Which frivolous and odious reflexion ( fitted to vulgar passions and capacities ) hath , as no certainty , so no weight of truth in it ; unless he fondly imagine with some , that the race of the Giants before the flood were of this progeny , which ( it is said ) the Sons of God ( whom he must interpret Devils ) begat of the daughters of men , whom they took , because they were fair , and to whom they contributed ( it seems ) this rare art of painting the face to keep them lovely . What sober person can dote so farre as to allow any such monstrous fictions , and more monstrous productions ? As for the rarity of these Inventions which by any colour or tincture serve to help the ruddiness of the face or the liveliness of complexion , neither Mr. Downam nor the Fathers needed to rake the Devils skull to find them . Alas ! it is a most easy and obvious thing , both as to the things used , and also as to the fancy of applying them to the skin or face , as well as in any other ordinary wayes of dying , colouring or painting of things . Nothing is and ever hath been more natively common ( as I formerly told your Ladiship ) to all Nations in the world , then men and women painting and adorning themselves with several colours , juyces and tinctures , being an ordinary custome , and as exposed to humane art and experience as the staining or dying of any clothes , the making of any pictures or statues ; to which the various and communicable colours afforded by Nature in feathers , flowers , roots , herbs , beans , stalks and wood , in flies also and fishes , do daily invite mankind to the exercise of their art and fancies in applying of them . But ( Madam ) how sad a thing is it to see grave men urge in matters of sin and cases of conscience those putid fables and ridiculous fictions which themselves do not believe ? What is this but like the ratling of hail upon tiles , which neither wets with moisture , nor pierceth with its strokes and noise ? Such downy feathers as these will never make up the ponderousness of a milstone ; and such as every gross sin must be ( which sinks to hell ) both by its offence against God's will , and by that shame , guilt or conviction which riseth in our own consciences either before , in , or after the commission . His other heap of arguments are only assertory , not probatory : As , that it is an absolute sin in the nature and use of it ; which he should have made good by some plain proofs and pregnant instance of right reason or God's word against it : which he doth not so much as offer at in the least kind ; when we all know that the formal malignity or evil in all sin is from the pravity or contrariety of our wills against the holy will of God , either as revealed in Scripture , or by the common light of Nature . In which last what he seems to urge as to the reproaching and mocking of God , the deception of others , & the belying our selves , I have already answered , when your Ladiship instanced in them ; shewing your Ladiship , that there is no more done in this mending or aiding of the complexion by sober minds and modest persons , then is done in many other practices of humane art and invention , which help crookedness , lameness , dimness of sight , or any other defect and deformity in nature ; which no man is so foolish as to impute to the devils invention , or to count them any hurtful imposturage , injury or indignity against God , our selves , or others . For his fear lest women should rather poison or marre their faces , eyes and teeth by the use of such things as help their looks ; his care and charity to women in this is not so great , as his ignorance is of those innocent and harmless applications , which are farre enough from what rustical jealousies might possibly fear and imagine , as if women were so mad of a little colour , that they will venture upon uncorrected Quick-silver , untamed Mercury , the invincible Aqua fortis , or any such pernicious drugs ; which yet ( sure ) may be used in their several kinds and qualities without sin , if they had a face-mending virtue in them . But 't is certain that tincture which women generally use to quicken their complexion withall , is as safe and inoffensive to their own health as any flower . So that from this error can be no true ground against it , as if it were self-indangering , and so offensive both to God and man. Lastly , for his censure , that all are proud , lewd , vain and wanton women who use it in any kind , to any end ; truly it is as harsh as rash : nor is it to be justified as to the truth of the assertion , if any ever did use it soberly and modestly ; least of all can it hold in Christian charity , unless he had known the hearts and intents of all those that ever used it to be such as he there expresses , when ( alas , good man ! ) it is very probable he knew very few , it may be not any one , that used it ; possibly he , with other men of the same brow and severity , might suspect some unjustly , ( which is ordinary in those that cannot live well without censuring others for something evil . ) No doubt , he highly approved others for very vertuous and good Ladies , who used some art and quickning , while he was never the wiser , nor they the worse , either in his opinion or their own innocent intentions . So that leaving the cloud and crowd of Authors and Writers , of Fathers and Preachers , whom I shall ever respect and value according to what I find of godly wisdome and Christian charity in them ; your Ladiship must give me leave rather to look to the more sure word of God and that light of right Reason which enlighten every man , one in the world , both in the Church , as to the knowledge of good and evil , sin and sanctity , vice and vertue . If Fathers or others speak not according to this light , all their Oratorious polishings and shinings are but false beams , as the glistering of Glo-worms , from humane , not divine authority , which onely can set a stamp of sin upon our actions . Neither the wit nor tongue of any or many men can be a mint capable to coyn the least farthing sin , much less so large a piece and medal as this man pretends to make of any helping our complexion ; which seems to him to be as the talent of lead cast into the Ephah , where the woman sate , when truly he proves it not by any weight of arguing ( and bare words are but as wind ) to be so much as the dust of the balance . And truly I cannot yet see but that in the height of religious severity it may be put among those venial vanities of humane life , of which no stricter account in point of morality need to be given or exacted , but onely that divine indulgence by which God in innocent freedomes , as a father to his children , gives us leave to adorn and please our selves , without any of his displeasure . Nor may the violence and bitterness of some good mens censures against all auxiliary beauty seem strange to us ; for nothing is more easie and frequent then antique and popular errors , which either cry things up or down as some one or more persons of eminency first fancied and opined ; from whom , without any further trial , many receive for currant all that is stamped with their name : Thence it grows so common and customary , by the authority of time and multitude , that even learned and sober men in following ages are content to swim down the common stream , rather then trouble themselves to cross or question such vulgar , and therefore authentick , Errors . Which , I remember , my Lord your Brother , in one of his many excellent discourses ( meriting a farre better memory and tongue then mine ) observed to be so frequent both in politick and pious affairs , in things Civil and Ecclesiastical , because very few examine the marrow and inside of things , but take them upon the credit of customary opinings : and what they hold even in capite and corde too , is more by a superficial tenure of credulity , then any pregnant proofs and good evidences of Reason or Religion . Which easiness if it be excusable to humane infirmity in lesser matters , where there may be an adherence in perswasion or practice to either side without any sin or notorious error , yet in things highly charged with sin , even to a more facinorous and notorious degree , ( as this of any painting and complexioning the face is by this worthy man and others ) grave and godly Divines should be very wary what they affirm or deny ; lest they be over-righteous beyond what God imposes , or severe beyond God's smitings , or uncharitably lay either heavier pressures on the consciences , or harsher censures on the actions of others , then God himself doth . Men of never so eminent learning and piety may not either adde or detract from the word of God , lest they be found lyers , as Solomon speaks Prov. 30. 6. Nor ought they to multiply sins by unreasonable and unseasonable severities , beyond what God hath done . For such passionate and precipitant wayes of censuring and condemning in case of sin ( where pregnant convictions in Reason or Scripture are wanting ) besides that they are most unworthy of a cautious and well-advised Divine , ( who , being in God's stead to people , ought not to pretend God's authority where he can produce none ) do not onely charge the consciences of Christians with needless burdens , and bind them to unjust bondages , but they very much ( also ) baffle the credit or honor of Religion , highly diminishing the reverence due to the Ministerial profession , as to that binding and loosing power of the Keyes which is principally committed to them . For nothing makes people less prone to observe , or more ready to disbelieve their words , as to the avoiding real sins , then when they find them so loose , superficial , and but verbally imperious in feigned and forced enormiries , which are not convinced to have in them ( if rightly tried and stated ) any iniquity against God or man , being injurious to neither , where the heart is upright , as it easily may be , and no doubt alwayes is , in modest women , who generally use in some degree or other ( as they best fancy ) some things that they think best set off their outside and handsomeness to the world . Furthermore , from such magisterial rigors infinite doubts and scruples are raised among weaker consciences , who dare less trust to their own judgements , while they doubtingly use or doe those things which they are loth to want , and against which they see nothing proved as evil ; yet are they scrupulous and afraid to use them , because of so much prejudice and clamor against them : So that hence grows their snare and sin too , while they want that faith in using them which is necessary to justify , not the nature of the thing done , but the conscience of the doer ; as the Apostle requires , Rom. 14. 23. Whereas , in reference to the nature of the thing done , the Apostle assures us , that the Kingdome of God , as to gracious power and peace , consists not in any of these things of external use ( as meat or drink , and so clothes , colours , &c. ) nor ought the conscience in these to be set upon the rack and tainter , but rather acquainted with its liberty , which being kept within the bounds of modesty , sobriety and innocency , needs not be scared with the scruple of sin . And indeed in this very case of Complexioning , I have heard that many learned and wise men , both at home and abroad , who are more remote from vulgar easiness and credulity , do forbear to condemn ( as sin ) the use of those things that are ingenuously and innocently helpful to the beauty of modest women ; but they rather examine the true state of things , both in the nature of what is used , ( which must needs be good , as in the order of God's creatures ) also as to the mind and intent of the doer or user of them : accordingly they determine , That all colourings added to the face are so farre sin or not sin in the conscience of the doer , as their minds are morally and intentionally disposed either to modest and ingenuous decency , which is commendable , or to lewdness , pride and lubricity , which are blameable : And as they find the things used to be in the cabinet or store-house of nature ; also the use of them to be no where forbidden in Reason or Scripture , as a relief to such defects or infirmities of beauty as may befal the face ; so they resolve that according to the qualities and aptitudes which are seen in those things for such ends , they may lawfully be used with humility , charity , purity and thankfulness , without any offence to any relations wherein we stand obliged to God , our neighbours , or our selves . We see in many cases that time and calmer considerations , together with different customes , which ( like the tide or flood ) insensibly prevail over both manners and minds of men , do oft take off the edge and keenness of mens spirits against those things whereof they sometimes were great abh●●●ers , reconciling their mortal feuds , and wearing off their popular prejudices . Few mens judgements are so died in grain , but they will fade and discolour , being most-what onely dipt by vulgar easiness in common opinions : Nor do I see any thing unlikely , but that upon second thoughts and more exact view , a fair moderation and civil atonement may be mediated between Ladies Countenances and their Consciences , by the intercession of judicious and religious persons , both Ministers and others , who dare to be wise beyond the vulgar , and who have patience to consider better of this case then hath been wonted . It will ( no doubt ) appear how little or no ground there hath been for so great reproaches or terrors of sin , in a case no way more dangerous to the Soul or body of a vertuous woman then all other civil and allowed Ornaments are ; where by adding a little quickning and lustre to her looks , she is no way hindred from the Love of God or her neighbour , in chast and charitable wayes : That where no cost is lavished , no time-wasted , no good duty neglected , no vice nourished , no Vertue depressed , but onely a civil decency studied ( which was never denied to holy women in waies agreeable to nature ) there can be no enmity to Grace ; nor compliance with sin . OBjECTION X. Painting the Face very scandalous , and so unlawful . BUT ( good Madam ) suppose Artificial beautifying of the face be not in it self absolutely unlawful , but may in some Countries and some cases be used by some persons privately and soberly , without the confidence of sinning against God ; yet what shall we say to the Scandal and offence it gives , when known to many zealous Preachers and Professors here in England , whose spirits are much grieved and offended if they do but suspect ( how much more if they palpably discern ? ) any Lady or Gentlewoman professing godliness to use any paint or tincture to help their complexions ? Ought not ( I beseech you ) all worthy women therefore to abstain wholly from it , because it is a thing prone to grieve the spirits of good people , although they do not think it absolutely a sin ? Is it not better to want a little colour in the cheeks , then to damp God's Spirit in any ones heart ; or to offend one of those little ones , as Christ speaks , by abating that good hope and joy they had in our graces ? The Apostle's rule is , even to those who were ( as he was ) fully perswaded of the lawfulness of many things as to their consciences ( that they were of free and sinless use in themselves ) yet ( saith he ) if thy brother be grieved , or stumbleth , or is offended , or made weak by the use and exercise of this thy freedome , Charity here forbids thee to use this thy liberty , lest thou destroy by it those for whom Christ died . Though things are pure and lawful in their nature , and in God's general permission , yet they become then evil and unreformed when they give uncharitable scandals to others : So that the point of scandal ( which is in this very great and ordinary ) seems barre sufficient to keep off all painting or artificial tincture from the faces of pious and charitable women . ANSWER . THE point of Scandal , ( which your Ladiship now makes your refuge in this dispute ) either given or received , hath , like a Labyrinth , so many windings and turnings , so many perplexed cautions and distinctions , that it seems rather a maze to lose the mind in , then any fair retreat where judgement and conscience may repose and secure themselves . None is so simple a Sophister in disputing about things of dubious and indifferent nature , but when he is driven by Reason and Scripture from his strong holds of prejudices and confidences , when he sees the thundering Cannons of his censures and Anathemas dismounted or cloyed , he then retreats to this of Scandal , and earths himself in this burrough , pleading that he is scandalized with what you doe , ( or if he but suspect you doe it ) though he give you no reason against what you doe , nor can indeed prove that you doe what ( it may be ) he suspects . Thus Ignorance , Superstition and Suspicion , will be ever over-awing Truth & Christian Liberty , both in private persons , and in publick Societies or Churches , imperiously injoyning others to forbear the use of their liberty , merely because this or that poor soul sayes they are offended , though they give no reason why . Thus the pleaders of Scandal , like soldiers of Fortune , are ingaging in every quarrel , where they stake nothing against the liberty , peace , order and decency of others , but onely their private fancy , opinion and dislike ; who yet are many times most prodigal in giving others great and publick Scandals , by using or disusing such things as others no less quarrel at , oft denying Obedience to publick & lawful Authority in those things of which they make any scruple , imperiously challenging this liberty to themselves , yea glorying in their scandalous refractoriness to publick order and constitutions : yet they deny this liberty to others in the same or like cases , about things dubious and indifferent , concerning which there is no precise or express will of God declared , but they are left to prudential freedoms as to private mens use , till the consent and wisdome of the publick hath confined and determined them to one way for order sake and uniformity , whereto private freedome ( still free as to the opinion of the nature of things ) ought yet humbly and charitably to conform it self as to publick practice , for the avoiding of publick scandal and dissension by reason of their difformity . Between superstitious and insolent spirits , ( who either dislike all that others doe different from them , or enjoyn others to tread in none but their steps and to dance after their pipe ) true Christian liberty ( as between two thieves ) is crucified ; between the upper and the neather milstone , of Scandal given or taken , it is ( together with Christian Charity ) so ground to powder , that a sober Christian hath little left him to doe , say or enjoy , whereat some or other will not take offence . Not onely bad things or doubtful , but even good things , and the very best , are sometimes to some persons scandalous : So was the believing , yet ceremonious , Jew to the believing Gentile , and the believing , but inceremonious , Gentile to the believing Jew . Christ himself and the whole tenour of the Gospel was a stumbling-block to the Jew , and foolishness to the Gentile . Papists are offended with many things which Protestants hold and doe ; and contrarily Protestants cry out of the scandals Papists give them . So the most Factions and Schisms in the Church shelter their rents and dissensions under the shield of Scandal by them taken , less minding the scandals by themselves given to others ; by which ( as mad-men with swords ) they lay about them , and smite all that come near them . There is nothing so sober and modest , so civil and decent , so sacred and solemn , at which ignorant , or capricious , or proud and imperious spirits will not take offence , who like nothing in use and custome , never so ancient and innocent , unless they have first enacted or setled it : they must be fathers or godfathers to it , either begetting or confirming it , else they will cry it down as scandalous , spurious , impious , Popish and Antichristian ; pretending they have more cause to be scared with other mens shadows and ceremonies , which they fansy to be shaped like Bears and Lions , then others have to be offended with their paws and jaws , the sharp teeth and nails of those real beasts and birds of prey which they carry about them ; calling their own rapines religious , and their very Sacriledges sacred , yet highly offended if others do by word or deed vindicate their own liberties , customes and constitutions , never so decent and ingenuous , against the rude novelties and riotous invasions of the others supercilious fierceness and injuriousness . One is scandalized at my using my liberty , though without any prescribing , urging or injoyning upon them : I am no less offended at their invading my liberty by needless strictnesses and uncharitable censures , which though they wound not my conscience , yet they seek to weaken my credit . Out of which perplexity or streights of scandals both on the right and left hand , I know no shorter or safer way to redeem a sober Christian , that desires to live void of offence before God and man , then seriously to consider every thing ( before he either practise it himself , or censure it in another ) by the true notions and internal principles of good or evil , as morally and conscientiously considered . The onely way , as David tells us , to cleanse our own ( or others ) wayes , is by taking heed to God's word , regarding what in his precepts negative or affirmative either pleaseth or displeaseth him , whose revealed will is a sufficient and infallible rule of all requisite holiness : According to which , as I have just cause to be offended with my self and others in what I see my self or they doe against the express will of God ; so where this doth not appear by any Scriptural reason & demonstration , I have no cause either to scruple in my self , or to suspect as a scandal in others , that against which I see nothing declared by God , but a natural , civil and ingenuous liberty left me and others , which is always to be kept within bounds of modesty and discretion ; which sober and unblameable conversation is enough to satisfy minds truly humble and charitable , who love not as Salamanders to live in the flames of contention , or like Caterpillars to make their cobwebs on bushes and thorns . And however , in things assuredly lawful , ( as to my private conscience ) a charitable and discreet tenderness becomes the modesty and gentleness of a Christian toward others , in those things which have possessed and perswaded men either by contrary customes or prejudices , and ( it may be ) by temporary precepts of God ; as in the case of Jewish ceremonies and extern observations , ( of whose abrogation some were not soon or easily satisfied ; ) also in the case of eating things offered to Idols , ( which some scrupled out of an abhorrence of all Idolatry ) which God had strictly forbidden : in these and the like cases ( I say ) a condescending for a while , and private forbearance for fear of giving scandal , is very fit , till I have used those means which might best convince and instruct them of mine and their liberty given us now by God. Yet if they carelesly , proudly , peevishly and obstinately resist or repell the pregnancy of my reasons , without giving any valid answer to them , or producing ought of right reason or Scripture for their continued scruples , scandals and jealousies , they are henceforth to be looked upon and treated , not as weak , but wilful . Nor can I think it the duty of a Christian , for ever to indulge their folly , fondness and pertinacy , of such forbearing to use those things for which he brings many pregnant reasons , from the nature , end , and aptitude of things , from their own want and capacity , also from God's permission , of which I presume where I find no prohibition ; whenas they produce little or nothing beyond a blind credulity , a bayardly confidence , or an imperious insolence , which delights to find fault with others , & to domineer over them in some petty things , for which at best they urge passion , prejudice , custome , other mens opinions , or such popular stuff of which there is no end , in which what Reason cannot at present , Time will afterward easily confute that crosness and peevishness which oft transports men against many things beyond the measure of Reason or true Religion . As I have heard for certain of a Minister of no small print & repute among the people , who took great offence at the great sleeves of a Ladies new-fashioned Gown , calling them antichristian , ungodly , strange apparel , and such as the Lord was displeased with ; yet within one year this good mans wife was in the same fashion , without any scandal to her supercilious husband . So crasie are some mens judgements , and so easie their censures , as to matters of Scandal , where Novelty or wontedness sway more with them then either Reason or Religion . Nothing less becomes a grave and godly Christian then to multiply needless scruples and scandals . As to the pretended scandal which some say they take from womens use of any Auxiliary beauty , truly where modest and sober persons use it discreetly , the scandal cannot arise either from the nature of the thing done , or the mind and manners of the doer ; ( which in all things appear worthy of a good Christian ) nor can it arise easily from the certainty of their knowledge who are offended , but onely from their impertinent curiosity and suspicion . As the first is rude and unwelcome ; so the other many times false , alwayes unnecessary . It is seldome that any owns their art to them , nor is it oft that these inquisitive pryers can certainly conclude that to be used which they are so jealous of . So that if they could forbear their uncomly inquisitiveness & impertinent curiosity , their scandal taken would soon cease ; which is more in their own eyes then others faces , where any such thing is soberly and discreetly used , without any haughtiness and affectation of looks , or wantonness of manners . I believe for the most part such things are so used by all ingenuous persons , that these morose Inspectors of Ladies faces are never the wiser , unless they have more perceptive eyes then ever I had . But if it were owned and confessed to them , what I pray are they the worse , or why offended ? since neither have any of them as yet proved it to be a sin , either from any positive Law of God's word , or from any necessary inordinacy and immorality of mind inseparable from the use of such things : nor are they by anothers use of it either urged or tempted to use it , further then they want or approve it . As for that depravedness of mind which they fear may attend the use of these helps of handsomeness ; it is as objectable against all those things which either native beauty or art afford , whereof no wise man makes any scruple , yet may they be as much occasions to sin as this whereof they are so cautious . Evil minds , as foul stomacks , turn the best food to corrupt humors . But we must not therefore starve our selves , by forbearing good victuals . The work then that grave Ministers and other sober Christians have to doe in this and the like cases of extern use of things is , not presently to cry down every thing as wicked and abominable . because they are at first through inconsideration or unwontedness scandalized at them , but seriously to examine what cause they have to be so scared and scandalized , as from any moral evil pregnant and inherent in the nature or use of things ; and accordingly to state both their own censures and others consciences . If nothing be found justly offensive , they may not from fancy or custome call that unclean which God hath made clean ; but rather banish away those finister and silly scandals which arise from the darkness , weakness , or wilfulness of their own minds , which are no just barres against anothers liberty in things lawful , at which no wise person will be , nor good body ought to be , offended . And in cases of so private and retired use of such things as these are by which women preserve or advance the handsomeness of their looks , wherewith none are acquainted , and of which none can be assured , unless they list who use them , as I see no cause to own the use of any such thing to them whom I find not to have judgement or charity sufficient to interpret or bear such things well , so nor have I any reason to ask their leave , nor more to be shaken with these scandals which are needlesly taken by them , not willingly given by me . Though others , rather out of obstinacy then scrupulosity , out of peevishness more then tenderness , do pretend scandal more then they prove it ; yet my care must be , in the use of such things seriously to assert my own freedome as to my confcience , by being rightly perswaded both of the lawfulness of the thing , and looking to the innocency of my own intentions in the use of it . Thus the Apostle tels us , some Christians lawfully might observe a day to the Lord , and eat meats offered to Idols , as to their private practice , notwithstanding others doubted , and would be offended , if they were acquainted with their so doing : which yet was no hinderance to anothers private liberty , grounded on God's grand Charter and donation , which is , The earth is the Lords , and the fulness thereof . Nor is any thing in nature denied us where the use of it falls under the regulation of Reason , Grace and Vertue , which in these things of artificial beauty , as in all extern ornaments and enjoyments , are strictly required , and being exactly observed , do abundantly vindicate both the goodness of the things in nature , and the lawfulness of them as to mine or any others use of them . OBJECTION XI . Painting the Face a thing of ill report , and so not to be followed . BUT suppose ( Madam ) these artificial helps of womens beauty should not be in the nature and use of them absolutely sinful , so as to violate the conscience ; yet since it cracks womens credits , and exposeth them to reproach , which the Apostle calls the snare of the devil , it ought to be wholly avoided , not onely as to others scandal and perception , but also as to our own private use ; since the Apostles tenderness bids us not onely provide things honest before all men , but also to follow things of good report ; that we may not onely be good , but preserve the fragrancy of a good name , which gives a great sweetness to goodness , and is as perfume to a good garment , or as incense to the Temple : consequently we ought to avoid those things which are under any cloud of infamy , or blasted generally with an ill report , ( though not so notoriously convicted of immorality . ) I am sure the art and mode of adding any tincture or colour to the face or complexion generally hears ill with us , though it shews never so well done ; and is not so much to the advantage of womens aspects , as to the disadvantage of their reputation and honour , which is and hath been the sense almost of all people in all times that had any remark for civility and piety ; yea the vulgar simplicity is every where severe against those that are but suspected to use any such arts . No Lady or Gentlewoman is so commendable for her piety , chastity and charity , but this comes in as a dead fly in a precious confection , when it is suggested , O but she painteth . A little false colour , though but fancied , discolours all her other lustre ; because it makes such generally esteemed as the cheats , deceivers and impostors of mankind ; the greatest Hypocrites and Jugglers , because they use artifice and falsity in that which they pretend , not to say or to doe , but to be . What credit can they deserve in other things ( which are farre inferiour to themselves ) when they are not upright or sincere as to their very Being , but by such disguises and dissemblings make themselves a real and visible ( though a silent ) Lie ? Although their tongues do not speak untruths , yet their hands make lies , and their faces proclaim falsehood , which is abominable to God ; yea as the Prophet speaks of other Idolaters , Isai. 44. 20. so these self-Idolaters , when they take the fucus or false colours to sacrifice to the Idol of their looks , may justly say , Is there not a lie in my right hand ? No person but concludes that if God threaten to punish strange apparel , he will not spare strange faces , which in spite of God and Nature will pretend to handsomeness , and make that to be which is not . Yea , the self-guilt of every one that useth such arts , though never so soberly and discreetly , ( as you advise ) is such , that they retire and hide themselves from the sight of others while they apply their face-physicks , by a strange riddle being ashamed to be seen doing that which they purposely doe to make them more worthy to be seen of others . If it be a practice of honesty or ingenuity , why is it attended with shame and self-guiltiness ? which are black shadows following sin and unworthiness , justly meriting to be entertained by others with reproach and disrepute , when they are self-discountenanced and condemned . As worthy actions bring forth honour , and are accompanied with a generous boldness , so also they are followed with good report and clear reputation , which attends vertue as light doth the Sun. If the light then of Scripture were less clear against all painting the face ; yet the rule of reputation , which is common fame , the law of honor & light of Nature , seems to discover the uncomeliness and dishonor of this practice . The voice of people in this and many other cases is as the voice of God , which is oft to be learned from the common notions and suffrages or sense of mankind , which the Apostle owns in the case of womens habits and adornings , as the law and dictate of Natures teaching them , where Scripture is less evident . None but persons impudent or foolish will neglect what is generally said of them : next our Consciences and our eyes our credit should be most tender ; especially in our Sex , who have always a hard task to play a second or after-game at reputation : if a woman once dash upon this rock of Reproach , she hardly ever recruits her credit ( as a grave , sober and modest person ) though she should not absolutely shipwreck her conscience with God. And truly , Madam , this sense of common fame and repute hath always in the case of Ladies complexioning arts so over-awed me , that I neither durst ever use it , nor take their parts or excuse those ( otherwise very good women ) who did or were but thought to use it ; yea it seemed a note of godliness to me , to declaim bitterly against both the thing , and the persons suspected or voiced to use it ; when indeed I had no cause to conclude that any such thing was practised by them , further then I heard it from more prying eyes and censorious tongues ; which as it had been hard to prove , so it may be there was no such thing : onely in this , as other cases , fame oft over-balances the truth of things ; and our credit depends not on what we doe , but on what others list to think of us or impute to us : which should make all wise women the more cautious how they occasion any sinister reports of themselves , which ( like evil spirits ) are easier raised then allayed ; one spark oft-times kindles that fire which many tuns of water cannot quench . ANSWER . MAdam , I find your Ladiship , as a wary combatant , reserves your main forces to the last , that so you may with the greater ease and advantage overcome your now-tired and least-suspecting adversary , who might hope your strength had by this time been well-nigh quite spent and exhausted . Truly your Ladiship seems to have laid more in this last Objection then in any one you at all urged before , both as to the weight and acuteness of what you alledge against all acquired or artificial beauty . Yet since it is now brought up to so great a case and dispute of Conscience , whether a sin or no sin , it is fit seriously to examine whether the strength of your Ladiships arguments do answer the shew and pomp of them . Many things are more specious then solid , having , like vermine , a pretty kind of nimbleness , which comes farre short of that real strength or useful activity which is in more noble and solemn creatures . I read there were many seeming spots and appearings of leprosie , which upon the Priests due examination were not found to be any Leprosie of uncleanness or infection . As I am well pleased to hear the freedome and force of your Ladiships Objections , who omits nothing ( I think ) that can with any reason be objected ; so I shall be more pleased to find my self in a capacity of giving your Ladiship those sober and solid Answers which may give you most satisfaction ; since nothing is more uncomfortable in cases of Conscience then to leave the mind tottering and unresolved . First , your Ladiship urgeth against it the evil report it generally hath among people : which I confess may be so farre true , as you onely listen to what is reported and censured here in your own country among the mean and inferiour sort of people , for the most part ; or those that are either leaders or followers of the popular genius , who are commonly Giants in talk , and Pygmies in judgement . One wise and serious man overweighs thousands of them , not in bulk , but in value ; as one good Diamond doth many loads of pebbles . Vulgar minds will easily cry up to heaven or down to hell any thing , either as they have been accustomed to practise , or as they take it upon trust from those Masters who oft symbolize and comply with the vulgar humour and opinion in lesser matters , that they may have them their disciples and abetters in greater interests and concernments . A little matter will lure or scare the common people into civil and religious fashions , if they have easy leaders and bold dictators . I have formerly told your Ladiship , as to Starch and Tobacco , so to black Hoods and all forein fashions , what potent and popular declamations were used by some persons against them . So in religious forms , what ebbings and flowings have been and daily are , as to the vulgar opinion , report and practice of things , sometimes seditiously destroying , otherwhile pertinaciously retaining Images in Churches ? So about Caps and Hoods , Vestures and Gestures , Musick and Organs , Crosses and Weathercocks , Steeple-houses and Churches , what fierce conflicts and Counterscuffles have been among people of various minds ? one side giving a good report , the other imputing evil report to the same things . Yea the use of publick Liturgies or solemn form of Common prayers , singing of Psalms , the recitation of the Creed , and concluding with the Lord's prayer , these are fallen under various reports . There are that cast so evil report on them , as they are not pleased , scarce patient , to hear them used by others . If one had as many ears as Argus is said to have had eyes , they would not suffice to hear the various reports which at several times in several Countreys are given about the same things ; yea the same men and women alter their minds and reports with their age , humours , interests , company and adherents , according as the wind blows either for or against any thing of civil or religious use . What an ill report do some give of Episcopacy , others no better of Presbytery , and some worst of all of Independency , when yet each of these hath some great sticklers for them and applauders of them ? Many men , yea most , are as prone to speak evil of what they understand not , as doggs are to bark at what they see not , onely because they hear others of their kind doe so . Therefore the Apostle ( who knew well how to pass through good report and evil ) doth in that place not onely bid us follow what things are of good report , but also what things are just and true : for as a false report ( though good and favourable ) cannot justifie that which is truly evil ; no more can an evil report justly blast that which is in it self true and good , more then the shout and suffrage of the Jews could make the golden calf a God , when they unanimously cried , These are thy Gods , ô Israel . So little heed is to be taken to the vulgar opinion or report of things , as to the motions of the winds and clouds , which he that will sow , Solomon tells us , must not regard . Popular lungs are seldome sound , or their breath sweet : Their tongues may sometime hit on the right , as Balaam's ass once spake reason when it met with an Angel ; but commonly the herd brays rudely and ill-favouredly , with as little reason , order or civility , ( I need not say piety ) as those Ephesians cried up their great Diana : as if mere plebeian noise , dust , clamour , credulity and confidence were enough to make a Goddess , or sufficient either to consecrate or execrate any thing as divine or devilish . So that the wise and holy Apostles direction , to steer a Christians conversation by good report , is not to set up any popular vote or vulgar suffrage for a Christians card and compass , which he had found to be vertiginous , heady , inconstant , and for the most part erroneous , one while crying him up for a God , and presently stoning him for a malefactor ; in both extremes injurious and false . But his meaning is , that in things of less pregnant demonstration or rule for their morality and piety , Christians should follow in point of credit and reputation of Religion the test or suffrage of wise and good men , though never so few , and possibly over-born by the number of others who are weak and wilful opiners , but not just arbitrators , of good or evil report , which must be reduced to the standard of learned , judicious , and unpassionate mens suffrages ; who give not their verdict of things as good or evil , till they have duly considered the nature of them , apart from vulgar prejudices and surmises , or obloquies and reproaches , with whom Crucifige is as obvious as Hosanna . The rabble , as we read , gave a better report of Barabbas then of Jesus . The way of Christian Religion was at first every where spoken against , as a novel and pestilent heresy . The Apostle Paul heard no very good report of himself from some people who cried , Away with him , he is not fit to live . The later ages reformation of Religion in these Western Churches had from the most people no very good report ( at first , ) though never so just and orderly and discreet , but followed the fate of all things and persons that endeavour to rectifie or reform vulgar errors , which is , to be evil spoken of when they offer the greatest good . Christians and Christianity were to be martyred in their names as well as in their persons and lives . Christ denounceth a woe , when all men speak well of them , and a blessing , when all men speak evil of them falsly . If evil report , as from the vulgar , ( who are very superficial judges of things , like cork always swimming on the top , never sinking to the bottome of things ) is to be much regarded ; for what monsters should the primitive Christians have been looked upon , capable to scare all modest and sober persons from coming nigh their doctrine , sacraments and manners , when they were reported to kill and eat children , to worship an Asses head , to have early and incestuous mixtures in the dark ? All which were as false as they were abominable . If the Echo of common report be so oft false in the greater matters of Religion , where it concerns men to be most accurately informed what they believe or report ; how little heed ( I pray ) may be taken to the common speech and perswasion of people in lesser matters , and in this one particular , which is but a toy or mote in comparison , take it in any natural , civil , or moral notions ? onely the clamor and severe censures of some men have made it so considerable , because they urge it so highly upon the consciences of women both as sin and shame , that truly it now merits exacter scanning then ( it may be ) it ever had , either by the vulgar , or those who are their most plausible teachers and instructers . And I believe , Madam , that upon review of the evidences of Reason or Religion , whereupon the verdict or report of wise and conscientious Christians should be built , you will find that the plebeian report and ordinary sense of all artificial beauty differs from that of the more grave and better advised sort of the world ; yea and from the sense of the more serious and better educated part of the people in this Church or Nation . As I have been informed of those learned Divines , Schoolmen and Casuists beyond Sea , so I am perswaded the ablest Church-men in England , in their most deliberate sentence , dare pass no other censure upon those customes ( which are so frequent among persons of more elegant culture and fashion , for the advance of their beauty ) then according to the true measures of morality and honesty , which are the mind and end of the doer . Nor will righteous judges pass any other report on those ingenuous artifices which are auxiliary to the faces adorning , more then they do upon those that adorn the head , hands , feet , shoulders , or other parts of the body , according to their several infirmities , necessities or conveniences ; namely that they are then good when done to good ends , and evil when to evil intents . According to these moral and internal principles of good or evil , the censure , judgement and report of things in their nature and use ought to be given , without any regard ( in point of conscience ) to what the vulgar easiness and prejudice or wontedness either opines or declares . Nor is the report and judgement of all wise and every good man alwayes to be taken as authentick , by their Oratorious heats and popular transports , ( when possibly they would deny or discountenance an abuse , which is most unnecessary in those things that at best are not very necessary , but onely tolerable and convenient ) but by their calm and sedentary determinations ; not as standing before the tribunals of humane opinion and applause , but as appealing to God's judgement-seat , which is to be set up in every ones Conscience . So that the Apostles direction , to attend what report or same things have , is to be understood cautiously and strictly , not loosely and vulgarly . People , like unskilful Apothecaries and Mountebanks , oft put the titles of Antidotes on poisons , and poisonous inscriptions on wholesome Antidotes . Neither this nor the like places in Scripture which concern good manners are to be swallowed without chewing ; we must not devour Scripture kernels with the husk or letter unbroken and intire : for by such a fallacy I might find ( hard by your place alledged against them ) a like place in favour of these feminine artifices , because the Apostle commands Christians to follow all things that are lovely or comely ; among which rank and number many esteem these helps to their complexion , else certainly they would never use them . But this were rather to play with Scripture then to apply it seriously , and to make those holy directions rather as Tennis-bals tossed to and fro in idle disputes , then as nails fastned by the masters of Assemblies . But your Ladiship endeavours to give an account why these complexioning arts justly fall under such evil report , or so general an infamy , among the meaner sort of people ; as being esteemed a cheat and cosenage , a making and acting a lie , a self-Idolatry , a Christian personated with a Comical face , fitter for a stage then a Church ; that from a self-shame and secret guilt it affects secrecy ; that as a dead fly it corrupts the greatest commendations and perfections of any woman . These are still but sparks of odium and scorn which fly from the vulgar anvils and hammers , which commonly both over-heat and over-labour what they undertake to forge or reform . First then , as to the Deception , which you call a Cheat ; truly it is not so much in this of helping the paleness or adding a quickness of complexion to the face , as it is in other things of lameness and crookedness , &c. there the substance ( as it were ) and figures , here the colour onely is a little altered : yet these are used without any such odious clamors and imputations , yea they are allowed and commended as indulgences of humane pity and charity , to cover , conceal or supply any defect or deformity in the outward man. Which even Mr. Perkins himself allows , who ( yet ) as to the point of complexioning ( which he calls painting ) cries it down after the wonted rode , in few words and fewer arguments , as against the Laws of Nature and Scripture ; but of which he produceth nothing but that circumstance of Jezebel's story , which I have answered . And indeed that worthy man seems in this , as in some other Cases of Conscience , rather to pass them over with a popular and plausible easiness , then to examine the true grounds , or to state them after the proportion of that great learning and piety which were in so excellent a Preacher : yet should not any thing ( next clearing and stating the saving Fundamentals of Religion ) be more accurately done then this work of resolving cases of Conscience . Many make pretty Preachers , who come very short of profound Casuists or exact Confessors : to both which works he was rarely fitted where he attended the controversie , and made the Scruple his business ; not contenting himself , as in this , with easie and ordinary answers , which have their authority from wontedness more then truth , and from men more then God. All ingenuous concealings or amendings of what is originally or casually amiss , or seems so , in our bodies and outsides , deserves not the least touch , much less those black brands of cheating and lying , when onely decency and civility are joyned to modesty and humility , which in this case may as easily be done as in any , without any indignity to God or injury to man ; yea every one is well pleased , as in themselves , so in their children and relations , to be thus cheated and deluded , by the handsomeness of such a disguise which seems most native . The blessed Apostles piety justifies that laudable civility of bestowing more abundant comeliness ( by art ) there where Nature hath bestowed least on the parts of the body : Nor is it any reproach or insolence to God's workmanship thus to say or thus to doe . Though , properly speaking , nothing in pure nature is uncomely which God hath formed even as to our vile bodies , since every part hath its form and aptitude to the good ends appointed : yet since sinful infirmities have befallen our bodies , they are many waies subject to diseases , defects and deformities , and nothing is denied us in piety and civility which may best rectifie , remove , hide , or dissemble any such natural or accidental pravity . For God hath not so confined us in religious modesty , as not to give us leave to marry Art to Nature , and to use both those portions and stocks which he hath given us to his glory and our own or others sober and chast contentment . Nor is it other then rustick or Adamitick impudence , to confine Nature to it self , and to strip our bodies of all the additaments of fair vestments or other ornaments of humane art and invention . Such naked and forlorn Quakers act a part much more cunning , false and histrionical , then those that least affect such pitiful simplicities . To call every thing a Lie which we make shew of beyond the native propriety of things , is such a gross and ridiculous severity as deprives us of all we wear besides our native hair and skins : All colours and dies given to clothes of any sort are also lies ; all pictures and statues lively representing the originals are lies ; all Parables , Metaphors and Allegories in our speech must be called lies , because they are one thing in the native phrase or letter , and another in their applied sense or meaning : yet are not these thefts , but borrowings ; not delusions , but allusions ; not impious falsities , but elegant flowers of speech , to which the nature & resemblances of things , as well as humane fancies , have an aptitude and invitingness . Such ridiculous austerity would be a Satyrical Critick upon the very Scriptures , upon the Parables of Christ , and Apologies of many holy men , upon the raptures of Moses , Job , David , and others ; which ascribe to God all humane senses and passions , who yet is one simple and essential perfection . 'T is not more ridiculous then insolent to deny the truth of the Scriptures in their holy Tropes and Hyperboles , when it sayes the mountains skipped , and the sea was afraid , or the valleys did sing and clap their hands , &c. How supercilious a piece of pedantry were it here to cry down the manner of such expressions , because not native , but adopted to things ? Nor does it in my judgement argue much more gravity and discretion , ( I need not say piety and religion ) to calumniate those things for frauds , cheats , lies and hypocrisies , which art , ingenuity and manufacture have invented , whereby to adorn nature in wayes consonant to modest ends and intentions , which are the holy measures and , I think , the onely confinements of all things both in nature and in art . As to the cheat which your Ladiship may fear should befall any man when he thinks he wooes and weds a native beauty , ( when it is artificial in some degree ) if your Ladiship thinks it not onely fit but necessary in all other additional supplies or concealments as to the bodies defects or deformities , to make such ingenuous discoveries of the truth as may afterward give least cause of such exception or complainings ( as Jacob used when he found Leah in stead of Rachel ) truly I most willingly advise and assent that such as use such helps to their complexion would use the same freedome in telling it to those whom it onely concerns to know it . As for others curiosities , there is no injury done if they be ever kept ignorant of that which to know would doe them no good , nor yet any harm , if they were as charitable and discreet as Christians ought to be . The retirement or privacy used by sober women here in England , when they apply any thing helpful to their looks or complexions , is no argument of any sinful shame ; but of modesty , civility , and that discretion which commands us to doe many things apart from any witnesses or spectators , which yet are no sins , but only sensibleness of and reflexions upon those infirmities to which our vile bodies are subject ; of which having no cause to boast , we rather chuse to veil them with secrecie , then to expose them to common view or knowledge , and censure : few persons being of so equal and humble minds as to bear their own praises and perfections without pride , or anothers diminutions or defects without scorn . Evil and envious minds are prone to turn many things to our reproach if they discern them , of which being ignorant they are also silent . Furthermore , although in England a commendable discretion is used by women in concealing both their native defects and their artificial additaments of beauty or complexion , ( of which many persons are more severe censurers , after the vulgar vote and road , then judicious examiners ; ) yet in other Countries nothing is more frequently done and freely owned : insomuch that the whole culture and office of womens adorning is with some expressed by this , My Lady is not yet painted ; that is , she is not compleatly dressed , or ready . Few women that value themselves are willing to be seen in any discomposure or defect , especially if conscious to any defect , or so habited as they think less becomes them : which affected privacy and obscuring of themselves is no stroke of vanity , much less of sin ; but is rather imputable to that prudent modesty which so much becomes every sober woman , that my advice is to them never to be seen by strangers or domesticks in any way to their disadvantage , by discovering either their defects or their reliefs . Nor may this be called an histrionick parada , or stagely visard and hypocrisie , while women seek to appear advantaged in stature or in beauty and handsomeness so farre as modesty and vertue permit , by those borrowed additaments which Art lends to Nature . What is there in any civil order , either of Church or State , which doth not put on something Theatrick and pompous , beyond that simplicity and plainness which Nature hath put upon the persons of men or women ? Both civil and religious actions study to conciliate to themselves a majesty and reverence by habits and ornaments , by comely robes and costly vests ; which though they are not of the internal and essential glory which is in Magistratick or Ecclesiastick power and order , ( which are both Divine ) yet they are so farre not onely convenient , but almost necessary , as they help to keep both Laws and Religion from contempt , and from that vulgar insolence to which seditious and Atheisticall humors are subject . Yea , who is there , or what is there almost in humane society , which doth not ( in some sense ) adorn a theatre or scene of life upon the stage of this world ? Who is so open-hearted and simple , but they either conceal their defects , or ostentate their sufficiencies , short or beyond what either of them really are ? Who doth not as well advise for his fame and credit as for his Conscience ? Who is there , if they were anatomized , and every way exposed to others censures in what they are or doe or pretend , but would come many degrees short of that shew they make ? As there is no necessity to confess many sins to any but to God , to whom onely they are known ; so in modesty there is no reason for us to own our infirmities to others , or the helps we use for our relief , when no person is injured by what we doe , nor at all concerned in it . Lastly , as to that diminution of honour and esteem which your Ladiship sayes commonly follows , as a black shadow , the most vertuous woman , if this be added after the catalogue of her vertues and good works , O but she paints , she useth some art or wash to her face and complexion ; it is first a very partial censure , befitting vulgar and gross minds , ( not wise , grave and impartial persons ) in other cases of helping or hiding any natural defect ( as by false hair , a glass eye , bolstred shoulders , heightning heels , sweet smels and the like ) to charge no reproach upon any persons , otherwaies sober and modest , and yet to doe it onely in this to those who are every way of unspotted vertue and goodness , which receive no more prejudice or abatement by what shew is made ( by art ) of ruddiness in womens complexions , then of tallness or straightness in their stature and feature , when naturally short or crooked . Who is so impertinently severe , as to detract from any womans honor and vertue by saying , O but she wears heels or shoes a handful high ; she seems indeed tall and straight , but is really low and crooked , & c ? Nor doth it set off from the score of any mans worth to alledge , O but he useth a peruke , or useth such sweet smels as are not natural to his clothes or body ; from which occasion Isaac took his rise to bless Esau. Or if this be childish and ridiculous upon these accounts , truly they are no less in my judgement as to this of complexion which we now dispute . Nor is this black tail of detraction less unjust then partial ; since no justice will allow us to abate of the merit and honour due to many constant and remarkable vertues , ( which are evident and unquestionable tokens of worth ) merely upon the suspicion and jealousie ( for so it is for the most part , vulgar censures in this point of complexioning being rarely upon any certain knowledge ) of doing that with all modesty and privacy , which is at worst very disputable whether it have any sin at all in it , or be beyond a venial and civil vanity . For your Ladiship sees learned men in severall ages and countreys differ as to their judgement of it : And truely those seem to me most masters of Reason , who own the nature of the thing , as all other things , to be good in it self , as God's creature , and measure the morality or immorality of the use or abuse of it by the universall standard and rule of all humane actions , which is the minde and end of the doer , either conform or disform to the holy revealed will of God ; who hath no more declared any positive law against this , then against all other ornaments of our bodies and lives , either naturall or artificiall . As for the commonness or vulgarity of these censures ( which are , you say , so usuall among the meaner sort of people , or those who are of their size and last ) what wise man or woman doth not know that nothing is more slie , touchy and boglish , nothing more violent , rash and various , then the opinion , prejudice , passion and superstition of the Many or common people ? How are they swayed even in their loves and hatreds , their perswasions and pieties , their esteem or disesteem , most-what by custome & prepossession , or by adherencies & admirations of mens persons ? How do they love an easie and superficial censuring , rather then an industrious & strict scrutiny of things ? How is their ignorance an enemy to the knowledge of their betters ? How doth their meanness , plainness and rusticity bear a constant antipathy to the politeness , honour & splendor of others ? How are they naturally of levelling humours , and envy others whatever they enjoy of estates , houses , or ornaments of life , beyond their tenuity and cottagely obscurity ? He or she lives nearest the confines of Reason and Religion too , who is most remote from the charms and snares , the sense and censures of the vulgar ; into whose minds and over whose consciences many things make intrusions and usurpations , which have no right or title to that power and authority they exercise over themselves and others . No wonder then if those that are so subject to erre customary errors in greater matters , doe so in this which is so little and inconsiderable . We see that wontedness makes even Blackmores seem handsome to one another ; and by using to look on themselves in their glasses , even hard-favoured faces grow reconciled to themselves so farre as to think themselves tolerable , yea & handsome too , by an happy heresie . So little regard is to be had in cases of Conscience to the dashes of vulgar tongues and pens ; since we see that when nothing of consequence was objectable to Christ , the community of the Jews & supercilious Pharisees find fault with his disciples gathering ears of corn on the Sabbath-day as they passed through the fields of corn & were hungry ; so for his & their eating with unwashed hands . Many things not onely innocent , but commendable , sometimes fall under the reproach of people . As there are factions and parts-taking in religious formes , so in civil uses ; every one seeking to advance his own side and way by depressing all others with reproachfull censures . Thus have I given your Ladiship the best answer that at present and thus on the sudden I am able , to every particular touch or stroke of your last Objection , which was twisted or combined of many smaller cords or threads , which I have by unraveling so weakned , I hope , that they will no more hamper or bind a judicious conscience then the Philistin's withes or cords could do Sampson while his strength continued . Keep but the heart from sinful intentions , that purity and integrity , as Sampson's locks , may be preserved unclipt or unshorn by any sinister and sordid lust ; I do not see how using such sober , modest and discreet helps to womens beauty and complexion needs more fear the terrors of some mens censures , then that holy Giant needed be troubled at the alarms given , The Philistines are upon thee , Sampson : who rowsing himself up in his mighty and miraculous strength , defied or scattered them all . OBJECTION XII . Painting the Face unlawful , because doubtful at best , and not of faith . I Must confess ( Madame ) your Ladiship saies more in vindication of these Artificial helps of handsomness , and better avoids all those odious objections made against them by my weakness , then ever yet I heard or read ; nor can I but agree with your Ladiships just sense and expressions how partial unjust judges of things , how petulant and passionate censurers of persons and actions common people are , and those masters of them who have most of a plebeian stroke in their temper and education , or who affect a vulgar empire by vulgar easiness and compliances . 'T is true , they frequently save or damn as they are swayed , not with judgement and charity , but with prepossession or fury , being content to opine not with the wisest , but the most , glorying more in the number of their abetters then in the strength and weight of their reasons . But yet in this case , so much controverted and so oft concluded against your sense by learned and godly men , I know your Ladiship is so humble and modest as to consider , that your thoughts are but the thoughts of a woman , who is the weaker vessel , of greater frailties and less capacity , therefore not to be laid in the least balance of contradiction against those many worthy and famous men , who very probably had more strong reasons and Scripture-instances for what they thus eagerly and bitterly decryed , then either they have expressed by writing or we can now comprehend : nor is your Ladiship in any sort to measure the validity of their Arguments against it by the infirmity of later allegations , either by others or now by my self , who like Ruth have not so much as the gleanings of those Boazes large fields and plentiful harvests . And yet , in the general prospect of the whole matter , doth it not seem very strange and improbable to your Ladiship that so many holy men should have been without due cause so severe and so cross against our Sex , in those ornaments and reliefs of beauty , the concessions of which ( though with all those sober and moral restraints which are justly imposed in all other enjoyments ) had been a very great indulgence and ingratiating to women of greatest quality and best breeding , who might the easier have been wone to greater rigors of Religion if in this they might have been allowed , with the credit of Christianity and peace of their Conscience , what they generally so covet for the advantages of their looks and countenances ? I have observed in my dayes , that many Preachers ( otherwaies very commendable ) are less acceptable to Ladies of quality and Gentlewomen of the noblest and fairest editions , because of their severe and damning rigors frequently uttered against all auxiliaries of beauty , or set-offs to handsomeness ; so scandalized at Ladies powdering , curling and gumming their hair , so jealous of their using any quickning to their complexion , though neither they nor any other know of it , so impatient of any black patch , though it be but a plaister to a pimple , that they degrade those from all degrees of grace and vertue , modesty and chastity , whom they find or suspect guilty of these in the least kind . I am sure some of them thunder against all these and other like ornaments of women with the ancient terror ; though , as your Ladiship thinks , they do not shine with the potent convictions and lightnings of the Fathers ( but make their Auditors more afraid then hurt : ) yet ought we not by an implicite credulity ascribe that honour to the Fathers and their followers , as not to doubt or contradict their judgements , though we see not their grounds or reasons ? And will it not ( at best ) seem too great an arrogance for your Ladiship or any of our Sex to contend in a case of Conscience with so many of our own later Reformed Divines , who have one from another taken this point to be so clear and granted as a gross sin , that few or none of them ever went about seriously to discuss it , or solidly to prove it to be any sin at all ? However ( Madam ) in the last place , since it is a disputable point , and so dubious as to conscience and practice , is it not wisdome to follow the safest part , which is not at all to use any such toyes and tinctures ? In which negative of abstaining there can be no danger ; which may be great on the other side of using , if either it should be a sin in it self , or at least goe under such scruples and uncertainties as can hardly be cleared or avoided as to the conscience of the doer . Where the opinions of so many eminent persons make ( as you see ) such potent batteries against it , what shield of perswasion can be sufficient to defend us from great shakings and some impressions of terrour ? ANSWER . MAdam , what validity your Ladiship is pleased to impute to my answers , is not from any strength or merit of my particular opinion or expression , but from the force and pregnancy of those truths which are ( it may be ) a little retired from the superficies of vulgar fancies and conceptions : possibly some neither search nor discern them ; others that find them , yet are hindred most-what and even so over-awed by popular fears and prejudices , that they dare not own or express them , as loth to seem wiser then their fore fathers , or themselves in former times , when ( for want of better matter ) they sometimes wast their glass and fill up their hour with bitter invectives against Ladies painting , patching , curling , powdering , perfuming and complexioning ; which may have less evil in them then some Authors they study , and not so much vanity attending them as doth the long hair , the loose cuffs , the large bandstrings , and other fine things with which some of these so rigid , yet very spruce and Lady-like , Preachers think fit to gratifie as their own persons , so their kind hearers and spectators ; somewhat wide of those pristine severities which I have been told were required of the Clergy , who by the Canons of the Church and customes of ancient times were denied to wear any silk or softer garments , not because they were sinful in themselves , but less sutable to the strictness of that discipline which in those times holy men saw fit to exact , especially of Ecclesiasticks , as most exemplary for the restraining of those prodigalities and luxuries which in both Clergy and Laicks would soon exhaust that charity which was then most what expended in relieving the poor , in building and adorning Churches , in redeeming captives , and the like . I do not less willingly own my weakness then my Sex , being farre from any such Amazonian boldness as affects to contend with so many learned and godly men who have , and daily do , express in this a contrary sense to mine : yet I think it very venial for me to assert , if I can , both the ornaments and liberties of my Sex , ( as to their persons and consciences ) by answering specious fallacies and producing stronger arguments : to which I doubt not but all serious and impartial Christians ( not captives to custome , prejudice and popularity ) will at last subscribe ; not as to the sense of a weak woman , but of omnipotent verity and victorious truth , which though late , yet may at last be redeemed by the help of a woman from that long captivity wherein both it self and many worthy persons consciences were unjustly detained . God oft discovers as female softnesses in some mens hearts , heads and hands , so masculine and heroick strength in some womens . We read of two women famous , the one for her conduct of the warre , the other for her consummating it , by destroying Sisera the chief leader of a great army . Another woman dashes out the brains of King Abimelech ; another saves by her loyal prudence the city Abel from the miseries of a long siege , and those punishments which justly prosecute , as the heads , so the abettors of Sedition against Lawful Sovereigns . I know God hath given both Reason and Scripture to women as well as men ; nor have we less liberty granted to traffick in all truths both humane and divine : though our talents and treasure may be farre less then the mass of many mens readings , yet they may be as refined and digested ; our two mites may not be despised which we offer to God's Temple , if they have God's Image and superscription on them , coined and stamped in the mint of all religious Reason , the word of God , whence all things that concern Faith or Manners ( as to Salvation and Damnation ) receive their authoritative stamp and value . It is time for us at length to get beyond that servility and sequaciousness of Conscience , which is but the Pupillage , Minority and Wardship of Religion , inquiring and heeding , not what saith the Lord , but what saith such a Father , such a godly man , such a Preacher or Writer . It is the priviledge and honour of Christian Religion , for which the Bereans are commended , to search the Scriptures , and examine by them even the Apostolical doctrines . Nor doth our Reformed Religion ( where it most merits that name ) unjustly glory in that freedome , by which ( as to matters of truth or error , of sin or no sin ) it is redeemed from the slavery of mans private Traditions , and confined to the oracles of God ; to whose general rule , sense and Analogy , all Catholick and unwritten Traditions , as to the practice , discipline and order of Religion , do agree , without any enterfearing with the holy Scriptures , to which in matters of internal holiness we are confined , though in things of extern decency the wisdome & custome of the Church is a safe and wholesome rule ; to which as we are by Scripture commanded obediently and unanimously to conform in things honest and by general precepts allowed , so in matters of saving faith and holy life we must neither believe nor act by an implicite faith and twilight credulity , but from a well-informed and rightly-convinced conscience , that forbids us to be either profane or superstitious , either over-righteous or over-wicked . Solomon tells us , that the whole duty of man is to fear God and keep his Commandements : Christ tells us , it is but a Pharisaick pride and vanity to teach or urge humane traditions or opinions for God's Commands . And truly , after all that your Ladiship hath smartly urged in this case , I cannot but wonder that neither Solomon in his various sentences of the Proverbs , nor in his holy Satyr against humane Vanities in Ecclesiastes , no nor yet he that was greater then Solomon , either by himself or his Disciples , should ever particularly instance against all or any painting or complexioning of the face ; no nor God by Moses : where so many lesser precepts are expresly given , surely they would not ( all ) have omitted this so wholly , if it had been what some pretend , such a flat and downright sin , considering how obvious in all eyes and nations the use of it was and is . Sure , learned and godly men ought not in wisdome , justice and charity , to extend the cords or curtains of duty and conscience beyond the stakes and pillars of Religion , which are fixed by the word of God , whose service and glory needs not the fancies , fallacies , or flatteries of mans inventions , more then a royal robe needs a beggers patch . It is not for sober men to enlarge the Phylacteries of their own Opinions beyond God's precepts , nor to comment by false and specious glosses either against or beside his holy will in the Word ; which must needs be a farre greater sin then any light applying of some quickning wash or colour to the face , inasmuch as it is more dangerous to injure the Conscience then to alter the skin . Ministers ought not to be as hard-hearted and rude-handed Surgeons , who make their Probe a Poniard , and will rather make a wound where they search for one , then lose their labour , or seem to want either skill or Patients . As to that practical faith or assurance of the lawfulness and liberty granted by God , both as to the thing done and the doer , I presume my grounds are safe and good , since I find that God hath given us , as men and Christians , all things richly to enjoy ; that no creature is forbidden ( under the Gospel ) to the pure of heart ; that there is neither moral light nor Scriptural precept against the ingenuous and modest use of this , more then of otherhelps of any bodily infirmity or deformity ; since it may as well as any thing be used soberly , thankfully and harmlesly , without any impediment to grace and well-doing , also without any advantage or intentional occasion to sin . So that I cannot but vehemently suspect ( I leave it to wiser persons peremptorily to conclude ) that the dreadful rigors of some Ministers and others have in this case of Artificial handsomeness been too magisterial : Their Divinity relishes too much of inhumanity , and their Piety carries with it too little Charity ; while they state a case of Conscience more by the wils , fancies and passions of men then by the word of God , whose thoughts are not as mans thoughts , nor his wayes as our wayes . Many things are highly esteemed of men as sanctities , which God despiseth ; and many things are lightly condemned by mans imperious rashness , which God doth not condemn : hence the lawful use of many good things is denied by mans severity and transport , where God's benignity onely forbids us the abuse of them , and in so doing establisheth the lawfulness of the use , which may in this , for ought I yet see , as well consist with a good Conscience , as it did with Solomon's wisdome ( amidst his domestick and native plenty ) to send his navy upon long and forein voyages for gold , and apes , and peacocks . Besides this , I cannot but observe the self-confuting severity of these men of later and lesser Editions , who put such strict restraints on womens beauties and adornings , when yet they allow the spiceries and curiosities which merchandizing brings from farre , rather to gratifie luxury then relieve necessity : Nor do they quarrel at superfluous tables ( unless they have but puling stomacks ) with the various arts of cookery , which like another Proteus turns the native plainness of things into infinite forms and relishes , to please and invite the palate , as Rebeccah did Isaac's blunt aged tast by the savoury meat she made for him , which it is said that holy man loved . Nor are these Masters such batterers or demolishers of stately and elegant buildings , they can be friends with goodly hangings and rich furniture , with accurate plantations and harmonious gardens , with picturings by pencil or embroideries , also with the wearing of silks , linen and woollen of various and orient colours ; nor do they frown to see women wear rich Jewels of all colours , as Cornelians , Rubies , Saphirs , Emeralds , and Diamonds , on their breasts , necks , ears , wrists and fingers , of which there is no other use in nature , but onely the borrowing and ostentating of their several beauties and colours , by which to render us more conspicuous or comely . As these fixed gemms have their aptitudes for our use on other parts of our bodies ; so truly have other diffusive tinctures and colourings their fitness and almost propriety for the face , if they be discreetly applied . For both these ( as all things else of extern ornament ) may be so grosly handled and laid on , as they shall seem no more to ones advantage either of comeliness or discretion , then a Jewel in a swines snout , ( as Solomon speaks . ) Persons of worth and prudence will in the first place keep their hearts in the use of all such things from offending God ; next they will preserve themselves from being ridiculous among discreet persons : as those may easily be who know not how to distinguish a civil quickning or chearful enlivening of the face , ( as of old times was done by their anointings ) and a slovenly besmearing themselves , like Bartholomew-babies , with fulsome dawbings , which proclaim , though not foul , yet foolish hearts . As for those causless curses and Anathemas , that God cannot or will not know them , that no painted face shall see the face of God , or the like , which as blind thunderbolts some men by a Papal authority or popular facility promiscuously cast upon all never so modest , humble and vertuous women , who use any relief to their looks : I believe , as Solomon tels us , they shall not come upon the heads of those who using this , as other creatures of God , for those ends to which they have an aptitude in nature , do yet so watch over their hearts , as not to suffer any outward momentary adornings whatsoever to leven them with any thing of pride of sinful vanity , but alwaies keep within the bounds of modesty and chastity , to which cleanliness and decency are no enemies . And even in these solemn terrors , by which some men seek to terrifie poor souls , they run more upon the stock of Satyrical wit then solid arguments : as if Conscience were onely to smell on nosegayes or flowers , and not to be fed with serious and divine truths , which are the food and physick too of the Soul. By the same fallacy they may urge that God will not know elderly men in their juvenile perukes , in their shaved cheeks and bald chins , ( which affect youthful smoothness when gray hairs and wrinckles every where call for gravity of aspect as well as manners , of which a fatherly , prolix , and reverential beard is a solemn sign and majestick Embleme . ) May it not as well be said , God will not admit men or women to heaven with all their pomp and cost of apparel , since he made them naked , and yet not ashamed ? Yea may they not cry down eating , drinking , sleeping , marrying , recreation , yea even that part of humane nature which is flesh and blood in us , because none of these things ( either of vital use or infirmer nature ) shall enter into the kingdome of heaven , or come into the presence of God , when they shall indeed be superfluous through the bodies higher glory and perfection , which shall then exceed the shining of Moses his face , and equal the transfiguration of Christ ? Yet are not these sinful enjoyments or unlawful ornaments in this state of mortality and infirmity , to which mankind is now subjected by reason of sin : different states admit of different things : many toyes ( in comparison ) are allowed us by our heavenly Father while we are children here , which shall be put away when we come to perfect age and stature in heaven . Though the whole need no physician , yet the sick may lawfully use their skill and applications to remedy their infirmities , not onely as to health and strength , but also to the vigour and colour of their looks ; else , such as have the Green-sickness , pallor , or the Jaundise either black or yellow , or any such deformity , may not use means to cure themselves , both internal and external : for as neither of them are forbidden , so I suppose both to be lawful in their kind and use . Like to the feebleness of such mens reasonings against all artificial beauty , are their impertinent and wrested allegations of Scripture , whereby to justifie their severities : which no doubt your Ladiship hath observed as well as I have ; though your discretion thinks not fit to urge them , being as easily answered as they are fallaciously alledged . OBJECTION XIII . Of Peter Martyr against Painting the Face , from many Scripture-instances , Answered . SUch as those which I have read in an Author of no mean note or obscure name , who dreadfully and purposely inveighing against all use of art to advance the beauty or colour of the face , with great gravity and vehemency tells us , as from the Apostles mind , that we cannot be the servants of the Lord , if we seek to please men : therefore women may not use any such complexioning to please their own , or their husbands , or others aspects . O weighty and profound Divinity ! by which neither wives may please their husbands , nor children their parents , nor subjects their Princes , nor servants their masters , nor tradesmen their customers : but , like the serpents teeth , Christians must rise up to a constant antipathy and mutual displeasings of each other , else they cannot please God. What can be more absurd in Reason , or ridiculous in Religion ? When the meaning of the Apostle is , if by any waies displeasing to God I seek to please men , or if I so seek to please men as I neglect God , I cannot be God's servant . But in all such lawfull wayes as were neither against piety , nor truth , nor charity , no man was more a pleaser of all men , to whom he became all honest things , that he might gain some . So again he brings , that Christians must keep the Passeover , which is the feast of Christian conversation , in which we partake of Christ , with sincerity and truth ; therefore we may make no simulations or shews of any thing that is not really true , and such as we make shew of : which not onely debarres us of all helps of art against paleness , but of whatever may remedy baldness , blindness , lameness , crookedness , and the like , which are at once both helps and hidings of our infirmities . Which gloss is farre wide of the Apostles sense , who tells us what leaven must be purged out ( not of all art and ingenuity , of decency and civility ) but of malice and wickedness , of hypocrisie and uncharitableness , which may very much embitter and abase the spirits of Christians even there where their looks , words and gestures are composed to most cynical clouds and Pharisaick frowns . Where the heart is pure as to all maliciousness against God and man , there all outward things are pure and lawful . He addes , since God in the old Law forbad to disguise the sex by clothes , he ( consequently ) forbids to disguise our persons by any change of our faces or complexions . 'T is true , the God of order forbids the first , so farre as it breeds those confusions and reproaches in humane life and constant converse which are attended with very foul and wicked consequences : But in cases either of declared mirth or necessary safety , which draw no injury , indignity or disorder of life after them , but are onely occasional and innocent , I do not think that Text ought to be urged . To make such a change of our faces as we cannot be known to be the same persons ( which yet is oft done by sickness or distempers ) as I think it not lawful in ordinary conversation , so no wise woman doth ever aim at it , so as not to be known to be her self , but rather to be known as her self , with some advantages onely for complexion , which alter not the feature , but onely quicken the colour . But in case of life and escape , I believe this good man would not deny an innocent person leave so to disguise his looks by visard or colour as might best deceive his guard or keepers ; which yet he might not once doe , though to save his life , if it were an absolute and gross sin in it self , as some pretend . He further instances , that every one ought to glorifie God in their bodies ; which ( saith he ) no woman can doe that useth art to her complexion . This is easily said , but never proved , against those modest and sober women who glorifie God in a thankful , humble , chast and vertuous life , as well when they use this as when they use any other helps or ornaments to their outward aspect and comeliness ; not abusing these by doting on them or resting in them as the highest beauty and ultimate glory of a Christian , but using and referring all to a higher end and glory . Lastly , he very gravely and sadly tells us , as we may not make any members of our bodies ( which are Christs ) the members of an harlot ; so nor may we make our faces the faces of harlots , whose property ( he saith ) it is to paint their faces , if they think they need such helps . The answer is , that it is no prejudice against honest womens use of things , that dishonest use them ; that helping the complexion , and setting forth the looks to the best advantages by ingenuous arts and adornings , is not the property of harlots , but the study and care of vertuous women , though accompanied with , and inferiour to , that care they have of their Souls adorning . I believe this good man , whatever he boldly guesses at , knew fewer dissolute then sober women who used such helps , farre enough from his scandal or perception . Nor can he say it is the property of lewd women , unless he knew none other used it , or could by better arguments then by begging the question prove it to be so by God forbidden , as no gracious woman can lawfully or modestly use it ; which he neither doth , nor endeavours to prove , either by apposite Scriptures , or pregnant reasons from the nature of the thing used , or the necessary pravity of the mind using such artificial beauty : one of which at least ( if not all ) should have been proved ; which neither he nor any man else , that ever I saw or heard , hath yet done ; contenting themselves with strong presumptions & weak probations . Which poverty & tenuity of argumentation in a matter pretended to be a gross & notorious sin , is no way becoming learned & grave Divines , who ought not to play with cases of Conscience , nor adventure to create sins , calling light darkness , or darkness light , evil good , or good evil . How much more worthy of their holy calling were it for Ministers to meddle less with Ladies faces , & more with their hearts ; rather incouraging them to study all the holy ornaments of grace and vertue ; also confining them to the undoubted limits of Sanctity , Modesty , Chastity and Humility , ( which none is so impudent as to dispute against or question ) rather ( I say ) then by little Oratorious circles and sophistries to seek to insnare their Consciences , and discourage their spirits by endless and needless severities against these petty ornaments , which may ( no doubt ) be as easily kept in all sober , civil and harmless bounds , as any other things by which Art assists Nature , and addes by clothes , colours , jewels , and many curiosities , to the advantage of humane honour , beauty , and majesty ? The mischief is , not so much that many women are denied by these rigors the use of such things as would please and become them in an innocent chearfulness ; but all that ever was said against these helps of beauty seems to many wise women so weak and sinnewless , that being not convinced of any sin in the use of them , they venture to use them privately , ( yet not wholly without some doubt and scruple , arising from the confidence and clamours of some godly men against them : ) hence they are uncomfortably divided and perplexed even in their greatest purity of mind and holiness of life ; while on the one side they are shaken and terrified by what such men forbid them , on the other side they see not but God and Nature allow it to them . Nor do even vertuous women contentedly want ( while they are capable of them ) those things that may render them most acceptable to their own and others eyes ; being loth to draw the curtains of obscurity or uncomeliness quite over them till it be dark night , when they must hide their faces in the dust , in hope to recover that perfect beauty which shall admit no decaies , and needs no repairs . What your Ladiship intimates in the last place , that it is safest in a case disputed or dubious , rather to abstain then use what many deny , though many allow , since there is no necessity of using it at all : I answer , there are many things which are not absolutely necessary , which yet we would be loth to part with or be disputed out of under the pretence of superfluity and sinful ; since God allows us , not with niggardly restraints , but with liberality worthy of divine benignity , all things richly to enjoy , even to delight , conveniency , elegancy and majesty . Nor are we in cases of Conscience or scruples of sin to tell noses , or mete by the pole , how many , but value upon what grounds men affirm or deny things to be lawful or unlawful . Errors and Idols have many times more eyes and hands lifted up to them then truth or the true God. One Athanasius is recorded to have sustained the truth of Christs Divinity against the sea and moles of all the world , pressing against him , as great waters upon a firm sluce . Truth is not less it self because in solitudes ; and Error ceases not to be Error amidst crouds and multitudes . If any be so weak , as to be swayed and divided more by numbers and Oratorious fervors then by clear and potent reasons ; the penance they must doe for their want of judgement is , to be deprived of those things they doubt of , yet would willingly use , and do desire , if they thought them lawful . But those who are by a clear light of Reason and Religion redeemed from these scrupulosities , so as to see and enjoy the freedome God hath given them , as in the nature and fitness of his creatures , so in the indulgence and silence of the Scriptures ( which have set us under the Gospel only moral and internal bounds of holiness , by which the heart circumscribes and limits the outward man in the use of all things , not as to their nature , but their ends ) these ( I say ) may as freely use their affirmative freedome of using and enjoying according to their conscience , as the other do the negative , who therefore forbear to use them because they either doubt , or conclude against their unlawfulness . For as no mans dissenting may hinder the stating of my judgement , according as truth appears to me ; so no more may their different practice hinder me from doing and enjoying agreeable to my judgement . The moderate and charitable Conclusion of the Dispute . THus have I endeavoured to give your Ladiship a full and good account of my thoughts in this dispute or case touching artificial helps of beauty , such as humane invention hath many waies found out ; whereto as your Ladiship hath given the occasion , so I wish I were so happy as to afford you any satisfaction : which if a weak woman may in any degree be able to doe in so disputed a point , how much more may you hope for from learned and able men , if they have but courage to declare their judgements in it ? As for your Ladiships particular , however you shall not need to think ( yet ) of borrowing any helps from art , either to preserve or repair your beauty , ( being blest with a great and lasting stock of handsomness , for which you have cause humbly to thank God ; ) yet ( possibly ) by what I have answered to your several Objections , ( not wholly void , I hope , of Reason and Religion ) your Ladiship and others by your candor will be more favourable in their censures of those whose infirmity may invite them soberly to use what they do not find God hath denied them ; who ( yet ) had rather chuse the most sad and sordid deformities ( as Job on a dunghil putrifying in his own sores ) with a good conscience , then the greatest pomp and beauty of Queen Esther , or Berenice , with the sting and plague of an evil conscience . Nor do I doubt but many worthy women , who discreetly use these little private helps to their looks , are very farre from that ungrateful impudence which dares to displease God , by any thing his indulgence allows them to please themselves withall in sober and ingenuous waies . To the favourableness of your Ladiships future censure ( of those who with modesty and discretion use these helps to complexion , by which neither themselves nor others are hurt ) be pleased to adde the favour of your pardon to the length of my Answers , which , conscious to their weakness , I have sought , as we doe with lesser threads , to wind them the oftner about , that their length may make some amends for the want of that strength in which they come short of stronger twisted cords . If I may obtain the one or both of these requests , I shall not think my time , or your Ladiships patience , wholly lost ; though I am not so vain as to boast of any victory , or peremptorily to decide the controversie on my side , which I leave to your Ladiships and others better judgement . MAdame , I must not onely grant you your so-well-merited requests , which you shall find have with me the power of commands , being so just and ingenuous : but I must adde those most hearty thanks which I owe you for the generous freedome of your discourse , which hath the courage and ability to bring to the review of Reason and true Religion a case of Conscience which few dare touch or try , contrary to the common vote and credulity , which ( for ought I see ) may in this , as in other things it oft doth , prove a common error : wherein you deserve the more applause , because in this I do not think you are any way partial to your self , or so much pleading your own cause , as civilly affording a charitable relief and protection to others , whose infirmity may require or use such helps . For my self , as I wish I may never need any such aids , so truly I should not scruple to use God's and Natures indulgence with those cautions of modesty and discretion which are necessary to accompany all our actions natural , civil , and religious ; which falling under the Empire of our will and choice , are subject to the Judicature of God and of our own Consciences . Mean time your Ladiship hath by the clearness and force of your Reason redeemed me from that captivity wherein , by a plebeian kind of censoriousness and popular severity , I sometime delighted , to disparage and lessen those who are reported or suspected to use any auxiliary beauty , notwithstanding I saw in all things else their worth and vertue every way commendable , imitable , and sometime admirable . So much have you made me a chearful Conformist to your judgement and charity , which I find follows not easie and vulgar reports , but searcheth the exacter rules of Reason and Religion ; which lights , as they now shine in the Church of God , I do not think have left mankind in the dark as to any thing morally and eminently either good or evil . In the discerning of which , so as to follow the one and flie the other , I pray God ever guide us by his truth and grace . Tit. 1. 15. To the pure all things are pure ; but to the defiled and unbelievers nothing is pure , but even their mind and conscience is defiled . The End. Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A42480-e930 Prov. 18. 13. Luke 9. 54. Notes for div A42480-e1430 1 Kings 21. 23. Prov. 21. 4. Prov. 28. 9. 1 Pet. 2. 11. Luke 16. 19. Matth. 14. Acts 12. 22. Gen. 30. 15. 1 Kings 21. 9. 2 Sam. 15. Joh. 18. 3. Jer. 41. 6. Notes for div A42480-e2760 Ezek. 23. 40. Jer. 4. 30. Luke 16. 8. Gen. 27. Rom. 3. 8. Levit. 19. Levit. 11. Acts 10. 15. Lev. 19. 27. Deu. 14. 21. 20. 19. 22. 6. 23. 13. Est. 2. 12. Gen. 24. 30. Psa. 45. 9. Luke 21. 34. Rom. 13. 13. Gen. 26. 8. Prov. 5. 18. John 2. Isa. 22. 13. V. 14. Isa. 58. 3 , 4 , 5. Mal. 2. 14. Ezek. 16. 9 , 10 , 11 , 12. Notes for div A42480-e4030 Hos. 2. 9. Gen. 38. 14. Prov. 7. Gen. 38. 2 Pet. 2. 14. Mar. 7. 21. Notes for div A42480-e4680 Acts 27. Tit. 1. 15. Rom. 14. 14. 1 Cor. 10. 25 , 27. 1 Tim. 1. 5. Notes for div A42480-e6200 James 4. 7. John 9. 3. Mat. 5. 36. Mat. 6. 27. John 5. 3. Prov. 6. 6. Mat. 10. 29. Gen. 32. 24. Exod. 32. 10. Isaiah 38. 1 Sam. 16. 7. Acts 22. 25. 1 Sam. 14. 29. Mark 7. 18. James 1. 17. Exo. 31. 3. 1 Tim. 6. 17. Acts 9. 37. 1 Cor. 15. 29. Hos. 7. 9. Eccl. 12. Luke 2. 1 Tim. 5. 23. Mat. 5. 36. Mat. 6. 27. Notes for div A42480-e8810 1 Tim. 2. 9. 1 Pet. 3. 3. 1 Pet. 1. 18. 1 Thes. 5. 22. 2 Cor. 4. 16. Mat. 6. 17. Isa. 58. 5. 2 Sam. 14. 2. Ruth 3. 3. Acts 25. 23. Rom. 14. 14. Mat. 15. 11 , 17 , 18. Mat. 11. 8. Psa. 68. 13. 1 Cor. 14. 40. Ps. 45. 14. Eccl. 1. 2. Mat. 23. 9. Mat. 6. 25. Joh. 6. 27. 2 Cor. 11. 14. Mat. 5. 16. Isa. 5. 20. Mat. 23. Ch. 6. Notes for div A42480-e11290 Isa. 5. 3. Hos. 2. 5. Acts 16. 14. Ps. 104. 15. Notes for div A42480-e12350 Downam's Christian Warfare , c. 14. Isa. 8. 20. 1 Sam. 1. 14. Gal. 2. 11. Acts 10. Acts 15. 20. Col. 2. 21. Jer. 7. 4. Peter Martyr Comment on the Kings . Gen. 6. 4. Zach. 5. 8. Eccl 7. 16. Mat. 18. 18. Rom. 14. 23. Rom. 14. 17. Notes for div A42480-e14800 Mat. 18. 6. Rom. 14. 15. Gal. 2. 1 Cor. 1. 23. Psa. 119. 9. 1 Cor. 10. Acts 10. 15. Rom. 14. 5 , 6. 1 Cor. 10. 25. Notes for div A42480-e15480 1 Tim. 3. 9. Phil. 4. 8. Prov. 22. 1. Eccl. 10. 1. Rev. 22. 15. Zeph. 1. 8. 1 Cor. 11. 14. Levit. 13. 2 Cor. 6. 8. Exo. 32. 4. Eccl. 11. 4. Numb . 22. 28. Acts 19. 34. Acts 14. 11 , 19. Joh. 18. 40. Acts 21. 36. 22. 22. Luk. 6. 26. Matt. 5. 11. Phil. 4. 8. Perkins Cases of conscience . 1 Cor. 12. 23. Psal. 114. Gen. 29. 25. Mar. 12. 1. Notes for div A42480-e17640 Judg. 10. Judges 9. 53. 2 Sam. 20. 16 , &c. Acts 17. 10. Eccl. 7. 16. Eccl. 12. 13. Mat. 15. 3. 1 Tim. 6. 17. Isa. 55. 8. 1 Cor. 1. 1 Kings 10. 22. Gen. 27. 14. Prov. 26. 2. Gen. 2. 25. 1 Cor. 15. 50. Notes for div A42480-e18910 Gal. 1. 10. 1 Cor. 9. 22. 1 Cor. 5. 8. Deut. 22. 5. 1 Cor. 6. 20. 1 Cor. 6. 15. Isa. 5. 20. 
A64125	----	Rules and advices to the clergy of the diocesse of [blank] for their deportment in their personal and publick capacities. Given by the Bishop at the visitation. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. 1661 Approx. 40 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 26 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-12 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A64125 Wing T387 ESTC R222418 99833596 99833596 38074 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A64125) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 38074) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 2179:3) Rules and advices to the clergy of the diocesse of [blank] for their deportment in their personal and publick capacities. Given by the Bishop at the visitation. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. [2], 46 p. printed by John Crook, printer to the King's most Excellent Majesty; and are to be sold by John North, book-seller in Castle-Street, Dublin : 1661. By Jeremy Taylor. Reproduction of the original in the British Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Church of England -- Clergy -- Early works to 1800. 2005-02 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-03 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-04 Judith Siefring Sampled and proofread 2005-04 Judith Siefring Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion RULES AND ADVICES To the CLERGY Of the DIOCESSE OF _____ For their Deportment in their Personal and Publick Capacities . Given by the Bishop at the Visitation . DUBLIN , Printed by John Crook , Printer to the King 's most Excellent Majesty ; and are to be sold by John North , Book-seller in Castle-Street 1661. RULES AND ADVICES To the CLERGY . I. Personal Duty . REmember that it is your great Duty , and tied on you by many Obligations , that you be exemplar in your Lives , and be Patterns and Presidents to your Flocks : least it be said unto you , Why takest thou my Law into thy mo●h , seeing thou hatest to be reformed thereby . He that lives an evil Life may preach with Truth and Reason , or as did the Pharisees ; but not as Christ , or as one having Authority . Every Minister in taking accompts of his Life , must judge of his Duty by more strict and severer measures , than he does of his People ; and he that ties heavy Burdens upon others , ought himself to carry the heaviest end : and many things may be lawful in them , which he must not suffer in himself . Let every Minister endeavor to be learned in all spiritual wisdom , and skilful in the things of God ; for he will ill teach others the way of godliness , perfectly , that is himself a babe and uninstructed . An ignorant Minister is an head without an eye ; and an evil Minister is salt that hath no savour . Every Minister , above all things , must be careful that he be not a servant of passion , whether of anger or desire . For he that is not a master of his passions will always be useless , and quickly will becom contemptible and cheap in the eyes of his parish . Let no Minister be litigious in any thing ; not greedy or covetous ; not insisting upon little things , or quarreling for , or exacting of every minute portion of his dues ; but bountiful and easie ; remitting of his right , when to do so may be useful to his people , or when the contrary may do mischief , and cause reproach . Be not over rightous ( saith Solomon ) that is , not severe in demanding , or forcing every thing , though it be indeed his due . Let not the name of the Church be made a pretence for personal covetousness ; by saying , you are willing to remit many things , but you must not wrong the Church : for though it be true , that you are not to do prejudice to succession , yet many things may be forgiven upon just occasions , from which the Church shall receive no incommodity ; but be sure that there are but few things which thou art bound to do in thy personal capacitie , but the same also , and more , thou art oblig'd to perform , as thou art a publick person . Never exact the offerings , or customary wages , and such as are allowed by law , in the ministration of the Sacraments , nor condition for them , nor secure them before-hand ; but first do your office , and minister the Sacraments purely , readily , and for Christs sake ; and when that is done , receive what is your due . Avoid all pride , as you would flee from the most frightful apparition , or the most cruel enemie ; and remember that you can never truly teach humility , or tell what it is , unless you practise it your selves . Take no measures of Humility , but such as are material and tangible ; such which consist not in humble Words , and lowly Gestures ; but what is first truly radicated in your Souls , in low opinion of your selves , and in real preferring others before your selves , and in such significations , which can neither deceive your selves nor others . Let every Curate of Souls strive to understand himself best ; and then to understand others . Let him spare himself least ; but most severely judge , censure , and condemn himself . If he be learned , let him shew it by wise teaching , and humble manners . If he be not learned , let him be sure to get so much knowledge as to know that ; and so much Humility , as not to grow insolent , and puffed up by his Emptiness . For many will pardon a good man that is less learned ; but if he be proud , no man will forgive him . Let every Minister be careful to live a life as abstracted from the Affairs of the World , as his necessity will permit him ; but at no hand to be immerg'd and principally imploy'd in the Affairs of the World : What cannot be avoided , and what is of good report , and what he is oblig'd to by any personal or collateral Duty , that he may do , but no more . Ever remembring the Saying of our blessed Lord : In the world ye shall have trouble ; but in me ye shall have peace : and consider this also , which is a great Truth ; That every degree of love to the World , is so much taken from the Love of God. Be no otherwise sollicitous of your Fame and Reputation , but by doing your duty well & wisely : in other things , refer your self to God : but if you meet with evil Tongues , be careful that you bear reproaches sweetly and temperately . Remember that no Minister can govern his people well , and prosperously , unless himself hath learn'd humbly and cheerfully to obey his Superior . For every Minister should be like the good Centurion in the Gospel : himself is under Authority , and he hath people under him . Be sure in all your Words and Actions to preserve Christian simplicity and ingenuity ; to do to others , as you would be done unto your self ; and never to speak what you do not think . Trust to Truth , rather than to your Memory : for this may fail you , that will never . Pray much , and very fervently , for all your Parishioners , and all men that belong to you , and and all that belong to God ; but especially for the Conversion of Souls ; and be very zealous for nothing , but for Gods glory , and the salvation of the World , and particularly of your Charges : Ever remembring that you are by God appointed as the Ministers of Prayer , and the Ministers of good things ; to pray for all the World , and to heal all the World , as far as you are able . Every Minister must learn and practise patience ; that by bearing all adversity meekly , and humbly , and cheerfully , and by doing all his duty with unwearied industry , with great courage , constancie , and Christian magnanimity , he may the better assist his people in the bearing of their crosses , and overcoming their difficulties . He that is holy , let him be holy still , and still more holy , and never think he hath done his work , till all be finished by perseverance , and the measures of perfection in a holy Life , and a holy Death : but at no hand must he magnifie himselfby vain separations from others , or despising them that are not so holy . II. Of Prudence requir'd in Ministers . 1. REmember that Discretion is the Mistress of all Graces ; and Humility is the greatest of all Miracles ; and without this , all Graces perish to a mans self ; and without that , all Graces are useless unto others . 2. Let no Minister be governed by the Opinion of his People , and destroy his duty , by unreasonable compliance with their humours ; least as the Bishop of Granata told the Governours of Leria and Patti ; like silly Animals , they take burdens upon their backs at the pleasure of the Multitude , which they neither can retain with Prudence , nor shake off with safety . 3. Let not the Reverence of any Man , cause you to sin against God ; but in the matter of Souls , being well-advis'd , be bold and confident ; but abate nothing of the honour of God , or the just measures of your duty , to satisfie the importunity of any man whatsoever : and God will bear you out . 4. When you teach your people any part of their duty , as in paying their debts , their tythes and offerings , in giving due reverence and religious regards , diminish nothing of your admonition in these particulars , and the like , though they object , That you speak for your selves , and in your own cases . For a counsel is not the worse but the better , if it be profitable both to him that gives , and to him that takes it . Onely do it in simplicity , and principally intend the good of their Souls . 5. In taking accounts of the good Lives of your selves , or others ; take your measures by the express words of Scripture ; and next to them , estimate them by their proportion and compliance with the publick measures , with the Laws of the nation , Ecclesiastical and civil , and by the Rules of Fame , of publick Honesty and good Report ; and last of all by their observation of the ordinances and exterior parts of Religion . 6. Be not satisfied when you have done a good work ; unless you have also done it well : and when you have , then be careful that vain-glory , partiality , self-conceit , or any other folly or indiscretion , snatch it not out of your hand , and cheat you of the reward . 7. Be careful so to order your self , that you fall not into temptation and folly , in the presence of any of your Charges ; and especially that you fall not into chidings , and intemperate talkings , and sudden and violent Expressions : Never be a party in clamors and scoldings , least your Calling become useless , and your Person contemptible : Ever remembring , that if you cheaply and lightly be engag'd in such low usages with any Person , that Person is likely to be lost from all possibility of receiving much good from your Ministry . III. The Rules and Measures of Government to be used by Ministers , in their respective Cures . 1. USE no violence to any man , to bring him to your opinion : but by the word of your proper Ministry , by Demonstrations of the Spirit , by rational Discourses , by excellent Examples , constrain them to come in : and for other things , they are to be permitted to their own Liberty ; to the measures of the Laws , and the Conduct of their Governours . 2. Suffer no quarrel in your Parish ; and speedily suppress it when it is begun : and though all wise men will abstain from interposing in other mens Affairs , and especially in matters of Interest , which men love too well , yet it is your Duty here to interpose , by perswading them to friendships , reconcilements , moderate prosecutions of their pretences ; and by all means you prudently can , to bring them to peace , and brotherly kindness . 3. Suffer no Houses of Debauchery , of Drunkennes or Lust , in your Parishes ; but implore the assistance of Authority for the suppressing of all such meeting places , and Nurseries of impiety : and as for places of publique Entertainment , take care that they observe the Rules of Christian Piety , and the allowed measures of Laws . 4. If there be any Papists , or Sectaries in your Parishes , neglect not frequently to confer with them in the spirit of meekness , and by the importunity of wise Discourses seeking to gain them . But stir up no violences against them ; but leave them ( if they be incurable ) to the wise and merciful disposition of the Laws . 5. Receive not the people to doubtful Disputations : and let no names of Sects or differing Religions , be kept up amongst you , to the disturbance of the publick peace , and private Charity : and teach not the People to estimate their Piety by their distance from any Opinion , but by their faith in Christ , their obedience to God , and the Laws , and their love to all Christian People , even though they be deceiv'd . 6. Think no man considerable upon the point or pretence of a tender Conscience , unless he live a good life , and in all things endeavour to approve himself void of offence both towards God and man : but if he be an humble person , modest & inquiring , apt to learn , and desirous of information ; if he seeks for it in all ways reasonable and pious , and is obedient to Laws , then take care of him ; use him tenderly , perswade him meekly , reprove him gently , and deal mercifully with him , till God shall reveal that also unto him , in which his unavoidable trouble , and his temptation lies . 7. Mark them that cause Divisions among you , and avoid them : for such persons are by the Scripture call'd Scandals in the abstract ; they are Offenders and Offences too . But if any man have an Opinion , let him have it to himself , till he can be cur'd of his disease by time , and counsel , and gentle usages . But if he separates from the Church , or gathers a Congregation , he is proud , and is fallen from the Communion of Saints , and the Unity of the Catholick Church . 8. He that observes any of his people to be zealous , let him be careful to conduct that zeal into such channels where there is least danger of inconveniencie ; let him imploy it in something that is good ; let it be press'd to fight against sin . For Zeal is like a Cancer in the Brest ; feed it with good flesh , or it will devour the Heart . 9. Strive to get the love of the Congregation ; but let it not degenerate into popularity . Cause them to love you and revere you ; to love with Religion , not for your compliance ; for the good you do them , not for that you please them . Get their love by doing your duty , but not by omitting or spoiling any part of it : Ever remembring the severe Words of our blessed Saviour , Wo be to you , when all men speak well of you . 10. Suffer not the common people to prattle about Religion and questions ; but to speak little , to be swift to hear , and slow to speak , that they learn to do good works for necessary Uses , that they work with their hands , that they may have wherewithal to give to them that need ; that they study to be quiet . and learn to do their own business . 11. Let every Minister take care that he call upon his Charges , that they order themselves so , that they leave no void spaces of their time ; but that every part of it be filled with useful or innocent imployment . For where there is a space without business , that space is the proper time for danger and temptation ; and no man is more miserable than he that knows not how to spend his time . 12. Fear no mans person in the doing of your duty , wisely , and according to the Laws : remembing always that a servant of God can no more be hurt by all the powers of wickedness , than by the noise of a flies wing , or the chirping of a Sparrow . Brethren do well for your selves : do well for your selves as long as you have time ; you know not how soon death will come . 13. Entertain no persons into your Assemblies from other Parishes , unless upon great occasion , or in the destitution of a Minister , or by contingency , and seldom visits , or with leave : least the labours of thy Brother be discouraged ; and thy self be thought to preach Christ out of envie , and not of good will. 14. Never appeal to the judgement of the people in matters of controversie ; teach them obedience , not arrogancie ; teach them to be humble , not crafty . For without the aid of false Guides , you will finde some of them of themselves apt enough to be troublesome : and a question put into their Heads , and a power of judging into their Hands , is a putting it to their choice , whether you shall be troubled by them this week , or the next : for much longer you cannot escape . 15. Let no Minister of a Parish introduce any Ceremony , Rites or Gestures , though with some seeming Piety and Devotion , but what are commanded by the Church , and established by Law : and let these also be wisely and usefully explicated to the people , that they may understand the reasons and measures of obedience : but let there be no more introduc'd , least the people be burdened unnecessarily , and tempted or divided . IV. Rules and Advices concerning Preaching . 1. LEt every Minister be diligent in preaching the Word of God , according to the ability that God gives him ; ever remembring that to minister Gods Word unto the People , is the one half of his great Office and Employment . 2. Let every Minister be careful , that what he delivers be indeed the word of GOD : that his Sermon be answerable to the Text ; for this is Gods Word , the other ought to be according to it ; that although in it self it be but the word of Man , yet by the purpose , truth , and signification of it , it may in a secondary sense be the Word of God. 3. Do not spend your Sermons in general and indefinite things ; as in Exhortations to the people to get Christ , to be united to Christ , and things of the like unlimited signification ; but tell them in every duty , what are the measures , what circumstances , what instruments , and what is the particular minute meaning of every General Advise . For Generals not explicated , do but fill the peoples Heads with empty notions , and their Mouths with perpetual unintelligible talk : but their Hearts remain empty , and Themselves are not edified . 4. Let not the humours and inclinations of the people be the measures of your Doctrines ; but let your Doctrines be the measure of their perswasions . Let them know from you what they ought to do ; but if you learn from them what you ought to teach , you will give but a very ill account at the day of Judgement , of the souls committed to you . He that receives from the people what he shall teach them , is like a Nurse that asks of her sick Child , what Physick she shall give him . 5. Every Minister in reproofs of sin and sinners , ought to concern himself in the faults of them that are present , but not of the absent ; nor in reproof of the times ; for this can serve no end but of Faction and Sedition , publique Murmur and private Discontent ; besides this , it does nothing but amuze the people in the faults of others , teaching them to revile their Betters , and neglect the dangers of their own Souls . 6. As it looks like flattery and design , to preach nothing before Magistrates but the Duty of their people , and their own Eminencie ; so it is the begining of Mutiny to preach to the people the duty of their Superiors and Supreme ; it can neither come from a good Principle , nor tend to a good end . Every Minister ought to preach to his Parish , and urge their Duty . St. John the Baptist told the Souldiers what the Souldiers should do ; but troubled not their heads with what was the duty of the Scribes and Pharisees . 7. In the reproof of sins be as particular as you please , and spare no mans sin , but meddle with no mans person ; neither name any man , nor signifie him , neither reproach him , nor make him to be suspected : he that does otherwise , makes his Sermon to be a Libel , and the Ministry of Repentance , an instrument of Revenge : and so doing he shall exasperate the man , but never amend the sinner . 8. Let the business of you Sermons be to preach holy life , obedience , peace , love among neighbours , hearty love , to live as the old Christians did , and the new should , to do hurt to no man , to do good to every man. For in these things the honour of God consists , and the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus . 9. Press those Graces most , that do most good , and make the least noise ; such as giving privately , and forgiving publiquely ; and describe the grace of Charity by all the measures of it which are given by the Apostle , 1 Cor. 13. For this grace is not finished by good Words , nor yet by good Works , but it is a great building : and many Materials go to the structure of it . It is worth your study , for it is the fulfilling of the Commandments . 10. Because it is impossible that charity should live , unless the lust of the tongue be mortified : let every Minister in his charge be frequent and severe against slanderers , detractors and backbiters : for the crime of backbiting is the poyson of charity ; and yet so common , that it is past into a Proverb : [ After a good dinner let us sit down and backbite our neighbours . ] 11. Let every Minister be carefull to observe , and vehement in reproving those faults of his Parishioners , of which the Laws cannot or do not take cognizance ; such as are , many degrees of intemperate drinkings , gluttony , riotous living , expenses above their ability , pride , bragging , lying in ordinary conversation , convetousness , peevishness and hasty anger ; and such like . For the Word of God searches deeper than the Laws of men ; and many things will be hard to prove by the measures of Courts , which are easie enough to be observ'd by the watchful and diligent eye and ear of the Guide of Souls . 12. In your Sermons to the people , often speak of the four last things , of Death & Judgement , Heaven and Hell : of the Life and Death of Jesus Christ ; of Gods mercie to repenting sinners , and his severity against the impenitent : of the formidable Examples of Gods anger powr'd forth upon Rebbels , Sacrilegious , Oppressors of Widdows and Orphanes , and all Persons guilty of Crying Sins : These are useful , safe and profitable ; but never run into Extravagancies and Curiosities , nor trouble your selves or them with Mysterious Secrets ; for there is more laid before you , than you can understand ; and the whole Duty of Man , is To fear God , and keep his commandments . Speak but very little of the secret and high things of God ; but as much as you can of the Lowness and Humility of Christ. 13. Be not hasty in pronouncing damnation against any man or party in a matter of disputation . It is enough that you reprove an Errour ; but what shall be the sentence against it at the day of Judgement , thou knowest not , and therefore pray for the erring person , and reprove him ; but leave the Sentence to his Judge . 14. Let your Sermons teach the duty of all states of men to whom you speak : and particularly , take care of Servants and Hirelings , Merchants and Tradesmen , that they be not unskilful , nor unadmonished in their respective duties : and in all things speak usefully and affectionately ; for by this means you will provide for all mens needs ; both for them that sin by reason of their little understanding , and them that sin because they have evil , dull , or deprav'd affections . 15. In your Sermons and Discourses of Religion , use primitive , known and accustomed words ; and affect not new Phantastical or Schismatical Terms : Let the Sunday Festival be call'd the Lords day ▪ and pretend no fears from the common use of Words amongst Christians . For they that make a business of the words of common use , and reform Religion by introducing a new Word , intend to make a change but no amendment ; they spend themselves in trifles , like the barren turf that sends forth no medicinable herbs , but store of mushroms ; and they give a demonstration that they are either impertinent people , or else of a querulous nature ; and that they are ready to disturb the Church , if they could find occasion . 16. Let every Minister in is charge , as much as he can , indeavour to destroy all popu●ar errors , and evil principles ●aken up by his people or o●hers with whom they converse : especially those that directly oppose the indispensable necessity of a holy life : let him endeavour to understand in what true and useful sense Christs active obedience is imputed to us ; let him make his people fear the deferring of their repentance , and putting it off to their death-bed ; let him explicate the nature of faith , so that it be an active and quickning principle of charity ; let him as much as he may , take from them all confidences that slacken their obedience and diligence ; let him teach them to impute all their sins to their own follies and evil choice , and so build them up in a most holy faith to a holy life : ever remembering that in all ages it hath been the greatest artifice of Sathan , to hinder the increase of Christs Kingdom , by destroying those things in which it does consist viz. peace and rightousness , holiness and mortification . 17. Every Minister ought to be careful that he never expound Scriptures in publick , contrary to the known sense of the Catholick Church , and particularly of the Churches of England and Ireland ; nor introduce any Doctrine against any of the four first General Councils : for these as they are measures of Truth : so also , of necessity ; that is , as they are safe , so they are sufficient ; and besides what is taught by these , no matter of belief is necessary to salvation . 18. Let no Preacher bring before the People in his Sermons or discourses , the Arguments of great and dangerous Heresies , though with a purpose to confute them ; for they will much easier retain the objection , than understand the Answer . 19. Let not the Preacher make an Article of Faith to be a matter of dispute ; but teach it with plainness and simplicity , and confirm it with easie Arguments and plain words of Scripture ; but without objection : let them be taught to believe but not to argue : least if the arguments meet with a scrupulous person , it rather shake the foundation by curious enquiry , than establish it by arguments too hard . 20. Let the Preacher be carefull that in his Sermons he use no light , immodest or ridiculous expression ; but what is wise , grave , useful and for edification ; that when the Preacher brings truth and gravity , the people may attend with fear and reverence . 21. Let no Preacher envie any man that hath a greater Audience , or more fame in Preaching than himself ; let him not detract from him , or lessen his reputation directly or indirectly : for he that cannot be even with his brother but by pulling him down , is but a dwarf still ; and no man is the better , for making his brother worse . In all things desire that Christ's Kingdom may be advanc'd ; and rejoyce that he is served , whoever be the Minister : that if you cannot have the fame of a great Preacher , yet you may have the reward of being a good man : but it is hard , to miss both . 22. Let every Preacher in his Parish take care to explicate to the people the mysteries of the great Festivals ; as of Christmass , Easter , Ascension day , Whitsunday , Trinity sunday , the Annunciation to the Bl. Virgin Mary ; because these Feasts containing in them the great fundamentals of our Faith , will with most advantage convey the mysteries to the people , and fix them in their memories , by the solemnity and circumstances of the day . 23. In all your Sermons and Discourses , speak nothing of God but what is honourable and glorious ; and impute not to him such things , the consequents of which a wise & good man will not own : never suppose him to be the author of sin , or the procurer of our damnation . For God cannot be tempted , neither tempteth he any man. God is true , and every man a lyer . 24. Let no Preacher compare one Ordinance with another ; as Prayer with Preaching , to the disparagement of either ; but use both in their proper seasons , and according to appointed Order . 25. Let no man preach for the praise of men : but if you meet it , instantly watch and stand upon your guard , and pray against your own vanity ; and by an express act of acknowledgment and adoration , return the praise to God. Remember that Herod was for the omission of this , smitten by an Angel ; and do thou tremble , fearing least the judgment of God , be otherwise than the sentence of the people . V. Rules and Advices concerning Catechism . 1. EVery Minister is bound upon every Lords day , before Evening Prayer , to instruct all young people in the Creed , the Lords Prayer , the Ten Commandments , and the Doctrine of the Sacraments , as they are set down and explicated in the Church Catechism . 2. Let a Bell be tolled when the Catechising is to begin ; that all who desire it , may be present ; but let all the more ignorant , and uninstructed part of the people , whether they be old or young be requir'd to be present : that no person in your Parishes be ignorant in the foundations of Religion : ever remembring , that if in these things they be unskilfull , whatever is taught besides , is like a house built upon the sand . 3. Let every Minister teach his people the use , practise , methods and benefits of meditation , or mental prayer . Let them draw out for them , helps and rules for their assistance in it ; and furnish them with materials ; concerning the life and death of the ever Bl. Jesus , the greatness of God , our own meanness , the dreadfull sound of the last trumpet , the infinite event of the two last sentences at doomsday : let them be taught to consider what they have been , what they are , and what they shall be ; and above all things , what are the issues of eternity : glories never to cease , pains never to be ended . 4. Let every Minister exhort his people to a frequent confession of their sins , and a declaration of the state of their souls ; to a conversation with their Minister in spiritual things , to an enquiry concerning all the parts of their duty : for by preaching , and catechising and private entercourse , all the needs of Souls can best be serv'd ; but by preaching alone , they cannot . 5. Let the people be exhorted to keep fasting days , and the feasts of the Church ; according to their respective capacities ; so it be done without burden to them , and without becoming a snare ; that is , that upon the account of Religion , and holy desires to please God , they spend some time in Religion , besides the Lords day : but be very careful that the Lords day be kept religiously , according to the severest measures of the Church , and the commands of Authority : ever remembring that as they give but little Testimony of Repentance and Mortification , who never fast ; so they give but small evidence of their joy in God and in Religion , who are unwilling solemnly to partake of the Publick and Religious Joys of the Christian Church . 6. Let every Minister be diligent in exhorting all Parents and Masters to send their Children and Servants to the Bishop at the Visitation , or other solemn times of his coming to them , that they may be confirm'd : And let him also take care that all young persons may by understanding the principles of Religion , their vow of baptism , the excellency of Christian Religion , the necessity and advantages of it , and of living according to it , be fitted and disposed , and accordingly by them presented to the Bishop , that he may pray over them , and invocate the Holy Spirit , and minister the holy rite of Confirmation . VI. Rules and Advices concerning Visitation of the sick . 1. EVery Minister ought to be careful in visiting all the sick and afflicted persons of his parish : ever remembring that as the Priests lips are to preserve knowledg : so it is his duty to minister a word of comfort in the time of need . 2. A Minister must not stay till he be sent for ; but of his own accord and care to go to them ; to examine them , to exhort them to perfect their repentance , to strengthen their faith , to encourage their patience , to persuade them to resignation , to the renewing of their holy vows , to the love of God , to be reconcil'd to their neighbours , to make restitution and amends , to confess their sins , to settle their estate , to provide for their charges , to do acts of piety and charity ; and above all things , that they take care , they do not sin towards the end of their lives . For if repentance on our death-bed seem so very late for the sins of our life ; what time shall be left to repent us of the sins we commit on our death-bed ? 3. When you comfort the afflicted , endeavour to bring them to the true love of God : for he that serves God for Gods sake , it is almost impossible he should be oppressed with sorrow . 4. In answering the cases of conscience of sick or afflicted people , consider not who asks , but what he asks ; and consult in your answers more with the estate of his soul , than the conveniencie of his estate : For no flattery is so fatal as that of the Physician or the Divine . 5. If the sick person enquires concerning the final estate of his soul ; he is to be reprov'd rather than answer'd ; onely he is to be called upon to finish his duty , to do all the good he can in that season ; to pray for pardon and acceptance ; but you have nothing to do to meddle with passing final sentences ; neither cast him down in despair , nor raise him up to vain and unreasonable confidences . But take care that he be not carelesly dismiss'd . 6. In order to these and many other good purposes , every Minister ought frequently to converse with his parishioners ; to go to their houses , but always publickly , with witness and with prudence ; least what is charitably intended , be scandalously reported : and in all your conversation be sure to give good example , and upon all occasions to give good counsel . VII . Of ministring the Sacraments , publick prayers and other duties of Ministers . 1. EVery Minister is oblig'd , publickly or privately to read the Common prayers every day in the week , at morning and Evening : and in great Towns and populous places conveniently inhabited , it must be read in Churches ; that the daily sacrifice of prayer and thanksgiving may never cease . 2. The Minister is to instruct the people , that the baptism of their children ought not to be ordinarily defer'd , longer than till the next Sunday or holy day after the birth of the child : least importune and unnecessary delay , occasion that the child die before it is dedicated to the service of God and the Religion of the Lord Jesus ; before it be born again , admitted to the promises of the Gospel , and reckon'd in the account of the second Adam . 3. Let every Minister exhort and press the people to a devout & periodical communion ; at the least three times in the year , at the great Festivals : but the devouter sort , and they who have leasure , are to be invited to a frequent Communion : and let it be given and received with great reverence . 4. Every Minister ought to be well skill'd and studied in saying his Office , in the Rubricks , the Canons , the Articles , and the Homilies of the Church , that he may do his duty readily , discreetly , gravely ▪ and by the publick measures of the laws . To which also it is very usefull that it be added ▪ that every Minister study the ancient Canons of the Church ▪ especially the Penitentials of the Eastern and Western Churches : let him read good books , such as are approved by publick authority ; such which are usefull , wise and holy : not the scriblings of Unlearned parties , but of men learned , pious , obedient and disinterested ; and amongst these , such especially which describe duty and good life , which minister to faith and charity , to piety and devotion ; Cases of Conscience , and solid expositions of Scripture . Concerning which , learned and wise persons are to be consulted . 5. Let not a Curate of souls trouble himself with any studies , but such which concern his own or his peoples duty ; such which may enable him to speak well , and to do well ; but to meddle with no controversies , but such by which he may be enabled to convince the gainsayers in things that concern publick peace and a good life . 6. Be carefull in all the publick administrations of your parish , that the poor be provided for . Think it no shame to beg for Christs poor members : stir up the people to liberal alms by your word and your example . Let a Collection be made every Lords day , and upon all solemn meetings , and at every Communion ; and let the Collection be wisely and piously administred : ever remembring , that at the day of judgement nothing shall publickly be proclaim'd , but the reward of alms and mercy . 7. Let every Minister be sure to lay up a treasure of comforts and advices , to bring forth for every mans need in the day of his trouble ; let him study and heap together Instruments and Advices for the promoting of every virtue , and remedies and arguments against every vice ; let him teach his people to make acts of virtue not onely by external exercise , but also in the way of prayer , and internal meditation . In these and all things else that concern the Ministers duty , if there be difficulty , 〈◊〉 are to repair to your Bis●●● for further advice , assistanc● and information . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A64125-e790 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Vide Rom. 16. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 
A64128	----	A sermon preached at the consecration of two archbishops and ten bishops, in the Cathedral Church of S. Patrick in Dublin, January 27, 1660 by Jeremie Taylor ... Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. 1661 Approx. 74 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 27 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2003-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A64128 Wing T391 ESTC R23465 12069002 ocm 12069002 53467 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A64128) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 53467) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 582:5) A sermon preached at the consecration of two archbishops and ten bishops, in the Cathedral Church of S. Patrick in Dublin, January 27, 1660 by Jeremie Taylor ... Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. [6], 47 p. Printed by W. Bladen for John North ..., Dublin : 1661. Reproduction of original in the Union Theological Seminary Library, New York. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Bible. -- N.T. -- Luke XII, 42 -- Sermons. Sermons, English -- 17th century. 2000-00 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2001-07 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2002-10 Paul Schaffner Sampled and proofread 2002-10 Paul Schaffner Text and markup reviewed and edited 2002-12 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A SERMON Preached at the Consecration of two Archbishops and ten Bishops , in the Cathedral Church of S. Patrick in DUBLIN , Ianuary 27. 1660. By Ieremie Taylor D. D. Ld. Bishop of Downe and Connor . Sal liquefit , ut condiat . DVBLIN , Printed by W. Bladen for Iohn North Bookseller in Castlestreet , Anno Dom. 1661. To the Christian Reader . MY Obedience to the Commands of the Right Honourable the Lords Iustices , and the most Reverend and Learned Primate , and to the desires of my Reverend Brethren , put it past my inquiry , whether I ought to Publish this following Sermon . I will not therefore excuse it , and say it might have advantages in the Delivery , which it would want in the Reading ; and the eare would be kind to the Piety of it , which was apparent in the design , when the eye would be severe in its censure of those arguments , which as they could not be longer in that measure of time ; so would have appeared more firm , if they could have had liberty to have been pursued to their utmost issue . But reason lies in a little room , and Obedience in less . And although what I have here said , may not stop the mouths of Men resolved to keep up a faction , yet I have said enough to the sober and pious , to them who love Order , and hearken to the voice of the Spouse of Christ , to the Loving and to the Obedient : And for those that are not so , I have no argument fit to be used , but Prayer , and readiness to give them a reason , when they shall modestly demand it . In the mean time I shall onely desire them to make use of those truths which the more learned of their party have by the evidence of fact been forced to confess . Rivet affirms that it descended ex veteris aevi reliquiis , that Presbyters should be assistants or conjoyned to the Bishops , ( who is by this confessed to be the principal ) in the imposition of hands for Ordination . VValo Messalinus acknowledges it to be rem antiquissimam , a most ancient thing that these two Orders , ( viz ) of Bishops and Presbyters , should be distinct , even in the middle , or in the beginning of the next age after Christ. Dd. Blondell places it to be 35. years after the death of S. John Now then Episcopacy is confessed to be of about 1600. years continuance : and if before this they can shew any Ordination by mere Presbyters , by any but an Apostle , or an Apostolical man ; and if there were not visibly a distinction of powers and persons relatively in the Ecclesiastical Government : or if they can give a rational account why they who are forced to confess the Honour and distinct Order of Episcopacy for about 16. ages , should in the dark interval of 35. years ( in which they can pretend to no Monument or Record to the contrary ) yet make unlearned scruples of things they cannot colourably prove ; if ( I say ) they can reasonably account for these things , I for my part will be ready to confess that they are not guilty of the greatest , the most unreasonable and inexcusable schism in the world . But else , they have no colour to palliate the unlearned crime . For will not all wise men in the world conclude , that the Church of God , which was then Holy not in title onely and designe , but practically and materially ; and persecuted , and not immerged in secular temptations , could not all in one instant joyn together to alter that form of Church Government , which Christ and his Apostles had so recently established , and without a Divine warrant destroy a Divine institution , not onely to the confusion of the Hierarchy , but to the ruine of their own Souls . It were strange that so great a change should be , and no good man oppose it . In toto orbe decretum est : so St. Hierom. All the world consented in the advancement of the Episcopal Order . And therefore if we had no more to say for it , yet in prudence and piety we cannot say they would innovate in so great a matter . But I shall enter no further upon this enquirie : onely I remember that it is not very many Months since the Bigots of the Popish party cryed out against us vehemently , and inquired , VVhere is your Church of England since you have no Vnity ? for your Ecclesiastick head of Vnity , your Bishops , are gone . And if we should be desirous to verify their argument , so as indeed to destroy Episcopacy , VVe should too much advantage Popery , and do the most imprudent and most impious thing in the world . But blessed be God , who hath restored that Government , for which Our late King of glorious memory gave his blood . And that ( me thinks ) should very much weigh with all the Kings true hearted Subjects , who should make it Religion not to rob that glorious Prince of the greatest honour of such a Martyrdom . For my part , I think it fit to rest in those words of another Martyr St. Cyprian , Si quis cum Episcopo non sit , in Ecclesia non esse : He that is not with the Bishop , is not in the Church : that is , he that goes away from him , and willingly separates , departs from Gods Church ; and whether he can then be with God , is a very material consideration , and fit to be thought on by all that think heaven a more eligible good then the interests of a faction , and the importune desire of rule can countervail . However . I have in the following papers spoken a few things , which I hope may be fit to perswade them that are not infinitely prejudic'd : and although two or three good arguments are as good as two or three hundred , yet my purpose here was to prove the dignity and necessity of the Office and Order Episcopal , onely that it might be as an Oeconomy to convey notice , and remembrances of the great duty incumbent upon all them that undertake this great charge . The Dignity and the Duty take one another by the hand , and are born together : onely every Sheep of the Flock must take care to make the Bishops duty as easy as it can by humility and love , by Prayer and by Obedience . It is at the best very difficult , but they who oppose themselves to Government , make it harder and uncomfortable . But take heed ; if thy Bishop hath cause to complain to God of thee for thy perversness and uncharitable walking , thou wilt be the looser . And for Vs , VVe can onely say in the words of the Prophet , VVe will weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people : But Our comfort is in God : for we can do nothing without him , but in him we can do all things . And therefore VVe will pray , Domine , dabis pacem nobis , omnia enim opera nostra operatus es in nobis : God hath wrought all Our works within Vs : and therefore he will give Vs Peace , and give Vs his Spirit . Finally , Brethren , pray for Us , that the word of the Lord may have free course , and be glorifyed , even as it is with you ; and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men ; for all men have not Faith. Errata . P : 1 : l : 18 : lege 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . P : 3 : l : ● lege 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . P : 6 : l : 10. lege but by its being indiff . P : 34 : transpose these words in the 4 : and 5 : lines , The Gentry being little better then Servants while they live under the Presbyterie to , 〈…〉 : 〈…〉 the Gentry &c. P : 36 : l : 17 : lege Roman . P : 37 l : 4 : for discern lege deserve . Luke 12. 42. And the Lord said , who then is that faithful and wise Steward , whom his Lord shall make Ruler over his houshold , to give them their portion of meat in due season . 43. Blessed is that Servant whom his Lord when he commeth shall find so doing . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THese words are not properly a question though they seem so , and the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not interogative , but hypothetical ; and extends who to whosoever ; plainly meaning that whoever is a Steward over Christs houshold , of him God requires a great care , because he hath trusted him with a great imployment . Every Steward 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so it is in St. Matthew * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so it is in my text ; Every Steward whom the Lord hath or shall appoint over the Family to rule it and to feed it , now and in all generations of men , as long as this Family shall abide on earth , that is , the Apostles , and they who were to succeed the Apostles in the Stewardship , were to be furnished with the same power , and to undertake the same charge , and to give the same strict and severe accounts . In these words here is something insinuated , and much expressed . 1. That which is insinuated onely is , who these Stewards are , whom Christ had , whom Christ would appoint over his Family the Church : they are not here nam'd , but we shall find them out by their proper direction , and indigitation by and by . 2. But that which is expressed , is the Office it self , in a double capacity . 1. In the dignity of it , It is a Rule and a Government [ whom the Lord shall make Ruler over his houshold . ] 2. In the care and duty of it , which determines the government to be paternal and profitable ; it is a Rule , but such a rule as Shepheards have over their flocks , to lead them to good pastures , and to keep them within their appointed walks , and within their folds : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : that 's the work , to give them a measure and proportion of nourishment : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so St. Matthew calls it : meat in the season ; that which is fit for them , and when it is fit ; meat enough , and meat convenient ; and both together mean that which the Greek Poets call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the strong wholsom dyet . 3. Lastly : Here is the reward of the faithful and wise dispensation . The Steward that does so , and continues to do so , till his Lord find him so doing , this man shall be blessed in his deed . [ Blessed is the Servant whom his Lord when he commeth shall find so doing . ] Of these in order . 1. Who are these Rulers of Christs Family ▪ for though Christ knew it , and therefore needed not to ask ; yet we have disputed it so much , and obeyed so little , that we have chang'd the plain hypothesis into an intangled question . The Answer yet is easie as to some part of the inquiry . The Apostles are the first meaning of the text : for they were our Fathers in Christ : They begat Sons and Daughters unto God : and where a spiritual paternity is evident , we need look no further for spiritual Government , because in the paternal rule all power is founded : They begat the Family by the power of the word and the life of the spirit , and they fed this family and rul'd it by the word of their proper Ministery . They had the keyes of this house , the Stewards 〈◊〉 ; and they had the Rulers place ; for they sat on twelve thrones and judged the twelve tribes of Israel . But of this there is no question . And as little of another proposition : that this Stewardship was to last for ever ; for the powers of Ministring in this Office , and the Office it self were to be perpetual . For the issues and powers of Government are more necessary for the perpetuating the Church , then for the first planting : and if it was necessary that the Apostles should have a rod and a staff at first , it would be more necessary afterwards when the Family was more numerous , and their first zeal abated , and their native simplicity perverted into arts of hypocrisy and formes of godliness , when Heresies should arise , and the love of many should wax cold . The Apostles had also a power of Ordination ; and that the very power it self does denote , for it makes perpetuity , that could not expire in the dayes of the Apostles , for by it , they themselves propagated a succession . And Christ having promis'd his spirit to abide with his Church for ever , and made his Apostles the channels , the Ministers and conveyances of it , that it might descend as the inheritance and eternal portion of the Family ; it cannot be imagined that when the first Ministers were gone , thereshould not others rise up in the same places , some like to the first , in the same Office and Ministery of the spirit . But the thing is plain and evident in the matter of fact also . Quod in Ecclesiâ nunc geritur , hoc olim fecerunt Apostoli , said St. Cyprian ; What the Apostles did at first , that the Church does to this day , and shall do so for ever . For when St. Paul had given to the Bp. of Ephesus rules of Government in this Family ; he commands , that they should be observed till the comming of our Lord Iesus Christ : and therefore these authorities and charges are given to him and to his Successors ; it is the observation of St. Ambrose upon the warranty of that text , and is obvious and undeniable . Well then . The Apostles were the first Stewards ; and this Office dies not with them , but must for ever be succeeded in ; and now begins the enquiry , who are the Successors of the Apostles : for they are , they must evidently be the Stewards to feed and to rule this Family . There are some that say , that all who have any portion of work in the Family , all the Ministers of the Gospel are these Stewards , and so all will be Rulers . The Presbyters surely ; for say they , Presbyter and Bishop is the same thing , and have the same name in Scripture , and therefore the Office cannot be distinguished . To this I shall very briefly say two things , which will quickly clear our way through this bush of thornes . I. That the word Presbyter is but an honourable appellative used amongst the Jews , as Alderman amongst us ; but it signifies no order at all , nor was ever used in Scripture to signify any distinct company or order of Clergy . And this appears not onely by an Induction in all the enumerations of the Offices Ministerial in the New Testament : * where to be a Presbyter is never reckoned either as a distinct Office , or a distinct order ; but indifferently communicated to all the Superior Clergy , and all the Princes of the people . II. The second thing I intended to say is this ; that although all the superior Clergy had not onely one , but divers common appellatives ; all being called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , even the Apostolate it self being called a Deaconship * ; yet it is evident that before the common appellations were fixt into names of propriety , they were as evidently distinguished in their offices and powers , as they are at this day , in their Names and Titles . To this purpose St. Paul gave to Titus the Bp. of Crete a special commission , command and power to make Ordinations : and in him , and in the person of Timothy he did erect a Court of Judicature even over some of the Clergy , who yet were called Presbyters : against a Presbyter receive not an accusation but before two or three witnesses : there is the measure and the warranty of the Audientia Episcopalis , the Bps . Audience Court : and when the accused were found guilty he gives in charge to proceed to censures : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; You must rebuke them sharply ; and you must silence them ; stop their mouths , that 's St. Pauls word ; that they may no more scatter their venom in the ears and hearts of the people . These Bishops were commanded , to set in order things that were wanting in the Churches , the same with that power of St. Paul ; [ other things will I set in order when I come , ] said he to the Corinthian Churches ; in which there were many who were called Presbyters : who nevertheless for all that name , had not that power . To the same purpose it is plain in Scripture , that some would have been Apostles that were not ; such were those whom the spirit of God notes in the Revelation : and some did love preeminence that had it not : for so did Diotrephes : and some were Judges of questions , and all were not ; for therefore they appealed to the Apostles at Jerusalem : and St. Philip though he was an Evangelist , yet he could not give confirmation to the Samaritans whom he had baptiz'd , but the Apostles were sent for : for that was part of the power reserv'd to the Episcopal or Apostolical order . Now from these premises the conclusion is plain and easy . 1. Christ left a Government in his Church , and founded it in the persons of the Apostles . 2. The Apostles received this power for the perpetual use and benefit , for the comfort and edification of the Church for ever . 3. The Apostles had this Government , but all that were taken into the Ministery , and all that were called Presbyters had it not . If therefore this Government in which there is so much disparity in the very nature and exercise and first original of it , must abide for ever ; then so must that disparity : If the Apostolate in the first stabiliment was this eminency of power ; then it must be so , that is , it must be the same in the succession that it was in the foundation . For after the Church is founded upon its Governours , we are to expect no change of government . If Christ was the Author of it , then as Christ left it , so it must abide for ever : for ever there must be the Governing and the Governed , the Superior and the Subordinate , the Ordainer and the Ordained , the confirmer and the confirmed . Thus far the way is straight , and the path is plain . The Apostles were the Stewards and the ordinary Rulers of Christs Family by virtue of the order and office Apostolical ; and although this must be succeeded to for ever ; yet no man for his now , or at any time being called a Presbyter or Elder can pretend to it : for besides his being a Presbyter , he must be an Apostle too ; else , though he be called in partem sollicitudinis , and may do the offices of assistance and understewardship ; yet the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Government and Rule of the Family belongs not to him . But then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; who are these Stewards and Rulers over the houshold now ? To this the answer is also certain and easy . Christ hath made the same Governours to day as heretofore ; Apostles still . For though the twelve Apostles are dead ; Yet the Apostolical order is not : it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a generative order , and begets more Apostles : now who these minores Apostoli are , the successors of the Apostles in that office Apostolical and supreme regiment of Souls , we are sufficiently taught in Holy Scriptures ; which when I have clearly shewn to you , I shall pass on to some more practical considerations . 1. Therefore , certain and known it is , that Christ appointed two sorts of Ecclesiastick persons ; the XII . Apostles , and the LXXII . Disciples : to these he gave a limited commission , to those a fulness of power : to these a temporary imployment , to those a perpetual and everlasting ; from these two societies founded by Christ , the whole Church of God derives the two superiour orders in the sacred Hierarchy ; and as Bishops do not claim a Divine right but by succession from the Apostles ▪ so the Presbyters cannot pretend to have been instituted by Christ , but by claiming a succession to the LXXII : and then consider the difference , compare the Tables , and all the world will see the advantages of argument we have : for since the LXXII . had nothing but a mission on a temporary errand , and more then that we hear nothing of them in Scripture ; but upon the Apostles Christ powred all the Ecclesiastical power , and made them the ordinary Ministers of that Spirit which was to abide with the Church for ever ; the Divine institution of Bishops , that is , of Successors to the Apostles , is much more clear then that Christ appointed Presbyters , or Successors of the LXXII : and yet if from hence they do not derive it , they can never prove their order to be of Divine institution at all , much less to be so alone . But we may see the very thing it self : the very matter of fact . St. Iames the Bp. of Ierusalem , is by St. Paul called an Apostle : Other Apostles saw I none , save James the Lords Brother . For there were some whom the Scriptures call the Apostles of our Lord ; that is , such which Christ made by his word immediately , or by his Spirit extraordinarily : and even into this number and title , Matthias , and St. Paul , and Barnabas were accounted . * But the Church also made Apostles ; and these were called by St. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Apostles of the Churches , and particularly Epaphroditus was the Apostle of the Philippians : properly so ( saith Primasius , ) and what is this else but the Bp. saith Theodoret ; for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , those who are now called Bps . were then called Apostles , saith the same Father : the sence and full meaning of which argument is a perfect commentary upon that famous prophecy of the Church , [ In stead of thy Fathers thou shalt have childen whom thou mayest make Princes in all Lands , ] [ that is , ] not onely the twelve Apostles our Fathers in Christ , who first begat us , were to rule Christs Family , but when they were gone , their Children & Successors should arise in their stead , Et nati natorum , & quinascentur ab illis , their direct Successors to all generations shall be principes populi , that is , Rulers and Governours of the whole Catholick Church . De prole enim Ecclesiae crevit eidem paternitas , id est , Episcopi quos illa genuit , & patres appellat , & constituit in sedibus Patrum ; saith St. Austin ; the Children of the Church become Fathers of the faithful ; that is , the Church begets Bps . : and places them in the seat of Fathers , the first Apostles . After these plain and evident testimonies of Scripture , it will not be amiss to say , that this great affair relying not onely upon the words of institution , but on matter of fact ; pas'd forth into a demonstration and greatest notoreity by the Doctrine and Practise of the whole Catholick Church . For so St Irenaeus who was one of the most Ancient Fathers of the Church , and might easily make good his affirmative : VVe can ( says he ) reckon the men who by the Apostles were appointed Bishops in the Churches , to be their Successors unto Vs ; leaving to them the same power and authority which they had . Thus St. Polycarp was by the Apostles made Bp. of Smyrna ; St. Clement Bp. of Rome by St. Peter , and divers others by the Apostles , saith Tertullian , saying also that the Asian Bps . were consectated by St. Iohn ; and to be short , that Bps . are the Successours of the Apostles in the Stevvardship and Rule of the Church , is expresly taught by St. Cyprian , and St. Hieron , St. Ambrose , and St. Austin , by Euthymius , and Pasianus , by St. Gregory , and St. Iohn Damascen , by Clarus à Muscula , and St. Sixtus , by Anacletus , and St. Isidore ; by the Roman Councel under St. Sylvester , and the Councel of Carthage ; and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or succession of Bps . from the Apostles hands in all the Churches Apostolical was as certainly known as in our Chronicles we find the succession of our English Kings , and one can no more be denyed then the other . The conclusion from these premises I give you in the words of St. Cyprian , Cogitent Diaconi quòd Apostolos , id est , Episcopos Dominus ipse elegerit . Let the Ministers know that , Apostles , that is , the Bps . were chosen by our blessed Lord himself ; and this was so evident , and so believed , that St. Austin affirms it with a nemo ignorat , No man is so ignorant , but he knows this , that our blessed Saviour appointed Bps . over Churches . Indeed the Gnostics spake evil of this order ; for they are noted by three Apostles , St. Paul , St. Peter , and St. Iude , to be despisers of Government , and to speak evil of dignities ; and what Government it was they did so despise , we may understand by the words of St. Iude : they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in the contradiction or gainsaying of Corah , who with his company rose up against Aaron the high Priest : and excepting these who were the vilest of Men , no man within the first 300 years after Christ , oppos'd Episcopacy . But when Constantine receiv'd the Church into his armes , he found it universally governed by Bps . and therefore no wise or good man professing to be a Christian , that is , to believe the holy Catholick Church , can be content to quit the Apostolical Government ; ( that by which the whole Family of God was fed , and taught and rul'd , ) and beget to himself new Fathers and new Apostles , who by wanting Succession from the Apostles of our Lord , have no Ecclesiastical and Derivative communion with the fountains of our Saviour . If ever Lirinensis's rule could be us'd in any question , it is in this : quod semper , quod ubique , quod ab omnibus ; That Bishops are the Successors of the Apostles in this Stewardship ; and that they did always rule the Family , was taught and acknowledged always , and every where , and by all men that were of the Church of God : and if these evidences be not sufficient to convince modest and sober persons in this qestion , We shall find our faith to fail in many other articles , of which we yet are very confident . For the observation of the Lords day , the Consecration of the Holy Eucharist by Priests , the Baptizing Infants , the communicating of Women , and the very Canon of the Scripture it self rely but upon the same probation : and therefore the denying of Articles thus proved , is a way ( I do not say ) to bring in all Sects and Heresies , ( that 's but little , ) but a plain path and inlet to Atheism and Irreligion : for by this means , it will not onely be impossible to agree concerning the meaning of Scripture , but the Scripture it self , and all the Records of Religion will become useless , and of no efficacy or persuasion . I am entered into a Sea of matter , but I will break it off abruptly , and sum up this enquirie with the words of the Councel of Chalcedon , which is one of the four Generals , by our Laws made the measures of judging Heresies . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It is Sacriledge to bring back a Bishop to the degree and order of a Presbyter . It is indeed a rifling the order , and intangling the gifts , and confounding the method of the Holy Ghost : it is a dishonouring them whom God would honour , and a robbing them of those spiritual eminencies with which the spirit of God does anoint the consecrated heads of Bishops . And I shall say one thing more , which indeed is a great truth , that the diminution of Episcopacy was first introduced by Popery , and the Popes of Rome by communicating to Abbots , and other mere Priests special graces to exercise some essential Offices of Episcopacie , hath made this sacred order to be cheap , and apt to be invaded . But then adde this ; If Simon Magus was in so damnable a condition for offering to buy the guifts and powers of the Apostolical order , what shall we think of them that snatch them away , and pretend to wear them whether the Apostles & their Successors will or no ? This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to bely the Holy-Ghost ; that is the least of it : it is rapine and sacriledge , besides the heresie and the schism , and the spiritual lie . For the government Episcopal , as it was exemplified in the Synagogue , and practised by the same measures in the Temple , so it was transcribed by the eternal son of God , who translated it into a Gospel Ordinance : it was sanctifyed by the Holy Spirit , who named some of the persons , and gave to them all power and graces from above . It was subjected in the Apostles first , and by them transmitted to a distinct Order of Ecclesiasticks : it was received into all Churches , consigned in the Records of the Holy Scriptures , preached by the universal voice of all the Christian World , delivered by notorious and uninterrupted practise , and deriv'd to further and unquestionable issue by perpetual succession . I have done with the hardest part of the Text , by finding out the persons intrusted , the Stewards of Christs Family : which though Christ onely intimated in this place , yet he plainly enough manifested in others : The Apostles and their Successors the Bishops , are the men intrusted with this great charge : God grant they may all discharge it well . And so I pass from the Officers , to a consideration of the Office it self , in the next words : VVhom the Lord shall make Ruler over his Houshold , to give them their meat in due season . 2. The Office it self is the Stewardship , that is , Episcopacy , the Office of the Bishop . The name signifies an Office of the Ruler indefinitely , but the word was chosen , and by the Church appropriated to those whom it now signifies , both because the word it self is a monition of duty , and also because the faithful were used to it in the days of Moses and the Prophets . The word is in the prophecy of the Church , [ I will give to thee Princes in peace , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Bishops in righteousness , ] upon which place St. Hierom says , Principes Ecclesiae vocat futuros Episcopos : [ The spirit of God calls them who were to be Christian Bps , principes , or chief Rulers , ] and this was no new thing : For the chief of the Priests who were set over the rest , are called Bishops by all the Hellenist Jews . Thus ●oel is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Bishop over the Pr●ests , and the son of Bani , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Bishop and Visitor over the Levites , and we find at the purging of the Land from idolatry , the High-Priest plac'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Bishops over the House of God. Nay , it was the appellative of the High-Priest himself : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Bishop Eleazar , the Son of Aaron the Priest , to whom is committed the care of the Lamps , and the daily Sacrifice , and the holy unction . Now this word the Church retain'd , choosing the same Name to her superiour Ministers , because of the likeness of the Ecclesiastical Government between the Old and New-Testament . For Christ made no change but what was necessary . Baptism was a rite among the Jews , and the Lords-Supper was but the post-coenium of the Hebrews chang'd into a mystery , from a type to a more real exhibition ; and the Lords Prayer was a collection of the most eminent devotions of the Prophets and Holy men before Christ , who prayed by the same spirit : and the censures Ecclesiastical were but an imitation of the proceedings of the Judaical tribunals : and the whole Religion was but the Law of Moses drawn out of it's vail into clarity and manifestation : and to conclude , in order to the present affair , the Government which Christ left was the same as he found it : for what Aaron and his Sons , and the Levites were in the Temple , that Bishops , Priests , and Deacons are in the Church : it is affirmed by St. Hierom more then once ; and the use he makes of it is this , Esto subjectus pontifici tuo , & quasi animae parentem suscipe : Obey your Bishop , and receive him as the nursing Father of your Soul. But above all ; this appellation is made honourable by being taken by our Blessed Lord himself . For he is called in Scripture , the great Shepheard and Bishop of our Souls . But our inquitie is not after the Name , but the Office , and the dignity and duty of it : Ecclesiae gubernandae sublimis ac divina potestas ( so St. Cyprian calls it ) a High and a Divine power from God of Governing the Church : rem magnam & preciosam in conspectu Domini ( so St. Cyril ) a great and a pretious thing in the sight of God : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by Isidor Pelusiot ; the utmost limit of what is desireable amongst men . But the account upon which it is so desireable , is the same also that makes it formidable . They who have tryed it , and did it conscientiously , have found the burden so great , as to make them stoop with care and labour ; And they who do it ignorantly or carelesly , will find it will break their bones . For the Bishops Office is all that duty which can be signified by those excellent words of St. Cyprian ; He is a Bishop or Overseer of the Brotherhood , the Ruler of the people , the Shepheard of the Flock , the Governour of the Church , the Minister of Christ , and the Priest of God. These are great titles , and yet less then what is said of them in Scripture ; which calls them Salt of the Earth , Lights upon a candlestick ; Stars and Angels , Fathers of our Faith , Embassadors of God , Dispensors of the Mysteries of God , the Apostles of the Churches , and the Glory of Christ : but then they are great burdens too : for the Bishop is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , intrusted with the Lords people ; that 's a great charge ; but there is a worse matter that follows ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : the Bishop is he of whom God will require an account for all their souls : they are the words of St. Paul , and transcribed into the 40th . Canon of the Apostles , and the 24th . Canon of the Councel of Antioch . And novv I hope the envy is taken off : for the honour does not pay for the burden : and vve can no sooner consider Episcopacy in its dignity , as it is a Rule ; but the very nature of that Rule does imply so severe a duty , that as the load of it is almost unsufferable , so the event of it is very formidable if vve take not great care . For this Stevvardship is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a Principality and a Ministery . So it vvas in Christ : he is Lord of all , and yet he vvas the Servant of all : so it vvas in the Apostles , it vvas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , their lot vvas to be Apostles , and yet to serve and minister : and it is remarkable that in Isaiah the LXX use the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Bishop ; but there they use it for the Hebrew word nechosheth , which the Greeks usually render by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and the interlineary translation by Exactores . Bishops are onely Gods Ministers and tribute gatherers , requiring and over seeing them that they do their duty ; and therefore here the case is so , and the burden so great , and the dignity so allayed , that the envious man hath no reason to be troubled that his brother hath so great a load ; nor the proud man vainly to be delighted with so honourable a danger . It is indeed a Rule ; but it is paternal ; it is a Government , but it must be neither 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it is neither a power to constrain , nor a commission to get wealth : for it must be without necessity , and not for filthy lucre sake ; but it is a Rule , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so St. Luke , as of him that ministers ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so St. Mark : as of him that is Servant of all : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so St. Iohn ; such a principality as he hath that washes the feet of the weary traveller : or if you please , take it in the words of our Blessed Lord himself , that [ He that will be chief among you let him be your Minister , ] meaning that if under Christs Kingdom you desire rule , possibly you may have it ; but all that Rule under him are Servants to them that are rul'd , and therefore you get nothing by it , but a great labour , and a buisy imployment , a careful life , and a necessity of making severe accounts . But all this is nothing but the general measures , I cannot be useful or understood , unless I be more particular . The particulars we shall best enumerate by recounting those great conjugations of worthy offices and actions by which Christian Bishops have blessed and built up Christendom , for because we must be followers of them , as they were of Christ , the recounting what they did worthily in their generations , will not onely demonstrate how useful , how profitable , how necessary Episcopacy is to the Christian Church , but it will at the same time teach us our duty , by what services we are to benefit the Church , in what works we are to be imployed , and how to give an account of our Stewardship with joy . 1. The Christian Church was founded by Bps : not onely because the Apostles , who were Bishops , were the first Preachers of the Gospel , and Planters of Churches , but because the Apostolical men , whom the Apostles used in planting and disseminating Religion , were by all Antiquity affirm'd to have been Diocesan Bishops ; insomuch that as St. Epiphanius witnesses there were at the first disseminations of the faith of Christ , many Churches who had in them no other Clergy , but a Bishop and his Deacons , and the Presbyters were brought in afterwards as the harvest grew greater . But the Bishops names are known , they are recorded in the book of Life , and their praise is in the Gospel : such were Timothy and Titus , Clemens and Linus , Marcus and Dyonisius , Onesimus and Cains , Epaphroditas and St. Iames our Lords Brother , Evodius and Simeon : all which , if there be any faith in Christians that gave their lives for a testimony to the faith , and any truth in their Stories ; and unless we who believe Thucydides and Plutarch , Livy and Tacitus , think that all Church story is a perpetual Romance , and that all the brave men , the Martyrs and the Doctors of the Primitive Church , did conspire as one man to abuse all Christendom for ever ; I say unless all these impossible suppositions be admitted , all these whom I have now reckoned were Bishops fixed in several Churches , and had Dioceses for their Charges . The consequent of this consideration is this . If Bishops were those upon whose Ministery Christ founded and built his Church , let us consider what great wisdom is required of them that seem to be Pillars : The Stewards of Christs Family must be wise : that Christ requires , and if the order be necessary to the Church , wisdom cannot but be necessary to the Order . For it is a shame if they who by their Office are Fathers in Christ , shall by their unskilfulness skilfulness be but Babes themselves ; understanding not the secrets of Religion , the mysteries of Godliness , the perfections of the Evangelical Law , all the advantages and disadvantages in the Spiritual life . A Bishop must be exercis'd in Godliness , a man of great experience in the secret conduct of Souls , not satisfyed with an ordinary skill in makeing homilies to the people , and speaking common exhortations in ordinary cases ; but ready to answer in all secret inquiries , and able to convince the gainsayers , and to speak wisdom amongst them that are perfect . If the first Bishops laid the foundation , their Successours must not onely preserve whatsoever is fundamental , but build up the Church in a most holy Faith , taking care that no Heresie sap the foundation , and that no hay or rotten vvood be built upon it : and above all things , that a most Holy life be superstructed upon a holy and unreproveable Faith. So the Apostles laid the foundation , and built the vvalls of the Church , and their Successors must raise up the roof as high as Heaven . For let us talk and dispute eternally , vve shall never compose the controversies in Religion , and establish truth upon unalterable foundations , as long as Men handle the vvord of God deceiptfully , that is , vvit designes and little artifices , and saecular partialities , and they will for ever do so , as long as they are proud or covetous . It is not the difficulty of our questions , or the subtilty of our adversaries that makes disputes interminable ; but We shall never cure the itch of disputing , or establish Unity , unless we apply our selves to humility , and contempt of riches . If we will be contending , let us contend like the Olive and the Vine , who shall produce best , and most fruit : not like the Aspine and the Elm which shall make most noyse in a wind . All other methods are a beginning at a wrong end . And as for the people ; the way to make them conformable to the wise and holy rules of faith and government , is by reducing them to live good lives . When the Children of Israel gave themselves to gluttony and drunkenness , and filthy lusts , they quickly fell into abominable idolatries ; and St. Paul says that men make shipwrack of their faith by putting away a good conscience : for the mystery of faith is best preserv'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in a pure conscience , saith the same Apostle : secure but that , and we shall quickly end our disputes , and have an obedient and conformable people : but else never . 2. As Bishops were the first Fathers of Churches , and gave them being : so they preserve them in being . For without Sacraments there is no Church ; or it will be starv'd and die : and without Bishops there can be no Priests , and consequently no Sacraments : and that must needs be a supream order from whence ordination it self proceeds . For it is evident and notorious that in Scripture there is no record of ordination , but an Apostolical hand was in it : one of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , one of the chief , one of the superiour and Ruling Clergy : and it is as certain in the descending ages of the Church , the Bishop always had that power , it was never denyed to him , and it was never imputed to Presbyters : and St. Hierom himself when out of his anger against Iohn Bp. of Ierusalem endeavoured to equal the Presbyter with the Bishop , though in very many places he spake otherwise , yet even then also , and in that heat , he excepted ordination , acknowledging that to be the Bps . peculiar . And therefore they who go about to extinguish Episcopacy , do as Iullan did ; they destroy the Presbytery , and starve the Flock , and take away their Shepheards , and dispark their pastures , and tempt Gods providence to extraordinaries , and put the people to hard shifts , and turn the channels of Salvation quite another way , and leave the Church to a perpetual uncertainty , whether she be alive or dead , and the people destitute of the life of their Souls , and their daily bread , and their spiritual comforts , and holy blessings . The consequent of this is . If Sacraments depend upon Bishops , then let us take care that we convey to the people holy and pure materials , sanctifyed with a holy ministery , and ministred by holy persons . For although it be true , that the efficacy of the Sacraments does not depend wholly upon the worthiness of him that ministers ; yet it is as true , that it does not wholly rely upon the worthiness of the Receiver : but both together relying upon the goodness of God produce all those blessings which are designed . The Minister hath an influence into the effect , and does very much towards it ; and if there be a failer there , it is a defect in one of the concurring causes ; and therefore an unholy Bishop is a great diminution to the peoples blessing . St. Hierom presses this severely : Impiè faciunt &c. They do wickedly who affirm that the Holy Eucharist is consecrated by the words [ alone ] and solemn prayer of the consecrator , and not [ also ] by his life and holiness , and therefore St. Cyprian affirms , that none but holy and upright men are to be chosen , who offering their Sacrifices worthily to God may be heard in their prayers for the Lords people : but for others ; Sacrificia eorum panis luctus ( saith the Prophet Hosea , ) their Sacrifices are like the bread of sorrow , who ever eats thereof shall be defiled . This discourse is not mine but St. Cyprians : and although his words are not to be understood dogmatically , but in the case of duty and caution , yet we may lay our hands upon our hearts , and consider how we shall give an account of our Stewardship , if we shall offer to the people the bread of God with impure hands : it is of it self a pure nourishment , but if it passes through an unclean vessel , it looses much of it's excellency . 3. The like also is to be said concerning prayer . For the Episcopal Order is appointed by God to be the great Ministers of Christs Priesthood , that is , to stand between Christ and the people in the entercourse of prayer and blessing . VVe will give our selves continually to prayer : said the Apostles : that was the one half of their imployment : and indeed a Bishop should spend very much of his time in holy prayer , and in diverting Gods judgments , and procuring blessings to the people ; for in all times , the chief of the Religion was ever the chief Minister of blessing . Thus Abraham blessed Abimelech , and Melchisedek blessed Abraham , and Aaron blessed the people ; and without all controversy ( saith the Apostle , ) the less is blessed of the Greater . But then we know that God heareth not sinners ; and it must be the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous Man that shall prevail . And therefore we may easily consider that a vitious Prelate is a great calamity to that Flock , which he is appointed to bless and pray for . How shall he reconcile the penitents , who is himself at enmity with God ? How shall the Holy Spirit of God descend upon the Symbols at his prayer who does perpetually grieve him , and quench his holy fires , and drive him quite away ? How shall he that hath not tasted of the spirit by contemplation , stir up others to earnest desires of Celestial things ? Or what good shall the people receive , when the Bp. lays upon their head a covetous or a cruel , an unjust or an impure hand ? But therefore that I may use the words of St. Hierom. Cum ab Episcopo gratia in populum transfundatur , & mundi totius & Ecclesiae totius condimentum sit Episcopus &c. since it is intended that from the Bp. grace should be diffus'd amongst all the people , there is not in the world a greater indecency then a holy office ministred by an unholy person , and no greater injury to the people , then that of the blessings which God sends to them by the Ministeries Evangelical they should be cheated and defrauded by a wicked Steward . And therefore it was an exellent prayer which to this very purpose was by the son of Sirach made in behalf of the High Priests the sons of Aaron [ God give you wisdom in your heart to judge his people in righteousness , that their good things be not abolished , and that their glory may endure for ever . ] 4. All the offices Ecclesiastical always were , and ought to be conducted by the Episcopal order , as is evident in the universal doctrine and practise of the primitive Church . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It is the 40th . Canon of the Apostles , Let the Presbyters and Deacons do nothing without leave of the Bishop . But that case is known . The consequent of this consideration is no other then the admonition in my text . VVe are Stewards of the manifold Grace of God , and dispensers of the mysteries of the Kingdom ; and it is required of Stewards that they be found faithful ; that we preach the word of God in season and out of season , that we rebuke and exhort , admonish and correct ; for these , God calls Pastores secundùm cor meum , Pastors according to his own heart , which feed the people with knowledge and understanding ; but they must also comfort the afflicted and bind up the broken heart ; minister the Sacraments with great diligence , and righteous measures , and abundant charity , alwayes having in mind those passionate words of Christ to St. Peter ; If thou lovest me , feed my sheep ; If thou hast any love to me , feed my lambs . And let us remember this also , that nothing can enforce the people to obey their Bishops as they ought , but our doing that duty and charity to them which God requires . There is reason in these words of St. Chrysostom , [ It is necessary that the Church should adhere to their Bishop as the body to the head , as plants to their roots , as rivers to their springs , as children to their Fathers , as Disciples to their Masters . ] These similitudes express not onely the relation and dependency , but they tell us the reason of the duty . The head gives light and reason to conduct the body , the roots give nourishment to the plants , and the springs , perpetual emanation of waters to the channels . Fathers teach and feed their children , and Disciples receive wise instruction from their Masters : and if we be all this to the people , they will be all that to us ; and wisdom will compel them to submit , and our humility will teach them obedience , and our charity will invite their compliance . Our good example will provoke them to good works , and our meekness will melt them into softness and flexibility . For all the Lords people are populus voluntarius , a free and willing people ; and we who cannot compel their bodies , must thus constrain their souls ; by inviting their wills , by convincing their understandings , by the beauty of fair example , the efficacy and holiness and the demonstrations of the spirit . This is experimentum ejus qui in nobis loquitur Christus . The experiment of Christ that speaketh in us . For to this purpose those are excellent words which St. Paul spake . [ Remember them who have the rule over you , whose faith follow , considering the end of their conversation . ] There lyes the demonstration : and those Prelates who teach good life , whose Sermons are the measures of Christ , and whose life is a coppy of their Sermons ; these must be followed ; and surely these will : for these are burning and shining lights : but if we hold forth false fires , and by the amusement of evil examples call the vessels that sail upon a dangerous Sea to come upon a rock , or an iron shore instead of a safe harbour , we cause them to make shipwrack of their precious faith , and to perish in the deceiptful and unstable waters . Vox operum fortiùs sonat quàm verborum . A good life is the strongest argument that your faith is good , and a gentle voice will be sooner entertaind then a voice of thunder : but the greatest eloquence in the world , is a meek Spirit , and a liberal hand : these are the two pastoral staves the Prophet speaks of nognam & hovelim , beauty and bands : he that hath the staff of the beauty of holiness , the ornament of fair example , he hath also the staff of bands , atque in funiculis Adam trahet eos , in vinculis charitatis ; as the Prophet Hosea's expression is ; he shall draw the people after him by the cords of a man , by the bands of a holy charity . But if against all these demonstrations any man will be refractary ; We have in stead of a staff , an Apostolical rod ; which is the last and latest remedy , and either brings to repentance , or consignes to ruin and reprobation . If there were any time remaining ; I could reckon that the Episcopal order is the principle of Vnity in the Church ; and we see it is so , by the innumerable Sects that sprang up when Episcopacy was persecuted . I could adde , how that Bishops were the cause that St. Iohn wrote his Gospel ; that the Christian Faith was for 300 years together bravely defended by the sufferings , the prisons and the flames , the life and the death of Bishops , as the principal Combatants . That the Fathers of the Church whose writings are held in so great veneration in all the Christian World , were almost all of them Bishops . I could adde , that the Reformation of Religion in England was principally by the Preachings and the disputings , the vvritings and the Martyrdom of Bishops . That Bishops have ever since been the greatest defensatives against Popery . That England and Ireland were Governed by Bishops ever since they were Christian , and under their conduct have for so many ages enjoyed all the blessings of the Gospel . I could adde also , that Episcopacy is the great stabiliment of Monarchy ; but of this we are convinc'd by a sad and too dear bought experience . I could therefore in stead of it , say , that Episcopacy is the great ornament of Religion , the Gentry being little better then Servants , while they live under the Presbytery . That as it rescues the Clergy from contempt ; so it is the greatest preservative of the peoples liberty from Ecclesiastick Tyranny on one hand , and Anarchy and licentiousness on the other . That it endears obedience . And is subject to the Laws of Princes . And is wholly ordained for the good of mankind , and the benefit of Souls . But I cannot stay to number all the blessings which have entered into the world at this door : I onely remark these because they describe unto us the Bishops imployment , which is , to be buisy in the service of Souls , to do good in all capacities , to serve every mans need , to promote all publick benefits , to cement Governments , to establish peace , to propagate the Kingdom of Christ , to do hurt to no man , to do good to every man ; that is , so to minister , that Religion and Charity , publick peace , and private blessings may be in their exaltation . As long as it was thus done by the Primitive Bishops , the Princes and the People gave them all honour . Insomuch that by a decree of Constantine the great , the Bp. had power given him to retract the sentences made by the Presidents of Provinces , and we find in the acts of St. Nicholas , that he rescued some innocent persons from death when the executioner was ready to strike the fatal blow : which thing even vvhen it fell into inconvenience ; was indeed forbidden by Arcadius and Honorlus ; but the confidence and honour was onely chang'd , it was not taken away for the condemned criminal had leave to appeal to the Audientia Episcopalis , to the Bps Court. This was not any right which the Bishops could challenge , but a reward of their piety ; and so long as the Holy Office was holily administred , the World found so much comfort and security , so much justice and mercy , so many temporal and spiritual blessings consequent to the ministeries of that order , that as the Galatians to St. Paul , men have plucked out their eys to do them service , and to do them honour . For then Episcopacy did that good that God intended by it : it was a spiritual Government , by spiritual persons , for spiritual ends . Then the Princes and the People gave them honours because they deserv'd and sought them not : then they gave them wealth , because they would dispend it wisely , frugally and charitably : Then they gave them power ; because it was sure to be us'd for defence of the innocent , for relief of the oppressed , for the punishment of evil doers , and the reward of the virtuous . Then they desir'd to be judg'd by them because their audiences or Courts did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they appeas'd all furious sentences , and taught gentle principles , and gave merciful measures and in their Courts were all equity and piety , and Christian determinations . But afterwards , when they did fall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into saecular methods , and made their Counsels vain by pride , and durtyed their sentences with money , then they became like other men ; and so it will be , unless the Bps . be more holy then other men ; but when our sanctity and severity shall be as eminent as the calling is , then we shall be called to Councels , and sit in publick meetings , and bring comfort to private Families , and rule in the hearts of men by a jus relationis , such as was between the Roman Emperors and the Senate ; they courted one another into power , and in giving honour striv'd to out do each other : for from an humble wise man , no man will snatch an imployment that is honourable ; but from the proud and from the covetuous every man endeavours to wrest it , and thinks it lawful prize . My time is now done , and therefore I cannot speak to the third part of my text , the reward of the good Steward and of the bad : I shall onely mention it to you in a short exhortation ; and so conclude . In the Primitive Church a Bishop was never admitted to publick penance ; not onely because in them every crime is ten , and he that could discern a publick shame , could not discern a publick honor , nor yet onely because every such punishment was scandalous , and did more evil by the example of the crime , then it could do good by the example of the punishment : but also because no spiritual power is higher then the Episcopal , and therefore they were to be referred to the Divine judgment , which was likely to fall on them very heavily . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : the Lord will cut the evil Stewards asunder : he will suffer Schisms and Divisions to enter in upon us , and that will sadly cut us asunder , but the evil also shall fall upon their persons ; like the punishment of quartering Traitors , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , punnishment with the circumstances of detestation and exemplarity . Consider therefore what is your great duty . Consider what is your great danger . The lines of duty I have already describ'd ; onely remember how dear and pretious Souls are to God , since for their salvation Christ gave his bloud , and therefore will not easily loose them , whom though they had sin'd against him , yet he so highly valued ; remember that You are Christs deputies in the care of Souls , and that You succeed in the place of the Apostles . Non est facilè stare loco Pauli ; & tenere gradum Petri , ; You have undertaken the work of St. Paul , and the office of St. Peter , and what think you upon this account will be required of us : St. Hierom expresses it thus . The wisdom and skill of a Bishop ought to be so great ; that his countenance , his gesture , his motion , every thing should be vocal , ut quicquid agit , quicquid loquitur , doctrina sit Apostolorum : that whatever he does or speaks be doctrine Apostolical . The Ancient Fathers had a pious opinion , that besides the Angel guardian which is appointed to the guard of every man ; there is to every Bishop a second Angel appointed to him at the Consecration : and to this Origen alludes , saying that every Bishoprick hath two Angels , the one visible and the other invisible . This is a great matter and shews what a precious thing that order and those persons are in the eyes of God ; but then this also means , that we should live Angelick lives , which the Church rarely well expresses by saying , that Episcopal dignity is the Ecclesiastick state of perfection , and supposes the persons to be so far advanc'd in holiness as to be in the state of confirmation in grace . But I shall say nothing of these things ; because it may be they press too hard , but the use I shall make of it upon occasion of the reward of the good and bad Steward ; is to remind you of your great danger . For if it be required of Bishops to be so wise and so holy , so industrious and so careful , so buisy and so good up to the height of best examples , if they be anointed of the Lord , and are the Husbands of the Churches , if they be the Shepheards of the flock , and Stewards of the houshould ; it is very fit they consider their danger , that they may be careful to do their duty . St. Bernard considers it well in his epistle to Henry Archbishop of Sens ; If I lying in my Cell , and smoaking under a Bushel , not shining , yet cannot avoid the breath of the winds but that my light is almost blown out ; what will becom of my Candle if it were plac'd on a candlestick and set upon a hill ? I am to look to my self alone , and provide for my own salvation ; and yet I offend my self , I am weary of my self , I am my own scandal and my own danger : my own eye , and my own belly , and my own appetite find me work enough ; and therefore God help them who besides themselves are answerable for many others . Iacob kept the Sheep of Laban ; and We keep the Sheep of Christ : and Iacob was to answer for every Sheep that was stoln , and every lamb that was torn by the wild beast ; and so shall We too ; if by our fault one of Christs Sheep perish ; and yet it may be there are 100000. Souls committed to the care and conduct of some one Shepheard , who yet will find his own Soul work enough for all his care and watchfulness . If any man should desire me to carry a Frigat into the Indies in which a 100. men were imbarqued ; I vvere a mad man to undertake the charge , vvithout proportionable skill ; and therefore vvhen there is more danger , and more Souls , and rougher Seas , and more secret Rocks , and horrible Storms , and the Shipvvrack is an eternal loss , the matter vvill then require great consideration in the undertaking , and greatest care in the conduct . Vpon this account vve find many brave persons in the first and in the middle ages of the Church vvith great resolution refusing Episcopacy . I vvill not speak of those vvho for fear of Martyrdom declin'd it : but those vvho for fear of damnation did refuse . St. Bernard vvas by three rich Citties severally called to be their B p : and by tvvo to be their Arch-Bp. and he refus'd them ; St. Dominicus refus'd four successively ; St. Thomas Aquinas refus'd the Archbishoprick of Naples , and Vincentius Ferrerius vvould not accept of Valentia , or Ilerda , and Bernardinus Senensis refus'd the Bishopricks of Sens , Vrbin and Ferrara . They had reason ; and yet if they had done amiss in that office vvhich they declin'd , it had been something more excusable ; but if they that seek it be as careless in the office as they are greedy of the honour , that vvill be found intolerable . Electus Episcopus ambulat in disco , recusans volvitur in arcâ , said the Hermit in St. Hierom. The Bp. walks upon round and trundling stones , but he that refuses it , stands upon a floor . But I shall say no more of it ; because I suppose you have read it and considered it in St. Chrysostoms six books de sacerdotio , in the Apologetie of St. Greg. Naz. in the pastoral of St. Greg. of Rome , in St. Dionysius's 8th . epistle to Demophilus , in the Letters of Epiphanius to St. Hierom , in St. Austins Epistle to Bp. Valerius , in St. Bernards life of St. Malachy , in St. Hieroms 138th . Epistle to Fabiola ; These things I am sure you could not read without trembling ; and certainly , if it can belong to any Christian , then [ work out your Salvation with fear and trembling ] that 's the Bishops burden . For the Bishop is like a man that is surety for his friend ; he is bound for many , and for great sums ; what 's to be done in this case ? Solomons answer is the way : Do this now , my Son , deliver thy self , make sure thy friend , give not sleep to thine eyes , nor slumber to thine eye lids : that is , be sedulous to discharge thy trust , to perform thy charge ; be zealous for Souls , and careless of money ; and remember this , that even in Christs Family there was one sad example of an Apostate Apostle ; and he fell into that fearful estate merely by the desire and greediness of money . Be warm in zeal , and indifferent in thy temporalities . For he that is zealous in temporals , and cold in the spiritual : he that doth the accessories of his calling by himself , and the principal by his Deputies : he that is present at the feast of Sheep shearing , and puts others to feed the flock , hath no signe at all upon him of a good Shepheard . It is not fit for us to leave the word of God , and to serve tables . said the Apostles . And if it be a less worthy office to serve the tables even of the poor , to the diminution of our care in the dispensation of Gods word ; it must needs be an unworthy imployment to leave the word of God , and to attend the rich and superfluous furniture of our own Tables . Remember the quality of your charges . Civitas est , Vigilate ad custodiam & concordiam : sponsa est , studete amari : oves sunt , intendite pastui . The Church is a Spouse ; The Universal Church is Christs Spouse ; but your own Diocess is yours ; behave your selves so , that ye be beloved . Your people are as sheep , and they must be fed and guided and preserved , and healed , and brought home . The Church is a City , and you are the watch man , Take care that the City be kept at Vnity in it self : be sure to make peace amongst your people , suffer no hatreds , no quarrels , no suits at Law amongst the Citizens , which you can avoid : make peace in your Diocesses by all the ways of prudence , piety and authority that you can , and let not your own corrections of criminals be to any purpose , but for their amendment , for the cure of offenders , as long as there is hope , and for the security of those who are sound and whole . Preach often , and pray continually ; let your discipline be with charity , and your censures slow : let not Excommunications pass for trifles ; and drive not away the fly from your brothers forehead with a hatchet : give counsel frequently , and dispensations seldom , but never without necessity or great charity . Let every place in your Diocess say , Invenerunt me vigiles , the Watch men have found me out , hassovevim . They that walk the City round , have sought me out and found me . Let every one of us , ( as St. Paul's expression is , ) shew himself a workman , that shall not be ashamed : operarium inconfusibilem , mark that , such a labourer as shall not be put to shame for his illness , or his unskilfulness , his falseness and unfaithfulness in that day when the great Bishop of Souls shall make his last and dreadful visitation . For be sure , there is not a carkase nor a skin , not a lock of wool , nor a drop of milk of the whole flock , but God shall for it call the Idol Shepheard to a severe account . And how , think you , will his anger burn , when he shall see so many Goats standing at his left hand , and so few Sheep at his right ? and upon inquiry shall find , that his ministering Shepheards , were Wolves in Sheeps cloathing ; and that by their ill example , or pernitious doctrines , their care of money , and carelesness of their flocks , so many Souls perish : who if they had been carefully and tenderly , wisely and conscientiously handled , might have shin'd as bright as Angels . And it is a sad consideration to remember how many Souls are pittifully handled in this world , and carelesly dismissed out of this world : they are left to live at their own rate , and when they are sick they are bidden to be of good comfort , and then all is well : who when they are dead , find themselves cheated of their pretious and invaluable eternity . Oh , how will those Souls in their eternal prisons for ever curse those evil and false guides ! and how will those evil guides themselves abide in judgment , when the Angels of wrath snatch their abused people into everlasting torments ! For will God bless them or pardon them , by whom so many Souls perish ? shall they reign with Christ , who evacuate the death of Christ , and make it useless to dear Souls ? Shall they partake of Christs glories , by whom it comes to pass that there is less joy in Heaven it self , even because sinners are not converted , and God is not glorifyed , and the people is not instructed , and the Kingdom of God is not filled ? Oh no! the curses of a false Prophet vvill fall upon them , and the revvard of the evil Stevvard vvill be their portion , and they vvho destroyed the Sheep , or neglected them , shall have their portion vvith Goats for ever and ever in everlasting burnings , in vvhich it is impossible for a man to dvvell . Can any thing be beyond this ? beyond damnation ? Surely a man would think , not . And yet I remember a severe saying of St. Gregory ; Scire debent Praelati , quod tot mortibus digni sunt , quot perditionis exempla ad subditos extenderunt . One damnation is not enough for an evil Shepheard : but for every Soul who dies by his evil example or pernitious carelesness , he deserves a new death , a new damnation . Let us therefore be wise and faithful , walk warily , and watch carefully , and rule diligently , and pray assiduously . For God is more propense to rewards , then to punishments : and the good Steward that is wise and faithful in his dispensation , shall be greatly blessed . But how ? He shall be made ruler over the houshold . What is that ? for he is so already . True : but he shall be much more : Ex dispensatore faciet procuratorem , God will treat him as Ioseph was treated by his Master ; he was first a Steward , and then a Procurator , one that rul'd his goods without account , and without restraint . Our ministry shall pass into Empire , our labour into rest , our watchfulness into fruition , and our Bishoprick to a Kingdom . In the mean time our Bishopricks are a great and weighty care , and in a spiritual sense , our dominion is founded in grace , and our rule is in the hearts of the people , and our strengths are the powers of the Holy Ghost , and the weapons of our warfare are spiritual : and the eye of God watches over us curiously , to see if we watch over our Flocks by day and by night . And though the Primitive Church ( as the Ecclesiastick Histories observe , ) when they depos'd a Bishop from his office , ever conceal'd his crime , and made no record of it : yet remember this , that God does , and will call us to a strict and severe account . Take heed that you may never hear that fearful sentence , I was hungry and ye gave me no meat . If you suffer Christs little ones to starve , it will be required severely at your hands ; And know this , that the time will quickly come , in which God shall say unto thee in the words of the Prophet , VVhere is the Flock that was given thee , thy beautiful Flock ? what wilt thou say when he shall visit thee ? God of his mercy grant unto us all to be so faithful and so wise , as to convert Souls , and to be so blessed and so assisted , that we may give an account of our charges with joy , to the glory of God , to the edification and security of our Flocks , and the salvation of our own Souls , in that day when the great Shepheard and Bishop of our Souls shall come to judgment , even our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost , be all Honour and Glory , Love and Obedience , now and for evermore , Amen . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A64128-e180 Ep. 69. Jerem. 9.1 . Esa. 26.12 . 2 Thes. 3.1 . Notes for div A64128-e610 * Cap. 24. 25. Epist. 73. ad Juba●● 1 Tim. 6.14 * Ro. 12.6 . Ephe. 4.11 . 1 Cor. 12.28 . * Acts 1.25 . 1 Tim. 5.19 . 1 Tit. 11. & 2 Titus 15. Cap. 2. v. 2. Gal. 1.19 . * 2 Cor. 8.23 Philip 2.25 . Psalm 45.16 in 1 Cor. 12. in Psalm 44. Epist. 1. Simpronianum . Epist. 65. ad Rogat . Quaest. V. & N.T.q. 197. Isai. 60.17 Hunc locum etiam citat S. Clemens Ep. ad Cor Neh. 11.10 2 Kin. 11.18 Numb . 4.16 . Epist. 2. ad Nepot . Epistol . ad Evagrium . Hebr. 13.17 . Acts 1. 25. Isaia . 60.17 . 1 Pet. 5 . 1.5● Luke 22.27 Mark 10.43 John 13.13 Lib. 3. Tit. 1 1 Tim. 1.19 2 Tim. 3.9 , in Cap. 2. Zeph. Lib. 1. Ep. 4. Dial. adv . Lucifer . Eccl. 45.26 . & 24. c. Concil . Antioch . 1 Cor. 4.1,2,3 . Jer. 3.15 . Hebr. 13.7 . Zech. 11.7 . Cap. 11. Prov. 6.3,4 . D. Bernard . ad Henr. Epise . Senensem . 2 Tim. 2. Jer. 13.20.21 . 
A64131	----	A sermon preached at the opening of the Parliament of Ireland, May 8. 1661 before the right honourable the Lords justices, and the Lords spiritual and temporal and the commons / by Jeremy Lord Bishop of Down and Connor. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. 1661 Approx. 70 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 30 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2003-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A64131 Wing T393 ESTC R33899 13604197 ocm 13604197 100743 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A64131) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 100743) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1051:10) A sermon preached at the opening of the Parliament of Ireland, May 8. 1661 before the right honourable the Lords justices, and the Lords spiritual and temporal and the commons / by Jeremy Lord Bishop of Down and Connor. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. [14], 45 p. Printed by J.F. for R. Royston ..., London : 1661. Reproduction of original in the Union Theological Seminary Library, New York. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Bible. -- O.T. -- Samuel, 1st, XV, 22-23 -- Sermons. Sermons, English -- 17th century. 2002-01 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2002-02 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2002-03 TCP Staff (Oxford) Sampled and proofread 2002-03 Judith Siefring Text and markup reviewed and edited 2002-04 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A SERMON PREACHED At the opening of the Parliament of IRELAND , May 8. 1661. Before the right Honourable the Lords Justices , and the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons . By JEREMY Lord Bishop of Down and Connor . Salus in multitudine consulentium . LONDON , Printed by I. F. for R. Royston , Bookseller to his most Sacred MAJESTY , 1661. To the Right Honourable , the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons of Ireland Assembled in PARLIAMENT . My Lords and Gentlemen ; I Ought not to dispute your commands for the printing my Sermon of Obedience ; lest my Sermon should be protestatio contra factum : here I know my Example would be the best Use to this Doctrine , and I am sure to find no inconveniency so great as that of Disobedience ; neither can I be confident that I am wise in any thing but when I obey ; for then I have the wisdome of my Superiour for my warrant , or my excuse . I remember the saying of Aurelius the Emperor , AEquius est me tot & talium amicorum consilium , quam tot tales meam unius voluntatem sequi . I could easily have pretended excuses , but that day I had taught others the contrary ; and I would not shed that Chalice which my own hands had newly filled with waters issuing from the fountains of Salvation . My eyes are almost grown old with seeing the horrid mischiefs which came from Rebellion and Disobedience ; and I would willingly now be blessed with observation of Peace and Righteousness , Plenty and Religion , which do already , and I hope shall for ever , attend upon Obedience to the best KING and the best CHURCH in the world . I see no objection against my hopes , but that which ought least of all in this case to be pretended . Men pretend Conscience against Obedience ; expressly against Saint Paul's Doctrine , teaching us to obey for conscience sake ; but to disobey for Conscience in a thing indifferent , is never to be found in the books of our Religion . It is very hard when the Prince is forc'd to say to his rebellious Subject , as God did to his stubborn people , Quid faciam tibi ? I have tried all the waies I can to bring thee home , and what shall I now doe unto thee ? The Subject should rather say , Quid me vis facere ? What wilt thou have me to doe ? This Question is the best end of disputations . Corrumpitur atque dissolvitur Imperantis officium , si quis ad id quod facere jussus est , non obsequio debito , sed consilio non considerato respondeat , said one in A. Gellius . When a Subject is commanded to obey , and he disputes , and saies , Nay , but the other is better , he is like a servant that gives his Master necessary counsel , when he requires of him a necessary obedience . Utilius parére edicto quam efferre consilium , he had better obey then give counsel : by how much it is better to be profitable then to be witty , to be full of goodness rather then full of talk and argument . But all this is acknowledged true in strong men , but not in the weak ; in vigorous , but not in tender Consciences : for Obedience is strong meat , and will not down with weak stomacks . As if in the world any thing were easier then to obey : for we see that the food of Children is milk and lawes ; the breast-milk of their Nurses and the commands of their Parents is all that food and Government by which they are kept from harm and hunger , and conducted to life and wisdome . And therefore they that are weak brethren , of all things in the world have the least reason to pretend an excuse for disobedience , for nothing can secure them but the wisdome of the Laws : for they are like Children in minority ; they cannot be trusted to their own conduct , and therefore must live at the publick charge , and the wisdome of their Superiors is their guide and their security . And this was wisely advised by S. Paul , Him that is weak in the faith receive , but not to doubtfull disputations : that 's not the way for him ; Children must not dispute with their Fathers and their Masters . If old men will dispute , let them look to it ; that 's meat for the strong indeed , though it be not very nutritive : but the Laws and the Counsels , the Exhortations and the Doctrines of our Spiritual Rulers , are the measures by which God hath appointed Babes in Christ to become Men , and the weak to become strong ; and they that are not to be received to doubtful disputations , are to be received with the arms of love into the imbraces of a certain and regular Obedience . But it would be considered , that Tenderness of Conscience is an equivocal terme , and does not alwaies signifie in a good sense . For a Child is of a tender flesh ; but he whose foot is out of joint , or hath a bile in his arme , or hath strained a sinew , is much more tender . The tenderness of age is that weakness that is in the ignorant and the new beginners : the tenderness of a bile , that is soreness indeed rather then tenderness , is of the diseased , the abused , and the mis-perswaded . The first indeed are to be tenderly dealt with , and have usages accordingly : but that is the same I have already told ; you must teach them , you must command them , you must guide them , you must chuse for them , you must be their guardians , and they must comport themselves accordingly . But for that tenderness of Conscience which is the disease and soreness of Conscience , it must be cured by anodynes and soft usages , unless they prove ineffective , and that the Launcet be necessary . But there are amongst us such tender stomacks , that cannot endure Milk , but can very well digest Iron ; Consciences so tender , that a Ceremony is greatly offensive , but Rebellion is not ; a Surplice drives them away as a bird affrighted with a man of clouts , but their Consciences can suffer them to despise Government , and speak evil of Dignities , and curse all that are not of their Opinion , and disturb the peace of Kingdomes , and commit Sacrilege , and account Schisme the character of Saints . The true Tenderness of Conscience is 1. that which is impatient of a sin ; 2ly , it will not endure any thing that looks like it ; and 3ly , it will not give offence . Now since all Sin is Disobedience , 1. it will be rarely contingent that a man in a Christian Common-wealth shall be tied to disobey , to avoid sin : and certain it is , if such a case could happen , yet 2ly , nothing of our present questions is so like a sin , as when we refuse to obey the Laws ; to stand in a clean Vestment is not so ill a sight as to see men stand in separation , and to kneel at the Communion is not so like Idolatry as Rebellion is to Witchcraft : and then 3ly , for the matter of giving offences , what scandal is greater then that which scandalizes the Laws ? and who is so carefully to be observed , lest he be offended , as the KING ? And if that which offends the weak brother is to be avoided , much more that which offends the strong ; for this is certainly really criminal , but for the other it is much oddes but it is mistaken . And when the case is so put , between the obedient and the disobedient , which shall be offended , and one will , I suppose there is no question but the Laws will take more care of Subjects then of Rebels , and not weaken them in their duty in compliance with those that hate the Laws , and will not endure the Government . And after all this , in the conduct of Government what remedy can there be to those that call themselves Tender Consciences ? I shall not need say that every man can easily pretend it ; for we have seen the vilest part of mankind , men that have done things so horrid , worse then which the Sun never saw , yet pretend tender Consciences against Ecclesiastical Laws : but I will suppose that they are really such , that they in the simplicity of their hearts follow Absolom , and in weakness hide their heads in little Conventicles and places of separation for a trifle ; what would they have done for themselves ? If you make a Law of Order , and in the sanction put a clause of favour for tender Consciences , do not you invite every Subject to Disobedience by impunity , and teach him how to make his own excuse ? is not such a Law , a Law without an obligation ? may not every man chuse whether he will obey or no ? and if he pretends to disobey out of Conscience , is not he that disobeyes equally innocent with the obedient ; altogether as just , as not having done any thing without leave , and yet much more Religious and conscientious ? Quicunque vult is but an ill preface to a Law ; and it is a strange obligation that makes no difference between him that obeyes and him that refuses to obey . But what course must be taken with tender Consciences ? Shall the execution of the Law be suspended as to all such persons ? that will be all one with the former : for if the execution be commanded to be suspended , then the obligation of the Law by command is taken away , and then it were better there were no Law made . And indeed that is the pretension , that is the secret of the business ; they suppose the best way to prevent Disobedience is to take away all Laws . It is a short way indeed ; there shall then be no Disobedience , but at the same time there shall be no Government : but the Remedy is worse then the Disease ; and to take away all Wine and strong drink to prevent Drunkenness would not be half so great a folly . I cannot therefore tell what to advise in this particular , but that every Spiritual guide should consider who are tender Consciences and who are weak brethren , and use all the waies of piety and prudence to instruct and to inform them , that they may increase in knowledge and spiritual understanding . But they that will be alwaies learning and never come to the knowledge of the truth , they that will be children of a hundred years old and never come to years of discretion , they are very unfit to guide others , and to be Curates of Souls : but they are most unfit to reprove the Laws , and speak against the wisdome of a Nation , when it is confessed that they are so weak , that they understand not the fundamental Liberty which Christ hath purchased for them , but are servants to a scruple , and affrighted at a circumstance , and in bondage under an indifferent thing , and so much Idolaters of their Sect or Opinion as to prefer it before all their own nobler Interests , and the Charity of their brother , and the Peace of a whole Church and Nation . To you , my Lords and Gentlemen , I hope I may say as Marcus Curius said to a stubborn young man , Non opus Vos habere cive qui parére nesciret ; the Kingdome hath no need of those that know not how to obey . But as for them who have weak and tender Consciences , they are in the state of Childhood and minority : but then you know that a Child is never happy by having his own humor : if you chuse for him , and make him to use it , he hath but one thing to doe ; but if you put him to please himself , he is troubled with every thing , and satisfied with nothing . We find that all Christian Churches kept this Rule . They kept themselves and others close to the rule of Faith , and peaceably suffered one another to differ in Ceremonies , but suffered no difference amongst their own : they gave Liberty to other Churches , and gave Laws , and no Liberty , to their own Subjects . And at this day the Churches of Geneva , France , Switzerland , Germany , Low Countries , tye all their people to their own Laws , but tye up no mans Conscience ; if he be not perswaded as they are , let him charitably dissent , and leave that Government , and adhere to his own Communion . If you be not of their mind , they will be served by them that are : they will not trouble your Conscience , and you shall not disturb their Government . But when men think they cannot enjoy their Conscience unless you give them good Livings , and if you prefer them not , you afflict their Consciences , they do but too evidently declare that it is not their Consciences but their Profits they would have secured . Now to these I have only this to say , That their Conscience is to be enjoyed by the measures of God's Word , but the Rule for their Estates is the Laws of the Kingdome : and I shew you yet a more excellent way ; Obedience is the best security for both ; because this is the best conservatory of Charity and Truth and Peace . Si vis brevi perfectus esse , esto obediens etiam in minimis , was the saying of a Saint ; and the world uses to look for Miracles from them whom they shall esteem Saints : but I had rather see a man truly humble and obedient , then to see him raise a man from the dead , said old Pachomius . But to conclude : if weak brethren shall still plead for Toleration and Compliance , I hope my Lords the Bishops will consider where it can doe good and doe no harm , where they are permitted , and where themselves are bound up by the Laws , and in all things where it is safe and holy to labour to bring them ease and to give them remedy : but to think of removing the Disease by feeding the Humor , I confess it is a strange cure to our present Distempers . He that took clay and spittle to open the blind eyes can make any thing be collyrium ; but he alone can doe it . But whether any humane power can bring good from so unlikely an instrument , if any man desires yet to be better informed , I desire him , besides the calling to mind the late sad effects of Schisme , to remember that no Church in Christendome ever did it . It is neither the way of Peace nor Government , nor yet a proper remedy for the cure of a weak Conscience . I shall therefore pray to God that these men who separate in simplicity may by God's mercy be brought to understand their own Liberty , and that they may not for ever be babes and Neophytes , and wax old in trifles , and for ever stay at entrances and outsides of Religion ; but that they would pass in interiora domûs , and seek after Peace and Righteousness , Holiness and Iustice , the love of God and Evangelical perfections ; and then they will understand how ill-advised they are who think Religion consists in zeal against Ceremonies and speaking evil of the Laws . My Lords and Gentlemen , what I said in pursuance of publick Peace and private Duty , and some little incidences to both , I now humbly present to you , more to shew my own Obedience then to re-mind you of your Duty , which hitherto you have so well observed in your amicable and sweet concord of counsels and affections , during this present Session . I owe many thanks to you who heard me patiently , willingly and kindly ; I endeavoured to please God , and I find I did not displease you : but he is the best hearer of a Sermon who first loves the Doctrine , and then practises it ; and that you have hitherto done , very piously and very prosperously . I pray God continue to direct your Counsels so that you in all things may please him , and in all things be blessed by him , that all generations may call you blessed Instruments of a lasting Peace , the restorers of the old paths , the Patrons of the Church , friends of Religion , and Subjects fitted for your Prince , who is Iust up to the greatest example , and Merciful beyond all examples , a Prince who hath been nourished , and preserved , and restored , and blessed by Miracles ; a Prince whose Vertues and Fortunes are equally the greatest . 1 SAMUEL 15. latter part of the 22th verse . Behold to obey is better then sacrifice , and to hearken then the fat of rams . First part of the 23th . For Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft , and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry . IN the world nothing is more easy then to say our Prayers , and to obey our Superiors ; and yet in the world there is nothing to which we are so unwilling as to Prayer , and nothing seems so intolerable as Obedience : for men esteem all Laws to be fetters , and their Superiors are their enemies : and when a command is given , we turn into all shapes of excuse to escape from the imposition : For either the authority is incompetent , or the law it self is Statutum non bonum , or it is impossible to be kept , or at least very inconvenient , and we are to be reliev'd in equity , or there is a secret dispensation , and it does not bind in my particular case , or not now ; or it is but the law of a man , and was made for a certain end ; or it does not bind the conscience , but 't was only for Political regards ; or , if the worst happen , I will obey passively , and then I am innocent . Thus every man snuffes up the wind , like the wild asses in the wilderness , and thinks that Authority is an incroachment upon a mans birth-right ; and in the mean time never considers that Christ took upon him our Nature that he might learn us Obedience , and in that also make us become like unto God. In his Justice and his Mercy he was imitable before ; but before the Incarnation of Christ we could not in passive graces imitate God who was impassible . But he was pleased at a great rate to set forward this duty ; and when himself became obedient in the hardest point , obediens usque ad mortem , and is now become to us the author and finisher of our Obedience , as well as of our Faith , admonetur omnis aetas fieri posse quod aliquando factum est . We must needs confess it very possible to obey the severest of the divine laws , even to dye if God commands , because it was already done by a man ; and we must needs confess it excellent , because it was done by God himself . But this great Example is of universal influence in the whole matter of Obedience . For that I may speak of that part of this Duty which can be useful , and concerns us ; Men do not deny but they must obey in all Civil things , but in Religion they have a Supreme , God only , and Conscience is his interpreter ; and in effect every man must be the Judge whether he shall obey or no. Therefore it is that I say , the Example of our Lord is the great determination of this inquiry : for he did obey and suffer , according to the commands of his Superiors under whose Government he was placed ; he gave his back to the smiters , and his cheeks to the nippers ; he kept the orders of the Rulers , and the customes of the Synagogues , the Law of Moses and the rights of the Temple ; and by so doing he fulfilled all righteousness . Christ made no distinctions in his Obedience , but obeyed God in all things , and those that God set over him in all things according to God , and in things of Religion most of all ; because to obey was of it self a great instance of Religion , and if ever Religion comes to be pretended against Obedience in any thing where our Superior can command , it is imposture : For that is the purpose of my text , Obedience is better then Sacrifice . Our own judgment , our own opinion is the sacrifice , seldome fit to be offered to God , but most commonly deserving to be consumed by fire : but take it at the best , it is not half so good as Obedience ; for that was indeed Christ's Sacrifice , and ( as David said of Goliah's sword , non est alter talis ) there is no other sacrifice that can be half so good : and when Abraham had lifted up his sacrificing knife to slay his Son , and so express'd his obedience , God would have no more ; he had the Obedience , and he cared not for the Sacrifice . By Sacrifice here then is meant the external and contingent actions of Religion ; by Obedience is meant submission to Authority , and observing the command . Obedience is a not chusing our Duty , a not disputing with our Betters , not to argue , not to delay , not to murmure ; it is not this , but it is much better ; for it is Love , and Simplicity , and Humility , and Usefulness , and I think these do reductively contain all that is excellent in the whole conjugation of Christian Graces . My Text is a perfect Proposition , and hath no special remark in the words of it ; but is only a great representation of the most useful Truth to all Kingdomes and Parliaments and Councels and Authorities in the whole world : It is your Charter , and the Sanction of your authority , and the stabiliment of your Peace , and the honour of your Laws , and the great defence of your Religion , and the building up and the guarding of the King's Throne . It is that by which all the Societies in heaven and earth are firm : without this you cannot have a Village prosperous , or a Ship arrive in harbour . It is that which God hath bound upon us by hope and fear , by wrath and conscience , by duty and necessity . Obedience is the formality of all Vertues , and every Sin is Disobedience . There can no greater thing be said , unless you please to adde , that we never read that the earth opened and swallowed up any man alive , but a company of rebellious disobedient people , who rose up against Moses and Aaron , the Prince of the People , and the Priest of God. For Obedience is the most necessary thing in the world , and corruptio optimi est pessima : Disobedience is the greatest evil in the world , and that alone which can destroy it . My text is instanced in the matter of Obedience to God ; but yet the case is so , that though I shall in the first place discourse of our Obedience to man , I shall not set one foot aside from the main intention of it ; because Obedience to our Superiors is really and is accounted to be Obedience to God , for they are sent by God , they are his vicegerents , his Ministers , and his Embassadors . Apostolus cujusque est quisque say the Jewes , Every mans Apostle is himself ; and he that heareth or despiseth you , said Christ , heareth or despiseth me : And the reason is very evident , because it is not to be expected that God should speak to us by himself , but sometimes by Angels , sometimes by Prophets , once by his Son , and alwaies by his Servants . Now I desire two things to be observed . First , We may as well perceive that God speaks to us when he uses the ministry of men as when he uses the ministry of Angels : one is as much declared and as certain as the other . And if it be said , a man may pretend to come from God , and yet deliver nothing but his own errand ; that is no strange thing : but remember also that S. Paul puts this supposition in the case of an Angel , [ If an Angel preach any other Gospel ; ] and we know that many Angels come like Angels of light , who yet teach nothing but the waies of Darkness . So that we are still as much bound to obey our Superior as to obey an Angel : a man is paulò minor angelis , a little lower then the Angels ; but we are much lower then the King. Consider then with what fear and love we should receive an Angel , and so let us receive all those whom God hath sent to us , and set over us ; for they are no less : less indeed in their Persons , but not in their Authorities . Nay the case is nearer yet ; for we are not only bound to receive God's Deputies as God's Angel , but as God himself . For it is the power of God in the hand of a man , and he that resists , resists God's ordinance . And I pray remember that there is not only no power greater then God's , but there is no other ; for all Power is his . The consequent of this is plain enough ; I need say no more of it : It is all one to us who commands , God , or God's Vicegerent . This was the first thing to be observed . Secondly , there can be but two things in the world requir'd to make Obedience necessary , the greatness of the Authority , and the worthiness of the Thing . In the first you see the case can have no difference , because the thing it self is but one . There is but one Authority in the world , and that is God's : as there is but one Sun whose light is diffused into all Kingdomes . But is there not great difference in the Thing commanded ? Yes certainly , there is some ; but nothing to warrant disobedience : for whatever the thing be , it may be commanded by man , if it be not countermanded by God. For 1. It is not required that every thing commanded should of it self be necessary ; for God himself oftentimes commands things which have in them no other excellency then that of Obedience . What made Abraham the friend of God ? and what made his offer to kill his Son to be so pleasing to God ? It had been naturally no very great good to cut the throat of a little child ; but only that it was Obedience . What excellency was there in the journeys of the Patriarchs from Mesopotamia to Syria , from the land of Canaan into Egypt ? and what thanks could the sons of Israel deserve that they sate still upon the seventh day of the week ? and how can man be dearer unto God by keeping of a Feast , or building of a Booth , or going to Ierusalem , or cutting off the foreskin of a boy , or washing their hands and garments in fair water ? There was nothing in these things but the Obedience . And when our blessed Lord himself came to his Servant to take of him the Baptisme of Repentance , alas , he could take nothing but the water and the ceremony : for , as Tertullian observes , he was nullius poenitentiae debitor , he was indeed a just person and needed no repentance ; but even so it became him to fulfil all righteousness : but yet even then it was that the Holy Spirit did descend upon his holy head , and crown'd that Obedience , though it were but to a ceremony . Obedience , you see , may be necessary when the law is not so . For in these cases , God's Son and God's Servants did obey in things which were made good only by the commandement : and if we doe so in the Instances of humane Laws , there is nothing to be said against it , but that what was not of it self necessary , is made so by the authority of the Commander and the force of the Commandement . But there is more in it then so . For , 2ly , We pretend to be willing to obey even in things naturally not necessary , if a divine command does interpose ; but if it be only a commandement of man , and the thing be not necessary of it self , then we desire to be excus'd . But will we doe nothing else ? We our selves will doe many things that God hath not commanded , and may not our Superiors command us in many cases to doe what we may lawfully doe without a commandement ? Can we become a law unto our selves , and cannot the word and power of our Superiors also become a law unto us ? hath God given more to a private then to a publick hand ? But consider the ill consequents of this fond opinion . Are all the practices of Geneva or Scotland recorded in the Word of God ? are the trifling Ceremonies of their publick Penance recorded in the four Gospels ? are all the rules of decency , and all things that are of good report , and all the measures of prudence , and the laws of peace and war , and the customes of the Churches of God , and the lines of publick honesty , are all these described to us by the laws of God ? If they be , let us see and read them , that we may have an end to all questions and minute cases of Conscience : but if they be not , and yet by the Word of God these are bound upon us in the general , and no otherwise ; then it follows that the particulars of all these , which may be infinite , and are innumerable , yet may be the matter of humane Laws ; and then are bound upon us by the power of God put into the hands of man. The consequent is this , that whatsoever is commanded by our Superior according to the will of God , or whatsoever is not against it , is of necessity to be obey'd . 3ly , But what if our Princes or our Prelates command things against the Word of God ? what then ? Why nothing then , but that we must obey God and not man ; there 's no dispute of that . But what then again ? Why therefore saies the Papist I will not obey the Protestant Kings , because against the Word of God they command me to come to Church where Heresy is preached ; and I will not acknowledge the Bishops , saith the Presbyterian , because they are against the discipline and scepter of Iesus Christ ; and the Independent hates Parochial meetings , and is wholly for a gathered Church , and supposes this to be the practice Apostolical ; and I will not bring my Child to Baptisme , ( saith the Anabaptist ) because God calls none but believers to that Sacrament ; and I will acknowledge no Clergy , no Lord , no Master , saith the Quaker , because Christ commands us to call no man master on the earth , and be not called of men Rabbi . And if you call upon these men to obey the Authority God hath set over them , they tell you with one voice , with all their hearts , as far as the Word of God will give them leave ; but God is to be obey'd , and not man : and therefore if you put the Laws in execution against them , they will obey you passively , because you are stronger , and so long as they know it they will not stir against you ; but they in the mean time are little less then Martyrs , and you no better then Persecutors . What shall we doe now ? for here is evidently a great heap of disorder : they all confess that authority must be obey'd ; but when you come to the trial , none of them all will doe it , and they think they are not bound : but because their Opinions being contrary cannot all be right , and it may be none of them are , it is certain that all this while Authority is infinitely wronged and prejudiced amongst them , when all fantastick Opinions shall be accounted a sufficient reason to despise it . I hope the Presbyterian will joyn with the Protestant , and say that the Papist , and the Socinian , and the Independent , and the Anabaptist , and the Quaker are guilty of Rebellion and Disobedience for all their pretence of the Word of God to be on their side : and I am more sure that all these will joyn with the Protestant , and say that the Presbyterian hath no reason to disobey Authority upon pretence of their new Government concerning which they do but dream dreams , when they think they see visions . Certain it is that the biggest part of dissenters in the whole world are criminally disobedient ; and it is a thousand to one but that Authority is in the right against them , and ought to be obey'd . It remains now in the next place , that we inquire what Authority is to doe in this case , and what these Sectaries and Recusants are to doe ; for these are two things worth inquiry . 1. Concerning Authority . All disagreeing persons , to cover their foul shame of Rebellion or Disobedience , pretend Conscience for their Judge , and the Scripture for their Law. Now if these men think that by this means they proceed safely , upon the same ground the Superior may doe what he thinks to be his duty , and be at least as safe as they . If the Rebellious Subject can think that by God's Law he ought not to obey ; the Prince may at the same time think that by God's Law he ought to punish him : and it is as certain that he is justly punished , as he thinks it certain he reasonably disobeys . Or is the Conscience of the Superior bound to relaxe his lawes , if the inferior tells him so ? Can the Prince give Laws to the peoples will ; and can the people give measures to the Princes understanding ? If any one of the people can prescribe or make it necessary to change the Law , then every one can ; and by this time every new Opinion will introduce a new Law , and that Law shall be obey'd by him only that hath a mind to it , and that will be a strange Law that binds a man only to doe his own pleasure . But because the King's Conscience is to him as sure a Rule as the Conscience of any disobedient Subject can be to himself , the Prince is as much bound to doe his duty in Government , as the other can be to follow his Conscience in disagreeing ; and the consequent will be , that whether the Subject be right or wrong in the disputation , it is certain he hath the just reward of Disobedience in the conclusion . If one mans Conscience can be the measure of another mans action , why shall not the Princes Conscience be the Subject's measure ? but if it cannot , then the Prince is not to depart from his own Conscience , but proceed according to the Laws which he judges just and reasonable . 2. The Superior is tied by the laws of Christian Charity so far to bend in the ministration of his Laws , as to pity the invincible Ignorance and Weakness of his abused people , qui devoratur à malis Pastoribus ( as S. Hierom's expression is ) that are devour'd by their evill Shepheards : but this is to last no longer then till the Ignorance can be cured , and the man be taught his duty ; for whatsoever comes after this looks so like Obstinacy , that no Laws in the world judge it to be any thing else . And then secondly , this also is to be understood to be the duty of Superiors only in matters of mere Opinion , not relating to Practice . For no mans Opinion must be suffer'd to doe mischief , to disturb the Peace , to dishonour the Government : not only because every disagreeing person can to serve his end pretend his Conscience , and so claim impunity for his Villany ; but also because those things which concern the good of mankind and the Peace of Kingdomes are so plainly taught , that no man who thinks himself so wise as to be fit to oppose Authority , can be so foolish as in these things not to know his Duty . In other things , if the Opinion does neither bite nor scratch , if it dwells at home in the house of understanding , and wanders not into the out-houses of Passion and popular orations , the Superior imposes no laws , and exacts no obedience , and destroies no liberty , and gives no restraint . This is the part of Authority . 2. The next enquiry is , What must the disagreeing Subject doe when he supposes the Superiors command is against the Law of God ? I answer that if he thinks so , and thinks true , he must not obey his Superior in that : but because most men that think so think amiss , there are many particulars fit by such persons to be consider'd . 1. Let such men think charitably of others , and that all are not fools or mad-men who are not of the same Opinion with themselves or their own little party . 2. Let him think himself as fallible and subject to mistake as other men are . 3. But let him by no means think that every Opinion of his is an Inspiration from God ; for that is the pride and madness of a pretended Religion : such a man is to be cured by Physick ; for he could not enter into that perswasion by Reason or Experience , and therefore it must enter into him by folly or the anger of God. 4. From hence it will naturally follow , that he ought to think his Opinion to be uncertain , and that he ought not to behave himself like the man that is too confident ; but because his Obedience is Duty , and his Duty certain , he will find it more wise and safe and holy to leave that which is disputable , and pursue that which is demonstrable ; to change his uncertain Opinion for his certain Duty . For it is twenty to one but he is deceived in his Opinion ; but if he be , it is certain that whatsoever his Conscience be , yet in his separation from Authority he is a sinner . 2. Every man who by his Opinion is ingaged against Authority , should doe well to study his doubtful Opinion less , and Humility and Obedience more . But you say , that this concerns not me , for my disagreeing is not in a doubtful matter , but I am sure I am in the right ; there is no ifs and ands in my case . Well , it may be so : but were it not better that you did doubt ? A wise man feareth ( saith Solomon ) and departeth from evil ; but a fool rageth and is confident : and the difference between a Learned man and a Novice is this , that the yong fellow crieth out , I am sure it is so ; the better learned answers , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , possibly it may , and peradventure it is so , but I pray enquire : and he is the best Diviner , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he is the best Judge that conjectures best , not he that is most confident ; for , as Xenophanes said wisely , Man does but conjecture , but God only knows ; and it is no disparagement to a wise man to learn , and by suspecting the fallibility of things and his own aptness to mistake , to walk prudently and safely , with an eye to God , and an eare open to his Superior . Some men are drunk with fancy , and mad with Opinion . Who believe more strongly then boyes and women ? who are so hard to be perswaded as fools ? and who so readily suspect their teachers as they who are govern'd by chance , and know not the intrinsick measures of good and evil ? Qui pauca considerat de facili pronunciat ; it is a little learning and not enough that makes men conclude hastily , and clap fast hold on the Conclusion before they have well weighed the Premisses : but Experience and Humility would teach us Modesty and Fear . 3. In all disputes he that obeys his Superior can never be a Heretick in the estimate of Law , and he can never be a Schismatick in the point of Conscience ; so that he certainly avoids one great death , and very probably the other . Res judicata pro veritate accipitur , saith the Law ; If the Judge have given sentence , that sentence is suppos'd a truth : and Cassiodor said according to the sentence of the Law , Nimis iniquum est ut ille patiatur dispendium , qui imperium fecit alienum . Our Obedience secures us from the imputation of evil , and Error does but seldome goe in company with Obedience . But however there is this advantage to be gotten by Obedience ; that he who prefers the sentence of the Law before his own Opinion does doe an act of great Humility , and exercises the grace of Modesty , and takes the best way to secure his Conscience and the publick Peace , and pleases the Government which he is bound to please , and pursues the excellencies of Unity , and promotes Charity and Godly Love : whereas on the other side , he that goes by himself apart from his Superior is alwaies materially a Schismatick , and is more likely to be deceiv'd by his own Singularity and Prejudice and Weakness , then by following the guides God hath set over him . And if he loses Truth , certainly he will get nothing else : for by so doing we lose our Peace too , and give publick offence , and arme Authority against us , and are scandalous in Law , and pull evil upon our heads ; and all this for a proud Singularity , or a trifling Opinion , in which we are not so likely to be deceived , if we trust our selves less , and the publick more . In omnibus falli possum , in obedientia non possum , said S. Teresa , I can in every thing else , but in Obedience I can never be deceived . And it is very remarkable in my Text , that Rebellion or Disobedience is compared to the sin of witchcraft . Indeed it seems strange , for the meaning of it is not only that a Rebel is as much hated by God as a Witch , but it means that the sinnes are alike in their very natures : quasi peccatum divinationis ( saith the Vulgar Latine ) they that disobey Authority , trusting in their own opinions , are but like Witches or Diviners ; that is , they are led by an evil spirit ; pride and a lying and deceiving spirit is their teacher , and their answers are seldome true ; for though they pretend the Truth of God for their Disobedience , yet they fall into the deception of the devil , and that 's the end of their soothsaying . And let me adde this , that when a man distrusts his Superior and trusts himself , if he misses Truth , it will be greatly imputed to him ; he shall feel the evil of his error and the shame of his pride , the reproach of his folly and the punishment of his disobedience , the dishonour of singularity , and the restlesness of Schisme , and the scorn of the multitude : but on the other side , if he obey Authority , and yet be deceived , he is greatly excused , he erred on the safer side , he is defended by the hands of many vertues , and gets peace and love of the Congregation . You see the Blessings of Obedience , even in the questions and matters of Religion : but I have something more to say , and it is not only of great use to appease the tumultuary disputations and arguings of Religion which have lately disturbed these Nations , but is proper to be spoken to , and to be reduced to practice by this Honourable and High Court of Parliament . That which I am to say is this ; You have no other way of Peace , no better way to appease and quiet the Quarrels in Religion which have been too long among us , but by reducing all men to Obedience , and all questions to the measures of the Laws . For they on both sides pretend Scripture , but one side onely can pretend to the Laws : and they that do admit no authority above their own to expound Scripture , cannot deny but Kings and Parliaments are the makers and proper expounders of our Laws ; and if ever you mean to have Truth and Peace kiss each other , let no man dispute against your Laws . For did not our Blessed Saviour say , that an Oath is the end of all questions , and after depositions are taken , all Judges goe to sentence ? What Oaths are to private questions , that Laws are to publick . And if it be said that Laws may be mistaken ; it is true , but may not an Oath also be a Perjury ? and yet because in humane affairs we have no greater certainty , and greater then God gives we may not look for , let the Laws be the last determination ; and in wise and religious Governments no disputation is to goe beyond them . 2. But this is not onely true in religious prudence and plain necessity , but this is the way that God hath appointed , and that he hath blessed , and that he hath intended to be the means of ending all questions . This we learn from S. Paul , I exhort that first of all prayers , and supplications , and intercessions , and giving of thanks be made for all men : for Kings and for all that are in Authority . For all ; for Parliaments and for Councils , for Bishops and for Magistrates : it is for all , and for Kings above all . Well , to what purpose is all this ? that we may lead a quiet and a peaceable life in all godliness and honesty . Mark that : Kings and all that are in Authority are by God appointed to be the means of obtaining unity and peace in Godliness , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in all the true and Godly worshippings of God ; no Unity in Religion without Kings and Bishops and those that are in Authority . 3. And indeed because this is God's way of ending our Controversies , the matter of Authority is highly to be regarded . If you suffer the Authority of the King to be lessened , to be scrupled , to be denied in Ecclesiastical affairs , you have no way left to silence the tongues and hands of gainsaying people . But so it is , the Kings Authority is appointed and enabled by God to end our questions of Religion : Divinatio in labiis Regis ( saith Solomon ) in judicio non errabit os ejus , Divination and a wise sentence is in the lips of the King , and his mouth shall not erre in judgement . In all Scripture there is not so much for the Popes infallibility , but by this it appears there is divinity in the Kings sentence : for God gives to Kings , who are his Vicegerents , a peculiar spirit . And when Iustinian had out of the sense of Iulian the Lawyer observed that there were many cases for which Law made no provision , he addes , If any such shall happen , Augustum imploretur remedium , run to the King for remedy ; for therefore God hath set the Imperial fortune over humane affairs , ut possit omnia quae noviter contingunt & emendare & componere , & modis ac regulis competentibus tradere , that the King may amend and rule and compose every new-arising question . And it is not to be despised , but is a great indication of this Truth , that the Answers of the Roman Princes and Judges recorded in the Civil Law are such that all Nations of the world do approve them , and are a great testimony how the sentences of Kings ought to be valued , even in matters of Religion , and questions of greatest doubt . Bona conscientia Scyphus est Iosephi , said the old Abbot of Kells ; a good Conscience is like Iosephs's Cup , in which our Lord the King divines . And since God hath blessed us with so good , so just , so religious and so wise a Prince , let the sentence of his Laws be our last resort , and no questions be permitted after his judgment and legal determination . For Wisedome saith , By me Princes rule , by me they decree justice : and therefore the spirit of the King is a divine eminency , and is as the spirit of the most High God. 4. Let no man be too busy in disputing the laws of his Superiors , for a man by that seldome gets good to himself , but seldome misses to doe mischief unto others . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said one in Laertius . Will a son contend with his father ? that 's not decent , though the son speak that which is right : he may possibly say well enough , but he does doe very ill ; not only because he does not pay his duty and reverential fear , but because it is in it self very often unreasonable to dispute concerning the command of our Superior , whether it be good or no ; for the very commandement can make it not only good , but a necessary good . It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us to lay on you no greater burden then these necessary things , said the Council of Ierusalem : and yet these things were not necessary , but as they were commanded : to abstain from a strangled hen or a bloody pudding could not of themselves be necessary ; but the commandement came , authority did interpose , and then they were made so . 5. But then besides the advantages both of the spirit , and the authority of Kings in matters of question , the laws and decrees of a National Church ought upon the account of their own advantages be esteem'd as a final sentence in all things disputed . The thing is a plain command Hebrews 13. 7. Remember them which have the rule over you , who have spoken unto you the word of God : this tels what Rulers he means ; Rulers Ecclesiastical : and what of them ? whose faith follow ; they must praeire in articulis ; they are not masters of your faith , but guides of it : and they that sit in Moses chair must be heard and obey'd , said our blessed Saviour . These words were not said for nothing ; and they were nothing if their authority were nothing . For between the laws of a Church and the opinion of a Subject the comparison is the same as between a publick spirit and a private . The publick is far the better , the daughter of God , and the mother of a blessing , and alwaies dwels in light . The publick spirit hath already passed the trial , it hath been subjected to the Prophets , tried and searched and approved ; the private is yet to be examined . The publick spirit is uniform and apt to be followed ; the private is various and multiform as chance , and no man can follow him that hath it . For if he follows one , he is reproved by a thousand ; and if he changes , he may get a shame , but no truth : and he can never rest but in the arms and conduct of his Superior . When Aaron and Miriam murmured against Moses , God told them that they were Prophets of an inferior rank then Moses was . God communicated himself to them in dreams and visions ; but the Ruach hakkodesh , the publick spirit of Moses their Prince , that was higher : and what then ? wherefore then ( God said ) were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses ? plainly teaching us , that where there is a more excellent spirit , they that have a spirit less excellent ought to be afraid to speak against it . And this is the full case of the private and publick spirit ; that is , of a Subject speaking against the spirit and the laws of the Church . In heaven , and in the air , and in all the regions of spirits , the spirit of a lower order dares not speak against the spirit of an higher ; and therefore for a private spirit to oppose the publick , is a disorder greater then is in hell it self . To conclude this point ; Let us consider whether it were not an intolerable mischief if the Judges should give sentence in causes of instance by the measures of their own fancy , and not by the Laws ; who would endure them ? and yet why may they not doe that as well as any Ecclesiastic person preach Religion , not which the Laws allow , but what is taught him by his own private Opinion ? but he that hath the Laws on his side , hath ever something of true Religion to warrant him , and can never want a great measure of justification . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Laws and the customes of the country are the results of wise counsels or long experience ; they ever comply with Peace and publick benefit : and nothing of this can be said of private Religions ; for they break the Peace , and trouble the Conscience , and undo Government , and despise the Laws , and offend Princes , and dishonour the wisdome of Parliaments , and destroy Obedience . Well , but in the last place , if we cannot doe what the Laws command , we will suffer what they impose ; and then all is well again . But first , who ever did so that could help it ? And secondly , this talking of passive Obedience is but a mockery ; for what man did ever say the Laws were not good , but he also said the Punishment was unjust ? And thirdly , which of all the Recusants did not endeavour to get ground upon the Laws , and secretly or openly asperse the Authority that put him to pain for doing that which he calls his duty ? and can any man boast of his passive Obedience that calls it Persecution ? he may think to please himself , but he neither does or saies any thing that is for the reputation of the Laws . Such men are like them that sail in a storm ; they may possibly be thrown into a harbour , but they are very sick all the way . But after all this I have one thing to observe to such persons , That such a passive Obedience as this does not acquit a man before God ; and he that suffers what the Law inflicts is not discharg'd in the Court of Conscience , but there he is still a sinner and a debter . For the law is not made for the righteous , but for sinners ; that is , the punishment appointed by the Law falls on him only that hath sinned : but an offending subject cannot with the fruit of his body pay for the sin of his Soul : when he does evil he must suffer evil ; but if he does not repent besides , a worse thing will happen to him ; for we are not tied to obey only for wrath , but also for Conscience . Passive obedience is only the correspondent of wrath , but it is the active obedience that is required by Conscience ; and whatever the Subject suffers for his own fault , it matters nothing as to his Duty , but this also God will exact at the hands of every man that is placed under Authority . I have now told you the summe of what I had to say concerning Obedience to Laws and to your own Government , and it will be to little purpose to make laws in matter of Religion , or in any thing else , if the end of it be , that every man shall chuse whether he will obey or no : and if it be questioned whether you be deceiv'd or no , though the suffering such a question is a great diminution to your authority , yet it is infinitely more probable that you are in the right then that the disobedient Subject is ; because you are conducted with a publick spirit , you have a special title and peculiar portions of the promise of God's assistance , you have all the helps of Counsel and the advantages of deliberation , you have the Scriptures and the Laws , you are as much concerned to judge according to truth as any man , you have the principal of all capacities and states of men to assist your consultations , you are the most concern'd for Peace , and to please God also is your biggest interest : and therefore it cannot be denied to be the most reasonable thing in the world which is set down in the Law : Praesumptio est pro authoritate imponentis , the presumption of truth ought to be on your side ; and since this is the most likely way for Truth , and the most certain way for Peace , you are to insist in this , and it is not possible to find a better . I have another part or sense of my Text yet to handle ; but because I have no more time of mine own , and I will not take any of yours , I shall only doe it in a short Exhortation to this most Honourable Auditory , and so conclude . God hath put a Royal Mantle , and fastned it with a Golden Clasp , upon the shoulder of the KING , and he hath given you the Judges Robe ; the King holds the Scepter , and he hath now permitted you to touch the golden Ball , and to take it a while into your handling , and made obedience to your Laws to be Duty and Religion : but then remember that the first in every kind is to be the measure of the rest ; you cannot reasonably expect that the Subjects should obey you , unless you obey God. I do not speak this only in relation to your personal duty ; though in that also it would be consider'd , that all the Bishops and Ministers of Religion are bound to teach the same Doctrines by their Lives as they do by their Sermons ; and what we are to doe in the matters of Doctrine , you are also to doe in matter of Laws ; what is reasonable for the advantages of Religion , is also the best Method for the advantages of Government ; we must preach by our good Example , and you must govern by it ; and your good example in observing the laws of Religion will strangely endear them to the affections of the people . But I shall rather speak to you as you are in a capacity of union and of Government ; for as now you have a new Power , so there is incumbent upon you a special Duty . 1. Take care that all your power and your counsels be imploy'd in doing honour and advantages to Piety and Holiness . Then you obey God in your publick capacity , when by holy Laws and wise administrations you take care that all the Land be an obedient and a religious People . For then you are princely Rulers indeed when you take care of the Salvation of a whole Nation . Nihil aliud est imperium nisi cura salutis alienae , said Ammianus ; Government is nothing but a care that all men be saved . And therefore take care that men do not destroy their Souls by the abominations of an evil life : see that God be obey'd , take care that the breach of the laws of God may not be unpunished . The best way to make men to be good Subjects to the King is to make them good servants of God. Suffer not Drunkenness to pass with impunity , let Lust find a publick shame . Let the sonnes of the Nobility and Gentry no more dare to dishonour God then the meanest of the people shall : let baseness be basely esteemed ; that is , put such characters of Shame upon dishonourable Crimes , that it be esteem'd more against the honour of a Gentleman to be drunk then to be kicked , more shame to fornicate then to be can'd : and for honours sake and the reputation of Christianity , take some course that the most unworthy sins of the world have not reputation added to them by being the practice of Gentlemen and persons of good birth and fortunes . Let not them who should be examples of Holiness have an impunity and a licence to provoke God to anger ; lest it be said that in Ireland it is not lawful for any man to sin , unless he be a person of quality . Optimus est reipublicae status , ubi nihil deest nisi licentia pereundi ; In a common-wealth that 's the best state of things , where every thing can be had but a leave to sin , a licence to be undone . 2. As God is thus to be obey'd , and you are to take care that he be , so God also must be honnourd , by paying that reverence and religious obedience which is due to those persons whom he hath been pleased to honour by admitting them to the dispensation of his blessings , and the ministeries of your Religion . For certain it is , this is a right way of giving honour and obedience to God. The Church is in some very peculiar manner the portion and the called and the care of God ; and it will concern you in pursuance of your obedience to God , to take care that they in whose hands Religion is to be ministred and conducted , be not discouraged . For what your Judges are to the ministry of Laws , that your Bishops are in the ministeries of Religion ; and it concerns you that the hands of neither of them be made weak : and so long as you make Religion your care , and Holiness your measure , you will not think that Authority is the more to be despised because it is in the hands of the Church , or that it is a sin to speak evil of dignities , unless they be Ecclesiastical ; but that they may be reviled , and that though nothing is baser then for a man to be a Thief , yet Sacrilege is no dishonour ; and indeed to be an Oppressor is a great and crying sin , yet to oppress the Church , to diminish her rents , to make her beggerly and contemptible , that 's no offence ; and that though it is not lawful to despise Government , yet if it be Church-government , that then the case is altered . Take heed of that , for then God is dishonoured , when any thing is the more despised by how much it relates nearer unto God. No Religion ever did despise their chiefest Ministers ; and the Christian Religion gives them the greatest honour . For honourable Priesthood is like a shower from heaven , it causes blessings every where : but a pitiful , a disheartned , a discouraged Clergy , waters the ground with a water-pot , here and there a little good , and for a little while ; but every evil man can destroy all that work whenever he pleases . Take heed ; in the world there is not a greater misery can happen to any man , then to be an enemy to God's Church . All Histories of Christendome and the whole Book of God have sad records , and sad threatnings , and sad stories of Corah , and Doeg , and Balaam , and Ieroboam , and Uzzah , and Ananias , and Sapphira , and Iulian , and of Hereticks and Schismaticks , and sacrilegious ; and after all , these men could not prevail finally , but pai'd for the mischief they did , and ended their daies in dishonour , and left nothing behind them but the memory of their sin , and the record of their curse . 3. In the same proportion you are to take care of all inferiour Relatives of God and of Religion . Find out methods to relieve the Poor , to accommodate and well dispose of the cures of Souls ; let not the Churches lye wast and in ruinous heaps , to the diminution of Religion , and the reproach of the Nation , lest the nations abroad say , that the Britans are a kind of Christians that have no Churches : for Churches , and Courts of Judicature , and the publick defences of an Imperial City , are res sacrae ; they are venerable in Law , and honourable in Religion . But that which concerns us most is , that we all keep close to our Religion . Ad magnas reipublicae utilitates retinetur Religio in civitatibus , said Cicero ; by Religion and the strict preserving of it , ye shall best preserve the Interests of the Nation : and according to the precept of the Apostle , Mark them which cause divisions amongst us , contrary to the doctrine that ye have receiv'd , and avoid them . * For I beseech you to consider , all you that are true Protestants ; do you not think that your Religion is holy , and Apostolical , and taught by Christ , and pleasing unto God ? If you do not think so , why do you not leave it ? but if you do think so , why are ye not zealous for it ? Is not the Government a part of ? it is that which immures , and adorns , and conducts all the rest , and is establisht in the 36. Article of the Church , in the publick Service-book , and in the book of consecration : it is therefore a part of our Religion , and is not all of it worth preserving ? If it be , then they which make Schisms against this Doctrine , by the rule of the Apostle are to be avoided . Beatus qui praedicat verbum inauditum , Blessed is he that preaches a word that was never heard before , so said the Spanish Jesuite : but Christ said otherwise , No man having drunk old wine straight desires new , for he saith the old is better . And so it is in Religion , Quod primum verum , Truth is alwaies first : and since Episcopacy hath been of so lasting an abode , of so long a blessing , since it hath ever combin'd with Government , and hath been taught by that spirit that hath so long dwelt in God's Church , and hath now according to the promise of Iesus , that saies the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church , been restored amongst us by a heap of miracles , and as it went away , so it return'd again in the hand of Monarchy , and in the bosome of our Fundamental Laws ; suffer no evil tongue to speak against this Truth , which hath had so long a testimony from God , and from Experience , and from the wisdome of so many Ages , of all your Ancestours and all your Laws , lest ye be found to speak against God , and neglect the things that belong unto your Peace , and get nothing by it but news and danger , and what other effects ye know not . But Leontinus Bishop of Antioch stroak'd his old white beard and said , When this snow is dissolved , a great deal of dirty weather will follow ; meaning , that when the old Religion should be questioned and discountenanced , the new Religion would bring nothing but trouble and unquietness : and we have found it so by a sad experience . 4. Ye cannot obey God unless ye doe Justice : for this also is better then sacrifice , said Solomon , Prov. 21. 3. For Christ , who is the Sun of righteousness , is a Sun and a Shield to them that doe righteously . The Indian was not immured sufficiently by the Atlantick sea , nor the Bosphoran by the walls of Ice , nor the Arabian by his meridian Sun ; the Christian Justice of the Romane Princes brake through all inclosures , and by Justice set up Christs standard , and gave to all the world a testimony how much could be done by Prudence and Valour , when they were conducted by the hands of Justice . And now you will have a great trial of this part of your Obedience to God. For you are to give sentence in the causes of half a Nation : and he had need be a wise and a good man that divides the inheritance amongst Brethren ; that he may not be abused by contrary pretences , nor biassed by the Interest of friends , nor transported with the unjust thoughts even of a just Revenge , nor allured by the opportunities of Spoile , nor turn'd aside by Partiality in his own concerns , nor blinded by Gold , which puts out the eyes of wise men , nor couzened by pretended Zeal , nor wearied with the difficulty of questions , nor directed by a general measure in cases not measurable by it , nor born down by Prejudice , nor abused by resolutions taken before the cause be heard , nor over-ruled by National Interests . For Justice ought to be the simplest thing in the world , and is to be measured by nothing but by Truth and by Laws and by the decrees of Princes . But whatever you doe , let not the pretence of a different Religion make you think it lawful to oppress any man in his just rights . For Opinions are not , but Laws only , and doing as we would be done to , are the measures of Justice : and though Justice does alike to all men , Jew and Christian , Lutheran and Calvinist ; yet to doe right to them that are of another Opinion is the way to win them ; but if you for Conscience sake doe them wrong , they will hate you and your Religion . Lastly , as obedience is better then sacrifice , so God also said , I will have mercy and not sacrifice ; meaning that Mercy is the best Obedience . Perierat totum quod Deus fecerat , nisi misericordia subvenisset , said Chrysologus ; all the creatures both of heaven and earth would perish , if Mercy did not relieve us all . Other good things , more or less , every man expects according to the portion of his fortune : Ex clementia omnes idem sperant , but from Mercy and Clemency all the world alike do expect advantages . And which of us all stands here this day , that does not need God's pardon and the King's ? Surely no man is so much pleased with his own innocence , as that he will be willing to quit his claim to Mercy : and if we all need it , let us all shew it . Naturae imperio gemimus , cum funus adultae Virginis occurrit , vel terrâ clauditur infans , Et minor igne rogi — If you do but see a Maiden carried to her grave a little before her intended marriage , or an Infant dye before the birth of Reason , Nature hath taught us to pay a tributary tear : Alas ! your eyes will behold the ruine of many Families , which though they sadly have deserved , yet Mercy is not delighted with the spectacle ; and therefore God places a watry cloud in the eye , that when the light of heaven shines upon it , it may produce a rain-bow to be a Sacrament and a memorial that God and the sons of God do not love to see a man perish . God never rejoyces in the death of him that dies ; and we also esteem it undecent to have Musick at a Funeral . And as Religion teaches us to pity a condemned Criminal , so Mercy intercedes for the most benign interpretation of the Laws . You must indeed be as just as the Laws , and you must be as merciful as your Religion : and you have no way to tye these together , but to follow the pattern in the Mount ; doe as God does , who in judgement remembers mercy . To conclude ; If every one in this Honourable Assembly would joyn together to promote Christian Religion in it's true notion , that is , Peace and Holiness , the Love of God and the Love of our Brother , Christianity in all its proper usefulness , and would not indure in the Nation any thing against the laws of the Holy Iesus ; if they were all zealous for the doctrines of Righteousness , and impatient of Sin in your selves and in the people , it is not to be imagined what a happy Nation we should be . But if ye divide into parties , and keep up useless differences of names or interests ; if ye do not joyn in the bands of Peace , that is , the King , and the Church , Religion , and the good of the Nation , you can never hope to see a blessing to be the end of your labours . Remember the words of Solomon , Righteousness exalteth a Nation , but sin is a reproach to any people : but when Righteousness is advanced in the hearts and lives of the Nation , who shall dare to reprove your Faith ? who can find fault with your Religion ? God of his mercy grant that in all your Consultations the Word of God may be your measure , the Spirit of God may be your guide , and the glory of God may be your end : He of his mercy grant that Moderation may be your limit , and Peace may be within your walls as long as you are there , and in all the Land for ever after . But remember , that since the honour and service of his Majesty , and the peace and prosperity of the Church , the perpetuity of our fundamental Laws , publick Justice , and the honour of all legal Authority , the advancement of Trade and the wealth of the Nation is your design , remember , I pray , what warranty you have to expect all this ; no less then the words of our Blessed Saviour , but it is upon these terms , Seek ye first the Kingdome of God , and the righteousness thereof , and all these things shall be added to you . Amen . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A64131-e800 Nullum malum majus aut infeliciter feracius quam inobedientia . Seneca . 1. Tim. 2 . 1● . Prov. 16. 10. L. 8. cod . de veteri jure enucleando . Petrus Cellensis lib. de Conscientia . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Num. 12. 6 , 7 , 8. Seneca . * Rom. 16. 17. Seneca . Prov. ●4 . 34. 
A64130	----	A sermon preached at the funerall of that worthy knight Sr. George Dalston of Dalston in Cumberland, September 28. 1657. By J.T. D.D. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. This text is an enriched version of the TCP digital transcription A64130 of text R219166 in the English Short Title Catalog (Wing T392A). Textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. The text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with MorphAdorner. The annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). Textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. This text has not been fully proofread Approx. 82 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 20 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. EarlyPrint Project Evanston,IL, Notre Dame, IN, St. Louis, MO 2017 A64130 Wing T392A ESTC R219166 99830680 99830680 35133 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A64130) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 35133) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 2081:03) A sermon preached at the funerall of that worthy knight Sr. George Dalston of Dalston in Cumberland, September 28. 1657. By J.T. D.D. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. [2], 36 p. printed for John Martin, James Allestrye, and Thomas Dicas, London : 1658. J.T. = Jeremy Taylor. Reproduction of the original in the British Library. eng Dalston, George, -- Sir, d. 1657 -- Early works to 1800. Funeral sermons -- 17th century. A64130 R219166 (Wing T392A). civilwar no A sermon preached at the funerall of that worthy knight Sr. George Dalston of Dalston in Cumberland, September 28. 1657. By J.T. D.D. Taylor, Jeremy 1658 16000 1 285 0 0 0 0 179 F The rate of 179 defects per 10,000 words puts this text in the F category of texts with 100 or more defects per 10,000 words. 2000-00 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2001-12 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2002-01 TCP Staff (Michigan) Sampled and proofread 2002-01 TCP Staff (Michigan) Text and markup reviewed and edited 2002-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A SERMON PREACHED at the Funerall of that worthy Knight Sr. GEORGE DALSTON of DALSTON in Cumberland , September 28. 1657. By I. T. D. D. LONDON , Printed for Iohn Martin , Iames Allestrye , and Thomas Dicas . 1658. 1 Cor. 15. 19. If in this life only we have hope in Christ , we are of all men most miserable . WHen God in his infinite and eternal wisdome had decreed to give to man a life of labour and a body of mortality , a state of contingency and a composition of fighting elements ; and having design'd to be glorified by a free obedience , would also permit sin in the world , and suffer evil men to goe on in their wickedness , to prevail in their impious machinations , to vex the souls , and grieve the bodies of the righteous , he knew that this would not only be very hard to be suffered by his servants , but also be very difficult to be understood by them who know God to be a Law-giver as well as a Lord , a Iudge as well as a King , a Father as well as a Ruler ; and that in order to his own glory , and for the manifestation of his goodness he had promised to reward his servants , to give good to them that did good : therefore to take off all prejudices and evil resentments and temptations which might trouble those good men who suffered evil things , he was pleased to do two great things which might confirme the faith , and endear the services , and entertain the hopes of them who are indeed his servants , but yet were very ill used in the accidents of this world . 1. The one was that he sent his son into the world to take upon him our nature , and him being the Captain of our salvation he would perfect through sufferings ; that no man might think it much to suffer , when God spared not his own son ; and every man might submit to the necessity when the Christ of God was not exempt ; and yet that no man should fear the event which was to follow such sad beginnings , when it behoved even Christ to suffer , and so to enter into glory . 2. The other great thing was , that God did not only by revelation and the Sermons of the Prophets to his Church , but even to all mankinde competently teach , and effectively perswade that the soul of man does not die ; but that although things were ill here , yet they should be well hereafter ; that the evils of this life were short and tolerable , and that to the good who usually feel most of them , they should end in honour and advantages . And therefore Cicero had reason on his side to conclude , that there is to be a time and place after this life wherein the wicked shall be punished and the vertuous well rewarded , when he considered that Orpheus and Socrates , Palamedes and Thraseas , Lucretia and Papinian were either slain or oppressed to death by evil men . But to us Christians {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} ( as Platoes expression is ) we have a necessity to declare and a demonstration to prove it , when we read that Abel died by the hands of Cain , who was so ignorant , that though he had malice and strength , yet he had scarce art enough to kill him ; when we read that Iohn the Baptist , Christ himselfe and his Apostles and his whole army of martyrs died under the violence of evil men ; when vertue made good men poor , and free speaking of brave truths made the wise to lose their liberty ; when an excellent life hastened an opprobrious death , and the obeying God destroyed our selves ; it was but time to look about for another state of things where justice should rule and vertue finde her own portion : where the men that were like to God in mercy and justice should also partake of his felicity : and therefore men cast out every line , and turned every stone , and tried every argument , and sometimes proved it well , and when they did not , yet they believed strongly , and they were sure of the thing even when they were not sure of the argument . Thus therefore would the old Priests of the Capitol , and the Ministers of Apollo , and the mystic persons at their Oracles believe , when they made Apotheoses of vertuous and braver persons , ascribing every braver man into the number of their gods : Hercules and Romulus , Castor , and Pollux , Liber Pater , him that taught the use of Vines , and her that taught them the use of Corne . For they knew that it must needs be , that they who like to God doe excellent things , must like to God have an excellent portion . This learning they also had from Pherecydes the Syrian , from Pythagoras of Samos , and from Zamolxis the Gete , from the Neighbours of Euphrates , and the inhabitants by Ister who were called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Immortalists , because in the midst of all their dark notices of things they saw this clearly , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} ; that vertuous and good men do not die , but their souls do go into blessed regions where they shall enjoy all good things : and it was never known that ever any good man was of another opinion . Hercules and Themistocles , Epaminondas and Cicero , Socrates and Cimon , Ennius and Phidias , all the flower of mankind have preached this truth . {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The discoursings and prophesyings of Divine men are much more proper and excellent then of others , because they do equal and good things until the time comes that they shall hear well for them , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . And this is the sign that when we die we have life and discerning , because though the wicked care not for believing it , yet all the Prophets and the Poets , the wise and the brave Heroes say so ; they are the words of Plato . For though that which is compounded of elements returns to its material and corruptible principles , yet the soul which is a particle of the Divine breath returns to its own Divine original , where there is no death or dissolution : and because the understanding is neither hot nor cold , it hath no moisture in it and no driness , it follows that it hath nothing of those substances concerning which alone we know that they are corruptible . There is nothing corruptible that we know of , but the four elements and their Sons and Daughters : nothing dies that can discourse , that can reflect in perfect circles upon their own imperfect actions ; nothing can die that can see God and converse with spirits , that can govern by laws and wise propositions . For fire and water can be tyrannical but not govern ; they can bear every thing down that stands before them and rush like the people , but not rule like Judges , and therefore they perish as tumults are dissolved . {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} : sayes Aristotle . But the soul only comes from abroad , from a Divine principle ( for so saith the Scripture ) God breathed into Adam the spirit of life , and that which in operation does not communicate with the body shall have no part in its corruption . Thus far they were right ; but when they descended to particulars they fell into error . That the rewards of vertue were to be hereafter , that they were sure of : that the soul was to survive the calamities of this world and the death of the body ; that they were sure of ; and upon this account they did bravely and vertuously : and yet , they that thought best amongst them believed that the souls departed should be reinvested with other bodies according to the dispositions and capacities of this life . Thus Orpheus who sang well should transmigrate into a Swan , and the soul of Thamyris who had as good a voice as he , should wander till it were confined to the body of a Nightingal ; Ajax to a Lion , Agamemnon to an Eagle , Tyrant princes into wolvs and Hawks , the lascivious into Asses and Goats , the Drunkards into Swine , the Crafty Statesmen into bees and pismires , and Thersites to an Ape . This fancy of theirs prevailed much amongst the common people , and the uninstructed amongst the Jews : for when Christ appeared so glorious in miracle , Herod presently fancied him to be the soul of Iohn the Baptist in another body , and the common people said he was Elias , or Ieremias , or one of the old Prophets . And true it is , that although God was pleased in all times to communicate to mankind notices of the other world sufficient to encourage vertues , and to contest against the rencontres of the world , yet he was ever sparing in telling the secrets of it ; and when St. Paul had his rapture into Heaven , he saw fine things and heard strange words , but they were {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , words that he could not speak , and secrets that he could not understand , and secrets that he could not communicate . For as a man staring upon the broad eye of the Sun at his noon of Solstice , feels his heat and dwells in light , and loses the sight of his eyes and perceives nothing distinctly , but the Organ is confounded and the faculty amazed with too big a beauty : So was S. Paul in his extasy ; he saw that he could see nothing to be told below , and he perceived the glories were too big for flesh and blood , and that the beauties of separate souls were not to be understood by the soul in Conjunction ; and therefore after all the fine things that he saw , we only know what we knew before , viz. that the soul can live when the body is dead ; that it can subsist without the body ; that there are very great glories reserved for them that serve God ; that they who die in Christ shall live with him ; that the body is a prison and the soul is in fetters while we are alive ; and that when the body dies the soul springs and leaps from her prison and enters into the first liberty of the sons of God . Now much of this did rely upon the same argument upon which the wise Gentiles of old concluded the immortality of the soul ; even because we are here very miserable and very poor : we are sick and we are afflicted ; we do well and are disgraced ; we speak well and we are derided ; we tell truths and few believe us ; but the proud are exalted and the wicked are delivered , and evil men reign over us , and the covetous snatch our little bundles of money from us , and the Fiscus gathers our rents , and every where the wisest and the best men are oppressed ; but therefore because it is thus , and thus it is not well , we hope for some great good thing hereafter . For if in this life only we had hope , then we Christians , all we to whom persecution is allotted for our portion , we who must be patient under the Crosse , and receive injuries and say nothing but prayers , we certainly were of all men the most miserable . Well then ! in this life we see plainly that our portion is not : here we have hopes , but not here only , we shall goe into another place , where we shall have more hopes : our faith shall have more evidence , it shall be of things seen afar off ; and our hopes shall be of more certainty and perspicuity , and next to possession ; we shall have very much good , and be very sure of much more . Here then are three propositions to be considered . 1. The Servants of God in this world are very miserable , were it not for their hopes of what is to come hereafter . 2. Though this be a place of hopes , yet we have not our hopes only here . If in this life only we had hopes ( saith the Apostle ) meaning , that in another life also we have hopes ; not only metonymically , taking hopes for the things we hope for , but properly and for the acts , objects and causes of hope . In the state of separation the godly shall have the vast joyes of a certain intuitive hope , according to their several proportions and capacities . 3. The consummation and perfection of their felicity , when all their miseries shall be changed into glories , is in the world to come , after the resurrection of the dead ; which is the main thing which S. Paul here intends . 1. The servants of God in this life are calamitous and afflicted ; they must live under the Crosse . He that will be my Disciple , let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me ( said our Glorious Lord and Master . ) And we see this Prophetic precept , ( for it is both a Prophecy and a Commandment , and therefore shall be obeyed whether we will or no ) but I say , we see it verified by the experience of every day . For here the violent oppress the meek and they that are charitable shall receive injuries . The Apostles who preach'd Christ crucified were themselves persecuted and put to violent deaths ; and Christianity it selfe for three hundred years was the publick hatred ; and yet then it was that men loved God best , and suffered more for him ; then , they did most good , and least of evill . In this world men thrive by villany , and lying and deceiving is accounted just , and to be rich is to be wise , and tyranny is honourable , and though little thefts and petty mischiefs are interrupted by the laws , yet if a mischief become publick and great , acted by Princes and effected by armies , and robberies be done by whole fleets , it is vertue and it is glory : it fills the mouths of fools that wonder , and imployes the pens of witty men that eat the bread of flattery . How many thousand bottles of tears , and how many millions of sighs does God every day record , while the oppressed and the poor pray unto him , worship him , speak great things of his holy Name , study to please him , beg for helps that they may become gracious in his eyes , and are so , and yet never sing in all their life , but when they sing Gods praises out of duty with a sad heart and a hopefull spirit , living only upon the future , weary of to day , and sustain'd only by the hope of to morrows event ? and after all , their eyes are dim with weeping and looking upon distances as knowing they shall never be happy till the new Heavens and the new Eearth appear . But I need not instance in the miserabili in them that dwell in dungeons and lay their head in places of trouble and disease : take those servants of God who have greatest plenty , who are incircled with blessings , whom this world calls prosperous , and see if they have not fightings within and crosses without , contradiction of accidents and perpetuity of temptations , the Devil assaulting them and their own weakness betraying them ; fears incompassing them round about lest they lose the favour of God , and shame sitting heavily upon them when they remember how often they talk foolishly , and lose their duty , and dishonour their greatest relations and walk unworthy of those glories which they would fain obtain ; and all this is besides the unavoidable acc●dents of mortality , sickly bodies , troublesome times , changes of Government , loss of interests , unquiet and peevish accidents round about them : so that when they consider to what they are primarily obliged ; that they must in some instances deny their appetite , in others they must quit their relations , in all they must deny themselves when their Natural or Secular danger tempts to sin or danger ; and that for the support of their wills and the strengthening their resolutions against the arguments and sollicitation of passions they have nothing but the promises of another world ; they will easily see that all the splendour of their condition which fools admire and wise men use temperately and handle with caution as they trie the edge of a rasor , is so far from making them recompence for the sufferings of this world , that the reserves and expectations of the next is that conjugation of aids by which only they can well and wisely bear the calamities of their present plenty . But if we look round about us and see how many righteous causes are oppressed , how many good men are reproached , how religion is persecuted , upon what strange principles the greatest princes of the world transact their greatest affairs , how easily they make wars and how suddainly they break leagues , and at what expence and vast pensions they corrupt each others officers , and how the greatest part of mankind watches to devour one another , and they that are devoured are commonly the best , the poor and the harmless , the gentle and uncrasty , the simple and religious ; and then how many wayes all good men are exposed to danger , and that our scene of duty lies as much in passive graces as in active , it must be confessed that this is a place of wasps and insects , of Vipers and Dragons , of Tigres and Bears ; but the sheep are eaten by men or devoured by Wolves and Foxes , or die of the rot ; and when they do not , yet every year they redeem their lives by giving their fleece and their milk , and must die when their death will pay the charges of the knife . Now from this I say , it was that the very Heathen , Plutarch and Cicero , Pythagoras and Hierocles , Plato and many others did argue and conclude that there must be a day of recompences to come hereafter which would set all right again : And from hence also our B. Saviour himself did convince the Sadduces in their fond and pertinacious denying of the resurrection : For that is the meaning of that argument which our B. Lord did choose as being clearly and infallibly the aptest of any in the old Testament to prove the resurrection , and though the deduction is not at first so plain and evident , yet upon neerer intuition , the interpretation is easie and the argument excellent and proper . For it is observed by the learned among the Jews that when God is by way of particular relation and especial benediction appropriated to any one , it is intended that God is to him a Rewarder and Benefactor , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} ; for that is the first thing and the last that every man believes and feels of God ; and therefore St. Paul summes up the Gentiles Creed in this compendium ; He that commeth to God must believe that God is , and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him . [ Heb. 11. 6. ] And as it is in the indefinite expression , so it is in the limited ; as it is in the absolute so also in the Relative . God is the rewarder ; and to be their God is to be their rewarder , to be their Benefactor and their Gracious Lord . Ego ero Deus vester , I will be your God , that is , I will do you good sayes Aben Esra : and Philo , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . The Everlasting God , that is , as if he had said , one that will do you good ; not sometimes some , and sometimes none at all , but frequently and for ever : And this we finde also observed by St. Paul : Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God ; [ Heb. 11. 16. ] and that by which the Relative appellative is verified is the consequent benefit ; He is called their God [ for he hath provided for them a city . Upon this account the argument of our B. Saviour is this , God is the God of Abraham , Isaac and Iacob ; that is , the gracious God , the Benesactor , the Rewarder ; and therefore Abraham is not dead , but is fallen asleep , and he shall be restored in the resurrection to receive those blessings and rewards , by the title of which God was called the God of Abraham . For in this world Abraham had not that harvest of blessings which is consigned by that glorious appellative ; he was an exile from his Country , he stood far off from the possession of his hopes , he lived an ambulatory life , he spent most of his dayes without an heir , he had a constant piety , and at the latter end of his life one great blessing was given him ; and because that was allayed by the anger of his wife , and the expulsion of his handmaid , and the ejection of Ishmael , and the danger of the lad ; and his great calamity about the matter of Isaac's sacrifice ; and all his faith and patience and piety was rewarded with nothing but promises of things a great way off ; and before the possession of them he went out of this world ; it is undeniably certain that God who after the departure of the Patriarchs did still love to be called [ Their God ] did intend to signifie that they should be restored to a state of life and a capacity of those greatest blessings which were the foundation of that title and that relation . God is not the God of the dead , but of the living , but God is the God of Abraham and the other Patriarchs ; therefore they are not dead ; dead to this world , but alive to God ; that is , though this life be lost , yet they shall have another and a better ; a life in which God shall manifest himself to be their God to all the purposes of benefit and eternal blessings . This argument was summed up by St. Peter , and the sense of it is thus rendred by St. Clement the Bishop of Rome , as himself testifies : si Deus est juslus , animus est immortalis , which is perfectly rendred by the words of my text ; if in this life only we have hope , then are we of all men the most miserable ; but because this cannot be that God who is just and good should suffer them that heartily serve him to be really and finally miserable , and yet in this world they are so , very frequently ; therefore in another world they shall live to receive a full recompence of reward . Neither is this so to be understood , as if the servants of God were so wholly forsaken of him in this world , and so permitted to the malice of evil men , or the asperities of fortune , that they have not many refreshments and great comforts and the perpetual festivities of a holy Conscience : for God my Maker is he that giveth songs in the night , said Elihu ; [ Iob 35. 10. ] that is , God as a reward giveth a chearful spirit , and makes a man to sing with joy , when other men are sad with the solemn darkness and with the affrights of conscience , and the illusions of the night . But God who intends vast portions of felicity to his children does not reckon these little joys into the account of the portion of his elect . The good things which they have in this world are not little , if we account the joys of religion and the peace of conscience amongst things valuable ; yet whatsoever it is ; all of it , all the blessings of themselves , and of their posterity , and of their Relatives for their sakes are cast in for intermedial entertainments ; but their good , and their prepared portion shall be hereafter . But for the evil it self which they must suffer and overcome , it is such a portion of this life as our B. Saviour had ; injuries and temptations , care and persecutions , poverty and labour , humility and patience : it is well ; it is very well ; and who can long for , or expect better here ; when his Lord and Saviour had a state of things so very much worse then the worst of our calamities : but bad as it is ; it is to be chosen rather then a better ; because it is the high way of the cross ; it is Iacobs ladder upon which the Saints and the King of the Saints did descend and at last ascend to heaven it self ; and bad as it is , it is the method and the inlet to the best ; it is a sharp , but it is a short step to bliss : for it is remarkable in the parable of Dives and Lazarus , that the poor man , the afflicted Saint died first , Dives being permitted to his purple and fine linnen , to his delicious fare , and ( which he most of all needed ) to a space of repentance ; but in the mean time the poor man was rescued from his sad portion of this life and carried into Abrahams bosome ; where he who was denied in this world to be feasted even with the portion of dogs was placed in the bosome of the Patriarch , that is , in the highest room , for so it was in their discubitus or lying down to meat , the chief guest , the most beloved person did lean upon the bosome of the Master of the feast , so S. Iohn did lean upon the breast of Jesus ; and so did Lazarus upon the brest of Abraham ; or else {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} sinus Abrahae may be rendred , [ the bay of Abraham , ] alluding to the place of rest where ships put in after a tempestuous and dangerous Navigation ; the storme was quickly over with the poor man ; and the Angel of God brought the good mans soul to a safe port , where he should be disturbed no more : and so saith the spirit ; Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord ; for they rest from their labours . But this brings me to the second great inquiry . If here we live upon hopes , and that this is a place of hopes , but not this only ; what other place is there where we shall be blessed in our hope , where we shall rest from our labour and our fear and have our hopes in perfection ; that is , all the pleasures which can come from the greatest and the most excellent hope ? Not in this life only ] so my Text . Therefore hereafter : as soon as we die : as soon as ever the soule goes from the body , it is blessed . Blessed I say , but not perfect ; it rejoyces in peace and a holy hope : here we have hopes mingled with fear ; there our hope is heightned with joy and confidence ; it is all the comfort that can be in the expectation of unmeasurable joyes : it is only , Not fruition , not the joyes of a perfect possession ; but less then that , it is every good thing else . But that I may make my way plain ; I must first remove an objection which seems to overthrow this whole affaire . S. Paul intends these words of my text as an argument to prove the resurrection ; we shall rise again with our bodies ; for if in this life only we had hopes , then were we of all men most miserable ; meaning , that unless there be a resurrection , there is no good for us anywhere else ; but if they that dye in the Lord were happy before the resurrection ; then we were not of all men most miserable though there were to be no resurrection ; for the godly are presently happy . So that one must fail ; either the resurrection or the intermedial happinesse : the proof of one relies upon the destruction of the other : and because we can no other wayes be happy , therefore there shall be a resurrection . To this I answer , that if the godly instantly upon their dissolution had the vision beatifical , it is very true , that they were not most miserable though there be no resurrection of the dead , though the body were turned into its original nothing : for the joyes of the sight of God would in the soule alone make them infinite recompence for all the sufferings of this world . But that which the Saints have after their dissolution , being only the comforts of a holy hope , the argument remains good : for these intermedial hopes being nothing at all but in relation to the resurrection , these hopes do not destroy , but confirme it rather ; and if the resurrection were not to be , we should neither have any hopes here , nor hopes hereafter . And therefore the Apostles word is [ if here only we had hopes ] that is , if our hopes only related to this life ; but because our hopes only relate to the life to come , and even after this life we are still but in the regions of an inlarged hope , this life and that interval are both but the same argument to inferre a resurrection ; for they are the hopes of that state , and the joyes of those , hopes , and it is the comfort of that joy which makes them blessed who die in the love of God , and the faith and obedience of the Lord Jesus . And now to the proposition it selfe . In the state of separation the souls departed perceive the blessing and comfort of their labours ; they are alive after death , and after death immediately they finde great refreshments . Iustorum animae in manu Dei sunt , & non tanget illos tormentum mortis . [ Wisd. 3. ] The torments of death shall not touch the souls of the righteous because they are in the hands of God . And fifteen hundred years after the death of Moses we finde him talking with our Blessed Lord in his transfiguration upon the Mount Tabor : and as Moses was then , so are all the Saints immediately after death , praesentes apud Dominum , they are present with the Lord , and to be so , is not a state of death , and yet of this it is , that S. Paul affirms it to be much better then to be alive . And this was the undoubted sentence of the Jews before Christ and since , and therefore our Blessed Saviour told the converted thief that he should that day be with him in Paradise . Now without peradventure he spake so as he was to be understood ; meaning by Paradise that which the Schools and Pulpits of the Rabbins did usually speak of it . By Paradise till the time of Esdras it is certain , the Jews only meant that Blessed Garden in which God once placed Adam and Eve : but in the time of Esdras and so downward when they spake distinctly of things to happen after this life , and began to signifie their new discoveries and modern Philosophy by Names , they called the state of souls expecting the resurrection of their bodies by the name of {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the garden of Eden . Hence came that forme of comprecation and blessing to the soul of an Israelite Sit anima ejus in horto Eden Let his soul be in the garden of Eden ; ] and in their solemn prayers at the time of their death they were wont to say [ let his soule rest , and let his sleep be in peace untill the Comforter shall come ; open the gates of Paradise unto him ] expresly distinguishing Paradise from the state of the Resurrection . And so it is evident in the entercourse on the Crosse between Christ and the converted thief . That day both were to be in Paradise : but Christ himself was not then ascended into heaven , and therefore Paradise was no part of that region where Christ now and hereafter the Saints shall reign in glory . For {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} did by use and custome signifie any place of beauty and pleasure . So the LXX . read Eccles. 2. 5. I made me gardens and orchards , I made me a Paradise , so it is in the Greek ; and Cicero having found this strange word in Zenophon renders it by [ agrum conseptum ac diligentèr consitum : ] a field well hedg'd and set with flowers and fruits . Vivarium , Gellius renders it , a place to keep birds and beasts alive for pleasure . Pollux sayes this word was Persian by its original ; yet because by traduction it became Hebrew , we may best learn the meaning of it from the Jews who used it most often , and whose sense we better understand . Their meaning therefore was this ; that as Paradise or the Garden of Eden was a place of great beauty , pleasure and tranquillity ; so the state of separate souls was a state of peace and excellent delights . So Philo , allegorically does expound Paradise . {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . For the trees that grow in Paradise are not like ours , but they bring forth knowledge and life , and immortality . It is therefore more then probable , that when the converted thief heard our Blessed Saviour speak of Paradise or Gan Eden , he who was a Jew and heard that on that day he should be there , understood the meaning to be that he should be there where all the good Jews did believe the souls of Abraham , Isaac and Iacob to be placed . As if Christ had said ; Though you only ask to be remembred when I come into my Kingdome , not only that shall be performed in time , but even to day thou shalt have great refreshment ; and this the Hellenist Jews called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , the rest of Paradise , and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the comfort of Paradise , the word being also warranted from that concerning Lazarus {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} He is comforted . But this we learn more perfectly from the raptures of S. Paul . He knew a man ( meaning himself ) rapt up into the third heaven . And I knew such a man how that he was caught up into Paradise . [ 2 Cor. 2. 3. ] The raptures & visions were distinct ; for S. Paul being a Jew and speaking after the manner of his Nation makes Paradise a distinct thing from the third Heaven . For the Jews deny any orbes to be in Heaven ; but they make three regions only ; the one of clouds , the second of starrs , and the third of Angels . To this third or supreme Heaven was S. Paul wrapt ; but he was also born to Paradise ; to another place , distinct and separate by time and station . For by Paradise , his Countreymen never understood the Third Heaven ; but there also it was that he heard {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} unspeakable words , great glorifications of God , huge excellencies , such which he might not , or could not utter here below . The effect of these considerations is this , that although the Saints are not yet admitted to the blessings consequent to a happy resurrection , yet they have the intermedial entertainments of a present and a great joy . To this purpose are those words to be understood . [ To him that overcomes will I give to eate of the tree of life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God : [ Revel. 2. 7. ] that is , if I may have leave to expound these words to mean what the Jews did about that time understand by such words ; {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , the Tree of life does signifie the principle of peace and holiness , of wisdome and comforts for ever . Philo expounding it calls it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . The worship of God , the greatest of all vertues by which the soul is made to live for ever ; as if by eating of this tree of life in the Paradise of God they did mean , that they who die well , shall immediately be feasted with the deliciousness of a holy Conscience : which the spirit of God expresses by saying They shall walke up and down in white garments and their works shall follow them ; their tree of life shall germinate ; they shall then feel the comforts of having done good works ; a sweet remembrance and a holy peace shall caresse and feast them ; and there they shall walk up and down in white , [ Revel. 3. 4 , 5. & 14. 13. ] that is , as candidates of the resurrection to immortality . And this allegory of the Garden of Eden and Paradise was so heartily pursued by the Jews to represent the state of separation , that the Essens describe that state by the circumstances and ornaments of a blessed garden . {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a region that is not troubled with clouds or shours , or storms , or blasts , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , but a place which is perpetually refreshed with delicious breaths . This was it which the Heathens did dream concerning the Elysian fields : for all the notices {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} concerning the regions of separate souls came into Greece from the Barbarians ( sayes Diodorus Siculus ) and Tertullian observes ; although we call that Paradise which is a place appointed to receive the souls of the Saints , and that this is separated from the notices of the world by a wall of fire , a portion of the torrid zone ( which he supposes to be meant by the flaming sword of the Angel placed at the gates of Paradise ) yet ( sayes he ) the Elysian fields have already possessed the faith and opinions of men . All comes from the same fountain ; the doctrine of the old Synagogue confirmed by the words of Christ and the commentaries of the Apostles ; viz. that after death before the day of judgment there is a Paradise for Gods servants , a region of rest , of comfort and holy expectations . And therefore it is remarkable that these words of the Psalmist , Nerapias me in medio dierum meorum . [ Psal. 102. v. 25. ] Snatch me not away in the midst of my dayes , in the Hebrew it is , Ne facias me ascendere , Make me not to ascend or to goe upwards , meaning , to the supernatural regions of separate souls , who after death are in their beginnings of exaltation . For to them that die in the Lord , death is a preferment ; it is a part of their great good fortune ; for death hath not only lost the sting ; but it brings a coronet in his hand which shall invest and adorne the heads of Saints till that day comes in which the Crown of righteousness shall be brought forth to give them the investiture of an everlasting Kingdome . But that I may make up this proposition usefull and clear , I am to adde some things by way of supplement . 1. This place of separation was called Paradise by the Jews , and by Christ , and after Christs ascension , by S. Iohn : because it signifies a place of pleasure and rest ; and therefore by the same analogy the word may be still used in all the periods of the world , though the circumstances , or though the state of things be changed . It is generally supposed that this had a proper Name , and in the Old Testament was called Abrahams bosome ; that is , the region where Abraham , Isaac and Iacob did dwell till the comming of Christ . But I suppose my selfe to have great reason to dissent from this common opinion ; for this word of Abrahams bosome , being but once used in both the Testaments , and then particularly applied to the person of Lazarus , must needs signifie the eminence and priviledge of joy that Lazarus had ; for all that were in the blessed state of separation were not in Abrahams bosome , but only the best and the most excellent persons ; but they were {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} with Abraham ; and the analogy of the phrase to the manner of the Jewish feastings , where the best guest did lye in the bosome of the Master , that is , had the best place , makes it most reasonable to believe that Abrahams bosome does not signifie the general state of separation , even of the blessed ; but the choicest place in that state , a greater degree of blessedness . But because he is the father of the faithful , therefore to be with Abraham , or to sit down with Abraham ( in the time of the old Testament ) did signifie the same thing as to be in Paradise ; but to be in Abrahams bosome signifies a great eminence of place and comfort , which is indulged to the most excellent and the most afflicted . 2. Although the state of separation may now also and is by S. Iohn called Paradise ; because the Allegory still holds perfectly , as signifying comfort and holy pleasures ; yet the spirits of good men are not said to be with Abrahams but to be with Christ ; and as being with Abraham was the specification of the more general word of Paradise in the old Testament ; so being with Christ is the specification of it in the New . So S. Stephen prayed , Lord Iesus receive my spirit ; and S. Paul said , I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ : which expression S. Polycarp also used in his Epistle to the Philippians {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} they are in the place that is due to them , they are with the Lord , that is , in the hands , in the custody of the Lord Jesus ; as appears in the words of S. Steven and S. Paul . So S. Ierome . Scimus Nepotianum nostrum esse cum Christo & sanctorum mixtum choris , we know that our Nepotian is with Christ , mingled in the quires of Saints . Upon this account ( and it is not at all unreasonable ) the Church hath conjectur'd , that the state of separate souls since the glorification of our Lord is much better'd and advanc'd and their comforts greater : because as before Christs coming the expectation of the Saints that slept , was fixed upon the revelation of the Messias in his first coming ; so now it is upon his second coming unto judgment , and in his glory . This improvement of their condition is well intimated by their being said to be under the Altar , that is , under the protection of Christ , under the powers and benefits of his Priesthood , by which he makes continuall intercession both for them and us . This place some of the old Doctors understood too literally , and from hence they believed that the souls of departed saints were under their material Altars ; which fancy produced that fond decree of the Councel of Eliberis ( Can. 3. 4. ) [ that wax lights should not by day be burnt in coemeteries inquietandi enim spiritus sanctorum non sunt ] left the spirits of Saints should by the light of the diurnal tapers be disquieted : This reason , though it be trifling and impertinent , yet it declares their opinion , that they supposed the souls to be neer their reliques which were placed under the altars * But better then this , their state is described by S. Iohn in these words [ therefore they are before the throne of God , and serve him night and day in his Temple , and he that sits upon the throne shall dwell among them ] with which general words , as being modest bounds to our inquiries , enough to tell us it is rarely well , but enough also to chastise all curious questions , let us remain content , and labour with faith and patience , with hope and charity to be made worthy to partake of those comforts , after which when we have long inquired , when at last we come to try what they are , we shall finde them much better and much otherwise then we imagine . 3. I am to admonish this also , that although our Blessed Saviour is in the Creed said to descend {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} into hell ( so we render it ) yet this does not at all prejudice his other words [ this day shalt thou be with me in Paradise ] for the word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} signifies indefinitely the state of separation whether blessed or accursed ; it means only the invisible place , or the region of darkness whither who so descends shall be no no more seen . For as among the Heathens the Elysian fields and Tartara are both {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} : so amongst the Jews and Christians Paradisus and Gehenna are the distinct states of Hades . Of the first we have a plain testimony in Diphilus . {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . In Hades there are two wayes , one for just men , and another for the impious . Of the second we have the testimony of Iosephus , who speaking of the Sadduces , says , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , they take away or deny the rewards and punishments respectively which are in Hades , or in the state of separation : so that if Christs soul was in Paradise , he was in Hades . In vain therefore does S. Augustine torment himself to tell , how Christ could be in both places at once ; when it is no harder then to tell how a man may be in England and at London at the same time . 4. It is observable that in the mentions of Paradise by S. Iohn , he twice speaks of the tree of life , but never of the tree of knowledge of good and evil : because this was the Symbol of secular knowledge , of prudence and skill of doing things of this world which we can naturally use ; we may smel and taste them , but not feed upon them , that is , these are no part of our enjoyment , and if we be given up to the study of such notices and be immerged in the things of this world , we cannot attend to the studies of religion and of the Divine service . But these cares and secular divertisements shall cease when our souls are placed in Paradise : there shall be no care taken for raising portions for our children , nor to provide bread for our tables , no cunning contrivances to be safe from the crafty snares of an enemy , no amazement at losses , no fear of slanderings , or of the gripes of Publicans , but we shall feed on the tree of life , love of God , and longings for the comming of Christ . We are then all spirit and our imployment shall be symbolical , that is , spiritual , and holy , and pleasant . I have now made it as evident as questions of this Nature will bear , that in the state of separation the spirits of good men shall be blessed and happy souls : they have an antepast or taste of their reward : but their great reward it self , their crown of righteousness shall not be yet ; that shall not be , until the day of judgement : and this was the third proposition I undertook to prove ; the consummation and perfection of the Saints felicity shall be at the resurrection of the dead . {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} ; at his coming ; so S. Iohn expresses the time , that we may not then be ashamed . For now we are the sons of Gods , but it does not yet appear what we shall be . But we know that when he shall appear we shall be like unto him and see him as he is . [ 1 Iohn 2. 28. 1 Iohn 3. 4. ] At his glorious appearing , we also shall appear glorious ; we shall see him as he is ; but till then , this beatific vision shall not be at all ; but for the interval , the case is otherwise . Tertullian affirms puniri et foveri animam interim in inferis sub expectatione utriusque judicii , in quadam usurpatione et candida ejus ; [ lib. de anima , e. lib. adv. Marcion . ] the souls are punished or refreshed in their regions expecting the day of their judgement and several sentences : habitacula illa , animarum promptuaria nominavit scriptura ( saith S. Ambrose , ) [ de bono mortis cap. 10. ] The Scripture calls these habitations , the promptuaries , or repositories of souls . There is comfort , but not the full reward ; a certain expectation supported with excellent intervals of joy : Refrigerium , so the Latins call it , a refreshment . Donec consummatio rerum resurrectionem omnium plenitudine mercedis expungat tune apparitura coelesti promissione , saith Tertullian , until the consummation of all things points out the resurrection , by the fulness of reward and the appearing of the heavenly promise . So the Author of the questions ad Orthodoxos [ quaest. 75. ] Immediately after death , presently there is a separation of the just from the unjust ; for they are born by Angels {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} into the places they have deserved ; and they are in those places {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} kept unto the day of resurrection and retribution . But what do they in the mean time ? How is it with them ? {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , sayes Nazianzen . [ orat . funebr . Caesar . fratris . ] They rejoyce and are delighted in a wonderful joy . They see Angels and Archangels , they converse with them , and see our B. Saviour Iesus in his glorified humanity ; so Iustin Martyr . [ ubi suprà ] But in these great joys they look forgreater . They are now In Paradiso ; but they long that the body and soul may be in heaven together ; but this is the glory of the day of judgement , the fruit of the resurrection . And this whole affair is agreeable to reason , & the analogy of the whole dispensation as it is generally and particularly described in Scripture . For when the greatest effect of the Divine power , the mightiest promise , the hardest thing to Christan faith , that impossible thing to Gentile Philosophy , the expectation of the whole world , the New Creation , when that shall come to pass , viz. that the souls shall be reinvested with their bodies , when the ashes of dissolved bones shall stand up a new and living frame , to suppose that then there shall be nothing done in order to Eternity , but to publish the salvation of Saints of which they were possessed before , is to make a great solemnity for nothing , to do great things for no great end , and therefore it is not reasonable to suppose it . For if it were a good argument of the Apostle , that the Patriarks and Saints of the old Testament received not the promises signified by Canaan and the land of promise , because God had provided some better thing for us , that without us they should not be made perfect ; it must also conclude of all alike ; that they who died since Christ must stay till the last day , that they and we and all may be made perfect together . And this very thing was told to the spirits of the Martyrs who under the Altar cried How long O Lord &c. [ Rev. 6. 10. ] that they should rest yet for a little season , untill their fellow servants also shall be fulfilled . Upon this account it is that the day of judgment is a day of recompence : So said our Blessed Lord himself [ Thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just ] ( Luke 14. 14. ) and this is the day in which all things shall be restored : for [ the Heavens must receive Jesus till the time of restitution of all things ] [ Acts 3. 7. ] and till then the reward is said to be laid up . So S. Paul . Henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness , which the righteous Iudge shall give me in that day : and that you may know he means the resurrection and the day of judgment ; he addes [ and not to me only , but to all them that love his coming : 2 Tim. 4. 8. ] of whom it is certain many shall be alive at that day ; and therefore cannot before that day receive the crown of righteousness : and then also , and not till then , shall be his appearing ; but till then it is a depositum . The summe is this . In the world we walk and live by faith : In the state of separation we live by hope : and in the resurrection we shall live by an eternal charity . Here we see God as in a glass darkly : In the separation we shall behold him ; but it is afar off : and after the resurrection we shall see him face to face , in the everlasting comprehensions of an intuitive beatitude . In this life we are warriors : In the separation we are conquerors : but we shall not triumph till after the resurrection . And in proportion to this is also the state of Devils and damned spirits . Art thou come to torment us before the time , said the Devils to our B. Saviour ; there is for them also an appointed time ; and when that is , we learn from S. Iud. 6. They are reserved in chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day . Well therefore did S. Iames affirme , That the Devils believe and tremble ; and so do the damned souls , with an insupportable amazement fearing the revelation of that day . They know that day will come , and they know they shall finde an intolerable sentence on that day ; and they fear infinitely , and are in amazement and confusion , feeling the worme of conscience , and are in the state of Devils who fear God and hate him ; they tremble but they love him not ; and yet they die because they would not love him ; because they would not with all their powers and strengths keep his Commandments . This doctrine though of late it hath been laid aside upon the interest of the Church of Rome and for compliance with some other Schools , yet was it universally the doctrine of the Primitive Church ; as appears out of Iustin Martyr who in his dialogues with Tryphon reckons this amongst the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} errors of some men who say there shall be no resurrection of the dead ; but that as soon as good men are dead {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} their souls are taken up immediately into heaven ; and the writer of the questions ad Orthodoxos asks , [ qu. 76. q , 60. q. 75. ] whether before the resurrection there shall be a reward of works ? because to the thief Paradise was promised that day . He answers , it was fit the thief should goe to Paradise and there perceive what things should be given to the works of faith ; but there he is kept {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} untill the day of resurrection and reward . But in Paradise the soul hath an intellectual perception both of her self and of those things which were under her . Concerning which I shall not need to heap up testimonies ; this only : It is the doctrine of the Greek Church unto this day , and was the opinion of the greatest part of the Antient Church both Latine and Greek ; and by degrees was in the West eaten out by the doctrine of Purgatory and invocation of Saints ; and rejected a little above two hundred years agoe in the Councel of Florence ; and since that time it hath been more generally taught that the souls of good men enjoy the beatific vision before the resurrection ; even presently upon the dissolution . According to which new opinion it will be impossible to understand the meaning of my text , and of diverse other places of Scripture which I have now alledged and explicated ; or at all to perceive the Oeconomy and dispensation of the day of judgment ; or how it can be a day of discerning ; or how the reapers , the Angels shall bind up the wicked in bundles and throw them into the unquenchable fire ; or yet how it can be useful or necessary or prudent for Christ to give a solemn sentence upon all the world ; or how it can be that that day should be so formidable and full of terrors , when nothing can affright those that have long enjoyed the beatific presence of God ; and no thunders or earthquakes can affright them who have upon them the biggest evil in the world , I mean , the damned who according to this opinion have been in hell for many ages : and it can mean nothing but to them that are alive ; and then it is but a particular , not an universal judgment ; and after all , it can pretend to no piety , to no Scripture , to no reason ; and only can serve the ends of the Church of Rome ; who can no way better be confuted in their invocation of Saints then by this truth , that the Saints do not yet enjoy the beatific vision ; and though they are in a state of ease and comfort , yet are they not in a state of power and glory , and kingdome till the day of judgment . This also perfectly does overthrow the doctrine of Purgatory . For as the saints departed are not perfect , and therefore certainly not to be invocated not to be made our Patrons and advocates : so neither are they in such a condition as to be in torment ; and it is impossible that any wise man should believe , that the souls of good men after death should endure the sharp pains of hell , and yet at the same time believe those words of Scripture , Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord ; from henceforth ; yea saith the spirit that they may rest from their labours , and their works doe follow them . ( Rev. 24. 13. ) If they can rest in beds of fire , and sing hymns of glory in the torments of the damned ; if their labours are done when their pains are almost infinite , then these words of the spirit of God , and that doctrine of Purgatory can be reconciled ; else , never to eternal ages . But it is certain , they are words that cannot deceive us , Non tanget eos tormentum mortis : Torment in death shall never touch them . But having established the proposition and the intended sense of the text , let us a while consider , 1. That God is our God when we die , if we be his servants while we live ; and to be our God signifies very much good to us . He will rescue us from the powers of hell ; the Devil shall have no part nor portion in us ; we shall be kept in safe custody , we shall be in the hands of Christ , out of which all the powers of hell shall never snatch us , and therefore we may die with confidence , if we die with a good conscience : we have no cause of fear , if we have just grounds to hope for pardon . The Turks have a saying , that the Christians doe not believe themselves when they talk such glorious things of Heaven and the state of separation : for if they did , they would not be so afraid to die ; but they do not so well consider that Christians believe all this well enough , but they believe better then they live ; and therefore they believe and tremble , because they do not live after the rate of going to heaven : they knew that for good men glorious things are prepared ; but Tophet is prepared for evil Kings , and unjust Rulers ; for vitious men , and degenerate Christians : there is a hell for accursed souls ; and men live without fear of it so long , till their fear as soon as it begins , in an instant passes into despair and the fearful groans of the damned . It is no wonder to see men so unwilling to die ; to be impatient of the thought of death ; to be afraid to make their will , to converse with the solemn scarcrow : He that is fit to die must have long dwelt with it , must handle it on all sides , must feel whether the sting be taken out ; he must examine whether he be in Christ , that is , whether he be a new creature . And indeed I do not so much wonder that any man fears to die , as when I see a careless and a wicked person descend to his grave with as much indifferency as he goes to sleep , that is , with no other trouble then that he leaves the world ; but he does not fear to die ; and yet upon the instant of his dissolution he goes into the common receptacle of souls where nothing can be addressed to him but the consequence of what he brings along with him , and he shall presently know whether he shall be saved or damned . We have read of some men who by reading or hearing strange opinions have entred into desperate melancholy , and divers who have perfectly despaired of the Divine mercy ; who feeling such horrid convulsions in their souls , such fearful expectations of an Eternal curse that not finding themselves able to bear so intolerable a fear have hang'd or drown'd themselves ; and yet they only thought so or feared it ; and might have altered it if they would have hoped and prayed : but then let it be considered ; when the soul is stripp'd of the cloud her body , when she is entred into strange regions and converses only with spirits , and sees plainly all that is within her , when all her sins appeare in their own natural ugliness and set out by their aggravating circumstances ; then she remembers her filthy pleasures and hates them infinitely as being such things to which she then can have no appetite : when she perceives she shall perish for that which is not , for that whose remembrance is intolerable ; when she sees many new secrets which she understood not before , and hath stranger apprehensrons of the wrath of God then ever could be represented in this life ; when she hath the notices of a spirit , and an understanding pure enough to see essences and rightly to weigh all the degrees of things ; when ( possibly ) she is often affrighted with the alarums and conjectures of the day of judgement ; or if she be not , yet certainly knows , not only by faith and fear , but by a clear light and proper knowledge , that it shall certainly come , and its effects shall remain for ever , then she hath time enough to bewail her own folly and remediless infelicity ; if we could now think seriously that things must come to that pass , and place our selves by holy meditation in the circumstances of that condition , and consider what we should then think , how miserably deplore our folly , how comfortless remember our ill gotten wealth ; with how much asperity and deep sighing we should call to mind our foolish pride , our trifling swearing , our beastly drinkings , our unreasonable and brutish lusts , it could not be but we must grow wiser on a sudden , despise the world , betake our selves to a strict religion , reject all vanity of spirit , and be sober and watch unto prayer . * If any of us had but a strange dream , and should in the fears of the night but suppose our selves in Hell , and be affrighted with those circumstances of damnation which we can tell of , and use in our imperfect notices of things , it would effect strange changes upon a ductile and malleable spirit . A frequent , severe meditation can do more then a seldome and a phantastic dream ; but an active faith can do more then all the arts and contingencies of fancy or discourse . Now it is well with us , and we may yet secure it shall be well with us for ever : but with in an hour it may be otherwise with any of us all , who do not instantly take courses of security . But he that does not , would in such a change soon come to wish that he might exchange his state with the meanest , with the miserablest of all mankind ; with gallislaves and miners , with men condemned to tortures for a good conscience . Sed cum pulchra minax succidet membra securis . Quam velles spinas tunc habuisse meas . Avianus . In the day of felling timber the shrub and the bramble are better then the tallest firre or the goodliest Cedar : and a poor Saint whose soul is in the hand of Jesus , plac'd under the altar , over which our high Priest like the Cherubim over the propitiatory intercedes perpetually for the hastening of his glory , is better then the greatest Tyrant , who if he dies , is undone for ever . For in the interval there shall be rest and comfort to the one , and torment and amazement and hellish confusion to the other : and the day of judgement will come , and it shall appear to all the world , that they whose joys were not in this world , were not of all men most miserable , because their joys and their life were hid with Christ in God , and at the resurrection of the just shall be brought forth and be illustrious beyond all the beauties of the world . I have now done with my text , and been the expounder of this part of the Divine oracle : but here is another text and another Sermon yet . Ye have heard Moses and the Prophets : now hear one from the dead ; whose life and death would each of them make an excellent Sermon , if this dead man had a good interpreter : for he being dead yet speaketh , and calleth upon us to live well , and to live quickly , to watch perpetually , and to work assiduously ; for we shall descend into the same shadows of death Linquenda tellus , et domus , et placens Vxor atque harum quas colis arborum Te praeter in visas Cupressos Nulla brevem Dominum sequetur . Thou must leave thy rich land , and thy well built house , and thy pleasing wife , and of all the trees of thy Orchard or thy wood , nothing shall attend thee to thy grave , but oak for thy Coffin , and Cypress for thy funeral : It shall not then be inquired how long thou hast liv'd but how well ! None below will be concerned whither thou wert rich or poor ; but all the spirits of light and darkness shall be busie in the scrutiny of thy life ; for the good Angels would fain carry thy soul to Christ , and if they do the Devils will follow and accuse thee there ; and when thou appearest before the righteous judge , what will become of thee unless Christ be thy advocate and God be merciful and appeased , and the Angels be thy guards and a holy conscience be thy comfort . There will to every one of us come a time when we shall with great passion and great interest inquire , how have I spent my days , how have I laid out my money , how have I imployed my time , how have I served God , and how repented me of my sins : and upon our answers to these questions depends a happy or an unhappy Eternitie : and blessed is he who concerning these things takes care in time ; and of this care I may with much confidence and comfort propound to you the example of this good man whose reliques lie before you : Sir George Dalston , of Dalston in Cumberland ; a worthy man , belov'd of his Country , useful to his friends , friendly to all men , careful of his religion , and a true servant of God . He was descended of an Antient and a worthy house in Cumberland ; and he adorned his family and extraction with a more worthy comportment ; for to be of a worthy family and to bring to it no stock of our proper vertue is to be upbraided by our family ; and a worthy Father can be no honour to his Son , when it shall be said ; behold the difference ; this crab descended from a goodly apple-tree ; but he who beautifies the eschutcheon of his Ancestors by worthy atchievements , by learning or by wisdome , by valour and by great imployments , by a holy life and an useful converlation ; that man is the parent of his own fame , and a new beginner of an Antient family : for as conversation is a perpetual creation ; so is the progression of a family in a line of worthy descendants , a dayly beginning of its honour and a new stabiliment . He was bred in learning ; in which Cambridge was his tiring room , and the Court of Queen Elizabeth was his stage in which he first represented the part of a hopeful young man : but there he stayed not ; his friends not being desirous that the levities of youth should be fermented by the liberties of a rich and splendid Court , caused him to lie in the restraints and to grow ripe in the sobrieties of a Country life and a married state : In which as I am informed he behaved himself with so great worthiness , thiness , and gave such probation of his love of justice , popular regards of his Countries good , and abilities to serve them ; that for almost 40. years together his Country chose him for their Knight to serve in all the intervening parliaments : Magistratus indicatorium ; imployment shews the man ; he was a leading man in Parliaments ; prevailing there by the great reputation of his justice and integrity ; and yet he was not unpleasant and hated at Court : for he had well understood that the true interest of Courts and Parliaments were one ; and that they are like the humours of the body , if you increase one beyond its limit , that destroys all the rest and it self at last ; and when they look upon themselves as enemies and that hot and cold must fight ; the prevailing part is abated in the conflict , and the vanquish'd part is destroyed : but when they look upon themselves as varieties serving the differing aspects and necessities of the same body , they are for the allay of each others exorbitances and excesses , and by keeping their own measures they preserve the man : this the good man well understood ; for so he comported himself that he was loud in Parliaments and valued at Court : he was respected in very many Parliaments ; and was worthily regarded by the worthy Kings : which without an Orator commends a man : Gravissimi principis judicium in minoribus etiam rebus consequi pulchrum est ; said Rliny . To be approved though but in lesser matters by the judgement of a wise Prince is a great ornament to the man . For as King Theodoric in Cassiodore said , Nequen . dignus est à quopiam redargui , qui nostro judicio meretur absolvi : No man ought to reprove him whom the King commends . But I need no artifices to represent him worthy ; his arguments of probation were within in the magazines of a good heart and represented themselves by worthy actions . For , God was pleased to invest him with a marvailous sweet Nature ; which is certainly to be reckoned as one half of the grace of God : because a good nature being the reliques and remains of that ship wrack which Adam made , is the proper and immediate disposition to holiness , as the corruption of Adam was to disobedience and peevish Councels . A good nature will not upbraid the more imperfect persons , will not deride the ignorant , will not reproach the erring man : will not smite sinners on the face , will not despise the penitent . A good Nature is apt to forgive injuries , to pitty the miserable , to rescue the oppressed , to make every ones condition as tolerable as he can : and so would he . For as when good Nature is heightned by the grace of God , that which was natural becomes now spiritual ; so these actions which proceeded from an excellent nature and were pleasing and useful to men , when they derive from a new principle of grace they become pleasant in the eyes of God : then obedience to laws is duty to God ; justice is righteousness , bounty becomes graciousness , and alms is charity . And indeed this is a grace in which this good man was very remarkable , being very frequent and much in alms ; tender hearted to the poor ; open handed to relieve their needs ; the bellies of the poor did bless him , he filled them with food and gladness ; and I have heard that he was so regular , so constant , so free in this duty , that in these late unhappy wars being in a garison and neer the suffering some rude accidents , the beggars made themselves his guard and rescued him from that trouble , who had so often rescued them from hunger . He was of a meek and gentle spirit ; but not too soft ; he knew how to do good , and how to put by an injury ; but I have heard it told by them that knew his life , that being by the unavoidable trouble of a great estate ingag'd in great suits at law , he was never Plaintiffe , but always upon the defensive part ; and that he had reason on his side and justice for him , I need alledge no other testimony , but that the sentence of his Judges so declared it . But that in which I propound this good man most imitable was in his religion , for he was a great lover of the Church , a constant attender to the Sermons of the Church ; a diligent hearer of the prayers of the Church , and and an obedient son to perform the commands of the Church . He was diligent in his times and circumstances of devotion ; he would often be at Church so early that he was seen to walk long in the Churhyard before prayers ; being as ready to confess his sins at the beginning , as to receive the blessing at the end of prayers . Indeed he was so great a lover of Sermons , that though he knew how to value that which was the best , yet he was patient of that which was not so ; and if he could not learn any thing to improve his faith , yet he would finde something to exercise his patience ; and something for charity ; yet this his great love of Sermons could not tempt him to a willingness of neglecting the prayers of the Church ; of which he was a great lover to his dying day . Oves meae exaudiunt vocem meam ( says Christ ) my sheep hear my voice ; and so the Church says : my sheep hear my voice , they love my words , they pray in my forms , they observe my orders , they delight in my offices , they revere my Ministers , and obey my constitutions : and so did he ; loving to have his soul recommended to God , and his needs represented , and his sins confessed , and his pardon implored in the words of his Mother in the voice and accent of her that nurs'd him up to a spiritual life , to be a man in Christ Jesus . He was indeed a great lover and had a great regard for Gods Ministers , ever remembring the words of God , keep my rest , and reverence my Priests , he honoured the calling in all ; but he loved and revered the persons of such who were conscientious keepers of their depositum , that trust which was committed to them ; such which did not for interest quit their conscience , and did not to preserve some parts of their revenue , quit some portions of their religion , He knew that what was true in 1639. was also true in 1644. and so to 57. and shall continue true to eternal ages : and they that change their perswasions by force or interest did neither believe well nor ill upon competent and just grounds ; they are not just , though they happen on the right side . Hope of gain did by chance teach them well ; and fear of loss abuses them directly . He pitied the persecuted , and never would take part with persecutors , he prayed for his Prince and serv'd him in what he could : he loved God , and lov'd the Church ; he was a lover of his Countries liberties , and yet an observer of the laws of his King . Thus he behaved himself to all his superior relatives ; to his equals and descendants he was also just , and kinde and loving . He was an excellent friend , laying out his own interest to serve theirs ; sparing not himself that he might serve them ; as knowing society to be the advantage of mans nature ; and friendship the ornament of society , and usefulness the ornament of friendship : and in this he was known to be very worthy . He was tender and carefull of his children , and so provident and wife , so loving and obliging to his whole family , that he justly had that love and regard , that duty and observance from them , which his kindness and his care had merited . He was a provident and carefull conductor of his estate ; but farre from covetousness ; as appeared toward the evening of his life ; in which that vice does usually prevail amongst old men , who are more greedy when they have least need and , and load their sumpters so much the more , by how much neerer they are to their journeys end : but he made a demonstration of the contrary ; for he washed his hands and heart of the world , gave up his estate long before his death or sickness to be managed by his only son whom he left since , but then first made and saw him his heir ; he emptied his hands of secular imployment ; medled not with money but for the uses of the poor , for piety , for justice and religion . And now having devested himself of all objections and in his conversation with the world , quitting his affections to it , he wholly gave himself to religion and devotion : He waken'd early and would presently be entertained with reading ; when he rose , still he would be read to and hear some of the Psalms of David : and excepting only what time he took for the necessities of his life and health , all the rest he gave to prayer , reading , and meditation ; save only that he did not neglect , or rudely entertain the visits and kinde offices of his neighbours . But in this great vacation from the world ; he espied his advantages ; he knew well according to that saying of the Emperor Charles 5. oportet inter vitae negotia & diem mortis spatium aliquod intercedere ; there ought to be a valley between two such mountains , the businesses of our life and the troubles of our death ; and he stayed not till the noise of the bridegrooms coming did awaken and affright him ; but by daily prayers twice a day constantly with his family , besides the piety and devotion of his own retirements , by a monethly communion , by weekly Sermons and by the religion of every day he stood in precincts , ready with oyle in his lamp watching till his Lord should call . And indeed when he was hearing what God did speak to him of duty , he also received his summons to give his account . For he was so pertinacious an attendant to Gods holy word and the services of the Church , that though he found himself sick , he would not off , but stay till the solemnity was done ; but it pleased God at Church to give him his first arrest , and since that time I have often visited him ; and found him alwayes doing his work with the greatest evennes and indifferency of spirit as to the event of life and death that I have observed in any . He was not unwilling to live ; but if he should , he resolved to spend his life wholly in the service of God ; but yet neither was he unwilling to die ; because he then knew he should weep no more , and he should sin no more . He was very confident , but yet with great humility and great modesty , of the pardon of his sins ; he had indeed lived without scandal , but he knew he had not lived without error ; but as God had assisted him to avoid the reproach of great crimes , so he doubted not but he should finde pardon for the less : and indeed I could not but observe that he had in all the time of his sickness a very quiet conscience ; which is to me an excellent demonstration of the state of his life , and of his state of grace and pardon . For though he seemed to have a conscience tender and nice if any evil thing had touched it , yet I could not but apprehend that his peace was a just peace , the mercy of God , and the price and effect of the bloud of Jesus . He was so joyfull , so thankfull , so pleased in the Ministeries of the Church , that it gave in evidence where his soul was most delighted , what it did apprehend the quickest , where it did use to dwell , and what it did most passionately love . He discoursed much of the mercies of God to him , repeated the blessings of his life , the accidents and instruments of his trouble , he loved the cause of his trouble and pardoned them that neither loved it nor him . When he had spent great portions of his time of sickness in the service of God and in expectation of the sentence of his life or death , at last he understood the still voice of God , and that he was to goe where his soul loved to be ; he still increased his devotion ; and being admonished as his strength failed him , to supply his usual forms , and his want of strength and words , by short exercise of vertues , of faith and patience and the love of God ; he did it so willingly , so well , so readily , making his eyes , his hands , and his tongue as long as he could the interpreters of his minde , that as long as he was alive we would see what his soul was doing . He doubted not of the truth of the promises , nor of the goodness of God , nor the satisfaction of Christ , and the merits of his death , nor the fruit of his resurrection , nor the prevalency of his intercession , nor yet doubted of his own part in them , but expected his portion in the regions of blessedness with those who loved God and served him heartily and faithfully in their generations . He had so great a patience in his sickness and was so afraid lest he should sin at last ; that his piety out-did his nature , and though the body cannot feel but by the soul , yet his soul seemed so little concerned in the passions of the body , that I neither observed , nor heard of him that he in all his sickness so much as complained with any semblance of impatience . He so continued to pray , so delighted in hearing Psalms sung , which I wish were made as fit to sing by their numbers , as they are by their weight , that so very much of his time was spent in them , that it was very likely when his Lord came , he would finde him so doing , and he did so ; for in the midst of prayers he went away , and got to Heaven as soon as they ; and saw them ( as we hope ) presented to the throne of grace ; he went along with them himself , and was his own messenger to heaven ; where although he possibly might prevent his last prayers , yet he would not prevent Gods early mercy ; which as we humbly hope , gave him pardon for his sins , ease of his pain , joy after his sorrow , certainty for his fears , heaven for earth , innocence and impeccability instead of his infirmity . Ergo Quintilium perpetuus sopor Urget cui pudor & justitiae soror , Incorrupta fides , Nudaque veritas , Quando ullum inveniet parem ? Faith and justice , modesty and pure righteousness , made him equal to the worthiest examples he was {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , a good man , loving and humble , meek and patient , he would be sure to be the last in contention , and the first at a peace ; he would injure no man , but yet if any man was displeased with him , he would speak first and offer words of kindness ; If any did dispute concerning priority , he knew how to get it even by yeelding and compliance ; walking profitably with his neighbours and humbly with his God , and having lived a life of piety , he died in a full age , an honourable old age , in the midst of his friends , and in the midst of prayer . And although the events of the other world are hidden to us below that we might live in faith , and walke in hope and die in charity , yet we have great reason to bless God for his mercies to this our Brother , and endeavour to comport our selves with a strict religion , and a severe repentance , with an exemplar patience & an exemplar piety , with the structures of a holy life , and the solemnities of a religious death , that we also may , as our consident and humble hope is this our Brother doth by the conduct of Angels pass into the hands and bosome of Jesus , there to expect the most mercifull sentence of the right hand , Come ye blessed Children of my Father , receive the Kingdome prepared for you from the beginning of the world . Amen Lord Jesus , Amen . Grant this Eternal God for Iesus Christ his sake ; to whom with thee O Father , and the Holy Spirit , be all glory and honour , service and dominion , love and obedience , be confessed due , and ever paid by all Angels , and all men , and all the creatures this day , henceforth and for evermore . Amen . FINIS . 
A63754	----	Deus justificatus. Two discourses of original sin contained in two letters to persons of honour, wherein the question is rightly stated, several objections answered, and the truth further cleared and proved by many arguments newly added or explain'd. By Jer. Taylor D.D. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. 1656 Approx. 220 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 140 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2003-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A63754 Wing T311A ESTC R220790 99832178 99832178 36649 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A63754) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 36649) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 2136:10) Deus justificatus. Two discourses of original sin contained in two letters to persons of honour, wherein the question is rightly stated, several objections answered, and the truth further cleared and proved by many arguments newly added or explain'd. By Jer. Taylor D.D. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. Deus justificatus, or, A vindication of the glory of the divine attributes in the question of original sin. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. Answer to a letter written by the R.R. the Ld Bp of Rochester. [4], 17, 20-143, [15], 111, [5] p. printed for Richard Royston, London : 1656. A reissue, with a general title page, of Wing (2nd ed.) T311 and T286. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Warner, John, 1581-1666 -- Early works to 1800. Church of England. -- Diocese of Rochester. -- Bishop (1637-1666 : Warner) -- Early works to 1800. Sin, Original -- Early works to 1800. 2000-00 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2001-00 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2001-08 TCP Staff (Michigan) Sampled and proofread 2001-09 TCP Staff (Michigan) Text and markup reviewed and edited 2001-11 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion Deus Justificatus . TWO DISCOVRSES OF ORIGINAL SIN , Contained in two Letters TO PERSONS of HONOUR , Wherein the question is rightly stated , several objections answered , and the truth further cleared and proved by many arguments newly added or explain'd . By Jer. Taylor D.D. LONDON , Printed for Richard Royston 1656. Deus Justificatus , OR , A Vindication of the glory of the Divine Attributes in the Question of ORIGINAL SIN . Against the Presbyterian way of Understanding it . By JER . TAYLOR , D.D. Lucretius . Nam neque tam facilis res ulla est , quin ea primum , Difficilis magis ad credendum constet — LONDON , Printed by R. N. for R. Royston at the Angel in Ivie-Lane . 1656. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE and religious Lady , The Lady CHRISTIAN , Countesse Dowager of Devonshire . Madam , WHen I reflect upon the infinite disputes which have troubled the publick meetings of Christendom concerning Original sin , and how impatient and vext some men lately have been , when I offered to them my endeavours and conjectures concerning that Question , with purposes very differing from what were seen in the face of other mens designes , and had handled it so , that God might be glorified in the Article , and men might be instructed and edified in order to good life ; I could not but think that wise Heathen said rarely well in his little adagy , relating to the present subject ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Mankind was born to be a riddle , and our nativity is in the dark ; for men have taken the liberty to think what they please , and to say what they think ; and they affirme many things , and can prove but few things ; and take the sayings of men for the Oracles of God , and bold affirmatives for convincing arguments ; and Saint Pauls text must be understood by Saint Austins commentary , and Saint Austin shall be heard in all , because he spake against such men who in some things were not to be heard ; and after all , because his Doctrine was taken for granted by ignorant ages , and being received so long , was incorporated into the resolved Doctrine of the Church , with so great a firmnesse , it became almost a shame to examine what the world believed so unsuspectingly ; and he that shall first attempt it , must resolve to give up a great portion of his reputation to be torn in pieces by the ignorant and by the zealous , by some of the learned , and by all the Envious ; and they who love to teach in quiet ; being at rest in their chaires and pulpits will be froward when they are awakened , and rather then they will be suspected to have taught amisse , will justifie an error by the reproaching of him that tells them truth , which they are pleased to call new . If any man differs from me in opinion , I am not troubled at it , but tell him that truth is in the understanding , and charity is in will , and is or ought to be there , before either his or my opinion in these controversies can enter , and therefore that we ought to love alike , though we do not understand alike ; but when I finde that men are angry at my Ingenuity and opennesse of discourse , and endeavour to hinder the event of my labours , in the ministery of Souls , and are impatient of contradiction or variety of explication , and understanding of Questions , I think my self concerned to defend the truth which I have published , to acquit it from the suspition of evil appendages , to demonstrate not onely the truth , but the piety of it , and the necessity , and those great advantages which by this Doctrine so understood may be reaped , if men will be quiet and patient , void of prejudice and not void of Charity . This ( Madam ) is reason sufficient why I offer so many justifications of my Doctrine , before any man appears in publick against it ; but because there are many who do enter into the houses of the rich and the honourable , and whisper secret oppositions and accusations rather then arguments against my Doctrine ; and the good women that are zealous for Religion , and make up in the passions of one faculty what is not so visible in the actions and operations of another , are sure to be affrighted before they be instructed , and men enter caveats in that Court before they try the cause . I have found , that some men , to whom I gave and designed my labours , and for whose sake I was willing to suffer the persecution of a suspected truth , have been so unjust to me , and so unserviceable to your Honour ( Madam , ) and to some other excellent and rare personages , as to tell stories , and give names to my proposition , and by secret murmurs hinder you from receiving that good which your wisdom and your piety would have discerned there , if they had not affrighted you with telling , that a snake lay under the Plantane , and that this Doctrine wich is as wholesome as the fruits of Paradise , was inwrapped with the infoldings of a Serpent , subtle and fallacious . Madam , I know the arts of these men ; and they often put me in mind of what was told me by Mr. Sackvill the late Earl of Dorsets Vncle ; that the cunning Sects of the World ( he named the Jesuits and the Presbyterians ) did more prevail by whispering to Ladies , then all the Church of England and the more sober Protestants could do by fine force and strength of argument . For they by prejudice or fears , terrible things , and zealous nothings , confident sayings and little stories , governing the Ladies consciences , who can perswade their Lords , their Lords will convert their Tenants , and so the World is all their own . I wish them all good of their profits and purchases ; but yet because they are questions of Souls , of their interest and advantages ; I cannot wish they may prevail with the more Religious and Zealous Personages : and therefore ( Madam ) I have taken the boldnesse to write this tedious letter to your Honour , that I may give you a right understanding and an easy explication of this great Question ; as conceiving my self the more bound to do it to your Honour , not onely because you are Zealous for the Religion of this Church , and are a person as well of reason as of Honour , but also because you have passed divers obligations upon me , for which , all my services are too little a return . Deus Justificatus , OR , A Vindication of the Divine Attributes . IN Order to which , I will plainly describe the great lines of difference and danger , which are in the errors and mistakes about this Question . 2. I will prove the truth and necessity of my own , together with the usefulness and reasonableness of it . 3. I will answer those little murmurs , by which ( so far as I can yet learn ) these men seek to invade the understandings of those who have not leisure or will to examine the thing it self in my own words and arguments . 4. And if any thing else falls in by the bie , in which I can give satisfaction to a Person of Your great Worthiness , I will not omit it , as being desirous to have this Doctrine stand as fair in your eyes , as it is in all its own colours and proportions . But first ( Madam ) be pleased to remember that the question is not whether there bee any such thing as Originall Sin ; for it is certain , and confessed on all hands almost . For my part , I cannot but confess that to be which I feel , and groan under , and by which all the World is miserable . Adam turned his back upon the Sun , and dwelt in the dark and the shadow ; he sinned , and fell into Gods displeasure and was made naked of all his supernaturall endowments , and was ashamed and sentenced to death , and deprived of the means of long life , and of the Sacrament and instrument of Immortality , I mean the Tree of Life ; he then fell under the evills of a sickly body , and a passionate , ignorant , uninstructed soul ; his sin made him sickly , his sickliness made him peevish , his sin left him ignorant , his ignorance made him foolish and unreasonable : His sin left him to his nature , and by his nature , who ever was to be born at all , was to be born a child , and to do before he could understand , & bred under Laws , to which he was alwayes bound , but which could not always be exacted ; and he was to choose , when he could not reason , and had passions most strong , when he had his understanding most weak , and was to ride a wilde horse without a bridle , and the more need he had of a curb , the less strength he had to use it , and this being the case of all the World , what was every mans evill , became all mens greater evill ; and though alone it was very bad , yet when they came together it was made much worse ; like Ships in a storm , every one alone hath enough to do to out-ride it ; but when they meet , besides the evills of the storm , they find the intolerable calamitie of their mutuall concussion , and every ship that is ready to be oppressed with the tempest , is a worse tempest to every vessell , against which it is violently dashed . So it is in mankind , every man hath evill enough of his own ; and it is hard for a man to live soberly , temperately , and religiously ; but when he hath Parents and Children , brothers and sisters , friends and enemies , buyers and sellers , Lawyers and Physitians , a family and a neighbourhood , a King over him , or Tenants under him , a Bishop to rule in matters of Government spirituall , and a People to be rul'd by him in the affaires of their Souls , then it is that every man dashes against another , and one relation requires what another denies ; and when one speaks , another will contradict him ; and that which is well spoken , is sometimes innocently mistaken , and that upon a good cause , produces an evill effect , and by these , and ten thousand other concurrent causes , man is made more then most miserable . But the main thing is this ; when God was angry with Adam , the man fell from the state of grace ; for God withdrew his grace , and we returned to the state of meer nature , of our prime creation . And although I am not of Petrus Diaconus his mind , who said , that when we all fell in Adam , we fell into the dirt , and not only so , but we fell also upon a heap of stones ; so that we not onely were made naked , but defiled also , and broken all in pieces ; yet this I believe to be certain , that we by his fall received evill enough to undoe us , and ruine us all ; but yet the evill did so descend upon us , that we were left in powers & capacities to serve and glorifie God ; Gods service was made much harder , but not impossible ; mankind was made miserable , but not desperate , we contracted an actuall mortality , but we were redeemable from the power of Death ; sinne was easie and ready at the door , but it was resistable ; Our Will was abused , but yet not destroyed ; our Understandding was cosened , but yet still capable of the best instructions ; and though the Devill had wounded us , yet God sent his Son , who like the good Samaritan poured Oyle and Wine into our wounds , and we were cured before we felt the hurt , that might have ruined us upon that Occasion . It is sad enough , but not altogether so intolerable , and decretory , which the Sibylline Oracle describes to be the effect of Adams sin . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Man was the worke of God , fram'd by his hands , Him did the Serpent cheat , that to deaths bands He was subjected for his sin : for this was all , He tasted good and evill by his fall . But to this we may superadde that which Plutarch found to be experimentally true , Mirum quod pedes moverunt ad usum rationis , nullo autem fraeno passiones : the foot moves at the command of the Will and by the empire of reason , but the passionsare stiff even then when the knee bends , and no bridle can make the Passions regular and temperate . And indeed ( Madam ) this is in a manner the sum total of the evill of our abused and corrupted nature ; Our soul is in the body as in a Prison ; it is there tanquam in alienâ domo , it is a so journer , and lives by the bodies measures and loves and hates by the bodies Interests and Inclinations ; that which is pleasing and nourishing to the body , the soul chooses and delights in : that which is vexatious and troublesome , it abhorres , and hath motions accordingly ; for Passions are nothing else but acts of the Will , carried to or from materiall Objects , and effects and impresses upon the man , made by such acts ; consequent motions and productions from the Will It is an useless and a groundless proposition in Philosophy , to make the Passions to be distinct faculties , and seated in a differing region ; for as the reasonable soul is both sensitive and vegetative , so is the Will elective and passionate , the region both of choice and passions , that is , When the Object is immateriall , or the motives such , the act of the Will is so meerly intellectuall , that it is then spirituall , and the acts are proper and Symbolical ; but if the Object is materiall or corporall , the acts of the Will are adhaesion and aversation , and these it receives by the needs and inclinations of the body ; now because many of the bodies needs are naturally necessary , and the rest are made so by being thought needs , and by being so naturally pleasant , and that this is the bodies day , and it rules here in its own place and time , therefore it is that the will is so great a scene of passion and we so great servants of our bodies . This was the great effect of Adams sin which became therrefore to us a punishment because of the appendant infirmity that went along with it ; for Adam being spoiled of all the rectitudes and supernatural heights of grace , and thrust back to the form of nature , and left to derive grace to himself by a new Oeconomy , or to be without it ; and his posterity left just so as he was left himself ; he was permitted to the power of his enemy that betray'd him , and put under the power of his body whose appetites would govern him ; and when they would grow irregular could not be mastered by any thing that was about him , or born with him , so that his case was miserable and naked , and his state of things was imperfect and would be disordered . But now Madam , things being thus bad , are made worse by the superinduced Doctrines of men , which when I have represented to your Ladiship and told upon what accounts I reprove them , your Honour will finde that I have reason . There are one sort of Calvins Scholars whom we for distinctions sake call Supralapsarians , who are so fierce in their sentences of predestination and reprobation , that they say God look'd upon mankinde onely , as his Creation , and his slaves , over whom he having absolute power , was very gracious that he was pleased to take some few , and save them absolutely ; and to the other greater part he did no wrong , though he was pleased to damn them eternally , onely because he pleased ; for they were his own ; and Qui jure suo utitur nemini facit injuriam saies the law of reason , every one may do what he please with his own . But this bloody and horrible opinion is held but by a few ; as tending directly to the dishonour of God , charging on Him alone that He is the cause of mens sins on Earth , and of mens eternal torments in Hell ; it makes God to be powerfull , but his power not to be good ; it makes him more cruel to men , then good men can be to Dogs and sheep ; it makes him give the final sentence of Hell without any pretence or colour of justice ; it represents him to be that which all the World must naturally fear , and naturally hate , as being a God delighting in the death of innocents ; for so they are when he resolves to damn them : and then most tyrannically , cruel , and unreasonable ; for it saies that to make a postnate pretence of justice , it decrees that men inevitably shall sin , that they may inevitably , but justly , be damned ; like the Roman Lictors who because they could not put to death Sejanus daughters as being Virgins , defloured them after sentence , that by that barbarity they might be capable of the utmost Cruelty ; it makes God to be all that thing that can be hated ; for it makes him neither to be good , nor just , nor reasonable ; but a mighty enemy to the biggest part of mankinde ; it makes him to hate what himself hath made , and to punish that in another which in himself he decreed should not be avoided : it charges the wisdom of God with folly , as having no means to glorifie his justice , but by doing unjustly , by bringing in that which himself hates , that he might do what himself loves : doing as Tiberius did to Brutus and Nero the Sons of Germanicus ; Variâ fraude induxit ut concitarentur ad convitia , et concitati perderentur ; provoking them to raise , that he might punish their reproachings . This opinion reproaches the words and the Spirit of Scripture , it charges God with Hypocrisy and want of Mercy , making him a Father of Cruelties , not of Mercie , and is a perfect overthrow of all Religion , and all Lawes , and all Goverment ; it destroyes the very being , and nature of all Election , thrusting a man down to the lowest form of beasts and birds , to whom a Spontaneity of doing certain actions is given by God , but it is in them so naturall , that it is unavoidable . Now concerning this horrid opinion , I for my part shall say nothing but this ; that he that sayes there was no such man as Alexander , would tell a horrible lie , and be injurious to all story , and to the memory and fame of that great Prince , but he that should say . It is true there was such a man as Alexander , but he was a Tyrant , and a Blood-sucker , cruel and injurious , false and dissembling , an enemy of mankind , and for all the reasons of the world to be hated and reproached , would certainly dishonour Alexander more , and be his greatest enemy : So I think in this , That the Atheists who deny there is a God , do not so impiously against God , as they that charge him with foul appellatives , or maintain such sentences , which if they were true , God could not be true . But these men ( Madam ) have nothing to do in the Question of Originall Sin , save onely , that they say that God did decree that Adam should fall , and all the sins that he sinn'd , and all the world after him are no effects of choice , but of predestination , that is , they were the actions of God , rather then man. But because these men even to their brethren seem to speak evil things of God , therefore the more wary and temperat of the Calvinists bring down the order of reprobation lower ; affirming that God looked upon all mankind in Adam as fallen into his displeasure , hated by God , truly guilty of his sin , liable to Eternal damnation , and they being all equally condemned , he was pleased to separate some , the smaller number far , and irresistibly bring them to Heaven ; but the far greater number he passed over , leaving them to be damned for the sin of Adam , and so they think they salve Gods Justice ; and this was the designe and device of the Synod of Dort. Now to bring this to passe , they teach concerning Original sin . 1. That by this sin our first Parents fell from their Original righteousnesse and communion with God , and so became dead in sinne and wholly defiled in all the faculties , and parts of soul and body . 2. That whatsoever death was due to our first Parents for this sin , they being the root of all mankinde , and the guilt of this sin , being imputed , the same is conveied to all their posterity by ordinary generation . 3. That by this Original corruption we are utterly indisposed , disabled , and made opposite to all good , and wholly inclined to all evill ; and that from hence proceed all actual trangressions . 4. This corruption of nature remaines in the regenerate , and although it be through Christ pardoned and mortified , yet both it self and all the motions thereof , are trulie and properly sin . 5. Original sin being a transgression of the righteous Law of God , and contrary thereunto , doth in its own nature bring guilt upon the sinner whereby he is bound over to the wrath of God and curse of the Law , and so made subject to death with all miseries , spiritual , temporall , and eternal . These are the sayings of the late Assembly at Westminster . Against this heap of errors and dangerous propositions I have made my former discoursings , and statings of the Question of Original sin . These are the Doctrines of the Presbyterian , but as unlike truth , as his assemblies are to our Church ; for concerning him I may say . Nemo tam propè proculque nobis . He is the likest and the unlikest to a Son of our Church in the world ; he is neerest to us and furthest from us ; and to all the world abroad he calls himself our friend , while at home he hates us and destroyes us . Now I shall first speak to the thing in general and its designes , then I shall make some observations upon the particulars . 1. This device of our Presbyterians and of the Synod of Dort is but an artifice to save their proposition harmless , & to stop the out-cries of Scripture and reason , and of all the World against them . But this way of stating the article of reprobation is as horrid in effect as the other . For 1. Is it by a natural consequent that we are guilty of Adams sin , or is it by the decree of God ? Naturally it cannot be ; for then the sins of all our forefathers , who are to their posterity the same that Adam was to his , must be ours ; and not onely Adams first sin , but his others are ours upon the same account . But if it be by the Decree of God , by his choice and constitution , that it should be so . ( as Mr. Calvin and Dr. Twisse ( that I may name no more for that side , do expresly teach ) it followes , that God is the Author of our Sin ; So that I may use Mr. Calvins words ; How is it that so many Nations with their Children should be involved in the fall without remedy , but because God would have it so ? and if that be the matter , then to God , as to the cause , must that sin , and that damnation be accounted . And let it then be considered , whether this be not as bad as the worst , For the Supralapsarians say , God did decree that the greatest part of mankind should perish , only because he would : The Sublapsarians say , That God made it by his decree necessary , that all wee who were born of Adam should be born guilty of Originall Sin , and he it was who decreed to damne whom he pleased for that sin , in which he decreed they should be born ; and both these he did for no other consideration , but because he would . Is it not therefore evident , that he absolutely decreed Damnation to these Persons ? For he that decrees the end , and he that decrees the onely necessary and effective meanes to the end , and decrees that it shall be the end of that means , does decree absolutely alike ; though by several dispensations : And then all the evill consequents which I reckoned before to be the monstrous productions of the first way ; are all Daughters of the other ; and if Solomon were here , he could not tell which were the truer Mother . Now that the case is equall between them , some of their own chiefest do confess , so Dr. Twisse . If God may ordain Men to Hell for Adam's sin , which is derived unto them by Gods onely constitution : he may as well do it absolutely without any such constitution : The same also is affirmed by Maccovius , and by Mr. Calvin : and the reason is plain ; for he that does a thing for a reason which himself makes , may as well do it without a reason , Or he may make his owne Will to be the reason , because the thing , and the motive of the thing , come in both cases , equally from the same principle , and from that alone . Now ( Madam ) be pleased to say , whether I had not reason and necessity for what I have taught : You are a happy Mother of an Honorable Posterity , your Children and Nephews are Deare to you as your right eye , and yet you cannot love them so well as God loves them , and it is possible that a Mother should forget her Children , yet God even then will not , cannot ; but if our Father and Mother forsake us , God taketh us up : Now Madam consider , could you have found in your heart when the Nurses and Midwives had bound up the heads of any of your Children , when you had born them with pain and joy upon your knees , could you have been tempted to give command that murderers should be brought to slay them alive , to put them to exquisite tortures , and then in the middest of their saddest groans , throw any one of them into the flames of a fierce fire , for no other reason , but because he was born at Latimers , or upon a Friday , or when the Moon wasin her prime , or for what other reason you had made , and they could never avoid ? could you have been delighted in their horrid shrieks and out-cries , and taking pleasure in their unavoidable and their intollerable calamity ? could you have smiled , if the hangman had snatched your Eldest Son from his Nurses breasts , and dashed his brains out against the pavement ; and would you not have wondred that any Father or Mother could espie the innocence and prety smiles of your sweet babes , and yet tear their limbs in pieces , or devise devilish artifices to make them roar with intollerable convulsions ? could you desire to be thought good , and yet have delighted in such cruelty ? I know I may answer for you ; you would first have dyed your self . And yet say again , God loves mankind better then we can love one another , and he is essentially just , and he is infinitely mercifull , and he is all goodness , and therefore though we might possibly do evil things , yet he cannot , and yet this doctrine of the Presbyterian reprobation , saies he both can and does things , the very apprehension of which hath caused many in despair to drown or hang themselves . Now if the Doctrine of absolute Reprobation be so horrid , so intolerable a proposition , so unjust and blasphemous to God , so injurious and cruell to men , and that there is no colour or pretence to justifie it , but by pretending our guilt of Adams sin , and damnation to be the punishment : then because from truth nothing but truth can issue ; that must needs be a lie , from which such horrid consequences do proceed . For the case in short is this ; If it be just for God to damne any one of Adam's Posterity for Adam's sin , then it is just in him to damne all ; for all his Children are equally guilty ; and then if he spares any , it is Mercy : and the rest who perish have no cause to complain . But if all these fearful consequences which Reason and Religion so much abhorr do so certainly follow from such doctrines of Reprobation , and these doctrines wholly rely upon this pretence , it follows , that the pretence is infinitely false and intollerable ; and that it cannot be just for God to damne us for being in a state of calamity , to which state we entred no way but by his constitution and decree . You see , Madam , I had reason to reprove that doctrine , which said , It was just in God to damne us for the sinne of Adam . Though this be the maine error ; yet there are some other collaterall things which I can by no means approve , such is that . 1. That by the Sin of Adam our Parents became wholly defiled in all the faculties and Powers of their souls and bodies . And 2. That by this we also are disabled , and made opposite to all good , and wholly inclined to all evill . And 3. That from hence proceed all actuall transgressions . And 4. that our naturall corruption in the regenerate still remains , and is still properly a sin . Against this , I opposed these Propositions ; That the effect of Adams sin was in himself bad enough ; for it devested him of that state of grace and favour where God placed him ; it threw him from Paradise , and all the advantages of that place , it left him in the state of Nature ; but yet his nature was not spoiled by that sin ; he was not wholly inclined to all evill , neither was he disabled and made opposite to all good ; only his good was imperfect , it was naturall and fell short of heaven ; for till his nature was invested with a new nature , he could go no further then the designe of his first Nature , that is , without Christ , without the Spirit of Christ , he could never arrive at heaven , which is his supernaturall condition ; But 1. There still remained in him a naturall freedom of doing good or evill . 2. In every one that was born , there are great inclinations to some good . 3. Where our Nature was averse to good , it is not the direct sin of Nature , but the imperfection of it , the reason being , because God superinduced Lawes against our naturall inclination , and yet there was in nature nothing sufficient to make us contradict our nature in obedience to God ; all that being to come from a supernaturall and Divine principle . These I shall prove together , for one depends upon another . 1. And first , that the liberty of will did not perish to mankind by the fall of Adam is so evident , that St. Austin who is an adversary in some parts of this Question , but not yet , by way of question , and confidence askes , Quis ●utem nostrum dicat quod primi hominis peccato perierit liberum arbitrium de humano genere ? Which of us can say , That the liberty of our Will did perish by the sin of the first Man ? And he adds a rare reason ; for it is so certain , that it did not perish in a sinner , that this thing onely is it by which they do sinne , especially when they delight in their sinne , and by the love of sin , that thing is pleasing to them which they list to do . ] And therefore when we are charged with sin , it is worthy of inquiry , whence it is that we are sinners ? Is it by the necessity of nature , or by the liberty of our Will ? If by nature , and not choice , then it is good and not evil ; for whatsoever is our Nature is of Gods making , and consequently is good ; but if we are sinners by choice & liberty of will , whence had we this libertie ? If from Adam , then we have not lost it ; but if we had it not from him , then from him we do not derive all our sin ; for by this liberty alone we sin . If it be replied , that wee are free to sin , but not to good ; it is such a foolery , and the cause of the mistake so evident , and so ignorant , that I wonder any man of Learning or common sense should own it . For if I be free to evill ; then I can chuse evill , or refuse it ; If I can refuse it , then I can do good ; for to refuse that evill is good , and it is in the Commandement [ Eschew evill ] but if I cannot choose or refuse it , how am I free to evill ? For Voluntas and libertas , Will and Liberty in Philosophy are not the same : I may will it , when I cannot will the contrary ; as the Saints in Heaven , and God himself wills good ; they can not will evill ; because to do so is imperfection and contrary to felicity ; but here is no liberty ; for liberty is with power , to do , or not to do ; to do this or the contrary ; and if this liberty be not in us , we are not in the state of obedience , or of disobedience ; which is the state of all them who are alive , who are neither in hell nor Heaven . But that our case is otherwise , if I had no other argument in the world , and were never so prejudicate and obstinate a person , I think I should be perfectly convinced by those words of S. Paul 1 Cor. 7.37 . The Apostle speaks of a good act tending not onely to the keeping of a Precept , but to a counsel of perfection ; & concerning that , he hath these words ; Neverthelesse , he that standeth stedfast in his heart , having no necessity , but hath power over his own will , and hath so decreed in his heart that he will keep his Virgin , doth well ; The words are plain , and need no explication . If this be not a plain liberty of choice , and a power of will , then words mean nothing , and we can never hope to understand one anothers meaning . But if sinne be avoidable , then wee have liberty of choice . If it be unavoidable , it is not imputable by the measures of Lawes , and Justice ; what it is by Empire and Tyranny , let the Adversaries inquire and prove : But since all Theology , all Schools of learning consent in this , that an invincible or unavoidable ignorance does wholly excuse from sin ; why an invincible and an unavoidable necessity shall not also excuse , I confesse I have not yet been taught . But if by Adam's sinne wee be so utterly indisposed , disabled , and opposite to all good , wholly inclined to evill , and from hence come all actuall sinnes , that is , That by Adam we are brought to that passe , that we cannot chuse but sinne : it is a strange severity , that this should descend upon Persons otherwise most innocent , and that this which is the most grievous of all evills ; prima & maximapeccantium poena est peccasse . ( Seneca ) To be given over to sin , is the worst calamity , the most extreme anger never inflicted directly at all for any sinne , as I have therwise proved , and not indirectly , but upon the extremest anger ; which cannot be supposed , unlesse God be more angry with us for being born Men , then for choosing to be sinners . The Consequent of these Arguments is this ; That our faculties are not so wholly spoiled by Adams fall , but that we can choose good or evill , that our nature is not wholly disabled and made opposite to all good : But to nature are left and given as much as to the handmaid Agar ; nature hath nothing to do with the inheritance , but she and her sons have gifts given them ; and by nature we have Laws of Virtue and inclinations to Virtue , and naturally we love God , and worship him , and speak good things of him , and love our Parents , and abstain from incestuous mixtures , and are pleased when we do well , and affrighted within when we sin in horrid instances against God ; all this is in Nature , and much good comes from Nature , neque enim quasi lassa & effaeta natura est , ut nihil jam laudabile pariat ; Nature is not so old , so absolute and dried a trunck as to bring no good fruits upon its own stock ; and the French-men have a good proverb , Bonus sanguis non mentitur , a good blood never lies ; and some men are naturally chast , and some are abstemious , and many are just and friendly , and noble and charitable : and therefore all actual sins do not proceed from this sin of Adam ; for if the sin of Adam left us in liberty to sin , and that this liberty was before Adams fall ; then it is not long of Adams fall that we sin ; by his fall it should rather be that we cannot choose but do this or that , and then it is no sin ; But to say that our actuall sins should any more proceed from Adams fall , then Adams fal should proceed from it self , is not to be imagined , for what made Adam sin when he fell ? If a fatal decree made him sin , then he was nothing to blame . Fati ista culpa est Nemo fit fato nocens No guilt upon mankinde can lie For what 's the fault of destiny . And Adam might with just reason lay the blame from himself , and say as Agamemnon did in Homer , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It was not I that sinned , but it was fate or a sury , it was God and not I , it was not my act , but the effect of the Divine decree , and then the same decree may make us sin , and not the sin of Adam be the cause of it . But if a liberty of will made Adam sin , then this liberty to sin being still left us , this liberty and and not Adams sin is the cause of all our actual . Concerning the other clause in the Presbyterian article , that our natural corruption in the regenerate still remaines , and is still a sin , and properly a sin : I have ( I confesse ) heartily opposed it , and shall besides my arguments , confute it with my blood , if God shall call me ; for it is so great a reproach to the spirit and power of Christ , and to the effects of Baptisme , to Scripture and to right reason , that all good people are bound in Conscience to be zealous against it . For when Christ came to reconcile us to his Father , he came to take away our sins , not onely to pardon them , but to destroy them ; and if the regenerate , in whom the spirit of Christ rules , and in whom all their habitual sins are dead , are still under the servitude and in the stock 's of Original sin , then it follows , not onely that our guilt of Adams sin is greater then our own actual , the sin that we never consented to , is of a deeper grain then that which we have chosen and delighted in , and God was more angry with Cain that he was born of Adam , then that he kill'd his Brother ; and Judas by descent from the first Adam contracted that sin which he could never be quit of : but he might have been quit of his betraying the second Adam , if he would not have despaired ; I say not onely these horrid consequences do follow , but this also will follow ; that Adams sin hath done some mischief that the grace of Christ can never cure ; and generation staines so much , that regeneration cannot wash it clean . Besides all this ; if the natural corruption remaines in the regenerate and be properly a sin , then either Gods hates the regenerate , or loves the sinner , and when he dies he must enter into Heaven , with that sin , which he cannot lay down but in the grave : as the vilest sinner layes down every sin ; and then an unclean thing can go to Heaven , or else no man can ; and lastly , to say that this natural corruption , though it be pardoned and mortified , yet still remaines , and is stil a sin , is perfect non-sence ; for if it be mortified , it is not , it hath no being ; if it is pardoned it was indeed , but now is no sin ; for till a man can be guilty of sin without obligation to punishment , a sin cannot be a sin that is pardoned ; that is , if the obligation to punishment or the guilt be taken away , a man is not guilty . Thus far ( Madam ) I hope you will think I had reason . One thing more I did and do reprove in their Westminster articles : and that is , that Original sin , meaning , our sin derived from Adam , is contrary to the law of God and doth in its own nature bring guilt upon the sinner ; binding him over to Gods wrath &c. that is , that the sin of Adam imputed to us is properly , formally , and inhaerently a sin . If it were properly a sin in us , our sin , it might indeed be damnable ; for every transgression of the Divine Commandment is so : but because I have proved it cannot bring eternal damnation , I can as well argue thus : this sin cannot justly bring us to damnation , therefore it is not properly a sin : as to say ; this is properly a sin , therefore it can bring us to damnation . Either of them both follow well : but because they cannot prove it to be a sin properly , or any other wayes but by a limited imputation to certain purposes ; they cannot say it infers damnation . But because I have proved , it cannot infer damnation , I can safely conclude , it is not formally , properly , and inherently a sin in us . Nec placet ô superi vobis cum vertere cuncta Propositum , nostris erroribus addere crimen . Nor did it please our God , when that our state Was chang'd , to adde a crime unto our fate . I have now ( Madam ) though much to your trouble quitted my self of my Presbyterian opponents , so far as I can judge fitting for the present : but my friends also take some exceptions ; and there are some objections made , and blows given me as it happened to our Blessed Saviour , in domo illorum qui diligebant me ; in the house of my Mother and in the societies of some of my Dearest Brethren . For the case is this . They joyn with me in all this that I have said ; viz. That Original sin is ours onely by imputation ; that it leaves us still in our natural liberty , and though it hath devested us of our supernaturals , yet that our nature is almost the same , and by the grace of Jesus as capable of Heaven as it could ever be , by derivation of Original rightousnesse from Adam . In the conduct and in the description of this Question , being usually esteemed to be onely Scholastical , I confesse they ( as all men else ) do usually differ ; for it was long ago observ'd , that there are 16. several famous opinions , in this one Question of Original sin . But my Brethren , are willlng to confesse , that for Adams sin alone no man did or shall ever perish . And that it is rather to be called a stain then a sin . If they were all of one minde and one voice in this article , though but thus far , I would not move a stone to disturb it , but some draw one way and some another , and they that are aptest to understand the whole secret , do put fetters and bars upon their own understanding by an importune regard to the great names of some dead men , who are called masters upon earth , and whose authority is as apt to mislead us into some propositions , as their learning is usefull to guide us in others : but so it happens , that because all are not of a minde , I cannot give account of every disagreeing man ; but of that which is most material I shall . Some learned persons are content I should say no man is damned for the sin of Adam alone ; but yet that we stand guilty in Adam , and redeemed from this damnation by Christ ; and if that the article were so stated , it would not intrench upon the justice or the goodnesse of God ; for his justice would be sufficiently declared , because no man can complain of wrong done him when the evil that he fell into by Adam is taken off by Christ ; and his goodnesse is manifest in making a new Census for us , taxing and numbring us in Christ , and giving us free Redemption by the blood of Jesus : but yet that we ought to confess that we are liable to damnation by Adam , and saved from thence by Christ ; that Gods justice may be glorified in that , and his goodnesse in this , but that we are still real sinners till washed in the blood of Lamb ; and without God , and without hopes of heaven , till then : and that if this article be thus handled , the Presbyterian fancie will disappear ; for they can be confuted without denying Adams sin to be damnable ; by saying it is pardoned in Christ , and in Christ all men are restored , and he is the head of the Predestination ; for in him God looked upon us when he designed us to our final state : and this say they is much for the honour of Christs Redemption . To these things ( Madam ) I have much to say ; some thing I will trouble your Ladiship withal at this time , that you and all that consider the particulars may see , I could not do the work of God and truth if I had proceeded in that method . For 1. It is observable that those wiser persons , who will by no means admit that any one is or ever shall be damned for Original sin , do by this means hope to salve the justice of God ; by which they plainly imply that to damn us for this , is hard and intolerable ; and therefore they suppose they have declared a remedy . But then this also is to be considered ; if it be intolerable to damn children for the sin of Adam , then it is intolerable to say it is damnable ; If that be not just or reasonable , then this is also unjust and unreasonable ● for the sentence and the execution of the sentence are the same emanation and issue of justice and are to be equally accounted of . For. 2. I demand , had it been just in God , to damn all mankinde to the eternal paines of hell , for Adams sin , commited before they had a being , or could consent to it , or know of it ? if it could be just , then any thing in the world can be just , and it is no matter who is innocent , or who is criminal directly and by choice , since they may turn Devils in their Mothers bellies ; and it matters not whether there be any laws or no , since it is all one that there be no law , and that we do not know whether there be or no ; and it matters not whether there be any judicial processe , for we may as well be damned without judgment , as be guilty without action : and besides , all those arguments will presse here which I urged in my first discourse . Now if it had been unjust actually to damn us all for the sin of one , it was unjust to sentence us to it ; for if he did give sentence against us justly , he could justly have executed the sentence ; and this is just , if that be . But 3. God did put this sentence in execution ; for when he sent the Holy Jesus into the world , to die for us and to Redeem us , he satisfied his Fathers Anger , for Original sin as well as for actual , he paid all the price of that as well as of this damnation ; and the horrible sentence was brought off ; and God was so satisfied that his justice had full measure ; for so all men say who speak the voice of the Church in the matter of Christs satisfaction , so that now , although there was the goodnesse of God , in taking the evil from us ; yet how to reconcile this processe with his justice , viz. That for the sin of another their God should sentence all the world to the portion of devils to eternal ages ; and that he would not be reconciled to us , or take off this horrible sentence , without a full price to be paid to his justice ; by the Saviour of the world , this , this is it that I require may be reconciled to that Notion which we have of the Divine justice . 4. If no man shall ever be damned for the sin of Adam alone , then I demand whether are they born quitt from the guilt ; or when they are quitted ? if they be born free ; I agree to it ; but then they were never charg'd with it , so far as to make them liable to damnation . If they be not born free , when are they quitted ? By baptisme , before , or after ? He that saies before or after , must speak wholly by chance and without pretence of Scripture or tradition , or any sufficient warrant ; and he cannot guesse when it is . If in Baptisme he is quitted , then he that dies before baptisme , is still under the sentence , and what shall become of him ? If it be answered , that God will pardon him , some way or other , at some time or other ; I reply , yea , but who said so ? For if the Scriptures have said that we are all in Adam guilty of sin and damnation , and the Scriptures have told us no wayes of being quit of it , but by baptisme , and faith in Christ ; Is it not plainly consequent that til we believe in Christ , or at least till in the faith of others , we are Baptised into Christ , we are reckoned still in Adam , not in Christ , that is , still we are under damnation , and not heires of heaven but of wrath onely ? 5. How can any one bring himself into a belief that none can be damned for Original sin , if it be of this perswasion that it makes us liable to damnation ; for if you say as I say , that it is against Gods justice to damn us for the fault of another , then it is also against his justice to sentence us to that suffering which to inflict is injustice . If you say it is beleeved upon this account , because Christ was promised to all mankinde , I reply , that yet all mankinde shall not be saved ; and there are conditions required on our part , and no man can be saved but by Christ , and he must come to him or be brought to him , or it is not told us , how any one can have a part in him ; and therefore that will not give us the confidence is looked for . If it be at last said that we hope in Gods goodness that he will take care of innocents , and that they shall not perish , I answer , that if they be innocents , we need not appeal to his goodnesse , for , his justice will secure them . If they be guilty and not innocents , then it is but vain to run to Gods goodnesse , which in this particular is not revealed ; when it is against his justice which is revealed ; and to hope God will save them whom he hates , who are gone from him in Adam , who are born heires of his wrath , slaves of the Devil , servants of sin ( for these Epithetes are given to all the children of Adam , by the opponents in this Question ) is to hope for that against which his justice visibly is ingaged , and for which I hope there is no ground , unlesse this instance of Divine goodnesse were expressed in revelation ; For so even wicked persons on their death-bed are bidden to hope without rule and without reason or sufficient grounds of trust . But besides ; that we hope in Gods goodnesse in this case is not ill , but I ask , is it against Gods goodnesse that any one should perish for Original sin ? if it be against Gods goodnesse , it is also against his justice ; for nothing is just that is not also good . Gods goodnesse may cause his justice to forbear a sentence , but whatsoever is against Gods goodnesse , is against God , and therefore against his justice also ; because every attribute in God is God himself : For it is one thing to say [ This is against Gods goodnesse ] and the contrary is agreeable to Gods goodnesse ] Whatsoever is against the goodnesse of God is essentially evil : But a thing may be agreeable to Gods goodnesse , and yet the other part not be against it . For example ; It is against the goodnesse of God to hate fools and ideots : and therefore he can never hate them . But it is agreeable to Gods goodnesse to give heaven to them and the joyes beatifical : and if he does not give them so much , yet if he does no evil to them hereafter , it is also agreeable to his goodnesse : To give them Heaven , or not to give them Heaven , though they be contradictories ; yet are both agreeable to his goodnesse . But in contraries the case is otherwise : For though not to give them heaven is consistent with the Divine goodnesse , yet to end them to hell is not . The reason of the difference is this . Because to do contrary things must come from contrary principles ; and whatsoever is contrary to the Divine goodnesse is essentially evil . But to do or not to do , supposes but one positive principle ; and the other negative , not having a contrary cause , may be wholy innocent as proceeding from a negative : but to speak more plain . Is it against Gods goodnese that Infants should be damned for Original sin ? then it could never have been done , it was essentially evil , and therefore could never have been decreed or sentenced . But if it be not against Gods goodness that they should perish in hell , then it may consist with Gods goodness ; and then to hope that Gods goodness will rescue them from his justice , when the thing may agree with both , is to hope without ground ; God may be good , though they perish for Adams sin ; and if so , and that he can be just too upon the account , of what attribute shal these innocents be rescued ; and we hope for mercy for them . 6. If Adams posterity be onely liable to damnation , but shall never be damned for Adams sin , then all the children of Heathens dying in their infancy , shall escape as well as baptized Christian children : which if any of my disagreeing Brethren shall affirm , he will indeed seem to magnifie Gods goodness , but he must fall out with some great Doctors of the Church whom he would pretend to follow ; and besides , he will be hard put to it , to tell what advantage Christian children have over Heathens , supposing them all to die young ; for being bred up in the Christian Religion is accidental , and may happen to the children of unbelievers , or may not happen to the children of believers ; and if Baptisme addes nothing to their present state , there is no reason infants should be baptized ; but if it does add to their present capacity ( as most certainly it does very much ) then that Heathen infants , should be in a condition of being rescued from the wrath of God , as well as Christian Infants , is a strange unlookt for affirmative , and can no way be justified or made probable , but by affirming it to be against the justice of God to condemn any for Adams sin . Indeed if it be unjust ( as I have proved it is ) then it will follow , that none shall suffer damnation by it . But if the hopes of the salvation of Heathen infants be to be derived onely from Gods goodnesse , though Gods goodnesse cannot fail , yet our argument may fail ; for it will not follow , because God is good , therefore Heathen infants shall be saved : for it might as well follow , God is good , therefore Heathens shal be no heathens , but all turn Christians . These things do not follow affirmatively . But negatively they do . For if it were against Gods Goodnesse that they should be reckoned in Adam unto eternal death , then it is also against his Justice , and against God all the way ; and then , either we should finde some revelation of Gods honour in Scripture , or at least , there would be no principle ( such as is this pretence of being guilty of damnation in Adam ) to contest against it . 7. But to come yet closer to the Question , some Good Men and wise suppose , that the Sublapsarian Presbyterians can be confuted in their pretended grounds of absolute reprobation , although we grant that Adams sinne is damnable to his posterity , provided we say , that though it was damnable , yet it shall never damne us . Now though I wish it could be done , that they and I might not differ so much as in a circumstance , yet first it is certain that the men they speake of can never be confuted upon the stock of Gods Justice , because as the one saies , it is just that God should actually damn all for the sin of Adam : So the other saies , it is just that God should actually sentence all to damnation ; and so there the case is equall : Secondly , they cannot be confuted upon the stock of Gods goodnesse ; because the emanations of that being wholly arbitrary , and though there are negative measures of it , as there is of Gods Infinity , and we know Gods goodness to be inconsistent with some things , yet there are no positive measures of this goodnesse ; and no man can tell how much it will do for us : and therefore without a revelation , things may be sometimes hoped , which yet may not be presumed ; and therefore here also they are not to be confuted : and as for the particular Scriptures , unlesse we have the advantage of essentiall reason taken from the divine Attributes , they will oppose Scripture to Scripture , and have as much advantage to expound the opposite places , as the Jewes have in their Questions of the Messias ; and therefore si meos ipse corymbos necterem , if I might make mine own arguments in their society , and with their leave ; I would upon that very account suspect the usuall discourses of the effects and Oeconomy of Originall sinne . 8. For where will they reckon the beginning of Predestination ? will they reckon it in Adam after the fall , or in Christ immediately promised ? If in Adam , then they return to the Presbyterian way , and run upon all the rocks before reckoned , enough to break all the World in Pieces . If in Christ they reckon it ( and so they do ) then thus I argue . If we are all reckoned in Christ before we were borne , then how can we be reckoned in Adam when we are born I speak as to the matter of Predestination to salvation , or damnation ; For as for the intermedial temporal evills , and dangers spirituall , and sad infirmities , they are our nature , and might with Justice have been all the portion God had given to Adam , and therefore may be so to us , and consequently not at all to be reckoned in this inquiry : But certainly , as to the maine . 9. If God lookes upon us all in Christ , then by him we are rescued from Adam ; so much is done for us before we were born . For if this is not to be reckoned till after we were borne , then Adam's sin prevailed really in some periods , and to some effects for which God in Christ had provided no remedie : for it gave no remedie to children till after they were born , but irremediably they were born children of wrath ; For if a remedy were given to children before they were born , then they are born in Christ not in Adam ; but if this remedy was not given to children before they were born , then it followes , that we were not at first looked upon in Christ , but in Adam , and consequently he was caput praedestinationis the head of predestination , or else there were two ; the one before we were born , the other after . So that haeret lethalis arundo : The arrow sticks fast and it cannot be pulled out , unlesse by other instruments then are commonly in fashion . However it be , yet me thinks this a very good probable argument . As Adam sinned before any childe was born , so was Christ promised before ; and that our Redeemer shall not have more force upon children , that they should be born beloved and quitted from wrath , then Adam our Progenitor shall have to cause that we be born hated and in a damnable condition , wants so many degrees of probability , that it seems to dishonour the mercy of God , and the reputation of his goodesse and the power of his redemption . For this serves as an Antidote , and Antinomy of their great objection pretended by these learned persons : for whereas they say , they the rather affirm this , because it is an honour to the redemption which our Saviour wrought for us , that it rescued us from the sentence of damnation , which we had incurred . To this I say , that the honour of our blessed Saviour does no way depend upon our imaginations and weak propositions : and neither can the reputation and honour of the Divine goodnesse borrow aids and artificial supports from the dishonour of his Justice ; and it is no reputation to a Physitian to say he hath cured us of an evil which we never had ; and shall we accuse the Father of mercies to have wounded us for no other reason but that the son may have the Honour to have cured us ? I understand not that . He that makes a necessity that he may finde a remedie , is like the Roman whom Cato found fault withal ; he would commit a fault that he might begge a pardon ; he had rather write bad Greek , that he might make an apologie , then write good latine , and need none . But however ; Christ hath done enough for us ; even all that we did need , and since it is all the reason in the World we should pay him all honour ; we may remember , that it is a greater favour to us that by the benefit of our Blessed Saviour , who was the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world , we were reckoned in Christ , and born in the accounts of the Divine favour ; I say , it is a greater favour that we were born under the redemption of Christ , then under the sentence and damnation of Adam ; and to prevent an evil is a greater favour then to cure it ; so that if to do honour to Gods goodnesse and to the graces of our Redeemer , we will suppose a need , we may do him more honour to suppose that the promised seed of the woman did do us as early a good , as the sin of Adam could do us mischief ; and therefore that in Christ we are born , quitted from any such supposed sentence , and not that we bring it upon our shoulders into the World with us . But this thing relies onely upon their suppositions , For if we will speak of what is really true and plainly revealed : From all the sins of all mankinde Christ came to redeem us : He came to give us a supernatural birth : to tell us all his Fathers will ; to reveal to us those glorious promises upon the expectation of which we might be enabled to do every thing that is required ; He came to bring us grace , and life , and spirit ; to strengthen us against all the powers of Hell and Earth ; to sanctifie our afflictions , which from Adam by Natural generation descended on us ; to take cut the sting of death , to make it an entrance to immortal life ; to assure us of resurrection , to intercede for us , and to be an advocate for us , when we by infirmity commit sin ; to pardon us when we repent . Nothing of which could be derived to us from Adam by our natural generation ; Mankinde now , taking in his whole constitution , and designe , is like the Birds of Paradice which travellers tell us of in the Molucco Islands ; born without legs ; but by a celestial power they have a recompence made to them for that defect ; and they alwayes hover in the air , and feed on the dew of heaven : so are we birds of Paradice ; but cast out from thence , and born without legs , without strength to walk in the laws of God , or to go to heaven ; but by a power from above , we are adopted in our new birth to a celestial conversation , we feed on the dew of heaven , the just does ●live ●oy faith , and breaths in this new life by the spirit of God. For from the first Adam nothing descended to us but an infirm body , and a naked soul , evil example and a body of death , ignorance and passion , hard labor and a cursed field , a captive soul and an imprisoned body , that is , a soul naturally apt to comply with the appetites of the body , and its desires whether reasonable or excessive : and though these things were not direct sins to us in their natural abode and first principle , yet there are proper inherent miseries and principles of sin to us in their emanation . But from this state , Christ came to redeem us all by his grace , and by his spirit , by his life and by his death , by his Doctrine and by his Sacraments , by his promises and by his revelations , by his resurrection and by his ascension , by his interceding for us and judging of us ; and if this be not a conjugation of glorious things great enough to amaze us , and to merit from us all our services , and all our love , and all the glorifications of God , I am sure nothing can be added to it by any supposed need of which we have no revelation : There is as much done for us as we could need , and more then we could aske , Nempe quod optanti Divûm promittere nemo Auderet , volvenda dies en attulit ultro ! Vivite faelices anime quibus est fortuna peracta . Jam sua — the meaning of which words I render , or at least recompence with the verse of a Psalm . To thee O Lord I 'le pay my vow My knees in thanks to thee shall bow , For thou my life keepst from the grave And do'st my feet from falling save , That with the living in thy sight I may enjoy eternal light . For thus what Ahasuerus said to Ester , Vetercs literas muta , change the old letters ; is done by the birth of our Blessed Saviour . Eva is changed into Ave , and although it be true what Bensirach said , From the woman is the beginning of sin , and by her we all die , yet it is now chang'd by the birth of our Redeemer , from a woman is the beginning of our restitution , and in him we all live ; thus are all the four quarters of the World renewed by the second Adam : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The East , West , North , and South , are represented in the second Adam as well as the first , and rather , and to better purposes , because if sin did abound , Grace shall superabound . I have now Madam given to your honour such accounts , as I hope being added to my other papers , may satisfie not onely your Ladiship , but those to whom this account may be communicated . I shall onely now beg your patience , since your Honour hath been troubled with Questions , and inquiries , and objections , and little murmurs to hear my answers to such of them as have been brought to me . 1. I am complained of , that I would trouble the World with a new thing ; which let it be never so true , yet unlesse it were very useful , will hardly make recompence for the trouble I put the world to , in this inquiry . I answer ; that for the newnesse of it ; I have already given accounts that the opinions which I impugne , as they are no direct parts of the article of Original sin , so they are newer then the truth which I have asserted . But let what I say seem as new as the reformation did , when Luther first preached against indulgences , the presence of Novelty did not , and we say , ought not to have affrighted him ; and therefore I ought also to look to what I say , that it be true , and the truth will proove its age . But to speak freely Madam , though I have a great reverence for Antiquity , yet it is the prime antiquity of the Church ; the ages of Martyrs and Holinesse , that I mean ; and I am sure that in them , my opinion hath much more warrant then the contrary ; But for the descending ages I give that veneration to the great names of them that went before us , which themselves gave to their Predecessors ; I honour their memory , I read their books , I imitate their piety , I examine their arguments ; for therefore they did write them , and where the reasons of the Moderns and their's seeme equall , I turn the ballance on the elder side , and follow them ; but where a scruple or a grane of reason is evidently in the other ballance ; I must follow that . Nempe qui ante nos ista moverunt , non Domini nostri , sed Duces sunt . Seneca . ep . 33. They that taught of this Article before me , are Good Guides , but no Lords and Masters ; for I must acknowledge none upon earth : for so am I commanded by my Master that is in Heaven ; and I remember what we are taught in Palingenius , when wee were boyes . Quicquid Aristoteles , vel quivis dicat eorum , Dict a nihil moror à vero cum fortè recedunt : Saepe graves magnosque viros , famaque verendos Errare & labi contingit , plurima secum Ingenia in tenebras consueti nominis alti , Authores ubi connivent deducere easdem . If Aristotle be deceiv'd , and say that 's true , What nor himself , nor others ever knew , I leave his text , and let his Schollers talke Till they be hoarse or weary in their walke : When wise men erre , though their fame ring like Bells , I scape a danger when I leave their spells . For although they that are dead some ages before we were borne , have a reverence due to them , yet more is due to truth that shall never die ; and God is not wanting to our industry any more then to theirs ; but blesses every age with the understanding of his truths . AEtatibus omnibus , omnibus hominibus communis sapientia est , nec illam ceu peculium licet antiquitati gratulari . All ages , and all men have their advantages in their inquiries after truth ; neither is wisedome appropriate to our Fathers . And because even wise men may be deceived , and therefore that when I find it , or suppose it so ( for that 's all one as to me and my dutie ) I must go after truth where ever it is ; certainly it will be lesse expected from me to follow the popular noises and the voices of the people , who are not to teach us , but to be taught by us : and I believe my self to have reason to complain when men are angry at a doctrine because it is not commonly taught ; that is , when they are impatient to be taught a truth , because most men do already believe a lie ; recti apud nos locum tenet error ubi publicus fact●us est , So Seneca ( Epist. 123. ) complained in his time : it is a strange title to truth which error can pretend , for its being publick ; and we refuse to follow an unusuall truth ; quasi honestius sit quia frequentius , and indeed it were well to do so in those propositions who have no truth in them but what they borrow from mens opinions , and are for nothing tollerable , but that they are usuall . Object . 2. But what necessity is there in my publication of this doctrine , supposing it were true ; for all truths are not to be spoken at all times ; and if a truth gives offence , it is better to let men alone , then to disturb the peace . I answer with the labouring mans Proverb ; a pennyworth of ease is worth a Penny at any time ; and a little truth is worth a little Peace , every day of the weeke : & caeteris parióus , Truth is to be preferred before Peace ; not every trifling truth to a considerable peace : but if the truth be material , it makes recompence , though it brings a great noise along with it ; and if the breach of Peace be nothing but that men talke in Private , or declame a little in publicke ; truly then ( Madam ) it is a very pittifull little proposition , the discovery of which in truth will not make recompence for the pratling of disagreeing Persons . Truth and Peace make an excellent yoke ; but the truth of God is alwayes to be preferred before the Peace of men , and therefore our Blessed Saviour came not to send Peace , but a sword ; That is , he knew his doctrine would cause great devisions of heart ; but yet he came to perswade us to Peace and Unity . Indeed if the truth be cleare , and yet of no great effect in the lives of men , in government , or in the honour of God , then it ought not to break the Peace ; That is , it may not run out of its retirement , to disquiet them , to whom their rest is better then that knowledge . But if it be brought out already , it must not be deserted positively , though peace goes away in its stead . So that peace is rather to be deserted , then any truth should be renounced or denied ; but Peace is rather to be procured or continued , then some truth offer'd . This is my sence ( Madam ) when the case is otherwise then I suppose it to be at present . For as for the present case , there must be two when there is a falling out , or a peace broken ; and therefore I will secure it now ; for let any man dissent from me in this Article , I will not be troubled at him ; he may doe it with liberty , and with my charity . If any man is of my opinion , I confesse I love him the better ; but if he refutes it , I will not love him lesse after then I did before : but he that dissents , and reviles me , must expect from me no other kindness but that I forgive him , and pray for him , and offer to reclaim him , and that I resolve nothing shall ever make me either hate him , or reproach him : and that still in the greatest of his difference , I refuse not to give him the communion of a Brother ; I believe I shall be chidden by some or other for my easinesse , and want of fierceness , which they call Zeal , but it is a fault of my nature ; a part of my Original sin : Vnicuique dedit vitium Natura Creato , Mî Natura aliquid semper amare dedit . Propert. Some weaknesse to each man by birth descends , To me too great a kindnesse Nature lends . But if the Peace can be broken no more then thus ; I suppose the truth which I publish will do more then make recompence for the noise that in Clubs and Conventicles is made over and above . So long as I am thus resolved ; there may be injury done to me , but there can be no duell , or losse of Peace abroad . For a single anger , or a displeasure on one side , is not a breach of peace on both ; and a Warre cannot be made by fewer , then a bargain can ; in which alwaies there must be two at least . Object . 3. But as to the thing ; If it be inquired 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; what profit , what use , what edification is there , what good to souls , what honour to God by this new explication of the Article ? I answer ; that the usuall Doctrines of Originall sinne are made the great foundation of the horrible proposition concerning absolute Reprobation ; the consequences of it● reproach God with injustice , they charge God foolishly , and deny his Goodness and his Wisdom in many instances : and whatsoever can upon the account of the Divine Attributes be objected against the fierce way of Absolute Decrees ; all that can be brought for the reproof of their usuall Propositions concerning Originall sinne . For the consequences are plaine ; and by them the necessity of my Doctrine , and its usefulnesse may be understood . For 1. If God decrees us to be born sinners ; Then he makes us to be sinners : and then where is his goodnesse ? 2. If God does damne any for that , he damnes us for what we could not help , and for what himself did , and then where is his Justice ? 3. If God sentence us to that Damnation , which he cannot in justice inflict , where is his Wisdome ? 4. If God for the sinne of Adam brings upon us a necessity of sinning ; where is our liberty ? where is our Nature ? what is become of all Lawes , and of all Vertue and vice ? How can men be distinguish'd from Beasts : or the Vertuous from the vitious ? 5. If by the fall of Adam , we are so wholly ruined in our faculties , that we cannot do any good , but must do evill ; how shall any man take care of his wayes ? or how can it be supposed he should strive against all vice , when he can excuse so much upon his Nature ? or indeed how shall he strive at all ? for if all actual sins are derived from the Originall , and then is unavoidable , and yet an Unresistable cause , then no man can take care to avoid any actuall sinne , whose cause is naturall , and not to be declined . And then where is his providence and Government ? 6. If God does cast Infants into Hell for the sinne of others , and yet did not condemne Devills , but for their owne sinne ; where is his love to mankind ? 7. If God chooseth the death of so many Millions of Persons who are no sinners upon their own stock , and yet sweares that he does not love the death of a sinner , viz. sinning with his owne choice ; how can that be credible , he should love to kill Innocents , and yet should love to spare the Criminall ? where then is his Mercie , and where is his Truth ? 8. If God hath given us a Nature by derivation , which is wholly corrupted , then how can it be that all which God made is good ? for though Adam corrupted himself , yet in propriety of speaking , we did not ; but this was the Decree of God ; and then where is the excellency of his providence and Power , where is the glory of the Creation ? Because therefore that God is all goodness , and justice , and wisedome , and love , and that he governs all things , and all men wisely and holily , and according to the capacities of their natures and Persons ; that he gives us a wise law , and binds that law on us by promises and threatnings ; I had reason to assert these glories of the Divine Majestie , and remove the hindrances of a good life ; since every thing can hinder us from living well , but scar cely can all the Arguments of God and man , and all the Powers of heaven and hell perswade us to strictnesse and severity . Qui serere ingenuum volet agrum , Liberet arva priùs sruticibus Falce rubos , silicemque resecet , Ut novâ fruge gravis Ceres eat . He that will sow his field with hopefull seed , Must every bramble , every thistle weed : And when each hindrance to the graine is gone , A fruitfull crop shall rise of corn alone . When therefore there were so many wayes made to the Devill , I was willing amongst many others to stop this also ; and I dare say , few Questions in Christendome can say half so much in justification of their owne usefulnesse and necessity . I know ( Madam ) that they who are of the other side doe and will disavow most of these consequences ; and so doe all the World , all the evils which their adversaries say , do follow from their opinions ; but yet all the World of men that perceive such evills to follow from a proposition , think themselves bound to stop the progression of such opinions from whence they beleeve such evils may arise . If the Church of Rome did believe that all those horrid things were chargable upon Transubstantiation , and upon worshipping of Images , which we charge upon the Doctrines , I doe not doubt but they would as much disowne the Proposition , as now they doe the consequents ; and yet I doe as little doubt but that we do well to disown the first , because we espy the latter : and though the Man be not , yet the doctrines are highly chargable with the evils that follow it may be the men espy them not ; yet from the doctrines they do certainly follow ; and there are not it the World many men who owne that is evil in the pretence , but many doe such as are dangerous in the effect ; and this doctrine which I have reproved , I take to be one of them . Object . 4. But if Originall sinne be not a sinne properly , why are children baptized ? and what benefit comes to them by baptisme ? I Answer , as much as they need , and are capable of : and it may as well be asked , Why were all the sons of Abraham circumcised , when in that Covenant there was no remission of sins at all ; for little things and legal impurities , and irregularities there were ; but there being no sacrifice there but of beasts , whose blood could not take away sinne , it is certaine and plainly taught us in Scripture , that no Rite of Moses was expiatory of sinnes . But secondly . This Objection can presse nothing at all ; for why was Christ baptized , who knew no sinne ? But yet so it behoved him to fulfill all Righteousnesse . 3. Baptisme is called regeneration , or the new birth ; and therefore , since in Adam Children are borne onely to a naturall life and a Naturall death , and by this they can never arrive at Heaven , therefore Infants are baptized , because untill they be borne anew , they can never have title to the Promises of Jesus Christ , or be heirs of heaven , and coheir's of Jesus . 4. By Baptisme Children are made partakers of the holy Ghost , and of the grace of God ; which I desire to be observed in opposition to the Pelagian Heresy , who did suppose Nature to be so perfect , that the Grace of God was not necessary , and that by Nature alone , they could go to heaven ; which because I affirm to be impossible , and that Baptisme is therfore necessary , because nature is insufficient , and Baptisme is the great chanel of grace ; there ought to be no envious and ignorant load laid upon my Doctrine , as if it complied with the Pelagian , against which it is so essentially and so mainly opposed in the main difference of his Doctrine . 5. Children are therefore Baptized , because if they live they will sinne , and though their sins are not pardoned before hand , yet in Baptisme they are admitted to that state of favour , that they are within the Covenant of repentance and Pardon : and this is expresly the Doctrine of St. Austin , lib. 1. de nupt . & concup . cap. 26. & cap. 33. & tract . 124. in Johan . But of this I have already given larger accounts in my Discourse of Baptisme . part . 2 p. 194. in the great Exemplar . 6. Children are baptized for the Pardon even of Originall sin ; this may be affirmed truly , but yet improperly : for so far as it is imputed , so farr also it is remissible ; for the evill that is done by Adam , is also taken away in Christ ; and it is imputed to us to very evill purposes , as I have already explicated : but as it was among the Jewes who believed then the sinne to be taken away , when the evill of punishment is taken off ; so is Originall sinne taken away in Baptisme ; for though the Material part of the evill , is not taken away , yet the curse in all the sons of God is turn'd into a blessing , and is made an occasion of reward , or an entrance to it . Now in all this I affirme all that is true , and all that is probable : for in the same sense , as Originall staine is a sinne , so does Baptisme bring the Pardon . It is a sinne metonymically , that is , because it is the effect of one sinne , and the cause of many ; and just so in baptisme it is taken away , that it is now the matter of a grace , and the opportunity of glory ; and upon these Accounts the Church Baptizes all her Children . Object . 5. But to deny Originall sinne to be a sinne properly and inherently , is expressly against the words of S. Paul in the 5. Chapter to the Romanes , If it bee , I have done ; but that it is not , I have these things to say . 1. If the words be capable of any interpretation , and can be permitted to signifie otherwise then is vulgarly pretended , I suppose my self to have given reasons sufficient , why they ought to be . For any interpretation that does violence to right Reason , to Religion , to Holinesse of life , and the Divine Attributes of God , is therefore to be rejected , and another chosen ; For in all Scriptures , all good and all wise men doe it . 2. The words in question [ sin ] and [ sinner ] and [ condemnation ] are frequently used in Scripture in the lesser sense , and [ sin ] is taken for the punishment of sin ; and [ sin is taken for him who bore the evil of the sinne , and [ sin ] is taken for legal impurity ; and for him who could not be guilty , even for Christ himself ; as I have proved already : and in the like manner [ sinners ] is used , by the rule of Conjugates and denominatives ; but it is so also in the case , of Bathsheba the Mother of Solomon . 3. For the word [ condemnation , ] it is by the Apostle himself limited to signifie his temporal death ; for when the Apostle sayes Death passed upon all men , in as much as all men have sinned ; he must mean temporal death ; for eternal death did not passe upon all men ; and if he means eternal death he must not mean that it came for Adams sin ; but in as much as all men have sinned , that is , upon all those upon whom eternal death did come , it came because they also have sinned . 4. The Apostle here speaks of sin imputed ; therefore not of sin inherent : and if imputed onely to such purposes as he here speaks of , viz. to temporal death , then it is neither a sin properly , nor yet imputable to Eternal death so far as is or can be inplyed by the Apostles words . 5. The Apostles sayes ; by the disobedience of one many were made sinners : so that it appears that we in this have no sin of our own , neither is it at all our own formally and inherently ; for though efficiently it was his , and effectively ours as to certain purposes of imputation ; yet it could not be a sin to us formally ; because it was Vnius inobedientia , the disobedience of one man , therefore in no sense , could it be properly ours . 6. Whensoever another mans sin is imputed to his relative , therefore because it is anothers and imputed , it can go no further but to effect certain evils to afflict the relative , but to punish the cause ; not formally to denominate the descendant or relative to be a sinner ; for it is as much a contradiction to say that I am formally by him a sinner , as that I did really do his action . Now to impute ] in Scripture , it signifies to reckon as if he had done it ; Not to impute is to treate him so as if he had not done it . So far then as the imputation is , so far we are reckoned as sinners ; but Adams sin being by the Apostle signified to be imputed but to the condemnation or sentence to a temporal death ; so far we are sinners in him , that is , so as that for his sake death was brought upon us ; And indeed the word [ imputare ] to impute ] does never signifie more , nor alwayes so much . Imputare verò frequenter ad significationem exprobrantis accedit , sed citra reprehensionem , sayes Laurentius valla ; It is like an exprobation , but short of a reproof ; so Quintilian . Imput as nobis propitios ventos , & secundum mare , ac civitatis opulentae liberalitatem . Thou doest impute , that is , upbraid to us our prosperous voyages , and a calm Sea , and the liberality of a rich City . Imputare signifies oftentimes the same that computare ; to reckon or account : Nam haec in quartâ non imputantur , say the Lawyers , they are not imputed , that is , they are not computed or reckoned . Thus Adams sin is imputed to us , that is , it is put into our reckoning , & when we are sick and die , we pay our Symbols , the portion of evil that is laid upon us : and what Marcus said , I may say in this case with a little variety legata in haereditate — sive legatum datum sit haeredi , sive percipere , sive deducere vel retinere passus est , ei imputantur : the the legacy whether it be given or left to the heire , whether he may take it or keep it , is still imputed to him ; that is , it is within his reckoning But no reason , no Scripture , no Religion does inforce ; and no divine Attribute does permit that we should say that God did so impute Adams sin to his posterity , that he di really esteem them to be guilty of Adams sin ; equally culpable , equally hateful ; For if in this sense it be true that in him we sinned ; then we sinn'd as he did , that is , with the same malice , in the same action ; and then we are as much guilty as he ; but if we have sinned lesse , then we did not sin in him ; for to sinne in him , could not by him be lessen'd to us ; for what we did in him we did by him , and therefore as much as he did ; but if God imputed this sin lesse to us then to him , then this imputation supposes it onely to be a collateral and indirect account to such purposes as he pleased : of which purposes we judge by the analogy of faith , by the words of Scripture , by the proportion and notices of the Divine Attributes . 7. There is nothing in the designe or purpose of the Apostle that can or ought to infer any other thing ; for his purpose is to signifie that by mans sin death entred into the world ; which the son of Sirach Ecclus. 25. 33. expresses thus ; à muliere factum est initium peccati , & inde est quod morimur ; from the woman is the beginning of sinne ; and from her it is that we all die : and again , Ecclus. 1. 24. by the envie of the Devil death came into the world ; this evil being Universal , Christ came to the world , and became our head , to other purposes , even to redeem us from death ; which he hath begun and will finish , and to become to us our Parent in a new birth , the Author of a spiritual life ; and this benefit is of far more efficacy by Christ , then the evil could be by Adam ; and as by Adam we are made sinners : so by Christ we are made righteous ; not just so ; but so and more , and therefore , as our being made sinners , signifies that by him we die , so being by Christ made righteous must at least signifie that by him we live : and this is so evident to them who read Saint Pauls words Rom. 5. from verse 12. to verse 19. inclusively , that I wonder any man should make a farther question concerning them ; especially since Erasmus and Grotius who are to be reckoned amongst the greatest , and the best expositors of Scripture , that any age since the Apostles and their immediat successors hath brought forth , have so understood and rendred it . But Madam , that your Honour may read the words and their sense together , and see that without violence they signifie what I have said , and no more ; I have here subjoyned a paraphrase of them ; in which if I use any violence I can very easily be reproved . As by the disobedience of Adam , sin had it's beginning ; and by sin death , that is , the sentence and preparations , the solennities & addresses of death , sicknesse , calamity , diminution of strengths , Old age , misfortunes , and all the affections of Mortality , for the destroying of our temporall life ; and so this mortality , and condition or state of death pass'd actually upon all mankind ; for Adam being thrown out of paradise , and forc'd to live with his Children where they had no trees of Life , as he had in Paradise , was remanded to his mortall , naturall state ; and therefore death passed upon them , mortally seized on all ; for that all have sinned ; that is , the sin was reckoned to all , not to make them guilty like Adam ; but Adams sinne passed upon all , imprinting this real calamity on us all : But yet death descended also upon Adams Posterity for their own sins ; for since all did sinne , all should die . And marvell not that Death did presently descend on all mankind , even before a Law was given them with an appendant penalty , viz. With the expresse intermination of death ; For they did do actions unnaturall and vile enough , but yet these things which afterwards upon the publication of the Law were imputed to them upon their personall account , even unto death , were not yet so imputed . For Nature alone gives Rules , but does not directly bind to penalties . But death came upon them before the Law for Adams sin ; for with him God being angry , was pleased to curse him also in his Posterity , and leave them also in their meere naturall condition , to which yet they dispos'd themselves , and had deserved but too much by committing evill things ; to which things , although before the law , death was not threatned , yet for the anger which God had against mankind , he left that death which he threatned to Adam expresly , by implication , to fall upon the Posteritie . And therefore it was that death reigned from Adam to Moses , from the first law to the second ; from the time that a Law was given to one man , till the time a Law was given to one nation ; and although men had not sinn'd so grievously as Adam did , who had no excuse , many helps , excellent endowments , mighty advantages , trifling temptations , communication with God himself , no disorder in his faculties , free will , perfect immunity from violence , Originall righteousnesse , perfect power over his faculties ; yet those men , such as Abel , and Seth , Noah , and Abraham , Isaac and Jacob , Joseph , and Benjamin , who sinned lesse , and in the midst of all their disadvantages , were left to fall under the same sentence ; and this , besides that it was the present Oeconomy of the Divine Providence and Government , it did also like Janus looke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it looked forwards as well as backwards , and became a type of Christ , or of him that was to come . For as from Adam evill did descend upon his naturall Children , upon the account of Gods entercourse with Adam ; so did good descend upon the spirituall Children of the second Adam . This should have been the latter part of a similitude , but upon further consideration , it is found , that as in Adam we die , so in Christ we live , and much rather , and much more , therefore I cannot say , As by one man [ vers . 12 ] so by one man [ verse 15. ] But much more ; for not as the offence , so also is the free gift , for the offence of one did run over unto many , and those many , even as it were all , all except Enoch , or some very few more of whom mention peradventure is not made , are already dead upon that account , but when God comes by Jesus Christ to shew mercy to mankind , he does it in much more abundance ; he may be angry to the third and fourth generation , in them that hate him , but he will shew mercy unto thousands in them that love him ; to a thousand generations , and and in ten thousand degrees ; so that now although a comparison proportionate was at first intended , yet the river here rises far higher then the fountain ; and now no argument can be drawn from the similitude of Adam and Christ , but that as much hurt was done to humane nature by Adams sin , so very much more good is done to mankinde by the incarnation of the Son of God. And the first disparity and excesse is in this particular : for the judgment was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by one man sinning one sin ; that one sin was imputed ; but by Christ , not onely one sin was forgiven freely , but many offences were remitted unto justification ; and secondly , a vast disparity there is in this ; that the descendants from Adam were perfectly like him in nature , his own real natural production , and they sinned ( though not so bad ) yet very much , and therefore there was a great parity of reason that the evil which was threatened to Adam , and not to his children should yet for the likeness of nature and of sin descend upon them . But in the other part the case is highly differing ; for Christ being our Patriarch in a spiritual birth , we fall infinitely short of him , and are not so like him as we were to Adam , and yet that we in greater unlikelinesse should receive a greater favour , this was the excesse of the comparison , and this is the free gift of God. And this is the third degree , or measure of excesse of efficacy on Christs part , over it was on the part of Adam . For if the sin of Adam alone could bring death upon the world , who by imitation of his transgression on the stock of their own natural choice did sin against God , though not after the similitude of Adams transgression : much more shall we , who not onely receive the aides of the spirit of grace , but receive them also in an abundant measure , receive also the effect of all this , even to reign in life by one Jesus Christ. Therefore now to return to the other part of the similitude where I began ; although I have shown the great excesse and abundance of grace by Christ , over the evil that did descend by Adam ; yet the proportion and comparison lies in the main emanation of death from one , and life from the other ; [ judgement unto condemnation ] that is , the sentence of death came upon all men by the offence of one ; even so , by a like Oeconomy and dispensation , God would not be behind in doing an act of Grace , as he did before of judgmenr : and as that judgement was not to condemnation by the offence of one : so the free gift , and grace came upon all to justification of life , by the righteousnesse of one . The sum of all is this ; by the disobedience of one man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many were constituted or put into the order of sinners they were made such by Gods appointment , that is , not that God could be the Author of a sin to any , but that he appointed the evill which is the consequent of sin , to be upon their heads who descended from the sinner : & so it shall be on the other side ; for by the obedience of one , even of Christ , many shall be made , or constituted righteous . But still this must be with a supposition of what was said before , that there was a vast difference ; for we are made much more righteous by Christt , ●hen we were sinners by Adam ; and the life we receive by Christ shall be greater then the death by Adam ; and the graces we derive from Christ , shall be more and mightier then the corruption and declination by Adam ; but yet as one is the head , so is the other : one is the beginning of sinne and death , and the other of life and righteousnesse . Now the consequent of this discourse must needs at least be this ; that it is impossible that the greatest part of mankinde should be left in the eternal bonds of hell by Adam ; for then quite contrary to the discourse of the Apostle , there had been abundance of sin , but a scarcity of grace ; and the accesse had been on the part of Adam , not on the part of Christ , against which he so mightily and artificially contends : so that the Presbyterian way is perfectly condemned by this discourse of the Apostle ; and the other more gentle way , which affirmes that we were sentenc'd in Adam to eternal death , though the execution is taken off by Christ , is also no way countenanced by any thing in this Chapter ; for that the judgement which for Adams sin came unto the condemnation of the world , was nothing but temporal death , is here affirmed ; it being in no sense imaginable that the death which here Saint Paul sayes passed upon all men , and which reigned from Adam to Moses , should be eternal death ; for the Apostle speaks of that death which was threatened to Adam ; and of such a death which was afterwards threatened in Moses Law ; and such a death which fell even upon the most righteous of Adams posterity , Abel , and Seth , and Methusela , that is , upon them who did not sin after the similitude of Adams transgression . Since then , all the judgement which the Apostle saies , came by the sin of Adam , was expressly affirmed to be death temporal , that God should sentence mankinde to eternal damnation for Adams sin , though in goodnesse thorough Christ he afterwards took it off ; is not at all affirm'd by the Apostle ; and because in proportion to the evil , so was the imputation of the sin , it follows that Adams sin is ours metonymically and improperly ; God was not finally angry with us , nor had so much as any designes of eternal displeasure upon that account ; his anger went no further then the evils of this life , and therefore the imputation was not of a proper guilt , for that might justly have passed beyond our grave ; if the sin had passed beyond a metonymie , or a juridical , external imputation . And of this God and Man have given this further testimony ; that as no man ever imposed penance for it ; so God himself in nature did never for it afflict or affright the conscience , and yet the Conscience never spares any man that is guilty of a known sin . Extemplo quodcunque malum committitur , ipsi Displicet Authori , He that is guilty of a sin shal rue the crime that he lies in And why the Conscience shall be for ever at so much peace for this sin , that a man shall never give one groan for his share of guilt in Adams sin , unlesse some or other scares him with an impertinent proposition ; why ( I say ) the Conscience should not naturally be afflicted for it , nor so much as naturally know it , I confesse I cannot yet make any reasonable conjecture , save this onely , that it is not properly a sin , but onely metonymicall and improperly . And indeed there are some whole Churches which think themselves so little concern'd in the matter of Original sin , that they have not a word of it in all their Theology : I mean the Christians in the East-Indies , concerning whom Fryer Luys de Urretta in his Ecclesiastical story of AEthiopia , saies , that the Christians in AEthiopia , unde the Empire of Prestre Juan , never kept the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary [ no se entremetieron enessas Teologias del peccado Original : porque nunca tuvieron los entendimientes may metafisicos , antes como gente afable , benigna , Uana , de entendimientos conversables , y alaguenos , seguian la dotrina de los Santos antiguos , y de los sagrados Concilies , sin disputas , ni diferencias ] nor do they insert into their Theology any propositions concerning Original sin , nor trouble themselves with such Metaphysical contemplations ; but being of an affable , ingenuous , gentile comportment , and understanding , follow the Doctrine of the primitive Saints and Holy Councels without disputation of difference , so sayes the story . But we unfortunatly trouble our selves by raising ideas of sin , and afflict our selves with our own dreams , and will not beleeve but it is a vision . And the height of this imgination hath wrought so high in the Church of Rome , that when they would do great honours to the Virgin Mary , they were pleas'd to allow to her an immaculate conception without any Original sin , and a Holy-day appointed for the celebration of the dream . But the Christians in the other world are wiser , and trouble themselves with none of these things , but in simplicity , honour the Divine attributes , and speak nothing but what is easy to be understood . And indeed religion is then the best , and the world will be sure to have fewer Atheists , and fewer Blasphemers , when the understandings of witty men are not tempted , by commanding them to beleeve impossible articles , and unintelligible propositions : when every thing is believed by the same simplicity it is taught : when we do not cal that a mystery which we are not able to prove , and tempt our faith to swallow that whole which reason cannot chew . One thing I am to observe more , before I leave considering the words of the Apostle . The Apostle here having instituted a comparison between Adam and Christ ; that as death came by one , so life by the other ; as by one we are made sinners , so by the other we are made righteous ; some from hence suppose they argue strongly to the overthrow of all that I have said ; thus : Christ and Adam are compared , therefore as by Christ we are made really righteous : so by Adam we are made really sinners : our righteousnesse by Christ is more then imputed , and therefore so is our unrighteousnesse by Adam ● To this , besides what I have already spoken in my humble addresses to that wise and charitable Prelate the Lord Bishop of Rochester , delivering the sense and objections of others ; in which I have declared my sense of the imputation of Christ's righteousnesse ; and besides , that although the Apostle offers at a similitude , yet he findes himself surprised , and that one part of the similitude does far exceed the other , and therefore nothing can follow hence ; but that if we receive evil from Adam , we shall much more receive good from Christ ; besides this I say , I have something very material to reply to the form of the argument , which is a very trick and fallacy . For the Apostle argues thus , As by Adam we are made sinners , so by Christ we are made righteous ; and that is very true , and much more ; but to argue from hence [ as by Christ we are made really righteous , so by Adam we are made really sinners ] is to invert the purpose of the Apostle , ( who argues from the lesse to the greater ) and to make it conclude affirmatively from the greater to the lesse in matter of power : as if one should say : If a childe can carry a ten pound weight , much more can a man : and therefore whatsoever a man can do , that also a childe can do . For though I can say , If this thing be done in a green tree , what shall be done in the dry ? yet I must not say therefore , If this be done in the dry tree , what shall be done in the green ? for the dry try of the Crosse could do much then the green tree in the Garden of Eden . It is a good argument to say ; If the Devil be so potent to do a shrewd turn much more powerful is God to do good : but we cannot conclude from hence , but God can by his own meer power , and pleasure save a soul ; therefore the Devil can by his power ruine one : In a similitude , the first part may be , and often is , lesse then the second ; but never greater : and therefore though the Apostle said , as by Adam &c. So by Christ &c. Yet we cannot say as by Christ , so by Adam : We may well reason thus . As by Nature there is a reward to evil doers ; so much more is there by God ; but we cannot by way of conversion , reason thus ; As by God there is an eternal reward appointed to good actions ; so by Nature there is an Eternal reward for evil ones . And who would not deride this way of arguing . As by our Fathers we receive temporal good things ; so much more do we by God : but by God we also receive an immortal Soul ; therefore from our Fathers we receive an immortal body . For not the consequent of a hypothetical proposition , but the antecedent is to be the assumption of the Syllogisme ; This therefore is a fallacy , which when those wise persons , who are unwarily perswaded by it , shall observe , I doubt not but the whole way of arguing will appear unconcluding . Object . 6. But it is objected that my Doctrine is against the ninth Article in the Church of England ; and that I heare Madam does most of all stick with your Honour . Of this Madam , I should not now have taken notice , because I have already answered it in some additional papers , which are already published ; but that I was so delighted to hear and to know that a person of your interest and Honour , of your zeal and prudence , is so earnest for the Church of England , that I could not pass it by , without paying you that regard and just acknowledgment which so much excellencie deserves . But then Madam I am to say , that I could not be delighted in your zeal for our excellent Church , if I were not as zealous my self for it too : I have oftentimes subscribed that Article , and though if I had cause to dissent from it , I would certainly do it in those just measures which my duty on one side , and the interest of truth on the other would require of me ; yet because I have no reason to disagree , I will not suffer my self to be supposed to be of a Differing judgement from my Dear Mother , which is the best Church of the world . Indeed Madam , I do not understand the words of the Article as most men do ; but I understand them as they can be true , and as they can very fairely signifie , and as they agree with the word of God and right reason . But I remember that I have heard from a very good hand , and there are many alive this day that may remember to have heard it talk'd of publickly , that when Mr. Thomas Rogers had in the yeer 1584. published an exposition of the 39. Articles , many were not onely then , but long since very angry at him , that he by his interpretation had limited the charitable latitude which was allowed in the subscription to them . For the Articles being fram'd in a Church but newly reform'd , in which many complied with some unwillingnesse , and were not willing to have their consent broken by too great a straining , and even in the Convocation it self so many being of a differing judgement , it was very great prudence and piety to secure the peace of the Church by as much charitable latitude as they could contrive ; and therefore the Articles in those things , which were publickly disputed at that time , even amongst the Doctors of the Reformation ( such were the Articles of predestination , and this of Original sinne ) were described , with incomparable wisdom and temper ; and therefore I have reason to take it ill , if any man shall denie me liberty to use the benefit of the Churches wisdom ; For I am ready a thousand times to subscribe the Article , if there can be just cause to do it so often ; but as I impose upon no man my sense of the Article , but leave my reasons and him to struggle together for the best , so neither will I be bound to any one man , or any company of men but to my lawful Superiours , speaking there where they can and ought to oblige . Madam , I take nothing ill from any man , but that he should think I have a lesse zeal for our Church then himself , and I will by Gods assistance be all my life confuting him ; and though I will not contend with him , yet I will die with him in behalf of the Church if God shall call me ; but for other little things and trifling arrests and little murmurs I value none of it . Quid verum atque decens curo , & rogo , & omnis in hoc sum ; Condo & compono quod mox depromere possim , Nullius addictus jurare in verba Magistri : Quo me cunque rapit tempestas deferor — I could translate these also into bad English verse as I do the others ; but that now I am earnest for my liberty , I will not so much as confine my self to the measures of feet . But in plain English I mean by rehearsing these latine verses , that although I love every man , and value worthy persons in proportion to their labours and abilities , whereby they can and do serve God and Gods Church , yet I inquire for what is fitting , not what is pleasing ; I search after wayes to advantage soules , not to comply with humours , and Sects , and interests ; and I am tied to no mans private opinion any more then he is to mine ; if he will bring Scripture and right reason from any topic , he may govern me and perswade me , else I am free , as he is : but I hope I am before hand with him in this question . I end with the words of Lucretius . Desine quâ propter novitate exterritus ipsâ Expuere eo animo rationem , sed magis acri Judicio perpende , & si tibi vera videtur . Dede manus , aut si falsa est , accingere contrà . Fear not to own what 's said , because 't is true , Weigh well and wisely if the thing be true . Truth and not conquest is the best reward ; 'Gainst falshood onely stand upon thy guard . The End. MADAM , I Humbly begge you will be pleased to entertain these papers , not onely as a Testimony of my Zeal for truth and peace below , and for the Honour of God above ; but also of my readinesse to seize upon every occasion whereby I may expresse my self to be Your Honours most obliged and most Humble Servant in the Religion of the H. Jesus , Jer. Taylor . The Stationers Postscript To the READER . I Am not my self Ignorant , having learned it from those , whose words had in them reason and Authority too , that the world is most benefited by those pieces , which with greatest difficulty were gained from the modesty , or severity , or fears of their Authors . The fruits that first drop from the tree , are not the longest ere they rot , and the corn that lies longest in the ground , bis quae solem , bis frigora — most pleases the Husband-man . I have some confidence , the Reader , who has yet given his name to no sect , will by the excellencies of this discourse I have now presented , be so fairly disposed to receive my excuse , when I tell him that I publish it without the Reverend Authors consent , that he will become rather a Patron than an Accuser of that great ambition , he observes in me , to offer something that may instruct him , and please him too . Because so many papers passe the Presse , that deserve to finde it the place of their Burial rather than their birth , I was persuaded , my Charity would have in it something more of merit . I intended a Benefit to the Reader , and if my designe meet with reproof in the Successe , I am sure it deserved none in its principle , for I shall not misse my aims , if his intentions in receiving instruction be but as cleer as mine were to assist him in my meaner capacity . The Discourse in its own behalf will to the Intelligent give sufficient assurance , that though the Authors consent be wanting , nothing else is , that should come from him to make it intire : for I know what was fitted for the use and made able to endure the judgment of the Honourable person , who was the occasion of this , will with some security passe lesser judgements . And this favour the charitable Reader will the more easily grant me , because it will be a good advantage towards the recovering the favour of the worthy Person , who wote the Discourse ; whose displeasure I have reason to fear , I have too far provoked by making his secrets publike without his leave . But if the intelligent Reader shall receive this little piece with the same kindnesse , as the others , that were sent from the same hand , the pleading of my own cause will put me to the lesse expence of words . And I know the Reverend Author governs all his passions with such an excellent charity , and levels all his designes of this kinde to that great end of advancing piety , and holy living , that my boldnesse will the more easily find pardon , because the right understanding of this Question has a great influence upon all the parts of holy obedience ; and the discourses of this Letter , I have good authority to say , add much to the clearnesse and defence of his former writings upon this Subject . The question as it is necessary to be understood now , that it is set on foot , so is it very difficult to all those , that first choose their interest , and then such conclusions as are consistent with that , and frame their arguments and premisses last of all . And no man for this can charge me highly , but he must also affirme , it is fit some things be concealed , that would free the judgements of men from those prejudices of custome , partiality and humour , with which Error hath fortified her self in the understandings of many . The errors of this question are so deere to one kinde of men , that nothing will more provoke their pens , then to be contradicted in this Proposition ; and for the advantage of truth and the common benefit , it was my designe , that whatsoever was needful to be said to make the truth more clear , might first get possession of the understandings of men . Which could not , certainly , have been done if I had delayed my hand , till I could , at that great distance from me , where he lives , have consulted with the Author , and received returns from him . And have no lesse hope , that the Honourable Person , into whose Cabinet I have too boldly admitted the common eye , will pardon my presumption , because it is the interest of Religion , which is so deer to every rightly instructed Christian , that they will neither refuse for its advancement to give up their priviledges , nor their life . And when she feels the benefit of being free'd from those Scruples , which this Discourse was designed to remove , she will not conceive her light will be made less by being common , but will be rather pleased , to have obliged , by the emanations of a Pen so learned , all those that shall receive benefit from it . R. Royston . The names of some Books and Sermons written by Jer. Taylor D.D. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Course of Sermons for all the Sundayes in the yeer , together with a Discourse of the Divine Institution , Necessity , and Separation of the Office Ministerial , in fol. 2. The History of the Life and Death of the Ever-blessed Jesus Christ , 2. Edit . in fol. 7. The Rules and Exercises of holy living , in 12. 8. The Rule and Exercises of holy dying , in 12. 10. The Golden Grove , or , A Manual of daily Prayers fitted to the dayes of the week , together with a short Method of Peace and Holiness . 11. The Doctrine and practise of Repentance rescued from Popular Errors , in a large 8. Newly published . The Errata . PAge . 93. line ult its . r. it . pag. 13. l. 12. and bred r. and to be bred . p. 134. l. 15. r. do much more then 142. l. 17. expuere ex animo . 36l . 11. r. taken pleasure 61. l. 1. was brought off . r. was bought-off . 85. l. 1. presence of novelty . r the pretence of novelty . 99. l. ult . r. are not in . An Answer to a Letter Written by the R. R. The L d B p of Rochester . Concerning The Chapter of Original Sin , In the Unum Necessarium . By JER . TAYLOR D. D. London , Printed by E. Cotes for R. Royston at the Angel in Ivie-lane , 1656. An Answer to a Letter Written by the R. R. The L. B p. of Rochester . R. R. Father and my good Lord , YOur Lordships Letter Dated July 28. I received not till Septemb. 11. it seems R. Royston detained it in his hands , supposing it could not come safely to me while I remain a prisoner . But I now have that liberty , that I can receive any Letters , and send any ; for the Gentlemen under whose custody I am , as they are carefull of their charges , so they are civil to my person . It was necessary I should tell this to your Lordship , that I may not be under a suspicion of neglecting to give accounts in those particulars , which with somuch prudence and charity you were pleased to represent in your Letter concerning my discourse of Original Sin. My Lord , in all your Exceptions , I cannot but observe your candor and your paternal care concerning me . For when there was nothing in the Doctrine , but your greater reason did easily see the justice and the truth of it , and I am perswaded could have taught me to have said many more material things in confirmation of what I have taught ; yet so careful is your charity of me , that you would not omit to represent to my consideration what might be said by captious and weaker persons ; or by the more wise and pious who are of a different judgement . But my Lord , first you are pleased to note that this discourse runs not in the ordinary channel . True ; for if it did , it must nurse the popular error : but when the disease is epidemical , as it is so much the worse , so the extraordinary remedy must be acknowledg'd to be the better . And if there be in it some things hard to be understood , as it was the fate of S. Paul's Epistles ( as your Lordship notes out of S. Peter ) yet this difficulty of understanding proceeds not from the thing it self , nor from the manner of handling it , but from the indisposition and prepossession of mens minds to the contrary , who are angry when they are told that they have been deceived : for it is usuall with men to be more displeased , when they are told they were in error , then to be pleased with them who offer to lead them out of it . But your Lordship doth with great advantages represent an objection of some captious persons , which relates not to the material part of the Question , but to the rules of art . If there be no such thing as Original Sin transmitted from Adam to his posterity , then all that sixth chapter is a strife about a shadow , a Non ens . A. It is true my Lord , the Question as it is usually handled , is so . For when the Franciscan and Dominican do eternally dispute about the conception of the Blessed Virgin , whether it was with , or without Original Sin , meaning by way of grace and special exemption , this is de non ente ; for there was no need of any such exemption : and they supposing that commonly it was otherwise , troubled themselves about the exception of a Rule , which in that sense which the suppos'd it , was not true at all : she was born as innocent from any impurity or formal guilt as Adam was created , and so was her Mother , and so was all her family . * When the Lutheran and the Roman dispute , whether justice and original righteousness in Adam was Natural or by Grace , it is de non ente : for it was positively neither , but negatively only ; he had original righteousness till he sin'd , that is , he was righteous till he became unrighteous . * When the Calvinist troubles himself and his Parishioners with fierce declamations against natural inclinations or concupiscence , and disputes whether it remains in baptized persons , or whether it be taken off by Election , or by the Sacrament , whether to all Christians or to some few ; this is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; for it is no sin at all in persons baptiz'd or unbaptiz'd , till it be consented to . My Lord , when I was a young man in Cambridge , I knew a learned professor of Divinity , whose ordinary Lectures in the Lady Margarets Chair for many years together , nine as I suppose , or thereabouts , were concerning Original Sin , and the appendant questions : This indeed could not choose but be Andabatarum conflictus . But then my discourse representing that these disputes are uselesse , and , as they discourse usually , to be de non ente , is not to be reprov'd . For I professe to evince that many of those things , of the sense of which they dispute , are not true at all in any sense , I declare them to be de non ente , that is , I untie their intricate knots by cutting them in pieces . For when a false proposition is the ground of disputes , the process must needs be infinite , unless you discover the first error . He that tels them they both fight about a shadow , and with many arguments proves the vanity of their whole processe , they ( if he saies true ) not he is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * When S. Austine was horribly puzled about the traduction of Original Sin , and thought himself forc'd to say that either the Father begat the soul , or that he could not transmit sin which is subjected in the soul , or at least he could not tell how it was transmitted : he had no way to be relieved but by being told that Original Sin was not subjected in the soul , because properly and formally it was no reall sin of ours at all ; but that it was only by imputation , and to certain purposes , not any inherent quality , or corruption : and so in effect all his trouble was de non ente . * But now some wits have lately risen in the Church of Rome , and they tell us another story . The soul followes the temperature of the body , and so Original Sin comes to be transmitted by contact : because the constitution of the body is the fomes or nest of the sin , and the souls concupiscence is deriv'd from the bodies lust . But besides that this fancy disappears at the first handling , and there would be so many Original Sins as there are several constitutions , and the guilt would not be equal , and they who are born Eunuchs should be lesse infected by Adam's pollution , by having lesse of concupiscence in the great instance of desires , [ and after all , concupiscence it self could not be a sin in the soul , till the body was grown up to strength enough to infect it ] Besides all this , ( I say ) while one does not know how Original Sin can be derived , and another who thinks he can , names a wrong way , and both the waies infer it to be another kinde of thing then all the Schools of learning teach [ and in the whole process it must be an impossible thing , because the instrument which hath all its operations by the force of the principal agent , cannot of it self produce a great change and violent effect upon the principal agent ] does it not too clearly demonstrate , that all that infinite variety of fancies agreeing in nothing but in an endless uncertainty , is nothing else but a being busie about the quiddities of a dream , and the constituent parts of a shadow ? But then , My Lord , my discourse representing all this to be vanity and uncertainty , ought not to be call'd or suppos'd to be a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : as he that ends the question between two Schoolmen disputing about the place of Purgatory , by saying they need not trouble themselves about the place ; for that which is not , hath no place at all ; ought not to be told he contends about a shadow , when he proves that to be true , which he suggested to the two trifling litigants . But as to the thing it self : I do not say there is no such thing as Original Sin , but it is not that which it is supposed to be : it is not our sin formally , but by imputation only ; and it is imputed so , as to be an inlet to sickness , death and disorder : but it does not introduce a necessity of sinning , nor damn any one to the flames of Hell. So that Original Sin is not a Non ens , unless that be nothing which infers so many real mischiefs . The next thing your Lordship is pleas'd to note to me , is that in your wisdome you foresee , some will argue against my explication of the word Damnation , in the ninth . Article of our Church , which affirms that Original Sin deserves damnation . Concerning which , My Lord , I do thus ( and I hope fairly ) acquit my self . 1. That it having been affirmed by S. Austin that Infants dying unbaptized are damn'd , he is deservedly called Durus pater Infantum , and generally forsaken by all sober men of the later ages : and it will be an intolerable thing to think the Church of England guilty of that which all her wiser sons , and all the Christian Churches generally abhorre . I remember that I have heard that King James reproving a Scottish Minister , who refus'd to give private Baptism to a dying Infant , being askt by the Minister , if he thought the childe should be damn'd for want of Baptism ? answer'd , No , but I think you may be damn'd for refusing it : and he said well . But then my Lord , If Original Sin deserves damnation , then may Infants be damn'd if they die without Baptism . But if it be a horrible affirmative , to say that the poor babes shall be made Devils , or enter into their portion , if they want that ceremony , which is the only gate , the only way of salvation that stands open ; then the word [ Damnation ] in the 9. Article must mean something less , then what we usually understand by it : or else the Article must be salved by expounding some other word to an allay and lessening of the horrible sentence ; and particularly the word [ Deserves ] of which I shall afterwards give account . Both these waies I follow . The first is the way of the Schoolmen . For they suppose the state of unbaptized Infants to be a poena damni ; and they are confident enough to say that this may be well suppos'd without inferring their suffering the pains of hell . But this sentence of theirs I admit and explicate with some little difference of expression . For so far I admit this pain of loss , or rather a deficiency from going to Heaven , to be the consequence of Adam's sin , that by it we being left in meris Naturalibus , could never by these strengths alone have gone to Heaven . Now whereas your Lordship in behalf of those whom you suppose may be captious , is pleas'd to argue . That as loss of sight or eyes infers a state of darkness or blindness : so the losse of Heaven infers Hell ; and if Infants go not to heaven in that state , whither can they go but to hell ? and that 's Damnation in the greatest sense . I grant it , that if in the event of things they do not go to Heaven ( as things are now ordered ) it is but too likely that they go to Hell : but I adde , that as all darkness does not infer horror and distraction of minde , or fearful apparitions and phantasms : so neither does all Hell , or states in Hell infer all those torments which the Schoolmen signifie by a poena sensus ( for I speak now in pursuance of their way ) . So that there is no necessity of a third place ; but it concludes only that in the state of separation from Gods presence there is a great variety of degrees and kinds of evil , and every one is not the extreme : and yet by the way , let me observe , that Gregory Nazianzen and Nicetas taught that there is a third place for Infants and Heathens : and Irenaeus affirm'd that the evils of Hell were not eternal to all , but to the Devils only and the greater criminals . But neither they nor we , nor any man else can tell whether Hell be a place or no. It is a state of evil ; but whether all the damned be in one or in twenty places , we cannot tell . But I have no need to make use of any of this . For when I affirm that Infants being by Adam reduc'd and left to their meer natural state , fall short of Heaven ; I do not say they cannot go to Heaven at all , but they cannot go thither by their naturall powers , they cannot without a new grace and favour go to heaven . But then it cannot presently be inferred , that therefore they go to hell ; but this ought to be infer'd , which indeed was the real consequent of it ; therefore it is necessary that Gods Grace should supply this defect , if God intends Heaven to them at all ; and because Nature cannot , God sent a Saviour by whom it was effected . But if it be asked , what if this grace had not come ? and that it be said , that without Gods grace they must have gone to Hell , because without it they could not go to Heaven ? I answer , That we know how it is , now that God in his goodness hath made provisions for them : but if he had not made such provisions , what would have been we know not , any more then we know what would have followed , if Adam had not sinned ; where he should have liv'd , and how long , and in what circumstances the posterity should have been provided for in all their possible contingencies . But yet , this I know , that it followes not , that if without this Grace we could not have gone to Heaven , that therefore we must have gone to Hel. For although the first was ordinarily impossible , yet the second was absolutely unjust , and against Gods goodness , and therefore more impossible . But because the first could not be done by nature , God was pleased to promise and to give his grace , that he might bring us to that state whither he had design'd us , that is , to a supernatural felicity . If Adam had not fallen , yet Heaven had not been a natural consequent of his obedience , but a Gracious , it had been a gift still : and of Adam though he had persisted in innocence , it is true to say , that without Gods Grace , that is , by the meer force of Nature , he could never have arriv'd to a Supernatural state , that is , to the joyes of Heaven ; and yet it does not follow , that if he had remain'd in Innocence , he must have gone to Hell. Just so it is in Infants , Hell was not made for man , but for Devils ; and therefore it must be something besides meer Nature that can bear any man thither : meer Nature goes neither to Heaven nor Hell. So that when I say Infants naturally cannot go to Heaven , and that this is a punishment of Adam's sin , he being for it punished with a loss of his gracious condition , and devolv'd to the state of Nature , and we by him left so ; my meaning is , that this Damnation which is of our Nature , is but negative , that is , as a consequent of our Patriarchs sin , our Nature is left imperfect and deficient in order to a supernatural end , which the Schoolmen call a poena damni , but improperly : they indeed think it may be a real event , and final condition of persons as well as things : but I affirm it was an evil effect of Adam's sin : but in the event of things it became to the persons the way to a new grace , and hath no other event as to Heaven and Hell directly and immediately . In the same sense and to the same purpose I understand the word Damnation in the 9. Article . But the word [ Damnation ] may very well , truly , and sufficiently signifie all the purposes of the Article , if it be taken only for the effect of that sentence which was inflicted upon Adam , and descended on his posterity , that is , for condemnation to Death , and the evils of mortality . So the word is used by S. Paul 1 Cor. 11. 29. He that eateth and drinketh unworthily , eateth and drinketh Damnation to himself . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word , but that it did particularly signifie temporal death and evils , appears by the instances of probation in the next words , For , for this cause some are weak amongst you , some are sick , and some are fallen asleep . This also in the Article . Original Sin deserves damnation , that is , it justly brought in the angry sentence of God upon Man , it brought him to death , and deserv'd it : it brought it upon us , and deserv'd it too . I do not say that we by that sin deserv'd that death , neither can death be properly a punishment of us till we superadde some evil of our own ; yet Adam's sin deserv'd it so , that it was justly left to fall upon us , we as a consequent and punishment of his sin being reduc'd to our natural portion . In odiesis quod minimum est sequimur . The lesser sense of the word is certainly agreeable to truth and reason : and it were good we us'd the word in that sense which may best warrant her doctrine , especially for that use of the word , having the precedent of Scripture . I am confirm'd in this interpretation by the 2. § . of the Article : viz. of the remanency of concupiscence or Original Sin in the Regenerate . All the sinfulness of Original Sin is the lust or concupiscence , that is , the proneness to sin . Now then I demand , whether Concupiscence before actual consent be a sin or no ? and if it be a sin , whether it deserves damnation ? That all sin deserves damnation , I am sure our Church denies not . If therefore concupiscence before consent be a sin , then this also deserves damnation where ever it is : and if so , then a man may be damned for Original Sin even after Baptism . For even after Baptism , concupiscence ( or the sinfulness of Original Sin ) remains in the regenerate : and that which is the same thing , the same vitiousness , the same enmity to God after Baptism , is as damnable , it deserves damnation as much as that did that went before . If it be replied , that Baptism takes off the guilt or formal part of it , but leaves the material part behinde , that is , though concupiscence remains , yet it shall not bring damnation to the regenerate or Baptized . I answer , that though baptismal regeneration puts a man into a state of grace and favour , so that what went before shall not be imputed to him afterwards , that is , Adam's sin shall not bring damnation ( in any sense ) yet it hinders not , but that what is sinful afterwards shall be then imputed to him , that is , he may be damn'd for his own concupiscence . He is quitted from it as it came from Adam ; but by Baptism he is not quitted from it , as it is subjected in himself , if ( I say ) concupiscence before consent be a sin . If it be no sin , then for it , Infants unbaptized cannot with justice be damn'd ; it does not deserve damnation : but if it be a sin , then so long as it is there , so long it deserves damnation ; and Baptism did only quit the relation of it to Adam ( for that was all that went before it ) but not the danger of the man. * But because the Article supposes that it does not damn the regenerate or baptized , and yet that it hath the nature of sin , it follows evidently and undeniably , that both the phrases are to be diminished and understood in a favourable sense . As the phrase [ the Nature of sin ] signifies ; so does [ Damnation ] but [ the Nature of sin ] signifies something that brings no guilt , because it is affirm'd to be in the Regenerate , therefore [ Damnation ] signifies something that brings no Hell : but [ to deserve Damnation ] must mean something lesse then ordinary , that is , that concupiscence is a thing not morally good , not to be allowed of , not to be nurs'd , but mortifi'd , fought against , disapprov'd , condemn'd and disallowed of men as it is of God. And truly My Lord , to say that for Adam's sin it is just in God to condemn Infants to the eternal flames of Hell : and to say , that concupiscence or natural inclinations before they pass into any act , could bring eternal condemnation from Gods presence into the eternall portion of Devils , are two such horrid propositions , that if any Church in the world would expresly affirm them , I for my part should think it unlawful to communicate with her in the defence or profession of either , and do think it would be the greatest temptation in the world to make men not to love God , of whom men so easily speak such horrid things . I would suppose the Article to mean any thing rather then either of these . But yet one thing more I have to say . The Article is certainly to be expounded according to the analogy of faith , and the express words of Scripture , if there be any that speak expresly in this matter . Now whereas the Article explicating Original Sin affirms it to be that fault or corruption of mans nature ( vitium Naturae , not peccatum ) by which he is far gone from originall righteousness , and is inclin'd to evil : because this is not full enough , the Article adds by way of explanation [ So that the flesh lusteth against the spirit ] that is , it really produces a state of evil temptations : it lusteth , that is , actually and habitually ; [ it lusteth against the spirit , and therefore deserves Gods wrath and damnation ] So the Article : Therefore ; for no other reason but because the flesh lusteth against the spirit ; not because it can lust , or is apta nata to lust , but because it lusteth actually , therefore it deserves damnation : and this is Original Sin : or as the Article expresses it , it hath the nature of sin ; it is the fomes , or matter of sin , and is in the original of mankinde , and deriv'd from Adam as our body is , but it deserves not damnation in the highest sense of the word , till the concupiscence be actual . Till then , the words of [ Wrath and Damnation ] must be meant in the less and more easie signfication , according to the former explication : and must only relate to the personal sin of Adam . To this sense of the Article I heartily subscribe . For besides the reasonableness of the thing , and the very manner of speaking us'd in the Article ; it is the very same way of speaking , and exactly the same doctrine which we finde in S. James , ( Jam. 1. 14. ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : Concupiscence , when it is impregnated , when it hath conceiv'd , then it brings forth sin : and sin when it is in production , and birth , brings forth death . But in Infants , concupiscence is innocent and a virgin , it conceives not , and therefore is without sin , and therefore without death or damnation . * Against these expositions I cannot imagine what can be really and materially objected . But my Lord , I perceive the main outcry is like to be upon the authority of the Harmony of Confessions . Concerning which I shall say this , that in this Article the Harmony makes as good musick as bels ringing backward ; and they agree , especially when they come to be explicated and untwisted into their minute and explicite meanings , as much as Lutheran and Calvinist , as Papist and Protestant , as Thomas and Scotus , as Remonstrant and Dordrechtan , that is , as much as pro and con , or but a very little more . I have not the book with me here in prison , and this neighbourhood cannot supply me , and I dare not trust my memory to give a scheme of it : but your Lordship knows that in nothing more do the reformed Churches disagree , then in this and its appendages ; and you are pleased to hint something of it , by saying that some speak more of this then the Church of England : and Andrew Rivet , though unwillingly , yet confesses , de Confessionibus nostris & earum syntagmate vel Harmonia , etiamsi in non nullis capitibus non planè conveniant , dicam tamen , melius in concordiam redigi posse quàm in Ecclesia Romana concordantiam discordantium Canonum , quo titulo decretum Gratiani , quod Canonistis regulas praefigit , solet insigniri . And what he affirmes of the whole collection , is most notorious in the Article of Original Sin. For my own part I am ready to subscribe the first Helvetian confession , but not the second . So much difference there is in the confessions of the same Church . Now whereas your Lordship adds , that though they are fallible , yet when they bring evidence of holy Writ , their assertions are infallible , and not to be contradicted : I am bound to reply , that when they do so , whether they be infallible or no , I will beleeve them , because then though they might , yet they are not deceived . But as evidence of holy Writ had been sufficient without their authority : so without such evidence their authority is nothing . But then , My Lord , their citing and urging the words of S. Paul , Rom. 5. 12. is so far from being an evident probation of their Article , that nothing is to me a surer argument of their fallibility , then the urging of that which evidently makes nothing for them , but much against them : As 1. Affirming expresly that death was the event of Adam's sin ; the whole event , for it names no other ; temporal death ; according to that saying of S. Paul , 1 Cor. 15. In Adam we all die . And 2. Affirming this process of death to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which is and ought to be taken to be the allay or condition of the condemnation . It became a punishment to them only who did sin ; but upon them also inflicted for Adam's sake . A like expression to which is in the Psalms , Psal. 106. 32 , 33. They angred him also at the waters of strife , so that he punished Moses for their sakes . Here was plainly a traduction of evil from the Nation to Moses their relative : For their sakes he was punished , but yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for as much as Moses had sin'd : for so it followes , because they provoked his spirit , so that he spake unadvisedly with his lips . So it is between Adam and us . He sin'd and God was highly displeased . This displeasure went further then upon Adam's sin : for though that only was threatned with death , yet the sins of his children which were not so threatned , became so punished , and they were by nature heirs of wrath and damnation ; that is , for his sake our sins inherited his curse . The curse that was specially and only threatned to him , we when we sin'd did inherit for his sake . So that it is not so properly to be called , Original Sin , as an original curse upon our sin . To this purpose we have also another example of God transmitting the curse from one to another : Both were sinners , but one was the original of the curse or punishment . So said the Prophet to the wife of Jeroboam , 1 King. 14. 16. [ He shall give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam , who did sin , and who made Israel to sin ] Jereboam was the root of the sin and of the curse . Here it was also ( that I may use the words of the Apostle ) that by the sin of one man [ Jeroboam ] sin went out into all [ Israel ] and the curse , captivity , or death by sin , and so death went upon all men [ of Israel ] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in as much as all men [ of Israel ] have sinned . If these men had not sinned , they had not been punished : I cannot say they had not been afflicted ; for David's childe was smitten for his fathers fault : but though they did sin , yet unless their root and principal had sinned , possibly they should not have so been punish'd : For his sake the punishment came . Upon the same account it may be , that we may inherit the damnation or curse for Adam's sake , though we deserve it ; yet it being transmitted from Adam and not particularly threatned to the first posterity , we were his heirs , the heirs of death , deriving from him an original curse , but due also ( if God so pleased ) to our sins . And this is the full sense of the 12. verse , and the effect of the phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . But your Lordship is pleased to object that though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does once signifie [ For as much as ] yet three times it signifies in or by . To this I would be content to submit , if the observation could be verified , and be material when it were true . But besides that it is so used in 2 Cor. 5. 4. your Lordship may please to see it used ( as not only my self , but indeed most men , and particularly the Church of England does read it and expound it ) in Mat. 26. 50. And yet if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which is the same with in or by , if it be rendred word for word , yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 twice in the Scripture signifies [ for as much as ] as you may read Rom. 8. 3. & Heb. 2. 18. So that here are two places besides this in question , and two more ex abundanti to shew , that if it were not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but said in words expresly as you would have it in the meaning , yet even so neither the thing , nor any part of the thing could be evicted against me : and lastly , if it were not only said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but that that sense of it were admitted which is desired , and that it did mean in or by in this very place : yet the Question were not at all the nearer to be concluded against me . For I grant that it is true [ in him we are all sinners ] as it is true that [ in him we all die ] that is , for his sake we are us'd as sinners ; being miserable really , but sinners in account and effect : as I have largely discoursed in my book . But then for the place here in question , it is so certain that it signifies the same thing ( as our Church reads it ) that it is not sense without it , but a violent breach of the period without precedent or reason . And after all ; I have looked upon those places where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is said to signifie in or by , and in one of them I finde it so , Mar. 2. 4. but in Act. 3. 16. & Phil. 1. 3. I finde it not at all in any sense : but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indeed is used for in or by , in that of the Acts ; and in the other it signifies , at or upon ; but if all were granted that is pretended to , it no way prejudices my cause , as I have already proved . Next to these your Lordship seems a little more zealous and decretory in the Question upon the confidence of the 17 , 18 , & 19. verses of the 5. chapter to the Romans . The sum of which as your Lordship most ingeniously sums it up , is this . As by one many were made sinners : so by one many were made righteous , that by Adam , this by Christ. But by Christ we are made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 just , not by imputation only , but effectively and to real purposes ; therefore by Adam we are really made sinners . And this your Lordship confirms by the observation of the sense of two words here used by the Apostle , The first is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifies a sentence of guilt , or punishment for sin , and this sin to be theirs upon whom the condemnation comes , because God punishes none but for their own sin , Ezek. 18. 2. From the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 clear from sin , so your Lordship renders it : and in opposition to this , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be rendred , that is , guilty , criminal persons , really and properly . This is all which the wit of man can say from this place of S. Paul , and if I make it appear that this is invalid , I hope I am secure . To this then , I answer : That the Antithesis in these words here urg'd , ( for there is another in the chapter ) and this whole argument of S. Paul is full and intire without descending to minutes . Death came in by one man , much more shall life come by one man ; if that by Adam , then much more this by Christ : by him to condemnation , by this man to justification . This is enough to verifie the argument of S. Paul , though life and death did not come in the same manner to the several relatives ; as indeed they did not : of which afterwards . But for the present : It runs thus . By Adam we were made sinners ; by Christ we are made righteous : As certainly one as the other , though not in the same manner of dispensation . By Adam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 death reigned ; by this man the reign of death shall be destroyed , and life set up in stead of it ; by him we were us'd as sinners , for in him we died : but by Christ we are justified , that is , us'd as just persons , for by him we live . This is sufficient for the Apostles argument , and yet no necessity to affirm that we are sinners in Adam any more then by imputation : for we are by Christ made just no otherwise then by imputation . In the proof or perswasion I will use no indirect arguments , as to say , that to deny us to be just by imputation is the Doctrine of the Church of Rome and of the Socinian Conventicles , but expresly dislik'd by all the Lutheran , Calvinist , and Zuinglian Churches , and particularly by the Church of England , and indeed by the whole Harmony of Confessions : this I say , I will not make use of ; not only because I my self do not love to be press'd by such prejudices rather then arguments ; but because the question of the imputation of righteousness is very much mistaken and misunderstood on all hands . They that say that Christs righteousness is imputed to us for justification , do it upon this account , because they know all that we do is imperfect , therefore they think themselves constrain'd to flie to Christ's righteousness , and think it must be imputed to us , or we perish . The other side , considering that this way would destroy the necessity of holy living ; and that in order to our justification , there were conditions requir'd on our parts , think it necessary to say that we are justified by inherent righteousness . Between these the truth is plain enough to be read . Thus : Christ's righteousness is not imputed to us for justification directly and immediately ; neither can we be justified by our own righteousness : but our Faith and sincere endevours are through Christ accepted in stead of legal righteousness : that is ; we are justified through Christ , by imputation , not of Christs , nor our own righteousness : but of our faith and endevours of righteousness as if they were perfect : and we are justified by a Non-imputation , viz. of our past sins , and present unavoidable imperfections : that is , we are handled as if we were just persons and no sinners . So faith was imputed to Abraham for righteousness ; not that it made him so , legally , but Evangelically , that is , by grace and imputation . And indeed My Lord , that I may speak freely in this great question : when one man hath sin'd , his descendents and relatives , cannot possibly by him , or for him , or in him be made sinners properly and really . For in sin there are but two things imaginable : the irregular action ; and the guilt , or obligation to punishment . Now we cannot in any sense be said to have done the action which another did , and not we : the action is as individual as the person ; and Titius may as well be Cajus , and the Son be his own Father , as he can be said to have done the Fathers action ; and therefore we cannot possibly be guilty of it : for guilt is an obligation to punishment for having done it : the action and the guilt are relatives ; one cannot be without the other : something must be done inwardly or outwardly , or there can be no guilt . * But then for the evil of punishment , that may pass further then the action . If it passes upon the innocent , it is not a punishment to them ; but an evil inflicted by right of Dominion ; but yet by reason of the relation of the afflicted to him that sin'd , to him it is a punishment . But if it passes upon others that are not innocent , then it is a punishment to both ; to the first principally ; to the Descendents or Relatives , for the others sake ; his sin being imputed so far . How far that is in the present case , and what it is , the Apostle expresses thus : It was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , vers . 18. or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; vers . 16. a curse unto condemnation , or a judgement unto condemnation , that is , a curse inherited from the principal ; deserv'd by him , and yet also actually descending upon us after we had sin'd , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; that is the judgement passed upon Adam ; the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was on him ; but it prov'd to be a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or a through condemnation when from him it passed upon all men that sin'd . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes differ in degrees : so the words are used by S. Paul otherwhere ( 1 Cor. 11. 32. ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; a judgement to prevent a punishment , or a less to forestal a greater in the same kinde : so here the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pass'd further ; the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was fulfilled in his posterity passing on further , viz. that all who sin'd should pass under the power of death as well as he : but this became formally and actually a punishment to them only who did sin personally : to them it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , vers . 17. the reign of death ; this is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , vers . 21. the reign of sin in death : that is , the effect which Adam's sin had , was only to bring in the reign of death , which is already broken by Jesus Christ , and at last shall be quite destroyed . But to say that sin here is properly transmitted to us from Adam , formally , and so as to be inherent in us , is to say that we were made to do his action , which is a perfect contradiction . Now then your Lordship sees that what you note of the meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I admit , and is indeed true enough , and agreeable to the discourse of the Apostle , and very much in justification of what I taught . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a punishment for sin , and this sin to be theirs upon whom the condemnation comes . I easily subscribe to it : but then take in the words of S. Paul , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by one sin , or by the sin of one the curse passed upon all men unto condemnation ; that is , the curse descended from Adam ; for his sake it was propagated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to a real condemnation , viz. when they should sin . For though this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the curse of death was threatned only to Adam , yet upon Gods being angry with him , God resolved it should descend : and if men did sin as Adam , or if they did sin at all , though less then Adam , yet the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the curse threatned to him should pass 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto the same actual condemnation which fell upon him , that is , it should actually bring them under the reign of death . But then my Lord , I beseech you let it be considered , if this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must suppose a punishment for sin , for the sin of him , his own sin that is so condemn'd , as your Lordship proves perfectly out of Ezek. 18. how can it be just that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 condemnation should pass upon us for Adam's sin , that is , not for his own sin who is so condemn'd , but for the sin of another ? S. Paul easily resolves the doubt , if there had been any . The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the reign of death passed upon all men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in as much as all men have sinned . And now why shall we suppose that we must be guilty of what we did not , when without any such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is so much guilt of what we did really and personally ? why shall it be that we die only for Adam's sin , and not rather as S. Paul expresly affirms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in as much as all men have sinned , since by your own argument it cannot be in as much as all men have not sinned ; this you say cannot be , and yet you will not confess this which can be , and which S. Paul affirms to have been indeed : as if it were not more just and reasonable to say , that from Adam the curse descended unto the condemnation of the sins of the world , then to say the curse descended without consideration of their sins ; but a sin must be imagined to make it seem reasonable and just to condemn us . [ Now I submit it to the judgement of all the world , which way of arguing is most reasonable and concluding : You my Lord in behalf of others argue thus . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or condemnation cannot pass upon a man for any sin but his own : Therefore every man is truly guilty of Adam's sin , and that becomes his own . Against this I oppose mine . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or condemnation cannot pass upon a man for any sin but his own : therefore it did not pass upon man for Adam's sin ; because Adam's sin , was Adam's , not our own : But we all have sinned , we have sins of our own , therefore for these the curse pass'd from Adam to us . To back mine , besides that common notices of sense and reason defend it , I have the plain words of S. Paul ; Death passed upon all men , for as much as all men have sinned ; all men , that is , the generality of mankinde , all that liv'd till they could sin , the others that died before , died in their nature , not in their sin , neither Adam's nor their own , save only that Adam brought it in upon them , or rather left it to them , himself being disrobed of all that which could hinder it . Now for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which your Lordship renders [ clear from sin ] I am sure no man is so justified in this world , as to be clear from sin ; and if we all be sinners , and yet healed as just persons , it is certain we are just by imputation only , that is , Christ imputing our faith , and sincere , though not unerring obedience to us for righteousness : And then the Antithesis must hold thus ; By Christ comes justification to life , as by Adam came the curse or the sin to the condemnation of death : But our justification which comes by Christ is by imputation and acceptilation , by grace and favour : not that we are made really , that is , legally and perfectly righteous , but by imputation of faith and obedience to us , as if it were perfect : And therfore Adam's sin was but by imputation only to certain purposes ; not real , or proper , not formal or inherent . For the grace by Christ is more then the sin by Adam : if therefore that was not legal and proper , but Evangelical and gracious , favourable and imputative , much more is the sin of Adam in us improperly , and by imputation . * And truly my Lord , I think that no sound Divine of any of our Churches will say that we are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in any other sense : not that Christs righteousness is imputed to us without any inherent graces in us , but that our imperfect services , our true faith and sincere endevours of obedience are imputed to us for righteousness through Jesus Christ : and since it is certainly so , I am sure the Antithesis between Christ and Adam can never be salved by making us sinners really by Adam , and yet just or righteous by Christ only in acceptation and imputation . For then sin should abound more then grace ; expresly against the honour of our blessed Saviour , the glory of our redemption , and the words of S. Paul. But rather on the contrary is it true , That though by Christ we were really and legally made perfectly righteous , it follows not that we were made sinners by Adam in the same manner and measure : for this similitude of S. Paul ought not to extend to an equality in all things ; but still the advantage and prerogative , the abundance and the excess must be on the part of Grace : for if sin does abound , grace does much more abound ; and we do more partake of righteousness by Christ , then of sin by Adam . Christ and Adam are the several fountains of emanation , and are compar'd aequè , but not aequaliter . Therefore this argument holds redundantly , since by Christ we are not made legally righteous , but by imputation only ; much less are we made sinners by Adam . This in my sense is so infinitely far from being an objection , that it perfectly demonstrates the main question ; and for my part I mean to relie upon it . As for that which your Lordship adds out of Rom. 5. 19. That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies sinners , not by imitation , as the Pelagians dream , but sinners really and effectively ; I shall not need to make any other reply ; but that 1. I do not approve of that gloss of the Pelagians , that in Adam we are made sinners by imitation ; and much less of that which affirms , we are made so properly and formally . But [ made sinners ] signifies , us'd like sinners ; so as [ justified ] signifies healed like just persons : In which interpretation I follow S. Paul , not the Pelagians ; they who are on the other side of the question , follow neither . And unless men take in their opinion before they read ; and resolve not to understand S. Paul in this Epistle , I wonder why they should fancy that all that he sayes sounds that way which they commonly dream of : But as men fancy , so the Bels will ring . But I know yovr Lordships grave and wiser judgement , sees not only this that I have now opened , but much beyond it , and that you will be a zealous advocate for the truth of God , and for the honour of his justice , wisdome and mercy . That which followes , makes me beleeve your Lordship resolv'd to try me , by speaking your own sense in the line , and your temptation in the interline . For when your Lordship had said that [ My arguments for the vindication of Gods goodness and justice are sound and holy ] your hand run it over again and added [ as abstracted from the case of Original Sin. ] But why should this be abstracted from all the whole Oeconomy of God , from all his other dispensations ? Is it in all cases of the world unjust for God , to impute our fathers fins to us unto eternal condemnation ; and is it otherwise in this only ? Certainly a man would think this were the more favourable case ; as being a single act , done but once , repented of after it was done , not consented to by the parties interested , not stipulated by God that it should be so , and being against all lawes and all the reason of the world : therefore it were but reason that if any where , here much rather Gods justice and goodness should be relied upon as the measure of the event . * And if in other cases lawes be never given to Ideots and Infants and persons uncapable , why should they be given here ? but if they were not capable of a Law , then neither could they be of Sin ; for where there is no law , there is no transgression . And is it unjust to condemn one man to hell for all the sin of a thousand of his Ancestors actually done by them ? and shall it be accounted just to damn all the world for one sin of one man ? But if it be said , that it is unjust to damn the innocent for the sin of another ; but the world is not innocent , but really guilty in Adam . Besides that this is a begging of the question , it is also against common sense , to say that a man is not innocent of that which was done before he had a being ; for if that be not sufficient , then it is impossible for a man to be innocent . And if this way of answer be admitted , any man may be damned for the sin of any Father ; because it may be said here as well as there , that although the innocent must not perish for anothers fault , yet the son is not innocent as being in his fathers loyns when the fault was committed , and the law cals him and makes him guilty . And if it were so indeed , this were so far from being an excuse , to say that the Law makes him guilty , that this were absolute tyranny , and the thing that were to be complain'd of . I hope , by this time your Lordship perceives , that I have no reason to fear that I praevaricate S. Paul's rule : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . I only endevour to understand S. Paul's words , and I read them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in proportion to , and so as they may not intrench upon the reputation of Gods goodness and justice : that 's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to be wise unto sobriety . But they that do so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as to resolve it to be so whether God be honour'd in it , or dishonour'd , and to answer all arguments , whether they can or cannot be answered , and to efform all their Theology to the ayre of that one great proposition , and to find out waies for God to proceed in , which he hath never told of , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 waies that are crooked and not to be insisted in , waies that are not right , if these men do not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , then I hope I shall have less need to fear that I do , who do none of these things . And in proportion to my security here , I am confident that I am unconcern'd in the consequent threatning . If any man shall Evangelize , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any other doctrine then what ye have received , something for Gospel which is not Gospel , something that ye have not received , let him be accursed . My Lord , if what I teach were not that which we have received , that God is just and righteous and true : that the soul that sins the same shall die : that we shall have no cause to say , The Fathers have eaten sowre grapes , and the childrens teeth are set on edge : that God is a gracious Father , pardoning iniquity , and therefore not exacting it where it is not : that Infants are from their Mothers wombs beloved of God their Father : that of such is the Kingdome of God : that he pities those souls who cannot discern the right hand from the left , as he declar'd in the case of the Ninevites : that to Infants there are special Angels appointed who alwaies behold the face of God : that Christ took them in his arms and blessed them , and therefore they are not hated by God , and accursed heirs of Hell , and coheirs with Satan : that the Messias was promis'd before any children were born ; as certainly as that Adam sin'd before they were born : that if sin abounds , grace does superabound ; and therefore children are with greater effect involv'd in the grace then they could be in the sin : and the sin must be gone before it could do them mischief : if this were not the doctrine of both Testaments , and if the contrary were , then the threatning of S. Paul might well be held up against me : but else my Lord , to shew such a Scorpion to him that speaks the truth of God in sincerity and humility , though it cannot make me to betray the truth and the honour of God , yet the very fear and affrightment which must needs seize upon every good man that does but behold it , or hear the words of that angry voice , shall and hath made me to pray not only that my self be preserved in truth , but that it would please God to bring into the way of truth all such as have erred and are deceived . My Lord , I humbly thank your Lordship for your grave and pious Councel , and kisse the hand that reaches forth so paternal a rod. I see you are tender both of truth and me : and though I have not made this tedious reply to cause trouble to your Lordship , or to steal from you any part of your precious time , yet because I see your Lordship was perswaded induere personam , to give some little countenance to a popular error out of jealousie against a less usual truth , I thought it my duty to represent to your Lordship such things , by which as I can , so I ought to be defended against captious objectors . It is hard when men will not be patient of truth , because another man offers it to them , and they did not first take it in , or if they did , were not pleas'd to own it . But from your Lordship I expect , and am sure to finde the effects of your piety , wisdome and learning , and that an error for being popular shall not prevail against so necessary , though unobserved truth . A necessary truth I call it ; because without this I do not understand how we can declare Gods righteousness and justifie him , with whom unrighteousnesse cannot dwell : But if men of a contrary opinion , can reconcile their usual doctrines of Original Sin with Gods justice , and goodness and truth , I shall be well pleased with it , and think better of their doctrine then now I can . But untill that be done , it were well ( My Lord ) if men would not trouble themselves or the Church with impertinent contradictions ; but patiently give leave to have truth advanced , and God justified in his sayings and in his judgements , and the Church improved , and all errors confuted , that what did so prosperously begin the Reformation , may be admitted to bring it to perfection , that men may no longer go quâ itur , but quâ eundum est . The Bp of Rochester's Letter to Dr. Taylor , with an account of the particulars there given in charge . WORTHY SIR , — Let me request you to weigh that of S. Paul , Ephes. 2. 5. which are urged by some Ancients : and to remember , how often he cals Concupiscence Sin ; whereby it is urg'd that although Baptism take away the guilt as concretively redounding to the person , yet the simple abstracted guilt , as to the Nature remains : for Sacraments are administred to Persons , not to Natures . I confess , I finde not the Fathers so fully , and plainly speaking of Original Sin , till Pelagius had pudled the stream : but , after this , you may finde S. Jerom in Hos. saying , In paradiso omnes praevaricati sunt in Adamo . And S. Ambrose in Rom. 1. 5. Manifestum est omnes peccasse in Adam , quasi in massâ , ex eo igitur cuncti peccatores , quiae ex eo sumus omnes ; and as Greg. 39 Hom. in Ezek. Sine culpâ in mundo esse non potest , qui in mundum cum culpâ venit ; But S. Austin is so frequent , so full and clear in his assertions , that his words & reasons will require your most judicious examinations , and more strict weighing of them ; he saith epist : 107. Scimus secundum Adam nos primâ nativitate contagium mortis contrahere ; nec liberamur à supplicio mortis aeternae nisi per gratiam renascamur in Christo ; Id. de verb. Apost . Ser , 4. peccatum à primo homine in omnes homines pertransiit , etenim illud peccatum non in fonte mansit , sed pertransiit , and Rom. 5. ubi te invenit ? venundatum sub peccato , trahentem peccatum primi hominis , habentem peccatum antequam possis habere arbitrium . Id. de praedestin . & grat . c. 2. Si infans unius diei non sit sine peccato , qui proprium habere non potuit , conficitur , at illud traxerit alienum ; de quo Apost . Per unum hominem peccatum intravit in mundum ; quod qui negat , negat profectò nos esse mortales ; quoniam mors est poena peccati . Sequitur , necesse est , poena peccatum . Id. enchir . c. 9. 29. Sola gratia redemptos discernit à perditis , quos in unam perditionis massam concreverat ab origine ducta communis contagio , Id. de peccator , mer. & remiss . l. 1. c. 3. Concupiscentia carnis peccatum est , quia inest illi inobedientia contra dominatum mentis , Quid potest , aut potuit nasci ex servo , nisi servus ? ideo sicut omnis homo ab Adamo est , ita & omnis homo per Adamum servus est peccati . Rom. 5. Falluntur ergo omnino , qui dicunt mortem solam , non & ●peccatum transiisse in genus . humanum . Prosper . resp . ad articulum Augustino falsò impositum ; Omnes homines praevaricationis reos , & damnationi obnexios nasci periturosque nisi in Christo renascamur , asserimus . Tho. 12. q. 8. Secundum fidem Catholicam tenendum est , quod primum peccatum primi hominis , originaliter transit in posteros , propter quod etiam pueri mox nati deferuntur ad baptismum ab interiore culpâ abluendi . Contrarium est haeresis Pelag. unde peccatum quod sic à primo parente derivatur , dicicitur Originale , sicut peccatum , quod ab animâ derivatur ad membra corporis , dicitur actuale . Bonavent . in 2. sent . dist . 31. Sicut peccatum actuale tribuitur alicui ratione singularis personae : it a peccatum originale tribuitur ratione Naturae ; corpus infectum traducitur , quia persona Adae infecit naturam , & natura infecit personam . Anima enim inficitur à carne per colligantiam , quum unita carni traxit ad se alterius proprietates . Lombar . 2. Sent. dist . 31. Peccatum originale per corruptionem carnis , in animà fit : in vase enim dignoscitur vitium esse , quod vinum accescit . If you take into consideration the Covenant made between Almighty God and Adam as relating to his posterity , it may conduce to the satisfaction of those who urge it for a proof of Original Sin. Now that the work may prosper under your hands to the manifestation of Gods glory , the edification of the Church , and the satisfaction of all good Christians , is the hearty prayer of Your fellow Servant in our most Blessed Lord Christ Jesu . Jo. Roffens . My Lord , I Perceive that you have a great Charity to every one of the sons of the Church , that your Lordship refuses not to sollicite their objections , and to take care that every man be answered that can make objections against my Doctrine ; but as your charity makes you refuse no work or labour of love : so shall my duty and obedience make me ready to perform any commandement that can be relative to so excellent a principle . I am indeed sorry your Lordship is thus haunted with objections about the Question of Original Sin ; but because you are pleas'd to hand them to me , I cannot think them so inconsiderable as in themselves they seem ; for what your Lordship thinks worthy the reporting from others , I must think are fit to be answered and returned by me . In your Lordships of Nevember , 10. these things I am to reply to : Let me request you to weigh that of S. Paul Ephes. 2. 5. The words are these [ Even when we were dead in sins , ( God ) hath quickned us together with Christ ] which words I do not at all suppose relate to the matter of Original Sin , but to the state of Heathen sins , habitual Idolatries and impurities ; in which the world was dead before the great Reformation by Christ. And I do not know any Expositor of note that suspects any other sense of it ; and the second verse of that chapter makes it so certain and plain , that it is too visible to insist upon it longer . But your Lordship addes further . And to remember how often he cals concupiscence Sin ] I know S. Paul reckons Concupiscence to be one of the works of the flesh , and consequently such as excludes from heaven , Col. 3. 5. Evil concupiscence ] concupiscence with something superadded , but certainly that is nothing that is natural ; for God made nothing that is evil , and whatsoever is natural and necessary cannot be mortified ; but this may and must , and the Apostle cals upon us to do it ; but that this is a superinducing , and an actual or habitual lusting appears by the following words , vers . 7. in which ye also walked sometimes when ye lived in them , such a concupiscence as that which is the effect of habitual sins or an estate of sins , of which the Apostle speaks , Rom. 7. 8. Sin taking occasion by the commandement wrought in me all manner of concupiscence ; that is , so great a state of evil , such strong inclinations and desires to sin , that I grew as captive under it ; it introduced a necessity like those in S. Peter , who had eyes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 full of an Adulteress : the women had possessed their eyes , and therefore they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they could not cease from sin : because having 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all concupiscence , that is the very spirit of sinful desires , they could relish nothing but the productions of sin , they could fancy nothing but Colloquintida and Toad-stools of the earth . * Once more I finde S. Paul speaking of Concupiscence , 1 Thess. 4. 5. Let every man knew to possess his vessel in holiness and honour , not in the lust of concupiscence , as do the Gentiles which know not God. In the lust of Concupiscence , that is plainly in lustfulness and impurity : for it is a Hebraism , where a superlative is usually expressed by the synonymon : as Lutum coeni ; pluvia imbris ; so the Gall of bitterness and the iniquity of sins ; Robur virium ; the blackness of darkness , that is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the outer darkness , or the greatest darkness : so here the lust of Concupiscence , that is , the vilest and basest of it . I know no where else that the Apostle uses the word in any sense . But the like is to be said of the word lust , which the Apostle often uses , for the habits produced or the pregnant desires , but never for the natural principle and affection , when he speaks of sin . But your Lordship is pleased to adde a subtlety in pursuance of your former advices and notices , which I confess I shall never understand . Although Baptism take away the guilt as concretively redoundding to the person , yet the simple abstracted guilt as to the Nature remains ; for Sacraments are administred to persons , not to natures ] Thus I suppose those persons from whom your Lordship reports it , intended as an answer to a secret objection . For if Concupiscence be a sin , and yet remains after baptism , then what good does Baptism effect ? But if it be no sin after , then it is no sin before . To this it is answered as you see : there is a double guilt ; a guilt of person , and of nature . That is taken away , this is not : for , Sacraments are given to Persons , not to Natures . But first , where is there such a distinction set down in Scripture , or in the prime antiquity , or in any moral Philosopher ? There is no humane nature but what is in the persons of men ; and though our understanding can make a separate consideration of these , or rather consider a person in a double capacity , in his personal and in his natural , that is ( if I am to speak sense ) a person may be considered in that which is proper to him , and in that which is common to him and others ; yet these two considerations cannot make two distinct subjects capable of such different events . I will put it to the trial . This guilt that is in nature , what is it ? Is it the same thing that was in the person ? that is , is it an obligation to punishment ? If it be not , I know not the meaning of the word , and therefore I have nothing to do with it . If it be , then if this guilt or obligation to punishment remains in the nature after it is taken from the person , then if this concupiscence deserve damnation , this nature shall be damned , though the person be saved . Let the Objectors , my Lord , choose which they will. If it does not deserve damnation , why do they say it does ? If it does , then the guilty may suffer what they deserve , but the innocent or the absolved must not ; the person then being acquitted , and the nature not acquitted , the nature shall be damn'd and the person be saved . But if it be said that the guilt remains in the nature to certain purposes , but not to all ; then I reply , so it does in the person ; for it is in the person after Baptism , so as to be a perpetual possibility and proneness to sin , and a principle of trouble ; and if it be no otherwise in the nature , then this distinction is to no purpose ; if it be otherwise in the nature , then it brings damnation to it , when it brings none to the Man , and then the former argument must return . But whether it prevail or no , yet I cannot but note , that what is here affirmed is expresly against the words commonly attributed to S. Cyprian ( De ablutione pedum ) Sic abluit quos parentalis labes infecerat , ut nec actualis nec Originalis macula post ablutionem illam ulla sui vestigia derelinguat : How this supposing it of Baptism can be reconcil'd with the guilt remaining in the nature , I confess I cannot give an account . It is expresly against S. Austin ( Tom. 9. Tract . 41. in Johan . epist. ad Ocean . ) saying , deleta est tota iniquitas ! expresly against S. Hierom , Quo●odo justificati sumus & sanctificati , si peccatum aliquid in nobis relinquitur ? But again ( My Lord ) I did suppose that Concupiscence or Original Sin had been founded in nature , and had not been a personal but a natural evil . I am sure , so the Article of our Church affirms ; it is the fault and corruption of our Nature . And so S. Bonaventure affirms in the wo●ds cited by your Lordship in your Letter : Sicui peccatum actuale tribuitur alicui ratione singularis persona : ita peccatum origiuis tribuitur ratione naturae . Either then the Sacrament must have effect upon our Nature , to purifie that which is vitiated by Concupiscence , or else it does no good at all . For if the guilt or sin be founded in the nature , ( as the Article affirms ) and Baptism does not take off the guilt from the nature , then it does nothing . Now since your Lordship is pleas'd in the behalf of the objectors so warily to avoid what they thought pressing , I will take leave to use the advantages it ministers : for so the Serpent teaches us where to strike him , by his so warily and guiltily defending his head . I therefore argue thus . Either Baptism does not take off the guilt of Original Sin , or else there may be punishment where there is no guilt , or else natural death was not it which God threatned as the punishment of Adam's fact . For it is certain , that all men die as well after baptism as before ; and more after then before . That which would be properly the consequent of this Dilemma , is this , that when God threatned death to Adam , saying , On the day thou eatest of the tree thou shalt die the death , he inflicted and intended to inflict the evils of a troublesome mortal life . For Adam did not die that day , but Adam began to be miserable that day , to live upon hard labour , to eat fruits from an accursed field , till he should return to the earth whence he was taken . ( Gen. 3. 17 , 18 , 19. ) So that death in the common sense of the word was to be the end of his labour , not so much the punishment of the sin . For it is probable he should have gone off from the scene of this world to a better , though he had not sin'd ; but if he had not sin'd , he should not be so afflicted , and he should not have died daily till he had died finally , that is , till he had returned to his dust whence he was taken , and whither he would naturally have gone : and it is no new thing in Scripture that miseries and infelicities should be called dying or death . ( Exod. 10. 17. 1 Cor. 15. 31. 2 Cor. 1. 10. & 4. 10 , 11 , 12. & 11. 23. ) . But I only note this as probable ; as not being willing to admit what the Socinians answer in this argument ; who affirm that God threatning death to the Sin of Adam , meant death eternal : which is certainly not true ; as we learn from the words of the Apostle , saying , In Adam we all die ; which is not true of death eternal , but it is true of the miseries and calamities of mankinde , and it is true of temporal death in the sense now explicated , and in that which is commonly received . But I add also this probleme . That which would have been , had there been no sin , and that which remains when the sin or guiltiness is gone , is not properly the punishment of the sin . But dissolution of the soul and body should have been , if Adam had not sin'd , for the world would have been too little to have entertain'd those myriads of men which must in all reason have been born from that blessing of Increase and multiply , which was given at the first Creation ; and to have confin'd mankinde to the pleasures of this world , in case he had not fallen , would have been a punishment of his innocence ; but however , it might have been , though God had not been angry , and shall still be , even when the sin is taken off . The proper consequent of this will be , that when the Apostle sayes , Death came in by sin , and that Death is the wages of sin , he primarily and literally means the solemnities , and causes , and infelicities , and untimeliness of temporal death , and not meerly the dissolution , which is directly no evil , but an inlet to a better state . But I insist not on this , but offer it to the consideration of inquisitive and modest persons . And now that I may return thither from whence this objection brought me ; I consider , that if any should urge this argument to me : Baptism delivers from Original Sin. Baptism does not deliver from Concupiscence ; therefore Concupiscence is not Original Sin. I did not know well what to answer ; I could possibly say something to satisfie the boyes & young men at a publique disputation , but not to satisfie my self when I am upon my knees and giving an account to God of all my secret and hearty perswasions . But I consider , that by Concupiscence must be meant either the first inclinations to their object ; or the proper acts of Election which are the second acts of Concupiscence . If the first inclinations be meant , then certainly that cannot be a sin which is natural , and which is necessary . For I consider that Concupiscence and natural desires are like hunger ; which while it is natural and necessary , is not for the destruction but conservation of man ; when it goes beyond the limits of nature , it is violent and a disease : and so is Concupiscence ; But desires or lustings when they are taken for the natural propensity to their proper object , are so far from being a sin , that they are the instruments of felicity for this duration , and when they grow towards being irregular , they may , if we please , grow instruments of felicity in order to the other duration , because they may serve a vertue by being restrained ; And to desire that to which all men tend naturally , is no more a sin then to desire to be happy is a sin : desire is no more a sin then joy or sorrow is : neither can it be fancied why one passion more then another can be in its whole nature Criminal ; either all or none are so ; when any of them growes irregular or inordinate , Joy is as bad as Desire , and Fear as bad as either . But if by Concupiscence we mean the second acts of it , that is , avoidable consentings , and deliberate elections , then let it be as much condemned as the Apostle and all the Church after him hath sentenc'd it ; but then it is not Adam's sin , but our own by which we are condemned ; for it is not his fault that we choose ; If we choose , it is our own ; if we choose not , it is no fault . For there is a natural act of the Will as well as of the Understanding , and in the choice of the supreme Good , and in the first apprehension of its proper object , the Will is as natural as any other faculty ; and the other faculties have degrees of adherence as well as the Will : so have the potestative and intellective faculties ; they are delighted in their best objects . But because these only are natural , and the will is natural sometimes , but not alwaies , there it is that a difference can be . For I consider , if the first Concupiscence be a sin , Original Sin , ( for actual it is not ) and that this is properly , personally , and inherently our sin by traduction , that is , if our will be necessitated to sin by Adam's fall , as it must needs be if it can sin when it cannot deliberate , then there can be no reason told , why it is more a sin to will evil , then to understand it : and how does that which is moral differ from that which is natural ? for the understanding is first and primely moved by its object , and in that motion by nothing else but by God , who moves all things : and if that which hath nothing else to move it but the object , yet is not free ; it is strange that the will can in any sense be free , when it is necessitated by wisdome and by power , and by Adam , that is , from within and from without , besides what God and violence do and can do . But in this I have not only Scripture and all the reason of the world on my side , but the complying sentences of the most eminent writers of the Primitive Church ; I need not trouble my self with citations of many of them , since Calvin ( lib. 3. Instit. c. 3. § 10. ) confesses that S. Austin hath collected their testimonies and is of their opinion , that Concupiscence is not a sin , but an infirmity only . But I will here set down the words of S. Chrysostome ( Homil. 13. in epist. Rom. ) because they are very clear ; Ipsae passiones in se peccatum non sunt Effraenata verò ipsarum immoderantia peccatum operata est . Concupiscentia quidem peccatum non est quando verò egressa modum foras eruperit , tunc demum adulterium fit , non à concupiscentia sed à nimio & illicito illius luxu . By the way I cannot but wonder why men are pleased , where ever they finde the word Concupiscence in the New Testament , presently to dream of Original Sin , and make that to be the sum total of it ; whereas Concupiscence if it were the product of Adam's fall , is but one small part of it ; [ Et ut exempli gratia unam illarum tractem ] said S. Chrysostome in the forecited place ; Concupiscence is but one of the passions , and in the utmost extension of the word , it can be taken but for one half of the passion ; for not only all the passions of the Concupiscible faculty can be a principle of sin , but the Irascible does more hurt in the world ; that is more sensual , this is more devillish . The reason why I note this , is because upon this account it will seem , that concupiscence is no more to be called a sin then anger is , and as S. Paul said , Be angry , but sin not ; so he might have said , Desire , or lust , but sin not . For there are some lustings and desires without sin , as well as some Anger 's ; and that which is indifferent to vertue and vice , cannot of it self be a vice ; To which I add , that if Concupiscence taken for all desires be a sin , then so are all the passions of the Irascible faculty . Why one more then the other is not to be told , but that Anger in the first motions is not a sin , appears , because it is not alwaies sinful in the second ; a man may be actually angry , and yet really innocent : and so he may be lustful and full of desire , and yet he may be not only that which is good , or he may overcome his desires to that which is bad . I have now considered what your Lordship received from others , and gave me in charge your self , concerning concupiscence . Your next charge is concerning Antiquity , intimating that although the first antiquity is not clearly against me , yet the second is . For thus your Lordship is pleased to write their objection [ I confess I finde not the Fathers so fully and plainly speaking of Original Sin , till Pelagius had pudled the stream ; but after this you may finde S. Jerom &c. ] That the Fathers of the first 400 years did speak plainly and fully of it , is so evident as nothing more , and I appeal to their testimonies as they are set down in the papers annexed in their proper place ; and therefore that must needs be one of the little arts by which some men use to escape from the pressure of that authority , by which because they would have other men concluded , sometimes upon strict inquiry they finde themselves entangled . Original Sin as it is at this day commonly explicated , was not the Doctrine of the primitive Church ; but when Pelagius had pudled the stream , S. Austin was so angry that he stampt and disturb'd it more : and truly my Lord , I do not think that the Gentlemen that urg'd against me S. Austin's opinion , do well consider that I profess my self to follow those fathers who were before him ; and whom S. Austin did forsake as I do him in the question . They may as well press me with his authority in the Article of the damnation of Infants dying unbaptized , or of absolute predestination . In which Article , S. Austin's words are equally urged by the Jansenists and Molinists , by the Remonstrants and Contra-remonstrants , and they can serve both , and therefore cannot determine me . But then ( My Lord ) let it be remembred , that they are as much against S. Chrysostome as I am against S. Austin , with this only difference ; that S. Chrysostome speaks constantly in the argument , which S. Austin did not , and particularly in that part of it which concerns Concupiscence . For in the inquiry , whether it be a sin or no ; he speaks so variously , that though Calvin complains of him , that he cals it only an infirmity , yet he also brings testimonies from him to prove it to be a sin , and let any man try if he can tie these words together . ( De peccator . mer. et remission l. 1. c. 3. ) Concupiscentia carnis peccatum est , quia inest illi inobedientia contra dominatum mentis . Which are the words your Lordship quotes : Concupiscence is a sin because it is a disobedience to the Empire of the spirit . But yet in another place ; ( lib. 1. de civit . Dei cap. 25. ) Illa Concupiscentialis inobedientia quanto magis absque culpa est in corpore non consentientis , si absque culpa est in corpore dormientis ? It is a sin and it is no sin , it is criminal , but is without fault ; it is culpable because it is a disobedience , and yet this disobedience without actual consent is not culpable . If I do beleeve S. Austin , I must disbeleeve him ; and which part soever I take , I shall be reproved by the same authority . But when the Fathers are divided from each other , or themselves , it is indifferent to follow either ; but when any of them are divided from reason and Scripture , then it is not indifferent for us to follow them , and neglect these ; and yet if these who object S. Austin's authority to my Doctrine , will be content to subject to all that he saies , I am content they shall follow him in this too , provided that they will give me my liberty because I will not be tied to him that speaks contrary things to himself , and contrary to them that went before him ; and though he was a rare person , yet he was as fallible as any of my brethren at this day . He was followed by many ignorant ages , and all the world knowes by what accidental advantages he acquired a great reputation : but he who made no scruple of deserting all his predecessors , must give us leave upon the strength of his own reasons to quit his authority . All that I shall observe is this , that the Doctrine of Original Sin as it is explicated by S. Austin , had two parents ; one was the Doctrine of the Encratites , and some other Hereticks , who forbad Marriage , and supposing it to be evill , thought they were warranted to say , it was the bed of sin , and children the spawn of vipers and sinners . And S. Austin himself , and especially S. Hierom ( whom your Lordship cites ) speaks some things of marriage , which if they were true , then marriage were highly to be refused , as being the increaser of sin rather then of children , and a semination in the flesh , and contrary to the spirit , and such a thing which being mingled with sin , produces univocal issues , the mother and the daughter are so like that they are the worse again . For if a proper inherent sin be effected by chaste marriages , then they are in this particular equal to adulterous embraces , and rather to be pardoned then allowed ; and if all Concupiscence be vicious , then no marriage can be pure . These things it may be have not been so much considered , but your Lordship I know remembers strange sayings in S. Hierom , in Athenag or as , and in S. Austin , which possibly have been countenanced and maintained at the charge of this opinion . But the other parent of this is the zeal against the Pelagian Heresie , which did serve it self by saying too little in this Article , and therefore was thought fit to be confuted by saying too much ; and that I conjecture right in this affair , I appeal to the words which I cited out of S. Austin in the matter of Concupiscence ; concerning which he speaks the same thing that I do , when he is disingaged ; as in his books De eivitate Dei : but in his Tractate de peccatorum meritis & remissione , which was written in his heat against the Pelagians he speaks quite contrary . And who ever shall with observation read his one book of Original Sin against Pelagius , his two books de Nuptiis & Concupiscentia to Valerius , his three books to Marcellinus , de peccatorum meritis & remissione , his four books to Boniface , contra duas epistolas Pelagianorum , his six books to Claudius against Julianus , and shall think himself bound to beleeve all that this excellent man wrote , will not only finde it impossible he should , but will have reason to say , that zeal against an error is not alwaies the best instrument to finde our truth . The same complaint hath been made of others ; and S. Jerome hath suffer'd deeply in the infirmity . I shall not therefore trouble your Lordship with giving particular answers to the words of S. Jerom and S. Ambrose , because ( besides what I have already said ) I do not think that their words are an argument fit to conclude against so much evidence , nor against a much less then that which I have every where brought in this Article , though indeed their words are capable of a fair interpretation , and besides the words quoted out of S. Ambrose are none of his ; and for Aquinas , Lombard , and Bonaventure , your Lordship might as well press me with the opinion of Mr. Calvin , Knox and Buchannan , with the Synod of Dort , or the Scots Presbyteries : I know they are against me , and therefore I reprove them for it , but it is no disparagement to the truth , that other men are in error . And yet of all the Schoolmen , Bonaventure should least have been urg'd against me , for the proverbs sake : for , Adam non peccavit in Bonaventura ; Alexander of Hales would often say , that Adam never sin'd in Bonaventure . But it may be he was not in earnest : no more am I. The last thing your Lordship gives to me in charge in the behalf of the objectors , is that I would take into consideration the Covenant made between Almighty God and Adam , as relating to his posterity . To this I answer , that I know of no such thing ; God made a covenant with Adam indeed , and us'd the right of his dominion over his posterity , and yet did nothing but what was just ; but I finde in Scripture no mention made of any such Covenant as is dreamt of about the matter of original sin : only the Covenant of works God did make with all men till Christ came ; but he did never exact it after Adam ; but for a Covenant that God should make with Adam , that if he stood , all his posterity should be I know not what ; and if he fell , they should be in a damnable condition , of this ( I say ) there is nec vola nec vestigium in holy Scripture , that ever I could meet with : if there had been any such covenant , it had been but equity that to all the persons interessed it should have been communicated , and caution given to all who were to suffer , and abilities given to them to prevent the evil : for else it is not a Covenant with them , but a decree concerning them ; and it is impossible that there should be a covenant made between two , when one of the parties knowes nothing of it . I will enter no further into this enquiry , but only observe , that though there was no such covenant , yet the event that hapned might without any such covenant have justly entred in at many doors . It is one thing to say that God by Adam's sin was moved to a severer entercourse with his posterity , for that is certainly true ; and it is another thing to say that Adam's sin of it self did deserve all the evill that came actually upon his children ; Death is the wages of sin , one death for one sin ; but not 10000 millions for one sin ; but therefore the Apostle affirms it to have descended on all , in as much as all men have sin'd , But if from a sinning Parent a good childe descends ; the childs innocence will more prevail with God for kindness , then the fathers sin shall prevail for trouble . Non omnia parentum peccata dii in liberos convertunt , sed siquis de malo nascitur bonus , tanquam benè affectus , corpore natus de morboso , is generis pana liberatur , tanquam ex improbitatis domo , in aliam famil●am datus : qui vero morbo in similitudinem generis refertur atque redigitur vitiosi , ei nimirum convenit tanquam haeredi debitas poeas vitii persolvere , said Plutarch ( De iis qui sero à Numine puniuntur . ex interpr . Cluserii . ) God does not alwaies make the fathers sins descend upon the children . But if a good childe is born of a bad father , like a healthful body from an ill affected one , he is freed from the punishment of his stock , and passes from the house of wickedness into another family . But he who inherits the disease , he also must be heir of the punishment ; Quorum natura amplexa est cognatam malitiam , hos Justitia similitudinem pravitatis persequens supplicio affecit , if they pursue their kindreds wickedness , they shall be pursued by a cognation of judgement . Other waies there are by which it may come to pass that the sins of others may descend upon us . He that is author or the perswader , the minister or the helper , the approver or the follower , may derive the sins of others to himself , but then it is not their sins only , but our own too , and it is like a dead taper put to a burning light and held there , this derives light and flames from the other , and yet then hath it of its own , but they dwell together and make one body . These are the waies by which punishment can enter , but there are evils which are no punishments , and they may come upon more accounts , by Gods Dominion , by natural consequence , by infection , by destitution and dereliction , for the glory of God , by right of authority , for the institution or exercise of the sufferers , or for their more immediate good . But that directly and properly one should be punish'd for the sins of others was indeed practised by some Common-wealths ; Utilitatis specie saepissimè in repub . peccari , said Cicero , they do it sometimes for terror , and because their waies of preventing evil is very imperfect : and when Pedianus secundus the Pretor was kill'd by a slave , all the family of them was kill'd in punishment ; this was secundum veterem morem said Tacit. ( Annal. 14. ) for in the slaughter of Marcellus the slaves fled for fear of such usage ; it was thus , I say , among the Romans , but habuit aliquid iniqui , and God forbid we should say such things of the fountain of Justice and mercy . But I have done , and will move no more stones , but hereafter carry them as long as I can , rather then make a noise by throwing them down ; I shall only add this one thing : I was troubled with an objection lately ; for it being propounded to me , why it is to be beleeved that the sin of Adam could spoil the nature of man , and yet the nature of Devils could not be spoiled by their sin which was worse ; I could not well tell what to say , and therefore I held my peace . THE END . An Advertisement to the Reader . PAg. 8 , & 9 there are seven lines misplaced , which are to be read thus : pag. 8. lin . 16. read , till the body was grown up to strength enough to infect it ] [ and in the whole process it must be an impossible thing , because the instrument which hath all its operations by the force of the principal agent , cannot of it self produce a great change and violent effect upon the principal agent ] Besides all this , ( I say ) while one does not know how Original Sin can be derived , and another who thinks he can , names a wrong way , and both the waies infer it to be another kinde of thing then all the Schools of learning teach : does it not too clearly demonstrate , — The names of several Treatises and Sermons written by Jer. Taylor D.D. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a Course of Sermons for all the Sundaies in the year , together with a Discourse of the Divine Institution , Necessity and Separation of the Office Ministerial , in fol. 2. Episcopacy asserted , in 4. 3. The History of the Life and Death of the Ever-blessed Jesus Christ , 2. Edit . in fol. 4. The Liberty of Prophesying , in 4. 5. An Apologie for authorised and Set-formes of Liturgie , in 4. 6. The Rule and Exercises of holy living , in 12. 7. The Rule and Exercises of holy dying , in 12. 8. The Golden Grove , or , A Manual of daily Prayers fitted to the daies of the week , together with a short Method of Peace and Holiness . 9. The Doctrine an practice of repentance rescued from popular Errors , in a large 8. Newly published . Books written by H. Hammond . D. D. A Paraphrase and Annotations upon all the Books of the New Test. by H. Hammond D.D. in fol. 2. The Practical Catechism , with all other English Treatises of H. Hammond , D. D. in two volumes in 4. 3. Dissertions quatuor , quibus Episcopatus Jura ex S. Scripturis & primaeva Antiquitate adstruuntur , contra sententiam D. Blondelli & aliorum . Authore Henrico Hammond , in 4. 4. A Letter of Resolution of six Queries , in 12. 5. Of Schism . A Defence of the Church of England , against the Exceptions of the Romanists , in 12. 6. Of Fundamentals in a notion referring to practice , by H. Hammond D. D. in 12. 7. Six books of late Controversie in defence of the Church of England , in two volumes in 4. newly published . Books newly published . Doctor Cousins Devotions , in 12. The persecuted Ministery , by William Langley late of St. Maries in the City of Liechfield , Minister , in 4. A Discourse of Auxiliary Beauty , or Artificial Handsomenesse . In point of Conscience between two Ladies , in 8. Lyford's Legacy ; or , an help to young People . Preparing them for the worthy receiving of the Lords Supper , in 12. The Principles of Holy Christian Religion : or the Catechism of the Church of England paraphrazed . By R. Sherlock B. D. at Borwick Hall in Lancashire . in 8. A Discourse 1. Of the Holy Spirit of God , His Impressions and workings on the Souls of Men. 2. Of Divine Revelation , Mediate and Immediate . 3. Of Error , Heresie , and Schism : the Nature , Kindes , Causes , Reasons , and Dangers thereof : with directions for avoiding the same . By R. Sherlock , B. D. in 4. THE END . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A63754-e590 Sueton. in vita . liber . c . 54. Instit. l. 3. c. 23. Sect. 7. Vind. Grat. l. 1. p. 1. digres . 4. c. 3. Disp. 18. Inst. lib. 3. cap. 23. Sect. 23. Lib. 1. ad Bonifac. c. 2 . Doctr. and Pract. of Repent . Plinius . ep . 12.lib . Psal. 56. by Bp. King. Boeth . lib. 3. Metr . 1. 1 Kings . 1. 21. Zech. 14. 19. 2 Cor. 5. 21. Isai. 53. 10. Hebr. 9. 28. 1 Kings . 1. 21. Rom. 5. 12. As by one man sinne entred into the world , and Death by sin : and so death passed upon all men , for that all have sinned . 13. For untill the law , sin was in the World , but sin is not imputed where there is no law . 14. Neverthelesse death reigned from Adam to Moses , even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression , who is the figure of him which was to come . 15. But not as the offence , so also is the free gift : for if through the offence of one many be dead much more the grace of God , & the gift by grace , which is by one man Jesus Christ hath abounded unto many . 16. And not as it was by one that sinned , so is the gift ; for the judgement was by one to condemnation , but the free gift is of many offences unto justification 17. For if by one offence [ so it is in the Kings MS. or , ] if by one mans offence death reigned by one , much more they which receive abundance of grace , and of the gift of righteousnesse , shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ. 18. Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation : even so by the righteousnesse of one , the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life . 19. For as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners : so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous . 
A64132	----	A sermon preached in Christs-Church, Dublin, July 16, 1663, at the funeral of the most Reverend Father in God John, late Lord Archbishop of Armagh and primate of all Ireland with a succint narrative of his whole life / by the Right Reverend Father in God Jeremy, Lord Bishop of Down and Connor. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. 1663 Approx. 86 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 35 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2003-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A64132 Wing T396 ESTC R11878 13574860 ocm 13574860 100417 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A64132) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 100417) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 804:7) A sermon preached in Christs-Church, Dublin, July 16, 1663, at the funeral of the most Reverend Father in God John, late Lord Archbishop of Armagh and primate of all Ireland with a succint narrative of his whole life / by the Right Reverend Father in God Jeremy, Lord Bishop of Down and Connor. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. The third edition enlarged. [3], 66 p. Printed by J.G. for Richard Royston ..., London : 1663. Caption title: A sermon preached at the funeral of the Lord Primate. Reproduction of original in Huntington Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. 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Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Bramhall, John, 1594-1663 -- Sermons. Church of England -- Sermons. Funeral sermons. Sermons, English -- 17th century. 2000-00 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2001-11 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2002-02 TCP Staff (Oxford) Sampled and proofread 2002-02 TCP Staff (Oxford) Text and markup reviewed and edited 2002-03 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion Imprimatur , Sept. 21.1663 . M. FRANCK , S.T.D. R sso . in X te . P. ac D no. D. GILB . Archiep. Cant. à Sacris Dom. A SERMON Preached in Christs-Church Dublin , Iuly 16. 1663. AT THE FUNERAL Of the most Reverend Father in God , IOHN , Late Lord Archbishop of Armagh , and Primate of all Ireland : WITH A succinct Narrative of his whole Life . The third Edition , enlarged . By the Right Reverend Father in God , JEREMY , Lord Bishop of Down and Connor . LONDON : Printed by I. G. for Richard Royston , Bookseller to the Kings most Excellent Majesty , 1663. 1 Cor. 15. 23. But every Man in his own order : Christ the first fruits ; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming . THe Condition of Man in this world is so limited and depressed , so relative and imperfect , that the best things he does he does weakly , and the best things he hath are imperfections in their very constitution . I need not tell how little it is that we know ; the greatest indication of this is , That we can never tell how many things we know not : and we may soon span our own Knowledge , but our Ignorance we can never fathom . Our very Will , in which Mankind pretends to be most noble and imperial , is a direct state of imperfection ; and our very liberty of Chusing good and evil is permitted to us , not to make us proud , but to make us humble ; for it supposes weakness of Reason and weakness of Love. For if we understood all the degrees of Amability in the Service of God , or if we had such love to God as he deserves , and so perfect a conviction as were fit for his Services , we could no more Deliberate : For Liberty of Will is like the motion of a Magnetick Needle toward the North , full of trembling and uncertainty till it were fixed in the beloved Point ; it wavers as long as it is free , and is at rest when it can chuse no more . And truly what is the hope of Man ? It is indeed the resurrection of the Soul in this world from sorrow and her saddest pressures , and like the Twilight to the Day , and the Harbinger of joy ; but still it is but a conjugation of Infirmities , and proclaims our present calamity , onely because it is uneasie here , it thrusts us forwards toward the light and glories of the Resurrection . For as a Worm creeping with her belly on the ground , with her portion and share of Adam's curse , lifts up its head to partake a little of the blessings of the air , and opens the junctures of her imperfect body , and curles her little rings into knots and combinations , drawing up her tail to a neighbourhood of the heads pleasure and motion ; but still it must return to abide the fate of its own nature , and dwell and sleep upon the dust : So are the hopes of a mortal Man ; he opens his eyes and looks upon fine things at distance , and shuts them again with weakness , because they are too glorious to behold ; and the Man rejoyces because he hopes fine things are staying for him ; but his heart akes , because he knows there are a thousand wayes to fail and miss of those glories ; & though he hopes , yet he enjoys not ; he longs , but he possesses not , and must be content with his portion of dust ; and being a worm and no Man must lie down in this portion , before he can receive the end of his hopes , the Salvation of his Soul in the resurrection of the dead . For as Death is the end of our lives , so is the Resurrection the end of our hopes ; and as we die daily , so we daily hope : but Death , which is the end of our life , is the enlargement of our Spirits from hope to certainty , from uncertain fears to certain expectations , from the death of the body to the life of the soul ; that is , to partake of the light and life of Christ , to rise to life as he did ; for his Resurrection is the beginning of ours : He died for us alone , not for himself ; but he rose again for himself and us too . So that if he did rise , so shall we ; the Resurrection shall be universal ; good and bad ; all shall rise , but not altogether . First Christ , then we that are Christs ; and yet there is a third Resurrection , though not spoken of here ; but thus it shall be . The dead in Christ shall rise first ; that is , next to Christ ; and after them the wicked shall rise to condemnation . So that you see here is the summe of affairs treated of in my Text : Not whether it be lawful to eat a Tortoise or a Mushrome , or to tread with the foot bare upon the ground within the Octaves of Easter . It is not here inquired whether Angels be material or immaterial ; or whether the dwellings of dead Infants be within the Air or in the regions of the Earth ; the inquiry here is whether we are to be Christians or no ? whether we are to live good lives or no ? or whether it be permitted to us to live with Lust or Covetousness acted with all the daughters of rapine and ambition ? whether there be any such thing as sin , any judicatory for Consciences , any rewards of Piety , any difference of Good and Bad , any rewards after this life ? This is the design of these words by proper interpretation : for if Men shall die like Dogs and sheep , they will certainly live like Wolves and Foxes : but he that believes the Article of the Resurrection , hath entertained the greatest Demonstration in the world , That nothing can make us happy but the Knowledge of God , and Conformity to the life and death of the holy Jesus . Here therefore are the great Hinges of all Religion : 1. Christ is already risen from the dead . 2. We also shall rise in Gods time and our order . Christ is the first fruits . But there shall be a full harvest of the Resurrection , and all shall rise . My Text speaks onely of the Resurrection of the just , of them that belong to Christ ; explicitely I say of these ; and therefore directly of Resurrection to life eternal . But because he also sayes there shall be an order for every man ; and yet every man does not belong to Christ ; therefore indirectly also he implies the more universal Resurrection unto judgment . But this shall be the last thing that shall be done ; for , according to the Proverb of the Jews , Michael flies but with one wing , and Gabriel with two ; God is quick in sending Angels of peace , and they flye apace ; but the messengers of wrath come slowly : God is more hasty to glorifie his servants then to condemn the wicked . And therefore in the story of Dives and Lazarus we find that the beggar died first ; the good man Lazarus was first taken away from his misery to his comfort , and afterwards the rich man died : and as the good many times die first , so all of them rise first , as if it were a matter of haste : And as the mothers breasts swell and shoot and long to give food to her babe ; so Gods bowels did yearn over his banish'd children , and he longs to cause them to eat and drink in his Kingdom . And at last the wicked shall rise unto condemnation , for that must be done too ; every man in his own order : first Christ , then Christs servants , and at last Christs enemies . The first of these is the great ground of our faith , the second is the consummation of all our hopes : the first is the foundation of God that stands sure , the second is that superstructure that shall never perish : by the first we believe in God unto righteousness , by the second we live in God unto salvation : But the third , for that also is true & must be consider'd , is the great affrightment of all them that live ungodly . But in the whole Christs Resurrection and ours is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a Christian ; that as Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to day , and the same for ever ; so may we in Christ , become in the morrow of the Resurrection the same or better then yesterday in our natural life ; the same body and the same soul tied together in the same essential union , with this onely difference , that not Nature but Grace and Glory with an Hermetick seal give us a new signature , whereby we shall no more be changed , but like unto Christ our head we shall become the same for ever . Of these I shall discourse in order . 1. That Christ , who is the first fruits , is the first in this order : he is already risen from the dead . 2. We shall all take our turns , we shall all die , and as sure as death we shall all rise again . And 3. This very order is effective of the thing it self . That Christ is first risen , is the demonstration and certainty of ours , for because there is an order in this oeconomy , the first in the kind is the measure of the rest . If Christ be the first fruits , we are the whole vintage , and we shall all die in the order of Nature , and shall rise again in the order of Christ : They that are Christ's , and are found so at his coming , shall partake of his resurrection . But Christ first , then they that are Christ's : that 's the order . 1. Christ is the first fruits ; he is already risen from the dead . For he alone could not be held by death . Free among the dead . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; Death was Sins eldest daughter , and the Grave-clothes were her first mantle ; but Christ was conquerour over both , and came to take that away , and to disarm this . This was a glory fit for the head of mankind , but it was too great and too good to be easily believ'd by incredulous and weak-hearted Man. It was at first doubted of by all that were concerned ; but they that saw it had no reason to doubt any longer . But what 's that to us who saw it not ? Yes , very much . Valde dubitatum est ab illis , ne dubitaretur à nobis , saith S. Augustine . They doubted very much , that by their confirmation we might be established and doubt no more . Mary Magdalene saw him first , and she ran with joy and said she had seen the Lord , and that he was risen from the dead ; but they believed her not . After that divers women together saw him , and they told it , but had no thanks for their pains , and obtain'd no credit among the Disciples . The two Disciples that went to Emaus saw him , talk'd with him , eat with him , and they ran and told it : they told true , but no body believ'd them . Then S. Peter saw him , but he was not yet got into the Chair of the Catholick Church , they did not think him infallible , and so they believ'd him not at all . Five times in one day he appear'd ; for after all this he appear'd to the Eleven ; they were indeed transported with joy and wonder , but they would scarce believe their own eyes , and though they saw him they doubted . Well , all this was not enough ; he was seen also of Iames , and suffered Thomas to thrust his hand into his side , and appeared to S. Paul , and was seen by five hundred brethren at once . So that there is no capacity of mankind , no time , no place , but had an ocular demonstration of his Resurrection . He appeared to Men and Women , to the Clergy and the Laity , to sinners of both sexes ; to weak men and to criminals , to doubters and deniers , at home and abroad , in publick and in private , in their houses and their journeys , unexpected and by appointment , betimes in the morning and late at night , to them in conjunction and to them in dispersion , when they did look for him and when they did not ; he appeared upon earth to many , and to S. Paul and S. Stephen from heaven . So that we can require no greater testimony then all these are able to give us , and they saw for themselves and for us too , that the Faith and certainty of the Resurrection of Iesus might be conveyed to all that shall die and follow Christ in their own order . Now this being matter of fact , cannot be suppos'd infinite , but limited to time and place , and therefore to be prov'd by them who at that time were upon the place ; good men and true , simple and yet losers by the bargain , many and united , confident and constant , preaching it all their life , and stoutly maintaining it at their death . Men that would not deceive others , and Men that could not be deceiv'd themselves in a matter so notorious and so prov'd , and so seen : and if this be not sufficient credibility in a matter of Fact as this was , then we can have no story credibly transmitted to us , no Records kept , no Acts of Courts , no narratives of the dayes of old , no traditions of our Fathers , no memorials of them in the third generation . Nay , if from these we have not sufficient causes and arguments of Faith , how shall we be able to know the will of Heaven upon Earth ? unless God do not only tell it once , but alwayes , and not only alwayes to some Men , but alwayes to all Men : for if some Men must believe others , they can never do it in any thing more reasonably than in this ; and if we may not trust them in this , then without a perpetual miracle , no Man could have Faith : for Faith could never come by hearing ; by nothing but by seeing . But if there be any use of History , any Faith in Men , any honesty in manners , any truth in humane entercourse ; if there be any use of Apostles or Teachers , of Embassadors , or Letters , of ears or hearing ; if there be any such thing as the Grace of Faith , that is less than demonstration or intuition , then we may be as sure that Christ the first Fruits is already risen , as all these credibilities can make us . But let us take heed ; as God hates a lie , so he hates incredulity ; an obstinate , a foolish and pertinacious understanding . What we do every minute of our lives in matters of title and great concernment , if we refuse to do it in Religion , which yet is to be conducted as all humane affairs are , by humane instruments and arguments of perswasion proper to the nature of the thing , it is an obstinacy as cross to humane reason , as it is to Divine Faith. But this Article was so clearly prov'd , that presently it came to pass that Men were no longer asham'd of the Cross , but it was worn upon breasts , printed in the air , drawn upon foreheads , carried upon Banners , put upon crowns Imperial , presently it came to pass that the Religion of the despised Jesus did infinitely prevail : a Religion that taught Men to be meek and humble , apt to receive injuries , but unapt to do any ; a Religion that gave countenance to the poor and pitiful , in a time when riches were ador'd , and ambition and pleasure had possessed the heart of all Mankind ; a Religion that would change the face of things , and the hearts of Men , and break vile habits into gentleness and counsel ; that such a Religion , in such a time by the Sermons and Conduct of Fishermen , Men of mean breeding and illiberal Arts , should so speedily triumph over the Philosophy of the World , and the arguments of the subtil , and the Sermons of the Eloquent ; the Power of Princes and the Interests of States , the inclinations of Nature , and the blindness of zeal , the force of custom , and the sollicitation of passions , the pleasures of sin and the busie Arts of the Devil ; that is , against Wit and Power , Superstition and Wilfulness , Fame and Money , Nature and Empire , which are all the causes in this World that can make a thing impossible ; this , this is to be ascrib'd to the power of God , and is the great demonstration of the Resurrection of Jesus . Every thing was an Argument for it , and improv'd it ; no Objection could hinder it , no Enemies destroy it ; whatsoever was for them , it made the Religion to increase ; whatsoever was against them , made it to increase ; Sun-shine and Storms , Fair Weather or Foul , it was all one as to the event of things : for they were instruments in the hands of God , who could make what himself should chuse to be the product of any cause ; So that if the Christians had peace , they went abroad and brought in Converts ; if they had no peace , but persecution ; the Converts came in to them . In prosperity they allur'd and intic'd the World by the beauty of holiness ; in affliction and trouble they amaz'd all men with the splendour of their Innocence , and the glories of their patience ; and quickly it was that the World became Disciple to the glorious Nazarene , and men could no longer doubt of the Resurrection of Jesus , when it became so demonstrated by the certainty of them that saw it , and the courage of them that died for it , and the multitude of them that believ'd it ; who by their Sermons , and their Actions , by their publick Offices and Discourses , by Festivals and Eucharists , by Arguments of Experience and Sense , by Reason and Religion , by perswading rational Men , and establishing believing Christians , by their living in the obedience of Jesus , and dying for the testimony of Jesus , have greatly advanc'd his Kingdom , and his Power , and his Glory , into which he entred after his Resurrection from the dead . For he is the first fruits ; and if we hope to rise through him , we must confess that himself is first risen from the dead . That 's the first particular . 2. There is an order for us also . We also shall rise again . Combustúsque senex tumulo procedit adultus , Consumens dat membra rogus ; — The ashes of old Camillus shall stand up spritely from his Urne ; and the Funeral fires shall produce a new warmth to the dead bones of all those who died under the arms of all the Enemies of the Roman greatness . This is a less wonder than the former : for admonetur omnis aetas jam fieri posse quod aliquando factum est . If it was done once , it may be done again ; for since it could never have been done , but by a power that is infinite , that infinite must also be eternal and indeficient . By the same Almighty power which restor'd life to the dead body of our living Lord , we may all be restor'd to a new life in the Resurrection of the dead . When Man was not , what power , what causes made him to be ? whatsoever it was , it did then as great a work as to raise his body to the same being again ; and because we know not the method of Natures secret changes , and how we can be fashioned beneath in secreto terrae , and cannot handle and discern the possibilities and seminal powers in the ashes of dissolved bones , must our ignorance in Philosophy be put in balance against the Articles of Religion , the hopes of Mankind , the Faith of Nations and the truth of God ? and are our Opinions of the power of God so low , that our understanding must be his measure ; and he shall be confessed to do nothing , unless it be made plain in our Philosophy ? Certainly we have a low Opinion of God unless we believe he can do more things then we can understand . But let us hear S. Paul's demonstration : If the Corn dies and lives again ; if it layes its body down , suffers alteration , dissolution and death , but at the spring rises again in the verdure of a leaf , in the fulness of the ear , in the kidneys of wheat ; if it proceeds from little to great , from nakedness to ornament , from emptiness to plenty , from unity to multitude , from death to life : be a Sadducee no more , shame not thy understanding , and reproch not the weakness of thy Faith , by thinking that Corn can be restor'd to life and Man cannot ; especially since in every creature the obediential capacity is infinite , and cannot admit degrees ; for every Creature can be any thing under the power of God , which cannot be less than infinite . But we find no obscure foot-steps of this mystery even amongst the Heathens . Pliny reports that Appion the Grammarian by the use of the plant Osiris call'd Homer from his grave ; and in Valerius Maximus we find that AElius Tubero return'd to life when he was seated in his Funeral pile ; and in Plutarch , that Soleus after three dayes burial did live , and in Valerius that AEris Pamphilius did so after ten dayes . And it was so commonly believ'd , that Glaucus who was choked in a vessel of honey did rise again , that it grew to a Proverb ; Glaucus poto melle resurrexit ; Glaucus having tasted honey , died and liv'd again . I pretend not to believe these stories true ; but from these instances it may be concluded that they believ'd it possible that there should be a Resurrection from the dead ; and natural reason , and their Philosophy did not wholly destroy their hopes and expectation to have a portion in this Article . For God knowing that the great hopes of Man , that the biggest endearment of Religion , the sanction of private Justice , the band of Piety and holy Courage , does wholly derive from the Article of the Resurrection , was pleased not onely to make it credible , but easie and familiar to us ; and we so converse every night with the Image of death , that every morning we find an argument of the Resurrection . Sleep and Death have but one mother , and they have one name in common . Soles occidere & redire possunt , Nobis cum semel occidit lux brevis , Nox est perpetua una dormienda . Catul. Charnel-houses are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Cemeteries or sleeping-places , and they that die are fallen asleep , and the Resurrection is but an awakening and standing up from sleep : but in sleep our Senses are as fast bound by Nature ; as our Joynts are by the grave-clothes ; and unless an Angel of God awaken us every morning , we must confess our selves as unable to converse with Men , as we now are afraid to die and to converse with Spirits . But however Death it self is no more ; it is but darkness and a shadow , a rest and a forgetfulness . What is there more in death ? what is there less in sleep ? For do we not see by experience that nothing of equal loudness does awaken us sooner then a Mans voice , especially if he be call'd by name ? and thus also it shall be in the Resurrection . We shall be awakened by the voice of a Man , and he that call'd Lazarus by name from his grave , shall also call us : for although S. Paul affirms , that the trumpet shall sound , and there shall be the voice of an Archangel ; yet this is not a word of Nature , but of Office and Ministry : Christ himself is that Archangel , and he shall descend with a mighty shout , ( saith the Apostle ) and all that are in the grave shall hear his voice , saith S. John : So that we shall be awakened by the voice of a Man , because we are onely fallen asleep by the decree of God ; and when the Cock and the Lark call us up to prayer and labour , the first thing we see is an argument of our Resurrection from the dead . And when we consider what the Greek Church reports , That amongst them the bodies of those that die Excommunicate will not return to dust till the Censure be taken off ; we may with a little faith and reason believe , that the same power that keeps them from their natural Dissolution , can recall them to life and union . I will not now insist upon the story of the Rising Bones seen every year in Egypt , nor the pretences of the Chymists , that they from the ashes of Flowers can re-produce from the same materials the same beauties in colour and figure ; for he that proves a certain Truth from an uncertain Argument , is like him that wears a Wooden leg when he hath two sound legs already ; it hinders his going , but helps him not : The Truth of God stands not in need of such supporters , Nature alone is a sufficient preacher : Quae nunc herba fuit , lignum jacet , herba futura , Aeriae nudantur aves cum penna vetusta , Et nova subvestit reparatas pluma volucres . Night and Day , the Sun returning to the same point of East , every change of Species in the same matter , Generation and Corruption , the Eagle renewing her youth and the Snake her skin , the Silk-worm and the Swallows the care of posterity and the care of an immortal name , Winter and Summer , the Fall and Spring , the Old Testament and the New , the words of Job , and the Visions of the Prophets , the prayer of Ezekiel for the resurrection of the men of Ephraim , and the return of Jonas from the Whales belly , the histories of the Jews and the Narratives of Christians , the Faith of Believers and the Philosophy of the reasonable ; all joyn in the verification of this Mystery . And amongst these heaps it is not of the least consideration that there was never any good man , who having been taught this Article , but if he serv'd God , he also relied upon this . If he believ'd God , he believ'd this ; and therefore S. Paul sayes that they who were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , were also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they who had no hope ( meaning of the Resurrection ) were also Atheists , and without God in the world . And it is remarkable what S. Augustine observes , That when the World saw the righteous Abel destroyed , and that the murderer out-liv'd his crime , and built up a numerous family , and grew mighty upon Earth , they neglected the Service of God upon that account , till God in pity of their prejudice and foolish arguings took Enoch up to heaven to recover them from their impieties , by shewing them that their bodies and souls should be rewarded for ever in an eternal union . But Christ the first fruits is gone before , and himself did promise that when himself was lifted up he would draw all men after him . Every man in his own order ; first Christ , then they that are Christ's at his coming . And so I have done with the second Particular , not Christ onely , but we also shall rise in Gods time and our order . But concerning this order I must speak a word or two , not only for the fuller handling the Text , but because it will be matter of application of what hath been already spoken of the Article of the Resurrection . 3. First Christ and then we . And we therefore because Christ is already risen . But you must remember , that the Resurrection and Exaltation of Christ was the reward of his perfect obedience and purest holiness ; and he calling us to an imitation of the same obedience , and the same perfect holiness , prepares a way for us to the same Resurrection . If we by holiness become the Sons of God as Christ was , we shall also as he was become the Sons of God in the Resurrection : But upon no other terms . So said our blessed Lord himself : Ye which have followed me in the regeneration , when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of his glory , ye also shall sit upon thrones judging the tribes of Israel . For as it was with Christ the first fruits , so it shall be with all Christians in their own order : as with the Head , so it shall be with the Members . He was the Son of God by love and obedience , and then became the Son of God by Resurrection from the dead to life Eternal , and so shall we ; but we cannot be so in any other way . To them that are Christ's , and to none else shall this be given . For we must know that God hath sent Christ into the World to be a great example and demonstration of the Oeconomy and Dispensation of Eternal life . As God brought Christ to glory , so he will bring us , but by no other method . He first obeyed the will of God , and patiently suffered the will of God ; he died , and rose again , and entered into glory ; and so must we . Thus Christ is made Via , Veritas , & Vita , the Way , the Truth , and the Life ; that is , the true way to Eternal life : He first trode this Wine-press , and we must insist in the same steps , or we shall never partake of this blessed Resurrection . He was made the Son of God in a most glorious manner , and we by him , by his merit , and by his grace , and by his example : but other then this there is no way of Salvation for us . That 's the first and great effect of this glorious order . 4. But there is one thing more in it yet , Every Man in his own order . First Christ , and then Christ's . But what shall become of them that are not Christ's ? why there is an order for them too . First , they that are Christ's ; and then they that are not his . * Blessed and holy is he that hath his part in the first resurrection . There is a first and a second Resurrection even after this life . The dead in Christ shall rise first . Now blessed are they that have their portion here ; for upon these the second death shall have no power . As for the recalling the wicked from their graves , it is no otherwise in the sense of the Spirit to be called a Resurrection , then taking a Criminal from the Prison to the Bar is a giving of liberty . When poor Attilius Aviola had been seized on by an Apoplexy , his friends supposing him dead carried him to his Funeral pile ; but when the fire began to approch , and the heat to warm the body , he reviv'd , and seeing himself incircled with Funeral flames , call'd out aloud to his friends to rescue , not the dead , but the living Aviola from that horrid burning . But it could not be . He onely was restor'd from his sickness to fall into death , and from his dull disease to a sharp and intolerable torment . Just so shall the wicked live again ; they shall receive their souls , that they may be a portion for Devils ; they shall receive their bodies , that they may feel the everlasting burning ; they shall see Christ , that they may look on him whom they have pierced ; and they shall hear the voice of God passing upon them the intolerable sentence ; they shall come from their graves , that they may go into hell ; and live again , that they may die for ever . So have we seen a poor condemned Criminal , the weight of whose sorrows sitting heavily upon his soul hath benummed him into a deep sleep , till he hath forgotten his grones , and laid aside his deep sighings ; but on a sudden comes the messenger of death , and unbinds the Poppy garland , scatters the heavy cloud that incircled his miserable head , and makes him return to acts of life , that he may quickly descend into death and be no more . So is every sinner that lies down in shame , and makes his grave with the wicked ; he shall indeed rise again , and be called upon by the voice of the Archangel , but then he shall descend into sorrows greater then the reason and the patience of a man , weeping and shrieking louder then the grones of the miserable children in the Valley of Hinnon . These indeed are sad stories , but true as the voice of God and the Sermons of the holy Jesus . They are Gods words and Gods decrees ; and I wish that all who profess the belief of these , would consider sadly what they mean. If ye believe the Article of the Resurrection , then you know that in your body you shall receive what you did in the body , whether it be good or bad . It matters not now very much whether our bodies be beauteous or deformed ; for if we glorifie God in our bodies , God shall make our bodies glorious . It matters not much whether we live in ease and pleasure , or eat nothing but bitter herbs : the body that lies in dust and ashes , that goes stooping and feeble , that lodges at the foot of the Cross and dwells in discipline , shall be feasted at the eternal supper of the Lamb. And ever remember this , that beastly pleasures , and lying lips , and a deceitful tongue , and a heart that sendeth forth proud things , are no good dispositions to a blessed Resurrection . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It is not good that in the body we live a life of Dissolution , for that 's no good harmony with that purpose of glory which God designs the body . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Phocyllides ; for we hope that from our beds of darkness we shall rise into Regions of light , and shall become like unto God. They shall partake of a Resurrection to life and what this can infer is very obvious . For i● it be so hard to believe a Resurrection from one death , let us not be dead in trespasses and sins , for a Resurrection from two deaths will be harder to be believ'd , and harder to be effected . But if any of you have lost the life of Grace , and so forfeited all your title to a life of Glory , betake your selves to an early and an entire piety , that when by this first Resurrection you have made this way plain before your face , you may with confidence expect a happy Resurrection from your graves . For if it be possible that the spirit , when it is dead in sin , can arise to a life of righteousness ; much more it is easie to suppose that the body after death is capable of being restor'd again . And this is a consequent of S. Pauls argument , If when ye were enemies ye were reconciled by his death , much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life ; plainly declaring that it is a harder and more wonderful thing for a wicked man to become the friend of God , then for one that is so , to be carried up to heaven and partake of his glory . The first Resurrection is certainly the greater miracle : But he that hath risen once , may rise again ; and this is as sure as that he that dies once , may die again , and die for ever . But he who partakes of the death of Christ by Mortification , and of his Resurrection by holiness of life and a holy Faith , shall , according to the expression of the Prophet Isaiah , Enter into his chamber of death ; when Nature and Gods decree shall shut the doors upon him , and there he shall be hidden for a little moment : But then shall they that dwell in dust awake and sing , with Christs dead body shall they arise : all shall rise , but every man in his own order ; Christ the first fruits , then they that are Christs at his coming . Amen . I have now done with my Meditation of the Resurrection ; but we have a new and a sadder subject to consider : It is glorious and brave when a Christian contemplates those glories which stand at the foot of the Account of all God's Servants ; but when we consider , that before all or any thing of this happens every Christian must ●wice exuere hominem , put off the Old man , and then lie down in dust and the dishonours of the Grave , it is Vinum Myrrhatum , there is Myrrhe put into our Wine ; it is wholsom , but it will allay all our pleasures of that glorious expectation . But no man can escape it . After that the Great Cyrus had rul'd long in a mighty Empire ; yet there came a Message from Heaven , not so sad it may be , yet as decretory as the Hand-writing on the wall that arrested his Successor Darius , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prepare thy self , O Cyrus , and then go unto the Gods ; he laid aside his Tiar and his beauteous Diadem , and cover'd his face with a cloth , and in a single Linen laid his honour'd head in a poor humble Grave ; and none of us all can avoid this sentence . For if Wit and Learning , great Fame and great Experience , if wise Notices of things , and an honourable Fortune , if Courage and Skill , if Prelacy and an honourable Age , if any thing that could give Greatness and Immunity to a wise and prudent man , could have been put in bar against a sad day , and have gone for good plea , this sad Scene of Sorrows had not been the entertainment of this Assembly . But tell me , where are those great Masters , who while they liv'd flourish'd in their studies ? Iam eorum praebendas alii possident , & nescio utrum de iis cogitant ; Other men have got their Prebends and their Dignities , and who knows whether ever they remember them or no ? While they liv'd they seem'd nothing , when they are dead , every man for a while speaks of them what they please , and afterwards they are as if they had not been . But the piety of the Christian Church hath made some little provision towards an artificial Immortality for brave and worthy persons ; and the Friendships , which our dead contracted while they were alive , require us to continue a fair memory as long as we can ; but they expire in monethly minds , or at most in a saint and declining Anniversary ; — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And we have great reason so to do in this present sad accident of the death of our late most Reverend Primate , whose death the Church of Ireland hath very great reason to deplore ; and we have great obligation to remember his very many worthy Deeds done for this poor afflicted and despised Church . S. Paul made an excellent Funeral Oration , as it were instituting a Feast of All Saints , Who all died having obtained a good report ; and that excellent Preacher in the 11. chap. of the Hebrews made a Sermon of their Commemoration . For since good men , while they are alive , have their conversation in Heaven ; when they are in Heaven 't is also fit that they should in their good names live upon Earth . And as their great Examples are an excellent Sermon to the living , and the praising them when Envy and Flattery can have no Interest to interpose , as it is the best and most vigorous Sermon and Incentive to great things ; so to conceal what good God hath wrought by them , is great unthankfulness to God and to good men . When Dorcas died the Apostle came to see the dead Corps , and the friends of the deceased expressed their grief and their love by shewing the Coats that she , whilest she lived , wrought with her own hands . She was a good Needle-woman and a good Huswife , and did good to Mankind in her little way , and that it self ought not to be forgotten , and the Apostle himself was not displeased with their little Sermons , and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the women made upon that sad interview . But if we may have the same liberty to record the worthy things of this our most venerable Father and Brother , and if there remains no more of that Envy which usually obscures the splendour of living Hero's , if you can with your charitable though weeping eyes behold the great gifts of God with which he adorned this great Prelate , and not object the failings of Humanity to the participation of the Graces of the Spirit , or think that Gods gifts are the lesse because they are born in Earthen Vessels , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for all men bear Mortality about them , and the Cabinet is not beauteous as the Diamond that shines within its bosom ; then we may without interruption pay this duty to Piety , and Friendship , and Thankfulness , and deplore our sad loss by telling a true and sad story of this great man , whom God hath lately taken from our eyes . He was bred in Cambridge in Sidney-college under Mr. Hulet , a grave and a worthy man , and he shewed himself not onely a fruitful Plant by his great progress in his Studies , but made him another return of gratitude , taking care to provide a good Imployment for him in Ireland , where he then began to be greatly interested . It was spoken as an honour to Augustus Caesar , that he gave his Tutor an honourable Funeral ; and Marcus Antoninus erected a Statue unto his ; and Gratian the Emperour made his Master Ausonius to be Consul : And our worthy Primate , knowing the Obligation which they pass upon us , who do Obstetricari gravidae animae , help the parturient Soul to bring forth fruits according to its seminal powers , was careful not onely to reward the industry of such persons so useful to the Church in the cultivating infantes palmarum , young Plants , whose joynts are to be stretch'd and made streight ; but to demonstrate that his Scholar knew how to value Learning , when he knew so well how to reward the Teacher . Having pass'd the course of his studies in the University , and done his Exercise with that Applause which is usually the reward of pregnant Wits and hard study , he was remov'd into York-shire ; where first in the City of York he was an assiduous Preacher , but by the disposition of the Divine Providence he happened to be engaged at North-Alerton in Disputation with three pragmatical Romish Priests of the Jesuits Order , whom he so much worsted in the Conference , and so shamefully disadvantaged by the evidence of Truth , represented wisely and learnedly , that the famous Primate of York , Archbishop Matthews , a learned and an excellent Prelate , and a most worthy Preacher , hearing of that Triumph , sent for him and made him his Chaplain ; in whose service he continued till the death of the Primate , but in that time had given so much testimony of his great Dexterity in the Conduct of Ecclesiastical and Civil Affairs , that he grew dear to his Master . In that Imployment he was made Prebendary of York , and then of Rippon ; the Dean of which Church having made him his Sub-Dean , he managed the affairs of that Church so well , that he soon acquir'd a greater fame , and entered into the possession of many hearts , and admiration to those many more that knew him . There and at his Parsonage he continued long to do the duty of a learned and good Preacher , and by his Wisdom , Eloquence and Deportment , so gain'd the affections of the Nobility , Gentry and Commons of that Countrey , that as at his return thither upon the blessed Restauration of His most Sacred Majesty he knew himself oblig'd enough , and was so kind as to give them a Visit ; so they by their coming in great numbers to meet him , their joyful Reception of him , their great Caressing of him when he was there , their forward hopes to enjoy him as their Bishop , their trouble at his Departure , their unwillingness to let him go away , gave signal testimonies that they were wise and kind enough to understand and value his great worth . But while he lived there he was like a Diamond in the dust , ( or Lucius Quinctius at the plough ) his low Fortune covered a most valuable person , till he became observ'd by Sir Thomas Wentworth Lord President of York , whom we all knew for his great Excellencies , and his great but glorious Misfortunes . This rare person espied the great abilities of Doctor Bramhall , and made him his Chaplain , and brought him into Ireland as one whom he believ'd would prove the most fit instrument to serve in that design , which for two years before his arrival here he had greatly meditated and resolved , the Reformation of Religion and the Reparation of the broken Fortunes of the Church : The Complaints were many , the Abuses great , the Causes of the Church vastly numerous , but as fast as they were brought in , so fast they were by the Lord Deputy referred back to Dr. Bramhall , who by his indefatigable Pains , great Sagacity , perpetual Watchfulness , daily and hourly Consultations , reduc'd things to a more tolerable condition then they had been left in by the Schismatical principles of some , and the unjust Prepossessions of others , form any years before . For at the Reformation the Popish Bishops and Priests seemed to conform , and did so , that keeping their Bishopricks they might enrich their Kindred and dilapidate the Revenues of the Church ; which by pretended Offices , false Informations , Fee-farms at contemptible Rents , and ungodly Alienations , were made low as Poverty it self , and unfit to minister to the needs of them that serv'd the Altar , or the noblest purposes of Religion . For Hospitality decayed , and the Bishops were easie to be oppressed by those that would ; and they complained , but for a long time had no helper , till God raised up that glorious Instrument the Earl of Strafford , who brought over with him as great affections to the Church and to all publick Interests , and as admirable Abilities , as ever before his time did invest and adorn any of the Kings Vicegerents : and God fitted his hand with an Instrument good as his skill was great . For the first Specimen of his Abilities and Diligence in recovery of some lost Tithes being represented to His late Majesty of blessed and glorious memory , it pleased His Majesty upon the death of Bishop Downham to advance the Doctor to the Bishoprick of D●r●y ; which he not onely adorned with an excellent spirit and a wise Government , but did more then double the Revenue , not by taking any thing from them to whom it was due , but by resuming something of the Churches Patrimony , which by undue means was detained in unfitting hands . But his care was beyond his Diocese , and his zele broke out to warm all his Brethren ; and though by reason of the Favour and Piety of King Iames the escheated Counties were well provided for their Tithes , yet the Bishopricks were not so well till the Primate , then Bishop of Derry , by the favour of the Lord Lieutenant and his own incessant and assiduous labour and wise conduct , brought in divers Impropriations , cancell'd many unjust Alienations , and did restore them to a condition much more tolerable ; I say much more tolerable ; for though he rais'd them above contempt , yet they were not near to envy ; but he knew there could not in all times be wanting too many that envied to the Church every degree of prosperity : so Iudas did to Christ the expence of Oyntment , and so Dyonisius told the Priest , when himself stole the golden Cloak from Apollo , and gave him one of Arcadian home-spun , that it was warmer for him in Winter and cooler in Summer . And forever , since the Church by God's blessing and the favour of Religious Kings and Princes , and Pious Nobility , hath been endowed with fair Revenues ; inimicus homo , the Enemy hath not been wanting by pretences of Religion to take away God's portion from the Church , as if his Word were intended as an instrument to rob his Houses . But when the Israelites were governed by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and God was their King , and Moses his Lieutenant , and things were of his management , he was pleas'd by making great Provisions for them that ministred in the service of the Tabernacle to consign this truth for ever , That Men , as they love God , at the same rate are to make provisions for his Priests . For when himself did it , he not only gave the 48. Cities , with a mile of Glebe round about their City every way , and yet the whole Country was but 140. miles long , or thereabouts , from Dan to Beersheba ; but besides this they had the tithe of all increase , the first fruits , offerings , vows , redemptions , and in short , they had 24. sorts of Dues , as Buxtorf relates ; and all this either brought to the Barn home to them without trouble , or else , as the nature of the thing required , brought to the Temple ; the first to make it more profitable , and the second to declare that they received it not from the People but from God , not the Peoples kindness but the Lords inheritance ; insomuch that this small Tribe of Levi , which was not the 40th . part of the People , as the Scripture computes them , had a Revenue almost treble to any of the largest of the Tribes . I will not insist on what Villalpandus observes , it may easily be read in the 45. of Ezekiel concerning that portion which God reserves for himself and his service , but whatsoever it be this I shall say , that it is confessedly a Prophecy of the Gospel ; but this I adde , that they had as little to do , and much less than a Christian Priest , and yet in all the 24. courses the poorest Priest amongst them might be esteemed a Rich man. I speak not this to upbraid any man or any thing but Sacrilege and Murmur , nor to any other end but to represent upon what great and Religious grounds the then Bishop of Derry did with so much care and assiduous labour endeavour to restore the Church of Ireland to that splendor and fulness ; which as it is much conducing to the honour of God and of Religion , God himself being the Judge , so it is much more necessary for you than it is for us , and so this wise Prelate rarely well understood it ; and having the same advantage and blessing as we now have , a Gracious King , and a Lieutenant Patron of Religion , and the Church , he improv'd the deposita pietatis , as Origen calls them , the Gages of Piety , which the Religion of the ancient Princes and Nobles of this Kingdom had bountifully given to such a comfortable competency , that though there be place left for present and future Piety to inlarge it self , yet no man hath reason to be discourag'd in his duty ; insomuch that as I have heard from a most worthy hand , that at his going into England he gave account to the Archbishop of Canterbury of 30000 l. a year , in the recovery of which he was greatly and principally instrumental . But the goods of this World are called waters by Solomon . Stollen waters are sweet , and they are too unstable to be stopt : some of these waters did run back from their proper chanel , and return to another course than God and the Laws intended , yet his labours and pious Counsels were not the less acceptable to God and good men , and therefore by a thankful and honourable recognition the Convocation of the Church of Ireland hath transmitted in Record to posterity their deep resentment of his singular services and great abilities in this whole affair . And this honour will for ever remain to that Bishop of Derry ; he had a Zerubbabel who repair'd the Temple and restor'd its beauty , but he was the Ioshuah , the High-priest , who under him ministred this blessing to the Congregations of the Lord. But his care was not determin'd in the exteriour part onely , and Accessaries of Religion ; he was careful , and he was prosperous in it , to reduce that Divine and excellent Service of our Church to publick and constant Exercise , to Unity and Devotion ; and to cause the Articles of the Church of England to be accepted as the Rule of publick confessions and perswasions here , that they and we might be Populus unius labii , of one heart and one lip , building up our hopes of heaven on a most holy Faith ; and taking away that Shibboleth which made this Church lisp too undecently , or rather in some little degree to speak the speech of Ashdod , and not the language of Canaan ; and the excellent and wise pains he took in this particular no man can dehonestate or reproch , but he that is not willing to confess that the Church of England is the best Reformed Church in the world . But when the brave Roman Infantry under the Conduct of Manlius ascended up to the Capitol to defend Religion and their Altars from the fury of the Gauls , they all pray'd to God , Us quemadmodum ipsi ad defendendum templum ejus concurrissent , ita ille virtutem e●rum numine suo tueretur : That as they came to defend his Temple by their Arms , so he would defend their Persons and that Cause with his Power and Divinity . And this excellent man in the Cause of Religion found the like blessing which they prayed for ; God by the prosperity of his labours and a blessed effect gave testimony not onely of the Piety and Wisdom of his purposes , but that he loves to bless a wise Instrument when it is vigorously imployed in a wise and religious labour . He overcame the difficulty in defiance of all such pretences as were made even from Religion it self to obstruct the better procedure of real and material Religion . These were great things and matter of great envy , and like the fiery eruptions of Vesuvius might with the very ashes of Consumption have buried another man. At first indeed , as his blessed Master the most holy Jesus had , so he also had his Annum acceptabilem . At first the product was nothing but great admiration at his stupendious parts , and wonder at his mighty diligence and observation of his unusual zele in so good and great things ; but this quickly pass'd into the natural daughters of Envy , Suspicion and Detraction , the spirit of Obloquy and Slander . His zele for recovery of the Church-revenues was call'd Oppression and Rapine , Covetousness and Injustice ; his care of reducing Religion to wise and justifiable principles was called Popery and Arminianism , and I know not what names , which signifie what the Authors are pleased to mean , and the People to conster and to hate . The intermedial prosperity of his Person and Fortune , which he had as an Earnest of a greater reward to so well-meant labours , was suppos'd to be the production of Illiberal Arts and ways of getting ; and the necessary refreshment of his wearied spirits , which did not alwayes supply all his needs , and were sometimes less then the permissions even of prudent charity , they call'd Intemperance : Dederunt enim malum M●telli Naevio poetae ; their own surmises were the Bills of Accusation , and the splendour of his great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or Doing of good works , was the great probation of all their Calumnies . But if Envy be the accuser , what can be the defences of Innocence ? Saucior invidiae morsu , quaerenda medela est , Dic quibus in terris sentiet aeger opem ? Our B.S. knowing the unsatisfiable angers of men if their Money or Estates were medled with , refus'd to divide an Inheritance amongst Brethren ; it was not to be imagin'd that this great person ( invested , as all his Brethren were , with the infirmities of Mortality , and yet imployed in dividing and recovering and apportioning of Lands ) should be able to bear all that reproch which Jealousie and Suspicion , and malicious Envy , could invent against him . But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Sophocles : And so did he ; the Affrightments brought to his great Fame and Reputation made him to walk more warily , and do justly , and act prudently , and conduct his affairs by the measures of Laws , as far as he understood , and indeed that was a very great way : but there was Aperta justitia , Clausa manus , Justice was open , but his Hand was shut ; and though every Slanderer could tell a story , yet none could prove that ever he received a Bribe to blind his eyes to the value of a Pair of Gloves . It was his own Expression , when he gave glory to God who had preserv'd him innocent . But because every mans Cause is right in his own eyes , it was hard for him so to acquit himself , that in the Intriques of Law and difficult Cases some of his Enemies should not seem ( when they were heard alone ) to speak reason against him . But see the greatness of Truth and Prudence , and how greatly God stood with him . When the numerous Armies of vexed people , Turba gravis paci , placidaeque inimica quieti , heap'd up Catalogues of Accusations , when the Parliament of Ireland imitating the violent procedures of the then disordered English , when his glorious Patron was taken from his head , and he was disrobed of his great defences ; when Petitions were invited and Accusations furnished , and Calumny was rewarded and managed with art and power , when there were above 200. Petitions put in against him , and himself denied leave to answer by word of mouth ; when he was long imprison'd , and treated so that a guilty man would have been broken into affrightment and pitiful and low considerations ; yet then he himself standing almost alone , like Callimachus at Marathon invested with enemies and covered with arrows , defended himself beyond all the powers of guiltiness , even with the defences of Truth and the bravery of Innocence , and answered the Petitions in writing , sometimes twenty in a day , with so much clearness , evidence of truth , reality of Fact and Testimony of Law , that his very Enemies were asham'd and convinc'd ; they found they had done like AEsops Viper , they licked the file till their tongues bled ; but himself was wholly invulnerable . They were therefore forc'd to leave their muster-rolls and decline the particulars , and fall to their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to accuse him for going about to subvert the fundamental Laws ; the way by which great Strafford and Canterbury fell ; which was a device , when all reasons fail'd , to oppress the Enemy by the bold affirmation of a Conclusion they could not prove , they did like those Gladiatores whom the Romans call'd Retiaries , when they could not stab their Enemies with their daggers , they threw nets over him , and cover'd him with a general mischief . But the Martyr King Charles the First , of most glorious and Eternal Memory ; seeing so great a Champion likely to be oppress'd with numbers and despair , sent what rescue he could , his Royal Letter for his Bail , which was hardly granted to him , and when it was , it was upon such hard terms , that his very delivery was a persecution . So necessary it was for them , who intended to do mischief to the publick , to take away the strongest pillars of the house . This thing I remark to acquit this great man from the tongue of slander , which had so boldly spoken , that it was certain something would stick , yet was so impotent and unarm'd , that it could not kill that great same which his greater worthiness had procur'd him . It was said of Hippasus the Pythagorean , that being ask'd how and what he had done : He answer'd , Nondum nihil , neque enim adhuc mihi invidetur ; I have done nothing yet , for no man envies me . He that does great things , cannot avoid the tongues and teeth of Envy ; but if calumnies must pass for evidences , the bravest Hero's must alwayes be the most reproched Persons in the World. Nascitur AEtolicus , pravum ingeniosus ad omne ; Qui facere assuerat , patriae non degener artis , Candida de nigris , & de candentibus atra . Every thing can have an ill name and an ill sense put upon it ; but God , who takes care of reputations as he does of lives , by the orders of his providence confutes the slander , ut memoria justorum sit in benedictionibus , that the memory of the righteous man might be embalm'd with honour : And so it hapned to this great man ; for by a publick Warranty , by the concurrent consent of both Houses of Parliament , the Libellous Petitions against him , the false Records and publick Monuments of injurious shame were cancell'd , and he was restor'd in integrum to that fame where his great labours and just procedures had first estated him ; which , though it was but justice , yet it was also such honour , that it is greater then the virulence of tongues , which his worthiness and their envy had arm'd against him . But yet the great scene of the troubles was but newly open'd . I shall not refuse to speak yet more of his troubles , as remembring that St. Paul , when he discourses of the glories of the Saints departed , he tells more of their sufferings than of their prosperities , as being that Laboratory and Crysable in which God makes his Servants vessels of honour to his glory . The storm quickly grew high ; & transitum est à linguis ad gladios , and that was indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Iniquity had put on arms ; when it is armata nequitia , then a man is hard put to it . The Rebellion breaking out the Bishop went to his charge at Derry , and , because he was within the defence of Walls , the execrable Traitor Sir Phelim ● Neale laid a snare to bring him to a dishonourable death . For he wrote a Letter to the Bishop , pretended Intelligence between them , desir'd that according to their former agreement such a Gate might be deliver'd to him . The messenger was not advis'd to be cautious , not at all instructed in the art of Secrecy , for it was intended that he should be search'd , intercepted and hang'd for ought they car'd : but the Arrow was shot against the Bishop , that he might be accused for base Conspiracy , and die with shame and sad dishonour . But here God manifested his mighty care of his Servants ; he was pleas'd to send into the heart of the messenger such an affrightment , that he directly ran away with the Letter , and never durst come near the Town to deliver it . This story was publish'd by Sir Phelim himself , who added , That if he could have thus ensnar'd the Bishop , he had good assurance the Town should have been his own : Sed bonitas Dei praevalitura est super omnem malitiam hominis , The goodness of God is greater then all the malice of Men ; and nothing could so prove how dear that sacred Life was to God , as his rescue from the dangers . Stantia non poterant tecta probare Deos : To have kept him in a warm house had been nothing , unless the roof had fallen upon his head , that rescue was a remark of Divine favour and Providence . But it seems Sir Phelim's Treason against the Life of this worthy Man had a Correspondent in the Town ; and it broke out speedily ; for what they could not effect by malicious stratagem , they did in part by open force ; they turn'd the Bishop out of the Town , and upon trifling and unjust pretences search'd his Carriages , and took what they pleas'd , till they were asham'd to take more : they did worse then divorce him from his Church , for in all the Roman Divorces they said , Tuas tibi res babeto , Take your goods and be gone ; but Plunder was Religion then . However , though the usage was sad , yet it was recompenc'd to him by his taking Sanctuary in Oxford , where he was graciously receiv'd by that most incomparable and divine Prince ; but having served the King in Yorkshire by his Pen , and by his Counsels , and by his Interests , return'd back to Ireland , where under the excellent conduct of his Grace the now Lord Lieutenant , he ran the risque and fortune of oppressed Vertue . But God having still resolv'd to afflict us , the good-man was forc'd into the fortune of the Patriarchs , to leave his Countrey and his Charges , and seek for safety and bread in a strange Land ; for so the Prophets were us'd to do , wandring up and down in sheeps-clothing , but poor as they were the world was not worthy of them ; and this worthy man , despising the shame , took up his Cross and followed his Master . Exilium causa ipsa jubet sibi dulce videri , Et desiderium dulce levat patriae . He was not asham'd to suffer where the Cause was honourable and glorious ; but so God provided for the needs of his banished , and sent a man who could minister comfort to the afflicted , and courage to the persecuted , and resolutions to the tempted , and strength to that Religion for which they all suffered . And here this great man was indeed triumphant ; this was one of the last and best scenes of his life : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The last dayes are the best witnesses of a man. But so it was , that he stood up in publick and brave defence for the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England ; First , by his Sufferings and great Example , for Verbis tantùm philosophari non est Doctoris sed Histrionis , To talk well and not to do bravely is for a Comedian , not a Divine : But this great man did both ; he suffered his own Calamity with great courage , and by his wise Discourses strengthened the hearts of others . For there wanted not diligent Tempters in the Church of Rome , who ( taking advantage of the Afflictions of His Sacred Majesty , in which state Men commonly suspect every thing , and like men in sickness are willing to change from side to side , hoping for ease and finding none ) flew at Royal Game , and hop'd to draw away the King from that Religion which His most Royal Father , the best Man and the wisest Prince in the world , had seal'd with the best Bloud in Christendom ; and which Himself suck'd in with His Education , and had confirm'd by Choice and Reason , and confess'd publickly and bravely , and hath since restor'd prosperously . Millitie●e was the man , witty and bold enough to attempt a zelous and a foolish undertaking , and address'd himself with ignoble indeed but witty arts to perswade the King to leave what was dearer to Him then His Eyes . It is true , it was a Wave dash'd against a Rock , and an Arrow shot against the Sun , it could not reach him ; but the Bishop of Derry turn'd it also , and made it to fall upon the shooters head ; for he made so ingenious , so learned and so accute Reply to that book , he so discover'd the Errors of the Roman Church , retorted the Arguments , stated the Questions , demonstrated the Truth , and sham'd their Procedures , that nothing could be a greater argument of the Bishops Learning , great Parts , deep Judgment , Quickness of Apprehension , and Sincerity in the Catholick and Apostolick Faith , or of the Follies and Prevarications of the Church of Rome . He wrote no Apologies for himself ; though it were much to be wish'd that , as Iunius wrote his own Life , or Moses his own story , so we might have understood from himself how great things God had done for him and by him ; but all that he permitted to God , and was silent in his own Defences ; Gloriosius enim est injuriam tacendo fugere , quàm respondendo superare . But when the Honour and Conscience of his King ; and the Interest of a true Religion , was at stake , the fire burn'd within him , and at last he spake with his tongue ; he cried out like the son of Croesus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Take heed and meddle not with the King ; His Person is too sacred , and Religion too dear to Him to be assaulted by Vulgar hands . In short , he acquited himself in this affair with so much Truth and Piety , Learning and Judgment , that in those Papers his memory will last unto very late succeeding Generations . But this most Reverend Prelate found a nobler adversary and a braver scene for his contention . He found that the Roman Priests being wearied and baffled by the wise Discourses and pungent Arguments of the English Divines , had studiously declined any more to dispute the particular Questions against us , but fell at last upon a general Charge , imputing to the Church of England the great crime of Schism ; and by this they thought they might with most probability deceive unwary and unskilful Readers ; for they saw the Schism , and they saw we had left them , and because they consider'd not the Causes , they resolv'd to out-face us in the Charge . But now it was that dignum nactus argumentum , having an Argument fit to imploy his great abilities , Consecrat hic praesul calamum calamlque labores Ante aras Domino laeta trophaea suo ; the Bishop now dedicates his labours to the service of God and of his Church , undertook the Question , and in a full Discourse proves the Church of Rome , not only to be guilty of the Schism by making it necessary to depart from them , but they did actuate the Schisms , and themselves made the first separation in the great point of the Popes Supremacy , which was the Palladium for which they principally contended . He made it appear that the Popes of Rome were Usurpers of the rights of Kings and Bishops , that they brought in new Doctrines in every Age , that they impos'd their own devices upon Christendom as Articles of Faith , that they prevaricated the Doctrines of the Apostles , that the Church of England only return'd to her Primitive purity , that she joyn'd with Christ and his Apostles , that she agreed in all the Sentiments of the Primitive Church . He stated the questions so wisely , and conducted them so prudently , and handled them so learnedly , that I may truly say , they were never more materially confuted by any man , since the questions have so unhappily disturbed Christendom . Verum hoc eos malè ussit : and they finding themselves smitten under the fifth rib , set up an old Champion of their own , a Goliah to fight against the Armies of Israel ; the old Bishop of Chalcedon , known to many of us , replied to this excellent Book ; but was so answer'd by a Rejoynder made by the Lord Bishop of Derry , in which he so press'd the former Arguments , refuted the Cavils , brought in so many impregnable Authorities and Probations , and added so many moments and weights to his discourse , that the pleasures of reading the Book would be the greatest , if the profit to the Church of God were not greater . Flumina tum lactis , tum flumina nectaris ibant , Flavaque de viridi stillabant ilice mella . For so Sampson's riddle was again expounded ; Out of the strong came meat , and out of the eater came sweetness ; his Arguments were strong , and the Eloquence was sweet and delectable ; and though there start up another combatant against him , yet he had onely the honour to fall by the hands of Hector : still haeret lateri lethalis arundo ; the headed arrow went in so far , that it could not be drawn out , but the barbed steel stuck behind . And whenever men will desire to be satisfied in those great questions , the Bishop of Derry's book shall be his Oracle . I will not insist upon his other excellent writings ; but it is known every where with what Piety and acumen he wrote against the Manichean Doctrine of Fatal necessity , which a late witty man had pretended to adorn with a new Vizor ; but this excellent person wash'd off the Cerusse and the meretricious Paintings , rarely well asserted the oeconomy of the Divine Providence , and having once more triumph'd over his Adversary , plenus victoriarum & trophaeorum betook himself to the more agreeable attendance upon Sacred Offices , and having usefully and wisely discours'd of the sacred Rite of Confirmation , impos'd hands upon the most Illustrious Princes , the Dukes of York and Gloucester , and the Princess Royal , and ministred to them the promise of the holy Spirit , and ministerially establish'd them in the Religion and Service of the holy Jesus . And one thing more I shall remark , that at his leaving those Parts upon the Kings Return , some of the Remonstrant Ministers of the Low-Countries coming to take their leaves of this great man , and desiring that by his means the Church of England would be kind to them , he had reason to grant it , because they were learned men , and in many things of a most excellent belief ; yet he reprov'd them , and gave them caution against it , that they approched too near and gave too much countenance to the great and dangerous errors of the Socinians . He thus having serv'd God and the King abroad , God was pleas'd to return to the King and to us all , as in the dayes of old , and we sung the song of David . In convertendo captivitatem Sion : When King David and all his servants returned to Ierusalem , this great person having trode in the Wine-press was called to drink of the Wine , and as an honorary Reward of his great services and abilities was chosen Primate of this National Church : In which time we are to look upon him , as the King and the Kings great Vicegerent did , as a person concerning whose abilities the World had too great testimony ever to make a doubt . It is true , he was in the declension of his age and health ; but his very Ruines were goodly ; and they who saw the broken heaps of Pompey's Theatre , and the crushed Obelisks , and the old face of beauteous Philaenium , could not but admire the disordered glories of such magnificent structures , which were venerable in their very dust . He ever was us'd to overcome all difficulties , onely Mortality was too hard for him ; but still his Vertues and his Spirit was immortal , he still took great care , and still had new and noble designs , and propos'd to himself admirable things . He govern'd his Province with great justice and sincerity ; Unus amplo consulens pastor gregi , Somnos tuetur omnium solus vigil . And had this remark in all his Government , that as he was a great hater of Sacrilege , so he professed himself a publick enemy to Non-residence , and often would declare wisely and religiously against it , allowing it in no case but of Necessity or the greater good of the Church . There are great things spoken of his Predecessor S. Patrick , that he founded 700. Churches and Religious Convents , that he ordain'd 5000. Priests , and with his own hands consecrated 350. Bishops . How true the story is I know not ; but we were all witnesses that the late Primate , whose memory we now celebrate , did by an extraordinary contingency of Providence in one day consecrate two Archbishops and ten Bishops ; and did benefit to almost all the Churches in Ireland , and was greatly instrumental to the Re-endowments of the whole Clergy ; and in the greatest abilities and incomparable industry was inferiour to none of his most glorious Antecessours . Since the Canonization of Saints came into the Church , we find no Irish Bishop canoniz'd , except S. Laurence of Dublin , and S. Malachias of Down ; indeed Richard of Armagh's Canonization was propounded , but not effected ; but the Character which was given of that learned Primate by Trithemius does exactly fit this our late Father ; Vir in Divinis Scripturis eruditus , secularis Philosophiae jurísque Canonici non ignarus , clarus ingenio , sermone scholasticus , in declamandis sermonibus ad populum excellentis industriae : He was learned in the Scriptures , skill'd in secular Philosophy , and not unknowing in the Civil and Canon Laws , ( in which studies I wish the Clergy were with some carefulness and diligence still more conversant ) he was of an excellent spirit , a scholar in his discourses , an early and industrious Preacher to the people . And as if there were a more particular sympathy between their souls , our Primate had so great a Veneration to his memory , that he purpos'd , if he had liv'd , to have restor'd his Monument in Dundalke , which Time , or Impiety , or Unthankfulness had either omitted or destroyed . So great a lover he was of all true and inherent worth , that he lov'd it in the very memory of the dead , and to have such great Examples transmitted to the intuition and imitation of posterity . At his coming to the Primacy he knew he should at first espy little besides the Ruines of Discipline , a Harvest of Thorns , and Heresies prevailing in the hearts of the People , the Churches possess'd by Wolves and Intruders , Mens hearts greatly estranged from true Religion ; and therefore he set himself to weed the fields of the Church ; he treated the Adversaries sometimes sweetly , sometimes he confuted them learnedly , sometimes he rebuk'd them sharply . He visited his Charges diligently , and in his own person , not by Proxies and instrumental Deputations : Quaerens non nostra , sednos , & quae sunt Iesu Christi ; he design'd nothing that we knew of but the Redintegration of Religion , the Honour of God and the King , the Restoring of collapsed Discipline , and the Renovation of Faith and the Service of God in the Churches . And still he was indefatigable , and , even as the last scene of his life , intended to undertake a a Regal Visitation . Quid enim vultis me otiosum à Domino comprehendi ? said one ; he was not willing that God should take him unimployed : But , good man , he felt his Tabernacle ready to fall in pieces , and could go no further , for God would have no more work done by that hand ; he therefore espying this , put his house in order , and had lately visited his Diocese , and done what he then could to put his Charge in order ; for he had a good while since receiv'd the sentence of death within himself , and knew he was shortly to render an account of his stewardship ; he therefore upon a brisk alarm of death , which God sent him the last Ianuary , made his Will ; in which , besides the prudence and presence of spirit manifested in making just and wise settlement of his Estate , and provisions for his Descendants ; at midnight , and in the trouble of his sickness and circumstances of addressing death , still kept a special sentiment and made confession of Gods admirable mercies , and gave thanks that God had permitted him to live to see the blessed Restauration of His Majesty and the Church of England , confess'd his Faith to be the same as ever , gave praises to God that he was born and bred up in this Religion , and prayed to God and hop'd he should die in the Communion of this Church , which he declar'd to be the most pure and Apostolical Church in the whole world . He prayed to God to pardon his frailties and infirmities , relied upon the mercies of God and the merits of Jesus Christ , and with a singular sweetness resign'd up his soul into the hands of his Redeemer . But God , who is the great Choragus and Master of the Scenes of Life and Death , was not pleas'd then to draw the Curtains ; there was an Epilogue to his Life yet to be acted and spoken . He return'd to actions and life , and went on in the methods of the same procedure as before ; was desirous still to establish the affairs of the Church , complain'd of some disorders which he purpos'd to redress , girt himself to the work ; but though his spirit was willing , yet his flesh was weak ; and as the Apostles in the Vespers of Christs Passion , so he in the Eve of his own Dissolution was heavy , not to sleep , but heavy unto death , and look'd for the last warning , which seiz'd on him in the midst of business ; and though it was sudden , yet it could not be unexpected , or unprovided by surprize , and therefore could be no other then that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Augustus us'd to wish unto himself , a civil and well-natur'd death , without the amazement of troublesom circumstances , or the great cracks of a falling house , or the convulsions of impatience . Seneca tells that Bassus Aufidius was wont to say , Sperare se nullum dolorem esse in illo extremo anhelitu , si tamen esset , habere aliquantum in ipsa brevitate solatii : He hop'd that the pains of the last Dis●olution were little or none ; or if they were it was full of comfort that they could be but short . It happened so to this excellent Man ; his Passive Fortitude had been abundantly tried before , and therefore there was the less need of it now ; his active Graces had been abundantly demonstrated by the great and good things he did , & therefore his last scene was not so laborious , but God call'd him away something after the manner of Moses , which the Jews express by Osculum oris Dei , The Kiss of Gods mouth ; that is , a death indeed foresignified , but gentle , and serene , and without temptation . To summe up all ; He was a wise Prelate , a learned Doctor , a just Man , a true Friend , a great Benefactour to others , a thankful Beneficiary where he was oblig'd himself . He was a faithful Servant to his Masters , a Loyal Subjest to the King , a zelous Assertor of his Religion against Popery on one side , and Fanaticism on the other . The practice of his Religion was not so much in Forms and exteriour Ministries , though he was a great observer of all the publick Rites and Ministries of the Church , as it was in doing good for others . He was like Myson , whom the Scythian Anarchasis so greatly prais'd , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he govern'd his family well , he gave to all their due of maintenance and duty , he did great benefit to mankind ; he had the fate of the Apostle S. Paul , he pass'd through evil report and good report , as a deceiver and yet true . He was a man of great business and great resort : Semper aliquis in Cydonis domo , as the Corinthian said ; There was alwayes somebody in Cydon's house . He was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he divided his life into labour and his book ; he took care of his Churches when he was alive , and even after his death , having left 500 l. for the Repair of his Cathedral of Armagh and S. Peters Church in Drogheda . He was an excellent Scholar , and rarely well accomplish'd ; first instructed to great excellency by natural parts , and then consummated by study and experience . Melanchthon was us'd to say that himself was a Logician , Pomeranus a Grammarian , Iustus Ionas an Orator , but that Luther was all these . It was greatly true of him , that the single perfections which make many men eminent , were united in this Primate and made him illustrious . At , at , Quintilium perpetuus sopor Urget : cui pudor & justitiae soror Incorrupta fides , nudaque veritas Quando ullum invenient ●arem ? It will be hard to find his Equal in all things : Fortasse tanquam Phoenix anno quingentosimo naseitur , ( that I may use the words of Seneca ) nec est mirum ex intervallo magna generari mediocria & in turbam nascentia saepe fortuna producit : eximia vero ipsa raritate commendat . For in him was visible the great lines of Hooker's Judiciousness , of Iewel 's Learning , of the Accuteness of Bishop Andrews . He was skill'd in more great things then one ; and , as one said of Phidias , he could not onely make excellent statues of Ivory , but he could work in Stone and Brass . He shewed his Equanimity in Poverty , and his Justice in Riches ; he was useful in his Countrey , and profitable in his Banishment ; for , as Paraeus was at Anvilla , Luther at Wittenburg , S. Athanasius and S. Chrysostom in their Banishment , S. Hierom in his Retirement at Bethlehem , they were Oracles to them that needed it ; so was he in Holland and France , where he was abroad ; and , beside the particular endearments which his friends receiv'd from him , for he did do relief to his brethron that wanted , and supplied the Souldiers out of his store in York-shire , when himself could but ill spare it ; but he receiv'd publick thanks from the Convocation of which he was President , and publick Justification from the Parliament where he was Speaker ; so that although , as one said , Miràculi instar vitae iter , si longum , sine offensione percurrere ; yet no man had greater enemies , and no man had greater justifications . But God hath taken out Elijah from our heads this day . I pray God that at least his Mantle may be left behind , and that his spirit may be doubled upon his Successour ; and that we may all meet together with him at the right hand of the Lamb , where every man shall receive according to his deeds , whether they be good or whether they be evil . I conclude with the words of Caius Plinius , Equidem beatos puto quibus Deorum munere datum est , aut facere scribenda , aut scribere legenda . He wrote many things fit to be read , and did very many things worthy to be written ; which if we wisely imitate , we may hope to meet him in the Resurrection of the just , and feast with him in the eternal Supper of the Lamb , there to sing perpetual Anthems to the honour of God the Father , Son and Holy Ghost , to whom be all honour , &c. THE END . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A64132-e240 Synes . hym . 6 1 Thes. 4. 16. John 5. 28. Dracuntius de opere Dei. Luk. 14. 14. * Rev. 20. 6. 1 Thes. 4. 16. Rom. 5. 10. Isa. 26. 20. Numb . 1. 46. 3. 39. ●●ld . Hist. of●ithes ●ithes , c. 2. ●e Philo. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Tract . 25. in St. Matth. Pindar . De scriptor . Eccles. Epist. 30. Synes . ep . 57. 
A63668	----	A choice manual containing what is to be believed, practised, and desired or prayed for; the prayers being fitted to the several days of the week. Also festival hymns, according to the manner of the ancient church. Composed for the use of the devout, especially of younger persons, by Jeremy Taylor, D.D. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. 1677 Approx. 237 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 116 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-10 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A63668 Wing T292 ESTC R219156 99830672 99830672 35125 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A63668) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 35125) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 2080:16) A choice manual containing what is to be believed, practised, and desired or prayed for; the prayers being fitted to the several days of the week. Also festival hymns, according to the manner of the ancient church. Composed for the use of the devout, especially of younger persons, by Jeremy Taylor, D.D. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. Duppa, Brian, 1588-1662. Guide for the penitent: or, A modell drawn up for the help of a devout soul wounded with sin. The eleventh edition. [12], 216 p. : ill. printed by J. Grover, for R. Royston, bookseller to his most Sacred Majesty, London : 1677. Half title: The golden grove. The eleventh edition. Includes additional title page (A1v), engraved: The guide of instant-devotion together with A guide for the penitent. "A guide for the penitent. .." has a separate dated title page; pagination and register are continuous. Reproduction of the original in the British Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. 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Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Devotional literature -- Early works to 1800. Prayer-books -- Early works to 1800. Catechisms, English -- Early works to 1800. 2000-00 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2001-00 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2001-08 Kirk Davis Sampled and proofread 2005-03 Ben Griffin Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-04 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A CHOICE MANUAL , Containing What is to be Believed , Practised , and Desired or Prayed for ; the Prayers being fitted to the several Days of the Week . ALSO FESTIVAL HYMNS , According to the Manner of the ANCIENT CHURCH . Composed for the use of the Devout , especially of younger Persons , By Jeremy Taylor , D. D. LONDON , Printed , by J. Grover , for R. Royston , Bookseller to his most Sacred Majesty . 1677. THE Golden Grove . The Eleventh Edition . THE GUIDE of Infant-Devotion together with a Guide for the PENITENT A CHOICE MANUAL , Containing What is to be Believed , Practised , and Desired or Prayed for ; the Prayers being fitted to the several Days of the Week . ALSO FESTIVAL HYMNS , According to the Manner of the ANCIENT CHURCH . Composed for the use of the Devout , especially of younger Persons , By Jeremy Taylor , D. D. LONDON , Printed , by J. Grover , for R. Royston , Bookseller to his most Sacred Majesty . 1677. TO THE Pious and Devout . READER IN this sad declension of Religion , the Seers , who are appointed to be the Watchmen of the Church , cannot but observe that the Supplanters and Underminers are gone out , and are digging down the foundations ; and having destroy'd all publick forms of Ecclesiastical Government , discou●…tenanc'd an excellent , Liturgie , taken off the hinges of Unity , disgrac'd the Articles of Religion , polluted publick Assemblies , taken away all cognizance of Schism , by mingling all Sects , and giving Countenance to that against which all Power ought to stand upon their guard . There is now nothing left , but that we take care that men be Christians : For concerning the Ornament and advantages of Religion , we cannot make that provision we desire ; Incertis de salute de gloria minime certandum . For since they who have seen Jerusalem in prosperity , and have forgotten the order of the Morning and Evening Sacrifice , and the beauty of the Temple will be tempted to neglect so excellent a ministration , and their assembling themselves together for peace , and holy Offices , and be content with any thing that is brought to them , though it be but the husks and acorns of Prodigals and Swine , so they may enjoy their Lands and their Money with it ; we must now take care that the young men , who were born in the Captivity , may be taught how to Worship the God of Israel after the manner of their fore-fathers , till it shall please God that Religion shall return into the Land , and dwell safely , and grow prosperously , But never did the excellency of Episcopal Government apppear so demonstratively and conspicuously as now : Under their conduct and order we had a Church so united , so orderly , so govern'd , a Religion so setled , Articles so true , sufficient , and confess'd Canons so prudent and so obey'd , Devotions so regular and constant , Sacraments so adorn'd and ministred , Churches so beauteous and religious , Circumstances of Religion so grave and prudent , so useful and apt for edification , that the enemies of our Church , who serve the Pope in all things , and Jesus Christ in some , who dare transgress an Institution and Ordidinance of Christ , but dare not break a Canon of the Pope , did despair of prevailing against Us and Truth , and knew no hopes but by setting their faces against us to destroy this Government , and then they knew they should triumph without any enemy : so Balaam the Son of Bosor was sent for , to curse the People of the Lord , in hope that the son of Zippor might prevail against them that had long prospered under the Conduct of Moses and Aaron . But now instead of this excellency of Condition and Constitution of Religion , the people are fallen under the Harrows and Saws of impertinent and ignorant Preachers , who think all Religion is a Sermon , and all Sermons ought to be Libels against Truth and old Governours , and expound Chapters that the meaning may never be understood , and pray , that they may be thought able to talk , but not to hold their peace , they casting not to obtian any thing but Wealth and Victory , Power and Plunder : and the People have reap'd the fruits apt to grow upon such Crab-stocks ; they grow idle and false , hypocrites and careless , they deny themselves nothing that is pleasant , they despise Religion , forget Government , and some never think of Heaven , and they that do , think to go thither in such paths which all the Ages of the Church did give men warning of , lest they shoul that way go to the Devil . But when men have try'd all that they can , it is to be supposed they will return to the excellency and advantages of the Christian Religion , as it is taught by the Church of England ; for by destroying it no end can be serv'd but of Sin and Folly , Faction and Death eternal . For besides that no Church , that is enemy to this , does worship God in that truth of Propositions , in that unblameable and pious Liturgie , and in preaching the necessities of holy life , so much as the Church of England does ; besides this ( I say ) it cannot be persecuted by any Governour that understands his own Interest , unless he be first abused by false Preachers , and then prefers his secret Opinion before his publick Advantage . For no Church in the World is so great a friend to Loyalty and Obedience as she , and her Sisters of the same perswasion . They that hate Bishops have destroy'd Monarchy , and they that would erect an Ecclestical Monarchy must consequently subject the temporal to it ; and both one and the other would be supream in Consciences : and they that govern there with an opinion that in all things they ought to be attended to , will let their Prince govern others , so long as he will be rul'd by them . And certainly for a Prince to persecute the Protestant Religion , is as if a Physician should endeavour to destroy all Medicaments , and Fathers kill their Sons , and the Master of Ceremonies destroy all Formalities and Courtships , and as if the Pope should root out all the Ecclesiastick State. Nothing so combines with Government , if it be of God's appointment , as the Religion of the Church of England , because nothing does more adhere to the Word of God , and disregard the crafty advantages of the World. If any man shall not decline to try his Title by the Word of God , it is certain there is not in the world a better guard for it than the true Protestant Religion , as it is taught in our Church . But let things be as it please God ; it is certain that in that day when Truth gets her Victory , in that day we shall prevail against all God's enemies and ours , not in the purchaces and perquisites of the world , but in the rewards and returns of Holiness and Patience , and Faith and Charity ; for by these we worship God , and against this Interest we cannot serve any thing else . In the mean time we must by all means secure the founndation , and take care that Religion may be conveyed in all its material parts the same as it was , but by new and permitted instruments . For let us secure that our young men be good Christians , it is easy to make them good Protestants , unless they be abus'd with prejudice , and suck venom with their milk ; they cannot leave our Communion till they have reason to reprove our Doctrine . There is therefore in the following pages a Compendium of what we are to Believe , what to do , and what to Desire . It is indeed very little ; but it is enough to begin with , and will serve all persons so long as they need milk , and not strong meat . And he that hath given the following Assistances to thee , desires to be even a door-keeper in God's House , and to be a servant of the meanest of God's servants , and thinks it a worthy employment to teach the most ignorant , and make them to know Christ , though but in the first rudiments of a holy Institution . This only he affirms , that there is a more solid comfort and material support to a Christian spirit in one article of Faith , in one period of the Lord's Prayer , in one Holy Lesson , than in all the disputes of impertinent people , who take more pains to prove there is a Purgatory , than to perswade men to avoid Hell : And that a plain Catechism can more instruct a Soul , than the whole day's prate which some daily spit forth , to bid them get Christ , and persecute his Servants . Christian Religion is admirable for its wisdom , for its simplicity ; and he that presents the following Papers to thee , designs to teach thee as the Church was taught in the early days of the Apostles ; to believe the Christian Faith , and to understand it ; to represent plain Rules of good Life ; to describe easie Forms of Prayer ; to bring into your Assemblies Hymns of Glorification and Thanksgiving , and Psalms of Prayer . By these easy paths they lead Christ's little ones into the Fold of their great Bishop : and if by this any service be done to God , any ministery to the Soul of a Child or an ignorant Woman , it is hoped that God will accept it : and it is reward enough , if by my Ministery God will bring it to pass that any Soul shall be instructed , and brought into that state of good things , that it shall rejoyce for ever . But do thou pray for him that desires this to thee , and endeavours it , Jer. Taylor . CREDENDA , OR , What is to be Believed . A SHORT CATECHISM For the Institution of young persons in the Christian Religion . Quest. IN what does true Religion consist ? Answ. In the knowledge of the one true God , and , whom he hath sent Jesus Christ , and in the worshipping and serving them . Quest. What doest thou believe concerning God ? Answ. 1. That there is is a God : 2. That he is One , 3. Eternal , 4. Almighty : 5. That he hath made all the world : 6. That he knows all things : 7. That he is a Spirit ; not of any shape , or figure , or parts , or body : 8. That he is present in all places : 9. That his seat is in Heaven , and he governs all the world , so that nothing happens without his order and leave : 10. That he is the Fountain of Justice , 11. Of Mercy , 12. of Bounty or Goodness : 13. That he is unalterably happy , and infinitely perfect : 14. That no evil can come near him : 15. And he is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek him . Quest. What other Mystery is revealed concerning God ? Answ. That God being one in Nature , is also three in Person ; expressed in Scripture by the names of [ Father , Son , and Holy Spirit . ] The first Person being known to us by the name of [ The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. ] The second Person is called [ The son , and the Word of the Father . ] The third is [ The Spirit and promise of the Father . ] And these are Three and One after a secret manner , which we must believe , but cannot understand . Quest. What is this God to us ? Answ. He is our Creator and Father , and therefore he is our Lord ; and we are his Creatures , his Sons , and his Servants . Quest. Wherefore did God create and make us ? Answ. That we might do him honour and service , and receive from him infinite felicities . Quest. How did God make man ? Answ. By the Power of his word out of the slime of the Earth , and he breathed into him the breath of life . Quest. Was man good or bad when God made him ? Answ. Man was made pure and innocent . Quest. How then did man become sinful and miserable ? Answ. By listening to the whispers of a tempting spirit , and breaking an easy Commandment which God gave him as the first tryal of his obedience . Quest. What evils and chages followed this Sin , Answ. Adam , who was the first man and the first sinner , did both for himself and his posterity fall into the state of death , of sickness and misfortunes , and disorder both of Body and Soul : we were thrown out of Paradise , and lost our Immortality . Quest. Was man left in these evils without Remedy ? Answ. No ; but God , pitying his creature promised , That of the seed of the Woman he would raise up a Saviour and Redeemer , who should restore us to God's favour , and to the felicity which we lost . Quest. How did God perform the promise ? Answ. By sending Jesus Christ to take upon him our nature , to die for our sins , to become our Lord , and the Author of holiness , and life , and Salvation to mankind . Quest. Who is Jesus Christ ? Answ. He is the Son of God , the Second Person of the holy Trinity , equal with the Fathe , rtrue God without beginning of life or end of daies . Quest. How then could he be our Redeemer , and the promised seed of the Woman ? Answ. The Son of God in the fulness of time , by the miracles of his Mercy , took upon him Humane nature , and united it after a wonderful manner to his Godhead ; so that he was both God and Man. He was born of a Virgin , who conceived him not by any natural means , but by the power of the holy Ghost , and was called Jesus Christ ; and his Mother's name was Mary of the seed of Abraham , of the family of David . And all these things came to pass when Augustus Caesar was Lord of the Roman Empire . Quest. How did Jesus Christ work this promised Redemption for us ? Answ. By his holy and humble life , and his obedient dying a painful death for us upon the Cross. Quest. What benefits do we receive by the life and death of Jesus Christ ? Answ. We are instructed by his Doctrine , encouraged by his excellent Example , we are reconciled to God by his death ; He hath given us an excellent Law , and glorious Promises , and himself hath received power to make good all those Promises to his Servants , and fearfully to destroy them that will not have him to reign over them . Quest. What Promises hath Jesus Christ made us in the Gospel ? Answ. He hath promised to give us all that we need in this life ; That every thing shall work together for our good ; That he will be with us in tribulation and persecution . He hath promised his Graces and his holy Spirit to enable us to do our duty ; and if we make use of these Graces , he hath promised to give us more . He hath promised to forgive us our sins ; to hear our prayers ; to take the sting of death from us ; to keep our souls in safe custody after death ; and in his due time to raise our bodies from the grave , and to joyn them to our Souls , and to give us eternal life , and joys that shall never cease . Quest. How is Jesus Christ able to do all this for us ? Answ. When he had suffered death , and was buried three days , God raised him up again , and gave him all power in Heaven and Earth made him head of the Church , Lord of Men and Angels , and the judge of the quick and dead . Quest. By what means doth Jesus Christ our Lord convey all these Blessings to us ? Answ. Jesus Christ had three Offices , and in all he was Mediator between God and man ; He is our Prophet , our Priest , and our King. Quest. What was his Office as he was a Phophet ? Answ. This Office he finished on earth ; beginning when he was thirty years old to ●…each the Gospel of the Kingdom , Faith and Repentance . Quest. When began his Priestly Office ? and wherein does it consist ? Answ. It began at his death ; for he was himself the Priest and the Sacrifice , offering himself upon the Altar of the Cross for the sins of all the World. Quest. Did his Priestly Office then cease ? Answ. No : He is a Priest for ever , that is , unto the end of the world , and represents the same Sacrifice to God in Heaven , interceding and praying continually for us in the virtue of that sacrifice , by which he obtains relief of all our necessities . Quest. What doth Christ in Heaven pray for on our behalf ? Answ. That our sins may be pardoned , our infirmities pitied , our necessities relieved , our persons defended , our temptations overcome , that we may be reconciled to God , and be saved . Quest. How is Jesus Christ also our King ? Answ. When he arose from his grave , and had for forty days together conversed with his Disciples , shewing himself alive by many infallible tokens , he ascended into Heaven , and there sits at the right hand of God , all things being made subject to him , Angels , and Men , and Devils , Heaven and Earth , the Elements , and all the Creatures ; and over all he reigns , comforting and defending his elect , subduing the power of the Devil , taking out the sting of Death , and making all to serve the Glory of God , and to turn to the good of his Elect. Quest. How long must his Kingdom last ? Answ. Till Christ hath brought all his enemies under his feet , that is , till the day of judgment : in which Day shall be performed the greatest acts of his Kingly power ; for then he shall quite conquer Death , triumph over the Devils , throw his enemies into Hell-fire , and carry all his Elect to never-ceasing glories : and then he shall deliver up the Kingdom to his Father , that God may be all in all . Quest. How is Christ a Mediator in all these Offices . Answ. A Mediator signifies one that stands between God and us . As Christ is a Prophet , so he taught us his Father's will , and ties us to obedience : As he is a Priest , he is our Redeemer , having paid a price for us even his most precious blood ; and our Advocate , pleading for us , and mediating our Pardon and Salvaon : As he is a King , so he is our Lord , our Patron , and our Judge ; yet it is the Kingdom of a Mediator , that is , in order to the world to come , but then to determine and end . And in all these he hath made a Covenant between God and us of an everlasting interest . Quest. What is the Covenant which Jusus Christ our Mediator hath made between God and us ? Answ. That God will write his Laws in our hearts , and will pardon us and defend us , and raise us up again at the last day , and give us an inheritance in his Kingdom . Quest. To what Conditions hath he bound us on our parts . Answ. Faith and Repentance . Quest. When do we enter into this Covenant ? Answ. In our Baptism , and at our ripe years , when we understand the secrets of the kingdom of Christ , and undertake willingly what in our names was undertaken for us in our infancy . Quest. What is the Covenant of Faith which we enter into in Baptism ? Answ. We promise to believe that Jesus Christ is the Messias , or he that was to come into the world ; That he is the Anointed of the Lord , or the Lord 's Christ ; That he is the Son of God , and the Son of the Virgin Mary ; That he is God incarnate , or God manifested in the flesh ; That he is the Mediator between God and Man ; That he died for us upon the Cross , and rose again the third day , and ascended into Heaven , and shall be there till the day of Judgment ; that then he shall be our Judge ; in the mean time he is the King of the world , and head of the Church . Quest. What is the Covenant of Repentance ? Answ. We promise to leave all our sins , and with a hearty and sincere endeavour to give up our will and affections to Christ , and do what he hath commanded ( according to our power and weakness . ) Quest. How if we fail of this Promise through infirmity , and commit sin ? Answ. Still we are within the Covenant of Repentance , that is , within the promise of pardon , and possibility of returning from dead works and mortifying our lusts : and though this be done after the manner of men , that is , in weakness , and with some failings ; yet our endeavour must be hearty , and constant , and diligent , and our watchfulness and prayers for pardon must be lasting and persevering . Quest. What Ministeries hath Christ appointed to help us in this duty ? Answ. The Ministery of the Word and Secraments , which he will accompany with his Grace and his Spirit . Quest. What is a Sacrament ? Answ. An outward Ceremony ordained by Christ , to be a sign and a means of conveying his grace unto us . Quest. How many Sacraments are ordained by Christ ? Answ. Two : Baptism , and the Supper of our Lord. Quest. What is Baptism ? Answ. An outward washing of the Body in Water , in the Name of the Father , Son , and Holy Ghost : in which we are buried with Christ in his death , after a Sacramental manner , and are made partakers of Christ's Death and of his Resurrection , teaching us , that we should rise from the death of Sin to the life of Righteousness . Quest. VVhat is the Sacrament of the Lords Supper ? Answ. A ceremony of eating Bread and drinking Wine , being blessed and consecrated by God's Minister in publick Assemblies , in remembrance of Christ's Death and Passion . Quest. What benefits are done unto us by this Sacrament ? Answ. Our Souls are nourished by the Body and Blood of Christ , our Bodies are sealed to a Blessed Resurrection and to Immortality ; our Infirmities are strengthned , our Graces encreased , our Pardon made more certain : and when we present our selves to God , having received Christ's Body within us , we are sure to be accepted , and all the good prayers we make to God for our selves and others are sure to be heard . Quest. Who are fit to receive this Sacrament ? Answ. None but baptized Christians , and such as repent of their Sins , and heartily purpose to lead a good Life . Quest. What other Ministeries hath Christ ordained in his Church to help us , and to bring so many great purposes to pass ? Answ. Jesus Christ hath appointed Ministers and Embassadors of his own , to preach his word to us , to pray for us , to exhort and to reprove , to comfort and instruct , to restore and reconcile us , if we be overtaken in a fault , to visit the sick , to separato the vile from the precious , to administer the Sacraments , and to watch for the good of our Souls . Quest. What are we tied to perform towards them ? Answ. To pay them honour and maintenance , to obey them in all things according to the Gospel , and to order our selves so that they may give account of our Souls with chearfulness and joy . Quest. Which are the Commandments and Laws of Jesus Christ ? Answ. They are many , but easy ; holy , but very pleasant to all good minds , to such as desire to live well in this world and in the world to come : and they are set down in the Sermons of our Blessed Lord and of his Apostles ; but especially in the 5 , 6 , 7. Chapters of S. Matthew . AN EXPOSITION OF The Apostles Creed I Believe in God , I Believe that there is a God , who is one , true , supreme and alone , infinitely wise , just , good , free , eternal , immense and blessed , and in him alone we are to put our trust . The Father Almighty , I believe that he is ( 1. ) the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ , and ( 2. ) of all that believe in him , whom he hath begotten by his Word , and adopted to the inheritance of Sons : and because he is our Father , he will do us all that good ; to which we are created and designed by Grace ; and because he is Almighty , he is able to perform it all ; and therefore we may safely believe in him and relie upon him . Maker of Heaven & Earth . He made the Sun and the Moon the Stars , and all the Regions of Glory ; he made the Air , the Earth and the Water , and all that live in them ; he made Angels and Men : and he who made them does , and he only can preserve them in the same being , and thrust them forwards to a better . He that preserves them does also govern them , and intends they should minister to his Glory : and therefore we are to do worship and obedience to him in all that we can , and that he hath commanded . And in Jesus Christ , I also believe in Jesus Christ , who is and is called a Saviour , and the Anointed of the Lord , promised to the Patriarchs , whom God anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power , to become the Great Prophet , and declarer of his Father's Will to all the world ; telling us how God will be worshipped and served : he is anointed to be the Mediator of the New Covenant , and our High-Priest , reconciling us to his Father by the Sacrifice of himself ; and to be the Great King of all the world . And by this Article we are Christians , who serve and worship God the Father through Jesus Christ. His only Son. Jesus Christ is the Son of God , he alone , of him alone . For God by his Holy Spirit caused him to be born of a Virgin ; by his power he raised him from the dead , and gave him a new Birth or being in the Body . : he gave him all power , and all excellency . And beyond all this , he is the express Image of his person , the brightness of his glory , equal to God , beloved before the beginning of the world , of a nature perfectly Divine , very God by essence , and very Man , by assumption : as God , all one in nature with the Father , and as Man , one Person in himself . Our Lord ; Jesus Christ , God's only Son , is the Heir of all things and persons in his Father's house : All Angels and Men are his servants , and all the Creatures obey him . We are to believe in him , and by Faith in him onely and in his name we shall be saved . Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost , I believe that Jesus Christ was not begotten of a Man , nor born by natural means , but that a Divine Power from God [ God 's Holy Spirit ] did overshadow the Virgin-Mother of Christ , and made her in a wonderful manner to conceive Jesus in her womb ; and by this his admirable manner of being conceived he was the Son of God alone , and no Man was his Father . Born of the Virgin Mary , Though God was his Father , and he begat him by the power of the Holy Ghost , and caused him miraculously to begin in the womb of his Mother ; yet from her he also derived his humane Nature , and by his Mother he was of the Family of King David , and called the Son of Man ; his Mother being a holy person , not chosen to this great honour for her wealth or beauty , but by the good will of God , and because she was of rare exemplar modesty and humility : and she received the honour of being a Mother to the Son of God , and ever a Virgin , and all generations shall call her blessed . Suffered under Pontius Pilate . After that Jesus passed through the state of Infancy and Childhood , being subject to his Parents , and working in an humble . Trade to serve his own and his Mother 's needs , he grew to the estate of a man : he began to preach at the age of thirty years , and having for about three years and a half Preached the Gospel , and taught us his Father's will , having spoken the Gospel of his Kingdom , and revealed to us the secrets of Eternal life , and Resurrection of the Dead , Regeneration , and Renewing by the Holy , Spirit , perfect Remission of sins , and Eternal Judgment ; at last , that he might reconcile the world to his Father , he became a Sacrifice for all our sins , and suffered himself to be taken by the malicious Jews , and put to a painful and shameful death ; they being envious at him for the number of his Disciples , and the reputation of his person , the innocence of his life , the mightiness of his Miracles , and the power of his Doctrine : and this Death he suffered when Pontius Pilate was Governour of Judea . Was crucified . Jesus Christ being taken by the Rulers of the Jews , bound and derided , buffeted and spit upon , accused weakly and persecuted violently ; at last , wanting matter and pretences to condemn him , they asked him of his person and office ; and because he affirmed that great Truth , which all the world of good men long'd for , that he was the Messias , and designed to sit on the right hand of the Majesty on high , they resolved to call it Blasphemy , and delivered him over to Pilate , and by importunity and threats forced him , against his Conscience , to give him up to be scourged , and then to be Crucified . The Souldiers therefore mocking him with a Robe and Reed , and pressing a Crown of thorns upon his head , led him to the place of his death ; compelling him to bear his Cross , to which they presently nail'd him ; on which for three hours he hanged in extreme torture , being a sad spectacle of the most afflicted and the most innocent person of the whole world . Dead , When the Holy Jesus was wearied with tortures , and he knew all things were now fulfilled , and his Father's wrath appeased towards Mankind , his Father pitying his innocent Son groaning under such intolerable miseries , hastned his Death ; and Jesus commending his Spirit into the hands of his Father , cried with a loud voice , bowed his head , and died , and by his death sealed all the Doctrines and Revelations which he first taught the world and then confirmed by his Bloud . He was consecrated our merciful High-Priest , and by a feeling of our miseries and temptations , became able to help them that are tempted ; and for these his sufferings was exalted to the highest Throne , and seat of the right hand of God ; and hath shewn , that to Heaven there is no surer way than suffering for his Name ; and hath taught us willingly to suffer for his sake , what himself hath already suffered for ours . He reconciled us to God by his Death led us to God , drew us to himself , redeemed us from all iniquity , purchased us for his Father , and for ever made us his servants and redeemed ones , that we being dead unto sin , might live unto God. And this Death , being so highly beneficial to us , he hath appointed means to apply to us , and to represent to God for us in the Holy Sacrament of his last Supper . And upon all these considerations , that Cross which was a smart and shame to our Lord , is honour to us , and as it turned to his Glory , so also to our Spiritual advantages . And Buried . That he might suffer every thing of humane nature , he was by the care of his Friends and Disciples , by the leave of Pilate , taken from the Cross , and embalmed , ( as the manner of the Jews was to bury ) and wrapp'd linnen , and buried in a new grave hewn out of a Rock . And this was the last and lowest step of his Humiliation . He descended into Hell. That is He went down into the lower parts of the earth , ( as himself called it ) into the heart of the earth ; by which phrase the Scripture understands the state of Separation , or of Souls severed from their Bodies . By this his descending to the land of darkness , where all things are forgotten , he sanctified the state of Death & Separation , that none of his servants might ever after fear the jaws of Death and Hell ; whither he went , not to suffer torment , ( because he finished all that upon the Cross ) but to triumph over the gates of Hell , to verifie his Death , and the event of his sufferings , and to break the iron bars of those lower prisons , that they may open and shut hereafter only at his command . The third day he rose again from the Dead . After our Lord Jesus had abode in the grave the remaining part of the day of his Passion , and all the next day , early in the morning upon the third day , by the power of God , he was raised from Death and Hell to Light and Life , never to return to death any more , and is become the first-born from the dead , the first-fruits of them that slept : and although he was put to death in the flesh , yet now , being quickned in the Spirit , he lives for ever . And as we all die in Adam , so in Christ we all shall be made alive ; but every man in his own order : Christ is the first ; and we , if we follow him in the Regeneration , shall also follow him in the Resurrection . He ascended into Heaven , When our dearest Lord was risen from the Grave , he conversed with his Disciples for forty days together , often shewing himself alive by infallible proofs , and once to five hundred of his Disciples at once appearing . Having spoken to them fully concerning the affairs of the Kingdom , and the Promise of the Father ; leaving them some few things in charge for the present , he solemnly gave them his Blessing , and in the presence of his Apostles was taken up into Heaven by a bright Cloud and the Ministery of Angels , being gone before us , to prepare a place for us above all Heavens , in the presence of his Father , and at the foot of the Throne of God. From which glorious presence we cannot be kept by the change of Death and the powers of the Grave , nor the depth of Hell , nor the height of Heaven ; but Christ being lifted up shall draw all his Servants unto him . And sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty . I believe that Jesus Christ sitteth in Heaven above all Principalities and Powers , being exalted above every Name that is named in Heaven and Earth , that is above every creature above and below , all things being put under his feet . That he is always in the presence of his Father , interceding for us , and governs all things in Heaven and Earth , that he may defend his Church , and adorn her with his Spirit , and procure and effect her eternal Salvation , There he sits and reigns as King , and intercedes as our High-Priest . He is a Minister of the Sanctuary , and of the true Tabernacle which God made , and not man , the Author and Finisher of our Faith , the Captain of our Confession , the great Apostle of our Religion , the Great Bishop of our Souls , the Head of the Church , and the Lord of Heaven and Earth . And therefore to him we are to pay Dvino Worship , Service and Obedience ; and we must believe in him , and in God by him , and rely entirely on the mercies of God through Jesus Christ. From thence he shall come In the Clouds shining , and adorned with the glory of his Father , attended by millions of bright Angels , with the voice of an Archangel , and a shout of all the Heavenly , Army , the Trump of God ; and every eye shall see him , and they that pierced his hands and his ●…eet shall behold his Majesty , his Terror , and his Glory : and all the families of the earth shall tremble at his presence , and the powers of Heaven shall be shaken , and the whole earth and sea shall be broken in pieces and confusion ; for then he shall come to put an end to this world , and To Judge the Quick and the Dead . For the Father judgeth no man , but hath given all judgment to his Son. And at this day of Judgment the Lord Jesus shall sit in the Air in a glorious Throne ; and the Angels having gathered together God's Elect from the four corners of the world , all the kindreds of the earth , being brought before the Judgment-seat , shall have the Records of their Conscience laid open , that is , all that ever they thought , or spake , or did , shall be brought to their memory , to convince the wicked of the Justice of the Judge in passing the fearful Sentence upon them , and glorify the mercies of God towards his Redeemed ones : and then the righteous Judge shall condemn the wicked to the portion of Devils for ever , to a state of torments , the second , and eternal , and intolerabl death ; and the godly , being placed on his right hand , shall hear the blessed Sentence of absolution , and shall be led by Christ to the participation of the glories of his Father's Kingdom for ever and ever . Amen . I believe in the Holy Ghost [ or ] the Holy Spirit . Who is the third Person of the holy , undivided , ever-blessed Trinity , which I worship and adore and admire , but look upon with wonder , and am not in a capacity to understand . I believe that the Holy Spirit into whose name , as of the Father and the Son , I was baptized , is the heavenly Author , the Captain , the Teacher , and the Witness of all the Truths of the Gospel : that as the Father sent the Son , so the Son from Heaven sent the holy Spirit to lead the Church into all truth , to assist us in all Temptations , and to help us in the purchase of all Vertue . This Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father , and our Lord Jesus received him from his Father , and sent him into the world ; who receiving the things of Christ and declaring the same excellent Doctrines , speaks whatsoever he hath heard from him ; and instructed the Apostles , and builds the Church ; and produces Faith , and confirms our Hope , and increases Charity . And this Holy Spirit our blessed Lord hath left with his Church for ever , by which all the servants of God are enabled to do all things necessary to Salvation , which by the force of Nature they cannot do : and we speak by the Spirit , and work by the Spirit , when by his assistances any ways imparted to us we speak or do any thing of our duty . He it is who enlightens our Understanding , sanctifies our Will , orders and commands our affections ; he comforts our sorrows , supports our spirits in trouble , and enables us by Promises , and Confidences , and Gifts , to suffer for the Lord Jesus and the Gospel . And all these things God the Father does for us by his Son , and the Son by the Holy Spirit , and the Holy Spirit by all means within and without , which are operative upon and proportionable to the nature of reasonable creatures . This is he who works Miracles , gives the gifts of Prophecy and of Interpretation , that teaches us what and how to pray , that gives us Zeal and holy Desires ; who sanctifies Children in Baptism , and confirms them with his grace in Comfirmation , and reproves the world , and consecrates Bishops and all the Ministers of the Gospel , and absolves the Penitent , and Blesses the Obedient , and comforts the Sick , and excommunicates the Refractory , and makes intercession for the Saints : that is , the Church and those whom he hath Blessed , appointed and sanctified to these purposes , do all these Ministeries by his Authority and his Commandment and his Aids . This is he that testifies to our Spirits that we are the Sons of God , and that makes us to cry , Abba , Father ; that is , who inspires into us such humble confidences of our being accepted in our hearty and constant endeavours to please God , that we can with chearfulness and joy call God our Father , and expect and hope for the portion of Sons both here and hereafter , and in the certainty of this hope , to work out our Salvation with fear and reverence , with trembling and joy , with distrust of our selves and mighty confidence in God. By this holy and ever-blessed Spirit several persons in the Church , and every man in his proportion , receives the gifts of Wisdom , and Utterance , and Knowledge , and Interpretation , and Prophesie and Healing , and Goverement , and discerning of Spirits , and Faith , and Tongues , and whatsoever can be necessary for the Church in several ages and periods , for her beginning , for her continuance , for her in prosperity , and for her in persecution . This is the great Promise of the Father , and it is the gift of God , which he will give to all them that ask him , and who live piously and chastly , and are persons fit to entertain so Divine a Grace . This Holy Spirit God gives to some more , to some less , according as they are capable . They who obey his Motions , and love his presence , and improve his Gifts , shall have him yet more abundantly : but they that grieve the Holy Spirit shall loose that which they have ; and they that extinguish him belong not to Christ , but are in the state of reprobation ; and they that blaspheme this holy Spirit , and call him the spirit of the Devil , or the Spirit of error , or folly , or do malicious despites to him , that is , they who on purpose , considering and chusing , do him hurt by word or by deed , ( so far as lies in them ) shall for ever be separated from the presence of God and of Christ , and shall never be forgiven in this world nor in the world to come . Lastly , this Holy Spirit seals us to the day of Redemption ; that is , God gives us his Holy Spirit as a testimony that he will raise us again at the last day , and give us a portion in the glories of his Kingdom , in the inheritance of our Lord Jesus . The holy Catholick Church . I believe that there is and ought to be a visible company of men professing the service and discipline , that is , the Religion , of the Gospel , who agree together in the Belief of all the Truths of God revealed by Jesus Christ , and in confession of the Articles of this Creed , and agree together in praying and praising God through Jesus Christ , to read and hear the Scriptures read and expounded , to provoke each other to love and to good works , to advance the honour of Christ , and to propagate his Faith and Worship . I believe this to be a Holy Church , Spiritual , and not Civil and Secular , but sanctified by their Profession , and the solemn Rites of it , professing holiness , and separating from the evil manners of heathens and wicked persons , by their laws and institutions . And this Church is Catholick ; that is , it is not confined to the Nation of the Jews , as was the old Religion , but it is gathered out of all Nations , and is not of a differing Faith in differing places , but always did , doth , and ever shall profess the Faith which the Apostles preach'd , and which is contained in this Creed ; with whosoever believes is a Catholick and a Christian , and he that believes not is neither . This Catholick Church I believe , that is , I believe whatsoever all good Christians in all Ages and in all places did confess to be the Catholick and Apostolick Faith. The Communion of Saints , That is , the Communion of all Christians ; because by reason of their holy Faith they are called Saints in Scripture , as being begotten by God into a lively Faith , and cleansed by Believing : and by this Faith , and the Profession of a holy life in obedience to Jesus Christ , they are separated from the world , called to the knowledge of the Truth , justified before God , and indued with the holy Spirit of Grace , foreknown from the beginning of the world , and predestinated by God to be made conformable to the image of his Son , here in holiness of life , hereafter in a life of glory ; and they who are Saints in their belief and profession must be so also in their practice and conversation , that so they may make their calling and election sure , lest they be Saints onely in name and title , in their profession and institution , and not in manners and holiness of living ; that is , lest they be so before men , and not before God. I believe that all people who desire the benefit of the Gospel are bound to have a fellowship and society with these Saints , and communicate with them in their holy things , in their Faith , and in their Hope , and in their Sacraments , and in their Prayers , and in their Publick Assemblies , and in their Government : and must do to them all the acts of Charity and mutual help which they can and are required to : and without this Communion of Saints , and a conjunction with them who believe in God through Jesus Christ , there is no Salvation to be expected ; which Communion must be kept in inward things always and in all persons , and testified by outward acts always , when it is possible , and may be done upon just and holy conditions . The Forgiveness of sins . I believe that all the sins I committed before I came to the knowledge of the Truth , and all the slips of humane infirmity , against which we heartily pray , and watch , and labour , and all the evil habits of which we repent so timely and effectually that we obtain their contrary graces and live in them , are fully remitted by the blood of Christ ; which forgiveness we obtain by Faith and Repentance , and therefore are not justified by the Righteousness of Works , but by the Righteousness of Faith : and we are preserved in the state of forgiveness or justification by the fruits of a lively Faith , and a timely active Repentance . The Resurrection of the Body . I believe that at the last day all they whose sins are forgiven , and who lived and died in the Communion of Saints , and in whom the Holy Spirit did dwell , shall rise from their grves , their dead bones shall live and be clothed with flesh and skin , and their Bodies together with their Souls shall enter into the portion of a new life : and that this body shall no more see corruption , but shall rise to an excellent condition ; it shall be Spiritual , Powerful , Immortal and Glorious , like unto his glorious body , who shall then be our Judge , is now our Advocate , our Saviour and our Lord. And the Life everlasting . I believe that they who have their part in this Resurrection shall meet the Lord in the Air , and when the blessed Sentence is pronounc'd upon them , they shall for ever be with the Lord in joys unspeakable and full of glory , God shall w●…pe all tears from their eyes ; there shall be no fear or sorrow , no mourning or death ; a friend shall never go away from thence , and an enemy shall never enter ; there shall be fulness without want , light eternal brighter then the Sun , day and no night , joy and no weeping , difference in degree and yet all full ; there is love without dissimulation , excellency without envy , multitudes without confusion , musick without discord ; there the Understandings are rich , the Will is satisfied , the Affections are all love and all joy , and they shall reign with God and Christ for ever and ever . Amen . This is the Catholick Faith , which except a man believe faithfully he cannot be saved . Tertull. de velandis Virgin. Regula quidem fidei ●…na omnino est , sola immobilis & irreformabilis , credendi , scilicet , in unicum Deum Omnipotentem , &c. Hac lege fidei manente , caet●…ra jam disciplinae & conversationis admittunt novitatem correctionis , operante , scil . & proficiente usque in finem Gratia Dei. The Rule of Faith is wholly one , unalterable , never to be mended , never changed ; to wit , I believe in God , &c , This Law of Faith remaining , in other things you may encrease and grow . S. Aug. de Fide & Symb. Haec est Fides , quae paucis verbis tenenda in Symbolo Novellis datur . Quae pauca verba fiedelibus not a sunt : ut credendo subjugentur Deo , subjugati recte vivant , recte vivendo cor mundent , corde mundo quod credunt , intelligant . This is the Faith which in few words is given to Novices . These few words are known to all the faithful ; that by believing they may be subject to God , by this subjection they may live well , by living-well they may purifie their hearts , and with pure hearts they may [ relish & ] understand what they do believe . Max. Taurin . de Tradit . Symb. Symbolum tessera est & signaculum , quo inter fideles Perfidosque secernitur . This Creed is the Badge or Cognizance by which the Faithful are discerned from Unbelievers . Hujus Catholici Symboli brevis & perfecta Confessio , quae duodecim Apostolorum totidem est signata sententiis , tam instructa est in munitione coelesti , ut omnes Haereticorum opiniones solo possint gladio detruncari . Leo M. ad Pulcheriam Aug. This short and perfect Confession of this Catholick Creed , which was consigned by the Sentences of twelve Apostles , is so perfect a celestial Armour , that all the Opinions of Hereticks may by this alone , as with a Sword , be cut in pieces . AGENDA : OR , Things to be done . THE DIARY OR , A RULE to spend each day religiously . SECT . 1. 1. SUppose every day to be a day of business : for your whole life is a race , and a battel ; a merchandise , and a journey . Every day propound to your self a Rosary or a Chaplet of good works to present to God at night . 2. Rise as soon as your health and other occasions shall permit ; but it is good to be as regular as you can , and as early . Remember , he that rises first to Prayer hath a more early title to a Blessing . Bnt he that changes night into day , labour into idleness , watchfulness into sleep , changes his hopes of blessing into a dream . 3. Never let any one think it an excuse to lie in bed , because he hath nothing to do when he is up : for whoever hath a Soul , and hopes to save that Soul , hath work enough to do to make his calling and election sure , to serve God and to pray , to read and to meditate , to repent and to amend , to do good to others , and to keep evil from themselves . And if thou hast little to do , thou ought'st to imploy the more time in laying up for a greater Crown of Glory . 4. At your opening your eyes , enter upon the day with some act of piety . 1. Of Thanksgiving for the preservation of you the night past . 2. Of the Glorification of God for the works of the Creation , or any thing for the honour of God. 5. When you first go off from your bed , solemnly and devoutly bow your head , and worship the Holy Trinity , the Father , Son and Holy Ghost . 6. When you are making ready , be as silent as you can , and spend that time in holy thoughts ; there being no way left to redeem that time from loss , but by meditation and short mental prayers . If you chuse to speak , speak somthing of God's praises , of his goodness , his mercies , or his greatness . Ever resolving that the first fruits of thy Reason and of all thy Faculties shall be presented to God , to sanctfie the whole harvest of thy conversation . 7. Be not curious , nor careless in your Habit , but always keep these measures . 1. Be not troublesome to thy self or to others by unhandsomness or uncleanness . 2. Let it be according to your state and quality . 3. Make Religion to be the difference of your habit , so as to be best attired upon Holy or Festival daies . 8. In your dressing , let there be ejaculations fitted to the several actions of dressing : as at washing your hands and face , pray God to cleanse your Soul from sin ; in putting on your cloaths , pray him to cloth your Soul with the righteousness of your Saviour and so in all the rest . For Religion must not onely be the garment of your Soul , to invest it all over ; but it must be also as the fringes to every of your actions , that something of Religion appear in every one of them , besides the innocence of all of them . 9. As soon as you are dressed with the first preparation of your cloaths , that you can decently do it , kneel and say the Lord's Prayer ; then rise from your knees and do what is necessary for you in order to your farther dressing , or affairs of the house , which is speedily to be done ; and then finish your dressing according to the foregoing Rules . 10. When you are dressed , retire your self to your Closet , and go to your usual devotions ; which it is good that at the first prayers they were divided into seven actions of Piety . 1. An act of Adoration . 2. Of Thanksgiving . 3. Of Oblation . 4. Of Confession . 5. Of Petition . 6. Of Intercession . 7. Of Meditation , or serious , deliberate , useful reading of the holy Scriptures . 11. I advise that your reading should be governed by these measures . 1. Let it not be of the whole Bible in order , but for your devotion use the New Testament , and such portions of the Old as contain the Precepts of holy life . 2. The Historical and less useful part , let it be read at such other times which you have of leisure from your domestick imployments . 3. Those portions of Scripture which you use in your prayers , let them not be long : a Chapter at once , no more . But then what time you can afford , spend it in thinking and meditating upon the holy Precepts w ch you read . 4. Be sure to meditate so long , till you make some act of piety upon the occasion of what you meditate either that you get some new arguments against a sin , or some new incouragements to vertue ; some spiritual strength and advantage , or else some act of Prayer to God , or glorification of him . 5. I advise that you would read your Chapter in the midst of your Prayers in the Morning , if they be divided according to the number of the former actions ; because little interruptions will be apt to make your Prayers less tedious , and your self more attent upon them . But if you find any other way more agreeing to your spirit and disposition , use your liberty without scruple . 12. Before you go forth of your Closet , after your Prayers are done , set your self down a little while and consider what you are to do that day , what matter or business is like to imploy you or to tempt you ; and take particular resolution against that , whether it be matter of wrangling , or anger , or covetousness , or vain courtship , or feasting ; and when you enter upon it , remember upon what you resolved in your Closet . If yo are likely to have nothing extraordinary that day , a general recommendation of the affairs of that day to God in your prayers will be sufficient : but if there be any thing foreseen that is not usual , be sure to be armed for it by a hearty , though a short , prayer , and an earnest prudent resolution before-hand , and then watch when the thing comes . 13. Whosoever hath Children or Servants , let him or her take care that all the Children and Servants of the Family say their Prayers before they begin their work . The Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments , with the short verse at the end of every Commandment which the Church uses , and the Creed , is a very good office for them , if they be not fitted for more regular offices . And to these also it were good that some proper Prayer were apportioned , and they taught it . It were well if they would serve themselves of this Form set down at the end of this Diary . 14. Then go about the affairs of your house and proper imployment , ever avoiding idleness , or too much earnestness of affection upon the things of the world : Do your business prudently , temperately , diligently , humbly , charitably . 15. Let there be no idle person in or about your family , of beggars or unimployed Servants , but find them all work and meat , call upon them carefully , reprove them without reproaches or fierce railings . Be a master or a mistress , and a friend to them , and exact of them to be faithful and diligent . 16. In your Servants suffer any offence against your self rather than against God ; endure not that they should swear , or lie , or steal , or be wanton , or curse each other , or be railers , or slanderers , or tell-tales , or sowers of dissention in the family , or amongst neighbours . 17. In all your entercourse with your neighbours in the day , let your affairs be wholly matter of business or civility , and always managed with Justice and Charity : never let it be matter of curiosity or enquiry into the actions of others , always without censuring or rash judgment , without backbiting , slandering or detraction : Do it not your self , neither converse with them that do . He or she that loves tale-bearers shall never be beloved , or be innocent . 18. Before dinner and supper , as often as it is convenient or can be had , let the publick Prayers of the Church , or some parts of them be said publickly in the family , and let as many be present as you can . The same rule is also to be observed for Sundays and Holy-days , for their going to Church . Let no servant be always detained , but relieved and provided for by changes . 19. Let your meal be temperate and wholesom according to your quality and the season , begun and ended with Prayer : and be sure that in the course of your meal , and before you rise , you recollect your self , and send your heart up to God with some holy and short Ejaculation ; remembring your duty , fearing to offend , or desiring and sighing after the eternal Supper of the Lamb. 20. After meal use what innocent refreshment you please , to refresh your mind or body with these measures . 1. Let it not be too expensive of time . 2. Let it not hinder your devotion , nor your business . 3. Let it be always without violence or passion . 4. Let it not then wholly take you up when you are at it ; but let your heart retire with some holy thoughts and sober recollections , lest your mind be seized upon by it , and your affections carried off from better things : secure your affections for God , and sober and severe imployment . Here you may be refreshed , but take heed you neither dwell here , nor sin here . It is better never to use recreation , than at any time to sin by it : But you may use recreation , and avoid sin , and that 's the best temper . But if you cannot do both , be more careful of your Soul than of your refreshment ; and that 's the best security . But then , in what you use to sin , carefully avoid it , and change your refreshment for some other instance in which you can be more innocent . 21. Entertain no long discourse with any , but , if you can , bring in something to season it with Religion : as God must be in all your thoughts , so , if it be possible , let him be in all your discourses , at least let him be at one end of it ; and when you can speak of him , be sure you forget not to think of him . 22. Towards the declining of the day , be sure to retire to your private devotions : Read , meditate and pray . In which I propound to you this method , On the Lord's day meditate of the glories of the Creation , of the works of God , and all his benefits to mankind , and to you in particular . Then let your devotion be , humbly upon your knees to say over the 8 th and 9 th Psalms , and sometimes the 104 th , with proper Collects which you shall find or get : adding the form of Thanksgiving which is in the Rule of Holy Living , pag. 378. in the manner as is there directed , or some other of your own chusing . Meditate on Monday on 1. Death Tuesday 2. Judgment Wednesday 3. Heaven Thursday 4. Hell. Saying your usual Prayers , and adding some Ejaculations or short sayings of your own , according to the matter of your devotion . On Friday recollect your sins that you have done that week , and all your life-time and let your devotion be to recite humbly and devoutly some penitential Litanies , whereof you may serve your self in the Rule of Holy Living , pag. 373. On Saturday at the serne time , meditate on the Passion of our blessed Saviour and all the mysteries of our Redemption , which you may do and pray together by using the forms made to that purpose in the Rule of Holy Living , pag. 391. in all your devotions begin and end with the Lord's Prayer . Upon these two days and Sunday you may chuse some partions out of The Life of Christ , to read and help your meditation , proper to the mysteries you are appointed to meditate , or any other devout books . 23. Read not much at a time ; but meditate as much as your time and capacity and disposition will give you leave : ever remembring , that little reading and much thinking , little speaking and much hearing , frequent and short prayers and great devotion is the best way to be wise , to be holy , to be devout . 24. before you go to bed , bethink your self of the day past : if nothing extraordinary hath hapned , your Conscience is the sooner examined ; but if you have had any difference or disagreeing with any one , or a great feast , or great company , or a great joy , or a great sorrow , then recollect your self with the more diligence : ask pardon for what is amiss ; give God thanks for what was good . If you have omitted any duty , make amends next day ; and yet if nothing be found that was amiss , be humbled still , and thankful , and pray God for pardon if any thing be amiss that you know not of . If all these things be in your offices , for your last prayers be sure to apply them according to what you find in your examination : but if they be not , supply them with short ejaculations before you begin your last prayers , or at the end of them . Remember also and be sure to take notice of all the mercies and deliverances of your self and your Relatives that day . 25. As you are going to bed , as often as you can conveniently , or that you are not hindred by company , meditate of death and the preparations to your grave . When you lie down , close your eyes with a short prayer , commit your self into the hands of your faithful Creator : and when you have done , trust him with your self , as you must do when you are dying . 26. If you awake in the night , fill up the intervals or spaces of your not sleeping by holy thoughts and aspirations , and remember the sins of your youth : and sometimes remember your dead , and that you shall die ; and pray to God to send to you and all mankind a mercy in the day of Judgment . 27. Upon the Holy-days observe the same Rules ; only let the matter of your meditations be according to the mystery of the day . As upon Christmas-day meditate on the Birth of our Blessed Saviour , and read the Story and Considerations which are in The Life of Christ : and to your ordinary devotions of every day add the prayer which is fitted to the mystery , which you shall find in The Life of Christ , or The Rule of Holy Living . Upon the day of the Annunciation , or our Lady-day , meditate on the Incarnation of our Blessed Saviour ; and so upon all the Festivals of the year . 28. Set apart one day for fasting once a week , or once a fortnight , or once a month at least : but let it be with these cautions and measures . 1. Do not chuse a Festival of the Church for your Fasting-day . 2. Eat nothing till your afternoondevotions be done , if the health of your body will permit it : if not , take something , though it be the less . 3. When you eat your meal , let it be no more than ordinary , lest your fasting day end in an intemperate evening . 4. Let the actions of all the day be proportionable ot it ; abstain from your usual recreations on that day , and from greater mirth . 5. Be sure to design before-hand the purposes of your fast , either for . Repentance , or for Mortification , or for the advantages of Prayer , and let your devotins be accordingly . But be sure not to think fasting , or eating fish , or eating nothing of it self to be pleasing to God , but as it serves to one of these purposes . 6. Let some part of that day extraordinary be set apart for Prayer for the actions of Repentance , for Confession of sins , and for begging of those Graces for whose sake you set apart that day . 7. Be sure that on that day you set apart something for the poor ; for Fasting and Alms are the Wings or Prayer . 8. It is best to chuse that day for your fast which is used generally by all Christians , as Friday and Saturday : but do not call it a fasting-day , unless also it be a day of extraordinary devotion and of Alms. 29. From observation of all the days of your life , gather out the four extraordinaries . 1. All the great and shameful sins you have committed . 2. All the excellent or greater acts of Piety which by God's grace you have performed . 3. All the great blessings you have received . 4. All the dangers and great sicknesses you have escaped : and upon all the days of your extraordinary devotions , let them be brought forth , and produce their acts of vertue . 1. Repentance and prayers for pardon . 2. Resolutions to proceed and increase in good works . 3. Thanksgiving to God. 4. Fear and watchfulness , lest we fall into worse , as a punishment for our sin . 30 Keep a little Catalogue of these , and at the foot of them set down what Promises and Vows you have made , and kept or broken , and do according as you are obliged . 31. Receive the blessed Sacrament as often as you can : endeavour to have it once a month , besides the solemn and great Festivals of the year . 32. Confess your sins often , hear the Word of God , make Religion the business of your life , your study , and chiefest care ; and be sure that in all things a spiritual Guide take you by the hand . Thou shalt always rejoyce in the Evening , if thou dost spend the day vertuously . VIA PACIS . A SHORT METHOD OF Peàce and Holiness . With a Manual of DAILY PRAYERS Fitted to the days of the Week . SUNDAY . Decad the first . IT is the highest Wisdom , by despising the world to arrive at Heaven : for they are blessed whose daily exercise it is to converse with God by Prayer and Obedience ; by Love and Patience . It is the extremest folly to labour for that which will bring torment in the end , and no satisfaction in the little enjoyment of it : to be unwearied in the pursuit of the world , and to be soon tir'd in whatsoever we begin to do for Christ. Watch over thy self , counsel thy self , reprove thy self , censure thy self , and judge thy self impartially ; whatever thou dost to others , do not neglect thy self . For every man profits so much as he does violence to himself . They that follow their own sensuality , stain their Consciences , and lose the grace of God ; but he that endeavours to please God , whatever he suffers , is beloved of God. For it is not a Question , Whether we shall or shall not suffer : but whether we shall suffer for God , or for the World ; whether we shall take pains in Religion , or in sin , to get Heaven , or to get riches . What availeth knowledg without the fear of God ? A humble ignorant man is better than a proud scholar , who studies natural things , and knows not himself . The more thou knowest , the more grievously thou shalt be judged . Many get no profit by their labour , because they contend for knowledge rather than for holy life ; and the time shall come , when it shall more avail thee to have subdu'd one lust , than to have known all mysteries . No man truly knows himself , but he groweth daily more contemptible in his own eyes . Desire not to be known , and to be little esteem'd of by men . If all be well within , nothing can hurt us from without : for from inordinate love and vain fear comes all unquietness of spirit and distraction of our senses . He to whom all things are one , who draweth all things to one , and seeth all things in one , may enjoy true peace and rest of Spirit . It is not much business that distracts any man , but the want of purity , constancy , and tendency towards God. Who hinders thee more than the unmortified desires of thy own heart ? As soon as ever a man desires any thing inordinately , he is presently disquied in himself . He that hath not wholly subdued himself is quickly tempted nad overcome in small and trifling things . The weak in spirit is he that is in a manner subject to his appetite , and he quickly falls into indignation and contention and envy . He is truly gerat that is great in Charity , and little in himself . MONDAY . The second Decad. WE rather often believe and speak evil of others , than good . But they that are truly vertuous do not easily credit evil that is told them of their neighbours . For if others may do amiss , then may these also speak amiss . Man is frail and prone to evil , and therefore may soon fail in words . Be not rash in thy proceedings , nor confident and pertinacious in thy conceits . But consult with him that is wise , and seek to be instructed by a better than thy self . The more humble and resign'd we are to God , the more prudent we are in our affairs to men , and peaceable in our selves . The proud and the covetous can never rest . Be not asham'd to be , or to be esteem'd poor in this world ; for he that hears God teaching him , will find that it is the best wisdom to withdraw all our affections from secular honour and troublesome riches , and to place them upon eternal treasures , and by patience , by humility , by suffering scorn and contempt , and all the Will of God , to get the true riches . Be not proud of well doing●… for the judgment of God is far differing from the judgment of men . Lay not thy heart open to every one , but with the wise and them that fear God. Converse not much with young people and strangers . Flatter not the rich , neither do thou willingly or lightly appear before great Personages . Never be partaker with the persecutors . It is easier , and safer , and more pleasant , to live in obedience , than to be at our own disposing . Always yield to others when there is cause ; for that is no shame , but honour : but it is a shame to stand stiff in a foolish or weak argument on resolution . The talk of worldly affairs hindereth much ; although recounted with a fair intention : we speak wllingly , but seldom return to silence . TUESDAY . the Third Decad , WAtch and pray , lest your time pass without profit or fruit . But devout discourses do greatly further our spiritual progress , if persons of one mind and spirit be gathered together in God. We should enjoy more peace , if we did not busie our selves with the words and deeds of other men , which appertain not to our charge . He that esteem's his progress in Religion , to consist in exteriour Observances , his devotion will quickly be at an end : but to free your selves of passions is to lay the axe to the root of the tree , and the true way of peace . It is good that we sometimes be contradicted and ill thought of , and that we always bear it well , even when we deserve to be well spoken of . Perfect peace and security cannot be had in this world . All the Saints have profited by tribulations ; and they that could not bear temptations became reprobates , and fell from God. Think not all is well within when all is well without ; or that thy being pleas'd is a sign that God is pleas'd : but suspect every thing that is prosperous , unless it promotes Piety , and Charity and Humility . Do no evil , for no interest , and to please no man , for no friendship , and for no fear . God regards not how much we do , but from how much it proceeds . He does much that loves much . Patiently suffer that from others which thou canst not mend in them , until God please to do it for thee ; and remember that thou mend thy self , since thou art so willing others should not offend in any thing . Every man's vertue is best seen in adversity and temptation . WEDNESDAY . The fourth Decad. BEgin every day to repent , not that thou shouldst at all defer it , or stand at the door , but because all that is past ought to seem little to thee , becanse it is so in it self : begin the next day with the same zeal , and the same fear , and the same humility , as if thou hadst never begun before . A little omission of any usual exercise of piety cannot happen to thee without some loss and considerable detriment , even though it be upon a considerable cause . Be not slow in common and usual acts of Piety and Devotion , and quick and prompt at singularities : but having first done what thou art bound to , proceed to counsels and perfections , and the extraordinaries of Religion , as you see cause . He that desires much to hear news is never void of passions and secular desires , and adherences to the world . Complain not too much of hinderances of Devotion : If thou let men alone , they will let thee alone ; and if you desire not to converse with them , let them know it , and they will not desire to converse with thee . Draw not to thy self the affairs of others , neither involve thy self in the suits and parties of great Personages . Know that if any trouble happen to thee , it is what thou hast deserved , and therefore brought upon thy self . But if any comfort come to thee , it is a gift of God , and what thou didst not deserve . And remember , that oftentimes when thy body complains of trouble , it is not so much the greatness of trouble , as littleness of thy spirit , that makes thee to complain . He that knows how to suffer any thing for God , that desires heartily the Will of God may be done in him , that studies to please others rather than himself , to do the will of his Superior , not his own , that chuseth the least portion , and is not greedy for the biggest , that takes the lowest place , and does not murmur secretly ; he is in the best condition and state of things . Let no man despair of mercy or success so long as he hath life and health . Every man must pass through fire and water before he can come to refreshment . THURSDAY . The fifth Decad. SOon may a man lose that by negligence which hath by much labour & a long time and a mighty grace scarcely been obtain'd . And what shall become of us before night , who are weary so early in the morning ? Wo be to that man who would be at rest , even when he hath scarcely a foot-step of holiness appearing in his conversation . So think , and so do , as if thou wert to die to day , and at night to give an account of thy whole life . Beg not a long life , but a good one ; for length of days often times prolongs the evil , and augments the guilt . It were well if that little time we live , we would live well . Entertain the same opinions and thoughts of thy sin , and of thy present state , as thou wilt in the day of sorrow . Thou wilt then think thy self very miserable and very foolish , for neglecting one hour , and one day of thy Salvation : Think so now , and thou wilt be more provident of thy time and of thy talent . For there will a time come , when every careless man shall desire the respite of one hour for Prayer and Repentance , and I know not who will grant it . Happy is he that so lives , that in the day of death he rejoyces , and is not amazed . He that would die comfortably , may serve his ends by first procuring to himself a contempt of the would , a fervent desire of growing in grace , love of discipline , a laborious repentance , a prompt obedience , self-denial , and toleration of every cross accident for the love of Christ , and a tender Charity . While thou art well thou maies●… do much good , if thou wilt ; but when●… thou art sick , neither thou nor I can tel what thou shalt be able to do : It is no●… very much , nor very good . Few me●● mend with sickness , as there are but few●… who by travel and a wandering life become devout . Be not troubled nor faint in the●… labours of mortification , and the austerities of Repentance ; for in Hell one hour is more intollerable than a hundred years in the house of Repentance : and try ; for if thou canst not endure God punishing thy follies gently , for a while , to amend thee , how wilt thou endure his vengeance for ever to undo thee ? In thy Prayers wait for God , and think not every hearty Prayer can procure every thing thou askest . Those things which the Saints did not obtain without many prayers , and much labour , and showrs of tears , and a long protracted watchfulness and industry , do thou expect also in its own time , and by its usual measures . Do thou valiantly , and hope confidently , and wait patiently , and thou shalt find thou wilt not be deceived . Be careful thou dost not speak a lie in thy prayers , which , though not observed , is frequently practis'd by careless persons , especially in the forms of Confession , affirming things which they have not thought , professing sorrow which is not , making a vow they mean not . If thou meanest to be devout , and to enlarge thy Religion , do it rather by increasing thy ordinary devotions then thy extraordinary . For if they be not regular , but come by chance , they will not last long . But if they be added to your ordinary offices , or made to be daily , thy spirit will by use and custom be made tender , and not willing to go less . FRIDAY . The sixth Decad. HE is a truly charitable and good man , who , when he receives injuries , grieves rather for the malice of him that injures him , than for his own suffering ; who willingly prays for him that wrongs him , and from his heart forgives all his fault ; who stays not , but quickly asks pardon of others for his errours or mistakes ; who sooner shews mercy than anger ; who thinks better of others than himself ; who offers violence to his appetite , and in all things endeavours to subdue the flesh to the spirit . This is an excellent abbreviature of the whole duty of a Christian. No man can have felicity in two states of things . If he takes it in God here , in him he shall have it hereafter , for God will last for ever . But if he takes felicity in things of this world , where will his felicity be when this world is done ? Either here alone or hereafter must be thy portion . Avoid those things in thy self which in others do most displease thee . And remember that as thine eye observes others , so art thou observed by God , by Angels , and by men . He that puts his confidence in God onely , is neither over-joyed in any great good things of this life , nor sorrowful for a little thing . Let God be thy love and thy fear , and he also will be thy Salvation and thy refuge . Do not omit thy Prayers for want of a good Oratory or place to pray in , nor thy duty for want of temporal encouragements . For he that does both upon God's account , cares not how or what he suffers , so he suffer well , and be the friend of Christ ; nor where nor when he prays , so he may do it frequently , fervently and acceptably . Very often remember and meditate upon the wounds and stripes , the shame and the pain , the death and the burial of our Lord Jesus ; for nothing will more enable us to bear our Cross patiently , injuries charitably , the labour of Religion comfortably , and censuring words and detractions with meekness and quietness . Esteem not thy self to have profited in Religion , unless thou thinkest well of others , and meanly of thy self : Therefore never accuse any but thy self ; and he that diligently watches himself will be willing enough to be silent concerning others . It is no great matter to live lovingly with good-natur'd , with humble and meek persons : but he that can do so with the froward , with the wilful and the ignorant , with the peevish and perverse , he only hath true charity : always remembring , that our solid true peace , and peace of God , consists rather in complying with others than in being complied with , in suffering and forbearing rather than in contention and victory . Simplicity in our intentions and purity of affections are the two wings of a Soul , investing it with the robes and resemblances of a Seraphim . Intend the honour of God principally and sincerely , and mingle not thy affections with any creature , but in just subordination to God , and to Religion , and thou shalt have joy , if there be any such thing in this World. For there is no joy but in God , and no sorrow but in an evil conscience . Take not much care what or who is for thee , or against thee ; the judgment of none is to be regarded if God's judgment be otherwise . Thou art neither better nor worse in thy self for any account that is made of thee by any but by God alone : secure that to thee , and he will secure all the rest . SATURDAY . The seventh Decad. BLessed is he that understands what it is to love Jesus , and contends earnestly to be like him . Nothing else can satisfie , or make us perfect . But be thou a bearer of his Cross , as well as a lover of his Kingdom . Suffer tribulation for him , or from him , with the same spirit thou receivest consolation : follow him as well for the bitter Cup of his passion as for the Loaves ; and remember , that if it be a hard saying , Take up my Cross and follow me , it is a harder saying , Go ye Cursed into everlasting fire . No man can always have the same spiritual pleasure in his Prayers . For the greatest Saints have sometimes suffered the banishment of the heart , sometimes are fervent , sometimes they feel a barrenness of Devotion : for this Spirit comes and goes . Rest therefore only in God , and in doing thy duty : and know that if thou beest over-joyed to day , this hour will pass away , and temptation and sadness will succeed . In all afflictions seek rather for Patience than for Comfort : if thou preservest that , this will return . Any man would serve God , if he felt pleasure in it always ; but the vertuous does it when his Soul is full of heaviness , and regards not himself , but God , and hates that consolation that lessens his compunction , but loves any thing whereby his is made more humble . That which thou dost not understand when thou readest , thou shalt understand in the day of thy visitation : for there are many secrets of Religion which are not perceived till they be felt , and are not felt but in the day of a great calamity . He that prays , despairs not . But sad is the condition of him that cannot pray . Happy are they that can and do , and love to do it . He that will be pleased in his prayers , must make his prayers his Rule . All our duty is there set down , because in all our duty we beg the Divine Assistance : and remember , that you are bound to do all those duties , for the doing of which you have prayed for the Divine Assistance . Be doing actions of Religion as often as thou canst , and thy worldly pleasures as seldom , that if thou beest surprised by sudden death , it may be odds but thou mayest be taken at thy Prayers , Watch , and resist the Devil in all his Temptations and Snares . His chief designs are these ; to hinder thy desire in good ; to put thee by from thy Spiritual imployment , from Prayers , especially from the Meditation of the Passion , from the remembrance of thy Sins , from humble Confession of them , from speedy Repentance , from the custody of thy Senses and of thy Heart , from firm purposes of growing in grace , from reading good Books , and frequent receiving the Holy Sacrament . It is all one to him , if he deceives the by a lye or by truth ; whether he amaze or trouble thee by love of the present , or fear of the future . Watch him but in these things , and there will be no part left unarmed in which he can wound thee . Remember how the Proud have fallen , and they who have presumed upon their own strength have been disgraced ; and that the boldest and greatesttalkers in the days of peace , have been the most dejected and pusillanimous in the day of temptation . No man ought to think he hath found Peace , when nothing troubles him ; or that God loves him , because he hath no enemy ; nor that all is well , because every thing is according to his mind ; nor that he is a holy person , because he prays with great sweetness and comfort . But he is at Peace who is reconciled to God ; and God loves him , when he hath overcome himself ; and all is well , when nothing pleases him but God , being thankful in the midst of his afflctions ; and he is holy , who , when he hath lost his comfort , loses nothing of his duty , but is still the same , when God changes his face towards him . POSTULANDA . OR , Things to be prayed for . A FORM of PRAYER , By way of Paraphrase expounding The Lord's Prayer . Our Father . MErciful and Gracious , thou gavest us being , raising us from nothing , to be an excellent creation , efforming us after thy own Image , tenderly feeding us , and conducting and strengthening us all our days : Thou art our Father by a more excellent Mercy , adopting us in a new birth , to become partakers of the ininheritance of Jesus : Thou hast given us the portion and the food of Sons ; O make us to do the Duty of Sons , that we may never loose our title to so glorious an inheritance . Let this excellent Name and Title , by which thou hast vouchsafed to relate to us , be our Glory and our Confidence , our Defence and Guard , our Ornament and Strength , our dignity , and the endearment of Obedience , the Principle of a holy Fear to thee our Father , and of Love to thee and to our Brethren partakers of the same Hope and Dignity . Unite every member of the Church to thee in holy bands : Let there be no more names of Division , nor Titles and Ensigns of Errour and Partiality : Let not us who are Brethren contend , but in giving honor to each other and glory to thee , contending earnestly for the Faith , but not to the breach of Charity , nor the denying each others Hope . But grant that we may all join in the promotion of the honour of thee our Father , in celebrating the Name , and spreading the Family , and propagating the Laws and Institutions , the Promises and Dignities of our Elder Brother , that despising the transitory entertainments of this world , we may labour for and long after the inheritance to which thou hast given us title , by adopting us into the dignity of Sons . For ever let thy Spirit witness to our spirit that we are thy children : enable us to cry Abba , Father . Which art in Heaven . Heaven is thy Throne , the Earth thy Footstool . From thy throne thou beholdest all the dwellers upon Earth , and triest out the hearts of men , and nothing is hid from thy sight . And as thy Knowledge is infinite , so is thy Power uncircumscribed as the utmost Orb of Heaven , and thou sittest in thy own Essential Happiness and Tranquillity , immovable and Eternal . That is our Country , and thither thy Servants are travelling ; there is our Father , and that is our inheritance ; there our hearts are , for there our treasure is laid up till the day of Recompence . Hallowed be thy Name . Thy Name , O God , is glorious , and in thy Name is our hope and confidence . According to thy Name , so is thy praise unto the World's end . They that love thy Name shall be joyful in thee ; for thy Name which thou madest to be proclaimed unto thy people , is , The Lord , the Lord God , merciful and gracious , long-suffering , and abundant in goodness and truth , keeping mercy for thousands , forgiving iniquity , and transgression , and sin , and that will by no means clear the guilty . In this glorious Name we worship thee , O Lord ; and all they that know thy Name will put their trust in thee . The desire of our Soul is to thy Name , and to the remembrance of thee . Thou art worthy , O Lord , of Honour , and praise , and glory , for ever and ever : we confess thy glories , we rejoyce in thy mercies ; we hope in thy Name , and thy Saints like it well : for thy Name is praised unto the end of the World ; it is believed by Faith , relied upon by a holy Hope , and loved by a great Charity . All thy Church celebrates thee with praises , and offers to thy Name the Sacrifices of Prayers and Thanksgiving . Thou , O God , didst frame our Nature by thy own Image , and now thou hast imprinted thy Name upon us , we are thy servants , the relatives and domesticks of thy family , and thou hast honoured us with the gracious appellative of Christians . O let us never dishonour so excellent a Title , nor by unworthy usages prophane thy holy Name , but for ever glorifie it . Let our Life be answerable to our dignity ; that our body may be chast , our thoughts clean , our words gracious , our manners holy , and our life usefull and innocent ; that men seeing our good works , may glorifie thee our Father which art in Heaven . Thy Kingdom come . Thou reignest in Heaven and Earth : O do thou rule also in our hearts , advance the interest of Religion , let thy Gospel be placed in all the Regions of the earth , and let all Nations come and worship thee , laying their proud●… wills at thy feet , submitting their understandings to the obedience of Jesus , conforming their affections to thy holy Laws . Let thy Kingdom be set up gloriously over us , and do thou reign in our Spirits by thy Spirit of Grace ; subdue every lust and inordinate appetite , trample upon our pride , mortifie all rebellion within us , and let all thine and our enemies be brought into captivity , that sin may never reign in our mortal Bodies ; but that Christ may reign in our Understanding by Faith , in the Will , by Charity , in the Passions by Mortifications , in all the Members by a right and a chast use of them . And when thy Kingdom that is within us hath flourished and is advanced to that height whither thou hast designed it , grant thy Kingdom of Glory may speedily succeed , and we thy Servants be admitted to the peace and purity , the holiness and glories of that state where thou reignest alone , and art all in all . Thy Will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven . Thy Will , O God is the measure of holiness and peace ; thy Providence the great disposer of all things , tying all events together , in order to thy glory and the good of thy Servants , by a wonderful mysterious Chain of Wisdom . Let thy Will also be the measure of our desires : for we know that whatsoever thou saiest is true , and whatsoever thou doest is good . Grant we may submit our wills to thine , being patient of evils which thou inflictest , lovers of the good which thou commandest , haters of all evil which thou forbiddest , pleased with all the accidents thou sendest ; that though our nature is weaker than Angels , yet our obedience may be as humble , our conformity to thy will may arise up to the degrees of Unity , and theirs cannot be more ; that as they in Heaven , so we on Earth May obey thy will promptly , chearfully , zealously , and with all our faculties : and grant , that as they there , so all the world here may serve thee with peace and concord , purity and love unfeigned , with one heart and one voice glorifying thee our heavenly Father . Grant that we may quit all our own affections , and suspect our reasonings , and go out of our selves , and all our own confidences ; that thou being to us all things , disposing all events , and guideing all our actions , and directing our intentions , and over-ruling all things in us and about us , we may be Servants of thy Divine Will for ever . Give us this day our daily Bread. Thou , O God , which takest care of our Souls , do not despise our Bodies which thou hast made and sanctified , and designed to be glorious . But now we are exposed to hunger and thirst , nakedness and weariness , want and inconvenience , Give unno us neither poverty nor riches , but feed us with food convenient for us , and cloth us with fitting provisions , according to that state and condition wherein thou hast placed thy Servants : that we may not be tempted with want , nor made contemptible by beggery , nor wanton or proud by riches , nor in love with any thing in this World ; but that we may use it as strangers and pilgrims , as the relief of our needs , the support of our infirmities , and the oil of our lamps , feeding us till we are quite spent in thy service . Lord , take from thy Servants sad carefulness and all distrust , and give us only such a proportion af temporal things as may inable us with comfort to do our duty . Forgive us our Trespasses , as we forgive them that trespass against us O dear God , unless thou art pleased to pardon us , in vain it is that we should live here , and what good will our life do us ? O look upon us with much mercy , for we have sinned grievously against thee . Pardon the adherent imperfections of our life , the weakness of our duty , the carelesness of our spirit , our affected ignorance , our indiligence , our rashness and want of observation , our malice and presumptions . Turn thine eyes from our impurities , and behold the brightness and purest innocence of the holy J●…sus ; and under his cover we plead our cause , not that thou shouldst judge our sins , but give us pardon , and blot out all our iniquities , that we may never enter into the horrible regions where there are torments without ceasing , a prison without ransom , reproaches without comfort , anguish without patience , darkness without light , a worm that never dies , and the fire that never goeth out . But be pleased also to give us great charity , that we may truly forgive all that trouble or injure us , that by this Character thou mayest discern us to be thy Sons and Servants , Disciples of the Holy Jesus ; lest our prayer be turned into sin , and thy Grace be recalled , and thou enter into a final anger against thy Servants . Lead us not into Temptation ; Gracious Father , we are weak and ignorant , our affections betray us , and make us willing to die ; our adversary the Devil goeth up and down , seeking whom he may devour , he is busie and crafty , malicious and powerful , watchful and envious ; and we tempt our selves , running out to mischief , delighting in the approaches of sin , and love to have necessities put upon us , that sin may be unavoidable . Pity us in the midst of these disorders , and give us spiritual strength , holy Resolutions , a watchful Spirit , the whole Armour of God , and thy protection , the guard of Angels , and the conduct of thy holy Spirit , to be our security in the day of danger . Give us thy grace to fly from all occasions to sin , that we may never tempt our selves , nor delight to be tempted ; and let thy blessed Province so order the accidents of our lives , that we may not dwell near an enemy ; and when thou shalt try us , and suffer us to enter into combat , let us always be on thy side , and fight valiantly , resist the Devil , and endure patiently , and persevere constantly unto the end , that thou mayest crown thy own work in us . But deliver us from evil . From sin and shame , from the malice and fraud of the Devil , and from the falseness and greediness of men , from all thy wrath , and from all our impurities , good Lord deliver thy Servants . Do not reserve any thing of thy wrath in store for us ; but let our sins be pardoned so fully , that thou maiest not punish our inventions . And yet if thou wilt not be intreated , but that it be necessary that we suffer , thy will be done : Smite us here with a Father's rod , that thou maiest spare us hereafter : let the sad accidents of our life be for good to us , not for evil ; for our amendment , not to exasperate or weary us , not to harden or confound us : and what evil soever it be that shall happen , let us not sin against thee . For ever deliver us from that evil , and for ever deliver us from the power of the evil one , the great enemy of mankind ; and never let our portion be in that Region of Darkness in that everlasting burning which thou hast prepared for the Devil and his Angels for ever . For thine is the Kingdom , the Power and the Glory , for ever and ever . Amen . So shall we thy Servants advance the Mightiness of thy Kingdom , the Power of thy Majesty , and the Glory of thy Mercy , from generation to generation for ever . Amen . LITANIES FOR All Things and Persons . O God the Father of Mercies , the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ , have mercy upon thy Servants , and hear the prayers of us miserable sinners . O Blessed Jesus , the Fountain of Peace and Pardon , our Wisdom and our Righteousness , our Sanctification and Redemption , have mercy upon thy Servants , refuse not to hear the Prayers of us miserable , sorrowful and returning sinners . O Holy and Divinest Spirit of the Father , help our infirmities ; for of our selves we know not what to ask , nor how to pray ; but do thou assist and be present in the desires of us miserable sinners . I. For Pardon of Sins . REmember not , Lord , the follies of our childhood , nor the lusts of our youth , the wildness of our head , nor the wandrings of our heart ; the infinite sins of our tongue , and the inexcusable errours of the days of vanity . Lord , have mercy upon us poor miserable sinners . Remember not , O Lord , the growing iniquities of our elder age , the pride of our spirit , the abuse of our members , the greediness of our purposes , the peevishness and violence of all our passions and affections . Lord , have mercy , &c. Remember not , O Lord , how we have been full of envy and malice , anger and revenge ; fierce and earnest in the purchases and vanities of the world , and lazy and dull , slow and soon weary in the things of God and of Religion . Lord , have mercy , &c. Remember not , O Lord , our uncharitable behaviour ●…towards those with whom we have conversed , our jealousies and suspitions , our evil surmisings and evil reportings , the breach of our promises to men , and the breach of all our holy vows made to thee our God. Lord , have mercy , &c. Remember not , O Lord , how often we have omitted the several parts and actions of our duty ; for our sins of Omission are infinite , and we have not sought after the Righteousness of God , but have rested in carelesness and forgetfulness , in a false peace and a silent Conscience . Lord , have mercy , &c. O most gracious Lord , enter not into judgment with thy servants , lest we be consumed in thy wrath and just displeasure ; from which , Good Lord , deliver us , and preserve thy servants for ever . II. For Deliverance from Evils . FRom gross ignorance and stupid negligence , from a wandring head and a trifling spirit , from the violence and rule of passion , from a servile will and a commanding lust , from all intemperance , inordination and irregularity whatsoever . Good Lord , deliver and preserve thy servants for ever . From a covetous mind and greedy desires , from lustful thoughts and a wanton eye , from rebellious members and the pride and vanity of spirit , from false opinions and ignorant confidences , Good Lord , deliver , &c. From improvidence and prodigality , from envy and the spirit of slander , from idleness and sensuality , from presumption and despair , from sinful actions and all vitious habits , Good Lord , deliver , &c. From fierceness of rage and hastiness of spirit , from clamorous and reproachful language , from peevish anger and inhumane malice , from the spirit of contention and hasty and indiscreet zeal , Good Lord , deliver , &c. From a schismatical and heretical spirit , from tyranny and tumults , from sedition and factions , from envying the Grace of God in our Brother , from impenitence and hardness of heart , from obstinacy and apostasie , from delighting in sin and hating God and good men , Good Lord , deliver , &c. From fornication and adultery , from unnatural desires and unnatural hatreds , from gluttony and drunkenness , from loving and believing lyes , and taking pleasure in the remembrances of evil things , from delighting in our Neighbour's misery and procuring it , from upbraiding others and hating reproof of our selves , Good Lord , deliver , &c. From impudence and shame , from contempt and scorn , from oppression and cruelty , from a pitiless and unrelenting spirit , from a churlish behaviour and undecent usages of our selves or others . Good Lord , deliver , &c. From famine and pestilence , from noisome and infectious deseases , from sharp and intolerable pains , from impatience and tediousness of spirit , from a state of temptation and hardened consciences , Good Lord , deliver , &c. From banishment and prison , from widowhood and want , from violence of pains and passions , from tempests and earthquakes , from the rage of fire and water , from Rebellion and Treason , from fretfulness and inordinate cares , from murmuring against God and disobedience to the Divine Commandment , Good Lord , deliver , &c. From delaying our rep●…ntance and persevering in sin , from false principles and prejudices , from un●…hankfulness and irreligion , from seducing others and being abused our selves , from the malice and craftiness of the Devil , and the deceit and lyings of the World. Good Lord , deliver , &c. From wounds and murther , from precipices and falls , from fracture of bones and dislocation of joynts , from dismembring our bodies and all infatuation of our Souls , from folly and madness , from uncertainty of mind and state , and from a certainty of sinning , Good Lord , deliver , &c. From Thunder and lightning , from phantasms . Spectres and illusions of the night , from sudden and great Changes , from the snares of wealth and the contempt of beggery and extreme poverty , from being made an example and a warning to others by suffering sad judgments our selves , Good Lord , deliver , &c. From condemning others and justifying our selves , from misspending our time and abusing thy Grace , from calling good evil and evil good , from consenting to folly and tempting others , Good Lord , deliver , &c. From excess in speaking and peevish silence , from looser laughing and immoderate weeping , from giving evil example to others or following any our selves , from giving or receiving scandal , from the horrible sentence of endless death and damnation , Good Lord , deliver , &c. From cursing and swearing , from uncharitable chiding and easiness to believe evil , from the evil spirit that walketh at noon and the arrow that flieth in darkness , from the Angel of wrath and perishing in popular diseases Good Lord , deliver , &c. From the want of a Spiritual Guide , from a famine of the Word and Sacramants , from hurtful persecution , and from taking part with persecutors , Good Lord , deliver , &c. From drowning or being burnt alive , from sleepless nights and contentious days , from a melancholick and a confused spirit , from violent fears and the loss of reason , from a vitious life and a sudden and unprovided death , Good Lord , deliver , &c. From relying upon vain fancies and false foundations , from an evil and an amazed Conscience , from sinning near the end of our life , and from despairing in the day of our death , Good Lord , deliver , &c. From hypocrisie and wilfulness , from self-love and vain ambition , from curiosity and carelesnes , from being tempted in the days of our weakness , from the prevailing of the flesh and grieving the Spirit , from all thy wrath , and from all our sins , Good Lord , deliver , &c. III. For gifts and graces . HEar our Prayer , O Lord , and consider our desire , hearken unto us for thy truth and righteousness sake : O hide not thy face from us , neither cast away thy servants in displeasure . Give unto us the spirit of Prayer , frequent and fervent , holy and persevering ; an unreprovable●… Faith , a just and an humble Hope , and a never-failing Charity . Hear our Prayers , O Lord , and consider our desire . Give unto us true humility , a meek and a quiet spirit , a loving and a friendly , a holy and a useful conversation , bearing the burthens of our neighbours , denying our selves , and studying to benefit others , and to please thee in all things . Hear our Prayers , &c Give us a prudent and a sober , a just and a sincere , a temperate and a religious spirit , a great contempt of the world , a love of holy things , and a longing after Heaven , and the instruments and paths that lead thither . Hear our Prayers , &c Grant us to be thankful to our Bene factors , righteous in performing promises , loving to our relatives , careful of our charges ; to be gentle and easie to be intreated , slow to anger , and fully instructed and readily prepared for every good work . Hear our Prayers , &c. Give us a peaceable spirit and a peaceable life , free from debt and deadly sin ; grace to abstain from appearances of evil , and to do nothing but what is of good report , to confess Christ and his holy Religion , by a holy and obedient life , and a mind ready to die for him when he shall call us and assist us . Hear our Prayers , &c. Give to thy servants a watchful and an observing Spirit , diligent in doing our duty , inflexible to evil , obedient to thy word , inquisitive after thy will , pure and holy thoughts , strong and religious purposes , and thy grace to perform faithfully what we have promised in the day of our duty , or in the day of our calamity . Hear our Prayers , &c. O teach us to despise all vanity , to fight the battels of the Lord manfully against the Flesh , the World and the Devil , to spend our time religiously and usefully , to speak gracious words , to walk always as in thy presence , to preserve our Souls and bodies in holiness , fit for the habitation of the holy Spirit of God. Hear our Prayers , &c. Give us a holy and a perfect repentance , a well-instructed understanding , regular affections , a constant and a wise heart , a good name , a fear of thy Majesty , and a love of all thy glories above all the things in the world for ever . Hear our Prayers , &c. Give us a healthful body and a clear understanding , the love of our neighbours and the peace of the Church , the publick use and comforts of thy holy Word and Sacraments , a great love to all Christians , and obedience to our Superiours Ecclesiastical and Civil all the days of our life . Hear our Prayers , &c. Give us Spiritual Wisdom , that we may discern what is pleasing to thee , and follow what belongs unto our peace ; and let the knowledge and love of God , and of Jesus Christ our Lord , be our guide and our portion all our days . Hear our Prayers , &c. Give unto us holy dispositions , and an active industry in thy service , to redeem the time mis-spent in vanity : for thy pity sake take not vengeance of us for our sins , but sanctifie our Souls and bodies in this life , and glorifie them hereafter . Hear our Prayers , &c. Our Father , &c. IV. To be added to the former Li●…anies , according as our Devotions and time will su●…fe●… . For all states of Men and Women , especially in the Christian Church . O Blessed God , in mercy remember thine inheritance , and forget not the congregation of the poor for ever ; pity poor mankind , whose portion is misery and folly , shame and death . But thou art our Redeemer , and the lifter up of our head , and under the shadow of thy wings shall be our help , until this Tyranny be over-past . Have mercy upon us , O God , and hid not thy self from our Petition . Preserve , O God , the Catholick Church in holiness and truth , in unity and peace , free from persecution , or glorious under it ; that she may for ever advance the honour of our Lord Jesus , for ever represent his Sacrifice , and glorifie his Person , and advance his Religion , and be accepted of thee in her blessed Lord ; that being filled with his Spirit , she may partake of his glory . Have mercy upon us , &c. Give the spirit of Government and Holiness to all Christian Kings , Princes and Governours : grant that their people may obey them , and they may obey thee , and live in honesty and peace , justice and holy Religion , being Nursing-fathers to the Church , Advocates for the oppressed , Patrons for the widows , and a Sanctuary for the miserable and the fatherless ; that they may reign with thee for ever in the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus . Have mercy upon us , &c. Give to thy Servants the Bishops , and all the Clergy , the Spirit of holiness and courage , of patience and humility , of prudence and diligence , to preach and declare thy will by a holy life and wise discourses ; that they may minister to the good of Souls , and find a glorious reward in the day of our Lord Jesus . Have mercy npon us , &c. Give to our Relatives [ our Wives and Children , our Friends and Benefactors , our Charges , our Family , &c. ] pardon and support , comfort in all their sorrows , strength in all temptations , the guard of Angels to preserve them from evil , and the conduct of thy holy Spirit to lead them into all good ; that they doing their duty , may feel thy mercies here , and partake of thy glories hereafter . Have mercy upon us , &c. Give to all Christian Kingdoms and Commonwealths peace and plenty , health and holy Religion ; to all Families of Religion and Nurseries of Piety zeal and holiness , prudence and unity , peace and contentedness ; to all Schools of Learning quietness and industry , freedom from wars and violence , factions and envy . Have mercy upon us , &c. Give to all married persons faith and love , charitable and wise compliances , sweetness of society and innocence of conversation ; to all Virgins and Widows great love of Religion , a sober and a contented spirit , an unwearied attendance to devotion and the offices of holiness : protection to the fatherless , comfort to the disconsolate , patience and submission , health and spiritual advantages to the sick ; that they may feel thy comforts for the days wherein they have suffered adversity . Have mercy upon us , &c. Be thou a star and a guide to them that travel by land or sea , the confidence and comfort of them that are in storms and shipwrecks , the strength of them that toil in the Mines and row in the Gallies , an instructer to the ignorant ; to them that are condemned to die be thou a guide unto death : give chearfulness to every sad heart , spiritual strength and proportionable comfort to them that are afflicted by evil spirits ; pity the lunaticks , give life and salvation to all to whom thou hast given no understanding , accept the stupid and the fools to mercy : give liberty to prisoners , redemption to captives , maintenance to the poor , patronage and defence to the oppessed , and put a period to the iniquity and to the miseries of all mankind . Have mercy upon us , &c. Give unto our enemies grace and pardon , charity to us , and love to thee ; take away all anger from them , and all mistakes from us , all mis-interpretations and jealousies ; bring all sinners to repentance and holiness , and to all thy Saints and Servants give an increasing love , and a persevering duty : bring all Turks , Jews and Infidels to the knowledge and confession of the Lord Jesus , and a participation of all the Promises of the Gospel , all the benefits of his Passion ; to all Hereticks give humility and ingenuity , repentance of their errours , and grace and power to make amends to the Church and Truth , and a publick acknowledgment of a holy faith , to the glory of the Lord Jesus . Have mercy , &c. Give to all Merchants faithfulness and truth ; to the labouring husbandman health and fair seasons of the year , and reward his toil with the dew of Heaven and the blessings of the earth ; to all Artisans give diligence in their Callings , and a blessing on their labours and on their familes ; to old men piety and perfect repentance , a liberal heart and an open hand , great Religion and desires after Heaven ; to young men give sobriety and chastity ; health and usefulness , an early piety and a persevering duty ; to all families visited with the rod of God give consolation , and a holy use of the affliction , and a speedy deliverance ; to us all pardon and holiness , and life eternal , through Jesus Christ , Amen . The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ , and the Love of God , and the Communication of the Holy Spirit , be with us all for ever . Amen . A short Prayer to be said every Morning . I. O Almighty God Father of our Lord Jesus Christ , the God of mercy and comfort , with reverence and fear , with humble confidence and strong desires , I approach to the throne of Grace , begging of thee mercy and protection , pardon and Salvation . O my God , I am a sinner , but sorrowful and repenting : Thou art justly offended at me , but yet thou art my Lord and my Father , merciful and gracious . Be pleased to blot all my sins out of thy remembrance , and heal my Soul that I may never any more sin against thee . Lord , open my eyes , that I may see my own infirmities , and watch against them ; and my own follies , that I may amend them ; and be pleased to give me perfect understanding in the way of godliness , that I may walk in it all the days of my pilgrimage . Give me a spirit diligent in the works of my calling , chearful and zealous in Religion , fervent and frequent in my prayers , charitable and useful in my Conversation . Give me a healthful and a chast body , a pure and a holy Soul , a sanctified and an humble spirit ; and let my body and Soul and spirit be preserved unblameable to the coming of the Lord Jesus . Amen . II. BLessed by thy Name , O God , and blessed be thy Mercies , who hast preserved me this night from sin and sorrow , from sad chances and a violent death , from the malice of the Devil and the evil effects of my own corrupted nature and infirmity . The out-goings of the Morning and Evening shall praise thee , and thy Servants shall rejoyce in giving thee praise for the operation of thy hands . Let thy providence and care watch over me this day and all my whole life , that I may never sin against thee by idleness or folly , by evil company or private sins , by word or deed , by thought or desire ; and let the imployment of my day leave no sorrow or the remembrance of an evil conscience at night ; but let it be holy and profitable , blessed and always innocent ; that when the days of my short abode are done , and the shadow is departed , I may die in thy fear and favour , and rest in a holy hope , and at last return to the joys of a blessed Resurrection , through Jesus Christ : in whose name , and in whose words in behalf of my self , and all my friends , and all thy Servants , I humbly and heartily pray , Our Father , &c. A Prayer for the Evening . ETernal God , Almighty Father of Men and Angels , by whose care and providence I am preserved and blessed , comforted and assisted , I humbly beg of thee to pardon the sins and follies of this day , the weaknesses of my services and the strength of my passions , the rashness of my words and the vanity and evil of my actions . O just and dear God , how long shall I confess my sins , and pray against them , and yet fall under them ? O let it be so no more , let me never return to the follies of which I am ashamed , which bring sorrow and death , and thy displeasure worse than death . Give me a command over my evil inclinations , and a perfect hatred of sin , and a love to thee above all the desires of this world . Be pleased to bless and preserve me this night from all sin , and all violence of Chance , and the malice of the spirits of darkness : Watch over me in my sleep , and whether I sleep or wake , let me be thy servant . Be thou first and last in all my thoughts , and the guide and continual assistance of all my actions . Preserve my body , pardon the sin of my Soul , and sanctifie my spirit . Let me always live holily , and justly , and soberly ; and when I die , receive my Soul into thine hands . O holy and ever blessed Jesus , that I may lie in thy bosom , and long for thy coming , and hear thy blessed Sentence at Doomsday , and behold thy face , and live in thy Kingdom , singing praises to God for ever and ever . Amen . Our Father , &c. For Sunday . A Prayer against Pride . I. OEternal God , merciful and glorious , thou art exalted far above all heavens ; thy Throne , O God , is glory , and thy Scepter is righteousness , thy Will is holiness , and thy Wisdom the great foundation of Empire and Government . I adore thy Majesty , and rejoyce in thy Mercy , and revere thy Power , and confess all glory and dignity and honour to be thine alone , and theirs to whom thou shalt impart any ray of thy Majesty , or reflexion of thy honour : but as for me , I am a worm and no man , vile dust and ashes , the son of corruption and the heir of rottenness , seized upon by folly , a lump of ignorance and sin , and shame and death . What art thou , O Lord ? The great God of Heaven and Earth , the Fountain of Holiness and Perfection infinite . But what am I ? So ignorant , that I know not what ; so poor , that I have nothing of my own ; so miserable , that I am the heir of sorrow and death ; and so sinful , that I am encompassed with shame and grief . II. AND yet , O my God , I am proud ; proud of my shame , glorying in my sin , boasting my infirmities ; for this is all that I have of my own , save only that I have multiplied my miseries by vile actions , every day dishonouring the work of thy hands : my understanding is too confident , my affections rebellious , my will refractory and disobedient ; and yet I know thou resistest the proud , and didst cast the morning Stars , the Angels , from Heaven into chains of darkness , when they grew giddy and proud , walking upon the battlements of Heaven , beholding the glorious Regions that were above them . III. THou , O God , who givest grace to the humble , do something also for the proud man ; make me humble and obedient . Take from me the spirit of pride and hautiness , ambition and self-flattery , confidence and gaiety : teach me to think well , and to expound all things fairly of my brother , to love his worthiness , to delight in his praises , to excuse his errours , to give thee thanks for his graces , to rejoyce in all the good that he receives , and ever to believe and speak better things of him than of my self . IV. O Teach me to love to be concealed and little esteem'd ; let me be truly humbled , and heartily ashamed of my sin and folly : teach me to bear reproaches evenly , for I have deserved them ; to refuse all honours done unto me , because I have not deserved them ; to return all to thee , for it is thine alone ; to suffer reproof thankfully , to amend all my faults speedily : and do thou invest my Soul with the humble robe of my meek Master and Saviour Jesus ; and when I have humbly , patiently , charitably and diligently served thee , change this robe into the shining garment of immortality , my confusion into glory , my folly to perfect knowledge , my weaknesses and dishonours to the strength and beauties of the Sons of God. V. IN the mean time use what means thou pleasest to conform me to the image of thy holy Son ; that I may be gentle to others , and severe to my self ; that I may sit down in the lowest place , striving to go before my brother in nothing but in doing him and the honour , staying for my glory till thou shalt please in the day of recompences to reflect light from thy face , and admit me to behold thy glories . Grant this for Jesus Christ's sake , who humbled himself to the death and shame of the Cross , and is now exalted unto glory : Unto him , with thee , O Father , be glory and praise for ever and ever . Amen . For Monday . A Prayer against Covetousness . I. O Almighty God , eternal Treasure of all good things , thou fillest all things with plenteousness ; Thou clothest the lilies of the field , and fecdest the young ravens that call upon thee : Thou art all-sufficient in thy self , and all-sufficient to us . Let thy providence be my store-house , my dispensation of temporal things the limit of my labour , my own necessity the measures of my desire : but never let my desires of this world be greedy , nor my labour immoderate , nor my care vexatious and distracting ; but prudent , moderate , holy , subordinate to thy Will , the measure thou hast appointed for me . II. TEach me , O God , to despise the world , to labour for the true riches , to seek the Kingdom of Heaven and its Righteousness , to be content with what thou providest , to be in this world like a stranger , with affections set upon Heaven , labouring for and longing after the possessions of thy Kingdom ; but never suffer my affections to dwell below : but give me a heart compassionate to the poor , liberal to the needy , open and free in all my communications , without base ends , or greedy designs , or unworthy arts of gain ; but let my strife be to gain thy favour , to obtain the blessedness of doing good to others , and giving to them that want , and the blessedness of receiving from thee pardon and support , grace and holiness , perseverance and glory , through Jesus Christ our Lord. For Tuesday . A Prayer against Lust. I. O Eternal Purity , thou art brighter than the Sun , purer than the Angels , and the Heavens are not clean in thy sight ; with mercy behold thy servant , apt to be tempted with every object , and to be overcome by every enemy . I cannot , O God , stand in the day of battel and danger , unless thou coverest me with thy shield , and hidest me under thy wings . The fiery darts of the Devil are ready to consume me , unless the dew of thy grace for ever descend upon me . Thou didst make me after thine image : be pleased to preserve me so , pure and spotless , chast and clean , that my body may be a holy Temple , and my Soul a Sanctuary to entertain thy divinest Spirit , the Spirit of love and holiness , the Prince of Purities . II. REprove in me the spirit of Fornication and Uncleanness , and fill my Soul with holy fires , that no strange fire may come into the Temple of my body , where thou hast chosen to dwell . O cast out all those unclean spirits which have unhallowed the place where thy holy feet have trod ; pardon all my hurtful thoughts , all my impurities , that I , who am a member of Christ , may not become the member of an harlot , nor the slave of the Devil , nor a servant of lust and unworthy desires , but do thou purifie my love , and let me seek the things that are above , hating the garments spotted with the flesh , never any more grieving the holy spirit by filthy inclinations , with impure and phantastick thoughts ; but let my thoughts be holy , my Soul pure , my body chast and healthful , my spirit severe , devout and religious every day more and more ; that at the day of our appearing I may be presented to God washed and cleansed pure and spotless , by the blood of the holy Lamb , through Jesus Christ our Lord , Amen . For Wednesday . A Prayer against Gluttony and Drunkenness . I. O Almighty Father of Men and Angels , who hast of thy great bounty provided plentifully for all mankind , to support his state , to relieve his necessities to refresh his sorrows , to recreate his labours , that he may praise thee , and rejoice in thy mercies and bounty ; be thou gracious unto thy servant yet more , and suffer me not by my folly to change thy bounty into sin , thy grace into wantonness . Give me the spirit of temperance and sobriety , that I may use thy creatures in the same measures and to the same purposes which thou hast designed , so as may best enable me to serve thee ; but not to make provision for the flesh , to fulfill the lusts thereof . Let me not , as Esau , prefer meat before a blessing ; but subdue my appetite , subjecting it to reason and the grace of God , being content with what is moderate and useful , and easie to be obtained , taking it in due time , receiving it thankfully , making it to minister to my body , that my body may be a good instrument of the Soul , and the Soul a Servant of thy Divine Majesty for ever and ever . II. PArdon , O God , in whatsoever I have offended thee by meat and drink and pleasures ; and never let my body any more be oppressed with loads of sloth and delicacies , or my Soul drowned in Seas of wine or strong drink : but let my appetites be changed into spiritual desires , that I may hunger after the food of Angels , and thirst for the wine of elect Souls , and may account it meat and drink and pleasure to do thy will , O God. Lord , let me eat and drink so , that my food may not become a temptation , or a sin , or a disease ; but grant that with so much caution and prudence I may watch over my appetite , that I may in the strength of thy mercies and refreshments , in the light of thy countenance , and in the paths of thy Commandments , walk before thee all the days of my life acceptable ot thee in Jesus Christ , ever advancing his honour , and being filled with his Spirit , that I may at last partake of his glory , through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . For Thursday . A Prayer against Envy . I. O Most gracious Father , thou Spring of an eternal Charity , who hast so loved mankind , that thou didst open thy bosom , and send thy holy Son to convey thy mercies to us : and thou didst create Angels and Men , that thou mightest have objects to whom thou mightest communicate thy goodness : Give me grace to follow so glorious a precedent , that I may never envy the prosperity of any one , but rejoyce to honor him whom thou honourest , to love him whom thou lovest , to commend the vertuous , to discern the precious from the vile , giving honour to whom honour belongs ; that I may go to Heaven in the noblest way of rejoycing in the good of others . II. O Dear God , never suffer the Devil to rub his vilest Leprosie of Envy upon me ; never let me have the affections of the desperate and damned ; let it not be ill with me , when it is well with others : but let thy holy Spirit so over-rule me for ever , that I may pity the afflicted , and be compassionate , and have a fellow-feeling of my brother's sorrows , and that I may as much as I can , promote his good , and give thee thanks for it , and rejoice with them that do rejoice ; never censuring his actions curstly , nor detracting from his praises spitefully , nor upbraiding his infelicities maliciously , but pleased in all things , which thou doest or givest ; that I may then triumph in spirit when thy Kingdom is advanced , when thy Spirit rules , when thy Church is profited , when thy Saiuts rejoice , when the Devil's interest is destroyed , truly loving thee , and truly loving my brother ; that we may all together join in the holy Communion of Saints , both here and hereafter , in the measures of grace and glory , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . For Friday . A Prayer against Wrath and inordinate Anger . I. O Almighty Judge of Men and Angels , whose anger is always the minister of Justice , slow , but severe , not lightly arising , but falling heavily when it comes ; give to thy servant a meek and a gentle spirit , that I also may be slow to anger , and easie to mercy and forgiveness . Give me a wise and a constant heart , that I may not be moved with every trifling mistake and inconsiderable accident in the conversation and entercourse of others , never be moved to an intemperate anger for any injury that is done or offered ; let my anger ever be upon a just cause , measured with moderation and reason , expressed with charity and prudence , lasting but till it hath done some good , either upon my self or others . II. LOrd , let me be ever courteous , and easie to be intreated ; never let me fall into a peevish or contentious spirit , but follow peace with all men , offering forgiveness , inviting them by courtesies , ready to confess my own errours , apt to make amends , and desirous to be reconciled . Let no sickness or cross accident , no imployment or weariness , make me angry , or ungentle and discontent , or unthankful , or uneasie to them that minister to me ; but in all things make me like unto the holy Jesus . Give me the spirit of a Christian , charitable , humble , merciful and meek , useful and liberal , complying with every chance ; angry at nothing but my own sins , and grieving for the sins of others : that while my passion obeys my reason , and my reason is religious , and my religion is pure and undefiled , managed with humility , and adorned with charity , I may escape thy anger which I have deserved , and may dwell in thy love , and be thy Son and Servant for ever , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . For Saturday . A Prayer against weariness in well-doing . I. O My God , merciful and gracious , my Soul groans under the loads of its own infirmity , when my spirit is willing , my flesh is weak , my understanding foolish and imperfect , my will peevish & listless , my affections wandering after strange objects , my fancy wild and unfixed , all my senses minister to folly and vanity ; and though they were all made for Religion , yet they least of all delight in that . O my God , pity me , and hear me when I pray , and make that I may pray acceptably . Give me a love to Religion , an unwearied spirit in the things of God. Let me not relish or delight in the things of the world , in sensual objects and transitory possessions ; but make my eyes look up to thee , my Soul be filled with thee , my spirit ravished with thy love , my understanding imployed in the meditation of thy Law , all my powers and faculties of Soul and Body wholly serving thee , and delighting in such holy ministeries . II. O Most glorious God , what greater favour is there than that I may , and what easier imployment can there be than to pray to thee , to be admitted to thy presence , and to represent our needs , and that we have our needs supplied only for asking and desiring passionately and humbly ? But we rather quit our hopes of Heaven , than buy it at the cheapest rate of humble prayer . This , O God , is the greatest infirmity and infelicity of man , and hath an intolerable cause , and is an insufferable evil . III. O Relieve my spirit with thy graciousness , take from me all tediousness of spirit , and give me a laboriousness that will not be tired , a hope that shall never fail , a desire of holiness not to be satisfied till it possesses , a charity that will always increase ; that I , making Religion the business of my whole life , may turn all things into Religion , doing all to thy glory , and by the measures of thy Word and of thy Spirit , that when thou shalt call me from this deliciousness of imployment , and the holy mysteries of Grace , I may pass into the imployment of Saints and Angels , whose work it is with eternal joy and thanksgiving to sing praises to the mercies of the great Redeemer of Men , and Saviour of Men and Angels , Jesus Christ our Lord : To whom , with the Father and the Holy Ghost , be all honour and worship , all service and thanks , all Glory and Dominion , for ever and ever . Amen . A Prayer to be said by a Maiden , before she enters into the state of Marriage . I , O Most glorious God , and my most indulgent Lord and gracious Father , who dost bless us by thy bounty , pardon us by thy mercy , support and guide us by thy grace , and govern us sweetly by thy providence ; I give thee most humble and hearty thanks , that thou hast hitherto preserved me in my Virgin-state with innocence and chastity in a good name and a modest report . It is thy goodness alone , and the blessed emanation of thy holy Spirit , by which I have been preserved ; and to thee I return all praise and thanks , and adore and love thy goodness infinite . II. AND now , O Lord , since by thy dispensation and over-ruling providence I am to change my condition , and enter into the holy state of Marriage , which thou hast sanctified by thy Institution , and blessed by they Word and Promises , and raised up to an excellent mystery , that it might represent the Union of Christ and his Church ; be pleased to go along with thy servant in my entring into and passing through this state , that it may not be a state of temptation or sorrow , by occasion of my sins or infirmities , but of holiness and comfort , as thou host intended it to all that love and fear thy holy Name . III. LOrd , bless and preserve that dear person whom thou hast chosen to be my Husband : let his life be long and blessed , comfortable and holy ; and let me also become a great blessing and comfort unto him , a sharer in all his joys , a refreshment in all his sorrows , a meet helper for him in all accidents and chances of the world . Make me amiable for ever in his eyes , and very dear to him . Unite his heart to me in the dearest union of love and holiness , and mine to him in all sweetness , and charity , and compliance . Keep from me all morosity and ungentleness , all sullenness and harshness of disposition , all pride and vanity , all discontentedness aud unreasonableness of passion and humonr : and make me humble and obedient , charitable and loving , patient and contented , useful and observant ; that we may delight in each other according to thy blessed word and Ordinance , and both of us may rejoyce in thee , having our portion in the love and service of God for ever and ever . IV. O Blessed Father , never suffer any mistakes or discontent , any distrustfulness or sorrow , any trifling arrests of fancy or unhandsom accident , to cause any unkindness between us : but let us so dearly love , so affectionately observe , so religiously attend to each other's good and content , that we may always please thee , and by this learn and practise our duty and greatest love to thee , and become mutual helps to each other in the way of Godliness ; that when we have received the blessings of a married life , the comforts of society , the endearments of a holy and great affection , and the dowry of blessed Children , we may for ever dwell together in the embraces of thy love and glories , feasting in the Marriage-supper of the Lamb to eternal ages , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen , Amen . A Prayer for a holy and a happy Death . O Eternal and Holy Jesus , who by death hast overcome death , and by thy passion hast taken out its sting , and made it to become one of the gates of Heaven , and an entrance to felicity , have mercy upon me now and at the hour of my death : let thy grace accompany me all the days of my life , that I may by a holy conversation , and an habitual performance of my duty , wait for the coming of our Lord , and be ready to enter with thee , at whatsoever hour thou shalt come . Lord , let not my death be in any sense unprovided , nor untimely , nor hasty , but after the manner of men , having in it nothing extraordinary , but an extraordiry piety , and the manifestation of a great and miraculous mercy . Let my sense and my understanding be preserved intire till the last of my days , and grant that I may die the death of the righteous , free from debt and deadly sin : having first discharged all my obligations of justice , leaving none miserable and unprovided in my departure ; but be thou the portion of all my friends and relatives , and let thy blessing descend upon their heads , and abide there till they shall meet me in the bosom of our Lord. Preserve me ever in the communion and peace of the Church ; and bless my Death-bed with the opportunity of a holy and a spiritual Guide , with the assistance and guard of Angels , with the reception of the holy Sacrament , with patience and dereliction of my own desires , with a strong faith , and a firm and humbled hope , with just measures of repentance , and great treasures of charity to thee my God and to all the world , that my Soul in the arms of the holy Jesus may be deposited with safety and joy , there to expect the revelation of thy day , and then to partake the glories of thy Kingdom , O eternal and holy Jesus . Amen . A GUIDE FOR THE PENITENT . OR A Model drawn up for the help of a Devout Soul wounded with Sin. Tertull. Peccator omnium Notarum , Et nulli Rei nisi poenitentiae natus . LONDON , Printed by J. Grover , for R. Royston , Bookseller to His most Sacred Majesty MDCLXXVII . TO THE Christian Reader . AMong the so troublesome multitude of Books , and the no less troublesome scarcity of good ones , I have no reason to think this little Piece will much increase the number of the one , or not serve to balance the trouble of the other : but I rather hope it may be acceptable and useful , if either the great Eminence of the Author , or the Argument it self , or else the small bulk , which are things that use to render works of this kind considerable , be sufficient either to recommend or excuse it . For the necessity of the argument may recommend it not to most Readers only , but very many Writers too . And without doubt , many of those who have been ambitious to put themselves into the number of Authors by publishing their abortive labours , will need the Rules and Offices of this Manual , when their Conscience shall cite them to Repentance , and to ask God forgiveness for nourishing Faction , and sowing the seeds of Discord , and venting their crude Notions to others trouble , and their own shame . For such men in the use of this little Enchiridion may find more comfort , and do thimselves and the Age more right , than in that small harvest of reputation their own voluminous labours could bring in , which are now very fitly preferred from the Closet to the more worthy ministeries of the Shop ond Kitchin. But the most Reverend Author , to whose learned Piety thou owest these following assistances , who in the sweetness and mildness of these lines has expressed the features and lineaments of his own candid , serene Soul , did not address them for his own use in that kind . For that he was of the Highest Order of our Church , he did not owe to his Interest , which advances some , nor to his Money , which prefers commonly too many , but wholly to his Vertues and his Learning , and those other eminent Graces , that made his Example as great in the Church as was his Dignity . And this little Book is a great instance of his Humility and Charity , which he does in some kind still exercise , though he be now gone to receive his reward for them ; and as he used to look into the necessities of indigent persons to relieve them with his hand , so in this Portuise he descends to converse with the weaknesses and solitariness of humble Penitents , directing and improving their Devotions , and instigating their Repentance , and preparing a constant store-house of relief for them by his Pen. And now if a person so eminent in Grace , so innocent in Life , needed such Exercises as this , ( for what thou receivest here , know , Courteous Reader , it comes from his Counsel , and from his daily Experience and Practise too ) consider whether thou thy self art not concerned to bring thy actions and life to as severe a scrutiny and a repentance as operative . If thou joynest with me in Opinion , here is a Directory ready at hand : but if not , thou needest it so much the more . For our Sins , the less impression they make on our Memory , the deeper they make on our Conscience ; and he is in some cases the most guilty who presumes he is wholly innocent . Retract therefore that conceit , and betake ●…hy self to thy Closet and the practice of ●…his Book , and God bless it to thy benefit and his own glory . A GUIDE FOR THE PENITENT . Remembrances concerning the Examination of your Conscience . I. YOU are to consider the Necessity of this Duty . For if we take care that the Rooms which we eat or sleep in should be kept clean , you cannot but think that the cleansing of the Soul is a Concernment infinitely beyond it : and for doing this there is no other way left but to search out every corner of it , and to cast out every Sin , with every unclean thought that hath defiled it . II. You are to remember , that there is a great Measure of Discretion to be used in the Performance of this : so that you may neither omit it , when your own heart may tell you that there is something amiss in you which must be look'd after ; nor on the other side over-scrupulously pursue it , when you are not conscious to your self of any notable Failings , but such as are incident to humane frailty : for if you do not wilfully pass over any of your greater Offences , but confess particularly , and repent seriously of them , God will more easily pass by your lesser Infirmities , being such as the Holy Prophet despaired of finding out , when he so sadly complained , Who can tell how oft he offendeth ? III. That though it may not only seem , but be impossible to you to recollect every failing , and that your scrupulous endeavouring of it may rather prove a torture to the Conscience than an Ease to it ; yet you are so far to exercise an Inquisition upon your self , as by observing these lesser particulars ( though it be but in gross ) you may the better discover what the corruption of your Nature sways you to ; and having discovered it , you are bound to strive to subdue it by degrees , and what you cannot for the present overcome , humbly to ask pardon for . IV. That though it be the Duty of every day not to let the Sun go down upon any Sin that you have committed , without examining of the Merits of it ; yet there are times when this ought to be more punctually and solemnly done , especially at such times as you set apart for humbling your Soul with Fasting , or for preparing your self for the devout Receiving of the Sacrament . V. For the Manner of Ordering this Examination several Methods have been prescribed , some by dividing the subject Matter of it into Thoughts , Words and Deeds ; others as sins are differenced by their several Objects , either as being immediately sins against God , or against your Neighbour , or against your own Soul. Others advise to set God's holy Commandments before you , and to examine by that Rule what you have done amiss . But in the chice of this you may free your self from all Perplexity by taking his advice whom you shall chuse to be your Spiritual Guide . And the Duty it self being once resolved upon , the Mode of doing may easily be found out . Advice Concerning Confession . I. THat besides this Examination of your Conscience , ( which may be done in secret between God and your own Soul ) there is great use of Holy Confession : which though it be not generally in all Cases , and peremptorily commanded , as if without it no Salvation could possibly be had ; yet you are advised by the Church under whose discipline you live , that before you are to receive the Holy Sacrament , or when you are visited with any dangerous sickness , if you find any one particular sin or more that lies heavy upon you , to disburthen your self of it into the Bosom of your Confessor , who not only stands between God and you to pray for you , but hath the power of the Keys committed to him , upon your true Repentance to Absolve you in Christ's Name from those sins which you have confessed to him . II. You are to remember that you bring along with you to Confession not only unfeigned Sorrow and Remorse of Conscience for sins past , but settled Resolutions for the time to come never to offend in the same kind again : for without this , Confession is but a mere Pageant , and rather a mockery of God , than any effectual means to reconcile you to him . III. That having made choice of such a Confessor who is every way qualified that you may trust your Soul with him , you are advised plainly and sincerely to open your heart to him , and that laying aside all consideration of any personal weakness in him , you are to look upon him only as he is a Trustee from God , and commissioned by him as his Ministerial Deputy to hear , and judge , and absolve you . IV. That the Manner of your Confession be in an humble posture on your knees , as being made to God rather than man : and for the Matter of it , let it be severe and serious ; but yet so as it may be without any inordinate Anxiety and unnecessary Scruples , which serve only to entangle the Soul , and instead of setting you free , ( which is the benefit to be looked for by Confession ) perplex you the more . V. That for the frequency of doing this , you are to consult with your own necessities : and as your Physician is not sent for upon every small diftemper , which your own care may rectifie ; so neither are you obliged upon every failing to be over-scrupulous , or to think it a point of Necessity presently to confess it : For the Confessor cannot be always present , but your God is , to whom if you apply your self with Prayers and Penitence , confessing in his ears alone whatever you have done amiss , and stedfastly believing that through the merits of your Saviour they shall never be imputed to you , you may be confident that your Absolution is at that time sealed in Heaven , but the comfortable declaration of it you are to look for from the Priest. Advice concerning Devout Receiving the Holy and Blessed Sacrament . I. YOU are first to consider seriously the Infinite love of your Saviour , who not only offered himself for you as a Sacrifice upon the Cross , but that this might never be forgotten by you , left the blessed memory of it in his holy Sacrament , which as often as you devoutly and faithfully receive , you are effectually made Partaker of all the merits of his precious Death and Passion . II. That for the frequency of doing this ( if your own Conscience doth not speak home to you ) you refer your self to your Spiritual Guide , who knowing the Temper of your Soul , and how you stand disposed , may best direct you . Only I shall add this , that the oftener you apply your self to do it , your life will be the purer , your heart the chearfuller , and the better armed against all Temptations . III. That three times in the year at least , especially on those solemn Festivals observed by all Christians , who have not utterly cast off Obedience to the Church , and order in their Devotions , you lay aside all excuses , and every Sin that then besets you , and seriously prepare your self for so great a Blessing . IV. That as soon as you wake that Morning , ( and the sooner you awake the better sign it is that your mind is set upon it ) you rouse your self up with a fervent expectation of Receiving that day the Bread that came from Heaven , which whosoever is rightly partaker of shall not perish , but have life everlasting . V. As for the precedent days of Preparation , how many they should be , or how they should be imployed , you are to refer your self to your Guide , who may advise you not to be over-scrupulous of the Time , ( for the Primitive Christians communicated every day ; ) and if your life be innocent from great offences , your Preparation need not be long . Only be sure you bring with you Faith and Charity , clean hands and a penitent heart : which if you do , be confident the Master of the Feast will not find fault with you for want of a Wedding-garment . VI. That upon the blessed day of your Receiving you do more vigorously prepare your self by lifting up your Heart and Hands to God , and offering up your private Prayers , ( fitted for that purpose with all possible Devotion . ) And that being done , you may compose your self in quiet and in silence till the time of the Morning Sacrifice be come ; when being called to a more Publick Oratory , you may be the fitter to go with an humbly Confidence to meet your Saviour , and with that Ardour and Affection as a chaste Virgin goes to an holy Marriage . VII . That during the Celebration of this Holy Sacrament you attend earnestly to what is done by the Priest. When he breaks the Bread , imagine to your self that you see the Body of your dear Saviour torn and crucified , and when he pours out the Wine , consider that his Blood was thus poured out upon the Altar of the Cross : and last of all , when he that consecrates shall stand before you , ready in particular to apply it , you may then think that you see Christ himself reaching out his own Body and Blood to you , to feed your Soul unto Eternal Life . VIII . That farther you are really to believe the words as they are spoken , This is my Body , This is my Blood ; and not to doubt , but that it is effectually made good to you in the Receiving , without any dispute at all , or scrupulous inquiring into the manner of it , which neither Christ hath revealed , and neither Men nor Angels are able to pry into . IX . That the Celebration of these Holy Mysteries being ended , you are to retire with all Thankfulness of heart for having been admitted to that Heavenly Feast , wherein your Saviour , who gave himself for you on the Cross , hath now more particularly given himself to you in the Sacrament , never to depart from you , unless you again wilfully offend him ; which you are the more earnestly to beware , lest by frequent Relapses the Sacrament it self prove not only useless , but dangerous to you , and your latter end prove worse than your beginning . Advice concerning Fasting . I. YOU are to consider Fasting either as a Duty enjoined by the Church or as a voluntary undertaking of your own . Your Obedience is required to the former in every particular as far as it is enjoyned , unless the want of Health or some other Accidents may unavoidably hinder you , wherein not only the Bishop may dispense with you , but he that hath the charge of your Soul , especially if the Necessity be evident . II. Besides the ordinary Fasts prescribed by the Church , you are advised to set aside some Day , either Weekly or ( at least ) Monthly , wherein you may mourn in private , not only for your own sins and personal calamities , but for those publick Judgments now fallen on the whole Church and Nation , and those crying sins which have occasioned them ; offering up your earnest prayers to God for the removing of them , which , when they come from a mortified Body and a contrite Heart , are such a Sacrifice that God , ( who deceives no man ) being true to his Promises , cannot possibly despise . III. That the Fast for the time designed be such as may in some measure be afflictive to you , abstaining totally that day from all manner of food , if the condition of your health will bear it ; or if that cannot be , that you be so moderate in your feeding , that it may appear that you rather serve your Necessities in eating than satisfie your Appetite . IV. That you imploy this Day ( or such a part of it ( at least ) as you may keep free to your self ) as a Retreat from the world , the business and the pleasures of it , that so you may with the more freedom make up the Accounts between God and your own Soul , and by Prayer and Penitence reconcile your self to him ; for without this , Fasting is of no use . Expressions of Humiliation preparatory to the following Devotions . RIghteousness , O Lord , belongs unto thee ; but unto me confusion of face , the vainest , the vilest , the sinfullest of all the children of men . Lord , I am vile in mine own eyes , and I will be yet more vile , because my sins have made me vile in thine . I am not worthy of the Air I breath , of the Earth I tread upon , or of the Sun that shines upon me ; much less worthy to lift up either hands or eyes to Heaven . For thou hast said that no unclean thing shall come within thy sight : and how then shall I appear , who am so miserably defiled ? If the Man according to thine own heart could say that he was a Worm , and no Man , O what am I ? If Abraham , who had the honour to be called thy Friend , could say that he was but Dust and Ashes , O what am I ? O my God , thou madest me of nothing ; and thou feest how I have spoiled this work of thine , for I have made my self worse than nothing . For I am still in my Sins , and what to do I know not . Acts of Resolution to second this Humiliation . But this I will do ; I Will confess my wickedness , and be sorry for my sins . I will stand aloof with the Publican , and smite my breast , and say , Lord , be merciful to me a sinner . I will return with the Prodigal , and say , Father , I am not worthy to be called thy Child ; make me as one of thine hired Servants . I will not suffer mine eyes to sleep , nor mine eye-lids to slumber , till I have by the mediation of thy dear Son obtained my pardon . And what shall I say more ? I will pour out my prayers in the bitterness of my Spirit ; and if my dry Eyes want Tears , I will call unto my Heart for Tears of Blood , wherewith I may supply them . And therefore now , Lord , call my sins to my remembrance : and when thou hast done so , blot them out of thy remembrance , and pardon me . A Litany of Confession to be made use of by the Penitent Soul that finds it self burthened with a true sense of Sin. I. WO , Wo unto me , O God , that being a Creature of thine , and made by thee capable of enjoying everlasting felicity , I have lived so wickedly and leudly , that , unless thy mercy prevent it , I shall utterly forfeit the very End of my Creation . But I Repent , O my God , I Repent . I am utterly ashamed of it . Lord , be thou merciful to me a Sinner . II. Wo , Wo unto me , O God , that I have trifled away so many of my Youngest days without knowing thee , or taking any notice of those strict duties which I did owe unto thee ; that I was so long a Child in all things , excepting Innocence , and that only by an over-hasty Spring of early Wickedness I was more than a Child . But I Repent , O my God , I Repent . I Accuse , and Judge , and Condemn my self for it . Lord , be thou merciful to me a Sinner . III. Wo , Wo unto me , O God , that as I grew up , the seeds of Corruption which I brought with me into the world grew up along with me , and by insensible degrees ( which I observed not ) Pride and Folly and Lust took Possession of me , and Sin hath reigned in my mortal Body . But I Repent , O my God , I Repent . I am infinitely confounded at it . Lord , be thou merciful to me a Sinner . IV. Wo , Wo unto me , O God , that being washed in the Waters of Baptism from the guilt of that Original Corruption which I brought with me into the World , I have since that time so many ways actually defiled my self , that I can no longer pretend by any former contract with thee , that I am either a Child of thine , a member of thy Christ , or an heir of the Kingdom of Heaven . But I Repent , O my God , I Repent . I am utterly confounded at it . Lord , be thou merciful to me a Sinner . V. Wo unto me , O God , that having been received into the Bosom of thy Church , ( which so many millions of Souls have not had the happiness to be ) I have ingratefully dishonoured thy holy Faith by an unholy Life ; and having so often confessed thee with my tongue , I have denied thee in my life and actions . But I Repent , O my God , I Repent . I Accuse , and Judge , and Condemn my Self for it . Lord , be thou merciful to me a Sinner . VI. Wo , Wo unto me , O God , that having abjured the Devil and all his works , and given up my name to Christ , to fight under the Banner of his Cross , I have on the contrary treacherously complied with his Enemy in many things , and shall be found ( I fear ) to have been more diligent in serving him , than I have been in serving thee . But I Repent , O my God , I Repent . I am confounded and astonished at it . Lord , be thou merciful to me a Sinner . VII . Wo , Wo unto me , O God , that being obliged by that high calling of being a Christian to renounce the Pomps and Vanities of the World , I have so infinitely failed in this , that I have doted on nothing more : for those very Vanities have been my Idols , and my seduced Heart hath gone a Whoring after them . But I Repent , O my God , I Repent . I am ashamed and confounded at it . Lord , be thou merciful to me a Sinner . VIII . Wo , Wo unto me , O God , that being farther bound by that most Solemn Vow , utterly to forsake the sinful Lusts of the Flesh , I have , instead of forsaking them pursued and hunted after them , and when other temptations have failed , have been apt enough to kindle my own Fire , and to be a Tempter to my self . But I Repent , O my God , I Repent . I hate , and loath , and abhar my self for it . Lord , be thou merciful to me a Sinner . IX . Wo , Wo unto me , O God , that knowing thy revealed Will to be the Law to which I was bound in all obedience to submit my self , I , like an insolent Rebel , have not only set up my own Will , in opposition to thine , but many times preferred it before thine , and have listned more to the false Oracles of Flesh and Blood than to all thy Holy Commandments . But I Repent , O my God , I Repent . I Accuse , and Judge , and Condemn my self for it . Lord , be thou merciful to me a Sinner . X. Wo , Wo unto me , O God , that being made according to thine Image , ( the greatest honour that could be done thy Creature ) I have dashed so many blurs and spots and foul sins upon it , so defaced all the lines and features of it , that , unless the Holy Spirit please to renew that Image in me again , I tremble to think what I must one day hear , Depart from me , I know you not . But I Repent , O my God , I Repent . I am ashamed and confounded at it . Lord , be thou merciful to me a Sinner . XI . Wo , Wo unto me , O God , that having received a Rational Soul from thee , to be a Moral Light and guide unto my actions , I have been so brutish as to follow my sensual appetite instead of it , and have made no farther use of Reason than to find out vain excuses to cozen my own Soul into all the by-ways of Sin and Errour . But I Repent , O my God , I Repent . I Accuse , and Judge , and Condemn my self for it . Lord , be thou merciful to me a Sinner . XII . Wo , Wo unto me , O God , that being endowed with Memory to serve as a Magazine to treasure up thy Precepts and holy Counsels in , I have stuft it so miserably full with the Idea's of former Vanities and Sin , that I have left no room for thee at all . But I Repent , O my God , I Repent . I infinitely condemn my self for it . Lord , be thou merciful to me a Sinner . XIII . Wo , Wo unto me , O God , that having received a Heart from thee to be the seat of clean and holy affections , and the only Temple for thy holy Spirit to dwell in , I have so unworthily abused and altered the property of it , that it is now become a Den of Thieves , and an unhandsome receptacle of all uncleanness . But I Repent , O my God , I Repent . I hate , and loath , and abhor my self for it . Lord , be thou merciful to me a Sinner . XIV . Wo , Wo unto me , O God , that my wretched Heart being corrupted , my Imagination hath run wildly after with a swarm of vain and sinful Thoughts , which like importunate Flies , being driven away light again and again upon my destracted Soul , and intermingle with the best of my Devotions . But I Repent , O my God , I Repent . I am infinitely troubled and grieved for it . Lord , be thou merciful to me a Sinner . XV. Wo , Wo unto me , O God , that mine Eyes , being greedy after Vanity , have been upon all occasions as open windows to let in Sin ; but when by the same way they should have issued out Penitential Tears , to wash away the stains those Sins had made , there hath been no passage found for them . But I Repent , O my God , I Repent . I am inwardly grieved and deplore my self for it . Lord , be thou merciful to me a Sinner . XVI . Wo , Wo unto me , O my God , that , for the entertaining of vain conversation , I have left mine Ears too often open to light and vain and sinful discourses , and in all my inquiries have hearkned more to what the world saith abroad , than to what thy holy Spirit and my own Conscience saith within me . But I Repent , O my God , I Repent . I Accuse , and Judge , and Condemn my self for it . Lord , be thou merciful to me a Sinner . XVII . Wo , Wo unto me , O God , that I have not resolved , with thy Servant David , to take care of my ways , that I offend not in my tongue , but have many times vainly and inconsiderately let it loose , and , either to please the Company or my self , I have spoken words which might unhappily prove occasions of sin both to them and me , without regard , or remembring how great Flames such little sparks might kindle . But I Repent , O my God , I Repent . I do infinitely condemn my self for it . Lord , be thou merciful to me a Sinner . XVIII . Wo , Wo unto me , O God , that all the parts and faculties of my Soul and Body have been abused , and have not served the Laws of their Creator , but have so eagerly and constantly pursued the corrupt desires of a seduced Heart , that I have cause to fear that either my whole life may be looked upon as one continued sin , or at least as having admitted so few inconsiderable Pauses , that if thou shouldst enter into strict Judgment with me , I should not have the confidence to say when , or where , or wherein I have been innocent . But I Repent , O my God , I Repent . I am confounded and astonished at it . Lord , be thou merciful to me a Sinner . XIX . Wo unto me , O God , that I have wretchedly failed even in my best endeavours , that I have been cold in my Devotions , weary of my Prayers , inconstant to good purposes , dull and heavy in the way to Heaven , but quick and active in all the ways of sin , having made it the whole business of my life , rather to seem to be Religious , than really to be so . But I Repent , O my God , I Repent . I Accuse , and Judge , and Condemn my self for it . Lord , be thou merciful to me a Sinner . XX. Wo , Wo unto me , O God , that I have not washed mine hands in Innocency , when I have gone unto thine Altar , nor made mine heart ready to receive the bread that came from Heaven , but have failed in my Preparations , and have not sufficiently considered either mine own unworthiness , or the high secrets of so great a Mystery . But I Repent , O my God , I Repent . I am grieved and troubled at it . Lord , be thou merciful to me a Sinner . XXI . Wo , Wo unto me , O God , that having so often received those inestimable Pledges of thy love , the precious Body and Blood of thy dear Son in the Holy Sacrament , I have been so unwary as to admit my former sins under the same roof with thee , and have unhappily done what lay in me to drive thee from me . But I Repent , O my God , I Repent . I am infinitely ashamed at it . Lord , be thou merciful to me a Sinner . XXII . Wo , Wo unto me , O God , that my Repentance , the only plank left me in the Shipwrack of my Soul , hath been so weak , so slight , and so unsteady , that every small blast of a new Temptation hath been able to drive me from it , and by frequent Relapses into sin , gives me cause enough to repent , even of my vain repentance . But I Repent again , O God , again I I Repent . I hate , and loath , and abhor my self for it . Lord , be thou merciful to me a Sinner . XXIII . Wo , Wo unto me , O God , that having received my Life and Being and Preservation from thee , with so many advantages to have made me happy in this world , and blessed in the next , I have been so abominably unthankful , that I have cast all these thy Blessings behind me and returned thee nothing back for all thy favours , but affronts , and injuries , and sins . But I Repent , O my God , I Repent . I am confounded and astonished at it . Lord , be thou merciful to me a Sinner . XXIV . Wo , wo unto me , O God , that being Redeemed by the Death and Passion of thy dear and only Son , I have not laid his bitter Agonies to heart , nor made right use of the precious Ransom which was laid down for me : That I have not yet sued out my pardon with such Penitent Tears as thou requirest , nor laid hold of the benefits of it by a lively Faith ; but have chosen rather stupidly to continue in my Sins , and to neglect the Blood of the Covenant as an unholy thing . But I Repent , O my God , I Repent . I hate , and loath , and abhor my self for it . Lord , be thou merciful to me a Sinner . XXV . Wo , Wo unto me O God , that thy Holy Spirit I have grieved , thy Counsels I have rejected , thy Motions I have quenched , and have entertained the Lusts and Vanities nf this life with far more earnest and passionate affections than all thy Holy Inspirations . But I Repent , O my God , I Repent . I am utterly ashamed and confounded at it . Lord , be thou merciful to me a Sinner . XXVI . Wo , Wo unto me , O God , that having thus far opened my guilty heart before thee , I have left so many Sins behind , that I cannot number them ; some that I have really forgot , some that I would forget , if my Conscience would give me leave ; Sins known , that I cannot conceal , and sins secret , such as I have taken so much care to hide from others , that they are now become hidden from my self . But whatsoever they are , or wheresoever they are registred , whether in my own Conscience or in any other Record , that may be proved against me in the day of Judgment , I call the whole Court of Heaven to witness , That I do sadly Repent my self of them all ; That I do abhor my self for them all ; That I resolve stedfastly to renounce them all . Lord , be thou merciful to me a Sinner . Amen . Amen . The Penitent Soul having made this or the like Confession , prepares and stirs up it self to true Contrition . WHat shall I say more unto thee , O thou that art the Judge of the whole Earth ? or what shall I do more ? I have ransacked my breast and laid it open ; I have spread it before thee , as Hezekiah the blaspheming Letter of his Enemy . I do not desire that there should be so much as any fold , or pleight , or corner of it hidden from thee . Or if this be not enough to transact this great business of my Soul between me and thee alone , and that possibly I may flatter my self in the several acts of my intended Penitence , I am ready to go farther , and ( to make my self the more ashamed of sinning ) with all humility to confess these sins of mine to some of those servants of thine , whom thou hast placed between mee and thee , and to whom alone under thee thou hast so clearly given the power of Absolution . O deal with me then as thou didst with thy Servant David , who no sooner confessed his sins , but thou forgavest him all his iniquities . But are there not they who confess their sins , and have the impudence to glory in them , or at least pass them over without any act of real Contrition , or any remorse at all ? But , O my God , ( if my heart deceive me not ) I am none of those ; for I can neither glory in my shame , nor can I be satisfied with my self when I appear with dry eyes before thee . After this Preparation these Express Acts of Contrition may follow . FOR I am grieved , O my God , I am grieved passionately , heartily grieved that ever I offended thee . That I , the work of thy hands , have sinned against thee my Maker . That I , the price of thy Blood , have sinned against thee my Jesus , who hadst so much love for me as to be content to die for me . That I , the chosen Temple of thy Holy Spirit , have sinned against him who sanctified me . For this I grieve , and mourn , and my heart is wounded within me . And having done all this , yet I have not done ; for still I am grieved : grieved that I can grieve no more , that my Head is not a continual Spring , and mine Eyes Fountains of Tears . Wo is me , wretch as I am , that I who have been so easie , so forward , so eager to sin , should not be so untoward , so heavy , so unable to repent . Wo is me , that I should be still so drowsie , so dead asleep in sin , that I should not be yet awake , and sensible of the condition I am in . O that I had died before my unworthy Soul had given way to those strst sins , which hath drawn so foul a Train after them . But , O my God , though I cannot wait on thee among the Innocent , yet deny me not a room among the Penitent . Remember , O my God , that though Ahab had sold himself to work wickedness , yet because he Prayed , and Fasted , and humbled himself before thee , thou hadst so much regard even of this outward Penitence of his , as to promise not to bring the evil upon him in his days . But , Lord , if my heart deceives me not , I do not only outwardly and seemingly , but really and cordially Repent . And therefore for the evil that I have deserved , O my God , rather let the punishment light upon me in this world than in the next . Rather let me perform the Penance of my Tears here , than reserve it for that sad time , when a whole Sea of Tears will do no good . And having said all this , if my Repentance be yet imperfect , ( as I know it cannot but want many grains , if weighed in this just balance ) let the bitter Sufferings of thy dear Son Jesus be cast into the Scale , and then I shall not fear if thou enter into Judgment with me . But of my self , O God , I am utterly unable ; and which way to satisfie thee I know not . I dare not say so much as the Servant in the Gospel did , Master , have patience with me , and I will pay thee all . But rather , Master , have patience with me , for I can pay thee nothing at all , unless thy bounty be so great as to give it me to pay thee . I can Fast from a meal sometimes , ( though it be with much ado ) and I can Pray , though coldly enough ; and if the fit and qualm of my Devotion holds out longer , I can strain for a Tear or two to sprinkle upon my dry Devotions . But should I fast my self into Air and Emptiness , and weep my self into Water ; should I tear the skin from this sinsul Flesh of mine , I should never be able to satisfie for the least of those Millions of Millions of sins , which , through the several moments of my life , either ignorantly or knowingly , weakly or wilfully , I have sinned against thee . What I have transgressed against others , I am not only sorry for , but ready , as far as my power will reach , to satisfie . But for my sins against thee , my God , I must lay my hand upon my mouth for ever , for I have nothing to return or answer . But the comfort is , ( and blessed shall be my Soul if rightly I lay hold on it ) that it is thou , O my blessed Jesu , who hast satisfied for me , one drop of whose blood is enough to satisfie for the sins of a thousand worlds . And this being so , will thy offended Eather be so rigorous as to require the same payment again ? Especially will he require it of me , a poor , a broken , and a bankrupt Sinner ? Canst thou exact the utmost farthing of him who hath not a mite of his own to pay thee ? The Transition which the Penitent makes from the Acts of Contrition to the Acts of Resolution for amendment of life , without which all sorrow for Sin is in vain . BUT because by thy infinite Mercy , O my God , thou hast satisfied for me already , shall I therefore fold my Arms , and sit down and do nothing towards it ? Or which is worse , shall I go on ? Shall I continue in my Sins that Grace may abound ? Now God forbid . No , I here resolve rather to die the Death , than ever wilfully to sin against thee more . I do here resolve utterly to avoid the temptations and approaches towards those former sins which have hitherto so miserably betrayed me . I do here resolve ( thy holy Spirit assisting me ) upon all the duties of a new life ; to be hereafter more wary in my ways , and more constant to good resolutions , to love thee above all the pleasures and interests of this life , and sadly to consider what an infinite loser I should be , if to gain all that my corrupt heart desires I should lose thee : If after all this I should be so miserably forgetful both of my self and thee , as shamefully to relapse into any of those sins which I have now repented of . I do here once more resolve to abhor and loath my self for it , and not to let my Conscience sleep or admit of any rest , till I have with bitter tears and a sharp reiterated Repentance obtained my pardon . Having thus far made his Resolution , the Penitent betakes himself to Prayer . AND now O thou great Searcher of all Hearts , who seest that I am of my self weak and mutable , and no better than a Reed shaken with the wind , O shew thy strength in my weakness : fasten and confirm me in these good purposes , and so bind them with Cords unto thine Altar , that I may never start from thee more , or be any longer of that Herd , whose good resolutions are as a dream in the night ; or if they last longer , they are but as the next morning dew , and as soon vanish away . O give me the Resolution of thy Servant Joshua ; I and my house will serve the Lord. O give me the Heart of thy Servant David , who so passionately makes his Protestations . I will take no wicked thing in hand , I hate the sins of unfaithfulness , there shall no such cleave unto me . I will walk in my house with a perfect heart . I have sworn , and am stedfastly purposed to keep thy righteous Judgements . Lord , I am not able to think one of these good thoughts without thee , much less to resolve upon them . But I , who without thee am able to do nothing , may venture to say as thine Apostles did , that in thee I am able to do all things . Lord , give me the strength to do what thou requirest , and then require of me what thou pleasest . Amen . After these Resolutions the Penitent prepares himself with an humble Soul and bended knees to beg Pardon . O The God of my life , and the unexhausted Fountain of Mercy which can never be drawn dry , I have now by the assistance of thy holy Spirit gone through ( though with weak and trembling steps ) the whole exercise of Repentance : for I have confessed my sins , and thou hast promised ( upon my confession of them ) not to impute them to me ; I have gone one step farther , for I have repented of my sins , and thou hast promised again that upon my repentance thou wilt remember them no more ; and because thy holy Word hath taught me that a new life is the only life of a true Repentance , I have this day in thy sight , and in the presence of all the Holy Angels that attend thee in the Conversion of a Sinner , made my firm resolution never to fall again into the sins which I have repented of . And now what remains for a poor Penitent to do more , but humbly and earnestly to beg thy Pardon ? The Penitent's Prayer . O God the Father , who canst not be thought so cruel as to make me only to destroy me , Have mercy on me . O God the Son , who knowing thy Father's Will , didst make it thy business to come into the world to save me , Have mercy on me . O God the Holy Ghost , who to the same end didst sanctifie me in my Baptism , and hast so often since breathed holy thoughts and motions on me , Have mercy on me . O Holy and Blessed and Glorious Trinity , whom in three Persons I adore as my one and onely true God , Have mercy on me . Hear me , O Lord. Help me , O Lord. Save me , or else I perish . Lord , carest thou not that I perish ? Thou that wouldest have all men saved ? Thou who wouldst have none to perish ? And wilt thou now shew thine anger against a Worm , against a Leaf , against a Vapour that vanisheth before thee ? O remember how short my time is , and deliver not my Soul into the power of Hell. For , alas ! what profit is there in my Bloud ? or who shall ever give thee thanks in that bottomless pit ? No , let me live in thy sight ? let me live , O my God , that my Soul may praise thee . Forget me as I have been disobedient , provoking thee to anger ; and regard me as I am distressed , crying out to thee for help . Look not upon me as I am a Sinner ; but consider me as I am thy Creature . A Sinner I am , I confess , a Sinner of no ordinary strain ; but let not this hinder thee , O my God , for upon such sinners thou gettest the greatest glory . O remember for whose sake it was that thou camest from the bosom of thy Father , and didst let thy self down so low as to be content to be born of thine own humble handmaid . Remember for whom it was that thy tender body was Torn , & Scourged , and Crucified , and thy precious Blood shed . Was it not for the sins of the whole world ? and shall I be so narrow-hearted to my own Soul , or so injurious to thy Glory , as to think that in all this crowd , thou hast particularly excepted me ? Or , which is as great a dishonour to thee , can I possibly imagine that thou diedst only for Sinners of a lower kind , and leftest such as I am without remedy ? What had become then of him who filled Jerusalem with blood ? What of the noted Woman who had lived in a trade of Sin ? Nay , what had become of thine own Disciple who with Oaths and Curses thrice denied thee ? O how easie is it for thee to forgive ? for it is thy Nature . How proper is it for thee to save ? for it is thy Name . How suitable is it to thy only End of coming into the World ? for it is thy Business . And when I consider that I am the chief of Sinners , may I not urge the Father , and say , Shall the very chief of thy business be left undone ? Mercy , Mercy , good Lord. I ask not of thee any longer the things of this world : neither Power , nor Honours , nor Riches , nor Pleasures . No , my God , dispose of them to whom thou pleasest , so that thou givest me Mercy . O that I could hear thee once say , as thou didst to him in the Gospel , My Son , be of good chear , thy Sins are forgiven thee . How would my drooping Spirits revive at such a sound ? and my now wounded Soul break forth into Hymns and Praises and Hallelujahs for a mercy so utterly undeserved of me , and which the Angels which fell could never hear of ? But , O my weak Soul , what dost thou fear ? or what dost thou scruple at ? For thou art not yet in such a desperate condition , but thou mayest expect that what was said to him may possibly be said to thee . Nay , be confident ( though it be with a mixture of fear and trembling ) that if thou dost not act the part of an Hypocrite all this while , thy Saviour stands ready at the very doors of thy Heart , to breath the very same words in a heavenly whisper to thee ; Be of good chear , thy Sins are forgiven thee . Return then unto thy rest , O my Soul , for thy Sins are forgiven thee . Only take this Counsel along with thee , Sin no more , lest a worse thing fall unto thee . O that I could never sin against thee more ; never purposely , deliberately , wilfully sin against thee more . And for those sins of daily Incursion , those over-familiar corruptions of my nature , which thou hast not yet given me strength enough to conquer ; Lord , either subdue them to me by degrees , or lay them not to my charge . But wherein soever my Conscience most accuseth me , therein , O my God , be thou most merciful unto me . Save me , O God , as a Brand snatched out of the Fire . Receive me , O my Jesu , as a Sheep that hath wandred , but is now returned to the great Shepherd and Bishop of my Soul. The Jubile of the Penitent Soul after the sense of Pardon obtained . REjoyce over me , O God the Father ; that this thy Child was lost , but is found , was dead , but is alive again . Rejoyce over me , O God the Son , that thy loud Cries and Tears , and bitter Agonies which for my sake thou enduredst upon the Cross , were ●…ot so unhappily lost , as to be cast away in vain upon me . Rejoyce over me , O God the Holy Ghost , that thy so many secret and powerful touches have at last got the upper hand of me . Rejoyce over me , O ye holy Angels , a great part of whose Ministery it is , to rejoyce at the Conversion of a Sinner . Rejoyce over thy self , O my Soul , that thou hast received so much grace from Heaven this day , as sadly to confess thy Sins , seriously to repent of them , and stedfastly to resolve never to be guilty more of so much bruitishness , as to be likened to the Dog that returns to his Vomit , or to the Swine wallowing in the Mire . The Penitent closeth all with this short Prayer . LET this day , O my God , be noted in thy Book . Do not thou forget my Prayers , nor suffer me to forget my Resolutions . For though I am weak , though I am unworthy , though I am unprofitable , yet I am thy Servant . And here upon my bended Knees I humbly beg of thee , that I may live and die so . Lord hear my Prayers , and let my cry come unto thee . Lord , pardon my Prayers , and let not my coldness and wanderings , and infinite unworthiness turn them into sin . Lord , hear my Prayers , and let my cry come unto thee . Amen . Amen . FESTIVAL HYMNS . Celebrating the Mysteries and chief Festivals of the Year , according to the manner of the Ancient Church : fitted to the fancy and devotion of the younger and pious persons . Apt for memory , and to be joined to their other Prayers . Hymns for Advent , or the Weeks immediately before the Birth of our Blessed Saviour . I. WHen , Lord , O when shall we Our Dear Salvation see ? Arise , arise , Our fainting eyes Have long'd all night , and 't was a long one too . Man never yet could say . He saw more than one day , One day of Eden's seven : The guilry hour there blasted with the breath Of sin and death Hath ever since worn a nocturnal hue . But thou hast given us hopes that we At length another day shall see , Wherein each vile neglected place , Gilt with the aspect of thy face , Shall be like that , the porch & gate of heaven How long , dear God , how long ! See how the Nations throng : All humane kind , Knit and combin'd Into one body , look for the their Head. Pity our multitude . Lord , we are vile and rude , Headless and senseless , without thee , Of al things but the want of thy blestface . O haste apace , And thy bright self to this our body wed That , through the influx of thy power , Each part that er'st confusion wore May put on order , and appear Spruce as the childhood of the year , When thou to it shalt so united be . Amen . The second Hymn forAdvent ; or Christ's coming to Jerusalem in triumph . LOrd , come away , Why dost thou stay ? Thy rode is ready , and thy paths made straight With longing expectation wait The Consecration of thy beautious feet . Ride on triumphantly , behold we lay Our lusts and proud wills in thy way . Hosanna ! welcome to our hearts . Lord , here Thou hast a Temple too , and full as dear As that of Sion , and as full of sin . Nothing but Thieves and robbers dwell therein . Enter , and chase them forth , and clense the floor ; Crucifie them , that they may never more Profane that holy place , Where thou hast chose to set thy face . And then , if our stiff tongues shall be Mute in the praises of thy Deity , The stones out of the Temple wall Shall cry aloud and call Hosanna ! and thy glorious footsteps greet . Amen . Hymns for Christmas-day I. MYsterious truth ! that the self-same should be A Lamb , a Shepherd , and a Lion too ! Yet such was he Whom first the sheperds knew , When they themselves became Sheep to the Shepherd-Lamb . Shepherd of Men and Angels , Lamb of God , Lion of Judah , by these titles keep The Wolf from thy indangered Sheep . Bring all the world unto thy Fold ; Let Jews and Gentiles hither come In numbers great that can't be told , And call thy Lambs , that wander , home . Glory be to God on high , All glories be to th' glorious Deity . The second Hymn ; being a Dialogue between three Shepherds . WHere is this Blessed Babe That hath made All the world so full of joy And expectation ; That glorious boy That Crowns each Nation With a triumphant wreath of blessedness ? Where should he be but in the throng , And among His Angel-Ministers , that sing And take wing Just as may Echo to his Voice , And rejoyce , When wing and tongue and all May so procure their happiness ? But he hath other Waiters now , A poor Cow , An Ox and Mule stand and behold , And wonder , That a stable should enfold Him that can thunder . Chorus . O what a gracious God have we ! How good ! How great ! even as our misery . The third Hymn : Of Christ's Birth in an Inn. THE blessed Virgin travail'd without pain And lodged in an Inn , A glorious Star the sign , But of a greater guest than ever came that way : For there he lay That is the God of Night and Day , And over all the pow'rs of Heaven doth reign . It was the time of great Augustus Tax , And then he comes That pays all sums , Even the whole price of lost Humanity . And sets us free From the ungodly Empirie Of Sin , and Satan , and of Death . O make our hearts , blest God , thy lodging-place , And in our brest Be pleas'd to rest ; For thou lov'st Temples better than an Inn : And cause that sin May not profane the Deity within , And fully o're the ornaments of Grace . Amen . A Hymn for Christmas-day . A Wake , my Soul , and come away , Put on thy best array , Lest if thou longer stay , Thou lost some minutes of so blest a day . Go run and bid good morrow to the Sun , Welcome his safe return to Capricorn , And that great morn Wherein a God was born , Whose Story none can tell But he whose every word 's a Miracle . To day Almightiness grew weak , The World it self was mute , And could not speak . That Jacob's Star which made the Sun To dazzle , if he durst look on , Now mantled o're in Bethlehem's night Borrow'd a Star to shew him light . He that begirt each Zone , To whom both Poles are one , Who grasp'd the Zodiack in 's hand , And made it move or stand , Is now by Nature Man , By stature but a Span ; Eternity is now grown short , A King is born without a Court ; The Water thirsts , the Fountain's dry , And Life , being born , made apt to die . Chorus . Then let our praises emulate and vie With his Humility : Since he 's exil'd from skies , That we might rise , From low estate of men Let 's sing him up agen . Each man wind up's heart To bear a part In that Angelick Quire ; and show His glory high , as he was low . Let 's sing t'wards men good will and Charity , Peace upon Earth , Glory to God on high . Hallelujah , Hallelujah . A Hymn upon St. John's day . This day We sing The friend of our eternal King , Who in his bosom lay , And kept the Keys Of his profound and glorious Mysteries : Which to the world dispensed by his hand , Made it stand Fix'd in amazement to behold that light , Which came From the throne of the Lamb , To invite Our wretched eyes ( which nothing else could see But fire and sword , hunger and miserie ) T' anticipate by their ravish't sight The beauty of Celestial delight . Mysterious God , regard me when I pray : And when this load of clay Shall fall away , O let thy gracious hand conduct me up , Where on the Lamb 's rich viands I may sup ; And in this last supper I May with thy friend in thy sweet bosom lie For ever in Eternity . Allelujah . Upon the day of the holy Innocents . MOurnful Judah shreeks and cries At the obsequies Of their Babes , that cry More that they lose the paps , than that they die . He that came with life to all Brings the Babes a funeral , To redeem from slaughter him Who did redeem us all from sin . They like himself went spotless hence , A sacrafice to Innocence , Which now does ride Trampling upon Herod's pride , Passing from their fontinels of clay To heaven a milky and a bloody way . All their tears and groans are dead , And they to rest and glory fled . Lord , who wert pleas'd so many Babes should fall , Whilst each sword hop'd , that every of the All Was the desired King , make us to be In Innocence like them , in Glory thee . Amen . Upon the Epiphany , and the three Wise men of the East coming to worship Jesus . A Comet dangling in the air Presag'd the ruin both of Death and Sin , And told the wise man of a King , The King of Glory , and the Sun Of Righteousness , who then begun To draw towards that blessed Hemisphere . They from the farthest East this new And unknown light pursue , Till they appear In this blest Infant-King's propitious eye , And pay their homage to his Royalty . Persia might then the rising Sun adore , It was Idolatry no more . Great God , they gave to thee Myrrhe , Frankincense and Gold : But , Lord , with what shall we Present our selves before thy Majesty , Whom thou redeem'dst when we were sold ? W'have nothing but our selves , and scarce that neither ; Vile dirt and clay : Yet it is soft , and may Impression take . Accept it , Lord , and say , this thou hadst rather ; Stamp it , and on this sordid metal make Thy holy image , and it shall out-shine The beauty of the golden Mine . Amen . A Meditation of the Four last things .   Death , For the time of Lent especially . Judgment , Heaven , Hell. A Meditation of Death . DEath , the old Serpent's Son , Thou hadst a sting once like thy Sire , That carried Hell and ever-burning fire : But those black days are done ; Thy foolish spite buried thy sting . In the profound and wide Wound of our Saviour's side . And now thou art become a tame and harmless thing , A thing we dare not fear Since we hear That our triumphant God , to punish thee For the affront thou didst him on the Tree , Hath snatcht the Keys of Hell out of thy hand , And made thee stand A Porter to the gate of Life , thy mortal enemy . O thou who art that Gate , command that he May , when we die , And thither flee , Let us into the Courts of Heaven through thee . Allelujah . The Prayer . MY Soul doth pant tow'rds thee , My God , Source of eternal life : Flesh fights with me●… Oh end the strife , And part us , that in peace I may Unclay My wearied spirit , and take My flight to thy eternal Spring , Where , for his sake Who is my King , I may wash all my tears away That day . Thou Conqueror of Death , Glorious Triumpher o're the Grave , Whose holy breath Was spent to save Lost Mankind , make me to be styl'd Thy Child ; And take me when I die , And go unto my dust , my Soul Above the sky With Saints enroll , That in thy arms for ever I May lie . Amen . Of the day of Judgment . GReat Judge of all , how we vile wretches quake ! Our guilty bones do ake , Our marrow freezes , when we think Of the consuming fire Of thine ire ; And horrid phials thou shalt make The wicked drink , When thou the wine-press of thy wrath shalt tread With feet of lead . Sinful , rebellious clay ! what unknown place Shall hide it from thy face ? When earth shall vanish from thy sight . The Heavens , that never err'd , But Observ'd Thy laws , shall from thy presence take their flight , And , kill'd with glory , their bright eyes stark dead Start from their head ; Lord , how shall we , Thy enemies , endure to see So bright , so killing Majesty ? Mercy , dear Saviour : thy Judgment-seat We dare not , Lord , intreat ; We are condemn'd already there . Mercy : vouchsafe one look Of life . Lord , we can read thy saving Jesus here , And in his Name our own Salvation see . Lord , set us free ; The book of sun Is cross'd within , Our debts are paid by thee . Mercy . Of Heaven . O Beautious God , uncircumscribed Treasure Of an eternal pleasure , Thy Throne is seated far Above the highest Star , Where thou prepar'st a glorious place Within the brightness of thy face For every spirit To inherit That builds his hopes on thy merit , And loves thee with an holy Charity . What ravish'd heart , Scraphick tongue or eyes , Clear as the morning's rise , Can speak , or think , or see That bright Eternity , Where the great King 's transparent Throne Is of an intire Jasper stone ? There the eye O' th' Chrysolite , And a skie Of Diamonds , Rubies , Chrysoprase , And above all the holy Face Makes an Eternal Clarity . When thou thy Jewels up dost bind , that day Remember us , we pray ; That where the Beryll lies And the Crystal 'bove the skies , There thou may'st appoint us place Within the brightness of thy face , And our Soul In the Scrowl Of life and blissfulness enrowl , That we may praise thee to eternity . Allelujah . Of Hell. HOrrid darkness , sad and sore , And an eternal Night , Groans and shrieks , and thousand more In the want of glorious light ; Every corner hath a Snake In the accursed lake . Seas of fire , beds of snow Are the best delights below ; A Viper from the fire Is his hire That knows not moments from Eternity . Glorious God of Day and Night , Spring of Eternal Light , Allelujahs , Hymns and Psalms And Coronets of Palms Fill thy people ever more . O mighty God , Let not thy bruising rod Crush our loins with an eternal pressure ; O let thy mercy be the measure : For if thou keepest wrath in store , We all shall die , And none be left to glorifie Thy Name , and tell How thou hast sav'd our Souls from Hell. Mercy . On the Conversion of St. Paul. FUll of wrath , his threatning breath Belching nought but chains and death , Saul was arrested in his way By a voice and a light , That if a thousand days Should join rays To beautifie one day , It would not shew so glorious and so bright . On his amazed eyes it night did fling , That day might break within ; And by those beams of Faith Make him of a child of wrath Become a vessel full of glory . Lord , curb us in our dark and sinful way . We humbly pray , When we down horrid precipices run With seet that thirst to be undone , That this may be our story . Allelujah . On the Purification of the Blessed Virgin. PUre and spotless was the Maid That to the Temple came , A pair of Turtle-doves she paid , Although she brought the Lamb. Pure and spotless though she were , Her body chast and her Soul fair , She to the Temple went To be purifi'd , And try'd That she was spotless and obedient . O make us to follow so blest Precedent , And purifie our Souls , for we Are cloath'd with sin and misery . From our Conception One Imperfection , And a continued state of sin , Hath fullied all our faculties within . We present our Souls to thee Full of need and misery ; And for Redemption a Lamb The purest , whitest that e're came A Sacrifice to thee , Even he that bled upon the Tree . On Good-Friday . THE Lamb is eaten , and is yet again Preparing to be slain . The cup is full and mixt , And must be drunk : Wormwood and Gall To this are draughts to beguile care withall . Yet the Decree is fixt , Doubled knees and groans and cries , Prayers and sighs and flowing eyes Could not intreat . His sad Soul sunk Under the heavy pressure of our sin , The pains of Death and Hell About him dwell . His Fathers burning wrath did make His very heart , like melting wax , to sweat Rivers of Blood Through the pure strainer of his skin : His boyling body stood Bubling all o're , As if the wretched whole were but one door To let in pain and grief , And turn out all relief . O thou , who for our sake Didst drink up This bitter Cup , Remember us , we pray , In thy day , When down The strugling throats of wicked men The dregs of thy just fury shall be thrown . Oh then Let thy unbounded mercy think On us , for whom Thou underwent'st this heavy doom , And give us of the Well of Life to drink . Amen . On the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin. A Winged Harbinger from bright Heav'n flown Bespeaks a lodging-room For the mighty King of Love , The spotless structure of a Virgin-womb O're-shadow'd with the wings of the blest Dove : For he was travelling to earth , But did desire to lay By the way , That he might shift his cloaths , and be A perfect man as well as we . How good a God have we ! who for our sake , To save us from the burning lake , Did change the order of Creation : At first he made Man like himself in his own Image ; now , In the more blessed reparation , The Heaven's bow , Eternity took the measure of a span , And said , Let us make our self like Man , And not from Man the Woman take , But from the Woman , Man. Allelujah : we adore His Name whose goodness hath no store . Allelujah . Easter-day . WHat glorious light ! How bright a Sun after so sad a night Does now begin to dawn ! Bless'd were those eyes That did behold This Sun when he did first unfold His glorious beams , and now begin to rise . It was the holy tender Sex That saw the first ray : Saint Peter and the other had the reflex , The second glimpse o' th' day . Innocence had the first , and he That fled , and then did penance , next did see The glorious Sun of Righteousness In his new dress Of triumph , immortality and bliss . O dearest God preserve our Souls In holy innocence ; Or if we do amiss , Make us to rise again to th' life of Grace , ( face , That we may live with thee , and see thy glorious The Crown of holy Penitence . Allelujah . On the Day of Ascension . HE is risen higher , not set : Indeed a cloud Did with his leave make bold to shrowd The Sun of Glory from Mouut Olivet . At Pentecost hee'I shew himself again , When every ray shall be a tongue To speak all comforts , and inspire Our Souls with their coelestial fire ; That we the Saints among May sing and love and reign . Amen . On the Feast of Pentecost , or Whitsunday . TOngues of fire from Heaven descend With a mighty rushing wind , To blow it up and make A living fire Of heavenly Charity and pure desire , Where they their residence should take . On the Apostles sacred heads they sit , Who now like Beacons do proclaim and tell Th' invasion of the host of Hell , And give men warning to defend Themselves from the inraged brunt of it . Lord , let the flames of holy Charity And all her gifts and graces slide Into our hearts , and there abide ; That thus refined , we may soar above With it unto the element of Love , Even unto thee , dear Spirit , And there eternal peace and rest inherit . Amen . Penitential Hymns . I. LOrd , I have sinn'd , and the black number swells To such a dismal sum , That should my stony heart and eyes , And this whole sinful trunk , a flood become , And run to tears , their drops could not suffice To count my score , Much less to pay : But thou , my God , hast blood in store , And art the Patron of the poor . Yet since the Balsame of thy blood , Although it can , will do no good , Unless the wounds be cleans'd with tears before ; Thou in whose sweet , but pensive , face Laughter could never steal a place , Teach but my heart and eyes To melt away . And then one drop of Balsam will suffice . Amen . II. GReat God , and just ! how canst thou see , Dear God , our misery , And not in mercy set us free ? Poor miserable man ! how wert thou born , Weak as the dewy jewels of the Morn , Wrapt up in tender dust , Guarded with sins and lust , Who like Court-flatterers wait To serve themselves in thy unhappy fate ? Wealth is a snare , and poverty brings in Inlets for theft , paving the way for sin : Each perfum'd vanity doth gently breath Sin in thy Soul , and whispers it to death . Our faults like ulcerated sores do go O're the sound flesh , and do corrupt that too . Lord , we are sick , spotted with sin , Thick as a crusty Leper's skin . Like Naaman , bid us wash , yet let it be In streams of blood that flow from thee . Then will we sing , Touch'd by the heavenly Dove 's bright wing , Hallelujabs , Psalms and Praise To God the Lord of night and days ; Ever good and ever just , Ever high , who ever must Thus be sung , is still the same : Eternal praises crown his Name . Amen . A Prayer for Charity . FUll of Mercy , full of Love , Look upon us from above ; Thou who taught'st the blind man's night To entertain a double light , Thine and the day's , ( and that thine too : ) The Lame away his Crutches threw ; The parched crust of Leprosie Return'd unto its infancy ; The Dumb amazed was to hear His own unchain'd tongue strike his ear : Thy powerful mercy did even chase The Devil from his usurp'd place , Where thou thy self should'st dwell , not he . O let thy love our pattern be : Let thy Mercy teach one Brother To forgive and love another ; That copying thy Mercy here , Thy Goodness may hereafter rear Our Souls unto thy glory , when Our Dust shall cease to be with ●…en . Amen . The End Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A63668-e660 John 17.3 . 1 John 2. 23. Deut. 6. 2. Exod. 20. 2 , 3. Rev. 1.4 . Psal. 90. 2. 1 Tim. 1. 17. Gen. 1. 1. Exod. 20. 11. Heb. 3. 4. Isa. 40. 12. Job 42. 2 , 3. Psal. 139. 1 , &c. Psal. 147. 5. Exod. 34. 6 , 7. 1 Tim. 6. 1 , 16. John 4. 24 1 King. 8. 27. Amos 3. 6. Psal. 139. 1 , 9. Acts 7. 48 , 49. PS . 2. 4. & 103. 16. & 115. 3. Isa. 11. 4. & 44. 6. Job . 9.4 , &c. Deut. 32. 39. Gen. 18. 25. Deut. 32.4 . Exod : 34. 7. Psal. 103. 8. & 25. 8. & 86. 5. Psal. 51. 2 Jam. 1.17 . Heb. 11.6 . Mat. 28.19 . Joh. 14. 16 , 26. & 15. 26. 1 Cor. 12. 4 , 5 , 6. 2 Cor. 13 . 13. 1 John 5. 7. 1 John. 1. 18. & 3. 16. Luke 24. 49. Acts 1. 4. & 3. 33. Colos. 1. 16. Acts 1. 7. 24. 1 Cor. 8. 6. & 1 Cor. 6. 18. Gal. 1. 4. Phil. 2. 22. Dan. 2. 47. Zach. 4. 14. & 14. 9. Mat. 11. 25. Psal. 145. 10 , 11. Acts 14. 15. Gen. 2. 7. Eccles. 7. 29. Ecclus 15. 14. Gen. 2. pro tot . Rom. 5. 12. & 3. 23 & 6. 20. Eph. 2. 3. Gen. 3. 15. Gal. 4. 4. 1 Pet. 1.20 . John 3. 16. Heb. 2. 14 , 15 , &c. Joh 8. 25 , 18. Heb. 2. 9. & 16 , 17 , 18. Luke 1. 74 , 75. Isa. 9. 6. 1 Tim. 3. 16. 1 John. 5. 20. Isa. 35. 4 , 5. Joh. 1.2 & 18. & Joh. 8. 5 , 8. Rev. 1. 8. Heb. 13. 8. & 1.8 . Phil. 2. 6. Rom. 9. 5. Gal. 4. 4. Rom. 1. 3. Acts 2. 30. & 3. 32. & 3. 22. Heb. 1. 1. & 2. 11. Acts 13.23 . Deut. 18. 15. Mat. 1. 18. Mat. 1. 21. Luk. 2. 4 , 5 , &c. Heb. 29.10 . Read the 3. & 4. & 5. Chapters to the Hebr. Eph. 2. 13 , 14 , 15. Luk. 19. 27. & 24. 46 , 47. Mat. 6.25 , &c. Rom. 8.28 . John 13.33 . Acts 14.22 . 2 Cor. 1.4 . Mat. 8.11,12 . & 11.20,21 . Joh. 6.44,45.2 Pet. 3.4 . Acts 2.38 . & 3.19 , Luke 18.7 . Mat. 7.7 . Col. 2.13 . 1 Cor. 15.54,55,57 . Rev. 14. 13. 1 Cor. 15. 22. 1 Cor. 6. 14. 2 Cor. 4. 14. John 6. 40. Mat. 28 6,18 . Phil. 2.9 , &c. Heb. 2. 9. & 5.6 . & 1.8 . Tit. 2.13,14 . Eph. 3.14,15,20 . 1 Cor. 11. 3. Eph. 5. 23. Col. 2. 10. Acts 10. 42. 2 Tim. 4. 1. & 8 17 , 31. 1 Pet. 4. 5. 1 Tim. 2.5 . Heb. 8.6 . & 9.15 . & 12.24 . John 1.18 . Luke 3.23 . John 5.43 . Luke 24. 19. Acts 3.23 , &c. Heb. 5.5,7,8 , &c. Heb. 7.per tot . Heb. 7.24,25 . Rom. 8.33,34 . 1 John 2.1 . Heb. 4 . 14 , 15,16 . Heb. 1.3,8 . Psal. 110.1 . 1 Thes. 1.10 . Acts 1.3 . Luke 24.51 . & 1.33 . 1 Pet. 3.23 . Psal. 110.1 . 1 Cor. 15.24.25,28 . Mat. 25.34.41 . Gal. 3.20 . Heb. 8.6 . & 9.15 . & 12.24 . ●…Cor . 15.24 . Heb. 8.6 . & 10. 13. Heb. 10.16 . & 12.24 . Jer. 31. 31. Mark 16. 16. Matth. 4. 17. Acts 8.37 . & 2. 13. Acts 2.38.41 . & 3.19 . 1 John 2.9 . Matth. 16. 16. & 1. 18. 1 Tim. 3.16 . Rom. 14.9 . Acts 1.9 . & 3.21 . & 17.31 . Rev. 1. 5. & 17. 14. Luke 1.75 . Tit. 2.11,12 . 1 Pet. 2.1,2,3.2 Pet. 1.4 , &c. Heb. 12.1,2 . 1 John 2.12 . & 5. 16,17 . Gal. 6.1 . & 5.24,25 . Rom. 10.15 . Eph. 2.20 . & 4.11,12 . 1 Cor. 12. 28. 2 Cor. 5. 20. Mat. 28.20 . Mat. 28.19 . & 26.26 . 1 Cor. 11.21 . Gal. 3.27 . — Eph. 5.26 . 1 Cor. 12.23 . — Col. 2.11,12 . Rom. 6.4 . — Acts 2. 38. John 3.5 . — Acts 22.16 . Tit. 3.5 . — Heb. 10.22 . 1 Pet. 3.21 . 1 Cor. 11.23,24,25 . Matth. 26.26 . Mark 14.22 . Luke 22.19 . 1 Cor. 10.16 . Matth. 26.28 . 1 Cor. 11.27,28,29 . 2 Cor. 5.18 . Acts 20.28.1 Pet. 5.2 . Gal. 1.16 . James 5.14 . Gal. 6.6 . 1 Tim. 5.17 . Heb. 13.17 Read also Rom. 12. Eph. 5 , & 9. Chapters . 1 Thes. 5. Luke 6.35 . Deut. 10.17 . & 6.4 . Mar. 12.29,32 . 1 Cor. 8.4 . John 17. 3. 1 Thes. 1. 9. Ps. 90.2 . & 93.2 . & 77.13 & 95.3 . & 147.5 . Rom. 16.27 . 1 Tim. 1. 17. 2 Chron. 19. 7. Psal. 119. 137. 1 Chron. 16.34 . Psal. 34.8 . & 135.3 , 5. Exod. 33.19 . 1 , Tim. 1.11 . John 8. 38. Rom. 8.29,32 . 1 Cor. 8.6 . & 15.24 . Matt. 24.36 . Heb. 2.11 . 1 Pet. 1.23 . Gal. 4.4 . Isa. 65.17 . & 66.22 . Acts 4 24. Psal. 36.7,8 . Matt. 6.26 . & 10.29,30 . Rev. 14.7 . Matt. 4.10 . Matt. 1.21 . John 3.34 . Acts 10.38 . & 3.22,23 . Heb. 12.24 . & 1.8 . & 6.16,21 . Rev. 1.5 . Acts 11.26 . & 26.28 . 1 Pet. 4.19 . Luke 1.32 . Rom. 1.3,4.1 . Joh. 5.9 , &c. Heb. 1.5 . Joh. 1.11 . Col. 1.17,18 . Heb. 1.3 . John 5.19 . Phil. 2.6 . John 3.25 . Col. 2.9,10 . John 17.24 . Mat. 28.18 . Acts 2.36 . Psal. 2.6,7 , &c. 1 Cor. 8.6 . Heb. 1.6 . 1 Pet. 1.21 . Luke 1.35 . Gal. 4.4 . Luke 1.32 . Luke 1.26 , &c. Matt. 1.18 . Luke 1.48 . Matt. 1.25 . Luke . 2.51 . Luke 3.23 . Joh. 3.4 , &c. Acts 13.39 . Mat. 25.31,32 . Luke 22 . 63.&c . John 18.12 . &c. Matth. 26 . & 27. Matth. 27. Mark 15. Luke 23. John 19. Ibidem . John 18.30 . Phil. 2.8 . Col. 1.20 . Isa. 53.10 . Heb. 7.25 . & 9.12 . & 7.18 . Luk. 23.46 . Job 10.17,18 . & 12.32 . & 11.51 . Eph. 2.13.14 . Heb. 2.10 . Col. 1.21,22 . Tit. 2.14 . John. 6.51 . 1 Pet. 2.24 & 4.13 . 2 Tim. 2.11 . Gal. 6. 14. Matth. 27 . Mark 15. Eph. 4.9 . Matt. 12.40 . Acts 2.27 . Hos. 13.14 . 1 Cor. 15.54 . &c. Matt. 16.18 Rev. 20.13,14 . Rev. 1.17,18 . Mark 16. 1. Acts 10. 40. Rom. 14.9 . Acts 5.30 , &c. Col. 1.18 . Matth. 28.1 . 1 Pet. 3.18 . & 1.3 . Eph. 1.17 . 1 Cor. 15.20 , &c. Luk. 24.45,50 . Matth. 21.17 . Joh. 20 & 21. Acts 1.9 . 1 Cor. 15.6,45,47 . Heb. 6.19 . Rom. 8.38.39 . 1 John 3.2 . Phil. 2.8,9 , &c. Eph. 1.17,22 . Rom. 8. 34. Heb. 7. 27. 2. Pet. 1. 4. Heb. 12. 2. 1. Pet. 1.20 , 21. Heb. 1. 6. John 14.3 . Matth. 24. 30. 1 Thes. 4. 16. Rev. 1. 7. Acts 1. 11. 2 Tim. 4. 1. Joh. 5. 22 , 23. 1 Thes. 4. 16 , 17. Matth. 25. 32. Acts 10. 24. Mat. 25.34 , &c. Matth. 28. 19. John 15. 26. Acts 15. 32. 16. 13. — & 3. 33. 6. 45. — 24. 7. 16 , 17. — 13. 5. 37. 1 , 2 , 2. — 20.28 . Luke 12.12 John 17. 37. 14. 16 16. 13 , 8 Mat. 10. 8 , 9. Eph. 1. 17. & 3.16 . 1 Cor. 2. 10 , 11.12 . Rom. 8. 14 , 15 , 16. Rom. 14. 17. & 15. 13 , 19. 1 Thes. 1 . 6. Luke 24.49 . & 4.18 . Acts 2. 33 , 38. Eph. 4. 7 , 30. 1 Cor. 3.16 . Eph. 1. 13. Acts 7.51 . Rom. 1. 14. 2. Thes. 5. 19. Mark. 3. 29. 2 Cor. 1. 22. & 5. 5. 1. Th●… . 3. 15. Eph. 3. 21. Heb. 2. 12.10 , 24 . ●… 1 Cor. 14 . 26 , &c. Mat. 18.17,18 . Acts 12. 5. 1 Cor. 1. Gal. 1 . 8,9 . Col. 2. 8 , 9. Heb. 13. 8 , 9 Acts 26. 10. & 9. 12 , 32. 1. Cor. 6.11 . & 1. 2. Matth. 22. 14. 1 Pet. 1. 2 , 14 , 15 , 16. 2 Pet. 3. 11. Matth. 18.17,18 . Heb. 10. 25. 1 Cor. 11.23 , &c. E●…h . 4. 13. 5 , 6 , 7 , 21 6. 18 Phil. 2.4 . & 1.27 . Rom. 16 . 16 , 17. 1 John. 3.18 . 1 Pet. 1.22 . Rom. 3.28 . Acts 2.38 . & 13.38 . 1. John 2.1,2,12 . Gal. 6.2 . John 20.23 . Mark 16.16.2 Pet. 1.5 , &c. Eph. 1.13 . 1 Pet. 11.5,16,17,18 . Jam. 2.17,20 , &c. 1 John 3. 21 , &c. Heb. 12. 14 , 15 , 16. 1 Cor. 15.29 , &c. Matth. 22.31 . Rom. 8.11,23 . John 6.39 . Phil. 3.20 . 2 Cor. 4.1 . 2 Thes. 4.17 . Rev. 21.4 . Rev. 22.5 . Matth. 25.34 . Notes for div A63668-e8780 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Chrys. Hom. 3.de Lazaro 
A63950	----	The golden grove, or, A manuall of daily prayers and letanies, fitted to the dayes of the week containing a short summary of what is to be believed, practised, desired : also festival hymns, according to the manner of the ancient church, composed for the use of the devout, especially of younger persons / by the author of The great exemplar. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. This text is an enriched version of the TCP digital transcription A63950 of text R17298 in the English Short Title Catalog (Wing T336). Textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. The text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with MorphAdorner. The annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). Textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. This text has not been fully proofread Approx. 184 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 97 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. EarlyPrint Project Evanston,IL, Notre Dame, IN, St. Louis, MO 2017 A63950 Wing T336 ESTC R17298 12165837 ocm 12165837 55311 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A63950) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 55311) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 116:10) The golden grove, or, A manuall of daily prayers and letanies, fitted to the dayes of the week containing a short summary of what is to be believed, practised, desired : also festival hymns, according to the manner of the ancient church, composed for the use of the devout, especially of younger persons / by the author of The great exemplar. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. [18], 3-161 [i.e. 171], [5] p. Printed by J.F. for R. Royston ..., London : 1655. Written by Jeremy Taylor. Cf. BM. First ed. Cf. BM. Advertisements on p. [2]-[5] at end. Reproduction of original in Thomason Collection, British Library. eng Prayers. Catechisms, English. Prayer-books. Devotional calendars. Hymns, English. A63950 R17298 (Wing T336). civilwar no The golden grove, or, A manuall of daily prayers and letanies, fitted to the dayes of the week. Containing a short summary of what is to be Taylor, Jeremy 1654 34271 570 20 0 0 0 0 172 F The rate of 172 defects per 10,000 words puts this text in the F category of texts with 100 or more defects per 10,000 words. 2002-03 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2002-04 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2002-05 TCP Staff (Oxford) Sampled and proofread 2002-05 Judith Siefring Text and markup reviewed and edited 2002-06 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion THE GOLDEN GROVE , OR , A MANUALL OF Daily Prayers and Letanies , Fitted to the dayes of the Week . Containing a short Summary of What is to be Believed , Practised , Desired . ALSO FESTIVAL HYMNS , According to the manner of The Ancient Church . Composed for the Use of the Devont , especially of Younger Persons ; By the Author of The Great Exemplar . London , Printed by J. F. for R. Royston , at the Angel in Ivie-lane . 1655. TO The Pious and Devout READER . IN this sad declension of Religion , the Seers who are appointed to be the Watchmen of the Church , cannot but observe that the Supplanters and Underminers are gone out , and are digging down the Foundations : and having destroy'd all publick Forms of Ecclesiastical Government , discountenanc'd an excellent Liturgie , taken off the hinges of Unity , disgrac'd the Articles of Religion , polluted publick Assemblies , taken away all cognisance of Schism , by mingling all Sects , and giving countenance to that , against which all Power ought to stand upon their guard . There is now nothing left , but that we take care that men be Christians : For concerning the Ornament and Advantages of Religion , we cannot make that provision we desire ; Incertis de salute , de gloriâ minimè certandum : For since they who have seen Jerusalem in prosperity , and have forgotten the order of the Morning and Evening Sacrifice , and the beauty of the Temple , will be tempted to neglect so excellent a ministration , & their assembling themselves together for peace , and holy Offices , and be content with any thing that is brought to them , though it be but the husks and acorns of Prodigals and Swine , so they may enjoy their Lands and their Money with it ; we must now take care that the young men who were born in the Captivity , may be taught how to worship the God of Israel after the manner of their fore-fathers , till it shall please God that Religion shall return into the Land , and dwell safely and grow pr●…sperously . But never did the excellency of Episcopall Government appeare so demonstratively and conspicuously as now : Under their conduct and order we had a Church so united , so orderly , so govern'd , a Religion so setled , Articles so true , sufficient , and confess'd , Canons so prudent and so obey'd , Devotions so regular and constant , Sacraments so adorn'd and ministred , Churches so beauteous and religious , Circumstances of Religion so grave and prudent , so useful and apt for edification , that the enemies of our Church , who serve the Pope in all things , and Jesus Christ in some , who dare transgress an Institution and Ordinance of Christ , but dare not break a Canon of the Pope , did despair of prevailing against Us and Truth , and knew no hopes but by setting their faces against us to destroy this Government , and then they knew they should triumph without any enemy : So Balaam the son of Bosor was sent for , to curse the people of the Lord , in hope that the son of Zippor might prevail against them that had long prospered under the conduct of Moses and Aaron . But now in stead of this excellency of Condition and Constitution of Religion , the people are fallen under the harrows and saws of impertinent and ignorant Preachers , who think all Religion is a Sermon , and all Sermons ought to be libels against Truth and old Governours , and expound Chapters that the meaning may never be understood , and pray , that they may be thought able to talk , but not to hold their peace , they casting not to obtain any thing but Wealth and Victory , Power and Plunder ; and the people have reap'd the fruits apt to grow upon such Crabstocks : they grow idle and false , hypccrites and careless , they deny themselves nothing that is pleasant , they despise Religion , forget Government ; and some never think of Heaven ; and they that do , think to go thither in such paths which all the ages of the Church did give men warning of , lest they fhould that way go to the Devil . But when men have try'd all that they can , it is to be suppos'd they will return to the excellency and advantages of the Christian Religion , as it is taught by the Church of England ; for by destroying it , no end can be serv'd but of Sin and Folly , Faction , and Death eternal . For besides that , no Church that is enemy to this , does worship God in that truth of Propositions , in that unblameable and pious Liturgie , and in preaching the necessities of holy life , so much as the Church of England does ; besides this ( I say ) it cannot be persecuted by any Governour that understands his own interest , unless he be first abus'd by false Preachers , and then prefers his secret opinion before his publick Advantage . For no Church in the World is so great a friend to Loyalty and Obedience , as she , and her Sisters of the same perswasion . They that hate Bishops have destroy'd Monarchy , and they that would erect an Ecclesiastical Monarchy , must consequently subject the Temporal to it . And both one and the other would be Supreme in Consciences ; and they that govern there , with an opinion that in all things they ought to be attended to , will let their Prince govern others , so long as he will be rul'd by them : And certainly , for a Prince to persecute the Protestant Religion , is as if a Physician should endevour to destroy all Medicaments , and Fathers kill their Sons , and the Master of Ceremonies destroy all Formalities and Courtships ; and as if the Pope should root out all the Ecclesiastick State . Nothing so combines with Government , if it be of Gods appointment , as the Religion of the Church of England , because nothing does more adhere to the Word of God , and disregard the crafty advantages of the world . If any man shall not decline to try his Title by the Word of God , it is certain there is not in the world a better guard for it , then the true Protestant Religion , as it is taught in our Church . But let things be as it please God ; it is certain , that in that day when Truth gets her Victory , in that day we shall prevail against all Gods enemies and ours , not in the purchases and perquisites of the world , but in the rewards and returns of Holiness and Patience , and Faith and Charity ; for by these we worship God , and against this interest we cannot serve any thing else . In the mean time we must by all means secure the foundation , and take care that Religion may be convey'd in all its material parts , the same as it was , but by new and permitted instruments . For let us secure that our young men be good Christians , it is easie to make them good Protestants , unless they be abus'd with prejudice , and suck venome with their milk ; they cannot leave our Communion , till they have reason to reprove our Doctrine . There is therefore in the following pages a Compendium of what we are to Believe , what to Do , and what to Desire ; It is indeed very little , but it is enough to begin with , and will serve all persons so long as they need milk , and not strong meat . And he that hath given the following Assistances to thee , desires to be even a door-keeper in Gods House , and to be a servant of the meanest of Gods servants , and thinks it a worthy imployment to teach the most ignorant , and make them to know Christ●… though but in the first rudiments of a holy Institution . This onely he affirms , That there is more solid comfort and material support to a Christian spirit in one Article of Faith , in one period of the Lords Prayer , in one holy Lesson , then in all the disputes of impertinent people , who take more pains to prove there is a Purgatory , then to perswade men to avoid Hell : And that a plain Catechism can more instruct a soul , then the whole dayes prate which some daily spit forth , to bid men get Christ , and persecute his Servants . Christian Religion is admirable for its wisdome , for its simplicity ; and he that presents the following papers to thee , designs to teach thee as the Church was taught in the early dayes of the Apostles . To believe the Christian Faith , and to understand it ; to represent plain Rules of Good Life ; to describe easie Formes of Prayer ; to bring into your Assemblies Hymnes of Glorification and Thanksgiving , and Psalms of Prayer . By these easie paths they lead Christs little ones into the Fold of their great Bishop ; and if by this any service be done to God , any ministery to the Soul of a Childe or an ignorant Woman , it is hoped that God will accept it : and it is reward enough , if by my Ministery GOD will bring it to passe , that any Soul shall be instructed , and brought into that state of good things , that it shall rejoyce for ever . But do thou pray for him that desires this to thee , and endevours it . ERRATA . Page 87. 1.2 . for me r. us , ibid. f. me r. us , ibid. 1.3 . f. me r. us , ib. 1.5 . f. me r. us , ibid. f. me r. us , ibid 1.6 . f. my r. our . CREDENDA : OR , What is to be Believed . O {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . Plato de legibus . Let this Truth be confessed and remain for ever , That they who are well instructed , easily become good men . A. SHORT CATECHISM FOR The institution of young persons IN THE Christian Religion . QUESTION . IN what does true Religion consist ? ANSWER . In the knowledge of the one , true ●…od , and whom he hath sent , Jesus ●…hrist , and in the worshipping and ●…rving them . Quest . What dost thou believe con●…rning God ? Answ. That there is a God : 〈◊〉 . That he is one . 3. Eternal , 4. Al●…ighty : 5. That he hath made all ●…he world : 6. That he knows all things : 7. That he is a Spirit ; not of any shape or figure , or parts , or body : 8. That he is present is all places : 9. That his seat is in Heaven , and he governs all the world , so that nothing happens without his order and leave : 10. That he is the Fountain of Justice , 11. of Mercy , 12. of Bounty or Goodness : 13. That he is unalterably happy , and infinitely perfect : 14. That no evil can come near him : 15. And he is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek him . Quest . What other Mystery is revealed concerning God ? Ans. That God being one in nature , is also three in Person ; expressed in Scripture by the names of [ Father , Son , and Holy Spirit . ] The first Person being known to us by the name of [ The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ . ] The second Person is called [ The Son , and the Word of the Father . ] The third is [ The Spirit and Promise of the Father : ] and these are Three and One after a secret manner , which we must believe , but cannot understand . Quest . What is this God to us ? Ans. He is our Creator and Father , and therefore he is our Lord ; and we are his Creatures , his Sons , and his Servants . Quest . Wherefore did God create and make us ? Ans. That we might do him honour and service , and receive from him infinite felicities . Quest . How did God make man ? Ans. By the power of his Word , out of the slime of the earth , and he breathed into him the breath of life . Quest . Was man good or bad , when God made him ? Ans. Man was made pure and innocent . Quest . How then did man become sinful and miserable ? Ans. By listening to the whispers of a tempting spirit , and breaking an easie Commandment , which God gave him as the first tryal of his obedience . Quest . What evils and change followed this sin ? Ans. Adam , who was the first man and the first sinner , did both for himself and his posterity , fall into the state of death , of sickness , and misfortunes , & disorder both of body and soul : we were thrown out of Paradise , and lost our Immortality . Quest . Was man left in these evill without remedy ? Ans. No . But God pitying his creature , promised , That of the seed of the woman , he would raise up a Saviour and Redeemer , who should restore us to Gods favour , and to the felicity which we lost . Quest . How did God perform the promise ? Ans. By sending Jesus Christ to take upon him our nature , to dye for our sins , to become our Lord and the Author of holiness , and life , and salvation to mankinde . Quest . Who is Jesus Christ ? Ans. He is the Son of God , the second Person of the holy Trinity , equal with the Father , true God without beginning of life , or end of days . Quest . How then could he be our Redeemer , and the promised seed of the woman ? Ans. The Son of God in the fulness of time , by the miracles of his Mercy , took upon him humane Nature , and united it after a wonderful manner to his Godhead ; so that he was both God and Man : He was born of a Virgin , who conceived him not by any natural means , but by the power of the Holy Ghost , and was called Jesus Christ , and his Mothers name was Mary , of the seed of Abraham , of the family of King David ; and all these things came to passe when Augustus Caesar was Lord of the Roman Empire . Quest . How did Jesus Christ work this promised Redemption for us ? Ans. By his holy and humble life , and his obedient dying a painful death for us upon the Cross . Quest . What benefits do we receive by the life and death of Jesus Christ ? Ans. We are instructed by his Doctrine , encouraged by his excellent Example , we are reconciled to God by his Death ; He hath given us an excellent Law , and glorious Promises , and himself hath received power to make good all those Promises to his servants , and fearfully to destroy them that will not have him to reign over them . Quest . What Promises hath Jesus Christ made us in the Gospel ? Ans. He hath promised to give us all that we need in this life ; That every thing shall work together for our good ; That he will be with us in tribulation and persecution ; He hath promised his Graces and his holy Spirit to enable us to do our duty ; and if we make use of these graces , he hath promised to give us more ; He hath promised to forgive us our sins ; to hear our prayers ; to take the sting of death from us ; to keep our souls in safe custody after death ; and in his due time to raise our bodies from the grave , and to joyn them to our souls , and to give us eternal life , and joyes that shall never ●…ease . Quest . How is Jesus Christ able to do all this for us ? Ans. When he had suffered death , and was buried three dayes , God raised him up again , and gave him all power in heaven and earth , made him Head of the Church , Lord of Men and Angels , and the Judge of the Quick and Dead . Quest . By what means doth Jesus Christ our Lord convey all these blessings to us ? Ans. Jesus Christ had three Offices , and in all he was Mediator between God and Man ; He is our Prophet , our Priest , and our King . Quest . What was his Office as he was a Prophet ? Ans. This Office he finished on earth ; beginning when he was thirty years old to preach the Gospel of the Kingdome , Faith and Repentance . Quest . When began his Priestly Office , and wherein does it consist ? Ans. It began at his death ; for he was himself the Priest and the Sacrifice , offering himself upon the Altar of the Cross for the sins of all the world . Quest . Did his Priestly Office the●… cease ? Ans. No : he is a Priest for ever ; that is , unto the end of the world , and represents the same Sacrifice to God in heaven , interceding and praying continually for us , in the virtue of that Sacrifice , by which he obtains relief of all our necessities . Quest . What doth Christ in heaven pray for on our behalf ? Ans. That our sins may be pardoned , our infirmities pitied , our necessities relieved , our persons defended , our temptations overcome , that we may be reconciled to God , and be saved . Quest . How is Jesus Christ also our King ? Ans. When he arose from his grave , and had for forty dayes together conversed with his Disciples , shewing himself alive by many infallible tokens , he ascended into heaven , and there sits at the right hand of God ; all things being made subject to him , Angels , and Men , and Devils , Heaven and Earth , the Elements , and all the Creatures ; and ●…ver all he reigns , comforting and ●…efending his Elect , subduing the ●…ower of the Devil , taking out the ●…ting of death , and making all to ●…erve the glory of God , and to turn to the good of his Elect. Quest . How long must his Kingdome last ? Ans. Till Christ hath brought all his enemies under his feet , that is , till the day of Judgement : in which day shall be performed the greatest acts of his Kingly power ; for then he shall quite conquer Death , triumph over the Devils , throw his enemies into Hell-fire , and carry all his Elect to never-ceasing glories ; and then he shall deliver up the Kingdome to his Father , that God may be all in all . Quest . How is Christ a Mediator in all these Offices ? Ans. A Mediator signifies one that stands between God and us . As Christ is a Prophet , so he taught us his Fathers will , and tyes us to obedience : As he is a Priest , he is our Redeemer , having paid a price for us , even his most precious blood , and our Advocate pleading for us , and mediating our Pardon and Salvation : As he is a King , so he is our Lord , our Patron , and our Judge ; yet it is the Kingdome of a Mediator , that is , in order to the world to come , but then to determine and end . And in all these , he hath made a Covenant between God and us of an everlasting interest . Quest . What is the Covenant which Jesus Christ our Mediator hath made between God and us ? Ans. That God will write his Laws in our hearts , and will pardon us , and defend us , and raise us up again at the last day , and give us an inheritance in his Kingdome . Quest . To what Conditions hath he bound us on our part ? Ans. Faith , and Repentance . Quest . When do we enter into this Covenant ? Ans. In our Baptism , and at our ripe years , when we understand the secrets of the Kingdome of Christ , and undertake willingly what in our names was undertaken for us in our infancy . Quest . What is the Covenant of Faith which we enter into in Baptism ? Ans. We promise to believe that Jesus Christ is the Messias , or he that was to come into the world ; That he is the Anointed of the Lord , or the Lords Christ ; That he is the Son of God , and the Son of the Virgin Mary ; That he is God incarnate , or God manifested in the flesh ; That he is the Mediator between God and Man ; That he died for us upon the Cross , and rose again the third day , and ascended into heaven , and shall be there till the day of Judgement , that then he shall be our Judge ; In the mean time he is the King of the World , and Head of the Church . Quest . What is the Covenant of Repentance ? Ans. We promise to leave all our sins , and with a hearty and sincere endevour to give up our will and affections to Christ , and do what he hath commanded ( according to our power and weakness . ) Quest . How if we fail of this Promise through infirmity , and commit sins ? Ans. Still we are within the Covenant of Repentance , that is , within the promise of pardon , and possibility of returning from dead works , and mortifying our lusts ; and though this be done after the manner of men that is , in weakness , and with some failings , yet our endevour must be hearty , and constant , and diligent , and our watchfulness and prayers for pardon , must be lasting and persevering . Quest . What Ministeries hath Christ appointed to help us in this duty ? Ans. The Ministery of the Word & Sacraments , which he will accompany with his Grace and his Spirit . Quest . What is a Sacrament ? Ans. An outward Ceremony ordained by Christ , to be a sign and a means of conveying his grace unto us . Quest . How many Sacraments are ordained by Christ ? Ans. Two : Baptism , and the Supper of our Lord . Quest . What is Baptism ? Ans. An outward washing of the body in water , in the Name of the Father , Son , and Holy Ghost : in which we are buried with Christ in his death , after a Sacramental manner , and are made partakers of Christs death , and of his Resurrection , teaching us , That we should rise from the death of sin to the life of righteousness . Quest . What is the Sacrament of the Lords Supper ? Ans. A Ceremony of eating bread and drinking Wine , being blessed or consecrated by Gods Minister in publick Assemblies , in remembrance of Christs death and Passion . Quest . What benefits are done unto us by this Sacrament ? Ans. Our souls are nourished by the body and blood of Christ ; our bodies are sealed to a blessed Resurrection , and to Immortality ; our infirmities are strengthned , our graces increased , our pardon made more certain , and when we present our selves to God , having received Christs body within us , we are sure to be accepted , and all the good prayers we make to God for our selves & others are sure to be heard . Quest . Who are fit to receive this Sacrament ? Ans. None but baptized Christians , and such as repent of their sins , and heartily purpose to lead a good life . Quest . What other Ministeries hath Christ ordained in his Church , to help us , and to bring so many great purposes to pass ? Ans. Jesus Christ hath appointed Ministers and Embassadors of his own to preach his Word to us , to pray for us , to exhort and to reprove , to comfort and instruct , to restore and reconcile us , if we be overtaken in a fault , to visit the sick , to separate the vile from the precious , to administer the Sacraments , and to watch for the good of our souls . Quest . What are we tied to perform towards them ? Ans. To pay them honour and maintenance , to obey them in all things according to the Gospel , and to order our selves so , that they may give account of our souls with chearfulness and joy . Quest . Which are the Commandments and Laws of Jesus Christ ? Ans. They are many , but easie ; holy , but very pleasant to all good ●…indes , to such as desire to live well 〈◊〉 this world , and in the world to ●…ome : and they are set down in ●…he Sermons of our blessed Lord , ●…nd of his Apostles ; but especially ●…n the 5. 6. 7. Chapters of S. Mat●…hew . AN EXPOSITION OF The Apostles CREED . I believe in God , I Believe that there is a God who is one , true , supreme and alone , infinitely wise , just , good free , eternal , immense , and blessed , and in him alone we are to put our trust . The Father Almighty , I believe that he is ( 1. ) The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ ; and ( 2. ) of all that believe in him , whom he hath begotten by his Word , and adopted to the inheritance of Sons : and because he is our Father , he will do us all that good to which we are created and designed by grace ; and because he is Almighty , he is able to perform it all ; and therefore we may safely believe in him , and relie upon him . Maker of Heaven and Earth . He made the Sun and the Moon , the Stars , and all the regions of glory ; he made the Air , the Earth , and the Water , and all that live in them ; he made Angels and Men , and he who made them does , and he onely can preserve them in the same beeing , and thrust them forwards to a better ; he that preserves them , does also govern them , and intends they should minister to his glory : and therefore we are to do worship and obedience to him in all that we can and that he hath commanded . And in Jesus Christ , I also believe in Jesus Christ , who is , and is called a Saviour , and the Anointed Anointed of the Lord , promised to the Patriarchs , whom God anointed with the Holy Spirit , and with power to become the Great Prophe●… , and declarer of his Fathers Will to all the world , telling us how God will be worshipped and served ; he is anointed to be the Mediator of the New Covenant , and our High-Priest , reconciling us to his Father by the Sacrifice of himself ; and to be the Great King of all the world : and by this Article we are Christians , who serve and worship God the Father through Jesus Christ . His onely Son Jesus Christ is the Son of God , he alone , of him alone : for God by his holy Spirit caused him to be born of a Virgin : by his power he ●…ised him from the Dead , and gave ●…im a new birth , or beeing in the bo●…y : he gave him all power , and all ●…xcellency ; and beyond all this , he 〈◊〉 the express Image of his person , ●…he brightness of his glory , equal to God , beloved before the beginning of ●…he world , of a nature perfectly Di●…ine ; very God by essence , and very Man by assumption ; as God , all one ●…n nature with the Father ; and as Man , one Person in Himself . Our Lord . Jesus Christ , Gods onely Son , is the Heir of all things and persons in his Fathers house : All Angels and Men are his servants , and all the Creatures obey him ; we are to believe in him , and by Faith in him onely , and in his Name we shall be saved . Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost , I believe that Jesus Christ was not begotten of a Man , nor born by natural means , but that a Divine Power from God [ Gods Holy Spirit ] did overshadow the Virgin-Mother of Christ , and made her in a wonderful manner to conceive Jesus in her womb ; and by this his admirable manner of being conceived , he was the Son of God alone , and no man was his Father . Born of the Virgin Mary , Though God was his Father , and he begat him by the power of the Holy Ghost , and caused him miraculously to begin in the womb of his Mother , yet from her he also derived his humane Nature , and by his Mother he was of the Family of King David , and called the Son of Man , his Mother being a holy person , not chosen to this great honour for her wealth or beauty , but by the good will of God , and because she was of a rare exemplar modesty and humility : and she received the honour of being a Mother to the Son of God , and ever a Virgin , and all generations shall call her blessed . Suffered under Pontius Pilate : After that Jesus passed through ●…he state of Infancy and Childhood , ●…eing subject to his Parents , and working in an humble Trade to serve ●…is own and his Mothers needs , he ●…rew to the state of a man , he began to preach at the age of Thirty years , and having for about three years and a half preached the ●…pel , and taught us his Fathers will , having spoken the Gospel of his Kingdome , and revealed to us the secrets of Eternal life , and Resurrection of the Dead , Regeneration , and Renewing by the Holy Spirit , Perfect Remission of sins , and Eternal Judgement : at last , that he might ●…cile the world to his Father , he became a Sacrifice for all our sins , and suffered himself to be taken by the malicious Jews , and put to a painful and shameful death ; they being envious at him for the number of his Disciples , and the reputation of his person , the innocence of his life , the mightiness of his Miracles , and the power of his Doctrine : and this death he suffered when Pontius Pilate was Governour of Judea . Was Crucified , Jesus Christ being taken by the Rulers of the Jews , bound , and derided , buffeted , and spit upon , accused weakly , and persecuted violently ; at last , wanting matter and pretences to condemn him , they asked him of his Person and Office ; and because he affirmed that great Truth , which all the world of good men long'd for , that he was the Messias , and designed to sit at the right hand of the Majesty on high , they resolved to call it Blasphemy , and delivered him over to Pilate , and by importunity and threats , forced him against his Conscience , to give him up to be scourged , and then to be Crucified . The Souldiers therefore mocking him with a robe and a reed , and pressing a Crown of Thorns upon his head , led him to the place of his death ; compelling him to bear his Cross , to which they presently ●…il'd him ; on which for three ●…urs he hang'd in extreme torture , ●…ing a sad spectacle of the most af●…cted , and the most innocent pern of the whole world . Dead When the Holy Jesus was weari●… with tortures , and he knew all ●…ings were now fulfilled , and his ●…thers wrath appeased towards ●…ankinde : His Father pitying his ●…nocent Son groaning under such ●…tolerable miseries , hastened his ●…ath ; and Jesus commending his ●…irit into the hands of his Father , ●…ied with a loud voice , bowed his ●…ad , and died ; and by his death ●…aled all the Doctrines and Revela●…ons which he first taught the ●…orld , and then confirmed by his ●…ood : he was consecrated our mer●…ful High-Priest , and by a feeling ●…f our miseries and temptations , be●…me able to help them that are tempt●… : and for these his sufferings , was ●…alted to the highest Throne , and ●…eat of the right hand of God ; ●…nd hath shewn , that to heaven there is no surer way then suffering for his name ; and hath taught us willingly to suffer for his sake , what himself hath already suffered for ours : He reconciled us to God by his death , led us to God , drew us to himself , redeemed us from all iniquity , purchased us for his Father , and for ever made us his servants and redeemed ones , that we being dead unto sin , might live unto God : And this death being so highly beneficial to us , he hath appointed means to apply to us , and to represent to God for us in the Holy Sacrament of his last Supper . And upon all these considerations , that Cross which was a smart and shame to our Lord , is honour to us , and as it turned to his glory , so also to our spiritual advantages . And Buried . That he might suffer every thing of humane nature , he was by the care of his friends and disciples , by the leave of Pilate , taken from the Cross , and embalmed ( as the manner of the Jews was to bury ) and wrapt in linnen , and buried in a ●…ew grave , hewn out of a Rock ; ●…nd this was the last and lowest step of his humiliation . He descended into Hell . That is , He went down into the ●…ower parts of the earth , or ( as himself called it ) into the heart of the ●…arth ; by which phrase the ●…ture understands the state of sepa●…ation , or of souls severed from their ●…odies : by this his descending to the land of darkness , where all things ●…re forgotten , he sanctified the state of death and separation , that none of his servants might ever after fear the jawes of Death and Hell ; whither he went , not to suffer torment ( because he finished all that upon the Cross ) but to triumph over the gates of hell , to verifie his death , and the event of his sufferings , and to break the iron barres of those lower Prisons , that they may open and shut hereafter onely at his command . The third day he rose again from the Dead . After our Lord Jesus had abode in the grave , the remaining part of the day of his Passion , and all the next day , early in the morning upon the third day , by the power of God , he was raised from death and hell , to light and life , never to return to death any more , and is become the first-born from the dead , the first-fruits of them that slept ; and although he was put to death in the flesh , yet now being quickned in the Spirit , he lives for ever ; and as we all die in Adam , so in Christ we all shall be made alive ; but every man in his own order : Christ is the first , and we , if we follow him in the Regeneration , shall also follow him in the Resurrection . He ascended into Heaven , When our dearest Lord was risen from the grave , he conversed with his disciples for forty days together , often shewing himself alive by infallible proofs , and once to five hundred of his disciples , at one appearing : having spoken to them fully concerning the affairs of the Kingdome , and the Promise of the Father ; leaving them some few things in charge for the present , he solemnly gave them his blessing , and in the prefence of his Apostles , was taken up into heaven , by a bright Cloud , and the ministery of Angels , being gone before us to prepare a place for us above all heavens , in the presence of his Father , and at the foot of the Throne of God ; from which glorious presence we cannot be kept by the change of death , and the powers of the grave , nor the depth of hell , nor the height of heaven , but Christ being lifted up , shall draw all his servants unto him . And sitteth at the right hand of God , the Father Almighty . I believe that Jesus Christ sitteth in Heaven above all Principalities and powers , being exalted above every Name that is named in heaven and earth , that is , above every creature above and below ; all things being put under his feet : he is alwayes in the presence of his Father , interceding for us , and governs all things in heaven and earth , that he may defend his Church , and adorn her with his Spirit , and procure and effect her eternal salvation : There he sits and reigns as King , and intercedes as our High-Priest ; He is a minister of the Sanctuary , and of the true Tabernacle which God made and not man , the Author an●… Finisher of our Faith , the captain of our Confession , the great Apostle of our Religion , the great Bishop of our souls , the Head of the Church , and the Lord of heaven and earth : and therefore to him we are to pay Divine Worship , Service and Obedience , and we must believe in him , and in God by him , and relie entirely on the mercies of God through Jesus Christ . From thence he shall come In the Clouds , shining , and adorned with the glory of his Father , attended by millions of bright Angels , with the voyce of an Archangel , and a shout of all the heavenly Army , the Trump of God ; and every eye shall see him , and they that pierced his hands and his feet shall behold his Majesty , his Terror , and his Glory ; and all the families of the earth shall tremble at his presence ; and the powers of heaven shall be shaken , and the whole earth and sea shall be broken in pieces and and confusion : for then he shall come to put an end to this world , and To judge the Quick and Dead . For the Father judgeth no man , but hath given all judgement to the Son ; and at this day of Judgement , the Lord Jesus shall sit in the Aire in a glorious Throne ; and the Angels having gathered together Gods Elect from the four Corners of the world , and all the kindreds of the earth being brought before the Judgement-feat , shall have the Records of their Conscience laid open ; that is , all that ever they thought , or spake , or did , shall be brought to their memory , to convince the wicked of the Justice of the Judge in passing the fearful Sentence upon them , and to glorifie the mercies of God towards his Redeemed ones : and then the righteous Judge shall condemn the wicked to the portion of Devils for ever , to a state of torments , the second , and eternal , and intolerable death ; and the godly being placed on his right hand , shall hear the blessed Sentence of Absolution , and shall be led by Christ to the participation of the glories of his Fathers Kingdome for ever and ever . Amen . I believe in the Holy Ghost [ or ] the Holy Spirit . Who is the third person of the holy , ●…ndivided , everblessed Trinity , which 〈◊〉 worship , and adore , and admire , ●…ut look upon with wonder , and am ●…ot in a capacity to understand . I ●…elieve that the Holy Spirit , into whose name , as of the Father and the ●…on , I was baptized , is the heavenly Author , the Captain , the Teacher , and the Witness of all the Truths of the Gospel : That as the Father sent the Son ; so the Son from heaven sent the Holy Spirit to lead the Church into all Truth ; to assist us in all Temptations , and to help us in the purchase of all Vertue . This Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father , and our Lord Jesus received him from his Father , and sent him into the world , who receiving the things of Christ , and declaring the same excellent doctrines , speaks whatsoever he hath heard from him ; and instructed the Apostles , and builds the Church , and produces Faith , and confirms our Hope , and increases Charity : and this Holy Spirit our blessed Lord hath left with his Church for ever , by which all the servants of God are enabled to do all things necessary t●… Salvation , which by the force of Nature they cannot do : and we spea●… by the Spirit , and work by the Spirit , when by his assistances any wa●… imparted to us , we speak or do an●… thing of our duty . He it is wh●… inlightens our Understandings , 〈◊〉 our Will , orders and commands our Affections ; he comfo●… our sorrows , supports our spirits i●… trouble , and enables us by Promis●… and Confidences , and Gifts , to ●…suff for the Lord Jesus and the Gospel●… and all these things God the Fath●… does for us by his Son , and the So●… by the Holy Spirit , and the Holy Spirit by all means within and without , which are operative upon , and proportionable to the nature of reasonable creatures . This is he wh●… works Miracles , gives the gifts of●… Prophesie and of interpretation , that teaches us what , and how t●… pray ; that gives us Zeal and holy Desires ; who sanctifies children i●… Baptism , and confirms them with his grace in Confirmation , and reproves the world , and consecrates Bishops , and all the Ministers of the Gospel , and absolves the penitent , & blesses ●…he obedient , and comforts the sick , and excommunicates the refractary , and makes intercession for the Saints , that is , the Church , and those whom he hath blessed , appointed and sanctified to these purposes , do all these Ministeries , by his Authority , and his Commandment , and his Aids . This is he that testifies to our Spirits that we are the sons of God , and that makes us to cry , Abba Father , that is , who inspires into us such humble confidences of our being accepted in our hearty and constant endevours to please God , that we can with chearfulness and joy call God our Father , and expect and hope for the portion of sons both here and hereafter , and in the certainty of this hope , to work out our salvation with fear and reverence , with trembling and joy , with distrust of our selves , and mighty confidence in God . By this holy and ever-blessed Spirit , several persons in the Church , and every man in his proportion , receives the gifts of Wisdome , and utterance , and Knowledge , and Interpretation , and Prophecy , and Healing , and Government , and discerning of Spirits , and Faith , and Tongues , and whatsoever can be necessary for the Church in several ages and periods , for her beginning , for her continuance , for her in prosperity , and for her in persecution . This is the great Promise of the Father , and it is the gift of God which he will give to all them that ask him , and who live piously and chastely , and are persons fit to entertain so Divine a Grace . This Holy Spirit God gives to some more , to some less , according as they are capable . They who obey his Motions , and love his Presence , and improve his Gifts , shall have him yet more abundantly : but they that grieve the holy Spirit , shall lose that which they have : and they that extinguish him , belong not to Christ , but are in the state of reprobation : and they that blaspheme this holy Spirit , and call him the Spirit of the Devil , or the Spirit of Error , or folly , or do malicious despites to him , that is , they who on purpose considering and choosing , do him hurt by word or by deed ( so far as ies●… in them ) shall for ever be separated from the presence of God and of Christ , and shall never be forgiven in this world , nor in the world to come . Lastly , this holy Spirit seals us to the day of Redemption ; that is , God gives us his Holy Spirit as a testimony that he will raise us again at the last day , and give us a portion in the glories of his Kingdome , in the inheritance of our Lord Jesus . The holy Catholick Church , I believe that there is , and ought to be a visible Company of men , professing the service and discipline , that is , the Religion of the Gospel , who agree together in the belief of all the Truths of God revealed by Jesus Christ , and in confession of the Articles of this Creed , and agree together in praying and praising God through Jesus Christ ; to reade and hear the Scriptures read and expounded ; to provoke each other to love and to good works ; to advance the honour of Christ , and to propagate his Faith and Worship . I believe this to be a Holy Church , Spirituall , and not Civill and Secular , but sanctified by their Profession , and the solemn Rites of it , professing holiness , and separating from the evil manners of heathens and wicked persons , by their Laws and Institutions . And this Church is Catholick , that is , it is not confin'd to the Nation of the Jews , as was the old Religion ; but it is gathered out of all Nations , and is not of a differing Faith in differing places , but alwayes did , doth , and ever shall profess the Faith which the Apostles preached , and which is contained in this Creed ; which whosoever believes , is a Catholick and a Christian , and he that believes not , is neither . This Catholick Church I believe , that is , I believe whatsoever all good Christians in all ages , and in all places did confess to be the Catholick and Apostolick Faith . The Communion of Saints , That is , the Communion of all Christians : because by reason of their holy Faith , they are called Saints in Scripture ; as being begotten by God into a lively Faith , and cleansed by Believing : and by this Faith , and the profession of a holy life in obedience to Jesus Christ , they are separated from the world , called to the knowledge of the truth , justified before God , and indued with the holy Spirit of Grace , foreknown from the beginning of the world , and predestinated by God to be made conformable to the image of his Son , here in holiness of life , hereafter in a life of glory ; and they who are Saints in their belief and profession , must be so also in their practise and conversation , that so they may make their calling and election sure , lest they be Saints onely in name and title , in their profession and institution , and not in manners & holiness of living , that is , lest they be so before men , and not before God . I believe that all people who desire the benefit of the Gospel , are bound to have a fellowship and society with these Saints , and communicate with them in their holy things , in their Faith , and in their Hope , and in their Sacraments , and in their Prayers , and in their publick Assemblies , and in their Government : and must do to them all the acts of Charity and mutuall help which they can and are required to : and without this Communion of Saints , and a conjunction with them who believe in God through Jesus Christ , there is no salvation to be expected : which Communion must be kept in inward things alwayes , and by all persons , and testified by outward acts alwayes , when it is possible , and may be done upon just and holy conditions . The forgiveness of sins , I believe that all the sins I committed before I came to the knowledge of the Truth , and all the slips of humane infirmity , against which we heartily pray , and watch and labour , and all the evil habits , of which we repent so timely and effectually , that we obtain their contrary graces , and live in them , are fully remitted by the blood of Christ : which forgiveness we obtain by Faith and Repentance , and therefore are not justified by the Righteousness of Works , ●…d by the Righteousness of Faith : ●…d we are preserved in the state of ●…rgivenest or justification by the ●…utis of a lively Faith , and a timely active Repentance . The Resurrection of the body , I believe that at the last day all ●…hey whose sins are forgiven , and who ●…ived and dyed in the Communion of Saints , and in whom the holy Spirit did dwell , shall rise from their graves , their dead bones shall live , and be clothed with flesh and skin and their bodies together with their souls shall enter into the portion of a new life : and that this body shall no more see corruption , but shall rise to an excellent condition : it shall be Spiritual , Powerful , Immortal and Glorious , like unto his glorious body , who shall then be our Judge , is now our Advocate , our Saviour , and our Lord . And the life Everlasting . I believe that they who have their part in this Resurrection shall m●… the Lord in the Air , and when th●… blessed Sentence is pronounc'd upo●… them , they shall for ever be with th●… Lord in joyes unspeakable , and fu●… of glory : God shall wipe all tea●… from their eyes ; there shall be 〈◊〉 fear or sorrow , no mourning o●… death , a friend shall never go away from thence , and an enemy shall never enter ; there shall be fulne●… without want , light eternal brighte●… then the Sun ; day , and no night ; joy , and no weeping ; difference i●… degree , and yet all full ; there is lo●… without dissimulation , excellency without envy , multitudes without confusion , musick without discord ; there the Understandings are rich , the Will is satisfied , the Affections are all love , and all joy , and they shall reign with God and Christ for ever and ever . Amen . This is the Catholick Faith , which except a man believe faithfully , he cannot be saved . Tertull. de velandis Virgin . Regula quidem fidei , una omnino est , sola immobilis & irreformabilis , credendi scil. in unicum Deum Omnipotentem &c. Hac lege fidei manente , caetera jam disciplinae & conversationis admittunt novitatem correctionis , operante scil. & proficiente usque in finem Gratiâ Dei . The Rule of Faith is wholly one , unalterable , never to be mended , never changed ; to wit , I believe in God , &c. This Law of Faith remaining in other things you may encrease and grow . S. Aug. de Fide & Symb. Haec est fides , quae paucis verbis tenenda in symbolo Novellis datur . Quae pauca verba fidelibus nota sunt : ut credendo subjugentur Deo , subjugati rectè vivant , ●…ecte vivendo cor mundent , corde mundo quod credunt , intelligant . This is the Faith which in few words is given to Novices : These few words are known to all the faithful ; that by believing they may b●… subject to God ; by this subjectio●… they may live well ; by living w●… they may purifie their hearts ; an●… with pure hearts they may [ reli●… and ] understand what they do believe . Max. Taurin . de Tradit . Symb. Symbolum tessera est & 〈◊〉 , quo inter Fideles , Perfidos●… secernitur . This Creed is the Badge or Cognisance , by which the Faithful are discerned from Unbelievers . Hujus ] Catholici Symboli brevi●… & perfecta Confessio , quae duodecim Apostolorum totidem est signata sententiis , tam instructa sit in munitione coelesti , ut omnes Haereticorum ●…pinionoes solo possint gladio detrun●…ri Leo M. ad Pulcheriam Aug. This short and perfect Confession of this Catholick Creed , which was consigned by the Sentences of twelve Apostles , is so perfect a celestial Armour , that all the Opinions of Hereticks may by this alone , as with a sword , be cut in pieces . AGENDA : OR , Things to be done . Inscripta Christo pagina immortalis est ; Nec obsolescit ullus in coelis apex . Prudent . {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Hymn . 10. THE DIARY : OR , RULE to spend each Day religiously . §. 1. ●… . SUppose every day to be a day of business : for your whole life is a race , ●…nd a battel ; a merchandise , and a jour●…ey . Every day propound to your self 〈◊〉 Rosary or a Chaplet of good Works , to ●…resent to God at night . 2. Rise as soon as your health and other occasions shall permit ; but it is good to be as regular as you can , and as early . Remember , he that rises first to Prayer , hath a more early title to a blessing . But he that changes night into day , labour into idleness , watchfulness to sleep , changes his hopes of blessing into a dream . 3. Never let any one think it an e●… cuse to lie in bed , because he hath nothing to do when he is up : for whoever hath●… Soul , and hopes to save that Soul , hat●… work enough to do to make his calling and election sure , to serve God , and to pray , to reade , and to meditate , to repent and to amend , to do good to others , and to keep evil from themselves . And if thou hast little to do , thou ought'st to imploy the more time in laying up for●… greater Crown of Glory . 4. At your opening your eyes , enter upon the day with some act of piety . 1. Of thanksgiving for the preservation of you the night past . 2. Of the glorification of God for the works of the Creation , or any thing for the honour of God . 5. When you first go off from your bed , solemnly and devoutly bow your head , and worship the holy Trinity , the Father , Son , and Holy Ghost . 6. When you are making ready , be as silent as you can , and spend that time in holy thoughts ; there being no way left to redeem that time from loss , but by meditation and short mental prayers . If you choose to speak , speak something of Gods praises , of his goodness , his mercies , or his greatness : Ever resolving , ●…at the first fruits of thy reason , and of ●…l thy faculties shall be presented to God , 〈◊〉 sanctifie the whole harvest of thy conersation . 7. Be not curious , nor careless in your ●…abit , but alwayes keep these measures . 1. Be not troublesome to thy self , or to others , by unhandsomeness or uncleanness . 2. Let it be according to your state and quality . 3. Make Religion to be the difference of your habit , so as to be best attired upon Holy or Festival dayes . 8. In your dressing , let there be ejaculations fitted to the severall actions of dressing : as at washing your hands and face , pray God to cleanse your Soul from sin : In putting on your clothes , pray him to clothe your Soul with the righteousness of your Saviour ; and so in all the rest . For Religion must not onely be the garment of your Soul , to invest it all over ; but it must be also as the fringes to every of your actions , that something of Religion appear in every one of them , besides the innocence of all of them . 9. As soon as you are dressed with the first preparation of your clothes , that you can decently do it , kneel and say the Lords Prayer ; then rise from your knees , and do what is necessary for you in order to your further dressing , or affairs of the house , which is speedily to be done ; and then finish your dressing according to the foregoing Rules . 10. When you are dressed , retire your self to your Closet ; and go to your usuall devotions , which it is good that at the first prayers they divided were into seven actions of piety . 1. An act of Adoration . 2. Of Thanksgiving . 3. Of Oblation . 4. Of Confession . 5. Of Petition . 6. Of Intercession . 7. Of Meditation , or serious , deliberate , useful reading of the holy Scriptures . 11. I advise that your reading should be governed by these measures . 1. Let it be not of the whole Bible in order , but for your devotion use the New Testament , and such portions of the Old as contain the Precepts of holy life . 2. The Historical and less useful part , let it be read at such other times which you have of leisure from your domestick imployments . 3. Those portions of Scripture which you use in your Prayers , let them not be long . A Chapter at once ; no more : but then what time you can afford , spend it in thinking and meditating upon the holy Precepts which you read . 4. Be sure to meditate so long , till you make some act of piety upon the occasion of what you meditate ; either that you get some new arguments against a sin , or some new incouragements to vertue ; some spiritual strength and advantage , or else some act of Prayer to God , or glorification of him . 5. I advise that you would reade your Chapter in the midst of your Prayers in the Morning , if they be divided according to the number of the former actions ; because little interruptions will b●… apt to make your Prayers less tedious , and your self more atte●… upon them : But if you finde any other way more agreeing to yo●… spirit and disposition , use your liberty without scruple . 12. Before you go forth of your Closet , after your Prayers are done , set you self down a little while , and consider wh●… you are to do that day , what matter 〈◊〉 business is like to imploy you or to tem●… you ; and take particular resolution against that , whether it be matter of wrangling , or anger , or covetousness , or vai●… courtship , or feasting : and when you enter upon it , remember , upon what you resolved in your Closet . If you are likely to have nothing extraordinary that day a general recommendation of the affai●… of that day to God in your Prayers wi●… be sufficient : but if there be any thi●… foreseen that is not usual , be sure to be armed for it , by a hearty though a sho●… Prayer , and an earnest prudent resolutio●… before-hand , and then watch when th●… thing comes . 13. Whosoever hath Children or Servants , let him or her take care , that a●… the Children and Servants of the family ●…y their Prayers before they begin their ●…ork ; The Lords Prayer , and the Ten Commandments , with the short verse at ●…he end of every Commandment , which ●…he Church uses ; and the Creed is a very good office for them , if they be not fitted ●…or more regular offies . And to these al●…o it were good , that some proper Prayer were apportioned , and they taught it . It were well if they would serve themselves of this form set down at the end of this Diary . 14. Then go about the affairs of your house and proper imployment , ever avoiding idlenes , or too much earnestness of affection upon the things of the world : Do your business prudently , temperately , diligently , humbly , charitably . 15. Let there be no idle person in or about your family , of beggers , or unimployed Servants , but finde them all work and meat ; call upon them carefully ; reprove them without reproaches , or fierce railings . Be a master or a mistress , and a friend to them , and exact of them to be faithful and diligent . 16. In your Servants suffer any offence against your self , rather then against God ; endure not that they should swear , or lie , or steal , or be wanton , or curse each other , or be railers , or slanderers , or tell-tales , and sowers of dissension in the family , or amongst neighbors . 17. In all your entercourse with your neighbors in the day , let your affairs be wholly matter of business or civility , and alwayes managed with Justice and Charity ; never let it be matter of curiosity or inquiry into the actions of others ; alwayes without censuring or rash judgement , without backbiting , slandering , or detraction : Do it not your self , neither converse with them that do . He or she that loves tale-bearers , shall never be beloved , or be innocent . 18. Before dinner and supper , as often as it is convenient , or can be had , let the publick Prayers of the Church , or some parts of them , be said publickly in the family , and let as many be present as you can . The same rule is also to be observed for Sundays and Holy-dayes for their going to Church . Let no Servant be alwayes detained , but relieved and provided for by changes . 19. Let your meal be temperate and wholesome , according to your quality , and the season , begun and ended with Prayer ; and be sure that in the course of ●…our meal , and before you rise , you reollect your self , and send your heart up ●…o God with some holy and short ejacula●…ion ; remembring your duty , fearing to ●…ffend , or desiring and sighing after the ●…ternal Supper of the Lamb . 20. After meal , use what innocent re●…reshment you please , to refresh your minde or body , with these measures : 1. Let it not be too expensive of time . 2. Let it not hinder your devotion , nor your business . 3. Let it be alwayes without violence or passion . 4. Let it not then wholly take you up when you are at it ; but let your heart retire with some holy thoughts , and sober recollections , left your minde be seised upon by it , and your affections carried off from better things : secure your affections for God , and sober and severe imployment . Here you may be refreshed , but take heed you neither dwell here , nor sin here . It is better never to use recreation , then at any time to sin by it . But you may use recreation , and avoid sin , and that 's the best temper : But if you cannot do both , be more careful of your soul , then of your refreshment , and that 's the best security . But then in what you use to sin , carefully avoid it , and change your refreshment for some other instance in which you can be more innocent . 21. Entertain no long discourses with any , but if you can bring in something to season it with Religion : as God must be in all your thoughts , so if it be possible , let him be in all your discourses , at least let him be at one end of it ; and when you cannot speak of him , be sure you forget not to think of him . 22. Toward the declining of the day , be sure to retire to your private devotions . Reade , meditate , and pray ; In which I propound to you this method : On the Lords day meditate of the glories of the Creation , the works of God , and all his benefits to Mankinde , and to you in particular . Then let your devotion be humbly upon your knees , to say over the 8th and 19th Psalms , and sometimes the 104th , with proper Collects which you shall finde or get : Adding the form of thanksgiving which is in the Rule of Holy Living , pag. 378. in the manner as is there ●…ected ; or some other of your own ●…oofing . Mediate on Munday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday on 1. Death . 2. Judgement . 3. Heaven . 4. Hell . ●…aying your usuall Prayers , and adding ●…me ejaculations or short sayings of your ●…wn , according to the matter of your de●…otion . On Friday , recollect your sins that you ●…ave done that week , and all your life ●…ime ; and let your devotion be to recite ●…umbly and devoutly some penitentiall ●…etanies , whereof you may serve your ●…elf in the Rule of Holy Living , page ●…73 . On Saturday at the same time , meditate on the passion of our blessed Saviour and 〈◊〉 the mysteries of our Redemption , which you may do and pray together , by ●…using the forms made to that purpose in the Rule of Holy Living , page 391. In all your devotions begin and end with the Lords Prayer . Upon these two dayes and Sunday , you may choose some portions out of the Life of Christ , to reade and help your meditation , proper to the mysteries you are appointed to meditate , or any other devo●… books . 23. Reade not much at a time ; b●… meditate as much as your time and capacity and disposition will give you leave ever remembring , that little reading , an●… much thinking ; little speaking , and muc●… hearing ; frequent and short prayers , an●… great devotion , is the best way to be wise , to be holy , to be devout . 24. Before you go to bed , bethin●… your self of the day past ; if nothing e●…traordinary hath hapned , your Conscience is the sooner examined ; but if you have had any difference or disagreeing with any one , or a great feast , or great company or a great joy , or a great sorrow , then recollect your self with the more diligence●… ask pardon for what is amiss ; give Go●… thanks for what was good : if you have omitted any duty , make amends next day●… and yet if nothing be found that w●… amiss , be humbled still and thankful , an●… pray God for pardon if any thing be amiss that you know not of . If all these things be in your offices , for your last prayers , be sure to apply them according to what you finde in your examination : but if they be not , supply them with short 〈◊〉 before you begin your last ●…ayers , or at the end of them . Remem●…r also , and be sure to take notice of all ●…e mercies and deliverances of your self , ●…d your relatives that day . 25. As you are going to bed , as often 〈◊〉 you can conveniently , or that you are ●…ot hindred by company , meditate of ●…eath , and the preparations to your grave . ●…hen you lie down , close your eyes with short Prayer , commit your self into the ●…ands of your faithful Creator ; and when ●…ou have done , trust him with your self , ●…s you must do when you are dying . 26. If you awake in the night , fill up ●…he intervals or spaces of your not sleep●…ng by holy thoughts and aspirations , and ●…emember the sins of your youth : and sometimes remember your dead , and that you shall die ; and pray to God to send to you and all mankinde a mercy in the day of Judgement . 27. Upon the Holy-days observe the same Rules ; onely let the matter of your meditations be according to the mystery of the day . As upon Christmas day meditate on the birth of our blessed Saviour , and reade that story and Considerations which are in the Life of Christ : and to your ordinary devotions of every day adde the Prayer which is fitted to the mystery which you shall finde in the Life of Christ , or in the Rule of holy Living . Upon the day of the Annunciation or ou●…Lady-day , meditate on the incarnation of our blessed Saviour ; and so upon all the Festivals of the year . 28. Set apart one day for fasting once a week , or once a fortnight , or once a moneth at least , but let it be with these cautions and measures . 1. Do not choose a festivall of the Church for your fasting day . 2. Eat nothing till your afternoon devotions be done , if the health of your body will permit it : if not , take something , though it be the less . 3. When you eat your meal , let it be no more then ordinary , lest your fasting day end in an intemperate evening . 4. Let the actions of all the day be proportionable to it , abstain from your usuall recreations on that day , and from greater mirth . 5. Be sure to design beforehand the purposes of your fast , either for Repentance , or for Mortification . or for the advantages of Prayer ; and let your devotions be accordingly . But be sure , not to think fasting or eating fish or eating nothing , of it self to be pleasing to God , but as it serves to one of these purposes . 6. Let some part of that day extraordinary be set apart for Prayer , for the actions of Repentance , for confession of sins , and for begging of those graces for whose sake you set apart that day . 7. Be sure that on that day you set apart something for the poor ; for Fasting and Alms are the wings of Prayer . 8. It is best to choose that day for your fast , which is used generally by all Christians , as Friday and Saturday ; but do not call it a fasting day , unless also it be a day of extraordinary devotion and of alms . 29. From observation of all the dayes of your life , gather out the four extraordinaries . 1. All the great and shameful 〈◊〉 you have committed . 2. All the excellent or greater acts of piety which by Gods grace you have performed . 3. All the great blessings you have received . 4. All the dangers and great sicknesses you have escaped ; and upon all the dayes of your extraordinary devotions , let them be brought forth , and produce their acts of virtue . 1. Repentance and Prayers for pardon . 2. Resolutions to proceed and increase in good works . 3. Thanksgiving to God . 4. Fear and watchfulness , lest we fall into worse , as a punishment for our sin . 30. Keep a little Catalogue of these , and at the foot of them set down what Promises and Vows you have made , and kept or broken , and do according as you are obliged . 31. Receive the blessed Sacrament as often as you can : endevour to have it once a moneth , besides the solemn and ●…eat Festivalls of the year . 32. Confess your sins often , hear the Word of God , make Religion the busi●…ess of your life , your study , and chiefest ●…are , and be sure that in all things a spi●…itual guide take you by the hand . Thou shalt alwayes rejoyce in the even●…ng , if thou doest spend thy day vir●…uously . VIA PACIS . A short Method of Peace and Holiness . With a Manual of daily PRAYERS : Fitted to the dayes of the Week . SUNDAY . Decad the first . 1. IT is the highest wisdome by despising the world to arrive at heaven : for they are blessed whose daily exercise it is to converse with God by Prayer and Obedience , by Love and Patience . 2. It is the extremest folly to labour for that which will bring torment in the end , and no satisfaction in the little enjoyment of it : to be unwearied in the ●…ursuit of the world , and to be soon tir'd 〈◊〉 whatsoever we begin to do for Christ . 3. Watch over thy self , counsel thy self , ●…prove thy self , censure thy self , and ●…dge thy self impartially : whatever thou ●…ost to others , do not neglect thy self . ●…or every man profits so much as he does ●…iolence to himself . 4. They that follow their own sensu●…lity , stain their Consciences , and lose the ●…race of God : but he that endevours to ●…lease God , whatever he suffers , is be●…ved of God . For it is not a Question , Whether we shall or shall not suffer ? but , Whether we shall suffer for God , or for the world ? whether we shall take pains 〈◊〉 Religion , or in sin , to get heaven , or to get riches ? 5. What availeth knowledge without ●…he fear of God ? A humble ignorant man 〈◊〉 better then a proud scholar , who stu●…ies natural things , and knows not himself . The more thou knowest , the more grievously thou shalt be judged : Many get no profit by their labour , because they ●…ontend for knowledge , rather then for ●…oly life ; and the time shall come , when ●…t shall more avail thee to have subdu'd ●…ne lust , then to have known all mysteries . 6. No man truly knows himself , but he groweth daily more contemptible in his own eyes ; desire , not to be known , and to be little esteem'd of by men . 7. If all be well within , nothing can hurt us from without : for from inordinate love and vain fear , comes all unquietness of spirit , and distraction of our senses . 8. He to whom all things are one , who draweth all things to one , and seeth all things in one , may enjoy true peace and rest of spirit . 9. It is not much business that distracts any man , but the want of purity , constancy , and tendency towards God . Who hinders thee more then the unmortified desires of thine own heart ? As soon as ever a man desires any thing inordinately , he is presently disquieted in himself . He that hath not wholly subdued himself , is quickly tempted and overcome in small and trifling things . The weak in spirit is he that is in a manner subject to his appetite , and he quickly falls into indignation , and contention , and envy . 10. He is truly great , that is great in Charity , and little in himself . MUNDAY . The second Decad. 11. WEE rather often believe and speak evil of others , then good . But they that are truly virtuous , do not easily credit evil that is told them of their neighbors . For if others may do ●…miss , then may these also speak amiss . Man is frail and prone to evil , and therefore may soon fail in words . 12. Be not rash in thy proceedings , nor confident and pertinacious in thy conceits . But consult with him that is wise , and seek to be instructed by a better then thy self . 13. The more humble and resign'd we are to God , the more prudent we are in our affairs to men , and peaceable in our ●…elves . 14. The proud and the covetous can never rest . 15. Be not asham'd to be , or to be esteem'd poor in this world : for he that hears God teaching him , will finde that it is the best wisdome to withdraw all our affections from secular honour , and troublesome riches , and to place them upon eternal treasures , and by patience , by humility , by suffering scorn and contempt , and all the will of God , to get the true riches . 16. Be not proud of well-doing ; for the judgement of God is farre differing from the judgement of men . 17. Lay not thine heart open to every one , but with the wise , and them that fear God . Converse not much with yong people and strangers . Flatter not the rich , neither do thou willingly or lightly appear before great personages . Never be partaker with the persecutors . 18. It is easier , and safer , and more pleasant to live in obedience , then to be at our own disposing . 19. Alwayes yield to others when there is cause ; for that is no shame , but honour : but it is shame to stand stiff in a foolish or weak argument or resolution . 20. The talk of worldly affairs hindreth much , although recounted with a fair intention : we speak willingly , but seldome return to silence . TUESDAY . The third Decad. 21. WAtch and pray , lest your time pass without profit or fruit . But devout discourses do greatly further our spirituall progress , if persons of one minde and spirit be gathered together in God . 22. We should enjoy more peace , if we did not busie our selves with the words and deeds of other men , which appertain not to our charge . 23. He that esteems his progress in Religion to consist in exterior Observances , his devotion will quickly be at an end . But to free our selves of passions , is to lay the axe at the root of the tree , and the true way of peace . 24. It is good that we sometimes be contradicted , and ill thought of , and that we alwayes bear it well , even when we deserve to be well spoken of : perfect peace and security cannot be had in this world . 25. All the Saints have profited by tribulations ; and they that could not bear temptations , became reprobates , and fell from God . 26. Think not all is well within , when all is well without ; or that thy being pleas'd , is a sign that God is pleas'd : but suspect every thing that is prosperous , unless it promotes Piety , and Charity , and Humility . 27. Do no evil , for no interest , and to please no man , for no friendship , and for no fear . 28. God regards not how much we do , but from how much it proceeds . He does much that loves much . 29. Patiently suffer that from others , which thou canst not mend in them , untill God please to do it for thee ; and remember that thou mend thy self , since thou art so willing others should not offend in any thing . 30. Every mans virtue is best seen in adversity and temptation . WEDNESDAY . The fourth Decad. ●… . BEgin every day to repent , not that thou shouldst at all defer it , or stand the door , but because all that is past ●…aght to seem little to thee ; because it is 〈◊〉 in it self : begin the next day with the ●…me zeal and the same fear , and the same ●…umility , as if thou hadst never begun ●…efore . 32. A little omission of any usual ex●…cise of piety , cannot happen to thee ●…ithout some loss and considerable detri●…ent , even though it be upon a ●…erable cause . 33. Be not slow in common and usual ●…cts of Piety and Devotion , and quick ●…nd prompt at singularities : but having ●…rst done what thou art bound to , pro●…eed to counsels and perfections , and the ●…xtraordinaries of Religion , as you see ●…ause . 34. He that desires much to hear news , ●…s never void of passions , and secular deires , and adherencies to the world . 35. Complain not too much of hin●… drances of Devotion : if thou let me●… alone , they will let you alone : and if yo●… desire not to converse with them , let the●… know it , and they will not desire to converse with thee . 36. Draw not to thy self the affai●… of others , neither involve thy self in th●… suits and parties of great personages . 37. Know that if any trouble happen to thee , it is what thou hast deserved , and therefore brought upon thy self . But i●… any comfort come to thee , it is a gift of God , and what thou didst not deserve . And remember , that oftentimes when th●… body complains of trouble , it is not so much the greatness of trouble , as littleness of thy spirit , that makes thee to complain . 38. He that knows ow to suffer a●… thing for God , that desires heartily th●… will of God may be done in him ; th●… studies to please others rather then himself ; to do the will of his superior , not his own ; that chooseth the least portio●… and is not greedy for the biggest ; th●… takes the lowest place , and does not mu●… secretly : he is in the best conditio●… and state of things . 39. Let no man despair of mercy 〈◊〉 ●…ccess , so long as he hath life and health . 40. Every man must pass through fire ●…nd water , before he can come to re●…eshment . THURSDAY . The fifth Decad. 41. SOon may a man lose that by negligence , which hath by much labour , ●…nd a long time , and a mighty grace scarce●…y been obtain'd . And what shall become of us before night , who are weary ●…o early in the morning ? Woe be to that man who would be at rest , even when he hath scarcely a footstep of holiness appearing in his conversation . 42. So think , and so do , as if thou wert ●…o die to day , and at night to give an account of thy whole life . 43. Beg not a long life , but a good one : for length of dayes oftentimes prolongs the evil , and augments the guilt . It were well if that little time we live , we would live well . 44. Entertain the same opinions and thoughts of thy sin and of thy present state , as thou wilt in the dayes of sorrow . Thou wilt then think thy self very miserable and very foolish , for neglecting one hour , and one day of thy salvation : Think so now , and thou wilt be more provident of thy time and of thy talent . For there will a time come , when every careless man shall desire the respite of one hour for Prayer and Repentance , and I know not who will grant it . Happy is he that so lives , that in the day of death he rejoyces , and is not amazed . 45. He that would die comfortably , may serve his ends by first procuring to himself a contempt of the world , a fervent desire of growing in grace , love of discipline , a laborious repentance , a prompt obedience , self-deniall , and toleration of every cross accident for the love of Christ , and a tender Charity . 46. While thou art well , thou mayest do much good , if thou wilt ; but when thou art sick , neither thou nor I can tell , what thou shalt be able to do . It is not very much , nor very good : Few men mend with sickness , as there are but few who by travell and a wandring life become devout . 47. Be not troubled , nor faint in the ●…ours of mortification , and the austeries of Repentance : for in Hell , one ●…ur is more intolerable then a hundred ●…ars in the house of Repentance : and ●…y , for if thou canst not endure God pu●…shing thy follies gently , for a while , to ●…end thee , how wilt thou endure his ●…ngeance for ever to undo thee ? 48. In thy Prayers wait for God , and ●…ink not every hearty Prayer can procure ●…ery thing thou askest . These things ●…hich the Saints did not obtain without ●…any Prayers , and much labour , and a ●…ower of tears , and a long protracted ●…archfulness , and industry , do thou ex●…ct also in its own time , and by its usuall ●…easures . Do thou valiantly , and hope ●…nfidently , and wait patiently , and thou ●…alt finde thou wilt not be deceived . 49. Be careful thou dost not speak a 〈◊〉 in thy Prayers , which though not ob●…ved , is frequently practis'd by careless ●…fons , especially in the forms of ●…sion , affirming things which they have ●…t thought , professing sorrow which is ●…t , making a vow they mean not . 50. If thou meanest to be devout , and 〈◊〉 enlarge thy Religion , do it rather by ●…creasing thy ordinary devotions , then thy extraordinary . For if they be not regular , but come by chance , they will not last long . But if they be added to your ordinary offices , or made to be daily , thy spirit will by use and custome be made tender , and not willing to go less . FRIDAY . The sixth Decad. 51. HE is a truly charitable and good man , who when he receives injuries , grieves rather for the malice of him that injures him , then for his own suffering ; who willingly prayes for him that wrongs him , and from his heart forgives all his faults ; who stayes not , but quickly asks pardon of others for his errors or mistakes ; who sooner shews mercy then anger ; who thinks better of others then himself ; who offers violence to his appetite , and in all things endevours to subdue the flesh to the spirit . This is an excellent abbreviature of the whole duty of 〈◊〉 Christian . 52. No man can have felicity in two ●…ates of things ; if he takes it in God ●…ere , in him he shall have it hereafter , for God will last for ever . But if he takes ●…licity in things of this world , where will ●…is felicity be when this world is done ? ●…ither here alone , or hereafter must be ●…hy portion . 53. Avoid those things in thy self , ●…hich in others do most displease thee . And remember , that as thine eye observes ●…thers , so art thou observed by God , by Angels , and by Men . 54. He that puts his confidence in God ●…nely , is neither overjoyed in any great good thing of this life , nor sorrowful for 〈◊〉 little thing . Let God be thy love and ●…hy fear , and he also will be thy salvation ●…nd thy refuge . 55. Do not omit thy Prayers for want of a good oratory or place to pray in , ●…or thy duty for want of temporal 〈◊〉 . For he that does both upon Gods account , cares not how or what he ●…uffers , so he suffer well , and be the friend of Christ ; nor where nor when he prayes , so he may do it frequently , fervently , and acceptably . 56. Very often remember and meditate upon the wound and stripes , the shame and the pain , the death and the burial of our Lord Jesus ; for nothing will more enable us to bear our cross patiently injuries charitably , the labour of Religio●…comfortably , and censuring words and detractions with meekness and quietness . 57. Esteem not thy self to have profited in Religion , unless thou thinkest well of others , and meanly of thy self : Therefore never accuse any but thy self , and be that diligently watches himself , will be willing enough to be silent concerning others . 58. It is no great matter to live lovingly with good natur'd , with humble , and meek persons : but he that can do so with the froward , with the wilful , and the ignorant , with the peevish and perverse , he onely hath true charity : alwayes remembring , that our true solid peace , the peace of God , consists rather in complying with others , then in being complied with , in suffering and forbearing , rather then in contention and victory . 59. Simplicity in our intentions , and purity of affections , are the two wings of a soul investing it with the robes and resemblances of a Seraphim . Intend the honour of God principally and sincerely , and mingle not thy affections with any ●…reature , but in just subordination to God , and to Religion , and thou shalt have ●…oy , if there be any such thing in this ●…orld . For there is no joy but in God , ●…nd no sorrow but in an evil Conscience . 60. Take not much care what , or who is ●…or thee , or against thee . The judgement of ●…one is to be regarded , if Gods judgement be otherwise . Thou art neither better nor worse in thy self , for any account that is made of thee by any but by God alone : ●…ecure that to thee , and he will secure ●…ll the rest . SATURDAY . The seventh Decad. 61. BLessed is he that understands what it is to love Jesus , and contends earnestly to be like him . Nothing else can satisfie , or make us perfect . Bu●… be thou a bearer of his Cross , as well as a lover of his Kingdome . Suffer tribulation for him , or from him , with the same spirit thou receivest consolation : follow him as well for the bitter Cup of his Passion , as for the Loaves ; and remember , that if it be a hard saying , Take up my Cross and follow me , it is a harder saying , Go ye Cursed into Everlasting fire . 62. No man can alwayes have the same spirituall pleasure in his Prayers : For the greatest Saints have sometimes suffered the banishment of the heart ; sometimes are fervent , sometimes they feel a barrenness of Devotion : for this Spirit comes and goes . Rest therefore onely in God , and in doing thy duty : and know , That if thou beest overjoyed to day , this houre will passe away , and temptation and sadnesse will succeed . 63. In all afflictions , seek rather for Patience then for Comfort . If thou preservest that , this will return . Any man would serve God , if he felt pleasure in it alwayes ; but the virtuous does it , when his Soul is full of heavinesse , and regards not himselfe , but God , and hates that consolation that lessens his compunction ; but loves any thing , whereby he is made more humble . 64. That which thou doest not understand when thou readest , thou shalt ●…nderstand in the day of thy visitation : ●…or there are many secrets of Religion , ●…hich are not perceived till they be felt , ●…nd are not felt but in the day of a great ●…alamity . 65. He that prayes , despairs not . But ●…ad is the condition of him that cannot ●…ray . Happy are they that can and do , and ●…ove to do it . 66. He that will be blessed in his Prayers , must make his Prayers his Rule . All our duty is there set down , because in all our duty , we beg the Divine Af●…sistance : and remember , that you are ●…ound to do all those duties , for the Divine of which you have prayed for the Divine Assistance . 67. Be doing actions of Religion as often as thou canst , and thy worldly pleasures as seldome , that if thou beest surprised by sudden death , it may be oddes but thou mayest be taken at thy Prayers . 68. Watch , and resist the Devil in all his Temptations and Snares : His chief designes are these ; To hinder thy desire in good ; to put thee by from any Spirituall employment , from Prayers especially , from the Meditation of the Passion , from the remembrance of thy sins , from humble Confession of them , from speedy Repentance , from the custody of thy Senses and of thy Heart , from firm purposes of growing in Grace , from reading good Books , and frequent receiving the Holy Sacrament . It is all one to him , if he deceives thee by a lie , or by truth ; whether he amaze or trouble thee , by love of the present , or fear of the future : Watch him but in these things , and there will be no part left unarmed , in which he can wound thee . 69. Remember how the proud have fallen , and they who have presumed upon their own strength have been disgraced ; and that the boldest and greatest talkers in the dayes of peace , have been the most dejected and pusillanimous in the day of temptation . 70. No man ought to think he hath found peace , when nothing troubles him ; or that God loves him , because he hath no enemy ; nor that all is well , because every thing is according to his minde ; nor that he is a holy person , because he prayes with great sweetness and comfort : But he is at peace , who is reconciled to God ; and God loves him , ●…hen he hath overcome himself ; and ●…ll is well , when nothing pleases him but God , being thankful in the midst of his ●…fflictions ; and he is holy , who when ●…e hath lost his comfort , loses nothing of his duty , but is still the same , when God changes his face towards him . POSTVLANDA : OR , Things to be prayed for . Jubet Deus ut petus , & si non petis displicet , & non negabit quod petis , & tu non Petes . ? S. August . A FORM of PRAYER , By way of Paraphrase Expounding The Lords Prayer . Our Father , MErciful and Gracious ; thou gavest me beeing , raising me from nothing , to be an excellent creation , efforming me after thy own Image , tenderly feeding me , and conducting and strengthning me all my dayes : Thou art our Father by a more excellent Mercy , adopting us in a new birth , to become partakers of the inheritance of Jesus ; Thou hast given us the portion and the food of Sons ; O make us to do the duty of Sons , that we may never lose our title to so glorious an inheritance . Let this excellent Name and Title , by which thou hast vouchsafed to relate to us , be our Glory and our Confidence , our Defence and Guard , our Ornament and Strength , our Dignity , and the endearment of Obedience , the Principle of a holy Fear to thee our Father , and of Love to thee and to our Brethren , partakers of the same Hope and Dignity . Unite every member of the Church to thee in holy bands ; Let there be no more names of Division , nor Titles and Ensigns of Error and Partiality ; Let not us who are Brethren contend , but in giving honour to each other , and glory to thee , contending earnestly for the Faith , but not to the breach of Charity , nor the denying each others Hope : but grant , that we may all joyn in the promotion of the honour of thee our Father , in celebrating the Name , and spreading the Family , and propagating the Laws and Institutions , the Promises and Dignities of our Elder Brother ; that despising the transitory entertainments of this world , we may labour for , and long after the inheritance to which thou hast given us title , by adopting us into the dignity of Sons . For ever ●…et thy Spirit witness to our Spirit , that we ●…re thy children , and enable us to cry Abba , Father . Which art in Heaven , Heaven is thy Throne , the Earth is thy Footstool : From thy Throne thou beholdest all the dwellers upon earth , and triest out the hearts of men , and nothing is hid from thy sight : And as thy Knowledge is infinite , so is thy Power , uncircumscribed as the utmost Orb of Heaven , and thou sittest in thy own Essential Happiness and Tranquillity , immoveable and eternal . That is our Countrey , and thither thy Servants are travelling ; there is our Father , and that is our inheritance ; there our hearts are , for there our treasure is laid up till the day of Recompence . Hallowed be thy Name . Thy Name , O God , is glorious , and in thy Name is our hope and confidence : According to thy Name , so is thy praise unto the worlds end : They that love thy Name , shall be joyfull in thee ; for thy Name which thou madest to be proclaimed unto thy people , is , The Lord , the Lord God , mercifull and gracious , long-suffering , and abundant in goodness and truth , keeping mercy for thousands , forgiving iniquity , and transgression , and sin ; and that will by no means clear the guilty . In this glorious Name , we worship thee , O Lord ; and all they that know thy Name , will put their trust in thee . The desire of our soul is to thy Name , and to the remembrance of thee . Thou art worthy , O Lord , of honour , and praise , and glory , for ever and ever : we confess thy glories , we rejoyce in thy mercies ; we hope in thy Name , and thy Saints like it well : for thy Name is praised unto the ends of the world ; it is believed by Faith , relied upon by a holy Hope , and loved by a great Charity : All thy Church celebrates thee with praises , and offers to thy Name the Sacrifice of Prayer and Thanksgiving . Thou , O God , didst frame our Nature by thy own Image , and now thou hast imprinted thy Name upon us , we are thy Servants , the relatives and domesticks of thy family , and thou hast honoured us with the gracious appellative of Christians . O let us never dishonour so excellent a Title , nor by unworthy usages profane thy holy Name , but for ever glorifie it . Let our life be answerable to our dignity ; that our body may be chaste , our thoughts clean , our words gracious , our manners holy , and our life useful and iunocent , that men seeing our good works , may glorifie thee our Father which art in Heaven . Thy Kingdome come . Thou reignest in Heaven and Earth : O do thou rule also in our hearts ; advance the interest of Religion ; let thy . Gospel be placed in all the regions of the earth ; and let all Nations come and worship thee , laying their proud wills at thy feet , submitting their understandings to the obedience of Jesus , conforming their affections to thy holy Laws . Let thy Kingdome be set up gloriously over us ; and do thou reign in our spirits , by thy Spirit of Grace ; subdue every lust and inordinate appetite ; trample upon our pride , mortifie all rebellion within us , and let all thine and our enemies be brought into captivity , that sin may never reign in our mortal bodies ; but that Christ may reign in our Understanding by Faith , in the Will by Charity , in the Passions by Mortification , in all the members by a right and a chaste use of them . And when thy Kingdome that is within us hath flourished and is advanced to that height whither thou hast designed it , grant thy Kingdome of Glory may speedily succeed ; and we thy Servants be admitted to the peace and purity , the holiness and glories of that state where thou reignest alone , and art all in all . Thy will be done in Earth , as it is in Heaven . Thy will , O God , is the measure of holiness and peace ; thy Providence the great disposer of all things , tying all events together , in order to thy glory and the good of thy Servants , by a wonderful mysterious Chain of Wisdome . Let thy Will also be the measure of our desires : for we know , that whatsoever thou sayest is true , and whatsoever thou doest is good : Grant we may submit our wills to thine , being patient of evils which thou inflictest , lovers of the good which thou commandest , haters of all evil which thou forbiddest , pleased with all the accidents thou sendest ; that though our nature is weaker then Angels , yet our obedience may be as humble , our conformity to thy will may arise up to the degrees of Unity , and theirs cannot be more ; that as they in Heaven , so we in Earth may obey thy will promptly , chearfully , zealously , and with all our faculties ; and grant , that as they there , so all the world here may serve thee with peace and concord , purity and love unfeigned , with one heart , and one voice glorifying thee our heavenly Father . Grant that we may quit all our own affections , and suspect our reasonings , and go out of our selves , and all our own confidences , that thou being to us all things , disposing all events , and guiding all our actions , and directing our intentions , and over-ruling all things in us and about us , we may be Servants of the Divine Will for ever . Give us this day our daily Bread . Thou , O God , which takest care of our Souls , do not despise our bodies which thou hast made and sanctified , and designed to be glorious . But now we are exposed to hunger and thirst , nakedness and weariness , want and inconvenience , Give unto us neither poverty nor riches , but feed us with food convenient for us , and clothe us with fitting provisions , according to that state and condition where thou hast placed thy Servants ; that we may not be tempted with want , nor made contemptible by beggery , nor wanton or proud by riches , nor in love with any thing in this world ; but that we may use it as strangers and pilgrims , as the relief of our needs , the support of our infirmities , and the oyle of our lamps , feeding us till we are quite spent in thy service . Lord take from thy Servants sad carefulness , and all distrust and give us onely such a proportion of temporal things , as may enable us with comfort to do our duty . Forgive us our Trespasses , as we forgive them that trespasse against us . O dear God , unless thou art pleased to pardon us , in vain it is that we should live here , and what good will our life do us ? O look upon us with much mercy , for we have sinned grievously against thee . Pardon the adherent imperfections of our life , the weaknesses of our duty , the carelesness of our spirit , our affected igno●…nce , our indiligence , our rashness and ●…ant of observation our malice and Pre●…mptions . Turn thine eyes from our im●…urities , and behold the brightness and ●…urest innocence of the Holy Jesus , and ●…nder his cover we plead our cause , not ●…hat thou shouldest judge our sins , but ●…ive us pardon , and blot out all our ini●…uities , that we may never enter into the ●…orrible regions where there are torments without ceasing , a Prison without ransome , ●…eproaches without comfort , anguish without patience , darkness without light , 〈◊〉 worm that never dies , and the fire that ●…ever goeth out . But be pleased also to give us great Cha●…ity , that we may truly forgive all that ●…rouble or injure us , that by that Chara●…ter thou mayest discern us to be thy ●…ons and Servants , Disciples of the Holy ●…esus , lest our Prayer be turned into sin , ●…nd thy grace be recalled , and thou enter ●…nto a final anger against thy Servants . Lead us not into Temptation . Gracious Father , we are weak and ignorant , our affections betray us , and make us willing to die , our adversary the Devil goeth up and down , seeking whom he may devour ; he is busie , and crafty , malicious and powerful , watchful and envious ; and we tempt our selves , running out to mischief , delighting in the approaches of sin , and love to have necessities put upon us , that sin may be unavoidable . Pity us in the midst of these disorders ; and give us spirituall Strength , holy Resolutions , a watchful Spirit , the whole Armour of God , and thy protection , the guard of Angels , and the conduct of thy holy Spirit to be our security in the day of danger . Give us thy grace to flie from all occasions to sin , that we may never tempt our selves , nor delight to be tempted ; and let thy blessed Providence so order the accidents of our lives , that we may not dwell near an enemy ; and when thou shalt try us , and suffer us to enter into combat , let us alwayes be on thy side , and fight valiantly , resist the Devil , and endure patiently , and persevere constantly unto the end , that thou mayest crown thy own work in us . But deliver us from evil . From sin and shame , from the malice and fraud of the Devil , and from the falseness and greediness of men , from all ●…hy wrath , and from all our impurities , ●…ood Lord deliver thy servants . Do not reserve any thing of thy wrath 〈◊〉 store for us ; but let our sins be Par●…oned so fully , that thou mayest not pu●…ist our inventions . And yet if thou ●…ilt not be intreated , but that it be ne●…essary that we suffer , thy will be done ; ●…mite us here with a Fathers rod , that ●…hou mayest spare us hereafter : let the ●…ad accidents of our life be for good to ●…s , not for evil , for our amendment , not ●…o exasperate or weary us , not to harden ●…r confound us : and what evil soever it ●…e that shall happen , let us not sin against ●…hee . For ever deliver us from that evil , ●…nd for ever deliver us from the power of ●…he evil one , the great enemy of Man●…inde , and never let our portion be in ●…hat region of Darkness , in that ever●…asting burning which thou hast prepared ●…or the Devil and his Angels for ever . For thine is the Kingdome , the Power and the Glory , for ever and ever . Amen . So shall we thy servants advance the Mightiness of thy Kingdome , the Power of thy Majesty , and the Glory of thy Mercy , from generation to generation for ever . Amen . LETANIES FOR All Things and Persons . O God the Father of Mercies , the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ , have ●…ercy upon thy servants , and hear the ●…rayers of us miserable sinners . O blessed Jesus , the Fountain of Peace ●…nd Pardon , our Wisdome and our Righ●…ousness , our Sanctification and Redem●…tion , have mercy upon thy servants , re●…se not to hear the prayers of us misera●…e , sorrowful , and returning sinners . O holy and divinest Spirit of the Fa●…er , help our infirmities , for of our selves ●…e know not what to ask , nor how to ●…ray , but do thou assist and be pre●…nt in the desires of us miserable sin●…ers . 1. For Pardon of Sins . REmember not Lord the follies of our childehood , nor the lusts of our youth , the wildness of our head nor the wandrings of our heart , the infinite sins of our tongue , and the inexcusable errors of the dayes of vanity . Lord have mercy upon us poor miserable sinners . Remember not , O Lord , the growing iniquities of our elder age , the pride of our spirit , the abuse of our members , the greediness of our appetite , the inconstancy of our purposes , the peevishness and violence of all our pafsions and affections . Lord have mercy , &c. Remember not , O Lord , how we have been full of envy and malice , anger an●… revenge , fierce and earnest in the purchases and vanities of the world , and lazy an●… dull , slow and soon weary in the things of God and of Religion . Lord have mercy , &c. Remember not , O Lord , our uncharita●…le behaviour towards those with whom ●…e have conversed , our jealousies and su●…icions , our evil surmisings and evil re●…ortings , the breach of our promises to ●…en , and the breach of all our holy vows ●…ade to thee our God . Lord have mercy , &c. Remember not , O Lord , how often we ●…ave omitted the several parts and actions ●…f our duty ; for our sins of Omission ●…re infinite , and we have not sought after ●…he righteousness of God , but have rested 〈◊〉 carelesness and forgetfulness , in a false ●…eace and a silent Conscience . Lord have mercy , &c. O most gracious Lord , enter not into ●…udgement with thy servants , lest we be ●…onsumed in thy wrath , and just displea●…ure : from which Good Lord deliver us , and preserve thy servants for ever . 11. For deliverance from evils . FRom gross ignorance and stupid negligence , from a wandring head , and a trifling spirit , from the violence and rule of passion , from a servile will , and a commanding lust , from all intemperance , inordination and irregularity whatsoever : Good Lord deliver and preserve thy servants for ever . From a covetous minde and greedy desires , from lustful thoughts , and a wanton eye , from rebellious members , and the pride and vanity of spirit ; from false opinions and ignorant confidences : Good Lord deliver , &c. From improvidence and prodigality from envy and the spirit of ssander , from idleness and sensuality , from presumption and despair , from sinful action ; and all vicious habits : Good Lord deliver , &c. From fierceness of rage , and hastiness ●…f spirit , from clamorous and reproachful ●…nguage , from peevish anger , and inhu●…ane malice , from the spirit of conten●…on , and hasty and indiscreet zeal : Good Lord deliver , &c. From a schismatical and heretical spirit , ●…om tyranny and tumults , from sedition ●…nd factions , from envying the grace of God in our Brotber , from impenitence and ●…ardness of heart , from obstinacy and apo●…asie , from delighting in sin , and hating God and good men : Good Lord deliver , &c. From fornication and adultery , from annatural desires and unnatural hatreds , from gluttony & drunkenness , from loving and believing lies , and taking pleasure in the remembrances of evil things , from de●…ighting in our . Neighbours misery , and ●…rocuring it , from upbraiding others , and ●…ating reproof of our selves : Good Lord deliver , &c. From impudence and shame , from contempt and scorn , from oppression and cruelty , from a pitiless and unrelenting spirit , from a churlish behaviour , and undecent usages of our selves or others : Good Lord deliver , &c. From famine and pestilence , from noisome and infectious diseases , from sharp and intolerable pains , from impatience and tediousness of spirit , from a state of temptation , and hardned spirits : Good Lord deliver , &c. From banishments and prison , from widowhood and want , from violence of pains and passions , from tempests and earthquakes , from the rage of fire and water , from Rebellion and Treason , from fretfulness and inordinate cares , from murmuring against God , and disobedience to the divine Commandment : Good Lord deliver , &c. From delaying our repentance , and persevering in sin , from false principles and prejudices , from unthankfulness and irreligion , from seducing others , and being ●…bused our selves , from the malice and ●…raftiness of the Devil , and the deceit and ●…yings of the World : Good Lord deliver , &c. From wounds and Murther , from pre●…cipices and falls , from fracture of bones , and dislocation of joynts , from dismembring our bodies , and all infatuation of ●…our souls , from folly and madness , from uncertainty of minde and state , and from a certainty of sinning : Good Lord deliver , &c. From thunder and lightning , from phantasms , spectres and illusions of the night , from sudden and great Changes , from the snares of wealth , and the contempt of beggery and extreme poverty , from being made an example and a warning to others by suffering sad judgements our selves : Good Lord deliver , &c. From condemning others , and justifying our selves , from mispending our time and abusing thy grace , from calling good evil , and evil good , from consenting tofolly , and tempting others : Good Lord deliver , &c. From excess in speaking and peevish silence , from looser laughing and immoderate weeping , from giving evil example to others , or following any our selves , from giving or receiving scandal , from the horrible sentence of endless death and damnation : Good Lord deliver , &c. From cursing and swearing , from uncharitable chiding , and easiness to believe evil , from the evil spirit that walketh at noon , and the arrow that flieth in darkness , from the Angel of wrath , and perishing in popular diseases : Good Lord deliver , &c. From the want of a Spiritual Guide , from a famine of the Word and Sacraments , from hurtful persecution , and from taking part with persecutors : Good Lord deliver , &c. From drowning or being burnt alive , from sleepless nights , and contentious dayes , from a melancholy and a confused spirit , from violent fears and the loss of reason , from a vicious life , and a sudden and unprovided death : Good Lord deliver , &c. From relying upon vain fancies and false foundations , from an evil and an amazed Conscience , from sinning near the end of our life , and from despairing in the day of our death : Good Lord deliver , &c. From hypocrisie and wilfulness , from self-love and vain ambition , from curiosity and carelesness , from being tempted in the dayes of our weakness from the prevailing of the flesh , and grieving the Spirit , from all thy wrath , and from all our sins : Good Lord deliver , &c. III. For Gifts and Graces . HEar our Prayer , O Lord , and consider our desire , hearken unto us for thy truth and righteousness sake : O hide not thy face from us , neither cast away thy servants in displeasure . Give unto us the spirit of Prayer , frequent and fervent , holy and persevering , an unreprovable Faith a just and a humble Hope , and a never-failing Charity . Hear our prayers , O Lord , and consider our desire . Give unto us true humility , a meek and a quiet spirit , a loving and a friendly , a holy and a useful conversation , bearing the burthens of our Neighbours , denying our selves , and studying to benefit others , and to please thee in all things . Hear our prayers , &c. Give us a prudent and a sober , a just ●…nd a sincere , a temperate and a religious ●…pirit ; a great contempt of the world , a ●…ove of holy things , and a longing after ●…eaven , and the instruments and paths that ●…ead thither . Hear our prayers , &c. Grant us to be thankful to our Benefa●…ctors , righteous in performing promises , ●…oving to our relatives , careful of our ●…harges , to be gentle and easie to be in●…reated , slow to anger , and fully instructed and readily prepared for every good work . Hear our prayers , &c. Give us a peaceable spirit , and a peaceable free from debt , and deadly sin , grace to abstain from all appearances of evil , and to do nothing but what is of good report , to confess Christ and his holy Religion , by a holy and obedient life , and a minde ready to die for him when he shall call us , and assist us . Hear our prayers , &c. Give to thy servants a watchful and an observing spirit , diligent in doing our duty , inflexible to evil , obedient to thy word , inquisitive after thy will , pure and holy thoughts , strong and religious purposes , and thy grace to perform faithfully what we have promised in the day of our duty , or in the day of our calamity . Hear our prayers , &c. O teach us to despise all vanity , to fight the battles of the Lord manfully against the Flesh , the World , and the Devil , to spend our time religiously and usefully , to speak gracious words , to walk alwayes as in thy presence , to preserve our souls and bodies in holiness , fit for the habitation of the holy Spirit of God . Hear our prayers , &c. Give us a holy and a perfect repentance , a well instructed understanding , regular affections , a constant and a wise heart , a good name , a fear of thy Majesty , and a love of all thy glories above all the things in the world for ever . Hear our prayers , &c. Give us a healthful body and a clear ●…nderstanding the love of our neighbors , ●…nd the peace of the Church , the publick ●…fe and comfort of thy holy Word and ●…acraments , a great love to all Christians , ●…nd obedience to our Superiors , Eccle●…astical and Civil , all the dayes of our ●…ife . Hear our prayers , &c. Give us spiritual wisdome , that we may ●…iscern what is pleasing to thee , and fol●…ow what belongs unto our peace ; and let the knowledge and love of God , and of Jesus Christ our Lord , be our guide and our portion all our dayes . Hear our prayers , &c. Give unto us holy dispositions , and an active industry in thy service , to redeem the time mispent in vanity ; for thy pity sake take not vengeance of us for our sins , but sanctifie our souls and bodies in this life , and glorifie them hereafter . Hear our prayers , &c. Our Father , &c. IV. To be added to the former Letanies , according as our Devotions and time will suffer . For all states of men and women , especially in the Christian Church . OBlessed God , in mercy remember thine inheritance , and forget not the congregation of the poor for ever ; pity poor mankinde , whose portion is misery and folly , shame and death : But thou art our Redeemer , and the lifter up of our head , and under the shadow of thy wings shall be our help , untill this Tyranny be overpast . Have mercy upon us , O God , and hide not thy self from our petition . Preserve , O God , the Catholick Church in holiness and truth , in unity and peace , free from persecution , or glorious under it , that she may for ever advance the honour our of her Lord Jesus , for ever represent is Sacrifice , and glorifie his Person , and ●…dvance his Religion , and be accepted of ●…hee in her blessed Lord , that being filled with his Spirit , she may partake of his ●…lory . Have mercy upon us , &c. Give the spirit of Government and ho●…iness to all Christian Kings , Princes and Governours : grant that their people may obey them , and they may obey thee , and ●…ive in honesty and peace , justice and holy Religion , being Nursing Fathers to the Church Advocates for the oppressed , Pa●…rons for the widows , and a Sanctuary for the miserable and the fatherless , that they may reign with thee for ever in the Kingdome of the Lord Jesus . Have mercy upon us , &c. Give to thy servants the Bishops , and all the Clergy , the spirit of holiness and courage , of patience and humility , of prudence and diligence , to preach and declare thy will by a holy life , and wise discourses , that they may minister to the good of souls , and finde a glorious reward in the day of the Lord Jesus . Have mercy upon us , &c. Give to our Relatives [ our Wives and Children , our Friends and Benefactors , our Charges , our Family , &c. ] pardon and support , comfort in all their sorrows , strength in all their temptations , the guard of Angels to preserve them from evil , and the conduct of thy holy Spirit , to lead them into all good ; that they doing their duty , may feel thy mercies here , and partake of thy glories hereafter . Have mercy upon us , &c. Give to all Christian Kingdomes and Common-wealths peace and plenty , health and holy Religion : to all families of Religion and Nurseries of piety , zeal and holiness , prudence and unity , peace and contentedness : To all Schools of Learning , quietness and industry , freedome from wars and violence , factions and envy . Have mercy upon us , &c. Give to all married pairs , faith and love , charitable and wise compliances , sweetness of society , and innocence of conversation ; To all Virgins and Widows , great love of Religion , a sober and a contented spirit , an unwearied attendance to devotion , and ●…he offices of holiness ; protection to the fatherless , comfort to the disconsolate , pa●…tience and submission , health and spiritual advantages to the sick ; that they may feel thy comforts for the dayes wherein they have suffered adversity . Have mercy upon us , &c. Be thou a star and a guide to them that travel by land or sea , the confidence and comfort of them that are in storms and shipwracks , the strength of them that toil in the Mynes , and row in the Gallies , an instructer to the ignorant , to them that are condemn'd to die , be thou a guide unto death ; give chearfulness to every sad heart , spiritual strength , and proportionable comfort to them that are afflicted by evil spirits : pity the ●…unaticks , give life and salvation to all to whom thou hast given no understanding ; accept the stupid and the fools to mercy , give liberty to prisoners , redemption to captives maintenance to the poor , patronage and defence to the oppressed , and put a period to the iniquity , and to the miseries of all mankinde . Have mercy upon us , &c. Give unto our enemies grace and pardon , charity to us , and love to thee ; take away all anger from them , and all mistakes from us , all misinterpretations and jealousies ; bring all sinners to repentance , and holiness , and to all thy Saints and Servants give an increasing love , and a persevering duty ; bring all Turks , Jews and Infidels to the knowledge and confession of the Lord Jesus , and a participation of all the Promises of the Gospel , all the benefits of his Passion ; to all Hereticks give humility and ingenuity , repentance of their errors , and grace and power to make amends to the Church and Truth , and a publick acknowledgement of a holy faith , to the glory of the Lord Jesus . Have mercy upon us , &c. Give to all Merchants faithfulness and truth ; to the labouring husbandman health , and fair seasons of the year , and reward his toil with the dew of heaven , and the blessings of the earth ; To all Artizans give diligence in their Callings , and a blessing on their labours and on their families ; To old men piety and perfect repentance , a liberal heart , and an open hand , great religion , and desires after heaven ; To young men give sobriety and chastity , health and usefulness , an early ●…iety , and a persevering duty ; To all families visited with the rod of God , give consclation , and a holy use of the affliction , and a speedy deliverance ; To us all pardon and holiness , and life eternal , through Jesus Christ . Amen . The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ , and the love of God , and the communication of the Holy Spirit , be with us all for ever . Amen . A SHORT PRAYER To be said every Morning . O Almighty God , Father of our Lord Jesus Christ , the God of mercy and comfort , with reverence and fear , with humble confidence and strong desires , I approach to the Throne of Grace , begging of thee mercy and protection , pardon and salvation . O my God , I am a sinner , but sorrowful and repenting : Thou art justly offended at me , but yet thou art my Lord and my Father , merciful and gracious : Be pleased to blot all my sins out of thy remembrance , and heal my soul , that I may never any more sin against thee . Lord open my eyes , that I may see my own infirmities , and watch against them ; and my own follies , that I may amend them : and be pleased to give me perfect understanding in the way of godliness , that I may walk in it all the dayes of my pilgrimage . Give me a spirit diligent in the works of my Calling , chearful and zea●…us in Religion , fervent and frequent in ●…y Prayers , charitable and useful in my ●…onversation : Give me a healthful and a ●…aste body , a pure and a holy soul , a ●…nctified and an humble spirit ; and let ●…y body and soul and spirit be preserved ●…nblameable to the coming of the Lord ●…esus . Amen . II. BLessed be thy Name , O God , and blessed be thy Mercies , who hast preserved ●…e this night from sin and sorrow , from ●…ad chances , and a violent death , from the ●…alice of the Devil , and the evil effects of ●…y own corrupted nature and infirmity . The out-goings of the Morning and Evening shall praise thee , and thy servants ●…hall rejoyce in giving thee praise for the operation of thy hands . Let thy providence and care watch over me this day , and all my whole life , that I may never sin against thee by idleness or folly , by evil company or private sins , by word or deed , by thought or desire ; and let the imployment of my day leave no sorrow , or the remembrance of an evil conscience at night : but let it be holy and profitable , blessed , and alwayes innocent ; that when the dayes of my short abode are done , and the shadow is departed , I may die in thy fear and favour , and rest in a holy hope , and at last return to the joyes of a blessed Resurrection , through Jesus Christ : In whose Name , and in whose words , in behalf of my self and all my friends , and all thy servants , I humbly and heartily pray , Our Faether . &c. A Prayer for the Evening . ETernall God , Almighty Father of Men and Angels , by whose care and providence I am preserved and blessed , comforted and assisted , I humbly beg of thee to pardon the sins and follies of this day , the weaknesses of my services , and the strength of my passions , the rashness of my words , and the vanity and evil of my actions . O just and dear God , how long shall I confess my sins , and pray against them , and yet fall under them ! O let it be so no more , let me never return to the follies of which I am ashamed , which bring sorrow , and death , and thy displeasure , worse then death . Give me 〈◊〉 command over my evil inclinations , and 〈◊〉 ●…erfect hatred of sin , and a love to thee ●…ove all the desires of this world . Be ●…leased to bless and preserve me this night ●…rom all sin , and all violence of Chance , ●…nd the malice of the Spirits of darkness : ●…atch over me in my sleep , and whether sleep or wake , let me be thy servant . ●…e thou first and last in all my thoughts , ●…nd the guide and continual assistance of ●…ll my actions : Preserve my body , pardon ●…he sin of my soul , and sanctifie my ●…oul ; let me alwayes live holily , and justly , ●…nd soberly ; and when I die , receive my ●…oul into thy hands , O holy and ever●…lessed Jesus , that I may lie in thy bo●…ome , and long for thy coming , and hear ●…hy blessed Sentence at Doomsday , and ●…hold thy face , and live in thy King●…lome , singing praises to God for ever and ●…ver . Amen . Our Father , &c. For SUNDAY . A Prayer against Pride . I. O Eternal God , merciful and glorious , thou art exalted far above all heavens , thy Throne , O God , is glory , and thy Scepter is righteousness , thy Will is holiness , and thy Wisdome the great foundation of Empire and Government : I adore thy Majesty , and rejoyce in thy Mercy , and revere thy Power , an●… confess all glory , and dignity and honour to be thine alone , and theirs to whom thou shalt impart any ray of thy Majesty , or reflexion of thy honour ; but as fo●… me , I am a worm and no man , vile dust and ashes , the son of corruption , and the heir of rottenness , seized upon by folly , a lump of ignorance and sin , and shame and death . What art thou O Lord ? the great God of Heaven and Earth , the fountain of Holiness , and Perfection in●…te But what am I ? so ignorant , that ●…now not what ; so poor , that I have no●…ng of my own ; so miserable , that I am ●…e heir of sorrow and death ; and so sin●… , that I am encompassed with shame ●…d grief . II. ANd yet , O my God , I am proud : proud of my shame , glorying in my 〈◊〉 boasting my infirmities ; for this is all ●…t I have of my own , save onely that I ●…ve multiplied my miseries by vile acti●…s , every day dishonouring the work of ●…y hands : my understanding is too con●…ent , my affections rebellious , my will ●…ractory and disobedient ; and yet I ●…ow thou resistest the proud , and didst ●…t the Morning Stars , the Angels , from ●…aven into chains of darkness , when they ●…w giddy and proud , walking upon the ●…tlements of heaven , beholding the glo●…us Regions that were above them . III. THou , O God , who givest grace to the 〈◊〉 humble , do something also for the ●…oud man ; make me humble and obedient . Take from me the spirit of prid●… and haughtiness , ambition and self-fla●…tery , confidence and gayety : teach met●… think well , and to expound all things fai●…ly of my brother , to love his worthiness to delight in his praises , to excuse his er●…rors , to give thee thanks for his grac●… to rejoyce in all the good that he receive●… and ever to believe and speak better thing●… of him then of my self . IV. O Teach me to love to be conceale●… and little esteemed ; let me be tru●… humbled , and heartily ashamed of m●… sin and folly : teach me to bear reproach●… evenly , for I have deserved them ; to r●…fuse all honours done unto me , because have not deserved them ; to return all t●… thee , for it is thine alone ; to suffer r●… proof thankfully , to amend all my fau●… speedily ; and do thou invest my so●… with the humble robe of my meek Mast●… and Saviour Jesus ; and when I have hun●… , patiently , charitably and diligent●… served thee , change this robe into t●… shining garment of immortality , my co●… into glory , my folly to perfe●… knowledge , my weaknesses and dis●… 〈◊〉 the strength and beauties of the Sons ●…f God . V. ●…N the mean time use what means thou 〈◊〉 pleasest to conform me to the image of ●…hy holy Son ; that I may be gentle to ●…thers , and severe to my self : that I may ●…t down in the lowest place ; striving to ●…o before my brother in nothing , but in ●…oing him and thee honour ; staying for ●…ny glory till thou shalt please in the day ●…f recompences to reflect light from thy ●…ace , and admit me to behold thy glories . Grant this for Jesus Christs sake , who ●…umbled himself to the death and shame of the Cross , and is now exalted unto glory : Unto him , with thee O Father , be glory and praise for ever and ever . Amen . For MUNDAY . A Prayer against Covetousness . I. O Almighty God , eternal Treasure of all good things , thou fillest all things with plenteousness ; Thou clothest the lillies of the field , and feedest the young ravens that call upon thee : Thou art all-sufficient in thy self , and all-sufficient to us , let thy Providence be my store-house , thy dispensation of temporal things the limit of my labour , my own necessity the measures of my desire : but never let my desires of this world be greedy , nor my labourimmoderate , nor my care vexatious , and distracting , but prudent , moderate , holy , subordinae to thy Will , the measure thou hast appointed for me . II. TEach me , O God , to despise the world , to labour for the true riches , ●…o seek the Kingdome of heaven and its ●…ighteousness , to be content with what ●…hou providest , to be in this world like a ●…tranger , with affections set upon heaven , ●…abouring for , and longing after the pos●…estions of thy Kingdomes ; but never ●…uffer my affectious to dwell below , but ●…ive me a heart compassionate to the ●…oor , liberal to the needy , open and free ●…n all my communications , without base ●…nds , or greedy designes , or unworthy ●…rts of gain ; but let my strife be to gain ●…hy favour , to obtain the blessedness of do●…ng good to others , and giving to them ●…hat want , and the blessedness of receiving●…rom thee pardon and support , grace and ●…oliness perseverance and glory , through Jesus Christ our Lord . For TUESDAY . A Prayer against Lust . I. O Eternal Purity , thou art brighter then the Sun , purer then the Angels , and the Heavens are not clean in thy sight , with mercy behold thy servant apt to be tempted with every object , and to be overcome by every enemy . I cannot , O God , stand in the day of battel and danger , unless thou coverest me with thy shield , and hidest me under thy wings . The fiery darts of the Devil are ready to consume me , unless the dew of thy grace for ever descend upon me . Thou didst make me after thy image : be pleased to preserve me so , pure and spotless , chaste and clean ; that my body may be a holy Temple , and my soul a sanctuary to entertain thy divinest Spirit , the Spirit of love and holiness , the Prince of Purities . II. REprove in me the spirit of Fornication and Uncleanness , and fill my soul with holy fires , that no strange fire may come into the Temple of my body , where thou hast chosen to dwell . O cast out all those unclean spirits which have unhallowed the place where thy holy feet have trod : Pardon all my hurtfull thoughts , all my impurities , that I who am a member of Christ , may not become the member of a harlot , nor the slave of 〈◊〉 Devil , nor a servant of lust and 〈◊〉 desires : But do thou purifie my 〈◊〉 , and let me seek the things that are 〈◊〉 , hating the garments spotted with the 〈◊〉 ; never any more grieving thy holy 〈◊〉 by filthy inclinations , with impure 〈◊〉 phantastick thoughts ; but let my 〈◊〉 be holy , my soul pure , my body 〈◊〉 and healthful my spirit severe , 〈◊〉 and religious , every day more and more ; that at the day of our appearing , 〈◊〉 may be presented to God washed and cleansed , pure and spotless by the blood of the holy Lamb , through Jesus Christ our Lord . Amen . For WEDNESDAY . A Prayer against Gluttony and Drunkenness . I. O Almighty Father of Men and Angels , who hast of thy great bounty provided plentifully for all mankinde to support his state , to relieve his necessities , to refresh his sorrows , to recreate his labours ; that he may praise thee , and rejoyce in thy mercies and bounty : Be thou gracious unto thy servant yet more , and suffer me not by my folly to change thy bounty into sin , thy grace into wantonness . Give me the spirit of temperance and sobriety , that I may use thy creatures in the same measures , and to the same purposes which thou hast designed , so as may best enable me to serve thee , but not to make provision for the flesh , to fulfil the lusts thereof : Let me not , as Esau , prefer meat before a blessing ; but subdue my appetite , subjecting it to reason and the grace of God , being content with what is moderate , and useful , and easie to be obtained ; taking it in due time , receiving it thankfully , making it to minister to my body , that my body may be a good instrument of the soul , and the soul a servant of thy Divine Majesty for ever and ever . 11. PArdon , O God , in whatsoever I have offended thee by meat and drink and pleasures ; and never let my body any more be oppressed with loads of sloth and delicacies , or my soul drowned in seas of ●…ine or strong drink ; but let my appe●…ites be changed into spiritual desires , that 〈◊〉 may hunger after the food of Angels , and thirst for the wine of elect souls , and may account it meat and drink and pleasure to do thy will , O God . Lord let me ●…eat and drink so , that my food may not become a temptation , or a sin , or a ●…ease ; but grant that with so much caution and prudence I may watch over my ap●…petite , that I may in the strength of thy ●…mercies , and refreshmnets , in the light of thy countenance , and in the paths of thy Commandments , walk before thee all the dayes of my life acceptable to thee in Jesus Christ , ever advancing his honour , and being filled with his Spirit , that I may at last partake of his glory , through the same Jesus Christ our Lord . Amen . For THURSDAY . A Prayer against Envy . I. O Most gracious Father , thou Spring of an Eternal Charity , who hast so loved mankinde , that thou didst open thy bosome , and send thy holy Son to convey thy mercies to us ; and thou didst create Angels and Men , that thou mightest have objects to whom thou mightest communicate thy goodness : Give me grace to follow so glorious a precedent that I may never envy the prosperity of any one , but rejoyce to honour him whom thou honourest , to love him whom thou lovest , to commend the vertuous , to discern the precious from the vile , giving honour to whom honour belongs , that I may go to heaven in the noblest way of rejoycing in the good of others . II. O Dear God , never suffer the Devil to rub his vilest Leprosie of Envy upon me ; never let me have the affections of ●…he desperate and damned ; let it not be ●…ll with me , when it is well with others , ●…ut let thy holy Spirit so over-rule me for ever , that I may pity the afflicted , and be compassionate , and have a fellow-feeling of my brothers sorrows , and that I may as much as I can promote his good , and give thee thanks for it , and rejoyce with them that do rejoyce ; never censuring his actions curstly , nor detracting from his praises spitefully , nor upbraiding his infelicities maliciously , but pleased in all things which thou doest or givest , that I may then triumph in spirit , when thy Kingdome is advanced , when thy Spirit rules , when thy Church is profited , when thy Saints rejoyce , when the devils interest is destroyed , truly lovieg thee , and truly loving my brother ; that we may all together joyn in the holy Communion of Saints , both here and hereafter , in the measures of grace and glory , through Jesus Christ our Lord . Amen . For FRIDAY . A Prayer against Wrath and inordinate Anger . I. O Almighty Judge of Men and Angels , whose anger is alwayes the minister of Justice , slow , but severe , not lightly arising , but falling heavily when it comes : Give to thy servant a meek and a gentle spirit , that I also may be slow to anger , and easie to mercy and forgiveness . Give me a wise and a constant heart , that I may not be moved with every trifling mistake , and inconsiderable accident in the conversation and entercourse of others ; never be moved to an intemperate anger for any injury that is done or offered ; let my anger ever be upon a just cause , measured with moderation and reason , expressed with charity and prudence , lasting but till it hath done some good , either upon my self or others . II. LOrd let me be ever courteous , and easie to be intreated ; never let me fall into a peevish or contentious spirit , but follow peace with all men , offering forgiveness , inviting them by courtesies , ready to confess my own errors , apt to make amends , and desirous to be reconciled . Let no sickness , or cross accident , no imployment or weariness , make me angry or ungentle , and discontent , or unthankful , or uneasie to them that minister to me ; but in all things make me like unto the holy Jesus . Give me the spirit of a Christian , charitable , humble , merciful and meek , useful and liberal , complying with every chance ; angry at nothing but my own sins , and grieving for the sins of others ; that while my passion obeys my reason , and my reason is religious , and my religion is pure and undefiled , managed with humility , and adorned with charity , I may escape thy anger which I have deserved , and may dwell in thy love , and be thy Son and Servant for ever , through Jesus Christ our Lord . Amen . For SATURDAY . A Prayer against wea●…ness in well-doing . I. O My God , merciful and gracious , my soul groans under the loads of its own infirmity , when my spirit is willing , my flesh is weak ; my understanding foolish and imperfect , my will peevish and listless , my affections wandring after strange objects , my fancy wilde and unfixed , all my senses minister to folly and vanity ; and though they were all made for Religion , yet they least of all delight in that . O my God pity me , and hear me when I pray , and make that I may pray acceptably . Give me a love to Religion , an unwearied spirit in the things of God . Let me not relish or delight in the things of the world , in sensual objects , and transitory possessions ; but make my eyes look up to thee , my soul be filled with thee , my spirit ravished with thy love , my understanding imployed in the meditation of thy Law , all my powers and faculties ●…f soul and body wholly serving thee , ●…nd delighting in such holy ministeries . II. O Most gracious God , what greater favour is there then that I may , and what easier imployment can there be then to pray thee , to be admitted into thy presence , and to represent our needs , and that we have our needs supplied onely for asking and desiring passionately and humbly . But we rather quit our hopes of heaven , then buy it at the cheapest rate of humble prayer . This , O God , is the greatest infirmity and infelicity of man , and hath an intolerable cause , and is an unsufferable evil . III. O Relieve my spirit with thy graciousness , take from me all tediousness of spirit , and give me a laboriousness that will not be tired , a hope that shall never fail a desire of holiness not to be satisfied till it possesses , a charity that will alwayes increase ; that I making Religion the business of my whole life , may turn all things into Religion , doing all to thy glory , and by the measures of thy Word and of thy Spirit , that when thou shalt call me from this deliciousness of imployment , and the holy ministeries of grace , I may pass into the imployment of Saints and Angels , whose work it is with eternal joy and thanksgiving to sing praises to the mercies of the great Redeemer of Men , and Saviour of Men and Angels , Jesus Christ our Lord : To whom , with the Father and the Holy Ghost , be all honour and worship , all service and thanks , all Glory and Dominon for ever and ever . Amen . A Prayer to be said by a Maiden , before she enters into the state of Marriage . I. O Most glorious God , and my most indulgent Lord and gracious Father , who doest bless us by thy bounty , pardon us by thy mercy , support and guide us by thy grace , and govern us sweetly by thy providence ; I give thee most humble and hearty thanks , that ●…hou hast hitherto preserved me in my Virgin state with innocence and chastity ●…n a good name , and a modest report . It ●…s thy goodness alone , and the blessed ●…manation of thy holy Spirit , by which 〈◊〉 have been preserved , and to thee I re●…urn all praise and thanks , and adore and ●…ove thy goodness infinite . II. ANd now , O Lord , since by thy dispensation and over-ruling providence I am to change my condition , and enter into the holy state of Marriage , which ●…hou hast sanctified by thy Institution , and ●…lessed by thy Word and Promises , and ●…raised up to an excellent mystery , that it might represent the Union of Christ and his Church : Be pleased to go along with ●…thy servant in my entring into , and passing through this state , that it may not be a state of temptation or sorrow , by occasion of my sins or infirmities , but of holiness and comfort , as thou hast intended it to all that love and fear thy holy Name . III. LOrd bless and preserve that dear person whom thou hast chosen to be my Husband ; Let his life be long and blessed , comfortable and holy , and let me also become a great blessing and comfort unto him ; a sharer in all his joyes , a refreshment in all his sorrows , a meet helper for him in all accidents and chances of the world . Make me amiable for ever in his eyes , and very dear to him . Unite his heart to me in the dearest union of love and holiness ; and mine to him in all sweetness , and charity , and compliance . Keep from me all morosity and ungentleness , all sullenness and harshness of disposition , all pride and vanity , all discontentedness and unreasonableness of passion and humour : and make me humble and obedient , charitable and loving , patient and contented , useful and observant , that we may delight in each other according to thy blessed Word and Ordinance , and both of us may rejoyce in thee , having our portion in the love and service of God for ever and ever . IV. OBlessed Father , never suffer any mistakes or discontent , any distrustfulness or sorrow , any trifling arrests of fancy , or unhandsome accident to cause any unkindness between us : but let us so dearly love , so affectionately observe , so religiously attend to each others good and content , that we may alwayes please thee , and by this learn and practise our duty and greatest love to thee , and become mutual helps to each other in the way of godliness ; that when we have received the blessings of a married life , the comforts of society , the endearments of a holy and great affection , and the dowry of blessed children , we may for ever dwell together in the embraces of thy love and glories , feasting in the Marriage-supper of the Lamb to eternal ages , through Jesus Christ our Lord . Amen . Amen . A Prayer for a holy and happy Death . Oeternal and holy Jesus , who by death hast overcome death , and by thy Passion hast taken out its sting , and made it to become one of the gates of heaven , and an entrance to felicity ; have mercy upon me now and at the hour of my death ; let thy grace accompany me all the dayes of my life , that I may by a holy conversation , and an habitual performance of my duty , wait for the coming of our Lord , and be ready to enter with thee at whatsoever hour thou shalt come . Lord let not my death be in any sense unprovided , nor untimely , nor hasty , but after the manner of men , having in it nothing extraordinary , but an extraordinary piety , and the manifestation of a great and miraculous mercy . Let my senses and my understanding be preserved intire till the last of my dayes , and grant that I may die the death of the righteous , free from debt and deadly sin , having first discharged all my obligations of Justice , leaving none miserable and unprovided in my departure ; but be thou the portion of all my friends and relatives , and let thy blessing descend upon their heads , and abide there till they shall meet me in the bosome of our Lord . Preserve me ever in the communion and peace of the Church ; and bless my Death-bed with the opportunity of a holy and a spiritual Guide , with the assistance and guard of Angels , with the reception of the holy Sacrament , with patience and dereliction of my own desires , with a strong faith , and a firm and humbled hope , with just measures of repentance , and great treasures of charity to thee my God , and to all the world , that my soul in the arms of the holy Jesus , may be deposited with safety and joy , there to expect the revelation of thy day , and then to partake the glories of thy Kingdome , O eternal and holy Jesus . Amen . FESTIVAL HYMNES . I will sing with the spirit , and I will sing with the understanding also . HYMNS Celebrating the Mysteries and chief Festivals of the Year , according to the manner of the Ancient Church : fitted to the fancy and devotion of the younger and pious persons . Apt for memory , and to be joyned to their other PRAYERS . Hymns for Advent , or the weeks immediately before the Birth of our blessed Saviour . I. WHen Lord , O when shall we Our dear Salvation see ? Arise , arise , Our fainting eyes Have long'd all night , and 't was a long one too . Man never yet could say He saw more then one day , One day of Edens seven : The guilty hours there blasted with the breath Of sin and death , Have ever since worn a nocturnal hue . But thou hast given us hopes that we At length another day shall see , Wherein each vile neglected place , Gilt with the aspect of thy face , Shall be like that , the porch and gate of Heaven . How long , dear God , how long ! See how the Nations throng : All humane kinde Knit and combin'd Into one body , look for thee their Head . Pity our multitude , Lord , we are vile and rude , Headless and sensless without thee , Of all things but the want of thy blest face , O haste apace ; And thy bright self to this our body wed , That through the influx of thy power , Each part that er'st confusion wore May put on order , and appear Spruce as the childhood of the year , When thou to it shalt so united be . Amen . The second Hymn for Advent ; or Christs coming to Jerusalem in triumph . LOrd come away , Why dost thou stay ? Thy rode is ready ; and thy paths made strait With longing expectation wait The Consecration of thy beauteous feet . Ride on triumphantly , behold we lay Our lusts and proud wills in thy way . Hosanna ! welcome to our hearts . Lord here Thou hast a Temple too , and full as dear As that of Sion ; and as full of sin , Nothing but Thieves and Robbers dwell therein ; Enter , and chase them forth & cleanse the floore ; Crucifie them , that they may never more Profane that holy place Where thou hast chose to set thy face . And then if our stiff tongues shall be Mute in the praises of thy Deity , The stones out of the Temple wall Shall cry aloud and call Hosanna ! and thy glorious footsteps greet . Amen . Hymns for Christmas-day . I. MY sterious truth ! that the self same should be A Lamb , a Shepherd , and a Lion too ! Yet such was he Whom first the shepherds knew , When they themselves became Sheep to the Shepherd Lambe . Shepherd of Men and Angels , Lamb of God , Lion of Judah , by these Titles keep The Wolf from thy indangered Sheep . Bring all the world unto thy Fold , Let Jews and Gentiles hither come In numbers great that can't be told , And call thy Lambs that wander , home . Glory be to God on high , All glories be to th'glorious Deity . The second Hymn ; being a Dialogue between three Shepherds . 1. WHere is this blessed Babe That hath made All the world so full of joy And expectation ; That glorious boy That crowns each Nation With a triumphant wreath of blessedness ? 2. Where should he be but in the throng , And among His Angel Ministers , that sing And take wing Just as may Echo to his Voyce , And rejoyce , When wing and tongue and all May so procure their happiness ? 3. But he hath other Waiters now , A poor Cow , An Ox and Mule stand and behold , And wonder , That a stable should enfold Him that can thunder . Chorus . O what a gracious God have we ? How good , how great ! even as our misery . The third Hymn : Of Christs birth in an Inne . THe blessed Virgin travail'd without pain , And lodged in an Inne , A glorious Star the signe But of a greater guest then ever came that way , For there he lay That is the God of Night and Day , And over all the pow'rs of heaven doth reign . It was the time of great Augustus Tax , And then he comes That payes all sums , Even the whole price of lost humanity , And sets us free From the ungodly Emperie Of Sin , and Satan , and of Death . O make our hearts , blest God , thy lodging place , And in our brest Be pleas'd to rest , For thou lov'st Temples better then an Inne , And cause that sin May not profane the Deity within , And sully o're the ornaments of Grace . Amen . A Hymn upon S. Johns day . THis day We sing The friend of our eternal King , Who in his bosome lay , And kept the Keys Of his profound and glorious Mysteries : Which to the world dispensed by his hand , Made it stand Fix'd in amazement to behold that light Which came From the Throne of the Lamb , To invite Our wretched eyes ( which nothing else could see But fire , and sword , hunger and miserie ) To anticipate by their ravish'd sight The beauty of Celestial delight . Mysterious God , regard me when I pray : And when this load of clay Shall fall away , O let thy gracious hand conduct me up , Where on the Lambs rich viands I may sup : And in this last Supper I May with thy friend in thy sweet bosome lie For ever in Eternity . Allclujah . Upon the day of the holy Innocents . MOurnful Judah shreeks and cries At the obsequies Of their Babes , that cry More that they lose the paps , then that they die . He that came with life to all , Brings the Babes a funeral , To redeem from slaughter him Who did redeem us all from sin . They like himself went spotless hence , A sacrifice to Innocence ; Which now does ride Trampling upon Herods pride : Passing from their fontinels of clay To heaven a milky and a bloody way . All their tears and groans are dead , And they to rest and glory fled ; Lord , who wert pleas'd so many babes should fall , Whil'st each sword hop'd that every of the All Was the desir'd King : make us to be In Innovence like them , in Glory , thee . Amen . Upon the Epiphany , and the three wise men of the East coming to worship JESUS . A Comet dangling in the aire Presag'd the ruine both of Death and Sin ; And told the wise-men of a King , The King of Glory , and the Sun Of Righteousness , who then begun To draw towards that blessed Hemisphere . They from the furthest East this new And unknown light pursue , Till they appeare In this blest Infants King's propitious eye , And pay their homage to his Royalty . Persia might then the rising Sun adore , It was Idolatry no more : Great God , they gave to thee Myrrhe , Frankincense , and Gold : But Lord , with what shall we Present our selves before thy Majesty , Whom thou redeem'dst when we were sold ? W' have nothing but our selves , & scarce that neither , Vile dirt and clay : Yet it is soft , and may Impression take : Accept it , Lord , and say , this thou had'st rather ; Stamp it , and on this sordid metal make Thy holy Image , and it shall out-shine The beauty of the golden Myne . Amen . A Meditation of the Four last things , Death , Judgment , Heaven , Hell . For the time of Lent especially . A Meditation of Death . DEath , the old Serpents Son , Thou had'st a sting once like thy Sire , That carried Hell , and ever-burning fire : But those black dayes are done ; Thy foolish spite buried thy sting In the profound and wide Wound of our Saviours side . And now thou art become a tame and harmless thing , A thing we dare not fear Since we hear That our triumphant God to punish thee For the affront thou didst him on the Tree , Hath snatcht the keyes of Hell out of thy hand , And made thee stand A Porter to the gate of Life , thy mortal enemie . O thou who art that Gate , command that he May when we die And thither flie , Let us into the Courts of Heaven through thee . Allelujah . The PRAYER . MY Soul doth pant tow'rds thee My God , Source of eternal life : Flesh fights with me , Oh end the strife And part us , that in peace I may Unclay My wearied spirit , and take My flight to thy eternal Spring ; Where for his sake Who is my King , I may wash all my tears away That day . Thou Conqueror of Death , Glorious triumpher o're the Grave , Whose holy breath Was spent to save Lost Mankinde ; make me to be stil'd Thy Child , And take me when I dye , And go unto my dust , my Soul Above the sky With Saints enroll , That in thy arms for ever I May lye . Amen . Of the Day of Judgement . GReat Judge of all , how we vile wretches quake ! Our guilty bones do ake , Our marrow freezes , when we think Of the consuming fire Of thine ire ; And horrid phials thou shalt make The wicked drink , When thou the winepress of thy wrath shalt tread With feet of lead . Sinful rebellious clay ! what unknown place Shall hide it from thy face ! When earth shall vanish from thy fight , The heavens that never err'd , But observ'd Thy laws , shal from thy presence take their flight , And kil'd with glory , their bright eyes , stark dead Start from their head : Lord , how shall we , Thy enemies , endure to see So bright , so killing Majesty ? Mercy dear Saviour : Thy Judgement seat We dare not Lord intreat ; We are condemn'd already , there . Mercy : vouchsafe one look On thy book Of life ; Lord we can read the saving Jesus , here , And in his Name our own Salvation see : Lord set us free , The book of sin Is cross'd within , Our debts are paid by thee . Mercy . Of Heaven . O Beauteous God , uncircumscribed treasure Of an eternal pleasure , Thy Throne is seated far Above the highest Star , Where thou prepar'st a glorious place Within the brightness of thy face For every spirit To inherit That builds his hopes on thy merit , And loves thee with a holy charity . What ravish'd heart , S●…raphick tongue or eyes , Clear as the mornings rise , Can speak , or think , or see That bright eternity ? Where the great Kings transparent Throne , Is of an intire Jaspar stone : There the eye O'th'Chrysolite , And a sky Of Diamonds , Rubies , Chrysoprase , And above all , thy holy face Makes an eternal Clarity , When thou thy Jewels up dost binde : that day Remember us , we pray , That where the Beryl lyes And the Crystal , 'bove the skyes , There thou may'st appoint us place Within the brightness of thy face ; And our Soul In the Scrowl Of life and blissfulness enrowl , That we may praise thee to eternity . Allelujah . Of Hell . HOrrid darkness , sad and fore , And an eternal Night , Groans and shrieks , and thousands more In the want of glorious light : Every corner hath a Snake In the accursed lake : Seas of fire , beds of snow Are the best delights below , A Viper from the fire Is his hire That knows not moments from Eternity . Glorious God of Day and Night , Spring of eternal Light , Allelujahs , Hymns and Psalms , And Coronets of Palms Fill thy Temple evermore . O mighty God , Let not thy bruising rod Crush our loins with an eternal pressure ; O let thy mercy be the measure , For if thou keepest wrath in store We all shall die , And none be left to glorifie Thy Name , and tell How thou hast sav'd our souls from Hell . Mercy . On the Conversion of S. Paul . FUll of wrath , his threatning breath Belching nought , but chains and death : Saul was arrested in his way By a voice and a light , That if a thousand dayes Should joyn rayes To beautifie one day , It would not shew so glorious and so bright . On his amazed eyes it night did fling , That day might break within ; And by those beams of Faith Make him of a childe of wrath Become a vessel full of glory . Lord curb us in our dark and sinful way , We humbly pray , When we down horrid precipices run With feet that thirst to be undone , That this may be our story . Allelujah . On the Purification of the blessed Virgin . PUre and spotless was the Maid That to the Temple came , A pair of Turtle-doves she paid , Although she brought the Lamb . Pure and spotless though she were , Her body chaste , and her soul faire , She to the Temple went To be purifi'd And try'd , That she was spotless and obedient . O make us to follow so blest Precedent , And purifie our souls , for we Are cloth'd with sin and misery . From our conception One imperfection , And a continued state of sin , Hath sullied all our faculties within . We present our souls to thee Full of need and misery : And for Redemption a Lamb The purest , whitest that e're came A Sacrifice to thee , Even he that bled upon the Tree . On Good-Friday . THe Lamb is eaten , and is yet again Preparing to be slain ; The Cup is full and mixt , And must be drunk : Wormwood and gall To this , are draughts to beguile care withall , Yet the Decree is fixt . Doubled knees , and groans , and cries , Prayers and sighs , and flowing eyes Could not intreat . His sad Soul sunk Under the heavy pressure of our sin : The pains of Death and Hell About him dwell . His Fathers burning wrath did make His very heart , like melting wax , to sweat Rivers of blood , Through the pure strainer of his skin : His boiling body stood Bubling all o're , As if the wretched whole were but one dore To let in pain and grief , And turn out all relief . O thou , who for our sake Didst drink up This bitter Cup : Remember us , we pray , In thy day , When down The strugling throats of wicked men The dregs of thy just fury shall be thrown . Oh then Let thy unbounded mercy think On us , for whom Thou underwent'st this heavy doom , And give us of the well of life to drink . Amen . On the Annunciation to the blessed Virgin . A Winged harbinger from bright heav'n flown , Bespeaks a lodging room For the mighty King of Love , The spotless structure of a Virgin womb , O'reshadow'd with the wings of the blest Dove : For he was travelling to earth , But did desire to lay By the way , That he might shift his clothes , and be A perfect Man as well as we . How good a God have we ! who for our sake , To save us from the burning lake , Did change the order of Creation : At first he made Man like himself in his own Image ; now In the more blessed reparation The Heavens bow : Eternity took the measure of a span , And said , Let us make our self like Man , And not from Man the Woman take , But from the Woman , Man . Allelujah : we adore His Name , whose goodness hath no store . Allelujah . Easter day . WHat glorious light ! How bright a Sun after so sad a night Does now begin to dawn ! Bless'd were those eyes That did behold This Sun when he did first unfold His glorious beams , and now begin to rise : It was the holy tender Sex That saw the first ray : Saint Peter and the other , had the reflex , The second glimpse o'th'day . Innocence had the first , and he That fled , and then did penance , next did see The glorious Sun of Righteousness In his new dress Of triumph , immortality , and bliss . O dearest God preserve our souls In holy innocence ; Or if we do amiss , Make us to rise again to th'life of Grace , That we may live with thee , and see thy glorious face , The crown of holy Penitence . Allelujah . On the day of Ascension . HE is risen higher , not set : Indeed a cloud Did with his leave make bold to shroud The Sun of Glory from Mount Olivet . At Pentecost hee 'll shew himself again , When every ray shall be a tongue To speak all comforts , and inspire Our Souls with their celestial fire ; That we the Saints among May sing , and love , and reign . Amen . On the Feast of Pentecost , or Whitsunday . TOngues of fire from heaven descend With a mighty rushing wind , To blow it up and make A living fire Of heavenly Charity , and pure desire , Where they their residence should take . On the Apostles sacred heads they sit , Who now like Beacons do proclaim and tell Th'invasion of the host of Hell ; And give men warning to defend Themselves from the inraged brunt of it . Lord , let the flames of holy Charity , And all her gifts and graces slide Into our hearts , and there abide ; That thus refined , we may soar above With it unto the element of Love , Even unto thee dear Spirit , And there eternal peace and rest inherit . Amen . Penitentiall Hymns . I. LOrd , I have sinn'd , & the black number swells To such a dismal sum , That should my stony heart and eyes , And this whole sinful trunk , a flood become , And run to tears , their drops could not suffice To count my score , Much less to pay : But thou , my God , hast blood in store , And art the Patron of the poore . Yet since the Balsam of thy Blood , Although it can , will do no good , Unless the wounds be cleans'd with tears before ; Thou in whose sweet but pensive face Laughter could never steal a place , Teach but my heart and eyes To melt away , And then one drop of Balsam will suffice . Amen . II. GReat God , and just ! how canst thou fee , Dear God , our miserie , And not in mercy set us free ? Poor miserable man ! how wert thou born , Weak as the dewy jewels of the Morn , Rapt up in tender dust , Guarded with sins and lust , Who like Court flatterers waite To serve themselves in thy unhappy fate . Wealth is a snare , and poverty brings in Inlets for theft , paving the way for sin : Each perfum'd vanity doth gently breath Sin in thy Soul , and whispers it to Death . Our faults like ulcerated sores do go O're the sound flesh , and do corrupt that too . Lord , we are sick , spotted with sin , Thick as a crusty Lepers skin , Like Nuaman , bid us wash , yet let it be In streams of blood that flow from thee : Then will we sing , Touch'd by the heavenly Doves bright wing , Hallelujahs , Psalms and Praise To God the Lord of night and dayes ; Ever good , and ever just , Ever high , who ever must Thus be sung ; is still the same ; Eternal praises crown his Name . Amen . A Prayer for Charity . FUll of Mercy , full of Love , Look upon us from ahove ; Thou who taught'st the blind mans night To entertain a double light , Thine and the dayes ( and that thine too ) The Lame away his Crutches threw , The parched Crust of Leprosie Return'd unto its infancy : The Dumb amazed was to hear His own unchain'd tongue strike his ear : Thy powerful Mercy did even chase The Devil from his usurp'd place , Where thou thy self shouldst dwell , not he . O let thy love our pattern be ; Let thy Mercy teach one Brother To forgive and love another , That copying thy Mercy here , Thy Goodness may hereafter reare Our Souls unto thy Glory , when Our Dust shall cease to be with men . Amen . A Catalogue of some Books printed for Richard Royston at the Angel in Ivie lane , London . The names of several Treatises and Sermons written by Ier : Taylor . D. D. 1. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , A Course of Sermons for all the Sundayes of the Year ; Together with a Discourse of the Divine Institution , Necessity , Sacredness , and Separation of the Office Ministerial , in fol. 2. Episcopacy asserted , in 4o . 3. The History of the Life and Death of the Ever-blessed Jesus Christ , 2d Edit. in fol. 4. The Liberty of Prophesying , in 4o . 5. An Apology for authorized and Set-forms of Liturgie ; in 4o . 6. A Discourse of Baptisme , its institution and efficacy upon all Believers , in 4o . 7. The Rule and Exercises of holy living , in 12o . 8. The Rule and Exercises of holy dying , in 12o . 9. A Short Catechisme for institution of yong persons in the Christian Religion , in 12o . 10. A Short Institution of Grammar composed for Yong Scholars , in 8o . 11. The Reall Presence and Spirituall of CHRIST in the Blessed Sacrament proved against the Doctrine of Transubstantiation , in 8o . Books written by H. Hammond D. D. A Paraphrase and Annotations upon all the Books of the New Testament by Henry Hammond D. D. in fol. 2. The Practicall Catechisme , with all other English Treatises of Henry Hammond D. D. in two volumes in 4o . 3. Dissertationes quatuor , quibus Episcopatus Iuraex S. Scripturis & Primaeva Antiquitate adstruuntur , contra sententiam D. Blondelli & aliorum . Authore Henrico Hammond . in 4o . 4. A Letter of Resolution of six Quaere's , in 12o . 5. Of Schisme . A Defence of the Church of England , against the Exceptions of the Romanists , in 12o 6. Of Fundamentals in a notion referring to Practise , by H. Hammond D. D. in 12o . 7. An Answer to the Animadversions on the Dissertations touching Ignatius Epistles and the Episcopacy in them asserted , subscribed by Iohn Owen servant of Jesus Christ , in 4o . 8. A Vindication of the Dissertations concerning Episcopacy from the Exceptions offered against them by the London Ministers in their Ius Divinum Ministerii Evangelici in 4o . 9. A Reply to the Cathol. Gent : Answer to the most materiall part of the Book of Schisme , together with an Account of H. T. His Appendix to his Manuall of Controversies &c. 4o . The Psalter of David , with Titles and Collects according to the matter of each Psalm , by the Right honourable Chr. Hatton , in 12o the 5. Edition with Additionals . Boanerges and Barnabas , or Judgement and Mercy for wounded and afflicted souls , in several Soliloquies , by Francis Quarles , in 12o . ●…thmologicum Parvum in usum Schol●… public●… West●… , opera & studio Francisci Gregorii , in 8o . A Discourse of Holy Love , by Sir Geo : Strode Knight , in 12o . The Communicants Guide , directing the yonger so●…t which have never yet received , and the elder and ignorant sort , which have hitherto received unworthily , how they may receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper with comfort by R. Gove , in 8o . A Contemplation of Heaven with an Exercise of Love , and a Descant on the Prayer in the Gar●… by a Catholick Gent. in 12o . Devotion digested into several Discourses and Meditations upon the Lords most holy Prayer : Together with additional Exercitations upon Baptism , The Lords Supper , Heresies , Blasphemy , The Creatures , The souls pantings after God , The Mercies of God , The souls complaint of its absence from God ; by Peter Samwaies , Fellow lately resident in Trinity College , Cambridge , in 12o . Of the Division between the English and Romish Church upon Reformation , by Hen : Fern D. D. in 12o the 2. Edition with many Additionals . Certain Sermons and Letters of Defence and Resolution to some of the lare Controversaries of our times by Jasper Mayn , D. D. in 4o . New . A Treatise concerning Divine providence , very seasonable for all ages , by Tho. Morton Bishop of Duresme , in 8o . Dr. Stuart's Answer to Fountains Letter , in 4o . Blessed birth-day , printed at Oxford , in 8o . A Treatise of Self-denial , in 4o . by a conceal'd Author . The holy Life and Death of the late Vi-countesse Falkland in 12o . Certain Considerations of present Concernment : Touching the Reformed Church of England , by H. Fern , in 12o . New . Englands Faithfull Reprover and Monitour , in 12o . by Jo. Allington . Newly published , The grand Conspiracy of the Members against the Mind , of Jewes against their King . As it hath been delivered in four Sermons : by John Allington , B. D. in 12o White Salt , or a sober correction of a mad world : By John Sherman , B. D. a discontinuer , in 12o . The History of the Church of Scotland , by John Spotswood , Archbishop of S. Andrews , in fol. New . The End . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A63950e-660 John 17.3 . 1 John 2.23 . Deut. 6.2 . Exod. 20.2 , 3. Revel. 1.4 . Psal 90.2 . 1 Tim. 1.17 . Gen. 1.1 . Exod. 20.11 . Heb. 3.4 . Isa. 40.12 . Job 42.2 , 3. Psa. 139.1 , &c. Psa. 147.5 . Exod. 34.6 , 7. 1 Tim. 6.15 , 16 John 4.24 . 1 Kings 8.27 . Amos 3.6 . Psa. 139.8 , 9. Acts 7.48 , 49. 1 sal. 2.4 . & 103.19 . & ●…5 . 3 . Isa. 41. 4 & 44.6 . Job 94 , &c. Deut. 32.39 . Gen. 18.25 . Deut. 32.4 . Exod. 43.7 . Psa 103. 8. & 25.8 . & 86.5 . Psal. 50.12 . Jam. 1.17 Heb. 11.6 . Matth. 28.19 . Joh. 14.16.26 . & 15.26 . 1 Cor. 12. 4 , 5 , 6. 2 Cor. 13.13 . 1 John 5.7 . 1 Joh. 1. & v. 18. & 3.16 . Luke 24 49. Acts 1.4 . & 2.33 . Coloss. 1.16 . Acts 17.24 . 1 Cor. 8.6 . & 1 Cor , 6.18 . Gal. 1.4 . Phil. 2.22 . Dao . 2.47 . Zech. 4.14 . & 14.9 . Matth. 11.25 . Psal. 145.10 . 11. Acts 14 : 15. Gen. 2.7 . Eccles. 7.29 . Ecclus. 15.14 . Gen. 3. per tot . Rom. 5. 12. & 3. 23. & 6. 20. Ephes. 2. 3. Gen. 3. 15. Gal. 4. 4. 1 Pet. 1. 20. John 3. 16. Heb. 2. 14 , 15 , &c. John 8. 25 , 28. Heb. 2. 9. & 16. 17 , 18. Luke 1. 74 , 75. Isa. 9. 6. 1 Tim. 3. 16. 1 John 5. 20. Isa. 35. 4 , 5. Joh. 1. 2. & 18. & Joh. 8. 5 , 8. Rev. 1. 8. Heb. 13. 8. & 1. 8. Phil. 2. 6. Rom. 9. 5. Gal. 4. 4. Rom. 1. 3. Acts 2. 30. & 3 32. & 3. 22. Heb. 1. 1. & 2. 11. Acts 13. 23. Deut. 18. 15 Matth. 1. 18. Matth. 1. 21 Luke 2. 4 , 5 , &c. Heb. 2. 9 , 10. Reade the 3d and 4th and the 5th Chapters to the Hebr. Eph. 2.13 , 14 , 15. Luke 19.27 . & 24.46 , 47. Mat. 6.25 , &c. Rom. 8.28 . John 13.33 . Acts 14.22 . 2 Cor. 1.4 . Mar. 4. 11 , 12. & 11.20 , 21. Joh 6 44 , 45. 2 Pet. 1.3 , 4. Matth. 15.59 . Acts 2.38 . & 3.19 . Luke 187. Matth. 7.7 . Coloss. 2.13 . 1 Cor. 15 54. 55 , 57. Rev. 14.13 . 1 Cor. 15.22 . 1 Cor 6 14. 2 Cor. 4.14 . Joh. 6.40 . Mat. 28.6 . & 18. Phil. 2.9 , &c. Heb. 2.9 . & 5.9 . & 1.8 . Tit. 2.13 , 14. Eph. 3.14 , 15 , 20. 1 Cor. 11.3 . Ephes. 5.23 . Coloss. 2.10 . Acts 10.42 . 2 Tim. 4.1 . & 8 , 17.31 1 Pet. 4.5 . 1 Tim. 2.5 . Heb. 8.6 . & 9.15 . & 12.24 . John 1.18 . Luke 3.23 . John 5.43 . Luke 24 19. Acts 3.23 , &c. Heb. 5.5 , 7 , 8 , &c. Heb. 7. per totum . Heb. 7. 24 , 25. Rom. 8.33 , 34. 1 John 2.1 . Heb. 4.14 , 15 , 16. Heb. 1.3 , 8. Psal. 110.1 . 1 Thess. 1.10 . Acts 1.3 . Luke 24.51 . & 1.33 . 〈◊〉 Pet. 3.23 . Psal. 110.1 . 1 Cor. 15.24 , 25 , 28. Matth. 25.34 , 41. Gal. 3.20 . Heb. 8.6 . & 9.15 . & 12.24 . 1 Cor. 15.24 . ●…b . 8.6 . & 10. & 13. Heb. 10.16 . & 12.24 . Jer. 31.31 . Mark 16.16 . Mat. 4.17 . Acts 〈◊〉 .37 . & 2.31 . Acts 2.38 , 41. & 3.19 . 1 John 2.9 . Mat. 16.16 . & 1.18 . 1 Tim. 3 16. Rom. 14.9 . Acts 1.9 . & 3.21 . & 17.31 . Rev. 1.5 . & 17.14 . Luke 1.75 . Tit. 2.11 , 12. 1 Pet. 2.1 , 2 , 3. 2 Pet , 1.4 , &c. Heb. 12.1 , 2. 1 John 2.12 . & 5.16 , 17. Gal. 6.1 . & 5.24 , 25. Rom. 10.15 . Eph. 2.20 . & 4.11 , 12. 1 Cor. 12.28 . 2 Cor. 5.20 . Mat. 28.20 . Mat. 28.19 . & 26.26 . 1 Cor. 11.24 . Gal. 3.27 . — Eph. 5.26 . 1 Cor. 12.13 . — Col. 2.11 , 12. Rom. 6.4 . — Acts 2.38 . John 3.5 . — Acts 22.16 . Tit. 3.5 . — Heb. 10.22 . 1 Pet. 3.21 . 1 Cor. 11.23 , 24 , 25. Matt. 26.26 . Mark 14.22 . Luke 22.19 . 1 Cor. 10.16 . Mat. 26.28 . 1 Cor. 11.27 , 28 , 29. 2 Cor. 5 18. Acts 20.28 . 1 Pet. 5.2 . Gal. 1.6 . James 5.14 . Gal. 6.6 . 1 Tim. 5.17 . Heb. 13.17 . Reade also Rom. 12. Eph. 5. & 6. Chap. 1 Thess. 5 Luke 6.35 . Deut. 10.17 . & 6.4 . Mark 12.29 , 32. 1 Cor. 8.4 . John 17.3 . 1 Thest. 1.9 . Psal. 90.2 . & 93.2 . & 77.13 . & 95.3 . & 147.5 . Rom. 16.17 . 1 Tim. 1.17 . 2 Chron. 19.7 . Psa. 119. 137. 1 Chron. 16.34 . Psal. 34.8 . & 135.6 . Exod. 33.19 . 1 Tim , 1.11 . John 8.58 . Rom. 8.29 , 32. 1 Cor. 8.6 . & 15.24 . Mat. 24.36 . Heb. 2.11 . 1 Pet. 1.23 . Gal. 4.4 . Isa. 65.17 . & 66.12 . Acts 4.24 . Psal. 36.7 , 8. Mat. 〈◊〉 .26 . & 10.29 , 30. Rev. 14.7 . Mat. 4.10 . Mat. 1.20 . John 3.34 . Acts 10.28 . & 3.22 , 23. Heb. 12.24 . & 1.8 . & 6.7 , 21. Rev. 1.5 . Acts 11.26 . & 26.28 . 1 Pet. 4.16 . Luke 1.32 . Rom. 1.3 , 4. 1 Joh. 5.9 , &c. & 4.15 . & 5.5 . John 1.11 . Col. 1.17 , 18 , 15. Heb. 1.5.3 . Phil. 2.6 . John 3.35 . & 5.19 . Col. 2.9 , 10. John 17.24 . Ma●… . 28.18 . Acts 2.36 . Psa. 2.6 , 7 , &c. 1 Cor. 8.6 . Heb. 1.6 , 14 , 15. 1 Pet. 1.21 . Luke 1.35 . Gal. 4.4 . Luke 1.32 . Luke 1.26 , &c. Mat. 1.18 . Luke 1.45 , 48. Mat. 1.25 . Luke 2.51 , 52. & 3.23 . John 3.4 , &c. Acts 13.39 . Mat. 25.31 , 32. Luke 22.63 . John 18.4 , 12 , &c. Mat. 26. Mat. 27. Mark 15. Luke 23. John 19. Ibidem . John 18.37 . Phil. 2.8 . Col. 1.20 . Isa. 53.10 . Heb. 7 25. & 9.12 . & 2.17 , 18. & 4.5 . Luke 23.46 . Joh. 10.17 , 18. 12.32 . & 11.51 . Eph. 2.13 , 14. Heb. 2.10 . Col. 1.21 , 22. Tit. 2.14 . Joh. 6.51 . 1 Pet. 2.24 . & 4.13 . 2 Tim. 2.11 . Gal. 6.14 . Mat. 27 57 , &c. Eph. 4.9 . Mat. 12.40 . Acts 2.27 . Hos. 13.14 . 1 Cor. 15. 54 , &c. Rev. 20.13 , 14. Mat. 16.18 . Rev. 1.17 , 18. Mark 16.1 . Acts 10.40 . Rom. 14.9 . Acts 5.30 , &c. Col. 1.18 . Mat. 28.1 . 1 Pet 3.18 . & 1.3 . Eph. 1.17 . 1 Cor. 15.20 , &c. Luke 24.45 , 50. Mat. 21.17 . Joh. 20. & 21. Acts 1.9 . 1 Cor. 15.6 . 45. 47. Heb. 6.19 . Rom. 8.38 , 39. 1 Joh. 3.2 . Phil. 2.8 , 9 , &c. ●…ph . 1.17 , 22. Rom. 8.34 . Heb. 7.27 . 2 Pet. 1.4 . Heb. 12.2 . 1 Pet. 1.20 , 21. H●…b . 1.6 . John 14.3 . Mat. 24.30 . 1 The●… 4.16 . Rev. 1.7 . Acts 1.11 . 2 Tim. 4.1 . John 5.22 , 23. 1 Thess. 4. 16 , 17. Mat. 25.32 . Mat. 25.34 , &c. Mat. 28.19 . Joh. 15.26 . — Acts 15.32 . 16.13 . — & 3.33 . 6. 45. — 2.4 . 7.16 , 17. — 13.1 , 2 , 3. 5. 37. — 20.28 . Luke 12. 12. Joh. 17.37 . 14.16 . 16.13 , 8. Mat. 10.10 . Eph 1 17. & 3.16 . 1 Cor. 2.10 , 11 , 12. Rom. 8.14 , 15 , 16. Rom. 14.17 . & 15.13 , 19. 1 Thess. 1.6 . Luke 24.49 . & 4.18 . Acts 2.33 , 38. Eph. 4.7 , 30. 1 Cor. 3.16 . Eph. 1.13 . Acts 7.51 . Rom. 1.14 . 1 Thess. 5.19 . Mark 3.29 . 2 Cor. 1.22 . & 5.5 . 1 Tim. 3.15 . Eph. 3.21 . Heb. 2.12 . 10.24 . 1 Cor. 14.26 , &c. Mat. 18.17 , 18. Acts 12.5 . 1 Cor. 14.14 . Gal. 1.8 , 9. Col. 2.8 , 9. Heb. 13.8.9 . Acts 26.10 . 9.13 , 32 , 41. 1 Cor. 6. 11. & 1.2 . Mat. 22.14 . 1 Pet. 1.2 , 14 , 15 , 16. 2 Pet. 3.11 . Mat. 18.17 , 18 Heb. 10.25 . 1 Cor. 11.23 , &c. Eph. 4.13 . 5.6 , 7 , 21. 6.18 . Phil. 2.4 . & 1.27 . Rom. 16.16 , 17. 1 Joh. 3.18 . 1 Pet. 1.22 . Rom. 3.28 . Acts 2.38 . 13.38 . 1 Joh. 2.1 , 2 , 12. Gal. 6.1 . Joh. 20.23 . Mark 16.16 . 2 Pet. 1. 5 , &c. Eph. 1.13 . 1 Pet. 1.15 , 16 , 17 , 18. Jam. 2.17 , 20 , &c. 1 Joh. 3.21 , &c. Heb. 12.14 , 15 , 16. 1 Cor. 15.29 , &c. Mat. 22.31 . Rom. 8.11 , 〈◊〉 . Joh. 6.39 . Phil. 3.20 . 2 Cor. 5.1 . 1 Thess. 4.17 . Rev. 21.4 . Rev. 22.5 . Mat. 25.34 . Notes for div A63950e-6180 {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} S. Chrysoft . Homil. 3. de Lazaro . 
A67898	----	A discourse concerning prayer ex tempore, or, by pretence of the spirit. In justification of authorized and set-formes of lyturgie. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. This text is an enriched version of the TCP digital transcription A67898 of text R201248 in the English Short Title Catalog (Wing T312). Textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. The text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with MorphAdorner. The annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). Textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. This text has not been fully proofread Approx. 73 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 24 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. EarlyPrint Project Evanston,IL, Notre Dame, IN, St. Louis, MO 2017 A67898 Wing T312 ESTC R201248 99861779 99861779 113924 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A67898) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 113924) Images scanned from microfilm: (Thomason Tracts ; 58:E365[8]) A discourse concerning prayer ex tempore, or, by pretence of the spirit. In justification of authorized and set-formes of lyturgie. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. [2], 38 p. s.n.], [S.l. : Printed in the yeere, M DC XLVI. [1646] Attributed to Jeremy Taylor by Wing. The roman numeral date in the imprint is made with turned c's. In this edition, "spirit" in line 6 of the title is followed by a period; variations in text between editions begin on page 35 (cf. McAlpin Collection Catalogue, v.2 p.453). Annotation on Thomason copy: "by Dr Tailour"; "Dec 6th". Reproduction of the original in the British Library. eng Prayer -- Early works to 1800. A67898 R201248 (Wing T312). civilwar no A discourse concerning prayer ex tempore, or, by pretence of the spirit. In justification of authorized and set-formes of lyturgie. Taylor, Jeremy 1646 13919 82 20 0 0 0 0 73 D The rate of 73 defects per 10,000 words puts this text in the D category of texts with between 35 and 100 defects per 10,000 words. 2000-00 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2001-12 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2002-01 TCP Staff (Michigan) Sampled and proofread 2002-01 TCP Staff (Michigan) Text and markup reviewed and edited 2002-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A DISCOVRSE CONCERNING PRAYER Ex tempore , OR , By pretence of the Spirit . In justification of Authorized and Set-formes of LYTURGIE . 1 COR. 14. 32. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . And the spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets . For God is not the author of confusion , but of peace , as in all Churches of the Saints . Printed in the Yeere , MDCXLVI . A Discourse concerning PRAYER Ex tempore , &c. I Have read over this book which the Assembly of Divines is pleased to call The Directory for Prayer , I confesse I came to it with much expectation , and was in some measure confident , I should have found it an exact and unblameable modell of Devotion , free from all those objections which men of their owne perswasion had obtruded against the publike Liturgy of the Church of England ; or at least , it should have been composed with so much artifice and finenesse , that it might have beene to all the world , an argument of their learning and excellency of spirit , if not of the goodnesse and integrity of their religion and purposes . I shall give no other character of the whole , but that the publike disrelish which I finde amongst persons of great piety , of all qualities , not onely of great , but even of ordinary understandings , is to me some argument that it lyes so open to the objections even of common spirits , that the compilers of it did intend more to prevaile by the successe of their Armies , then the strength of reason , and the proper grounds of perswasion , which yet most wise and good man believe to be the more Christian way of the two . But Sir you have engaged me to say something in particular to satisfie your conscience . In which also I desire I may reserve a leave to my self to conceal much , if I may in little do you satisfaction . I shall therefore decline to speak of the Efficient cause of this Directory , and not quarrell at it that it was composed , against the Lawes both of England and all Christendome . If the thing were good and pious , I should learne to submit to the imposition , and never quarrell at the incompetency of his authority that ingaged me to doe pious and holy things . And it may be when I am a little more used to it , I shall not wonder at a Synod , in which not one Bishop sits ( in the capacity of a Bishop ) though I am most certaine this is the first , example in England , since it was first Christned . But for the present it seemes somthing hard to digest it , because I know so well that all Assemblyes of the Church have admitted Priests to consultation and dispute , but never to authority and decision , till the Pope-enlarging the phylacteries of the Archimandrites and Abbots , did somtimes by way of priviledge and dispensation give to some of them decisive voyces in publike Councells . But this was one of the things in which he did innovate and invade against the publike resolutions of Christendome , though he durst not doe it often , and when he did it , it was in very small and inconsiderate numbers . I said I would not meddle with the Efficient , and I cannot meddle with the Finall cause , nor guesse at any other ends and purposes of theirs then at what they publiquely professe , which is the abolition and destruction of the Book of Common-Prayer , which great change , because they are pleased to call Reformation , I am content in charity to beleeve they think it so , and that they have Zelum Dei , but whether secundum scientiam , according to knowledge or no , must be judged by them who consider the matter and the forme . But because the matter is of so great variety and minute consideration , every part whereof would require as much scrutiny as I purpose to bestow upon the whole , I have for the present chosen to consider onely the forme of it ; and because it pretends against the forme of set Lyturgie , and that ex tempore forms doe succeed in room of the established and determined services , I shall give you my judgement of it , without any sharpnesse or bitternesse of spirit , for I am resolved not to be angry with any men of another perswasion , as knowing that I differ just as much from them as they doe from me . And first I consider that the true state of the Question is onely this , Whether it is better to pray to God with consideration or without ? whether is the wiser man of the two , he who thinks and deliberates what to say , or he that utters his mind as fast as it comes ? Whether is the better man , he who out of reverence to God is most carefull and curious that he offend not in his tongue , and therefore he himselfe deliberates and takes the best guides he can , or he who out of the confidence of his owne abilities or other exteriour assistances , speakes what ever comes uppermost ? And here I have the advice and councell of a very wise man , no lesse than Solomon . Eccles. 5. 2. Be not rash with thy mouth , and let not thy heart be hasty to utter any thing before God , for God is in heaven and thou upon earth , therfore let thy words be few . The consideration of the vast distance between God and us , heaven and earth , should create such apprehensions in us , that the very best and choycest of our offertoryes are not acceptable but by Gods gracious vouchsafeing and condescension : and therefore since we are so much indebted to God for accepting our best it is not safe venturing to present him with a dowbaked sacrifice , and put him off with that which in nature and humane consideration is absolutely the worst , for such is all the crude and imperfect utterance of our more imperfect conceptions . But let Solomons reason be what it will , good we are sure it is . Let us consider who keepes the precept best ; He that deliberates or he that considers not but when he speakes : What man in the world is hasty to offer any thing before God , if he be not who prayes ex tempore ? And then adde to it but the weight of Solomons reason , and let any man answer me if he thinkes it can well stand with that reverence we owe to the Immense , the infinite , and to the eternall God , the God of wisdome , to offer him a sacrifice which we durst not present to a Prince , or a prudent Governour in reseriâ , such as our prayers ought to be . And that this may not be dashed with a pretence it is carnall reasoning , I desire it may be remembred , that it is the argument God himselfe uses against lame , maimed , and imperfect sacrifices , Goe and offer this to thy Prince , See if he will accept it : Implying , that the best person is to have the best present ; and what the Prince will slight as truely unworthy of him , much more is it unfit for God . For God accepts not of any thing we give or doe , as if he were betterd by it : for therefore its estimate is not taken by its relation or naturall complacency to him , it is all alike to him , for in it selfe it is to him as nothing . But God accepts it by its proportion and commensuration to us . That which we call our best , and is truly so in humane estimate , that pleases God , for it declares that if we had better , we would give it him . But to reserve the best , sayes too plainly , that we think anything is good enough for him . As therefore God in the Law would not be served by that which was imperfect in genere naturae : so neither now nor ever will that please him which is imperfect in genere morum , or materiâ intellectuali , when we can give a better . Well then , in the nature of the thing , ex tempore forms have much the worse of it . But it is pretended that there is such a thing as the gift of Prayer , a praying with the Spirit , Et nescit tarda m●limina spiritus sancti gratia . Gods Spirit ( if he pleases ) can doe his work as well in an instant , as in long premeditation . And to this purpose are pretended those places of Scripture which speak of the assistance of Gods Spirit in our prayers . Zeth . 12. 10. And I will poure upon the house of David , and the inhabitants of Ierusalem , the spirit of grace and supplication . But especially Rom. 8. 2● . Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities , for we know not what we should pray for as we ought , but the Spirit it selfe maketh intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered , &c. From whence the Conclusion that is inferred is in the words of Saint Paul , That we must pray with the spirit , therefore not with set formes , therefore ex tempore . The Collection is somewhat wild , for there is great independence in the severall parts , and much more is in the Conclusion , then was virtually in the premises . But such as it is , the Authors of it I suppose will owne it . And therefore we will examine the maine designe of it , and then consider the particular meanes of its perswasion , quoted in the objection . It is one of the priviledges of the Gospel , and the benefit of Christs ascension , that the holy Ghost is given unto the Church , and to become to us the fountaine of gifts and graces . But these gifts and graces are improvements and helps of our naturall faculties , of our art and industry , not extraordinary , miraculous , and immediate infusions of habits and gifts . That without Gods Spirit we cannot pray aright ; that our infirmities need his help ; that we know not what to aske of our selves , is most true : and if ever any Heretique was more confident of his owne naturals , or did ever more undervalue Gods grace then ever the Pelagian did , yet he denyes not this . But what then ? Therefore without study , without art , without premeditation , without learning , the spirit gives the gift of prayer , and it is his grace that without any naturall or artificiall help makes us pray extempore ? No such thing : The Objection proves nothing of this . Here therefore we will joyn issue , whether the gifts and helps of the Spirit , be immediate infusions of the Faculties , and powers , and perfect abilityes : Or that he doth assist us onely by his aydes externall and internall , in the use of such meanes which God and nature hath given to man , to ennoble his soule , better his Faculties , and to improve his understanding ? That the aydes of the holy Ghost are onely assistances to us in the use of naturall and artificiall meanes I will undertake to prove , and from thence it will evidently follow , that labour , and hard study , and premeditation will soonest purchase the gift of prayer , and ascertain us of the assistance of the spirit , and therefore set formes of prayer , studyed and considerd of are in a true and proper sense , and without enthusiasme , the fruits of the spirit . 1. Gods Spirit did assist the Apostles by wayes● extraordinary , and fit for the first institution of Christianity : but doth assist us now by the expresses of those first assistances which he gave to them immediately . So that the holy Ghost is the author of our faith , and we beleeve with the spirit ( it is Saint Pauls expression ) and yet our beliefe comes by hearing and reading the holy Scriptures and their interpretations . Now reconcile these two together , Faith comes by hearing , and yet is the gift of the Spirit , and it sayes , that the gifts of the Spirit are not extasies , and immediate infusions of habits , but helps from God to enable us upon the use of the meanes of his owne appointment to beleeve , to speak , to understand , to prophecy , and to pray . 2. And that these are for this reason called gifts , and graces , and issues of the Spirit , is so evident and notorious , that the speaking of an ordinary revealed truth , is called in Scripture a speaking by the Spirit , 1 Cor. 12. 8. No man can say that Iesus is the Lord , but by the holy Ghost . For if the holy Ghost supplyes us with materials , and fundamentals for our building , it is then enough to denominate the whole edifice to be of him , although the labour and the workmanship be ours , upon another stock . And this is it which the Apostle speakes , 1 Cor. 2. 13. Which things also we speak , not in the words which mans wisdome teacheth , but which the holy Ghost teacheth , comparing spirituall things with spirituall . The holy Ghost teaches , yet it is upon our cooperation , our study and endeavour , while we compare spirituall things with spirituall ; the holy Ghost is said to teach us , because these spirituals were of his suggestion and revelation . 3. For it is a rule of the Schoole , and there is much reason in it . Habitus infusi infunduntur per modum acquisitorum , whatsoever is infused into us , is in the same manner infused as other things are acquired , that is , step by step , by humane means and cooperation , and grace does not give us new faculties , and create another nature , but meliorates and improves our owne . And what S. Paul said in the Resurrection , is also true in this Question , That is not first which is spirituall , but that which is naturall , and then that which is spirituall . The graces and gifts of the Spirit are postnate , and are additions to art and nature . God directs our councels , opens our understandings , regulates our will , orders our affections , supplyes us with objects , and arguments , and opportunities , & revelations in scriptis , and then most when we most imploy our owne endeavours , God loving to blesse all the means , and instruments of his service , whether they be naturall or acquisite . But whosoever shall looke for any other gifts of the spirit besides the parts of nature helped by industry and Gods blessing upon it , and the revelations or the supplyes of matter in holy Scripture , will be very farre to seeke , having neither reason , promise , nor experience of his side . For why should the spirit of Prayer be any other than as the gift and spirit of faith ( as S. Paul calls it , 2. Cor. 4. 13. ) acquired by humane meanes using divine aids ? that is , by our endeavours in hearing , reading , Catechizing , desires to obey , and all this blessed and promoted by God , this produces faith . And if the spirit of Prayer be of greater consequence , and hath a promise of a speciall prerogative , let the first be proved and the second but shewne in any good record , and then I will beleeve it too . 4. And the parallel of this argument I the rather urge , because I find praying in the holy Ghost joyned with graces , which are as much Gods gifts and productions of the spirit as any thing in the world , and yet which the Apostle presses upon us as duties and things put into our power , and to be improved by our industry , and those are faith ( in which I before instanced ) and charity . Epist. Iud. ver. 20. But ye ( beloved ) building up your selves in your most holy Faith , praying in the holy Ghost , keep your selves in the love of God . All of the same consideration , Faith , and Prayer , and Charity , all gifts of the Spirit , and yet build up your selves in faith , and keep your selves in love , and therefore by a parity of reason , improve your selves in the spirit of prayer , that is , God by his spirit having supplyed us with matter , let our industry and co-operations per modum naturae , improve these gifts , and build upon this foundation . So that in effect praying in the holy Ghost or with the spirit is nothing but prayer for such things and in such manner which God by his spirit hath taught us in holy Scripture . Holy Prayers , Spirituall songs , so the Apostle calls one part of prayer , viz. Eucharisticall or thanksgiving , that is , prayers or songs which are spirituall in materiâ . And if they be called spirituall for the efficient cause too , the holy Ghost being the author of them , it comes all to one , for therefore he is the cause and giver of them , because he hath in his word revealed , what things we are to pray for , and there also hath taught us the manner . And this is exactly the Doctrine I plainly gather from the objected words of Saint Paul , ( The spirit helpeth our infirmities ) How so ? it followes immediately , For we know not what we should pray for as we ought : So that therefore he is the spirit of supplication and prayer , because he teaches us what to ask , and how to pray , so he helps our infirmities , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , it is in the Greek Collaborantem adjuvat . It is an ingeminate expression of helping us in our labours together with him . Now he that shall say this is not sufficiently done by Gods spirit in scripture by Prayers , and Psalmes , and Hymnes , and spirituall songs , and precepts concerning prayer , set downe in that holy repository of truth and devotion , undervalues that inestimable treasure of the spirit ; and if it be sufficiently done there , he that will multiply his hopes farther , then what is sufficient , may possibly deceive himselfe , but never deceive God , and make him multiply and continue miracles , to justifie his fancy . 5. Better it is to follow the Scriptures for our guide , as in all things else , so in this particular . Ephes. 6. 17 , 18. Take the sword of the Spirit , which is the Word of God . Praying alwayes with all prayer and supplication in the spirit . The Word of God is the sword of the Spirit ; praying in the Spirit is one way of using it , indeed the onely way that he here specifies . Praying in the Spirit then being the using of this Sword , and this Sword being the Word of God , it followes evidently , that praying in the Spirit , is praying in , or according to the Word of God , that is , in the direrections , rules , and expresses of the Word of God , that is , of the holy Scriptures . The summe is this . Whatsoever this gift is , or this spirit of Prayer , it is to be acquired by humane industry , by learning of the Scriptures , by reading , by conference , and by whatsoever else faculties are improved , and habits inlarged . Gods Spirit hath done his work sufficiently this way , and he loves not either in nature or grace ( which are his two great sanctions ) to multiply miracles when there is no need . 6. So that now I demand , Whether or no , since the expiration of the age of miracles , does not Gods Spirit most assist us , when we most endeavour and most use the meanes ? He that sayes , No , discourages all men from reading the Scriptures , from industry , from meditation , from conference , from humane Arts and Sciences , and from whatsoever else God and good Lawes provoke us to by proposition of rewards : But if , Yea , ( as most certainly God will best crown the best endeavours ) then the spirit of Prayer is greatest in him , who ( supposing the like capacities and opportunities ) studies hardest , reades most , practices most religiously , deliberates most prudently ; and then by how much want of means , is worse then the use of means , by so much ex tempore Prayers are worse then deliberate and studyed . Excellent therefore is the counsell of S. Peter , 1 Ep. Chap. 4. ver. 11. If any man speak , let him speak as the Oracles of God , ( not lightly then and inconsiderately ) If any man minister , let him doe it as of the ability which God giveth : ( great reason then to put all his abilities and faculties to it ) and whether of the two does most likely doe that , he that takes paines , and considers , and discusses , and so approves and practices a forme , or he that never considers what he sayes , till he sayes it , needs not much deliberation to passe a sentence . 7. Lastly , did not the Penmen of the Scripture , write the Epistles and Gospels respectively all by the Spirit ? Most certainly , holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the holy Ghost , saith Saint Peter . And certainly they were moved by a more immediate motion , and a motion neerer to an Enthusiasme , then now adayes in the gift and spirit of Prayer . And yet in the midst of those great assistances and motions they did use study , art , industry , and humane abilities . This is more then probable in the different styles of the severall Books , some being of admirable art , others lower and plaine . The words were their own at least sometimes , not the holy Ghosts . And if the Fathers and Grammarians were not deceived by ●alse Copies , but that they truely did observe , sometimes to be propriety of expression in the language , sometimes not true Greeke , who will think those errors or imperfections in Grammar , were ( in respect of the words I say precisely ) immediate inspirations and dictates of the holy Ghost , and not rather their own productions of industry and humanity . But cleerly some of their words were the words of Aratus , some of Epimenides , some of Menander , some of S. Paul , [ This speak I , not the Lord , 1 Cor. 7. ] and yet because the holy Ghost renewed their memory , improved their understanding , supplyed to some their want of humane learning , and so assisted them that they should not commit an error in fact or opinion , neither in the narrative nor dogmaticall parts , therefore they writ by the Spirit . Since then we cannot pretend upon any grounds of probability to an inspiration so immediate as theirs , and yet their assistances which they had from the Spirit did not exclude humane arts , and industry , but that the ablest Scholler did write the best , much rather is this true in the gifts and assistances we receive , and particularly in the gift of Prayer , it is not an ex tempore and an inspired faculty , but the faculties of nature and the abilities of art and industry are improved and ennobled by the supervening assistances of the Spirit . And now let us take a man that pretends he hath the gift of Prayer , and loves to pray ex tempore , I suppose his thoughts goe a little before his tongue ; I demand then , Whether cannot this man , when it is once come into his head , hold his tongue , and write downe what he hath conceived ? If his first conceptions were of God , and Gods Spirit , then they are so still , even when they are written . Or is the Spirit departed from him , upon the sight of a pen and Ink-horne ? It did use to be otherwise among the old and new Prophets , whether they were Prophets of Prediction , or of ordinary Ministery . But if his conception may be writt●n , and being writt●n is still a production of the Spirit , then it followes that set forms of Prayer deliberate and described , may as well be a praying with the Spirit , as sudden formes and ex tempore out-lets . Now the case being thus put , I would faine know what the difference is betweene deliberate and ex tempore Prayers , save onely that in these there is lesse consideration and prudence ; for that the other are ( at least as much as them ) the productions of the Spirit , is evident in the very case put in this very argument : and whether to consider and to weigh them , be any disadvantage to our devotions , I leave it to all wise men to determine . So that in effect , since after the pretended assistance of the Spirit in our Prayers , we may write them downe , consider them , try the spirits , and ponder the manner , the reason and the religion of the addresse , let the world judge whether this sudden utterance and ex tempore forms be any thing else , but a direct resolution not to consider before-hand what we speak . But let us look a little further into the mysterie , and see what is meant in Scripture by praying with the spirit . In what sense the holy Ghost is called the spirit of prayer , I have already shewne , viz. by the same reason , as he is the spirit of faith , of prudence , of knowledge , of understanding , and the like . But praying with the spirit hath besides this other senses also in Scripture . I find in one place , that then we pray with the Spirit , when the holy Ghost does actually excite us to desires and earnest tendencies to the obtaining our holy purposes , when he gives us zeale and devotion , charity and fervour , spirituall violence and holy importunity . This sense is also in the latter part of the objected words of Saint Paul , Rom. 8. The spirit it selfe maketh intercession for us with groanings , &c. Indeed this is truly a praying in the spirit , but this will doe our reverend Brethren of the Assembly little advantage as to the present Question . For this spirit is not a spirit of utterance ; not at all clamorous in the eares of the people , but cryes loud in the eares of God with [ gr●anes unutterable , ] so it followes , and onely [ He that searcheth the heart , he understandeth the meaning of the spirit . ] This is the spirit of the Sonne , which God hath sen● into our hearts , ( not into our tongues ) whereby we cry , Abba , Father , Gal. 4. 6. And this is the great {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} for mentall Prayer , which is properly and truly praying by the Spirit . Another praying with the Spirit , I find in that place of Saint Paul , from whence this expression is taken , and commonly used , I will pray with the spirit , and I will pray with the understanding also . Here they are opposed , or at least declared to be things severall and disparate : where by the way observe , that praying with the spirit , even in sense of Scripture , is not alwayes most to edification of the people . Not alwayes with understanding . And when these two are separated , S. Paul prefers five words with understanding , before ten thousand in the spirit . For this praying with the spirit was indeed then a gift extraordinary and miraculous , like as prophecying with the spirit , and expired with it . But while it did last , it was the lowest of gifts , Inter dona linguarum , it was but a gift of the tongue , and not to be the benefit of the Church rectly or immediately . By the way onely . If Saint Paul did so undervalue the praying with the Spirit , that he preferred edifying the Church a thousand degrees beyond it . I suppose he would have beene of the sam● mind , if this Question had beene between praying with the Spirit and obeying our superiors , as he was when it was between praying with the Spirit and edification of the Church , because ( it I be not mistaken ) it is matter of great concernment towards the edication of the Church to obey our superiours , not to innovate in publick formes of worsh●p , especially with the scandall and offence of very wise and learned men , and to the disgrace of the dead Martyrs , who sealed our Liturgy with their blood . But to return . In this place praying with the Spirit , is no more than my spirit praying . For so S. Paul joynes them as terms identicall , and expressive one of anothers meaning , as you may please to read ver. 14. and 15. 1 Cor. 14. I will pray with the Spirit , and my Spirit truly prayeth . It is the act of our inner man , praying holy and spirituall Prayers . But then indeed at that time there was somthing extraordianary joyned , for it was in an unknowne tongue , the practice of which Saint Paul there dislikes . This also will be to none of their purposes . For whether it were Extempore , or by premeditation , is not here expressed , or if it had , yet that assistance extraordinary in prayer , if there was any beside the gift of tongues ( which I much doubt ) is no more transmitted to us , then the speaking tongues in the spirit , or prophecying Extempore and by the spirit . But I would adde also one experiment which S. Paul also there addes by way of instance . If praying with the spirit in this place be praying ex tempore , then so is singing too . For they are expressed in the same place , in the same manner , to the same end , and I know no reason why these should be differing senses put upon them to ●erve p●rposes . And now l●t us have some Church-musicke too , though the Organs be pulled down , and let any the ●est P●alm●st of them all , compose a hymne in ●etricall forme , and sing it to a new tune with perfect and true musick , and all this extempore . For all this the holy Ghost can doe if he pleases . But if it be said that the Cor●nthian Christians composed their songs and hymnes according to art and rules of musick , by study and industry , and that to this they were assisted by the Spirit ; and that this together with the devotion of their spirit , was singing with the spirit , then say I , so composing set forms of Liturgy by skil and prudence , and humane industry , may be as much praying with the spirit as the other is singing with the spirit . Plainely enough . In all the senses of praying with the spirit , and in all its acceptations in Scripture , to pray or sing with the spirit , neither of them of necessity implyes extempore . The summe or Collecta of the premises is this , Praying with the spirit , is either when the spirit stirres up our desires to pray , Per motionem actualis auxilii , or when the spirit teaches us what , or how to pray , telling us the matter , and manner of our prayers . Or lastly , dictating the very words of our prayers . There is no other way in the world to pray with the spirit , or in the holy Ghost , that is pertinent to this Question . And of this last manner the Scripture determines nothing , nor speakes any thing expressely of it , and yet suppose it had , we are certaine the holy Ghost hath supplyed us with all these , and yet in set formes of prayer best of all , I meane there where a difference can be . For as for the desires , and actuall motions or incitements to pray , they are indifferent to one or the other , to set formes or to extempore , a. But as to the matter and manner of prayer , it is cleerly contained in the expresses , and set formes of Scriptures , and it is supplyed to us by the spirit , for he is the great D●ctator of it . Now th●n for the very words . No man can assure me that the words of his ex tempore prayer are the words of the holy Spirit : it is not ●eason nor modesty to expect such immediate assistances to so little purpose , he having supplyed us with abilities more then enough to expresse our desires aliunde , otherwise then by immediate dictate . But if we will take Davids Psalter , or the other hymnes of holy Scripture , or any of the Prayers which are respersed over the Bible , we are sure enough that they are the words of Gods Spirit , mediately or immediately , by way of infusion or extasie , by vision , or at least by ordinary assistance . And now then , what greater confidence can any man have for the excellency of his Prayer , and the probability of their being accepted , then when he prayes his Psalter , or the Lords prayer , or another office which he finds consigned in Scripture ? When Gods Spirit stirs us up to an actuall devotion , and then we use the matter he hath described and taught , and the very words which Christ , and Christs Spirit , and the Apostles , and other persons full of the holy Ghost did use ; if in the world there be any praying with the Spirit , ( I meane in vocall prayer ) this is it . And thus I have examined the intire and full scope of this Question , and ri●●ed their Objection . Now I sh●ll proceed to some few arguments which are more extrinsecall to the nature of the thing . It is a practice prevailing among those of our Brethren that are zealous for ex tempore prayers , to pray their Sermons over , to reduce their doctrine into Devotion and Lyturgie . I mislike it not for the thing it ●el●e , if it were done regularly for the manner , and the matter were alwayes pious and true . But who shall assure me when the preacher hath disputed , or rather dogmatically decreed a point of predestination , or of prescience , of contingency , or of liberty , or any of the most mysterious parts of Divinity , and then prayes his Sermon over , that he then prayes with the Spirit ? Unlesse I be sure that he also preached with the Spirit , I cannot be sure that he prayes with the spirit , for all he prayes extempore . Nay if I heare a Protestant preach in the morning , and an Anabaptist in the afternoone , to day a Presbyterian , to morrow an Independant , am I most sure that when they have preached Contradictoryes , and all of them pray their Sermons over , that they doe not all pray with the spirit ? More then one in this case cannot pray with the spirit , possibly all may pray against him . 2. From whence I thus argue in behalfe of set formes of prayer . That in the case above put , how shall I or any man else say Amen to their prayers that preach and pray contradictoryes ? At least I am much hindred in my devotion . For besides that , it derives our opinions into our devotions , makes every schoole point , become our religion , and makes God a party , ( so farre as we can ) intitling him to our impertinent wranglings . Besides this , I say , while we should attend to our addresses towards God , we are to consider whether the point be true or no , and by that time we have ●acitly discoursed it , we are upon another point which also perhaps is as Questionable as the former , and by this time our spirit of devotion , is a little discomposed and something out of countenance , there is so much other imployment for the spirit , the spirit of discerning and judging . All which inconveniences are avoyded in set formes of Liturgy . For we know before hand the conditions of our Communion , and to what we are to say Amen , to which if we like it we may repayre ; if not , there is no harm done , your devotion shall not be surprized , nor your Communion invaded , as it may be and often is in your extempore prayers . And this things hath another collaterall inconvenience , which is of great consideration , for upon what confidence can we sollicite any Recusants to come to our Church , where we cannot promise them that the devotions there to be used , shall be innocent , nor can we put him into a condition to judge for himselfe ? If he will venture he may , but we can use no argument to make him choose our Churches , though he should quit his owne . 3. But againe , let us consider with sobriety . Are not those prayers and hymnes in holy Scripture , excellent compositions , admirable instruments of devotion , full of piety , rare and incomparable addresses to God ? Dare any man with his gift of Prayer pretend , that he can ex●tempore or by study make better ? Who dares pretend that he hath a better spirit then David had , or then the Apostles and Prophets , and other holy persons in Scripture , whose Prayers and Psalmes are by Gods Spirit consigned to the use of the Church for ever ? Or will it be denyed but that they also are excellent directories and patterns for prayer ? And if patternes , the neerer we draw to our example , are not the imitations and representments the better ? And what then if we took the samplers themselves , is there any imperfection in them , and can we mend them and correct Magnificat ? In a just proportion and commensuration , I argue so concerning the primitive and ancient formes of Church service , which are composed according to those so excellent patternes , which if they had remained pure as in their first institution , or had alwayes beene as they have beene reformed by the Church of England , they would against all defiance put in for the next place to those formes of Liturgy which Mutatis mutandis are nothing but the words of Scripture . But I am resolved at this present not to enter into Question concerning the matter of prayers . But for the forme this I say further . 4. That the Church of God hath the promise of the spirit made to her in generall , to her in her Catholicke and united capacity , to the whole Church first , then to particular Churches , then in the lowest seate of the Category to single persons . Now then I infer , if any single persons will have us to beleeve without all possibility of proofe ( for so it must be ) that they pray with the Spirit , ( for how shal they be able to prove the spirit actually to ab●de in those single persons ) then much rather must we beleeve it of the Church , which by how much the more generall it is , so much the more of the spirit she is likely to have : and then if there be no errors in the matter , the Church hath the advantage and probability on her side , and if there be an error in matter in either of them , they faile of their pretences , neither of them have the spirit . But the publick spirit in all reason is to be trusted before the private , when there is a contestation , the Church being Prior & potior in promissis , she hath a greater and prior title to the spirit . And why the Church hath not the spirit of prayer in her compositions as well as any of her children , I desire once for all to be satisfied upon true grounds either of reason or revelation . 5. Or if the Church shall be admitted to have the gi●t , and the spirit of prayer given unto her by virtue of the great promise of the spirit , to abide with her for ever , yet for all this she is taught to pray in a set forme of prayer , and yet by the spirit too . For what thinke we ? When Christ taught us to pray in that incomparable modell , the Lords Prayer , if we pray that prayer devoutly , and with pious and actuall intention , doe we not pray in the Spirit of Christ , as much as if we prayed any other forme of words pretended to be taught us by the spirit ? We are sure that Christ and Christs Spirit taught us this Prayer , they onely gather by conjectures and opinions , that in their extempore formes the spirit of Christ teaches them . So much then as certainties are better then uncertainties , and God above man , so much is this set forme ( besides the infinite advantages in the matter ) better than their extempore formes in the forme it selfe . 6. If I should descend to minates and particulars , I could instance in the behalfe of set forms , that God prescribed to Moses a set form of prayer and benediction to be used when he did blesse the people . 7. That Moses composed a song or hymne for the children of Israel to use to all their generations . 8. That David composed many for the service of the tabernacle . 9. That Solomon and the holy Kings of Iudah brought them in and con●inued them in the ministration of the temple . 10. That all Scripture is written for our learning , & since all these and many more set forms of prayer left there upon record , it is more then probable that they were left there for our use and devotion . 11. That S. Iohn Baptist taught his Diciples a forme of prayer . 12. And that Christs Disciples begged the same favour , and it was granted as they desired it . 13. And that Christ gave it not onely inmassâ materiae , but in forma verborum ; not in a confused heap of matter , but in an exact composure of words , it makes it evident , he intended it not onely proregula petendorum , for a direction of what things we are to aske , but also proforma orationis , for a set forme of Prayer , In which also I am most certainly confirmed ( besides the universall testimony of Gods Church so attesting it ) in the precept which Christ added , When ye pray , pray after this manner : and indeed it points not the matter onely of our prayers , but the forme of it , the manner and the matter of the addresse both . But in the repetition of it by Saint Luke , the preceptive words seem to limit us , and direct us to this very forme of words , When ye pray , say , Our Father , &c. 14. I could also adde the example of all the Jewes , and by consequence of our blessed Saviour , who sung a great part of Davids Psalter in their Feast of Passeover , which part is called by the Jewes the great Hallelu-jah , it begins at the 113. Psalme , and ends at the 118. inclusively . And the Scripture mentions it as part of our blessed Saviours devotion , and of his Disciples , that they sung a Psalme . 15. That this afterward became a Precept Evangelical , that we should praise God in Hymnes , Psalmes , and spirituall songs , which is a forme of Lyturgie , in which we sing with the spirit , but yet cannot make our Hymnes ex tempore , ( it would be wild ●tuffe if we should goe about it . ) 16. And lastly , that a set-forme of worship and addresse to God was recorded by Saint Iohn , and sung in heaven , and it was composed out of the songs of Moses , ( Exod. 15. ) of David , ( Psal. 145. ) and of Ieremy , ( Chap. 10. 6 , 7. ) which certainly is a very good precedent for us to imitate , although but revealed to Saint Iohn by way of vision and extasie . All which and many more are to me●as so many arguments of the use , excellency , and necessity of set-formes of Prayer for publike Lyturgies , as and of greatest conveniencies , even for private devotions . 17. And so the Church of God in all Ages did understand it . I shall not multiply authorities to this purpose , for they are too many and various , but shall onely observe two great instances of their beliefe and practice in this particular . 1. The one is the perpetuall use and great Eulogies of the Lords Prayer , assisted by the many Commentaries of the Fathers upon it . 2. The other is that solemne forme of benediction and mysticall prayer ( as Saint Augustine calls it , Lib. 3. de Trinit. c. 4. ) which all Churches ( and themselves said it was by Ordinance Apostolicall ) used in the Consecration of the blessed Sacrament . But all of them used the Lords Prayer in the Canon , and office of Consecration , and other prayers taken from Scripture , ( so Iustin Martyr testifies , that the Consecration is made per preces verbi Dei , by the prayers taken from the Word of God ) and the whole Canon was short determined and mysterious . Who desires to be further satisfied in this particular , shal find enough in Walafridus Strabo , Aymonius , Cassander , Flacius Illyricus , Iosephus Vicecomes , and the other Ritualists , and in the old offices themselves . So that I need not put you in mind of that famous doxologie of the Gloria Patri , &c. nor the Trisagion , nor any of those memorable hymnes used in the ancient Church , so knownly and frequently , that the beginning of them came to be their name , and they were knowne more by their owne words , then the Authors inscription . At last when some men that thought themselves better gifted would be venturing at conceived formes of their owne , there was a timely restraint made in the Councell of Milevis in Africa , Placuit ut preces quae proba●ae fuerint in Co●cili● ab omnibus celebrentur , nec aliae omnino dican●ur in Ecclesia , nisi quae à prudentioribus fa●tae fuerint in Synodo . That 's the restraint and prohibition , publike prayers must be such as are publikely appointed , and prescribed by our superiours ; and no private forms of our conceiving must be used in the Church . The reason followes , Ne forte aliquid contra ●idem , vel per ign●rantia● , vel per minus studium ●it compositum : Lest through ignorance or want of deliberation any thing be spoken in our prayers against faith [ and good manners . ] The reason is good , and they are eare-witnesses o● it that heare the variety of prayers before and after Sermons , there , where the Directory is practiced , where ( to speak most modestly ) not onely their private opinions , but also humane interests , and their owne personall concernments , and wild fancies , borne perhaps not two daies before , are made the objects of the peoples hopes , of their desires , and their prayers , and all in the meane time pretend to the holy Spirit . I will not now instance in the vaine-glory that is appendant to these ex tempore formes of prayer , where the gift of the man is more then the devotion of the man : nor will I consider that then his gift is best , when his prayer is longest : and if he take a compl●cency in his gift ( as who is not apt to doe it ? ) he will be sure to extend his prayer , till a suspicious and scrupulous man would be apt to say , his prayer pressed hard upon that which our blessed Saviour reprehended in the Pharisees , who thought to be heard for their much babling . But these things are accidentall to the nature of the thing . And therefore though they are too certainly consequent to the person , yet I will not be too severe , but preserve my selfe on the surer side of charitable construction , which truly I desire to keep , not onely to their persons whom I much reverence , but also to their actions . But yet I durst not doe the same thing , even for these last reasons , though I had no other . But it is objected , that in set formes of Prayer , we restraine and confine the blessed Spirit ; and in conceived formes , when every man is left to his liberty , then the Spirit is free , unlimited and unconstrained . I answer , either their conceived formes ( I use their owne words , though indeed the expression is very inartificiall ) are premeditate and described , or they are ex tempore . If they be premeditate and described , then the Spirit is as much limited in their conceived formes , as in the Churches conceived forms . For as to this particular , it is all one who describes and limits the forme , whether the Church , or a single man does it , still the Spirit is in constraint and limit . So that in this case they are not angry at set formes of Prayer , but that they doe not make them . And if it be replyed , that if a single person composes a set forme , he may alter it if he please , and so his spirit is at liberty . I answer , so may the Church , if she see cause for it : and unlesse there be cause , the single person will not alter it , unlesse he doe things unreasonable , and without cause . So that it will be an unequall and a peevish quarrell to allow of set formes of prayer made by private persons , and not of set formes made by the publike spirit of the Church . It is evident , that the Spirit is limited in both alike . But if by [ Conceived formes ] in this objection they meane ex tempore prayers ( for so they most generally practice it ) and that in the use of these the liberty of the spirit is best preserved . To this I answer , that the being ex tempore or premedita●e will be wholly impertinent to this Question of limiting the spirit . For there may be great liberty in set formes , even when there is much variety ; and there may be great restraint in ex tempore prayers , even then when it shall be called unlawfull to use set formes . That the spirit is restrained , or that it is free in either , is accidentall to them both ; for it may be either free or not free in both as it may happen . But the restraint is this , that every one is not left to his liberty to pray how he list , ( with premeditation or without , it makes not much matter ) but that he is prescribed unto by the spirit of another . But if it be a fault thus to restraine the spirit , I would faine know , is not the spirit ●estrained when the whole Congregation shall be confined to the forme of this one mans composing ? or it shall be unlawfull , or at least a disgrace and disparagement to use any set formes , especially of the Churches composition . More plainly thus . 2. Doth not the Minister confine and restraine the spirit of the Lords People , when they are tyed to his forme ? It would sound of more liberty to their spirits , that every one might make a prayer of his owne , and all pray together ; and not be forced or confined to the Ministers single dictate , and private spirit . It is true , it would breed confusions , and therefore they might pray silently till the Sermon began , and not for the avoiding one inconvenience runne into a greater , and to avoid the disorder of a popular noyse restraine the blessed Spirit , for even in this case as wel as in the other , Where the spirit of God is , there must be liberty . 3. If the spirit must be at liberty , who shall assure us this liberty must be in formes of prayer ? And if so , whether also it must be in publike prayer , and will it not suffice that it be in private ? And if in publike prayers , is not the liberty of the spirit , sufficiently preserved in that the publicke spirit is free ? That is , the Church hath power upon occasion to alter and increase her Letanyes . By what argument shall any man make it so much as probable , that the holy Ghost is injured , if every private Ministers private spirit shall be guided ( and therefore by necessary consequence limited ) by the authority of the Churches publick spirit . 4. Does not the Directory that thing which is here called restraining of the spirit ? Does it not appoint every thing but the words ? And after this is it not a goodly Palladium that is contended for , and a prin●ely liberty that they leave unto the Spirit , to be free onely in the supplying the place of a Vocabulary and a Copia V●rborum ? For as for the matter , it is all there described and appointed , and to those determined senses the spirit must assist or not at all , onely for the words he shall take his choyce . Now I desire it may be considered sadly and seriously : Is it not as much injury to the spirit to restraine his mat●er , as to appoint his words ? Which is the more considerable of the two , sense or Language , Matter or Words ? I meane when they are taken singly and separately . For so they may very well be ( for as if men prescribe the matter onely , the spirit may cover it with severall words and expressions , so if the spirit prescribe the words , I may sti●l abound in variety of sense , and preserve the liberty of my meaning ; we see that true in the various interpretations of the same words of Scripture . ) So that in the greater of the two , the Spirit is restrained when his matter is appointed , and to make him amends for not trusting him with the matter without our directions and limitations , we trust him to say what he pleases , so it be to our sense , to our purposes . A goodly compensation surely ! 5. Did not Christ restraine the spirit of his Apostles , when he taught them to pray the Lords Prayer , whether his precept to his D●sciples concerning it , was Pray this , or Pray thus , Pray these words , or Pray after this manner ? or though it had been lesse then either , and been onely a Directory for the matter , still it is a thing which our Brethren in all other cases of the same nature are resolved perpetually to call a restraint ; Certainly then this pretended restraint , is not such formidable thing . These men themselves doe it by directing all the matter , and much of the manner , and Christ himselfe did it , by prescribing both the matter , and the words too . 6. These restraints ( as they are called ) or determinations of the Spirit , are made by the Spirit himselfe . For I demand , when any Assembly of Divines appoint the matter of Prayers to all particular Ministers as this hath do●e , is that appointment by the Spirit or no ? If no , then for ought appeares , this Directory not being made by Gods Spirit , may be an enemy to it . But if this appointment be by the Spirit , then the determination and limitation of the Spirit , is by the Spirit himselfe , and such indeed is every pious and prudent constitution of the Church in matters spirituall : Such as was that of S. Paul to the Corinthians , when he prescribed orders for publique proph●cying , and interpretation , and speaking with tongues . The spirit of some he so restr●ined , that he bound them to hold their peace , he permitted but two or three to speak at one meeting , the rest were to keep silence , though possibly six or seven might at that time have the Spirit . 7. Is it not a restraint of the Spirit to sing a Psalme in meeter by appointment ? Cleerly as much as appointing formes of Prayer or Eucharist . And yet that we see done daily , and no scruple made . Is not this to be partiall in judgement , and inconsiderate of what wee doe ? 8. And now after all this strife , what harme is there in restraining the spirit in the present sense ? What prohibition , what law , what reason or revelation is against it ? What inconvenience in the nature of the thing ? For can any man be so weak as to imagine a despite is done to the spirit of grace , when those gifts to his Church are used regularly and by order ? As if prudence were no gift of Gods spirit , as if helpes in government , and the ordering spirituall matters were none of those graces which Christ when he ascended up on high gave unto Men . But this whole matter is wholly a stranger to reason , and never seen in Scripture . For Divinity never knew any other vi●ious restraining of the Spirit , but either suppressing those holy incitements to virtue and good life , which Gods Spirit ministers to us externally or internally , or else a forbidding by publike authority the Ministers of the word and Sacraments , to speake such ●ruths as God hath commended , and so taking away the liberty of prophecying . The first is directly vitious In materia speciale , the second is ●yrannicall and Antichristia● . And to it persecution of true religion is to be reduced . But as for this pretended limiting or r●straining the spirit , viz. by appointing a regular forme of prayer , it is so very a C●imera , that it hath no footing or foundation upon any ground where a wise man may build his confidence . 9. But lastly , how if the spirit must be restrained , and that by precept Apostolica●l ? That calls us to a new account . But if it be not t●ue , what meanes Saint Paul , by saying The spirits of the prophets must be subject to the Prophets ? What greater restraint then subjection ? if subjected , then they must be ruled , if ruled , then limited , prescribed unto , and as much under restraint as the spirits of the superiour Prophets shall judge convenient . I suppose by this time this objection will trouble us no more . But perhaps another will . For why are not the Ministers to be left as well to their liberty in making their Prayers as their Sermons ? I answer , the Church may it she will , but whether she doth well or no let her consider . This I am sure , there is not the same reason , and I feare the experience the world hath already had of it , will make demonstration enough of the inconvenience . But however the differences are many . 1. Our prayers offered up by the Minister , are in behalfe and in the name of the people , and therefore great reason they should know beforehand , what is to be presented , that if they like not the message , they may refuse to communicate , especia●ly since people are so divided in their opinions , in their hopes , and in their faiths : it being a duty to refuse Communion with those prayers which they thinke to have in them , the matter of sinne or doubting . Which reason on the other part ceases , for the Minister being to speak from God to the people , if he speakes what he ought not , God can right himsel●e , however is not partner of the sin , as in the other case , the people possibly may be . 2. It is more fit a liberty be left in preaching than praying , because the addresse of our discourses and exhortations are to be made according to the understanding and capacity of the audience , their prejudices are to be removed , all advantages to be taken , and they are to be surprized that way they lye most open [ But being crafty I caught you , saith Saint Paul to the Corinthians ] and discourses and arguments ad hominem , upon their particular principles and practices may more move them than the most polite and accurate that doe not comply and wind about their fancies and affections . S. Paul from the absurd practice of being baptized for the dead , made an excellent argument to convince the Corinthians of the Resurrection . But this reason also ceases in our prayers . For God understandeth what we say sure enough , he hath no prejudices to be removed , no infirmities to be wrought upon , and a fine figure of Rhetoricke , a pleasant cadence , and a curious expression move not him at all ; no other twinings and complyances stirre him , but charity , and humility , and zeale , and importunity , which all are things internall and spirituall . And therefore of necessity there is to be great variety of discourses to the people , and permissions accordingly , but not so to God , with whom a Deus miserere prevailes as soone as the great office of 40. houres not long since invented the Church of Rome , or any other prayers spun out to a length beyond the extension of the office of a Pharisee . 3. I feare it cannot stand with our reverence to God , to permit to every spirit a liberty of publike addresse to him in behalfe of the people . Indeed he that is not fit to pray , is not alwayes fit to preach ; but it is more safe to be bold with the people then with God , if the persons be not so ●it . In that there may be indiscretion , but there may be impiety and irreligion in this . The people may better excuse and pardon an indiscretion or a rudenesse ( if any such should happen ) then we may venture to offer it to God . 4. There is latitude of Theologie , much whereof is left to us , so without precise and cleere determination , that without breach either of faith or charity , men may differ in opinion ; and if they may not be permitted to abound in their owne sense , they will be apt to complain of tyrannie over consciences , and that men Lord it over their faith , In Prayer this thing is so different , that it is imprudent and full of inconvenience to derive such things into our prayers which may with good profit be matter of Sermons , Therefore here a liberty may well enough be granted , when there it may better be denyed . 5. But indeed if I may freely declare my opinion● I think it were not amisse if the liberty of making Sermons were somthing more restrained than it is , and that either such persons only were intrusted with the liberty for whom the Church her selfe may safely be responsall , that is , to men learned and pious , and that the other part , the Vulgus Cleri , should instruct the people out of the fountaines of the Church , and upon the publicke stock , till by so long exercise and discipline in the schooles of the Prophets , they may also be intrusted to minister of their owne un●o the people . This I am sure was the practice of the Primi●ive Church when preaching was as ably and religiously performed as now it is , But in this prescribe nothing . But truely I thinke the reverent . Divines of the Assemby are many of my mind in this particular , and that they observe a liberty indulged to some persons to preach , which I thinke they had rather should hold their peace , and yet thinke the Church better edified in your silence than , their Sermons . 6. But yet me thinks the argument objected , if it were turned with the edge the other way , would have more reason in it : and instead of arguing [ Why shall no● the same liberty be allowed in praying as in preaching ] it were better to substitute this . If they can pr●y with the spirit , why also do they not preach with the spirit ? & if praying with the spirit be praying extempore , why shall they not preach extempore too , or else confesse that they preach without the spirit , or that they have not the gift o● preaching ? For to say that the gift of prayer , is a gift ex tempore , but the gift of preaching is with study and deliberation , is to become vaine and impertinent . Quis enim discrevit ? Who hath made them of a different consideration ? I mean as to this particular , as to their efficient cause . Nor reason , nor revelation , nor God , nor man . To summe up all . If any man hath a mind to exercise his gift of Prayer , let him set himselfe to worke , & compose books of Devotion , ( we have great need of them in the Church of England , so apparent need , that the Papists have made it an objection against us ) and this his gift of Prayer will be to edification . But otherwise , I understand it is more fit for ostentation , then any spirituall advantage . For God heares us not the sooner for our ex tempore , long , or conceived prayers , possibly they may become a hindrance , as in the cases before i●stanced . And I am sure if the people be intelligent , and can discern they are hindred in their devotion , for they dare not say Amen till they have considered , and many such cases will occur in ex tempore prayers , that need much considering before we attest them . But if the people be not intelligent , they are apt to swallow all the inconveniencies which may multiply in so great a licence ; and therefore it were well that the Governors of the Church who are to answer for their soules , should judge for them , before they say Amen , which judgement cannot be without set formes of Lyturgie . My sentence therefore is , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , Let us be as we are already . Few changes are for the better . For if it be pretended , that in the Lyturgie of the Church of England , which was composed with much art and judgement by a Church that hath as much reason to be confident she hath the Spirit and gifts of Prayer , as any single person hath , and each learned man that was at its first composition , can as much prove , that he had the Spirit , as the objectors now adayes : ( and he that boasts most , certainly hath the least . ) If I say it be pretended , there are many errors and inconveniences both in the order and the matter of the Common . Prayer boo●e , made by such men , with so much industry : How much more , and wi●h how much greater reason may we all dread the inconveniencies and di●orders of ex tempore prayers ? where there is neither conjunction of heads , nor premeditation , nor industry , nor method , nor art , nor any of those things ( or at least not in the same degree ) which were likely to have exempted the Common-Prayer● booke from errors and disorders . If these things be in the greene tree , what will be done in the dry ? But if it be said , the ex tempore and conceived prayers will be secured from error by the Directory , because that chalkes them out the matter . I answer , it is not sufficient , because if when men study both the matter and the words too , they may be ( and it is pretended are actually ) much more may they when the matter is left much more at liberty , and the words under no restraint at all . And no man can avoid the pressure and the weight of this , unlesse the Compilers of the Directory were infallible , and that all their followers are so too , of the certainty of which I am not yet fully satisfied . And after all this I would faine know , what benefit & advantages shall the Church of England in her united capacity , and every particular in the diffused capacity received by this new device ? for the publike it is cleere , that whether the Ministers pray before they Study , or Study before they pray , there must needs be infinite difformity in the publicke worship , and all the benefits which were before the consequents of conformity and unity , will be lost , and if they be not valuable , I leave it to all them to consider , who know the inconveniences of publike disunion , and the publike disun●on that is certainly consequent to them who doe not communicate in any common formes of worship . And to think that the Directory will bring comformity , is as if one should say , that all who are under the same Hemisphere are joyned in Communi patriâ , ●nd will love like country-men , for under the Directory there will be as different religions , and as different desires , and as differing formes as there are severall varietyes of men and manners under the one half of heaven , who yet breath under the same half of the Globe . But I aske again , what benefit can the publicke receive by this forme , or this no forme , for I know not whether to call it . Shal the matter of prayers be better in all Churches ? Shall God be better served ? Shall the word of God and the best pat●ernes of prayers be alwayes exactly followed ? It is well if it be , but there is security given us by the Directory , for the matter is left at every mans dispose for all that , and we must depend upon the honesty of every particular for it ; and if any man proves a Heretick , or a Knave , then he may introduce what impiety he please , into the publick formes of Gods worship ; and there is no law made to prevent it , and it must be cured afterwards if it can ; but before-hand it is not prevented at all by the Directory , which trusts every man . But I observe , that all the benefit which is pretended , is , that it will make an able Ministery , which I confesse I am very much from beleeving , and so will every man be that considers what kind of men they are that have been most zealous for that way of conceived Prayer . I am sure that very few of the learnedst , very many ignorants , most those who have made least abode in the Scooles of the Prophets . And that I may di●grace no mans person , we see Tradesmen of the most illiberall arts , and women pretend to it , and doe it with as many words ( and that 's the maine thing ) with as much confidence , and speciousn●sse , and spirit , as the best among them . And it is but a small portion of learning that wil serve a man to make conceived formes of prayer , which they may have easily upon the stock of other men , or upon their owne fancy , or upon any thing in which no learning is required . He that knowes not this , knowes nothing of the craf● that may be in the Preachers trade . But what ? Is God b●tter served ? I would faine see any authority , or any reason , or any probability for that . I am sure ignorant men offer him none of the best sacrifices ex tempore , and learned men will be sure to deliberate , and know , God is then better served , when he is served by a publike , then when by a private spirit . I cannot imagine what accruements will hence come to the publike : It may be some advantages may be to the private interests of men . For there are a sort of men whom our blessed Saviour noted , who doe devoure widowes houses , and for a pretence make long prayers . They make prayers , and they make them long , by this meanes they receive double advantages , for they get reputation to their ability , and to their piety . And although the Common●Prayer-booke in the Preface to the Directory be charged with unnecessary length , yet we see that most of these men , they that are most eminent or would be so , make their prayers longer , and will not lose the benefits which their credit gets , and they by their credit , for making their prayers . Adde to this that there is no promise in Scripture , that he who prayes ex tempore shall be heard the better , or that he shall be assisted at all to such purposes , and therefore to innovate in so high a matter without a warrant to command us , or a promise to warrant us , is no better then vanity in the thing , and presumption in the person . Hee therefore that considers that this way of prayer is without all manner of precedent in the primitive Church , against the example of all famous Churches in all Christendom in the whole descent of 15. ages , without all Command and warrant of Scripture , that it is unreasonable in the nature of the thing● against prudence and the best wisdome of humanity , because it is without deliberation , that it is innovation in a high degree without that authority , which is truly & by inherent and ancient right , to command and prescribe to us in externall formes of worship , that it is much to the disgrace of the first reformers , of our religion , that it gives encouragement to the Papists , to quarrell with some reason and more pretence against our Reformation , as being by the Directory confessed to have beene done in much blindnesse , and therefore might erre in the excesse as well as in the defect , in the throwing out too much , as casting off too little , which is the more likely , because they wanted zeal to carry him farre enough . He that considers the universall difformity of publike worship , and the no means of union , no Symbol of publick communion being publickly consigned , that all heresies may with the same authority be brought into our prayers , and offered to God in behalf of the people , with the same authority that any truth may , all the matter of our prayers being left to the choice of all men , of all perswasions , and then observes that actually there are in many places , heresie , and blasphemy , and impertinency , & illiterate rudenesses put into the devotions of the most Solemne dayes , and the most publike meetings , and then lastly , that there are divers parts of Liturgie , for which no provisions at all is made in the Directory , and the very administration of the Sacraments left so loosely , that if there be any thing essentiall in the formes of Sacraments , the Sacrament may become ineffectuall by want of due words , and due ministartion . I say he that considers all these things ( and many more he may consider ) will finde that partticular men are not fit to be intrusted to offer in publike with their private spirit , to God , for the people , in such solemnities , in matters of so great concernment , where the honour of God , the benefit of the people , the interest of Kingdomes , the being of a Church , the unity of minds , the ●onformity of practice , the truth of perswasions , and the salvation of soules , are so very much concerned , as they● are in the publike prayers of a whole Nationall Church : An unlearned man is not to be trusted , and a wise man dare not trust himselfe ; he that is ignorant cannot , he that is knowing will not . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A67898e-160 Vid. Act. 19. 21 Act. 16. 7 , 8 , 9 , 10. Apoc. 15. 
A64144	----	Via intelligentiæ a sermom [sic] preached to the University of Dublin : shewing by what means the scholars shall become most learned and most usefull : published at their desire / by ... Jeremy, Lord Bishop of Downe, &c. ... Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. 1662 Approx. 94 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 36 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-12 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A64144 Wing T416 ESTC R23462 12068990 ocm 12068990 53464 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A64144) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 53464) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 582:7) Via intelligentiæ a sermom [sic] preached to the University of Dublin : shewing by what means the scholars shall become most learned and most usefull : published at their desire / by ... Jeremy, Lord Bishop of Downe, &c. ... Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. [6], 64 p. Printed for R. Royston ..., London : 1662. Includes bibliographical references. First edition. Reproduction of original in the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign Campus). Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Bible. -- N.T. -- John VII, 17 -- Sermons. Sermons, English -- 17th century. 2005-02 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-03 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-04 Simon Charles Sampled and proofread 2005-04 Simon Charles Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion Via Intelligentiae . A SERMOM Preached to the UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN : Shewing by what means the Scholars shall become most Learned and most Usefull . Published at their desire . By the R. R. Father in God , JEREMY , Lord Bishop of Downe , &c. and Vicechancellour of that UNIVERSITY . Ad majorem Dei gloriam . LONDON : Printed for R. Royston Bookseller to the Kings most Excellent Majesty , 1662. TO THE READER . PEACE is so great a Blessing , and Disputations and Questions in Religion are so little friends to Peace , that I have thought no mans time can be better spent then in propositions and promotions of Peace , and consequently in finding expedients , and putting periods to all contentious Learning . I have already in a discourse before the Right Honourable the Lords and Commons assembled in this Parliament prov'd that Obedience is the best medium of Peace and true Religion ; and Lawes are the only common term and certain rule and measure of it . Vocatâ ad concionem multitudine , quae coalescere in populum Unius corporis nullâ re praeterquam legibus poterat , said Livy . Obedience to Man is the externall instrument ; and the best in the World. To which I now add , that Obedience to God is the best internall instrument ; and I have prov'd it in this discourse . Peace and Holiness are twin-Sisters ; after which because every man is bound to follow , and he that does not shall never see God , I concluded that the office of a Bishop is in nothing so signally to be exhibited as in declaring by what means these great duties and blessings are to be acquir'd . This way I have here describ'd is an old way ; for it was Christs way , and therefore it is truth and life : but it hath been so little regarded and so seldom taught , that when I first spake my thoughts of it in the following words before the Little , but Excellent , University of Dublin , they consented to it so perfectly , and so piously entertain'd it , that they were pleas'd with some earnestness to desire me to publish it to the World , and to consigne it to them as a perpetual memorial of their duty , and of my regards to them , and care over them in my Station . I was very desirous to serve and please them in all their worthy desires , but had found so much reason to distrust my own abilities , that I could not resolve to do what I fain would have done ; till by a Second communication of those thoughts , though in differing words , I had publish'd it also to my Clergy at the Metropolitical Visitation of the most Reverend and Learned Lord Primate of Armagh in my own Diocese . But when I found that they also thought it very reasonable and pious , and joyn'd in the desire of making it publick , I consented perfectly , and now only pray to God it may do that Work which I intended . I have often thought of those excellent words of Mr. Hooker in his very learned discourse of Justification ; [ Such is the untoward constitution of our Nature , that we do neither so perfectly understand the way and knowledge of the Lord , nor so stedfastly embrace it when it is understood , nor so graciously utter it when it is embraced , nor so peaceably maintain it when it is uttered , but that the best of us are overtaken sometime through blindness , sometime through hastiness , sometime through impatience , sometime through other passions of the mind , whereunto ( God knows ) we are too subject ] That I find by true experience , the best way of Learning and Peace is that which cures all these evils , as far as in this World they are curable ; and that is the wayes of Holiness , which are therefore the best and only way of Truth . In Disputations there is no end , and but very little advantage ; but the way of godliness hath in it no Error , and no Doubtfulness . By this therefore I hop'd best to apply the Counsel of the Wise man : Stand thou fast in thy sure Understanding , in the way and knowledge of the Lord , and have but one manner of word , and follow the word of peace and righteousness . I have reason to be confident that they who desir'd me to publish this discourse will make use of it , and find benefit by it : and if any others do so too , both they and I shall still more and more give God all thanks , and praise , and glory . Sermons newly Printed , and are sold by R. Royston . A Sermon preached at the opening of the Parliament in Ireland , May 8. 1661. Before the Right Honourable the Lords Justices , and the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons . A Sermon preached at the Consecration of two Archbishops and ten Bishops , in the Cathedral Church of St. Patrick in Dublin , January 27. 1660. Both by Jeremy Taylor D. D. Lord Bishop of Downe and Connor . A Sermon preached at the Consecration of Herbert Lord Bishop of Hereford , by Jasper Main D. D. one of His Majesties Chaplains in Ordinary . The grand debate resumed in the point of Prayer , being an Answer to the Presbyterian papers presented to the most Reverend the Lord Bishops at the Savoy , upon the subject by a Member of the Convocation . 7 JOHN 17. If any man will do his will , he shall know of the Doctrine , whether it be of God , or whether I speak of my self . THe Ancients in their Mythological Learning tell us , that when Jupiter espyed the men of the World striving for Truth , and pulling her in pieces to secure her to themselves , he sent Mercury down amongst them , and he with his usuall Arts dressed Error up in the Imagery of Truth , and thrust her into the croud , and so left them to contend still : and though then , by Contention men were sure to get but little Truth , yet they were as earnest as ever , and lost Peace too , in their Importune Contentions for the very Image of Truth . And this indeed is no wonder : but when Truth and Peace are brought into the world together , and bound up in the same bundle of life ; when we are taught a Religion by the Prince of Peace , who is the Truth it self , to see men Contending for this Truth to the breach of that Peace ; and when men fall out , to see that they should make Christianity their theme , that is one of the greatest wonders in the World. For Christianity is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a soft and gentle Institution ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it was brought into the World to soften the asperities of humane nature , and to cure the Barbarities of evil men , and the Contentions of the passionate . The Eagle seeing her breast wounded , and espying the Arrow that hurt her to be feathered , cryed out , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the feathered Nation is destroyed by their own feathers ; That is , a Christian fighting and wrangling with a Christian ; and indeed that 's very sad : but wrangling about Peace too ; that Peace it self should be the argument of a War , that 's unnaturall ; and if it were not that there are many who are homines multae religionis , nullius penè pietatis , Men of much Religion and little Godliness , it would not be that there should be so many Quarrells in and concerning that Religion which is wholly made up of Truth and Peace , and was sent amongst us to reconcile the hearts of men when they were tempted to uncharitablenesse by any other unhappy argument . Disputation cures no vice , but kindles a great many , and makes Passion evaporate into sin : and though men esteem it Learning , yet it is the most uselesse Learning in the world . When Eudamidas the Son of Archidamas heard old Xenocrates disputing about Wisdom , he asked very soberly , If the old Man be yet disputing and enquiring concerning Wisdom , what time will he have to make use of it ? Christianity is all for Practice , and so much time as is spent in quarrells about it is a diminution to its Interest : men inquire so much what it is , that they have but little time left to be Christians . I remember a saying of Erasmus , that when he first read the New Testament with fear and a good mind , with a purpose to understand it and obey it , he found it very usefull and very pleasant : but when afterwards he fell on reading the vast differences of Commentaries , then he understood it lesse then he did before , then he began not to understand it . For indeed the Truths of God are best dressed in the plain Culture and simplicity of the Spirit ; but the Truths that men commonly teach are like the reflexions of a Multiplying-glasse : for one piece of good money you shall have forty that are fantasticall ; and it is forty to one if your finger hit upon the right . Men have wearied themselves in the dark , having been amused with false fires : and instead of going home , have wandered all night 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in untroden , unsafe , uneasie wayes ; but have not found out what their Soul desires . But therefore since we are so miserable , and are in error , and have wandered very far , we must do as wandring Travellers use to do , go back just to that place from whence they wandered , and begin upon a new Account . Let us go to the Truth it self , to Christ , and he will tell us an easie way of ending all our Quarrells . For we shall find Christianity to be the easiest and the hardest thing in the World : it is like a secret in Arithmetick , infinitely hard till it be found out by a right operation , and then it is so plain , we wonder we did not understand it earlier . Christ's way of finding out of truth is by doing the will of God. We will try that by and by , if possibly we may find that easie and certain : in the mean time let us consider what wayes men have propounded to find out Truth , and upon the foundation of that to establish Peace in Christendom . 1. That there is but one true way is agreed upon ; and therefore almost every Church of one denomination that lives under Government propounds to you a Systeme or collective Body of Articles , and tells you , that 's the true Religion , and they are the Church , and the peculiar people of God : like Brutus and Cassius , of whom one sayes , Ubicunque ipsi essent , praetexebant esse rempublicam , they suppos'd themselves were the Commonwealth ; and these are the Church , and out of this Church they will hardly allow salvation . But of this there can be no end . For divide the Church into Twenty parts , and in what part soever your lot falls , you and your party are Damned by the other Nineteen ; and men on all hands almost keep their own Proselytes by affrighting them with the fearful Sermons of Damnation : but in the mean time here is no security to them that are not able to judge for themselves , and no Peace for them that are . 2. Others cast about to cure this evil , and conclude that it must be done by submission to an Infallible Guide ; this must do it or nothing : and this is the way of the Church of Rome . Follow but the Pope and his Clergie , and you are safe , at least as safe as their warrant can make you . Indeed this were a very good way , if it were a way at all ; but it is none ; for this can never end our Controversies : not onely because the greatest Controversies are about this Infallible Guide ; but also because , 1. We cannot find that there is upon Earth any such Guide at all . 2. We do not find it necessary that there should . 3. We find that they who pretend to be this Infallible Guide are themselves infinitely deceiv'd . 4. That they do not believe themselves to be Infallible whatever they say to us ; because they do not put an end to all their own Questions that trouble them . 5. Because they have no peace but what is constrained by force and Government . 6. And lastly , because if there were such a Guide , we should fail of Truth by many other causes : for it may be that Guide would not do his duty ; or we are fallible followers of this infallible Leader ; or we should not understand his meaning at all times , or we should be perverse at some times , or something as bad : because we all confesse that God is an Infallible Guide , and that some way or other he does teach us sufficiently , and yet it does come to passe by our faults that we are as far to seek for Peace and Truth as ever . 3. Some very wise men finding this to fail , have undertaken to reconcile the differences of Christendom by a way of moderation . Thus they have projected to reconcile the Papists and the Lutherans , the Lutherans and the Calvinists , the Remonstrants and Contra-emonstrants , and project that each side should abate of their asperities , and pare away something of their propositions , and joyn in Common terms and phrases of Accommodation , each of them sparing something , and promising they shall have a great deal of peace for the exchange of a little of their opinion . This was the way of Cassander , Modrevius , Andreas Frisius , Erasmus , Spalato , Grotius , and indeed of Charles the Fifth in part , but something more heartily of Ferdinand the Second . This device produced the conferences at Poissy , at Montpellier , at Ratisbon , at the Hague , at many places more : and what was the event of these ? Their parties when their Delegates returned , either disclaimed their Moderation , or their respective Princes had some other ends to serve , or they permitted the Meetings upon uncertain hopes , and a triall if any good might come ; or it may be they were both in the wrong , and their mutuall abatement was nothing but a mutuall quitting of what they could not get , and the shaking hands of false friends ; or it may be it was all of it nothing but Hypocrisie and Arts of Craftiness , and , like Lucian's man , every one could be a Man and a Pestle when he pleased . And the Council of Trent , though under another cover , made use of the artifice , but made the secret manifest and common : for at this day the Jesuits in the Questions de auxiliis Divinae gratiae have prevailed with the Dominicans to use their expressions , and yet they think they still keep the sentence of their own Order . From hence can succeed nothing but folly and a phantastick peace . This is but the skinning of an old sore , it will break out upon all occasions . 4. Others , who understand things beyond the common rate , observing that many of our Controversies and peevish wranglings are kept up by the ill stating of the Question , endeavour to declare things wisely , and make the matter intelligible , and the words cleare ; hoping by this meanes to cut off all disputes . Indeed this is a very good way , so far as it can go ; and would prevaile very much , if all men were wise , and would consent to those stateings , and would not fall out upon the main enquiry when it were well stated : but we find by a sad experience that few Questions are well stated ; and when they are , they are not consented to ; and when they are agreed on by both sides that they are well stated , it is nothing else but a drawing up the Armies in Battalia with great skill and discipline ; the next thing they do is , they thrust their Swords into one anothers sides . 5. What remedy after all this ? Some other good men have propounded one way yet : but that is a way of Peace rather then Truth ; and this is , that all Opinions should be tolerated and none persecuted ; and then all the World will be at peace . Indeed this relies upon a great reasonableness : not onely because Opinions cannot be forced ; but because if men receive no hurt , it is to be hoped they will do none . But we find that this alone will not do it . For besides that all men are not so just as not to do any Injury ( for some men begin the evil ) besides this ( I say ) there are very many men amongst us who are not content that you permit them ; for they will not permit you , but rule over your faith , and say that their way is not only true , but necessary ; and therefore the Truth of God is at stake , and all Indifference and moderation is carnall Wisdom , and want of Zeal for God : nay more then so , they preach for Toleration when themselves are under the rod , who when they got the rod into their own hands thought Toleration it self to be Intolerable . Thus do the Papists , and thus the Calvinists : and for their Cruelty they pretend Charity . They will indeed force you to come in , but it is in true Zeal for your Soul : and if they do you violence , it is no more then if they pull your Arme out of joynt , when to save you from drowning they draw you out of a River ; and if you complain , it is no more to be regarded then the out-cries of Children against their Rulers , or sick men against Physicians . But as to the thing it self , the truth is , it is better in Contemplation then in Practice : for reckon all that is got by it when you come to handle it , and it can never satisfie for the infinite disorders happening in the Government ; the scandal to Religion , the secret dangers to publick Societies , the growth of Heresie , the nursing up of parties to a grandeur so considerable as to be able in their own time to change the Lawes and the Government . So that if the Question be whether meer Opinions are to be persecuted , it is certainly true , they ought not . But if it be considered how by Opinions men rifle the affaires of Kingdoms , it is also as certain , they ought not to be made publick and permitted . And what is now to be done ? must Truth be for ever in the dark , and the World for ever be divided , and Societies disturbed , and Governments weakned , and our Spirits debauched with Error and the uncertain Opinions and the Pedantery of talking men ? Certainly there is a way to cure all this evil ; and the wise Governour of all the World hath not been wanting in so necessary a matter as to lead us into all Truth . But the way hath not yet been hit upon , and yet I have told you all the wayes of Man and his Imaginations in order to Truth and Peace : and you see these will not do ; we can find no rest for the soles of our feet amidst all the waters of Contention and disputations , and little artifices of divided Schools . Every man is a lyar , and his understanding is weak , and his Propositions uncertain , and his Opinions trifling , and his Contrivances imperfect : and neither Truth nor Peace does come from man. I know I am in an Auditory of inquisitive persons , whose businesse is to study for Truth , that they may find it for themselves , and teach it unto others : I am in a School of Prophets and Prophets Sons , who all ask Pilate's Question , What is Truth ? You look for it in your Books , and you tug hard for it in your Disputations , and you derive it from the Cisterns of the Fathers , and you enquire after the old wayes , and sometimes are taken with new appearances , and you rejoyce in false lights , or are delighted with little umbrages and peep of Day . But where is there a man , or a Society of men , that can be at rest in his enquiry , and is sure he understands all the truths of God ? where is there a man but the more he studies and enquires , still he discovers nothing so clearly as his own Ignorance ? This is a demonstration that we are not in the right way , that we do not inquire wisely , that our Method is not artificiall . If men did fall upon the right way , it were impossible so many learned men should be engaged in contrary parties and opinions . We have examined all wayes but one , all but God's way : Let us ( having missed in all the other ) try this : let us go to God for Truth ; for Truth comes from God only , and his wayes are plain , and his sayings are true , and his promises Yea and Amen : and if we miss the Truth , it is because we will not find it : for certain it is , that all that Truth which God hath made necessarie , he hath also made legible and plain , and if we will open our eyes , we shall see the Sun , and if we will walk in the light , we shall rejoyce in the light : only let us withdraw the Curtains , let us remove the impediments and the sin that doth so easily beset us ; that 's Gods way . Every man must in his station do that portion of duty which God requires of him , and then he shall be taught of God all that is fit for him to learn : there is no other way for him but this . The feare of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom , and a good understanding have all they that do thereafter . And so said David of himself , I have more understanding then my Teachers ; because I keep thy Commandements . And this is the only way which Christ hath taught us : if you ask , What is truth ? you must not doe as Pilate did , ask the Question , and then go away from him that only can give you an answer ; for as God is the author of Truth , so he is the teacher of it ; and the way to learn it is this of my Text : For so saith our blessed Lord , If any man will do his will , he shall know of the Doctrine , whether it be of God or no. My Text is simple as Truth it self , but greatly Comprehensive , and contains a truth that alone will enable you to understand all Mysteries , and to expound all Prophecies , and to interpret all Scriptures , and to search into all Secrets , all ( I mean ) which concern our happinesse and our duty : and it being an affirmative hypotheticall , is plainly to be resolved into this Proposition , The way to judge of Religion is by doing of our duty , and Theology is rather a Divine life then a Divine knowledge . In Heaven indeed we shall first see , and then love ; but here on Earth we must first love , and love will open our eyes as well as our hearts , and we shall then see and perceive and understand . In the handling of which Proposition I shall first represent to you that the certain causes of our Errors are nothing but direct sins , nothing makes us Fools and Ignorants , but living vicious lives ; and then I shall proceed to the direct demonstration of the Article in question , that Holinesse is the only way of truth and understanding . 1. No man understands the Word of God as it ought to be understood , unlesse he layes aside all affections to Sin : of which because we have taken very little care , the product hath been that we have had very little wisdom , and very little knowledge in the wayes of God. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Aristotle , Wickedness does corrupt a mans reasoning , it gives him false principles and evil measures of things : the sweet Wine that Ulysses gave to the Cyclops put his eye out ; and a man that hath contracted evil affections , and made a League with sin , sees only by those measures . A Covetous man understands nothing to be good that is not profitable ; and a Voluptuous man likes your reasoning well enough if you discourse of Bonum jucundum , the pleasures of the sense , the ravishments of lust , the noises and inadvertencies , the mirth and songs of merry Company . But if you talk to him of the melancholy Lectures of the Cross , the content of Resignation , the peace of Meeknesse , and the Joyes of the holy Ghost , and of rest in God ; after your long discourse and his great silence he cryes out , What 's the matter ? He knows not what you meane . Either you must fit his humour , or change your discourse . I remember that Arianus tells of a Gentleman that was banished from Rome , and in his sorrow visited the Philosopher , and he heard him talk wisely , and believed him , and promised him to leave all the thoughts of Rome and splendours of the Court , and retire to the course of a severe Philosophy : but before the good mans Lectures were done , there came 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , letters from Caesar to recall him home , to give him pardon , and promise him great Imployment . He presently grew weary of the good mans Sermon , and wished he would make an end , thought his discourse was dull and flat ; for his head and heart were full of another storie and new principles ; and by these measures he could heare only and he could understand . Every man understands by his Affections more then by his Reason : and when the Wolfe in the Fable went to School to learn to spell , whatever letters were told him , he could never make any thing of them but Agnus ; he thought of nothing but his belly : and if a man be very hungry , you must give him meate before you give him counsell . A mans mind must be like your proposition before it can be entertained : for whatever you put into a man it will smell of the Vessell : it is a mans mind that gives the emphasis , and makes your argument to prevail . And upon this account it is that there are so many false Doctrines in the only Article of Repentance . Men know they must repent , but the definition of Repentance they take from the convenience of their own affaires : what they will not part with , that is not necessary to be parted with , and they will repent , but not restore : they will say nollem factum , they wish they had never done it ; but since it is done , you must give them leave to rejoyce in their purchase : they will ask forgivenesse of God ; but they sooner forgive themselves , and suppose that God is of their mind . If you tye them to hard termes , your Doctrine is not to be understood , or it is but one Doctors opinion , and therefore they will fairly take their leave , and get them another Teacher . What makes these evil , these dangerous and desperate Doctrines ? not the obscurity of the thing , but the cloud upon the heart ; for say you what you will , He that hears must be the expounder , and we can never suppose but a man will give sentence in behalf of what he passionately loves . And so it comes to pass that , as Rabbi Moses observ'd that God for the greatest Sin imposed the least Oblation , as a she-Goat for the sin of Idolatry ; for a woman accused of Adultery , a Barly-cake : so do most men ; they think to expiate the worst of their sins with a trifling , with a pretended , little , insignificant repentance . God indeed did so , that the cheapnesse of the oblation might teach them to hope for pardon ; not from the Ceremony , but from a severe internal repentance . But men take any argument to lessen their repentance , that they may not lessen their pleasures or their estates , and that Repentance may be nothing but a word , and Mortification signifie nothing against their pleasures , but be a term of Art only , fitted for the Schools or for the Pulpit , but nothing relative to practice , or the extermination of their sin . So that it is no wonder we understand so little of Religion : it is because we are in love with that which destroyes it ; and as a man does not care to hear what does not please him , so neither does he believe it ; he cannot , he will not understand it . And the same is the Case in the matter of Pride ; the Church hath extremely suffer'd by it in many ages . Arius missed a Bishoprick , and therefore turned Heretick ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith the story , he disturb'd and shaked th● Church ; for he did not understand this Truth [ That the peace of the Church was better then the satisfaction of his person , or the promoting his foolish Opinion . ] And do not we see and feel that at this very day the Pride of men makes it seem impossible for many persons to obey their Superiors ? and they do not see what they can read every day , that it is a sin to speak evill of Dignities . A man would think it a very easie thing to understand the 13. Chapter to the Romans , Whosoever resisteth the power , resisteth the Ordinance of God : and yet we know a generation of men to whom these words were so obscure , that they thought it lawfull to fight against their King. A man would think it easie to believe that those who were in the gain-saying of Corah , who rose up against the high Priest , were in a very sad condition : and yet there are too many amongst us who are in the gain-saying of Corah , and think they do very well ; that they are the Godly party , and the good people of God. Why ? what 's the matter ? In the world there can be nothing plainer then these words , Let every soul be subject to the higher powers , and that you need not make a scruple who are these higher powers , it is as plainly said , there is no power but of God ; all that are set over you by the Laws of your Nation , these are over you in the Lord : and yet men will not understand these plain things ; they deny to doe their notorious duty , and yet believe they are in the right , and if they sometimes obey for wrath , they oftner disobey for Conscience sake . Where is the fault ? The words are plain , the duty is certain , the Book lyes open ; but , alas ! it is Sealed within , that is , men have eyes and will not see , eares and will not heare . But the wonder is the lesse ; for we know when God said to Jonas , doest thou well to be angry ? he answered God to his face , I do well to be angry even unto the death . Let God declare his mind never so plainly , if men will not lay aside the evil principle that is within , their open love to their secret sin , they may kill an Apostle , and yet be so ignorant as to think they do God good service ; they may disturb Kingdomes , and break the peace of a well-ordered Church , and rise up against their Fathers , and be cruell to their Brethren , and stir up the people to Sedition ; and all this with a cold stomach and a hot liver , with a hard heart and a tender Conscience , with humble carriage and a proud spirit . For thus men hate Repentance , because they scorn to confesse an Errour ; they will not return to Peace and Truth , because they feare to lose the good opinion of the people whom themselves have couzened ; they are afraid to be good , lest they should confess they have formerly done amisse : and he that observes how much evil is done , and how many Heresies are risen , and how much obstinacy and unreasonable perseverance in folly dwells in the World upon the stock of Pride , may easily conclude that no learning is sufficient to make a proud man understand the truth of God , unless he first learn to be humble . But Obedite & intelligetis ( saith the Prophet ) obey and be humble , leave the foolish affections of sin , and then ye shall understand . That 's the First particular : All remaining affections to sin hinder the learning and understanding of the things of God. 2. He that means to understand the will of God and the truth of Religion must lay aside all inordinate affections to the world . 2 Cor. 3. 14. S. Paul complained that there was at that day a veile upon the heart of the Jews in the reading of the Old Testament : they looked for a Temporall Prince to be their Messias , and their affections and hopes dwelt in secular advantages ; and so long as that veile was there , they could not see , and they would not accept the poore despised JESUS . For the things of the world , besides that they entangle one another , and make much business , and spend much time , they also take up the attentions of a mans mind , & spend his faculties , and make them trifling and secular with the very handling and conversation . And therefore the Pythagoreans taught their Disciples 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a separation from the things of the body , if they would purely find out truth and the excellencies of wisdom . Had not he lost his labour that would have discoursed wisely to Apicius , and told him of the books of Fate and the secrets of the other World , the abstractions of the Soul and its brisker Immortality , that Saints and Angels eate not , and that the Spirit of a man lives for ever upon wisdom and holinesse and contemplation ? The fat Glutton would have stared a while upon the Preacher , and then have fallen asleep . But if you had discoursed well and knowingly of a Lamprey , a large Mullet , or a Boare , animal propter Convivia natum , and have sent him a Cook from Asia to make new Sawces , he would have attended carefully , and taken in your discourses greedily . And so it is in the Questions and secrets of Christianity : which made St. Paul , when he intended to convert Felix , discourse first with him about Temperance , Righteousnesse and Judgement to come . He began in the right point ; he knew it was to no purpose to preach Jesus Christ crucified to an intemperate person , to an Usurper of other mens rights , to one whose soul dwelt in the World , and cared not for the sentence of the last day . The Philosophers began their Wisdom with the meditation of death , and St. Paul his with a discourse of the day of Judgment : to take the heart off from this world and the amabilities of it , which dishonour and baffle the understanding , and made Solomon himself become a child and fool'd into Idolatry , by the prettinesse of a talking woman . Men now-a-dayes love not a Religion that will cost them deare . If your Doctrine calls upon men to part with any considerable part of their estates , you must pardon them if they cannot believe you ; they understand it not . I shall give you one great instance of it . When we consider the infinite unreasonableness that is in the Popish Religion , how against Common sense their Doctrine of Transubstantiation is , how against the common Experience of humane nature is the Doctrine of the Popes Infallibility , how against Scripture is the Doctrine of Indulgences and Purgatory ; we may well think it a wonder that no more men are perswaded to leave such unlearned follies . But then on the other side , the wonder will cease , if we mark how many temporal ends are served by these Doctrines . If you destroy the Doctrine of Purgatory and Indulgences you take away the Priests Income , and make the See Apostolic to be poor ; if you deny the Popes Infallibility , you will despise his Authority , and examine his Propositions , and discover his Failings , and put him to answer hard Arguments , and lessen his Power : and indeed , when we run through all the Propositions of difference between them and us , and see that in every one of them they serve an end of money or of power ; it will be very visible that the way to confute them is not by learned disputations ; ( for we see they have been too long without effect , and without prosperity ) the men must be cured of their affections to the World , ut nudi nudum sequantur crucifixum , that with naked and devested affections they might follow the naked Crucified Jesus , and then they would soone learne the truths of God , which till then will be impossible to be apprehended . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Men ( as St. Basil sayes ) when they expound Scripture , alwayes bring in something of themselves : but till there be ( as one said ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a rising out from their own seats , untill they go out from their dark dungeons , they can never see the light of Heaven . And how many men are there amongst us who are therefore enemies to the Religion , because it seems to be against their profit ? The argument of Demetrius is unanswerable ; by this craft they get their liings : leave them in their Livings , and they will let your Religion alone ; if not , they think they have reason to speak against it . When mens souls are possessed with the World , their souls cannot be invested with holy Truths . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as St. Isidor said : the Soul must be informed , insoul'd , or animated with the propositions that you put in , or you shall never do any good , or get Disciples to Christ. Now because a man cannot serve two Masters ; because he cannot vigorously attend two objects ; because there can be but one soul in any living Creature ; if the World have got possession , talk no more of your Questions , shut your Bibles , and read no more of the words of God to them , for they cannot tell of the Doctrine , whether it be of God , or of the World. That is the Second particular : Worldly affections hinder true understandings in Religion . 3. No man , how learned soever , can understand the Word of God , or be at peace in the Questions of Religion , unlesse he be a Master over his Passions . Tu quoque si vis Lumine claro Cernere verum , Gaudia pelle , Pelle Timorem : Nubila mens est Vinctáque fraenis Haec ubi regnant . said the wise Boethius . A man must first learn himself before he can learn God. Tua te fallit Imago : nothing deceives a man so soon as a mans self ; when a man is ( that I may use Plato's expression ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , mingled with his nature and his Congeniall infirmities of anger and desire , he can never have any thing but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a knowledge partly moral and partly naturall : his whole life is but Imagination ; his knowledge is Inclination and opinion ; he judges of Heavenly things by the measures of his feares and his desires , and his Reason is half of it sense , and determinable by the principles of sense . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , then a man learns well when he is a Philosopher in his Passions . Passionate men are to be taught the first elements of Religion : and let men pretend to as much learning as they please , they must begin again at Christs Crosse ; they must learn true mortification and crucifixion of their anger and desires , before they can be good Scholars in Christs School , or be admitted into the more secret enquiries of Religion , or profit in spirituall understanding . It was an excellent Proverb of the Jews , In passionibus Spiritus Sanctus non habitat , the Holy Ghost never dwells in the house of Passion . Truth enters into the heart of Man when it is empty and cleane and still ; but when the mind is shaken with Passion as with a storme , you can never heare the voyce of the Charmer , though he charm very wisely : and you will very hardly sheath a sword when it is held by a loose and a paralytic Arme. He that means to learn the secrets of Gods wisdom must be , as Plato sayes , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , his soul must be Consubstantiated with Reason , not invested with Passion : to him that is otherwise , things are but in the dark , his notion is obscure and his sight troubled ; and therefore though we often meet with passionate Fools , yet we seldom or never heare of a very passionate wise man. I have now done with the First part of my undertaking , and proved to you that our evill life is the cause of our Controversies and Ignorances in the Religion of the things of God. You see what hinders us from becoming good Divines . But all this while we are but in the preparation to the Mysteries of Godlinesse . When we have thrown off all affections to sin ; when we have stript our selves from all fond adherencies to the things of the world , and have broken the chains and dominion of our Passions ; then we may say with David , Ecce paratum est Cor meum , Deus ; My heart is ready , O God , my heart is ready : then we may say , Speak , Lord , for thy servant heareth : but we are not yet instructed . It remaines therefore that we enquire what is that immediate principle or meanes by which we shall certainly and infallibly be led into all truth , and be taught the mind of God , and understand all his secrets : and this is worth our knowledge . I cannot say that this will end your labours , and put a period to your studies , and make your learning easie : it may possibly increase your labour , but it will make it profitable ; it will not end your Studies , but it will direct them ; it will not make humane Learning easie , but will make it wise unto salvation , and conduct it into true notices and wayes of wisdom . I am now to describe to you the right way of knowledge . Qui facit voluntatem Patris mei ( saith Christ ) that 's the way : do Gods will , and you shall understand Gods Word . And it was an excellent saying of St. Peter , Add to your faith Vertue , &c. If these things be in you and abound , ye shall not be unfruitfull in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For in this case it is not enough that all our hinderances of knowledge are removed ; for that is but the opening of the covering of the Book of God : but when it is opened , it is written with a hand that every eye cannot read . Though the windowes of the East be open , yet every eye cannot behold the glories of the Sun. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith Plotinus ; the eye that is not made Solar cannot see the Sun ; the eye must be fitted to the splendor : and is not the wit of the man , but the spirit of the man ; not so much his head as his heart , that learnes the Divine Philosophy . 1. Now in this inquiry I must take one thing for a praecognitum , that every good man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he is taught of God : and indeed unless he teach us , we shall make but ill Scholars our selves , and worse guides to others . Nemo potest Deum scire , nisi à Deo doceatur , said St. Jrenaeus , ( lib. 6. c. 14. ) If God teaches us , then all is well : but if we do not learn wisdom at his feet , from whence should we have it ? it can come from no other spring . And therefore it naturally follows , that by how much nearer we are to God , by so much better we are like to be instructed . But this being supposed , as being most evident , we can easily proceed by wonderfull degrees and steps of progression in the Oeconomy of this Divine Philosophy . For , 2. There is in every righteous man a new vital principle : the Spirit of Grace is the spirit of Wisdome , and teaches us by secret inspirations , by proper arguments , by actuall perswasions , by personall applications , by effects and energies : and as the soul of a man is the cause of all his vitall operations , so is the Spirit of God the life of that life , and the cause of all actions and productions Spirituall . And the consequence of this is what St. Iohn tells us of ; Ye have received the Unction from above : and that anoynting teacheth you all things . All things of some one kind : that is , certainly , all things that pertain to life and Godlinesse ; all that by which a man is wise and happy . We see this by common experience . Unlesse the soul have a new life put into it , unlesse there be a vital principle within , unlesse the spirit of life be the Informer of the spirit of the man , the Word of God will be as dead in the operation as the body in its powers and possibilities . Sol & Homo generant hominem , saith our Philosophy . A Man alone does not beget a man ; but a Man and the Sun : for without the influence of the Celestiall bodyes all natural actions are ineffective : and so it is in the operations of the Soul. Which principle divers Fanatics , both amongst us and in the Church of Rome , misunderstanding , look for new Revelations , and expect to be conducted by ecstasy , and will not pray but in a transfiguration , and live upon raptures and extravagant expectations , and separate themselves from the conversation of men by affectations , by new measures and singularities , and destroy order and despise Government , and live upon illiterate phantasmes and ignorant discourses . These men do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they bely the holy Ghost : For the Spirit of God makes men wise ; it is an evil Spirit that makes them Fools . The Spirit of God makes us Wise unto Salvation , it does not spend its holy influences in disguises and convulsions of the understanding . Gods spirit does not destroy Reason , but heightens it : he never disorders the beauties of Government , but is a God of Order ; it is the spirit of Humility , and teaches no Pride : he is to be found in Churches and Pulpits , upon Altars and in the Doctors Chaires ; not in Conventicles and mutinous corners of a house : he goes in company with his own Ordinances , and makes progressions by the measures of life : his infusions are just as our acquisitions , and his Graces pursue the methods of nature : that which was imperfect he leads on to perfection , and that which was weake he makes strong : he opens the heart , not to receive murmurs , or to attend to secret whispers , but to hear the Word of God ; and then he opens the heart , and creates a new one ; and without this new creation , this new principle of life , we may heare the Word of God , but we can never understand it ; we heare the sound , but are never the better ; unlesse there be in our hearts a secret conviction by the spirit of God , the Gospel it self is a dead Letter , and worketh not in us the light and righteousness of God. Do not we see this by a daily experience ? Even those things which a good man and an evil man know , they do not know them both alike . A wicked man does know that good is lovely , and sin is of an evill and destructive nature ; and when he is reproved , he is convinced ; and when he is observed , he is ashamed ; and when he hath done , he is unsatisfied ; and when he pursues his sin , he does it in the dark . Tell him he shall dye , and he sighs deeply , but he knows it as well as you : proceed , and say that after death comes Judgement , and the poor man believes and trembles . He knows that God is angry with him ; and if you tell him that for ought he knows he may be in Hell to morrow , he knows that it is an intolerable truth , but it it also undeniable . And yet after all this he runs to commit his sin with as certain an event and resolution , as if he knew no argument against it . These notices of things terrible and true passe through his understanding as an Eagle through the Air : as long as her flight lasted , the Air was shaken ; but there remains no path behind her . Now since at the same time we see other persons , not so learned it may be , not so much versed in Scriptures , yet they say a thing is good and lay hold of it , they believe glorious things of Heaven , and they live accordingly , as men that believe themselves ; halfe a word is enough to make them understand ; a nod is a sufficient reproof ; the Crowing of a Cock , the singing of a Lark , the dawning of the day , and the washing their hands are to them competent memorialls of Religion and warnings of their duty : What is the reason of this difference ? They both read the Scriptures , they read and heare the same Sermons , they have capable understandings , they both believe what they heare and what they read , and yet the event is vastly different . The reason is that which I am now speaking of : the one understands by one Principle , the other by another ; the one understands by Nature , and the other by Grace ; the one by humane Learning , and the other by Divine ; the one reads the Scriptures without , and the other within ; the one understands as a son of man , the other as a son of God ; the one perceives by the proportions of the World , and the other by the measures of the Spirit ; the one understands by Reason , and the other by Love ; and therefore he does not only understand the Sermons of the Spirit , and perceives their meaning , but he pierces deeper , and knows the meaning of that meaning , that is , the secret of the Spirit , that which is spiritually discerned , that which gives life to the Proposition , and activity to the Soul. And the reason is , because he hath a Divine principle within him , and a new understanding : that is plainly , he hath Love , and that 's more then Knowledge ; as was rarely well observed by St. Paul , Knowledge puffethup , but Charity edifieth ; that is , Charity makes the best Scholars . No Sermons can edify you , no Scriptures can build you up a holy building to God , unlesse the love of God , be in your hearts ; and purifie your souls from all filthinesse of the Flesh and spirit . But so it is in the regions of Starrs , where a vast body of fire is so divided by excentric motions , that it looks as if Nature had parted them into Orbes and round shells of plain and purest materialls : but where the cause is simple and the matter without variety , the motions must be uniforme ; and in Heaven we should either espy no motion , or no variety . But God , who designed the Heavens to be the causes of all changes and motions here below , hath placed his Angels in their houses of light , and given to every one of his appointed officers a portion of the fiery matter to circumagitate and roll ; and now the wonder ceases : for if it be enquired why this part of the fire runs Eastward and the other to the South , they being both indifferent to either , it is because an Angel of God sits in the Centre , and makes the same matter turne , not by the bent of its own mobility and inclination , but in order to the needs of Man and the great purposes of God ; and so it is in the understandings of men : When they all receive the same notions , and are taught by the same Master , and give full consent to all the propositions , and can of themselves have nothing to distinguish them in the events , it is because God hath sent his Divine spirit , and kindles a new fire , and creates a braver capacity , and applies the actives to the passives , and blesses their operation . For there is in the heart of man such a dead sea , and an indisposition to holy flames , like as in the cold Rivers in the North , so as the fires will not burn them , and the Sun it self will never warme them , till Gods holy Spirit does from the Temple of the new Ierusalem bring a holy flame , and make it shine and burn . The Naturall man ( saith the holy Apostle ) cannot perceive the things of the Spirit : they are foolishnesse unto him ; for they are spiritually discerned . For he that discourses of things by the measures of sense , thinks nothing good but that which is delicious to the palat , or pleases the brutish part of man ; and therefore while he estimates the secrets of Religion by such measures , they must needs seeme as insipid as Cork , or the uncondited Mushrom ; for they have nothing at all of that in their constitution . A voluptuous person is like the Dogs of Sicily , so fill'd with the deliciousnesse of Plants that grow in every furrow and hedge , that they can never keep the sent of their game . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said St. Chrysostome : the fire and water can never mingle ; so neither can sensuality and the watchfulnesse and wise discerning of the spirit . Pilato interroganti de veritate , Christus non respondit : When the wicked Governour asked of Christ concerning truth , Christ gave him no answer . He was not fit to heare it . He therefore who so understands the Words of God , that he not only believes , but loves the proposition ; he who consents with all his heart , and being convinced of the truth does also apprehend the necessity , and obeys the precept , and delights in the discovery , and layes his hand upon his heart , and reduces the notices of things to the practice of duty ; he who dares trust his proposition , and drives it on to the utmost ssue , resolving to goe after it whither soever it can invite him ; this Man walks in the spirit : at least thus far he is gone towards it , his Understanding is brought in obsequium Christi , into the obedience of Christ. This is a loving God with all our mind ; and whatever goes less then this , is but Memory , and not Understanding ; or else such notice of things by which a man is neither the wiser nor the better . 3. Sometimes God gives to his choicest , his most elect and precious Servants , a knowledge even of secret things , which he communicates not to others . We find it greatly remark'd in the case of Abraham , Gen. 18. 17. And the Lord said , Shall I hide from Abraham that thing that I do ? Why not from Abraham ? God tells us . v. 19. For I know him , that he will command his Children and his houshold after him , and they shall keep the way of the Lord , to doe justice and judgement . And though this be irregular and infrequent , yet it is a reward of their piety , and the proper increase also of the spirituall man. We find this spoken by God to Daniel , and promised to be the lot of the righteous man in the dayes of the Messias ; Many shall be purified and made white and tryed ; but the wicked shall do wickedly : and what then ? None of the wicked shall understand ; but the wise shall understand . Where besides that the wise man and the wicked are opposed , plainly signifying that the wicked man is a Fool and an Ignorant : it is plainly said that None of the wicked shall understand the wisdome and mysteriousnesse of the Kingdome of the Messias . 4. A good life is the best way to understand Wisdome and Religion , because by the experiences and relishes of Religion there is conveyed to them such a sweetnesse , to which all wicked men are strangers : there is in the things of God to them which practice them a deliciousnesse that makes us love them , and that love admits us into Gods Cabinet , and strangely clarifies the understanding by the purification of the heart . For when our reason is raised up by the spirit of Christ , it is turned quickly into experience : when our Faith relyes upon the principles of Christ , it is changed into vision : & so long as we know God only in the wayes of man , by contentious Learning , by arguing and dispute , we see nothing but the shadow of him , and in that shadow we meet with many dark appearances , little certainty and much conjecture : But when we know him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , with the eyes of holinesse and the intuition of gracious experiences , with a quiet spirit and the peace of Enjoyment ; then we shall heare what we never heard , and see what our eyes never saw ; then the mysteries of Godlinesse shall be opened unto us , and cleare as the windows of the morning . And this is rarely well expressed by the Apostle , If we stand up from the dead and awake from sleep , then Christ shall give us light . For although the Scriptures themselves are written by the Spirit of God , yet they are written within and without : and besides the light that shines upon the face of them , unlesse there be a light shining within our hearts , unfolding the leaves and interpreting the mysterious sense of the spirit , convincing our Consciences and preaching to our hearts ; to look for Christ in the leaves of the Gospell , is to look for the living amongst the dead . There is a life in them , but that life is ( according to St. Paul's expression ) hid with Christ in God : and unlesse the spirit of God be the Promo-condus , we shall never draw it forth . Humane Learning brings excellent ministeries towards this : it is admirably usefull for the reproof of Heresies , for the detection of Fallacies , for the Letter of the Scripture , for Collateral testimonies , for exterior advantages ; but there is something beyond this , that humane Learning without the addition of Divine can never teach . Moses was learned in all the learning of the Egyptians ; and the holy men of God contemplated the glories of God in the admirable order , motion and influences of the Heaven : but besides all this , they were taught of God something far beyond these prettinesses . Pythagoras read Moses's Books , and so did Plato ; and yet they became not Proselytes of the Religion , though they were learned Scholars of such a Master . The reason is , because that which they drew forth from thence was not the life and secret of it . Tradidit arcano quodcunque Volumine Moses . There is a secret in these Books , which few men , none but the Godly , did understand : and though much of this secret is made manifest in the Gospel , yet even here also there is a Letter and there is a Spirit : still there is a reserve for Gods secret ones , even all those deep mysteries which the old Testament covered in Figures , and stories , and names , and prophesies , and which Christ hath , and by his Spirit will yet reveale more plainly to all that will understand them by their proper measures . For although the Gospel is infinitely more legible and plain then the obscurer Leaves of the Law , yet there is a seale upon them also : which Seale no man shall open but he that is worthy . We may understand something of it by the three Children of the Captivity ; they were all skil'd in all the wisdom of the Chaldees , and so was Daniel : but there was something beyond that in him ; the wisdom of the most high God was in him , and that taught him a learning beyond his learning . In all Scripture there is a spirituall sense , a spirituall Cabala , which as it tends directly to holiness , so it is best and truest understood by the sons of the Spirit , who love God , and therefore know him . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , every thing is best known by its own similitudes and analogies . But I must take some other time to speak fully of these things . I have but one thing more to say , and then I shall make my Applications of this Doctrine , and so conclude . 5. Lastly , there is a sort of Gods deare Servants who walk in perfectnesse , who perfect holinesse in the feare of God ; and they have a degree of Clarity and divine knowledge more then we can discourse of , and more certain then the Demonstrations of Geometry , brighter then the Sun , and indeficient as the light of Heaven . This is called by the Apostle the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Christ is this brightnesse of God , manifested in the hearts of his dearest servants . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . — But I shall say no more of this at this time , for this is to be felt and not to be talked of ; and they that never touched it with their finger , may secretly perhaps laugh at it in their heart , and be never the wiser . All that I shall now say of it is , that a good man is united unto God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as a flame touches a flame , and combines into splendor and to glory : so is the Spirit of a man united unto Christ by the spirit of God. These are the friends of God , and they best know Gods mind , and they only that are so know how much such men do know . They have a special Unction from above . So that now you are come to the top of all : this is the highest round of the Ladder , and the Angels stand upon it : they dwell in love and Contemplation , they worship and obey , but dispute not ; and our quarrels and impertinent wranglings about Religion are nothing else but the want of the measures of this State. Our light is like a Candle , every wind of vain Doctrine blows it out , or spends the wax , and makes the light tremulous ; but the lights of Heaven are sixed and bright , and shine for ever . But that we may speak not only things mysterious , but things intelligible ; how does it come to passe , by what means and what Oeconomy is it effected , that a holy life is the best determination of all Questions , and the surest way of knowledge ? Is it to be supposed that a Godly man is better enabled to determine the Questions of Purgatory or Transubstantiation ? is the gift of Chastity the best way to reconcile Thomas and Scotus ? and is a temperate man alwayes a better Scholar then a Drunkard ? To this I answer , that in all things in which true wisdom consists , Holinesse , which is the best wisdom , is the surest way of understanding them . And this 1. Is effected by Holinesse as a proper and natural instrument : for naturally every thing is best discerned by its proper light and congenial instrument . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . For as the eye sees visible objects , and the understanding perceives the Intellectual ; so does the spirit the things of the Spirit . The naturall man ( saith St. Paul , ) knows not the things of God , for they are Spiritually discerned : that is , they are discovered by a proper light , and concerning these things an unsanctified man discourses pittifully , with an imperfect Idea , as a blind man does of Light and Colours which he never saw . A good man , though unlearned in secular notices , is like the windows of the Temple , narrow without and broad within : he sees not so much of what profits not abroad , but what soever is within , and concerns Religion and the glorifications of God , that he sees with a broad inspection . But all humane learning without God is but blindnesse and ignorant folly . But when it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , righteousnesse dipt in the wells of Truth , it is like an eye of Gold in a rich Garment , or like the light of Heaven , it shews it self by its own splendor . What Learning is it to discourse of the Philosophy of the Sacrament , if you do not feel the virtue of it ? and the man that can with eloquence and subtilty discourse of the instrumentall efficacy of Baptismal waters , talkes ignorantly in respect of him who hath the answer of a good Conscience within , and is cleansed by the purifications of the Spirit . If the Question concern any thing that can perfect a man and make him happy , all that is the proper knowledge and notice of the good man. How can a wicked man understand the purities of the heart ? and how can an evil and unworthy Communicant tell what it is to have received Christ by faith , to dwell with him , to be united to him , to receive him in his heart ? The good man only understands that : the one sees the colour , and the other feels the substance ; the one discourses of the Sacrament , and the other receives Christ ; the one discourses for or against Transubstantiation , but the good man feels himself to be changed and so joyn'd to Christ , that he only understands the true sense of Transubstantiation , while he becomes to Christ bone of his bone , flesh of his flesh , and of the same spirit with his Lord. We talk much of Reformation , and ( blessed be God ) once we have felt the good of it : But of late we have smarted under the name and pretension . The Woman that lost her groate , everrit domum , not evertit ; she swept the house , she did not turn the house out of doors . That was but an ill Reformation that untiled the Roof , and broak the Walls , and was digging down the Foundation . Now among all the pretensions of Reformation , who can tell better what is , and what is not , true Reformation , then he that is truly Reform'd himself ? He knows what pleases God , and can best tell by what instruments he is reconciled . The mouth of the just bringeth forth wisdom ; and the lips of the righteous know what is acceptable , saith Solomon . He cannot be cousen'd by names of things , and feels that Reformation to be Imposture that is Sacrilegious : himself is humble and obedient , and therefore knows that is not Truth that perswades to Schisme and Disobedience : and most of the Questions of Christendom are such which either are good for nothing , and therefore to be layd aside ; or if they be complicated with action , and are ministeries of practice , no man can judge them so well as the spirituall man. That which best pleases God , that which does good to our Neighbour , that which teaches sobriety , that which combines with Government , that which speaks honour of God and does him honour , that only is Truth . Holinesse therefore is a proper and naturall instrument of Divine knowledge , and must needs be the best way of instruction in the Questions of Christendom , because in the most of them a Duty is complicated with the Proposition . No man that intends to live holily can ever suffer any pretences of Religion to be made to teach him to fight against his King. And when the men of Geneva turned their Bishop out of doors , they might easily have considered that the same person was their Prince too ; and that must needs be a strange Religion that rose up against Moses and Aaron at the same time : but that hath been the method ever since . There was no Church till then was ever Governed without an Apostle or a Bishop : and since then , they who go from their Bishop have said very often to their King too , Nolumus hunc regnare : and when we see men pretending Religion , and yet refuse to own the Kings Supremacy , they may upon the stock of holinesse easily reprove their own folly ; by considering that such recusancy does introduce into our Churches the very worst , the most intolerable parts of Popery . For perfect submission to Kings is the glory of the Protestant cause : and really the reproveable Doctrines of the Church of Rome are by nothing so much confuted , as that they destroy good life by consequent and evident deduction ; as by an Induction of particulars were easie to make apparent , if this were the proper season for it . 2. Holinesse is not only an advantage to the learning all wisdom and holinesse , but for the discerning that which is wise and holy from what is trifling and uselesse and contentious : and to one of these heads all Questions will return : and therefore in all , from Holinesse we have the best Instructions . And this brings me to the next Particle of the generall Consideration . For that which we are taught by the holy Spirit of God , this new nature , this vital principle within us , it is that which is worth our learning ; not vaine and empty , idle and insignificant notions , in which when you have laboured till your eyes are fixed in their Orbes and your flesh unfixed from its bones , you are no better and no wiser . If the Spirit of God be your Teacher , he will teach you such truths as will make you know and love God , and become like to him , and enjoy him for ever , by passing from similitude to union and eternal fruition . But what are you the better if any man should pretend to teach you whether every Angel makes a species ? and what is the individuation of the Soul in the state of separation ? what are you the wiser if you should study and find out what place Adam should for ever have lived in if he had not fallen ? and what is any man the more learned if he heares the disputes , whether Adam should have multiplied Children in the state of Innocence , and what would have been the event of things if one Child had been born before his Fathers sin ? Too many Scholars have lived upon Air and empty notions for many ages past , and troubled themselves with tying and untying Knots , like Hypochondriacs in a fit of Melancholy , thinking of nothing , and troubling themselves with nothing , and falling out about nothings , and being very wise and very learned in things that are not and work not , and were never planted in Paradise by the finger of God. Mens notions are too often like the Mules , begotten by aequivocall and unnaturall Generations ; but they make no species : they are begotten , but they can beget nothing : they are the effects of long study , but they can do no good when they are produced : they are not that which Solomon calls viam intelligentiae , the way of understanding . If the Spirit of God be our Teacher , we shall learn to avoid evil , and to do good , to be wise and to be holy , to be profitable and carefull : and they that walk in this way shall find more peace in their Consciences , more skill in the Scriptures , more satisfaction in their doubts , then can be obtain'd by all the polemical and impertinent disputations of the world . And if the holy spirit can teach us how vain a thing it is to do foolish things , he also will teach us how vain a thing it is to trouble the world with foolish Questions , to disturb the Church for interest or pride , to resist Government in things indifferent , to spend the peoples zeale in things unprofitable , to make Religion to consist in outsides , and opposition to circumstances and trifling regards . No , no , the Man that is wise , he that is conducted by the Spirit of God , knows better in what Christs Kingdom does consist , then to throw away his time and interest and peace and safety ; for what ? for Religion ? no : for the body of Religion ? not so much : for the garment of the body of Religion ? no , not for so much : but for the Fringes of the garment of the Body of Religion ; for such and no better are the disputes that trouble our discontented Brethren ; they are things , or rather Circumstances and manners of things , in which the Soul and spirit is not at all concerned . 3. Holinesse of life is the best way of finding out truth and understanding ; not only as a Naturall medium , nor only as a prudent medium , but as a means by way of Divine blessing . He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them , he it is that loveth me : and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father , and I will love him , and will manifest my self to him . Here we have a promise for it ; and upon that we may rely . The old man that confuted the Arian Priest by a plain recitall of his Creed , found a mighty power of God effecting his own Work by a strange manner , and by a very plain instrument : it wrought a divine blessing just as Sacraments use to doe : and this Lightning sometimes comes in a strange manner as a peculiar blessing to good men . For God kept the secrets of his Kingdom from the wise Heathens and the learned Jewes , revealing them to Babes , not because they had less learning , but because they had more love ; they were children and Babes in Malice , they loved Christ , and so he became to them a light and a glory . St. Paul had more learning then they all ; and Moses was instructed in all the Learning of the Egyptians : yet because he was the meekest man upon Earth , he was also the wisest , and to his humane Learning in which he was excellent , he had a divine light and excellent wisdome superadded to him by way of spiritual blessings . And St. Paul , though he went very far to the knowledge of many great and excellent truths by the force of humane learning , yet he was far short of perfective truth and true wisdom till he learned a new lesson in a new School , at the feet of one greater then his Ganialiel : his learning grew much greater , his notions brighter , his skill deeper , by the love of Christ , and his desires , his passionate desires after Jesus . The force and use of humane learning and of this Divine learning I am now speaking of , are both well expressed by the Prophet Isaiah , 29. 11 , 12. And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a Book that is sealed , which men deliver to one that is learned , saying , Read this , I pray thee : and he saith , I cannot , for it is seal'd . And the Book is delivered to him that is not learned , saying , Read this , I pray thee : and he saith , I am not learned . He that is no learned man , who is not bred up in the Schools of the Prophets , cannot read Gods Book for want of learning . For humane Learning is the gate and first entrance of Divine vision ; not the only one indeed , but the common gate . But beyond this , there must be another learning ; for he that is learned , bring the Book to him , and you are not much the better as to the secret part of it , if the Book be sealed , if his eyes be closed , if his heart be not opened , if God does not speak to him in the secret way of discipline . Humane learning is an excellent Foundation ; but the top-stone is laid by Love and Conformity to the will of God. For we may further observe , that blindnesse , errour and Ignorance are the punishments which God sends upon wicked and ungodly men . Etiamsi propter nostrae intelligentiae tarditatem & vitae demeritum veritas nondum se apertissime ostenderit , was St. Austin's expression . The truth hath not yet been manifested fully to us , by reason of our demerits : our sins have hindred the brightnesse of the truth from shining upon us . And St. Paul observes , that when the Heathens gave themselves over to lusts , God gave them over to strong delusions , and to believe a Lie. But God giveth to a man that is good in his sight , wisdom and knowledge and joy , said the wise Preacher . But this is most expresly promised in the New Testament , and particularly in that admirable Sermon which our blessed Saviour preach'd a little before his death . The Comforter , which is the Holy Ghost , whom the Father will send in my name , he shall teach you all things . Well : there 's our Teacher told of plainly . But how shall we obtain this teacher , and how shall we be taught ? v. 15 , 16 , 17. Christ will pray for us that we may have this spirit . That 's well : but shall all Christians have the spirit ? Yes , all that will live like Christians : for so said Christ , If ye love me , keep my Commandements ; and I will pray the Father , and he will give you another Comforter , that may abide with you for ever ; even the spirit of truth , whom the World cannot receive , because it seeth him not , neither knoweth him . Mark these things . The Spirit of God is our teacher : he will abide with us for ever to be our teacher : he will teach us all things ; but how ? if ye love Christ , if ye keep his Commandments , but not else : if ye be of the World , that is , of worldly affections , ye cannot see him , ye cannot know him . And this is the particular I am now to speak to , The way by which the Spirit of God teaches us in all the wayes and secrets of God is Love and Holinesse . Secreta Dei Deo nostro et filiis domus ejus , Gods secrets are to himself and the sons of his House , saith the Jewish Proverb . Love is the great instrument of Divine knowledge , that is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the height of all that is to be taught or learned . Love is Obedience , and we learn his words best when we practise them : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Aristotle : those things which they that learn ought to practise , even while they practise they will best learn. Quisquis non venit , profectò nec didicit : Ita enim Dominus docet per Spiritus gratiam , ut quod quisque didicerit , non tantum cognoscendo videat , sed etiam volendo appetat & agendo perficiat . St. Austin De gratia Christi lib. 1. c. 14. Unlesse we come to Christ , we shall never learn : for so our Blessed Lord teaches us by the grace of his spirit , that what any one learns , he not only sees it by knowledge , but desires it by choice , and perfects it by practice . 4. When this is reduced to practice and experience , we find not only in things of practise , but even in deepest mysteries , not only the choicest and most eminent Saints , but even every good man can best tell what is true , and best reprove an error . He that goes about to speak of and to understand the mysterious Trinity , and does it by words and names of mans invention , or by such which signifie contingently , if he reckons this mystery by the Mythology of Numbers , by the Cabala of Letters , by the distinctions of the School , and by the weak inventions of disputing people ; if he only talks of Essences and existencies , Hypostases and personalities , distinctions without difference , and priority in Coequalities , and unity in Pluralities , and of superior Praedicates of no larger extent then the inferior Subjects , may amuse himself , and find his understanding will be like St. Peters upon the Mount of Tabor at the Transfiguration : he may build three Tabernacles in his head , and talke something , but he knows not what . But the good man that feels the power of the Father , and he to whom the Son is become Wisdom , Righteousnesse , Sanctification , and Redemption ; he in whose heart the love of the Spirit of God is spread , to whom God hath communicated the Holy Ghost , the Comforter ; this man , though he understands nothing of that which is unintelligible , yet he only understands the mysteriousnesse of the Holy Trinity . No man can be convinced well and wisely of the Article of the Holy , Blessed and Undivided Trinity , but he that feels the mightiness of the Father begetting him to a new life , the wisdome of the Son building him up in a most holy Faith , and the love of the spirit of God making him to become like unto God. He that hath passed from his Childhood in Grace under the spirituall generation of the Father , and is gone forward to be a young man in Christ , strong and vigorous in holy actions and holy undertakings , and from thence is become an old Disciple , and strong and grown old in Religion , and the conversation of the Spirit ; this man best understands the secret and undiscernable Oeconomie , he feels this unintelligible mysterie , and sees with his heart what his tongue can never express , and his Metaphysics can never prove . In these cases Faith and Love are the best Knowledge , and Jesus Christ is best known by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ ; and if the Kingdom of God be in us , then we know God , and are known of him : and when we communicate of the Spirit of God , when we pray for him , and have received him , and entertained him , and dwelt with him , and warmed our selves by his holy fires , then we know him too . But there is no other satisfactory knowledge of the Blessed Trinity but this : And therefore whatever thing is spoken of God Metaphysically , there is no knowing of God Theologically and as he ought to be known , but by the measures of Holinesse and the proper light of the Spirit of God. But in this case Experience is the best learning , and Christianity is the best institution , and the Spirit of God is the best teacher , and Holinesse is the greatest wisdome ; and he that sins most is the most Ignorant , and the humble and obedient man is the best Scholar . For the Spirit of God is a loving Spirit , and will not enter into a polluted Soul : But he that keepeth the Law getteth the understanding thereof , and the perfection of the fear of the Lord is wisdom , said the wise Ben-Sirach . And now give me leave to apply the Doctrine to you , and so I shall dismisse you from this attention . Many wayes have been attempted to reconcile the differences of the Church in matters of Religion , and all the Counsels of man have yet proved ineffective . Let us now try Gods Method , let us betake our selves to live holily , and then the spirit of God will lead us into all truth . And indeed it matters not what Religion any man is of , if he be a Villaine ; the opinion of his Sect , as it will not save his Soul , so neither will it do good to the publick . But this is a sure Rule ; If the holy man best understands Wisdom and Religion , then by the proportions of holinesse we shall best measure the Doctrines that are obtruded to the disturbance of our peace , and the dishonour of the Gospell . And therefore 1. That is no good Religion whose Principles destroy any duty of Religion . He that shall maintain it to be lawfull to make a War for the defence of his Opinion be it what it will , his Doctrine is against Godlinesse . Any thing that is proud , any thing that is peevish and scornful , any thing that is uncharitable , is against the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that forme of sound Doctrine which the Apostle speaks of . And I remember that Ammianus Marcellinus telling of George a proud and factious Minister , that he was an Informer against his Brethren , he sayes , he did it oblitus professionis suae , quae nil nisi justum suadet & lene ; He forgot his profession , which teaches nothing but justice and meeknesse , kindnesses and charity . And however Bellarmine and others are pleased to take but indirect and imperfect notice of it , yet Goodnesse is the best note of the true Church . 2. It is but an ill sign of Holinesse when a man is busie in troubling himself and his Superior in little Scruples and Phantastick Opinions about things not concerning the life of Religion , or the pleasure of God , or the excellencies of the Spirit . A good man knows how to please God , how to converse with him , how to advance the Kingdome of the Lord Jesus , to set forwards Holinesse and the love of God and of his Brother ; and he knows also that there is no Godliness in spending our time and our talk , our heart and our spirits , about the garments and outsides of Religion . And they can ill teach others , that do not know that Religion does not consist in these things ; but Obedience may , and reductively that is Religion ; and he that for that which is no part of Religion destroys Religion directly , by neglecting that duty that is adopted into Religion , is a man of fancy and of the World : but he gives but an ill account that he is a man of God , and a son of the Spirit . Spend not your time in that which profits not ; for your labour and your health , your time and your studies are very valuable ; and it is a thousand pitties to see a diligent and a hopefull person spend himself in gathering Cockle-shells and little pebbles , in telling Sands upon the shores , and making Garlands of uselesse Daisies . Study that which is profitable , that which will make you useful to Churches and Common-wealths , that which will make you desirable and wise . Onely I shall add this to you , That in Learning there are variety of things as well as in Religion : there is Mint and Cummin , and there are the weighty things of the Law ; so there are studies more and lesse usefull , and every thing that is usefull will be required in its time : and I may in this also use the words of our blessed Saviour , These things ought you to look after , and not to leave the other unregarded . But your great care is to be in the things of God and of Religion , in holiness and true wisdom , remembring the saying of Origen , that the knowledge that arises from goodnesse is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , something that is more certain and more divine then all demonstration , then all other Learnings of the World. 3. That 's no good Religion that disturbs Governments , or shakes a foundation of publick peace . Kings and Bishops are the foundations and the great principles of unity , of peace and Government ; like Rachel and Leah they build up the house of Israel : and those blind Samsons that shake these Pillars intend to pull the house down . My Son , fear God and the King , saith Solomon ; and meddle not with them that are given to change . That is not Truth that loves changes : and the new-nothings of Heretical & Schismatical Preachers are infinitely far from the blessings of Truth . In the only Language Truth hath a Mysterious Name , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Emet ; it consists of three Letters , the first and the last and the middle most of the Hebrew Letters : implying to us that Truth is first , and will be last , and it is the same all the way , and combines and unites all extreams ; it tyes all ends together . Truth is lasting , and ever full of blessing . For the Jews observe that those Letters which signifie Truth , are both in the figure and the number Quadrate , firme and cubical ; these signifie a foundation , and an abode for ever . Whereas on the other side , the word which in Hebrew signifies a lye , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Secher , is made of Letters whose numbers are imperfect , and their figure pointed and voluble : to signifie that a Lye hath no foundation . And this very observation will give good light in our Questions and disputes . And I give my instance in Episcopal Government , which hath been of so lasting an abode , of so long a blessing , hath its firmament by the principles of Christianity , hath been blessed by the issues of that stabiliment , it hath for sixteen hundred yeares combined with Monarchy , and hath been taught by the spirit which hath so long dwelt in Gods Church , and hath now ( according to the promise of Jesus , that sayes the gates of Hell shall never prevail against the Church ) been restored amongst us by a heap of Miracles ; and as it went away , so now it is returned againe in the hand of Monarchy , and in the bosome of our Fundamental Laws . Now that Doctrine must needs be suspected of Error and an intolerable Lye that speaks against this Truth , which hath had so long a testimony from God , and from the wisdome and experience of so many ages , of all our Ancestors , and all our Lawes . When the Spirit of God wrote in Greek , Christ is call'd A and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : if he had spoken Hebrew , he had been called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is Christ is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Emet , he is Truth , the same yesterday and to day and for ever : and whoever opposes this holy Sanction which Christs Spirit hath sanctifyed , his word hath warranted , his blessings have endeared , his promises have ratifyed , and his Church hath alwayes kept , he fights against this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Emet , and Secher is his portion ; his Lot is a Lie , his portion is there where holiness can never dwell . And now to conclude , to you Fathers and Brethren , you who are , or intend to be of the Clergie ; you see here the best Compendium of your Studies , the best abbreviature of your labours , the truest method of wisdom , and the infallible , the only way of judging concerning the Disputes and Questions in Christendom . It is not by reading multitude of Books , but by studying the truth of God : it is not by laborious Commentaries of the Doctors that you can finish your work , but by the expositions of the Spirit of God : is is not by the Rules of Metaphysics , but by the proportions of Holinesse : and when all Books are read , and all Arguments examined , and all Authorities alledged , nothing can be found to be true that is unholy . Give your selves to reading , to exhortation , and to Doctrine , saith St. Paul. Read all good Books you can : but exhortation unto good life is the best Instrument , and the best teacher of true Doctrine , of that which is according to Godlinesse . And let me tell you this , The great learning of the Fathers was more owing to their piety then to their skill ; more to God then to themselves : and to this purpose is that excellent ejaculation of St. Chrysostome , with which I will conclude . O blessed and happy men , whose names are in the Book of life , from whom the Devils fled and Heretics did feare them , who ( by Holinesse ) have stopp'd the mouthes of them that spake perverse things ! But I , like David , will cry out , Where are thy loving-kindnesses which have been ever of old ? Where is the blessed Quire of Bishops and Doctors , who shined like lights in the World , and contained the Word of Life ? Dulce est meminisse ; their very memory is pleasant . Where is that Evodias , the sweet favour of the Church , the successor and imitator of the holy Apostles ? where is Ignatius , in whom God dwelt ? where is St. Dionysius the Areopagite , that Bird of Paradise , that celestial Eagle ? where is Hippolytus , that good man , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that gentle sweet person ? where is great St. Basil , a man almost equall to the Apostles ? where is Athanasius , rich in vertue ? where is Gregory Nyssen , that great Divine ? and Ephrem the great Syrian , that stirred up the sluggish , and awakened the sleepers , and comforted the afflicted , and brought the yong men to discipline , the Looking-glasse of the religious , the Captain of the Penitents , the destruction of Heresies , the receptacle of Graces , and the habitation of the holy Ghost ? These were the men that prevailed against Error , because they lived according to Truth : and whoever shall oppose you and the truth you walk by , may better be confuted by your lives then by your disputations . Let your adversaries have no evil thing to say of you , and then you will best silence them . For all Heresies and false Doctrines are but like Myron's counterfeit Cow , it deceived none but Beasts ; and these can cozen none but the wicked and the negligent , them that love a lye and live according to it . [ But if ye become burning and shining lights ; if ye do not detaine the truth in unrighteousnesse ; if ye walk in light and live in the Spirit ; your Doctrines will be true , and that Truth will prevaile . ] But if ye live wickedly and scandalously , every little Schismatick shall put you to shame , and draw Disciples after him , and abuse your flocks , and feed them with Colocynths and Hemlock , and place Her●●● in the Chaires appointed for your Religion . I pray God give you all grace to follow this Wisdom , to study this Learning , to labour for the understanding of Godlinesse : so your time and your studies , your persons and your labours will by holy and useful , sanctified and blessed , beneficiall to men and pleasing unto God , through him who is the wisdom of the Father , who is made to all that love him Wisdom and Righteousnesse and Sanctification and Redemption : To whom with the Father , &c. FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A64144-e100 Ecclus. 5. 10. Vulg. edit . Lat. Notes for div A64144-e530 Psal. 111. ver . 10. Psal. 119. Nazianz. ad Philagrium . 2 Pet. 1. 1 Joh. 2. 27. 1 Cor. 2 14. Dan. 12. 10. Eph. 5. 14. Prov. 10. 31 , 32. John 14. 21. Rom. 1. 25 , 26. Eccl. 2. 26. John 14. 26. Lib. 2. Ethic. c. 1. Nullum bonum perfectè noscitur quod non perfectè amatur . Aug. lib. 83. qu. de gratia Christi . Ecclus. 21. 11. Lib. de Consummat . saeculi , inter opera Ephrem Syri . 
A63706	----	Clerus Domini, or, A discourse of the divine institution, necessity, sacredness, and separation of the office ministerial together with the nature and manner of its power and operation : written by the special command of King Charles the First / by Jer. Taylor. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. 1672 Approx. 267 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 41 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2003-05 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A63706 Wing T299 ESTC R13445 07884602 ocm 07884602 40276 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A63706) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 40276) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1214:13) Clerus Domini, or, A discourse of the divine institution, necessity, sacredness, and separation of the office ministerial together with the nature and manner of its power and operation : written by the special command of King Charles the First / by Jer. Taylor. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. Rules and advices to the clergy of the diocesse of Down and Connor. Rust, George, d. 1670. Funeral sermon preached at the obsequies of the Right Reverend Father in God Jeremy Lord Bishop of Down. 79 p. Printed for R. Royston, London : 1672. Also includes Rules and advices to the clergy of the diocesse of Down and Connor, and A funeral sermon preached at the obsequies of the right reverend Father in God, Jeremy, Lord Bishop of Down. Reproduction of original in the Union Theological Seminary Library, New York. 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Theology, Practical -- Early works to 1800. 2002-12 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2003-02 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2003-03 Rina Kor Sampled and proofread 2003-03 Rina Kor Text and markup reviewed and edited 2003-04 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion CLERUS DOMINI : OR , A DISCOURSE OF THE DIVINE INSTITUTION , Necessity , Sacredness , and Separation OF THE Office Ministerial . TOGETHER WITH THE NATURE AND MANNER of its Power and Operation . WRITTEN By the special Command of King Charles the First . By IER . TAYLOR , Chaplain in Ordinary to King Charles the First , and late Lord Bishop of Down and Connor . LONDON , Printed for R. Royston , Bookseller to the King 's most Excellent Majesty . 1672. THE Divine Institution and Necessity OF THE OFFICE MINISTERIAL . SECT . I. WHen several Nations and differing Religions have without any famous mutual intercourse agreed upon some common rites and forms of Religion ; because one common effect cannot descend from chance , it is certain they come to them by reason , or tradition from their common Parents , or by imitation ; something that hath a common influence . If Reason be the principle , then it is more regular and lasting , and admits of no other variety , than as some men grow unreasonable , or that the reason ceases . If Tradition be the fountain , then it is not only universal , and increases as the world is peopled , but remains also so long as we retain reverence to our Parents , or that we do not think our selves wiser than our forefathers . But these two have produced Customs and Laws of the highest obligation : for whatsoever we commonly call the Law of Nature , it is either a custom of all the world , derived from Noah or Adam ; or else it is therefore done , because natural reason teaches us to do it in the order to the preservation of our selves and the publick . But imitation of the customs of a wise Nation , is something less , and yet it hath produced great consent in external rites and offices of Religion . And since there is in Ceremonies so great indifferency , there being no antecedent Law to determine their practice , nothing in their nature to make them originally necessary , they grow into a Custom or a Law , according as they are capable . For if a wise Prince , or Governour , or a Nation , or a famous family , hath chosen rites of common Religion , such as were consonant to the Analogy of his duty , expressive of his sence , decent in the expression , grave in the form , or full of ornament in their representment ; such a thing is capable of no greater reason , and needs no greater authority , but hath been , and may reasonably enough be imitated upon the reputation of their wisdom , and disinterested choice , who being known wise persons , or nations , took them first into their religious offices . Thus the Jews and the Gentiles used a white garments in their holy offices , and the Christians thought it reasonable enough from so united example to do so too . Example was reason great enough for that . The b Gentile-Priests were forbid to touch a dead body , to c eat leavened bread , to d mingle with secular imployments during their attendance in holy offices ; these they took up from the pattern of the Jews , and professed it reasonable to imitate a wise people in the rituals of their Religion . The Gentile-Priests used Ring and Staffe and Mitre ( saith Philostratus : ) the Primitive Bishops did so too ; and in the highest detestation of their follies thought they might wisely enough imitate their innocent customs and Priestly ornaments , and hoped they might better reconcile their minds to the Christian Religion by compliance in ceremonials , than exasperate them by rejecting their ancient and innocent Ceremonies : for so the Apostles invited and inticed Judaism into Christianity . And Tertullian complains of the Devils craft , who by imitating the Christian rites reconciled mens minds with that compliance to a more charitable opinion of the Gentile superstition . The Devil intending to draw the professors of truth to his own portion , or to preserve his own in the same fetters he first put upon them , imitates the rites of our Religion , adopting them into his superstition . He baptizes some of his disciples , and when he initiates them to the worship of Mithra , promises them pardon of sins , by that rite ; he signs his soldiers in their foreheads , he represents the oblation of bread , and introduces representments of the resurrection , and laboriously gets Martyrs to his cause . His Priests marry but once ; he hath his virgins , and his abstemious and continent followers : that what Christians love and the world commends in them , being adopted into the rituals of Idolatry , may allure some with the beauty and fair imagery , and abuse others with colour and phantastick faces . And thus also all wise men that intended to perswade others to their religion , did it by retaining as much as they innocently could of the other , that the change might not be too violent , and the persons be more endeared by common rites and the relation and charity of likeness and imitation . Thus did the Church and the Synagogue ; thus did the Gentiles both to the Jews and to the Christians ; and all wise men did so . e The Gentiles offered first-fruits to their gods , and their tithes to Hercules , f kept vigils and anniversaries , forbad marriages without the consent of Parents , and clandestine contracts ; these were observed with some variety according as the people were civil or learned ; and according to the degree of the tradition , or as the thing was reasonable , so these customs were more or less universal . But when all wise people , nay when absolutely all the world have consented upon a Rite , it cannot derive from a fountain lower than the current , but it must either be a Command which God hath given to all the world : ( and so Socrates in Xenophon , Quod ab omnibus gentibus observatum est , id non nisi à Deo sancitum esse dicendum est ) or a tradition , or a law descending from our common parents , or a reason derived from the nature of things ; there cannot in the world be any thing great enough to take away such a rite , except an express divine commandment : and a man by the same reason may marry his nearest relative , as he may deny to worship God by the recitation of his praises and excellencies ; because reason and a very common tradition have made almost all the world consent in these two things , that we must abstain from the mixtures of our nearest kindred , and that we must worship God by recounting and declaring excellent things concerning him . I have instanced in two things in which I am sure to find the fewest adversaries , ( I said , the fewest ; for there are some men which have lost all humanity : ) but these two great Instances are not attested with so universal a tradition and practice of the world , as this that is now in question . For in some nations they have married their sisters , so did the Magi among the Persians : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , says Tatianus in Clemens Alexandrinus , and Bardisanes Syrus in Eusebius . And the Greeks worshipped Hercules by railing , and Mercury by throwing stones at him . But there was never any people but had their Priests and Presidents of religious rites , and kept holy things within a mure , that the people might not approach to handle the mysteries : and therefore besides that it is a recession from the customs of mankind , and charges us with the dis-respect of all the world ( which is an incuriousness next to infinite ) it is also a doing against that which all the reason of all the wise men of the world have chosen antecedently , or ex pòst facto , and he must have a strange understanding , who is not perswaded by that which hath determined all the world . For religion cannot be at all in communities of men without some to guide , to minister , to preserve and to prescribe the offices and ministeries : what can profane holy things but that which makes them common ? and what can make them common more than when common persons handle them , when there is no distinction of Persons in their ministration ? For , although places are good accessories to religion , yet in all religions they were so accidental to it , that a sacrifice might hallow the place , but the place ( unless it were naturally impure ) could not desecrate the sacrifice : and therefore Iacob worshipped upon a stone , offered upon a turf ; and the Ark rested in Obed-Edom's house , and was holy in Dagon's Temple ; and hills and groves , fields and orchards , according to the several customs of the Nations , were the places of address : But a common person ministring , was so near a circumstance , and was so mingled with the action , that since that material part and exterior actions of Religion could be acted and personated by any man , there was scarce any thing left to make it religious , but the attrectation of the rites by a holy person ; A Holy place is something , a separate time is something , a prescript form of words is more , and separate and solemn actions are more yet ; but all these are made common by a common person , and therefore without a distinction of persons have not a natural and reasonable distinction of solemnity and exterior religion . And indeed it were a great disreputation to religion , that all great and publick things , and every artifice or profitable science should in all the societies of men be distinguished by professors , artists , and proper ministers ; and only religion should lie in common , apt to be bruised by the hard hand of mechanicks , and sullied by the ruder touch of undiscerning and undistinguished persons ; for although the light of it shines to all , and so far every mans interest is concerned in religion , yet it were not handsome that every man should take the taper in his hand ; and religion is no more to be handled by all men , than the laws are to be dispensed by all , by whom they are to be obeyed ; though both in religion and the laws , all men have a common interest . For since all means must have some equality or proportion towards their end , that they may of their own being or by institution be symbolical , it is but reasonable that by elevated and sublimed instruments we should be promoted towards an end supernatural and divine ; now besides , that of all the instruments of distinction , the Person is the most principal and apt for the honour of Religion ( and to make our Religion honourable is part of the Religion it self ) it is also apt for the uses of it , such as are , preserving the rights , ordering , decent ministration , dispensing the laws of Religion , judging causes , ceremonies and accidents ; and he that appoints not offices to minister his Religion , cares not how it is performed ; and he that cares so little , will find a great contempt pass upon it , and a cheapness meaner than of the meanest civil offices ; and he that is content with that , cares not how little honour God receives , when he presents to him a cheap , a common , and a dishonourable Religion . But the very natural design of Religion forces us to a distinction of persons , in order to the ministration ; for besides that every man is not fit to approach to God with all his sordes , and adherent indispositions ; an assignment in reason must be made of certain persons , whose calling must be holy , and their persons taught to be holy , by such a solemn and religious assignment ; that those persons being made higher than the people by their Calling and Religion , and yet our brethren in Nature , may be intermedial between God and the people , and present to God the peoples needs , and be instrumental to the reconveying Gods blessing upon those whose fiduciaries they are . This last depends upon Gods own act and designation , and therefore must afterwards be proved by testimonies of his own , that he hath accepted such persons to such purposes ; but the former part we our selves are taught by natural reason , by the rules of proportion , by the honour we owe unto Religion , by the hopes of our own advantages , and by the distance between God and us towards which we should thrust up persons as high as they are capable . And that all the world hath done prudently in this , we are confirmed by Gods own act , who knowing it was most agreeable , not only to the constitution of Religion , and of our addresses to God , but to our meer necessities also , did in his glorious wisdom send his Son , and made him apt to become a mediator between himself and us , by cloathing him with our nature , and decking him with great participation of his own excellencies , that He might do our work , the work of his own humane nature , and by his great sanctity and wisdom approach near to Gods mercy-seat , whither our imperfections and sins could not have near access . And this consideration is not only good Reason but true Divinity , and was a consideration in the Greek Church , and affixed to the head of a prayer as the reason of their addresses to God in designing ministers in Religion . O Lord God , who because mans nature cannot of it self approach to thy glorious Deity , hast appointed Masters and Teachers of the same passions with our selves , whom thou hast placed in thy throne , viz. in the ministery of the kingdom , to bring sacrifices and oblations in behalf of thy people , &c. And indeed if the greatness of an imployment separates persons from the vulgus , either we must think the immediate offices of Religion and the entercourse with God to be the meanest of imployments , or the persons so officiating to receive their estimate according to the excellency of their offices . And thus it was amongst the Jews and Gentiles before Christ's time , amongst whom they not only separated persons for the service of their gods respectively , but chose the best of men and the Princes of the people to officiate in their mysteries , and adorned them with the greatest honours and special immunities . Among the Jews , the Priesthood was so honourable , that although the expectation which each Tribe had of the Messias was reason enough to make them observe the law of distinct marriages , yet it was permitted to the Tribe of Levi to marry with the Kingly Tribe of Iudah , that they also might have the honour and portion of the Messias's most glorious generation ; and for the Priesthood of Aaron it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith Philo , a Celestial honour , not an earthly , a heavenly possession , and it grew so high and was so naturalized into that Nation to honour their Priests and mystick persons , that they made it the pretence of their Wars and mutinies against their Conquerors . Honor sacerdotii firmamentum potentiae assumebatur , saith Tacitus , speaking of their wars against Antiochus ; The honour of their Priesthood was the strength of their cause , and the pretence of their arms ; and all the greatest honour they could do to their Priesthood they fairly derived from a Divine precept , that the Prince , and the People , and the Elders , and the Synagogue , should go in and out , that is , should commence and finish their greatest and most solemn actions at the voice and command of the Priest ; And therefore King Agrippa did himself honour in his Epistle to Caius Caesar : I had Kings that were my ancestors , and some of them were High Priests , which dignity they esteemed higher than their Royal purple , believing that Priesthood to be greater than the Kingdom , as God is greater than men . And this great estimate of the Ministers of their Religion derived it self from the Jews unto their enemies the Philistines , that dwelt upon their skirts ; insomuch that in the hill of God where there was a garison of the Philistines , there was also a colledge of the Prophets newly instituted by Samuel ( from whom because he was their founder S. Peter reckoned the ordinary descent from Samuel ) unharmed and undisturbed , though they were enemies to the Nation ; and when David fled from Saul , he came to Naioth where the prophets dwelt , and thought to take sanctuary there , knowing it was a priviledged place ; there it was where Sauls messengers , and Saul himself turned Prophets , that they might estimate the place and preserve its priviledge , himself becoming one of their society . For this was observed amongst all Nations , that besides the band of humanity forbidding souldiers to touch unarmed peopled , as by all Religions and all Nations Priests ever were , the very sacredness of their persons should exempt them from violence , and the chances or insolencies of war. Thus the Cretians did to their Priests and to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the persons who were appointed for burial of the dead , the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or fossarii in the Primitive Church , no souldiers durst touch them ; they had the priviledge of Religion , the immunity of Priests , Hos quae necabant non erant purae manus ; and therefore it grew up into a proverb , when they intended to express a most destructive and unnatural war , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , not so much as the Priests that carried fire before the Army did escape ; the same with that in Homer in the case of messengers , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — Not so much as a messenger returned into the City : These were sacred and therefore exempt persons ; and so were the Elei among the Grecians , as being sacred to Iupiter , safe from the hostility of a professed enemy ; the same which was observed amongst the Romans , Quis homo est tantâ confidentiâ , Qui sacerdotem audeat violare ! At magno cum malo suo fecit Herculé . But this is but one instance of advantage . The Gentiles having once separated their Priests , and affixed them to the ministeries of religion , thought nothing great enough either to express the dignity of their imployment , or good enough to do honour to their persons , and it is largely discoursed of by Cicero , in the case of the Roman Augures , Maximum autem & praestantissimum in Rep. jus est Augurum , cum est authoritati conjunctum ; neque verò hoc quia sum ipse Augur ita sentio , sed quia sic existimare nos necesse est . Quid enim majus est , si de jure quaerimus , quàm posse à summis imperiis & summis potestatibus comitia tollere ? concilia vel instituta dimittere , vel habita rescindere ? Quid magnificentius quàm posse decernere , ut migistratu se abdicent consules ? quid religiosius quàm cum populo , cum plebe agendi jus aut dare aut non dare ? It was a vast power these men had , to be in proportion to their greatest honour : they had power of bidding and dissolving publick meetings , of indicting solemnities of religion ; just as the Christian Bishops had in the beginning of Christianity ; they commanded publick fasts , at their indiction only they were celebrated ; Benè autem quòd & Episcopi universae plebi mandare jejunia assolent ; non dico industriâ stipium conferendarum , ut vestrae capturae est , sed interdum , & aliquâ sollicitudinis Ecclesiasticae causâ . The Bishops also called publick conventions Ecclesiastical . Agantur praecepta per Graecias illas certis in locis Concilia ex universis Ecclesiis , per quae & altiora quaeque in commune tractantur , & ipsa repraesentatio totius nominis Christiani magnâ veneratione celebratur . It was so in all Religions ; the Antistites , the presidents of rites , and guides of Consciences had great immissions and influences into the Republick , and Communities of men , and they verified the saying of Tacitus , Deum munere summum pontificem , etiam summum hominem esse , non aemulatione , non odio , aut privatis affectionibus obnoxium . The chief Priest was ever the chief man , and free from the envies , and scorns and troubles of popular peevishness and contumacy ; and that I may use the expression of Tacitus , Utque glisceret dignatio sacerdotum , ( for all the great traverses of the Republick were in their disposing ) atque ipsis promptior animus foret ad capessendas ceremonias , the very lower institutions of their Religion were set up with the marks of special laws and priviledges ; insomuch that the seat of the Empress in the Theatre was among the Vestal Virgins . But the highest had all that could be heaped upon them , till their honours were as sublimed as their functions . * Amongst the Ethiopians the Priests gave laws to their Princes , and they used their power sometimes to the ruine of their Kings , till they were justly removed ; | Among the Egyptians the Priests were their Judges ; so they were in Athens , for the Areopagites were Priests ; and the Druids among the Gauls were Judges of murder , of titles of land , of bounds and inheritances , magno apud eos sunt honore , nam ferè de omnibus controversiis publicis privatisque constituunt ; and for the Magi of Persia and India , Strabo reports , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they conversed with Kings , meaning they were their Counsellors and Guides of their consciences . And Herodotus in Eustathius tells us of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the divine order of Prophets or Priests in Delphos : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they did eat of the publick provisions together with Kings . By these honours they gave testimony of their Religion , not only separating certain persons for the service of their Temples , but also separating their condition from the impurities and the contempt of the world ; as knowing , that they who were to converse with their Gods , were to be elevated from the common condition of men and vulgar miseries . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . As soon as I was made a Priest of Idaean Iupiter , all my garments were white , and I declined to converse with mortals . Novae sortis oportet illum esse qui jubente Deo canat , said Seneca . He had need be of a distinct and separate condition that sings to the honour , and at the command of God : thus it was among the Jews and Heathens . SECT . II. NOW if Christian Religion should do otherwise than all the world hath done , either it must be because the rites of Christianity are of no mystery and secret dispensation , but common actions of an ordinary address , and cheap devotion ; or else , because we undervalue all Religion , that is , because indeed we have nothing of it : The first , is dishonourable to Christianity , and false as its greatest enemy : The second , is shame to us : and both so unreasonable and unnatural , that if we separate not certain persons for the ministeries of Christianity , we must consess we have the worst Religion , or that we are the worst of men . But let us consider it upon its proper grounds . When Christ had chosen to himself twelve Apostles , and was drawing now to the last scene of his life , he furnished them with commissions and abilities to constitute and erect a Church , and to transmit such powers as were apt for its continuation and perpetuity . And therefore to the Apostles in the capacity of Church-officers , he made a promise , That he would be with them to the end of the world ; they might personally be with him until the end of the world , but he could not be here with them , who after a short course run , was to go hence , and be no more seen : and therefore for the verification of the promise , it is necessary that since the promise was made for the benefit of the Church , and to them as the ministers of the benefit , so long as the benefit was to be dispensed , so long they were to be succeded to , and therefore assisted by the Holy Jesus according to the glorious promise : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Not only to the Apostles , but absolutely and indefinitely to all Christs disciples , their successors , he promised to abide for ever , even to the consummation of the world , to the whole succession of the Clergy : so Theophylact upon this place . And if we consider what were the power and graces Jesus committed to the dispensation of the Apostles , such as were not temporary , but lasting , successive , and perpetual , we must also conclude the ministery to be perpetual . I instance first in the power of binding and loosing , remitting and retaining sins , which Christ gave them together with his breathing on them the holy Spirit , and a legation , and a special Commission , as appears in S. Iohn ; which power , what sence soever it admits of , could not expire with the persons of the Apostles , unless the succeeding ages of the Church had no discipline , or government , no scandals to be removed , no weak persons offended , no corrupt members to be cut off , no hereticks rejected , no sins , or no pardon ; and that were a more heresie , than that of the Novatians ; for they only denied this ministery in some cases ; not in all : saying , Priestly absolution was not fit to be dispensed to them , who in time of persecution had sacrificed to Idols . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , To these ] only , pardon is to be dispensed without the ministery of the Priest , To these ] who were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , sacrificers , and mingled the table of the Lord with the table of devils . Against other sinners they were not so severe . But however , so long as that distinction remains , of sins unto death , and sins not unto death ; there are a certain sort of sins which are remediable , and cognoscible , and judicable , and a power was dispensed to a distinct sort of persons , to remit or retain those sins ; which therefore must remain with the Apostles for ever , that is , with their persons first , and then with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , with their successors ; because the Church needs it for ever ; and there was nothing in the power , that by relating to the present and temporary occasion did insinuate its short life and speedy expiration . In execution of this power and pursuance of this commission , for which the power was given ; the Apostles went forth , and all they upon whom this signature passed , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , executed this power in appropriation and distinct ministery : it was the sword of their proper ministery ; and S. Paul does almost exhibite his Commission and reads the words , when he puts it in execution , and does highly verifie the parts and the consequence of this argument ; God hath reconciled us to himself by Christ Iesus , and hath given to us the ministery of reconciliation ; and it follows , now then we are Embassadors for Christ. The ministery of reconciliation , is an appropriate ministery ; It is committed to us ; we are Embassadors , it is appropriate by vertue of Christs mission , and legation . He hath given to us , he hath made and deputed certain Embassadors whom he hath sent upon the message , and ministry of reconcilement ; which is a plain exposition of the words of his Commission , before recorded , Iohn 20. 21. And that this also descended lower , we have the testimony of S. Iames , who advises the sick person to send for the Elders of the Church , that they may pray over him ; that they may anoint him , that in that society there may be confession of sins by the clinick or sick person , and that after these preparatives , and in this ministery , his sins may be forgiven him . Now that this power fell into succession , this instance proves ; for the Elders were such who had not the commission immediately from Christ , but were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they were fathers of the people , but sons of the Apostles , and therefore it is certain the power was not personal , and meerly Apostolical , but derived upon others by such a communication , as gives evidence the power was to be succeeded in ; And when went it out ? when the anointing and miraculous healing ceased ? There is no reason for that . For forgiveness of sins was not a thing visible , and therefore could not be of the nature of miracles to confirm the faith and christianity first , and after its work was done return to God that gave it ; neither could it be only of present use to the Church , but as eternal and lasting as sin is : and therefore there could be nothing in the nature of the thing to make it so much as suspicious , it was presently to expire . To which also I add this consideration , that the Holy Ghost which was to enable the Apostles in the precise office Apostolical , as it was an office extraordinary , circumstantionate , definite , and to expire , all that , was promised should descend upon them after Christs ascension , and was verified in Pentecost ; for to that purpose to bring all things to their mind , all of Christs Doctrine and all that was necessary of his life and miracles , and a power from above to enable them to speak boldly and learnedly , and with tongues , all that , besides the other parts of ordinary power , was given them ten days after the Ascension . And therefore the breathing the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles in the octaves of the Resurrection , and this mission with such a power , was their ordinary mission , a sending them as ordinary Pastors and Curates of Souls , with a power to govern ( binding and loosing can mean no less : and they were the words of the promise ) with a power to minister reconciliation : ( for so Saint Paul expounds remitting and retaining ) which two were the great hinges of the Gospel , the one to invite and collect a Church , the other to govern it ; the one to dispense the greatest blessing in the world , the other to keep them in capacities of enjoying it . For since the holy Ghost was now actually given to these purposes here expressed , and yet in order to all their extraordinaries and temporary needs was promised to descend after this , there is no collection from hence more reasonable , than to conclude all this to be part of their commission of ordinary Apostleship , to which the ministers of religion were in all Ages to succeed . In attestation of all which , who please may see the united testimony of a S. Cyril , b S. Chrysostome , c S. Ambrose , d S. Gregory and the e Author of the questions of the old and new Testament , who unless by their calling shall rather be called persons interess'd , than by reason of their famous piety and integrity , shall be accepted as competent , are a very credible and fair representment of this truth , and that it was a doctrine of Christianity , that Christ gave this power to the Apostles for themselves , and their successors for ever , and that therefore as Christ in the first donation , so also some Churches in the tradition of that power used the same form of words , intending the collation of the same power , and separating persons for that work of that ministery . I end this with the counsel S. Augustine gives to all publick penitents , Veniat ad Antistites , per quos illis in Ecclesia claves ministrantur , & à praepositis sacrorum accipiant satisfactionis suae modum , let them come to the Presidents of Religion by whom the Keys are ministred , and from the Governours of holy things let them receive those injunctions , which shall exercise and signifie their repentance . SECT . III. THe second power I instance in , is preaching the Gospel : for which work he not only at first designed Apostles , but others also were appointed for the same work for ever , to all generations of the Church . This Commission was signed immediately before Christ's Ascension ; All power is given to me in Heaven and in Earth , Go ye therefore and teach all Nations , teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you , and lo I am with you always , even unto the end of the world . First , Christ declared his own commission , [ all power is given him into his hand ] he was now made King of all the Creatures , and Prince of the Catholick Church ; and therefore as it concerned his care and providence to look to his cure , and flock , so he had power to make deputations accordingly [ Go ye therefore , ] implying that the sending them to this purpose was an issue of his power , either because the authorizing certain persons was an act of power , or else because the making them Doctors of the Church and teachers of the Nations , was a placing them in an eminency above their scholars , and converts , and so also was an emanation of that power , which , derived upon Christ from his Father , from him descended upon the Apostles . And the wiser persons of the world have always understood , that a power of teaching was a Presidency and Authority ; for since all dominion is naturally founded in the understanding ; although civil government accidentally , and by inevitable publick necessity relies upon other titles , yet where the greatest understanding and power of teaching is , there is a natural preheminence and superiority eatenus , that is , according to the proportion of the excellency ; and therefore in the instance of S. Paul we are taught the style of the Court , and Disciples sit at the feet of their Masters , as he did at the feet of his Tutor Gamaliel , which implies duty , submission , and subordination ; and indeed it is the highest of any kind , not only because it is founded upon nature , but because it is a submission of the most imperious faculty we have , even of that faculty which when we are removed from our Tutors , is submitted to none but God ; for no man hath power over the understanding faculty ; and therefore so long as we are under Tutors and Instructors , we give to them that duty , in the succession of which claim , none can succeed but God himself , because none else can satisfie the understanding but he . Now then because the Apostles were created Doctors of all the world , hoc ipso they had power given them over the understandings of their disciples , and they were therefore fitted with an infallible spirit , and grew to be so authentick that their determination was the last address of all inquiries in questions of Christianity : and although they were not absolute Lords of their faith and understandings , as their Lord was , yet they had , under God , a supreme care , and presidency , to order , to guide , to instruct , and to satisfie their understandings ; and those whom they sent out upon the same errand , according to the proportion and excellency of their spirit , had also a degree of superiority and eminency ; and therefore they who were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Labourers in the word and doctrine , were also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Presbyters that were Presidents and Rulers of the Church ; and this eminency is for ever to be retained according as the unskilfulness of the Disciple retains him in the form of Catechumens ; or as the excellency of the instructor still keeps the distance ; or else , as the office of teaching being orderly and regularly assigned makes a legal , political , and positive authority , to which all those persons are for orders sake to submit , who possibly in respect of their personal abilities might be exempt from that authority . Upon this ground it is , that learning amongst wise persons is esteemed a title of nobility and secular eminency : Ego enim quid aliud munificentiae adhibere potui , ut studia , ut sic dixerim , in umbra educata è quibus claritudo venit , said Seneca to Nero. And Aristotle , and A. Gellius affirm , that not only excellency of extraction , or great fortunes , but learning also makes noble ; circum undique sedentibus multis doctrinâ , aut genere , aut fortunâ nobilibus viris : and therefore the Lawyers say , that if a legacy be given pauperi nobili , the executors ▪ if they please , may give it to a Doctor . I only make this use of it , that they who are by publick designation appointed to teach , are also appointed in some sence to govern them : and if learning it self be a fair title to secular opinion , and advantages of honour , then they who are professors of learning , and appointed to be publick teachers , are also set above their disciples as far as the Chair is above the Area or floor , that is , in that very relation of teachers and scholars : and therefore among the Heathen the Priests who were to answer de mysteriis , sometimes bore a scepter . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Upon which verse of Homer , Eustathius observes , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The scepter was not only an ensign of a King , but of a Judge and of a Prophet ; it signified a power of answering in judgment , and wise sentences . This discourse was occasioned by our blessed Saviour's illative ; All power is given me , go ye therefore and teach ; and it concludes , that the authority of Preaching is more than the faculty , that it includes power and presidency , that therefore a separation of persons is ex abundanti inferred , unless order and authority be also casual , and that all men also may be Governours as well as Preachers . Now that here was a plain separation of some persons for this ministery , I shall not need to prove by any other argument besides the words of the Commission ; save only that this may be added , that here was more necessary , than a commission ; great abilities , special assistances , extraordinary and divine knowledge , and understanding the mysteries of the kingdom ; so that these abilities were separations enough of the persons , and designation of the officers ; But this may possibly become the difficulty of the question ; For , when the Apostles had filled the world with the Sermons of the Gospel , and that the holy Ghost descended in a plentiful manner , then was the prophesie of Ioel fulfilled , old men dreamed dreams , and young men saw visions , and sons and daughters did prophesie : Now the case was altered ; and the disciples themselves start up Doctors , and women prayed and prophesied , and Priscilla sate in the Chair with her husband Aquila , and Apollos sate at their feet ; and now all was common again : and therefore although the commission went out first to the Apostles ; yet , when by miracle God dispensed great gifts to the Laity , and to women , he gave probation that he intended that all should prophesie and preach , lest those gifts should be to no purpose . This must be considered . 1. These gifts were miraculous verifications of the great Promise of the Father , of sending the holy Ghost , and that all persons were capable of that blessing in their several proportions , and that Christianity did descend from God were ex abundanti proved by those extraregular dispensations : so that here is purpose enough signified , although they be not used to infer an indistinction of Officers in this ministery . 2. These gifts were given extra-regularly : but yet with some difference of persons : for all did not prophesie , nor all interpret , nor all speak with tongues : they were but a few that did all this : we find but the daughters of one man only , and Priscilla , among all the nations of the Jews that ever did prophesie , of the women : and of Lay-men I remember not one , but Aquila and Agabus : and these will be but too straight an argument to blend a whole Order of men in a popular and vulgar indiscrimination . 3. These extraordinary gifts were no authority to those who had them , and no other commission , to speak in publick . And therefore S. Paul forbids the women to speak in the Church , and yet it was not denied but some of them might have the spirit of prophesie . Speaking in the Church was part of an ordinary power , to which not only ability but authority also and commission are required . That was clearly one separation ; women were not capable of a clerical imployment , no not so much as of this ministery of preaching . And by this we may take speedier account concerning Deaconesses in the Primitive Church ; de Diaconissâ ego Bartholomaeus dispono ; O Episcope , impones ei manus praesentibus Presbyteris , Diaconis & Diaconissis , & dices , Respice super hanc famulam tuam ; so it is in the constitutions Apostolical under the name of S. Clement : By which it should seem they were ordained for some Ecclesiastical ministery ; which is also more credible by those words of Tertullian , Quantae igitur & quae in Eccles●is ordinari solent , quae Deo nubere maluerunt ? And Sozomen tells of Olympias , Hanc enim , cum genere esset nobilissimo , quamvis juvenculam , ex quo vidua facta erat , quia ex praescripto Ecclesiae egregiè philosophatur , in Ministram Nectarius ordinat : and such a one it was , whom Saint Basil called impollutam sacerdotem . Whatsoever these Deaconesses could be , they could not speak in publick , unless they did prevaricate the Apostolical rule , given to the Corinthian and Ephesian Churches : And therefore though Olympias was an excellent person , yet she was no preacher ; she was a Philosopher , not in her discourse , but in her manner of living and believing : Philosophata ex Ecclesiae praescripto , and that could not be by preaching : but these Deaconesses after the Apostolical age , were the same with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the good women , that did domestick offices and minister to the temporal necessity of the Churches in the days of the Apostles ; Such a one was Phebe of Cenchrea : but they were not admitted to any holy or spiritual Office : So we have certain testimony from Antiquity , whence the objection comes . For so the Nicene Council expresly : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Deaconesses are to be reckoned in the Laity , because they have no imposition of hands , viz. for any spiritual office . For they had imposition of hands in some places to temporal administrations about the Church , and a solemn benediction , but nothing of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; the same were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Presbyteresses , who were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or the Governesses of women , in order to manners and religion ; but these , though ( as Tertullian affirms , and Zonaras , and Balsamo confess ) they were solemnly ordained and set over the women in such offices , yet pretended to nothing of the clerical power or the right of speaking in publick . So Epiphanius : There is an order of deaconesses in the Church , but not to meddle , or to attempt any of the holy Offices . And in this sence it was , that S. Ambrose reckons it amongst the Heresies of the Cataphrygians , that they ordained their Deaconesses , viz. to spiritual ministeries ; but those women that desire to be medling , are not moved with such discourses ; they care for none of all these things ; therefore I remit them to the precept of the Apostle . But I suffer not a woman to teach , but to be in silence . And as for the men who had gifts extraordinary of the Spirit , although they were permitted at first in the Corinthian Church ( before there was a Bishop , or a fixed Colledge of Clergy ) to utter the inspired dictates of the Spirit , yet whether they were Lay or Clergy is not there expressed ; and it is more agreeable to the usual dispensation that the prophets of ordinary ministery , though now extraordinarily assisted , should prophesie in publick ; but however , when these extraordinaries did cease , if they were common persons , they had no pretence to invade the Chair ( nor , that we find , ever did : ) for an ordinary ability to speak was never any warrant to disturb an order ; unless they can say the words of S. Paul [ Whereunto I am ordained a Preacher , ] they might not invade the office . To be able to perform an office , though it may be a fair disposition to make the person capable to receive it orderly , yet it does not actually invest him ; every wise man is not a Counsellor of State , nor every good Lawyer a Judge . And I doubt not but in the Jewish religion there were many persons as able to pray as their Priests , who yet were wiser than to refuse the Priests advocation apud Deum , and reciting offices in behalf of the people : Orabit pro eo sacerdos was the order of Gods appointing , though himself were a devout person and of an excellent spirit . And it had need be something extraordinary that must warrant an ordinary person to rise higher than his own evenness ; and ability or skill is but a possibility ; and must be reduced to act by something that transmits authority , or does establish order , or distinguish persons , and separate professions . And it is very remarkable , that when Iudas had miscarried and lost his Apostolate , it was said , that it was necessary for some body to be chosen to be a witness of Christs Resurrection . Two were named , of ability sufficient , but that was not all : they must chuse one , to make up the number of the twelve , a distinct separate person ; which shews that it was not only a work ( for that , any of them might have done ) but an office of ordinary ministery . The ability of doing which work although all they that lived with Iesus , might either have had , or received at Pentecost , yet the authority and grace was more : the first they had upon experience , but this only by divine election : which is a demonstration that every person that can do offices clerical is not permitted to do them ; and that , besides the knowledge and natural or artificial abilities , a divine qualification is necessary . And therefore God complains by the Prophet , I have not sent them , and yet they run ; and the Apostle leaves it as an established rule , How shall they preach except they be sent ? Which two places , I shall grant to be meant concerning a distinct and a new message ; Prophets must not offer any doctrine to the people , or pretend a doctrine for which they had not a commission from God. But which way soever they be expounded , they will conclude right in this particular . For if they signifie an ordinary mission , then there is an ordinary mission of preachers , which no man must usurp unless he can prove his title certainly and clearly , derivative from God ; which when any man of the Laity can do , we must give him the right hand of fellowship , and wish him good speed . But if these words signifie an extraordinary case , and that no message must be pretended by Prophets , but what they have commission for , then must not ordinary persons pretend an extraordinary mission to an ordinary purpose : for , besides , that God does never do things unreasonable , nor will endure that order be interrupted to no purpose , he will never give an extraordinary Commission unless it be to a proportionable end ; whosoever pretends to a licence of preaching by reason of an extraordinary calling , must look that he be furnished with an extraordinary message , lest his Commission be ridiculous ; and when he comes , he must be sure to shew his authority by an argument proportionable ; that is , by such a probation without which no wise man can reasonably believe him ; which cannot be less than miraculous and divine . In all other cases he comes under the curse of the non missi , those whom God sent not ; they go on their own errand , and must pay themselves their wages . But , besides that the Apostles were therefore to have an immediate mission , because they were to receive new inctructions : these inctructions were such as were by an ordinary , and yet by a distinct ministery to be conveyed , for ever after ; and therefore did design an ordinary , successive , and lasting power and authority . Nay our blessed Lord went one step further in this provision , even to remark the very first successors and partakers of this power , to be taken into the lot of this ministery , and they were the Seventy-two whom Christ had sent ( as probationers of their future preaching ) upon a short errand into the Cities of Iudah : But by this assignation of more persons than those to whom he gave immediate Commission , he did declare that the office of preaching was to be dispensed by a separate and peculiar sort of men , distinct from the people , and yet by others than those who had the commission extraordinary ; that is , by such who were to be called to it by an ordinary vocation . As Christ constituted the office and named the persons , both extraordinary and ordinary , present and successive ; so he provided gifts for them too , that the whole dispensation might be his , and might be apparent . And therefore Christ when he ascended up on high gave gifts to men , to this very purpose ; and these gifts coming from the same Spirit made separation of distinct ministeries under the same Lord. So S. Paul testifies expresly ; Now there are diversities of gifts , but the same Spirit , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , there are different administrations [ differences of ministeries ; ] it is the proper word for Church-offices ; the ministery distinguished by the gift ; It is not a gift of the ministery , but the ministery it self is the gift , and distinguished accordingly . An extraordinary Ministery needs an extraordinary and a miraculous gift ; that is a miraculous calling and vocation and designation by the holy Ghost ; but an ordinary gift cannot sublime an ordinary person to a supernatural imployment ; and from this discourse of the differing gifts of the Spirit , Saint Paul without any further artifice , concludes that the Spirit intended a distinction of Church-officers for the work of the ministery ; for the conclusion of the discourse is , that God hath set some in the Church , first Apostles , secondarily Prophets , thirdly Teachers ; and , lest all God's people should usurp these offices , which God by his Spirit hath made separate and distinguished , he adds , Are all Apostles ? are all Prophets ? are all Teachers ? If so , then were all the body one member , quite contrary to nature , and to God's Oeconomy . And that this designation of distinct Church-officers is for ever , S. Paul also affirms as expresly as this question shall need ; He gave some Apostles , some Prophets , and some Evangelists , and some Pastors and Teachers , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for the work of the ministery , till we all arrive at the unity of faith , which as soon as it shall happen , then cometh the end . Till the end be , the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the work of the Ministery must go forwards , and is incumbent upon the Pastors and Teachers ; this is their work , and they are the ministers , whom the holy Ghost designed . 1. For , I consider that either to preach requires but an ordinary or an extraordinary ability ; if it requires an extraordinary , they who are illiterate and unlearned persons are the unfittest men in the world for it : if an ordinary sufficiency will discharge it , why cannot they suppose the Clergy of a competency , and strength sufficient to do that which an ordinary understanding , and faculties can perform ? what need they entermeddle with that , to which no extraordinary assistance is required ? or else why do they set their shoulder to such a work , with which no strength but extraordinary , is commensurate ? in the first case it is needless ; in the second it is useless ; in both vain and impertinent . For either no man needs their help ; or , if they did , they are very unable to help . I am sure they are , if they be unlearned persons ; and if they be learned , they well enough know , that to teach the people , is not a power of speaking , but is also an act of jurisdiction and authority , and in which , order is , at least , concerned in an eminent degree : Learned men are not so forward ; and those are most confident who have least reason . 2. Although as Homilies to the people are now used according to the smallest rate , many men more preach than should , yet besides that to preach prudently , gravely , piously , and with truth , requires more abilities than are discernable by the people , such as make even a plain work reasonable to wise men , and useful to their hearers , and acceptable to God ; besides this , I say , the office of teaching is of larger extent than making Homilies , or speaking prettily enough to please the common and undiscerning auditors . They that are appointed to teach the people must Respondere de jure , Give account of their faith in defiance of the numerous armies of Hereticks ; they must watch for their flock , and use excellent arts to arm them against all their weaknesses from within , and hostilities from without ; they must strengthen the weak , confirm the strong , compose the scrupulous , satisfie the doubtful , and be ready to answer cases of Conscience ; and I believe there are not so little as 5000 cases already started up among the Casuists ; and for ought I know ; there may be 5000 times 5000. And there are some cases of Conscience that concern Kings and kingdoms in the highest mysteriousness , both of State and Religion , and they also belong to Pastors for the interests of Religion , and Teachers to determine or advise in . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The Preachers were always Messengers between God and men , being Mediators by their sacrifices , and they were interested in their counsels , and greater causes ; And if religion can have influences into counsels of Princes , and publick interest of kingdoms , and that there can be any difficulty , latent sences , intricacy of question , or mysteriousness in Divinity , it will be found that there are other parts of the Preachers office , besides making Homilies : and that when so great skill is required , it will not be easie to make pretences to invade it ; unless a man cannot be an excellent Lawyer without twenty years skill and practice , besides excellency of natural indowments , and yet can be an excellent Teacher and Guide in all cases of Conscience , meerly with opening his mouth , and rubbing his forehead hard . But God hath taken order that those whom he hath appointed teachers of the people , should make it the work and business of their lives , that they should diligently attend to reading , to exhortation , and to doctrine , that they may watch over their flock , over whom the holy Ghost hath made them overseers . The inconvenience that this discourse is like to meet withall is , that it concerns those men who are sure not to understand it : for they that have not the wisdom of Prophets and wise men , cannot easily be brought to know the degrees of distance between the others wisdom and their own ignorance . To know that there is great learning beyond us , is a great part of learning : but they that have the confidence in the midst of their deepest ignorance to teach others , want both modesty and understanding too , either to perceive or to confess their own wants : they never kissed the lips of the wife , and therefore think all the world breathes a breath as fenny and moorish as themselves . 3. Besides , the consideration of the ability that a separate number of men should be the teachers , and it be not permitted promiscuously to every person of a confident language and bold fancy , is highly necessary in the point of prudence and duty too . Of Prudence , because there can be no security against all the evil doctrines of the world in a promiscuous unchosen company of Preachers . For if he be allowed the pretence of an extraordinary , he shall belie the holy Spirit , to couzen you , when he hath a mind to it : If you allow him nothing but an ordinary spirit , that is , abilities of art and nature ; there cannot in such discourses be any compensation for the disorder , or the danger , or the schisms , and innumerable Churches , when one head and two members shall make a distinct body , and all shall pretend to Christ , without any other common term of union . And this which is disorder in the thing , is also dishonourable to this part of religion ; and the divine messages shall be conveyed to the people by common Curriers or rather messengers by chance , and as they go by ; whereas God sent at first Embassadors extraordinary , and then left his Leigers in his Church for ever . But there is also a duty too to be secured ; for they that have the guiding of souls must remember that they must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , must render an account ; and that cannot be done with joy , when it shall be indifferent to any man to superseminate what he please : and ( by the way ) I suppose , they who are apt to enter into the Chair of Doctors and Teachers , would be unwilling to be charged with a cure of souls . If they knew what that means , they would article more strictly before they would stand charged with it ; and yet it is harder to say that there is no such thing as the cure of souls ; that Christ left his flock to wander and to guide themselves , or to find shepherds at the charges of accident and chance . Christ hath made a better provision , and after he had with the greatest earnestness committed to S. Peter the care of feeding his lambs and sheep , S. Peter did it carefully , and though it part of the same duty to provide other shepherds , who should also feed the flocks by a continual provision and attendance ; The Presbyters which are among you , I who also am a Presbyter exhort , feed the flock of God which is among you , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , doing the office of Bishops over them , taking supravision or oversight of them willingly and of a ready mind . The Presbyters and Bishops , they are to feed the flock , there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a flock to be distinguished from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the shepherds , the elders , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and the flock among you , distinguished by a regular office of teaching , and a relation of shepherds and sheep . But this discourse would be unnecessary long , unless I should omit many arguments , and contract the rest . I only shall desire it be considered , concerning the purpose of that part of Divine providence , in giving the Christian Church Commandments concerning Provisions to be made for the Preachers ; Let the Elders that rule well have a double honour , an elder brother's portion at least , both of honour and maintenance , especially if they labour in the word and doctrine ; and the reason is taken out of Moses Law , but derived from the natural , Bovi trituranti non ligabis os . For God hath ordained that those that labour in the Gospel should live of the Gospel . This argument will force us to distinguish persons , or else our purses will ; and if all will have a right to preach the Gospel that think themselves able , then also they have a right to be maintained too . I shall add no more , 1. God hath designed persons to teach the people , 2. charged them with the cure of souls , 3. given them commission to go into all the world , 4. given them gifts accordingly . 5. charged the people to attend and to obey , 6. hath provided them maintenance and support , and 7. separated them to reading , to exhortation , and to doctrine , from the affairs of this world , that they may attend to these , by the care of the whole man. If any man in charity or duty will do any ghostly offices to his erring or weak brother , he may have a reward of charity : for in this sence it is that Tertullian says , that in remote and barbarous countries the Laity do Sacerdotio aliquatenus fungi . But if he invades the publick chair , he may meet with the curse of Corah , if he intends maliciously ; or if he have fairer , but mistaken purposes , the gentler sentence passed upon Uzzah may be the worst of his evil portion . SECT . IV. I Instance next in the case of Baptism , which indeed hath some difficulty and prejudice passed upon it ; and although it be put in the same Commission , intrusted to the same persons , be a sacred ministery , a Sacrament and a mysterious rite , whose very Sacramental and separate nature , requires the solemnity of a distinct order of persons for its ministration : yet if the laity may be admitted to the dispensation of so sacred and solemn rites , there is nothing in the calling of the Clergy that can distinguish them from the rest of Gods people , but they shall be holy enough , to dispense holy offices without the charges of paying honour and maintenance to others to do what they can do themselves . In opposition to which , I first consider , that the ordinary minister of Baptism is a person consecrated ; the Apostles and their successors in the office Apostolical , and all those that partake of that power ; and it needs no other proof , but the plain production of the Commission ; they who are teachers by ordinary power , and authority , they also had command to baptize all Nations : and baptism being the solemn rite of initiating disciples , and making the first publick profession of the Institution , it is in reason and analogy of the mystery to be ministred by those who were appointed to collect the Church , and make Disciples . It is as plain and decretory a Commission , as any other mysteriousness of Christianity ; and hath been accepted so for ever as the doctrine of Christianity , as may appear in a Ignatius , b Tertullian , c S. Gelasius , d S. Epiphanius , and e S. Hierom ; who affirm in variety of sences , that Bishops , Priests and Deacons only are to baptize ; some by ordinary right , some by deputation ; of which I shall afterwards give account ; But all the Ius ordinarium they intend to fix upon the Clergy according to divine institution and commandment . So that in case lay-persons might baptize 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , upon urgent necessity , yet this cannot upon just pretence invade the ordinary ministery , because God had dispensed the affairs of his Church , so that cases of necessity do not often occur to the prejudice and dissolution of publick order , and ministeries ; and if permissions being made to supply necessities , be brought further than the case of exception gives leave , the permission is turned into a crime , and does greater violence to the rule , by how much it was fortified by that very exception , as to other cases not excepted . And although in case of extreme necessity every man may preach the Gospel , as to dying Heathens , or unbelieving persons , yet if they do this without such , or the like necessity , what at first was charity , in the other case is schism and pride , the two greatest enemies to charity in the world . But now for the thing it self , whether indeed any case of necessity can transmit to lay persons a right of baptizing , it must be distinctly considered . Some say it does . For Ananias baptized Paul , who yet ( as it is said ) was not in holy Orders ; and that the 3000 Converts at the first Sermon of S. Peter were all baptized by the Apostles , is not easily credible , it being too numerous a body for so few persons to baptize ; and when Peter had preached to Cornelius and his family , he caused the brethren that came along with him to baptize them ; and whether Hands had been imposed on them or no , is not certain : And in pursuance of the instance of Ananias , and the other probabilities , the Doctors of the Church have declared their opinions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , In cases of necessity , a lay-person may baptize . So Tertullian in his book of Baptism , Alioqui & Laicis jus est baptizandi . Quod enim ex aequo accipitur , ex aequo dari potest . The reason is also urged by S. Hierom to the same purpose , only requiring that the Baptizer be a Christian , supposing whatsoever they have received they may also give ; but because the reason concludes not , because ( as themselves believe ) a Presbyter cannot collate his Presbyterate , it must therefore rest only upon their bare authority ; if it shall be thought strong enough to bear the weight of the contrary reasons . And the Fathers in the Council of Eliberis determined , Peregrè navigantes , aut si Ecclesia in proximo non fuerit , posse fidelem , qui lavacrum suum integrum habet , nec sit bigamus , baptizare in necessitate infirmitatis positum Catechumenum ; it a ut si supervixerit , ad Episcopum eum producat , ut per manûs impositionem proficere possit . The Synod , held at Alexandria under Alexander their Bishop , approved the baptism of the children by Athanasius , being but a boy ; and the Nicene Fathers ratifying the baptism made by hereticks ( amongst whom they could not but know in some cases , there was no true Priesthood or legitimate ordination ) must by necessary consequence suppose baptism to be dispensed effectually by lay-persons . And S. Hierome is plain , Baptizare , si necessitas cogat , scimus etiam licere Laicis ; the same almost with the Canon of the fourth Council of Carthage , Mulier baptizare non praesumat nisi necessitate cogente : though , by the way , these words of [ cogente necessitate ] are not in the Canon , but thrust in by Gratian and Peter Lombard . And of the same opinion is S. Ambrose , or he who under his name wrote the Commentaries upon the fourth to the Ephesians , a P. Gelasius , b S. August . and c Isidor , and generally all the Scholars after their master . But against this doctrine were all the African Bishops for about 150 years ; who therefore rebaptized persons returning from heretical conventicles ; Because those heretical Bishops being deposed and reduced into Lay-communion , could not therefore collate baptism for their want of holy Orders : as appears in S. Basils Canonical Epistle to Amphilochius , where he relates their reason , and refutes it not . And however Firmilian and S. Cyprian might be deceived in the thinking hereticks quite lost their orders ; yet in this they were untouched , that although their supposition was questionable , yet their superstructure was not medled with , viz. That if they had been Lay persons , their Baptizations were null and invalid . I confess , the opinion hath been very generally taken up in these last ages of the Church , and almost with a Nemine contradicente ; the first ages had more variety of opinion : and I think it may yet be considered anew upon the old stock . For since absolutely , all the Church affixes the ordinary ministery of Baptism to the Clergy ; if others do baptize , do they sin , or do they not sin ? That it is no sin , is expresly affirmed in the 16 Canon of Nicephorus of C. P. If the own father baptizes the child , or any other Christian man , it is no sin . * S. Augustine is almost of another mind , & si Laicus necessitate compulsus baptismum dederit , nescio an pie quisquam dixerit , Baptismum esse repetendum : Nullâ enim cogente necessitate si fiat , alieni muneris usurpatio est ; si autem necessitas urgeat , aut nullum , aut veniale delictum est . And of this mind are all they , who by frequent using of that saying have made it almost proverbial , Factum valet , fieri non debet . If they do not sin , then women and Lay-men have as much right from Christ to baptize as Deacons or Presbyters ; then they may upon the same stock and right do it as Deacons do , for if a Bishop was present it was not lawful for Deacons , as is expresly affirmed by S. Ignatius in his Epistle to Heron the Deacon ; and S. Epiphanius with the same words denies a jus baptizandi , to women and to Deacons , and both of them affirm it to be proper to Bishops . Further yet , Tertullian and S. Hierom deny a power to Presbyters to do it without Episcopal dispensation . Now if Presbyters and Deacons have this power only by leave and in certain cases , then it is more than the women have : only that they are fitter persons to be intrusted with the deputation ; a less necessity will devolve it upon Presbyters than upon Deacons , and upon Deacons than Lay-men ; and a less yet will cast it upon Lay-men than women : and this difference is in respect of humane order and positive constitution , but in the nature of the thing according to this doctrine all persons are equally receptive of it : And therefore to baptize is no part of the Grace of Orders , no fruit of the holy Ghost , but a work which may be done by all , and at some times must : and if baptism may , then it will be hard to keep all the other rites from the common inrodes , and then the whole office will perish . But if Lay-persons baptizing , though in case of necessity , do sin , as S. Augustine seems to say they do , then it is certain , Christ never gave them leave so much as by insinuation ; and then neither can the Church give leave ; for she can give leave for no man to sin : and , besides such a deputation were to no purpose ; Because no person shall dare to do it , for evil is not to be done , though for the obtaining the greatest good : and it will be hard to state the question , so that either the child shall perish , or some other must perish for it ; for he that positively ventures upon a sin for a good end , worships God with a sin , and therefore shall be thank'd with a damnation , if he dies before repentance ; but if the child shall not perish in such case of not being baptized , then why should any man break the rule of institution , and if he shall perish without being baptized , then God hath affixed the salvation of the child upon the condition of another mans sin . 3. And indeed the pretence of cases of necessity may do much towards the excusing an irregularity in an exterior rite , though of divine institution , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . But it will not be easily proved that God hath made any such necessities : it is certain that for persons having the use of reason God hath provided a remedy that no lay-person should have need to baptize a Catechumen ; for his votum or desire of baptism shall serve his turn . And it will be unimaginable that God hath made no provision for infants , and yet put it upon them in many cases with equal necessity , which without breach of a divine institution cannot be supplied . 4. If a Lay-person shall baptize , whether or no shall the person baptized receive benefit , or will any more but the outward act be done ? for that the Lay-person shall convey rem Sacramenti , or be the minister of sacramental grace , is no where revealed in Scripture , and is against the Analogy of the Gospel ; for the verbum reconciliationis , all the whole ministery of reconciliation is intrusted to the Priest , Nobis , ( saith S. Paul ) to us who are Embassadors . And what difference is there , if cases of necessity be pretended in the defect of other ministeries , but that they also may be invaded ? and cases of necessity may by other men also be numbered in the other sacrament : and they have done so ; and I know , who said that no man must consecrate the Sacrament of the Lords Supper but he that is lawfully called , except there be a case of necessity ; and that there may be a case of necessity for the blessed Sacrament , there needs no other testimony than the Nicene Council ; which calls the Sacrament in the article of death , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , viaticum , the most necessary provision for our journey : and if a Lay-person Absolves , there is as much promise of the validity of the one as the other , unless it be said , that there may be absolute necessity of Baptism , but not so of Absolution ; which the maintainers of the other opinion are not apt to profess . And therefore S. Augustine did not know whether baptism administred by a lay-person be to be repeated or no ; Nescio anpiè quisquam dixerit , he knew not ; neither do I. But Simon of Thessalonica is confident , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , No man baptizes but he that is in holy orders . The baptism is null : I cannot say so ; nor can I say , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; Let it be received . Only I offer this to consideration ; if a Deacon can do no ministerial act with effect , but a lay-person may do the same with effect upon the person suscipient , What is that supernatural grace and inherent and indelible character which a Deacon hath received in his ordination ? If a Deacon can do no supernatural act which were void and null , if done by him that is not a Deacon , he hath no character , no spiritual inherent power : and that he is made the ordinary minister of it , is for order sake : but he that can do the same thing , hath the same power and ability . By this ground a Lay-person and a Deacon are not distinguished by any inherent character , and therefore they who understand the spiritual powers and effects of ordination in the sence and expression of an inherent and indelible character , will find some difficulty in allowing the effect of a lay-baptism . But I consider that the instances of Scripture brought for the lawfulness of lay-administration , if they had no particular exceptation , yet are impertinent to this question ; for it is not with us pretended in any case to be lawful , but in extreme necessity : And therefore , Saint Peters deputing the brethren who came with him to Cornelius to baptize his family , is nothing to our purpose , and best answers it self : for either they were of the Clergy , who came with them ; or else lay-persons may baptize by the right of an ordinary deputation , without a case of necessity ; for here was none : Saint Peter might have done it himself . And as for Ananias , he was one of the Seventy two : and if that be nothing , yet he was called to that ministration about Paul , as Paul himself was to the Apostleship , even by an immediate vocation , and mission from Christ himself . And if this answer were not sufficient ( as it is most certainly ) the argument would press further than is intended : for Ananias tells him , he was sent to him that he might lay his hands on him that he might receive the holy Ghost : and to do that , was more than Philip could do ; though he was a Deacon , and in as great a necessity , as this was : And yet besides all this , this was not a case of necessity , unless there was never a Presbyter or Deacon in all Damascus , or that God durst not trust any of them with Paul , but only Ananias , or that Paul could not stay longer without baptism , as many thousand converts did in descending ages . And for the other conjecture it is not considerable at all : for the Apostles might take three or four days time to baptize the three thousand : there was no hurt done if they had stayed a week : the text insinuates nothing to the contrary ; The same day about three thousand were added to the Church ; then they were added to the Church , that is , by vertue and efficacy of that Sermon , who it may be , considered some-while of S. Peters discourse , and gave up their names upon mature deliberation and positive conviction . But it is not said , they were baptized the same day ; and yet it was not impossible for the twelve Apostles to do it in one day , if they had thought it reasonable . For my own particular , I wish we would make no more necessities than God made , but that we leave the administration of the Sacraments to the manner of the first institution , and the Clerical offices be kept within their cancels , that no Lay-hand may pretend a reason to usurp the sacred Ministery : and since there can be no necessity for unbaptized persons of years of discretion , because their desire may supply them , it were well also if our charity would find some other way also , to understand Gods mercy towards infants ; for certainly , he is most merciful and full of pity to them also : and if there be no neglect of any of his own appointed ministeries , so as he hath appointed them , methinks it were but reasonable to trust his goodness with the infants in other cases : for it cannot but be a jealousie and a suspicion of God , a not daring to trust him , and an unreasonable proceeding beside , that we will rather venture to dispense with divine institution , than think that God will ; or that we should pretend more care of children than God hath : when we will break an institution , and the rule of an ordinary Ministery of Gods appointing , rather than cast them upon God , as if God loved this ceremony better than he loved the child ; for so it must be , if the child perished for want of it : and yet still methinks according to such doctrine , there was little or no care taken for infants ; for when God had appointed a ministery , and fixed it with certain rules and a proper deputation : in reason ( knowing in all things else how merciful God is , and full of goodness ) we should have expected that God should have given express leave to have gone besides the first circumstances of the Sacrament , if he had intended we might or should : and that he should have told us so too rather than by leaving them fast tyed without any express cases of exception , or marks of difference , permit men to dispute and stand unresolved between a case of Duty and a point of Charity : for although God will have mercy rather than sacrifice , yet when both are commanded , God takes order they shall never cross each other , and sacrifice is to be preferred before mercy , when the Sacrifice is in the commandment , and the Mercy is not : as it is in the present question . And if it were otherwise in this case , yet because God loves mercy so well , Why should we not think , that God himself will shew this mercy to this Infant , when he hath not expressed his pleasure that we should do it ? We cannot be more merciful than He is . The Church of England hath determined nothing in this particular , that I know of ; only when in the first Liturgy of King Edward the Sixth , a Rubrick was inserted permitting Midwives to baptize in cases of extreme danger , it was left out in the second Liturgies , which is at least an argument she intended to leave the question undetermined ; if at least that omission of the clause , was not also a rejection of the Article : Only this Epiphanius objects against the Marcionites , and Tertullian against the Gnosticks , that they did permit women to baptize : I cannot say but they made it an ordinary imployment , and a thing besides the case of necessity : I know not whether they did or no. But if they be permitted , it is considerable whither the example may drive : Petulans mulier quae usurpavit docere , an non utique & tingendi jus sibi pariet ? that I may turn Tertullians Thesis into an Interrogative . The women usurp the office of teaching , if also they may be permitted to baptize , they may in time arrogate and invade other ministeries ; or if they do not , by reason of the natural and political incapacity of their persons , yet others may upon the same stock : for necessity consists not in a Mathematical point , but hath latitude which may be expounded to inconvenience ; and that I say truth and fear reasonably , I need no other testimony than the Greek Church , for amongst them a [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] the absence of the Priest is necessity enough for a woman to baptize ; for so sayes * Gabriel Philadelphiensis . In the absence of a Priest , a Christian Laick may baptize , whether it be man or woman , either may do it ; and whether that be not only of danger in the sequel , but in it self a very dissolution of all discipline , I leave it to the Church of England to determine as for her own particular , that at least the Sacrament be left intirely to Clerical dispensation according to divine commandment . Onething I offer to consideration ; that since the keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven be most notoriously and signally used in Baptism , in which the Kingdom of Heaven the Gospel , and all its promises , is opened to all Believers , and though as certainly yet less principally in reconciling penitents , and admitting them to the communion of the faithful ; it may be of ill consequence , to let them be usurped by hands to whom they were not consigned . Certain it is , S. Peter used his Keyes , and opened the Kingdom of Heaven first , when he said , Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Iesus Christ , for the remission of sins , and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost . However as to the main question , we have not only the universal Doctrine of Christendom , but also express authority and commission in Scripture , sending out Apostles and Apostolical men , persons of choice and special designation to baptize all Nations , and to entertain them into the services and institution of the holy Jesus . SECT . V. I Shall instance but once more , but it is in the most solemn , sacred and divinest mystery in our Religion ; that in which the Clergy in their appointed ministery do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , stand between God and the people , and do fulfil a special , and incomprehensible ministery , which the Angels themselves do look into with admiration , to which the people if they come without fear , cannot come without sin ; and this of so sacred and reserved mysteriousness , that but few have dared to offer at with unconsecrated hands : some have . But the Eucharist is the fulness of all the mysteriousness of our Religion ; and the Clergy , when they officiate here , are most truly in the phrase of Saint Paul , Dispensatores mysteriorum Dei , dispensers of the great mysteries of the Kingdom . For ( to use the words of Saint Cyprian ) Iesus Christ is our high Priest , and himself become our Sacrifice which he finished upon the Cross in a real performance , and now in his office of Mediatorship makes intercession for us by a perpetual exhibition of himself , of his own person in Heaven , which is a continual actually represented argument to move God to mercy to all that believe in , and obey the Holy Iesus . Now Christ did also establish a number of select persons , to be Ministers of this great Sacrifice , finished upon the Cross ; that they also should exhibit and represent to God ( in the manner which their Lord appointed them ) this Sacrifice , commemorating the action and suffering of the great Priest ; and by way of prayers and impetration , offering up that action in behalf of the people , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( as Gregory Nazianzen expresses it ) sending up Sacrifices to be laid upon the Altar in Heaven , that the Church might be truly united unto Christ their Head , and , in the way of their ministery , may do what he does in Heaven ; for he exhibits the sacrifice , that is , himself , actually and presentially in Heaven : the Priest on earth commemorates the same , and by his prayers represents it to God in behalf of the whole Catholick Church ; presentially too , by another and more mysterious way of presence ; but both Christ in Heaven , and his Ministers on Earth do actuate that Sacrifice , and apply it to its purposed design by praying to God in the vertue and merit of that Sacrifice ; Christ himself , in a high and glorious manner ; the Ministers of his Priesthood ( as it becomes Ministers ) humbly , sacramentally , and according to the energy of humane advocation and intercession ; This is the sum and great mysteriousness of Christianity , and is now to be proved . This is expresly described in Scripture ; that part concerning Christ is the Doctrine of S. Paul , who disputes largely concerning Christ's Priesthood ; affirming that Christ is a Priest for ever ; he hath therefore an unchangeable Priesthood , because he continueth for ever , and he lives for ever to make intercession for us ; this he does as Priest , and therefore it must be by offering a Sacrifice , [ for every high Priest is ordained to offer Gifts and Sacrifices ] and therefore it is necessary he also have something to offer , as long as he is a Priest , that is , for ever , till the consummation of all things ; since therefore he hath nothing new to offer , and something he must continually offer , it is evident , he offers himself as the medium of advocation , and the instance and argument of a prevailing intercession ; and this he calls a more excellent Ministery ] and by it , Iesus is a Minister of the Sanctuary , and of the true Tabernacle , that is , He , as our high Priest officiates in Heaven , in the great office of a Mediator , in the merit and power of his Death and Resurrection . Now what Christ does alwayes in a proper and most glorious manner , the Ministers of the Gospel also do in theirs : commemorating the Sacrifice upon the Cross , giving thanks , and celebrating a perpetual Eucharist for it , and by declaring the death of Christ , and praying to God in the vertue of it , for all the Members of the Church , and all persons capable ; it is in genere orationis a Sacrifice , and an instrument of propitiation , as all holy prayers are in their several proportions . And this was by a precept of Christ ; Hoc facite , Do this in remembrance of me . Now this precept is but twice reported of in the new Testament , though the institution of the Sacrament , be four times . And it is done with admirable mystery ; to distinguish the several interests , and operations which concern several sorts of Christians in their distinct capacities : S. Paul thus represents it ; [ Take eat — This do in remembrance of me ] plainly referring this precept to all that are to eat and drink the Symbols : for they also do in their manner enunciate , declare , or represent the Lords death till he come . And Saint Paul prosecutes it with instructions particular to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to them that do communicate , as appears in the succeeding cautions against unworthy manducation , and for due preparation to its reception . But S. Luke reports it plainly to another purpose , [ and he took bread , and gave thanks , and brake it , and gave it unto them , saying : This is my body which is given for you ; Hoc facite , This ] do in remembrance of me : [ This ] cannot but relate to accepit , gratias egit , fregit , distribuit : Hoc facite . Here was no manducation expressed , and therefore Hoc facite concerns the Apostles in the capacity of Ministers ; not as receivers , but as Consecrators and givers ; and if the institution had been represented in one scheme without this mysterious distinction , and provident separation of imployment , we had been eternally in a cloud , and have needed a new light to guide us ; but now the Spirit of God hath done it in the very first fountains of Scripture . And this being the great mystery of Christianity , and the only remanent Express of Christ's Sacrifice on earth , it is most consonant to the Analogy of the mystery , that this commemorative Sacrifice be presented by persons as separate , and distinct in their ministery , as the Sacrifice it self is from and above the other parts of our Religion . Thus also the Church of God hath for ever understood it without any variety of sence or doubtfulness of distinguishing opinions . It was the great excellency and secret mystery of the Religion , to consecrate and offer the holy Symbols and Sacraments : I shall transcribe a passage out of Iustin Martyr giving the account of it to Antoninus Pius in his Oration to him ; and it will serve in stead of many ; for it tells the Religion of the Christians in this mystery , and gives a full account of all the Ceremony . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. When the prayers are done , then is brought to the President of the Brethren [ the Priest ] the Bread , and the Chalice of Wine mingled with Water ; which being received , he gives praise and glory to the Father of all things , and presents them in the name of the Son and the Holy Spirit , and largely gives thanks , that he hath been pleased to give us these gifts : and when he hath finished the prayers and thanksgiving , all the people that is present , with a joyful acclamation , say Amen . Which when it is done by the Presidents and people , those which amongst us are called Deacons and Ministers , distribute to every one that is present , that they may partake of him , in whom the thanks were presented , the Eucharist , Bread , Wine , and Water ; and may bear it to the absent . Moreover this nourishment is by us called the Eucharist , which it is lawful for none to partake , but to him who believes our Doctrine true , and is washed in the Laver for the remission of sins , and regeneration , and that lives so as Christ delivered . For we do not take it as common bread and common drink ; but as by the Word of God Jesus Christ the Saviour of the world was made flesh , and for our salvation sake , had flesh and blood : after the same manner also we are taught that this nourishment , in which by the prayers of his word , which is from him the food in which thanks are given , or the consecrated food by which our flesh and blood by mutation or change are nourished , is the flesh and blood of the incarnate Jesus . For the Apostles in their Commentaries which they wrote , which are called the Gospels , so delivered , as Jesus commanded . For when he had given thanks and taken Bread , he said , Do this in remembrance of me ; This is my body ; And likewise taking the Chalice , and having given thanks , he said , [ This is my blood , ] and that he gave it to them alone . ] This one Testimony I reckon as sufficient : who please to see more , may observe the tradition full , testified and intire , in a Ignatius , b Clemens Romanus , or whoever wrote the Apostolical Constitutions in his name , c Tertullian , d S. Cyprian , e S. Athanasius , f Epiphanius , g S. Basil , h S. Chrysostom ( almost every where , ) i S. Hierom , k S. Augustine ; and indeed we cannot look in vain , into any of the old Writers : The sum of whose Doctrine in this particular , I shall represent in the words of the most ancient of them , S. Ignatius , saying , that he is worse than an Infidel that offers to officiate about the holy Altar , unless he be a Bishop or a Priest. And certainly , he could upon no pretence have challenged the Appellative of Christian , who had dared either himself to invade the holy Rites within the Chancels , or had denyed the power of celebrating this dreadful mystery to belong only to sacerdotal ministration . For either it is said to be but common Bread and Wine , and then , if that were true , indeed any body may minister it ; but then they that say so , are blasphemous , they count the blood of the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( as S. Paul calls it , in imitation of the words of institution ) the blood of the Covenant , or New Testament , a prophane or common thing ; they discern not the Lord's body ; they know not that the Bread that is broken is the communication of Christ's body : But if it be a holy , separate , or divine and mysterious thing , who can make it ( ministerially , I mean ) and consecrate or sublime it from common and ordinary Bread , but a consecrate , separate , and sublimed person ? It is to be done either by a natural power , or by a supernatural . A natural cannot hallow a thing in order to God ; and they only have a supernatural , who have derived it from God , in order to this ministration ; who can shew that they are taken up into the lot of that Deaconship , which is the type and representment of that excellent ministery of the true Tabernacle where Jesus himself does the same thing , in a higher and more excellent manner . This is the great Secret of the Kingdom , to which in the Primitive Church , many who yet had given up their names to Christ by designation , or solemnity were not admitted , so much as to the participation ; as the Catechumeni , the Audientes , the Poenitentes , Neophytes , and Children : and the ministery of it was not only reserved for sacred persons , but also performed with so much mysterious secrecy , that many were not permitted so much as to see . This is that Rite , in which the Priest intercedes for , and blesses the people ; offering in their behalf , not only their prayers , but applying the Sacrifice of Christ to their prayers , and representing them with glorious advantages , and titles of acceptation , which because it was so excellent , celestial , sacred , mystical and supernatural , it raised up the persons too ; that the ministeriael Priesthood in the Church , might , according to the nature of all great imployments , pass an excellency and a value upon the Ministers . And therefore according to the natural Reason of Religion , and the devotion of all the world , the Christians , because they had the greatest reason so to do , did honour their Clergy with the greatest veneration and esteem . It is without a Metaphor , regale Sacerdotium , a royal Priesthood , so S. Peter ; which although it be spoken in general of the Christian Church , and , in an improper large sence , is verified of the people ; yet it is so to be expounded , as that parallel place of the Books of Moses , from whence the expression is borrowed , Ye shall be a Kingdom of Priests , and an holy Nation ; which plainly by the sence and Analogy of the Mosaick Law , signifies a Nation blessed by God with Rites and Ceremonies of a separate Religion ; a Kingdom , in which Priests are appointed by God , a Kingdom , in which nothing is more honourable than the Priesthood ; for it is certain , the Nation was famous in all the world , for an honourable Priesthood ; and yet the people were not Priests in any sence , but of a violent Metaphor . And therefore the Christian Ministery having greater priviledges , and being honoured with attrectation of the body and blood of Christ , and offices serving to a better Covenant , may with greater argument be accounted excellent , honourable and royal ; and all the Church be called a royal Priesthood , the denomination being given to the whole , from the most excellent part ; because they altogether make one body under Christ the head , the medium of the union being the Priests , the collectors of the Church , and instrument of adunation ; and reddendo singula singulis , dividing to each his portion of the expression ; the people is a peculiar people , the Clergy a holy Priesthood : and all in conjunction , and for several excellencies a chosen Nation : so that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Priesthood of the Kingdom , that is , the ministery of the Gospel : for in the new Testament , the Kingdom ] signifies the Gospel : and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kingly , is of , or belonging to the Gospel : for therefore it is observable , it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , not well rendered by the vulgar Latine regale sacerdotium ; as if Kingly were the Appellative or Epithete of this Priesthood ; it is regium , a Priesthood appertaining to the Kingdom of the Gospel ; and the Priest being enumerated distinctly from the people , the Priests of the Kingdom , and the people of the Kingdom , are all holy and chosen ; but in their several manner : the Priests of the Kingdom , those , the people of the Kingdom , these ; to bring or design a spiritual Sacrifice , the Priest to offer it ; or all together to sacrifice ; the Priest by his proper Ministery , the people by their assent , conjunction and assistance , chosen to serve God , not only in their own forms , but under the ministration of an honourable Priesthood . And in all the descent of Christian Religion it was indeed honourable , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith Saint Chrysostom , the Christian Priesthood does its ministery and is perfected on earth , but hath the beauty , order , and excellency of the heavenly hosts : so that I shall not need to take notice of the Lamina aurea which Polycrates reports S. Iohn to have worn in token of his royal Priesthood , a Wreath of Gold ; ( so also did Saint Iames Bishop of Ierusalem , as Saint Hierom and Epiphanius report ) nor the exemption of the Clergy from Tribute , their authority with the people , their great donatives and titles of secular advantage , these were accidental to the Ministery ▪ and relyed upon the favour of Princes , and devotion of the people ; and if they had been more , yet are less than the honours God had bestowed upon it ; for certainly , there is not a greater degree of power in the world , than to remit and retain sins , and to consecrate the Sacramental Symbols into the mysteriousness of Christ's body and blood ; nor a greater honour , than that God in Heaven should ratifie what the Priest does on earth ; and should admit him to handle the Sacrifice of the world , and to present the same which in Heaven is presented by the eternal Jesus . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . So Gregory Nazianzen describes the honour and mysteriousness of the Priest's power : They minister the spiritual and unbloody sacrifice , they are honourable Guardians of souls , they bear the work of God in their hands . And S. Hierom speaking of these words of S. Paul , I am ordained a Preacher and an Apostle : Quod Paulus ait , [ Apostolus Iesu Christi ] tale mihi videtur quasi dixisset , Praefectus praetorio Augusti Caesaris , Magister exercitus Tiberii Imperatoris . And a little after , Grandem inter Christianos sibi vindicans dignitatem , Apostolorum se Christi titulo praenotavit , ut ex ipsa lecturos nominis authoritate deterreret , indicans omnes qui Christo crederent , debere esse sibi subjectos . And therefore S. Chrysostome sayes , it is the trick of Hereticks , not to give to Bishops titles of their eminency and honour , which God hath vouchsafed them : Ut Diabolus , ita etiam quilibet facit haereticus vehementissimus in tempore persecutionis , loquens cum Pontifice , nec eum vocat Pontificem , nec Archiepiscopum , nec Religiosissimum , nec sanctum , sed quid ? Reverentia tua &c. nomina illi adducit communia , ejus negans authoritatem : Diabolus hoc tunc , fecit in Deo : It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , A separating and purifying order of men , so Dionysius calls it : but Nazianzen speaks greater and more glorious words yet , and yet what is no more than a sober truth : for he calls the Priest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ‑ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He stands with Angels , and is magnified with Archangels ; he sends Sacrifices to a celestial Altar , and is consecrated in the Priesthood of Christ , a divine person , and an instrument of making others so too . I shall add no more as to this particular . The express precepts of God in Scripture are written in great characters , there is a double honour to be given to the Ecclesiastical Rulers . Rulers that also labour in the word and doctrine : There is obedience due to them , obedience in all things , and estimation , and love , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , very abundantly ; esteem such very highly for their works sake ; a communicating to them in all good things ; and their offices are described to be great , separate , busie , eminent and profitable , they are Rulers , Presidents , set over us in the Lord , taking care for us , labouring in doctrine , spiritual persons , restorers of them that were overtaken in a fault , curates of souls , such as must give an account for them , the salt , the light of the world , shepheards ; and much more , signifying work , and rule , and care , honour . But next to the words of Scripture , there can no more be said concerning the honour of the Sacred Order of the Clergy , than is said by Saint Chrysostome in his books De sacerdotio , and Saint Ambrose , De dignitate sacerdotali ; and no greater thing can be supposed communicated to men than to be the Ministers of God , in the great conveyances of grace , and instruments of God in the pardon of sins , in the consecration of Christ's Body and Blood , in the guidance and conduct of souls . And this was the stile of the Church , calling Bishops and Priests according to their respective capacity , Stewards of the grace of God , leaders of the blind , a light of them that sit in darkness , instructors of the ignorant , teachers of babes , stars in the world , amongst whom ye shine as lights in the world , and that is Scripture too ; stars in Christ's right hand , lights set upon the Candlesticks : And now supposing these premisses , if Christendome had not paid proportionable esteem to them , they had neither known how to value Religion , or the mysteries of Christianity . But that all Christendom ever did pay the greatest reverence to the Clergy and Religious veneration , is a certain argument that in Christian Religion the distinction of the Clergy from the Laity , is supposed as a praecognitum , a principle of the institution . I end this with the words of the seventh General Council : It is manifest to all the world , that in the Priesthood , there is order and distinction ; and to observe the Ordinations and Elections of the Priesthood with strictness and severity , is well pleasing to God. SECT . VI. AS soon as God began to constitute a Church , and fix the Priesthood , which before was very ambulatory , and dispensed into all Families , but ever officiated by the Major domo , God gives the power , and designs the person . And therefore Moses consecrated Aaron , agitatus à Deo consecrationis Principe , saith Dionysius , Moses performed the external rites of designation , but God was the Consecrator , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Moses appointed Aaron to the Priesthood , and gave him the Order , but it was only as the Minister and Deputy of God , under God the chief consecrator . And no man taketh upon him this honour , but he that was called of God , as was Aaron , saith S. Paul. For in every Priesthood , God designed and appointed the Ministery , and collates a power , or makes the person gracious : either gives him a spiritual ability of doing something which others have not , or if he be only imployed in praying and presenting Sacrifices of Beasts for the people ; yet that such a person should be admitted to a nearer address , and in behalf of the people , must depend upon God's acceptation , and therefore upon divine constitution : for there can be no reason given in the nature of the thing , why God will accept the intermediation of one man for many , or why this man , more than another , who possibly hath no natural or acquired excellency beyond many of the people , except what God himself makes , after the constitution of the person . If a spiritual power be necessary to the ministration , it is certain , none can give it but the fountain and the principle of the Spirits emanation . Or if the graciousness and aptness of the person be required , that also being arbitrary , preternatural and chosen , must derive from the Divine election : For God cannot be prescribed unto by us , whom he shall hear , and whom he shall entertain in a more immediate address , and freer entercourse . And this is divinely taught us by the example of the high Priest himself : who , because he derived all power from his Father , and all his graciousness and favour , in the Office of Priest and Mediator , was also personally chosen and sent , and took not the honour but as it descended on him from God , that the honour and the power , the ability , and the ministery , might derive from the same fountain . Christ did not glorifie himself to become high Priest. Honour may be deserved by our selves , but alwayes comes from others : and because no greater honour than to be ordained for men in things pertaining to God , every man must say as our blessed High Priest said of himself : If I honour my self , my honour is nothing : it is God that honoureth me : For Christ being the Fountain of Evangelical Ministery , is the measure of our dispensations , and the Rule of Ecclesiastical Oeconomy : and therefore we must not arrogate any power from our selves , or from a less authority than our Lord and Master did : and this is true and necessary in the Gospel , rather than in any Ministery or Priesthood that ever was , because of the collation of so many excellent and supernatural abilities which derive from Christ upon his Ministers , in order to the work of the Gospel . And the Apostles understood their duty in this particular , as in all things else ; for when they had received all this power from above , they were careful to consign the truth , that although it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a divine grace in a humane ministery , and that although 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , He that is ordained by men , yet receives his power from God ; not at all by himself ; and from no man as from the fountain of his power : And this , I say , the Apostles were careful to consign in the first instance of Ordination in the case of Matthias , Thou Lord , shew which of these two , thou hast chosen : God was the Elector , and they the Ministers ; and this being at the first beginning of Christianity , in the very first designation of an Ecclesiastical person , was of sufficient influence into the Religion for ever after ; and taught us to derive all clerical power from God ; and therefore by such means and Ministeries which himself hath appointed , but in no hand to be invaded , or surprized in the entrance , or polluted in the execution . This descended in the succession of the Churches Doctrine for ever . Receive the Holy Ghost , said Christ to his Apostles , when he enabled them with Priestly power ; and S. Paul to the Bishops of Asia said , The Holy Ghost hath made you Bishops or Overseers ; because no mortal man , no Angel , or Archangel , nor any other created power , but the Holy Ghost alone hath constituted this Order , saith S. Chrysostome . And this very thing , besides the matter of fact , and the plain donation of the power by our blessed Saviour , is intimated by the words of Christ other-where ; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the Vineyard , that he will send Labourers into his Harvest . Now his mission is not only a designing of the persons , but enabling them with power ; because he never commands a work , but he gives abilities to its performance : and therefore still in every designation of the person , by whatsoever ministery it be done , either that ministery is by God constituted to be the ordinary means of conveying the abilities , or else God himself ministers the grace immediately . It must of necessity come from him some way or other . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — Saint Iames hath adopted it into the Family of Evangelical truths ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Every perfect gift , and therefore every perfecting gift , which in the stile of the Church is the gift of Ordination , is from above , the gifts of perfecting the persons of the Hierarchy , and ministery Evangelical ; which thing is further intimated by Saint Paul. Now he which stablisheth us with you [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] in order to Christ [ and Christian Religion ] is God , and that his meaning be understood concerning the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of establishing him in the ministery , he adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he which anointeth us is God , and hath sealed us with an earnest of his Spirit [ unction ] and consignation ] and [ establishing by the holy Spirit : ] the very stile of the Church for Ordination 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it was said of Christ , Him hath the Father sealed , that is , ordained him , the Priest and Prophet of the world , and this he plainly spoke as their Apostle and President in Religion , Not as Lords over your faith , but fellow-workers ; he spake of himself and Timothy , concerning whose Ministery in order to them , he now gives account : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , God anoints the Priest , and God consigns him with the holy Ghost ; that is the principale quaesitum , that is the main question . And therefore the Author of the Books of Ecclesiastical Hierarchy , giving the rationale of the Rites of Ordination , sayes that the Priest is made so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of proclaiming and publication of the person , signifying , That the holy man that consecrates , is but the proclaimer of the divine election , but not by any humane power or proper grace does he give the perfect gift and consecrate the person . And Nazianzen , speaking of the rites of Ordination hath this expression , with which the Divine grace is proclaimed : ( And Billius renders it ill by superinvocatur . ) He makes the power of consecration to be declarative ; which indeed is a lesser expression of a fuller power , but it signifies as much as the whole comes to ; for it must mean , God does transmit the grace [ at ] or [ by ] or [ in ] the exteriour ministery , and the Minister is [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a declarer ] not by the word of his mouth , distinct from the work of his hand : But by the ministery , he declares the work of God , then wrought in the person suscipient . And thus in absolution the Priest declares the act of God pardoning , not that he is a Preacher only of the pardon upon certain conditions , but that he is not the principal agent ; but by his ministery declares and ministers the effect and work of God. And this interpretation is clear in the instance of the blessed Sacrament , where not only the Priest but the people do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 declare the Lords death , not by a Homily , but by vertue of the mystery which they participate . And in the instance of this present question , the consecrator does declare power to descend from God upon the person to be ordained . But thus the whole action being but a ministery , is a declaration of the effect and grace of Gods vouch safing ; and because God does it not immediately , and also because such effects are invisible and secret operations , God appointing an external rite and ministery , does it ▪ that the private working of the Spirit may become as perceived as it can be , that is , that it may by such rites be declared to all the world what God is doing , and that man cannot do it of himself ; and besides the reasonableness of the thing , the very words in the present allegation do to this very sence expound themselves : for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , are the same thing , and expressive of each other ; the consecrator declares , that is , he doth not do it by collation of his own grace or power , but the grace of God and power from above . And this Doctrine we read also in S. Cyprian towards the end of his Epistle to Cornelius ; ut Dominus qui Sacerdotes sibi in Ecclesia sua eligere & constituere dignatur , electos quoque & constitutos sua voluntate atque opitulatione tueatur : It is a good prayer of Ordination , [ that the Lord who vouchsafes to chuse and consecrate Priests in his Church , would also be pleased by his aid and grace to defend them whom he hath so chosen and appointed ] Homo manum imponit , & Deus largitur gratiam : Sacerdos imponit supplicem dextram , Deus benedicit potenti dextra , saith Saint Ambrose , Man imposes his hand but God give the grace : the Bishop lays on his hand of prayer , and God blesses with his hand of power . The effect of this discourse is plain ; the grace and power that enables men to minister in the mysteries of the Gospel is so wholly from God , that whosoever assumes it without Gods warrant , and besides his way , ministers with a vain , sacrilegious , and ineffective hand , save only that he disturbs the appointed order , and does himself a mischief . SECT . VII . BY this ordination the persons ordained are made Ministers of the Gospel , Stewards of all its mysteries , the Light , the Salt of the earth , the Shepherd of the flock , Curates of souls ; these are their offices , or their appellatives ( which you please : ) for the Clerical ordination is no other but a sanctification of the person in both sences ; that is , 1. A separation of him to do certain mysterious actions of religion : which is that sanctification by which Ieremy , and S. Iohn the Baptist were sanctified from their mothers wombs . 2. It is also a sanctification of the person , by the increasing or giving respectively to the capacity of the suscipient , such graces as make the person meet to speak to God , to pray for the people , to handle the mysteries , and to have influence upon the cure . The first sanctification of a designation of the person ; which must of necessity be some way or other by God : because it is a nearer approach to him , a ministery of his graces , which without his appointment , a man must not , cannot any more do , than a messenger can carry pardon to a condemned person , which his Prince never sent . But this separation of the person , is not only a naming of the man , ( for so far the separation of the person may be previous to the ordination : for so it was in the ordinations of Matthias , and the seven Deacons ; The Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they appointed two , before God chose by lot ; and the whole Church chose the seven Deacons before the Apostles imposed hands ; ) but the separation , or this first sanctification of the person , is a giving him a power to do such offices , which God hath appointed to be done to him and for the people , which we may clearly see and understand in the instance of Iob and his friends : For when God would be intreated in behalf of Eliphaz and his companions , he gave order that Iob should make the address ; Go to my servant , he shall pray for you , and him will I accept ; this separation of a person for the offices of advocation , is the same thing which I mean by this first sanctification ; God did it , and gave him a power and authority to go to him , and put him into a place of trust and favour about him , and made him a Minister of the Sacrifice , which is a power and eminency above the persons for whom he was to sacrifice , and a power or grace from God to be in nearness to him . This I suppose to be the great argument for the necessity of separating a certain order of men for Ecclesiastical ministeries : And it relies upon these propositions . 1. All power of ordination descends from God , and he it is who sanctifies and separates the person . 2. The Priest by God is separate to be the gratious person to stand between him and the people . 3. He speaks the word of God , and returns the prayers and duty of the people , and conveys the blessings of God , by his prayer , and by his ministery . So that although every Christian must pray and may be heard , yet there is a solemn person appointed to pray in publick : and though Gods Spirit is given to all that ask it , and the promises of the Gospel are verified to all that obey the Gospel of Jesus , yet God hath appointed Sacraments and Solemnities , by which the promises and blessings are ministred more solemnly , and to greater effects . All the ordinary devotions the people may do alone ; the solemn , ritual and publick , the appointed Minister only must do . And if any man shall say , because the Priest's ministery is by prayer , every man can do it , and so , no need of him ; by the same reason he may say also that the Sacraments are unnecessary , because the same effect which they produce , is also in some degree the reward of a private piety and devotion . But the particulars are to be further proved and explicated as they need . Now what for illustration of this Article I have brought from the instance of Iob , is true in the Ministers of the Gospel , with the superaddition of many degrees of eminency . But still in the same kind , for the power God hath given is indeed mystical ; but it is not like a power operating by way of natural or proper operation ; it is not vis but facullas , not an inherent quality that issues out actions by way of direct emanation , like natural or acquired habits , but it is a grace or favour done to the person , and a qualification of him in genere politico , he receives a politick , publick , and solemn capacity , to intervene between God and the people ; and although it were granted that the people could do the external work , or the action of Church ministeries , yet they are actions to no purpose ; they want the life and all the excellency , unless they be done by such persons whom God hath called to it , and by some means of his own hath expressed his purpose to accept them in such ministrations . And this explication will easily be verified in all the particulars of the Priests Power , because all the ministeries of the Gospel are in genere orationis ( unless we except preaching , in which God speaks by his servants to the people ) the Minister by his office is an Intercessor with God , and the word used in Scripture for the Priests officiating signifies his praying [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] as they were ministring or doing their Liturgy , the work of their supplications and intercession ; and therefore the Apostles positively included all their whole ministery in these two : [ but we will give our selves to the word of God , and to prayer ; ] the prayer of consecration , the prayer of absolution , the prayer of imposition of hands : they had nothing else to do but pray and preach . And for this reason it was , that the Apostles in a sence nearest to the letter , did verifie the precept of our Blessed Saviour ; Pray continually , that is , in all the offices , acts , parts and ministeries of a daily Liturgy . This is not to lessen the power , but to understand it : for the Priests ministery is certainly the instrument of conveying all the blessings of the people , which are annexed to the ordinary administration of the Spirit . But when all the office of Christs Priesthood in Heaven is called intercession for us , and himself makes the sacrifice of the Cross , effectual to the salvation and graces of his Church , by his prayer , since we are Ministers of the same Priesthood , can there be a greater glory than to have our ministery like to that of Jesus ? not operating by vertue of a certain number of syllables , but by a holy , solemn , determined and religious prayer , in the several manners and instances of intercession : according to the analogy of all the religions in the world , whose most solemn mystery , was their most solemn prayer : I mean it in the matter of sacrificing ; which also is true in the most mysterious solemnity of Christianity in the holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper , which is hallowed and lifted up from the common bread and wine by mystical prayers and solemn invocations of God. And therefore S. Dionysius calls the forms of Consecration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , prayers of Consecration , and S. Cyril in his third mystagogique Catechism sayes the same . The Eucharistical bread [ after the invocation of the holy Ghost ] is not any longer common bread , but the body of Christ. For although it be necessary that the words which in the Latin Church have been for a long time called the words of Consecration ( which indeed are more properly the words of Institution ) should be repeated in every consecration , because the whole action is not compleated according to Christs pattern , nor the death of Christ so solemnly enunciated without them , yet even those words also are part of a mystical prayer ; and therefore as they are not only intended there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by way of history or narration ( as Cabasil . mistakes ; ) so also in the most ancient Liturgies , they were not only read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or as a meer narrative , but also with the form of an address , or invocation : Fiat hic panis corpus Christi , & fiat hoc vinum sanguis Christi , Let this bread be made the body of Christ , &c. So it is in S. Iames his Liturgy , S. Clements , S. Marks , and the Greek Doctors : And in the very recitation of the words of institution , the people ever used to answer [ Amen ] which intimates it to have been a consecration in genere orationis , called by S. Paul benediction , or the bread of blessing , and therefore S. Austin expounding those words of S. Paul [ Let prayers and supplications and intercessions and giving of thanks be made ] saith , Eligo in his verbis hoc intelligere , quod omnis vel paene omnis frequentat ecclesia , ut [ precationes ] accipiamus dictas quas fecimus in celebratione sacramentorum antequam illud quod est in Donini mensâ accipiat benedici : [ orationes ] cum benedicitur , & ad distribuendum comminuitur quam totam orationem paene omnis ecclesia Dominicâ oratione concludit . The words and form of consecration he calls by the name of [ orationes ] supplications ; the prayers before the consecration [ preces ] , and all the whole action [ oratio : ] and this is according to the stile and practice , and sence of the whole Church or very near the whole . And S. Basil saith , that there is more necessary to consecration than the words recited by the Apostles and by the Evangelists . * The words of Invocation in the shewing the bread of the Eucharist , and the cup of blessing , Who of all the Saints have left to us ? For we are not content with those which the Apostle and the Evangelists mention : but before and after , we say other words having great power towards the mystery , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we have received by tradition . These words set down in Scripture they retained as a part of the mystery co-operating to the solemnity , manifesting the signification of the rite , the glory of the change , the operation of the Spirit , the death of Christ , and the memory of the sacrifice : but this great work which all Christians knew to be done by the Holy Ghost , the Priest did obtain by prayer and solemn invocation : according to the saying of Proclus of C. P. speaking of the tradition of certain prayers used in the mysteries , and indited by the Apostles ( as it was said , ) but especially in S. Iames his Liturgy : By these prayers ( saith he ) they expected the coming of the holy Ghost , that his divine presence might make the bread and the wine mixt with water to become the body and blood of our blessed Saviour . And S. Iustin Martyr very often calls the Eucharist , food made Sacramental and Eucharistical by prayer : and Origen , b We eat the bread holy , and made the body of Christ by prayer : Verbo Dei & per obsecrationem sanctificatus , bread sanctified by the word of God , and by prayer , viz. the prayer of consecration : Prece mystica is S. Austins expression of it : c Corpus Christi & sanguinem dicimus illud tantum , quod ex fructibus terrae acceptum , & prece mystica consecratum ritè sumimus . That only we call the body and blood of Christ which we receive of the fruits of the earth , and being consecrated by the mystical prayer , we take according to the rite . And S. Hierom chides the insolency of some Deacons towards Priests upon this ground . d Who can suffer that the ministers of widdows and tables should advance themselves above those [ at whose prayers ] the body and blood of Christ are exhibited or made presential ? I add only the words of Damascen . e The bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of Christ supernaturally by invocation , and coming of the Holy Ghost . Now whether this consecration by prayer , did mean to reduce the words of institution to the sence and signification of a prayer , or that they mean , the consecration was made by the other prayers annexed to the narrative of the institution according to the several sences of the Greek and Latin Church , yet still the ministery of the Priest , whether in the words of consecration , or in the annexed prayers , is still by way of prayer . Nay further yet , the whole mystery it self is operative in the way of prayer , saith Cassander , in behalf of the School and of all the Roman Church ; and indeed S. Ambrose , and others of the Fathers , in behalf of the Church Catholick . Nunc Christus offertur , sed offertur quasi homo , quasi recipiens passionem , & offert seipsum quasi Sacerdos ut peccata nostra dimittat hic in imagine [ ibi in veritate , ubi apud Patrem quasi advocatus intervenit . ] So that what the Priest does here , being an imitation of what Christ does in Heaven , is by the sacrifice of a solemn prayer , and by the representing the action and passion of Christ , which is effectual in the way of prayer , and by the exhibiting it to God by a solemn prayer , and advocation , in imitation of , and union with Christ. All the whole office is an office of intercession , as it passes from the Priest to God , and from the people to God ; And then for that great mysteriousness , which is the sacramental change , which is that which passes from God unto the people by the Priest , that also is obtained and effected by way of prayer . For since the holy Ghost is the consecrator , either he is called down by the force of a certain number of syllables , which that he will verifie , himself hath no where described ; and that he means not to do it , he hath fairly intimated , in setting down the Institution in words of great vicinity to express the sence of the mystery , but yet of so much difference and variety , as will shew , this great change is not wrought by such certain and determined words , [ The blood of the New Testament ] so it is in Saint Matthew and S. Mark , [ The new Testament in my blood ] so S. Paul and S. Luke , My body which is broken , My body which is given , &c. and to think otherwise , is so near the Gentile Rites , and the mysteries of Zoroastes , and the secret operations of the Enthei , and Heathen Priests , that unless God had declared expresly such a power to be affixed to the recitation of such certain words , it is not with too much forwardness to be supposed true in the spirituality of the Gospel . But if the spirit descends not by the force of syllables , it follows He is called down by the prayers of the Church , presented by the Priests , which indeed is much to the honour of God and of Religion , an endearment of our duty , is according to the analogy of the Gospel , and a proper action or part of spiritual sacrifice , that great excellency of Evangelical Religion . For what can be more apt and reasonable to bring any great blessing from God than prayer , which acknowledges him the fountain of blessing , and yet puts us into a capacity of receiving it by way of moral predisposition , that holy graces may descend into holy vessels , by holy ministeries , and conveyances ; and none are more fit for the employment than prayers , whereby we bless God ▪ and bless the symbols , and ask that God may bless us , and by which every thing is sanctified , viz. by the word of God and Prayer , that is , by God's benediction and our impetration ; according to the use of the word in the saying of our blessed Saviour , Man lives [ by every word ] that proceeds out of the mouth of God : that is , by God's blessing ; to which , prayer is to be joyned , that we may cooperate with God in a way most likely to prevail with him ; and they are excellent words which * Cassander hath said to the purpose ; Some Apostolical Churches from the beginning used such solemn prayers to the celebration of the mysteries ; and Christ himself , beside that he recited the words ( of Institution ) he blessed the Symbols before and after , sung an Ecclesiastical hymn . And therefore the Greek Churches which have with more severity kept the first and most ancient forms of consecration , than the Latin Church ; affirm that the Consecration is made by solemn invocation alone , and the very recitation of the words spoken in the body of a prayer are used for argument to move God to hallow the gifts , and as an expression and determination of the desire . And this , | Gabriel of Philadelphia observes out of an Apostolical Liturgy , The words of our Lord [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] antecedently , and by way of institution , and incentive are the form , together with the words which the Priest afterwards recites according as it is set down in the divine Liturgy . It is supposed he means the Liturgy reported to be made by S. Iames , which is of the most ancient use in the Greek Church , and all Liturgies in the world in their several Canons of communion , do now , and did for ever , mingle solemn prayers together with recitation of Christ's words ; The Church of England does most religiously observe it according to the custom and sence of the primitive Liturgies ; who always did believe the consecration not to be a natural effect , and change , finished in any one instant , but a divine alteration consequent to the whole ministery : that is , the solemn prayer and invocation . Now if this great ministery be by way of solemn prayer , it will easier be granted that so the other are . For absolution and reconciliation of penitents I need say no more , but the question of S. Austin , Quid est aliud Manûs Impositio , quàm oratio super hominem ? And the Priestly absolution is called by S. Leo , Sacerdotum supplicationes , The prayers of Priests ; and in the old Ordo Romanus , and in the Pontifical , the forms of reconciliation were [ Deus te absolvat ] the Lord pardon thee , &c. But whatsoever the forms were ( for they may be optative , or indicative , or declarative , ) the case is not altered as to this question : for whatever the act of the Priest be , whether it be the act of a Judge , or of an Embassador , or a Counsellor , or a Physician , or all this ; the blessing which he ministers , is by way of a solemn prayer , according to the exigence of the present Rite : and the form of words doth not alter the case ; for Ego benedico , & Deus benedicat ] is the same , and was no more when God commanded the Priest in express terms to bless the people ; only the Church of late , chuses the indicative form , to signifie , that such a person is by authority and proper designation appointed the ordinary minister of benediction . For in the sence of the Church and Scripture , none can give blessing but a Superior , and yet every person may say in charity , God bless you ; He may not be properly said to bless , for the greater is not blessed of the lesser by Saint Paul's Rule ; the Priest may bless , or the Father may , and yet their benediction , ( save that it signifies the authority , and solemn deputation of the person to such an ordinary Ministery ) signifies but the same thing ; that is , it operates by way of prayer ; but is therefore prevalent and more effectual , because it is by persons appointed by God. And so it is in Absolution , for he that ministers the pardon , being the person that passes the act of God to the penitent , and the act of the penitent to God ; all that manner that the Priest interposes for the penitent to God is by way of prayer , and by the mediation of intercession ; for there is none else in this imaginable ; and the other of passing God's act upon the penitent is by way of interpretation and enunciation , as an Embassador , and by the word of his ministery ; In persona Christi condonavi , I pardon in the person of Christ , saith S. Paul : in the first , he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; in the second he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; in both , a minister of divine benediction to the people , the anointing from above descends upon Aaron's beard , and so by degrees to the skirts of the people ; and yet in those things which the Priest or the Prophet does but signifie by divine appointment he is said to do the thing , which he only signifies and makes publick as a Minister of God : thus God sent Ieremy , He set him over the Nations to root out , and to pull down , and to destroy , to throw down , and to build , and to plant ; and yet in all this , his ministery was nothing but Prophetical : and he that converts a sinner is said to save him , and to hide a multitude of sins ; that is , he is instrumental to it and ministers in the imployment ; so that here also , Verbum est oratio , the word of God and prayer do transact both the parts of this office . And I understand , though not the degree and excellency , yet the truth of this manner of operation in the instance of Isaac blessing Iacob , which in the several parts was expressed in all forms , indicative , optative , enunciative ; and yet there is no question but it was intended to do Iacob benefit by way of impetration ; so that although the Church may express the acts of her ministery in what form she please , and with design to make signification of another Article , yet the manner of procuring blessings and graces for the people is by a ministery of interpellation and prayer , we having no other way of address or return to God but by Petition and Eucharist . 17. I shall not need to instance any more . S. Austin summs up all the Ecclesiastical ministeries in an expression fully to this purpose ; Si ergo ad hoc valet quod dictum est in Evangelio , Deis peccatorem non audit , aut , Per peccatorem sacramenta non celebrentur , Quomodo exaudit — deprecantem vel super aquam baptismi , vel super oleum , vel super Eucharistiam , vel super capita eorum super quibus manus imponitur ? with S. Austin , praying over the Symbols of every Sacrament , and Sacramental , is all one with celebrating the mystery . And therefore in the office of Consecration in the Greek Church , this power passes upon the person ordained , That he may be worthy to ask things of thee for the salvation of the people , that is , to celebrate the Sacraments , and Rites , and that thou wilt hear him : which fully expresses the sence of the present discourse , that the first part of that grace of the holy Spirit which consecrates the Priest , the first part of his sanctification , is a separation of the person to the power of intercession for the people , and a ministerial mediation , by the ministration of such rites and solemn invocations which God hath appointed or designed . And now this sanctification which is so evident in Scripture , tradition and reason , taken from proportion and analogy to Religion , is so far from making the power of the holy man less than is supposed , that it shews the greatness of it by a true representment ; and preserves the sacredness of it so within its own cancels , that it will be the greatest sacriledge in the world to invade it ; for , whoever will boldly enter within this vail , nisi qui vocatur sicut Aaron , unless he be sanctified as is the Priest , who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Nazianzen calls him , a Minister co-operating with Christ , he does without leave call himself a man of God , a Mediator between God and the people under Christ , he boldly thrusts himself into the participation of that glorious mediation which Christ officiates in Heaven ; all which things as they are great honours to the person , rightly called to such vicinity and endearments with God , so they depend wholly upon divine dignation of the grace and vocation of the person . 2. Now for the other part of spiritual emanation or descent of graces in sanctification of the Clergy , that is in order to the performance of the other , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; that 's the sence of it , that God who is the lover of souls may grant a pure and unblameable Priesthood ; and certainly they who are honoured with so great a grace as to be called to officiate in holy and useful Ministeries have need also of other graces to make them persons holy in habit and disposition , as well as holy in Calling , and therefore God hath sent his Spirit to furnish his Emissaries with excellencies proportionable to their need and the usefulness of the Church . At the beginning of Christianity , God gave gifts extraordinary , as boldness of spirit , fearless courage , freedom of discourse , excellent understanding , discerning of spirits , deep judgment , innocence and prudence of deportment , the gift of tongues ; these were so necessary at the institution of the Christian Church , that if we had not had testimony of the matter of fact , the reasonableness of the thing would prove the actual dispensation of the Spirit ; because God never fails in necessaries : But afterward , when all the extraordinary needs were served , the extraordinary stock was spent , and God retracted those issues into their fountains , and then the graces that were necessary for the well discharging the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Priestly function , were such as make the person of more benefit to the people , not only by being exemplary to them , but gracious and loved by God : and those are spiritual graces of sanctification . And therefore Ordination is a collation of holy graces of sanctification ; of a more excellent Faith , of fervent Charity , of Providence and paternal care : Gifts which now descend not by way of miracle , as upon the Apostles , are to be acquired by humane industry , by study and good letters , and therefore are presupposed in the person to be ordained : to which purpose the Church now examines the abilities of the man , before she lays on hands : and therefore the Church does not suppose that the Spirit in Ordination descends in gifts , and in the infusion of habits , and perfect abilities , though then also , it is reasonable to believe that God will assist the pious and careful endeavours of holy Priests , and bless them with special aids and co-operation : because a more extraordinary ability is needful for persons so designed . But the proper and great aid which the Spirit of Ordination gives , is such instances of assistance which make the person more holy . And this is so certainly true , that even when the Apostle had ordained Timothy to be Bishop of Ephesus , he calls upon him to stir up the gift of God , which was in him by the putting on of his hands , and that gift is a Rosary of graces ; what graces they are , he enumerates in the following words : God hath not given us the spirit of Fear , but of Power , of Love , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and of a modest and sober mind ( and these words are made part of the form of collating the Episcopal order in the Church of England . ) Here is all that descends from the Spirit in Ordination , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Power , that is , to officiate and intercede with God in the parts of ministery : and the rest are such as imply duty , such as make him fit to be a Ruler in paternal and sweet government , Modesty , Sobriety , Love ; And therefore in the forms of Ordination of the Greek Church ( which are therefore highly to be valued , because they are most ancient , have suffered the least change , and been polluted with fewer interests ) the mystical prayer of Ordination names graces in order to holiness . We pray thee that the grace of the ever holy Spirit may descend upon him , a Fill him full of all faith and love and power and sanctification by the illumination of thy holy and life-giving Spirit : and the reason why these things are desir'd , and given , is in order to the right performing his holy offices , b That he may be worthy to stand without blame at thy Altar , to preach the Gospel of thy Kingdom , to minister the words of thy truth , to bring to Thee gifts , and spiritual Sacrifices , to renew the people with the Laver of Regeneration . And therefore c S. Cyril says that Christ's saying , Receive ye the Holy Ghost , signifies grace given by Christ to the Apostles , whereby they were sanctified : that by the holy Ghost they might be absolved from their sins , saith d Haymo ; and e S. Austin says , that many persons that were snatched violently to be made Priests or Bishops , who had in their former purposes determined to marry and live a secular life , have in their Ordination received the gift of continency . And therefore there was reason for the greatness of the solemnities used in all ages in separation of Priests from the world , insomuch that whatsoever was used in any sort of sanctification of solemn benediction by Moses law , all that was used in Consecration of the Priest , who was to receive the greatest measure of sanctification . Eadem item vis etiam Sacerdotem , augustum & honorandum facit , novitate benedictionis à communitate vulgi segregatum . Cum enim heri unus è plebe esset , repente redditur praeceptor , praeses , Doctor pietatis , mysteriorum latentium Praesul &c. Invisibili quadam vi , ac gratia invisibilem animam in melius transformatam gerens , that is , improved in all spiritual graces ; which is highly expressed by f Martyrius who said to Nectarius ; Tu , ô beate , recens baptizatus & purificatus , & mox insuper sacerdotio auctus es ; utraque autem haec peccatorum expiatoria esse Deus constituit : which are not to be expounded as if Ordination did confer the first grace , which in the Schools is understood only to be expiatorious ; but the increment of grace , and sanctification ; and that also is remissive of sins , which are taken off by parts as the habit decreases ; and we grow in God's favour , as our graces multiply or grow . Now that these graces being given in Ordination , are immediate emanations of the holy Spirit , and therefore not to be usurped or pretended to by any man , upon whom the Holy Ghost in Ordination hath not descended , I shall less need to prove , because it is certain upon the former grounds , and will be finished in the following discourses ; and it is in the Greek Ordination given as a Reason of the former prayer , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . [ For not in the imposition of my hands , but in the overseeing providence of thy rich mercies , grace is given to them that are worthy . ] So that we see , more goes to the fitting of a person for Ecclesiastical Ministeries than is usually supposed ; together with the power , a grace is specially collated , and that is not to be taken up and laid down , and pretended to by every bolder person . The thing is sacred , separate , solemn , deliberate , derivative from God , and not of humane provision , or authority , or pretence , or disposition . SECT . VIII . THe Holy Ghost was the first Consecrator , that is made evident ; and the persons first consecrated were the Apostles , who received the several parts of the Priestly order , at several times ; the power of consecration of the Eucharist , at the institution of it ; the power of remitting and retaining sins in the Octaves of Easter ; the power of baptizing and preaching , together with universal jurisdiction , immediately before the Ascension , when they were commanded to go into all the world preaching and baptizing . This is the whole office of the Priesthood ; and nothing of this was given in Pentecost when the holy Spirit descended and rested upon all of them ; the Apostles , the brethren , the women : for then they received those great assistances which enabled them who had been designed for Embassadors to the world , to do their great work : and others of a lower capacity had their proportion , as the effect of the promise of the Father , and a mighty verification of the truth of Christianity . Now all these powers which Christ hath given to his Apostles , were by some means or other to be transmitted to succeeding persons , because the several Ministeries were to abide for ever . All Nations were to be converted , a Church to be gathered and continued , the new Converts to be made Confessors , and consigned with Baptism , sins to be remitted , flocks to be fed and guided , and the Lords death declared , represented , exhibited , and commemorated until his second Coming . And since the powers of doing these offices , are acts of free and gracious concession , emanations of the holy Spirit , and admissions to a vicinity with God , it is not only impudence and sacriledge in the person , falsly to pretend , that is , to bely the Holy Ghost , and thrust into these Offices , but there is an impossibility in the thing , it is null in the very deed doing , to handle these mysteries without some appointment by God ; unless he calls and points out the person , either by an extraordinary or by an ordinary Vocation ; Of these I must give a particular account . The extraordinary calling was first , that is , the immediate ; for the first beginning of a lasting necessity , is extraordinary , and made ordinary in succession , and by continuation of a fixed and determined Ministery . The first of every order hath another manner of constitution , than all the whole succession . The rising of the spring is of greater wonder , and of more extraordinary and latent reason , than the descent of the current ; and the derivation of the powers of the Holy Ghost that make the Priestly order , are just like the Creation : the first man was made with God's own hands , and all the rest by God , co-operating with a humane act ; and there is never the same necessity as at first , for God to create man. The species or kind shall never fail , but be preserved in an ordinary way : And so it is in the designation of the Ministers of Evangelical Priesthood ; God breathed into the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the breath of the life-giving spirit ; and that breath was to be continued in a perpetual , univocal production ; they who had received , they were also to give : and they only could . Grace cannot be conveyed to any man , but either by the fountain , or by the channel : by the Author , or by the Minister . God only is the fountain and Author : and he that makes himself the Minister whom God appointed not , does in effect make himself the Author : for he undertakes to dispose of grace which he hath not received , to give God's goods upon his own authority : which he that offers at , without God's warrant , does it only upon his own . And so either he is the Author , or an Usurper , either the fountain , or a dry cloud , which in effect calls him either blasphemous , or sacrilegious . But the first and immediate derivation from the fountain , that only I affirm to be miraculous , and extraordinary : as all beginnings of essences and graces of necessity must : those persons who receive the first issues , they only are extraordinarily called : all that succeed are called or designed by an ordinary vocation , because whatsoever is in the succession is but an ordinary necessity , to which God hath proportioned an ordinary Ministery ; and when it may be supplied by the common provisions , to look for an extraordinary calling , is as if a man should expect some new man to be created , as Adam was ; it is to suppose God will multiply beings and operations without necessity . God called at first , and if he had not called , man could not have come to him in this nearness of a holy Ministery ; he sent persons abroad , and if he had not sent , they could not have gone ; but after that he had appointed by his own designation persons who should be Fathers in Christ , he called no more , but left them to call others : He first immediately gives the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the grace , and leaves this as a Depositum to the Church , faithfully to be kept till Christ's second coming ; and this Depositum is the doctrine and discipline of Jesus : he opens the door , and then left it open , commanding all to come in that way , into the Ministery and tuition of the flock , calling all that came in by windows , and posterns , and oblique ways , thieves and robbers . And it is observable , that the word vocation or calling in Scripture , when it is referred to a designation of persons to the Ministery , it always signifies that which we term , calling extraordinary ; it always signifies , an immediate act of God ; which also ceased when the great necessity expired , that is , when the fountain had streamed forth abundantly , and made a current to descend without interruption . The purpose of this discourse is , that now no man should in these days of ordinary Ministery , look for an extraordinary calling , nor pretend in order to vainer purposes any new necessities . They are fancies of a too confident opinion , and over-valuing of our selves , when we think the very being of a Church is concerned in our mistakes ; and if all the world be against us , we are not ashamed of our folly , but think truth is failed from among the children of men , and the Church is at a loss , and the current derived from the first emanations is dried up , and then he that is boldest to publish his follies , is also as apt to mistake his own boldness for a call from God , as he did at first his own vain opinion for a necessary truth ; and then he is called extraordinarily , and so ventures into the secrets of the Sanctuary . First , he made a necessity more than ever God made , & then himself finds a remedy that God never appointed . He that thinks every shaking of the Ark is absolute ruine to it , when peradventure it was but the weakness of his own eyes that made him fancy what was not , may also think he hears a call from above to support it , which indeed was nothing but a noise in his own head : And there is no cure for this , but to cure the man , and set his head right . For he that will pretend any thing that is beyond ordinary , as he that will say he hath two reasonable Souls within him , or three Wills , is not to be confuted but by Physick , or by the tying him to abjure his folly till he were able to prove it . But God by promising that his Church should abide for ever , and that the gates of Hell should not prevail against it , but that himself would be with her to the end of the world ; hath sufficiently confuted the vanity of those men , who that they might thrust themselves into an office , pretend the dissolution of the very being of the Church : For if the Church remains in her being , let her corruptions be what they will , the ordinary Prophets have power to reform them ; and if they do not , every man hath power to complain , so he does it with peace , and modesty , and truth , and necessity . 2. And there is no need of an extraordinary calling to amend such things which are certain , foreseen events ; and such were heresies and corruption in doctrine and manners , for which God appointed an ordinary Ministery to take cognizance and make a remedy ; for which himself when he had told us , Heresies must needs be , yet made no provisions extraordinary , but left the Church sufficiently instructed by her Rule , and guided by her Pastors . 3. When Christ means to give us a new Law , then he will give us a new Priesthood , a new Ministery : One will not be changed without the other ; God now no more comes in a mighty rushing wind , but in a still voice , in the gentle Homilies of ordinary Prophets ; and now that the Law , by which we are to frame our understandings and our actions , is established , we must not expect an Apostle to correct every abuse ; for if they will not hear Moses and the Prophets , if one should come from the dead , or an Angel come from Heaven , it is certain they will not be entertained , but till the wonder be over , and the curiosity of news be satisfied . Against this , it is pretended that Christ promised to be with his Church for ever , upon condition the Church would do their duty ; but they being but a company of men , have power to chuse , and they may chuse amiss ; and if all should do so , Christs promises may fail us , though not fail of their intentions ; and then in this case the Church failing , either there must be an extraordinary calling of single persons , or else any man may enter into the ordinary way , which is all one with an extraordinary : for it is extraordinary that common persons should by necessity be drawn into an imployment , which by ordinary vocation , they are not to meddle with . Against this we can ( thanks be to God for it ) pretend the experience of sixteen Ages ; for hitherto it hath ever been in the Christian Churches , that God hath preserved a holy Clergy in the same proportion as he hath preserved a holy people ; never yet were the Clergy all Antichristian , in the midst of Christian Churches ; and we have no reason to fear it will be so now , after so long an experience to expound the promises of our Lord to the sence of a perpetual Ministery , and a perpetual Church , by the means of Ordinary ministrations . And how shall the Church be supposed to fail , since God hath made no provisions for its restitution ? For by what means should the Church be renewed , and Christianity restored ? Not by Scripture ; for we have no certainty that the Scriptures which we have this day , are the same which the Apostles delivered , and shall remain so for ever ; but only 1. The reputation and testimony of all Christian Churches , ( which also must transmit the same by a continual successive testimony to the following , or else they will be of an uncertain faith , ) and 2. The confidence of the divine providence and goodness , who will not let us want what is fit for us , that without which we cannot attain the end to which in mercy he hath designed us . Now the same Arguments which we have for the continuation of Scripture , we have for the perpetuity of a Christian Clergy , that is , besides the so long actual succession and continuance , we have he goodness and unalterable sweetness of the Divine mercies , who will continue such Ministeries which himself hath made the ordinary means of salvation ; he would not have made them the way to Heaven and of ordinary necessity , if he did not mean to preserve them . Indeed , if the ordinary way should fail , God will supply another way to them that do their duty ; but then Scripture may as well fail as the ordinary succession of the Clergy : they both were intended but as the ordinary ministeries of salvation , and if Scripture be kept for the use of the Church , it is more likely the Church will be preserved in its necessary constituent parts than the Scripture ; because Scripture is preserved for the Church , it is kept that the Church might not fail . For as for the fancy , that all men being free agents may chuse amiss : suppose that ; but then , may they not all consent to the corruption or destroying of Scripture ? yea , but God will preserve them from that , or will over-rule the event : yea , but how do they know that ? what revelation have they ? yet grant that too , but why then will he not also over-rule the event of the matter of universal Apostasie ? for both of them are matter of choice . But then that all the Clergy should consent to corrupt Scripture , or to lose their Faith , is a most unreasonable supposition ; for supposing there is a natural possibility , yet it is morally impossible ; and we may as well fear that all the men of the world will be vitious upon the same reason ; for if all the Clergy may , then all the People may , and you may as well poison the Sea , as poison all the Springs ; and it is more likely all the Ideots , and the ordinary persons in the world should be couzened out of their Religion , than that all the wise men and Antistites , the Teachers , Doctors , and publick Ministers of Religion should . And when all men turn Mariners , or Apothecaries , or that all men will live single lives , and turn Monks , and so endanger the species of mankind to perish , ( for there is a great fear of that too ; ) that is , when all the world chuse one thing ( for if two men do , two thousand may do it if they will , and so may all upon this ground : ) then also we may fear that all the Governours of the Church may fail , because some do , and more have , and all may ; till then , there will be no need of an extraordinary Commission ; but the Church shall go on upon the stock of the first calling , and designation , which was extraordinary . The Spirit issued out at first miraculously , and hath continued running still in the first channels by ordinary conduct , and in the same conveyances it must run still , or it cannot without a miracle derive upon us , who stand at infinite distance from the fountain . Since then , there is now no more expectation of an extraordinary calling ( and to do so were an extraordinary vanity ) it remains that the derivation of the ministerial power be by an ordinary conveyance . The Spirit of God in Scripture hath drawn a line , and chalked out the path that himself meant to tread , in giving the graces of Evangelical ministrations . At first , after that Christ had named twelve ( one whereof was lost ) they , not having an express command for the manner of Ordination , took such course as Reason and Religion taught them . They named two persons , and prayed God to chuse one , and to manifest it by Lot ; which was a way less than the first designation of the other eleven ; and yet had more of the extraordinary in it , than could be reasonably continued in an ordinary succession . The Apostles themselves had not as yet received skill enough how to officiate in their ordinary ministery , because the Holy Ghost was not as yet descended . But when the Holy Ghost descended , then the work was to begin ; the Apostles wanted no power necessary for the main work of the Gospel ; but now also they received Commissions to dispense the Spirit to all such purposes to which He was intended . They before had the office in themselves , but it was not communicable to others , till the Spirit , the Anointing from above , ran over the Fringes of the Priest's garments ; they had it but in imperfection and unactive faculties ; so saith Theophylact : He breathed , not now giving to them the perfect gift of the Holy Ghost , for that he intended to give at Pentecost : but he prepared them for the fuller reception of it . They had the gift before , but not the perfect consummation of it , that was reserved for the great day ; and because the power of Consecration is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or perfection of Priestly order , it was the proper emanation of this days glory ; then was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the perfection of what power Christ had formerly consigned . For of all faculties , that is not perfect which produces perfect and excellent actions in a direct line , actions of a particular sort ; but that which produces the actions , and enables others to do so too ; for then the perfection is inherent , not only formally , but virtually and eminently ; and that 's the crown of habits and natural faculties . Now besides the reasonableness of the thing , this is also verified by a certainty that will not easily fail us ; by Experience , and ex post facto : For as we do not find the Apostles had , before Pentecost , a productive power , which made them call for a Miracle , or a special providence by Lots ; so we are sure that immediately after Pentecost they had it : for they speedily began to put it in execution ; and it is remarkable , that the Apostles did not lay hands upon Matthias : he being made Apostle before the descent of the Holy Ghost , they had no power to do it , they were not yet made Ministers of the Spirit ; which because afterwards presently they did , concludes fairly , that at Pentecost they were amongst other graces made the ordinary Ministers of Ordination . This I say is certain , that the Holy Ghost descending at Pentecost , they instantly did officiate in their ministerial offices , they preached , they baptized , they confirmed and gave the holy Spirit of obsignation , and took persons into the Lot of their Ministery , doing of it by an external rite and solemn invocation : and now the extraordinary way did cease ; God was the fountain of the power , but man conveyed it by an external rite : and of this Saint Paul , who was the only exception from the common way , takes notice ; calling himself an Apostle , not of man , nor by man , but by Iesus Christ ; implying that he had a special honour done , to be chosen an Apostle in an extraordinary way ; therefore others might be Apostles , and yet not so as he was ; for else his expression had been all one , as if one should say , Titus the son of a man , not begotten of an Angel , or Spirit , nor produced by the Sun or Stars , but begotten by a Man of a Woman : the discourse had been ridiculous , for no man is born otherwise ; and yet also he had something of the ordinary too ; for in an extraordinary manner he was sent to be ordained in an ordinary Ministery . And yet because the ordinary Ministery was setled , S. Paul was called to an account for so much of it as was extraordiry ; and was tied to do that which every man now is bound to do , that shall pretend a calling extraordinary , viz. to give an extraordinary proof of his extraordinary calling : which when he had done in the College of Ierusalem , the Apostles gave him the right hand of fellowship , and approved his vocation ; which also shews , that now the way of Ordination was fixed and declared to be by humane ministery ; of which I need no other proof but the instances of Ordinations recorded in Scripture , and the no instances to the contrary , but of S. Paul , whose designation was as immediate as that of the 11. Apostles , though his Ordination was not . I end this with the saying of Iob the Monk : Concerning the order of Priesthood , it is supernatural and unspeakable . He that yesterday , and the day before , was in the form of Ideots , and private persons , to day by the power of the Holy Ghost , and the voice of the chief Priest , and laying on of hands , receives so great an improvement and alteration , that he handles , and can consecrate the divine mysteries of the holy Church , and becomes ( under Christ ) a Mediator [ Ministerial ] between God and man , and exalted to hallow himself and sanctifie others : The same almost with the words of Gregory Nyssen , in his book De sancto baptismate . This is the summ of the preceding discourses . God is the Consecrator ; man is the Minister ; the separation is mysterious and wonderful ; the power great and secret ; the office to stand between God and the people , in the ministery of the Evangelical rites ; the calling to it ordinary , and by a setled Ministery , which began after the descent of the Holy Ghost in Pentecost . This great change was in nothing expressed greater , than that Saul upon his Ordination changed his name , which Saint Chrysostome observing , affirms the same of Saint Peter . I conclude , Differentiam inter ordinem & plebem constituit Ecclesiae authoritas & honor per ordinis concessunt sanctificatus à Deo , saith Tertullian . The authority of the whole Church of God hath made distinction between the person ordained and the people , but the honour and power of it is derived from the sanctification of God : It is derived from him , but conveyed by an ordinary Ministery of his appointing : Whosoever therefore with unsanctified , that is , with unconsecrated hands , shall dare to officiate in the ministerial office , separate by God , by gifts , by graces , by publick order , by an established rite , by the institution of Jesus , by the descent of the Holy Ghost , by the word of God , by the practice of the Apostles , by the practice of sixteen Ages of the Catholick Church , by the necessity of the thing , by Reason , by Analogy to the discourse of all the wise men that ever were in the world ; that man , like his predecessor Corah , brings an unhallowed Censer , which shall never send up a right cloud of Incense to God , but yet that unpermitted , and disallowed smoak shall kindle a fire , even the wrath of God which shall at least destroy the Sacrifice : his work shall be consumed , and when upon his repentance himself escapes , yet it shall be so as by fire , that is , with danger , and loss , and shame , and trouble . For our God is a consuming fire . Remember Corah and all his company . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . FINIS . RULES AND ADVICES TO THE CLERGY OF THE DIOCESSE OF DOWN and CONNOR , For their Deportment in their Personal and Publick Capacities . GIVEN BY IER . TAYLOR , Bishop of that Diocess , at the Visitation at LISNEGARVEY . LONDON , Printed for R. Royston , Bookseller to the King 's most Excellent Majesty . 1672. RULES AND ADVICES TO THE CLERGY . I. Personal Duty . REmember that it is your great Duty , and tied on you by many Obligations , that you be exemplar in your lives , and be Patterns and Presidents to your Flocks : lest it be said unto you , Why takest thou my Law into thy mouth , seeing thou hatest to be reformed thereby ? He that lives anidle life may preach with Truth and Reason , or as did the Pharisees ; but not as Christ , or as one having Authority . Every Minister in taking accounts of his life , must judge of his Duty by more strict and severer measures , than he does of his People ; and he that ties heavy burthens upon others , ought himself to carry the heaviest end : and many things may be lawful in them , which he must not suffer in himself . Let every Minister endeavour to be learned in all spiritual wisdom , and skilful in the things of God ; for he will ill teach others the way of godliness , perfectly , that is himself a babe and uninstructed . An Ignorant Minister is an head without an eye ; and an Evil Minister is salt that hath no savour . Every Minister , above all things , must be careful that he be not a servant of Passion , whether of Anger or Desire . For he that is not a master of his Passions will always be useless , and quickly will become contemptible and cheap in the eyes of his Parish . Let no Minister be litigious in any thing ; not greedy or covetous ; not insisting upon little things , or quarrelling for , or exacting of every minute portion of his dues ; but bountiful and easie ; remitting of his right , when to do so may be useful to his people , or when the contrary may domischief , and cause reproach . Be not over-righteous , ( saith Solomon ) that is , not severe in demanding , or foroing every thing , though it be indeed his due . Let not the name of the Church be made a pretence for personal covetousness ; by saying , you are willing to remit many things , but you must not wrong the Church : for though it be true , that you are not to do prejudice to succession , yet many things may be forgiven upon just occasions , from which the Church shall receive no incommodity ; but be sure that there are but few things which thou art bound to do in thy personal capacity , but the same also , and more , thou art obliged to perform , as thou art a publick person . Never exact the offerings , or customary wages , and such as are allowed by Law , in the ministration of the Sacraments , nor condition for them , nor secure them before-hand ; but first do your office , and minister the Sacraments purely , readily , and for Christs sake ; and when that is done , receive what is your due . Avoid all Pride , as you would flee from the most frightful Apparition , or the most cruel Enemy ; and remember that you can never truly teach Humility , or tell what it is , unless you practise it your selves . Take no measures of Humility , but such as are material and tangible ; such which consist not in humble words , and lowly gestures ; but what is first truly radicated in your Souls , in low opinion of your selves , and in real preferring others before your selves ; and in such significations , which can neither deceive your selves nor others . Let every Curate of Souls strive to understand himself best ; and then to understand others . Let him spare himself least ; but most severely judge , censure , and condemn himself . If he be learned , let him shew it by wise teaching , and humble manners . If he be not learned , let him be sure to get so much Knowledge as to know that , and so much Humility , as not to grow insolent , and puffed up by his Emptiness . For many will pardon a good man that is less learned ; but if he be proud , no man will forgive him . Let every Minister be careful to live a life as abstracted from the Affairs of the world , as his necessity will permit him ; but at no hand to be immerg'd and principally imploy'd in the Affairs of the World : What cannot be avoided , and what is of good report , and what he is oblig'd to by any personal or collateral Duty , that he may do , but no more . Ever remembring the Saying of our Blessed Lord : In the world ye shall have trouble ; but in me ye shall have peace : and consider this also , which is a great Truth ; That every degree of love to the world , is so much taken from the Love of God. Be no otherwise solicitous of your Fame and Reputation , but by doing your Duty well and wisely ; in other things refer your self to God : but if you meet with evil Tongues , be careful that you bear reproaches sweetly and temperately . Remember that no Minister can govern his people well , and prosperously , unless himself hath learn'd humbly and chearfully to obey his Superior . For every Minister should be like the good Centurion in the Gospel : himself is under authority , and he hath people under him . Be sure in all your Words and Actions to preserve Christian simplicity and ingenuity ; to do to others , as you would be done unto your self ; and never to speak what you do not think . Trust to Truth , rather than to your Memory : for this may fail you , that will never . Pray much and very servently , for all your Parishioners , and all men that belong to you , and all that belong to God ; but especially for the Conversion of Souls : and be very zealous for nothing , but for Gods glory , and the salvation of the World , and particularly of your Charges : Ever remembring that you are by God appointed , as the Ministers of Prayer , and the Ministers of good things , to pray for all the World , and to heal all the World , as far as you are able . Every Minister must learn and practise Patience , that by bearing all adversity meekly , and humbly , and chearfully , and by doing all his Duty with unwearied industry , with great courage , constancy , and Christian magnanimity , he may the better assist his people in the bearing of their crosses , and overcoming of their difficulties . He that is holy , let him be holy still , and still more holy , and never think he hath done his work , till all be finished by perseverance , and the measures of perfection in a holy Life , and a holy Death : but at no hand must he magnifie himself by vain separations from others , or despising them that are not so holy . II. Of Prudence required in Ministers . REmember that Discretion is the Mistress of all Graces ; and Humility is the greatest of all Miracles : and without this , all Graces perish to a mans self ; and without that , all Graces are useless unto others . Let no Minister be governed by the opinion of his People , and destroy his Duty , by unreasonable compliance with their humors , lest as the Bishop of Granata told the Governours of Leria and Patti , like silly Animals they take burdens upon their backs at the pleasure of the multitude , which they neither can retain with Prudence , nor shake off with Safety . Let not the Reverence of any man cause you to sin against God ; but in the matter of Souls , being well advis'd , be bold and confident ; but abate nothing of the honour of God , or the just measures of your Duty , to satisfie the importunity of any man whatsoever , and God will bear you out . When you teach your people any part of their duty , as in paying their debts , their tithes and offerings , in giving due reverence and religious regards , diminish nothing of admonition in these particulars , and the like , though they object , That you speak for your selves , and in your own cases . For counsel is not the worse , but the better , if it be profitable both to him that gives , and to him that takes it . Only do it in simplicity , and principally intend the good of their souls . In taking accounts of the good Lives of your selves or others , take your measures by the express words of Scripture ; and next to them estimate them by their proportion and compliance with the publick measures , with the Laws of the Nation , Ecclesiastical and Civil , and by the Rules of Fame , of publick Honesty and good Report ; and last of all by their observation of the Ordinances and exteriour parts of Religion . Be not satisfied when you have done a good work , unless you have also done it well ; and when you have , then be careful that vain-glory , partiality , self-conceit , or any other folly or indiscretion , snatch it not out of your hand , and cheat you of the reward . Be careful so to order your self , that you fall not into temptation and folly in the presence of any of your Charges ; and especially that you fall not into chidings and intemperate talkings , and sudden and violent expressions : Never be a party in clamours and scoldings , lest your Calling become useless , and your Person contemptible : Ever remembring that if you cheaply and lightly be engag'd in such low usages with any Person , that Person is likely to be lost from all possibility of receiving much good from your Ministery . III. The Rules and Measures of Government to be used by Ministers in their respective Cures . USe no violence to any man , to bring him to your opinion ; but by the word of your proper Ministery , by Demonstrations of the Spirit , by rational Discourses , by excellent Examples , constrain them to come in : and for other things they are to be permitted to their own liberty , to the measures of the Laws , and the conduct of their Governours . Suffer no quarrel in your Parish , and speedily suppress it when it is begun ; and though all wise men will abstain from interposing in other mens affairs , and especially in matters of Interest , which men love too well ; yet it is your Duty here to interpose , by perswading them to friendships , reconcilements , moderate prosecutions of their pretences ; and by all means you prudently can , to bring them to peace and brotherly kindness . Suffer no houses of Debauchery , of Drunkenness or Lust in your Parishes ; but implore the assistance of Authority for the suppressing of all such meeting-places and nurseries of Impiety : and as for places of publick Entertainment , take care that they observe the Rules of Christian Piety , and the allowed measures of Laws . If there be any Papists or Sectaries in your Parishes , neglect not frequently to confer with them in the spirit of meekness , and by the importunity of wise Discourses seeking to gain them . But stir up no violences against them ; but leave them ( if they be incurable ) to the wise and merciful disposition of the Laws . Receive not the people to doubtful Disputations : and let no names of Sects or differing Religions be kept up amongst you , to the disturbance of the publick Peace and private Charity : and teach not the people to estimate their Piety by their distance from any Opinion , but by their Faith in Christ , their Obedience to God and the Laws , and their Love to all Christian people , even though they be deceived . Think no man considerable upon the point or pretence of a tender Conscience , unless he live a good life , and in all things endeavour to approve himself void of offence both towards God and Man : but if he be an humble Person , modest and inquiring , apt to learn and desirous of information ; if he seeks for it in all ways reasonable and pious , and is obedient to Laws , then take care of him , use him tenderly , perswade him meekly , reprove him gently , and deal mercifully with him , till God shall reveal that also unto him , in which his unavoidable trouble and his temptation lies . Mark them that cause Divisions among you , and avoid them : for such Persons are by the Scripture called Scandals in the abstract ; they are Offenders and Offences too . But if any man have an Opinion , let him have it to himself , till he can be cur'd of his disease by time , and counsel , and gentle usages . But if he separates from the Church , or gathers a Congregation , he is proud , and is fallen from the Communion of Saints , and the Unity of the Catholick Church . He that observes any of his people to be zealous , let him be careful to conduct that zeal into such channels where there is least danger of inconveniency ; let him employ it in something that is good ; let it be press'd to fight against sin . For Zeal is like a Cancer in the Breast ; feed it with good flesh , or it will devour the Heart . Strive to get the love of the Congregation ; but let it not degenerate into popularity . Cause them to love you and revere you ; to love with Religion , not for your compliance ; for the good you do them , not for that you please them . Get their love by doing your Duty , but not by omitting or spoiling any part of it : Ever remembring the severe words of our Blessed Saviour , Wo be to you when all men speak well of you . Suffer not the common people to prattle about Religion and Questions ; but to speak little , to be swift to hear , and slow to speak ; that they learn to do good works for necessary uses , that they work with their hands , that they may have wherewithal to give to them that need ; that they study to be quiet , and learn to do their own business . Let every Minister take care that he call upon his Charge , that they order themselves so , that they leave no void spaces of their time , but that every part of it be filled with useful or innocent employment . For where there is a space without business , that space is the proper time for danger and temptation ; and no man is more miserable than he that knows not how to spend his time . Fear no mans person in the doing of your Duty wisely , and according to the Laws : Remembring always , that a servant of God can no more be hurt by all the powers of wickedness , than by the noise of a Files wing , or the chirping of a Sparrow . Brethren , do well for your selves : do well for your selves as long as you have time ; you know not how soon death will come . Entertain no Persons into your Assemblies from other Parishes , unless upon great occasion , or in the destitution of a Minister , or by contingency and seldom visits , or with leave : lest the labour of thy Brother be discouraged , and thy self be thought to preach Christ out of envy , and not of good will. Never appeal to the judgment of the people in matters of controversie ; teach them obedience , not arrogancy ; teach them to be humble , not crafty . For without the aid of false guides you will find some of them of themselves apt enough to be troublesome : and a question put into their heads , and a power of judging into their hands , is a putting it to their choice whether you shall be troubled by them this week or the next ; for much longer you cannot escape . Let no Minister of a Parish introduce any Ceremony , Rites or Gestures , though with some seeming Piety and Devotion , but what are commanded by the Church , and established by Law : and let these also be wisely and usefully explicated to the people , that they may understand the reasons and measures of obedience ; but let there be no more introduc'd , lest the people be burdened unnecessarily , and tempted or divided . IV. Rules and Advices concerning Preaching . LEt every Minister be diligent in preaching the Word of God , according to the ability that God gives him : Ever remembring , that to minister Gods Word unto the People is the one half of his great Office and Employment . Let every Minister be careful that what he delivers be indeed the Word of God : that his Sermon be answerable to the Text ; for this is Gods Word , the other ought to be according to it ; that although in it self it be but the word of Man , yet by the purpose , truth , and signification of it , it may in a secondary sence be the Word of God. Do not spend your Sermons in general and indefinite things , as in Exhortations to the people to get Christ , to be united to Christ , and things of the like unlimited signification ; but tell them in every duty , what are the measures , what circumstances , what instruments , and what is the particular minute meaning of every general Advice . For Generals not explicated do but fill the peoples heads with empty notions , and their mouths with perpetual unintelligible talk : but their hearts remain empty , and themselves are not edified . Let not the humors and inclinations of the people be the measures of your Doctrines , but let your Doctrines be the measure of their perswasions . Let them know from you what they ought to do ; but if you learn from them what you ought to teach , you will give but a very ill account at the day of Judgment , of the souls committed to you . He that receives from the people what he shall teach them , is like a Nurse that asks of her Child what Physick she shall give him . Every Minister in reproofs of sin and sinners , ought to concern himself in the faults of them that are present , but not of the absent ; nor in reproof of the times ; for this can serve no end but of Faction and Sedition , publick Murmur and private Discontent ; besides this it does nothing but amuse the people in the faults of others , teaching them to revile their Betters , and neglect the dangers of their own souls . As it looks like flattery and design to preach nothing before Magistrates but the duty of their people and their own eminency ; so it is the beginning of Mutiny to preach to the people the duty of their Superiors and Supreme ; it can neither come from a good Principle , nor tend to a good End. Every Minister ought to preach to his Parish , and urge their duty : S. Iohn the Baptist told the Souldiers what the Souldiers should do , but troubled not their heads with what was the duty of the Scribes and Pharisees . In the reproof of sins be as particular as you please , and spare no mans sin , but meddle with no mans person ; neither name any man , nor signifie him , neither reproach him , nor make him to be suspected ; he that doth otherwise makes his Sermon to be a Libel , and the Ministry of Repentance an instrument of Revenge ; and so doing he shall exasperate the man , but never amend the sinner . Let the business of your Sermons be to preach holy Life , Obedience , Peace , Love among neighbours , hearty love , to live as the old Christians did , and the new should ; to do hurt to no man , to do good to every man : For in these things the honour of God consists , and the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus . Press those Graces most that do most good , and make the least noise ; such as giving privately and forgiving publickly ; and prescribe the grace of Charity by all the measures of it which are given by the Apostle , 1 Cor. 13. For this grace is not finished by good words , nor yet by good works , but it is a great building , and many materials go to the structure of it . It is worth your study , for it is the fulfilling of the Commandments . Because it is impossible that Charity should live , unless the lust of the tongue be mortified , let every Minister in his charge be frequent and severe against slanderers , detractors and backbiters ; for the Crime of backbiting is the poison of Charity ; and yet so common , that it is pass'd into a Proverb , [ After a good dinner let us sit down and backbite our neighbours . ] Let every Minister be careful to observe , and vehement in reproving those faults of his Parishioners , of which the Laws cannot or do not take cognizance , such as are many degrees of intemperate drinkings , gluttony , riotous living , expences above their ability , pride , bragging , lying in ordinary conversation , covetousness , peevishness , and hasty anger , and such like . For the Word of God searches deeper than the Laws of men ; and many things will be hard to prove by the measures of Courts , which are easie enough to be observed by the watchful and diligent eye and ear of the Guide of Souls . In your Sermons to the people , often speak of the four last things , of Death and Judgment , Heaven and Hell : of the Life and Death of Jesus Christ , of Gods Mercy to repenting sinners , and his Severity against the impenitent ; of the formidable Examples of Gods anger pour'd forth upon Rebels , Sacrilegious , Oppressors of Widows and Orphans , and all persons guilty of crying Sins : These are useful , safe and profitable ; but never run into Extravagancies and Curiosities , nor trouble your selves or them with mysterious Secrets ; for there is more laid before you than you can understand ; and the whole duty of man is , To fear God and keep his Commandments . Speak but very little of the secret and high things of God , but as much as you can of the lowness and humility of Christ. Be not hasty in pronouncing damnation against any man or party in a matter of disputation . It is enough that you reprove an Error ; but what shall be the sentence against it at the day of Judgment , thou knowest not , and therefore pray for the erring person , and reprove him , but leave the sentence to his Judge . Let your Sermons teach the duty of all states of men to whom you speak ; and particularly take care of Servants and Hirelings , Merchants and Tradesmen , that they be not unskilful , nor unadmonished in their respective duties ; and in all things speak usefully and affectionately ; for by this means you will provide for all mens needs , both for them that sin by reason of their little understanding , and them that sin because they have evil , dull , or depraved affections . In your Sermons and Discourses of Religion , use primitive , known and accustomed words , and affect not new Phantastical or Schismatical terms : Let the Sunday Festival be called the Lords day ; and pretend no fears from the common use of words amongst Christians . For they that make a business of the words of common use , and reform Religion by introducing a new word , intend to make a change but no amendment , they spend themselves in trifles , like the barren turf that sends forth no medicinable herbs , but store of Mushromes ; and they give a demonstration that they are either impertinent people , or else of a querulous nature ; and that they are ready to disturb the Church , if they could find occasion . Let every Minister in his charge , as much as he can , endeavour to destroy all popular errors and evil principles taken up by his people , or others with whom they converse ; especially those that directly oppose the indispensable necessity of a holy life : let him endeavour to understand in what true and useful sence Christs active obedience is imputed to us ; let him make his people fear the deferring of their Repentance , and putting it off to their death-bed ; let him explicate the nature of Faith , so that it be an active and quickning principle of Charity ; let him , as much as he may , take from them all confidences that slacken their obedience and diligence ; let him teach them to impute all their sins to their own follies and evil choice , and so build them up in a most holy faith to a holy life ; ever remembring that in all ages it hath been the greatest artifice of Satan to hinder the increase of Christs Kingdom , by destroying those things in which it does consist , viz. Peace and Righteousness , Holiness and Mortification . Every Minister ought to be careful that he never expound Scriptures in publick contrary to the known sence of the Catholick Church , and particularly of the Churches of England and Ireland , nor introduce any Doctrine against any of the four first General Councils ; for these , as they are measures of truth , so also of necessity ; that is , as they are safe , so they are sufficient ; and besides what is taught by these , no matter of belief is necessary to salvation . Let no Preacher bring before the people in his Sermons or Discourses , the Arguments of great and dangerous Heresies , though with a purpose to confute them ; for they will much easier retain the Objection than understand the Answer . Let not the Preacher make an Article of Faith to be a matter of dispute ; but teach it with plainness and simplicity , and confirm it with easie arguments and plain words of Scripture , but without objection ; let them be taught to believe , but not to argue , lest if the arguments meet with a scrupulous person , it rather shake the foundation by curious inquiry , than establish it by arguments too hard . Let the Preacher be careful that in his Sermons he use no light , immodest or ridiculous expressions , but what is wise , grave , useful and for edification ; that when the Preacher brings truth and gravity , the people may attend with fear and reverence . Let no Preacher envy any man that hath a greater audience , or more fame in Preaching than himself ; let him not detract from him or lessen his reputation directly or indirectly : for he that cannot be even with his brother but by pulling him down , is but a dwarf still ; and no man is the better for making his brother worse . In all things desire that Christ's Kingdom may be advanc'd ; and rejoyce that he is served , whoever be the Minister ; that if you cannot have the fame of a great Preacher , yet you may have the reward of being a good man ; but it is hard to miss both . Let every Preacher in his Parish take care to explicate to the people the Mysteries of the great Festivals , as of Christmas , Easter , Ascension-day , Whitsunday , Trinity Sunday , the Annunciation of the blessed Virgin Mary ; because these Feasts containing in them the great Fundamentals of our Faith , will with most advantage convey the mysteries to the people , and fix them in their memories , by the solemnity and circumstances of the day . In all your Sermons and Discourses speak nothing of God but what is honourable and glorious ; and impute not to him such things , the consequents of which a wise and good man will not own : never suppose him to be author of sin , or the procurer of our damnation . For God cannot be tempted , neither tempteth he any man. God is true , and every man a lyar . Let no Preacher compare one Ordinance with another ; as Prayer with Preaching , to the disparagement of either ; but use both in their proper seasons , and according to appointed Order . Let no man preach for the praise of men ; but if you meet it , instantly watch and stand upon your guard , and pray against your own vanity ; and by an express act of acknowledgment and adoration return the praise to God. Remember that Herod was for the omission of this smitten by an Angel ; and do thou tremble , fearing lest the judgment of God be otherwise than the sentence of the people . V. Rules and Advices concerning Catechism . EVery Minister is bound upon every Lords day before Evening Prayer , to instruct all young people in the Creed , the Lords Prayer , the Ten Commandments , and the Doctrine of the Sacraments , as they are set down and explicated in the Church Catechism . Let a Bell be tolled when the Catechising is to begin , that all who desire it may be present ; but let all the more ignorant and uninstructed part of the people , whether they be old or young , be requir'd to be present : that no person in your Parishes be ignorant in the foundations of Religion : Ever remembring , that if in these things they be unskilful , whatever is taught besides , is like a house built upon the sand . Let every Minister teach his people the use , practice , methods and benefits of meditation or mental prayer . Let them draw out for them helps and rules for their assistance in it ; and furnish them with materials , concerning the life and death of the ever blessed Jesus , the greatness of God , our own meanness , the dreadful sound of the last Trumpet , the infinite event of the two last sentences at doomsday : let them be taught to consider what they have been , what they are , and what they shall be ; and above all things what are the issues of eternity ; glories never to cease , pains never to be ended . Let every Minister exhort his people to a frequent confession of their sins , and a declaration of the state of their Souls ; to a conversation with their Minister in spiritual things , to an enquiry concerning all the parts of their duty : for by preaching , and catechising , and private entercourse , all the needs of Souls can best be serv'd ; but by preaching alone they cannot . Let the people be exhorted to keep Fasting days , and the Feasts of the Church ; according to their respective capacities ; so it be done without burden to them , and without becoming a snare ; that is , that upon the account of Religion , and holy desires to please God , they spend some time in Religion , besides the Lords-day : but be very careful that the Lords-day be kept religiously , according to the severest measures of the Church , and the commands of Authority : ever remembring that as they give but little Testimony of Repentance and Mortification , who never fast ; so they give but small evidence of their joy in God and Religion , who are unwilling solemnly to partake of the publick and Religious Joys of the Christian Church . Let every Minister be diligent in exhorting all Parents and Masters to send their Children and Servants to the Bishop at the Visitation , or other solemn times of his coming to them , that they may be confirm'd : And let him also take care that all young persons may by understanding the Principles of Religion , their vow of Baptism , the excellency of Christian Religion , the necessity and advantages of it , and of living according to it , be fitted and disposed , and accordingly by them presented to the Bishop , that he may pray over them , and invocate the holy Spirit , and minister the holy Rite of Confirmation . VI. Rules & Advices concerning the Visitation of the Sick. EVery Minister ought to be careful in visiting all the Sick and Afflicted persons of his Parish : ever remembring , that as the Priests lips are to preserve knowledge , so it is his duty to minister a word of comfort in the time of need . A Minister must not stay till he be sent for ; but of his own accord and care to go to them , to examine them , to exhort them to perfect their repentance , to strengthen their faith , to encourage their patience , to perswade them to resignation , to the renewing of their holy vows , to the love of God , to be reconcil'd to their neighbours , to make restitution and amends , to confess their sins , to settle their estate , to provide for their charges , to do acts of piety and charity , and above all things , that they take care they do not sin towards the end of their lives . For if repentance on our death-bed seem so very late for the sins of our life ; what time shall be left to repent us of the sins we commit on our death-bed ? When you comfort the afflicted , endeavour to bring them to the true love of God ; for he that serves God for Gods sake , it is almost impossible he should be oppressed with sorrow . In answering the cases of conscience of the sick or afflicted people , consider not who asks , but what he asks ; and consult in your answers more with the estate of his soul , than the conveniency of his estate ; for no flattery is so fatal as that of the Physician or the Divine . If the sick person enquires concerning the final estate of his soul , he is to be reprov'd rather than answer'd ; only he is to be called upon to finish his duty , to do all the good he can in that season , to pray for pardon and acceptance ; but you have nothing to do to meddle with passing final sentences ; neither cast him down in despair , nor raise him up to vain and unreasonable confidences . But take care that he be not carelesly dismiss'd . In order to these and many other good purposes , every Minister ought frequently to converse with his Parishioners ; to go to their houses , but always publickly , with witness , and with prudence , lest what is charitably intended be scandalously reported : and in all your conversation be sure to give good example , and upon all occasions to give good counsel . VII . Of ministring the Sacraments , publick Prayers , and other duties of Ministers . EVery Minister is oblig'd publickly or privately to read the Common Prayers every day in the week , at Morning and Evening ; and in great Towns and populous places conveniently inhabited , it must be read in Churches , that the daily sacrifice of Prayer and Thanksgiving may never cease . The Minister is to instruct the people , that the Baptism of their children ought not to be ordinarily deferr'd longer than till the next Sunday after the birth of the child ; lest importune and unnecessary delay , occasion that the child die before it is dedicated to the service of God and the Religion of the Lord Jesus , before it be born again , admitted to the Promises of the Gospel , and reckon'd in the account of the second Adam . Let every Minister exhort and press the people to a devout and periodical Communion , at the least three times in the year , at the great Festivals : but the devouter sort , and they who have leisure , are to be invited to a frequent Communion : and let it be given and received with great reverence . Every Minister ought to be well skill'd and studied in saying his Office , in the Rubricks , the Canons , the Articles , and the Homilies of the Church , that he may do his duty readily , discreetly , gravely , and by the publick measures of the Laws . To which also it is very useful that it be added , that every Minister study the ancient Canons of the Church , especially the Penitentials of the Eastern and Western Churches : let him read good Books , such as are approved by publick authority ; such which are useful , wise and holy ; not the scriblings of unlearned parties , but of men learned , pious , obedient and disinterested ; and amongst these , such especially which describe duty and good life , which minister to Faith and Charity , to Piety and Devotion ; Cases of Conscience , and solid expositions of Scripture . Concerning which learned and wise persons are to be consulted . Let not a Curate of Souls trouble himself with any studies but such which concern his own or his peoples duty ; such as may enable him to speak well , and to do well ; but to meddle not with controversies , but such by which he may be enabled to convince the gainsayers in things that concern publick peace and a good life . Be careful in all the publick administrations of your Parish , that the poor be provided for . Think it no shame to beg for Christs poor members ; stir up the people to liberal alms by your word and your example . Let a collection be made every Lords-day , and upon all solemn meetings , and at every Communion ; and let the Collection be wisely and piously administred : ever remembring , that at the day of Judgment nothing shall publickly be proclaimed , but the reward of alms and mercy . Let every Minister be sure to lay up a treasure of comforts and advices , to bring forth for every mans need in the day of his trouble ; let him study and heap together Instruments and Advices for the promoting of every vertue , and remedies and arguments against every vice ; let him teach his people to make acts of vertue not only by external exercise , but also in the way of Prayer and internal meditation . In these and all things else that concern the Ministers duty , if there be difficulty you are to repair to your Bishop for further advice , assistance and information . FINIS . A Funeral Sermon , Preached at the OBSEQUIES OF THE Right Reverend Father in God JEREMY Lord Bishop of DOWN : Who deceased at LISBURNE August 13 th . 1667. BY GEORGE RUST , Lord Bishop of DROMORE . LONDON , Printed for R. Royston , Bookseller to the King 's most Excellent Majesty . 1672. A Funeral Sermon . 1 JOHN 3. 2. It doth not yet appear what we shall be GLorious things are spoken in Scripture concerning the future Reward of the Righteous ; and all the words that are wont to signifie what is of greatest Price and Value , or can represent the most enravishing Objects of our desires are made use of , by the Holy Ghost , to recommend unto us this transcendent State of Blessedness : Such are these ; Rivers of Pleasures , A fountain of living water , A treasure that can never be wasted , nor never taken from us ; An inheritance in light , An incorruptible Crown , A Kingdom , the Kingdom of God , and the Kingdom of Christ ; The Kingdom of Glory , a Crown of Glory and Life ; and Righteousness , and Immortality ; The Vision of God ; Being fill'd with all the fulness of God , An exceeding eternal weight of Glory , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Words strangely Emphatical , that can't be put into English ; and if they could , they would not be able to convey to our minds the Notion that they design : for it is too big for any Expressions ; and , after all that can be said , we must resolve with our Apostle , It does not yet appear what we shall be . At this Distance we cannot make any likely guesses or conjectures at the glory of that future state . Men make very imperfect Descriptions of Countries or Cities , that never were there themselves , nor saw the Places with their own eyes . It is not for any mortal Creature to make a Map of that Canaan that lies above : It is to all us that live here on the hither-side of Death , an unknown Countrey , and an undiscover'd Land. It may be , some Heavenly Pilgrim , that with his holy thoughts and ardent desires , is continually travelling thitherward , arrives sometimes near the Borders of the promis'd Land , and the Suburbs of the new Ierusalem , and gets upon the top of Pisgah , and there he has an imperfect Prospect of a brave Countrey , that lies afar way off ; but he can't tell how to describe it , and all that he hath to say , to satisfie the curious Enquirer , is only this , If he would know the glories of it , he must go and see it . It was believ'd of old , that those places that lie under the Line , were burnt up by the continual heat of the Sun , and were not habitable , either by man or beast : But later Discoveries tell us , that there are the most pleasant Countries that the Earth can shew ; insomuch that some have plac'd Paradise it self in that Climate . Sure I am , of all the Regions of the Intellectual World , and the several Lands that are peopled either with Men or Angels , the most pleasant Countries they lie under the Line , under the direct beams of the Sun of Righteousness , where there is an eternal Day , and an eternal Spring ; where is that Tree of Life , that beareth twelve manner of Fruits , and yieldeth her Fruit every Month : Thus we may use Figures , and Metaphors , and Allegories , and tell you of fruitful Meads , and spacious Fields , and winding Rivers , and purling Brooks , and chanting Birds , and shady Groves , and pleasant Gardens , and lovely Bowers , and noble Seats , and stately Palaces , and goodly People , and excellent Laws , and sweet Societies ; but , this is but to frame little comparisons to please our childish fancies : and , just such discourses as a blind man would make concerning Colours ; so do we talk of those things we never saw , and disparage the state whilst we would recommend it . Indeed it requires some Saint or Angel from Heaven to discourse upon the Subject ; and yet that would not do neither : For though they might be able to speak something of it , yet we should want ears to hear it . Neither can those things be declar'd but in the language of Heaven , which would be little understood by us , the poor inhabitants of this lower World ; they are indeed things too great to be brought within the compass of words . Saint Paul , when he had been rapt up into the third Heaven , he saw 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , things unlawful , or unpossible , to be utter'd ; and , Eye hath not seen , nor ear heard , nor can it enter into the heart of man to conceive , what God hath prepared for them that love him ; and , It does not yet appear what we shall be , said that beloved Disciple , that lay in the bosom of our Saviour . You will not now expect , that I should give you a relation of that which cannot be utter'd , nor so much as conceiv'd ; or declare unto you what our Eagle-sighted Evangelist tells us does not yet appear . But , that you may understand , that that which sets this state of Happiness so beyond the reach of all imagination , is only its transcendent excellency ; I shall tell you something of what does already appear of it , and may be known concerning it . First of all we are assur'd that we shall then be freed from all the evils and miseries that we now labour under : Vanity and Misery , they are two words that speak the whole of this present World ; the enjoyments of it are dreams , and fancies , and shadows , and appearances ; and , if any thing be , it is only Evil and Misery that is real and substantial . Vanity and folly , labour and pains , cares and fears , crosses and disappointments , sickness and diseases , they make up the whole of our portion here . This life it is begun in a Cry , and it ends in a Groan ; and he that lives most happily , his life is checker'd with black and white , and his dayes are not all Sun-shine , but some are cloudy and gloomy , and there is a Worm at the root of all his joy , that soon eats out the sap and heart of it ; and the Gourd in whose shade he now so much pleases himself , by to morrow will be wither'd and gone . But Heaven is not subject to these mixtures and uncertainties ; it is a region of calmness and serenity , and the Soul is there gotten above the Clouds , and is not annoyed with those storms and tempests that are here below . All tears shall then be wiped from our Eyes ; and though sorrow may endure for the night of this World , yet joy will spring up in the morning of Eternity . We are sure we shall be freed from this earthly , and cloath'd with 〈◊〉 heavenly and glorified Body . These bodies of ours they are the graves and sepulchres , the prisons and dungeons of our Heaven-born Souls ▪ and though we deck and adorn them , and pride our selves in their beauty and comeliness ; yet , when all is done , they are but sinks of corruption and defilement : they expose us to many pains and diseases , and incline us to many lusts and passions , and the more we pamper them , the greater burden they are unto our minds ; they impose upon our reasons , and by their steams and vapours cast a mist before our understandings ; they clog our affections , and like a heavy weight depress us unto this earth , and keep us from soaring aloft among the winged Inhabitants of the upper Regions : But those Robes of light and glory , which we shall be cloath'd withall at the Resurrection of the Just , and those Heavenly Bodies which the Gospel hath then assur'd untous , they are not subject to any of these mischiefs and inconveniencies , but are fit and accommodate instruments for the Soul in its highest Exaltations . And this is an argument that the Gospel does dwell much upon , viz. the Redemption of our Bodies , that He shall change our vile bodies , that they may be like unto his glorious Body ; and we are taught to look upon it as one great piece of our Reward , that we shall be cloath'd upon with our house which is from Heaven ; that this corruptible shall put on incorruption , and this mortal immortality : that , as we have born the image of the earthly , so we must bear the image of the heavenly Adam : who was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , of heaven heavenly ; as the first man was , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , of the earth earthy . And therefore , I think , the Schools put too mean a rate upon this great Promise of the Gospel , The Resurrection of our Bodies ; and , I believe , it might be demonstrated from the principles of sound Philosophy , That this Article of our Christian Faith , which the Atheist makes so much sport withall , is so far from being chargeable with any absurdity , that it is founded upon the Highest Reason : for , seeing we find by too great an experience , that the Soul has so close and necessary a dependance upon this gross and earthy Mass that we now carry about with us ; it may be disputed with some probability , whether it be ever able to act independently of all matter whatsoever : at least , we are assur'd , that the state of conjunction is most connatural to her ; and that , Intellectual pleasure it self is not only multiplied , but the better felt , by its redundancy upon the body and spirits : and if it be so , then the purer and more defecate the Body is , the better will the Soul be appointed for the exercise of its noblest Operations ; and it will be no mean piece of our reward hereafter , that that which is sown 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , an animal , shall be raised a heavenly body . We are sure , that we shall then be free from sin , and all those foolish lusts and passions that we are now enslaved unto . The life of a Christian , it is a continual Warfare ; and he endures many sore conflicts , and makes many sad complaints , and often bemoans himself after such a manner , as this : Wo is me , that I am forc'd to dwell in Meshech , and to have my habitation in the Tents of Kedar ; that there should be so many Goliah's within me , that defie the Host of Israel ; so many sons of Anak that hinder my entrance into the Land of Promise , and the Rest of God ; that I should toil and labour among the bricks , and live in bondage unto these worse than Egyptian Task-Masters . Thus does he sit down by the Rivers of Babylon , and weep over those ruines and desolations that these worse than Assyrian Armies have made in the City , and House of his God. And many a time does he cry out in the bitterness of his Soul , Wretched creature that I am ! Who shall deliver me from this body of death ? And though , through his faith , and courage , and constancy , he be daily getting ground of his Spiritual enemies ; yet it is but by inches , and every step he takes , he must fight for it ; and living as he does in an Enemies Countrey , he is forc'd alwayes to be upon his Guard ; and if he slumber never so little , presently he is surpriz'd by a watchful Adversary . This is our portion here , and our lot is this ; but when we arrive unto those Regions of bliss and glory that are above , we shall then stand safely upon the shore , and and see all our enemies , Pharaoh and all his Host , drown'd and destroy'd in the Rea-Sea , and being deliver'd from the World , and the Flesh , and the Devil , Death , and Sin , and Hell , we shall sing the Song of Moses , and of the Lamb , an Epinicion , and Song of eternal Triumph , unto the God of our Salvation . We shall be sure to meet with the best company that Earth or Heaven affords : Good Company it is the great pleasure of the life of man ; And we shall then come to the innumerable company of Angels , and the general Assembly of the Church of the First-born , and to the Spirits of just men made perfect , and to Iesus the Mediator of the New Covenant . The Oracle tells Amelius , enquiring what was become of Polinus's soul , that he was gone to Pythagoras , and Socrates , and Plato , and as many as had born a part in the Quire of heavenly love . And I may say to every good man , that he shall go to the Company of Abraham , Isaac , and Iacob ; Moses , David , and Samuel ; all the Prophets and Apostles , and all the holy men of God that have been in all the Ages of the World. All those brave and excellent persons that have been scattered at the greatest distance of time and place , and in their several generations have been the salt of the earth to preserve mankind from utter degeneracy and corruption ; These shall be all gathered together , and meet in one Constellation in that Firmament of Glory . O Praeclarum diem , cùm ad illud divinorum animorum concilium coetúmque proficiscar , atque ex hac turba ac colluvione discedam ! O that blessed day , when we shall make our escape from this medly and confused riot , and shall arrive to that great Council and general Randevouz , of divine and god-like Spirits ! But , which is more than all , we shall then meet our Lord Jesus Christ , the Head of our Recovery , whose story is now so delightful unto us , as reporting nothing of him , but the greatest sweetness and innocence , and meekness and patience , and mercy and tenderness , and benignity and goodness , and whatever can render any person lovely or amiable ; and who , out of his dear love and deep compassion unto mankind , gave up himself unto the death for us men , and for our salvation . And if Saint Augustine made it one of his Wishes , to have seen Jesus Christ in the flesh ; how much more desirable is it , to see him out of his terrestrial weeds , in his robes of Glory , with all his redeemed Ones about him ! And this I cannot but look upon , as a great Advantage and priviledge of that future State ; for I am not apt to swallow down that Conceit of the Schools , that we shall spend Eternity in gazing upon the naked Deity ; for certainly the happiness of man consists in having all his faculties , in their due subordinations , gratified with their proper objects ; and I cannot but believe , a great part of Heaven to be the blest Society that is there ; Their enravishing beauty , that is to say , their inward life and perfection , flowring forth and raying it self thorow their glorified bodies ; The rare discourses wherewith they entertain one another ; The pure and chast and spotless , and yet most ardent Love , wherewith they embrace each other ; The ecstatick Devotions wherein they joyn together : and certainly every pious and devout soul will readily acknowledge with me , that it must needs be matter of unspeakable pleasure , to be taken into the Quire of Angels and Seraphims , and the glorious Company of the Apostles , and the goodly Fellowship of the Prophets , and the noble Army of Martyrs ; and to joyn with them in singing Praises , and Hallelujahs , and Songs of joy , and Triumph unto our great Creator and Redeemer , the Father of Spirits , and the Lover of Souls , unto him that sits upon the Throne , and unto the Lamb for ever and ever . We are sure we shall then have our capacities fill'd , and all our desires answered , They hunger no more , neither thirst any more ; for , the Lamb which is in the midst of the Throne shall feed them , and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters . What vast degrees of perfection and happiness the nature of man is capable of , we may best understand , by viewing it in the person of Christ , taken into the nearest union with Divinity , and made God's Vicegerent in the World , and the Head and Governour of the whole Creation . In this our narrow and contracted state we are apt to think too meanly of our selves , and do not understand the dignity of our own Natures , what we were made for , and what we are capable of : but , as Plotinus somewhere observes , We are like Children , from our birth brought up in ignorance of , and at a great distance from , our Parents and Relations ; and have forgot the Nobleness of our Extraction , and rank our selves and our fortunes among the lot of Beggers , and mean and ordinary persons ; though we are the off-spring of a great Prince , and were born to a Kingdom . It does indeed become creatures to think modestly of themselves ; yet , if we consider it aright , it will be found very hard , to set any bounds or limits to our own happiness , and say , Hitherto it shall arise , and no further . For that wherein the happiness of Man consists , viz. Truth and Goodness , the Communication of the Divine Nature , and the Illapses of Divine Love , it does not cloy , or glut , or satiate ; but every participation of them does widen and enlarge our Souls , and fits us for further and further Receptions : the more we have , the more we are capable of ; the more we are fill'd , the more room is made in our Spirits ; and thus it is still and still , even till we arrive unto such degrees as we can assign no measures unto . We shall then be made like unto God , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; said the Areopagite , Salvation can no otherwayes be accomplish'd , but by becoming God-like ; It does not yet appear what we shall be , but when he shall appear we shall be like him ; sayes our Evangelist ; for we shall see him as he is . There is no seeing God as he is , but by becoming like unto him ; nor is there any injoying of him , but by being transformed into his Image and Similitude . Men usually have very strange Notions concerning God , and the enjoyment of him ; or rather , these are words , to which there is no correspondent conception in their minds : but if we would understand God aright , we must look upon him as Infinite Wisdom , Righteousness , Love , Goodness , and whatever speaks any thing of Beauty and Persection ; and if we pretend to worship him , it must be by loving and adoring his transcendent Excellencies ; and if we hope to enjoy him , it must be by conformity unto him , and participation of his Nature . The frame and constitution of things is such , that it is impossible that Man should arrive to happiness any other way . And , if the Soveraignty of God should dispense with our obedience , the Nature of the thing would not permit us to be happy without it : If we live only the Animal Life , we may indeed be happy , as Beasts are happy ; but the Happiness that belongs to a Rational and Intellectual Being , can never be attain'd but in a way of holiness and conformity unto the Divine Will : for , such a temper and disposition of mind is necessary unto Happiness , not by vertue of any arbitrarious constitution of Heaven , but , the eternal Laws of Righteousness , and immutable respects of things , do require and exact it : Yea , I may truly say , That God and Christ , without us , cannot make us happy : for we are not conscious to our selves of any thing , but only the operations of our own minds ; and 't is not the person of God and Christ , but their Life and Nature , wherein consists our formal Happiness : For , What is the happiness of God himself , but only that pleasure and satisfaction that results from a sense of his Infinite perfections ? And how is it possible for a Creature to be more happy , than by partaking of that , in its measure and proportion , which is the happiness of God himself . The Soul , being thus prepar'd , shall live in the Presence of God , and lie under the influences and illapses of Divine Love and Goodness ; Father , I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am , that they may behold my glory . They that fight manfully under the Banners of Heaven , and overcome their spiritual Enemies , They shall eat of the hidden Manna , and become Pillars in the Temple of God , and shall go no more out : They shall stand before the Throne of God continually , and serve him Day and Night in his Temple , and he that sitteth on the Throne shall dwell amongst them . God shall put under them his everlasting Arms , and carry them in his Bosom , and they shall suck the full Breasts of eternal Goodness : For now there is nothing can hinder the most near and intimate conjunction of the Soul with God ; for , things that are alike , do easily mingle with one another : but the mixture that is betwixt Bodies , be they never so homogeneal , comes but to an External Touch ; for their parts can never run up into one another . But there is no such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or resistance , amongst spiritual Beings ; and we are estranged from God ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) not by distance of Place , but by difference and diversity of Nature , and when that is remov'd , He becomes present to us , and we to him : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. like the Magnitudines congruae in the Mathematicks , Quando prima primis , media mediis , extrema extremis , partes denique partibus usquequaque respondent , Each of whose parts do exactly answer one to the other . This therefore is the Soul's progress from that state of Purgation to Illumination , and so to Union . There are several faculties in the Soul of Man , that are conformed to several kinds of objects ; and , according to that Life a man is awaked into , so these faculties do exert themselves : and though whilst we live barely an Animal Life , we converse with little more than this outward World , and the objects of our Senses ; yet there are faculties within us that are receptive of God , and when we arrive once unto a due measure of Purity of Spirit , the Rayes of Heavenly Light will as certainly shine into our Minds , as the beams of the Sun , when it arises above the Horison , do illuminate the clear and pellucid air : And from this sight and illumination , the Soul proceeds to an intimate union with God , and to a tast and touch of him . This is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that silent touch with God , that fills the Soul with unexpressible joy and triumph : For , if the objects of this ouward world that strike upon our senses do so hugely please and delight us ; What infinite pleasure then must there needs be in those Touches and Impresses , that the Divine Love and Goodness shall make upon our Souls ? But these are things that we may talk of , as we would do of a sixth Sense , or something we have no distinct Notion or Idaea of ; but the perfect understanding of them belongs only to the future state of Comprehension . Lastly , we shall have our Knowledge , and our Love , which are the most perfect and beatifying Acts of our Minds , employed about their noblest objects in their most exalted Measures ; For a Man to resolve himself in some knotty Question , or answer some stubborn Argument , or find out some noble Conclusion , or solve some hard Probleme , what ineffable pleasure does it create many times to a contemplative mind ? We know , who sacrific'd a Hecatomb for one Mathematical Demonstration ; and another that upon the like occasion cry'd out , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in a kind of Rapture . To have the secrets of Nature disclos'd , and the mysteries of Art reveal'd ; but above all , the Riddles of Providence unfolded , are such Jewels as I know many searching and inquisitive Spirits would be willing to purchase at any rate . When we come to Heaven ( I will not say , we shall see all things in the mirror of Divinity , for that it may be is an Extravagancy of the Schools ; nor , that any one true Proposition through the concatenation of Truth , will then multiply it self into the explicit knowledge of all Conclusions whatsoever , for I belive that a Fancy too , but ) our Knowledge shall be strangely enlarg'd , and , for ought I can determine , be for ever receiving new Additions , and fresh Accruements ; The Clew of Divine Providence will then be unravell'd , and all those Difficulties which now perplex us , will be easily assoyl'd , and we shall then perceive that the Wisdom and Goodness of God , is a vast and comprehensive Thing , and moves in a far larger Sphere than we are aware of in this state of narrowness and imperfection : But there is something greater and beyond all this ; and Saint Iohn has a strange Expression , That we shall then see God even as he is ; and God , we know , is the well-spring of Perfection and Happiness , the Fountain and Original of all Beauty ; he is infinitely glorious , and lovely , and excellent ; and if we see him as he is , all this Glory must descend into us and become ours : for we can no otherwayes see God ( as I said before ) but by becoming Deiform , by being changed into the same Glory . But love , that is it , which makes us most happy , and by that we are most intimately conjoyn'd unto God , For he that dwelleth in Love , dwelleth in God , and God in him : And how pleasant beyond all imagination must it needs be , to have the Soul melted into a flame of Love , and that Fire fed and nourish'd by the enjoyment of its Beloved ; To be transported into Ecstasies , and Raptures of Love ; to be swallow'd up in the embraces of eternal Sweetness ; to be lost in the Source and Fountain of Happiness and Bliss , like a spark in the Fire , or a beam in the Sun , or drop in the Ocean . It may be you will tell me , I have been all this while confuting my Text , and giving you a Relation of that which Saint Iohn tells us , does not yet appear what it is ; But my design has been the same with the Holy Evangelist's ; and that is , to represent unto you how transcendently great that State of Happiness must needs be ; when as , by what way we are able to apprehend of it , it is infinitely the object of our desires ; and yet we are assur'd by those that are best able to tell , That the best and greatest part of the Countrey is yet undiscovered , and that we cannot so much as guess at the pleasure of it , till we come to enjoy it : And indeed it is impossible it should be otherwise ; for , Happiness being a matter of Sense , all the words in the World cannot convey the Notion of it unto our Minds , and it is only to be understood by them that feel it ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . But though it does not yet appear what we shall be ; yet so much already appears of it , that it cannot but seem the most worthy Object of our Endeavours and Desires ; and by some few Clusters that have been shewn us of this good Land , we may guess what pleasant and delightful Fruit it bears : And if we have but any reverence of our selves , and will but consider the dignity of our Natures , and the vastness of that Happiness we are capable of ; me thinks we should be alwayes travelling towards that Heavenly Countrey , though our way lies through a Wilderness : and be striving for this great Prize and immortal Crown ; and be clearing our eyes , and purging our sight , that we may come to this Vision of God ; shaking off all fond passions , and dirty desires , and breathing forth our Souls in such Aspirations as these : My Soul thirsteth for thee , O Lord , in a dry and barren Land , where no Water is ; O that thou would'st stistil , and drop down the Dew of thy Heavenly Grace into all its secret Chinks and Pores ; One thing have I desired of the Lord , that will I seek after , That I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the dayes of my Life , and behold his Glory : for a day in thy Courts is better than a thousand , and I had rather be a Door-keeper in the House of the Lord , than dwell in the Tents of Wickedness . All the Kings of the Earth , they are thy Tributaries ; the Kings of Tarshish , and of the Isles , bring Presents unto thee ; the Kings of Sheba and Seba offer Gifts . O that we could but pay thee , that which is so due unto thee , the tribute of our Hearts ! The Heathen are come into thine Inheritance ; thy holy Temple have they defil'd : Help us , O God of our Salvation , and deliver us , and purge away our sins from us , for thy Name 's sake ! O that the Lord whom we seek , would come to his own House , and give Peace there , and fill it with his Glory ! Come and cleanse thine own Temple , for we have made it a Den of Thieves , which should have been a House of Prayer ! O that we might never give sleep to our eyes , nor slumber to our eye-lids , till we have prepar'd a House for the Lord , and a Tabernacle for the God of Iacob ! The Curse of Cain it is fallen upon us , and we are as Vagabonds in the Earth ; and wander from one Creature to another . O that our Souls might come at last to dwell in God , our fixed and eternal Habitation ! We , like silly Doves , fly up and down the Earth , but can find no rest for the Sole of our feet ; O that , after all our weariness and our wandrings , we might return into the Ark ; and that God would put forth his hand and take us , and pull us in unto Himself ! We have too long lived upon Vanity and Emptiness , the wind and the whirl-wind ; O that we may now begin to feed upon Substance , and delight our selves in Marrow and Fatness ! O that God would strike our rocky Hearts , that there might spring up a Fountain in the Wilderness , and Pools in the Desart ; that we might drink of that Water , whereof whosoever drinks , shall never thirst more ; that God would give us that Portion of Goods that falleth to us , not to waste it with riotous living , but therewith to feed our languishing Souls , left they be weary and faint by the way ! We ask not the Childrens Bread , but the Crums that fall from thy Table ; that our Baskets may be fill d with thy Fragments : for they will be better than Wine , and sweeter than the Honey , and the Honey-Comb , and more pleasant to us than a Feast of fat things . We have wandred too long in a barren , and howling Desart , where wild Beasts , and doleful Creatures , Owls and Bats , Satyrs and Dragons , keep their haunts ; O that we might be fed in green Pastures ; and led by the still Waters , that the Winter might be past , and the Rain over and gone , that the Flowers may appear on the Earth , and the time of the singing of Birds may come , and the Voice of the Turtle may be heard in our Land ! We have lived too long in Sodom , which is the place that God at last will destroy : O that we might arise and be gone ; and , while we are lingring , that the Angels of God would lay hold upon our hands ( and be merciful unto us ) and bring us forth , and set us without the City ; and that we may never look back any more , but may escape unto the Mountain , and dwell safe in the Rock of Ages ! Wisdom hath killed her Beasts , she hath mingled her Wine , and furnished her Table ; O that we might eat of her Meat , and drink of her Wine which she hath mingled ! God knocks at the doors of our Hearts ; O let us open unto him those everlasting Gates , that he may Sup with us , and we with him ; for he will bring his Chear along with him , and will feast us with Manna , and Angels food ! O that the Sun of Righteousness might arise and melt the Iciness of our Hearts ! That God would send forth his Spirit , and with his warmth and heat dissolve our frozen Souls ; that God would breath into our minds , those still and gentle Gales of Divine Inspirations , that may blow up ▪ and increase in us the flames of heavenly Love ! That we may be a whole burnt-Offering , and all the substance of our Souls be consumed by fire from Heaven , and ascend up in Clouds of Incense ? That , as so many sparks , we might be alwayes mounting upward , till we return again into our proper Elements ! That , like so many particular Rivulets , we may be continually making toward the Sea , and never rest till we lose our selves in that Ocean of Goodness , from whence we first came ! That we may open our Mouths wide , that God may satisfie them ! That we may so perfectly discharge our selves of all strange Desires and Passions , that our Souls may be nothing else but a deep Emptiness and vast Capacity to be fill'd with all the fulness of God! Let but these be the breathings of our Spirits , and this Divine Magnetism will most certainly draw down God into our Souls , and we shall have some Praelibations of that Happiness ; some small glimpses , and little discoveries whereof , is all that belongs to this state of Mortality . I Have as yet done but the half of my Text : and I have another Text yet to preach upon , and a very large and copious one , The great Person , whose Obsequies we here come to celebrate : His fame is so great throughout the World , that he stands in no need of an Encomium ; and yet his worth is much greater than his fame ; It is impossible not to speak great things of him , and yet it is impossible to speak what he deserves ; and the meanness of an Oration will but fully the brightness of his Excellencies : But Custom requires that something should be said , and it is a Duty and a Debt that we owe only unto his Memory : and I hope , his great Soul , if it hath any knowledge of what is done here below , will not be offended at the smallness of our Offering . He was born at Cambridge , and brought up in the Free-School there , and was ripe for the University , afore Custom would allow of his Admittance ; but by that time he was Thirteen years old , he was entred into Caius-Colledge ; and as soon as he was Graduate , he was chosen fellow . Had he lived amongst the ancient Pagans he had been usher'd into the World with a Miracle , and Swans must have danc'd and sung at his Birth ; and he must have been a great Hero , and no less than the Son of Apollo , the God of Wisdom and Eloquence . He was a Man long afore he was of Age ; and knew little more of the state of Childhood , than its Innocency and Pleasantness . From the University , by that time he was Master of Arts , he removed to London , and became publick Lecturer in the Church of Saint Paul's ; where he preached to the admiration and astonishment of his Auditory ; and by his florid and youthful beauty , and sweet and pleasant air , and sublime and rais'd discourses , he made his hearers take him for some young Angel , newly descended from the Visions of Glory ; The fame of this new Star , that out-shone all the rest of the Firmament , quickly came to the notice of the great Arch-Bishop of Canterbury , who would needs have him preach before him ; which he performed not less to his wonder than satisfaction ; His discourse was beyond exception , and beyond imitation : yet the wise Prelate thought him too young ; but the great Youth humbly begg'd his Grace to pardon that fault , and promised , If he liv d , he would mend it . However the grand Patron of Learning and Ingenuity , thought it for the advantage of the World , that such mighty Parts should be afforded better opportunities of study and Improvement , than a course of constant preaching would allow of ; and to that purpose he placed him in his own Colledge of All-Souls in Oxford ; where Love and Admiration still waited upon him : which so long as there is any spark of ingenuity in the breasts of men , must needs be the inseparable Attendants of so extraordinary a worth and sweetness . He had not been long here , afore my Lord of Canterbury bestowed upon him the Rectory of Uphingham in Rutland-shire , and soon after preferr'd him to be Chaplain to King Charles the Martyr of blessed and immortal Memory . Thus were preferments heaped upon him , but still less than his deserts ; and that not through the fault of his great Masters , but because the amplest Honours and Rewards were poor and inconsiderable , compar'd with the greatness of his Worth and Merit . This Great Man had no sooner launch'd into the World , but a fearful Tempest arose , and a barbarous and unnatural War disturb'd a long and uninterrupted Peace and Tranquillity , and brought all things into disorder and confusion ; but his Religion taught him to be Loyal , and ingag'd him on his Prince's side , whose Cause and Quarrel he alwayes own'd and maintain'd with a great courage and constancy ; till at last , he and his little Fortune were shipwrackt in that great Hurricane , that overturn'd both Church and State : This fatal Storm cast him ashore in a private corner of the World , and a tender Providence shrowded him under her Wings , and the Prophet was fed in the Wilderness ; and his great worthiness procur'd him friends , that supplied him with bread and necessaries . In this Solitude he began to write those excellent Discourses , which are enough of themselves to furnish a Library , and will be famous to all succeeding Generations , for their greatness of Wit , and profoundness of Judgment , and richness of Fancy , and clearness of Expression , and copiousness of Invention , and general usefulness to all the purposes of a Christian : And by these he soon got a great Reputation among all persons of Judgment and Indifferency , and his Name will grow greater still , as the World grows better and wiser . When he had spent some Years in this Retirement , it pleas'd God to visit his Family with Sickness , and to take to himself the dear Pledges of his Favour , three Sons of great hopes and expectations , within the space of two or three Months : And though he had learned a quiet Submission unto the Divine Will ; yet the Affliction touch'd him so sensibly , that it made him desirous to leave the Countrey ; And going to London , he there met my Lord Conway , a Person of great Honour and Generosity ; who making him a kind Proffer , the good man embraced it , and that brought him over into Ireland , and setled him at Portmore , a place made for Study and Contemplation , which he therefore dearly lov'd ; and here he wrote his Cases of Conscience : A Book that is able alone to give its Author Immortality . By this time the Wheel of Providence brought about the King's happy Restauration , and there began a new World , and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the Waters , and out of a confused Chaos brought forth Beauty and Order , and all the Three Nations were inspir'd with a new Life , and became drunk with an excess of Joy : Among the rest , this Loyal Subject went over to congratulate the Prince and Peoples Happiness , and bear a part in the Universal Triumph . It was not long ere his Sacred Majesty began the settlement of the Church , and the great Doctor Ieremy Taylor was resolv'd upon for the Bishoprick of Down and Conor ; and not long after , Dromore was added to it : and it was but reasonable that the King and Church should consider their Champion , and reward the pains and sufferings he under-went in the Defence of their Cause and Honour . With what care and faithfulness he discharg'd his Office , we are all his Witnesses ; what good Rules and Directions he gave his Clergy , and how he taught us the practice of them by his own Example . Upon his coming over Bishop , he was made a Privy-Councellor ; and the University of Dublin gave him their Testimony , by recommending him for their Vice-Chancellor : which honourable Office he kept to his dying day . During his being in this See , he wrote several excellent Discourses , particularly his Disswasive from Popery ( which was receiv'd by a general approbation ; ) and a Vindication of it ( now in the Press ) from some impertinent Cavillers , that pretend to answer Books , when there is nothing towards it , more than the very Title-page . This great Prelate improv'd his Talent with a mighty Industry , and managed his Stewardship rarely well ; and his Master , when he call'd for his Accounts , found him busie and at his Work , and employed upon an excellent Subject , A Discourse upon the Beatitudes ; which , if finisht , would have been of great use to the World , and solv'd most of the Cases of Conscience that occur to a Christian , in all the varieties of states and conditions . But the All-wise God hath ordained it otherwise , and hath called home his good Servant , to give him a portion in that Blessedness that Jesus Christ hath promised to all his faithful Disciples and Followers . Thus having given you a brief Account of his Life , I know you will now expect a character of his Person ; but I fore-see , it will befal him , as it does all Glorious Subjects , that are but disparaged by a commendation ; One thing I am secure of , that I shall not be thought to speak Hyperbole's ; for the Subject can hardly be reached , by any expressions : For he was none of God's ordinary works , but his Endowments were so many , and so great , as really made him a Miracle . Nature had befriended him much in his Constitution ; for he was a person of a most sweet and obliging Humour , of great Candour and Ingenuity ; and there was so much of Salt and fineness of Wit , and prettiness of Address in his familiar Discourses , as made his Conversation have all the pleasantness of a Comedy , and all the usefulness of a Sermon : His Soul was made up of Harmony , and he never spake , but he charm'd his Hearer , not only with the clearness of his Reason ; but all his Words , and his very Tone , and Cadencies were strangely Musical . But , That which did most of all captivate and enravish , was , The gaiety and richness of his Fancy ; for he had much in him of that natural Enthusiasm , that inspires all great Poets and Orators ; and there was a generous ferment in his Blood and Spirits , that set his Fancy bravely a work , and made it swell , and teem , and become pregnant to such degrees of Luxuriancy , as nothing but the greatness of his Wit and judgment , could have kept it within due bounds and measures . And indeed it was a rare Mixture , and a single Instance , hardly to be found in an Age : for the great Tryer of Wits has told us , That there is a peculiar and several Complexion , requir'd for Wit , and Iudgment , and Fancy ; and yet you might have found all these , in this great Personage , in their Eminency and Perfection . But that which made his Wit and Judgment so considerable , was the largeness and freedom of his Spirit , for truth is plain and easie to a mind dis-intangled from Superstition and Prejudice ; He was one of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a sort of brave Philosophers that Laertius speaks of , that did not addict themselves to any particular Sect , but ingeniously sought for Truth among all the wrangling Schools ; and they found her miserably torn and rent to pieces , and parcell'd into Rags , by the several contending Parties , and so disfigur'd and mishapen , that it was hard to know her ; but they made a shift to gather up her scatter'd Limbs , which as soon as they came together , by a strange sympathy and connaturalness , presently united into a lovely and beautiful body . This was the Spirit of this Great Man ; he weighed mens Reasons , and not their Names , and was not scared with the ugly Vizars men usually put upon Persons they hate , and Opinions they dislike ; nor affrighted with the Anathema's and Execrations of an infallible Chair , which he look'd upon only as Bug-bears to terrifie weak , and childish minds . He considered that it is not likely any one Party should wholly engross Truth to themselves ; that Obedience is the only way to true Knowledge ; ( which is an argument that he has manag'd rarely well , in that excellent Sermon of his , which he calls , Via Intelligentiae ; ) that God alwayes , and only teaches docible and ingenuous minds , that are willing to hear , and ready to obey according to their Light ; that it is impossible , a pure , humble , resigned , God-like Soul , should be kept out of Heaven , whatever mistakes it might be subject to in this state of Mortality ; that the design of Heaven is not to fill mens heads , and feed their Curiosities , but to better their Hearts , and mend their Lives . Such Considerations as these , made him impartial in his Disquisitions , and give a due allowance to the Reasons of his Adversary , and contend for Truth , and not for Victory . And now you will easily believe that an ordinary Diligence would be able to make great Improvements upon such a Stock of Parts and Endowments ; but to these advantages of Nature , and excellency of his Spirit , be added an indefatigable Industry , and God gave a plentiful Benediction : for , there were very few Kinds of Learning , but he was a Mystes , and a great Master in them : He was a rare Humanist , and hugely vers'd in all the polite parts of Learning ; and had throughly concocted all the ancient Moralists , Greek and Roman , Poets and Orators ; and was not unacquainted with the refined Wits of the later Ages , whether French , or Italian . But he had not only the Accomplishments of a Gentleman , but so universal were his Parts , that they were proportioned to every thing ; and though his Spirit and Humour were made up of Smoothness and Gentleness , yet he could bear with the Harshness and Roughness of the Schools ; and was not unseen in their Subtilties and Spinosities ; and upon occasion could make them serve his purpose ; and yet , I believe , he thought many of them very near a kin to the famous Knight of the Mancha , and would make sport sometimes with the Romantick Sophistry , and phantastick Adventures of School-Errantry . His Skill was great , both in the Civil and Canon Law , and Casuistical Divinity ; and he was a rare Conductor of Souls , and knew how to Counsel , and to Advise ; to solve Difficulties , and determine Cases , and quiet Consciences . And he was no Novice in Mr. I. S. new Science of Controversie ; but could manage an Argument , and Reparties with a strange dexterity ; He understood what the several Parties in Christendom have to say for themselves , and could plead their Cause to better advantage than any Advocate of their Tribe : and when he had done , he could confute them too ; and shew , That better Arguments than ever they could produce for themselves , would afford no sufficient ground for their fond Opinions . It would be too great a Task to pursue his Accomplishments through the various Kinds of Literature : I shall content my self to add only his great Acquaintance with the Fathers and Ecclesiastical Writers , and the Doctors of the first and purest Ages both of the Greek and Latin Church ; which he has made use of against the Romanists , to vindicate the Church of England from the Challenge of Innovation , and prove her to be truly Ancient , Catholick , and Apostolical . But Religion and Vertue is the Crown of all other Accomplishments ; and it was the Glory of this great man , to be thought a Christian , and whatever you added to it , he look't upon as a term of diminution : and yet he was a Zealous Son of the Church of England ; but that was because he judg'd her ( and with great reason ) a Church the most purely Christian of any in the World. In his younger years he met with some Assaults from Popery ; and the high pretensions of their Religious Orders were very accommodate to his Devotional Temper : but he was alwayes so much Master of himself , that he would never be governed by any thing but Reason , and the evidence of Truth , which engag'd him in the study of those Controversies ; and to how good purpose , the World is by this time a sufficient Witness : But the longer , and the more he considered , the worse he lik'd the Roman Cause , and became at last to censure them with some severity ; But I confess I have so great an opinion of his Judgment , and the charitableness of his Spirit , that I am afraid he did not think worse of them than they deserve . But Religion is not a matter of Theory and Orthodox Notions ; and it is not enough to believe aright , but we must practise accordingly ; and to master our passions , and to make a right use of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and power that God has given us over our own actions , is a greater glory than all other Accomplishments that can adorn the mind of Man ; and therefore I shall close my Character of this great Personage with a touch upon some of those Vertues , for which his Memory will be pretious to all Posterity . He was a Person of great Humility ; and , notwithstanding his stupendious Parts , and Learning , and Eminency of Place , he had nothing in him of Pride and Humour , but was Courteous and Affable , and of easie Access , and would lend a ready Ear to the complaints , yea to the impertinencies , of the meanest persons . His Humility was coupled with an Extraordinary Piety ; and , I believe , he spent the greatest part of his time in Heaven ; his solemn hours of Prayer took up a considerable portion of his Life ; and we are not to doubt , but he had learned of S. Paul to pray continually ; and that occasional Ejaculations , and frequent Aspirations and Emigrations of his Soul after God , made up the best part of his Devotions . But he was not only a Good Man God-ward , but he was come to the top of S. Peter's gradation , and to all his other Vertues added a large and diffusive Charity : And , whoever compares his plentiful Incomes , with the inconsiderable Estate he left at his Death , will be easily convinc'd that Charity was Steward for a great proportion of his Revenue . But the Hungry that he fed , and the Naked that he cloath'd , and the Distressed that he supply'd , and the Fatherless that he provided for ; the poor Children that he put to Apprentice , and brought up at School , and maintained at the University , will now sound a Trumpet to that Charity which he dispersed with his right hand , but would not suffer his left hand to have any knowledge of it . To sum up all in a few words ; This Great Prelate he had the good Humour of a Gentleman , the Eloquence of an Orator , the Fancy of a Poet , the Acuteness of a School-man , the Profoundness of a Philosopher , the Wisdom of a Counsellor , the Sagacity of a Prophet , the Reason of an Angel , and the Piety of a Saint : He had Devotion enough for a Cloyster , Learning enough for an University , and Wit enough for a Colledge of Virtuosi ; and , had his Parts and Endowments been parcell'd out among his poor Clergy that he left behind him , it would perhaps have made one of the best Dioceses in the World. But alas ! Our Father , our Father ! the Horses of our Israel , and the Chariot thereof ; he is gone , and has carried his Mantle and his Spirit along with him up to Heaven ; and the Sons of the Prophets have lost all their beauty and lustre which they enjoyed only from the reflexion of his Excellencies , which were bright and radiant enough to cast a glory upon a whole Order of Men. But the Sun of this our world after many attempts to break through the Crust of an earthly Body , is at last swallowed up in the great Vortex of Eternity , and there all his Maculae are scattered and dissolved , and he is fixt in an Orb of Glory , and shines among his Brethren-stars , that in their several Ages gave light to the World , and turn'd many Souls unto Righteousness ; and we that are left behind , though we can never reach his Perfections , must study to imitate his Vertues , that we may at last come to sit at his feet in the Mansions of Glory ; which God grant for his infinite mercies in Jesus Christ : To whom , with the Father , through the Eternal Spirit , be ascribed all Honour and Glory , Worship and Thanksgiving , Love and Obedience , now and for evermore . Amen . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A63706-e180 a Valer. Maxim . l. 1. c. 1. b Dion . hist. l. 54. c A. G●ll. l. 10 c. 15. d Ibid. Lib. 3. De praescript . c. 40. Hujus sunt partes invertendi veritatem , qui ipsas quoque res sacramen●crum divin●rum in idclorum mysteriis aemulatur . Tingit & ipse quosdam , ●ique credentes & fideles suos : expiationem delictorum de la●acro re-promittit , & sic ad● initiat Mithrae : signat illic in frontibus milites suos , celebrat & panis oblationem , & imaginem resurrectionis inducit , & subgladio redimit corouam . Quid , quod & summum Pontificem in unis nuptiis statuit ? habet & virginos , bab● & continentes . Qui ergo ipsas res de quibus sacramenta Christi administrantur tam aemulanter affectavit exprimere in negotiss idololatria , utique & idem & eodem ingenio gestiit , & potuit instrumenta quoque divinarum rerum & sanctorum Christianorum sensum de sensibus , verba de verbis , parabolas de parabolis , profana & amulae fidei attemperare . e Censor . de die 〈◊〉 l. c. 1. f Sueton. in Vespas . L●● . decad . 1. lib. 10. Lib. 4. de factis & dict . Socr. Stromat . 3. Lib. 4. praepar . Evangel . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . In ordinat . Episc. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 1 Sam. 10. 5. & 10. Acts 3. 24. 1 Sam. 19. 18. Iliad . 〈◊〉 . vide 1. li. Eustath . Pla●tus in Ruden● . Cicero lib. 2. de leg . Tertul. adv . Psychicos c. 13. Ibid. Lib. 3. Annal. Lib. 〈◊〉 . Annal. * Strab. Ge●g . lib. 17. | Aelian . var. hist. l. 14. c. 34. Ioseph . Antiq. l. 14. c. 16. Caesar. com . de bello Gal. l. 6. Eustath . in ●●iad . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . P●rphyr . citat . ex Eurip. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . John 20. 21. Vide Socrat. li. 1. c. 7. Sozom. l. 1. c. 20. James 5. a In Ioh. 20. b Ibid. c In 1 Zim . 4. d Homil. 26. in Evang. e Quaest. 39. Matth. 28. 19 , 20. Apud Tacitum lib. 8. Arist. lib. 4. Polit. c. 4. A. Gellius , lib. 19. c. 10. Barthol . in . l. Iudices . Cod. de dignit . l. 12. Bald●● in l. nemini . C. de adv . advers . judi● . Lib. 8. c. 26. In exhort . ad castitatem . Lib. 4. c. 9. Lib. de virg . C. 19. Haeres . 79. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . In 1 Tim. 3. 1 Tim. 2. 12. 1 Cor. 12. 4. Verse 28. Ephes. 4. 11. ●ustat● . in Iliad . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 1 Pet. 5. 1. 2. 1 Tim. 5. a Epist. ad Hieron . b Lib. de Bapt. c Epist. 1. c. 9 d Haeres . 79. e Dial. adv . Lucifer . Dial. adv . Lucifer . Can. 30. Ruffin . lib. 10. c. 14. Can. mulier de consecr . dist . li. 4. se●t . dist . 6. a Epist. 1. b Lib. 2. Contr. Epist. Parmen . c. 13. c Lib. 2. de divin ●ffic . 4. * Lib. 2. Contr. Epist. Parmen . c. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Hare . 19. De bapt . adv . Lucifer . Eurip. De captivit . Babyl . c. de ordine , & in l. de instituendis ministris ad Senatum Pragensem , in l. de missâ abrogand● , in l. de notis Ecclesia . De praescript . har●s . 42. Tertullian de baptismo . * Tractat. de sacramento cap. de baptismo , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Acts 2. 38. 1 Cor. 4. 1. Ad Caecil . Ep. 63. St Iesus Christus dominus & Deus 〈◊〉 ipse est 〈◊〉 sacerdos Dei Patris , & sacrificium Patri s●ipsum primus obtulis , & hoc fieri in sui commemorationem praecepit ; utique ille sacerdos vice Christi verè fungitur , qui id quod Christus fecit , imitatur : & sacrificium verum & plenum tunc offert in Ecclesia Deo Patri , si incipat 〈◊〉 secund●m quod ipsum Christum vid●at obtul●●se . ●rat . 11. Heb. 7. 23 , &c. And 8. ver . 2 , 3 , &c. Vide etia● Iustin. i● Apol. 2. a Epist. ad 〈◊〉 . b Lib. 1. c. 31. & lib. 8. c. ult . c De. praescript . d Lib. 1. Ep 2. & 9. & l. 3. Epist. 15. e Apol. 2. cum de Ischriâ rationem reddit eum ●●lice sacro uti non potuisse . & 83. in Matth. & Hom. 6. ad pop . Antioch . 150. 9. 2. f Haeres . 79. g Lib. 2. de bapt . c. 8. h Lib. 3. & 6. de sac●rd . Homil. 51. & 85. ad Evagrium & ad Hedito . i Con●r . Lucifer . & Ep. 1. ad 〈◊〉 . k Lib. 20. de Civ . c. 10. Heb. 10. 20. 1 Pet. 2. 9. Exod. 19. 3. Lib. 3. de sacer : Apud . Euseb. hist. lib. 5. c. 25. De script . in Iacob . Haeres . 78. ●m . 1. 3. Orat. 1. 1 Tim. 5. 17. Heb. 13. 17. 2 Cor. 2. 9. 1 Thes. 5. 12. Gal. 6. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Can. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Eccles. Hierarch . Dionys. ibid. Heb. 5. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Heb. 5. Acts 1. 24. Chrysost. lib. 3. de sacerdot . Quippe non mortalis quispiam non Angelus non Archangelus , non alia quaevis creata potentia , sed ipse Paracletus ordinem ejusmodi disposuit . James 1. 17. 2 Cor. 1. 21. Vers. 22. John 6. 27. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. N = " * " 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . In Orat. in laudem sui patris . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Epist. 45. Dedignit . Sacer . c. 5. & in comment . in 1. Tom. c. 2. & in 1 Cor. 12. in illud [ Divisiones gratiarum . ] Job 42. 8. Cap. ult . de Eccles . Hier. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Im Eposit . Liturg. Epist. 59. q. 5. * Cap. 27. de Spi. S. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . b Apol. 2. pro Christianis li. 8. contra Cels. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Matth. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . c Lib. 3. de Tri. cap. 4. d Quis patiatur ut m●●sarum & viduarum minister supra ●os si tumidius efferat , ad quorum preces , Christi corpus sanguisque conficitur ? e Lib. 4. de fide , cap. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Vide Optat. Milevit . lib. 6. contra Parmenian . S. Cyprian lib. st . c. ●●lt . Eusebi●● Emissen . Serm. 5. de Pascat . De Iteration● in consultat . * De iteratione , Atque hinc adeò credo Apostolicas ipsas jam inde ab initio Ecclesias aliquas , hujusmodi preces ad mysteriorum celebrationem ad bibuisse ; i●ò Christum ipsum non solâ verborum recitatione , sed etiam eulogiâ ante ipsam mysteriorum confectionem , & 〈◊〉 hymno usum fuisse manifestum est . | 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Lib. 3. de bapt . coner . Donat. cap. 16. Epist. 92. Jer. 1. 10. Lib. 31. de bapt . con . Donat. c. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . in consecra . Episc. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . c Gratiam Apostolis à Christo collatam , qua sanctificarentur : ut per spiritum Sanctum à propriis peccatis absolverentur . Lib. 12. in Io. cap. 56. d Homil. in 8va . Paschae . e Lib. 2. cap. ult . de adulter . conjug . f Soz. lib. 7. cap. 10. Acts 13. 2. 16. 10. Hob. 5. 4. 5 , 10. Volkell . lib. 6. cap. 18. Ibid. cap. 19. Theophylact. in 20. Iohan. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Tract . de Sacrament . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homil. 28. in Acta 18. Exhort . ad c●stitat . Notes for div A63706-e14650 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Vide Rom. 16. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 
A64062	----	B. Taylor's Opuscula the measures of friendship : with additional tracts : to which is now added his moral demonstration proving that the religion of Jesus Christ is from God : never before printed in this volume. Selections. 1678 Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. 1678 Approx. 224 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 107 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-12 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A64062 Wing T355 ESTC R11770 18148511 ocm 18148511 106845 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A64062) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 106845) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1132:1) B. Taylor's Opuscula the measures of friendship : with additional tracts : to which is now added his moral demonstration proving that the religion of Jesus Christ is from God : never before printed in this volume. Selections. 1678 Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. [6], 207 p., [1] leaf of plates : port. Printed for Rich. Royston ..., London : 1678. Includes frontispiece portrait. Reproduction of original in the Union Theological Seminary Library, New York. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Friendship. Conduct of life -- Early works to 1800. 2005-02 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-04 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-05 Judith Siefring Sampled and proofread 2005-05 Judith Siefring Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion Non magna sequimur sed bivimus Nihil opinionis Gratia omnia Conscen●iae faciam . B. TAYLOR' 's OPVSCVLA . THE Measures of Friendship . WITH ADDITIONAL TRACTS . To which is now Added , His Moral Demonstration , proving that the Religion of Jesus Christ is from GOD. Never before Printed in this Volume . ECCLUS . 14.15 . Do good unto thy Friend before thou dye . GREG NYSSEN 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . LONDON , Printed for Rich. Royston , Bookseller to His most Sacred Majesty , 1678. The WORKS of JER . TAYLOR late B. of Down and Connor , in Five Volumes , Extant . VIZ. VOL. I. A Collection of Polemical Discourses , New and Old , Against PAPIST and FANATICK . Folio . VOL. II. Several Tracts addressed to the promotion of Practical Religion , Folio . VOL. III. Ductor Dubitantium : or , the Rule of Conscience , wherein all particular Cases may be resolved , in Five Books , Folio . VOL. IV. The History of the Life and Death of the Holy Jesus , with the Lives and Martyrdoms of the Apostles , Fol. VOL. V. A Course of Sermons for all the Sundays in the Year , with a Supplement of divers more , Preached upon several Occasions , Fol. ALSO . The Rule of Holy Living and Holy Dying , in Octavo . The Golden Grove , or a Guide to Devotion , in 12 o. THE CONTENTS . A Discourse of the Nature and Offices of Friendship . Pag. 1. FIVE Letters more , to Persons Changed , and Tempted to a Change in their Religion . The I. LETTER . A Copy of the first Letter written to a Gentlewoman newly seduced to the Church of Rome . Pag. 77. The II. LETTER . Written to a Person newly converted to the Church of England . Pag. 119. The III. LETTER . Written to a Gentleman that was tempted to the Communion of the Romish Church . Pag. 131. The IV. LETTER . To the same Person . Pag. 141. The V. LETTER . To the same Person . Pag. 143. A Discourse , proving that the Christian Religion is from GOD. Pag. 153. A DISCOURSE OF THE Nature and Offices OF FRIENDSHIP . In a Letter to the most Ingenious and Excellent M rs . Katherine Phillips . MADAM , THE wise Bensirach advised that we should not consult with a woman concerning her of whom she is jealous , neither with a Coward in matters of War , nor with a Merchant concerning exchange ; and some other instances he gives of interested persons , to whom he would not have us hearken in any matter of Counsel . For where ever the interest is secular or vicious , there the biass is not on the side of truth or reason , because these are seldom serv'd by profit and low regards . But to consult with a friend in the matters of friendship is like consulting with a spiritual person in Religion ; they who understand the secrets of Religion , or the interior beauties of friendship are the fittest to give answers in all inquiries concerning the respective subjects ; because reason and experience are on the side of interest ; and that which in friendship is most pleasing and most useful , is also most reasonable and most true ; and a friends fairest interest is the best measure of the conducting friendships : and therefore you who are so eminent in friendships could also have given the best answer to your own inquiries , and you could have trusted your own reason , because it is not only greatly instructed by the direct notices of things , but also by great experience in the matter of which you now inquire . But because I will not use any thing that shall look like an excuse , I will rather give you such an account which you can easily reprove , then by declining your commands , seem more safe in my prudence , then open and communicative in my friendship to you . You first inquire how far a Dear and a perfect friendship is authoriz'd by the principles of Christianity ? To this I answer ; That the word [ Friendship ] in the sense we commonly mean by it , is not so much as named in the New-Testament ; and our Religion takes no notice of it . You think it strange ; but read on before you spend so much as the beginning of a passion or a wonder upon it . There is mention of [ Friendship with the world , ] and it is said to be enmity with God ; but the word is no where else named , or to any other purpose in all the New-Testament . It speaks of Friends often ; but by Friends are meant our acquaintance , or our Kindred , the relatives of our family or our fortune , or our sect ; something of society , or something of kindness there is in it ; a tenderness of appellation and civility , a relation made by gifts , or by duty , by services and subjection ; and I think , I have reason to be confident , that the word friend ( speaking of humane entercourse ) is no other-ways used in the Gospels or Epistles , or Acts of the Apostles : and the reason of it is , the word friend is of a large signification ; and means all relations and societies , and whatsoever is not enemy ; but by friendships , I suppose you mean , the greatest love , and the greatest usefulness , and the most open communication , and the noblest sufferings , and the most exemplar faithfulness , and the severest truth , and the heartiest counsel , and the greatest union of minds , of which brave men and women are capable . But then I must tell you that Christianity hath new christened it , and calls this Charity . The Christian knows no enemy he hath ; that is , though persons may be injurious to him , and unworthy in themselves , yet he knows none whom he is not first bound to forgive , which is indeed to make them on his part to be no enemies , that is , to make that the word enemy shall not be perfectly contrary to friend , it shall not be a relative term and signifie something on each hand , a relative and a correlative ; and then he knows none whom he is not bound to love and pray for , to treat kindly and justly , liberally and obligingly . Christian Charity is Friendship to all the world ; and when Friendships were the noblest things in the world , Charity was little , like the Sun drawn in at a chink , or his beams drawn into the centre of a Burning-Glass ; but Christian charity is Friendship , expanded like the face of the Sun when it mounts above the Eastern hills : and I was strangely pleas'd when I saw something of this in CICERO ; for I have been so push'd at by herds and flocks of People that follow any body that whistles to them , or drives them to pasture , that I am grown afraid of any Truth that seems chargeable with singularity : but therefore I say , glad I was when I saw Laelius in Cicero discourse thus : Amicitia ex infinitate generis humani quam conciliavit ipsa natura , contracta res est , & adducta in angustum ; ut omnis charitas , aut inter duos , aut inter paucos jungeretur . Nature hath made friendships , and societies , relations and endearments ; and by something or other we relate to all the World ; there is enough in every man that is willing , to make him become our friend ; but when men contract friendship , they inclose the Commons ; and what Nature intended should be every mans , we make proper to two or three . Friendship is like rivers and the strand of seas , and the air , common to all the World ; but Tyrants , and evil customs , wars , and want of love have made them proper and peculiar . But when Christianity came to renew our nature , and to restore our laws , and to increase her priviledges , and to make her aptness to become religion , then it was declared that our friendships were to be as universal as our conversation ; that is , actual to all with whom we converse , and potentially extended unto those with whom we did not . For he who was to treat his enemies with forgiveness and prayers , and love and beneficence was indeed to have no enemies , and to have all friends . So that to your question , how far a Dear and perfect friendship is authoriz'd by the principles of Christianity ? The answer is ready and easie . It is warranted to extend to all Mankind ; and the more we love , the better we are , and the greater our friendships are , the dearer we are to God ; let them be as Dear , and let them be as perfect , and let them be as many as you can ; there is no danger in it ; only where the restraint begins , there begins our imperfection ; it is not ill that you entertain brave friendships and worthy societies : it were well if you could love , and if you could benefit all Mankind ; for I conceive that is the summe of all friendship . I confess this is not to be expected of us in this world ; but as all our graces here are but imperfect , that is , at the best they are but tendencies to glory , so our friendships are imperfect too , and but beginnings of a celestial friendship , by which we shall love every one as much as they can be loved . But then so we must here in our proportion ; and indeed that is it that can make the difference ; we must be friends to all : That is , apt to do good , loving them really , and doing to them all the benefits which we can , and which they are capable of . The Friendship is equal to all the World , and of it self hath no difference ; but is differenced only by accidents , and by the capacity or incapacity of them that receive it . Nature and Religion are the bands of friendships ; excellency and usefulness are its great indearments : society and neighbourhood , that is , the possibilities and the circumstances of converse are the determinations and actualities of it . Now when men either are unnatural , or irreligious , they will not be friends ; when they are neither excellent nor useful , they are not worthy to be friends ; when they are strangers or unknown , they cannot be friends actually and practically ; but yet , as any man hath any thing of the good , contrary to those evils , so he can have and must have his share of friendship . For thus the Sun is the eye of the World ; and he is indifferent to the Negro , or the cold Russian , to them that dwell under the line , and them that stand near the Tropicks , the scalded Indian , or the poor boy that shakes at the foot of the Riphean hills ; but the fluxures of the heaven and the earth , the conveniency of abode , and the approaches to the North or South respectively charge the emanations of his beams ; not that they do not pass always from him , but that they are not equally received below , but by periods and changes , by little inlets and reflections , they receive what they can ; and some have only a dark day and a long night from him , snows and white cattel , a miserable life , and a perpetual harvest of Catarrhes and Consumptions , apoplexies and dead palsies ; but some have splendid fires , and aromatick spices , rich wines , and well digested fruits , great wit and great courage ; because they dwell in his eye , and look in his face , and are the Courtiers of the Sun , and wait upon him in his Chambers of the East ; just so is it in friendships : some are worthy , and some are necessary ; some dwell hard by and are fitted for converse ; Nature joyns some to us , and Religion combines us with others ; society and accidents , parity of fortune , and equal dispositions do actuate our friendships : which of themselves and in their prime disposition are prepared for all Mankind according as any one can receive them . We see this best exemplified by two instances and expressions of friendships and charity : viz. Alms and Prayers ; Every one that needs relief is equally the object of our charity ; but though to all mankind in equal needs we ought to be alike in charity ; yet we signifie this severally and by limits , and distinct measures : the poor man that is near me , he whom I meet , he whom I love , he whom I fancy , he who did me benefit , he who relates to my family , he rather then another , because my expressions being finite and narrow , and cannot extend to all in equal significations , must be appropriate to those whose circumstances best fit me : and yet even to all I give my alms ; to all the World that needs them ; I pray for all mankind , I am grieved at every sad story I hear ; I am troubled when I hear of a pretty Bride murdered in her bride-chamber by an ambitious and enrag'd Rival ; I shed a tear when I am told that a brave King was misunderstood , then slandered , then imprisoned , and then put to death by evil men : and I can never read the story of the Parisian Massacre , or the Sicilian Vespers , but my blood curdles , and I am disorder'd by two or three affections . A good man is a friend to all the World ; and he is not truly charitable that does not wish well , and do good to all mankind in what he can ; but though we must pray for all men , yet we say special Litanies for brave Kings and holy Prelates , and the wise Guides of souls ; for our Brethren and Relations , our Wives and Children . The effect of this consideration is , that the Universal friendship of which I speak , must be limited , because we are so : In those things where we stand next to immensity and infinity , as in good wishes and prayers , and a readiness to benefit all mankind , in these our friendships must not be limited ; but in other things which pass under our hand and eye , our voices and our material exchanges ; our hands can reach no further but to our arms end , and our voices can but sound till the next air be quiet , and therefore they can have entercourse but within the sphere of their own activity ; our needs and our conversations are served by a few , and they cannot reach to all ; where they can , they must ; but where it is impossible , it cannot be necessary . It must therefore follow , that our friendships to mankind may admit variety as does our conversation ; and as by nature we are made sociable to all , so we are friendly ; but as all cannot actually be of our society , so neither can all be admitted to a special , actual friendship ; Of some entercourses all men are capable , but not of all ; Men can pray for one another , and abstain from doing injuries to all the world , and be desirous to do all mankind good , and love all men ; Now this friendship we must pay to all because we can , but if we can do no more to all , we must shew our readiness to do more good to all by actually doing more good to all them to whom we can . To some we can , and therefore there are nearer friendships to some then to others , according as there are natural or civil nearnesses , relations and societies ; and as I cannot express my friendships to all in equal measures and significations , that is , as I cannot do benefits to all alike : so neither am I tied to love all alike : for although there is much reason to love every man ; yet there are more reasons to love some than others ; and if I must love because there is reason I should ; then I must love more , where there is more reason ; and where there 's a special affection and a great readiness to do good and to delight in certain persons towards each other , there is that special charity and indearment which Philosophy calls friendship ; but our Religion calls love or charity . Now if the inquiry be concerning this special friendship . 1. How it can be appropriate , that is , who to be chosen to it ; 2. how far it may extend ; that is , with what expressions signified ; 3. how conducted ? The answers will depend upon such considerations which will be neither useless nor unpleasant . 1. There may be a special friendship contracted for any special excellency whatsoever ; because friendships are nothing but love and society mixt together ; that is , a conversing with them whom we love ; now for whatsoever we can love any one , for that we can be his friend ; and since every excellency is a degree of amability , every such worthiness is a just and proper motive of friendship , or loving conversation . But yet in these things there is an order and proportion . Therefore 2. A good man is the best friend , and therefore soonest to be chosen , longer to be retain'd ; and indeed never to be parted with , unless he cease to be that for which he was chosen . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Where vertue dwells there friendship make , But evil neighbourhoods forsake . But although vertue alone is the worthiest cause of amability , and can weigh down any one consideration ; and therefore to a man that is vertuous every man ought to be a friend ; yet I do not mean the severe , and philosophical excellencies of some morose persons who are indeed wise unto themselves , and exemplar to others : by vertue here I do not mean justice and temperance , charity and devotion ; for these I am to love the man , but friendship is something more then that : Friendship is the nearest love and the nearest society of which the persons are capable : Now justice is a good entercourse for Merchants , ●s all men are that buy and sell ; and temperance makes a Man good company , and helps to make a wise man ; but a perfect friendship requires something else , these must be in him that is chosen to be my friend ; but for these I do not make him my privado ; that is , my special and peculiar friend : but if he be a good man , then he is properly fitted to be my correlative in the noblest combination . And for this we have the best warrant in the world : For a just man scarcely will a man die ; the Syriac interpreter reads it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for an unjust man scarcely will a man die ; that is , a wicked man is at no hand fit to receive the expression of the greatest friendship ; but all the Greek copies that ever I saw , or read of , read it as we do ; for a righteous man or a just man , that is , justice and righteousness is not the nearest indearment of friendship ; but for a good man some will even dare to die : that is , for a man that is sweetly disposed , ready to do acts of goodness and to oblige others , to do things useful and profitable , for a loving man , a beneficent , bountiful man , one who delights in doing good to his friend , such a man may have the highest friendship ; he may have a friend that will die for him . And this is the meaning of Laelius : Vertue may be despised , so may Learning and Nobility ; at una est amicitia in rebus humanis de cujus utilitate omnes consentiunt : only friendship is that thing , which because all know to be useful and profitable , no man can despise ; that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , goodness or beneficence makes friendships . For if he be a good man he will love where he is beloved , and that 's the first tie of friendship . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . That was the commendation of the bravest friendship in Theocritus , They lov'd each other with a love That did in all things equal prove . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The World was under Saturn's reign When he that lov'd was lov'd again . For it is impossible this nearness of friendship can be where there is not mutual love ; but this is secured if I choose a good man ; for he that is apt enough to begin alone , will never be behind in the relation and correspondency ; and therefore I like the Gentiles Litany well , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Let God give friends to me for my reward , Who shall my love with equal love regard ; Happy are they , who when they give their heart Find such as in exchange their own impart . But there is more in it than this felicity amounts to . For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the good man is a profitable , useful person , and that 's the band of an effective friendship . For I do not think that friendships are Metaphysical nothings , created for contemplation , or that Men or Women should stare upon each others faces , and make dialogues of news and prettinesses , and look babies in one anothers eyes . Friendship is the allay of our sorrows , the ease of our passions , the discharge of our oppressions , the sanctuary to our calamities , the counsellor of our doubts , the clarity of our minds , the emission of our thoughts , the exercise and improvement of what we meditate : And although I love my friend because he is worthy , yet he is not worthy if he can do no good . I do not speak of accidental hindrances and misfortunes by which the bravest man may become unable to help his Child ; but of the natural and artificial capacities of the man. He only is fit to be chosen for a friend , who can do those offices for which friendship is excellent . For ( mistake not ) no man can be loved for himself ; our perfections in this World cannot reach so high ; it is well if we would love God at that rate , and I very much fear , that if God did us no good , we might admire his Beauties , but we should have but a small proportion of love towards him ; and therefore it is , that God to endear the obedience , that is , the love of his servants , signifies what benefits he gives us , what great good things he does for us . I am the Lord God that brought thee out of the land of Egypt : and does Job serve God for nought ? and he that comes to God , must believe that he is , and that he is a rewarder : all his other greatnesses are objects of fear and wonder , it is his goodness that makes him lovely : and so it is in friendships . He only is fit to be chosen for a friend who can give counsel , or defend my cause , or guide me right , or relieve my need , or can and will , when I need it , do me good : only this I add : into the heaps of doing good , I will reckon [ loving me ] for it is a pleasure to be beloved , but when his love signifies nothing but kissing my cheek , or talking kindly , and can go no further , it is a prostitution of the bravery of friendship to spend it upon impertinent people who are ( it may be ) loads to their families , but can never ease my loads : but my friend is a worthy person when he can become to me instead of God , a guide or a support , an eye , or a hand ; a staff , or a rule : There must be in friendship something to distinguish it from a Companion , and a Country man , from a School-fellow or a Gossip , from a Sweet-heart or a Fellow-traveller : Friendship may look in at any one of these doors , but it stays not any where till it come to be the best thing in the world : and when we consider that one man is not better than another , neither towards God nor towards Man , but by doing better and braver things , we shall also see , that that which is most beneficent is also most excellent ; and therefore those friendships must needs be most perfect , where the friends can be most useful . For men cannot be useful but by worthinesses in the several instances : a fool cannot be relyed upon for counsel , nor a vitious person for the advantages of vertue , nor a begger for relief , nor a stranger for conduct , nor a tatler to keep a secret , nor a pittiless person trusted with my complaint , nor a covetous man with my childs fortune , nor a false person without a witness , nor a suspicious person with a private design ; nor him that I fear with the treasures of my love : But he that is wise and vertuous , rich and at hand , close and merciful , free of his money and tenacious of a secret , open and ingenuous , true and honest , is of himself an excellent man ; and therefore fit to be loved ; and he can do good to me in all capacities where I can need him , and therefore is fit to be a friend . I confess we are forced in our friendships to abate some of these ingredients ; but full measures of friendship , would have full measures of worthiness ; and according as any defect is in the foundation ; in the relation also there may be imperfection : and indeed I shall not blame the friendship so it be worthy , though it be not perfect ; not only because friendship is charity , which cannot be perfect here , but because there is not in the World a perfect cause of perfect friendship . If you can suspect that this discourse can suppose friendship to be mercenary , and to be defective in the greatest worthiness of it , which is to love our friend for our friends sake , I shall easily be able to defend my self ; because I speak of the election and reasons of choosing friends : after he is chosen do as nobly as you talk , and love as purely as you dream , and let your conversation be as metaphysical as your discourse , and proceed in this method , till you be confuted by experience ; yet till then , the case is otherwise when we speak of choosing one to be my friend : He is not my friend till I have chosen him , or loved him ; and if any man enquires whom he shall choose or whom he should love , I suppose it ought not to be answered , that we should love him who hath least amability ; that we should choose him who hath least reason to be chosen : But if it be answered , he is to be chosen to be my friend who is most worthy in himself , not he that can do most good to me ; I say , here is a distinction but no difference ; for he is most worthy in himself who can do most good ; and if he can love me too , that is , if he will do me all the good he can , that I need , then he is my friend and he deserves it . And it is impossible from a friend to separate a will to do me good : and therefore I do not choose well , if I choose one that hath not power ; for if it may consist with the nobleness of friendship to desire that my friend be ready to do me benefit or support , it is not sense to say , it is ignoble to desire he should really do it when I need ; and if it were not for pleasure or profit , we might as well be without a friend as have him . Among all the pleasures and profits , the sensual pleasure and the matter of money are the lowest and the least ; and therefore although they may sometimes be used in friendship , and so not wholly excluded from the consideration of him that is to choose , yet of all things they are to be the least regarded . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . When fortune frowns upon a Man , A friend does more than money can . For there are besides these , many profits and many pleasures ; and because these only are sordid , all the other are noble and fair , and the expectations of them no disparagements to the best friendships . For can any wise or good man be angry if I say , I choose this man to be my friend , because he is able to give me counsel , to restrain my wandrings , to comfort me in my sorrows ; he is pleasant to me in private , and useful in publick ; he will make my joys double , and divide my grief between himself and me ? For what else should I choose ; For being a fool , and useless ; for a pretty face or a smooth chin ? I confess it is possible to be a friend to one that is ignorant , and pitiable , handsome and good for nothing , that eats well , and drinks deep , but he cannot be a friend to me ; and I love him with a fondness or a pity , but it cannot be a noble friendship . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . said Menander . By Wine and mirth and every days delight We choose our friends , to whom we think we might Our Souls intrust ; but fools are they that lend Their bosom to the shadow of a friend . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Plutarch calls such friendships , the Idols and Images of friendship . True and brave friendships are between worthy persons ; and there is in Mankind no degree of worthiness , but is also a degree of usefulness , and by every thing by which a man is excellent , I may be profited : and because those are the bravest friends which can best serve the ends of friendships , either we must suppose that friendships are not the greatest comforts in the World , or else we must say , he chooses his friend best , that chooses such a one by whom he can receive the greatest comforts and assistances . 3. This being the measure of all friendships ; they all partake of excellency , according as they are fitted to this measure : a friend may be counselled well enough though his friend be not the wisest man in the world , and he may be pleased in his society though he be not the best natured man in the world ; but still it must be , that something excellent is , or is apprehended , or else it can be no worthy friendship ; because the choice is imprudent and foolish . Choose for your friend him that is wise and good , and secret and just , ingenuous and honest ; and in those things which have a latitude , use your own liberty ; but in such things which consist in an indivisible point , make no abatements ; That is , you must not choose him to be your friend that is not honest and secret , just and true to a tittle ; but if he be wise at all , and useful in any degree , and as good as you can have him , you need not be ashamed to own your friendships ; though sometimes you may be ashamed of some imperfections of your friend . 4. But if you yet enquire further , whether fancy may be an ingredient in your choice ? I answer , that fancy may minister to this as to all other actions in which there is a liberty and variety ; and we shall find that there may be peculiarities and little partialities , a friendship , improperly so called , entring upon accounts of an innocent passion and a pleas'd fancy ; even our Blessed Saviour himself loved Saint John and Lazarus by a special love , which was signified by special treatments ; and of the young man that spake well and wisely to Christ , it is affirmed , Jesus loved him : that is , he fancied the man , and his soul had a certain cognation and similitude of temper and inclination . For in all things where there is a latitude , every faculty will endeavour to be pleased , and sometimes the meanest persons in a house have a festival ; even sympathies and natural inclinations to some persons , and a conformity of humours , and proportionable loves , and the beauty of the face , and a witty answer may first strike the flint and kindle a spark , which if it falls upon tender and compliant natures may grow into a flame ; but this will never be maintained at the rate of friendship , unless it be fed by pure materials , by worthinesses which are the food of friendship : where these are not , Men and Women may be pleased with one anothers company , and lye under the same roof , and make themselves companions of equal prosperities , and humour their friend ; but if you call this friendship , you give a sacred name to humour or fancy ; for there is a Platonick friendship as well as a Platonick love ; but they being but the Images of more noble bodies are but like tinsel dressings , which will shew bravely by candle-light , and do excellently in a mask , but are not fit for conversation , and the material entercourses of our life . These are the prettinesses of prosperity and good-natured wit ; but when we speak of friendship , which is the best thing in the World ( for it is love and beneficence ; it is charity that is fitted for society ) we cannot suppose a brave pile should be built up with nothing ; and they that build Castles in the air , and look upon friendship , as upon a fine Romance , a thing that pleases the fancy , but is good for nothing else , will do well when they are asleep , or when they are come to Elysium ; and for ought I know in the mean time may be as much in love with Mandana in the Grand Cyrus , as with the Infanta of Spain , or any of the most perfect beauties and real excellencies of the world : and by dreaming of perfect and abstracted friendships , make them so immaterial that they perish in the handling and become good for nothing . But I know not whither I was going ; I did only mean to say that because friendship is that by which the world is most blessed and receives most good , it ought to be chosen amongst the worthiest persons , that is , amongst those that can do greatest benefit to each other ; and though in equal worthiness I may chuse by my eye , or ear , that is , into the consideration of the essential I may take in also the accidental and extrinsick worthinesses ; yet I ought to give every one their just value ; when the internal beauties are equal , these shall help to weigh down the scale , and I will love a worthy friend that can delight me as well as profit me , rather than him who cannot delight me at all , and profit me no more ; but yet I will not weigh the gayest flowers , or the wings of butterflies against wheat ; but when I am to chuse wheat , I may take that which looks the brightest : I had rather see Thyme and Roses , Marjoram and July-flowers that are fair and sweet and medicinal , than the prettiest Tulips that are good for nothing : And my Sheep and Kine are better servants than Race-horses and Gray-hounds : And I shall rather furnish my Study with Plutarch and Cicero , with Livy and Polybius , than with Cassandra and Ibrahim Bassa ; and if I do give an hour to these for divertisement or pleasure , yet I will dwell with them that can instruct me , and make me wise and eloquent , severe and useful to my self and others . I end this with the saying of Laelius in Cicero : Amicitia non debet consequi utilitatem , sed amicitiam utilitas . When I chuse my friend , I will not stay till I have received a kindness ; but I will chuse such an one that can do me many if I need them : But I mean such kindnesses which make me wiser , and which make me better ; that is , I will when I chuse my friend , chuse him that is the bravest , the worthiest and the most excellent person : and then your first Question is soon answered ; to love such a person and to contract such friendships is just so authorized by the principles of Christianity , as it is warranted to love wisdom and vertue , goodness and beneficence , and all the impresses of God upon the spirits of brave men . 2. The next inquiry is how far it may extend ? That is , by what expressions it may be signified ? I find that David and Jonathan loved at a strange rate ; they were both good men ; though it happened that Jonathan was on the obliging side ; but here the expressions were ; Jonathan watched for Davids good ; told him of his danger , and helped him to escape ; took part with Davids innocence against his Fathers malice and injustice ; and beyond all this , did it to his own prejudice ; and they two stood like two feet supporting one body ; though Jonathan knew that David would prove like the foot of a Wrestler , and would supplant him , not by any unworthy or unfriendly action , but it was from God ; and he gave him his hand to set him upon his own Throne . We find his parallels in the Gentile stories : young Athenodorus having divided the estate with his Brother Xenon ; divided it again when Xenon had spent his own share ; and Lucullus would not take the Consulship till his younger brother had first enjoyed it for a year ; but Pollux divided with Castor his immortality ; and you know who offer'd himself to death being pledg for his friend ; and his friend by performing his word rescued him as bravely : and when we find in Scripture that for a good man some will even dare to die ; and that Aquila and Priscilla laid their necks down for S. Paul ; and the Galatians would have given him their very eyes , that is , every thing that was most dear to them , and some others were near unto death for his sake ; and that it is a precept of Christian charity , to lay down our lives for our brethren , that is , those who were combined in a cause of Religion , who were united with the same hopes , and imparted to each other ready assistances , and grew dear by common sufferings , we need enquire no further for the expressions of friendships : Greater love than this hath no man , than that he lay down his life for his friends ; and this we are oblig'd to do in some Cases for all Christians ; and therefore we may do it for those who are to us in this present and imperfect state of things , that which all the good Men and Women in the World shall be in Heaven , that is , in the state of perfect friendships . This is the biggest ; but then it includes and can suppose all the rest ; and if this may be done for all , and in some cases must for any one of the multitude , we need not scruple whether we may do it for those who are better than a multitude . But as for the thing it self , it is not easily and lightly to be done ; and a Man must not die for humour , nor expend so great a Jewel for a trifle : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : said Philo ; we will hardly die when it is for nothing , when no good , no worthy end is served , and become a Sacrifice to redeem a foot boy . But we may not give our life to redeem another : unless 1. The party for whom we die be a worthy and an useful person ; better for the publick , or better for Religion , and more useful to others than my self . Thus Ribischius the German died bravely when he became a Sacrifice for his Master , Maurice Duke of Saxony ; Covering his Masters body with his own , that he might escape the fury of the Turkish Souldiers . Succurram perituro , sed ut ipse non peream , nisi si futurus ero magni hominis , aut magnae rei merces , said Seneca . I will help a dying person if I can ; but I will not die my self for him , unless by my death I save a brave man , or become the price of a great thing ; that is , I will die for a Prince , for the republick , or to save an Army , as David expos'd himself to combat with the Philistin for the redemption of the host of Israel : and in this sense , that is true ; Praestat ut pereat unus , quam Vnitas , better that one perish than a multitude . 2. A man dies bravely when he gives his temporal life to save the soul of any single person in the Christian world . It is a worthy exchange , and the glorification of that love by which Christ gave his life for every soul. Thus he that reproves an erring Prince wisely and necessarily , he that affirms a fundamental truth , or stands up for the glory of the Divine attributes , though he die for it , becomes a worthy sacrifice . 3. These are duty , but it may be heroick and full of Christian bravery , to give my life to rescue a noble and a brave friend ; though I my self be as worthy a man as he ; because the preference of him is an act of humility in me ; and of friendship towards him ; Humility and Charity making a pious difference , where art and nature have made all equal . Some have fancied other measures of treating our friends . One sort of men say that we are to expect that our friends should value us as we value our selves : which if it were to be admitted , will require that we make no friendship with a proud man ; and so far indeed were well ; but then this proportion does exclude some humble men who are most to be valued , and the rather because they undervalue themselves . Others say that a friend is to value his friend as much as his friend values him ; but neither is this well or safe , wise or sufficient ; for it makes friendship a meer bargain , and is something like the Country weddings in some places where I have been ; where the bridegroom and the bride must meet in the half way , and if they fail a step , they retire and break the match : It is not good to make a reckoning in friendship ; that 's merchandise , or it may be gratitude , but not noble friendship ; in which each part strives to out do the other in significations of an excellent love : And amongst true friends there is no fear of losing any thing . But that which amongst the old Philosophers comes nearest to the right , is that we love our friends as we love our selves , If they had meant it as our Blessed Saviour did , of that general friendship by which we are to love all Mankind , it had been perfect and well ; or if they had meant it of the inward affection , or of outward justice ; but because they meant it of the most excellent friendships , and of the outward significations of it , it cannot be sufficient : for a friend may and must sometimes do more for his friend than he would do for himself . Some men will perish before they will beg or petition for themselves to some certain persons ; but they account it noble to do it for their friend , and they will want rather than their friend shall want ; and they will be more earnest in praise or dispraise respectively for their friend than for themselves . And indeed I account that one of the greatest demonstrations of real friendship , that a friend can really endeavour to have his friend advanced in honour , in reputation , in the opinion of wit or learning before himself . Aurum & opes , & rura frequens donabit amicus : Qui velit ingenio cedere rarus erit . Sed tibi tantus inest veteris respectus amici , Carior ut me sit quam tua fama tibi . Lands , gold and trifles many give or lend ; But he that stoops in fame is a rare friend ; In friendships orb thou art the brightest star , Before thy fame mine thou preferrest far . But then he pleased to think that therefore I so highly value this signification of friendship , because I so highly value humility . Humility and Charity are the two greatest graces in the World ; and these are the greatest ingredients which constitute friendship and express it . But there needs no other measures of friendship , but that it may be as great as you can express it ; beyond death it cannot go , to death it may , when the cause is reasonable and just , charitable and religious : and yet if there be any thing greater than to suffer death ( and pain and shame to some are more insufferable ) a true and noble friendship shrinks not at the greatest trials . And yet there is a limit even to friendship . It must be as great as our friend fairly needs in all things where we are not tied up by a former duty , to God , to our selves , or some pre-obliging relative . When Pollux heard some body whisper a reproach against his Brother Castor , he killed the slanderer with his fist : that was a zeal which his friendship could not warrant . Nulla est excusatio si amici causâ peccaveris , said Cicero . No friendship can excuse a sin : And this the braver Romans instanced in the matter of duty to their Country . It is not lawful to fight on our friends part against our Prince or Country ; and therefore when Caius Blosius of Cuma in the sedition of Gracchus appeared against his Country , when he was taken he answered , That he loved Tiberius Gracchus so dearly , that he thought fit to follow him whithersoever he led ; and begg'd pardon upon that account . They who were his Judges were so noble , that though they knew it no fair excuse : yet for the honour of friendship they did not directly reject his motion : but put him to death , because he did not follow , but led on Gracchus , and brought his friend into the snare : For so they preserved the honours of friendship on either hand , by neither suffering it to be sullied by a foul excuse , nor yet rejected in any fair pretence . A man may not be perjured for his friend . I remember to have read in the History of the Low-countries , that Grimston and Redhead , when Bergenapzoom was besieged by the Duke of Parma , acted for the interest of the Queen of Englands Forces a notable design ; but being suspected and put for their acquittance to take the Sacrament of the Altar , they dissembled their persons , and their interest , their design and their religion , and did for the Queens service ( as one wittily wrote to her ) give not only their bodies but their souls , and so deserved a reward greater than she could pay them : I cannot say this is a thing greater than a friendship can require , for it is not great at all , but a great villany , which hath no name , and no order in worthy entercourses ; and no obligation to a friend can reach as high as our duty to God : And he that does a base thing in zeal for his friend , burns the golden thred that ties their hearts together ; it is a conspiracy , but no longer friendship . And when Cato lent his Wife to Hortensius , and Socrates lent his to a merry Greek , they could not amongst wise persons obtain so much as the fame of being worthy friends , neither could those great Names legitimate an unworthy action under the most plausible title . It is certain that amongst friends their estates are common ; that is , by whatsoever I can rescue my friend from calamity , I am to serve him , or not to call him friend ; there is a great latitude in this , and it is to be restrained by no prudence , but when there is on the other side a great necessity neither vicious nor avoidable : A man may chuse whether he will or no ; and he does not sin in not doing it , unless he have bound himself to it : But certainly friendship is the greatest band in the world , and if he have professed a great friendship , he hath a very great obligation to do that and more ; and he can no ways be disobliged but by the care of his Natural relations . I said , [ Friendship is the greatest bond in the world , ] and I had reason for it , for it is all the bands that this world hath ; and there is no society , and there is no relation that is worthy , but it is made so by the communications of friendship , and by partaking some of its excellencies . For friendship is a transcendent , and signifies as much as Vnity can mean , and every consent , and every pleasure , and every benefit , and every society is the Mother or the Daughter of friendship . Some friendships are made by nature , some by contract , some by interest , and some by souls . And in proportion to these ways of Uniting , so the friendships are greater or less , vertuous or natural , profitable or holy , or all this together . Nature makes excellent friendships , of which we observe something in social parts ; growing better in each others neighbourhood than where they stand singly : And in animals it is more notorious , whose friendships extend so far as to herd and dwell together , to play , and feed , to defend and fight for one another , and to cry in absence , and to rejoyce in one anothers presence . But these friendships have other names less noble , they are sympathy , or they are instinct . But if to this natural friendship there be reason superadded , something will come in upon the stock of reason which will ennoble it ; but because no Rivers can rise higher than Fountains , reason shall draw out all the dispositions which are in Nature and establish them into friendships , but they cannot surmount the communications of Nature ; Nature can make no friendships greater than her own excellencies . Nature is the way of contracting necessary friendships ; that is , by nature such friendships are contracted without which we cannot live , and be educated , or be well , or be at all . In this scene , that of Parents and Children is the greatest , which indeed is begun in nature , but is actuated by society and mutual endearments . For Parents love their Children because they love themselves , Children being but like emissions of water , symbolical , or indeed the same with the fountain ; and they in their posterity see the images and instruments of a civil immortality ; but if Parents and Children do not live together , we see their friendships and their loves are much abated , and supported only by fame and duty , by customs and religion , which to nature are but artificial pillars , and make this friendship to be complicated , and to pass from its own kind to another . That of Children to their Parents is not properly friendship , but gratitude and interest , and religion , and whatever can supervene of the nature of friendship comes in upon another account ; upon society and worthiness and choice . This relation on either hand makes great Dearnesses : But it hath special and proper significations of it , and there is a special duty incumbent on each other respectively . This friendship and social relation is not equal , and there is too much authority on one side , and too much fear on the other to make equal friendships ; and therefore although this is one of the kinds of friendship , that is of a social and relative love and conversation , yet in the more proper use of the word ; [ Friendship ] does do some things which Father and Son do not ; I instance in the free and open communicating counsels , and the evenness and pleasantness of conversation ; and consequently the significations of the paternal and filial love as they are divers in themselves and unequal , and therefore another kind of friendship than we mean in our inquiry ; so they are such a duty Which no other friendship can annul : because their mutual duty is bound upon them by religion long before any other friendships can be contracted ; and therefore having first possession must abide for ever . The duty and love to Parents must not yield to religion , much less to any new friendships : and our Parents are to be preferred before the Corban ; and are at no hand to be laid aside but when they engage against God : That is , in the rights which this relation and kind of friendship challenges as its propriety , it is supreme and cannot give place to any other friendships ; till the Father gives his right away , and God or the Laws consent to it ; as in the case of marriage , emancipation , and adoption to another family : in which cases though love and gratitude are still obliging , yet the societies and duties of relation are very much altered , which in the proper and best friendships can never be at all . But then this also is true : that the social relations of Parents and Children not having in them all the capacities of a proper friendship , cannot challenge all the significations of it : that is , it is no prejudice to the duty I owe there , to pay all the dearnesses which are due here , and to friends there are some things due which the other cannot challenge : I mean , my secret , and my equal conversation , and the pleasures and interests of these , and the consequents of all . Next to this is the society and dearness of Brothers and Sisters : which usually is very great amongst worthy persons ; but if it be considered what it is in it self , it is but very little ; there is very often a likeness of natural temper , and there is a social life under the same roof , and they are commanded to love one another , and they are equals in many instances , and are endeared by conversation when it is merry and pleasant , innocent and simple , without art and without design . But Brothers pass not into noble friendships upon the stock of that relation : they have fair dispositions and advantages , and are more easie and ready to ferment into the greatest dearnesses , if all things else be answerable . Nature disposes them well towards it , but in this inquiry if we ask what duty is passed upon a Brother to a Brother even for being so ? I answer , that religion and our parents and God and the laws appoint what measures they please ; but nature passes but very little , and friendship less ; and this we see apparently in those Brothers who live asunder , and contract new relations , and dwell in other societies : There is no love , no friendship without the entercourse of conversation : Friendships indeed may last longer than our abode together , but they were first contracted by it , and established by pleasure and benefit , and unless it be the best kind of friendship ( which that of Brothers in that meer capacity is not ) it dies when it wants the proper nutriment and support : and to this purpose is that which was spoken by Solomon : [ better is a neihbour that is near , than a Brother that is far off : ] that is , although ordinarily , Brothers are first possessed of the entries and fancies of friendship , because they are of the first societies and conversations , yet when that ceases and the Brother goes away , so that he does no advantage , no benefit of entercourse ; the neighbour that dwells by me , with whom if I converse at all , either he is my enemy and does , and receives evil ; or if we converse in worthinesses and benefit and pleasant communication , he is better in the laws and measures of friendship than my distant Brother . And it is observable that [ Brother ] is indeed a word of friendship and charity and of mutual endearment , and so is a title of the bravest society ; yet in all the Scripture there are no precepts given of any duty and comport which Brothers , that is , the descendents of the same parents are to have one towards another in that capacity , and it is not because their nearness is such that they need none : For Parents and children are nearer , and yet need tables of duty to be described ; and for Brothers , certainly they need it infinitely if there be any peculiar duty ; Cain and Abel are the great probation of that , and you know who said , Fratrum quoque gratia rara est : It is not often you shall see Two Brothers live in amity . But the Scripture which often describes the duty of Parents and Children , never describes the duty of Brothers ; except where by Brethren are meant all that part of mankind who are tied to us by any vicinity and indearment of religion or country , of profession and family , of contract or society , of love and the noblest friendships ; the meaning is , that though fraternity alone be the endearment of some degrees of friendship , without choice and without excellency ; yet the relation it self is not friendship , and does not naturally infer it , and that which is procured by it , is but limited and little ; and though it may pass into it , as other conversations may , yet the friendship is accidental to it ; and enters upon other accounts , as it does between strangers ; with this only difference that Brotherhood does oftentimes assist the valuation of those excellencies for which we entertain our friendships . Fraternity is the opportunity and preliminary disposition to friendship , and no more . For if my brother be a fool or a vitious person , the love to which nature and our first conversation disposes me , does not end in friendship , but in pity and fair provisions , and assistances ; which is a demonstration that Brotherhood is but the inclination and address to friendship : and though I will love a worthy Brother more than a worthy stranger ; if the worthiness be equal , because the relation is something , and being put into the scales against an equal worthiness must needs turn the ballance , as every grain will do in an even weight ; yet when the relation is all the worthiness that is pretended , it cannot stand in competition with a friend : for though a friend-Brother is better than a friend-stranger , where the friend is equal , but the Brother is not : yet a Brother is not better than a friend ; but as Solomons expression is [ there is a friend that is better than a Brother , ] and to be born of the same parents is so accidental and extrinsick to a mans pleasure or worthiness , or spiritual advantages , that though it be very pleasing and useful that a Brother should be a friend , yet it is no great addition to a friend that he also is a Brother : there is something in it , but not much . But in short , the case is thus . The first beginnings of friendship serve the necessities ; but choice and worthiness are the excellencies of its endearment and its bravery ; and between a Brother that is no friend , and a friend that is no Brother , there is the same difference as between the disposition , and the act or habit : a Brother if he be worthy is the readiest and the nearest to be a friend , but till he be so , he is but the twi-light of the day , and but the blossome to the fairest fruit of Paradise . A Brother does not always make a friend , but a friend ever makes a Brother and more : And although nature sometimes finds the tree , yet friendship engraves the Image ; the first relation places him in the Garden , but friendship sets it in the Temple , and then only it is venerable and sacred : and so is Brotherhood when it hath the soul of friendship . So that if it be asked which are most to be valued , Brothers or friends ; the answer is very easie ; Brotherhood is or may be one of the kinds of friendship , and from thence only hath its value , and therefore if it be compared with a greater friendship must give place : But then it is not to be asked which is to be preferred , a Brother or a Friend , but which is the better friend ; Memnon or my Brother ? For if my Brother says I ought to love him best , then he ought to love me best ; valiant * if he does , then there is a great friendship , and he possibly is to be preferred ; if he can be that friend which he pretends to be , that is , if he be equally worthy : but if he says , I must love him only because he is my Brother , whether he loves me or no , he is ridiculous ; and it will be a strange relation which hath no correspondent : but suppose it , and add this also , that I am equally his Brother as he is mine , and then he also must love me whether I love him or no ; and if he does not , he says , I must love him though he be my Enemy ; and so I must ; but I must not love my Enemy though he be my Brother more then I love my Friend ; and at last if he does love me for being his Brother , I confess that this love deserves love again ; but then I consider , that he loves me upon an incompetent reason : for he that loves me only because I am his Brother , loves me for that which is no worthiness , and I must love him as much as that comes to , and for as little reason ; unless this be added , that he loves me first : but whether choice and union of souls , and worthiness of manners , and greatness of understanding , and usefulness of conversation , and the benefits of Counsel , and all those endearments which make our lives pleasant and our persons Dear , are not better and greater reasons of love and Dearness than to be born of the same flesh , I think amongst wise persons needs no great inquiry . For fraternity is but a Cognation of bodies , but friendship is an Union of souls which are confederated by more noble ligatures . My Brother , if he be no more , shall have my hand to help him , but unless he be my friend too , he cannot challenge my heart : and if his being my friend be the greater nearness , then friend is more than Brother , and I suppose no man doubts but that David lov'd Jonathan far more than he lov'd his Brother Eliah . One inquiry more there may be in this affair , and that is , whether a friend may be more than a Husband or Wife ; To which I answer , that it can never be reasonable or just , prudent or lawful : but the reason is , because Marriage is the Queen of friendships , in which there is a communication of all that can be communicated by friendship : and it being made sacred by vows and love , by bodies and souls , by interest and custome , by religion and by laws , by common Counsels , and common fortunes ; it is the principal in the kind of friendship , and the measure of all the rest : And there is no abatement to this consideration , but that there may be some allay in this as in other letter friendships by the incapacity of the persons : if I have not chosen my friend wisely or fortunately , he cannot be the correlative in the best Union ; but then the friend lives as the soul does after death , it is in the state of separation , in which the soul strangely loves the body and longs to be reunited , but the body is an useless trunk and can do no ministeries to the soul ; which therefore prays to have the body reformed and restored and made a brave and a fit companion : so must these best friends , when one is useless or unapt to the braveries of the princely friendship , they must love ever , and pray ever , and long till the other be perfected and made fit ; in this case there wants only the body , but the soul is still a relative and must be so for ever . A Husband and a Wife are the best friends , but they cannot always signifie all that to each other which their friendships would ; as the Sun shines not upon a Valley which sends up a thick vapour to cover his face ; and though his beams are eternal , yet the emission is intercepted by the intervening cloud . But however all friendships are but parts of this ; a man must leave Father and Mother and cleave to his Wife , that is [ the dearest thing in Nature is not comparable to the dearest thing of friendship : ] and I think this is argument sufficient to prove friendship to be the greatest band in the world ; Add to this , that other friendships are parts of this , they are marriages too , less indeed than the other , because they cannot , must not be all that endearment which the other is ; yet that being the principal , is the measure of the rest , and are all to be honoured by like dignities , and measured by the same rules , and conducted by their portion of the same Laws : But as friendships are Marriages of the soul , and of fortunes and interests , and counsels ; so they are brotherhoods too ; and I often think of the excellencies of friendships in the words of David , who certainly was the best friend in the World [ Ecce quam bonum & quam jucundum fratres habitare in unum : ] It is good and it is pleasant that Brethren should live like friends , that is , they who are any ways relative , and who are any ways social and confederate should also dwell in Unity and loving society , for that is the meaning of the word [ Brother ] in Scripture [ It was my Brother Jonathan ] said David ; such Brothers contracting such friendships are the beauties of society , and the pleasure of life , and the festivity of minds : and whatsoever can be spoken of love , which is God's eldest daughter , can be said of vertuous friendships ; and though Carneades made an eloquent Oration at Rome against justice , and yet never saw a Panegyrick of malice , or ever read that any man was witty against friendship . Indeed it is probable that some men , finding themselves by the peculiarities of friendship excluded from the participation of those beauties of society which enamel and adorn the wise and the vertuous , might suppose themselves to have reason to speak the evil words of envy and detraction ; I wonder not that all those unhappy souls which shall find heaven gates shut against them , will think they have reason to murmur and blaspheme : The similitude is apt enough , for that is the region of friendship , and love is the light of that glorious Countrey , but so bright that it needs no Sun : Here we have fine and bright rayes of that Celestial flame , and though to all Mankind the light of it is in some measure to be extended , like the treasures of light dwelling in the South , yet a little do illustrate and beautifie the North , yet some live under the line , and the beams of friendship in that position are imminent and perpendicular . I know but one thing more in which the Communications of friendship can be restrained ; and that is , in Friends and Enemies : Amicus amici , amicus meus non est : My friends friend is not always my friend ; nor his enemy mine ; for if my friend quarrel with a third person with whom he hath had no friendships , upon the account of interest ; if that third person be my friend , the nobleness of our friendships despises such a quarrel ; and what may be reasonable in him , would be ignoble in me ; sometimes it may be otherwise , and friends may marry one anothers loves and hatreds , but it is by chance if it can be just , and therefore because it is not always right it cannot be ever necessary . In all things else , let friendships be as high and expressive till they become an Union , or that friends like the Molionidae be so the same that the flames of their dead bodies make but one Pyramis ; no charity can be reproved ; and such friendships which are more than shadows , are nothing else but the rayes of that glorious grace drawn into one centre , and made more active by the Union ; and the proper significations are well represented in the old Hieroglyphick , by which the ancients depicted friendship : In the beauties and strength of a young man , bare-headed , rudely clothed , to signifie its activity , and lastingness , readiness of action , and aptnesses to do service ; Upon the fringes of his garment was written Mors & vita , as signifying that in life and death the friendship was the same ; on the forehead was written Summer and Winter , that is , prosperous and adverse accidents and states of life ; the left arm and shoulder was bare and naked down to the heart to which the finger pointed , and there was written longè & propè : by all which we know that friendship does good far and near : in Summer and Winter , in life and death , and knows no difference of state or accident but by the variety of her services : and therefore ask no more to what we can be obliged by friendship ; for it is every thing that can be honest and prudent , useful and necessary . For this is all the allay of this Universality , we may do any thing or suffer any thing , that is wise or necessary , or greatly beneficial to my friend , and that in any thing , in which I am perfect master of my person and fortunes . But I would not in bravery visit my friend when he is sick of the plague , unless I can do him good equal at least to my danger , but I will procure him Physicians and prayers , all the assistances that he can receive , and that he can desire , if they be in my power : and when he is dead , I will not run into his grave and be stifled with his earth ; but I will mourn for him , and perform his will , and take care of his relatives , and do for him as if he were alive , and I think that is the meaning of that hard saying of a Greek Poet. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . To me though distant let thy friendship fly , Though men be mortal , friendships must not die , Of all things else there 's great satiety . Of such immortal abstracted pure friendships indeed there is no great plenty , and to see brothers hate each other , is not so rare as to see them love at this rate . The dead and the absent have but few friends , say the Spaniards ; but they who are the same to their friend 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , when he is in another Countrey , or in another World , these are they who are fit to preserve the sacred fire for eternal sacrifices , and to perpetuate the memory of those exemplar friendships of the best men which have filled the World with history and wonder : for in no other sense but this , can it be true ; that friendships are pure loves ; regarding to do good more than to receive it : He that is a friend after death , hopes not for a recompense from his friend , and makes no bargain either for fame or love ; but is rewarded with the conscience and satisfaction of doing bravely : but then this is demonstration that they choose Friends best who take persons so worthy that can and will do so : This is the profit and usefulness of friendship ; and he that contracts such a noble Union , must take care that his friend be such who can and will ; but hopes that himself shall be first used , and put to act it : I will not have such a friendship that is good for nothing , but I hope that I shall be on the giving and assisting part ; and yet if both the friends be so noble , and hope and strive to do the benefit , I cannot well say which ought to yield ; and whether that friendship were braver that could be content to be unprosperous so his friend might have the glory of assisting him ; or that which desires to give assistances in the greatest measures of friendship : but he that chooses a worthy friend that himself in the days of sorrow and need might receive the advantage , hath no excuse , no pardon , unless himself be as certain to do assistances when evil fortune shall require them . The sum of this answer to this enquiry I give you in a pair of Greek verses . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Friends are to friends as letter Gods , while they Honour and service to each other pay . But when a dark cloud comes , grudge not to lend Thy head , thy heart , thy fortune to thy friend . 3. The last inquiry is , how friendships are to be conducted ? That is , what are the duties in presence and in absence ; whether the friend may not desire to enjoy his friend as well as his friendship ? The answer to which in a great measure depends upon what I have said already : and if friendship be a charity in society , and is not for contemplation and noise , but for material comforts and noble treatments and usages , this is no peradventure , but that if I buy land , I may eat the fruits , and if I take a house I may dwell in it ; and if I love a worthy person , I may please my self in his society : and in this there is no exception , unless the friendship be between persons of a different sex : for then not only the interest of their religion , and the care of their honour , but the worthiness of their friendship requires that their entercourse be prudent and free from suspicion and reproach : and if a friend is obliged to bear a calamity , so he secure the honour of his friend , it will concern him to conduct his entercourse in the lines of a vertuous prudence , so that he shall rather lose much of his own comfort , than she any thing of her honour ; and in this case the noises of people are so to be regarded , that next to innocence they are the principal . But when by caution and prudence and severe conduct , a friend hath done all that he or she can to secure fame and honourable reports ; after this , their noises are to be despised ; they must not fright us from our friendships , nor from her fairest entercourses ; I may lawfully pluck the clusters from my own Vine , though he that walks by , calls me thief . But by the way ( Madam ) you may see how much I differ from the morosity of those Cynicks who would not admit your sex into the communities of a noble friendship . I believe some Wives have been the best friends in the World ; and few stories can out do the nobleness and piety of that Lady that suck'd the poysonous , purulent matter from the wound of our brave Prince in the holy Land , when an Assasine had pierc'd him with a venom'd arrow ; and if it be told that Women cannot retain counsel , and therefore can be no brave friends ; I can best confute them by the story of Porcia , who being fearful of the weakness of her sex , stabb'd her self into the thigh to try how she could bear pain ; and finding her self constant enough to that sufferance , gently chid her Brutus for not daring to trust her , since now she perceived that no torment could wrest that secret from her , which she hoped might be intrusted to her . If there were not more things to be said for your satisfaction , I could have made it disputable whether have been more illustrious in their friendships Men or Women ? I cannot say that Women are capable of all those excellencies by which Men can oblige the World ; and therefore a female friend in some cases is not so good a counsellor as a wise man , and cannot so well defend my honour ; nor dispose of reliefs and assistances if she be under the power of another : but a woman can love as passionately , and converse as pleasantly , and retain a secret as faithfully , and be useful in her proper ministeries ; and she can die for her friend as well as the bravest Roman Knight ; and we find that some persons have engag'd themselves as far as death upon a less interest than all this amounts to : such were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as the Greeks call them , the Devoti of a Prince or General , the Assasines amongst the Saracens , the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 amongst the old Galatians : they did as much as a friend could do ; and if the greatest services of a friend can be paid for by an ignoble price , we cannot grudge to vertuous and brave women that they be partners in a noble friendship , since their conversation and returns can add so many moments to the felicity of our lives ; and therefore , though a Knife cannot enter as far as a Sword , yet a Knife may be more useful to some purposes ; and in every thing , except it be against an enemy . A man is the best friend in trouble , but a woman may be equal to him in the days of joy : a woman can as well increase our comforts , but cannot so well lessen our sorrows : and therefore we do not carry women with us when we go to fight ; but in peaceful Cities and times , vertuous women are the beauties of society and the prettinesses of friendship . And when we consider that few persons in the world have all those excellencies by which friendship can be useful and illustrious , we may as well allow women as men to be friends ; since they can have all that which can be necessary and essential to friendships , and these cannot have all by which friendships can be accidentally improved ; in all some abatements will be made ; and we shall do too much honour to women if we reject them from friendships because they are not perfect : for if to friendships we admit imperfect men , because no man is perfect : he that rejects women does find fault with them because they are not more perfect than men , which either does secretly affirm that they ought and can be perfect , or else it openly accuses men of injustice and partiality . I hope you will pardon me that I am a little gone from my undertaking , I went aside to wait upon the women and to do countenance to their tender vertues : I am now return'd , and , if I were to do the office of a guide to uninstructed friends , would add the particulars following : Madam , you need not read them now , but when any friends come to be taught by your precept and example how to converse in the noblest conjurations , you may put these into better words and tell them , 1. That the first law of friendship is , they must neither ask of their friend what is Undecent ; nor grant it if themselves be askt . For it is no good office to make my friend more vicious or more a fool ; I will restrain his folly , but not nurse it ; I will not make my groom the officer of my lust and vanity . There are Villains who sell their souls for bread , that offer sin and vanity at a price : I should be unwilling my friend should know I am vicious ; but if he could be brought to minister to it , he is not worthy to be my friend : and if I could offer it to him , I do not deserve to clasp hands with a vertuous person . 2. Let no Man chuse him for his friend whom it shall be possible for him ever after to hate , for though the society may justly be interrupted , yet love is an immortal thing , and I will never despise him whom I could once think worthy of my love . A friend that proves not good is rather to be suffered , than any enmities be entertained : and there are some outer offices of friendship and little drudgeries in which the less worthy are to be imployed , and it is better that he be below stairs than quite thrown out of doors . 3. There are two things which a friend can never pardon , a treacherous blow and the revealing of a secret , because these are against the Nature of friendship ; they are the adulteries of it , and dissolve the Union ; and in the matters of friendship which is the marriage of souls ; these are the proper causes of divorce : and therefore I shall add this only , that secrecy is the chastity of friendship , and the publication of it is a prostitution and direct debauchery ; but a secret , treacherous wound is a perfect and unpardonable Apostasie . I remember a pretty apologue that Bromiard tells , A Fowler in a sharp frosty morning having taken many little birds for which he had long watched , began to take up his Nets ; and nipping the birds on the head laid them down . A young Thrush espying the tears trickling down his cheeks by reason of the extreme cold , said to her Mother , that certainly the man was very merciful and compassionate that wept so bitterly over the calamity of the poor Birds . But her Mother told her more wisely , that she might better judge of the man's disposition by his hand than by his eye ; and if the hands do strike treacherously , he can never be admitted to friendship , who speaks fairly and weeps pitifully . Friendship is the greatest honesty and ingenuity in the World. 4. Never accuse thy friend , nor believe him that does ; if thou dost , thou hast broken the skin ; but he that is angry with every little fault breaks the bones of friendship ; and when we consider that in society and the accidents of every day , in which no man is constantly pleased or displeased with the same things ; we shall find reason to impute the change unto our selves ; and the emanations of the Sun are still glorious , when our eyes are fore : and we have no reason to be angry with an eternal light , because we have a changeable and a mortal faculty . But however , do not think thou didst contract alliance with an Angel , when thou didst take thy friend into thy bosom ; he may be weak as well as thou art , and thou mayest need pardon as well as he , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Theog . that man loves flattery more than friendship , who would not only have his friend , but all the contingencies of his friend to humour him . 5. Give thy friend counsel wisely and charitably , but leave him to his liberty whether he will follow thee or no : and be not angry if thy counsel be rejected : for , advice is no Empire , and he is not my friend that will be my Judge whether I will or no. Neoptolemus had never been honoured with the victory and spoils of Troy if he had attended to the tears and counsel of Lycomedes , who being afraid to venture the young man , fain would have had him sleep at home safe in his little Island . He that gives advice to his friend and exacts obedience to it , does not the kindness and ingenuity of a friend , but the office and pertness of a School-master . 6. Never be a Judge between thy friends in any matter where both set their hearts upon the victory : If strangers or enemies be litigants , what ever side thou favourest , thou gettest a friend , but when friends are the parties thou losest one . 7. Never comport thy self so , as that thy friend can be afraid of thee : for then the state of the relation alters when a new and troublesome passion supervenes . ODERVNT quos METVVNT . Perfect love casteth out fear , and no man is friend to a Tyrant ; but that friendship is Tyranny where the love is changed into fear , equality into empire , society into obedience ; for then all my kindness to him also will be no better than flattery . 8. When you admonish your friend , let it be without bitterness ; when you chide him , let it be without reproach ; when you praise him , let it be with worthy purposes and for just causes , and in friendly measures ; too much of that is flattery , too little is envy ; if you do it justly , you teach him true measures : but when others praise him , rejoyce , though they praise not thee , and remember that if thou esteemest his praise to be thy disparagement , thou art envious , but neither just nor kind . 9. When all things else are equal prefer an old friend before a new . If thou meanest to spend thy friend , and make a gain of him till he be weary , thou wilt esteem him as a beast of burden , the worse for his age ; But if thou esteemest him by noble measures , he will be better to thee by thy being used to him , by trial and experience , by reciprocation of indearments , and an habitual worthiness . An old friend is like old wine , which when a man hath drunk , he doth not desire new , because he saith the old is better . But every old friend was new once ; and if he be worthy keep the new one till he become old . 10. After all this , treat thy friend nobly , love to be with him , do to him all the worthinesses of love and fair endearment , according to thy capacity and his ; Bear with his infirmities till they approach towards being criminal ; but never dissemble with him , never despise him , never leave him . * Give him gifts and upbraid him not , ‖ and refuse not his kindnesses , and be sure never to despise the smalness or the impropriety of them . Confirmatur amor beneficio accepto : A gift ( saith Solomon ) fasteneth friendships ; for as an eye that dwells long upon a star must be refreshed with lesser beauties and strengthened with greens and looking-glasses , lest the sight become amazed with too great a splendor ; so must the love of friends sometimes be refreshed with material and low Caresses ; lest by striving to be too divine it become less humane : It must be allowed its share of both : It is humane in giving pardon and fair construction , and openness and ingenuity , and keeping secrets ; it hath something that is divine , because it is beneficent ; but much because it is eternal . THE END . FIVE LETTERS More , To PERSONS Changed , and Tempted to a Change IN THEIR RELIGION . By the same Author . The I. LETTER . A Copy of the first Letter written to a Gentlewoman newly seduced to the Church of Rome . M. B. I Was desirous of an opportunity in London to have discoursed with you concerning something of nearest concernment to you , but the multitude of my little affairs hindred me , and have brought upon you this trouble to read a long Letter , which yet I hope you will be more willing to do , because it comes from one who hath a great respect to your person , and a very great charity to your soul : I must confess I was on your behalf troubled when I heard you were fallen from the Communion of the Church of England , and entred into a voluntary , unnecessary schism , and departure from the Laws of the King , and the Communion of those with whom you have always lived in charity , going against those Laws in the defence and profession of which your Husband died , going from the Religion in which you were Baptized , in which for so many years , you lived piously and hoped for Heaven , and all this without any sufficient reason , without necessity or just scandal ministred to you ; and to aggravate all this , you did it in a time when the Church of England was persecuted , when she was marked with the Characterisms of her Lord , the marks of the Cross of Jesus , that is , when she suffered for a holy cause and a holy conscience , when the Church of England was more glorious than at any time before ; Even when she could shew more Martyrs and Confessors than any Church this day in Christendom , even then when a King died in the profession of her Religion , and thousands of Priests , learned and pious Men suffered the spoiling of their goods rather than they would forsake one Article of so excellent a Religion ; So that seriously it is not easily to be imagined that any thing should move you , unless it be that which troubled the perverse Jews , and the Heathen Greek , Scandalum crucis , the scandal of the Cross ; You stumbled at that Rock of offence , You left us because we were afflicted , lessened in outward circumstances and wrapped in a cloud ; but give me leave only to remind you of that sad saying of the Scripture , that you may avoid the consequent of it ; They that fall on this stone shall be broken in pieces , but they on whom it shall fall shall be grinded to powder . And if we should consider things but prudently , it is a great argument that the sons of our Church are very conscientious and just in their perswasions , when it is evident , that we have no temporal end to serve , nothing but the great end of our souls , all our hopes of preferment are gone , all secular regards , only we still have truth on our sides , and we are not willing with the loss of truth to change from a persecuted to a prosperous Church , from a Reformed to a Church that will not be reformed ; lest we give scandal to good people that suffer for a holy conscience , and weaken the hands of the afflicted ; of which if you had been more careful , you would have remained much more innocent . But I pray , give me leave to consider for you , because you in your change considered so little for your self , what fault , what false doctrine , what wicked and dangerous proposition , what defect , what amiss did you find in the Doctrine and Liturgy and Discipline of the Church of England ? For its doctrine , It is certain it professes the belief of all that is written in the Old and New Testament , all that which is in the three Creeds , the Apostolical , the Nicene , and that of Athanasius , and whatsoever was decreed in the four General Councils , or in any other truly such , and whatsoever was condemned in these , our Church hath legally declared it to be Heresie . And upon these accounts above four whole ages of the Church went to Heaven ; they baptized all their Catechumens into this faith , their hopes of Heaven was upon this and a good life , their Saints and Martyrs lived and died in this alone , they denied Communion to none that professed this faith . This is the Catholick faith , so saith the Creed of Athanasius ; and unless a company of Men have power to alter the faith of God , whosoever live and die in this faith , are intirely Catholick and Christian. So that the Church of England hath the same faith without dispute that the Church had for 400. or 500. Years , and therefore there could be nothing wanting here to saving faith , if we live according to our belief . 2. For the Liturgy of the Church of England , I shall not need to say much , because the case will be very evident ; First , Because the disputers of the Church of Rome have not been very forward to object any thing against it , they cannot charge it with any evil : 2. Because for all the time of King Edw. 6. and till the eleventh year of Queen Elizabeth , your people came to our Churches and prayed with us , till the Bull of Pius Quintus came out upon temporal regards , and made a Schism by forbidding the Queens Subjects to pray as by Law was here appointed , though the prayers were good and holy , as themselves did believe . That Bull enjoyned Recusancy , and made that which was an act of Rebellion , and Disobedience , and Schism , to be the character of your Roman Catholicks . And after this , what can be supposed wanting in order to salvation ? We have the Word of God , the Faith of the Apostles , the Creeds of the Primitive Church , the Articles of the four first general Councils , a holy Liturgy , excellent Prayers , perfect Sacraments , Faith and Repentance , the Ten Commandments , and the Sermons of Christ , and all the precepts and counsels of the Gospel ; We teach the necessity of good works , and require and strictly exact the severity of a holy life ; We live in obedience to God , and are ready to die for him , and do so when he requires us so to do ; We speak honourably of his most holy Name , we worship him at the mention of his Name , we confess his Attributes , we love his Servants , we pray for all Men , we love all Christians , even our most erring Brethren , we confess our sins to God and to our Brethren whom we have offended , and to God's Ministers in cases of Scandal , or of a troubled Conscience . We communicate often , we are enjoyned to receive the holy Sacrament thrice every Year at least ; Our Priests absolve the penitent , our Bishops ordain Priests , and confirm baptized persons , and bless their people and intercede for them ; and what could here be wanting to Salvation ? what necessity forced you from us ? I dare not suspect it was a temporal regard that drew you away , but I am sure it could be no spiritual . But now that I have told you , and made you to consider from whence yon went , give me leave to represent to you , and tell you whither you are gone , that you may understand the nature and conditions of your change : For do not think your self safe , because they tell you that you are come to the Church ; You are indeed gone from one Church to another , from a better to a worse , as will appear in the induction ; the particulars of which before I reckon , give me leave to give you this advice ; if you mean in this affair to understand what you do ; it were better you enquired what your Religion is , than what your Church is ; for that which is a true Religion to day , will be so to morrow and for ever ; but that which is a holy Church to day , may be heretical at the next change , or may betray her trust , or obtrude new Articles in contradiction to the old , or by new interpretations may elude ancient truths , or may change your Creed , or may pretend to be the Spouse of Christ when she is idolatrous , that is , adulterous to God : Your Religion is that which you must , and therefore may competently understand ; You must live in it ; and grow in it , and govern all the actions of your life by it ; and in all questions concerning the Church , you are to choose your Church by the Religion , and therefore this ought first and last to be enquired after . Whether the Roman Church be the Catholick Church , must depend upon so many uncertain enquiries , is offered to be proved by so long , so tedious a method , hath in it so many intrigues and Labyrinths of Question , and is ( like a long line ) so impossible to be perfectly straight , and to have no declination in it when it is held by such a hand as yours , that unless it be by material enquiries into the Articles of the Religion , you can never hope to have just grounds of confidence . In the mean time you can consider this ; if the Roman Church were the Catholick , that is , so as to exclude all that are not of her communion , then the Greek Churches had as good turn Turks as remain damned Christians , and all that are in the communion of all the other Patriarchal Churches in Christendom , must also perish like Heathens , which thing before any Man can believe , he must have put off all reason , and all modesty , and all charity ; And who can with any probability think that the Communion of Saints in the Creed is nothing but the Communion of Roman Subjets , and the Article of the Catholick Church was made up to dispark the inclosures of Jerusalem , but to turn them into the pale of Rome , and the Church is as limited as ever it was , save only that the Synagogue is translated to Rome , which I think you will easily believe was a Proposition the Apostles understood not . But though it be hard to trust to it , it is also so hard to prove it , that you shall be able to understand the measures of that question and therefore your salvation can never depend upon it . For no good or wise person can believe that God hath tied our Salvation to impossible measures , or bound us to an Article that is not by us cognoscible , or intends to have us conducted by that which we cannot understand ; and when you shall know that Learned men , even of the Roman party are not agreed concerning the Catholick Church that is infallibly to guide you , some saying that it is the virtual Church , that is , the Pope ; some , that it is the representative Church , that is , a Council ; Some , that it is the Pope and the Council , the virtual Church and the representative Church together ; Some that neither of these , nor both together are infallible ; but only , the essential Church , or the diffusive Church is the Catholick , from whom we must at no hand dissent ; you will quickly find your self in a wood , and uncertain whether you have more than a word in exchange for your soul , when you are told you are in the Catholick Church . But I will tell you what you may understand , and see and feel , something that your self can tell whether I say true or no concerning it . You are now gone to a Church that protects it self by arts of subtilty and arms , by violence and persecuting all that are not of their minds , to a Church in which you are to be a Subject of the King so long as it pleases the Pope : In which you may be absolved from your Vows made to God , your Oaths to the King , your Promises to Men , your duty to your Parents in some cases : A Church in which Men pray to God , and to Saints in the same Form of words in which they pray to God , as you may see in the Offices of Saints , and particularly of our Lady : a Church in which Men are taught by most of the principal Leaders to worship Images with the same worship with which they worship God and Christ , or him or her whose Image it is , and in which they usually picture God the Father , and the holy Trinity , to the great dishonour of that sacred mystery , against the doctrine and practice of the Primitive Church , against the express doctrine of Scripture , against the honour of a Divine Attribute ; I mean , the immensity and spirituality of the Divine Nature ; You are gone to a Church that pretends to be Infallible , and yet is infinitely deceived in many particulars , and yet endures no contradiction , and is impatient her children , should enquire into any thing her Priests obtrude . You are gone from receiving the whole Sacrament to receive it but half ; from Christ's Institution to a humane invention , from Scripture to uncertain Traditions , and from ancient Traditions to new pretences , from prayers which ye understood to prayers which ye understand not , from confidence in God to rely upon creatures , from intire dependence upon inward acts to a dangerous temptation of resting too much in outward ministeries , in the external work of Sacraments and of Sacramentals : You are gone from a Church whose worshipping is simple , Christian and Apostolical , to a Church where Mens consciences are loaden with a burden of Ceremonies greater than that in the days of the Jewish Religion ( for the Ceremonial of the Church of Rome is a great Book in Folio ) greater I say than all the Ceremonies of the Jews contained in Leviticus , &c. You are gone from a Church where you were exhorted to read the Word of God , the holy Scriptures from whence you found instruction , institution , comfort , reproof , a treasure of all excellencies , to a Church that seals up that fountain from you , and gives you drink by drops out of such Cisterns as they first make , and then stain , and then reach out : and if it be told you that some Men abuse Scripture , it is true , for if your Priests had not abused Scripture , they could not thus have abused you , but there is no necessity they should , and you need not , unless you list ; any more than you need to abuse the Sacraments or decrees of the Church , or the messages of your friend , or the Letters you receive , or the Laws of the Land , all which are liable to be abused by evil persons , but not by good people and modest understandings . It is now become a part of your Religion to be ignorant , to walk in blindness , to believe the Man that hears your Confessions , to hear none but him , not to hear God speaking but by him , and so you are liable to be abused by him , as he please , without remedy . You are gone from us , where you were only taught to worship God through Jesus Christ , and now you are taught to worship Saints and Angels with a worship at least dangerous , and in some things proper to God ; for your Church worships the Virgin Mary with burning incense and candles to her , and you give her presents , which by the consent of all Nations used to be esteemed a worship peculiar to God , and it is the same thing which was condemned for Heresie in the Collyridians , who offered a Cake to the Virgin Mary ; A Candle and a Cake make no difference in the worship ; and your joyning God and the Saints in your worship and devotions , is like the device of them that fought for King and Parliament , the latter destroys the former . I will trouble you with no more particulars , because if these move you not to consider better , nothing can . But yet I have two things more to add of another nature , one of which at least may prevail upon you , whom I suppose to have a tender and a religious Conscience . The first is , That all the points of difference between us and your Church are such as do evidently serve the ends of Covetousness and ambition , of power and riches , and so stand vehemently suspected of design , and art , rather than truth of the Article and designs upon Heaven . I instance in the Pope's power over Princes and all the World ; his power of dispensation , The exemption of the Clergy from jurisdiction of Princes , The Doctrine of Purgatory and Indulgences which was once made means to raise a portion for a Lady , the Neece of Pope Leo the Tenth ; The Priests power advanced beyond authority of any warrant from Scripture , a doctrine apt to bring absolute obedience to the Papacy ; but because this is possibly too nice for you to suspect or consider , that which I am sure ought to move you is this . That you are gone to a Religion in which though through God's grace prevailing over the follies of men , there are I hope , and charitably suppose many pious Men that love God , and live good lives , yet there are very many doctrines taught by your Men , which are very ill Friends to a good life . I instance in your Indulgences and pardons , in which vitious men put a great confidence , and rely greatly upon them . The doctrine of Purgatory which gives countenance to a sort of Christians who live half to God and half to the World , and for them this doctrine hath found out a way that they may go to Hell and to Heaven too . The Doctrine that the Priests absolution can turn a trifling repentance into a perfect and a good , and that suddenly too , and at any time , even on our Death-bed , or the minute before your death , is a dangerous heap of falshoods , and gives licence to wicked people , and teaches men to reconcile a wicked debauched life , with the hopes of Heaven . And then for penances and temporal satisfaction , which might seem to be as a plank after the shipwrack of the duty of Repentance , to keep men in awe , and to preserve them from sinking in an Ocean of Impiety , it comes to just nothing by your doctrine ; for there are so many easie ways of Indulgences and getting Pardons , so many con-fraternities , stations , priviledg'd Altars , little Offices , Agnus Dei's , amulets , hallowed devices , swords , roses , hats , Church-yards , and the fountain of these annexed indulgences the Pope himself , and his power of granting what , and when , and to whom he list , that he is a very unfortunate man that needs to smart with penances ; and after all , he may choose to suffer any at all , for he may pay them in Purgatory if he please , and he may come out of Purgatory upon reasonable terms , in case he should think it fit to go thither ; So that all the whole duty of Repentance seems to be destroyed with devices of Men that seek power and gain , and find errour and folly ; insomuch that if I had a mind to live an evil Life , and yet hope for Heaven at last , I would be of your religion above any in the World. But I forget I am writing a Letter : I shall therefore desire you to consider upon the premises , which is the safer way . For surely it is lawful for a Man to serve God without Images ; but that to worship Images is lawful , is not so sure . It is lawful to pray to God alone , to confess him to be true , and every Man a liar , to call no man Master upon Earth , but to rely upon God teaching us ; But it is at least hugely disputable and not at all certain that any Man , or society of Men can be infallible , that we may put our trust in Saints , in certain extraordinary Images , or burn Incense and offer consumptive oblations to the Virgin Mary , or make vows to persons , of whose state , or place , or capacities , or condition we have no certain revelation : we are sure we do well when in the holy Communion we worship God and Jesus Christ our Saviour , but they who also worship what seems to be bread , are put to strange shifts to make themselves believe it to be lawful . It is certainly lawful to believe what we see and feel ; but it is an unnatural thing upon pretence of faith to disbelieve our eyes , when our sense and our faith can better be reconciled , as it is in the question of the Real presence , as it is taught by the Church of England . So that unless you mean to prefer a danger before safety , temptation to unholiness before a severe and a holy religion , unless you mean to lose the benefit of your prayers by praying what you perceive not , and the benefit of the Sacrament in great degrees by falling from Christ's institution , and taking half instead of all ; unless you desire to provoke God to jealousie by Images , and Man to jealousie in professing a Religion in which you may in many cases have leave to forfeit your faith and lawful trust , unless you will still continue to give scandal to those good people with whom you have lived in a common Religion , and weaken the hearts of Gods afflicted ones , unless you will choose a Catechism without the second Commandment , and a Faith that grows bigger or less as men please , and a Hope that in many degrees relyes on men and vain confidences , and a Charity that damns all the World but your selves ; unless you will do all this , that is , suffer an abuse in your Prayers , in the Sacrament , in the Commandments , in Faith , in Hope , in Charity , in the Communion of Saints , and your duty to your Supreme , you must return to the bosom of your Mother the Church of England from whence you have fallen , rather weakly than maliciously , and I doubt not but you will find the Comfort of it all your Life , and in the Day of your Death , and in the Day of Judgment . If you will not , yet I have freed mine own soul , and done an act of Duty and Charity , which at least you are bound to take kindly if you will not entertain it obediently . Now let me add this , that although most of these objections are such things which are the open and avowed doctrines or practices of your Church , and need not to be proved as being either notorious or confessed ; yet if any of your Guides shall seem to question any thing of it , I will bind my self to verifie it to a tittle , and in that too which I intend them , that is , so as to be an objection obliging you to return , under the pain of folly or heresie , or disobedience , according to the subject matter . And though I have propounded these things now to your consideration , yet if it be desired I shall represent them to your eye , so that even your self shall be able to give sentence in the behalf of truth . In the mean time give me leave to tell you of how much folly you are guilty in being moved by such mock-arguments as your men use when they meet with women and tender consciences and weaker understanding . The first is ; where was your Church before Luther ? Now if you had called upon them to speak something against your religion from Scripture , or right reason , or Universal Tradition , you had been secure as a Tortoise in her shell ; a Cart pressed with sheaves could not have oppressed your cause or person , though you had confessed you understood nothing of the mysteries of succession doctrinal or personal . For if we can make it appear that our religion was that which Christ and his Apostles taught , let the truth suffer what eclipses or prejudices can be supposed , let it be hid like the holy fire in the captivity , yet what Christ and his Apostles taught us is eternally true , and shall by some means or other be conveyed to us ; even the enemies of truth have been conservators of that truth by which we can confute their errors . But if you still ask where it was before Luther ? I answer it was there where it was after ; even in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament ; and I know no warrant for any other religion ; and if you will expect I should shew any society of Men who professed all the doctrines which are now expressed in the confession of the Church of England ; I shall tell you it is unreasonable ; because some of our truths are now brought into our publick confessions that they might be oppos'd against your errors ; before the occasion of which there was no need of any such confessions , till you made many things necessary to be professed , which are not lawful to be believed . For if we believe your superinduc'd follies , we shall do unreasonably , unconscionably , and wickedly ; but the questions themselves are so useless abstracting from the accidental necessity which your follies have brought upon us , that it had been happy if we had never heard of them more than the Saints and Martyrs did in the first ages of the Church ; but because your Clergy have invaded the liberty of the Church , and multiplied the dangers of damnation , and pretend new necessities , and have introduc'd new articles , and affright the simple upon new pretensions , and slight the very institution and the Commands of Christ and of the Apostles , and invent new Sacramentals constituting Ceremonies of their own head , and promise grace along with the use of them , as if they were not Ministers but Lords of the Spirit , and teach for doctrines the commandments of men , and make void the Commandment of God by their tradition , and have made a strange body of Divinity ; therefore it is necessary that we should immure our Faith by the refusal of such vain and superstitious dreams : but our faith was completed at first , it is no other than that which was delivered to the Saints , and can be no more for ever . So that it is a foolish demand to require that we should shew before Luther a systeme of Articles declaring our sense in these questions : It was long before they were questions at all ; and when they were made questions , they remained so , a long time ; and when by their several pieces they were determined , this part of the Church was oppressed with a violent power ; and when God gave opportunity , then the yoke was broken ; and this is the whole progress of this affair . But if you will still insist upon it , then let the matter be put into equal ballances , and let them shew any Church whose confession of Faith was such as was obtruded upon you at Trent : and if your Religion be Pius Quartus his Creed at Trent , then we also have a question to ask , and that is Where was your Religion before Trent ? The Council of Trent determined that the souls departed before the Day of Judgment enjoy the Beatifical Vison . It is certain this Article could not be shewn in the Confession of any of the ancient Churches ; for most of the Fathers were of another opinion . But that which is the greatest offence of Christendom is not only that these doctrines which we say are false were yet affirmed , but that those things which the Church of God did always reject , or held as uncertain , should be made Articles of Faith , and so become parts of your religion ; and of these it is that I again ask the question which none of your side shall ever be able to answer for you : Where was your Religion before Trent ? I could instance in many particulars ; but I shall name one to you , which because the thing of it self is of no great consequence , it will appear the more unreasonable and intolerable that your Church should adopt it into the things of necessary belief , especially since it was only a matter of fact , and they took the false part too . For in the 21. Sess. Chap. 4. it is affirmed , That although the holy Fathers did give the Sacrament of the Eucharist to Infants , yet they did it without any necessity of salvation ; that is , they did not believe it necessary to their salvation , which is notoriously false , and the contrary is marked out with the black-lead of every man almost that reads their Works ; and yet your Council says this is fine controversiâ credendum ; to be believed without all controversie : and all Christians forbidden to believe or teach otherwise . So that here it is made an Article of Faith amongst you , that a man shall neither believe his reason nor his eyes : and who can shew any confession of Faith in which all the Trent doctrine was professed and enjoyned under pain of damnation ? and before the Council of Constance , the Doctrine touching the Popes power was so new , so decried , that as Gerson says he hardly should have escaped the note of Heresie that would have said so much as was there defined : so that in that Article which now makes a great part of your belief , where was your Religion before the Council of Constance ? and it is notorious that your Council of Constance determined the doctrine of the half-communion with a Non obstante to Christ's institution , that is , with a defiance to it , or a noted , observed neglect of it , and with a profession it was otherwise in the Primitive Church . Where then was your Religion before John Hus and Hierom of Prague's time , against whom that Council was convened ? But by this instance it appears most certainly that your Church cannot shew her confessions immediately after Christ , and therefore if we could not shew ours immediately before Luther , it were not half so much ; for since you receded from Christ's Doctrine we might well recede from yours ; and it matters not who or how many or how long they professed your doctrine , if neither Christ nor his Apostles did teach it : so that if these Articles constitute your Church , your Church was invisible at the first , and if ours was invisible afterwards , it matters not ; For yours was invisible in the days of light , and ours was invisible in the days of darkness . For our Church was always visible in the reflections of Scripture , and he that had his eyes of faith and reason might easily have seen these truths all the way which constitute our Church . But I add yet farther , that our Church before Luther was there where your Church was , in the same place and in the same persons ; for divers of the errors which have been amongst us reformed , were not the constituent Articles of your Church before Luther's time ; for before the last Councils of your Church a man might have been of your Communion upon easier terms ; and Indulgences were indeed a practice , but no Article of Faith before your men made it so , and that very lately , and so were many other things besides . So that although your men cozen the credulous and the simple by calling yours The old Religion , yet the difference is vast between Truth and their affirmative , even as much as between old Errors and new Articles . For although Ignorance and Superstition had prepared the ore , yet the Councils of Constance and Basil , and Trent especially , were the sorges and the mint . Lastly , if your men had not by all the vile and violent arts of the World stopped the mouths of dissenters , the question would quickly have been answered , or our Articles would have been so confessed , so owned and so publick , that the question could never have been asked ; but in despite of all opposition , there were great numbers of professors who did protest and profess and practise our doctrines contrary to your Articles ; as it is demonstrated by the Divines of Germany in Illyricus his Catalogus testium veritatis , and in Bishop Mortons appeal . But with your next objection you are better pleased , and your Men make most noise with it . For you pretend that by our confession salvation may be had in your Church ; but your men deny it to us ; and therefore by the confession of both sides you may be safe , and there is no question concerning you ; but of us there is great question , for none but our selves say that we can be saved . I answer , 1. That salvation may be had in your Church , is it ever the truer because we say it ? If it be not , it can add no confidence to you , for the proposition gets no strength by your affirmative . But if it be , then our authority is good or else our reason ; and if either be , then we have more reason to be believed speaking of our selves ; because we are concerned to see that our selves may be in a state of hope ; and therefore we would not venture on this side if we had not greater reason to believe well of our selves than of you . And therefore believe us when it is more likely that we have greater reason , because we have greater concernments , and therefore greater considerations . 2. As much charity as your Men pretend us to speak of you , yet it is a clear case our hope of your salvation is so little that we dare not venture our selves on your side . The Burger of Oldwater being to pass a River in his Journey to Daventry , had his Man try the Ford ; telling him he hoped he should not be drowned , for though he was afraid the River was too deep , yet he thought his Horse would carry him out , or at least , the Boats would fetch him off . Such a confidence we may have of you , but you will find that but little warranty , if you remember how great an interest it is that you venture . 3. It would be remembred that though the best ground of your hope is not the goodness of your own faith , but the greatness of our charity ; yet we that charitably hope well of you , have a fulness of assurance of the truth and certainty of our own way ; and however you can please your selves with Images of things as having no firm footing for your trifling confidence , yet you can never with your tricks out face us of just and firm adherencies ; and if you were not empty of supports , and greedy of bulrushes , snatching at any thing to support your sinking cause , you would with fear and trembling consider the direct dangers which we demonstrate to you to be in your religion rather than flatter your selves with collateral , weak , and deceitful hopes of accidental possibilities , that some of you may escape . 4. If we be more charitable to you than you are to us , acknowledge in us the beauty and essential form of Christian Religion ; be sure you love as well as make use of our charity ; but if you make our charity an argument against us , remember that you render us evil in exchange for good ; and let it be no brag to you that you have not that charity to us ; for therefore the Donatists were condemned for Hereticks and Schismaticks because they damn'd all the World , and afforded no charity to any that was not of their Communion . 5. But that our charity may be such indeed , that is , that it may do you a real benefit , and not turn into Wormwood and Colloquintida , I pray take notice in what sense it is that we allow salvation may possibly be had in your Church . We warrant it not to any , we only hope it for some , we allow it to them as to the Sadducees in the Law , and to the Corinthians in the Gospel who denied the resurrection ; that is , till they were sufficiently instructed , and competently convinced , and had time and powers to out-wear their prejudices and the impresses of their education and long perswasion . But to them amongst you who can and do consider and yet determine for error and interest , we have a greater charity , even so much as to labour and pray for their conversion , but not so much fondness as to flatter them into boldness and pertinacious adherencies to matters of so great danger . 6. But in all this afrair , though your men are very bold with God and leap into his Judgment-seat before him , and give wild sentences concerning the salvation of your own party and the damnation of all that disagree , yet that which is our charity to you , is indeed the fear of God , and the reverence of his judgments ; we do not say that all Papists are certainly damn'd ; we wish and desire vehemently that none of you may perish ; but then this charity of judgment relates not to you , nor is derived from any probability which we see in your doctrines that differ from ours ; but because we know not what rate and value God puts upon the article ; It concerns neither you nor us to say , this or that man shall be damn'd for his opinion ; for besides that this is a bold intrusion into that secret of God which shall not be opened till the Day of Judgment , and besides that we know not what allays and abatements are to be made by the good meaning and the ignorance of the man ; all that can concern us is to tell you that you are in error , that you depart from Scripture , that you exercise tyranny over souls , that you leave the Divine institution , and prevaricate Gods Commandment , that you divide the Church without truth and without necessity , that you tie Men to believe things under pain of damnation which cannot be made very probable , much less certain ; and therefore that you sin against God and are in danger of his eternal displeasure ; but in giving the final sentence as we have no more to do than your men have , yet so we refuse to follow your evil example ; and we follow the glorious precedent of our Blessed Lord ; who decreed and declared against the crime , but not against the Criminal before the day . He that does this , or that , is in danger of the Council , or in danger of judgment , or liable and obnoxious to the danger of hell fire ; so we say of your greatest errors ; they put you in the danger of perishing ; but that you shall or shall not perish , we leave it to your Judge ; and if you call this charity , it is well , I am sure it is piety and the fear of God. 7. Whether you may be saved , or whether you shall be damned for your errors , does neither depend upon our affirmative nor your negative , but according to the rate and value which God sets upon things . Whatever we talk , things are as they are , not as we dispute , or grant , or hope ; and therefore it were well if your men would leave abusing you and themselves with these little arts of indirect support . For many men that are warranted , yet do eternally perish , and you in your Church damn Millions who I doubt not shall reign with Jesus eternally in the Heavens . 8. I wish you would consider , that if any of our men say salvation may be had in your Church , it is not for the goodness of your new propositions , but only because you do keep so much of that which is our Religion , that upon the confidence of that we hope well concerning you . And we do not hope any thing at all that is good of you or your Religion as it distinguishes from us and ours : we hope that the good which you have common with us may obtain pardon directly or indirectly , or may be an antidote of the venome , and an amulet against the danger of your very great errors , so that if you can derive any confidence from our concession , you must remember where it takes root ; not upon any thing of yours , but wholly upon the excellency of ours ; you are not at all safe , or warranted for being Papists , but we hope well of some of you , for having so much of the Protestant : and if that will do you any good , proceed in it , and follow it whithersoever it leads you . 9. The safety that you dream of which we say to be on your side , is nothing of allowance or warranty , but a hope that is collateral , indirect and relative ; we do not say any thing whereby you can conclude yours to be safer than ours , for it is not safe at all , but extremely dangerous ; we affirm those errors in themselves to be damnable , some to contain in them Impiety , some to have Sacriledge , some Idolatry , some Superstition , some practices to be conjuring and charming and very like to Witchcraft , as in your hallowing of Water , and baptizing Bells , and exorcizing Demoniacks ; and what safety there can be in these , or what you can fancy we should allow to you , I suppose you need not boast of . Now because we hope some are saved amongst you , you must not conclude yours to be safe ; for our hope relies upon this . There are many of your propositions in which we differ from you , that Thousands amongst you understand and know nothing of , it is to them as if they were not , it is to them now as it was before the Council , they hear not of it . And though your Priests have taken a course that the most ignorant do practise some of your abominations most grosly , yet we hope this will not be laid upon them who ( as S. Austin's expression is ) cautâ sollicitudine quaerunt veritatem , corrigi parati cùm invenerint : do according as they are able warily and diligently seek for truth , and are ready to follow it when they find it ; Men who live good lives , and repent of all their evils known and unknown . Now if we are not deceived in our hopes , these Men shall rejoyce in the eternal goodness of God , which prevails over the malice of them that misguide you ; but if we be deceived in our hopes of you , your guides have abus'd you , and the blind leaders of the blind will fall together . For , 10. If you will have the secret of this whole affair , this it is . The hopes we have of any of you , ( as it is known ) principally relies upon the hopes of your repentance . Now we say that a Man may repent of an error which he knows not of ; as he that prays heartily for the pardon of all his sins and errors known and unknown ; by his general repentance may obtain many degrees and instances of mercy . Now thus much also your Men allow to us ; those who live well , and die in a true though but general repentance of their sins and errors even amongst us , your best and wisest Men pronounce to be in a favable condition . Here then we are equal , and we are as safe by your confession as you are by ours . But because there are some Bigots of your faction fierce and fiery who say that a general repentance will not serve our turns , but it must be a particular renunciation of Protestancy ; these men deny not only to us but to themselves too , all that comfort which they derive from our Concession , and indeed which they can hope for from the mercies of God. For be you sure we think as ill of your errors as you can suppose of our Articles ; and therefore if for errors ( be they on which side it chances ) a general repentance will not serve the turn without an actual dereliction , then flatter not your selves by any thing of our kindness to your party ; for you must have a particular if a general be not sufficient . But if it be sufficient for you , it is so for us , in case we be in error as your men suppose us ; but if it will not suffice us for remedy to those errors you charge us with , neither will it suffice you ; for the case must needs be equal as to the value of repentance and malignity of the error : and therefore these men condemn themselves and will not allow us to hope well of them ; but if they will allow us to hope , it must be by affirming the value of a general repentance ; and if they allow that , they must hope as well of ours as we of theirs : but if they deny it to us , they deny it to themselves , and then they can no more brag of any thing of our concession . This only I add to this consideration ; that your men do not , cannot charge upon us any doctrine that is in its matter and effect impious ; there is nothing positive in our doctrine , but is either true or innocent , but we are accus'd for denying your superstructures : ours therefore ( if we be deceived ) is but like a sin of omission ; yours are sins of commission in case you are in the wrong ( as we believe you to be ) and therefore you must needs be in a greater danger than we can be supposed , by how much sins of omission are less than sins of commission . 11. Your very way of arguing from our charity is a very fallacy and a trick that must needs deceive you if you rely upon it . For whereas your men argue thus : The Protestants say we Papists may be saved ; and so say we too : but we Papists say that you Protestants cannot , therefore it is safest to be a Papist ; consider that of this argument if it shall be accepted , any bold heretick can make use , against any modest Christian of a true perswasion . For , if he can but out-face the modesty of the good man , and tell him he shall be damn'd ; unless that modest man say as much of him , you see impudence shall get the better of the day . But it is thus in every error . Fifteen Bishops of Jerusalem in immediate succession were circumcised , believing it to be necessary so to be : with these other Christian Churches who were of the uncircumcision did communicate : Suppose now that these Bishops had not only thought it necessary for themselves but for others too ; this argument you see was ready : you of the uncircumcision who do communicate with us , think that we may be saved though we are circumcised , but we do not think that you who are not circumcised can be saved , therefore it is the safest way to be circumcised : I suppose you would not have thought their argument good , neither would you have had your children circumcised . But this argument may serve the Presbyterians as well as the Papists . We are indeed very kind to them in our sentences concerning their salvation ; and they are many of them as unkind to us ; If they should argue so as you do , and say , you Episcopal men think we Presbyterians though in errors can be saved , and we say so too : but we think you Episcopal men are Enemies of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ ; and therefore we think you in a damnable condition , therefore it is safer to be a Presbyterian : I know not what your men would think of the argument in their hands , I am sure we had reason to complain that we are used very ill on both hands for no other cause but because we are charitable . But it is not our case alone ; but the old Catholicks were used just so by the Donatists in this very argument , as we are used by your men . The Donatists were so fierce against the Catholicks , that they would re-baptize all them who came to their Churches from the other : But the Catholicks , as knowing the Donatists did give right Baptism , admitted their Converts to Repentance , but did not re-baptize them . Upon this score , the Donatists triumphed , saying , You Catholicks confess our Baptism to be good , and so say we : But we Donatists deny your Baptism to be good ; therefore it is safer to be of our side than yours . Now what should the Catholicks say or do ? Should they lie for God and for Religion , and to serve the ends of Truth say the Donatists Baptism was not good ? That they ought not . Should they damn all the Donatists , and make the rent wider ? It was too great already . What then ? They were quiet , and knew that the Donatists sought advantages by their own fierceness , and trampled upon the others charity ; but so they hardned themselves in error , and became evil , because the others were good . I shall trouble you no further now , but desire you to consider of these things with as much caution , as they were written with charity . Till I hear from you , I shall pray to God to open your heart and your understanding , that you may return from whence you are fallen , and repent , and do your first work , Which that you may do , is the hearty desire of Your very affectionate Friend and Servant , JER . TAYLOR . The II. Letter . Written to a Person newly converted to the Church of England . Madam , I Bless God I am safely arrived where I desired to be after my unwilling departure from the place of your abode and danger : And now because I can have no other expression of my tenderness , I account that I have a treble Obligation to signifie it by my care of your biggest and eternal interest . And because it hath pleased God to make me an Instrument of making you to understand in some fair measure the excellencies of a true and holy Religion , and that I have pointed out such follies and errors in the Roman Church , at which your understanding being forward and pregnant , did of it self start as at imperfect ill-looking Propositions , give me leave to do that now which is the purpose of my Charity , that is , teach you to turn this to the advantage of a holy life , that you may not only be changed but converted . For the Church of England whither you are now come is not in condition to boast her self in the reputation of changing the opinion of a single person , though never so excellent ; She hath no temporal ends to serve which must stand upon fame and noises ; all that she can design , is to serve God , to advance the honour of the Lord , and the good of souls , and to rejoyce in the Cross of Christ. First , therefore I desire you to remember that as now you are taught to pray both publickly and privately , in a Language understood , so it is intended your affections should be forward , in proportion to the advantages which your prayer hath in the understanding part . For though you have been often told and have heard , that ignorance is the mother of devotion , you will find that the proposition is unnatural and against common sense and experience ; because it is impossible to desire that of which we know nothing , unless the desire it self be fantastical and illusive : it is necessary that in the same proportion in which we understand any good thing , in the same we shall also desire it , and the more particular and minute your notices are , the more passionate and material also your affections will be towards it ; and if they be good things for which we are taught to pray , the more you know them the more reason you have to love them ; It is monstrous to think that devotion , that is , passionate desires of religious things , and the earnest prosecutions of them should be produced by any thing of ignorance or less perfect notices in any sense . Since therefore you are taught to pray , so that your understanding is the praecentor or the Master of the Quire , and you know what you say ; your desires are made humane , religious , express , material ( for these are the advantages of Prayers and Liturgies well understood ) be pleased also to remember , that now if you be not also passionate and devout for the things you mention , you will want the Spirit of prayer , and be more inexcusable than before . In many of your prayers before ( especially the publique ) you heard a voice but saw and perceived nothing of the sense , and what you understood of it was like the man in the Gospel that was half blind , he saw men walking like Trees , and so you possibly might perceive the meaning of it in general ; You knew where they came to the Epistle , when to the Gospel , when the Introit , when the Pax , when any of the other more general periods were ; but you could have nothing of the Spirit of prayer , that is , nothing of the devotion and the holy affections to the particular excellencies which could or ought there to have been represented , but now you are taught how you may be really devout , it is made facil and easie , and there can want nothing but your consent and observation . 2. Whereas now you are taken off from all humane confidences , from relying wholly and almost ultimately upon the Priests power and external act , from reckoning prayers by numbers , from forms and out-sides , you are not to think that the Priests power is less , that the Sacraments are not effective , that your prayers may not be repeated frequently ; but you are to remember , that all outward things and Ceremonies , all Sacraments and Institutions work their effect in the vertue of Christ , by some moral Instrument ; The Priests in the Church of England can absolve you as much as the Roman Priests could fairly pretend ; but then we teach that you must first be a penitent and a returning person , and our absolution does but manifest the work of God , and comfort and instruct your Conscience , direct and manage it ; You shall be absolved here , but not unless you live an holy life ; So that in this you will find no change but to the advantage of a strict life ; we will not flatter you and cozen your dear soul by pretended ministeries , but we so order our discourses and directions that all our ministrations may be really effective , and when you receive the holy Sacrament of the Eucharist , or the Lords Supper , it does more good here than they do there , because if they consecrate rightly , yet they do not communicate you fully ; and if they offer the whole representative Sacrifice , yet they do not give you the whole Sacrament ; only we enjoyn that you come with so much holiness , that the grace of God in your heart may be the principal , and the Sacrament in our hands may be the ministring and assisting part : we do not promise great effects to easie trifling dispositions , because we would not deceive , but really procure to you great effects ; and therefore you are now to come to our offices with the same expectations as before , of pardon , of grace , of sanctification ; but you must do something more of the work your self , that we may not do less in effect than you have in your expectation ; We will not to advance the reputation of our power deceive you into a less blessing . 3. Be careful that you do not flatter your self , that in our Communion you may have more ease and liberty of life ; for though I know your pious soul desires passionately to please God and to live religiously , yet I ought to be careful to prevent a temptation , lest it at any time should discompose your severity : Therefore as to confession to a Priest ( which how it is usually practised among the Roman party , your self can very well account , and you have complain'd sadly , that it is made an ordinary act , easie and transient , sometime matter of temptation , oftentimes impertinent , but ) suppose it free from such scandal to which some mens folly did betray it , yet the same severity you 'l find among us ; for though we will not tell a lie to help a sinner , and say that is necessary which is only appointed to make men do themselves good , yet we advise and commend it , and do all the work of souls to all those people that will be saved by all means ; to devout persons , that make Religion the business of their lives , and they that do not so in the Churches of the Roman Communion , as they find but little advantage by periodical confessions , so they feel but little awfulness and severity by the injunction ; you must confess to God all your secret actions , you must advise with a holy man in all the affairs of your soul , you will be but an ill friend to your self if you conceal from him the state of your spiritual affairs : We desire not to hear the circumstance of every sin , but when matter of justice is concerned or the nature of the sin is changed , that is , when it ought to be made a Question ; and you will find that though the Church of England gives you much liberty from the bondage of innumerable Ceremonies and humane devices , yet in the matter of holiness you will be tied to very great service , but such a service as is perfect freedom , that is , the service of God and the love of the holy Jesus , and a very strict religious life ; for we do not promise heaven , but upon the same terms it is promised us , that is , Repentance towards God , and Faith in our Lord Jesus : and as in faith we make no more to be necessary than what is made so in holy Scripture , so in the matter of Repentance we give you no easie devices , and suffer no lessening definitions of it , but oblige you to that strictness which is the condition of being saved , and so expressed to be by the infallible Word of God ; but such as in the Church of Rome they do not so much stand upon . Madam , I am weary of my Journey , and although I did purpose to have spoken many things more , yet I desire that my not doing it may be laid upon the account of my weariness , all that I shall add to the main business is this . 4. Read the Scripture diligently , and with an humble spirit , and in it observe what is plain , and believe and live accordingly . Trouble not your self with what is difficult , for in that your duty is not described . 5. Pray frequently and effectually ; I had rather your prayers should be often than long . It was well said of Petrarch , Magno verborum fraeno uti decet cum superiore colloquentem . When you speak to your Superior you ought to have a bridle upon your tongue , much more when you speak to God. I speak of what is decent in respect of our selves and our infinite distances from God : but if love makes you speak , speak on , so shall your prayers be full of charity and devotion , Nullus est amore superior , ille te coget ad veniam , qui me ad multiloquium ; Love makes God to be our friend , and our approches more united and acceptable ; and therefore you may say to God , the same love which made me speak , will also move thee to hear and pardon : Love and devotion may enlarge your Litanies , but nothing else can , unless Authority does interpose . 6. Be curious not to communicate but with the true Sons of the Church of England , lest if you follow them that were amongst us , but are gone out from us , because they were not of us ) you be offended and tempted to impute their follies to the Church of England . 7. Trouble your self with no controversies willingly , but how you may best please God by a strict and severe conversation . 8. If any Protestant live loosely , remember that he dishonours an excellent Religion , and that it may be no more laid upon the charge of our Church , than the ill lives of most Christians may upon the whole Religion . 9. Let no Man or Woman affright you with declamations and scaring words of Heretick , and Damnation , and Changeable ; for these words may be spoken against them that return to light , as well as to those that go to darkness , and that which Men of all sides can say , it can be of effect to no side upon its own strength or pretension . THE END . POST-SCRIPT . Madam , IF You shall think it fit that these Papers pass further than Your own eye and Closet , I desire they may be consign'd into the hands of my worthy friend Dr. Wedderburne : For I do not only expose all my sickness to his cure , but I submit my weaknesses to his censure , being as confident to find of him charity for what is pardonable , as remedy for what is curable : but indeed Madam I look upon that worthy Man as an Idea of friendship , and if I had no other notices of Friendship or conversation to instruct me than his , it were sufficient : For whatsoever I can say of Friendship . I can say of his , and as all that know him reckon him amongst the best Physicians , so I know him worthy to be reckoned amongst the best friends . The III. Letter . Written to a Gentleman that was tempted to the Communion of the Romish Church . SIR , YOU needed not to make the Preface of an excuse for writing so friendly , and so necessary a Letter of Inquiry . It was your kindness to my person which directed your addresses hither ; and your duty which ingag'd you to inquire somewhere . I do not doubt but you , and very many other ingenious and conscientious persons , do every day meet with the Tempters of the Roman Church , who like the Pharisees compass Sea and Land to get a Proselyte ; at this I wonder not ; for as Demetrius said , by this craft they get their living : but I wonder that any ingenious person , and such as I perceive you to be , can be shaken by their weak assaults : for their batteries are made up with impossible propositions , and weak and violent prejudices respectively ; and when they talk of their own infallibility , they prove it with false Mediums ( say we ) with fallible Mediums as themselves confess ; and when they argue us of an Uncertain faith , because we pretend to no infallibility , they are themselves much more Uncertain , because they build their pretence of infallibility upon that which not only can , but will deceive them : and since they can pretend no higher for their infallibility than prudential motives , they break in pieces the staff upon which they lean , and with which they strike us . But Sir , you are pleased to ask two Questions . 1. Whether the Apostles of our Blessed Lord did not Orally deliver many things necessary to Salvation which were not committed to writing ? To which you add this assumentum , ( in which because you desire to be answered , I suppose you meant it for another Question ) viz. whether in those things which the Church of Rome retains , and we take no notice of , She be an Innovator , or a conserver of Tradition ; and whether any thing which she so retains was or was not esteemed necessary ? The answer to the first part , will conclude the second . I therefore answer , that whatsoever the Apostles did deliver as necessary to Salvation , all that was written in the Scriptures : and that to them who believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God , there needs no other Magazine of Divine truths but the Scripture . And this the Fathers of the first and divers succeeding Ages do Unanimously affirm . I will set down two or three , so plain that either you must conclude them to be deceivers , or that you will need no more but their testimony . The words of S. Basil are these , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. Every word and every thing ought to be made credible , or believ'd by the testimony of the Divinely-inspired Scripture : both for the confirmation of good things , and also for the reproof of the evil . S. Cyril of Jerusalem , catech . 12. illuminat . saith , Attend not to my inventions , for you may possibly be deceiv'd : but trust no word unless thou dost learn it from the Divine Scriptures : and in Catech. 4. illum . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. For it behoves us not to deliver so much as the least thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , of the Divine and holy mysteries of Faith without the Divine Scriptures , nor to be moved with probable discourses : Neither give credit to me speaking , unless what is spoken be demonstrated by the Holy Scriptures . For that is the security of our Faith , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which is derived not from witty inventions , but from the demonstration of Divine Scriptures . Omne quod loquimur debemus affirmare de Scripturis Sanctis : so S. Hierom in Psal. 89. And again , Hoc quia de Scripturis authoritatem non habet , eadem facilitate contemnitur quâ probatur , in Matth. 23. Si quid dicitur absque Scripturâ auditorum cogitatio claudicat . So S. Chrysostom in Psal. 95. homil . Theodoret , dial . 1. cap. 6. brings in the Orthodox Christian saying to Eranistes : bring not to me your Logismes and Syllogismes , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . I rely only upon Scriptures . I could reckon very , very many more , both elder and later : and if there be any Universal Tradition consigned to us by the Universal Testimony of Antiquity : it is this , that the Scriptures are a perfect repository of all the Will of God , of all the Faith of Christ : and this I will engage my self to make very apparent to you , and certain against any opposer . Upon the supposition of which it follows , that whatever the Church of Rome obtrudes as necessary to Salvation , and an Article of Faith that is not in Scripture , is an Innovation in matter of Faith , and a Tyranny over Consciences : which whosoever submits to , prevaricates the rule of the Apostle , commanding us , that we stand fast in the liberty , with which Christ hath set us free . To the other Questions ; Whether an Ecclesiastical Tradition be of equal authority with Divine ? I answer Negatively : And I believe I shall have no adversary in it , except peradventure some of the Jesuited Bigots . An Ecclesiastical Tradition , viz. a positive constitution of the Church delivered from hand to hand ; is in the power of the Church to alter : but a Divine is not . Ecclesiastical Traditions in matters of Faith there are none , but what are also Divine ; as for Rituals Ecclesiastical descending by Tradition , they are confessedly alterable : but till they be altered by abrogation , or desuetude , or contrary custome , or a contrary reason , or the like , they do oblige by vertue of that Authority whatsoever it is that hath power over you . I know not what D. P. G. did say , but I am confident they who reported it of him , were mistaken : He could not say or mean what is charged upon him . I have but two things more to speak to . One is , you desire me to recite what else might impede your compliance with the Roman Church ? I answer , Truth and Piety hinder you . For you must profess the belief of many false propositions , and certainly believe many Uncertain things , and be uncharitable to all the World but your own party , and make Christianity a faction , and you must yield your reason a servant to man , and you must plainly prevaricate an institution of Christ , and you must make an apparent departure from the Church in which you received your Baptism and the Spirit of God , if you go over to Rome . But Sir , I refer you to the two Letters I have lately published at the end of my discourse of Friendship ; and I desire you to read my Treatise of the Real presence : and if you can believe the doctrine of Transubstantiation , you can put off your reason and your sense , and your religion , and all the instruments of Credibility when you please : and these are not little things ; In these you may perish : an error in these things is practical ; but our way is safe , as being upon the defence , and intirely resting upon Scripture , and the Apostolical Churches . The other thing I am to speak to is , the report you have heard of my inclinations to go over to Rome . Sir , that party which needs such lying stories for the support of their Cause , proclaim their Cause to be very weak , or themselves to be very evil Advocates . Sir , be confident , they dare not tempt me to do so , and it is not the first time they have endeavoured to serve their ends by saying such things of me . But I bless God for it ; it is perfectly a Slander , and it shall I hope , for ever prove so . Sir , if I may speak with you , I shall say very many things more for your confirmation . Pray to God to guide you ; and make no change suddenly : For if their way be true to day , it will be so to morrow ; and you need not make hast to undo your self . Sir , I wish you a setled mind and a holy Conscience ; and that I could serve you in the capacity of Your very Loving Friend and Servant in our Blessed Lord , JER . TAYLOR . The IV. LETTER . To the same Person . SIR , I Perceive that You are very much troubled ; and I see also that you are in great danger ; but that also troubles me , because I see they are little things and very weak and fallacious that move you . You propound many things in your Letter in the same disorder as they are in your Conscience : to all which I can best give answers when I speak with you ; to which because you desire , I invite you , and promise you a hearty endeavour to give you satisfaction in all your material inquiries . Sir , I desire you to make no hast to change , in case you be so miserable as to have it in your thoughts : for to go over to the Church of Rome is like death , there is no recovery from thence without a Miracle ; because Unwary souls ( such are they who change from us to them ) are with all the arts of wit and violence strangely entangled and ensur'd , when they once get the prey . Sir , I thank you for the Paper you inclosed . The men are at a loss , they would fain say something against that Book , but know not what . Sir , I will endeavour if you come to me , to restore you to peace and quiet ; and if I cannot effect it , yet I will pray for it , and I am sure , God can . To his Mercy I commend you and rest Your very affectionate Friend in our Blessed Lord , JER . TAYLOR . The V. LETTER . To the same Person . SIR , THE first Letter which you mention in this latter of the 10 th , of March , I received not ; I had not else failed to give you an answer ; I was so wholly unknowing of it , that I did not understand your Servant's meaning when he came to require an answer . But to your Question which you now propound , I answer . Quest. Whether without all danger of Superstition or Idolatry we may not render Divine worship to our Blessed Saviour , as present in the Blessed Sacrament or Host , according to his Humane Nature in that Host ? Answ. We may not render Divine worship to him ( as present in the Blessed Sacrament according to his Humane Nature ) without danger of Idolatry : Because he is not there according to his Humane Nature , and therefore , you give Divine worship to a Non Ens , which must needs be Idolatry . For Idolum nihil est in mundo , saith S. Paul , and Christ as presen● : by his Humane Nature in the Sacrament is a Non Ens ; for it is not true , there is no such thing . He is present there by his Divine power , and his Divine Blessing , and the fruits of his Body , the real effective consequents of his Passion : but for any other Presence , it is Idolum , it is nothing in the world . Adore Christ in Heaven ; for the Heavens must contain him till the time of restitution of all things . And if you in the reception of the Holy Sacrament worship him whom you know to be in Heaven ; you cannot be concerned in duty to worship him in the Host ( as you call it ) any more than to worship him in the Host at Nostre Dame when you are at S. Peters in Rome : for you see him no more in one place than another ; and if to believe him to be there in the Host at Nostre Dame be sufficient to cause you to worship him there , then you are to do so to him at Rome , though you be not present : for you believe him there ; you know as much of Him by Faith in both places , and as little by sense in either . But however , this is a thing of infinite danger . God is a jealous God : He spake it in the matter of external worship , and of idolatry ; and therefore do nothing that is like worshipping a meer creature , nothing that is like worshipping that which you are not sure it is God : and if you can believe the Bread when it is blessed by the Priest is God Almighty , you can if you please believe any thing else . To the other parts of your Question , viz. Whether the same body be present really and Substantially , because we believe it to be there ; or whether we do believe it to be there because God hath manifestly revealed it to be so , and therefore we revere and adore it accordingly . I answer , 1. I do not know whether or no you do believe Him to be there really and Substantially . 2. If you do believe it so , I do not know what you mean by really and Substantially . 3. Whatsoever you do mean by it , if you do believe it to be there really and Substantially in any sense , I cannot tell why you believe it to be so : you best know your own reasons and motives of belief ; for my part , I believe it to be there really in the sense I have explicated in my Book ; and for those reasons which I have there alledged ; but that we are to adore it upon that account , I no way understand . If it be Transubstantiated and you are sure of it : then you may pray to it , and put your trust in it ; and believe the Holy Bread to be coeternal with the Father , and with the Holy Ghost . But it is strange that the Bread being consecrated by the power of the Holy Ghost , should be turn'd into the substance and nature of God , and of the Son of God : if so , does not the Son at that time proceed from the Holy Ghost , and not the Holy Ghost from the Son ? But I am ashamed of the horrible proposition . Sir , I pray God keep you from these extremest dangers . I love and value you , and will pray for you and be , Dear Sir , Your very affectionate Friend to serve you , JER . TAYLOR . A DISCOURSE PROVING THAT THE Christian Religion IS FROM GOD. Mr. Royston , 'T Is reported You are making a new Impression of some small Tracts of Doctor Taylor , the late most Reverend Bishop of Down ; It will be very advisable for You to take the Demonstration of Christian Religion , which is inserted in his Cases of Conscience , pag. 124. of the first Edition , and let that follow the rest ; For 't is a Discourse which will be as useful for the generality of People in this Age , as any You can pick out of the whole Body of his Works ; and being heretofore inserted in the middle of a large Book , is not made so common to them , nor so purchaseable , as your pursuing this design will render it ; and hereby you will do a work very acceptable to the Friends of Christian Truth and Vertue , as well as to Yours A. B. A DISCOURSE PROVING THAT THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION IS FROM GOD. THis Discourse of all the disputables in the World , shall require the fewest things to be granted ; even nothing but what was evident , even nothing but the very subject of the Question , viz. That there was such a Man as Jesus Christ , that he pretended such things and taught such Doctrines : for he that will prove these things to be from God , must be allowed that they were from something or other . But this postulate I do not ask for need , but for orders sake and Art ; for what the Histories of that Age reported as a publick affair , as one of the most eminent transactions of the World , that which made so much noise , which caused so many changes , which occasioned so many Wars , which divided so many hearts , which altered so many families , which procured so many deaths , which obtained so many Laws in favour , and suffered so many Rescripts in the disfavour of its self ; that which was not done in a corner , but was 33. Years and more in acting ; which caused so many Sects , and was opposed by so much Art , and so much power that it might not grow , which filled the World with noise , which effected such great changes in the bodies of Men by curing the diseased , and smiting the contumacious or the hypocrites , which drew so many eyes , and fill'd so many tongues , and imployed so many pens , and was the care and the question of the whole World at that time , and immediately after ; that which was consigned by publick acts and records of Courts , which was in the Books of friends and enemies , which came accompanied and remarked with Eclipses and Stars and Prodigies of Heaven and Earth , that which the Jews even in spite and against their wills confessed , and which the witty adversaries intending to overthrow , could never so much as challenge of want of truth in the matter of fact and story ; that which they who are infinitely concerned that it should not be believed , or more , that it had never been , do yet only labour to make to appear not to have been Divine : Certainly , this thing is so certain that it was , that the defenders of it need not account it a kindness to have it presupposed ; for never was any story in the world that had so many degrees of credibility , as the story of the person , life and death of Jesus Christ : And if he had not been a true Prophet , yet that he was in the world , and said and did such things cannot be denied ; for even concerning Mahomet we make no question but he was in the world , and led a great part of Mankind after him , and what was less proved we infinitely believe ; and what all men say , and no man denies , and was notorious in it self , of this we may make further inquiries whether it was all that which it pretended , for that it did make pretences and was in the world , needs no more probation . But now whether Jesus Christ was sent from God and delivered the Will of God , we are to take accounts from all the things of the world which were on him , or about him , or from him . Consider first his person : he was foretold by all the Prophets : He , I say , for that appears by the event , and the correspondencies of their sayings to his person : he was described by infallible characterisms which did fit him , and did never fit any but him ; for when he was born , then was the fulness of time , and the Messias was expected at the time when Jesus did appear , which gave occasion to many of the godly then to wait for him , and to hope to live till the time of his revelation : and they did so , and with a spirit of Prophecy which their own Nation did confess and honour , glorified God at the revelation : and the most excellent and devout persons that were conspicuous for their piety did then rejoyce in him , and confess him ; and the expectation of him at that time was so publick and famous , that it gave occasion to divers Impostors to abuse the credulity of the people in pretending to be the Messias ; but not only the predictions of the time , and the perfect Synchronisms did point him out , but at his birth a strange Star appeared , which guided certain Levantine Princes and Sages to the inquiry after him ; a strange Star which had an irregular place and an irregular motion , that came by design , and acted by counsel , the counsel of the Almighty Guide , it moved from place to place , till it stood just over the House where the Babe did sleep ; a Star of which the Heathen knew much , who knew nothing of him ; a Star which Chalcidius affirmed to have signified the descent of God for the salvation of Man ; a Star that guided the wise Chaldees to worship him with gifts ( as the same disciple of Plato does affirm , and ) as the holy Scriptures deliver ; and this Star could be no secret ; It troubled all the Country ; It put Herod upon strange arts of security for his Kingdom , it effected a sad tragedy accidentally , for it occasioned the death of all the little Babes in the City , and voisinage of Bethlehem : But the birth of this young Child which was thus glorified by a Star , was also signified by an Angel , and was effected by the holy Spirit of God , in a manner which was in it self supernatural ; a Virgin was his Mother , and God was his Father , and his beginning was miraculous ; and this matter of his birth of a Virgin was proved to an interested and jealous person , even to Joseph the supposed father of Jesus , it was affirmed publickly by all his family , and by all his disciples , and published in the midst of all his enemies , who by no artifice could reprove it , a matter so famous , that when it was urged as an argument to prove Jesus to be the Messias , by the force of a Prophecy in Isaiah [ A Virgin shall conceive a Son ] they who obstinately refused to admit him , did not deny the matter of fact , but denied that it was so meant by the Prophet , which if it were true , can only prove that Jesus was more excellent than was foretold by the Prophets , but that there was nothing less in him than was to be in the Messias ; it was a matter so famous that the Arabian Physicians who can affirm no such things of their Mahomet , and yet not being able to deny it to be true of the Holy Jesus , endeavour to elevate and lessen the thing , by saying , It is not wholly beyond the force of nature , that a Virgin should conceive , so that it was on all hands undeniable , that the Mother of Jesus was a Virgin , a Mother without a Man. This is that Jesus at whose presence before he was born , a Babe in his Mothers belly also did leap for joy , who was also a person extraordinary himself , conceived in his Mothers old age , after a long barrenness , signified by an Angel in the Temple , to his Father officiating his Priestly Office , who was also struck dumb for his not present believing : all the People saw it , and all his Kindred were witnesses of his restitution , and he was named by the Angel , and his Office declared to be the fore-runner of the holy Jesus ; and this also was foretold by one of the old Prophets ; for the whole story of this Divine person is a chain of providence and wonder , every link of which is a verification of a Prophecy , and all of it is that thing which from Adam to the Birth of Jesus was pointed at and hinted by all the Prophets , whose words in him passed perfectly into the event . This is that Jesus who as he was born without a Father , so he was learned without a Master , he was a Man without age , a Doctor in a Child's garment , disputing in the Sanctuary at 12. Years old . He was a sojourner in Egypt , because the poor Babe born of an indigent Mother was a formidable rival to a potent King , and this fear could not come from the design of the Infant , but must needs arise from the illustriousness of the Birth , and the Prophecies of the Child , and the sayings of the Learned , and the journey of the Wise-men , nd the decrees of God ; this journey and the return were both managed by the conduct of an Angel and a Divine dream , for to the Son of God all the Angels did rejoyce to minister . This Blessed Person made thus excellent by his Father , and glorious by miraculous consignations , and illustrious by the ministery of Heavenly spirits , and proclaimed to Mary and to Joseph by two Angels , to the Shepherds by a Multitude of the Heavenly Host , to the Wise men by a Prophecy and by a Star , to the Jews by the Shepherds , to the Gentiles by the three Wise men , to Herod by the Doctors of the Law , and to himself perfectly known by the inchasing his humane nature in the bosom and heart of God , and by the fulness of the Spirit of God , was yet pleased for 30. Years together to live an humble , a laborious , a chast and a devout , a regular and an even , a wise and an exemplar , a pious and an obscure life , without complaint , without sin , without design of fame , or grandeur of spirit , till the time came that the clefts of the rock were to open , and the Diamond give its lustre , and be worn in the Diadems of Kings , and then this Person was wholly admirable ; for he was ushered into the World by the voice of a loud Crier in the Wilderness , a Person austere and wise , of a strange life , full of holiness and full of hardness , and a great Preacher of righteousness , a Man believed by all the People that he came from God , one who in his own Nation gathered Disciples publickly , and ( which amongst them was a great matter ) he was the Doctor of a new institution , and baptized all the Country ; yet this man so great , so rever'd , so followed , so listned to by King and People , by Doctors and by ideots , by Pharisees and Sadducees , this man preached Jesus to the People , pointed out the Lamb of God , told that he must increase , and himself from all that fame must retire to give him place ; he received him to Baptism after having with duty and modesty declared his own unworthiness to give , but rather a worthiness to receive Baptism from the holy hands of Jesus ; but at the solemnity God sent down the holy Spirit upon his holy Son , and by a voice from Heaven , a voice of thunder ( and God was in that voice ) declared that this was his Son , and that he was delighted in him . This voice from Heaven was such , so evident , so certain a conviction of what it did intend to prove , so known and accepted as the way of Divine revelation under the second Temple , that at that time every Man that desired a sign honestly , would have been satisfied with such a voice ; it being the testimony by which God made all extraordinaries to be credible to his People from the days of Ezra , to the death of the Nation ; and that there was such a voice , not only then , but divers times after , was as certain , and made as evident as things of that nature can ordinarily be made . For it being a matter of fact , cannot be supposed infinite , but limited to time and place , heard by a certain number of persons , and was as a clap of Thunder upon ordinary accounts , which could be heard but by those who were within the sphere of its own activity ; and reported by those to others , who are to give testimony as testimonies are required , which are credible under the test of two or three disinterested , honest , and true Men , and though this was done in the presence of more , and oftner than once , yet it was a divine testimony but at first , but is to be conveyed by the means of Men ; and as God thundred from Heaven at the giving of the Law , though that he did so , we have notice only from the Books of Moses received from the Jewish Nation ; so he did in the days of the Baptist , and so he did to Peter , James , and John , and so he did in the presence of the Pharisees and many of the common People ; and as it is not to be supposed that all these would joyn their divided interests , for and against themselves for the verification of a lye , so if they would have done it , they could not have done it without reproof of their own parties , who would have been glad by the discovery only to disgrace the whole story ; but if the report of honest and just men so reputed , may be questioned for matter of fact , or may not be accounted sufficient to make faith when there is no pretence of Men to the contrary , besides that we can have no story transmitted to us , nor Records kept , no acts of Courts , no narratives of the days of old , no traditions of our Fathers ; so there could not be left in nature any usual Instrument whereby God could after the manner of Men declare his own will to us , but either we should never know the will of Heaven upon earth , or it must be that God must not only tell it once but always , and not only always to some men , but always to all men ; and then as there would be no use of History , or the honesty of Men , and their faithfulness in telling any act of God in declaration of his will , so there would be perpetual necessity of miracles , and we could not serve God directly with our understanding , for there would be no such thing as faith , that is , of assent without conviction of understanding , and we could not please God with believing , because there would be in it nothing of the will , nothing of love and choice ; and that faith which is , would be like that of Thomas , to believe what we see or hear , and God should not at all govern upon Earth unless he did continually come himself : for thus , all Government , all Teachers , all Apostles , all Messengers would be needless , because they could not shew to the eye what they told to the ears of Men ; And it might as well be disbelieved in all Courts and by all Princes , that this was not the letter of a Prince , or the act of a Man , or the writing of his hand , and so all humane entercourse must cease , and all senses but the eye be useless as to this affair , or else to the ear all voices must be strangers but the principal , if I say , no reports shall make faith : But it is certain , that when these voices were sent from Heaven and heard upon Earth , they prevailed amongst many that heard them not , and Disciples were multiplied upon such accounts , or else it must be that none that did hear them could be believed by any of their friends and neighbours ; for if they were , the voice was as effective at the reflex and rebound as in the direct emission , & could prevail with them that believed their brother or their friend , as certainly as with them that believed their own ears and eyes . I need not speak of the vast numbers of miracles which he wrought ; miracles which were not more demonstrations of his power than of his mercy ; for they had nothing of pompousness and ostentation , but infinitely of charity and mercy , and that permanent and lasting and often : he opened the eyes of the blind , he made the crooked straight , he made the weak strong , he cured fevers with the touch of his hand , and an issue of blood with the hem of his garment , and sore eyes with the spittle of his mouth and the clay of the earth ; he multiplied the loaves and fishes , he raised the dead to life , a young maiden , the widows son of Naim , and Lazarus , and cast out Devils by the word of his mouth , which he could never do but by the power of God. For Satan does not cast out Satan , nor a house fight against it self , if it means to stand long , and the Devil could not help Jesus , because the holy Jesus taught Men virtue , called them from the worshipping Devils , taught them to resist the Devil , to lay aside all those abominable idolatries by which the Devil doth rule in the hearts of men : he taught men to love God , to fly from temptations to sin , to hate and avoid all those things of which the Devil is guilty , for Christianity forbids pride , envy , malice , lying , and yet affirms that the Devil is proud , envious , malicious , and the Father of lies ; and therefore where ever Christianity prevails , the Devil is not worshipped , and therefore he that can think that a man without the power of God could over-turn the Devils principles , cross his designs , weaken his strengths , baffle him in his policies , befool him and turn him out of possession , and make him open his own mouth against himself as he did often , and confess himself conquered by Jesus and tormented , as the Oracle did to Augustus Caesar , and the Devil to Jesus himself , he I say , that thinks a meer man can do this , knows not the weaknesses of a man , nor the power of an Angel ; but he that thinks this could be done by compact , and by consent of the Devil , must think him to be an Intelligence without understanding , a power without force , a fool and a sot to assist a power against himself , and to persecute the power he did assist , to stir up the World to destroy the Christians , whose Master and Lord he did assist to destroy himself ; and when we read that Porphyrius an Heathen , a professed enemy to Christianity , did say , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that since Jesus was worshipped , the gods could help no man , that is , the gods which they worshipped ; the poor baffled enervated Daemons : He must either think that the Devils are as foolish as they are weak , or else that they did nothing towards this declination of their power ; and therefore that they suffer it by a power higher than themselves , that is , by the power of God in the hand of Jesus . But besides that God gave testimony from heaven concerning him ; he also gave this testimony of himself to have come from God , because that he did Gods will ; for he that is a good man and lives by the Laws of God and of his Nation , a life innocent and simple , prudent and wise , holy and spotless , unreproved and unsuspected , he is certainly by all wise men said in a good sense to be the son of God , but he who does well and speaks well , and calls all men to glorifie and serve God , and serves no ends but of holiness and charity , of wisdom of hearts and reformation of manners , this man carries great authority in his sayings , and ought to prevail with good men in good things , for good ends , which is all that is here required . But his nature was so sweet , his manners so humble , his words so wise and composed , his comportment so grave and winning , his answers so seasonable , his questions so deep , his reproof so severe and charitable , his pity so great and merciful , his preachings so full of reason and holiness , of weight and authority , his conversation so useful and beneficent , his poverty great but his alms frequent , his family so holy and religious , his and their imployment so profitable , his meekness so incomparable , his passions without difference , save only where zeal or pity carried him on to worthy and apt expressions , a person that never laughed , but often wept in a sense of the calamities of others ; he loved every man and hated no man , he gave counsel to the doubtful , and instructed the ignorant , he bound up the broken hearts , and strengthened the feeble knees , he relieved the poor , and converted the sinners , he despised none that came to him for relief , and as for those that did not he went to them ; he took all occasions of mercy that were offered him , and went abroad for more ; he spent his days in Preaching and healing , and his nights in Prayers and conversation with God , he was obedient to Laws and subject to Princes , though he was the Prince of Judaea in right of his Mother , and of all the World in right of his Father ; the People followed him , but he made no conventions , and when they were made , he suffered no tumults , when they would have made him a King he withdrew himself , when he knew they would put him to death he offered himself ; he knew mens hearts , and conversed secretly , and gave answer to their thoughts and prevented their questions ; he would work a miracle rather than give offence , and yet suffer every offence rather than see God his Father dishonored , he exactly kept the Law of Moses , to which he came to put a period , and yet chose to signify his purpose onely by doing acts of mercy upon their Sabbath , doing nothing which they should call a breach of a Commandment , but healing sick people , a charity which themselves would do to beasts , and yet they were angry at him for doing it to their brethren : In all his life , and in all his conversation with his Nation , he was innocent as an Angel of light , and when by the greatness of his worth , and the severity of his doctrine , and the charity of his miracles , and the noises of the people , and his immense fame in all that part of the World , and the multitude of his disciples , and the authority of his Sermons , and his free reproof of their hypocrisie , and his discovery of their false doctrines and weak traditions , he had branded the reputation of the vicious Rulers of the People , and they resolved to put him to death , they who had the biggest malice in the World , and the weakest accusations were forced to supply their want of articles against him by making truth to be his fault , and his office to be his crime , and his open confession of what was asked him to be his article of condemnation , and yet after all this they could not perswade the competent Judge to condemn him , or to find him guilty of any fault , and therefore they were forced to threaten him with Caesar's name , against whom then they would pretend him to be an enemy , though in their charge they neither proved , nor indeed laid it against him , and yet to whatsoever they objected he made no return , but his silence and his innocence were remarkable and evident , without labour and reply , and needed no more argument than the Sun needs an advocate to prove that he is the brightest star in the firmament . Well , so it was , they crucified him , and when they did they did as much put out the eye of heaven as destroy the Son of God ; for when with an incomparable sweetness , and a patience exemplar to all ages of sufferers , he endured affronts , examinations , scorns , insolencies of rude ungentle Tradesmen , cruel whippings , injurious , unjust and unreasonable usages from those whom he obliged by all the arts of endearment and offers of the biggest kindness , at last he went to death as to the work which God appointed him that he might become the Worlds sacrifice , and the great example of holiness , and the instance of representing by what way the World was to be made happy [ even by sufferings and so entring into heaven ] that he might ( I say ) become the Saviour of his Enemies , and the Elder Brother to his friends , and the Lord of Glory , and the fountain of its emanation . Then it was that God gave new testimonies from Heaven ; The Sun was eclipsed all the while he was upon the Cross , and yet the Moon was in the full ; that is , he lost his light , not because any thing in nature did invest him , but because the God of nature ( as a Heathen at that very time confessed , who yet saw nothing of this sad iniquity ) did suffer . The rocks did rend , the veil of the Temple divided of it self and opened the inclosures , and disparked the Sanctuary , and made it pervious to the Gentiles eye ; the dead arose , and appeared in Jerusalem to their friends , the Centurion and divers of the People smote their hearts , and were by these strange indications convinced that he was the Son of God. His garments were parted , and lots cast upon his inward coat , they gave him vinegar and gall to drink , they brake not a bone of him , but they pierced his side with a Spear , looking upon him whom they had pierced ; according to the Prophecies of him , which were so clear and descended to minutes and circumstances of his passion , that there was nothing left by which they could doubt whether this were he or no who was to come into the World : But after all this , that all might be finally verified and no scruple left , after three days burial , a great stone being rolled to the face of the grave and the stone sealed , and a Guard of Souldiers placed about it , he arose from the grave , and for forty days together conversed with his followers and Disciples , and beyond all suspicion was seen of 500. Brethren at once , which is a number too great to give their consent and testimony to a lye , and it being so publickly and confidently affirmed at the very time it was done , and for ever after urged by all Christians , used as the most mighty demonstration , proclaimed , preached , talked of , even upbraided to the gain-sayers , affirmed by eye-witnesses , perswaded to the kindred and friends and the relatives and companions of all those 500. persons who were eye-witnesses , it is infinitely removed from a reasonable suspicion ; and at the end of those days was taken up into Heaven in the sight of many of them , as Elias was in the presence of Elisha . Now he of whom all these things are true , must needs be more than a meer man , and that they were true was affirmed by very many eye-witnesses , Men who were innocent , plain men , men that had no bad ends to serve , men that looked for no preferment by the thing in this life ; Men to whom their Master told they were to expect not Crowns and Scepters , not praise of men or wealthy possessions , not power and ease , but a voluntary casting away care and attendance upon secular affairs that they might attend their Ministery ; poverty and prisons , trouble and vexation , persecution and labour , whippings and banishment , bonds and death , and for a reward they must stay till a good day came , but that was not to be at all in this World ; and when the day of restitution and recompence should come , they should never know till it came , but upon the hope of this and the faith of Jesus , and the Word of God so taught , so consigned , they must rely wholly and for ever . Now let it be considered , how could matters of fact be proved better ? and how could this be any thing , but such as to rely upon matters of fact ? what greater certainty can we have of any thing that was ever done which we saw not , or heard not , but by the report of wise and honest persons ? especially since they were such whose life and breeding was so far from ambition and pompousness , that as they could not naturally and reasonably hope for any great number of Proselytes , so the same that could be hop'd for amongst them , as it must be a matter of their own procuring , and consequently uncertain , so it must needs be very inconsiderable , not fit to outweigh the danger and the loss , nor yet at all valuable by them whose education and pretences were against it ? These we have plentifully . But if these Men are numerous and united , it is more . Then we have more ; For so many did affirm these things which they saw and heard , that Thousands of People were convinced of the truth of them : But then if these men offer their oath , it is yet more , but yet not so much as we have , for they sealed those things with their blood ; they gave their life for a testimony ; and what reward can any man expect , if he gives his life for a lye ? who shall make him recompence , or what can tempt him to do it knowingly ? But after all , it is to be remembred , that as God hates lying , so he hates incredulity ; as we must not believe a lye , so neither stop up our eyes and ears against truth ; and what we do every minute of our lives in matters of little and of great concernment , if we refuse to do in our Religion which yet is to be conducted as other humane affairs are , by humane instruments and arguments of perswasion proper to the nature of the thing , it is an obstinacy that is as contrary to humane reason as it is to Divine faith . These things relate to the person of the holy Jesus , and prove sufficiently that it was extraordinary , that it was divine , that God was with him , that his power wrought in him ; and therefore that it was his will which Jesus taught , and God signed . But then if nothing of all this had been , yet even the doctrine it self proves it self Divine and to come from God. For it is a Doctrine perfective of humane nature , that teaches us to love God and to love one another , to hurt no man , and to do good to every man , it propines to us the noblest , the highest , and the bravest pleasures of the World ; the joys of charity , the rest of innocence , the peace of quiet spirits , the wealth of beneficence , and forbids us only to be beasts and to be Devils , it allows all that God and nature intended , and only restrains the excrescencies of nature , and forbids us to take pleasure in that which is the only entertainment of Devils , in murders and revenges , malice and spiteful words and actions ; it permits corporal pleasures where they can best minister to health and societies , to conversation of families and honour of Communities , it teaches men to keep their words that themselves may be secured in all their just interests , and to do good to others that good may be done to them ; it forbids biting one another that we may not be devour'd by one another ; and commands obedience to superiours , that we may not be ruined in confusions ; it combines Governments , and confirms all good Laws , and makes peace , and opposes and prevents Wars where they are not just , and where they are not necessary . It is a Religion that is life and spirit , not consisting in ceremonies and external amusements , but in the services of the heart , and the real fruit of lips and hands , that is , of good words and good deeds , it bids us to do that to God which is agreeable to his excellencies , that is , worship him with the best thing we have , and make all things else minister to it ; it bids us to do that to our neighbour , by which he may be better : it is the perfection of the natural Law , and agreeable to our natural necessities , and promotes our natural ends and designs : it does not destroy reason , but instructs it in very many things , and complies with it in all , it hath in it both heat and light ; and is not more effectual than it is beauteous ; it promises every thing that we can desire , and yet promises nothing but what it does effect ; it proclaims war against all vices , and generally does command every vertue ; it teaches us with ease to mortifie those affections which reason durst scarce reprove , because she hath not strength enough to conquer , and it does create in us those vertues which reason of her self never knew , and after they are known , could never approve sufficiently : it is a doctrine in which nothing is superfluous or burdensome , nor yet is there any thing wanting which can procure happiness to Mankind , or by which God can be glorified : and if wisdom , and mercy , and justice , and simplicity , and holiness , and purity , and meekness , and contentedness , and charity , be images of God and rays of Divinity , then that Doctrine in which all these shine so gloriously , and in which nothing else is ingredient must needs be from God ; and that all this is true in the Doctrine of Jesus needs no other probation but the reading the words . For that the words of Jesus are contained in the Gospels , that is , in the writings of them , who were eye-witnesses and ear-witnesses of the actions and Sermons of Jesus , is not at all to be doubted ; for in every sect we believe their own records of Doctrine and institution ; for it is madness to suppose the Christians to pretend to be servants of the Laws of Jesus , and yet to make a Law of their own which he made not : no man doubts but that the Alcoran is the Law of Mahomet , that the old Testament contains the Religion of the Jews ; and the authority of these Books is proved by all the arguments of the Religion , for all the arguments perswading to the Religion are intended to prove no other than is contained in those Books ; and these having been for 1500. years and more , received absolutely by all Christian Assemblies , if any man shall offer to make a question of their authority , he must declare his reasons , for the Disciples of the Religion have sufficient presumption , security and possession , till they can be reasonably disturb'd ; but that now they can never be is infinitely certain , because we have a long , immemorial , universal tradition that these Books were written in those times , by those men whose Names they bear , they were accepted by all Churches at the very first notice , except some few of the later , which were first received by some Churches , and then consented to by all , they were acknowledged by the same , and by the next age for genuine , their authority published , their words cited , appeals made to them in all questions of Religion , because it was known and confessed that they wrote nothing but that they knew , so that they were not deceived ; and to say they would lie must be made to appear by something extrinsecal to this inquiry , and was never so much as plausibly pretended by any Adversaries , and it being a matter of another mans will , must be declared by actions , or not at all . But besides the men that wrote them were to be believed because they did Miracles , they wrote Prophecies , which are verified by the event , persons were cured at their Sepulchres , a thing so famous that it was confessed even by the enemies of the Religion : and after all , that which the World ought to rely upon , is the wisdom and the providence and the goodness of God ; all which it concerned to take care that the Religion , which himself so adorned and proved by miracles and mighty signs , should not be lost , nor any false writings be obtruded in stead of true , left without our fault the will of God become impossible to be obeyed . But to return to the thing : All those excellent things which singly did make famous so many sects of Philosophers , and remarked so many Princes of their sects , all them united , and many more which their eyes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dark and dim could not see , are heaped together in this system of wisdom and holiness . Here are plain precepts full of deepest mystery ; here are the measures of holiness and approaches to God describ'd ; obedience and conformity , mortification of the body , and elevations of the spirit , abstractions from earth , and Arts of society and union with heaven , degrees of excellencies , and tendences to perfection , imitations of God , and conversations with him ; these are the heights and descents , upon the plain grounds of natural reason , and natural religion , for there is nothing commanded but what our reason by nature ought to choose , and yet nothing of natural reason taught but what is heightned and made more perfect by the Spirit of God ; and when there is any thing in the Religion , that is against flesh and blood , it is only when flesh and blood is against us , and against reason , when flesh and blood either would hinder us from great felicity , or bring us into great misery : To conclude , it is such a Law , that nothing can hinder men to receive and entertain , but a pertinacious baseness and love to vice , and none can receive it but those who resolve to be good and excellent ; and if the holy Jesus had come into the World with less splendor of power and mighty demonstrations , yet even the excellency of what he taught , makes him alone fit to be the Master of the World. But then let us consider what this excellent person did effect , and with what instruments he brought to great things to pass . He was to put a period to the Rites of Moses , and the Religion of the Temple , of which the Jews were zealous even unto pertinacy ; to reform the manners of all Mankind , to confound the wisdom of the Greeks , to break in pieces the power of the Devil to destroy the worship of all false Gods , to pull down their Oracles , and change their Laws , and by principles wise and holy to reform the false discourses of the World. But see what was to be taught , A Trinity in the Unity of the God-head , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is the Christian Arithmetick , Three are one and one are three , so Lucian in his Philopatris , or some other derides the Christian Doctrine ; See their Philosophy , Ex nihilo nihil fit . No : Ex nihilo omnia , all things are made of nothing ; and a Man God and a God Man , same person finite and infinite , born in time , and yet from all eternity , the Son of God , but yet born of a Woman , and she a Maid , but yet a Mother ; resurrection of the dead , re-union of soul and body ; this was part of the Christian Physicks or their natural Philosophy . But then certainly their moral was easie and delicious . It is so indeed , but not to flesh and blood , whose appetites it pretends to regulate or to destroy , to restrain or else to mortifie : fasting and penance , and humility , loving our enemies , restitution of injuries , and self-denial , and taking up the Cross , and losing all our goods , and giving our life for Jesus : As the other was hard to believe , so this is as hard to do . But for whom and under whose conduct was all this to be believed , and all this to be done , and all this to be suffered ? surely for some glorious and mighty Prince , whose splendor as far out-shines the Roman Empire as the jewels of Cleopatra out-shined the swadling clothes of the Babe at Bethlehem . No it was not so neither . For all this was for Jesus whom his followers preached ; a poor Babe born in a stable , the son of a Carpenter , cradled in a cratch , swadled in poor clouts ; it was for him whom they indeed call'd a God , but yet whom all the World knew , and they themselves said , was whip'd at a Post , nailed to a Cross ; he fell under the malice of the Jews his Countrymen , and the power of his Roman Lords , a cheap and a pitiful sacrifice without beauty and without splendor . The design is great , but does not yet seem possible ; But therefore let us see what instruments the Holy Jesus chose to effect these so mighty changes , to perswade so many propositions , to endear so great sufferings , to overcome so great enemies , to master so many impossibilities which this Doctrine and this Law from this Master were sure to meet withal . Here , here it is that the Divinity of the power is proclaimed . When a Man goes to war he raises as great an Army as he can to out-number his Enemy , but when God fights , three hundred men that lap like a dogg are sufficient ; nay one word can dissolve the greatest army . He that means to effect any thing must have means of his own proportionable , and if they be not , he must fail , or derive them from the mighty . See then with what instruments the holy Jesus sets upon this great reformation of the world . Twelve men of obscure and poor birth , of contemptible Trades and quality , without learning , without breeding ; these men were sent into the midst of a knowing and wise World to dispute with the most famous Philosophers of Greece , to out-wit all the learning of Athens , to out-preach all the Roman Orators ; to introduce into a newly setled Empire , which would be impatient of novelties and change , such a change as must destroy all their Temples , or remove thence all their gods : against which change all the zeal of the World , and all the passions , and all the seeming pretences which they could make , must needs be violently opposed : a change that introduced new Laws , and caused them to reverse the old , to change that Religion under which their Fathers long did prosper , and under which the Roman Empire obtained so great a grandeur , for a Religion which in appearance was silly and humble , meek and peaceable , not apt indeed to do harm , but exposing men to all the harm in the world , abateing their courage , blunting their swords , teaching peace and unactiveness , and making the Souldiers arms in a manner useless , and untying their military girdle ; a Religion which contradicted their reasons of State , and erected new Judicatories , and made the Roman Courts to be silent and without causes ; a Religion that gave countenance to the poor and pitiful ( but in a time when riches were adored , and ambition esteemed the greatest nobleness , and pleasure thought to be the chiefest good ) it brought no peculiar blessing to the rich or mighty , unless they would become poor and humble in some real sense or other ; a Religion that would change the face of things , and would also pierce into the secrets of the soul , and unravel all the intrigues of hearts , and reform all evil manners , and break vile habits into gentleness and counsel : that such a Religion in such a time , preached by such mean persons , should triumph over the Philosophy of the World , and the arguments of the subtle , and the Sermons of the eloquent , and the power of Princes , and the interest of States , and the inclinations of nature , and the blindness of zeal , and the force of custom , and the pleasures of sin , and the busie Arts of the Devil , that is , against wit , and power , and money , and Religion , and wilfulness , and fame , and Empire , which are all the things in the World that can make a thing impossible ; this I say could not be by the proper force of such instruments ; for no Man can span Heaven with an Infants palm , nor govern wise Empires with Diagrams . It were impudence to send a footman to command Caesar to lay down his arms , to disband his legions , and throw himself into Tyber , or keep a Tavern next to Pompeys Theatre ; but if a sober man shall stand alone unarm'd , undefended , or unprovided , and shall tell that he will make the Sun stand still , or remove a Mountain , or reduce Xerxes his Army to the scantling of a single Troop , he that believes he will and can do this , must believe he does it by a higher power than he can yet perceive , and so it was in the present transaction . For that the holy Jesus made invisible powers to do him visible honors , that his Apostles hunted the Daemons from their Tripods , their Navels , their Dens , their hollow Pipes , their Temples , and their Altars , that he made the Oracles silent , as Lucian , Porphyrie , Celsus , and other Heathens confess ; that against the order of new things , which let them be never so profitable or good do yet suffer reproach , and cannot prevail unless they commence in a time of advantage and favour , yet that this should flourish like the Palm by pressure , grow glorious by opposition , thrive by persecution , and was demonstrated by objections , argues a higher cause than the immediate instrument ; now how this higher cause did intervene is visible and notorious : The Apostles were not learned , but the holy Jesus promised that he would send down wisdom from above , from the Father of spirits ; they had no power , but they should be invested with power from on high ; they were ignorant and timorous , but he would make them learned and confident , and so he did : he promised that in a few days he would send the holy Ghost upon them , and he did so , after ten days they felt and saw a glorious immission from heaven , lights of movable fire sitting upon their heads , and that light did illuminate their hearts , and the mighty rushing wind inspired them with a power of speaking divers languages , and brought to their remembrances all that Jesus did and taught , and made them wise to conduct souls , and bold to venture , and prudent to advise , and powerful to do miracles , and witty to convince gain-sayers , and hugely instructed in the Scriptures , and gave them the spirit of Government , and the spirit of Prophecy . This thing was so publick that at the first notice of it three thousand souls were converted on that very day , at the very time when it was done ; for it was certainly a visible demonstration of an invisible power , that ignorant persons who were never taught , should in an instant speak all the Languages of the Roman Empire ; and indeed this thing was so necessary to be so , and so certain that it was so , so publick and so evident , and so reasonable , and so useful , that it is not easie to say whether it was the indication of a greater power , or a greater wisdom ; and now the means was proportionable enough to the biggest end ; without learning they could not confute the learned World ; but therefore God became their Teacher : without power they could not break the Devils violence , but therefore God gave them power ; without courage they could not contest against all the violence of the Jews and Gentiles ; but therefore God was their strength and gave them fortitude ; without great caution and providence they could not avoid the traps of crafty Persecutors , but therefore God gave them caution , and made them provident , and as Besaleel 〈◊〉 A●oli●h received the spirit of God , the spirit of understanding to enable them to work excellently in the Tabernacle , so had the Apostles to make them wise for the work of God and the Ministeries of his Diviner Tabernacle , which God pitched , not man. Immediately upon this , the Apostles to make a fulness of demonstration and an undeniable conviction gave the spirit to others also , to Jews and Gentiles and to the Men of Samaria , and they spake with Tongues and prophesied , then they preached to all Nations , and endured all persecutions , and cured all diseases , and raised the dead to life , and were brought before Tribunals , and confessed the Name of Jesus , and convinced the blasphemous Jews out of their own Prophets , and not only prevailed upon Women and weak Men , but even upon the bravest and wisest . All the disciples of John the Baptist , the Nazarens and Ebionites , Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea , Sergius the President , Dionysius an Athenian Judge , and Polycarpus , Justinus and Irenaeus , Athenagoras and Origen , Tertullian and Clemens of Alexandria , who could not be such fools as upon a matter not certainly true but probably false , to unravel their former principles , and to change their liberty for a Prison , wealth for poverty , honor for disreputation , life for death , if by such exchange they had not been secured of truth and holiness and the will of God. But above all these was Saul , a bold and a witty , a zealous and learned young man , who going with Letters to persecute the Christians of Damascus , was by a light from Heaven called from his furious march , reproved by God's Angel for persecuting the cause of Jesus , was sent to the City , baptized by a Christian Minister , instructed and sent abroad , and he became the prodigy of the World for learning and zeal , for preaching and writing , for labor and sufferance , for government and wisdom ; he was admitted to see the holy Jesus after the Lord was taken into Heaven , he was taken up into Paradise , he conversed with Angels , he saw unspeakable rayes of glory , and besides that himself said it , who had no reason to lie , who would get nothing by it here but a conjugation of troubles , and who should get nothing by it hereafter if it were false ; besides this I say , that he did all those acts of zeal and obedience for the promotion of the Religion does demonstrate he had reason extraordinary for so sudden a change , so strange a labour , so frequent and incomparable sufferings : and therefore as he did and suffered so much upon such glorious motives , so he spared not to publish it to all the world , he spake it to Kings and Princes , he told it to the envious Jews ; he had partners of his journey who were witnesses of the miraculous accident , and in his publication he urged the notoriousness of the fact , as a thing not feigned , not private , but done at noon day under the Test of competent persons , and it was a thing that proved it self , for it was effective of a present , a great , and a permanent change . But now it is no new wonder but a pursuance of the same conjugation of great and Divine things , that the Fame and Religion of Jesus was with so incredible a swiftness scattered over the face of the habitable World , from one end of the earth unto the other ; it filled all Asia immediately , it passed presently to Europe , and to the furthest Africans , and all the way it went it told nothing but an holy and an humble story , that he who came to bring it into the world , died an ignominious death , and yet this death did not take away their courage , but added much : for they could not fear death for that Master , whom they knew to have for their sakes suffered death , and came to life again . But now infinite numbers of persons of all sexes , and all ages , and all Countries came in to the Holy Crucifix , and he that was crucified in the reign of Tiberius , was in the time of Nero , even in Rome it self , and in Nero's family by many persons esteem'd for a God ; and it was upon publick record that he was so acknowledged ; and this was by a Christian , Justin Martyr , urged to the Senate , and to the Emperors themselves , who if it had been otherwise could easily have confuted the bold allegation of the Christian , who yet did die for that Jesus who was so speedily reputed for a God ; the Cross was worn upon breasts , printed in the air , drawn upon fore-heads , carried on banners , put upon crowns Imperial ; and yet the Christians were sought for to punishments , and exquisite punishments sought forth for them ; their goods were confiscate , their names odious , prisons were their houses , and so many kinds of tortures invented for them that Domitius Vlpianus hath spent seven Books in describing the variety of tortures the poor Christian was put to at his first appearing , and yet in despite of all this , and ten thousand other objections and impossibilities , whatsoever was for them made the Religion grow , and whatsoever was against them made it grow ; if they had peace , the Religion was prosperous , if they had persecution , it was still prosperous : if Princes favored them , the World came in because the Christians lived holily ; if Princes were incensed , the World came in because the Christians died bravely . They sought for death with greediness , they desired to be grinded in the teeth of Lions , and with joy they beheld the wheels and the bended trees , the racks and the gibbets , the fires and the burning irons , which were like the chair of Elias to them , instruments to carry them to heaven , into the bosom of their beloved Jesus . Who would not acknowledge the Divinity of this person , and the excellency of this institution , that should see Infants to weary the hands of Hangmen for the testimony of Jesus ? and wise Men preach this doctrine for no other visible reward , but shame and death , poverty and banishment ? and Hangmen converted by the blood of Martyrs springing upon their faces which their impious hands & cords have strain'd through their flesh ? who would not have confessed the honour of Jesus , when he should see miracles done at the Tombs of Martyrs , and Devils tremble at the mention of the name of Jesus , and the World running to the honour of the poor Nazaren , and Kings and Queens killing the feet of the poor servants of Jesus ? Could a few Fishermen and a Publican effect all this for the son of a poor Maiden of Judaea ? can we suppose all the World , or so great a part of Mankind can consent by chance , or suffer such changes for nothing ? or for any thing less than this ? The son of the poor Maiden was the Son of God , and the Fishermen spake by a Divine spirit , and they catched the World with holiness and miracles , with wisdom and power bigger than the strength of all the Roman Legions . And what can be added to all this , but this thing alone to prove the Divinity of Jesus ? He is a God , or at least is taught by God who can foretell future contingencies ; and so did the holy Jesus , and so did his Disciples . Our blessed Lord while he was alive foretold that after his death his Religion should flourish more than when he was alive : He foretold Persecutions to his Disciples ; he foretold the mission of the holy Ghost to be in a very few days after his Ascension , which within ten days came to pass ; he prophesied that the fact of Mary Magdalen in anointing the head and feet of her Lord , should be publick and known as the Gospel it self , and spoken of in the same place ; he foretold the destruction of Jerusalem and the signs of its approach , and that it should be by War , and particularly after the manner of Prophets symbolically , nam'd the Nation should do it ; pointing out the Roman Eagles , he foretold his death , and the manner of it , and plainly before-hand published his Resurrection , and told them it should be the sign to that generation , viz. the great argument to prove him to be the Christ , he prophesied that there should arise false Christs after him , and it came to pass to the extreme great calamity of the Nation ; and lastly , he foretold that his beloved Disciple S. John should tarry upon the earth till his coming again , that is , to his coming to Judgment upon Jerusalem ; and that his Religion should be preached to the Gentiles , that it should be scattered over all the World , and be received by all Nations , that it should stay upon the face of the Earth till his last coming to judge all the world , and that the gates of hell should not be able to prevail against his Church ; which Prophecie is made good thus long , till this day , and is as a continual argument to justifie the Divinity of the Author : The continuance of the Religion helps to continue it , for it proves that it came from God , who foretold that it should continue ; and therefore it must continue because it came from God , and therefore it came from God because it does and shall for ever continue according to the word of the holy Jesus . But after our blessed Lord was entred into glory , the disciples also were Prophets ; Agabus foretold the dearth that was to be in the Roman Empire in the days of Claudius Caesar , and that S. Paul should be bound at Jerusalem ; S. Paul foretold the entring in of Hereticks into Asia after his departure ; and he and S. Peter and S. Jude and generally the rest of the Apostles had two great predictions , which they used not only as a verification of the doctrine of Jesus , but as a means to strengthen the hearts of the Disciples who were so broken with persecution : The one was , that there should arise a Sect of vile men who should be enemies to Religion and Government , and cause a great Apostasie , which happened notoriously in the Sect of the Gnosticks , which those three Apostles and S. John notoriously and plainly do describe : And the other was , that although the Jewish Nation did mightily oppose the Religion , it should be but for a while , for they should be destroyed in a short time , and their Nation made extremely miserable ; but for the Christians , if they would fly from Jerusalem and go to Pella , there should not a hair of their head perish : the verification of this Prophecy the Christians extremely long'd for and wondred it staid so long , and began to be troubled at the delay , and suspected all was not well , when the great proof of their Religion was not verified ; and while they were in thoughts of heart concerning it , the sad Catalysis did come , and swept away 1100000. of the Nation , and from that day forward the Nation was broken in pieces with intolerable calamities , they are scattered over the face of the earth , and are a vagabond Nation , but yet like oyl in a vessel of wine , broken into bubbles but kept in their own circles , and they shall never be an united people till they are servants of the holy Jesus ; but shall remain without Priest or Temple , without Altar or Sacrifice , without City or Country , without the Land of Promise , or the promise of a blessing , till our Jesus is their high Priest , and the Shepherd to gather them into his fold : And this very thing is a mighty demonstration against the Jews by their own Prophets , for when Isaiah and Jeremiah , and Malachi had Prophesied the rejection of the Jews and the calling of the Gentiles , and the change of the old Law , and the introduction of a new by the Messias , that this was he , was therefore certain , because he taught the World a new Law , and presently after the publication of this , the old was abrogate , and not only went into desuetude , but into a total abolition among all the World , and for those of the remnant of the scattered Jews who obstinately blaspheme , the Law is become impossible to them , and they placed in such circumstances that they need not dispute concerning its obligation : for it being external and corporal , ritual and at last made also local , when the circumstances are impossible , the Law that was wholly ceremonial and circumstantial must needs pass away , and when they have lost their Priesthood , they cannot retain the Law , as no man takes care to have his beard shaved when his head is off . And it is a wonder to consider how the anger of God is gone out upon that miserable people , and that so great a blindness is fallen upon them , it being evident and notorious , that the old Testament was nothing but a shadow and umbrage of the new , that the Prophecies of that are plainly verified in this ; that all the predictions of the Messias are most undeniably accomplished in the person of Jesus Christ , so that they cannot with any plausibleness or colour be turned any other way , and be applied to any other person , although the Jews make illiterate allegations , and prodigious dreams , by which they have fool'd themselves for 1600. years together , and still hope without reason , and are confident without revelation , and pursue a shadow while they quit the glorious body ; while in the mean time the Christian prays for his conversion , and is at rest in the truth of Jesus , and hath certain unexpressible confidencies and internal lights , clarities of the holy Spirit of God , and loves to the holy Jesus produc'd in his soul , that he will die when he cannot dispute , and is satisfied and he knows not how , and is sure by comforts , and comforted by the excellency of his belief , which speaks nothing but holiness , and light and reason , and peace and satisfactions infinite , because he is sure that all the World can be happy if they would live by the Religion of Jesus , and that neither societies of Men nor single persons can have felicity but by this , and that therefore God who so decrees to make Men happy , hath also decreed that it shall for ever be upon the face of the earth , till the earth it self shall be no more . Amen . Now if against this vast heap of things any Man shall but confront the pretences of any other Religion , and see how they fail both of reason and holiness , of wonder and Divinity , how they enter by force , and are kept up by humane interests , how ignorant and unholy , how unlearned and pitiful are their pretences , the darknesses of these must add great eminency to the brightness of that . For the Jews Religion which came from Heaven is therefore not now to be practised , because it did come from Heaven , and was to expire into the Christian , it being nothing but the image of this perfection ; and the Jews needed no other argument but this , that God hath made theirs impossible now to be done , for he that ties to Ceremonies and outward usages , Temples and Altars , Sacrifices and Priests , troublesome and expensive rites and figures of future signification , means that there should be an abode and fixt dwelling , for these are not to be done by an ambulatory people ; and therefore since God hath scattered the People into atomes and crumbs of society , without Temple or Priest , without Sacrifice or Altar , without Vrim or Thummim , without Prophet or Vision , even communicating with them no way but by ordinary providence , it is but too evident , that God hath nothing to do with them in the matter of that Religion , but that it is expired , and no way obligatory to them or pleasing to him which is become impossible to be acted ; whereas the Christian Religion is as eternal as the soul of a Man , and can no more cease than our spirits can die , and can worship upon Mountains and Caves , in Fields and Churches , in peace and war , in solitude and society , in persecution and in Sun-shine , by night and by day , and be solemnized by Clergy and Laity in the essential parts of it , and is the perfection of the soul , and the highest reason of Man , and the glorification of God. But for the Heathen religions ir is evidently to be seen , that they are nothing but an abuse of the natural inclination which all Men have to worship a God , whom because they know not , they guess at in the dark ; for that they know there is and ought to be something that hath the care and providence of their affairs . But the body of their Religion is nothing but little arts of Governments , and stratagems of Princes , and devices to secure the Government of new Usurpers , or to make obedience to the Laws sure , by being sacred , and to make the yoke that was not natural , pleasant by something that is . But yet for the whole body of it who sees not that their worshippings could not be sacred , because they were done by something that is impure , they appeased their gods with adulteries and impure mixtures , by such things which Cato was ashamed to see , by gluttonous eatings of flesh , and impious drinkings , and they did litarein humano sanguine , they sacrificed Men and Women and Children to their Damons , as is notorious in the rites of Bacchus Omesta amongst the Greeks , and of Jupiter , to whom a Greek and a Greekess , a Galatian and a Galatess were yearly offered , in the answers of the Oracles to Caichas , as appears in Homer and Virgil ; who sees not that crimes were warranted by the example of their immortal gods , and that what did dishonor themselves , they sang to the honor of their gods , whom they affirmed to be passionate and proud , jealous and revengeful , amorous and lustful , fearful and impatient , drunken and sleepy , weary and wounded , that the Religions were made lasting by policy and force , by ignorance , and the force of custom , by the preferring an inveterate error , and loving of a quiet and prosperous evil , by the arguments of pleasure , and the correspondencies of sensuality , by the fraud of Oracles , and the patronage of vices , and because they feared every change as an Earthquake , as supposing overturnings of their old error to be the eversion of their well established Governments : and it had been ordinarily impossible that ever Christianity should have entered , if the nature and excellency of it had not been such as to enter like rain into a fleece of wool , or the Sun into a window without noise or violence , without emotion and disordering the political constitution , without causing trouble to any man but what his own ignorance or peevishness was pleased to spin out of his own bowels , but did establish Governments , secure obedience , made the Laws firm , and the persons of Princes to be sacred ; it did not oppose force by force , nor strike Princes for Justice ; it defended it self against enemies by patience , and overcame them by kindness , it was the great instrument of God to demonstrate his power in our weaknesses , and to do good to Mankind by the imitation of his excellent goodness . Lastly , he that considers concerning the Religion and person of Mahomet , that he was a vicious person , lustful and tyrannical , that he propounded incredible and ridiculous propositions to his Disciples , that it entred by the sword , by blood and violence , by murder and robbery , that it propounds sensual rewards and allures to compliance by bribing our basest lusts , that it conserves it self by the same means it entred ; that it is unlearned and foolish , against reason , and the discourses of all wise Men , that it did no miracles and made false Prophecies : in short , that in the person that founded it , in the article it perswades , in the manner of prevailing , in the reward it offers it is unholy and foolish and rude ; it , must needs appear to be void of all pretence , and that no Man of reason can ever be fairly perswaded by arguments , that it is the daughter of God and came down from Heaven . Since therefore there is nothing to be said for any other Religion , and so very much for Christianity , every one of whose pretences can be proved as well as the things themselves do require , and as all the World expects such things should be proved ; it follows that the holy Jesus is the Son of God , that his Religion is commanded by God , and is that way by which he will be worshipped and honoured , and that there is no other name under heaven by which we can be saved , but only by the name of the Lord Jesus . He that puts his soul upon this cannot perish ; neither can he be reproved who hath so much reason and argument for his Religion . Sit anima mea cum Christianis ; I pray God my soul may be numbred amongst the Christians . THE END . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A64062-e620 Martial . l. 8. ep . 18. Prov. 27.10 . * Vt praestem Pyladen , aliquis mihi praestet Oresten . Hoc non fit verbis , Marce , ut ameris , ama . Mar. l .6 . ep . 11. * Extra , fortunim est quicquid donatur amicis ; Quas dederis solas semper babchis opes . Mart. l 5. ep . 43. Et tamen hoc vitium , sed non leve , sit licet unum , Quod colit ingratas pauper amicitias . Quis largitur opes veteri fidoque sodali ? ep . 19. ‖ Non bellè quoedam faciunt duo : sufficit unus Huic operi : si vis ut loquàr ipse tace . Crede mibi quamvis ingentia . Posthume dones , Author is pereunt garralitate sui . ep . 53. Notes for div A64062-e5220 De potest . Eccles. cons. 12. Ethic. definit 26. Notes for div A64062-e7750 Euseb. lib. 5. c. 1. praep . Evang. 
A95331	----	A discourse of baptisme, its institution and efficacy upon all believers. Together with a consideration of the practise of the Church in baptizing infants of beleeving parents: and the practise justified by Jer: Taylor D.D. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. This text is an enriched version of the TCP digital transcription A95331 of text R203923 in the English Short Title Catalog (Thomason E682_2). Textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. The text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with MorphAdorner. The annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). Textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. This text has not been fully proofread Approx. 166 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 33 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. EarlyPrint Project Evanston,IL, Notre Dame, IN, St. Louis, MO 2017 A95331 Wing T315 Thomason E682_2 ESTC R203923 99863699 99863699 115910 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A95331) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 115910) Images scanned from microfilm: (Thomason Tracts ; 105:E682[2]) A discourse of baptisme, its institution and efficacy upon all believers. Together with a consideration of the practise of the Church in baptizing infants of beleeving parents: and the practise justified by Jer: Taylor D.D. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. [4], 60 p. Printed by J. Flesher for R. Royston, at the Angel in Ivy-Lane, London, : MDCLII. [1652] Annotation on Thomason copy: "Nou. 27.". Reproduction of the original in the British Library. eng Infant baptism -- Early works to 1800. Baptism -- Church of England -- Early works to 1800. A95331 R203923 (Thomason E682_2). civilwar no A discourse of baptisme,: its institution and efficacy upon all believers. Together with a consideration of the practise of the Church in b Taylor, Jeremy 1652 30140 18 335 0 0 0 0 117 F The rate of 117 defects per 10,000 words puts this text in the F category of texts with 100 or more defects per 10,000 words. 2007-02 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2007-02 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2007-03 Jonathan Blaney Sampled and proofread 2007-03 Jonathan Blaney Text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A DISCOVRSE OF Baptisme , ITS INSTITUTION , and Efficacy upon all Believers . Together with A CONSIDERATION of the Practise of the CHURCH IN BAPTIZING INFANTS of BELEEVING PARENTS : And the Practise justified By JER : TAYLOR D. D. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . Suffer little children to come unto me , and forbid them not , &c. LONDON , Printed by J. Flesher for R. Royston , at the Angel in Ivy-Lane . MDCLII . To the Reader . BE pleased to take notice , That this Discourse was not intended by the Author to have been sent abroad thus by it self , but was fitted by him to the ayr and mode of other Discourses , wherewith he had designed it to be joyned . But some persons of judgement , to whose perusal it was committed , supposing that if this should be kept in till those other could be finished , some disadvantage might arise to the cause which it asserts , wished and advised it might be published by it self . To whose desires the Author ( against his first design ) hath condescended , upon this perswasion , That though it appears thus without some formalities and complements requisite to an intire Treatise , yet , as to the thing it self , there is nothing wanting to it which he believed material to the Question , or useful to the Church . And as for those Arguments which in The Liberty of Prophecying , Sect. 18. are alleaged against Paedobaptism , and in the opinion of some , do seem to stand in need of answering , he had it once in thought to have answered them : but upon these considerations he forbore , 1. Because those Arguments are not good in themselves , or to the Question precisely considered : but onely by relation to the preceding Arguments there brought for Paedobaptism , they may seem good one against another , but these in the Plea for the Anababaptists , have no strength , but what is accidental ( as he conceives . ) 2. Because in this Discourse he hath really laid such grounds , and proved them , that upon their supposition all those Arguments in The Liberty of Prophecying , and all other which he ever heard of , will fall of themselves . 3. Because those Arguments , to his sense , are so weak , and so relying upon failing and deceitful Principles , that he was loath to do them so much reputation , as to account them worthy the answering . 4. But because there may be some necessities which he knows not of , and are better observed by them who live in the midst of them , then by himself , who is thrust into a Retirement in Wales , therefore he accounts himself at rest in this particular , because he hath understood that his very worthy friend Dr. H : Hammond hath in his charity and humility descended to answer that Collection ; and hopes , that both their hands being so fast clasped in a mutual complication , will do some help and assistance to this Question , by which the Ark of the Church is so violently shaken . A DISCOURSE Of BAPTISM . WHen the holy Jesus was to begin his Prophetical Office , and to lay the foundation of his Church on the Corner-stone , he first temper'd the Cement with water and then with blood , and afterwards built it up by the hands of the Spirit : Himself enter'd at that door by which his disciples for ever after were to follow him ; for therefore he went in at the door of Baptism , that he might hallow the entrance which himself made to the House he was now building . As it was in the old , so it is in the new Creation ; out of the waters God produced every living creature : and when at first the Spirit moved upon the waters , and gave life , it was the type of what was designed in the Renovation . Every thing that lives now , is born of Water and the Spirit ; and Christ , who is our Creator and Redeemer in the new birth , opened the fountains and hallowed the stream : Christ who is our life went down into the waters of Baptism , and we who descend thither finde the effects of life ; it is living water , of which whoso drinks , needs not to drink of it again , for it shall be in him a well of water springing up to life eternal . But because every thing is resolved into the same principles from whence they are taken , the old world which by the power of God came from the waters , by their own sin fell into the waters again , and were all drowned , and onely eight persons were saved by an Ark : and the world renewed upon the stock and reserves of that mercy , consigned the Sacrament of Baptism in another figure ; for then God gave his sign from Heaven , that by water the world should never again perish : but he meant that they should be saved by water : for Baptism , which is a figure like to this , doth also now save us by the resurrection of Jesus Christ . After this , the Jews report that the world took up the doctrine of Baptisms , in remembrance that the iniquity of the old world was purged by water ; and they washed all that came to the service of the true God , and by that baptism bound them to the observation of the Precepts which God gave to Noah . But when God separated a family for his own especial service , he gave them a Sacrament of initiation , but it was a Sacrament of blood , the Covenant of Circumcision : and this was the fore-runner of Baptism , but not a type ; when that was abrogated , this came into the place of it , and that consigned the same faith which this professes : but it could not properly be a type , whose nature is by a likeness of matter or ceremony to represent the same mystery . Neither is a Ceremony , as Baptism truly is , properly capable of having a type , it self is but a type of a greater mysteriousness : and the nature of types is , in shadow to describe by dark lines a future substance ; so that although Circumcision might be a type of the effects and graces bestowed in Baptism , yet of the Baptism or ablution it self , it cannot be properly ; because of the unlikeness of the symboles and configurations , and because they are both equally distant from substances , which types are to consign and represent . The first Bishops of Jerusalem , and all the Christian Jews for many years retained Circumcision together with Baptism ; and Christ himself , who was circumcised , was also baptized ; and therefore it is not so proper to call Circumcision a type of Baptism : it was rather a seal and sign of the same Covenant to Abraham and the Fathers , and to all Israel , as Baptism is to all ages of the Christian Church . And because this Rite could not be administred to all persons , and was not at all times after its institution , God was pleased by a proper and specifick type to consign this Rite of Baptism , which he intended to all , and that for ever : and God , when this family of his Church grew separate , notorious , numerous and distinct , he sent them into their own Countrey by a Baptism through which the whole Nation pass'd : for all the fathers were under the Cloud , and all passed through the sea , and were all baptized unto Moses in the Cloud , and in the sea ; so by a double figure foretelling , That as they were initiated to Moses Law by the Cloud above and the Sea beneath : so should all the persons of the Church , Men , Women and Children , be initiated unto Christ by the Spirit from above and the Water below : for it was the design of the Apostle in that discourse , to represent that the Fathers and we were equal as to the priviledges of the Covenant ; he proved that we do not exceed them , and it ought therefore to be certain that they do not exceed us , nor their children ours . But after this , something was to remain which might not onely consign the Covenant which God made with Abraham , but be as a passage from the Fathers thorough the Synagogue to the Church ; from Abraham by Moses to Christ : and that was Circumcision , which was a Rite which God chose to be a mark to the posterity of Abraham , to distinguish them from the Nations which were not within the Covenant of Grace , and to be a seal of the righteousness of faith , which God made to be the spirit and life of the Covenant . But because Circumcision although it was ministred to all the males , yet it was not to the females ; and although they and all the Nation was baptized and initiated into Moses in the Cloud and the Sea , yet the Children of Israel by imitation of the Patriarchs the posterity of Noah , used also Ceremonial Baptisms to their women and to their Proselytes , and to all that were circumcised ; and the Jews deliver , That Sarah and Rebecca when they were adopted into the family of the Church , that is , of Abraham and Isaac , were baptized : and so were all strangers that were married to the sons of Israel . And that we may think this typical of Christian Baptism , the Doctors of the Jews had a Tradition , that when the Messias would come , there should be so many Proselytes that they could not be circumcised , but should be baptized . The Tradition proved true , but not for their reason . But that this Rite of admitting into mysteries , and institutions , and offices of Religion by Baptisms , was used by the posterity of Noah , or at least very early among the Jews , besides the testimonies of their own Doctors , I am the rather induced to believe , because the Heathen had the same Rite in many places and in several Religions : so they initiated disciples into the secrets of a Mithra ; and the Priests of Cotyttus were called b Baptae , because by Baptism they were admitted into the Religion ; and they c thought Murther , Incest , Rapes , and the worst of Crimes , were purged by dipping in the Sea , or fresh Springs ; and a Proselyte is called in Arrianus , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , intinctus , a baptized person . But this Ceremony of baptizing was so certain and usual among the Jews , in their admitting Proselytes and adopting into institutions , that to baptize and to make disciples are all one ; and when John the Baptist by an order from Heaven went to prepare the way to the Coming of our blessed Lord , he preached Repentance , and baptized all that professed they did repent . He taught the Jews to live good lives , and baptized with the Baptism of a Prophet , such as was not unusually done by extraordinary and holy persons in the change or renewing of Discipline or Religion . Whether John's Baptism was from heaven , or of men , Christ asked the Pharisees . That it was from Heaven , the people therefore believed , because he was a Prophet , and a holy person : but it implies also , That such Baptisms are sometimes from men , that is , used by persons of an eminent Religion , or extraordinary fame for the gathering of Disciples and admitting Proselytes : and the Disciples of Christ did so too , even before Christ had instituted the Sacrament for the Christian Church , the Disciples that came to Christ were baptized by his Apostles . And now we are come to the gates of Baptism . All these till John were but types and preparatory Baptisms , and John's Baptism was but the prologue to the Baptism of Christ , The Jewish Baptisms admitted Proselytes to Moses and to the Law of Ceremonies ; John's Baptism called them to believe in the Messias now appearing , and to repent of their sins , to enter into the Kingdom which was now at hand , and Preached that Repentance which should be for the remission of sins . His Baptism remitted no sins , but preached and consigned Repentance , which , in the belief of the Messias whom he pointed to , should pardon sins . But because he was taken from his office before the work was compleated , the Disciples of Christ finished it : They went forth preaching the same Sermon of Repentance , and the approach of the Kingdom , and baptized or made Proselytes or Disciples , as John did ; onely they ( as it is probable ) baptized in the Name of Jesus , which it is not so likely John did . a And this very thing might be the cause of the different forms b of Baptism recorded in the Acts , of baptizing In the Name of Iesus , and at other times In the Name of the Father , Son , and holy Ghost ; the former being the manner of doing it in pursuance of the design of John's Baptism ; and the latter the form of institution by Christ for the whole Christian Church , appointed after his Resurrection : the Disciples at first using promiscuously what was used by the same authority , though with some difference of Mystery . The Holy Jesus having found his way ready prepared by the preaching of John , and by his Baptism , and the Jewish manner of adopting Proselytes and Disciples into the Religion , a way chalked out for him to initiate disciples into his Religion , took what was so prepared , and changed it into a perpetual Sacrament . He kept the Ceremony , that they who were led onely by outward things , might be the better called in , and easier inticed into the Religion , when they entred by a Ceremony which their Nation alwayes used in the like cases : and therefore without change of the outward act , he put into it a new spirit , and gave it a new grace and a proper efficacy : He sublim'd it to higher ends , and adorned it with stars of Heaven : He made it to signifie greater mysteries , to convey greater blessings , to consign the bigger Promises , to cleanse deeper then the skin , and to carry Proselytes further then the gates of the institution . For so he was pleased to do in the other Sacrament ; he took the Ceremony which he found ready in the Custom of the Jews , where the Major domo after the Paschal Supper gave Bread and Wine to every person of his family ; he changed nothing of it without , but transferr'd the Rite to greater mysteries , and put his own Spirit to their Sign , and it became a Sacrament Evangelical . It was so also in the matter of Excommunication , where the Jewish practise was made to pass into Christian discipline : without violence and noise old things became new , while he fulfilled the Law , making it up in full measures of the Spirit . By these steps Baptism passed on to a divine Evangelical institution , which we finde to be consigned by three Evangelists . Go ye therefore and teach all Nations , baptizing them in the Name of the Father , and of the Son , and of the Holy Ghost . It was one of the last Commandments the Holy Jesus gave upon the earth , when he taught his Apostles the things which concerned his kingdome . For he that believeth and is baptized , shall be saved : but , Vnless a man be born of Water and the holy Spirit , he cannot enter into the kingdome of Heaven ; agreeable to the decretory words of God by Abraham in the Circumcision , to which Baptism does succeed in the consignation of the same Covenant and the same Spiritual Promises ; The uncircumcised childe whose flesh is not circumcised , that soul shall be cut off from his people ; he hath broken my Covenant . The Manichees , Seleucus , Hermias , and their followers , people of a dayes abode and small interest , but of malicious doctrine , taught , Baptism not to be necessary , not to be used ; upon this ground , Because they supposed that it was proper to John to baptize with water , and reserved for Christ as his peculiar , to baptize with the holy Ghost and with fire . Indeed Christ baptized none otherwise . He sent his Spirit upon the Church in Pentecost and baptized them with fire , the Spirit appearing like a flame : but he appointed his Apostles to baptize with water , and they did so , and their successors after them , every where and for ever , not expounding , but obeying the praeceptive words of their Lord , which were almost the last that he spake upon earth . And I cannot think it necessary to prove this to be necessary by any more Arguments . For the words are so plain , that they need no exposition ; and yet if they had been obscure , the universal practise of the Apostles and the Church for ever , is a sufficient declaration of the Commandment : No Tradition is more universal , no not of Scripture it self ; no words are plainer , no not the Ten Commandments : and if any suspicion can be superinduced by any jealous or less discerning person , it will need no other refutation , but to turn his eyes to those lights by which himself sees Scripture to be the Word of God , and the Commandments to be the declaration of his Will . But that which will be of greatest concernment in this affair , is to consider the great benefits are conveyed to us in this Sacrament ; for this will highly conclude , That the Precept was for ever , which God so seconds with his grace and mighty blessings ; and the susception of it necessary , because we cannot be without those excellent things which are the graces of the Sacrament . 1. The first fruit is , That in Baptism we are admitted to the Kingdome of Christ , presented unto him , consigned with his Sacrament , enter into his Militia , give up our understandings and our choice to the obedience of Christ , and in all senses that we can , become his Disciples , witnessing a good confession , and undertaking a holy life : and therefore in Scripture {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , are conjoyn'd in the significations , as they are in the mystery : it is a giving up our names to Christ , and it is part of the foundation or the first Principles of the Religion , as appears in S. Pauls Catechism ; it is so the first thing , that it is for babes , and Neophytes , in which they are matriculated and adopted into the house of their Father , and taken into the hands of their Mother . Upon this account Baptism is called in antiquity , Ecclesiae janua , Porta gratiae , & primus introitus sanctorum ad aeternam Dei & ecclesiae consuetudinem . The gates of the Church , the door of Grace , the first entrance of the Saints to an eternal conversation with God and the Church . Sacramentum initiationis , & intrantium Christianismum investituram , S. Bernard calls it : The Sacrament of initiation , and the investiture of them that enter into the Religion ; and the person so entring is called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , one of the Religion , or a Proselyte and Convert , and one added to the number of the Church , in imitation of that of S. Luke , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , God added to the Church those that should be saved ; just as the Church does to this day and for ever , baptizing Infants and Catechumens : {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , they are added to the Church , that they may be added to the Lord , and the number of the inhabitants of Heaven . 2. The next step beyond this , is Adoption into the Covenant , which is an immediate consequent of the first presentation , this being the first act of man , that the first act of God . And this is called by S. Paul , a being baptized in one spirit into one body , that is , we are made capable of the Communion of Saints , the blessings of the faithful , the priviledges of the Church : by this we are , as S. Luke calls it , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , ordained , or disposed , put into the order of eternal life , being made members of the mystical body under Christ our Head . 3. And therefore Baptism is a new birth , by which we enter into the new world , the new creation , the blessings and spiritualities of the Kingdome ; and this is the expression which our Saviour himself used to Nicodemus , Vnless a man be born of Water and the Spirit : and it is by S. Paul called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , the laver of Regeneration ; for now we begin to be reckoned in a new Census or account , God is become our Father , Christ our elder Brother , the Spirit the earnest of our inhetance , the Church our Mother , our food is the body and blood of our Lord ; Faith is our learning , Religion our imployment , and our whole life is spiritual , and Heaven the object of our Hopes , and the mighty price of our high Calling . And from this time forward we have a new principle put into us , the Spirit of Grace , which besides our soul and body , is a principle of action , of one nature , and shall with them enter into the portion of our inheritance . And therefore the Primitive Christians , who consigned all their affairs and goods and writings with some marks of their Lord , usually writing {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , Iesus Christ the Son of God our Saviour ; they made it an abbreviature by writing onely the Capitals , thus : {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . which the Heathens in mockery and derision made {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , which signifies a Fish , and they used it for Christ as a name of reproach : but the Christians owned the name , and turned it into a pious Metaphor , and were content that they should enjoy their pleasure in the Acrostich ; but upon that occasion Tertullian speaks pertinently to this Article , Nos pisciculi secundum {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} nostrum Jesum Christum , in aquâ nascimur . Christ whom you call a fish , we knowledge to be our Lord and Saviour ; and we , if you please , are the little fishes , for we are born in water ; thence we derive our spiritual life . And because from henceforward we are a new creation , the Church uses to assign new relations to the Catechumens , Spiritual Fathers and Susceptors ; and at their entrance into Baptism , the Christians and Jewish Proselytes did use to cancel all secular affections to their temporal relatives , Nec quicquam prius imbuuntur quam contemnere Deos , exuere patriam , parentes , liberos , fratres vilia habere , said Tacitus of the Christians : which was true in the sense onely as Christ said , He that doth not hate father or mother for my sake , is not worthy of me ; that is , he that doth not hate them prae me , rather then forsake me , forsake them , is unworthy of me . 4. In Baptism all our sins are pardoned , according to the words of a Prophet : I will sprinkle clean water upon you , and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness . The Catechumen descends into the font a sinner , he arises purified ; he goes down the son of death , he comes up the son of the resurrection ; he enters in the son of folly and praevarication , he returns the son of reconciliation ; he stoops down the childe of wrath , and ascends the heir of mercy ; he was the childe of the Devil , and now he is the servant and the son of God . They are the words of Ven. Bede concerning this Mystery . And this was ingeniously signified by that Greek inscription upon a Font , which is so prettily contriv'd that the words may be read after the Greek or after the Hebrew manner , and be exactly the same , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , Lord wash my sin , and not my face onely . And so it is intended and promised , Arise and be baptized , and wash away thy sins , and call on the Name of the Lord , said Ananias to Saul ; for , Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it , that he might sanctifie and cleanse it , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , with the washing of water in the word , that is , Baptism in the Christian Religion : and therefore Tertullian calls Baptism lavacrum compendiatum , a compendious laver ; that is , an intire cleansing the soul in that one action justly and rightly performed : In the rehearsal of which doctrine , it was not an unpleasant Etymology that Anastasius Sinaita gave of Baptism ; {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , in which our sins are thrown off ; and they fall like leeches when they are full of blood and water , or like the chains from S. Peters hands at the presence of the Angel . Baptism is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , an intire full forgiveness of sins , so that they shall never be called again to scrutiny . — Omnia Daemonis arma His merguntur aquis , quibus ille renascitur Infant Qui captivus erat — the captivity of the soul is taken away by the blood of Redemption , and the fiery darts of the Devil are quenched by these salutary waters ; and what the flames of Hell are expiating or punishing to eternal ages , that is washed off quickly in the Holy Font , and an eternal debt paid in an instant : for so sure as the Egyptians were drowned in the Red sea , so sure are our sins washed in this holy flood : for this is a Red sea too ; these waters signifie the blood of Christ , these are they that have washed their robes , and made them white in the blood of the Lamb , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . The blood of Christ cleanseth us , the water cleanseth us , the Spirit purifies us ; the Blood by the Spirit , the Spirit by the Water , all in Baptism , and in pursuance of that baptismal state . These three are they that bear record in earth , the Spirit , the Water , and the blood , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , these three agree in one , or are to one purpose ; they agree in Baptism , and in the whole pursuance of the assistances , which a Christian needs all dayes of his life : And therefore S. Cyril calls Baptism {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , the Antitype of the Passions of Christ : it does preconsign the death of Christ ; and does the infancy of the work of grace , but not weakly ; it brings from death to life ; and though it brings us but to the birth in the new life , yet that is a greater change then is in all the periods of our growth to manhood , to a perfect man in Christ Jesus . 5. Baptism does not onely pardon our sins , but puts us into a state of pardon for the time to come . For Baptism is the beginning of the New life , and an admission of us into the Evangelical Covenant , which on our parts consists in a sincere and timely endevour to glorifie God by Faith and Obedience : and on Gods part , he will pardon what is past , assist us for the future , and not measure us by grains and scruples , or exact our duties by the measure of an Angel , but by the span of a mans hand . So that by Baptism we are consigned to the mercies of God . and the graces of the Gospel ; that is , that our pardon be continued , and our piety be a state of Repentance . And therefore that Baptism which in the Nicene Creed we profess to be for the remission of sins , is called in the Jerusalem Creed , The Baptism of Repentance ; that is , it is the entrance of a new life , the gate to a perpetual change and reformation , all the way continuing our title to , and hopes of forgiveness of sins . And this excellency is clearly recorded by S. Paul , The kindeness and love of God our Saviour toward man hath appeared ; not by works in righteousness which we have done : that 's the formality of the Gospel-Covenant , not to be exacted by the strict measures of the Law , but according to his mercy he saved us , that is , by gentleness and remissions , by pitying and pardoning us , by relieving and supporting us , because he remembers that we are but dust ; and all this mercy we are admitted to , and is conveyed to us , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , by the laver of regeneration , and the renewing of the holy Ghost . And this plain evident doctrine was observed , explicated and urged against the Messalians , who said that Baptism was like a razor , that cut away all the sins that were past , or presently adhering , but not the sins of our future life ; {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . This Sacrament promises more and greater things , It is the earnest of future good things , the type of the Resurrection , the communication of the Lords Passion , the partaking of his Resurrection , the robe of Righteousness , the garment of gladness , vestment of Light , or rather Light it self . And for this reason it is , that Baptism is not to be repeated , because it does at once all that it can do at a hundred times : for it admits us to the condition of Repentance and Evangelical Mercy , to a state of pardon for our infirmities and sins , which we timely and effectually leave : and this is a thing that can be done but once , as a man can begin but once ; he that hath once entred in at this gate of life is alwayes in possibility of pardon , if he be in a possibility of working and doing after the manner of a man , that which he hath promised to the Son of God . And this was expresly delivered and observed by S. Austin . That which the Apostle sayes , Cleansing him with the washing of water in the word , is to be understood , that in the same laver of regeneration , and word of sanctification , all the evils of the regenerate are cleansed and healed : not onely the sins that are past , which all are now remitted in Baptism ; but also those that are contracted afterwards by humane ignorance and infirmity : Not that Baptism be repeated as often as we sin , but because by this which is once administred , is brought to pass that pardon of all sins , not onely of those that are past , but also those which will be committed afterwards , is obtained . The Messalians denyed this , and it was part of their Heresie in the undervaluing of Baptism ; and for it they are most excellently confuted by Isidore Pelusiot , in his third Book , 195 Epistle to the Count Hermin : whither I refer the Reader . In proportion to this Doctrine it is , that the holy Scripture calls upon us to live a holy life , in pursuance of this grace of Baptism . And S. Paul recals the lapsed Galatians to their Covenant , and the grace of God stipulated in Baptism : Ye are all children of God by faith in Iesus Christ ; that is , heirs of the promise , and Abrahams seed : that promise which cannot be disannulled , increased or diminished , but is the same to us as it was to Abraham ; the same before the Law and after . Therefore do not you hope to be justified by the Law , for you are entred into the Covenant of Faith , and are to be justified thereby . This is all your hope , by this you must stand for ever , or you cannot stand at all ; but by this you may : for you are Gods children by faith ; that is , not by the Law , or the Covenant of Works : And that you may remember whence you are going , and return again , he proves , that they are the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ , because they have been baptized into Christ , and so put on Christ . This makes you children , and such as are to be saved by faith , that is , a Covenant , not of Works , but of Pardon in Jesus Christ , the Author and Establisher of this Covenant . For this is the Covenant made in Baptism , That being justified by his grace , we shall be heirs of life eternal : for by grace , that is , by favor , remission and forgiveness in Jesus Christ , ye are saved . This is the onely way that we have of being justified , and this must remain as long as we are in hopes of heaven : for besides this we have no hopes , and all this is stipulated and consigned in Baptism , and is of force after our fallings into sin and risings again . In pursuance of this , the same Apostle declares , That the several states of sin , are so many recessions from the state of baptismal grace ; and if we arrive to the direct Apostasie and renouncing of , or a contradiction to , the state of Baptism , we are then unpardonable , because we are faln from our state of pardon . This S. Paul conditions most strictly , in his Epistle to the Hebrews ; This is the Covenant I will make in those days , I will put my laws in their hearts , and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more . Now where remission of these is , there is no more offering for sin ; that is , our sins are so pardoned , that we need no more oblation , we are then made partakers of the death of Christ ; which we afterwards renew in memory and Eucharist , and representment . But the great work is done in Baptism : for so it follows ; Having boldness to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Iesus , by a new and living way , that is , by the vail of his flesh , his Incarnation . But how do we enter into this ? Baptism is the door , and the ground of this confidence for ever : for so he addes ; Let us draw near with a true heart , in full assurance of faith , having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience , and our bodies washed with pure water . This is the consignation of this blessed state , and the gate to all this mercy : Let us therefore hold fast the profession of our faith ; that is , the Religion of a Christian ; the faith into which we were baptized : for that is the faith that justifies and saves vs ; Let us therefore hold fast this profession of this faith , and do all the intermedial works , in order to the conservation of it , such as are assembling in the Communion of Saints , ( the use of the word and Sacrament is included in the precept ) mutual Exhortation , good Example , and the like : For if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth , that is , if we sin against the profession of this faith , and hold it not fast , but let the faith and the profession go wilfully , ( which afterwards he cals a treading under foot the Son of God , a counting the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified , an unholy thing , and a doing despite to the Spirit of Grace ; viz. which moved upon these waters , and did illuminate him in Baptism ) if we do this , there is no more sacrifice for sins , no more deaths of Christ , into which you may be baptized ; that is , you are faln from the state of pardon and repentance , into which you were admitted in Baptism , and in which you continue , so long as you have not quitted you baptismal Rights , and the whole Covenant . Contrary to this , is that which S. Peter calls making our calling and election sure ; that is , a doing all that which may continue us in our state of Baptism , and the grace of the Covenant . And between these two states , of absolute Apostasie from , and intirely adhering to , and securing this state of Calling and Election , are all the intermedial sins , and being overtaken in single faults , or declining towards vitious habits ; which in their several proportions , are degrees of danger and insecurity ; which S. Peter calls , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , a forgetting our Baptism , or purification from our sins . And in this sense are those words , The just shall live by faith ; that is , by that profession which they made in Baptism : from which , if they swerve not , they shall be supported in their spiritual life . It is a grace , which by vertue of the Covenant consign'd in Baptism , does like a Centre , transmit effluxes to all the periods and portion of our life : our whole life , all the periods of our succeeding hopes , are kept alive by this . This consideration is of great use , besides many other things , to reprove the folly of those who in the Primitive Church deferr'd their Baptism till their death-bed : Because Baptism is a laver of sanctification , and drowns all our sins , and buries them in the grave of our Lord , they thought they might sin securely upon the stock of an after-Baptism ; for unless they were strangely preventedly a sudden accident , a death-bed Baptism they thought would secure their condition : but early some of them durst not take it , much less in the beginning of their years , that they might at least gain impunity for their follies and heats of their youth . Baptism hath influence into the pardon of all our sins committed in all the dayes of our folly and infirmity ; and so long as we have not been baptized , so long we are out of the state of pardon , and therefore an early . Baptism is not to be avoided , upon this mistaken fancy and plot upon Heaven : it is the greater security towards the pardon of our sins , if we have taken it in the beginning of our dayes . 5. The next benefit of Baptism , which is also a verification of this , is a sanctification of the baptized person by the Spirit of Grace : Sanctus in hunc coelo descendit spiritus amnem , Coelestique sacras fonte maritat aquas : Concipit unda Deum , sanctumque liquoribus almis Edit ab aeterno semine progeniem . The holy Ghost descends upon the waters of Baptism , and makes them prolifical , apt to produce children unto God : and therefore Saint Leo compares the Font of Baptism , to the Womb of the blessed Virgin . when it was replenished with the holy Spirit . And this is the Baptism of our dearest Lord : his ministers baptize with water ; our Lord at the same time verifies their Ministery , with giving the holy Spirit : They are joyned together by S. Paul , We are by one spirit baptized into one body ; that is , admitted into the Church by Baptism of Water and the Spirit . This is that which our blessed Lord calls a being born of Water and of the Spirit ; by Water we are sacramently dead and buried , by the Spirit we are made alive . But because these are mysterious expressions , and according to the style of Scripture , high and secret in spiritual significations , therefore that we may understand what these things signifie , we must consider it by its real effects , and what it produces upon the Soul of a man . 1. It is the suppletory of original Righteousness , by which Adam was at first gracious with God , and which he lost by his prevarication . It was in him a principle of wisdome and obedience , a relation between God and himself , a title to the extraordinary mercies of God , and a state of friendship : when he fell , he was discomposed in all , the links of the golden chain and blessed relation were broken ; and it so continued in the whole life of man , which was stained with the evils of this folly , and the consequent mischiefs : and therefore when we began the world again , entring into the Articles of a new life , God gave us his Spirit , to be an instrument of our becoming gracious persons , and of being in a condition of obtaining that supernatural end which God at first designed to us . And therefore as our Baptism is a separation of us from unbelieving people : so the descent of the holy Spirit upon us in our Baptism , is a consigning or marking us for God , as the sheep of his pasture , as the souldiers of his Army , as the servants of his houshold : we are so separated from the world , that we are appropriated to God , so that God expects of us duty and obedience ; and all sins are acts of rebellion and undutifulness : Of this nature was the sanctification of Jeremy and John the Baptist from their mothers womb ; that is , God took them to his own service by an early designation , and his Spirit mark'd them to a holy Ministery . To this also relates that of S. Paul , whom God by a decree separated from his mothers womb to the Ministery of the Gospel : the decree did antedate the act of the Spirit , which did not descend upon him until the day of his Baptism . What these persons were in order to exterior Ministeries , that all the faithful are in order to faith and obedience , consigned in Baptism by the Spirit of God , to a perpetual relation to God , in a continual service and title to his Promises . And in this sense the Spirit of God is called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , * a seal , in whom also after that ye believed , ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of Promise , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . The Water washes the body , and the Spirit seals the soul ; viz. to a participation of those Promises which he hath made , and to which we receive a title to our Baptism . 2. The second effect of the Spirit , is Light or Illumination ; that is , the holy Spirit becomes unto us the Author of holy thoughts , and firm perswasions , and fets to his seal that the Word of God is true ; into the belief of which we are then baptized , and makes Faith to be a grace , and the Understanding resigned , and the Will confident , and the Assent stronger then the premises , and the propositions to be believed , because they are belov'd , and we are taught the wayes of godliness after a new manner , that is , we are made to perceive the secrets of the Kingdome , and to love Religion , and to long for heaven and heavenly things , and to despise the world , and to have new resolutions , and new perceptions , and new delicacies , in order to the establishment of Faith , and its increment and perseverance , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . God sits in the soul when it is illuminated in Baptism , as if he sate in his Throne ; that is , he rules by a firm perswasion , and intire principles of obedience . And therefore Baptism is called in Scripture , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , and the baptized , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , illuminated : Call to minde the former dayes , in which ye were illuminated : and the same phrase is in the 6. to the Hebrews , where the parallel places expound each other . For that which S. Paul calls , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , once illuminated ; he calls after , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , a receiving the knowledge of the truth : and that you may perceive this to be wholly meant of Baptism , the Apostle expresses it still by its Synonymas , Tasting of the heavenly gift , and made partakers of the holy Ghost , sprinkled in our hearts from an evil conscience , and washed in our bodies with pure water : All which also are a syllabus or collection of the several effects of the graces bestowed in Baptism . But we are now instancing in that which relates most properly to the understanding , in which respect the holy Spirit also is called anointing or unction ; and the mystery is explicated by S. John , The anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you , and ye need not that any man teach you ; but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things . 3. The holy Spirit descends upon us in Baptism , to become the principle of a new life ; to become a holy seed , springing up to holiness , and is called by S. John , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , the seed of God : and the purpose of it we are taught by him , Whosoever is born of God ( that is , he that is regenerated and entred into this new birth ) doth not commit sin ; for his seed remaineth in him , and he cannot sin , because he is born of God . The Spirit of God , is the Spirit of life ; and now that he by the Spirit is born anew , he hath in him that principle , which , if it be cherished , will grow up to life , to life eternal . And this is the Spirit of Sanctification , the victory of the world , the deletery of concupiscence , the life of the soul , and the perpetuall principle of grace sown in our spirits in the day of our adoption to be the sons of God , and members of Christs body . But take this mystery in the words of S. Basil ; There are two ends proposed in Baptism , to wit , to abolish the body of sin , that we may no more bring forth fruit unto death ; and to live in the Spirit , and to have our fruit to Sanctification . The water represents the image of death , receiving the body in its bosome , as in a sepulchre . But the quickning Spirit sends upon us a vigorous {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , power or efficacy , even from the beginning renewing our souls from the death of sin unto life . For as our mortification is perfected in the water , so the Spirit works life in us . To this purpose is the discourse of S. Paul ; having largely discoursed of our being baptized into the death of Christ , he addes this as the Corollary of all , He that is dead , is freed from sin * ; that is , being mortified , and buried in the waters of Baptism , we have a new life of righteousness put into us ; we are quitted from the dominion of sin , and are planted together in the likeness of Christs Resurrection , that henceforth we should not serve sin . 4. But all these intermedial blessings tend to a glorious Conclusion , for Baptism does also consign us to a holy Resurrection . It takes the sting of death from us , by burying us together with Christ ; and takes off sin , which is the sting of death , and then we shall be partakers of a blessed Resurrection . This we are taught by S. Paul , Know ye not that so many of us as are baptized into Jesus Christ , were baptized into his death ? For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death , we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection . That declares the real event in its due season . But because Baptism consigns it , and admits us to a title to it , we are said with S. Paul , to be risen with Christ in Baptism ; buried with him in Baptism , wherein also you are risen with him , thorough the faith of the operation of God , which hath raised him from the dead : which expression I desire to be remembred , that by it we may better understand those other sayings of the Apostle , of putting on Christ in Baptism , putting on the new man , &c. for these onely signifie {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , or the design on Gods part , and the endevour and duty on mans : we are then consigned to our duty , and to our reward ; we undertake one , and have a title to the other : and though men of ripeness and reason enter instantly into their portion of work , and have present use of the assistances , and something of their reward in hand ; yet we cannot conclude , that those that cannot do it presently , are not baptized rightly , because they are not in capacity to put on the new man in righteousness , that is , in an actual holy life : for they may put on the new man in Baptism , just as they are risen with Christ : which because it may be done by faith , before it is done in real event , and it may be done by Sacrament and design , before it be done by a proper faith ; so also may our putting on the new man be . It is done sacramentally , and that part which is wholly the work of God , does onely antedate the work of man , which is to succeed in its due time , and is after the manner of preventing grace : but this is by the by : In order to the present article , Baptism is by Theodoret called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , a participation of the Lords Resurrection . 5. And lastly , by Baptism we are saved ; that is , we are brought from death to life here , and that is the first Resurrection , and we are brought from death to life hereafter , by vertue of the Covenant of the state of Grace , into which in Baptism we enter , and are preserved from the second death , and receive a glarious and an eternal life : He that believeth and is baptized , shall be saved , said our blessed Saviour ; and , according to his mercy he saved us , by the washing of regeneration , and renewing of the holy Ghost . After these great blessings so plainly testified in Scripture , and the Doctrine of the Primitive Church , which are regularly consigned and bestowed in Baptism , I shall less need to descend to temporal blessings , or rare contingencies , or miraculous events , or probable notices of things less certain : of this nature are those stories recorded in the writings of the Church , that Constantine was cured of a Leprosie in Baptism , Theodosius recovered of his disease , being baptized by the Bishop of Thessalonica ; and a paralytic Jew was cured as soon as he became a Christian , and was baptized by Atticus of C. P. and Bishop Arnulph baptizing a Leper , also cured him , said Vincentius Bellovacensis . It is more considerable , which is generally and piously believed by very many eminent persons in the Church , That at our Baptism God assigns an Angel Guardian : for then the Catechumen being made a Servant and a Brother to the Lord of Angels , is sure not to want the aids of them who pitch their tents round about them that fear the Lord : and that this guard and ministery is then appointed , when themselves are admitted into the inheritance of the Promises , and their title to Salvation is hugely agreeable to the words of S. Paul , Are they not all ministring spirits , sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation ? where it appears , that the title to the inheritance is the title to this ministery , and therefore must begin and end together . But I insist not on this , though it seems to me hugely probable . All these blessings put into one syllabus , have given to Baptism many honorable appellatives in Scripture , and other divine Writers , calling it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , Sacramentum vitae & aeternae salutis . A new birth , a regeneration , a renovation , a charet carrying us to God , the great Circumcision , a Circumcision made without hands , the Key of the Kingdome , the Paranymph of the Kingdome , the earnest of our inheritance , the answer of a good Conscience , the robe of light , the Sacrament of a new life , and of eternal salvation . {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . This is coelestial water , springing from the sides of the Rock , upon the which the Church was built , when the Rock was smitten with the Rod of God . It remains now , that we inquire what concerns our duty , and in what persons , or in what dispositions Baptism produces all these glorious effects ? For , the Sacraments of the Church work in the vertue of Christ , but yet onely upon such as are servants of Christ , and hinder not the work of the Spirit of grace . For the water of the Font , and the Spirit of the Sacrament , are indeed to wash away our sins , and to purifie our souls : but not unless we have a minde to be purified . The Sacrament works pardon for them that hate their sin , and procures grace for them that love it . They that are guilty of sins , must repent of them , and renounce them , and they must make a profession of the faith of Christ , and give , or be given up to the obedience of Christ , and then they are rightly disposed . He that believeth and is baptized , shall be saved , saith Christ ; and S. Peter call'd out to the whole assembly , Repent , and be baptized every one of you . Concerning this , Justin Martyr gives the same account of the faith and practise of the Church . {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , &c. Whosoever are perswaded , and believe those things to be true , which are delivered and spoken by us , and undertake to live accordingly , they are commanded to fast and pray , and to ask of God remission of their former sins , we also praying together with them , and fasting . Then they are brought to us where water is , and are regenerated in the same manner of regeneration , by which we our selves are regenerated . For in Baptism , S. Peter observes there are two parts , the body , and the spirit ; that is , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , the putting away the filth of the flesh , that is , the material washing : and this is Baptism , no otherwise then a dead corps is a man : the other is , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , the answer of a good conscience towards God ; that is , the conversion of the soul to God , that 's the effective disposition in which Baptism does save us . And in the same sense are those sayings of the Primitive Doctors to be understood , Anima non lavatione sed responsione sancitur . The soul is not healed by washing , viz. alone , but by the answer the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in S. Peter , the correspondent of our part of the Covenant : for that 's the perfect sense of this unusual expression . And the effect is attributed to this , and denied to the other , when they are distinguished : So Justin Martyr affirms ; the onely Baptism that can heal us , is Repentance , and the knowledge of God . For what need is there of that Baptism that can onely cleanse the flesh and the body ? Be washed in your flesh from wrath and covetousness , from envy and hatred , and behold the body is pure . And Clemens Alexandrinus upon the Proverbial saying , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , be not pure in the laver , but in the minde ; addes , I suppose that an exact and a firm repentance , is a sufficient purification to a man ; if judging and considering our selves for the facts we have done before , we proceed to that which is before us , considering that which follows , and cleansing or washing our minde from sensual affections , and from former sins . Just as we use to deny the effect to the instrumental cause , and attribute it to the principal in the manner of speaking , when our purpose is to affirm this to be the principal , and of chief influence . So we say , It is not the good Lute , but the skilful hand that makes the musick : It is not the body , but the soul that is the man ; and yet he is not the man without both . For Baptism is but the material part in the Sacrament , it is the Spirit that giveth life ; whose work is faith and repentance begun by himself , without the Sacrament , and consigned in the Sacrament , and actuated and increased in the cooperation of our whole life : and therefore Baptism is called in the Jerusalem Creed , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , one Baptism of repentance for the remission of sins ; and by Justin Martyr , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , The Baptism of Repentance and the knowledge of God , which was made for the sins of the people of God . He explains himself a little after , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , Baptism that can onely cleanse them that are penitent . In sacramentis Trinitati occurrit Fides credentium & professio quae apud acta conficitur Angelorum , ubi miscentur coelestia & spiritualia semina , ut sancto germine nova possit renascentium indoles procreari , ut dum Trinitas cum fide concordat , qui natus fuerit saeculo , renascatur spiritualitèr Deo. Sic fit hominum Pater Deus , sancta sit Mater ecclesia , said Optatus . The faith and profession of the Believers , meets with the ever-blessed Trinity , and is recorded in the Register of Angels , where heavenly and spiritual seeds are mingled ; that from so holy a Spring , may be produced a new nature of the regeneration , that while the Trinity ( viz. that is invocated upon the baptized ) meets with the faith of the Catechumen , he that was born to the world , may be born spiritually to God . So God is made a Father to the man , and the holy Church a Mother . Faith and Repentance strip the old man naked , and make him fit for Baptism ; and then the holy Spirit moving upon the waters , cleanses the soul , and makes it to put on the new man , who grows up to perfection and a spititual life , to a life of glory , by our verification of the undertaking in Baptism on our part , and the graces of the Spirit on the other . For the waters pierce no further then the skin , till the person puts off his affection to the sin that he hath contracted ; and then he may say , Aquae intraverunt usque ad animam meam , The waters are entred even unto my soul , to purifie and cleanse it , by the washing of water , and the renewing by the holy Spirit : The sum is this , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , being baptized , we are illuminated ; being illuminated , we are adopted to the inheritance of sons ; being adopted , we are promoted towards perfection ; and being perfected , we are made immortal . Quisquis in hos fontes vir venerit , exeat inde Semideus , tactis citò nobilitetur in undis . This is the whole Doctrine of Baptism , as it is in it self considered , without relation to rare circumstances , or accidental cases : and it will also serve to the right understanding of the reasons why the Church of God hath in all ages baptized all persons , that were within her power , for whom the Church could stipulate that they were or might be relatives of Christ , sons of God , heirs of the Promises , and partners of the Covenant , and such as did not hinder the work of Baptism upon their souls . And such were not onely persons of age and choice , but the Infants of Christian Parents . For the understanding and verifying of which truth , I shall onely need to apply the parts of the former Discourse to their particular case ; premising first these Propositions . PART II. Of Baptizing INFANTS . BAPTISM is the Key in Christs hand , and therefore opens as he opens , and shuts by his rule : and as Christ himself did not do all his blessings and effects unto every one , but gave to every one as they had need , so does Baptism . Christ did not cure all mens eyes , but them onely that were blinde : Christ came not to call the righteous , but sinners to repentance ; that is , they that lived in the fear of God , according to the Covenant in which they were debtors , were indeed improved and promoted higher by Christ , but not called to that repentance to which he called the vitious Gentiles , and the adulterous persons among the Jews , and the hypocritical Pharisees . There are some so innocent , that they need no repentance ( saith the Scripture ) meaning , That though they do need contrition for their single acts of sin , yet they are within the state of grace , and need not repentance , as it is a conversion of the whole man : and so it is in Baptism , which does all its effects upon them that need them all ; and some upon them that need but some : and therefore as it pardons sins to them that have committed them , and do repent and believe ; so to the others who have not committed them , it does all the work which is done to the others , above or besides that pardon . 2. When the ordinary effect of a Sacrament is done already by some other efficiency or instrument , yet the Sacrament is still as obligatory as before , not for so many reasons or necessities , but for the same Commandment . Baptism is the first ordinary Current , in which the Spirit moves and descends upon us ; and where Gods Spirit is , they are the sons of God : for Christs Spirit descends upon none , but them that are his ; and yet Cornelius , who had recieved the holy Spirit , and was heard by God , and visited by an Angel , and accepted in his alms , and fastings , and prayers , yet was tyed to the susception of Baptism . To which may be added , That the receiving the effects of Baptism before-haud , was used as an argument the rather to minister to Baptism . The effect of which consideration is this , That Baptism and its effect may be separated , and do not alwayes go in conjunction ; the effect may be before , and therefore much rather may it be after its susception ; the Sacrament operating in the vertue of Christ , even as the Spirit shall move ; according to that saying of S. Austin , Sacrosancto lavacro inchoata innovatio novi hominis perficiendo perficitur in aliis citiùs , in aliis tardiùs . And S. Bernard , Lavari quidem citò possumus , sed ad sanandum multâ curatione opus est . The work of regeneration that is begun in the Ministery of Baptism , is perfected in some sooner , and in some later : we may soon be washed , but to be healed , is a work of a longcure . 3. The dispositions which are required to the ordinary susception of Baptism , are not necessary to the efficacy , or required to the nature of the Sacrament ; but accidentally , and because of the superinduced necessities of some men . And therefore the conditions are not regularly to be required , but in those accidents . It was necessary for a Gentile Proselyte to repent of his sins , and to believe in Moses Law , before he could be circumcised ; but Abraham was not tyed to the same conditions , but onely to faith in God ; but Isaac was not tyed to so much : and Circumcision was not of Moses , but of the Fathers : and yet after the sanction of Moses Law , men were tyed to Conditions , which were then made necessary to them that entred into the Covenant , but not necessary to the nature of the Covenant it self . And so it is in the susception of Baptism : if a sinner enters into the Font , it is necessary he be stripp'd of those appendages which himself sewed upon his Nature , and then Repentance is a necessary disposition . If his understanding hath been a stranger to Religion , polluted with evil Principles , and a false Religion , it is necessary he have an actual faith , that he be given in his understanding up to the obedience of Christ : and the reason of these is plain , Because in these persons there is a disposition contrary to the state and effects of Baptism ; and therefore they must be taken off by their contraries , Faith and Repentance , that they may be reduced to the state of pure receptives . And this is the sense of those words of our blessed Saviour , Vnless ye become like one of these little ones , ye shall not enter into the kingdome of heaven ; that is , ye cannot be admitted into the Gospel-Covenant , unless all your contrarieties and impediments be taken from you , and you be as apt as children to receive the new immissions from heaven . And this Proposition relies upon a great Example , and a certain Reason . The Example is our blessed Saviour , who was Nullius poenitentiae debitor , he had committed no sin , and needed no repentance ; he needed not to be saved by faith , for of faith he was the Author and Finisher , and the great object , and its perfection and reward , and yet he was baptized by the Baptism of John , the Baptism of Repentance . And therefore it is certain , that Repentance and Faith are not necessary to the susception of Baptism , but necessary to some persons that are baptized . For it is necessary we should much consider the difference . If the Sacrament in any person may be justly received , in whom such dispositions are not to be found , then the dispositions are not necessary or intrinsecal to the susception of the Sacrament ; and yet some persons coming to this Sacrament , may have such necessities of their own , as will make the Sacrament ineffectual without such dispositions : These I call necessary to the person , but not to the Sacrament ; that is , necessary to all such , but not necessary to all absolutely . And faith is necessary sometimes where Repentance is not , and sometimes Repentance and Faith together , and sometimes otherwise . When Philip baptized the Eunuch , he onely required of him to believe , not to repent . But S. Peter , when he preached to the Jews , and converted them , onely required Repentance : which although in their case implyed faith , yet there was no explicit stipulation for it : they had crucified the Lord of life , and if they would come to God by Baptism , they must renounce their sin : that was all was then stood upon . It is as the case is , or as the persons have superinduced necessities upon themselves . In children the case is evident , as to the one part , which is equally required ; I mean , Repentance : The not doing of which , cannot prejudice them as to the susception of Baptism ; because they having done no evil , are not bound to repent ; and to repent , is as necessary to the susception of Baptism , as Faith is : but this shews , that they are accidentally necessary ; that is , not absolutely , not to all , not to Infants : and if they may be excused from one duty , which is indispensably necessary to Baptism , why they may not from the other , is a secret which will not be found out by these whom it concerns to believe it . And therefore when our blessed Lord made a stipulation and express Commandment for faith , with the greatest annexed penalty to them that had it not , He that believeth not shall be damned , the proposition is not to be verified or understood as relative to every period of time ; for then no man could be converted from infidelity to the Christian faith , and from the power of the Devil to the Kingdome of Christ , but his present infidelity shall be his final ruine . It is not therefore {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , but {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , not a sentence , but a use , a praediction and intermination . It is not like that saying [ God is true , and every man a lyar ] [ Every good , and every perfect gift is from above : ] for these are true in every instant , without reference to circumstances : but He that believeth not shall be damned , is a prediction , or that which in Rhetorick is called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , or a use , because this is the affirmation of that which usually or frequently comes to pass : such as this . He that strikes with the sword , shall perish by the sword ; He that robs a Church , shall be like a wheel , of a vertiginous and unstable estate ; He that loves wine and oyle , shall not be rich : and therefore it is a declaration of that which is universally or commonly true ; but not so , that in what instance soever a man is not a believer , in that instant it is true to say he is damned ; for some are called the third , some the sixth , some the ninth hour , and they that come in , being first called , at the eleventh hour , shall have their reward : so that this sentence stands true at the day and the Judgement of the Lord , not at the judgement or day of man . And in the same necessity as faith stands to salvation , in the same it stands to Baptism ; that is , to be measured by the whole latitude of its extent . Our Baptism shall no more do all its intention , unless faith supervene , then a man is in possibility of being saved without faith ; it must come in its due time , but is not indispensably necessary in all instants and periods . Baptism is the seal of our Election and Adoption ; and as Election is brought to effect by faith , and its consequents ; so is Baptism : but to neither is faith necessary , as to its beginning and first entrance . To which also I adde this Consideration , That actual faith is necessary , not to the susception , but to the consequent effects of Baptism , appears , Because the Church , and particularly the Apostles , did baptize some persons who had not faith , but were hypocrites , such as were Simon Magus , Alexander the Copper-smith , Demas , and Diotrephes ; and such was Judas when he was baptized , and such were the Gnostick Teachers . For the effect depends upon God , who knows the heart , but the outward susception depends upon them who do not know it ; which is a certain argument , That the same faith that is necessary to the effect of the Sacrament , is not necessary to its susception ; and if it can be administred to hypocrites , much more to Infants ; if to those who really hinder the effect , much rather to them that hinder not . And if it be objected , That the Church does not know but the pretenders have faith , but she knows Infants have not . I reply , That the Church does not know but the pretenders hinder the effect , and are contrary to the grace of the Sacrament ; but she knows that Infants do not . The first possibly may receive the grace , the other cannot hinder it . But beside these things , it is considerable , That when it is required , persons have faith : it is true , they that require Baptism , should give a reason why they do : so it was in the case of the Eunuch baptized by Philip . But this is not to be required of others that do not ask it , and yet they be of the Church , and of the Faith : for by Faith is also understood the Christian Religion , and the Christian Faith is the Christian Religion ; and of this a man may be , though he make no confession of his faith ; as a man may be of the Church , and yet not be of the number of Gods secrets ones : and to this more is required then to that ; to the first it is sufficient that he be admitted by a Sacrament or a Ceremony : which is infallibly certain , because hypocrites and wicked people ate in the visible Communion of the Church , and are reckoned as members of it , and yet to them there was nothing done but the Ceremony administred ; and therefore when that is done to Infants , they also ate to be reckoned in the Church Communion . And indeed in the examples of Scripture , we finde more inserted into the number of Gods family by outward Ceremony , then by the inward grace : of this number were all those who were circumcised the eighth day , who were admitted thither , as the womans daughter was cured in the Gospel , by the faith of their mother , their natural parents , or their spiritual : To whose faith it is as certain God will take heed , as to their faith who brought one to Christ who could not come himself , the poor Paralytick ; for when Christ saw their faith , he cured their friend : and yet it is to be observed , That Christ did use to exact faith , actual faith , of them that came to him to be cured [ According to your faith be it unto you . ] The case is equal in its whole kinde . And it is considerable what Christ saith to the poor man that came in behalf of his son , All things are possible to him that believeth , it is possible for a son to receive the blessing and benefit of his fathers faith : and it was so in his case , and is possible to any ; for to faith all things are possible . And as to the event of things , it is evident in the story of the Gospel , That the faith of their relatives was equally effective to children , and friends , or servants , absent or sick , as the faith of the interested person was to himself : As appears beyond all exception in the case of the friends of the Paralytick , let down with cords thorough the tyles ; of the Centurion in behalf of his servant : of the noble man , for his son sick at Capernaum ; of the Syrophoenician , for her daughter : and Christ required faith of no sick man , but of him that presented himself to him , and desired for himself that he might be cured , as it was in the case of the blinde men . Though they could believe , yet Christ required belief of them that came to him on their behalf . And why then it may not be so , or is not so in the case of Infants Baptism , I confess it is past my skill to conjecture . The Reason on which this further relies , is contained in the next Proposition . 4. No disposition or act of man can deserve the first grace , or the grace of pardon : for so long as a man is unpardoned , he is an evemy to God , and as a dead person ; and unless he be prevented by the grace of God , cannot do a single act in order to his pardon and restitution : so that the first work which God does upon a man , is so wholly his own , that the man hath nothing in it , but to entertain it , that is , not to hinder the work of God upon him : and this is done in them that have in them nothing that can hinder the work of grace , or in them who remove the hinderances ; of the latter sort are all sinners , who have lived in a state contrary to God ; of the first are they who are prevented by the grace of God , before they can choose , that is , little children , and those that become like unto little children . So that Faith and Repentance are not necessary at first to the reception of the first grace , but by accident . If sin have drawn curtains , and put bars and coverings to the windows , these must be taken away ; and that is done by faith and repentance : but if the windows be not shut , so that the light can pass thorough them , the eye of heaven will pass in and dwell there . No man can come unto me , unless my Father draw him ; that is , the first access to Christ is nothing of our own , but wholly of God ; and it is as in our creation , in which we have an obediential capacity , but cooperate not ; onely if we be contrary to the work of grace , that contrariety must be taken off , else there is no necessity : and if all men according to Christs saying , must receive the Kingdome of God as little children , it is certain , little children do receive it ; they receive it as all men ought , that is , without any impediment or obstruction , without any thing within that is contrary to that state . 5. Baptism is not to be estimated as one act , transient and effective to single purposes , but it is an entrance to a conjugation and a state of blessings . All our life is to be transacted by the measures of the Gospel-Covenant , and that Covenant is consigned by Baptism ; there we have our title and adoption to it , and the grace that is then given to us is like a piece of leaven put into a lump of dow : and faith and repentance do in all the periods of our life , put it into fermentation and activity . Then the seed of God is put into the ground of our hearts , and repentance waters it , and faith makes it subactum solum , the ground and furrows apt to produce fruits : and therefore faith and repentance are necessary to the effect of Baptism , not to its susception ; that is , necessary to all those parts of life in which Baptism does operate , not to the first sanction or entring into the Covenant . The seed may lye long in the ground , and produce fruits in its due season , if it be refreshed with the former and the latter rain , that is , the repentance that first changes the state , and converts the man , and afterwards returns him to his title , and recalls him from his wandrings , and keeps him in the state of grace , and within the limits of the Covenant : and all the way , faith gives efficacy and acceptation to this repentance , that is , continues our title to the Promise , of not having righteousness exacted by the measures of the Law , but by the Covenant and Promise of grace , into which we entred in Baptism , and walk in the same all the dayes of our life . 6. The holy Spirit which descends upon the waters of Baptism , does nor instantly produce its effects in the soul of the baptized ; and when he does , it is irregularly , and as he please : The Spirit bloweth where it listeth , and no man knoweth whence it cometh , nor whither it goeth ; and the Catechumen is admitted into the Kingdome , yet the Kingdome of God cometh not with observation : and this saying of our blessed Saviour was spoken of the Kingdome of of God that is within us , that is , the Spirit of Grace , the power of the Gospel put into our hearts , concerning which , he affirmed , that it operates so secretly , that it comes not with outward shew , neither shall they say , Lo here , or lo there : which thing I desire the rather be observed , because in the same discourse which our blessed Saviour continued to that assembly , he affirms this Kingdome of God to belong unto little children , this Kingdome that cometh not with outward significations , or present expresses ; this Kingdome that is within us . For the present , the use I make of it is this , That no man can conclude that this Kingdome of Power , that is , the Spirit of Sanctification , is not come upon Infants , because there is no sign or expression of it . It is within us , therefore it hath no signification . It is the seed of God ; and it is no good Argument to say , Here is no seed in the bowels of the earth , because there is nothing green upon the face of it . For the Church gives the Sacrament , God gives the grace of the Sacrament . But because he does not alwayes give it at the instant in which the Church gives the Sacrament , ( as if there be a secret impediment in the suscipient ) and yet afterwards does give it , when the impediment is removed ( as to them that repent of that impediment ) it follows , that the Church may administer rightly , even before God gives the real grace of the Sacrament ; and if God gives this grace afterwards by parts , and yet all of it is the effect of that Covenant which was consigned in Baptism : he that defers some may defer all , and verifie every part as well as any part . For it is certain , that in the instance now made , all the grace is deferred ; in Infants it is not certain but that some is collated or infused : however , be it so or no , yet upon this account the administration of the Sacrament is not hindred . 7. When the Scripture speaks of the effects of , or dispositions to Baptism , it speaks in general expressions , as being most apt to signifie a common duty , or a general effect , or a more universal event , or the proper order of things : but those general expressions do not supponere universalitèr , that is , are not to be understood exclusively to all that are not so qualified , or universally of all suscipients , or of all the subjects of the proposition . When the Prophets complain of the Jews , that they are faln from God , and turned to Idols , and walk not in the way of their Fathers ; and at other times , the Scripture speaks the same thing of their Fathers , that they walked perversly toward God , starting aside like a broken bow : In these and the like expressions the holy Scripture uses a Synecdoche , or signifies many onely , under the notion of a more large and indefinite expression ; for neither were all the Fathers good , neither did all the sons prevaricate : but among the Fathers there were enough to recommend to posterity by way of example ; and among the Children , there were enough to stain the reputation of the age : but neither the one part nor the other was true of every single person . S. John the Baptist spake to the whole audience , saying , O generation of vipers ! and yet he did not mean that all Jerusalem and Judea that went out to be baptized of him , were such ; but he under an indeterminate reproof , intended those that were such , that is , especially the Priests and the Pharisees . And it is more considerable yet , in the story of the event of Christs Sermon in the Synagogue , upon his Text taken out of Isaiah , All wondred at his gracious words , and bare him witness . And a little after , All they in the Synagogue were filled with wrath , that is , it was generally so ; but hardly to be supposed true of every single person , in both the contrary humors and usages . Thus Christ said to the Apostles , Ye have abidden with me in my temptations ; and yet Judas was all the way a follower of Interest and the Bag , rather then Christ : and afterwards none of them all did abide with Christ in his greatest Temptations . Thus also to come nearer the present Question , the secret effects of Election and of the Spirit , are in Scripture attributed to all that are of the outward communion . So S. Peter calls all the Christian strangers of the Eastern dispersion , Elect , according to the fore-knowledge of God the Father : and S. Paul saith of all the Roman Christians , and the same of the Thessalonians , that their faith was spoken of in all the world ; and yet amongst them it is not to be supposed , that all the professors had an unreproveable faith , or that every one of the Church of Thessalonica was an excellent and a charitable person : and yet the Apostle useth this expression , Your faith groweth exceedingly , and the charity of every one of you all towards each other , aboundeth . These are usually significant of a general custome or order of things , or duty of men , or design , and natural or proper expectation of events ; such are these also in this very Question . As many of you as are baptized into Christ , have put on Christ ; that is , so it is regularly , and so it will be in its due time , and that is the order of things , and the designed event : but from hence we cannot conclude of every person , and in every period of time ; This man hath been baptized , therefore now he is clothed with Christ , he hath put on Christ : nor thus , This person cannot in a spiritual sense as yet put on Christ , therefore he hath not been baptized , that is , he hath not put him on in a sacramental sense . Such is the saying of S. Paul , Whom he hath predestinated , them he also called ; and whom he called , them he also justified ; and whom he justified , them he also glorified : this also declares the regular event , or at least the order of things , and the design of God , but not the actual verification of it to all persons . These sayings concerning Baptism , in the like manner are to be so understood , that they cannot exclude all persons from the Sacrament , that have not all those real effects of the Sacrament at all times , which some men have at some times , and all men must have at some time or other , viz. when the Sacrament obtains its last intention . But he that shall argue from hence , that Children are not rightly baptized , because they cannot in a spiritual sense put on Christ , concludes nothing , unless these propositions did signifie universally , and at all times , and in every person , and in every manner : which can no more pretend to truth , then that all Christians are Gods Elect , and all that are baptized , are Saints ; and all that are called , are justified ; and all that are once justified , shall be saved finally . These things declare onely the event of things , and their order , and the usuall effect , and the proper design , in their proper season , in their limited proportions . 8. A Negative Argument for matters of fact in Scripture , cannot conclude a Law , or a necessary , or a regular event . And therefore supposing that it be not intimated , that the Apostles did baptize Infants , it follows not that they did not : and if they did not , it does not follow that they might not , or that the Church may not . For it is unreasonable to argue : The Scripture speaks nothing of the Baptism of the holy Virgin-Mother , therefore she was not baptized . The words and deeds of Christ are infinite which are not recorded ; and of the acts of the Apostles we may suppose the same in their proportion : and therefore what they did not , is no rule to us , unless they did it not because they were forbidden . So that it can be no good argument to say , the Apostles are not read to have baptized Infants , therefore Infants are not to be baptized : but thus ; We do not finde that Infants are excluded from the common Sacraments and Ceremonies of Christian Institution , therefore we may not presume to exclude them . For although the Negative of a Fact is no good Argument , yet the Negative of a Law is a very good one . We may not say , the Apostles did not , therefore we may not : but thus , they were not forbidden to do it , there is no Law against it , therefore it may be done . No mans deeds can prejudicate a Divine Law expressed in general terms , much less can it be prejudiced by those things that were not done . That which is wanting cannot be numbred , cannot be effectual ; therefore , Baptize all nations , must signifie all that it can signifie , all that are reckoned in the Capitations and accounts of a Nation . Now since all contradiction to this Question depends wholly upon these two grounds ; The Negative Argument in matter of Fact , and the Pretences , That Faith and Repentance are required to Baptism : since the first is wholly nothing , and infirm upon an infinite account , and the second may conclude , that Infants can no more be saved then be baptized ; because Faith is more necessary to Salvation then to Baptism ; it being said , He that believeth not shall be damned ; and it is not said , He that believeth not shall be excluded from Baptism : it follows , that the doctrine of those that refuse to baptize their Infants is upon both its legs weak and broken , and insufficient . Upon the supposition of these grounds , the Baptism of Infants , according to the perpetual practise of the Church of God , will stand firm and unshaken upon its own base . For , as the Eunuch said to Philip , What hinders them to be baptized ? If they can receive benefit by it , it is infallibly certain , that it belongs to them also to receive it , and to their Parents to procure it : for nothing can deprive us of so great a grace , but an unworthiness or a disability . They are not disabled to receive it , if they need it , and if it does them good ; and they have neither done good nor evil , and therefore they have not forfeited their right to it . This therefore shall be the first great argument or combination of inducements ; Infants receive many benefits by the susception of Baptism , and therefore in charity and in duty we are to bring them to Baptism . 1. The first effect of Baptism is , That in it we are admitted to the Kingdome of Christ , offered and presented unto him . In which certainly there is the same act of worship to God , and the same blessing to the children of Christians , as there was in presenting the first-born among the Jews . For our children can be Gods own portion , as well as theirs ; and as they presented the first-born to God , and so acknowledged that God might have taken his life in Sacrifice , as well as the Sacrifice of the Lamb , or the Oblation of a beast : yet when the right was confessed , God gave him back again , and took a Lamb in exchange , or a pair of Doves . So are our children presented to God as forfeit , and God might take the forfeiture , and not admit the babe to the Promises of Grace : but when the presentation of the childe , and our acknowledgement is made to God , God takes the Lamb of the World in exchange , and he hath paid our forfeiture , and the children are holy unto the Lord . And what hinders here ? cannot a creeple receive an alms at the Beautiful gate of the Temple , unless he go thither himself ? Or cannot a gift be presented to God by the hands of the owners , and the gift become holy and pleasing to God without its own consent ? The Parents have a portion of the possession : Children are blessings , and Gods gifts , and the Fathers greatest wealth , and therefore are to be given again to him . In other things we give something to God of all that he gives us ; all we do not , because our needs force us to retain the greater part , and the less sanctifies the whole : but our children must all be returned to God ; for we may love them , and so may God too , and they are the better our own , by being made holy in their presentation : whatsoever is given to God is holy , every thing in its proportion and capacity ; a Lamb is holy , when it becomes a Sacrifice ; and a Table is holy , when it becomes an Altar ; and a House is holy , when it becomes a Church ; and a man is holy , when he is consecrated to be a Priest ; and so is every one that is dedicated to Religion : these are holy persons , the others are holy things ; and Infants are between both : they have the sanctification that belongs to them , the holiness that can be of a reasonable nature , offer'd and destin'd to Gods service ; but not in that degree that is in an understanding , choosing person . Certain it is , that Infants may be given to God ; and if they may be , they must be : for it is not here as in goods , where we are permitted to use all or some , and give what portion we please out of them ; but we cannot do our duty towards our children , unless we give them wholly to God , and offer them to his service and to his grace . The first does honour to God , the second does charity to the children . The effects and real advantages will appear in the sequel : in the mean time this Argument extends thus far , that Children may be presented to God acceptably , in order to his service . And it was highly praeceptive , when our blessed Saviour commanded , that we should suffer little children to come to him : and when they came , they carried away a blessing along with them . He was desirous they should partake of his merits : he is not willing , neither is it his Fathers will , that any of these little ones should perish . And therefore he dyed for them , and loves , and blessed them : and so he will now , if they be brought to him , and presented as Candidates of the Religion and of the Resurrection . Christ hath a blessing for our children , but let them come to him , that is , be presented at the doors of the Church , to the Sacrament of Adoption and Initiation ; for I know no other way for them to come . 2. Children may be adopted into the Covenant of the Gospel , that is , made partakers of the Communion of Saints , which is the second effect of Baptism ; parts of the Church , members of Christs Mystical body , and put into the order of eternal life . Now concerning this , it is certain , the Church clearly hath power to do her offices in order to it . The faithful can pray for all men , they can do their piety to some persons with more regard and greater earnestness : they can admit whom they please in their proper dispositions , to a participation of all their holy prayers , and communions , and preachings , and exhortations : and if all this be a blessing , and all this be the actions of our own charity , who can hinder the Church of God from admitting Infants to the communion of all their pious offices , which can do them benefit in their present capacity ? How this does necessarily infer Baptism , I shall afterwards discourse * But for the present I enumerate , That the blessings of Baptism are communicable to them ; they may be admitted into a fellowship of all the Prayers and Priviledges of the Church , and the Communion of Saints , in blessings , and prayers , and holy offices . But that which is of greatest perswasion and convincing efficacy in this particular , is , That the children of the Church are as capable of the same Covenant , as the children of the Jews : But it was the same Covenant that Circumcision did consign , a spiritual Covenant under a veil , and now it is the same spiritual Covenant without the veil , which is evident to him that considers it ; thus : The words of the Covenant are these [ I am the Almighty God , walk before me , and be thou perfect ; I will multiply thee exceedingly . Thou shalt be a father of many Nations : Thy name shall not be Abram , but Abraham . Nations and Kings shall be out of thee . I will be a God unto thee , and unto thy seed after thee ; and I will give all the Land of Canaan to thy seed , and all the Males shall be circumcised , and it shall be a token of the Covenant between me and thee : and he that is not circumcised , shall be cut off from his people . The Covenant which was on Abrahams part was , To walk before God , and to be perfect : on Gods part , To bless him with a numerous issue , and them with the Land of Canaan ; and the sign was Circumcision , the token of the Covenant . Now in all this , here was no duty to which the posterity was obliged , nor any blessing which Abraham could perceive or feel , because neither he nor his posterity did enjoy the Promise for many hundred years after the Covenant : and therefore as there was a duty for the posterity which is not here expressed ; so there was a blessing for Abraham , which was concealed under the leaves of a temporal Promise , and which we shall better understand from them whom the Spirit of God hath taught the mysteriousness of this transaction . The Argument indeed , and the observation is wholly S. Pauls , Abraham and the Patriarchs died in faith , not having received the Promises , viz. of a possession in Canaan . They saw the Promises afar off , they embraced them , and looked through the Cloud , and the temporal veil , this was not it ; they might have returned to Canaan , if that had been the object of their desires , and the design of the Promise : but they desired and did seek a Countrey , but it was a better , and that a heavenly . This was the object of their desire , and the end of their search , and the reward of their faith , and the secret of their Promise . And therefore Circumcision was a seal of the righteousness of faith , which he had before his Circumcision , before the making this Covenant ; and therefore it must principally relate to an effect and a blessing , greater then was afterwards expressed in the temporal Promise : which effect was forgiveness of sins , a not imputing to us our infirmities , Justification by faith , accounting that for righteousness : and these effects or graces were promised to Abraham , not onely for his posterity after the flesh , but his children after the spirit , even to all that shall believe and walk in the steps of our father Abraham , which he walked in , being yet uncircumcised . This was no other but the Covenant of the Gospel , though afterwards otherwise consigned : for so the Apostle expresly affirms , that Abraham was the father of Circumcision ( viz. by vertue of this Covenant ) not onely to them that are circumcised , but to all that believe : for this promise was not through the law of works , or of circumcision , but of faith . And therefore as S. Paul observes , God promised that Abraham should be a father ( not of that Nation onely , but ) of many Nations , and the heir of the world ; that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith . And , if ye be Christs , then ye are Abrahams seed , and heirs according to the Promise . Since then the Covenant of the Gospel , is the Covenant of Faith , and not of Works ; and the Promises are spiritual , not saecular ; and Abraham the father of the faithful Gentiles , as well as the circumcised Jews ; and the heir of the world , not by himself , but by his seed , or the Son of Man , our Lord Jesus : it follows , that the Promises which Circumcision did seal , were the same Promises which are consigned in Baptism ; the Covenant is the same , onely that Gods people are not impal'd in Palestine , and the veil is taken away , and the temporal is passed into spiritual , and the result will be this , That to as many persons , and in as many capacities , and in the same dispositions as the Promises were applied , and did relate in Circumcision , to the same they do belong , and may be applied in Baptism . And let it be remembred , That the Covenant which Circumcision did sign , was a Covenant of Grace and Faith ; the Promises were of the Spirit , or spiritual , it was made before the Law , and could not be rescinded by the Legal Covenant . Nothing could be added to it , or taken from it ; and we that are partakers of this grace , are therefore partakers of it by being Christs servants , united to Christ , and so are become Abrahams seed ( as the Apostle at large and professedly proves in divers places , but especially in the 4. of the Romans , and the 3. to the Galatians . ) And therefore if Infants were then admitted to it , and consigned to it by a Sacrament which they understood not any more then ours do , there is not any reason why ours should not enter in at the ordinary gate and door of Grace as well as they . Their children were circumcised the Eighth day , but were instructed afterwards , when they could enquire what these things meant . Indeed their Proselytes were first taught , then circumcised ; so are ours , baptized : but their Infants were consigned first , and so must ours . 3. In Baptism we are born again ; and this Infants need in the present circumstances , and for the same great reason , that men of age and reason do . For our natural birth is either of it self insufficient , or is made so by the fall of Adam , and the consequent evils , that nature alone , or our first birth , cannot bring us to heaven , which is a supernatural end , that is , an end above all the power of our nature as now it is . So that if nature cannot bring us to heaven , grace must , or we can never get thither ; if the first birth cannot , a second must : but the second birth spoken of in Scripture , is Baptism ; A man must be born of water and the spirit . And therefore Baptism is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , the laver of a new birth . Either then Infants cannot go to heaven any way that we know of , or they must be baptized . To say they are to be left to God , is an excuse , and no answer : for when God hath opened the door , and calls that the entrance into heaven , we do not leave them to God , when we will not carry them to him in the way which he hath described , and at the door which himself hath opened : we leave them indeed , but it is but helpless and destitute : and though God is better then Man , yet that is no warrant to us , what it will be to the children , that we cannot warrant , or conjecture . And if it be objected , That to the new birth is required dispositions of our own , which are to be wrought by and in them that have the use of reason : besides that this is wholly against the Analogy of a new birth , in which the person to be born is wholly a passive , and hath put into him the principle that in time will produce its proper actions : It is certain , that they that can receive the new birth , are capable of it ; the effect of it is a possibility of being saved , and arriving to a supernatural felicity . If Infants can receive this effect , then also the new birth , without which they cannot cannot receive the effect . And if they can receive salvation , the effect of the new birth , what hinders them , but they may receive that that is in order to that effect , and ordained onely for it ; and which is nothing of it self , but in its institution and relation , and which may be received by the same capacity in which one may be created , that is , a passivity , or a capacity obediential . 4. Concerning pardon of sins , which is one great effect of Baptism , it is certain , that Infants have not that benefit which men of sin and age may receive . He that hath a sickly stomach drinks wine , and it not onely refreshes his spirits , but cures his stomach . He that drinks wine and hath not that disease , receives good by his wine , though it does not minister to so many needs ; it refreshes him , though it does not cure him : and when oyle is poured upon a mans head , it does not alwayes heal a wound , but sometimes makes him a chearful countenance , sometimes it consigns him to be a King or a Priest . So it is in Baptism : it does not heal the wounds of actual sins , because they have not committed them ; but it takes off the evil of Original sin : whatsoever is imputed to us by Adams prevarication , is washed off by the death of the second Adam , into which we are baptized . But concerning Original sin , because there are so many disputes which may intricate the Question , I shall make use onely of that which is confessed on both sides , and material to our purpose . Death came upon all men by Adams sin , and the necessity of it remains upon us , as an evil consequent of the disobedience . For though death is natural , yet it was kept off from man by Gods favour , which when he lost , the banks were broken , and the water reverted to its natural course , and our nature became a curse , and death a punishment . Now that this also relates to Infants so far , is certain , because they are ▪ sick , and dye . This the Pelagians denied not . But to whomsoever this evil descended , upon them also a remedy is provided by the second Adam , That as in Adam all dye , even so in Christ shall all be made alive ; that is , at the day of Judgement : then death shall be destroyed . In the mean time , death hath a sting and a bitterness , a curse it is , and an express of the Divine Anger : and if this sting be not taken away here , we shall have no participation of the final victory over death . Either therefore Infants must be for ever without remedy in this evil consequent of their Fathers sin , or they must be adopted into the participation of Christs death , which is the remedy . Now how can they partake of Christs death , but by Baptism into his death ? For if there be any spiritual way fancied , it will by a stronger argument admit them to Baptism : for if they can receive spiritual effects , they can also receive the outward Sacrament ; this being denyed onely upon pretence they cannot have the other . If there be no spiritual way extraordinary , then the ordinary way is onely left for them . If there be an extraordinary , let it be shewn , and Christians will be at rest concerning their children . One thing onely I desire to be observed , That Pelagius denyed Original sin , but yet denyed not the necessity of Infants Baptism ; and being accused of it in an Epistle to Pope Innocent the first , he purged himself of the suspicion , and allowed the practise , but denyed the inducement of it : which shews , that their arts are weak that think Baptism to be useless to Infants , if they be not formally guilty of the prevarication of Adam : By which I also gather , that it was so universal , so primitive a practise , to baptize Infants , that it was greater then all pretences to the contrary : for it would much have conduced to the introducing his opinion against Grace and Original sin , if he had destroyed that practise which seemed so very much to have its greatest necessity from the doctrine he denyed . But against Pelagius , and against all that follow the parts of his opinion , it is of good use which S. Austine , Prosper , and Fulgentius argue ; If Infants are punished for Adams sin , then they are also guilty of it in some sense . Nimis enim impium est hoc de Dei sentire justitiâ quod à praevaricatione liberos cum reis voluerit esse damnatos . So Prosper . Dispendia quae flentes nascendo testantur , dicito quo merito sub justissimo & omnipotentissimo judice eis , si nullum peccatum attrahant , arrogentur , said S. Austin . For the guilt of sin signifies nothing but the obligation to the punishment : and he that feels the evil consequent , to him the sin is imputed ; not as to all the same dishonour , or moral accounts , but to the more material , to the natural account : and in holy Scripture the taking off the punishment , is the pardon of the sin ; and in the same degree the punishment is abolished , in the same God is appeased , and then the person stands upright , being reconciled to God by his grace . Since therefore Infants have the punishment of sin , it is certain the sin is imputed to them ; and therefore they need being reconciled to God by Christ : and if so , then , when they are baptized into Christs death , and into his Resurrection , their sins are pardoned , because the punishment is taken off , the sting of natural death is taken away , because Gods anger is removed , and they shall partake of Christs Resurrection : which because Baptism does signifie and consign , they also are to be baptized . To which also adde this appendant Consideration , That whatsoever the Sacraments do consign , that also they do convey and minister : they do it , that is , God by them does it ; lest we should think the Sacraments to be meer illusions , and abusing us by deceitful ineffective signs : and therefore to Infants the grace of a title to a Resurrection , and Reconciliation to God by the death of Christ is conveyed , because it signifies and consigns this to them more to the life and analogy of resemblance , then Circumcision to the Infant sons of Israel . I end this Consideration with the words of Nazianzen , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . Our birth by Baptism does cut off every unclean appendage of our natural birth , and leads us to a celestial life : and this in children is therefore more necessary , because the evil came upon them without their own act of reason and choice , and therefore the grace and remedy ought not to stay the leisure of dull Nature , and the Formalities of the Civill Law . 5. The Baptism of Infants does to them the greatest part of that benefit which belongs to the remission of sins . For Baptism is a state of Repentance and pardon for ever . This I suppose to be already proved , to which I onely adde this Caution , That the Pelagians to undervalue the necessity of supervening grace , affirmed , That Baptism did minister to us grace sufficient to live perfectly , and without sin for ever . Against this S. Jerome sharply declaims , and affirms , a Baptismum praeterita donare peccata , non futuram servare justitiam : that is , non statim justum facit & omni plenum justitiâ , as he expounds his meaning in another place . Vetera peccata conscindit , novas virtutes non tribuit ; dimittit à carcere , & dimisso , si laboraverit , praemia pollicetur . Baptism does not so forgive future sins , that we may do what we please , or so as we need not labour and watch , and fear perpetually , and make use of Gods grace to actuate our endevours , but puts us into a state of pardon , that is , in a Covenant of Grace , in which so long as we labour and repent , and strive to do our duty , so long our infirmities are pityed , and our sins certain to be pardoned upon their certain conditions ; that is , by virtue of it we are capable of pardon , and must work for it , and may hope it . And therefore Infants have a most certain capacity and proper disposition to Baptism ▪ for sin creeps before it can go , and little undecencies are soon learned , and malice is before their years , and they can do mischief and irregularities betimes ; and though we know not when , nor how far they are imputed in every moneth of their lives , yet it is an admirable art of the Spirit of grace , to put them into a state of pardon , that their remedy may at least be as soon as their necessity . And therefore Tertullian and Gregory Nazianzen advised the Baptism of children to be at three or four years of age ; meaning , that they then begining to have little inadvertencies & hasty follies , and actions so evil as did need a lavatory . But if Baptism hath an influence upon sins in the succeeding portions of our life , then it is certain , that their being presently innocent , does not hinder , and ought not to retard the Sacrament ; and therefore Tertullian's Quid festinat innocens aetas ad remissionem peccatorum ? what need Innocents hasten to the remission of sins ? is soon answered . It is true , they need not in respect of any actual sins , for so they are innocent : but in respect of the evils of their nature , derived from their original , and in respect of future sins in the whole state of their life , it is necessary they be put into a state of pardon before they sin , because some sin early , some sin later ; and therefore unless they be baptized so early , as to prevent the first sins , they may chance dye in a sin , to the pardon of which they have yet derived no title from Christ . 6. The next great effect of Baptism , which children can have , is the Spirit of Sanctification , and if they can be baptized with Water and the Spirit , it will be sacriledge to rob them of so holy treasures . And concerning this , although it be with them , as S. Paul sayes of Heirs , The heir so long as he is a childe differeth nothing from a servant , though he be lord of all ; and children , although they receive the Spirit of Promise , and the Spirit of Grace , yet in respect of actual exercise , they differ not from them that have them not at all , yet this hindres not but they may have them . For as the reasonable soul and all its faculties are in children , Will and Vnderstanding , Passions , and Powers of Attraction and Propulsion , yet these faculties do not operate or come abroad till time and art , observation and experience have drawn them forth into action : so may the Spirit of Grace , the principle of Christian life , be infused , and yet lye without action till in its own day it is drawn forth . For in every Christian there are three parts concurring to his integral constitution , Body , and Soul , and Spirit ; and all these have their proper activities and times , but every one in his own order , first that which is natural , then that which is spiritual . And as Aristotle said , A man first lives the life of a plant , then of a beast , and lastly of a man , is true in this sense : and the more spiritual the principle is , the longer it is before it operates , because more things concur to spiritual actions , then to natural : and these are necessary , and therefore first ; the other are perfect , and therefore last . And who is he that so well understands the Philosophy of this third principle of a Christians life , the Spirit , as to know how or when it is infused , and how it operates in all its periods , and what it is in its beeing and proper nature ; and whether it be like the soul , or like the faculty , or like a habit , or how or to what purposes God in all varieties does dispense it ? These are secrets which none but bold people use to decree , and build propositions upon their own dreams . That which is certain , is , that * The Spirit is the principle of a new life , or a new birth . * That Baptism is the laver of this new birth . * That it is the seed of God , and may lye long in the furrows before it springs up . * That from the faculty to the act , the passage is not alwayes sudden and quick . * That the Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance , that is , of Resurrection to eternal life : which inheritance because children we hope shal have , they cannot be denied to have its Seal and Earnest , that is , if they shall have all , they are not to be denyed a part . * That children have some effects of the Spirit , and therefore do receive it , and are baptized with the Spirit , and therefore may with Water : which thing is therefore true and evident , because some children are sanctified , as Jeremy and the Baptist , and therefore all may . And because all signification of persons is an effect of the holy Ghost , there is no peradventure but they that can be sanctified by God can in that capacity receive the holy Ghost : and all the ground of dissenting here , is onely upon a mistake , because Infants do no act of holiness , they suppose them incapable of the grace of Sanctification . Now Sanctification of children , is their adoption to the inheritance of sons , their presentation to Christ , their consignation to Christs service ▪ and to Resurrection , their being put into a possibility of being saved , their restitution to Gods favour , which naturally , that is , as our nature is depraved and punished , they could not have . And in short the case is this : * Original Righteousness was in Adam after the manner of nature , but it was an act or effect of grace , and by it men were not made , but born righteous ; the inferior faculties obeyed the superior , the minde was whole and right , and conformable to the Divine Image , the Reason and the Will alwayes concurring , the Will followed Reason , and Reason followed the Laws of God , and so long as a man had not lost this ▪ he was pleasing to God , and should have passed to a more perfect state . Now because this , if Adam had stood , should have been born with every childe , there was in Infants a principle which was the seed of holy life here , and a blessed hereafter ; and yet the children should have gone in the road of nature , then as well as now , and the Spirit should have operated at natures leisure ; God being the giver of both , would have made them instrumental to , and perfective of each other , but not destructive . Now what was lost by Adam , is restored by Christ , the same Righteousness , onely it is not born , but superinduc'd , not integral , but interrupted , but such as it is , there is no difference , but that the same or the like principle may be derived to us from Christ , as there should have been from Adam , that is , a principle of obedience , a regularity of faculties , a beauty in the soul , and a state of acceptation with God . And we see also in men of understanding and reason , the Spirit of God dwells in them , ( which Tatianus describing , uses these words , {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . The soul is possessed with sparks , or materials of the power of the Spirit ) and yet it is sometimes ineffective and unactive , sometimes more , sometimes less , and does no more do its work at all times , then the soul does at all times understand . Adde to this , That if there be in Infants naturally an evil principle , a proclivity to sin , an ignorance and pravity of minde , a disorder of affections ( as experience teaches us there is , and the perpetual doctrine of the Church , and the universal mischiefs issuing from mankinde , and the sin of every man does witness too much ) why cannot Infants have a good principle in them , though it works not till its own season , as well as an evil principle ? If there were not by nature some evil principle , it is not possible that all the world should choose sin : In free agents it was never heard , that all individuals loved and chose the same thing , to which they were not naturally inclined . Neither do all men choose to marry , neither do all choose to abstain : and in this instance there is a natural inclination to one part ; but of all the men and women in the world , there is no one that hath never sinned . If we say that we have no sin , we deceive our selves , and the truth is not in us ▪ said an Apostle . If therefore nature hath in Infants an evil principle , which operates when the childe can choose , but is all the while within the soul ; either Infants have by grace a principle put into them , or else sin abounds where grace does not superabound , expresly against the doctrine of the Apostle . The event of this discourse is , that if Infants be capable of the Spirit of grace , there is no reason but they may and ought to be baptized , as well as men and women ; unless God had expresly forbidden them , which cannot be pretended : and that Infants are capable of the Spirit of grace , I think is made very credible . Christus infantibus infans factus sanctificans infantes , said Irenaeus : Christ became an Infant among the Infants , and does sanctifie Infants : and S. Cyprian affirms , Esse apud omnes sive infantes sive majores natu unam divini muneris aequitatem . There is the same dispensation of the divine grace to all alike , to Infants as well as to men . And in this Royal Priesthood , as it is in the secular , Kings may be anointed in their Cradles , Dat ( Deus ) sui Spiritus occultissimam gratiam , quam etiam latentèr infundit in parvulis , God gives the most secret grace of his Spirit , which he also secretly infuses into Infants . And if a secret infusion be rejected , because it cannot be proved at the place and at the instant , many men that hope for heaven will be very much to seek for a proof of their earnest , and need an earnest of the earnest . For all that have the Spirit of God cannot in all instants prove it , or certainly know it : neither is it yet defined by how many indices the Spirits presence can be proved or signified . And they limit the Spirit too much , and understand it too little , who take accounts of his secret workings , and measure them by the material lines and methods of natural and animal effects . And yet because whatsoever is holy , is made so by the holy Spirit , we are certain that the children of believing , that is , of Christian parents , are holy . S. Paul affirmed it , and by it hath distinguished ours from the children of unbelievers , and our marriages from theirs : and because the children of the Heathen when they come to choice and reason , may enter to Baptism and the Covenant if they will , our children have no privilege beyond the children of Turks or Heathens , unless it be in the present capacity , that is , either by receiving the holy Ghost immediately , and the Promises , or at least having a title to the Sacrament , and entring by that door . If they have the Spirit , nothing can hinder them from a title to the water ; and if they have onely a title to the water of the Sacrament , then they shall receive the Promise of the holy Spirit , the benefits of the Sacrament : else their privilege is none at all , but a dish of cold water , which every village nurse can provide for her new born babe . But it is in our case as it was with the Jews children : our children are a holy seed ; for if it were not so with Christianity , how could S. Peter move the Jews to Christianity , by telling them the Promise was to them and their children ? For if our children be not capable of the Spirit of Promise and Holiness , and yet their children were holy , it had been a better Argument to have kept them in the Synagogue , then to have called them to the Christian Church . Either therefore 1. there is some holiness in a reasonable nature , which is not from the Spirit of holiness ; or else 2. our children do receive the holy Spirit , because they are holy ; or if they be not holy , they are in worse condition under Christ then under Moses : or if none of all this be true , then our children are holy by having received the holy Spirit of Promise , and consequently nothing can hinder them from being baptized . And indeed if the Christian Jews , whose children are circumcised , and made partakers of the same Promises and Title , and Inheritance and Sacraments , which themselves had at their conversion to the faith of Christ , had seen their children now shut out from these new Sacraments , it is not to be doubted but they would have raised a storm , greater then could easily have been suppressed : since about their Circumcisions they had raised such Tragedies and implacable disputations : and there had been great reason to look for a storm ; for their children were circumcised , and if not baptized , then they were left under a burthen which their fathers were quit of , for S. Paul said unto you , Whosoever is circumcised , is a debtor to keep the whole Law . These children therefore that were circumcised , stood obliged for want of Baptism to perform the Laws of Ceremonies , to be presented into the Temple , to pay their price , to be redeemed with silver and gold ; to be bound by the Law of pollutions and carnal ordinances : and therefore if they had been thus left , it would be no wonder if the Jews had complained and made a tumult : they used to do it for less matters . To which let this be added , That the first book of the New Testament was not written till eight years after Christs Ascension , and S. Marks Gospel twelve years . In the mean time , to what Scriptures did they appeal ? by the analogy or proportion of what writings did they end their Questions ? whence did they prove their Articles ? They onely appealed to the Old Testament , and onely added what their Lord superadded . Now either it must be said that our blessed Lord commanded that Infants should not be baptized , which is no where pretended ; and if it were ▪ cannot at all be proved : or if by the proportion of Scriptures they did serve God , and preach the Religion , it is plain , that by the Analogy of the Old Testament , that is , of those Scriptures by which they proved Christ to be come , and to have suffered , they also approved the Baptism of Infants , or the admitting them to the society of the faithful Jews , of which also the Church did then principally consist . 7. That Baptism ( which consigns men and women to a blessed Resurrection ) doth also equally consign Infants to it , hath nothing , that I know of , pretended against it , there being the same signature and the same grace , and in this thing all being alike passive , and we no way cooperating to the consignation and promise of grace : and Infants have an equall necessity , as being lyable to sickness and groaning with as sad accents , and dying sooner then men and women , and less able to complain , and more apt to be pityed and broken with the unhappy consequents of a short life , and a speedy death , & infelicitate priscorum hominum , with the infelicity and folly of their first Parents : and therefore have as great need as any , and that is capacity enough to receive a remedy for the evil which was brought upon them by the fault of another . 8. And after all this , if Baptism be that means which God hath appointed to save us , it were well if we would do our parts towards Infants final interest ; which whether it depends upon the Sacrament and its proper grace , we have nothing to relye upon , but those Texts of Scripture which make Baptism the ordinary way of entring into the state of salvation : save onely we are to adde this , that because of this law Infants are not personally capable , but the Church for them , as for all others indefinitely , we have reason to believe , that their friends neglect shall by some way be supplyed ; but Hope hath in it nothing beyond a Probability . This we may be certain of , that naturally we cannot be heirs of Salvation , for by nature we are children of wrath , and therefore an eternal separation from God , is an infallible consequent to our evil nature : either therefore children must be put into the state of grace , or they shall dwell for ever where Gods face does never shine . Now there are but two wayes of being put into the state of grace and salvation ; the inward , by the Spirit , and the outward , by Water , which regularly are together . If they be renewed by the Spirit , what hinders them to be baptized , who receive the holy Ghost as well as we ? If they are not capable of the Spirit , they are capable of Water ; and if of neither , where is their title to heaven , which is neither internal nor external , neither spiritual nor sacramental , neither secret nor manifest , neither natural nor gracious , neither original nor derivative ? And well may we lament the death of poor babes that are {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , concerning whom if we neglect what is regularly prescribed to all that enter heaven , without any difference expressed , or case reserved , we have no reason to be comforted over our dead children , but may weep as they that have no hope . We may hope when our neglect was not the hinderance , because God hath wholly taken the matter into his own hand , and then it cannot miscarry ; and though we know nothing of the children , yet we know much of Gods goodness : But when God hath permitted it to us , that is , offered and permitted children to our ministery , whatever happens to the Innocents , we may well fear lest God will require the souls at our hands : and we cannot be otherwise secure , but that it will be said concerning our children , which S. Ambrose used in a case like this , Anima illa potuit salva fieri , si habuisset purgationem , This soul might have gone to God , if it had been purified and washed . We know God is good , infinitely good , but we know it is not at all good to tempt his goodness : and he tempts him , that leaves the usual way , and pretends it is not made for him , and yet hopes to be at his journeys end , or expects to meet his childe in heaven , when himself shuts the door against him , which for ought he knows is the onely one that stands open . S. Austin was severe in this Question against unbaptized Infants , therefore he is called durus Pater Infantium : though I know not why the original of that opinion should be attributed to him , since S. Ambrose said the same before him , as appears in his words above quoted in the margent . And now that I have enumerated the blessings which are consequent to Baptism , and have also made apparent , That Infants can receive these blessings , I suppose I need not use any other perswasions to bring children to Baptism . If it be certain they may receive these good things by it , it is certain they are not to be hindred of them without the greatest impiety , and sacriledge , and uncharitableness in the world . Nay , if it be onely probable that they receive these blessings , or if it be but possible they may , nay unless it be impossible they should , and so declared by revelation or demonstratively certain , it were intolerable unkindness and injustice to our pretty innocents , to let their crying be unpityed , and their natural misery eternally irremediable , and their sorrows without remedy , and their souls no more capable of relief , then their bodies of Physick , and their death left with the sting in , and their Souls without Spirits to go to God , and no Angel guardian to be assigned them in the Assemblies of the faithful , and they not to be reckoned in the accounts of God and Gods Church . All these are sad stories . There are in Scripture very many other probabilities , to perswade the Baptism of Infants , but because the places admit of divers interpretations , the Arguments have so many diminutions , and the certainty that is in them is too fine for easie understandings , I have chosen to build the ancient doctrines upon such principles which are more easie and certain , and have not been yet sullied and rifled with the contentions of an adversary . This onely I shall observe , That the words of our blessed Lord [ Vnless a man be born of Water and the Spirit , he cannot enter into the Kingdome of heaven ] cannot be expounded to the exclusion of children , but the same expositions will also make Baptism not necessary for men : for if they be both necessary ingredients , Water and the Spirit , then let us provide water , and God will provide the Spirit ; if we bring wood to the Sacrifice , he will provide a Lamb . And if they signifie distinctly , one is ordinarily as necessary as the other , and then Infants must be baptized , or not be saved . But if one be exegetical and explicative of the other , and by Water and the Spirit is meant onely the purification of the Spirit , then where is the necessity of Baptism for men ? It will be as the other Sacrament , at most but highly convenient , not simply necessary , and all the other places will easily be answered , if this be avoided . But however , these words being spoken in so decretory a manner , are to be used with fear and reverence ; and we must be infallibly sure by some certain infallible arguments , that Infants ought not to be baptized , or we ought to fear concerning the effect of these decretory words . I shall onely adde two things by way of Corollary to this Discourse . That the Church of God ever since her numbers are full ▪ have for very many ages consisted almost wholly of Assemblies of them who have been baptized in their Infancy : and although in the first callings of the Gentiles , the chiefest and most frequent Baptisms were of converted and repenting persons and believers , yet from the beginning also the Church hath baptized the Infants of Christian Parents ; according to the Prophecy of Isaiah , Behold , I will lift up my hands to the Gentiles , and set up a standard to the people , and they shall bring thy sons in their arms , and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders . Concerning which , I shall not onely bring the testimonies of the matter of fact , but either a report of an Apostolical Tradition , or some Argument from the Fathers , which will make their testimony more effectuall in all that shall relate to the Question . The Author of the book of Ecclesiastical Hierarchy , attributed to S. Denis the Areopagite , takes notice , that certain unholy persons and enemies to the Christian Religion , think it a ridiculous thing that Infants , who as yet cannot understand the Divine Mysteries , should be partakers of the Sacraments ; and that professions and abrenunciations should be made by others for them and in their names . He answers , that Holy men , Governors of Churches , have so taught , having received a Tradition from their Fathers and Elders in Christ : by which answer of his , as it appears , that he himself was later then the Areopagite ; so it is so early by him affirmed , that even then there was an ancient Tradition for the Baptism of Infants , and the use of Godfathers in the ministery of the Sacrament . Concerning which , it having been so ancient a Constitution of the Church , it were well if men would rather humbly and modestly observe , then like scorners deride it , in which they shew their own folly as well as immodesty . For what undecency or incongruity is it , that our parents natural or spiritual should stipulate for us , when it is agreeable to the practise of all the laws and transactions of the world , an effect of the Communion of Saints and of Christian Oeconomy ? For why may not Infants be stipulated for as well as we ? all were included in the stipulation made with Adam ; he made a losing bargain for himself , and we smarted for his folly : and if the faults of Parents , and Kings , and relatives , do bring evil upon their children , and subjects , and correlatives , it is but equal that our children may have benefit also by our charity and piety . But concerning making an agreement for them , we finde that God was confident concerning Abraham , that he would teach his children : and there is no doubt but Parents have great power , by strict education and prudent discipline , to efform the mindes of their children to vertue . Joshua did expresly undertake for his houshold , I and my house will serve the Lord : and for children we may better do it , because till they are of perfect choice , no Government in the world is so great , as that of Parents over their children , in that which can concern the parts of this Question : for they rule over their understandings , and children know nothing but what they are told , and they believe it infinitely : and it is a rare art of the Spirit , to engage Parents to bring them up well in the nurture and admonition of the Lord ; they are persons obliged by a superinduced band , they are to give them instructions and holy principles , as they give them meat ; and it is certain that Parents may better stipulate for their children , then the Church can for men and women ; for they may be present Impostors and Hypocrites , as the Church story tells of some , and consequently are {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , not really converted , and ineffectively baptized : and the next day they may change their resolution , and grow weary of their Vow : and that is the most that children can do when they come to age : and it is very much in the Parents , whether the children shall do any such thing , or no ; — purus & insons [ Vt me collaudem ] si & vivo carus amicis , Causa fuit Pater his — Ipse mihi custos incorruptissimus omnes Circum Doctores aderat ; quid multa ? pudicum ( Qui primus virtutis bonos ) servavit ab omni Non solùm facto , verum opprobrio quoque turpi : — oh hoc nunc Laus illi debetur , & à me gratia major . Horat. For Education can introduce a habit and a second nature , against which children cannot kick , unless they do some violence to themselves and their inclinations . And although it fails too often when ever it fails , yet we pronounce prudently concerning future things , when we have a less influence into the event , then in the present case , ( and therefore are more unapt persons to stipulate ) and less reason in the thing it self ( and therefore have not so much reason to be confident . ) Is not the greatest prudence of Generals instanced in their foreseeing future events , and guessing at the designs of their enemies , concerning which they have less reason to be confident , then Parents of their childrens belief of the Christian Creed ? To which I adde this consideration , That Parents or Godfathers may therefore safely and prudently promise , that their children shall be of the Christian faith , because we not onely see millions of men and women who not onely believe the whole Creed onely upon the stock of their education ; but there are none that ever do renounce the faith of their Countrey and breeding , unless they be violently tempted by interest or weakness , antecedent or consequent . He that sees all men almost to be Christians , because they are bid to be so , need not question the fittingness of Godfathers promising in behalf of the children for whom they answer . And however the matter be for Godfathers , yet the tradition of baptizing Infants passed through the hands of Irenaeus , Omnem aetatem sanctificans per illam quae ad ipsam erat similitudinem . Omnes n. venit per semet ipsum salvare , omnes inquam qui per eum renascuntur in Deum , infantes , & parvulos , & pueros , & juvenes , & seniores . Ideo per omnem venit aetatem , & infantibus infans factus sanctificās infantes , in parvulis parvulus , &c. Christ did sanctifie every age by his own susception of it , and similitude to it . For he came to save all men by himself , I say all who by him are born again unto God , Infants , and children , and boyes , and yong men , and old men . He was made an Infant to Infants , sanctifying Infants , a little one to the little ones , &c. And Origen is express , Ecclesia traditionem ab Apostolis suscepit etiam parvulis dare baptismum . The Church hath received a Tradition from the Apostles to give Baptism to Children . And S. Cyprian in his Epistle to Fidus , gives account of this Article : for being questioned by some lesse skilfull persons , whether it were lawfull to baptize Children before the eighth day ; he gives account of the whole question , and a whole Councell of sixty six Bishops upon very good reason decreed , that their baptism should at no hand be deferred , though whether six , or eight , or ten dayes , was no matter , so there be no danger or present necessity . The whole epistle is worth the reading . But besides these authorities of such who writ before the starting of the Pelagian Questions , it will not be useless to bring their discourses , of them and others , I mean the reason upon which the Church did it both before and after . Irenaeus his argument was this ; Christ tooke upon him our nature to sanctifie and to save it ; and passed thorough the severall periods of it , even unto death , which is the symbole and effect of old age ; and therefore it is certaine he did sanctifie all the periods of it : and why should he be an infant , but that infants should receive the Crowne of their age , the purification of their stained nature , the sanctification of their persons , and the saving of their soules by their Infant Lord and elder Brother ? Omnis enim anima eousque in Adam censetur donec in Christo recenseatur : tamdiu immunda quamdiu recenseatur . Every soul is accounted in Adam till it be new accounted in Christ ; and so long as it is accounted in Adam , so long it is uncleane ; and we know no uncleane thing can enter into heaven ; and therefore our Lord hath defined it , Vnlesse ye be born of water and the spirit , ye cannot enter into the Kingdome of Heaven : that is , ye cannot be holy . It was the argument of Tertullian ; which the rather is to be received , because he was one lesse favorable to the custome of the Church in his time of baptizing Infants , which custome he noted and acknowledged , and hath also in the preceding discourse fairely proved . * And indeed ( that S. Cyprian may superadde his Symbol ) God who is no accepter of persons will also be no accepter of ages . * For if to the greatest delinquents sinning long before against God , remission of sins be given when afterwards they beleive , and from Baptisme and from Grace no man is forbidden , how much more ought not an Infant be forbidden , who being new born , hath sinned nothing , save onely that being in the flesh , born of Adam in his first birth , he hath contracted the contagion of an old death . Who therefore comes the easier to obtain remission of sins , because to him are forgiven not his own , but the sins of another man . None ought to be driven from Baptism and the Grace of God , who is mercifull , and gentle , and pious unto all ; and therefore much lesse Infants , who more deserve our aid , and more need the divine mercy , because in the first beginning of their birth crying and weeping , they can do nothing but call for mercy and reliefe . For this reason it was ( saith Origen ) that they to whom the secrets of the Divine mysteries were committed , did baptize their Infants , because there was born with them the Impurities of sin , which did need material absolution as a Sacrament of spiritual purification ; for that it may appear that our sins have a proper analogy to this Sacrament , the body it self is called the body of sin : and therefore the washing of the body is not ineffectual towards the great work of pardon and abolition . Indeed after this absolution there remains concupiscence , or the material part of our misery and sin : For Christ by his death onely took away that which when he did dye for us , he bore in his own body upon the tree . Now Christ onely bore the punishment of our sin , and therefore we shall not dye for it , but the material part of the sin Christ bore not . Sin could not come so neer him ; It might make him sick and dye , but not disordered and stained . He was pure from Original and Actual sins ; and therefore that remains in the body , though the guilt and punishment be taken off , and changed into advantages and grace ; and the Actual are received by the Spirit of grace descending afterwards upon the Church , and sent by our Lord to the same purpose . But it is not rationally to be answered what S. Ambrose sayes , quia omnis peccato obnoxia , ideo omnis aetas Sacramento idonea : For it were strange that sin and misery should seize upon the innocent and most unconsenting persons ; and that they onely should be left without a Sacrament , and an instrument of expiation . And although they cannot consent to the present susception , yet neither do they refuse ; and yet they consent as much to the grace of the Sacrament , as to the prevarication of Adam and because they suffer under this , it were but reason they should be relieved by that . And * it were better ( as Gregory Nazianzen affirms ) that should be consigned and sanctified without their own knowledge , then to dye without their being sanctified ; for so it happened to the circumcised babes of Israel : and if the conspersion and washing the doore posts with the blood of a lamb , did sacramentally preserve all the first-born of Goshen , it cannot be thought impossible or unreasonable that the want of understanding in children should hinder them from the blessing of a sacrament , and from being redeemed and washed with the blood of the Holy Lamb , who was slain for all from the beginning of the world . After all this it is not inconsiderable that we say the Church hath great power and authority about the Sacraments ; which is observeable in many instances . She appointed what persons she pleased , and in equal power made an unequal dispensation and ministery . The Apostles first dispensed all things , and then they left off exteriour ministeries to attend to the word of God and prayer : and S. Paul accounted it no part of his office to baptize , when he had been separated by imposition of hands at Antioch , to the work of preaching and greater ministeries ; and accounted that act of the Church , the act of Christ , saying , Christ sent mee not to baptize , but to preach the Gospel : they used various forms in the ministration of Baptism , sometimes baptizing in the name of Christ , sometimes expressely invocating the Holy and ever Blessed Trinity : one while [ I baptize thee ] as in the Latine Church , but in Greek , [ Let the servant of Christ be Baptized : ] and in all Ecclesiastical ministeries the Church invented the forms , & in most things hath often changed them , as in absolution , excommunication , and sometimes they baptized people upon their profession of repentance , and then taught them ; as it hapned to the Jaylor and all his family ; in whose case there was no explicit faith afore hand in the mysteries of Religion , so far as appears ; and yet he , and not onely he , but all his house were baptized at that hour of the night when the earthquake was terrible , and the fear was pregnant upon them , & this upon their Masters account , as it is likely : but others were baptized in the conditions of a previous faith , and a new begun repentance * . They baptized in rivers or in lavatories , by dipping or by sprinkling ; for so we finde that S. Laurence did as he went to martyrdom , and so the Church did sometimes to Clinicks , and so it is highly convenient to be done in Northern Countries according to the prophecy of Isaiah , So shall he sprinkle many Nations , according as the typical expiations among the Jews were usually by sprinkling : and it is fairly relative to the mystery , to the sprinkling with the blood of Christ and the watering of the furrows of our souls with the dew of heaven , to make them to bring forth fruit unto the Spirit and unto holinesse . The Church sometimes dipt the Catechumen three times ; sometimes but once ▪ some Churches use fire in their baptisms , so do the Ethiopians , and the custome was antient in some places . And so in the other Sacrament ; sometimes she stood and sometimes kneeled , and sometimes received it in the mouth , and sometimes in the hand : one while in leavened , another while in unleavened bread : sometimes the wine and water were mingled , sometimes they were pure ; and they admitted some persons to it sometimes , which at other times she rejected : sometimes the Consecration was made by one forme , sometimes by another : and to conclude , sometimes it was given to Infants , sometimes not : and she had power so to do ; for in all things where there was not a Commandment of Christ expressed or imployed in the nature and in the end of the institution , the Church had power to alter the particulars , as was most expedient , or conducing to edification : and although the after ages of the Church which refused to communicate Infants , have found some little things against the lawfulnesse , and those ages that used it found out some pretences for its necessity ; yet both the one and the other had liberty to follow their own necessities , so in all things they followed Christ . Certainly there is infinitely more reason why Infants may be communicated , then why they may not be baptized . And that this discourse may revert to its first intention ; although there is no record extant of any Church in the world , that from the Apostles dayes inclusively to this very day ever refused to baptize their children , yet if they had upon any present reason they might also change their practise , when the reason should be changed ; and therefore if there were nothing els in it , yet the universal practise of all Churches in all ages , is abundantly sufficient to determine us , and to legitimate the practise , since Christ hath not forbidden it . It is sufficient confutation to disagreeing people to use the words of S. Paul , we have no such custome , nor the Churches of God , to suffer children to be strangers from the Covenant of Promise , till they shall enter into it as Jews or Turks may enter , that is , by choise and disputation . But although this alone to modest and obedient , that is , to Christian Spirits , be sufficient , yet this is more then the question did need . It can stand upon its proper foundation . Quicunque parvulos recentes ab uteris matrum baptizandos negat , anathema est . He that refuseth to baptize his Infants , shall be in danger of the Councel . The PRAYER . O Holy and Eternal Iesus , who in thy own person wert pleased to sanctify the waters of baptism and by thy institution and commandment didst make them effectual , to excellent purposes of grace and remedy , be pleased to verify the holy effects of baptism to me and all thy servants whose names are dedicated to thee in an early and timely presentation , and enable us with thy grace to verify all our promises , by which we were bound , then when thou didst first make us thy own portion and relatives in the consummation of a holy covenant . O be pleased to pardon all those undecencies and unhandsome interruptions of that state of favour in which thou didst plant us by thy grace , and admit us by the gates of baptism : and let that Spirit which moved upon those holy waters never be absent from us , but call upon us and invite us by a perpetual argument and daily solicitations and inducements to holiness ; that we may never return to the filthiness of sin , bnt by the answer of a good conscience may please thee and glorify thy name and doe honour to thy religion and institution in this world , and may receive the blessings and the rewards of it in the world to come , being presented to thee pure and spotless in the day of thy power when thou shalt lead thy Church to a Kingdome , and endless glories . Amen . The End . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A95331e-250 §. 1. §. 2. Joh. 4. 14. §. 3. 1 Pet. 3. 21. §. 4. §. 5. Vmbra in lege , imago in Evangelio , veritas in coelo . S. Ambr. §. 6. 1 Cor. 10. 2. §. 7. §. 8. a Tertull. de praescrip. . c. 40. b scholiast. . in Ju. sat . 2. l. 2. c O nimium faciles qui tristia crimina caedis Tolli stumineâ posse putatis aquâ . §. 9. John 4. 1. §. 10. Audi quid Scripturae doceant : Johannis baptisma non tam peccata dimisit , quàm baptisma poenitentiae fuit in peccatorum remissionem , idque in futuram remissionē quae esset postea per sanctificationem Christi subsequutura . Hieronym . adv. Luciferian . a Vide suprà . Sect. 9. n. 1. b Acts 8. 16. Acts 2. 38. §. 11. §. 12. Mat. 28. 19. Mark 16. 16. John 3. 5. Gen. 17. 14. S. August ▪ haeres . 46. 59. §. 13. §. 14. Heb. 6. 1. S. August . l. 2. c. 1. de Cate. rudib . Just . Martyr . Apol. 2. Acts 2. 47. 15. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} ▪ Cyril . Hierosol . Catec . 2. 1 Cor. 12. 13. Acts 13. 48. §. 16. John 3 5. Titus 3. 5. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . Damasc . l. 4. orth . fid. c. 10. Lib. de c. 1. Lib. 5. Hist. 17. Ezek 36. 25. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . Symb. Nicen. lib. 1. c. 3. in Johan . Acts 22. 16. Eph. 5. 26. Lib 4. adv. Marc. c 9. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . Gr. pro , Annon ita credimus quia omn● g●nus peccati cùm ad salutare lavacrum venimus aufertur ? O. igen . homil. 15. in Jesu . Ecce quicquid iniquitatum sempiternus ignis excoquere & expiare vix posset , subito sacro fonte submersum est , & de aeternis debitis brevissimo lavacri compendio cum indulgentissimo creditore transactum est . Ambros. l. 1. c. 7. de poen . Qui dicit peccata in baptismo non funditùs dimitti , dicat in mari rubro Aegyptios non veraciter mortuos . S. Greg. M. l. 9. ep 39. Phavorin . Arator . l. 2. Hist. Apostol. Rev. 7. 14. 1 John 1. 7. Acts 22. 16. Tit. 3. 5. Heb. 9. 14. 1 John 5. 8. §. 18. Titus 3. 4 , 5. Theodoret. Ep. de divin. Decret. cap. de Lib. de Nuptiis . cap. 23. & Tract. 124. in Johan . Vide Salmeron . tom , 13. p. 487. §. 19. Gal. 3. 26. Verse 29. Heb. 10. 16 , &c. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , scil. a● futurum respiciens {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} 2 Pet. 1. 9. Vide part . 2. disc. 9. of Repentance , num . 9. ad 31. §. 20. Paulin. Ep. 12. ad Serenum . 1 Cor. 12. 13. John 3. 5. S. Basil . de Spir. S. cap. 15. §. 21. * 2 Cor. 1. 22. Eph. 1. 13. 4. 30 John 6. 27. S. Cyril Hieros . Catech. 3. §. 22. S. Basil . in Psal. 28. Heb. 10. 32. Heb. 6. 4. 1 Joh. 2. 20 , 27. §. 23. 1 John 39. Lib. de Spir. S. c. 18. Rom. 6. 7. ver. 5. 6. * {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , i. e. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . Plutar. vide Disc. 9. of Repentance . n. 46. §. 24. Rom. 5. 3 , 5. Col. 2. 12. §. 25. Mark 16. 16. Tit. 3. 5. Niceph. l. 7. c. 35. Socr. l. 5. c. 6. Idem lib. 7. c. 7. Psal. 34. 7. Heb. 1. 14. Basil . Theodor . Epiphan , Nazanz . Col. 2. 2. Cyril . Heros . Dionys . areop. . August . l. 2. c. 13. Contra Crescon. Gram. §. 27. Mark 16. 16. Acts 2. 28. Apol. ad Anton. Caes. 1 Pet. 3. 21. Tertull. de resur. Cern . Ad Tryphon . Jud. Dial. cum Tryph. Lib. 2. adv. Parm. Clem. Alex. lib. 1. paedag. . c. 6. §. 28. Notes for div A95331e-5050 §. 1. §. 2. Acts 10. 47. Aug. de moribus Eccles. Cath. l. 1. c. 35. Bern. Serm. de coena Dom. §. 3. Acts 8. 37. Acts 2. 38. Acts 3. 15. §. 4. §. 5. Mat 9. 28. Mark 9. 23. Mat. 8. 13. John 4. 50. Mat. 9. 28. §. 6. John 6. 44. Mark 10. 15. 7. §. 8. Luke 17. 20 , 21. Luke 18. 16. §. 9. Luk. 4. 22 , 28. 1 Pet. 1. 2. 2 Thess. 1. 2. Rom. 8. 30. Eccles. 1. §. 11. §. 12. §. 13. * §. 25 , &c. §. 14. Gen. 17. 2 , &c. Heb. 11. 13. 14. 15. Rom. 4. 11. 7. 12. §. 15. Rom. 4 , 11 , 12. V. 17. V. 13. Gal. 3. 14 , 29. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} ▪ Epiphan. l. 1. haeres . 8. scil. Epicuraeor . §. 16. Tit. 3. 5. §. 17. Rom. 5. 17 , 18. Vide August . l. 4. contra duas Epistolas Pelag. c. 4. l. 6. contr. Iur. c. 4. Prosper . contra collatorem . cap. 20. Orat. 40. in S. §. 18. a Lib. 3. adv. Pelag. 6. lib. 1. in initio . Lib. de c. 18. §. 19. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . Dionys . areop. . eccles. Hier. cap. 3. part . 3. Vt quod perdideramus in Adam , i. e. secundum imaginem & similitudinem esse Dei , hoc in Jesu Christo reciperemus . Irenaeus lib. 3. c. 30. 1 Joh. 1. 8. Ep. ad Fiden . lib. 3. ep. 8. S. Aug. lib. de pec . Mer. & remiss . c. 9. §. 20. §. 21. §. 22. §. 23. §. 24. Nisi qui renatus fuerit &c. utique nullum excipit , non infantem , non aliquā praeventum necessitate . Ambr. de Abrab . patr. lib. 2. c. 11. Lib. 2. c. 11. de Abrah . patriarc . §. 25. §. 26. §. 27. Isa. 49. 22. §. 28. §. 29. L. 2. c. 39. Vide etiam Constit . Clementis . {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . Lib. 5. ad ●om . c. 6. idem homil . 14. in Lucam & lib. 8. hom 8. in . Levitic . §. 30. §. 31. Irenaeus . §. 32. Tertullian . Lib. de anima . c. 39. & 4● S. Cyprian epist. ad Fidum . * Cyprian . Origen . lib. 5. ad Rom. C. 6. §. 33. S. Ambrose . de Abraham patriar. . l 2 c. 11. * S. Greg. Naz. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} . Orat. 40. in S. §. 34. * Non ut delinquere desinant sed quia defierunt , as Tertul. phraseth i● . Isa. 52. 15. 1 Pet. 1. 2. Aqua refectionis & baptismi lavacrum quo anima sterilis ariditate peccati ad bonos fructus inferendos divinis muneribus irrigatur . Cassidor . m. 23. ps. 2. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} , dixit Heracleon apud Clem. Alex. Concil. Mil●vit . Can. 2. 
A63823	----	A dissuasive from popery by Jeremy, Lord Bishop of Down. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. 1664 Approx. 365 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 164 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2003-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A63823 Wing T321 ESTC R10468 13563493 ocm 13563493 100300 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A63823) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 100300) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 803:15) A dissuasive from popery by Jeremy, Lord Bishop of Down. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. The third edition revised and corrected by the author. [30], 294, [1] p., [3] leaves of plates : ill., port. Printed by J.G. for Rich. Royston ..., London : 1664. Caption title: A dissuasive from popery to the people of Ireland. Advertisement on p. [1] at end. Reproduction of original in Huntington Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). 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Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Catholic Church -- Controversial literature. 2002-01 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2002-02 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2002-03 TCP Staff (Oxford) Sampled and proofread 2002-03 Judith Siefring Text and markup reviewed and edited 2002-04 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion Non magna loquimur sed bivimus . Nihil opinionis Gratia. omnia Conscentiae faciam A Dissuasive FROM POPERY . By JEREMY Lord Bishop of Down . The third Edition , revised and corrected by the Author . LONDON : Printed by I. G. for Rich. Royston , Bookseller to the King 's most Excellent Majesty . MDCLXIV . THE PREFACE TO THE READER . WHen a Roman Gentleman had , to please himself , written a book in Greek , and presented it to Cato ; he desir'd him to pardon the faults of his Expressions , since he wrote in Greek , which was a Tongue in which he was not perfect Master . Cato told him he had better then to have let it alone and written in Latin , by how much it is better not to commit a fault , than to make apologies . For if the thing be good , it needs not to be excus'd ; if it be not good , a crude apologie will do nothing but confess the fault , but never makes amends . I therefore make this Address to all who will concern themselves in reading this book , not to ask their pardon for my fault in doing of it ; I know of none ; for if I had known them I would have mended them before the Publication ; and yet though I know not any , I do not question but much fault will be found by too many ; I wish I have given them no cause for their so doing . But I do not onely mean it in the particular Periods , ( where every man that is not a Son of the Church of England or Ireland , will at least do as Apollonius did to the Apparition that affrighted his company on the mountain Caucasus , he will revile and persecute me with evil words ) but I mean it in the whole Design , and men will reasonably or capritiously ask , Why any more Controversies ? Why this over again ? Why against the Papists , against whom so very many are already exasperated , that they cry out fiercely of Persecution ? And why can they not be suffered to enjoy their share of peace , which hath returned in the hands of His Sacred Majesty at his blessed Restauration ? For as much of this as concerns my self I make no excuse , but give my reasons , and hope to justifie this procedure with that modesty which David us'd to his angry brother , saying , What have I now done ? is there not a cause ? The cause is this : The Reverend Fathers my Lords the Bishops of Ireland in their circumspection and watchfulness over their Flocks having espied grievous Wolves to have entered in , some with Sheeps-clothing , and some without , some secret enemies , and some open , at first endeavour'd to give check to those enemies which had put fire into the bed-straw ; and though God hath very much prosper'd their labours , yet they have work enough to do , and will have , till God shall call them home to the land of peace and unity . But it was soon remembred , that when King James of blessed memory had discerned the spirits of the English Non-conformists , and found them peevish and factious , unreasonable and imperious , not onely unable to govern , but as inconsistent with the Government , as greedy to snatch at it for themselves ; resolved to take off their disguise , and put a difference between Conscience and Faction , and to bring them to the measures and rules of Laws ; and to this the Council and all wise men were consenting , because by the Kings great wisdom , and the conduct of the whole Conference and Inquiry , men saw there was reason on the Kings side , and necessity on all sides . But the Gun-powder Treason breaking out , a new Zele was enkindled against the Papists , and it shin'd so greatly , that the Non-conformists escap'd by the light of it , and quickly grew warm by the heat of that flame , to which they added no small increase by their Declamations and other acts of insinuation : insomuch that they being neglected , multiply'd untill they got power enough to do all those mischiefs which we have seen and felt . This being remembred and spoken of , it was soon observ'd that the Tables onely were now turn'd , and that now the publick zele and watchfulness against those men and those persuasions , which so lately have afflicted us , might give to the Emissaries of the Church of Rome leisure and opportunity to grow into numbers and strength to debauch many Souls , and to unhinge the safety and peace of the Kingdom . In Ireland we saw too much of it done , and found the mischief growing too fast , and the most intolerable inconveniencies , but too justly apprehended , as near and imminent . We had reason at least to cry Fire when it flamed through our very Roofs , and to interpose with all care and diligence when Religion and the eternal Interest of Souls was at stake , as knowing we should be greatly unfit to appear and account to the great Bishop and Shepherd of Souls if we had suffer'd the enemies to sow tares in our fields , we standing and looking on . It was therefore consider'd how we might best serve God , and rescue our charges from their danger , and it was concluded presently to run to arms , I mean to the weapons of our warfare , to the armour of the Spirit , to the works of our calling , and to tell the people of their peril , to warn them of the enemy , and to lead them in the ways of truth and peace and holiness : that if they would be admonished , they might be safe , if they would not , they should be without excuse , because they could not say but the Prophets have been amongst them . But then it was next enquired who should minister in this affair , and put in order all those things which they had to give in charge : It was easie to chuse many , but hard to chuse one ; there were many fit to succeed in the vacant Apostleship , and though Barsabas the Just was by all the Church nam'd as a fit and worthy man , yet the lot fell upon Matthias ; and that was my case , it fell to me to be their Amanuensis , when persons most worthy were more readily excus'd ; and in this my Lords the Bishops had reason , that ( according to S. Pauls rule ) If there be judgments or controversies amongst us , they should be imploy'd who are least esteem'd in the Church ; and upon this account I had nothing left me but Obedience ; though I confess that I found regret in the nature of the imployment , for I love not to be ( as S. Paul calls it ) one of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Disputers of this world . For I suppose skill in Controversies ( as they are now us'd ) to be the worst part of Learning , and time is the worst spent in them , and men the least benefited by them ; that is , when the Questions are curious and impertinent , intricate and inexplicable , not to make men better , but to make a Sect. But when the Propositions disputed are of the foundation of Faith , or lead to good life , or naturally do good to single persons or publick societies , then they are part of the depositum of Christianity , of the Analogy of faith ; and for this we are by the Apostle commanded to contend earnestly , and therefore Controversies may become necessary ; but because they are not often so , but oftentimes useless and always troublesom ; and as an ill diet makes an ill habit of body , so does the frequent use of controversies baffle the understanding , and makes it crafty to deceive others , it self remaining instructed in nothing but useless notions and words of contingent signification and distinctions without difference , which minister to pride and contention and teach men to be pertinacious , troublesome and uncharitable , therefore I love them not . But because by the Apostolical Rule I am tyed to do all things without murmurings , as well as without disputings , I consider'd it over again , and found my self reliev'd by the subject matter , and the grand consequent of the present Questions . For in the present affair , the case is not so as in the others ; here the Questions are such that the Church of Rome declares them to reach as far as eternity , and damn all that are not of their opinions ; and the Protestants have much more reason to fear concerning the Papists , such who are not excus'd by ignorance , that their condition is very sad and deplorable , and that it is charity to snatch them as a brand from the fire ; and indeed the Church of Rome maintains Propositions , which , if the Ancient Doctors of the Church may be believ'd , are apt to separate from God. I instance in their superaddition of Articles and Propositions , derived onely from a pretended tradition , and not contain'd in Scripture . Now the doing of this is a great sin , and a great danger . Adoro Scripturae plenitudinem ; Si non est scriptum timeat vae illud adjicientibus & detrahentibus destinatum , said Tertullian : I adore the fulness of Scripture , and if it be not written , let Hermogenus fear the wo that is destin'd to them that detract from or adde to it . S. Basil says , Without doubt it is a most manifest argument of infidelity , and a most certain sign of pride , to introduce any thing that is not written ( in the Scriptures ; ) our blessed Saviour having said , My sheep hear my voice , and the voice of strangers they will not hear ; and to detract from Scriptures , or adde any thing to the Faith that is not there , is most vehemently forbidden by the Apostle , saying , If it be but a mans testament , nemo superordinat , no man adds to it . And says also , This was the Will of the Testator . And Theophilus Alexandrinus says plainly , It is the part of a Devillish spirit to think any thing to be Divine , that is not in the authority of the holy Scriptures : and therefore S. Athanasius affirms , that the Catholicks will neither speak nor endure to hear any thing in Religion that is a stranger to Scripture ; it being immodestiae vaecordia , an evil heart of immodesty , to speak those things which are not written . Now let any man judge whether it be not our duty , and a necessary work of charity , and the proper office of our Ministry , to persuade our charges from the immodesty of an evil heart , from having a Devillish spirit , from doing that which is vehemently forbidden by the Apostle , from infidelity and pride , and lastly from that eternal Wo which is denounc'd against them that adde other words and doctrines than what is contain'd in the Scriptures , and say , Dominus dixit , The Lord hath said it , and he hath not said it . If we had put these severe censures upon the Popish doctrine of Tradition , we should have been thought uncharitable ; but because the holy Fathers do so , we ought to be charitable , and snatch our Charges from the ambient flame . And thus it is in the question of Images ; Dubium non est , quin Religio nulla sit , ubicunque fimulacrum est , said Lactantius ; Without all peradventure where ever an Image is , ( meaning for worship ) there is no Religion : and that we ought rather to die than pollute our Faith with such impieties , said Origen . It is against the Law of Nature , it being expresly forbidden by the second Commandment , as Irenaeus affirms , Tertullian , Cyprian , and S. Augustine ; and therefore is it not great reason we should contend for that Faith which forbids all worship of Images , and oppose the superstition of such Guides who do teach their people to give them veneration , to prevaricate the Moral Law , end the very Law of Nature , and do that which whosoever does has no Religion ? We know Idolatry is a damnable sin , and we also know that the Roman Church with all the artifices she could use , never can justifie her self , or acquit the common practises from Idolatry ; and yet if it were but suspicious that it is Idolatry , it were enough to awaken us ; for God is a jealous God , and will not endure any such causes of suspicion and motives of jealousie . I instance but once more . The primitive Church did excommunicate them that did not receive the holy Sacrament in both kinds , and S. Ambrose says , that he who receives the Mystery other ways than Christ appointed , ( that is , but in one kind , when he hath appointed it in two ) is unworthy of th● Lord , and he cannot have Devotion . Now this thing we ough● not to suffer , that our people by so do●ing should remain unworthy of th● Lord , and for ever be indevou● , ●● cozen'd with a false shew of devotion , or fall by following evil Guides into the sentence of Excommunication . These matters are not trifling , and when we see these errours frequently taught and own'd as the onely true Religion , and yet are such evils , which the Fathers say are the way of damnation , we have reason to hope that all wise and good men , lovers of souls , will confess that we are within the circles of our duty , when we teach our people to decline the crooked ways , and to walk in the ways of Scripture and Christianity . But we have observed amongst the generality of the Irish , such a declension of Christianity , so great credulity to believe every superstitious story , such confidence in vanity , such groundless pertinacy , such vicious lives , so little sense of true Religion and the fear of God , so much care to obey the Priests , and so little to obey God ; such intolerable ignorance , such fond Oaths and manners of swearing , thinking themselves more oblig'd by swearing on the Mass-book , than the four Gospels , and S. Patricks Mass-book more than any new one ; swearing by their Fathers soul , by their Godsips hand , by other things which are the product of those many Tales are told them ; their not knowing upon what account they refuse to come to Church , but onely that now they are old and never did , or their Countreymen do not , or their Fathers or Grandfathers never did , or that their Ancestours were Priests , and they will not alter from their Religion ; and after all , can give no account of their Religion what it is : onely they believe as their Priest bids them , and go to Mass which they understand not , and reckon their Beads to tell the number and the tale of their prayers , and abstain from Eggs and flesh in Lent , and visit S. Patricks Well , and leave Pins and Ribbons , Yarn or Thred in their holy Wells , and pray to God , S. Mary and S. Patrick , S. Columbanus and S. Bridget , and desire to be buried with S. Francis's Cord about them , and to fast on Saturdays in honour of our Lady . These and so many other things of like nature we see daily , that we being conscious of the infinite distance which these things have from the spirit of Christianity , know that no charity can be greater than to persuade the people to come to our Churches , where they shall be taught all the ways of godly wisdom , of peace and safety to their souls : whereas now there are many of them that know not how to say their prayers , but mutter like Pies and Parrots words which they are taught , but they do not pretend to understand . But I shall give one particular instance of their miserable superstition and blindness . I was lately within a few moneths very much troubled with Petitions and earnest Requests for the restoring a Bell , which a Person of Quality had in his hands in the time of , and ever since , the late Rebellion . I could not guess at the reasons of their so great and violent importunity , but told the Petitioners , If they could prove that Bell to be theirs , the Gentleman was willing to pay the full value of it ; though he had no obligation to do so ( that I know of ) but charity : but this was so far from satisfying them , that still the importunity increased , which made me diligently to inquire into the secret of it . The first cause I found was , that a dying person in the Parish desired to have it rung before him to Church , and pretended he could not die in peace if it were deny'd him ; and that the keeping of that Bell did anciently belong to that family from father to son : but because this seem'd nothing but a fond and an unreasonable superstition , I enquired further , and at last found that they believ'd this Bell came from Heaven , and that it used to be carried from place to place , and to end Controversies by Oath , which the worst men durst not violate if they swore upon that Bell , and the best men amongst them durst not but believe him ; that if this Bell was rung before the Corps to the grave , it would help him out of Purgatory ; and that therefore when any one died , the friends of the deceased did , whilest the Bell was in their possession , hire it for the behoof of their dead , and that by this means that Family was in part maintain'd . I was troubled to see under what spirit of delusion those poor souls do lie , how infinitely their credulity is abused , how certainly they believe in trifles , and perfectly rely on vanity , and how little they regard the truths of God , and how not at all they drink of the waters of Salvation . For the numerous companies of Priests and Friars amongst them take care they shall know nothing of Religion , but what they design for them , they use all means to keep them to the use of the Irish Tongue , lest if they learn English they might be supplied with persons fitter to instruct them ; the people are taught to make that also their excuse for not coming to our Churches , to hear our advices , or converse with us in religious intercourses , because they understand us not , and they will not understand us , neither will they learn that they may understand and live . And this and many other evils are made greater and more irremediable by the affrightment which their Priests put upon them by the issues of Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction , by which ( they now exercising it too publickly ) they give them Laws , not onely for Religion , but even for Temporal things , and turn their Proselytes from the Mass , if they become Farmers of the Tithes from the Minister or Proprietary without their leave . I speak that which I know to be true by their own confession and unconstrain'd and uninvited Narratives ; so that as it is certain that the Roman Religion , as it stands in distinction and separation from us , is a body of strange Propositions , having but little relish of true primitive and pure Christianity , ( as will be made manifest , if the importunity of our Adversaries extort it ) so it is here amongst us a Fa●tion and a State-party and design to recover their old Laws and barbarous manner of living , a device to enable them to dwell alone , and to be Populus unius labii , a people of one language and unmingled with others . And if this be Religion , it is such a one as ought to be reproved by all the severities of Reason and Religion , lest the people perish , and their souls be cheaply given away to them that make merchandize of souls , who were the purchace and price of Christs bloud . Having given this sad account , why it was necessary ●hat my Lords the Bishops should take care to do what they have done in this affair , and why I did consent to be engaged in this Controversie , otherwise than I love to be , and since it is not a love of trouble and contention , but charity to the souls of the poor deluded Irish , there is nothing remaining but that we humbly desire of God to accept and to bless this well-meant Labour of Love , and that by some admirable ways of his Providence , he will be pleas'd to convey to them the notices of their danger , and their sin , and to●de-obstruct the passages of necessary truth to them , for we know the arts of their Guides , and that it will be very hard that the notice of these things shall ever be suffer'd to arrive to the common people , but that whi●● hinders will hinder untill it be taken away : however we believe and hope in God for remedy . For although Edom would not let his brother Israel pass into his Countrey , and the Philistims would stop the Patriarchs Wells , and the wicked Shepherds of Midian would drive their neighbours flocks from the watering troughs , and the Emissaries of Rome use all arts to keep the people from the use of Scriptures , the Wells of salvation , and from entertaining the notices of such things which from the Scriptu●es we teach ; yet as God found out a remedy for those of old , so he will also for the poor misled people of Ireland ; and will take away the evil minds , or the opportunities of the Adversaries hindring the people from Instruction , and make way that the Truths we have here taught may approch to their ears , and sink into their hearts , and make them wise unto salvation . Amen . The Contents . The Introduction . pag. 1 CHAP. I. The Doctrine of the Roman Church in the Controverted Articles is neither Catholick , Apostolick , nor Primitive . 5 CHAP. II. The Church of Rome , as it is at this day disordered , teaches Doctrines and uses Practices , which are in themselves , or in their true and immediate Consequences , direct Impieties , and give warranty to a wicked life . 127 CHAP. III. The Church of Rome teaches Doctrines● which in many things are destructive of Christian Society in general , and o● Monarchy in special : Both which the Religion of the Church of England and Ireland does by her Doctrines greatly and Christianly support . 260 A DISSUASIVE FROM POPERY To the People of IRELAND . The Introduction . THe Questions of difference between Our Churches and the Church of Rome have been so often disputed , and the evidences both sides so often produc'd , that those who are strangers to the present constitution of affairs , it may seem very unnecessary to say them over again : and yet it will seem almost im●impossible to produce any new matter ; or if we could , it will not be probable , that what can be newly alleged can prevail more than all that which already hath been so often urged in these Questions . But we are not deterr'd from doing our duty by any such considerations : as knowing , that the same medicaments are with successe applyed to a returning or an abiding Ulcer ; and the Preachers of Gods word must for ever be ready to put the People in mind of such things , which they already have heard , and by the same Scriptures and the same reasons endeavour to destroy their sin , o● prevent their danger , and by the same word of God to extirpate those errors , which have had opportunity in the time of our late disorders to spring up and grow stronger , not when the Keepers of the field slept , but when they were wounded , and their hands cut of●● and their mouths stopp'd lest they should continue , or proceed to do the work of God thoroughly . A little warm Sun , and some indulgent showers of a softer rain , have made many weeds of erroneous Doctrine to take root greatly , and to spread themselves widely : and the Bigots of the Roman Church by their late importune boldness and indiscreet frowardness in making Proselytes have but too manifestly declar'd to all the World , that if they were rerum potiti ● Masters of our affairs , they would suffer nothing to grow but their own Colocynths and Gourds . And although the Natural remedy for this were to take away that impunity , upon the account of which alone they do encrease , yet because we shall never be Authors of such Counsels , but confidently rely upon God , the Holy Scriptures , right reason , and the most venerable and prime Antiquity , which are the proper defensatives of truth for its support and maintenance ; yet we must not conceal from the People , committed to our charges , the great evils to which they are tempted by the Roman Emissaries , that while the King and the Parliament take care to secure all the publick interests by instruments of their own , we also may by the word of our proper Ministery endeavour to stop the progression of such errors , which we know to be destructive of Christian Religion , and consequently dangerous to the interest of souls . In this procedure , although we shall say some things which have not been alwayes plac'd before their eyes , and others we shall represent with a fittingness to their present necessities , and all with Charity too , and zeal for their souls ; yet if we were to say nothing but what hath been often said already ; we are still doing the work of God , and repeating his voice , and by the same remedies curing the same diseases , and we only wait for the blessing of God prospering that importunity which is our duty : according to the avice of Solomon , In the Morning sow thy seed , and in the Evening withhold not thy hand , for thou knowest not whether shall prosper , either this , or that , or whether they both shall be alike good . CHAP. I. The Doctrine of the Roman Church in the Controverted Articles is neither Catholick , Apostolick , nor Primitive . Sect. I. IT was the challenge of St. Augustine to the Donatists , who ( as the Church of Rome does at this day ) inclos'd the Catholick Church within their own circuits : [ Ye say that Christ is Heir of no Lands , but where Donatus is Co-heir . Read this to us out of the Law and the Prophets , out of the Psalms , out of the Gospel it self , or out of the Letters of the Apostles . Read it thence and we believe it . ] Plainly directing us to the Fountains of our Faith , the Old and New Testament , the words of Christ , and the words of the Apostles . For nothing else can be the Foundation of our Faith , whatsoever came in after these , for is est , it belongs not unto Christ. * To these we also add , not as Authors or Finishers , but as helpers of our Faith , and Heirs of the Doctrine Apostolical , the Sen●iments and Catholick Doctrine of the Church of God , in the Ages next after the Apostles . Not that we think them or our selves bound to every private opinion , even of a Primitive Bishop and Martyr ; but that we all acknowledge that the whole Church of God kept the Faith entire , and transmitted faithfully to the after-Ages the whole Faith , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the form of Doctrine , and sound words , which was at first delivered to the Saints , and was defective in nothing that belong'd unto salvation ; and we believe that those Ages sent millions of Saints to the bosom of Christ , and seal'd the true faith with their lives and with their deaths , and by both , gave testimony unto Jesus , and had from him the testimony of his Spirit . And this method of procedure we now choose , not only because to them that know well how to use it , to the Sober and the Moderate , the Peaceable and the Wise , it is the best , the most certain , visible and tangible , most humble and satisfactory , but also because the Church of Rome does with greatest noises pretend her Conformity to Antiquity . Indeed the present Roman Doctrines , which are in difference , were invisible and unheard-of in the first and best antiquity , and with how ill success their quotations are out of the Fathers of the first three Ages , every inquiring Man may easily discern . But the noises therefore which they make are from the Writings of the succeeding Ages ; where secular interest did more prevail , and the writings of the Fathers were vast and voluminous , full of controversie , and ambiguous senses , fitted to their own times and questions , full of proper opinions , and such variety of sayings , that both sides eternally and inconfutably shall bring sayings for themselves respectively . Now although things being thus , it will be impossible for them to conclude from the sayings of a number of Fathers , that their doctrine , which they would prove thence , was the Catholick Doctrine of the Church ; because any number that is less than all , does not prove a Catholick consent ; yet the clear sayings of one or two of these Fathers truly alleged by us to the contrary , will certainly prove that what many of them ( suppose it ) do affirm , and which but two or three as good Catholicks as the other do deny , was not then matter of faith or a Doctrine of the Church ; for if it had , these had been Hereticks accounted , and not have remain'd in the Communion of the Church . But although for the reasonableness of the thing we have thought fit to take notice of it ; yet we shall have no need to make use of it ; since not onely in the prime and purest Antiquity we are indubitably more than Conquerors ; but even in the succeeding Ages , we have the advantage both numero , pondere & men surâ , in number , weight and measure . We do easily acknowledge that to dispute these questions from the sayings of the Fathers is not the readiest way to make an end of them ; but therefore we do wholly rely upon Scriptures as the foundation and final resort of all our perswasions , and from thence can never be confuted ; but we also admit the Fathers as admirable helps for the understanding of the Scriptures , and as good testimony of the Doctrine deliver'd from their forefathers down to them of what the Church esteem'd the way of Salvation : and therefore if we find any Doctrine now taught , which was not plac'd in their way of Salvation , we reject it as being no part of the Christian faith , and which ought not to be impos'd upon consciences . They were wise unto salvation , and fully instructed to every good work ; and therefore the faith which they profess'd and deriv'd from Scripture , we profess also ; and in the same faith , we hope to be sav'd even as they . But for the new Doctors ; we understand them not , we know them not : Our faith is the same from the beginning , and cannot become new . But because we shall make it to appear that they do greatly innovate in al their points of controversie with us , and shew nothing but shadows instead of substances , and little images o● things instead of solid arguments ; we shall take from them their armour in which they trusted , and choose this sword of Goliath to combat their errors ; for non est alter talis ; It is no● easie to find a better than the word of God expounded by the prime and best Antiquity . The first thing therefore we are to advertise is , that the Emissaries of the Roman Church endeavour to perswade the good People of our Dioceses from a Religion that is truly Primitive and Apostolick , and divert them to Propositions of their own , new and unheard-of in the first ages o● the Christian Church . For the Religion of our Church is therefore certainly Primitive and Apostolick , because it teaches us to believe the whole Scriptures of the Old and New Testament , and nothing else as matter of faith ; and therefore unless there can be new Scriptures , we can have no new matters of belief , no new articles of faith . Whatsoever we cannot prove from thence , we disclaim it , as not deriving from the Fountains of our Saviour . We also do believe the Apostles Creed , the Nicene , with the additions of Constantinople , and that which is commonly called , the Symbol of Saint Athanasius : and the four first General Councils are so intirely admitted by us , that they together with the plain words of Scripture are made the rule and measure of judging Heresies amongst us : and in pursuance of these , it is commanded by our Church that the Clergy shall never teach any thing as matter of Faith religiously to be observed , but that which is agreeable to the Old and New Testament , and collected out of the same Doctrine by the Ancient Fathers and Catholick Bishops of the Church * . This was undoubtedly the Faith of the Primitive Church , they admitted all into their Communion that were of this faith ; they condemned no Man that did not condemn these ; they gave letters communicatory by no othe● cognisance , and all were Brethren who spake this voice . [ Hanc legen● sequentes , Christianorum Catholicorum● nomen jubemus amplecti , reliquos ver● dementes , vesanosque judicantes haeretici dogmatis infamiam sustinere ] said the Emperors , Gratian , Valentinia● and Theodosius , in their Proclamation to the People of C. P. All that believ'd this Doctrine were Christian● and Catholicks , viz. all they who believe in the Father , Son , and Holy Ghost , one Divinity of equal Majesty in the Holy Trinity ; which indee● was the summ of what was decree● in explication of the Apostles Creed in the four first General Councils . And what faith can be the foundation of a more solid peace , the surer ligaments of Catholick Communion , or the firmer basis of a holy life and of the hopes of Heaven hereafter , than the measures which the Holy Primitive Church did hold , and we after them ? That which we rely upon is the same that the Primitive Church did acknowledge to be the adaequate foundation of their hopes in the matters of belief : The way which they thought sufficient to go to Heaven in , is the way which we walk : what they did not teach , we do not publish and impose ; into this faith entirely and into no other , as they did theirs ; so we baptize our Catechumens : The Discriminations of Heresie from Catholick Doctrine which they us'd , we use also , and we use no other : and in short , we believe all that Doctrine which the Church of Rome believes , except those things which they have superinduc'd upon ●he Old Religion , and in which we shall prove that they have innovated . So that by their confession , all the Doctrine , which we teach the people , as matter of Faith , must be confessed to be Ancient , Primitive and Apostolick , or else theirs is not so : for ours is the same , and ●● both have received this faith from the fountains of Scripture and Universa● Tradition ; not they from us , or we from them , but both of us from Christ and his Apostles . And therefore there can be no question whethe● the Faith of the Church of Englan● be Apostolick or Primitive ; it is so confessedly : But the Question is concerning many other particulars whic● were unknown to the Holy Doctor of the first ages , which were no part ●● their faith , which were never put int● their Creeds , which were not determin'd in any of the four first Gener●● Councils , rever'd in all Christendom and entertain'd every where with gre●● Religion and veneration , even next 〈◊〉 the four Gospels and the Apostolic● writings . Of this sort , because the Church of Rome hath introduc'd many , an● hath adopted them into their lan● Creed , and imposes them upon th● People , not only without , but again the Scriptures and the Catholick Doctrine of the Church of God ; laying heavy burdens on Mens consciences , and making the narrow way to Heaven yet narrower by their own inventions ; arrogating to themselves a dominion over our faith , and prescribing a method of Salvation which Christ and his Apostles never taught ; corrupting the faith of the ●hurch of God , and teaching for Doctrines the Commandements of Men ; and lastly , having derogated from the Prerogative of Christ , who alone is the Author and Finisher of our faith , and hath perfected it in the revelations consign'd in the Holy Scriptures ; therefore it ●s , that we esteem our selves oblig'd to warn the People of their danger , and to depart from it , and call upon them ●o stand upon the wayes , and ask after the old paths , and walk in them ; lest they partake of that curse which is ●hreatned by God to them , who remove ●he Ancient Land-marks which our Fathers in Christ have set for us . Now that the Church of Rome cannot not pretend that all which she imposes is Primitive and Apostolick , appears in this ; That in the Church of Rome , there is pretence made to a power , not only of declaring new articles of faith , but of making new Symbols or Creeds , and imposing them as of necessity to Salvation . Which thing is evident in the Bull of Pope Leo the Tenth against Martin Luther , in which , amongst other things , he is condemn'd for saying , [ It is certain that it is not in the power of the Church or Pope to constitute Articles of Faith. ] We need not ad● that this power is attributed to th● Bishops of Rome by Turrecremata a Augustinus Triumphus de Ancona b Petrus de Ancorano c , and the Famo●● Abbot of Panormo d , that the Pop● cannot only make new Creeds , bu● new Articles of Faith ; that he can make that of necessity to be believ'd which before never was necessary ; that he is the measure and rule , and the very notice of all credibilities ; That the Canon Law is the Divine law ; and whatever law the Pope promulges , God , whose Vicar he is , is understood to be the promulger . That the souls of Men are in the hands of the Pope ; and that in his arbitration Religion does consist : which are the very words of Hostiensis e , and Ferdinandus ab Inciso f , who were Casuists and Doctors of Law , of great authority amongst them and renown . The thing it self , is not of dubious disputation amongst them , but actually practis'd in the greatest instances , as is to be seen in the Bull of Pius the fourth at the end of the Council of Trent ; by which all Ecelesiasticks are not on●y bound to swear to all the Articles of the Council of Trent for the present and for the future , but they are put into a new Symbol or Creed , and they are corrobroated by the same decretory clauses that are us'd in the Creed of Athanasius : that this is the true Catholick Faith ● and that without this no Man can be saved . Now since it cannot be imagined that this power , to which they pretend , should never have been reduc'd to act ; and that it is not credible they should publish so inviduous and ill-sounding Doctrine to no purpose , and to serve no end ; it may without furthe● evidence be believed by all discerning persons , that they have need of this Doctrine , or it would not have been taugh● ● and that consequently without mo●●adoe , it may be concluded that some 〈◊〉 their Articles are parts of this new faith● and that they can therefore in no sen●● be Apostolical , unless their being Ro●man makes them so . To this may be added another con●sideration , not much less material , th●● besides what Eckius told the Elector 〈◊〉 Bavaria that the Doctrines of Luth●● might be overthrown by the Father● though not by Scripture ; they ha●● also many gripes of conscience conce●●ning the Fathers themselves , that th● are not right on their side ; and of th● they have given but too much demonstration by their Expurgatory indices . The Serpent by being so curious a defender of his head , shews where his danger is , and by what he can most readily be destroyed . But besides their innumerable corruptings of the Fathers writings , their thrusting in that which was spurious , and like Pharaoh , killing the legitimate Sons of Israel * ; though in this , they have done very much of their work , and made the Testimonies of the Fathers to be a record infinitely worse , than of themselves uncorrupted , they would have been ( of which divers Learned Persons have made publick complaint and demonstration ) they have at last fallen to a new trade , which hath caus'd more dis-reputation to ●hem , than they have gain'd advantage , ●nd they have virtually confess'd , that ●n many things , the Fathers are against ●hem . For first , the King of Spain gave a ●ommission to the Inquisitors to purge ●ll Catholick Authors ; but with this clause , iique ipsi privatim , nullisque consciis apud se indicem expurgatorium habebunt , quem eundum neque aliis communicabunt , neque ejus exemplum ulli dabunt : that they should keep the expurgatory Index privately , neither imparting that index , nor giving a copy of it to any . But it happened , by the Divine providence , so ordering it , that about thirteen years after , a copy of it was gotten and published by Iohannes Pappus and Franciscus Iunius , an● since it came abroad against their wills , they find it necessary now to own it , and they have printed it themselves● Now by these expurgatory Table what they have done is known to a●● Learned Men. In St. Chrysostom● Works printed at Basil , these words [ The Church is not built upon the Ma● but upon the faith ] are commanded 〈◊〉 be blotted out : and these [ There is 〈◊〉 merit , but what is given us by Christ , and yet these words are in his Sermo● upon Pentecost , and the former wor● are in his first homily upon that of S●● Iohn , Ye are my friends , &c. ] T●● like they have done to him in many other places , and to St. Ambrose , and to St. Austin , and to them all * , insomuch that Ludovicus Saurius the Corrector of the Press at Lyons shewed and complain'd of it to Iunius , that he was forc'd to cancellate or blot out many sayings of St. Ambrose in that edition of his works , which was printed at Lyons 1559. So that what they say on occasion of Bertrams book [ In the old Catholick Writers we suffer very many errors , and extenuate and excuse them , and finding out some commentary , we feign some convenient sense when they are oppos'd in disputations ] they do indeed practise , but esteem it not sufficient ; for the words which make against them they wholly leave out of their editions . Nay they correct the very Tables or Indices made by the Printers or Correctors ; insomuch that out of one of Frobens indices they have commanded these words to be blotted [ The use ●f images forbidden ] The Eucharist no ●acrifice , but the memory of a sacrifice ] Works , although they do not justifie , yet are necessary to Salvation ] Marriage i● granted to all that will not contain ] Venial sins damn ] The dead Saints , afte● this life cannot helf us ] nay out of the Index of St. Austins Works by Claudius Chevallonius at Paris 1531. there is a very strange deleatur [ Dele , Solu● Deus ador andus ] that God alone is to b● worshipped , is commanded to be blotted out , as being a dangerous Doctrine● These instances may serve instead o● multitudes , which might be brought o● their corrupting the witnesses and razing the records of antiquity , that th● errors and Novelties of the Church o● Rome might not be so easily reprov'd● Now if the Fathers were not again●● them , what need these arts ? Wh● should they use them thus ? Their o●● expurgatory indices are infinite testimo●● against them , both that they do so , a●● that they need it . But besides these things , we ha●● thought it fit to represent in on● aspect , some of their chief Doctrines 〈◊〉 difference from the Church of En●●land , and make it evident that they 〈◊〉 indeed new , and brought into the Church , first by way of opinion , and afterwards by power , and at last , by their own authority decreed into Laws and Articles . Sect. II. FIrst , we allege that that this very power of making new Articles is a Novelty , and expresly against the Doctrine of the Primitive Church ; and we prove it , first , by the words of the Apostle , saying , If we , or an Angel from Heaven shall preach unto you any other Gospel ( viz. in whole or in part , for there is the same reason of them both ) than that which we have preached , let him be Anathema : and secondly , by ●he sentence of the Fathers in the third General Council , that at Ephesus . ● That it should not be lawful for any Man ●o publish or compose another Faith or Creed than that which was defin'd by the Nicene Council : and that whosoever shall ●are to compose or offer any such to any ●ersons willing to be converted from ●aganism , Iudaism , or Heresie , if they were Bishops or Clerks , they should be depos'd , if Lay-men , they should be accursed . ] And yet in the Church of Rome Faith and Christianity increase like the Moon ; Bromyard complain'd of it long since , and the mischief encreases daily . They have now a new Article of Faith , ready for the stamp , which may very shortly become necessary to salvation ; we mean , that of the immaculate conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary . Whether the Pope be above a Council or no ; we are not sure , whether it be an article of faith amongst them or not : It is very near one if it be not . Bellarmine would fain have us believe that the Council of Constance approving the Bull of P. Martin the fifth , declar'd fo● the Popes Supremacy . But Ioh● Gerson , who was at the Council sayes that the Council did abate those heights to which flattery had advance'● the Pope ; and that before that Council they spoke such great things of th● Pope , which afterwards moderate Me●●durst not speak ; but yet some othe● spake them so confidently before it , that he that should then have spoken to the contrary would hardly have escap'd the note of Heresie : and that these Men continued the same pretensions even after the Council . But the Council of Basil decreed for the Council against the Pope ; and the Council of Lateran under Leo the tenth , decreed for the Pope against the Council . So that it is cross and pile ; and whether for a peny , when it can be done ; it is now a known case it shall become an article of faith . But for the present it is a probationary article , and according to Bellarmine's expression is ferè de fide , it is almost an article of Faith ; they want a little age , and then they may go alone . But the Council of Trent hath produc'd a strange new article ; but it is sine controver si â credendum , it must be believ'd , and must not be controverted : that although the Ancient Fathers did give the Communion to infants , yet they did not believe it necessary to salvation . Now this being a matter of fact whether they did or did not believe it , every man that reads their writings can be able to inform himself● and besides that it is strange that this should be determin'd by a Council , and determin'd against evident truth ( it being notorious , that divers of the Fathers did say it is necessary to salvation ; ) the decree it self is beyond all bounds of modesty , and a strange pretension of Empire over the Christian belief . But we proceed to other instances . Sect. III. THe Roman Doctrine of indulgences was the first occasion of the great change and Reformation of the Western Churches , begun by the Preachings of Martin Luther and others ; and besides that it grew to that intolerable abuse , that it became a shame to it self and a reproch to Christendom , it was also so very an Innovation , that their great Antoninus confesses that concerning them we have nothing expresly , either in the Scriptures , or in the sayings of the Ancient Doctors : and the same is affirmed by Sylvester Prieria● . Bishop Fisher of Rochester says , that in the beginning of the Church there was no use of indulgences ; and that they began after the people were awhile affrighted with the torments of Purgatory ; and many of the School-men confess that the use of indulgences began in the time of Pope Alexander the third , towards the end of the XII Century : but Agrippa imputes the beginning of them to Boniface the VIII . who liv'd in the Reign of King Edward the first of England ; 1300 years after Christ. But that in his time the first Jubilee was kept we are assur'd by Crantzius . This Pope * lived and died with very great infamy , and therefore was not likely form him●elf to transfer much honour and reputation to the new institution . But that about this time indulgences began , is more than probable ; much before , it is certain they were not For in the whole Canon Law written by Gratian , and in the sentences of Peter Lombard there is nothing spoken of indulgences : Now because they liv'd in the time of P. Alexander III. if he had introduc'd them , and much rather if they had been as ancient as S. Gregory ( as some vainly and weakly pretend , from no greater authority than their own Legends ) it is probable that these great Men writing Bodies of Divinity and Law , would have made mention of so considerable a point , and so great a part of the Roman Religion , as things are now order'd . If they had been Doctrines of the Church then , as they are now , it is certain they must have come under their cognisance and discourses . Now lest the Roman Emissaries should deceive any of the good Sons of the Church , we think it fit to acquaint them , that in the Primitive Church , when the Bishops impos'd severe penances , and that they were almost quite perform'd , and a great cause of pity intervened , or danger of death , or an excellent repentance , or that the Martyrs interceded , the Bishop did sometimes indulge the penitent , and relax some of the remaining parts of his penance ; and according to the example of S. Paul , in the case of the incestuous Corinthian , gave them ease , lest they should be swallowed up with too much sorrow . But the Roman Doctrine of Indulgences is wholly another thing ; nothing of it but the abused name remains . For in the Church of Rome they now pretend that there is an infinite of degrees of Christs merits and satisfaction beyond what is necessary for the salvation of his servants : and ( for fear Christ should not have enough ) the Saints have a surplusage of merits , * or at lest of satisfactions more than they can spend , or themselves do need : and out of these the Church hath made her a treasure , a kind of poor-mans box ; and out of this , a power to take as much as they list to apply to the poor souls in Purgatory ; who because they did not satisfie for their venial sins , or perform all their penances which were imposed , or which might have been imposed and which were due to be paid to God for the temporal pains reserved upon them , after he had forgiven them the guilt of their deadly sins , are forc'd sadly to roar in pains not inferior to the pains of hell , excepting only that they are not eternal . That this is the true state of their Article of Indulgences , we appeal to Bellarmine . Now concerning their new foundation of Indulgences , the first stone of it was laid by P. Clement VI. in his extravagant Unigenitus , de poenitentiis & remissionibus , A. D. 1350. This constitution was published Fifty years after the first Jubilee , and was a new devise to bring in customers to Rome at the second Jubilee , which was kept in Rome in this Popes time . What ends of profit and interest it serv'd , we are not much concern'd to enquire ; but this we know , that it had not yet passed into a Catholick Doctrine , for it was disputed against by Franciscus de Mayronis a and Durandus b not long before this extravagant ; and that it was not rightly form'd to their purposes till the stirs in Germany , rais'd upon the occasion of indulgences , made Leo the tenth set his Clerks on work to study the point and make something of it . But as to the thing it self : it is so wholly new , so merely devis'd and forged by themselves , so newly created out of nothing , from great mistakes of Scripture , and dreams of shadows from antiquity ; that we are to admonish our charges , that they cannot reasonably expect many sayings of the Primitive Doctors against them , any more than against the new fancies of the Quakers , which were born but yesterday . That which is not cannot be numbred , and that which was not could not be confuted . But the perfect silence of antiquity in this whole matter , is an abundant demonstration that this new nothing was made in the later laboratories of Rome . For as Durandus said , the Holy Fathers , Ambrose , Hilary , Hierom , Augustine speak nothing of Indulgences . And whereas it is said that S. Gregory DC . years after Christ , gave indulgences at Rome in the stations ; Magister Angularis who lived about 200. years since , says , he never read of any such any where ; and it is certain there is no such thing in the writings of S. Gregory , nor in any histo●y of that age or any other that is authentick : and we could never see any history pretended for it by the Roman writers , but a Legend of Ledgerus brought to us the other day by Surius : which is so ridiculous and weak , that even their own parties dare not avow it as true story ; and therefore they are fain to make use of Thomas Aquinas upon the Sentences , and Altisiodorensis for story & record . And it were strange that if this power of giving indulgences to take off the punishment , reserv'd by God after the sin is pardoned , were given by Christ to his Church , that no one of the ancient Doctors should tell any thing of it : insomuch that there is no one writer of authority and credit , not the more ancient Doctors we have named , nor those who were much later , Rupertus Tuitiensis , Anselm or S. Bernard ever took notice of it ; but it was a Doctrine wholly unknown to the Church for about MCC years after Christ : & Card. Cajetane told P. Adrian VI. that to him that readeth the Decretals it plainly appears , that an indulgence is nothing else but an absolution from that penance which the Confessor hath imposed ; & therfore can be nothing of that which is now a-days pretended . True it is , that the Canonical penances were about the time of Burchard lessen'd and alter'd by commutations ; and the ancient Discipline of the Church in imposing penances was made so loose , that the Indulgence was more than the Imposition , & began not to be an act of mercy but remisness , an absolution without amends : It became a trumpet , & a leavy for the Holy War ; in Pope Urban the Seconds time ; for he gave a plenary Indulgence and remission of all sins to them that should go and fight against the Saracens : and yet no man could tell how much they were the better for these Indulgences : for concerning the value of indulgences , the complaint is both old and doubtful , said Pope Adrian ; and he cites a famous gloss , which tells of four Opinions all Catholick , and yet vastly differing in this particular : but the Summa Angelica reckons seven Opinions concerning what that penalty is which is taken off by Indulgences : No man could then tell ; and the point was but in the infancy , and since that , they have made it what they please : but it is at last turn'd into a Doctrine , and they have devised new propositions , as well as they can , to make sense of it ; and yet it is a very strange thing ; a solution , not an absolution ( it is the distinction of Bellarmine ) that is , the sinner is let to go free without punishment in this world , or in the world to come ; and in the end , it grew to be that which Christendom could not suffer : a heap of Doctrines without Grounds of Scripture , or Catholick Tradition ; and not only so , but they have introduc'd a way or remittin● sins , that Christ and his Apostle● taught not ; a way destructive of th● repentance and remission of sins which was preached in the Name of Jesus : it brought into the Church , false and fantastick hopes , a hope that will make men asham'd ; a hope that does not glorifie the merits and perfect satisfaction of Christ ; a doctrine expresly dishonourable to the full and free pardon given us by God through Jesus Christ ; a practice that supposes a new bunch of Keys given to the Church , besides that which the Apostles receiv'd to open and shut the Kingdom of Heaven ; a Doctrine that introduces pride among the Saints , and advances the opinion of their works beyond the measures of Christ , who taught us , That when we have done all that is commanded , we are unpro●itable servants , and therefore certainly cannot supererogate , or do more than what is infinitely recompenc'd by the Kingdom of Glory , to which all our doings and all our sufferings are not worth● to be compar'd , especially , since the greatest Saint cannot but say with David , Enter not into judgment with thy servant ; for in thy sight no flesh living can be justified ; It is a practice that hath turn'd penances into a Fair , and the Court of Conscience into a Lombard , and the labours of Love into the labours of pilgrimages , superstitious and useless wandrings from place to place ; and Religion into vanity , and our hope in God to a confidence in man , and our fears of hell to be a mere scar-crow to rich and confident sinners : and at last , it was frugally employed by a great Pope to raise a portion for a Lady , the Wife of Franceschetto Cibo bastard Son of P. Innocent VIII . and the merchandize it self became the stakes of Gamesters , at Dice and Cards , and men did vile actions that they might win indulgences ; by gaming making their way to heaven easier . Now although the Holy Fathers of the Church could not be suppos'd in direct terms to speak against this new Doctrine of Indulgences , because in their days it was not : yet they have said many things which do perfectly destroy this new Doctrine and these unchristian practices . For besides that they teach a repentance wholly reducing us to a good life ; a faith that intirely relies upon Christs merits and satisfactions ; a hope wholly depending upon the plain promises of the Gospel , a service perfectly consisting in the works of a good conscience , a labour of love , a religion of justice and piety , and moral vertues : they do also expresly teach that pilgrimages to holy places and such like inventions , which are now the earnings and price of indulgences , are not requir●d of us , and are not the way of salvation , as is to be seen in an Oration made by S. Gregory Nyssene wholly against pilgrimages to Ierusalem ; in S. Chrysostom a , S. Augustine b , and S. Bernard c : The sense of these Fathers is this , in the words of S. Augustine : God said not , Go to the East , and seek righteousness ; sail to the West that you may receive indulgence . But indulge thy brother , and it shall be indulg'd to thee : you have need to inquire for no other indulgence to thy sins ; if thou wilt retire into the closet of thy heart , there thou shalt find it . That is , All our hopes of Indulgence is from GOD through IESUS CHRIST , and is wholly to be obtain'd by faith in Christ , and perseverance in good works , and intire mortification of all our sins . To conclude this particular : Though the gains which the Church of Rome makes of Indulgences , be a heap almost as great as the abuses themselves , yet the greatest Patrons of this new Doctrine could never give any certainty , or reasonable comfort to the Conscience of any person that could inquire into it . They never durst determine , whether they were Absolutions , or Compensations ; whether they only take off the penances actually impos'd by the Confessor , or potentially , and all that which might have been impos'd ; whether all that may be paid in the Court of men ; or all that can or will be required by the Laws and severity of God ● Neither can they speak rationally to the Great Question , Whether the Treasure of the Church consists of the Satisfactions of Christ only , or of the Saints ? For if of Saints , it will by all men be acknowledged to be a defeisible estate , and being finite and limited , will be spent sooner than the needs of the Church can be served ; and if therefore it be necessary to add the merits and satisfaction of Christ , since they are an Ocean of infinity , and can supply more than all our needs , to what purpose is it to add the little minutes and droppings of the Saints ? They cannot tell whether they may be given , if the Receiver do nothing , or give nothing for them : And though this last particular could better be resolv'd by the Court of Rome , than by the Church of Rome , yet all the Doctrines which built up the new Fabrick of Indulgences , were so dangerous to determine , so improbable , so unreasonable , or at best so uncertain and invidious , that according to the advice of the Bishop of Modena , the Council of Trent left all the Doctrines , and all the cases of Conscience quite alone , and slubber'd the whole matter both in the question of Indulgences and Purgatory in general and recommendatory terms ; affirming , that the power of giving Indulgence is in the Church , and that the use is wholsome : And that all hard and subtil questions ( viz. ) concerning Purgatory , ( which although ( if it be at all ) it is a fire , yet is the fuel of Indulgences , and maintains them wholly ; ) all that is suspected to be false , and all that is uncertain ; and whatsoever is curious and superstitious , scandalous , or for filthy lucre , be laid aside . And in the mean time , they tell us not what is , and what is not Superstitious ; nor what is scandalous , nor what they mean by the general term of Indulgence ; and they establish no Doctrine , neither curious , nor incurious , nor durst they decree the very foundation of this whole matter , The Churches Treasure : Neither durst they meddle with it , but left it as they found it , and continued in the abuses , and proceed in the practice , and set their Doctors , as well as they can , to desend all the new , and curious and scandalous questions , and to uphold the gainful trade . But however it be with them , the Doctrine it self is prov'd to be a direct Innovation in the matter of Christian Religion , and that was it which we have undertaken to demonstrate . Sect. IV. THe Doctrine of Purgatory is the Mother of Indulgences , and the fear of that hath introduc'd these : For the world hapned to be abus'd like the Countrey-man in the Fable , who being told he was likely to fall into a delirium in his feet , was advis'd for remedy to take the juice of Cotton : He feared a disease that was not , and look'd for a cure as ridiculous . But if the Parent of Indulgences be not from Christ and his Apostles ; if upon this ground the Primitive Church never built , the Superstructures of Rome must fall ; they can be no stronger than their Supporter . Now then in order to the proving the Doctrine of Purgatory to be an Innovation , 1. We consider , That the Doctrines upon which it is pretended reasonable , are all dubious , and disputable at the very best . Such are , 1. Their distinction of sins Mortal and Venial in their own nature . 2. That the taking away the guilt of sins , does not suppose the taking away the obligation to punishment ; that is , That when a mans sin is pardon'd , he may be punished without the guilt of that sin , as justly as with it ; as if the guilt could be any thing else but an obligation to punishment for having sinned : which is a Proposition , of which no wise man can make sense ; but it is ce●tain , that it is expresly against the Word of God , who promises upon our repentance , so to take away our sins , that he will remember them no more : And so did Christ to all those to whom he gave pardon ; for he did not take our faults and guilt on him any other way , but by curing our evil hearts , and taking away the punishment * . And this was so perfectly believ'd by the Primitive Church , that they alwayes made the penances and satisfaction to be undergone before they gave absolution ; and after absolution they never impos'd or oblig'd to punishment , unless it were to sick persons , of whose recovery they despaired not : of them indeed , in case they had not finished their Canonical punishments , they expected they should perform what was enjoyn'd them formerly . But because all sin is a blot to a mans soul , and a foul stain to his reputation ; we demaud , in what does this stain consist ? In the guilt , or in the punishment ? If it be said that it consists in the punishment ; then what does the guilt signifie , when the removing of it , does neither remove the stain nor the punishment , which both remain and abide together ? But if the stain and the guilt be all one , or always together , then when the guilt is taken away , there can no stain remain ; and if so , what need * is there any more of Purgatory ? For since this is pretended to be necessary , onely lest any stain'd or unclean thing should enter into Heaven ; if the guilt and the pain be removed , what uncleanness can there be left behind ? Indeed Simon Magus ( as Epiphanius reports , Haeres . 20. ) did teach , That after the death of the body there remain'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a purgation of souls : But whether the Church of Rome will own him for an Authentick Doctor , themselves can best tell . 3. It relies upon this also , That God requires of us a full exchange of penances and satisfactions , which must regularly be paid here or hereafter , even by them who are pardon'd here : which if it were true , we were all undone . 4. That the Death of Christ , his Merits and Satisfaction do not procure for us a full remission before we dye , nor ( as it may happen ) of a long time after . All which being Propositions new and uncertain , invented by the School Divines , and brought ex post facto , to dress this opinion , and make it to seem reasonable ; and being the products of ignorance concerning remission of sins by Grace , of the righteousness of Faith , and the infinite value of Christs Death , must needs lay a great prejudice of novelty upon the Doctrine it self , which but by these , cannot be supported . But to put it past suspition and conjectures : Roffensis and Polydore Virgil affirm , That who so searcheth the Writings of the Greek Fathers , shall find that none , or very rarely any one of them , ever makes mention of Purgatory ; and that the Latine Fathers did not all believe it , but by degrees came to entertain opinions of it : But for the Catholick Church , it was but lately known to her . But before we say any more in this Question , we are to premonish , That there are Two great causes of their mistaken pretensions in this Article from Antiquity . The first is , That the Ancient Churches in their Offices , and the Fathers in their Writings , did teach and practice respectively , prayer for the dead . Now because the Church of Rome does so too , and more than so , relates her prayers to the Doctrine of Purgatory , and for the souls there detain'd , her Doctors vainly suppose , that when ever the Holy Fathers speak of prayer for the dead , that they conclude for Purgatory ; which vain conjecture is as false as it is unreasonable : For it is true , the Fathers did pray for the dead , but how ? That God would shew them mercy , and hasten the resurrection , and give a blessed sentence in the great day . But then it is also to be remembred , that they made prayers , and offered for those , who by the● confession of all sides , never were in Purgatory ; even for the Patriarchs and Prophets , for the Apostles and Evangelists , for Martyrs and Confessors , and especially for the blessed Virgin Mary : So we find it in a Epiphanius , b St. Cyril , and in the Canon of the Greeks , and so it is acknowledged by their own c Durantus ; and in their Mass-book anciently they prayed for the soul of St. Leo : Of which because by their latter doctrines they grew asham'd , they have chang'd the prayer for him , into a prayer to God by the intercession of St. Leo , in behalf of themselves ; so by their new doctrine , making him an Intercessor for us , who by their old doctrine was suppos'd to need our prayers to intercede for him ; of which Pope Innocent being ask'd a reason , makes a most pitiful excuse . Upon what accounts the Fathers did pray for the Saints departed , and indeed generally for all , it is not now seasonable to discourse ; but to say this onely , that such general prayers for the dead as those above reckon'd the Church of England never did condemn by any express Article , but left it in the middle , and by her practice declares her faith of the Resurrection of the dead , and her interest in the communion of Saints , and that the Saints departed are a portion of the Catholick Church , parts and members of the Body of Christ ; but expresly condemns the Doctrine of Purgatory , and consequently all prayers for the dead relating to it : And how vainly the Church of Rome from prayer for the dead , infers the belief of Purgatory , every man may satisfie himself , by seeing the Writings of the Fathers , where they cannot meet with one Collect or Clause for praying for the delivery of souls out of that imaginary place . Which thing is so certain , that in the very Roman Offices , we mean , the Vigils said for the dead , which are Psalms and Lessons taken from the Scripture , speaking of the miseries of this World , Repentance , and Reconciliation with God , the bliss after this life of them that die in Christ , and the Resurrection of the Dead ; and in the Anthemes , Versicles and Responses , there are prayers made recommending to God the Soul of the newly defunct , praying , he may be freed from Hell , and eternal death , that in the day of Iudgment he be not judged and condemned according to his sins , but that he may appear among the Elect in the glory of the Resurrection ; but not one word of Purgatory , or its pains . The other cause of their mistake is , That the Fathers often speak of a fire of Purgation after this life ; but such a one that is not to be kindled until the day of Iudgment , and it is such a fire that destroys the Doctrine of the intermedial Purgatory . We suppose that Origen was the first that spoke plainly of it ; and so S. Ambrose follows him in the opinion ( for it was no more ; ) so does S. Basil , S. Hilary , S. Hierom , and Lactantius , as their words plainly prove , as they are cited by Sixtus Senensis , affirming , that all men , Christ only excepted , shall be burned with the fire of the worlds conflagration at the day of Iudgment ; even the Blessed Virgin her self is to pass through this fire . There was also another Doctrine very generally receiv'd by the Fathers , which greatly destroys the Roman Purgatory : Sixtus Senensis says , and he says very true , that Iustin Martyr , Tertullian , Victorinus Martyr , Prudentius , S. Chrysostom , Arethas , Euthimius and S. Bernard , did all affirm , that before the day of Judgment the souls of men are kept in secret receptacles , reserved unto the sentence of the great day , and that before then , no man receives according to his works done in this life . We do not interpose in this opinion to say that it is true or false , probable or improbable ; for these Fathers intended it not as a matter of faith , or necessary belief , so far as we find , But we observe from hence , that if their opinion be true , then the Doctrine of Purgatory is false . If it be not true , yet the Roman Doctrine of Purgatory , which is inconsistent with this so generally receiv'd opinion of the Fathers , is at least new , no Catholick Doctrine , not believ'd in the Primitive Church , and therefore the Roman Writers are much troubled to excuse the Fathers in this Article , and to reconcile them to some seeming concor● with their new Doctrine . But besides these things , it is certain , that the Doctrine of Purgatory , before the day of Judgment , in S. Augustins time , was not the Doctrine of the Church ; it was not the Catholick Doctrine ; for himself did doubt of it : [ Whether it be so or not , it may be inquir'd , and possibly it may be found so , and possibly it may never : ] so S. Augustine . In his time therefore it was no Doctrine of the Church , and it continued much longer in uncertainty ; for in the time of Otho Frisingensis , who liv'd in the year 1146. it was gotten no further than to a Quidam asserunt : [ some do affirm , that there is a place of Purgatory after death . ] And although it is not to be denied , but that many of the ancient Doctors , had strange opinions concerning Purgations , and Fires , and Intermedial states , and common receptacles , & liberations of Souls and Spirits after this life ; yet we can truly affirm it , and can never be convinc'd to err in this affirmation , that there is not any one of the Ancients within five hundred years , whose opinion in this , Article throughout , the Church of Rome at this day follows . But the people of the Roman Communion have been principally led into a belief of Purgatory by their fear , and by their credulity ; they have been softned & en●ic'd into this belief by perpetual tales and legends , by which they love to be abus'd . To this purporse , their Priests and Friers have made great use of the apparition of S. Hierom after death to Eusebius , commanding him to lay his sack upon the corps of three dead men , that they arising from death , might confess Purgatory , which formerly they had denied . The story is written in an Epistle impu●ed to S. Cyril ; but the ill-luck of it was that S. Hierom out-lived S. Cyril , an● wrote his life , and so confuted tha● story ; but all is one for that , they believe it never the less : But the●● are enough to help it out ; and if the● be not firmly true , yet if they b● firmly believ'd , all is well enough . 〈◊〉 the Speculum exemplorum it is said , That a certain Priest in an extasie saw the soul of Constantinus Turritanus in the eves of his house tormented with frosts and cold rains , and afterwards climbing up to heaven upon a shining pillar . And a certain Monk saw some souls roasted upon spits like Pigs , and some Devils basting them with scalding lard ; but a while after they were carried to a cool place , and so prov'd Purgatory . But Bishop Theobald standing upon a piece of ice to cool his feet , was nearer Purgatory than he was aware , and was convinc'd of it , when he heard a poor soul telling him , that under that ice he was tormented : and that he should be delivered , if for thirty days continual , he would say for him thirty Masses : and some such thing was seen by Conrade and Udalric in a Pool of water : For the place of Purgatory was not yet resolv'd on , till S. Patrick had the key of it delivered to him ; which when one Nicholas borrowed of him , he saw as strange and true things there , as ever Virgil dreamed of in his Purgatory , or Cicero in his dream of Scipio , or Plato in his Gorgias , or Phaedo , who indeed are the surest Authors to prove Purgatory . But because to preach false stories was forbidden by the Council of Trent , there are yet remaining more certain arguments , even revelations made by Angels , and the testimony of S. Odilio himself , who heard the Devil complain ( and he had great reason surely ) that the souls of dead men were daily snatch'd out of his hands , by the Alms and Prayers of the living ; and the sister of S. Damianus being too much pleas'd with hearing of a Piper , told her brother , that she was to be tormented for fifteen days in Purgatory . We do not think that the wise men in the Church of Rome believe these Narratives ; for if they did , they were not wise : But this we know , that by such stories , the people were brought into a belief of it ; and having served their turn of them , the Master-builders used them as false arches and centries , taking them away when the parts of the building were made firm and stable by Authority . But even the better sort of them do believe , or else they do worse , for they urge and cite the Dialogues of S. Gregory , the Oration of S. Iohn Damascen de Defunctis , the Sermons of Saint Augustine upon the Feast of the Commemoration of All-souls ( which nevertheless was instituted after S. Augustins death ) and divers other citations , which the Greeks in their Apology call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ● The Holds and the Castles , the corruptions and insinuations of Heretical persons . But in this they are the less to be blamed , because better arguments than they have , no men are tied to make use of . But against this way of proceeding we think fit to admonish the people of our charges , that , besides that the Scriptures expresly forbid us to enquire of the dead for truth ; the Holy Doctors of the Church , particularly , Tertul. S. Athanasius , S. Chrysost. Isido . and Theophylact , deny that the souls of the dead ever do appear ; and bring many reasons to prove , that it is unfitting they should ; saying , if they did , it would be the cause of many errors , and the Devils under that pretence , might easily abuse the world with notices and revelations of their own : And because Christ would have us content with Moses and the Prophets , and especially to hear that Prophet , whom the Lord our God hath raised up amongst us , our Blessed Jesus , who never taught any such Doctrine to his Church . But because we are now representing the Nov●lty of this Doctrine , and proving , that anciently it was not the Doctrine of the Church , nor at all esteemed a matter of faith , whether there was or was not any such place or state , we add this , That the Greek Church did always dissent from the Latines in this particular , since they had forg'd this new Doctrine in the laboratories of Rome ; and in the Council of Basil , publish'd an Apology directly disapproving the Roman Doctrine of Purgatory . How afterwards they were press'd in the Council of Florence by Pope Eugenius , and by their necessity ; how unwillingly they consented , how ambiguously they answered , how they protested against having that half consent put into the Instrument of Union ; how they were yet constrain'd to it by their Chiefs , being obnoxious to the Pope ; how a while after they dissolv'd that Union , and to this day refuse to own this Doctrine , are things so notoriously known , that they need no further declaration . We add this only , to make the conviction more manifest : We have thought fit to annex some few , but very clear testimonies of Antiquity , expresly destroying the new Doctrine of Purgatory . S. Cyprian saith , Quando istinc excessum fuerit , nullus jam locus poenitentiae est , nullus satisfaction is effectus : [ When we are gone from hence , there is no place left for repentance , and no effect of satisfaction . ] S. Dionysius calls the extremity of death , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The end of all our agonies , and affirms , That the Holy men of God rest in joy , and in never failing hopes , and are come to the end of their holy combates . S. Iustin Martyr affirms , That when the soul is departed from the body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , presently there is a separation made of the just and unjust : The unjust are by Angels born into places which they have deserv'd ; but the souls of the just into Paradise , where they have the conversation of Angels and Archangels . S. Ambrose a saith , that Death is a haven of rest , and makes not our condition worse , but according as it finds every man , sort reserves him to the judgement that is to come . The same is affirm'd by b S. Hilary , c S. Macarius , and divers others ; they speak but of two states after death , of the just and the unjust : These are plac'd in horrible Regions reserv'd to the judgement of the great day ; the other have their souls carried by Quires of Angels into places of rest . S. Gregory Nazianzen d expresly affirms , that after this life there is no purgation : For after Christs ascension into Heaven , the souls of all Saints are with Christ , saith Gennadius , and going from the body , they go to Christ , expecting the resurrection of their body , with it to pass into the perfection of perpetual bliss ; and this he delivers as the Doctrine of the Catholick Church : [ In what place soever a man is taken at his death , of light or darkness , of wickedness or vertue , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ● in the same order , and in the same degree ; either in light with the just , and with Christ the great King ; or in darkness with the uujust , and with the Prince of Darkness , ] said Olimpiodorus . And lastly , we recite the words of S. Leo , one of the Popes of Rome , speaking of the Penitents who had not perform'd all their penances [ But if any one of them for whom we pray unto the Lord , being interrupted by any obstacles , falls from the gift of the present Indulgence ( viz. of Ecclesiastical Absolution ) and before he arrive at the appointed remedies ( that is , before he hath perform'd his penances or satisfactions ) ends his temporal life , that which remaining in the body he hath not receiv'd , when he is devested of his body , he cannot obtain . ] He knew not of the new devices of paying in Purgatory , what they paid not here ; and of being cleansed there , who were not clean here : And how these words , or of any the precedent , are reconcileable with the Doctrines of Purgatory , hath not yet entred into our imagination . To conclude this particular , We complain greatly , that this Doctrine which in all the parts of it is uncertain , and in the late additions to it in Rome is certainly false , is yet with all the faults of it passed into an Article of Faith by the Council of Trent . But besides what hath been said , it will be more than sufficient to oppose against it these clearest words of Scripture , Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord , from henceforth , even so saith the Spirit , that they may rest from their labours . If all the dead that die in Christ be at rest , and are in no more affliction or labours , then the Doctrine of the horrible pains of Purgatory is as false as it is uncomfortable : To these words we add the saying of Christ , and we relie upon it [ He that heareth my word , and believeth on him that sent me , hath eternal life , and cometh not into judgment , but passeth from death unto life . ] If so , then not into the judgment of Purgatory : If the servant of Christ passeth from death to life , then not from death to the terminable pains of a part of Hell. They that have eternal life , suffer no intermedial punishment , judgment or condemnation after death ; for death and life are the whole progression , according to the Doctrine of Christ , and Him we choose to follow . Sect. V. THe Doctrine of Transubstantiation is so far from being Primitive and Apostolick , that we know the very time it began to be own'd publickly for an opinion , and the very Council in which it was said to be passed into a publick Doctrine , and by what arts it was promoted , and by what persons it was introduc'd . For all the world knows that by their own parties , by a Scotus , b Ocham , c Biel , Fisher Bishop of d Rochester , and divers others , whom e Bellarmine calls most learned and most acute men , it was declared , that the Doctrine of Transubstantiation is not expressed in the Canon of the Bible ; that in the Scriptures there is no place so express ( as without the Churches Declaration ) to compel us to admit of Transubstantiation , and therefore at least , it is to be suspected of novelty . But further , we know it was but a disputable question in the ninth and tenth ages after Christ ; that it was not pretended to be an Article of faith till the Lateran Council in the time of Pope Innocent , the third , MCC years and more after Christ ; that since that pretended * determination , divers of the chiefest teachers of their own side have been no more satisfied of the ground of it , than they were before , but still have publickly affirm'd , that the Article is not express'd in Scripture , particularly , Iohanes de Bassolis , Cardinal * Cajetan , and Melchior * Canus , besides those above reckon'd : And therefore , if it was not express'd in Scripture , it will be too clear , that they made their Articles of their own heads , for they could not declare it to be there , if it was not ; and if it was there but obscurely , then it ought to be taught accordingly ; and at most , it could be but a probable doctrine , and not certain as an Article of Faith. But that we may put it past argument and probability , it is certain , that as the Doctrine was not taught in Scripture expresly : so it was not at all taught as a Catholick Doctrine , or an Article of the Faith by the Primitive ages of the Church . Now for this , we need no proof but the confession and acknowledgment of the greatest Doctors of the Church of Rome . Scotus says , that before the Lateran Council , Transubstantiation was not an Article of faith , as Bellarmine confesses ; and Henriquez affirms , that Scotus says , it was not ancient , insomuch that Bellarmine accuses him of ignorance , saying , he talk'd at that rate , because he had not read the Roman Council under Pope Gregory the VII . nor that consent of Fathers which ( to so little purpose ) he had heap'd together . Rem transubstantiation is Patres ne attigisse quidem , said some of the English Jesuits in Prison : The Fathers have not so much as touch'd or medled with the matter of Transubstantiation ; and in Peter Lombard's time it was so far from being an Article of Faith , or a Catholick Doctrine , that they did not know whether it were true or no : And after he had collected the sentences of the Fathers in that Article , he confess'd , He could not tell whether there was any substantial change or no. His words are these , [ If it be inquir'd what kind of conversion it is , whether it be formal or substantial , or of another kind ? I am not able to define it : Onely I know that it is not formal , because the same accidents remain , the same colour and taste . To some it seems to be substantial , saying , that so the substance is chang'd into the substance , that it is done essentially . To which the former authorities seem to consent . But to this sentence others oppose these things , If the substance of bread and wine be substantially converted into the body and blood of Christ , then every day some substance is made the body or blood of Christ , which before was not the body ; and to day something is Christs body , which yesterday was not ; and every day Christs body is increased , and is made of such matter of which it was not made in the conception : ] These are his words , which we have remark'd , not onely for the arguments sake ( though it be unanswerable ) but to give a plain demonstration that in his time this Doctrine was new , not the Doctrine of the Church : And this was written but about fifty * years before it was said to be decreed in the Lateran * Council , and therefore it made hast , in so short time to passe from a disputable opinion , to an Article of faith . But even after the Council , * Durandus , as good a Catholick , and as famous a Doctor as any was in the Church of Rome , publickly maintain'd , that even after consecration , the very matter of bread remain'd ; and although he says , that by reason of the Authority of the Church , it is not to be held , yet it is not onely possible it should be so , but it implies no contradiction that it should be Christs body , and yet the matter of bread remain ; and if this might be admitted , it would salve many difficulties , which arise from saying that the substance of bread does not remain . But here his reason was overcome by authority , and he durst not affirm that of which alone he was able to give ( as he thought ) a reasonable account . But by this it appears , that the opinion was but then in the forge , and by all their understanding they could never accord it , but still the questions were uncertain , according to that old Distich , Corpore de Christilis est , de sanguine lis est , Déque modo lis est , non habitura modum . And the opinion was not determin'd in the Lateran , as it is now held at Rome ; bu● it is also plain , that it is a stranger to antiquity . De Transubstantiatione panis in corpus Christi rara est in antiquis scriptoribus mentio , said Alphonsus à Castro . There is seldome mention made in the ancient writers of transubstantiating the bread into Christs body . We know the modesty and interest of the man ; he would not have said it had been seldome , if he could have found it in any reasonable degree warranted ; he might have said and justified it , There was no mention at all of this Article in the primitive Church : and that it was a mere stranger to Antiquity , will not be denyd by any sober person , who considers , That it was with so much uneasiness entertained , even in the corruptest and most degenerous times , and argued and unsettled almost 1300 years after Christ. And that it was so , will but too evidently appear by that stating and resolution of this question which we find in the Canon law . For Berengarius was by P. Nicolaus , commanded to recant his error in these words , and to affirm , Verum corpus & sanguinem Domini nostri Iesu Christi sensualiter , non solùm in sacramento , sed in veritate manibus sacerdotum tractari , frangi , & fidelium dentibus atteri . That the true body and bloud of our Lord Jesus Christ sensually , not onely in sacrament , but in truth is handled by the priests hands , and broken and grinded by the teeth of the faithful . Now although this was publickly read at Rome before an hundred and fourteen Bishops , and by the Pope sent up and down the Churches of Italy , France and Germany , yet at this day it is renounc'd by the Church of Rome , and unless it be well expounded ( says the Gloss ) will lead into a heresie , greater than what Berengarias was commanded to renounce ; and no interpretation can make it tolerable , but such an one , as is in another place of the Canon law , statuimus , i. e. abrogamus ; nothing but a plain denying it in the sense of Pope Nicolas . But however this may be , it is plain they understood it not , as i● is now decreed . But as it happened to the Pelagians in the beginning of their heresie , they spake rudely , ignorantly , and easily to be reprov'd ; but being asham'd and disputed into a more sober understanding of their hypothesis , spake more warily , but yet differently from what they said at first : so it was and is in this question ; at first they understood it not ; it was too unreasonable in any tolerable sense , to make any thing of it ; but experience and necessity hath brought it to what it is . But that this Doctrine was not the doctrine of the first and best ages of the Church , these following testimonies do make evident . The words of Tertullian are these . The bread being taken and distributed to his Disciples , Christ made it his body , saying , This is my body , that is , the figure of my body . The same is affirmed by Iustin Martyr . The bread of the Eucharist w●s a figure which Christ the Lord commanded to do in remembrance of his passion . Origen * calls the bread and the chalice , the images of the body and bloud of Christ : and again , That bread which is sanctified by the word of God , so far as belongs to the matter ( or substance ) of it goes into the belly , and is cast away in the secession or separation ; which to affirm of the natural or glorified body of Christ , were greatly blasphemous : and therefore the body of Christ which the Communicants receive , is not the body in a natural sense , but in a spiritual , which is not capable of any such accident , as the elements are . Eusebius says , that Christ gave to his Disciples the Symbols of Divine Oeconomy , commanding the image and type of his own body to be made : * and that the Apostle received a command according to the constitution of the New Testament , to make a memory of this sacrifice upon the Table by the symbols of his body and healthful bloud . S. Macarius says , that in the Church is offered bread and wine , the antitype of his flesh and of his bloud , and they that partake of the bread that appears , do spiritually eat the flesh of Christ. By which words the sense of the above cited Fathers is explicated . For when they affirm , that in this Sacrament is offered the figure , the image , the antitype of Christs body and bloud , although they speak perfectly against Transubstantiation , yet they do not deny the real and spiritual presence of Christs body and bloud ; which we all believe as certainly , as that it is not transubstantiated or present in a natural and carnal manner . The same thing is also fully explicated by the good S. Ephrem , The body of Christ received by the faithful , departs not from his sensible substance , and is undivided from a spiritual grace . For even baptism being wholly made spiritual , and being that which is the same , and proper , of the sensible substance , I mean , of water , saves , and that which is born , doth not perish . S. Gregory Nazianzen spake so expresly in this Question , as if he had undertaken on purpose to confute the Article of Trent . Now we shall be partakers of the Paschal supper , but still in figure , though more clear than in the old Law. For the Legal Passover ( I will not be afraid to speak it ) was a more obscure figure of a figure . S. Chrysostom affirms dogmatically , that before the bread is sanctified , we name it bread , but the Divine grace sanctifying it by the means of the Priest , it is freed from the name of bread , but it is esteemed worthy to be called the Lords body , although the nature of bread remains in it . And again : As thou eatest the body of the Lord : so they ( the faithful in the old Testament ) did eat Manna ; as thou drinkest bloud , so they the water of the rock . For though the things which are made be sensible , yet they are given spiritually , not according to the consequence of Nature , but according to the grace of a gift , and with the body they also nourish the soul , leading unto faith . To these very many more might be added ; but instead of them , the words of S. Austin may suffice , as being an evident conviction what was the doctrine of the primitive Church in this question . This great Doctor brings in Christ thus speaking as to his Disciples , [ You are not to eat this body which you see , or to drink that bloud which my crucifiers shall pour forth . I have commended to you a sacrament , which being spiritually understood shall quicken you : ] And again ; Christ brought them to a banquet , in which he commended to his Disciples the figure of his body and bloud ] For he did not doubt to say , This is my body , when he gave the sign of his body ] and , That which by all men is called a sacrifice , is the sign of the true sacrifice , in which the flesh of Christ after his assumption is celebrated by the sacrament of remembrances . ] But in this particular the Canon Law it self , and the Master of the Sentences are the best witnesses ; in both which collections there are divers testimonies brought , especially from S. Ambrose and S. Austin , which whosoever can reconcile with the doctrine of Transubstantiation , may easily put the Hyaena and a Dog , a Pigeon and a Kite into couples , and make fire and water enter into natural and eternal friendships . Theodoret and P. Gelasius speak more emphatically , even to the nature of things , and the very philosophy of this Question . [ Christ honour'd the symbols and the signs ( saith Theodoret ) which are seen with the title of his body and bloud , not changing the nature , but to nature adding grace . * For neither do the mystical signs recede from their nature ; for they abide in their proper substance , figure and form , and may be seen and touch'd , &c. And for a testimony that shall be esteem'd infallible , we allege the words of Pope Gelasius , [ Truly the sacraments of the body and bloud of Christ , which we receive , are a Divine thing ; for that by them we are made partakers of the Divine nature ; and yet it ceases not to be the substance or nature of bread and wine . And truly an image and similitude of the body and bloud of Christ are celebrated in the action of the mysteries . Now from these premises we are not desirous to infer any odious consequences in reproof of the Roman Church , but we think it our duty to give our own people caution and admonition ; 1. That they be not abus'd by the rhetorical words and high expressions alleged out of the Fathers , calling the Sacrament , The body or the flesh of Christ. For we all believe it is so , and rejoyce in it . But the question is , after what manner it is so ; whether after the manner of the flesh , or after the manner of spiritual grace , and sacramental consequence ? We with the H. Scriptures and the primitive Fathers , affirm the later . The Church of Rome against the words of Scripture , and the explication of Christ * , and the doctrine of the primitive Church , affirm the former . 2. That they be careful not to admit such Doctrines under a pretence of being Ancient ; since , although the Roman errour hath been too long admitted , and is ancient in respect of our days , yet it is an innovation in Christianity , and brought in by ignorance , power and superstition , very many ages after Christ. 3. We exhort them , that they remember the words of Christ , when he explicates the doctrine of giving us his flesh for meat , and his bloud for drink , that he tells us , The flesh profiteth nothing , but the words which he speaks are spirit , and they are life . 4. That if those ancient and primitive Doctors above cited , say true , and that the symbols still remain the same in their natural substance and properties , even after they are blessed , and when they are receiv'd , and that Christs body and bloud are onely present to faith and to the spirit , that then whoever tempts them to give Divine honour to these symbols or elements ( as the Church of Rome does ) tempts them to give to a creature the due and incommunicable propriety of God ; and that then , this evil passes further than an errour in the understanding ; for it carries them to a dangerous practice , which cannot reasonably be excus'd from the crime of Idolatry . To conclude , This matter of it self is an error so prodigiously great and dangerous , that we need nor tell of the horrid and blasphemous questions which are sometimes handled by them concerning this Divine Mystery . As , if a Priest going by a Bakers shop , and saying with intention , Hoc est corpus meum , whether all the Bakers bread be turned into the body of Christ ? Whether a Church mouse does eat her Maker ? Whether a man by eating the consecrated symbols does break his fast ? For if it be not bread and wine , he does not : and if it be Christs body and bloud naturally and properly , it is not bread and wine . Whether it may be said , the Priest is in some sense the Creator of God himself ? Whether his power be greater than the power of Angels and Archangels ? For that it is so , is expresly affirmed by Cassenaeus . Whether ( as a Bohemian Priest said ) that a Priest before he say his first Mass , be the Son of God , but afterward he is the Father of God and the Creator of his body ? But against this blasphemy a book was written by Iohn Huss , about the time of the Council of Constance . But these things are too bad , and therefore we love not to rake in so filthy chanels , but give onely a general warning to all our Charges , to take heed of such persons , who from the proper consequences of their Articles , grow too bold and extravagant ; and , of such doctrines , from whence these and many other evil Propositions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , frequently do issue . As the tree is , such must be the fruit . But we hope it may be sufficient to say , That what the Church of Rome teaches of Transubstantiation , is absolutely impossible , and implies contradictions very many , to the belief of which no faith can oblige us , and no reason can endure . For Christs body being in heaven , glorious , spiritual and impassible , cannot be broken . And since by the Roman doctrine nothing is broken , but that which cannot be broken , that is , the colour , the taste , and other accidents of the elements ; yet if they could be broken , since the accidents of bread and wine are not the substance of Christs body and bloud , it is certain that on the Altar , Christs body naturally and properly cannot be broken And since they say that every consecrated Wafer is Christs whole body , and yet this Wafer is not that Wafer , therefore either this or that is not Christs body , or else Christ hath two bodies , for there are two Wafers . But when Christ instituted the Sacrament , and said , This is my body which is broken : because at that time Christs body was not broken naturally and properly , the very words of Institution do force us to understand the Sacrament in a sense not natural , but spiritual , that is , truly sacramental . And all this is besides the plain demonstrations of sense , which tells us it is bread and it is wine naturally as much after as before consecration . And after all , the natural sense is such as our blessed Saviour reprov'd in the men of Capernaum , and called them to a spiritual understanding ; the natural sense being not onely unreasonable and impossible ; but also to no purpose of the spirit , or any ways perfective of the soul ; as hath been clearly demonstrated by many learned men against the fond hypothesis of the Church of Rome in this Article . Sect. VI. OUr next instance of the novelty of the Roman Religion in their Articles of division from us , is that of the half Communion . For they deprive the people of the chalice , and dismember the institution of Christ , and praevaricate his express law in this particular , and recede from the practise of the Apostles ; and though they confess it was the practise of the primitive Church , yet they lay it aside , and curse all them that say they do amiss in it ; that is , they curse them who follow Christ , and his Apostles , and his Church , while themselves deny to follow them . Now for this we need no other testimony but their own words in the Council of Constance . [ Whereas in certain parts of the world some temerariously presume to affirm , that the Christian people ought to receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist under both kinds of bread and wine , and do every where communicate the Laity not onely in bread but in wine also ; — Hence it is , that the Council decrees and defines against this error , that although Christ instituted after supper , and administred this venerable Sacrament under both kinds of bread aud wine , yet this notwithstanding — And although in the primitive Church this Sacrament was receiv'd of the faithful under both kinds ] Here is the acknowledgment , both of Christs institution in both kinds , and Christs ministring it in both kinds , and the practise of the primitive Church to give it in both kinds ; yet the conclusion from these premises is [ We command under the pain of Excommunication , that no Priest communicate the people under both kinds of bread and wine . ] The opposition is plain : Christs Testament ordains it : The Church of Rome forbids it : It was the primitive custom to obey Christ in this : a later custom is by the Church of Rome introduc'd to the contrary . To say that the first practise and institution is necessary to be followed , is called Heretical : to refuse the later subintroduc'd custom incurrs the sentence of Excommunication : and this they have pass'd not onely into a law , but into an Article of Faith ; and if this be not teaching for doctrines the commandments of men , and worshipping God in vain with mens traditions ; then there is , and there was , and there can be no such thing in the world . So that now the question is not , whether this doctrine and practise be an INNOVATION , but whether it be not better it should be so ? Whether it be not better to drink new wine than old ? Whether it be not better to obey man than Christ , who is God blessed for ever ? Whether a late custom be not to be preferr'd before the ancient ? a custom dissonant from the institution of Christ , before that which is wholly consonant to what Christ did and taught ? This is such a bold affirmative of the Church of Rome , that nothing can suffice to rescue us from an amazement in the consideration of it : especially since , although the Institution it self , being the onely warranty and authority for what we do , is of it self our rule and precept ; ( according to that of the Lawyer , Institutiones sunt praeceptiones quibus instituuntur & docentur homines ) yet besides this , Christ added preceptive words , Drink ye all of this : he spake it to all that receiv'd , who then also represented all them , who for ever after were to remember Christs death . But concerning the doctrine of Antiquity in this point , although the Council of Constance confess the Question , yet since that time they have taken on them a new confidence , and affirm , that the half Communion was always more or less the practise of the most Ancient times . We therefore think it fit to produce testimonies concurrent with the saying of the Council of Constance , such as are irrefragable , and of persons beyond exception . Cassander affirms , That in the Latine Church for aboue a thousand years , the body of Christ , and the blood of Christ were separately giuen● the body apart , and the blood apart , after the consecration of the mysteries . So Aquin as also affirms , [ According to the ancient custom of the Church , all men as they communicated in the body , so they communicated in the bloud ; which also to this day is kept in some Churches . ] And therefore Paschasius Ratbertus resolves it dogmatically , That neither the flesh without the bloud , nor the bloud without the flesh is rightly communicated ; because the Apostles all of them did drink of the chalice . And Salmeron being forc'd by the evidence of the thing , ingenuously and openly confesses , That it was a general custom to communicate the Laity under both kinds . It was so , and it was more : There was anciently a Law for it , Aut integra Sacramenta percipiant , aut ab integris arceantur , said Pope Gelasius . Either all nor none , let them receive in both kinds , or in neither ; and he gives this reason , Quia divisio unius & ejusdem mysterii sine grandi sacrilegio non potest pervenire . The mystery is but one and the same , and therefore it cannot be divided without great sacrilege . The reason concludes as much of the Receiver as the Consecrator , and speaks of all indefinitely . Thus it is acknowledged to have been in the Latine Church , and thus we see it ought to have been : And for the Greek Church there is no question ; for even to this day they communicate the people in the chalice . But this case is so plain , and there are such clear testimonies out of the Fathers recorded in their own Canon Law , that nothing can obscure it ; but to use too many words about it . We therefore do exhort our people to take care that they suffer not themselves to be robb'd of their portion of Christ , as he is pleas'd sacramentally and graciously to communicate himself unto us . Sect. VII . AS the Church of Rome does great injury to Christendom , in taking from the people what Christ gave them in the matter of the Sacrament ; so she also deprives them of very much of the benefit which they might receive by their holy prayers , if they were suffered to pray in publick in a Language they understand . But that 's denied to the common people , to their very great prejudice and injury . Concerning which , although it is as possible to reconcile Adultery with the seventh Commandment , as Service in a Language not understood to the fourteenth Chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians ; and that therefore if we can suppose that the Apostolical age did follow the Apostolical rule , it must be conclude , that the practise of the Church of Rome is contrary to the practise of the Primitive Church : Yet besides this , we have thought fit to declare the plain sense and practise of the succeeding Ages in a few testimonies , but so pregnant , as not to be avoided . Origen affirms , that the Grecians in their prayers use Greek , and the Romans the Roman language , and so every one according to his Tongue , prayeth unto God , and praiseth him as he is able . S. Chrysostom urging the precept of the Apostle for prayers in a Language understood by the hearer , affirms that which is but reasonable , saying , If a man speaks in the Persian Tongue , and understands not what himself says , to himself he is a Barbarian , and therefore so he is to him that understands no more than he does . And what profit can he receive , who hears a sound , and discerns it not ? It were as good he were absent as present : For if he be the better to be there , because he sees what is done , and guesses at something in general , * and consents to him that ministers : It is true , this may be , but this therefore is so , because he understands something ; but he is onely so far benefited as he understands , and therefore all that which is not understood , does him no more benefit that is present , than to him that is absent , and consents to the prayers in general , and to what is done for all faithful people . But [ If indeed ye meet for the edification of the Church , those things ought to be spoken which the hearers understand , ] said S. Ambrose : And so it was in the primitive Church ; blessings and all other things in the Church were done in the Vulgar tongue , saith a Lyra ; Nay , not onely the publick Prayers , but the whole Bible was anciently by many Translations , made fit for the peoples use . S. Hierom b affirms , that himself translated the Bible into the Dalmatian Tongue ; and c Ulphilas a Bishop among the Goths , translated it into the Gothick Tongue ; and that it was translated into all Languages , we are told by d S. Chrysostome , e S. Austin , and f Theodoret. But although what twenty Fathers say , can make a thing no more certain than if S. Paul had alone said it , yet both S. Paul and the Fathers are frequent to tell us , That a Service or Prayers in an unknown Tongue do not edifie : So g S. Basil , h S. Chrysostom , i S. Ambrose , and k S. Austin , l and this is consented to by Aquinas , m Lyra , and n Cassander : And besides that , these Doctors affirm , that in the primitive Church the Priest and People joyn'd in their Prayers , and understood each other , and prayed in their Mother-tongue : We find a story ( how true it is , let them look to it , but it is ) told by o AEneas Sylvius , who was afterwards Pope Pius the II. that when Cyrillus Bishop of the Moravians and Methodius had converted the Slavonians , Cyril being at Rome , desir'd leave to use the language of that Nation in their Divine Offices . Concerning which when they were disputing , a voice was heard , as if from Heaven , Let every spirit praise the Lord , and every tongue confess unto him : Upon which it was granted according to the Bishops desire . But now they are not so kind at Rome ; and although the Fathers at Tre●t confess'd in their Decree , that the Mass contains in it great matter of erudition and edification of the people , yet they did not think it fit , that it should be said in the vulgar Tongue : So that it is very good food , but it must be lock'd up ; it is an excellent candle , but it must be put under a bushel : And now the Question is , Whether it be fit that the people pray so as to be edified by it ; or is it better that they be at the prayers when they shall not be edified ? Whether it be not as good to have a dumb Priest to do Mass , as one that hath a tongue to say it ? For he that hath no tongue , and he that hath none to be understood , is alike insignificant to me . Quid prodest locutionum integritas quam non sequitur intellectus audientis ? cum loquendi nulla fit causa , si quod loquimur non intelligunt propter quos ut intelligant loquimur , said S. Austin : What does it avail that man speaks all , if the hearers understand none ? and there is no cause why ● man should speak at all , if they , for whose understanding you do speak , understand it not . God understands the Priests thoughts when he speaks not , as well as when he speaks ; he hears the prayer of the heart , and sees the word of the mind , and a dumb Priest can do all the ceremonies , and make the signs ; and he that speaks aloud to them that understand him not , does no more . Now since there is no use of vocal prayer in publick , but that all together may signifie their desires , and stir up one another , and joyn in the expression of them to God ; by this device , a man who understands not what is said , can onely pray with his lips ; for the heart cannot pray but by desiring , and it cannot desire what it understands not . So that in this case , prayer cannot be an act of the soul : There is neither affection nor understanding , notice or desire : The heart says nothing , and asks for nothing , and therefore receives nothing . Solomon calls that the sacrifice of fools , when men consider not ; and they who understand not what is said , cannot take it into consideration . But there needs no more to be said in so plain a case . We end this with the words of the Civil and Canon Law. Iustinian the Emperour made a Law in these words , [ We will and command , that all Bishops and Priests celebrate the sacred Oblation , and the Prayers thereunto added in holy Baptism , not in a low voice , but with a loud and clear voice , which may be heard by the faithful people ; that is , be understood , for so it follows , that thereby the minds of the hearers may be raised up with greater devotion to set forth the praises of the Lord God ; for so the Apostle teacheth in the first to the Corinthians . It is true , that this Law was rased out of the Latine versions of Iustinian . The fraud and design was too palpable , but it prevail'd nothing ; for it is acknowledged by Cassander and Bellarmine , and is in the Greek Copies of Holoander . The Canon Law is also most express from an Authority of no less than a Pope and a General Council , as themselves esteem ; Innocent III. in the great Council of Lateran , above MCC years after Christ , in these words , [ Because in most parts within the same City and Diocess , the people of divers Tongues are mixt together , having under one and the same faith divers ceremonies and rites , we straitly charge and command , That the Bishops of such Cities and Dioceses provide men fit , who may celebrate Divine Service according to the diversity of ceremonies and languages , and administer the Sacraments of the Church , instructing them both by word and by example . ] Now if the words of the Apostle , and the practise of the primitive Church , the Sayings of the Fathers , and the Confessions of wise men amongst themselves ; if the consent of Nations , and the piety of our fore-fathers ; if right reason , and the necessity of the thing ; if the needs of the ignorant , and the very inseparable conditions of holy prayers ; if the Laws of Princes , and the Laws of the Church , which do require all our prayers to be said by them that understand what they say ; if all these cannot prevail with the Church of Rome to do so much good to the peoples souls , as to consent they should understand what in particular they are to ask of God , certainly there is a great pertinacy of opinion , and but a little charity to those precious souls , for whom Christ dyed and for whom they must give account . Indeed the old Toscan Rites , and the Sooth-sayings of the Salian Priests , Vix Sacerdotibus suis intellecta , sed quae mutari vetat Religio : were scarce understood by their Priests themselves , but their Religion forbad to change them . Thus anciently did the Osseni Hereticks of whom Epiphanius tells , and the Heracleonitae of whom S. Austin gives account ; they taught to pray with obscure words ; and some others in Clemens Alexandrinus , suppos'd , that words spoken in a barbarous or unknown tongue , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , are more powerful . The Jews also in their Synagogues at this day , read Hebrew , which the people but rarely understand ; and the Turks in their Mosques read Arabick , of which the people know nothing . But Christians never did so , till they of Rome resolved to refuse to do benefit to the souls of the people in this instance , or to bring them from intolerable ignorance . Sect. VIII . THe Church of Rome hath to very bad purposes introduc'd and impos'd upon Christendom the worship and veneration of Images , kissing them , pulling off their hats , kneeling , falling down and praying before them , which they call , giving them due honor and veneration . What external honor and veneration that is , which they call due , is express'd by the instances now reckon'd , which the Council of Trent in their Decree enumerate and establish . What the inward honor and worship is , which they intend to them , is intimated in the same Decree . By the Images they worship Christ and his Saints ; and therefore by these Images they pass that honor to Christ and his Saints which is their due : that is , as their Doctors explain it , Latria or Divine worship to God and Christ. Hyperdulia or more than service to the Blessed Virgin Mary ; and service or doulia to other canoniz'd persons . So that upon the whole , the case is this : What ever worship they give to God , and Christ and his Saints , they give it first to the image , and from the image they pass it unto Christ and Christs servants . And therefore we need not to enquire what actions they suppose to be fit or due . For whatsoever is due to God , to Christ or his Saints , that worship they give to their respective Images : all the same in external semblance and ministery ; as appears in all their great Churches , and publick actions , and processions , and Temples and Festivals , and endowments , and censings , and pilgrimages , and prayers , and vows made to them . Now besides that these things are so like Idolatry , that they can no way be reasonably excused ( of which we shall in the next Chapter give some account ) besides that they are too like the religion of the Heathens , and so plainly and frequently forbidden in the Old Testament , and are so infinitely unlike the simple and wise , the natural and holy , the pure and the spiritual religion of the Gospel ; besides that they are so infinite a scandal to the Jews and Turks , and reproach Christianity it self amongst all strangers that live in their communion , and observe their rites : besides that they cannot pretend to be lawfull , but with the laborious artifices of many Metaphysical notions and distinctions , which the people who most need them , do least understand ; and that therefore the people worship them without these distinctio●s , and directly put confidence in them ; and that it is impossible that ignorant persons , who in all Christian countreys make up the biggest number , should do otherwise , when otherwise they cannot understand it ; and besides that , the thing it self with or without distinctions , is a superstitious and forbidden , an unlawful and unnatural worship of God , who will not be worshipped by an Image : we say that besides all this , This whole Doctrine and practise is an innovation in the Christian Church , not practis'd , not endured in the primitive ages ; but expresly condemned by them , and this is our present undertaking to evince . The first notice we find of Images brought into Christian Religion , was by Simon Magus : indeed that was very Ancient , but very heretical and abominable : but that he brought some in to be worshipped , we find in * Theodoret , and * S. Austin , * S. Irenaeus tells , That the Gnosticks or Carpocrations did make images , and said , that the form of Christ as he was in the flesh , was made by Pilate ; and these Images they worshipped , as did the Gentiles : These things they did , but against these things the Christians did zealously and piously declare : We have no Image in the world , said S. Clemens of * Alexandria : It is apparently forbidden to us to exercise that deceitful art : For it is written , Thou shalt not make any similitude of any thing in Heaven above , &c. And Origen wrote a just Treatise against Celsus ; in which he not onely affirms , That Christians did not make or use Images in Religion , but that they ought not , and were by God forbidden to do so . To the same purpose also Lactantius discourses to the Emperor , and confutes the pretences and little answers of the Heathen in that manner , that he leaves no pretence for Christians under another cover , to introduce the like abomination . We are not ignorant , that those who were converted from Gentilism , and those who lov'd to imitate the customs of the Roman Princes and people , did soon introduce the Historical use of Images , and according to the manner of the world , did think it honourable to depict or make Images of those whom they had in great esteem ; and that this being done by an esteem , relying on Religion , did by the weakness of men , and the importunity of the Tempter , quickly pass into inconvenience and superstition ; yet even in the time of Iulian the Emperor , S. Cyril denies , that the Christians did give veneration and worship to the Image , even of the Cross it self , which was one of the earliest temptations ; and S. Epiphanius ( it is a known story ) tells , that when in the village of Bethel he saw a cloth picture , as it were of Christ , or some Saint in the Church , against the Authority of Scripture ; He cut it in pieces , and advis'd that some poor man should be buried in it ; affirming , that such Pictures are against Religion , and unworthy of the Church of Christ. The Epistle was translated into Latine by S. Hierome ; by which we may guess at his opinion in the question . The Council of Eliberis is very ancient , and of great fame ; in which i● is expresly forbidden , that what is worshipped , should be depicted on the walls ; and that therefore Pictures ought not to be in Churches . S. Austin complaining , that he knew o● many in the Church who were Worshippers of Pictures , calls them Superstitious ; and addes , that the Church condemns such customs , and strives to correct them : and S. Gregory writing to Serenus Bishop of Massilia , says he would not have had him to break the Pictures and Images , which were there set for an historical use ; but commends him for prohibiting any one to worship them , and enjoyns him still to forbid it . But Superstition by degrees creeping in , the Worship of Images was decreed in the seventh Synod , or the second Nicene . But the decrees of this Synod being by Pope Adrian sent to Charls the Great , he convocated a Synod of German and French Bishops at Francfurt , who discussed the Acts pass'd at Nice , and condemn'd them : And the Acts of this Synod , although they were diligently suppressed by the Popes arts , yet Eginardus , Hincmarus , Aventinus , Blondus , Adon , Aymonius ●and Regino , famons Historians , tell us , That the Bishops of Francfurt condemn'd the Synod of Nice , and commanded it should not be called a General Council ; and published a Book under the name of the Emperor , confuting that unchristian Assembly ; and not long since , this Book● and the Acts of Francfurt ● were published by Bishop Tillius ; by which , not onely the infinite fraud of the Roman Doctors is discover'd , but the worship of Images is declar'd against and condemned . A while after this , Ludovicus the son of Charlemain , sent Claudius a famous Preacher to Taurinum in Italy , where he preach'd against the worshipping of Images , and wrote an excellent book to that purpose . Against this book Ionas Bishop of Orleans , after the death of Ludovicus and Claudius , did write : In which he yet durst not assert the worship of them , but confuted it out of Origen ; whose words he thus cites , [ Images are neither to be esteemed by inward affection , nor worshipped with outward shew ; ] and out of Lactantius these , [ Nothing is to be worshipped that is seen with mortal eyes : Let us adore , let us worship nothing , but the name alone of our onely Parent , who is to be sought for in the Regions above , not here below : ] And to the same purpose , he also alleges excellent words out of Fulgentius and S. Hierom ; and though he would have Images retain'd , and therefore was angry at Claudius who caus'd them to be taken down , yet he himself expresly affirms , that they ought not to be worshipped ; and withall adds , that though they kept the Images in their Churches for history and ornament , yet that in France the worshipping of them was had in great detestation . And though it is not to be denied , but that in the sequel of Ionas his book , he does something prevaricate in this question ; yet it is evident , that in France this Doctrine was not accounted Catholick for almost nine hundred years after Christ ; and in Germany it was condemned for almost MCC years , as we find in Nicetas . We are not unskill'd in the devices of the Roman Writers , and with how much artifice they would excuse this whole matter , and palliate the crime imputed to them , and elude the Scriptures expresly condemning this Superstition : But we know also , that the arts of Sophistry are not the ways of Salvation . And therefore we exhort our people to follow the plain words of Scripture , and the express Law of God in the second Commandment ; and add also the exhortation of S. Iohn , Little children , keep your selves from Idols . To conclude , it is impossible but that it must be confessed , that the worship of Images was a thing unknown to the primitive Church ; in the purest times of which , they would not allow the making of them ; as ( amongst divers others ) appears in the Writings of Clemens * Alexandrinus , * Tertullian , and * Origen . Sect. IX . AS an Appendage to this , we greatly reprove the custom of the Church of Rome , in picturing God the Father , and the most holy and undivided Trinity ; which , besides that i● ministers infinite scandal to all sober minded men , and gives the new Arrians in Polonia and Antitrinitarians , great and ridiculous entertainment exposiag that sacred Mystery to derision and scandalous contempt : It is also ( which at present we have undertaken particularly to remark ) against the doctrine and practise of the primitive Catholick Church . S. Clemens of Alexandria says , that in the Discipline of Moses , God was not to be represented in the shape of a Man , or of any other thing : and that Christians understood themselves to be bound by the same Law , we find it expresly taught by Origen a , Tertullian b , Eusebius c , Athanasius d , S. Hierom e , S. Austin f , Theodoret g , Damascen h , and the Synod of Constantinople , as it is reported in the 6. Action of the second Nicene Council . And certainly if there were not a strange spirit of contradiction or superstition or deflexion from the Christian Rule , greatly prevailing in the Ch. of Rome , it were impossible that this practise should be so countenanc'd by them , and defended so , to no purpose , with so much scandal , and against the natural reason of mankind , and the very Law of Nature it self : For the Heathens were sufficiently by the light of Nature , taught to abominate all Pictures or Images of God. Sed nulla effigies , simulacraque nulla Deorum : Majestate locum , & sacro implevere timore . They in their earliest ages had no Pictures , no Images of their Gods : Their Temples were filled with majesty , and a sacred fear ; and the reason is given by Macrobius , Antiquity made no Image ( viz. of God ) because the supreme God , and the mind that is born of him , ( that is , his Son , the eternal Word ) as it is beyond the Soul , so it is above Nature , and therefore it is not lawful that Figments should come thither . Nicephorus Callistus relating the heresie of the Armenians and Iacobites says , they made Images of the Father , Son , and Holy Ghost , quod perquam absurdum est . Nothing is more absurd , than to make Pictures or Images of the Persons of the holy and adorable Trinity . And yet they do this in the Church of Rome . For in the windows of their Churches , even in Conntrey-villages , where the danger cannot be denied to be great , and the scandal insupportable ; nay , in their books of Devotion , in their very Mass-books and Breviaries , in their Portuises and Manuals they picture the holy Trinity with three noses and four eyes , and three faces in a knot , to the great dishonour of God and scandal of Christianity it self . We add no more , ( for the case is too evidently bad ) but reprove the error with the words of their own Polydore Virgil : Since the world began never was any thing more foolish than to picture God , who is present everywhere . Sect. X. THe last Instance of Innovations introduc●d in Doctrine and Practise by the Church of Rome , that we shall represent , is that of the Popes Universal Bishoprick . That is , not onely that he is Bishop of Bishops , superiour to all and every one ; but that his Bishoprick is a Pleni●ude of Power ; and as for other Bishops , of his fulness they all receive , a part of the Ministery and sollicitude ; and not onely so , but that he onely is a Bishop by immediate Divine Dispensation , and others receive from him whatsoever they have . For to this height many of them are come at last . Which Doctrine , although as it is in sins , where the carnal are most full of reproch , but the spiritual are of greatest malignity ; so it happens in this Article . For though it be not so scandalous as their Idolatry , so ridiculous as their Superstitions , so unreasonable as their Doctrine of Transubstantiation , so easily reprov'd as their Half Communion , and Service in an unknown Tongue ; yet it is of as dangerous and evil effect , and as false , and as certainly an Innovation , as any thing in their whole Conjugation of Errours● When Christ founded his Church , he left it in the hands of his Apostles , without any prerogative given to one , or eminency above the rest , save onely of priority and orderly precedency , which of it self was natural , necessary and incident . The Apostles govern'd all ; their Authority was the sanction , and their Decrees and Writings were the Laws of the Church . They exercis'd a common jurisdiction , and divided it according to the needs and emergencies , and circumstances of the Church . In the Council of Ierusalem , S. Peter gave not the decisive sentence , but S. Iames , who was the Bishop of that See. Christ sent all his Apostles as his Father sent him ; and therefore he gave to every one of them the whole power which he left behind ; and to the Bishops congregated at Miletum , S. Paul gave them caution to take care of the whole flock of God , and affirms to them all that the Holy Ghost had made them Bishops : and in the whole New Testament , there is no act or sign of superiority , or that one Apostle exercised power over another : but to them whom Christ sent , he in common intrusted the Church of God : according to that excellent saying of S. Cyprian , [ The other Apostles are the same that S. Peter was , endowed with an equal fellowship of honour and power : and they are all shephards , and the flock is one ] and therefore it ought to be ●ed by all the Apostles with unanimous consent . This unity and identity of power without question and interruption did continue and descend to Bishops in the primitive Church , in which it was a known doctrine that the Bishops were successors of the Apostles : and what was not in the beginning , could not be in the descent , unless it were innovated and introduc'd by a new authority . Christ gave ordinary power to none but the Apostles , and the power being to continue for ever in the Church , it was to be succeeded to , and by the same authority , even of Christ , it descended to them who were their successors , that is , to the Bishops , as all antiquity * does consent and teach : Not S. Peter alone , but every Apostle , and therefore every one who succeeds them in their ordinary power , may and must remember the words of S. Paul ; We are Embassadors or Legates for Christ : Christs Vicars , not the Popes Delegates : and so all the Apostles are called in the Preface of the Mass ; quos oper is tui Vicarios eidem contulisti praeesse Pastores ; they are Pastors of the Flock and Vicars of Christ ; and so also they are in express terms called by S. Ambrose , and therefore it is a strange usurpation , that the Pope arrogates that to himself by Impropriation , which is common to him with all the Bishops of Christendome . The consequent of this is , that by the law of Christ , one Bishop is not superior to another : Christ gave the power to all alike ; he made no Head of the Bishops ; he gave to none a supremacy of power or universality of jurisdiction . But this the Pope hath long challenged , and to bring his purposes to pass , hath for these Six hundred years by-gone invaded the rights of Bishops , and delegated matters of order and jurisdiction to Monks and Friers ; insomuch that the power of Bishops was greatly diminished at the erecting of the Cluniac and Cistercian Monks about the year ML : but about the year MCC , it was almost swallowed up by privileges granted to the Begging Friers , and there kept by the power of the Pope : which power got one great step more above the Bishops , when they got it declared that the Pope is above a Co●ncil of Bis●ops : and at last it was turn'd into a new doctrine by Cajetane ( who for his prosperous invention was made a Cardinal ) that all the whole Apostolick or Episcopal power is radical and inherent in the Pope , in whom is the fulness of the Ecclesiastical authority ; and that Bishops receive their portion of it from him : and this was first boldly maintain'd in the Council of Trent by the Jesuits ; and it is now the opinion of their Order : but it is also that which the Pope challenges in practise , when he pretends to a power over all Bishops , and that this power is deriv'd to him from Christ ; when he calls himself the Universal Bishop , and the Vicarial Head of the Church , the Churches Monarch , he from whom all Ecclesiastical Authority is derived , to whose sentence in things Divine every Christian under pain of damnation is bound to be subject * . Now this is it which as it is productive of infinite mischiefs , so it is an Innovation and an absolute deflexion from the primitive Catholick Doctrine , and yet is the great ground-work and foundation of their Church . This we shall represent in these following testimonies . Pope Eleutherius * in an Epistle to the Bishops of France says that Christ committed the Universal Church to the Bishops ; and S. Ambrose says that the Bishop holdeth the place of Christ , and is his substitute● But famous are the words of S. Cyprian , [ The Church of Christ is one through the whole world , divided by him into many members , and the Bishoprick is but one , diffused in the agreeing plurality of many Bispops . ] And again , [ To every Pastor a portion of the flock is given , which let every one of them rule and govern . ] By which words it is evident that the primitive Church understood no Prelation of one and Subordination of another , commanded by Christ , or by virtue of their Ordination ; but onely what was for orders sake introduc'd by Princes and consent of Prelates . And it was to this purpose very full which was said by Pope Symmachus : As it is in the holy Trinity , whose power is one and undivided , ( or to use the expression in the Athanasian Creed , none is before or after other , none is greater or less than another ) so there is one Bishoprick amongst divers Bishops , and therefore why should the Canons of the ancient Bishops be violated by their Successors ? Now these words being spoken against the invasion of the rights of the Church of Arles by Anastasius , and the question being in the exercise of Jurisdiction , and about the institution of Bishops , does fully declare that the Bishops of Rome had no superiority by the laws of Christ over any Bishop in the Catholick Church , and that his Bishoprick gave no more power to him , than Christ gave to the Bishop of the smallest Diocese . And therefore all the Church of God , whenever they reckoned the several orders and degrees of Ministery in the Catholick Church , reckon the Bishop as the last and supreme , beyond whom there is no spiritual power but in Christ. For as the whole Hierarchy ends in Iesus , so does every particular one in its own Bishop . Beyond the Bishop there is no step , till you rest in the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls . Under him every Bishop is supreme in spirituals , and in all power which to any Bishop is given by Christ. S. Ignatius therefore exhorts that all should obey their Bishop , and the Bishop obey Christ , as Christ obeyed his Father . There are no other intermedial degrees of Divine institution . But ( as Origen teaches ) The Apostles , and they who after them are ordain●d by God , that is , the Bishops , have the supreme place in the Church , and the Prophets have the second place . The same also is taught by P. Gelasius * , by S. Hierom * , and Fulgentius * , and indeed by all the Fathers who spake any thing in this matter : Insomuch that when Bellarmine is in this question press'd out of the book of Nilus by the Authority of the Fathers standing against him , he answers , Papam Patres non habere in Ecclesiâ , sed Filios omnes ; The Pope acknowledges no Fathers in the Church , for they are all his Sons . Now although we suppose this to be greatly sufficient to declare the Doctrine of the primitive Catholick Church , concerning the equality of power in all Bishops by Divine right : yet the Fathers have also expresly declared themselves , that one Bishop is not superiour to another , and ought not to judge another , or force another to obedience . They are the words of S. Cyprian to a Council of Bishops : [ None of us makes himself a Bishop of Bishops , or by tyrannical power drives his collegues to a necessity of obedience , since every Bishop according to the license of his own liberty and power , hath his own choice , and cannot be judged by another , nor yet himself judge another ; but let us all expect the judgment of our L. Iesus Christ , who onely and alone hath the power of setting us in the Government of his Church , and judging of what we do . ] This was●spoken and intended against P. Stephen , who did then begin dominari in clero , to lord it over Gods heritage , and to excommunicate his brethren , as Demetrius did in the time of the Apostles themselves : but they both found their reprovers . Demetrius was chastised by S. Iohn for this usurpation , and Stephen by S. Cyprian , and this also was approv'd by S. Austin . We conclude this particular with the words of S. Gregory Bishop of Rome , who because the Patriarch of Constantinople called himself Universal Bishop , said , It was a proud title , prophane , sacrilegious , and Antichristian : and therefore he little thought that his successors in the same See should so fiercely challenge that Antichristian title ; much less did the then Bishop of Rome in those ages challenge it as their own peculiar ; for they had no mind to be , or to be esteemed Antichristian . Romano pontifici oblatum est , sed nullus unquam eorum hoc singularitatis nomen assump sit . His predecessors ( it seems ) had been tempted with an offer of that title , but none of them ever assumed that name of singularity , as being against the law of the Gospel and the Canons of the Church . Now this being a matter of which Christ spake not one word to Saint Peter , if it be a matter of faith and salvation , as it is now pretended , it is not imaginable he would have been so perfectly silent . But though he was silent of any intention to do this , yet S. Pau● was not silent that Christ did otherwise ; for he hath set in his Church primùm Apostolos ; first of all , Apostles ; not first S. Peter and secondarily Apostles ; but all the Apostles were first . It is also evident that S : Peter did not carry himself so as to give the least overture or umbrage to make any one suspect he had any such preheminence ; but he was ( as St. Chrysostom truly says ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he did all things with the common consent , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , nothing by special authority or principality : and if he had any such , it is more than probable that the Apostles who survived him , had succeeded him in it , rather than the Bishop of Rome : and it being certain ( as the Bishop of Canaries confesses ) That there is in Scripture no revelation that the Bishop of Rome should succeed Peter in it , and we being there told that S. Peter was at Antioch , but never that he was at Rome ; it being confessed by some of their own parties , by Cardinal Cusanus , Soto , Driedo , Canus and Segovius , that this succession was not addicted to any particular Church , nor that Christs institution of this does any other way appear ; that it cannot be proved that the Bishop of Rome is Prince of the Church : it being also certain that there was no such thing known in the primitive Church , but that the holy Fathers both of Africa and the East did oppose Pope Victor and Pope Stephen , when they began to interpose with a presumptive Authority in the affairs of other Churches ; and that the Bishops of the Church did treat with the Roman Bishop as with a brother , not as their superiour : and that the General Council held at Chalcedon did give to the Bishops of C. P. equal rights and preeminence with the Bishops of Rome : and that the Greek Churches are at this day and have been a long time great opponents of this pretension of the Bishops of Rome : and after all this , since it is certain that Christ , who foreknows all things , did also know that t●ere would be great disputes and challenges of this preeminence , did indeed suppress it in his Apostles , and said not it should be otherwise in succession , and did not give any command to his Church to obey the Bishops of Rome as his Vicars , more than what he commanded concerning all Bishops ; it must be certain that it cannot be necessary to salvation to do so , but that it is more than probable tha● 〈◊〉 never intended any such thing , and 〈◊〉 the Bishops of Rome have to the great prejudice of Christendom made a great schism , and usurped a title which is not their due , and challenged an authority to which they have no right , and have set themselves above others who are their equals , and impose an Article of Faith of their own contriving , and have made great preparation for Antichrist , if he ever get into that Seat , or be in already , and made it necessary for all of the Roman Communion to believe and obey him in all things . Sect. XI● THere are very many more things in which the Church of Rome hath greatly turn'd aside from the Doctrines of Scripture , and the practise of the Catholick Apostolick and primitive Church . Such are these : The Invoc●●●n of Saints : the Insufficiencie of S●●●●ures without Traditions of Faith unto Salvation : their absolving sinners before they have by canonical penances and the fruits of a good life testified their repentance : their giving leave to simple Presbyters by Papal dispensation , to give confirmation or chrism : selling Masses for Ninepences : Circumgestation of the Eucharist to be ador'd : The dangerous Doctrine of the necessity of the Priests intention in collating Sacraments ; by which device they have put it into the power of the Priest to damn whom he please of his own parish : their affirming that the Mass is a proper and propitiatory sacrifice for the quick and the dead : Private Masses , or the Lords Supper without Communion ; which is against the doctrine and practise of the ancient Church of Rome it self , and contrary to the tradition of the Apostles , if we may believe Pope Calixtus , and is also forbidden under pain of Excommunication . Peractâ consecratione omnes communicent , qui noluerint ecclesiasticis carere liminibus ; sic autem etiam Apostoli statuerunt , & sancta Romana tenet Ecclesia . When the consecration is finished let all communicate that will not be thrust from the bounds of the Church ; for so the Apostles appointed , and so the Holy Church of Rome does hold . The same also was decreed by P. Soter and P. Martin in a Council of Bishops , and most severely enjoyn'd by the Canons of the Apostles as they are cited in the Canon Law. * There are divers others ; but we suppose that those Innovations which we have already noted , may be sufficient to verifie this charge of Novelty . But we have done this the rather , because the Roman Emissaries endeavour to prevail amongst the ignorant and prejudicate by boasting of Antiquity ; and calling their Religion , the Old Religion and the Catholick : so insnaring others by ignorant words in which is no truth ; their Religion as it distinguishes from the Religion of the Church of England and Ireland , being neither the Old nor the Catholick Religion ; but New and superinduc'd by arts known to all who with sincerity and diligence have look'd into their pretences . But they have taught every Priest that can scarse understand his Breviary , ( of which in Ireland there are but too many ) and very many of the people , to ask where our Religion was before Luther ? Whereas it appears by the premises , that it is much more easie for us to shew our Religion before Luther , than for them to shew theirs before Trent . And although they can shew too much practise of their Religion in the degenerate ages of the Church , yet we can and do clearly shew ours in the purest and first ages ; and can and do draw lines pointing to the times and places where the several rooms and stories of their Babel was builded , and where polished , and where furnished . But when the Keepers of the field slept , and the Enemy had sown tares , and they had choak'd the wheat , and almost destroyed it : when the world complain'd of the infinite errors in the Church , and being oppressed by a violent power , durst not complain so much as they had cause : and when they who had cause to complain were yet themselves very much abused , and did not complain in all they might ; when divers excellent persons , S. Bernard , Clemangis , Grosthead , Marsilius , Ocham , Alvarus , Abbat Ioachim , Petrarch , Savanarola , Valla , Erasmus , Mantuan , Gerson , Ferus , Cassander , Andre as Fricius , Modrevius , Hermannus Coloniensis , Wasseburgius Archdeacon of Verdun , Paulus Langius * , Staphilus , Telesphorus de Cusentiâ , Doctor Talheymius , Francis Zabarel the Cardinal , and Pope Adrian himself , with many others ; not to reckon Wiclef , Hus , Hierom of Prague , the Bohemians , and the poor men of Lions , whom they call'd Hereticks , and confuted with fire and sword ; when almost all Christian Princes did complain heavily of the corrupt state of the Church and of Religion , and no remedy could be had , but the very intended remedy made things much worse ; then it was that divers Christian Kingdoms , and particularly the Church of England , Tum primùm senio docilis , tua saecula Roma Erubuit , pudet exacti jam temporis , odit Praeteritos foedis cum relligionibus annos . Being asham'd of the errors , superstitious , her●●●es and impieties which had deturpated the face of the Church ; look'd into the glass of Scripture and pure Antiquity , and wash'd away those stains with which time , and inadvertency and tyranny had besmear'd her ; and being thus cleans'd and wash'd , is accus'd by the Roman parties of Novelty , and condemn●d because she refuses to run into the same excess of riot and deordination . But we cannot deserve blame who return to our ancient and first health , by preferring a New cure before an Old sore . CHAP. II. The Church of Rome , as it is at this day disordered , teaches Doctrines , and uses Practises , which are in themselves , or in their true and immediate Consequences , direct Impieties , and give warranty to a wicked Life . Sect. I. OUr First instance is in their doctrines of Repentance . For the Roman Doctors teach , that unless it be by accident , or in respect of some other obligation , a sinner is not bound presently to repent of his sin as soon as he hath committed it . Some time or other he must do it , and if he take care so to order his affairs that it be not wholly omitted , but so that it be don● one time or other , he is not by the precept or grace of Repentance bound to do more . Scotus and his Scholars say that a sinner is bound , viz. by the precept of the Church , to repent on Holy days , especially the great ones . But this is thought too severe by Soto and Medina , who teach that a sinner is bound to repent but once a year , that is , against Easter . These Doctors indeed do differ concerning the Churches sense ; which according to the best of them is bad enough ; full as bad as it is stated in the charge : but they agree in the worst part of it , viz. that though the Church calls upon sinners to repent on Holy days , or at Easter ; yet that by the Law of God they are not tied to so mu●● , but onely to repent in the danger or article of death . This is the express Doctrine taught in the Church of Rome by their famous Navar ; and for this he quotes Pope Adrian and Cardinal Cajetan , and finally affirms it to be the sense of all men . The same also is taught by Reginaldus , saying , It is true , and the opinion of all men , that the time in which a sinner is bound by the commandment of God to be contrite for his sins , is the imminent article of natural or violent death . We shall not need to aggravate this sad story by the addition of other words to the same purpose in a worse degree ; such as those words are of the same Reginaldus , There is no precept that a sinner should not persevere in enmity against God. There is no negative precept forbidding such a perseverance . These are the words of this man , but the proper and necessary consequent of that which they all teach , and to which they must consent . For since it is certain that he who hath sinn'd against God and his Conscience , is in a state of enmity , we say he therefore o●ght to repent presently , because untill he hath repented he is an enemy to God● This they confess , but they suppo●e it concludes nothing ; for though they consider and confess this , yet they still saying , a man is not bound by Gods Law to repent till the article of death , do consequently say the same thing that Reginaldus does , and that a man is not bound to come out● of that state of enmity till he be in those circumstances that it is very probable if he does not then come out , he must stay in it for ever . It is something worse than this yet that * So●●● says , [ even to resolve to d●fer our repentance , and i● refuse to repent for a certain time , is but a venial sin . ] But * Medina says it is none at all . If it be replied to this , that though God hath left it to a sinners liberty to repent when he please , yet the Church hath been more severe than God hath been , and ties a sinner to repent , by collate●●l positive laws ; for having bound every one to confess at Easter● consequently she hath tied every one to repent at Easter , and so , by her laws , can lie in the sin without interruption but twelve moneths or thereabouts ; yet there is a secret in this , which nevertheless themselves have been pleased to discover for the ease of tender consciences , viz. that the Church ordains but the means , the exteriour solemnity of it , and is satisfied if you obey her laws by a Ritual repentance , but the holiness and the inward repentance , which in charity we should have supposed to have been design'd by the law of Festivals , Non est id quod per praeceptum de observatione Festorum injungitur , is not that which is enjoyned by the Church in her law of Holy-days . So that still sinners are left to the liberty which they say God gave ; even to satisfie our selves with all the remaining pleasures of that sin for a little while , even during our short mortal life : onely we must be sure to repent at last . We shall not trouble our selves or our charges with con●uting this impious Doctrine . For it is evident that this gives countenance and too much warranty to a wicked life ; and that of it self is confutation enough , and is that which we intended to represent . If it be answered , that this is not the doctrine of their Church , but of some private Doctors ; we must tell you , that , if by the Doctrine of their Church they mean such things only as are decreed in their Councils ; it is to be considered , that but few things are determin'd in their Councils ; nothing but articles of belief , and the practise of Sacraments relating to publick order● and if they will not be reprov'd for any thing but what we prove to be false i● the articles of their simple belief , the● take a liberty to say and to do wha● they list , and to corrupt all the Worl● by their rules of conscience . But , tha● this is also the Doctrine of their Churc● their own men tell us . Communis o●●nium . It is the Doctrine of all the men ; so they affirm , as we have cite● their own words above : who also un●dertake to tell us in what sense their Church intends to tye sinners to actual repentance ; not as soon as the sin is committed , but at certain seasons , and then also to no more of it , than the external and ritual part . So that if their Church be injuriously charg'd , themselves have done it , not we . And besides all this : it is hard to suppose or expect that the innumerable cases of conscience which a whole Trade of Lawyers and Divines amongst them have made , can be entred into the records of Councils and publick decrees . In these cases we are to consider , who teaches them ? Their Gravest Doctors , in the face of the Sun , under the intuition of Authority in the publick conduct of souls , in their allowed Sermons , in their books licens'd by a curious and inquisitive authority , not passing from them but by warranty from several hands intrusted to examine them , ne fides Ecclesiae aliquid detrimenti patiatur ; that nothing be publish'd but what is consonant to the Catholick faith . And therefore these things cannot be esteem'd private opinions * : especially , since if they be , yet they are the private opinions of them all , and that we understand to be publick enough : and are so their Doctrine , as what the Scribes and Pharisees taught their Disciples , though the whole Church of the Jews had not pass'd it into a law . So this is the Roman Doctrine ; though not the Roman law . Which difference we desire may be observ'd in many of the following instances , that this objection may no more interpose for an escape , or an excuse . But we shall have occasion again to speak to it , upon new particulars . But this , though it be infinitely intolerable , yet it is but the beginning of sorrows . For the guides of Souls in the Roman Church have prevaricated in all the parts of Repentance , most sadly and dangerously . The next things therefore that we shall remark are their Doctrines concerning contrition : which when it is genuine and true , that is , a true cordial sorrow for having sinn'd against God ; a sorrow proceeding from the love of God , and conversion to him , and ending in a dereliction of all our sins , and a walking in all righteousness , both the Psalms and the Prophets , the Old Testament and the New , the Greek Fathers and the Latin have allowed as sufficient for the pardon of our sins through faith in Jesus Christ ( as our Writers have often prov'd in their Sermons and books of Conscience ) yet first , the Church of Rome does not allow it to be of any value , unless it be joyn'd with a desire to confess their sins to a Priest ; saying , that a man by contrition is not reconcil'd to God , without their Sacramental or Ritual penance , actual or votive ; and this is decreed by the Council of Trent , which thing besides that it is against Scripture , and the promises of the Gospel , and not only teaches for Doctrine the Commandments of Men , but evacuates the goodness of God by their traditions , and weakens and discourages the best repentance , and prefers repentance towards men , before that which the Scripture calls Repentance towards God , and faith in our Lord Iesus Christ. But the malignity of this Doctrine and its influence it hath on an evil life appears in the other corresponding part of this Doctrine . For as contrition without their ritual and sacramental confession will not reconcile us to God : so attrition ( as they call it ) or contrition imperfect , proceeding from fear of damnation , together with their Sacrament will reconcile the sinner . Contrition without it will not : attrition with it , will reconcile us ; and therefore by this doctrine , which is expresly decreed a● Trent , there is no necessity of Contrition at all ; and attrition is as good to all intents and purposes of pardon : and a little repentance will prevail as well as the greatest , the imperfect as well as the perfect . So Gu●lielmus de Rubeo explains this doctrine . He that confesses his sins , grieving but a little , obtains remission of his sins by the Sacrament of Penance ministred to him by the Priest absolving him . So that although God working Contrition in a penitent , hath not done his work for him without the Priests absolution , in desire at least ; yet if the Priest do his part , he hath done the work for the penitent , though God had not wrought that excellent grace of contrition in the penitent . But for the contrition it self ; it is a good word , but of no severity or affrightment by the Roman Doctrine : One contrition , one act of it , though but little and remiss , can blot out any , even the greatest sin ( always understanding it in the sense of the Church , that is in the Sacrament of Penance ) saith Cardinal Tolet. A certain little inward grief of mind is requir'd to the perfection of Repentance , said Maldonat . And to Contrition a grief in general for all our sins is sufficient ; but it is not necessary to grieve for any one sin more than another , said Franciscus de Victoriâ . The greatest sin and the smallest , as to this , are all alike ; and as for the Contrition it self , any intension or degr●e whatsoever , in any instant whatsoever , is sufficient to obtain mercy and remission , said the same Author . Now let this be added to the former , and the sequel is this , That if a man live a wicked life for threescore or ●ourscore years together , yet if in the article of his death , sooner than which God hath not commanded him to repent , he be a little sorrowful for his sins , then resolving for the present that he will do so no more ; and though this sorrow hath in it no love of God , but onely a fear of Hell , and a hope that God will pardon him , this , if the Priest absolves him , does instantly pass him into a state of salvation . The Priest with two fingers and a thumb can do his work for him ; onely he must be greatly dispos'd and prepar'd to receive it : Greatly , we say , according to the sense of the Roman Church ; for he must be attrite , or it were better if he were contrite ; one act of grief , a little one , and that not for one sin more than another , and this at the end of a long wicked life , at the time of our death , will make all sure . Upon these terms , it is a wonder that all wicked men in the world are not Papists ; where they may live so merrily , and die so securely , and are out of all danger , unless peradventure they die very suddenly , which because so very few do , the venture is esteem'd nothing , and it is a thousand to one on the sinners side . Sect. II. WE know it will be said , That the Roman Church enjoyns Confession , and imposes Penances , and these are a great restraint to sinners , and gather up what was scattered before . The reply is easie , but it is very sad . For , 1. For Confession : It is true , to them who are not us'd to it , as it is at the first time , and for that once it is as troublesom as for a bashful man to speak Orations in publick : But where it is so perpetual and universal , and done by companies and crouds , at a solemn set time , and when it may be done to any one besides the Parish-Priest , to a Friar that begs , or to a Monk in his Dorter , done in the ear , it may be , to a person that hath done worse , and therefore hath no awe upon me , but what his Order imprints , and his Viciousness takes off ; when we see Women and Boys , Princes and Prelates do the same every day : And as oftentimes they are never the better , so they are not at all asham'd ; but men look upon it as a certain cure , like pulling off a mans clothes to go and wash in a river , and make it by use and habit , by confidence and custom , to be no certain pain , and the women blush or smile , weep or are unmov'd , as it happens under their veil , and the men under the boldness of their Sex : When we see that men and women confess to day , and sin to morrow , and are not affrighted from their sin the more for it ; because they know the worst of it , and have felt it often , and believe to be eas'd by it , certain it is that a little reason , and a little observation will suffice to conclude , that this practise of Confession hath in it no affrightment , not so much as the horrour of the sin it self hath to the Conscience . For they who commit sins confidently , will with less regret ( it may be ) confess it in this manner , where it is the fashion for every one to do it . And when all the world observes how loosly the Italians , Spaniards and French do live in their Carnivals , giving to themselves all liberty and license to do the vilest things at that time , not onely because they are for a while● to take their leave of them , but because they are ( as they suppose ) to be so soon eas'd of their crimes by Confession , and the circular and never-failing hand of the Priest ; they will have no reason to admire the severity of Confession , which as it was most certainly intended as a deletory of sin , and might do its first intention , if it were equally manag'd ; so now certainly it gives confidence to many men to sin , and to most men to neglect the greater and more effective parts of essential repentance . We shall not need to observe how Confession is made a Minister of State , a Pick-lock of secrets , a Spy upon families , a Searcher of inclinations , a Betraying to temptations ; for this is wholly by the fault of the Men , and not of the Doctrine ; but even the Doctrine it self , as it is handled in the Church of Rome , is so far from bringing peace to the troubled Consciences , that it intromits more scruples and cases than 〈◊〉 can resolve . For be●ides , that it self is a question , and they have made it dangerous by pretending that it is by Divine Right and Institution , ( for so some of the Schoolmen * teach , and the Canonists say the contrary , * and that it is onely of humane and positive Constitution ) and by this difference in so great a point , have made the whole O●conomy of their repentance , which relies upon the supposed necessity of Confession , to fail , or to shake vehemently , and at the best , to be a foundation too uncertain to build the hopes of salvation on it ; besides all this , we say , Their Rules and Doctrines of Confession , enjoyn some things that are of themselves dangerous , and lead into temptation . An instance of this is in that which is decreed in the Canons of Trent , That the Penitent must not onely confess every mortal sin which after diligent inquiry he remembers , but even his very sinf●l thoughts in particular , and his secret desires , and every circumstance which changes the kind of the sin , or ( as some add ) does notably increase it : and how this can be safely done , and who is sufficient for these things , and who can tell his circumstances without tempting his Confessor , or betraying , and defaming another person , ( which is forbidden ) and in what cases it may be done , or in what cases omitted ; and whether the confession be valid upon infinite other considerations , and whether it be to be repeated in whole or in part , and how often , and how much ? these things are so uncertain , casual and contingent , and so many cases are multiplied upon every one of these , and these so disputed and argued by their greatest Doctors , by Thomas , and Scotus , and all the Schoolmen , and by the Casuists , that as Beatus Rhenanus complains , it was truly observed by the famous Iohn Geilerius , that according to their cases , inquiries and conclusions , it is impossible for any man to make a right Confession . So that although the shame of private Confession be very tolerable and easie , yet the cases and scruples which they have introduc'd , are neither easie nor tolerable , and though ( as it is now used ) there be but little in it , to restrain sin , yet there is very much danger of increasing it , and of receiving no benefit by it . Sect. III. BUt then for Penances and Satisfactions of which they boast so much , as being so great restraints to sin , these as they are publickly handled , are nothing but words and ineffective sounds . For , first , if we consider what the Penances themselves are which are enjoyn'd ; they are reduced from the ancient Canonical Penances to private and arbitrary , from years to hours , from great severity to gentleness and flattery , from fasting and publick shame to the saying over their Beads , from cordial to ritual , from smart to money , from heartiness and earnest to pageantry and theatrical images of Penance ; and if some Confessours happen to be severe , there are ways enough to be eased . For the Penitent may have leave to go to a gentler , or he may get Commutations , or he may get somebody else * to do them for him : and if his Penances be never so great , or never so little , yet it may be all supplied by Indulgencies ; of which there are such store in the Lateran at Rome , that as Pope Boniface said , No man is able to number them ; yet he confirm'd them all . In the Church of Sancta Maria de Popolo there are for every day in the year two thousand and eight hundred years of pardon , besides fourteen thousand and fourteen Carentanes ; which in one year amount to more than a Million : all which are confirm'd by the Pope Paschal I. Boniface VIII . and Gregory IX . In the Church of S. Vitu● and Modestus there are for every day in the year seven thousand years and seven thousand Carentanes of pardon , and a pardon of a third part of all our sins besides ; and the price of all this is but praying before an Altar in that Church . At the Sepulcre of Christ in Venice there is hung up a prayer o● S. Augustine , with an Indulgence o● fourscore and two thousand years , granted by Boniface the VIII . ( who was of all the Popes the most bountiful of the Churches treasure ) and Benedict the XI . to him that shall say it , and that for every day toties● quoties . The Divine pardon of Sica gave a plenary Indulgence to every one that being confessed and communicated should pray there in the Franciscan Church o● Sancta Maria de gli Angeli , and this pardon is abomni poena & culpa . Th● English of that we easily understand , but the meaning of it we do not , because they will not own that these Indulgences do profit any one whose guilt is not taken away by the Sacrament of Penance . But this is not the onely snare in which they have inextricably entangled themselves : but be it as they please for this ; whatever it was it was since enlarged by Sixtus IV. and Sixtus V. to all that shall wear S. Francis Cord. The saying a few Pater nosters and Ave's before a privileg'd Altar can in innumerable places procure vast portions of this Treasure ; and to deliver a soul out of Purgatory , whom they list , is promised to many upon easie terms , even to the saying of their Beads over with an appendent Medal of the Popes benediction . Every Priest at his third or fourth Mass is ●s sure ( as may be ) to deliver the souls of his parents : And a thousand more such stories as these are to be seen every where and every day . Once for all : There was a book printed at Paris by Francis Regnault● A. D. 1536. May 25. called The hours of the most blessed Virgin Mary , according to the use of Sarum ; in which for the saying three short prayers written in Rome in a place called The Chapel of the holy Cross of seven Romans , are promised fourscore and ten thousand years of pardon of deadly sin . Now the meaning of these things is very plain . By these devices they serve themselves , and they do not serve God. They serve themselves by this Doctrine : For they teach that wha● Penance is ordinarily imposed , doe● not take away all the punishment th●● is due ; for they do not impose wh●● was anciently enjoyn'd by the Penite●tial Canons , but some little thing i●stead of it : and it may be , that wha● was anciently enjoyned by the Penite●tial Canons , is not so much as Go● will exact , ( for they suppose that 〈◊〉 will forgive nothing but the guilt a●● the eternity ; but he will exact all th●● can be demanded on this side Hell , 〈◊〉 to the last farthing he must be 〈◊〉 some way or other , even when the 〈◊〉 is taken away ) but therefore to prevent any failing that way , they have given Indulgences enough to take off what was due by the old Canons , and what may be due by the severity of God ; and if these fail , they may have recourse to the Priests , and they by their Masses can make supply : so that their Disciples are well , and the want of ancient Discipline shall do them no hurt . But then how little they serve Gods end by treating the sinner so gently , will be very evident . For by this means they have found out a way , that though it may be God will be more severe than the old Penitential Canons ; and although these Canons were much more severe than men are now willing to suffer , yet neither for the one or the other shall they need to be troubled : they have found out an easier way to go to Heaven than so . An Indulgence will be no great charge , but that will ●ake off all the supernumerary Penan●es which ought to have been impo●ed by the ancient Discipline of the Church , and may be required by God. A little alms to a Priest , a small oblation to a Church , a pilgrimage to the image or reliques of a Saint , wearing S. Francis Cord , saying over the Beads with an hallowed Appendent , entering into a Fraternity , praying at a privileg'd Altar , leaving a Legacy for a Soul-Mass , visiting a privileg'd Cemetery , and twenty other devices will secure the sinner from suffering punishment here or hereafter , more than his friendly Priest is pleased gently to impose . To them that ask , what should any one need to get so many hundred thousand years of pardon , as are ready to be had upon very easie terms ? They answer as before ; That whereas it may be for Perjury the ancient Canons enjoyned Penance all their life ; that will be supposed to be twenty or forty years , or suppose an hundred ; if the man have been perjur'd a thousand times , and committed adultery so often , and done innumerable other sins , for every one of which he deserves to suffer forty years penance , and how much more in the account of God he deserves , he knows not ; if he be attrite , and confess'd so that the guilt is taken away , yet as much temporal punishment remains due as is not paid here : but the Indulgences of the Church will take off so much as it comes to , even of all that would be suffer'd in Purgatory . Now it is true , that Purgatory ( at least as is believ'd ) cannot last a hundred thousand years ; but yet God may by the acerbity of the flames in twenty years equal the Canonical Penances of twenty thousand years : to prevent which , these Indulgences of so many thousand years are devised . A wise and thrifty Invention sure , and well contriv'd , and rightly applotted according to every mans need , and according as they suspect his Bill shall amount to . This strange Invention , as strange as it is , will be own'd , for this is the account of it which we find in Bellarmine : and although Gerson and Domini●us à Soto are asham'd of these prodigious Indulgences , and suppose that the Popes Quaestuaries did procure them , yet it must not be so disown'd ; truth is truth , and it is notoriously so ; and therefore a reason must be found out for it , and this is it which we have accounted . But the use we make of it is this ; That since they have declar'd , that when sins are pardon'd so easily , yet the punishment remains so very great , and that so much must be suffered here or in Purgatory ; it is strange that they should not onely in effect pretend to shew more mercy than God does , or the primitive Church did ; but that they should directly lay aside the primitive Discipline , and while they declaim against their Adversaries for saying they are not necessary , yet at the same time they should devise tricks to take them quite away , so that neither Penances shall much smart here , nor Purgatory ( which is a device to make men be Mulata's , as the Spaniard calls , half Christians , a device to make a man go to Heaven and to Hell too ) shall not torment them hereafter . However it be , yet things are so ordered , that the noise of Penances need not trouble the greatest Criminal , unless he be so unfortunate as to live in no Countrey and near no Church , and without Priest , or friend , or money , or notice of any thing that is so loudly talk'd of in Christendom . If he be , he hath no help but one ; he must live a holy and a severe life , which is the only great calamity which they are commanded to suffer in the Church of England : but if he be not , the case is plain , he may by these Doctrines take his ease . Sect. IV. WE doubt not but they who understand the proper sequel of these things , will not wonder that the Church of Rome should have a numerous company of Pro●elytes , made up of such as the beginnings of Davids Army were . But that we may undeceive them also , for to their souls we intend charity and relief by this Address , we have thought fit to adde one Consideration more , and that is , That it is not fit that they should trust to this , or any thing of this , not onely because there is no foundation of truth in these new devices , but because even the Roman Doctors themselves , when they are pinch'd with an Objection , let their hold go , and to escape do in remarkable measures destroy their own new building . The case is this : To them who say , that if there were truth in these pretensions , then all these , and the many millions of Indulgences more , and the many other ways of releasing souls out of Purgatory , the innumerable Masses said every day , the power of the Keys so largely imploy'd , would in a short time have emptied Purgatory of all her sad inhabitants , or it may be very few would go thither , and they that unfortunately do , cannot stay long ; and consequently , besides that this great softness and easiness of procedure would give confidence to the greatest sinners , and the hopes of Purgatory would destroy the fears of Hell , and the certainty of doing well enough in an imperfect life , would make men careless of the more excellent : besides these things , there will need no continuation of Pensions to pray for persons dead many years ago : To them , I say , who talk to them at this rate , they have enough to answer . Deceive not your selves , there are more things to be reckon'd for than so . For when you have deserved great punishments for great sins , and the Guilt is taken off by Absolution , and ( you suppose ) the Punishment by Indulgences or the Satisfaction of others ; it may be so , and it may be not so . For 1. it is according as your Indulgence is . Suppose it for forty years , or it may be an hundred , or a thousand , ( and that is a great matter ) yet peradventure according to the old penitential rate you have deserved the Penance of forty thousand years ; or at least you may have done so by the more severe account of God : If the Penance of forty years be taken off by your Indulgence , it does as much of the work as was promised or intended ; but you can feel little ease , if still there remains due the Penance of threescore thousand years . No man can tell the difference when what remains shall be so great as to surmount all the evils of this life ; and the abatement may be accounted by pen and ink , but will signifie little in the perception : it is like the casting out of a Devil out of a miserable Demoniack , when there still remains fifty more as bad as he that went away ; the man will hardly find how much he is advanced in his c●●e . But 2. you have with much labour and some charge purchased to your self so many Quadragenes or Lents of pardon ; that is , you have bought off the Penances of so many times forty days . It is well ; but were you well advis'd ? it may be your Quadragenes are not Carenes , that is , are not a quitting the severest Penances of fasting so long in bread and water : for there is great difference in the manner of keeping a penitential Lent , and it may be you have purchased but some lighter thing ; and then if your demerit arise to so many Carenes , and you purchased but mere Quadragenes , without a minute and table of particulars , you may stay longer in Purgatory than you expected . 3. But therefore your best way is to get a plenary Indulgence ; and that may be had on reasonable terms : but take heed you do not think your self secure , for a plenary Indulgence does not do all that it may be you require ; for there is an Indulgence more full , and another most full , and it is not agreed upon among the Doctors whether a plenary Indulgence is to be extended beyond the taking off those Penances which were actually enjoyned by the Confessor , or how far they go further . And they that read Turrecremata , Navar , Cordubensis , Fabius Incarnatus , Petrus de Soto , Armilla aurea , Aquinas , Tolet , Cajetan , in their several accounts of Indulgences , will soon perceive that all this is but a handful of Smoke , when you hold it , you hold it not . 4. But further yet ; all Indulgences are granted upon some inducement , and are not ex mero motu , or acts of mere grace without cause ; and if the cause be not reasonable , they are invalid : and whether the cause be sufficient will be very hard to judge . And if there be for the Indulgence , yet if there be not a reasonable cause for the quantity of the Indulgence , you cannot tell how much you get : and the Preachers of Indulgences ought not to declare how valid they are assertivè , that is , by any confidence ; but opinativè or recitativè , they can onely tell what is said , or what is their own opinion . 5. When this difficuly is passed over , yet it may be the person is not capable of them ; for if he be not in the state of Grace all is nothing ; and if he be , yet if he does not perform the condition of the Indulgence actually ; his mere endeavour or good desire is nothing . And when the conditions are actually done , it must be enquired whether in the time of doing them you were in charity ; whether you be so at least in the last day of finishing them : it is good to be certain in this , lest all evaporate and come to nothing . But yet suppose this too , though the work you are to do as the condition of the Indulgence , be done so well that you lose not all the Indulgence , yet for every degree of Imperfection in that work you will lose a part of the Indulgence , and then it will be hard to tell whether you get half so much as you propounded to your self . But here Pope Adrian troubles the whole affair again : for if the Indulgence be onely given according to the worthiness of the work done , then that will avail of it self without any Grant from the Church ; and then it is hugely questionable whether the Popes Authority be of any use in this whole matter . 6. But there is yet a greater heap of dangers and uncertainties ; for you must be sure of the Authority of him that gives the Indulgence , and in this there are many doubtful Questions ; but when they are over , yet it is worth inquiry , ( for some Doctors are fearful in this point ) whether the intromission of Venial sins , without which no man lives , does hinder the fruit of the Indulgence ; for if it does , all the cost is lost . 7. When an Indulgence is given , put case to abide forty days on certain conditions , whether these forty days are to be taken collectively or distributively ; for , because it is confessed that the matter of Indulgences is res odibilis , an hateful and an odious matter , it is not to be understood in the sense of favour , but of greatest severity ; and therefore it is good to know before-hand what to trust to , to inquire how the Bull is penn'd , and what sense of Law every word does bear ; for it may be any good mans case . If an Indulgence be granted to a place for so many days in every year , it were fit you inquire for how many years that will la●t ; for some Doctors say , That if a definite number of years be not set down , it is intended to last but twenty years . And therefore it is good to be wise early . 8. But it is yet of greater consideration : If you take out a Bull of Indulgence , relating to the Article of death , in case you recover that sickness in which you thought you should use it , you must consider , whether you must not take out a new one for the next fit of sickness ; or will the first● which stood for nothing , keep cold , and without any sensible errour serve when you shall indeed die ? 9. You must also inquire and be rightly inform'd , whether an Indulgence granted upon a certain Festival will be valid if the day be chang'd , ( as they were all at once by the Gregorian Calendar ) or if you go into another Countrey where the Feast is not kept the same day , as it happens in movable Feasts , and on S. Bartholomews-day , and some others . 10. When your Lawyers have told you their opinion of all these Questions , and given it under their hands , it will concern you to inquire yet further , whether a succeeding Pope have not or cannot revoke an Indulgence granted by his Predecessor ; for this is often done in matters of favour and privileges ; and the German Princes complain'd sadly of it ; and it was complain'd in the Council of Lions , that Martin the Legate of Pope Innocent the VIII . revok'd and dissipated all former Grants : and it is an old Rule , Papa nunquam sibi ligat manus , The Pope never binds his own hands . But here some caution would do well . 11. It is worth inquiry , whether in the year of Jubilee all other Indulgences be suspended ; for though some think● they are not , yet Navar and Emanuel S à affirm that they are ; and if they chance to say true , ( for no man knows whether they do or no ) you may be at a loss that way . And when all this is done , yet 12. Your Indulgences will be of no avail to you in reserved cases , which are very many . A great many more very fine scruples might be mov'd , and are so ; and therefore when you have gotten all the security you can by these , you are not sa●e at all . ●ut therefore be sure still to get Masses to be said . So that now the great Objection is answered ; you need not fear that saying Masses will ever be made unnecessary by the multitude of Indulgences : The Priest must still be imployed and entertained in subsidium , since there are so many ways of making the Indulgence good for nothing : And as for the fear of emptying Purgatory by the free and liberal use of the Keys , it is very needless ; because the Pope cannot evacuate * Purgatory , or give so many Indulgences as to take out all souls from thence : And therefore if the Popes , and the Bishops , and the Legates , have been already too free , it may be there is so much in arrear , that the Treasure of the Church is spent , or the Church is in debt for souls ; or else , though the Treasure be inexhaustible , yet so much of her Treasure ought not to be made use of , and therefore it may be that your souls shall be post-pon'd , and must stay and take its turn God knows when . And therefore we cannot but commend the prudence of Cardinal Albernotius , who by his last will took order for fifty thousand Masses to be said for his soul ; for he was a wise man , and lov'd to make all as sure as he could . But then to apply this to the Consciences of the poor people of the Roman Communion . Here is a great deal of Treasure of the Church pretended , and a great many favours granted , and much ease promised , and the wealth of the Church boasted of , and the peoples money gotten ; and that this may be a perpetual spring , it is clear amongst their own Writers , that you are not sure of any good by all that is past , but you must get more security , or this may be nothing . But how easie were it for you now to conclude , that all this is but a meer cozenage , an art to get money ? but that 's but the least of the evil , it is a certain way to deceive souls . For since there are so many thousands that trust to these things , and yet in the confession of your own Writers there are so many fallibilities in the whole , and in every parr , why will you suffer your selves so weakly and vainly to be cozen'd out of your souls with promises that signifie nothing , and words without vertue , and treasures that make no man rich , and Indulgences that give confidence to sin , but no ease to the pains which follow ? Besides all this , it is very considerable , that this whole affair is a state of temptation ; for they that have so many ways to escape , will not be so careful of the main stake , as the interest of it requires . He that hopes to be relieved by many others , will be tempted to neglect himself : There is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , an Unum necessarium , even that we work out our own salvation with fear and trembling . A little wisdom , and an easie observation were enough to make all men that love themselves , wisely to abstain from such diet which does not nourish , but fills the stomach with wind and imagination . But to return to the main Inquiry . We desire that it be considered , how dangerously good life is undermined , by the Propositions collaterally taught by their Great Doctors , in this matter of Indulgences ; besides the main and direct danger and deception . 1. Venial sins preceding or following the work enjoyn'd for getting Indulgences , hinder not their fruit : But if they intervene in the time of doing them , then they hinder . By this Proposition there is infinite uncertainty concerning the value of any Indulgence ; for if venial sins be daily incursions , who can say that he is one day clean from them ? And if he be not , he hath paid his price for that which profits not , and he is made to relie upon that which will not support him . But though this being taught , doth evacuate the Indulgence , yet it is not taught to prevent the sin ; for before and after , if you commit venial sins , there is no great matter in it : The inconvenience is not great , and the remedy is easie ; you are told of your security as to this point before hand . 2. Pope Adrian taught a worse matter . He that will obtain indulgence for another , if he does perform the work enjoyn'd , though himself be in deadly sin , yet for the other he prevails : as if a man could do more for another than he can do for himself ; or as if God would regard the prayers of a vile and a wicked person when he intercedes for another , and at the same time , if he prays for himself , his prayer is an abomination . God first is intreated for our selves , and when we are more excellent persons , admits us to intercede , and we shall prevail for others ; but that a wicked person who is under actual guilt , and oblig'd himself to suffer all punishment , can ease and take off the punishment due to others by any externally good work done ungratiously , is a piece of new Divinity without colour of reason or religion . Others in this are something less scandalous ; and affirm , that though it be not necessary that when the Indulgence is granted the man should be in the state of grace , yet it is necessary that at some time or other he should be ; at any time ( it seems ) it will serve . For thus they turn Divinity and the care of souls into Mathematicks and Clockwork , and dispute minutes and periods with God , and are careful to tell their people how much liberty they may take , and how far they may venture , lest they should lose any thing of their sins pleasure , which they can possibly enjoy , and yet have hopes of being sav'd at last . 3. But there is worse yet . If a man willingly commits a sin in hope and expectation of a Iubilee , and of the Indulgences afterwards to be granted , he does not lose the Indulgence , but shall receive it : which is expresly affirm'd by Navar a , and Antonius Cordubensis b , and Bellarmine c , though he asks the question , denies it not . By which it is evident that the Roman Doctrines and Divinity teach contrary to Gods way ; who is most of all angry with them that turn his grace into wantonness , and sin , that grace may abound . 4. If any man by reason of poverty , cannot give the prescrib'd Alms , he cannot receive the Indulgence . Now since it is sufficiently known , that in all or most of the Indulgences a clause is sure to be included , that something be offered to the Church , to the Altar , to a Religious House , &c. The consequent of this will be soon seen , that Indulgences are made for the rich , and the Treasures of the Church are to be dispensed to them that have Treasures of their own , for Habenti dabitur . But then God help the poor ; for them Purgatory is prepar'd , and they must burn : For the rich it is pretended , but the smell of fire will not pass upon them . From these premises we suppose it but too evident , that the Roman Doctors prevaricate in the whole Doctrine of Repentance , which indeed in Christ Jesus is the whole Oeconomy of Justification and Salvation ; it is the hopes and staff of all the world , the remedy of all evils past , present , and to come . And if our physick be poison'd , if our staff be broken , if our hopes make us asham'd , how shall we appear before Christ at his coming ? But we say , that in all the parts of it their Doctrine is infinitely dangerous . 1. Contrition is sufficient if it be but one little act , and that in the very Article of Death ; and before that time it is not necessary by the Law of God , nay it is indeed sufficient ; but it is also insufficient , for without Confession in act or desire it suffices not . And though it be thus insufficiently sufficient , yet it is not necessary : For Attrition is also sufficient , if a Priest can be had , and then any little grief proceeding out of the fear of Hell will do it , if the Priest do but absolve . 2. Confession might be made of excellent use , and is so among the pious Children of the Church of England ; but by the Doctrines and Practises in the Church of Rome it is made , not the remedy of sins by proper energy , but the excuse , the alleviation , the confidence , the ritual , external and sacramental remedy , and serves instead of the labours of a holy and a regular life ; and yet is so intangled with innumerable and inextricable cases of conscience , orders , humane prescripts , and great and little artifices , that scruples are more increased than sins are lessened . 3. For Satisfactions and Penances , which , if they were rightly order'd , and made instrumental to kill the desires of sin , or to punish the Criminal , or were properly the fruits of repentance , that is , parts of a holy life , good works done in charity , and the habitual permanent grace of God , were so prevailing , as they do the work of God ; yet when they are taken away , not onely by the declension of primitive Discipline , but by new Doctrines and Indulgences , regular and offer'd Commutations for money , and superstitious practises , which are sins themselves , and increase the numbers and weights of the account , there is a great way made for the destruction of souls , and the discountenancing the necessity of holy life ; but nothing for the advantage of holiness , or the becoming like to God. And now at last for a Cover to this Dish , we have thought fit to mind the World , and to give caution to all that mean to live godly in Christ Iesus , to what an infinite scandal and impiety this affair hath risen in the Church of of Rome , we mean in the instance of their Taxa Camerae , seu Cancellariae Apostolicae , the Tax of the Apostolical Chamber or Chancery ; a book publickly printed , and expos'd to common sale ; of which their own Esp●ncaeus gives this account , That it is a book in which a man may learn more wickedness , than in all the Summaries of vices published in the World : And yet to them that will pay for it , there is to many given a License , to all an Absolution for the greatest and most horrid sins . There is a price set down for his Absolution that hath kill'd his Father or his Mother , Brother , Sister , or Wife , or that hath lien with his Sister or his Mother . We desire all good Christians to excuse us for naming such horrid things ; Nomina sunt ipso penè timenda sono . But the Licenses are printed at Paris in the year 1500. by Tossan Denis . Pope Innocent the VIII . either was Author or Inlarger of these Rules of this Chancery-tax , and there are Glosses upon them , in which the Scholiast himself who made them affirms , that he must for that time conceal some things to avoid scandal . But how far this impiety proceeded , and how little regard there is in it to piety , or the good of souls , is visible that which Augustinus de Ancona teaches , [ That the Pope ought not to give Indulgences to them who have a desire of giving money , but cannot as to them who actually give . And whereas it may be objected , that then poor mens souls are in a worse condition than the rich ; he answers , That as to the remission of the punishment acquir'd by the Indulgence , in such a case it is not inconvenient that the rich should be in a better condition than the poor . ] For in that manner do they imitate God , who is no respecter of persons . Sect. VI. THese Observations we conceive to be sufficient to deter every well meaning person from running into , or abiding in such temptations . Every false Proposition that leads to impiety , is a stock and fountain of temptations ; and these which we have reckon'd in the matter of Repentance , having influence upon the whole life , are yet much greater , by corrupting the whole mass of Wisdom and Spiritual Propositions . There are indeed many others . We shall name some of them , but shall not need much to insist on them . Such as are , 1. That one man may satisfie for another * . It is the general Doctrine of their Church : The Divines and Lawyers consent in it , and publikely own it : The effect of which is this , that some are made rich by it , and some are careless ; But qui non solvit in aere , luat in corpore , is a Canonical rule ; and though it was spoken in the matter of publick penances , and so relates to the exterior Court , yet it is also practis'd and avowed in satisfactions or penances relating to the inward Court of Conscience , and penance Sacramental ; and the rich man is made negligent in his duty , and is whip'd upon another mans back , and his purse onely is the Penitent ; and which is worst of all , here is a pretence of doing that , which is too neer blasphemy but to say . For by this Doctrine , it is not to be said of Christ alone , that he was wounded for our transgressions , that he onely satisfied for our sins ; for in the Church of Rome it is done frequently , and pretended daily , that by another mans stripes we are healed . 2. They teach , That a habit of sin , is not a sin , distinct from those former actions by which the habit was contracted . The secret intention of which Proposition , and the malignity of it , consists in this , that it is not necessary for a man to repent speedily ; and a man is not bound by repentance to interrupt the procedure of his impiety , or to repent of his habit , but of the single acts that went before it . For as for those that come after , they are excus'd , if they be produc'd by a strong habit ; and the greater the habit the less is the sin : But then as the repentance need not for that reason , be hasty and presently ; so because it is onely to be of single acts , the repentance it self need not be habitual , but it may be done in an instant ; whereas to mortifie a habit of sin ( which is the true and proper repentance ) there is requir'd a longer time , and a procedure in the methods of a holy life . By this , and such like Propositions , and careless Sentences , they have brought it to that pass , that they reckon a single act of Contrition , at any time to be sufficient to take away the wickedness of a long life . Now that this is the avowed Doctrine of the Roman Guides of souls , will sufficiently appear in the Writings of their chiefe●t , of which no learned man can be ignorant . The thing was of late openly and professedly disputed against us , and will not be denied . And that this Doctrine is infinitely destructive of the necessity of a good life , cannot be doubted of , when themselves do own the proper consequents of it , even the unnecessariness of present repentance , or before the danger of death ; of which we have already given accounts . But the reason why we remark it here , is that which we now mention'd , because that by the Doctrine of vitious habits , having in them no malignity or sin but what is in the single preceding acts , there is an excuse made for millions of sins : For if by an evil habit the sinner is not made worse , and more hated by God , and his sinful acts made not onely more , but more criminal ; it will follow , that the sins are very much lessened : For they being not so voluntary in their exercise and distinct emanation , are not in present so malicious ; and therefore he that hath gotten a habit of drunkenness or swearing , sins less in every act of drunkenness , or profane oath , than he that acts them seldom , because by his habit he is more inclin'd , and his sins are almost natural , & less considered , less chosen , and not disputed against ; but pass by inadve●tency , and an untroubled consent , easily and promptly , and almost naturally from that principle : So that by this means , and in such cases when things are come to this pass , they have gotten an imperfect warrant to sin a great deal , and a great while , without any new great inconvenience : Which evil state of things ought to be infinitely avoided by all Christians that would be sav'd by all means ; and therefore all such Teachers , and all such Doctrines , are carefully to be declin'd , who give so much easiness , not onely to the remedies , but to the sins themselves , But of this , we hope it may be sufficient to have given this short warning . 3. The distinction of Mortal and Venial sins , as it is taught in the Church of Rome , is a great cause of wickedness , and careless conversation . For although we do with all the ancient Doctors admit of the distinction of sins Mortal and Venial ; yet we also teach , That in their own nature , and in the rigor of the Divine Justice , every sin is damnable , and deserves Gods anger , and that in the unregenerate they are so accounted , and that in Hell the damned suffer for small and great in a common mass of torment ; yet by the Divine mercy and compassion , the smaller sins which come by surprize , or by invincible ignorance , or inadvertency , or unavoidable infirmity , shall not be imputed to those who love God , and delight not in the smallest sin , but use caution and prayers , watchfulness and remedies against them . But if any man delights in small sins , and heaps them into numbers , and by deliberation or licentiousness they grow numerous , or are in any sense chosen , or taken in by contempt of the Divine Law , they do put us from the favour of God , and will pass into severe accounts . And though sins are greater or less by comparison to each other , yet the smallest is a burthen too great for us , without the allowances of the Divine mercy . But the Church of Rome teaches , that there is a whole kind of sins , which are venial in their own nature ; such , which if they were all together , all in the world conjoyn'd , could not equal one mortal sin * , nor destroy charity , nor put us from the favour of God ; such , for which no man can perish , * etiam si nullum pactum esset de remissione , though Gods merciful Covenant of Pardon did not intervene . And whereas Christ said , Of every idle word a man shall speak , he shall give account at the day of judgement ; and , By your words ye shall be justified ; and , By your words ye shall be condemned : Bellarmine expresly affirms , It is not intelligible , how an idle word should in its own nature be worthy of the Eternal wrath of God , and Eternal flames . Many other desperate words are spoken by the Roman Doctors in this Question , which we love not to aggravate , because the main thing is acknowledged by them all . But now we appeal to the reason and Consciences of all men , Whether this Doctrine of sins Venial in their own nature , be not greatly destructive to a holy life ? When it is plain , that they give rest to mens Consciences for one whole kind of sins ; for such , which because they occur every day , in a very short time ( if they be not interrupted by the grace of Repentance ) will swell to a prodigious heap . But concerning these we are bidden to be quiet ; for we are told , that all the heaps of these in the world cannot put us out of Gods favour . Add to this , that it being in thousands of cases , impossible to tell which are , and which are not Venial in their own nature , and in their appendent circumstances , either the people are cozen'd by this Doctrine into an useless confidence ; and for all this talking in their Schools , they must nevertheless do to Venial sins , as they do to Mortal , that is , mortifie them , fight against them , repent speedily of them , and keep them from running into mischief ; and then all their kind Doctrines in this Article , signifie no comfort or ease , but all danger and difficulty , and useless dispute ; or else , if really they mean , that this easiness of opinion be made use of , then the danger is imminent , and carelesness is introduc'd , and licentiousness in all little things is easily indulg'd ; and mens souls are daily lessen'd without repair , and kept from growing towards Christian perfection , and from destroying the whole body of sin ; and in short , despising little things , they perish by little and little . ●his Doctrine also is worse yet in the handling . For it hath infinite influence to the disparagement of holy life , not only by the uncertain , but as it must frequently happen , by the false determination of innumerable cases of conscience . For it is a great matter both in the doing and the thing done , both in the caution and the repentance , whether such an action be a venial or a mortal sin . If it chance to be mortal , and your Confessor says it is venial , your soul is betrayed . And it is but a chance what they say in most cases ; for they call what they please venial , and they have no certain rule to answer by ; which appears too sadly in their innumerable differences which is amongst all their Casuists in saying what is , and what is not mortal ; and of this there needs no greater proof than the reading the little Summaries made by their most leading guides of Consciences , Navar , Cajetane , Tolet , Emanuel Sà , and others ; where one says such a thing is mortal , and two say it is venial . And lest any man should say or think , this is no great matter , we desire that it be considered that in venial sins there may be very much phantastick pleasure , and they that retain them do believe so , for they suppose the pleasure is great enough to outweigh the intolerable pains of Purgatory ; and that it is more eligible to be in Hell a while , than to cross their appetites in such small things . And however it happen in this particular , yet because the Doctors differ so infinitely and irreconcileably , in saying what is , and what is not Venial , whoever shall trust to their Doctrine , saying that such a sin is Venial ; and to their Doctrine , that says it does not exclude from Gods favour , may by these two Propositions be damned before he is aware . We omit to insist upon their express contradicting the words of our Blessed Saviour , who taught his Church expresly , That we must work in the day time ; for the night cometh , and no man worketh : Let this be as true as it can in the matter of Repentance and Mortification , and working out our pardon for mortal sins ; yet it is not true in Venial sins , if we may believe their great * S. Thomas , whom also Bellarmine * follows in it ; for he affirms , That by the acts of Love and Patience in Purgatory , Venial sins are remitted ; and that the acceptation of those punishments , proceeding out of Charity , is a virtual kind of penance . But in this particular we follow not . S. Thomas nor Bellarmine in the Church of England and Ireland ; for we believe in Jesus Christ , and follow him : If men give themselves liberty as long as they are alive to commit one whole kind of sins , and hope to work it out after death by acts of Charity and Repentance , which they would not do in their life time ; either they must take a course to sentence the words of Christ as savouring of Heresie , or else they will find themselves to have been at first deceiv'd in their Proposition , and at last in their expectation . Their faith hath fail'd them here , and hereafter they will be asham'd of their hope . Sect. VII . THere is a Proposition , which indeed is new , but is now the general Doctrine of the Leading Men in the Church of Rome ; and it is the foundation on which their Doctors of Conscience relie , in their decision of all cases in which there is a doubt or question made by themselves ; and that is , That if an Opinion or Speculation be probable , it may in practise be safely followed : And if it be enquir'd , What is sufficient to make an opinion probable ; the Answer is easie , Sufficit opinio alicujus gravis Doctoris aut Bonorum exemplum : The opinion of any one grave Doctor is sufficient to make a matter probable ; nay , the example and practise of good men , that is , men who are so reputed ; if they have done it , you may do so too , and be safe . This is the great Rule of their Cases of Conscience . And now we ought not to be press'd with any ones saying , that such an opinion is but the private opinion of one or more of their Doctors . For although in matters of Faith this be not sufficient , to impute a Doctrine to a whole Church , which is but the private opinion of one or more ; yet because we are now speaking of the infinite danger of souls in that communion , and the horrid Propositions by which their Disciples are conducted , to the disparagement of good life , it is sufficient to allege the publike and allowed sayings of their Doctors ; because these sayings are their Rule of living : and because the particular Rules of Conscience , use not to be decreed in Councils , we must derive them from the places where they grow , and where they are to be found . But besides , you will say , That this is but the private opinion of some Doctors ; and what then ? Therefore it is not to be called the Doctrine of the Roman Church . True , we do not say , It is an Article of their Faith , but , a rule of manners : This is not indeed in any publike Decree ; but we say , that although it be not , yet neither is the contrary . And if it be but a private opinion , yet , is it safe to follow it , or is it not safe ? For that 's the question , and therein is the danger . If it be safe , then this is their rule , A private opinion of any one grave Doctor may be safely followed in the questions of Vertue and Vice. But if it be not safe to follow it , and that this does not make an opinion probable , or the practise safe ; Who says so ? Does the Church ? No ; Does Dr. Cajus ? or Dr. Sempronius say so ? Yes : But these are not safe to follow ; for they are but private Doctors : Or if it be safe to follow them , though they be no more , and the opinion no more but probable , then I may take the other side , and choose which I will , and do what I list in most cases , and yet be safe by the Doctrine of the Roman Casuists ; which is the great line , and general measure of most mens lives ; and that is it which we complain of . And we have reason ; for they suffer their Casuists to determine all cases , severely and gently , strictly and loosly ; that so they may entertain all spirits , and please all dispositions , and govern them by their own inclinations , and as they list to be governed ; by what may please them , not by that which profits them ; that none may go away scandaliz'd or griev'd from their penitential chairs . But upon this account , it is a sad reckoning which can be made concerning souls in the Church of Rome . Suppose one great Doctor amongst them ( as many of them do ) shall say , it is lawful to kill a King whom the Pope declares Heretick . By the Doctrine of probability here is his warranty . And though the Church do not declare that Doctrine ; that is , the Church doth not make it certain in Speculation , yet it may be safely done in practise : Here is enough to give peace of conscience to him that does it . Nay , if the contrary be more safe , yet if the other be but probable by reason or Authority , you may do the less safe , and refuse what is more . For that also is the opinion of some grave Doctors * : If one Doctor says , it is safe to swear a thing as of our knowledge , which we do not know , but believe it is so , it is therefore probable that it is lawful to swear it , because a grave Doctor says it , & then it is safe enough to do so . And upon this account , who could find fault with Pope Constantine the IV. who when he was accus'd in the Lateran Council for holding the See Apostolick when he was not in Orders , justified himself by the example of Sergius Bishop of Ravenna , and Stephen Bishop of Naples . Here was exemplum bonorum , honest men had done so before him , and therefore he was innocent . When it is observ'd by Cardinal Campegius , and Albertus Pighius did teach , That a Priest lives more holily and chastely that keeps a Concubine , than he that hath a married wife ; and then shall find in the Popes Law , That a Priest is not to be removed for fornication ; who will not , or may not practically conclude , that since by the Law of God , marriage is holy , and yet to some men , fornication is more lawful , and does not make a Priest irregular , that therefore to keep a Concubine is very lawful ; especially since abstracting from the consideration of a mans being in Orders or not , fornication it self is probably no sin at all ? For so says Durandus , Simple fornication of it self is not a deadly sin according to the Natural Law , and excluding all positive Law ; and Martinus de Magistris says , to believe simple fornication to be no deadly sin , is not heretical , because the testimonies of Scripture are not express . These are grave Doctors , and therefore the opinion is probable , and the practise safe . * When the good people of the Church of Rome hear it read , That P. Clement the VIII . in the Index of Prohibited books says , That the Bible published in vulgar Tongues , ought not to be read and retain'd , no not so much as a compend of the History of the Bible ; and Bellarmine says , That it is not necessary to salvation , to believe that there are any Scriptures at all written ; and that Cardinal Hosius saith , Perhaps it had been better for the Church , if no Scriptures had been written : They cannot but say , that this Doctrine is probable , and think themselves safe , when they walk without the light of Gods Word , and relie wholly upon the Pope , or their Priest , in what he is pleas'd to tell them ; and that they are no way oblig'd to keep that Commandment of Christ , Search the Scriptures . * Cardinal Tolet says , That if a Nobleman be set upon , and may escape by going away , he is not tied to it , but may kill him that intends to strike him with a stick : That if a man be in a great passion , and so transported , that he considers not what he says , if in that case he does blaspheme , he does not always sin : That if a man be beastly drunk , and then commit fornication , that fornication is no sin : That if a man desires carnal pollution , that he may be eas'd of his carnal temptations , or for his health , it were no sin : That it is lawfull for a man to expose his bastards to the Hospital to conceal his own shame . He says it out of Soto , and he from Thomas Aquinas : That if the times be hard , or the Iudge unequal , a man that cannot sell his wine at a due price , may lawfully make his measures less than is appointed ; or mingle water with his wine , and sell it for pure , so he do not lie ; and yet if he does , it is no mortal sin , nor obliges him to restitution . Emanuel Sà , * affirms , That if a man lie with his intended wife before Marriage , it is no sin , or a light one ; nay , quinetiam expedit si multum illa differatur , it is good to do so , if the benediction or publication of Marriage be much deferr'd : That Infants in their cradles may be made Priests , is the common opinion of Divines and Canonists , saith Tolet ; and that in their Cradles they can be made Bishops , said the Archdeacon and the Provost ; and though some say the contrary , yet the other is the more true , saith the Cardinal . Vasques saith , That not onely an Image of God , but any creature in the world , reasonable or unreasonable , may without danger be worshipped together with God , as his Image : That we ought to adore the Reliques of Saints , though under the form of Worms ; and that it is no sin to worship a Ray of Light in which the Devil is invested , if a man supposes him to be Christ : And in the same manner , if he supposes it to be a piece of a Saint , which is not , he shall not want the merit of his Devotion . And to conclude , Pope Celestine the III. ( as Alphonsus à Castro reports himself to have seen a Decretal of his to that purpose ) affirmed , That if one of the Married Couple fell into Heresie , the Marriage is dissolved , and that the other may marry another ; and the Marriage is nefarious , and they are Irritae Nuptiae , the Espousals are void , if a Catholick and a Heretick marry together , said the Fathers of the Synod in Trullo . And though all of this be not own'd generally , yet if a Roman Catholick marries a Wife that is or shall turn Heretick , he may leave her , and part bed and board , according to the Doctrine taught by the a Canon Law it self , by the Lawyers and Divines , as appears in b Covaruvias , c Mathias Aquarius , and d Bellarmine . These Opinions are indeed very strange to us of the Church of England and Ireland , but no strangers in the Church of Rome , and , because they are taught by great Doctors , by Popes themselves , by Cardinals , and the Canon Law respectively , do at least become very probable , and therefore they may be believ'd and practis'd without danger ; according to the Doctrine of Probability . And thus the most desperate things that ever were said by any , though before the Declaration of the Church they cannot become Articles of Faith , yet besides that they are Doctrines publickly allowed , they can also become Rules of practice , and securities to the conscience of their disciples . To this we add , that which is usual in the Church of Rome , the Praxis Ecclesiae , the Practice of the Church . Thus if an Indulgence be granted upon condition to visit such an Altar in a distant Church ; the Nuns that are shut up , and Prisoners that cannot go abroad , if they address themselves to an Altar of their own with that intention , they shall obtain the Indulgence . Id enim confirmat Ecclesiae praxis , says Fabius ; The practice of the Church in this case gives first a probability in speculation , and then a certainty in practice . This instance , though it be of no concern , yet we use it as a particular to shew the Principle upon which they go . But it is practicable in many things of greatest danger and concern . If the question be , Whether it be lawful to worship the Image of the Cross , or of Christ , with Divine worship ? First , there is a Doctrine of S. Thomas for it , and Vasquez , and many others ; therefore it is probable , and therefore is safe in practice ; & ●ie est Ecclesiae praxis , the Church also practises so , as appears in their own Offices : And S. Thomas makes this use of it ; Illi exhibemus cultum latriae in quo ponimus spem salutis : sed in cruce Christi ponimus spem ●alutis . Cantat enim Ecclesia , O Crux ave spes unica , Hoc passionis tempore , Auge piis justitiam , Reísque do●a veniam . Ergo Crux Christi est adoranda adoratione Latriae . We give Divine worship ( says he ) to that in which we put our hopes of salvation ; but in the Cross we put our hopes of salvation ; for so the Church sings , ( it is the practice of the Church ) Hail O Cross , our onely hope in this time of suffering ; increase righteousness to the godly , and give pardon to the guilty : therefore the Cross of Christ is to be ador'd with Divine Adoration . By this Principle you may embrace any Opinion of their Doctors safely , especially if the practice of the Church do intervene , and you need not trouble your self with any further inquiry : and if an evil custom get amongst men , that very custom shall legitimate the action , if any of their grave Doctors allow it , or Good men use it ; and Christ is not your Rule , but the Examples of them that live with you , or are in your eye and observation , that 's your Rule . We hope we shall not need to say any more in this affair ; the pointing out this rock may be warning enough to them that would not suffer shipwreck , to decline the danger that looks so formidably . Sect. VIII . AS these Evil Doctrines have general influence into Evil Life ; so there are some others , which if they be pursued to their proper and natural issues ; that is , if they be believ'd and practis'd , are enemies to the particular and specifick parts of Piety and Religion . Thus the very prayers of the Faithful are , or may be , spoil'd by Doctrines publickly allowed , and prevailing in the Roman Church . For 1. they teach , That prayers themselves ex opere operato , or by the natural work it self , do prevail : For it is not essential to prayer for a man t● think particularly of what he says ; it is not necessary to think of the things signified by the words : So Suarez teaches● Nay , it is not necessary to the essence of prayer , that he who prays should think de ipsa locutione , of the speaking it self . And indeed it is necessary that they should all teach so , or they cannot tolerably pretend to justifie their prayers in an unknown Tongue . But this is indeed their publick Doctrine : For prayers in the mouth of the man that says them are like the words of a Charmer , they prevail even when they are not understood , says Salmeron . Or as Antoninus , They are like a pretious stone , of as much value in the hand of an unskilful man , as of a Ieweller . And therefore Attention to , or Devotion in our prayers , is not necessary : For the understanding of which , saith Cardinal Tolet , when it is said that you must say your prayers or offices attently , reverently and devoutly , you must know that Attention or Advertency to your prayers is manifold : 1. That you attend to the words , so that you speak them not too fast , or to begin the next verse of a Psalm , before he that recites with you hath done the former verse ; and this attention is necessary . But 2. there is an attention which is by understanding the sense , and that is not necessary : For if it were , very extremely few would do their duty , when so very few do at all understand what they say . 3. There is an attention relating to the end of prayer , that is , that he that prays , considers that he is present before God , and speaks to him ; and this indeed is very profitable , but it is not necessary : No , not so much . So that by this Doctrine no attention is necessary , but to attend that the words be all said , and said right . But even this attention is not necessary that it should be actual , but it suffices to be virtual , that is , that he who says his office , intend to do so , and do not change his mind , although he does not attend : And he who does not change his mind , that is , unless observing himself not to attend , he still turn his mind to other things , he attends : meaning , he attends sufficiently , and as much as is necessary ; though indeed speaking naturally and truly , he does not attend● If any man in the Church of England and Ireland , had published such Doctrine as this , he should quickly and deservedly have felt the severity of the Ecclesiastical Rod ; but in Rome it goes for good Catholick Doctrine . Now although upon this account Devotion is ( it may be ) good ; and it is good to attend to the words of our prayer , and the sense of them ; yet that it is not necessary , is evidently consequent to this . But it is also expresly affirm'd by the same hand ; There ought to be devotion , that our mind be inflam'd with the love of God , though if this be wanting , without contempt , it is no deadly sin . Ecclesiae satisfit per opus externum , n●c aliud jubet , saith Reginaldus : If ye do the outward work , the Church is satisfied , neither does she command any thing else . Good Doctrine this ! And it is an excellent Church , that commands nothing to him that prays , but to say so many words . Well! but after all this , if Devotion be necessary or not , if it be present or not , if the mind wander , or wander not , if you mind what you pray , or mind it not , there is an easie cure for all this : For Pope Leo granted remission of all negligences in their saying their offices and prayers to them , who after they have done , shall say this prayer , [ To the Holy and Undivided Trinity , To the Humanity of our Lord Iesus Christ crucified ; To the fruitfulness of the most Blessed , and most Glorious Virgin Mary , and to the University of all Saints , be Eternal praise , honor , vertue and glory , from every Creature ; and to us remission of sins for ever and ever , Amen . Blessed are the bowels of the Virgin Mary , which bore the Son of the Eternal God ; and blessed are the paps which suckled Christ our Lord : Pater noster . Ave Maria. ] This prayer , to this purpose , is set down by Navar , and Cardinal Tolet. This is the sum of the Doctrine , concerning the manner of saying the Divine offices in the Church of Rome , in which greater care is taken to obey the Precept of the Church , than the Commandments of God : [ For the Precept of hearing Mass is not , to intend the words , but to be present at the Sacrifice , though the words be not so much as heard , and they that think the contrary , think so without any probable reason , ] saith Tolet. It seems there was not so much as the Authority of one grave Doctor to the contrary ; for if there had , the contrary opinion might have been probable ; but all agree upon this Doctrine , all that are considerable . So that between the Church of England , and the Chnrch of Rome , the difference in this Article is plainly this . They pray with their lips , we with the heart ; we pay with the understanding , they with the voyce ; we pray , and they say prayers . We suppose that we do not please God , if our hearts be absent ; they say , it is enough if their bodies be present at their greatest solemnity of prayer , though they hear nothing that is spoken , and understand as little . And which of these be the better way of serving God , may soon be determin'd , if we remember the complaint which God made of the Jews , This people draweth neer me with their lips , but their hearts are far from me : But we know , that we are commanded to ask in faith , which is seated in the understanding , and requires the concurrence of the will , and holy desires ; which cannot be at all , but in the same degree in which we have a knowledge of what we ask . The effectual , fervent prayer of a righteous man prevails : But what our prayers want of this , they must needs want of blessing and prosperity . And if we lose the benefit of our prayers , we lose that great instrumentality by which Christians are receptive of pardon , and strengthened in faith , and confirm'd in hope , and increase in charity , and are protected by Providence , and are comforted in their sorrows , and derive help from God : Ye ask , and have not , because ye ask amiss● ; that is Saint Iames his rule . They that pray not as they ought , shall never obtain what they fain would . Hither is to be reduc'd , their fond manner of prayer , consisting in vain repetitions of Names , and little forms of words . The Psalter of our Lady , is an hundred and fifty Ave Maries , and at the end of every tenth , they drop in the Lords Prayer , and this with the Creed at the end of the fifty , makes a perfect Rosary . This indeed is the main entertainment of the peoples Devotion ; for which cause Mantuan call'd their Religion , — Relligionem Quae fil● insertis numerat sua murmura baccis . A Religion that numbers their murmurs by berries fil'd upon a string : This makes up so great a part of their Religion , that it may well be taken for one half of its definition . But because so few do understand what they say , but all repeat , and ●tick to their numbers , it is evident they think to be heard for that . For that or nothing ; for besides that , they neither do nor understand : And all that we shall now say to it is , That our Blessed Saviour reprov'd this way of Devotion , in the Practise and Doctrines of the Heathens : Very like to which is that which they call the Psalter of Iesus ; in which are fifteen short Ejaculations , as [ Have mercy on me* , Strengthen me * , Help me * , Comfort me , &c. ] and with every one of these , the name of Iesus is to be said thirty times , that is in all , four hundred and fifty times . Now we are ignorant how to distinguish this from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or vain repetition of the Gentiles ; for they did just so , and Christ said , they did not do well ; and that is all that we pretend to know of it . They thought to be heard the rather for so doing ; and if the people of the Roman Church do not think so , there is no reason why they should do so . But without any further arguing about the business , they are not asham'd to own it . For the Author of the Preface to the Iesus Psalter , printed by Fouler at Antwerp , promises to the repetition of that sweet Name , Great aid against temptations , and a wonderful increase of grace . Sect. IX . BUt this mischief is gone further yet : For as Cajetan affirms , Prayers ought to be well done ; Saltem non malè , at least not ill . But besides , that what we have now remark'd is so , not well , that it is very ill ; that which follows is directly bad , and most intolerable . For the Church of Rome in her publick and allowed offices , prays to dead men and women , who are , or whom they suppose to be beatified ; and these they invocate as Preservers , Helpers , Guardians , Deliverers in their necessity ; and they expresly call them , their Refuge , their Guard and Defence , their Life , and Health : Which is so formidable a Devotion , that we for them , and for our selves too , if we should imitate them , are to dread the words of Scripture , Cursed is the man that trusteth in man. We are commanded to call upon God in the time of trouble ; and it is promised , that he will deliver us , and we shall glorifie him . We find no such command to call upon Saints ; neither do we know who are Saints , excepting a very few ; and in what present state they are , we cannot know , nor how our prayers can come to their knowledge ; and yet if we did know all this , it cannot be endured at all , that Christians , who are commanded to call upon God , and upon none else , and to make all our prayers through Iesus Christ , and never so much as warranted to make our prayers through Saints departed , should yet choose Saints for their particular Patrons , or at all relie upon them , and make prayers to them in such forms of words , which are only fit to be spoken to God ; prayers which have no testimony , command , or promise in the Word of God , and therefore , which cannot be made in faith , or prudent hope . Neither will it be enough to say , that they only● desire the Saints to pray for them ; for though that be of it self a matter indifferent , if we were sure they do hear us when we pray , and that we should not by that means , secretly destroy our confidence in God , or lessen the honour of Christ our Advocate ; of which because we cannot be sure , but much rather the contrary , it is not a matter indifferent : Yet besides this , in the publick Offices of the ●hurch of Rome , there are prayers to Saints made with confidence in them , with derogation to Gods glory and prerogative , with diminution to the honour of Christ , with words in sound , and in all appearance the same with the highest that are usually express'd in our prayers to God , and his Christ : And this is it we insist upon , and reprove , as being a direct destruction of our sole confidence in God , and too neer to blasphemy , to be endured in the Devotions of Christians . We make our words good by these Allegations ; 1. We shall not need here to describe out of their didactical writings , what kind of prayers , and what causes of confidence they teach towards the Blessed Virgin Mary , and all Saints : Onely we shall recite a few words of Antonnius their great Divine , and Archbishop of Florence , It is necessary that they to whom she converts her eyes , being an● Advocate for them , shall be justifi●d and saved . And whereas it may be objected out of Iohn , that the Apostle says , If any man sin , we have an Advocate with the Father , Iesus Christ the Righteous . ( He answers ) That Christ is not our Advocate alone , but a Iudge : and since the just is scarce secure , how shall a sinner go to him , as to an Advocate ? Therefore God hat● provided us of an Advocatess , who is gen●le , and sweet , in whom nothing that is sh●rp is to be found . And to those words of St. Paul , Come boldly to the Throne of Grace : ( He says ) That Mary is the Throne of Christ , in whom he rested , to he● therefore let us come with bold●ess , t●at we may obtain mercy , and fi●d grace in time of need ; and adds , th●● Mary is c●lled full of grace , because she is t●● means and cause of Grace , by transfusing grace to mankind ; ] and many other such dangerous Propositions : Of which who please to be further satisfied ( if he can endure the horror of reading blasphemous sayings ) he may find too great abundance in the Mariale of Bernardine , which is confirm'd by publike Authority , Iacobus Perez de Valentia * , and in Ferdinand Quirinus de Salazar * , who affirms , That the Virgin Mary by offering up Christ to God the Father , was worthy to have ( after a certain manner ) that the whole salvation and redemption of mankind should be ascrib'd to her ; and that this was common to Christ and the blessed Virgin his Mother , that she did offer and give the price of our Redemption truly and properly ; and that she is deservedly call'd the Redeemer , the Repairer , the Mediator , the Author and cause of our salvation . Many more horrid blasphemies are in his notes upon that Chapter ; and in his Defence of the Immaculate Conception , published with the Privilege of Philip the III of Spain , and by the Authority of his Order . But we insist not upon their Doctrines delivered by their great Writers , though every wise man knows that the Doctrines of their Church are delivered in large and indefinite terms , and descend not to minute senses , but are left to be explicated by their Writers , and are so practis'd and understood by the people ; and at the worst , the former Doctrine of Probability will make it safe enough : But we shall produce the publick practice of their Church . And first , it cannot be suppos'd , that they intend nothing but to desire their prayers ; for they rely also on their merits , and hope to get their desires , and to prevail by them also : For so it is affirm'd by the Roman Catechism , * made by the Decree of the Council of Trent , and published by the Popes command ; [ The Saints are therefore to be invocated , because they continually make prayers for the health of mankind , and God gives us many benefits by their merit and favour : And it is lawful to have recourse to the favour or grace of the Saints , and to use their help ; for they undertake the Patronage of us . ] And the Council of Trent does not onely say it is good to fly to their prayers , but to their aid , and to their help ; and that is indeed the principal , and the very meaning of the other . We pray that the Saints should intercede for us , id est , ut merita eorum nobis suffragentur ; that is , that their Merits should help us , said the Master of the Sentences . Atque id confirmat Ecclesiae praxis , to use their own so frequent expression in many cases . Continet hoc Templum Sanctorum corpora pura , A quibus auxilium suppleri , poscere cura . This Distich is in the Church of S. Laurence in Rome . This Church contains the pure bodies of Saints , from whom take care to require that help be supplied to you . But the practice of the Church tells their secret meaning best . For besides what the Common people are taught to do , as to pray to S. Gall for the health and ●ecundity of their Geese , to S. Wendeline for their Sheep , to S. Anthony for their Hogs , to S. Pelagius for their Oxen ; and that several Trades have their peculiar Saints ; and the Physicians are patroniz'd by Cosmas and Damian , the Painters by S. Luke , the Potters by Goarus , the Huntsmen by E●stachius , the Harlots ( for that also is a Trade at Rome ) by S. Afra and S. Mary Magdalene ; they do also rely upon peculiar Saints for the cure of several diseases ; S. Sebastian and S. Roch have a special privilege to cure the Plague , S. Petronilla the Fever , S. Iohn and S. Bennet the Abbot to cure all Poison , S. Apollonia the Tooth-ach , S. Otilia Sore eyes , S. Apollinaris the French Pox , ( for it seems he hath lately got that imployment , since the discovery of the West Indies ) S. Vincentius hath a special faculty in restoring stollen goods , and S. Liberius ( if he please ) does infallibly cu●e the Stone , and S. Felicitas ( if she be heartily call'd upon ) will give the teeming Mother a fine Boy . It were strange if nothing but Intercession by these Saints were intended , that they cannot as well pray for other things as these ; or that they have no Commission to ask of these any thing else , or not so confidently ; and that if they do ask , that S. Otilia shall not as much prevail to help a Fever as a Cataract ; or that if S. Sebastian be called upon to pray for the help of a poor femal sinner , who by sad diseases pays the price of her lust , he must go to S. Apollinaris in behalf of his Client . But if any of the Roman Doctors say , That they are not tied to defend the Superstitions of the Vulgar , or the abused : They say true , they are not indeed , but rather to reprove them , as we do , and to declare against them , and Council of Trent very goodly forbids all ●uperstitions in this Article , but yet tells us not what are Superstitions , and what not ; and still the world goes on in the practice of the same intolerable follies , and every Nation hath a particular Guardian-Saint , and every City , every Family , and almost every House , and every Devouter person almost chuses his own Patron-Saint , whose Altars they more devoutly frequent , whose Image they more religiously worship , to whose Reliques they more readily go in Pilgrimage , to whose Honour they say more Pater nosters , whose Festival they more solemnly observe ; spoiling their prayers , by their confidences in unknown persons , living in an unknown condition , and diminishing that affiance in God and our Lord Jesus Christ , by importune and frequent addresses to them that cannot help . But that these are not the faults of their people onely , running wilfully into such follies , but the practice of their Church , and warranted and taught by their Guides , appears by the publick prayers themselves ; such as these , O generous Mary , beauteous above all , obtain pardon for us , apply grace unto us , prepare glory for us . Hail , thou Rose , thou Virgin Mary , &c. Grant to us to use true wisdom , and with the elect to enjoy grace , that we may with melody praise thee ; and do thou drive our sins away : O Virgin Mary give us joys . These , and divers others like these , are in the Anthem of our Lady . In the Rosary of our Lady this Hymn is to be said ; Reparatrix & Salvatrix desperantis animae , Irroratrix & Largitrix Spiritualis gratiae , Quod requiro , quod suspiro , measana vulnera , Et da menti te poscenti gratiarum munera , Ut sim castus & modestus , &c. ........ Corde prudens , ore studens veritatem dicere , Malum nolens , Deum volens pio semper opere . That is , [ Thou Repairer and Saviour of the despairing Soul , the Dew-giver and Bestower of spiritual grace , heal my wounds , and give to the mind that prays to thee , the gifts of grace , that I may be chaste , modest , wise in heart , true in my sayings , hating evil , loving God in holy works : ] and much more to the same purpose . There also the blessed Virgin Mary , after many glorious Appellatives , is prayed to in these words , [ Joyn me to Christ , govern me always , enlighten my heart , defend me always from the snare of the Enemy , deliver us from all evil , and from the pains of Hell. So that it is no wonder that Pope Leo * the X. calls her a Goddess , and Turcelin * the Jesuit , Divinae majestatis , potestatísque sociam . Huic olim coelestium , mortaliúmque principatum detulit . Ad hujus arbitrium ( quoad hominum tutela postulat ) t●rras , maria , coelum , naturámque moderatur . Hâc annuente , & per hanc , divinos thesauros , & coelestia dona largitur ; the companion or partner of the Divine Majesty and Power . To her he long since gave the principality of all heavenly and mortal things . At her will ( so far as the guardianship of Men requires ) he rules the Earth and Seas , Heaven and Nature : And she consenting , he gives Divine treasures and Celestial gifts . Nay , in the Mass-books penned 1538. and us'd in the Polonian Churches , they call the B. Virgin Mary , Viam ad vitam , totius mundi gubernatricem , peccatorum cum Deo reconciliatricem , fontem remissionis peccatorum , lumen luminum ; the way to life , the Governess of all the world , the Reconciler of sinners with God , the Fountain of Remission of sins , Light of Light , and at last salute her with an Ave universae Trinitatis Mater , Hail thou Mother of the whole Trinity . We do not pick out these onely , as the most singular , or the wor●t forms ; for such as these are very numerous , as is to be seen in their Breviaries , Missals , Hours of our Lady , Rosary of our Lady , the Letany of our Lady , called Litania Mariae , the Speculum Rosariorum , the Hymns of Saints , Portuises and Manuals . These onely are the instances which amongst many others presently occurr . Two things onely we shall adde , instead of many more that might be represented . The first is , That in a Hymn which they ( from what reason or Etymology we know not , neither are we concern'd ) call a Sequence , the Council of Constance did invocate the B. Virgin , in the same manner as Councils did use to invocate the Holy Ghost ; They call her the Mother of Grace , the remedy to the miserable , the fountain of mercy , and the light of the Church ; attributes proper to God and incommunicable ; they sing her praises , and pray to her for graces , ●hey sing to her with the heart , they call themselves her sons , they declare her to be their health and comfo●t in all doubts , and call on her for light from Heaven , and trust in her for the destruction of Heresies , and the repression of Schisms , and for the lasting Confederations of peace . The other thing we tell of , is , That there is a Psalter of our Lady , of great and ancient account in the Church of Rome ; it hath been several times printed , at Venice , at Paris , at Leipsich ; and the title is , [ The Psalter of the Blessed Virgin , compil'd by the Seraphical Doctor St. Bonaventure , Bishop of Alba , and Presbyter Cardinal of the Holy Church of Rome . ] But of the Book it self , the account is soon made ; for it is nothing but the Psalms of David , an hundred and fifty in number are set down ; alter'd indeed , to make as much of it as could be sense so reduc'd : In which the name of Lord is left out , and that of Lady put in ; so that whatever David said of God and Christ , the same prayers , and the same praises they say of the Blessed Virgin Mary ; and whether all that can be said without intolerable blasphemy , we suppose needs not much disputation . The same things , but in a less proportion and frequency , they say to other Saints . O Maria Magdalena Audi vota laude plena , Apud Christum chorum istum Clementer Concilia . Ut fons summae pietatis Qui te lavit à peccatis , Servos suos , atque tuos Mundet dat â veniâ . O Mary Magdalen , hear our prayers , which are full of praises , and most clemently reconcile this company unto Christ : That the Fountain of Supreme Piety , who clensed thee from thy sins , giving pardon , may clense us who are his servants and thine . These things are too bad already , we shall not aggravate them by any further Commentary ; but apply the premises . Now therefore we desire it may be considered , That there are as the effects of Christs death for us , three great products , which are the rule and measure of our prayers , and our confidence ; 1. Christs merits . 2. His Satisfaction . 3. His Intercession . By these three we come boldly to the Throne of Grace , and pray to God through Iesus Christ. But if we pray to God through the Saints too , and rely upon their 1. Merits . 2. Satisfaction . 3. And Intercession ; Is it not plain that we make them equal with Christ , in kind , though not in degree ? For it is publickly avowed and practis'd in the Church of Rome , to rely upon the Saints Intercession ; and this intercession to be made valid by the Merits of the Saints : [ We pray thee , O S. Iude the Apostle , that by thy Merits thou wouldst draw me from the custom of my sins , and snatch me from the power of the Devil , and advance me to the invisible powers ; ] and they say as much to others . And for their Satisfactions , the treasure of the Church for Indulgences is made up with them , and the satisfactions of Chri●t : So that there is nothing remaining of the honor due to Christ our Redeemer , and our Confidence in him , b●t the same in every kind is by the Church of Rome imputed to the Saints : And therefore the very being and Oeconomy of Christianity , is destroyed by these prayers ; and the people are not , cannot be good Christians in these devotions ; and what hopes are laid up for them , who repent to no purpose , and pray with derogation to Christs honour , is a matter of deepest consideration . And therefore we desire our charges not to be seduc'd by little tricks and artifices of useless and laborious distinctions , and protestations against evidence of fact , and with fear and trembling to consider , what God said by the Prophet , My people have done two great evils , they have forsaken me , fortem , vivum , the strong and the living God ; fontem vivum , so some copies read it , the living fountain , and have digged for themselves cisterns , that is , little phantastick helps , that hold no water , that give no refreshment ; or , as S. Paul expresses it , they worship and invocate the creature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 besides the Creator ; so the word properly signifies , and so it is us'd by the Apostle in other * places . And at least let us remember those excellent words of S. Austin , Tutius & jucundius loquar ad meum Iesum , quàm ad aliquem sanctorum spirituum Dei ; I can speak safer and more pleasantly or chearfully to my Lord Jesus , than to any of the Saints and Spirits of God. For that we have Commandment , for this we have none ; for that we have example in Scriptures , for this we have none ; there are many promises made to that , but to this there is none at all ; and therefore we cannot in faith pray to them , or at all rely upon them for helps . Which Consideration is greatly heightned by that prostitution of Devotion usual in the Church of Rome , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ● to every Upstart , to every old and new Saint . And although they have a story among themselves , That it is ominous for a Pope to Canonize a Saint , and he never survives it above a twelve-moneth , as Pierre Mathieu observes in the instances of Clement the IV. and Adrian the VI. yet this hinde●s not , but that they are tempted to do it frequently . But concerning the thing it self , the best we can say , is what Christ said of the Samaritans , They worship they know not what . Such are S. Fingare , S. Anthony of Padua , S. Christopher , Charles Borromaeus , Ignatius Loyola , Xaverius , and many others ; of whom Cardinal Bessarion * complain'd , that many of them were such per●ons whose life he could not approve ; and such , concerning whom they knew nothing , but f●om their Parties , and by pretended Revelations made to particular and hypochondriacal persons . It is a famous saying of S. Gregory , That the bodies of many persons are worshipped on Earth , whose souls are tormented in Hell : and Augustinus Triumphus affirms , That all who are canonized by the Pope cannot be said to be in Heaven● And this matter is beyond dispute ; for Prateolus tells , that Herman , the Author of the Heresie of the Fratricelli , was for twenty years together after his death honoured for a Saint , but afterwards his body was taken up and burnt . But then since ( as Ambrosius Catharinus and Vivaldus observe ) if one Saint be call'd in question , then the rest may ; what will become of the Devotions which are paid to such Saints which have been canonized within these last five ●enturies ? Concerning whom we can have but slender evidence that they are in Heaven at all . And therefore the Cardinal of Cambray , Petrus de Alliaco , wi●es that so many new Saints were not canoniz'd . They are indeed so many , that in the Church of Rome the Holy-days , which are called their Greater Doubles , are threescore and four , besides the Feasts of Christ and our Lady , and the Holy-days which they call Half double Festivals , together with the Sundays , are above one hundred and thirty . So that besides many Holy-days kept in particular places , there are in the whole year about two hundred Holy-days , if we may believe their own Gavantus ; which , besides that it is an intolerable burthen to the poor Labourer , who must keep so many of them , that on the rest he can scarce earn his bread , they do also turn Religion into Superstition , and habituate the people to idleness , and disorderly● Festivities , and impious celebrations of the day with unchristian merriments and licentiousness . We conclude this with those words of S. Paul , How shall we call on him on whom we have not believed ? Christ said , Ye believe in God , believe also in me . But he never said , Ye have believed in me , believe also in my Saints . No : For there is but one Mediator between God and man , the man Christ Iesus . And therefore we must come to God , not by Saints , but onely by Jesus Christ our Lord. Sect. X. THere is in the Church of Rome a horrible impiety taught and practised , which , so far as it goes , must needs destroy that part of holy life which consists in the holiness of our Prayers ; and indeed is a Conjugation of Evils , of such evils , of which in the whole world a society of Christians should be least suspected ; we mean the infinite Superstitions and Incantations , or Charms us'd by their Priests in their Exorcising possessed persons , and conjuring of Devils . There was an Ecclesiastical book called Ordo Baptizandi cum modo Visitandi , printed at Venice A. D. 1575. in which there were damnable and diabolical ●harms , insomuch that the Spanish Inquisitors in their Expurgatory Index , printed at Madrid A. D. 1612. commanded deleatur tota exorcismus * Luciferina , cujus initium est , Adesto Domine tui famuli ; that all that Luciferian Exorcism be blotted out . But whoever looks into the Treasure of Exorcisms and horrible Conjurings ( for that is the very title of the Book printed at Colein A. D. 1608 ) shall find many as horrid things , and not censur'd by any Inquisitors as yet , so far as we have ever read or heard . Nay , that very Luciferina , or Devillish Exorcism , is reprinted at Lyons , A. D. 16●4 . in the institutio baptizandi , which was restored by the Decree of the Council of Trent : So that though it was forbidden in Spain , it was allowed in France . But as bad as that are allowed every where in the Church of Rome : The most famous , and of most publike use are The Treasure of Exorcisms , of which we but now made mention ; the Roman Ritual , The Manual of Exorcisms , printed at Antwerp , A. D. 1626. with Approbation of the Bishop , and privilege of the Archdukes ; the Pastorals of several Churches , especially that of Ruraemund ; and especially the Flagellum Daemonum , The Devils whip , by Father Hierom Mengus a Frier Minor ; which the Clergy of Orleans did use in the Exorcising of Martha Brosser , A. D. 1599. the story whereof is in the Epistles of Cardinal D' Ossat , and the History of the Excellent Thuanus . Now from these Books , especially this last , we shall represent their manner of casting our Devils ; and then speak a word to the thing it self . Their manner and form is this , First , They are to try the Devil by Holy water , Incense , Sulphur , Rue , which from thence , as we suppose , came to be called Herb of Grace , and especially S. Iohns wort , which therefore they call Devils flight ; with which if they cannot cast the Devil out , yet they may do good to the Patient ; for so Pope Alexander the first promis'd and commanded the Priests to use it for the sanctifying and pacifying the people , and driving away the snares of the Devil : And to this , it were well if the Exorcist would rail upon , mock and jeer the Devil ; for he cannot endure a witty and a sharp taunt , and loves jeering and railing , no more than he loves holy water ; and this was well tried of old against an Empuse that met Apollonius Tyanaeus at Mount Caucasus , against whom he rail'd and exhorted his company to do so . Next to this , the Exorcist may ask the Devil some questions ; What is his name ? How many of them there are ? For what cause , and at what time he entered ? and , for his own learning , by what persons he can be cast out ? and by what Saint adjur'd ? who are his particular enemies in Heaven ? and who in Hell ? by what words he can be most afflicted ? ( for the Devils are such fools that they cannot keep their own counsel , nor choose but tell , and when they do , they always tell true : ) He may also ask him by what Covenant , or what Charm he came there , and by what he is to be released ? Then he may call Lucifer to help him , and to torment that Spirit ( for so they cast out Devils , by Belzebub the Prince of the Devils ; ) and certainly Lucifer dares not but obey him . Next to this , the Exorcist is cunningly to get out of the Devil , the confession of some Article of Faith , for the edification of the standers by ( whom he may by this means convince of the truth of Transubstantiation , the reality of Purgatory , or the value of Indulgences ) and command him to knock his head three times against the ground , in adoration of the Holy Trinity . But let him take heed what Reliques he apply to the Deuil ; for if the Reliques be counterfeit , the Devil will be too hard for him . However , let the Exorcising Priest be sure to bless his pottage , his meat , his ointment , his herbs ; and then also he may use some Schedules , or little rolls of paper , containing in them holy words ; but he must be sure to be exercis'd and skilful in all things that belong to the conjuring of the Devil : These are the preparatory documents , which when he hath observ'd , then let him fall to his prayers . Now for the prayers , they also are publickly describ'd in their Offices before cited ; and are as followeth , The Priest ties his stole about the neck of the possessed with three knots , and says , O ye abominable Rebels against God , I conjure you Spirits , and adjure you , I call , I constrain , I call out , I contend and contest , where ever you are in this Man , by the Father , Son , and Holy Ghost [ then ●e makes three † ] by the most powerful name of God , Heloy , the strong and admirable , I exorcise you , and adjure you , and command you , by the power I have , that you incontinently hear the words of my conjuring , and perceive your selves overcome , and command you not to depart without license , and so I bind you with this stole of jucundity ; in the name of the Father † , Son † , and Holy Ghost † , Amen . Then he makes two and thirty crosses more , and calls over one and thirty names of God in false Hebrew , and base Greek , and some Latine , signifying the same names ; and the two and thirtieth is by the sign of the Cross , praying God to deliver them from their enemies . Then follow more prayers , and more adjurations , and more conjurations ( for they are greatly different you must know ) and aspersions of holy water , and shewings of the Cross , and signings with it . Then they adjure the Devil ( in case the names of God will not do it ) by S. Mary , and S. Anne , by S. Michael , and St. Gabriel , by Raphael , and all Angels and Arch-angels , by the Patriarchs , and by the Prophets , and by his own infirmity , by the Apostles , and by the Martyrs ; [ and then after all this , if the Devil will not come out , he must tarry there still , till the next Exorcism ; in which ] The Exorcist must rail at the Devil , and say over agai● the Names of God , and then ask him questions , and read over the sequences of the Gospels ; and after that tell him , that he hath power over him , for he can transubstantiate bread into Christs body ; and then conjure him again , and call him damn'd Devil , unclean Spirit , and as bad as he can call him ; and so pray to God to cast him out of the mans mouth and nose , lips and teeth , jaws and cheeks , eyes and forehead , eye-brows , and eye-lids , his feet , and his members , his marrow , and his bones , and must reckon every part of his body [ to which purpose , we suppose it would be well if the Exorcist were well skill'd in Laurentius , or Bauhinus his Anatomy ] And if he will not go out yet , there is no help but he must choose , till the third Exorcism : In which , besides many prayers and conjurations in other words to the same purpose , the Exorcist must speak louder [ especially if it be a deaf Devil , for then indeed it is the more necessary ] and tell the Devil his own , and threaten him terribly , and conjure him again , and say over him about some twenty or thirty names or titles of Christ , and forbid the Devil to go any whither , but to the centre of the world , and must damn him eternally to the Sulphurous flames of Hell , and to be tormented worse than Lucifer himse●f , for his daring to resist so many great Names ; and if he will not now obey , let him take fire and brimstone , and make a fume , whether the possessed will or no , until the Devil tells you all his mind in what you ask him : [ the liver of Tobias his fish were a rare thing here , but that 's not to be had for love or money : ] And after this he conjures him again by some of the names of God , and by the Merits , and all the good things which can be spoken or thought of the Most Blessed Virgin , and by all her names and titles , which he must reckon , one and forty in number , together with her Epithets , making so many † , and by these he must cast him headlong into Hell. But if the Devil b●●●ubborn ( for some of them are very disobedient ) there is a fourth , and a fifth , and a sixth Exorcism , and then he conjures the earth , the water , and the fire to make them of his party , and commands them not to harbour such villainous Spirits , and commands Hell to hear him , and obey his word , and conjures all the Spirits in Hell to take that Spirit to themselves ( for it may be they will understand their duty better than that stubborn Devil , that is broke loose from thence . ) But if this chance to fail , there is yet left a remedy that will do it . He must make the picture of the Devil , and write his name over the head of it , and conjure the fire to burn it most horribl● and hastily ; [ and if the picture be upon wood or paper , it is ●en to one that may be done . ] After all this ●tir , Sprinkle more holy water , and take Sulphur , Galbanum , Assa foetida , Aristolochia , Rue , St. Johns wort ; all which being distinctly blessed , the Exorcist must hold the Devils picture over the fire , and adjure the Devil to hear him ; and then he must not spare him but tell him all his faults , and give him all his names , and Anathematize him , and curse not onely him , but Lucifer too , and Beelzebub , and Satan , and Astaroth , and Behemot , and Beherit , and all together ; [ for indeed there is not one good natur'd Devil amongst them all ; ] and then pray once more , and so throw the Devils picture into the fire , and then insult in a long form of crowing over him , which is there set down . And now after all , if he will not go out , there is a seventh Exorcism for him with new Ceremonies . He must shew him the consecrated Host in the Pix , pointing at it with his finger , and then conjure him again , and rail at him once more ; to which purpose , there is a very fine form taken out of Prierius , and set down in the Flagellum Daemonum ; and then let the Exorcist pronounce sentence against the Devil , and give him his oath , and then a commandment to go out of the several parts of his body , always taking care that at no hand he remain in the upper parts ; and then is the Devils Qu. to come out , if he have a mind to it ( for that must be always suppos'd ) and then follows the thanksgivings . This is the manner of their devotion , describ'd for the use of their Exorcists ; in which is such a heap of folly , madness , superstition , blasphemy , and ridiculous guises and playings with the Devil , that if any man amongst us should use such things , he would be in danger of being tried at the next Assizes for a Witch , or a Conjurer ; however , certain it is , what ever the Devil loses by pretending to obey the Exorcist , he gains more by this horrible debauchery of Christianity . There needs no confutation of it , the impiety is visible and tangible ; and it is sufficient to have told the story . Onely this we say , as to the thing it self . The casting out of Devils is a miraculous power , and given at first for the confirmation of Christian Faith , as the gifts of Tongues and Healing were , and therefore we have reason to believe , that because it is not an ordinary power , the ordinary Exorcisms cast out no more Devils , than Extreme Unction cures sicknesses . We do not envy to any one , any grace of God , but wish it were more modestly pretended , unless it could be more evidently prov'd● Origen condemned this whole procedure of conjuring Devils long since . Quaeret aliquis si convenit vel Daemones adjurare . Qui aspicit Iesum imperantem Daemonibus , sed etiam potestatem dantem Discipulis super omnia daemonia , & ut infirmitates sanarent , dicet , quoniam non est secundùm Potestatem datam à salvatore adjurare Daemonia . Iudaicum enim est : If any one asks , Whether it be fit to adjure Devils ? He that beholds Jesus commanding over Devils , and also giving power to his Disciples over all unclean spirits , and to heal diseases , will say , that to adjure Devils is not according to the power given by our Blessed Saviour ; For it is a Jewish trick : and S. Chrysostom spake soberly and truly , We poor Wretches cannot drive away the flies , much less Devils . But then as to the manner of their Conjurations and Exorcisms ; this we say , If these things come from God , let them shew their warranty , and their books of Precedents : If they come not from God , they are so like the Inchantments of Balaam , the old Heathens , and the modern Magicians , that their Original is soon discovered . But yet from what principle it comes , that they have made Exorcists an Ecclesiastical Order , with special words and instruments of collation ; and that the words of Ordination giving them power onely over possessed Christians , Catechumens or Baptized , should by them be extended and exercis'd upon all Infants , as if they were all possessed by the Devil ; and not onely so , but to bewitched Cattel , to Mice and Locusts , to Milk and Lettice , to Houses and Tempests ; as if their Charms were Prophilactick , as well as Therapeutick ; and could keep , as well as drive the Devil out , and prevent storms like the old 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , of whom Seneca makes mention : Of these things we cannot guess at any probable principle , except they have deriv'd them from the Jewish Cabala , or the Exorcisms , which it is said Solomon us'd , when he had consented to Idolatry . But these things are so unlike the wisdom and simplicity , the purity and spirituality of Christian devotion ; ar● so perfectly of their own devising , and wild imaginations ; are so full of dirty superstitions , and ignorant fancies , that there are not in the world many things , whose sufferance and practice can more destroy the Beauty of Holiness , or reproach a Church , or Society of Christians . Sect. XI . TO put our trust and confidence in God onely , and to use Ministeries of his own appointment and sanctification , is so essential a duty owing by us to God , that whoever trusts in any thing but God , is a breaker of the first Commandment ; and he that invents instrumental supports of his own head , and puts a subordinate ministerial confidence in them , usurps the rights of God , and does not pursue the interests of true Religion , whose very essence and formality is to glorifie God in all his attributes , and to do good to man , and to advance the honour and Kingdom of Christ. Now how greatly the Church of Rome prevaricates in this great Soul of Religion , appears by too evident and notorious demonstration : For she hath invented Sacramentals of her own , without a Divine warrant , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said S. Cyril . Concerning the holy and Divine mysteries of Faith or Religion , we ought to do nothing by chance , or of our own heads , nothing without the Authority of the Divine Scriptures : But the Church of Rome does otherwise ; invents things of her own , and imputes spiritual effects to these Sacramentals ; and promises not onely temporal blessings and immunities , and benedictions , but the collation or increment of Spiritual graces , and remission of venial sins , and alleviation of pains due to mortal sins , to them who shall use these Sacramentals : Which because God did not institute , and did not sanctifie , they use them without faith , and rely upon them without a promise , and make themselves the fountains of these graces , and produce confidences , whose last resort is not upon God , who neither was the Author , nor is an Approver of them . Of this nature are Holy Water , the Paschal Wax , Oyl , Palm-boughs , Holy Bread ( not Eucharistical ) Hats , Agnus Dei's , Meddals , Swords , Bells , and Roses hallowed upon the Sunday called Laetare Ierusalem ; such as P. Pius the second sent to Iames the II. of Scotland , and Sixtus Quintus to the Prince of Parma : Concerning which , their Doctrine is this , That the blood of Christ is by these applied unto us , that they do not onely signifie , but produce spiritual effects , that they blot out venial sins , that they drive away Devils , that they cure diseases , and that though these things do not operate infallibly , as do the Sacraments , and that God hath made no express Covenant concerning them , yet by the devotion of them that use them , and the prayers of the Church , they do prevail . Now though it be easie to say , and it is notoriously true in Theology , that the prayers of the Church can never prevail , but according to the grace which God hath promis'd ; and either can onely procure a blessing upon natural things , in order to their natural effects , or else an extraordinary supernatural effect , by vertue of a Divine promise ; and that these things are pretended to work beyond their natural force , and yet God hath not promis'd to them a supernatural blessing ( as themselves confess ; ) yet besides the falseness of the Doctrine , on which these superstitions do rely , it is lso as evident , that these instrumentalities produce an affiance and confidence in the Creature , and estrange mens hearts from the true Religion and trust in God , while they think themselves blessed in their own inventions , and in digging to themselves Cisterns of their own , and leaving the Fountain of Blessing and Eternal Life . To this porpose the Roman Priests abuse the people with Romantick stories out of the Dialogues of S. Gregory , and venerable Bede ; making them believe , that S. Fortunatus cur'd a mans broken thigh with Holy Water , and that S. Malachias the Bishop of Down and Conor , cur'd a mad-man with the same medicine ; and that Saint Hilarion cur'd many sick persons with Holy Bread and Oyl ( which indeed is the most likely of them all , as being good food , and good medicine ; ) and although not so much as a Chicken is now a days cur'd of the Pip by Holy Water , yet upon all occasions they use it , and the common people throw it upon Childrens Cradles , and sick Cows Horns , and upon them that are blasted ; and if they recover by any means , it is imputed to the Holy Water : And so the Simplicity of Christian Religion , the Glory of our Dependence on God , the Wise Order and Oeconomy of Blessings in the Gospel , the Sacredness and Mysteriousness of Sacraments and Divine Institutions , are disorder'd and dishonour'd : The Bishops and Priests inventing both the Word and the Element , institute a kind of Sacrament , in great derogation to the Supreme Prerogative of Christ ; and men are taught to go in ways which Superstition hath invented , and Interest does support . But there is yet one great instance more of this irreligion . Upon the Sacraments themselves they are taught to rely , with so little of Moral and Vertuous Dispositions , that the efficacy of one is made to lessen the necessity of the other ; and the Sacraments are taught to be so effectual by an inherent vertue , that they are not so much made the instruments of Vertue , as the Suppletory ; not so much to increase , as to make amends for the want of Grace : On which we shall not now insist , because it is sufficiently remark'd in our reproof of the Roman Doctrines , in the matter of Repentance . Sect. XII . AFter all this , if their Doctrines as they are explicated by their practice , and the Commentaries of their greatest Doctors , do make their Disciples guilty of Idolatry , there is not any thing greater to deter men from them , than that danger to their Souls which is imminent over them , upon that account . Their worshipping of Images we have already reprov'd upon the account of its novelty and innovation in Christian Religion . But that it is against good life , a direct breach of the second Commandment , an Act of Idolatry , as much as the Heathens themselves were guilty of , in relation to the second Commandment , is but too evident by the Doctrines of their own Leaders . For if to give Divine honour to a Creature be Idolatry , then the Doctors of the Church of Rome teach their people to commit Idolatry : For they affirm , That the same worship which is given to the Prototyp or Principal , the same is to be given to the Image of it . As we worship the Holy ●rinity , and Christ , so we may worship the Images of the Trinity , & of Christ ; that is , with Latria , or Divine honour . This is the constant sentence of the Divines , The Image is to be worshipped with the same honour and worship , with which we worship those whose image it is , said Azorius , their great Master of Casuistical Theology . And this is the Doctrine of their great St. Thomas , of Alexander of Ales , Bonaventure , Albertus , Richardus , Capreolus , Cajetan , Coster , Valentia , Vasquez , the Jesuists of Colein , Triers and Mentz , approving Coster's opinion . Neither can this be eluded by saying , that though the same worship be given to the Image of Christ , as to Christ himself , yet it is not done in the same way ; for it is terminatively to Christ or God , but relatively to the image , that is , to the image for God's or Christs sake . For this is that we complain of , that they give the ●ame worship to an image , which is due to God ; for what cause soever it be done , it matters not , save onely that the excuse makes it in some sense , the worse for the Apology . For to do a thing which God hath forbidden , and to say it is done for God's sake , is to say , that for his sake we displease him ; for his sake we give that to a Creature , which is God's own propriety . But besides this , we a●firm , and it is of it self evident , that whoever , Christian or Heathen , worships the image of any thing , cannot possibly worship that image terminatively , for the very being of an image is relative ; and therefore if the man understands but common sense , he must suppose and intend that worship to be relative , and a Heathen could not worship an image with any other worship ; and the second Commandment , forbidding to worship the likeness of any thing in Heaven and Earth , does onely forbid that thing which is in Heaven to be worshipped by an image , that is , it forbids onely a relative worship : For it is a contradiction to say , this is the image of God , and yet this is God ; and therefore it must be also a contradiction , to worship an image with Divine worship terminatively , for then it must be that the image of a thing , is that thing whose image it is . And therefore these Doctors teach the same thing which they condemn in the Heathens . But they go yet a little further : The Image of the Cross they worship with Divine honour ; and therefore although this Divine worship is but relative , yet cons●quently , the Cross it self is worshipped terminatively by Divine adoration . For the Image of the Cross hath it relatively , and for the Crosses sake , therefore the Cross it self is the proper and full object of the Divine adoration . Now that they do and teach this , we charge upon them by undeniable Records : For in the very Pontifical published by the Authority of Pope Clement the VIII . these words are found , The Legats Cross must be on the right hand , because Latria , or Divine honour is due to it . And if Divine honour relative be due to the Legates Cross , which is but the Image of ●hrist Cross , then this Divine worship is terminated on Christs Cross , which is certainly but a meer Creature . To this purpose are the words of Almain , The Images of the Trinity , and of the Cross , are to be ador'd with the worship of Latria ; that is , Divine . Now if the Image of the Cross be the intermedial , then the Cross it self , whose Image that is , must be the last object of this Divine worship ; and if this be not Idolatry , it can never be told , what is the notion of the Word . But this passes also into other real effects : And well may the Cross it self be worshipped by Divine worship , when the Church places her hopes of salvation on the Cross ; for so she does , says Aquinas , and makes one the argument of the other , and proves that the Church places her hopes of salvation on the Cross , that is , on the instrument of Christs Passion , by a hymn which she uses in her offices ; but this thing we have remark'd above , upon another occasion . Now although things are brought to a very ill state , when Christians are so probably and apparently charg'd with Idolatry , and that the excuses are too fine to be understood by them that need them ; yet no excuse can acquit these things , when the most that is , or can be said is this , that although that which is Gods due , is given to a Creature , yet it is given with some difference of intention , and metaphysical abstraction , and separation ; especially , since , if there can be Idolatry in the worshipping of an Image , it is certain , that a relative Divine worship is this Idolatry● for no man that worships an Image ( in that consideration or formality ) can make the Image the last object : Either therefore the Heathens were not Idolaters in the worshipping of an Image , or else these men are . The Heathens did indeed infinitely more violate the first Commandment ; but against the second , precisely and separately from the first , the transgression is alike . The same also is the case in their worshipping the consecrated Bread and Wine : Of which how far they will be excused before God by their ignorant pretensions and suppositions , we know not ; but they hope to save themselves harmless by saying , that they believe the Bread to be their Saviour , and that if they did not believe so , they would not do so . We believe that they say true ; but we are afraid that this will no more excuse them , that it will excuse those who worship the Sun and Moon , and the Queen of Heaven , whom they would not worship , if they did not believe to have Divinity in them : And it may be observed , That they are very fond of that persuasion , by which they are led into this worship . The error might be some excuse , if it were probable , or if there were much temptation to it : But when they choose this persuasion , and have nothing for it but a tropical expression of Scripture , which rather than not believe in the natural , useless , and impossible sense , they will defie all their own reason , and four of the five operations of their soul , Seeing , Smelling , Tasting and Feeling , and contradict the plain Doctrine of the Ancient Church , before they can consent to believe this error , that Bread is chang'd into God , and the Priest can make his Maker : We have too much cause to fear , that the error is too gross to admit an excuse ; and it is hard to suppose it invincible and involuntary , because it is so hard , and so untempting , and so unnatural to admit the error . We do desire that God may find an excuse for it , and that they would not . But this we are most sure of , that they might , if they pleas'd , find many excuses , or rather just causes for not giving Divine honour to the Consecrated Elements ; because there are so many contingencies in the whole conduct of this affair , and we are so uncertain of the Priests intention , and we can never be made certain , that there is not in the whole order of causes any invalidity in the Consecration ; and it is so impossible that any man should be sure that Here , and Now , and This Bread is Transubstantiated , and is really the Natural body of Christ ; that it were fit to omit the giving Gods due to that which they do not know to be any thing but a piece of bread , and it cannot consist with holiness , and our duty to God , certainly to give Divine Worship to that thing , which though their doctrine were true , they cannot know cetainly to have a Divine being . Sect. XIII . AND now we shall plainly represen● to our charges , how this whole matter stands . The case is this , The Religion of a Christian consists in Faith , and Hope , Repentance and Charity , Divine Worship and ●elebration of the Sacraments , and finally in keeping the ●ommandments of God. Now in all these , both on Doctrines and Practises , the Church of R●me does dangerously err , and teaches men so to do . They do injury to Faith , by creating new Articles , and enjoyning them as of necessity to salvation . * ●hey spoil their Hope , by placing it upon Creatures , and devices of their own . * They greatly sin against Charity , by damning all that are not of their opinion , in things false or uncertain , right or wrong . * They break in pieces the salutary Doctrine of Repentance , making it to be consistent with a wicked life , and little or no amendment . * They worship they know not what , and pray to them that hear them not , and trust on that which helps them not . * And as for th●●ommandments , they leave one of them out of their Catechisms and Manuals , and while they contend earnestly against some Opponents for the possibility of keeping them all , they do not insist upon the necessity of keeping any in the course of their lives , till the danger or article of their death . * And concerning the Sacraments , they have egregiously prevaricated in two points . For not to mention their reckoning of seven Sacraments , which we onely reckon to be an unnecessary , and unscholastical error ; they take the one half of the principal away from the Laity ; and they institute little sacraments of their own , they invent Rites , and annex spiritual graces to them , what they please themselves , of their own heads , without a Divine Warrant or Institution : and , * At last persuade their people to that which can never be excus'd , at least , from Material Idolatry . If these things can consist with the duty of Christians , not onely to eat what they worship , but to adore those things with Divine Worship , which are not God : To reconcile a wicked life with certain hopes and expectations of Heaven at last , and to place these hopes upon other things than God , and to damn all the World that are not Christians at this ra●e , then we h●ve lost the true measures of Christianity ; and the Doctrine and Discipline of Christ is not a Natural and Rational Religion ; not a Religion that makes men holy , but a confederacy under the conduct of a Sect , and it must rest in Forms and Ceremonies , and Devices of Mans Invention . And although we do not doubt , but that the goodness of God does so prevail over all the follies and malice of mankind , that there are in the Roman communion many very good Christians ; yet they are not such as they are Papists , but by some thing that is higher , and before that , something that is of an abstract and more sublime consideration . And though the good people amongst them are what they are by the grace and goodn●ss of God , yet by all or any or these opinions they are not so : But the very best suffer diminution , and allay by these things ; and very many more are wholly subverted and destroyed . CHAP. III. The Church of Rome teaches Doctrines , which in many things are destructive of Christian Society in general , and of Monarchy in special : Both which , the Religion of the Church of England and Ireland does by her Doctrines greatly , and Christianly support . Sect. I. THat in the Church of Rome , it is publikely taught by their greatest Doctors , That it is lawful to lye , or d●ceive the question of the Magistrate , to conceal their name , and to tell a false one , to elude all examinations , and make them insignificant and toothless , cannot be doubted by any man that knows how the Engli●h Priests have behav'd themselves in the times of Queen Elizabeth , King Iames , and the Blessed Martyr King Charles I. Emonerius wrote in defence of it ; and Father Barnes who wrote a Book against Lying and Equivocating , was suspected for a Heretick , and smarted severely under their hands . To him that asks you again for what you have paid him already , you may safely say , you never had any thing of him , meaning so as to owe it him now . It is the Doctrine of Emanuel Sà and Sanchez ; which we understand to be a great lye , and a great sin , it being at the best a deceiving of the Law , that you be not deceiv'd by your Creditor ; that is , a doing evil to prevent one ; a sin , to prevent the losing of your money . If a man asks his wife if she be an Adulteress , though she be , yet she may say , she is not , if in her mind secretly she say [ not with a purpose to tell you : ] so Cardinal Tolet teaches . And if a man swears he will take such a one to his wife , being compelled to swear ; he may secretly mean , [ if hereafter she do please me . ] And if a man swears to a Thief , that he will give him Twenty Crowns , he may secretly say , [ If I please to do so , ] and then he is not bound . And of this Doctrine Vasquez brags , as of a rare , though new invention , saying , it is gathered out of St. Austin , and Thomas Aquinas , who only found out the way of saying nothing in such cases and questions , ask'd by Judges ; but this invention was drawn out by assiduous disputations . * He that promises to say an Ave Mary , and swears he will , or vows to do it ; yet sins not mortally , though he does not do it , said the great Navar , and others whom he follows . * There is yet a further degree of this iniquity ; not onely in words , but in real actions , it is lawful to deceive or rob your Brother , when to do so is necessary for the preservation of your fame : For no man is bound to restore stollen goods , ( that is ) to cease from doing injury , with the peril of his credit . So Navar , and Cardinal Cajetan and Tolet teaches ; who adds also , Hoc multi dicun , quoram sententiam potest quis tutâ conscienti● sequi . Many say the same thing ; whose Doctrine any man man may follow with a safe Conscience . Nay , to save a mans credit , an honest man that is asham●d to beg , may steal what is necessary for him , says Diana . Now by these Doctrines a man is taught how to be an honest Thief , and to keep what he is bound to restore ; and by these we may not onely deceive our Brother , but the Law ; and not the Law onely , but God also , even with an Oath , if the matter be but small : It never makes God angry with you , or puts you out of the state of grace . But if the matter be great , yet to prevent a great trouble to your self , you may conceal a truth , by saying that which is false ; according to the general Doctrine of the late Casuists . So that a man is bound to keep truth and honesty , when it is for his turn ; but not , if it be to his own hinderance ; and therefore David was not in the right , but was something too nice in the resolution of the like case in the fifteenth Psalm . Now although we do not affirm , that these particulars are the Doctrine of the whole Church of Rome , because little things , and of this nature , never are considered in their publick Articles of Con●ession ; yet a man may do these vile things ( for so we● understand them to be ) and find justifications and warranty , and shall not be affrighted with the terrors of damnation , nor the imposition of penances : he may for all these things be a good Catholick , though it may be , not a very good Christian. But since these things are affirm'd by so many , the opinion is probable , and the practice safe , saith Cardinal Tolet. But we shall instance in things of more publike concern , and Catholick Authority . No Cont●acts , Leagues , Soci●ties , Promises , Vows , or Oaths , are a su●ficient security to him that deals with one of the ●hurch of Rome , if he shall please to make use of that liberty , which may and many times is , and always can be granted to him . For first , it is affirmed . and was practis'd by a whole Council of Bishops at Constance , that Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks ; and Iohn Hus , and Hierom of Prague , and Savanarola , felt the mischief of violarion of publick faith ; and the same thing was disputed fiercely at Worms , in the case of Luther , to whom Caesar had given a safe conduct , and very many would have had it to be broken ; but Caesar was a better Christian than the Ecclesiasticks and their party , and more a Gentleman . But that no scrupulous Princes may keep their words any more in such cases , or think themselves tied to perform their safe conducts given to Hereticks , there is a way found out by a new Catholick Doctrine ; Becanus shall speak this point instead of the rest , [ There are two distinct Tribunals , and the Ecclesiastical is the Superior ; and therefore if a Secular Prince gives his Subjects a safe conduct , he cannot extend it to the Superior Tribunal ; nor by any security given , hinder the Bishop or the Pope to exercise their jurisdiction : ] And upon the account of this , or the like Doctrine , the Pope and the other Ecclesiasticks did prevail at Constance , for the burning of their Prisoners , to whom safe conduct had been granted . But these things are sufficiently known by the complaints of the injur'd persons . But not only to Hereticks , but to our friends also we may break our promises , if the Pope give us leave . It is a publick and an avowed Doctrine , That if a man have taken an Oath of a thing lawful and honest , and in his power , yet if it hinders him from doing a greater good , the Pope can dispense with his oath , and take off the Obligation . This is expresly affirm'd by one of the most moderate of them , Canus Bishop of the Canaries . But beyond dispute , and even without a dispensation , they all of them own it , That if a man have promised to a woman to marry her , and is betrothed to her , and hath sworn it , yet if he will before the consummation , enter in●o a Monastery , his Oath shall not bind him , his promise is null ; but his second promise , that shall stand . And he that denies this , is accursed by the Council of Trent . Not onely husbands and wives espoused may break their vows and mutual obligation , against the will of one another ; but in the Church of Rome children have leave given them to disobey their Parents , so they will but turn Friers : And this they might do , Girls at twelve , and Boys at the age of fourteen years ; but the Council of Trent enlarged it to sixteen : But the thing was taught and decreed by Pope Clement the III. and Thomas Aquinas did so , and then it was made lawful by him and his Scholars ; though it was expresly against the Doctrine and Laws of the preceding ages of the Church , as appears in the Capitulars of Charls the Great . But thus did the Pharisees teach their Children to Cry Corban , and neglect their Parents ; to pretend Religion , in prejudice of filial piety . In this particular AErodius a French Lawyer , an excellently learned man , suffered sadly by the loss , and forcing of a hopeful son from him , and he complain'd most excellently in a book written on purpose upon this subject . But these mischiefs are Doctrinal , and accounted lawful : But in the matter of Marriages and Contracts , Promises and Vows , where a Doctrine fails , it can be supplied by the Popes power : Which thing is avowed and own'd , without a cover : For when Pope Clement the V. condemn'd the Order of Knights Templers , he disown'd any justice or right in doing it , but stuck to his power , Quanquam de jure non possumus , tamen ex plenitudine potestatis dictum ordinem reprobamus ; that is ; though by right we cannot do it , yet by the fulness of power we condemn the said Order : For he can dispense always , and in all things where there is cause , and in many things where there is no cause ; sed sub majori pretio , under a greater price , said the tax of the Datary ; where the price of the several dispensations , even in causâ turpi , in base and filthy causes , are set down . Intranti nummo quasi quodam Principe summo Exiliunt valvae , nihil auditur nisi salve . Nay the Pope can dispense suprà jus , contra jus ; above Law , and against Law and right , said Mosconius in his books of the Majesty of the Militant Church : For the Popes Tribunal and Gods is but one ; and therefore every reasonable creature is subject to the Popes Empire , said the same Autho● : And what Dispensations he usually gives , we are best inform'd by a gloss of their own upon the Canon Law , Nota mirabile , quod cum eo qui peccat Dispensatur , cum illo autem qui non peccat non Dispensatur : It is a wonderful thing that they should dispense with a Fornicator , but not with him who marries after the death of his first wife . * They give Divorces for Marriages in the fourth degree , and give Dispensation to marry in the second . These things are a sufficient charge , and yet evidently so , and publikely owned . We need not aggravate this matter , by what Panormitan and others do say , that the Pope hath power to dispense in all the Laws of God , except the Articles of Faith ; and how much of this they own and practise , needs no greater instance , than that which Volaterran tells of Pope Innocent the VIII . that he gave the Norvegians a Dispensation , not only to communicate , but to consecrate in bread onely . As the Pope by his Dispensations undertakes to dissolve the Ordinances of God ; so also the most solemn Contracts of men : Of which a very great instance was given by Pope Clement the VII . who dispensed with the Oath which Francis the I. of France solemnly swore to Charls the V. Emperor , after the Battel of Pavy , and gave him leave to be perjur'd . And one of the late Popes dispens'd with the Bastard Son of the Conde D' Olivarez , or rather , plainly dissolv'd his marriage which he made and consummated with Isabella D' Azueta , whom he had publikely married when he was but a mean person , the son of Donna Marguerita Spinola , and under the name of Iulian Valeasar . But when the Conde had declar'd him his son and heir , the Pope dissolv'd the first marriage , and gave him leave under the name of Henry Philip de Guzman , to marry D. Iuana de Valesco , Daughter to the Constable of Castile . And now if it be considered , what influence these Doctrines have upon Societies and Communities of men , they will need no further reproof than a meer enumeration of the mischiefs they produce . They by this means legitimate adulterous and incestuous marriages , and disanul lawful Contracts : They give leave to a Spouse to break his or her Vow and Promise ; and to Children to disobey their Parents , and perhaps to break their Mothers heart , or to undo a Family . No words can bind your faith , because you can be dispens'd with ; and if you swear you will not procure a Dispensation , you can as well be dispens'd with for that perjury as the other ; and you cannot be tied so fast , but the Pope can unloose you . So that there is no certainty in your promise to God , or faith to men , in Judicatories to Magistrates , or in Contracts with Merchants ; in the duty of Children to their Parents , of Husbands to their Wives , or Wives to their contracted Husbands , of a Catholick to a Heretick ; and last of all a Subject to his Prince cannot be bound so strictly , but if the Prince be not of the Popes persuasion , or be by him judg'd a Tyrant , his Subjects shall owe him no obedience . But this is of particular consideration , and reserv'd for the III. Sect. Sect. II. THere is yet another instance , by which the Church of Rome does intolerable prejudice to Governments and Societies : In which although the Impiety is not so apparent ; yet the evil is more own'd , and notorious , and defended ; and that is , the Exemption of their Clergy from the Jurisdiction of Secular Princes and Magistrates , both in their Estates and Persons : Not onely in the matters of Simony , Heresie , and Apostasie , but in matters of Theft , Perjury , Murther , Adultery , Blasphemy and Treason : In which cases they suffer not a Clergy man to be judged by the Secular power , untill the Church hath quit him , and turn'd him over , and given them leave to proceed . This was verified in the Synod of Dalmatia , held by the Legats of Pope Innocent the III. and is now in the Church of Rome , pretended to be by Divine Right : [ For it cannot be proved , that Secular Princes are the Lawful Superiors and Iudges of Clergy men , unless it can be prov'd , that the Sheep are better than the Shepherd , or Sons than their Fathers , or Temporals than Spirituals , ] said Bellarmine : And therefore it is a shame ( says he ) to see Princes contending with Bishops for precedency , or for Lands . For the truth is this , ( whatever the custom be ) the Prince is the Bishops Subject , not the Bishop the Princes : For no man can serve two Masters , the Pope is their own Superior , and therefore the Secular Prince cannot be . So both Bellarmine and Suarez conclude this Doctrine out of Scripture . And although in this , as in all things else , when he finds it for the advantage of the Church , the Pope can dispense ; and diverse Popes of Rome did give power to the Common-wealth of Venice , to judge Clergy men , and punish them for great offences ; yet how ill this was taken by Paulus V. at their hands , and what stirs he made in Christendom concerning it , the World was witness ; and it is to be read in the History of the Venetian Interdict , and not without great difficulty defended by Marcus Antonius Peregrinus , M. Antonius Othelius , and Ioachim Scaynus of Padua , beside the Doctors of Venice . Now if it be considered , how great a part of mankind in the Roman Communion are Clergy men , and how great a portion of the Lands and Revenues in each Kingdom they have ; to pretend a Divine Right of Exemtion of their Persons from Secular Judicatories , and their Lands from Secular burthens and charges of the Common-wealth , is to make Religion a very little friend to the Publick ; and causes , that by how much there is more of Religion , by so much there is the less of Piety and Publick Duty . Princes have many times felt the evil , and are always subject to it , when so many thousand persons are in their Kingdoms , and yet Subjects to a Forein Power . But we need not trouble our selves to reckon the evils consequent to this procedure , themselves have own'd them , even the very worst of things , [ The Rebellion of a Clergy man against his Prince is not Treason , because he is not his Princes Subject . ] It is expresly taught by Emanuel Sà ; and because the Frenchmen in zeal to their own King , could not endure this Doctrine , these words were left out of the Edition of Paris , but still remain in the Editions of Antwerp and Collen . But the thing is a general Rule , [ That all Ecclesiastical persons are free from Secular Iurisdiction in causes Criminal , whether Civil or Ecclesiastical : and this Rule is so general , that it admits no exception ; and so certain that it cannot be denied , unless you will contradict the principles of Faith : ] So Father Suarez . And this is pretended to be allowed by Councils , Sacred Canons , and all the Doctors of Laws Humane and Divine ; for so Bellarmine affirms . Against which , since it is a matter of Faith and Doctrine , which we now charge upon the Church of Rome , as an Enemy to publick Government , we shall think it sufficient to oppose against their Pretension , the plain and easie words of S. Paul , Let every soul be subject to the higher Powers . Every Soul , ] That is , saith Saint Chrysostom , whether he be a Monk or an Evangelist , a Prophet or an Apostle . Of the like iniquity , when it is extended to its utmost Commentary , which the Commenters of the Church of Rome put upon it , is , the Divine Right of the Seal of Confession ; which they make so Sacred , to serve such ends as they have chosen , that it may not be broken up to save the lives of Princes , or of the whole Republick , saith a Tolet ; No , not to save all the World , said b Henriquez : Not to save an Innocent , not to keep the World from burning , or Religion from perversion , or all the Sacraments from demolition . Indeed it is lawful , saith c Bellarmine , if a Treason be known to a Priest in Confession , and he may in general words give notice to a pious and Catholick Prince , but not to a Heretick ; and that was acutely and prudently said by him , said Father Suarez . Father Binet is not so kind even to the Catholick Princes ; for he says , that it is better that all the Kings of the World should perish , than that the Seal of Confession should be so much as once broken ; and this is the Catholick Doctrine , said Eudaemon Ioannes in his Apology for Garnet : and for it he also quotes Suarez . But it is enough to have nam'd this . How little care these men take of the lives of Princes , and the Publick Interest ; which they so greatly undervalue to every trifling fancy of their own , is but too evident by these Doctrines . Sect. III. THe last thing we shall remark for the instruction and caution of our Charges is not the least . The Doctrines of the Church of Rome are great enemies to the Dignity and Security , to the Powers and Lives of Princes : And this we shall briefly prove by setting down the Doctrines themselves , and their consequent practices . And here we observe , That not onely the whole Order of Jesuits is a great enemy to Monarchy , by subjecting the Dignity of Princes to the Pope , by making the Pope the Supreme Monarch of Christians ; but they also teach , That it is a Catholick Doctrine , the Doctrine of the Church . The Pope hath a Supreme Power of disposing the Temporal things of all Christians in order to a ●piritual good , saith Bellarmine . And Becanus discourses of this very largely in his book of the English Controversie , printed by Albin at Mentz , 1612. But because this book was ordered to be purged , ( Una litura potest ) we shall not insist upon it ; but there is as bad which was never censur'd . Bellarmine says , that the Ecclesiastical Republick can command and compell the Temporal , which is indeed its Subject , to change the Administration , and to depose Princes , and to appoint others , when it cannot otherwise defend the Spiritual good : and F. Suarez says the same . The power of the Pope extends it self to the coertion of Kings with Temporal punishments , and depriving them of their Kingdoms , when necessity requires ; nay , this power is more necessary over Princes than over Subjects . The same also is taught by Santarel in his book of Heresie and Schism , printed at Rome , 1626. But the mischief of this Doctrine proceeds a little further . Cardinal Tolet affirms , and our Countryman Father Bridgewater commends the saying ; That when a Prince is Excommunicate , before the Denunciation the Subjects are not absolved from their Oath of Allegiance , ( as Cajetan says well ; ) yet when it is denounced , they are not onely absolved from their Obedience , but are bound not to obey , unless the fear of death , or loss of goods excuse them ; which was the case of the English Catholicks in the time of Henry the VIII . And F. Creswel says it is the sentence of a●l Catholicks , that Subjects are bound to expell Heretical Princes if they have strength enough ; and that to this they are tied by the Commandment of God , the most strict tie of Conscience , and the extreme danger of their souls . Nay , even before the sentence is declared , though the Subjects are not bound to it , yet lawfully they may deny obedience to an Heretical Prince , said Gregory de Valentia . It were an endless labour to transcribe the horrible Doctrines which are preached in the Jesuites School , to the shaking of the Regal Power of such Princes which are not of the Roman Communion . The whole oeconomy of it is well describ'd by Bellarmine , who affirms , That it does not belong to Monks , or other Ecclesiasticks , to commit Murthers , neither do the Popes use to proceed that way . But their manner is , first Fatherly to correct Princes , then by Ecclesiastical Censures to deprive them of the Communion , then to absolve their Subjects from the Oath of Allegeance , and to deprive them of their Kingly Dignity . And what then ? The Execution belongs to others . ] This is the way of the Popes , thus wisely and moderately to break Kings in pieces . We delight not to aggravate evil things . We therefore forbear to set down those horrid things spoken by Sà , Mariana , Santarel , Carolus Scribanius , and some others . It is enough that Suarez says , An Excommunicate King may with impunity be depos'd or kill'd by any one . This is the case of Kings and Princes by the Sentence of the chiefest Roman Doctors . And if it be objected , that we are commanded to obey Kings , not to speak evil of them , not to curse them , no not in our heart : There is a way found out to answer these little things . For though the Apostle commands that we should be subject to higher powers , and obey Kings , and all that are in Authority : It is true , you must , and so you may well enough for all this ; for the Pope can make that he who is a King shall be no King , and then you are disoblig'd : so Bellarmine . And if after all this there remains any scruple of Conscience , it ought to be remembred , that though even after a Prince is excommunicated , it should be of it self a sin to depose or kill the Prince ; yet if the Pope commands you , it is no sin . For if the Pope should erre by commanding sin , or forbidding vertues , yet the Church were bound to believe that the vices were good , and the vertues evil ; unless she would sin against her Conscience . They are the very words of Bellarmine . But they adde more particulars of the same Bran. The sons of an Heretical father are made sui juris , that is , free from their fathers power . A Catholick Wife is not tied to pay her duty to an Heretical Husband , and the servants are not bound to do service to such masters . These are the Doctrines of their great Azorius ; and as for Kings , he affirms , they may be depos'd for Heresie . But all this is onely in the case of Heretical Princes : But what for others ? Even the Roman Catholick Princes are not free from this danger . All the world knows what the Pope did to King Chilperick of France : He depos'd him , and put Pipin in his place ; and did what he could to have put Albert King of the Romans in the Throne of Philip sirnamed the Fair. They were the Popes of Rome who arm'd the Son against the Father , the Emperour Henry IV. and the Son fought against him , took him prisoner , shav'd him , and thrust him into a Monastery , where he died with grief and hunger . We will not speak of the Empe●our Frederick , Henry the sixth , Emperour ; the Duke of Savoy , against whom he caused Charles the V. and Francis the I. of France , to take arms ; nor of Francis Dandalus , Duke of Venice , whom he bound with chains , and fed him as Dogs are fed , with bones and scraps under his Table : Our own Henry the II. and King Iohn were great Instances of what Princes in their case may expect from that Religion . These were the piety of the Father of Christendom . But these were the product of the Doctrine which Clement the V. vented in the Council of Vienna , Omne jus Regum à se pendere : The rights of all Kings depend upon the Pope . And therefore even their Catholick Princes are at their mercy , and they would if they durst use them accordingly : If they do but favour Hereticks or Schismaticks , receive them or defend them ; if the Emperour be perjur'd , if he rashly break a League made with the See Apostolick , if he do not keep the peace promis'd to the Church , if he be sacrilegious , if he dissipate the goods of the Church , the Pope may depose him , said Azorius . And Santarel says , he may do it , in case the Prince or Emperour be insufficient , if he be wicked , if he be unprofitable , if he does not defend the Church . This is very much , but yet there is something more ; this may be done , if he impose new Gabels or Imposts upon his Subjects , without the Popes leave ; for if they do not pretend to this also , why does the Pope in Bulla Coenae Dominici excommnnicate all Princes that do it ? Now if it be inquired , by what Authority the Pope does these things ? It is answered , That the Pope hath a Supreme and Absolute Authority ; both the Spiritual and the Temporal Power is in the Pope as Christs Vicar , said Azorius and Santarel . The Church hath the right of a superiour Lord over the rights of Princes and their Temporalties ; and that by her Jurisdiction she disposes of Temporals ut de suo peculio , as of her own proper goods , said our Countreyman Weston , Rector of the College at D●way . Nay , the Pope hath power in omnia , per omnia , super omnia in all things , thorough all things , and over all things ; and the sublimity and immensity of the Supreme Bishop is so great , that no mortal man can comprehend it , said Cassenaeus ; no man can express it , no man can think it : So that it is no wonder what Papirius Massonus said of Pope Boniface the VIII . that he owned himself not onely as the Lord of France , but of all the World. Now we are sure it will be said , That this is but the private opinion of some Doctors , not the Doctrine of the Church of Rome . To this we reply : 1. It is not the private opinion of a few , but their publick Doctrine own'd , and offer'd to be justified to all the World , as appears in the preceding testimonies . 2. It is the opinion of all the Jesuit Order , which is now the greatest and most glorious in the Church of Rome , and the maintenance of it , is the subject matter of their new Vow of obedience to the Pope , that is to advance his Grandeur . 3. Not onely the Jesuits , but all the Canonists in the Church of Rome contend earnestly for these Doctrines . 4. This they do upon the Authority of the Decretals , their own Law * , and the Decrees of Councils . 5. Not only the Jesuits , and Canonists , but others also of great note amongst them , earnestly contend for these Doctrines ; particularly Cass●naeus , Zodericus * , the Archbishop of Florence a , Petrus de Monte b , St. Thomas Aquinas c Bozius , Baronius , and many others . 6. Themselves tell● us it is a matter of Faith ; F. Creswell d says , it is the sentence of all Catholicks ; and they that do not admit these Doctrines , Father Rosweyd e calls them half Christians , Grinners , barking Royalists , and a new Sect of Catholicks ; and Eudaemon Ioannes f says , That without question it is a Heresie in the judgement of all Catholicks . Now in such things which are not in their Creeds , and publick Confessions , from whence should we know the Doctrines of their Church , but from their chiefest and most leading Doctors ; who it is certain , would fain have all the World believe it to be the Doctrine of their Church ? And therefore as it is certain that any Roman Catholick may with allowance be of this opinion ; so he will be esteemed the better and more zealous Catholick if he be ; and if it were not for fear of Princes , who will not lose their Crowns for their foolish Doctrines , there is no peradventure but it would be declared to be de fide , a matter of faith , as divers of them of late , do not stick to say . And of this the Pope gives but too much evidence , since he will not take away the scandal , which is so greatly given to all Christian Kings and Republicks , by a publick and a just condemnation of it . Nay , it is worse than thus ; for Sixtus Quintus upon the XI of September , A. D. 1589. in an Oration in a Conclave of Cardinals , did solemnly commend the Monk that kill'd Henry the III. of France . The Oration was printed at Paris by them that had rebell'd against that Prince , and avouched for Authentick by Boucher , Decreil , and Ancelein : And though some would fain have it thought to be none of his , yet Bellarmine dares not deny it , but makes for it a crude , and a cold Apology . Now concerning this Article , it will not be necessary to declare the Sentence of the Church of England and Ireland ; because it is notorious to all the World ; and is expresly oppos'd against this Roman Doctrine , by Laws , Articles , Confessions , Homilies , the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy , the Book of Christian Institution , and the many excellent writings of King Iames of Blessed Memory , of our ●●●hops and other Learnned persons against Bellarmine , Parsons , Eudaemon Iohannes , Creswel , and others : And nothing is more notorious than that the Church of England is most dutiful , most zealous for the right of Kings ; and within these four and twenty years , she hath had many Martyrs , and very , very many Confessors ia this cause . It is true , that the Church of Rome does recriminate in this point , and charges some Calvinists and Presbyterians with Doctrines which indeed they borrowed from Rome , using their Arguments , making use of their Expressions , and pursuing their Principles . But with them in this Article we have nothing to do , but to reprove the men , and condemn their Doctrine , as we have done all along , by private Writings , and publick Instruments . We conclude these our reproofs with an Exhortation to our respective Charges , to all that desire to be sav'd in the day of the Lord Iesus , tha● they decline from these horrid Doctrines , which in their birth are new , in their growth are scandalous , in their proper consequents are in●initely dangerous to their souls , and hunt for their precious life : But therefore it is highly fit that they also should perceive their own advantages , and give God praise , that they are immur'd from such infinite drngers , by the Holy Precepts , and holy Faith taught and commanded in the Church of England and Ireland ; in which the Word of God is set before them as a Lantern to their feet , and a light unto their eyes ; and the Sacraments are fully administred according to Christs Institution , and Repentance is preach'd according to the measures of the Gospel , and Faith in Christ is propounded according to the rule of the Apostles , and the measures of the Churches Apostolical ; and obedience to Kings is greatly and sacredly urg'd , and the Authority and Order of Bishops is preserv'd , against the usurpation of the Pope , and the invasion of Schismaticks and Aerians new and old ; and Truth and Faith to all men is kept and preach'd to be necessary and inviolable , and the Commandments are expounded with just severity , and without scruples ; and holiness of life is urg'd upon all men , as indispensably necessary to salvation , and therefore without any allowances , tricks , and little artifices of escaping from it by easie and imperfect Doctrines ; and every thing is practis'd which is useful to the saving of our souls ; and Christs Merits and Satisfaction are intirely relied upon for the pardon of our sins ; and the necessity of good works is universally taught ; and our prayers are holy , unblameable , edifying and understood ; they are according to the measures of the Word of God , and the practise of all Saints . In this Church the children are duly , carefully , and rightly baptiz'd , and the baptiz'd , in their due time are Confirm'd , and the Confirm'd are Communicated ; and Penitents are absolv'd , and the Impenitents punished and discouraged ; and Holy Marriage in all men is preferr●d before unclean Concubinate in any ; and Nothing is wanting that God and his Christ hath made necessary to salvation . Behold we set before you Life and Death , Blessing and Cursing , Safety and Danger . Choose which you will ; but remember that the Prophets who are among you , have declar'd to you the way of salvation . Now the Lord give you understanding in all things , and reveal even this also unto you . Amen . FINIS . Books and Sermons written by J. Taylor D.D. Lord Bishop of Down and Connor . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , A Course of Sermons for all the Sundays of the year ; together with a discourse of the Divine Institution , Necessi●y , Sacredness and Separation of the Office Ministerial , in fol. 2. The Histo●y of the ●ife and Death of the Ever-blessed Jesus Christ , the third Edition in fol. 3. The Rule and Exercises of holy living , in 8. 4. The Rule and Exercises of holy dying , in 8. 5. The Golden Grove , or A Manual of daily Praye●s , fitted to the days of the week , together with a short Method of Peace and Holiness , in 12. 6. A Collection of Po●emical and Moral discourses in fol. newly reprinted . 7. A D●scourse of the Nature , Offices and Measure of Frien●ship , in 12. new . 8. A Collection of Offices or fo●ms of Prayer fitted to the needs of all Christians , taken out of the Script●res and Ancient Li●u●gies of s●veral Churches , e●pecially the Greek , together with the Psalter or Psalms of David after the Kings Transl●tion , in a large ●ct●vo , newly pub . 9. Ductor Dubitantium , or the Rule of Conscience , fol. in two volumes . 10. The Doctrine and Practice of Repentance , describ●ng the necessities of a Strict , a Holy and a Christian Li●e : Serving as a necessary Supplement unto the Rule of Conscience . 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , A Supplement to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or course of Sermons for the whole year . All that have been Preached and Published ( since the Restauration ) to which is adjoyned , his Advice to the Clergy of hi● Diocese . 12. The Wo●thy Communicant , or a Discourse of the Nature , Effects , and Blessings cons●quent to the worthy receiving of the Lords Supper Printed for I. Martin . 13 A Discourse of confirmation in 8. new . 13. A Dissuasive from Popery in 8. new . All sold by R. Royston . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A63823-e180 1. Cor. 6.4 . Phil. 2.14 . Contra Hermogen . De vera fide & Moral . reg . 72. c. 1. & reg . 80. c. 22. Epist. Pasch. 2. De incarn● Christi● Lib. 2. cap. de Origen . error . Lib. 7. contra Cel●um . Can. comperlmus de consecr . dist . 2. in 1. Cor. 11. Notes for div A63823-e1640 Eccles. 11.6 . Notes for div A63823-e1850 De unit . Eccles . cap. 6. * Ecclesia ex s●cris & canonicis Scripturis ostendenda est , quaeque ex illis ostendi non potest , Ecclesiae non est , S. Aug. de uni . Eccles. c. 4. &c. 3. ●bi quaeramus Ecclesiam , ibi decernamus causam nostram . * Lib. Cano. discip , Eccle. Angl. & injunct . Regin . Elis. A. D. 1571. Can. de concionatoribus . Dat. 3. Ca●en . Mart. Thessalonicae . a Quod sit metrum● & regula , acsciet●a credendorum . Summae de Ecclesia , l. 2 c 203. b Novum Symi●ium condere solum ad Papam specta● , quia est caput fidei Christianae , cujus authoritate omnia quae ad● dem spectant firmantur & roborantur . q. 59 a. 1. & art . 2. sicut petest no●● symbolum condere , i●● po●est novos articulos supra alios multiplicare . c Papa potest facere novos articulos fidei , id est , quod modo credi oport●at , cum prius non oport●ret . In cap. cum Christus . de ●●aeret . n 2. d Papa potest induceren● vum arti●u um fidei . In idem . e Super 2. Decret . de jur●jur . c. nimis . n. 1. f Apud Petrum Ciezam t. 2. ins●it . per●●nae ca● 69. * Iohanne● Clemens aliquo● folia Theodoreti laceravit & abjecit in focum , in quibus contra transubstantionem praeclare disseruit . Et cum ●on ita pridem Origenem ●xcuderent , totum illud caput sextum Iohannes & quod commentabatur ●rigen●s ●mis●runt , & mutilum ●did●runt libru● propt●r candem ca●sa● . * Sixtus S●nensis epis● . dedicat . ad . P●●●m Q●●n . ●auda● Pon●●sic●m id haec verba , Expurgari & ●maculari carasti omnium Catholicorum Scriptorum , ac prae●i●ue ve●erum patr●m scrip●a . Index expurgator . Madrili . 1612. in Indice libror . expurgatorum pag. ●9 . Gal. ● . ● . Part. 2. act . 6. c. 7. De potest . Eccles. Consi● . 12. De Consil. author . l. 2. c. 17. Sect. 1. Sess. 21. c. 4. Part. 1. Sum. tit . 10. p. 3. In art . 1● . Luther . * Intravit ut vulpes , regnavit ut leo , mori●batur ut canis , de eo saepiu● d●ctum . Tertul. 1● ad Martyr . c. 1. S. Cyprian . lib. 3. Ep. 15. apud Pamelium 11. Concil . Nicen. 1. can . 12. Conc. Ancyr c. 5. Concil . Laodicen . c. 2. S. Basil. in Ep. canonicis habentur in Nomocanone Phot●i , can . 73. * Communis opinio D.D. tam Theol●gorum , quam Canonicorum , quod sunt ex abundantia meritorum quae ultra mensuram demeritorum suorum sancti sustinnerunt , & Christi , Sum. Angel. v. Indulg 9. Lib. 1. de indulgent . cap. 2. & .3 . a In. 4. l. sen. dist . 19. q 2. b Ibid. dist . 20. q 3. Ubi supra . In lib. 4. sent . Verb. Indulgentia . Vt quid non praevides tibi in die judicii , quando nemo poterit per alium excusari , vel defendi ; sed unusquisque sufficiens onus erit sibi i●si : Th. a 〈◊〉 ● . 1. d●●mit . c. 24. a Homil. 1. in ep . ad Philem. b Serm. de Martyrib . c S●rm . 1. de Advent . Eze. 1● . 22. * Neque ab iis quos sanas lente languor abscedit , sed illico quem restituis ex integro ●mvalescit , qu●a consummatum est quod sacis , & perfectum quod largiris , S. Cyprian de caena Domini : vel potius Ar●o●dus . P. Ge●asius de vincul . anath●m . neg●t p●n●m deberi culpaesi culp● co●rigatur . * D●let gratia finalis p●ccatum veniale in ipsa d●ssolutione corporis & animae . Hoc ab antiquis d●ctum ●st . Albert. Mag. in compend . Theolog. verit . ● . 3. 6. 13. Art. 18. con , Luther . Invent . rerum . l. 8. c. 1. a Haeres . 75. b Cateches , mystag . 5. c De riti●us , lib. 2. c. 35. Innocent . P. de Celeb. Missar . cap. c●m Martha . Apologia confessionis Augustanae expresse approbat clansulam illam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Deus de● ei pacatam q●i●●em , ad v●am resurre●tionem . Biblieth ● . l , 5. Anno● . clxxi Vide etiam Bellar. l. 2 de Purgat sect . c. 1. Ambr●sius . Lib. 6. Bi●l . Sa●ct . annot . 345 , Bernandum e●c●ssandum arbi●ror ob ingentem numerum illustrium Ecc●esiae Patrum , q●i ante ipsum huic d●gmati authori●●n●m suo testim●nio visi sunt praebuisse ; prae●er citatos ; enum●ra● , S. Jacobum Apostolum , Irenaeum , Clementem Romanum , Augustinum , Theodoretum , Oecumenium , Theophylactum , & Johannem 22. ponif . Rom. quam sententia●● non m●do d●cuit , & declaravit , sed a● om●i●us ●eneri mandavit , ut ●it Adrianus P. in 4. lib. sent . in fine quaest . i● sa●ram confirmationis . Enchyrid c. 69. lib. 21. ●●civit . Dei c. 26. Lib. 8. Chron. cap. 26. Haec descri●simus , ut tamen in i● nuila veluti Canonica constituatur authoritas . l. de 8. quaest . Dulcitii . c. ● Dist. 3. exem . 3. Exempl . 60. Histor. Lom● . Legend . 185. Deut. 18. 11 , &c. Isa. 8.19 . Vide Mald●nat . in 16. cap S. Luca. Ad Demetrian . sect . 16. Eccles. hier . c. 7. Quast . & respons . ad orthod . qu. 75. Iustino imputat . a De bono mortis , cap. 4. b In Psal. 2. c Homil , 22. d Orat. 5. In Piagam grandinis & orat . 42 in Pascha . De E●cles . dogmat . c. ●79 . In Eccle. c. 11. Epist. 59. Rev. 14 13. John 5 . 2● . a In 4. lib. sent . d. 11. q. 3 b Ibid. q. 6. c Lect. 40. in can . missa . d ●ap . 1. contr . captiv . Babyl . e De Euchar. l. 3. cap. 23. sect . secundo dicit . * Venere tum quidem multa in consislationem , nec decerni tam●n quicquam aperte po●●it . Platina in vit● Innocen . III. * Apud Suar. Tom. 3. disp . 46. sect . 3. * Loc. com . l. 3. c. 3. fund . 2. L. 3. d● Euch. cap. 23. sect . unum 〈◊〉 S●m . l. ● . c. 20. Discurs . modest . p. 13. Lib. 4. sent . dist . ●1 . lit . a. * A. D. MCLX. * A. D. MCCXV . * A. D. MCCLXX . secund . ●uchol . sed secundum Volaterranum MCCCxxxv . In lib. 4 sent . dist . 11. qu. 1. sect . pro●●er ●ertium . De haeres . lib. 8. Verbo Indulgentiá . Cap. E●o Berengarius de Consecrat● dist . 2. A●ver . Marc●on● l 4. c. 40. Contr. ●ryph . Jud. * In dial●g . cont . Marcion . collect●s ●● Maximo , tempo e 〈◊〉 & Seve●● Im● . In Ma● . 1● . Demonst. Evang lib. 1 c●p . 1. * & cap. ult . Homil. 27. De sacris Antioch . legibus apud Photium , l. 1. c. 229. Orat. 2. in Pasch. Ep. ad Caes. cont . heres . Apollinarii . cit . per Damascen . & per collect . senten . Pp. cont . Sererianos , edit . per Tur●ianum Homil. 23. in 1 Cor. In Psal. 98. Cont. Adimantium cap. 12. Lib. 10. cont . Faust. Manich . De consecrat . dist . 2. cap. Qui manducant , & cap. Prima quidem , & cap. Non hoc corpus , & cap. Vt quid paras . Sentent . l. 4. dist . 11. Dialog . 1. c. 8 * Dial. 2. c. 24. D● duabus naeturis con r● Eutych . & Nestor . Videatur Pich●rellus in dissert . de Missa & expositione v●rborum institutionis coenae Domini . * Iohn 6.63 . Vbi supra . Gloria mundi 4. num . 6. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Concil . Cons●ant . s●ss . 13. Accursius praefat . super Instit. Iustin. Mat. 26. 27 Consult . sect . 22. Commen . in 6 Ioh. lect . 7. De corp . & sang . Domini , cap. 19. Tract . 35. Apud Gratian . de consecr . dist . 2. cap. Comperimus . Vide Ochagav de Sacr. tract . 2. de Euchar. q. 18. De consecrat . dist . 2. cap. Si non sunt● & cap. Quia passus , & cap. Prima quidem , & cap. Tunc ei● , & cap. Accesserun● . Lib. 8. contra Celsum . * Affectus consequitur intellectum : ubi autem nullus earum rerum quae petuntur vel dicuntur habetur intellectus● aut g●●eraliter tantum , ibi exiguus assurgit affectus . Azor. Inst. moral . to . 1. lib. 9. c. 34. q. ● . a In 1 Cor. 14 b Epist ad Su●hron . c Sozom. l. 6. ●ist . cap. 37. d Hom. 1. in 8 ●̄●an . e De Doctr. Christ. cap 5. f Serm. 5. de Graecar . ●ffect . curat . g Li● . Q● ex var. Script . lo●●q . 278. h In 1 Cor. h●m . 35. i Super 1 Cor. 14. k S●per Psal. 1● . con . 2. l In 1 Cor. 14. m Ibid. n Liturg. cap. 28. o Histor. Bohem . ● De Doctr. Christ. lib. 4. cap. 10. Novel . 123. De Missa l. 2. ● . 13. sect . ad Novellā . Cap. 9. Quintil. l. 1. Verb. Osseni . Cap. 6. ad Quod vult De●m . Chap. 2. Sect. 12. * Lib. 1. ●aret . fabul . * De haeres . * Lib. 1. cap. 23. vide etiam Epiphan . 10. 2. lib. 1. haeres . 27. & S. August . de haeres . * Lib. 6. strom . & in paran●●i ● . Lib. 7. & 3. cont . Cels. Epist. ad Ioh. Hi●ros . Can. 36. Placuit pictur as in Ecclesia esse non debere , ne quod colitur aut adoratur in pari●●ibus depingatur . De mori● . Eccles. ● . 1. c. 34. Idem de fide & Symb●●o . c. 7. & contr . Adimant . cap. 13. A●no Dom. DCCLXIV . Lib 2● in vitae Isaac● Angeli , A.D. 1160. 1 John 5.21 * Strom. l. 6. & in Pro●rep . * Lib. 2. c. 22. advers . Marcion . & de Ido●olatr . c. 3. * Lib. 4. cont . Celsum . Stromat . l. 1. a Lib. 7. contra Celsum . b De coron a ●il●is . c Lib. 1. c. 5. praep . Evang. d Orat. contra gentes . e In c. 40. Isa. f De fide & symbol . c. 7. g In Deut. q. 1. h Lib● 4. d● Orthod . fide c. 17. Sil. Italic . Lib. 1. in somn . Scip. cap. 2. Lib. 18. c. 53. Lib. 2. de Invent . c. 23. Acts 20. 2● . Epist. de unit . Ecclesia ad Novatian . & habetur caus . 24. qu. 1. * Irenae . lib. 4. c. 43 , 44. S. Cyprian : lib. 1. ep . 6. & lib. 2. ep . 10. & lib. 4. ep . 9. S. Ambrose . de dignit . sacerd . c. 1. S. Aug. de baptism . contra Donat. l. 7. c. 43. & ibid. Claru● a Muscula . Idem de verb. Dom. Ser. 24. Con. Rom. sub Sylvest . Const. Apost . l. 8. c. ult . Anacl . P. ep . 2. Clemens P. ep . 1. S. Hieron . ep . 13. & ep . 54. Euthym. in Ps. 44. S. Gregor . in Evang. Hom. 26. ad Heliod●● . ep . 1. S. Chrysost. ser. Damascen . de imaginibus : Orat. 2. S. Greg. Naz. Orat 21. de laud Basilii . In epist. 1. ad Corin. cap. 3. & in epist. ad Roman . c. 1. * Extravi Com lib 1. tit . 9. de maior . & obed . cap. Vnam Sanctam . * 〈…〉 Arch●●pisc . Granate●si in Concil . ●rid . Vbi sup●a . 〈◊〉 4 〈◊〉 2 Ap●d Ba●● . ●●m . 6. A.D. 499. n. 36. Dionys. Ar●op . de Eccles. hierarch . de sacer . p●rfect . E●is● . ad S●●●●●ne●● & ad P●●●a●●● . * Dist. 97. c. Duo sunt . * In Ierem. hom . 7. & adver . Lucif . * In Conc●● . Pari● . l. 1. c. 3 In Co●cil● Cart●ag . De Bapt. contr . Dinat●s●●l 3. c. ● . Lib. 4. ep . 76 , 78 , 31 , 34 , 38 , 39● & lib. 6. ep . 24. Lib 4 p 32. 〈◊〉 ●st 〈…〉 , cont●a Ca●●n●m decret● . novum sibi usurpare nomen praesumit ? Videatur Epistola S. Hieron . a● Evagrium , Concil . Ch●●ced . action . 16. Concil . Nicen. can . 6. & can . 7. & Conci● . C. P can . 3. & Nov●l . Iustin. 131. In Acta Apost . hom . 3. 〈◊〉 loc . lib. 6 c. 8 p 23● . Ed. S●●man● . 1563. C●ncor . Cu●● l. 2. c. 34 S●nt . l. 4 〈◊〉 24 q 2 〈…〉 4 c. 3. Luk. 22.25 . Mat. 20.26 , 27. De consecra . d●st . 2. cap. Peracta . Vide etiam ib. cap. In coena , & cap. Si quis . * De consecr . dist . 1. c. Omnes fidel . Omnes fideles qui conveniunt in solennitatibus sacris ad Ecclesiam & Scripturas Apostolorum & Evange●●a audian● . Qui autem non perseverant in oratione usque dum Missa peragatur , nec Sanctam Commu●ienem percipiunt , velut inquie●udines Ecclesiae commove●es convenit communione privari . * In Chron● Zilizensi . Notes for div A63823-e18360 Enchyr. c. 1. ● . 31. Praxis fori aenit . l. 5. c 2. s●ct . 4 n. 23. * D●m . à Soto in quart . sent . dist . 17. qu. 2. art . 6. conel . secu●d● . * Non est dubium quin ●d li●itum sit . Cod. de pae●●●en . ●ract . 1. q. 6. p. 18. edit . Sa●mantic . A. D. 1553. Regina●d li● . de con●rit . c. 2. cap. 4. * Non illico ut● h●mo se re●m se●●t cuipae p●enitentiae lege poenitere con●●ringitur . Haec profecto conclusio more & usu Ecclesiae sa●●● vide●ur constabilita . Dom. ● Soto . in quart . sent . d●st . 17. qu. 2. art . 6. Sessio 4. c 4. In 4. ●●n● . d●st . ●● . q. 1. Lib. 3. i●strus . sacerdot . cap. 5 n. 4. Sum qu. 16. art . 1. De contrit . num 107. Q●aecunque 〈◊〉 contra ●●●atum , in quocunque instanti sufficiet ad consequend●m m●s●ri●●●diam & 〈◊〉 : sionem . Ibid. n. 106● * Vide Bicl . l. 4. dist . 17. q. 1. & Scotum ibid. & Bonavent . i● . n. 72. * Me●ius dicitur cam institutam suisse à quadam universali Ecclesiae traditione , quam ex novi vel vete●is Testa●enti authoritate , & tamon negatur haec traditio esse universalis . Confessio non est necessaria apud Graeco● , quiae non ●●anavit ad illos traditionaliter . De panit . d●st 5. in principio Gloss. ibid. Vide etiam Panormit●n . super Decr●●a l. 5. cap. Quod au●em , c. Omnis utriúsque se●●● , sect 18. extrav . Gloss. Maldonatus sa●ctur omnes Canonistas in hanc sententiam con●●●sisse . Disp. de Sacram. ●om . 2. c 2. d● cons●●ss . orig . Sess. 4● can . 7. * ●man . ●● . V. S 〈◊〉 . n 10 T 〈◊〉 ● instr . sa●●r●● . 〈◊〉 . 11. n. ● . Tolet. instr . sacerd . lib. 3. cap. 11. n. 6. Vide Concil . Tribur . c. 54. Burc●ard . l. 19. Tertul. lib. de poenitentia . D● Indulgen . l. 1. c. 9. sect . Existit autē . Vide Ioan. d● Turrecrem●ta in comment . dist . 1. de poenitent . Hist. Con●il . Trident. l. 1. pag 20. Londin . ●dit . Fab. Incar●at . serutin . Sacerd. de . Indulgent . C●ntura gravam . Ge●m . Idem fatere volu●t Paulus quintus in Venetorum causa . * Fabius Incarnatus Scrutin . Sacerdot . de indulgent . sect . antepen . edit . Barcinon . 1628. Apud Genes-Sepulvedam in vita Egidii Albernoti● Cardinal . Fab. Incarn . ●bi supra . Apud Petrum de Soto lect . de instit . Sace●d . de necessariis ad effectum indu●g . a In tract . de j●bila● n● ab . 34. n. 4. & 6. b Q● . 37. de indu●g . ●r . p. 3 c Lib. 1. de indu●g . c. 10. Sect. Alt●ra dubitatio . Serutin . Sacerd . ubi supra . Digres . 2. ad cap. 1. epist ad Titum . De potest . Papae q. 3. ad . 3. * Sa aphor . verb. satisfa●●um . 10. Serutin . Sacerd . tract . de Indulg . sect . penult . Suarez . part . 4. in 3. disp . 38. sect . 9. Granat . in materia de peccatis , tract 8. desp . 1. sect . 1. F. Knot against Chillingworth in his Infidelity unmask'd , p. 105 , 106 , 107 , &c. * Bellar. l. 1. de amiss . gratiae . cap 13. sect . alterum est . Et de Sacram Eucha . l. 4. c. 19. sect . responde● . * Cap. 14. sect . a●●●po , 〈◊〉 . D● 〈◊〉 . lib. 1. cap. 11. sect probatur ultimo . * In 4 Sent. dist 21. q. 1. art . 2. * Lib. 1 cap. 14. de Purga●or . ●e●t . 〈◊〉 . e●g●●pinio vera . Emanuel Sà aphor . verb. Dubium . Escobar . The. moral . Exa . 3. c. 3. de Conscientia probabili , &c. * Eman. Sà . aphorism . V●rb . Dubium . Escobar . d● conscientia probabiti . Apud Nauclerum . generat . 21. 2● . Dist. 82. Can. Presbyter in glossa . 3 Qu. 7. Lata Extravag . de bigamis . Quta circa . C●mmuniter dicitur quod Clericus pro simplici fornicatione depo●i non debet dist . 81. Maximianus , Glossa in Gratian . ●e●t . l. 4. dist . 33. Lib. de Temp. qu. 2. de luxuria . * Vide Dan. Tilen . de Verbo non scripto , l. 4. c. 8. * Instruct. Sacerd . l. 5. c. 6. n. 15. Lib. 4. c. 13. n. 4. L●b . 5. c. 10. n. 3. Lib. 5. c. 13. n. 10. Lib. 5. c. 11. n. 5. Lib. 8. c. 49. n. 4. * Aphor. tit . Debi●um Conjugale . 6. Lib. 1. cap. 6● . Ibid. De Adorat . l. 3. disp . 1. c. 2. Ibid c. 5. sect . 33. Con●il . C● P. 6 c●n . 76. a Cap. fin . de conver . conjug . c. 2. de Divortiis . b De Matrim . part . 2. cap. 7. sect . 5. n. 4. c In sent . 4. d. 39. art . 1. concl . ult . d Lib. 1. de Matrim . c. 14. sect . secundo ●ine consensu . Scrutin . Sacerd . de Indulg . 〈…〉 25. art . 4. Vide eti●m 〈…〉 , 163. De Crat. l. 3. c. 4. Su● . part . 3. ●it . 23. Vide etiam Iacobum de Graffiis de orat . l. 2. Instruct . Sa●er . c. 13. n. 5. & 6. Ibid. n. 7. Vbi supra . Vbi supra cap. 13. Ibid. n. 6. Ohe jam de●●ne Deo● uxor gratulando ●btundere , ●●si illos tuo e● ingenio judi●as , ut nil cr●das intellige●e nisi idem dic●um est cen●●es . He●uton●im . act . 5. scen. 1. Summa Cajetan . v. oratio . Jerem. 17.5 . Psal. 115. 9. & 146. 3. & 118. ● & 50. 15● Heb. 4.16 . Mat. 11. 28. John 6. 37. Sum part . 4. tit . 15. 1 Jo. c. 2.1,2 . Bernardin de b●sti● , d● Concept . Mariae . 1. part . serm . 1. part . 2. * In Canti● . Mar. Magnificat . * Comment . in 8. Proverb . in vers 19. * Ti● . ●e Sanctu . Sess. 9. Ex cursu ●o●arum l●a ● Mariae . ● . * Ad Recanatenses do Lauretana imagine , apud Bembum l. 8. ep . 17. * In epis● d●dicat . histor . Lauretan . Fol. 323 , 324,325 . Fol. 327. Vide ●pist . Andr. Dudi●hi● quinque Eccles. episc . edit . A.D. 1590. sine loci & ●ypographi nomine . In Cantici● quae vocant sequentia . Dominic . ante as●ensionem Domini . Vide spe●uli in R●sa●i●r● s●q●entias ; & Bre●●●r . Rom. Jerem. 2.13 . Rom. 1. 25. * 1 Cor. 3.1 . Gal. 1. 8. 2 Kings 17. l●b . 1. ●a●● . de V●itation . in●●●●orum●●●r●p . S. A● . John 4● 22. Vide libr. de Sanctis Hibernisis nuper Latine edit . p●● D. Pica●dum Par●s●ensem . * A●ud B●din . in me●h●d . histor● l 4. A●ud Aug. Triumphum de Aneona , q. 14 ad . 4. & quaes● . 17. ad . 4. ver● . H●rman●u● . Li● . de Re●●r●● . Ec●les . De Fasti● Sanctor . 7.10 Rom. 10.14 . 1 Tim. 2.5 . * Ne mir●tur lector erud●●u● quod exorcismus apud Inquis●●ores sit foeminini generis . fortasse dispe●saetum fuit cum bonis viris in hoc a●ticulo . An po●●us factum quia bonus Angelus nunquam , mali autem Genii saepissime sub forma foeminina apparuere : quod notavit T●ithemius . ●ib . 133. Flag●●lum 〈…〉 . 3. Vid● Raimun 〈◊〉 . lib 2 de 〈…〉 P●ilostrat . de vita Apolloii . Tract . 35. in Matth. In i●●s verba , [ Qui credit in me majora facie● . ] Quast . nam● l 4. c. 6. Cyril Hieros● Cat●ch . 4. B●llarm . de cultis ●anct . lib 3. cap● 7 sect . s●c●●d● pr●●●sit●● , & s●ct s●●●●d ad d●leti●nem . Instit. moral . par . 1. l. 9. c. 6. Edit . Roman . p. 672. Nemini po● est per fidem constare se recepisse vel minimum sa●ramentum . Estque hoc i●a certum ex fide ac clarum est nos vivere . Nulla est ●ia , qua cit●a revelationem nosse possumus intentionem ministrantis , vel evidenter , vel certo ex fide . Andreas Vega , lib. 9. de j●st●fic . c. 17. Non potest quis esse certus certitudine fidei se percipere verum Sacram●ntum● Cum Sacramentum sinè int●ntione Ministri non conficiatur , & intentionem al●erius nemo videre potest . Bellarm. lib. 3. cap. 8. se●t . Dicent . Notes for div A63823-e29690 〈◊〉 Sa●●● l 4. ● . 21. ● . 22. In● Tom. 4. qu. 93. ar● . 5. 〈◊〉 . 13. Man●a● . c. 1● . u● 7. A●ud Tolet. i●str●ct . S●l●rd l. 5 c 27. In compend . p. 335. Lugdu● , A. D. 1641. Vbi ●up●a . Theol. Schol● . Relect● de paenitent . Ses. 8. can . 6. Cap. cum virum de regularibu● . Aquin . 2.2 . q. 88. art . 9. Lib. 1. c. 101. Thom Walsingham . Deferunt aurum & argentum & reportant Char●as , Car. Cusan . Li. 1. de summo Pontif. vide etiam Iacobum de Terano : & Ravis . de concile . du Trent . Cap. quia circa Extra . de ●igamis . ●ap . proposui . de concess . praebondae , n. 20. Si Imperator dist . 96. &c. E●clesia ● . M de co●stitut . A.D. 1199. Can. 5. De Clericis l. 1 c. 30. sect . quarto objiciunt . De Offic. Christiani Prin. l. 1. c. 5. Suarez . defens . contra sect . Anglic. l. 4. c. 17. sect . 15,16 , & 1● . Aphor. verb. Cericus . Defens . fid . l. 4. c. 15. sect . 1. Apolog. p. 57. Rom 13.1 . In hunc locum . a Instruct. Sac●rd . l. 3. c. 16. b De poenit . l. 2. c. 19. n. 5. c Apol. cont . Re● . M. ●rit . c. 13. ●ontr Reg. Ang. l. 9. c. 3 Cap. 13. De su●● . Pontis . l 5. c. 6. Ibid. c. 7. Defen● . F●d Cath. l. 3. c. 23 sect . 10. & sect . 18. & 20. Ca●ce● . Eccl. i● . 〈◊〉 . ●ol . 336. In Philopat . sect . 2. n. 160. & 162. T●m 3. disp . 1 q. 12 punct . 2 ●●nt . Barol . ● . 7. Vbi supra , l● 6. c. 6. sect . 24. Cont. Bar●l . c. 7. D● Ro. Po●tif . l. 4. c. 5. ●us●i● . Moral . part . 2. l. 10. ● . 9. Vbi supra . See Mart. Vivaldus de bulla coenae Dominici . Sanctuar . Iur. Pontifici● qu. 15. sect . 5. qu. 17. sect . 6. & qu. 27. sect . 7. Catal. lor. mundi part . 4. ●onsid . 7. ex Zoderico . V●rb . Bonif. 8. * De major . & obedient . unam Sanctam . In ●xtrav . Benif . 8. concil . Later . sub Iulio 2. In Extrav . Ioh. 22. cap. C●m in●er nonnullos . In gloss . fi●al . edit . Paris . 1503. concil . Viennens . sub Clem. 5. * Vbi supr● in Cass●naeo . a Summ 3. part . l. 22. ● . 6. sect 4. b In s●a Monarchia quem citat Felinus in cap. Si quando , ubi per eum extrav . de rescript . c In tract . de Rege & Regno ad Regem Cypri . d In P●i opa●r . sect . 2. n. 160,162 . e Lib. de fide h●ret . s●rvanda . f In epist. m●●itor . ad Ioh. Barclai . In re●p . ad Apo●o●● prouiam ●ide●it . 
A63805	----	A dissvvasive from popery to the people of Ireland By Jeremy Lord Bishop of Dovvn. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. 1664 Approx. 355 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 97 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2003-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A63805 Wing T319 ESTC R219157 99830673 99830673 35126 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A63805) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 35126) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 2080:17) A dissvvasive from popery to the people of Ireland By Jeremy Lord Bishop of Dovvn. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. [14], 173, [1] p. printed by John Crooke, printer to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty, and are to be sold by Samuel Dancer, Dublin : 1664. Reading title: A dissuasive from popery. Reproduction of the original in the British Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Catholic Church -- Controversial literature -- Early works to 1800. 2000-00 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2001-07 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2002-09 Rina Kor Sampled and proofread 2002-09 Rina Kor Text and markup reviewed and edited 2002-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A DISSVVASIVE FROM POPERY To the People of IRELAND . BY JEREMY Lord Bishop of DOVVN . DVBLIN , Printed by Iohn Crooke , Printer to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty , and are to be sold by Samuel Dancer , 1664. THE PREFACE TO THE READER . WHen a Roman Gentleman had , to please himself , written a book in Greek , and presented it to Cato ; he desired him to pardon the faults of his expressions , since he wrote in Greek , which was a tongue in which he was not perfect Master . Cato told him he had better then to have let it alone , and written in Latine , by how much it is better not to commit a fault , then to make apologies . For if the thing be good , it needs not to be excus'd , if it be not good , a crude apologie will do nothing but confess the fault , but never make amends . I therefore make this address to all who will concern themselves in reading this Book , not to ask their pardon for my fault in doing it ; I know of none ; for if I had known them , I would have mended them before the Publication ; and yet though I know not any , I do not question but much fault will be found by too many ; I wish I have given them no cause for their so doing . But I do not onely mean it in the particular periods ( where every man that is not a Son of the Church of England or Ireland will , at least do as Apollonius did to the apparition that affrighted his company on the mountain Caucasus , he will revile and persecute me with evil words ) but I mean it in the whole designe , and men will reasonably or capritiously ask , why any more controversies ? Why this over again ? Why against the Papists , against whom so very-many are already exasperated , that they cry out fiercely of persecution ? And why can they not be suffered to enjoy their share of peace , which hath returned in the hands of his Sacred Majesty at his blessed Restauration ? For as much of this as concerns my self , I make no excuse , but give my reasons , and hope to justifie this procedure with that modesty which David us'd to his angry Brother ; saying , What have I now done ? Is there not a cause ? The cause is this . The Reverend Fathers my Lords the Bishops of Ireland in their circumspection and watchfulness over their Flocks having espyed grievous Wolves to have entred in , some with Sheeps clothing , and some without , some secret enemies , and some open , at first endeavour'd to give check to those enemies which had put fire into the bed straw ; and though God hath very much prosper'd their labours , yet they have work enough to do , and will have , till God shall call them home to the land of peace and unity . But it was soon remembred , that when King James of blessed memory had discerned the Spirits of the English non-Conformists , & found them peevish and factious , unreasonable and imperious , not only unable to govern , but as inconsistent with the Government , as greedy to snatch at it for themselves ; resolved to take off their disguise and put a difference between Conscience and Faction , and to bring them to the measures and rules of Laws ; and to this , the Council , and all wise men were consenting , because by the Kings great wisdome , and the conduct of the whole conference and enquiry , men saw there was reason on the Kings side , and necessity on all sides . But the Gun-powder Treason breaking out , a new zeal was enkindled against the Papists , and it shin'd so greatly , that the non-Conformists escaped by the light of it , and quickly grew warm by the heat of that flame , to which they added no small increase by their declamations , and other acts of insinuation : insomuch that they being neglected , multiply'd until they got power enough to do all those mischiefs which we have seen and felt . This being remembred and spoken of , it was soon observ'd that the Tables only were now turn'd , and that now the publick zeal and watchfulness against those men , and those persuasions , which so lately have afflicted us , might give to the emissaries of the Church of Rome leisure and opportunity to grow into numbers and strength to debauch many Souls , and to unhinge the safety and peace of the Kingdom . In Ireland we saw too much of it done , and found the mischief growing too fast , and the most intolerable inconveniences , but too justly apprehended , as near and imminent . We had reason at least to cry Fire when it flamed through our very Roofs , and to interpose with all care and diligence , when Religion and the eternal interest of Souls was at stake , as knowing we should be greatly unfit to appear and account to the great Bishop and Shepherd of souls , if we had suffered the enemies to sow tares in our fields , we standing and looking on . It was therefore consider'd how we might best serve God , and rescue our charges from their danger , and it was concluded presently to run to arms , I mean to the weapons of our warfare , to the armour of the Spirit , to the works of our calling , and to tell the people of their peril , to warn them of the enemy , and to lead them in the wayes of truth and peace and holiness : that if they would be admonished , they might be safe , if they would not , they should be without excuse , because they could not say but the Prophets have been amongst them . But then it was next enquired who should minister in this affair , and put in order all those things which they had to give in charge : It was easie to chuse many , but hard to chuse one ; There were many fit to succeed in the vacant Apostleship , and though Barsabas the just was by all the Church nam'd as a fit and worthy man , yet the lot fell upon Matthias ; and that was my case , it fell to me to be their Amanuensis , when persons most worthy were more readily excus'd ; and in this my Lords the Bishops had reason , that ( according to S. Pauls rule ) If there be judgements or controversies amongst us , they should be employ'd who are least esteem'd in the Church ; And upon this account I had nothing left me but obedience ; though I confess that I found regret in the nature of the employment , for I love not to be ( as S. Paul calls it ) one of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , disputers of this world . For I suppose skill in controversies ( as they are now us'd ) to be the worst part of Learning , and time is the worst spent in them , and men the least benefited by them ; that is , when the Questions are curious and impertinent , intricate , and inexplicable , not to make men better , but to make a Sect. But when the Propositions disputed are of the foundation of faith , or lead to good life , or naturally do good to single persons or publick Societies , then they are part of the depositum of Christianity , of the Analogy of Faith ; and for this we are by the Apostle commanded to contend earnestly , and therefore controversies may become necessary ; but because they are not often so , but oftentimes useless , and alwayes troublesome , and as an ill diet makes an ill habit of body , so does the frequent use of controversies baffle the understanding , and makes it crafty to deceive others , it self remaining instructed in nothing but useless notions and words of contingent signification and distinctions without difference , which minister to pride and contention , and teach men to be pertinacious , troublesome and uncharitable , therefore I love them not . But because by the Apostolical Rule I am tyed to do all things without murmurings , as well as without disputings , I consider'd it over again , and found my self reliev'd by the subject matter , and the grand consequent of the present Questions . For in the present affair , the case is not so as in the others ; here the Questions are such that the Church of Rome declares them to reach as far as eternity , and da●n all that are not of their opinions ; and the Protestants have much more reason to fear concerning the Papists , such who are not excus'd by ignorance , that their condition is very sad and deplorable , and that it is charity to snatch them as a brand from the fire ; and indeed the Church of Rome maintains Propositions , which , if the Ancient Doctors of the Church may be believ'd , are apt to separate from God. I instance in their superaddition of Articles and Propositions , derived onely from a pretended tradition , and not contain'd in Scripture . Now the doing of this is a great sin , and a great danger . Adoro Scripturae plenitudinem ; Si non est scriptum timeat vae illud adjicientibus & detrahentibus destinatum , said Tertullian : I adore the fulness of Scripture , and if it be not written , let Hermogenus fear the wo that is destin'd to them that detract from or add to it . S. Basil sayes , Without doubt it is a most manifest argument of Infidelity , and a most certain signe of pride , to introduce any thing that is not written [ in the Scriptures ] our blessed Saviour having said , My sheep hear my voice , and the voice of strangers they will not hear ; and to detract from Scriptures , or add any thing to the Faith that is not there , is most vehemently forbidden by the Apostle , saying , If it be but a mans Testament , Nemo superordinat , no man adds to it . And says also , This was the will of the Testator . And Theophilus Alexandrinus says plainly , It is the part of a Devilish spirit to think any thing to be Divine , that is not in the authority of the holy Scriptures ; and therefore S. Athanasius affirms , That the Catholicks will neither speak nor endure to hear any thing in Religion that is a stranger to Scripture ; it being Immodestiae vaecordia , an evil heart of immodesty , to speak those things which are not written . Now let any man judge whether it be not our duty and a necessary work of charity , and the proper Office of our Ministery , to persuade our charges from the immodesty of an evil heart , from having a Devilish spirit , from doing that which is vehemently forbidden by the Apostle , from Infidelity and pride , and lastly from that eternal wo which is denounc'd against them that add other words and doctrines than what is contain'd in the Scriptures , and say , Dominus dixit , The Lord hath said it , and he hath not said it . If we had put these severe censures upon the Popish Doctrine of Tradition , we should have been thought uncharitable ; but because the holy Fathers do so , we ought to be charitable , and snatch our charges from the ambient flame . And thus it is in the Question of Images . Dubium non est , quin Religio nulla sit , ubicunque simulacrum est , said Lactantius , without all peradventure where ever an image is , ( meaning for worship ) there is no Religion : and that we ought rather to die than pollute our Faith with such impieties , said Origen ; It is against the Law of Nature , it being expres●y forbidden by the second Commandment , as Irenaeus affirms , Tertullian , Cyprian , and S. Austin , and therefore is it not great reason we should contend for that faith which forbids all worship of Images , and oppose the superstition of such guides , who do teach their people to give them veneration , to prevaricate the Moral Law , and the very Law of Nature , and do that which whosoever does has no Religion ? We know Idolatry is a damnable sin , and we also know , that the Roman Church with all the artifices she could use , never can justifie her self , or acquit the common practises from Idolatry ; and yet if it were but suspicious that it is Idolatry , it were enough to awaken us ; for God is a jealous God , and will not endure any such causes of suspicion and motives of jealousie . I instance but once more . The Primitive Church did excommunicate them that did not receive the holy Sacrament in both kinds , and S. Ambrose says , that he who receives the Mystery otherwayes than Christ appointed ( that is , but in one kind , when he hath appointed it in two ) is unworthy of the Lord , and he cannot have devotion : Now this thing we ought not to suffer , that our people by so doing should remain unworthy of the Lord , and for ever be indevout , or cozen'd with a false shew of devotion , or fall by following exil guides into the Sentence of Excommunication . These matters are not trifling , and when we see these errors frequently taught and own'd as the only true Religion , and yet are such evils , which the Fathers say are the way of damnation , we have reason to hope that all wise and good men , lovers of souls , will confess that we are within the circles of our duty , when we teach our people to decline the crooked wayes , and to walk in the wayes of Scripture and Christianity . But we have observed amongst the generality of the Irish , such a declension of Christianity , so great credulity to believe every superstitious story , such confidence in vanity , such groundless pertinacy , such vitious lives , so little sense of true Religion and the fear of God , so much care to obey the Priests , and so little to obey God : such intolerable ignorance , such fond Oathes and manners of swearing , thinking themselves more obliged by swearing on the Mass-Book , than the Four Gospels , and S. Patricks Mass-Book more than any new one ; swearing by their Fathers Soul , by their Godsips hand , by other things which are the product of those many tales are told them ; their not knowing upon what account they refuse to come to Church , but onely that now they are old and never did , or their Country-men do not , or their Fathers or Grandfathers never did , or that their Ancestors were Priests , and they will not alter from their Religion ; and after all , can give no account of their Religion , what it is : onely they believe as their Priest bids them , and go to Mass which they understand not , and reckon their beads to tell the number and the tale of their prayers , and abstain from eggs and flesh in Lent , and visit S. Patricks Well , and leave pins and ribbands , yarn or thred in their holy welts , and pray to God , S. Mary and S. Patrick , S. Columbanus and S. Bridget , and desire to be buried with S. Francis's chord about them , and to fast on Saturdays in honour of our Lady . These and so many other things of like nature we see dayly , that we being conscious of the infinite distance which these things have from the spirit of Christianity , know that no Charity can be greater than to persuade the people to come to our Churches , were they shall be taught all the ways of godly wisdom , of peace and safety to their souls : whereas now there are many of them that know not how to say their prayers , but mutter like Pies and Parrots , words which they are taught , but they do not pretend to understand . But I shall give one particular instance of their miserable superstition and blindness . I was lately within a few Moneths very much troubled with petitions and earnest requests , for the restoring a Bell which a Person of Quality had in his hands in the time of , and ever since the late Rebellion . I could not guess at the reasons of their so great and violent importunity , but told the petitioners , if they could prove that Bell to be theirs , the Gentleman was willing to pay the full value of it ; though he had no obligation to do so ( that I know of ) but charity : but this was so far from satisfying them , that still the importunity encreased , which made me diligently to inquire into the secret of it . The first cause I found was , that a dying person in the parish desired to have it rung before him to Church , and pretended he could not die in peace if it were deny'd him ; and that the keeping of that Bell did anciently belong to that family from father to son : but because this seem'd nothing but a fond and an unreasonable superstition , I enquired farther , and at last found that they believ'd this Bell came from heaven , that it used to be carryed from place to place , to end controversies by oath , which the worst man durst not violate if they swore upon that Bell , and the best men amongst them durst not but believe him ; that if this Bell was rung before the corpse to the grave , it would help him out of Purgatory , and that therefore when any one dyed , the friends of the deceased did , whilst the Bell was in their possession , hire it for the behoof of their dead , and that by this means that family was in part maintain'd . I was troubled to see under what spirit of delusion those poor souls do lie , how infinitely their credulity is abused , how certainly they believe in trifles , and perfectly rely on vanity , and how little they regard the truths of God , and how not at all they drink of the waters of Salvation . For the numerous companies of Priests and Friers amongst them , take care they shall know nothing of Religion but what they design for them , they use all means to keep them to the use of the Irish tongue , lest if they learn English , they might be supply'd with persons fitter to instruct them ; the people are taught to make that also their excuse for not coming to our Churches , to hear our advises , or converse with us in religious intercourses , because they understand us not , and they will not understand us , neither will they learn , that they may understand and live . And this and many other evils are made greater and more irremediable by the affrightment which their Priests put upon them by the issues of Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction , by which ( they now exercising it too publickly ) they give them Laws , not onely for Religion , but even for Temporal things , and turn their Proselytes from the Mass , if they become farmers of the Tythes from the Minister or Proprietary without their leave . I speak that which I know to be true by their own confession and unconstrain'd and uninvited Narratives ; so that as it is certain that the Roman Religion , as it stands in distinction and separation from us , is a body of strange Propositions , having but little relish of true primitive and pure Christianity ( as will be made manifest if the importunity of our adversaries extort it ) so it is here amongst us a faction and a State party and designe to recover their old Laws and barbarous manner of living , a device to enable them to dwell alone , and to be populus unius labii , a people of one language , and unmingled with others . And if this be Religion , it is such a one as ought to be reproved by all the severities of Reason and Religion , lest the people perish , and their souls be cheaply given away to them that make merchandize of souls , who were the purchase and price of Christs bloud . Having given this sad account why it was necessary that my Lords the Bishops should take care to do what they have done in this affair , and why I did consent to be engaged in this controversie , otherwise then I love to be , and since it is not a love of trouble and contention , but charity to the souls of the poor deluded Irish , there is nothing remaining but that we humbly desire of God to accept and to bless this well meant Labour of Love , and that by some admirable wayes of his Providence , he will be pleas'd to convey to them the notices of their danger , and their sin , and to deobstruct the passages of necessary truth to them , for we know the arts of their Guides , and that it will be very hard that the notice of these things shall ever be suffer'd to arive to the common people , but that which hinders will hinder until it be taken away : however we believe and hope in God for remedy . For although Edom would not let his brother Israel pass into his Countrey , and the Philistims would stop the Patriarchs Wells , and the wicked Shepherds of Midian would drive their neighbours flocks from the watering troughs , and the Emissaries of Rome use all arts to keep the people from the use of Scriptures , the Wells of Salvation , and from entertaining the notices of such things which from the Scriptures we teach ; yet as God found out a remedy for those of old , so he will also for the poor misled people of Ireland ; and will take away the evil minds , or the opportunities of the Adversaries , hindring the people from Instruction , and make way that the truths we have here taught may approach to their ears , and sink into their hearts , and make them wise unto Salvation . Amen . A Dissuasive FROM POPERY To the People of IRELAND . The Introduction . THe Questions of Difference between Our Churches and the Church of Rome have been so often disputed , and the evidences on both Sides so often produc'd , that to those who are strangers to the present constitution of Affairs , it may seem very unnecessary to say them over again : and yet it will seem almost impossible to produce any new matter ; or if we could , it will not be probable , that what can be newly alledged can prevail more than all that which already hath been so often urged in these Questions . But we are not deterr'd from doing our duty by any such considerations : as knowing , that the ●ame medicaments are with success applyed to a returning or an abiding Ulcer ; and the Preachers of Gods Word must for ever be ready to put the People in minde of such things , which they already have heard , and by the same Scriptures and the same reasons endeavour to destroy their sin , or prevent their danger ; and by the same Word of God to extirpate those errors , which have had opportunity in the time of our late Disorders to spring up and grow stroger , not when the Keepers of the Field slept , but when they were wounded , and their hands cut off , and their mouths stopp'd , least they should continue , or proceed to do the Work of God thoroughly . A little warm Sun , and som● indulgent showers of a softer rain , have made many weeds of erroneous Doctrine to take root greatly , and to spread themselves widely : and the Bigots of the Roman Church by their late importune boldness and indiscreet frowardness in making Proselytes , have but too manifestly declar'd to all the World , that if they were rerum potiti , Masters of our affairs , they would suffer nothing to grow but their own Colo●ynths and Gourds . And although the Natural remedy for this were to take away that impunity , upon the account of which alone they do encrease ; yet because we shall never be Authors of such Counsels , but confidently rely upon God , the Holy Scripture , right reason , and the most venerable and prime Antiquity , which are the proper defensatives of truth for its support and maintenance ; yet we must not conceal from the People , committed to our charges , the great evils to which they are tempted by the Roman Emissaries , that while the King and the Parliament take care to secure all the publick interests by instruments of their own , we also may by the word of our proper Ministery endeavour to stop the progression of such errors , which we know to be destructive of Christian Religion , and consequently dangerous to the interest of souls . In this procedure , although we shall say some things which have not been alwayes plac'd before their eyes , and others we shall represent with a fittingness to their present necessities , and all with Charity too , and zeal for their souls ; yet if we were to say nothing but what hath been often said already ; we are still doing the work of God , and repeating his voice , and by the same remedies curing the same diseases , and we only wait for the blessing of God prospering that importunity which is our duty : according to the advice of Solomon , In the Morning sow thy seed , and in the Evening with-hold not thy hand , for thou knowest not whether shall prosper , either this , or that , or whether they both shall be alike good . CHAP. I. The Doctrine of the Roman Church in the Controverted Articles is neither Catholick , Apostolick , nor Primitive . Sect. 1. IT was the challenge of S. Augustine to the Donatists , who ( as the Church of Rome does at this day ) inclos'd the Catholick Church within their own circuits : [ Ye say that Christ is Heir of no Lands , but where Donatus is Coheire . Read this to us out of the Law and the Prophets , out of the Psalms , out of the Gospel it self , or out of the Letters of the Apostles . Read it thence and we believe it . ] Plainly directing us to the Fountains of our Faith , the Old and New Testament , the words of Christ , and the words of the Apostles . For nothing else can be the foundation of our Faith , whatsoever came in after these , foris est , it belongs not unto Christ. * To these we also add , not as Authors or Finishers , but as helpers of our Faith , and Heirs of the Doctrine Apostolical , the Sentiments and Catholick Doctrine of the Church of God , in the Ages next after the Apostles . Not that we think them or our selves bound to every private opinion , even of a Primitive Bishop and Martyr ; but that we all acknowledg that the whole Church of God kept the Faith entire , and transmitted faithfully to the after-Ages the whole Faith , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the form of Doctrine , and sound words , which was at first delivered to the Saints ; and was defective in nothing that belong'd unto salvation , and we believe that those Ages sent millions of Saints to the bosom of Christ , and seal'd the true faith with their lives and with their deaths , and by both , gave testimony unto Jesus , and had from him the testimony of his Spirit . And this method of procedure we now choose , not only because to them that know well how to use it , to the Sober and the Moderate , the Peaceable and the Wise , it is the best , the most certain , visible and tangible , most humble and satisfactory , but also because the Church of Rome does with greatest noises pretend her Conformity to Antiquity . Indeed the present Roman Doctrines , which are in difference , were invisible and unheard of in the first and best Antiquity , and with how ill success their quotations are out of the Fathers of the three first Ages , every inquiring Man may easily discern . But the noises therefore which they make are from the Writings of the succeeding Ages ; where saecular interest did more prevail , and the Writings of the Fathers were vast and voluminous , full of Controversie , and ambiguous senses , fitted to their own Times and Questions , full of proper Opinions , and such variety of Sayings , that both Sides eternally and inconfutably shall bring Sayings for themselves respectively . Now although things being thus , it will be impossible for them to conclude from the Sayings of a number of Fathers , that their Doctrine , which they would prove thence , was the Catholick Doctrine of the Church ; because any number that is less than all , does not prove a Catholick consent , yet the clear Sayings of one or two of these Fathers truly alledged by us to the contrary , will certainly prove that what many of them ( suppose it ) do affirm , and which but two or three as good Catholicks , as the other do deny , was not then matter of Faith or a Doctrine of the Church ; for if it had , these had been Hereticks accounted , and not have remain'd in the Communion of the Church . But although for the reasonableness of the thing we have thought fit to take notice of it ; yet we shall have no need to make use of it ; since not only in the prime and purest Antiquity we are indubitably more than Conquerours ; but even in the succeeding Ages , we have the advantage both numero , pondere , & mensurâ , in number , weight , and measure . We do easily acknowledge , that to dispute these questions from the sayings of the Fathers , is not the readiest way to make an end of them ; but therefore we do wholly rely upon Scriptures as the foundation and final resort of all our perswasions , and from thence can never be confuted ; but we also admit the Fathers as admirable helps for the understanding of the Scriptures , and as good testimony of the Doctrine deliver'd from their fore-fathers down to them of what the Church esteem'd the way of Salvation : and therefore if we find any Doctrine now taught , which was not plac'd in their way of Salvation , we reject it as being no part of the Christian faith , and which ought not to be impos'd upon consciences . They were wise unto salvation , and fully instructed to every work ; and therefore the faith which they profess'd and deriv'd from Scripture , we profess also ; and in the same faith , we hope to be sav'd even as they . But for the new Doctors , we understand them not , we know them not : Our faith is the same from the beginning , and cannot become new . But because we shall make it to appear that they do greatly innovate in all their points of controversie with us , and shew nothing but shadowes instead of substances , and little images of things instead of solid arguments ; we shall take from them their armour in which they trusted , and choose this sword of Goliah to combat their errors ; for non est alter talis ; It is not easie to finde a better than the Word of God , expounded by the prime and best Antiquity . The first thing therefore we are to advertise is , That the Emissaries of the Roman Church endeavour to perswade the good people of our Dioceses from a Religion that is truly Primitive and Apostolick , and divert them to Propositions of their own , new and unheard of in the first ages of the Christian Church . For the Religion of our Church is therefore certainly Primitive and Apostolick , because it teaches us to believe the whole Scriptures of the Old and New Testament , and nothing else as matter of faith ; and therefore unless there can be new Scriptures , we can have no new matters of belief , no new articles of faith . Whatsoever we cannot prove from thence , we disclaim it , as not deriving from the Fountains of our Saviour . We also do believe the Apostles Creed , the Nicene with the additions of Constantinople , and that which is commonly called the Symbol of S. Athanasius : and the four first General Councils are so intirely admitted by us , that they , together with the plain words of Scripture , are made the rule and measure of judging Heresies amongst us : and in pursuance of these , it is commanded by our Church that the Clergy shall never teach any thing as matter of Faith religiously to be observed , but that which is agreeable to the Old and New Testament , and collected out of the same Doctrine by the Ancient Fathers and Catholick Bishops of the Church . * This was undoubtedly the Faith of the Primitive Church , they admitted all into their Communion that were of this faith ; they condemned to Man that did not condemn these ; they gave Letters communicatory by no other cognisance , and all were Brethren who spake this voice . [ Hanc legem sequentes , Christianorum Catholicorum nomen jubemus amplecti , reliquos verò dementes , vesanosque judicantes haeretici dogmatis infaemiam sustinere ] said the Emperors , Gratian , Valentinian , and Theodosius , in their Proclamation to the People of C. P. All that believ'd this Doctrine were Christians and Catholicks , viz. all they who believe in the Father , Son , and Holy Ghost , one Divinity of equal Majesty in the Holy Trinity ; which indeed was the summe of what was decreed in explication of the Apostles Creed in the four first General Councils . And what faith can be the foundation of a more solid peace , the surer ligaments of Catholick Communion , or the firmer basis of a holy Life and of the hopes of Heaven hereafter , than the measures which the Holy Primitive Church did hold , and and we after them ? That which we rely upon is the same that the Primitive Church did acknowledg to be the adaequate foundation of their hopes in the matters of belief : The way which they thought sufficient to go to Heaven in , is the way which we walk : what they did not teach , we do not publish and impose ; into this faith entirely and into no other , as they did theirs ; so we baptize our Catechumens : The Discriminations of Heresie from Catholick Doctrine which they us'd , we use also , and we use no other : and in short , we believe all that Doctrine which the Church of Rome believes , except those things which they have superinduc'd upon the Old Religion , and in which we shall prove that they haue innovated . So that by their confession , all the Doctrine which we teach the people , as matter of Faith , must be confessed to be Ancient , Primitive and Apostolick , or else theirs is not so : for ours is the same , and we both have received this Faith from the Fountains of Scripture , and Universal Tradition ; not they from us , or we from them , but both of us from Christ and his Apostles . And therefore there can be no question whether the Faith of the Church of England be Apostolick and Primitive ; it is so , confessedly : But the Question is concerning many other particulars which were unknown to the Holy Doctors of the first Ages , which were no part of their Faith , which were never put into their Creeds , which were not determined in any of the four first General Councels , rever'd in all Christendom , and entertain'd every where with great Religion and veneration , even next to the four Gospels and the Apostolical writings . Of this sort , because the Church of Rome hath introduc'd many , and hath adopted them into their late Creed , and imposes them upon the people , not only without , but against the Scriptures and the Catholick Doctrine of the Church of God ; laying heavie burdens on mens Consciences , and making the narrow way to Heaven , yet narrower by their own inventions ; arrogating to themselves a Dominion over our Faith , and prescribing a method of Salvation which Christ and his Apostles never taught ; corrupting the Faith of the Church of God , and Teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of men ; and lastly , having derogated from the Prerogative of Christ , who alone is the Author and Finisher of our faith , and hath perfected it in the revelations consign'd in the Holy Scriptures ; therefore it is , that we esteem our selves oblig'd to warn the People of their danger , and to depart from it , and call upon them to stand upon the wayes , and ask after the old paths , and walk in them ; lest they partake of that curse which is threatned by God to them , who remove the ancient Land-marks which our Fathers in Christ have set for us . Now that the Church of Rome cannot pretend that all which she imposes is Primitive and Apostolick , appears in this ; That in the Church of Rome , there is pretence made to a power , not only of declaring new Articles of Faith , but of making new Symbols or Creeds , and imposing them as of necessity to Salvation . Which thing is evident in the Bull of Pope Leo the Tenth against Martin Luther , in which , amongst other things , he is condemn'd for saying , [ It is certain that it is not in the power of the Church or Pope to constitute Articles of Faith. ] We need not adde that this power is attributed to the Bishops of Rome by Turrecremata a , Augustinus Triumphus de Ancona b , Petrus de Ancorano c , and the famous Abbot of Panormo d , that the Pope cannot only make new Creeds , but new Articles of Faith ; That he can make that of necessity to be believ'd , which before never was necessary ; That he is the measure and rule , and the very notice of all credibilities ; That the Canon Law is the Divine Law ; and what-ever Law the Pope promulges , God , whose Vicar he is , is understood to be the promulger . That the souls of men are in the hands of the Pope ; and that in his arbitration Religion does consist : which are the very words of Hostiensis e , and Ferdinandus ab Inciso f , who were Casuists , and Doctors of Law , of great authority amongst them and renown . The thing it self , is not of dubious disputation amongst them , but actually practis'd in the greatest instances , as is to be seen in the Bull of Pius the fourth at the end of the Council of Yrent ; by which all Ecclesiasticks are not only bound to swear to all the Articles of the Council of Trent for the present and for the future , but they are put into a new Symbol or Creed , and they are corroborated by the same decretory clauses that are us'd in the Creed of Athanasius : that this is the true Catholick Faith ; and that without this no man can be saved . Now since it cannot be imagined that this power to which they pretend , should never have been reduc'd to act ; and that it is not credible they should publish so inviduous and ill sounding Doctrine to no purpose , and to serve no end ; it may without further evidence be believed by all discerning persons , that they have need of this Doctrine , or it would not have been taught , and that consequently without more adoe , it may be concluded that some of their Articles are parts of this New Faith ; and that they can therefore in no sense be Apostolical , unless their being Roman makes them so . To this , may be added another consideration , not much less material , that besides what Eckius told the Elector of Bavaria , that the Doctrines of Luther might be overthrown by the Fathers , though not by Scripture ; they have also many gripes of Conscience concerning the Fathers themselves , that they are not right on their side ; and of this , they have given but too much demonstration by their Expurgatory Indices . The Serpent by being so curious a Defender of his Head , shewes where his danger is , and by what he can most readily be destroyed . But besides their innumerable corruptings of the Fathers Writings , their thrusting in that which was spurious , and like Pharaoh , killing the legitimate Sons of Israel , * though in this , they have done very much of their work , and made the Testimonies of the Fathers to be a Record infinitely worse , than of themselves uncorrupted , they would have been ( of which divers Learned Persons have made publique complaint and demonstration ) they have at last fallen to a new trade , which hath caus'd more dis-reputation to them , than they have gain'd advantage , and they have virtually confess'd , that in many things , the Fathers are against them . For first , the King of Spain gave a Commission to the Inquisitors to purge all Catholick Authors ; but with this clause , iique ipsi privatim , nullisque consciis apud se indicem expurgatorium habebunt , quem eundem neque aliis communicabunt , neque ejus exemplum ulli dabunt : that they should keep the Expurgatory Index privately , neither imparting that Index , nor giving a Copie of it to any . But it happened , by the Divine Providence , so ordering it , that about thirteen years after , a Copie of it was gotten and published by Iohannes Pappus and Franciscus Iunius , and since it came abroad against their wills , they finde it necessary now to own it , and they have Printed it themselves . Now by these expurgatory Tables what they have done is known to all Learned Men. In S. Chrysostom's Works printed at Basil , these words . [ The Church is not built upon the Man , but upon the Faith. ] are commanded to be blotted out : and these [ There is no Merit but what is given us by Christ , ] and yet these words are in his Sermon upon Pentecost , and the former words are in his first Homily upon that of S. Iohn . Ye are my friends , &c. ] The like they have done to him in many other places , and to S. Ambrose , and to S. Austin , and to them all , * insomuch that Ludovicus Saurius the Corrector of the Press at Lyons shewed and complain'd of it to Iunius , that he was forc'd to cancellate or blot out many sayings of S. Ambrose in that Edition of his works which was printed at Lyons 1559. So that what they say on occasion of Bertram's book [ In the old Catholick Writers we suffer very many errors , and extenuate and excuse them , and finding out some Commentary , we fain some convenient sense when they are oppos'd in Disputations ] they do indeed practise , but esteem it not sufficient ; for the words which make against them , they wholly leave out of their Editions . Nay they correct the very Tables or Indices made by the Printers or Correctors ; insomuch that out of one of Frobens Indices , they have commanded these words to be blotted [ The use of Images forbidden . ] The Eucharist no sacrifice , but the memory of a sacrifice . ] Works , although they do not justifie , yet are necessary to Salvation . ] Marriage is granted to all that will not contain . ] Venial sins damne . ] The dead Saints , after this life cannot help us . ] Nay out of the Index of S. Austin's Works by Claudius Chevallonius at Paris 1531. there is a very strange deleatur [ Dele , Solus Deus adorandus ] that God alone is to be worshipped , is commanded to be blotted out , as being a dangerous Doctrine . These instances may serve instead of multitudes , which might be brought of their corrupting the witnesses , and razing the records of antiquity , that the errors and Novelties of the Church of Rome might not be so easily reprov'd . Now if the Fathers were not against them , what need these arts ? Why should they use them thus ? Their own expurgatory indices are infinite testimony against them , both that they do so , and that they need it . But besides these things , we have thought it fit to represent in one aspect , some of their chief Doctrines of difference from the Church of England , and make it evident that they are indeed new , and brought into the Church , first by way of opinion , and afterwards by power , and at last , by their own authority decreed into Laws and Articles . Sect. II. FIrst , we alledge that this very power of making new Articles is a Novelty , and expresly against the Doctrine of the Primitive Church ; and we prove it , first , by the words of the Apostle , saying , If we , or an Angel from Heaven shall preach unto you any other Gospel ( viz. in whole or in part , for there is the same reason of them both ) than that which we have preached , let him be Anathema : and secondly , by the sentence of the Fathers in the third General Council , that at Ephesus . [ That it should not be lawful for any Man to publish or compose another Faith or Creed than that which was defin'd by the Nicene Council : and that whosoever shall dare to compose or offer any such to any Persons willing to be converted from Paganism , Iudaism , or Heresie , if they were Bishops or Clerks , they should be depos'd , if Lay-men , they should be accursed . ] And yet in the Church of Rome , Faith and Christianity increase like the Moon ; Bromyard complain'd of it long since , and the mischief encreases daily . They have now a new Article of Faith , ready for the stamp , which may very shortly become necessary to salvation ; we mean , that of the immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary . Whether the Pope be above a Council or no ; we are not sure , whether it be an article of faith amongst them or not : It is very near one if it be not . Bellarmine would fain have us believe that the Council of Constance approving the Bull of Pope Martin the fifth , declar'd for the Popes Supremacy . But Iohn Gerson , who was at the Council sayes , that the Council did abate those heights to which flattery had advanc'd the Pope ; and that before that Council they spoke such great things of the Pope , which afterwards moderate men durst not speak ; but yet some others spake them so confidently before it , that he that should then have spoken to the contrary , would hardly have escap'd the note of Heresie : and that these Men continued the same pretensions even after the Council . But the Council of Basil decreed for the Council against the Pope ; and the Council of Laeteran under Leo the tenth , decreed for the Pope against the Council . So that it is cross and pile ; and whether for a peny , when it can be done ; it is now a known case it shall become an article of Faith. But for the present it is a probationary article , and according to Bellarmine's expression , is fere de fide , it is almost an article of Faith ; they want a little age , and then they may goe alone . But the Council of Trent hath produc'd a strange new Article , but it is sine controversia credendum , it must be believ'd , and must not be controverted : That although the ancient Fathers did give the Communion to Infants , yet they did not believe it necessary to salvation . Now this being a matter of fact whether they did or did not believe it , every man that reads their Writings can be able to inform himself : and besides that it is strange that this should be determin'd by a Council , and determin'd against evident truth ( it being notorious , that divers of the Fathers did say it is necessary to salvation ; ) the Decree it self is beyond all bounds of modesty , and a strange pretension of Empire over the Christian Belief . But we proceed to other instances . Sect. III. THe Roman Doctrine of Indulgences was the first occasion of the great Change and Reformation of the Western Churches , begun by the Preachings of Martin Luther and others ; and besides that it grew to that intolerable abuse , that it became a shame to it self , and a reproach to Christendome , it was also so very an Innovation , that their great Antoninus confesses , that concerning them we have nothing expresly , either in the Scriptures , or in the sayings of the Ancient Doctors : and the same is affirmed by Sylvester Pri●rias . Bishop Fisher of Rochester sayes , that in the beginning of the Church there was no use of Indulgences ; and that they began after the people were a while affrighted with the torments of Purgatory ; and many of the School-men confess that the use of Indulgences began in the time of Pope Alexander the third , towards the end of the XII Century : but Agrippa imputes the beginning of them to Boniface the VIII ; who liv'd in the Reign of King Edward the First of England ; 1300. years after Christ. But that in his time the first Jubilee was kept we are assur'd by Crantzius . This Pope * lived and died with very great infamy , and therefore was not likely from himself to transfer much honour and reputation to the new institution . But that about this time Indulgences began , is more than probable ; much before it is certain they were not . For in the whole Canon Law written by Graetian , and in the sentences of Peter Lombard there is nothing spoken of Indulgences : Now because they liv'd in the time of P. Alexander III. if he had introduc'd them , and much rather if they had been as antient as S. Gregory ( as some vainly and weakly pretend , from no greater authority than their own Legends ) it is probable that these great Men , writing Bodies of Divinity and Law , would have made mention of so considerable a point , and so great a part of the Roman Religion , as things are now order'd . If they had been Doctrines of the Church then , as they are now , it is certain they must have come under their cognisance and discourses . Now least the Roman Emissaries should deceive any of the good Sons of the Church , we think it fit to acquaint them , that in the Primitive Church , when the Bishops impos'd severe penances , and that they were almost quite perform'd , and a great cause of pity intervened , or danger of death , or an excellent repentance , or that the Martyrs interceded , the Bishop did sometimes indulge the penitent , and relax some of the remaining parts of his penance ; and according to the example of S. Paul , in the case of the incestuous Corinthian , gave them ease , least they should be swallowed up with too much sorrow . But the Roman Doctrine of Indulgences is wholly another thing ; nothing of it but the abused name remains . For in the Church of Rome they now pretend that there is an infinite of degrees of Christs merit and satisfaction beyond what is necessary for the salvation of his servants : and ( for fear Christ should not have enough ) the Saints have a surplusage of merits , * or at least of satisfactions more than they can spend , or themselves do need : and out of these the Church hath made her a treasure , a kind of poor mans box ; and out of this , a power to take as much as they list to apply to the poor souls in Purgatory ; who because they did not satisfie for their venial sins , or perform all their penances which were imposed , or which might have been imposed , and which were due to be paid to God for the temporal pains reserved upon them , after he had forgiven them the guilt of their deadly sins , are forc'd sadly to roar in pains not inferiour to the pains of hell , excepting onely that they are not eternal . * That this is the true state of their Article of Indulgences , we appeal to Bellarmine . Now concerning their new foundation of Indulgences , the first stone of it was laid by P. Clement VI. in his extravagant Vnigenitus , de poenitentiis & remissionibus , A. D. 1350. This constitution was published Fifty years after the first Jubilee , and was a new device to bring in customers to Rome at the second Jubilee , which was kept in Rome in this Popes time . What ends of profit and interest it serv'd , we are not much concern'd to enquire ; but this we know , that it had not yet passed into a Catholick Doctrine , for it was disputed against by Franciscus de Mayronis a and Durandus b not long before this extravagant ; and that it was not rightly form'd to their purposes till the stirs in Germany , rais'd upon the occasion of Indulgences , made Leo the tenth set his Clerks on work to study the point , and make something of it . But as to the thing it self : it is so wholly new , so meerly devis'd and forged by themselves , so newly created out of nothing , from great mistakes of Scripture , and dreams of shadows from antiquity ; that we are to admonish our Charges , that they cannot reasonably expect many sayings of the primitive Doctors against them , any more than against the new fancies of the Quakers , which were born but yesterday . That which is not cannot be numbred , and that which was not could not be confuted . But the perfect silence of antiquity in this whole matter , is an abundant demonstration that this new nothing was made in the later laboratories of Rome . For as Durandus said , the Holy Fathers , Ambrose , Hilary , Hierom , Austin speak nothing of Indulgences . And whereas it is said that S. Gregory DC . years after Christ , gave Indulgences at Rome in the stations ; Magister Angularis , who lived about 200 years since , says , He never read of any such any where ; and it is certain there is no such thing in the writings of S. Gregory , nor in any history of that age , or any other that is authentick : and we could never see any history pretended for it by the Roman Writers , but a Legend of Ledgerus brought to us the other day by Surius : which is so ridiculous and weak , that even their own parties dare not avow it as true story ; and therefore they are fain to make use of Thomas Aquinas upon the Sentences , and Altisiodorensis for story and record . And it were strange , that if this power of giving Indulgences to take off the punishment , reserv'd by God after the sin is pardoned , were given by Christ to his Church , that no one of the antient Doctors should tell any thing of it : insomuch that there is no one Writer of authority and credit , not the more antient Doctors we have already named , nor those who were much later , Rupertus Tuitensis , Anselm or S. Bernard ever took notice of it ; but it was a Doctrine wholly unknown to the Church for about MCC years after Christ : and Cardinal Cajetane told Pope Adrian VI. that to him that readeth the Decretals it plainly appears , that an Indulgence is nothing else but an absolution from that penance which the Confessor hath imposed ; and therefore can be nothing of that which is now a dayes pretended . True it is , that the Canonical penances were about the time of Burchard lessen'd add alter'd by commutations ; and the antient discipline of the Church in imposing penances was made so loose , that the Indulgence was more than the Imposition , and began not to be an act of mercy but remisness , an absolution without amends : It became a trumpet , and a leavy for the holy War , in Pope Vrban the Seconds time ; for he gave a plenary Indulgence and remission of all sins to them that should go and fight against the Saracens : and yet no man could tell how much they were the better for these Indulgences : for concerning the value of Indulgences , the complaint is both old and doubtful , said Pope Adrian ; and he cites a famous gloss , which tells of four Opinions all Catholick , and yet vastly differing in this particular : but the Summa Angelica reckons seven Opinions concerning what that penalty is which is taken off by Indulgences : No man could then tell ; and the point was but in the infancy , and since that , they have made it what they please : but it is at last turn'd into a Doctrine , and they have devised new propositions , as well as they can , to make sense of it ; and yet it is a very strange thing ; a solution , not an absolution ( it is the distinction of Bellarmine ) that is , the sinner is let to go free without punishment in this World , or in the World to come ; and in the end , it grew to be that which Christendom could not suffer : a heap of Doctrines without Grounds of Scripture , or Catholick Tradition ; and not onely so , but they have introduc'd a way of remitting sins , that Christ and his Apostles taught not ; a way destructive of the repentance and remission of sins which was preached in the Name of Jesus : it brought into the Church , false and fantastick hopes , a hope that will make men asham'd ; a hope that does not glorifie the merits and perfect satisfaction of Christ ; a doctrine expresly dishonourable to the full and free pardon given us by God through Jesus Christ ; a practise that supposes a new bunch of Keys given to the Church , besides that which the Apostles receiv'd to open and shut the Kingdome of Heaven ; a Doctrine that introduces pride among the Saints , and advances the opinion of their works beyond the measures of Christ , who taught us , That when we have done all that is commanded , we are unprofitable servants , and therefore certainly cannot supererogate , or do more than what is infinitely recompenc'd by the Kingdome of Glory , to which all our doings and all our sufferings are not worthy to be compar'd ; especially , since the greatest Saint can not but say with David , Enter not into judgement with thy servant ; for in thy sight no flesh living can be justified ; It is a practise that hath turn'd Penances into a Fayr , and the Court of Conscience into a Lombard , and the labors of Love into the labors of pilgrimages , superstitious and useless wandrings from place to place ; and Religion into vanity , and our hope in God to a confidence in man , and our fears of hell to be a mere scarcrow to rich and confident sinners : and at last , it was frugally employed by a great Pope to raise a portion for a Lady , the Wife of Franceschetto Cibo bastard son of Pope Innocent VIII . and the merchandize it self became the stakes of Gamesters , at dice and cards , and men did vile actions that they might win Indulgences ; by gaming making their way to heaven easier . Now although the H. Fathers of the Church could not be suppos'd in direct terms to speak against this new Doctrine of Indulgences , because in their days it was not : yet they have said many things which do perfectly destroy this new Doctrine , and these unchristian practises . For besides that they teach a repentance wholly reducing us to a good life ; a faith that intirely relies upon Christs merits and satisfactions ; a hope wholly depending upon the plain promises of the Gospel , a service perfectly consisting in the works of a good conscience , a labor of love , a religion of justice and piety and moral virtues : they do also expresly teach that pilgrimages to holy places and such like inventions , which are now the earnings and price of Indulgences , are not required of us , and are not the way of salvation , as is to be seen in an Oration made by S. Gregory Nyssene wholly against pilgrimages to Ierusalem ; in S. Chrysostom a , S. Austin b , and S. Bernard c : The sense of these Fathers is this , in the words of S. Austin : God said not , Go to the East , and seek righteousness ; sail to the West that you may receive indulgence . But indulge thy brother , and it shall be indulg'd to thee : you have need to enquire for no other indulgence to thy sins ; if thou wilt retire into the Closet of thy heart , there thou shalt find it . That is , All our hopes of Indulgence is from GOD through IESVS CHRIST , and is wholly to be obtain'd by faith in Christ , and perseverance in good works , and intire mortification of all our sins . To conclude this particular : Though the gains , which the Church of Rome makes of Indulgences , be a heap almost as great as the abuses themselves , yet the greatest Patrons of this new doctrine could never give any certainty , or reasonable comfort to the Conscience of any person that could inquire into it . They never durst determine whether they were Absolutions , or Compensations ; whether they onely take off the penances actually impos'd by the Confessor , or potentially , and all that which might have been impos'd ; whether all that may be paid in the Court of men ; or all that can or will be required by the Laws and severity of God. Neither can they speak rationally to the Great Question , Whether the Treasure of the Church consists of the Satisfactions of Christ onely , or of the Saints ? For if of Saints , it will by all men be acknowledged to be a defeisible estate , and being finite and limited , will be spent sooner than the needs of the Church can be served ; and if therefore it be necessary to adde the merits and satisfaction of Christ , since they are an Ocean of infinity , and can supply more than all our needs , to what purpose is it to adde the little minutes and droppings of the Saints ? They cannot tell whether they may be given , if the Receiver do nothing , or give nothing for them : And though this last particular could better be resolv'd by the Court of Rome , than by the Church of Rome , yet all the Doctrines which built up this new Fabrick of Indulgences , were so dangerous to determine , so improbable , so unreasonable , or at best so uncertain and invidious , that according to the advice of the Bishop of Modena , the Council of Trent left all the Doctrines , and all the cases of Conscience quite alone , and slubber'd the whole matter both in the question of Indulgences and Purgatory in general and recommendatory terms ; affirming , that the power of giving Indulgence is in the Church , and that the use is wholesome : And that all hard and subtil questions ( viz. ) concerning Purgatory , which ( although ( if it be at all ) it is a fire , yet is the fuel of Indulgences , and maintains them wholly ; ) all that is suspected to be false , and all that is uncertain ; and whatsoever is curious and superstitious , scandalous , or for filthy lucre , be laid aside . And in the mean time , they tell us not what is , and what is not Superstitious ; nor what is scandalous , nor what they mean by the general term of Indulgence ; and they establish no Doctrine , neither curious , nor iucurious , nor durst they decree the very foundation of this whole matter , The Churches Treasure : Neither durst they meddle with it , but left it as they found it , and continued in the abuses , and proceed in the practise , and set their Doctors , as well as they can , to defend all the new and curious and scandalous questions , and to uphold the gainful trade . But however it be with them , Doctrine it self is prov'd to be a direct Innovation , in the matter of Christian Religion , and that was it which we have undertaken to demonstrate . Sect. IV. THe Doctrine of Purgatory is the Mother of Indulgences , and the fear of that hath introduc'd these : For the world hapned to be abus'd like the Countrey-man in the Fable , who being told he was like to fall into a delirium in his feet , was advis'd for remedy to take the juice of Cotton : He feared a disease that was not , and look'd for a cure as ridiculous . But if the Parent of Indulgences be not from Christ and his Apostles ; if upon this ground the Primitive Church never built , the Superstructures of Rome must fall ; they can be no stronger than their Supporter . Now then in order to the proving the Doctrine of Purgatory to be an Innovation , 1. We consider , That the Doctrines upon which it is pretended reasonable , are all dubious , and disputable at the very best . Such are , 1. Their distinction of sins Mortal and Venial in their own nature . 2. That the taking away the guilt of sins , does not suppose the taking away the obligation to punishment ; that is , That when a mans sin is pardon'd , he may be punished without the guilt of that sin , as justly as with it ; as if the guilt could be any thing else but an obligation to punishment for having sinned : which is a Proposition , of which no wise man can make sense ; but it is certain , that it is expresly against the Word of God , who promises upon our repentance , so to take away our sins , that he will remember them no more : And so did Christ to all those to whom he gave pardon ; for he did not take our faults and guilt on him any other way , but by curing our evil hearts , and taking away the punishment . * And this was so perfectly believ'd by the Primitive Church , that they always made the penances and satisfaction to be undergone before they gave absolution ; and after absolution they never impos'd or oblig'd to punishment , unless it were to sick persons , of whose recovery they despaired not : of them indeed , in case they had not finished their Canonical punishments , they expected they should perform what was enjoyn'd them formerly . But because all sin is a blot to a mans soul , and a foul stain to his reputation ; we demand , in what does this stain consist ? In the guilt , or in the punishment ? If it be said , that it consists in the punishment ; then what does the guilt signifie , when the removing of it does neither remove the stain nor the punishment , which both remain and abide together ? But if the stain and the guilt be all one , or always together ; then when the guilt is taken away , there can no stain remain ; and if so , what need * is there any more of Purgatory ? For since this is pretended to be necessary , onely lest any stain'd or unclean thing should enter into Heaven ; if the guilt and the stain be remov'd , what uncleanness can there be left behinde ? Indeed Simon Magus ( as Epiphanius reports , Haeres . 20. ) did teach , That after the death of the body there remain'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a purgation of souls : But whether the Church of Rome will own him for an authentick Doctor , themselves can best tell . 3. It relies upon this also , That God requires of us a full exchange of Penances and Satisfactions , which must regularly be paid here or hereafter , even by them who are pardon'd here : which if it were true , we were all undone . 4. That the Death of Christ , his Merits and Satisfaction do not procure for us a full remission before we dye , nor ( as it may happen ) of a long time after . All which being Propositions new and uncertain , invented by the School Divines , and brought ex postfacto , to dress this opinion , and make it to seem reasonable ; and being the products of ignorance concerning remission of sins by Grace , of the righteousness of Faith , and the infinite value of Christs Death , must needs lay a great prejudice of Novelty upon the Doctrine it self , which but by these , cannot be supported . But to put it past suspition and conjectures : Roffensis and Polydore Virgil affirm , That whoso searcheth the Writings of the Greek Fathers , shall finde that none , or very rarely any one of them , ever makes mention of Purgatory ; and that the Latine Fathers did not all believe it , but by degrees came to entertain opinions of it : But for the Catholick Church , it was but lately known to her . But before we say any more in this Question , we are to premonish , That there are Two great causes of their mistaken pretensions in this Article from Antiquity . The first is , That the Ancient Churches in their Offices , and the Fathers in their Writings , did teach and practice respectively , prayer for the Dead . Now because the Church of Rome does so too , and more than so , relates her prayers to the Doctrine of Purgatory , and for the souls there detain'd , her Doctors vainly suppose , that when ever the H. Fathers speak of prayer for the dead , that they conclude for Purgatory ; which vain conjecture is as false as it is unreasonable : For it is true , the Fathers did pray for the dead ; but how ? That God would shew them mercy , and hasten the resurrection , and give a blessed sentence in the great day . But then it is also to be remembred , that they made prayers , and offered for those , who by the confession of all sides , never were in Purgatory ; euen for the Patriarchs and Prophets , for the Apostles and Evangelists , for Martyrs and Confessors , and especially for the blessed Virgin Mary : So we finde it in a Epiphanius , b S. Cyril , and in the Canon of the Greeks , and so it is acknowledged by their own c Durantus ; and in their own Mass-book anciently they prayed for the soul of S. Leo : Of which because by their latter doctrines they grew asham'd , they have chang'd the prayer for him , into a prayer to God by the intercession of S. Leo , in behalf of themselves ; so by their new doctrine , making him an Intercessor for us , who by their old doctrine was suppos'd to need our prayers to intercede for him ; of which Pope Innocent being asked a reason , makes a most pitiful excuse . Upon what accounts the Fathers did pray for the Saints departed , and indeed generally for all , it is not now seasonable to discourse ; but to say this onely , that such general prayers for the dead as those above reckon'd , the Church of England did never condemn by any express Article , but left it in the middle , and by her practice declares her faith of the Resurrection of the dead , and her interest in the communion of Saints , and that the Saints departed are a portion of the Catholick Church , parts and members of the Body of Christ ; but expresly condemns the Doctrine of Purgatory , and consequently all prayers for the dead relating to it : And how vainly the Church of Rome from prayer for the dead , infers the belief of Purgatory , every man may satisfie himself , by seeing the Writings of the Fathers , where they cannot meet with one Collect or Clause praying for the delivery of souls out of that imaginary place . Which thing is so certain , that in the very Roman Offices , we mean , the Vigils said for the dead , in which are Psalms and Lessons taken from the Scripture , speaking of the miseries of this World , Repentance and Reconciliation with God , the bliss after this life of them that dye in Christ , and the resurrection of the Dead ; and in the Anthemes , Versicles , and Responses , there are prayers made , recommending to God the soul of the newly defunct , praying , he may be freed from Hell , and eternal death , that in the day of Iudgement he be not judged and condemned according to his sins , but that he may appear among the Elect in the glory of the Resurrection ; but not one word of Purgatory , or its pains . The other cause of their mistake is , That the Fathers often speak of a fire of Purgation after this life ; but such a one that is not to be kindled until the day of judgement , and it is such a fire that destroyes the Doctrine of the intermedial Purgatory . We suppose that Origen was the first that spoke plainly of it ; and S. Ambrose follows him in the opinion ( for it was no more ; ) so does S. Basil , S. Hilary , S. Hierome , and Lacta●tius , as their words plainly prove , as they are cited by Sixtus Senensis , affirming , that all men , Christ onely excepted , shall be burned with the fire of the worlds conflagration at the day of Iudgement : even the B. Virgin her self is to pass thorow this fire . There was also another Doctrine very generally receiv'd by the Fathers , which greatly destroyes the Roman Purgatory : Sixtus Senensis sayes , and he sayes very true , that Iustin Martyr , Tertullian , Victorinus Martyr , Prudentius , S. Chrysostom , Arethas , Euthymius , and * S. Bernard , did all affirm , that before the day of Judgement the souls of men are kept in secret receptacles , reserved unto the sentence of the great day , and that before then , no man receives according to his works done in this life . We do not interpose in this opinion to say that it is true or false , probable or improbable ; for these Fathers intended it not as a matter of faith , or necessary belief , so far as we finde . But we observe from hence , that if their opinion be true , then the Doctrine of Purgatory is false . If it be not true , yet the Roman Doctrine of Purgatory , which is inconsistent with this so generally receiv'd opinion of the Fathers , is at least new , no Catholick Doctrine , not believ'd in the Primitive Church ; and therefore the Roman Writers are much troubled to excuse the Fathers in this Article , and to reconcile them to some seeming concord with their new Doctrine . But besides these things , it is certain , that the Doctrine of Purgatory , before the day of Judgment in S. Austins time , was not the Doctrine of the Church ; it was not the Catholick Doctrine ; for himself did doubt of it : [ Whether it be so or not , it may be enquir'd , and possibly it may be found so , and possibly it may never : ] so S. Austin . In his time therefore it was no Doctrine of the Church , and it continued much longer in uncertainty ; for in the time of Otho Frisingensis , who liv'd in the year 1146. it was gotten no further than to to a Quidam asserunt : [ some do affirm , that there is a place of Purgatory after death . ] And although it is not to be denied , but that many of the ancient Doctors , had strange opinions concerning Purgations , and Fires , and Intermedial states , and common receptacles , and liberations of Souls and Spirits after this life ; yet we can truly affirm it , and can never be convinced to erre in this affirmation , that there is not any one of the Ancients within five hundred years , whose opinion in this Article throughout , the Church of Rome at this day follows . But the people of the Roman Communion have been principally led into a belief of Purgatory by their fear ; and by their credulity ; they have been softned and enticed into this belief by perpetual tales and legends , by which they love to be abus'd . To this purpose , their Priests and Friers have made great use of the apparition of S. Hierom after death to Eusebius , commanding him to lay his sack upon the corps of three dead men , that they arising from death , might confess Purgatory , which formerly they had denied . The story is written in an Epistle imputed to S. Cyril ; but the ill luck of it was , that S. Hierom out-liv'd S. Cyril , and wrote his life , and so confuted that story ; but all is one for that , they believe it never the less : But there are enough to help it out ; and if they be not firmly true , * yet if they be firmly believ'd , all is well enough . In the Speculum exemplorum it is said , That a certain Priest in an extasie saw the soul of Constantinus Turritanus in the eves of his house tormented with frosts and cold rains , and afterwards climbing up to heaven upon a shining pillar . And a certain Monk saw some souls roasted upon spits like Pigs , and some Devils basting them with sealding lard ; but a while after they were carried to a cool place , and so prov'd Purgatory . But Bishop Theobald standing upon a piece of ice to cool his feet , was nearer Purgatory than he was aware , and was convinc'd of it , when he heard a poor soul telling him , that under that ice he was tormented : and that he should be delivered , if for thirty days continual , he would say for him thirty Masses : and some such thing was seen by Conrade and Vdalrie in a Pool of water : For the place of Purgatory was not yet resolv'd on , till S. Patrick had the key of it delivered to him ; which when one Nicholas borrowed of him , he saw as strange and true things there , as ever Virgil dream'd of in his Purgatory , or Cicero in his dream of Scipio , or Plato in his Gorgias , or Phoedo , who indeed are the surest Authors to prove Purgatory . But because to preach false stories was forbidden by the Council of Trent , there are yet remaining more certain arguments , even revelations made by Angels , and the testimony of S. Odilio himself , who heard the Devil complain ( and he had great reason surely ) that the souls of dead men were daily snatch'd out of his hands , by the Alms and Prayers of the living ; and the sister of S. Damianus being too much pleas'd with hearing of a Piper , told her brother , that she was to be tormented for fifteen days in Purgatory . We do not think that the Wise men in the Church of Rome believe these Narratives ; for if they did , they were not wise : But this we know , that by such stories , the people were brought into a belief of it ; and having served their turn of them , the Master-builders used them as false archies and centries , taking them away when the parts of the building were made firm and stable by Authority . But even the better sort of them do believe , or else they do worse , for they urge and cite the Dialogues of S. Gregory , the Oration of S. Iohn Damascen de Defunctis , the Sermons of S. Austin upon the feast of the Commemoration of All-souls ( which nevertheless was instituted after S. Austins death ) and divers other citations , which the Greeks in their Apology call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The Holds and the Castles , the corruptions and insinuations of Heretical persons . But in this they are the less to be blam'd , because , better arguments then they have , no men are tied to make use of . But against this way of proceeding , we think fit to admonish the people of our charges , that , besides that the Scriptures expresly forbid us to enquire of the dead for truth ; the Holy Doctors of the Church , particularly , Tertullian , S. Athanasius , S. Chrysostome , Isidore , and Theophylact , deny that the souls of the dead ever do appear ; and bring many reasons to prove , that it is unfitting they should ; saying , if they did , it would be the cause of many errors , and the Devils under that pretence , might easily abuse the world with notices and revelations of their own : And because Christ would have us content with Moses and the Prophets , and especially to hear that Prophet , whom the Lord our God hath raised up amongst us , our blessed Jesus , who never taught any such Doctrine to his Church . But because we are now representing the Novelty of this Doctrine , and proving , that anciently it was not the Doctrine of the Church , nor at all esteemed a matter of Faith , whether there was or was not any such place or state , we adde this , That the Greek Church did alwaies dissent from the Latines in this particular , since they had forg'd this new Doctrine in the Laboratories of Rome , and in the Council of Basil , publish'd an Apologie directly disapproving the Roman Doctrine of Purgatory . How afterwards they were press'd in the Councel of Florence by Pope Eugenius , and by their necessity ; how unwillingly they consented , how ambiguously they answered , how they protested against having that half consent put into the Instrument of Union ; how they were yet constrain'd to it by their Chiefs , being obnoxious to the Pope ; how a while after they dissolv'd that Union , and to this day refuse to own this Doctrine , are things so notoriously known , that they need no further declaration . We adde this onely , to make the conviction more manifest : We have thought fit to annex some few , but very clear testimonies of Antiquity , expresly destroying the new Doctrine of Purgatory . S. Cyprian saith , Quando istinc excessum fuerit , nullus jam locus poenitentiae est , nullus satisfactionis effectus : [ When we are gone from hence , there is no place left for repentance , and no effect of satisfaction . ] S Dionysius calls the extremity of death , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The end of all our agonies , and affirms , That the Holy men of God rest in joy , and in never failing hopes , and are come to the end of their holy combates . S. Iustin Martyr affirms , That when the soul is departed from the body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , presently there is a separation made of the just and unjust : The unjust are by Angels born into places which they have deserved ; but the souls of the just into Paradice , where they have the conversation of Angels and Archangels . S. Ambrose a saith , That Death is a haven of rest , and makes not our condition worse , but according as it findes every man , so it reserves him to the judgement that is to come . The same is affirm'd by b S. Hilary , c S. Macarius , and divers others ; they speak but of two states after death , of the just and the unjust : These are plac'd in horrible Regions reserv'd to the judgement of the great day ; the other have their souls carried by Quires of Angels into places of rest . S. Gregory Nazianzen d expresly affirms , that after this life there is no purgation : For after Christs ascension into heaven , the souls of all Saints are with Christ , saith Gennadius , and going from the body , they go to Christ , expecting the resurrection of their body , with it to pass into the perfection of perpetual bliss ; and this he delivers as the Doctrine of the Catholick Church : [ In what place soever a man is taken at his death , of light or darkness , of wickedness or vertue , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in the same Order , and in the same degree ; either in light with the just , and with Christ the great King ; or in darkness with the unjust , and with the Prince of darkness , ] said Olimpiodorus . And lastly , we recite the words of S. Leo , one of the Popes of Rome , speaking of the Penitents who had not perform'd all their penances [ But if any one of them for whom we pray unto the Lord , being interrupted by any obstacles , falls from the gift of the present Indulgence ( viz. of Ecclesiastical Absolution ) and before he arrive at the appointed remedies ( that is , before he hath perform'd his penances or satisfactions ) ends his temporal life , that which remaining in the body he hath not receiv'd , when he is devested of his body , he cannot obtain . ] He knew not of the new devices of paying in Purgatory , what they paid not here ; and of being cleansed there , who were not clean here : And how these words , or of any the precedent , are reconcileable with the Roman Doctrines of Purgatory , hath not yet entred into our imagination . To conclude this particular , We complain greatly , that this Doctrine which in all the parts of it is uncertain , and in the late additions to it in Rome is certainly false , is yet with all the faults of it pass'd into an Article of Faith by the Council of Trent . But besides what hath been said , it will be more than sufficient to oppose against it these clearest words of Scripture , Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord , from henceforth , even so saith the Spirit , that they may rest from their labours . If all the dead that dye in Christ be at rest , and are in no more affliction or labours , then the Doctrine of the horrible pains of Purgatory , is as false as it is uncomfortable : To these words we adde the saying of Christ , and we relie upon it [ He that heareth my word , and believeth on him that sent me , hath eternal life , and cometh not into judgement , but passeth from death unto life ] If so , then not into the judgement of Purgatory : If the servant of Christ passeth from death to life , then not from death to the terminable pains of a part of Hell. They that have eternal life , suffer no intermedial punishment , judgement or condemnation after death ; for death and life are the whole progression , according to the Doctrine of Christ , and Him we chuse to follow . Sect. V. THe Doctrine of Transubstantiation is so far from being Primitive and Apostolick , that we know the very time it began to be own'd publiquely for an opinion , and the very Council in which it was said to be pass'd into a publick Doctrine , and by what arts it was promoted , and by what persons it was introduc'd . For all the world knows , that by their own parties , by a Scotus , b Ocham , c Biel , Fisher Bishop of d Rochester , and divers others , whom e Bellarmine calls most learned and most acute men , it was declared , that the Doctrine of Transubstantiation is not express'd in the Canon of the Bible ; that in the Scriptures there is no place so express ( as without the Churches declaration ) to compel us to admit of Transubstantiation , and therefore at least , it is to be suspected of novelty . But further , we know it was but a disputable question in the ninth and tenth ages after Christ ; that it was not pretended to be an Article of Faith , till the Lateran Council in the time of Pope Innocent the Third , MCC years and more after Christ ; that since that pretended * determination , divers of the chiefest Teachers of their own side have been no more satisfied of the ground of it , than they were before , but still have publickly affirm'd , that the Article is not express'd in Scripture , particularly , Iohannes de Basselis , Cardinal * Cajetan , and Melchior * Canus , besides those above reckon'd : And therefore , if it was not express'd in Scripture , it will be too clear , that they made their Articles of their own heads , for they could not declare it to be there , if it was not ; and if it was there but obscurely , then it ought to be taught accordingly ; and at most , it could be but a probable doctrine , and not certain as an Article of Faith. But that we may put it past argument and probability , it is certain , that as the Doctrine was not taught in Scripture expresly : so it was not at all taught as a Catholick Doctrine , or an Article of the Faith by the primitive ages of the Church . Now for this , we need no proof but the confession and acknowledgement of the greatest Doctors of the Church of Rome . Scotus says , that before the Lateran Council , Transubstantiation was not an Article of faith , as Bellarmine confesses ; and Henriquez affirms , that Scotus says , it was not ancient , insomuch that Bellarmine accuses him of ignorance , saying , he talk'd at that rate , because he had not read the Roman Council under Pope Gregory VII , nor that consent of Fathers which ( to so little purpose ) he had heap'd together . Rem transubstantiationis Patres ne attigisse quidem , said some of the English Jesuits in Prison : The Fathers have not so much as touch'd or medled with the matter of Transubstantiation ; and in Lombard's time it was so far from being an Article of Faith , or a Catholick Doctrine , that they did not know whether it were true or no : And after he had collected the sentences of the Fathers in that Article , he confess'd , He could not tell whether there was any substantial change or no. His words are these , [ If it be inquir'd what kinde of conversion it is , whether it be formal or substantial , or of another kinde ? I am not able to define it : Onely I know that it is not formal , because the same accidents remain , the same colour and taste . To some it seems to be substantial , saying that so the substance is chang'd into the substance , that it is done essentially . To which the former authorities seem to consent . But to this sentence others oppose these things , If the substance of bread and wine be substantially converted into the body and blood of Christ , then every day some substance is made the body or blood of Christ , which before was not the body ; and to day something is Christs body , which yesterday was not ; and every day Christs body is increased , and is made of such matter of which it was not made in the conception : ] These are his words , which we have remark'd , not onely for the arguments sake ( though it be unanswerable ) but to give a plain demonstration that in his time this Doctrine was new , not the Doctrine of the Church : And this was written but about fifty * years before it was said to be decreed in the Lateran * Council , and therefore it made haste , in so short time to pass from a disputable opinion , to an Article of faith . But even after the Council , * Durandus , as good a Catholick , and as famous a Doctor as any was in the Church of Rome publickly maintain'd , that even after consecration , the very matter of bread remain'd ; and although he says , that by reason of the Authority of the Church , it is not to be held , yet it is not onely possible it should be so , but it implies no contradiction that it should be Christs body , and yet the matter of bread remain ; and if this might be admitted , it would salve many difficulties , which arise fom saying that the substance of bread does not remain . But here his Reason was overcome by Authority , and he durst not affirm that of which alone he was able to give ( as he thought ) a reasonable account . But by this it appears , that the opinion was but then in the forge , and by all their understanding they could never accord it , but still the questions were uncertain , according to that old Distich , Corpore de Christi lis est , de sanguine lis est , Déque modo lis est , non habitura modum . And the opinion was not determin'd in the Lateran , as it is now held at Rome ; but it is also plain , that it is a stranger to Antiquity . De Transubstantiatione panis in corpus Christi rara est in antiquis scriptoribus mentio , said Alphonsus à Castro . There is seldome mention made in the ancient Writers of transubstantiating the Bread into Christs Body . We know the modesty and interest of the man ; he would not have said it had been seldom , if he could have found it in any reasonable degree warranted ; he might have said and justified it , There was no mention at all of this Article in the primitive Church : and that it was a meer stranger to Antiquity , will not be deny'd by any sober person , who considers , That it was with so much uneasiness entertained , even in the corruptest and most degenerous times , and argued and unsettled almost 1300 years after Christ. And that it was so , will but too evidently appear by that stating and resolution of this question which we finde in the Canon Law. For Berengarius was by P. Nicolaus commanded to recant his error in these words , and to affirm , Verum corpus & sanguinem Domini nostri Iesu Christi sensualiter , non solùm in sacramento , sed in veritate manibus sacerdotum tractari , frangi , & fidelium dentibus atteri . That the true body and bloud of our Lord Jesus Christ sensually , not onely in sacrament , but in truth is handled by the Priests hands , and broken and grinded by the teeth of the faithful . Now although this was publickly read at Rome before an hundred and fourteen Bishops , and by the Pope sent up and down the Churches of Italy , France , and Germany , yet at this day it is renounc'd by the Church of Rome , and unless it be well expounded ( says the Gloss ) will lead into a heresie , greater than what Berengarius was commanded to renounce ; and no interpretation can make it tolerable , but such an one , as is in another place of the Canon Law , statuimus , i.e. abrogamus ; nothing but a plain denying it in the sense of Pope Nicolas . But however this may be , it is plain they understood it not , as it is now decreed . But as it happened to the Pelagians in the beginning of their heresie , they spake rudely , ignorantly , and easily to be reprov'd ; but being asham'd and disputed into a more sober understanding of their hypothesis , spake more warily , but yet differently from what they said at first : so it was and is in this question ; at first they understood it not ; it was too unreasonable in any tolerable sense , to make any thing of it ; but experience and necessity hath brought it to what it is . But that this Doctrine was not the Doctrine of the first and best ages of the Church , these following testimonies do make evident . The words of Tertullian are these . The bread being taken and distributed to his Disciples , Christ made it his body , saying , This is my body , that is , the figure of my body . The same is affirmed by Iustin Martyr . The bread of the Eucharist was a figure which Christ the Lord commanded to do in remembrance of his passion . Origen calls the bread and the chalice , the images of the body and blood of Christ : and again , That bread which is sanctified by the word of God , so far as belongs to the matter ( or substance ) of it goes into the belly , and is cast away in the secession or separation ; which to affirm of the natural or glorified body of Christ , were greatly blasphemous : and therefore the body of Christ which the Communicants receive , is not the body in a natural sense , but in a spiritual , which is not capable of any such accident , as the elements are . Eusebius says , that Christ gave to his Disciples the Symbols of Divine Oeconomy , commanding the image and type of his own body to be made : * and that the Apostle received a command according to the constitution of the new Testament , to make a memory of this sacrifice upon the Table by the symbols of his body and healthful blood . 8. Macarius says , that in the Church is offered bread and wine , the antitype of his flesh and of his blood , and they that partake of the bread that appears , do spiritually eat the flesh of Christ. By which words the sense of the above cited Fathers is explicated . For when they affirm , that in this Sacrament is offered the figure , the image , the antitype of Christs body and blood , although they speak perfectly against Transubstantiation , yet they do not deny the real and spiritual presence of Christs body and blood ; which we all believe as certainly , as that it is not transubstantiated or present in a natural and carnal manner . The same thing is also fully explicated by the good S. Ephrem , The body of Christ received by the faithful , departs parts not from his sensible substance , and is undivided from a spiritual grace . For even baptism being wholly made spiritual , and being that which is the same , and proper , of the sensible substance , I mean , of water , saves , and that which is born , doth not perish . S. Gregory Nazianzen spake so expresly in this Question , as if he had undertaken on purpose to confute the Article of Trent . Now we shall be partakers of the Paschal supper , but still in figure , though more clear than in the old Law. For the legal Passover ( I will not be afraid to speak it ) was a more obscure figure of a figure . S. Chrysostom affirms dogmatically , that before the bread is sanctified , we name it bread , but the Divine grace sanctifying it by the means of the Priest , it is freed from the name of bread , but it is esteemed worthy to be called the Lords body , although the nature of bread remains in it . And again : As thou eatest the body of the Lord : so they ( the faithful in the old Testament ) did eat Manna ; as thou drinkest blood , so they the water of the rock . For though the things which are made be sensible , yet they are given spiritually , not according to the consequence of Nature , but according to the Grace of a gift , and with the body they also nourish the soul , leading unto faith . To these very many more might be added ; but instead of them , the words of S. Austin may suffice , as being an evident conviction what was the doctrine of the primitive Church in this question . This great Doctor brings in Christ thus speaking as to his Disciples [ You are not to eat this body which you see , or to drink that blood which my crucifiers shall pour forth . I have commended to you a sacrament , which being spiritually understood shall quicken you : And again ; Christ ] brought them to a Banquet , in which he commended to his Disciples the figure of his body and blood . ] For he did not doubt to say , This is my body , when he gave the sign of his body ] and , That which by all men is called a sacrifice , is the sign of the true sacrifice , in which the flesh of Christ after his assumption is celebrated by the sacrament of remembrances . But in this particular the Canon law it self , and the Master of the Sentences are the best witnesses ; in both which collections there are divers testimonies brought , especially from S. Ambrose and S. Austin , which whosoever can reconcile with the Doctrine of Transubstantiation , may easily put the Hyaena and a Dog , a Pigeon and a Kite into couples , and make Fire and Water enter into Natural and Eternal Friendships . Theodoret and P. Gelasius speak more emphatically , even to the nature of things , and the very Philosophy of this Question . [ Christ honour'd the symbols and the signs ( saith Theodoret ) which are seen with the title of his body and bloud , not changing the nature , but to nature adding grace . * For neither do the mystical signs recede from their nature ; for they abide in their proper substance , figure and form , and may be seen and touch'd , &c. And for a testimony that shall be esteem'd infallible , we alledge the words of Pope Gelasius , [ Truly the Sacraments of the body and bloud of Christ , which we receive , are a Divine thing ; for that by them we are made partakers of the Divine nature ; and yet it ceases not to be the substance or nature of bread and wine . And truly an image and similitude of the body and bloud of Christ are celebrated in the action of the mysteries . Now from these premises we are not desirous to infer any odious consequences in reproof of the Roman Church , but we think it our duty to give our own people caution and admonition ; 1. That they be not abus'd by the rhetorical words and high expressions alledged out of the Fathers , calling the Sacrament , The body or the flesh of Christ. For we all believe it is so , and rejoyce in it . But the question is , after what manner it is so ? whether after the manner of the flesh , or after the manner of spiritual grace , and sacramental consequence ? We with the H. Scriptures and the primitive Fathers , affirm the later . The Church of Rome against the words of Scripture , and the explication of Christ * , and the Doctrine of the primitive Church affirm the former . 2. That they be careful not to admit such Doctrines under a pretence of being Antient ; since , although the Roman error hath been too long admitted , and is antient in respect of our days , yet it is an innovation in Christianity , and brought in by ignorance , power and superstition , very many ages after Christ. 3. We exhort them that they remember the words of Christ , when he explicates the Doctrine of giving us his flesh for meat , and his blood for drink , that he tells us , The flesh profiteth nothing ; but the words which he speaks are spirit and they are life . 4. That if those antient and primitive Doctors above cited , say true , and that the symbols still remain the same in their natural substance and properties , even after they are blessed , and when they are receiv'd , and that Christs body and blood are onely present to faith and to the spirit , that then whoever tempts them to give Divine honour to these symbols or elements ( as the Church of Rome does ) tempts them to give to a creature the due and incommunicable propriety of God ; and that then , this evil passes further than an error in the understanding , for it carries them to a dangerous practise , which cannot reasonably be excus'd from the crime of Idolatry . To conclude , This matter of it self is an errour so prodigiously great and dangerous , that we need not tell of the horrid and blasphemous questions which are sometimes handled by them concerning this Divine Mystery . As , if a Priest going by a Bakers Shop , and saying with intention , Hoc est corpus meum , whether all the Bakers bread be turned into the body of Christ ? Whether a Church Mouse does eat her Maker ? Whether a man by eating the consecrated symbols does break his fast ? For if it be not bread and wine , he does not : and if it be Christs body and blood naturally and properly , it is not bread and wine . Whether it may be said , the Priest is in some sense the Creator of God himself ? Whether his power be greater than the power of Angels and Archangels ? For that it is so , is expresly affirmed by Cassenaeus . Whether ( as a Bohemian Priest said ) that a Priest before he say his first Mass , be the Son of God , but afterward he is the Father of God and the Creator of his body ? But against this blasphemy a book was written by Iohn Huss , about the time of the Council of Constance . But these things are too bad , and therefore we love not to rake in so filthy Chanells , but give onely a generall warning to all our Charges , to take heed of such persons , who from the proper consequences of their Articles , grow too bold and extravagant ; and , of such doctrines , from whence these and many other evil Propositions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 frequently do issue . As the Tree is , such must be the Fruit. But we hope it may be sufficient , * to say , That what the Church of Rome teaches of Transubstantiation , is absolutely impossible , and implies contradictions very many , to the belief of which no faith can oblige us , and no reason can endure . For Christs body being in heaven , glorious , spiritual and impassible , cannot be broken . And since by the Roman doctrine nothing is broken , but that which cannot be broken , that is , the colour , the taste , and other accidents of the elements ; yet if they could be broken , since the accidents of bread and wine are not the substance of Christs body and blood , it is certain that on the Altar Christs body , naturally and properly cannot be broken . * And since they say that every consecrated Wafer is Christs whole body , and yet this Wafer is not that Wafer , therefore either this or that is not Christs body , or else Christ hath two bodies ; for there are two Wafers . * But when Christ instituted the Sacrament , and said , This is my body which is broken : because at that time Christs body was not broken naturally and properly , the very words of institution do force us to understand the Sacrament in a sense not natural but spiritual , that is , truly sacramental . * And all this is besides the plain demonstrations of sense , which tells us it is bread and it is wine naturally as much after , as before consecration . * And after all , the natural sense is such as our blessed Saviour reprov'd in the men of Capernaum , and called them to a spiritual understanding ; the natural sense being not onely unreasonable and impossible , but also to no purpose of the spirit , or any ways perfective of the soul ; as hath been clearly demonstrated by many learned men against the fond hypothesis of the Church of Rome in this Article . Sect. VI. OUr next instance of the novelty of the Roman Religion in their Articles of division from us , is that of the half Communion . For they deprive the people of the chalice , and dismember the institution of Christ , and praevaricate his express law in this particular , and recede from the practise of the Apostles ; and though they confess it was the practise of the primitive Church , yet they lay it aside , and curse all them that say they do amiss in it ; that is , they curse them who follow Christ , and his Apostles , and his Church , while themselves deny to follow them . Now for this we need no other testimony but their own words in the Council of Constance . [ Whereas in certain parts of the World some temerariously presume to affirm , that the Christian people ought to receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist under both kinds of bread and wine , and do every where communicate the Laity not onely in bread but in wine also ; — Hence it is , that the Council decrees and defines against this error , that although Christ instituted after supper , and administred this venerable Sacrament under both kinds of bread and wine , yet this notwithstanding — And although in the primitive Church this Sacrament was receiv'd of the faithful under both kinds ] Here is the acknowledgement , both of Christs institution in both kinds , and Christs ministring it in both kinds , and the practise of the Primitive Church to give it in both kinds ; yet the conclusion from these premises is [ We command under the pain of Excommunication , that no Priest communicate the people under both kinds of bread and wine . ] The opposition is plain : Christs Testament ordains it : The Church of Rome forbids it : It was the primitive custom to obey Christ in this : a later custom is by the Church of Rome introduc'd to the contrary . To say that the first practise and institution is necessary to be followed , is called Heretical : to refuse the later subintroduc'd custom incurres the sentence of Excommunication : and this they have pass'd not onely into a Law , but into an Article of Faith ; and if this be not teaching for doctrines the commandments of men , and worshipping God in vain with mens traditions ; then there is , and there never was , and there can be no such thing in the World. So that now the question is not , whether this doctrine and practise be an INNOVATION , but whether it be not better it should it so ? Whether it be not better to drink new wine than old ? Whether it be not better to obey man than Christ , who is God blessed for ever ? Whether a late custom be not to be preferr'd before the antient ? a custom dissonant from the institution of Christ , before that which is wholly consonant to what Christ did and taught ? This is such a bold affirmative of the Church of Rome , that nothing can suffice to rescue us from an amazement in the consideration of it : especially since , although the Institution it self , being the onely warranty and authority for what we do , is of it self our rule and precept ; ( according to that of the Lawyer , Institutiones sunt praeceptiones quibus instituuntur & docentur homines ) yet besides this , Christ added preceptive words , Drink ye all of this : he spake it to all that receiv'd , who then also represented all them , who for ever after were to remember Christs death . But concerning the doctrine of Antiquity in this point , although the Council of Constance confess the Question , yet since that time they have taken on them a new confidence , and affirm , that the half Communion was always more or less the practice of the most Ancient times . We therefore think it fit to produce testimonies concurrent with the saying of the Council of Constance , such as are irrefragable , and of persons beyond exception . Cassander affirms , That in the Latine Church for above a thousand years , the body of Christ , and the blood of Christ were separately given , the body apart , and the blood apart after the consecration of the mysteries . So Aquinas also affirms , [ According to the ancient custom of the Church , all men as they communicated in the body , so they communicated in the blood ; which also to this day is kept in some Churches . ] And therefore Paschasius Ratbertus resolves it dogmatically , That neither the flesh without the blood , nor the blood without the flesh is rightly communicated , because the Apostles all of them did drink of the chalice . And Salmeron being forc'd by the evidence of the thing , ingenuously and openly confesses , That it was a general custom to communicate the Laity under both kindes . It was so , and it was more : There was anciently a Law for it , Aut integra Sacramenta percipiant , aut ab integris arceantur , said Pope Gelasius . Either all or none , let them receive in both kindes , or in neither ; and he gives this reason , Quia divisio unius & ejusdem mysterii sinc grandi sacrilegio non potest pervenire . The mystery is but one and the same , and therefore it cannot be divided without great Sacriledge . The reason concludes as much of the Receiver as the Consecrator , and speaks of all indefinitely . Thus it is acknowledged to have been in the Latine Church , and thus we see it ought to have been : And for the Greek Church there is no question ; for even to this day they communicate the people in the chalice . But this case is so plain , and there are such clear testimonies out of the Fathers recorded in their own Canon Law , that nothing can obscure it ; but to use too many words about it . We therefore do exhort our people to take care that they suffer not themselves to be robb'd of their portion of Christ , as he is pleas'd sacramentally and graciously to communicate himself unto us . SECT . VII . AS the Church of Rome does great injury to Christendom in taking from the people what Christ gave them in the matter of the Sacrament ; so she also deprives them of very much of the benefit which they might receive by their holy Prayers , if they were suffered to pray in publick in a Language they understand . But that 's denied to the common people , to their very great prejudice and injury . Concerning which , although it is as possible to reconcile Adultery with the seventh Commandment , as Service in a Language not understood to the fourteenth Chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians ; and that therefore if we can suppose that the Apostolical age did follow the Apostolical rule , it must be concluded , that the practise of the Church of Rome is contrary to the practise of the Primitive Church : Yet besides this , we have thought fit to declare the plain sense and practise of the succeeding ages in a few testimonies , but so pregnant , as not to be avoided . Origen affirms , that the Graecians in their prayers use Greek , and the Romans , the Roman language , and so every one according to his Tongue , prayeth unto God , and praiseth him as he is able . S. Chrysostome urging the Precept of the Apostle for prayers in a Language understood by the hearer , affirms that which is but reasonable , saying , If a man speaks in the Persian Tongue , and understands not what himself sayes , to himself he is a Barbarian , and therefore so he is to him that understands no more than he does . And what profit can he receive , who hears a sound , and discerns it not ? It were as good he were absent as present : For if he be the better to be there , because he sees what is done , and guesses at something in general , * and consents to him that Ministers : It is true , this may be , but this therefore is so , because he understands something ; but he is onely so far benefited as he understands , and therefore all that which is not understood , does him no more benefit that is present , than to him that is absent , and consents to the prayers in general , and to what is done for all faithful people . But [ If indeed ye meet for the edification of the Church , those things ought to be spoken which the hearers understand , ] said S. Ambrose : And so it was in the primitive Church ; blessings and all other things in the Church were done in the vulgar tongue , saith a Lyra ; Nay , not onely the publick Prayers , but the whole Bible was anciently by many Translations , made fit for the peoples use . S. Hierom b affirms , that himself translated the Bible into the Dalmatian Tongue ; and c Vlphilas a Bishop among the Goths , translated it into the Gothick Tongue ; and that it was translated into all Languages , we are told by d S. Chysostome , e S. Austin , and f Theodoret. But although what twenty Fathers say , can make a thing no more certain than if S. Paul had alone said it , yet both S. Paul and the Fathers are frequent to tell us , That a Service or Prayers in an unknown Tongue do not edifie : So g S. Basil , h S. Chrysostome , i S. Ambrose , and k S. Austin , and this is consented to by l Aquinas , m Lyra , and n Cassander : And besides that , these Doctors affirm , that in the primitive Church the Priests and People joyn'd in their Prayers , and understood each other , and prayed in their Mother Tongue : We find a story ( how true it is , let them look to it , but it is ) told by o AEneas Sylvius , who was afterward Pope Pius the II. that when Cyrillus Bishop of the Moravians and Methodius had converted the Slavonians , Cyril being at Rome , desir'd leave to use the language of that Nation in their Divine Offices . Concerning which when they were disputing , a voice was heard , as if from Heaven , Let every Spirit praise the Lord , and every Tongue confess unto him : Upon which it was granted according to the Bishops desire . But now they are not so kind at Rome ; and although the Fathers at Trent confess'd in their decree , that the Mass contains in it great matter of erudition and edification of the people ; yet they did not think it fit , that it should be said in the vulgar tongue : So that it is very good food , but it must be lock'd up ; it is an excellent candle , but it must be put under a bushel : And now the Question is , Whether it be fit that the people pray so as to be edisied by it ; or is it better that they be at the prayers when they shall not be edified ? Whether it be not as good to have a dumb Priest to do Mass , as one that hath a tongue to say it ? For he that hath no tongue , and he that hath none to be understood , is alike insignificant to me . Quid prodest locutionum integritas quam non sequitur intellectus audientis , cum loquendi nulla sit causa , si quod loquimur non intelligunt propter quos ut intelligant loquimur , said S. Austin . What does it avail that man speak all , if the hearers understand none ; and there is no cause why a man should speak at all , if they , for whose understanding you do speak , understand it not . God understands the Priests thoughts when he speaks not , as well as when he speaks ; he hears the prayer of the heart , and sees the word of the mind , and a dumb Priest can do all the ceremonies , and make the signs ; and he that speaks aloud to them that understand him not , does no more . Now since there is no use of vocal prayer in publick , but that all together may signifie their desires , and stirre up one another , and joyne in the expression of them to God ; by this device , a man who understands not what is said , can onely pray with his lips ; for the heart cannot pray but by desiring , and it cannot desire what it understands not . So that in this case , prayer cannot be an act of the Soul : There is neither affection nor understanding , notice or desire : The heart sayes nothing and asks for nothing , and therefore receives nothing . Solomon calls that the Sacrifice of fools , when men consider not ; and they who understand not what is said , cannot take it into consideration . But there needs no more to be said in so plain a case . We end this with the words of the Civil and Canon Law. Iustinian the Emperor made a Law in these words [ We will and command , That all Bishops and Priests celebrate the Sacred Oblation , and the Prayers thereunto added in holy Baptism , not in a low voice , but with a loud and clear voice , which may be heard by the faithful people ; that is , be understood , for so it follows , that thereby the mindes of the hearers may be raised up with greater devotion , to set forth the praises of the Lord God ; for so the Apostle teacheth in the first to the Corinthians . It is true , that this Law was rased out of the Latine Versions of Iustinian . The fraud and design was too palpable , but it prevail'd nothing ; for it is acknowledged by Cassander and Bellarmine , and is in the Greek Copies of Holoander . The Canon Law is also most express from an Authority of no less than a Pope and a General Council , as themselves esteem ; Innocent III. in the great Council of Lateran , above MCC years after Christ , in these words , [ Because in most parts within the same City and Diocess , the people of divers Tongues are mixt together , having under one and the same faith divers Ceremonies and Rites , we straitly charge and command , That the Bishops of such Cities and Diocesses provide men fit , who may celebrate Divine Service according to the diversity of ceremonies and languages , and administer the Sacraments of the Church , instructing them both by word and example . ] Now if the words of the Apostle , and the practise of the primitive Church , the sayings of the Fathers , and the Confessions of wise men amongst themselves ; if the consent of Nations , and the piety of our fore-fathers ; if right reason , and the necessity of the thing ; if the needs of the ignorant , and the very inseparable conditions of holy prayers ; if the Laws of Princes , and the Laws of the Church , which do require all our prayers to be said by them that understand what they say ; if all these cannot prevail with the Church of Rome to do so much good to the peoples souls , as to consent they should understand what in particular they are to ask of God , certainly there is a great pertinacy of opinion , and but a little charity to those precious souls , for whom Christ dyed , and for whom they must give account . Indeed the old Toscan Rites , and the Sooth-sayings of the Salian Priests , Vix Sacerdotibus suis intellecta , sed quae mutari vetat Religio : were scarce understood by their Priests themselves , but their Religion forbad to change them . Thus anciently did the Osseni Hereticks of whom Epiphanius tells , and the Heracleonitae of whom S. Austin gives account ; they taught to pray with obscure words ; and some others in Clemens Alexandrinus , suppos'd , that words spoken in a barbarous or unknown Tongue , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , are more powerful . The Jewes also in their Synagogues at this day , read Hebrew , which the people but rarely understand ; and the Turks in their Mosques read Arabick , of which the people know nothing . But Christians never did so , till they of Rome resolved to refuse to do benefit to the souls of the people in this instance , or to bring them from intollerable ignorance . SECT . VIII . THe Church of Rome hath to very bad purposes introduc'd and impos'd upon Christendom the worship and veneration of Images , kissing them , pulling off their hats , kneeling , falling down and praying before them , which they call , giving them due honor and veneration . What external honor and veneration that is , which they call due , is express'd by the instances now reckon'd , which the Council of Trent in their Decree enumerate and establish . What the inward honor and worship is , which they intend to them , is intimated in the same Decree . By the Images they worship Christ and his Saints ; and therefore by these Images they pass that honor to Christ and his Saints which is their due : that is , as their Doctors explain it . Latria or Divine worship to God and Christ. Hyperdulia or more than service to the blessed Virgin Mary ; and service or doulia to other canoniz'd persons . So that upon the whole , the case is this : What ever worship they give to God , and Christ and his Saints , they give it first to the Image , and from the Image they pass it unto Christ and Christs servants . And therefore we need not to enquire what actions they suppose to be fit or due . For whatsoever is due to God , to Christ or his Saints , that worship they give to their respective Images : all the same in external semblance and ministry ; as appears in all their great Churches , and publick actions , and processions , and Temples and Festivals , and endowments , and censings , and pilgrimages , and prayers , and vows made to them . Now besides that these things are so like Idolatry , that they can no way be reasonably excused ( of which we shall in the next Chapter give some account ) besides that they are too like the Religion of the Heathens , and so plainly and frequently forbidden in the Old Testament , and are so infinitely unlike the simple and wise , the natural and holy , the pure and the spiritual Religion of the Gospel ; besides , that they are so infinite a scandal to the Jews and Turks , and reproach Christianity it self amongst all strangers that live in their communion , and observe their rites : besides that they cannot pretend to be lawful , but with the laborious artifices of many Metaphysical notions and distinctions , which the people who most need them , do least understand ; and that therefore the people worship them without these distinctions , and directly put confidence in them ; and that it is impossible that ignorant persons , who in all Christian countries make up the biggest number , should do otherwise , when otherwise they cannot understand it ; and besides that , the thing it self , with or without distinctions , is a superstititious and forbidden , an unlawful and unnatural worship of God , who will not be worshipped by an Image : we say that besides all this , This whole Doctrine and practice is an innovation in the Christian Church , not practis'd , not indured in the primitive ages ; but expresly condemned by them , and this is our present undertaking to evince . The first notice we find of Images brought into Christian Religion , was by Simon Magus : indeed that was very Antient , but very heretical and abominable ; but that he brought some in to be worshipped , we find in * Theodoret , and * S. Austin , * S. Irenaeus tells . That the Gnosticks of Carpocrations did make Images , and said , that the form of Christ as he was in the flesh , was made by Pilate ; and these Images they worshipped , as did the Gentiles : These things they did , but against these things the Christians did zealously and piously declare : We have no Image in the world , said S. Clemens of * Alexandria : It is apparently forbidden to us to exercise that deceitful art : For it is written , Thou shalt not make any similitude of any thing in Heaven above , &c. And Origen wrote a just Treatise against Celsus ; in which he not onely affirms , That Christians did not make or use Images in Religion , but that they ought not , and were by God forbidden to do so . To the same purpose also Lactantius discourses to the Emperor , and confutes the pretences and little answers of the Heathen in that manner , that he leaves no pretence for Christians under another cover , to introduce the like abomination . We are not ignorant , that those who were converted from Gentilisme , and those who lov'd to imitate the customs of the Roman Princes and people , did soon introduce the Historical use of Images , and according to the manner of the world , did think it honorable to depict or make Images of those whom they had in great esteem ; and that this being done by an esteem , relying on Religion , did by the weakness of men , and the importunity of the Tempter , quickly pass into inconvenience and superstition ; yet even in the time of Iulian the Emperor , S. Cyril denies , that the Christians did give veneration and worship to the Image , even of the Cross it self , which was one of the earliest temptations ; and S. Epiphanius ( it is a known story ) tells , that when in the village of Bethel he saw a cloth picture , as it were of Christ , or some Saint in the Church , against the Authority of Scripture ; He cut it in pieces , and advis'd that some poor man should be buried in it ; affirmed , that such Pictures are against Religion , and unworthy of the Church of Christ. The Epistle was translated into Latine by S. Hierome ; by which we may guess at his opinion in the question . The Council of Eliberis is very ancient , and of great fame ; in which it is expresly forbidden , that what is worshipped , should be depicted on the walls ; and that therefore Pictures ought not to be in Churches . S. Austin complaining , that he knew of many in the Church who were Worshippers of Pictures , calls them Superstitious ; and adds , that the Church condems such customs , and strives to correct them : and S. Gregory writing to Serenus Bishop of Massilia , sayes , he would not have had him to break the Pictures and Images , which were there set for an historical use ; but commends him for prohibiting to any one to worship them , and enjoyns him still to forbid it . But Superstition by degrees creeping in , the Worship of Images was decreed in the seventh Synod , or the second Nicene . But the decrees of this Synod being by Pope Adrian sent to Charls the Great , he convocated a Synod of German and French Bishops at Francfurt , who discussed the Acts pass'd at Nice , and condemn'd them . And the Acts of this Synod , although they were diligently suppressed by the Popes arts , yet Eginardus , Hin●marus , Aventinus , Blondus , Adon , Amonius & Regino , famous Historians , tell us , That the Bishops of Francfurt condemn'd the Synod of Nice , and commanded it should not be called a General Council ; and published a Book under the name of the Emperor , confuting that unchristian Assembly ; and not long since , this Book , and the Acts of Francfurt were published by Bishop Tillius ; by which , not only the infinite fraud of of the Roman Doctors is discover'd , but the worship of Images is declar'd against and condemned . A while after this , Ludovicus the Son of Charlemain , sent Claudius a famous Preacher to Taurinum in Italy ; where the Preached against the worshipping of Images , and wrote an excellent Book to that purpose . Against this Book Ionas Bishop of Orleans , after the death of Ludovicus and Claudius , did write : In which he yet durst not assert the worship of them , but confuted it out of Origen ; whose words he thus cites [ Images are neither to be esteemed by inward affection , nor worshipped with outward shew ; ] and out of Lactantius these , [ Nothing is to be worshipped , that is seen with mortal eyes : Let us adore , let us worship nothing , but the Name alone of our only Parent , who is to be sought for in the Regions above , not here below : ] And to the same purpose , he also alleges excellent words out of Fulgentius and S. Hierom ; and though he would have Images ratain'd , and therefore was angry at Claudius who caus'd them to be taken down , yet he himself expresly affirms that they ought not to be worshipped ; and withal addes , that though they kept the Images in their Churches for History and Ornament , yet that in France the worshipping of them was had in great detestation . And though it is not to be denied , but that in the sequel of Ionas his Book , he does something praevaricate in this question ; yet it is evident , that in France this Doctrine was not accounted Catholick for almost nine hundred years after Christ ; and in Germany it was condemned for almost MCC years , as we find in Nicetas . We are not unskill'd in the devices of the Roman Writers , and with how much artifice they would excuse this whole matter , and palliate the crime imputed to them , and elude the Scriptures expresly condemning this Superstition : But we know also , that the arts of Sophistry are not the wayes of Salvation . And therefore we exhort our people to follow the plain words of Scripture , and the express Law of God in the second Commandment ; and add also the Exhortation of S. Iohn , Little children keep your selves from Idols . To conclude , it is impossible but that it must be confessed , that the worship of Images , was a thing unknown to the Primitive Church ; in the purest times of which , they would not allow the making of them ; as ( amongst divers others ) appears in the Writings of Clemens , * Alexandrinus , * Tertullian , and * Origen . SECT . IX . AS an Appendage to this , we greatly reprove the custom of the Church of Rome , in picturing God the Father , and the most Holy and Undivided Trinity ; which , besides that it ministers infinite scandal to all sober minded men , and gives the new Arrians in Polonia and Antitrinitarians , great and ridiculous entertainment , exposing that Sacred Mystery to derision and scandalous contempt : It is also ( which at present we have undertaken particularly to remark ) against the Doctrine and practise of the Primitive Catholick Church . S. Clemens of Alexandria sayes , that in the Discipline of Moses , God was not to be represented in the shape of a man , or of any other thing : and that Christians understood themselves to be bound by the same law , we find it expresly taught by Origen a , Tertullian b , Eusebius c , Athanasius d , S. Hierom e , S. Austin f , Theodoret g Damascen h , and the Synod of Constantinople , as it is reported in the sixt Action of the second Nicene Council . And certainly if there were not a strange spirit of contradiction or superstition or deflection from the Christian Rule , greatly prevailing in the Church of Rome , it were impossible that this practise should be so countenanc'd by them , and defended so to no purpose , with so much scandal , and against the natural reason of mankind , and the very Law of Nature it self : For the Heathens were sufficiently by the light of nature , taught to abominate all Pictures or Images of God. Sed nulla effigies , simulachraque nulla Deorum : Majestate locum , & sacro implevere timore . They in their earliest ages had no Pictures , no Images of their gods : Their Temples were filled with Majestie , and a sacred fear ; and the reason is given by Macrobius , Antiquity made no Image ( viz. of God ) because the Supreme God , and the mind that is born of him ( that is , his Son , the eternal Word ) as it is beyond the Soul , so it is above nature , and therefore it is not lawful that sigments should come thither . Nicephorus Callistus relating the Heresie of the Armenians and Iacobites sayes , they made Images of the Father , Son , and Holy Ghost , quod perquam absurdum est . Nothing is more absurd , then to make Pictures or Images of the Persons of the Holy and Adorable Trinity . And yet they do this in the Church of Rome . For in the windows of their Churches , even in Country Villages , where the danger cannot be denied to be great , and the scandal insupportable ; nay , in their books of devotion , in their very Mass-books and Breviaries , in their Portuises and Manuals they picture the Holy Trinity , with three noses and four eyes , and three faces in a knot , to the great dishonour of God and scandal of Christianity it self . We add no more ( for the case is too evidently bad ) but reprove the errour with the words of their own Polydore Virgil : Since the world began , never was any thing more foolish than to picture God , who is present every where . SECT . X. THe last instance of Innovations introduc'd in Doctrine and practice by the Church of Rome , that we shall represent , is that of the Popes universal Bishoprick . That is , not only that he is Bishop of Bishops , superior to all and every one ; but that his Bishoprick is a plenitude of power ; and as for other Bishops , of his fulness they all receive , a part of the ministry and sollicitude ; and not onely so , but that he only is a Bishop by immediate Divine dispensation , and others receive from him whatsoever they have . For to this height many of them are come at last . Which Doctrine , although as it is in sins , where the carnal are most full of reproach , but the spiritual are of greatest malignity : so it happens in this Article . For though it be not so scandalous as their Idolatry , so ridiculous as their superstitions , so unreasonable as their doctrine of Transubstantiation , so easily reprov'd as their half Communion , and Service in an unknown tongue ; yet it is of as dangerous and evil effect , and as false , and as certainly an Innovation , as any thing in their whole conjugation of errors . When Christ founded his Church , he left it in the hands of his Apostles , without any prerogative given to one , or eminency above the rest , save onely of priority and orderly precedency , which of it self was natural , necessary and incident . The Apostles govern'd all ; their authority was the sanction , and their Decrees and writings were the Laws of the Church . They exercis'd a common jurisdiction , and divided it according to the needs and emergencies , and circumstances of the Church . In the Council of Ierusalem , S. Peter gave not the decisive Sentence ; but S. Iames , who was the Bishop of that See. Christ sent all his Apostles as his Father sent him ; and therefore he gave to every one of them the whole power which he left behind ; and to the Bishops Congregated at Miletum , S. Paul gave them caution to take care of the whole stock of God , and affirms to them all , that the Holy Ghost had made them Bishops : and in the whole New Testament , there is no act or sign of superiority , or that one Apostle exercised power over another : but to them whom Christ sent , he in common intrusted the Church of God : according to that excellent saying of S. Cyprian , [ The other Apostles are the same that S. Peter was , endowest with an equal fellowship of honour and power : and they are all Shepheards , and the flock is one ] and therefore it ought to be fed by all the Apostles with unanimous consent . This unity and identity of power without question and interruption did continue and descend to Bishops in the primitive Church , in which it was a known doctrine that the Bishops were successors of the Apostles : and what was not in the beginning , could not be in the descent , unless it were innovated and introduc'd by a new authority . Christ gave ordinary power to none but the Apostles , and the power being to continue for ever in the Church , it was to be succeeded to , and by the same authority , even of Christ , it descended to them who were their successors , that is , to the Bishops , as all antiquity * does consent and teach : Not S. Peter alone , but every Apostle , and therefore every one who succeeds them in their ordinary power , may and must remember the words of S. Paul ; We are Embassadors or Legates for Christ : Christs Vicars , not the Popes Delegates : and so all the Apostles are called in the Preface of the Mass ; quos operis tui Vicarios eidem con●ulisti praeesse Pastores ; they are Pastors of the Flock and Vicars of Christ ; and so also they are in express terms called by S. Ambrose , and therefore it is a strange usurpation , that the Pope arrogates that to himself by Impropriation , which is common to him with all the Bishops of Christendom . The consequent of this is , that by the law of Christ , one Bishop is not superior to another : Christ gave the power to all alike ; he made no Head of the Bishops ; he gave to none a supremacy of power or universality of jurisdiction . But this the Pope hath long challenged , and to bring his purposes to pass , hath for these six hundered years by-gone invaded the rights of Bishops , and delegated matters of order and jurisdiction to Monks and Friers ; insomuch that the power of Bishops was greatly diminished at the erecting of the Cluniac and Cistercian Monks about the year ML : but about the year MCC , it was almost swallowed up by privileges granted to the begging Friers , and there kept by the power of the Pope : which power got one great step more above the Bishops , when they got it declared that the Pope is above a Council of Bishops : and at last it was turn'd into a new doctrine by Cajetane ( who for his prosperous invention was made a Cardinal ) that all the whole Apostolick or Episcopal power is radical and inherent in the Pope , in whom is the fulness of the Ecclesiastical authority ; and that Bishops receive their portion of it from him : and this was first boldly maintain'd in the Council of Trent by the Jesuits ; and it is now the opinion of their Order : but it is also that which the Pope challenges in practice , when he pretends to a power over all Bishops , and that this power is derived to him from Christ ; when he calls himself the Universal Bishop , and the Vicarial head of the Church , the Churches Monarch , he from whom all Ecclesiastical authority is deriv'd , to whose sentence in things Divine every Christian under pain of damnation is bound to be subject . * Now this is it which as it is productive of infinite mischiefs : so it is an Innovation and an absolute deflection from the primitive catholick doctrine , and yet is the great ground-work and foundation of their Church . This we shall represent in these following Testimonies . Pope . Eleutherius * in an Epistle to the Bishops of France , says , that Christ committed the universal Church to the Bishops ; and S. Ambrose saith that the Bishop holdeth the place of Christ , and is his substitute . But famous are the words of S. Cyprian , [ The Church of Christ is one thorough the whole world , divided by him into many members , and the Bishoprick is but one , diffused in the agreeing plurality of many Bishops . ] And again : [ To every Pastor a portion of the flock is given , which let every one of them rule and govern . ] By which words it is evident that the primitive Church understood no praelation of one and subordination of another , commanded by Christ , or by vertue of their ordination ; but onely what was for order sake introduc'd by Princes and consent of Prelates . And it was to this purpose very full which was said by Pope Symmachus : As it is in the Holy Trinity whose power is one and undivided ( or to use the expression in the Athanasian Creed , none is before or after other , none is greater or less than another ) so there is one Bishoprick amongst divers Bishops , and therefore why should the Canons of the ancient Bishops be violated by their Successors ? Now these words being spoken against the invasion of the rights of the Church of Arles by Anastasius , and the question being in the exercise of Jurisdiction , and about the Institution of Bishops , does fully declare that the Bishops of Rome had no Superiority by the Laws of Christ over any Bishop in the Catholick Church , and that his Bishoprick gave no more power to him , than Christ gave to the Bishop of the smallest Diocese . And therefore all the Church of God , when ever they reckon'd the several orders and degrees of Ministery in the Catholick Church , reckon the Bishop as the last and supreme , beyond whom there is no spiritual power but in Christ. For as the whole Hierachy ends in Iesus : so does every particular one in its one Bishop . Beyond the Bishop there is no step , till you rest in the great Shepherd and Bishop of Souls . Under him every Bishop is supreme in Spirituals , and in all power which to any Bishop is given by Christ. S. Ignatius therefore exhorts that all should obey their Bishop , and the Bishop obey . Christ , as Christ obeyed his Father . There are no other intermedial degrees of Divine Institution . But ( as Origen teaches ) The Apostles and they who after them are ordain'd by God , that is , the Bishops have the supreme place in the Church , and the Prophets have the second place . The same also is taught by P. Gelasius a , by S. Hierom b , and Fulgentius c , and indeed by all the Fathers who spake any thing in this matter : Insomuch that when Bellarmine is in this question press'd out of the book of Nilus by the authority of the Fathers standing against him , he answers , Papam Patres non habere in Ecclesiâ , sed filios omnes . The Pope acknowledges no Fathers in the Church , for they are all his sons . Now although we suppose this to be greatly sufficient to declare the Doctrine of the primitive Catholick Church , concerning the equality of power in all Bishops by Divine right : yet the Fathers have also expresly declar'd themselves , that one Bishop is not Superior to another , and ought not to judge another , or force another to obedience . They are the words of S. Cyprian to a Council of Bishops : [ None of us makes himself a Bishop of Bishops , or by tyranical power drives his collegues to a necessity of obedience , since every Bishop according to the licence of his own liberty and power , hath his own choice and cannot be judged by another , nor yet himself judge another ; but let us all expect the judgment of our L. Iesus Christ , who only and alone hath the power of setting us in the government of his Church , and judging of what we do ] This was spoken and intended against P. Stephen , who did then begin dominari in clero , to lord it over Gods heritage , and to excommunicate his brethren , as Demetrius did in the time of the Apostles themselves : but they both found their reprovers . Demetrius was chastised by S. John for this usurpation , and Stephen by S. Cyprian , and this also was approv'd by S. Austin . We conclude this particular with the words of S. Gregory Bishop of Rome , who because the Patriarch of Constantinople called himself Universal Bishop , said , It was a proud title , prophane , sacrilegious and Antichristian : and therefore he little thought that his Successors in the same See should so fiercely challenge that Antichristian title ; much less did the then Bishop of Rome in those ages challenge it as their own peculiar ; for they had no mind to be , or to be esteemed Antichristian . Romano Pontisici oblatum est , sed nullus unquam eorum hoc singularitatis nomen assumpsit . His Predecessors ( it seems ) had been tempted with an offer of that title , but none of them ever assum'd that name of singularity , as being against the law of the Gospel and the Canons of the Church . Now this being a matter of which Christ spake not one word to S. Peter , if it be a matter of faith and salvation , as it is now pretended , it is not imaginable he would have been so perfectly silent . But though he was silent of any intention to do this , yet S. Paul was not silent that Christ did otherwise ; for he hath set in his Church primùm Apostolos ; first of all , Apostles ; not first S. Peter and secondarily Apostles ; but all the Apostles were first . It is also evident that S. Peter did not carry himself so as to give the least overture or umbrage to make any one suspect he had any such preheminence ; but he was ( as S. Chrysostom truly sayes ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he did all things with the common consent , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , nothing by special authority or principality : and if he had any such , it is more than probable that the Apostles who survived him , had succeeded him in it , rather than the Bishop of Rome : and it being certain ( as the Bishop of Canaries confesses ) That there is in Scripture no revelation that the Bishop of Rome should succeed Peter in it , and we being there told that S. Peter was at Antioch , but never that he was at Rome ; it being confessed by some of their own parties , by Cardinal Cusanus , Soto , Driedo , Canus and Segovius , that this succession was not addicted to any particular Church , nor that Christs institution of this does any other way appear ; that it cannot be proved that the Bishop of Rome is Prince of the Church : it being also certain that there was no such thing known in the primitive Church , but that the Holy Fathers both of Africa and the East did oppose Pope Victor and Pope Stephen , when they began to interpose with a presumptive authority in the affairs of other Churches ; and that the Bishops of the Church did treat with the Roman Bishop as with a brother , not as their superior : and that the General Council held at Chalcedon did give to the Bishops of C. P. equal rights and preheminence with the Bishops of Rome : and that the Greek Churches are at this day and have been a long time great opponents of this pretension of the Bishops of Rome : and after all this , since it is certain that Christ who foreknowes all things , did also know that there would be great disputes and challenges of this preheminence , did indeed suppress it in his Apostles , and said not it should be * otherwise in succession , and did not give any command to his Church to obey the Bishops of Rome as his Vicars , more than what he commanded concerning all Bishops ; it must be certain that it cannot be necessary to salvation to do so , but that it is more than probable that he never intended any such thing , and that the Bishops of Rome have to the great prejudice of Christendom made a great Schism , and usurp'd a title which is not their due , and challeng'd an authority to which they have no right , and have set themselves above others who are their equals , and impose an Article of Faith of their own contriving , and have made great preparation for Antichrist , if he ever get into that Seat , or be in already , and made it necessary for all of the Roman Communion to believe and obey him in all things . SECT . XI . THere are very many more things in which the Church of Rome hath greatly turn'd aside from the Doctrines of Scripture , and the practise of the Catholick Apostolick and primitive Church . Such are these : The Invocation of Saints : The Insufficiency of Scriptures without Traditions of Faith unto Salvation : their absolving sinners before they have by canonical penences and the fruits of a good life testified their repentance : their giving leave to simple Presbyters by Papal dispensation , to give confirmation or chrism : selling Masses for Ninepences : Circumgestation of the Eucharist to be ador'd : The dangerous Doctrine of the necessity of the Priests intention in collating Sacraments ; by which device they have put it into the power of the Priest to damn whom he please of his own parish : their affirming that the Mass is a proper and propitiatory sacrifice for the quick and the dead : Private Masses , or the Lords Supper without Communion ; which is against the doctrine and practise of the ancient Church of Rome it self , and contrary to the tradition of the Apostles , if we may believe Pope Calixtus , and is also forbiden under pain of Excommunication . Peract à consecratione omnes communicent , qui noluerint ecclesiasticis carere liminibus ; sic autem etiam Apostoli statuerunt , & sancta Romana tenet Ecclesia . When the consecration is finish'd , let all communicate that will not be thrust from the bounds of the Church ; for so the Apostles appointed , and so the H. Church of Rome does hold . The same also was decreed by P. Soter and P. Martin in a Council of Bishops , and most severely enjoyn'd by the Canons of the Apostles as they are cited in the Canon Law. * There are divers others ; but we suppose that those Innovations which we have already noted , may be sufficient to verifie this charge of Novelty . But we have done this the rather , because the Roman Emissaries endeavour to prevail amongst the ignorant and prejudicate by boasting of Antiquity ; and calling their Religion , the Old Religion and the Catholick : so insnaring others by ignorant words in which is no truth ; their Religion as it distinguishes from the Religion of the Church of England and Ireland , being neither the Old nor the Catholick Religion ; but New and superinduc'd by arts known to all who with sincerity and diligence have look'd into their pretences . But they have taught every Priest that can scarce understand his Breviary , ( of which in Ireland there are but too many ) and very many of the people , to ask where our Religion was before Luther ? Whereas it appears by the premises , that it is much more easie for us to shew our Religion before Luther , than for them to shew theirs before Trent . And although they can shew too much practise of their Religion in the degenerate ages of the Church , yet we can and do clearly shew ours in the purest and first ages ; and can and do draw lines pointing to the times and places where the several rooms and stories of their Babel was builded , and where polished , and where furnished . But when the keepers of the field slept , and the Enemy had sown tares , and they had choak'd the wheat , and almost destroyed it : when the world complain'd of the infinite errors in the Church , and being oppressed by a violent power , durst not complain so much as they had cause : and when they who had cause to complain , were yet themselves very much abused , and did not complain in all they might ; when divers excellent persons , S. Bernard , Clemangis , Grosthead , Marsilius , Ocham , Alvarus , Abbat Ioachim , Petrarch , Savanarola , Valla , Erasmus , Mantuan , Gerson , Ferus , Cassander , Andreas Frisius , Modrevius , Hermannus Coloniensis , Wasseburgius Archdeacon of Verdun , Paulus Langius * , Staphilus , Telesphorus de Cusentiâ , Doctor Talheymius , Francis Zabarel the Cardinal , and Pope Adrian himself , with many others ; not to reckon Wicklef , Hus , Hierome of Prague , the Bohemians , and the poor men of Lions , whom they call'd Hereticks , and confuted with fire and sword ; when almost all Christian Princes did complain heavily of the corrupt state of the Church , and of Religion , and no remedy could be had , but the very intended remedy made things much worse ; then it was that divers Christian Kingdoms , and particularly the Church of England , Tum primùm senio docilis , tua saecula Roma Erubuit pudet exacti jam temporis , odit Praeteritos foedis cum relligionibus annos . Being asham'd of the errors , superstitions , heresies and impieties which had deturpated the face of the Church ; look'd into the glass of Scripture and pure Antiquity , and wash'd away those stains with which time , and inadvertency , and tyranny had besmear'd her ; and being thus cleans'd and wash'd , is accus'd by the Roman parties of Novelty , and condemn'd , because she refuses to run into the same excess of riot and deordination . But we cannot deserve blame , who return to our ancient and first health , by preferring a New Cure before an Old sore . CHAP. II. The Church of ROME , as it is at this day disordered , teaches Doctrines , and uses Practises , which are in themselves , or in their true and immediate Consequences , direct Impieties , and give Warranty to a wicked Life . Sect. I. OUr first instance is in their Doctrines of Repentance . For the Roman Doctors teach , that unless it be by accident , or in respect of some other obligation , a sinner is not bound presently to repent of his sin as soon as he hath committed it . Some time or other he must do it , and if he take care so to order his affairs that it be not wholly omitted , but so that it be done one time or other , he is not by the precept or grace of Repentance bound to do more . Scotus and his Scholars say that a sinner is bound , viz. by the precept of the Church , to repent on Holy dayes , especially the great ones . But this is thought too severe by Soto and Medina , who teach that a sinner is bound to repent but once a year , that is , against Easter . These Doctors indeed do differ concerning the Churches sense ; which according to the best of them is bad enough ; full as bad as it is stated in the charge : but they agree in the worst part of it , viz. That though the Church calls upon sinners to repent on Holy days , or at Easter ; yet that by the Law of God they are not tyed to so much , but only to repent in the danger or article of death . This is the express Doctrine taught in the Church of Rome by their famous Navar ; and for this he quotes Pope Adrian and Cardinal Cajetan , and finally affirms it to be the sense of all men . The same also is taught by Reginaldus ; saying , It is true , and the opinion of all men , that the time in which a sinner is bound by the commandment of God to be contrite for his sins , is the imminent article of natural or violent death . We shall not need to aggravate this sad story by the addition of other words to the same purpose in a worse degree ; such as those words are of the same Reginaldus , There is no precept that a sinner should not persevere in enmity against God. There is no negative precept forbidding such a perseverance . These are the words of this man ; but the proper and necessary consequent of that which they all teach , and to which they must consent . For since it is certain , that he who hath sinn'd against God and his Conscience , is in a state of enmity , we say he therefore ought to repent presently , because until he hath repented , he is an enemy to God. This they confess , but they suppose it concludes nothing ; for though they consider and confess th●● yet they still saying , a man is no bound by Gods Law to repent till the article of death , do consequently say the same thing that Reginaldus does , and that a man is not bound to come out of that state of enmity till he be in those circumstances that it is very probable if he does not then come out , he must stay in it for ever . It is somthing worse than this yet that Sotus * sayes : [ even to resolve to defer our repentance , and to refuse to repent for a certain time , is but a venial sin ] but Medina * sayes , it is none at all . If it be replyed to this , that though God hath left it to a sinners liberty to repent when he please , yet the Church hath been more severe than God hath been , and tyes a sinner to repent , by collateral positive Laws ; for having bound every one to confess at Easter , consequently she hath tyed every one to repent at Easter ; and so , by her Laws , can lye in the sin without interruption but twelve moneths or thereabouts ; yet there is a secret in this , which nevertheless themselves have been pleased to discover for the ease of tender consciences ; viz. That the Church ordains but the means , the exteriour solemnity of it , and is satisfied if you obey her Laws by a Ritual repentance , but the holiness , and the inward repentance , which in charity we should have suppos'd to have been design'd by the Law of Festivals , non est id quod per praeceptum de observatione Festorum injungitur , is not that which is enjoyn'd by the Church in her Law of Holy dayes . So that still , sinners are left to the liberty which they say God gave ; even to satisfie our selves with all the remaining pleasures of that sin for a little while , even during our short mortal life : onely we must be sure to repent at last . We shall not trouble our ●●lves or our charges with confuting this impious Doctrine . For it is evident that this gives countenance and too much warranty to a wicked life ; and that of it self is confutation enough , and is that which we intended to represent . If it be answered that this is not the doctrine of their Church , but of some private Doctors ; we must tell you , that , if by the Doctrine of their Church they mean such things only as are decreed in their Councils ; it is to be considered , that but few things are determin'd in their Councils ; nothing but Articles of Belief , and the practise of Sacraments relating to publick Order : and if they will not be reprov'd for any thing but what we prove to be false in the Articles of their simple Belief , they take a liberty to say and to do what they list , and to corrupt all the World by their Rules of Conscience . But , that this is also the Doctrine of their Church , their own men tell us . Communis omnium . It is the Doctrine of all their men ; so they affirm , as we have cited their own words above : who also undertake to tell us in what sense their Church intends to tye sinners to actual repentance ; not as soon as the sin is committed , but at certain seasons , and then also to no more of it , than the external and ritual part . So that if their Church be injuriously charged , themselves have done it , not we . And besides all this : it is hard to suppose or expect that the innumerable cases of Conscience which a whole Trade of Lawyers and Divines amongst them have made , can be entred into the records of Councils and publick Decrees . In these cases we are to consider , who teaches them ? Their Gravest Doctors , in the face of the Sun , under the intuition of Authority in the publick conduct of souls , in their allowed Sermons , in their books licens'd by a curious and inquisitive Authority , not passing from them but by warranty from several hands intrusted to examine them , ne fides Ecclesiae aliquid detrimenti patiatur ; that nothing be publish'd but what is consonant to the Catholick Faith. And therefore these things cannot be esteem'd private Opinions : * especially , since if they be , yet they are the private opinions of them all , and that we understand to be publick enough : and are so their Doctrine , as what the Scribes and Pharisees taught their Disciples , though the whole Church of the Jewes had not pass'd it into a Law. So this is the Roman Doctrine , though not the Roman Law. Which difference we desire may be observ'd in many of the following instances , that this objection may no more interpose for an escape , or an excuse . But we shall have occasion again to speak to it , upon new particulars . But this , though it be infinitely intolerable , yet it is but the beginning of sorrows : for the guides of souls in the Roman Church , have prevaricated in all the parts of Repentance , most sadly and dangerously . The next things therefore that we shall remark , are their Doctrines concerning Contrition : which when it is genuine and true , that is , a true cordial sorrow for having sinn'd against God ; a sorrow proceeding from the love of God , and conversion to him , and ending in a dereliction of all our sins , and a walking in all righteousness , both the Psalms and the Prophets , the Old Testament and the New , the Greek Fathers and the Latine have allowed as sufficient for the pardon of our sins through faith in Jesus Christ ( as our Writers have often prov'd in their Sermons , and books of Conscience ) yet first ; the Church of Rome does not allow it to be of any value , unless it be joyn'd with a desire to confess their sins to a Priest ; saying that a man , by contrition is not reconcil'd to God , without their Sacramental or Ritual penance , actual or votive ; and this is decreed by the Council of Trent , which thing besides that it is against Scripture , and the promises of the Gospel , and not onely teaches for Doctrine the Commandments of Men ; but evacuates the goodness of God by their Traditions , and weakens and discourages the best repentance , and prefers repentance towards men , before that which the Scripture calls , Repentance towards God , and Faith in our Lord Iesus Christ. But the malignity of this Doctrine , and its influence it hath on an evil life , appears in the other corresponding part of this Doctrine . For as contrition without their ritual and sacramental confession will not reconcile us to God : so attrition ( as they call it ) or contrition imperfect , proceeding from fear of damnation , together with their Sacrament will reconcile the sinner . Contrition without it will not : attrition with it will reconcile us : and therefore by this doctrine , which is expresly decreed at Trent , there is no necessity of Contrition at all ; and attrition is as good to all intents and purposes of pardon : and a little repentance will prevail as well as the greatest , the imperfect as well as the perfect . So Guilielmus de Rubeo explains this Doctrine . He that confesses his sins , grieving but a little , obtains remission of his sins by the Sacrament of Penance ministred to him by the Priest absolving him . So that although God working Contrition in a penitent , hath not done his work for him without the Priests absolution , in desire at least ; yet if the Priest do his part , he hath done the work for the penitent , though God had not wrought that excellent grace of Contrition in the Penitent . But for the Contrition it self ; it is a good word , but of no severity or affrightment by the Roman Doctrine . One contrition , one act of it , though but little and remiss , can blot out any , even the greatest sin ( always understanding it in the sense of the Church , that is in the Sacrament of Penance ) saith Cardinal Tolet. A certain little inward grief of minde is requir'd to the perfection of Repentance , said Maldonat . And to Contrition , a grief in general for all our sins is sufficient ; but it is not necessary to grieve for any one sin more than another , said Franciscus de Victoriâ . The greatest sin and the smallest , as to this , are all alike ; and as for the Contrition it self , any intension or degree whatsoever , in any instant whatsoever , is sufficient to obtain mercy and remission , said the same Author . Now let this be added to the former , and the sequel is this , That if a man live a wicked life for Threescore or Fourscore years together , yet if in the Article of his death , sooner than which , God hath not commanded him to repent , he be a little sorrowfull for his sins , then resolving for the present , that he will do so no more ; and though this sorrow hath in it no love of God , but onely a fear of Hell , and a hope that God will pardon him ; this , if the Priest absolves him , does instantly pass him into a state of salvation . The Priest with two fingers and a thumb can do his work for him ; onely he must be greatly dispos'd and prepar'd to receive it : Greatly , we say , according to the sense of the Roman Church ; for he must be attrite , or it were better if he were contrite ; one act of grief , a little one , and that not for one sin more than another , and this at the end of a long wicked life , at the time of our death , will make all sure . Upon these terms , it is a wonder that all wicked men in the world are not Papists ; where they may live so merrily , and dye so securely , and are out of all danger , unless peradventure they dye very suddenly , which because so very few do , the venture is esteem'd nothing , and it is a thousand to one on the sinners side . Sect. II. WEe know it will be said , That the Roman Church enjoyns Confession , and imposes Penances , and these are a great restraint to sinners , and gather up what was scattered before . The reply is easie , but is it very sad . For 1. For Confession : It is true , to them who are not us'd to it , as it is at the first time , and for that once it is as troublesome as for a bashfull man to speak Orations in Publick : But where it is so perpetual and universal , and done by Companies and crouds , at a solemn , set time , and when it may be done to any one besides the Parish-Priest , to a Frier that begs , or to a Monk in his Dorter , done in the ear , it may be , to a Person that hath done worse , and therefore hath no awe upon me , but what his Order imprints , and his vitiousness takes off ; when we see Women and Boys , Princes and Prelates do the same every day : And as often times they are never the better , so they are not at all asham'd ; but men look upon it as a certain cure , like pulling off a mans cloathes to go and wash in a river , and make it by use and habit , by confidence and custom , to be no certain pain , and the women blush or smile , weep or are unmov'd , as it happens , under their vail , and the men under the boldness of their Sex : When we see that men and women confess to day , and sin to morrow , and are not affrighted from their sin the more for it ; because they know the worst of it , and have felt it often , and believe to be eas'd by it , certain it is , that a little reason , and a little of observation will suffice to conclude , that this practice of Confession hath in it no affrightment , not so much as the horror of the sin it self hath to the Conscience , For they who commit sins confidently , will with less regret ( it may be ) confess it in this manner , where it is the fashion for every one to do it . And when all the World observes , how loosely the Italians , Spaniards and French do live in their Carnivals , giving to themselves all liberty and licence to do the vilest things at that time , not only because they are for a while to take their leave of them , but because they are ( as they suppose ) to be so soon eas'd of their crimes by Confession , and the circular and never-failing hand of the Priest ; they will have no reason to admire the severity of Confession , which as it was most certainly intended as a deletory of sin , and might do its first intention , if it were equally manag'd ; so now certainly it gives confidence to many men to sin , and to most men to neglect the greater and more effective parts of essential repentance . We shall not need to observe , how Confession is made a Minister of State , a Picklock of Secrets , a Spy upon Families , a Searcher of Inclinations , a Betraying to Temptations , for this is wholly by the fault of the men , and not of the Doctrine ; but even the Doctrine it self , as it is handled in the Church of Rome , is so far from bringing peace to troubled Consciences , that it intromits more scruples and cases than it can resolve . For besides , that it self is a question , and they have made it dangerous , by pretending that it is by Divine Right and Institution ( for so some of the Schoolmen * teach , and the Canonists say the contrary , * and that it is onely of humane and positive Constitution ) and by this difference in so great a point , have made the whole Oeconomy of their repentance , which relies upon the supposed necessity of Confession , to fail , or to shake vehemently , and at the best , to be a foundation too uncertain , to build the hopes of salvation on it ; besides all this , we say , Their Rules and Doctrines of Confession , enjoyn some things that are of themselves dangerous , and lead into temptation . An instance of this is in that which is decreed in the Canons of Trent , That the Penitent must not onely confess every mortal sin which after diligent inquiry he remembers , but even his very sinfull thoughts in particular , and his secret desires , and every circumstance which changes the kind of the sin , or ( as some add ) does notably increase it : and how this can be safely done , and who is sufficient for these things , and who can tell his circumstances without tempting his Confessor , or betraying , and defaming another person , ( which is forbidden ) and in what cases it may be done , or in what cases omitted ; and whether the Confession be valid upon infinite other considerations , and whether it be to be repeated in whole or in part , and how often , and how much ? these things are so uncertain , casual and contintingent , and so many cases are multiplied upon every one of these , and these so disputed and argued by their greatest Doctors , by Thomas and Scotus , and all the Schoolmen , and by the Casuists , that as Beatus Rhenanus complains , it was truly observed by the famous Iohn Geilerius , that according to their cases , inquiries and conclusions , it is impossible for any man to make a right Confession . So that although the shame of private Confession be very tolerable and easie , yet the cases and scruples which they have introduc'd , are neither easie nor tolerable , and though ( as it is now used ) there be but little in it , to restrain sin , yet there is very much danger of increasing it , and of receiving no benefit by it . Sect. III. BUt then for penances and satisfactions of which they boast so much , as being so great restraints to sin , these as they are publickly handled , are nothing but words and ineffective sounds . For first , if we consider what the penances themselves are which are enjoyn'd ; they are reduc'd from the Antient Canonical penances to private and arbitrary ; from years to hours ; from great severity to gentleness and flattery ; from fasting and publick shame to the saying over their beads ; from cordial to ritual , from smart to money , from heartiness and earnest to pageantry and theatrical images of penance ; and if some Confessors happen to be severe , there are ways enough to be eased . For the Penitent may have leave to go to a gentler , or he may get commutations , or he may get some body else * to do them for him : and if his penances be never so great , or never so little , yet may be all supplied by Indulgencies ; of which there are such store in the Lateran at Rome , that as Pope Boniface said , No man is able to number them ; yet he confirm'd them all . In the Church of Sancta Maria de Popolo there are for every day in the year , two thousand and eight hundred years of pardon , besides fourteen thousand and fourteen Carentanes ; which in one year amount to more than a Million ; all which are confirm'd by Pope Paschal the First , Boniface the VIII , and Gregory the IX . In the Church of S. Vitus and Modestus there are for every day in the year seven thousand years and seven thousand Carentanes of pardon , and a pardon of a third part of all our sins besides ; and the price of all this , is but praying before an altar in that Church . At the Sepulchre of Christ in Venice there is hung up a prayer of S. Austin , with an Indulgence of fourscore and two thousand years granted by Boniface the VIII . ( who was of all the Popes the most bountiful of the Churches treasure ) and Benedict the XI . to him that shall say it , and that for every day toties quoties . The Divine pardon of Sica gave a plenary indulgence to every one that being confessed and communicated , should pray there in the Franciscan Church of Sancta Maria de gli Angeli , and this pardon is ab omni poend & culp● . The English of that we easily understand ; but the meaning of it we do not , because they will not own that these Indulgences do profit any one whose guilt is not taken away by the Sacrament of penance . But this is not the onely snare in which they have inextricably intangled themselves ; but be it as they please for this , whatever it was , it was since enlarged by Sixtus IV. and Sixtus V. to all that shall wear S. Francis Chord . The saying a few Pater nosters and Ave's before a priviledged altar can in innumerable places procure vast portions of this Treasure ; and to deliver a soul out of Purgatory , whom they list , is promised to many upon easie terms , even to the saying of their Beads over with an appendant Medal of the Popes Benediction . Every Priest at his third or fourth Masse is as sure ( as may be ) to deliver the souls of his parents ; and a thousand more such stories as these are to be seen every where and every day . Once for all : There was a Book printed at Paris by Francis Reg●ault , A. D. 1536 , May 25. called The hours of the most blessed Virgin Mary according to the use of Sarum , in which for the saying three short prayers written in Rome in a place called , The Chappel of the Holy Cross of seven Romans , are promised fourscore and ten thousand years of pardon of deadly sin . Now the meaning of these things is very plain . By these devices they serve themselves , and they do not serve God. They serve themselves by this Doctrine : For they teach that what penance is ordinarily imposed , does not take away all the punishment that is due ; for they do not impose what was antiently enjoyn'd by the penitential Canons , but some little thing instead of it : and it may be , that what was anciently enjoyn'd by the penitential Canons , is not so much as God will exact , ( for they suppose that he will forgive nothing but the guilt and the eternity ; but he will exact all that can be demanded on this side hell , even to the last farthing he must be paid some way or other , even when the guilt is taken away , but therefore to prevent any falling that way , they have given indulgences enough to take off what was due by the Old Canons , and what may be due by the severity of God ; and if these fail , they may have recourse to the Priests , and they by their Masses can make supply : so that their Disciples are well , and the want of ancient Discipline shall do them no hurt . But then how little they serve Gods end by treating the sinner so gently , will be very evident . For by this means they have found out a way , that though , it may be , God will be more severe than the old penitential Canons , and although these Canons were much more severe than men are now willing to suffer , yet neither for the one or the other shall they need to be troubled : they have found out an easier way to go to heaven than so . An indulgence will be no great charge , but that will take off all the supernumerary penances which ought to have been imposed by the ancient Discipline of the Church , and may be requir'd by God. A little alms to a Priest , a small oblation to a Church , a pilgrimage to the image or reliques of a Saint , wearing Saint Francis Chord , saying over the beads with an hallowed appendant , entering into a Fraternity , praying at a priviledged altar , leaving a legacy for a soul Mass , visiting a priviledged Caemetery , and twenty other devices will secure the sinner from suffering punishment here or hereafter , more then his friendly Priest is pleased gently to impose . To them that ask , what should any one need to get so many hundred thousand years of pardon , as are ready to be had upon very easie terms ? They answer as before ; that whereas it may be for perjury the antient Canons enjoyned penance all their life * ; that will be supposed to be twenty or forty years , or suppose an hundred : if the man have been perjur'd a thousand times , and committed adultery so often , and done innumerable other sins , for every one of which he deserves to suffer forty years penance , and how much more in the account of God he deserves , he knows not ; if he be attrite and confess'd so that the guilt is taken away , yet as much temporal punishment remains due as is not paid here : but the indulgences of the Church will take off so much as it comes to ; even of all that would be suffered in Purgatory . Now it is true , that Purgatory ( at least as is believ'd ) cannot last a hundred thousand years : but yet God may by the acerbity of the flames in twenty years , equal the Canonical penances of twenty thousand years : to prevent which , these indulgences of so many thousand years are devised . A wise and thrifty invention , sure and well contriv'd , and rightly applotted according to every mans need , and according as they suspect his bill shall amount to . This strange invention , as strange as it is , will be own'd , for this is the account of it which we find in Bellarmine : and although Gerson and Dominicus à Soto are asham'd of these prodigious indulgences , and suppose that the Popes Quaestuaries onely did procure them , yet it must not be so disown'd ; truth is truth , and it is notoriously so ; and therefore a reason must be found out for it , and this is it which we have accounted . But the use we make of it is this . That since they have declar'd that when sinnes are pardoned so easily , yet the punishment remains so very great , and that so much must be suffered here or in Purgatory ; it is strange that they should not onely in effect pretend to shew more mercy than God does , or the primitive Church did ; but that they should directly lay aside the primitive Discipline , and while they declaim against their adversaries for saying they are not necessary , yet at the same time they should devise tricks to take them quite away , so that neither penances shall much smart here , nor Purgatory ( which is a device to make men to be Mulata's , as the Spaniard calls , half Christians , a device to make a man go to heaven and to hell too ) shall not torment them hereafter . However it be , yet things are so ordered , that the noise of penances need not trouble the greatest criminal , unless he be so unfortunate as to live in no countrey and near no Church , and without Priest , or Friend , or Money , or notice of any thing that is so loudly talk'd of in Christendom . If he be , he hath no help but one ; he must live a holy and a severe life , which is the onely great calamity which they are commanded to suffer in the Church of England : but if he be not ; the case is plain , he may by these doctrines take his ease . SECT . IV. WE doubt not but they who understand the proper sequele of these things , will not wonder that the Church of Rome should have a numerous company of Proselytes , made up of such as the beginnings of Davids Army were . But that we may undeceive them also , for to their souls we intend charity and relief by this address ; we have thought fit to add one consideration more ; and that is , that it is not fit that they should trust to this , or any thing of this ; not onely because there is no foundation of truth in these new devices , but because even the Roman Doctors themselves , when they are pinch'd with an objection , let their hold go , and to escape , do in remarkable measures destroy their own new building . The case is this . To them who say , that if there were truth in these pretensions , then all these , and the many millions of indulgences more , and the many other wayes of releasing souls out of Purgatory , the innumerable Masses said every day , the power of the Keys so largely imployed , would in a short time have emptied Purgatory of all her sad inhabitants , or it may be , very few would go thither , and they that unfortunately do , cannot stay long ; and consequently , besides that this great softness and easiness of procedure would give confidence to the greatest sinners , and the hopes of Purgatory would destroy the fears of Hell , and the certainty of doing well enough in an imperfect life , would make men carelesse of the more excellent : besides these things , there will need no continuation of pensions to pray for persons dead many years ago : To them , I say who talk to them at this rate ; they have enough to answer . Deceive not your selves , there are more things to be reckon'd for than so . For when you have deserved great punishments for great sins , and the guilt is taken off by absolution , and ( you suppose ) the punishment by indulgences or the satisfaction of others ; it may be so , and it may be not so . For 1. It is according as your Indulgence is . Suppose it for fourty years , or it may be a hundred , or a thousand ( and that is a great matter ; ) yet peradventure according to the old penitential rate you have deserved the penance of fourty thousand years ; or at least you may have done so ; by the more severe account of God. If the penance of fourty years be taken off by your indulgence , it does as much of the work as was promised or intended ; but you can feel little ease , if still there remains due the penance of threescore thousand years . No man can tell the difference when what remains shall be so great as to surmount all the evils of this life ; and the abatement may be accounted by pen and ink , but will signifie little in the perception ; it is like the casting out of a Devil out of a miserable Demoniack , when there still remains fifty more as bad as he that went away ; the man will hardly find how much he is advanced in his ●ure . But 2. You have with much labour , and some charge , purchased to your self so many Quadragenes or Lents of pardon ; that is , you have bought off the penances of so many times forty dayes . It is well ; but were you well advised , it may be your Quadragenes are not Carenes ; that is , are not a quitting the severest penances of fasting so long in bread and water ; for there is great difference in the manner of keeping a penitential Lent , and it may be you have purchased but some lighter thing ; and then if your demerit arise to so many Carenes , and you purchased but mere Quadragenes , without a minute and table of particulars , you may stay longer in Purgatory than you expected . 3. But therefore your best way is to get a plenary Indulgence ; and that may be had on reasonable terms ; but take heed you do not think your self secure ; For a plenary Indulgence does not do all that , it may be , you require : for there is an Indulgence more full , and another most full , and it is not agreed upon among the Doctors , whether a plenary Indulgence is to be extended beyond the taking off those penances which were actually enjoyn'd by the confessor , or how far they go further . And they that read Turrecremata , Navar , Cordubensis , Fabius Incarnatus , Petrus de Soto , Armilla aurea , Aquinas , Tolet , Cajetan , in their several accounts of Indulgences , will soon perceive that all this is but a handful of smoke , when you hold it , you hold it not . 4. But further yet ; all Indulgencies are granted upon some inducement , and are not ex mero motu , or acts of mere grace without cause ; and if the cause be not reasonable , they are invalid ; and whether the cause be sufficient will be very hard to judge . And if there be for the Indulgence , yet if there be not a reasonable cause for the quantity of the indulgence , you cannot tell how much you get : and the Preachers of indulgences ought not to declare how valid they are assertive , that is , by any confidence , but opinative , or recitative , they can onely tell what is said , or what is their own opinion . 5. When this difficulty is passed over , yet it may be the person is not capable of them ; for if he be not in the state of grace , all is nothing : and if he be , yet if he does not perform the condition of the Indulgence actually , his mere endeavour or good desire is nothing . And when the conditions are actually done , it must be enquired whether in the time of doing them you were in charity ; whether you be so at least in the last day of finishing them ; it is good to be certain in this , least all evaporate and come to nothing : But yet suppose this too , though the work you are to do as the condition of the indulgence , be done so well that you lose not all the indulgence , yet for every degree of imperfection in that work , you will lose apart of the indulgence ; and then it will be hard to tell whether you get half so much as you propounded to your self . But here Pope Adrian troubles the whole affair again : for if the indulgence be onely given according to the worthiness of the work done , then that will avail of it self without any grant from the Church ; and then it is hugely questionable whether the Popes authority be of any use in this whole matter . 6. But there is yet a greater heap of dangers and uncertainties ; for you must be sure of the Authority of him that gives the Indulgence , and in this there are many doubtful questions ; but when they are over , yet it is worth inquiry ( for some Doctors are fearful in this point ) Whether the intromission of Venial sinnes , without which no man lives , does hinder the fruit of the Indulgence , for if it does , all the cost is lost . 7. When an Indulgence is given , put case , to abide forty dayes on certain conditions ; whether these forty dayes are to be taken collectively or distributively ; for , because it is confessed , that the matter of Indulgences is res odibilis , a hateful and an odious matter , it is not to be understood in the sense of favour , but of greatest severity , and therefore it is good to know before hand what to trust to , to enquire how the Bull is pen'd , and what sense of Law every word does bear ; for it may be any good mans case : If an Indulgence be granted to a place for so many dayes in every year , it were fit you enquire for how many years that will last ; for some Doctors say , That if a definite number of years be not set down , it is intended to last but twenty years . And therefore it is good to be wise early . 8. But it is yet of greater consideration : If you take out a Bull of Indulgence , relating to the Article of Death , in case you recover that sickness in which you thought you should use it , you must consider , whether you must not take out a new one for the next fit of sickness ; or will the first , which stood for nothing , keep cold , and without any sensible error serve when you shall indeed dye ? 9. You must also inquire and be rightly informed whether an Indulgence granted upon a certain Festival will be valid , if the day be chang'd ( as they were all at once , by the Gregorian Calendar ) or if you go into another Countrey , where the Feast is not kept the same day , as it happens in moveable Feasts , and on S. Bartholomews day , and some others . 10. When your Lawyers have told you their opinion of all these questions , and given it under their hand , it will concern you to inquire yet further , whether a succeeding Pope have not , or cannot revoke an Indulgence granted by his Predecessor ; for this is often done in matters of favour and priviledges ; and the German Princes complained sadly of it ; and it was complain'd in the Council of Lions , that Martin the Legate of Pope Innocent VIII . revok'd and dissipated all former grants ; and it is an old rule , Papa nunquam sibi ligat manus : The Pope never binds his own hands . But here some caution would do well . 11. It is worth inquiry , Whether in the year of Jubilee , all other Indulgences be suspended ; for though some think they are not , yet Navar and Emanuel S à affirm , that they are ; and if they chance to say true ( for no man knowes whether they do or no ) you may be at a loss that way . And when all this is done , yet , 12. Your Indulgences will be of no avail to you in reserved cases , which are very many . A great many more very fine scruples might be mov'd , and are so ; and therefore when you have gotten all the security you can by these , you are not safe at all . But therefore be sure still to get Masses to be said . So that now the great Objection is answered ; you need not fear that saying Masses will ever be made unnecessary , by the multitude of Indulgences : The Priest must still be imployed and entertain'd in subsidium , since there are so many ways of making the Indulgence good for nothing : And as for the fear of emptying Purgatory by the free and liberal use of the Keyes , it is very needless ; because the Pope cannot evacuate * Purgatory , or give so many Indulgences , as to take out all Souls from thence : And therefore if the Popes , and the Bishops , and the Legates , have been already too free , it may be there is so much in arrear , that the Treasure of the Church is spent , or the Church is in debt for souls ; or else , though the Treasure be inexhaustible , yet so much of her Treasure ought not to be made use of , and therefore it may be that your souls shall be postpon'd , and must stay and take its turn , God knows when . And therefore we cannot but commend the prudence of Cardinal Albernotius , who by his last will took order for fifty thousand Masses to be said for his soul ; for he was a wise man , and lov'd to make all as sure as he could . But then to apply this to the Consciences of the poor people of the Roman Communion . Here is a great deal of Treasure of the Church pretended , and a great many favours granted , and much ease promised , and the wealth of the Church boasted of , and the peoples money gotten ; and that this may be a perpetual spring , it is clear amongst their own Writers , that you are not sure of any good by all that is past , but you must get more security , or this may be nothing . But how easie were it for you now to conclude , that all this is but a meer cozenage , an art to get money ? but that 's but the least of the evil , it is a certain way to deceive souls . For since there are so many thousands that trust to these things , and yet in the confession of your own Writers , there are so many fallibilities in the whole , and in every part , why will you suffer your selves so weakly and vainly to be cozen'd out of your souls , with promises that signifie nothing , and words without vertue , and treasures that make no man rich , and indulgences that give confidence to sin , but no ease to the pains which follow ? Besides all this , it is very considerable , that this whole affair is a state of temptation ; for they that have so many ways to escape , will not be so careful of the main stake , as the interest of it requires . He that hopes to be relieved by many others , will be tempted to neglect himself : There is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , an Vnum necessarium , even that we work out our own salvation with fear and trembling . A little wisdom , and an easie observation were enough to make all men that love themselves , wisely to abstain from such diet which does not nourish , but fills the stomack with wind and imagination . But to return to the main Inquiry . We desire that it be considered , how dangerously good life is undermined , by the Propositions collaterally taught by their great Doctors , in this matter of Indulgences ; besides the main and direct danger and deception . 1. Venial sins preceding or following the work enjoyn'd for getting Indulgences , hinder not their fruit : But if they intervene in the time of doing them , then they hinder . By this Proposition there is infinite uncertainty concerning the value of any Indulgence ; for if venial sins be daily incursions , who can say that he is one day clean from them ? And if he be not , he hath paid his price for that which profits not , and he is made to relie upon that which will not support him . But though this being taught , doth evacuate the Indulgence , yet it is not taught to prevent the sin ; for before and after , if you commit venial sinnes , there is no great matter in it : The inconvenience is not great , and the remedy is easie ; you are told of your security as to this point before hand . 2. Pope Adrian taught a worse matter . He that will obtain indulgence for another , if he does perform the work enjoyn'd , though himself be in deadly sin , yet for the other he prevails : as if a man could do more for another than he can do for himself ; or as if God would regard the prayers of a vile and a wicked person when he intercedes for another , and at the same time , if he prays for himself , his prayer is an abomination . God first is intreated for our selves , and when we are more excellent persons , admits us to intercede , and we shall prevail for others ; but that a wicked person who is under actual guilt , and oblig'd himself to suffer all punishment , can ease and take off the punishment due to others by any external good work done ungraciously , is a piece of new Divinity without colour of reason or religion . Others in this are something less scandalous ; and affirm that though it be not necessary that when the indulgence is granted the man should be in the state of grace , yet it is necessary that at some time or other he should be ; at any time ( it seems ) it will serve . For thus they turn Divinity and the care of souls into Mathematicks and Clockwork , and dispute minutes and periods with God , and are careful to tell their people how much liberty they may take , and how far they may venture , least they should lose any thing of their sins pleasure , which they can possibly enjoy , and yet have hopes of being sav'd at last . 3. But there is worse yet . If a man willingly commits a sin in hope and expectation of a Iubilee , and of the Indulgences afterwards to be granted , he does not lose the Indulgence , but shall receive it : which is expresly affirm'd by Navar a , and Antonius Cordubensis b , and Bellarmine c though he asks the question , denies it not . By which it is evident that the Roman Doctrines and Divinity , teach contrary to Gods way ; who is most of all angry with them that turn his grace into wantonness , and sin , that grace may abound . 4. If any man by reason of povertie , cannot give the prescrib'd Almes , he cannot receive the Indulgence . Now since it is sufficiently known , that in all or most of the Indulgences , a clause is sure to be included , that something be offered to the Church , to the Altar , to a Religious House , &c. the consequent of this will be soon seen , that Indulgences are made for the rich , and the Treasures of the Church are to be dispensed to them that have Treasures of their own , for habenti dabitur . But then , God help the poor ; for them Purgatory is prepar'd , and they must burn : For the Rich it is pretended , but the smell of fire will not pass upon them . From these premises we suppose it but too evident , that the Roman Doctors prevaricate in the whole Doctrine of Repentance , which indeed in Christ Jesus is the whole Oeconomy of Justification and Salvation ; it is the hopes and staff of all the world , the remedy of all evils past , present , and to come . And if our physick be poyson'd , if our staff be broken , if our hopes make us asham'd , how shall we appear before Christ at his coming ? But we say , that in all the parts of it their Doctrine is infinitely dangerous . 1. Contrition is sufficient if it be but one little act , and that in the very Article of death ; and before that time it is not necessary by the Law of God , nay , it is indeed sufficient ; but it is also insufficient , for without confession in act or desire it suffices not . And though it be thus insufficiently sufficient , yet it is not necessary : For attrition is also sufficient , if a Priest can be had , and then any little grief proceeding out of the fear of Hell will do it , if the Priest do but absolve . 2. Confession might be made of excellent use , and is so among the pious children of the Church of England ; but by the Doctrines and Practises in the Church of Rome , it is made , not the remedy of sins by proper enargy , but the excuse , the alleviation , the confidence , the ritual , external and sacramental remedy , and serves instead of the labours of a holy and a regular life ; and yet is so intangled with innumerable and inextricable cases of Conscience , Orders , humane Prescripts , and great and little Artifices , that scruples are more increased , than sins are lessened . 3. For Satisfaction and Penances , which if they were rightly order'd , and made instrumental to kill the desires of sin , or to punish the Criminal , or were properly the fruits of repentance , that is , parts of a holy life , good works done in charity , and the habitual permanent grace of God , were so prevailing , as they do the work of God ; yet when they are taken away , not only by the declension of primitive Discipline , but by new Doctrines and Indulgences , regular and offer'd commutations for mony , and superstitious practises , which are sins themselves , and increase the numbers and weights of the account , there is a great way made for the destruction of souls , and the discountenancing the necessity of holy life ; but nothing for the advantage of holiness , or the becoming like to God. And now at last for a cover to this dish , we have thought fit to mind the world , and to give caution to all that mean to live godly in Christ Iesus , to what an infinite scandal and impiety this affair hath risen in the Church of Rome ; we mean , in the instance of their Taxa Camerae , seu Cancellariae Apostolicae , the tax of the Apostolical Chamber or Chancery : A Book publikely printed and expos'd to common sale ; of which their own Espencaeus gives this account , that it is a Book in which a man may learn more wickedness , than in all the Summaries of vices published in the world ; and yet to them that will pay for it , there is to many given a License , to all an Absolution for the greatest and most horrid sins . There is is a price set down for his Absolution that hath kill'd his Father , or his Mother , Brother , Sister , or Wife , or that hath lyen with his Sister , or his Mother . We desire all good Christians to excuse us for naming such horrid things . Nomina sunt ipso penè timenda sono . But the Licences are printed at Paris in the Year 1500. by Tossan Denis : Pope Innocent the VIII . either was Author or inlarger of these Rules of this Chancery Tax , and there are glosses upon them , in which the Scholiast himself who made them , affirms , that he must for that time conceal some things , to avoid Scandal . But how far this impiety proceeded , and how little regard there is in it to piety , or the good of souls , is visible by that which Augustinus de Anconâ teaches , [ That the Pope ought not to give Indulgences to them who have a desire of giving mony , but cannot , as to them who actually give : And whereas it may be objected , that then poor mens souls are in a worse condition than the rich ; he answers , That as to the remission of the punishment acquir'd by the Indulgence , in such a case it is not inconvenient that the rich should be in a better condition than the poor : ] For in that manner do they imitate God , who is no respecter of persons . SECT . VI. THese Observations we conceive to be sufficient to deter every well-meaning person from running into , or abiding in such temptations . Every false Proposition that leads to impiety , is a stock and fountain of temptations ; and these which we have reckon'd in the matter of Repentance , having influence upon the whole life , are yet much greater , by corrupting the whole mass of Wisdom and Spiritual Propositions . There are indeed many others . We shall name some of them , but shall not need much to insist on them . Such as are , 1. That one man may satisfie for another . * It is the general Doctrine of their Church : The Divines and Lawyers consent in it , and publikely own it : The effect of which is this , that some are made rich by it , and some are careless ; But qui non solvit in aere , luat incorpore , is a Canonical rule ; and though it was spoken in the matter of publick penances , and so relates to the exteriour Court , yet it is also practis'd and avowed in satisfactions or penances relating to the inward Court. of Conscience , and penance Sacramental ; and the rich man is made negligent in his duty , and is whip'd upon another mans back , and his purse onely is the Penitent ; and which is worst of all , here is a pretence of doing that , which is too neer blasphemy but to say . For by this Doctrine , it is not to be said of Christ alone , that he was wounded for our transgressions , that he only satisfied for our sins ; for in the Church of Rome it is done frequently , and pretended daily , that by another mans stripes we are healed . 2. They teach , That a habit of sinne , is not a sinne , distinct from those former actions by which the habit was contracted . The secret intention of which proposition , and the malignity of it , consists in this , that it is not necessary for a man to repent speedily ; and a man is not bound by repentance to interrupt the procedure of his impiety , or to repent of his habit , but of the single acts that went before it . For as for those that come after , they are excus'd , if they be produc'd by a strong habit ; and the greater the habit , the less is the sin : But then as the repentance need not for that reason , be hasty and presently ; so because it is onely to be of single acts , the repentance it self need not be habitual , but it may be done in an instant ; whereas to mortifie a habit of sinne ( which is the true and proper repentance ( there is requir'd a longer time , and a procedure in the methods of a holy life . By this , and such like Propositions , and careless Sentences , they have brought it to that pass , that they reckon a single act of Contrition , at any time to be sufficient to take away the wickedness of a long life . Now that this is the avowed Doctrine of the Roman Guides of Souls , will sufficiently appear in the Writings of their chiefest , of which no learned man can be ignorant . The thing was of late openly and professedly disputed against us , and will not be denied . And that this Doctrine is infinitely destructive of the necessity of a good life , cannot be doubted of , when themselves do own the proper consequents of it , even the unnecessariness of present repentance , or before the danger of death ; of which we have already given accounts . But the reason why we remark it here , is that which we now mentioned , because that by the Doctrine of vitious habits , having in them no malignity or sin but what is in the single preceding acts , there is an excuse made for millions of sins : For if by an evil habit the sinner is not made worse , and more hated by God , and his sinful acts made not onely more , but more criminal ; it will follow , that the sins are very much lessened : For they being not so voluntary in their exercise and distinct emanation , are not in present so malicious ; and therefore he that hath gotten a habit of drunkenness or swearing , sins less in every act of drunkenness or prophane oath , than he that acts them seldom ; because by his habit he is more inclin'd , and his sins are almost natural , and less consider'd , less chosen , and not disputed against ; but pass by inadvertency , and an untroubled consent , easily and promptly , and almost naturally from that principle : So that by this means , and in such cases when things are come to this pass , they have gotten an imperfect Warrant to sin a great deal , and a great while , without any new great inconvenience : Which evil state of things ought to be infinitely avoided by all Christians that would be saved , by all means ; and therefore all such Teachers , and all such Doctrines , are carefully to be declin'd , who give so much easiness , not only to the remedies , but to the sins themselves . But of this , we hope it may be sufficient to have given this short warning . 3. The distinction of Mortal and Venial sins , as it is taught in the Church of Rome , is a great cause of wickedness , and careless conversation . For although we do with all the ancient Doctors admit of the distinction of sins Mortal and Venial ; yet we also teach , That in their own nature , and in the rigor of the Divine Justice , every sin is damnable , and deserves Gods anger , and that in the unregenerate they are so accounted , and that in hell the damned suffer for small and great in a common mass of torment ; yet by the Divine mercy and compassion , the smaller sins which come by surprize , or by invincible ignorance , or inadvertency , or unavoidable infirmity , shall not be imputed to those who love God , and delight not in the smallest sin , but use caution and prayers , watchfulness and remedies against them . But if any man delights in small sins , and heaps them into numbers , and by deliberation or licentiousness they grow numerous , or are in any sense chosen or taken in by contempt of the Divine Law , they do put us from the favour of God , and will pass into severe accounts . And though sins are greater or less by comparison to each other , yet the smallest is a burthen too great for us , without the allowances of the Divine mercy . But the Church of Rome teaches , that there is a whole kinde of sins , which are venial in their own nature ; such , which if they were altogether , all in the world conjoyn'd , could not equal one mortal sin , * nor destroy charity , nor put us from the favour of God ; such , for which no man can perish , * etiamsi nullum pactum esset de remissione , though Gods merciful Covenant of Pardon did not intervene . And whereas , Christ said , of every idle word a man shall speak , he shall give account at the day of judgement ; and , By your words ye shall be justified ; and , By your words ye shall be condemned : Bellarmine expresly affirms , It is not intelligible , how an idle word should in its own nature be worthy of the eternal wrath of God , and eternal flame● . Many other desperate words are spoken by the Roman Doctors in this Question , which we love not to aggravate , because the main thing is acknowledged by them all . But now we appeal to the reason and Consciences of all men , Whether this Doctrine of sins Venial in their own nature , be not greatly destructive to a holy life ? When it is plain , that they give rest to mens Consciences for one whole kinde of sins ; for such , which because they occur every day , in a very short time ( if they be not interrupted by the grace of Repentance ) will swell to a prodigious heap . But concerning these we are bidden to be quiet ; for we are told , that all the heaps of these in the world cannot put us out of Gods favour . Adde to this , that it being in thousands of cases , impossible to tell which are , and which are not Venial in their own nature , and in their appendant circumstances , either the people are cozen'd by this Doctrine into an useless confidence ; and for all this talking in their Schools , they must nevertheless do to Venial sins as they do to Mortal , that is , mortifie them , fight against them , repent speedily of them , and keep them from running into mischief ; and then all their kinde Doctrines in this Article , signifie no comfort or ease but all danger and difficulty , and useless dispute 3 or else , if really they mean , that this easiness of opinion be made use of , then the danger is imminent , and carelesness is introduc'd , and licentiousness in all little things is easily indulg'd ; and mens souls are daylie lessen'd without repair , and kept from growing towards Christian perfection , and from destroying the whole body of sin ; and in short , despising little things , they perish by little and little . This Doctrine also is worse yet in the handling . For it hath infinite influence to the disparagement of holy life , not onely by the uncertain , but as it must frequently happen , by the false determination of innumerable cases of Conscience . For it is a great matter both in the doing and the thing done , both in the caution and the repentance , whether such an action be a venial or a mortal sin . If it chance to be mortal , and pour Confessor says it is venial , your soul is betrayed . And it is but a chance what they say in most cases ; for they call what they please venial ; and they have no certain rule to answer by ; which appears too sadly in their innumerable differences which is amongst all their Casuists , in saying what is , and what is not mortal ; and of this there needs no greater proof than the reading the little Summaries made by their most leading guides of Consciences , Navar , Cajetane , Tolet , Emanuel Sà , and others ; where one sayes such a thing is mortal , and two say it is venial . And lest any man should say or think , this is no great matter , we desire that it be considered , that in venial sins there may be very much fantastick pleasure , and they that retain them do believe so ; for they suppose the pleasure is great enough to outweigh the intolerable pains of Purgatory ; and that it is more eligible to be in Hell a while , than to cross their appetites in such small things . And howeve● it happen in this particular , yet because the Doctor● differ so infinitely and irreconcileably , in saying what is , and what is not Venial , whoever shall trust to their Doctrine , saying that such a sin is Venial ; and to their Doctrine , that says it does not exclude from Gods favour , may by these two Propositions be damned before he is aware . We omit to insist upon their express contradicting the words of our Blessed Saviour , who taught his Church expresly , That we must work in the day time ; for the night cometh , and no man worketh : Let this be as true as it can in the matter of Repentance and Mortification , and working out our pardon for mortal sins ; yet it is not true in Venial sins , if we may believe their great * S. Thomas , whom also Bellarmine * follows in it ; for he affirms , That by the acts of Love and Patience in Purgatory , Venial sins are remitted ; and that the acceptation of those punishments , proceeding out of Charity , is a virtual kinde of penance . But in this particular we follow not S. Thomas nor Bellarmine in the Church of England and Ireland ; for we believe in Jesus Christ , and follow him : If men give themselves liberty as long as they are alive to commit one whole kinde of sins , and hope to work it out after death by acts of Charity and Repentance , which they would not do in their life time ; either they must take a course to sentence the words of Christ , as savouring of heresie , or else they will find themselves to have been at first deceiv'd in their Proposition , and at last in their expectation . Their faith hath fail'd them here , and hereafter they will be asham'd of their hope . Sect. VII . THere is a Proposition , which indeed is new , but is now the general Doctrine of the Leading Men in the Church of Rome ; and it is the foundation on which their Doctors of Conscience rely , in their decision of all cases in which there is a doubt or question made by themselves ; and that is , That if an Opinion or Speculation be probable , it may in practise be safely followed : And if it be inquir'd , What is sufficient to make an Opinion probable ; the answer is easie , Sufficit opinio alicujus gravis Doctoris aut Bonorum exemplum : The opinion of any one grave Doctor is sufficient to make a matter probable ; nay , the example and practise of good men , that is , men who are so reputed ; if they have done it , you may do so too , and be safe . This is the great Rule of their Cases of Conscience . And now we ought not to be press'd with any ones saying , that such an opinion is but the private opinion of one or more of their Doctors . For although in matters of Faith this be not sufficient , to impute a Doctrine to a whole Church , which is but the private opinion of one or more ; yet because we are now speaking of the infinite danger of souls in that communion , and the horrid Propositions by which their Disciples are conducted , to the disparagement of good life , it is sufficient to alledge the publick and allowed sayings of their Doctors ; because these sayings are their Rule of living : and because the particular Rules of Conscience , use not to be Decreed in Councils , we must derive them from the places where they grow , and where they are to be found . But besides , you will say , That this is but the private opinion of some Doctors ; and what then ? Therefore it is not to be called the Doctrine of the Roman Church . True , we do not say , It is an Article of their Faith , but , a rule of manners : This is not indeed in any publick Decree ; but we say , that although it be not , yet neither is the contrary . And if it be but a private opinion , yet , is it safe to follow it , or is it not safe ? For that 's the question , and therein is the danger . If it be safe , then this is their Rule , A private opinion of any one grave Doctor , may be safely followed in the questions of Vertue and Vice. But if it be not safe to follow it , and that this does not make an opinion probable , or the practise safe ; Who sayes so ? Does the Church ? No ; Does Dr. Cajus , or Dr. Sempronius say so ? Yes : But these are not safe to follow ; for they are but private Doctors : Or if it be safe to follow them , though they be no more , and the opinion no more but probable , then I may take the other side , and choose which I will , and do what I list in most cases , and yet be safe by the Doctrine of the Roman Casuists ; which is the great line , and general measure of most mens lives ; and that is it which we complain of . And we have reason ; for they suffer their Casuists to determine all cases , severely and gently , strictly and loosly ; that so they may entertain all spirits , and please all dispositions , and govern them by their own inclinations , and as they list to be governed ; by what may please them , not by that which profits them ; that none may go away scandaliz'd or griev'd from their penitential chairs . But upon this account , it is a sad reckoning which can be made concerning souls in the Church of Rome . Suppose one great Doctor amongst them ( as many of them do ) shall say , it is lawful to kill a King whom the Pope declares Heretick . By the Doctrine of probability here is his Warranty . And though the Church do not declare that Doctrine ; that is , the Church doth not make it certain in Speculation , yet it may be safely done in practise : Here is enough to give peace of conscience to him that does it . Nay , if the contrary be more safe , yet if the other be but probable by reason or Authority , you may do the less safe , and refuse what is more . For that also is the opinion of some grave Doctors : If one Doctor says , it is safe to swear a thing as of our knowledge , which we do not know , but believe it is so , it is therefore probable that it is lawful to swear it , because a grave Doctor says it , and then it is safe enough to do so . And upon this account , who could finde fault with Pope Constantine the IV. who when he was accus'd in the Lateran Council for holding the See Apostolick when he was not in Orders , justified himself by the example of Sergius Bishop of Ravenna , and Stephen Bishop of Naples . Here was exemplum bonorum , honest men had done so before him , and therefore he was innocent . When it is observed by Cardinal Campegius , and Albertus Pighius did teach , That a Priest lives more holily and chaftly that keeps a Concubine , than he that hath a married wife ; and then shall finde in the Popes Law , That a Priest is not to be remov'd for fornication ; who will not , or may not practically conclude , that since by the Law of God , marriage is holy , and yet to some men , fornication is more lawful , and does not make a Priest irregular , that therefore to keep a Concubine is very lawfull ; especially since abstracting from the consideration of a mans being in Orders or not , fornication it self is probably no sin at all . For so saies Durandus , Simple fornication it self is not a deadly sin according to the Natural Law , and excluding all positive Law ; and Martinus de Magistris saies , To believe simp le fornication to be no deadly sin , is not heretical , because the testimonies of Scripture are not expresse . These are grave Doctors , and therefore the opinion is probable , and the practise safe . * When the good people of the Church of Rome hear it read , That P. Clement the VIII . in the Index of prohibited Books saies , That the Bible published in vulgar Tongues , ought not to be read and retain'd , no not so much as a compend of the History of the bible ; and Bellarmine saies , That it is not necessary to salvation , to believe that there are any Scriptures at all written ; and that Cardinal Hosius saith , Perhaps it had been better for the Church , if no Scriptures had been written : They cannot but say , That this Doctrine is probable , and think themselves safe , when they walk without the Light of Gods Word , and relie wholly upon the Pope , or their Priest , in what he is pleas'd to tell them ; and that they are no way oblig'd to keep that Commandment of Christ , Search the Scriptures . * Cardinal Tolet saies , That if a Nobleman be set upon , and may escape by going away , he is not tied to it , but may kill him that intends to strike him with a stick : That if a man be in a great passion , and so transported , that he considers not what he saies , if in that case he does blaspheme , he does not always sin : That if a man be beastly drunk , and then commit fornication , that fornication is no sin : That if a man desires carnal pollution , that he may be eas'd of his carnal temptations , or for his health , it were no sin : That it is lawful for a man to expose his Bastards to the Hospital to conceal his own shame . He saies it out of Soto , and he from Thomas Aquinas : That if the times be hard , or the Iudge unequal , a man that cannot sell his Wine at a due price , may lawfully make his measures less than is appointed ; or mingle Water with his Wine , and sell it for pure , so he do not lie ; and yet if he does , it is no mortal sin , nor obliges him to restitution . Emanuel Sà , * affirms , That if a man lie with his intended Wife , before Marriage , it is no sin , or light one ; nay , quin etiam expedit si multum illa defferatur , it is good to do so , if the benediction or publication of marriage be much deferr'd : That Infants in their Cradles may be made Priests , is the common opinion of Divines and Canonists , saith Tolet ; and that in their Cradles they can be made Bishops , said the Archdeacon and the Provost ; and though some say the contrary , yet the other is the more true , saith the Cardinal . Vasques saith , That not onely an Image of God , but any Creature in the World , reasonable or unreasonable , may without danger be worshipped together with God , as his Images That we ought to adore the reliques of Saints , though under the form of Worms ; and that it is no sin to worship a ray of light in which the Devil is invested , if a man supposes him to be Christ : And in the same manner , if he supposes it to be a piece of a Saint , which is not , he shall not want the merit of his devotion . And to conclude , Pope Celestine the III. ( as Alphonsus à Castro reports himself to have seen a Decretal of his to that purpose ) affirmed ; That if one of the married couple fell into Heresie , the marriage is dissolv'd , and that the other may marry another ; and the marriage is nefarious , and they are irritae nuptiae , the Espousals are void , if a Catholick and a Heretick marry together , said the Fathers of the Synod in Trullo : And though all of this be not own'd generally ; yet if a Roman Catholick marries a wife that is , or shall turn Heretick , he may leave her , and part bed and board , according to the Doctrine taught by the * Canon Law it self ; by the Lawyers and Divines , as appears in a Covaruvias , b Mathias Aquarius , and c Bellarmine . These opinions are indeed very strange to us of the Church of England and Ireland , but no strangers in the Church of Rome , and because they are taught by great Doctors , by Popes themselves , by Cardinals , and the Canon Law respectively , do at least become very probable , and therefore they may be believ'd and practis'd without danger ; according to the Doctrine of Probability . And thus the most desperate things that ever were said by any , though before the declaration of the Church they cannot become Articles of Faith , yet besides that they are Doctrines publickly allowed , they can also become rules of practise , and securities to the conscience of their Disciples . To this we may adde , that which is usual in the Church of Rome , the praxis Ecclesiae ; the practise of the Church . Thus if an Indulgence be granted upon condition to visit such an Altar in a distant Church ; the Nuns that are shut up , and Prisoners that cannot go abroad , if they address themselves to an Altar of their own with that intention , they shall obtain the Indulgence . Id enim confirmat Ecclesiae praxis , says Fabius . The practise of the Church in this case , gives first a probability in Speculation , and then a certainty in practise . This instance , though it be of no concern , yet we use it as a particular , to shew the principle upon which they go . But it is practicable in many things of greatest danger and concern . If the question be , Whether it be lawfull to worship the Image of the Cross , or of Christ with Divine Worship ? first , there is a Doctrine of S. Thomas for it , and Vasquez , and many others ; therefore it is probable , and therefore is safe in practise ; & sic est Ecclesiae praxis , the Church also practises so ; as appears in their own Offices , and S. Thomas makes this use of it . Illi exhibemus cultum Latriae in quo ponimus spem salutis : sed in cruce Christi ponimus spem salutis . Cantat enim Ecclesia , O Crux ave spes unica , Hoc passionis tempore , Auge piis justitiam , Reisque dona veniam . Ergo Crux Christi est adoranda adoratione Latriae . We give Divine Worship ( says he ) to that in which we put our hopes of salvation ; but in the Cross we put our hopes of salvation ; for so the Church sings ( it is the practise of the Church ) Hail , O Cross , our onely hope in this time of suffering ; encrease righteousness to the godly , and give pardon to the guilty ; therefore the Cross of Christ is to be ador'd with Divine Adoration . By this Principle you may embrace any opinion of their Doctors safely , especially if the practise of the Church do intervene , and you need not trouble your self with any further inquiry : And if an evil custom get amongst men , that very custom shall legitimate the action , if any of their grave Doctors allow it , or good men use it ; and Christ is not your Rule , but the examples of them that live with you , or are in your eye and observation , that 's your rule . We hope we shall not need to say any more in this affair : The pointing out this rock may be warning enough to them that would not suffer shipwrack , to decline the danger that looks so formidably . Sect. VIII . AS these evil Doctrines have general influence into evil life ; so there are some others , which if they be pursued to their proper and natural issues ; that is , if . they believ'd and practis'd , are enemies to the particular and specifick parts of Piety and Religion . Thus the very prayers of the Faithful are , or may be spoil'd by Doctrines publickly allowed , and prevailing in the Roman Church . For 1. They teach , That prayers themselves ex opere operato , or by the natural work it self , do prevail : For it is not essential to prayer for a man to think particularly of what he sayes ; it is not necessary to think of the things signified by the words : So Suarez teaches . Nay , it is not necessary to the essence of prayer , that he who prays should think de ipsa locutione , of the speaking it self . And indeed it is necessary that they should all teach so , or they cannot tolerably pretend to justifie their prayers in an unknown Tongue . But this is indeed their publick Doctrine : For prayers in the mouth of the man that says them , are like the words of a Charmer , they prevail even when they are not understood , sayes Salmeron : or as Antoninus , They are like a precious stone , of as much value in the hand of an unskilful man , as of a Ieweller : And therefore , attention to , or devotion in our prayers , is not necessary : For the understanding of which , saith Cardinal Tolet , when it is said , that you must say your prayers or offices attently , reverently and devoutly , you must know that attention or advertency to your prayers is manifold : 1. That you attend to the words , so that you speak them not to fast , or to begin the next verse of a Psalm , before he that recites with you hath done the former verse ; and this attention is necessary . But 2. There is an attention , which is by understanding the sense ; and that is not necessary : For if it were , very extremely few would do their duty , when so very few do at all understand what they say . 3. There is an attention relating to the end of prayer , that is , that he that prays , considers that he is present before God , and speaks to him ; and this indeed is very profitable , but it is not necessary : No , not so much . So that by this Doctrine no attention is necessary , but to attend that the words be all said , and said right . But even this attention is not necessary , that it should be actual , but it suffices to be virtual , that is , that he who says his office , intends to do so , and do not change his minde , although he does not attend : And he who does not change his minde , that is , unless observing himself not to attend , he still turn his minde to other things , he attends ; meaning , he attends sufficiently , and as much as is necessary ; though indeed speaking naturally and truly , he does not attend . If any man in the Church of England and Ireland , had published such Doctrine as this , he should quickly and deservedly have felt the severity of the Ecclesiastical Rod. But in Rome it goes for good Catholick Doctrine . Now although upon this account , Devotion is ( it may be ) good ; and it is good to attend to the words of our prayer , and the sense of them ; yet that it is not necessary , is evidently consequent to this . But it is also expresly affirm'd by the same hand ; There ought to be devotion , that our mind be inflam'd with the love of God , though if this be wanting , without contempt , it is no deadly sin . Ecclesiae satisfit per opus externum , nec aliud jubet , saith Reginaldus : If ye do the outward work , the Church is satisfied , neither does she command any thing else . Good Doctrine this ! And it is an excellent Church , that commands nothing to him that prays , but to say so many words . Well! But after all this , if Devotion be necessary or not , if it be present or not , if the minde wander , or wander not , if you minde what you pray , or minde it not , there is an easie cure for all this : for Pope Leo granted remission of all negligences in their saying their offices and prayers to them , who after they have done , shall say this prayer , [ To the Holy and Vndivided Trinity ; To the Humanity of our Lord Iesus Christ crucified ; To the fruitfulness of the most Blessed , and most Glorius Virgin Mary , and to the Vniversity of all Saints , be Eternal praise , honour , vertue and glory , from every Creature ; and to us remission of sins for ever and ever . Amen . Blessed are the Bowels of the Virgin Mary , which bore the Son of the Eternal God ; and blessed are the Paps which suckled Christ our Lord : Pater noster . Ave Maria. ] This prayer , to this purpose , is set down by Navar , and Cardinal Tolet. This is the sum of the Doctrine , concerning the manner of saying the Divine offices in the Church of Rome , in which greater care is taken to obey the Precept of the Church , than the Commandments of God : [ For the Precept of hearing Mass is not , to intend the words , but to be present at the Sacrifice , though the words be not so much as heard , and they that think the contrary , think so without any probable reason , ] saith Tolet. It seems there was not so much as the Authority of one grave Doctor to the contrary ; for if there had , the contrary opinion might have been probable ; but all agree upon this Doctrine , all that are considerable . So that between the Church of England , and the Church of Rome , the difference in this Article is plainly this , They pray with their lips , we with the heart ; we pray with the understanding , they with the voice ; we pray , and they say prayers . We suppose that we do not please God , if our hearts be absent ; they say , it is enough if their bodies be present at their greatest solemnity of prayer , though they hear nothing that is spoken , and understand as little . And which of these be the better way of serving God , may soon be determin'd , if we remember the complaint which God made of the Jews , This people draweth near me with their lips , but their hearts are far from me : But we know , that we are commanded to ask in faith , which is seated in the understanding , and requires the concurrence of the will , and holy desires ; which cannot be at all , but in the same degree in which we have a knowledge of what we ask . The effectual , fervent prayer of a righteous man prevails : But what our prayers want of this , they must needs want of blessing and prosperity . And if we lose the benefit of our prayers , we lose that great instrumentality by which Christians are receptive of pardon , and strengthned in faith , and confirm'd in hope , and increase in charity , and are protected by Providence , and are comforted in their sorrows , and derive help from God : Ye ask , and have not , because ye ask amiss ; that is S. Iames his rule . They that pray not as they ought , shall never obtain what they fain would . Hither is to be reduc'd , their fond manner of prayer , consisting in vain repetitions of Names , and little forms of words . The Psalter of our Lady , is an hundred and fifty Ave Maries , and at the end of every tenth , they drop in the Lords Prayer , and this with the Creed at the end of the fifty , makes a perfect Rosary . This indeed is the main entertainment of the peoples Devotion ; for which cause Mantuan call'd their Religion , — Relligionem Quae filo in●ertis numerat sua murmura baceis . A Religion that numbers their murmurs by berries fil'd upon a string : This makes up so great a part of their Religion , that it may well be taken for one half of its definition . But because so few do understand what they say , but all repeat , and stick to their numbers , it is evident they think to be heard for that . For that or nothing ; for besides that , they neither do nor understand : And all that we shall now say to it is , That our Blessed Saviour reprov'd this way of Devotion , in the Practise and Doctrines of the Heathens : Very like to which is that which they call the Psalter of Iesus ; in which are fifteen short Ejaculations , as [ Have mercy on me * Strengthen me , * Help me , * Comfort me , &c. ] and with every one of these , the name of Iesus is to be said thirty times , that is in all , four hundred and fifty times . Now we are ignorant how to distinguish this from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or vain repetition of the Gentiles ; for they did just so , and Christ said , they did not do well ; and that is all that we pretend to know of it . They thought to be heard the rather for so doing ; and if the people of the Roman Church do not think so , there is no reason why they should do so . But without any further arguing about the business , they are not asham'd to own it . For the Author of the Preface to the Iesus Psalter , printed by Fouler at Antwerp , promises to the repetition of that sweet Name , Great aid against temptations , and a wonderful increase of grace . Sect. IX . BUt this mischief is gone further yet : For as Cajetan affirms , Prayers ought to be well done ; Saltem non malè , at least not ill . But besides , that what we have now remark'd is so , not well , that it is very ill ; that which follows is directly bad , and most intolerable . For the Church of Rome in her publike and allowed offices , prays to dead men and women , who are , or whom they suppose to be beatified ; and these they invocate as Preservers , Helpers , Guardians , Deliverers in their necessity ; and they expresly call them , their Refuge , their Guard and Defence , their Life , and thei● Health : Which is so formidable a Devotion , that we for them , and for our selves too , if we should imitate them , to dread the words of Scripture , Cursed is the man that trusteth in man. We are commanded to call upon God in the time of trouble ; and it is promised , that he will deliver us , and we shall glorifie him . We finde no such command to call upon Saints , neither do we know who are Saints , excepting a very few ; and in what present state they are , we cannot know , nor how our prayers can come to their knowledge ; and yet if we did know all this , it cannot be endured at all , that Christians , who are commanded to call upon God , and upon none else , and to make all our prayers through Iesus Christ , and never so much as warranted to make our prayers , thorough Saints departed , should yet choose Saints for their particular Patrons , or at all relie upon them , and make prayers to them in such forms of words , which are onely fit to be spoken to God ; prayers which have no testimouy , command , or promise in the Word of God , and therefore , which cannot be made in faith , or prudent hope . Neither will it be enough to say , that they onely desire the Saints to pray for them ; for though that be of it self a matter indifferent , if we were sure they do hear us when we pray , and that we should not by that means , secretly destroy our confidence in God , or lessen the honour of Christ our Advocate ; of which because we cannot be sure , but much rather the contrary , it is not a matter indifferent : Yet besides this , in the publick Offices of the Church of Rome , there are prayers to Saints made with confidence in them , with derogation to Gods glory and prerogative , with diminution to the honour of Christ , with words in sound , and in all appearance the same with the highest that are usually express'd in our prayers to God , and his Christ : And this is it we insist upon , and reprove , as being a direct destruction of our sole confidence in God , and to neer to blasphemy , to be endured in the Devotions of Christians . We make our words good by these Allegations ; 1. We shall not need here to describe out of their didactical writings , what kinde of prayers , and what causes of confidence they teach towards the Blessed Virgin Mary , and all Saints : Onely we shall recite a few words of Antoninus their great Divine , and Archbishop of Florence , It is necessary that they to whom she converts her eyes , being an Advocate for them , shall be justified and saved . And whereas it may be objected out of Iohn , that the Apostle says , If any man sin , we have an Advocate with the Father , Iesus Christ the Righteous . ( He answers ) That Christ is not our Advocate alone , but a Iudge ; and since the just is scarce secure , how shall a sinner go to him , as to an Advocate ? Therefore God hath provided us of an Advocatess , who is gentle , and sweet , in whom nothing that is sharp is to be found . And to those words of S. Paul , Come boldly to the Throne of Grace : ( He says ) That Mary is the Throne of Christ , in whom he rested , to her therefore let us come with boldness , that we may obtain mercy , and finde grace in time of need ; and addes , that Mary is called full of grace , because she is the means and cause of Grace , by transfusing grace to mankinde ; ] and many other such dangerous Propositions : Of which who please to be further satisfied ( if he can endure the horror of reading blasphemous sayings ) he may finde too great abundance in the Mariale of Bernardine , which is confirm'd by publike Authority , Iacobus Perez de Valentia * , and in Ferdinand QQuirinus de Salazar * , who affirms , That the Virgin Mary by offering up Christ to God the Father , was worthy to have ( after a certain manner ) that the whole salvation and redemption of mankinde should be ascrib'd to her ; and that this was common to Christ and the blessed Virgin his Mothor , that she did offer and give the price of our Redemption truly and properly ; and that she is deservedly call'd the Redeemer . the Repairer , the Mediator , the Author and cause of our salvation . Many more horrid blasphemies are in his notes upon that Chapter ; and in his Defence of the Immaculate Conception , published with the Priviledge of Philip the III. of Spain , and by the Authority of his Order . But we insist not upon their Doctrines deliver'd by their great Writers ; though every wise man knows , that the Doctrines of their Church are deliver'd in large and indefinite terms , and descend not to minute senses , but are left to be explicated by their Writers , and are so practis'd and understood by the people ; and at the worst , the former Doctrine o● Probability will make it safe enough : But we shall produce the publick practise of their Church . And first , it cannot be suppos'd , that they intend nothing , but to desire their prayers ; for they rely also on their merits , and hope to get their desires , and to prevail by them also : For so it is affirm'd by the Roman Catechisme , * made by the Decree of the Council of Trent , and published by the Popes command [ The Saints are therefore to be invocated , because they continually make prayers for the health of mankinde , and God gives us many benefits by their merit and favour : And it is lawful to have recourse to the favour or grace of the Saints , and to use their help ; for they undertake the Patronage of us . ] And the Council of Trent does not onely say it is good to fly to their prayers , but to their aid , and to their help ; and that is indeed the principal , and the very meaning of the other . We pray that the Saints should intercede for us , id est , ut merita eorum nobis suffragentur ; that is , that their merits should help us , said the Master of the Sentences . Atque id confirmat Ecclesiae praxis , to use their own so frequent expression in many cases . Continet hoc Templum Sanctorum corpora pura , A quibus auxilium suppleri , poscere cura . The distich is in the Church of S. Laurence in Rome . This Church contains the pure bodies of Saints , from whom take care to require that help he supplyed to you . But the practise of the Church tell their secret meaning best . For besides what the common people are taught to do , as to pray to S. Gall for the health and faecundity of their Geese , to S. Wendeline for their Sheep , to S. Anthony for their Hogs , to S. Pelagius for their Oxen ; and that several Trades have their peculiar Saints ; and the Physicians are Patroniz'd by Cosmas and Damian , the Painters by S. Luke , the Potters by Goarus , the Huntsmen by Eustachius , the Harlots ( for that also is a Trade at Rome ) by S. Afra , and S. Mary Magdalene ; they do also rely upon peculiar Saints , for the cure of several diseases : S. Sebastian and S. Roch have a special Priviledge to cure the Plage , S. Petronilla the Fever , S. Iohn and S. Bennet the Abbot , to cure all poyson , S. Apollonia the Tooth-ach , S. Otiliae sore Eyes , S. Apollinaris the French Pox ( for it seems he hath lately got that employment , since the discovery of the West Indies ) S. Vincentius hath a special faculty in restoring stollen goods , and S. Liberius ( if he please ) does infallibly cure the Stone , and S. Felicitas , if she be heartily call'd upon , will give the teeming Mother a fine Boy . It were strange if nothing but intercession by these Saints were intended , that they cannot as well pray for other things as these ; or that they have no Commission to ask of these any thing else , or not so confidently ; and that if they do ask , that S. Otiliae shall not as much prevail to help a Fever , as a Cataract ; or that if S. Sebastian be called upon to pray for the help of a poor female sinner , who by sad diseases payes the price of her lust , he must go to S. Apollinaris in behalf of his Client . But if any of the Roman Doctors say , that they are not tyed to defend the Superstitions of the Vulgar , or the abused : They say true , they are not indeed ; but rather to reprove them , as we do , and to declare against them ; and the Council of Trent very goodly forbids all Superstitions in this Article ; but yet tells us not what are Superstitions , and what not ; and still the world goes on in the practise of the same intolerable follies ; and every Nation hath a particular Guardian-Saint , and every City , every Family , and almost every House , and every Devouter person almost chuses his own Patron-Saint , whose Altars they more devoutly frequent , whose Image they more religiously worship , to whose Reliques they more readily go in Pilgrimage , to whose honour they say more Pater-nosters , whose Festival they more solemnly observe ; spoiling their prayers , by their confidences in unknown persons , living in an unknown condition , and diminishing that affiance in God , and our Lord Jesus Christ , by importune and frequent addresses to them that cannot help . But that these are not the faults of their people only , running wilfully into such follies , but the practise of their Church , and warranted and taught by their Guides , appears by the publick Prayers themselves : such as these , O Generous Mary , beauteous above all , obtain pardon for us , apply grace unto us , prepare glory for us . Hail , thou Rose , thou Virgin Mary , &c. Grant to us to use true wisdome , and with the elect to enjoy grace , that we may with melody praise thee ; and do thou drive our ●ins away ; O Virgin Mary give us joyes . These and divers others like these , are in the Antheme of our Lady . In the Rosary of our Lady , this Hymne is to be said . Reparatrix & Salvatrix desperantis animae . Irroratrix & Largitrix Spiritualis gratiae . Quod requiro , quod suspiro mea sana vulnera Et da menti te poscenti gratiarum Munera Vt sim castus , & Modestus , &c. ......... Corde prudens , ore studens veritatem dicere , Malum nolens , Deum volens pio semper opere . That is , [ Thou Repairer and Saviour of the despairing Soul , the due Giver and Bestower of spiritual Grace , heal my wounds , and gives to the minde that prayes to thee , the gifts of grace , that I may be chaste , modest , wise in heart , true in my sayings , hating evil , loving God in holy works ; ] and much more to the same purpose . There also the blessed Virgin Mary , after many glorious appellatives , is prayed to in these words [ Joyn me to Christ , govern me alwayes , enlighten my heart , defend me alwayes from the snare of the Enemy , deliver us from all evil , and from the pains of Hell. So that it is no wonder that Pope * Leo the X. calls her a Goddess , and Turselin * the Jesuit , Divinae Majestatis , potestatisque sociam . Huic olim coelestium , mortaliumque principatum detulit . Ad hujus arbitrium ( quoad hominum tutela postulat ) terras , maria , coelum , naturamque moderatur . Hàc anuente , & per hanc , divinos thesauros , & coelestia dona largitur ; the companion or partner of the Divine Majestie and Power . To her he long since gave the principality of all heavenly and mortal things . At her will ( so far as the Guardianship of men requires ) he rules the Earth and Seas , Heaven and Nature : And she consenting , he gives Divine treasures , & Coelestial gifts . Nay , in the Mass-books pen'd 1538. And us'd in the Polonian Churches , they call the B. Virgin Mary , Viam ad vitam , tolius mundi gubernatricem , peccatorum cum Deo reconciliatricem , fontem remissionis peccatorum , lumen luminum ; the way to life , the Governess of all the world ; the Reconciler of siners with God , the fountain of Remission of sins , Light of light , and at last salute her with an Ave Vniversae Trinitatis Mater ; Hail thou Mother of the whole Trinity . We do not pick out these onely , as the most singular , or the worst forms ; for such as these are very numerous , as is to be seen in their Breviaries , Missals , Hours of our Lady , Rosary of our Lady , the Letany of our Lady , called Litania Mariae , the Speculum Rosariorum , the Hymns of Saints , Portuises and Manuals . These only are the instances , which amongst many others presently occurr . Two things onely we shall add , instead of many more that might be represented . The first is , That in a Hymn which they ( from what reason or Etymology we know not , neither are we concern'd ) call a Sequence , the Council of Constance did invocate the B. Virgin in the same manner as Councils did use to invocate the Holy Ghost ; They call her the Mother Grace , the remedy to the miserable , the fountain of mercy , and the light of the Church ; attributes proper to God and incommunicable ; they sing her praises , and pray to her for graces , they sing to her with the heart , they call themselves her sons , they declare her to be their health and comfort in all doubts , and call on her for light from Heaven and trust in her for the destruction of Heresies , and the repression of Schisms , and for the lasting Confederations of peace . The other thing we tell of , is , That there is a Psalter of our Lady , of great and ancient account in the Church of Rome ; it hath been several times printed , at Venice , at Paris , at Leipsich ; and the title is , [ The Psalter of the Blessed Virgin , compil'd by the Seraphical Doctor S. Bonaventure , Bishop of Alba , and Presbyter Cardinal of the Holy Church of Rome ] But of the Book it self , the account is soon made ; for it is nothing but the Psalms of David , an hundred and fifty in number are set down ; alter'd indeed , to make as much of it as could be sense so reduc'd : In which the name of Lord is left out , and that of Lady put in ; so that whatever David said of God and Christ , the same prayers , and the same praises they say of the B. Virgin Mary ; and whether all that can be said without intolerable blasphemy , we suppose needs not much disputation . The same things , but in a less proportion and frequency , they say to other Saints . O Maria Magdalena Audi vota laude plena , Apud Christum chorum istum Clementer Concilia . Vt fons summae pietatis Qui te lavit à peccatis , Servos suos , atque tuos Mundet datà veniâ O Mary Magdalen , hear our prayers , which are full of praises , and most clemently reconcile this company unto Christ : That the Fountain of Supreme Piety , who clensed thee from they sins , giving pardon , may clense us who are his servants and thine . These things are too bad already , we shall not aggravate them by any further Commentary ; but apply the premises . Now therefore we desire it may be considered , That there are as the effects of Christs death for us , three great products , which are the rule and measure of our prayers , a●d our confidence ; 1. Christs merits . 2. his Satisfaction . 3. His Intercession . By these three we come boldly to the Throne of Grace , and pray to God through Iesus Christ. But if we pray to God through the Saints too , and rely upon their 1. Merits . 2. Satisfaction . 3. And Intercession ; Is it not plain that we make them equal with Christ , in kind , though not in degree ? For it is publikely avowed and practis'd in the Church of Rome , to rely upon the Saints Intercession ; and this intercession to be made valid by the Merits of the Saints : [ We pray thee , ô S. Iude the Apostle , that by thy Merits thou wouldst draw me from the custom of my sins , and snatch me from the power of the Devil , and advance me to the invisible powers ; ] and they say as much to others . And for their Satisfactions , the treasure of the Church for Indulgences is made up with them , and the satisfactions of Christ : So that there is nothing remaining of the honour due to Christ our Redeemer , and our Confidence in him , but the same in very kind is by the Church of Rome imputed to the Saints : And therefore the very being and Oeconomy of Christianity , is destroyed by these prayers ; and the people are not , cannot be good Christians in these devotions ; and what hopes are laid up for them , who repent to no purpose , and pray with derogation to Christs honour , is a matter of deepest consideration . And therefore we desire our charges not to be seduc'd by little tricks and artifices of uselesse and laborious distinctions , and protestations against evidence of fact , and with fear and trembling to consider , what God said by the Prophet , My people have done two great evils , they have forsaken me , fortem , vivum , the strong and the living God ; fontem vivum , so some copies read it , the living fountain , and have digged for themselves cisterns , that is , little phantastick helps , that hold no water , that give no refreshment ; or As S. Paul expresses it ; they worship and invocate the Creature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 besides the Creator ; so the word properly signifies , and so it is us'd by the Apostle in other * places . And at least , let us remember those excellent words of S. Austin , Tulius & jucundius loquar ad meum Iesum , quam ad aliquem sanctorum spirituum Dei : I can speak safer , and more pleasantly , or chearfully to my Lord Jesus , than to any of the Saints and Spirits of God. For that we have Commandment ; For this we have none ; for that we have example in Scriptures , for this we have none ; there are many promises made to that , but to this there is none at all ; and therefore we cannot in faith pray to them , or at all rely upon them for helps . Which consideration is greatly heightned by that prostitution of Devotion usual in the Church of Rome , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to every Upstart , to every old and new Saint . And although they have a story among themselves , that it is ominous for a Pope to Canonize a Saint , and he never survives it above a twelve-moneth , as Pierre Mathieu observes in the instances of Clement the IV. and Adrian the VI. yet this hinders not , but that they are tempted to do it too frequently . But concerning the thing it self , the best we can say , is what Christ said of the Samaritans They worship they know not what . Such are S. Fingare , S. Anthony of Padua , S. Christopher , Charls Borromaeus , Ignatius Loyola , Xaverius , and many others ; of whom Cardinal Bessarion * complain'd , that many of them were such persons , whose life he could not approve ; and such , concerning whom they knew nothing , but from their parties , and by pretended revelations made to particular and hypocondriacal persons . It is a famous saying of S. Gregory , That the bodies of many persons are worshiped on earth ; whose souls are tormented in Hell ; and Augustinus Triumphus affirms , that all who are Canoniz'd by the Pope cannot be said to be in Heaven . And this matter is beyond dispure ; for Prateolus tells , that Herman , the Author of the Heresie of the Fratricelli , was for twenty years together after his death honour'd for a Saint ; but afterwards his body was taken up and burnt . But then since ( as Ambrosius Catharinus , and Vivaldus Observe ) if one Saint be called in question then the rest may ; what will become of the devotions which are paid such Saints which have been Canoniz'd within these last five Centuries ? Concerning whom , we can have but slender evidence , that they are in Heaven at all . And therefore the Cardinal of Cambray , Petrus de Alliaco wishes , that so many new Saints were not Canoniz'd . They are indeed so many , that in the Church of Rome the Holidayes which are called their Greater Doubles , are threescore and four , besides the Feasts of Christ and our Lady ; and the Holidayes which they call half double Festivals , together with the Sundays , are above one hundred and thirty . So that besides many Holidays kept in particular places , there are in the whole year , about two hundred Holidays , if we may beleive their own Gavantus ; which besides that it is an intolerable burthen to the poor labourer , who must keep so many of them , that on the rest he can scarce earn his bread , they do also turn Religion into superstition , and habituate the people to idleness , and disorderly Festivities , and impious celebrations of the day with unchrististian merriments and licentiousness . We conclude this with those words of S. Paul , How shall we call on him , on whom we have not believed ? Christ said , Ye believe in God , believe also in me . But he never said , Ye have believed in me , believe also in my Saints . No : For there is but one Mediator between God and Man , the Man Christ Iesus ; And therefore we must come to God , not by Saints , but onely by Jesus Christ our Lord. SECT . X. THere is in the Church of Rome a horrible impity taught and practised , which so far as it goes , must needs destroy that part of holy life which consists in the holiness of our prayers ; and indeed is a conjugation of evils : Of such evils of which in the whole world , of Society of Christians should be least suspected ; we mean , the infinite Superstitions and Incantations , or charms us'd by their Priests in their exercising possessed persons , and conjuring of Devils . There was an Ecclesiastical Book called Ordo baptizandi cum modo visitandi , printed at Venice . A. D. 1575. In which there were damnable and diabolical charms in somuch , that the Spanish Inquisitors in their Expurgatory Index , printed at Madrid , A. D. 1612. commanded deleatur tota exorcismus * Luciferina , cujus initium est , Adesto Domine tui famuli ; that all that Luciferian Exorcism be blotted out . But whoever looks into the Treasure of Exorcisms and horrible Conjurings ( for that is the very title of the Book printed at Colein , A. D. 1608. ) shall finde many as horrid things , and not censur'd by any Inquisitors as yet , so far as we have ever read or heard . Nay , that very Luciferina , or Devilish Exorcism , is reprinted at Lyons , A.D. 1614. in the institutio baptizandi , which was restored by the Decree of the Council of Trent : So that though it was forbidden in Spain , it was allowed in France . But as bad as that are allowed every where in the Church of Rome : The most famous , and of most publike use are The Treasure of Excorcisms , of which we but now made mention ; the Roman Ritual , The Manual of Exorcisms , printed at Antwerp , A.D. 1626. with Approbation of the Bishop , and privilege of the Archdukes ; the Pastorals of several Churches , especial that of Ruraemund ; and especially the Flagellum Daemonum , The Devils whip , by Father Hierom Mengus a Frier Mino. ; which the Clergy of Orleans did use in the Exorcising of Martha ●rosser , A. D. 1599. the story whereof is in the Epistles of Cardinal D'Ossat , and the History of the Excellent Thuanus . Now from these Books , especially this last , we shall represent their manner of casting out Devils ; and then speak a word to the thing it self . Their manner and form is this , First , They are to try the Devil by Holy Water , Incense , Sulphur , Rue , which from thence , as we suppose , came to be called Herb of Grace , and especially S. Iohns wort , which therefore they call Devils flight ; with wich if they cannot cast the Devil out , yet they may do good to the Patient ; for so Pope Alexander the first promis'd and commanded the Priests to use it for the sanctifying and pacifying the people , and driving away the snares of the Devil : And to this , it were well if the Exorcist would rail upon mock and jeer the Devil ; for he cannot endure a witty and a sharp taunt , and loves jeering and railing , no more than he loves holy water ; and this was well tried of old against an Empuse that met Apollonius Tyanaeus at Mount Caucasus , against whom he rail'd and exhorted his company to do so . Next to this , the Exorcist may ask the Devil some questions ? What is his name ? How many of them there are ? For what cause , and at what time he entred ? and , for his own learning , by what persons he can be cast out ? and by what Saint adjur'd who are his particular enemies in Heaven ? and who in Hell ? by what words he can be most afflicted ? ( for the Devils are such fools that they cannot keep their own counsel , nor choose but tell , and when they do they alwaies tell true : ) He may also ask him , by what Covenant , or what Charm he came there , and by what he is to be released ? Then he may call Lucifer to help him , and to torment that Spirit ( for so they cast out Devils , by Belzebub the Prince of the Devils ; ) and certainly Lucifer dares not but obey him . Next to this , the Exorcist is cuningly to get out of the Devil , the confession of some Article of Faith , for the edefication of the standers by ( whom he may by this means convince of the truth of Transubstantiation , the reality of purgatory , or the value of Indulgences ) and command him to knock his head three times against the ground , in adoration of the Holy Trinity . But let him take heed what Reliques he apply to the Devil ; for if the Reliques by counterfeit , the Devil will be to hard for him . However , let the Exorcising Priest be sure to bless his pottage , his meat , his ointment , his herbs ; and then also he may use some Schedules , or little rolls of paper , containing in them holy words ; but he must be sure to be exercis'd and skilful in all things that belong to the conjuring of the Deuil : These are the preparatory documents , which when he hath observ'd , then let him fall to his prayers . Now for the prayers , they also are publickly describ'd in their Offices before cited ; and are as followeth , The Priest ties his stole about the neck of the possessed with three knots , and says , O ye abominable Rebels against God , I conjure you Spirits , and adjure you , I call , I constrain I call out , I contend and contest , where ever you are in this Man , by the Father , Son and Holy Ghost [ then he makes three † ] by the most powerful name of God , Hel●y the strong and admirable , I exorcise you , and adjure you , and command you , by the power I have , that you incontinently hear the words of my conjuring , and perceive your selves overcome , and command you not to depart without license , and so I bind you with this stole of jucundity ; in the name of the Father † , Son † , and Holy Ghost † , Amen . Then he makes two and thirty crosses more , and calls over one and thirty names of God in false Hebrew , and base Greek , and some Latine , signifying the same names ; and the two and thirtieth is by the sign of the Cross , praying God to deliver them from their enemies . Then follow more prayers , and more adjurations , and more conjurations for they are greatly different you must know ) and aspersions of holy water , and shewings of the Cross , and signings with it . Then they adjure the Devil ( in case the names of God will not do it ) by S. Mary , and S. Anne , by S. Michael , and S. Gabriel , by Raphael , and all Angels and Archangels , by the Partriachs , and by the Prophets , and by his own infirmity , by the Apostles , and by the Martyrs ; [ and then after all this , if the Devil will not come out , he must tarry there still , till the next Exorcism ; in which ] The Exorcist must rail at the Devil , and say over again the names of God , and then ask him questions , and read over the sequences of the Gospels ; and after that tell him , that he hath power over him , for he can transubstantiate bread into Christs body ; and then conjure him again , and call him damn'd Devil , unclean Spirit , and as bad as he can call him ; and so pray to God to cast him out of the mans mouth and nose , lips and teeth , jaws and cheeks , eyes and forehead , eye-brows , and eye-lids , his feet , and his members , his marrow , and his bones , and must reckon every part of his body [ to which purpose , we suppose it would be well if the Exorcist were well skill'd in Laurentius , or Bautunus his Anatomy . ] And if he will not go out yet , there is no help but he must choose , till the third Exorcism : in which , besides many prayers and conjurations in other words to the same purpose , the Exorcist must speak louder [ especially if it be a deaf Devil , for then indeed it is the more necessary ] and tell the Devil his own , and threaten him terribly , and conjure him again , and say over him about some twenty or thirty names or titles of Christ , and forbid the Devil to go any whither , but to the center of the world , and must damn him eternally to the Sulphurous flames of Hell , and to be tormented worse then Lucifer himself , for his daring to resist so many great Names ; and if he will not now obey , let him take fire and brimstone , and make a fume , whether the possessed will or no , untill the Devil tells you all his minde in what you ask him : [ the liver of Tobias his fish were a rare thing here , but that 's not to be had for love or money : ] And after this he conjures him again by some of the names of God , and by the Merits , and all the good things which can be spoken or thought of the Most Blessed Virgin , and by all her names and titles , which he must reckon , one and forty in number , together with her Epithets , making so many Crosses , and by these he must cast him headlong into Hell. But if the Devil be stubborn ( for some of them are very disobedient ) there is a fourth , and a fifth , and a sixth Exorcism , and then he conjures the earth , the water , and the fire to make them of his party , and commands them not to harbour such villainous Spirits , and commands Hell to hear him , and obey his word , and conjures at the Spirits in Hell to take that Spirit to themselves ( for it may be they will understand their duty better than that stubborn Devil , that is broke loose from thence . ) But if this chance to fail , there is yet left a remedy that will do it . He must make the picture of the Devil , and write his name over the head of it and conjure the fire to burn it most horribly and hastily ; [ and if the picture be upon wood or paper , it is ten to one that may be done . ] After all this stir , Sprinkle more holy water , and take Sulphur , Galbanum , Assa foetida , Aristolochia , Rue , S. Johns wort ; all which being distinctly blessed , the Exorcist must hold the Devils picture over the fire , and adjure the Devil to hear him ; and then he must not spare him , but tell him all his faults , and give him all his names , and Anathematize him , and curse not onely him , but Lucifer too , and Beelzebub , and Satan , and Astaroth , and Behemot , and Beherit , and all together ; [ for indeed there is not one good natur'd Devil amongst them all ; ] and then pray once more , and so throw the Devils picture into the fire , & then insult in a long form of crowing over him , which is there set down . And now after all , if he will not go out , there is a seventh Exorcism for him with new Ceremonies . He must shew him the consecrated Host in the pixe , pointing at it with his finger , and then conjure him again , and rail at him once more ; to which purpose , there is a very fine form taken out of Prierius , and set down in the Flagellum Daemonum ; and then let the Exorcist pronounce sentence against the Devil , and give him his oath , and then a commandment to go out of the several parts of his body , always taking care that at no hand he remain in the upper parts ; and then is the Devils Qu. to come out , if he have a minde to it ( for that must be always suppos'd ) and then follows the thanksgivings . This is the manner of their devotion , describ'd for the use of their Exorcists ; in which is such a heap of folly , madness , superstition , blasphemy , and ridiculous guises and playings with the Devil , that if any man amongst us should use such things , he would be in danger of being tried at the next Assizes for a Witch or a Conjurer ; however , certain it is , what ever the Devil looses by pretending to obey the Exorcist , he gains more by this horrible debauchery of Christianity . There needs no confutation of it , the impiety is visible and tangible ; and it is sufficient to have told the story . Onely this we say , as to the thing it self . The casting out of Devils is a miraculous power , and given at first for the confirmation of Christian Faith , as the gifts of Tongues and Healing were , and therefore we have reason to believe , that because it is not an ordinary power , the ordinary Exorcisms cast out no more Devils , than Extreme Unction cures sicknesses . We do not envy to any one , any grace of God , but wish it were more modestly pretended , unless it could be more evidently prov'd● Origen condemned● this whole procedure of conjuring Devils long since . Quaeret aliquis si convenit vel Daemones adjurare . Qui aspicit Iesum imperantem Daemonibus , sed etiam potestatem dantem Discipulis super omnia daemonia , & ut infirmitates sanarent , dicet , quoniam non est secundum Potestatem datam â salvatore adjurare Daemonia . Iudaicum enim est : If any one askes , Whether it be fit to adjure Devils ? He that beholds Jesus commanding over Devils , and also giving power to his Disciples over all unclean spirits , and to heal diseases , will say , that to adjure Devils is not according to the power given by our B. Saviour ; For it is a Jewish trick : and S. Chrysostome spake soberly and truely . We poor Wretches cannot drive away the flies , much less Devils . But then as to the manner of their Conjurations and Exorcisms ; this we say , If these things come from God , let them shew their warranty , and their books of Precedents : If they come not from God , they are so like the Inchantments of Balaam , the old Heathens , and the modern Magicians , that their Original is soon discovered . But yet from what principle it comes , that they have made Exorcists an Ecclesiastical Order , with special words and instruments of collation ; and that the words of Ordination giving them power onely over possessed Christians , Catechumens or Baptized , should by them be extended and exercis'd upon all Infants , as if they were all possessed by the Devil ; and not onely so , but to bewitched Cattel ; to Mice and Locusts , to Milk and Lettice , to Houses and Tempests ; as if their Charms were Prophilactick , as well as Therapeutick ; and could keep , as well as drive the Devil out , and prevent storms like the old 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of whom Seneca makes mention : of these things we cannot guess at any probable principle , except they have deriv'd them from the Jewish Cabala , or the Exorcisms , which it is said Solomon us'd , when he had consented to Idolatry . But these things are so unlike the wisdom and simplicity , the purity and spirituality of Christian devotion ; are so perfectly of their own devising , and wilde imaginations ; are so full of dirty Superstitions , and ignorant fancies , that there are not in the world many things , whose sufferance and practice can more destroy the Beauty of Holiness , or reproach a Church , or Society of Christians . SECT . XI . TO put our trust and confidence in God onely , and to use Ministeries of his own appointment and sanctification , is so essential a duty owing by us to God , that whoever trusts in any thing but God , is a breaker of the first commandement ; and he that invents instrumental supports of his own head , and puts a subordinate ministerial confidence in them , usurps the rights of God , and does not pursue the interests of true Religion , whose very essence and formality is to glorify God in all his attributes and to do good to man , and to advance the honour and Kingdome of Christ. Now how greatly the Church of Rome prevaricates in this great soul of Religion , appears by too evident and notorious demonstration : For she hath invented Sacramentals of her own , without a Divine warrant , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said S. Cyril . Concerning the holy and Divine mysteries of Faith or Religion , we ought to do nothing by chance , or of our own heads , nothing without the Authority of the Divine Scriptures : But the Church of Rome does otherwise ; invents things of her own , and imputes spiritual effects to and men are taught to go in wayes which Superstition hath invented , and Interest does support . But there is yet one great instance more of this irreligion . Upon the Sacraments themselves they are taught to rely , with so little of Moral and Vertuous Dispositions , that the efficacy of one is made to lessen the necessity of the other ; and the Sacraments are taught to be so effectual by an inherent vertue , that they are not so much made the instruments of Vertue , as the Suppletory ; not so much to increase , as to make amends for the want of Grace : On which we shall not now insist , because it is sufficiently remar'kd in our reproof of the Roman Doctrines , in the matter of repentance . SECT . XII . AFter all this , if their Doctrines as they are explicated by their practice , and the Commentaries of their greatest Doctors , do make their Disciples guilty of Idolatry , there is not any thing greater to deter men from them , than that danger to their Souls which is imminent over them , upon that account . Their worshipping of Images we have already reprov'd upon the account of its novelty and innovation in Christian Religion● But that it is against good life , a direct breach of the second Commandment , an Act of Idolatry , as much as the Heathens themselves were guilty of , in relation to the second Commandmant is but too evident by the Doctrines of their own Leaders . For if to give Divine honour to a Creature be Idolatry , then the Doctors of the Church of Rome teach their people to commit Idolatry : For they affirm , That the same worship which is given to the Prototype or Principal , the same is to be given to the image of it . As we worship the Holy Trinity , and Christ , so we may worship the Images of the Trinity , and of Christ ; that is● with Latri● , or Divine honour , This is the constant sentence of the Divines , The Image is to be worshipped with the same honour and worship , with which we worship those whose Image it is , said Azorius , their great Master of Casuistical Theology . And this is the Doctrine of their great S. Thomas of Alexander , of Ales , Bonaventure , Albertus , Richardus ; Capreolus , Cajetan , Coster , Valentia , Vasquez , the Jesuits of Colein , Triers and Meniz , approving Costers opinion . Neither can this be eluded by saying , that though the same Worship be given to the Image of Christ , as to Christ himself , yet it is not done in the same way ; for it is terminatively to Christ or God , but relatively to the Image , that is , to the Image for God's or Christ's sake . For this is that we complain of , that they give the same worship to an image , which is due to God ; for what cause soever it be done , it matters not , save onely that the excuse makes it in some sense , the worse for the Apology . For to do a thing which God hath forbidden , and to say it is done for God's sake , is to say , that for his sake we displease him ; for his sake we give that to a Creature , which is God's own propriety . But besides this , we affirm , and it is of it self evident , that whoever , Christian or Heathen , worships the image of any thing , cannot possibly worship that image terminatively , for the very being of an image is relative ; and therefore if the man understands but common sense , he must suppose and intend that worship to be relative , and a Heathen could not worship an image with any other worship ; and the second Commandment , forbidding to worship the likeness of any thing in Heaven and earth , does onely forbid that thing which is in Heaven to be worshipped by an image , that is , it forbids onely a relative worship : For it is a contradiction to say , this is the image of God , and yet this is God ; and therefore it must be also a contradiction , to worship an image with Divine worship terminatively , for then it must be that the image of a thing , is that thing whose image it is . And therefore these Doctors teach the same thing which they condemn in the Heathens . But they go yet a little further : The Image of the Cross they worship with Divine honour ; and therefore although this Divine worship is but relative , yet consequently , the Cross it self is worshipped terminatively by Divine adoration . For the Image of the Cross hath it relatively , and for the Crosses sake , therefore the Cross it self is the proper and full object of the Divine adoration . Now that they do and teach this , we charge upon them by undeniable Records : For in the very Pontifical published by the Authority of Pope Clement the VIII . these words are found , The Legats Cross must be on the right hand , because Latria , or Divine honour is due to it . And if Divine honour relative be due to the Logates Cross , which is but the Image of Christs Cross , then this Divine worship is terminated on Christs Cross , which is certainly but a meer Creature . To this purpose are the words of Almai● . The Images of the Trinity , and of Christ , and of the Cross , are to be adored with the worship of Latria ; that is , Divine . Now if the Image of the Cross be the intermedial , then the Cross it self , whose Image that is , must be the last object of this Divine worship ; and if this be not Idolatry , it can never be told , what is the notion of the Word . But this passes also into other real effects : And well may the Cross it self be worshipped by Divine worship , when the Church places her hopes of salvation on the Cross ; for so she does , says Aquinas , and makes one the argument of the other , and proves that the Church places her hopes of salvation on the Cross , that is , on the instrument of Christs Passion , by a hymn which she uses in her Offices ; but this thing we have remark'd above , upon another occasion . Now although things are brought to a very ill state , when Christians are so probably and apparently charg'd with Idolatry , and that the excuses are too fine to be understood by them that need them ; yet no excuse can acquit these things , when the most that is , or can be said is this , that although that which is Gods due , is given to a Creature , yet it is given with some difference of intention , and Metaphysical abstraction and separation ; especially , since , if there can be Idolatry in the worshipping of an Image , it is certain , that a relative Divine worship is this Idolatry ; for no mau that worships an Image ( in that consideration or formality ) can make the Image the last object : Either therefore the Heathens were not Idolaters , in the worshipping of an Image , or else these m●n are . The Heathens did indeed infinitely more viola●e the first Commandment ; but against the second , precisely and separately from the first , the transgression is alike . The same also is the case in their worshipping the consecrated Bread and Wine : Of which how far they will be excused before God by their ignorant pretensions and suppositions , we know not ; but they hope to save themselves harmless by saying , that they believe the Bread to be their Saviour , and that if they did not believe so , they would not do so . We believe that they say true ; but we are afraid that this will no more excuse them , then it will excuse those who worship the Sun and Moon , and the Queen of Heaven , whom they would not worship , if they did not believe to have Divinity in them : And it may be observed , That they are very fond of that persuasion , by which they are led into this worship . The error might be some excuse , if it were probable , or if there were much temptation to it : But when they choose this persuasion , and have nothing for it but a tropical expression of Scripture , which rather than not believe in the natural , useless , and impossible sense , they will defie all their own reason , and four of the five operations of their soul , Seeing , Smelling , Tasting and Feeling , and contradict the plain Doctrine of the Ancient Church , before they can consent to believe this error , that Bread is changed into God , and the Priest can make his Maker : We have too much cause to fear , that the error is too gross to admit an excuse ; and it is hard to suppose it invincible and involuntary , because it is so hard , and so untempting , and so unnatural to admit the error . We do desire that God may finde an excuse for it , and that they would not . But this we are most sure of , that they might , if they pleas'd , finde many excuses , or rather just causes for not giving Divine honour to the Consecrated Elements ; because there are so many contingencies in the whole conduct of this affair , and we are so uncertain of the Priests intention , and we can never be made certain , that there is not in the whole order of causes any invalidity in the Consecration ; and it is so impossible that any man should be sure that H●re , and Now , and This Bread is Transubstantiated , and is really the Natural body of Christ ; that it were fit to omit the giving Gods due to that which they do not know to be any thing but a piece of bread ; and it cannot consist with holiness , and our duty to God , certainly to give Divine Worship to that thing , which though their Doctrine were true , they cannot know certainly to have a Divine Being . SECT . XIII . AND now we shall plainly represent to our charges , how this whole matter stands . The case is this , The Religion of a Christian consists in Faith and Hope , Repentance and Charity , Divine Worship and Celebration of the Sacraments , and finally in keeping the Commandments of God. Now in all these , both in Doctrines and practices , the Church of Rome does dangerously erre , and teaches men so to do : They do injury to Faith , by creating new Articles , and enjoyning them as of necessity to salvation . * They spoil their hope , by placing it upon Creatures , and devices of their own . * They greatly sin against Charity , by damning all that are not of their opinion , in things false or uncertain , right or wrong . * They break in pieces the salutary Doctrine of Repentance , making it to be consistent with a wicked life , and little or no amendment . * They Worship they know not what , and pray to them that hear them not , and trust on that which helps them not . * And as for the Commandments , they leave one of them out of their Catechisms and Manuals , and while they contend earnestly against some Opponents for the possibility of keeping them all , they do not insist upon the necessity of keeping any in the course of their lives , till the danger or article of their death . * And concerning the Sacraments , they have egregiously prevaricated in two points . For not to mention their reckoning of seven Sacraments , which we only reckon to be an unnecessary , and un-Scholastical Errour ; they take the one half of the Principal away from the Laity ; and they institute little Sacraments of their own , they invent Rites , and annex Spiritual Graces to them , wha● they please themselves , of their own heads , without a Divine Warrant or Institution : and , * At last perswade their people to that which can never be excus'd , at least , from Material Idolatry . If these things can consist with the duty of Christians , not only to eat what they worship , but to adore those things with Divine Worship , which are not God : To reconcile a wicked life with certain hopes and expectations of Heaven at last , and to place these hopes upon other things than God , and to damn all the world that are not Christians at this rate , then we have lost the true measures of Christianity ; and the Doctrine and Discipline of Christ is not a Natural and Rational Religion ; not a Religion that makes men holy , but a Confederacy under the conduct of a Sect , and it must rest in Forms and Ceremonies , and Devices of Mans Invention . And although we do not doubt , but that the goodness of God does so prevail over all the follies and malice of mankind , that there are in the Roman Communion many very good Christians ; yet they are not such as they are Papists , but by some thing that is higher , and before that , something that is of an abstract and more sublime consideration . And though the good people amongst them are what they are by the grace and goodness of God , yet by all or any of these Opinions they are not so : But the very best suffer diminution and allay by these things , and very many more are wholly subverted and destroyed . CHAP. III. The Church of Rome teaches Doctrines , which in many things are destructive of Christian Society in general , and of Monarchy in special : Both which , the Religion of the Church of England and Ireland does by Her Doctrines greatly , and Christianly support . SECT . I. THat in the Church of Rome , it is publickly taught by their greatest Doctors , That it is lawful to lye , or deceive the question of the Magistrate , to conceal their name , and to tell a false one , to elude all examinations , and make them insignificant and toothless , cannot be doubted by any man that knows how the English Priests have behav'd themselves in the times of Queen Elizabeth , King Iames , and the Blessed Martyr King Charles I. Emonerius wrote in defence of it ; and Father Barnes who wrote a Book against Lying and Equivocating , was suspected for a Heretick , and smarted severely under their hands . To him that askes you again for what you have paid him already , you may safely say , you never had any thing of him , meaning so as to owe it him now . It is the Doctrine of Emanuel Sà , and Sanchez ; which we understand to be a great lye , and a great sin , it being at the best a deceiving of the Law , that you be not deceiv'd by your Creditor ; that is , a doing evil to prevent one ; a sin , to prevent the losing of your money . If a man askes his Wife if she be an Adulteress , though she be , yet she may say , she is not , if in her mind secretly she say [ not with a purpose to tell you : ] so Cardinal Tolet teaches . And if a man swears he will take such a one to his Wife , being compelled to swear ; he may secretly mean , [ if hereafter she do please me . ] And if a man swears to a Thief , that he will give him Twenty Crown , he may secretly say , [ If I please to do so , ] and then he is not bound . And of this Doctrine Vasquez brags , as of a rare , though new invention , saying , it is gathered out of St. Austin , and Thomas Aquinas , who onely found out the way of saying nothing in such cases and questions , ask'd by Judges ; but this invention was drawn out by assiduous disputations . * He that promises to say an Ave Mary , and swears he will , or vows to do it , yet sins not mortally , though he does not do it , said the great Navar , and others whom he follows . * There is yet a further degree of this iniquity ; not onely in words , but in real actions , it is lawful to deceive or rob your Brother , when to do so is necessary for the preservation of your fame : For no man is bound to restore stollen goods , that 't is to cease from doing injury with the peril of his Credit . So Navar , and Cardinal Cajetan , and Tolet teaches ; who adds also , Hoc multi dicunt , quorum sententiam potest quis tutâ conscientiâ sequi . Many say the same thing , whose Doctrine any man may follow with a safe Conscience . Nay , to save a mans credit , an honest man that is asham'd to beg , may steal what is necessary for him , sayes Diana . Now by these Doctrines , a man is taught to be an honest Thief , and to keep what he is bound to restore ; and by these we may not only deceive our Brother , but the Law ; and not the Law only , but God also , even with an Oath , if the matter be but small : It never makes God angry with you , or puts you out of the state of grace . But if the matter be great , yet to prevent a great trouble to your self , you may conceal a truth , by saying that which is false ; according to the general Doctrine of the late Casuists . So that a man is bound to keep truth and honesty , when it is for his turn ; but not ; if it be to his own hinderance ; and therefore David was not in the right , but was something too nice in the resolution of the like case in the fifteenth Psalm . Now although we do not affirm , that these Particulars are the Doctrine of the whole Church of Rome , because little things , and of this nature , never are considered in their publick Articles of Confession ; yet a man may do these vile things ( for so we understand them to be ) and find justifications and warranty , and shall not be affrighted with the terrours of damnation , nor the imposition of penances : He may for all these things be a good Catholick , though it may be , not a very good Christian. But since these things are affirm'd by so many , the opinion is probable , and the practice safe , saith Cardinal Tolet. But we shall instance in things of more publick concern , & Catholick Authority . No Contracts , Leagues , Societies , Promises , Vows , or Oaths , are a sufficient security to him that deals with one of the Church of Rome , if he shall please to make use of that liberty , which may , and many times is , and alwayes can be granted to him . For first , it is affirmed , and was practis'd by a whole Council of Bishops at Constance , that Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks ; and Iohn Hus , and H●erom of Prague , and Savanarola , felt the mischief of violation of publick Faith ; and the same thing was disputed fiercely at worms , in the case of Luther , to whom Caesar had given a safe conduct , and very many would have had it to be broken ; but Caesar was a better Christian than the Ecclesiasticks , and their Party , and more a Gentleman . But that no scrupulous Princes may keep their words any more , in such cases , or think themselves tyed to perform their safe conducts given to Hereticks , there is a way found out by a new Catholick Doctrine ; Becanus shall speak this point instead of the rest , [ There are two distinct Tribunals , and the Ecclesiastical is the Superiour ; and therefore , if a Secular Prince gives his Subjects a safe conduct , he cannot extend it to the Superiour Tribunal ; nor by any security given , hinder the Bishop or the Pope to exercise their jurisdiction : ] And upon the account of this , or the like Doctrine , the Pope , and the other Ecclesiasticks did prevail at Constance , for the burning of their Prisoners , to whom safe conduct had been granted . But these things are sufficiently known by the complaints of the injur'd persons . But not onely to Hereticks , but to our Friends also , we may break our Promises , if the Pope give us leave . It is a publick , and an avowed Doctrine , That if a man have taken an Oath of a thing lawful and honest , and in his power , yet if it hinders him from doing a greater good , the Pope can dispense with his Oath , and take off the Obligation . This is expresly affirm'd by one of the most moderate of them , Canus Bishop of the Canaries . But beyond dispute , and even without a dispensation , they all of them own it , That if a man have promised to a woman to marry her , and is betrothed to her , and hath sworn it , yet if he will before the consummation , enter into a Monastery , his Oath shall not bind him , his promise is null ; but his second promise , that shall stand . And he that denies this , is accursed by the Council of Trent . Not only Husbands and Wives espoused may break their Vows , and mutual Obligation , against the will of one another ; but in the Church of Rome , Children have leave given them to disobey their Parents , so they will but turn Friers : And this they might do , Girls at twelve , and Boyes at the age of fourteen years ; but the Council of Trent enlarged it to sixteen ; But the thing was taught and decreed by Pope Clement the III. and Thomas Aquinas did so , and then it was made lawful by him and his Schollars ; though it was expresly against the Doctrine and Laws of the preceding ages of the Church , as appears in the Capitulars of Charles the Great . But thus did the Pharisees teach their Children to cry Corban , and neglect their Parents ; to pretend Religion , in prejudice of filial piety . In this particular AE●odius a French Lawyer , an excellently learned man , suffered sadly by the loss , and forcing of a hopeful Son from him , and he complain'd most excellently in a Book written on purpose upon this subject . But these mischiefs are Doctrinal , and accounted lawful : But in the matter of Marriages and Contracts , Promises and Vows , where a Doctrine fails , it can be supplied by the Popes power : Which thing is avowed and own'd without a cover : For when Pope Clement the V. condemn'd the Order o● Knights Templers , he disown'd any justice or right in doing it , but stuck to his power , Quanquam de jure non possumus , tamen ex plenitudine potestatis , dictum ordinem reprobamus ; that is , though by right we cannot do it , yet by the fullness of power we condemn the said Order : For he can dispense alwayes , and in all things where there is cause , and in many things where there is no cause ; fed sub majori pretio , under a greater price , said the Tax of the Datary ; where the price of the several dispensations , even in causa turpi , in base and filthy causes are set down . Intranti nummo quasi quodam Principe summo Exiliunt valvae , nihil auditur nisi salve . Nay the Pope can dispense supra jus , contra jus ; above Law , and against Law and right , said Mosconius in his Books of the Majesty of the Militant Church : For the Popes Tribunal and Gods is but one ; and therefore every reasonable Creature is subject to the Popes Empire , said the same Author : And what Dispensations he usually gives , we are best inform'd by a gloss of their own upon the Canon Law , Nota mirabile , quod cum eo qui peccat Dispensatur , cum illo autem qui non peccat non Dispensatur : It is a wonderful thing that they should dispense with a Fornicator , but not with him who marries after the death of his first Wife . * They give Divorces for Marriages the fourth degree , and give Dispensation to Marry in the second . These things are a sufficient charge , and yet evidently so , and publickly owned . We need not aggravate this matter , by what Panormitan , and others do say , that the Pope hath power to dispense in all the Laws of God , except the Articles of Faith ; and how much of this they own and practice , needs no greater instance , than that which Volaterran tells of Pope Innocent the VIII . that he gave the Norvegians a Dispensation , not only to communicate , but to consecrate in Bread only . As the Pope by his Dispensations undertakes to dissolve the Ordinances of God ; so also the most solemn Contracts of Men : Of which a very great instance was given by Pope Clement the VII . who dispensed with the Oath which Francis the I. of France solemnly swore to Charles the V. Emperour , after the battel of Pa●y , and gave him leave to be perjur'd . And one of the late Popes dispenc'd with the Bastard Son of the Conde D' Olivarez , or rather , plainly dissolv'd his Marriage which he made and consummated with Isabella D' Azueta , whom he had publickly Married when he was but a mean person , the Son of Donna Marguerita Spinola , and under the name of Iulian Va●easar : But when the Conde had declar'd him his Son and Heir , the Pope dissolv'd the first Marriage , and gave him leave , under the name of Henry Philip de Guzman , to Marry D. Iuana de Valesco , Daughter to the Constable of Castile . And now , if it be considered , what influence these Doctrines have upon Societies and Communities of Men , they will need no further reproof , than a meer enumeration of the mischiefs they produce . They by this means legitimate adulterous and incestuous Marriages , and disanul lawful Contracts : They give leave to a Spouse to break his or her Vow and Promise ; and to Children to disobey their Parents , and perhaps to break their Mothers heart , or to undo a Family . No words can bind your Faith , because you can be dispenc'd with ; and if you swear you will not procure a Dispensation , you can as well be dispenc'd with for that Perjury as the other ; and you cannot be tied so fast , but the Pope can unloose you . So that there is no certainty in your Promise to God , or Faith to Men , in Judicatories to Magistrates , or in Contracts with Merchants ; in the Duty of Children to their Parents , of Husbands to their Wives , or Wives to their contracted Husbands , of a Catholick to a Heretick ; and last of all , a Subject to his Prince cannot be bound so strictly , but if the Prince be not of the Popes persuasion , or be by him judg'd a Tyrant , his Subjects shall owe him no Obedience . But this is of particular consideration , and reserv'd for the III. Sect. SECT . II. THere is yet another instance , by which the Church of Rome does intollerable prejudice to Governments and Societies : In which , although the Impiety is not so apparent ; yet the Evil is more own'd , and notorious , and defended ; and that is , the Exemption of their Clergy from the Jurisdiction of Secular Princes and Magistrates , both in their Estates and Persons : Not onely in the matters of Simony , Heresie and Apostasie ; but in matters of Theft , Perjury , Murther , Adultery , Blasphemy and Treason : In which Cases they suffer not a Clergy-man to be judged by the Secular Power , untill the Church hath quit him , and turn'd him over , and given them leave too proceed . This was verified in the Synod of Dalmatia , held by the Legats of Pope Innocent the III. and is now in the Church of Rome , pretended to be by Divine Right : [ For it cannot be proved , that Secular Princes are the Lawful Superiours and Iudges of Clergy-men , unless it can be prov'd , that the Sheep are better than the Shepherd , or Soxs than their Fathers , or Temporals than Spirituals , ] said Bellarmine : And therefore it is a shame ( sayes he ) to see Princes contending with Bishops for Precedency , or for Lands . For the truth is this ( what ever the custom be ) the Prince is the Bishops Subject , not the Bishop the Princes : For no man can serve two Masters , the Pope is their own Superiour , and therefore the Secular Prince cannot be . So both Bellarmine and Suarez conclude this Doctrine out of Scripture . And although in this , as in all things else , when he finds it for the advantage of the Church , the Pope can dispense ; and divers Popes of Rome did give power to the Common-wealth of Venice , to judge Clergy-men , and punish them for great Offences ; yet how ill this was taken by Paulus V. at their hands , and what stirrs he made in Christendome concerning it , the World was witness ; and it is to be read in the History of the Venetian Interdict , and not without great difficulty defended by Marcus Antonius Peregrinus , M. Antonius Othelius , and Ioachim Scaynus of Padua , beside the Doctors of Venice . Now if it be considered , how great a part of mankind in the Roman Communion are Clergy-men ; and how great a portion of the Lands and Revenues in each Kingdom they have ; to pretend a Divine Right of Exemption of their Persons from Secular Judicatories , and their Lands from Secular burthens and charges of the Common-wealth , is to make Religion a very little friend to the Publick ; and Causes , that by how much there is more of Religion , by so much there is the less of Piety and Publick Duty . Princes have many times felt the Evil , and are alwayes subject to it , when so many thousand persons are in their Kingdoms , and yet Subjects to a Forreign Power . But we need not trouble our selves to reckon the Evills consequent to this Procedure , themselves have own'd them , even the very worst of things , [ The Rebellion of a Clergy-man against his Prince is not Treason , because he is not his Princes Subject . ] It is expresly taught by Emanuel Sà ; and because the French-men in zeal to their own King , could not endure this Doctrine , these words were left out of the Edition of Paris , but still remain in the Editions of Antwerp and Colien . But the thing is a general Rule , [ That all Ecclesiastical persons are free from Secular Iurisdiction in causes Criminal , whether Civil or Ecclesiastical : and this Rule is so general , that it admits no exception ; and so certain , that it cannot be denied , unless you will contradict the Principles of Faith : ] So Father Suarez . And this is pretended to be allowed by Councills , Sacred Canons , and all the Doctors of Laws Humane and Divine ; for so Bellarmine affirms . Against which , since it is a matter of Faith and Doctrine , which we now charge upon the Church of Rome , as an Enemy to publick Government , we shall think it sufficient to oppose against their Pretension , the plain and easie words of St. Paul , Let every soul be subject to the higher Powers . Every soul , ] That is , saith St. Chrysostome , whether he be a Monk , or an Evangelist , a Prophet , or an Apostle . Of the like iniquity , when it is extended to its u●most Commentary , which the Commenters of the Church of Rome put upon it , is , the Divine Right of the Seal of Consession , which they make so Sacred , to serve such ends as they have chosen , that it may not be broken up to save the lives of Princes , or of the whole Republick , saith Tolet ; No , not to save all the World , said Henriquez : Not to save an Innocent , not to keep the World from burning , or Religion from perversion , or all the Sacraments from demolition . Indeed it is lawful , saith Bellarmine , if a Treason be known to a Priest in Confession , and he may in general words give notice to a pious and Catholick Prince , but not to a Heretick ; and that was acutely and prudently said by him , said Father Suarez . Father Binet is not so kind even to the Catholick Princes ; for he sayes , that it is better that all the Kings of the World should perish , than that the Seal of Confession should be so much as once broken ; and this is the Catholick Doctrine , said Eudaemon Iohannes in his Apology for Garnet : and for it he also quotes Suarez . But it is enough to have nam'd this . How little care these men take of the lives of Princes , and the Publick Interest ; which they so greatly undervalue to every trifling fancy of their own , is but too evident by these Doctrines . SECT . III. THe last thing we shall remark for the instruction and caution of our charges , is not the least . The Doctrines of the Church of Rome , are great Enemies to the dignity and security , to the powers and lives of Princes : And this we shall briefly prove , by setting down the Doctrines themselves , and their consequent Practises . And here we observe , that not onely the whole Order of Jesuites is a great Enemy to Monarchy , by subjecting the Dignity of Princes to the Pope , by making the Pope the Supreme Monarch of Christians ; but they also teach , that it is a Catholick Doctrine , the Doctrine of the Church . The Pope hath a Supreme Power of disposing the Temporal things of all Christians , in order to a Spiritual good , saith Bellarmine . And Becanus discourses of this very largely , in his Book of the English Controversie , Printed by Albin at Mentz , 1612. But because this Book was order'd to be purg'd ( una litura potest ) we shall not insist upon it ; but there is as bad which was never censur'd . Bellarmine sayes , that the Ecclesiastical Republick can command and compel the Temporal , which is indeed its Subject , to change the Administration , and to depose Princes , and to appoint others , when it cannot otherwise defend the Spiritual good : And F. Suarez sayes the same . The power of the Pope extends it self to the coercion of Kings with Temporal punishments , and depriving them of their Kingdoms , when necessity requires ; nay , this power is more necessary over Princes , than over Subjects . The same also is taught by Santarel , in his Book of Heresie and Schism , printed at Rome , 1626. But the mischief of this Doctrine proceeds a little further . Cardinal Tolet affirms , and our Countryman Father Bridgewater commends the saying , That when a Prince is excommunicate , before the Denunciation , the Subjects are not absolved from their Oath of Allegiance ( as Cajetan sayes well ; ) yet when it is denounc'd , they are not only absolved from their obedience , but are bound not to obey , unless the fear of death , or loss of goods excuse them ; which was the case of the English Catholicks in the time of Henry the VIII . And F. Creswel sayes , it is the sentence of all Catholicks , that Subjects are bound to expel Heretical Princes , if they have strength enough ; and that to this they are tyed by the Commandment of God , the most strict tie of Conscience , and the extreme danger of their Souls . Nay , even before the sentence is declar'd , though the Subjects are not bound to it , yet lawfully they may deny obedience to an Heretical Prince , said Gregory de Valentia . It were an endless labour to transcribe the horrible Doctrines which are preach'd in the Jesuits School , to the shaking of the Regal power of such Princes which are not of the Roman Communion . The whole Oeconomy of it is well describ'd by Bellarmine ; who affirms , That it does not belong to Monks or other Ecclesiasticks , to commit Murthers , neither doe the Popes use to proceed that way . But their manner is , first Fatherly to correct Princes , then by Ecclesiastical Censures to deprive them of the Communion , then to absolve their Subjects from the Oath of Allegiance , and to deprive them of their Kingly Dignity . And what then ? The execution belongs to others . ] This is the way of the Popes , thus wisely and moderately to break Kings in pieces . We delight not to aggravate evill things . We therefore forbear to set down those horrid things spoken by Sà , Mariana , Santarel , Carolus Scribanius , and some others . It is enough that Suarez sayes , An Excommunicate King may with impunity be depos'd or kill'd by any one . This is the case of Kings and Princes by the Sentence of the chiefest Roman Doctors . And if it be objected , That we are commanded to obey Kings , not to speak evill of them , not to curse them , no , not in our heart ; there is a way found out to answer these little things . For though the Apostle commands , that we should be subject to higher Powers , and obey Kings , and all that are in Authority : It is true , you must , and so you may well enough for all this ; for the Pope can make that he who is a King , shall be no King , and then you are dis-oblig'd : so Bellarmine . And if after all this , there remains any scruple of Conscience , it ought to be remembred , that though even after a Prince is Excommunicated , it should be of it self a sin to depose or kill the Prince ; yet if the Pope commands you , it is no sin . For if the Pope should err by commanding sin , or forbidding vertues , yet the Church were bound to believe , that the vices were good , and the vertues evil , unless She would sin against Her Conscience : They are the very words of Bellarmine . But they add more particulars of the same bran . The Sons of an Heretical Father are made sui juris , that is , free from their Fathers power : A Catholick Wife is not tyed to pay her duty to an Heretical Husband ; and the Servants are not bound to do service to such Masters : These are the Doctrines of their great Azorius ; and as for Kings , he affirms , they may be Depos'd for Heresie : But all this is only in the case of Heretical Princes . But what for others ? Even the Roman Catholick Princes are not free from this danger . All the World knows what the Pope did to King Chilperick of France : He Depos'd him , and put Pipin in his place ; and did what he could to have put Albert King of the Romans in the Throne of Philip , sir-named the Fair. They were the Popes of Rome who arm'd the Son against the Father , the Emperour Henry IV. and the Son fought against him , took him Prisoner , shav'd him , and thrust him into a Monastery , where he dyed with grief and hunger . We will not speak of the Emperour Frederick , Henry the sixth Emperour , the Duke of Savoy , against whom he caus'd Charles the V. and Francis the I. of France , to take Arms ; nor of Francis Dandalus Duke of Venice , whom he bound with chains , and fed him as Dogs are fed , with bones and scraps under his Table : Our own Henry the II. and King Iohn , were great instances of what Pri●●●s in their case may expect from that Religion . Those were the piety of the Father of Christendome : But these were the product of the Doctrine which Clement the V. vented in the Council of Vienna , Q●●● jus R●gum à se pendere : The right of all Kings depend upon the Pope : and there●ore even their Catholick Princes are at their mercy , and they would if they durst , use them accordingly : If they do but favour Hereticks , or Schismaticks , receive them , or defend them ; if the Emperour be perjur'd , if he rashly break a league made with the See Apostolick , if he do not keep the peace promis'd to the Church , if he be sacrilegious , if he dissipate the goods of the Church , the Pope may Depose him , said Azorius . And Santarel sayes , he may do it , in case the Prince or Emperour be insufficient , if he be wicked , if he be unprofitable , if he does not defend the Church . This is very much , but yet there is something more ; this may be done , if he impose new Gabels or Imposts upon his Subjects , without the Popes leave ; for if they do not pretend to this also , why does the Pope in Bulla coenae Domini , Excommunicate all Princes that do it ? Now if it be enquir'd , By what Authority the Pope does these things ? It is answered , That the Pope hath a Supreme and absolute Authority ; both the Spiritual and the Temporal Power is in the Pope as Christs Vicar , said Azorius and Samarel . The Church hath the right of a Superiour Lord over the rights of Princes , and their Temporalties ; and that by Her Jurisdiction , She disposes of Temporals ut de suo peculio , as of Her own proper goods , said our Country-man Weston , Rector of the College at Doway . Nay , the Pope hath power in omnia , per omnia , super omnia , in all things , thorough all things , and over all things ; and the sublimity and immensity of the Supreme Bishop is so great , that no mortal man can comprehend it , said Cassenaeus ; no man can express it , no man can think it : So that it is no wonder what Papirius Massonus said of Pope Boniface the VIII . that he own'd himself not onely as the Lord-of France , but of all the World. Now we are sure it will be said , That this is but the private Opinion of some Doctors , not the Doctrine of the Church of Rome . To this we reply : 1. It is not the private Opinion of a few , but their publick Doctrine , own'd , and offer'd to be justified to all the World , as appears in the preceding Testimonies . 2. It is the Opinion of all the Jesuit Order , which is now the greatest and most glorious in the Church of Rome , and the maintenance of it , is the subject matter of their new Vow of Obedience to the Pope , that is , to advance his Grandeur . 3. Not onely the Jesuits , but all the Canonists in the Church of Rome , contend earnestly for these Doctrines . 4. This they doe upon the Authority of the Decreta●s , and their own Law , * and the Decrees of Councills . 5. Not onely the Jesuists and Canonists , but others also of great note amongst them , earnestly contend for these Doctrine ; particularly Cassenaeus , Zodericus * , the Arch-Bishop of Florence * , Petrus de Monte * , St. Thomas Aquinas * , Bozius , Baronius , and many others . 6. Themselves tell us it is a matter of Faith ; F. Creswel sayes , It is the sentence of all Catholicks ; and they that doe not admit these Doctrines , Father Rosweyd calls them half Christians , Grinners , barking Royalists , and a new Sect of Catholicks ; and Eudaemon Iohannes sayes , That without question it is a Heresie in the judgement of all Catholicks . Now in such things which are not in their Creeds , and publick Confessions , from whence should we know the Doctrines of their Church , but from their chiefest and most leading Doctors ; who , it is certain , would fain have all the World believe it to be the Doctrine of their Church ? And therefore as it is certain , that any Roman Catholick may with allowance be of this opinion ; so he will be esteemed the better and more zealous Catholick if he be ; and if it were not for fear of Princes , who will not lose their Crowns for their foolish Doctrines , there is no peradventure but it would be declared to be defide , a matter of faith , as divers of them of late do not stick to say . And of this the Pope gives but too much evidence , since he will not take away the scandal , which is so greatly given to all Christian Kings and Republicks , by a publick and a just condemnation of it . Nay , it is worse than thus ; for Sixtus Quintus upon the XI of September , A. D. 1589. in an Oration in a Conclave of Cardinals , did solemnly commend the Monk that kill'd Henry the III. of France . The Oration was printed at Paris by them that had rebell'd against that Prince , and avouched for Authentick by Bouncher , Decreil , and Ancelein : And though some would fain have it thought to be none of his ; yet Bellarmine dares not deny it , but makes for it a crude , and a cold Apology . Now concerning this Article , it will not be necessary to declare the Sentence of the Church of England and Ireland , because it is notorious to all the World ; and is expresly oppos'd against this Roman Doctrine , by Laws , Articles , Confessions , Homilies , the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy , the Book of Christian Institution , and the many excellent Writings of King Iames of Blessed Memory , of our Bishops and other Learned Persons against Bellarmine , Parsons , Eudaemon Iohannes , Creswel , and others : And nothing is more notorious , than that the Church of England is most dutiful , most zealous for the right of Kings ; and within these four and twenty years , She hath had many Martyrs , and very , very many Confessors in this Cause . It is true , that the Church of Rome does recriminate in this point , and charges some Calvinists and Presbyterians with Doctrines which indeed they borrowed from Rome , using their Arguments , making use of their Expressions , and pursuing their Principles . But with them in this Article we have nothing to do , but to reprove the Men , and condemn their Doctrine , as we have done all along , by private Writings , and publick Instruments . We conclude these our Reproofs with an Exhoriation to our respective Charges , to all that desire to be sav'd in the day of the Lord Iesus ; that they decline from these horrid Doctrines , which in their birth are new , in their growth are scandalous , in their proper consequents are infinitely dangerous to their Souls , and hunt for their precious life : But therefore it is highly fit , that they also should perceive their own advantages , and give God praise , that they are immur'd from such infinite dangers , by the Holy Precepts , and Holy Faith taught and commanded in the Church of England and Ireland ; in which the Word of God is set before them as a Lanthorn to their feet , and a Light unto their eyes ; and the Sacraments are fully administred according to Christs Institution ; and Repentance is preach'd according to the measures of the Gospel ; and Faith in Christ is propounded according to the Rule of the Apostles , and the measures of the Churches Apostolical ; and Obedience to Kings is greatly and sacredly urg'd ; and the Authority and Order of Bishops is preserv'd , against the Usurpation of the Pope , and the Invasion of Schismaticks and Aerians new and old ; and Truth and Faith to all men is kept and preach'd to be necessary and inviolable ; and the Commandements are expounded with just severity , and without scruples ; and Holiness of Life is urg'd upon all men , as indispensably necessary to Salvation , and therefore without any allowances , tricks , and little artifices of escaping from it by easie and imperfect Doctrines ; and every thing is practis'd which is useful to the saving of our Souls ; and Christs Merits and Satisfaction are intirely relyed upon for the pardon of our sins ; and the necessity of Good Works is universally taught ; and our Prayers are holy , unblameable , edifying , and understood ; they are according to the measures of the Word of God , and the practice of all Saints . In this Church the Children are duly , carefully , and rightly Baptiz'd ; and the Baptiz'd , in their due time are Confirm'd ; and the Confirm'd are Communicated ; and Penitents are Absolv'd ; and the Impenitents punished and discouraged ; and Holy Marriage in all men is preferr'd before unclean Concubinate in any ; and Nothing is wanting that God and his Christ hath made necessary to Salvation . Behold we set before you Life and Death , Blessing and Cursing , Safety and Danger . Choose which you will ; but remember that the Prophets who are among you , have declar'd to you the way of Salvation . Now the Lord give you understanding in all things , and reveal even this also unto you . Amen . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A63805-e110 1 Cor. 6.4 . Phil. ● . 14 . Cont. Hermogen . De vera side , & in Moral . ●●g . 72. c. 1. & reg . 80. c. 22. Epist. Pasch. 2 , De incar . Christi . Lib. 2. cap. de origen . error . lib. 7. contr . Celsum . Can comperimus de consecr . dist . 2. in 1 Cor. 11. Notes for div A63805-e1350 Eccles. 11.6 . De uni● . Eccles . cap. 6. * Ecclesia ex facris & canonici● Scripturi● osteudenda est . quaque exillis aftendi non potest , Ecclesia non est , S. Aug. de●●tit . Eccles. c. 4. &c. 3. Ibi quaeramus Ecclesiam , ibi deat namus causum nostram . * Lib. Cano , discipl . Eccles. Angli● . & injunct . Regi● . Elis. A. D. 1571. Can. de concionatoribus . ●at . 3. Calend. Mart. Th●ssa●onicae . a Quod sit metrum , & regula , a● scientia credendorum . Summae de Eccles. l. 2. c. 203. b Novum Symbolum condere solum ad Papam spectat , quia est capu● fidei Christians , cujus authoritate omnia quae ad filem spectant firmantur & roborantur . q. 59. a. 1. & art . 2. sicut potest novum symbolum condere , ita potest novos articulos supra aelios multiplicare . c Papa potest sacere novos ar●i●ulos fidei , id est , quod modo credi oporteat , cum sic prius non oportere● . in cap. cum Christ. de hate . n. 2. d Papa potest inducere novum articulum fidei , in idem . e Super 2. Decret . de jurejur . c. minis . n. 1. f Apud Petrum Ciezam . ●o . 2. instit . peruinae , cap. ●9 . * Iohannes Clemens aliquos folia Theodereti laceravit & abjecit in socum , in quibus contrae Transubstan●iaetionem praeclare disseruit . Et cum non itae pridem Originem excuderent , totum illud capu● sextum Iohannis & quod commentabaetur Origenes omiserunt , & mutilum ediderunt librum propter candem causam . * Sixtus Senensis Epist. Dedicat. ad Pium Quint. laudat Pontificem in haec verba , Expurgari & emaculari cur●st● omnium Catholicorum Scriptorum , at praeciput veterum Patrum scriptae . Index Expurgator . Madrili . 1612. in Indi●e libror. expurgatorum pag. 39. Gal. 1. 8. Part 2. act . 6. c. ● . De potest . Eccles . consi● . ● . De Consi● . author . l. 2. c. 17. Section 1. Sess. 21. cap. 4. Part. 1. Sum. tit . 10. c. 3. In art . 18. Luther . * Intravit ut vulpes , regnavit ut leo , moriebatur ut canis , de eo saepius dictum . Tertull. l. ad Martyr . c. 1. S. Cyprian . lib. 3. Ep. 15. apud Pamelium 11. Concil . Nicen. 1. can . 12. Conc. Ancyr . c. 5. Concil . Laodicen . c. 2. S. Basil. in Ep. canonicis habentur in Nomocanone Photii . can . 73. * Communis opittio DD. tam Theologorum , quaem Canonicorum , quod sunt ex abundantiae meritorum quae ultrae mensuram demeritorum suorum sancti sustinuerunt , & Christi . Sum. Angel. v. Indulg . 9. * Lib. 1. de indulgent . cap. 2. & 3. a In 4. l. sent . dist . 19. q. 2. b Ibid. dist . 20. q. 3. Ubi supra . In lib. 4. sent . Verb. Indulgentia . Vt quid non praevides tib● in die judicii , quando nemo poterit per alium excusari , vel defendi ; sed unusquisque sufficiens onus erit sibi ipsi . Th. ae Kempis . l. 1. de imit . c. 24. a Homil. 1. in ep . ad Philem. b Serm. de Martyrib . c Serm. 1. de Advent . Ezek. 18.22 . * Neque enim ab i● quos sanas lenid languor abscedit , sed ilico quem restit●is ex integro ●o●valescit , quiae consummatum est quod facis , & perfectum quod largiris . S. Cyprian . de coena Domini : vel potius Amoldus P. Gelasius de vincul . anathem . negat poenam deberi culpae si culpa corr●igatur . * Delet gratiae finaelis peccatum veniale in ipsa dissolutione corporis & animae . Ho● ab antiquis dictum est . Albert. Mag. in compend . Theolog. verit . l. 3. c. 13. Art. 18. con● . Luther . Invent. rerum , l. 8. c. 1. a Haeres . 75. b Cateches . mys●aeg . 5. c De ritibus lib. 2. c. 35. Innocent . P. de Celebrat . Missar . cap. cum Martha . Apologia confessionis Augustnae expressò approbat clausulam illaem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Deus det ei pacatam quietem , & beatam aed vitam resurrectionem . Biblloth . S. l. 5. Annot. clxxi . Vide etiam Bellar . l 2. de Purgat . c. 1. sect . Ambros. * Lib 6. Bibl. Sanct. annot . 345. Bernardum excusandum arbitrer ob ingentem numerum illustrium Ecclesiae Patrum , qui ante ipsum huic dogmati Authoritatem suo testimonio visi sunt praebuisse praeter citatos ; enumerat , S. Iacobum Apostolum , Irenaeum , Clementem Romanum , Augustinum , Theodoretum , Oecumenium , Theophylactum , & Iohannem 22. Pontis . Rom. quam sententiam non modo docuit , & declaravit , sed ab omnibus teneri mandavit , ut ait Adrianus P. in 4 lib. sent . in fine quaest . de sacram . confirmationis . Enchirid. c. 69. lib. 21. de civit . Dei cap. 26. Lib. 8. Chron. ●ap . 26. * Haec descripsimus , ut tamen in iis nulla veluti Canonica constituatur authoritas . l. de 8. qu●st . Dulcitii c. l. Dist. 3. exem . 3. Exempl . 60. Histor. Lomb. Legend 185. Deut. 18.11 . &c. Isa. 8. 19. Vide Maldona● . in 16 ca. S. Luc. Ad Demetrian . sect . 16. Eccles. hier . c. 7. Quaest. & respons . ad orthed . qu. 75 Iustino imputa● . a De bono mortis . cap. 4. b In Psal. 2. c Homil. 22. d Orat. 5 in Plagam gran linis & Orat. 42 in Pascha . de Eccles. dogma● c. 79. In Eccless . c. 11. Epist. 59. Rev. 14.13 . Iohn 5. 24. a In 4 lib. sent . d. 11. 4. 3. b Ibid. q. 6. c Lect. 40. in can . missae . d Cap. 1. contr . captiv . Babyl . e De Euchar. l. 3. cap. 23. sect . secundo dicit . * Venere tum quidem muliae in consultationem , nec decerni tamem quicquam apertè potuit , Platina in vitae Innocen . III. * Apud Suaer . Tom. 3. disp . 46. sect . 3. * Loc. com . l. 3. c. 3. sund . 2. L. 3. de E●● cap. 23. sect . ●num tamen . Sam. ●● c●0 ●0 . Discars . modest . p. 13. Lib. 4. sent . dist . ●1 . lit . a. * A.D. MCLX. * A. D. MCCXV . * A. D. MCCLXX . secund . Buth●l . sed secundum Volaterranum MCCCxxxv . In 4 lib. sent . dist . 11. q. 1. sect . propter tertium . De haeres lib. 8. verb. Indulgentia . Cap. Ego Berengarius de Consecrat , dist . 2. Advers . Marci●n . l. 4. c. 40. Contr. Tryph. Judae . In dialog . con . Marcion . collectis ex Maximo , tempore Commodi & Severi Impp. In Matth. 13. * Demonst. Evangel . lib. 1. cap. 1. * & cap. ult . Homil. 27. De sacris Antioch . legibus apud Ph●tium , l. 1. c. ●29 . Orat. 2. in Pasc. Epist. ad Caes. cont . haeres . Apollinarii cir . por Damascen . & per collect . senten . Pp. contra Severianos . edit . per Turtianum . Homil. 23. in 1. Cor. ●● Psalm 98. Cont. Adimantium cap. 12. Lib. 10. cont . Faust. Ma●●ch . De consecrat . dist . 2. cap ; Qui manducant , & cap. primae quidem , & cap. Non hoc corpus . & cap. V● quid parat . Sente●s . lib. 4. dist . 11. Dialog . 1. c. ● . * Dialog . 2. c. 24. De duabus naturis contra ●utych . & Nestor . Videatur Picherellutin dissert . de Missa & expositione verborum institutionis coena Domini * Iohn 6 63. Vbi supra . Gloria mundi . 4. num . 6. Concil . Constant . Sess. 13. Accursius praes●t . superinstitut . Iustin. Matth. 26.27 . Consult sec. 22. Comment . in 6● Ioh. lect . 7. De Corp. & fang . Domini , cap. 19. Tract . 35. Apud Gratian. de c●nsecr . dist . 2. cap. Comperimus . Vide Ochagau . de Sacram. tract . 2. de Euchar . qu. 18. De consecrat . dist . 2. cap. si non sunt . & cap. quia passus . & cap. prima quidem . & cap. Tunc ●is & cap. accesserunt . Lib. 8. contr . C●lsum . * Affectus consequitur intellectum : ubi autem nullus earum rerum quae petuntur vel dicuntur habetur intellectus , aut generaliter ●tantum , ibi exiguus assurgit affectus . Azor. inst . moral . to . 1. lib. 9. c. 34. q. 8. a In 1 Cor. 14. b Epist. ad . Sophron . c Sozom lib. 6. hist. cap. 37. d Hom. 1. in 8. Iohan. e De Doctr. Christ. cap. 5. f Serm. 5. de G●aeca● . affect . cu●a● . g Lib. Qu. ex . var. Script . locis . q. 278. h in 1 Cor. hom . 35. i Super 1 Cor. 14. k Super Psal. 18. com . 2. l In 1 Cor. 14. m Ibid. n Liturg. cap. 28. o Histor. Bohem . c. 13. De Doctr : Christ. lib. 4. cap. 10. Novel . 123. De Missa , lib. 2. c. 13. sect . ad Novellam . Cap. 9. Quintil. lib. 1. Verb. Osseni . Cap. 6. ad Quod vult Deum . Chap. 2. Sect. 12. * Lib. 1. haeret . fabul . * De haeres . * Lib. 1. cap. 23. vide etiam Epiphan . to 2. lib. 1. hae●●s . 27. & S. August . de heares . * Lib. 6. strom . & in paraenetico . Lib. 7. & 8. contr . Cels. Epist. ad Io● . Hieros . Can. 36. Placuit picturas in Ecclesia esse non debere , ne quod colitur aut adoratur in parietibus depingatur . De Morib . Eccles. l. 1. c. 34. Idem de fide & Symbolo . c. 7. & contr . Adimant . cap. 13. Anno Dom. DCCLXIV . Lib. 2. in vita Isaaici Angeli . A.D. 1160. 1 John 5 21. * Stromat . l. 6. & in Protrep . * Lib. 2. c. 22. advers . Marcion . & de Idololatr . c. 3. * Lib. 4. contr . Celsum . Stromat . l. 1. a Lib. 7. contr . Celsum . b De Coron . milit . c Lib. 1. c. 5. praep . Evang. d Orat. contr . gen●es . e In c. 40. Isa. f De fide & Symbol . c. 7. g In Deut. q. 1. h Lib. 4. de Orthod . fide , c. 17. Sil. Italic : Lib. 1. in somn . Scip. cap. 2. Lib. 18. cap. 53. Lib. 2. de invent . c. 23. Acts 20. 28. Epist. de unit . Ecclesiae ad Novatian & habetur caus . 24. qu. 1. * Irenae . lib. 4. c. 43 , 44. S. Cyprian . lib. 1. ep . 6. & lib. 2. ep . 10. & lib : 4. ep . 9. S. Ambros. de dignit . sacerd . c. 1. S. Aug. de baptism . contra D●nar l. 7. c. 43. & ibid. Clarus a Muscula . Id●m de verb. Dom. Ser. 24. Con. R●m . sub Sylvest . Const. Apost . l. 8. c. 〈◊〉 Anac : P. ep . 2. Clemens P. ep . 1. S. Hieron . ep . 13. & ep . 54. Euihym . in Ps. 44. S. Gregor . in Evang. Hom. 26. ad Heliodor . ep . 1. S. Chrysost. s●●m . D●nascen . de imaginibus : Orat. 2. S. Greg. Naz. Orat. 21. de laud. Basilii . In epist. 1. ad Corin. cap. 3. & in epist. ad Roman . c 1. * Extrav . Com. lib. 1. ti● . 9. de Major . & obed . cap. Vnam Sanctam . * Referente Archiepis . Granatensi in Council . Trid. Vbi supra . Lib. 4. Ep. 2. Apud . Baren . Tom. 6. A. D. 499. n. 36. Dionys. A●eop . de Eccles. hierarc . de sacer . perfect . Epist. ad Symrnens . & ad Philadelph . a Dist. 97. cap. duc sunt . b In Ierem. h●m . 7. & advers . Lucifer . c I● Concil . Paris : l. 1. c. 3. In Concil , Ca●tha . De Bapt. cont . Dorat●●● . lib. 3. cap. 3. Lib. 4 ep 76 , 78 , 31 , 34,38 , 39. & lib. 6. ep . 24. Lib. 4. ep . 32. Quis est iste qui contra sta●uta Eva●gelica , contra Canonum d●creta n●vum sibi usu● pa●e n●men praesumit ? Videatur Epist la S. Hieron . ad Evang●ium . Concil . Chalced action . 16. Concil . ●●v●n . c. 6. &c. 7. & Concil . C. P. ca● . 3. & Nov. l. Iustin. 131. In acta Apost . hom . 3. Canus loc . lib. 6. c. 8. p. 235. Ed. S. ●mant . 1563. Concord . Cath. l. 2. c. 34. S●nt . lib. 4. dist . 24. qu● 2. art . 5. De Eccl. dogm . * Luke 22. 25. Matth. 20. 26. 27. De conscerat . dist . 2. cap. Peracta . Vide etiam ibid. cap. In c●ena , & cap. Si quis . * De consecrat . dist . 1. c. Omnes fidel . Omnes fideles qui conveniunt in solennitatibus sacris ad Ecclesiam & Scripturas Apostolorum & Evangeliae aeudiant . Qui autem non perseverant in oratione usque dum Missa peragatur , nec Sanctam Communionem percipiunt , velut inquietudines Ecclesiae commoventes convenit communione privari . * In Chronic. Zilizensi . Enchir. cap. 1. n. 31. Praxis sori poenit . l. 5. c. 2. sect . 4. n. 23. * Dom. a Soto in quart . sent . dist . 17. qu. 2. art . 6. concl . secunda . * Non est dubium quin id lic●tum sit . Cod. de poeniten . tract . 1. qu. 6. p. 18. edit . Salmantie . A. D. 1553. Reginald , lib. de contrit . c. 2. cap. 4. * Non ilico ut homo se reum senti● culpae poenitentiae lege poenitere constringitur . Haec profecto conclusio more & usu Ecclesia satis videtur constabilita . Dom. ae Soto in quart . sent . dist . 17. qu. 2. art . 6. Session 4. c. 4. In 4. sent . dist . 18. q. 1. Lib. 3. Instruct. sacerdot . cap. 9 n 4. Sum. qu. 16. art . 1. De Contrit . num . 107. Quaecunque intensio contrae peccatum , in quocunque instanti sufficie● ad consequendam misericordiam & remistionem , ibid. n. 106. * Vide Biel. l. 4. dist . 17. 4.1 . & Scotum ibidem . & Bonavent . ib. n. 72. * Nelius dicitur ●am institutam ●uisse à quadam universali Ecclesiae traditione quam ex Novi vel Veteris Testamenti , ●●thoritate ; & ●●men negatur haec Traditio esse universalis . Confessio non est necessaria apud ●raecos : quia non emanavit ad illos traditionaliter , de poeuit . dist . 5. in principio Gloss. Ibid. Vide etiam Panormitan . super Decre●al . 5. cap. Quod autem , c. Omnis utriusque sexus sect . 18. extrav . Gloss. Maldonatus sa●●tur omnes Canonistas in ha●e sententiam consensisse , disp . de Sacram. ●●m . 2. c. ● . De consess . Orig. Sess. 4. Can. 2. * Eman. Sa , V. Satisfact . n. 10. T●let . l. 3. instr . sacerd . cap. 11. n. 6. Tolet. instr . sacerd . lib. 3. cap. 11. n. 6. * Vide Concil . Tribur . c. 54. Burchard . lib. 19. Tertul. lib. de Poenitentia . De indulgent . l. 1. c. 9. Sect. Existit autem . Vide Iohan. de Turrecremata in comment . dist . 1. de poenitentia . Hist. Concil . Trident. lib. 1. pag. 20. Londin . edit . Fab. Incarnatus scrutin . Sacerd. de indulgent . Cention gravam . Germ. Idem facere voluit Paulus quintus in venetorum causa . * Fabius incarnatus Scrutin . Sacerdot . de indulgen . sect . antepen . edit . Barcinon : 1628. Apud Genes . Sepulvedam in vita Egidii Albernotii Cardinalis . Fab. Incarn . ubi supra . Apud Petr●n de Soto lect . a instit . Sacerd. de necessariis ad effectum indulg . a In tract . de jubileo . not ab . 34. n. 4. & 6. b Qu. 37. de indulg prop. 3. c Lib. 1. de indulg . c. 10. Sect. Altera dubitatio . Scrutin . Sacerd . ubi supra . Digress . 2. ad Cap. 1. Epist. ad T●●●n . De potest . Papae . qu. 3. ad 3. * Sa aphor . verb. satisfact . num . 10. Scrutin . Sacerd . tract . de Indulg . sect . penult . Su●rrez . part . 4. in 3. disp . 38. sect . 9. Gra●at . in materia de peccatis , tract . 8 desp . 1. sect . 1 F. Knot . against Chilling worth in his Infidelity unmask'd , p. 105 , 106 , 107 , &c. * Bellarm. l. 1. de amiss gratiae , cap. 13. sect . alterum est . Et de Sacram Euchar . l. 4. c. 19. sect . respondeo . * Cap. 14. sect . adde postrenso . De Purgator . lib. 1. cap. 11. sect . probatur ultimo . * In 4 S●u● . dist . 21. q. 1. art . 2. * Lib. 1. cap. 14. de Purgator . sect . est ergo opini● ver a. ● Emanuel [ Sa aphor . verb. ●ubium . Escobar . Theol. moral . Exam. 3. c. 3. de Censc●●●la probabi●● , &c. Eman. Sa , Aphor. verb. Dubium Escobar . de conscient●● probabili . Apud Na●●ler●● generat . 22.26 . Dist. 82. Can. Presbyter inglossa . 3 Qu. ● . Latae ●utravag . de ●igamis . Quja ●irca , Communiter dicitur quod Clericus pr● simpliti fornitatione deponi non debet , dist . 81. Maximin . Glossa in Gratian. Sent. l. 4. dist . 33 Lib. de Temp. qu. 2 de luxuria . * Vide Dan. Tiles . de l'erbo non scripto , l. 4. c. 8. * Instruct. Sace●d l. 5. c. 6. n. 15. Lib. 4. c. 13. n. 4. Lib. 5. c. 10. n. 3. Lib. 5. c. 13. n. 10. Lib. 5. c. 11. n. 5. Lib. 8. c. 39. n. 4. * Aphor. tit . Debitum Conjugale . 6. Lib. 1. cap. 61. Ibid. De Adorat l. 3. Disp. 1. c. 2. Ib. c. 5. sect . 33. Concil C.P. 6. can . 76. * Cap. fin . de conver . conjug . c. 2. de divortiis . a De Matrim . p. 2. c. 7. sect . 5. n. 4. b In Sent. 4. d. 39. art . 1. Concl. ul● . c Lib. 1. de Matrim c. 14. sect . secundo , sine consensu . Serutin . Sacerdot . de Indul. 3. Part. qu. 25. art . 4. Vide etiam Pontif. cap. de benedictione novae crucis , fol. 163. De Orat. l. 3. c. 4. Su● . part . 3. tit . 23. Vide etiam Iacobum de Graffus de orat . lib. 2. Instruct. Sacerd . c. 13. n. 5. & 6. Ibid. n. ● . Vbi 〈◊〉 Vbi supra , cap. 13. Ibid. n 6. Ohe jam desme Deos ●●xor gratulando obtundere , nisi illos tuo ex iugenio judica● , ut nil credas intelligere nisi idem dictum est centies . Heautontim . act . 5. scen. 1. Summae Cajetan , v. oratio . Ierem. 17. 5. Psal. 115.9 . & 146.3 . & 118. 8. & 50. 15. Heb. 4.16 . Matth. 11. 28. Iohn 6. 37. Sum. part . 4. tit . 15. 1 John c. 2.1.2 . Bernardin . de bus●●s . de Concept . Mariae . 1. part . serm . 1. part . 2. * In Can●ic . Mar. Magnificat . * C●●men● . in S. Proverb . in vers . 17. * Tit. de Sanctis . Sess. 9. Ex cursu horarum Beatae Mariae . * Ad Recand● tenses : de Lauretana imagine , apud Bembum . l. 8. ep . 17. * In epist. dedicat . histor . Lauretan . Fol. 323 , 3●4 325. Fol. 327. Vide epist. Andri Duditibii● Quinque Eccles. episc . Edit . A. D. 1590 sine lo●i & typographi nomine . In Cantitis quae ●●can● sequentiae D●minic . anie ascensionem Domini . Vide s●● . Rosario . ●uentias ●●eviam . Jerem. 2. 13. Rom. 1.25 . * 1 Cor. 3.11 . ● 8. Kings 17. 21. cap 2. visitatione minorum Sept S. Aug. John 4. 22● Vide libr. de Sanctis Hibernicis nuper Latine edit . per D Picardum Parisiensem . * Apud Bodin . in method . histor . l 4. Apud Aug , Triumphum de An●o●a . Q● . 14 ad 4. & quaest . 17. ad . verb. Harmannus . Lib de Reform 〈◊〉 . D ●stis Sancterum 7. 10. Rom. 10. 14. Tim. 2. 5. * Ne miretur ●ector e●uditur , quod exorcism●s apud Inqisiteres sie ●oemi●tu●●ene ris , so ●asse dispensatum ●ui● cum bon●s vl●is in hoc . articulo . An potius factum quia bonus A●g lus nu●quam , mali autem Genil saep●ssime sub sorma soemininae : ap●ar●e q●o● 〈…〉 . Lib. 133. Flagellum Daemonum decum 3. vide Raimun . Lullium lib 2. le quint a essentia . hilostrat . de I● appalonii , In illa verba , ( Qui credit in me majora ●●ciet . ) Quaest. natur . l. 4. c. 6. Cyril . Hi●r●s . Catech. 4. Inflit. m●ral . part . 1. l. 9. c. 6. Edit . Roman● p. 672. Nemius po●est per fidem constare se receposse vel minimum sacramentum . Estque hoc ita certum ex fide , ac clarum ●● nos vivere . Nulla est via , qua citra revelationem . nosse possumus intentionem ministrantis , vel evidenter , vel cert● ex fide , Andreas Vega , lib. 9. de justific . c. 17. Non potest quis esse certus certi●udine fidei se percipere verum Sacramentum . Cum Sacramentum ●ine intentione Ministri non conficiatur , & intentionem alteriu● nemo videre potest . Be●●ar●● . lib. 3. de justif . cap. 8. sect . Dicent , Instruct. Sacerd . l. 4. c. 2● . c. 22. In 3 Tom. 4 qu. 93. art . 5. dub . 13. Manuel . c. 18. n. 7. Apud . Tolet. Instruct. Sacerd . l. 5. c. 27. In comp●nd . p. 335 Lugduni . A. D. 1641 Ubi supra . Theol. Scholast . Relect. de paea●● . n● . S●ss . 8. can . 6. Cap. cum virum de regularibus . Aquin. 2. q. 88. art . 9. Lib. 1. c. 101. Thom. Walsingham . De●erunt a●rum & argentum & reportant Chartas . C●rd . Cusan . Lib. 1. de summo Pontif. vid● etiam Iacobum de T●ram : & Rav●s . de C●●ci● . du Tren● . Cap. quia circa Extrav . de Bigamis . Cap. proposuit . de con ess . pr● benda , n. ●● . Si Imperator , dist . 96. &c. Ecclesia S. M. de constitut . A. D. 1199. Can. 5. De Clericis l●t . c 30 sect quarto obiiciunt . De Offic. Christiani Princ. l. 1. c. 5. Suarez . d●fens . contra sect . Anglie . l. 4. c. 17. sect . 15 , 16 , & 18. Apbor . verb. Cl●icus . Desens . sid . l. 4. c. 15. s●ct . 1. Apolog. p. 57. Rem . 13. 1. la bu●c locum . Instruct. Sacerd . l. 3. c. 16. De poenit . l. 2. c. 19. 15. Brit● c. 13. Coutr . Reg. Ang. l. 9 c. 3 : Cap. 13 : De sum Pontif . l. 5. c. 6. Ibid. c. 7. Defen● . fid . Cath. l. 3. c. 25. s●ct . 10. & sect . 18. & 20. Corcer . Eccles. in Angl. fol. 336. In Philopat . sect . 2. n. 160● & 161. Tom. 3. disp . ● . q. 12. pu●ct . 2. Contr. B●r●l . c. 7. Ubi supra , l. 6. c. 6. sect . 24. Contr. E●●cl . c. 7. De Rom. Pontif. lib. 4. c. 5. B●stit : moral . part . 2. lib. 10. cap. 9. Ubi supra . See Mat Vivaldus de Bulla coenae Domini . Sanct. a● . Iur. P●nlificis qu. 15 s●ct . 5. qu. 17. s●ct . 6. & qu. 27. sect . 7. Cat●l . glor . mundi part . 4. consid . 7. cae Zod●rico . Verb. Bon●f . ● . * De maj●r , & obed●ent . un●m Sanctam . In Extrav . Pon●f . 8. Concil . Late● . sub Iu●is 2. In Extrav . Iob. 22. cap. Cum inter nonnullos . In gloss . sinal , edit . ●aris 1503. Co●cil . Viennens . sub . Clem. 5. * Voi supra in Cassenao . * Summ. 3. part . l. 22. c. 6. sect . 4. * In sua Monarchiae quem citat Felinus in cap. si qu●ndo , ubi per cum extrav . de rescript . * In tract . de Rege & regno ad R●gem Cypri . In Phi●pair . sect . 2. 7. 160. 162. Lib. de side baeret . servanda In epist. monitor . ad . Iob. B●rclai . In resp . ad Apolog . pro ● . fidelit , 
A63835	----	A dissuasive from popery to the people of England and Ireland together with II. additional letters to persons changed in their religion ... / by Jeremy Lord Bishop of Down. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. 1686 Approx. 432 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 152 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2003-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A63835 Wing T323 ESTC R33895 13600961 ocm 13600961 100736 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A63835) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 100736) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1051:7) A dissuasive from popery to the people of England and Ireland together with II. additional letters to persons changed in their religion ... / by Jeremy Lord Bishop of Down. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. [25], 277 p. Printed for R. Royston ..., London : MDCLXXXVI [1686] Reproduction of original in the Huntington Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Catholic Church -- Controversial literature -- Protestant authors. 2000-00 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2001-07 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2001-08 TCP Staff (Michigan) Sampled and proofread 2001-10 TCP Staff (Michigan) Text and markup reviewed and edited 2001-11 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion Nunquam CHRISTO Charior quam sub Cruce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : 〈◊〉 A Dissuasive FROM POPERY TO THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND AND IRELAND . Together with II. Additional Letters to Persons changed in their Religion . I. The first written to a Gentlewoman newly seduced to the Church of Rome . II. The second to a Person newly converted to the Church of England . By JEREMY Lord Bishop of Down . LONDON , Printed for R. Royston , at the Angel in Amen-Corner , MDCLXXXVI . THE PREFACE TO THE READER . WHen a Roman Gentleman had , to please himself , written a Book in Greek , and presented it to Cato ; he desir'd him to pardon the faults of his Expressions , since he wrote in Greek , which was a Tongue in which he was not perfect Master . Cato told him he had better then to have let it alone and written in Latin , by how much it is better not to commit a fault , than to make apologies . For if the thing be good , it needs not to be excus'd ; if it be not good , a crude apologie will do nothing but confess the fault , but never makes amends . I therefore make this Address to all who will concern themselves in reading this Book , not to ask their pardon for my 〈◊〉 in doing of it ; I know of none ; for if I had known them I would have mended them before the Publication ; and yet though I know not any , I do not question but much fault will be found by too many ; I wish I have given them no cause for their so doing . But I do not only mean it in the particular Periods , ( where every man that is not a Son of the Church of England or Ireland , will at least do as Apollonius did to the Apparition that affrighted his company on the Mountain Caucasus , he will revile and persecute me with evil words ) but I mean it in the whole Design , and men will reasonably or capriciously ask , Why any more Controversies ? Why this over again ? Why against the Papists , against whom so very many are already exasperated , that they cry out 〈◊〉 of Persecution ? And why can they not be 〈◊〉 to enjoy their share of peace , which hath returned in the hands of His Sacred Majesty at his blessed Restauration ? For as much of this as concerns my self I make no excuse , but give my reasons , and hope to 〈◊〉 this procedure with that modesty which David us'd to his angry brother , saying , What have I now done ? Is there not a cause ? The cause is this : The Reverend Fathers my Lords the Bishops of Ireland in their circumspection and watchfulness over their Flocks having espied grievous Wolves to have entered in , some with Sheeps-clothing , and some without , some secret enemies , and some open , at first endeavour'd to give check to those enemies which had put fire into the bed-straw ; and though God hath very much prosper'd their labours , yet they have work enough to do , and will have , till God shall call them home to the land of peace and unity . But it was soon remembred , that when King James of blessed memory had discerned the spirits of the English Non-conformists , and found them peevish and 〈◊〉 , unreasonable and imperious ; not only unable to govern , but as inconsistent with the Government , as greedy to snatch at it for themselves ; resolved to take off their disguise , and put a difference between Conscience and Faction , and to bring them to the measures and rules of Laws ; and to this the Council and all wise men were consenting , because by the King 's great wisdom , and the conduct of the whole Conference and Inquiry , men saw there was reason on the King's side , and 〈◊〉 on all sides . But the Gun-powder Treason breaking out , a new Zeal was 〈◊〉 against the Papists , and it shin'd so greatly , that the Non-conformists escap'd by the light of it , and quickly grew warm by the heat of that flame , to which they added no small increase by their Declamations and other acts of insinuation : insomuch that they being neglected , multiply'd until they got power enough to do all those mischiefs which we have seen and felt . This being remembred and spoken of , it was soon observ'd that the Tables only were now turn'd , and that now the publick zeal and watchfulness against those men and those persuasions , which so lately have afflicted us , might give to the Emissaries of the Church of Rome leisure and opportunity to grow into numbers and strength to debauch many Souls , and to 〈◊〉 the safety and peace of the Kingdom . In Ireland we saw too much of it done , and found the mischief growing too fast , and the most intolerable inconveniencies , but too justly apprehended , as near and imminent . We had reason at least to cry Fire when it flamed through our very Roofs , and to interpose with all care and diligence when Religion and the eternal Interest of Souls was at stake , as knowing we should be greatly unfit to appear and account to the great Bishop and Shepherd of Souls if we had suffer'd the enemies to sow tares in our fields , we standing and looking on . It was therefore consider'd how we might best serve God , and rescue our charges from their danger , and it was concluded presently to run to arms , I mean to the weapons of our warfare , to the armour of the Spirit , to the works of our calling , and to tell the people of their peril , to warn them of the enemy , and to lead them in the ways of truth and peace and holiness : that if they would be admonished , they might be safe ; if they would not , they should be without excuse , because they could not say but the Prophets have been amongst them . But then it was next enquired who should minister in this affair , and put in order all those things which they had to give in charge : It was easie to chuse many , but hard to chuse one ; there were many fit to succeed in the vacant Apostleship , and though Barsabas the Just was by all the Church nam'd as a fit and worthy man , yet the lot fell upon Matthias ; and that was my case , it fell to me to be their Amanuensis , when persons most worthy were more readily excus'd ; and in this my Lords the Bishops had reason , that ( according to S. Paul's rule ) If there be judgments or controversies amongst us , they should be imploy'd who are least esteem'd in the Church ; and upon this account I had nothing left me but Obedience ; though I confess that I found regret in the nature of the imployment , for I love not to be ( as S. Paul calls it ) one of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Disputers of this world . For I suppose skill in Controversies ( as they are now us'd ) to be the worst part of Learning , and time is the worst spent in them , and men the least benefited by them ; that is , when the Questions are curious and impertinent , intricate and inexplicable , not to make men better , but to make a Sect. But when the Propositions disputed are of the foundation of Faith , or lead to good life , or naturally do good to single persons or publick societies , then they are part of the Depositum of Christianity , of the Analogy of faith ; and for this we are by the Apostle commanded to contend earnestly , and therefore Controversies may become necessary ; but because they are not often so , but oftentimes useless and always troublesom ; and as an ill diet makes an ill habit of body , so does the frequent use of controversies baffle the understanding , and makes it crafty to deceive others , it self remaining instructed in nothing but useless notions and words of contingent signification and distinctions without difference , which minister to pride and contention and teach men to be pertinacious , troublesome and uncharitable , therefore I love them not . But because by the Apostolical Rule I am tyed to do all things without murmuring , as well as without disputings , I consider'd it over again , and found my self reliev'd by the subject matter , and the grand consequent of the present Questions . For in the present affair , the case is not so as in the others ; here the Questions are such that the Church of Rome declares them to reach as far as eternity , and damn all that are not of their opinions ; and the Protestants have much more reason to fear concerning the Papists , such who are not excus'd by ignorance , that their condition is very sad and deplorable , and that it is charity to snatch them as a brand from the fire ; and indeed the Church of Rome maintains Propositions , which , if the Antient Doctors of the Church may be believ'd , are apt to separate from God. I instance in their super addition of Articles and Propositions , derived only from a pretended tradition , and not contain'd in Scripture . Now the doing of this is a great sin , and a great danger . Adoro Scripturae plenitudinem ; Si non est scriptum timeat vae illud adjicientibus & detrahentibus destinatum , said Tertullian : I adore the fulness of Scripture , and if it be not written , let Hermogenus fear the woe that is destin'd to them that detract or add to it . S. Basil says , Without doubt it is a most manifest argument of infidelity , and a most certain sign of pride , to introduce any thing that is not written ( in the Scriptures ; ) our blessed Saviour having said , My sheep hear my voice , and the voice of strangers they will not hear ; and to detract from Scriptures , or add any thing to the Faith that is not there , is most vehemently forbidden by the Apostle , saying , If it be but a mans testament , nemo superordinat , no man adds to it . And says also , This was the Will of the Testator . And Theophilus Alexandrinus says plainly , It is the part of a Devilish spirit to think any thing to be Divine , that is not in the authority of the holy Scriptures : and therefore S. Athanasius affirms , that the Catholicks will neither speak nor endure to hear any thing in Religion that is a stranger to Scripture ; it being immodestiae vaecordia , an evil heart of immodesty , to speak those things which are not written . Now let any man judge whether it be not our duty , and a necessary work of charity , and the proper office of our Ministery , to persuade our Charges from the immodesty of an evil heart , from having a Devilish spirit , from doing that which is vehemently forbidden by the Apostle , from infidelity and pride , and lastly from that eternal Wo which is denounc'd against them that add other words and doctrines than what is contain'd in the Scriptures , and say , Dominus dixit , The Lord hath said it , and he hath not said it . If we had put these 〈◊〉 censures upon the Popish doctrine of Tradition , we should have been thought uncharitable ; but because the holy Fathers do so , we ought to be charitable , and snatch our Charges from the ambient slame . And thus it is in the question of Images ; Dubium non est , quin Religio nulla sit , ubicunque simulacrum est , said Lactantius ; Without all peradventure where ever an Image is , ( meaning for worship ) there is no Religion : and that we ought rather to die than pollute our Faith with such impieties , said Origen . It is against the Law of Nature , it being expresly forbidden by the second Commandment , as Irenaeus 〈◊〉 , Tertullian , Cyprian , and S. Augustine ; and therefore is it not great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should contend sor that Faith which 〈◊〉 all worship of 〈◊〉 , and oppose the superstition of such Guides who do teach their 〈◊〉 to give them veneration , to prevaricate the Moral Law , and the very Law of Nature , and do that which whosoever does has no Religion ? We know Idolatry is a damnable sin , and we also know that the Roman Church with all the artifices she could use , never can justifie her self , or acquit the common practices from Idolatry , and yet if it were but suspicious that it is Idolatry , it were enough to awaken us ; for God is a jealous God , and will not endure any such causes of suspicion and motives of jealousie . I instance but once more . The Primitive Church did excommunicate them that did not receive the holy Sacrament in both kinds , and S. Ambrose says , that he who receives the Mystery other ways than Christ appointed , ( that is , but in one kind , when he hath appointed it in two ) is unworthy of the Lord , and he cannot have Devotion . Now this thing we ought not to suffer , that our people by so doing should remain unworthy of the Lord , and for ever be indevout , or cozen'd with a false shew of devotion , or fall by following evil Guides into the sentence of Excommunication . These matters are not trisling , and when we see these errors frequently taught 〈◊〉 own'd as the only true Religion , and 〈◊〉 are such evils , which the Fathers say are the way of damnation , we have reason to hope that all wise and good men , lovers of souls , will confess that we are within the circles of our duty , when we teach our people to decline the crooked ways , and to walk in the ways of Scripture and Christianity . But we have observed amongst the generality of the Irish , such a declension of Christianity , so great credulity to believe every superstitious story , such confidence in vanity , such groundless pertinacy , such vicious lives , so little sense of true Religion and the fear of God , so much care to obey the Priests , and so little to obey God ; such intolerable ignorance , such fond Oaths and manners of swearing , thinking themselves more oblig'd by swearing on the Mass-book , than the four Gospels , and S. Patrick's Mass-book more than any new one ; swearing by their Fathers soul , by their Godsips hand , by other things which are the product of those many Tales are told them ; their not knowing upon what account they refuse to come to Church , but only that now they are old and never did , or their Country-men do not , or their Fathers or Grand-fathers never did , or that their Ancestors were Priests , and they will not alter from their Religion ; and after all , can give no account of their Religion what it is : only they believe as their Priest bids them , and go to Mass which they understand not , and reckon their Beads to tell the number and the tale of their prayers , and abstain from Eggs and Flesh in Lent , and visit Saint Patrick's Well , and leave Pins and Ribbons , Yarn or Thred in their holy Wells , and pray to God , S. Mary and S. Patrick , S. Columbanus and S. Bridget , and desire to be buried with S. Francis's Cord about them , and to fast on Saturdays in honour of our Lady . These and so many other things of like nature we see daily , that we being conscious of the infinite distance which these things have from the spirit of Christianity , know that no charity can be greater than to persuade the people to come to our Churches , where they shall be taught all the ways of godly wisdom , of peace and safety to their souls : whereas now there are many of them that know not how to say their prayers , but mutter like Pies and Parrots words which they are taught , but they do not pretend to understand . But I shall give one particular instance of their miserable superstition and blindness . I was lately within a few months very much troubled with Petitions and earnest Requests for the restoring a Bell , which a Person of Quality had in his hands in the time of , and ever since , the late Rebellion . I could not guess at the reasons of their so great and violent importunity , but told the Petitioners , If they could prove that Bell to be theirs , the Gentleman was willing to pay the full value of it ; though he had no obligation to do so ( that I know of ) but charity : but this was so far from satisfying them , that still the importunity increased , which made me diligently to inquire into the secret of it . The first cause I found was , that a dying person in the Parish desired to have it rung before him to Church , and pretended he could not die in peace if it were deny'd him ; and that the keeping of that Bell did anciently belong to that family from father to son : but because this seem'd nothing but a fond and an unreasonable superstition , I enquired further , and at last found that they believ'd this Bell came from Heaven , and that it used to be carried from place to place , and to end Controversies by Oath , which the worst men durst not violate if they swore upon that Bell , and the best men amongst them durst not but believe him ; that if this Bell was rung before the Corps to the grave , it would help him out of Purgatory ; and that therefore when any one died , the friends of the deceased did , whilest the Bell was in their possession , hire it for the behoof of their dead , and that by this means that Family was in part maintain'd . I was troubled to see under what spirit of delusion those poor souls do lie , how infinitely their credulity is abused , how certainly they believe in trifles , and perfectly rely on vanity , and how little they regard the truths of God , and how not at all they drink of the waters of Salvation . For the numerous companies of Priests and Friars amongst them take care they shall know nothing of Religion , but what they design for them , they use all means to keep them to the use of the Irish Tongue , lest if they learn English they might be supplied with persons fitter to instruct them ; the people are taught to make that also their excuse for not coming to our Churches , to bear our advices , or converse with us in religious intercourses , because they understand us not , and they will not understand us , neither will they learn that they may understand and live . And this and many other evils are made greater and more irremediable by the affrightment which their Priests put upon them by the issues of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction , by which ( they now exercising it too publickly ) they give them Laws , not only for Religion , but even for Temporal things , and turn their Proselytes from the Mass , if they become Farmers of the Tithes from the Minister or Proprietary without their leave . I speak that which I know to be true by their own confession and unconstrain'd and uninvited Narratives ; so that as it is certain that the Roman Religion , as it stands in distinction and separation from us , is a body of strange Propositions , having but little relish of true primitive and pure Christianity , ( as will he 〈◊〉 manifest , if the importunity of our 〈◊〉 extort it ) so it is here amongst us a Faction and a State-party and design to recover their old Laws and barbarous mannèr of living , a device to enable them to dwell alone , and to be Populus unius labii , a people of one language and unmingled with others . And if this be Religion , it is such a one as ought to be reproved by all the severities of Reason and Religion , lest the people perish , and their souls be cheaply given away to them that make merchandize of souls , who were the purchace and price of Christ's bloud . Having given this sad account , why it was necessary that my Lords the Bishops should take care to do what they have done in this affair , and why I did consent to be engaged in this Controversie , otherwise than I love to be , and since it is not a love of trouble and contention , but charity to the souls of the poor deluded Irish , there is nothing remaining but that we humbly desire of God to accept and to bless this well-meant Labour of Love , and that by some admirable ways of his Providence , he will be pleas'd to convey to them the notices of their danger , and their sin , and to de-obstruct the passages of necessary truth to them , for we know the arts of their Guides , and that it will be very hard that the notice of these things shall ever be suffer'd to arrive to the common people , but that which hinders will hinder until it be taken away : however we believe and hope in God for remedy . For although Edom would not let his brother Israel pass into his Countrey , and the Philistims would stop the Patriarchs Wells , and the wicked Shepherds of Midian would drive their Neighbours Flocks from the watering troughs , and the Emissaries of Rome use all arts to keep the people from the use of Scriptures , the Wells of salvation , and from entertaining the notices of such things which from the Scriptures we teach ; yet as God found out a remedy for those of old , so he will also for the poor misled people of Ireland ; and will take away the evil minds , or the opportunities of the Adversaries hindering the people from Instruction , and make way that the Truths we have here taught may approach to their ears , and sink into their hearts , and make them wise unto salvation . Amen . THE CONTENTS Of the Three several CHAPTERS . THE Introduction . Pag. 1. CHAP. I. The Doctrine of the Roman Church in the Controverted Articles is neither Catholick , Apostolick , nor Primitive . 4. CHAP. II. The Church of Rome , as it is at this day disordered , teaches Doctrines and uses Practices , which are in themselves , or in their true and immediate Consequences , direct Impieties , and give warranty to a wicked life . 101. CHAP. III. The Church of Rome teaches Doctrines , which in many things are destructive of Christian Society in general , and of Monarchy in special : Both which the Religion of the Church of England and Ireland does by her Doctrines greatly and Christianly support . 207. IMPRIMATUR . Carolus Alston R. P. D. Hen. Episc. Lond. à Sacris . A DISSUASIVE FROM POPERY To the PEOPLE of IRELAND . The Introduction . THE Questions of difference between Our Churches and the Church of Rome have been so often disputed , and the evidences on both sides so often produc'd , that to those who are strangers to the present constitution of affairs , it may seem very unnecessary to say them over again : and yet it will seem almost impossible to produce any new matter ; or if we could , it will not be probable , that what can be newly alleged can prevail more than all that which already hath been so often urged in these Questions . But we are not deterr'd from doing our duty by any such considerations : as knowing , that the same medicaments are with success applied to a returning or an abiding Ulcer ; and the Preachers of God's word must for ever be ready to put the People in mind of such things , which they already have heard , and by the same Scriptures and the same reasons endeavour to destroy their sin , or prevent their danger ; and by the same word of God to extirpate those errors , which have had opportunity in the time of our late disorders to spring up and grow stronger , not when the Keepers of the field slept , but when they were wounded , and their hands cut off , and their mouths stopp'd lest they should continue , or proceed to do the work of God thoroughly . A little warm Sun , and some indulgent showers of a softer rain , have made many weeds of erroneous Doctrine to take root greatly , and to spread themselves widely : and the Bigots of the Roman Church by their late importune boldness and indiscreet frowardness in making Proselytes have but too manifestly declar'd to all the World , that if they were rerum potiti , Masters of our affairs , they would suffer nothing to grow but their own Colocynths and Gourds . And although the Natural remedy for this were to take away that impunity , upon the account of which alone they do encrease , yet because we shall never be Authors of such Counsels , but considently rely upon God , the Holy Scriptures , right reason , and the most venerable and prime Antiquity , which are the proper defensatives of truth for its support and maintenance ; yet we must not conceal from the People , committed to our charges , the great evils to which they are tempted by the Roman Emissaries , that while the King and the Parliament take care to secure all the publick interests by instruments of their own , we also may by the word of our proper Ministery endeavour to stop the progression of such errors , which we know to be destructive of Christian Religion , and consequently dangerous to the interest of souls . IN this procedure , although we shall say some things which have not been always plac'd before their eyes , and others we shall represent with a sittingness to their present necessities , and all with Charity too , and zeal for their souls ; yet if we were to say nothing but what hath been often said already ; we are still doing the work of God , and repeating his voice , and by the same remedies curing the same diseases , and we only wait for the blessing of God prospering that importunity which is our duty : according to the advice of Solomon , In the Morning sow thy seed , and in the Evening with-hold not thy hand , for thou knowest not whether shall prosper , either this , or that , or whether they both shall be alike good . CHAP. I. The Doctrine of the Roman Church in the Controverted Articles is neither Catholick , Apostolick , nor Primitive . SECT . I. Scripture the foundation of our faith , which was preserved intire in the first Ages of the Church . Roman Doctrines unheard of then , being innovations . They pretend a power to make new articles of Faith. Their expurgatory Indices show that they dare not trust the Fathers till they be purged . Instances of their dealing with their writings . IT was the challenge of St. Augustine to the Donatists , who ( as the Church of Rome does at this day ) inclos'd the Catholick Church within their own circuits : [ Ye say that Christ is Heir of no Lands , but where Donatus is Co-heir . Read this to 〈◊〉 out of the Law and the Prophets , out of the Psalms , out of the Gospel it self , or out of the Letters of the Apostles . Read it thence and we believe it . ] Plainly directing us to the Fountains of our Faith , the Old and New Testament , the words of Christ , and the words of the Apostles . For nothing else can be the foundation of our Faith , whatsoever came in after these , foris est , it belongs not unto Christ * . To these we also add , not as Authors or Finishers , but as helpers of our Faith , and Heirs of the Doctrine Apostolical , the Sentiments and Catholick Doctrine of the Church of God , in the Ages next after the Apostles . Not that we think them or our selves bound to every private opinion , even of a Primitive Bishop and Martyr ; but that we all acknowledge that the whole Church of God kept the Faith entire , and transmitted faithfully to the after-Ages the whole Faith , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the form of Doctrine , and sound words , which was at first delivered to the Saints , and was defective in nothing that belong'd unto salvation ; and we believe that those Ages sent millions of Saints to the bosom of Christ , and seal'd the true faith with their lives and with their deaths , and by both , gave testimony unto Jesus , and had from him the testimony of his Spirit . AND this method of procedure we now choose , not only because to them that know well how to use it , to the Sober and the Moderate , the Peaceable and the Wise , it is the best , the most certain , visible and tangible , most humble and satisfactory , but also because the Church of Rome does with greatest noises pretend her Conformity to Antiquity . Indeed the present Roman Doctrines , which are in difference , were invisible and unheard of in the first and best antiquity , and with how ill success their quotations are out of the Fathers of the first three Ages , every enquiring Man may easily discern . But the noises therefore which they make are from the Writings of the succeeding Ages ; where secular interest did more prevail , and the writings of the Fathers were vast and voluminous , full of controversie , and ambiguous senses , sitted to their own times and questions , full of proper opinions , and such variety of sayings , that both sides eternally and inconfutably shall bring sayings for themselves respectively . Now although things being thus , it will be impossible for them to conclude from the sayings of a number of Fathers , that their doctrine , which they would prove thence , was the Catholick Doctrine of the Church ; because any number that is less than all , does not prove a Catholick consent ; yet the clear sayings of one or two of these Fathers truly alleged by us to the contrary , will certainly prove that what many of them ( suppose it ) do affirm , and which but two or three as good Catholicks as the other do deny , was not then matter of faith or a Doctrine of the Church ; for if it had , these had been Hereticks accounted , and not have remain'd in the Communion of the Church . But although for the reasonableness of the thing we have thought fit to take notice of it ; yet we shall have no need to make use of it ; since not only in the prime and purest Antiquity we are indubitably more than Conquerors ; but even in the succeeding Ages , we have the advantage both numero , pondere & mensurâ , in number , weight and measure . WE do easily acknowledge that to dispute these questions from the sayings of the Fathers is not the readiest way to make an end of them ; but therefore we do wholly rely upon Scriptures as the foundation and final resort of all our perswasions , and from thence can never be confuted ; but we also admit the Fathers as admirable helps for the understanding of the Scriptures , and as good testimony of the Doctrine deliver'd from their fore-fathers down to them of what the Church esteem'd the way of Salvation : and therefore if we sind any Doctrine now taught , which was not plac'd in their way of Salvation , we reject it as being no part of the Christian faith , and which ought not to be impos'd upon consciences . They were wise unto salvation , and fully instructed to every good work ; and therefore the faith which they profess'd and deriv'd from Scripture , we profess also ; and in the same faith , we hope to be sav'd 〈◊〉 as they . But for the new Doctors ; we understand them not , we know them not : Our faith is the same from the beginning , and cannot become new . BUT because we shall make it to appear that they do greatly innovate in all their points of controversie with us , and shew nothing but shadows instead of substances , and little images of things instead of solid arguments ; we shall take from them their armour in which they trusted , and choose this sword of Goliah to combat their errors ; for non est alter talis ; It is not easie to find a better than the word of God , expounded by the prime and best Antiquity . THE first thing therefore we are to advertise is , that the Emissaries of the Roman Church endeavour to perswade the good People of our Dioceses from a Religion that is truly Primitive and Apostolick , and divert them to Propositions of their own , new and unheard of in the first ages of the Christian Church . FOR the Religion of our Church is therefore certainly Primitive and Apostolick , because it teaches us to believe the whole Scriptures of the Old and New Testament , and nothing else as matter of faith ; and therefore unless there can be new Scriptures , we can have no new matters of belief , no new articles of faith . Whatsoever we cannot prove from thence , we disclaim it , as not deriving from the Fountains of our Saviour . We also do believe the Apostles Creed , the Nicene , with the additions of Constantinople , and that which is commonly called , the Symbol of Saint Athanasius : and the four first General Councils are so intirely admitted by us , that they together with the plain words of Scripture are made the rule and measure of judging Heresies amongst us : and in pursuance of these , it is commanded by our Church that the Clergy shall never teach any thing as matter of Faith religiously to be observed , but that which is agreeable to the Old and New Testament , and collected out of the same Doctrine by the Ancient Fathers and Catholick Bishops of the Church * This was undoubtedly the Faith of the Primitive Church , they admitted all into their Communion , that were of this faith ; they condemned no Man that did not condemn these ; they gave letters communicatory by no other cognisance , and all were Brethren who spake this voice . [ Hanc legem sequentes , Christianorum Catholicorum nomen jubemus amplecti , reliquos vero dementes , vesanosque judicantes 〈◊〉 dogmatis infamiam sustinere ] said the Emperors , Gratian , Valentinian and Theodosius , in their Proclamation to the People of C. P. All that believ'd this Doctrine were Christians and Catholicks , viz. all they who believe in the Father , Son , and Holy Ghost , one Divinity of equal Majesty in the Holy Trinity ; which indeed was the summ of what was decreed in explication of the Apostles Creed in the four first General Councils . AND what faith can be the foundation of a more solid peace , the surer ligaments of Catholick Communion , or the 〈◊〉 basis of a holy life and of the hopes of Heaven hereafter , than the measures which the Holy Primitive Church did hold , and we after them ? That which we rely upon is the same that the Primitive Church did acknowledge to be the adaequate foundation of their hopes in the matters of belief : The way which they thought sufficient to go to Heaven in , is the way which we walk : what they did not teach , we do not publish and impose ; into this faith entirely and into no other , as they did theirs ; so we baptize our Catechumens : The Discriminations of Heresie from Catholick Doctrine which they us'd , we use also , and we use no other : and in short , we believe all that Doctrine which the Church of Rome believes , except those things which they have superinduc'd upon the Old Religion , and in which we shall prove that they have innovated . So that by their confession , all the Doctrine , which we teach the People , as matter of Faith , must be confessed to be Ancient , Primitive and Apostolick , or else theirs is not so : for ours is the same , and we both have received this faith from the fountains of Scripture and Universal Tradition ; not they from us , or we from them , but both of us from Christ and his Apostles . And therefore there can be no question whether the Faith of the Church of England be Apostolick or Primitive ; it is so , confessedly : But the Question is concerning many other particulars which were unknown to the Holy Doctors of the first ages , which were no part of their faith , which were never put into their Creeds , which were not determin'd in any of the four first General Councils , rever'd in all Christendom , and entertain'd every where with great Religion and veneration , even next to the four Gospels and the Apostolical writings . OF this sort , because the Church of Rome hath introduc'd many , and hath adopted them into their late Creed , and imposes them upon the People , not only without , but against the Scriptures and the Catholick Doctrine of the Church of God ; laying heavy burdens on Mens consciences , and making the narrow way to Heaven yet narrower by their own inventions ; arrogating to themselves a dominion over our faith , and prescribing a method of Salvation which Christ and his Apostles never taught ; corrupting the faith of the Church of God , and teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of Men ; and lastly , having derogated from the Prerogative of Christ , who alone is the Author and Finisher of our faith , and hath perfected it in the revelations consign'd in the Holy Scriptures ; therefore it is , that we esteem our selves oblig'd to warn the People of their danger , and to depart from it , and call upon them to stand upon the ways , and ask after the old paths , and walk in them ; lest they partake of that curse which is threatned by God to them , who remove the Ancient Land-marks which our Fathers in Christ have set for us . NOW that the Church of Rome cannot pretend that all which she imposes is Primitive and Apostolick , appears in this ; That in the Church of Rome , there is pretence made to a power , not only of declaring new articles of faith , but of making new Symbols or Creeds , and imposing them as of necessity to Salvation . Which thing is evident in the Bull of Pope Leo the Tenth against Martin Luther , in which , amongst other things , he is condemn'd for saying , [ It is certain that it is not in the power of the Church or Pope to constitute Articles of Faith. ] We need not add that this power is attributed to the Bishops of Rome by Turrecremata * , Augustinus Triumphus de Ancona ‖ , Petrus de Ancorano * , and the Famous Abbot of Panormo ‖ , that the Pope cannot only make new Creeds , but new Articles of Faith ; that he can make that of necessity to be believ'd , which before never was necessary ; that he is the measure and rule , and the very notice of all credibilities ; That the Canon Law is the Divine law ; and whatever law the Pope promulges , God , whose Vicar he is , is understood to be the promulger . That the souls of Men are in the hands of the Pope ; and that in his arbitration Religion does consist : which are the very words of Hostiensis * , and Ferdinandus ab Inciso ‖ , who were Casuists and Doctors of Law , of great authority amongst them and renown . The thing it self , is not of dubious disputation amongst them , but actually practis'd in the greatest instances , as is to be seen in the Bull of Pius the Fourth at the end of the Council of Trent ; by which all Ecclesiasticks are not only bound to swear to all the Articles of the Council of Trent for the present and for the future , but they are put into a new Symbol or Creed , and they are corroborated by the same decretory clauses that are used in the Creed of Athanasius : that this is the true Catholick Faith ; and that without this no Man can be saved . NOW since it cannot be imagined that this power , to which they pretend , should never have been reduc'd to act ; and that it is not credible they should publish so inviduous and ill-sounding Doctrine to no purpose , and to serve no end ; it may without further evidence be believed by all discerning persons , that they have need of this Doctrine , or it would not have been taught , and that consequently without more a-doe , it may be concluded that some of their Articles are parts of this new Faith ; and that they can therefore in no sense be Apostolical , unless their being Roman makes them so . To this may be added another consideration , not much less material , that besides what Eckius told the Elector of Bavaria that the Doctrines of Luther might be overthrown by the Fathers , though not by Scripture ; they have also many gripes of conscience concerning the Fathers themselves , that they are not right on their side ; and of this , they have given but too much demonstration by their Expurgatory Indices . The Serpent by being so curious a defender of his head , shews where his danger is , and by what he can most readily be destroyed . But besides their innumerable corruptings of the Fathers writings , their thrusting in that which was spurious , and , like Pharaoh , killing the legitimate Sons of Israel * ; though in this , they have done very much of their work , and made the Testimonies of the Fathers to be a record infinitely worse , than of themselves uncorrupted , they would have been ( of which divers Learned Persons have made publick complaint and demonstration ) they have at last fallen to a new trade , which hath caus'd more dis-reputation to them , than they have gain'd advantage , and they have virtually confess'd , that in many things , the Fathers are against them . FOR first , the King of Spain gave a commission to the Inquisitors to purge all Catholick Authors ; but with this clause , iique ipsi privatim , nullisque consciis apud se indicem expurgatorium habebunt , quem eundem neque aliis communicabunt , neque ejus exemplum ulli dabunt : that they should keep the expurgatory Index privately , neither imparting that Index , nor giving a copy of it to any . But it happened , by the Divine providence , so ordering it , that about thirteen years after , a copy of it was gotten and published by Johannes Pappus and Franciscus Junius , and since it came abroad against their wills , they find it necessary now to own it , and they have Printed it themselves . Now by these expurgatory Tables what they have done is known to all Learned Men. In St. Chrysostom's Works printed at Basil , these words , [ The Church is not built upon the Man , but the Faith ] are commanded to be blotted out : and these [ There is no merit , but what is given us by Christ , ] and yet these words are in his Sermon upon Pentecost , and the former words are in his first homily upon that of St. John , Ye 〈◊〉 my friends , &c. ] The like they have done to him in many other places , and to S. Ambrose , and to St. Austin , and to them all * , insomuch that Ludovicus Saurius the Corrector of the Press at Lyons shewed and complain'd of it to Junius , that he was forc'd to cancellate or blot out many sayings of S. Ambrose in that Edition of his Works , which was Printed at Lyons , 1559. So that what they say on occasion of Bertram's book [ In the old Catholick Writers we suffer very many errors , and extenuate and excuse them , and finding out some commentary , we feign some convenient sense when they are oppos'd in disputations ] they do indeed practise , but esteem it not sufficient ; for the words which make against them they wholly leave out of their Editions . Nay they correct the very Tables or Indices made by the Printers or Correctors ; insomuch that out of one of Froben's indices they have commanded these words to be blotted [ The use of Images forbidden ] The Eucharist no sacrifice , but the memory of a sacrifice ] Works , although they do not justifie , yet are necessary to Salvation ] Marriage is granted to all that will not contain ] Venial sins damn ] The dead Saints , after this life cannot help us ] nay out of the Index of St. Austin's Works by 〈◊〉 Chevallonius at Paris 1531. there is a very strange deleatur [ Dele , Solus Deus adorandus ] that God alone is to be worshipped , is commanded to be blotted out , as being a dangerous Doctrine . These instances may serve instead of multitudes , which might be brought of their corrupting the witnesses and razing the records of antiquity , that the errors and Novelties of the Church of Rome might not be so easily reprov'd . Now if the Fathers were not against them , what need these arts ? Why should they use them thus ? Their own expurgatory indices are infinite testimony against them , both that they do so , and that they need it . But besides these things , we have thought it fit to represent in one aspect , some of their chief Doctrines of difference from the Church of England , and make it evident that they are indeed new , and brought into the Church , first by way of opinion , and afterwards by power , and at last , by their own authority decreed into Laws and Articles . SECT . II. The Church has no power to make new Articles . The Roman Church has many ready for the stamp . Council of Trents new Article against the necessity of Communicating Infants , against the Sense of divers Fathers . FIRST , we allege , that this very power of making new Articles is a Novelty , and expresly against the Doctrine of the Primitive Church ; and we prove it , first , by the words of the Apostle , saying , If we , or an Angel from Heaven shall preach unto you any other Gospel ( viz. in whole or in part , for there is the same reason of them both ) than that which we have preached , let him be Anathema : and secondly , by the sentence of the Fathers in the third General Council , that at Ephesus . [ That it should not be lawful for any Man to publish or compose another Faith or Creed than that which was defin'd by the Nicene Council : and that whosoever shall dare to compose or offer any such to any Persons willing to be converted from Paganism , Judaism , or Heresie , if they were Bishops or Clerks , they should be depos'd , if Lay-men , they should be accursed . ] And yet in the Church of Rome Faith and Christianity increase like the Moon ; Bromyard complain'd of it long since , and the mischief encreases daily . They have now a new Article of Faith , ready for the stamp , which may very shortly become necessary to salvation ; we mean that of the immaculate conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary . Whether the Pope be above a Council or no ; we are not sure , whether it be an article of faith amongst them or not : It is very near one if it be not . Bellarmine would 〈◊〉 have us believe that the Council of Constance approving the Bull of Pope Martin the fifth , declar'd for the Pope's Supremacy . But John Gerson , who was at the Council , says , that the Council did abate those heights to which flattery had advanc'd the Pope ; and that before that Council they spoke such great things of the Pope , which afterwards moderate Men durst not speak ; but yet some others spoke them so confidently before it , that he that should then have spoken to the contrary would hardly have escap'd the note of Heresie : and that these Men continued the same pretensions even after the Council . But the Council of Basil decreed for the Council against the Pope ; and the Council of Lateran under Leo the tenth , decreed for the Pope against the Council . So that it is cross and pile ; and whether for a peny , when it can be done ; it is now a known case it shall become an Article of Faith. But ofr the present it is a probationary Article , and according to Bellarmine's expression , is ferè de fide , it is almost an Article of Faith ; they want a little age , and then they may go alone . But the Council of Trent hath produc'd a strange new Article ; but it is sine controversiâ credendum , it must be believ'd , and must not be controverted : that although the Ancient Fathers did give the Communion 〈◊〉 Infants , yet they did not believe it necessary to Salvation . Now this being a matter of fact whether they did or did not believe it , every man that reads their writings can be able to inform himself : and besides that it is strange that this should be determin'd by a Council , and determin'd against evident truth ( it being notorious , that divers of the Fathers did say it is necessary to salvation ; ) the decree it self is beyond all bounds of modesty , and a strange pretension of Empire over the Christian belief . But we proceed to other instances . SECT . III. The Roman doctrine of Indulgences an Innovation . No mention of them in the Canon-Law of Gratian , or in P. Lombard . What Indulgences the Old Church gave to Penitents . What they signifie in the New Roman ; the value of them disputed ; but the Merchandise and abuses continue . THE Roman Doctrine of Indulgences was the first occasion of the great change and Reformation of the Western Churches , begun by the Preachings of Martin Luther and others ; and besides that it grew to that intolerable abuse , that it became a shame to it self and a reproach to Christendom , it was also so very an Innovation , that their great Antoninus confesses that concerning them we have nothing expresly , either in the Scriptures , or in the sayings of the Antient Doctors : and the same is affirmed by Sylvester Prierias . Bishop Fisher of Rochester says , that in the beginning of the Church there was no use of Indulgences ; and that they began after the people were a-while affrighted with the torments of Purgatory ; and many of the School-men confess that the use of Indulgences began in the time of Pope Alexander the third , towards the end of the 12 th . Century : but Agrippa imputes the beginning of them to Boniface the VIII . who liv'd in the Reign of King Edward the first of England , 1300 years after Christ. But that in his time the first Jubilee was kept we are assur'd by Crantzius . This Pope * lived and died with very great infamy , and therefore was not likely from himself to transfer much honour and reputation to the new institution . But that about this time indulgences began , is more than probable ; much before , it is certain they were not . For in the whole Canon-Law written by Gratian , and in the sentences of Peter Lombard there is nothing spoken of Indulgences : Now because they liv'd in the time of Pope Alexander III. if he had introduc'd them , and much rather if they had been as antient as S. Gregory ( as some vainly and weakly pretend , from no greater authority than their own Legends ) it is probable that these great Men writing Bodies of Divinity and Law , would have made mention of so considerable a point , and so great a part of the Roman Religion , as things are now order'd . If they had been Doctrines of the Church then , as they are now , it is certain they must have come under their cognisance and discourses . Now lest the Roman Emissaries should deceive any of the good Sons of the Church , we think it fit to acquaint them , that in the Primitive Church , when the Bishops impos'd severe penances , and that they were almost quite perform'd , and a great cause of pity intervened , or danger of death , or an excellent repentance , or that the Martyrs interceded , the Bishop did sometimes indulge the Penitent , and relax some of the remaining parts of his penance ; and according to the example of S. Paul , in the case of the incestuous Corinthian , gave them ease , lest they should be swallowed up with too much sorrow . But the Roman Doctrine of Indulgences is wholly another thing ; nothing of it but the abused name remains . For in the Church of Rome they now pretend that there is an infinite of degrees of Christs merits and satisfaction beyond what is necessary for the salvation of his servants : and ( for fear Christ should not have enough ) the Saints have a surplusage of merits , * or at least of satisfactions more than they can spend , or themselves do need : and out of these the Church hath made her a treasure , a kind of poor-mans box ; and out of this , a power to take as much as they list to apply to the poor Souls in Purgatory ; who because they did not satisfie for their venial sins , or perform all their penances which were imposed , or which might have been imposed and which were due to be paid to God for the temporal pains reserved upon them , after he had forgiven them the guilt of their 〈◊〉 sins , are forc'd sadly to roar in pains not inferiour to the pains of hell , excepting only that they are not eternal . * That this is the true state of their Article of Indulgences , we appeal to Bellarmine . Now concerning their new foundation of Indulgences , the first stone of it was laid by Pope 〈◊〉 VI. in his extravagant Vnigenitus , de poenitentiis & remissionibus , A. D. 1350. This constitution was published Fifty years after the first Jubilee , and was a new device to bring in customers to Rome at the second Jubilee , which was kept in Rome in this Popes time . What ends of profit and interest it serv'd , we are not much concern'd to enquire ; but this we know , that it had not yet passed into a Catholick Doctrine , for it was disputed against by Franciscus de Mayronis * and Durandus ‖ not long before this extravagant ; and that it was not rightly form'd to their purposes till the stirs in Germany , rais'd upon the occasion of Indulgences , made Leo the Tenth set his Clerks on work to study the point and make something of it . BUT as to the thing it self : it is so wholly new , so merely devis'd and forged by themselves , so newly created out of nothing , from great mistakes of Scripture , and dreams of shadows from antiquity ; that we are to admonish our charges , that they cannot reasonably expect many sayings of the Primitive Doctors against them , any more than against the new fancies of the Quakers , which were born but yesterday . That which is not cannot be numbred , and that which was not could not be confuted . But the perfect silence of antiquity in this whole matter , is an abundant demonstration that this new nothing was made in the later laboratories of Rome . For as Durandus said , the Holy Fathers , Ambrose Hilary , Hierom , Augustine speak nothing of Indulgences . And whereas it is said that S. Gregory DC . years after Christ , gave Indulgences at Rome in the stations ; Magister Angularis who lived about 200. years since , says , he never read of any such any where ; and it is certain there is no such thing in the writings of S. Gregory , nor in any history of that age or any other that is Authentick : and we could never see any History pretended for it by the Roman writers , but a Legend of Ledgerus brought to us the other day by Surius : which is so ridiculous and weak , that even their own parties dare not avow it as true story ; and therefore they are fain to make use of Thomas Aquinas upon the Sentences , and Altisiodorensis for story and record . And it were strange that if this power of giving Indulgences to take off the punishment , reserv'd by God after the sin is pardoned , were given by Christ to his Church , that no one of the antient Doctors should tell any thing of it : insomuch that there is no one Writer of Authority and credit , not the more antient Doctors we have named , nor those who were much later , Rupertus Tuitiensis , Anselm or S. Bernard ever took notice of it ; but it was a Doctrine wholly unknown to the Church for about MCC . years after Christ : and Cardinal Cajetan told Pope Adrian VI. that to him that readeth the Decretals it plainly appears , that an indulgence is nothing 〈◊〉 but an absolution from that penance which the Confessor hath imposed ; and therefore can be nothing of that which is now adays pretended . TRUE it is , that the Canonical 〈◊〉 were about the time of Burchard lessen'd and alter'd by commutations ; and the ancient Discipline of the Church in imposing penances was made so loose , that the Indulgence was more than the Imposition , and began not to be an act of mercy but remisness , an absolution without amends : It became a trumpet , and a levy for the Holy War , in Pope Urban the Second's time ; for he gave a plenary Indulgence and remission of all sins to them that should go and fight against the Saracens : and yet no man could tell how much they were the better for these Indulgences : for concerning the value of indulgences , the complaint is both old and doubtful , said Pope Adrian ; and he cites a famous gloss , which tells of four Opinions all Catholick , and yet vastly differing in this particular : but the Summa Angelica reckons seven Opinions concerning what that penalty is which is taken off by Indulgences : No man could then tell ; and the point was but in the infancy , and since that , they have made it what they please : but it is at last turn'd into a Doctrine , and they have devised new propositions , as well as they can , to make sense of it ; and yet it is a very strange thing ; a solution , not an absolution ( it is the distinction of Bellarmine ) that is , the sinner is let to go free without punishment in this world , or in the world to come ; and in the end , it grew to be that which Christendom could not suffer : a 〈◊〉 of Doctrines without Grounds of Scripture , or Catholick Tradition ; and not only so , but they have introduc'd a way of remitting sins , that Christ and his Apostles taught not ; a way destructive of the repentance and remission of sins which was preached in the Name of Jesus : it brought into the Church , false and fantastick hopes , a hope that will make men asham'd ; a 〈◊〉 that does not glorisie the merits and perfect satisfaction of Christ ; a doctrine expresly dishonourable to the full and free pardon given us by God through Jesus Christ ; a practice that supposes a new bunch of Keys given to the Church , besides that which the Apostles receiv'd to open and shut the Kingdom of Heaven ; a Doctrine that introduces pride among the Saints , and advances the opinion of their works beyond the measures of Christ , who taught us , That when we have done all that is commanded , we are unprofitable servants , and therefore certainly cannot supercrogate , or do more than what is infinitely recompenc'd by the Kingdom of Glory , to which all our doings and all our sufferings are not worthy to be compar'd , especially , since the greatest . Saint cannot but say with David , Enter not into judgment with thy servant ; for in thy sight no flesh living can be justified ; It is a practice that hath turn'd penances into a Fair , and the Court of Conscience into a Lombard , and the labours of Love into the labours of pilgrimages , superstitious and useless wandrings from place to place ; and Religion into vanity , and our hope in God to a confidence in man , and our fears of hell to be a meer scar-crow to rich and confident sinners : and at last , it was frugally employed by a great Pope to raise a portion for a Lady , the Wife of France schetto Cibo bastard Son of Pope Innocent viii . and the merchandize it self became the stakes of Gamesters , at Dice and Cards , and men did vile actions that they might win indulgences ; by gaming making their way to heaven easier . NOW although the Holy Fathers of the Church could not be suppos'd in direct terms to speak against this new Doctrine of Indulgences , because in their days it was not : yet they have said many things which do perfectly destroy this new Doctrine and these unchristian practices . For besides that they teach a repentance wholly reducing us to a good life ; a faith that intirely relies upon Christs merits and satisfactions ; a hope wholly depending upon the plain promises of the Gospel , a service perfectly consisting in the works of a good conscience , a labour of love , a religion of justice and piety , and moral vertues : they do also expresly teach that pilgrimages to holy places and such like inventions , which are now the earnings and price of indulgences , are not requir'd of us , and are not the way of salvation , as is to be seen in an Oration made by S. Gregory Nyssene wholly against pilgrimages to Jerusalem ; in S. Chrysostom * , S. Augustine ‖ , and S. Bernard : The sense of these Fathers is this , in the words of S. Augustine : God said not , Go to the East , and seek righteousness ; sail to the West that you may rcceive indulgence . But indulge thy brother , and it shall be indulg'd to thee : you have need to inquire for no other indulgence to thy sins ; if thou wilt retire into the closet of thy heart , there thou shalt find it . That is , All our hopes of Indulgence is from GOD through JESUS CHRIST , and is wholly to be obtain'd by faith in Christ , and perseverance in good works , and intire mortification of all our sins . To conclude this particular : Though the gains which the Church of Rome makes of Indulgences , be a heap almost as great as the abuses themselves , yet the greatest Patrons of this new Doctrine could never give any certainty , or reasonable comfort to the Conscience of any person that could inquire into it . They never durst determine , whether they were Absolutions , or Compensations ; whether they only take off the penances actually impos'd by the Confessor , or potentially , and all that which might have been impos'd ; whether all that may be paid in the Court of men ; or all that can or will be required by the Laws and severity of God. Neither can they speak rationally to the Great Question , Whether the Treasure of the Church consists of the Satisfactions of Christ only , or of the Saints ? For if of Saints , it will by all men be acknowledged to be a defeisible estate , and being finite and limited , will be spent sooner than the needs of the Church can be served ; and if therefore it be necessary to add the merits and satisfaction of Christ , since they are an Ocean of infinity , and can supply more than all our needs , to what purpose is it to add the little minutes and droppings of the Saints ? They cannot tell whether they may be given , if the Receiver do nothing , or give nothing for them : And though this last particular could better be resolv'd by the Court of Rome , than by the Church of Rome , yet all the Doctrines which built up the new Fabrick of Indulgences , were so dangerous to determine , so improbable , so unreasonable , or at best so uncertain and invidious , that according to the advice of the Bishop of Modena , the Council of Trent left all the Doctrines , and all the cases of Conscience quite alone , and slubber'd the whole matter both in the question of Indulgences and Purgatory in general and recommendatory terms ; affirming , that the power of giving Indulgence is in the Church , and that the use is wholsome : And that all hard and subtil questions ( viz. ) concerning Purgatory , ( which although ( if it be at all ) it is a fire , yet is the fuel of Indulgences , and maintains them wholly ; ) all that is suspected to be false , and all that is uncertain ; and whatsoever is curious and superstitious , scandalous , or for filthy lucre , be laid aside . And in the mean time , they tell us not what is , and what is not Superstitions ; nor what is Scandalous , nor what they mean by the general term of Indulgence ; and they establish no Doctrine , neither curious , nor incurious , nor durst they decree the very foundation of this whole matter , The Churches Treasure : Neither durst they meddle with it , but left it as they found it , and continued in the abuses , and proceed in the practice , and set their Doctors , as well as they can , to defend all the new , and curious and scandalous questions , and to uphold the gainful trade . But however it be with them , the Doctrine it self is prov'd to be a direct Innovation in the matter of Christian Religion , and that was it which we have undertaken to demonstrate . SECT . IV. The Doctrine of Purgatory , which is the Mother of Indulgences , an Innovation . Of punishment due when the guilt is removed . The Antients prayers for the dead , respected not Purgatory . Their fire of Purgation not kindled till the day of Judgment . Purgatory no Doctrine of the Church in Saint Austin's time . The new Purgatory depends upon Legends and apparitions . The Ancients knew but of two states after death , of the just and unjust . THE Doctrine of Purgatory is the Mother of Indulgences , and the fear of that hath introduc'd these : For the world hapned to be abus'd like the Countrey-man in the Fable , who being told he was likely to fall into a delirium in his feet , was advis'd for remedy to take the juice of Cotton : He feared a disease that was not , and look'd for a cure as ridiculous . But if the Parent of Indulgences be not from Christ and his Apostles ; if upon this ground the Primitive Church never built , the Superstructures of Rome must fall ; they can be no stronger than their Supporter . Now then in order to the proving the Doctrine of Purgatory to be an Innovation , 1. We consider , That the Doctrines upon which it is pretended reasonable , are all dubious , and disputable at the very best . Such are , 1. THEIR distinction of sins Mortal and Venial in their own nature . 2. THAT the taking away the guilt of sins , does not suppose the taking away the obligation to punishment ; that is , That when a mans sin is pardoned , he may be punished without the guilt of that sin , as justly as with it ; as if the guilt could be any thing else but an obligation to punishment for having sinned : which is a Proposition , of which no wise man can make sense ; but it is certain , that it is expresly against the Word of God , who promises upon our repentance , so to take away our sins , that he will remember them no more : And so did Christ to all those to whom he gave pardon ; for he did not take our faults and guilt on him any other way , but by curing our evil hearts , and taking away the punishment * . And this was so perfectly believ'd by the Primitive Church , that they always made the penances and satisfaction to be undergone before they gave absolution ; and after absolution they never impos'd or oblig'd to punishment , unless it were to sick persons , of whose recovery they despaired not : of them indeed , in case they had not finished their Canonical punishments , they expected they should perform what was enjoyn'd them formerly . But because all sin is a blot to a mans soul , and a foul stain to his reputation ; we demand , in what does this stain consist ? In the guilt , or in the punishment ? If it be said that it consists in the punishment ; then what does the guilt signifie , when the removing of it , does neither remove the stain nor the punishment , which both remain and abide together ? But if the stain and the guilt be all one , or always together , then when the guilt is taken away , there can no stain remain ; and if so , what need * is there any more of Purgatory ? For since this is pretended to be necessary , only lest any stain'd or unclean thing should enter into Heaven ; if the guilt and the pain be removed , what uncleanness can there be left behind ? Indeed Simon Magus ( as 〈◊〉 reports , Haeres . 20. ) did teach , That after the death of the body there remained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a purgation of souls : But whether the Church of Rome will own him for an Authentick Doctor , themselves can best tell . 3. IT relies upon this also , That God requires of us a full exchange of penances and satisfactions , which must regularly be paid here or hereafter , even by them who are pardon'd here : which if it were true , we were all undone . 4. THAT the Death of Christ , his Merits and Satisfaction do not procure for us a full remission before we dye , nor ( as it may happen ) of a long time after . All which being Propositions new and uncertain , invented by the School Divines , and brought ex 〈◊〉 , to dress this opinion , and make it to seem reasonable ; and being the products of ignorance concerning remission of sins by Grace , of the righteousness of Faith , and the infinite value of Christs Death , must needs lay a great prejudice of novelty upon the Doctrine it self , which but by these , cannot be supported . But to put it past suspition and conjectures ; Roffensis and Polydore Virgil affirm , That who so searcheth the Writings of the Greek Fathers , shall find that none , or very rarely any one of them , ever makes mention of Purgatory ; and that the Latin Fathers did not all believe it , but by degrees came to entertain opinions of it : But for the Catholick Church , it was but lately known to her . BUT before we say any more in this Question , we are to premonish , That there are Two great causes of their mistaken pretensions in this Article from Antiquity . THE first is , That the Antient Churches in their Offices , and the Fathers in 〈◊〉 Writings , did teach and practise respectively , prayer for the dead . Now because the Church of Rome does so too , and more than so , relates her prayers to the Doctrine of Purgatory , and for the souls there detain'd , her Doctors vainly suppose , that when ever the Holy Fathers speak of prayer for the dead , that they conclude for Purgatory ; which vain conjecture is as false as it is unreasonable : For it is true , the Fathers did pray for the dead , but how ? That God would shew them mercy , and hasten the resurrection , and give a blessed sentence in the great day . But then it is also to be remembred , that they made prayers , and offered for those , who by the confession of all sides , never were in Purgatory ; even for the Patriarchs and Prophets , for the Apostles and Evangelists , for Martyrs and Confessors , and especially for the blessed Virgin Mary : So we find it in * Epiphanius , ‖ S. Cyril , and in the Canon of the Greeks , and so it is acknowledged by their own * Durantus ; and in their Mass-book antiently they prayed for the soul of S. Leo : Of which because by their latter doctrines , they grew asham'd , they have chang'd the prayer for him , into a prayer to God by the intercession of S. Leo , in behalf of themselves ; so by their new doctrine , making him an Intercessor for us , who by their old doctrine was suppos'd to need our prayers to intercede for him ; of which Pope Innocent being ask'd a reason , makes a most pitiful excuse . UPON what accounts the Fathers did pray for the Saints departed , and indeed generally for all , it is not now seasonable to discourse ; but to say this only , that such general prayers for the dead as those above reckoned the Church of England never did condemn by any express Article , but left it in the middle , and by her practice declares her Faith of the Resurrection of the dead , and her interest in the Communion of Saints , and that the Saints departed are a portion of the Catholick Church , parts and members of the Body of Christ ; but expresly condemns the Doctrine of Purgatory , and consequently all prayers for the dead relating to it : And how vainly the Church of Rome from prayer for the dead , infers the belief of 〈◊〉 , every man may satisfie himself , by seeing the Writings of the Fathers , where they cannot meet with one Collect or Clause for praying for the delivery of souls 〈◊〉 of that imaginary place . Which thing is so certain , that in the very Roman Offices , we mean , the Vigils said for the dead , which are Psalms and Lessons taken from the Scripture , speaking of the miseries of this World , Repentance , and Reconciliation with God , the bliss after this life of them that die in Christ , and the Resurrection of the Dead ; and in the Anthems , Versicles and Responses , there are prayers made recommending to God the Soul of the newly defunct , praying , he may be freed from hell , and eternal death , that in the day of Judgment he be not judged and condemned according to his sins , but that he may appear among the Elect in the glory of the Resurrection ; but not one word of Purgatory , or its pains . THE other cause of their mistake is , That the Fathers often speak of a fire of Purgation after this life ; but such a one that is not to be kindled until the day of Judgment , and it is such a fire that destroys the Doctrine of the intermedial Purgatory . We suppose that Origen was the first that spoke plainly of it ; and so S. Ambrose follows him in the opinion ( for it was no more ; ) so does S. Basil , S. Hilary , S. Hierom , and Lactantius , as their words plainly prove , as they are cited by Sixtus Senensis , affirming , that all men , Christ only excepted , shall be burned with the fire of the worlds conflagration at the day of Judgment ; even the Blessed Virgin her self is to pass through this fire . There was also another Doctrine very generally receiv'd by the Fathers , which greatly destroys the Roman Purgatory : Sixtus Senensis says , and he says very true , that Justin Martyr , Tertullian , Victorinus Martyr , Prudentius , S. Chrysostom , Arethas , Euthymius and * S. Bernard , did all affirm , that before the day of Judgment the souls of men are kept in secret receptacles , reserved unto the sentence of the great day , and that before then , no man receives according to his works done in this life . We do not interpose in this opinion to say that it is true or false , probable or improbable ; for these Fathers intended it not as a matter of Faith or necessary belief , so far as we find . But we observe from hence , that if their opinion be true , then the Doctrine of Purgatory is false . If it be not true , yet the Roman Doctrine of Purgatory , which is inconsistent with this so generally received opinion of the Fathers , is at least new , no Catholick Doctrine , not believ'd in the Primitive Church ; and therefore the Roman Writers are much troubled to excuse the Fathers in this Article , and to reconcile them to some seeming concord with their new Doctrine . BUT besides these things , it is certain , that the Doctrine of Purgatory , before the day of Judgment , in S. Augustin's time , was not the Doctrine of the Church ; it was not the Catholick Doctrine ; for himself did doubt of it : [ Whether it be so or not , it may be inquir'd , and possibly it may be found so , and possibly it may never : ] so S. Augustine . In his time therefore it was no Doctrine of the Church , and it continued much longer in uncertainty ; for in the time of Otho Frisingensis , who liv'd in the year 1146. it was gotten no further than to a Quidam asserunt : [ some do asfirm , that there is a place of Purgatory after death . ] And although it is not to be denied , but that many of the antient Doctors , had strange opinions concerning Purgations , and Fires , and Intermedial states , and common receptacles , and liberations of Souls and Spirits after this life ; yet we can truly affirm it , and can never be convinc'd to err in this affirmation , that there is not any one of the Antients within five hundred years , whose opinion in this Article throughout , the Church of Rome at this day follows . BUT the people of the Roman Communion have been principally led into a belief of Purgatory by their fear , and by their credulity ; they have been softned and 〈◊〉 into this belief by perpetual tales and legends , by which they love to be abus'd . To this purpose , their Priests and Friers have made great use of the apparition of S. Hierom after death to Eusebius , commanding him to lay his sack upon the corps of three dead men , that they arising from death , might consess Purgatory , which formerly they had denied . The story is written in an Epistle imputed to S. Cyril ; but the ill luck of it was , that S. Hierom out-liv'd S. Cyril , and wrote his life , and so confuted that story ; but all is one for that , they believe it never the less : But there are enough to help it out ; and if they be not firmly true * , yet if they be firmly believ'd , all is well enough . In the speculum exemplorum it is said , That a certain Priest in an ecstasie saw the soul of Constantinus Turritanus in the eves of his house tormented with frosts and cold rains , and afterwards climbing up to heaven upon a shining pillar . And a certain Monk saw some souls roasted upon spits like Pigs , and some Devils basting them with scalding lard ; but a while after they were carried to a cool place , and so prov'd Purgatory . But Bishop Theobald standing upon a piece of ice to cool his feet , was nearer Purgatory than he was aware , and was convinced of it , when he heard a poor soul telling him , that under that ice he was tormented : and that he should be deliver'd , if for thirty days continual , he would say for him thirty Masses : and some such thing was seen by Conrade and Uldric in a Pool of water : For the place of Purgatory was not yet resolv'd on , till S. Patrick had the key of it delivered to him ; which when one Nicholas borrowed of him , he saw as strange and true things there , as ever Virgil dreamed of in his Purgatory , or Cicero in his dream of Scipio , or Plato in his Gorgias , or Phaedo , who indeed are the surest Authors to prove Purgatory . But because to preach false stories was forbidden by the Council of Trent , there are yet remaining more certain arguments , even revelations made by Angels , and the testimony of S. Odilio himself , who heard the Devil complain ( and he had great reason surely ) that the souls of dead men were daily snatch'd out of his hands , by the Alms and Prayers of the living ; and the sister of S. Damianus being too much pleas'd with hearing of a Piper , told her brother , that she was to be tormented for fifteen days in Purgatory . WE do not think that the wise men in the Church of Rome believe these Narratives ; for if they did , they were not wise : But this we know , that by such stories , the People were brought into a belief of it ; and having served their turn of them , the Master-builders used them as false arches and centries , taking them away when the parts of the building were made firm and stable by Authority . But even the better sort of them do believe , or else they do worse , for they urge and cite the Dialogues of S. Gregory , the Oration of S. John Damascen de Defunctis , the Sermons of Saint Augustine upon the Feast of the Commemoration of All-souls ( which nevertheless was instituted after S. Augustin's death ) and divers other citations , which the Greeks in their Apology call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The Holds and the Castles , the corruptions and insinuations of Heretical persons . But in this they are the less to be blamed , because better arguments than they have , no men are tied to make use of . BUT against this way of proceeding we think fit to admonish the people of our charges , that , besides that the Scriptures expresly forbid us to enquire of the dead for truth ; the Holy Doctors of the Church , particularly , 〈◊〉 . S. Athanasius , S. Chrysost . I sidor . and Theophylact , deny that the souls of the dead ever do appear ; and bring many reasons to prove , that it is unfitting they should ; saying , if they did , it would be the cause of many errors , and the Devils under that pretence , might easily abuse the world with notices and revelations of their own : And because Christ would have us content with Moses and the Prophets , and especially to hear that Prophet , whom the Lord our God hath raised up amongst us , our Blessed Jesus , who never taught any such Doctrine to his Church . BUT because we are now representing the Novelty of this Doctrine , and proving , that anciently it was not the Doctrine of the Church , nor at all esteemed a matter of faith , whether there was or was not any such place or state , we add this , That the Greek Church did always dissent from the Latines in this particular , since they had forg'd this new Doctrine in the laboratories of Rome ; and in the Council of Basil , publish'd an Apology directly disapproving the Roman Doctrine of Purgatory . How afterwards they were press'd in the Council of Florence by Pope Eugenius , and by their necessity ; how unwillingly they consented , how ambiguously they answered , how they protested against having that half consent put into the Instrument of Union ; how they were yet constrain'd to it by their Chiefs , being obnoxious to the Pope ; how a while after they dissolv'd that Union , and to this day refuse to own this Doctrine , are things so notoriously known , that they need no further declaration . WE add this only , to make the conviction more manifest : We have thought sit to annex some few , but very clear testimonies of Antiquity , expresly destroying the new Doctrine of Purgatory . S. Cyprian saith , Quando istinc excessum fuerit , nullus jam locus poenitentiae est , nullus satisfactionis effectus : [ When we are gone from hence , there is no place left for repentance , and no effect of satisfaction . ] S. Dionysius calls the extremity of death , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The end of all our agonies , and affirms , That the Holy men of God rest in joy , and in never failing hopes , and are come to the end of their holy combates S. Justin Martyr affirms , That when the soul is departed from the body , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , presently there is a separation made of the just and unjust : The unjust are by Angels born into places which they have deserv'd ; but the souls of the just into Paradise , where they have the conversation of Angels and Archangels . S. Ambrose * saith , that Death is a haven of rest , and makes not our condition worse , but according as it finds every man , so it reserves him to the judgment that is to come . The same is affirm'd by ‖ S. Hilary , * S. Macarius , and divers others ; they speak but of two states after death , of the just and the unjust : These are plac'd in horrible Regions reserv'd to the judgment of the great day ; the other have their souls carried by Quires of Angels into places of rest . S. Gregory Nazianzen * expresly affirms , that after this life there is no purgation : For after Christ's ascension into Heaven , the souls of all Saints are with Christ , saith Gennadius , and going from the body , they go to Christ , expecting the resurrection of their body , with it to pass into the perfection of perpetual bliss ; and this he delivers as the Doctrine of the Catholick Church : [ In what place soever a man is taken at his death , of light or darkness , of wickedness or vertue , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in the same order , and in the same degree ; either in light with the just , and with Christ the great King ; or in darkness with the unjust , and with the Prince of Darkness , ] said Olimpiodorus . And lastly , we recite the words of S. Leo , one of the Popes of Rome , speaking of the Penitents who had not perform'd all their penances [ But if any one of them for whom we pray unto the Lord , being interrupted by any obstacles , falls from the gift of the present Indulgence ( viz. of Ecclesiastical Absolution ) and before he arrive at the appointed remedies ( that is , before he hath perform'd his penances or satisfactions ) ends his temporal life , that which remaining in the body he hath not receiv'd , when he is divested of his body , he cannot obtain . ] He knew not of the new devices of paying in Purgatory , what they paid not here ; and of being cleansed there , who were not clean here : And how these words , or of any the precedent , are reconcileable with the Doctrines of Purgatory , hath not yet entred into our imagination . To conclude this particular , We complain greatly , that this Doctrine which in all the parts of it is uncertain , and in the late additions to it in Rome is certainly false , is yet with all the faults of it passed into an Article of Faith by the Council of Trent . But besides what hath been said , it will be more than sufficient to oppose against it these clearest words of Scripture , Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord , from henceforth , even so saith the Spirit , that they may rest from their labours . If all the dead that die in Christ be at rest , and are in no more affliction or labours , then the Doctrine of the horrible pains of Purgatory is as false as it is uncomfortable : To these words we add the saying of Christ , and we relie upon it [ He that heareth my word , and believeth on him that sent me , hath eternal life , and cometh not into judgment , but passeth from death unto life . ] If so , then not into the judgment of Purgatory : If the servant of Christ passeth from death to life , then not from death to the terminable pains of a part of Hell. They that have eternal life , suffer no intermedial punishment , judgment or condemnation after death ; for death and life are the whole progression , according to the Doctrine of Christ , and Him we choose to follow . SECT . V. Transubstantiation a Novelty . Their Doctors confess it is not necessarily proved from Scripture . A disputable question in the 9 , and 10. Ages : made first an Article of faith , 1215. in the Lateran Council . P. Lombard a little before , doubted of a Substantial change . Durandus afterward maintained , that the matter of bread after consecration might remain without absurdity . What Berengarius owned in his recantation , is now renounced . Plain Testimonies of the Fathers against it . Horrid questions it has occasion'd . It implies many contradictions . THE Doctrine of Transubstantiation is so far from being Primitive and Apostolick , that we know the very time it began to be own'd publickly for an opinion , and the very Council in which it was said to be passed into a publick Doctrine , and by what arts it was promoted , and by what persons it was introduc'd . FOR all the world knows that by their own parties , by * Scotus , ‖ Ocham , * Biel , Fisher Bishop of ‖ Rochester , and divers others , whom * Bellarmine calls most learned and most acute men , it was declared , that the Doctrine of Transubstantiation is not expressed in the Canon of the Bible ; that in the Scriptures there is no place so express ( as without the Churches Declaration ) to compel us to admit of Transubstantiation , and therefore at least , it is to be suspected of novelty . But further , we know it was but a disputable question in the ninth and tenth ages after Christ ; that it was not pretended to be an Article of faith till the Later an Council in the time of Pope Innocent the Third , MCC . years and more after Christ ; that since that pretended * determination , divers of the chiefest teachers of their own side have been no more satisfied of the ground of it , than they were before , but still have publickly affirm'd , that the Article is not express'd in Scripture , particularly , Johannes de Bassolis , Cardinal * Cajetan , and Melchior ‖ Canus , besides those above reckon'd : And therefore , if it was not express'd in Scripture , it will be too clear , that they made their Articles of their own heads , for they could not declare it to be there , if it was not ; and if it was there but obscurely , then it ought to be taught accordingly ; and at most , it could be but a probable doctrine , and not certain as an Article of Faith. But that we may put it past argument and probability , it is certain , that as the Doctrine was not taught in Scripture expresly : so it was not at all taught as a Catholick Doctrine , or an Article of the Faith by the Primitive ages of the Church . Now for this , we need no proof but the confession and acknowledgment of the greatest Doctors of the Church of Rome . Scotus says , that before the Lateran Council , Transubstantiation was not an Article of Faith , as Bellarmine confesses ; and Henriquez affirms , that Scotus says , it was not antient , insomuch that Bellarmine accuses him of ignorance , saying , he talk'd at that rate , because he had not read the Roman Council under Pope Gregory the VII . nor that consent of Fathers which ( to so little purpose ) he had heap'd together . Rem transubstantiationis Patres ne attigisse quidem , said some of the English sesuits in Prison : The Fathers have not so much as touch'd or medled with the matter of Transubstantiation ; and in Peter Lombard's time it was so far from being an Article of Faith , or a Catholick Doctrine , that they did not know whether it were true or no : And after he had collected the sentences of the Fathers in that Article , he confess'd , He could not tell whether there was any substantial change or no. His words are these , [ If it be inquir'd what kind of conversion it is , whether it be formal or substantial , or of another kind ? I am not able to define it : Only I know that it is not formal , because the same accidents remain , the same colour and taste . To some it seems to be substantial , saying , that so the substance is chang'd into the substance , that it is done essentially . To which the former authorities seem to consent . But to this sentence others oppose these things , If the substance of bread and wine be substantially converted into the body and blood of Christ , then every day some substance is made the body or blood of Christ , which before was not the body ; and to day something is Christ ' s body , which yesterday was not ; and every day Christ ' s body is increased , and is made of such matter of which it was not made in the conception : ] These are his words , which we have remark'd , not only for the arguments sake ( though it be unanswerable ) but to give a plain demonstration that in his time this Doctrine was new , not the Doctrine of the Church : And this was written but about fifty * years before it was said to be decreed in the Lateran ‖ Council , and therefore it made haste , in so short time to pass from a disputable opinion , to an Article of Faith. But even after the Council , * Durandus , as good a Catholick , and as famous a Doctor as any was in the Church of Rome , publickly maintain'd , that even after consecration , the very matter of bread remain'd ; and although he says , that by reason of the Authority of the Church , it is not to be held , yet it is not only possible it should be so , but it implies no contradiction that it should be Christs body , and yet the matter of bread remain ; and if this might be admitted , it would salve many difficulties , which arise from saying that the substance of bread does not remain . But here his reason was overcome by authority , and he durst not affirm that of which alone 〈◊〉 was able to give ( as he thought ) a reasonable account . But by this it appears , that the opinion was but then in the forge , and by all their understanding they could never accord it , but still the questions were uncertain , according to that old Distich , Corpore de Christi lis est , de sanguine lis est , Déque modo lis est , non habitura modum . And the opinion was not determined in the Lateran , as it is now held at Rome ; but it is also plain , that it is a stranger to antiquity . De Transubstantiatione panis in corpus Christi rara est in antiquis scriptoribus mentio , said Alphonsus à Castro . There is seldom mention made in the antient writers of transubstantiating the bread into Christs body . We know the modesty and interest of the man ; he would not have said it had been seldom , if he could have found it in any reasonable degree warranted ; he might have said and justified it , There was no mention at all of this Article in the primitive Church : and that it was a mere stranger to Antiquity , will not be denyed by any sober person , who considers , That it was with so much uneasiness entertained , even in the corruptest and most degenerous times , and argued and unsetled almost 1300 years after Christ. And that it was so , will but too evidently appear by that stating and resolution of this question which we find in the Canon Law. For Berengarius was by P. Nicolaus , commanded to recant his error in these words , and to affirm , Verum corpus & sanguinem Domini nostri Jesu Christi sensualiter , non solùm in sacramento , sed in veritate manibus sacerdotum tractari , frangi & fidelium dentibus atteri : That the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ sensually , not only in Sacrament , but in truth is handled by the Priests hands , and broken and grinded by the teeth of the faithful . Now although this was publickly read at Rome before an hundred and fourteen Bishops , and by the Pope sent up and down the Churches of Italy , France and Germany , yet at this day it is renounced by the Church of Rome , and unless it be well expounded ( says the Gloss ) will lead into a heresie , greater than what Berengarius was commanded to renounce ; and no interpretation can make it tolerable , but such an one , as is in another place of the Canon Law , statuimus , i. e. abrogamus ; nothing but a plain denying it in the sense of Pope Nicolas . But however this may be , it is plain they understood it not , as it is now decreed . But as it hapned to the Pelagians in the beginning of their heresie , they spake rudely , ignorantly , and easily to be reprov'd ; but being ashamed and disputed into a more sober understanding of their hypothesis , spake more warily , but yet differently from what they said at first ; so it was and is in this question ; at first they understood it not ; it was too unreasonable in any tolerable sense , to make any thing of it ; but experience and necessity hath brought it to what it is . But that this Doctrine was not the doctrine of the first and best ages of the Church , these following testimonies do make evident . The words of Tertullian are these . The bread being taken and distributed to his Disciples , Christ made it his body , saying , This is my body , that is , the figure of my body . The same is affirmed by Justin Martyr . The bread of the Eucharist was a figure which Christ the Lord commanded to do in remembrance of his passion . Origen * calls the bread and the chalice , the images of the body and blood of Christ : and again , That bread which is sanctified by the word of God , so far as belongs to the matter ( or substance ) of it goes into the belly , and is cast away in the secession or separation ; which to affirm of the natural or glorified body of Christ , were greatly blasphemous : and therefore the body of Christ which the Communicants receive , is not the body in a natural sense , but in a spiritual , which is not capable of any such accident , as the Elements are . Eusebius says , that Christ gave to his Disciples the Symbols of Divine Occonomy , commanding the image and type of his own body to be made : * and that the Apostle received a command according to the constitution of the New Testament , to make a memory of this sacrifice upon the Table by the symbols of his body and healthful blood . S. Macarius says , that in the Church is offered bread and wine , the antitype of his flesh and of his bloud , and they that partake of the bread that appears , do spiritually eat the flesh of Christ. By which words the sense of the above cited Fathers is explicated . For when they affirm , that in this Sacrament is offered the figure , the image , the antitype of Christ's body and bloud , although they speak perfectly against Transubstantiation , yet they do not deny the real and spiritual presence of Christ's body and bloud ; which we all believe as certainly , as that it is not transubstantiated or present in a natural and carnal manner . THE same thing is also fully explicated by the good S. Ephrem , The body of Christ received by the faithful , departs not from his sensible substance , and is undivided from a spiritual grace . For even baptism being wholly made spiritual , and being that which is the same , and proper , of the sensible substance , I mean , of water , saves , and that which is born , doth not perish . S. Gregory Nazianzen spake so expresly in this Question , as if he had undertaken on purpose to confute the Article of Trent . Now we shall be partakers of the Paschal supper , but still in figure , though more clear than in the old Law. For the Legal Passover ( I will not be afraid to speak it ) was a more obscure figure of a figure . S. Chrysostom affirms dogmatically , that before the bread is sanctified , we name it bread , but the Divine grace sanctifying it by the means of the Priest , it is freed from the name of bread , but it is esteemed worthy to be called the Lords body , although the nature of bread remains in it . And again : As thou eatest the body of the Lord : so they ( the faithful in the old Testament ) did eat Manna ; as thou drinkest bloud , so they the water of the rock . For though the things which are made be sensible , yet they are given spiritually , not according to the consequence of Nature , but according to the grace of a gift , and with the body they also nourish the soul , leading unto faith . To these very many more might be added ; but instead of them , the words of St. Austin may suffice , as being an evident conviction what was the doctrine of the primitive Church in this question . This great Doctor brings in Christ thus speaking as to his Disciples , [ You are not to eat this body which you see , or to drink that bloud which my crucifiers shall pour forth . I have commended to you a sacrament , which being spiritually understood shall quicken you : ] And again ; Christ brought them to a banquet , in which he commended to his Disciples the figure of his body and bloud ] For he did not doubt to say , This is my body , when he gave the sign of his body ] and , That which by all men is called a sacrifice , is the sign of the true sacrifice , in which the flesh of Christ after his assumption is celebrated by the sacrament of remembrances . ] BUT in this particular the Canon Law it self , and the Master of the Sentences are the best witnesses ; in both which collections there are divers testimonies brought , especially from S. Ambrose and S. Austin , which whosoever can reconcile with the doctrine of Transubstantiation , may easily put the Hyaena and a Dog , a Pigeon and a Kite into couples , and make fire and water enter into natural and eternal friendships . Theodoret and P. Gelasius speak more emphatically , even to the nature of things , and the very philosophy of this Question . [ Christ honour'd the symbols and the signs ( saith Theodoret ) which are seen with the title of his body and bloud , not changing the nature , but to nature adding grace . * For neither do the mystical signs recede from their nature ; for they abide in their proper substance , figure and form , and may be seen and touch'd , &c. And for a testimony that shall be esteem'd infallible , we allege the words of Pope Gelasius , [ Truly the sacraments of the body and bloud of Christ , which we receive , are a Divine thing ; for that by them we are made partakers of the Divine nature ; and yet it ceases not to be the substance or nature of bread and wine . And truly an image and similitude of the body and bloud of Christ are celebrated in the action of the mysteries . NOW from these premises we are not desirous to infer any odious consequences in reproof of the Roman Church , but we think it our duty to give our own people caution and admonition ; 1. That they be not abus'd by the rhetorical words and high expressions alleged out of the Fathers , calling the Sacrament , The body or the slesh of Christ. For we all believe it is so , and rejoyce in it . But the question is , after what manner it is so ; whether after the manner of the slesh , or after the manner of spiritual grace , and sacramental consequence ? We with the Holy Scriptures and the primitive Fathers , affirm the latter . The Church of Rome against the words of Scripture , and the explication of Christ * , and the doctrine of the primitive Church , affirm the former . 2. That they be careful not to admit such Doctrines under a pretence of being Ancient ; since , although the Roman errour hath been too long admitted , and is ancient in respect of our days , yet it is an innovation in Christianity , and brought in by ignorance , power and superstition , very many Ages after Christ. 3. We exhort them , that they remember the words of Christ , when he explicates the doctrine of giving us his flesh for meat , and his bloud for drink , that he tells us , The flesh profiteth nothing , but the words which be speaks are spirit , and they are life . 4. THAT if those ancient and primitive Doctors above cited , say true , and that the symbols still remain the same in their natural substance and properties , even after they are blessed , and when they are receiv'd , and that Christ's body and bloud are only present to faith and to the spirit , that then whoever tempts them to give Divine honour to these symbols or elements ( as the Church of Rome does ) tempts them to give to a creature the due and incommunicable propriety of God ; and that then , this evil passes further than an errour in the understanding ; for it carries them to a dangerous practice , which cannot reasonably be excus'd from the crime of Idolatry . To conclude , THIS matter of it self is an error so prodigiously great and dangerous , that we need not tell of the horrid and blasphemous questions which are sometimes handled by them concerning this Divine Mystery . As , if a Priest going by a Baker's shop , and saying with intention , Hoc est corpus meum , whether all the Bakers bread be turned into the body of Christ ? Whether a Church mouse does eat her Maker ? Whether a man by eating the consecrated symbols does break his fast ? For if it be not bread and wine , he does not : and if it be Christ's body and bloud naturally and properly , it is not bread and wine . Whether it may be said , the Priest is in some sense the Creator of God himself ? Whether his power be greater than the power of Angels and Archangels ? For that it is so , is expresly affirmed by Cassenaeus . Whether ( as a Bohemian Priest said ) that a Priest before he say his first Mass , be the Son of God , but afterward he is the Father of God and the Creator of his body ? But against this blasphemy a book was written by John Huss , about the time of the Council of Constance . But these things are too bad , and therefore we love not to rake in so filthy chanels , but give only a general warning to all our Charges , to take heed of such persons , who from the proper consequences of their Articles , grow too bold and extravagant ; and , of such doctrines , from whence these and many other evil Propositions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , frequently do issue . As the tree is , such must be the fruit . But we hope it may be sufficient * to say , That what the Church of Rome teaches of Transubstantiation , is absolutely impossible , and implies contradictions very many , to the belief of which no faith can oblige us , and no reason can endure . For Christ's body being in heaven , glorious , spiritual and impassible , cannot be broken . And since by the Roman doctrine nothing is broken , but that which cannot be broken , that is , the colour , the taste , and other accidents of the elements ; yet if they could be broken , since the accidents of bread and wine are not the substance of Christ's body and bloud , it is certain that on the Altar , Christ's body naturally and properly cannot be broken . * And since they say that every consecrated Wafer is Christ's whole body , and yet this Wafer is not that Wafer , therefore either this or that is not Christ's body , or else Christ hath two bodies , for there are two Wafers . * But when Christ instituted the Sacrament , and said , This is my body which is broken : because at that time Christ's body was not broken naturally and properly , the very words of Institution do force us to understand the Sacrament in a sense not natural , but spiritual , that is , truly sacramental . * And all this is besides the plain . demonstrations of sense , which tells us it is bread and it is wine naturally as much after as before consecration . * And after all , the natural sense is such as our blessed Saviour reprov'd in the men of Capernaum , and called them to a spiritual understanding ; the natural sense being not only unreasonable and impossible ; but also to no purpose of the spirit , or any ways perfective of the soul ; as hath been clearly demonstrated by many learned men against the fond hypothesis of the Church of Rome in this Article . SECT . VI. Half Communion tho' confessed to be otherwise in Christs institution and primitive practice , required upon pain of Excommunication . The Question now is not so much whether it be a new , as a better practice , than what Christ instituted . Council of Constance , Cassander , Aquinas , &c. acknowledge the Novelty . Pope Gelasius calls it sacrilege . Greek Church communicates the people in the Chalice . OUR next instance of the novelty of the Roman Religion in their Articles of division from us , is that of the half Communion . For they deprive the people of the Chalice , and dismember the institution of Christ , and praevaricate his 〈◊〉 law in this particular , and recede from the practice of the Apostles ; and though they confess it was the practice of the primitive Church , yet they lay it aside , and cur so all them that say they do amiss in it ; that is , they curse them who follow Christ , and his Apostles , and his Church , while themselves deny to follow them . Now for this we need no other testimony but their own words in the Council of Constance . [ Whereas in certain parts of the word some temerariously presume to affirm , that the Christian people ought to receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist under both kinds of bread and wine , and do every where communicate the Laity not only in bread but in wine also ; ---- Hence it is , that the Council decrees and defines against this error , that although Christ instituted after supper , and administred this venerable Sacrament under both kinds of bread and wine , yet this notwithstanding ---- And although in the primitive Church this Sacrament was receiv'd of the faithful under both kinds ] Here is the acknowledgment , both of Christs institution in both kinds , and Christs ministring it in both kinds , and the practice of the primitive Church to give it in both kinds ; yet the conclusion from these premisses is [ We command under the pain of Excommunication , that no Priest communicate the people under both kinds of bread and wine . ] The opposition is plain : Christs Testament ordains it : The Church of Rome forbids it : It was the primitive custom to obey Christ in this : a later custom is by the Church of Rome introduced to the contrary . To say that the first practice and institution is necessary to be followed , is called Heretical : to refuse the latter subintroduc'd custom incurrs the sentence of Excommunication : and this they have pass'd not only into a law , but into an Article of Faith ; and if this be not teaching for doctrines the Commandments of men , and worshipping God in vain with mens traditions ; then there is , and there was , and there can be no such thing in the world . So that now the question is not , whether this doctrine and practice be an INNOVATION , but whether it be not better it should be so ? Whether it be not better to drink new wine than old ? Whether it be not better to obey man than Christ , who is God blessed for ever ? Whether a late custom be not to be preferr'd before the antient ? a custom dissonant from the institution of Christ , before that which is wholly consonant to what Christ did and taught ? This is such a bold affirmative of the Church of Rome , that nothing can suffice to rescue us from an amazement in the consideration of it : especially since , although the Institution it self , being the only warranty and authority for what we do , is of it self our rule and precept ; ( according to that of the Lawyer , Institutiones sunt praeceptiones quibus instituuntur & docentur homines ) yet besides this , Christ added preceptive words , Drink ye all of this : he spake it to all that received , who then also represented all them , who for ever after were to remember Christs death . But concerning the doctrine of Antiquity in this point , although the Council of Constance confess the Question , yet since that time they have taken on them a new confidence , and affirm , that the half Communion was always more or less the practice of the most Antient times . We therefore think it fit to produce testimonies concurrent with the saying of the Council of Constance , such as are irrefragable , and of persons beyond exception Cassander affirms , That in the Latin Church for above a thousand years , the body of Christ , and the blood of Christ were separately given , the body apart , and the blood apart , after the consecration of the mysteries . So Aquinas also affirms , [ According to the antient custom of the Church , all men as they communicated in the body , so they communicated in the blood ; which also to this day is kept in some Churches . ] And therefore Paschasius Ratbertus resolves it dogmatically , That neither the flesh without the blood , nor the blood without the flesh is rightly communicated ; because the Apostles all of them did drink of the chalice . And Salmeron being forc'd by the evidence of the thing , ingenuously and openly confesses , That it was a general custom to communicate the Laity under both kinds . It was so , and it was more : There was antiently a Law for it , Aut integra Sacrament a percipiant , aut ab integris arceantur , said Pope Gelasius . Either all or none , let them receive in both kinds , or in neither ; and he gives this reason , Quia divisio unius & ejusdem mysterii sine grandi sacrilegio non potest pervenire . The mystery is but one and the same , and therefore it cannot be divided without great sacrilege . The reason concludes as much of the Receiver as the Consecrator , and speaks of all indefinitely . THUS it is acknowledged to have been in the Latin Church , and thus we see it ought to have been : And for the Greek Church there is no question ; for even to this day they communicate the people in the Chalice . But this case is so plain , and there are such clear testimonies out of the Fathers recorded in their own Canon Law , that nothing can obscure it ; but to use too many words about it . We therefore do exhort our people to take care that they suffer not themselves to be robb'd of their portion of Christ , as he is pleased sacramentally and graciously to communicate himself unto us . SECT . VII . Publick Prayers in an unknown Tongue , the Roman practice . As easie to reconcile Adultery to the seventh Commandment , as this practice to the fourteenth Chap. of the first to the Corinthians . Testimonies of the Fathers against it . That such Service does not Edifie . A dumb Priest may serve as well for them that understand not , as he that speaks aloud ; for the first can do all the Signs and Ceremonies , and the other does no more to them . The words both of Civil and Canon Law against it . Heathen Priests and Hereticks , Turks and Jews agree with the Roman practice . AS the Church of Rome does great injury to Christendom , in taking from the people what Christ gave them in the matter of the Sacrament ; so she also deprives them of very much of the benefit which they might receive by their holy prayers , if they were suffered to pray in publick in a Language they understand . But that 's denyed to the common people , to their very great prejudice and injury . CONCERNING which , although it is as possible to reconcile Adultery with the seventh Commandment , as Service in a Language not understood , to the fourteenth Chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians ; and that therefore if we can suppose that the Apostolical age did follow the Apostolical rule , it must be concluded , that the practice of the Church of Rome is contrary to the practice of the Primitive Church : Yet besides this , we have thought fit to declare the plain sense and practice of the succeeding Ages in a few testimonies , but so pregnant , as not to be avoided . Origen affirms , that the Grecians in their prayers use Greek , and the Romans the Roman language , and so every one according to his Tongue , prayeth unto God , and praiseth him as he is able . S. Chrysostom urging the precept of the Apostle for prayers in a Language understood by the hearer , affirms that which is but reasonable , saying , If a man speaks in the Persian Tongue , and understands not what himself says , to himself he is a Barbarian , and therefore so he is to him that understands no more than he does . And what profit can he receive , who hears a sound , and discerns it not ? It were as good he were absent as present : For if he be the better to be there , because he sees what is done , and guesses at something in general , * and consents to him that ministers : It is true , this may be , but this therefore is so , because he understands something ; but he is only so far benefited as he understands , and therefore all that which is not understood , does him no more benefit that is present , than to him that is absent , and consents to the prayers in general , and to what is done for all faithful people . But [ If indeed ye meet for the 〈◊〉 of the Church , those things ought to be spoken which the hearers understand , ] said S. Ambrose : And so it was in the primitive Church : blessings and all other things in the Church were done in the Vulgar tongue , saith * Lyra ; Nay , not only the publick Prayers , but the whole Bible was anciently by many Translations , made fit for the Peoples use . S. Hierom * 〈◊〉 , that himself translated the Bible into the Dalmatian Tongue ; and ‖ Ulphilas a Bishop among the Goths , translated it into the Gothick Tongue ; and that it was translated into all Languages , we are told by * S. Chrysostom , ‖ S. Austin , and * Theodoret. BUT although what twenty Fathers say , can make a thing no more certain than if S. Paul had alone said it , yet both S. Paul and the Fathers are frequent to tell us , That a Service or Prayers in an unknown Tongue do not edisie : So * S. Basil , ‖ S. Chrysostom , * S. Ambrose , and ‖ S. Austin , and this is consented to by * Aquinas , ‖ Lyra , and * Cassander : And besides that , these Doctors affirm , that in the primitive Church the Priest and People joyn'd in their Prayers , and understood each other , and prayed in their Mother-tongue : We find a story ( how true it is , let them look to it , but it is ) told by * Aeneas Sylvius , who was afterwards Pope Pius the II. that when Cyrillus Bishop of the Moravians , and Methodius had converted the Slavonians , Cyril being at Rome , desir'd leave to use the Language of that Nation in their Divine Offices . Concerning which when they were disputing , a voice was heard , as if from Heaven , Let every spirit praise the Lord , and every tongue 〈◊〉 unto him : Upon which it was granted according to the Bishops desire . But now they are not so kind at Rome ; and although the Fathers at Trent confess'd in their Decree , that the Mass contains in it great matter of erudition and edification of the People , yet they did not think it fit , that it should be said in the vulgar Tongue : So that it is very good food , but it must be lock'd up ; it is an excellent Candle , but it must be put under a bushel : And now the Question is , Whether it be sit that the People pray so as to be edified by it ; or is it better that they be at the prayers when they shall not be edified ? Whether it be not as good to have a dumb Priest to do Mass , as one that hath a tongue to say it ? For he that hath no tongue , and he that hath none to be understood , 〈◊〉 alike insignificant to me . Quid prodest locutionum integritas quam non sequitur intellectus 〈◊〉 ? cum loquendi nulla sit causa , si quod loquimur non intelligunt propter quos ut intelligant loquimur , said S. Austin : What does it avail that man speaks all , if the hearers understand none ? 〈◊〉 there is no cause why a man should speak at all , if they , for whose understanding you do speak , understand it not . God understands the Priests thoughts when he speaks not , as well as when he speaks ; he hears the prayer of the heart , and sees the word of the mind , and a dumb Priest can do all the ceremonies , and make the signs ; and he that speaks aloud to them that understand him not , does no more . Now since there is no use of vocal prayer in publick , but that all together may 〈◊〉 their desires , and stir up one another , and joyn in the expression of them to God ; by this device , a man who understands not what is said , can only pray with his lips ; for the heart cannot pray but by desiring , and it cannot desire what it understands not . So that in this case , prayer cannot be an act of the soul : There is neither 〈◊〉 nor understanding , notice or desire : The heart says nothing , and asks for nothing , and therefore receives nothing . Solomon calls that the sacrifice of fools , when men consider not ; and they who understand not what is said , cannot take it into consideration . But there needs no more to be said in so plain a case . We end this with the words of the Civil and Canon Law. Justinian the Emperour made a Law in these words , [ We will and command , that all Bishops and Priests celebrate the sacred Oblation , and the Prayers thereunto added in holy Baptism , not in a low voice , but with a loud and clear voice , which may be heard by the faithful people ; that is , be understood , for so it follows , that thereby the minds of the hearers may be raised up with greater devotion to set forth the praises of the Lord God ; for so the Apostle teacheth in the first to the Corinthians . It is true , that this Law was rased out of the Latine versions of Justinian . The fraud and design was too palpable , but it prevail'd nothing ; for it is acknowledged by Cassander and Bellarmine , and is in the Greek Copies of Holoander . THE Canon Law is also most express from an Authority of no less than a Pope and a Genëral Council , as themselves esteem ; Innocent III. in the great Council of 〈◊〉 , above MCC years after Christ , in these words , [ 〈◊〉 in most parts within the same City and Diocess , the people of divers Tongues are mixt together , having under one and the same faith divers ceremonies and rites , we straitly charge and command , That the Bishops of such Cities and Dioceses provide men fit , who may celebrate Divine Service according to the diversity of ceremonies and languages , and administer the Sacraments of the Church , instructing them both by word and by example . ] NOW if the words of the Apostle , and the practice of the primitive Church , the Sayings of the Fathers , and the Confessions of wise men among themselves ; if the consent of Nations , and the piety of our forefathers ; if right reason , and the necessity of the thing ; if the needs of the ignorant , and the very inseparable conditions of holy prayers ; if the Laws of Princes , and the Laws of the Church , which do require all our prayers to be said by them that understand what they say ; if all these cannot prevail with the Church of Rome to do so much good to the Peoples souls , as to consent they should understand what in particular they are to ask of God , certainly there is a great pertinacy of opinion , and but a little charity to those precious souls , for whom Christ died , and for whom they must give account . INDEED the old 〈◊〉 Rites , and the Sooth-sayings of the Salian Priests , Vix Sacerdotibus suis intellecta , sed quae mutari vetat Religio : were scarce understood by their Priests themselves , but their Religion forbad to change them . Thus anciently did the Osseni Hereticks of whom Epiphanius tells , and the Heracleonitae of whom S. Austin gives account ; they taught to pray with obscure words ; and some others in Clemens Alexandrinus , suppos'd , that words spoken in a barbarous or unknown tongue , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , are more powerful . The Jews also in their Synagogues at this day , read Hebrew , which the people but rarely understand ; and the Turks in their Mosques read Arabick , of which the people know nothing . But Christians never did so , till they of Rome resolved to refuse to do benefit to the souls of the people in this instance , or to bring them from intolerable ignorance . SECT . VIII . Worship of Images . What they call giving them due honour . This worship first brought in by Hereticks . Opposed by the first Fathers . Epiphanius his zeal against it . Forbidden by the Council of Eliberis . First decreed by the second Council of Nice . Condemned by the Synod of Frankford , convened by Charles the Great , under whose name a Book was published against that Nicene Synod , and the worship of Images . Against which the Primitive Christians were so prejudic'd , that they would not allow Images to be made . THE Church of Rome hath to very bad purposes introduc'd and impos'd upon Christendom the worship and veneration of Images , kissing them , pulling off their hats , kneeling , falling down and praying before them , which they call , giving them due honour and veneration . What external honour and veneration that is , which they call due , is express'd by the instances now reckon'd , which the Council of Trent in their Decree enumerate and establish . What the inward honour and worship is , which they intend to them , is intimated in the same Decree . By the Images they worship Christ and his Saints ; and therefore by these Images they pass that honour to Christ and his Saints which is their due : that is , as their Doctors explain it , Latria or Divine worship to God and Christ. Hyperdulia or more than service , to the Blessed Virgin Mary ; and service or doulia to other canoniz'd persons . So that upon the whole , the case is this : Whatever worship they give to God , and Christ and his Saints , they give it first to the image , and from the image they pass it unto Christ and Christ's servants . And therefore we need not to enquire what actions they suppose to be fit or due . For whatsoever is due to God , to Christ or his Saints , that worship they give to their respective Images : all the same in external semblance and ministery ; as appears in all their great Churches , and publick actions , and processions , and Temples and Festivals , and endowments , and censings , and pilgrimages , and prayers , and vows made to them . NOW besides that these things are so like Idolatry , that they can no way be reasonably excused ( of which we shall in the next Chapter give some account ) besides that they are too like the religion of the Heathens , and so plainly and frequently forbidden in the Old Testament , and are so infinitely unlike the simple and wise , the natural and holy , the pure and the spiritual religion of the Gospel ; besides that they are so infinite a scandal to the Jews and Turks , and reproach Christianity it self amongst all strangers that live in their communion , and observe their rites : besides that they cannot pretend to be lawful , but with the laborious artifices of many Metaphysical notions and distinctions , which the people who most need them , do least understand ; and that therefore the people worship them without these distinctions , and directly put confidence in them ; and that it is impossible that ignorant persons , who in all Christian countreys make up the biggest number , should do otherwise , when otherwise they cannot understand it ; and besides that , the thing it self with or without distinctions , is a superstitious and forbidden , an unlawful and unnatural worship of God , who will not be worshipped by an Image : we say that besides all this , This whole Doctrine and practice is an innovation in the Christian Church , not practis'd , not endured in the primitive ages ; but expresly condemned by them , and this is our present undertaking to evince . THE first notice we find of Images brought into Christian Religion , was by Simon Magus : indeed that was very Antient , but very heretical and abominable : but that he brought some in to be worshipped , we find in * Theodoret , and ‖ S. Austin , * S. Irenaeus tells , That the Gnosticks or Carpocratians did make Images , and said , that the form of Christ as he was in the flesh , was made by Pilate ; and these Images they worshipped , as did the Gentiles : These things they did , but against these things the Christians did zealously and piously declare : We have no Image in the world , said S. Clemens of ‖ Alexandria : It is apparently forbidden to us to exercise that deceitful art : For it is written , Thou shalt not make any similitude of any thing in Heaven above , &c. And Origen wrote a just Treatise against Celsus ; in which he not only affirms , That Christians did not make or use Images in Religion , but that they ought not , and were by God forbidden to do so . To the same purpose also Lactantius discourses to the Emperor , and confutes the pretences and little answers of the Heathen in that manner , that he leaves no pretence for Christians under another cover , to introduce the like abomination . We are not ignorant , that those who were converted from Gentilism , and those who lov'd to imitate the customs of the Roman Princes and people , did soon introduce the Historical use of Images , and according to the manner of the world , did think it honourable to depict or make Images of those whom they had in great esteem ; and that this being done by an esteem , relying on Religion , did by the weakness of men , and the importunity of the Tempter , quickly pass into inconvenience and superstition ; yet even in the time of Julian the Emperor , S. Cyril denies , that the Christians did give veneration and worship to the Image , even of the Cross it self , which was one of the earliest temptations ; and S. Epiphanius ( it is a known story ) tells , that when in the village of Bethel he saw a cloth picture , as it were of Christ , or some Saint in the Church , against the Authority of Scripture ; He cut it in pieces , and advis'd that some poor man should be buried in it ; affirming , that such Pictures are against Religion , and unworthy of the Church of Christ. The Epistle was translated into Latin by S. Hierome ; by which we may guess at his opinion in the question . THE Council of Eliberis is very antient , and of great fame ; in which it is expresly forbidden , that what is worshipped , should be depicted on the walls ; and that therefore Pictures ought not to be in Churches . S. Austin complaining , that he knew of many in the Church who were Worshippers of Pictures , calls them Superstitious ; and adds , that the Church condemns such customs , and strives to correct them : and S. Gregory writing to Serenus Bishop of Massilia , says he would not have had him to break the Pictures and Images , which were there set for an historical use ; but commends him for prohibiting any one to worship them , and enjoyns him still to forbid it . But Superstition by degrees creeping in , the Worship of Images was decreed in the seventh Synod , or the second Nicene . But the decrees of this Synod being by Pope Adrian sent to Charles the Great , he convocated a Synod of German and French Bishops at Francford , who discussed the Acts pass'd at Nice , and condemn'd them : And the Acts of this Synod , although they were diligently suppressed by the Popes arts , yet Eginardus , Hincmarus , Aventinus , Blondus , Adon , Aymonius and Regino , famous Historians , tell us , That the Bishops of Francford condemn'd the Synod of Nice , and commanded it should not be called a General Council ; and published a Book under the name of the Emperor , confuting that unchristian Assembly ; and not long since , this Book , and the Acts of Francford were published by Bishop Tillius ; by which , not only the infinite fraud of the Roman Doctors is discover'd , but the worship of Images is declar'd against and condemned . A while after this , Ludovicus the son of Charlemain , sent Claudius a famous Preacher to Taurinum in Italy , where he preach'd against the worshipping of Images , and wrote an excellent book to that purpose . Against this book Jonas Bishop of Orleans , after the death of Ludovicus and Claudius , did write : In which he yet durst not assert the worship of them , but confuted it out of Origen ; whose words he thus cites , [ Images are neither to be esteemed by inward affection , nor worshipped with outward shew ; ] and out of Lactantius these , [ Nothing is to be worshipped that is seen with mortal eyes : Let us adore , let us worship nothing , but the name alone of our only Parent , who is to be sought for in the Regions above , not here below : ] And to the same purpose , he also alleges excellent words out of Fulgentius and S. Hierom ; and though he would have Images retain'd , and therefore was angry at 〈◊〉 who caus'd them to be taken down , yet he himself expresly affirms , that they ought not to be worshipped ; and withall adds , that though they kept the Images in their Churches for history and ornament , yet that in France the worshipping of them was had in great detestation . And though it is not to be denied , but that in the sequel of Jonas his book , he does something prevaricate in this question ; yet it is evident , that in France this Doctrine was not accounted Catholick for almost nine hundred years after Christ ; and in Germany it was condemned for almost 1200 years , as we find in 〈◊〉 . WE are not unskill'd in the devices of the Roman Writers , and with how much 〈◊〉 they would excuse this whole matter , and palliate the crime imputed to them , and elude the Scriptures expresly condemning this Superstition : But we know also , that the arts of Sophistry are not the ways of Salvation . And therefore we exhort our people to follow the plain words of Scripture , and the express Law of God in the second Commandment ; and add also the exhortation of S. John , Little children , keep your selves from Idols . To conclude , it is impossible but that it must be confessed , that the worship of Images was a thing unknown to the primitive Church ; in the purest times of which , they would not allow the making of them ; as ( amongst divers others ) appears in the Writings of Clemens * Alexandrinus , ‖ Tertullian , and * Origen . SECT . IX . Picturing God the Father and the Holy Trinity , a scandalous practice in the Roman Church . It is against the Doctrine and practice of the Primitive Church , and of the wiser Heathens , who had no Images or Pictures of their gods . AS an Appendage to this , we greatly reprove the custom of the Church of Rome , in picturing God the Father , and the most holy and undivided Trinity ; which , besides that it ministers infinite scandal to all sober-minded men , and gives the new Arrians in Polonia , and Anti-Trinitarians , great and ridiculous entertainment , exposing that sacred Mystery to derision and scandalous contempt : It is also ( which at present we have undertaken particularly to remark ) against the doctrine and practice of the primitive Catholick Church . S. Clemens of Alexandria says , that in the Discipline of Moses , God was not to be represented in the shape of a Man , or of any other thing : and that Christians understood themselves to be bound by the same Law , we find it expresly taught by Origen * , Tertullian ‖ , Eusebius * , Athanasius ‖ , S. Hierom * , S. Austin ‖ , Theodoret * , Damascen ‖ , and the Synod of Constantinople , as it is reported in the 6. Action of the second Nicene Council . And certainly if there were not a strange spirit of contradiction or superstition or deflexion from the Christian Rule , greatly 〈◊〉 in the Church of Rome , it were impossible that this practice should be so countenanc'd by them , and defended so , to no purpose , with so much scandal , and against the natural reason of mankind , and the very Law of Nature it self : For the Heathens were sufficiently by the light of Nature , taught to abominate all Pictures or Images of God. Sed nulla effigies , simulacraque nulla Deorum : Majestate locum , & sacro implevere timore . They in their earliest ages had no Pictures , no Images of their Gods : Their Temples were filled with majesty , and a sacred fear ; and the reason is given by Macrobius , Antiquity made no Image ( viz. of God ) because the supreme God , and the mind that is born of him , ( that is , his Son , the eternal Word ) as it is beyond the Soul , so it is above Nature , and therefore it is not lawful that Figments should come thither . 〈◊〉 Callistus relating the heresie of the Armenians and Jacobites says , they made Images of the Father , Son , and Holy Ghost , quod perquam ab sur dum est . Nothing is more absurd , than to make Pictures or Images of the Persons of the holy and adorable Trinity . And yet they do this in the Church of Rome . For in the windows of their Churches , even 〈◊〉 Countrey-villages where the danger cannot be denied to be great , and the scandal insupportable ; nay , in their books of Devotion , in their very Mass-books and breviaries , in their Portuises and Manuals they picture the holy Trinity with three noses and four eyes , and three faces in a knot , to the great dishonour of God and scandal of Christianity it self . We add no more , ( for the case is too evidently bad ) but reprove the error with the words of their own Polydore Virgil : Since the world began never was any thing more foolish than to picture God , who is present every where . SECT . X. Setting up the Pope as universal Bishop , an Innovation . Among the Apostles ( the first Church-Governours ) no Prerogative of one over the rest , a remarkable testimony of S. Cyprian to prove it . Bishops succeeded the Apostles without Superiority of one over another by Christs Law. The Pope has invaded their rights ; and diminished their power many ways . Primitivs Fathers make every Bishop to have a share of power not from another Bishop but from Christ ; and are against one Bishops judging and forcing another Bishop to obedience . Popes opposed when they interposed their authority in the affairs of other Churches . THE last Instance of Innovations introduc'd in Doctrine and Practice by the Church of Rome , that we shall represent , is that of the Popes Universal Bishoprick . That is , not only that he is Bishop of Bishops , superiour to all and every one ; but that his Bishoprick is a Plenitude of Power ; and as for other Bishops , of his fulness they all receive , a part of the Ministery and sollicitude ; and not only so , but that he only is a Bishop by immediate Divine Dispensation , and others receive from him whatsoever they have . For to this height many of them are come at last . Which Doctrine , although as it is in sins , where the carnal are most full of reproach , but the spiritual are of greatest malignity ; so it happens in this Article . For though it be not so scandalous as their Idolatry , so ridiculous as their Superstitions , so unreasonable as their Doctrine of Transubstantiation , so easily reprov'd as their Half Communion , and Service in an unknown Tongue ; yet it is of as dangerous and evil effect , and as false , and as certainly an Innovation , as any thing in their whole Conjugation of Errours . WHEN Christ founded his Church , he left it in the hands of his Apostles , without any prerogative given to one , or eminency above the rest , save only of priority and orderly precedency , which of it self was natural , necessary and incident . The Apostles govern'd all ; their Authority was the sanction , and their Decrees and Writings were the Laws of the Church . They exercis'd a common jurisdiction , and divided it according to the needs and emergencies , and circumstances of the Church . In the Council of Jerusalem , S. Peter gave not the decisive sentence , but S. James , who was the Bishop of that See. Christ sent all his Apostles as his Father sent him ; and therefore he gave to every one of them the whole power which he left behind ; and to the Bishops congregated at Miletum , S. Paul gave them caution to take care of the whole flock of God , and affirms to them all , that the Holy Ghost had made them Bishops : and in the whole New Testament , there is no act or sign of superiority , or that one Apostle exercised power over another : but to them whom Christ sent , he in common intrusted the Church of God : according to that excellent saying of S. Cyprian , [ The other Apostles are the same that S. Peter was , endowed with an equal fellowship of honour and power : and they are all shepherds , and the slock is one ] and therefore it ought to be fed by all the Apostles with unanimous consent . THIS unity and identity of power without question and interruption did continue and descend to Bishops in the primitive Church , in which it was a known doctrine that the Bishops were successors of the Apostles : and what was not in the beginning , could not be in the descent , unless it were innovated and introduc'd by a new authority . Christ gave ordinary power to none but the Apostles , and the power being to continue for ever in the Church , it was to be succeeded to , and by the same authority , even of Christ , it descended to them who were their successors , that is , to the Bishops , as all antiquity * does consent and teach : Not S. Peter alone , but every Apostle , and therefore every one who succeeds them in their ordinary power , may and must remember the words of S. Paul ; We are Embassadors or Legates for Christ : Christ's Vicars , not the Pope's Delegates : and so all the Apostles are called in the Preface of the Mass ; Quos operis tui Vicarios cidem contulisti praeesse Pastores ; they are Pastors of the Flock and Vicars of Christ ; and so also they are in express terms called by S. Ambrose , and therefore it is a strange usurpation , that the Pope arrogates that to himself by Impropriation , which is common to him with all the Bishops of Christendom . THE consequent of this is , that by the law of Christ , one Bishop is not superior to another : Christ gave the power to all alike ; he made no Head of the Bishops ; he gave to none a supremacy of power or universality of jurisdiction . But this the Pope hath long challenged , and to bring his purposes to pass , hath for these Six hundred years by-gone invaded the rights of Bishops , and delegated matters of order and jurisdiction to Monks and Friers ; insomuch that the power of Bishops was greatly diminished at the erecting of the Cluniac and Cistercian Monks about the year ML : but about the year MCC , it was almost swallowed up by privileges granted to the Begging Friers , and there kept by the power of the Pope : which power got one 〈◊〉 step more above the Bishops , when they got it declared that the Pope is above a Council of Bishops : and at last it was 〈◊〉 into a new doctrine by Cajetane ( who for his prosperous invention was made a Cardinal ) that all the whole Apostolick or Episcopal power is radical and inherent in the Pope , in whom is the fulness of the Ecclesiastical authority ; and that Bishops receive their portion of it from him : and this was first boldly maintain'd in the Council of Trent by the Jesuits ; and it is now the opinion of their Order : but it is also that which the Pope challenges in practice , when he pretends to a power over all Bishops , and that this power is deriv'd to him from Christ ; when he calls himself the Universal Bishop , and the Vicarial Head of the Church , the Churches Monarch , he from whom all Ecclesiastical Authority is derived , to whose sentence in things Divine every Christian under pain of damnation is bound to be subject * . NOW this is it which as it is productive of infinite mischiefs , so it is an Innovation and an absolute deflexion from the primitive Catholick Doctrine ; and yet is the great ground-work and foundation of their Church . This we shall represent in these following testimonies . Pope Eleutherius * in an Epistle to the Bishops of France says that Christ committed the Universal Church to the Bishops ; and S. Ambrose says that the Bishop holdeth the place of Christ , and is his substitute . But famous are the words of S. Cyprian , [ The Church of Christ is one through the whole world , divided by him into many members , and the Bishoprick is but one , diffused in the agreeing plurality of many Bishops . ] And again , [ To every Pastor a portion of the flock is given , which let every one of them rule and govern . ] By which words it is evident that the primitive Church understood no Prelation of one and Subordination of another , commanded by Christ , or by virtue of their Ordination ; but only what was for orders sake introduc'd by Princes and consent of Prelates . And it was to this purpose very full which was said by Pope Symmachus : As it is in the holy Trinity , whose power is one and undivided , ( or to use the expression in the Athanasian Creed , none is before or after other , none is greater or less than another ) so there is one Bishoprick amongst divers Bishops , and therefore why should the Canons of the ancient Bishops be violated by their Successors ? Now these words being spoken against the invasion of the rights of the Church of Arles by Anastasius , and the question being in the exercise of Jurisdiction , and about the institution of Bishops , does fully declare that the Bishops of Rome had no superiority by the laws of Christ over any Bishop in the Catholick Church , and that his Bishoprick gave no more power to him , than Christ gave to the Bishop of the smallest Diocese . AND therefore all the Church of God , whenever they reckoned the several orders and degrees of Ministery in the Catholick Church , reckon the Bishop as the last and supreme , beyond whom there is no spiritual power but in Christ. For as the whole Hierarchy ends in Jesus , so does every particular one in its own Bishop . Beyond the Bishop there is no step , till you rest in the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls . Under him every Bishop is supreme in spirituals , and in all power which to any Bishop is given by Christ. S. Ignatius therefore exhorts that all should obey their Bishop , and the Bishop obey Christ , as Christ obeyed his Father . There are no other intermedial degrees of Divine institution . But ( as Origen teaches ) The Apostles , and they who after them are ordain'd by God , that is , the Bishops , have the supreme place in the Church , and the Prophets have the second place . The same also is taught by P. Gelasius * , by S. Hierom ‖ , and Fulgentius * , and indeed by all the Fathers who spake any thing in this matter : Insomuch that when Bellarmine is in this question press'd out of the book of Nilus by the Authority of the Fathers standing against him , he answers , Papam Patres non habere in Ecclesiâ , sed Filios omnes ; The Pope acknowledges no Fathers in the Church , for they are all his Sons . NOW although we suppose this to be greatly sufficient to declare the Doctrine of the primitive Catholick Church , concerning the equality of power in all Bishops by Divine right : yet the Fathers have also expresly declared themselves , that one Bishop is not superiour to another , and ought not to judge another , or force another to obedience . They are the words of S. Cyprian to a Council of Bishops : [ None of us makes himself a Bishop of Bishops , or by tyramical power drives his collegues to a necessity of obedience , since every Bishop according to the licence of his own liberty and power , hath his own choice , and cannot be judged by another , nor yet himself judge another ; but let us all expect the judgment of our Lord Jesus Christ , who only and alone hath the power of setting us in the Government of his Church , and judging of what we do . ] This was spoken and intended against Pope Stephen , who did then begin dominari in clero , to lord it over God's heritage , and to excommunicate his brethren , as Demetrius did in the time of the Apostles themselves : but they both found their reprovers . Demetrius was chastised by Saint John for this usurpation , and Stephen by S. Cyprian , and this also was approv'd by S. Austin . We conclude this particular with the words of S. Gregory Bishop of Rome , who because the Patriarch of Constantinople called himself Universal Bishop , said , It was a proud title , prophane , sacrilegious , and Antichristian : and therefore he little thought that his successors in the same See should so fiercely challenge that Antichristian title ; much less did the then Bishop of Rome in those Ages challenge it as their own peculiar ; for they had no mind to be , or to be esteemed Antichristian . Romano pontisici oblatum est , sed nullus unquam eorum hoc singularitatis nomen assumpsit . His predecessors ( it seems ) had been tempted with an offer of that title , but none of them ever assumed that name of singularity , as being against the law of the Gospel and the Canons of the Church . NOW this being a matter of which Christ spake not one word to S. Peter , if it be a matter of Faith and Salvation , as it is now pretended , it is not imaginable he would have been so perfectly silent . But though he was silent of any intention to do this , yet S. Paul was not silent that Christ did otherwise ; for he hath set in his Church primùm Apostolos ; first of all , Apostles ; not first S. Peter and secondarily Apostles ; but all the Apostles were first . It is also evident that S. Peter did not carry himself so as to give the least overture or umbrage to make any one suspect he had any such preheminence ; but he was ( as S. Chrysostom truly says ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he did all things with the common consent , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , nothing by special authority or principality : and if he had any such , it is more than probable that the Apostles who survived him , had succeeded him in it , rather than the Bishop of Rome : and it being certain ( as the Bishop of Canaries confesses ) That there is in Scripture no revelation that the Bishop of Rome should succeed Peter in it , and we being there told that S. Pet. was at Antioch , but never that he was at Rome ; it being confessed by some of their own parties , by Cardinal Cusanus , Soto , Driedo , Canus and Segovius , that this succession was not addicted to any particular Church , nor that Christs institution of this does any other way appear ; that it cannot be proved that the Bishop of Rome is Prince of the Church : it being also certain that there was no such thing known in the Primitive Church , but that the holy Fathers both of Africa and the East did oppose Pope Victor and Pope Stephen , when they began to interpose with a presumptive Authority in the affairs of other Churches ; and that the Bishops of the Church did treat with the Roman Bishop as with a brother , not as their superiour : and that the General Council held at Chalcedon did give to the Bishops of C. P. equal rights and preeminence with the Bishops of Rome : and that the Greek Churches are at this day and have been a long time great opponents of this pretension of the Bishops of Rome : and after all this , since it is certain that Christ , who foreknows all things , did also know that there would be great disputes and challenges of this preeminence , did indeed suppress it in his Apostles , and said not it should be otherwise in succession , and did not give any command to his Church to obey the Bishops of Rome as his Vicars , more than what he commanded concerning all Bishops ; it must be certain that it cannot be necessary to salvation to do so , but that it is more than probable that he never intended any such thing , and that the Bishops of Rome have to the great prejudice of Christendom made a great schism , and usurped a title which is not their due , and challenged an Authority to which they have no right , and have set themselves above others who are their equals , and impose an Article of Faith of their own contriving , and have made great preparation for Antichrist , if he ever get into that Seat , or be in already , and made it necessary for all of the Roman Communion to believe and obey him in all things . SECT . XI . Other instances of new Doctrines and practices in the Roman Church . It is easier to shew where our Religion was before Luther , than where theirs was before the Council of Trent . Great and Excellent persons have complained heavily of the corrupt State of that Church , but without redress . The Reformation preferred a New cure before an Old sore . THERE are very many more things in which the Church of Rome hath greatly turn'd aside from the Doctrines of Scripture , and the practice of the Catholick Apostolick and primitive Church . SUCH are these : The Invocation of Saints : the Insufficiency of Scriptures without Traditions of Faith unto Salvation : their absolving sinners before they have by Canonical penances and the fruits of a good life testified their repentance : their giving leave to simple Presbyters by Papal dispensation , to give Confirmation or chrism : selling Masses for Nine-pences : Circumgestation of the Eucharist to be ador'd : The dangerous Doctrine of the necessity of the Priests intention in collating Sacraments ; by which device they have put it into the power of the Priest to damn whom he pleases of his own Parish : their affirming that the Mass is a proper and propitiatory sacrifice for the quick and the dead : private Masses , or the Lord's Supper without Communion ; which is against the doctrine and practice of the Antient Church of Rome it self , and contrary to the Tradition of the Apostles , if we may believe Pope Calixtus , and is also forbidden under pain of Excommunication . Peractâ consecratione omnes communicent , qui noluerint ecclesiasticis carere liminibus ; sic autem etiam Apostoli statuerunt , & sancta Romana tenet Ecclesia . When the Consecration is finished let all Communicate that will not be thrust from the bounds of the Church ; for so the Apostles appointed , and so the holy Church of Rome does hold . The same also was 〈◊〉 by Pope Soter and Pope Martin in a Council of Bishops , and most severely enjoyn'd by the Canons of the Apostles as they are cited in the Canon Law. * THERE are divers others ; but we suppose that those Innovations which we have already noted , may be 〈◊〉 to verifie this charge of Novelty . But we have done this the rather , because the Roman Emissaries endeavour to prevail amongst the ignorant and prejudicate by boasting of Antiquity ; and calling their Religion , the Old Religion and the Catholick : so insnaring others by ignorant words in which is no truth ; their Religion as it distinguishes from the Religion of the Church of England and Ireland , being neither the Old nor the Catholick Religion ; but New and superinduc'd by arts known to all who with sincerity and diligence have look'd into their pretences . BUT they have taught every Priest that can scarce understand his Breviary ( of which in Ireland there are but too many ) and very many of the people , to ask where our Religion was before Luther ? Whereas it appears by the premises , that it is much more easie for us to shew our Religion before Luther , than for them to shew theirs before Trent . And although they can shew too much practice of their Religion in the degenerate ages of the Church , yet we can and do clearly shew ours in the purest and first ages ; and can and do draw lines pointing to the times and places where the several rooms and stories of their Babel was builded , and where polished , and where furnished . BUT when the Keepers of the 〈◊〉 slept , and the 〈◊〉 had sown tares , and they had choak'd the wheat , and almost destroyed it : when the world complain'd of the 〈◊〉 errors in the Church , and being oppressed by a violent power , durst not complain so much as they had cause : and when they who had cause to complain were yet themselves very much abused , and did not complain in all they might ; when divers excellent persons , S. Bernard , Clemangis , Grosthead , Marsilius , Ocham , Alvarus , Abbat Joachim , Petrarch , Savanarola , Valla , Erasmus , Mantuan , Gerson , Ferus , Cassander , Andreas Fricius , Modrevius , Hermannus Coloniensis , Wasseburgius Archdeacon of Verdun , Paulus Langius * , Staphilus , Telesphorus de Cusentiâ , Doctor Talheymius , Francis Zabarel the Cardinal , and Pope Adrian himself , with many others ; not to reckon Wiclef , Hus , Jerom of Prague , the Bohemians , and the poor men of Lions , whom they call'd 〈◊〉 , and confuted with fire and sword ; when almost all Christian Princes did complain heavily of the corrupt state of the Church and of Religion , and no remedy could be had , but the very intended remedy made things much worse ; then it was that divers Christian Kingdoms , and particularly the Church of England , Tum primùm senio docilis , tua saecula Roma Erubuit , pudet exacti 〈◊〉 temporis , odit Praeteritos foedis cum religionibus annos . Being asham'd of the errors , superstitions , heresies and impieties which had deturpated the face of the Church ; look'd into the glass of Scripture and pure Antiquity , and wash'd away those stains with which time , and inadvertency , and tyranny had besmear'd her ; and being thus cleans'd and wash'd , is accus'd by the Roman parties of Novelty , and condemn'd because she refuses to run into the same excess of riot and de-ordination . But we cannot deserve blame who return to our antient and first health , by preferring a New cure before an Old sore . CHAP. II. The Church of Rome , as it is at this day disordered , teaches Doctrines , and uses Practices , which are in themselves , or in their true and immediate Consequences , direct Impieties , and give warranty to a wicked Life . SECT . 1. Repentance according to the Romish Doctors , not of obligation as soon as we sin , by Gods Law , but only before we die . The Church requiring it once a Year at Easter is satisfied with a ritual repentance . The Objection answered , that this is not the Doctrine of the Church , but the Opinion of some private Doctors . Contrition with them not available without confession to a Priest ; but Attrition with it is . And one act of Contrition will make all sure . OUR First instance is in their Doctrines of Repentance . For the Roman Doctors teach , that unless it be by accident , or in respect of some other obligation , a sinner is not bound presently to repent of his sin as soon as he hath committed it . Some time or other he must do it , and if he take care so to order his affairs that it be not wholly omitted , but so that it be done one time or other , he is not by the precept or grace of Repentance bound to do more . Scotus and his Scholars say that a sinner is bound , viz. by the precept of the Church , to repent on Holy days , especially the great ones . But this is thought too severe by Soto and Medina , who teach that a sinner is bound to repent but once a year , that is , against Easter . These Doctors indeed do differ concerning the Churches sense ; which according to the best of them is bad enough ; full as bad as it is stated in the charge : but they agree in the worst part of it , viz. that though the Church calls upon sinners to repent on Holy days , or at Easter ; yet that by the Law of God they are not tied to so much , but only to repent in the danger or article of death . This is the express Doctrine taught in the Church of Rome by their famous Navar ; and for this he quotes Pope Adrian and Cardinal Cajetan , and finally affirms it to be the sense of all men . The same also is taught by Reginaldus , saying , It is true , and the opinion of all men , that the time in which a sinner is bound by the commandment of God to be contrite for his sins , is the imminent article of natural or violent death . WE shall not need to aggravate this sad story by the addition of other words to the same purpose in a worse degree ; such as those words are of the same Reginaldus . There is no precept that a sinner should not persevere in enmity against God. There is no negative precept forbidding such a perseverance . These are the words of this man , but the proper and necessary consequent of that which they all teach , and to which they must consent . For since it is certain that he who hath sinn'd against God and his Conscience , is in a state of enmity , we say he therefore ought to repent presently , because until he hath repented he is an enemy to God. This they confess , but they suppose it concludes nothing ; for though they consider and confess this , yet they still saying , a man is not bound by God's Law to repent till the article of death , do consequently say the same thing that Reginaldus does , and that a man is not bound to come out of that state of enmity till he be in those circumstances that it is very probable if he does not then come out , he must stay in it for ever . It is something worse than this yet that * Sotus says , [ even to resolve to defer our repentance , and to refuse to repent for a certain time , is but a venial sin . ] But ‖ Medina says it is none at all . IF it be replied to this , that though God hath left it to a sinners liberty to repent when he please , yet the Church hath been more severe than God hath been , and ties a sinner to repent , by collateral positive laws ; for having bound every one to confess at Easter , consequently she hath tied every one to repent at Easter , and so , by her laws , can lie in the sin without interruption but twelve Months or thereabouts ; yet there is a secret in this , which nevertheless themselves have been pleased to discover for the ease of tender consciences , viz. that the Church ordains but the means , the exteriour solemnity of it , and is satisfied if you obey her laws by a Ritual repentance , but the holiness and the inward repentance , which in charity we should have supposed to have been design'd by the law of Festivals , Non est id quod per proeceptum de observatione Festorum injungitur , is not that which is enjoyned by the Church in her law of Holy-days . So that still sinners are left to the liberty which they say God gave ; even to satisfie our selves with all the remaining pleasures of that sin for a little while , even during our short mortal life ; only we must be sure to repent at last . WE shall not trouble our selves or our charges with confuting this impious Doctrine . For it is evident that this gives countenance and too much warranty to a wicked life ; and that of it self is confutation enough , and is that which we intended to represent . IF it be answered , that this is not the doctrine of their Church , but of some private Doctors ; we must tell you , that , if by the Doctrine of their Church they mean such things only as are decreed in their Councils ; it is to be considered , that but few things are determined in their Councils ; nothing but articles of belief , and the practice of Sacraments relating to publick order : and if they will not be reproved for any thing but what we prove to be false in the articles of their simple belief , they take a liberty to say and to do what they list , and to corrupt all the World by their rules of conscience . But , that this is also the Doctrie of their Church their own men tell us . Communis omnium . It is the Doctrine of all their men ; so they affirm , as we have cited their own words above : who also undertake to tell us in what sense their Church intends to tye sinners to actual repentance ; not as soon as the sin is committed , but at certain seasons , and then also to no more of it , than the external and ritual part . So that if their Church be injuriously charg'd , themselves have done it , not we . And besides all this : it is hard to suppose or expect that the innumerable cases of conscience which a whole Trade of Lawyers and Divines amongst them have made , can be entred into the records of Councils and publick decrees . In these cases we are to consider , who teaches them ? Their Gravest Doctors , in the face of the Sun , under the intuition of Authority in the publick conduct of souls , in their allowed Sermons , in their books licens'd by a curious and inquisitive authority , not passing from them but by warranty from several hands intrusted to examine them , ne fides Ecclesioe aliquid detrimenti patioetur ; that nothing be publish'd but what is consonant to the Catholick faith . And therefore these things cannot be esteem'd private opinions ; especially , since if they be , yet they are the private opinions of them all , and that we understand to be publick enough : and are so their Doctrine , as what the Scribes and Pharisees taught their Disciples , though the whole Church of the Jews had not pass'd it into a law . So this is the Roman Doctrine ; though not the Roman law . Which difference we desire may be observed in many of the following instances , that this objection may no more interpose for an escape , or an excuse . But we shall have occasion again to speak to it , upon new particulars . BUT this , though it be infinitely intolerable , yet it is but the beginning of sorrows . For the guides of Souls in the Roman Church have prevaricated in all the parts of Repentance , most sadly and dangerously . THE next things therefore that we shall remark are their Doctrines concerning Contrition : which when it is genuine and true , that is , a true cordial sorrow for having sin'd against God ; a sorrow proceeding from the love of God , and conversion to him , and ending in a dereliction of all our sins , and a walking in all righteousness , both the Psalms and the Prophets , the Old Testament and the New , the Greek Fathers and the Latin have allowed as sufficient for the pardon of our sins through faith in Jesus Christ ( as our Writers have often prov'd in their Sermons and books of Conscience ) yet first , the Church of Rome does not allow it to be of any value , unless it be joyn'd with a desire to confess their sins to a Priest ; saying , that a man by contrition is not reconcil'd to God , without their Sacramental or Ritual penance , actual or votive ; and this is decreed by the Council of Trent , which thing besides that it is against Scripture , and the promises of the Gospel , and not only teaches for Doctrine the Commandments of Men , but evacuates the goodness of God by their Traditions , and weakens and discourages the best repentance , and prefers repentance towards men , before that which the Scripture calls Repentance towards God , and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. BUT the malignity of this Doctrine and its influence it hath on an evil life appears in the other corresponding part of this Docrine . For as Contrition without their ritual and sacramental confession will not reconcile us to God : so Attrition ( as they call it ) or contrition imperfect , proceeding from fear of damnation , together with their Sacrament will reconcile the sinner . Contrition without it will not : attrition with it , will reconcile us ; and therefore by this doctrine , which is expresly decreed at Trent , there is no necessity of Contrition at all ; and attrition is as good to all intents and purposes of pardon : and a little repentance will prevail as well as the greatest , the imperfect as well as the perfect . So Gulielmus de Rubeo explains this doctrine . He that confesses his sins , grieving but a little , obtains remission of his sins by the Sacrament of Penance ministred to him by the Priest absolving him . So that although God working Contrition in a penitent , hath not done his work for him without the Priests absolution , in desire at least ; yet if the Priest do his part , he hath done the work for the penitent , though God had not wrought that excellent grace of contrition in the penitent . BUT for the contrition it self ; it is a good word , but of no severity or affrightment by the Roman Doctrine : One contrition , one act of it , though but little and remiss , can blot out any , even the greatest sin ( always understanding it in the sense of the Church , that is in the Sacrament of Penance ) saith Cardinal Tolet. A certain little inward grief of mind is requir'd to the perfection of Repentance , said Maldonat . And to 〈◊〉 a grief in general for all our sins is sufficient ; but it is not necessary to grieve for any one sin more than another , said Franciscus de Victoriâ . The greatest sin and the smallest , as to this , are all alike ; and as for the Contrition it self , any intention or degree whatsoever , in any instant whatsoever , is sufficient to obtain mercy and remission , said the same Author . NOW let this be added to the former , and the sequel is this , That if a man live a wicked life for threescore or fourscore years together , yet if in the article of his death , sooner than which God hath not commanded him to repent , he be a little sorrowful for his sins , then resolving for the present that he will do so no more ; and though this sorrow hath in it no love of God , but only a fear of Hell , and a hope that God will pardon him , this , if the Priest absolves him , does instantly pass him into a state of salvation . The Priest with two fingers and a thumb can do his work for him ; only he must be greatly dispos'd and prepar'd to receive it : Greatly , we say , according to the sense of the Roman Church ; for he must be attrite , or it were better if he were contrite ; one act of grief , a little one , and that not for one sin more than another , and this at the end of a long wicked life , at the time of our death , will make all sure . UPON these terms , it is a wonder that all wicked men in the world are not Papists ; where they may live so merrily , and die so securely , and are out of all danger , unless peradventure they die very suddenly , which because so very few do , the venture is esteem'd nothing , and it is a thousand to one on the sinners side . SECT . II. Confession , as used in the Roman Church , a trifling business , whereby few are frighted from sinning , but more made confident , and go on in sinning ; Confessing and sinning going in a round . Their Rules and Doctrines of Confession , enjoyn some things that are dangerous , and lead into temptation . WE know it will be said , That the Roman Church enjoyns Confession , and imposes Penances , and these are a great restraint to sinners , and gather up what was scattered before . The reply is easie , but it is very sad . For , 1. FOR Confession : It is true , to them who are not us'd to it , as it is at the 〈◊〉 time , and for that once it is as troublesom as for a bashful man to speak Orations in publick : But where it is so perpetual and universal , and done by companies and crouds , at a solemn set time , and when it may be done to any one besides the Parish-Priest , to a Friar that begs , or to a Monk in his Dorter , done in the ear , it may be , to a person that hath done worse , and therefore hath no awe upon me , but what his Order imprints , and his Vitiousness takes off ; when we see Women and Boys , Princes and Prelates do the same every 〈◊〉 : And as oftentimes they are never the better , so they are not at all asham'd ; but men look upon it as a certain cure , like pulling 〈◊〉 a mans clothes to go and wash in a river , and make it by use and habit , by considence and custom , to be no certain pain , and the women blush or smile , weep or are unmov'd , as it happens under their veil , and the men under the boldness of their Sex : When we see that men and women confess to day , and sin to morrow , and are not 〈◊〉 from their sin the more for it ; because they know the worst of it , and have felt it often , and believe to be eas'd by it , certain it is that a little reason , and a little observation will suffice to conclude , that this practice of Confession hath in it no affrightment , not so much as the horrour of the sin it self hath to the Conscience . For they who commit sins confidently , will with less regret ( it may be ) confess it in this manner , where it is the fashion for every one to do it . And when all the world observes how loosly the Italians , Spaniards and French do live in their Carnivals , giving to themselves all liberty and licence to do the vilest things at that time , not only because they are for a while to take their leave of them , but because they are ( as they suppose ) to be so soon eas'd of their crimes by Confession , and the circular and never-failing hand of the Priest ; they will have no reason to admire the severity of Confession , which as it 〈◊〉 most certainly intended as a deletory of sin , and might do its first intention , if it were equally manag'd ; so now certainly it gives confidence to many men to sin , and to most men to neglect the greater and more effective parts of 〈◊〉 repentance . WE shall not need to observe how Confession is made a Minister of State , a Pick-lock of secrets , a Spy upon families , a Searcher of inclinations , a Betraying to temptations ; for this is wholly by the sault of the Men , and not of the Doctrine ; but even the Doctrine it self , as it is handled in the Church of Rome , is so far from bringing peace to the troubled Consciences , that it intromits more scruples and cases than it can resolve . FOR besides , that it self is a question , and they have made it dangerous by pretending that it is by Divine Right and Institution , ( for so some of the Schoolmen * teach , and the Canonists say the contrary , ‖ and that it is only of humane and positive Constitution ) and by this difference in so great a point , have made the whole Oeconomy of their repentance , which relies upon the supposed necessity of Confession , to fail , or to shake vehemently , and at the best , to be a foundation too uncertain to build the hopes of salvation on it ; besides all this , we say , Their Rules and Doctrines of Confession , enjoyn some things that are of themselves dangerous , and lead into temptation . An instance of this is in that which is decreed in the Canons of Trent , that the Penitent must not only confess every mortal sin which after diligent inquiry he remembers , but even his very sinful thoughts in particular , and his 〈◊〉 desires , and every circumstance which changes the kind of the sin , or ( as some add ) does notably increase it : and how this can be safely done , and who is sufficient for these things , and who can tell his circumstances without tempting his Confessor , or betraying , and defaming another person , ( which is forbidden ) and in what cases it may be done , or in what cases omitted ; and whether the confession be 〈◊〉 upon infinite other considerations , and whether it be to be repeated in whole or in part , and how often , and how much ? these things are so uncertain , casual and contingent , and so many cases are multiplied upon every one of these , and these so disputed and argued by their greatest Doctors , by Thomas , and Scotus , and all the Schoolmen , and by the Casuists , that as Beat us Rhenanus complains , it was truly observed by the famous John Geilerius , that according to their cases , enquiries and conclusions , it is impossible for any man to make a right Confession . So that although the shame of private Confession be very tolerable and easie , yet the cases and scruples which they have introduc'd , are neither easie nor tolerable , and though ( as it is now used ) there be but little in it , to restrain sin , yet there is very much danger of increasing it , and of receiving no benefit by it . SECT . III. Penances in the Roman Church very ineffectual : how they differ from the antient Canonical ones . Indulgences will relieve him that thinks his enjoyned penances too severe . What vast stores of Pardons that Church boasts of , and upon what easie terms granted . They serve themselves by them , but do not serve God. An account , why so many thousand years of pardon need be granted . A holy life seems only necessary for him that has neither friends nor money . BUT then for Penances and Satisfactions of which they boast so much , as being so great restraints to sin , these as they are publickly handled , are nothing but words and ineffective sounds . For , first , if we consider what the Penances themselves are which are enjoyned ; they are reduced from the antient Canonical Penances to private and arbitrary , from years to hours , from great severity to gentleness and slattery , from fasting and publick shame to the saying over their Beads , from Cordial to ritual , from smart to money , from heartiness and earnest to pageantry and theatrical Images of Penance ; and if some Confessors happen to be severe , there are ways enough to be eased . For the Penitent may have leave to go to a gentler , or he may get Commutations , or he may get somebody else * to do them for him : and if his Penances be never so great , or never so little , yet it may be all supplied by Indulgences ; of which there are such store in the Lateran at Rome , that as Pope Boniface said , No man is able to number them ; yet he confirm'd them all . IN the Church of Sancta Maria de Popolo there are for every day in the year two thousand and eight hundred years of pardon , besides fourteen thousand and fourteen Carentanes ; which in one year amount to more than a Million : all which are confirm'd by the Pope Paschal I. Boniface VIII . and Gregory IX . In the Church of S. Vitus and Modestus there are for every day in the year seven thousand years and seven thousand Carentanes of pardon , and a pardon of a third part of all our sins besides ; and the price of all this is but praying before an Altar in that Church . At the Sepulchre of Christ in Venice there is hung up a prayer of S. Augustine , with an Indulgence of fourscore and two thousand years , granted by Boniface the VIII . ( who was of all the Popes the most bountiful of the Churches treasure ) and Benedict the XI . to him that shall say it , and that for every day toties quoties . The Divine pardon of Sica gave a plenary Indulgence to every one that being confessed and communicated should pray there in the Franciscan Church of Sancta Maria de gli Angeli , and this pardon is ab omni poena & culpa . The English of that we easily understand , but the meaning of it we do not , because they will not own that these Indulgences do profit any one whose guilt is not taken away by the Sacrament of Penance . But this is not the only snare in which they have inextricably entangled themselves : but be it as they please for this ; whatever it was , it was since inlarged by Sixtus IV. and Sixtus V. to all that shall wear S. Francis's Cord. The saying a few Pater nosters and Ave's before a privileg'd Altar can in innumerable places procure vast portions of this Treasure ; and to deliver a soul out of Purgatory , whom they list , is promised to many upon easie terms , even to the saying of their Beads over with an appendent Medal of the Pope's benediction . Every Priest at his third or fourth Mass is as sure ( as may be ) to deliver the souls of his Parents : And a thousand more such stories as these are to be seen every where and every day . ONCE for all : There was a book printed at Paris by Francis Regnault , A. D. 1536. May 25. called The hours of the most blessed Virgin Mary , according to the use of Sarum ; in which for the saying three short prayers written in Rome in a place called The Chapel of the holy Cross of seven Romans , are promised fourscore and ten thousand years of pardon of deadly sin . Now the meaning of these things is very plain . By these devices they serve themselves , and they do not serve God. They serve themselves by this Doctrine : For they teach that what Penance is ordinarily imposed , does not take away all the punishment that is due ; for they do not impose what was anciently enjoyn'd by the Penitential Canons , but some little thing instead of it : and it may be , that what was anciently enjoyned by the Penitential Canons , is not so much as God will exact , ( for they suppose that he will forgive nothing but the guilt and the eternity ; but he will exact all that can be demanded on this side Hell , even to the last farthing he must be paid some way or other , even when the guilt is taken away ) but therefore to prevent any failing that way , they have given Indulgences enough to take off what was due by the old Canons , and what may be due by the severity of God ; and if these fail , they may have recourse to the Priests , and they by their Masses can make supply : so that their Disciples are well , and the want of ancient Discipline shall do them no hurt . BUT then how little they serve God's end by treating the sinner so gently , will be very evident . For by this means they have found out a way , that though it may be God will be more severe than the old Penitential Canons ; and although these Canons were much more severe than men are now willing to suffer , yet neither for the one or the other shall they need to be troubled : they have found out an easier way to go to Heaven than so . An Indulgence will be no great charge , but that will take off all the supernumerary Penances which ought to have been imposed by the ancient Discipline of the Church , and may be required by God. A little alms to a Priest , a small oblation to a Church , a pilgrimage to the image or reliques of a Saint , wearing St. Francis's Cord , saying over the Beads with an hallowed Appendent , entering into a Fraternity , praying at a priviledg'd Altar , leaving a Legacy for a Soul-Mass , visiting a priviledg'd Cemetery , and twenty other devices will secure the sinner from suffering punishment here or hereafter , more than his friendly Priest is pleased gently to impose . To them that ask , what should any one need to get so many hundred thousand years of pardon , as are ready to be had upon very 〈◊〉 terms ? They answer as before ; That whereas it may be for Perjury the ancient Canons enjoyned Penance all their life * ; that will be supposed to be twenty or forty years , or suppose an hundred ; if the man have been perjur'd a thousand times , and committed adultery so often , and done innumerable other sins , for every one of which he deserves to suffer forty years penance , and how much more in the account of God he deserves , he knows not ; if he be attrite , and confess'd so that the guilt is taken away , yet as much temporal punishment remains due as is not paid here : but the Indulgences of the Church will take off so much as it comes to , even of all that would be suffer'd in Purgatory . Now it is true , that Purgatory ( at least as is believ'd ) cannot last a hundred thousand years ; but yet God may by the acerbity of the flames in twenty years equal the Canonical Penances of twenty thousand years : to prevent which , these Indulgences of so many thousand years are devised . A wise and thrifty Invention sure , and well contriv'd , and rightly applotted according to every mans need , and according as they suspect his Bill shall amount to . THIS strange Invention , as strange as it is , will be own'd , for this is the account of it which we find in Bellarmine : and although Gerson and Dominicus à Soto are asham'd of these prodigious Indulgences , and suppose that the Pope's Quaestuaries did procure them , yet it must not be so disown'd ; truth is truth , and it is notoriously so ; and therefore a reason must be found out for it , and this is it which we have accounted . But the use we make of it is this ; That since they have declar'd , that when sins are pardon'd so easily , yet the punishment remains so very great , and that so much must be suffered here or in Purgatory ; it is strange that they should not only in effect pretend to shew more mercy than God does , or the primitive Church did ; but that they should directly lay aside the primitive Discipline , and while they declaim against their Adversaries for saying they are not necessary , yet at the same time they should devise tricks to take them quite away , so that neither Penances shall much smart here , nor Purgatory ( which is a device to make men be Mulata's , as the Spaniard calls , half Christians , a device to make a man go to Heaven and to Hell too ) shall not torment them hereafter . However it be , yet things are so ordered , that the noise of Penances need not trouble the greatest Criminal , unless he be so unfortunate as to live in no Countrey and near no Church , and without Priest , or friend , or money , or notice of any thing that is so loudly talk'd of in Christendom . If he be , he hath no help but one ; he must live a holy and a severe life , which is the only great calamity which they are commanded to suffer in the Church of England : but if he be not , the case is plain , he may by these Doctrines take his ease . SECT . IV. The Roman Doctors themselves know how to spoil the hopes from these large grants of Indulgences , if any should fancy that Purgatory would quickly be emptied , and no need to continue Pensions for those that died many Years since . Though a plenary or full Indulgence ( one would think ) should make all sure , yet no such matter ; for there is a more full and a most full indulgence . Other things that , they say , may evacuate Indulgences , so that they lose their force : therefore they advise to imploy the Priest , and to multiply Masses . Cardinal Albernotius his care , by his last Will , to have fifty thousand Masses said for his Soul. WE doubt not but they who understand the proper sequel of these things , will not wonder that the Church of Rome should have a numerous company of Proselytes , made up of such as the beginings of David's Army were . But that we may undeceive them also , for to their souls we intend charity and relief by this Address , we have thought fit to add one Consideration more , and that is , That it is not fit that they should trust to this , or any thing of this , not only because there is no foundation of truth in these new devices , but because even the Roman Doctors themselves , when they are pinch'd with an Objection , let their hold go , and to escape , do in remarkable measures destroy their own new building . THE case is this : To them who say , that if there were truth in these pretensions , then all these , and the many millions of Indulgences more , and the many other ways of releasing souls out of Purgatory , the innumerable Masses said every day , the power of the Keys so largely imploy'd , would in a short time have emptied Purgatory of all her sad inhabitants , or it may be very few would go thither , and they that unfortunately do , cannot stay long ; and consequently , besides that this great softness and easiness of procedure would give confidence to the greatest sinners , and the hopes of Purgatory would destroy the fears of Hell , and the certainty of doing well enough in an imperfect life , would make men careless of the more excellent : besides these things , there will need no continuation of Pensions to pray for persons dead many years ago : To them , I say , who talk to them at this rate , they have enough to answer . DECEIVE not your selves , there are more things to be reckon'd for than so . For when you have deserved great punishments for great sins , and the Guilt is taken off by Absolution , and ( you suppose ) the Punishment by Indulgences or the Satisfaction of others ; it may be so , and it may be not so . FOR 1. it is according as your Indulgence is . Suppose it for forty years , or it may be an hundred , or a thousand , ( and that is a great matter ) yet peradventure according to the old penitential rate you have deserved the Penance of forty thousand years ; or at least you may have done so by the more severe account of God : If the Penance of forty years be taken off by your Indulgence , it does as much of the work as was promised or intended ; but you can feel little ease , if still there remains due the Penance of threescore thousand years . No man can tell the difference when what remains shall be so great as to surmount all the evils of this life ; and the abatement may be accounted by pen and ink , but will signifie little in the perception : it is like the casting out of a Devil out of a miserable Demoniack , when there still remains fifty more as bad as he that went away ; the man will hardly find how much he is advanced in his cure . BUT 2. you have with much labour and some charge purchased to your self so many Quadragenes or Lents of pardon ; that is , you have bought off the Penances of so many times forty days . It is well ; but were you well advis'd ? it may be your Quadragenes are not Carenes , that is , are not a quitting the severest Penances of fasting so long in bread and water : for there is great difference in the manner of keeping a penitential Lent , and it may be you have purchased but some lighter thing ; and then if your demerit arise to so many Carenes , and you purchased but mere Quadragenes , without a minute and table of particulars , you may stay longer in Purgatory than you expected . 3. BUT therefore your best way is to get a plenary Indulgence ; and that may be had on reasonable terms : but take heed you do not think your self secure , for a plenary Indulgence does not do all that it may be you require ; for there is an Indulgence more full , and another most full , and it is not agreed upon among the Doctors whether a plenary Indulgence is to be extended beyond the taking off those Penances which were actually enjoyned by the Confessor , or how far they go further . And they that read Turrecremata , Navar , Cordubensis , Fabius Incarnatus , Petrus de Soto , Armilla aurea , Aquinas , Tolet , Cajetan , in their several accounts of Indulgences , will soon perceive that all this is but a handful of Smoke , when you hold it , you hold it not . 4. BUT further yet ; all Indulgences are granted upon some inducement , and are not ex mero motu , or acts of mere grace without cause ; and if the cause be not reasonable , they are invalid : and whether the cause be sufficient will be very hard to judge . And if there be for the Indulgence , yet if there be not a reasonable cause for the quantity of the Indulgence , you cannot tell how much you get : and the Preachers of Indulgences ought not to declare how valid they are assertivè , that is , by any confidence ; but opinativè or recitativè , they can only tell what is said , or what is their own opinion . 5. WHEN this difficulty is passed over , yet it may be the person is not capable of them ; for if he be not in the state of Grace all is nothing ; and if he be , yet if he does not perform the condition of the Indulgence actually , his mere endeavour or good desire is nothing . And when the conditions are actually done , it must be enquired whether in the time of doing them you were in charity ; whether you be so at least in the last day of finishing them : it is good to be certain in this , lest all evaporate and come to nothing . But yet suppose this too , though the work you are to do as the condition of the Indulgence , be done so well that you lose not all the Indulgence , yet for every degree of Imperfection in that work you will lose a part of the Indulgence , and then it will be hard to tell whether you get half so much as you propounded to your self . But here Pope Adrian troubles the whole affair again : for if the Indulgence be only given according to the worthiness of the work done , then that will avail of it self without any Grant from the Church ; and then it is hugely questionable whether the Popes Authority be of any use in this whole matter . 6. BUT there is yet a greater heap of dangers and uncertainties ; for you must be sure of the Authority of him that gives the Indulgence , and in this there are many doubtful Questions ; but when they are over , yet it is worth enquiry , ( for some Doctors are fearful in this point ) whether the intromission of Venial sins , without which no man lives , does hinder the fruit of the Indulgence ; for if it does , all the cost is lost . 7. WHEN an Indulgence is given , put case to abide forty days on certain conditions , whether these forty days are to be taken collectively or distributively ; for , because it is confessed that the matter of Indulgences is res odibilis , an hateful and an odious matter , it is not to be understood in the sense of favour , but of greatest severity ; and therefore it is good to know beforehand what to trust to , to inquire how the Bull is penn'd , and what sense of Law every word does bear ; for it may be any good mans case . If an Indulgence be granted to a place for so many days in every year , it were sit you inquire for how many years that will last ; for some Doctors say , That if a definite number of years be not set down , it is intended to last but twenty years . And therefore it is good to be wise early . 8. BUT it is yet of greater consideration : If you take out a Bull of Indulgence , relating to the Article of death , in case you recover that sickness in which you thought you should use it , you must consider , whether you must not take out a new one for the next fit of sickness ; or will the first , which stood for nothing , keep cold , and without any sensible errour serve when you shall indeed die ? 9. You must also enquire and be rightly inform'd , whether an Indulgence granted upon a certain Festival will be valid if the day be chang'd , ( as they were all at once by the Gregorian Calendar ) or if you go into another Countrey where the Feast is not kept the same day , as it happens in moveable Feasts , and on S. Bartholomew's-day , and some others . 10. WHEN your Lawyers have told you their opinion of all these Questions , and given it under their hands , it will concern you to inquire yet further , whether a succeeding Pope have not or cannot revoke an Indulgence granted by his Predecessor ; for this is often done in matters of favour and privileges ; and the German Princes complain'd sadly of it , and it was complain'd in the Council of Lions , that Martin the Legate of Pope Innocent the VIII . revok'd and dissipated all former Grants : and it is an old Rule , Papa nunquam sibi lig at manus , The Pope never binds his own hands . But here some caution would do well . 11. IT is worthy inquiry , whether in the year of Jubilee all other Indulgences be suspended ; for though some think they are not , yet Navar and Emanuel Sà affirm that they are ; and if they chance to say true , ( for no man knows whether they do or no ) you may be at a loss that way . And when all this is done , yet 12. YOUR Indulgences will be of no avail to you in reserved cases , which are very many . A great many more very fine scruples might be mov'd , and are so ; and therefore when you have gotten all the security you can by these , you are not safe at all . But therefore be sure still to get Masses to be said . So that now the great Objection is answered ; you need not fear that saying Masses will ever be made unnecessary by the multitude of Indulgences : The Priest must still be imployed and entertained in subsidium , since there are so many ways of making the Indulgence good for nothing : And as for the fear of emptying Purgatory by the free and liberal use of the Keys , it is very needless ; because the Pope cannot evacuate * Purgatory , or give so many Indulgences as to take out all souls from thence : And therefore if the Popes , and the Bishops , and the Legates , have been already too free , it may be there is so much in arrear , that the Treasure of the Church is spent , or the Church is in debt for souls ; or else , though the Treasure be inexhaustible , yet so much of her Treasure ought not to be made use of , and therefore it may be that your souls shall be polt-pon'd , and must stay and take its turn God knows when . And therefore we cannot but commend the prudence of Cardinal Albernotius , who by his last Will took order for fifty thousand Masses to be said for his soul ; for he was a wise man , and lov'd to make all as sure as he could . SECT . V. Ensie to conclude that all is an Art to get money , and deceive mens souls , to tempt a man to negloct himself when he hopes to be relieved by many others . How good Life is undermined by their Doctrines relating to Indulgences in 3 or 4 remarkable instances . Their Doctrine dangerous in all the parts of Repontance . Contrition , Confession , Satisfactions and Penances , all spoiled as they teach them . The 〈◊〉 scandal of the Tax of the Apostolical chamber , where a Licence is given to many sins , and for such 〈◊〉 summ an Absolution from the greatest . BUT then to apply this to the Consciences of the poor people of the Roman Communion . Here is a great deal of Treasure of the Church pretended , and a great many favours granted , and much ease promised , and the wealth of the Church boasted of , and the peoples mony gotten ; and that this may be a perpetual spring , it is clear amongst their own Writers , that you are not sure of any good by all that is past , but you must get more security , or this may be nothing . But how easie were it for you now to conclude , that all this is but a meer cozenage , an art to get mony ? but that 's but the least of the evil , it is a certain way to deceive souls . For since there are so many thousands that trust to these things , and yet in the confession of your own Writers there are so many sallibilities in the whole , and in every part , why will you suffer your selves so weakly and vainly to be cozen'd out of your souls with promises that signifie nothing , and words without vertue , and treasures that make no man rich , and Indulgences that give confidence to sin , but no ease to the pains which follow ? BESIDES all this , it is very considerable , that this whole affair is a state of temptation ; for they that have so many ways to escape , will not be so careful of the main stake , as the interest of it requires . He that hopes to be reliev'd by many others , will be tempted to neglect himself : There is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , an Unum necessarium , even that we work out our own salvation with fear and trembling . A little wisdom , and an easie observation were enough to make allmen that love themselves , wisely to abstain from such diet which does not nourish , but fills the stomach with wind and imagination . But to return to the main inquiry : WE desire that it be considered , how dangerously good life is undermined , by the Propositions collaterally taught by their Great Doctors , in this matter of Indulgences ; besides the main and direct danger and deception . 1. Venial sins preceeding or following the work enjoyned for getting Indulgences , hinder not their fruit : but if they intervene in the time of doing them , than they hinder . By this Proposition there is infinite uncertainty concerning the value of any Indulgence : for if venial sins be daily incursions , who can say that he is one day clean from them ? And if he be not , he hath paid his price for that which profits not , and he is made to relie upon that which will not support him . But though this being taught , doth evacuate the Indulgence , yet it is not taught to prevent the sin ; for before and after , if you commit venial sins , there is no great matter in it : The inconvenience is not great , and the remedy is easie ; you are told of your security as to this point before-hand . 2. POPE Adrian taught a worse matter . He that will obtain indulgence for another , if he does perform the work enjoyned , though himself be in deadly sin , yet for the other he prevails : as if a man could do more for another than he can do for himself ; or as if God would regard the prayers of a vile and a wicked person when he intercedes for another , and at the same time , if he prays for himself , his prayer is an abomination . God first is intreated for our selves , and when we are more excellent persons , admits us to intercede , and we shall prevail for others ; but that a wicked person who is under actual guilt , and oblig'd himself to suffer all punishment , can ease and take off the punishment due to others by any externally good work done ungratiously , is a piece of new Divinity without colour of reason or religion . Others in this are something less scandalous ; and affirm , that though it be not necessary that when the Indulgence is granted , the man should be in the state of grace , yet it is necessary that at some time or other he should be ; at any time ( it seems ) it will serve . For thus they turn Divinity and the care of souls into Mathematicks and Clock-work , and dispute minutes and periods with God , and are careful to tell their people how much liberty they may take , and how far they may venture , lest they should lose any thing of their sins pleasure , which they can possibly enjoy , and yet have hopes of being sav'd at last . 3. BUT there is worse yet . If a man willingly commits a sin in hope and expectation of a Jubilee , and of the Indulgences afterwards to be granted , he does not lose the Indulgence , but shall receive it : which is expresly affirm'd by Navar * and Antonius Cordubensis ‖ , and Bellarmine * , though he asks the question , denies it not . By which it is evident that the Roman Doctrines and Divinity teach contrary to God's way ; who is most of all angry with them that turn his grace into wantonness , and sin , that grace may abound . 4. IF any man by reason of poverty , cannot give the prescrib'd Alms , he cannot receive the Indulgence . Now since it is sufficiently known , that in all or most of the Indulgences a clause is sure to be included , that something be offered to the Church , to the Altar , to a Religious House , &c. The consequent of this will be soon seen , that Indulgences are made for the rich , and the Treasures of the Church are to be dispensed to them that have Treasures of their own , for Habenti dabitur . But then God help the poor ; for them Purgatory is prepar'd , and they must burn : For the rich it is pretended , but the smell of fire will not pass upon them . FROM these premises we suppose it but too evident , that the Roman Doctors prevaricate in the whole Doctrine of Repentance , which indeed in Christ Jesus is the whole Oeconomy of Justification and Salvation ; it is the hopes and staff of all the world , the remedy of all evils past , present , and to come . And if our physick be poison'd , if our staff be broken , if our hopes make us asham'd , how shall we appear before Christ at his coming ? But we say , that in all the parts of it their Doctrine is insinitely dangerous . 1. Contrition is sufficient if it be but one little act , and that in the very Article of Death ; and before that time it is not necessary by the Law of God , nay it is indeed sufficient ; but it is also insufficient , for without Confession in act or desire it suffices not . And though it be thus insufficiently sufficient , yet it is not necessary : For Attrition is also sufficient , if a Priest can be had , and then any little grief proceeding out of the fear of Hell will do it , if the Priest do but absolve . 2. Confession might be made of excellent use , and is so among the pious Children of the Church of England ; but by the Doctrines and Practices in the Church of Rome it is made , not the remedy of sins by proper energy , but the excuse , the alleviation , the considence , the ritual , external and sacramental remedy , and serves instead of the labours of a holy and a regular life ; and yet is so intangled with innumerable and inextricable cases of conscience , orders , humane prescripts , and great and little artifices , that scruples are more increased than sins are lessened . 3. FOR Satisfactions and Penances , which , if they were rightly order'd , and made instrumental to kill the desires of sin , or to punish the Criminal , or were properly the fruits of repentance , that is , parts of a holy life , good works done in charity , and the habitual permanent grace of God , were so prevailing , as they do the work of God ; yet when they are taken away , not only by the declension of primitive Discipline , but by new Doctrines and Indulgences , regular and offer'd Commutations for money , and superstitious practices , which are sins themselves , and increase the numbers and weights of the account , there is a great way made for the destruction of souls , and the discountenancing the necessity of holy life ; but nothing for the advantage of holiness , or the becoming like to God. AND now at last for a Cover to this Dish , we have thought fit to mind the World , and to give caution to all that mean to live godly in Christ Jesus , to what an insinite scandal and impiety this affair hath risen in the Church of Rome , we mean in the instance of their Taxa Camerae , seu Cancellariae Apostolicae , the Tax of the Apostolical Chamber or Chancery ; a book publickly printed , and expos'd to common sale ; of which their own Espencaeus gives this account , That it is a book in which a man may learn more wickedness , than in all the Summaries of vices published in the World : And yet to them that will pay for it , there is to many given a Licence , to all an Absolution for the greatest and most horrid sins . There is a price set down for his Absolution that hath kill'd his Father or his Mother , Brother , Sister , or Wife , or that hath lien with his Sister or his Mother . We desire all good Christians to excuse us for naming such horrid things ; Nomina sunt ipso penè timenda sono . But the Licences are printed at Paris in the year 1500. by Tossan Denis . Pope Innocent the VIII . either was Author or Inlarger of these Rules of this Chancery-tax , and there are Glosses upon them , in which the Scholiast himself who made them , affirms , that he must for that time conceal some things to avoid scandal . But how far this impiety proceeded , and how little regard there is in it to piety , or the good of souls , is visible by that which Augustinus de Ancona teaches , [ That the Pope ought not to give Indulgences to them who have a desire of giving money , but cannot as to them who actually give . And whereas it may be objected , that then poor mens souls are in a worse condition than the rich ; he answers , That as to the remission of the punishment acquir'd by the Indulgence , in such a case it is not inconvenient that the rich should be in a better condition than the poor . ] For in that manner do they imitate God , who is no respecter of persons . SECT . VI. Other Instances of dangerous Doctrines : as , That one man may satisfie for another . That a habit of sin , is not a sin distinct from those actions by which it was contracted . Mischief of this doctrine shewed . The distinction of Mortal and venial sins . In what senso to be understood and admitted . With them , one whole sort of sins is venial in its own nature , and a whole heap of them cannot make a mortal sin , nor put us out of God's favour . But when the Casuists differ so much in determining whether this or that be a venial or mortal sin ; if the Confessor says it is venial , and it proves to be a mortal one , a man's soul is betrayed . THESE Observations we conceive to be sufficient to deter every well meaning person from running into , or abiding in such temptations . Every false Proposition that leads to impiety , is a stock and fountain of temptations ; and these which we have reckon'd in the matter of Repentance , having influence upon the whole life , are yet much greater , by corrupting the whole mass of Wisdom and Spiritual Propositions . THERE are indeed many others . We shall name some of them , but shall not need much to insist on them . Such as are , 1. THAT one Man may satisfie for another * . It is the general Doctrine of their Church : The Divines and Lawyers consent in it , and publickly own it : The effect of which is this , that some are made rich by it , and some are careless ; But qui non solvit in aere , luat in corpore , is a Canonical rule ; and though it was spoken in the matter of publick penances , and so relates to the exterior Court , yet it is also practis'd and avowed in satisfactions or penances relating to the inward Court of Conscience , and penance Sacramental ; and the rich man is made negligent in his duty , and is whip'd upon another man's back , and his purse only is the Penitent ; and which is worst of all , here is a pretence of doing that , which is too near blasphemy but to say . For by this Doctrine , it is not to be said of Christ alone , that he was wounded for our transgressions , that he only satisfied for our sins ; for in the Church of Rome it is done frequently , and pretended daily , that by another man's stripes we are healed . 2. THEY teach , That a habit of sin , is not a sin , distinct from those former actions by which the habit was contracted . The secret intention of which Proposition , and the malignity of it , consists in this , that it is not necessary for a man to repent speedily ; and a man is not bound by repentance to interrupt the procedure of his impiety , or to repent of his habit , but of the single acts that went before it . For as for those that come after , they are excus'd , if they be produc'd by a strong habit ; and the greater the habit the less is the sin : But then as the repentance need not for that reason , be hasty and presently ; so because it is only to be of single acts , the repentance it self need not be habitual , but it may be done in an instant ; whereas to mortifie a habit of sin ( which is the true and proper repentance ) there is requir'd a longer time , and a procedure in the methods of a holy life . By this , and such like Propositions , and careless Sentences , they have brought it to that pass , that they reckon a single act of Contrition , at any time to be sufficient to take away the wickedness of a long life . Now that this is the avowed Doctrine of the Roman Guides of souls , will sufficiently appear in the Writings of their chiefest , of which no learned man can be ignorant . The thing was of late openly and professedly disputed against us , and will not be denied . And that this Doctrine is infinitely destructive of the necessity of a good life , cannot be doubted of , when themselves do own the proper consequents of it , even the unnecessariness of present repentance , or before the danger of death ; of which we have already given accounts . But the reason why we remark it here , is that which we now mentioned , because that by the Doctrine of vitious habits , having in them no malignity or sin but what is in the single preceding acts , there is an excuse made for millions of sins : For if by an evil habit the sinner is not made worse , and more hated by God , and his sinful acts made not only more , but more criminal ; it will follow , that the sins are very much lessened : For they being not so voluntary in their exercise and distinct emanation , are not in present so malicious ; and therefore he that hath gotten a habit of drunkenness or swearing , sins less in every act of drunkenness , or profane oath , than hethat acts them seldom , because by his habit he is more inclin'd , and his sins are almost natural , and less considered , less chosen , and not disputed against ; but pass by inadvertency , and an untroubled consent , easily and promptly , and almost naturally from that principle : So that by this means , and in such cases when things are come to this pass , they have gotten an imperfect warrant to sin a great deal , and a great while , without any new great inconvenience : Which evil state of things ought to be infinitely avoided by all Christians that would be sav'd by all means ; and therefore all such Teachers , and all such Doctrines are carefully to be declin'd , who give so much easiness , not only to the remedies , but to the sins themselves . But of this , we hope it may be sufficient to have given this short warning . 3. THE distinction of Mortal and Venial sins , as it is taught in the Church of Rome , is a great cause of wickedness , and careless conversation . For although we do with all the antient Doctors admit of the distinction of sins Mortal and Venial ; yet we also teach , That in their own nature , and in the rigor of the Divine Justice , every sin is damnable , and deserves God's anger , and that in the unregenerate they are so accounted , and that in Hell the damned suffer for small and great in a common mass of torment ; yet by the Divine mercy and compassion , the smaller sins which come by surprize , or by invincible ignorance , or inadvertency , or unavoidable infirmity , shall not be imputed to those who love God , and delight not in the smallest sin , but use caution and prayers , watchfulness and remedies against them . But if any man delights in small sins , and heaps them into numbers , and by deliberation or licentiousness they grow numerous , or are in any sense chosen , or taken in by contempt of the Divine Law , they do put us from the favour of God , and will pass into severe accounts . And though sins are greater or less by comparison to each other , yet the smallest is a burthen too great for us , without the allowances of the Divine mercy . BUT the Church of Rome teaches , that there is a whole kind of sins , which are venial in their own nature ; such , which if they were all together , all in the world conjoyn'd , could not equal one mortal sin * , nor destroy charity , nor put us from the favour of God ; such for which no man can perish , ‖ etiamsi nullum pactum esset de remissione , though God's merciful Covenant of Pardon did not intervene . And whereas Christ said , Of every idle word a man shall speak , he shall give account at the day of judgment ; and , By your words ye shall be justified ; and , By your words ye shall be condemned : Bellarmine expresly affirms , It is not intelligible , how an idle word should in its own nature be worthy of the Eternal wrath of God and Eternal flames . Many other desperate words are spoken by the Roman Doctors in this Question , which we love not to aggravate , because the main thing is acknowledged by them all . BUT now we appeal to the reason and Consciences of all men , Whether this Doctrine of sins Venial in their own nature , be not greatly destructive to a holy life ? When it is plain , that they give rest to mens Consciences for one whole kind of sins ; for such , which because they occur every day , in a very short time ( if they be not interrupted by the grace of Repentance ) will swell to a prodigious heap . But concerning these we are bidden to be quiet ; for we are told , that all the heaps of these in the world cannot put us out of Gods favour . Add to this , that it being in thousands of cases , impossible to tell which are , and which are not Venial in their own nature , and in their appendent circumstances , either the people are cozen'd by this Doctrine into an useless confidence ; and for all this talking in their Schools , they must nevertheless do to Venial sins , as they do to Mortal , that is , mortifie them , fight against them , repent speedily of them , & keep them from running into mischief ; and then all their kind Doctrines in this Article , signifie no comfort or ease , but all danger and difficulty , and useless dispute ; or else , if really they mean , that this easiness of opinion be made use of , then the danger is imminent , and carelessness is introduc'd , and licentiousness in all little things is easily indulg'd ; and mens souls are daily lessen'd without repair , and kept from growing towards Christian perfection , and from destroying the whole body of sin ; and in short , despising little things , they perish by little and little . THIS Doctrine also is worse yet in the handling . For it hath infinite influence to the disparagement of holy life , not only by the uncertain , but as it must frequently happen , by the false determination of innumerable cases of conscience . For it is a great matter both in the doing and the thing done , both in the caution and the repentance , whether such an action be a venial or a mortal sin . If it chance to be mortal , and your Confessor says it is venial , your soul is betrayed . And it is but a chance what they say in most cases ; for they call what they please venial , and they have no certain rule to answer by ; which appears too sadly in their innumerable differences which is amongst all their Casuists in saying what is , and what is not mortal ; and of this there needs no greater proof than the reading the little Summaries made by their most leading guides of Consciences , Navar , Cajetane , Tolet , Emanuel Sà , and others ; where one says such a thing is mortal , and two say it is venial . AND lest any man should say or think , this is no great matter , we desire that it be considered that in venial sins there may be very much phantastick pleasure , and they that retain them do believe so ; for they suppose the pleasure is great enough to outweigh the intolerable pains of Purgatory ; and that it is more eligible to be in Hell a while , than to cross their appetites in such small things . And however it happen in this particular , yet because the Doctors differ so infinitely and irreconcileably , in saying what is , and what is not Venial , whoever shall trust to their Doctrine , saying that such a sin is Venial ; and to their Doctrine , that says it does not exclude from God's favour , may be these two Propositions be damned before he is aware . WE omit to insist upon their express contradicting the words of our Blessed Saviour , who taught his Church expresly , That we must work in the day time ; for the night cometh , and no man worketh : Let this be as true as it can in the matter of Repentance and Mortification , and working out our pardon for mortal sins ; yet it is not true in Venial sins , if we may believe their great * S. Thomas , whom also Bellarmine ‖ follows in it ; for he affirms , That by the acts of Love and Patience in Purgatory , Venial sins are remitted ; and that the acceptation of those 〈◊〉 , proceeding out of Charity , is a virtual kind of penance . But in this particular we follow not S. Thomas nor Bellarmine in the Church of England and Ireland ; for we believe in Jesus Christ , and follow him : If men give themselves liberty as long as they are alive to commit one whole kind of sins , and hope to work it out after death by acts of Charity and Repentance , which they would not do in their life time ; either they must take a course to sentence the words of Christ as savouring of Heresie , or else they will find themselves to have been at first deceived in their Proposition , and at last in their expectation . Their faith hath fail'd them here , and hereafter they will be asham'd of their hope . SECT . VII . Their new doctrine of Probability . That a probable opinion may be safely followed in practice . The opinion of one grave Doctor , or the example of good men makes a matter probable , and either side may be chosen . Though this is not an Article of their Faith , yet it is a Rule of manners . Sad instances of wickedness this gives warranty to . A strange Instance of obtaining an Indulgence ( granted upon condition of Visiting an Altar of a distant Church ) by those that cannot go to it ( as Nuns and Prisoners ) if they address to an Altar of their own with that Intention ; secured by the practice of the Church . THERE is a Proposition , which indeed is new , but is now the general Doctrine of the Leading Men in the Church of Rome ; and it is the foundation on which their Doctors of Conscience relie , in their decision of all cases in which there is a doubt or question made by themselves ; and that is , That if an Opinion or Speculation be probable , it may in practice be safely followed : And if it be enquir'd , What is sufficient to make an opinion probable ; the Answer is easie , Sufficit opinio alicujus gravis Doctoris aut Bonorum exemplum : The opinion of any one grave Doctor is sufficient to make a matter probable ; nay , the example and practice of good men , that is , men who are so reputed ; if they have done it , you may do so too , and be safe . This is the great Rule of their Cases of Conscience . AND now we ought not to be press'd with any ones saying , that such an opinion is but the private opinion of one or more of their Doctors . For although in matters of Faith this be not sufficient , to impute a Doctrine to a whole Church , which is but the private opinion of one or more ; yet because we are now speaking of the infinite danger of souls in that communion , and the horrid Propositions by which their Disciples are conducted , to the disparagement of good life , it is sufficient to allege the publick and allowed sayings of their Doctors ; because these sayings are their Rule of living : and because the particular Rules of Conscience , use not to be decreed in Councils , we must derive them from the places where they grow , and where they are to be found . BUT besides , you will say , That this is but the private opinion of some Doctors ; and what then ? Therefore it is not to be called the Doctrine of the Roman Church . True , we do not say , It is an Article of their Faith , but , a rule of manners : This is not indeed in any publick Decree ; but we say , that although it be not , yet neither is the contrary . And if it be but a private opinion , yet , is it safe to follow it , or is it not safe ? For that 's the question , and therein is the danger . If it be safe , then this is their rule , A private opinion of any one grave Doctor may be safely followed in the questions of Vertue and Vice. But if it be not safe to follow it , and that this does not make an opinion probable , or the practice safe ; Who says so ? Does the Church ? No ; Does Dr. Cajus ? or Dr. Sempronius say so ? Yes : But these are not safe to follow ; for they are but private Doctors : Or if it be safe to follow them , though they be no more , and the opinion no more but probable , then I may take the other side , and choose which I will , and do what I list in most cases , and yet be safe by the Doctrine of the Roman Casuists ; which is the great line , and general measure of most mens lives ; and that is it which we complain of . And we have reason ; for they suffer their Casuists to determine all cases , severely and gently , strictly and loosly ; that so they may entertain all spirits , and please all dispositions , and govern them by their own inclinations , and as they list to be governed ; by what may please them , not by that which profits them ; that none may go away scandaliz'd or 〈◊〉 from their penitential chairs . BUT upon this account , it is a sad reckoning which can be made concerning souls in the Church of Rome . Suppose one great Doctor amongst them ( as many of them do ) shall say , it is lawful to kill a King whom the Pope declares Heretick . By the Doctrine of probability here is his warranty . And though the Church do not declare that Doctrine ; that is , the Church doth not make it certain in Speculation , yet it may be safely done in practice : Here is enough to give peace of conscience to him that does it . Nay , if the contrary be more safe , yet if the other be but probable by reason or Authority , you may do the less safe , and refuse what is more . For that also is the opinion of some grave Doctors * : If one Doctor says , it is safe to swear a thing as of our knowledge , which we do not know , but believe it is so , it is therefore probable that it is lawful to swear it , because a grave Doctor says it , and then it is safe enough to do so . AND upon this account , who could find fault with Pope Constantine the IV. who when he was accus'd in the Lateran Council for holding the See Apostolick when he was not in Orders , justified himself by the example of Sergius Bishop of Ravenna , and Stephen Bishop of Naples . Here was exemplum bonorum , honest men had done so before him , and therefore he was innocent . When it is observ'd by Cardinal Campegius , and Albertus Pighius did teach , That a Priest lives more holily and chastely that keeps a Concubine , than he that hath a married Wife ; and then shall find in the Pope's Law , That a Priest is not to be removed for fornication ; who will not , or may not practically conclude , that since by the Law of God , marriage is holy , and yet to some men , fornication is more lawful , and does not make a Priest irregular , that therefore to keep a Concubine is very lawful ; especially since abstracting from the consideration of a man's being in Orders or not , fornication it self is probably no sin at all ? For so says Durandus , Simple fornication of it self is not a deadly sin according to the Natural Law , and excluding all positive Law ; and Martinus de Magistris says , to believe simple fornication to be no deadly sin , is not heretical , because the testimonies of Scripture are not express . These are grave Doctors , and therefore the opinion is probable , and the practice safe . * When the good people of the Church of Rome hear it read , That P. Clement 8. in the Index of Prohibited books says , That the Bible publish'd in vulgar Tongues , ought not to be read and retain'd , no not so much as a compend of the History of the Bible ; and Bellarmine says , that it is not necessary to salvation , to believe that there are any Scriptures at all written ; and that Cardinal Hosius saith , Perhaps it had been better for the Church , if no Scriptures had been written : They cannot but say , that this Doctrine is probable , and think themselves safe , when they walk without the light of Gods Word , and rely wholly upon the Pope , or their Priest , in what he is pleas'd to tell them ; and that they are no way oblig'd to keep that Commandment of Christ , Search the Scriptures . * Cardinal Tolet says , That if a Nobleman be set upon , and may escape by going away , he is not tied to it , but may kill him that intends to strike him with a stick : That if a man be in a great passion , and so transported , that he considers not what be says , if in that case he does blaspheme , he does not always sin : That if a man be beastly drunk , and then commit fornication , that fornication is no sin : That if a man desires carnal pollution , that he may be eas'd of his carnal temptations , or for his health , it were no sin : That it is lawful for a man to expose his bastards to the Hospital to conceal his own shame . He says it out of Soto , and he from Thomas Aquinas : That if the times be hard , or the Judge unequal , a man that cannot sell his wine at a due price , may lawfully make his Measures less than is appointed ; or mingle water with his wine , and sell it for pure , so he do not lie ; and yet if he does , it is no mortal sin , nor obliges him to restitution . Emanuel Sà * affirms , That if a man lie with his intended wife before Marriage , it is no sin , or a light one ; nay , quinetiam expedit si multum illa differatur , it is good to do so , if the benediction or publication of Marriage be much deferr'd : That Infants in their cradles may be made Priests , is the common opinion of Divines and Canonists , saith Tolet ; and that in their Cradles they can be made Bishops , said the Archdeacon and the Provost ; and though some say the contrary , yet the other is the more true , saith the Cardinal . Vasquez saith , That not only an Image of God , but any creature in the world , reasonable or unreasonable , may without danger be worshipped together with God , as his image : That we ought to adore the Reliques of Saints , though under the form of Worms ; and that it is no sin to worship a Ray of Light in which the Devil is invested , if a man supposes him to be Christ : And in the same manner , if he supposes it to be a piece of a Saint , which is not , he shall not want the merit of his Devotion . And to conclude , Pope Celestine the III. ( as Alphonsus à Castro reports himself to have seen a Decretal of his to that purpose ) affirmed , That if one of the Married Couple fell into Heresie , the Marriage is dissolved , and that the other may marry another ; and the Marriage is nefarious , and they are Irritae Nuptiae , the Espousals are void , if a Catholick and a Heretick marry together , said the Fathers of the Synod in Trullo . And though all of this be not own'd generally , yet if a Roman Catholick marries a Wife that is or shall turn Heretick , he may leave her , and part bed and board , according to the Doctrine taught by the * Canon Law it self , by the Lawyers and Divines , as appears in ‖ Covaruvius , * Matthias Aquarius , and ‖ Bellarmine . THESE Opinions are indeed very strange to us of the Church of England and Ireland , but no strangers in the Church of Rome , and , because they are taught by great Doctors , by Popes themselves , by Cardinals , and the Canon Law respectively , do at least become very probable , and therefore they may be believ'd and practis'd without danger ; according to the Doctrine of Probability . And thus the most desperate things that ever were said by any , though before the Declaration of the Church they cannot become Articles of Faith , yet besides that they are Doctrines publickly allowed , they can also become Rules of practice , and securities to the consciences of their disciples . To this we add , that which is usual in the Church of Rome , the Praxis Ecclesiae , the Practice of the Church . Thus if an Indulgence be granted upon condition to visit such an Altar in a distant Church ; the Nuns that are shut up , and Prisoners that cannot go abroad , if they address themselves to an Altar of their own with that intention , they shall obtain the Indulgence . Id enim confirmat Ecclesiae praxis , says Fabius ; The practice of the Church in this case gives first a probability in speculation , and then a certainty in practice . This instance , though it be of no concern , yet we use it as a particular to shew the Principle upon which they go . But it is practicable in many things of greatest danger and concern . If the question be , Whether it be lawful to worship the Image of the Cross , or of Christ , with Divine worship ? First , there is a Doctrine of S. Thomas for it , and Vasquez , and many others ; therefore it is probable , and therefore is safe in practice ; & sic est Ecclesiae praxis , the Church also practises so , as appears in their own Offices : And S. Thomas makes this use of it ; Illi exhibemus cultum latriae in quo ponimus spem salutis : sed in cruce Christi ponimus spem salutis . Cantat enim Ecclesia , O Crux ave spes unica , Hoc passionis tempore , Auge piis justitiam , Reisque dona veniam . Ergo Crux Christi est adoranda adoratione Latriae . We give Divine worship ( says he ) to that in which we put our hopes of salvation ; but in the Cross we put our hopes of salvation ; for so the Church sings , ( it is the practice of the Church ) Hail O Cross , our only hope in this time of suffering ; increase righteousness to the godly , and give pardon to the guilty : therefore the Cross of Christ is to be ador'd with Divine Adoration . BY this Principle you may embrace any Opinion of their Doctors safely , especially if the practice of the Church do intervene , and you need not trouble your self with any further inquiry : and if an evil custom get amongst men , that very custom shall legitimate the action , if any of their grave Doctors allow it , or Good men use it ; and Christ is not your Rule , but the Examples of them that live with you , or are in your eye and observation , that 's your Rule . We hope we shall not need to say any more in this affair ; the pointing out this rock may be warning enough to them that would not suffer shipwrack , to decline the danger that looks so formidably . SECT . VIII . They teach that Prayers by the opus operatum , the work done , do prevail : It not being essential to Prayer , to think particularly of what he says . Prevailing like charms even when they are not understood . What Attention they require to Prayer . Pope Leo ' s strange grant of remission of all negligences in Prayer . The command of hearing Mass , is not to intend the words , but to be present at the Sacrifice , though their words are not heard . Comparison between Their Prayers and Ours in the Church of England . Their absurd manner of numbering prayers by Beads ; and repetitions of the same words some hundreds of times , not to be distinguish'd from that of the Gentiles which our Saviour reproves . AS these Evil Doctrines have general influence into Evil Life ; so there are some others , which if they be pursued to their proper and natural issues ; that is , if they be believ'd and practis'd , are enemies to the particular and specisick parts of Piety and Religion . Thus the very Prayers of the Faithful are , or may be , spoil'd by Doctrines publickly allowed , and prevailing in the Roman Church . FOR 1. they teach , That prayers themselves ex opere operato , or by the natural work it self , do prevail : For it is not essential to prayer for a man to think particularly of what he says ; it is not necessary to think of the things signisied by the words : So Suarez teaches . Nay , it is not necessary to the essence of Prayer , that he who prays should think de ipsa locutione , of the speaking it self . And indeed it is necessary that they should all teach so , or they cannot tolerably pretend to justifie their prayers in an unknown Tongue . But this is indeed their publick Doctrine : For prayers in the mouth of the man that says them are like the words of a Charmer , they prevail even when they are not understood , says Salmeron . Or as Antoninus , They are like a precious stone , of as much value in the hand of an unskilful man , as of a Jeweller . And therefore Attention to , or Devotion in our prayers , is not necessary : For the understanding of which , saith Cardinal Tolet , when it is said that you must say your prayers or offices attently , reverently and devoutly , you must know that Attention or Advertency to your prayers is manifold : 1. That you attend to the words , so that you speak them not too fast , or to begin the next verse of a Psalm , before he that recites with you hath done the former verse ; and this attention is necessary . But 2. there is an attention which is by understanding the sense , and that is not necessary . For if it were , very extremely few would do their duty , when so very few do at all understand what they say . 3. There is an attention relating to the end of prayer , that is , that he that prays , considers that he is present before God , and speaks to him ; and this indeed is very prositable , but it is not necessary : No , not so much . So that by this Doctrine no attention is necessary , but to attend that the words be all said , and said right . But even this attention is not necessary that it should be actual , but it suffices to be virtual , that is , that he who says his office , intend to do so , and do not change his mind , although he does not attend : And he who does not change his mind , that is , unless observing himself not to attend , he still turn his mind to other things , he attends : meaning , he attends sufficiently , and as much as is necessary ; though indeed speaking naturally and truly , he does not attend . If any man in the Church of England and Ireland , had published such Doctrine as this , he should quickly and deservedly have felt the severity of the Ecclesiastical Rod ; but in Rome it goes for good Catholick Doctrine . NOW although upon this account Devotion is ( it may be ) good ; and it is good to attend to the words of our prayer , and the sense of them ; yet that it is not necessary , is evidently consequent to this . But it is also expresly affirm'd by the same hand ; There ought to be devotion , that our mind be inflam'd with the love of God , though if this be wanting , without contempt , it is no deadly sin . Ecclesiae satisfit per opus externum , nec aliud jubet , saith Reginaldus : If ye do the outward work , the Church is satisfied , neither does she command any thing else . Good Doctrine this ! And it is an excellent Church , that commands nothing to him that prays , but to say so many words . WELL ! but after all this , if Devotion be necessary or not , if it be present or not , if the mind wander , or wander not , if you mind what you pray , or mind it not , there is an easie cure for all this : For Pope Leo granted remission of all negligences in their saying their offices and prayers to them , who after they have done , shall say this prayer , [ To the Holy and Vndivided Trinity , To the Humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ crucified ; To the fruitfulness of the most Blessed , and most Glorious Virgin Mary , and to the Vniversity of all Saints , be Eternal praise , honour , vertue and glory , from every Creature ; and to us remission of sins for ever and ever , Amen . Blessed are the bowels of the Virgin Mary , which bore the Son of the Eternal God ; and blessed are the paps which suckled Christ our Lord : Pater noster . Ave Maria. ] This prayer to this purpose , is set down by Navar , and Cardinal Tolet. THIS is the summ of the Doctrine , concerning the manner of saying the Divine offices in the Church of Rome , in which greater care is taken to obey the Precept of the Church , than the Commandments of God : [ For the Precept of hearing Mass is not , to intend the words , but to be present at the Sacrifice , though the words be not so much as heard , and they that think the contrary , think so without any probable reason ] saith Tolet. It seems there was not so much as the Authority of one grave Doctor to the contrary ; for if there had , the contrary opinion might have been probable ; but all agree upon this Doctrine , all that are considerable . So that between the Church of England , and the Church of Rome , the difference in this Article is plainly this , They pray with their lips , we with the heart ; we pray with the understanding , they with the voice ; we pray , and they say prayers . We suppose that we do not please God , if our hearts be absent ; they say , it is enough if their bodies be present at their greatest solemnity of prayer , though they hear nothing that is spoken , and understand as little . And which of these be the better way of serving God , may soon be determin'd , if we remember the complaint which God made of the Jews , This people draweth near me with their lips , but their hearts are far from me . But we know , that we are commanded to ask in faith , which is seated in the understanding , and requires the concurrence of the will , and holy desires ; which cannot be at all , but in the same degree in which we have a knowledge of what we ask . The effectual , fervent prayer of a righteous man prevails : But what our prayers want of this , they must needs want of blessing and prosperity . And if we lose the benefit of our prayers , we lose that great instrumentality by which Christians are receptive of pardon , and strengthened in faith , and confirm'd in hope , and increase in charity , and are protected by Providence , and are comforted in their sorrows , and derive help from God : Ye ask , and have not , because ye ask amiss ; that is Saint James his rule . They that pray not as they ought , shall never obtain what they fain would . HITHER is to be 〈◊〉 , their fond manner of prayer , consisting in vain repetitions of Names , and little forms of words , The Psalter of our Lady , is an hundred and fifty Ave Maries , and at the end of every tenth , they drop in the Lord's Prayer , and this with the Creed at the end of the fifty , makes a perfect Rosary . This indeed is the main entertainment of the peoples Devotion ; for which cause Mantuan called their Religion , — Relligionem Quae filo insertis numerat sua murmura baccis . A Religion that numbers their murmurs by berries fil'd upon a string : This makes up so great a part of their Religion , that it may well be taken for one half of its desinition . But because so few do understand what they say , but all repeat , and stick to their numbers , it is evident they think to be heard for that . For that or nothing ; for besides that , they neither do nor understand : And all that we shall now say to it is , That our Blessed Saviour reprov'd this way of Devotion , in the Practice and Doctrines of the Heathens : Very like to which is that which they call the Psalter of Jesus ; in which are fifteen short Ejaculations , as [ Have mercy on me * , Strengthen me * , Help me * , Comfort me , &c. ] and with every one of these , the name of Jesus is to be said thirty times , that is in all , four hundred and fifty times . Now we are ignorant how to distinguish this from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or vain repetition of the Gentiles ; for they did just so , and Christ said ; they did not do well ; and that is all that we pretend to know of it . They thought to be heard the rather for so doing ; and if the people of the Roman Church do not think so , there is no reason why they should do so . But without any further arguing about the business , they are not asham'd to own it . For the Author of the Preface to the Jesus Psalter , printed by Fouler at Antwerp , promises to the repetition of that sweet Name , Great aid against temptations , and a wonderful increase of grace . SECT . IX . They pray to dead Men and Women , whom they suppose beatified , and invoke them , as helpers , preservers , Guardians , Deliverers , contrary to the Scriptures . An answer to that pretence , that they only desire the Saints to pray for them , which by many instances is showed to be false . What their Divines teach concerning the Blessed Virgin , to engage all to have recourse to her . An account of the publick prayers to her . The Council of Constance invoked her , as other Councils did use to invocate the Holy Ghost . Of the Lady's Psalter by Bonaventure . How derogatory to Christ , to rely , in praying to God , upon the Merits , Satisfaction and Intercession of Saints . St. Austin's excellent saying , Tutius & jucundius , &c. How their devotion is prostituted to new upstart Saints which are of late Canonization . BUT this mischief is gone further yet : For as Cajetan affirms , Prayers ought to be well done ; Saltem non malè ; at least not ill . But besides , that what we have now remark'd is so , not well , that it is very ill ; that which follows is directly bad , and most intolerable . For the Church of Rome in her publick and allowed offices , prays to dead men and women , who are , or whom they suppose to be beatified ; and these they invocate as Preservers , Helpers , Guardians , Deliverers in their necessity ; and they expresly call them , their Refuge , their Guard and Defence , their Life , and Health : Which is so formidable a Devotion , that we for them , and for our selves too , if we should imitate them , are to dread the words of Scripture , Cursed is the man that trusteth in man. We are commanded to call upon God in the time of trouble ; and it is promised , that he will deliver us , and we shall glorifie him . We find no such command to call upon Saints ; neither do we know who are Saints , excepting a very few ; and in what present state they are , we cannot know , nor how our prayers can come to their knowledge ; and yet if we did know all this , it cannot be endured at all , that Christians , who are commanded to call upon God , and upon none else , and to make all our prayers through Jesus Christ , and never so much as warranted to make our prayers through Saints departed , should yet choose Saints for their particular Patrons , or at all relie upon them , and make prayers 〈◊〉 them in such forms of words , which are only sit to be spoken to God ; prayers which have no testimony , command , or promise in the Word of God , and therefore , which cannot be made in faith , or prudent hope . NEITHER will it be enough to say , that they only desire the Saints to pray for them ; for though that be of it self a matter indifferent , if we were sure they do hear us when we pray , and that we should not by that means , secretly destroy our considence in God , or lessen the honour of Christ our Advocate ; of which because we cannot be sure , but much rather the contrary , it is not a matter indifferent : Yet besides this , in the publick Offices of the Church of Rome , there are prayers to Saints made with confidence in them , with derogation to God's glory and prerogative , with diminution to the honour of Christ , with words in sound , and in all appearance the same with the highest that are usually express'd in our prayers to God , and his Christ : And this is it we insist upon , and reprove , as being a direct destruction of our sole confidence in God , and too near to blasphemy , to be endured in the Devotions of Christians . We make our words good by these Allegations ; 1. WE shall not need here to describe out of their didactical writings , what kind of prayers , and what causes of confidence they teach towards the Blessed Virgin Mary , and all Saints : Only we shall recite a few words of Antoninus their great Divine , and 〈◊〉 of Florence , It is necessary that they to whom she converts her eyes , being an Advocate for them , shall be justified and saved . And whereas it may be objected out of John , that the Apostle says , If any man sin , we have an Advocate with the Father , Jesus Christ the Righteous . ( He answers ) That Christ is not our Advocate alone , but a Judge : and since the just is scarce secure , how shall a sinner go to him , as to an Advocate ? Therefore God hath provided us of an Advocatess , who is gentle , and sweet , in whom nothing that is sharp is to be found . And to those words of St. Paul , Come boldly to the Throne of Grace : ( He says ) That Mary is the Throne of Christ , in whom he rested , to her therefore let us come with boldness , that we may obtain mercy , and find grace in time of need ; and adds , that Mary is called full of grace , because she is the means and cause of Grace , by transfusing grace to mankind ; ] and many other such dangerous Propositions : Of which who please to be further satisfied ( if he can endure the horror of reading blasphemous sayings ) he may sind too great abundance in the Mariale of Bernardine , which is confirm'd by publick Authority , Jacobus Perez de Valentia * , and in Ferdinand Quirinus de Salazar * , who affirms , That the Virgin Mary by offering up Christ to God the Father , was worthy to have ( after a certain manner ) that the whole salvation and redemption of mankind should be ascrib'd to her ; and that this was common to Christ and the blessed Virgin his Mother , that she did offer and give the price of our Redemption truly and properly ; and that she is deservedly call'd the Redeemer , the Repairer , the Mediator , the Author and cause of our salvation . Many more horrid blasphemies are in his notes upon that Chapter ; & in his Defence of the Immaculate Conception , published with the Privilege of Philip the III. of Spain , and by the Authority of his Order . But we insist not upon their Doctrines deliver'd by their great Writers , though every wise man knows that the Doctrines of their Church are delivered in large and indefinite terms , and descend not to minute senses , but are left to be explicated by their Writers , and are so practis'd and understood by the people ; and at the worst , the former Doctrine of Probability will make it safe enough : But we shall produce the publick practice of their Church . AND 〈◊〉 , it cannot be suppos'd , that they intend nothing but to desire their prayers ; for they rely also on their merits , and hope to get their desires , and to prevail by them also : For so it is 〈◊〉 by the Roman Catechism , * made by the Decree of the Council of Trent , and published by the Popes command ; [ The Saints are therefore to be invocated , because they continually make prayers for the health of mankind , and God gives us many benefits by their 〈◊〉 and favour : And it is lawful to have recourse to the favour or grace of the Saints , and to use their help ; for they undertake the Patronage of us . ] And the Council of Trent does not only say it is good to fly to their prayers , but to their aid , and to their help ; and that is indeed the principal , and the very meaning of the other . We pray that the Saints should intercede for us , id est , ut merit a eorum nobis suffr agentur ; that is , that their Merits should help us , said the Master of the Sentences . Atque id confirmat Ecclesiae praxis , to use their own so frequent expression in many cases . Continet hoc Templum Sanctorum corpora pura , A quibus auxilium suppleri , poscere cura . This Distich is in the Church of S. Laurence in Rome . This Church contains the pure bodies of Saints , from whom take care to require that help be supplied to you . But the practice of the Church tells their secret meaning best . For besides what the Common people are taught to do , as to pray to S. Gall for the health and fecundity of their Geese , to S. Wendeline for their Sheep , to S. Anthony for their Hogs , to S. Pelagius for their Oxen ; and that several Trades have their peculiar Saints ; and the Physicians are Patroniz'd by Cosmas and Damian , the Painters by S. Luke , the Potters by Goarus , the Huntsmen by Eustachius , the Harlots ( for that also is a Trade at Rome ) by S. Afra and S. Mary Magdalene ; they do also rely upon peculiar Saints for the cure of several diseases ; S. Sebastian and S. Roch have a special privilege to cure the Plague , S. Petronilla the Fever , S. John and S. Bennet the Abbot to cure all Poison , S. Apollonia the Tooch-ach , S. Otilia Sore eyes , S. Apollinaris the French Pox , ( for it seems he hath lately got that imployment , since the discovery of the West Indies ) S. Vincentius hath a special faculty in restoring stollen goods , and S. Liberius ( if he please ) does 〈◊〉 cure the Stone , and S. Felicitas ( if she be heartily call'd upon ) will give the teeming Mother a fine Boy . It were strange if nothing but Intercession by these Saints were intended , that they cannot as well pray for other things as these ; or that they have no Commission to ask of these any thing else , or not so confidently ; and that if they do ask , that S. Otilia shall not as much prevail to help a Fever as a Cataract ; or that if S. Sebastian be called upon to pray for the help of a poor female sinner , who by sad diseases pays the price of her lust , he must go to S. Apollinaris in behalf of his Client . BUT if any of the Roman Doctors say , That they are not tied to defend the Superstitions of the Vulgar , or the abused : They say true , they are not indeed , but rather to reprove them , as we do , and to declare against them ; and the Council of Trent very goodly forbids all Superstitions in this Article , but yet tells us not what are Superstitions , and what not ; and still the world goes on in the practice of the same intolerable follies , and every Nation hath a particular Guardian-Saint , and every City , every Family , and almost every House , and every Devouter person almost chuses his own Patron-Saint , whose Altars they more devoutly frequent , whose Image they more religiously worship , to whose Reliques they more readily go in Pilgrimage , to whose Honour they say more Pater nosters , whose Festival they more solemnly observe ; spoiling their prayers , by their confidences in unknown persons , living in an unknown condition , and diminishing that affiance in God and our Lord Jesus Christ , by importune and frequent addresses to them that cannot help . BUT that these are not the faults of their people only , running wilfully into such follies , but the practice of their Church , and warranted and taught by their Guides , appears by the publick prayers themselves ; such as these , O generous Mary , beauteous above all , obtain pardon for us , apply grace unto us , prepare glory for us . Hail thou Rose , thou Virgin Mary , &c. Grant to us to use true wisdom , and with the elect to enjoy grace , that we may with melody praise thee ; and do thou drive our sins away : O Virgin Mary give us joys . These , and divers others like these , are in the Anthem of our Lady . In the Rosary of our Lady this Hymn is to be said ; Reparatrix & Salvatrix desperantis animae , Irroratrix & Largitrix Spiritualis gratiae , Quod requiro , quod suspiro , mea sana vulnera , Et da menti te poscenti gratiarum munera , Vt sim castus & modestus , &c ..... Corde prudens , ore studens veritatem dicere , Malum nolens , Deum volens pio semper opere . That is , [ Thou Repairer and Saviour of the despairing Soul , the Dew-giver and Bestower of spiritual grace , heal my wounds , and give to the mind that prays to thee , the gifts of grace , that I may be chaste , modest , wise in heart , true in my sayings , hating evil , loving God in holy works : ] and much more to the same purpose . There also the blessed Virgin Mary , after many glorious Appellatives , is prayed to in these words , [ Joyn me to Christ , govern me always , enlighten my heart , defend me always from the snare of the enemy , deliver us from all evil , and from the pains of Hell. SO that it is no wonder that Pope Leo 8 the X. calls her a Goddess , and Turcelin ‖ the Jesuit , Divinae majestatis , potestatisque sociam . Huic olim 〈◊〉 , mortaliúmque principatum detulit . Ad hujus arbitrium ( quoad hominum tutela postulat ) terras , maria , coelum , naturámque moderatur . Hàc annuente , & per hanc , divinos the sauros , & 〈◊〉 dona largitur ; the companion or partner of the Divine Majesty and Power . To her he long since gave the principality of all heavenly and mortal things . At her will ( so far as the Guardianship of Men requires ) he rules the Earth and Seas , Heaven and Nature : And she consenting , he gives Divine treasures and Celestial gifts . Nay , in the Mass-books penned 1538. and us'd in the Polonian Churches , they call the Blessed Virgin Mary , Viam ad vitam , totius mundi gubernatricem , peccatorum cum Deo 〈◊〉 , fontem remissionis peccatorum , lumen luminum ; the way to life , the Governess of all the world , the Reconciler of sinners with God , the Fountain of Remission of sins , Light of Light , and at last salute her with an Ave universae Trinitatis Mater , Hail thou Mother of the whole Trinity . WE do not pick out these only , as the most singular , or the worst forms ; for such as these are very numerous , as is to be seen in their Breviaries , Missals , Hours of our Lady , Rosary of our Lady , the Latany of our Lady , called Litania Mariae , the Speculum Rosariorum , the Hymns of Saints , Portuises and Manuals . These only are the instances which amongst many others presently occur . Two things only we shall add , instead of many more that might be represented . THE first is , That in a Hymn which they ( from what reason or Etymology we know not , neither are we 〈◊〉 ) call a Sequence , the Council of Constance did invocate the Blessed Virgin , in the same manner as Councils did use to invocate the Holy Ghost ; They call her the Mother of Grace , the remedy to the miserable , the fountain of mercy , and the light of the Church ; Attributes proper to God and incommunicable ; they sing her praises , and pray to her for graces , they sing to her with the heart , they call themselves her sons , they declare her to be their health and comfort in all doubts , and call on her for light from Heaven , and trust in her for the destruction of Heresies , and the repression of Schisms , and for the lasting Confederations of peace . THE other thing we tell of , is , That there is a Psalter of our Lady , of great and antient account in the Church of Rome ; it hath been several times printed at Venice , at Paris , at Leipsich ; and the title is , [ The Psalter of the Blessed Virgin , compil'd by the Seraphical Doctor S. Bonaventure , Bishop of Alba , and Presbyter Cardinal of the Holy Church of Rome . ] But of the Book it self , the account is soon made ; for it is nothing but the Psalms of David , an hundred and fifty in number are set down ; alter'd indeed , to make as much of it as could be sense so reduc'd ; In which the name of Lord is left out , and that of Lady put in ; so that whatever David said of God and Christ , the same prayers , and the same praises they say of the Blessed Virgin Mary ; and whether all that can be said without intolerable blasphemy , we suppose needs not much disputation . THE same things , but in a less proportion and frequency , they say to other Saints . O Maria Magdalena Audi vot a laude plena , Apud Christum chorum istum Clementer concilia . Vt fons summae pietatis Quite lavit à peccatis , Servos suos , atque tuos Mundet dat â veniâ . O Mary Magdalen , hear our prayers , which are full of praises , and most clemently reconcile this company unto Christ : That the Fountain of Supreme Piety , who cleansed thee from thy sins , giving pardon , may cleanse us who are his servants and thine . These things are too bad already , we shall not aggravate them by any further Commentary ; but apply the premises . NOw therefore we desire it may be considered , That there are as the effects of Christs death for us , three great products , which are the rule and measure of our prayers , and our confidence ; 1. Christs merits . 2. His Satisfaction . 3. His Intercession . By these three we come boldly to the Throne of Grace , and pray to God through Jesus Christ. But if we pray to God through the Saints too , and rely upon their 1. Merit . 2. Satisfaction . 3. And Intercession ; Is it not plain that we make them equal with Christ , in kind , though not in degree ? For it is 〈◊〉 avowed and practis'd in the Church of Rome , to rely upon the Saints Intercession ; and this intercession to be made valid by the Merits of the Saints : [ We pray thee , O S. Jude the Apostle , that by thy Merits thou wouldst draw me from the custom of my sins , and snatch me from the power of the Devil , and advance me to the invisible powers ; ] and they say as much to others . And for their Satisfactions , the treasure of the Church for Indulgences is made up with them , and the satisactions of Christ : So that there is nothing remaining of the honour due to Christ our Redeemer , and our Considence in him , but the same in every kind is by the Church of Rome imputed to the Saints : And therefore the very being and Oeconomy of Christianity , is destroyed by these prayers ; and the people are not , cannot be good Christians in these devotions ; and what hopes are laid up for them , who repent to no purpose , and pray with derogation to Christ's honour , is a matter of deepest consideration . And therefore we desire our charges not to be seduc'd by little tricks and artifices of useless and laborious distinctions , and protestations against evidence of fact , and with fear and trembling to consider , what God said by the Prophet , My people have done two great evils , they have for saken me , fortem vivum , the strong and the living God ; fontem vivum , so some copies read it , the living fountain , and have digged for themselves cisterns , that is , little phantastick helps , that hold no water , that give no refreshment ; or , as S. Paul expresses it , they worship and invocate the creature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 besides the Creator ; so the word properly signifies , and so it is us'd by the Apostle in other * places . And at least let us remember those excellent words of S. Austin , Tutius & jucundius loquar ad meum Jesum , quam ad aliquem sanctorum spirituum Dei ; I can speak safer and more pleasantly or chearfully to my Lord Jesus , than to any of the Saints and Spirits of God. For that we have Commandment , for this we have none ; for that we have example in Scriptures , for this we have none ; there are many promises made to that , but to this there is none at all ; and therefore we cannot in faith pray to them , or at all rely upon them for helps . WHICH Consideration is greatly heightned by that prostitution of Devotion usual in the Church of Rome , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to every Upstart , to every old and new Saint . And although they have a story among themselves , That it is ominous for a Pope to Canonize a Saint , and he never survives it above a twelve-month , as Pietre Mathieu observes in the instances of Clement the IV. and Adrian the VI. yet this hinders not , but that they are tempted to do it frequently . But concerning the thing it self , the best we can say , is what Christ said of the Samaritans , They worship they know not what . Such are S. Fingare , S. Anthony of 〈◊〉 , S. Christopher , Charles Borromaeus , Ignatius Loyola , Xaverius , and many others ; of whom Cardinal Bessarion * complain'd , that many of them were such persons whose life he could not approve ; and such , concerning whom they knew nothing , but from their Parties , and by pretended Revelations made to particular and hypochondriacal persons . It is a famous saying of S. Gregory , That the bodies of many persons are worshipped on Earth , whose souls are tormented in Hell : and Augustinus gustinus Triumphus affirms , That all who are canonized by the Pope cannot be said to be in Heaven . And this matter is beyond dispute ; for Prateolus tells , that Herman , the Author of the Heresie of the Fratricelli , was for twenty years together after his death honoured for a Saint , but afterwards his body was taken up and burnt . But then since ( as Ambrosius Catharinus and Vivaldus observe ) if one Saint be call'd in question , then the rest may ; what will become of the Devotions which are paid to such Saints which have been canonized within these last five Centuries ? Concerning whom we can have but slender evidence that they are in Heaven at all . And therefore the Cardinal of Cambray , Petrus de Alliaco , wishes that so many new Saints were not canoniz'd . They are indeed so many , that in the Church of Rome the Holy-days , which are called their Greater Doubles , are threescore and four , besides the Feasts of Christ and our Lady , and the Holy-days which they call Half double Festivals , together with the Sundays , are above one hundred and thirty . So that besides many Holy-days kept in particular places , there are in the whole year about two hundred Holy-days , if we may believe their own Gavantus ; which , besides that it is an intolerable burthen to the poor Labourer , who must keep so many of them , that on the rest he can scarce earn his bread , they do also turn Religion into Superstition , and habituate the People to idleness , and disorderly Festivities , and impious celebrations of the day with unchristian merriments and licentiousness . We conclude this with those words of S. Paul , How shall we call on him on whom we have not believed ? Christ said , Ye believe in God , believe also in me . But he never said , Ye have believed in me , believe also in my Saints . No : For there is but one Mediator between God and man , the man Christ Jesus . And therefore we must come to God , not by Saints , but only by Jesus Christ our Lord. SECT . X. Of the horrible Incantations and charms used by the Priests in Exorcising persons posses'd . The whole manner how they cast out Devils set down at large , and several remarks upon it . THERE is in the Church of Rome a horrible impiety taught and practised , which , so far as it goes , must needs destroy that part of holy life which consists in the holiness of our Prayers ; and indeed is a Conjugation of Evils , of such evils , of which in the whole world a society of Christians should be least suspected ; we mean the infinite Superstitions and Incantations , or Charms us'd by their Priests in their Exorcising possessed persons , and conjuring of Devils . THERE was an Ecclesiastical book called Ordo Baptiz . andi cum modo Visitandi , printed at Venice , A. D. 1575. in which there were damnable and diabolical Charms , insomuch that the Spanish Inquisitors in their Expurgatory Index , printed at Madrid , A. D. 1612. commanded deleatur tota exorcismus * Luciferina , cujus initium est , Adesto Domine tui famuli ; that all that Luciferian Exorcism be blotted out . But whoever looks into the Treasure of Exorcisms and horrible Conjurings ( for that is the very title of the Book printed at Colein , A. D. 1608. ) shall find many as horrid things , and not censur'd by any Inquisitors as yet , so far as we have ever read or heard . Nay , that very Luciferina , or Devilish Exorcism , is reprinted at Lyons , A. D. 1614. in the institutio baptizandi , which was restored by the Decree of the Council of Trent : So that though it was forbidden in Spain , it was allowed in France . But as 〈◊〉 as that are allowed every where in the Church of Rome : The most famous , and of most publick use are The Treasure of Exorcisms , of which we but now made mention ; the Roman Ritual , The Manual of Exorcisms , printed at Antwerp , A. D. 1626. with Approbation of the Bishop , and privilege of the Archdukes ; the Pastorals of several Churches , especially that of Ruraemund ; and especially the Flagellum Daemonum , The Devils whip , by Father Hierom Mengus a Frier Minor ; which the Clergy of Orleans did use in the Exorcising of Martha Brosser , A. D. 1599. the story whereof is in the Epistles of Cardinal D'Ossat , and the History of the Excellent Thuanus . NOW from these Books , especially this last , we shall represent their manner of casting out Devils ; and then speak a word to the thing it self . Their manner and form is this , First , They are to try the Devil by Holy water , Incense , Sulphur , Rue , which from thence , as we suppose , came to be called Herb of Grace , and especially S. Johns wort , which therefore they call Devils flight ; with which if they cannot cast the Devil out , yet they may do good to the Patient ; for so Pope Alexander the first promis'd and commanded the Priests to use it for 〈◊〉 sanctifying and pacifying the people , and driving away the snares of the Devil : And to this , it were well if the Exorcist would rail upon , mock and jeer the Devil ; for he cannot endure a witty and a sharp taunt , and loves jeering and railing , no more than he loves holy water ; and this was well tried of old against an Empuse that met Apollonius Tyanaeus at Mount Caucasus , against whom he rail'd , and exhorted his company to do so . NEXT to this , the Exorcist may ask the Devil some questions ; What is his name ? How many of them there are ? For what cause , and at what time he entered ? and , for his own learning , by what persons he can be cast out ? and by what Saint adjur'd ? who are his particular enemies in Heaven ? and who in Hell ? by what words he can be most 〈◊〉 ? ( for the Devils are such fools that they cannot keep their own counsel , nor choose but tell , and when they do , they always tell true : ) He may also ask him by what Covenant , or what Charm he came there , and by what he is to be released ? Then he may call Lucifer to help him , and to torment that Spirit ( for so they oast out Devils , by Belzebub the Prince of the Devils ; ) and certainly Lucifer dares not but obey him . Next to this , the Exorcist is cunningly to get out of the Devil , the confession of some Article of Faith , for the edification of the standers by ( whom he may by this means convince of the truth of Transubstantiation , the reality of Purgatory , or the value of Indulgences ) and command him to knock his head three times against the ground , in adoration of the Holy Trinity . But let him take heed what Reliques he apply to the Devil ; for if the Reliques be 〈◊〉 , the Devil will be too hard for him . However , let the Exorcising Priest be sure to bless his Pottage , his Meat , his Ointment , his Herbs ; and then also he may use some Schedules , or little rolls of Paper , containing in them holy words ; but he must be sure to be exercis'd and skilful in all things that belong to the conjuring of the Devil : These are the preparatory documents , which when he hath observ'd , then let him fall to his prayers . NOW for the prayers , they also are publickly describ'd in their Offices before cited ; and are as followeth , The Priest ties his stole about the neck of the possessed with three knots , and says , O ye abominable Rebels against God , I conjure you Spirits , and adjure you , I call , I constrain , I call out , I contend and contest , where ever you are in this Man , by the Father , Son , and Holy Ghost [ then he makes three ✚ ] by the most powerful name of God , Heloy , the strong and admirable , I exorcise you , and adjure you , and command you , by the power I have , that you incontinently hear the words of my conjuring , and perceive your selves overcome , and command you not to depart without licence , and so I bind you with this stole of jucundity in the name of the Father ✚ , Son ✚ , and Holy Ghost ✚ , Amen . Then he makes two and thirty crosses more , and calls over one and thirty names of God in false Hebrew , and base Greek , and some Latine , signifying the same names ; and the two and thirtieth is by the sign of the Cross , praying God to deliver them from their enemies . Then follow more prayers , and more adjurations , and more conjurations . ( for they are greatly different you must know ) and aspersions of holy water , and shewings of the Cross , and signings with it . Then they adjure the Devil ( in case the names of God will not do it ) by S. Mary , and S. Anne , by S. Michael , and S. Gabriel , by Raphael , and all Angels and Arch-angels , by the Patriarchs , and by the Prophets , and by his own infirmity , by the Apostles , and by the Martyrs ; [ and then after all this , if the Devil will not come out , he must tarry there still , till the next Exorcism ; in which ] The Exorcist must rail at the Devil , and say over again the Names of God , and then ask him questions , and read over the sequences of the Gospels ; and after that tell him , that he hath power over him , for 〈◊〉 can transubstantiate bread into Christ's body ; and then conjure him again , and call him damn'd Devil , unclean Spirit , and as bad as he can call him ; and so pray to God to cast him out of the man's mouth and nose , lips and teeth , jaws and cheeks , eyes and forehead , eye-brows , and eye-lids , his feet , and his members , his marrow , and his bones , and must reckon every part of his body [ to which purpose , we suppose it would be well if the 〈◊〉 were well skill'd in Laurentius , or Bauhinus his Anatomy ] And if he will not go out yet , there is no help but he must choose , till the third Exorcism : In which besides many prayers and conjurations in other words to the same purpose , the Exorcist must speak louder [ especially if it be a deaf Devil , for then indeed it is the more necessary ] and tell the Devil his own , and threaten him terribly , and conjure him again , and say over him about some twenty or thirty names or titles of Christ , and forbid the Devil to go any whither , but to the centre of the world , and must damn him eternally to the Sulphurous flames of Hell , and to be tormented worse than Lucifer himself , for his daring to resist so many great Names ; and if he will not now obey , let him take fire and brimstone , and make a fume , whether the possessed will or no , until the Devil tells you all his mind in what you ask him : [ the Liver of Tobias his fish were a rare thing here , but that 's not to be had for love or mony : ] And after this he conjures him again by some of the names of God , and by the Merits , and all the good things which can be spoken or thought of the most Blessed Virgin , and by all her names and titles , which he must reckon , one and forty in number , together with her Epithets , making so many ✚ , and by these he must cast him headlong into Hell. BUT if the Devil be stubborn ( for some of them are very disobedient ) there is a fourth , and a fifth , and a sixth Exorcism , and then he conjures the earth , the water , and the fire to make them of his party , and comands them not to harbour such villanous Spirits , and commands Hell to hear him , and 〈◊〉 his word , and 〈◊〉 all the Spirits in Hell to take that Spirit to themselves ( for it may be they will understand their duty better than that stubborn Devil , that is broke loose from thence . ) But if this chance to fail , there is yet left a remedy that will do it . He must make the picture of the Devil , and write his name over the head of it , and conjure the fire to burn it most horribly and hastily ; [ and if the picture be upon wood or paper , it is ten to one that may be done . ] After all this stir , Sprinkle more holy water , and 〈◊〉 Sulphur , Galbanum , Assa foetida , Aristolochia , Rue , St. Johns-wort ; all which 〈◊〉 distinctly blessed , the Exorcist must hold the Devils picture 〈◊〉 the fire , and adjure the Devil to hear him ; and then he must not spare him but tell him all his faults , and give him all his names , and Anathematize him , and curse not only him , but Lucifer too , and Beelzebub , and Satan , and Astaroth , and Behemot , and Beherit , and all together ; [ for indeed there is not one good natur'd Devil amongst them all ; ] and then pray once more , and so throw the Devils picture into the fire , and then insult in a long form of crowing over him , which is there set 〈◊〉 . AND now after all , if he will not go out , there is a seventh Exorcism for him with new Ceremonies . He must shew him the 〈◊〉 Host in the Pix , pointing at it with his finger , and then conjure him 〈◊〉 , and rail at him once more ; to which purpose , there is a very fine form taken out of Prierius , and set down in the Flagellum Daemonum ; and then let the Exorcist pronounce sentence against the Devil , and give him his oath , and then a commandment to go out of the several parts of his body , always taking care that at no hand he remain in the upper parts ; and then is the Devils Qu. to come out , if he have a mind to it ( for that must be always suppos'd ) and then follow the thanksgivings . THIS is the manner of their devotion , describ'd for the use of their Exorcists ; in which is such a heap of folly , madness , superstition , blasphemy , and ridiculous guises and playings with the Devil , that if any man amongst us should use such things , he would be in danger of being tried at the next Assizes for a Witch , or a Conjurer ; however , certain it is , what ever the Devil loses by pretending to obey the Exotcist , he gains more by this horrible debauchery of Christianity . There needs no confutation of it , the impiety is visible and tangible ; and it is sufficient to have told the story . ONLY this we say , as to the thing it self : THE casting out of Devils is a miraculous power , and given at first for the confimation of Christian Faith , as the gifts of Tongues and Healing were , and therefore we have reason to believe , that because it is not an ordinary power , the ordinary Exorcisms cast out no more Devils , than Extreme Unction cures sicknesses . We do not envy to any one , any grace of God , but wish it were more modestly pretended , unless it could be more evidently prov'd . Origen condemned this whole procedure of conjuring Devils long since . Quaeret aliquis si convenit vel Daemones adjurare . Qui aspicit Jesum imperantem Daemonibus , sed 〈◊〉 potestatem dantem Discipulis super omnia daemonia , & ut infirmitates sanarent , dicet , quoniam non est secundùm Potestatem datam à salvatore adjurare Daemonia . Judaicum enim est : If any one asks , Whether it be fit to adjure Devils ? He that beholds Jesus commanding over Devils , and also giving power to his Disciples over all unclean spirits , and to heal diseases , will say , that to adjure Devils is not according to the power given by our Blessed Saviour ; For it is a Jewish trick : and S. Chrysostom spake soberly and truly , We poor Wretches cannot drive away the flies , much less Devils . BUT then as to the manner of their Conjurations and Exorcisms ; this we say , If these things come from God , let them shew their warranty , and their books of Precedents : If they come not from God , they are so like the Inchantments of Balaam , the old Heathens , and the modern Magicians , that their Original is soon discovered . BUT yet from what principle it comes , that they have made Exorcists an Ecclesiastical Order , with special words and instruments of collation ; and that the words of Ordination giving them power only over possessed Christians , Catechumens or Baptized , should by them be extended and exercis'd upon all Infants , as if they were all possessed by the Devil ; and not only so , but to bewitched Cattel , to Mice and Locusts , to Milk and Lettice , to Houses and Tempests ; as if their Charms were Prophylactick , as well as Therapeutick ; and could keep , as well as drive the Devil out , and prevent storms like the old 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of whom Seneca makes mention : Of these things we cannot guess at any probable principle , except they have deriv'd them from the Jewish Cabala , or the Exorcisms , which it is said Solomon us'd , when he had consented to Idolatry . BUT these things are so unlike the wisdom and simplicity , the purity and spirituality of Christian devotion ; are so perfectly of their own devising , and wild imaginations ; are so full of dirty superstitions , and ignorant fancies , that there are not in the world many things , whose sufferance and practice can more destroy the Beauty of Holiness , or reproach a Church , or Society of Christians . SECT . XI . The Church of Rome invents Sacramentals of her own , without a Divine Warrant . Such as Holy water , Paschal wax , Oil , Palm-boughs , &c. Concerning which their Doctrine is , that by these the Blood of Christ is applied to us , and they not only signifie but produce Spiritual and supernatural effects . How the people are abused with Legendary stories of miraculous cures wrought by them . And are taught in the Sacraements themselves , to rely so much upon their inherent virtue , as to take less care of moral and virtuous dispositions . TO put our trust and confidence in God only , and to use Ministeries of his own appointment and sanctification , is so essential a duty owing by us to God , that whoever trusts in any thing but God , is a breaker of the first Commandment ; and he that invents instrumental supports of his own head , and puts a subordinate ministerial confidence in them , usurps the rights of God , and does not pursue the interests of true Religion , whose very essence and formality is to glorifie God in all his attributes , and to do good to man , and to advance the honour and Kingdom of Christ. Now how greatly the Church of Rome prevaricates in this great Soul of Religion , appears by too evident and notorious demonstration : For she hath invented Sacramentals of her own , without a Divine warrant , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said S. Cyril . Concerning the holy and Divine mysteries of Faith or Religion , we ought to do nothing by chance , or of our own heads , nothing without the Authority of the Divine Scriptures : But the Church of Rome does otherwise ; invents things of her own , and imputes spiritual effects to these Sacramentals ; and promises not only temporal blessings and immunities , and benedictions , but the collation or increment of Spiritual graces , and remission of venial sins , and alleviation of pains due to mortal sins , to them who shall use these Sacramentals : Which because God did not institute , and did not sanctisie , they use them without Faith , and rely upon them without a promise , and make themselves the fountains of these graces , and produce confidences , whose last resort is not upon God , who neither was the Author , nor is an Approver of them . OF this nature are Holy Water , the Paschal Wax , Oyl , Palm-boughs , Holy Bread ( not Eucharistical ) Hats , Agnus Dei's , Meddals , Swords , Bells , and Roses hallowed upon the Sunday called Laetare Jerusalem : such as Pope Pius the second to James the II. of Scotland , and Sixtus Quintus to the Prince of Parma : Concerning which , their Doctrine is this , That the blood of Christ is by these applied unto us , that they do not only signifie , but produce spiritual effects , that they blot out venial sins , that they drive away Devils , that they cure diseases , and that though these things do not operate infallibly , as do the Sacraments , and that God hath made no express Covenant concerning them , yet by the devotion of them that use them , and the prayers of the Church , they do prevail . NOW though it be easie to say , and it is notoriously true in Theology , that the prayers of the Church can never prevail , but according to the grace which God hath promis'd ; and either can only procure a blessing upon natural things , in order to their natural effects , or else an extraordinary supernatural effect , by vertue of a Divine promise ; and that these things are pretended to work beyond their natural force , and yet God hath not promis'd to them a supernatural blessing ( as themselves confess ; ) yet besides the falseness of the Doctrine , on which these superstitions do rely , it is also as evident , that these instrumentalities produce an affiance and confidence in the Creature , and estrange mens hearts from the true Religion and trust in God , while they think themselves blessed in their own inventions , and in digging to themselves Cisterns of their own , and leaving the Fountain of Blessing and Eternal Life . To this purpose the Roman Priesta abuse the People with Romantick stories out of the Dialogues of S. Gregory , and venerable Bede ; making them believe , that S. Fortunatus cur'd a Man's broken thigh with Holy Water , and that S. Malachias the Bishop of Down and Connor , cur'd a mad-man with the same medicine ; and that Saint Hilarion cur'd many sick persons with Holy Bread and Oyl ( which indeed is the most likely of them all , as being good food , and good medicine ; ) and although not so much as a Chicken is now a-days cur'd of the Pip by Holy Water , yet upon all occasions they use it , and the common people throw it upon Childrens Cradles , and sick Cows Horns , and upon them that are blasted ; and if they recover by any means , it is imputed to the Holy Water : And so the Simplicity of Christian Religion , the Glory of our Dependence on God , the Wise Order and 〈◊〉 of Blessings in the Gospel , the Sacredness and Mysteriousness of Sacraments and Divine Institutions , are disorder'd and dishonour'd : The Bishops and Priests inventing both the Word and the Element , institute a kind of Sacrament , in great derogation to the Supreme Prerogative of Christ ; and men are taught to go in ways which Superstition hath invented , and Interest does support . BUT there is yet one great instance more of this irreligion . Upon the Sacraments themselves they are taught to rely , with so little of Moral and Vertuous Dispositions , that the efficacy of one is made to lessen the necessity of the other ; and the Sacraments are taught to be so effectual by an inherent vertue , that they are not so much made the instruments of Vertue , as the Suppletory ; not so much to increase , as to make amends for the want of Grace : On which we shall not now insist ; because it is sufficiently remark'd in our reproof of the Roman Doctrines , in the matter of Repentance . SECT . XII . Their Doctrines as explained by their practice , make men guilty of Idolatry . They teach men to give Divine honour to creatures : As the same worship to the Image , and the prototype . They teach the same thing with the 〈◊〉 , whose worship of Images was relative : and for a Christian to excuse himself by this , is to say that for God's sake he will make bold to dishonour him . Of worship of the Image of the Cross , and their hopes of Salvation in it . Their worshipping the consecrated Bread and Wine considered , and the things they say to excuse themselves from Idolatry herein . AFTER all this , if their Doctrines as they are explicated by their practice , and the Commentaries of their greatest Doctors , do make their Disciples guilty of Idolatry , there is not any thing greater to deter men from them , than that danger to their Souls which is imminent over them , upon that acoount . THEIR worshipping of Images we have already reprov'd upon the account of its novelty and innovation in Christian Religion . But that it is against good life , a direct breach of the second Commandment , an Act of Idolatry , as much as the Heathens themselves were guilty of , in relation to the second Commandment , is but too evident by the Doctrines of their own Leaders . FOR if to give Divine honour to a Creature be Idolatry , then the Doctors of the Church of Rome teach their People to commit Idolatry : For they affirm , That the same worship which is given to the Prototype or Principal , the same is to be given to the Image of it . As we worship the Holy Trinity , and Christ , so we may worship the Images of the Trinity , and of Christ ; that is , with Latria , or Divine honour . This is the constant sentence of the Divines , The Image is to be worshipped with the same honour and worship , with which we worship those whose image it is , said Azorius , their great Master of Casuistical Theology . And this is the Doctrine of their great Saint Thomas , of Alexander of Ales , Bonaventure , Albertus , Richardus , Capreolus , Cajetan , Coster , Valentia , Vasquez , the Jesuits of Colein , Triers and Mentz , approving Coster's opinion . NEITHER can this be eluded by saying , that though the same worship be given to the Image of Christ , as to Christ himself , yet it is not done in the same way ; for it is terminatively to Christ or God , but relatively to the image , that is , to the image for God's or Christ's sake . For this is that we complain of , that they give the same worship to an image , which is due to God ; for what cause soever it be done , it matters not , save only that the excuse makes it in some sense , the worse for the Apology . For to do a thing which God hath forbidden , and to say it is done for God's sake , is to say , that for his sake we displease him ; for his sake we give that to a Creature , which is God's own propriety . But besides this , we affirm , and it is of it self evident , that whoever , Christian or Heathen , worships the image of any thing , cannot possibly worship that image terminatively , for the very being of an image is relative ; and therefore if the man understands but common sense , he must suppose and intend that worship to be relative , and a Heathen could not worship an image with any other worship ; and the second Commandment , forbidding to worship the likeness of any thing in Heaven and Earth , does only forbid that thing which is in Heaven to be worshipped by an image , that is , it forbids only a relative worship : For it is a contradiction to say , this is the image of God , and yet this is God ; and therefore it must be also a contradiction , to worship an image with Divine worship terminatively , for then it must be that the image of a thing , is that thing whose image it is . And therefore these Doctors teach the same thing which they condemn in the Heathens . BUT they go yet a little further : The Image of the Cross they worship with Divine honour ; and therefore although this Divine worship is but relative , yet consequently , the Cross it self is worshipped terminatively by Divine adoration . For the Image of the Cross hath it relatively , and for the Crosses sake , therefore the Cross it self is the proper and full object of the Divine adoration . Now that they do and teach this , we charge upon them by undeniable Records : For in the very Pontisical published by the Authority of Pope Clement the VIII . these words are found , The Legats Cross must be on the right hand , because Latria , or Divine honour is due to it . And if Divine honour relative be due to the Legates Cross , which is but the Image of Christ's Cross , then this Divine worship is terminated on Christ's Cross , which is certainly but a meer Creature . To this purpose are the words of Almain , The Images of the Trinity , and of the Cross , are to be ador'd with the worship of Latria ; that is , Divine . Now if the Image of the Cross be the intermedial , then the Cross it self , whose Image that is , must be the last object of this Divine worship ; and if this be not Idolatry , it can never be told , what is the notion of the Word . But this passes also into other real effects : And well may the Cross it self be worshipped by Divine worship , when the Church places her hopes of salvation on the Cross ; for so she does , says Aquinas , and makes one the argument of the other , and proves that the Church places her hopes of salvation on the Cross , that is , on the instrument of Christ's Passion , by a hymn which she uses in her offices ; but this thing we have remark'd above , upon another occasion . Now although things are brought to a very ill state , when Christians are so probably and apparently charg'd with Idolatry , and that the excuses are too sine to be understood by them that need them ; yet no excuse can acquit these things , when the most that is , or can be said is this , that although that which is God's due , is given to a Creature , yet it is given with some difference of intention , and metaphysical abstraction , and separation ; especially , since , if there can be Idolatry in the worshipping of an Image , it is certain , that a relative Divine worship is this Idolatry ; for no man that worships an Image ( in that consideration or formality ) can make the Image the last Object : Either therefore the Heathens were not Idolaters in the worshipping of an Image , or else these men are . The Heathens did indeed infinitely more violate the first Commandment ; but against the second , precisely and separately from the first , the transgression is alike . THE same also is the case in their worshipping the consecrated Bread and Wine : Of which how far they will be excused besore God by their ignorant pretensions and suppositions , we know not ; but they hope to save themselves harmless by saying , that they believe the Bread to be their Saviour , and that if they did not believe so , they would not do so . We believe that they say true ; but we are afraid that this will no more excuse them , than it will excuse those who worship the Sun and Moon , and the Queen of Heaven , whom they would not worship , if they did not believe to have Divinity in them : And it may be observed , That they are very fond of that persuasion , by which they are led into this worship . The error might be some excuse , if it were probable , or if there were much temptation to it : But when they chuse this persuasion , and have nothing for it but a tropical expression of Scripture , which rather than not believe in the natural , useless , and impossible sense , they will desie all their own reason , and four of the five operations of their soul , Seeing , Smelling , Tasting and Feeling , and contradict the plain Doctrine of the 〈◊〉 Church , before they can consent to believe this error , that Bread is chang'd into God , and the Priest can make his Maker : We have too much cause to fear , that the error is too gross to admit an excuse ; and it is hard to suppose it invincible and involuntary , because it is so hard , and so untempting , and so unnatural to admit the error . We do desire that God may find an excuse for it , and that they would not . But this we are most sure of , that they might , if they pleas'd , find many excuses , or rather just causes for not giving 〈◊〉 honour to the Consecrated Elements ; because there are so many contingencies in the whole conduct of this affair , and we are so uncertain of the Priests intention , and we can never be made certain , that there is not in the whole order of causes any invalidity in the Consecration ; and it is so impossible that any man should be sure that Here , and Now , and This Bread is Transubstantiated , and is really the Natural body of Christ ; that it were fit to omit the giving Gods due to that which they do not know to be any thing but a piece of bread ; and it cannot consist with holiness , and our duty to God , certainly to give Divine Worship to that thing , which though their doctrine were true , they cannot know certainly to have a Divine being . SECT . XIII . A recapitulation of matters foregoing : shewing the injury they do to Christian Religion ; in its Faith , Hope , Repentance and Charity , its Divine Worship , Celebration of Sacraments , and keeping the Commandments of God. So that if there are good Christians in the Roman Communion , yet they are not such , as they are Papists ; it 's by Gods grace they are so , not by their Opinions , which tend to diminish and destroy Goodness in them . AND now we shall plainly represent to our Charges , how this whole matter stands . The case is this , the Religion of a Christian consists in Faith , and Hope , Repentance and Charity , Divine Worship and Celebration of the Sacraments , and finally in keeping the Commandments of God. Now in all these , both in Doctrines and Practices , the Church of Rome does dangerously err , and teaches men so to do . THEY do injury to Faith , by creating new Articles , and enjoyning them as of necessity to salvation . * They spoil their Hope , by placing it upon Creatures , and devices of their own . * They greatly sin against Charity , by damning all that are not of their opinion , in things false or uncertain , right or wrong . * They break in pieces the salutary Doctrine of Repentance , making it to be consistent with a wicked life , and little or no amendment . * They worship they know not what , and pray to them that hear them not , and trust on that which helps them not . * And as for the Commandments , they leave one of them out of their Catechisms and Manuals , and while they contend earnestly against some Opponents for the possibility of keeping them all , they do not insist upon the Necessity of keeping any in the course of their lives , till the danger or article of their death . * And concerning the Sacraments , they have egregiously prevaricated in two points . For not to mention their reckoning of seven Sacraments , which we only 〈◊〉 to be an unnecessary , and unscholastical error ; they take the one half of the principal away from the Laity ; and they institute little Sacraments of their own , they invent Rites , and annex spiritual graces to them , what they please themselves , of their own heads , without a Divine Warrant or Institution : and , * At last persuade their people to that which can never be excus'd , at least , from Material Idolatry . IF these things can consist with the duty of Christians , not only to eat what they worship , but to adore those things with Divine Worship , which are not God : To reconcile a wicked life with certain hopes and expectations of Heaven at last , and to place these hopes upon other things than God , and to damn all the World that are not Christians at this rate , then we have lost the true measures of Christianity ; and the Doctrine and Discipline of Christ is not a Natural and Rational Religion ; not a Religion that makes men holy , but a confederacy under the conduct of a Sect , and it must rest in Forms and Ceremonies , and Devices of Mans Invention . And although we do not doubt , but that the goodness of God does so prevail over all the follies and malice of mankind , that there are in the Roman communion many very good Christians , yet they are not such as they are Papists , but by some thing that is higher , and before that , something that is of an abstract and more sublime consideration . And though the good people amongst them are what they are by the grace and goodness of God , yet by all or any of these opinions they are not so : But the very best suffer diminution , and alloy by these things ; and very many more are wholly subverted and destroyed . CHAP. III. The Church of Rome teaches Doctrines , which in many things are destructive of Christian Society in general , and of Monarchy in special : Both which , the Religion of the Church of England and Ireland does by her Doctrines greatly , and Christianly support . SECT . I. Instances of Doctrines taught in the Church of Rome destructive of Societies . As Lying and Equivocating , especially before a Magistrate to elude his examinations . No Contracts , Vows , Oaths , a sufficient security in dealing with them . Council of Constance was against keeping Faith with Hereticks ; and Hus and Hierome of Prague felt the sad effects of it : They would have done the same to Luther at Wormes , had not the Emperour hindred . Of the Popes dispensing with Oaths and Vows , and in Contracts of Marriage and Divorces . THAT in the Church of Rome , it is publickly taught by their greatest Doctors , That it is lawful to lye , or deceive the question of the Magistrate , to conceal their name , and to tell a false one , to elude all examinations , and make them insignificant and toothless , cannot be doubted by any man that knows how the English Priests have behav'd themselves in the times of Queen Elizabeth , King James , and the Blessed Martyr King Charles 1. 〈◊〉 wrote in defence of it ; and Father Barnes who wrote a Book against Lying and Equivocating , was suspected for a Heretick , and smarted severely under their hands . To him that asks you again for what you have paid him already , you may safely say , you never had any thing of him , meaning so as to owe it him now . It is the Doctrine of Emanuel Sà and Sanchez ; which we understand to be a great lye , and a great sin , it being at the best a deceiving of the Law , that you be not deceived by your Creditor ; that is , a doing evil to prevent one ; a sin , to prevent the losing of your mony . IF a man asks his wife if she be an Adulteress , though she be , yet she may say , she is not , if in her mind secretly she say [ not with a purpose to tell you : ] so Cardinal Tolet teaches . And if a man swears he will take such a one to his wife , being compelled to swear ; he may secretly mean , [ if hereafter she do please me . ] And if a man swears to a Thief , that he will give him Twenty Crowns , he may secretly say , [ If I please to do so , ] and then he is not bound . And of this Doctrine Vasquez brags , as of a rare , though new invention , saying , it is gathered out of St. Austin , and Thomas Aquinas , who only found out the way of saying nothing in such cases and questions , ask'd by Judges ; but this invention was drawn out by assiduous disputations . * He that promises to say an Ave Mary , and swears he will , or vows to do it , yet sins not mortally , though he does not do it , said the great Navar , and others whom he follows . * There is yet a further degree of this iniquity ; not only in words , but in real actions ; it is lawful to deceive or rob your Brother , when to do so is necessary for the preservation of your fame : For no man is bound to restore stollen goods , ( that is ) to cease from doing injury , with the peril of his credit . So Navar , and Cardinal Cajetan and Tolet teaches ; who adds also , Hoc multi dicunt , quorum sententiam potest quis tutâ conscientiâ sequi . Many say the same thing ; whose Doctrine any man may follow with a safe Conscience . Nay , to save a man's credit , an honest man that is asham'd to beg , may steal what is necessary for him , says Diana . NOW by these Doctrines a man is taught how to be an honest Thief , and to keep what he is bound to restore ; and by these we may not only deceive our Brother , but the Law ; and not the Law only , but God also , even with an Oath , if the matter be but small : It never makes God angry with you ; or puts you out of the state of grace . But if the matter be great , yet to prevent a great trouble to your self , you may conceal a truth , by saying that which is false ; according to the general Doctrine of the late Casuists . So that a man is bound to keep truth and honesty , when it is for his turn ; but not , if it be to his own hinderance ; and 〈◊〉 David was not in the right , but was something too nice in the resolution of the like case in the fifteenth Psalm . Now although we do not affirm , that these particulars are the Doctrine of the whole Church of Rome , because little things , and of this nature , never are considered in their publick Articles of Confession ; yet a man may do these vile things ( for so we understand them to be ) and find justifications and warranty , and shall not be affirghted with the terrors of damnation , nor the imposition of penances : he may for all these things be a good Catholick , though it may be , not a very good Christian. But since these things are affirm'd by so many , the opinion is probable , and the practice safe , saith Cardinal Tolet. BUT we shall instance in things of more publick concern , and Catholick Authority . No Contracts , Leagues , Societies , Promises , Vows , or Oaths , are a sufficient security to him that deals with one of the Church of Rome , if he shall please to make use of that liberty , which may and many times is , and always can be granted to him . For first , it is affirmed , and was practis'd by a whole Council of Bishops at Constance , that Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks ; and John Hus , and Hierom of Prague , and Savanarola , felt the mischief of violation of publick faith ; and the same thing was disputed fiercely at Worms , in the case of Luther , to whom Coesar had given a safe-conduct , and very many would have had it to be broken ; but Coesar was a better Christian than the Ecclesiasticks and their party , and more a Gentleman . But that no scrupulous Princes may keep their words any more in such cases , or think themselves tied to perform their safe-conducts given to Hereticks , there is a way found out by a new Catholick Doctrine ; Becanus shall speak this point instead of the rest , [ There are two distinct Tribunals , and the Ecclesiastical is the Superior ; and therefore if a Secular Prince gives his Subjects a safe-conduct , he cannot extend it to the Superior Tribunal ; nor by any security given , hinder the Bishop or the Pope to exercise their jurisdiction : ] And upon the account of this , or the like Doctrine , the Pope and the other Ecclesiasticks did prevail at Constance , for the burning of their Prisoners , to whom safe-conduct had been granted . But these things are sufficiently known by the complaints of the injur'd persons . BUT not only to Hereticks , but to our friends also we may break our promises , if the Pope give us leave . It is a publick and an avowed Doctrine , That if a man have taken an Oath of a thing lawful and honest , and in his power , yet if it hinders him from doing a greater good , the Pope can dispense with his oath , and take off the Obligation . This is expresly 〈◊〉 by one of the most moderate of them , Canus Bishop of the Canaries . But beyond dispute , and even without a dispensation , they all of them own it , That if a man have promised to a woman to marry her , and is betrothed to her , and hath sworn it , yet if he will before the consummation , enter into a Monastery , his Oath shall not bind him , his promise is null ; but his second promise , that shall stand . And he that denies this , is accursed by the Council of Trent . NOT only husbands and wives espoused may break their vows and mutual obligation , against the will of one another ; but in the Church of Rome children have leave given them to disobey their Parents , so they will but turn Friers : And this they might do , Girls at twelve , and Boys at the age of fourteen years ; but the Council of Trent enlarged it to sixteen : But the thing was taught and decreed by Pope Clement the III. and Thomas Aquinas did so , and then it was made lawful by him and his Scholars ; though it was expresly against the Doctrine and Laws of the preceding ages of the Church , as appears in the Capitulars of Charles the Great . But thus did the Pharisees teach their Children to Cry Corban , and neglect their Parents ; to pretend Religion , in prejudice of filial piety . In this particular Aerodius a French Lawyer , an excellently learned man , suffered sadly by the loss , and foreing of a hopeful Son from him , and he complain'd most excellently in a Book written on purpose upon this subject . BUT these mischiefs are Doctrinal , and accounted lawful : But in the matter of Marriages and Contracts , Promises and Vows , where a Doctrine fails , it can be supplied by the Pope's power : Which thing is avowed and own'd , without a cover : For when Pope Clement the V. condemn'd the Order of Knights Templers , he disown'd any justice or right in doing it , but stuck to his power , Quanquam de jure non possumus , tamen ex plenitudine potestatis dictum ordinem reprobamus ; that is , though by right we cannot do it , yet by the fulness of power we condemn the said Order : For he can dispense always , and in all things where there is cause , and in many things where there is no cause ; sed sub majori pretio , under a greater price , said the tax of the Datary ; where the price of the several dispensations , even in causà turpi , in base and filthy causes , are set down . Intranti nummo quasi quodam Principe summo Exiliunt valvae , nihil auditur nisi salve . Nay the Pope can dispense suprà jus , contra 〈◊〉 ; above Law , and against Law and right , said Mosconius in his books of the Majesty of the Militant Church : For the Popes Tribunal and Gods is but one ; and therefore every reasonable creature is subject to the Popes Empire , said the same Author : And what Dispensations he usually gives , we are best inform'd by a gloss of their own upon the Canon Law , Not a mirabile , quod cum co qui peccat Dispensatur , cum illo autem qui non peccat non Dispensatur : It is a wonderful thing that they should dispense with a Fornicator , but not with him who marries after the death of his first wife . * They give Divorces for Marriages in the fourth degree , and give Dispensation to marry in the second . These things are a sufficient charge , and yet evidently so , and publickly owned . WE need not aggravate this matter , by what Panormitan and others do say , that the Pope hath power to dispense in all the Laws of God , except the Articles of Faith ; and how much of this they own and practise , needs no greater instance , than that which Volaterran tells of Pope Innocent the VIII . that he gave the Norvegians a Dispensation , not only to communicate , but to consecrate in bread only . As the Pope by his Dispensations undertakes to dissolve the Ordinances of God ; so also the most solemn Contracts of men : Of which a very great instance was given by Pope Clement the VII . who dispensed with the Oath which Francis the I. of France solemnly swore to Charles the V. Emperor , after the Battel of Pavy , and gave him leave to be perjur'd . And one of the late Popes dispens'd with the Bastard Son of the Conde D' Olivarez , or rather , plainly dissolv'd his marriage which he made and consummated with Isabella D' Azueta , whom he had publickly married when he was but a mean person , the son of Donna Marguerita Spinola , and under the name of Julian Valeazar . But when the Conde had declar'd him his son and heir , the Pope dissolv'd the first marriage , and gave him leave under the name of Henry Philip de Guzman , to marry D. Juana de Valesco , Daughter to the Constable of Castile . AND now if it be considered , what influence these Doctrines have upon Societies and Communities of men , they will need no further reproof than a meer enumeration of the mischiefs they produce . They by this means legitimate adulterous and incestuous marriages , and disannul lawful Contracts : They give leave to a Spouse to break his or her Vow and Promise ; and to Children to disobey their Parents , and perhaps to break their Mothers heart , or to undo a Family . No words can bind your faith , because you can be dispens'd with ; and if you swear you will not procure a Dispensation , you can as well be dispens'd with for that perjury as the other ; and you cannot be tied so fast , but the Pope can unloose you . So that there is no certainty in your promise to God , or faith to men , in Judicatories to Magistrates , or in Contracts with Merchants ; in the duty of Children to their Parents , of Husbands to their Wives , or Wives to their contracted Husbands , of a Catholick to a Heretick ; and last of all a Subject to his Prince cannot be bound so strictly , but if the Prince be not of the Popes persuasion , or be by him judg'd a Tyrant , his Subjects shall owe him no obedience . But this is of particular consideration , and reserv'd for the Third Section . SECT . II. Exemption of the Clergy from the Jurisdiction of Secular Princes . This pretended to be by Divine right . The evil consequences of it . Plain Scripture against it . The Sacredness of the Seal of Confession : not to be broken to prevent the greatest evil and mischief . THERE is yet another instance , by which the Church of Rome does intolerable prejudice to Governments and Societies : In which although the Impiety is not so apparent ; yet the evil is more own'd , and notorious , and defended ; and that is , the Exemption of their Clergy from the Jurisdiction of Secular Princes and Magistrates , both in their Estates and Persons : Not only in the matters of Simony , Heresie , and Apostasie , but in matters of Theft , Perjury , Murther , Adultery , Blasphemy and Treason : In which cases they suffer not a Clergy man to be judged by the Secular power , until the Church hath quit him , and turn'd him over , and given them leave to proceed . This was verified in the Synod of Dalmatia , held by the Legates of Pope Innocent the III. and is now in the Church of Rome , pretended to be by Divine Right : [ For it cannot be proved , that Secular Princes are the Lawful Superiours and Judges of Clergy men , unless it can be prov'd , that the Sheep are better than the Shepherd , or Sons than the Fathers , or Temporals than Spirituals , ] said Bellarmine : And therefore it is a shame ( says he ) to see Princes contending with Bishops for precedency , or for Lands . For the truth is this , ( whatever the custom be ) the Prince is the Bishops Subject , not the Bishop the Princes : For no man can serve two Masters , the Pope is their own Superiour , and therefore the Secular Prince cannot be . So both Bellarmine and 〈◊〉 conclude this Doctrine out of Scripture . AND although in this , as in all things else , when he finds it for the advantage of the Church , the Pope can dispense , and diverse Popes of Rome did give power to the Common-wealth of Venice , to judge Clergy men , and punish them for great offences ; yet how ill this was taken by Paulus V. at their hands , and what stirs he made in Christendom concerning it , the World was witness ; and it is to be read in the History of the Venetian Interdict , and not without great difficulty defended by Marcus Antonius Perogrinus , M. Antonius Othelius , and Joachim Scaynus of Padua , beside the Doctors of Venice . NOW if it be considered , how great a part of mankind in the Roman Communion are Clergy men , and how great a portion of the Lands and Revenues in each Kingdom they have ; to pretend a Divine Right of Exemption of their Persons from Secular Judicatories , and their Lands from Secular burthens and charges of the Common-wealth , is to make Religion a very little friend to the Publick ; and causes , that by how much there is more of Religion , by so much there is the less of Piety and Publick Duty . Princes have many times felt the evil , and are always subject to it , when so many thousand persons are in their Kingdoms , and yet Subjects to a Foreign Power . But we need not trouble our selves to reckon the evils consequent to this procedure , themselves have own'd them , even the very worst of things , [ The Rebellion of a Clergy man against his Prince is not Treason , because he is not his Princes Subject . ] It is expresly taught by Emanuel Sà ; and because the French-men in zeal to their own King , could not endure this Doctrine , these words were left out of the Edition of Paris , but still remain in the Editions of Antwerp and Collen . But the thing is a general Rule , [ That all Ecclesiastical persons are free from Secular Jurisdiction in causes Criminal , whether Civil or Ecclesiastical : and this Rule is so general , that it admits no exception ; and so certain that it cannot be denied , unless you will contradict the principles of Faith : ] So Father Suarez . And this is pretended to be allowed by Councils , Sacred Canons , and all the Doctors of Laws Humane and Divine ; for so Bellarmine affirms . Against which , since it is a matter of Faith and Doctrine , which we now charge upon the Church of Rome , as an Enemy to publick Government , we shall think it sufficient to oppose against their Pretension , the plain and easie words of S. Paul , Let every soul be subject to the higher Powers . Every Soul , ] That is , saith S. Chrysostom , whether he be a Monk or an Evangelist , a Prophet or an Apostle . 〈◊〉 the like iniquity , when it is extended to its utmost Commentary , which the Commenters of the Church of Rome put upon it , is , the Divine Right of the Seal of Confession ; which they make so Sacred , to serve such ends as they have chosen , that it may not be broken up to save the lives of Princes , or of the whole Republick , saith * Tolet : No , not to save all the World , said ‖ Henriquez : Not to save an Innocent , not to keep the World from burning , or Religion from perversion , or all the Sacraments from demolition . Indeed it is lawful , saith * Bellarmine , if a Treason be known to a Priest in Confession , and he may in general words give notice to a pious and Catholick Prince , but not to a Heretick ; and that was acutely and prudently said by him , said Father 〈◊〉 . Father Binet is not so kind even to the Catholick Princes ; for he says , that it is better that all the Kings of the World should perish , than that the Seal of Confession should be so much as once broken ; and this is the Catholick Doctrine , said Eudaemon Joannes in his Apology for Garnet : and for it he also quotes Suarez . But it is enough to have nam'd this . How little care these men take of the lives of Princes , and the Publick Interest ; which they so greatly undervalue to every 〈◊〉 fancy of their own , is but too evident by these Doctrines . SECT . III. Their Doctrines enemies to the 〈◊〉 Powers and Lives of Princes . The whole Order of Jesuits subject Princes to the Pope . Whose power extends to Temporal punishments and depriving them of their Kingdoms . The method of doing it , and how they answer the precepts of obeying Kings . Instances of putting the deposing power in execution . Answer to the Objection that this is but the private opinion of some Doctors , not the Doctrine of the Church . A Conclusion , exhorting all that desire to be saved , to decline these horrid Doctrines . THE last thing we shall remark for the instruction and caution of our Charges is not the least . The Doctrines of the Church of Rome are great enemies to the Dignity and Security , to the Powers and Lives of Princes : And this we shall briefly prove by setting down the Doctrines themselves , and their consequent practices . AND here we observe , That not only the whole Order of Jesuits is a great enemy to Monarchy , by subjecting the Dignity of Princes to the Pope , by making the Pope the Supreme Monarch of Christians ; but they also teach , That it is a Catholick Doctrine , the Doctrine of the Church . THE Pope hath a Supreme power of disposing the Temporal things of all Christians in order to a Spiritual good , saith Bellarmine . And Becanus discourses of this very largely in his book of the English Controversie , printed by Albin at Mentz , 1612. But because this book was ordered to be purged , ( Vna litura potest ) we shall not insist upon it ; but there is as bad which was never censur'd . Bellarmine says , that the Ecclesiastical Republick can command and compel the Temporal , which is indeed its Subject , to change the Administration , and to depose Princes , and to appoint others , when it cannot otherwise defend the Spiritual good : And Father Suarez says the same . The power of the Pope extends it self to the coercion of Kings with Temporal punishments , and depriving them of their Kingdoms , when necessity requires ; nay , this power is more necessary over Princes than over Subjects . The same also is taught by Santarel in his book of Heresie and Schism , printed at Rome , 1626. BUT the mischief of this Doctrine proceeds a little further . CARDINAL Tolet affirms , and our Countryman Father Bridgewater commends the saying ; That when a Prince is Excommunicate , before the Denunciation the Subjects are not absolved from their Oath of Allegiance , ( as Cajet an says well ; ) yet when it is denounced , they are not only absolved from their Obedience , but are bound not to obey , unless the fear of death , or loss of goods excuse them ; which was the case of the English Catholicks in the time of Henry the VIII . And F. Creswel says , it is the sentence of all Catholicks , that Subjects are bound to expel Heretical Princes , if they have strength enough ; and that to this they are tied by the Commandment of God , the most strict tie of Conscience , and the extreme danger of their souls . Nay , even before the sentence is declared , though the Subjects are not bound to it , yet lawfully they may deny obedience to an Heretical Prince , said Gregory de Valentia . IT were an endless labour to transcribe the horrible Doctrines which are preached in the Jesuits School , to the shaking off the Regal Power of such Princes which are not of the Roman Communion . The whole oeconomy of it is well describ'd by Bellarmine , who affirms , That it does not belong to Monks , or other Ecclesiasticks , to commit Murthers , neither do the Popes use to proceed that way . But their manner is , first Fatherly to correct Princes , then by Ecclesiastical Censures to deprive them of the Communion , then to absolve their Subjects from the Oath of Allegeance , and to deprive them of their Kingly Dignity . And what then ? The Execution belongs to others . ] This is the way of the Popes , thus wisely and moderately to break Kings in pieces . WE delight not to aggravate evil things . We therefore forbear to set down those horrid things spoken by Sà , Mariana , Santarèl , Carolus Scribanius , and some others . It is enough that Suarez says , An Excommunicate King may with impunity be depos'd or kill'd by any one . This is the case of Kings and Princes by the Sentence of the chiefest Roman Doctors . And if it be objected , that we are commanded to obey Kings , not to speak evil of them , not to curse them , no not in our heart : There is a way found out to answer these little things . For though the Apostle commands that we should be subject to higher powers , and obey Kings , and all that are in Authority : It is true , you must , and so you may well enough for all this ; for the Pope can make that he who is a King shall be no King , and then you are disoblig'd : so Bellarmine . And if after all this there remains any 〈◊〉 of Conscience , it ought to be remembred , that though even after a Prince is excommunicated , it should be of it self a sin to depose or kill the Prince ; yet if the Pope commands you , it is no sin . For if the Pope should err by commanding sin , or forbidding vertues , yet the Church were bound to believe that the vices were good , and the vertues evil ; unless she would sin against her Conscience . They are the very words of Bellarmine . BUT they add more particulars of the same Bran. The Sons of an Heretical Father are made sui juris , that is , free from their Fathers power . A Catholick Wife is not tied to pay her duty to an Heretical Husband , and the Servants are not bound to do service to such Masters . These are the Doctrines of their great Azorius ; and as for Kings , he affirms , they may be depos'd for Heresie . But all this is only in the case of Heretical Princes : But what for others ? EVEN the Roman Catholick Princes are not free from this danger . All the World knows what the Pope did to King Chilperick of France : He depos'd him , and put Pipin in his place ; and did what he could to have put Albert King of the Romans in the Throne of Philip sirnamed the Fair. They were the Popes of Rome who arm'd the Son against the Father , the Emperour Henry IV. and the Son fought against him , took him prisoner , shav'd him , and thrust him into a Monastery , where he died with grief and hunger . We will not speak of the Emperour Frederick , Henry the sixth , Emperour ; the Duke of Savoy , against whom he caused Charles the V. and Francis the I. of France , to take Arms ; nor of Francis Dandalus , Duke of Venice , whom he bound with chains , and fed him as Dogs are fed , with bones and scraps under his Table : Our own Henry the II. and King John were great Instances of what Princes in their case may expect from that Religion . These were the piety of the Father of Christendom . But these were the product of the Doctrine which Clement the V. vented in the Council of Vienna , Omne jus Regum à se pendere : The rights of all Kings depend upon the Pope . And therefore 〈◊〉 their Catholick Princes are at their 〈◊〉 , and they would if they durst use them 〈◊〉 : If they do but favour Hereticks or Schismaticks , receive them or defend them ; if the 〈◊〉 be perjur'd , if he rashly break a League made with the See Apostolick , 〈◊〉 he do not keep the peace promis'd to the Church , if he be sacrilegious , if he dissipate the goods of the Church , the Pope may depose him , said Azorius . And 〈◊〉 ; says , he may do it , in case the Prince or Emperour be insufficient , 〈◊〉 he be wicked , if he be unprofitable , if he does not defend the Church . This is very much , but yet there is something more ; this may be done , if he impose new Gabels or Imposts upon his Subjects , without the Pope's leave ; for if they do not pretend to this also , why does the Pope in Bulla Coenae Dominici excommunicate all Princes that do it ? NOW if it be inquired , by what Authority the Pope does these things ? It is answered , That the Pope hath a Supreme and Absolute Authority ; both the Spiritual and the Temporal Power is in the Pope as Christ's Vicar , said Azorius and Santarel . The Church hath the right of a superiour Lord over the rights of Princes and their Temporalties ; and that by her Jurisdiction she disposes of Temporals ut de suo peculio , as of her own proper goods , said our Countreyman Weston , Rector of the College at Doway . Nay , the Pope hath power in omnia , per omnia , super omnia , in all things , thorough all things , and over all things ; and the sublimity and immensity of the Supreme Bishop is so great , that no mortal man can comprehend it , said Cassenaeus ; no man can express it , no man can think it : So that it is no wonder what Papirius Massonus said of Pope Boniface the VIII . that he owned himself not only as the Lord of France , but of all the World. NOW we are sure it will be said , That this is but the private opinion of some Doctors , not the Doctrine of the Church of Rome . To this we reply : 1. It is not the private opinion of a few , but their publick Doctrine own'd , and offer'd to be justified to all the World , as appears in the preceding testimonies . 2. It is the 〈◊〉 of all the Jesuit Order , which is now the greatest and most glorious in the Church of Rome , and the maintenance of it , is the subject matter of their new Vow of obedience to the Pope , that is to advance his Grandeur . 3. Not only the Jesuits , but all the Canonists in the Church of Rome contend earnestly for these Doctrines . 4. This they do upon the Authority of the Decretals , their own Law * , and the Decrees of Councils . 5. Not only the Jesuits , and Canonists , but others also of great note amongst them , earnestly contend sor these Doctrines ; particularly Cassenaeus , Zodericus * , the Archbishop of Florence ‖ , Petrus de Monte * , St. Thomas Aquinas ‖ , Bozius , Baronius , and many others . 6. Themselves tell us it is a matter of Faith ; F. Creswell * says , it is the sentence of all Catholicks ; and they that do not admit these Doctrines , Father Rosweyd * calls them half Christians , Grinners , barking Royalists , and a new Sect of Catholicks ; and Eudaemon Joannes ‖ says , That without question it is a Heresie in the judgment of all Catholicks . Now in such things which are not in their Creeds , and publick Confessions , from whence should we know the Doctrines of their Church , but from their chiefest and most leading Doctors ; who it is certain , would fain have all the World believe it to be the Doctrine of their Church ? And therefore as it is certain that any Roman Catholick may with allowance be of this opinion ; so he will be esteemed the better and more zealous Catholick if he be ; and if it were not for fear of Princes , who will not lose their Crowns for their foolish Doctrines , there is no peradventure but it would be declared to be de fide , a matter of faith , as divers of them of late , do not stick to say . And of this the Pope gives but too much evidence , since he will not take away the scandal , which is so greatly given to all Christian Kings and Republicks , by a publick and a just condemnation of it . Nay , it is worse than thus ; for Sixtus Quintus upon the XI . of September , A. D. 1589. in an Oration in a Conclave of Cardinals , did solemnly commend the Monk that kill'd Henry the III. of France . The Oration was printed at Paris by them that had rebell'd against that Prince , and avouched for Authentick by Boucher , Decreil , and Ancelein : And though some would fain have it thought to be none of his , yet Bellarmine dares not deny it , but makes for it a crude , and a cold Apology . NOW concerning this Article , it will not be necessary to declare the Sentence of the Church of England and Ireland ; because it is notorious to all the World ; and is expresly oppos'd against this Roman Doctrine , by Laws , Articles , Consessions , Homilies , the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy , the Book of Christian Institution , and the many excellent Writings of King James of Blessed Memory , of our Bishops and other Learned persons against Bellarmine , Parsons , Eudaemon Johannes , Creswel , and others : And nothing is more notorious than that the Church of England is most 〈◊〉 , most zealous for the right of Kings ; and within these four and twenty years , she hath had many Martyrs , and very , very many Confessors in this cause . IT is true , that the Church of Rome does recriminate in this point , and charges some Calvinists and Presbyterians with Doctrines which indeed they borrowed from Rome , 〈◊〉 their Arguments , making use of their Expressions , and pursuing their Principles . But with them in this Article we have nothing to do , but to reprove the men , and condemn their Doctrine , as we have done all along , by private Writings , and publick Instruments . WE conclude these our reproofs with an Exhortation to our respective Charges , to all that desire to be sav'd in the day of the Lord Jesus , that they decline from these horrid Doctrines , which in their birth are new , in their growth are scandalous , in their proper consequents are insinitely dangerous to their souls , and hunt for their precious life : But therefore it is highly 〈◊〉 that they also should perceive their own advantages , and give God praise , that they are immur'd from such infinite dangers , by the 〈◊〉 Precepts , and holy Faith taught and commanded in the Church of England and Ireland ; in which the Word of God is set before them as a Lantern to their feet , and a light unto their eyes ; and the Sacraments are fully administred according to Christ's Institution , and Repentance is preach'd according to the measures of the Gospel , and Faith in Christ is propounded according to the rule of the Apostles , and the measures of the Churches Apostolical ; and obedience to Kings is greatly and sacredly urg'd , and the Authority and Order of Bishops is preserv'd , against the usurpation of the Pope , and the invasion of Schismaticks and Aerians new and old ; and Truth and Faith to all men is kept and preach'd to be necessary and inviolable , and the Commandments are expounded with just severity , and without scruples ; and holiness of life is urg'd upon all men , as indispensably necessary to salvation , and therefore without any allowances , tricks , and little artifices of escaping from it by easie and imperfect Doctrines ; and every thing is practis'd which is useful to the saving of our souls ; and Christ's Merits and Satisfaction are intirely relied upon for the pardon of our sins ; and the necessity of good works is universally taught ; and our prayers are holy , unblameable , edisying and understood ; they are according to the measures of the Word of God , and the practice of all Saints . In this Church the children are duly , carefully , and rightly baptiz'd , and the baptiz'd , in their due time are Confirm'd , and the Confirm'd are Communicated ; and Penitents are absolv'd , and the Impenitents punished and discouraged ; and Holy Marriage in all men is preferr'd before unclean Concubinate in any ; and Nothing is wanting that God and his Christ hath made necessary to salvation . Behold we set before you Life and Death , Blessing and Cursing , Safety and Danger . Choose which you will ; but remember that the Prophets who are among you , have declar'd to you the way of salvation . Now the Lord give you understanding in all things , and reveal even this also unto you . Amen . THE END . TWO LETTERS TO PERSONS Changed in their RELIGION . The I. LETTER . A Copy of the first Letter written to a Gentlewoman newly seduced to the Church of Rome . M. B. I WAS desirous of an opportunity in London to have discoursed with you concerning something of nearest concernment to you , but the multitude of my little affairs hindred me , and have brought upon you this trouble to read a long Letter , which yet I hope you will be more willing to do , because it comes from one who hath a great respect to your person , and a very great charity to your soul : I must confess I was on your behalf troubled when I heard you were fallen from the Communion of the Church of England , and entred into a voluntary , unnecessary schism , and departure from the Laws of the King , and the Communion of those with whom you have always lived in charity , going against those Laws in the defence and profession of which your Husband died , going from the Religion in which you were Baptized , in which for so many years , you lived piously and hoped for Heaven , and all this without any sufficient reason , without necessity or just scandal ministred to you ; and to aggravate all this , you did it in a time when the Church of England was persecuted , when she was marked with the Characterisms of her Lord , the marks of the Cross of Jesus , that is , when she suffered for a holy cause and a holy conscience , when the Church of England was more glorious than at any time before ; Even when she could shew more Martyrs and Confessors than any Church this day in Christendom , even then when a King died in the profession of her Religion , and thousands of Priests , learned and pious men suffered the spoiling of their goods rather than they would forsake one Article of so excellent a Religion ; So that seriously it is not easily to be imagined that any thing should move you , unless it be that which troubled the perverse Jews , and the Heathen Greek , Scandalum crucis , the scandal of the Cross ; You stumbled at that Rock of offence ; You left us because we were afflicted , lessened in outward circumstances , and wrapped in a cloud ; but give me leave only to remind you of that sad saying of the Scripture , that you may avoid the consequent of it ; They that fàll on this stone shall be broken in pieces , but they on whom it shall fall shall be grinded to powder . And if we should consider things but prudently , it is a great argument that the sons of our Church are very conscientious and just in their perswasions , when it is evident , that we have no temporal end to serve , nothing but the great end of our souls , all our hopes of preferment are gone , all secular regards , only we still have truth on our sides , and we are not willing with the loss of truth to change from a persecuted to a prosperous Church , from a Reformed to a Church that will not be reformed ; lest we give scandal to good people that suffer for a holy conscience , and weaken the hands of the afflicted ; of which if you had been more careful , you would have remained much more innocent . BUT I pray , give me leave to consider for you , because you in your change considered so little for your self , what fault , what false doctrine , what wicked and dangerous proposition , what defect , what amiss did you find in the Doctrine and Liturgy and Discipline of the Church of England ? For its doctrine , It is certain it professes the belief of all that is written in the Old and New Testament , all that which is in the three Creeds , the Apostolical , the Nicene , and that of Athanasius , and whatsoever was decreed in the four General Councils , or in any other truly such , and whatsoever was condemned in these , our Church hath legally declared it to be Heresie . And upon these accounts above four whole ages of the Church went to Heaven ; they baptized all their Catechumens into this faith , their hopes of heaven was upon this and a good life , their Saints and Martyrs lived and died in this alone , they denied Communion to none that professed this faith . This is the Catholick faith , so saith the Creed of Athanasius ; and unless a company of men have power to alter the faith of God , whosoever live and die in this faith , are intirely Catholick and Christian. So that the Church of England hath the same faith without dispute that the Church had for 400 or 500 years , and therefore there could be nothing wanting here to saving faith , if we live according to our belief . 2. For the Liturgy of the Church of England , I shall not need to say much , because the case will be very evident ; First , Because the disputers of the Church of Rome have not been very forward to object any thing against it , they cannot charge it with any evil : 2. Because for all the time of King Edward VI. and till the eleventh year of Queen Elizabeth , your people came to our Churches and prayed with us till the Bull of Pius Quintus came out upon temporal regards , and made a Schism by forbidding the Queens Subjects to pray as by Law was here appointed , though the prayers were good and holy , as themselves did believe . That Bull enjoyned Recusancy , and made that which was an act of Rebellion , and Disobedience , and Schism , to be the character of your Roman Catholicks . And after this , what can be supposed wanting in order to salvation ? We have the Word of God , the Faith of the Apostles , the Creeds of the Primitive Church , the Articles of the four first general Councils , a holy Liturgy , excellent Prayers , perfect Sacraments , Faith and Repentance , the ten Commandments , and the Sermons of Christ , and all the precepts and counsels of the Gospel ; We teach the necessity of good works , and require and strictly exact the severity of a holy life ; We live in obedience to God , and are ready to die for him , and do so when he requires us so to do ; We speak honourably of his most holy Name , we worship him at the mention of his Name , we confess his Attributes , we love his Servants , we pray for all men , we love all Christians , even our most erring Brethren , we confess our sins to God and to our Brethren whom we have offended , and to Gods Ministers in cases of Scandal , or of a troubled Conscience ; We communicate often , we are enjoyned to receive the holy Sacrament thrice every year at least ; Our Priests absolve the penitent , our Bishops ordain Priests , and confirm baptized persons , and bless their people and intercede for them ; and what could here be wanting to Salvation ? what necessity forced you from us ? I dare not suspect it was a temporal regard that drew you away , but I am sure it could be no spiritual . BUT now that I have told you , and made you to consider from whence you went , give me leave to represent to you , and tell you whither you are gone , that you may understand the nature and conditions of your change : For do not think your self safe , because they tell you that you are come to the Church ; You are indeed gone from one Church to another , from a better to a worse , as will appear in the induction , the particulars of which before I reckon , give me leave to give you this advice ; if you mean in this affair to understand what you do ; it were better you enquired what your Religion is , than what your Church is ; for that which is a true Religion , to day , will be so to morrow and for ever ; but that which is a holy Church to day , may be heretical at the next change , or may betray her trust , or obtrude new Articles in contradiction to the old , or by new interpretations may clude antient truths , or may change your Creed , or may pretend to be the Spouse of Christ when she is idolatrous , that is , adulterous to God : Your Religion is that which you must , and therefore may competently understand ; You must live in it ; and grow in it , and govern all the actions of your life by it ; and in all questions concerning the Church , you are to chuse your Church by the Religion , and therefore this ought first and last to be enquired after . Whether the Roman Church be the Catholick Church , must depend upon so many uncertain enquires , is offered to be proved by so long , so tedious a method , hath in it so many intrigues and Labyrinths of Question , and is ( like a long line ) so impossible to be perfectly strait , and to have no declination in it when it is held by such a hand as yours , that unless it be by material enquiries into the Articles of the Religion , you can never hope to have just grounds of confidence . In the mean time you can consider this ; if the Roman Church were the Catholick , that is , so as to exclude all that are not of her communion , then the Greek Churches had as good turn Turks as remain damned Christians , and all that are in the communion of all the other Patriarchal Churches in Christendom , must also perish like Heathens , which thing before any man can believe , he must have put off all reason , and all modesty , and all charity ; And who can with any probability think that the Communion of Saints in the Creed is nothing but the Communion of Roman Subjects , and the Article of the Catholick Church was made up to dispark the inclosures of Jerusalem , but to turn them into the pale of Rome , and the Church is as limited as ever it was , save only that the Synagogue is translated to Rome , which I think you will easily believe was a Proposition the Apostles understood not . But though it be hard to trust to it , it is also so hard to prove it , that you shall never be able to understand the measures of that question , and therefore your salvation can never depend upon it . For no good or wise person can believe that God hath tied our Salvation to impossible measures , or bound us to an Article that is not by us cognoscible , or intends to have us conducted by that which we cannot understand , and when you shall know that Learned men , even of the Roman party are not agreed concerning the Catholick Church that is infallibly to guide you , some saying that it is the virtual Church , that is , the Pope ; some , that it is the representative Church , that is , a Council ; Some that it is the Pope and the Council , the virtual Church and the representative Church together ; Some , that neither of these , nor both together are infallible ; but only , the essential Church , or the diffusive Church is the Catholick , from whom we must at no hand dissent ; you will quickly find your self in a wood , and uncertain whether you have more than a word in exchange for your soul , when you are told you are in the Catholick Church . But I will tell you what you may understand , and see and feel , something that your self can tell whether I say true or no concerning it . You are now gone to a Church that protects it self by arts of subtilty and arms , by violence and persecuting all that are not of their minds , to a Church in which you are to be a Subject of the King so long as it pleases the Pope : In which you may be absolved from your Vows made to God , your Oaths to the King , your Promises to Men , your duty to your Parents in some cases : A Church in which men pray to God and to Saints in the same Form of words in which they pray to God , as you may see in the Offices of Saints , and particularly of our Lady : a Church in which men are taught by most of the principal Leaders to worship Images with the same worship with which they worship God and Christ , or him or her whose Image it is , and in which they usually picture God the Father , and the holy Trinity , to the great dishonour of that sacred mystery , against the doctrine and practice of the Primitive Church , against the express doctrine of Scripture , against the honour of a Divine Attribute ; I mean , the immensity and spirituality of the Divine Nature ; You are gone to a Church that pretends to be Infallible , and yet is infinitely deceived in many particulars , and yet endures no contradiction , and is impatient her children should enquire into any thing the Priests obtrude . You are gone from receiving the whole Sacrament to receive it but half ; from Christs Institution to a humane invention , from Scripture to uncertain Traditions , and from antient Traditions to new pretences , from prayers which ye understood to prayers which ye understand not , from confidence in God to rely upon creatures , from intire dependence upon inward acts to a dangerous temptation of resting too much in outward ministeries , in the external work of Sacraments and of Sacramentals : you are gone from a Church whose worshipping is simple , Christian and Apostolical , to a Church where mens consciences are loaden with a burden of Ceremonies greater than that in the days of the Jewish Religion ( for the Ceremonial of the Church of Rome is a great Book in Folio ) greater I say than all the Ceremonies of the Jews contained in Leviticus , &c. You are gone from a Church where you were exhorted to read the Word of God , the holy Scriptures from whence you found instruction , institution , comfort , reproof , a treasure of all excellencies , to a Church that seals up that fountain from you , and gives you drink by drops out of such Cisterns as they first make , and then stain , and then reach out : and if it be told you that some men abuse Scripture , it is true , for if your Priests had not abused Scripture , they could not thus have abused you , but there is no necessity they should , and you need not , unless you list ; any more than you need to abuse the Sacraments or Decrees of the Church , or the messages of your friend , or the Letters you receive , or the Laws of the Land , all which are liable to be abused by evil persons , but not by good people and modest understandings . It is now become a part of your Religion to be ignorant , to walk in blindness , to believe the man that hears your Confessions , to hear none but him , not to hear God speaking but by him , and so you are liable to be abused by him , as he please , without remedy . You are gone from us , where you were only taught to worship God through Jesus Christ , and now you are taught to worship Saints and Angels with a worship at least dangerous , and in some things proper to God ; for your Church worships the Virgin Mary with burning incense and candles to her , and you give her presents , which by the consent of all Nations used to be esteemed a worship peculiar to God , and it is the same thing which was condemned for Heresie in the Collyridians , who offered a Cake to the Virgin Mary ; A Candle and a Cake make no difference in the worship ; and your joyning God and the Saints in your worship and devotions , is like the device of them that 〈◊〉 for King and Parliament , the latter destroys the former . I will trouble you with no more particulars , because if these move you not to consider better , nothing can . 〈◊〉 yet I have two things more to add of another nature , one of which at least may prevail upon you , whom I suppose to have a tender and a religious Conscience . 〈◊〉 first is , That all the points of difference between us and your Church are such as do evidently serve the ends of Covetousness and ambition , of power and riches , and so stand vehemently suspected of design , and art , rather than truth of the Article and designs upon Heaven . I instance in the Pope's power over Princes and all the world ; his power of dispensation , The exemption of the Clergy from jurisdiction of Princes , The doctrine of Purgatory and Indulgences which was once made means to raise a portion for a Lady , the Neece of Pope Leo the 〈◊〉 ; The Priests power advanced beyond authority of any warrant from Scripture , a doctrine apt to bring absolute obedience to the Papacy ; but because this is possibly too nice for you to suspect or consider , that which I am sure ought to move you is this : THAT you are gone to a Religion in which though 〈◊〉 God's grace prevailing over the follies of men , there are I hope , and charitably suppose , many pious men that love God , and live good lives , yet there are very many doctrines taught by your men , which are very ill Friends to a good life . I instance in your Indulgences and pardons , in which vitious men put a great confidence , and rely greatly upon them . The doctrine of Purgatory which gives countenance to a sort of Christians who live half to God and half to the world , and for them this doctrine hath found out a way that they may go to Hell and to Heaven too . The Doctrine that the Priests absolution can turn a tristing repentance into a perfect and a good , and that suddenly too , and at any time , even on our Death bed , or the minute before your death , is a dangerous heap of falsehoods , and gives licence to wicked people , and teaches men to reconcile a wicked debauched life , with the hopes of Heaven . And then for penances and temporal satisfaction , which might seem to be as a plank after the shipwrack of the duty of Repentance , to keep men in awe , and to preserve them from sinking in an Ocean of Impiety , it comes to just nothing by your doctrine ; for there are so many easie ways of Indulgences and getting Pardons , so many con-fraternities , stations , priviledged Altars , little Offices , Agnus Dei's , amulets , hallowed devices , swords , roses , hats , Church-yards , and the fountain of these annexed Indulgences the Pope himself , and his power of granting what , and when , and to whom he list , that he is a very unfortunate man that needs to smart with penances ; and after all , he may choose to suffer any at all , for he may pay them in Purgatory if he please , and he may come out of Purgatory upon reasonable terms , in case he should think it fit to go thither ; So that all the whole duty of Repentance seems to be destroyed with devices of men that seek power and gain , and sind errour and folly ; insomuch that if I had a mind to live an evil Life , and yet hope for Heaven at last , I would be of your religion above any in the world . BUT I forget I am writing a Letter : I shall therefore desire you to consider upon the premises , which is the safer way . For surely it is lawful for a man to serve God without Images ; but that to worship Images is lawful , is not so sure . It is lawful to pray to God alone , to confess him to be true , and every man a liar , to cal no man Master upon Earth , but to rely upon God teaching us ; But it is at least hugely disputable and not at all certain that any man , or society of men can be infallible , that we may put our trust in Saints , in certain extraordinary Images , or burn Incense and offer consumptive oblations to the Virgin Mary , or make vows to persons , of whose state , or place , or capacities , or condition we have no certain revelation : we are sure we do well when in the holy Communion we worship God and Jesus Christ our Saviour , but they who also worship what seems to be bread , are put to strange shifts to make themselves believe it to be lawful . It is certainly lawful to believe what we see and feel ; but it is an unnatural thing upon pretence of faith to disbelieve our eyes , when our sense and our faith can better be reconciled , as it is in the question of the Real presence , as it is taught by the Church of England . SO that unless you mean to prefer a danger before safety , temptation to unholiness before a severe and a holy religion , unless you mean to lose the benefit of your prayers by praying what you perceive not , and the benefit of the Sacrament in great degrees by faling from Christ's institution , and taking half instead of all ; unless you desire to provoke God to jealousie by Images , and Man to jealousie in professing a Religion in which you may in many cases have leave to forfeit your faith and lawful trust , unless you will still continue to give scandal to those good people with whom you have lived in a common Religion , and weaken the hearts of God's afflicted ones , unless you will choose a Catechism without the second Commandment , and a Faith that grows bigger or less as men please , and a Hope that in many degrees relies on men and vain confidences , and a Charity that damns all the world but your selves , unless you will do all this , that is , suffer an abuse in your Prayers , in the Sacrament , in the Commandments , in Faith , in Hope , in Charity , in the Communion of Saints , and your duty to your Supreme , you must return to the bosom of your Mother the Church of England from whence you have fallen , rather weakly than maliciously , and I doubt not but you will find the Comfort of it all your Life , and in the Day of your Death , and in the Day of Judgment . If you will not , yet I have freed mine own soul , and done an act of Duty and Charity , which at least you are bound to take kindly if you will not entertain it obediently . NOW let me add this , that although most of these objections are such things which are the open and avowed doctrines or practices of your Church , and need not to be proved as being either notorious or confessed ; yet if any of your Guides shall seem to question any thing of it , I will bind my self to verifie it to a tittle , and in that too which I intend them , that is , so as to be an objection obliging you to return , under the pain of folly or heresie , or disobedience , according to the subject matter . And though I have propounded these things now to your consideration , yet if it be desired I shall represent them to your eye , so that even your self shall be able to give sentence in the behalf of truth . In the mean time give me leave to tell you of how much folly you are guilty in being moved by such mock-arguments as your men use when they meet with women and tender consciences and weaker understandings . THE first is ; where was your Church before Luther ? Now if you had called upon them to speak something against your religion from Scripture , or right reason , or Universal Tradition , you had been secure as a Tortoise in her shell ; a cart pressed with sheaves could not have oppressed your cause or person ; though you had confessed you understood nothing of the mysteries of succession doctrinal or personal . For if we can make it appear that our religion was that which Christ and his Apostles taught , let the truth suffer what eclipses or prejudices can be supposed , let it be hid like the holy fire in the captivity , yet what Christ and his Apostles taught us is eternally true , and shall by some means or other be conveyed to us ; even the enemies of truth have been conservators of that truth by which we can confute their errors . But if you still ask where it was before Luther ? I answer it was there where it was after ; even in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament ; and I know no warrant for any other religion ; and if you will expect I should shew any society of men who professed all the doctrines which are now expressed in the confession of the Church of England ; I shall tell you it is unreasonable ; because some of our truths are now brought into our publick confessions that they might be oppos'd against your errors ; before the occasion of which there was no need of any such confessions , till you made many things necessary to be professed , which are not lawful to be believed . For if we believe your superinduced follies we shall do unreasonably , unconscionably , and wickedly ; but the questions themselves are so useless abstracting from the accidental necessity which your follies have brought upon us , that it had been happy if we had never heard of them more than the Saints and Martyrs did in the first Ages of the Church ; but because your Clergy have invaded the liberty of the Church , and multiplied the dangers of damnation , and pretend new necessities , and have introduc'd new articles , and affright the simple upon new pretensions , and slight the very institution and the Commands of Christ and of the Apostles , and invent new Sacramentals , constituting Ceremonies of their own head , and promise grace along with the use of them , as if they were not Ministers but Lords of the Spirit , and teach for doctrines the commandments of men , and make void the Commandment of God by their tradition , and have made a strange body of Divinity , therefore it is necessary that we should immure our Faith by the refusal of such vain and superstitious dreams : but our faith was completed at first , it is no other than that which was delivered to the Saints , and can be no more for ever . So that it is a foolish demand to require that we should shew before Luther a systeme of Articles declaring our sense in these questions : It was long before they were questions at all : and when they were made questions , they remained so , a long time ; and when by their several pieces they were determined , this part of the Church was oppressed with a violent power ; and when God gave opportunity , then the yoke was broken ; and this is the whole progress of this affair . But if you will still insist upon it , then let the matter be put into equal ballances , and 〈◊〉 them shew any Church whose confession of Faith was such as was obtruded upon you at Trent : and if your Religion be Pius Quartus his Creed at Trent , then we also have a question to ask , and that is , Where was your Religion before Trent ? THE Council of Trent determined that the souls departed before the day of Judgment enjoy the Beatisical Vision . It is certain this Article could not be shewn in the Confession of any of the antient Churches ; for most of the Fathers were of another opinion . But that which is the greatest offence of Christendom is not only that these doctrines which we say are false were yet affirmed , but that those things which the Church of God did always reject , or held as uncertain , should be made Articles of Faith , and so become parts of your religion ; and of these it is that I again ask the question which none of your side shall ever be able to answer for you : Where was your Religion before Trent ? I could instance in many particulars ? but I shall name one to you , which because the thing of it self is of no great consequence , it will appear the more unreasonable and intolerable that your Church should adopt it into the things of necessary belief , especially since it was only a matter of fact , and they took the false part too . For in the 21. Sess. chap. 4. it is affirmed , That although the holy Fathers did give the 〈◊〉 of the Eucharist to Infants , yet they did it without any necessity of salvation ; that is , they did not believe it necessary to their salvation , which is notoriously false , and the contrary is marked out with the black-lead of every man almost that reads their Works ; and yet your Council says this is sine controversià credendum ; to be believed without all controversie : and all Christians forbidden to believe or teach otherwise . So that here it is made an Article of Faith amongst you , that a man shall neither believe his reason nor his eyes : and who can shew any confession of Faith in which all the Trent doctrine was professed and enjoyned under pain of damnation ? and before the Council of Constance , the doctrine touching the Popes power was so new , so decried , that as Gerson says he hardly should have escaped the note of Heresie that would have said so much as was there defined : so that in that Article which now makes a great part of your belief , Where was your Religion before the Council of Constance ? and it is notorious that your Council of Constance determined the doctrine of the half-communion with a Non obstante to Christ's institution , that is , with a defiance to it , or a noted , observed neglect of it , and with a profession it was otherwise in the Primitive Church . Where then was your Religion before John Hus and Hierom of Prague's time , against whom that Council was convened ? But by this instance it appears most certainly that your Church cannot shew her confessions 〈◊〉 after Christ , and therefore if we could not shew ours immediately before Luther , it were not half so much ; for since you receded from Christ's Doctrine , we might well recede from yours ; and it matters not who or how many or how long they prosessed your doctrine , if neither Christ nor his Apostles did teach it : so that if these Articles constitute your Church , your Church was 〈◊〉 at the first , and if ours was invisible afterwards it matters not ; For yours was invisible in the days of light , and ours was invisible in the days of darkness . For our Church was always visible in the 〈◊〉 of Scripture , and he that had his eyes of Faith and reason might easily have seen these truths all the way which constitute our Church . But I add yet farther , that our Church before Luther was there where your Church was , in the same place and in the same persons ; for divers of the errors which have been amongst us reformed , were not the constituent Articles of your Church before Luther's time ; for before the last Councils of your Church a man might have been of your Communion upon easier terms ; and Indulgences were indeed a practice , but no Article of Faith before your men made it so , and that very lately , and so were many other things besides . So that although your men cozen the credulous and the simple by calling yours The old Religion , yet the difference is vast between Truth and their affirmative , even as much as between old Errors and new Articles . For although Ignorance and Superstition had prepared the ore , yet the Councils of Constance and Basil , and Trent especially , were the forges and the mint . Lastly , if your men had not by all the vile and violent arts of the world stopped the mouths of dissenters , the question would quickly have been answered , or our Articles would have been so confessed , so owned and so publick , that the question could never have been asked ; but in despite of all opposition , there were great numbers of professors who did protest and profess and practise our doctrines contrary to your Articles ; as it is demonstrated by the Divines of Germany in Illyricus his Catalogus testium veritatis , and in Bishop Morton's appeal . BUT with your next objection you are better pleased , and your men make most noise with it . For you pretend that by our confession Salvation may be had in your Church ; but your men deny it to us ; and therefore by the confession of both sides you may be safe , and there is no question concerning you ; but of us there is great question , for none but our selves say that we can be saved . I answer , 1. That Salvation may be had in your Church , is it ever the truer because we say it ? If it be not , it can add no considence to you , for the proposition gets no strength by your affirmative . But if it be , then our authority is good or else our reason ; and if either be , then we have more reason to be believed speaking of our selves ; because we are concerned to see that our selves may be in a state of hope ; and therefore we would not venture on this side if we had not greater reason to believe well of our selves than of you . And therefore believe us when it is more likely that we have greater reason , because we have greater concernments , and therefore greater considerations . 2. As much charity as your men pretend us to speak of you , yet it is a clear case our hope of your Salvation is so 〈◊〉 that we dare 〈◊〉 venture our selves on your side . The Burger of Oldwater being to pass a river in his journey to Daventry , bad his man try the ford ; telling him he hoped he should not be drowned , for though he was afraid the River was too deep , yet he thought his horse would carry him out , or at least , the boats would fetch him off . Such a considence we may have of you , but you will find that but little warranty , if you remember how great an interest it is that you venture . 3. IT would be remembred that though the best ground of your hope is not the goodness of your own Faith , but the greatness of our charity ; yet we that charitably hope well of you , have a fulness of assurance of the truth and certainty of our own way ; and however you can please your selves with Images of things as having no firm footing for your trisling confidence , yet you can never with your tricks outface us of just and firm adherencies ; and if you were not empty of supports , and greedy of bulrushes , snatching at any thing to support your sinking cause , you would with fear and trembling consider the direct dangers which we demonstrate to you to be in your Religion rather than slatter your selves with collateral , weak , and deceitful hopes of accidental possibilities , that some of you may escape . 4. IF we be more charitable to you than you are to us , acknowledge in us the beauty and essential form of Christian Religion ; be sure you love as well as make use of our charity ; but if you make our charity an argument against us , remember that you render us evil in exchange for good ; and let it be no brag to you that you have not that charity to us ; for therefore the Donatists were condemned for Hereticks and Schismaticks because they damn'd all the world , and afforded no charity to any that was not of their Communion . 5. BUT that our charity may be such indeed , that is , that it may do you a real benefit , and not turn into Wormwood and Colliquintida , I pray take notice in what sense it is that we allow Salvation may possibly be had in your Church . We warrant it not to any , we only hope it for some , we allow it to them as to the Sadduces in the Law , and to the Corinthians in the Gospel who denyed the resurrection ; that is , till they were sufficiently instructed , and competently convinced , and had time and powers to out wear their prejudices and the impresses of their education and long perswasion . But to them amongst you who can and do consider and yet determine for error and interest , we have a greater charity , even so much as to labour and pray for their conversion , but not so much fondness as 〈◊〉 slatter them into boldness and 〈◊〉 adherencies to matters of so great danger . 6. BUT in all this affair , though your men are very bold with God and leap into his judgment-seat before him , and give wild sentences concerning the salvation of your own party and the damnation of all that disagree , yet that which is our charity to you , is indeed the fear of God , and the reverence of his judgments ; we do not say that all Papists are certainly damn'd ; we wish and desire vehemently that none of you may perish ; but then this charity of judgment relates not to you , nor is derived from any probability which we see in your doctrines that differ from ours ; but because we know not what rate and value God puts upon the article ; It concerns neither you nor us to say , this or that man shall be damn'd for his opinion ; for besides that this is a bold intrusion into that secret of God which shall not be opened till the day of judgment , and besides that we know not what allays and abatements are to be made by the good meaning and the ignorance of the man ; all that can concern us is to tell you that you are in error , that you depart from Scripture , that you exercise tyranny over souls , that you leave the Divine institution , and prevaricate Gods Commandment , that you divide the Church without truth and without necessity , that you tie men to believe things under pain of damnation which cannot be made very probable , much less certain ; and therefore that you sin against God and are in danger of his eternal displeasure ; but in giving the sinal sentence as we have no more to do than your men have , yet so we refuse to follow your evil example ; and we follow the glorious precedent of our Blessed Lord ; who decreed and declared against the crime , but not against the Criminal before the day . He that does this , or that , is in danger of the Council , or in danger of judgment , or liable and obnoxious to the danger of hell fire ; so we say of your greatest errors ; they put you in the danger of perishing ; but that you shall or shall not perish , we leave it to your Judge ; and if you call this charity , it is well , I am sure it is piety and the fear of God. 7. WHETHER you may be saved , or whether you shall be damned for your errors , does neither depend upon our affirmative nor your negative , but according to the rate and value which God sets upon things . Whatever we talk , things are as they are , not as we dispute , or grant , or hope ; and therefore it were well if your men would leave abusing you and themselves with these little arts of indirect support . For many men that are warranted , yet do eternally perish , and you in your Church damn millions who I doubt not shall reign with Jesus eternally in the Heavens . 8. I wish you would consider , that if any of our men say salvation may be had in your Church , it is not for the goodness of your new propositions , but only because you do keep so much of that which is our Religion , that 〈◊〉 the confidence of that we hope well concerning you . And we do not hope any thing at all that is good of you or your Religion as it distinguishes from us and ours : we hope that the good which you have common with us may obtain pardon directly or indirectly , or may be an antidote of the venome , and an amulet against the danger of your very great errors , so that if you can derive any considence from our concession , you must remember where it takes root ; not upon any thing of yours , but wholly upon the excellency of ours ; you are not at all sase , or warranted for being Papists , but we hope well of some of you , sor having so much of the Protestant : and if that will do you any good , proceed in it , and follow it whither soever it leads you . 9. THE safety that you dream of which we say to be on your side , is nothing of allowance or warranty , but a hope that is collateral , indirect and relative ; we do not say any thing whereby you can conclude yours to be safer than ours , for it is not safe at all , but extremely dangerous ; we affirm those errors in themselves to be damnable , some to contain in them Impiety , some to have Sacriledge , some Idolatry , some Superstition , some practices to be conjuring and charming , and very like to Witchcraft , as in your hallowing of Water , and baptizing Bells , and exorcizing Demoniacks ; and what safety there can be in these , or what you can fancy we should allow to you , I suppose you need not boast of . Now because we hope some are saved amongst you , you must not conclude yours to be safe ; for our hope relies upon this . There are many of your propositions in which we differ from you , that thousands amongst you understand and know nothing of , it is to them as if they were not , it is to them now as it was before the Council , they hear not of it . And though your Priests have taken a course that the most ignorant do practise some of your abominations most grosly , yet we hope this will not be laid upon them who ( as S. Austin's expression is ) cautâ sollicitudine quaerunt veritatem , corrigi parati cum invenerint : do according as they are able warily and diligently seek for truth , and are ready to follow it when they find it ; men who live good lives , and repent of all their evils known and unknown . Now if we are not deceived in our hopes , these men shall rejoyce in the eternal goodness of God , which prevails over the malice of them that misguide you ; but if we be deceived in our hopes of you , your guides have abus'd you , and the blind leaders of the blind will fall together . For , 10. IF you will have the secret of this whole 〈◊〉 , this it is . The hopes we have of any of you , ( as it is known ) principally relies upon the hopes of your repentance . Now we say that a man may repent of an error which he knows not of ; as he that prays heartily for the pardon of all his sins and errors known and unknown ; by his general repentance may obtain many degrees and instances of mercy . Now thus much also your men allow to us ; these who live well , and die in a 〈◊〉 though but general repentance of their sins and errors even amongst us your best and wisest men pronounce to be in a savable condition . Here then we are equal , and we are as safe by your consession as you are by ours . But because there are some Bigots of your faction fierce and siery who say that a general repentance will not serve our turns , but it must be a particular renunciation of Protestancy : these men deny not only to us but to themselves too , all that comsort which they derive from our Concession , and indeed which they can hope for from the mercies of God. For be you sure we think as ill of vour errors as you can suppose of our 〈◊〉 ; and therefore if for errors ( be they on which side it chances ) a general 〈◊〉 will not serve the turn without an actual dereliction , then slatter not your selves by any thing of our kindness to your party ; for you must have a particular if a general be not 〈◊〉 . But if it be sufficient for you , it is so for us , in case we be in error as your men suppose us ; but if it will not 〈◊〉 us sor remedy to those errors you charge us with , neither will it suffice you ; for the case must needs be equal as to the value of repentance and malignity of the error : and therefore these men condemn themselves , and will not allow us to hope well of them ; but if they will allow us to hope , it must be by 〈◊〉 the value of a general repentance ; and if they allow that , they must hope as well of ours as we of theirs : but if they deny it to us , they deny it to themselves , and then they can no more brag of any thing of our concession . This only I add to this consideration ; that your men do not , cannot charge upon us any doctrine that is in its matter and effect impious ; there is nothing positive in our doctrine , but is either true or innocent , but we are accused for denying your superstructures : ours therefore ( if we be deceived ) is but like a sin of omission ; yours are sins of commission in case you are in the wrong ( as we believe you to be ) and therefore you must needs be in the greater danger than we can be supposed , by how much sins of omission are less than sins of commission . 11. YOUR very way of arguing from our charity is a very fallacy and a trick that must needs deceive you if you rely upon it . For whereas your men argue thus : The Protestants say we Papists may be saved ; and so say we too : but we Papists say that you Protestants cannot , therefore it is safest to be a Papist ; consider that of this argument if it shall be accepted , any bold Heretick can make use , against any modest Christian of a true perswasion . For , if he can but out-face the modesty of the good man , and tell him he shall be damn'd ; unless that modest man say as much of him , you see impudence shall get the better of the day . But it is thus in every error . Fifteen Bishops of Jerusalem in immediate succession were circumcised , believing it to be necessary so to be : with these , other Christian Churches who were of the uncircumcision did communicate : Suppose now that these Bishops had not only thought it necessary for themselves but for others too ; this argument you see was ready : you of the uncircumcision who do communicate with us , think that we may be saved though we are circumcised , but we do not think that you who are not circumcised can be saved , therefore it is the safest way to be circumcised : I suppose you would not have thought their argument good , neither would you have had your children circumcised . But this argument may serve the Presbyterians as well as the Papists . We are indeed very kind to them in our sentences concerning their salvation ; and they are many of them as unkind to us ; If they should argue so as you do , and say , you Episcopal men think we Presbyterians though in errors can be saved , and we say so too : but we think you Episcopal men are Enemies of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ ; and therefore we think you in a damnable condition , therefore it is safer to be a Presbyterian : I know not what your men would think of the argument in their hands , I am sure we had reason to complain that we are used very ill on 〈◊〉 hands for no other cause but because we are charitable . But it is not our case alone ; but the old Catholicks were used just so by the Donatists in this very argument , as we are used by your men . The Donatists were so sierce against the Catholicks , that they would re-baptize all them who came to their Churches from the other : But the Catholicks , as knowing the Donatists did give right Baptism , admitted their Converts to Repentance , but did not re-baptize them . Upon this score , the Donatists triumphed , saying , You Catholicks confess our Baptism to be good , and so say we : But we Donatists deny your Baptism to be good ; therefore it is 〈◊〉 to be of our side than yours . Now what should the Catholicks say or do ? Should they lie for God and for Religion , and to serve the ends of Truth say the Donatists Baptism was not good ? That they ought not . Should they damn all the Donatists , and make the rent wider ? It was too great already . What then ? They were quiet , and knew that the Donatists sought advantages by their own sierceness , and trampled upon the others charity ; but so they hardned themselves in error , and became evil , because the others were good . I shall trouble you no further now , but desire you to consider of these things with as much caution , as they were written with charity . TILL I hear from you , I shall pray to God to open your heart and your understanding , that you may return from whence you are fallen , and repent , and do your first work ; Which that you may do , is the hearty desire of Your very affectionate Friend and Servant , JER . TAYLOR . The II. LETTER , Written to a Person newly converted to the Church of England . Madam , I Bless God I am safely arrived where I desired to be after my unwilling departure from the place of your abode and danger : And now because I can have no other expression of my tenderness , I account that I have a treble Obligation to signisie it by my care of your biggest and eternal interest . And because it hath pleased God to make me an Instrument of making you to understand in some fair measure the excellencies of a true and holy Religion , and that I have pointed out such 〈◊〉 and errors in the Roman Church , at which your understanding being forward and pregnant , did of it self start at as impersect ill-looking Propositions , give me leave to do that now which is the purpose of my Charity , that is , teach you to turn this to the advantage of a holy life , that you may not only be changed but converted . For the Church of England whither you are now come is not in condition to boast her self in the reputation of changing the opinion of a single person , though never so excellent ; She hath no temporal ends to serve which must stand upon fame and noises ; all that she can design , is to serve God , to advance the honour of the Lord , and the good of souls , and to rejoyce in the Cross of Christ. First , therefore I desire you to remember that as now you are taught to pray both publickly and privately , in a Language understood , so it is intended your 〈◊〉 should be 〈◊〉 , in proportion to the advantages which your prayer hath in the understanding part . For though you have been often told and have heard , that ignorance is the mother of devotion , you will sind that the proposition is unnatural and against common sense and experience ; because it is impossible to desire that of which we know nothing , unless the desire it self be fantastical and illusive : it is necessary that in the same proportion in which we understand any good thing , in the same we shall also desire it , and the more particular and minute your notices are , the more passionate and material also your affections will be towards it ; and if they be good things for which we are taught to pray , the more you know them , the more reason you have to love them ; It is monstrous to think that devotion , that is , passionate desires of religious things , and the earnest prosecutions of them should be produced by any thing of ignorance or less perfect notices in any sense . Since therefore you are taught to pray , so that your understanding is the praecentor or the Master of the Quire , and you know what you say ; your desires are made humanc , religious , express , material ( for these are the advantages of Prayers and Liturgies well understood ) be pleased also to remember , that now if you be not also passionate and devout for the things you mention , you will want the Spirit of prayer , and be more inexcusable than before . In many of your prayers before ( especially the publick ) you heard a voice but saw and perceived nothing of the sense , and what you understood of it was like the man in the Gospel that was half blind , he saw men walking like Trees , and so you possibly might perceive the meaning of it in general ; You knew where they came to the Epistle , when to the Gospel , when the Introit , when the Pax , when any of the other more general periods were ; but you could have nothing of the Spirit of prayer , that is , nothing of the devotion and the holy affections to the particular excellencies which could or ought there to have been represented , but now you are taught how you may be really devout , it is made facil and easie , and there can want nothing but your consent and observation . 2. WHEREAS now you are taken off from all humane considences , from relying wholly and almost ultimately upon the Priests power and external act , from 〈◊〉 prayers by numbers , from forms and out-sides , you are not to think that the Priests power is less , that the Sacraments are not effective , that your prayers may not be repeated frequently ; but you are to remember , that all outward things and Ceremonies , all Sacraments and Institutions work their effect in the vertue of Christ , by some moral instrument ; The Priests in the Church of England can absolve you as much as the Roman Priests could fairly pretend ; but then we teach that you must first be a penitent and a returning person , and our absolution does but manifest the work of God , and comfort and instruct your Conscience , direct and 〈◊〉 it : You shall be absolved here , but not 〈◊〉 you live an holy life ; So that in this you will 〈◊〉 no change but to the advantage of a strict life ; we will not slatter you and cozen your dear soul by pretended minisieries , but we so order our discourses and directions that all our 〈◊〉 may be really effective , and when you receive the holy Sacrament of the Eucharist , or the Lords Supper , it does more good here than they do there ; because if they consecrate rightly , yet they do not communicate you fully ; and if they offer the whole representative Sacrifice , yet they do not give you the whole Sacrament ; only we enjoyn that you come with so much holiness , that the grace of God in your heart may be the principal , and the Sacrament in our hands may be the ministring and assisting part : we do not promise great effects to easie trifling dispositions , because we would not deceive , but really procure to you great effects ; and therefore you are now to come to our offices with the same expectations as before , of pardon , of grace , of sanctification ; but you must do something more of the work your self , that we may not do less in effect than you have in your expectation ; We will not to advance the reputation of our power deceive you into a less blessing . 3. BE careful that you do not flatter your self , that in our Communion you may have more ease and liberty of life ; for though I know your pious soul desires passionately to please God and to live religiously , yet I ought to be careful to prevent a temptation , lest it at any time should discompose your severity : Therefore as to confession to a Priest ( which how it is usually practised among the Roman party , your self can very well account , and you have complained sadly , that it is made an ordinary act , easie and transient , sometime matter of temptation , oftentimes impertinent , but ) suppose it free from such scandal to which some mens folly did betray it , yet the same severity you 'l find among us ; for though we will not tell a lie to help a sinner , and say that is necessary which is only appointed to make men do themselves good , yet we advise and commend it , and do all the work of souls to all those people that will be saved by all means ; to devout persons , that make Religion the business of their lives , and they that do not so in the Churches of the Roman Communion , as they find but little advantage by periodical confessions , so they feel but little awfulness and severity by the injunction ; you must confess to God all your secret actions , you must advise with a holy man in all the affairs of your soul , you will be but an ill friend to your self if you conceal from him the state of your spiritual affairs : We desire not to hear the circumstance of every sin , but when matter of justice is concerned , or the nature of the sin is changed , that is , when it ought to be made a Question ; and you will find that though the Church of England gives you much liberty from the bondage of innumerable Ceremonies and humane devices , yet in the matter of holiness you will be tied to very great service , but such a service as is perfect freedom , that is , the service of God and the love of the holy Jesus , and a very strict religious life ; for we do not promise heaven , but upon the same terms it is promised us , that is , Repentance towards God , and Faith in our Lord Jesus : and as in Faith we make no more to be necessary than what is made so in holy Scripture , so in the matter of Repentance we give you no easie devices , and suffer no lessening desinitions of it , but oblige you to that strictness which is the condition of being saved , and so expressed to be by the infallible Word of God ; but such as in the Church of Rome they do not so much stand upon . MADAM , I am weary of my Journey , and although I did purpose to have spoken many things more , yet I desire that my not doing it may be laid upon the account of my weariness , all that I shall add to the main business is this : 4. READ the Scripture diligently , and with an humble spirit , and in it observe what is plain , and believe and live accordingly . Trouble not your self with what is difficult , for in that your duty is not described . 5. PRAY frequently and effectually ; I had rather your prayers should be often than long . It was well said of Petrarch , Magno verborum 〈◊〉 uti decet cum superiore 〈◊〉 . When you speak to your superiour you ought to have a bridle upon your tongue , much more when you speak to God. I speak of what is decent in respect of our selves and our infinite distances from God : but if love makes you speak , speak on , so shall your prayers be full of charity and devotion , Nullus est amore superior , ille te coget ad veniam , qui me ad multiloquium ; Love makes God to be our friend , and our approches more united and acceptable ; and therefore you may say to God , the same love which made me speak , will also move me to hear and pardon : Love and devotion may enlarge your Letanies , but nothing else can , unless Authority does interpose . 6. BE curious not to communicate but with the true Sons of the Church of England , lest ( if you follow them that were amongst us , but are gone out from us , because they were not of us ) you be offended and tempted to impute their follies to the Church of England . 7. TROUELE your self with no controversies willingly , but how you may best please God by a strict and severe conversation . 8. IF any Protestant live loosely , remember that he dishonours an excellent Religion , and that it may be no more laid upon the charge of our Church , than the ill lives of most Christians may upon the whole Religion . 9. LET no man or woman affright you with declamations and scaring words of Heretick , and Damnation , and Changeable ; for these words may be spoken against them that return to light , as well as to those that go to darkness , and that which men of all sides can say , it can be of effect to no side upon its own strength or pretension . THE END . BOOKS written by J. Taylor , D. D. Lord Bishop of Down . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , A Course of Sermons for all the Sundays of the year ; together with a discourse of the Divine Institution , Necessity , Sacredness and Separation of the Office Ministerial , in fol. The History of the Life and Death of the Ever-blessed Jesus Christ , in fol. the 7. Edit . The Rule and Exercises of holy living and dying , oct . The Golden Grove , or a Manual of daily Prayers , sitted to the days of the week , together with a short Method of Peace and Holiness : to which is added a Guide to the Penitent , in 12. A Collection of Polemical and Moral discourses , in fol. A Discourse of the Nature , Offices and Measure of Friendship , in 12. Ductor Dubitantium , or the Rule of Conscience , fol. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , A Supplement to the ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or course of Sermons for the whole year . All that have been Preached and Published ( since the Restauration ) to which is adjoyned , his Advice to the Clergy of his Diocese . A Discourse of Confirmation , in oct . Several Chirurgical Treatises by Richard Wiseman Serjeant-Chirurgeon , the Second Edition , in fol. The Catholick doctrine of the Eucharist in all Ages , in Answer to what Mr. Arnaud , Doctor of the Sorborn alledges , touching the Belief of the Greek Moscovite , Armenian , Jacobite , Nestorian , Coptic , Maronite , and other Eastern Churches , in fol. XXII . Sermons preached before His MAJESTY King CHARLES II. at Whitehal , by H. Killigrew , D. D. and published by the Reverend Dr. Patrick , Quarto . Winter-Evening Conserence , in three parts , between Neighbours . The third part being newly printed , in octavo . Animadversions upon a book Intituled , Fanaticism Fanatically imputed to the Catholick Church , by Dr. Stilling fleet , in Vindication of the Church of England , by a person of Honour . ALL Sold by R. Royston , Book seller at the Angel in Amen-Corner . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A63835-e230 1 〈◊〉 . 6. 4. Phil. 2. 14. Contra 〈◊〉 . De verae fide & Moral . reg . 72. c. 1 & reg . 80. c. 22. Epist. Pasch. 2. De incarn . Christi . 〈◊〉 . 2. cap. de Origen . error . Lib. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Can. comperimus de consecr . dist . 2. in 1 Cor. 11. Notes for div A63835-e1820 Eccl. 11. 6. De unit . Eccles. c. 6. * Ecclesia ex sacris & canonicis Scripturis 〈◊〉 est , 〈◊〉 ex illis ostendi non potest , Ecclesia non est , S. Aug. de uni . Eccles. c. 4. &c. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ecclesiam , ibi decernamus causam nostram . * Lib. Candiscip . Eccl. Angl. & injunct . Regin . Elis. A. D. 1571 Can. de 〈◊〉 . Dat. 3. Calen . Mart. 〈◊〉 . * Quod sit metrum , & regula , ac scientia 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 de Ecclesia , l. 2. c. 〈◊〉 . ‖ Novum Symbolum condere solum ad Papam spectat , quia est caput sidei Christiane , cujus authoritate omnia quae ad fidem spectant 〈◊〉 & roborantur . q. 59. a. 1. & art . 2. sicut potest novum symbolum condere , ita potest novos articulos supra alios multiplicare . * Papa potest facere novos articulos fidei , id est , quod modo credi oporteat , cum sic 〈◊〉 non oporteret . In cap. cum Christus . de 〈◊〉 . n. 2. ‖ Papa potest inducere novum articulum 〈◊〉 . In idem . * Super 2. Decret . de jurejur . c. nimis . n. 1. ‖ Apud Petrum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 2. instit . per. ca. 69. * Jobannes Clemens aliquot folia Theodoretilaceravit & abjecit in focum , in quibus contra transubstantiationem praeclare disseruit . Et cum non it a pridem Originem excuderent , totum illud caput sextum Jobannis & quod commentabatur Origines omiserunt , & mutilum ediderunt librum propter candem causam . * Sixtus Senensis epist. dedicat . ad . Pium Quin. laudat 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 verba , Expurgari & emaculari curasti omnium Catholicorum Scriptorum , ac praecipuè veterum 〈◊〉 scripta . Index expurgator . Madr. 1612. in Indice libror . expurgatorum , pag. 39. Gal. 1. 8. Part. 2. act . 6. c. 7. De potest . Eccles. Concil . 〈◊〉 . De Concil . author l 2. c. 17. S. 1. Sess. 21. c. 4. Part. 1. Sum. tit . 10. c. 3. In art 18. 〈◊〉 . * Intravit ut vulpes , regnavit , ut leo , 〈◊〉 ut canis , de eo 〈◊〉 dictum . Tertul. 1. ad Martyr . c. 1. S. Cyprian lib. 3. Ep. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 11. Concil . Nicen. 1. can . 12. Conc. 〈◊〉 . c. 5. Concil . Laodicen . c. 2. S. Basil. in Ep. canonicis habentur in Nomocanone Photii , can . 73. * Communis opinio D. D. tan Theologorum , quam Canonicorum , quod sunt ex abundantia meritorum quae ultra mensuram demeritorum suorum sancti sustinuerunt , & Christi , Sum. Angel. v. Indulg . 9. * Lib. 1. de indulgent . c. 2. & 3. * In 4. l sen. dist . 19 q. 2. ‖ Ib dist . 20 q. 3. Vbi supra . In lib. 4. sent . Verb. Indulgentia . Vt quid non praevides tibi in die judicii , quando nemo 〈◊〉 per alium excusari , vel defendi ; sed unusquisque sufficiens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sibi ipsi : Tho. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 1. de imit . c. 24. * Homil. 1. in ep . ad Philom . ‖ Serm. de Martyrib . Serm. 1. de Advent . 〈◊〉 . 18. 22. * Neque ab iis quos sanas lente languor abscedit , sed illico quem restituis ex integro convalescit , quia consummatum est quod facis , & perfectum quod largiris . S. Cyprian de coena Domini : vel potius Arnoldus . P. Gelasius de vincul . anathem negat 〈◊〉 deberi 〈◊〉 si culpa corrigatur . * 〈◊〉 gratiae finalis peccatum veniale in ipsa dissolutione 〈◊〉 & animoe . Hoc ab antiquis dictum est . Albert. Mag. in compend . Theolog. verit . l. 3. c. 13. Art. 18. con . Luther Invent. rerum . l. 〈◊〉 . c. 1. * 〈◊〉 . 75. ‖ Cateches . mystag . 5. * De 〈◊〉 , lib. 2. c. 35. Innocent . P. de celeb . Miss . cap. cum Martha . Apologia confessions 〈◊〉 expresse approbat 〈◊〉 illam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 dat ci pacatam 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 resurrectionem . 〈◊〉 . S. l. 5. Annot. 〈◊〉 . Vide etiam 〈◊〉 l. a. de Purgat . sect . c. 1. 〈◊〉 . * Lib. 6. Bibl. Sanct. annol . 345. Bernardum excusandum arbitror ob 〈◊〉 numerum illustrium Ecclesie Patrum . qui ante ipsum huic dogmati autboritatem suo testimonio visi sunt proebuisse ; 〈◊〉 citatos , 〈◊〉 S. Jacobum Apostolum , Irenaeum , Clementem Romanum , Augustinum , Thcodoretum , Oecumenium , Theophylactum , & Johannem 22 pontif . Rom. quam sententiam non modo docuit , & 〈◊〉 , sed ab omnibus teneri mandavit , ut ait Adrianns P. in 4 lib. sent . in flne quoest . de sacram . confirmationis . Enchirid. c. 69 lib. 21. de civit . Dei. c. 26. 〈◊〉 . 8. Chron. cap. 26. * Haec descripsimus , ut tamen in iis nulla veluti Canonica constituatur authoritas . l. de 8. quaest . Dulcitii . c. 1. Dist. 3 exem . 3. exempl . 60. Histor. Lomb. Legend . 185. Dcut. 18. 11 , &c. Isa. 8. 19. Vide Maldonat . in 16. cap. S. Lucae . Ad Demetrian . sect . 16. Eccles. 〈◊〉 . c. 7. Quaest. & respons . ad oribod . qu. 75. Justino imputat . * De bono mortis , cap. 4. ‖ In Psal. 2. * Hom. 22. * Orat. 5. in Plagam grandinis , & orat . 42. in Pascha . De Eccles. dogmat . c. 79. In Eccles. c. 11. Epist. 59. Rev. 14. 13. Joh. 5. 24. * In 4. lib. sont . d. 11. q. 3. ‖ Ibid. q. 6. * Lect. 40. in can . missae . ‖ Cap. I. contr . captiv . Babyl . * Dc Euchar. l. 3. cap. 23. sect . sccundo dicit . * Vencre tum quidem multa in consultationem , nec decerni tamen quicquam aperte potuit . Platina in vita Innocen . III. * Apud Suar. Tom : 3. disp . 46. sect . 3. ‖ Loc. com . l. 3. c. 3. fund . 2. L. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 Euch. cap. 23. sect . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sum. 1. 8. c. 20. Discurs . modest . p. 13. Lib. 4. sent . dist . 11. lit . a. * A D. M C L X. ‖ A. D. MCC XV. * A. D. MCCLXX secund . Buchol . sed secundum Volaeterranum MCCCXXXV . In lib. 4. sent . dist . 11. qu. 1. 〈◊〉 , propter tertium . De haeres . 1.8 Verbo 〈◊〉 . Cap. Ego Berengarius de Consecrat . dist . 2. Adver . 〈◊〉 . 1.4.0 . 40. Contr. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . * In dialog . cont . Marcion . 〈◊〉 ex Maximo , tempore Commodi & S veri Imp. in Mat. 13. Demonst. 〈◊〉 . lib. I. cap. I. * & cap ult . Homil. 27. De sacris 〈◊〉 . legibus apad Photium l. I. c. 229. Orat. 2. in Pasch. Ep ad Caef. cont . haeres . Apollinarii , cit . per Damascen . & per collect . senten . Pp. cont . Severianos , edit . per turrianum . Homil 23. 〈◊〉 1. Cor. In Psal. 98. Cont Adimantium . cap. 12. Lib. 10. cont . Faust. Manicb . De consecrat . dist . 2. cap. Qui manducant , & cap. Prima quidem , & cap. Non hoc 〈◊〉 , & cap. Vt quid paras . Sentent . l. 4. dist . 11. Dialog . 1. c. 8. * Dial. 2. 0. 24. De duabus naturis contra Eutych . & Nestor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in dissert . de Missae & expositione verborum inslitutionis 〈◊〉 Domini . * Joh. 6. 63. Vbi suprae . Gloria mundi 4. num . 6. Concil . Contant . sess . 13. 〈◊〉 praefat . super Inflit. 〈◊〉 . Mat. 26. 17. Consult . 〈◊〉 . 22. Commen . in 6. Joh. lect . 7. De corp & sang . Dom. cap. 19. Tract . 35. Apud 〈◊〉 . de 〈◊〉 . dist . 2. cap , 〈◊〉 . Vide 〈◊〉 . de Sacr. tract . 2. de Euchar. q. 18. De consecrat dist . 2. cap. Si. non sunt , & cap Quia passus , 7 cap. Prima 〈◊〉 , & cap. Tunc eis , & cap. 〈◊〉 . Lib. 8. contra Celsum . * Affectus consequitur intellectum : ubi autem nullus earum rerum quae petuntur vel dicuntur habetur intellectus , aut 〈◊〉 tantum , ibi exiguus assurgit affectus . Azor. Inst. moral . to . 1. lib. 9. c. 34. q. 8. * In 1 Cor. 14. * Epist ad Sophron. ‖ Sozom. l. 6. hist. cap. 37. * Hom. 1. in 8. Joan. ‖ De Doctr. Christ. c. 5. * Serm. 5. de Graecar . affect . curat . * Lib. Qui 〈◊〉 var. Script . locis q. 278. ‖ In 1 Cor. hom . 35. * Super 1 Cor. 14. ‖ Super Psal. 18. con . 2. * In 1 Cor. 14. ‖ Ibid. * Liturg. cap. 28. * Histor. Bohem. c. 13 De Doctr. Christ. lib. 4. cap. 10. Novel . 123 De 〈◊〉 l 2. c. 13. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Cap. 9. Quintil l. 1. Verb. 〈◊〉 . Cap. 6. ad Quod vult 〈◊〉 . Chap. 2. Sect. 12. * Lib. 1. h. 〈◊〉 fabul . * Lib. 1. cap. 23. vide etiam Epiphan . to . 2. lib. 1. baeres . 27. & S. August . de 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . De 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . ‖ Lib. 6. strom . & in paranetico . Lib. 7. & 8. cont . Cels. Epist. ad Jo. Hieros . Can. 36. Placuit 〈◊〉 in Ecclesia esse non debere , ne quod colitur aut adoratur in parictibus depingatur . De morib . Eccles. l. 1. c. 34. Idem de fide & Symbolo . c. 7. & contr . Adimant . cap. 13. An. Dom. 764. Lib. 2. in vita Isaaci Angeli , A. D. 1160. 1 Joh. 5. 21 * Strom l. 6. & in Protrep . ‖ Lib. 2. c. 22. advers . Marcion . & 〈◊〉 Idololater . c. 3. * Lib. 4. cont . Celsum . Strom. 〈◊〉 1. * Lib. 7. contra Celsum . ‖ De corona militis . * Lib. 1. c. 5. 〈◊〉 . Evang. ‖ Orat. contra gentes . * In c. 40. Isa. ‖ De fide & symbol . c. 7. * In Deut. q. 1. ‖ Lib. 4. de 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 c. 12. Sil. Italic . Lib. 1. in somn . Scip. cap. 2. Lib. 18. 〈◊〉 . 53. Lib. 2. de Invent. c. 23. Act. 20. 28 Epist de unit . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . & 〈◊〉 caus . 24. qu. 1. * Iren. e. lib. 4. c. 43. 44. S. Cyprian . lib. 1. cp . 6. & lib. 2. cp . 10. & lib. 4. cp . 9. S. Aembrese de dignit . sacerd . c. 1. S. Aeug . de baptism contra Donat l. 7 c. 43. & ibid. Clarus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Idcmdeverb : Dom Ser. 24 Con. Rom. sub Sylvest . Const. Apost . l. 8. c ult . Anacl . P. ep . 2. Clcmens P. ep . 1. S. Hieron . ep . 13. & ep . 54. Euthym. in Ps. 44. S. Gregor . in Evang. Hom. 26. 〈◊〉 Heliodor . cp . 1. S. Chrysost. ser. Damascen de imaginibus . Orat. 2. S. Greg. Naz. Orat. 21. dc laud. Basilii . In cpist . 1. 〈◊〉 Corin. cap 3. & in cpist . ad Roman . c. 1. * Extrav . Com. lib. 1. 〈◊〉 9 de 〈◊〉 . r. & obed . cap. Vnam Sanctam . * Referente Archiepisc. Granatensi in Concil . Trid. Vbi supra . Lib. 4. ep 2. 〈◊〉 Baro. tom . 6. A. D. 499. n. 36. Dionys. Areop de Eccles . hierarch . de sacer . perfect . Epist ad Smyrnens . & ad 〈◊〉 . * Disc. 97. c. duo sunt . ‖ 〈◊〉 . Jerem. 〈◊〉 . 7. & adver . Lucif . * In Concil . Paris . l. 1. c. 3. In Concil . Carthag . De Bapt. contr . Donatist . l. 3. c. 3. Lib. 4. cp . 76 , 78 , 31 , 34 , 38 , 39. & lib. 6. 〈◊〉 . 24. Lib. 4. ep . 32 Quis est iste , qui contra statuta Evangelica , contra Canonum decreta , novum sibi usurpare nomen praesumit ? Videatur Epistola S. Hieron , ad Evagrium , Concil . Chalced. action . 16. Concil . Nicen. can . 6. & can . 7. & Concil . C. P. can . 3. & Novel . Justin. 131. In act . Apost . 〈◊〉 . 3. Canus loc . lib. 6. c. 8. p 235. Ed. Salmant . 1563. Con. 〈◊〉 . l. 2. c. 34. Sent. l. 4. dist . 24. q. 2. art . 5. De. Eccl. dog . l. 4. c. 3 Luk 22. 25 〈◊〉 . 20. 26 , 27. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . dist . 2. 〈◊〉 . Peracta . Videctiam ib. cap. In 〈◊〉 & cap. Siquis . * De cons dist . 1. c. Omnes sid . Omnes 〈◊〉 qui 〈◊〉 in solennitatibus sacris ad Ecclesiam & 〈◊〉 Apostolorum & Evangelia audiant . Qui autem non 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 ; dum Missa peragatur , nec Sanctam Communionem percipiunt , velut inquietudines Ecclesiae commoventes convenit communione privari . * In Chron. 〈◊〉 . Enchir. c l. n. 31. Praxis fori 〈◊〉 . l. 5. c. 2. sect . 4. n. 23. * Dom. à Soto in quart . sent . dist . 17. qu. 2. art . 6. concl . secunda . ‖ Non est dubium quin id licitum sit . Cod de poeniten . tract . l. q. 6. p. 18. edit . Salmantic . A. D. 1553. Reginald . lib. de contrit c. 2. cap 5. Non illico ut bomo se reum sentit culp . e poenitentioe lege poenitcre conslringitur . Hoec prosecto conclusio more & usu Ecclesioe satis videtur constabilita . Dom. à Soto in quart sent , dist . 17. qu. 2. art 6. Sessio . 4. c. 4. In 4. sent . dist . 18. q. 1. Lib. 3. instruct . sacerdot . c. 5. n. 4. Sum. qu. 16. art . 1. De contrit . num . 107. Quaecunque intentio contra 〈◊〉 , in quocunque instanti sufficiet ad consequendam misericordiam & remissionem . Ib. n. 106. * Vid. Biel. l. 4. dist . 17. q. 1. & Scotum ib. & Bonavent . ib. n. 72. ‖ Melius dicitur cam institutam fuisse à quadam universali Ecclesiae traditione , quam ex novi vel veteris Tostamenti authoritate , & tamen negatur baec traditio esse universalis . Confessio non est necessaria apud Graecos , quia non emanavit ad illos traditionaliter . De poenit . dist . 5. in principio Gloss. ib. Vide etiam Panormitan , super 〈◊〉 J. 5. cap. Quod autem c. Omnis utriusque sexus , sect . 18. extrav . Gloss. Maldonatus fatetur omnes Canonistas in banc sententiam consensisse . Disp. de Saer . tom . 2. c. 〈◊〉 . de confess . orig . Sess. 4. can . 7. * Eman. Sa. V. 〈◊〉 . n. 10. Tol. l. 3. inslr . saccrd . cap. 11. n. 6. Tolct instr . sacerd . lib. 3. cap. 11. n. 6. * Vidc Concil . 〈◊〉 . c 54. Burchard l. 19. Tertul. lib. de 〈◊〉 . De Indulgen l. 1. c. 9 sect . Existit 〈◊〉 . Vide Joan. de Turrecremata in comment . dist . 1. de paenitent . 〈◊〉 . Concil Tridcnt l. 1. pag. 20. Londin . edit . Fab. Incarnat . scrut . 〈◊〉 . de Indulgent . 〈◊〉 gravam . Germ. Idem facere voluit Paulus quintus in Venetorum 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . de indulgent . sect . 〈◊〉 . edit . Barcinon . 1628. Apud Gen Sepulvedam in vita Egidii Albernotii Cardinal . Fab. Incar . ubi supra . Apud Petrum de Soto lect . de instit . 〈◊〉 . de necessariis ad effectum indul . * In 〈◊〉 . de jubilaeo notab . 34. n 4. & 6. ‖ Qu 37. de indulg . prop. 3. * Lib. 1. de indulg . c. 10. Sect. Alter a dubitatio . Scrutin . Saccrd . ubi supra . Digres . 2. ad cap 1. epist. ad Titum . De potest . Papae q 3. ad . 3. * Sà aphor . verb. satisfa . num . 10. Serutin . Sacerd. tract . de Indulg . sect . penult . Suarcz . part . 4. in 3. disp . 38. sect . 9. Granat . in materia de peccatis tract . 8. desp . 1. sect . 1. F. Knot against Chillingworth in his Infidelity unmask'd , p. 105 , 106 , 107. &c. * Bellar. l. 1. de amiss . gratiae , c. 13. sect . alterum est . Et de Sacram . Euc. l. 4. c. 19. sect . respondeo . ‖ Cap. 14. sect . adde postremo . De Purgator . l. 1. c. 11. sect . probatur ultimo . * in 4 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 21. q. t. art . 2. ‖ Lib. 1. cap. 14. de Purgator . sect . est ergo opinio vera . Emanuel Sà aphor . verb. Dubium . Escobar . The. moral . Exa . 3. c. 3. de Conscientia probabili , &c. * Eman. Sà , aphorism . Verb. Dubium . Escobar . de conscientia probabili . Apud Nauclerum . generat . 21. 〈◊〉 6. Dist. 82. Can. Presbyter in glossa . 3 Qu. 7. Lata Extravag de bigamis . Quia circa . Communiter dicitur quod Clericus pro simplici fornicatione deponi non debet dist . 81. Maximianus , Glossa in Gratian. Sent. l. 4. dist . 33. Lib. de Temp. qu. 2. do 〈◊〉 . * Vide Dan. Tilen de Verbo non Scripto , l. 4. c. 8. * Instruct. Sacerd l. 5. c. 6. n. 15. Lib. 4. c. 13. n. 4. Lib. 5. c. 10 n. 3. Lib. 5. c. 13. n. 10. Lib. 5. c. 11. n. 5. Lib. 8. c. 49. n. 4. * Aphor. tit . Debitum Conjugale . 6. Lib. 1. c. 61. Ibid. De Adorat . l. 3. disp . 1. c. 2. Ibid. c. 5. sect . 33. Concil . C. P. 6. can . 76. * Cap. sin . de conver . conjug . c. 2. de Divortiis . ‖ De Matrim , part . 2. cap. 7. sect . 5. n. 4. * In sent . 4. d. 39. art . 1. concl . ult . ‖ Lib. 1. de Matrim . c. 14. sect . Secundo sine consensu . Scrutin Sacerd . de Indulg . Part. 3 q. 25. art . 4. Vide etiam Pontif cap. de benedictione novae crucis . f. 163. De Orat. l. 3. c. 4. Sum. part . 3. 〈◊〉 . 23. Vide ctiam Jacob. de Graffiis de orat . l. 2. Instruct. Sacer. c. 13 n. 5. & 6. Ibid. n. 7. Vbi supra . Vbi supra cap. 13. Ibid. n. 6. Obe 〈◊〉 desine Deos uxor gratulando obtundere , nisi illos tuo ex ingenio judicas , ut nil 〈◊〉 intelligere nisi idem dictum est centies . Heautont . act . 5. scen. 1. Summa 〈◊〉 . v. 〈◊〉 . Jer. 17. 5. Psal. 115. 9. & 146 3. & 118. 8. & 50 , 15. Heb. 4. 16. Mat. 11. 28. John 6. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . part , 4 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 1 Jo. c. 2. 1 , 2. Bernardin . de bustis , de Concept . Mariae . 1. 〈◊〉 . serm . 1. 〈◊〉 . 2. * In Cantic . Mar. Magnisicat . * Comment . in 8. Proverb in vers . 19. * Tit. de 〈◊〉 . Sess. 9. Ex cursu 〈◊〉 beatae Mariae . 8 Ad Recanatenses de Lauretana imagine . apud Bembum . l. 8. 〈◊〉 . 17. ‖ In epist. dedicat . 〈◊〉 Lauretan . Fol. 323 , 324 , 325. Fol. 327. Vide epist. Andr. Dudithii 〈◊〉 ; Eccles. episc . edit . A. D. 1590. 〈◊〉 loci & 〈◊〉 nomine . In Canticis quae 〈◊〉 sequentia . Dominic . ante ascensionem Doinini . Vide speculim Rosarior . sequentias ; & Breviar . 〈◊〉 . Jer. 2. 13. Rom. 1. 25 * 1 Cor. 3. 11. Gal. 1. 8. 2 King. 17. Lib. 1. c. 2. de Visitatione infir morum : ascrip . S. Au. John 4. 22. Vide libr. de Sanctis Hiber nicis nuper Latinè edit . per D. Picardum Parisiensem . * Apud Bodin . in method . bistor . l. 4. Apud Aug. Triumphum de Ancona , q 14. ad . 4. & quaest . 17. ad . 4. verb. Harmannus . Lib. de Reform . Eccles . De 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 7. 10. Rom. 10. 14 Tim. a. 5. * Ne miretur lector eruditus quod 〈◊〉 apud Inquisitores sit foeminini generis , fortasse dispensatum fuit cum bonis viris in hoc articulo . An potius factum quia bonus Angelus nunquam , mali autem Genii 〈◊〉 sub formae foeminina apparuere : quod notavit Trithemius . 〈◊〉 . 133. Plagellum 〈◊〉 . do cum . 3. Vide Raimun . Lullium . lib. 2. de quinta 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . de 〈◊〉 Apollonii . Tract . 35. in Matth. In illa verba , [ Qui credit in me majora faciet . ] Quoest. nat . l. 4. c. 6. Cyril . Hieros . 〈◊〉 . 4. Bellarm. de cultu sanct . lib. 3. cap. 7 sect . secunda propositio , & sect . secund , ad 〈◊〉 . Instit. moral . par . 1. l. 9. c. 6. Edit . Roman . p. 672. Nemini potest per fidem constare se recepisse vel minimum sacramentum . Estque hoc ita certum ex fide ac clarum est nos vivere . Nulla est via , qua citra revelationem nosse possumus intentionem ministrantis , vel evidenter , vel certo ex side . Andreas Vega , lib. 9. de 〈◊〉 . c. 17. Non potest quis esse certus certitudine sidei se percipere verum Sacramentum : Cum Sacramentum sine intentione Ministri non conficiatur , & intentionem alterius nemo videre potest . Bellarm. lib. 3. cap. 8. sect . Dicent . Instruct. 〈◊〉 . l. 4. c. 21 , 22. In 3. Tom. 4. qu. 93. art . 5. 〈◊〉 . 13. Manual . c. 18. n 7. Apud Tolet . instruct . Sacerd . l. 〈◊〉 . c. 27. In compend . p. 〈◊〉 Lugduni , A. D. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 supra . Theol. 〈◊〉 la. Relect. de poenitent . 〈◊〉 . 8. 〈◊〉 . 6 Cap. cum virum de regularibus . Aquin. 2. 2. q. 88. art . 9 Lib. 1. c. 101. Thom Walsingham . 〈◊〉 aurum & 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Car. 〈◊〉 Lib. 1. de Jummo 〈◊〉 . vide 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Terano : & 〈◊〉 de concil du 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . quia circa extra de Bigamis . Cap. 〈◊〉 de 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 n. 20. Si Imperator . dist . 96. &c. Ecclesia S M. de constitut . A D 1199 Can 5 de Clericis l. 1. c 30. sect . quarto objiciunt . De Offic. Christiani Prin. l. 1. c. 5. 〈◊〉 . defens . contra sect . Angl. l. 4. c. 17. sect . 15 , 16 , & 18. Aphor. ver . 〈◊〉 . Defens . 〈◊〉 . l. 4. c. 15. sect . 1. Apol. p. 57. Rom. 13. 1. In 〈◊〉 lccum . * Instruct. Sacerd. l. 3. c. 16. ‖ De poenit . l. 2. c. 19. n. 5. * Apol. con . Reg. M. Brit. c. 13. Cont. Reg. Ang. l. 9. c. 3. Cap. 13. De sum . Pontif. l 5. c. 6. Ibid. c. 7. Defens . Fid. Cath. l. 〈◊〉 . c. 23. sect . 10. & 〈◊〉 . 18. & 20. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . in Angl fol. 336. In Philopat . sect . 2. n. 160. & 162. Tom. 3 disp . 1. q. 12. punct . 2. Cont. Barcl . c. 7. Vbi supra . 1. 6. c. 6. sect . 24. Cont. 〈◊〉 . c. 7. De Rom. Pontif. l. 4. c. 5. Instit. Moral . part . 2. l. 10. c. 9. Vbi supra . See Mart. Vivaldus de bulla 〈◊〉 Dominici . 〈◊〉 Jur Pontificii qu. 15. sect . 5 qu. 17 sect . 6. & qu. 27. sect . 7. Catal. glor . mundi part . 4. consid . 7. ex Zo. lcrico . Verb , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 8. * De major . & obedicnt unam Sanctam . In extrav . Bonis . 8. concil . Lucr. sub Julio 2. In Extrav . Job . 22. cap. Cum inter nonnullos . In gloss . final . edit . Paris . 1503. concil . Viennens . sub Clem. 5. * Vbi supra in Cassenaeo . ‖ Summ. 3. part . l. 22 c. 6. sect 4. * In sua Monarchia quem citat Felinus in cap. Si quando , ubi per eum extrav . de rescript . ‖ In tract . de Rege & Regno ad Regem Cypri . * In Philopair sect . 2. n. 160 , 162. * Lib. de side 〈◊〉 . servanda . ‖ In epist monitor . ad 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . In resp ad Apolog. pro juram . sidelit . Notes for div A63835-e30490 De potest . Eccles. cons. 12. 
A63878	----	Ebdomas embolimaios a supplement to the eniautos, or course of sermons for the whole year : being seven sermons explaining the nature of faith and obedience in relation to God and the ecclesiastical and secular powers respectively / all that have been preached and published (since the restauration) by the Right Reverend Father in God Jeremy, Lord Bishop of Down and Connor ; to which is adjoyned, his Advice to the clergy of his diocese. Eniautos. Supplement Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. 1663 Approx. 533 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 226 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-12 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A63878 Wing T328 ESTC R14098 17150563 ocm 17150563 105896 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A63878) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 105896) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1160:7) Ebdomas embolimaios a supplement to the eniautos, or course of sermons for the whole year : being seven sermons explaining the nature of faith and obedience in relation to God and the ecclesiastical and secular powers respectively / all that have been preached and published (since the restauration) by the Right Reverend Father in God Jeremy, Lord Bishop of Down and Connor ; to which is adjoyned, his Advice to the clergy of his diocese. Eniautos. Supplement Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. 1 v. in various pagings, [1] leaf of plates : coat of arms. Printed for Richard Royston ..., London : 1663. First two words of title in Greek characters. Advices to the clergy ... has special t.p. and separate paging. Reproduction of original in the Union Theological Seminary Library, New York. The righteousness evangelical described ; The Christians conquest over the body of sin ; Fides formata, or, Faith working by love -- A sermon preached at the consecration of two archbishops and ten bishops, in the cathedral Church of S. Patrick in Dublin, January 27. 1660 -- A sermon preached at the opening of the Parliament of Ireland, May 8, 1661 -- Via intelligentiæ -- A sermon preached in Christs-Church Dublin, July 16. 1663. at the funeral of the most Reverend Father in God, John, late Lord Archbishop of Armagh, and Primate of all Ireland -- Rules and advices to the clergy of the diocesse of Down and Conner. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. 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Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Sermons, English -- 17th century. 2005-02 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-06 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-08 Mona Logarbo Sampled and proofread 2005-08 Mona Logarbo Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion DIEV ET MON DROIT . HONI · SOIT · QVI · MAL · Y · PENSE royal blazon or coat of arms ἙΒΔΟΜᾺΣ ἘΜΒΟΛΙΜΙΟΣ , A Supplement TO THE ΕΝΙΑΥΤΟΣ , Or Course of Sermons for the whole year : BEING SEVEN SERMONS Explaining the Nature of Faith , and Obedience ; in relation to God , and the Ecclesiastical and Secular Powers respectively . All that have been Preached and Published ( since the Restauration ) By the Right Reverend Father in God , JEREMY , Lord Bishop of Down and Connor . To which is adjoyned , His Advice to the Clergy of his Diocese . LONDON : Printed for Richard Royston , Bookseller to the Kings most Sacred Majesty , 1663. THE Righteousness Evangelical DESCRIB'D . THE CHRISTIANS CONQUEST Over the Body of Sin. FIDES FORMATA , OR FAITH working by LOVE . IN THREE SERMONS PREACHED AT CHRIST — CHURCH , DVBLIN . By the Right Reverend Father in God JEREMIAH , Lord Bishop of Down and Connor . The second Edition . London , Printed for R. Royston , Book-seller to the Kings , most Excellent Majesty , 1663. Imprimatur . M. Franck. S. T. P. R. in Christ. Pat. ac D. D. Archiep. Cant. à Sac. Dom. Sept. 21. 1663. TO THE Most Noble and Vertuous Princess , The Lady Dutchess OF ORMONDE HER GRACE . Madam , I Present your Grace here with a Testimony of my Obedience , and of your own Zeal for the good of Souls . You were in your great Charity , not only pleased to pardon the weakness of this discourse , but to hope it might serve as a memorial to th●se that need it , of the great necessity of living vertuously , and by the measures of Christianity . Madam , you are too G●eat and too good to have any ambition for the things of this World ; but I cannot but observe that in your designs for the other World , you , by your Charity and Zeal , adopt your self into the portion of those Ecclesiasticks , who humbly hope and truly labour for the reward that is promised to those wise persons who convert souls . If our prayers and your desires that every one should be profited in their eternal concerns cast in a Symbol towards this great work , and will give you a title to that great reward ; But , Madam , when I received your commands for dispersing some Copies of this Sermon , I perceived it was too little to be presented to your Eminence ; and if it were accompanied with something else of the like nature , it might with more profit advance that end which your Grace so piously designed ; and therefore I have taken this opportunity to satisfie the desire of some very Honourable and very Reverend Personages , who required that the two following Sermons should also be made fit for the use of those who hop'd to receive profit by them . I humbly lay them all at your Graces Feet , begging of God , that even as many may receive advantages by the perusing of them as either your Grace will desire , or He that preached them did intend . And if your Grace will accept of this first Testimony of my concurrence with all the World that know you , in paying those great regards , which your piety so highly merits , I will endeavour hereafter in some greater instance to pursue the intentions of Your zeal of souls , and by such a service endeavour to do more benefit to others , and by it , as by that which is most acceptable to your Grace , endear the Obedience and Services , of Madam , Your Graces most humble and Obedient Servant . J. D. The Titles and Texts of the several Sermons . SERM. I. The Righteousness Evangelical . Matth. 5.20 . For I say unto you , that except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees , ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven . SERM. II. The Christians Conquest over the Body of Sin. Rom. 7.19 . For the good that I would , I doe not ; but the evil which I would not , that I doe . SERM. III. Faith working by Love. James 2.4 . You see then how that by works a man is justified , and not by faith alone . SERM. IV. Preached at an Episcopal Consecration . Luke 12.42 . And the Lord said , Who then is that faithful and wise steward , whom his Lord shall make ruler over his houshold to give them their portion of meat in due season ? 43. Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing . SERM. V. Preached at the Opening the Parliament of Ireland . 1 Sam. 15.22 . Behold , to obey is better then sacrifice , and to hearken then the fat of rams : 23. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft , and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry . SERM. VI. Via Intelligentiae . John 7.17 . If any man will do his will , he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God , or whether I speak of my self . SERM. VII . Preached at the Funeral of the L. Primate of Ireland . 1 Cor. 15.23 . But every man in his own order ; Christ the first fruits , and after they that are Christ's at his coming . Rules and Advices to the Clergy of the Diocese of Down and Connor . THE Righteousness Evangelical DESCRIB'D . MATTH . V. 20. For I say unto you , that except your Righteousness exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees , ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven . REwards and Punishments are the best Sanction of Laws ; and although the Guardians of Laws strike sometimes with the softest part of the hand in their Executions of sad Sentences , yet in the Sanction they make no abatements , but so proportion the Duty to the Reward , and the Punishment to the Crime , that by these we can best tell what Value the Law-giver puts upon the Obedience . Joshuah put a great rate upon the taking of Kiriath-Sepher , when the Reward of the Service was his Daughter and a Dower . But when the Young men ventured to fetch David the waters of Bethlehem , they had nothing but the praise of their Boldness , because their Service was no more than the satisfaction of a Curiosity . But as Law-givers by their Rewards declare the value of the Obedience , so do Subjects also by the grandeur of what they expect set a value on the Law and the Law-giver , and do their Services accordingly . And therefore the Law of Moses , whose endearment was nothing but temporal goods and transient evils , could never make the comers thereunto perfect : but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Superinduction of a better Hope hath endeared a more perfect Obedience . When Christ brought Life and Immortality to light through the Gospel , and hath promised to us things greater than all our explicit Desires , bigger than the thoughts of our heart , then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith the Apostle , then we draw near to God ; and by these we are enabled to do all that God requires , and then he requires all that we can do ; more Love , and more Obedi●nce than he did of those who for want of these Helps , and these Revelations , and these Promises , which we have , but they had not , were but imperfect persons , and could do but little more than humane Services . Christ hath taught us more , and given us more , and promis'd to us more than ever was in the world known or believ'd before him ; and by the strengths and confidence of these , thrusts us forward in a holy and wise Oeconomy , and plainly declares that we must serve him by the measures of a new Love , do him Honour by wise and material Glorifications , be united to God by a new Nature , and made alive by a new Birth , and fulfil all Righteousness ; to be humble and meek as Christ , to be merciful as our Heavenly Father is , to be pure as God is pure , to be partakers of the Divine Nature , to be wholly renewed in the frame and temper of our mind , to become people of a new heart , a direct new Creation , new Principles and a new Being , to do better than all the world before us ever did , to love God more perfectly , to despise the world more generously , to contend for the Faith more earnestly ; for all this is but a proper and a just consequent of the great Promises which our Blessed Law-giver came to publish and effect for all the world of Believers and Disciples . The matter which is here required is certainly very great ; for it is to be more righteous than the Scribes and Pharisees ; more holy than the Doctors of the Law , than the Leaders of the Synagogue , than the wise Princes of the Sanhedrim : more righteous than some that were Prophets and High Priests , than some that kept the Ordinances of the Law without blame : men that lay in Sackcloth , and fasted much , and prayed more , and made Religion and the Study of the Law the work of their lives . This was very much ; but Christians must do more . Nunc te marmoreum pro tempore fecimus ; at tu , Si foetura gregem suppleverit , aureus esto . They did well , and we must do better ; their houses were Marble , but our roofs must be gilded and fuller of Glory . * But as the matter is very great , so the necessity of it is the greatest in the world . It must be so , or it will be much worse : unless it be thus , we shall never see the glorious Face of God. Here it concerns us to be wise and fearful ; for the matter is not a question of an Oaken Garland , or a Circle of Bayes , and a Yellow Ribband : it is not a question of Money or Land , nor of the vainer rewards of popular noises , and the undiscerning Suffrages of the people , who are contingent Judges of good and evil : but it is the great stake of Life Eternal . We cannot be Christians , unless we be righteous by the new measures : the Righteousness of the Kingdom is now the only way to enter into it , for the Sentence is fixt , and the Judgement is decretory , and the Judge infallible , and the Decree irreversible : For I say unto you , said Christ , unless your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees , ye shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven . Here then we have two things to consider . 1. What was the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees . 2. How far that is to be exceeded by the Righteousness of Christians . 1. Concerning the First . I will not be so nice in the Observation of these words , as to take notice that Christ does not name the Sadduces , but the Scribes and Pharisees , though there may be something in it : the Sadduces were called Caraim from Cara , to read ; for they thought it Religion to spend one third part of their day in reading their Scriptures , whose fulness they so admired they would admit of no suppletory Traditions . But the Pharisees were called Thannaim , that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they added to the Word of God words of their own , as the Church of Rome does at this day , they and these fell into an equal fate ; while they taught far Doctrines the Commandments of men , they prevaricated the righteousness of God. What the Church of Rome to evil purposes hath done in this particular , may be demonstrated in due time and place ; but what false and corrupt glosses under the specious title of the Tradition of their Fathers the Pharisees had introducedour , Blessed Saviour reproves , and are now to be represented as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that you may see that Righteousness beyond which all they must go that intend that Heaven should be their Journeys end . 1. The Pharisees obeyed the Commandments in the Letter , not in the Spirit . They minded what God spake , but not what he intended : they were busie in the outward work of the hand , but incurious of the affections and choice of the heart . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Justin Martyr to Tryphon the Jew , Ye understand all things carnally ; that is , they rested 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Nazianzen calls it , in the outward work of Piety , which not only Justin Martyr , but St. Paul calls Carnality , not meaning a carnal Appetite , but a carnal Service . Their error was plainly this ; they never distinguished Duties natural from Duties relative ; that is , whether it were commanded for it self , or in order to something that was better ; whether it were a principal Grace , or an instrumental Action . So God was served in the Letter , they did not much inquire into his Purpose . And therefore they were curious to wash their hands , but cared not so much to purifie the hearts ; They would give Alms , but hate him that received it ; they would go to the Temple , but did not revere the Glory of God that dwelt there between the Cherubins : they would fast , but not mortify their Lusts ; they would say good Prayers , but not labour for the Grace they prayed for . This was just as if a man should run on his Masters errand , and do no business when he came there . They might easily have thought that by the Soul only a man approaches to God , and draws the Body after it , but that no washings or corporal Services could unite them and the Shechinah together , no such thing could make them like to God , who is the Prince of Spirits . * They did as the Dunces in Pythagoras School , who when their Master had said , Fabis abstineto , by which he intended they should not ambitiously seek for Magistracy , they thought themselves good Pythagoreans if they did not eat Beans ; and they would be sure to put their Right foot first into the shooe , and their Left foot into the water , and supposed they had done enough , though if they had not been Fools they would have understood their Masters meaning to have been , that they should put more affections to labour and travel , and less to their pleasure and recreation ; and so it was with the Pharisee . For as the Chaldees taught their Morality by mystick words , and the Aegyptians by Hieroglyphicks , and the Greeks by Fables ; so did God by Rites and Ceremonies external ; leading them by the Hand to the Purities of the Heart ; and by the Services of the Body to the Obedience of the Spirit ; which because they would not understand , they thought they had done enough in the observation of the Letter . 2. In moral Duties , where God express'd Himselfe more plainly , they made no Commentary of kindness ; but regarded the Prohibition so nakedly , and divested of all Antecedents , Consequents , Similitudes and Proportions , that if they stood clear of that hated name which was set down in Moses Tables , they gave themselves liberty in many instances of the same kindred & alliance . If they abstained from murder , they thought it very well , though they made no scruple of murdering their Brothers fame ; they would not cut his throat , but they would call him Fool , or invent lyes in secret , and publish his disgrace openly ; they would not dash out his brains , but they would be extremely and unreasonably angry with him ; they would not steal their brothers money , but they would oppress him in crafty and cruel bargains . The Commandment forbade them to commit Adultery , but because Fornication was not named , they made no scruple of that ; and being commanded to Honour their Father and their Mother , they would give them good words and fair observances , but because it was not named that they should maintain them in their need , they thought they did well enough to pretend Corban and let their Father starve . 3. The Scribes and Pharisees placed their Righteousness in Negatives ; they would not commit what was forbidden ; but they cared but little for the included positive , and the omissions of good Actions did not much trouble them ; they would not hurt their Brother in a forbidden instance , but neither would they do him good according to the intention of the Commandment ; It was a great Innocence if they did not rob the Poor , then they were righteous men ; but thought themselves not much concerned to acquire that god-like excellency , a Philanthropy and love to all mankind . Whosoever blasphem'd God was to be put to death ; but he that did not glorifie God as he ought , they were unconcerned for him , and let him alone ; he that spake against Moses was to dy without mercy ; but against the ambitious and the covetous , against the proud man and the unmerciful they made no provisions . Virtus est vitium fugere , & sapientia prima Stultitiâ caruisse . They accounted themselves good , not for doing good , but for doing no evil ; that was the sum of their Theology . 4. They had one thing more as bad as all this . They broke Moses Tables into pieces , and gathering up the fragments took to themselves what part of Duty they pleased , and let the rest alone . For it was a Proverb amongst the Jews , Qui operam dat praecepto , liber est à praecepto ; that is , If he chuses one positive Commandment for his business , he may be less careful in any of the rest . Indeed they said also , Qui multiplicat legem , multiplicat vitam ; he that multiplies the Law , increases Life ; that is , if he did attend to more good things , it was so much the better ; but the other was well enough : but as for Universal Obedience , that was not the measure of their Righteousness ; for they taught that God would put our good works and bad into the balance , and according to the heavier scale give a portion in the world to come : so that some evil they would allow to themselves and their Disciples ; alwayes provided it was less than the good they did . They would devour Widows houses , and make it up by long Prayers ; they would love their Nation and hate their Prince , offer Sacrifice and curse Caesar in their heart , advance Judaism and destroy Humanity . Lastly , St. Austin summ'd up the difference between the Pharisaical and Evangelical righteousness , in two words ; Brevis differentia inter Legem & Evangelium ; timor & amor . They serv'd the God of their Fathers in the spirit of Fear , and we worship the Father of our Lord Jesus in the spirit of Love , and by the spirit of Adoption ; and as this Slavish principle of theirs was the cause of all their former Imperfections , so it finally and chiefly express'd it self in these two particulars . 1. They would do all that they thought they lawfully could do . 2. They would do nothing but what was expresly commanded . This was the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees , and their Disciples the Jews , which because our B. Saviour reproves , not only as imperfect then , but as criminal now , calling us on to a new Righteousness , the Righteousness of God , to the Law of the Spirit of Life , to the Kingdom of God and the proper Righteousness thereof , it concerns us in the next place to look after the measures of this , ever remembring that it is infinitely necessary that we should do so ; and men do not generally know , or not consider what it is to be a Christian ; they understand not what the Christian Law forbiddeth or commandeth . But as for this in my Text , it is indeed our great measure : but it is not a question of good and better , but of Good and Evil , Life and Death , Salvation and Damnation ; for unless our Righteousness be weighed by new weights , we shall be found too light , when God comes to weigh the actions of all the world : and unless we be more righteous than they , we shall in no wise , that is , upon no other terms in the world enter into the Kingdom of Heaven . Now concerning this , we shall do very much amiss , if we take our measures by the manners and practises of the many who call themselves Christians ; for there are , as Nazianzen expresses it , the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the old and the new Pharisees . I wish it were no worse amongst us ; and that all Christians were indeed Righteous as they were ; est aliquid prodire tenus ; it would not be just nothing . But I am sure that to bid defiance to the Laws of Christ , to laugh at Religion , to make a merriment at the debauchery and damnation of our Brother , is a state of evil worse than that of the Scribes and Pharisees : and yet even among such men how impatient would they be , and how unreasonable would they think you to be , if you should tell them , that there is no present hopes or possibility that in this state they are in they can be saved . Omnes videmur nobis esse belluli Et festivi , Saperdae cum simus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the world is too full of Christians whose Righteousness is very little , and their Iniquities very great ; and now adays , a Christian is a man that comes to Church on Sundays , and on the week following will do shameful things ; Passim corvos sequitur , testâque lutoque Securus quo pes ferat , at que ex tempore vivit , being according to the Jewish proverbial reproof , as so many Mephibosheths : discipuli sapientum qui incessu pudefaciunt praeceptorem suum ; their Master teaches them to go uprightly ; but they still show their lame leg , and shame their Master ; as if a man might be a Christian , and yet be the vilest person in the world , doing such things for which the Laws of men have provided smart and shame , and the Laws of God have threatned the intolerable pains of an unsufferable and never ending damnation . Example here cannot be our rule unless men were much better , and as long as men live at the rate they do , it will be to little purpose to talk of exceeding the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees : but because it must be much better with us all , or it will be very much worse with us at the latter end , I shall leave complaining and go to the Rule , and describe the necessary and unavoidable measures of the righteousness Evangelical , without which we can never be saved . 1. Therefore when it is said our Righteousness must exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees , let us first take notice by way of praecognition , that it must at least be so much : we must keep the Letter of the whole Moral Law ; we must do all that lies before us , all that is in our hand : and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifies to be religious , the Grammarians derive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , from reaching forth the hand : the outward work must be done ; and it is not enough to say , My heart is right , but my hand went aside . Prudentius saith , that St. Peter wept so bitterly , because he did not confess Christ openly , whom he lov'd secretly . Flevit negator denique Ex ore prolapsum nefas , Cum mens maneret innocens , Animusque servârit fidem . A right heart alone will not do it ; or rather the heart is not right when the hand is wrong . If a man strikes his Neighbor , and says , Am not I in jest ? It is folly and shame to him , said Solomon . For , once for all ; Let us remember this , that Christianity is the most profitable , the most useful , and the most bountiful institution in the whole world , and the best definition I can give of it is this ; It is the Wisdom of God brought down among us to do good to men ; and therefore we must not do less than the Pharisees , who did the outward work ; at least let us be sure to do all the work that is laid before us in the Commandments . And it is strange that this should be needful to be press'd amongst Christians whose Religion requires so very much more . But so it is , upon a pretence that we must serve God with the mind . Some are such fools as to think that it is enough to have a good meaning . Iniquum perpol verbum est , bene vult , nisi qui bene facit . And because we must serve God in the Spirit , therefore they will not serve God with their Bodies ; and because they are called upon to have the power and the life of Godliness , they abominate all external works as mere forms ; and because the true fast is to abstain from Sin , therefore they will not abstain from meat and drink , even when they are commanded ; which is just as if a Pharisee being taught the Circumcision of the heart should refuse to Circumcise his Flesh ; and as if a Christian , being instructed in the Excellencies of Spiritual Communion , should wholly neglect the Sacramental ; that is , because the Soul is the life of man , therefore it is fitting to die in a humour , and lay aside the Body . * This is a taking away the Subject of the Question ; for our iniquiry is , How we should keep the Commandments ; how we are to do the work that lyes before us , by what Principles , with what Intention , in what Degrees , after what manner , ut bonum bene fiat , that the good thing be done well . This therefore must be presupposed ; we must take care that even our Bodies bear a part in our Spiritual Services . Our voice and tongue , our hands and our Feet , and our very bowels must be servants of God , and do the work of the Commandments . This being ever supposed , our Question is , how much more we must do ; and the first measure is this ; Whatsoever can be signified and ministred to by the Body , the Heart and the Spirit of a man must be the principal Actor . We must not give Alms without a charitable Soul , nor suffer Martyrdom but in Love and in Obedience ; and when we say our Prayers , we do but mispend our time unless our mind ascend up to God upon the wings of desire . Desire is the life of prayer ; and if you indeed desire what you pray for , you will also labour for what you desire ; and if you find it otherwise with your selves , your coming to Church is but like the Pharisees going up to the Temple to pray . If your heart be not present , neither will God ; and then there is a found of men and women between a pair of dead walls , from whence because neither God nor your Souls are present , you must needs go home without a Blessing . But this measure of Evangelical righteousness is of principal remark in all the rites and solemnities of Religion ; and intends to say this , that Christian Religion is something that is not seen , it is the hidden man of the heart ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it is God that dwels within ; and true Christians are men , who , as the Chaldee Oracle said , are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , clothed with a great deal of mind . And therefore those words of the Prophet Hosea , Et loquar ad cor ejus , I will speak unto their heart ; is a proverbial expression , signifying to speak spiritual comforts , and in the mystical sense signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to preach the Gospel ; where the Spirit is the Preacher , and the Heart is the Disciple , and the Sermon is of Righteousness and Peace , and Joy in the Holy Ghost . Our Service to God must not be in outward works and Scenes of Religion , it must be something by which we become like to God ; the Divine Prerogative must extend beyond the outward man ; nay , even beyond the mortification of Corporal vices ; the Spirit of God must go in trabis crassitudinem , and mollify all our secret pride , and ingenerate in us a true humility , and a Christian meekness of Spirit , and a Divine Charity . For in the Gospel , when God enjoyns any external Rite or Ceremony , the outward work is alwayes the less principal . For there is a bodily and a carnal part , an outside and a Cabinet of Religion in Christianity it self . When we are baptized , the purpose of God is that we cleanse our selves from all pollution of the Flesh and Spirit , and then we are indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , clean all over . And when we communicate , the Commandment means that we should be made one Spirit with Christ , and should live on him , believing his Word , praying for his Spirit , supported with his Hope , refreshed by his promises , recreated by his Comforts , and wholly and in all things conformable to his Life ; that is the true Communion . The Sacraments are not made for Sinners until they do repent ; they are the food of our Souls , but our Souls must be alive unto God , or else they cannot eat ; It is good to confess our sins , as St. James sayes , and to open our wounds to the Ministers of Religion , but they absolve none but such as are truly penitent . Solemn Prayers , and the Sacraments , and the Assemblies of the Faithful , and fasting dayes , and acts of external worship , are the solemnities and rites of Religion ; but the Religion of a Christian is in the Heart and Spirit . And this is that by which Clemens Alexand●inus defined the Righteousness of a Christian , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : all the parts & faculties that make up a man , must make up our Religion ; but the heart is Domus principalis , it is the Court of the great King ; and he is properly served with interior graces and moral Vertues , with a humble and a good mind , with a bountiful heart , and a willing Soul , and these will command the eye , and give laws to the hand , and make the shoulders stoop , but anima cujusque est quisque ; a mans soul is the man , and so is his Religion ; and so you are bound to understand it . True it is , God works in us his Graces by the Sacrament ; but we must dispose our selves to a reception of the Divine blessing by Moral instruments . The Soul is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it must work together with God , and the body works together with the soul : But no external action can purifie the soul , because its Nature and Operations being Spiritual , it can no more be changed by a Ceremony or an external Solemnity , than an Angel can be caressed with sweet Meats , or a Mans belly can be filled with Musick or long Orations . The sum is this : No Christian does his Duty to God but he that serves him with all his heart : And although it becomes comes us to fulfil all righteousnes , even the external also ; yet that which makes us gracious in his Eyes is not the external , it is the love of the heart and the real change of the mind and obedience of the spirit ; that 's the first great measure of the Righteousness Evangelical . 2. The Righteousness Evangelical must exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees by extension of our Obedience to things of the same signification ; Leges non ex verbis , sed ex mente intelligendas , sayes the Law. There must be a Commentary of kindness in the understanding the Laws of Christ. We must understand all Gods meaning ; we must secure his service , we must be far removed from the dangers of his displeasure . And therefore our Rigteousness must be the purification and the perfection of the Spirit . So that it will be nothing for us not to commit Adultery , unless our Eyes and Hands be chast , and the desires be clean . A Christian must not look upon a woman to lust after her . He must hate Sin in all dimensions , and in all distance , and in every angle of its reception . A Christian must not sin , and he must not be willing to sin if he durst . He must not be lustful , and therefore he must not feed high , nor drink deep , for these make provisions for lust : and amongst Christians , great eatings and drinkings are acts of uncleanness as well as of intemperance , and whatever ministers to sin , and is the way of it ; it partakes of its nature and its curse . For it is remarkable that in good and evil the case is greatly different . Mortification ( e. g. ) is a duty of Christianity ; but there is no Law concerning the Instruments of it . We are not commanded to roll our selves on thorns , as St. Benedict did ; or to burn our flesh , like St. Martinian ; or to tumble in Snows with S. Francis ; or in pools of water with S Bernard . A man may chew Aloes , or ly upon the ground , or wear sackcloth if he have a mind to it , and if he finds it good in his circumstances and to his purposes of mortification ; but it may be he may do it alone by the Instrumentalities of Fear and Love ; and so the thing be done , no special Instrument is under a command . * But although the Instruments of vertue are free , yet the Instruments and ministeries of vice are not . Not only the sin is forbidden , but all the wayes that lead to it . The Instruments of vertue are of themselves indifferent , that is , not naturally , but good only for their relation sake , and in order to their end . But the Instruments of vice are of themselves vitious ; they are part of the sin , they have a share in the phantastick pleasure , and they begin to estrange a mans heart from God , and are directly in the prohibition . For we are commanded to fly from temptation , to pray against it , to abstain from all appearances of evil , to make a covenant with our eyes , to pluck them out if there be need . And if Christians do not understand the Commandments to this extension of signification , they will be innocent only by the measures of humane laws , but not by the righteousness of God. 3. Of the same consideration it is also that we understand Christs Commandments to extend our Duty , not only to what is named , and what is not named of the same nature and design ; but that we abstain from all such things as are like to sins . * Of this nature there are many . All violences of Passion , Irregularities in Gaming , Prodigality of our time , Undecency of action , doing things unworthy of our Birth or our Profession , aptness to go to Law , Ambitus , or a fierce prosecution even of honourable employments ; misconstruction of the words and actions of our brother ; easiness to believe evil of others , willingness to report the evil which we hear ; curiosity of Dyet , peevishness toward servants , indiscreet and importune standing for place , and all excess in ornaments ; for even this little instance is directly prohibited by the Christian and royal Law of Charity . For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith St. Paul ; the word is a word hard to be understood ; we render it well enough ; Charity vaunteth not it self ; and upon this Saint Basil says , that an Ecclesiastick person ( and so every Christian in his proportion ) ought not to go in splendid and vain Ornaments ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : Every thing that is not wisely useful or proportioned to the state of the Christian , but ministers only to vanity , is a part of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it is a vaunting , which the Charity and the Grace of a Christian , does not well endure . * These things are like to sins , they are of a suspicious nature , and not easily to be reconcil'd to the righteousness Evangelical . It is no wonder if Christianity be nice and curious ; it is the cleanness and the purification of the Soul , and Christ intends to present his Church to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , without spot or wrinkle , or any such thing . N. B. or any such thing . If there be any irregularity that is less than a wrinkle , the Evangelical righteousness does not allow it . * These are such things which if men will stand to defend , possibly a modest Reprover will be more ashamed than an impudent Offender . * If I see a person apt to quarrel , to take every thing in an ill sense , to resent an error deeply , to reprove it bitterly , to remember it tenaciously , to repeat it frequently , to upbraid it unhandsomly , I think I have great reason to say , that this person does not do what becomes the sweetness of a Christian Spirit . If it be replied , It is no where forbidden to chide an offending person , and that it cannot be a fault to understand when a thing is said or done amiss . I cannot return an answer , but by saying , That suppose nothing of it were a sin , yet that every thing of it is so like a sin , that it is the worse for it ; and that it were better not to do so ; at least I think so , and so ought you too , if you be curious of your eternal interest : a little more tenderness here would do well , I cannot say that this dress , or this garment , or this standing for place is the direct sin of pride ; but I am sure it looks like it in some persons ; at least the letting it alone is much better , and is very like humility . And certain it is , that he is dull of hearing who understands not the voice of God , unless it be clamorous in an express and a loud Commandment , proclaimed with Trumpets and Clarions upon mount Sinai ; but a willing and an obedient ear understands the still voice of Christ , and is ready to obey his meaning at half a word ; and that is the righteousness Evangelical . It not only abstains from Sins named , and sins implied , but from the beginnings and instruments of sin ; and from whatsoever is like it . The Jews were so great haters of Swine upon pretensions of the Mosaick rites , that they would not so much as name a Swine , but called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Daber Acher another thing . And thus the Romans in their Auguries us'd alterum for non bonum . The simile of this St. Paul translates to a Christian duty . Let not fornication be so much as named amongst you , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as is comely amongst Christians , that is , come not near a foul thing ; speak not of it , let it be wholly banished from all your conversation ; for this niceness and curiosity of duty becometh Saints , and is an instance of the righteousness Evangelical . I have now done with the first sort of measures of the Christian righteousness ; these which are the matter of our negative duty ; these are the measures of our caution and our first innocence . But there are greater things behind , which although I must croud up into a narrow room , yet I must not wholly omit them : therefore 4. The fourth thing I shall note to you is , that whereas the righteousness of the Pharisees was but a fragment of the broken Tables of Moses ; the pursuance of some one Grace , lacinia sanctitatis , a piece of the robe of righteousness ; the righteousness Evangelical must be like Christs seamless Coat , all of a piece from the top to the bottom ; it must invest the whole Soul : Misma , Dumah , Massah , said the Proverb of the Rabbins , It is this , and it is the other , & it must be all , it must be an universal righteousness ; not a little knot of holy actions scattered in our lives , and drawn into a sum at the day of Judgement , but it must be a state of holiness . It was said of the Paphlagonian Pigeons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , every one of them had two hearts ; but that in our mystical Theologie signifies a wicked man. So said Solomon , The perverse or wicked man derachaim he is a man of two ways ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so S. James expresses an unbeliever ; a man that will and will not ; something he does for God , and something for the world ; he hath two mindes , and in a good fit , in his well days he is full of Repentance , and overflows in piety ; but the paroxysm will return in the day of temptation , and then he is gone infallibly . But know this , that in the righteousness Evangelical , one duty cannot be exchang'd for another , and three vertues will not make amends for one remaining vice . He that oppresses the poor cannot make amends by giving good counsel ; and if a Priest be Simonaical , he cannot be esteemed righteous before God by preaching well , and taking care of his charge . To be zealous for God and for Religion is good , but that will not legitimate cruelty to our Brother . It is not enough for a man to be a good Citizen , unless he be also a good man. But some men build their houses with half a dozen cross sticks , and turfe is the foundation , and straw is the covering , and they think they dwell securely ; their Religion is made up but of two or three vertues , and they think to commute with God , some good for some bad , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as if one deadly wound were not enough to destroy the most healthful constitution in the world . Deceive not your selves . It is all one on which hand we fall : Vnum operantur Et calor & frigus , sic hoc , sic illud adurit ; Sic tenebrae visum , sic sol contrarius aufert . The Moon may burn us by night as well as the Sun by day : and a man may be made blind by the light of the Sun as well as by the darkness of the evening , and any one great mischief is enough to destroy one man. Some men are very meek and gentle naturally , and that they serve God withal ; they pursue the vertue of their nature : that is , they tye a stone at the bottom of the well , and that 's more than needs ; the stone will stay there without that trouble ; and this good inclination will of it self easily proceed to issue ; and therefore our care and caution should be more carefully imployed in mortification of our natures , and acquist of such vertues to which we are more refractory , and then cherish the other too , even as much as we please : but at the same time we are busie in this , it may be we are secret Adulterers , and that will spoil our confidences in the goodness of the other instance : others are greatly bountiful to the poor , and love all mankind , and hurt no body but themselves ; but it is a thousand pities to see such loving good natured persons to perish infinitely by one crime , and to see such excellent good things thrown away to please an uncontrolled and a stubborn lust ; but so do some escape out of a pit , and are taken in a trap at their going forth ; and stepping aside to avoid the hoar frost , fall into a valley full of Snow . The Righteousness Evangelical is another kind of thing : it is a holy conversation , a God-like life , an universal obedience , a keeping nothing back from God , a Sanctification of the whole man , and keeps not the body only , but the soul and the spirit unblameable to the coming of the Lord Jesus . 5. And lastly ; The Pharisaical righteousness was the product of fear , and therefore what they must , needs do , that they would do ; but no more . But the righteousness Evangelical is produced by Love , it is managed by Choice , and cherished by Delight and fair Experiences . Christians are a willing people ; homines bonae voluntatis , men of good will ; arbores Domini . So they are mystically represented in Scripture ; the Trees of the Lord are full of Sap : among the Hebrews the trees of the Lord did signify such trees as grew of themselves ; and all that are of Gods planting , are such as have a vital principle within , and grow without constraint , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , one said it of Christians : they obey the Laws , and by the goodness of their lives exceed the Laws ; and certain it is , no man hath the righteousness Evangelical if he resolves alwayes to take all his liberty in every thing that is meerly lawful ; or if he purpose to do no more than he must needs , that is , no more than he is just commanded . For the Reasons are plain . 1. The Christian that resolves to do every thing that is lawful , will many times run into danger and inconvenience ; because the utmost extremity of lawful is so near to that which is unlawful , that he will often pass into unlawful undiscernably . Vertues and Vices have not in all their instances a great land-mark set between them , like warlike nations separate by prodigious walls , vast seas and portentous hills ; but they are oftentimes like the bounds of a Parish ; men are fain to cut a cross upon the turf , and make little marks and annual perambulations for memorials : so it is in lawful and unlawful , by a little mistake a man may be greatly ruined . He that drinks till his tongue is full as a spunge , and his speech a little stammering and tripping , hasty and disorderly , though he be not gone as far as drunkenness , yet he is gone beyond the severity of a Christian ; and when he is just past into unlawful , if he disputes too curiously , he will certainly deceive himself for want of a wiser curiosity . But 2. He that will do all that he thinks he may lawfully , had need have an infallible guide alwayes by him , who should without error be able to answer all cases of Conscience , which will happen every day in a life so careless and insecure ; for if he should be mistaken , his error is his crime , and not his excuse . A man in this case had need be very sure of his Proportion ; which because he cannot be , in charity to himself , he will quickly find that he is bound to abstain from all things that are uncertainly good , and from all disputable evils , from things which although they may be in themselves lawful , yet accidentally , and that from a thousand cause may become unlawful , Pavidus quippe & formidolosus est Ch●istianus , saith Salvian , — atque in tantum peccare metuens , ut interdum & non timenda formidet . A Christian is afraid of every little thing : and he sometimes greatly fears that he hath sinned , even then when he hath no other reason to be afraid , but because he would not do so for all the world . 3. He that resolves to use all his liberty cannot be innocent , so long as there are in the world so many bold temptations , and presumptuous actions , so many scandals , and so much ignorance in the things of God , so many things that are suspitious , and so many things that are of evil report ; so many ill customs and disguises in the world , with which if we resolve to comply in all that is supposed lawful , a man may be in the regions of death , before he perceive his head to ake ; and instead of a staff in his hand , may have a splinter in his Elbow . 4. Besides all this ; he that thus stands on his terms with God , and so carefully husbands his duty , and thinks to make so good a market of obedience , that he will quit nothing which he thinks he may lawfully keep , shall never be exemplar in his life , and shall never grow in grace , and therefore shall never enter into glory . He therefore that will be righteous by the measures Evangelical , must consider not only what is lawful , but what is expedient ; not only what is barely safe , but what is worthy , that which may secure , and that which may do advantage to that concern that is the greatest in the world . And 2. The case is very like with them that resolve to do no more good than is commanded them . For 1. it is infinitely unprofitable as to our eternal interest , because no man does do all that is commanded at all times ; and therefore he that will not sometimes do more , besides that he hath no love , no zeal of duty , no holy fires in his soul ; besides this , I say , he can never make any amends towards the reparation of his Conscience . Let him that stole steal no more ; that 's well ; but that 's not well enough , for he must , if he can , make restitution of what he stole , or he shall never be pardoned ; and so it is in all our entercourse with God. To do what is commanded is the duty of the present ; we are tyed to this in every present , in every period of our lives ; but therefore if we never do any more than just the present duty , who shall supply the deficiences , and fill up the gaps , and redeem what is past ? This is a material consideration in the righteousness Evangelical . But then 2. we must know that in keeping of Gods Commandments every degree or internal duty is under the Commandments ; and therefore whatever we do , we must do it as well as we can . Now he that does his Duty with the biggest affection he can , will also do all that he can ; and he can never know that he hath done what is commanded , unless he does all that is in his power . For God hath put no limit but love and possibility , and therefore whoever says , Hither will I go and no further , This I will do and no more , Thus much will I serve God , but that shall be all , he hath the affections of a Slave , and the religion of a Pharisee , the craft of a Merchant , and the falseness of a Broker ; but he hath not the proper measures of the righteousness Evangelical . But so it happens in the mud and slime of the River Borborus , when the eye of the Sun hath long dwelt upon it , and produces Frogs and Mice which begin to move a little under a thin cover of its own parental matter , and if they can get loose to live half a life , that is all ; but the hinder parts , which are not formed before the setting of the Sun , stick fast in their beds of mud , and the little moyety of a creature dies before it could be well said to live ; so it is with those Christians , who will do all that they think lawful , and will do no more than what they suppose necessary ; they do but peep into the light of the Sun of righteousness ; they have the beginnings of life ; but their hinder parts , their passions and affections , and the desires of the lower man are still unformed ; and he that dwells in this state is just so much of a Christian as a Spunge is of a plant , and a mushrom of a shrub : they may be as sensible as an oyster , and discourse at the rate of a child , but are greatly short of the righteousness Evangelical . I have now done with those parts of the Christian righteousness , which were not only an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or excess , but an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Pharisaical : but because I ought not to conceal any thing from you that must integrate our duty , and secure our title to the kingdom of Heaven ; there is this to be added , that this precept of our blessed Saviour is to be extended to the direct degrees of our duty . We must do more duties , and we must do them better . And in this , although we can have no positive measures , because they are potentially infinite , yet therefore we ought to take the best , because we are sure the greatest is not too big ; and we are not sure that God will accept a worse , when we can do a better . Now although this is to be understood of the internal affection only ; because that must never be abated , but God is at all times to be loved and served with all our heart , yet concerning the degrees of external duty , as Prayers , and Alms , and the like , we are certainly tyed to a greater excellency in the degree , than was that of the Scribes and Pharisees . I am obliged to speak one word for the determination of this inquiry , viz. to how much more of external duty Christians are obliged , than was in the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees . In order to this , briefly thus . I remember that Salvian speaking of old men summing up their Repentances , and making amends for the sins of their whole life , exhorts them to Alms and works of Piety . But inquiring how much they should do towards the redeeming of their Souls , answers with a little Sarcasm , but plainly enough to give a wise man an answer . A man , says he , is not bound to give away all his goods , unless peradventure he ows all to God ; but in that case I cannot tell what to say ; for then the case is altered . A man is not bound to part with all his estate ; that is , unless his sins be greater than his estate ; but if they be , then he may consider of it again , and consider better . And he need not part with it all , unless pardon be more precious to him than his money , and unless heaven be worth it all , and unless he knows justly how much less will do it . If he does , let him try his skill , and pay just so much and no more than he owes to God : but if he does not know , let him be sure to do enough . His meaning is this . Not that a man is bound to give all he hath , and leave his children beggars ; he is bound from that by another obligation . But as when we are tyed to pray continually , the meaning is , we should consecrate all our time by taking good portions out of all our time for that duty ; the devoutest person being like the waters of Siloam , a perpetual spring , but not a perpetual current ; that is alwayes in readiness , but actually thrusting forth his waters at certain periods every day . So out of all our estate we must take for Religion and Repentance such portions as the whole estate can allow ; so much as will consecrate the rest ; so much as is fit to bring when we pray for a great pardon , and deprecate a mighty anger , and turn aside an intolerable fear , and will purchase an excellent peace , and will reconcile a sinner : Now in this case a Christian is to take his measures according to the rate of his contrition and his love , his Religion and his fear , his danger and his expectation , and let him measure his amends wisely ; his sorrow pouring in , and his fear thrusting it down , and it were very well , if his love also would make it run over . For deceive not your selves , there is no other measure but this . So much good as a man does , or so much as he would do , if he could , so much of Religion and so much of repentance he hath , and no more : and a Man cannot ordinarily know that he is in a saveable condition , but by the Testimony which a Divine Philanthropy and a good mind alwayes gives , which is to omit no opportunity of doing good in our several proportions and possibilities . There was an Alms which the Scribes and Pharisees were obliged by the Law to give the tenth of every third years increase ; this they alwayes paid , and this sort of Alms is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Righteousness or Justice , but the Alms which Christians ought to give is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it is grace , and it is love , and it is abundance , and so the old Rabbins told : Justitia propriè dicitur in iis quae jure facimus ; benignitas in iis quae praeter jus . It is more than righteousness , it is bounty and benignity , for that 's the Christian measure . And so it is in the other parts and instances of the righteousness Evangelical . And therefore it is remarkable , that the Saints in the Old Testament were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , right men , and the book of Genesis , as we find it twice attested by S. Hierome , was called by the Ancient Hellenists , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the book of right or just men , the book of Abraham , Isaac and Jacob. But the word for Christians is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , good men , harmless and profitable . Men that are good , and men that do good . In pursuance of which it is further observed by learned men , that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or vertue , is not in the four Gospels ; for the actions of Christs Disciples should not be in gradu virtutis only , vertuous and laudable , such as these Aristotle presses in his Magna Moralia ; they must pass on to a further excellency than so : the same which he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; they must be sometimes , and as often as we can in gradu heroico , or , that I may use the Christian style , they must be actions of perfection . Righteousness was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for alms in the Old Testament , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or perfection was the word for Alms in the New ; as appears by comparing the fifth of S. Matthew , and the sixth of S. Luke together ; and that is the full state of this difference in the inquiries of the righteousness Pharisaical and Evangelical . I have many more things to say , but ye cannot hear them now , because the time is past . One thing indeed were fit to be spoken of , if I had any time left ; but I can only name it , and desire your consideration to make it up . This great Rule that Christ gives us , does also , and that principally too , concern Churches and Common-wealths , as well as every single Christian. Christian Parliaments must exceed the Religion and Government of the Sanhedrim . Your Laws must be more holy , the condition of the Subjects be made more tolerable , the Laws of Christ must be strictly enforced , you must not suffer your great Master to be dishonoured , nor his Religion dismembred by Sects , or disgraced by impiety : you must give no impunity to vitious persons , and you must take care that no great example be greatly corrupted ; you must make better provisions for your poor than they did , and take more care even of the external advantages of Christs Religion and his Ministers , than they did of the Priests and Levites ; that is , in all things you must be more zealous to promote the kingdom of Christ , than they were for the Ministeries of Moses . The sum of all is this ; The righteousness Evangelical is the same with that which the Ancients called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to live an Apostolical life , that was the measure of Christians , the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , men that desired to please God ; that is , as Apostolius most admirably describes it , men who are curious of their very eyes , temperate in their tongue , of a mortified body , and a humble spirit , pure in their intentions , masters of their passions . Men who when they are injured return honourable words ; when they are lessened in their estates , increase in their charity ; when they are abused , they yet are courteous and give intreaties ; when they are hated , they pay love ; men that are dull in contentions , and quick in loving kindnesses , swift as the feet of Asahel , and ready as the chariots of Amminadib . True Christians are such as are crucified with Christ , and dead unto all sin ; and finally place their whole love on God , and for his sake upon all mankind : this is the description of a Christian , and the true state of the righteousness Evangelical ; so that it was well said of Athenagoras , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , no Christian is a wicked man , unless his life be a continual lie , unless he be false to God and his Religion . For the righteousness of the Gospel is in short , nothing else but a transcript of the life of Christ ; de matthana nahaliel ; de nahaliel Bamoth , said R. Joshua ; Christ is the image of God , and every Christian is the image of Christ , whose example is imitable , but it is the best , and his laws are the most perfect , but the most easie , and the promises by which he invites our greater services are most excellent , but most true ; and the rewards shall be hereafter , but they shall abide for ever , and ( that I may take notice of the last words of my Text ) the threatnings to them that fall short of this righteousness are most terrible , but most certainly shall come to pass ; they shall never enter into the kingdom of heaven ; that is , their portion shall be shame and an eternal prison , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a flood of brimstone , and a cohabitation with Devils to eternal ages : and if this consideration will not prevail , there is no place left for perswasion , and there is no use of reason ; and the greatest hopes and the greatest fears can be no argument or sanction of laws ; and the greatest good in the world is not considerable , and the greatest evil is not formidable ; but if they be , there is no more to be said ; if you would have your portion with Christ , you must be righteous by his measures ; and these are they that I have told you . THE CHRISTIANS CONQUEST Over the Body of Sin. Rom. VII . 19. For the good that I would , I do not : but the evil which I would not , that I do . WHat the Eunuch said to Philip , when he read the book of the Prophet Isaiah ; Of whom speaketh the Prophet this , of himself , or some other man ? The same question I am to ask concerning the words of my Text : Does S. Paul mean this of himself , or of some other ? It is hoped that he speaks it of himself ; and means that though his understanding is convinced that he ou●ht to serve God ; and ●hat he hath some imperfect desires to do so ; yet the Law of God without is opposed by a law of Sin wit●in . We have a corrupted nature , and a body of infirmity , and our reason dwells in the dark , and we must go out of the world before we leave our sin . For besides that some sins are esteemed brave and honourable , and he is a baffled person that dares not kill his brother like a Gentleman ; our very Tables are made a snare , and our civilities are direct treasons to the soul. You cannot entertain your friend but excess is the measure ; and that you may be very kind to your Guest , you step aside and lay away the Christian ; your love cannot be expressed unless you do him an ill turn , and civilly invite him to a Feaver . Justice is too often taught to bow to great interests , and men cannot live without flattery ; and there are some Trades that minister to sin , so that without a sin we cannot maintain our Families ; and if you mean to live , you must do as others do . Now so long as men see they are like to be undone by innocence , and that they can no way live but by compliance with the evil customs of the world , men conclude practically , because they must live they must sin ; they must live handsomely , and therefore must do some things unhandsomely , and so upon the whole matter sin is unavoidable . Fain they would but cannot tell how to help it . But since it is no better , it is well it is no worse . For it is S. Pauls case , no worse man ; he would and he would not , he did and he did not ; he was willing , but he was not able ; and therefore the case is clear , that if a man strives against sin , and falls unwillingly , it shall not be imputed to him ; he may be a regenerate man for all that . A man must indeed wrangle against sin when it comes , and like a peevish lover resist and consent at the same time , and then all is well ; for this not only consists with , but is a sign of the state of regeneration . If this be true , God will be very ill served . If it be not true , most men will have but small hopes of being saved , because this is the condition of most men . What then is to be done ? Truth can do us no hurt , and therefore be willing to let this matter pass under examination ; for if it trouble us now , it will bring comfort hereafter . And therefore before I enter into the main inquiry , I shall by describing the state of the man , of whom S. Paul speaks here , tell you plainly , who it is that is in this state of sad things , and then do ye make your resolutions according as you shall find it necessary for the saving of your souls ; which I am sure ought to be the end of all preaching . 1. The man S. Paul speaks of is one that is dead , v. 9. one that was deceived and slain , v. 11. one in whom sin was exceeding sinful , v. 13. that is , highly imputed , greatly malicious , infinitely destructive : he is one who is carnal , and sold under sin , v. 14. he is one that sins against his conscience and his reason , v. 16. he is one in whom sin dwells but the Spirit of God does not dwell ; for no good thing dwels in him , v. 18. he is one who is brought into captivity to the law of sin , he is a servant of uncleanness , with his flesh and members serving the law of sin , v. 25. Now if this be a state of regeneration , I wonder what is , or can be a state of reprobation ! for though this be the state of Nature , yet it cannot be the state of one redeemed by the Spirit of Christ ; and therefore flatter not your selves any more , that it is enough for you to have good desires , and bad performances : never think that any sin can reign in you , and yet you be servants of God : that sin can dwell in you , and at the same time the Spirit of God can dwell in you too ; or that life and death can abide together . The sum of affairs is this . If ye live after the flesh , ye shall dy ; but if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body , ye shall live , but not else upon any terms whatsoever . My Text is one of the hard places of S. Paul ; which , as S. Peter sayes , the ignorant and the unstable wrest to their own damnation . But because in this case the danger is so imminent , and the deception would be so intolerable , S. Paul immediately after this Chapter ( in which under his own person , as was usual with him to do , he describes the state of a natural man advanced no further than Moses Law , and not redeemed by the blood of Christ , or inlightned by the Spirit of God , and taught by the wiser Lessons and Sermons of the Gospel ) immediately spends the next Chapter in opposing the Evangelical state to the Legal , the Spiritual to the Carnal , the Christian to the Natural ; and tells us plainly , he that is redeemed by the blood of Christ , is redeemed from the power of sin : he that is Christs freed man , is not a slave of sin , not captive to the Devil at his will : he that is in the flesh cannot please God , but that every servant of Christ is freed from sin , and is a servant of righteousness , and redeemed from all his vain conversation : for this is the end of Christs coming , and cannot be in vain unless we make it so . He came to bless us by turning every one of us from our iniquities . Now concerning this , besides the evidence of the thing itself , that S. Paul does not speak these words of himself , but by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , under his own borrowed person he describes the state of a carnal , unredeemed , unregenerate person , is expresly affirmed by S. Irenaeus and Origen , by Tertullian and S. Basil , by Theodoret and S. Chrysostom , by S. Jerom , and sometimes by S. Austin , by S. Ambrose , and S. Cyril , by Macarius and Theophylact ; and is indeed that true sense and meaning of these words of S. Paul , which words none can abuse or misunderstand , but to the great prejudice of a holy life , and the Patronage of all iniquity . But for the stating of this great case of conscience , I shall first in short describe to you what are the proper causes which place men , and keep them in this state of a necessity of sinning ; and 2. I shall prove the absolute necessity of coming out of this condition , and quitting all our sin . 3. In what degree this is to be affected . 4. By what Instruments this is to be done ; and all these being practical will of themselves be sufficient use to the Doctrines , and need no other applicatory but a plain exhortation . 1. What are the causes of this evil , by which we are first placed , and so long kept in a necessity of sinning , so that we cannot do what good we would , nor avoid the evil that we hate ? The first is the evil state of our Nature . And indeed he that considers the dayly experiment of his own weak Nature , the ignorance and inconstancy of his soul being like a sick mans legs , or the knees of Infants , reeling and unstable by disease or by infirmity , and the perpetual leaven and germinations , the thrustings forth , and swelling of his senses , running out like new wine into vapours and intoxicating activities , will readily confess , that though even in nature there may be many good inclinations to many instances of the Divine Commandments ; yet it can go no further than this velleity , this desiring to do good , but is not able . And upon this account it is that Lactantius brings in the Pagan or natural man complaining , Volo equidem non peccare , sed vincor , indutus enim sum carne fragili & imbecillà . This is very true ; and I adde only this caution . There is not in the corruption of our nature so much as will save us harmless , or make us excusable if we sin against God. Natural corruption can make us criminal , but not innocent ; for though by him that willingly abides in the state of mere nature , sin cannot be avoided , yet no man is in that state longer than he loves to be so ; for the Grace of God came to rescue us from this evil portion , and is alwayes present to give us a new nature , and create us over again : and therefore though sin is made necessary to the natural man by his impotency and fond loves , that is by his unregenerate nature , yet in the whole constitution of affairs , God hath more then made it up by his Grace , if we will make use of it . In pueris elucet spes plurimorum , quae ubi emoritur aetate , manifestum est non defecisse naturam , sed curam , said Quintilian . We cannot tell what we are , or what we think in our infancy ; and when we can know our thoughts we can easily observe that we have learned evil things by evil examples , and the corrupt manners of an evil conversation : & ubi per socordiam vires , tempus , ingenium defluxêre , naturae infirmitas accusatur ; that indeed is too true ; we grow lazy , and wanton , and we lose our time , and abuse our parts , and do ugly things , and lay the fault wholly upon our natural infirmities ; but we must remember that by this time it is a state of Nature , a state of flesh and blood , which cannot enter into Heaven . The natural man and the natural child are not the same thing in true Divinity . The natural child indeed can do no good ; but the natural man cannot choose but do evil ; but it is because he will do so ; he is not born in the second bir●h , and renewed in the Baptism of the Spirit . 2. We have brought our selves into an accidental necessity of sinning by the evil principles which are sucked in by great parts of mankind . We are taught ways of going to Heaven without forsaking our sins ; of repentance without restitution ; of being in charity without hearty forgiveness , and without love ; of believing our sins to be pardoned before they are mortified ; of trusting in Christs death without conformity to his life ; of being in Gods fav●ur upon the only account of being of such an opinion ; and that when we are once in , we can never be out . We are taught to believe that the events of things do not depend upon our crucifying our evil and corrupt affections , but upon eternal and unalterable Counsels ; that the promises are not the rewards of obedience , but graces pertaining only to a few praedestinates , and yet men are Saints for all that ; and that the Laws of God are of the race of the Giants , not to be observed by any grace or by any industry , this is the Catechism of the ignorant and the prophane : but without all peradventure the contrary propositions are the way to make the world better : but certainly they that believe these things do not believe it necessary that we should eschew all evil : and no wonder then if when men upon these accounts slacken their industry and their care , they find sin still prevailing , still dwelling within them , and still unconquerable by so slight and disheartned labours . For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : every fool and every ignorant person is a child still ; and it is no wonder that he who talks foolishly should do childishly and weakly . 3. To our weak and corrupted nature , and our foolish discourses , men do dayly superinduce evil habits and customs of sinning . Consuetudo mala tanquam hamus infixus animae , said the Father ; an evil custom is a hook in the soul , and draws it whither the Devil pleases . When it comes to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Peter's word is , a heart exercised with covetous practices , then it is also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it is weak and unable to do the good it fain would , or to avoid the evil which in a good fit it pretends to hate . This is so known I shall not insist upon it ; but adde this only , that wherever a habit is contracted , it is all one what the instance be ; it is as easie as delicious , as unalterable in vertue as in vice ; for what helps nature brings to a vitious habit , the same and much more the Spirit of God , by his power and by his comforts can do in a vertuous ; and then we are well again . You see by this who are , and why they are in this evil condition . The evil natures , and the evil principles , and the evil manners of the world , these are the causes of our imperfect willings , and weaker actings in the things of God ; and as long as men stay here , sin will be unavoidable . For even meat it self is loathsom to a sick stomack ; and it is impossible for him that is heart-sick to eat the most wholsom diet ; and yet he that shall say eating is impossible , will be best confuted by seeing all the healthful men in the world eat heartily every day . 2. But what then ? Cannot sin be avoided ? Cannot a Christian mortifie the deeds of the body ? Cannot Christ redeem us , and cleanse us from all our sins ? Cannot the works of the Devil be destroyed ? That 's the next particular to be inquired of . Whether or no it be not necessary , and therefore very possible for a servant of God to pass from this evil state of things , and not only hate evil , but avoid it also ? He that saith he hath not sinned is a lyar ; but what then ? Because a Man hath sinned , it does not follow he must do so always . Hast thou sinned ? do so no more ( said the wise Bensirach ) and so said Christ to the poor Paralytick , Go and sin no more . They were excellent words spoken by a holy Prophet [ Let not the sinner say he hath not sinned ; For God shall burn coals of fire upon his head , that saith before the Lord God and his glory , I have not sinned . ] Well! that case is confessed . All men have sinned , and come short of the glory of God. But is there no remedy for this ? Must it always be so , and sin for ever must have the upper hand , and for ever baffle our resolutions , and all our fierce and earnest promises of amendment ? God forbid ; there was a time then to come , and , blessed be God , it hath been long come [ Yet a little while ( saith that Prophet ) and iniquity shall be taken out of the earth , and righteousness shall reign among you . ] For , that 's in the day , of Christs kingdom , the manifestation of the Gospel : when Christ reigns in our hearts by his Spirit , Dagon and the Ark cannot stand together ; we cannot serve Christ and Belial . And as in the state of nature no good thing dwells within us , so when Christ rules in us , no evil thing can abide . For every plant that my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up , and cast away into the fires of consumption or purification . But how shall this come to pass , since we all find our selves so infinitely weak and foolish ? I shall tell you . It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle , than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of heaven , said Christ. It is impossible to nature , it is impossible to them that are given to vanity ; it is impossible for them that delight in the evil snare . But Christ adds ; With men this is impossible , but with God all things are possible . What we cannot do for our selves , God can do for us and with us . What Nature cannot do , the Grace of God can . So that the thing may be done , not indeed by our selves , but gratia Dei mecum , saith S. Paul ; God and man together can do it . But if it can be done any way that God hath put into our powers , the consequent is this ; No mans good will shall be taken in exchange for the real and actual mortification of his sins . He that sins , and would fain not sin , but sin is present with him whether he will or no , let him take heed ; for the same is the Law of sin , and the Law of death ( saith the Apostle ) and that mans heart is not right with God. For it is impossible men should pray for deliverance and not be heard , that they should labour and not be prosperous , unless they pray amiss , and labour falsely . Let no man therefore please himself with talking of great things , with perpetual conversation in pious discourses , or with ineffective desires of serving God. He that does not practise as well as he talks , and do what he desires , and what he ought to do , confesses himself to sin greatly against his conscience ; and it is a prodigious folly to think that he is a good man , because though he does sin , yet it was against his mind to do so . A mans conscience can never condemn him , if that be his excuse , to say that his conscience checkt him ; and that will be but a sad apology at the day of Judgement . Some men talk like Angels , and pray with great fervor , and meditate with deep recesses , and speak to God with loving affections , and words of union , and adhere to him in silent devotion , and when they go abroad are as passionate as ever , peevish as a frighted Fly , vexing themselves with their own reflexions . They are cruel in their bargains , unmerciful to their tenants , and proud as a Barbarian Prince . They are for all their fine words impatient of reproof , scornful to their Neighbours , lovers of money , supream in their own thoughts , and submit to none ; all their spiritual life they talk of , is nothing but spiritual fancy and illusion : they are still under the power of their passions , and their sin rules them imperiously , and carries them away infallibly . Let these men consider ; there are some men think it impossible to do as much as they do . The common swearer cannot leave that vice and talk well ; and these men that talk thus well , think they cannot do as well as they talk ; but both of them are equally under the power of their respective sins , and are equally deceived , and equally not the servants of God. * This is true ; but it is equally as true ; that there is no necessity for all this ; for it ought , and it may be otherwise if we please . For I pray be pleased to hear S. Paul. Walk in the Spirit , and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh . There 's your remedy . For the Spirit lusteth against the flesh , and the flesh against the Spirit , there 's the cause of it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so that ye may not , or cannot do the things ye would . That 's the blessed consequent and product of that cause . That is plainly , As there is a state of carnality ( of which S. Paul speaks in my Text ) so that in that state a man cannot but obey the flesh : so there is also a state of spirituality , when sin is dead , and righteousness is alive ; and in this state the flesh can no more prevail , than the Spirit could do in the other . Some men cannot choose but sin ; for the carnal mind is not subject to God , neither indeed can be ( saith S. Paul ; ) but there are also some men , that cannot endure any thing that is not good . It is a great pain for a temperate man to suffer the disorders of Drunkenness , and the shames of Lust are intolerable to a chaste and modest person . This also is affirmed by S. John , Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin , for his seed remaineth in him . So that you see it is possible for a good man not to commit the sin to which he is tempted ; but the Apostle sayes more , He doth not commit sin , neither indeed can he , because he is born of God. And this is agreable to the words of our Blessed Saviour ; A corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit ; and a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit , that is , as the child of Hell is carried to Sin pleno impetu , he does not check at it ; he does it and is not troubled ; so on the other side , a child of God is as fully convinced of righteousness , and that which is unrighteous is as hateful to him , as Colocynths to the taste , or the sharpest punctures to the Pupil of the eye . We may see something of this in common experiences . What man of ordinary prudence and reputation can be tempted to steal , or for what price would he be tempted to murder his friend ? If we did hate all sins as we hate these , would it not be as easy to be as innocent in other instances , as most men are in these ; and we should have as few Drunkards as we have thieves . In such as these , we do not complain in the words of my Text ; What I would not , that I do ; and what I would , I do not . Does not every good man overcome all the power of great sins ? And can he by the Spirit of God and right reason , by fear and hope conquer Goliath , and beat the sons of the Giant , and can he not overcome the little Children of Gath ? or is it harder to overcome a little sin than a great one ? Are not the temptations to little sins very little , and yet are they greater and stronger than a mighty grace ? Could the poor Demoniack that liv'd in the graves , by the power of the Devil break his iron chains in pieces , and cannot he who hath the Spirit of God dissolve the chains of sin ? Through Christ that strengthens me , I can do all things , saith S. Paul. Satis sibi copiarum cum Publio Decio , & nunquam nimium hostium fore , said one in Livie ; which is best rendred by S. Paul ; If God be with us , who can be against us ? Nay there is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in S. Paul , We are more than Conquerers ; for even amongst an army of Conquerours there are degrees of exaltation ; and some serve God like the Centurion , and some like S. Peter ; some like Martha , and some like Mary ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , all good men conquer their temptation , but some with more ease , and some with a clearer victory ; and more than thus , Non Solum viperam terimus , sed ex ea antidotum conficimus , we kill the Viper , and make treacle of him , that is , not only escape from , but get advantages by temptations . But we commonly are more afraid than hurt . Let us therefore lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us ; so we read the words of the Apostle : but S. Chrysostoms reddition of them is better ; for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a perfect passive , and cannot signifie the strength and irresistibility of sin upon us ; but the quite contrary : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies the sin that is so easily avoided , as they that understand that language know very well . And if we were so wise and valiant as not to affright our selves with our own terrors , we should quickly find , that by the help of the Spirit of God , we can do more then we thought we could . It was said of Alexander , Bene ausus est vana contemnere , he did no great matter in conquering the Persian , because they were a pitiful and a soft people ; only he understood them to be so , and was wise and bold enough not to fear such images , and men of clouts . But men in the matter of great sins and little , do as the Magicians of Aegypt ; when Moses turned his rod into a Serpent it moved them not ; but when they saw the Lice and the Flies , then they were afraid . We see that by the Grace of God we can escape great sins , but we start at Flies , and a bird out of a Bush disorders us : the Lyon in the way troubles us not ; but a Frog and a Worm affrights us . Remember the saying of S. Paul , Christ came to redeem to himself a Church , and to present it pure and spotless before the Throne of Grace ; and if you mean to be of this number , you must endeavour to be under this qualification , that is , ( as Paul laboured to be ) void of offence both towards God , and towards Man. And so I have done with the second Proposition ; It is necessary that all sin great and little should be mortified and dead in us , and that we no longer abide in that state of slavery as to say , The good that I would , I do not ; but the evil that I would not , that I do . 3. In the next place we are to inquire in what degree this is to be effected ; for though in negatives properly there are no degrees , yet unless there be some allays in this Doctrine , it will not be so well , and it may be your experiences will for ever confute my Arguments . For who can say that he is clean from his sin ? ( said the Wiseman ) and as our Blessed Saviour said , He that is innocent amongst you all , let him throw the first stone at the sinner and spare not . To this I answer in the words of S. Gregory . All mans righteousness will be found to be unrighteous , if God should severely enter into judgment ; but therefore even after our innocence we must pray for pardon , ut quae succumbere discussa poterat , ex judicis pietate convalescat , that our innocence which in strictness of Divine judgment would be found spotted and stained , by the mercy of our Saviour may be accepted . S. Bernard expresses this well . Nostra siqua est humilis justitia , recta forsitan sed non pura . Our humble righteousness is perhaps right in the eyes of God , but not pure , that is , accepted by his mercy , but it is such as dares not contend in judgment . For as no man is so much a sinner , but he sometimes speaks a good word , or does some things not ill ; and yet that little good interrupts not that state of evil : so it is amongst very good men , from whom sometimes may pass something that is not commendable ; and yet their heart is so habitually right towards God , that they will do nothing but ( I do not say which God in justice cannot , but ) which in mercy he will not impute to eternal condemnation , It was the case of David ; He was a man after Gods own heart ; nay it is said , he was blameless save in the matter of Uriah ; and yet we know he numbred the people , and God was angry with him and punished him for it : but because he was a good man and served God heartily , that other fault of his was imputed to him no further : God set a fine upon his head for it , but it was salvo contenemento , the main stake was safe . For concerning good men the question is not whether or no God could not in the rigour of justice blame their indiscretion , or impute a foolish word , or chide them for a hasty answer ; or a careless action , for a less devout prayer , or weak hands , for a fearful heart , or a trembling faith . These are not the measures by which God judges his children ; for he knoweth whereof we are made , and he remembers that we are but dust . But the question is , whether any man that is covetous or proud , false to his trust , or a Drunkard , can at the same time be a child of God ? No certainly he cannot . But then we know that God judges us by Jesus Christ , that is , with the allays of mercy , with an eye of pardon , with the sentences of a Father , by the measures of a man , and by analogy to all our unavoidable abatements . God could enter with us into a more severe judgment , but he would not ; and no justice tied him from exercising that mercy . But according to the measures of the Gospel , he will judge every man according to his works . Now what these measures are is now the question . To which I answer first in general , and then more particularly . 1. In general thus . A Christians innocence is always to be measured by the plain lines and measures of the Commandments ; but are not to be taken into account by uncertain and fond opinions , and the scruples of zealous and timorous persons . My meaning is this . Some men tell us that every natural inclination to a forbidden object is a sin ; which they that believe , finding them to be natural , do also confess that such sins are unavoidable . But if these natural and first motions be sins , then a man sins whether he resist them , or resists them not , whether he prevails , or prevails not ; and there is no other difference but this ; he that fights not against , but always yields to his desires , sins greatest ; and he that never yields but fights always , sins oftenest . But then , by this reckoning it will indeed be impossible to avoid millions of sins ; because the very doing of our duty does suppose a sin . If God should impute such first desires to us as sins , we were all very miserable ; but if he does not impute them , let us trouble our selves no further about them , but to take care that they never prevail upon us . Thus men are taught that they never say their prayers , but they commit a sin . Indeed that is true but too often ; but yet it is possible for us by the Grace of God to please him in saying our prayers , and to be accepted of him . But indeed if God did proceed against us as we do against one another , no man could abide innocent for so much as one hour . But Gods judgement is otherwise : He inquires if the heart be right , if our labour be true , if we love no sin , if we use prudent and efficacious instruments to mortifie our sin , if we go about our Religion as we go about the biggest concerns of our life ; if we be sincere and real in our actions and intentions . For this is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that God requires of us all ; this is that sinless state , in which if God does not find us , we shall never see his glorious face , and if he does find us , we shall certainly be saved by the blood of Jesus . For in the style of Scripture to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the same thing ; to be sincere , and to be without offence is all one . Thus David spake heartily , I am utterly purpos'd that my mouth shall not offend ; and thou shalt find no wickedness in me . He that endeavours this , and hopes this , and does actions , and uses means accordingly , not being deceived by his own false heart , nor abused by evil propositions , this man will stand upright in the Congregations of the Just ; and though he cannot challenge Heaven by merit , yet he shall receive it as a gift , by promise and by grace . Lex nos innocentes esse jubet , non curiosos , said Seneca . For God takes no judgment of us by any measures ; but of the Commandment without , and the heart and the conscience within ; but he never intended his Laws to be a snare to us , or to entrap us with consequences and dark interpretations , by large deductions and witty similitudes of faults ; but he requires of us a sincere heart and a hearty labour in the work of his Commandments : he calls upon us to avoid all that which his Law plainly forbids , and which our consciences do condemn . This is the general measure . The particulars are briefly these . 1. Every Christian is bound to arrive at that state , that he have remaining in him no habit of any sin whatsoever . Our old man must be crucified ; the body of sin must be destroyed ; he must no longer serve sin ; sin shall not have the dominion over you . All these are the Apostles words ; that is plainly , as I have already declared , you must not be at that pass , that though ye would avoid sin ye cannot . For he that is so , is a most perfect slave , and Christs freed man cannot be so . Nay , he that loves sin , and delights in it , hath no liberty indeed , but he hath more shew of it , than he that obeys it against his will. — Libertatis servaveris umbram , Si quicquid jubeare velis — . He that loves to be in the place , is a less prisoner , than he that is confined against his will. 2. He that commits any one sin by choice and deliberation is an enemy to God , and is under the dominion of the flesh . In the case of deliberate sins one act does give the denomination ; he is an Adulterer that so much as once foully breaks the holy Laws of Marriage . He that offends in one is guilty of all , saith S. James , S. Peters Denial , and Davids Adultery had passed on to a fatal issue , if the mercy of God , and a great repentance had not interceded . But they did so no more , and so God restored them to Grace and Pardon . And in this sense are the words of S. John , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he that does a sin is of the Devil , and he that is born of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he does not commit a sin ; he chooses none , he loves none , he endures none , talia quae non faciet bonae fidei & spei Christianus ; they do no great sin , and love no little one . A sin chosen and deliberately done , is , as Tertullians expression is , crimen devoratorium salutis ; it devours salvation . For as there are some sins which can be done but once ; as a man can kill his Father but once , or himself but once ; so in those things which can be repeated , a perfect choice is equivalent to a habit , it is the same in principle , that a habit is in the product . In short he is not a child of God , that knowingly and deliberately chooses anything that God hates . 3. Every Christian ought to attain to such a state of life , as that he never sin , not only by a long deliberation , but also not by passion . I do not say that he is not a good Christian , who by passion is suddenly surpriz'd and falls into folly ; but this I say , that no passion ought to make him choose a sin . For let the sin enter by anger or by desire , it is all one , if the consent be gain'd . It is an ill sign if a man , though on the sudden , consents to a base action . Thus far every good man is tied , not only to endeavour , but to prevail against his Sin. 4. There is one step more ; which if it be not actually effected , it must at least be greatly endeavour'd ; and the event be left to God : and that is , that we strive for so great a dominion over our sins and lust , as that we be not surpriz'd on a sudden . This indeed is a work of time , and it is well if it be ever done ; but it must alwayes be endeavoured . But in this particular , even good men are sometimes unprosperous . S. Epiphanius and S. Chrysostom grew once into choler , and they past too far , and lost more then their argument , they lost their reason , and they lost their patience : and Epiphanius wished that S. Chrysostom might not die a Bishop ; and he in a peevish exchange wished that Epiphanius might never return to his Bishoprick ; when they had forgotten their foolish anger , God remembred it , and said Amen to both their cursed speakings . Nay , there is yet a greater example of humane frailty . S. Paul and Barnabas were very holy persons , but once in a heat they were both to blame , they were peevish and parted company . This was not very much : but God was so displeased , even for this little Fly in their Box of Oyntment , that their story sayes , they never saw one anothers face again . These earnest emissions and transportations of passion do sometime declare the weakness of good men ; but that even here we ought at least to endeavour to be more than Conquerors appears in this , because God allows it not , and by punishing such follies does manifest that he intends that we should get victory over our suddain passions , as well as our natural lusts . And so I have done with the third inquiry , in what degree God expects our innocence ; and now I briefly come to the last particular , which will make all the rest practicable ; I am now to tell you how all this can be effected , and how we shall get free from the power and dominion of our sins . 4. The first great instrument is Faith. He that hath Faith like a grain of Mustard seed can remove mountains ; the mountains of sin shall fall flat at the feet of the Faithful man , and shall be removed into the sea , the Sea of Christs blood and penitential waters . Faith overcometh the world , saith S. John ; and walk in the Spirit , and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh : there are two of our enemies gone ; the world and the flesh , by Faith and the Spirit , by the Spirit of Faith ; and as for the Devil , put on the shield of Faith , and resist the Devil , and he will flee from you , saith the Apostle ; and the powers of sin seem insuperable to none , but to them that have not Faith ; we do not believe that God intends we should do what he seems to require of us ; or else we think that though Gods grace abounds , yet sin must superabound expresly against the saying of S. Paul , or else we think that the evil spirit is stronger than the good Spirit of God. Hear what S. John saith , My little children , ye are of God , and have overcome the evil one ; for the Spirit that is in you is greater than that which is in the world . Believest thou this ? If you do , I shall tell you what may be the event of it . When the father of the boy , possessed with the Devil , told his sad story to Christ ; he said ; Master if thou canst do any thing , I pray help me . Christ answered him , If thou canst believe , all things are possible to him that believeth . N. B. And therefore if you do believe this , go to your prayers , and go to your guards , and go to your labour ; and try what God will do for you . For whatsoever things ye desire , when ye pray , believe that ye shall receive them , and ye shall have them . Now consider ; Do not we every day pray in the Divine Hymn called Te Deum , Vouchsafe , O Lord , to keep us this day without sin ? And in the Collect at morning prayer , [ and grant that this day we fall into no sin , neither run into any kind of danger , but that all our doings may be ordered by thy governance , to do alwayes that which is righteous in thy sight ? ] Have you any hope , or any faith when you say that Prayer ? And if you do your duty as you can , do you think the failure will be on Gods part ? Fear not that ; if you can trust in God , and do accordingly ; though your sins were as scarlet , yet they shall be as white as snow , and pure as the feet of the holy Lamb. Only let us forsake all those weak propositions which cut the nerves of faith , and make it impossible for us to actuate all our good desires , or to come out from the power of sin . 2. He that would be free from the slavery of Sin , and the necessity of sinning must alwayes watch . I , that 's the point ; but who can watch alwayes ? Why every good man can watch alwayes : and that we may not be deceived in this , let us know , that the running away from a temptation is a part of our watchfulness , and every good employment is another great part of it , and a laying in provisions of Reason and Religion before hand , is yet a third part of this watchfulness ; and the conversation of a Christian is a perpetual watchfulness ; not a continual thinking of that one , or those many things which may indanger us ; but it is a continual doing something directly or indirectly against sin . He either prayes to God for his Spirit , or relies upon the promises , or receives the Sacrament , or goes to his Bishop for Counsel and a Blessing , or to his Priest for Religious offices , or places himself at the feet of good men to hear their wise sayings , or calls for the Churches prayers , or does the duty of his calling , or actually resists Temptation , or frequently renews his holy Purposes , or fortifies himself by Vows , or searches into his Danger by a daily examination ; so that in the whole he is for ever upon his guards . * This duty and caution of a Christian is like watching lest a man cut his finger . Wise men do not often cut their fingers , and yet every day they use a knife ; and a mans eye is a tender thing , and every thing can do it wrong , and every thing can put it out ; yet because we love our eyes so well , in the midst of so many dangers , by Gods providence and a prudent natural care , by winking when any thing comes against them , and by turning aside when a blow is offered , they are preserved so certainly , that not one man in ten thousand does by a stroak lose one of his eyes in all his life time . If we would transplant our natural care to a spiritual caution , we might by Gods grace be kept from losing our souls , as we are from losing our eyes ; and because a perpetual watchfulness is our great defence , and the perpetual presence of Gods grace is our great security , and that this Grace never leaves us , unless we leave it , and the precept of a dayly watchfulness is a thing not only so reasonable , but so many easy wayes to be performed , we see upon what terms we may be quit of our sins , and more than Conquerors over all the enemies & impediments of Salvation . 3. If you would be in the state of the Liberty of the Sons of God , that is , that you may not be servants of sin in any instance ; be sure in the mortifications of sin , willingly or carelesly to leave no remains of it , no nest-egg , no principles of it , no affections to it ; if any thing remains , it will prove to us as Manna to the sons of Israel on the second day , it will breed worms and stink . Therefore labour against every part of it , reject every proposition that gives it countenance ; pray to God against it all ; and what then ? Why then , Ask and you shall have ( said Christ. ) Nay , say some ; it is true ; you shall be heard ; but in part only ; for God will leave some remains of sin within us , lest we should become proud by being innocent . So vainly do men argue against Gods goodness and their own blessings and Salvation , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( as S. Basil sayes ) they contrive witty arts to undo themselves , being intangled in the periods of ignorant disputations . But as to the thing it self , if by the remains of sin they mean the propensities and natural inclinations to forbidden objects ; there is no question but they will remain in us so long as we bear our flesh about us ; and surely that is a great argument to make us humble . But these are not the sins which God charges on his people . But if by remains we mean any part of the habit of sin , any affection , any malice or perverseness of the Will ; then it is a contradiction to say that God leaves in us such remains of Sin , lest by innocence we become Proud. For how should Pride spring in a mans heart , if there be no remains of Sin left ? And is it not the best , the surest way to cure the Pride of our hearts by taking out every root of bitterness , even the root of Pride it self ? Will a Physician purposely leave the Reliques of a disease . and pretend he does it to prevent a relapse ? And is it not more likely he will relapse , if the sickness be not wholly cured ? * But besides this ; If God leaves any remains of Sin in us , what remains are they , and of what sins ? Does he leave the remains of Pride ? If so ; that were a strange cure to leave the remains of Pride in us to keep us from being proud . But if not so ; but that all the remains of Pride be taken away by the grace of God blessing our endeavours ; what danger is there of being proud , the remains of which Sin are by the grace of God wholly taken away ? But then , if the Pride of the heart be cured , which is the hardest to be remov'd , and commonly is done last of all , who can distrust the power of the Spirit of God , or his goodness , or his promises , and say that God does not intend to cleanse his Sons and Servants from all unrighteousness ; and according to S. Pauls prayer , keep their bodies and souls , and spirits , unblameable to the coming of the Lord Jesus . But however , let God leave what remains he please ; all will be well enough on that side , but let us be careful , as far as we can , that we leave none : lest it be severely imputed to us , and the fire break out and consume us . 4. Let us without any further question , put this argument to a material issue ; let us do all that we can do , towards the destruction of the whole body of sin ; but let us never say we cannot be quit of our Sin till we have done all that we can do towards the mortification of it . For till that be done , how can any man tell where the fault lies , or whether it can be done or no. If any man can say that he hath done all that he could do , and yet hath failed of his duty ; if he can say truly , that he hath endured as much as is possible to be endured , that he hath watched alwayes , and never nodded , when he could avoid it , that he hath loved as much as he could love , that he hath waited till he can wait no longer ; then indeed , if he sayes true , we must confess that it is not to be understood . But is there any man in the World that does all that he can do ? If there be , that man is blameless ; if there be not , then he cannot say but it is his own fault that his sin prevails against him . It is true that no man is free from sin ; but it is as true , that no man does as much as he can against it : and therefore no man must go about to excuse himself by saying , no man is free from his sin ; and therefore no man can be ; no not by the powers of grace : for he may as well argue thus , No man does do all that he can do against it ; and therefore it is impossible he should do what he can do . The argument is apparently foolish , and the excuse is weak , and the deception visible , and sin prevails upon our weak arguings ; but the consequence is plainly this . When any man commits a sin , he is guilty before God ; and he cannot say he could not help it , and God is just in punishing every sin , and very merciful when he forgives us any : but he that sayes he cannot avoid it , that he cannot overcome his lust , confesses himself a servant of Sin , and that he is not yet redeemed by the blood of the Holy Lamb. 5. He that would be advanced beyond the power and necessity of sinning must take great caution concerning his thoughts and secret desires . For lust when it is conceived bringeth forth sin ; but if it be suppressed in the conception , it comes to nothing : but we find it hard to destroy the Serpent when the egg is ha●ched into a Cockatrice . The thought is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; no man takes notice of it , but lets it alone till the sin be too strong , and then we complain we cannot help it . Nolo sinas cogitationem crescere . Suffer not your thoughts to grow up . For they usually come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( as S. Basil sayes ) suddenly , and easily , and without business ; but take heed taht you nurse them not ; but if you chance to stumble , mend your pace ; and if you nod , let it awaken you ; for he only can be a good man , that raises himself up at the first trip , that strangles his sin in the birth . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Good men rise up again , even before they fall , saith S. Chrysostom . Now I pray consider , that when sin is but in the thought , it is easily suppressed ; and if it be stopt there , it can go no further ; and what great mountain of labour is it then to abstain from our sin ? Is not the Adultery of the eye easily cured by shutting the eye-lid ? and cannot the thoughts of the heart be turned aside by doing business , by going into company , by reading or by sleeping ? A man may divert his thoughts by shaking of his head , by thinking any thing else , by thinking nothing . Da mihi Christianum ( saith S. Austin ) & intelligit quod dico . Every man that loves God understands this , and more than this to be true . Now if things be thus , and that we may be safe in that which is supposed to be the hardest of all ; we must needs condemn our selves , and lay our faces in the dust when we give up our selves to any sin ; we cannot be justified by saying we could not help it . For as it was decreed by the Fathers of the Arausican Council ad . Hoc etiam secundum fidem Catholicam credimus , &c. This we believe according to the Catholick Faith , that have received Baptismal Grace , all that are baptiz'd by the aid and cooperation of Christ , must and can ( if they will labour faithfully ) perform and fulfil those things which belong unto salvation . 6. And lastly . If sin hath gotten the power of any one of us , consider in what degree the sin hath prevailed . If but a little , the battel will be more easy , and the victory more certain ; but then be sure to do it throughly , because there is not much to be done . But if sin hath prevailed greatly , than indeed you have very much to do , therefore begin betimes , and defer nor this ●ork till old age shall make it extremely difficult , or death shall make it impossible . Nam quamvis prope te , quamvis temone sub uno Vertentem sese frustra sectabere canthum , Cum rota posterior curras , & in axe secundo . If thou beest cast behind ; if thou hast neglected the duties of thy vigorous age , thou shalt never overtake that strength ; the hinder wheel , though bigger than the former , and measures more ground at every revolution : yet shall never overtake it : and all the second counsels of thy old age , though undertaken with greater resolution , and acted with the strengths of fear and need , and pursued with more pertinacious purposes than the early repentances of young men , yet shall never overtake those advantages which you lost when you gave your youth to folly , and the causes of a sad repentance . However if you find it so hard a thing to get from the power of one master-sin , if an old Adulterer does dote , if an old Drunkard be further from remedy than a young sinner , if Covetousness grows with old age , if ambition be still more Hydropick and grows more thirsty for every draught of honour , you may easily resolve that old age , or your last sickness is not so likely to be prosperous in the mortification of our long prevailing sins . Do not all men desire to end their dayes in Religion , to dye in the arms of the Church , to expire under the conduct of a religious man ? when ye are sick or dying , then nothing but prayers And sad complaints , and the groans of a tremulous repentance , and the faint labours of an almost impossible mortification : then the dispised Priest is sent for , then he is a good man , and his words are Oracles , and Religion is truth , and sin is a load , and the sinner is a fool : then we watch for a word of comfort from his mouth , as the fearful Prisoner for his fate upon the Judges answer . That which is true then , is true now ; and therefore to prevent so intolerable a danger , mortifie your sins betime , for el●e you will hardly mortifie it at all . Remember that the snail outwent the Eagle and won the goal , because she set out betimes . To sum up all , every good man is a new Creature , and Christianity is not so much a Divine institution , as a Divine frame and temper of Spirit , which if we heartily pray for , and endeavour to obtain , we shall find it as hard and as uneasie to sin against God , as now we think it impossible to abstain from our most pleasing sins . For as it is in the Spermatick vertue of the heavens , which diffuses it self Universally upon all sublunary bodies , and subtilly insinuating it self into the most dull and unactive Element produces Gold and Pearls ; Life and motion , and brisk activities in all things that can receive the influence and heavenly blessing ; so it is in the Holy Spirit of God , and the word of God and the grace of God , which S. John calls the seed of God , it is a law of righteousness , and it is a law of the Spirit of Life , and changes nature into Grace , and dulness into zeal , and fear into love , and sinful habits into innocence , and passes on from grace to grace , till we arrive at the full measures of the stature of Christ , and into the perfect liberty of the sons of God ; so that we shall no more say , The evil that I would not that I do ; but we shall hate what God hates , and the evil that is forbidden we shall not do , not because we are strong of our selves , but because Christ is our strength , and he is in us , and Christs strength shall be perfected in our weakness , and his grace will be sufficient for us : and he will of his own good pleasure work in us , not only to will , but also to do , velle & perficere saith the Apostle , to will and to do it throughly , and fully , being sanctified throughout , to the glory of his Holy name , and the eternal salvation of our Souls , through Jesus Christ our Lord , to whom with the Father , &c. FIDES FORMATA , OR , Faith working by Love. James II. 24. You see then , how that by works a Man is justified , and not by Faith only . THat we are justified by Faith , S. Paul * tells us , that we are also justified by works , we are told in my Text , and both may be true . But that this justification is wrought by Faith without works , to him that worketh not but believeth , ( saith S. Paul ; ) that this is not wrought without works ; S. James is as express for his negative , as S. Paul was for his affirmative , and how both these should be true , is something harder to unriddle . But affirmanti incumbit probatio , he that affirms must prove ; and therefore S. Paul proves his Doctrine by the example of Abraham , to whom faith was imputed for righteousness ; and therefore not by works . And what can be answered to this ? Nothing but this , that S. James uses the very same argument , to prove that our justification is by works also . [ For our Father Abraham was justified by works , when he offered up his son Isaac . ] Now which of these sayes true ? Certainly both of them ; but neither of them have been well understood ; insomuch that they have not only made divisions of heart among the faithful , but one party relies on faith to the disparagement of good life ; and the other makes works to be the main ground of our hope and confidence , and consequently to exclude the efficacy of faith . The one makes Christian Religion a lazy and unactive institution ; and the other , a bold presumption on our selves ; while the first tempts us to live like Heathens , and the other recals us to live the life of Jews , while one sayes I am of Paul , and another , I am of S. James , and both of them put it in danger of evacuating the institution and the death of Christ ; one looking on Christ only as a law-giver , and the other only as a Saviour . The effects of these are very sad , and by all means to be diverted by all the wise considerations of the Spirit . My purpose is not with subtile arts to reconcile them that never disagreed ; the two Apostles spake by the same Spirit , and to the same last design , though to differing intermedial purposes ; but because the great end of Faith , the design , the definition , the State , the Oeconomy of it , is that all believers should not live according to the flesh , but according to the Spirit ; before I fall to the close handling of the Text , I shall premise some preliminary considerations to prepare the way of holiness , to explicate the differing senses of the Apostles , to understand the question and the duty , by removing the causes of the vulgar mistakes of most men in this Article , and then proceed to the main inquiry . 1. That no man may abuse himself or others by mistaking of hard words , spoken in mystery , with allegorical expressions to secret senses , wrapt up in a cloud ; such as are [ Faith , and Justification , and Imputation , and Righ●eousness , and Works ] be pleased to consider that the very word Faith is in Scripture infinitely ambiguous , in so much that in the Latin Concordances of S. Hieroms Bible published by Robert Stephens , you may see no less than twenty two several senses and acceptations of the word Faith , set down with the several places of Scripture referring to them . To which if out of my own observation I could add no more , yet these are an abundant demonstration , that whatsoever is said of the efficacy of Faith for Justification , is not to be taken in such a sense as will weaken the necessity , and our carefulness of good life , when the word may in so many other senses be taken to verifie the affirmation of S. Paul , of Justification by Faith , so as to reconcile it to the necessity of Obedience . 2. As it is in the word Faith , so it is in works ; for by works is meant sometimes the thing done , sometimes the labour of doing , sometimes the good will ; it is sometimes taken for a state of good life , sometimes for the Covenant of works ; it sometimes means the works of the Law , sometimes the works of the Gospel ; sometimes it is taken for a perfect , actual , unsinning obedience , sometimes for a sincere endeavour to please God ; sometimes they are meant to be such which can challenge the reward as of Debt , sometimes they mean only a disposition of the person to recieve the favour and the grace of God. Now since our good works can be but of one kind , for ours cannot be meritorious , ours cannot be without sin all our life , they cannot be such as to need no repentance , it is no wonder if we must be justified without works in this sense ; for by such works no man living can be justified . And these S. Paul calls the works of the Law , and sometimes he calls them our righteousness , and these are the Covenant of works . But because we came into the world to serve God , and God will be obeyed , and Jesus Christ came into the world to save us from sin , and to redeem to himself a people zealous of good works , and hath to this purpose revealed to us all his Fathers will , and destroyed the works of the Devil , and gives us his holy Spirit ; and by him we shall be justified in this obedience ; therefore when works , signifie a sincere , hearty endeavour to keep all Gods commands out of a belief in Christ , that if we endeavour to do so , we shall be helped by his grace , and if we really do so we shall be pardoned for what is past , and if we continue to do so , we shall receive a Crown of Glory , therefore it is no wonder that it is said we are to be justified by works ; alwayes meaning , not the works of the law , that is , works that are meritorious ; works that can challenge the reward ; works that need no mercy , no repentance , no humiliation , and no appeal to grace and favour , but alwayes meaning , works that are an obedience to God by the measures of good will , and a sincere endeavour , and the faith of the Lord Jesus . 3. But thus also it is in the word [ Justification . ] For God is justified , and wisdom is justified , and man is justified , and a sinner is not justified as long as he continues in sin , and a sinner is justified when he repents , and when he is pardoned ; and an innocent person is justified when he is declared to be no criminal , and a righteous man is justified when he is saved , and a weak Christian is justified when his imperfect services are accepted for the present , and himself thrust forward to more grace ; and he that is justified may be justified more ; and every man that is justified to one purpose is not so to all , and faith in divers senses gives justification in as many ; and therefore though to every sense of Faith there is not alwayes a degree of justification in any ; yet when the faith is such , that justification is the product and correspondent , as that Faith may be imperfect , so the justification is but begun , and either must proceed further , or else as the faith will dy , so the justification will come to nothing . The like observation might be made concerning imputation and all the words used in this question , but these may suffice till I pass to other particulars . 4. Not only the word Faith , but also charity and godliness , and religion signifie sometimes particular graces , and sometimes they suppose Universally , and mean conjugations and Unions of graces , as is evident to them that read the Scriptures with observation . Now when justification is attributed to Faith , or Salvation to godliness , they are to be understood in the aggregate sense : for that I may give but one instance of this ; when S. Paul speaks of faith as it is a particular grace and separate from the rest , he also does separate it from all possibility of bringing us to Heaven ; Though I have all Faith , so that I could remove Mountains , and have no charity , I am nothing . When Faith includes charity , it will bring us to Heaven ; when it is alone , when it is without charity , it will do nothing at all . 5. Neither can this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be salved by saying , that though Faith alone does justifie , yet when she does justifie she is not alone ; but good works must follow : for this is said to no purpose . 1. Because if we be justified by faith alone , the work is done , whether charity does follow or no , and therefore that want of charity cannot hurt us . 2. There can be no imaginable cause why charity and obedience should be at all necessary , if the whole work can be done without it . 3. If obedience and charity be not a condition of our Salvation , than it is not necessary to follow faith ; but if it be , it does as much as faith , for that is but a part of the condition . 4. If we can be sav'd without charity and keeping the Commandments , what need we trouble our selves for them : if we cannot be saved without them , then either faith without them does not justifie , or if it does , we are never the better , for we may be damned for all that justification . The Consequent of the these observations is briefly this . 1. That no man should fool himself by disputing about the Philosophy of Justification , and what causality faith hath in it ; and whether it be the act of faith that justifies , or the habit ? Whether faith as a good work , or faith as an instrument ? Whether Faith as it is Obedience , or faith as it is an access to Christ ? Whether as a hand , or as a heart ? Whether by its own innate vertue , or by efficacy of the object ? Whether as a sign , or as a thing signified ? Whether by introduction , or by perfection ? Whether in the first beginnings , or in its last and best productions ? Whether by inherent worthiness , or adventitious imputation ? Vberiùs ista quaeso , &c. ( that I may use the words of Cicero ) haec enim spinosiora priùs , ut confiteor , me cogunt quam ut assentiar . These things are knotty and too intricate to do any good ; they may amuse us , but never instruct us ; and they have already made men careless and confident , disputative and troublesom , proud and uncharitable , but neither wiser nor better . Let us therefore leave these weak wayes of troubling our selves or others , and directly look to the Theology of it , the direct duty , the end of Faith , and the work of Faith , the conditions and the instruments of our Salvation , the just foundation of our hopes , how our faith can destroy our sin , and how it can unite us unto God ; how by it we can be made Partakers of Christs death , and imitators of his life . For since it is evident by the premises , that this article is not to be determined or relyed upon by arguing from words of many significations ; we must walk by a clearer light , by such plain sayings and Dogmatical Propositions of Scripture which evidently teach us our duty , and place our hopes upon that which cannot deceive us , that is , which require Obedience , which call upon us to glorifie God , and to do good to men , and to keep all Gods Commandments , with diligence and sincerity . For since the end of our faith is that we may be Disciples and Servants of the Lord Jesus , advancing his Kingdom here , and partaking of it hereafter , since we are commanded to believe what Christ taught , that it may appear as reasonable as it is necessary to do what he hath commanded , since Faith and works are in order one to the other , it is impossible that Evangelical Faith , and Evangelical works should be opposed one to the other in the effecting of our Salvation . So that as it is to no purpose for Christians to dispute whether we are justified by Faith or the works of the law , that is the Covenant of works without the help of Faith and the auxiliaries and allowances of mercy on Gods part , and repentance on ours ; because no Christian can pretend to this : so it is perfectly foolish to dispute whether Christians are to be justified by Faith , or the works of the Gospel ; for I shall make it appear that they are both the same thing . No man disparages faith but he that sayes , Faith does not work righteousness ; for he that sayes so , sayes indeed it cannot justifie : for he sayes that faith is alone ; it is faith only , and the words of my Text are plain ; you see ( saith S. James ) that is , it is evident to your sense , it is as clear as an ocular demonstration , that a man is justified by works and not by Faith only . My Text hath it in these two Propositions ; a negative and an affirmative . The negative is this , 1. By Faith only a man is not justified . The affirmative , 2. By works also a man is justified . When I have briefly discoursed of these ; I shall only adde such practical considerations as shall make the Doctrines useful , and tangible , and material . 1. By faith only a man is not justified . By faith only , here is meant , faith without Obedience . For what do we think of those that detain the faith in Unrighteousness ? they have faith , they could not else keep it in so ill a Cabinet , but yet the Apostle reckons them amongst the Reprobates ; for the abominable , the Reprobates and the disobedient are all one ; and therefore such persons for all their faith shall have no part with faithful Abraham : for none are his Children but they that do the works of Abraham . Abraham's faith without Abraham's works is nothing : for of him that hath faith , and hath not works . S. James askes , Can Faith save him ? Meaning that it is impossible . For what think we of those that did miracles in Christs name , and in his name cast out Devils ? Have not they Faith ? Yes , omnem fidem , all faith , that is alone , for they could remove Mountains : but yet to many of them Christ will say , Depart from me ye workers of iniquity , I know you not . Nay at last , what think we of the Devils themselves ? have not they faith ? yes , and this faith is not fides miraculorum neither , but it is an Operative faith , it works a little ; for it makes them tremble ; and it may be that is more than thy faith does to thee : and yet dost thou hope to be saved by a faith that does less to thee , than the Devils faith does to him ? That 's impossible . For Faith without works is dead , saith S. James . It is manus arida saith S. Austin , it is a wither'd hand , and that which is dead cannot work the l●fe of grace in us , much less obtain eternal life for us . In short , a man may have faith , and yet do the works of unrighteousness ; he may have faith and be a Devil , and then what can such a faith do to him or for him ? It can do him no good in the present constitution of affairs . S. Paul , from whose mistaken words much noise hath been made in this question , is clear in this particular . Nothing in Christ Jesus can avail , but Faith working by Charity ; that is , as he expounds himself once and again ; nothing but a new creature , nothing but keeping the Commandments of God. If faith be defin'd to be any thing that does not change our natures , and make us to be a new Creation unto God ; if keeping the Commandments be not in the definition of faith , it avails nothing at all . Therefore deceive not your selves ; they are the words of our Blessed Lord himself ; Not every one that saith unto me Lord , Lord , that is , not every one that confesses Christ , and believes in him , calling Christ Master and Lord shall be sav'd , but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven . These things are so plain , that they need no Commentary ; so evident , that they cannot be denyied : and to these I add but this one truth : that faith alone without a good life is so far from justifying a sinner , that it is one of the greatest aggravations of his condemnation in the whole World. For no man can be so greatly damned as he that hath faith ; for unless he knows his masters will , that is , by faith be convinced , and assents to the revelations of the will of God , he can be beaten but with few stripes : but he that believes hath no excuse , he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , condemn'd by the sentence of his own heart , and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , many stripes , the greater condemnation shall be his portion . Natural reason is a light to the Conscience , but faith is a greater , and therefore if it be not followed , it damns deeper than the Hell of the Infidels and uninstructed . And so I have done with the Negative Proposition of my Text ; a man is not justified by faith alone , that is , by faith which hath not in it Charity and Obedience . 2. If faith alone will not do it , what will ? The affirmative part of the Text answers ; not faith alone ; but works must be an ingredient : a man is justified by works ; and that is now to be explicated and prov'd . It will be absolutely to no purpose to say that faith alone does justifie , if when a man is justified , he is never the nearer to be sav'd . Now that without Obedience no man can go to Heaven , is so evident in holy Scripture , that he that denyes it , hath no faith , There is no peace saith my God unto the wicked ; and I will not justifie a sinner , saith God ; unless faith purges away our sins it can never justifie . Let a man believe all the revelations of God , if that belief ends in its s●lf and goes no further , it is like physick taken to purge the stomach ; if it do not work , it is so far from bringing health , that it self is a new sickness . Faith is a great purger and purifier of the soul , purifying your hearts by Faith , faith the Apostle . It is the best physick in the World for a sinful soul , but if it does not work , it corrupts in the stomach , it makes us to rely upon weak Propositions and trifling confidences , it is but a dreaming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a Phantastick dream , and introduces Pride or superstition , swelling thoughts and presumptions of the Divine favour . But what saith the Apostle ? Follow Peace with all men , and holiness , without which no man can see God. Mark that . If faith does not make you charitable and holy , talk no more of justification by it , for you shall never see the glorious face of God. Faith indeed is a title and relation to Christ ; it is a naming of his names , but what then ? Why than saith the Apostle , Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity . For let any man consider , can the Faith of Christ , and the hatred of God stand together ? Can any man be justified that does not love God ? Or can any man love God and sin at the same time ? And does not he love sin that falls under its temptation , and obeyes it in the lusts thereof , and delights in the vanity , and makes excuses for it , and returns to it with passion , and abides with pleasure ? This will not do it ; such a man cannot be justified for all his believing . But therefore the Apostle shews us a more excellent way : This is a true saying , and I will that thou affirm constantly , that they who have believed in God , be careful to maintain good works . The Apostle puts great force on this Doctrine , he arms it with a double Preface ; the saying is true , and it is to be constantly affirmed ; that is , it is not only true , but necessary ; it is like Pharaoh's dream doubled , because it is bound upon us by the decree of God , and it is unalterably certain , that every believer must do good works , or his believing will signifie little ; nay more than so , every man must be careful to do good works , and more yet ; he must carefully maintain them , that is , not do them by fits and interrupted returns , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be incumbent upon them , to dwell upon them , to maintain good works , that is , to persevere in them . But I am yet but in the general ; be pleased to go along with me in these particular considerations . 1. No mans sins are pardoned , but in the same measure , in which they are mortified , destroyed and taken away ; so that if faith does not cure our sinful Natures it never can justifie , it never can procure our pardon . And therefore it is , that as soon as ever faith in the Lord Jesus was preached , at the same time also they preached repentance from dead works : in so much that S. Paul reckons it among the fundamentals and first Principles of Christianity ; nay , the Baptist preached repentance and amendment of life as a preparation to the faith of Christ. And I pray consider ; can there be any forgivness of sins without repentance ? But if an Apostle should preach forgivene●s to all that believe , and this belief did not also mean that they should repent and forsake their sin , the Sermons of the Apostle would make Christianity nothing else but the Sanctuary of Romulus , a device to get togeth●r all the wicked people of the world , and to make them happy without any change of manners . Christ came to other purposes ; he came to sanctifie us and to cleanse us by his Word ; the word of faith was not for it self , but was a design of holiness , and the very grace of God did appear , for this end ; that teaching us to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts , we should live holily , justly , and soberly in this present World ; he came to gather a People together ; not like Davids army , when Saul pursued him , but the armies of the Lord , a faithful people , a chosen generation ; and what is that ? The Spirit of God adds , a People zealous of good works . Now as Christ prov'd his power to forgive sins by curing the poor mans palsie ; because a man is never pardoned but when the punishment is removed , so the great act of justification of a sinner , the pardoning of his sins , is then only effected , when the spiritual evil is taken away : that 's the best indication of a real and an eternal pardon ; when God takes away the hardness of the heart , the love of sin , the accursed habit , the evil inclination , the sin that doth so easily beset us : and when that is gone , what remains within us that God can hate ? Nothing stayes behind , but Gods creation , the work of his own hands , the issues of his holy Spirit . The faith of a Christian is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it destroyes the whole body of sin ; and to suppose that Christ pardons a sinner , whom he doth not also purge and r●scue from the dominion of sin , is to affirm that he justifies the wicked , that he calls good evil , and evil good , that he delights in a wicked person , that he makes a wicked man all one with himself ; that he makes the members of a harlot at the same time also the members of Christ. But all this is impossible , and therefore ought not to be pretended to by any Christian. Severe are those words of our Blessed Saviour , Every plant in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away . Faith ingrafts us into Christ ; by faith we are inserted into the vine ; but the plant that is ingrafted , must also be parturient and fruitful , or else it shall be quite cut off from the root , and thrown into the everlasting burning . And this is the full and plain meaning of those words so often used in Scripture for the magnification of faith . The just shall live by Faith. No man shall live by faith but the just man , he indeed is justified by faith , but no man else ; the unjust and the unrighteous man hath no portion in this matter . That 's the first great consideration in this affair ; no man is justified in the least sense of justification , that is , when it means nothing but the pardon of sins , but when his sin is mortified and destroyed . 2. No man is actually justified , but he that is in some measure sanctified . For the understanding and clearing of which Proposition we must know , that justification when it is attributed to any cause , does not alwayes signifie justification actual . Thus when it is said in Scripture , We are justified by the death of Christ , it is but the same thing as to say , Christ dyed for us ; and he rose again for us too , that we might indeed be justified in due time , and by just measures and dispositions ; he dyed for our sins , and ros● again for our justification ; that is , by his death and Resurrection he hath obtained this power , and effected this mercy , that if we believe him and obey , we shall be justified and made capable of all the blessings of the Kingdom . But that this is no more but a capacity of pardon , of grace and of salvation , appears not only by Gods requiring Obedience as a condition on our parts ; but by his expresly attributing this mercy to us at such times and in such circumstances , in which it is certain and evident that we could not actually be justified . For so saith the Scripture ; We when we were enemies , were reconciled to God by the death of his Son ; and while we were yet sinners , Christ died for us ; that is , then was our Justification wrought on Gods part , that is , then he intended this mercy to us , then he resolved to shew us favour , to give us Promises , and Laws , and Conditions , and hopes , and an infallible Oeconomy of Salvation ; and when faith layes hold on this Grace , and this Justification , then we are to do the other part of it ; that is , as God made it potential by the death and resurrection of Christ , so we laying hold on these things by Faith , and working the Righteousness of Faith , that is , performing what is required on our parts , we , I say , make it actual ; and for this very reason it is that the Apostle puts more Emphasis upon the Resurrection of Christ than upon his Death . Who is he that condemneth ? It is Christ that died , yea rather , that is risen again . And Christ was both delivered for our sins , and is risen again for our justification ; implying to us , that as it is in the principal , so it is in the correspondent ; our sins indeed are potentially pardoned , when they are mark'd out for death and crucifixion ; when by resolving and fighting against sin we dy to sin daily , and are so made conformable to his death ; but we must partake of Christs Resurrection before this Justification can be actual ; when we are dead to sin , and are risen again unto righteousness , then as we are partakers of his Death , so we shall be partakers of his Resurrection ( saith S. Paul ) that is , then we are truly , effectually , and indeed justified . Till than we are not . He that loveth Gold shall not be justified , saith the wise Bensirach ; he that is covetous , let his faith be what it will , shall not be accounted righteous before God , because he is not so in himself , and he is not so in Christ , for he is not in Christ at all ; he hath no righteousness in himself , and he ha●h none in Christ ; for if we be in Christ , or if Christ be in us , the body is dead by reason of sin , and the Spirit is life because of righteousness . For this is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that faithful thing , that is , the faithfulness is manifested ; the Emun , f●om whence comes Emunah , which is the Hebrew word for Faith ; from whence Amen is deriv'd . Fiat quod dictum est hinc inde ; hoc fidum est , when God and we both say Amen to our promises and undertakings . Fac fidelis sis fideli , cave fidem fluxam geras ; said he in the Comedy , God is faithful , be thou so too ; for if thou failest him , thy faith hath failed thee . Fides sumitur pro eo quod est inter utrunque placitum , sayes one ; and then it is true which the Prophet and the Apostle said ; the Just shall live by faith , in both senses : ex fide mea vivet , ex fide sua ; we live by Gods Faith , and by our own ; by his Fidelity , and by ours . When the righteousness of God becomes your righteousness , and exceeds the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees , when the righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us , by walking not after the flesh but after the Spirit ; then we are justified by Gods truth and by ours , by his Grace , and our Obedience . So that now we see that Justification and Sanctification cannot be distinguished , but as words of Art signifying the various steps of progression in the same course ; they may be distinguished in notion and speculation ; but never when they are to pass on to material events : for no man is justified but he that is also sanctified . They are the express words of S. Paul , Whom he did foreknow , them he did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son , to be like to Christ ; and then it follows , Whom he hath predestinated , so predestinated , them he hath also called , and whom he hath called , them he hath also justified ; and then it follows , Whom he hath justified , them he hath also glorified . So that no man is justified , that is , so as to signifie Salvation , but Sanctification must be precedent to it ; and that was my second consideration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that which I was to prove . 3. I pray consider ; that he that does not believe the promises of the Gospel , cannot pretend to Faith in Christ ; but the promises are all made to us upon the conditions of Obedience ; And he that does not believe them as Christ made them , believes them not at all . In well doing commit your selves to God as unto a faithful Creator ; there is no committing our selves to God without well-doing ; For God will render to every man according to his deeds ; to them that obey unrighteousness , indignation and wrath ; but to them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory , and honour , and immortality , to them eternal life . So that if faith apprehends any other promises , it is illusion , and not faith . God gave us none such , Christ purchased none such for us ; search the Bible over and you shall find none such . But if faith layes hold on these promises that are , and as they are , then it becomes an Article of our faith , that without obedience , and a sincere endeavour to keep Gods Commandments , no man living can be justified . And therefore let us take heed when we magnifie the free Grace of God , we do not exclude the conditions which this free Grace hath set upon us . Christ freely died for us ; God pardons us freely in our first access to him ; we could never deserve pardon , because when we need pardon we are enemies , and have no good thing in us ; and he freely gives us of his Spirit , and freely he enables us to obey him ; and for our little imperfect services he freely and bountifully will give us eternal life ; here is free Grace all the way , and he overvalues his pitiful services , who thinks that he deserves Heaven by them ; and that if he does his duty tolerably , eternal life is not a free gift to him , but a deserved reward . Conscius est animus meus , experientia testis , Mystica quae retuli dogmata vera scio . Non tamen idcirco scio me fore glorificandum , Spes mea crux Christi , gratia , non opera . It was the meditation of the wise Chancellor of Paris . I know that without a good life , and the fruits of repentance , a sinner cannot be justified ; and therefore I must live well , or I must dy for ever . But if I do live holily , I do not think that I deserve Heaven , it is the cross of Christ that procures me grace ; it is the Spirit of Christ that gives me grace ; it is the mercy and the free gift of Christ that brings me unto Glory . But yet he that shall exclude the works of faith from the Justification of a sinner by the blood of Christ , may as well exclude faith it self ; for faith it self is one of the works of God : it is a good work ; so said Christ to them that asked him . [ What shall we do to work the works of God ? Jesus said , This is the work of God , that ye believe on him whom he hath sent . ] Faith is not only the Foundation of good works , but it self is a good work , it is not only the cause of obedience , but a part of it ; it is not only as the Son of Sirach calls it , initium adhaerendi Deo , a beginning of cleaving unto God ; but it carries us on to the perfection of it . Christ is the Author and finisher of our Faith , and when Faith is finished , a good life is made perfect in our kind . Let no man therefore expect events for which he hath no promise , nor call for Gods fidelity without his own faithfulness , nor snatch at a promi●e without performing the condition ; nor think faith to be a hand to apprehend Christ , and to do nothing else ; for that will but deceive us , and turn Religion into words , and holiness into hypocrisy , and the promises of God into a snare , and the truth of God into a ly . For when God made a Covenant of faith , he made also the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the law of Faith , and when he admitted us to a Covenant of more mercy than was in the Covenant of works , or of the law , he did not admit us to a Covenant of idleness , and incurious walking in a State of disobedience , but the mercy of God leadeth us to repentance , and when he gives us better promises , he intends we should pay him a better obedience : when he forgives us what is past , he intends we should sin no more : when he offers us his graces , he would have us to make use of them ; when he causes us to distrust our selves , his meaning is we should rely upon him ; when he enables us to do what he commands us , he commands us to do all that we can . And therefore this Covenant of Faith and mercy is also a Covenant of holiness , and the grace that pardons us does also purifie us ; for so saith the Apostle , He that hath this hope purifies himself even as God is pure . And when we are so , then we are justified indeed ; this is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the law of Faith ; and by works in this sense , that is , by the works of Faith , by Faith working by love , and producing fruits worthy of amendment of life , we are justified before God. And so I have done with the affirmative Proposition of my Text ; you see that a man is justified by works . But there is more in it then this matter yet amounts to . For S. James does not say , we are justified by works , and are not justified by Faith ; that had been irreconcileable with S. Paul ; but we are so justified by works , that it is not by Faith alone ; it is Faith and works together : that is , it is by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the obedience of Faith , by the works of Faith , by the law of Faith ; by righteousness Evangelical , by the conditions of the Gospel and the measures of Christ. I have many things to say in this particular ; but because I have but a little time left to say them in , I will sum it all up in this Proposition , That in the question of justification and salvation , Faith and good works are no part of a distinction , but members of one intire body . Faith and good works together work the righteousness of God. That is , that I may speak plainly , justifying faith contains in it obedience : and if this be made good , then the two Apostles are reconciled to each other , and both of them to the necessity , the indispensable necessity of a good life . Now that justifying and saving Faith must be defined by something more than an act of understanding , appears not only in this , that S. Peter reckons Faith as distinctly from knowledge , as he does from patience , or strength or brotherly kindness ; saying [ Add to your faith vertue , to vertue knowledge ] but in this also ; because an error in life , and whatsoever is against holiness , is against faith . And therefore S. Paul reckons the lawless and the disobedient , murders of Parents , man-stealing and such things to be against sound doctrines , for the doctrine of Faith is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the doctrine that is according to godliness . And when S. Paul prayes against ungodly men , he adds this reason , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . for all men have not Faith : meaning that wicked men are Infidels and Unbelievers , and particularly he affirms of him that does not provide for his own , that he hath denyed the Faith. Now from hence it follows that faith is godliness , because all wickedness is infidelity , it is an Apostacy from the Faith. Ille erit , Ille nocens qui me tibi fecerat hostem ; he that sins against God , he is the enemy to the Faith of Jesus Christ ; and therefore we deceive our selves if we place faith in the understanding only ; it is not that , and it does not dwell there , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith the Apostle , the Mystery of Faith is kept no where , it dwells no where but in a pure conscience . For I consider that since all moral habits are best defined by their operations , we can best understand what faith is by seeing what it does . To this purpose hear S. Paul , By faith Abel offered up to God a more excellent Sacrifice than Cain . By faith Noah made an Ark. By faith Abraham left his Country and offered up his Son. By faith Moses chose to suffer affliction , and accounted the reproach of Christ greater than all the riches of Aegypt . In short , the children of God by faith subdued Kingdoms , and wrought righteousness : To work righteousness is as much the duty and work of faith as believing is . So that now we may quickly make an end of this great inquiry , whether a man is justified by Faith , or by works , for he is so by both ; if you take it alone , faith does not justifie , but take it in the aggregate sense as it is used in the question of Justification by S. Paul , and then faith does not only justifie , but it sanctifies too , and then you need to inquire no further ; obedience is a part of the definition of faith , as much as it is of Charity . This is love , saith S. John , that we keep his Commandments . And the very same is affirmed of Faith too by Bensirach , He that believeth the Lord will keep his Commandments . I have now don with all the Proposi●ions expressed and implyed in the Text ; give me leave to make some practical Considerations , and so I shall dismiss you from this Attention . The rise I take from the words of S. Epiphanius speaking in praise of the Apostolical and purest Ages of the Church . There was at first no distinction of Sects and Opinions in the Church : she knew no difference of men , but good and bad ; there was no separation made , but what was made by piety or impiety , or ( sayes he ) which is all one , by fidelity and infidelity . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . For Faith hath in it the Image of godliness engraven , and infidelity hath the character of wickedness and prevarication . A man was not then esteemed a Saint for disobeying his Bishop or an Apostle , nor for misunderstanding the hard sayings of S. Paul about predestination : to kick against the laudable customs of the Church was not then accounted a note of the godly party : and to despise Government was but an ill mark , and weak indication of being a good Christian. The Kingdom of God did not then consist in words , but in power , the power of godliness ; though now we are fallen into another method : we have turned all Religion into Faith , and our Faith is nothing but the productions of interest or disputing ; it is adhering to a party , and a wrangling against all the world beside ; and when it is asked of what Religion he is of , we understand the meaning to be , what faction does he follow ; what are the articles of his Sect , not what is the manner of his life ; and if men be zealous for their party and that interest , then they are precious men , though otherwise they be Covetous as the grave , factious as Dathan , Schismatical as Corah , or proud as the falling Angels , Alas ! these things will but deceive us ; the faith of a Christian cannnot consist in strifes about words , and perverse disputings of men . These things the Apostle calls prophane and vain Bablings ; and mark what he sayes of them , these things will encrease 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . They are in themselves ungodliness and will produce more ; they will encrease unto more ungodliness . But the faith of a Christian had other measures : that was faith then which made men faithful to their vows in Baptism . The faith of a Christian was the best security in contracts , and a Christians word was as good as his bond , because he was faithful that promised , and a Christian would rather dy then break his word ; and was alwayes true to his trust ; he was faithful to his Friend , and loved as Jonathan did David . This was the Christian Faith then : their religion was to hurt no man , and to do good to every man , and so it ought to be . True Religion is to visit the Fatherless and Widow , and to keep our selves unspotted of the World. That 's a good religion , that 's pure and undefiled : so S. James , and S. Chrysostom defines 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , true religion to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a pure faith and a godly life , for they make up the whole mystery of god●iness ; and no man could then pretend to Faith , but he that did do valiantly , and suffer patiently , and resist the Devil , and overcome the world . These things are as pr●perly the actions of Faith , as alms is of Charity , and therefore they must enter into the moral definition of it . And this was truly understood by Salvian , that wi●e and godly Priest of Massilia ; what is Faith , and what is believing ( saith he ) hominem fideliter Christo credere est fidel●m Deo esse , h. e. fideliter Dei mandata servare . That man does faithfully believe in Christ who is faithful unto God , who faithfully keeps Gods commandments : and therefore let us measure our Faith here by our faithfulness to God , and by our diligence to do our Masters Commandments ; For Christianorum omnis religio sine scelere & m●culâ vivere , said Lactantius . The whole religion of a Christian is to live unblameably ; that is , in all holiness and purity of conversation . 2. When our faith is spoken of as the great instrument of justification and salvation , take Abraham's faith as your best pattern , and that w●ll end the dispute , because that he was justified by Faith when his faith was mighty in effect ; when he trusted in God , when he believed the promises , when he expected a resurrection of the dead , when he was strong in Faith ▪ when he gave glory to God , when against hope he believed in hope , and when all this past into an act of a most glorious obedience , even denying his greatest desires , contradicting his most passionate affections , offering to God the best thing he had , and exposing to death his beloved Isaac , his laughters , all his joy at the command of God. By this faith he was justified , saith S. Paul ; by these works he was justified , saith S. James ; that is , by this faith working this obedience . And then all the difficulty is over ; only remember this , your faith is weak and will do but little for you , if it be not stronger then all your secular desires and all your peevish angers . Thus we find in the holy Gospels , this conjunction declared necessary , Whatsoever things ye desire , when ye pray , believe that ye receive them , and ye shall have them . Here is as glorious an event promised to Faith as can be expressed , Faith shall obtain any thing of God. True ; but it is not Faith alone ; but faith in prayer ; faith praying , not faith simply believing . So S. James ; the prayer of Faith shall save the sick , but adds , it must be the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man , so that faith shall prevail ; but there must be prayer in faith , and servour in prayer , and devotion in fervour , and righteousness in devotion , and then impute the effect to faith if you please , provided that it be declared : that effect cannot be wrought by Faith unless it be so qualified . But Christ adds one thing more . When ye stand praying , forgive , but if ye will not forgive , neither will your Father forgive you . So that it will be to no purpose to say a man is justified by faith , unless you mingle charity with it : for without the charity of forgiveness , there can be no pardon ; and then justification is but a word , when it effects nothing . 3. Let every one take heed that by an importune adhering to and relying upon a mistaken Faith , he do not really make a shipwrack of a right Faith. Hymenaeus & Alexander lost their faith by putting away a good conscience , and what matter is it , of what religion or faith a man be of , if he be a Villain and a cheat , a man of no truth , and of no trust , a lover of the World , and not a lover of God. But I pray consider , can any man have faith that denyes God ? That 's not possible : and cannot a man as well deny God by an evil action , as by an heritical Proposition ? Cannot a man deny God by works as much as by words ? Hear what the Apostle sayes , They profess that they know God , but in works they deny him , being abominable and disobedient , and unto every good work reprobate . Disobedience is a denying God. Nolumus hunc regnare , is as plain a renouncing of Christ , as nolumus huic credere ▪ It is to no purpose to say we believe in Christ and have faith , unless Christ reign in our hearts by faith . 4. From these premises we may see but too evidently , that though a great part of mankind pretend to be saved by Faith , yet they know not what it is , or else wilfully mistake it , and place their hopes upon sand , or the more unstable water . Believing is the least thing in a justifying faith . For faith is a conjugation of many Ingredients ; and faith is a Covenant , and faith is a law , and faith is obedience , and faith is a work , and indeed it is a sincere cleaving to and closing with the terms of the Gospel in every instance , in every particular . Alas ! the niceties of a spruce understanding , and the curious nothings of useless speculation , and all the opinions of men that make the divisions of heart , and do nothing else , cannot bring us one drop of comfort in the day of tribulation ; and therefore are no parts of the strength of faith . Nay , when a man begins truly to fear God , and is in the Agonies of mortification , all these new-nothings and curiosities will neglected by , as baubles do by children when they are deadly sick . But that only is faith that makes us to love God , to do his will , to suffer his impositions , to trust his promises , to see through a cloud , to overcome the World , to resist the Devil , to stand in the day of tryal , and to be comforted in all our sorrows . This is that precious faith so mainly necessary to be insisted on , that by it we may be Sons of the free woman , liberi à vitiis ac ritibus , that the true Isaac may be in us , which is Christ according to the Spirit , the wisdom and power of God , a Divine vigour and life , whereby we are enabled with joy and cheerfulness to walk in the way of God. By this you may try your faith , if you please , and make an end of this question . Do you believe in the Lord Jesus , yea or no ? God forbid else , but if your Faith be good it will abide the trial . There are but three things that make the integrity of Christian faith , believing the words of God , confidence in his goodness , and keeping his commandments . For the first , it is evident that every man pret●nds to it ; if he calls himself Christian , he believes all that is in the Canon of the Scriptures , and if he did not , he were indeed no Christian. But now consider , what think we of this Proposition ? All shall be damned who believe not the truth , but have pleasure in unrighteousness . Does not every man believe this ? Is it possible they can believe there is any such thing as unrighteousness in the World , or any such thing as damnation ; and yet commit that which the Scriptures call unrighteousness , and which all laws , and all good men say is so ? Consider how many unrighteous men there are in the world , and yet how few of them think they shall be damned . I know not how it comes to pass ; but men go upon strange principles , and they have made Christianity to be a very odd Institution , if it had not better measures than they are pleased to afford it . There are two great roots of all evil , Covetousness and Pride ; and they have infected the greatest parts of mankind , and yet no man thinks himself to be either covetous or proud . And therefore whatever you discourse against these sins , it never hits any man , but like Jonathans arrows to David , they fall short , or they fly beyond . Salvian complained of it in his time . Hoc ad crimina nostra addimus , ut cum in omnibus rei simus , etiam bonos nos , & sanctos esse credamus . This we add unto our crimes , we are the vilest persons in the world , and yet we think our selves to be good people , and when we dy make no question but we shall go to Heaven . There is no cause of this , but because we have not so much Faith as believing comes to , and yet most men will pretend not only to believe , but to love Christ all this while . And how do they prove this ? Truly they hate the memory of Judas , and curse the Jews that crucified Christ , and think Pilate a very miserable man , and that all the Turks are damned , and to be called Cajaphas is a word of reproach ; and indeed there are many that do not much more for Christ than this comes to ; things to as little purpose , and of as little signification . But so the Jews did hate the memory of Corah as we do of Caiphas , and they builded the Sepulchres of the Prophets , and we also are angry at them that killed the Apostles and the Martyrs . But in the mean time we neither love Christ nor his Saints ; for we neither obey him , nor imitate them . And yet we should think our selves highly injured , if one should call us Infidels and haters of Christ. But I pray consider ; what is hating of any man , but designing and doing him all the injury and spite we can ? Does not he hate Christ that dishonours him , that makes Christs members the members of an harlot ? That doth not feed & clothe these members ? If the Jews did hate Christ when they crucified him , then so does a Christian too when he crucifies him again . Let us not deceive our selves ; a Christian may be damned as well as a Turk ; and Christians may with as much malice crucifie Christ as the Jews did . And so does every man that sins wilfully ; he spills the blood of Christ , making it to be spent in vain . He that hateth you , hateth me , he that receives you , receives me , said Christ to his Apostles . I wish the world had so much faith as to believe that ; and by this try whether we love Christ , and believe in him or no , I shall for the tryal of our Faith ask one easy question . Do we believe that the story of David and Jonathan is true ? Have we so much faith as to think it possible that two Rivals of a Crown should love so dearly ? Can any man believe this , and not be infinitely ashamed to see Christians ( almost all Christians ) to be irreconcileably angry , and ready to pull their brothers heart out , when he offers to take our Land or money from us ? Why do almost all men that go to law for right hate one anothers persons ? Why cannot men with patience hear their titles questioned ? But if Christianity be so excellent a Religion , why are so very many Christians so very wicked ? Certainly they do not so much as believe the propositions and principles of their own Religion . For the body of Christians is so universally wicked , that it would be a greater change to see Christians generally live according to their profession , than it was at first from infidelity to see them to turn Believers . The conversion from Christian to Christian , from Christian in title to Christian in sincerity , would be a greater miracle then it was when they were converted from Heathen and Jew to Christian. What is the matter ? Is not repentance from dead works reckoned by S. Paul in the 6. Hebr. as one of the fundamental points of Christian Religion ? Is it not a piece of our Catechism , the first thing we are taught , and is it not the last thing that we practise ? We had better be without Baptism than without repentance , and yet both are necessary ; and therefore if we were not without faith , we should be without neither . Is not Repentance a forsaking all sin , and an intire returning unto God ? Who can deny this ? And is it not plainly said in Scripture , Vnless ye repent ye shall all perish ? But shew me the man that believes these things heartily : that is , shew me a true penitent , he only believes the doctrines of repentance . If I had time I should examine your faith by your confidence in God , and by your obedience . But if we fall in the meer believing , it is not likely we should do better in the other . But because all the promises of God are conditional , and there can be no confidence in the particular without a promise or revelation , it is not possible that any man that does not live well should reasonably put his trust in God. To live a wicked life , and then to be confident that in the day of our death God will give us pardon , is not faith but a direct want of faith . If we did believe the promises upon their proper conditions , or believe that Gods commandments were righteous and true , or that the threatnings were as really intended as they are terribly spoken , we should not dare to live at the rate we do : But wicked men have not faith , saith S. Paul , and then the wonder ceases . But there are such palpable contradictions between mens practices and the fundamentals of our faith , that it was a material consideration of our Blessed Saviour , When the Son of man comes shall he find faith upon the earth ? Meaning it should be very hard and scant : every man shall boast of his own goodness ; sed virum fidelem , ( saith Solomon ) but a faithful man who can find ? Some men are very good when they are afflicted . Hanc sibi virtutem fractâ facit urceus ansâ , Et tristis nullo qui tepet igne focus ; Et teges & cimex , & nudi sponda grabati , Fit brevis atque eadem nocte dieque toga . When the gown of the day is the mantle of the night , and cannot at the same time cover the head , and make the feet warm ; when they have but one broken dish and no spoon , then they are humble and modest ; then they can suffer an injury , and bear contempt : but give them riches and they grow insolent ; fear and pusillanimity did their first work , and an opportunity to sin undoes it all . Bonum militem perdidisti , Imperatorem pessimum creâsti , said Galba , you have spoiled a good Trooper when you made me a bad Commander . Others can never serve God , but when they are prosperous : if they lose their fortune they lose their Faith , and quit their Charity . Non rata fides ubi jam melior fortuna ruit . If they become poor , they become liars and deceivers of their trust , envious and greedy , restless and uncharitable ; that is , one way or other they shew that they love the world , and by all the faith they pretend to cannot overcome it . Cast up therefore your reckonings impartially ; See what is , what will be required at your hands . Do not think you can be justified by faith , unless your faith be greater then all your passions ; you have not the learning , not so much as the common notices of faith , unless you can tell when you are covetous , and reprove your self when you are proud ; but he that is so , and knows it not ( and that is the case of most men ) hath no faith , and neither knows God , nor knows himself . To conclude . He that hath true justifying faith , believes the power of God to be above the powers of nature ; the goodness of God above the merit and disposition of our persons , the bounty of God above the excellency of our works , the truth of God above the contradiction of our weak arguings and fears , the love of God above our cold experience and ineffectual reason , and the necessities of doing good works above the faint excuses and ignorant pretences of disputing sinners . But want of faith makes us so generally wicked as we are , so often running to despair ; so often baffled in our resolutions of a good life . But he whose faith makes him more than Conqueror over these difficulties , to him Isaac shall be born even in his old age ; the life of God shall be perfectly wrought in him , and by this faith so operative , so strong , so lasting , so obedient , he shall be justified , and he shall be saved . THE END . A SERMON Preached at the Consecration of Two Archbishops and Ten Bishops , in the Cathedral Church of S. Patrick in DVBLIN . January 27.1660 . By Jeremie Taylor D. D. LORD Bishop of Down and Connor . Sal liquefit , ut condiat . LONDON , Printed for R. Royston , Bookseller to the Kings most Excellent Majesty . 1663. To the CHRISTIAN READER . MY Obedience to the Commands of the Right Honourable the Lords Justices , and the most Reverend and Learned Primate , and to the desires of my Reverend Brethren , put it past my inquiry , whether I ought to publish this following Sermon . I will not therefore excuse it , and say it might have advantages in the Delivery , which it would want in the Reading ; and the ear would be kind to the Piety of it , which was apparent in the design , when the eye would be severe in its censure of those arguments , which as they could not be longer in that measure of time ; so would have appeared more firm , if they could have had liberty to have been pursued to their utmost issue . But reason lies in a little room , and Obedience in less . And although what I have here said , may not stop the mouths of Men resolved to keep up a faction , yet I have said enough to the sober and pious , to them who love Order , and hearken to the voice of the Spouse of Christ , to the Loving and to the Obedient : And for those that are not so , I have no argument fit to be used , but Prayer , and readiness to give them a reason , when they shall modestly demand it . In the mean time I shall only desire them to make use of those trut●s which the more Learned of their party have by the evidence of fact been forced to confess . Rivet affirms that it descended ex veteris aevi reliquiis , that Presbyters should be assistants or conjoyned to the Bishops , ( who is by this confessed to be the principal ) in the imposition of hands for Ordination . Walo Messalinus acknowledges it to be rem antiquissimam , a most ancient thing that these two Orders , ( viz. ) of Bishops and Presbyters , should be distinct , even in the middle , or in the beginning of the next age after Christ. Dd. Blondel places it to be 35. years after the death of S. John. Now then Episcopacy is confessed to be of about 1600. years continuance : and if before this they can shew any Ordination by mere Presbyters , by any but an Apostle , or an Apostolical man ; and if there were not visibly a distinction of powers and persons relatively in the Ecclesiastical Government , or if they can give a rational account why they who are forced to confess the Honour and distinct Order of Episcopacy for about 16. ages , should in the dark interval of 35. years ( in which they can pretend to no Monument or Record to the contrary ) yet make unlearned scruples of things they cannot colourably prove ; if ( I say ) they can reasonably account for these things , I for my part will be ready to confess that they are not guil●y of the greatest , the most unreasonable and inexcusable schism in the World. But else , they have no colour to palliat the unlearned crime . For will not all wise men in the world conclude ; that the Church of God , which was then Holy , not in title only and design , but practically and materially ; and pers●cuted , and not immerged in secular temptations , could not all in one instant joyn together to alter that form of Church Government , which Christ and his Apostles had so recently established , and without a Divine warrant destroy a Divine institution , not only to the confusion of the Hierarchy , but to the ruine of their own Souls . It were strange that so great a change should be , and no good man oppose it . In toto orbe decretum est : so S. Hierom. All the world consented in the advancement of the Episcopal Order . And therefore if we had no more to say for it , yet in prudence and piety we cannot say they would innovate in so great a matter . But I shall enter no further upon this inquiry : only I remember that it is not very many Months since the Bigots of the Popish party cryed out against us vehemently , and inquired , Where is your Church of England , since you have no Unity ? for your Ecclesiastick head of Unity , your Bishops , are gone . And if we should be desirous to verify their argument , so as indeed to destroy Episcopacy , We should too much advantage Popery , and do the most imprudent and most impious thing in the world . But blessed be God , who hath restored that Government , for which our late King of glorious memory gave his blood . And that ( me thinks ) should very much weigh with all the Kings true hearted Subjects , who should make it Religion not to rob that glorious Prince of the greatest honour of such a Martyrdom . For my part , I think it fit to rest in those words of another Martyr , S. Cyprian , Si quis cum Episcopo non sit , in Ecclesia non esse : He that is not with the Bishop , is not in the Church : that is , he that goes away from him , and willingly separates , departs from Gods Church ; and whether he can then be with God , is a very material consideration , and fit to be thought on by all that think Heaven a more eligible good then the interests of a faction , and the importune desire of rule can countervail . However , I have in the following papers spoken a few things , which I hope may be fit to perswade them that are not infinitely prejudiced : and although two or three good arguments are as good as two or three hundred , yet my purpose here was to prove the dignity and necessity of the Office and Order Episcopal , only that it might be as an Oeconomy to convey notice , and remembrances of the great duty incumbent upon all them that undertake this great charge . The Dignity and the Duty take one another by the hand , and are born together : only every Sheep of the Flock must take care to make the Bishops duty as easy as it can , by humility and love , by prayer and by Obedience . It is at the best very difficult , but they who oppose themselves to Government , make it harder and uncomfortable . But take heed ; if thy Bishop hath cause to complain to God of thee for thy perversness and uncharitable walking , thou wilt be the loser . And for us , we can only say in the words of the Prophet , We will weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people : But Our comfort is in God : for we can do nothing without him , but in him we can do all things . And therefore We will pray , Domine , dabis pacem nobis , omnia enim opera nostra operatus es in nobis : God hath wrought all our works within us : and therefore he will give us Peace , and give us his Spirit . Finally , Brethren , pray for us , that the word of the Lord may have free course , and be glorified even as it is with you ; and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men ; for all men have not Faith. A Consecration Sermon Preached at DVBLIN . Luke XII . 42. And the Lord said , Who then is that faithful and wise Steward , whom his Lord shall make Ruler over his houshold , to give them their portion of meat in due season . 43. Blessed is that Servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; THese words are not properly a question , though they seem so , and the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not interrogative , but hypothetical ; and extends who to whosoever ; plainly meaning that whoever is a Steward over Christs houshould , of him God requires a great care , because he hath trusted him with a great imployment . Every Steward 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so it is in St. Matthew * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so it is in my Text ; Every Steward whom the Lord hath or shall appoint over the Family to rule it and to feed it , now and in all generations of men , as long as this Family shall abide on earth , that is , the Apostles , and they who were to succeed the Apostles in the Stewardship , were to be furnished with the same power , and to undertake the same charge , and to give the same strict and severe accounts . In these words here is something insinuated , and much expressed . 1. That which is insinuated only is , who these Stewards are , whom Christ had , whom Christ would appoint over his Family the Church : they are not here named , but we shall find them out by their prope● dir●ction , and indigitation by and by . 2. But that which is expressed , is the Office it self , in a double capacity . 1. In the dignity of it , It is a Rule and a Government : [ whom the Lord shall make Ruler over his houshould . ] 2. In the care and duty of it , which determines the government to be paternal and profitable ; i● is a rule , but such a rule as Shepherds have over their flocks , to lead them to good pastures , and to keep them within their appointed walks , and within their folds : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : that 's the work , to give them a measure and proportion of nourishment : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so St. Matthew calls it : meat in the season ; that which is fit for them , and when it is fit ; meat enough , and meat convenient ; and both together mean that which the Greek Poets call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the strong wholsom dyet . 3. Lastly . Here is the reward of the faithful and wise dispensation . The Steward that does so , and continues to do so , till his Lord find him so doing , this man shall be blessed in his deed . [ Blessed is the Servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing . ] Of these in order . ● . Who are these Rulers of Christs Family : for though Christ knew it , and therefore needed not to ask ; yet we have disputed it so much , and obeyed so little , that we have changed the plain hypothesis into an intangled question . The answer yet is easy as to some part of the inquiry . The Apostles are the first meaning of the Text ; for they were our Fathers in Christ ; They begat Sons and Daughters unto God ; and were a spiritual paternity is evident : we need look no further for spiritual Government , because in the paternal rule all power is founded ; They begat the Family by the power of the word and the life of the Spirit , and they fed this Family and ruled it by the word of their proper Ministery . They had the keyes of this house , the Stewards Ensign ; and they had the Rulers place ; for they sat on twelve thrones and judged the twelve tribes of Israel . But of this there is no question . And as little of another proposition ; that this Stewardship was to last for ever ; for the powers of Ministring in this Office and the Office it self were to be perpetual . For the issues and powers of Government are more necessary for the perpetuating the Church , then for the first planting ; and if it was necessary that the Apostles should have a rod and a staff at first , it would be more necessary afterwards , when the Family was more numerous , and their first zeal abated , and their native simplicity perverted into arts of hypocrisy and forms of godliness , when Heresies should arise , and the love of many should wax cold . The Apostles had also a power of Ordination ; and that the very power it self does denote , for it makes perpetuity , that could not expire in the dayes of the Apostles ; for by it they themselves propagated a succession . And Christ having promised his spirit to abide with his Church for ever , and made his Apostles the Channels , the Ministers and conveyances of it , that it might descend as the inheritance and eternal portion of the Family ; it cannot be imagined that when the first Ministers were gone , there should not others rise up in the same places , some like to the first , in the same Office and Ministery of the Spirit . But the thing is plain and evident in the matter of fact also . Quod in Ecclesiâ nunc geritur , hoc olim fecerunt Apostoli , said S. Cyprian ; What the Apostles did at first , that the Church does to this day , and shall do so for ever . For when S. Paul had given to the Bishop of Ephesus rules of Government in this Family ; he commands that they should be observed till the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ : and therefore these authorities and charges are given to him and to his Successors ; it is the observation of S. Ambrose upon the warranty of that Text , and is obvious and undeniable . Well then . The Apostles were the first Stewards ; and this Office dies not with them , but must for ever be succeeded in ; and now begins the inquiry , who are the Successors of the Apostles : for they are , they must evidently be the Stewards to feed and to rule this Family . There are some that say that all who have any portion of work in the Family , all the Ministers of the Gospel are these Stewards , and so all will be Rulers . The Presbyters surely ; for say they , Presbyter and Bishop is the same thing , and have the same name in Scripture , and therefore the Office cannot be distinguished . To this I shall very briefly say two things , which will quickly clear our way through this bush of thorns . I. That the word Presbyter is but an honourable appellative used amongst the Jews , as Alderman amongst us ; but it signifies no order at all , nor was ever us●d in Scripture to signify any distinct company or order of Clergy . And this appears not only by an induction in all the enumerations of the Offices Ministerial in the New Testament : * where to be a Presbyter is never reckoned either as a distinct Office , or a distinct order ; but by its being indifferently communicated to all the Superior Clergy , and all the Princes of the people . II. The second thing I intended to say is this , that although all the Superior Clergy had not only one , but divers common appellatives ; all being called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , even the Apostolate it self being called a Deaconship * ; yet it is evident that before the common appellations were fixt into names of propriety , they were as evidently distinguished in their offices and powers , as they are at this day , in their Names and Titles . To this purpose S. Paul gave to Titus the Bishop of Crete a special commission , command and power to make Ordinations ; and in him , and in the person of Timothy he did erect a Court of Judicature even over some of the Clergy , who yet were called Presbyters ; against a Presbyter receive not an accusation but before two or three witnesses : there is the measure and the warranty of the Audientia Episcopalis , the Bishops Audience Court ; and when the accused were found guilty he gives in charge to proceed to censures ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; You must rebuke them sharply , and you must silence them , stop their mouths , that 's S. Pauls word ; that they may no more scatter their venom in the ears and hearts of the people . These Bishops were commanded to set in order things that were wanting in the Churches , the same with that power of S. Paul ; [ other things will I set in order when I come , ] said he to the Corinthian Churches ; in which there were many who were called Presbyters ; who nevertheless for all that name , had not that power . To the same purpose it is plain in Scripture , that some would have been Apostles that were not ; such were those whom the spirit of God notes in the Revelation ; and some did love preeminence that had it not ; for so did Diotrephes ; and some were Judges of questions , and all were not , for therefore they appealed to the Apostles at Jerusalem ; and S. Philip though he was an Evangelist , yet he could not give confirmation to the Samaritans whom he had baptized , but the Apostles were sent for ; for that was part of the power reserved to the Episcopal or Apostolick order . Now from these premises the conclusion is plain and easy . 1. Christ left a Government in his Church , and founded it in the persons of the Apostles . 2. The Apostles received this power for the perpetual use and benefit , for the comfort and edification of the Church for ever . 3. The Apostles had this Government , but all that were taken into the Ministry , and all that were called Presbyters had it not . If therefore this Government , in which there is so much disparity in the very nature and exercise and first original of it , must abide for ever ; then so must that disparity : If the Apostolate in the first stabiliment was this eminency of power ; then it must be so , that is , it must be the same in the succession , that it was in the foundation . For after the Church is founded upon its Governours , we are to expect no change of Government . If Christ was the Author of it , then as Christ left it , so it must abide for ever : forever there must be the Governing and the Governed , the superior and the subordinate , the Ordainer and the ordained , the confirmer and the confirmed . Thus far the way is straight , and the path is plain . The Apostles were the Stewards and the ordinary Rulers of Christs Family by virtue of the order and office Apostolical ; and although this must be succeeded to for ever ; yet no man for his now , or at any time being called a Presbyter or Elder can pretend to it ; for besides his being a Presbyter , he must be an Apostle too ; else , though he be called in partem sollicitudinis , and may do the offices of assistance and understewardship ; yet the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Government and Rule of the Family belongs not to him . But then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; who are these Stewards and Rulers over the houshold now ? To this the answer is also certain and easy . Christ hath made the same Governours to day as heretofore ; Apostles still , For though the twelve Apostles are dead ; Yet the Apostolical order is not : it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a generative order , and begets more Apostles ; now who these minores Apostoli are , the successors of the Apostles in that Office Apostolical and supreme regiment of souls , we are sufficiently taught in Holy Scriptures ; which when I have clearly shewn to you , I shall pass on to some more practical considerations . 1. Therefore , certain and known it is , that Christ appointed two sorts of Ecclesiastick persons ; the XII . Apostles , and the LXXII . Disciples ; to these he gave a limited commission , to those a fulness of power ; to these a temporary imployment , to those a perpetual and everlasting ; from these two societies founded by Christ , the whole Church of God derives the two superiour orders in the sacred Hierarchy ; and as Bishops do not claim a Divine right but by succession from the Apostles ; so the Presbyters cannot pretend to have been instituted by Christ , but by claiming a succession to the LXXII . And then consider the difference , compare the Tables , and all the world will see the advantages of argument we have ; for since the LXXII . had nothing but a mission on a temporary errand & more then that we hear nothing of them in Scripture ; but upon the Apostles Christ powred all the Ecclesiastical power , and made them the ordinary Ministers of that spirit which was to abide with the Church for ever ; the Divine institution of Bishops , that is , of Successors to the Apostles , is much more clear then that Christ appointed Presbyters , or Successors of the LXXII . And yet if from hence they do not derive it , they can never prove their order to be of Divine institution at all , much less to be so alone . But we may see the very thing it self ; the very matter of fact . S. James the Bishop of Jerusalem , is by S. Paul called an Apostle ; Other Apostles saw I none , save James the Lords Brother . For there were some whom the Scriptures call the Apostles of our Lord ; that is , such which Christ made by his word immediately , or by his Spirit extraordinarily ; and even into this number and title , Matthias , and S. Paul , & Barnabas were accounted . * But the Church also made Apostles ; and these were called by S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Apostles of the Churches , and particularly , Epaphroditus was the Apostle of the Philippians ; properly so ( saith Primasius , ) and what is this else but the Bishop faith Theodoret ; for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , those who are now called Bishops were then called Apostles , saith the same Father ; the sence and full meaning of which argument is a perfect commentary upon that famous prophecy of the Church , [ In stead of thy Fathers thou shalt have children whom thou mayest make Princes in Lands , ] that is , not only the twelve Apostles our Fathers in Christ , who first begat us , were to rule Christs Family , but when they were gone , their children and Successors should arise in their stead : Et nati natorum , & qui nascentur ab illis their direct Successors to all generations shall be principes populi , that is , Rulers and Governours of the whole Catholick Church . De prole enim Ecclesiae crevit eidem paternitas , id est , Episcopi quos illa genuit , & patres appellat , & constituit in sedibus Patrum ; saith S. Austin , the children of the Church become Fathers of the faithful ; that is , the Church begets Bishops ; and places them in the seat of Fathers , the first Apostles . After these plain and evident testimonies of Scripture , it will not be amiss to say , that this great affair relying not only upon the words of institution , but on matter of fact ; passed forth into a demonstration and greatest notoreity by the Doctrine and practice of the whole Catholick Church . For so S. Irenaeus who was one of the most Antient Fathers of the Church , and might easily make good his affirmative ; We can ( sayes he ) reckon the men who by the Apostles were appointed Bishops in the Churches , to be their Successors unto us ; leaving to them the same power and authority which they had . Thus S. Polycarp was by the Apostles made Bishop of Smyrna ; S. Clement Bishop of Rome by St. Peter , and divers others by the Apostles , faith Tertullian ; saying also that the Asian Bishops were consecrated by S. John ; and to be short , that Bishops are the Successors of the Apostles in the Stewardship and Rule of the Church , is expresly taught by S. Cyprian , and S. Hierom , S. Ambrose , and S. Austin , by Euthymius , and Pacianus , by S. Gregory , and S. John Damascen , by Clarius à Muscula , and S. Sixtus , by Anacletus , and S. Isidore ; by the Roman Councel under S. Sylvester , and the Councel of Carthage ; and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or succession of Bishops from the Apostles hands in all the Churches Apostolical was as certainly known as in our Chronicles we find the succession of our English Kings , and one can no more be denyed then the other . The conclusion from these premises I give you in the words of S. Cyprian , Cogitent Diaconi quod Apostolos , id est , Episcopos Dominus ipse elegerit . Let the Ministers know that Apostles , that is , he Bps. were chosen by our blessed Lord himself ; and this was so evident , and so believed , that S. Austin affirms it with a nemo ignorat , No man is so ignorant but he knows this , that our blessed Saviour appointed Bishops over Churches . Indeed the Gnosticks spake evil of this order ; for they are noted by three Apostles , S. Paul , S. Peter and S. Jude , to be despisers of Government , and to speak evil of dignities ; and what government it was they did so despise , we may understand by the words of S. Jude , they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in the contradiction or gainsaying of Corah , who with his company rose up against Aaron the high Priest ; and excepting these who were the vilest of men , no man within the first 300. years after Christ , opposed Episcopacy . But when Constantine received the Church into his arms , he found it universally governed by Bishops , and therefore no wise or good man professing to be a Christian , that is , to believe the holy Catholick Church , can be content to quit the Apostolical Government ; ( that by which the whole Family of God was fed , and taught , and ruled , ) and beget to himself new Fathers and new Apostles , who by wanting succession from the Apostles of our Lord , have no Ecclesiastical and Derivative communion with these fountains of our Saviour . If ever Lirinensis's rule could be used in any question , it is in this : Quod semper , quod ubique , quod ab omibus ; That Bishops are the successors of the Apostles in this Stewardship ; and that they did alwayes rule the Family , was taught and acknowledged alwayes , and every where , and by all men that were of the Church of God : and if these evidences be not sufficient to convince modest and sober persons in this question , we shall find our faith to fail in many other articles , of which we yet are very confident , For the observation of the Lords day , the consecration of the holy Eucharist by Priests , the baptizing Infants , the communicating of women , and the very Canon of the Scripture it self rely but upon the same probation ; and therefore the denying of Articles thus proved is a way ( I do not say ) to bring in all Sects and Heresies , ( that 's but little ) but a plain path and inlet to Atheism and Irreligion ; for by this means , it will not only be impossible to agree concerning the meaning of Scripture , but the Scripture it self , and all the Records of Religion will become useless , and of no efficacy or perswasion . I am entered into a sea of matter , but I will break it off abruptly , and sum up this inquiry with the words of the Councel of Chalcedon , which is one of the four Generals , by our laws made the measures of judging Heresies . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It is sacriledge to bring back a Bishop to the degree and order of a Presbyter . It is indeed a rifling the order , and intangling the gifts , and confounding the method of the Holy Ghost ; it is a dishonouring them whom God would honour , and a robbing them of those spiritual eminencies with which the spirit of God does anoint the consecrated heads of Bishops . And I shall say one thing more , which indeed is a great truth , that the diminution of Episcopacy was first introduced by Popery , and the Popes of Rome by communicating to Abbots , and other mere Priests , special graces to exercise some essential Offices of Episcopacy , hath made this sacred order to be cheap , and apt to be invaded . But then add this : If Simon Magus was in so damnable a condition for offering to buy the gifts and powers of the Apostolical order , what shall we think of them that snatch them away , and pretend to wear them whether the Apostles and their Successors will or no ? This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to bely the Holy Ghost ; that is the least of it : it is rapine and sacrilege , besides the heresy and schism , and the spiritually . For the government Episcopal , as it was exemplified in the Synagogue , and practised by the same measures in the Temple , so it was transcribed by the eternal Son of God , who translated it into a Gospel Ordinance : it was sanctifyed by the Holy Spirit , who named some of the persons , and gave to them all power and graces from above . It was subjected in the Apostles first , and by them transmitted to a distinct Order of Ecclesiasticks : it was received into all Churches , configned in the Records of the holy Scriptures , preached by the universal voice of all the Christian World , delivered by notorious and uninterrupted practise , and derived to further and unquestionable issue by perpetual succession . I have done with the hardest part of the Text , by finding out the persons intrusted , the Stewards of Christs Family : which though Christ only intimated in this place , yet he plainly enough manifested in others : The Apostles and their Successors the Bishops , are the men intrusted with this great charge ; God grant they may all discharge it well . And so I pass from the Officers , to a consideration of the Office it self , in the next words ; Whom the Lord shall make Ruler over his Houshould , to give them their meat in due season . 2. The Office it self is the Stewardship , that is Episcopacy , the Office of the Bishop . The name signifies an Office of the Ruler indefinitely , but the word was chosen , and by the Church appropriated to those whom it now signifies , both because the word it self is a monition of duty , and also because the faithful were used to it in the dayes of Moses and the Prophets . The word is in the prophecy of the Church , [ I will give to thee Princes in peace , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and Bishops in righteousness , ] upon which place S. Hierom sayes , Principes Ecclesiae vocat futuros Episcopos ; [ The spirit of God calls them who were to be Christian Bishops , principes , or chief Rulers , ] and this was no new thing ; For the chief of the Priests who were set over the rest , are called Bishops by all the Hellenist Jews . Thus Joel is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Bishop over the Priests , and the son of Bani , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Bishop and Visitor over the Levites , and we find at the purging of the Land from idolatry , the High Priest placed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Bishops over the House of God. Nay , it was the appellative of the High Priest himself , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Bishop Eleazar , the Son of Aaron the Priest , to whom is committed the care of Lamps , and the daily Sacrifice , and the holy unction . Now this word the Church retained , choosing the same Name to her superiour Ministers , because of the likeness of the Ecclesiastical Government between the Old and New Testament . For Christ made no change but what was necessary . Baptism was a rite among the Jews , and the Lords Supper was but the post-coenium of the Hebrews changed into a mystery , from a type to a more real exhibition ; and the Lords Prayer was a collection of the most eminent devotions of the Prophets and Holy men before Christ , who prayed by the same spirit ; and the censures Ecclesiastical were but an imitation of the proceedings of the Judaical tribunals ; and the whole Religion was but the Law of Moses drawn out of its vail into clarity and manifestation ; and to conclude in order to the present affair , the Government which Christ left was the same as he found it ; for what Aaron and his Sons , and the Levites were in the Temple , that Bishops , Priests , and Deacons are in the Church ; it is affirmed by S. Hierom more then once ; and the use he makes of it is this , Esto subjectus Pontificituo , & quasi animae parentem suscipe ; Obey your Bishop , and reeeive him as the nursing Father of your Soul. But above all , this appellation is made honourable by being taken by our blessed Lord himself . For he is called in Scripture , the great Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls . But our inquiry is not after the Name , but the Office , and the dignity and duty of it ; Ecclesiae gubernandae sublimis ac divina potestas ( so S. Cyprian calls it ) a High and a Divine power from God of Governing the Church ; rem magnam & preciosaem in conspectu Domini ( so S. Cyril ) a great and a pretious thing in the sight of God ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by Isidor Pelusiot ; the utmost limit of what is desireable amongst men . But the account upon which it is so desireable , is the same also that makes it formidable . They who have tryed it , and did it conscientiously , have found the burden so great , as to make them stoop with care and labor ; and they who do it ignorantly or carelesly , will find it will break their bones . For the Bishops Office is all that duty which can be signified by those excellent words of S Cyprian ; He is a Bishop or Overseer of the Brotherhood , the Ruler of the people , the Shepherd of the Flock , the Governour of the Church , the Minister of Christ , and the Priest of God. These are great titles , and yet less then what is said of them in Scripture ; which calls them Salt of the Earth , Lights upon a candlestick , Stars and Angels , Fathers of our Faith , Embassadors of God , Dispensers of the Misteries of God , the Apostles of the Churches , and the Glory of Christ ; but then they are great burdens too : for the Bishop is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , intrusted with the Lords people ; that 's a great charge , but there is a worse matter that follows ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : the Bishop is he of whom God will require an account for all their souls : they are the words of S. Paul , and transcribed into the 40th . Canon of the Apostles , and the 24th . Canon of the Councel of Antioch . And now I hope the envy is taken off ; for the honour does not pay for the burden ; and we can no sooner consider Episcopacy in its dignity , as it is a Rule , but the very nature of that Rule does imply so severe a duty , that as the load of it is almost insufferable , so the event of it is very formidable , if we take not great care . For this Stewardship is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a Principality and a Ministry . So it was in Christ ; he is Lord of all , and yet he was the Servant of all ; so it was in the Apostles , it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , their lot was to be Apostles , and yet to serve and minister ; and it is remarkable that in Isaiah the 70. use the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Bishop ; but there they use it for the Hebrew word nechosbeth , which the Greeks usually render by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and the interlineary translation by Exactores . Bishops are only Gods Ministers and tribute gatherers , requiring & overseeing them that they do their duty ; and therefore here the case is so , and the burden so great , and the dignity so allayed , that the envious man hath no reason to be troubled that his brother hath so great a load ; nor the proud man plainly to be delighted with so honourable a danger . It is indeed a Rule , but it is paternal ; it is a Government , but it must be neither 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it is neither a power to constrain , nor a commission to get wealth ; for it must be without necessity , and not for filthy lucre sake ; but it is a Rule , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so S. Luke , as of him that ministers ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so S. Mark ; as of him that is servant of all ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so S. John ; such a principality as he hath that washes the feet of the weary traveller ; or if you please , take it in the words of our Blessed Lord himself , that [ He that will be chief among you let him be your Minister , ] meaning that if under Christs Kingdom you desire rule , possibly you may have it ; but all that rule under him are Servants to them that are ruled , and therefore you get nothing by it , but a great labour , and a busy imployment , a careful life , and a necessity or making severe accounts . But all this is nothing but the general measures , I cannot be useful or understood unless I be more particular . The particulars we shall best enumerate by recounting those great conjugations of worthy offices and actions by which Christian Bishops have blessed and built up Christendom ; for because we must be followers of them , as they were of Christ , the recounting what they did worthily in their generations , will not only demonstrate how useful , how profitable , how necessary Episcopacy is to the Christian Church , but it will at the same time teach us our duty , by what services we are to benefit the Church , in what works we are to be imployed , and how to give an account of our Stewardship with joy . 1. The Christian Church was founded by Bishops , not only because the Apostles , who were Bishops , were the first Preachers of the Gospel , and Planters of Churches , but because the Apostolical men , whom the Apostles used in planting and disseminating Religion , were by all Antiquity affirmed to have been Diocesan Bishops ; in so much that as S. Epiphanius witnesses , there were at the first disseminations of the faith of Christ , many Church●s who had in them no other Clergy , but a Bishop and his Deacons , and the Presbyters were brought in afterwards as the harvest grew greater . But the Bishops names are known , they are recorded in the book of Life , and their praise is in the Gospel ; such were Timothy and Titus , Clemens and Linus , Marcus and Dionysius , Onesimus and Caius , Epaphroditus and S. James our Lords Brother , Evodius and Simeon ; all which , if there be any faith in Christians that gave their lives for a testimony to the faith , and any truth in their stories ; and unless we who believe Thucydides and Plutarch , Livy and Tacitus , think that all Church story is a perpetual Romance , and that all the brave men , the Martyrs and the Doctors of the Primitive Church , did conspire as one man to abuse all Christendom for ever ; I say unless all these impossible suppositions be admitted , all these whom I have now reckoned were Bishops fixed in several Churches , and had Dioceses for their Charges . The consequent of this consideration is this . It Bishops were those upon whose Ministry Christ founded and built his Church , let us consider what great wisdom is required of them that seem to be Pillars : the Stewards of Christs Family must be wise : that Christ requires , and if the order be necessary to the Church , wisdom cannot but be necessary to the Order . For it is a shame if they who by their Office are Fathers in Christ , shall by their unskilfulness be but Babes themselves ; understanding not the secrets of Religion , the mysteries of Godliness , the perfections of the Evangelical law , all the advantages and disadvantages in the Spiritual life . A Bishop must be exercised in Godliness , a man of great experience in the secret conduct of Souls , not satisfied with an ordinary skill in making homilies to the people ; and speaking common exhortations in ordinary cases ; but ready to answer in all secret inquiries , and able to convince the gainsayers , and to speak wisdom amongst them that are perfect . If the first Bishops laid the foundation ; their Successors must not only preserve whatsoever is fundamental , but build up the Church in a most holy Faith , taking care that no Heresie sap the foundation , and that no hay or rotten wood be built upon it ; and above all things , that a most Holy life be superstructed upon a holy and unreproveable Faith. So the Apostles laid the foundation , and built the walls of the Church , and their Successors must raise up the roof as high as Heaven . For let us talk and dispute eternally , we shall never compose the controversies in Religion , and establish truth upon unalterable foundations , as long as men handle the word of God deceitfully , that is , with designs and little artifices , and secular partialities , and they will for ever do so , as long as they are proud or covetous . It is not the difficulty of our questions , or the subtilty of our adversaries that makes disputes interminable ; but we shall never cure the itch of disputing , or establish Unity , unless we apply our selves to humility , and contempt of riches . If we will be contending , let us contend like the Olive and the Vine , who shall produce best , and most fruit ; not like the Aspine and the Elm which shall make most noise in a wind . And all other methods are a beginning at a wrong end . And as for the people ; the way to make them conformable to the wise and holy rules of faith and government , is by reducing them to live good lives . When the children of Israel gave themselves to gluttony and drunkenness , and filthy lusts , they quickly fell into abominable idolatries ; and S. Paul sayes that men make shipwrack of their Faith by putting away a good conscience ; for the mystery of Faith is best preserved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in a pure conscience , saith the same Apostle ; secure but that , and we shall quickly end our disputes , and have an obedient and conformable people ; but else never . 2. As Bishops were the first Fathers of Churches , and gave them being ; so they preserve them in being . For withour Sacraments there is no Church ; or it will be starved and dy : and without Bishops there can be no Priests , and consequently no Sacraments ; and that must needs be a supreme order from whence ordination it self proceeds . For it is evident and notorious that in Scripture there is no record of ordination , but an Apostolical hand was in it ; one of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , one of the chief , one of the superior and Ruling Clergy ; and it is as certain in the descending ages of the Church , the Bishop alwayes had that power , it was never denyed to him , and it was never imputed to Presbyters ; and S. Hierom himself , when out of his anger against John Bishop of Jerusalem he endeavoured to equal the Presbyter with the Bishop , though in very many places he spake otherwise , yet even then also and in that heat , he excepted Ordination , acknowledging that to be the Bishops peculiar . And therefore they who go about to extinguish Episcopacy , do as Julian did ; they destroy the Presbytery and starve the Flock , and take away their Shepherds , and dispark their pastures , and tempt Gods providence to extraordinaries , and put the people to hard shifts , and turn the chanels of Salvation quite another way , and leave the Church to a perpetual uncertainty , whether she be alive or dead , and the people destitute of the life of their Souls , and their daily bread , and their spiritual comforts , and holy blessings . The consequent of this is . If Sacraments depend upon Bishops , then let us take care that we convey to the people holy and pure materials , sanctified with a holy ministry , and ministred by holy persons . For although it be true , that the efficacy of the Sacraments does not depend wholly upon he worthiness of him that ministers ; yet it is as true , that it does not wholly rely upon the worthiness of the Receiver ; but both together relying upon the goodness of God produce all those blessings which are designed . The Minister hath an influence into the effect , and does very much towards it ; and if there be a failure there , it is a defect in one of the concurring causes ; and therefore an unholy Bishop is a great diminution to the peoples blessing . S. Hierom presses this severely : Impiè faciunt &c. They do wickedly who affirm that the holy Eucharist is consecrated by the words [ alone ] and solemn prayer of the consecrator , and not [ also ] by his life and holiness , and therefore S. Cyprian affirms , that none but holy and upright men are to be chosen , who offering their Sacrifices worthily to God may be heard in their prayers for the Lords people : but for others ; Sacrificia eorum panis luctus ( saith the Prophet Hosea , ) their Sacrifices are like the bread of sorrow , whoever eats thereof shall be defiled . This discourse is not mine but S. Cyprians : and although his words are not to be understood dogmatically , but in the case of duty and caution , yet we may lay our hands upon our hearts , and consider how we shall give an account of our Stewardship , if we shall offer to the people the bread of God with impure hands ; it is of it self a pure nourishment , but if it passes through an unclean vessel , it looses much of its excellency . 3. The like also is to be said concerning prayer . For the Episcopal order is appointed by God to be the great Ministers of Christs Priesthood , that is , to stand between Christ and the people in the entercourse of prayer and blessing . We will give our selves continually to prayer ; said the Apostles , that was the one half of their imployment ; and indeed a Bishop should spend very much of his time in holy prayer , and in diverting Gods judgments , and procuring blessings to the people ; for in all times , the chief of the Religion was ever the chief Minister of blessing . Thus Abraham blessed Abimelech , and Melchisedeck blessed Abraham , and Aaron blessed the people ; and without all controversy ( saith the Apostle , ) the l●ss is blessed of the Greater . But then we know that God heareth not sinners ; and it must be the effectual fervent prayer of a Righteous man that shall prevail . And therefore we may easily consider that a vitious Prelate is a great calamity to that Flock , which he is appointed to bless and pray for . How shall he reconcile the penitents , who is himself at enmity with God ? How shall the Holy Spirit of God descend upon the Symbols at his prayer who does perpetually grieve him , and quench his holy fires , and drive him quite away ? How shall he that hath not tasted of the spirit by contemplation , stir up others to earnest desires of Celestial things ? Or what good shall the people receive , when the Bishop layes upon their head a covetous or a cruel , an unjust or an impure hand ? But therefore that I may use the words of S. Hierom. Cum ab Episcopo gratia in populum transfundatur , & mundi totius & Ecclesiae totius condimentum sit Episcopus , &c. Since it is intended that from the Bishop grace should be diffused amongst all the people , there is not in the world a greater indecency then a holy office ministred by an unholy person , and no greater injury to the people , then that of the blessings which God sends to them by the ministries Evangelical they should be cheated and defrauded by a wicked Steward . And therefore it was an excellent prayer which to this very purpose was by the son of Sirach made in behalf of the High Priests the sons of Aaron ; [ God give you wisdom in your heart to judge his people in Righteousness , that their good things be not abolished , and that their glory may endure for ever . ] 4. All the offices Ecclesiastical alwayes were , and ought to be conducted by the Episcopal order , as is evident in the universal doctrine and practise of the primitive Church . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It is the 40 th . Canon of the Apostles , Let the Presbyters and Deacons do nothing without leave of the Bishop . But that case is known . The consequent of this consideration is no other then the admonition in my text . We are Stewards of the manifold Grace of God , and dispensers of the mysteries of the Kingdom ; and it is required of Stewards that they be found faithful ; that we preach the word of God in season and out of season , that we rebuke and exhort , admonish and correct ; for these , God calls Pastores secundùm cor meum , Pastors according to his own heart , which feed the people with knowledge and understanding ; but they must also comfort the afflicted and bind up the broken heart ; minister the Sacraments with great diligence , and righteous measures , and abundant charity , alwayes having in mind those passionate words of Christ to S. Peter , If thou lovest me , feed my sheep ; If thou hast any love to me , feed my lambs . And let us remember this also , that nothing can enforce the people to obey their Bishops as they ought , but our doing that duty and charity to them which God requires . There is reason in these words of S. Chrysostom , [ It is necessary that the Church should adhere to their Bishop as the body to the head , as plants to their roots , as rivers to their springs , as children to their Fathers , as Disciples to their Masters . ] These similitudes express not only the relation and dependency , but they tell us the reason of the duty . The head gives light and reason to conduct the body , the roots give nourishment to the plants , and the springs , perpetual emanation of waters to the chanels . Fathers teach and feed their children , and Disciples receive wise instruction from their Masters : and if we be all this to the people , they will be all that to us ; and wisdom will compel them to submit , and our humility will teach them obedience , and our charity will invite their compliance . Our good example will provoke them to good works , and our meekness will melt them into softness and flexibility . For all the Lords people are populus voluntarius , a free and willing people ; and we who cannot compel their bodies , must thus constrain their souls ; by inviting their wills , by convincing their understandings , by the beauty of fair example , the efficacy and holiness , and the demonstrations of the spirit . This is experimentum ejus qui in nobis loquitur Christus . The experiment of Christ that speaketh in us . For to this purpose those are excellent words which S. Paul spake . [ Remember them who have the rule over you , whose faith follow , considering the end of their conversation . ] There lyes the demonstration : and those prelates who teach good life , whose Sermons are the measures of Christ , and whose life is a copy of their Sermons ; these must be followed ; and surely these will ; for these are burning and shining lights ; but if we hold forth false fires , and by the amusement of evil examples call the vessels that sail upon a dangerous sea to come upon a rock , or an iron shoar instead of a safe harbour , we cause them to make shipwrack of their precious Faith , and to perish in the deceitful and unstable waters . Vox operum fortiùs sonat quàm verborum . A good life is the strongest argument that your faith is good , and a gentle voice will be sooner entertained then a voice of thunder ; but the greatest eloquence in the world , is a meek spirit , and a liberal hand ; these are the two pastoral staves the Prophet speaks of , nognam & hovelim , beauty and bands ; he that hath the staff of the beauty of holiness , the ornament of fair example , he hath also the staff of bands , atque in funiculis Adam trahet eos , in vinculis cha●itatis ; as the Prophet Hosea's expression is ; he shall draw the people after him by the cords of a man , by the bands of a holy charity . But if against all these demonstrations any man will be refractary ; We have instead of a staff , an Apostolical rod ; which is the last and latest remedy , and either brings to repentance , or consigns to ruin and reprobation . If there were any time remaining , I could reckon that the Episcopal order is the principle of Unity in the Church ; and we see it is so , by the inumerable Sects that sprang up when Episcopacy was persecuted . I could adde , how that Bishops were the cause that S. John wrote his Gospel ; that the Christian Faith was for 300. years together bravely defended by the sufferings , the prisons and flames , the life and the death of Bishops , as the principal Combatants . That the Fathers of the Church whose writings are held in so great veneration in all the Christian World , were almost all of them Bishops . I could adde , that the Reformation of Religion in England was principally by the Preachings and the disputings , the writings and the Martyrdom of Bishops . That Bishops have ever since been the greatest defensatives against Popery . That England and Ireland were governed by Bishops ever since they were Christian , and under their conduct have for so many ages enjoyed all the blessings of the Gospel . I could add also , that Episcopacy is the great stabiliment of Monarchy , but of this we are convinced by a sad and too dear bought experience . I could therefore in stead of it , say , that Episcopacy is the great ornament of Religion , that as it rescues the Clergy from contempt , so it is the greatest preserv●tive of the peoples liberty from Ecclesiastick Tyranny on one hand , ( the Gentry being little better then servants , while they live under the Presbytery , ) and Anarchy and licentiousness on the other . That it endears obedience , and is subject to the Laws of Princes . And is wholly ordained for the good of mankind , and the benefit of Souls . But I cannot stay to number all the blessings which have entered into the World at this door : I only remark these because they describe unto us the Bishops imployment , which is , to be busy in the service of Souls , to do good in all capacities , to serve every mans need , to promote all publick benefits , to cement Governments , to establish peace , to propagate the Kingdom of Christ , to do hurt to no man , to do good to every man ; that is , so to minister , that Religion and Charity , publick peace , and private blessings may be in their exaltation . As long as it was thus done by the Primitive Bishops , the Princes and the people gave them all honour . Insomuch that by a decree of Constantine the great , the Bishop had power given him to retract the sentences made by the Presidents of Provinces , and we find in the acts of S. Nicholas , that he rescued some innocent persons from death when the executioner was ready to strike the fatal blow ; which thing even when it fell into inconvenience , was indeed forbidden by Arcadius and Honorius ; but the confidence and honour was only changed , it was not taken away : for the condemned criminal had leave to appeal to the Audientia Episcopalis , to the Bishops Court. This was not any right which the Bishops could challenge , but a reward of their Piety ; and so long as the Holy Office was holily administred , the world found so much comfort and security , so much justice and mercy , so many temporal and spiritual blessings consequent to the ministries of that order , that as the Galatians to S. Paul , men have plucked out their eyes to do them service , and to do them honour . For then Episcopacy did that good that God intended by it : it was a spiritual Government , by spiritual persons , for spiritual ends . Then the Princes and the people gave them honours because they deserved and sought them not : then they gave them wealth , because they would dispend it wisely , frugally and charitably : Then they gave them power ; because it was sure to be used for defence of the innocent , for relief of the oppressed , for the punishment of evil doers , and the reward of the vertuous . Then they desired to be judged by them , because their audiences or Courts did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they appeased all furious sentences , and taught gentle principles , and gave merciful measures , and in their Courts were all equity and piety , and Christian determinations . But afterwards , when they did fall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into secular methods , and made their Counsels vain by pride , and durtied their sentences with money , then they became like other men ; and so it will be , unless the Bishops be more holy then other men ; but when our sanctity and severity shall be as eminent as the calling is , then we shall be called to Councels , and sit in publick meetings , and bring comfort to private Families , and rule in the hearts of men by a jus relationis , such as was between the Roman Emperors and the Senate ; they courted one another into power , and in giving honour strived to outdo each other ; for from an humble wise man , no man will snatch an imployment that is honourable ; but from the proud and from the covetous every man endeavours to wrest it , and thinks it lawful prize . My time is now done ; and therefore I cannot speak to the third part of my text , the reward of the good Steward and of the bad ; I shall only mention it to you in a short exhortation ; and so conclude . In the Primitive Church a Bishop was never admitted to publick penance ; not only because in them every crime is ten , and he that could descern a publick shame , could not deserve a publick honor , nor yet only because every such punishment was scandalous , and did more evil by the example of the crime , then it could do good by the example of the punishment ; but also because no spiritual power is higher then the Episcopal , and therefore they were to be referred to the Divine judgment , which was likely to fall on them very heavily . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : the Lord will cut the evil Stewards asunder ; he will suffer schisms and Divisions to enter in upon us , and that will sadly cut us asunder ; but the evil also shall fall upon their persons ; like the punishment of quartering Traitors , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , punishment with the circumstances of detestation and exemplarity . Consider therefore what is your great duty . Consider what is your great danger . The lines of duty I have already described ; only remember how dear and pretious Souls are to God , since for their salvation Christ gave his bloud , and therefore will not easily lose them , whom though they had sin'd against him , yet he so highly valued ; remember that you are Christs deputies in the care of Souls , and that you succeed in the place of the Apostles . Non est facilè stare loco Pauli , & tenere gradum Petri ; You have undertaken the work of S. Paul , and the Office of S. Peter , and what think you upon this account will be required of us ? S. Hierom expresses it thus . The wisdom and skill of a Bishop ought to be so great , that his countenance , his gesture , his motion , every thing should be vocal , ut quicquid agit , quicquid loquitur , doctrina sit Apostolorum : that whatever he does or speaks be doctrine Apostolical . The ancient Fathers had a pious opinion , that besides the Angel guardian which is appointed to the guard of every man ; there is to every Bishop a second Angel appointed to him at the Consecration ; and to this Origen alludes , saying that every Bishoprick hath two Angels , the one visible and the other invisible . This is a great matter , and shews what a precious thing that order and those persons are in the eyes of God ; but then this also means , that we should live Angelick lives , which the Church rarely well expresses by saying , that Episcopal dignity is the Ecclesiastick state of perfection , and supposes the persons to be so far advanced in holiness , as to be in the state of confirmation in grace . But I shall say nothing of these things ; because it may be they press too hard , but the use I shall make of it upon occasion of the reward of the good and bad Steward , is to remind you of your great danger . For if it be required of Bishops to be so wise and so holy , so industrious and so careful , so busy and so good up to the height of best examples ; if they be anointed of the Lord , and are the Husbands of the Churches , if they be the Shepherds of the flock , and Stewards of the houshould ; it is very fit they consider their danger , that they may be careful to do their duty . S. Bernard considers it well in his epistle to Henry Archbishop of Sens ; If I lying in my Cell , and smoaking under a Bushel , not shining , yet cannot avoid the breath of the winds , but that my light is almost blown out ; what will become of my Candle , if it were placed on a candlestick and set upon a hill ? I am to look to my self alone , and provide for my own salvation ; and yet I offend my self , I am weary of my self , I am my own scandal and my own dang●r ; my own eye , and my own belly , and my own appetite find me work enough ; and therefore God help them who besides themselves are answerable for many others . Jacob kept the Sheep of Laban ; and we keep the Sheep of Christ ; and Jacob was to answer for every Sheep that was stoln , and every lamb that was torn by the wild beast , and so shall we too , if by our fault one of Christs Sheep perish ; and yet it may be there are 100000. Souls committed to the care and conduct of some one Shepherd , who yet will find his own Soul work enough for all his care and watchfulness . If any man should desire me to carry a Frigat into the Indies , in which a 100. men were imbarqued ; I were a mad man to undertake the charge , without proportionable skill ; and therefore when there is more ●●nger , and more Souls , and rougher Seas , and more secret Rocks , and horrible storms , and the Shipwrack is an eternal loss , the matter will then require great consideration in the undertaking , and greatest care in the conduct . Upon this account we find many brave persons in the first and in the middle ages of the Church with great resolution refusing Episcopacy . I will not speak of those who for fear of Martyrdom declined it : but those who for fear of damnation did refuse . S. Bernard was by three rich Cities severally called to be their Bishop , and by two to be their Archbishop , and he refused them ; S. Dominicus refused four successively ; S. Thomas Aquinas refused the Archbishoprick of Naples , and Vincentius Ferrerius would not accept of Valentia , or Ilerda , and Bernardinus Senensis refused the Bishopricks of Sens Vrbin and Ferrara . They had reason ; and yet if they had done amiss in that Office which they declined , it had been something more excusable ; but if they that s●ek it be as careless in the office as they are greedy of the honour , that will be found intolerable . Electus Episcopus ambulat in disco , recusans volvitur in arcâ , said the Hermit in S. Hierom. The Bishop walks upon round and trundling stones , but he that refuses it , stands upon a floor . But I shall say no more of it ; because I suppose you have read it and considered it in S. Chrysostoms six books de sacerdotio , in the Apologetie of S. Greg Naz. in the p●storal of S. Greg. of Rome , in S. Dionysius's 6th . Epistle to Demophilus , in the letters of Epiphanius to S. Hierom , in S. Austins Epistle to Bishop Valerius , in S. Bernards life of S. Malachy , in S. Hieroms 138. Epi●●le to Fabiola ; These things I am sure you could not read without trembling ; a●d certainly , if it can belong to any Christian , then [ work out your salvation with fear and trembling ] that 's the Bishops burden . For the Bishop is like a man that is surety for his friend ; he is bound for many , and for great sums ; what is to be done in this case ; Solomons answer is the way : Do this now , my Son , deliver thy self , make sure thy friend , give not sleep to thine eyes , nor slumber to thine eye lids : that is , be sedulous to discharge thy trust , to perform thy charge ; be zealous for Souls , and careless of money ; and remember this , that even in Christs Family there was one sad example of an Apostate Apostle ; and he fell into that fearful estate merely by the desire and greediness of money . Be warm in zeal , and indifferent in thy temporalities . For he that is zealous in temporals , and cold in the spiritual : he that doth the accessories of his calling by himself , and the principal by his Deputies ; he that is present at the feast of Sheep-shearing , and puts others to feed the flock , hath no sign at all upon him of a good Shepherd . It is not fit for us to leave the word of God , and to serve tables , said the Apostles . And if it be a less worthy office to serve the tables even of the poor , to the diminution of our care in the dispensation of Gods word ; it must needs be an unworthy imployment to leave the word of God , and to attend the rich and superfluous furniture of our own Tables Remember the quality of your charges . Civitas est , Vigilate ad custodiam & concordiam ; sponsa est , studete amari ; oves sunt , intendite pastui . The Church is a spouse : the Universal Church is Christs spouse ; but your own Diocese is yours ; behave your selves so , that ye be beloved . Your people are as sheep , and they must be fed , and guided , and preserved , and healed , and brought home . The Church is a City , and you are the watch men , take care that the City be kept at Unity in it self ; be sure to make peace amongst your people , suffer no hatred , no quarrels , no suits at law amongst the Citiz●ns , which you can avoid ; make peace in your Dioceses by all the wayes of prudence , piety and authority that you can , and let not your own corrections of criminals be to any purpose , but for their amendment , for the cure of offenders , as long as there is hope , and for the security of those who are found and whole . Preach often , and pray continually ; let your discipline be with charity , and your censures flow ; let not excommunications pass for trifles , and drive not away the fly from your brothers forehead with a hatchet ; give counsel frequently , and dispensations seldom , but never without necessity or great charity . Let every place in your Diocese say , Invenerunt me vigiles , the watch men have found me out , hassovevim . They that walk the City round , have sought me out and found me . Let every one of us , ( as S. Paul's expression is , ) shew himself a workman , that shall not be ashamed ; operarium inconfusibilem , mark that , such a labourer as shall not be put to shame for his illness , or his unskilfulness , his falseness and unfaithfulness in that day when the great Bishop of souls shall make his last and dreadful visitation . For be sure , there is not a carkase nor a skin , not a lock of wool , nor a drop of milk of the whole flock , but God shall for it call the Idol Shepherd to a severe account . And how , think you , will his anger burn , when he shall see so many goats standing at his left hand , and so few Sheep at his right ? and upon inquiry shall find , that his ministring Shepherds , were Wolves in Sheeps clothing ; and that by their ill example , or pernitious doctrines , their care of money , and carelesness of their flocks , so many Souls perish ; who if they had been carefully and tenderly , wisely and conscientiously handled , might have shin'd as bright as Angels . And it is a sad conside●ation to remember , how many souls are pitifully handled in this world , and carelesly dismissed out of this world ; they are left to live at their own rate , and w●en they are sick , they are bidden to be of good comfort , and then all is well ; who when they are dead , find themselves cheated of their pretious and invaluable eternity . Oh , how will those Souls in their eternal prisons for ever curse those evil and false guides ! and how will those evil guides themselves abide in jud●ment , when the Angels of wrath snatch their abused people into everlasting tor●ents ! For will God bless them or pardon them , by whom so many souls perish ? Shall they reign with Christ , who evacuate the death of Christ , and make it useless to dear Souls ? Shall they partake of Christs glories , by whom it comes to pass that there is less joy in Heaven it self , even because sinners are not converted , and God is not glorified , and the people is not instructed , and the Kingdom of God is not filled ? Oh no ? the curses of a false Prophet will fall upon them , and the reward of the evil Steward will be their portion , and they who destroyed the Sheep , or neglected them , shall have their portion with Goats for ever and ever in everlasting burnings , in which it is impossible for a man to dwell . Can any thing be beyond this ? beyond damna●ion ? Surely a m●n would think , not . And yet I remember a severe saying of S. Gregory ; Scire debent Prelati , quod tot mortibus digni sunt , quot perditionis exempla ad subditos extenderunt . One damnation is not enough for an evil Shepherd ; but for every Soul who dyes by his evil example or p●rnitious carelesness , he deserves a new death , a new damnation . Let us therefore be wise and faithful , walk warily , and watch carefully , and rule diligently , and pray assiduously . For God is more propense to rewards , then to punishments ; and the good Steward that is wise and faithful in his dispensation , shall be greatly blessed . But how ? He shall be made ruler over the houshold . What is that ? for he is so already . True ; but he shall be much more . Ex dispensatore faciet procuratorem . God will treat him as Joseph was treated by his Master ; he was first a Steward , and then a Procurator , one that ruled his goods without account , and without restraint . Our ministry shall pass into Empire , our labour into rest , our watchfulness into fruition , and our Bishoprick to a Kingdom . In the mean time our Bishopricks are a great and weighty care , and in a spiritual sense , our dominion is founded in grace , and our rule is in the hearts of the people , and our strengths are the powers of the Holy Ghost , and the weapons of our warfare are spiritual ; and the eye of God watches over us curiously , to see if we watch over our flocks by day and by night . And though the Primitive Church ( as the Ecclesiastick Histories observe , ) when they deposed a Bishop from his office , ever concealed his crime , and made no record of it ; yet remember this , that God does , and will call us to a strict and severe account . Take heed that you may never hear that fearful sentence , I was hungry and ye gave me no meat . If you suffer Christs little ones to starve , it will be required severely at your hands ; And know this , that the time will quickly come , in which God shall say unto thee in the words of the Prophet , Where is the Flock that was given thee , thy beautiful Flock ? ) What wilt thou say when he shall visit thee ? God of his mercy grant unto us all to be so faithful and so wise , as to convert Souls , and to be so blessed and so assisted , that we may give an account of our charges with joy , to the glory of God , to the edification and security of our Flocks , and the salvation of our own Souls , in that day when the great Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls sha●l come to judgment , even our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost , be all Honour and Glory , Love and Obedience , now and for evermore , Amen . FINIS . Thursday the 9 th of May. ORdered that the Speaker do give the Reverend Father in God , the Lord Bishop of Down , the thanks of this House for his yesterdaies paines , and that he desire him to print his Sermon . John Keating Cler. Parl. 11. die Maii 1661. ORdered that Sir Theophilus Jones Knight , Marcus Trever Esq Sir William Domville Kn t his Majesties Attorney General , and Richard Kirle Esq be , and are hereby appointed , a Committee to return thanks unto the Lord Bishop of Down for his Sermon preached on Wednesday last unto the Lords Justices , and Lords Spiritual and Temporal , whereunto the House of Commons were invited ; and that they desire his Lordship from this House to cause the same to be forthwith printed and published . Copia Vera. Ex. per Philip Ferneley Cler. Dom. Com. A SERMON PREACHED At the opening of the Parliament of IRELAND , May 8. 1661. Before the right Honourable the Lords Justices , and the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons . By JEREMY Lord Bishop of Down and Connor . Salus in multitudine consulentium . LONDON , Printed by J. F. for R. Royston , Bookseller to his most Sacred MAJESTY , 1661. To the Right Honourable , the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons of Ireland Assembled in PARLIAMENT . My Lords and Gentlemen ; I Ought not to dispute your commands for the printing my Sermon of Obedience ; lest my Sermon should be protestatio contra factum : here I know my Example would be the best Use to this Doctrine , and I am sure to find no inconveniency so great as that of Disobedience ; neither can I be confident that I am wise in any thing but when I obey ; for then I have the wisdome of my Superiour for my warrant , or my excuse . I remember the saying of Aurelius the Emperor , Aequius est me tot & talium amicorum consilium , quam tot tales meam unius voluntatem sequi . I could easily have pretended excuses , but that day I had taught others the contrary ; and I would not shed that Chalice which my own hands had newly filled with waters issuing from the fountains of Salvation . My eyes are almost grown old with seeing the horrid mischiefs which came from Rebellion and Disobedience ; and I would willingly now be blessed with observation of Peace and Righteousness , Plenty and Religion ▪ which do already , and I hope shall for ever , attend upon Obedience to the best KING and the best CHURCH in the world . I see no objection against my hopes , but that which ought least of all in this case to be pretended . Men pretend Conscience against Obedience ; expressly against Saint Paul's Doctrine , teaching us to obey for conscience sake ; but to disobey for Conscience in a thing indifferent , is never to be found in the books of our Religion . It is very hard when the Prince is forc'd to say to his rebellious Subject , as God did to his stubborn people , Quid faciam tibi ? I have tried all the waies I can to bring thee home , and what shall I now doe unto thee ? The Subject should rather say , Quid me vis facere ? What wilt thou have me to doe ? This Question is the best end of disputations . Corrumpitur atque dissolvitur Imperantis officium , si quis ad id quod facere jussus est , non obsequio debito , sed consilio non considerato respondeat , said one in A. Gellius . When a Subject is commanded to obey , and he disputes , and saies , Nay , but the other is better , he is like a servant that gives his Master necessary counsel , when he requires of him a necessary obedience . Utilius parére edicto quam efferre consilium , he had better obey then give counsel : by how much it is better to be profitable then to be witty , to be full of goodness rather then full of talk and argument . But all this is acknowledged true in strong men , but not in the weak ; in vigorous , but not in tender Consciences : for Obedience is strong meat , and will not down with weak stomacks . As if in the world any thing were easier then to obey : for we see that the food of Children is milk and lawes ; the breast-milk of their Nurses and the commands of their Parents is all that food and Government by which they are kept from harm and hunger , and conducted to life and wisdome . And therefore they that are weak brethren , of all things in the world have the least reason to pretend an excuse for disobedience , for nothing can secure them but the wisdome of the Laws : for they are like Children in minority ; they cannot be trusted to their own conduct , and therefore must live at the publick charge , and the wisdome of their Superiors is their guide and their security . And this was wisely advised by S. Paul , Him that is weak in the faith receive , but not to doubtfull disputations : that 's not the way for him ; Children must not dispute with their Fathers and their Masters . If old men will dispute , let them look to it ; that 's meat for the strong indeed , though it be not very nutritive : but the Laws and the Counsels , the Exhortations and the Doctrines of our Spiritual Rulers , are the measures by which God hath appointed Babes in Christ to become Men , and the weak to become strong ; and they that are not to be received to doubtful disputations , are to be received with the arms of love into the imbraces of a certain and regular Obedience . But it would be considered , that Tenderness of Conscience is an equivocal terme , and does not alwaies signifie in a good sense . For a Child is of a tender flesh ; but he whose foot is out of joint , or hath a bile in his arme , or hath strained a sinew , is much more tender . The tenderness of age is that weakness that is in the ignorant and new beginners : the tenderness of a bile , that is soreness indeed rather then tenderness , is of the diseased , the abused , and the mis-perswaded . The first indeed are to be tenderly dealt with , and have usages accordingly : but that is the same I have already told ; you must teach them , you must command them , you must guide them , you must chuse for them , you must be their guardians , and they must comport themselves accordingly . But for that tenderness of Conscience which is the disease and soreness of Conscience , it must be cured by anodynes and soft usages , unless they prove ineffective , and that the Launcet be necessary . But there are amongst us such tender stomacks , that cannot endure Milk , but can very well digest Iron ; Consciences so tender , that a Ceremony is greatly offensive , but Rebellion is not ; a Surplice drives them away as a bird affrighted with a man of clouts , but their Consciences can suffer them to despise Government , and speak evil of Dignities , and curse all that are not of their Opinion , and disturb the peace of Kingdomes , and commit Sacrilege , and account Schisme the character of Saints . The true Tenderness of Conscience is 1. that which is impatient of a sin ; 2ly , it will not endure any thing that looks like it ; and 3ly , it will not give offence . Now since all Sin is Disobedience , 1. it will be rarely contingent that a man in a Christian Common-wealth shall be tied to disobey , to avoid sin : and certain it is , if such a case could happen , yet 2ly , nothing of our present questions is so like a sin , as when we refuse to obey the Laws ; to stand in a clean Vestment is not so ill a sight as to see men stand in separation , and to kneel at the Communion is not so like Idolatry as Rebellion is to Witchcraft : and then 3ly , for the matter of giving offences , what scandal is greater then that which scandalizes the Laws ? and who is so carefully to be observed , lest he be offended , as the KING ? And if that which offends the weak brother is to be avoided , much more that which offends the strong ; for this is certainly really criminal , but for the other it is much oddes but it is mistaken . And when the case is so put , between the obedient and the disobedient , which shall be offended , and one will , I suppose there is no question but the Laws will take more care of Subjects then of Rebels , and not weaken them in their duty in compliance with those that hate the Laws , and will not endure the Government . And after all this , in the conduct of Government what remedy can there be to those that call themselves Tender Consciences ? I shall not need say that every man can easily pretend it ; for we have seen the vilest part of mankind , men that have done things so horrid , worse then which the Sun never saw , yet pretend tender Consciences against Ecclesiastical Laws : but I will suppose that they are really such , that they in the simplicity of their hearts follow Absolom , and in weakness hide their heads in little Conventicles and places of separation for a trifle ; what would they have done for themselves ? If you make a Law of Order , and in the sanction put a clause of favour for tender Consciences , do not you invite every Subject to Disobedience by impunity , and teach him how to make his own excuse ? is not such a Law , a Law without an obligation ? may not every man chuse whether he will obey or no ? and if he pretends to disobey out of Conscience , is not he that disobeyes equally innocent with the obedient ; altogether as just , as not having done any thing without leave , and yet much more Religious and conscientious ? Quicunque vult is but an ill preface to a Law ; and it is a strange obligation that makes no difference between him that obeyes and him that refuses to obey . But what course must be taken with tender Consciences ? Shall the execution of the Law be suspended as to all such persons ? that will be all one with the former : for if the execution be commanded to be suspended , then the obligation of the Law by command is taken away , and then it were better there were no Law made . And indeed that is the pretension , that is the secret of the business ; they suppose the best way to prevent Disobedience is to take away all Laws . It is a short way indeed ; there shall then be no Disobedience , but at the same time there shall be no Government : but the Remedy is worse then the Disease ; and to take away all Wine and strong drink to prevent Drunkenness would not be half so great a folly . I cannot therefore tell what to advise in this particular , but that every Spiritual guide should consider who are tender Consciences and who are weak brethren , and use all the waies of piety and prudence to instruct and to inform them , that they may increase in knowledge and spiritual understanding . But they that will be alwaies learning and never come to the knowledge of the truth , they that will be children of a hundred years old and never come to years of discretion , they are very unfit to guide others , and to be Curates of Souls : but they are most unfit to reprove the Laws , and speak against the wisdome of a Nation , when it is confessed that they are so weak , that they understand not the fundamental Liberty which Christ hath purchased for them , but are servants to a scruple , and affrighted at a circumstance , and in bondage under an indifferent thing , an so much Idolaters of their Sect or Opinion as to prefer it before all their own nobler interests , and the Charity of their brother , and the Peace of a whole Church and Nation . To you , my Lords and Gentlemen , I hope I may say as Marcus Curius said to a stubborn young man , Non opus Vos habere cive qui parére nesciret ; the Kingdome hath no need of those that know not how to obey . But as for them who have weak and tender Consciences , they are in the state of Childhood and minority : but then you know that a Child is never happy by having his own humor : if you chuse for him , and make him to use it , he hath but one thing to doe ; but if you put him to please himself , he is troubled with every thing , and satisfied with nothing . We find that all Christian Churches kept this Rule . They kept themselves and others close to the rule of Faith , and peaceably suffered one another to differ in Ceremonies , but suffered no difference amongst their own : they gave Liberty to other Churches , and gave Laws , and no Liberty , to their own Subjects . And at this day the Churches of Geneva , France , Switzerland , Germany , Low Countries , tye all their people to their own Laws , but tye up no mans Conscience ; if he be not perswaded as they are , let him charitably dissent , and leave that Government , and adhere to his own Communion . If you be not of their mind , they will be served by them that are : they will not trouble your Conscience , and you shall not disturb their Government . But when men think they cannot enjoy their Conscience unless you give them good Livings , and if you prefer them not , you afflict their Consciences , they do but too evidently declare that it is not their Consciences but their Profits they would have secured . Now to these I have only this to say , That their Conscience is to be enjoyed by the measures of God's Word , but the Rule for their Estates is the Laws of the Kingdome : and I shew you yet a more excellent way ; Obedience is the best security for both ; because this is the best conservatory of Charity and Truth and Peace . Si vis brevi perfectus esse , esto obediens etiam in minimis , was the saying of a Saint ; and the world uses to look for Miracles from them whom they shall esteem Saints : but I had rather see a man truly humble and obedient , then to see him raise a man from the dead , said old Pachomius . But to conclude : if weak brethren shall still plead for Toleration and Compliance , I hope my Lords the Bishops will consider where it can doe good and doe no harm , where they are permitted , and where themselves are bound up by the Laws , and in all things where it is safe and holy to labour to bring them ease and to give them remedy : but to think of removing the Disease by feeding the Humor , I confess it is a strange cure to our present Distempers . He that took clay and spittle to open the blind eyes can make any thing be collyrium ; but he alone can doe it . But whether any humane power can bring good from so unlikely an instrument , if any man desires yet to be better informed , I desire him , besides the calling to mind the late sad effects of Schime , to remember that no Church in Christendome ever did it . It is neither the way of Peace nor Government , nor yet a proper remedy for the cure of a weak Conscience . I shall therefore pray to God that these men who separate in simplicity may by God's mercy be brought to understand their own Liberty , and that they may not for ever be babes and Neophytes , and wax old in trifles ; and for ever stay at entrances and outsides of Religion ; but that they would pass in interiora domûs , and seek after Peace and Righteousness , Holiness and Justice , the love of God and Evangelical perfections ; and then they will understand how ill-advised they are who think Religion consists in zeal against Ceremonies and speaking evil of the Laws . My Lords and Gentlemen , what I said in pursuance of publick Peace and private Duty , and some little incidences to both , I now humbly present to you , more to shew my own Obedience then to re-mind you of your Duty , which hitherto you have so well observed in your amicable and sweet concord of counsels and affections , during this present Session . I owe many thanks to you who heard me patiently , willingly and kindly ; I endeavoured to please God , and I find I did not displease you : but he is the best hearer of a Sermon who first loves the Doctrine , and then practises it ; and that you have hitherto done , very piously and very prosperously . I pray God continue to direct your Counsels so that you in all things may please him , and in all things be blessed by him , that all generations may call you blessed Instruments of a lasting Peace , the restorers of the old paths , the Patrons of the Church , friends of Religion , and Subjects fitted for your Prince , who is Just up to the greatest example , and Merciful beyond all examples , a Prince who hath been nourished , and preserved , and restored , and blessed by Miracles ; a Prince whose Vertues and Fortunes are equally the greatest . 1 SAMUEL 15. latter part of the 22 th verse . Behold to obey is better then sacrifice , and to hearken then the fat of rams . First part of the 23 th . For Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft , and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry . IN the world nothing is more easy then to say our Prayers , and to obey our Superiors ; and yet in the world there is nothing to which we are so unwilling as to Prayer , and nothing seems so intolerable as Obedience : for men esteem all Laws to be fetters , and their Superiors are their enemies : and when a command is given , we turn into all shapes of excuse to escape from the imposition : For either the authority is incompetent , or the law it self is Statutum non bonum , or it is impossible to be kept , or at least very inconvenient , and we are to be reliev'd in equity , or there is a secret dispensation , and it does not bind in my particular case , or not now ; or it is but the law of a man , and was made for a certain end ; or it does not bind the conscience , but 't was only for Political regards ; or , if the worst happen , I will obey passively , and then I am innocent . Thus every man snuffes up the wind , like the wild asses in the wilderness , and thinks that Authority is an incroachment upon a mans birth-right ; and in the mean time never considers that Christ took upon him our Nature that he might learn us Obedience , and in that also make us become like unto God. In his Justice and his Mercy he was imitable before ; but before the Incarnation of Christ we could not in passive graces imitate God who was impassible . But he was pleased at a great rate to set forward this duty ; and when himself became obedient in the hardest point , obediens usque ad mortem , and is now become to us the author and finisher of our Obedience , as well as of our Faith , admonetur omnis aetas fieri posse quod aliquando factum est . We must needs confess it very possible to obey the severest of the divine laws , even to dye if God commands , because it was already done by a man ; and we must needs confess it excellent , because it was done by God himself . But this great Example is of universal influence in the whole matter of Obedience . For that I may speak of that part of this Duty which can be useful , and concerns us ; Men do not deny but they must obey in all Civil things , but in Religion they have a Supreme , God only , and Conscience is his interpreter ; and in effect every man must be the Judge whether he shall obey or no. Therefore it is that I say , the Example of our Lord is the great determination of this inquiry : for he did obey and suffer , according to the commands of his Superiors under whose Government he was placed ; he gave his back to the smiters , and his cheeks to the nippers ; he kept the orders of the Rulers , and the customes of the Synagogues , the Law of Moses and the rights of the Temple ; and by so doing he fulfilled all righteousness . Christ made no distinctions in his Obedience , but obeyed God in all things , and those that God set over him in all things according to God , and in things of Religion most of all ; because to obey was of it self a great instance of Religion , and if ever Religion comes to be pretended against Obedience in any thing where our Superior can command , it is imposture : For that is the purpose of my text , Obedience is better then Sacrifice . Our own judgment , our own opinion is the sacrifice , seldome fit to be offered to God , but most commonly deserving to be consumed by fire : but take it at the best , it is not half so good as Obedience ; for that was indeed Christ's Sacrifice , and ( as David of Goliah's sword , non est alter talis ) there is no other sacrifice that can be half so good : and when Abraham had lifted up his sacrificing knife to slay his Son , and so express'd his obedience , God would have no more ; he had the Obedience , and he cared not for the Sacrifice . By Sacrifice here then is meant the external and contingent actions of Religion ; by Obedience is meant submission to Authority , and observing the command . Obedience is a not chusing our Duty , a not disputing with our Betters , not to argue , not to delay , not to murmure ; it is not this , but it is much better ; for it is Love , and Simplicity , and Humility , and Usefulness , and I think these do reductively contain all that is excellent in the whole conjugation of Christian Graces . My Text is a perfect Proposition , and hath no special remark in the words of it ; but is only a great representation of the most useful Truth to all Kingdomes and Parliaments and Councels and Authorities in the whole world : It is your Charter , and the Sanction of your authority , and the stabiliment of your Peace , and the honour of your Laws , and the great defence of your Religion , and the building up and the guarding of the King's Throne . It is that by which all the Societies in heaven and earth are firm : without this you cannot have a Village prosperous , or a Ship arrive in harbour . It is that which God hath bound upon us by hope and fear , by wrath and conscience , by duty and necessity . Obedience is the formality of all Vertues , and every Sin is Disobedience . There can no greater thing be said , unless you please to adde , that we never read that the earth opened and swallowed up any man alive , but a company of rebellious disobedient people , who rose cup against Moses and Aaron , the Prince of the People , and the Priest of God. For Obedience is the most necessary thing in the world , and corruptio optimi est pessima : Disobedience is the greatest evil in the world , and that alone which can destroy it . My text is instanced in the matter of Obedience to God ; but yet the case is so , that though I shall in the first place discourse of our Obedience to man , I shall not set one foot aside from the main intention of it ; because Obedience to our Superiors is really and is accounted to be Obedience to God , for they are sent by God , they are his vicegerents , his Ministers , and his Embassadors . Apostolus cujusque est quisque say the Jewes , Every mans Apostle is himself ; and he that heareth or despiseth you , said Christ , heareth or despiseth me : And the reason is very evident , because it is not to be expected that God should speak to us by himself , but sometimes by Angels , sometimes by Prophets , once by his Son , and alwaies by his Servants . Now I desire two things to be observed . First , We may as well perceive that God speaks to us when he uses the ministry of men as when he uses the ministry of Angels : one is as much declared and as certain as the other . And if it be said , a man may pretend to come from God , and yet deliver nothing but his own errand ; that is no strange thing : but remember also that S. Paul puts this supposition in the case of an Angel , [ If an Angel preach any other Gospel ; ] and we know that many Angels come like Angels of light , who yet teach nothing but the waies of Darkness . So that we are still as much bound to obey our Superior as to obey an Angel : a man is paulò minor angelis , a little lower then the Angels ; but we are much lower then the King. Consider then with what fear and love we should receive an Angel , and so let us receive all those whom God hath sent to us , and set over us ; for they are no less : less indeed in their Persons , but not in their Authorities . Nay the case is nearer yet ; for we are not only bound to receive God's Deputies as God's Angel , but as God himself . For it is the power of God in the hand of a man , and he that resists , resists God's ordinance . And I pray remember that there is not only no power greater then God's , but there is no other ; for all Power is his . The consequent of this is plain enough ; I need say no more of it : It is all one to us who commands , God , or God's Vicegerent . This was the first thing to be observed . Secondly , there can be but two things in the world requir'd to make Obedience necessary , the greatness of the Authority , and the worthiness of the Thing . In the first you see the case can have no difference , because the thing it self is but one . There is but one Authority in the world , and that is God's : as there is but one Sun whose light is diffused into all Kingdomes . But is there not great difference in the Thing commanded ? Yes certainly , there is some ; but nothing to warrant disbobedience : for whatever the thing be , it may be commanded by man , if it be not countermanded by God. For 1. It is not required that every thing commanded should of it self be necessary ; for God himself oftentimes commands things which have in them no other excellency then that of Obedience . What made Abraham the friend of God ? and what made his offer to kill his Son to be so pleasing to God ? It had been naturally no very great good to cut the throat of a little child ; but only that it was Obedience . What excellency was there in the journeys of the Patriarchs from Mesopotamia to Syria , from the land of Canaan into Egypt ? and what thanks could the sons of Israel deserve that they sate still upon the seventh day of the week ? and how can a man be dearer unto God by keeping of a Feast , or building of a Booth , or going to Jerusalem , or cutting off the foreskin of a boy , or washing their hands and garments in fair water ? There was nothing in these things but the Obedience . And when our blessed Lord himself came to his Servant to take of him the Baptisme of Repentance , alas , he could take nothing but the water and the ceremony : for , as Tertullian observes , he was nullius poenitentiae debitor , he was indeed a just person and needed no repentance ; but even so it became him to fulfil all righteousness : but yet even then it was that the Holy Spirit did descend upon his holy head , and crown'd that Obedience , though it were but to a ceremony . Obedience , you see , may be necessary when the law is not so . For in these cases , God's Son and God's Servants did obey in things which were made good only by the commandement : and if we doe so in the Instances of humane Laws , there is nothing to be said against it , but that what was not of it self necessary , is made so by the authority of the Commander and the force of the Commandement . But there is more in it then so . For , 2ly , We pretend to be willing to obey even in things naturally not necessary , if a divine command does interpose ; but if it be only a commandement of man , and the thing be not necessary of it self , then we desire to be excus'd . But will we doe nothing else ? We our selves will doe many things that God hath not commanded , and may not our Superiors command us in many cases to doe what we may lawfully doe without a commandement ? Can we become a law unto our selves , and cannot the word and power of our Superiors also become a law unto us ? hath God given more to a private then to a publick hand ? But consider the ill consequents of this fond opinion . Are all the practices of Geneva or Scotland recorded in the Word of God ? are the trifling Ceremonies of their publick Penance recorded in the four Gospels ? are all the rules of decency , and all things that are of good report , and all the measures of prudence , and the laws of peace and war , and the customes of the Churches of God , and the lines of publick honesty , are all these described to us by the laws of God ? If they be , let us see and read them , that we may have an end to all questions and minute cases of Conscience : but if they be not , and yet by the Word of God these are bound upon us in the general , and no otherwise ; then it follows that the particulars of all these , which may be infinite , and are innumerable , yet may be the matter of humane Laws ; and then are bound upon us by the power of God put into the hands of man. The consequent is this , that whatsoever is commanded by our Superior according to the will of God , or whatsoever is not against it , is of necessity to be obey'd . 3ly , But what if our Princes or our Prelates command things against the Word of God ? what then ? Why nothing then , but that we must obey God and not man ; there 's no dispute of that . But what then again ? Why therefore saies the Papist I will not obey the Protestant Kings , because against the Word of God they command me to come to Church where Heresy is preached ; and I will not acknowledge the Bishops , saith the Presbyterian , because they are against the discipline and scepter of Jesus Christ ; and the Independent hates Parochial meetings , and is wholly for a gathered Church , and supposes this to be the practice Apostolical ; and I will not bring my Child to Baptisme , ( saith the Anabaptist ) because God calls none but believers to that Sacrament ; and I will acknowledge no Clergy , no Lord , no Master , saith the Quaker , because Christ commands us to call no man master on the earth , and be not called of men Rabbi . And if you call upon these men to obey the Authority God hath set over them , they tell you with one voice , with all their hearts , as far as the Word of God will give them leave ; but God is to be obey'd , and not man : and therefore if you put the Laws in execution against them , they will obey you passively , because you are stronger , and so long as they know it they will not stir against you ; but they in the mean time are little less then Martyrs , and you no better then Persecutors . What shall we doe now ? for here is evidently a great heap or disorder : they all confess that authority must be obey'd ; but when you come to the trial , none of them all will doe it , and they think they are not bound : but because their Opinions being contrary cannot all be right , and it may be none of them are , it is certain that all this while Authority is infinitely wronged and prejudiced amongst them , when all fantastick Opinions shall be accounted a sufficient reason to despise it . I hope the Presbyterian will joyn with the Protestant , and say that the Papist , and the Socinian , and the Independent , and the Anabaptist , and the Quaker are guilty of Rebellion and Disobedience for all their pretence of the Word of God to be on their side : and I am more sure that all these will joyn with the Protestant , and say that the Presbyterian hath no reason to disobey Authority upon pretence of their new Government concerning which they do but dream dreams , when they think they see visions . Certain it is that the biggest part of dissenters in the whole world are criminally disobedient ; and it is a thousand to one but that Authority is in the right against them , and ought to be obey'd . It remains now in the next place , that we inquire what Authority is to doe in this case , and what these Sectaries and Recusants are to doe ; for these are two things worth inquiry , 1. Concerning Authority . All disagreeing persons , to cover their foul shame of Rebellion or Disobedience , pretend Conscience for their Judge , and the Scripture for their Law. Now if these men think that by this means they proceed safely , upon the same ground the Superior may doe what he thinks to be his duty , and be at least as safe as they . If the Rebellious Subject can think that by God's Law he ought not to obey ; the Prince may at the same time think that by God's Law he ought to punish him : and it is as certain that he is justly punished , as he thinks it certain he reasonably disobeys . Or is the Conscience of the Superior bound to relaxe his lawes , if the inferior tells him so ? Can the Prince give Laws to the peoples will ; and can the people give measures to the Princes understanding ? If any one of the people can prescribe or make it necessary to change the Law , then every one can ; and by this time every new Opinion will introduce a new Law , and that Law shall be obey'd by him only that hath a mind to it , and that will be a strange Law that binds a man only to doe his own pleasure . But because the King's Conscience is to him as sure a Rule as the Conscience of any disobedient Subject can be to himself , the Prince is as much bound to doe his duty in Government , as the other can be to follow his Conscience in disagreeing ; and the consequent will be , that whether the Subject be right or wrong in the disputation , it is certain he hath the just reward of Disobedience in the conclusion . If one mans Conscience can be the measure of another mans action , why shall not the Princes Conscience be the Subject's measure ? but if it cannot , then the Prince is not to depart : from his own Conscience , but proceed according to the Laws which he judges just and reasonable . 2. The Superior is tied by the laws of Christian Charity so far to bend in the ministration of his Laws , as to pity the invincible Ignorance and Weakness of his abused people , qui devoratur à malis Pastoribus ( as S. Hierom's expression is ) that are devour'd by their evill Shepheards : but this is to last no longer then till the Ignorance can be cured , and the man be taught his duty ; for whatsoever comes after this looks so like Obstinacy , that no Laws in the world judge it to be any thing else . And then secondly , this also is to be understood to be the duty of Superiors only in matters of mere Opinion , not relating to Practice . For no mans Opinion must be suffer'd to doe mischief , to disturb the Peace , to dishonour the Government : not only because every disagreeing person can to serve his end pretend his Conscience , and so claim impunity for his Villany ; but also because those things which concern the good of mankind and the Peace of Kingdomes are so plainly taught , that no man who thinks himself so wise as to be fit to oppose Authority , can be so foolish as in these things not to know his Duty . In other things , if the Opinion does neither bite nor scratch , if it dwells at home in the house of understanding , and wanders not into the out-houses of Passion and popular orations , the Superior imposes no laws , and exacts no obedience , and destroies no liberty , and gives no restraint . This is the part of Authority . 2. The next enquiry is , What must the disagreeing Subject doe when he supposes the Superiors command is against the Law of God ? I answer that if he thinks so , and thinks true , he must not obey his Superior in that : but because most men that think so think amiss , there are many particulars fit by such persons to be consider'd . 1. Let such men think charitably of others , and that all are not fools or mad-men who are not of the same Opinion with themselves or their own little party . 2. Let him think himself as fallible and subject to mistake as other men are . 3. But let him by no means think that every Opinion of his is an Inspiration from God ; for that is the pride and madness of a pretended Religion : such a man is to be cured by Physick ; for he could not enter into that perswasion by Reason or Experience , and therefore it must enter into him by folly or the anger of God. 4. From hence it will naturally follow , that he ought to think his Opinion to be uncertain , and that he ought not to behave himself like the man that is too confident ; but because his Obedience is Duty , and his Duty certain , he will find it more wise and safe and holy to leave that which is disputable , and pursue that which is demonstrable ; to change his uncertain Opinion for his certain Duty . For it is twenty to one but he is deceived in his Opinion ; but if he be , it is certain that whatsoever his Conscience be , yet in his separation from Authority he is a sinner . 2. Every man who by his Opinion is ingaged against Authority , should doe well to study his doubtful Opinion less , and Humility and Obedience more . But you say , that this concerns not me , for my disagreeing is not in a doubtful matter , but I am sure I am in the right ; there is no ifs and ands in my case . Well , it may be so : but were it not better that you did doubt ? A wise man feareth ( saith Solomon ) and departeth from evil ; but a fool rageth and is confident : and the difference between a Learned man and a Novice is this , that the yong fellow crieth out , I am sure it is so ; the better learned answers , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , possibly it may , and peradventure it is so , but I pray enquire : and he is the best Diviner , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he is the best Judge that conjectures best , not he that is most confident ; for , as Xenophanes said wisely , Man does but conjecture , but God only knows ; and it is no disparagement to a wise man to learn , and by suspecting the fallibility of things and his own aptness to mistake , to walk prudently and safely , with an eye to God , and an eare open to his Superior . Some men are drunk with fancy , and mad with Opinion . Who believe more strongly then boyes and women ? who are so hard to be perswaded as fools ? and who so readily suspect their teachers as they who are govern'd by chance , and know not the intrinsick measures of good and evil ? Qui pauca considerat de facili pronunciat ; it is a little learning and not enough that makes men conclude hastily , and clap fast hold on the Conclusion before they have well weighed the Premisses : but Experience and Humility would teach us Modesty and Fear . 3. In all disputes he that obeys his Superior can never be a Heretick in the estimate of Law , and he can never be a Schismatick in the point of Conscience ; so that he certainly avoids one great death , and very probably the other . Res judicata pro veritate accipitur , saith the Law ; If the Judge have given sentence , that sentence is suppos'd a truth : and Cassiodor said according to the sentence of the Law , Nimis iniquum est ut ille patiatur dispendium , qui imperium fecit alienum . Our Obedience secures us from the imputation of evil , and Error does but seldome goe in company with Obedience . But however there is this advantage to be gotten by Obedience ; that he who prefers the sentence of the Law before his own Opinion does doe an act of great Humility , and exercises the grace of Modesty , and takes the best way to secure his Conscience and the publick Peace , and pleases the Government which he is bound to please , and pursues the excellencies of Unity , and promotes Charity and Godly Love : whereas on the other side , he that goes by himself apart from his Superior is alwaies materially a Schismatick , and is more likely to be deceiv'd by his own Singularity and Prejudice and Weakness , then by following the guides God hath set over him . And if he loses Truth , certainly he will get nothing else : for by so doing we lose our Peace too , and give publick offence , and arme Authority against us , and are scandalous in Law , and pull evil upon our heads ; and all this for a proud Singularity , or a trifling Opinion , in which we are not so likely to be deceived , if we trust our selves less , and the publick more . In omnibus falli possum , in obedientia non possum , said S. Teresa , I can in every thing else , but in Obedience I can never be deceived . And it is very remarkable in my Text , that Rebellion or Disobedience is compared to the sin of witchcraft . Indeed it seems strange , for the meaning of it is not only that a Rebel is as much hated by God as a Witch , but it means that the sinnes are alike in their very natures : quasi peccatum divinationis ( saith the Vulgar Latine ) they that disobey Authority , trusting in their own opinions , are but like Witches or Diviners ; that is , they are led by an evil spirit ; pride and a lying and deceiving spirit is their teacher , and their answers are seldome true ; for though they pretend the Truth of God for their Disobedience , yet they fall into the deception of the devil , and that 's the end of their soothsaying . And let me adde this , that when a man distrusts his Superior and trusts himself , if he misses Truth , it will be greatly imputed to him ; he shall feel the evil of his error and the shame of his pride , the reproach of his folly and the punishment of his disobedience , the dishonour of singularity , and the restlesness of Schisme , and the scorn of the multitude : but on the other side , if he obey Authority , and yet be deceived , he is greatly excused , he erred on the safer side , he is defended by the hands of many vertues , and gets peace and love of the Congregation . You see the Blessings of Obedience , even in the questions and matters of Religion : but I have something more to say , and it is not only of great use to appease the tumultuary disputations and arguings of Religion which have lately disturbed these Nations , but is proper to be spoken to , and to be reduced to practice by this Honourable and High Court of Parliament . That which I am to say is this ; You have no other way of Peace , no better way to appease and quiet the Quarrels in Religion which have been too long among us , but by reducing all men to Obedience , and all questions to the measures of the Laws . For they on both sides pretend Scripture , but one side onely can pretend to the Laws : and they that do admit no authority above their own to expound Scripture , cannot deny but Kings and Parliaments are the makers and proper expounders of our Laws ; and if ever you mean to have Truth and Peace kiss each other , let no man dispute against your Laws . For did not our Blessed Saviour say , that an Oath is the end of all questions , and after depositions are taken , all Judges goe to sentence ? What Oaths are to private questions , that Laws are to publick . And if it be said that Laws may be mistaken ; it is true , but may not an Oath also be a Perjury ? and yet because in humane affairs we have no greater certainty , and greater then God gives we may not look for , let the Laws be the last determination ; and in wise and religious Governments no disputation is to goe beyond them . 2. But this is not onely true in religious prudence and plain necessity , but this is the way that God hath appointed , and that he hath blessed , and that he hath intended to be the means of ending all questions . This we learn from S. Paul , I exhort that first of all prayers , and supplications , and intercessions , and giving of thanks be made for all men : for Kings and for all that are in Authority . For all ; for Parliaments and for Councils , for Bishops and for Magistrates : it is for all , and for Kings above all . Well , to what purpose is all this ? that we may lead a quiet and a peaceable life in all godliness and honesty . Mark that : Kings and all that are in Authority are by God appointed to be the means of obtaining unity and peace in Godliness , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in all the true and Godly worshippings of God ; no Unity in Religion without Kings and Bishops and those that are in Authority . 3. And indeed because this is God's way of ending our Controversies , the matter of Authority is highly to be regarded . If you suffer the Authority of the King to be lessened , to be scrupled , to be denied in Ecclesiastical affairs , you have no way left to silence the tongues and hands of gainsaying people . But so it is , the Kings Authority is appointed and enabled by God to end our questions of Religion : Divinatio in labiis Regis ( saith Solomon ) in judicio non errabit os ejus , Divination and a wise sentence is in the lips of the King , and his mouth shall not erre in judgement . In all Scripture there is not so much for the Popes infallibility , but by this it appears there is divinity in the Kings sentence : for God gives to Kings , who are his Vicegerents , a peculiar spirit . And when Justinian had out of the sense of Julian the Lawyer observed that there were many cases for which Law made no provision , he addes , If any such shall happen , Augustum imploretur remedium , run to the King for remedy ; for therefore God hath set the Imperial fortune over humane affairs , ut possit omnia quae noviter contingunt & emendare & componere , & modis ac regulis competentibus tradere , that the King may amend and rule and compose every new-arising question . And it is not to be despised , but is a great indication of this Truth , that the Answers of the Roman Princes and Judges recorded in the Civil Law are such that all Nations of the world do approve them , and are a great testimony how the sentences of Kings ought to be valued , even in matters of Religion , and questions of greatest doubt . Bona conscientia Scyphus est Josephi , said the old Abbot of Kells ; a good Conscience is like Joseph's Cup , in which our Lord the King divines . And since God hath blessed us with so good , so just , so religious and so wise a Prince , let the sentence of his Laws be our last resort , and no questions be permitted after his judgment and legal determination . For Wisedome saith , By me Princes rule , by me they decree justice : and therefore the spirit of the King is a divine eminency , and is as the spirit of the most High God. 4. Let no man be too busy in disputing the laws of his Superiors , for a man by that seldome gets good to himself , but seldome misses to doe mischief unto others . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said one in Laertius . Will a son contend with his father ? that 's not decent , though the son speak that which is right : he may possibly say well enough , but he does doe very ill ; not only because he does not pay his duty and reverential fear , but because it is in it self very often unreasonable to dispute concerning the command of our Superior , whether it be good or no ; for the very commandement can make it not only good , but a necessary good . It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us to lay on you no greater burden then these necessary things , said the Council of Jerusalem : and yet these things were not necessary , but as they were commanded : to abstain from a strangled hen or a bloody pudding could not of themselves be necessary ; but the commandement came , authority did interpose , and then they were made so . 5. But then besides the advantages both of the spirit , and the authority of Kings in matters of question , the laws and decrees of a National Church ought upon the account of their own advantages be esteem'd as a final sentence in all things disputed . The thing is a plain command Hebrews 13.7 . Remember them which have the rule over you , who have spoken unto you the word of God : this tels what Rulers he means ; Rulers Ecclesiastical : and what of them ? whose faith follow ; they must praeire in articulis ; they are not masters of your faith , but guides of it : and they that sit in Moses chair must be heard and obey'd , said our blessed Saviour . These words were not said for nothing ; and they were nothing if their authority were nothing . For between the laws of a Church and the opinion of a Subject the comparison is the same as between a publick spirit and a private . The publick is far the better , the daughter of God , and the mother of a blessing , and alwaies dwels in light . The publick spirit hath already passed the trial , it hath been subjected to the Prophets , tried and searched and approved ; the private is yet to be examined . The publick spirit is uniform and apt to be followed ; the private is various and multiform as chance , and no man can follow him that hath it . For if he follows one , he is reproved by a thousand ; and if he changes , he may get a shame , but no truth : and he can never rest but in the arms and conduct of his Superior . When Aaron and Miriam murmured against Moses , God told them that they were Prophets of an inferior rank then Moses was . God communicated himself to them in dreams and visions ; but the Ruach hakkodesh , the publick spirit of Moses their Prince , that was higher : and what then ? wherefore then ( God said ) were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses ? plainly teaching us , that where there is a more excellent spirit , they that have a spirit less excellent ought to be afraid to speak against it . And this is the full case of the private and publick spirit ; that is , of a Subject speaking against the spirit and the laws of the Church . In heaven , and in the air , and in all the regions of spirits , the spirit of a lower order dares not speak against the spirit of an higher ; and therefore for a private spirit to oppose the publick , is a disorder greater then is in hell it self . To conclude this point ; Let us consider whether it were not an intolerable mischief if the Judges should give sentence in causes of instance by the measures of their own fancy , and not by the Laws ; who would endure them ? and yet why may they not doe that as well as any Ecclesiastic person preach Religion , not which the Laws allow , but what is taught him by his own private Opinion ? but he that hath the Laws on his side , hath ever something of true Religion to warrant him , and can never want a great measure of justification . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Laws and the customes of the country are the results of wise counsels or long experience ; they ever comply with Peace and publick benefit : and nothing of this can be said of private Religions ; for they break the Peace , and trouble the Conscience , and undo Government , and despise the Laws , and offend Princes , and dishonour the wisdome of Parliaments , and destroy Obedience . Well , but in the last place , if we cannot doe what the Laws command , we will suffer what they impose ; and then all is well again . But first , who ever did so that could help it ? And secondly , this talking of passive Obedience is but a mockery ; for what man did ever say the Laws were not good , but he also said the Punishment was unjust ? And thirdly , which of all the Recusants did not endeavour to get ground upon the Laws , and secretly or openly asperse the Authority that put him to pain for doing that which he calls his duty ? and can any man boast of his passive Obedience that calls it Persecution ? he may think to please himself , but he neither does or saies any thing that is for the reputation of the Laws . Such men are like them that sail in a storm ; they may possibly be thrown into a harbour , but they are very sick all the way . But after all this I have one thing to observe to such persons , That such a passive Obedience as this does not acquit a man before God ; and he that suffers what the Law inflicts is not discharg'd in the Court of Conscience , but there he is still a sinner and a debter . For the law is not made for the righteous , but for sinners ; that is , the punishment appointed by the Law falls on him only that hath sinned : but an offending subject cannot with the fruit of his body pay for the sin of his Soul : when he does evil he must suffer evil ; but if he does not repent besides , a worse thing will happen to him ; for we are not tied to obey only for wrath , but also for Conscience . Passive obedience is only the correspondent of wrath , but it is the active obedience that is required by Conscience ; and whatever the Subject suffers for his own fault , it matters nothing as to his Duty , but this also God will exact at the hands of every man that is placed under Authority . I have now told you the summe of what I had to say concerning Obedience to Laws and to your own Government , and it will be to little purpose to make laws in matter of Religion , or in any thing else , if the end of it be , that every man shall chuse whether he will obey or no : and if it be questioned whether you be deceiv'd or no , though the suffering such a question is a great diminution to your authority , yet it is infinitely more probable that you are in the right then that the disobedient Subject is ; because you are conducted with a publick spirit , you have a special title and peculiar portions of the promise of God's assistance , you have all the helps of Counsel and the advantages of deliberation , you have the Scriptures and the Laws , you are as much concerned to judge according to truth as any man , you have the principal of all capacities and states of men to assist your consultations , you are the most concern'd for Peace , and to please God also is your biggest interest : and therefore it cannot be denied to be the most reasonable thing in the world which is set down in the Law : Praesumptio est pro authoritate imponentis , the presumption of truth ought to be on your side ; and since this is the most likely way for Truth , and the most certain way for Peace , you are to insist in this , and it is not possible to find a better . I have another part or sense of my Text yet to handle ; but because I have no more time of mine own , and I will not take any of yours , I shall only doe it in a short Exhortation to this most Honourable Auditory , and so conclude . God hath put a Royal Mantle , and fastned it with a Golden Clasp , upon the shoulder of the KING , and he hath given you the Judges Robe ; the King holds the Scepter , and he hath now permitted you to touch the golden Ball , and to take it a while into your handling and made obedience to your Laws to be Duty and Religion : but then remember that the first in every kind is to be the measure of the Subjects should obey you , unless you obey God. I do not speak this only in relation to your personal duty ; though in that also it would be consider'd , that all the Bishops and Ministers of Religion are bound to teach the same Doctrines by their Lives as they do by their Sermons ; and what we are to doe in the matters of Doctrine , you are also to doe in matter of Laws ; what is reasonable for the advantages of Religion , is also the best Method for the advantages of Government ; we must preach by our good Example , and you must govern by it ; and your good example in observing the laws of Religion will strangely endear them to the affections of the people . But I shall rather speak to you as you are in a capacity of union and of Government ; for as now you have a new Power , so there is incumbent upon you a special Duty . 1. Take care that all your power and your counsels be imploy'd in doing honour and advantages to Piety and Holiness . Then you obey God in your publick capacity , when by holy Laws and wise administrations you take care that all the Land be an obedient and a religious People . For then you are princely Rulers indeed when you take care of the Salvation of a whole Nation . Nihil aliud est imperium nisi cura salutis alinae , said Ammianus ; Government is nothing but a care that all men be saved . And therefore take care that men do not destroy their Souls by the abominations of an evil life : see that God be obey'd , take care that the breach of the laws of God may not be unpunished . The best way to make men to be good Subjects to the King is to make them good servants of God. Suffer not Drunkenness to pass with impunity , let Lust find a publick shame . Let the sonnes of the Nobility and Gentry no more dare to dishonour God then the meanest of the people shall : let baseness be basely esteemed ; that is , put such characters of Shame upon dishonourable Crimes , that it be esteem'd more against the honour of a Gentleman to be drunk then to be kicked , more shame to fornicate then to be can'd : and for honours sake and the reputation of Christianity , take some course that the most unworthy sins of the world have not reputation added to them by being the practice of Gentlemen and persons of good birth and fortunes . Let not them who should be examples of Holiness have an impunity and a licence to provoke God to anger ; lest it be said that in Ireland it is not lawful for any man to sin , unless he be a person of quality . Optimus est reipublicae status , ubi nihil deest nisilicentia pereundi ; In a common-wealth that 's the best state of things , where every thing can be had but a leave to sin , a licence to be undone . 2. As God is thus to be obey'd , and you are to take care that he be , so God also must be honnourd , by paying that reverence and religious obedience which is due to those persons whom he hath been pleased to honour by admitting them to the dispensation of his blessings , and the ministeries of your Religion . For certain it is , this is a right way of giving honour and obedience to God. The Church is in some very peculiar manner the portion and the called and the care of God ; and it will concern you in pursuance of your obedience to God , to take care that they in whose hands Religion is to be ministred and conducted , be not discouraged . For what your Judges are to the ministry of Laws , that your Bishops are in the ministeries of Religion ; and it concerns you that the hands of neither of them be made weak : and so long as you make Religion your care , and Holiness your measure , you will not think that Authority is the more to be despised because it is in the hands of the Church , or that it is a sin to speak evil of dignities , unless they be Ecclesiastical ; but that they may be reviled , and that though nothing is baser then for a man to be a Thief , yet Sacrilege is no dishonour ; and indeed to be an Oppressor is a great and crying sin , yet to oppress the Church , to diminish her rents , to make her beggerly and contemptible , that 's no offence ; and that though it is not lawful to despise Government , yet if it be Church-government , that then the case is altered . Take heed of that , for then God is dishonoured , when any thing is the more despised by how much it relates nearer unto God. No Religion ever did despise their chiefest Ministers : and the Christian Religion gives them the greatest honour . For honourable Priesthood is like a shower from heaven , it causes blessings every where : but a pitiful , a disheartned , a discouraged Clergy , waters the ground with a water-pot , here and there a little good , and for a little while ; but every evil man can destroy all that work whenever he pleases . Take heed ; in the world there is not a greater misery can happen to any man , then to be an enemy to God's Church . All Histories of Christendome and the whole Book of God have sad records , and sad threatnings , and sad stories of Corah , and Doeg , and Balaam , and Jeroboam , and Uzzah , and Ananias , and Sapphira , and Julian , and of Hereticks and Schismaticks , and sacrilegious ; and after all , these men could not prevail finally , but pai'd for the mischief they did , and ended their daies in dishonour , and left nothing behind them but the memory of their sin , and the record of their curse . 3. In the same proportion you are to take care of all inferiour Relatives of God and of Religion . Find out methods to relieve the Poor , to accommodate and well dispose of the cures of Souls ; let not the Churches lye wast and in ruinous heaps , to the diminution of Religion , and the reproach of the Nation , lest the nations abroad say , that the Britans are a kind of Christians that have no Churches : for Churches , and Courts of Judicature , and the publick defences of an Imperial City , are res sacrae ; they are venerable in Law , and honourable in Religion . But that which concerns us most is , that we all keep close to our Religion . Ad magnas reipublicae utilitates retinetur Religio in civitatibus , said Cicero ; by Religion and the strict preserving of it , ye shall best preserve the Interests of the Nation : and according to the precept of the * Apostle , Mark them which cause divisions amongst us , contrary to the doctrine that ye have receiv'd , and avoid them . For I beseech you to consider , all you that are true Protestants ; do you not think that your Religion is holy , and Apostolical , and taught by Christ , and pleasing unto God ? If you do not think so , why do you not leave it ? but if you do think so , why are ye not zealous for it ? Is not the Government a part of ? it is that which immures , and adorns , and conducts all the rest , and is establisht in the 36. Article of the Church , in the publick Service-book , and in the book of consecration : it is therefore a part of our Religion , and is not all of it worth preserving ? If it be , then they which make Schisms against this Doctrine , by the rule of the Apostle are to be avoided . Beatus qui praedicat verbum inauditum , Blessed is he that preaches a word that was never heard before , so said the Spanish Jesuite : but Christ said otherwise , No man having drunk old wine straight desires new , for he saith the old is better . And so it is in Religion , Quod primum verum , Truth is alwaies first : and since Episcopacy hath been of so lasting an abode , of so long a blessing , since it hath ever combin'd with Government , and hath been taught by that spirit that hath so long dwelt in God's Church , and hath now according to the promise of Jesus , that saies the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church , been restored amongst us by a heap of miracles , and as it went away , so it return'd again in the hand of Monarchy , and in the bosome of our Fundamental Laws ; suffer no evil tongue to speak against this Truth , which hath had so long a testimony from God , and from Experience , and from the wisdome of so many Ages , of all your Ancestours and all your Laws , lest ye be found to speak against God , and neglect the things that belong unto your Peace , and get nothing by it but news and danger , and what other effects ye know not . But Leontimus Bishop of Antioch stroak'd his old white beard and said , When this snow is dissolved , a great deal of dirty weather will follow ; meaning , that when the old Religion should be questioned and discountenanced , the new Religion would bring nothing but trouble and unquietness : and we have found it so by a sad-experience . 4. Ye cannot obey God unless ye doe Justice : for this also is better then sacrifice , said Solomon , Prov. 21.3 . For Christ , who is the Sun of righteousness , is a Sun and a Shield to them that doe righteously . The Indian was not immured sufficiently by the Atlantick sea , nor the Bosphoran by the walls of Ice , nor the Arabian by his meridian Sun ; the Christian Justice of the Romane Princes brake through all inclosures , and by Justice set up Christs standard , and gave to all the world a testimony how much could be done by Prudence and Valour , when they were conducted by the hands of Justice . And now you will have a great trial of this part of your Obedience to God. For you are to give sentence in the causes of half a Nation : and he had need be a wise and a good man that divides the inheritance amongst Brethren ; that he may not be abused by contrary pretences , nor biassed by the Interest of friends , nor transported with the unjust thoughts even of a just Revenge , nor allured by the opportunities of Spoile , nor turn'd aside by Partiality in his own concerns , nor blinded by Gold , which puts out the eyes of wise men , nor couzened by pretended Zeal , nor wearied with the difficulty of questions , nor directed by a general measure in cases not measurable by it , nor born down by Prejudice , nor abused by resolutions taken before the cause be heard , nor over-ruled by National Interests . For Justice ought to be the simplest thing in the world , and is to be measured by nothing but by Truth and by Laws and by the decrees of Princes . But whatever you doe , let not the pretence of a different Religion make you think it lawful to oppress any man in his just rights . For Opinions are not , but Laws only , and doing as we would be done to , are the measures of Justice : and though Justice does alike to all men , Jew and Christian , Lutheran and Calvinist ; yet to doe right to them that are of another Opinion is the way to win them ; but if you for Conscience sake doe them wrong , they will hate you and your Religion . Lastly , as obedience is better then sacrifice , so God also said , I will have mercy and not sacrifice ; meaning that Mercy is the best Obedience . Perierat totum quod Deus fecerat , nisi misericordia subvenisset , said Chrysologus ; all the creatures both of heaven and earth would perish , if Mercy did not relieve us all . Other good things , more or less , every man expects according to the portion of his fortune : Ex clementia omnes idem sperant , but from Mercy and Clemency all the world alike do expect advantages . And which of us all stands here this day , that does not need God's pardon and the King's ? Surely no man is so much pleased with his own innocence , as that he will be willing to quit his claim to Mercy : and if we all need it , let us all shew it . Naturae imperio gemimus , cum funus adultae Virginis occurrit , vel terrâ clauditur infans , Et minor igne rogi — If you do but see a Maiden carried to her grave a little before her intended marriage , or an Infant dye before the birth of Reason , Nature hath taught us to pay a tributary tear : Alas ! your eyes will behold the ruine of many Families , wnich though they sadly have deserved , yet Mercy is not delighted with the spectacle ; and therefore God places a watry cloud in the eye , that when the light of heaven shines upon it , it may produce a rain-bow to be a Sacrament and a memorial that God and the sons of God do not love to see a man perish . God never rejoyces in the death of him that dies ; and we also esteem it undecent to have Musick at a Funeral . And as Religion teaches us to pity a condemned Criminal , so Mercy intercedes for the most benign interpretation of the Laws . You must indeed be as just as the Laws , and you must be as merciful as your Religion : and you have no way to tye these together , but to follow the pattern in the Mount ; doe as God does , who in judgement remembers mercy . To conclude ; If every one in this Honourable Assembly would joyn together to promote Christian Religion in it's true notion , that is , Peace and Holiness , the Love of God and the Love of our Brother , Christianity in all its proper usefulness , and would not indure in the Nation any thing against the laws of the Holy Jesus ; if they were all zealous for the doctrines of Righteousness , and impatient of Sin in your selves and in the people , it is not to be imagined what a happy Nation we should be . But if ye divide into parties , and keep up useless differences of names or interests ; if ye do not joyn in the bands of Peace , that is , the King , and the Church , Religion , and the good of the Nation , you can never hope to see a blessing to be the end of your labours . Remember the words of Solomon , Righteousness exalteth a Nation , but sin is a reproach to any people : but when Righteousness is advanced in the hearts and lives of the Nation , who shall dare to reprove your Faith ? who can find fault with your Religion ? God of his mercy grant that in all your Consultations the Word of God may be your measure , the Spirit of God may be your guide , and the glory of God may be your end : He of his mercy grant that Moderation may be your limit , and Peace may be within your walls as long as you are there , and in all the Land for ever after . But remember , that since the honour and service of his Majesty , and the peace and prosperity of the Church , the perpetuity of our fundamental Laws , publick Justice , and the honour of all legal Authority , the advancement of Trade and the wealth of the Nation is your design , remember , I pray , what warranty you have to expect all this ; no less then the words of our Blessed Saviour , but it is upon these terms , Seek ye first the Kingdome of God , and the righteousness thereof , and all these things shall be added to you . Amen . FINIS . A CATALOGUE of some Books written by JEREMY Lord Bishop of Down and Connor , and Printed for R. Royston at the Angel in Ivy-lane , London . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , A Course of Sermons for all the Sundaies of the year ; together with a discourse of the Divine Institution , Necessity , Sacredness and Separation of the Office Ministerial , in fol. 2. The History of the Life and Death of the Ever-blessed Jesus Christ , the third Edition in fol. 3. The Rule and Exercises of holy living , in 12. 4. The Rule and Exercises of holy dying , in 12. 5. The Golden Grove , or A Manual of daily Prayers , fitted to the daies of the week , together with a short Method of Peace and Holiness , in 12. 6. A Collection of Polemical and Moral discourses , in fol. newly reprinted . 7. A Discourse of the Nature , Offices and Measure of Friendship , in 12. new . 8. A Collection of Offices or forms of Prayer fitted to the needs of all Christians , taken out of the Scriptures and Ancient Liturgies of several Churches , especially the Greek , together with the Psalter or Psalms of David after the Kings Translation , in a large octavo , newly published . 9. Ductor Dubitantium , or the Rule of Conscience , fol. in two volumes . 10. The doctrine and Practice of Repentance , describing the necessities of a Strict , a Holy and a Christian Life : serving as a necessary Supplement unto the Rule of Conscience . 11. The Worthy Communicant in octavo , sold at the Bell in S. Pauls Churchyard . Via Intelligentiae . A SERMOM Preached to the UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN : Shewing by what means the Scholars shall become most Learned and most Usefull . Published at their desire . By the R. R. Father in God , JEREMY , Lord Bishop of Downe , &c. and Vicechancellour of that UNIVERSITY . Ad majorem Dei gloriam . LONDON : Printed for R. Royston Bookseller to the Kings most Excellent Majesty , 1662. TO THE READER . PEACE is so great a Blessing , and Disputations and Questions in Religion are so little friends to Peace , that I have thought no mans time can be better spent then in propositions and promotions of Peace , and consequently in finding expedients , and putting periods to all contentious Learning . I have already in a discourse before the Right Honourable the Lords and Commons assembled in this Parliament prov'd that Obedience is the best medium of Peace and true Religion ; and Lawes are the only common term and certain rule and measure of it . Vocatâ ad concionem multitudine , quae coalescere in populum Unius corporis nullâ re praeterquam legibus poterat , said Livy . Obedience to Man is the externall instrument ; and the best in the World. To which I now add , that Obedience to God is the best internall instrument ; and I have prov'd it in this discourse . Peace and Holiness are twin-Sisters ; after which because every man is bound to follow , and he that does not shall never see God , I concluded that the office of a Bishop is in nothing so signally to be exhibited as in declaring by what means these great duties and blessings are to be acquir'd . This way I have here describ'd is an old way ; for it was Christs way , and therefore it is truth and life : but it hath been so little regarded and so seldom taught , that when I first spake my thoughts of it in the following words before the Little , but Excellent , University of Dublin , they consented to it so perfectly , and so piously entertain'd it , that they were pleas'd with some earnestness to desire me to publish it to the World , and to consigne it to them as a perpetual memorial of their duty , and of my regards to them , and care over them in my Station . I was very desirous to serve and please them in all their worthy desires , but had found so much reason to distrust my own abilities , that I could not resolve to do what I fain would have done ; till by a Second communication of those thoughts , though in differing words , I had publish'd it also to my Clergy at the Metropolitical Visitation of the most Reverend and Learned Lord Primate of Armagh in my own Diocese . But when I found that they also thought it very reasonable and pious , and joyn'd in the desire of making it publick , I consented perfectly , and now only pray to God it may do that Work which I intended . I have often thought of those excellent words of Mr. Hooker in his very learned discourse of Justification ; [ Such is the untoward constitution of our Nature , that we do neither so perfectly understand the way and knowledge of the Lord , nor so stedfastly embrace it when it is understood , nor so graciously utter it when it is embraced , nor so peaceably maintain it when it is uttered , but that the best of us are overtaken sometime through blindness , sometime through hastiness , sometime through impatience , sometime through other passions of the mind , whereunto ( God knows ) we are too subject ] That I find by true experience , the best way of Learning and Peace is that which cures all these evils , as far as in this World they are curable ; and that is the wayes of Holiness , which are therefore the best and only way of Truth . In Disputations there is no end , and but very little advantage ; but the way of godliness hath in it no Error , and no Doubtfulness . By this therefore I hop'd best to apply the Counsel of the Wise man : Stand thou fast in thy sure Understanding , in the way and knowledge of the Lord , and have but one manner of word , and follow the word of peace and righteousness . I have reason to be confident that they who desir'd me to publish this discourse will make use of it , and find benefit by it : and if any others do so too , both they and I shall still more and more give God all thanks , and praise , and glory . Sermons newly Printed , and are sold by R. Royston . A Sermon preached at the opening of the Parliament in Ireland , May 8. 1661. Before the Right Honourable the Lords Justices , and the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons . A Sermon preached at the Consecration of two Archbishops and ten Bishops , in the Cathedral Church of St. Patrick in Dublin , January 27. 1660. Both by Jeremy Taylor D. D. Lord Bishop of Downe and Connor . A Sermon preached at the Consecration of Herbert Lord Bishop of Hereford , by Jasper Main D. D. one of His Majesties Chaplains in Ordinary . The grand debate resumed in the point of Prayer , being an Answer to the Presbyterian papers presented to the most Reverend the Lord Bishops at the Savoy , upon the subject by a Member of the Convocation . 7 JOHN 17. If any man will do his will , he shall know of the Doctrine , whether it be of God , or whether I speak of my self . THe Ancients in their Mythological Learning tell us , that when Jupiter espyed the men of the World striving for Truth , and pulling her in pieces to secure her to themselves , he sent Mercury down amongst them , and he with his usuall Arts dressed Error up in the Imagery of Truth , and thrust her into the croud , and so left them to contend still : and though then , by Contention men were sure to get but little Truth , yet they were as earnest as ever , and lost Peace too , in their Importune Contentions for the very Image of Truth . And this indeed is no wonder : but when Truth and Peace are brought into the world together , and bound up in the same bundle of life ; when we are taught a Religion by the Prince of Peace , who is the Truth it self , to see men Contending for this Truth to the breach of that Peace ; and when men fall out , to see that they should make Christianity their theme , that is one of the greatest wonders in the World. For Christianity is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a soft and gentle Institution ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it was brought into the World to soften the asperities of humane nature , and to cure the Barbarities of evil men , and the Contentions of the passionate . The Eagle seeing her breast wounded , and espying the Arrow that hurt her to be feathered , cryed out , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the feathered Nation is destroyed by their own feathers ; That is , a Christian fighting and wrangling wi●h a Christian ; and indeed that 's very sad : but wrangling about Peace too ; that Peace it self should be the argument of a War , that 's unnaturall ; and if it were not that there are many who are homines multae religionis , nullius penè pietatis , Men of much Religion and little Godliness , it would not be that there should be so many Quarrells in and concerning that Religion which is wholly made up of Truth and Peace , and was sent amongst us to reconcile the hearts of men when they were tempted to uncharitablenesse by any other unhappy argument . Disputation cures no vice , but kindles a great many , and makes Passion evaporate into sin : and though men esteem it Learning , ye● it is the most uselesse Learning in the world . When Eudamidas the Son of Archidamas heard old Xenocrates disputing about Wisdom , he asked very soberly , If the old Man be yet disputing and enquiring concerning Wisdom , what time will he have to make use of it ? Christianity is all for Practice , and so much time as is spent in quarrells about it is a diminution to its Interest : men inquire so much what it is , that they have but little time left to be Christians . I remember a saying of Erasmus , that when he first read the New Testament with fear and a good mind , with a purpose to understand it and obey it , he found it very usefull and very pleasant : but when afterwards he fell on reading the vast differences of Commentaries , then he understood it lesse then he did before , then he began not to understand it . For indeed the Truths of God are best dressed in the plain Culture and simplicity of the Spirit ; but the Truths that men commonly teach are like the reflexions of a Multiplying-glasse : for one piece of good money you shall have forty that are fantasticall ; and it is forty to one if your finger hit upon the right . Men have wearied themselves in the dark , having been amused with false fires : and instead of going home , have wandered all night 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in untroden , unsafe , safe , uneasie wayes ; but have not found out what their Soul desires . But therefore since we are so miserable , and are in error , and have wandered very far , we must do as wandring Travellers use to do , go back just to that place from whence they wandered , and begin upon a new Account . Let us go to the Truth it self , to Christ , and he will tell us an easie way of ending all our Quarrells . For we shall find Christianity to be the easiest and the hardest thing in the World : it is like a secret in Arithmetick , infinitely hard till it be found out by a right operation , and then it is so plain , we wonder we did not understand it earlier . Christ's way of finding out of truth is by doing the will of God. We will try that by and by , if possibly we may find that easie and certain : in the mean time let us consider what wayes men have propounded to find out Truth , and upon the foundation of that to establish Peace in Christendom . 1. That there is but one true way is agreed upon ; and therefore almost every Church of one denomination that lives under Government propounds to you a Systeme or collective Body of Articles , and tells you , that 's the true Religion , and they are the Church , and the peculiar people of God : like Brutus and Cassius , of whom one sayes , Ubicunque ipsi essent , praetexebant esse rempublicam , they suppos'd themselves were the Commonwealth ; and these are the Church , and out of this Church they will hardly allow salvation . But of this there can be no end . For divide the Church into Twenty parts , and in what part soever your lot falls , you and your party are Damned by the other Nineteen ; and men on all hands almost keep their own Proselytes by affrighting them with the fearful Sermons of Damnation : but in the mean time here is no security to them that are not able to judge for themselves , and no Peace for them that are . 2. Others cast about to cure this evil , and conclude that it must be done by submission to an Infallible Guide ; this must do it or nothing : and this is the way of the Church of Rome . Follow but the Pope and his Clergie , and you are safe , at least as safe as their warrants can make you . Indeed this were a very good way , if it were a way at all ; but it is none ; for this can never end our Controversies : not onely because the greatest Controversies are about this Infallible Guide ; but also because , 1. We cannot find that there is upon Earth any such Guide at all . 2. We do not find it necessary that there should . 3. We find that they who pretend to be this Infallible Guide are themselves infinitely deceiv'd . 4. That they do not believe themselves to be Infallible whatever they say to us ; because they do not put an end to all their own Questions that trouble them . 5. Because they have no peace but what is constrained by force and Government . 6. And lastly , because if there were such a Guide , we should fail of Truth by many other causes : for it may be that Guide would not do his duty ; or we are fallible followers of this infallible Leader ; or we should not understand his meaning at all times , or we should be perverse at some times , or something as bad : because we all confesse that God is an Infallible Guide , and that some way or other he does teach us sufficiently , and yet it does come to passe by our faults that we are as far to seek for Peace and Truth as ever . 3. Some very wise men finding this to fail , have undertaken to reconcile the differences of Christendom by a way of moderation . Thus they have projected to reconcile the Papists and the Lutherans , the Lutherans and the Calvinists , the Remonstrants and Contra-remonstrants , and project that each side should abate of their asperities , and pare away something of their proportions , and joyn in Common terms and phrases of Accommodation , each of them sparing something , and promising they shall have a great deal of peace for the exchange of a little of their opinion . This was the way of Cassander , Modrevius , Andreas Frisius , Erasmus , Spalato , Grotius , and indeed of Charles the Fifth in part , but something more heartily of Ferdinand the Second . This device produced the conferences at Poissy , at Montpellier , at Ratisbon , at the Hague , at many places more : and what was the event of these ? Their parties when their Delegates returned , either disclaimed their Moderation , or their respective Princes had some other ends to serve , or they permitted the Meetings upon uncertain hopes , and a triall if any good might come ; or it may be they were both in the wrong , and their mutuall abatement was nothing but a mutuall quitting of what they could not get , and the shaking hands of false friends ; or it may be it was all of it nothing but Hypocrisie and Arts of Craftiness , and , like Lucian's man , every one could be a Man and a Pestle when he pleased . And the Council of Trent , though under another cover , made use of the artifice , but made the secret manifest and common : for at this day the Jesuits in the Questions de auxiliis Divinae gratiae have prevailed with the Dominicans to use their expressions , and yet they think they still keep the sentence of their own Order . From hence can succeed nothing but folly and a phantastick peace . This is but the skinning of an old sore , it will break out upon all occasions . 4. Others , who understand things beyond the common rate , observing that many of our Controversies and peevish wranglings are kept up by the ill stating of the Question , endeavour to declare things wisely , and make the matter intelligible , and the words cleare ; hoping by this meanes to cut off all disputes . Indeed this is a very good way , so far as it can go ; and would prevaile very much , if all men were wise , and would consent to those stateings , and would not fall out upon the main enquiry when it were well stated : but we find by a sad experience that few Questions are well stated ; and when they are , they are not consented to ; and when they are agreed on by both sides that they are well stated , it is nothing else but a drawing up the Armies in Battalia with great skill and discipline ; the next thing they do is , they thrust their Swords into one anothers sides . 5. What remedy after all this ? Some other good men have propounded one way yet : but that is a way of Peace rather then Truth ; and that is , that all Opinions should be tolerated and none persecuted ; and then all the World will be at peace . Indeed this relies upon a great reasonableness : not onely because Opinions cannot be forced ; but because if men receive no hurt , it is to be hoped they will do none . But we find that this alone will not do it . For besides that all men are not so just as not to do any Injury ( for some men begin the evil ) besides this ( I say ) there are very many men amongst us who are not content that you permit them ; for they will not permit you , but rule over your faith , and say that their way is not only true , but necessary ; and therefore the Truth of God is at stake , and all Indifference and moderation is carnall Wisdom and want of Zeal for God : nay more then so , they preach for Toleration when themselves are under the rod , who when they got the rod into their own hands thought Toleration it self to be Intolerable . Thus do the Papists , and thus the Calvinists : and for their Cruelty they pretend Charity . They will indeed force you to come in , but it is in true Zeal for your Soul : and if they do you violence , it is no more then if they pull your Arme out of joynt , when to save you from drowning they draw you out of a River ; and if you complain , plain , it is no more to be regarded then the out-cries of Children against their Rulers , or sick men against Physicians . But as to the thing it self , the truth is , it is better in Contemplation then in Practice : for reckon all that is got by it when you come to handle it , and it can never satisfie for the infinite disorders happening in the Government ; the scandal to Religion , the secret dangers to publick Societies , the growth of Heresie , the nursing up of parties to a grandeur so considerable as to be able in their own time to change the Lawes and the Government . So that if the Question be whether meer Opinions are to be persecuted , it is certainly true , they ought not . But if it be considered how by Opinions men rifle the affaires of Kingdoms , it is also as certain , they ought not to be made publick and permitted . And what is now to be done ? must Truth be for ever in the dark , and the World for ever be divided , and Societies disturbed , and Governments weakned , and our Spirits debauched with Error and the uncertain Opinions and the Pedantery of talking men ? Certainly there is a way to cure all this evil ; and the wise Governour of all the World hath not been wanting in so necessary a matter as to lead us into all Truth . But the way hath not yet been hit upon , and yet I have told you all the wayes of Man and his Imaginations in order to Truth and Peace : and you see these will not do ; we can find no rest for the soles of our feet amidst all the waters of Contention and disputations , and little artifices of divided Schools . Every man is a lyar , and his understanding is weak , and his Propositions uncertain , and his Opinions trifling , and his Contrivances imperfect : and neither Truth nor Peace does come from man. I know I am in an Auditory of inquisitive persons , whose businesse is to study for Truth , that they may find it for themselves , and teach it unto others : I am in a School of Prophets and Prophets Sons , who all ask Pilate's Question , What is Truth ? You look for it in your Books , and you tug hard for it in your Disputations , and you derive it from the Cisterns of the Fathers , and you enquire after the old wayes , and sometimes are taken with new appearances , and you rejoyce in false lights , or are delighted with little umbrages and peep of Day . But where is there a man , or a Society of men , that can be at rest in his enquiry , and is sure he understands all the truths of God ? where is there a man but the more he studies and enquires , still he discovers nothing so clearly as his own Ignorance ? This is a demonstration that we are not in the right way , that we do not inquire wisely , that our Method is not artificiall . If men did fall upon the right way , it were impossible so many learned men should be engaged in contrary parties and opinions . We have examined all wayes but one , all but God's way : Let us ( having missed in all the other ) try this : let us go to God for Truth ; for Truth comes from God only , and his wayes are plain , and his sayings are true , and his promises Yea and Amen : and if we miss the Truth , it is because we will not find it : for certain it is , that all that Truth which God hath made necessarie , he hath also made legible and plain , and if we will open our eyes , we shall see the Sun , and if we will walk in the light , we shall rejoyce in the light : only let us withdraw the Curtains , let us remove the impediments and the sin that doth so easily beset us ; that 's Gods way . Every man must in his station do that portion of duty which God requires of him , and then he shall be taught of God all that is fit for him to learn : there is no other way for him but this . The feare of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom , and a good understanding have all they that do thereafter . And so said David of himself , I have more understanding then my Teachers ; because I keep thy Commandements . And this is the only way which Christ hath taught us : if you ask , What is truth ? you must not doe as Pilate did , ask the Question , and then go away from him that only can give you an answer ; for as God is the author of Truth , so he is the teacher of it ; and the way to learn it is this of my Text : For so saith our blessed Lord , If any man will do his will , he shall know of the Doctrine , whether it be of God or no. My Text is simple as Truth it self , but greatly Comprehensive , and contains a truth that alone will enable you to understand all Mysteries , and to expound all Prophecies , and to interpret all Scriptures , and to search into all Secrets , all ( I mean ) which concern our happinesse and our duty : and it being an affirmative hypotheticall , is plainly to be resolved into this Proposition , The way to judge of Religion is by doing of our duty , and Theology is rather a Divine life then a Divine knowledge . In Heaven indeed we shall first see , and then love ; but here on Earth we must first love , and love will open our eyes as well as our hearts , and we shall then see and perceive and understand . In the handling of which Proposition I shall first represent to you that the certain causes of our Errors are nothing but direct sins , nothing makes us Fools and Ignorants but living vicious lives ; and then I shall proceed to the direct demonstration of the Article in question , that Holinesse is the only way of truth and understanding . 1. No man understands the Word of God as it ought to be understood , unlesse he layes aside all affections to Sin : of which because we have taken very little care , the product hath been that we have had very little wisdom , and very little knowledge in the wayes of God. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Aristotle , Wickedness does corrupt a mans reasoning , it gives him false principles and evil measures of things : the sweet Wine that Ulysses gave to the Cyclops put his eye out ; and a man that hath contracted evil affections , and made a League with sin , sees only by those measures . A Covetous man understands nothing to be good that is not profitable ; and a Voluptuous man likes your reasoning well enough if you discourse of Bonum jucundum , the pleasures of the sense , the ravishments of lust , the noises and inadvertencies , the mirth and songs of merry Company . But if you talk to him of the melancholy Lectures of the Cross , the content of Resignation , the peace of Meeknesse , and the Joyes of the holy Ghost , and of rest in God ; after your long discourse and his great silence he cryes out , What 's the matter ? He knows not what you meane . Either you must fit his humour , or change your discourse . I remember that Arianus tells of a Gentleman that was banished from Rome , and in his sorrow visited the Philosopher , and he heard him talk wisely , and believed him , and promised him to leave all the thoughts of Rome and splendours of the Court , and retire to the course of a severe Philosophy : but before the good mans Lectures were done , there came 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , letters from Caesar to recall him home , to give him pardon , and promise him great Imployment . He presently grew weary of the good mans Sermon , and wished he would make an end , thought his discourse was dull and flat ; for his head and heart were full of another storie and new principles ; and by these measures he could heare only and he could understand . Every man understands by his Affections more then by his Reason : and when the Wolfe in the Fable went to School to learn to spell , whatever letters were told him , he could never make any thing of them but Agnus ; he thought of nothing but his belly : and if a man be very hungry , you must give him meate before you give him counsell . A mans mind must be like your proposition before it can be entertained : for whatever you put into a man it will smell of the Vessell : it is a mans mind that gives the emphasis , and makes your argument to prevail . And upon this account it is that there are so many false Doctrines in the only Article of Repentance . Men know they must repent , but the definition of Repentance they take from the convenience of their own affaires : what they will not part with , that is not necessary to be parted with , and they will repent , but not restore : they will say nollem factum , they wish they had never done it ; but since it is done , you must give them leave to rejoyce in their purchase : they will ask forgivenesse of God ; but they sooner forgive themselves , and suppose that God is of their mind . If you tye them to hard termes , your Doctrine is not to be understood , or it is but one Doctors opinion , and therefore they will fairly take their leave , and get them another Teacher . What makes these evil , these dangerous and desperate Doctrines ? not the obscurity of the thing , but the cloud upon the heart ; for say you what you will , He that hears must be the expounder , and we can never suppose but a man will give sentence in behalf of what he passionately loves . And so it comes to pass that , as Rabbi Moses observ'd that God for the greatest Sin imposed the least Oblation , as a she-Goat for the sin of Idolatry ; for a woman accused of Adultery , a Barly-cake : so do most men ; they think to expiate the worst of their sins with a trifling , with a pretended , little , insignificant repentance . God indeed did so , that the cheapnesse of the oblation might teach them to hope for pardon ; not from the Ceremony , but from a severe internal repentance . But men take any argument to lessen their repentance , that they may not lessen their pleasures or their estates , and that Repentance may be nothing but a word , and Mortification signifie nothing against their pleasures , but be a term of Art only , fitted for the Schools or for the Pulpit , but nothing relative to practice , or the extermination of their sin . So that it is no wonder we understand so little of Religion : it is because we are in love with that which destroyes it ; and as a man does not care to hear what does not please him , so neither does he believe it ; he cannot , he will not understand it . And the same is the Case in the matter of Pride ; the Church hath extremely suffer'd by it in many ages . Arius missed a Bishoprick , and therefore turned Heretick ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith the story , he disturb'd and shaked the Church ; for he did not understand this Truth [ That the peace of the Church was better then the satisfaction of his person , or the promoting his foolish Opinion . ] And do not we see and feel that at this very day the Pride of men makes it seem impossible for many persons to obey their Superiors ? and they do not see what they can read every day , that it is a sin to speak evill of Dignities . A man would think it a very easie thing to understand the 13. Chapter to the Romans , Whosoever resisteth the power , resisteth the Ordinance of God : and yet we know a generation of men to whom these words were so obscure , that they thought it lawfull to fight against their King. A man would think it easie to believe that those who were in the gain-saying of Corah , who rose up against the high Priest , were in a very sad condition : and yet there are too many amongst us who are in the gain-saying of Corah , and think they do very well ; that they are the Godly party , and the good people of God. Why ? what 's the matter ? In the world there can be nothing plainer then these words , Let every soul the subject to the higher powers , and that you need not make a scruple who are these higher powers , it is as plainly said , there is no power but of God ; all that are set over you by the Laws of your Nation , these are over you in the Lord : and yet men will not understand these plain things ; they deny to doe their notorious duty , and yet believe they are in the right , and if they sometimes obey for wrath , they oftner disobey for Conscience sake . Where is the fault ? The words are plain , the duty is certain , the Book lyes open ; but , alas ! it is Sealed within , that is , men have eyes and will not see , eares and will not heare . But the wonder is the lesse ; for we know when God said to Jonas , doest thou well to be angry ? he answered God to his face , I do well to be angry even unto the death . Let God declare his mind never so plainly , if men will not lay aside the evil principle that is within , their open love to their secret sin , they may kill an Apostle , and yet be so ignorant as to think they do God good service ; they may disturb Kingdomes , and break the peace of a well-ordered Church , and rise up against their Fathers , and be cruell to their Brethren , and stir up the people to Sedition ; and all this with a cold stomach and a hot liver , with a hard heart and a tender Conscience , with humble carriage and a proud spirit . For thus men hate Repentance , because they scorn to confesse an Errour ; they will not return to Peace and Truth , because they feare to lose the good opinion of the people whom themselves have couzened ; they are afraid to be good , lest they should confess they have formerly done amisse : and he that observes how much evil is done , and how many Heresies are risen , and how much obstinacy and unreasonable perseverance in folly dwells in the World upon the stock of Pride , may easily conclude that no learning is sufficient to make a proud man understand the truth of God , unless he first learn to be humble . But Obedite & intelligetis ( saith the Prophet ) obey and be humble , leave the foolish affections of sin , and then ye shall understand . That 's the First particular : All remaining affections to sin hinder the learning and understanding of the things of God. 2. He that means to understand the will of God and the truth of Religion must lay aside all inordinate affections to the world . 2 Cor. 3.14 . S. Paul complained that there was at that day a veile upon the heart of the Jews in the reading of the Old Testament : they looked for a Temporall Prince to be their Messias , and their affections and hopes dwelt in secular advantages ; and so long as that veile was there , they could not see , and they would not accept the poore despised JESUS . For the things of the world , besides that they entangle one another , and make much business , and spend much time , they also take up the attentions of a mans mind , & spend his faculties , and make them trifling and secular with the very handling and conversation . And therefore the Pythagoreans taught their Disciples 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a separation from the things of the body , if they would purely find out truth and the excellencies of wisdom . Had not he lost his labour that would have discoursed wisely to Apicius , and told him of the books of Fate and the secrets of the other World , the abstractions of the Soul and its brisker Immortality , that Saints and Angels eate not , and that the Spirit of a man lives for ever upon wisdom and holinesse and contemplation ? The fat Glutton would have stared a while upon the Preacher , and then have fallen asleep . But if you had discoursed well and knowingly of a Lamprey , a large Mullet , or a Boare , animal propter Convivia natum , and have sent him a Cook from Asia to make new Sawces , he would have attended carefully , and taken in your discourses greedily . And so it is in the Questions and secrets of Christianity : which made St. Paul , when he intended to convert Felix , discourse first with him about Temperance , Righteousnesse and Judgement to come . He began in the right point ; he knew it was to no purpose to preach Jesus Christ crucified to an intemperate person , to an Usurper of other mens rights , to one whose soul dwelt in the World , and cared not for the sentence of the last day . The Philosophers began their Wisdom with the meditation of death , and St. Paul his with a discourse of the day of Judgment : to take the heart off from this world and the amabilities of it , which dishonour and baffle the understanding , and made Solomon himself become a child and fool'd into Idolatry , by the prettinesse of a talking woman . Men now-a-dayes love not a Religion that will cost them deare . If your Doctrine calls upon men to part with any considerable part of their estates , you must pardon them if they cannot believe you ; they understand it not . I shall give you one great instance of it . When we consider the infinite unreasonableness that is in the Popish Religion , how against Common sense their Doctrine of Transubstantiation is , how against the common Experience of humane nature is the Doctrine of the Popes Infallibility , how against Scripture is the Doctrine of Indulgences and Purgatory ; we may well think it a wonder that no more men are perswaded to leave such unlearned follies . But then on the other side , the wonder will cease , if we mark how many temporal ends are served by these Doctrines . If you destroy the Doctrine of Purgatory and Indulgences you take away the Priests Income , and make the See Apostolic to be poor ; if you deny the Popes Infallibility , you will despise his Authority , and examine his Propositions , and discover his Failings , and put him to answer hard Arguments , and lessen his Power : and indeed , when we run through all the Propositions of difference between them and us , and see that in every one of them they serve an end of money or of power ; it will be very visible that the way to confute them is not by learned disputations , ( for we see they have been too long without effect , and without prosperity ) the men must be cured of their affections to the World , ut nudi nudum sequantur crucifixum , that with naked and devested affections they might follow the naked Crucified Jesus , and then they would soone learne the truths of God , which till then will be impossible to be apprehended . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Men ( as St. Basil sayes ) when they expound Scripture , alwayes bring in something of themselves : but till there be ( as one said ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a rising out from their own seats ; untill they go out from their dark dungeons , they can never see the light of Heaven . And how many men are there amongst us who are therefore enemies to the Religion , because it seems to be against their profit ? The argument of Demetrius is unanswerable ; by this craft they get their livings : leave them in their Livings , and they will let your Religion alone ; if not , they think they have reason to speak against it . When mens souls are possessed with the World , their souls cannot be invested with holy Truths . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as St. Isidor said : the Soul must be informed , insoul'd , or animated with the propositions that you put in , or you shall never do any good , or get Disciples to Christ. Now because a man cannot serve two Masters ; because he cannot vigorously attend two objects ; because there can be but one soul in any living Creature ; if the World have got possession , talk no more of your Questions , shut your Bibles , and read no more of the words of God to them , for they cannot tell of the Doctrine , whether it be of God , or of the World. That is the Second particular : Worldly affections hinder true understandings in Religion . 3. No man , how learned soever , can understand the Word of God , or be at peace in the Questions of Religion , unless he be a Master over his Passions . Tu quoque si vis Lumine claro Cernere verum , Gaudia pelle , Pelle Timorem : Nubila mens est Vinctáque fraenis Haec ubi regnant . said the wise Boethius . A man must first learn himself before he can learn God. Tua te fallit Imago : nothing deceives a man so soon as a mans self ; when a man is ( that I may use Plato's expression ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , mingled with his nature and his Congeniall infirmities of anger and desire , he can never have any thing but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a knowledge partly moral and partly naturall : his whole life is but Imagination ; his knowledge is Inclination and opinion ; he judges of Heavenly things by the measures of his feares and his desires , and his Reason is half of it sense , and determinable by the principles of sense . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , then a man learns well when he is a Philosopher in his Passions . Passionate men are to be taught the first elements of Religion : and let men pretend to as much learning as they please , they must begin again at Christs Crosse ; they must learn true mortification and crucifixion of their anger and desires , before they can be good Scholars in Christs School , or be admitted into the more secret enquiries of Religion , or profit in spirituall understanding . It was an excellent Proverb of the Jews , In passionibus Spiritus Sanctus non habitat , the Holy Ghost never dwells in the house of Passion . Truth enters into the heart of Man when it is empty and cleane and still ; but when the mind is shaken with Passion as with a storme , you can never heare the voyce of the Charmer , though he charm very wisely : and you will very hardly sheath a sword when it is held by a loose and a paralytic Arme. He that means to learn the secrets of Gods wisdom must be , as Plato sayes , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , his soul must be Consubstantiated with Reason , not invested with Passion : to him that is otherwise , things are but in the dark , his notion is obscure and his sight troubled ; and therefore though we often meet with passionate Fools , yet we seldom or never heare of a very passionate wise man. I have now done with the First part of my undertaking , and proved to you that our evill life is the cause of our Controversies and Ignorances in the Religion of the things of God. You see what hinders us from becoming good Divines . But all this while we are but in the preparation to the Mysteries of Godlinesse . When we have thrown off all affections to sin ; when we have stript our selves from all fond adherencies to the things of the world , and have broken the chains and dominion of our Passions ; then we may say with David , Ecce paratum est Cormeum , Deus ; My heart is ready , O God , my heart is ready : then we may say , Speak , Lord , for thy servant heareth : but we are not yet instructed . It remaines therefore that we enquire what is that immediate principle or meanes by which we shall certainly and infallibly be led into all truth , and be taught the mind of God , and understand all his secrets : and this is worth our knowledge . I cannot say that this will end your labours , and put a period to your studies , and make your learning easie : it may possibly increase your labour , but it will make it profitable ; it will not end your Studies , but it will direct them ; it will not make humane Learning easie , but will make it wise unto salvation , and conduct it into true notices and wayes of wisdom . I am now to describe to you the right way of knowledge . Qui facit voluntatem Patris mei ( saith Christ ) that 's the way : do Gods will , and you shall understand Gods Word . And it was an excellent saying of St. Peter , Add to your faith Vertue , &c. If these things be in you and abound , ye shall not be unfruitfull in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For in this case it is not enough that all our hinderances of knowledge are removed ; for that is but the opening of the covering of the Book of God : but when it is opened , it is written with a hand that every eye cannot read . Though the windowes of the East be open , yet every eye cannot behold the glories of the Sun. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith Plotinus ; the eye that is not made Solar cannot see the Sun ; the eye must be fitted to the splendor : and is not the wit of the man , but the spirit of the man ; not so much his head as his heart , that learnes the Divine Philosophy . 1. Now in this inquiry I must take one thing for a praecognitum , that every good man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he is taught of God : and indeed unless he teach us , we shall make but ill Scholars our selves , and worse guides to others . Nemo potest Deum scire , nisi à Deo doceatur , said St. Jrenaeus , ( lib. 6. c. 14. ) If God teaches us , then all is well : but if we do not learn wisdom at his feet , from whence should we have it ? it can come from no other spring . And therefore it naturally follows , that by how much nearer we are to God , by so much better we are like to be instructed . But this being supposed , as being most evident , we can easily proceed by wonderfull degrees and steps of progression in the Oeconomy of this Divine Philosophy . For , 2. There is in every righteous man a new vital principle : the Spirit of Grace is the spirit of Wisdome , and teaches us by secret inspirations , by proper arguments , by actuall perswasions , by personall applications , by effects and energies : and as the soul of a man is the cause of all his vitall operations , so is the Spirit of God the life of that life , and the cause of all actions and productions Spirituall . And the consequence of this is what St. Iohn tells us of ; Ye have received the Unction from above : and that anoynting teacheth you all things . All things of some one kind : that is , certainly , all things that pertain to life and Godlinesse ; all that by which a man is wise and happy . We see this by common experience . Unlesse the soul have a new life put into it , unlesse there be a vital principle within , unlesse the spirit of life be the Informer of the spirit of the man , the Word of God will be as dead in the operation as the body in its powers and possibilities . Sol & Homo generant hominem , saith our Philosophy . A Man alone does not beget a man ; but a Man and the Sun : for without the influence of the Celestiall bodyes all natural actions are ineffective : and so it is in the operations of the Soul. Which principle divers Fanatics , both amongst us and in the Church of Rome , misunderstanding , look for new Revelations , and expect to be conducted by ecstasy , and will not pray but in a transfiguration , and live upon raptures and extravagant expectations , and separate themselves from the conversation of men by affectations , by new measures and singularities , and destroy order and despise Government , and live upon illiterate phantasmes and ignorant discourses . These men do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they bely the holy Ghost : For the Spirit of God makes men wise ; it is an evil Spirit that makes them Fools . The Spirit of God makes us Wise unto Salvation , it does not spend its holy influences in disguises and convulsions of the understanding . Gods spirit does not destroy Reason , but heightens it : he never disorders the beauties of Government , but is a God of Order ; it is the spirit of Humility , and teaches no Pride : he is to be found in Churches and Pulpits , upon Altars and in the Doctors Chaires ; not in Conventicles and mutinous corners of a house : he goes in company with his own Ordinances , and makes progressions by the measures of life : his infusions are just as our acquisitions , and his Graces pursue the methods of nature : that which was imperfect he leads on to perfection , and that which was weake he makes strong : he opens the heart , not to receive murmurs , or to attend to secret whispers , but to hear the Word of God ; and then he opens the heart , and creates a new one ; and without this new creation , this new principle of life , we may heare the Word of God , but we can never understand it ; we heare the sound , but are never the better ; unlesse there be in our hearts a secret conviction by the spirit of God , the Gospel it self is a dead Letter , and worketh not in us the light and righteousness of God. Do not we see this by a daily experience ? Even those things which a good man and an evil man know , they do not know them both alike . A wicked man does know that good is lovely , and sin is of an evill and destructive nature ; and when he is reproved , he is convinced ; and when he is observed , he is ashamed ; and when he hath done , he is unsatisfied ; and when he pursues his sin , he does it in the dark . Tell him he shall dye , and he sighs deeply , but he knows it as well as you : proceed , and say that after death comes Judgement , and the poor man believes and trembles . He knows that God is angry with him ; and if you tell him that for ought he knows he may be in Hell to morrow , he knows that it is an intolerable truth , but it it also undeniable . And yet after all this he runs to commit his sin with as certain an event and resolution , as if he knew no argument against it . These notices of things terrible and true passe through his understanding as an Eagle through the Air : as long as her flight lasted , the Air was shaken ; but there remains no path behind her . Now since at the same time we see other persons , not so learned it may be , not so much versed in Scriptures , yet they say a thing is good and lay hold of it , they believe glorious things of Heaven , and they live accordingly , as men that believe themselves ; halfe a word is enough to make them understand ; a nod is a sufficient reproof ; the Crowing of a Cock , the singing of a Lark , the dawning of the day , and the washing their hands are to them competent memorialls of Religion and warnings of their duty : What is the reason of this difference ? They both read the Scriptures , they read and heare the same Sermons , they have capable understandings , they both believe what they heare and what they read , and yet the event is vastly different . The reason is that which I am now speaking of : the one understands by one Principle , the other by another ; the one understands by Nature , and the other by Grace ; the one by humane Learning , and the other by Divine ; the one reads the Scriptures without , and the other within ; the one understands as a son of man , the other as a son of God ; the one perceives by the proportions of the World , and the other by the measures of the Spirit ; the one understands by Reason , and the other by Love ; and therefore he does not only understand the Sermons of the Spirit , and perceives their meaning , but he pierces deeper , and knows the meaning of that meaning , that is , the secret of the Spirit , that which is spiritually discerned , that which gives life to the Proposition , and activity to the Soul. And the reason is , because he hath a Divine principle within him , and a new understanding : that is plainly , he hath Love , and that 's more then Knowledge ; as was rarely well observed by St. Paul , Knowledge puffethup , but Charity edifieth ; that is , Charity makes the best Scholars . No Sermons can edify you , no Scriptures can build you up a holy building to God , unlesse the love of God , be in your hearts ; and purifie your souls from all filthinesse of the Flesh and spirit . But so it is in the regions of Starrs , where a vast body of fire is so divided by excentric motions , that it looks as if Nature had parted them into Orbes and round shells of plain and purest materialls : but where the cause is simple and the matter without variety , the motions must be uniforme ; and in Heaven we should either espy no motion , or no variety . But God , who designed the Heavens to be the causes of all changes and motions here below , hath placed his Angels in their houses of light , and given to every one of his appointed officers a portion of the fiery matter to circumagitate and roll ; and now the wonder ceases : for if it be enquired why this part of the fire runs Eastward and the other to the South , they being both indifferent to either , it is because an Angel of God sits in the Centre , and makes the same matter turne , not by the bent of its own mobility and inclination , but in order to the needs of Man and the great purposes of God ; and so it is in the understandings of men : When they all receive the same notions , and are taught by the same Master , and give full consent to all the propositions , and can of themselves have nothing to distinguish them in the events , it is because God hath sent his Divine spirit , and kindles a new fire , and creates a braver capacity , and applies the actives to the passives , and blesses their operation . For there is in the heart of man such a dead sea , and an indisposition to holy flames , like as in the cold Rivers in the North , so as the fires will not burn them , and the Sun it self will never warme them , till Gods holy Spirit does from the Temple of the new Ierusalem bring a holy flame , and make it shine and burn . The Naturall man ( saith the holy Apostle ) cannot perceive the things of the Spirit : they are foolishnesse unto him ; for they are spiritually discerned . For he that discourses of things by the measures of sense , thinks nothing good but that which is delicious to the palat , or pleases the brutish part of man ; and therefore while he estimates the secrets of Religion by such measures , they must needs seeme as insipid as Cork , or the uncondited Mushrom ; for they have nothing at all of that in their constitution . A voluptuous person is like the Dogs of Sicily , so fill'd with the deliciousnesse of Plants that grow in every furrow and hedge , that they can never keep the sent of their game . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said St. Chrysostome : the fire and water can never mingle ; so neither can sensuality and the watchfulnesse and wise discerning of the spirit . Pilato interroganti de veritate , Christus non respondit : When the wicked Governour asked of Christ concerning truth , Christ gave him no answer . He was not fit to heare it . He therefore who so understands the Words of God , that he not only believes , but loves the proposition ; he who consents with all his heart , and being convinced of the truth does also apprehend the necessity , and obeys the precept , and delights in the discovery , and layes his hand upon his heart , and reduces the notices of things to the practice of duty ; he who dares trust his proposition , and drives it on to the utmost most issue , resolving to goe after it whithersoever it can invite him ; this Man walks in the spirit : at least thus far he is gone towards it , his Understanding is brought in obsequium Christi , into the obedience of Christ. This is a loving God with all our mind ; and whatever goes less then this , is but Memory , and not Understanding ; or else such notice of things by which a man is neither the wiser nor the better . 3. Sometimes God gives to his choicest , his most elect and precious Servants , a knowledge even of secret things , which he communicates not to others . We find it greatly remark'd in the case of Abraham , Gen. 18.17 . And the Lord said , Shall I hide from Abraham that thing that I do ? Why not from Abraham ? God tells us v. 19. For I know him , that he will command his Children and his houshold after him , and they shall keep the way of the Lord , to doe justice and judgement . And though this be irregular and infrequent , yet it is a reward of their piety , and the proper increase also of the spirituall man. We find this spoken by God to Daniel , and promised to be the lot of the righteous man in the dayes of the Messias ; Many shall be purified and made white and tryed ; but the wicked shall do wickedly : and what then ? None of the wicked shall understand ; but the wise shall understand . Where besides that the wise man and the wicked are opposed , plainly signifying that the wicked man is a Fool and an Ignorant : it is plainly said that None of the wicked shall understand the wisdome and mysteriousnesse of the Kingdome of the Messias . 4. A good life is the best way to understand Wisdome and Religion ; because by the experiences and relishes of Religion there is conveyed to them such a sweetnesse , to which all wicked men are strangers : there is in the things of God to them which practice them a deliciousnesse that makes us love them , and that love admits us into Gods Cabinet , and strangely clarifies the understanding by the purification of the heart . For when our reason is raised up by the spirit of Christ , it is turned quickly into experience : when our Faith relyes upon the principles of Christ , it is changed into vision : & so long as we know God only in the wayes of man , by contentious Learning , by arguing and dispute , we see nothing but the shadow of him , and in that shadow we meet with many dark appearances , little certainty and much conjecture : But when we know him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , with the eyes of holinesse and the intuition of gracious experiences , with a quiet spirit and the peace of Enjoyment ; then we shall heare what we never heard , and see what our eyes never saw ; then the mysteries of Godlinesse shall be opened unto us , and cleare as the windows of the morning . And this is rarely well expressed by the Apostle , If we stand up from the dead and awake from sleep , then Christ shall give us light . For although the Scriptures themselves are written by the Spirit of God , yet they are written within and without : and besides the light that shines upon the face of them , unlesse there be a light shining within our hearts , unfolding the leaves and interpreting the mysterious sense of the spirit , convincing our Consciences and preaching to our hearts ; to look for Christ in the leaves of the Gospell , is to look for the living amongst the dead . There is a life in them , but that life is ( according to St. Paul's expression ) hid with Christ in God : and unlesse the spirit of God be the Promo-condus , we shall never draw it forth . Humane Learning brings excellent ministeries towards this : it is admirably usefull for the reproof of Heresies , for the detection of Fallacies , for the Letter of the Scripture , for Collateral testimonies , for exterior advantages ; but there is something beyond this , that humane Learning without the addition of Divine can never teach . Moses was learned in all the learning of the Egyptians ; and the holy men of God contemplated the glories of God in the admirable order , motion and influences of the Heaven : but besides all this , they were taught of God something far beyond these prettinesses . Pythagoras read Moses's Books , and so did Plato ; and yet they became not Proselytes of the Religion , though they were learned Scholars of such a Master . The reason is , because that which they drew forth from thence was not the life and secret of it . Tradidit arcano quodcunque Volumine Moses . There is a secret in these Books , which few men , none but the Godly , did understand : and though much of this secret is made manifest in the Gospel , yet even here also there is a Letter and there is a Spirit : still there is a reserve for Gods secret ones , even all those deep mysteries which the old Testament covered in Figures , and stories , and names , and prophesies , and which Christ hath , and by his Spirit will yet reveale more plainly to all that will understand them by their proper measures . For although the Gospel is infinitely more legible and plain then the obscurer Leaves of the Law , yet there is a seale upon them also : which Seale no man shall open hut he that is worthy . We may understand something of it by the three Children of the Captivity ; they were all skil'd in all the wisdom of the Chaldees , and so was Daniel : but there was something beyond that in him ; the wisdom of the most high God was in him , and that taught him a learning beyond his learning . In all Scripture there is a spirituall sense , a spirituall Cabala , which as it tends directly to holiness , so it is best and truest understood by the sons of the Spirit , who love God , and therefore know him . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , every thing is best known by its own similitudes and analogies . But I must take some other time to speak fully of these things . I have but one thing more to say , and then I shall make my Applications of this Doctrine , and so conclude . 5. Lastly , there is a sort of Gods deare Servants who walk in perfectnesse , who perfect holinesse in the feare of God ; and they have a degree of Clarity and divine knowledge more then we can discourse of , and more certain then the Demonstrations of Geometry , brighter then the Sun , and indeficient as the light of Heaven . This is called by the Apostle the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ is this brightnesse of God , manifested in the hearts of his dearest servants . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . — But I shall say no more of this at this time , for this is to be felt and not to be talked of ; and they that never touched it with their finger , may secretly perhaps laugh at it in their heart , and be never the wiser . All that I shall now say of it is , that a good man is united unto God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as a flame touches a flame , and combines into splendor and to glory : so is the Spirit of a man united unto Christ by the spirit of God. These are the friends of God , and they best know Gods mind , and they only that are so know how much such men do know . They have a special Unction from above . So that now you are come to the top of all : this is the highest round of the Ladder , and the Angels stand upon it : they dwell in love and Contemplation , they worship and obey , but dispute not ; and our quarrels and impertinent wranglings about Religion are nothing else but the want of the measures of this State. Our light is like a Candle , every wind of vain Doctrine blows it out , or spends the wax , and makes the light tremulous ; but the lights of Heaven are fixed and bright , and shine for ever . But that we may speak not only things mysterious , but things intelligible ; how does it come to passe , by what means and what Oeconomy is it effected , that a holy life is the best determination of all Questions , and the surest way of knowledge ? Is it to be supposed that a Godly man is better enabled to determine the Questions of Purgatory or Transubstantiation ? is the gift of Chastity the best way to reconcile Thomas and Scotus ? and is a temperate man alwayes a better Scholar then a Drunkard ? To this I answer , that in all things in which true wisdom consists , Holinesse , which is the best wisdom , is the surest way of understanding them . And this 1. Is effected by Holinesse as a proper and natural instrument : for naturally every thing is best discerned by its proper light and congenial instrument . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For as the eye sees visible objects , and the understanding perceives the Intellectual ; so does the spirit the things of the Spirit . The naturall man ( saith St. Paul , ) knows not the things of God , for they are Spiritually discerned : that is , they are discovered by a proper light , and concerning these things an unsanctified man discourses pittifully , with an imperfect Idea , as a blind man does of Light and Colours which he never saw . A good man , though unlearned in secular notices , is like the windows of the Temple , narrow without and broad within : he sees not so much of what profits not abroad ; but whatsoever is within , and concerns Religion and the glorifications of God , that he sees with a broad inspection . But all humane learning without God is but blindnesse and ignorant folly . But when it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , righteousnesse dipt in the wells of Truth , it is like an eye of Gold in a rich Garment , or like the light of Heaven , it shews it self by its own splendor . What Learning is it to discourse of the Philosophy of the Sacrament , if you do not feel the virtue of it ? and the man that can with eloquence and subtilty discourse of the intrumentall efficacy of Baptismal waters , talkes ignorantly in respect of him who hath the answer of a good Conscience within , and is cleansed by the purifications of the Spirit . If the Question concern any thing that can perfect a man and make him happy , all that is the proper knowledge and notice of the good man. How can a wicked man understand the purities of the heart ? and how can an evil and unworthy Communicant tell what it is to have received Christ by faith , to dwell with him , to be united to him , to receive him in his heart ? The good man only understands that : the one sees the colour , and the other feels the substance ; the one discourses of the Sacrament , and the other receives Christ ; the one discourses for or against Transubstantiation , but the good man feels himself to be changed and so joyn'd to Christ , that he only understands the true sense of Transubstantiation , while he becomes to Christ bone of his bone , flesh of his flesh , and of the same spirit with his Lord. We talk much of Reformation , and ( blessed be God ) once we have felt the good of it : But of late we have smarted under the name and pretension . The Woman that lost her groate , everrit domum , not evertit ; she swept the house , she did not turn the house out of doors . That was but an ill Reformation that untiled the Roof , and broak the Walls , and was digging down the Foundation . Now among all the pretensions of Reformation , who can tell better what is , and what is not , true Reformation , then he that is truly Reform'd himself ? He knows what pleases God , and can best tell by what instruments he is reconciled . The mouth of the just bringeth forth wisdom ; and the lips of the righteous know what is acceptable , saith Solomon . He cannot be cousen'd by names of things , and feels that Reformation to be Imposture that is Sacrilegious : himself is humble and obedient , and therefore knows that is not Truth that perswades to Schisme and Disobedience : and most of the Questions of Christendom are such which either are good for nothing , and therefore to be layd aside ; or if they be complicated with action , and are ministeries of practice , no man can judge them so well as the spirituall man. That which best pleases God , that which does good to our Neighbour , that which teaches sobriety , that which combines with Government , that which speaks honour of God and does him honour , that only is Truth . Holinesse therefore is a proper and naturall instrument of Divine knowledge , and must needs be the best way of instruction in the Questions of Christendom , because in the most of them a Duty is complicated with the Proportion . No man that intends to live holily can ever suffer any pretences of Religion to be made to teach him to fight against his King. And when the men of Geneva turned their Bishop out of doors , they might easily have considered that the same person was their Prince too ; and that must needs be a strange Religion that rose up against Moses and Aaron at the same time : but that hath been the method ever since . There was no Church till then was ever Governed without an Apostle or a Bishop : and since then , they who go from their Bishop have said very often to their King too , Nolumus hunc regnare : and when we see men pretending Religion , and yet refuse to own the Kings Supremacy , they may upon the stock of holinesse easily reprove their own folly ; by considering that such recusancy does introduce into our Churches the very worst , the most intolerable parts of Popery . For perfect submission to Kings is the glory of the , Protestant cause : and really the reproveable Doctrines of the Church of Rome are by nothing so much confuted , as that they destroy good life by consequent and evident deduction ; as by an Induction of particulars were easie to make apparent , if this were the proper season for it . 2. Holinesse is not only an advantage to the learning all wisdom and holinesse , but for the discerning that which is wise and holy from what is trifling and uselesse and contentious : and to one of these heads all Questions will return : and therefore in all , from Holinesse we have the best Instructions . And this brings me to the next Particle of the generall Consideration . For that which we are taught by the holy Spirit of God , this new nature , this vital principle within us , it is that which is worth our learning ; not vaine and empty , idle and insignificant notions , in which when you have laboured till your eyes are fixed in their Orbes and your flesh unfixed from its bones , you are no better and no wiser . If the Spirit of God be your Teacher , he will teach you such truths as will make you know and love God , and become like to him , and enjoy him for ever , by passing from similitude to union and eternal fruition . But what are you the better if any man should pretend to teach you whether every Angel makes a species ? and what is the individuation of the Soul in the state of separation ? what are you the wiser if you should study and find out what place Adam should for ever have lived in if he had not fallen ? and what is any man the more learned if he heares the disputes , whether Adam should have multiplied Children in the state of Innocence , and what would have been the event of things if one Child had been born before his Fathers sin ? Too many Scholars have lived upon Air and empty notions for many ages past , and troubled themselves with tying and untying Knots , like Hypochondriacs in a fit of Melancholy , thinking of nothing , and troubling themselves with nothing , and falling out about nothings , and being very wise and very learned in things that are not and work not , and were never planted in Paradise by the finger of God. Mens notions are too often like the Mules , begotten by aequivocall and unnaturall Generations ; but they make no species : they are begotten , but they can beget nothing : they are the effects of long study , but they can do no good when they are produced : they are not that which Solomon calls viam intelligentiae , the way of understanding . If the Spirit of God be our Teacher , we shall learn to avoid evil , and to do good , to be wise and to be holy , to be profitable and carefull : and they that walk in this way shall find more peace in their Consciences , more skill in the Scriptures , more satisfaction in their doubts , then can be obtain'd by all the polemical and impertinent disputations of the world . And if the holy spirit can teach us how vain a thing it is to do foolish things , he also will teach us how vain a thing it is to trouble the world with foolish Questions , to disturb the Church for interest or pride , to resist Government in things indifferent , to spend the peoples zeale in things unprofitable , to make Religion to consist in outsides , and opposition to circumstances and trifling regards . No , no , the Man that is wise , he that is conducted by the Spirit of God , knows better in what Christs Kingdom does consist , then to throw away his time and interest and peace and safety ; for what ? for Religion ? no : for the body of Religion ? not so much : for the garment of the body of Religion ? no , not for so much : but for the Fringes of the garment of the Body of Religion ; for such and no better are the disputes that trouble our discontented Brethren ; they are things , or rather Circumstances and manners of things , which the Soul and spirit is not at all concerned . 3. Holinesse of life is the best way of finding out truth and understanding ; not only as a Naturall medium , nor only as a prudent medium , but as a means by way of Divine blessing . He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them , he it is that loveth me : and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father , and I will love him , and will manifest my self to him . Here we have a promise for it ; and upon that we may rely . The old man that confuted the Arian Priest by a plain recitall of his Creed , found a mighty power of God effecting his own Work by a strange manner , and by a very plain instrument : it wrought a divine blessing just as Sacraments use to doe : and this Lightning sometimes comes in a strange manner as a peculiar blessing to good men . For God kept the secrets of his Kingdom from the wise Heathens and the learned Jewes , revealing them to Babes , not because they had less learning , but because they had more love ; they were children and Babes in Malice , they loved Christ , and so he became to them a light and a glory . St. Paul had more learning then they all ; and Moses was instructed in all the Learning of the Egyptians : yet because he was the meekest man upon Earth , he was also the wisest , and to his humane Learning in which he was excellent , he had a divine light and excellent wisdome superadded to him by way of spiritual blessings . And St. Paul , though he went very far to the knowledge of many great and excellent truths by the force of humane learning , yet he was far short of perfective truth and true wisdom till he learned a new lesson in a new School , at the feet of one greater then his Gamaliel : his learning grew much greater , his notions brighter , his skill deeper , by the love of Christ , and his desires , his passionate desires after Jesus . The force and use of humane learning and of this Divine learning I am now speaking of , are both well expressed by the Prophet Isaiah , 29.11 , 12. And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a Book that is sealed , which men deliver to one that is learned , saying , Read this , I pray thee : and he saith , I cannot , for it is seal'd . And the Book is delivered to him that is not learned , saying Read this , I pray thee : and he saith , I am not learned . He that is no learned man , who is not bred up in the Schools of the Prophets , cannot read Gods Book for want of learning . For humane Learning is the gate and first entrance of Divine vision ; not the only one indeed , but the common gate . But beyond this , there must be another learning ; for he that is learned , bring the Book to him , and you are not much the better as to the secret part of it , if the Book be sealed , if his eyes be closed , if his heart be not opened , if God does not speak to him in the secret way of discipline . Humane learning is an excellent Foundation ; but the top-stone is laid by Love and Conformity to the will of God. For we may further observe , that blindnesse , errour and Ignorance are the punishments which God sends upon wicked and ungodly men . Etiamsi propter nostrae intelligentiae tarditatem & vitae demeritum veritas nondum se apertissime ostenderit , was St. Austin's expression . The truth hath not yet been manifested fully to us , by reason of our demerits : our sins have hindred the brightnesse of the truth from shining upon us . And St. Paul observes , that when the Heathens gave themselves over to lusts , God gave them over to strong delusions , and to believe a Lie. But God giveth to a man that is good in his sight , wisdom and knowledge and joy , said the wise Preacher . But this is most expresly promised in the New Testament , and particularly in that admirable Sermon which our blessed Saviour preach'd a little before his death . The Comforter , which is the Holy Ghost , whom the Father will send in my name , he shall teach you all things . Well : there 's our Teacher told of plainly . But how shall we obtain this teacher , and how shall we be taught ? v. 15 , 16 , 17. Christ will pray for us that we may have this spirit . That 's well : but shall all Christians have the spirit ? Yes , all that will live like Christians : for so said Christ , If ye love me , keep my Commandements ; and I will pray the Father , and he will give you another Comforter , that may abide with you for ever ; even the spirit of truth , whom the World cannot receive , because it seeth him not , neither knoweth him . Mark these things . The Spirit of God is our teacher : he will abide with us for ever to be our teacher : he will teach us all things ; but how ? if ye love Christ , if ye keep his Commandments , but not else : if ye be of the World , that is , of worldly affections , ye cannot see him , ye cannot know him . And this is the particular I am now to speak to , The way by which the Spirit of God teaches us in all the wayes and secrets of God is Love and Holinesse . Secreta Dei Deo nostro et filiis domus ejus , Gods secrets are to himself and the sons of his House , saith the Jewish Proverb . Love is the great instrument of Divine knowledge , that is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the height of all that is to be taught or learned . Love is Obedience , and we learn his words best when we practise them : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Aristotle : those things which they that learn ought to practise , even while they practise they will best learn. Quisquis non venit , profectò nec didicit : Ita enim Dominus docet per Spiritus gratiam , ut quod quisque didicerit , non tantum cognoscendo videat , sed etiam volendo appetat & agedo perficiat . St. Austin De gratia Christi lib. 1. c. 14. Unlesse we come to Christ , we shall never learn : for so our Blessed Lord teaches us by the grace of his spirit , that what any one learns , he not only sees it by knowledge , but desires it by choice , and perfects it by practice . 4. When this is reduced to practice and experience , we find not only in things of practise , but even in deepest mysteries , not only the choicest and most eminent Saints , but even every good man can best tell what is true , and best reprove an error . He that goes about to speak of and to understand the mysterious Trinity , and does it by words and names of mans invention , or by such which signifie contingently , if he reckons this mystery by the Mythology of Numbers , by the Cabala of Letters , by the distinctions of the School , and by the weak inventions of disputing people ; if he only talks of Essences and existencies , Hypostases and personalities , distinctions without difference , and priority in Coequalities , and unity in Pluralities , and of superior Praedicates of no larger extent then the inferior Subjects , may amuse himself , and find his understanding will be like St. Peters upon the Mount of Tabor at the Transfiguration : he may build three Tabernacles in his head , and talke something , but he knows not what . But the good man that feels the power of the Father , and he to whom the Son is become Wisdom , Righteousnesse , Sanctification , and Redemption ; he in whose heart the love of the Spirit of God is spread , to whom God hath communicated the Holy Ghost , the Comforter ; this man , though he understands nothing of that which is unintelligible , yet he only understands the mysteriousnesse of the Holy Trinity . No man can be convinced well and wisely of the Article of the Holy , Blessed and Undivided Trinity , but he that feels the mightiness of the Father begetting him to a new life , the wisdome of the Son building him up in a most holy Faith , and the love of the spirit of God making him to become like unto God. He that hath passed from his Childhood in Grace under the spirituall generation of the Father , and is gone forward to be a young man in Christ , strong and vigorous in holy actions and holy undertakings , and from thence is become an old Disciple , and strong and grown old in Religion , and the conversation of the Spirit ; this man best understands the secret and undiscernable Oeconomie , he feels this unintelligible mysterie , and sees with his heart what his tongue can never express , and his Metaphysics can never prove . In these cases Faith and Love are the best Knowledge , and Jesus Christ is best known by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ ; and if the Kingdom of God be in us , then we know God , and are known of him : and when we communicate of the Spirit of God , when we pray for him , and have received him , and entertained him , and dwelt with him , and warmed our selves by his holy fires , then we know him too . But there is no other satisfactory knowledge of the Blessed Trinity but this : And therefore whatever thing is spoken of God Metaphysically , there is no knowing of God Theologically and as he ought to be known , but by the measures of Holinesse and the proper light of the Spirit of God. But in this case Experience is the best learning , and Christianity is the best institution , and the Spirit of God is the best teacher , and Holinesse is the greatest wisdome ; and he that sins most is the most Ignorant , and the humble and obedient man is the best Scholar . For the Spirit of God is a loving Spirit , and will not enter into a polluted Soul : But he that keepeth the Law getteth the understanding thereof , and the perfection of the fear of the Lord is wisdom , said the wise Ben-Sirach . And now give me leave to apply the Doctrine to you , and so I shall dismisse you from this attention . Many wayes have been attempted to reconcile the differences of the Church in matters of Religion , and all the Counsels of man have yet proved ineffective . Let us now try Gods Method , let us betake our selves to live holily , and then the spirit of God will lead us into all truth . And indeed it matters not what Religion any man is of , if he be a Villaine ; the opinion of his Sect , as it will not save his Soul , so neither will it do good to the publick . But this is a sure Rule ; If the holy man best understands Wisdom and Religion , then by the proportions of holinesse we shall best measure the Doctrines that are obtruded to the disturbance of our peace , and the dishonour of the Gospell . And therefore 1. That is no good Religion whose Principles destroy any duty of Religion . He that shall maintain it to be lawfull to make a War for the defence of his Opinion be it what it will , his Doctrine is against Godlinesse . Any thing that is proud , any thing that is peevish and scornful , any thing that is uncharitable , is against the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that forme of sound Doctrine which the Apostle speaks of . And I remember that Ammianus Marcellinus telling of George a proud and factious Minister , that he was an Informer against his Brethren , he sayes , he did it oblitus professionis suae , que nil nisi justum suadet & lene ; He forgot his profession , which teaches nothing but justice and meekness , kindnesses and charity . And however Bellarmine and others are pleased to take but indirect and imperfect notice of it , yet Goodnesse is the best note of the true Church . 2. It is but an ill sign of Holinesse when a man is busie in troubling himself and his Superior in little Scruples and Phantastick Opinions about things not concerning the life of Religion , or the pleasure of God , or the excellencies of the Spirit . A good man knows how to please God , how to converse with him , how to advance the Kingdome of the Lord Jesus , to set forwards Holinesse and the love of God and of his Brother ; and he knows also that there is no Godliness in spending our time and our talk , our heart and our spirits , about the garments and outsides of Religion . And they can ill teach others , that do not know that Religion does not consist in these things ; but Obedience may , and reductively that is Religion ; and he that for that which is no part of Religion destroys Religion directly , by neglecting that duty that is adopted into Religion , is a man of fancy and of the World : but he gives but an ill account that he is a man of God , and a son of the Spirit . Spend not your time in that which profits not ; for your labour and your health , your time and your studies are very valuable ; and it is a thousand pitties to see a diligent and a hopefull person spend himself in gathering Cockle-shells and little pebbles , in telling Sands upon the shores , and making Garlands of uselesse Daisies . Study that which is profitable , that which will make you useful to Churches and Common-wealths , that which will make you desirable and wise . Onely I shall add this to you , That in Learning there are variety of things as well as in Religion : there is Mint and Cummin , and there are the weighty things of the Law ; so there are studies more and lesse usefull , and every thing that is usefull will be required in its time : and I may in this also use the words of our blessed Saviour , These things ought you to look after , and not to leave the other unregarded . But your great care is to be in the things of God and of Religion , in holiness and true wisdom , remembring the saying of Origen , that the knowledge that arises from goodnesse is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , something that is more certain and more divine then all demonstration , then all other Learnings of the World. 3. That 's no good Religion that disturbs Governments , or shakes a foundation of publick peace . Kings and Bishops are the foundations and the great principles of unity , of peace and Government ; like Rachel and Leah they build up the house of Israel : and those blind Samsons that shake these Pillars intend to pull the house down . My Son , fear God and the King , saith Solomon ; and meddle not with them that are given to change . That is not Truth that loves changes : and the new-nothings of Heretical & Schismatical Preachers are infinitely far from the blessings of Truth . In the holy Language Truth hath a Mysterious Name , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Emet ; it consists of three Letters , the first and the last and the middlemost of the Hebrew Letters : implying to us that Truth is first , and will be last , and it is the same all the way , and combines and unites all extreams ; it tyes all ends together . Truth is lasting , and ever full of blessing . For the Jews observe that those Letters which signifie Truth , are both in the figure and the number Quadrate , firme and cubical ; these signifie a foundation , and an abode for ever . Whereas on the other side ; the word which in Hebrew signifies a lye , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Secher , is made of Letters whose numbers are imperfect , and their figure pointed and voluble : to signifie that a Lye hath no foundation . And this very observation will give good light in our Questions and disputes . And I give my instance in Episcopal Government , which hath been of so lasting an abode , of so long a blessing , hath its firmament by the principles of Christianity , hath been blessed by the issues of that stabiliment , it hath for sixteen hundred yeares combined with Monarchy , and hath been taught by the spirit which hath so long dwelt in Gods Church , and hath now ( according to the promise of Jesus , that sayes the gates of Hell shall never prevail against the Church ) been restored amongst us by a heap of Miracles ; and as it went away , so now it is returned againe in the hand of Monarchy , and in the bosome of our Fundamental Laws . Now that Doctrine must needs be suspected of Error and an intolerable Lye that speaks against this Truth , which hath had so long a testimony from God , and from the wisdome and experience of so many ages , of all our Ancestors , and all our Lawes . When the Spirit of God wrote in Greek , Christ is call'd Α and Ω : if he had spoken Hebrew , he had been called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is Christ is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Emet , he is Truth , the same yesterday and to day and for ever : and whoever opposes this holy Sanction which Christs Spirit hath sanctifyed , his word hath warranted , his blessings have endeared , his promises have ratifyed , and his Church hath alwayes kept , he fights against this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Emet , and Secher is his portion ; his Lot is a Lie , his portion is there where holiness can never dwell . And now to conclude , to you Fathers and Brethren , you who are , or intend to be of the Clergie ; you see here the best Compendium of your Studies , the best abbreviature of your labours , the truest method of wisdom , and the infallible , the only way of judging concerning the Disputes and Questions in Christendom . It is not by reading multitude of Books , but by studying the truth of God : it is not by laborious Commentaries of the Doctors that you can finish your work , but by the expositions of the Spirit of God : it is not by the Rules of Metaphysics , but by the proportions of Holinesse : and when all Books are read , and all Arguments examined , and all Authorities alledged , nothing can be found to be true that is unholy . Give your selves to reading , to exhortation , and to Doctrine , saith St. Paul. Read all good Books you can : but exhortation unto good life is the best Instrument , and the best teacher of true Doctrine , of that which is according to Godlinesse . And let me tell you this , The great learning of the Fathers was more owing to their piety then to their skill ; more to God then to themselves : and to this purpose is that excellent ejaculation of St. Chrysostome , with which I will conclude . O blessed and happy men , whose names are in the Book of life , from whom the Devils fled and Heretics did feare them , who ( by Holinesse ) have stopp'd the mouthes of them that spake perverse things ! But I , like David , will cry out , Where are thy loving-kindnesses which have been ever of old ? Where is the blessed Quire of Bishops and Doctors , who shined like lights in the World , and contained the Word of Life ? Dulce est meminisse ; their very memory is pleasant . Where is that Evodias , the sweet savour of the Church , the successor and imitator of the holy Apostles ? where is Ignatius , in whom God dwelt ? where is St. Dionysius the Areopagite , that Bird of Paradise , that celestial Eagle ? where is Hippolytus , that good man , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that gentle sweet person ? where is great St. Basil , a man almost equall to the Apostles ? where is Athanasius , rich in vertue ? where is Gregory Nyssen , that great Divine ? and Ephrem the great Syrian , that stirred up the sluggish , and awakened the sleepers , and comforted the afflicted , and brought the yong men to discipline , the Looking-glasse of the religious , the Captain of the Penitents , the destruction of Heresies , the receptacle of Graces , and the habitation of the holy Ghost ? These were the men that prevailed against Error , because they lived according to Truth : and whoever shall oppose you and the truth you walk by , may better be confuted by your lives then by your disputations . Let your adversaries have no evil thing to say of you , and then you will best silence them . For all Heresies and false Doctrines are but like Myron's counterfeit Cow , it deceived none but Beasts ; and these can cozen none but the wicked and the negligent , them that love a lye and live according to it . [ But if ye become burning and shining lights ; if ye do not detaine the truth in unrighteousnesse ; if ye walk in light and live in the Spirit ; your Doctrines will be true , and that Truth will prevaile . ] But if ye live wickedly and scandalously , every little Schismatick shall put you to shame , and draw Disciples after him , and abuse your flocks , and feed them with Colocynths and Hemlock , and place Heresie in the Chaires appointed for your Religion . I pray God give you all grace to follow this Wisdom , to study this Learning , to labour for the understanding of Godlinesse : so your time and your studies , your persons and your labours will be holy and useful , sanctified and blessed , beneficiall to men and pleasing unto God , through him who is the wisdom of the Father , who is made to all that love him Wisdom and Righteousnesse and Sanctification and Redemption : To whom with the Father , &c. FINIS . Imprimatur , M. FRANCK , S.T.D. R sso . in X to . P. ac D no. D. GILB . Archiep. Cant. à Sacris Dom. Sept. 21. 1663. A SERMON Preached in Christs-Church Dublin , July 16. 1663. AT THE FUNERAL Of the most Reverend Father in God , JOHN , Late Lord Archbishop of Armagh , and Primate of all Ireland : WITH A succinct Narrative of his whole Life . The third Edition , enlarged . By the Right Reverend Father in God , JEREMY , Lord Bishop of Down and Connor . LONDON : Printed by J. G. for Richard Royston , Bookseller to the Kings most Excellent Majesty , 1663. 1 Cor. 15.23 . But every Man in his own order : Christ the first fruits ; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming . THe Condition of Man in this world is so limited and depressed , so relative and imperfect , that the best things he does he does weakly , and the best things he hath are imperfections in their very constitution . I need not tell how little it is that we know ; the greatest indication of this is , That we can never tell how many things we know not : and we may soon span our own Knowledge , but our Ignorance we can never fathom . Our very Will , in which Mankind pretends to be most noble and imperial , is a direct state of imperfection ; and our very liberty of Chusing good and evil is permitted to us , not to make us proud , but to make us humble ; for it supposes weakness of Reason and weakness of Love. For if we understood all the degrees of Amability in the Service of God , or if we had such love to God as he deserves , and so perfect a conviction as were fit for his Services , we could no more Deliberate : For Liberty of Will is like the motion of a Magnetick Needle toward the North , full of trembling and uncertainty till it were fixed in the beloved Point ; it wavers as long as it is free , and is at rest when it can chuse no more . And truly what is the hope of Man ? It is indeed the resurrection of the Soul in this world from sorrow and her saddest pressures , and like the Twilight to the Day , and the Harbinger of joy ; but still it is but a conjugation of Infirmities , and proclaims our present calamity , onely because it is uneasie here , it thrusts us forwards toward the light and glories of the Resurrection . For as a Worm creeping with her belly on the ground , with her portion and share of Adam's , curse , lifts up its head to partake a little of the blessings of the air , and opens the junctures of her imperfect body , and curles her little rings into knots and combinations , drawing up her tail to a neighbourhood of the heads pleasure and motion ; but still it must return to abide the fate of its own nature , and dwell and sleep upon the dust : So are the hopes of a mortal Man ; he opens his eyes and looks upon fine things at distance , and shuts them again with weakness , because they are too glorious to behold ; and the Man rejoyces because he hopes fine things are staying for him ; but his heart akes , because he knows there are a thousand wayes to fail and miss of those glories ; & though he hopes , yet he enjoys not ; he longs , but he possesses not , and must be content with his portion of dust ; and being a worm and no Man must lie down in this portion , before he can receive the end of his hopes , the Salvation of his Soul in the resurrection of the dead . For as Death is the end of our lives , so is the Resurrection the end of our hopes ; and as we die daily , so we daily hope : but Death , which is the end of our life , is the enlargement of our Spirits from hope to certainty , from uncertain fears to certain expectations , from the death of the body to the life of the soul ; that is , to partake of the light and life of Christ , to rise to life as he did ; for his Resurrection is the beginning of ours : He died for us alone , not for himself ; but he rose again for himself and us too . So that if he did rise , so shall we ; the Resurrection shall be universal ; good and bad ; all shall rise , but not altogether . First Christ , then we that are Christs ; and yet there is a third Resurrection , though not spoken of here ; but thus it shall be . The dead in Christ shall rise first ; that is , next to Christ ; and after them the wicked shall rise to condemnation . So that you see here is the summe of affairs treated of in my Text ; Not whether it be lawful to eat a Tortoise or a Mushrome , or to tread with the foot bare upon the ground within the Octaves of Easter . It is not here inquired whether Angels be material or immaterial ; or whether the dwellings of dead Infants be within the Air or in the regions of the Earth ; the inquiry here is whether we are to be Christians or no ? whether we are to live good lives or no ? or whether it be permitted to us to live with Lust or Covetousness acted with all the daughters of rapine and ambition ? whether there be any such thing as sin , any judicatory for Consciences , any rewards of Piety , any difference of Good and Bad , any rewards after this life ? This is the design of these words by proper interpretation : for if Men shall die like Dogs and sheep , they will certainly live like Wolves and Foxes : but he that believes the Article of the Resurrection , hath entertained the greatest Demonstration in the world , That nothing can make us happy but the Knowledge of God , and Conformity to the life and death of the holy Jesus . Here therefore are the great Hinges of all Religion : 1. Christ is already risen from the dead . 2. We also shall rise in Gods time and our order . Christ is the first fruits . But there shall be a full harvest of the Resurrection , and all shall rise . My Text speaks onely of the Resurrection of the just , of them that belong to Christ ; explicitely I say of these ; and therefore directly of Resurrection to life eternal . But because he also sayes there shall be an order for every man ; and yet every man does not belong to Christ ; therefore indirectly also he implies the more universal Resurrection unto judgment . But this shall be the last thing that shall be done ; for , according to the Proverb of the Jews , Michael flies but with one wing , and Gabriel with two ; God is quick in sending Angels of peace , and they flye apace ; but the messengers of wrath come slowly : God is more hasty to glorifie his servants then to condemn the wicked . And therefore in the story of Dives and Lazarus we find that the beggar died first ; the good man Lazarus was first taken away from his misery to his comfort , and afterwards the rich man died : and as the good many times die first , so all of them rise first , as if it were a matter of haste : And as the mothers breasts swell and shoot and long to give food to her babe ; so Gods bowels did yearn over his banish'd children , and he longs to cause them to eat and drink in his Kingdom . And at last the wicked shall rise unto condemnation , for that must be done too ; every man in his own order : first Christ , then Christs servants , and at last Christs enemies . The first of these is the great ground of our faith , the second is the consummation of all our hopes : the first is the foundation of God that stands sure , the second is that superstructure that shall never perish : by the first we believe in God unto righteousness , by the second we live in God unto salvation : But the third , for that also is true & must be consider'd , is the great affrightment of all them that live ungodly . But in the whole Christs Resurrection and ours is the Α and Ω of a Christian ; that as Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to day , and the same for ever ; so may we in Christ , become in the morrow of the Resurrection the same or better then yesterday in our natural life ; the same body and the same soul tied together in the same essential union , with this onely difference , that not Nature but Grace and Glory with an Hermetick seal give us a new signature , whereby we shall no more be changed , but like unto Christ our head we shall become the same for ever . Of these I shall discourse in order . 1. That Christ , who is the first fruits , is the first in this order : he is already risen from the dead . 2. We shall all take our turns , we shall all die , and as sure as death we shall all rise again . And 3. This very order is effective of the thing it self . That Christ is first risen , is the demonstration and certainty of ours , for because there is an order in this oeconomy , the first in the kind is the measure of the rest . If Christ be the first fruits , we are the whole vintage , and we shall all die in the order of Nature , and shall rise again in the order of Christ : They that are Christ's , and are found so at his coming , shall partake of his resurrection . But Christ first , then they that are Christ's : that 's the order . 1. Christ is the first fruits ; he is already risen from the dead . For he alone could not be held by death . Free among the dead . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; Death was Sins eldest daughter , and the Grave-clothes were her first mantle ; but Christ was conquerour over both , and came to take that away , and to disarm this . This was a glory fit for the head of mankind , but it was too great and too good to be easily believ'd by incredulous and weak-hearted Man. It was at first doubted of by all that were concerned ; but they that saw it had no reason to doubt any longer . But what 's that to us who saw it not ? Yes , very much . Valde dubitatum est ab illis , ne dubitaretur à nobis , saith S. Augustine . They doubted very much , that by their confirmation we might be established and doubt no more . Mary Magdalene saw him first , and she ran with joy and said she had seen the Lord , and that he was risen from the dead ; but they believed her not . After that divers women together saw him , and they told it , but had no thanks for their pains , and obtain'd no credit among the Disciples . The two Disciples that went to Emaus saw him , talk'd with him , eat with him , and they ran and told it : they told true , but nobody believ'd them . Then S. Peter saw him , but he was not yet got into the Chair of the Catholick Church , they did not think him i●fallible , and so they believ'd him not at all . Five times in one day he appear'd ; for after all this he appear'd to the Eleven ; they were indeed transported with joy and wonder , but they would scarce believe their own eyes , and though they saw him they doubted . Well , all this was not enough ; he was seen also of James , and suffered Thomas to thrust his hand into his side , and appeared to S. Paul , and was seen by five hundred brethren at once . So that there is no capacity of mankind , no time , no place , but had an ocular demonstration of his Resurrection . He appeared to Men and Women , to the Clergy and the Laity , to sinners of both sexes ; to weak men and to criminals , to doubters and deniers , at home and abroad , in publick and in private , in their houses and their journeys , unexpected and , by appointment , betimes in the morning and late at night , to them in conjunction and to them in dispersion , when they did look for him and when they did not ; he appeared upon earth to many , and to S. Paul and S. Stephen from heaven . So that we can require no greater testimony then all these are able to give us , and they saw for themselves and for us too , that the Faith and certainty of the Resurrection of Jesus might be conveyed to all that shall die and follow Christ in their own order . Now this being matter of fact , cannot be suppos'd infinite , but limited to time and place , and therefore to be prov'd by them who at that time were upon the place ; good men and true , simple and yet losers by the bargain , many and united , confident and constant , preaching it all their life , and stoutly maintaining it at their death . Men that would not deceive others , and Men that could not be deceiv'd themselves in a matter so notorious and so prov'd , and so seen : and if this be not sufficient credibility in a matter of Fact as this was , then we can have no story credibly transmitted to us , no Records kept , no Acts of Courts , no narratives of the dayes of old , no traditions of our Fathers , no memorials of them in the third generation . Nay , if from these we have not sufficient causes and arguments of Faith , how shall we be able to know the will of Heaven upon Earth ? unless God do not only tell it once , but alwayes , and not only alwayes to some Men , but alwayes to all Men : for if some Men must believe others , they can never do it in any thing more reasonably than in this ; and if we may not trust them in this , then without a perpetual miracle , no Man could have Faith : for Faith could never come by hearing ; by nothing but by seeing . But if there be any use of History , any Faith in Men , any honesty in manners , any truth in humane entercourse ; if there be any use of Apostles or Teachers , of Embassadors , or Letters , of ears or hearing ; if there be any such thing as the Grace of Faith , that is less than demonstration or intuition , then we may be as sure that Christ the first Fruits is already risen , as all these credibilities can make us . But let us take heed ; as God hates a lie , so he hates incredulity ; an obstinate , a foolish and pertinacious understanding . What we do every minute of our lives in matters of title and great concernment , if we refuse to do it in Religion , which yet is to be conducted as all humane affairs are , by humane instruments and arguments of perswasion proper to the nature of the thing , it is an obstinacy as cross to humane reason , as it is to Divine Faith. But this Article was so clearly prov'd , that presently it came to pass that Men were no longer asham'd of the Cross , but it was worn upon breasts , printed in the air , drawn upon foreheads , carried upon Banners , put upon crowns Imperial , presently it came to pass that the Religion of the despised Jesus did infinitely prevail : a Religion that taught Men to be meek and humble , apt to receive injuries , but unapt to do any ; a Religion that gave countenance to the poor and pitiful , in a time when riches were ador'd , and ambition and pleasure had possessed the heart of all Mankind ; a Religion that would change the face of things , and the hearts of Men , and break vile habits into gentleness and counsel ; that such a Religion , in such a time by the Sermons and Conduct of Fishermen , Men of mean breeding and illiberal Arts , should so speedily triumph over the Philosophy of the World , and the arguments of the subtil , and the Sermons of the Eloquent ; the Power of Princes and the Interests of States , the inclinations of Nature , and the blindness of zeal , the force of custom , and the sollicitation of passions , the pleasures of sin and the busie Arts of the Devil ; that is , against Wit and Power , Superstition and Wilfulness , Fame and Money , Nature and Empire , which are all the causes in this World that can make a thing impossible ; this , this is to be ascrib'd to the power of God , and is the great demonstration of the Resurrection of Jesus . Every thing was an Argument for it , and improv'd it ; no Objection could hinder it , no Enemies destroy it ; whatsoever was for them , it made the Religion to increase ; whatsoever was against them , made it to increase ; Sun-shine and Storms , Fair Weather or Foul , it was all one as to the event of things : for they were instruments in the hands of God , who could make what himself should chuse to be the product of any cause ; So that if the Christians had peace , they went abroad and brought in Converts ; if they had no peace , but persecution ; the Converts came in to them . In prosperity they allur'd and intic'd the World by the beauty of holiness ; in affliction and trouble they amaz'd all men with the splendour of their Innocence , and the glories of their patience ; and quickly it was that the World became Disciple to the glorious Nazarene , and men could no longer doubt of the Resurrection of Jesus , when it became so demonstrated by the certainty of them that saw it , and the courage of them that died for it , and the multitude of them that believ'd it ; who by their Sermons , and their Actions , by their publick Offices and Discourses , by Festivals and Eucharists , by Arguments of Experience and Sense , by Reason and Religion , by perswading rational Men , and establishing believing Christians , by their living in the obedience of Jesus , and dying for the testimony of Jesus , have greatly advanc'd his Kingdom , and his Power , and his Glory , into which he entred after his Resurrection from the dead . For he is the first fruits ; and if we hope to rise through him , we must confess that himself is first risen from the dead . That 's the first particular . 2. There is an order for us also . We also shall rise again . Combustúsque senex tumulo procedit adultus , Consumens dat membra rogus ; — The ashes of old Camillus shall stand up spritely from his Urne ; and the Funeral fires shall produce a new warmth to the dead bones of all those who died under the arms of all the Enemies of the Roman greatness . This is a less wonder than the former : for admonetur omnis aetas jam fieri posse quod aliquando factum est . If it was done once , it may be done again ; for since it could never have been done , but by a power that is infinite , that infinite must also be eternal and indeficient . By the same Almighty power which restor'd life to the dead body of our living Lord , we may all be restor'd to a new life in the Resurrection of the dead . When Man was not , what power , what causes made him to be ? whatsoever it was , it did then as great a work as to raise his body to the same being again ; and because we know not the method of Natures secret changes , and how we can be fashioned beneath in secreto terrae , and cannot handle and discern the possibilities and seminal powers in the ashes of dissolved bones , must our ignorance in Philosophy be put in balance against the Articles of Religion , the hopes of Mankind , the Faith of Nations and the truth of God ? and are our Opinions of the power of God so low , that our understanding must be his measure ; and he shall be confessed to do nothing , unless it be made plain in our Philosophy ? Certainly we have a low Opinion of God unless we believe he can do more things then we can understand . But let us hear S. Paul's demonstration : If the Corn dies and lives again ; if it layes its body down , suffers alteration , dissolution and death , but at the spring rises again in the verdure of a leaf , in the fulness of the ear , in the kidneys of wheat ; if it proceeds from little to great , from nakedness to ornament , from emptiness to plenty , from unity to multitude , from death to life : be a Sadducee no more , shame not thy understanding , and reproch not the weakness of thy Faith , by thinking that Corn can be restor'd to life and Man cannot ; especially since in every creature the obediential capacity is infinite , and cannot admit degrees ; for every Creature can be any thing under the power of God , which cannot be less than infinite . But we find no obscure foot-steps of this mystery even amongst the Heathens . Pliny reports that Appion the Grammarian by the use of the plant 0siris call'd Homer from his grave ; and in Valerius Maximus we find that Aelius Tubero return'd to life when he was seated in his Funeral pile ; and in Plutarch , that Soleus after three dayes burial did live , and in Valerius that Aeris Pamphilius did so after ten dayes . And it was so commonly believ'd , that Glaucus who was choked in a vessel of honey did rise again , that it grew to a Proverb ; Glaucus poto melle resurrexit ; Glaucus having tasted honey , died and liv'd again . I pretend not to believe these stories true ; but from these instances it may be concluded that they believ'd it possible that there should be a Resurrection from the dead ; and natural reason , and their Philosophy did not wholly destroy their hopes and expectation to have a portion in this Article . For God knowing that the great hopes of Man , that the biggest endearment of Religion , the sanction of private Justice , the band of Piety and holy Courage , does wholly derive from the Article of the Resurrection , was pleased not onely to make it credible , but easie and familiar to us ; and we so converse every night with the Image of death , that every morning we find an argument of the Resurrection . Sleep and Death have but one mother , and they have one name in common . Soles occidere & redire possunt , Nobis cum semel occidit lux brevis , Nox est perpetua una dormienda . Catul. Charnel-houses are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cemeteries or sleeping-places , and they that die are fallen asleep , and the Resurrection is but an awakening and standing up from sleep : but in sleep our Senses are as fast bound by Nature , as our Joynts are by the grave-clothes ; and unless an Angel of God awaken us every morning , we must confess our selves as unable to converse with Men , as we now are afraid to die and to converse with Spirits . But however Death it self is no more ; it is but darkness and a shadow , a rest and a forgetfulness . What is there more in death ? what is there less in sleep ? For do we not see by experience that nothing of equal loudness does awaken us sooner then a Mans voice , especially if he be call'd by name ? and thus also it shall be in the Resurrection . We shall be awakened by the voice of a Man , and he that call'd Lazarus by name from his grave , shall also call us : for although S. Paul affirms , that the trumpet shall sound , and there shall be the voice of an Archangel ; yet this is not a word of Nature , but of Office and Ministry : Christ himself is that Archangel , and he shall descend with a mighty shout , ( saith the Apostle ) and all that are in the grave shall hear his voice , saith S. John : So that we shall be awakened by the voice of a Man , because we are onely fallen asleep by the decree of God ; and when the Cock and the Lark call us up to prayer and labour , the first thing we see is an argument of our Resurrection from the dead . And when we consider what the Greek Church reports , That amongst them the bodies of those that die Excommunicate will not return to dust till the Censure be taken off ; we may with a little faith and reason believe , that the same power that keeps them from their natural Dissolution , can recall them to life and union . I will not now insist upon the story of the Rising Bones seen every year in Egypt , nor the pretences of the Chymists , that they from the ashes of Flowers can re-produce from the same materials the same beauties i● colour and figure ; for he that proves a certain Truth from an uncertain Argument , is like him that wears a Wooden leg when he hath two sound legs already ; it hinders his going , but helps him not : The Truth of God stands not in need of such supporters , Nature alone is a sufficient preacher : Quae nunc herba fuit , lignum jacet , berba futura , Aeriae nudantur aves cum penna vetusta , Et nova subvestit reparatas pluma volucres . Night and Day , the Sun returning to the same point of East , every change of Species in the same matter , Generation and Corruption , the Eagle renewing her youth and the Snake her skin ; the Silk-worm and the Swallows the care of posterity and the care of an immortal name , Winter and Summer , the Fall and Spring , the Old Testament and the New , the words of Job , and the Visions of the Prophets , the prayer of Ezekiel for the resurrection of the men of Ephraim , and the return of Jonas from the Whales belly , the histories of the Jews and the Narratives of Christians , the Faith of Believers and the Philosophy of the reasonable ; all joyn in the verification of this Mystery . And amongst these heaps it is not of the least consideration that there was never any good man , who having been taught this Article , but if he serv'd God , he also relied upon this . If he believ'd God , he believ'd this ; and therefore S. Paul sayes that they who were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , were also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they who had no hope ( meaning of the Resurrection ) were also Atheists , and without God in the world . And it is remarkable what S. Augustine observes , That when the World saw the righteous Abel destroyed , and that the murderer out-liv'd his crime , and built up a numerous family , and grew mighty upon Earth , they neglected the Service of God upon that account , till God in pity of their prejudice and foolish arguings took Enoch up to heaven to recover them from their impieties , by shewing them that their bodies and souls should be rewarded for ever in an eternal union . But Christ the first fruits is gone before , and himself did promise that when himself was lifted up he would draw all men after him . Every man in his own order ; first Christ , then they that are Christ's at his coming . And so I have done with the second Particular , not Christ onely , but we also shall rise in Gods time and our order . But concerning this order I must speak a word or two , not only for the fuller handling t●e Text , but because it will be matter of application of what hath been already spoken of the Article of the Resurrection . 3. First Christ and then we . And we therefore because Christ is already risen . But you must remember , that the Resurrection and Exaltation of Christ was the reward of his perfect obedience and purest holiness ; and he calling us to an imitation of the same obedience , and the same perfect holiness , prepares a way for us to the same Resurrection . If we by holiness become the Sons of God as Christ was , we shall also as he was become the Sons of God in the Resurrection : But upon no other terms . So said our blessed Lord himself : Ye which have followed me in the regeneration , when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of his glory , ye also shall sit upon thrones judging the tribes of Israel . For as it was with Christ the first fruits , so it shall be with all Christians in their own order : as with the Head , so it shall be with the Members . He was the Son of God by love and obedience , and then became the Son of God by Resurrection from the dead to life Eternal , and so shall we ; but we cannot be so in any other way . To them that are Christ's , and to none else shall this be given . For we must know that God hath sent Christ into the World to be a great example and demonstration of the Oeconomy and Dispensation of Eternal life . As God brought Christ to glory , so he will bring us , but by no other method . He first obeyed the will of God , and patiently suffered the will of God ; he died , and rose again , and entered into glory ; and so must we . Thus Christ is made Via , Veritas , & Vita , the Way , the Truth , and the Life ; that is , the true way to Eternal life : He first trode this Wine-press , and we must insist in the same steps , or we shall never partake of this blessed Resurrection . He was made the Son of God in a most glorious manner , and we by him , by his merit , and by his grace , and by his example : but other then this there is no way of Salvation for us . That 's the first and great effect of this glorious order . 4. But there is one thing more in it yet , Every Man in his own order . First Christ , and then Christ's . But what shall become of them that are not Christ's ? why there is an order for them too . First , they that are Christ's ; and then they that are not his . * Blessed and holy is he that hath his part in the first resurrection . There is a first and a second Resurrection even after this life . The dead in Christ shall rise first . Now blessed are they that have their portion here ; for upon these the second death shall have no power . As for the recalling the wicked from their graves , it is no otherwise in the sense of the Spirit to be called a Resurrection , then taking a Criminal from the Prison to the Bar is a giving of liberty . When poor Attilius Aviola had been seized on by an Apoplexy , his friends supposing him dead carried him to his Funeral pile ; but when the fire began to approch , and the heat to warm the body , he reviv'd , and seeing himself incircled with Funeral flames , call'd out aloud to his friends to rescue , not the dead , but the living Aviola from that horrid burning . But it could not be . He onely was r●stor'd from his sickness to fall into death , and from his dull disease to a sharp and intolerable torment . Just so shall the wicked live again ; they shall receive their souls , that they may be a portion for Devils ; they shall receive their bodies , that they may feel the everlasting burning ; they shall see Christ , that they may look on him whom they have pierced ; and they shall hear the voice of God passing upon them the intolerable sentence ; they shall come from their graves , that they may go into hell ; and live again , that they may die for ever . So have we seen a poor condemned Criminal , the weight of whose sorrows sitting heavily upon his soul hath benummed him into a deep sleep , till he hath forgotten his grones , and laid aside his deep sighings ; but on a sudden comes the messenger of death , and unbinds the Poppy garland , scatters the heavy cloud that incircled his miserable head , and makes him return to acts of life , that he may quickly descend into death and be no more . So is every sinner that lies down in shame , and makes his grave with the wicked ; he shall indeed rise again , and be called upon by the voice of the Archangel , but then he shall descend into sorrows greater then the reason and the patience of a man , weeping and shrieking louder then the grones of the miserable children in the Valley of Hinnon . These indeed are sad stories , but true as the voice of God and the Sermons of the holy Jesus . They are Gods words and Gods decrees ; and I wish that all who profess the belief of these , would consider sadly what they mean. If ye believe the Article of the Resurrection , then you know that in your body you shall receive what you did in the body , whether it be good or bad . It matters not now very much whether our bodies be beauteous or deformed ; for if we glorifie God in our bodies , God shall make our bodies glorious . It matters not much whether we live in ease and pleasure , or eat nothing but bitter herbs : the body that lies in dust and ashes , that goes stooping and feeble , that lodges at the foot of the Cross and dwells in discipline , shall be feasted at the eternal supper of the Lamb. And ever remember this , that beastly pleasures , and lying lips , and a deceitful tongue , and a heart that sendeth forth proud things , are no good dispositions to a blessed Resurrection . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It is not good that in the body we live a life of Dissolution , for that 's no good harmony with that purpose of glory which God designs the body . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Phocyllides ; for we hope that from our beds of darkness we shall rise into Regions of light , and shall become like unto God : They shall partake of a Resurrection to life ; and what this can infer is very obvious . For if it be so hard to believe a Resurrection from one death , let us not be dead in trespasses and sins , for a Resurrection from two deaths will be harder to be believ'd , and harder to be effected . But if any of you have lost the life of Grace , and so forfeited all your title to a life of Glory , betake your selves to an early and an entire piety , that when by this first Resurrection you have made this way plain before your face , you may with confidence expect a happy Resurrection from your graves . For if it be possible that the spirit , when it is dead in sin , can arise to a life of righteousness ; much more it is easie to suppose that the body after death is capable of being restor'd again . And this is a consequent of S. Pauls argument , If when ye were enemies ye were reconciled by his death , much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life ; plainly declaring that it is a harder and more wonderful thing for a wicked man to become the friend of God , then for one that is so , to be carried up to heaven and partake of his glory . The first Resurrection is certainly the greater miracle : But he that hath risen once , may rise again ; and this is as sure as that he that dies once , may die again , and die for ever . But he who partakes of the death of Christ by Mortification , and of his Resurrection by holiness of life and a holy Faith , shall , according to the expression of the Prophet Isaiah , Enter into his chamber of death ; when Nature and Gods decree shall shut the doors upon him , and there he shall be hidden for a little moment : But then shall they that dwell in dust awake and sing , with Christs dead body shall they arise : all shall rise , but every man in his own order , Christ the first fruits , then they that are Christs at his coming . Amen . I have now done with my Meditation of the Resurrection ; but we have a new and a sadder subject to consider : It is glorious and brave when a Christian contemplates those glories which stand at the foot of the Account of all God's Servants ; but when we consider , that before all or any thing of this happens every Christian must twice exuere hominem , put off the Old man , and then lie down in dust and the dishonours of the Grave , it is Vinum Myrrhatum , there is Myrrhe put into our Wine ; it is wholsom , but it will allay all our pleasures of that glorious expectation . But no man can escape it . After that the Great Cyrus had rul'd long in a mighty Empire ; yet there came a Message from Heaven , not so sad it may be , yet as decretory as the Hand-writing on the wall that arrested his Successor Darius , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Prepare thy self , O Cyrus , and then go unto the Gods ; he laid aside his Tiar and his beauteous Diadem , and cover'd his face with a cloth , and in a single Linen laid his honour'd head in a poor humble Grave ; and none of us all can avoid this sentence . For if Wit and Learning , great Fame and great Experience , if wise Notices of things , and an honourable Fortune , if Courage and Skill , if Prelacy and an honourable Age , if any thing that could give Greatness and Immunity to a wise and prudent man , could have been put in bar against a sad day , and have gone for good plea , this sad Scene of Sorrows had not been the entertainment of this Assembly . But tell me , where are those great Masters , who while they liv'd flourish'd in their studies ? Jam eorum praebendas alii possident , & nescio utrum de iis cogitant ; Other men have got their Prebends and their Dignities , and who knows whether ever they remember them or no ? While they liv'd they seem'd nothing , when they are dead , every man for a while speaks of them what they please , and afterwards they are as if they had not been . But the piety of the Christian Church hath made some little provision towards an artificial Immortality for brave and worthy persons ; and the Friendships , which our dead contracted while they were alive , require us to continue a fair memory as long as we can ; but they expire in monethly minds , or at most in a faint and declining Anniversary ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And we have great reason so to do in this present sad accident of the death of our late most Reverend Primate , whose death the Church of Ireland hath very great reason to deplore ; and we have great obligation to remember : his very many worthy Deeds done for this poor afflicted and despised Church . S. Paul made an excellent Funeral Oration , as it were instituting a Feast of All Saints , Who all died having obtained a good report ; and that excellent Preacher in the 11. chap. of the Hebrews made a Sermon of their Commemoration . For since good men , while they are alive , have their conversation in Heaven ; when they are in Heaven 't is also fit that they should in their good names live upon Earth . And as their great Examples are an excellent Sermon to the living , and the praising them when Envy and Flattery can have no Interest to interpose , as it is the best and most vigorous Sermon and Incentive to great things ; so to conceal what good God hath wrought by them , is great unthankfulness to God and to good men . When Dorcas died the Apostle came to see the dead Corps , and the friends of the deceased expressed their grief and their love by shewing the Coats that she , whilest she lived , wrought with her own hands . She was a good Needle-woman and a good Huswife , and did good to Mankind in her little way , and that it self ought not to be forgotten , and the Apostle himself was not displeased with their little Sermons , and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the women made upon that sad interview . But if we may have the same liberty to record the worthy things of this our most venerable Father and Brother , and if there remains no more of that Envy which usually obscures the splendour of living Hero's , if you can with your charitable though weeping eyes behold the great gifts of God with which he adorned this great Prelate , a●d not object the failings of Humanity to the participation of the Graces of the Spirit , or think that Gods gifts are the lesse because they are born in Earthen Vessels , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for all men bear Mortality about them , and the Cabinet is not beauteous as the Diamond that shines within its bosom ; then we may without interruption pay this duty to Piety , and Friendship , and Thankfulness , and deplore our sad loss by telling a true and sad story of this great man , whom God hath lately taken from our eyes . He was bred in Cambridge in Sidney-college under Mr. Hulet , a grave and a worthy man , and he shewed himself not onely a fruitful Plant by his great progress in his Studies , but made him another return of gratitude , taking care to provide a good Imployment for him in Ireland , where he then began to be greatly interested . It was spoken as an honour to Augustus Caesar , that he gave his Tutor an honourable Funeral ; and Marcus Antoninus erected a Statue unto his ; and Gratian the Emperour made his Master Ausonius to be Consul : And our worthy Primate , knowing the Obligation which they pass upon us , who do Obstetricari gravidae animae , help the parturient Soul to bring forth fruits according to its seminal powers , was careful not onely to reward the industry of such persons so useful to the Church in the cultivating infantes palmarum , young Plants , whose joynts are to be stretch'd and made streight ; but to demonstrate that his Scholar knew how to value Learning , when he knew so well how to reward the Teacher . Having pass'd the course of his studies in the University , and done his Exercise with that Applause which is usually the reward of pregnant Wits and hard study , he was remov'd into York-shire ; where first in the City of York he was an assiduous Preacher , but by the disposition of the Divine Providence he happened to be engaged at North-Alerton in Disputation with three pragmatical Romish Priests of the Jesuits Order , whom he so much worsted in the Conference , and so shamefully disadvantaged by the evidence of Truth , represented wisely and learnedly , that the famous Primate of York , Archbishop Matthews , a learned and an excellent Prelate , and a most worthy Preacher , hearing of that Triumph , sent for him and made him his Chaplain ; in whose service he continued till the death of the Primate , but in that time had given so much testimony of his great Dexterity in the Conduct of Ecclesiastical and Civil Affairs , that he grew dear to his Master . In that Imployment he was made Prebendary of York , and then of Rippon ; the Dean of which Church having made him his Sub-Dean , he managed the affairs of that Church so well , that he soon acquir'd a greater fame , and entered into the possession of many hearts , and admiration to those many more that knew him . There and at his Parsonage he continued long to do the duty of a learned and good Preacher , and by his Wisdom , Eloquence and Deportment , so gain'd the affections of the Nobility , Gentry and Commons of that Countrey , that as at his return thither upon the blessed Restauration of His most Sacred Majesty he knew himself oblig'd enough , and was so kind as to give them a Visit ; so they by their coming in great numbers to meet him , their joyful Reception of him , their great Caressing of him when he was there , their forward hopes to enjoy him as their Bishop , their trouble at his Departure , their unwillingness to let him go away , gave signal testimonies that they were wise and kind enough to understand and value his great worth . But while he lived there he was like a Diamond in the dust , ( or Lucius Quinctius at the plough ) his low Fortune covered a most valuable person , till he became observ'd by Sir Thomas Wentworth Lord President of York , whom we all knew for his great Excellencies , and his great but glorious Misfortunes . This rare person espied the great abilities of Doctor Bramhall , and made him his Chaplain , and brought him into Ireland as one whom he believ'd would prove the most fit instrument to serve in that design , which for two years before his arrival here he had greatly meditated and resolved , the Reformation of Religion and the Reparation of the broken Fortunes of the Church : The Complaints were many , the Abuses great , the Causes of the Church vastly numerous , but as fast as they were brought in , so fast they were by the Lord Deputy referred back to Dr. Bramhall , who by his indefatigable Pains , great Sagacity , perpetual Watchfulness , daily and hourly Consultations , reduc'd things to a more tolerable condition then they had been left in by the Schismatical principles of some , and the unjust Prepossessions of others , form any years before . For at the Reformation the Popish Bishops and Priests seemed to conform , and did so , that keeping their Bishopricks they might enrich their Kindred and dilapidate the Revenues of the Church ; which by pretended Offices , false Informations , Fee-farms at contemptible Rents , and ungodly Alienations , were made low as Poverty it self , and unfit to minister to the needs of them that serv'd the Altar , or the noblest purposes of Religion . For Hospitality decayed , and the Bishops were easie to be oppressed by those that would ; and they complained , but for a long time had no helper , till God raised up that glorious Instrument the Earl of Strafford , who brought over with him as great affections to the Church and to all publick Interests , and as admirable Abilities , as ever before his time did invest and adorn any of the Kings Vicegerents : and God fitted his hand with an Instrument good as his skill was great . For the first Specimen of his Abilities and Diligence in recovery of some lost Tithes being represented to His late Majesty of blessed and glorious memory , it pleased His Majesty upon the death of Bishop Downham to advance the Doctor to the Bishoprick of D●rry ; which he not onely adorned with an excellent spirit and a wise Government , but did more then double the Revenue , not by taking any thing from them to whom it was due , but by resuming something of the Churches Patrimony , which by undue means was detained in unfitting hands . But his care was beyond his Diocese , and his zele broke out to warm all his Brethren ; and though by reason of the Favour and Piety of King James the escheated Counties were well provided for their Tithes , yet the Bishopricks were not so well till the Primate , then Bishop of Derry , by the favour of the Lord Lieutenant and his own incessant and assiduous labour and wise conduct , brought in divers Impropriations , cancell'd many unjust Alienations , and did restore them to a condition much more tolerable ; I say much more tolerable ; for though he rais'd them above contempt , yet they were not near to envy ; but he knew there could not in all times be wanting too many that envied to the Church every degree of prosperity : so Judas did to Christ the expence of Oyntment , and so Dyonisius told the Priest , When himself stole the golden Cloak from Apollo , and gave him one of Arc●dian home-spun , that it was warmer for him in Winter and cooler in Summer . And forever , since the Church by God's blessing and the favour of Religious Kings and Princes , and Pious Nobility , hath been endowed with fair Revenues ; inimicus homo , the Enemy hath not been wanting by pretences of Religion to take away God's portion from the Church , as if his Word were intended as an instrument to rob his Houses . But when the Israelites were governed by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and God was their King , and Moses his Lieutenant , and things were of his management , he was pleas'd by making great Provisions for them that ministred in the service of the Tabernacle to consign this truth for ever , That Men , as they love God , at the same rate are to make provisions for his Priests . For when himself did it , he not only gave the 48. Cities , with a mile of Glebe round about their City every way , and yet the whole Country was but 140. miles long , or thereabouts , from Dan to Beersheba ; but besides this they had the tithe of a●l increase , the first fruits , offerings , vows , redemptions , and in short , they had 24. sorts of Dues , as Buxtorf relates ; and all this either brought to the Barn home to them without trouble , or else , as the nature of the thing required , brought to the Temple ; the first to make it more profitable , and the second to declare that they received it not from the People but from God , not the Peoples kindness but the Lords inheritance ; insomuch that this small Tribe of Levi , whic● was not the 40th . part of the People , as the Scripture computes them , had a Revenue almost treble to any of the largest of the Tribes . I will not insist on what Villalpandus observes , it may easily be read in the 45. of Ezekiel concerning that portion which God reserves for himself and his service , but whatsoever it be this I shall say , that it is confessedly a Prophecy of the Gospel ; but this I adde , that they had as little to do , and much less than a Christian Priest , and yet in all the 24. courses the poorest Priest amongst them might be esteemed a Rich man. I speak not this to upbraid any man or any thing but Sacrilege and Murmur , nor to any other end but to represent upon what great and Religious grounds the then Bishop of Derry did with so much care and assiduous labour endeavour to restore the Church of Ireland to that splendor and fulness ; which as it is much conducing to the honour of God and of Religion , God himself being the Judge , so it is much more necessary for you than it is for us , and so this wise Prelate rarely well understood it ; and having the same advantage and blessing as we now have , a Gracious King , and a Lieutenant Patron of Religion , and the Church , he improv'd the deposita pietatis , as Origen calls them , the Gages of Piety , which the Religion of the ancient Princes and Nobles of this Kingdom had bountifully given to such a comfortable competency , that though there be place left for present and future Piety to inlarge it self , yet no man hath reason to be discourag'd in his duty ; insomuch that as I have heard from a most worthy hand , that at his going into England he gave account to the Archbishop of Canterbury of 30000 l. a year , in the recovery of which he was greatly and principally instrumental . But the goods of this World are called waters by Solomon . Stollen waters are sweet , and they are too unstable to be stopt : some of these waters did run back from their proper chanel , and return to another course than God and the Laws intended , yet his labours and pious Counsels were not the less acceptable to God and good men , and therefore by a thankful and honourable recognition the Convocation of the Church of Ireland hath transmitted in Record to posterity their deep resentment of his singular services and great abilities in this whole affair . And this honour will for ever remain to that Bishop of Derry ; he had a Zerubbabel who repair'd the Temple and restor'd its beauty , but he was the Joshuah , the High-priest , who under him ministred this blessing to the Congregations of the Lord. But his care was not determin'd in the exteriour part onely , and Accessaries of Religion ; he was careful , and he was prosperous in it , to reduce that Divine and excellent Service of our Church to publick and constant Exercise , to Unity and Devotion ; and to cause the Articles of the Church of England to be accepted as the Rule of publick confessions and perswasions here , that they and we might be Populus unius labii , of one heart and one lip , building up our hopes of heaven on a most holy Faith ; and taking away that Shibboleth which made this Church lisp too undecently , or rather in some little degree to speak the speech of Ashdod , and not the language of Canaan ; and the excellent and wise pains he took in this particular no man can dehonestate or reproch , but he that is not willing to confess that the Church of England is the best Reformed Church in the world . But when the brave Roman Infantry under the Conduct of Manlius ascended up to the Capitol to defend Religion and their Altars from the fury of the Gauls , they all pray'd to God , Ut quemadmodum ipsi ad defendendum templum ejus concurrissent , ita ille virtutem ecrum numine suo tueretur : That as they came to defend his Temple by their Arms , so he would defend their Persons and that Cause with his Power and Divinity . And this excellent man in the Cause of Religion found the like blessing which they prayed for ; God by the prosperity of his labours and a blessed effect gave testimony not onely of the Piety and Wisdom of his purposes , but that he loves to bless a wise Instrument when it is vigorously imployed in a wise and religious labour . He overcame the difficulty in defiance of all such pretences as were made even from Religion it self to obstruct the better procedure of real and material Religion . These were great things and matter of great envy , and like the fiery eruptions of Vesuvius might with the very ashes of Consumption have buried another man. At first indeed , as his blessed Master the most holy Jesus had , so he also had his Annum acceptabilem . At first the product was nothing but great admiration at his stupendious parts , and wonder at his mighty diligence and observation of his unusual zele in so good and great things ; but this quickly pass'd into the natural daughters of Envy , Suspicion and Detraction , the spirit of Obloquy and Slander . His zele for recovery of the Church-revenues was call'd Oppression and Rapine , Covetousness and Injustice ; his care of reducing Religion to wise and justifiable principles was called Popery and Arminianism , and I know not what names , which signifie what the Authors are pleased to mean , and the People to conster and to hate . The intermedial prosperity of his Person and Fortune , which he had as an Earnest of a greater reward to so well-meant labours , was suppos'd to be the production of Illiberal Arts and ways of getting ; and the necessa●y refreshment of his wearied spirits , which did not alwayes supply all his needs , and were sometimes less then the permissions even of prudent charity , they call'd Intemperance : Dederunt enim malum M●t●lli Naevio poetae ; their own surmises were the Bills of Accusation , and the splendour of his great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or Doing of good works , was the great probation of all their Calumnies . But if Envy be the accuser , what can be the defences of Innocence ? Saucior invidiae morsu , quaerenda medela est , Dic quibus in terris sentiet aeger opem ? Our B.S. knowing the unsatisfiable angers of men if their Money or Estates were medled with , refus'd to divide an Inheritance amongst Brethren ; it was not to be imagin'd that this great person ( invested , as all his Brethren were , with the infirmities of Mortality , and yet imployed in dividing and recovering and apportioning of Lands ) should be able to bear all that reproch which Jealousie and Suspicion , and malicious Envy , ●ould invent against him . But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Sophocles : And so did he ; the Affrightments brought to his great Fame and Reputation made him to walk more warily , and do justly , and act prudently , and conduct his affairs by the measures of Laws , as far as he understood , and indeed that was a very great way : but there was Aperta justitia , Clausa manus , Justice was open , but his Hand was shut ; and though every Slanderer could tell a story , yet none could prove that ever he received a Bribe to blind his eyes to the value of a Pair of Gloves . It was his own Expression , when he gave glory to God who had preserv'd him innocent . But because every mans Cause is right in his own eyes , it was hard for him so to acquit himself , that in the Intriques of Law and difficult Cases some of his Enemies should not seem ( when they were heard alone ) to speak reason against him . But see the greatness of Truth and Prudence , and how greatly God stood with him . When the numerous Armies of vexed people , Turba gravis paci , placidaeque inimica quieti , heap'd up Catalogues of Accusations , when the Parliament of Ireland imitating the violent procedures of the then disordered English , when his glorious Patron was taken from his head , and he was disrobed of his great defences ; when Petitions were invited and Accusations furnished , and Calumny was rewarded and managed with art and power , when there were above 200. Petitions put in against him , and himself denied leave to answer by word of mouth ; when he was long imprison'd , and treated so that a guilty man would have been broken into affrightment and pitiful and low considerations ; yet then he him self standing almost alone , like Callimachus at Marathon invested with enemies and covered with arrows , defended himself beyond all the powers of guiltiness , even with the defences of Truth and the bravery of Innocence , and answered the Petitions in writing , sometimes twenty in a day , with so much clearness , evidence of truth , reality of Fact and Testimony of Law , that his very Enemies were asham'd and convinc'd ; they found they had done like Aesops Viper , they licked the file till their tongues bled ; but himself was wholly invulnerable . They were therefore forc'd to leave their muster-rolls and decline the particulars , and fall to their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to accuse him for going about to subvert the fundamental Laws ; the way by which great Strafford and Canterbury fell ; which was a device , when all reasons fail'd , to oppress the Enemy by the bold affirmation of a Conclusion they could not prove , they did like those Gladiatores whom the Romans call'd Retiaries , when they could not stab their Enemies with their daggers , they threw nets over him , and cover'd him with a general mischief . But the Martyr King Charles the First , of most glorious and Eternal Memory ; seeing so great a Champion likely to be oppress'd with numbers and despair , sent what rescue he could , his Royal Letter for his Bail , which was hardly granted to him , and when it was , it was upon such hard terms , that his very delivery was a persecution . So necessary it was for them , who intended to do mischief to the publick , to take away the strongest pillars of the house . This thing I remark to acquit this great man from the tongue of slander , which had so boldly spoken , that it was certain something would stick , yet was so impotent and unarm'd , that it could not kill that great fame which his greater worthiness had procur'd him . It was said of Hippasus the Pythagorean , that being ask'd how and what he had done : He answer'd , Nondum nihil , neabque ; enim adhuc mihi invidetur ; I have done nothing yet , for no man envies me . He that does great things , cannot avoid the tongues and teeth of Envy ; but if calumnies must pass for evidences , the bravest Hero's must alwayes be the most reproched Persons in the World. Nascitur Aetolicus , pravum ingeniosus ad omne ; Qui facere assuerat , patriae non degener artis , Candida de nigris , & de candentibus atra . Every thing can have an ill name and an ill sense put upon it ; but God , who takes care of reputations as he does of lives , by the orders of his providence confutes the slander , ut memoria justorum sit in benedictionibus , that the memory of the righteous man might be emba●m'd with honour : And so it hapned to this great man ; for by a publick Warranty , by the concurrent consent of both Houses of Parliament , the Libellous Petitions against him , the false Records and publick Monuments or injurious shame were cancell'd , and he was restor'd in integrum to that fame where his great labours and just procedures had first estated him ; which , though it was but justice , yet it was also such honour , that it is greater then the virulence of tongues , which his worthiness and their envy had arm'd against him . But yet the great scene of the troubles was but newly open'd . I shall not refuse to speak yet more of his troubles , as remembring that St. Paul , when he discourses of the glories of the Saints departed , he tells more of their sufferings than of their prosperities , as being that Laboratory and Crysable in which God makes his Servants vessels of honour to his glory . The storm quickly grew high ; & transitum est à linguis ad gladios , and that was indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Iniquity had put on arms ; when it is armata nequitia , then a man is hard put to it . The Rebellion breaking out the Bishop went to his charge at Derry , and , because he was within the defence of Walls , the execrable Traitor Sir Phelim ô Neale laid a snare to bring him to a dishonourable death . For he wrote a Letter to the Bishop , pretended Intelligence between them , desir'd that according to their former agreement such a Gate might be deliver'd to him . The messenger was not advis'd to be cautious , not at all instructed in the art of Secrecy , for it was intended that he should be search'd , intercep●ed and hang'd for ought they car'd : but the Arrow was shot against the Bishop , that he might be accused for base Conspiracy , and die with shame and sad dishonour . But here God manifested his mighty care of his Servants ; he was pleas'd to send into the heart of the messenger such an affrightment , that he directly ran away with the Letter , and never durst come near the Town to deliver it . This story was publish'd by Sir Phelim himself , who added , That if he could have thus ensnar'd the Bishop , he had good assurance the Town should have been his own : Sed bonitas Dei praevalitura est super omnem malitiam hominis , The goodness of God is greater then all the malice of Men ; and nothing could so prove how dear that sacred Life was to God , as his rescue from the dangers . Stantia non poterant tecta probare Deos : To have kept him in a warm house had been nothing , unless the roof had fallen upon his head , that rescue was a remark of Divine favour and Providence . But it seems Sir Phelim's Treason against the Life of this worthy Man had a Correspondent in the Town ; and it broke out speedily ; for what they could not effect by malicious stratagem , they did in part by open force ; they turn'd the Bishop out of the Town , and upon trifling and unjust pretences search'd his Carriages , and took what they pleas'd , till they were asham'd to take more : they did worse then divorce him from his Church , for in all the Roman Divorces they said , Tuas tibi res habeto , Take your goods and be gone ; but Plunder was Religion then . However , though the usage was sad , yet it was recompenc'd to him by his taking Sanctuary in Oxford , where he was graciously receiv'd by that most incomparable and divine Prince ; but having served the King in Yorkshire by his Pen , and by his Counsels , and by his Interests , return'd back to Ireland , where under the excellent conduct of his Grace the now Lord Lieutenant , he ran the risque and fortune of oppressed Vertue . But God having still resolv'd to afflict us , the good man was forc'd into the fortune of the Patriarchs , to leave his Countrey and his Charges , and seek for safety and bread in a strange Land ; for so the Prophets were us'd to do , wandring up and down in sheeps-clothing , but poor as they were the world was not worthy of them ; and this worthy man , despising the shame , took up his Cross and followed his Master . Exilium causa ipsa jubet sibi dulce videri , Et desiderium dulce levat patriae . He was not asham'd to suffer where the Cause was honourable and glorious ; but so God provided for the needs of his banished , and sent a man who could minister comfort to the afflicted , and courage to the persecuted , and resolutions to the tempted , and strength to that Religion for which they all suffered . And here this great man was indeed triumphant ; this was one of the last and best scenes of his life : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The last dayes are the best witnesses of a man. But so it was , that he stood up in publick and brave defence for the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England ; First , by his Sufferings and great Example , for Verbis tantùm philosophari non est Doctoris sed Histrionis , To talk well and not to do bravely is for a Comedian , not a Divine : But this great man did both ; he suffered his own Calamity with great courage , and by his wise Discourses strengthened the hearts of others . For there wanted not diligent Tempters in the Church of Rome , who ( taking advantage of the Afflictions of His Sacred Majesty , in which state Men commonly suspect every thing , and like men in sickness are willing to change from side to side , hoping for ease and finding none ) flew at Royal Game , and hop'd to draw away the King from that Religion which His most Royal Father , the best Man and the wisest Prince in the world , had seal'd with the best Bloud in Christendom ; and which Himself suck'd in with His Education , and had confirm'd by Choice and Reason , and confess'd publickly and bravely , and hath since restor'd prosperously . M●llitie●e was the man , witty and bold enough to a●tempt a zelous and a foolish undertaking , and address'd himself with ignoble indeed but witty arts to perswade the King to leave what was dearer to Him then His Eyes . It is true , it was a Wave dash'd against a Rock , and an Arrow shot against the Sun , it could not reach him ; but the Bishop of Derry turn'd it al●o , and made it to fall upon the shooters head ; for he made so ingenious , so learned and so accute Reply to that book , he so discover'd the Errors of the Roman Church , retorted the Arguments , stated the Questions , demonstrated the Truth , and sham'd their Procedures , that nothing could be a greater argument of the Bishops Learning , great Parts , deep Judgment , Quickness of Apprehension , and Sincerity in the Catholick and Apostolick Faith , or of the Follies and Prevarications of the Church of Rome . He wrote no Apologies for himself ; though it were much to be wish'd that , as Junius wrote his own Life , or Moses his own story , so we might have understood from himself how great things God had done for him and by him ; but all that he permitted to God , and was silent in his own Defences ; Gloriosius enim est injuriam tacendo fugere , quàm respondendo superare . But when the Honour and Conscience of his King , and the Interest of a true Religion , was at stake , the fire burn'd within him , and at last he spake with his tongue ; he cried out like the son of Croesus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Take heed and meddle not with the King ; His Person is too sacred , and Religion too dear to Him to be assaulted by Vulgar hands . In short , he acquited himself in this affair with so much Truth and Piety , Learning and Judgment , that in those Papers his memory will last unto very late succeeding Generations . But this most Reverend Prelate found a nobler adversary and a braver scene for his contention . He found that the Roman Priests being wearied and baffled by the wise Discourses and pungent Arguments of the English Divines , had studiously declined any more to dispute the particular Questions against us , but fell at last upon a general Charge , imputing to the Church of England the great crime of Schism ; and by this they thought they might with most probability deceive unwary and unskilful Readers ; for they saw the Schism , and they saw we had left them , and because they consider'd not the Causes , they resolv'd to out-face us in the Charge . But now it was that dignum nactus argumentum , having an Argument fit to imploy his great abilities , Consecrat hic praesul calamum calamíque labores Ante aras Domino laeta trophaea suo ; the Bishop now dedicates his labours to the service of God and of his Church , undertook the Question , and in a full Discourse proves the Church of Rome , not only to be guilty of the Schism by making it necessary to depart from them , but they did actuate the Schisms , and themselves made the first separation in the great point of the Popes Supremacy , which was the Palladium for which they principally contended . He made it appear that the Popes of Rome were Usurpers of the rights of Kings and Bishops , that they brought in new Doctrines in every Age , that they impos'd their own devices upon Christendom as Articles of Faith , that they prevaricated the Doctrines of the Apostles , that the Church of England only return'd to her Primitive purity , that she joyn'd with Christ and his Apostles , that she agreed in all the Sentiments of the Primitive Church . He stated the questions so wisely , and conducted them so prudently , and handled them so learnedly , that I may truly say , they were never more materially confuted by any man , since the questions have so unhappily disturbed Christendom . Verum hoc eos malè ussit : and they finding themselves smitten under the fifth rib , set up an old Champion of their own , a Goliah to fight against the Armies of Israel ; the old Bishop of Chalcedon , known to many of us , replied to this excellent Book ; but was so answer'd by a Rejoynder made by the Lord Bishop of Derry , in which he so press'd the former Arguments , refuted the Cavils , brought in so many impregnable Authorities and Probations , and added so many moments and weights to his discourse , that the pleasures of reading the Book would be the greatest , if the profit to the Church of God were not greater . Flumina tum lactis , tum flumina nectaris ibant , Flavaque de viridi stillabant ilice mella . For so Sampson's riddle was again expounded ; Out of the strong came meat , and out of the eater came sweetness ; his Arguments were strong , and the Eloquence was sweet and delectable ; and though there start up another combatant against him , yet he had onely the honour to fall by the hands of Hector : still haeret lateri lethalis arundo ; the headed arrow went in so far , that it could not be drawn out , but the barbed steel stuck behind . And whenever men will desire to be satisfied in those great questions , the Bishop of Derry's book shall be his Oracle . I will not insist upon his other excellent writings ; but it is known every where with what Piety and acumen he wrote against the Manichean Doctrine of Fatal necessity , which a late witty man had pretended to adorn with a new Vizor ; but this excellent person wash'd off the Cerusse and the meretricious Paintings , rarely well asserted the oeconomy of the Divine Providence , and having once more triumph'd over his Adversary , plenus victoriarum & trophaeorum betook himself to the more agreeable attendance upon Sacred Offices , and having usefully and wisely discours'd of the sacred Rite of Confirmation , impos'd hands upon the most Illustrious Princes , the Dukes of York and Gloucester , and the Princess Royal , and ministred to them the promise of the holy Spirit , and ministerially establish'd them in the Religion and Service of the holy Jesus . And one thing more I shall remark , that at his leaving those Parts upon the Kings Return , some of the Remonstrant Ministers of the Low-Countries coming to take their leaves of this great man , and desiring that by his means the Church of England would be kind to them , he had reason to grant it , because they were learned men , and in many things of a most excellent belief ; yet he reprov'd them , and gave them caution against it , that they approched too near and gave too much countenance to the great and dangerous errors of the Socinians . He thus having serv'd God and the King abroad , God was pleas'd to return to the King and to us all , as in the dayes of old , and we sung the song of David . In convertendo captivitatem Sion : When King David and all his servants returned to Jerusalem , this great person having trode in the Wine-press was called to drink of the Wine , and as an honorary Reward of his great services and abilities was chosen Primate of this National Church : In which time we are to look upon him , as the King and the Kings great Vicegerent did , as a person concerning whose abilities the World had too great testimony ever to make a doubt . It is true , he was in the declension of his age and health ; but his very Ruines were goodly ; and they who saw the broken heaps of Pompey's Theatre , and the crushed Obelisks , and the old face of beauteous Philaenium , could not but admire the disordered glories of such magnificent structures , which were venerable in their very dust . He ever was us'd to overcome all difficulties , onely Mortality was too hard for him ; but still his Vertues and his Spirit was immortal , he still took great care , and still had new and noble designs , and propos'd to himself admirable things . He govern'd his Province with great justice and sincerity ; Unus amplo consulens pastor gregi , Somnos tuetur omnium solus vigil . And had this remark in all his Government , that as he was a great hater of Sacrilege , so he professed himself a publick enemy to Non-residence , and often would declare wisely and religiously against it , allowing it in no case but of Necessity or the greater good of the Church . There are great things spoken of his Predecessor S. Patrick , that he founded 700. Churches and Religious Convents , that he ordain'd 5000. Priests , and with his own hands consecrated 350. Bishops . How true the story is I know not ; but we were all witnesses that the late Primate , whose memory we now celebrate , did by an extraordinary contingency of Providence in one day consecrate two Archbishops and ten Bishops ; and did benefit to almost all the Churches in Ireland , and was greatly instrumental to the Re-endowments of the whole Clergy ; and in the greatest abilities and incomparable industry was inferiour to none of his most glorious Antecessours . Since the Canonization of Saints came into the Church , we find no Irish Bishop canoniz'd except S. Laurence of Dublin , and S. Malachias of Down ; indeed Richard of Armagh's Canonization was propounded , but not effected ; but the Character which was given of that learned Primate by Trithemius does exactly fit this our late Father ; Vir in Divinis Scripturis eruditus , secularis Philosophiae jurisque Canonici non ignarus , clarus ingenio , sermone scholasticus , in declamandis sermonibus ad populum excellentis industriae : He was learned in the Scriptures , skill'd in secular Philosophy , and not unknowing in the Civil and Canon Laws , ( in which studies I wish the Clergy were with some carefulness and diligence still more conversant ) he was of an excellent spirit , a scholar in his discourses , an early and industrious Preacher to the people . And as if there were a more particular sympathy between their souls , our Primate had so great a Veneration to his memory , that he purpos'd , if he had liv'd , to have restor'd his Monument in Dundalke , which Time , or Impiety , or Unthankfulness had either omitted or destroyed . So great a lover he was of all true and inherent worth , that he lov'd it in the very memory of the dead , and to have such great Examples transmitted to the intuition and imitation of posterity . At his coming to the Primacy he knew he should at first espy little besides the Ruines of Discipline , a Harvest of Thorns , and Heresies prevailing in the hearts of the People , the Churches possess'd by Wolves and Intruders , Mens hearts greatly estranged from true Religion ; and therefore he set himself to weed the fields of the Church ; he treated the Adversaries sometimes sweetly , sometimes he confuted them learnedly , sometimes he rebuk'd them sharply . He visited his Charges diligently , and in his own person , not by Proxies and instrumental Deputations : Quaerens non nostra , sed nos , & quae sunt Jesu Christi ; he design'd nothing that we knew of but the Redintegration of Religion , the Honour of God and the King , the Restoring of collapsed Discipline , and the Renovation of Faith and the Service of God in the Churches . And still he was indefatigable , and , even as the last scene of his life , intended to undertake a a Regal Visitation . Quid enim vultis me otiosum à Domino comprehendi ? said one ; he was not willing that God should take him unimployed : But , good man , he felt his Tabernacle ready to fall in pieces , and could go no further , for God would have no more work done by that hand ; he therefore espying this , put his house in order , and had lately visited his Diocese , and done what he then could to put his Charge in order ; for he had a good while since receiv'd the sentence of death within himself , and knew he was shortly to render an account of his stewardship ; he therefore upon a brisk alarm of death , which God sent him the last January , made his Will ; in which , besides the prudence and presence of spirit manifested in making just and wise settlement of his Estate , and provisions for his Descendants ; at midnight , and in the trouble of his sickness and circumstances of addressing death , still kept a special sentiment and made confession of Gods admirable mercies , and gave thanks that God had permitted him to live to see the blessed Restauration of His Majesty and the Church of England , confess'd his Faith to be the same as ever , gave praises to God that he was born and bred up in this Religion , and prayed to God and hop'd he should die in the Communion of this Church , which he declar'd to be the most pure and Apostolical Church in the whole world . He prayed to God to pardon his frailties and infirmities , relied upon the mercies of God and the merits of Jesus Christ , and with a singular sweetness resign'd up his soul into the hands of his Redeemer . But God , who is the great Choragus and Master of the Scenes of Life and Death , was not pleas'd then to draw the Curtains ; there was an Epilogue to his Life yet to be acted and spoken . He return'd to actions and life , and went on in the methods of the same procedure as before ; was desirous still to establish the affairs of the Church , complain'd of some disorders which he purpos'd to redress , girt himself to the work ; but though his spirit was willing , yet his flesh was weak ; and as the Apostles in the Vespers of Christs Passion , so he in the Eve of his own Dissolution was heavy , not to sleep , but heavy unto death , and look'd for the last warning , which seiz'd on him in the midst of business ; and though it was sudden , yet it could not be unexpected , or unprovided by surprize , and therefore could be no other then that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Augustus us'd to wish unto himself , a civil and well-natur'd death , without the amazement of troublesom circumstances , or the great cracks of a falling house , or the convulsions of impatience . Seneca tells that Bassus Aufidius was wont to say , Sperare se nullum dolorem esse in illo extremo anhelitu , si tamen esset , habere aliquantum in ipsa brevitate solatii : He hop'd that the pains of the last Dissolution were little or none ; or if they were , it was full of comfort that they could be but short . It happened so to this excellent Man ; his Passive Fortitude had been abundantly tried before , and therefore there was the less need of it now ; his active Graces had been abundantly demonstrated by the great and good things he did , & therefore his last scene was not so laborious , but God call'd him away something after the manner of Moses , which the Jews express by Osculum oris Dei , The Kiss of Gods mouth ; that is , a death indeed foresignified , but gentle , and serene , and without temptation . To summe up all ; He was a wise Prelate , a learned Doctor , a just Man , a true Friend , a great Benefactour to others , a thankful Beneficiary where he was oblig'd himself . He was a faithful Servant to his Masters , a Loyal Subjest to the King , a zelous Assertor of his Religion against Popery on one side , and Fanaticism on the other . The practice of his Religion was not so much in Forms and exteriour Ministries , though he was a great observer of all the publick Rites and Ministries of the Church , as it was in doing good for others . He was like Myson , whom the Scythian Anarchasis so greatly prais'd , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he govern'd his family well , he gave to all their due of maintenance and duty , he did great benefit to mankind ; he had the fate of the Apostle S. Paul , he pass'd through evil report and good report , as a deceiver and yet true . He was a man of great business and great resort : Semper aliquis in Cydonis domo , as the Corinthian said ; There was alwayes somebody in Cydon's house . He was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he divided his life into labour and his book ; he took care of his Churches when he was alive , and even after his death , having left 500 l. for the Repair of his Cathedral of Armagh and S. Peters Church in Drogheda . He was an excellent Scholar , and rarely well accomplish'd ; first instructed to great excellency by natural parts , and then consummated by study and experience . Melanchthon was us'd to say that himself was a Logician , Pomeranus a Grammarian , Justus Jonas an Orator , but that Luther was all these . It was greatly true of him , that the single perfections which make many men eminent , were united in this Primate and ma●e him illustrious . At , at , Quintilium perpetuus sopor Urget : cui pudor & justitiae soror Incorrupta fides , nudaque veritas Quando ullum invenient parem ? It will be hard to find his Equal in all things : Fortasse tanquam Phoenix anno quingentesimo nascitur , ( that I may use the words of Seneca ) nec est mirum ex intervallo magna generari mediocria & in turbam n●scentia saepe fortuna producit : eximia vero ipsa raritate commendat . For in him was visible the great lines of Hooker's Judiciousness , of Jewel's Learning , of the Accuteness of Bishop Andrews . He was skill'd in more great things then one ; and , as one said of Phidias , he could not onely make excellent statues of Ivory , but he could work in Stone and Brass . He shewed his Equanimity in Poverty , and his Justice in Riches ; he was useful in his Countrey , and profitable in his Banishment ; for , as Paraeus was at Anvilla , Luther at Wittenburg , S. Athanasius and S. Chrysostom in their Banishment , S. Hierom in his Retirement at Bethlehem , they were Oracles to them that needed it ; so was he in Holland and France , where he was abroad ; and , beside the particular endearments which his friends receiv'd from him , for he did do relief to his brethren that wanted , and supplied the Souldiers out of his store in York-shi●e , when himself could but ill spare it ; but he receiv'd publick thanks from the Convocation of which he was President , and publick Justification from the Parliament where he was Speaker ; so that although , as one said , Miraculi instar vitae iter , si longum , sine offensione percurrere ; yet no man had greater enemies , and no man had greater justifications . But God hath taken our Elijah from our heads this day . I pray God that at least his Mantle may be left behind , and that his spirit may be doubled upon his Successour ; and that we may all meet together with him at the right hand of the Lamb , where every man shall receive according to his deeds , whether they be good or whether they be evil . I conclude with the words of Caius Plinius , Equidem beatos puto quibus Deorum munere datum est , aut facere scribenda , aut scribere legenda . He wrote many things fit to be read , and did very many things worthy to be written ; which if we wisely imitate , we may hope to meet him in the Resurrection of the just , and feast with him in the eternal Supper of the Lamb , there to sing perpetual Anthems to the honour of God the Father , Son and Holy Ghost , to whom be all honour , &c. THE END . RULES AND ADVICES To the Clergy OF THE DIOCESSE OF DOWN and CONNER , For their Deportment in their Personal and Publick Capacities . Given by Jer. Taylor , Bishop of that Diocess , at the Visitation at LISNEGARVEY . The second Edition . LONDON : Printed by J. G. for Richard Royston , Bookseller to the Kings most Excellent Majesty , 1663. Rules and Advices to the Clergy . I. Personal Duty . II. Of Prudence required in Ministers . III. The Rules and Measures of Government to be used by Ministers , in their respective Cures . IV. Rules and Advices concerning Preaching . V. Rules and Advices concerning Catechisme . VI. Rules and Advices concerning the Visitation of the Sick. VII . Of ministring the Sacraments , publick Prayers , and other duties of Ministers . Rules and Advices to the CLERGY . I. Personall Duty . REmember that it is your great duty , and tied on you by many Obligations , that you be exemplar in your lives , and be Patterns and Presidents to your Flocks : lest it be said unto you , Why takest thou my Law into thy mouth , seeing thou hatest to be reformed thereby ? He that lives an idle life may preach with Truth and Reason , or as did the Pharisees ; but not as Christ , or as one having Authority . Every Minister in taking accounts of his life , must judge of his Duty by more strict and severer measures , than he does of his People ; and he that ties heavy burthens upon others , ought himself to carry the heaviest end : and many things may be lawful in them , which he must not suffer in himself . Let every Minister endeavour to be learned in all spiritual wisdome , and skilful in the things of God ; for he will ill teach others the way of godliness , perfectly , that is himself a babe and uninstructed . An ignorant Minister is an head without an eye ; and an evil Minister is salt that hath no favour . Every Minister , above all things , must be carefull that he be not a servant of passion , whether of anger or desire . For he that is not a master of his passions will alwayes be useless , and quickly will become contemptible and cheap in the eyes of his Parish . Let no Minister be litigious in any thing ; not greedy or covetous ; not insisting upon little things , or quarrelling for , or exacting of every minute portion of his dues ; but bountiful and easie ; remitting of his right , when to do so may be useful to his people , or when the contrary may do mischief , and cause reproach . Be not over-righteous ( saith Solomon ) that is , not severe in demanding , or forcing every thing , though it be indeed his due . Let not the name of the Church be made a pretence for personal covetousness ; by saying , you are willing to remit many things , but you must not wrong the Church : for though it be true , that you are not to do prejudice to succession , yet many things may be forgiven upon just occasions , from which the Church shall receive no incommodity ; but be sure that there are but few things which thou art bound to do in thy personal capacity , but the same also , and more , thou art obliged to perform , as thou art a publick person . Never exact the offerings , or customary wages , and such as are allowed by law , in the ministration of the Sacraments , nor condition for them , nor secure them before-hand ; but first doe your office , and minister the Sacraments purely , readily , and for Christs sake ; and when that is done , receive what is your due . Avoid all pride , as you would flee from the most frightful apparition , or the most cruel enemy ; and remember that you can never truly teach humility , or tell what it is , unless you practise it your selves . Take no measures of Humility , but such as are material and tangible ; such which consist not in humble words , and lowly gestures ; but what is first truly radicated in your Souls , in low opinion of your selves , and in real preferring others before your selves , & in such significations , which can neither deceive your selves nor others . Let every Curate of Souls strive to understand himself best ; and then to understand others . Let him spare himself least ; but most severely judge , censure , and condemn himself . If he be learned , let him shew it by wise teaching , and humble manners . If he be not learned , let him be sure to get so much knowledge as to know that , and so much humility , as not to grow insolent , and puffed up by his Emptiness . For many will pardon a good man that is less learned ; but if he be proud , no man will forgive him . Let every Minister be careful to live a life as abstracted from the Affairs of the world , as his necessity will permit him ; but at no hand to be immerg'd and principally imploy'd in the Affairs of the World : What cannot be avoyded , and what is of good report , and what he is oblig'd to by any personal or collateral Duty , that he may do , but no more . Ever remembring the Saying of our blessed Lord : In the world ye shall have trouble ; but in me ye shall have peace : and consider this also , which is a great Truth ; That every degree of love to the world , is so much taken from the Love of God. Be no otherwise sollicitous of your Fame and Reputation , but by doing your duty well and wisely : in other things refer your selfe to God : but if you meet with evil Tongues , be careful that you bear reproaches sweetly and temperately . Remember that no Minister can govern his people well , and prosperously , unless himself hath learn'd humbly and cheerfully to obey his Superiour . For every Minister should be like the good Centurion in the Gospel : himself is under authority , and he hath people under him . Be sure in all your Words and Actions to preserve Christian simplicity and ingenuity ; to do to others , as you would be done unto your self ; and never to speak what you doe not think . Trust to Truth , rather than to your Memory : for this may fail you , that will never . Pray much and very fervently , for all your Parishioners , and all men that belong to you , and all that belong to God ; but especially for the Conversion of Souls ; and be very zealous for nothing , but for Gods glory , and the salvation of the World , and particularly of your Charges : Ever remembring that you are by God appointed , as the Ministers of Prayer , and the Ministers of good things , to pray for all the World , and to heale all the World , as far as you are able . Every Minister must learn and practise patience , that by bearing all adversity meekly , and humbly , and cheerfully , and by doing all his duty with unwearied industry , with great courage , constancy , and Christian magnanimity , he may the better assist his people in the bearing of their crosses , and overcoming their difficulties . He that is holy , let him be holy still , and still more holy , and never think he hath done his work , till all be finished by perseverance , and the measures of perfection in a holy Life , and a holy Death : but at no hand must he magnifie himself by vain separations from others , or despising them that are not so holy . II. Of Prudence required in Ministers . REmember that Discretion is the Mistress of all Graces , and Humility is the greatest of all Miracles ; and without this , all Graces perish to a mans self ; and without that , all Graces are useless unto others . Let no Minister be governed by the opinion of his People , and destroy his duty , by unreasonable compliance with their humours , lest as the Bishop of Granata told the Governours of Leria and Patti , like silly Animals they take burdens upon their backs at the pleasure of the multitude , which they neither can retain with Prudence , nor shake off with Safety . Let not the Reverence of any man cause you to sin against God ; but in the matter of Souls , being well advis'd , be bold and confident ; but abate nothing of the honour of God , or the just measures of your duty , to satisfie the importunity of any man whatsoever , and God will bear you out . When you teach your people any part of their duty , as in paying their debts , their tithes and offerings , in giving due reverence and religious regards , diminish nothing of admonition in these particulars , and the like , though they object , That you speak for your selves , and in your own cases . For a counsel is not the worse , but the better , if it be profitable both to him that gives , and to him that takes it . Onely do it in simplicity , and principally intend the good of their souls . In taking accounts of the good Lives of your selves or others , take your measures by the express words of Scripture ; and next to them estimate them by their proportion and compliance with the publick measures , with the Laws of the Nation , Eccesiastical and Civil , and by the Rules of Fame , of publick honesty and good Report ; and last of all by their observation of the Ordinances and exteriour parts of Religion . Be not satisfied when you have done a good work , unless you have also done it well ; and when you have , then be carefull that vain-glory , partiality , self-conceit , or any other folly or indiscretion , snatch it not out of your hand , and cheat you of the reward . Be carefull so to order your self , that you fall not into temptation and folly in the presence of any of your Charges ; and especially that you fall not into chidings and intemperate talkings , and sudden and violent expressions : Never be a party in clamours and scoldings , lest your Calling become uselesse , and your person contemptible : Ever remembring that if you cheaply and lightly be engag'd in such low usages with any person , that person is likely to be lost from all possibility of receiving much good from your Ministry . The Rules and Measures of Government to be used by Ministers in their respective Cures . USe no violence to any man , to bring him to your opinion ; but by the word of your proper Ministry , by Demonstrations of the Spirit , by rational Discourses , by excellent Examples , constrain them to come in : and for other things they are to be permitted to their own liberty , to the measures of the Laws , and the conduct of their Governors . Suffer no quarrel in your Parish , and speedily suppress it when it is begun ; and though all wise men will abstain from interposing in other mens affairs , and especially in matters of Interest , which men love too well ; yet it is your duty Duty here to interpose , by perswading them to friendships , reconcilements , moderate prosecutions of their pretences ; and by all means you prudently can , to bring them to peace and brotherly kindness . Suffer no houses of Debauchery , of Drunkenness or Lust in your Parishes ; but implore the assistance of Authority for the suppressing of all such meeting-places and nurseries of Impiety : & as for places of publick Entertainment , take care that they observe the Rules of Christian Piety , and the allowed measures of Laws . If there be any Papists or Sectaries in your Parishes , neglect not frequently to confer with them in the spirit or meekness , and by the importunity of wise Discourses seeking to gain them . But stir up no violences against them ; but leave them ( if they be incurable ) to the wise and merciful disposition of the Laws . Receive not the people to doubtful Disputations : and let no names of Sects or differing Religions be kept up amongst you , to the disturbance of the publick peace and private Charity : and teach not the people to estimate their Piety by their distance from any Opinion , but by their Faith in Christ their Obedience to God and the Lawes , an● their love to all Christian people even though they be deceived . Think no man considerable upon the point or pretence of a tender Conscience , unless he live a good life , and in all things endeavour to approve himself void of offence both towards God and man : but if he be an humble person , modest and inquiring , apt to learn and desirous of information ; if he seeks for it in all wayes reasonable and pious , and is obedient to Laws , then take care of him , use him tenderly , perswade him meekly , reprove him gently , and deal mercifully with him , till God shall reveal that also unto him , in which his unavoidable trouble and his temptation lies . Mark them that cause Divisions among you , and avoid them : for such persons are by the Scripture called Scandals in the abstract ; they are Offenders and Offences too . But if any man have an Opinion , let him have it to himself , till he can be cur'd of his disease by time , and counsel , and gentle usages . But if he separates from the Church , or gathers a Congregation , he is proud , and is fallen from the communion of Saints , and the Unity of the Catholick Church . He that observes any of his people to be zealous , let him be carefull to conduct that zeal into such channels where there is least danger of inconveniency ; let him employ it in something that is good ; let it be press'd to fight against sin . For Zeal is like a Cancer in the Breast ; feed it with good flesh , or it will devour the Heart . Strive to get the love of the Congregation ; but let it not degenerate into popularity . Cause them to love you and revere you ; to love with Religion , not for your compliance ; for the good you do them , not for that you please them . Get their love by doing your duty , but not by omitting or spoiling any part of it : Ever remembring the severe words of our blessed Saviour , Wo be to you when all men speak well of you . Suffer not the common people to prattle about Religion and questions ; but to speak little , to be swift to hear , and slow to speak , that they learn to do good works for necessary uses , that they work with their hands , that they may have wherewithall to give to them that need ; that they study to quiet , and learn to do their own business . Let every Minister take care that he call upon his Charge , that they order themselves so , that they leave no void spaces of their time , but that every part of it be filled with usefull or innocent imployment . For where there is a space without business , that space is the proper time for danger and temptation ; and no man is more miserable than he that knows not how to spend his time . Fear no mans person in the doing of your duty wisely , and according to the Laws : remembring alwayes that a servant of God can no more be hurt by all the powers of wickedness , than by the noise of a Flies wing , or the chirping of a Sparrow . Brethren , do well for your selves : do well for your selves as long as you have time ; you know not how soon death will come . Entertain no persons into your Assemblies from other Parishes , unless upon great occasion , or in the destitution of a Minister , or by contingency and seldome visits , or with leave : lest the labour of thy brother be discouraged , and thy selfe be thought to preach Christ out of envy , and not of good will. Never appeal to the judgement of the people in matters of controversie ; teach them obedience , not arrogancy ; teach them to be humble , not crafty . For without the aid of false guides you will find some of them of themselves apt enough to be troublesome : and a question put into their heads , and a power of judging into their hands , is a putting it to their choice whether you shall be troubled by them this week or the next ; for much longer you cannot escape . Let no Minister of a Parish introduce any Ceremony , Rites or Gestures , though with some seeming Piety and Devotion , but what are commanded by the Church , and established by Law : and let these also be wisely and usefully explicated to the people , that they may understand the reasons and measures of obedience ; but let there be no more introduc'd , lest the people be burdened unnecessarily , and tempted or divided . IV. Rules and Advices concerning Preaching . LEt every Minister be diligent in preaching the Word of God , according to the ability that God gives him ; ever remembring that to minister Gods Word unto the People is the one half of his great Office and Employment . Let ever Minister be carefull that what he delivers be indeed the Word of God : that his Sermon be answerable to the Text ; for this is Gods Word , the other ought to be according to it ; that although in it self it be but the word of Man , yet by the purpose , truth , and signification of it , it may in a secondary sense be the Word of God. Do not spend your Sermons in generall and indefinite things , as in Exhortations to the people to get Christ , to be united to Christ , and things of the like unlimited signification ; but tell them in every duty , what are the measures , what circumstances , what instruments , and what is the particular minute meaning of every general Advice . For Generals not explicated do but fill the peoples heads with empty notions , and their mouths with perpetual unintelligible talk : but their hearts remain empty , and themselves are not edified . Let not the humours and inclinations of the people be the measures of your Doctrines , but let your Doctrines be the measure of their perswasions . Let them know from you what they ought to do ; but if you learn from them what you ought to teach , you will give but a very ill account at the day of Judgement , of the souls committed to you . He that receives from the people what he shall teach them , is like a Nurse that asks of her Child what Physick she shall give him . Every Minister in reproofs of sin and sinners , ought to concern himself in the faults of them that are present , but not of the absent ; nor in reproofe of the times ; for this can serve no end but of Faction and Sedition , publick Murmur and private Discontent ; besides this , it does nothing but amuse the people in the faults of others , teaching them to revile their Betters , and neglect the dangers of their own souls . As it looks like flattery and design to preach nothing before Magistrates but the duty of their people and their own eminency ; so it is the beginning of Mutiny to preach to the people the duty of their Superiours and Supreme ; it can neither come from a good Principle , nor tend to a good End. Every Minister ought to preach to his Parish , and urge their duty : S. John the Baptist told the Souldiers what the Souldiers should do , but troubled not their heads with what was the duty of the Scribes and Pharisees . In the reproof of sins be as particular as you please , and spare no mans sin , but meddle with no mans person ; neither name any man , nor signifie him , neither reproach him , nor make him to be suspected ; he that doth otherwise makes his Sermon to be a Libel , and the Ministry of Repentance an instrument of Revenge ; and so doing he shall exasperate the man , but never amend the sinner . Let the business of your Sermons be to preach holy Life , Obedience , Peace , Love among neighbours , hearty love , to live as the old Christians did , and the new should ; to do hurt to no man , to do good to every man : For in these things the honour of God consists , and the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus . Press those Gr●ces most that do most good , and make the least noise ; such as giving privately and forgiving publickly , and prescribe the grace of Charity by all the measures of it which are given by the Apostle , 1 Cor. 13. For this grace is not finished by good words , nor yet by good works , but it is a great building , and many materials go to the structure of it . It is worth your study , for it is the fulfilling of the Commandements . Because it is impossible that Charity should live , unless the lust of the tongue be mortified , let every Minister in his charge be frequent and severe against slanderers , detractors and backbiters ; for the Crime of backbiting is the poyson of Charity ; and yet so common , that it is pass'd into a Proverb , [ After a good dinner let us sit down and backbite our neighbours . ] Let every Minister be careful to observe , and vehement in reproving those faults of his Parishioners , of which the Lawes cannot or do not take cognizance , such as are many degrees of intemperate drinkings , gluttony , riotous living , expences above their ability , pride , bragging , lying in ordinary conversation , covetousness , peevishness , and hasty anger , and such like . For the Word of God searches deeper then the Laws of men ; and many things will be hard to prove by the measures of Courts , which are easie enough to be observed by the watchful and diligent eye and ear of the Guide of Souls . In your Sermons to the people , often speak of the four last things , of Death and Judgement , Heaven and Hell : of the Life and Death of Jesus Christ , of Gods Mercy to repenting sinners , and his Severity against the impenitent ; of the formable Examples of Gods anger pour'd forth upon Rebels , Sacrilegious , oppressors of Widows and Orphanes , and all persons guilty of crying Sins : These are useful , safe and profitable ; but never run into Extravagancies and Curiosities , nor trouble your selves or them with mysterious Secrets ; for there is more laid before you than you can understand ; and the whole duty of man is , To fear God and keep his commandements . Speak but very little of the secret and high things of God , but as much as you can of the lowness and humility of Christ. Be not hasty in pronouncing damnation against any man or party in a matter of disputation . It is enough that you reprove an Errour ; but what shall be the sentence against it at the day of Judgement , thou knowest not , and therefore pray for the erring person , and reprove him , but leave the sentence to his Judge . Let your Sermons teach the duty of all states of men to whom you speak ; and particularly take care of Servants and Hirelings , Merchants and Tradesmen , that they be not unskilful , nor unadmonished in their respective duties ; and in all things speak usefully and affectionately ; for by this means you will provide for all mens needs , both for them that sin by reason of their little understanding , and them that sin because they have evil , dull , or depraved affections . In your Sermons and Discourses of Religion , use primitive , known and accustomed words , and affect not new Phantastical or Schismatical terms : Let the Sunday Festival be called the Lords day ; and pretend no fears from the common use of words amongst Christians . For they that make a business of the wor●s of common use , and reform Religion by introducing a new word , intend to make a change but no amendment , they spend themselves in trifles , like the barren turf that sends forth no medicinable herbs , but store of Mushromes ; and they give a demonstration that they are either impertinent people , or else of a querulous nature ; and that they are ready to disturb the Church , if they could find occasion . Let every Minister in his charge , as much as he can , endeavour to destroy all popular errors and evil principles taken up by his people , or others with whom they converse ; especially those that directly oppose the indispensable necessity of a holy life : let him endeavour to understand in what true and useful sense Christs active obedience is imputed to us ; let him make his people fear the deferring of their Repentance , and putting it off to their death-bed ; let him explicate the nature of Faith , so that it be an active and quickning principle of Charity ; let him , as much as he may , take from them all confidencies that slacken their obedience and diligence ; let him teach them to impute all their sins to their own follies and evil choice , and so build them up in a most holy faith to a holy life ; ever remembring that in all ages it hath been the greatest artifice of Satan to hinder the increase of Christs Kingdome , by destroying those things in which it does consist , viz. Peace and Righteousness , Holiness and Mortification . Every Minister ought to be careful that he never expound Scriptures in publick contrary to the known sense of the Catholick Church , and particularly of the Churches of England and Ireland , nor introduce any Doctrine against any of the four first General Councils ; for these , as they are measures of truth , so also of necessity ; that is , as they are safe , so they are sufficient ; and besides what is taught by these , no matter of belief is necessary to salvation . Let no Preacher bring before the people in his Sermons or Discourses , the Arguments of great and dangerous Heresies , though with a purpose to confute them ; for they will much easier retain the Objection than understand the Answer . Let not the Preacher make an Article of Faith to be a matter of dispute ; but teach it with plainness and simplicity , and confirm it with easie arguments and plain words of Scripture , but without objection ; let them be taught to believe , but not to argue , lest if the arguments meet with a scrupulous person , it rather shake the foundation by curious inquiry , than establish it by arguments too hard . Let the Preacher be careful that in his Sermons he use no light , immodest or ridiculous expressions , but what is wise , grave , usefull and for edification ; that when the Preacher brings truth and gravity , the people may attend with fear and reverence . Let no Preacher envy any man that hath a greater audience , or more fame in Preaching than himself ; let him not detract from him or lessen his reputation directly or indirectly : for he that cannot be even with his brother but by pulling him down , is but a dwarf still ; and no man is the better for making his brother worse . In all things desire that Christ's Kingdom may be advanc'd ; and rejoice that he is served , whoever be the Minister ; that if you cannot have the fame of a great Preacher , yet you may have the reward of being a good man ; but it is hard to miss both . Let every Preacher in his Parish take care to explicate to the people the Mysteries of the great Festivals , as of Christmas , Easter , Ascension day , Whitsunday , Trinity Sunday , the Annuntiation of the blessed Virgin Mary ; because these Feasts containing in them the great Fundamentals of our Faith , will with most advantage convey the mysteries to the people , and fix them in their memories , by the solemnity and circumstances of the day . In all your Sermons and Discourses speak nothing of God but what is honourable and glorious ; and impute not to him such things , the consequents of which a wise and good man will not own : never suppose him to be author of sin , or the procurer of our damnation . For God cannot be tempted , neither tempteth he any man. God is true , and every man a lyar . Let no Preacher compare one Ordinance with another ; as Prayer with Preaching , to the dispaparagement of either ; but use both in their proper seasons , and according to appointed Order . Let no man preach for the praise of men ; but if you meet it , instantly watch and stand upon your guard , and pray against your own vanity ; and by an express act of acknowledgement and adoration return the praise to God. Remember that Herod was for the omission of this smitten by an Angel ; and do thou tremble , searing lest the judgement of God be otherwise than the sentence of the people . V. Rules and Advices concerning Catechisme . EVery Minister is bound upon every Lords day before Evening Prayer , to instruct all young people in the Creed , the Lords Prayer , the Ten Commandements , and the Doctrine of the Sacraments , as they are set down and explicated in the Church Catechism . Let a Bell be tolled when the Catechising is to begin , that all who desire it may be present ; but let all the more ignorant , and uninstructed part of the people , whether they be old or young , be requir'd to be present : that no person in your Parishes be ignorant in the foundations of Religion : ever remembring , that if in these things they be unskilful , whatever is taught besides , is like a house built upon the sand . Let every Minister teach his people the use , practise , methods and benefits of meditation or mental prayer . Let them draw out for them helps and rules for their assistance in it ; and furnish them with materials , concerning the life and death of the ever blessed Jesus , the greatness of God , our own meanness , the dreadful sound of the last Trumpet , the infinite event of the two last sentences at doomsday : let them be taught to consider what they have been , what they are , and what they shall be ; and above all things , what are the issues of eternity ; glories never to cease , pains never to be ended . Let every Minister exhort his people to a frequent confession of their sins , and a declaration of the state of their Souls ; to a conversation with their Minister in spiritual things , to an enquiry concerning all the parts of their duty : for by preaching , and catechising , and private entercourse , all the needs of Souls can best be serv'd ; but by preaching alone they cannot . Let the people be exhorted to keep fasting days , and the feasts of the Church ; according to their respective capacities ; so it be done without burthen to them , and without becoming a snare ; that is , that upon the account of Religion , and holy desires to please God , they spend some time in Religion , besides the Lords-day : but be very careful that the Lords-day be kept Religiously , according to the severest measures of the Church , and the commands of Authority : ever remembring that as they give but little Testimony of Repentance and Mortification , who never fast ; so they give but small evidence of their joy in God and Religion , who are unwilling solemnly to partake of the Publick and Religious Joys of the Christian Church . Let every Minister be diligent in exhorting all Parents and Masters to send their Children and Servants to the Bishop at the Visitation , or other solemn times of his coming to them , that they may be confirm'd : And let him also take care that all young persons may by understanding the Principles of Religion , their vow of Baptism , the excellency of Christian Religion , the necessity and advantages of it , and of living according to it , be fitted and disposed , and accordingly by them presented to the Bishop , that he may pray over them , and invocate the holy Spirit , and minister the holy Rite of Confirmation . VI. Rules and Advices concerning the Visitation of the Sick. EVery Minister ought to be careful in visiting all the Sick and Afflicted persons of his Parish : ever remembring , that as the Priests lips are to preserve knowledge , so it is his duty to minister a word of comfort in the time of need . A Minister must not stay till he be sent for ; but of his own accord and care to go to them , to examine them , to exhort them to perfect their repentance , to strengthen their faith , to encourage their patience , to perswade them to resignation , to the renewing of their holy vows , to the love of God , to be reconcil'd to their neighbours , to make restitution and amends , to confess their sins , to settle their estate , to provide for their charges , to do acts of piety and charity ; and above all things , that they take care they do not sin towards the ●nd of their lives . For if repentance on our death-bed seem so very late for the sins of our life ; what time shall be left to repent us of the sins we commit on our death-bed ? When you comfort the afflicted , endeavour to bring them to the true love of God ; for he that serves God for Gods sake , it is almost impossible he should be oppressed with sorrow . In answering the cases of conscience of the sick or afflicted people , consider not who asks , but what he asks ; and consult in your answers more with the estate of his soul , than the conveniency of his estate ; for no flattery is so fatal as that of the Physician or the Divine . If the sick person enquires concerning the final estate of his soul , he is to be reprov'd rather than answer'd ; only he is to be called upon to finish his duty , to do all the good he can in that season , to pray for pardon and acceptance ; but you have nothing to do to meddle with passing final sentences ; neither cast him down in despair , nor raise him up to vain and unreasonable confidences . But take care that he be not carelesly dismiss'd . In order to these and many other good purposes , every Minister ought frequently to converse with his Parishioners ; to go to their houses , but alwayes publickly , with witness , and with prudence , lest what is charitably intended be scandalously reported : and in all your conversation be sure to give good example , and upon all occasions to give good counsel . VII . Of ministring the Sacraments , publick Prayers , and other duties of Ministers . EVery Minster is oblig'd publickly or privately to read the Common Prayers every day in the week , at Morning and Evening ; and in great Towns and populous places conveniently inhabited , it must be read in Churches , that the daily sacrifice of Prayer and Thanksgiving may never cease . The Minister is to instruct the people , that the Baptism of their children ought not to be ordinarily deferr'd longer than till the next Sunday after the birth of the child ; lest importune and unnecessary delay , occasion that the child die before it is dedicated to the service of God and the Religion of the Lord Jesus , before it be born again , admitted to the Promises of the Gospel , and reckon'd in the account of the second Adam . Let every Minister exhort and press the people to a devout and periodical communion , at the least three times in the year , at the great Festivals : but the devouter sort , and they who have leisure , are to be invited to a frequent Communion : and let it be given and received with great reverence . Every Minister ought to be well skill'd and studied in saying his Office , in the Rubricks , the Canons , the Articles , and the Homilies of the Church , that he may do his duty readily , discreetly , gravely , and by the publick measures of the Laws . To which also it is very usefull that it be added , that every Minister study the ancient Canons of the Church , especially the Penitentials of the Eastern and Western Churches : let him read good Books , such as are approved by publick authority ; such which are useful , wise and holy ; not the scriblings of unlearned parties , but of men learned , pious , obedient and disinterested ; and amongst these , such especially which describe duty and good life , which minister to Faith and Charity , to Piety and Devotion ; Cases of Conscience , and solid expositions of Scripture . Concerning which learned and wise persons are to be consulted . Let not a Curate of Souls trouble himself with any studies , but such which concern his own or his peoples duty ; such as may enable him to speak well , and to do well ; but to meddle not with controversies , but such by which he may be enabled to convince the gainsayers in things that concern publick peace and a good life . Be careful in all the publick adminstrations of your parish , that the poor be provided for . Think it no shame to beg for Christs poor members ; stir up the people to liberal alms by your word and your example . Let a collection be made every Lords day , and upon all solemn meetings , and at every Communion ; and let the Collection be wisely and piously administred : ever remembring , that at the day of Judgement nothing shall publickly be proclaimed , but the reward of alms and mercy . Let every Minister be sure to lay up a treasure of comforts and advices , to bring forth for every mans need in the day of his trouble ; let him study and heap together Instruments and Advices for the promoting of every virtue , and remedies and arguments against every vice ; let him teach his people to make acts of virtue not onely by external exercise , but also in the way of Prayer and internal meditation . In these and all things else that concern the Ministers duty , if there be difficulty you are to repair to your Bishop for further advice , assistance and information . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A63878-e1070 Heb. 7.19 . Gal. 3.3 . & Gal. 6.12.13 . Philip. 3.34 . Sed Belzebulis callida Commenta Christus destruit . Hos. 2.14 . De legibus l. scire . Prov. 28.14 . S. Hier. in comment . Isai. 8. Isidor , l. 13. Orig. cap. 13. Commen . in 12. Isai. & l. 6. in Ezek. cap. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Legat. pro Christianis . Notes for div A63878-e3900 Rom. 8.13 . Gal. 5.16 . Rom. 8.7 . 1 Joh. 3.9 . Matth. 7.18 . Heb. 12.1 . 1 Joh. 3.8 . 3 Joh. 4.4 . Mark 9.23 . Ille laudatur , qui ut caeperint statim interficit cogitata , & allidit ad petram . Notes for div A63878-e6240 * Rom. 3.28.4.5.5.1.10.10 . Gal. 2.16 . James 2.21 . 1 Cor. 13 : 2 : Tuscul. 1. James 2.14 . Gal. 5.6 . Gal. 6.15 . 1 Cor. 7.19 . Isa. 57.21 : Exod. 23.7 . Heb. 12.14 . Titus 3.8 . Heb. 6.1 . 1 John 3.8 . Eph. 5.25 . Tit. 2.11 . John 15.2 : Rom. 5. v. 8.10 . Rom. 8.28 . Rom. 4.25 . Ecclus. 31. Rom. 8.10 . Plaut . Captiv . Rom. 8.29 . Rom. 2.6 , 7 , 8. John 6.28.29 : 2 Pet. 1.5 . 2 Thes. 3.2 . 1 Tim. 5.8 . Heb. 11. Ecclus. 32.24 . Panar . lib. 1. edit . Basil. p. 8. l. 46. 2 Tim. 2.16 . Instit. l. 5. c. 9. Mark. 11.24 . Tit. 1.16 . 2 Thes. 2.12 : Lib. 3. Notes for div A63878-e9340 Ep. 69. Jerem. 9.1 . Esa. 26.12 . 2 Thes. 3.1 . Notes for div A63878-e9720 * Cap. 24.25 . Epist. 73. ad Jubaj . 1 Tim. 6.14 . * Rom. 12.6 . Ephe. 4 11. 1 Cor. 12.28 . * Acts 1.25 . 1 Tim. 5.19 . 1 Tit. 11. & 2 Titus 15. Cap. 2. V. 2. Gal. 1.19 . * 2 Cor. 8.23 . Philip. 2.25 . Psalm 45.16 . in 1 Cor. 12. in Psal. 44. Epist. 1. Simpronianum . Epist. 65. ad Rogat . Quaest. V. & N.T.q. 197. Isai. 60.17 . Hunc locum etiam citat S. Clemens . Ep. ad Cor. Neh. 11.10 . 2 Kin. 11.18 . Numb . 4.16 . Epist. 2. ad Nepot . Epistol . ad Evagrium . Heb. 13.17 . Acts. 1.25 . Isai. 60.17 . 1 Pet. 5.1 , 5. Luke 22.27 . Mark 10.43 . John 13.13 . Lib. 3. Tit. 1. 1 Tim. 1.19 . 2 Tim. 3.9 . in Cap. 2. Zeph. Lib. 1. Ep. 4. Dial. adv . Lucifer . Eccl. 45.26 . & 24. C. Concil . Antioch . 1 Cor. 4.1 , 2 , 3. Jer. 3.15 . Heb. 13.7 . Zech. 11.7 . Cap. 11. Prov. 6.3 , 4. D. Bernard . ad Henr. Episc . Senensem . 2 Tim. 2. Jer. 13.20 , 21. Notes for div A63878-e15200 Nullum malum majus aut infeliciter feracius quam inobedientia . Seneca . 1 Tim. 2 . 1● . Prov. 16.10 . L. 8. cod . de veteri jure enucleando . Petrus Cellensis lib. de Conscientia . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Num. 12. ● , 7 , 8. Seneca . * Rom. 16.17 . Seneca . Prov. 24.34 . Notes for div A63878-e18420 Ecclus. 5.10 . Vulg. edit . Lat. Notes for div A63878-e18830 Psal. 111. ver . 10. Psal. 119. Nazianz. ad . Philagrium . 2 Pet. 1. 1 Joh. 2.27 . 1 Cor. 2.14 . Dan. 12.10 . Eph. 5.14 . Prov. 10.31 , 32. John 14.21 . Rom. 1.25 , 26. Eccl. 2.26 . John 14.26 . Lib. 2. Ethic. c. 1. Nullum bonum perfectè noscitur quod non perfecte amatur . Aug. lib. 83. qu. de gratia Christi . Ecclus. 21.11 . Lib. de Consummat . saeculi , inter opera Ephrem Syri . Notes for div A63878-e24950 Synes . hym . 6 1 Thes. 4.16 . John 5.28 . Dracuntius de opere Dei. Luk. 14.14 . * Rev. 20.6 . 1 Thes. 4.16 . Rom. 5.10 . Isa. 26.20 . Numb . 1.46.3.39 . Seld. Hist. of Tithes , c. 2. See Philo. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Tract . 25. in St. Matth. Pindar . De scriptor . Eccles. Epist. 30. Synes . ep . 57. Notes for div A63878-e29690 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Vide Rom. 16.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 
A27805	----	The psalter of David with titles and collects according to the matter of each Psalme : whereunto is added Devotions for the help and assistance of all Christian people, in all occasions and necessities. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. 1647 Approx. 569 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 197 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-12 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A27805 Wing B2426 ESTC R33001 12841113 ocm 12841113 94365 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A27805) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 94365) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1520:2) The psalter of David with titles and collects according to the matter of each Psalme : whereunto is added Devotions for the help and assistance of all Christian people, in all occasions and necessities. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. The third edition. [22], 371 p. Printed for R. Royston ..., London : 1647. Illustrated engraved frontispiece. Attributed by NUC pre-1956 imprints to Taylor. "Devotions for the help and assistance of all Christian people" has special t.p. Includes index. Reproduction of original in the Bodleian Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. 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Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Bible. -- O.T. -- Psalms -- Paraphrases, English. Psalters. Devotional exercises. 2005-02 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-08 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-09 Mona Logarbo Sampled and proofread 2005-09 Mona Logarbo Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion Domus orationis Bonum est confiteri Domino et psallere tuo nomini Altissime . Te decet Hymnus . Gloria Miserere Confiteor THE PSALTER OF DAVID : WITH Titles and Collects according to the matter of each PSALME . Whereunto is added , DEVOTIONS For the help and assistance of all Christian People , in all occasions and necessities . The third EDITION . LONDON , Printed for R. ROYSTON , at the Angel in Ivie-lane . 1647. THE PREFACE . IT is naturall for all men when they are straitned with fears , or actuall infelicities , to run for succour , to what their fancy , or the next opportunity presents , as an instrument of their ease and remedy . But that which distinguishes men in these cases , is the choyce of their Sanctuary : for to rely upon the Reeds of Aegypt , or to snatch at the Bul-rushes of Nilu● , may well become a drowning man , whose Reason is so wholly invaded and surpriz●d by Fear , as to be uselesse to him in that confus●on : But he whose condition ( although it be sad ) is still under the Mastery of Reason , and hath time to deliberate , unlesse he places his hopes upon something that is likely to cure his misery , or at least to ease it , by making his affliction lesse , or his patience more , does deserve that misery he groans under . Stripes and remedilesse miseries are the lot of Fools , but Afflictions that happen to w●se men , or good men , represent indeed the sadnesses of mortality , but they become Monuments and advantages of their Piety and Wisdome . In this most unnaturall Warre ●ommenced against the greatest solennities of Christianity , and all that is called , God , I have been put to it to run somewhither to Sanctuary ; but whither , was so great a question , that had not Religion been my guide , I had not known where to have found rest or safety , when the King and the Laws , who by God and Man respectively are appointed the Protectors of Innocence and Truth , had themselves the greatest need of a Protector . And when in the beginning of these troubles I hastned to His Majesty , the case of the King and His good Subjects , was something like that of Isaac , ready to be sacrificed , the wood was prepared , the fire kindled , the knife was lift up , and the hand was striking , that if we had not been something like Abraham too , and against hope have beleeved in hope , we had been as much without comfort as we were in outward appearance without remedy . It was my custome long since to secure my selfe against the violences of Discontents abroad , as Gerson did against temptations , in angulis & libellis , in my books and my retirements : But now I was deprived of both them , and driven to a publick view and participation of those dangers and miseries which threatned the Kingdome , and disturbed the eavennesse of my former life . I was therefore constrained to amasse together all those arguments of hope and comfort , by which men in the like condition were supported ; and amongst all the great examples of trouble and confidence , I reckon'd King David one of the biggest , and of greatest consideration . For considering that he was a King , vexed with a Civill Warre , his case had so much of ours in it , that it was likely the devotions he used might fit our turn , and his comforts sustain us . And indeed when I came to look upon the Psalter with a neerer observation , and an eye diligent to espy my advantages and remedies there deposited , I found very many Prayers against the enemies of the King and Church , and the miseries of Warre . I found so many admirable promises , so rare variety of expressions of the mercies of God , so many consolatory hymnes , the commemoration of so many deliverances from dangers , and deaths , and Enemies , so many miracles of mercy and salvation , that I began to be so confident as to beleeve there could come no affliction great enough , to spend so great a stock of comfort as was laid up in the treasure of the Psalter : the saying of S. Paul was here verified , if sinne [ and misery ] did abound , then did grace superabound : and as wee beleeve of the Passion of Christ , it was so great as to be able to satisfy for a thousand Worlds ; so it is of the comforts of Davids Psalmes , they are more then sufficient to repair all the breaches of Mankind . But for the particular occasion of creating confidences in us that God will defend his Church and his Anoynted , and all that trust in him , against all their Enemies , ( which was our case , and contained in it all our needs for the present ) I found so abundant supply , that of 150. Psalmes , some whereof are Historicall , many Eucharisticall , many Propheticall , and the rest Prayers for severall occasions , 34. of them are expresly made against Gods and our enemies ; Eleven expresly for the Church , four for the King ; that is , a third part of the Psalms relate particularly to the present occasion , beside many clauses of respersion in the other , which if collected in one , would of themselves , be great arguments of hope to prevail in so good a cause . This which experience taught me now , I was promised before by a frequent testimony of the Doctors of the Church , who give the Psalter such a Character as is due to the best and most usefull book in the whole World , viz. The most profitable of books : the treasure of Holy instructions , consummationem totius paginae Theologicae , the perfection of the whole Scripture ; so the ordinary Glosse calls it ; arma juvenum , parva Biblia , tribulatorum solatia , the young mans armory , the little Bible , the comfort of the distressed , so others ; to be said by all men upon all occasions , is the counsell of the most devout amongst them . But concerning the Psalter there are good words enough , and reall observation of advantages in the severall prefaces before the Commentaries upon the Psalms , set forth by the Fathers , and Writers of the first and middle ages . I leave the particular enumeration of them , to the learned Divines of our Church , to whom it is more proper ; the summe of them is this , which Tertullian alone hath expressed in his Apology ag●inst the Gentiles , Omnes Bibliothecas , & omnia monumenta unius Prophetae scrinium vincit , in quo videtur thesaurus collocatus esse totius Judaici Sacramenti , & inde etiam nostri , this book alone of the Prophet David , hath in it some excellencies beyond all the monuments of Learning in any Library whatsoever , and is the store-house both of the Jewish and Christian Religion . But that which pleases me most is the fancy of S. Hilary , expounding the Psalter to be meant by the Key of David , spoken of by S. John in his Revelation : And properly enough ; for if we consider how many mysteries of Religion are open'd to us in the Psalter , how many things concerning Christ , what clear vaticinations concerning his Birth , his Priesthood , his Kingdome , his Death , the very circumstances of his Passion , his Resurrection , and all the degrees of his Exaltation-more clearly and explicitely recorded in the Psalter , then in all the old Prophets besides , we may easily beleeve that Christ with a Key of David in his hand , is nothing else but Christ fully open'd and manifested to us in the Psalmes in the whole mystery of our Redemption . Omnes penè Psalmi Christi personam sustinent , saith Tertullian . Almost all the Psalmes represent the Person of Christ. Now this Key of David , opens not onely the Kingdome of Grace , by Revelation of the mysteries of our Religion , but the Kingdome of Heaven too , it being such a Collection of Prayers , Eucharist , acts of hope , of love , of patience , and all other Christian vertues , that as the everlasting Kingdome is given to the Heire of the House of David , so the Honour of opening that Kingdome is given to the first Prince of that Family ; the Psalmes of his Father David are one of the best inlets into the Kingdome of the Sonne . Something to this purpose is that saying of one of the old Doctors , Vox psalmodiae si recto corde dirigatur , in tantum omnipotenti Deo aditum ad animum aperit , ut intentae animae vel Prophe●iae mysteria , vel compunctionis spiritum insundat . The saying or singing of Psalmes opens a way so wide for God to enter into the heart , that a devout soule does usually from such an imployment receive the grace of compunction and contrition , or of understanding Prophecies . Upon such premises as these , or better , the Church of God in all ages hath made Davids Psalter the greatest part of her publike and private devotions ; sometimes dividing the Psalter into seven parts , that every weeks devotion might spend it all . Sometimes decreeing that it should be said day and night . Otherwhile injoyned the recitation of the whole Psalter before the celebration of the blessed Sacrament ; and after some time it was made the publike office of the Church . It was the generall use of Christendome , to say the Psalmes Antiphonatim , by way of verse and answer , saith Suidas ; and so ancient , that the Religious of S. Mark in Alexandria used it , saith Philo the Jew ; and S Ignatius , or else Flavianus and Diodorus brought it first into the Church of Antioch . And for the private Devotions , that they chiefly consisted of the Psalmes we have great probability from the strict requiring it of the Clergy , and particularly from them who came to be ordained , great readinesse of saying the Psalter by heart . It was S. Hieroms counsell to Rusticus , and when S. Gregory was to ordain the Bishop of Ancona , his inquiry concerning his Canonicall sufficiency was , if he could say Davids Psalmes without book ; and for a disability of doing it , John the Priest was rejected from the Bishoprick of Ravenna . But this I conceive more relates to their private , then to their publick devotions , for I cannot think but that in respect of the publick Liturgy , it was enough for Bishops and Priests to read the Psalm ; the requiring ability to remember them was to ingage them to a frequent use of so admirable devotions , in their private offices . But the Psalms were not onely of use to the Church , as they lay in their own position and form , but the devout men of severall ages drew them into Collects , Antiphonaries , Responsories , and all other parts of their devotions . Th●y made their Prayers out of the Psalms , their conf●ssions , their doxologies , their ejaculations for the most part were clauses or periods of the Psalter . S. Hierome made a collection of choyce versicles , and put them together into their severall classes , and that was much of his devotion ; the Collection is still extant under the Name of S. Hierome's Psalter . S. Athanasius made an Index of the severall occasions and matters of prayer and Eucharist , and fitted Psalms to each particular , that was his devotion , the Psalms intire as they lay , onely he made titles of his own . I have seen of latter time a short hymne of some eight verses , which are indeed very choyce sentences out of severall Psalms set together to make a compendium of Liturgy of Breviary of our necessity , and devotions , collected by S. Bernardine , it is a very good Copy to be followed . But if we look into the old Liturgies of the Eastern and Western Churches , and where we will almost into the the private devotions of the old Writers , we may say of them in the expression of the Prophet , Hauriebant aquas è sontibus Salvatoris , they drew their waters from the fountains of our Blessed Saviour , but through the limbecks of David . But the practice of this devotion I derived from a higher precedent , even of Christ and his Apostles : for before the passion immediately , they sung a Psalm , saith the Scripture , Hymno dicto , saith the vulgar Latine , having recited or said a Psalm . But however it was part of Davids Psalter that was sung , it was the great Allelujah , as the Jews called it , beginning at the 113. Psalme , to the 119. exclusively , part of that was sung . But this devotion continued with our Blessed Saviour as long as breath was in him , for when he was upon the Crosse , he recited the 22. Psalme ad verbum , saith the Tradition of the Church , and that he began it , saith the Scripture , My God , my God , why hast thou forsaken me ? The whole Psalme is rather a history then a prediction of the Passion ; and what Tertullian saith of the whole Psalter is particularly verified of this , Filium ad Patrem , id est , Christum ad Deum verba facientem repraesentat , it represents the Sonnes addresse to his Father , that is , C●rist speaking to God. Against the example of Christ if we confront the practice of Antichrist , nothing can be said greater in commend●tion of this manner of devotion : for B. Hippolytus , in his Oration of the end of the world , saith , that in the days of Antichrist , Psalmorum decantatio cessabit , they shall then no more use the singing or saying of the Psalmes ; which when I had observed , without any further deliberation I fix'd upon the Psalter , as the best weapon against him , whose comming we have great reason to beleeve is not far off , so great preparation is making for him . From the example of Christ this grew to be a Practice Apostolicall , and their devotion came exactly home to the likenesse of the design of this very Book : they turn'd the Psalmes into Prayers . Thus it was said of Paul and Silas , Act. 16. They prayed a Psalme , so it is in the Greek ; and we have a Copy left us of one of the Prayers or Collects which they made out of the bowels of the second Psalme , it is in the fourth Chapter of the Acts , beginning at the 24. verse , and ends at the 31. And now I have shown the reasons of my choyce , and the precedents that I have followed . This last comes home to every circumst●nce of my Book . I onely adde this , that since according to the instruction of our blessed Saviour , God is to be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth ; no worshipping can be more true , or more spiritu●ll then the Psalter said with a pure minde and a hearty devotion . For David was Gods instrument to the Church , teaching and admonishing us ( as our duty is to each o●her ) in Psalmes and Hymnes , and spirituall Songs , an● the Spirit of Truth was the Grand Dictator of what David wrote ; so that we may confidently use this devotion as the Church of God ever did , making her addresses to God most frequently by the Psalms : so Prudentius reports the guise of Christendome : Te mente purâ , simplici , Te voce , te cantu pio , Rogare curvato genu , Flendo & canendo discimus . Hymn . 2. Cathemer . The Prayers which I have collected out of the Psalms , are nothing else , but the matter of the Psalmes put into ●nother mood , and fitted to the necessities of Christendome , and of our selves in particular , according to the first designation or secondary intention of the blessed Spirit : for the use of them could not expire in the person of David , though first occasioned ( many of them ) by his personall necessities : for all Scripture was written for our learning upon whom the ends of the world are come , ( saith the Apostle ) and Christ , and his Apostles , and the Church of all ages , hath taught us by their example and precepts , that the purposes of the holy Ghost were of great extent , and the profits universall both for times and occasions : so also were the Prayers which the Church made out of the Psalms , and sung them in her publick offices . S. Austin found great advantages by such devotions , as himselfe witnesses ; Cùm reminiscor lachrymas meas quas fudi ad cantus Ecclesiae in primordiis recuperatae fidei meae , magnam instituti hujus utilitatem agnosco . When I call to minde the many teares I shed when I heard the Hymnes and Psalms of the Church , I cannot but acknowledge the great benefit of this institution . And yet besides , the spirituall sense of an actuall devotion , which is sooner had in this use of the Psalms then of other Prayers , I have had a meditation that this manner of devotion might be a good Symbol and instrument of Communion between Christians of a different Perswasion : For if we all would communicate in the same private devotions , it were a great degree of Peace and Charity . The Nicen● Fathers in their zeale against Heresie , forbad their people to be present at the Prayers of Heretiques ; and they had great reason so long as they derived their Heresie into their Liturgy , into their very formes of Baptisme : But I am much scandalized , when I see a man refuse to communicate with me in my Prayers , even such as are in his own Breviary or Manuall . For me thinks it is strange that the Lords Prayer it selfe should be unhallowed in the mouth of a Protestant , and yet the whole office from the mouth of one of their Priests , though never so wicked , though a Necromancer , a secret Jew , or any thing , so of their Communion , shall lose no title of its sanctity and value . So long as nothing of controversie is brought into our Prayers ( and certainly we may very well pray to God without disputing ) and Devotion is not made a party , he that refuses to joyn with me in what himself confesses true and holy , upon pretence I am a heretick , will certainly prove himself a Schismatick . For true it is , a Heretick is to be avoyded , that is in his temptation and in his heresie , just as a notorious Fornicator , an Adulterer , a sentenc'd drunkard , and no more , the Apostles rule excommunicates all alike , with such men no not to eat , and this rule cannot with so much ease and certainty bee put to practice in the case of heresie , as in the case of drunkennesse , because heresie is as much harder to be judg'd , as the soule is more invisible then the body , especially if wee make heresy to be an error , not in the great articles of faith only , but to consist in minutes also , as all they do who refuse to communicate with Persons disagreeing even in the smallest article . But hee that is ready to joyne with all the societies of Christians in the world , in those things which are certainly true , just and pious , gives great probation that he hath at least , animum Catholicam , no Schismaticall soul , because he would actually communicate with all Christendome , if bona fides in falso articulo , sincere perswasion ( be it true or false ) did not disoblige him , since he clearly distinguishes persons from things , and in all good things communicates with persons bad enough in others . This is the Communion of charity , and when the Communion of beleef is interrupted by misperswasion on one side , and too much confidence and want of charity on the other , the erring party hath humane infirmity to excuse him , but the uncharitable nothing at all . This therefore is the best and surest way , because we are all apt to be deceived , to be sincere in our disquisitions , modest in our determinations , charitable in our censures , and apt to communicate in things of evident truth and confessed holinesse . And such is this devotion ; the whole matter whereof is the Psalms of David , and the prayers Symbolicall , and alike in substance , and of the same expression throughout , where it is not altered by circumstances . So that I thought I might not imprudently intend this Book as an instrument of publike charity to Christians of different confessions . For I see that all sorts of people sing or say Davids Psalms , and by that use , if they understand the consequences of their own Religion , accept s●t forms of prayer for their Liturgy , and this form in speciall is one of their own choyces for devotion ; so that if all Christians , that think Davids Psalmes lawfull devotion , and shall observe the Collects from them to be just of the same Religion , would joyn in this or the like form , I am something confident the product would be charity , besides other spirituall advantages . For my own particular , since all Christendome is so much divided , and subdivided into innumerable Sects , I knew not how to give a better evidence of my own beleef , and love of the Communion of Saints , and detestation of Schisme , then by an act of Religion , whose consequence might be ( if men please ) the advancement of an universall Communion . For in that which is most concerning , and is the best preserver of charity , I mean practicall devotion and active piety , the differences of Christendome are not so great and many , to make an eternall dis-union and fracture ; and if we instance in Prayer , there is none at all abroad ( some indeed wee have commenc'd at home , but ) in the great divisions of Christendome , none at all but concerning the object of our prayers and adorations . For the Socinian shuts the Holy Ghost from his Letanies , and places the Sonne of God in a lower form of addresse . But concerning him I must say , as S. Paul said of the unbeleevers , What have I to doe with them that are without ? For this very thing that they disbeleeve the article of the holy Trinity , they make themselves uncapable of the communion of other Christian people of the Nicene Faith , and we cannot so much as joyn with them in good prayers , because we are not agreed concerning the persons to whom our devotions must be addressed ; and Christendome never did so lightly esteem the article of the holy Trinity , as not to glory in it , and confesse it publickly , and expresse it in all our offices . The holy Ghost together with the Father and the Son must be worshipped and glorified . But since all Christians of any publike confession and government , that is , all particular and nationall Churches , agree in the matter of prayers , and the great object , God in the mystery of the Trinity , if the the Church of Rome would make her addresses to God onely , through Jesus Christ our Lord , and leave the Saints in the Calendar , without drawing them into her offices ( which they might doe without any prejudice to the suits they ask , unlesse Christs intercession without their conjuncture were imperf●ct ) that we might all once pray together , we might hope for the blessings of peace and charity to be upon us all . I am sure they that have commenced this war against the King & the Church , first fell out with our Liturgy , and refused to joyn with us in our prayers : I have therefore a strong perswasion , that if we were joyned in our prayers , we should quickly be united in affections : and to this purpose I have some reason to beleeve this Psalter may doe good service . For I have seen an Essay of this designe made by that prudent and pious Moderator of Controversies , George Cassander , who did much for the peace of Christendome , when disagreeing interests and opinions made the great Schisme in the Western Churches , he puts forth Devotions , and with them Collects for each Psalme . But I said , it was a meer Essay , they are short of what he could have done : but when I saw his name at them , I guessed what every man else would have guessed concerning him , it was a pursuance of his great designe for peace and charity . I have se●n three more , the first by an old Saxon Priest or Bishop , in which there is nothing of offence , nothing but pious and primitive for the matter , but the Collects so short , that the Psalm did scarce passe through the Prayer , so little of the relish is left , that the percolation is scarce discernable . A second was printed at Lyons , 1545. without the Authors name , with a complying design of avoyding all offence , and a not engaging God in our scholasticall wranglings , but quite contrary to the Saxon ; the Prayers are so full of Paraphrase , that I resolved to goe further , and see if I could speed better , and at last met with a Psalter printed lately at Antwerp by Command , very fairly indeed , with a Title and a Collect to every Psalm , all free from dispute , and partaking in the questions of C●ristendome , not so much as a gust or relish of his own party till the Psalter be done , the Prayers all good , and here I had fixed , but that I had found them very often to be impertinent . But that which I observed in all these , is , that the design seems alike , and they are a form of devotion made for no private Sect , but for the benefit of all Christian people , which the Author of the Antwerp Psalter declines in his Additionall Devotions , where he brings in Letanies to Saints as grosly as he had before avoided it with discretion . If any mans piety receives advantage by this intendment , it is what I wish ; but I desire that his charity might increase too , and that he would say a hearty Prayer , when his Devotion grows high and pregnant , for me and my family ; for I am more desirous my Posterity should be pious then honourable . I have no ends of my own to serve , but to purchace an interest of Prayers ; for I would fain have these Devotions goe out into a blessing to all them that shall use them , and yet return into my own bosome too : and if I may but receive the blessings of the Psalter , even the sure mercies of David , it will be like the reward of five Cities for the improvement of a few talents ; I shall venture again in a greater negotiation , and traffique for ten talents ; for there is no honour so great as to serve God in a great capacity ; and though I wait not at the Altar , yet I will pay there such oblations of my time and industry , as I can redeem from the services of His Majesty , and the impertinences of my own life . PSALMI . Dies . Ad Matutinas . Ad Vespertinas . j 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8. ij 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14. iij 15 , 16 , 17 , 18. iv 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23. v 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29. vj 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34. vij 35 , 36 , 37. viij 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43. ix 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49. x 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55. xj 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61. xij 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 , 66 , 67. xiij 68 , 69 , 70. xiv 71 , 72 , 73 , 74. xv 75 , 76 , 77 , 78. xvj 79 , 80 , 81 , 82 , 83 , 84 , 85. xvij 86 , 87 , 88 , 89. xviij 90 , 91 , 92 , 93 , 94. xix 95 , 96 , 97 , 98 , 99 , 100 , 101. xx 102 , 103 , 104. xxj 105 , 106. xxij 107 , 108 , 109. xxiij 110 , 111 , 112 , 113 , 114 , 115. xxiv 116 , 117 , 118 , 119 , Inde quatuor periodi . xxv Inde quinque periodi ejusd . Inde quatuor periodi ejusd . xxvj Inde quinque periodi ejusd . Inde quatuor ultimi ejusd . xxvij 120 , 121 , 122 , 123 , 124 , 125 126 , 127 , 128 , 129 , 130 , 131. xxviij 132 , 133 , 134 , 135 , 136 , 137 , 138. xxix 139 , 140 , 141 ; 142 , 143. xxx 144 , 145 , 146 , 147 , 148 , 149 , 150. THE INDEX SERVING TO direct the Readers devotion upon all emergent occasions to the severall matters compriz'd in the PSALMES and Collects of the whole Book . Petitions . FOr grace to love Gods Law , Psal. 19 , 119. For preservation frō sin , Ps. 19 , 40. & Collect p. 228 For preservation from the punishment of sin and Gods Judgements , ps . 25 , 28 , 75 , 76. For pardon for our sins , ps . 6 , 25 , 32 , 38 , 40 , 41 , 51 , 65 , 130 , 143. Col. p. 212. For propagation of the Gospel , ps . 47 , 68 , 72 , 145. Col. p. 232. For Gods Providence and Protection , ps . 4 , 16 , 17 , 23 , 86 , 91 , 121. For protection against malicious and wicked persons , ps . 5 , 70 , 94 , 109 , 140. Col. p. 251 , 255. For the Church and all faithfull people , ps . 5.10 , 45 , 48 , 53 , 68 , 70 , 74 , 79 , 80 , 93 , 94 , 112 , 132 , 237 , Col. p. 217. For defence against all Enemies ghostly and bodily , publike and private , ps . 3 , 5 , 7 , 11 , 13 , 17 , 18 , 27 , 31 , 35 , 40 , 54 , 55 , 59 , 70 , 108 , 109 , 135 , 141. Col. p. 235 , 252 , 295. For a holy life , sanctity and innocence , ps . 1 , 15 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 50 , 84 , 85 , 101 , 119 , 126. Col. p. 22 , 114 , 165 , 187 , 228. For salvation and eternall joyes , ps . 16 , 24 , 28 , 36 , 50 , 75 , 84 , 87 , 97 , 126. Col. p. 114 , 133 , 204 , 215 , 225 , 299. For defence of our innocence , ps . 7. For a blessed and holy death , ps . 1 , 33 , 36 , 50 , 88 , 90 , 102 , 142. For deliverance from treason and private conspiracies , ps . 41 , 55 , 109. For the King , ps . 21 , 61 , 89 , 352. For deliverance from death and damnation , ps . 28 , 30 , 102 , 125. Col. p. 250. For health , ps . 91 , 102. For all Christian Princes and Judges , ps . 82. For advancement of Religion , Col. p. 272. & 275. For deliverance from power of the devill , ps . 57. Col. p. 226 For peace , 46 , 122 , 133 , 144. Col. p. 257 , 269. For comfort in sadnesse , ps . 101 , 102 , 142. Col. p. 226 , 283 For spirituall blessings , ps . 65 , 73. For fruitfulnesse of the Earth , ps . 65. For cōpetency of living , ps . 127. Col. p. 119 , 133 , 297 , 299 For tranquillity of spirit , Col. p. 143 , & 144. For Victory , ps . 144. For comfort of Gods Spirit , ps . 34 , 42 , 43 , 51 , 61 , 102 , 142 Col. p. 226 , 239. Prayers for particular graces . FOr Repentance , Col. p. 243 , 275. For Mortification , ps . 131. Col. p. 275. For humility , ps . 131. Col. p. 253. For patience , ps . 94. For perseverance , Col. p. 165 , & 166 , 248 , 249 , & 250. For Devotion & Religion , ps . 27 , 33 , 42 , 43 , 99 , 119 , 141. Col. p. 285. For charity , ps . 41 , 112. For liberality and contempt of riches , ps . 4 , 49 , 73. Col. p. 114 , 240. For hope and trust in God , ps . 33 , 37 , 46 , 49 ▪ 56 , 57 , 62 , 77 , 115 , 125 , 146. Col. p. 138 , 242. For reverence and fear of God , ps . 2 , 33 , 112 , 128. Col. p. 271 , & 272. For watchfulnesse over our ways , ps . 56. For zeal , ps . 119. Col. p. 238 , 241.246 , & 247. For health and newnesse of life , Col. p. 170 , 171. Prayers for severall times and occasions . IN time of sadnesse , ps . 61 , 102 , 142 , Col. p. 226 , 283. In time of persecution and oppression , ps . 7 , 9 , 10 , 52 , 53 , 58 , 64 , 69 , 63 , 137 , 142 , Col. p. 279. In time of War , ps . 18 , 44 , 46 , 60 , 89 , 108. In time of slander , ps . 52 , 57 , 64 , 120. In time of temptation , ps . 13 , 19 , 60 , Col. p. 191 , & 192 , 235 , 239. In time of sicknesse , ps . 30 , 31 , 88 , 90 , 102 , 142. In time of publike calamity and distraction , ps . 46 , 89 , 91. In time of spirituall desertion , ps . 34 , 42 , 43 , 51 , 61 , 102. Col. p. 239. In time of after lapse into sin , ps . 51 , Col. p. 258. In time of solemne devotion , ps . 20 , 81. On Good Friday , ps . 22. On Ascension day , ps . 24. Prayers preparatory , TO the Sacrament , ps . 23 , 26 , 111 , Col. p. 151. To death , ps . 26 , 30 , 31 , 39 , 71 , 88 , 90 , 142 , viz. to bee said in sicknesse or old age . Deprecations , AGainst Atheisme and Irreligion , ps . 14. Against Idolatry , ps . 115. Against Heretiques and Heresie , ps . 59. Against danger of evil company , ps . 1 , 12 , 120. Against Sacriledge , and sacrilegious persons , ps . 74 , 83. Against fearfulnesse and doubting , ps . 77. Against covetousnesse , ps . 4 , 37 , Col. p. 240. Against enemies of the Church , ps 59 , 68 , 74 , 83 , 199 , 129 Against death , ps . 88. Meditations , ON the day of Judgement , ps . 50 , 97 On the Passion of Christ , ps 22. On the joys of Heaven , ps . 126 , 149. On the perfections and excellencies of God manifested in his creatures , ps . 8 , 104. On Gods providence over his people , and mercy to the penitent , ps . 74 , 105 , 92 , 106 , 147. On Gods Justice and Judgements on sinners , ps . 78 , 92. On his Omnipotence and Omnipresence , ps . 139. Acts of Vertue . ADoration of God , ps . 8 , 29 , 67 , 95 , 96 , 145. Col. p. 22. Adoration of the second Person in the Trinity , ps . 2 , 4● , 72 , 110. Acts of hope in God , ps . 4 , 11 , 18. Acts of Religion , ps . 134. Acts of praise to God , ps . 17 , 135 , 148 , 150. Acts of love to God , ps . 116. Desire after God and heavenly things , ps . 63 , 84 , 87. Of Election , or preferring spirituall blessings before temporall , ps . 37 , 73. Thanksgivings , FOr all Gods mercies , ps . 103 , 136 , 138. For his mercy and truth , ps . 100. For delivering from sicknesse and all other dangers , ps . 40 , 107 , 114 , 116. For delivering from enemies and all other troubles , ps . 81 , 107 , 124 , 144. For pardon of our sins , ps . 85 , 106 , 116. For redemption by Christ , ps . 98 , 118. For the blessings of the Gospel , ps . 111. For Acts of Gods Providence , and particular care over us , ps . 113 , 121. For Victory , ps . 144. THE PSALTER of DAVID , With Titles and Collects fitted to each Psalme , &c. The j day . Morning Prayer . PSALME 1. A Prayer that we may continually meditate in Gods law , and have no fellowship with wicked persons in the manner of their living or dying . BLessed is the man that hath not walked in the counsell of the ungodly , nor stand in the way of sinners : and hath not sit in the seat of the scornfull 2 But his delight is in the Law of the Lord : and in his Law will he exercise himself day and night . 3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the water side : that will bring forth his fruit in due season . 4 His leafe also sh●ll not wither : and look whatsoever he doth , it shall prosper . 5 As for the ungodly , it is not so with them : but they are like the chaffe , which the winde scattereth away from the face of the earth . 6 Therefore the ungodly shall not be able to stand in the judgement : neither the sinners in the Congregation of the righteous . 7 But the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous : and the way of the ungodly shall perish . The Prayer . O Holy Jesu , fountain of all blessing , the word of the Eternall Father , be pleased to sow the good seed of thy word in our hearts , and water it with the dew of thy divinest Spirit , that while we exercise our selves in it day and night , we may be like a tree planted by the water side , bringing forth in all times and seasons the fruits of a holy conversation , that we may never walk in the way of sinners , nor have fellowship with the unfruitfull works of darknesse , but that when this life is ended , we may have our portion in the congregation of the righteous , and may be able to stand upright in judgement , through the supporting arme of thy mercy , O blessed Saviour and Redeemer Jesu . Amen . PSALME 2. A Prayer to promote Christs Kingdome , and for grace to serve him with feare and reverence . WHy doe the heathen so furiously rage together : and why do the people imagine a vain thing ? 2 The Kings of the earth stand up , and the rulers take counsell together : against the Lord , and against his Anointed . 3 Let us break their bonds asunder : and cast away their cords from us . 4 He that dwelleth in heaven shall laugh them to scorn : the Lord shall have them in derision . 5 Then he shall speak unto them in his wrath : and vex them in his sore displeasure . 6 Yet have I set my King : upon my holy hill of Sion . 7 I will preach the law whereof the Lord hath said unto me : Thou art my Son , this day have I begotten thee . 8 Desire of me , and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance : and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession . 9 Thou shalt bruise them with a rod of yron : and break them in pieces like a potters vessell . 10 Be wise now therefore , O ye Kings : be learned , ye that are judges of the earth . 11 Serve the Lord in fear : and rejoyce unto him with reverence . 12 Kisse the Son , lest he be angry , and so he perish from the right way : if his wrath be kindled ( yea but a little ) blessed are all they that put their trust in him . The Prayer . O Blessed Jesu , into whose hands is committed all dominion and power in the Kingdomes and Empires of the world , out of whose mouth goeth a sharp sword , that with it thou mightest smite the Nations and rule them with a rod of yron , on whose vesture and on whose thigh a name is written , King of Kings , and Lord of Lords , we adore thee in thy infinite excellency and most glorious exaltation , beseeching thee to reveale thy name and the glory of thy Kingdome to the Heathen which know thee not , and to the uttermost parts of the earth which are given thee for thy possession , and inheritance . And to us give thy grace to serve thee in fear , and plant the reverence of thy law and of thy name in our hearts , lest thy wrath be kindled against us , and thou break us in pieces like vessels of dishonour . Have mercy on us , O King of Kings , for we have put our trust in thee , thou art our Saviour and Redeemer Jesu . Amen . PSALME 3. A Prayer for defence against all our Enemies , Bodily and Ghostly . LOrd how are they increased that trouble me : many are they that rise against me . 2 Many one there be that say of my soul : There is no help for him in his God. 3 But thou , O Lord , art my defender : thou art my worship , and the lifter up of mine head . 4 I did call upon the Lord with my voice : and he heard me out of his holy hill . 5 I laid me down and slept , and rose up again : for the Lord sustained me . 6 I will not be afraid for ten thousands of people : that have set themselves against me round about . 7 Up Lord , and help me , O my God : for thou smitest all mine enemies upon the check-bone , thou hast brok●n the teeth of the ungodly . 8 Salvation belongeth unto the Lord : and thy blessing is upon thy people . The Prayer . O Lord our defender have pity upon us , behold , the armies of the Flesh , the World , and the Devill fight against our Soules , and multiply against us every day temptations , and disadvantages . We are not able of our selves , as of our selves , to think a good thought , much lesse to put to flight the armies of them that have set themselves against us round about . But thou , O Lord , art our defender , thou art our worship and the lifter up of our heads . Up Lord and help us , arme us with the shield of faith , and the sword of the Spirit , and in all times of temptation and battell cover our heads with the helmet of Salvation , so shall we not be afraid for ten thousands of our enemies , for salvation belongeth unto thee , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . PSALME 4. A Prayer in which we exercise an act of hope in God , and desire his providence over us . HEare me when I call , O God of my righteousnesse : for thou hast set me at liberty when I was in trouble , have mercy upon me , and hearken unto my prayer . 2 O ye sonnes of men , how long will ye blaspheme mine honour : and have such pleasure in vanity , and seek after leasing ? 3 Know this also , that the Lord hath chosen to himself the man that is godly : when I call upon the Lord , he will heare me . 4 Stand in awe , and sinne not : commune with your own heart , and in your chamber , and be still . 5 Offer the sacrifice of righteousnesse : and put your trust in the Lord. 6 There be many that say : Who will shew us any good ? 7 Lord , lift thou up : the light of thy countenance upon us . 8 Thou hast put gladnesse in my heart : since the time that their corn , and wine , and oyle increased . 9 I will lay me down in peace , and take my rest : for it is thou Lord onely that makest me dwell in safety . The Prayer . O God who art the author of all righteousnesse , from whom all grace , and safety , and glory does proceed , hear the prayers of thy humble servants whensoever we call upon thee in our trouble , for our trust is in thee alone , and no creature can shew us any good unlesse it derives from thee ; shew the light of thy countenance upon us , let thy providence guide all our actions and sufferings to thy glory , and our spirituall benefit , and consigne us to the blessednesse of thy Kingdome by the testimony of thy holy Spirit , that we may not place our ioyes and hopes upon the good things of this life which perish and cannot satisfie , but in the eternal fountain of all true felicities , that thou being our treasure , our hearts may be fixed upon thee by the bands of Charity and Obedience , that thou maist make us to dwell in safety here , and when our days are done , we may lay us down in peace and take our rest in thy armes , expecting the comming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen . PSALME 5. A prayer for blessing upon all pious people , and for protection against the malice of wicked men . POnder my words , O Lord : consider my meditation . 2 O hearken thou unto the voyce of my calling , my King and my God : for unto thee will I make my prayer . 3 My voyce shalt thou hear betimes , O Lord : early in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee , and will look up . 4 For thou art the God that hast no pleasure in wickednesse : neither shall any evill dwell with thee . 5 Such as be foolish shall not stand in thy sight : for thou hatest all them that work vanity . 6 Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing : the Lord will abhorre both the bloud thirsty and deceitfull man. 7 But as for me , I will come into thy house , even upon the multitude of thy mercy : and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple . 8 Lead me , O Lord , in thy righteousnesse because of mine enemies : make thy way plain before my face . 9 For there is no faithfulnesse in his mouth : their inward parts are very wickednesse . 10 Their throat is an open sepulchre : they flatter with their tongue . 11 Destroy thou them , O God , let them perish through their own imaginations : cast them out in the multitude of their ungodlinesse for they have rebelled against thee . 12 And let all them that put their trust in thee , rejoyce : they shall ever be giving of thanks , because thou defendest them , they that love thy name shall be joyfull in thee . 13 For thou Lord wilt give thy blessing unto the righteous : and with thy favourable kindnesse wilt thou defend him , as with a shield . The Prayer . O Most holy and blessed Lord God , who canst take no pleasure in wickednesse , neither can evill come nigh thy dwelling , defend us and all thy holy Church from the fraud and malice of blood-thirsty and deceitfull men , and from the crafty insinuations of all them that work vanity : but let thy blessings bee upon the righteous , and let thy favourable kindnesse defend thy whole Church as with a shield , that all those who put their trust in thy mercy may be ever giving of thanks , and may be joyfull in thee . O lead us in thy righteousnesse that we become not a rejoycing to our enemies , but that we may worship thee in feare , and come into thy house to make our prayers unto thee , and to give thee thanks for the multitude of thy mercies which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen . Evening Prayer . PSALME 6. A Prayer of a penitent person for remission of his sinnes . O Lord rebuke me not in thine indignation : neither chasten me in thy displeasure . 2 Have mercy upon mee , O Lord , for I am weak : O Lord heal me , for my bones are vexed . 3 My soul is also sore troubled : but Lord how long wilt thou punish me ? 4 Turn thee O Lord , and deliver my soul : O save me for thy mercies sake . 5 For in death no man remembreth thee : and who will give thee thanks in the pit ? 6 I am weary of my groaning , every night wash I my bed : and water my couch with my tears . 7 My beauty is gone for very trouble : and worn away because of all mine enemies . 8 Away from me all ye that work vanity : for the Lord hath heard the voyce of my weeping . 9 The Lord hath heard my petition : the Lord will receive my prayer . 10 All mine enemies shall be confounded and sore vered : they shall be turned back , and put to shame suddenly . The Prayer . O Most mercifull God , whose property is alwayes to have mercy and to forgive , behold with the eyes of thy pity and compassion the estate of thy humble servants , made most miserable by reason of our sins . Hear the voyce of our weeping , pity our groaning , strengthen us , for we are weak , heal us , for our bones are vexed , and deliver our soules from death , that being saved from the bottomlesse pit , we may give thanks to thy holy Name . O turn from the severity of thy displeasure , and visit us with thy mercy and salvation . For all our sinnes give us a great sorrow and contrition , and in our sorrows let thy comforts sustain us , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . PSALME 7. A prayer for defence of our Innocence against the unjust molestation of our enemies . O Lord my God , in thee have I put my trust : save me from all them that persecute me , and deliver me . 2 Lest he devour my soul like a Lion , and tear it in peeces : while there is none to help . 3 O Lord my God , if I have done any such thing : or if there be any wickednesse in my hands . 4 If I have rewarded evill unto him that dealt friendly with me : yea , I have delivered him that without any cause is mine enemy . 5 Then let mine enemy persecute my soule , and take me : yea , let him tread my life down upon the earth , and lay mine honour in the dust . 6 Stand up , O Lord , in thy wrath , and lift up thy self : because of the indignation of mine enemies , arise up for me in the judgement that thou hast commanded . 7 And so shall the congregation of the people come about thee : for their sakes therefore lift up thy self again . 8 The Lord shall judge the people , give sentence with me , O Lord : according to my righteousnesse , and according to the innocency that is in mee . 9 O let the wickednesse of the ungodly come to an end : but guide thou the just . 10 For the righteous God : trieth the very hearts and reins . 11 My help commeth of God : which preserveth them that are true of heart . 12 God is a righteous Judge , strong and patient : and God is provoked every day . 13 If a man will not turn , he will whet his sword : he hath bent his bow and made it ready . 14 He hath prepared for him the instruments of death : he ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors . 15 Behold , he travaileth with mischiefe : he hath conc●ived sorrow , and brought forth ungodlinesse . 16 He hath graven and digged up a pit : and is fallen himself into the destruction that he made for other . 17 For his travell shall come upon his own head : and his wickednesse shall fall on his own pate . 18 I will give thanks unto the Lord , according to his righteousnesse : and will praise the name of the Lord the most High. The Prayer . O God from whom commeth our help , thou art a righteous Judge and preservest all that are true of heart , deliver us from our persecutors who travell with mischief against us , and have digged a pit for our destruction . O let their wickedness and malicious devices against thy servants come utterly to an end for evermore . Thou , O Lord , art strong and able to take vengeance , and yet being provoked every day still art patient towards us and compassionate . Deliver us from their wrath to whom we have done no injustice or displeasure : pardon our offences against thee , and protect our innocency against them , that we may praise thy name and give thanks unto thee for thy righteousnesse and s●lvation , who art blessed for evermore . Amen . PSALME 8. A contemplation of the Divine beauty and excellency manifested in his Creatures . O Lord our governour , how excellent is thy name in all the world : thou that hast set thy glory above the heavens ! 2 Out of the month of very babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength , because of thine enemies : that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger . 3 For I will consider the heavens , even the works of thy fingers : the moon and the starres which thou hast ordained . 4 What is man that thou art mindfull of him : and the son of man that thou visitest him ? 5 Thou madest him lower then the angels : to crown him with glory and worship . 6 Thou makest him to have dominion of the works of thy hands : and thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet . 7 All sheep and oxen : yea , and the beasts of the field . 8 The fowls of the aire , and the fishes of the sea : and whatsoever walketh through the paths of the seas . 9 O Lord our governour : how excellent is thy name in all the world ! The Prayer . O Lord God , Father of men and Angels , God of all the Creatures , who hast created all things in a wonderfull order , and hast made them all conveyances of thy mercies to mankinde , give us great and dreadfull apprehensions of thy glory and immensity , thy Majesty and mercy , that we may adore thee as our Creator , love thee as our Redeemer , fear thee as our God , obey thee as our Governour , and praise thee as the author and fountain of all perfections , and all good which thou hast communicated to thy creatures , that they may all in their proportions doe thee service , who hast to that end made the world , and redeemed us by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen . Morning Prayer . PSALME 9. A Prayer of poore and oppressed people against their persecutors . I Will give thanks unto thee , O Lord , with my whole heart : I will speak of all thy marvellous works . 2 I will be glad and rejoyce in thee : yea , my songs will I make of thy name , O thou most Highest . 3 While mine enemies are driven back : they shall fall and perish at thy presence . 4 For thou hast maintained my right , and my cause : thou art set in the throne that judgest right . 5 Thou hast rebuked the heathen , and destroyed the ungodly : thou hast put out their name for ever and ever . 6 O thou enemy , destructions are come to a perpetuall end : even as the cities which thou hast destroyed , their memoriall is perished with them . 7 But the Lord shall endure for ever : hee hath also prepared his seat for judgement . 8 For he shall judge the world in righteousnesse : and minister true judgement unto the people . 9 The Lord also will be a defence for the oppressed : even a refuge in due time of trouble . 10 And they that know thy name , will put their trust in thee : for thou Lord hast never failed them that seeke thee . 11 O praise the Lord which dwelleth in Sion : shew the people of his doings . 12 For when he maketh inquisition for blood , he remembreth them : and forgetteth not the complaint of the poore . 13 Have mercy upon me , O Lord : consider the trouble which I suffer of them that hate me : thou that liftest me up from the gates of death . 14 That I may shew all thy praises within the ports of the daughter of Sion : I will rejoyce in thy salvation . 15 The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made : in the same net which they hid privily , is their foot taken . 16 The Lord is known to execute judgement : the ungodly is trapped in the work of his own hands . 17 The wicked shall be turned into hell : and all the people that forget God. 18 For the poor shall not alway be forgotten : the patient abiding of the meek shall not perish for ever . 19 Up Lord , and let not man have the upper hand : let the heathen be judged in thy sight . 20 Put them in fear ( O Lord : ) that the heathen may know themselves to be but men . The Prayer . O Lord God who art a defence for the oppressed , and a refuge in due time of trouble , have mercy upon us thy servants , who are violently assaulted by enemies without , and weaknesses and temptations within . Thou never failest them that seek thee , but lovest to hear the poor make their complaint unto thee in their trouble , and art known to execute judgement upon them that oppresse them . Pity us , and look upon the trouble we suffer of them that hate us : deliver us from the strivings of our adversaries , lift us up from the gates of death , that being safe under thy mercies and protection , we may give thanks unto thee with our spirits and voices , we may embrace thee with a lively faith , fear thee with all our hearts , serve thee with all our powers & faculties both of soul and body , all the dayes of our life , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . PSALME 10. A Prayer to God in times of Persecution and Warre against the Church . WHy standest thou so farre off ( O Lord : ) and hidest thy face in the needfull time of trouble ? 2 The ungodly for his owne lust doth persecute the poor : let them be taken in the crafty wilinesse that they have imagined . 3 For the ungodly hath made boast of his own hearts desire : and speaketh good of the covetous whom God abhorreth . 4 The ungodly is so proud that he careth not for God : neither is God in all his thoughts . 5 His wayes are alway grievous : thy judgements are far above out of his sight , and therefore defieth he all his enemies . 6 For he hath said in his heart , Tush , I shall never be cast down : there shall no harm happen unto me . 7 His mouth is full of cursing , deceit , and fraud : under his tongue is ungodlinesse and vanity . 8 Hee sitteth lurking in the theevish corners of the streets : and privily in his lurking dens doth he murder the innocent , his eyes are set against the poor . 9 For he lieth waiting secretly , even as a lion lurketh he in his den : that he may ravish the poor . 10 He doth ravish the poor : when he getteth him into his net . 11 He falleth down and humbleth himself : that the congregation of the poor may fall into the hand of his Captains . 12 He hath said in his heart , Tush , God hath forgotten : he hideth away his face , and he will never see it . 13 Arise ( O Lord God ) and lift up thine hand : forget not the poor . 14 Wherefore should the wicked blaspheme God : while he doth say in his heart , Tush , thou God carest not for it ? 15 Surely thou hast seen it : for thou beholdest ungodlinesse and wrong . 16 That thou maist take the matter into thine hand : the poor committeth himself unto thee , for thou art the helper of the friendlesse . 17 Break thou the power of the ungodly and malicious : take away his ungodlinesse , and thou shalt find none . 18 The Lord is King for ever and ever : and the heathen are perished out of the land . 19 Lord , thou hast heard the desire of the poore : thou preparest their heart , and thine eare hearkneth thereto . 20 To help the fatherlesse and poor unto their right : that the man of the earth be no more exalted against them . The Prayer . O Lord God , who beholdest all the actions of men , and seest all the ungodlinesse of sinners , and the wrong they doe unto thy servants , we flie unto thee for succour and defence in this our needfull time of trouble . Behold , O Lord , how the Enemies of thy Church have set their eyes against her , and use all violences and arts that thy poor servants may fall under the hands of their Captains . Thou seest their malice and their confidences , they fear thee not , neither art thou , O God , in all their thoughts . But thou art our King for ever and ever , and the helper of the friendlesse . We commit our selves wholly to thy mercy and providence , take the matter into thine own hand , let them perish out of the land that are exalted against thee , and against thy Church , that we being delivered from feare of our enemies , may serve thee with constant and regular devotions all the dayes of our life , through Jesus our Lord. Amen . PSALME 11. An addresse to God by way of hope and confidence in him , and a prayer against our secret enemies . IN the Lord put I my trust : how say ye then to my soul , that she should flee as a bird unto the hill ? 2 For lo , the ungodly bend their bow , and make ready their arrows within the quiver : that they may privily shoot at them which are true of heart . 3 For the foundations will bee cast down : and what hath the righteous done ? 4 The Lord is in his holy temple : the Lords seat is in heaven . 5 His eyes consider the poore : and his eye-lids trieth the children of men . 6 The Lord alloweth the righteous : but the ungodly , and him that delighteth in wickednesse doth his soule abhorre . 7 Upon the ungodly he shall rain snares , fire and brimstone , storm and tempest : this shall be their portion to drink . 8 For the righteous Lord loveth righteousnesse : his countenance will behold the thing that is just . The Prayer . O Lord who art our hope and our refuge , & the exceeding great reward of all that trust in thee , have mercy upon us thy servants , who have no confidences but upon thy mercies and infinite loving kindnesse . Defend us from all secret Plots and designes , intended against our peace and securities by them that privily shoot at us , and would overthrow the foundations of our repose and safety . And that we may be better intitled to thy protection and care over us , make us to love righteousnesse , & to follow the things that are just , that by thy grace we being defended from taking delight in wickednesse , may also be delivered from the portion of the ungodly , which thou givest them to drink , upon whom thou rainest snares , fire and brimstone , storm and tempest . Deliver us , O Lord , from the eternall pressure of thy wrath , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . Evening Prayer . PSALME 12. A prayer for defence against the dangers of evill Company . HElp me , Lord , for there is not one godly man left : for the faithfull are minished from among the children of men . 2 They talk of vanity every one with his neighbour : they doe but flatter with their lips , and dissemble with their double heart . 3 The Lord shall root out all deceitfull lips : and the tongue that speaketh proud things . 4 Which have said , With our tongue we will prevail : we are they that ought to speak , who is Lord over us ? 5 Now for the comfortlesse troubles sake of the needy : and because of the deep sighing of the poor . 6 I will up ( saith the Lord : ) and will help every one from him that I welleth against him , and will set them at rest . 7 The words of the Lord are pure words : even as the silver which from the earth is tried , and purified seven times in the fire . 8 Thou shalt keep them , O Lord : thou shalt preserve him from this generation for ever . 9 The ungodly walk on every side : when they are exalted , the children of men are put to rebuke . The Prayer . O Most blessed Jesu , who in thy eternall providence doest suffer the tares and the wheat to grow together untill the harvest , permitting hereticks and vicious persons to communicate in the externall society of thy people , grant us thy grace , that we may so beleeve , and heartily obey all thy pure words and dictates , which thou hast taught us in thy holy Gospel , that we may be kept unspotted of the world , and although ▪ the ungodly walk on every side , yet we may persevere in the wayes of righteousnesse , and increase the number of the godly , that at last we may be admitted into the glorious fellowship of Saints and Angels , who behold thy face and the glories of thy Kingdome , where thou livest and raignest with the Father and the holy Ghost , Eternall God world without end . Amen . PSALME 13. A Prayer in time of temptation . HOw long wilt thou forget me ( O Lord ) for ever : how long wilt thou hide thy face from me ? 2 How long shall I seek counsell in my soul , and be so vexed in my heart : how long shall mine enemies triumph over me ? 3 Consider and hear me , O Lord my God : lighten mine eyes , that I sleep not in death . 4 Lest mine enemy say , I have prevailed against him : for if I be cast down , they that trouble me will rejoyce at it . 5 But my trust is in thy mercy : and my heart is joyfull in thy salvation . 6 I will sing of the Lord , because he hath dealt so lovingly with me : yea , I will prais● the name of the Lord most Highest . The Prayer . O God the giver of all grace , the author of all Ghostly strength , look with compassion upon our infirmities , and how unequally we are assaulted by many , by powerfull , by malicious adversaries . How long , O Lord , how long shall we seek for rest and finde none ? O give us either peace or victory , and preserve us that we sleep not in the death of sin , lest our grand enemy the Devill , say , he hath prevailed against us . Our trust is in thy mercy , and thy delight is in it ; strengthen us so with thy grace that we may fight a good fight , and conquer , and be crown'd with a crown of righteousness , which we begge we may receive from the hands , and by the mercies of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen . Psalme 14. A Prayer against Atheisme and irreligion . THe fool hath said in his heart : There is no God. 2 They are corrupt and become abominable in their doings : there is not one that doth good , ( no not one . ) 3 The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men : to see if there were any that would understand , and seek after God. 4 But they are all gone out of the way , they are altogether become abominable : there is none that doth good , no not one . 5 Their throat is an open sepulchre , with their tongues have they deceived : the poyson of asps is under their lips . 6 Their mouth is full of cursing and bitternesse : their feet are swift to shed bloud . 7 Destruction and unhappinesse is in their ways , and the way of peace have they not known : there is no fear of God before their eyes . 8 Have they no knowledge , that they are all such workers of mischief : eating up my people as it were bread ? 9 And call not upon the Lord , there were they brought in great fear ( even where no fear was : ) for God is in the generation of the righteous . 10 As for you , ye have made a mock at the counsell of the poor : because he putteth his trust in the Lord. 11 Who shall give salvation unto Israel out of Sion : when the Lord turneth the captivity of his people , then shall Jacob rejoyce , and Israel shall be glad . The Prayer . O Eternall God , Creator of the world , conserver of the Creatures , whose essence and goodnesse and perfections are infinite , and made so manifest in the creation , order , protection , and disposition of thy creatures , that without the greatest sin & folly in the world , we cannot but acknowledge thee , and adore thee with the lowest adorations of soul and body , and with the most profound humility . Preserve us , O Lord , in great Religion , Veneration , and reverence of thy Divine perfections . Keep us from all distrust of thy providence , all doubtings of thy infinitenesse , or of any other article of our faith , and grant that we confessing thee before all the world , may be acknowledged for thy children , and rewarded among thy servants , not for our righteousnesse , but through the merits and mercies of our dearest Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen . Morning Prayer . PSALME 15. Which is a short rule of a good life , and a desire of innocency and sanctity . LOrd , who shall dwell in thy tabernacle : or who shall rest upon thy holy hill ? 2 Even he that leadeth an uncorrupt life : and doth the thing which is right , and speaketh the truth from his heart . 3 He that hath used no deceit in his tongue , nor done evill to his neighbour : and hath not slandered his neighbour . 4 He that setteth not by himself , but is lowly in his own eyes : and maketh much of them that fear the Lord. 5 He that sweareth unto his neighbour , and disappointeth him not : though it were to his own hinderance . 6 He that hath not given his money upon usury : nor taken reward against the innocent . The Prayer . O Lord let thy mercy preserve us in holinesse and innocency , or if through infirmity we fall , make us to rise again by penitence , that we may lead an uncorrupt life with humility , and truth , and justice , not slandering our neighbour , not invading his right , not breaking our trust , not oppressing the indigent and necessitous , but doing good to all , and especially making much of them that fear the Lord ; that we may never fall from thy favour , but at the end of our weary pilgrimage we may take our rest upon thy holy hill , and dwell in thy tabernacle where thou raignest with infinite glory and felicities , God eternall , world without end . Amen . PSALME 16. A Prayer for the blessings of Gods providence and preservation in this life , and for glory hereafter . PReserve me , O God : for in thee have I put my trust . 2 O my soul , thou hast said unto the Lord : Then art my God , my goods are nothing unto thee . 3 All my delight is upon the Saints that are in the earth : and upon such as excell in vertue . 4 But they that run after another god : shall have great trouble . 5 Their drink-offerings of bloud will I not offer : neither make mention of their names within my lips . 6 The Lord himself is the portion of mine inheritance , and of my cup : thou shalt maintain my lot . 7 The lot is fallen unto me in a fair ground : yea , I have a goodly heritage . 8 I will thank the Lord for giving me warning : my reins also chasten me in the night season . 9 I have set God alwayes before me : for he is on my right hand , therefore I shall not fall . 10 Wherefore my heart was glad , and my glory rejoyced : my flesh also shall rest in hope . 11 For why ? thou shalt not leave my soul in hell : neither shalt thou suffer thine Holy one to see corruption . 12 Thou shalt shew me the path of life , in thy presence is the fulnesse of joy : and at thy right hand there is pleasure for evermore . The Prayer . O God , who art the portion of our inheritance , our God , and our preserver , preserve and maintaine all those good things which thou hast wrought in us , and for us ; and that we may never fall , give us thy grace , that we may set thee always before us , rejoycing in thee , and delighting in the Saints that are upon the earth , that when our flesh shall see corruption , our Souls may not be left in hell , but may walk in the paths of life ; and in the day of restitution of all things , both bodies and souls may have a goodly heritage , even the lot of thy right hand , where there is pleasure for evermore , and where we may see thy face , and the glory of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen . PSALME 17. A Prayer for protection against the injuries of our Enemies , Bodily and Ghostly . HEar the right , O Lord , consider my complaint : and hearken unto my prayer , that goeth not out of feigned lips . 2 Let my sentence come forth from thy presence : and let thine eyes look upon the thing that is equall . 3 Thou hast proved and visited mine heart in the night season , thou hast tried me , and shalt finde no wickednesse in me : for I am utterly purposed , that my mouth shall not offend . 4 Because of mens works that are done against the words of my lips : I have kept me from the ways of the destroyer . 5 O hold thou up my goings in thy paths : that my foot-steps slip not . 6 I have called upon thee , O God , for thou shalt hear me : encline thine ear to me , and hearken unto my words . 7 Shew thy marvellous loving kindnesse , thou that art the Saviour of them which put their trust in thee : from such as resist thy right hand . 8 Keep me as the apple of an eye : hide me under the shadow of thy wings . 9 From the ungodly that trouble me : mine enemies compasse me round about , to take away my soul. 10 They are inclosed in their own fat : and their mouth speaketh proud things . 11 They lie waiting in our way on every side : turning their eyes down to the ground . 12 Like as a lion that is greedy of his prey : and as it were a lions whelp lurking in secret places . 13 Up Lord , disappoint him , and cast him down : deliver my soul from the ungodly , which is a sword of thine . 14 From the men of thy hand , O Lord , from the men , I say , and from the evill world : which have their portion in this life , whose bellies thou fillest with thy hid treasure . 15 They have children at their desire : and leave the rest of their substance for their babes . 16 But as for me , I will behold thy presence in righteousnesse : and when I awake up after thy likenesse , I shall be satisfied with it . The Prayer . O Most mercifull Jesu , thou that art the Saviour of them that put their trust in thee , defend us , and deliver us from the hands of all our Enemies , and although they are a sword of thine , and an instrument sent from thee , to chastise us for our sins ; yet arise , O Lord , in mercy and strength , disappoint them and cast them down , lest they destroy our souls , that when thou hast visited us with thy fatherly correction , and tried us like as silver is tried , thou maist finde no wickednesse in us . Sanctifie our hearts and lips , that we may not thinke a thought displeasing unto thee , and that our mouth may not offend : Keep us as the apple of an eye , hide us under the shadow of thy wings of mercy and providence : keep us from the ways of the destroyer , and hold up our goings in thy paths , that we may persevere in righteousnesse , and our foot-steps may not slip : that in the day of the resurrection of the Just , we may behold thy presence , and receive infinite satisfactions in the vision beatificall . Grant this O merciful Saviour and Redeemer Jesu . Amen . Evening Prayer . PSALME 18. A prayer for strength and Victory in Warre , temporall or spirituall , together with an act of hope and confidence in God. I Will love thee ( O Lord ) my strength , the Lord is my stony rock and my defence : my Saviour , my God , and my might , in whom I will trust , my buckler , the horn also of my salvation , and my refuge . 2 I will call upon the Lord , which is worthy to be praised : so shall I be safe from mine enemies . 3 The sorrows of death compassed me : and the overflowings of ungodlinesse made me afraid . 4 The pains of hell came about me : the snares of death overtook me . 5 In my trouble I will call upon the Lord : and complain unto my God. 6 So shall he hear my voice out of his holy temple : and my complaint shall come before him , it shall enter even into his ears . 7 The earth trembled and quaked : the very foundations also of the hils shook and were removed , because hee was wroth . 8 There went a smoke out of his presence , and a consuming fire out of his mouth , so that coals were kindled at it . 9 He bowed the heavens also and came down : and it was dark under his feet . 10 He rode upon the cherubims , and did flie : he came flying upon the wings of the wind . 11 He made darknesse his secret place : his pavilion round about him , with dark water , and thick clouds to cover him . 12 At the brightnesse of his presence , his clouds removed : hailstones and coals of fire . 13 The Lord also thundered out of heaven , and the highest gave his thunder : hailstones and coals of fire . 14 He sent out his arrows and scattered them : he cast forth lightnings and destroyed them . 15 The springs of waters were seen , and the foundations of the round world were discovered at thy chiding , O Lord : at the blasting of the breath of thy displeasure . 16 He shall send down from the high to fetch me : and shall take me out of many waters . 17 He shall deliver me from my strongest enemy , and from them that hate me : for they are too mighty for me . 18 They prevented me in the day of my trouble : but the Lord was my upholder . 19 He brought me forth also into a place of liberty : he brought me forth , even because he had a favour unto me . 20 The Lord shall reward me after my righteous dealing : according to the cleannesse of my hands shall he recompence me . 21 Because I have kept the wayes of the Lord : and have not forsaken my God as the wicked doth . 22 For I have an eye unto all his laws : and will not cast out his commandements from me . 23 I was also uncorrupt before him : and eschewed mine own wickednesse . 24 Therefore shall the Lord reward me after my righteous dealing : and according unto the cleannesse of my hands in his eye-sight . 25 With the holy thou shalt be holy : and a with a perfect man thou shalt be perfect . 26 With the clean thou shalt be clean : and with the froward thou shalt learn frowardnesse . 27 For thou shalt save the people that are in adversity : and shalt bring down the high looks of the proud . 28 Thou shalt also light my candle : the Lord my God shall make my darknesse to be light . 29 For in thee I shall discomfit an host of men : and with the help of my God I shall leap over the wall . 30 The way of God is an undefiled way : the word of the Lord also is tried in the fire , he is the defender of all them that put their trust in him . 31 For who is God but the Lord : or who hath any strength except our God ? 32 It is God that girdeth me with strength of warre : and maketh my way perfect . 33 He maketh my feet like Harts feet : and setteth me up on high . 34 He teacheth mine hands to fight : and mine arme shall break even a bow of steel . 35 Thou hast given me the defence of thy salvation : thy right hand also shall hold me up , and thy loving correction shall make me great . 36 Thou shalt make room enough under me for to go : that my foot-steps shall not slide . 37 I will follow upon mine enemies , and overtake them : neither will I turn again till I have destroyed them . 38 I will smite them , that they shall not be able to stand : but fall under my feet . 39 Thou hast girded me with strength unto the battell : thou shalt throw downe mine enemies under me . 40 Thou hast made mine enemies also to turn their backs upon me : and I shall destroy them that hate me . 41 They shall cry , but there shall be none to help them : yea , even unto the Lord shall they cry , but he shall not hear them . 42 I will beat them as small as the dust before the winde : I will cast them out as the clay in the streets . 43 Thou shalt deliver me from the strivings of the people : and thou shalt make me the head of the heathen . 44 A people whom I have not known : shall serve me . 45 Assoon as they hear of me , they shall obey me : but the strange children shall dissemble with me . 46 The strange children shall fail : and bee afraid out of their prisons . 47 The Lord liveth , and blessed be my strong helper : and praised be the God of my salvation . 48 Even the God that seeth that I be avenged : and subdueth the people unto me . 49 It is he that delivereth me from ( cruell ) enemies , and setteth me up above mine adversaries : thou shalt rid me from the wicked man. 50 For this cause will I give thanks unto thee ( O Lord ) among the Gentiles : and sing praises unto thy name . 51 Great prosperity giveth he unto his King : and sheweth loving kindnesse unto David his anointed , and unto his seed for evermore . The Prayer . O God our Saviour , the rock upon whom all our hopes are built , our strength and defence , our salvation and our refuge ; heare our voyce out of thy holy temple , let our complaint come before thee , and enter even into thy Ears . The sorrows of death compasse us , and we are afraid , because of the overflowings of ungodlinesse : Our enemies are strong , yea , they are too mighty for us , and we have no hope to escape , unlesse thou preventest them in the day of our trouble , and deliverest us from the strivings of our enemies . But in thee , O Lord , is our hope , doe thou teach our hands to fight , and gird us with strength unto the battell : Make us to have an eye unto all thy laws , that we may eschew our own wickednesse , and be uncorrupt before thee , then shalt thou give us the defence of thy salvation , and we shall give thanks unto thee , O Lord , and sing praises unto thy name , who art become our strong helper , and the God of our Salvation , which thou hast given unto us in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen . Morning Prayer . PSALME 19. A prayer for preservation from sinne , and for love of Gods law . THe heavens declare the glory of God : and the firmament sheweth his handy work . 2 One day telleth another : and one night certifieth another . 3 There is neither speech nor language : but their voyces are heard among them . 4 Their sound is gone out into all lands : and their words unto the ends of the world . 5 In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun : which commeth forth as a bridegroom out of his chamber , and rejoyceth as a giant to run his course . 6 It goeth forth from the uttermost part of the heaven , and runneth about unto the end of it again : and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof . 7 The Law of the Lord is an undefiled law converting the soul : the testimony of the Lord is sure , and giveth wisdome unto the simple . 8 The statutes of the Lord are right , and rejoyce the heart : the commandement of the Lord is pure , and giveth light unto the eyes . 9 The fear of the Lord is clean , and endureth for ever : the judgements of the Lord are true , and righteous altogether . 10 More to be desired are they then gold , yea then much fine gold : sweeter also then hony , and the hony combe . 11 Moreover by them is thy servant taught : and in keeping of them there is great reward . 12 Who can tell how oft he offendeth ? O cleanse thou me from my secret faults . 13 Keep thy servant also from presumptuous sins , lest they get the dominion over me so shall I be undefiled and innocent from the great offence . 14 Let the words of my mouth , and the meditation of my heart : be alway acceptable in thy sight . 15 O Lord : my strength , and my Rede●mer . The Prayer . O Most blessed Jesu , thou Sun of righteousnesse , who camest forth from the bosome of thy eternall Father , as a Bridegroom out of his chamber , be pleased to plant in our hearts the fear of the Lord , and in our bodies the purity and cleannesse of chastity , and make them to abide there for ever : Lighten our eyes with the light of thy Gospel , and the bright revelation of thy whole will and pleasure , that so being guided by thy grace , wee may be cleansed from all our secret sins , and preserved from presumptuous and great offences , so shall the thoughts and meditation of our heart , the words of our mouth , and all our actions be alway acceptable in thy sight , O Lord our Saviour , our strength , and our Redeemer Jesus . Amen . PSALME 20. A Prayer that God would heare our petitions , which we make to him in times of trouble . THe Lord hear thee in the day of trouble : the name of the God of Jacob defend thee . 2 Send thee help from the sanctuary : and strengthen thee out of Sion . 3 Remember all thy offerings : and accept thy burnt-sacrifice . 4 Grant thee thy hearts desire : and fulfill all thy minde . 5 We will rejoyce in thy salvation , and triumph in the name of the Lord our God : the Lord perform all thy petitions . 6 Now know I that the Lord helpeth his anointed , and will hear him from his holy heaven : even with the wholesome strength of his right hand . 7 Some put their trust in chariots , and some in horses : but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. 8 They are brought down and fallen : but we are risen , and stand upright . 9 Save Lord , and hear us , O King of heaven : when we call upon thee . The Prayer . O king of heaven , who art the health and strength of our right hand , have mercy upon us , and hear us when we call upon thee ; let our prayers come into thy presence like a burnt offering of a sweet savour : for in all our troubles we disclaim all confidences in any of thy creatures , and remember thy name onely , O Lord our God. Teach us what to ask , and how to come into thy presence , that we may never begge of thee any thing but what is agreeable to thy will , and may then promote thy glory when thou suppliest our necessities , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . PSALME 21. A Prayer for the King. THe King shall rejoyce in thy strength , O Lord : exceeding glad shall he be of thy salvation . 2 Thou hast given him his hearts desire : and hast not denied him the request of his lips . 3 For thou shalt prevent him with the blessings of goodnesse : and shalt set a Crown of pure gold upon his head . 4 He asked life of thee , and thou gavest him a long life : even for ever and ever . 5 His honour is great in thy salvation : glory and great worship shalt thou lay upon him . 6 For thou shalt give him everlasting felicity : and make him glad with the joy of thy countenance . 7 And why ? because the King putteth his trust in the Lord : and in the mercy of the most Highest he shall not miscarry . 8 All thine enemies shall feel thine hand : thy right hand shall finde out them that hate thee . 9 Thou shalt make them like a fiery oven in time of thy wrath : the Lord shall destroy them in his displ●● sure , and the fire shall consume them . 10 Their fruit shalt thou root out of the earth : and their seed from among the children of men . 11 For they intended mischiefe against thee : and imagined such a device as they are not able to perform . 12 Therefore shalt thou put them to flight : and the strings of thy bow shalt thou make ready against the face of them . 13 Be thou exalted , Lord , in thine own strength : so will we sing and praise thy power . The Prayer . O Eternall God , King of Kings , and Lord of Lords , have mercy upon thy servant the King ; as thou hast set a Crown of gold upon his head , and given him power and command to rule thy people with justice and piety , so do thou heare the request of his lips , grant him the desire of his heart , and prevent both his desires and requests with the blessings of thy goodnesse : give him great honour and reverence in the sight of his People , and of all the Nations round about : let all his enemies feel thine hand , and put them to flight that rise up against him , that when thou hast given him the blessings of a long life and prosperous , and made him glad with the joy of thy countenance , at last he may be crown'd with everlasting felicity , and reign with thee in thy eternall Kingdome , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . Evening Prayer . PSALME 22. A meditation upon the Passion of our Blessed Saviour . MY God , my God , ( look upon me ) why hast thou forsaken me : and art so farre from my health , and from the words of my complaint ? 2 O my God , I cry in the day time , but thou hearest not : and in the night season also I take no rest . 3 And thou continuest holy : O thou worship of Israel . 4 Our fathers hoped in thee : they trusted in thee , and thou didst deliver them . 5 They called upon thee , and were holpen : they put their trust in thee , and were not confounded . 6 But as for me , I am a Worm , and no man : a very scorn of men , and the outcast of the people . 7 All they that see me , laugh me to scorn : they shoot out their lips , and shake their heads , saying , 8 He trusted in God , that he would deliver him : let him deliver him , if he will have him . 9 But thou art he that took me out of my mothers womb : thou wast my hope when I hanged yet upon my mothers breasts . 10 I have been left unto thee ever since I was born : thou art my God , even from my mothers womb . 11 O goe not from me , for trouble is hard at hand : and there is none to help me . 12 Many oxen are come about me : fat buls of Basan close me in on every side . 13 They gape upon me with their mouthes : as it were a ramping and roaring lion . 14 I am poured out like water , and all my bones are out of joynt : my heart also in the midst of my body is even like melting wax . 15 My strength is dried up like a potshard , and my tongue cleaveth to my gummes : and thou shalt bring me into the dust of death . 16 For ( many ) dogges are come about me , and the coun●ell of the wicked layeth siege against me . 17 They pierced my hands and my feet , I may tell all my bones : they stand staring and looking upon me . 18 They part my garments among them : and cast lots upon my vesture . 19 But be not thou far from me , O Lord : thou art my succour , haste thee to help me . 20 Deliver my soul from the sword : my darling from the power of the dog . 21 Save me from the lions mouth : thou hast heard me also from among the horns of the unicorns . 22 I will declare thy name unto my brethren : in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee . 23 O praise the Lord ye that fear him : magnifie him all yee of the seed of Jacob , and feare him all ye seed of Israel . 24 For he hath not despised nor abhorred the low estate of the poor , he hath not hid his face from him : but when he called unto him , he heard him . 25 My praise is of thee in the great congregation : my vows will I perform in the sight of them that fear him . 26 The poor shall eat and be satisfied : they that seek after the Lord , shall praise him , your heart shall live for ever . 27 All the ends of the world shall remember themselves , and be turned unto the Lord : and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before him . 28 For the Kingdome is the Lords : and he is the governour among the people . 29 All such as be fat upon earth : have eaten and worshipped . 30 All they that go down into the dust shall kneel before him : and no man hath quickned his own soul. 31 My seed shall serve him : they shall be counted unto the Lord for a generation . 32 They shall come , and the heavens shall declare his righteousnesse : unto a people that shall be born , whom the Lord hath made . The Prayer . O Mercifull Jesu , who for our sakes didst suffer thy selfe to be betrayed , tormented , spit upon , crucified , and to die , that thou mightest purchase for us redemption from the sting of death , the miseries of hell , the malice and power of the Devil , deliver our souls from the sword of thy Vengeance , cut us not off by untimely death , free our darling from the power of the dogge , our soules from being a prey unto the devill , snatch us out of the Lions mouth , who goeth up and down seeking whom he may devour . O Jesu , be a Jesus unto us , and let those victories which thou hast obtained over Satan , and Hell , and the grave , bring us Peace and Righteousnesse , and a Crown of glory in the Heavens where thou livest and reignest , in the great congregation of Saints and Angels , one God world without end . Amen . PSALME 23. A prayer that God would guide , and feed , and support us as a Shepheard doth his flock . THe Lord is my shepheard : therefore can I lack nothing . 2 He shall feed me in a green pasture : and lead me forth beside the waters of comfort . 3 He shall convert my soul : and bring me forth in the paths of righteousnesse for his names sake . 4 Yea , though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death , I will fear no evil : for thou art with me , thy rod and thy staffe comfort me . 5 Thou shalt prepare a table before me against them th●t trouble me : thou hast anointed my head with oyle , and my cup shall be full . 6 But thy loving kindnesse and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life : and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever . The Prayer . O Blessed Jesu , thou great Shepheard and Bishop of our Souls , let thy grace convert us , let thy mercies guide us in the paths of righteousnesse : feed us with thy Word and Sacraments , refresh us with the comforts of thy Holy Spirit , and in the whole course of our life , which is nothing else but a valley of miseries , and a shadow of death , let thy rod correct us like a father when we do amisse , and thy staffe support us in all our troubles and necessities . O let thy loving kindnesse and mercy follow us all our dayes , that after this life we may dwell in thy house for ever , where thou hast prepared a Table , and a full cup of blessing for thy People , and shalt anoint their heads with the oyle of an eternall gladnesse in the fruition of thy glories , ô blessed Saviour and Redeemer Jesu . Amen . Morning Prayer . PSALME 24. A Meditation upon the ascension of our Blessed Saviour , and a prayer for Sanctity , that wee may ascend where he is . THe earth is the Lords , and all that therein is : the compasse of the world , and they that dwell therein . 2 For he hath founded it upon the seas : and prepared it upon the flouds . 3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord : or who shall rise up in his holy place ? 4 Even he that hath clean hands , and a pure heart : and that hath not lift up his minde unto vanity , nor sworn to deceive his neighbour . 5 He shall receive the blessing from the Lord : and righteousnesse from the God of his salvation . 6 This is the generation of them that seek him : even of them that seek thy face , O Jacob. 7 Lift up your heads , O ye gates , and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors : and the King of glory shall come in . 8 Who is the King of glory : it is the Lord strong and mighty , even the Lord mighty in battell . 9 Lift up your heads , O ye gates , and be ye lift up ye everlasting doores : and the King of glory shall come in . 10 Who is the King of glory : even the Lord of ho●ts , he is the King of glory . The Prayer . O Blessed Jesu , King of glory , Lord of Hosts , and King of all the Creatures , to whom the everlasting doors were opened , that thou mightest enter into thy Kingdome , which thou didst open to all beleevers , after thou hadst overcome the sharpnesse of death : give us clean hands and a pure heart : teach us to follow thy innocency , to imitate thy sanctity , that we may receive from thee our Lord the eternall rewards and blessings of righteousnesse , and ascend thither whither thou , ô God of our salvation , art gone before , who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost eternal God world without end . Amen . PSALME 25. A penitentiall Psalme , or a prayer for deliverance from Sin and Punishment . VNto thee , O Lord , will I lift up my soul , my God , I have put my trust in thee : O let me not be confounded , neither let mine enemies triumph over me . 2 For all they that hope in thee , shall not be ashamed : but such as transgresse without a cause , shall be put to confusion . 3 Shew me thy wayes , O Lord ; and teach me thy paths . 4 Lead me forth in thy truth , and learn me : for thou art the God of my salvation , in thee hath been my hope all the day long . 5 Call to remembrance , O Lord , thy tender mercies : and thy loving kindnesse which hath been ever of old . 6 Oh remember not the sinnes and offences of my youth : but according to thy mercy think thou upon me ( O Lord ) for thy goodnesse . 7 Gracious and righteous is the Lord : therefore will he teach sinners in the way . 8 Them that be meek shall he guide in judgement : and such as be gentle , them shall he learn his way . 9 All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth : unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies . 10 For thy names sake , O Lord : be mercifull unto my sinne , for it is great . 11 What man is he that feareth the Lord : him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose . 12 His soul shall dwell at ease : and his seed shall inherit the land . 13 The secret of the Lord is among them that fear him : and he will shew them his covenant . 14 Mine eyes are ever looking unto the Lord : for he shall pluck my feet out of the net . 15 Turn thee unto me , and have mercy upon me : for I am desolate and in misery . 16 The sorrowes of my heart are enlarged : O bring thou me out of my troubles . 17 Look upon mine adversity and misery : and forgive me all my sinne . 18 Consider mine enemies how many they are : and they bear a tyrannous hate against me . 19 O keep my soul , and deliver me : let me not be confounded , for I have put my trust in thee . 20 Let perfectnesse and righteous dealing wait upon me : for my hope hath been in thee . 21 Deliver Israel , O God : out of all his troubles . The Prayer . O Gracious and Righteous Lord God , who art the guide of the meek , and teachest the humble and gentle in thy way , forgive the sins and offences of our youth , and although by them we have deserved thy wrath , and that we be put to confusion , yet be pleased to think upon us for thy goodnesse , and according to thy mercy , that when thou hast forgiven us all our sinne , and taken away our adversity and all our misery , thou maist keep our soules in per●ectnesse and righteous dealing , that at last we may dwell at ease , free from trouble , and safe from all our enemies , even when we shall inherit the land of everlasting rest , where thou livest and raignest eternal God world without end . Amen . PSALME 26. A Prayer of preparation to the holy Sacrament , and to death . BE thou my judge , O Lord , for I have walked innocently : my trust hath been also in the Lord , therefore shall I not fall . 2 Examine me , O Lord , and prove me : try out my reins and my heart . 3 For thy loving kindnesse is ever before mine eyes : and I will walk in thy truth . 4 I have not dwelt with vain persons : neither will I have fellowship with the deceitfull . 5 I have hated the congregation of the wicked : and will not sit among the ungodly . 6 I will wash my hands in innocency , O Lord : and so will I goe to thine altar . 7 That I may shew the voyce of thanksgiving : and tell of all thy wondrous works . 8 Lord , I have loved the habitation of thy house : and the place where thine honour dwelleth . 9 O shut not up my soul with the sinners : nor my life with the bloud-thirsty . 10 In whose hands is wickednesse : and their right hands are full of gifts . 11 But as for me , I will walk innocently : O Lord deliver me , and be mercifull unto me . 12 My foot standeth right : I will praise the Lord in the congregations . The Prayer . O Lord our Judge , whose loving kindnesse is great , and alwayes before our eyes manifested in the abundant acts of thy grace and providence , make us to love and frequent all the actions , ministeries , and conveyances of thy graces to us , especially thy holy Sacraments . O dear God , endue our Soules with faith and charity , and holy penitence , that our hands and hearts , our Souls and bodies , being washed in innocency and penance , we may goe to thy holy Table , and may in the whole course of our life , walk righteously and in obedience to thee , that in this world hating the congregation of the wicked , and the fellowship of the deceitfull and vain persons , at last our Soules may not be shut up with sinners , nor our lives with the bloud-thirsty , but wee may have our portion in the eternall habitation of thy house , where thine honour dwelleth and reigneth world without end . Amen . Evening Prayer . PSALME 27. A Prayer , that being freed from our Enemies , we may attend the services of Religion , and serve God in his holy Temple . THe Lord is my light and my salvation , whom then shall I fear ? the Lord is the strength of my life , of whom then shall I be afraid ? 2 When the wicked ( even mine enemies and my foes ) came upon me to eate up my flesh : they stumbled and fell . 3 Though an host of men were laid against me , yet shall not my heart be afraid : and though there rose up War agaist me , yet will I put my trust in him . 4 One thing have I desired of the Lord , which I will require : even that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the dayes of my life , to behold the faire beauty of the Lord , and to visit his Temple . 5 For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his tabernacle : yea , in the secret place of his dwelling shall he hide me , and set me up upon a rock of stone . 6 And now shall he lift up mine head : above mine enemies round about me . 7 Therefore will I offer in his dwelling an oblation with great gladnesse : I will sing and speak praises unto th● Lord. 8 Hearken unto my voyce , O Lord , when I cry unto thee : have mercy upon me , and hear me . 9 My heart hath talked of thee , seek ye my face : thy face Lord will I seek . 10 O hide not thou thy face from me : nor cast thy servant away in displeasure . 11 Thou hast been my succour : leave me not , neither forsake me , O God of my salvation . 12 When my father and my mother forsake me : the Lord taketh me up . 13 Teach me thy way , O Lord : and lead me in the right way , because of mine enemies . 14 Deliver me not over into the will of mine adversaries : for there are false witnesses risen up against me , and such as speak wrong . 15 I should utterly have fainted : but that I beleeve verily to see the goodnesse of the Lord in the land of the living . 16 O tarry thou the Lords leisu●● ; be strong , and he shall comfort thine heart , and put thou thy trust in the Lord. The Prayer . O Lord God , thou hast been our succour , our light and salvation , leave us not , neither forsake us when we are assaulted by enemies without , and by temptations from within , but lead us in the right way which thou hast appointed for us to walk in : and when thou hast lift up our heads above our enemies round about us , grant that we may spend our days in prayer , and giving praises to thee , and in all other actions of holy Religion , visiting thy temple with frequent addresses of devotion , and contemplating , and admiring the fair beauty of the Lord , and that being secure in such imployments , being hid in thy Tabernacle , and taking Sanctuary within the secret place of thy dwelling , we may at last come unto thy heavenly Jerusalem , where the gates of thy Temple are open day and night , there seeing the goodnesse of the Lord in the land of the living , praising thee to all eternity , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . PSALME 28. A prayer for deliverance from death and damnation . VNto thee will I cry , O Lord my strength : think no scorn of me , lest if thou make as though thou hearest not , I become like them that go down into the pit . 2 Heare the voyce of my humble petitions when I cry unto thee : when I hold up my hands toward the mercy-seat of thy holy temple . 3 O pluck me not away ( neither destroy me ) with the ungodly and wicked doers : which speak friendly to their neighbours , but imagine mischief in their hearts . 4 Reward them according to their deeds : and according to the wickednesse of their own inventions . 5 Recompence them after the work of their hands : pay them that they have deserved . 6 For they regard not in their minde the works of the Lord , nor the operation of his hands : therefore shall he break them down , and not build them up . 7 Praised be the Lord : for he hath heard the voyce of my humble petitions . 8 The Lord is my strength and my shield , my heart hath trusted in him , and I am helped : therefore my heart danceth for joy , and in my song will I praise him . 9 The Lord is my strength : and he is the wholsome defence of his anointed . 10 O save thy people , and give thy blessing unto thine inheritance : feed them , and set them up for ever . The Prayer . O Lord my strength and confidence , my shield and the defence of all that hope in thee , hear the voyce of our humble petitions : We hold up our hands to thy mercy-seat , praying thee for pity , and pardon of our sinnes : reward us not according to our deeds , nor according to the wickednesse of our inventions ; for if thou shouldest deal with us according to the operation of our hands , we should be like them that go down into the pit , and our inheritance would be death and destruction . But our heart hath trusted in thee , and thou hast helped us ; continue thy loving kindnesse to us , and pluck us not away , neither destroy us with the ungodly and wicked doers , but magnifie thy mercies in the salvation of our soules , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . PSALME 29. In which God is adored , and the mightinesse of his power and voyce is celebrated . BRing unto the Lord ( O ye mighty ) bring young Rams unto the Lord : ascribe unto the Lord worship and strength . 2 Give the Lord the honour due unto his Name : worship the Lord with holy worship . 3 It is the Lord that commandeth the waters : it is the glorious God that maketh the thunder . 4 It is the Lord that ruleth the Sea , the voyce of the Lord is mighty in operation : the voyce of the Lord is a glorious voyce . 5 The voyce of the Lord breaketh the Cedar trees : yea , the Lord breaketh the Cedars of Libanus . 6 He made them also to skip like a calfe : Libanus also and Sirion like a young Unicorn . 7 The voyce of the Lord divideth the flames of fire , the voice of the Lord shaketh the wildernesse : yea the Lord shaketh the wildernesse of Cades . 8 The voice of the Lord maketh the Hindes to bring forth young , and discovereth the thick bushes : in his Temple doth every man speak of his honour . 9 The Lord sitteth above the water floud : and the Lord remaineth a King for ever . 10 The Lord shall give strength unto his people : the Lord shall give his people the blessing of peace . The Prayer . O Most glorious God who makest the thunder , thy voice is mighty in operation , and is a glorious voice , give us grace that we may hear thy voice , and obey it with reverence and humility . Thou that breakest the Cedar trees , let thy word rend our hearts with sorrow and contrition for our sinnes , that so we may feel the power and the mercy of thy voice , and may ascribe unto thee worship and strength , worshipping thee with a holy worship all the dayes of our life , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . Morning Prayer . PSALME 30. A Prayer for deliverance from sicknesse and death and damnation . I Will magnifie thee , O Lord , for thou hast set me up : and not made my foes to triumph over me . 2 O Lord my God , I cried unto thee : and thou hast healed me . 3 Thou Lord hast brought my soul out of hell : thou hast kept my life from them that go down to the pit . 4 Sing praises unto the Lord ( O ye Saints of his : ) and give thanks to him for a remembrance of his holinesse . 5 For his wrath endureth but the twinkling of an eye , and in his pleasure is life : heavinesse may endure for a night , but joy commeth in the morning . And in my prosperity I said , I shall never be removed : thou Lord of thy goodnesse hadst made my hill so strong . 7 Thou didst turn thy face ( from me : ) and I was troubled . 8 Then cried I unto thee , O Lord : and gat me unto my Lord right humbly . 9 What profit is there in my bloud : when I go down to the pit ? 10 Shall the dust give thanks unto thee : or shall it declare thy truth ? 11 Heare , O Lord , and have mercy upon me : Lord be thou my helper . 12 Thou hast turned my heavinesse into joy : thou hast put off my sackcloth , and g●rded me with gladnesse . 13 Therefore shall every good man sing of thy praise without ceasing : O my God , I will give thanks unto thee for ever . The Prayer . O Lord our God whose mercy is infinite , but thy wrath endureth but the twinkling of an eye , and even in this short time of thy wrath thou remembrest mercy , we cry unto thee , and addresse our selves unto thee right humbly : O turn not thy face away from us ; keep our life from them that goe downe into the pit , and preserve our souls from hell ; and although thou sometimes sendest heavinesse unto us , and trouble upon our loyns , yet let it be but as for a night , let thy mercy dawn upon us , and shine as in a glorious morning ; for thou art more pleased in demonstrations of thy mercy , then in shewing thy displeasure . O Lord heal us , and be mercifull unto us , and save us , turn our heavinesse into joy , and gird us with gladnesse , so shall we give thanks unto thee for ever , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . PSALME 31. A prayer for protection against our enemies and all dangers of soule and body , and specially at the houre of death . IN thee , O Lord , have I put my trust : let me never bee put to confusion , deliver me in thy righteousnesse . 2 Bow down thine ear to me : make haste to deliver me . 3 And be thou my strong rock , and the house of defence : that thou maist save me . 4 For thou art my strong rock , and my castle : be thou also my guide , and lead me for thy names sake . 5 Draw me out of the net that they have laid privily for me : for thou art my strength . 6 Into thy hands I commend my spirit : for thou hast redeemed me , O Lord , thou God of truth . 7 I have hated them that hold of superstitious vanities : and my trust hath been in the Lord. 8 I will be glad , and rejoyce in thy mercy : for thou hast considered my trouble , and hast known my soule in adversities . 9 Thou hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy : but hast set my feet in a large room . 10 Have mercy upon me , O Lord , for I am in trouble : and mine eye is consumed for very heavinesse : yea , my soul and my body . 11 For my life is waxen old with heavinesse : and my yeares with mourning . 12 My strength faileth me , because of mine iniquity : and my bones are consumed . 13 I became a reproofe among all mine enemies , but specially among my neighbours : and they of mine acquaintance were afraid of mee , and they that did see me without , conveyed themselves from me . 14 I am clean forgotten as a dead man out of minde : I am become like a broken vessell . 15 For I have heard the blasphemy of the multitude : and feare is on every side , while they conspire together against me , and take their counsell to take away my life . 16 But my hope hath been in thee , O Lord : I have said , Thou art my God. 17 My time is in thy hand , deliver me from the hand of mine enemies : and from them that persecute me . 18 Shew thy servant the light of thy countenance : and save me for thy mercies sake . 19 Let me not be confounded , O Lord , for I have called upon thee : let the ungodly be put to confusion , and be put to silence in the grave . 20 Let the lying lips be put to silence : which cruelly , disdainfully , and despitefully speak against the righteous . 21 O how plentifull is thy goodnesse , which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee : and that thou hast prepared for them that put their trust in thee , even before the sonnes of men ! 22 Thou shalt hide them privily by thine own presence , from the provoking of all men : thou shalt keep them secretly in thy tabernacle from the strife of tongues . 23 Thanks be to the Lord : for he hath shewed mee marvellous great kindnesse in a strong city . 24 And when I made haste , I said : I am cast out of the sight of thine eyes . 25 Neverthelesse thou heardest the voyce of my prayer : when I cried unto thee . 26 O love the Lord , all ye his Saints : for the Lord preserveth them that are faithfull , and plenteously rewardeth the proud doer . 27 Be strong , and he shall stablish your heart : all yee that put your trust in the Lord. The Prayer . O God our rock & the house of our defence , let us be glad and rejoyce in thy mercies and salvation . Consider , O Lord , our trouble , and in thy pity know our souls beset round about with enemies and adversities : Shut us not up into the hands of our enemies , nor our lives within the grave . Our time , O Lord , is in thy hand , to thee pertain the issues of life and death , and though our strength hath failed us because of our iniquity , and our bones are vexed by reason of our sins , yet our hope is in thee , O Lord , we have said , Thou art our God : deliver us from all our enemies bodily and ghostly : turn our sadnesse into joy , and our mourning into gladnesse , lest our bodies and soules be consumed for very heavinesse . Let us not be put to confusion nor to silence in the grave , but let us see thy marvellous loving kindnesse , and partake of thy plentifull goodnesse which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee , even before the sonnes of men . O let us never be cast out of the sight of thine eyes , but deal with us in mercy and loving kindnesse . Into thy hands we commend our spirits , resigning our selves up to thy providence and disposition , either to life or death , as thou in thy infinite wisdome shalt finde most proportionable to thy glory , and our eternall good , beseeching thee to be our guide to death , and to lead us for thy Name sake to everlasting life , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . Evening Prayer . PSALME 32. A confession of sins , and a prayer for pardon . BLessed is he whose unrighteousnesse is forgiven : and whose sin is covered . 2 Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth no sin : and in whose spirit there is no guile . 3 For while I held my tongue : my bones consumed away through my daily complaining . 4 For thy hand is heavy upon me day and night : and my moisture is like the drought in Summer . 5 I will knowledge my sinne unto thee : and mine unrighteousnesse have I not hid . 6 I said , I will confesse my sinnes unto the Lord : and so thou forgavest the wickednesse of my sin . 7 For this shall every one that is godly make his prayer unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found : but in the great water-flouds they shall not come nigh him . 8 Thou art a place to hide me in , thou shalt preserve me from trouble : thou shalt compasse me about with songs of deliverance . 9 I will enform thee , and teach thee in the way wherein thou shalt goe : and I will guide thee with mine eye . 10 Be ye not like to Horse and Mule , which have no understanding : whose mouthes must be holden with bit and bridle , left they fall upon thee . 11 Great plagues remain for the ungodly : but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord , mercy embraceth him on every side . 12 Be glad , O ye righteous , and rejoyce in the Lord : and be joyfull all ye that are true of heart . The Prayer . O Lord God , eternall Judge of men and Angels , whose property is always to have mercy and to forgive , have mercy upon us who confesse our sins unto thee to be so great and many , that were not thy mercy infinite , we might despair of having our unrighteousnesse forgiven , or our sins covered . O dear God , preserve us from the great plagues that remain for the ungodly , and let thy mercy imbrace us on every side . Impute not unto us the sins we have multiplied against thee , and against all the world ; for we have been like to a Horse and Mule without understanding , brutish in our passions , sensuall in our affections , of unbridled heats , and distemperatures . But thy mercy is as infinite as thy self ; O let not thy hand be heavy upon us , but forgive the wickednesse of our sin , and compasse us about with songs of deliverance , then shall we be glad and rejoyce in thee , O Lord , who art become our mighty Saviour and most mercifull Redeemer Jesu . Amen . PSALME 33. A prayer to God for the graces of feare , hope , and Religion . REjoyce in the Lord , O ye righteous : for it becometh well the just to be thankfull . 2 Praise the Lord with harp : sing psalmes unto him with the lute and instrument of ten strings . 3 Sing unto the Lord a new song : sing praises lustily ( unto him ) with a good courage . 4 For the word of the Lord is true : and all his works are faithfull . 5 He loveth righteousnesse and judgement : the earth is full of the goodnesse of the Lord. 6 By the word of the Lord were the heavens made : and all the hosts of them by the breath of his mouth . 7 He gathereth the waters of the Sea together , as it were upon an heap : and layeth up the deep as in a treasure house . 8 Let all the earth fear the Lord : stand in awe of him all ye that dwell in the world . 9 For he spake , and it was done : he com●●●ded , and it stood fast . 10 The Lord bringeth the counsell of the Heathen to nought : and maketh the devices of the people to bee of none effect , and casteth out the counsels of Princes . 11 The counsell of the Lord shall endure for ever : and the thoughts of his heart from generation to generation . 12 Blessed are the people whose God is the Lord Jehovah : and blessed are the folk that he hath chosen to him to be his inheritance . 13 The Lord looked down from Heaven , and beheld all the children of men : from the habitation of his dwelling he considereth all them that dwell in the earth . 14 He fashioneth all the hearts of them : and understandeth all their works . 15 There is no King that can be saved by the multitude of an host : neither is any mighty man delivered by much strength . 16 An Horse is counted but a vain thing to save a man : neither shall he deliver any man by his great strength . 17 Behold , the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him : and upon them that put their trust in his mercy . 18 To deliver their soules from death : and to feed them in the time of dearth . 19 Our soul hath patiently tarried for the Lord : for he is our help and our shield . 20 For our heart shall rejoyce in him : because wee have hoped in his holy name . 21 Let thy mercifull kindnesse ( O Lord ) be upon us : like as we doe put our trust in thee . The Prayer . O Lord God , who lovest righteousnesse and judgement , who fillest the earth with thy goodnesse , and lookest down from Heaven upon the children of men : Consider us , O Lord , and let thy grace fashion our hearts , and produce in our souls such forms and impresses , as may bear thy Image , and seem beauteous in thy eyes , that thou maist be our God , and choose us for thine inheritance . Let thy mercy feed us , thy hands deliver us from death , and snatch us from the jaws of hell : teach us to fear thee , to put our trust in thy mercy , patiently to tarry for thee , and the revelation of thy loving kindnesses , to hope in thy holy Name , and to rejoyce in thy salvation , giving thee thanks and praise with a good courage , with humble and religious affections , all the days of our life , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . PSALME 34. A Prayer , that we being dispos'd by holy living , may receive and have a sense and taste of the Divine goodnesse . I Will alway give thanks unto the Lord : his praise shall ever be in my mouth . 2 My soul shall make her boast of the Lord : the humble shall hear thereof and be glad . 3 O praise the Lord with me : and let us magnifie his name together . 4 I sought the Lord , and he heard me : yea , he delivered me out of all my fear . 5 They had an eye unto him , and were lightened : and their faces were not ashamed . 6 Lo , the poor crieth , and the Lord heareth him : yea , and saveth him out of all his troubles . 7 The Angel of the Lord tarrieth round about them that fear him : and delivereth them . 8 O taste and see how gracious the Lord is : blessed is the man that trusteth in him . 9 O fear the Lord ye that be his Saints : for they that fear him lack nothing . 10 The lions doe lack , and suffer hunger : but they which seek the Lord , shall want no manner of thing that is good . 11 Come ye children and hearken unto me : I will teach you the fear of the Lord. 12 What man is he that lusteth to live , and would fain see good dayes : keep thy tongue from evill , and thy lips that they speak no guile . 13 Eschew evill , and do good : seek peace and ensue it . 14 The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous : and his eares are open unto their prayers . 15 The countenance of the Lord is against them that doe evill : to root out the remembrance of them from the earth . 16 The righteous cry , and the Lord heareth them : and delivereth them out of all their troubles . 17. The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a contrite heart : and will save such as be of an humble spirit . 18 Great are the troubles of the righteous : but the Lord delivereth him out of all . 19 He keepeth all his bones : so that not one of them is broken . 20 But misfortune shall slay the ungodly : and they that hate the righteous , shall be desolate . 21 The Lord delivereth the souls of his servants : and all they that put their trust in him shall not be destitute . The Prayer . O Most mercifull and gracious Lord , whose eies are over the righteous , and thine ears are open unto their prayers , give us , we beseech thee , a contrite heart , and an humble spirit , a fear of thy Name , a watchfulnesse over our tongue , that we speak no guile , a care of our actions that we eschew all evill , and a zeal of thy Name that we may do good ; that being thus prepared with holy dispositions , we may be delivered out of all our troubles by the hands of thy mercy , we may be defended against our enemies by the custody of Angels , we may be provided for , so as to want no manner of thing that is good , by the ministration of thy providence , that so in all the whole course of our life , we may feel the goodnesse of the Lord , seeing and tasting the sweetnesses of thy mercy , which may be to us an antepast of eternity , and as an earnest of the Spirit to consigne us to the fruition of the glories of thy Kingdome , who livest and reignest ever one God , world without end . Amen . Morning Prayer . PSALME 35. A Prayer to be delivered from our Enemies . PLead thou my cause , O Lord , with them that strive with me : and fight thou against them that fight against me . 2 Lay hand upon the shield and buckler : and stand up to help me . 3 Bring forth the spear , and stop the way against them that persecute me : say unto my soul , I am thy salvation . 4 Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soule : let them be turned back , and brought to confusion , that imagine mischief for me . 5 Let them be as the dust before the winde : and the Angel of the Lord scattering them . 6 Let their way be dark and slippery : and let the Angell of the Lord persecute them . 7 For they have privily laid their net to destroy me without a cause : yea , even without a cause have they made a pit for my soul. 8 Let a sudden destruction come upon him unawares : and his net that he hath laid privily , catch himselfe : that he may fall into his own mischief . 9 And my soul be joyfull in the Lord : it shall rejoyce in his salvation . 10 All my bones shall say , Lord , who is like unto thee , which deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him : yea , the poor and him that is in misery , from him that spoileth him ? 11 False witnesse did rise up : they laid to my charge things that I knew not . 12 They rewarded me evill for good : to the great discomfort of my soul. 13 Neverthelesse , when they were sick , I put on sackcloth , and humbled my soul with fasting : and my prayer shall turn into mine own bosome . 14 I behaved my self as though it had been my friend , or my brother : I went heavily as one that mourneth for his mother . 15 But in mine adversity they rejoyced , and gathered them together : yea , the very abjects came together against me unawares , making mowes at me , and cea●ed not . 16 With the flatterers were busie mockers : which gnashed upon me with their teeth . 17 Lord , how long wilt thou look upon this : O deliver my soul from the calamities which they bring on me , and my darling from the lions . 18 So will I give thee thanks in the great congregation : I will praise thee among much people . 19 O let not them that are mine enemies triumph over me ungodly : neither let them wink with their eyes that hate me without a cause . 20 And why ? their communing is not for peace : but they imagine deceitfull words against them that are quiet in the land . 21 They gaped on me with their mouths : and said , Fie on thee , fie on thee , we saw it with our eyes . 22 This thou hast seen , O Lord : hold not thy tongue then , goe not far from me , O Lord. 23 Awake and stand up to judge my quarrell : avenge thou my cause , my God , and my Lord. 24 Judge me , O Lord my God , according to thy righteousnesse : and let them not triumph over me . 25 Let them not say in their hearts , There , there , so would we have it : neither let them say , we have devoured him . 26 Let them be put to confusion and shame together that rejoyce at my trouble : let them be cloathed with rebuke and dishonour that boast themselves against me . 27 Let them be glad and rejoyce that favour my righteous dealing : yea , let them say alway , Blessed be the Lord , which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant . 28 And as for my tongue it shall be talking of thy righteousnesse : and of thy praise all the day long . The Prayer . O Lord our God , who art the shield of the oppressed , and the Buckler of all that trust in thee , deliver us from all the assaults and intendments of our enemies against us , who without cause make pits for our souls : let the Angel of the Lord scatter all their mischievous imaginations , lest they triumph over us , and say , we have devoured them : strive thou with them that strive with us , and fight against them that fight against us . Preserve us in innocency , that we neither sin against thee , nor do injustice to them , and restore us to our Peace , so shall we talk of thy righteousnesse , and thy praise all the day long , and give thee thanks in the great congregation of Saints , because thou hast pleasure in the prosperity of thy servants , and hast redeemed them from the hands of their enemies through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . PSALME 36. A Prayer desiring the joyes of Heaven , the blessings of Eternity . MY heart sheweth me the wickednesse of the ungodly : that there is no fear of God before his eyes . 2 For he flattereth himself in his own sight : untill his abominable sin be found out . 3 The words of his mouth are unrighteous , and full of deceit : he hath left off to behave himselfe wisely , and to doe good . 4 He imagineth mischiefe upon his bed , and hath set himself in no good way : neither doth he abhorre any thing that is evill . 5 Thy mercy ( O Lord ) reacheth unto the heavens : and thy faithfulnesse unto the clouds . 6 Thy righteousnesse standeth like the strong mountains : thy judgements are like the great deep . 7 Thou Lord shalt save both man and beast , how excellent is thy mercy , O God : and the children of men shall put their trust under the shadow of thy wings . 8 They shall be satisfied with the plenteousnesse of thy house : and thou shalt give them drink of thy pleasures , as out of the river . 9 For with thee is the well of life : and in thy light shall we see light . 10 O continue forth thy loving kindnesse unto them that know thee : and thy righteousnesse unto them that are true of heart . 11 O let not the foot of pride come against me : and let not the hand of the ungodly cast me down . 12 There are they fallen ( all ) that work wickednesse : they are cast down , and shall not be able to stand . The Prayer . O God whose mercy reacheth unto the Heavens and thy righteousnesse unto the clouds , teach us to abhorre every thing that is evill , and to set our selves in every good way , that thy fear being always before our eyes , and our trust being under the shadow of thy wings , thou maist continue forth thy loving kindnesse to us , all the dayes of our life , that at last we may be satisfied with the plenteousnesse of thy house , and may drink down rivers of pleasures , deriving from thee the eternall fountain and well of life , and in the light of thy countenance , may see everlasting light , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . Evening Prayer . PSALME 37. A Prayer that we may trust and delight in God , and that our lot may be amongst the godly , and not in the seeming prosperity of the wicked . FRet not thy self because of the ungodly : neither be thou envious against the evill doers . 2 For they shall soon be cut down like the grasse : and be withered even as the green hearb . 3 Put thou thy trust in the Lord , and be doing good : dwell in the land , and verily thou shalt be fed . 4 Delight thou in the Lord : and he shall give thee thy hearts desire . 5 Commit thy way unto the Lord , and put thy trust in him : and he shall bring it to passe . 6 He shall make thy righteousnesse as clear as the light : and thy just dealing as the noon day . 7 Hold thee still in the Lord , and abide patiently upon him : but grieve not thy self at him whose way doth prosper , against the man that doth after evill counsels . 8 Leave off from wrath , and let goe displeasure : fret not thy self , else shalt thou be moved to do evill . 9 Wicked doers shall be rooted out : and they that patiently abide the Lord , those shall inherit the land . 10 Yet a little while , and the ungodly shall be clean gone : thou shalt look after his place , and he shall bee away . 11 But the meek spirited shall possesse the earth : and shall be refreshed in the multitude of peace . 12 The ungodly seeketh counsell against the just : and gnasheth upon him with his teeth . 13 The Lord shall laugh him to scorn : for hee hath seen that his day is comming . 14 The ungodly have drawn out the sword , and have bent their bow : to cast down the poor and needy , and to slay such as be of a right conversation . 15 Their sword shall goe through their own heart : and their bow shall be broken . 16 A small thing that the righteous hath : is better then great riches of the ungodly . 17 For the arms of the ungodly shall be broken : and the Lord upholdeth the righteous . 18 The Lord knoweth the days of the godly : and their inheritance shall endure for ever . 19 They shall not be confounded in the perilous time : and in the days of dearth they shall have enough . 20 As for the ungodly , they shall perish , and the enemies of the Lord shall consume as the fat of lambs : yea , even as the smoak shall they consume away . 21 The ungodly borroweth , and payeth not again : but the righteous is mercifull and liberall . 22 Such as be blessed of God shall possesse the land : and they that be cursed of him shall be rooted out . 23 The Lord ordereth a good mans going : and maketh his way acceptable to himself . 24 Though he fall , he shall not be cast away : for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand . 25 I have been young and now am old : and yet saw I never the righteous forsaken , nor his seed begging their bread . 26 The righteous is ever mercifull , and lendeth : and his seed is blessed . 27 Flee from evill , and doe the thing that is good , and dwell for evermore . 28 For the Lord loveth the thing that is right : he forsaketh not his that bee godly , but they are preserved for ever . 29 The righteous shall be punished : as for the seed of the ungodly , it shall be rooted out . 30 The righteous shall inherit the land : and dwell therein for ever . 31 The mouth of the righteous is exercised in wisedome : and his tongue will be talking of judgement . 32 The law of his God is in his heart : and his goings shall not slide . 33 The ungodly seeth the righteous : and seeketh occasion to slay him . 34 The Lord will not leave him in his hand : nor condemne him when he is judged . 35 Hope thou in the Lord , and keep his way , and hee shall promote thee , that thou shalt possesse the land : when the ungodly shall perish , thou shalt see it . 36 I my self have seen the ungodly in great power : and flourishing like a green bay-tree . 37 And I went by , and lo he was gone : I sought him , but his place could no where be found . 38 Keep innocency , and take heed unto the thing that is right : for that shall bring a man peace at the last . 39 As for the transgressours , they shall perish together : and the end of the ungodly is , they shall be rooted out at the last . 40 But the salvation of the righteous commeth of the Lord : which is also their strength in the time of trouble . 41 And the Lord shall stand by them and save them : he shall deliver them from the ungodly , and shall save them , because they put their trust in him . The Prayer . O God Almighty , who never forsakest the godly , but preservest them for ever , let thy Law bee in our hearts , fixed and grounded , that we may keep innocency , and take heed to the thing that is right : order our goings , and make thy way acceptable to thy self , that we delighting in thee alone , committing our ways wholly to thy providence , and putting our trust in thy mercies , we may not be confounded in the perillous times , but may be refreshed in the multitude of peace , having peace all our dayes , and peace at the last , in the inheritance of Saints , who have refused the guilded glories of this world , which is the lot of the wicked and ungodly people , and are satisfied with the expectation of true joyes , and the rewards of innocency , through the merits of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . Morning Prayer . PSALME 38. A Prayer for remission of sins . PUt me not to rebuke ( O Lord ) in thine anger : neither chasten me in thine heavy displeasure . 2 For thine arrows stick fast in me : and thy hand presseth me sore . 3 There is no health in my flesh , because of thy displeasure : neither is there any rest in my bones , by reason of my sinne . 4 For my wickednesses are gone over my head : and are like a sore burden too heavy for me to bear . 5 My wounds stink and are corrupt : through my foolishnesse . 6 I am brought into so great trouble and misery : that I goe mourning all the day long . 7 For my loyns are filled with a sore disease : and there is no whole part in my body . 8 I am feeble and sore smitten : I have roared for the very disquietnesse of my heart . 9 Lord , thou knowest all my desire : and my groaning is not hid from thee . 10 My heart panteth , my strength hath failed me : and the sight of mine eyes is gone from me . 11 My lovers and my neighbours did stand looking upon my trouble : and my kinsmen stood afarre off . 12 They also that sought after my life , laid snares for me : and they that went about to doe me evill , talked of wickednesse , and imagined deceit all the day long . 13 As for me , I was like a deaf man , and heard not : and as one that is dumb , which doth not open his mouth . 14 I became even as a man that heareth not : and in whose mouth are no reproofs . 15 For in thee , O Lord , have I put my trust : thou shalt answer for me , O Lord my God. 16 I have required that they ( even mine enemies ) should not triumph over me : for when my foot slipt , they rejoyced greatly against me . 17 And I truly am set in the plague : and my heavinesse is ever in my sight . 18 For I will confesse my wickednesse : and be sorry for my sin . 19 But mine enemies live and are mighty : and they that hate me wrongfully , are many in number . 20 They also that reward evill for good , are against me : because I follow the thing that good is . 21 Forsake me not , O Lord my God : be not thou farre from me . 22 Haste thee to help me : O Lord God my salvation . The Prayer . O Lord who knowest all our desires , and from whom our groaning is not hid , wee confesse before thee our many wickednesses , and are truly sorry for our sins ; our wickednesses are gone over our head , and are a sore burden too heavy for us to bear , our enemy the Devill is malicious and mighty , our weaknesses many , our temptations strong , our consciences doe busily accuse us . Where shall we appear in the day of Judgement ? How shall we stand upright in the eternall scrutiny ? Our trust is in thy merits . O blessed Jesu , thou art our Judge and our Advocate , thou shalt answer for us , O Lord our God. Put us not to rebuke , O Lord , in thine anger , for it is insupportable , neither let thy whole displeasure arise , for that is vast and mountainous as our sinnes , and will break us in pieces . O let not the arrows of thy vengeance stick fast in us , for our sins are wounds enough , and make us restlesse and miserable . Touch our sores gently , and let not thy hands presse us , unlesse to drive forth our corruption , then shall we follow the thing that good is , and rejoyce greatly in thy mercies , O Lord God of our salvation , who hast redeemed us , and saved us , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . PSALME 39. A meditation of the shortnesse and vanity of our life , and a prayer preparatory to death . I Said , I will take heed to my ways : that I offend not in my tongue . 2 I will keep my mouth as it were with a bridle : while the ungodly is in my sight . 3 I held my tongue , and spake nothing : I kept silence , yea , even from good words , but it was pain and grief to mee . 4 My heart was hot within me , and while I was thus musing , the fire kindled : and at the last I spake with my tongue . 5 Lord let me know mine end , and the number of my days : that I may be certified how long I have to live . 6 Behold , thou hast made my days as it were a span long : and mine age is even as nothing in respect of thee , and verily every man living is altogether vanity . 7 For man walketh in a vain shadow , and disquieteth himself in vain : he heapeth up riches , and cannot tell who shall gather them . 8 And now Lord , what is my hope : truly my hope is even in thee . 9 Deliver me from all mine offences : and make mee not a rebuke unto the foolish . 10 I became dumb , and opened not my mouth : for it was thy doing . 11 Take thy plague away from me : I am even consumed by the means of thy heavy hand . 12 When thou with rebukes dost chasten man for sin , thou makest his beauty to consume away like as it were a moth fretting a garment : every man therefore is but vanity . 13 Hear my prayer , O Lord , and with thine ears consider my calling : hold not thy peace at my tears . 14 For I am a stranger with thee , and a sojourner : as all my fathers were . 15 O spare me a little , that I may recover my strength● before I goe hence , and be no more seen . The Prayer . O Eternall God , who art without beginning or end of days , thou hast given us a short portion of time in the generations of this world ; our condition is vain , unsatisfying , and full of disquiet , and we have no hope but in thee , O Lord. O teach us to number our days , to remember and to know our end , that so we may never sin against thee ; and grant that we may live as always dying , being of mortified souls and bodies , of bridled tongues and affections , and that in stead of heaping up riches , we may strive for a treasure of good works , laying up in store against the time to come , that having recovered our strength , lost by the commission of sins , when we go hence , and are no more seen , we may have a residence in those mansions which are prepared for the Saints , by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen . PSALME 40. A thanksgiving to God for his deliverances , and a prayer for redemption from sins , and defence against our enemies . I Waited patiently for the Lord : and he enclined unto me , and heard my calling . 2 He brought me also out of the horrible pit , out of the mire and clay : and set my feet upon the rock , and ordered my goings . 3 And hee hath put a new song in my mouth : even a thanksgiving unto our God. 4 Many shall see it , and fear : and shall put their trust in the Lord. 5 Blessed is the man that hath set his hope in the Lord : and turned not unto the proud , and to such as goe about with lies . 6 O Lord my God , great are thy wondrous works which thou hast done : like as be also thy thoughts which are to us-ward , and yet there is no man that ordereth them unto thee . 7 If I would declare them and speak of them : they should be moe then I am able to expresse . 8 Sacrifice and meat-offering thou wouldest not have : but mine ears hast thou opened . 9 Burnt-offerings and sacrifice for sinne hast thou not required : then said I , Lo , I come . 10 In the volume of the book it is written of me , that I should fulfill thy will , O my God : I am content to doe it , yea , thy Law is within my heart . 11 I have declared thy righteousnesse in the great congregation : lo , I will not refrain my lips , O Lord , and that thou knowest . 12 I have not hid thy righteousnesse within my heart : my talking hath been of thy truth , and of thy salvation . 13 I have not kept back thy loving mercy and truth : from the great congregation . 14 Withdraw not thou thy mercy from me , O Lord : let thy loving kindnesse and thy truth alway preserve me . 15 For innumerable troubles are come about me , my sins have taken such hold upon me , that I am not able to look up : yea , they are moe in number then the hairs of mine head , and my heart hath failed me . 16 O Lord , let it be thy pleasure to deliver me : make ha●te ( O Lord ) to help me . 17 Let them bee ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it : let them be driven backward and put to rebuke that wish me evill . 18 Let them be desolate and rewarded with shame , that say unto me : Fie upon thee , fie upon thee . 19 Let all those that seek thee , be joyfull and glad in thee : and let such as love thy salvation , say alway , The Lord be praised . 20 As for me , I am poor and needy : but the Lord careth for me . 21 Thou art my helper and redeemer : make no long tarrying , O my God. The Prayer . O Lord our God whose works are wondrous , and thy thoughts which are to us-ward full of mercy and admirable in wisdome ; we adore and worship thy infinite perfections , and thy providence in the disposing of all thy creatures , and the effects of all causes , which in an infinite variety thou orderest to thy glory , and the good of all faithfull people . Thou hast dealt with us in mercy ; and although our sins are so multiplied that they are moe in number then the hairs of our head , yet thou hast not suffered us to fall into the horrible pit of eternall misery and destruction , but hast set our feet upon the Rock Christ Jesus , and by his graces and holy Laws hast ordered our goings . Let it be thy pleasure still to deliver us , for we are not able of our selves to look up , and our enemies still seek after our souls to destroy us . Make no long tarrying , O God , shew thy self our helper and redeemer , so shall we talk of thy truth and of thy salvation , in the assemblies of thy servants in this life , hoping that we shall hereafter declare thy righteousnesse in the great congregation of Saints and Angels , singing eternall praises to God the Father , the Son , and the holy Ghost . Amen . Evening Prayer . PSALME 41. A Prayer for the grace of charity , for pardon of sins , and for deliverance from false friends and Traitors . BLessed is he that considereth the poor ( and needy : ) the Lord shall deliver him in the time of trouble . 2 The Lord preserve him and keep him alive , that he may be blessed upon earth : and deliver not thou him into the will of his enemies . 3 The Lord comfort him when he lieth sick upon his bed : make thou all his bed in his sicknesse . 4 I said , Lord , be mercifull unto me : heal my soul , for I have sinned against ●hee . 5 Mine enemies speak evill of me : when shall he dye , and his name perish ? 6 And if he come to see me , he speaketh vanity : and his heart conceiveth falshood within himself , and when he commeth forth , he telleth it . 7 All mine enemies whisper together against me : even against me doe they imagine this evill . 8 Let the sentence of guiltinesse proceed against him : and now that he lieth , let him rise up no more . 9 Yea , even mine own familiar friend whom I trusted : which did also eat of my bread , hath laid great wait for me . 10 But be thou mercifull unto me , O Lord : raise thou me up again , and I shall reward them . 11 By this I know thou favourest me : that mine enemy doth not triumph against me . 12 And when I am in my health , thou upholdest me : and shalt set me before thy face for ever . 13 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel : world without end . Amen . The Prayer . O Blessed Jesu , Saviour of the world , be mercifull unto us , and heal our sins , for we have sinned against thee , and are no more worthy to be called thy children , but yet make us thy servants , and give us testimony that we are translated from death to life , by charity and love to all our brethren . O make our bowels yearn with pity and compassion over the necessities of the poor and needy , and give us grace and power to help them and relieve th●ir miseries , that we being mercifull as our Heavenly Father is , may receive such blessings and assistances as thou hast provided for the charitable , deliverance from our open enemies , safety from private treachery and conspiracies , comfort in our sicknesses , health of body and pardon of our sins , through thy mercies and blessed charity , O most mercifull Saviour and Redeemer Jesu . Amen . PSALME 42. A Prayer for comfort in spirituall desertion , and drinesse of affection , and that we may long and sigh after God. LIke as the hart desireth the water brooks : so longeth my soul after thee , O God. 2 My soul is a thirst for God , yea , even for the living God : when shall I come to appear before the presence of God ? 3 My tears have been my meat day and night : while they daily say unto me , Where is now thy God ? 4 Now when I think thereupon , I poure out my heart by my self : for I went wit the multitude , and brought them forth into the house of God. 5 In the voice of praise and thanksgiving : among such as keep holy day . 6 Why art thou so full of heavinesse ( O my soul : ) and why art thou so disquieted within me ? 7 Put thy trust in God : for I will yet give him thanks for the help of his countenance . 8 My God , my soul is vexed within me : therefore will I remember thee concerning the land of Jordan , and the little hill of Hermon . 9 One deep calleth another , because of the noise of the water-pipes , all thy waves and storms are gone over mee . 10 The Lord hath granted his loving kindnesse on the day time : and in the night season did I sing of him , and made my prayer unto the God of my life . 11 I will say unto the God of my strength , Why hast thou forgotten me : why goe I thus heavily while the enemy oppresseth me ? 12 My bones are smitten asunder as with a sword : while mine enemies ( that trouble me ) cast me in the teeth . 13 Namely , while they say dayly unto me : Where is now thy God ? 14 Why art thou so vexed , O my soul : and why art thou so disquieted within me ? 15 O put thy trust in God : for I will yet thank him which is the help of my countenance , and my God. The Prayer . O Eternall and living God , thou art the help of our countenance and our God , thou art the thing that we long for , and our hearts are vexed within us , and disquieted when we feel not the comforts of thy Spirit , and those actuall exultations , and that spirituall gust , which thou doest often give to thy people , as earnests of a glorious immortality . O Lord pity our infirmities , and give us earnest longings for the fruition of thee our God in the actions of holy Religion : Grant unto us vivacity of spirit , unweariednesse in devotion , delight and complacency in spirituall exercises , that when our souls are vexed with temptations and sadnesses , we may remember thee concerning the land of promise , and be comforted and encouraged in our duties , by the expectation of those glories which thou hast laid up for them that love the appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen . PSALME 43. A Prayer for chearfulnesse of spirit in our devotions . GIve sentence with me , O God , and defend my cause against the ungodly people : O deliver me from the deceitfull and wicked man. 2 For thou art the God of my strength , why hast thou put me from thee : and why goe I so heavily while the enemy oppresseth me ? 3 O send out thy light and thy truth , that they may lead me : and bring me unto thy holy hill , and to thy dw●lling . 4 And that I may goe unto the altar of God , even unto the God of my joy and gladnesse : and upon the harp will I give thanks unto thee , O God my God. 5 Why art thou so heavy , O my soul : and why art thou so disquieted within me ? 6 O put thy trust in God : for I will yet give him thanks , which is the help of my countenance , and my God. The Prayer . O God our defender and deliverer , thou art the God of our strength , and our ghostly confidence : let the light of thy countenance produce the beams of spirituall joy in our souls , and let thy truth lead us in the way of thy salvation , that when we go unto thy dwelling places where thou manifestest thy presence , we may approach unto thee with joy and gladnesse , rejoycing in nothing more then in doing thee service , and singing praises to thy name for the help of thy countenance , which thou givest us in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen . Morning Prayer . PSALME 44. A Prayer in time of Warre . WE have heard with our eares , O God , our fathers have told us : what thou hast done in their time of old . 2 How thou hast driven out the Heathen with thy hand , and pl●nted them in : how thou hast destroyed the Nations , and cast them out . 3 For they gat not the Land in possession through their own sword : neither was it their own arm that helped them . 4 But thy right hand and thine arm , and the light of thy countenance : because thou hadst a favour unto them . 5 Thou art my King ( O God : ) send help unto Jacob . 6 Through thee will we overthrow our enemies : and in thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us . 7 For I will not trust in my bow : it is not my sword that shall help me . 8 But it is thou that savest us from our enemies : and puttest them to confusion that hate us . 9 We make our boast of God all day long : and will praise thy name for ever . 10 But now thou art far off , and puttest us to confuson : and goest not forth with our Armies . 11 Thou makest us to turn our backs upon our en●mies : so that they which hate us spoil our goods . 12 Thou lettest us to be eaten up like sheep : and hast scattered us among the Heathen . 13 Thou sell●st thy people for nou●ht : and tak●st no money for them . 14 Thou makest us to be rebuked of our neighbours : to be laughed to scorn , and had in derision of them that are round about us . 15 Thou makest us to be a by-word among the heathen : and that the people shake their heads at us . 16 My confusion is daily before me : and the shame of my face hath covered me . 17 For the voice of the slanderer and blasphemer : for the enemy and avenger . 18 And though all this be come upon us , yet do we not forget thee : nor behave our selves frowardly in thy covenant . 19 Our heart is not turned back : neither our steps gone out of thy way . 20 No not when thou hast smitten us into the place of Dragons : and covered us with the shadow of death . 21 If we have forgotten the name of our God , and holden up our hands to any strange God : shall not God search it out ? for hee knoweth the very secrets of the heart . 22 For thy sake also are we killed all the day long : and are counted as sheep appointed to be slain . 23 Up Lord , why sleepest thou : awake , and be not absent from us for ever . 24 Wherefore hidest thou thy face : and forgettest our misery and trouble ? 25 For our soul is brought low even unto the dust : our belly cleaveth unto the ground . 26 Arise and help us : and deliver us for thy mercie sake . The Prayer . O Lord God of hosts , who for our sins hast suffered the sword to take vengeance upon us , and to plead thy cause against us , O hide not thy face from us , and forget not our misery and trouble . We are killed all day long , and are accounted as sheep appointed to be slain , we are covered with the shadow of death , and they which hate us , spoile our goods . Deal with us in pity , and as thou hast done to our Fathers of old time , when they called upon thee in their trouble , so deal with us : thou overthrewest their enemies , and didst tread them under that arose up against them . Arise , and help us , and deliver us also for thy mercy sake : our own sword cannot help us , but let thy right hand , and thine arm , and the light of thy countenance work deliverance and salvation for us . Go forth with our Armies , O thou God of Hosts , do thou fight our Battels , that we may not turn our backs upon our enemies , but crown us with Victory and Peace , that we may make our boast of thee all day long , and praise thy Name for ever , who art holy , and just , and mercifull , the great God of Battels and recompences . From thee let mercy now and ever proceed , and to thy Name let honour be for ever ascribed of all the Hosts of Heaven and Earth , world without end . Amen . PSALME 45. A Prayer for the conversion of the Heathen , and prosperity of the Church . MY heart is enditing of a good matter : I speak of the things which I have made unto the King. 2 My tongue is the pen of a ready writer . 3 Thou art fairer then the children of men : full of grace are thy lips , because God hath blessed thee for ever . 4 Gird thee with thy sword upon thy thigh , O thou most mighty : according to thy worship and renown . 5 Good luck have thou with thine honour : ride on , because of the word of truth , of meeknesse and righteousnesse , and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things . 6 Thy arrows are very sharp , and the people shall be subdued unto thee : even in the midst among the Kings enemies . 7 Thy seat ( O God ) endureth for ever : the scepter of thy Kingdome is a right scepter . 8 Thou hast loved righteousnesse , and hated iniquity : wherefore God ( even thy God ) hath anointed thee with the oyl of gladnesse above thy fellows . 9 All thy garments smell of myrrhe , aloes , and cassia : out of the ivory palaces , whereby they have made thee glad . 10 Kings daughters were among thy honourable women : upon thy right hand did stand the Queen in a vesture of gold ( wrought about with divers colou●s . ) 11 Hearken ( O daughter ) and consider , encline thine eare : forget also thine own people , and thy fathers house . 12 So shall the King have pleasure in thy beauty : for he is thy Lord ( God ) and worship thou him . 13 And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift : like as the rich also among the people shall make their supplication before thee . 14 The Kings daughter is all glorious within : her clothing is of wrought gold . 15 She shall be brought unto the King in raiment of needle-work : the virgins that be her fellows shall beare her company , and shall be brought unto thee . 16 With joy and gladnesse shall they be brought : and shall enter into the Kings Palace . 17 In stead of thy fathers thou shalt have children : whom thou mayest make Princ●s in all Lands . 18 I will remember thy name from one generation unto another : therefore shall the people give thanks unto thee world without end . The Prayer . O Blessed Jesu , Prince of the Catholike Church , thou art fairer then the children of men , thy lips are full of grace , thine Armies mighty , thy head is Crowned with Majesty , and clothed with worship and renown : have mercy upon thy holy Church , blesse her for ever with righteousnesse , and let the oyle of gladnesse refresh her amidst the multitude of her sorrows and afflictions : And because she is the daughter of a King , and thou takest pleasure in her beauty , let her not alwaies be clothed in mourning garments , but let her be decked with exteriour Ornaments and secular advantages , such as may truly promote the interests of holy Religion . Let Kings and Queens be nursing Fathers , and nursing Mothers unto her , and so let the sound of thy Gospell go into all the Earth , that her children may be Princes in all Lands , and Ministers of thy Kingdome , advancing thy honour , and furthering the salvation of all men , for whom thou didst give thy precious bloud , that all people may worship thee , and give thee thanks for ever , who together with the Father and the holy Ghost , livest and reignest one God world without end . Amen . PSALME 46. A Prayer for protection , and for confidence in God in times of publike distractions , and for the peace of Christendome . GOD is our hope and strength : a very present help in trouble . 2 Therefore will we not fear though the earth be moved : and though the hills be carried into the midst of the Sea. 3 Though the waters thereof rage and swell : and though the mountains shake at the tempest of the same . 4 The rivers of the floud thereof shall make glad the City of God : the holy place of the tabernacle of the most Highest . 5 God is in the midst of her , therefore shall she not be removed : God shall help her , and that right early . 6 The Heathen make much adoe , and the Kingdomes are moved : but God hath shewed his voyce , and the earth shall melt away . 7 The Lord of hosts is with us : the God of Jacob is our refuge . 8 O come hither , and behold the works of the Lord : what destruction he hath brought upon the earth . 9 He maketh Wars to cease in all the World : he breaketh the bow , and knappeth the spear in sunder , and burneth the Chariots in the fire . 10 Be still then , and know that I am God : I will bee exalted among the Heathen , and I will be exalted in the earth . 11 The Lord of hosts is with us : the God of Jacob is our refuge . The Prayer . O Most mercifull Saviour Jesu , Prince of Peace , at whose birth all the Kingdomes of the World were in peace and tranquillity , bethou in the midst of us for our refuge and present help in times of trouble and publick calamities , when the Kingdome is moved , and the hearts of men shake at the tempest of the same . Dear God , unite all the parts of Christendome with the union of Faith and Charity , and the fruits of them , a blessed and universall Peace . Break the bow of the mighty , knappe the spear of the Warriour in sunder , and burn the Chariots in the fire , that Warres may cease in all the World , and we all may feel the promised blessing of the Gospel , that our Swords may be converted into plowshares , and our Spears into pruning hooks , that thy Name and thy Kingdome may be exalted among the heathen , and in all the Nations of the earth , who livest the reignest over all , in the unity of the blessed Trinity , God eternall , world without end . Amen . Evening Prayer . PSALME 47. A Prayer for the exaltation of Christs Kingdom , and that all the Princes of the world may joyntly adore Jesus reigning in the Heavens . O Clap your hands together ( all ye people : ) O sing unto God with the voice of melody . 2 For the Lord is high , and to bee feared : he is the great King upon all the earth . 3 He shall subdue the people under us : and the nations under our feet . 4 He shall chuse out an heritage for us : even the worship of Jacob whom he loved . 5 God is gone up with a merry noise : and the Lord with the sound of the trump . 6 O sing praises , sing praises unto ( our ) God : O sing praises , sing praises unto our King. 7 For God is the King of all the earth : sing ye praises with understanding . 8 God reigneth over the hea●hen : God sitteth upon his holy seat . 9 The Princes of the people are joyned unto the people of the God of Abraham : for God ( which is very high exalted ) doth defend the earth as it were with a shield . The Prayer . O Lord God King of Heaven , who raignest a great King in all the Earth ; thou art high above all creatures , and art to be feared in all the Kingdomes of the earth , let the seed of thy Gospel be disseminated in all the corners of the habitable World : let thy grace break down all the strong holds of sin and Satan , subduing all people under thee , and the Nations under thy feet , that the Princes of the Nations , that have not known thy Name , may be joyned to thy people , the people of the God of Abraham , becomming one sheepfold under one Shepheard , Iesus Christ our blessed Lord , our Saviour and Redeemer . Amen . PSALME 48. A Prayer for the prosperity of the Church . GReat is the Lord , and highly to be praised : in the City of our God , even upon his holy hill . 2 The hill of Sion is a fair place , and the joy of the whole earth : upon the north side lieth the City of the great King , God is well known in her palaces as a sure refuge . 3 For lo , the Kings of the earth are gathered , and gone by together . 4 They marvelled to see such things : they were astonied and suddenly cast down . 5 Fear came there upon them , and sorrow : as upon a woman in her travell . 6 Thou shalt break the ships of the sea : through the east winde . 7 Like as wee have heard , so have we seen in the City of the Lord of hosts , in the City of our God : God upholdeth the same for ever . 8 We wait for thy loving kindnesse ( O God : ) in the midst of thy temple . 9 O God , according unto thy name , so is thy praise unto the worlds end : thy right hand is full of righteousnesse . 10 Let the mount Sion rejoyce , and the daughters of Juda be glad : because of thy judgements . 11 Walk about Sion , and goe round about her : and tell the towers thereof . 12 Mark well her bulwarks , set up her houses : that yee may tell them that come after . 13 For this God is our God for ever and ever : he shall be our guide unto death . The Prayer . O Great God , who art highly to be praised , who hast manifested thy power and thy mercy in the constitution , propagation , and defence of thy Holy Church , by the miraculous assistances and effects of thy Holy Spirit , insomuch that the Kings of the earth marvelled to see such things , and were astonied and suddenly cast down , acknowledging the powers of thy Kingdome , and submitting to thy laws with faith and obedience : be pleased , according to thy gracious promise , to uphold the same for ever , let not the gates of hell prevail against thy Church , be thou known in her palaces as a sure refuge , make her the joy of the whole earth , and let her be glad and rejoyce because of thy judgements : so shall we praise thee in the midst of thy Temple , waiting for thy loving kindnesse , that according as thy Name is , so may thy praise be , infinite , and eternall , world without end . Amen . PSALME 49. A Prayer that we may despise perishing riches , and put our trust in God onely . O Hear ye this , all ye people : ponder it with your eares all ye that dwell in the world . 2 High and low , rich and poor : one with another . 3 My mouth shall speak of wisdom : and my heart shall muse of understanding . 4 I will encline mine eare to the parable : and shew my dark speech upon the harp . 5 Wherefore should I fear in the days of wickednesse : and when the wickednesse of my heels compasse me round about ? 6 There be some that put their trust in their goods : and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches . 7 But no man may deliver his brother : nor make an agreement to God for him . 8 For it cost more to redeem their souls : so that hee must let that alone for ever . 9 Yea , though he live long , and see not the grave . 10 For he seeth that wise men also die , and perish together : as well as the ignorant and foolish , and leave their riches for other . 11 And yet they think that their houses shall continue for ever : and that their dwelling places shall endure from one generation to another , and call the lands after their own names . 12 Neverthelesse , man will not abide in honour : seeing he may be compared unto the beasts that perish , this is the way of them . 13 This is their foolishnesse : and their posterity praise their saying . 14 They lie in the hell like sheep , death gnaweth upon them , and the righteous shall have domination over them in the morning : their beauty shall consume in the sepulchre out of their dwelling . 15 But God hath delivered my soul from the place of hell : for he shall receive me . 16 Be not thou afraid though one be made rich : or if the glory of his house be increased . 17 For he shall carry nothing away with him when he dieth : neither shall his pomp follow him . 18 For while he lived , he counted himself an happy man : and so long as thou dost well unto thy self , men will speak good of thee . 19 He shall follow the generation of his fathers : and shall never see light . 20 Man being in honour hath no understanding : but is compared unto the beasts that perish . The Prayer . O Blessed Iesu , thou only Redeemer of souls , who by thy death and passion hast delivered us from the place of Hell , give us grace to put our whole trust in thee , and in the riches of thy mercy and loving kindnesse , always remembring our end , the vanity and shortnes of our lives , the certainty of our departure : Teach us to despise the world and worldly things , and to lay our treasure up in heaven by charity and actions of religion , that while we live here , wee may have our conversation in heaven , by love , by hope , and by desires , that when our beauty shall consume in the sepulchre out of our earthly dwellings , we may be received into everlasting habitations , always to enjoy thee , who livest and reignest eternall God world without end . Amen . Morning Prayer . PSALME 50. A Prayer that we may lead a holy life , and find mercy in the day of judgement . THe Lord , even the most mighty God hath spoken : and called the world , from the rising up of the sunne , unto the going down thereof . 2 Out of Sion hath God appeared : in perfect beauty . 3 Our God shall come , and shall not keep silence●● there shall goe before him a consuming fire , and a mighty tempest shall be stirred up round about him . 4 He shall call the heaven from above : and the earth , that he may judge his people . 5 Gather my Saints together unto me : those that have made a covenant with me , with sacrifice . 6 And the heavens shall declare his righteousnesse : for God is Judge himself . 7 Hear , O my people , and I will speak : I my self will testifie against thee , O Israel , for I am God , even thy God. 8 I will not reprove thee because of thy sacrifices , or for thy burnt-offerings : because they were not alway before mee . 9 I will take no bullock out of thine house : nor hee-goats out of thy folds . 10 For all the beasts of the forest are mine : and so are the cattels upon a thousand hils . 11 I know all the fowls upon the mountains : and the wilde beasts of the field are in my sight . 12 If I be hungry I will not tell thee : for the whole world is mine , and all that is therein . 13 Thinkest thou that I will eat buls flesh : and drink the bloud of goats ? 14 Offer unto God thanksgiving : and pay thy vowes unto the most Highest . 15 And call upon me in the time of trouble : so will I hear thee , and thou shalt praise me . 16 But unto the ungodly said God : Why dost thou preach my Laws , and takest my Covenant in thy mouth ? 17 Whereas thou hatest to be reformed : and hast cast my words behinde thee . 18 When thou sawest a Theef , thou consentedst unto him : and hast been partaker with the Adulterers . 19 Thou hast let thy mouth speak wickednesse : and with thy tongue thou hast set forth deceit . 20 Thou satest and spakest against thy brother : yea , and hast slandered thine own mothers son . 21 These things hast thou done , and I held my tongue , and thou thoughtest wickedly , that I am even such a one as thy self : but I will reprove thee , and set before thee the things that thou hast done . 22 O consider this , ye that forget God : lest I pluck you away , and there be none to deliver you . 23 Whoso offereth me thanks and praise , he honoureth me : and to him that ordereth his conversation right , will I shew the salvation of God. The Prayer . O Most mighty God , who art more pleased with the sacrifice of thanksgiving , and the oblation of our souls in the vows of obedience and a holy life , then with the burnt-offerings and sacrifices of Bullocks and Goats : let thy grace reform our lives and manners : keep our mouth from slander and obloquy , from guile and deceit : let us never consent to actions of injustice or uncleannesse , that we partake not with Thieves or with Adulterers , either in their sin or punishment , that when thou shalt appear in perfect beauty with a consuming fire before thee , and a tempest round about thee , with terrors and glorious Majesty , calling the heavens and the earth together , that thou maist judge all thy people , thou maist gather us among thy Saints , and give us the mercies and the portion of thine inheritance , that so we may honour thee by an eternall oblation of praise and thanksgiving in the Heavens , where thou , O God , declarest thy salvation to all thy elect people , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . PSALME 51. A Prayer for pardon of sinnes , and the restitution of Gods favour . HAve mercy upon me , O God , after thy great goodnesse : according to the multitude of thy mercies do away mine offences . 2 Wash me throughly from my wickednesse : and cleanse me from my sinne . 3 For I knowledge my faults : and my sinne is ever before me . 4 Against thee onely have I sinned , and done this evill in thy sight : that thou mightest be justified in thy saying , and clear when thou art judged . 5 Behold , I was shapen in wickednesse : and in sinne hath my mother conceived me . 6 But lo , thou requirest truth in the inward parts : and shalt make me to understand wisdome secretly . 7 Thou shalt purge me with hyssope , and I shall be cle●n : thou shalt wash me , & I shall be whiter then snow . 8 Thou shalt make me hear of joy and gladnesse : that the bones that thou hast broken may rejoyce . 9 Turn thy face from my sins : and put out all my misdeeds . 10 Make me a clean heart , O God : and renew a right spirit within me . 11 Cast me not away from thy presence : and take not thy holy Spirit from me . 12 O give me the comfort of thy help again : and stablish me with thy free Spirit . 13 Then shall I teach thy ways unto the wicked : and sinners shall be converted unto thee . 14 Deliver me from bloud-guiltinesse , O God , thou that art the God of my health : and my tongue shall sing of thy righteousnesse . 15 Thou shalt open my lips ( O Lord : ) and my mouth shall shew thy praise . 16 For thou desirest no sacrifice , else would I give it thee : but thou delightest not in burnt-offerings . 17 The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit : a broken and a contrite heart ( O God ) shalt thou not despise . 18 O be favourable and gracious unto Sion : build thou the wals of Jerusalem . 19 Then shalt thou bee pleased with the sacrifice of righteousnesse , with the burnt-offerings , and oblations : then shall they offer young bullocks upon thine altar . The Prayer . O Most mercifull God , whose goodnesse is great , and the multitudes of thy mercies are innumerable , have mercy upon us , for our sins are ever before us presented , by the continuall accusations of a troubled conscience . We have sinned against thee , and done evill in thy sight , and yet because thou art the God of mercy , and fountain of eternall purity , delighting in the conversion and salvation of a sinner , we present unto thee the sacrifice of a troubled spirit , of broken and contrite hearts , bese●ching thee to let the dew of thy favour , and the fire of thy love wash away our sinnes , and purifie our souls . Make us clean hearts , O God , and pure hands : though our sins be as scarlet , yet make them like wooll , though they be as purple , yet make them as white as snow . Restore the voice of joy and gladnesse to us , let us not be for ever separate from the sweet refreshings of thy favour and presence , but give us the comforts of thy help again , and let thy free Spirit loose us from the bondage of sin , and establish us in the freedome and liberty of the Sons of God , so shall we sing of thy righteousnesse , and our lips shall give thee praise in the congregation of thy redeemed ones , now , henceforth , and for ever . Amen . PSALME 52. A Prayer for deliverance from tyranny , oppression , and slander . WHy boastest thou thy self , thou ●yrant : that thou canst doe mischief ? 2 Whereas the goodnesse of God : endureth yet daily . 3 Thy tongue imagineth wickednesse : and with lies thou cuttest like a sharp rasour . 4 Thou hast loved unrighteousnesse more then goodnesse : and to talk of lies more then righteousnesse . 5 Thou hast loved to speak all words that may do hurt : O thou false tongue . 6 Therefore shall God destroy thee for ever : hee shall take thee , and pluck thee out of thy dwelling , and root thee out of the land of the living . 7 The righteous also shall see this , and fear : and shall laugh him to scorn . 8 Lo , this is the man that took not God for his strength : but trusted unto the multitude of his riches , and strengthened himself in his wickednesse . 9 As for me , I am like a green olive-tree in the house of God : my trust is in the tender mercy of God for ever and ever . 10 I will alwayes give thanks unto thee for that thou hast done : and I will hope in thy name , for thy Saints like it well . The Prayer . O Almighty God , whose goodnesse endureth daily , extend this thy goodnesse towards us thy servants , and defend us from the tyranny and malice of all our Enemies , who boast themselves in mischief : keep us from the obloquy of false tongues , and from the slander of lying persons , who talk of lies more then righteousness , that we being nourished by thy goodnesse , and watered with the dew of divine blessings , may flourish like a green olive in the house of God , bringing forth the fruits of tender mercy , and abounding in peace , and that we may by the suffusion of anointing of the holy Ghost , be consign'd to thy everlasting Kingdome , there to reign with thee , who reignest eternally , one God world without end . Amen . Evening Prayer . PSALME 53. A Prayer for Redemption of the Church from the persecution of Atheists , and persons irreligious . THE foolish body hath said in his heart : There is no God. 2 Corrupt are they and become abominable in their wickednesse : there is none that doth good . 3 God looked down from heaven upon the children of men : to see if there were any that would understand and seek after God. 4 But they are all gone out of the way , they are altogether become abominable : there is also none that doth good , no not one . 5 Are not they without understanding that work wickednesse : eating up my people as if they would eat bread ? they have not called upon God. 6 They were afraid where no fear was : for God hath broken the bones of him that besieged thee : thou hast put them to confusion , because God hath despised them . 7 Oh that the salvation were given unto Israel out of Sion : oh that the Lord would deliver his people out of captivity ! 8 Then should Jacob rejoyce : and Israel should be right glad . The Prayer . O Lord God who dwellest in heaven , and lookest down from thence upon the children of men , be pleased to give salvation to thy people out of Sion thy holy habitation , and preserve thy Church from the malice of such persons as have not called upon thee , but would eate up thy people , as they would eate bread : that we being delivered from the captivity of sins and miseries , may serve thee with freedome of spirit , in joy and spirituall rejoycing , all the dayes of our life , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . PSALME 54. A prayer for deliverance from our Enemies . SAve me , O God , for thy names sake : and avenge me in thy strength . 2 Hear my prayer , O God : and hearken unto the words of my mouth . 3 For strangers are risen up against me : and tyrants ( which have not God before their eyes ) seek after my soul. 4 Behold , God is my helper : the Lord is with them that uphold my soul. 5 He shall reward evill unto mine enemies : destroy thou them in thy truth . 6 An offering of a free heart will I give thee , and praise thy name ( O Lord : ) because it is so comfortable . 7 For he hath delivered me out of all my trouble : and mine eye hath seen his desire upon mine enemies . The Prayer . O Blessed Jesu , our God and our helper , whose Name is comfortable , the hope of all that are miserable , and the relief of the oppressed , hearken unto our prayers , and for thy Names sake , save us from the tyranny of those that are risen up against us , and seek after our soules . Give us thy grace , that we may set thee always before our eyes , to obey thy Laws , to follow thy example , to trust in thy protection , to give praises unto thy holy Name , who livest and reignest with the Father and the holy Ghost , one God world without end . Amen . PSALME 55. A Prayer for deliverance from treachery , and the conspiracies of our secret Enemies . HEar my prayer , O God : and hide not thy selfe from my petition . 2 Take heed unto me , and hear me : how I mourn in my prayer , and am vexed . 3 The enemy crieth so , and the ungodly commeth on so fast : for they are minded to do me some mischief , so maliciously are they set against me . 4 My heart is disquieted within me : and the feare of death is fallen upon me . 5 Fearfulnesse and trembling are come upon me : and an horrible dread hath overwhelmed me . 6 And I said , O that I had wings like a dove : for then would I flie away , and be at rest . 7 Lo then would I get me away afarre off : and remain in the wildernesse . 8 I would make haste to escape : because of the stormy winde and tempest . 9 Destroy their tongues ( O Lord ) and divide them : for I have spied unrighteousnesse and strife in the City . 10 Day and night they goe about within the walls thereof : mischief also and sorrow are in the mids of it . 11 Wickednesse is therein : deceit and guile go not out of their streets . 12 For it is not an open enemy that hath done me this dishonour : for then I could have born it . 13 Neither was it mine adversary that did magnifie himself against me : for then ( peradventure ) I would have hid my self from him . 14 But it was even thou my companion : my guide and mine own familiar friend . 15 We took sweet counsell together : and walked in the house of God as friends . 16 Let death come hastily upon them , and let them go down quick into hell : for wickednesse is in their dwellings , and among them . 17 As for me , I will call upon God : and the Lord shall save me . 18 In the evening , and morning , and at noon day will I pray , and that instantly : and he shall hear my voyce . 19 It is he that hath delivered my soul in peace , from the battell that was against me : for there were many with mee . 20 Yea , even God that endureth for ever , shall heare me , and bring them down : for they will not turn , nor feare God. 21 He laid his hands upon such as be at peace with him : and he brake his covenant . 22 The words of his mouth were softer then butter , having warre in his heart : his words were smoother then oyle , and yet be they very swords . 23 O cast thy burden upon the Lord , and he shall nourish thee : and shall not suffer the righteous to fall for ever . 24 And as for them : thou , O God , shalt bring them into the pit of destruction . 25 The bloud-thirsty and deceitfull men shall not live out half their dayes : neverthelesse , my trust shall be in thee , O Lord. The Prayer . O Eternall God , who hast promised to nourish and defend all them that cast their burden upon thee , deliver the souls of thy servants in peace from the battell that is against us : Fearfulnesse and trembling are come upon us , and the fear of death is fallen upon us , for our Enemies are maliciously set against us , and minded to do us mischief , and we know not whither to flee away or be at rest , for mischief and sorrow are round about us . O rescue us from the publike enmity of our open adversaries , and from the secret conspiracies of all our private Enemies , so shall we pray unto thee , and that instantly , and praise thy N●me , in the Evening , in the Morning , and in the noon day , dedicating to thy honour and worship , the beginning , the growth , and the decrease of our life , even all our days , because thou hast not suffered us to fall for ever , but hast brought us from the pit of destruction , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . Morning Prayer . PSALME 56. A Prayer that we may trust in God , and have such carefulnesse over our ways , that we give our Enemies no advantage . BE mercifull unto me , O God , for man goeth about to devour me : he is daily fighting and troubling me . 2 Mine enemies are daily in hand to swallow me up : for they be many that fight against me , O thou most Highest . 3 Neverthelesse though I am sometime afraid : yet put I my trust in thee . 4 I will praise God because of his word : I have put my trust in God , and will not feare what flesh can doe unto mee . 5 They daily mistake my words : all that they imagine is to do me evill . 6 They hold all together , and keep themselves close : and mark my steps when they lay wait for my soul. 7 Shall they escape for their wickednesse : thou ( O God ) in thy displeasure shalt cast them down . 8 Thou tell●st my flittings , put my tears into thy bottle : are not these things noted in thy book ? 9 Whensoever I call upon thee , then s●all mine enemies be put to flight : this I know , for God is on my side . 10 In Gods word will I rejoyce : in the Lords word will I comfort me . 11 Yea , in God have I put my trust : I will not be afraid what man can doe unto me . 12 Unto thee ( O God ) will I pay my vowes : unto thee will I give thanks . 13 For thou hast delivered my soul from death , and my feet from falling : that I may walk before God in the light of the living . The Prayer . O Lord God , in whom we have trusted , have mercy upon us , who are daily troubled with sadnesses in the world , temptations of the Devill , weaknesses of the flesh , malicious surmisings and mistakings of our Enemies , and whatsoever may make us miserable , and disturb our peace : give us great assistances of thy grace , that we may walk without scandall , resist and overcome the Devill , despise the things of this world , and be strengthened in our spirits with ghostly confidence , that whensoever we call upon thee , we may have thee on our side , and our enemies be put to flight ; that our souls being delivered from death , and our feet from falling , we may at last be admitted into the light of the living , there to walk eternally before thee our God , who livest and reignest in the Unity of the blessed Trinity , world without end . Amen . PSALME 57. A Prayer to be delivered from the power of the Devill , and slander of men , and that we may put our confidence in God. BE mercifull unto me , O God , be mercifull unto me , for my soul trusteth in thee : and under the shadow of thy wings shall be my refuge untill this tyranny be overpast . 2 I will call unto the most high God : even unto the God that shall perform the cause which I have in hand . 3 He shall send from heaven : and save me from the reproof of him that would eat me up . 4 God shall send forth his mercy and truth● : my soule is among Lions . 5 And I lie even among the children of men ( that are set on fire : ) whose teeth are spears and arrows , and th●ir tongue a sharp sword . 6 Set up thy self , O God , above the heavens : and 〈◊〉 glory above all the earth . 7 They have laid a net for my feet , and pressed down my soul : they have digged a pit before me , and are fallen into the midst of it themselves . 8 My heart is fixed , O God , my heart is fixed : I will sing and give praise . 9 Awake up my glory , awake lute and harp : I my self will awake right early . 10 I will give thanks unto thee , O Lord , among the people : and I will sing unto thee among the Nations . 11 For the greatnesse of thy mercy reacheth unto the Heavens : and thy truth unto the Clouds . 12 Set up thy self , O God , above the heavens : and thy glory above all the earth . The Prayer . O Most high and mighty God , who hast set thy self above the heavens , and thy glory above all the earth , do thou send from heaven and save us from the reproof of all our ghostly Enemies , who would eate us , for our soul is among Lions , and the Devil is busie seeking to devour us . O send out thy mercy and truth , deliver us from the malicious slander of men , and from the dreadfull accusations of the Devils at the day of judgement , who are set on fire against us , and their teeth are spears and arrows , gnashing at us to tear us in pieces . Let thy mercy sustain us , let thy righteousnesse be interpos'd in answer for us , that as our enemies accuse us , thy mercies may acquit us , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . PSALME 58. A Prayer that Gods people may be delivered from the malice of wicked men . ARE your minds set upon righteousnesse , O ye congregation : and doe ye judge the thing that is right , O ye sons of men ? 2 Yea , ye imagine mischiefe in your heart upon the earth : and your hands deal with wickednesse . 3 The ungodly are froward even from their mothers wombe : assoon as they be born , they go astray , and speak lies . 4 They are as venemous as the poyson of a serpent : even like the deaf adder that stoppeth her eares . 5 Which refuseth to hear the voyce of the charmer : charm he never so wisely . 6 Break their teeth ( O God ) in their mouthes , smite the jaw-bones of the Lions , O Lord : let them fall away like water that runneth apace , and when they shoot their arrows , let them be rooted out . 7 Let them consume away like a snaile , and be like the untimely fruit of a woman : and let them not see the sun . 8 Or ever your pots be made hot with thorns : so let indignation vexe him even as a thing that is raw . 9 The righteous shall rejoyce when he seeth the vengeance : he shall wash his footsteps in the bloud of the ungodly . 10 So that a man shall say , Verely there is a reward for the righteous : doubtlesse there is a God that judgeth the earth . The Prayer . O Almighty Lord , thou God that judgest the earth , who preparest rewards for the righteous , and executest vengeance against the ungodly , deliver all thy chosen people from the peevishnesse of froward and ungodly men , whose hands deale with wickednesse , and they imagine mischief in their hearts . And to thy servants give thy grace , that our minds may be set upon righteousnesse , that we may judge the thing that is right , never refusing to hear thy voyce , or stopping our ears like the deaf adder against thy holy precepts , that we may have no iniquity in our mouths , nor unrighteousnesse in our actions , and at last we may have the reward of the righteous , the inheritance of thy Kingdome , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . Evening Prayer . PSALME 59. A Prayer against Hereticks , and all other Enemies of the Church . DEliver me from m●ne enemies , ( O God : ) defend me from them that rise up against me . 2 O deliver me from the wicked doers : and save me from the bloud-thirsty men . 3 For lo , they lie waiting for my soul : the mighty men are gathered against me , without any offence or fault of me , O Lord. 4 They run and prepare themselves without my fault : arise thou therefore to help me , and behold . 5 Stand up ( O Lord God of hosts ) thou God of Israel , ●o visit all the heathen : and be not mercifull unto them that offend of malicious wickednesse . 6 They go to and fro in the evening : they grin like a dog , and run about through the city . 7 Behold , they speak with their mouth , and swords are in their lips : for who doth hear ? 8 But thou , O Lord , shalt have them in derision : and thou shalt laugh all the heathen to scorn . 9 My strength will I ascribe unto thee : for thou art the God of my refuge . 10 God sheweth me his goodnesse plenteously : and God shall let me see my desire upon mine enemies . 11 Slay them not , lest my people forget it : but scatter them abroad among the people , and put them down , O Lord our defence . 12 For the sin of their mouth , and for the words of their lips , they shall be taken in their pride : and why ? their preaching is of cursing and lies . 13 Consume them in thy wrath , consume them that they may perish : and know that it is God which ruleth in Jacob , and unto the ends of the world . 14 And in the evening they will return : grin like a dog , and will goe about the City . 15 They will run here and there for meat : and grudge if they be not satisfied . 16 As for me , I will sing of thy power , and will praise thy mercy betimes in the morning : for thou hast been my defence and refuge , in the day of my trouble . 17 Unto thee ( O my strength ) will I sing : for thou , O God , art my refuge , and my mercifull God. The Prayer . O Lord God of Israel , visit us with thy salvation , and deliver us from the malice of wicked doers , and the violences of blood-thirsty men . Let not them prosper , O Lord , in their machinations , whose preaching is of cursing and lies , and who offend of malicious wickednesse : shew us thy goodnesse plenteously , that we may never forget thy mercies or thy Laws , for thou art our defence and refuge , and our mercifull God , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . PSALME 60. A Prayer in time of Warre , or Temptation . O God , thou hast cast us out , and scattered us abroad : thou also hast been displeased , O turn thee to us again . 2 Thou hast moved the land , and divided it : heal the sores thereof , for it shaketh . 3 Thou hast shewed thy people heavy things : thou hast given us a drink of deadly wine . 4 Thou hast given a token for such as fear thee : that they may triumph because of the truth . 5 Therefore were thy beloved delivered : help me with thy right hand , and hear me . 6 God hath spoken in his holinesse , I will rejoyce and divide Sichem : and mete out the valley of Succoth . 7 Gilead is mine , and Manasses is mine : Ephraim also is the strength of my head , Judah is my law-giver . 8 Moab is my wash-pot , over Edom will I cast out my shoe : Philistia be thou glad of me . 9 Who will lead me into the strong city : who will bring me into Edom ? 10 Hast thou not cast us out , O God : wilt not thou , O God , goe out with our hosts ? 11 O be thou our help in trouble : for vain is the help of man. 12 Through God will we doe great acts : for it is hee that shall tread down our enemies . The Prayer . O Lord God , who for our sins hast shewed us heavy things , and given us a drink of deadly Wine , and yet hast never failed them that fear thee , but hast given them a token that they may triumph because of thy truth and mercy , consigning them to redemption and deliverance by the testimony and comforts of the holy Spirit : O be thou our help in trouble , for all our hope is in thee , and we disclaim all confidence in our selves , or in the arm of flesh , praying thee for aid , that in thy strength we may tread down our enemies , and give thee thanks who art the fountain of strength , and the disposer of Victories , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . PSALME 61. A Prayer for the King , and for comfort in sadnesse . HEar my crying , O God : give ear vnto my prayer . 2 From the ends of the earth will I call unto thee : when my heart is in heavinesse . 3 O set me up upon the rock that is higher then I : for thou hast been my hope , and a strong tower for me against the enemy . 4 I will dwell in thy tabernacle for ever : and my trust shall be under the covering of thy wings . 5 For thou , O Lord , hast heard my desires : and hast given an heritage unto those that feare thy name . 6 Thou shalt grant the King a long life : that his years may endure throughout all generations . 7 He shall dwell before God for ever : O prepare thy loving mercy and faithfulnesse , that they may preserve him . 8 So will I always sing praise unto thy name : that I may daily perform my vows . The Prayer . O Blessed Jesu , thou that art the rock higher then all the world , upon whom thy Church is built , and all our hopes rely : be mercifull unto us , and give ear unto our prayers , be unto us a fountain of comfort whensoever our heart is in heavinesse , for under the covering of thy wings there is joy , and health , and safety : save all those that fear thy name , and give thy blessing to thine heritage ; and that the blessings of thy people may be lasting , and perpetuall , give unto thy servant the King long life , let thy loving kindnesse and faithfulnesse alway preserve him , be a strong tower for him against all his enemies , and at last bring him to an eternall Kingdome , where no enemies shall assault or disturb his Peace , that he may dwell before thee for ever , and rejoyce in the participation of the blessings of thy kingdome , who livest and reignest ever one God world without end . Amen . Morning Prayer . PSALME 62. A Prayer that we may trust in God onely in all our troubles . MY soul truly waiteth still upon God : for of him commeth my salvation . 2 He verily is my strength and my salvation : he is my defence , so that I shall not greatly fall . 3 How long will yee imagine mischiefe against every man : ye shall be slain all the sort of you , yea , as a tottering wall shall ye be , and like a broken hedge . 4 Their device is onely how to put him out whom God will exalt : their delight is in lies , they give good words with their mouth , but curse with their heart . 5 Neverthelesse , my soul , wait thou still upon God : for my hope is in him . 6 He truly is my strength and my salvation : he is my defence , so that I shall not fall . 7 In God is my health and my glory : the rock of my might , and in God is my trust . 8 O put your trust in him alway ( ye people : ) poure out your hearts before him , for God is our hope . 9 As for the children of men , they are but vain : the children of men are deceitfull upon the weights , they are altogether lighter then vanity it self . 10 O trust not in wrong and robbery , give not your selves unto vanity : if riches increase , set not your heart upon them . 11 God spake once and twice : I have also heard the same , that power belongeth unto God. 12 And that thou Lord art mercifull : for thou rewardest every man according to his work . The Prayer . O Lord God of whom commeth our salvation , thou art our defence and strength , our health and our glory , give us thy grace , that we may put our whole trust in thee alway , that we may pour out our hearts before thee in all our troubles , that we may wait still upon thee for the performance of our expectation in all our longings and desires . Be thou our defence , uphold us that we may not fall into those great sins , which lay waste our consciences , or into such miseries as make us without hope or remedy , the miseries of despair , obstinate malice , or the woes of a sad eternity . Teach us to despise riches , to disclaim all trust in the creatures , not to delight in lies , or vanity , not to multiply wrongs and robbery , that when thou shalt come with power and great glory , to reward every man according to his work , thou maist be mercifull unto us , pardoning our sinnes , and accepting us to life eternall , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . PSALME 63. A Prayer for deliverance from the miseries of our pilgrimage ; with longing and desires after God , and the joyes of Heaven . O God , thou art my God : early will I seek thee . 2 My soul thirsteth for thee , my flesh also longeth after thee : in a barren and dry land where no water is . 3 Thus have I looked for thee in holinesse : that I might behold thy power and glory . 4 For thy loving kindnesse is better then the life it self : my lips shall praise thee . 5 As long as I live will I magnifie thee on his manner : and lift up my hands in thy name . 6 My soul shall be satisfied even as it were with marrow and fatnesse : when my mouth praiseth thee with joyfull lips . 7 Have I not remembred thee in my bed : and thought upon thee when I was waking ? 8 Because thou hast been my helper : therefore under the shadow of thy wings will I rejoyce . 9 My soul hangeth upon thee : thy right hand hath upholden me . 10 These also that seek the hurt of my soul : they shall go under the earth . 11 Let them fall upon the edge of the sword : that they may be a portion for foxes . 12 But the King shall rejoyce in God , all they also that swear by him shall be commended : for the mouth of them that speak lies , shall be stopped . The Prayer . O Mercifull and deare God , whose loving kindnesse is better then the life it self , defend us against the malice and designes of all them , that seek the hurt of our souls , and make us to rejoyce in thy help , and under the shadow of thy wings . O let the day-spring of thy favour visit us from on high , that we may seek thee with an early devotion , pursue after thee with a constant , and an active industry , and at last possesse thee with the firm comprehensions of love and charity ; that in this world , we looking for thee in holinesse of living , longing and thirsting after thee with fervent desires , may for ever hereafter behold thy power and glory , and our souls be eternally satisfied , even as with marrow and fatnesse , when our lips and hearts shall praise thee to all eternity . Grant this , for the love and honour of Jesus Christ , our onely Mediator and Redeemer . Amen . PSALME 64. A Prayer for deliverance from the slander and mischiefs of all wicked persons . HEar my voyce , O God , in my prayer : preserve my life from fear of the enemy . 2 Hide me from the gathering together of the froward : and from the insurrection of wicked doers . 3 Which have whet their tongue like a sword : and shoot out their arrows , even bitter words . 4 That they may privily shoot at him that is perfect : suddenly do they hit him , and fear not . 5 They courage themselves in mischief : and commune among themselves how they may lay snares , and say that no man shall see them . 6 They imagine wickednesse , and practise it : that they keep secret among themselves , every man in the deep of his heart . 7 But God shall suddenly shoot at them with a swift arrow : that they shall be wounded . 8 Yea , their own tongues shall make them fall : insomuch that whoso seeth them shall laugh them to scorn . 9 And all men that see it , shall say , This hath God done : for they shall perceive that it is his work . 10 The righteous shall rejoyce in the Lord , and put his trust in him : and all they that are true of heart shall be glad . The Prayer . O Lord God , thou that hearest the voice of our prayers , and considerest the cries of them that flie unto thee for succour , deliver us and all thy whole Church from the gathering together of the froward and from the insurrection of wicked doers . Disappoint their snares , infatuate their Counsels , distract their consultations , and blast all their designes ; let the swords and arrows of their tongues be shot in vain , that they may never hit any of thy servants , nor wound him that is perfect . Make them to fall ( O God ) in their hopes whereby they courage themselves in mischief and fear not , and do thou laugh them to scorn , that we who have put our trust in thee , may rejoyce in thee , and confesse , that it is thy work , to give salvation and deliverance to thy people whom thou lovest in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen . Evening Prayer . PSALME 65. A Prayer for spirituall blessings , and for fruitfulnesse of the earth . THou , O God , art praised in Sion : and unto thee shall the vow be performed in Jerusalem . 2 Thou that hearest the prayer : unto thee shall all flesh come . 3 My misdeeds prevail against me : O be thou mercifull unto our sins . 4 Blessed is the man whom thou choosest and receivest unto thee : he shall dwell in thy Court , and shall be satisfied with the pleasures of thy house , even of thy holy temple . 5 Thou shalt shew us wonderfull things in thy righteousnesse , O God of our salvation : thou that art the hope of all the ends of the earth , and of them that remain in the broad sea . 6 Which in his strength setteth fast the mountains : and is girded about with power . 7 Which stilleth the raging of the sea : and the noise of his waves , and the madnesse of his people . 8 They also that dwell in the uttermost parts of the earth , shall be afraid at thy tokens : thou that makest the out-goings of the morning and evening to praise thee . 9 Thou visitest the earth , and blessest it : thou makest it very plenteous . 10 The river of God is full of water : thou preparest their corn , for so thou providest for the earth . 11 Thou waterest her furrows , thou sendest rain into the little valleys thereof : thou makest it soft with the drops of rain , and blessest the increase of it . 12 Thou crownest the year with thy goodnesse : and thy clouds drop fatnesse . 13 They shall drop upon the dwellings of the wildernesse : and the little hils shall rejoyce on every side . 14 The folds shall be full of sheep : the valleys also shall stand so thick with corn , that they shall laugh and sing . The Prayer . O God the hope of all the ends of the earth , and of them that remaine in the broad sea , be thou mercifull unto our sinnes , and let not our misdeeds prevail against us , so as either to make us habitually sinfull , or endlesly miserable , but give us the blessings of thy chosen ; let us receive the influences of thy graces and benediction , by the participation of thy Word and Sacraments in thy holy temple . And as thou embracest us with thy right hand , shewing us wonderfull things in thy righteousnesse and salvation , so let thy left hand be under our heads , and give us such a portion of temporall blessings , as shall be necessary for us . Make the earth plenteous , and blesse the increase of it , crown the yeare with goodnesse , and let the clouds drop fatnesse , that the valleys standing thick with corn , may laugh and sing thy praises , and that we being refreshed with the multitude of thy blessings , may praise thee in Sion , and at last be satisfied with the pleasures of thy house in the celestiall Jerusalem , where thou livest and reignest , one God world without end . Amen . PSALME 66. A Prayer that God would support us in times of trouble and deliver us . O Be joyfull in God all ye lands : sing praises unto the honour of his name , make his praise to be glorious . 2 Say unto God , O how wonderfull art thou in thy works : through the greatnesse of thy power shall thine enemies be found liers unto thee . 3 For all the world shall worship thee : sing of thee , and praise thy name . 4 O come hither , and behold the works of God : how wonderfull he is in his doing towards the children of men . 5 He turned the sea into dry land : so that they went through the water on foot , there did we rejoyce thereof . 6 He ruleth with his power for ever , his eyes behold the people : and such as will not beleeve , shall not be able to exalt themselves . 7 O praise our God ( ye people : ) and make the voyce of his praise to be heard . 8 Which holdeth our soul in life : and suffereth not ou● feet to slip . 9 For thou ( O God ) hast proved us : thou also hast tried us , like as silver is tried . 10 Thou broughtest us into the snare : and layedst trouble upon our loyns . 11 Thou sufferedst men to ride over our heads : we went through fire and water , and thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place . 12 I will go into thy house with burnt-offerings : and will pay thee my vows which I promised with my lips , and spake with my mouth when I was in trouble . 13 I will offer unto thee fat burnt-sacrifices , with the incense of rams : I will offer bullocks and goats . 14 O come hither and hearken all ye that fear God : and I will tell you what he hath done for my soul. 15 I called unto him with my mouth : and gave him praises with my tongue . 16 If I encline unto wickednesse with my heart : the Lord will not hear me . 17 But God hath heard me : and considered the voyce of my prayer . 18 Praised be God , which hath not cast out my prayer : nor turned his mercy from me . The Prayer . O Lord God , who art wonderfull in thy works , and in thy doings , towards the children of men , thou chastisest every one whō thou receivest , proving us and trying us , like as silver is tried , let thy mercifull hands lead us through the fire of afflictions , and the waters of temporall chastisements , so as we may not be consumed with the flames of thy wrath , nor the waters go over our souls , but that we being sustained by the comforts of thy Spirit , and refreshed with the dew of thy graces , we may at last be brought out into a wealthy place , even the place of eternall treasures . O give us thy grace , that our hearts encline not to wickednesse , and that our feet slip not , that so we regarding thy laws , and having respect to obey thy holy will and pleasure , thou mayest hear our prayers , the greatnesse of thy power may cast down all our enemies , that they may never be able to exalt themselves ; that while thou holdest our souls in life , we may never cease praising thee , who hast never turn'd thy mercy from us , through Jesus Christ our Lord· Amen . PSALME 67. A prayer that all men may blesse God , and God may blesse all men . GOd be mercifull unto us , and blesse us : and shew us the light of his countenance , and be mercifull unto us . 2 That thy way may be known upon earth : thy saving health among all Nations . 3 Let the people praise thee , O God : yea , let all the people praise thee . 4 O let the Nations rejoyce and be glad : for thou shalt judge the folk righteously , and govern the Nations upon earth . 5 Let the people praise thee , O God : let all the people praise thee . 6 Then shall the earth bring forth her increase : and God even our own God shall give us his blessing . 7 God shall blesse us : and all the ends of the world shall fear him . The Prayer . O Lord God , thou Governour of all Nations , and the righteous Judge of the whole earth , be mercifull unto us and blesse us . Thou makest the Sun to shine upon all the corners of the habitable world , giving his light both to the good and bad ; let the light of thy countenance diffuse it self to all Nations , and to all men . Lighten all our darknesses with the beams of thy divine favour , teach thy wayes unto all the people of the earth , and give thy saving health to all Nations , that while all joyn with one consent to fear thee , and to give thee praises , thou mayest govern us all in peace and righteousnesse , and when tho● shalt come to judge us , we may receive thy everlasting mercies . Grant this , for Jesus Christ his sake , our onely Mediator and Advocate . Amen . Morning Prayer . PSALME 68. A Prayer for defence and propagation of the Catholike Church . LEt God arise , and let his enemies be scattered : let them also that hate him flee before him . 2 Like as the smoak vanisheth , so shalt thou drive them away : and like as waxe melteth at the fire , so let the ungodly perish at the presence of God. 3 But let the righteous be glad and rejoyce before God : let them also be merry and joyfull . 4 O sing unto God , and sing praises unto his name : magnifie him that rideth upon the Heavens , as it were upon an horse , praise him in his name , yea , and rejoyce before him . 5 He is a father of the fatherlesse , and defendeth the cause of the widows : even God in his holy habitation . 6 He is the God that maketh men to be of one minde in an house , and bringeth the prisoners out of captivity : but letteth the runnagates continue in scarcenesse . 7 O God , when thou wentest forth before the people : when thou wentest through the wildernesse . 8 The earth shook , and the heavens dropped at the presence of God : even as Sinai also was moved at the presence of God , which is the God of Israel . 9 Thou , O God , sentest a gracious rain upon thine inheritance : and refreshedst it when it was weary . 10 Thy congregation shall dwell therein : for thou , O God , hast of thy goodnesse prepared for the poor . 11 The Lord gave the word : great was the company of the preachers . 12 Kings with their Armies did flee and were discomfited : and they of the houshold divided the spoil . 13 Though ye have lien among the pots , yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove : that is covered with silver wings , and her feathers like gold . 14 When the Almighty scattered Kings for their sake : then were they as white as snow in Salmon . 15 As the hill of Basan , so is Gods hill : even an high hill , as the hill of Basan . 16 Why hop ye so ye high hils ? this is Gods hill , in the which it pleaseth him to dwell : yea , the Lord will abide in it for ever . 17 The chariots of God are twenty thousand , even thousands of Angels : and the Lord is among them as in the holy place of Sinai . 18 Thou art gone up on high , thou hast led captivity captive , and received gifts for men : yea , even for thine enemies , that the Lord God may dwell among them . 19 Praised bee the Lord daily : even the God which helpeth us , and poureth his benefits upon us . 20 He is our God , even the God of whom commeth salvation : God is the Lord by whom we escape death . 21 God shall wound the head of his enemies : and the hairy scalp of such a one as goeth on still in his wickednesse . 22 The Lord hath said , I will bring my people again , as I did from Basan : mine own will I bring again , as I did sometime from the deep of the sea . 23 That thy foot may bee dipped in the bloud of thine enemies : and that the tongue of thy dogges may be red through the same . 24 It is well seen , O God , how thou goest : how thou my God and King goest in the s●nctuary . 25 The singers go before , the Minstrels follow after : in the midst are the damsels playing with the timbrels . 26 Give thanks , O Israel , unto God the Lord , in the congregations : from the ground of the heart . 27 There is little Benjamin their ruler , and the Princes of Judah their counsell : the princes of Zabulon , and the Princes of Nephthali . 28 Thy God hath sent forth strength for thee : stablish the thing , O God , that thou hast wrought in us . 29 For thy temples sake at Jerusalem : so shall Kings bring presents unto thee . 30 When the company of the Spear-men , and multitude of the mighty , are scattered abroad among the beasts of the people ( so that they humbly bring pieces of silver : ) and when he hath scattered the people that delight in warre . 31 Then shall the Princes come out of Egypt : the Morians land shall soon stretch out her hands unto God. 32 Sing unto God , O ye kingdomes of the earth : O sing praises unto the Lord. 33 Which sitteth in the heavens over all from the beginning : lo , he doth send out his voyce , yea , and that a mighty voyce . 34 Ascribe ye the power to God over Israel : his worship and strength is in the clouds . 35 O God , wonderfull art thou in thy holy places : even the God of Israel , he will give strength and power ▪ unto his people , blessed be God. The Prayer . O Lord God , mighty and mercifull , thou ridest upon the heavens , as it were upon an horse , thou art the father of the fatherlesse , and defendest the cause of the widow ; have mercy upon thy holy Church ; and since her Lord and Spouse is gone up on high , even to his holy habitation , leave us not comfortlesse , but send the holy Ghost in assistances and gifts to dwel amongst us ; that by his aid , we may escape death spirituall , and the bitternesse of the temporall . Send a gracious rain , even the dew of thy divine favours upon thine inheritance , to refresh us in our wearinesse and sadnesses . Make thy people innocent and chast as the dove ; and besides the beauty of internall sanctity , let thy Church be covered with silver wings , and her feathers like gold , decked and assisted with exteriour advantages , as may best promote thy honour and the services of religion . Let all the Princes and lands of the earth , stretch their hands out unto thee , O God , and confesse thy mightinesse and thy honour ; that thy Gospel going forth into all lands , peace and all thy blessings may follow it , and thy praise be multiplied from generation to generation , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . Evening Prayer . PSALME 69. A prayer in times of persecution for the cause of Religion . SAve me , O God : for the wat●rs are come in , even unto my soul. 2 I stick fast in the deep mire where no ground is : I am come into deep waters , so that the flouds run over me . 3 I am weary of crying , my throat is dry : my sight faileth me for waiting so long upon my God. 4 They that hate me without a cause , are moe then the hairs of my head : they that are mine enemies , and would destroy me guiltlesse , are mighty . 5 I payed them the things that I never took : God thou knowest my simplenesse , and my faults are not hid from thee . 6 Let not them that trust in thee , O Lord God of hosts , be ashamed for my cause : let not them that seek thee , be confounded through me , O Lord God of Israel . 7 And why ? for thy sake have I suffered reproof : shame hath covered my face . 8 I am become a stranger unto my brethren : even an aliant unto my mothers children . 9 For the zeal of thy house hath even eaten me : and the rebukes of them that rebuked thee , are fallen upon me . 10 I wept and chastned my self with fasting : and that was turned to my reproof . 11 I put on sackcloth also : and they jested upon me . 12 They that sit in the gate speak against me : and the drunkards make songs upon me . 13 But Lord , I make my prayer unto thee : in an acceptable time . 14 Hear me , O God , in the multitude of thy mercy : even in the truth of thy salvation . 15 Take me out of the mire that I sink not : oh let me be delivered from them that hate me , and out of the deep waters . 16 Let not the water-floud drown me , neither let the deep swallow me up : and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me . 17 Hear me , O Lord , for thy loving kindnesse is comfortable : turn thee unto me according to the multitude of thy mercies . 18 And hide not thy face from thy servant , for I am in trouble : oh haste thee , and hear me . 19 Draw nigh unto my soul , and save it : oh deliver me , because of mine enemies . 20 Thou hast known my reproof , my shame , and my dishonour : mine adversaries are all in thy sight . 21 Thy rebuke hath broken my heart , I am full of heavinesse : I looked for some to have pity on me , but there was no man , neither found I any to comfort me . 22 They gave me gall to eat : and when I was thirsty , they gave me vinegar to drink . 23 Let their table be made a snare to take themselves withall : and let the things ( that should have been for their wealth ) be unto them an occasion of falling . 24 Let their eyes be blinded that they see not : and ever bow down their backs . 25 Poure out thine indignation upon them : and let thy wrathfull displeasure toke hold of them . 26 Let their habitation be void : and no man to dwell in their tents . 27 For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten : and they talk how they may vex them whom thou hast wounded . 28 Let them fall from one wickednesse to another : and not come into thy righteousnesse . 29 Let them be wiped out of the book of the living : and not bee written among the righteous . 30 As for me , when I am poor and in heavinesse : thy help ( O God ) shall lift me up . 31 I will praise the name of God with a song : and magnifie it with thanksgiving . 32 This also shall please the Lord : better then a bullock , that hath horns and hoofs . 33 The humble shall consider this , and be glad : seek ye after God , and your soul shall live . 34 For the Lord heareth the poor : and despiseth not his prisoners . 35 Let heaven and earth praise him : the sea , and all that moveth therein 36 For God will save Sion , and build the Cities of Juda : that men may dwell there , and have it in possession . 37 The posterity also of his servants shall inherit it : and they that love his name , shall dwell therein . The Prayer . O Blessed Jesu , whose loving kindnesse is comfortable , who for our sakes didst taste vineger and gall that thou mightest redeem us from the bitternesse of death and sin , and establish to thy self a Church in holy Religion , and defend it with thy favour and power : have mercy upon thy servants , who suffer from the hands of their enemies , for the testimony of a good conscience , and the doctrines of a Cath●like faith . Let not them that trust in thee , O Lord God of hosts , be ashamed , but let them , who for thy sake have suffered reproof , be delivered from them that hate them , and from the deep waters of persecutions and discomforts , that we and all thy faithfull people , being saved from our enemies , may praise thee and thy faithfulnesse in this world , and may finally inherit the land of promise , which thou hast made to all that suffer persecution for a cause of righteousnesse , even the possession of thine inheritance , thy Kingdome in Heaven , where thou livest and reignest ever one God world without end . Amen . PSALME 70. A prayer to God for blessings upon faithfull people , and deliverance from our enemies . HAste thee , O God , to deliver me : make haste to help me , O Lord. 2 Let them be ashamed and confounded that seek after my soul : let them be turned backward and put to confusion , that wish me evill . 3 Let them ( for their reward ) be soon brought to shame : that cry over me , There , there . 4 But let all those that seek thee , be joyfull and glad in thee : and let all such as delight in thy salvation , say alway , The Lord be praised . 5 As for me , I am poor and in misery : haste thee unto me ( O God. ) Thou art my helper and my redeemer : O Lord , make no long tarrying . The Prayer . O Lord God our Helper and Redeemer , have mercy upon us , and all thy faithful people : make haste & help us , O God , against all those that seek after our souls to do us mischief : make us to delight in thee , to wait for thy salvation , to trust in thy mercies , to rejoyce in thy excellencies and perfection : that our feet being directed by thy guidance , our weaknesses strengthened by thy power , our sins pardoned by thy mercies , and our souls justified by thy free grace , we may always give thee praise with the humble addresses of devotion and thankfulnesse , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . Morning Prayer . PSALME 71. A Prayer for the continuance of Gods favours to us , even to our old age , and a longing for a happy departure . IN thee , O Lord , have I put my trust , let me never be put to confusion : but rid me and deliver me in thy righteousnesse , encline thine ear unto me , and save me . 2 Be thou my strong hold , whereunto I may alway resort : thou hast promised to help me , for thou art my house of defence , and my castle . 3 Deliver me , O my God , out of the hand of the ungodly : out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruell man. 4 For thou , O Lord God , art the thing ●hat I long for : thou art my hope even from my youth . 5 Through thee have I been holden up ev●r since I was born : thou art he that took me out of my mothers womb , my praise shall be alway of thee . 6 I am become as it were a monster unto many : but my sure trust is in thee . 7 O let my mouth be filled with thy praise : ( that I may sing of thy glory ) and honour all the day long . 8 Cast me not away in the time of age : forsake mee not when my strength faileth me . 9 For mine enemies speak against me , and they that lay wait for my soul , take their counsell together , saying : God hath forsaken him , persecute him , and take him , for there is none to deliver him . 10 Goe not f●rre from me , O God : my God haste thee to help me . 11 Let them be confounded and perish , that are against my soul : let them be covered with shame and dishonour , that seek to do me evill . 12 As for me , I will patiently abide alway : and will praise thee more ●nd more . 13 My mouth shall daily speak of thy righteousnesse and salvation : for I know no end thereof . 14 I will goe forth in th● strength of the Lord God : and will make mention of thy righteousnesse onely . 15 Thou , O God , hast taught me from my youth up untill now : therefore will I tell of thy wondrous works . 16 Forsake me not , O God , in mine old age , when I am gray-headed : untill I have shewn thy strength unto this generation , and thy power to all them that are yet for to come . 17 Thy righteousnesse , O God , is very high : and great things are they that thou hast done , O God , who is like unto thee ? 18 O what great troubles and adversities hast thou shewed me , and yet didst thou turn and refresh mee : yea , and broughtest mee from the deep of the earth again ! 19 Thou hast brought me to great honour : and comforted me on every side . 20 Therefore will I praise thee and thy faithfulnesse ( O God ) playing upon an instrument of musick : unto thee will I sing upon the harp , O thou holy one of Israel . 21 My lips will be fain when I sing unto thee : and so will my soule whom thou hast delivered . 22 My tongue also shall talk of thy righteousnesse all the day long : for they are confounded and brought unto shame that seek to do me evill . The Prayer . O Lord God our house of defence and our Castle , who by thy mercies and thy loving Spirit , hast taught us and led us in thy ways , from our first years until now , thou hast brought us to great honour , even the honour of being Christians , the honour of adoption to be thy Children , and heirs of thy glorious promises , coheirs with thy Son Jesus Christ , and hast comforted us on every side , with a continuall stream of thy mercies and refreshments : give us thy grace that we may love thee , and long for thee above all the things of this World : and as thou hast holden us up ever since we were born , so let thy mercy go along with us all our days . Cast us not away in the time of age , and give us grace that we may never cast thee or thy Laws from us . Let not thy grace , and the ghostly strength we derive from thee , forsake us when our naturall strength fails us , but let our spirit grow upon the disadvantages of the flesh , and begin to receive the happiness of eternity , by an absolute conquest over the weakned and decaying body ; that after we have by thy aid passed through the great troubles and adversities thou shewest unto all thy Children in this world , we may lie down in righteousnesse and with thy favour : that when thou bringest us out from the deep of the earth again , we may have a joyfull resurrection to the society of Saints and Angels , and the full fruition of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen . PSALME 72. A Prayer for the exaltation and propagation of Christs Kingdome . GIve the King thy judgements ( O God : ) and thy righteousnesse unto the Kings son . 2 Then shall he judge the people according unto right : and defend the poor . 3 The mountains also shall bring peace : and the little hils righteousnesse unto the people . 4 He shall keep the simple folk by their right : defend ●he children of the poor , and punish the wrong doer . 5 They shall fear thee as long as the sunne and moon endureth , from one generation to another . 6 He shall come down like the rain into a fleece of wooll : even as the drops that water the earth . 7 In his time shall the righteous flourish : yea , and abundance of peace , so long as the moon endureth . 8 His dominion shall be also from the one sea to the other : and from the floud unto the worlds end . 9 They that dwell in the wildernesse shall kneel before him : his enemies shall lick the dust . 10 The kings of Tharsis and of the Isles shall give presents : the kings of Arabia and Saba shall bring gifts . 11 All kings shall fall down before him : all nations shall doe him service . 12 For he shall deliver the poor when he crieth : the needy also , and him that hath no helper . 13 He shall be favourable to the simple and needy : and ●hall preserve the souls of the poor . 14 Hee shall deliver their soules from falshood and wrong : and dear shall their bloud be in his sight . 15 He shall live , and unto him shall be given of the gold of Arabia : prayer shall be made ever unto him , and daily shall he be praised . 16 There shall be an heap of corn in the earth high upon the hils : his fruit shall shake like Libanus , and shall be green in the city , like grasse upon the earth . 17 His name shall endure for ever , his name shall remain under the sun among the posterities : which shall be blessed through him , and all the heathen shall prais● him . 18 Blessed be the Lord God , even the God of Israel : which onely doth wondrous things . 19 And blessed be the name of his majesty for ever : and all the earth shall be filled with his majesty . Amen , Amen . The Prayer . O Blessed Jesu , who didst descend from heaven into the womb of the blessed Virgin , like rain into a fleece of wooll , thou that punishest the wrong doer , and defendest the children of the poor , and them that have no helper ; have mercy upon thy Holy Church , be pleased by her ministery to extend thy blessings and thy dominion from the one Sea to the other , even unto the worlds end , that all Kings of the earth may fall down before thee , and all Nations may do thee service . Make thy righteous people to flourish , and so subdue their enemies under them , delivering them from falshood and wrong , that they may be blessed with abundance of Peace , and be satisfied with thy righteousnesse and salvation through thy mercies , O blessed Saviour and Redeemer Jesu . Amen . Evening Prayer . PSALME 73. A Prayer that we may have our portion in God , and not in the good things of the men of this world . TRuly God is loving unto Israel : even unto such as are of a clean heart . 2 Neverthelesse my feet were almost gone : my treadings had welnigh slipt . 3 And why ? I was grieved at the wicked : I doe also see the ungodly in such prosperity . 4 For they are in no perill of death : but are lusty and strong . 5 They come in no misfortune like other folk : neither are they plagued like other men . 6 And this is the cause that they be so holden with pride : and overwhelmed with cruelty . 7 Their eyes swell with fatnesse : and they doe even what they lust . 8 They corrupt other , and speak of wicked blasphemy : their talking is against the most Highest . 9 For they stretch forth their mouth unto the heaven : and their tongue goeth through the world . 10 Therefore fall the people unto them : and thereout suck they no small advantage . 11 Tush ( say they ) how should God perceive it : is there knowledge in the most Highest ? 12 Lo , these are the ungodly , these prosper in the World , and these have riches in possession : and I said , Then have I cleansed my heart in vain , and washed my hands in innocency . 13 All the day long have I been punished : and chastened every morning . 14 Yea , and I had almost said even as they : but lo , then should I have condemned the generation of thy children . 15 Then thought I to understand this : but it was too hard for me . 16 Untill I went into the sanctuary of God : then understood I the end of these men . Namely , how thou dost set them in slippery places : and castest them down , and destroyest them . 18 Oh how suddenly doe they consume : perish , and come to a fearfull end ! 19 Yea , even like as a dream when one awaketh : so shalt thou make their image to vanish out of the City . 20 Thus my heart was grieved : and it went even through my reins . 21 So foolish was I and ignorant : even as it were a beast before thee . 22 Neverthelesse I am alway by thee : for thou hast holden me by my right hand . 23 Thou shalt guide me with thy couns●ll : and after that receive me with glory . 24 Whom have I in heaven but thee : and there is none upon earth that I desire in comparison of thee . 25 My flesh and my heart faileth : but God is the strength of my heart , and my portion for ever . 26 For lo , they that forsake thee , shall perish : thou hast destroyed all them that commit fornication against thee . 27 But it is good for me to hold me fast by God , to put my trust in the Lord God : and to speak of all thy works ( in the gates of the daughter of Sion . ) The Prayer . O Lord God who art loving unto all thy Church , even unto all such as are of a clean heart , give unto us hearts humble and mercifull , that we may never be holden with pride , nor overwhelmed with cruelty ; and sanctifie our words and lips , that we may never blaspheme thy holinesse , nor our talking be ever against thee , or thy honour . O God most Highest , give unto us such religious and mortified affections , that we may never thirst after the temporall advantages and prosperities of the wicked : set not our feet in slippery places , lest we be suddenly cast down , and have our portion in the lot of the wicked , who perish and come to a fearfull end : guide us with thy ●ounsell , that we holding us fast by thee , and putting our trust in thee , ô God , thou mayest be the strength of our hearts , the hope of our souls , and the ground of all our confidence and content in this life , and after this life is ended , thou maiest receive us with glory , and be our portion for ever , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . PSALME 74. A Prayer against Sacrilegious persons , and all the Enemies of the Church . O God wherefore art thou absent from us so long : why is thy wrath so hot against the sheep of thy pasture ? 2 O think upon thy congregation : whom thou hast purchased and redeemed of old . 3 Think upon the tribe of thy inheritance : and mount Sion wherein thou hast dwelt . 4 Lift up thy feet , that thou maist utterly destroy every enemy : which hath done evill in thy sanctuary . 5 Thine adversaries roar in the midst of thy congregations : and set up their banners for tokens . 6 He that hewed timber afore out of the thick trees : was known to bring it to an excellent work . 7 But now they break down all the carved work thereof : with axes and hammers . 8 They have set fire upon thy holy places : and have defiled the dwelling place of thy name , even unto the ground . 9 Yea , they said in their hearts , Let us make havock of them altogether : thus have they burnt up all the house● of God in the land . 10 We see not our tokens , there is not one Prophet more : no not one is there among us that understandeth any more . 11 O God , how long shall the adversary do this dishonour : how long shall the enemy blaspheme thy name , for ever ? 12 Why withdrawest thou thy hand : why pluckest not thou thy right hand out of thy bosome to consume the ●nemy ? 13 For God is my King of old : the help that is done upon earth , he doth it himself . 14 Thou diddest divide the sea through thy power : thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters . 15 Thou smotest the heads of leviathan in pieces : and gavest him to be meat for the people in the wildernesse . 16 Thou broughtest out fountains and waters out of the hard rocks : thou driedst up mighty waters . 17 The day is thine , and the night is thine : thou hast prepared the light and the sunne . 18 Thou hast set all the borders of the earth : thou hast made summer and winter . 19 Remember this , O Lord , how the enemy hath rebuked : and how the foolish people have blasphemed thy name . 20 O deliver not the soule of thy turtle dove unto the multitude of the enemies : and forget not the congregation of the poor for ever . 21 Look upon the covenant : for all the earth is full of darknesse , and cruell habitations . 22 Oh let not the simple go away ashamed : but let the poor and needy give praise unto thy name . 23 Arise , O God , maintain thine own cause : remember how the foolish man blasphemeth thee daily . 24 Forget not the voyce of thine enemies : the presumption of them that hate thee , increaseth ever more and more . The Prayer . O Lord God Blessed Jesu , who with thy precious bloud hast purchased to thy self , and redeemed a Church , that it should serve thee in holinesse and righteousnesse , being delivered from fear of all their adversaries , forget not the congregation of thy poor people for ever , maintain thine own cause , deliver the soul of thy Turtle dove from the multitude of her enemies . Preserve with thy right hand all the places appointed for thy publike service , let a guard of flaming Cherubins ( as at the gate of Paradise ) stand sentinell , and keep from the invasions of sacrilegious persons , and the pollutions of all impure Church-robbers , all thy dwelling places , that thou mayest for ever dwell among us , defending the poor , bringing help to all thy people , and particular blessings and assistances to the tribe of thine own inheritance , which thou hast sanctified to thy worship and service , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . Morning Prayer . PSALME 75. A Prayer against the terrors of the day of Judgement . VNto thee ( O God ) doe we give thanks : yea , unto thee doe we give thanks . 2 Thy name also is so nigh : and that do thy wondrous works declare . 3 When I receive the congregation : I shall judge according unto right . 4 The earth is weak , and all the inhabiters thereof : I bear up the pillars of it . 5 I said unto the fools , Deal not so madly : and to the ungodly , Set not up your horn . 6 Set not up your horn on high : and speak not with a stiffe neck . 7 For promotion cometh neither from the East nor from the West : nor yet from the South . 8 And why ? God is the judge : he putteth down one , and setteth up another . 9 For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup , and the wine is red : it is full mixt , and he poureth out of the same . 10 As for the dregs thereof : all the ungodly of the earth shall drink them , and suck them out . 11 But I will talk of the God of Jacob : and praise him for ever . 12 All the horns of the ungodly also will I break : and the horns of the righteous shall be exalted . The Prayer . O Lord God the Judge of all the world , from whom commeth all promotion and all punishment , have mercy upon us now , at the hour of death , and in the day of Judgement , when thou shalt judge all the congregations of men and Angels according unto right : O give us grace to expect thy comming in humility and charity , that we be not stiffe-necked and exalted in our own opinions and conceptions , but may submit to thy yoke with meeknesse and obedience , that when thou shalt pour forth the cup of thy vengeance upon the ungodly , we may not drink or tast of the dregs of it , but may sit down at thy Table in the Supper of the Lamb , and be satisfied with the blessings of eternity , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . PSALME 76. A prayer that we may fear Gods Judgements , and be freed from the terrors of men . IN Jury is God know : his name is great in Israel . 2 At Salem is his tabernacle : and his dwelling in Sion . 3 There brake he the arrows of the bow : the shield , of sword , and the battell . 4 Thou art of more honour and might : then the hils of the robbers . 5 The proud are robbed , they have slept their sleep : and all the men ( whose hands were mighty ) have found nothing . 6 At thy rebuke ( O God of Jacob : ) both the chariot and horse are fallen . 7 Thou , even thou art to be feared : and who may stand in thy sight when thou art angry ? 8 Thou didst cause thy judgement to be heard from heaven : the earth trembled and was still . 9 When God arose to judgement : and to help all the meek upon earth . 10 The fiercenesse of man shall turn to thy praise : and the fiercenesse of them shalt thou refrain . 11 Promise unto the Lord your God , and keep it , all ye that be round about him : bring presents unto him that ought to be feared . 12 He shall refrain the spirit of Princes : and is wonderfull among the Kings of the earth . The Prayer . O Lord God , whose dwelling is in heaven , and thy Name is great in all the world , plant the dread and reverence of thee and thy power in our hearts : let thy threatnings and thy judgements which are heard from heaven , and executed upon disobedient and gainsaying people , make us to tremble at the remembrance of our sins , and in the consideration of our weaknesses and demerits : and let thy mercies and the remembrance of thy infinite loving kindnesses make our hearts still , full of eavennesse and tranquillity , that we may not fear the fiercenesse of man , or the wrath of those , whose spirits thou canst refrain , lest we be disturbed in our duties towards thee , but let us so fear thee , that we may never offend against thee , but may passe from fear to love , from apprehensions of thy wrath , to the sense and comforts of thy mercies , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . PSALME 77. A Prayer that the experience of Gods goodnesse may produce hope in us , and remove from us all fearfulnesse and doubting . I Will cry unto God with my voyce : even unto God will I cry with my voyce , and he shall hearken unto me . 2 In the time of my trouble I sought the Lord : my sore ran and ceased not , in the night season my soul refused comfort . 3 When I am in heavinesse I will think upon God : when my heart is vexed , I will complain . 4 Thou holdest mine eyes waking : I am so feeble that I cannot speak . 5 I have considered the dayes of old : and the yeares that are past . 6 I call to remembrance my song : and in the night I commune with mine own heart , and search out my spirits . 7 Will the Lord absent himself for ever : and will hee be no more intreated ? 8 Is his mercy clean gone for ever : and is his promise come utterly to an end for evermore ? 9 Hath God forgotten to be gracious : and will he shut up his loving kindnesse in displeasure ? 10 And I said , It is mine own infirmity : but I will remember the yeares of the right hand of the most highest . 11 I will remember the works of the Lord : and call to minde thy wonders of old time . 12 I will think also of all thy works : and my talking shall be of thy doings . 13 Thy way , O God , is holy : who is so great a God ( as our God ? ) 14 Thou art the God that doth wonders : and hast declared thy power among the people . 15 Thou hast mightily delivered thy people : even the sons of Jacob and Joseph . 16 The waters saw thee , O God , the waters saw thee , and were afraid : the depths also were troubled . 17 The clouds poured out water , the aire thundred : and thine arrows went abroad . 18 The voyce of thy thunder was heard round about : the lightnings shone upon the ground , the earth was moved , and shook withall . 19 Thy way is in the sea , and thy paths in the great waters : and thy footsteps are not known . 20 Thou leddest thy people like sheep : by the hand of Moses and Aaron . The Prayer . O God who dost wonders , and hast declared thy power amongst all people , let the observation of thy mercies , and loving kindnesses , make such deep impression in our hearts and memories , that when we are in heavinesse , we may remember the years of thy right hand , and call to mind the wonders of old time , that although thou somtimes withdrawest the brightnesse of thy countenance from us , and shuttest up thy loving kindnesse in a short displeasure , yet the experience of thy old mercies , which never fail , may sustain our infirmities , and the expectation of thy loving kindnesses , may cure all our impatience , till in thy due time , the sense of thy favours may actually relieve all our distresses , and thy right hand lead us like sheep into the folds of eternall rest and security , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . Evening Prayer . PSALME 78. A Commemoration of Gods blessings to his Church of old , of his Judgements upon sinners , and his mercies to the penitent . HEar my law , O my people : encline your eares unto the words of my mouth . 2 I will open my mouth in a parable : I will declare hard sentences of old . 3 Which we have heard and known : and such as our fathers have told us . 4 That we should not hide them from the children of the generations to come : but to shew the honour of the Lord , his mighty and wonderfull works that hee hath done . 5 He made a covenant with Jacob , and gave Israel a law : which he commanded our forefathers to teach their children . 6 That their posterity might know it : and the children which were yet unborn . 7 To the intent that when they came up : they might shew their children the same . 8 That they might put their trust in God : and not to forget the works of God , but to keep his Commandements . 9 And not to be as their forefathers , a faithlesse and stubborn generation : a generation that set not their heart aright , and whose spirit cleaved not stedfastly unto God. 10 Like as the children of Ephraim : which being harnessed and carrying bows , turned themselves back in the day of battell . 11 They kept not the covenant of God : and would not walk in his law . 12 But forgat what he had done : and the wonderfull works that he had shewed for them . 13 Marvellous things did he in the sight of our forefathers in the land of Egypt : even in the field of Zoan . 14 He divided the sea , and let them goe through : he made the waters to stand on a heap . 15 In the day time also he led them with a cloud : and all the night through with a light of fire . 16 Hee clave the hard rocks in the wildernesse : and gave them drink thereof , as it had been out of the great depth . 17 He brought waters out of the stony rock : so that it gushed out like the rivers . 18 Yet for all this they sinned more against him : and provoked the most Highest in the wildernesse . 19 They tempted God in their hearts : and required meat for their lust . 20 They spake against God , also , saying : Shall God prepare a table in the wildernesse ? 21 He smote the stony rock indeed , that the water gushed out , and the streams flowed withall : but can he give bread also , or provide flesh for his people ? 22 When the Lord heard this he was wroth : so the fire was kindled in Jacob , and there came up heavy displeasure against Israel . 23 Because they beleeved not in God : and put not their trust in his help . 24 So he commanded the clouds above : and opened the doores of heaven . 25 He rained down Manna also upon them for to eat : and gave them food from heaven . 26 So man did eat Angels food : for he sent them meat enough . 27 He caused the east winde to blow under heaven : and through his power he brought in the south-west-winde . 28 He rained flesh upon them as thick as dust : and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea . 29 He let it fall among their tents : even round about their habitation . 30 So they did eat and were well filled , for hee gave them their own desire : they were not dissapointed of their lust . 31 But while the meat was yet in their mouthes , the heavy wrath of God came upon them , and slew the wealthiest of them : yea , and smote down the chosen men that were in Israel . 32 But for all this they sinned yet more : and beleeved not his wondrous works . 33 Therefore their days did he consume in vanity : and their years in trouble . 34 When he slew them , they sought him : and turned them early , and enquired after God. 35 And they remembred that God was their strength : and that the high God was their Redeemer : 36 Neverthelesse , they did but flatter him with their mouth : and dissembled with him in their tongue . 37 For their heart was not whole with him : neither continued they stedfast in his covenant . 38 But he was so mercifull , that hee forgave their misdeeds : and destroyed them not . 39 Yea many a time turned he his wrath away : and would not suffer his whole displeasure to arise . 40 For he considered that they were but flesh : and that they were even a winde that passeth away , and cometh not again . 41 Many a time did they provoke him in the wildernesse : and grieved him in the desert . 42 They turned back and tempted God : and moved the holy One in Israel . 43 They thought not of his hand : and of the day when he delivered them from the hand of the enemy . 44 How hee had wrought his miracles in Egypt : and his wonders in the field of Zoan . 45 He turned their waters into bloud : so that they might not drink of the rivers . 46 He sent lice among them and devoured them up : and frogs to destroy them . 47 He gave their fruit unto the caterpiller : and their labour unto the grashopper . 48 He destroyed their vines with hailstones : and their mulberry trees with the frost . 49 He smote their cattell also with hailstones : and their flocks with hot thunderbolts . 50 He cast upon them the furiousnesse of his wrath , anger , displeasure , and trouble : and sent evil Angels among them . 51 He made a way to his indignation , and spared not their soul from death : but gave their life over to the pestilence . 52 And smote all the first-born in Egypt : the most principall and mightiest in the dwellings of Ham. 53 But as for his own people , hee led them forth like sheep : and carried them in the wildernesse like a flock . 54 He brought them out safely that they should not fear : and overwhelmed their enemies with the sea . 55 And brought them within the borders of his sanctuary : even to his mountain , which he purchased with his right hand . 56 He cast out the heathen also before them : caused their land to be divided among them for an heritage , and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents . 57 So they tempted and displeased the most high God : and kept not his testimonies . 58 But turned their backs , and fell away like their forefathers : starting aside like a broken bow . 59 For they grieved him with their hill altars : and provoked him to displeasure with their images . 60 When God heard this , he was wroth : and took fore displeasure at Israel . 61 So that he forsook the tabernacle in Silo : even the tent that he had pitched among them . 62 He delivered their power into captivity : and their beauty into the enemies hand . 63 He gave his people over also unto the sword : and was wroth with his inheritance . 64 The fire consumed their young men : and their maidens were not given to marriage . 65 Their Priests were slain with the sword : and there were no widows to make lamentation . 66 So the Lord awaked as one out of sleep : and like a Giant refreshed with wine . 67 He smote his enemies in the hinder parts : and put them to a perpetuall shame . 68 He refused the tabernacle of Joseph : and chose not the tribe of Ephraim . 69 But chose the tribe of Juda : even the hill of Sion , which he loved . 70 And there he builded his temple on high : and laid the foundation of it like the ground which he hath made continually . 71 He chose David also his servant : and took him away from the sheepfolds . 72 As he was following th● ewes great with young ones , he took him : that he might feed Jacob his people , and Israel his inheritance . 73 So he fed them with a faithfull and true heart : and ruled them prudently with all his power . The Prayer . O Lord God of our Fathers , God of Abraham , Isaac , and Jacob , thou that leddest thy people through the Wildernesse with a light and with a cloud , and with thy bright Angel , for their sakes turning rocks into a springing well , and making the Sea and the River become dry land , so making demonstration of the greatnesse of thy mercy , by the greatnesse of thy miracles , and didst still go on to make all thy creatures leave their natures to serve them , even then when they tempted and provoked thee ten times in the desert : O be pleased to do unto us as thou didst to them : lead us through the desert of this World with the light of thy holy Spirit ; and from the rock , which for our sakes thou didst smite with thy heavy rod , the rock Christ Jesus , let water and bloud stream forth , to cleanse and to refresh us . Give us of the bread that came down from heaven , the flesh of thy dear Son to eat , that we being purified by his bloud , and nourished by that celestiall Manna , our hearts may be set aright , and our spirits may cleave stedfastly unto thee , O God , that we may remember thy works , and trust in thy mercies , and may keep thy Commandements . O never let the fire of thy wrath be kindled towards us , nor thy heavy displeasure come up against us ; let us not consume our days in folly and vanity , lest our years be spent in trouble , but when through infirmity we fall , let thy gentle correction call us home , that we may turn us early , and seek after thee our God , who art our strength and our mercifull Redeemer , that we may never feel the furiousnesse of thy eternall wrath , nor have our portion amongst the evill Angels , but may be conducted by thy mercies and providence , to the border of thy sanctuary , and to the mountain where thou reignest over all the creatures , one God world without end . Amen . Morning Prayer . PSALME 79. A Prayer that God would deliver his Church from the cruelty of all her persecutors . O God , the heathen are come into thine inheritance : thy holy temple have they defiled , and made Jerusalem an heap of stones . 2 The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the air● : and the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the ●and . 3 Their bloud have they shed like water on every side of Ierusalem : and there was no man to bury them . 4 Wee are become an open shame to our enemies : a very scorn and derision unto them that are round about us . 5 Lord , how long wilt thou be angry : shall thy jealousie burn like fire for ever ? 6 Pour out thine indignation upon the heathen that have not known thee : and upon the Kingdomes that have not called upon thy name . 7 For they have devoured Jacob : and laid waste his dwelling place . 8 O remember not our old sinnes , but have mercy upon us , and that soone : for we are come to great misery . 9 Help us , O God of our salvation , for the glory of thy name : O deliver us , and be mercifull unto our sinnes for thy names sake . 10 Wherefore do the heathen say : Where is now their God ? 11 O let the vengeance of thy servants bloud that is shed : be openly shewed upon the heathen in our sight . 12 O let the sorrowfull sighing of the prisoners come before thee : according to the greatn●sse of thy power preserve thou those that are appointed to die . 13 And for the blasphemy wherewi●h our neighbours have blasphemed thee : reward thou them ( O Lord ) seven fold into their bosome . 14 So we that be thy people , and sheep of thy pasture , shall give thee thanks for ever : and will alway be shewing forth thy praise from generation to generation . The Prayer . O Lord God of thine inheritance , who conveyest many blessings to the children of men , by the prayers and ministery of thy Church , let our prayers obtain of thee mercies and deliverances for her . O Lord thou hast planted thy Church in the humility , and poverty , and death of thy Son , thou hast watered it with the bloud of thy Apostles and Martyrs , thou hast made it flourish , and spread forth its branches , by the warmth , and heat , and graces of thy holy Spirit , and hast according to thy promise , still preserved it in the midst of all enmities and disadvantages . Thy Laws and righteous Commandements have been a scorn and derision to Jews and Gentiles , the flesh of thy servants have been meat for the beasts of the Land , and still she wears the purple robe of mockery , and the crown of thorns which at first she took from the head and side of her dearest Lord : At last , O Lord , be gracious unto thine inheritance , help us , ô God of our salvation , for the glory of thy Name , let not thine enemies devour the Church , and lay waste her dwelling places : be mercifull unto our sins , preserve all those that by malice of their enemies are appointed to death , or prison , or any other misery : let us still enjoy the freedom of thy Gospel , the food of thy word , the sweet refreshings of thy Sacraments , publike Communions in thy Church , and all the benefits of the society of Saints , and let not our sins cause thee to remove the Candlestick from us , but make thy people and the sheep of thy pasture secure and glad in thy salvation , that we may shew forth thy praise in this world , and in the world to come , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . PSALME 80. A Prayer for the Church . HEar me , O thou Shepheard of Israel , thou that leadest Joseph like a sheep : shew thy self also thou that sittest upon the cherubims . 2 Before Ephraim , Benjamin , and Manasses : stirre up thy strength , and come and help us . 3 Turn us again , O God : shew the light of thy countenance , and we shall be whole . 4 O Lord God of hosts : how long wilt thou be angry with thy people that prayeth ? 5 Thou feedest them with the bread of teares : and givest them plenteousnesse of tears to drink . 6 Thou hast made us a very strife unto our neighbours : and our enemies laugh us to scorn . 7 Turn us again thou God of hosts : shew the light of thy countenance , and we shall be whole . 8 Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt : thou hast cast out the heathen , and planted it . 9 Thou madest room for it : and when it had taken root , it filled the land . 10 The hils were covered with the shadow of it : and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedar-trees . 11 She stretched out her branches unto the sea : and her boughs unto the river . 12 Why hast thou then broken down her hedge : that all they that goe by , pluck off her grapes ? 13 The wilde bore out of the wood doth ro●t it up ▪ and the wilde beasts of the field devoure it . 14 Turn thee again , thou God of hosts , look down from heaven : behold , and visit this vine . 15 And the place of the vineyard that thy right hand hath planted : and the branch that thou madest so strong for thy self . 16 It is burnt with fire , and cut down : and they shall perish at the rebuke of thy countenance . 17 Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand : and upon the sonne of man whom thou madest so strong for thine own self . 18 And so will not we go back from thee : O let us live , and we shall call upon thy name . 19 Turn us again , O Lord God of hosts : shew the light of thy countenance , and we shall be whole . The Prayer . O Thou Shepheard of Israel , thou that fittest upon the Cherubims , stirre up thy strength , and come and help thy people that prayeth unto thee for mercy and protection . Thou hast made affliction the portion of thy children in this life , thou feedest them with bread of tears , and givest them plenteousnesse of teares to drink ; yet bee pleased to shew the light of thy countenance upon us , to lighten our darknesses , to relieve ou● miseries , to heal our sicknesses , and let not thy Church become a strife unto her neighbours , but reunite her divisions , and make her not a prey to them that would devour her , and then laugh her to scorn . O Lord fiedge her about with thy mercies , with the custody of Angels , with the patronage of Kings and Princes , with the hearts and hands of Nobles , and the defence of the whole secular arm , lest the wilde beasts of the field pluck off her grapes , destroy the vintage , and root up the vine it self : but let her so flourish under the beams of thy favour and providence , that it may take root and spread and fill all lands , that the name of the man of thy right hand , the God and Man Christ Jesus may be glorified , thy Church enlarged and defended , and we blessed with thy health and salvation . Grant this , O Lord , for Jesus Christ his sake our only Saviour and Redeemer . Amen . PSALME 81. A Festivall song , and a Prayer for the grace and blessings of obedience to Gods Laws . SIng we merrily unto God our strength : make a chearfull noise unto the God of Jacob. 2 Take the psalm , bring hither the tabret : the merry harp with the lute . 3 Blow up the trumpet in the new moon : even in the time appointed , and upon our solemne feast day . 4 For this was made a statute for Israel : and a law of the God of Jacob. 5 This he ordained in Joseph for a testimony : when he came out of the land of Egypt , and had heard a strange language . 6 I eased his shoulder from the burden : and his hands were delivered from making the pots . 7 Thou calledst upon me in troubles , and I delivered thee : and heard thee what time as the storm fell upon thee . 8 I proved thee also : at the waters of strife . 9 Hear , O my people , and I will assure thee , O Israel : if thou wilt hearken unto me . 10 There shall no strange god be in thee : neither shalt thou worship any other god . 11 I am the Lord thy God , which brought thee out of the land of Egypt : open thy mouth wide , and I shall fill it . 12 But my people would not hear my voyce : and Israel would not obey me . 13 So I gave them up unto their own hearts lust : and let them follow their own imaginations . 14 O that my people would have hearkned unto me : for if Israel had walked in my waies , 15 I should soon have put down their en●mies : and ●urned my hand against their adversaries . 16 The haters of the Lord should have been found liers : but their time should have endured for ever . 17 He should have fed them also with the finest wheat-floure : and with hony out of the stony rock should I have satisfied thee . The Prayer . O Lord God our strength , whose mercies are infinite , whose Majesty is glorious , whose goodnesse is amiable above all the excellencies in the world , enlarge our hearts with joy and rejoycings in thy glories , open our mouths wide , and fill our lips with thy praises , that upon the solemne feast days we may commemorate thy excellencies and mercies , and the great mysteries of our redemption and Religion , adoring thee with thanks and joyfulnesse , who art mysterious in thy words , and marvellous and mercifull in all thy works : and that we may in the best manner expresse our thankfulnesse to thee , give us thy grace that we may hear thy voice , that we may obey thee and walk in thy Laws , that we follow not our own imaginations , nor be given to our own hearts lusts , but that we resigning our selves only to thy holy will and pleasure , thou mayest hear our prayers when ever any storm of trouble fals upon us , and turn thine hand against our adversaries , and that we being delivered from the burden of our sins , may be fed with the choicest of thy viands , and with food from the Rock Christ Jesus , even his most precious body and bloud , nourishing us up to life eternall , through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . Evening Prayer . PSALME 82. A prayer for the Princes and Judges of the world , that they may doe right judgement . GOd standeth in the congregation of Princes : he is a Judge among gods . 2 How long will ye give wrong judgement : and accept the persons of the ungodly ? 3 Defend the poor and fatherlesse : see that such as be in need and necessity , have right . 4 Deliver the outcast and poor : save them from the hand of the ungodly . 5 They will not be learned , nor understand , but walk on still in darknesse : all the foundations of the earth be out of course . 6 I have said , ye are gods : and yee all are children of the most Highest . 7 But ye shall die like men : and fall like one of the Princes . 8 Arise , O God , and judge thou the earth : for tho● shalt take all the heathen to thine inheritance . The Prayer . O Almighty Judge of Men and Angels , thou God of Gods , and Prince of Princes , let thy Spirit of anointing rest upon the Princes and Rulers within the pale of the Universall Church , and let thy righteousnesse and judgements guide all those that sit in the seat of the Judges , that they may minister justice and true judgement unto the people , defending and promoting the interests of true Religion , relieving the oppressed , encouraging vertue , and dishonouring vicious persons , delivering the poor , and saving them from the hand of the ungodly , that men may not walk on still in darknesse , but their evil deeds may be discovered and brought to light , that we may all live before thee in righteousnesse , expecting the great day of righteous judgement , which we ●egge we may all behold with confidence , receiving thy mercies , and beholding thy face in glory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . PSALME 83. A Prayer against the enemies of the Church , particularly , sacrilegious persons . HOld not thy tongue , O God , keep not still silence : refrain not thy self , O God. 2 For lo , thine enemies make a murmuring : and they that hate thee have lift up their head . 3 They have imagined craftily against thy people : and taken counsell against thy secret ones . 4 They have said , Come , and let us root them out , that they be no more a people : and that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance . 5 For they have cast their heads together with one consent : and are confederate against thee . 6 The tabernacles of the Edomites , and the Ismaelites : the Moabites and Hagarenes . 7 Gebal , and Ammon , and Amalek : the Philistines , with them that dwell at Tyre . 8 Assur also is joyned unto them : and have holpen the children of Lot. 9 But doe thou to them as unto the Madianites : unto Sisera , and unto Jabin , at the brook of Kison . 10 Which perished at Endor : and became as the dung of the earth . 11 Make them and their Princes like Oreb and Zeb : yea , make all their Princes like as Zeba and Salmana . 12 Which say , Let us take to our selves : the houses of God in possession . 13 O my God , make them like unto a wheel : and as the stubble before the winde . 14 Like as the fire that burneth up the wood : and a● the flame that consumeth the mountains . 15 Persecute them even so with thy tempest : and make them afraid with thy storm . 16 Make their faces ashamed , O Lord : that they may seek thy name . 17 Let them be confounded and vexed ever more and more : let them be put to shame and perish . 18 And they shall know that thou ( whose name is Jehovah : ) art onely the most highest over all the earth . The Prayer . O Lord God who wert known to thy people Israel by thy name Jehovah , thou art only the highest over all the earth , arise and defend thy people , and deliver thy secret ones from the murmurings , councels , and crafty imaginations of thine enemies against them . Fixe the foundations of the Church upon a Rock , and preserve thine inheritance in peace and safety . Infatuate the counsels , restrain the sacrilegious appetites of all such persons who would rob all thy houses , and take them to their own possession , and make their faces so ashamed and their hearts afraid , that they may return from covetousnesse and impiety , and seek thy Name , repenting of all their sins , and living in justice and religion , that at last they may come into an everlasting possession of thy house , and of thy Temple where thine Honour dwelleth and reigneth eternally world without end . Amen . PSALME 84. A Prayer of desire and longings after the joyes of Heaven . O How amiable are thy dwellings : thou Lord of hosts ! 2 My soul hath a desire and longing to enter into the courts of the Lord : my heart and my flesh rejoyce in the living God. 3 Yea , the sparrow hath found her an house , and the swallow a nest , where she may lay her young : even thy altars , O Lord of hosts , my King and my God. 4 Blessed are they that dwell in thy house : they will be alway praising thee . 5 Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee : in whose heart are thy ways . 6 Which going through the vale of misery , use it for a well : and the pools are filled with water . 7 They will goe from strength to strength : and unto the God of gods appeareth every one of them in Sion . 8 O Lord God of hosts , hear my prayer : hearken , O God of Jacob. 9 Behold , O God , our defender : and look upon the face of thine Anointed . 10 For one day in thy courts : is better then a thousand . 11 I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God : then to dwell in the tents of ungodlinesse . 12 For the Lord God is a light and defence : the Lord will give grace and worship , and no good thing shall hee withhold ftom them that live a godly life . 13 O Lord God of hosts : blessed is the man that putteth his trust in thee . The Prayer . O Lord God of ●●sts , who dwellest in the heavens , seated in essentiall and eternall felicities ; fill our hearts with desires and longings to enter into those Courts where thou sittest , attended with the beauteous orders of Angels , and millions of beatified spirits ; and that our desires may receive infinite satisfactions , give us thy help , that we going through the vale of misery ; the pools may be filled with water , our hearts and eyes may run over with tears of repentance , and overflow with sorrow and contrition for our sins , that we living a godly life , going from strength to strength , from vertue to vertue , at last we may appear in Sion unto the God of gods , beholding the face of thine Anointed , thy Christ , and our Jesus , and may dwell one day in thy Courts , even all the long day of eternity , through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . PSALME 85. A thanksgiving for Gods free mercy in the pardon of our sinnes , and a prayer for the continuance and increase of his mercies to us . LOrd , thou art become gracious unto thy land : thou ha●t turned away the captivity of Jacob. 2 Thou hast forgiven the offence of thy people : and ●overed all their sins . 3 Thou hast taken away all thy displeasure : and tur●ed thy self from thy wrathfull indignation . 4 Turn us then , O God our Saviour : and let thine ●nger cease from us . 5 Wilt thou be displeased at us for ever : and wilt thou stretch out thy wrath from one generation to another ? 6 Wilt thou not turn again and quicken us : that thy people may rejoyce in thee ? 7 Shew us thy mercy , O Lord : and grant us thy salvation . 8 I will hearken what the Lord God will say concerning me : for he shall speak peace unto his people , and to ●is saints , that they turn not again . 9 For his salvation is nigh them that fear him : that glory may dwell in our land . 10 Mercy and truth are met together : righteousnesse and peace have kiss●d each other . 11 Truth shall flourish out of the earth : and righteousnesse hath looked down from heaven . 12 Yea , the Lord shal shew loving kindnesse : and our land shall give her encrease . 13 Righteousnesse shall goe before him : and he shall direct his going in the way . The Prayer . O Most gracious God , who art reconciled unto us in our Saviour Jesus , having for his sake forgiven the offences of thy people & covered all their sins with the robe of his most immaculate sanctity and righteousnesse , let thy grace convert and quicken us , that we may rejoyce in thee and thy salvation , in faith of thy promises , in the hope of actuall communication of thy mercies to us , and in love to thee for so great blessings and redemption ; and when thou hast spoken peace unto our souls and reconciled us to thy self in the bloud of thy Son , give us the grace of perseverance that we may never turn again to folly , but may follow mercy and truth all our days , and at last be satisfied with thy righteousnesse and peace eternall , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . Morning Prayer . PSALME 86. A Prayer for sanctity and preservation . BOw down thine ear , O Lord , and hear me : for I am poor and in misery . 2 Preserve thou my soule , for I am holy : my God save thy servant that putteth his trust in thee . 3 Be mercifull unto me , O Lord : for I will call daily upon thee . 4 Comfort the soul of thy servant : for unto thee ( O Lord ) do I lift up my soul. 5 For thou Lord art good and gracious : and of great mercy unto all them that call upon thee . 6 Give ear , Lord , unto my prayer : and ponder the voyce of my humble desires . 7 In the time of my trouble I will call upon thee : for thou hearest me . 8 Among the gods there is none like unto thee ( O Lord : ) there is not one that can do as thou doest . 9 All nations whom thou hast made , shall come and ●orship thee , O Lord : and shall glorifie thy Name . 10 For thou art great , and doest wondrous things : ●●ou art God alone . 11 Teach me thy way ( O Lord ) and I will walk in ●hy truth : O knit my heart unto thee , that I may fear thy Name . 12 I will thank thee , O Lord my God , with all my heart : and will praise thy Name for evermore . 13 For great is thy mercy toward me : and thou hast delivered my soul from the nethermost hell . 14 O God , the proud are risen against me : and the congregations of naughty men have sought after my soul , and have not set thee before their eyes . 15 But thou ( O Lord God ) art full of compassion ●nd mercy : long-suffering , plenteous in goodnesse and truth . 16 O turn thee then unto me , and have mercy upon me : give thy strength unto thy servant , and help the son of thine handmaid . 17 Shew some good token upon mee for good , that they which hate me , may see it , and be ashamed : because thou Lord hast holpen me , and comforted me . The Prayer . O Lord God , good and gracious , and of great mercy unto all them that call upon thee , give ear unto our prayers , & ponder the voice of our desires when ever we call upon thee in our trouble . Let the souls of thy servants be refreshed with thy comforts , and defend us from the congregations of proud and naughty men . Turn thee unto us with mercy , give thy strength unto us , teach us thy laws , make us to walk in thy truth , give us the fear of thy Name , and knit our hearts to thee with the indissoluble bands of charity and obedience , that our souls being saved from the nethermost hell , we may worship thee , O Lord , and glorifie thy name , who art full of compassion and mercy , long-suffering and plenteous in goodnesse and truth , which thou hast manifested to us in our deliverance and redemption , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . PSALME 87. A contemplation of the excellencies of Sion , or the celestiall Jerusalem . HEr foundations are upon the holy hils : the Lord loveth the gates of Sion more then all the dwellings of Jacob. 2 Very excellent things are spoken of thee : thou city of God. 3 I will think upon Rahab and Babylon : with them that know thee . 4 Behold yee the Philistines also : and they of Tyre , with the Morians , lo , there was he born . 5 And of Sion it shall be reported , that he was born in her : and the most High shall stablish her . 6 The Lord shall rehearse it , when he writeth up the people : that he was born there . 7 The singers also and trumpeters shall be rehearse : all my fresh springs shall be in thee . The Prayer . O Lord God who dwellest in Sion , and delightest to have thy habitation in the hearts of men , thou hast built the Church as a City upon a hill , and laid the foundation of it upon the Apostles and Prophets , Jesus Christ being the chief Corner-stone , make us to be a spirituall building fit for thy habitation , and a residence for thy holy Spirit , grounding us in faith , building us up in hope , and perfecting us in charity , that we being joyned in the communion of Saints , in the union of the holy Catholique Church militant on earth , may all partake of the blessings of thy Church triumphant in the City of thee our God , in the celestiall Jerusalem , where thou livest and reignest ever one God world without end . Amen . PSALME 88. A Prayer in time of sicknesse and danger of death . O Lord God of my salvation , I have cryed day and night before thee : O let my prayer enter into thy presence , incline thine ear unto my calling . 2 For my soul is full of trouble : and my life draweth nigh unto hell . 3 I am counted as one of them that goe down into the pit : and I have been even as a man that hath no strength . 4 Free among the dead , like unto them that be wounded and lie in the grave : which be out of remembrance , and are cut away from thy hand . 5 Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit : in a place of darknesse , and in the deep . 6 Thine indignation lieth hard upon me : and thou hast vexed me with all thy storms . 7 Thou hast put away mine acquaintance far from me : and made me to be abhorred of them . 8 I am so fast in prison : that I cannot get forth . 9 My sight faileth for very trouble : Lord , I have called daily upon thee , I have stretched out my hands unto thee . 10 Doest thou shew wonders among the dead : or shall the dead rise up again and praise thee ? 11 Shall thy loving kindnesse be shewed in the grave : or thy faithfulnesse in destruction ? 12 Shall thy wondrous works be known in the dark : and thy righteousnesse in the land where all things are forgotten ? 13 Unto thee have I cried , O Lord : and early shall my prayer come before thee . 14 Lord , why abhorrest thou my soul : and hidest thou thy face from me ? 15 I am in misery , and like unto him that is at the point to die : ( even from my youth up ) thy terrours have I suffered with a troubled minde . 16 Thy wrathfull displeasure goeth over me : and the fear of thee hath undone me . 17 They came round about me dayly like water : and comp●ssed me together on every side . 18 My lovers and friends hast thou put away from me : and hid mine acquaintance out of my sight . The Prayer . O Lord God of our salvation , who for our sakes wert wounded and didst die and lie in the grave , but yet alone of all that ever died wert free among the dead , and by thine own power didst arise again with victory and triumph ; have mercy upon thy servant , for thine indignation lieth hard upon me , and thou hast vexed me with all thy storms ; my soul is full of trouble by reason of my sins , and my life draweth nigh unto the grave ; restore me unto thy favour , and let me not go down into the dark , nor my life into the place where all things are forgotten , but let me shew forth thy loving kindnesse amongst thy redeemed ones in the land of the living : for the living , the living he shall praise thee and confesse the holinesse and the mercies of thy holy Name . O hide not thou thy face from me , but give me health of body , and restore and preserve me in the life of righteousnesse , and so blesse me with opportunities of doing thee service , that I may redeem the time past , and by thy grace may grow rich in good works , always abounding in the work of the Lord , that when thou shalt demand my soul to be rendred up into thy hands , my soul may not be abhorred of thee , nor suffer thy terrors , but may feel an eternity of blessings in the resurrection of the just , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . Evening Prayer . PSALME 89. A Prayer for the King in time of Wars or any publike calamity . MY song shall be alway of the loving kindnesse of the Lord : with my mouth will I ever be shewing thy truth from one generation to another . 2 For I have said , mercy shall be set up for ever : thy truth shalt thou stablish in the heavens . 3 I have made a covenant with my chosen : I have sworn unto David my servant . 4 Thy seed will I stablish for ever : and set up thy throne from one generation to another . 5 O Lord , the very heavens shall praise thy wondrous works : and thy truth in the congregation of the saints . 6 For who is he among the clouds : that shall be compared unto the Lord ? 7 And what is he among the gods : that shall be like unto the Lord ? 8 God is very greatly to be feared in the counsell of the Saints : and to be had in reverence of all them that are round about him . 9 O Lord God of hosts , who is like unto thee : thy truth ( most mighty Lord ) is on every side . 10 Thou rulest the raging of the sea : thou stillest the waves thereof when they arise . 11 Thou hast subdued Egypt , and destroyed it : thou hast scattered thine enemies abroad with thy mighty arm . 12 The heavens are thine , the earth also is thine : thou hast laid the foundation of the round world , and all that therein is . 13 Thou hast made the North and the South : Tabor and Hermon shall rejoyce in thy Name . 14 Thou hast a mighty arm : strong is thy hand , and high is thy right hand . 15 Righteousnesse and equity is the habitation of thy seat : mercy and truth shall goe before thy face . 16 Blessed is the people ( O Lord ) that can rejoyce in thee : they shall walk in the light of thy countenance . 17 Their delight shall be daily in thy Name : and in thy righteousnesse shall they make their boast . 18 For thou art the glory of their strength : and in thy loving kindnesse thou shalt lift up our horns . 19 For the Lord is our defence : the holy one of Israel is our King. 20 Thou spakest sometimes in vision unto thy Saints , and saidest : I have laid help upon one that is mighty , I have exalted one chosen out of the people . 21 I have found David my servant : with my holy oyle have I anointed him . 22 My hand shall hold him fast : and my arme shall strengthen him . 23 The enemy shall not be able to doe him violence : the son of wickednesse shall not hurt him . 24 I shall smite down his foes before his face : and plague them that hate him . 25 My truth also and my mercy shall be with him : and in my Name shall his horn be exalted . 26 I will set his dominion also in the sea : and his right hand in the flouds . 27 He shall call me , Thou art my Father : my God , and my strong salvation . 28 And I will make him my first-born : higher then the Kings of the earth . 29 My mercy will I keep for him for evermore : and my covenant shall stand fast with him . 30 His seed also will I make to endure for ever : and his throne as the days of heaven . 31 But if his children forsake my law : and walk not in thy judgements . 32 If they break my statutes , and keep not my commandements : I will visit their offences with the rod , and their sin with scourges . 33 Neverthelesse , my loving kindnesse will I not utterly take from him : nor suffer my truth to fail . 34 My covenant will I not break , nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips : I have sworn once by my holinesse , that I will not fail David . 35 His seed shall endure for ever : and his seat is like as the sun before me . 36 He shall stand fast for evermore as the moon : and as the faithfull witnesse in Heaven . 37 But thou hast abhorred and forsaken thine anointed : and art displeased at him . 38 Thou hast broken the covenant of thy servant : and cast his crown to the ground . 39 Thou hast overthrown all his hedges : and broken down his strong holds . 40 All they that goe by spoil him : and hee is become a rebuke to his neighbours . 41 Thou hast set up the right hand of his enemies : and made all his adversaries to rejoyce . 42 Thou hast taken away the edge of his sword : and givest him not victory in the battell . 43 Thou hast put out his glory : and cast his throne down to the ground . 44 The days of his youth hast thou shortned : and covered him with dishonour . 45 Lord , how long wilt thou hide thy self , for ever : and shall thy wrath burn like fire ? 46 Oh remember how short my time is : wherefore hast thou made all men for nought ? 47 What man is he that liveth , and shall not see death : and shall he deliver his soul from the hand of hell ? 48 Lord , where are thy old loving kindnesses : which thou swarest unto David in thy truth ? 49 Remember ( Lord ) the rebuke that thy servants have : and how I doe bear in my bosome the rebukes of many people . 50 Wherewith thine enemies have blasphemed thee , and slandered the foot-steps of thine anointed : praised be the Lord for evermore . Amen , Amen . The Prayer . O Lord God of hosts , thou art greatly to be feared in the councell of the saints , and to be had in reverence of all the world , let thy strong hand and thy mighty arm bl●sse and preserve thine Anointed the King ; as thou hast exalted thy chosen from among the People , so let the greatnesse of thy blessings and assistances distinguish him from all the world : make his throne as the days of heaven , smite down his enemies before his face , let thy hand hold him fast that the enemy may not be able to do him violence , and let thine arm strengthen him that the sonnes of wickednesse may not hurt him . O do thou never put his glory out , nor cover him with dishonour , but give him victory in battels , honour and rejoycing in time of peace , confidence in thee , reverence amongst his people , and continuall defence in thy salvation , that when thou hast finished his days in peace and honour , his seed may be established in his throne and endure for ever like as the sun before thee . Grant this , O King of Kings , for his sake to whom thou hast given all power and dominion in heaven and earth , even our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen . Morning Prayer . PSALME 90. A meditation of death , and a prayer preparatory to it . LOrd , thou hast been our refuge : from one generation to another . 2 Before the mountains were brought forth , or ever the earth and the world were made : thou art God from everlasting , and world without end . 3 Thou turnest man to destruction : again thou sayest , Come again ye children of men . 4 For a thousand years in thy sight , are but as yesterday : seeing that is past as a watch in the night . 5 As soon as thou scatterest them , they are even as a sleep : and fade away suddenly like the grasse . 6 In the morning it is green , and groweth up : but in the evening it is cut down , dried up , and withered . 7 For wee consume away in thy displeasure : and are afraid at thy wrathfull indignation . 8 Thou hast set our misdeeds before thee : and our secret sins in the sight of thy countenance . 9 For when thou art angry , all our days are gone : we bring our years to an end , as it were a tale that is told . 10 The days of our age are threescore years and ten , and though men be so strong that they come to fourscore years : yet is their strength then but labour and sorrow , so soon passeth it away , and we are gone . 11 But who regardeth the power of thy wrath : for even thereafter as a man feareth , so is thy displeasure . 12 O teach us to number our days : that we may apply our hearts unto wisdome . 13 Turn thee again ( O Lord ) at the last : and be gracious unto thy servants . 14 O satisfie us with thy mercy , and that soon : so shall we rejoyce and be glad all the days of our life . 15 Comfort us again now after the time that thou hast plagued us : and for the years wherein we have suffered adversity . 16 Shew thy servants thy work : and their children t●y glory . 17 And the glorious majesty of the Lord our God be upon us : prosper thou the work of our hands upon us , O prosper thou our handy work . The Prayer . O Eternall God , whose beeing was before the mountains were brought forth , before the earth and the world were made , even from everlasting and world without end , have mercy upon us weak and impotent people , the children of men , who fade away suddenly like the grasse : remove our misdeeds from before thee , and our secret sins from the sight of thy countenance : be not angry with us , neither consume us in thy displeasure ; teach us to number all the days of our life , and to reckon on still to the day of death , that when our days are gone , and our years are brought to an end like a tale that is told , thou mayest turn unto us at the last , and be gracious unto us in the pardon of our sins , in the restraining the power and malice of all our ghostly enemies , in giving us opportunity of all spirituall assistances and advantages , that our lamps being trimmed and burning bright with charity and devotion , wee may enter into the bride-chamber , there for ever to behold the glorious majesty of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen . PSALME 91. A Prayer for protection in all dangers . WHoso dwelleth under the defence of the most High : shall abide under the shadow of the Alm●ghty . 2 I will say unto the Lord , Thou art my hope and my strong hold : my God , in him will I trust . 3 For he shall deliver thee from the snare of the hunter : and from the noisome pestilence . 4 He shall defend thee under his wings , and thou shalt be safe under his feathers : his faithfulnesse and truth shall be thy shield and buckler . 5 Thou shalt not be afraid for any terror by night : nor for the arrow that flieth by day . 6 For the pestilence that walketh in darknesse : nor for the sicknesse that destroyeth in the noon day . 7 A thousand shall fall beside thee , and ten thousand at thy right hand : but it shall not come nigh thee . 8 Yea , with thine eyes shalt thou behold : and see the reward of the ungodly . 9 For thou Lord art my hope : thou hast set thine house of defence very high . 10 There shall no evill happen unto thee : neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling . 11 For he shall give his Angels charge over thee : to keep thee in all thy ways . 12 They shall bear thee in their hands : that thou hurt not thy foot against a stone . 13 Thou shalt go upon the lion and adder : the young lion and the dragon shalt thou tread under thy feet . 14 Because he hath set his love upon me , therefore shall I deliver him : I shall set him up , because he hath known my name . 15 He shall call upon me , and I will hear him : yea , I am with him in trouble , I will deliver him , and bring him to honour . 16 With long life will I satisfie him : and shew him my salvation . The Prayer . O Lord God our hope and our strong hold , have mercy upon us , and defend us under the shadow of thy wings , that we trusting under thy defence , may by thy faithfulnesse and truth be covered as with a shield and buckler . Give thy Angels charge concerning us and our habitations , that we may be preserved and kept in all our ways that no evill happen u●to us , no plague come nigh our dwelling , no terrors of the night , no arrows of thy vengeance by day may disturb our peace or safety . Let thy ministring Spirits bear us in their hands , and keep us from precipice , f●om fr●cture of bones , from dislocations , noisome 〈◊〉 sharp diseases , stupidities , and deformities , that we may tread under our feet all the snares of the roaring lion and the great dragon the Devill , who seeks our bodily and ghostly hurt . Doe thou set thy love upon us , and deliver us from all our troubles , and at the end of our days shew us thy salvation , and satisfie us with long life , even of a blessed eternity in thy Kingdom , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . PSALME 92. A meditation of the great works of God in the destruction of the wicked , and the preservation of the godly . IT is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord : and to sing praises unto thy name , O most Highest . 2 To tell of thy loving kindnesse early in the morning : and of thy truth in the night season . 3 Upon an instrument of ten strings , and upon the lute : upon a loud instrument , and upon the harp . 4 For thou Lord hast made me glad through thy works : and I will rejoyce in giving praise for the operations of thy hands . 5 O Lord , how glorious are thy works : and thy thoughts are very deep . 6 An unwise man doth not well consider this : and a fool doth not understand it . 7 When the ungodly are green as the grasse , and when all the workers of wickednesse doe flourish : then shall they be destroyed for ever , but thou Lord art the most highest for evermore . 8 For lo , thine enemies ( O Lord ) lo thine enemies shall p●rish : and all the workers of wickedness shall be destoyed . 9 But mine horn shall bee exalted like the horn of an unicorn : for I am anointed with fresh oyle . 10 Mine eye also shall see his lust of mine enemies : and mine eare shall heare his desire of the wicked that rise up against me . 11 The righteous shall flourish like a palm-tree : and ●hall spread abroad like a cedar in Lebanus . 12 Such as be planted in the house of the Lord : shall flourish in the courts of the house of our God. 13 They also shall bring forth more fruit in their age : and shall be fat and well liking . 14 That they may shew how true the Lord my strength is : and that there is no unrighteousnesse in him . The Prayer . O Lord God , thou art the most highest for evermore , thy works are glorious , and thy thoughts are very deep , make our hearts and tongues loud instruments of thy praises , that we may tell of thy mercy in the morning , of thy truth in the night , and that we may rejoyce in giving thee thanks for the operations of thy hands all the days and nights of our life . Let thy mercifull kindnesse descend evermore upon the righteous , that they may flourish like a palm tree being continually watered with the dew of temporall and spirituall blessings , and may bring forth fruits of a holy conversation ; and grant that we thy servants , being planted in the house of God , and firmly fixed in the blessed communion of Saints , may flourish in the Courts of thy house , thy celestial temple to all eternity . O let not our portion be amongst the ungodly and unrighteous : make us , not to communicate in their wickednesse , so much as by consent or approbation , that we may never perish and be destroyed in the furiousnesse of thine anger , which thou treasurest up against the day of vengeance , and righteous judgement , even the day of the appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen . Evening Prayer . PSALME 93. A Prayer that God would preserve his Church against the storms and flouds of persecution . THE Lord is King , and hath put on glorious apparell : the Lord hath put on his apparell , and girded himself with strength . 2 He hath made the round world so sure : that it cannot be moved . 3 Ever since the world began hath thy seat been prepared : thou art from everlasting . 4 The flouds are risen ( O Lord ) the flouds have lift up their voice : the flouds lift up their waves . 5 The waves of the sea are mighty , and rage horribly : but the Lord that dwelleth on high is mightier . 6 Thy testimonies , O Lord , are very sure : holinesse becommeth thine house for ever . The Prayer . O Lord our King , who art girded with strength , and hast prepared thy seat from everlasting , establish thy testimonies in our hearts , as a sure foundation of temporall and eternall happinesse . Preser●e thy house , the holy Catholique Church in peace and holinesse which is its defence and ornament ; and although the flouds of persecution and secular disadvantages have lift up their waves to overthrow it , yet because it is built upon a rock , the rock Christ Jesus , make it to stand firm and sure against all the malice of hell and earth , and all the powers of them both ; for thou , ô Lord , art mightier the● all the waves and storms of her enemies : To thee , O Lord , who dwellest on high , and art mightier , be all honour , and glory now and for ever . Amen . PSALME 94. A Prayer for patience , comfort , and assistance to the godly , and that God would disappoint the designes of the wicked . O Lord God , to whom vengeance belongeth : thou God to whom vengeance belongeth , shew thy self . 2 Arise thou judge of the world : and reward the proud after their deserving . 3 Lord , how long shall the ungodly : how long shall the ungodly triumph ? 4 How long shall all wicked doers speak so disdainfully : and make such proud boasting ? 5 They smite down thy people , O Lord : and trouble thine heritage . 6 They murder the widow and the stranger : and put the fatherlesse to death . 7 And yet they say , Tush , the Lord shall not see : neither shall the God of Jacob regard it . 8 Take heed ye unwise among the people : O ye fools , when will ye understan● ? 9 He that planted the eare , shall he not heare : or hee that made the eye , shall he not see ? 10 Or he that nurtureth the heathen : it is he that teacheth man knowledge , shall not he punish ? 11 The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man : that they are but vain . 12 Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest ( O Lord : ) and teachest him in thy law . 13 That thou mayest give him patience in time of adversity : untill the pit be digged up for the ungodly . 14 For the Lord will not fail his people : neither will he forsake his inheritance . 15 Untill righteousnesse turn again unto judgement : all such as be true of heart , shall follow it . 16 Who will rise up with me against the wicked : or who will take my part against the evill doers ? 17 If the Lord had not helped me : it had not failed but my soul had been put to silence . 18 But when I said , My foot hath slipped : thy mercy ( O Lord ) held me up . 19 In the multitude of the sorrows that I had in my heart : thy comforts have refreshed my soul. 20 Wilt thou have any thing to doe with the stoole of wickednesse : which imagineth mischief as a law ? 21 They gather them together against the soul of the righteous : and condemn the innocent bloud . 22 But the Lord is my refuge : and my God is the strength of my confidence . He shall recompence them their wickednesse , and destroy them in their own malice : yea , the Lord our God shall destroy them . The Prayer . O Lord God , Judge of the world , to whom vengeance belongeth and the execution of righteous judgements , have mercy upon us , chasten us with thy gentlenesse and fatherly correction when we sin against thee , teach us in thy law , be our refuge and our confidence in our troubles , and give us patience in times of adversity , that in the multitude of sorrows thy comforts may refresh us , thy mercies may relieve us , thy grace may pardon and confirm us , that our feet slip not , and our souls be not put to silence . Have pitty upon all distressed and miserable people , do justice upon all that murder the widow , that put the fatherlesse to death , that grinde the face of the poor . Fail not thy people , O Lord , and forsake not thine inheritance , but destroy the devices of all them that imagine mischief as a law , and are confederate against the righteous , to condemne the innocent , to discountenance Religion , to disadvantage thy worship and service , that in the day of eternall vengeance when thou shalt reward the proud after their deserving , and the pit be digged for the ungodly , we may have the lot of thine inheritance , and reign in the fellowship of Saints who give honour and praise to thee , O Lord God Almighty , world without end . Amen . Morning Prayer . PSALME 95. A Hymne invitatory to the worship of God , and a prayer for obedience to his will. O Come , let us sing unto the Lord : let us heartily rejoyce in the strength of our salvation . 2 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving : and shew our selves glad in him with psalmes . 3 For the Lord is a great God : and a great King above all gods . 4 In his hand are all the corners of the earth : and the strength of the hils is his also . 5 The sea is his and he made it : and his hands prepared the dry land . 6 O come , let us worship and fall down : and kneele before the Lord our maker . 7 For he is ( the Lord ) our God : and we are the people of his pasture , and the sheep of his hands . 8 To day if ye will heare his voyce , harden not your hearts : as in the provocation , and as in the day of temptation in the wildernesse . 9 When your fathers tempted me : proved mee , and saw my works . 10 Fourty years long was I grieved with this generation , and said : It is a people that doe erre in their hearts , for they have not known my ways . 11 Unto whom I sware in my wrath : that they should not enter into my rest . The Prayer . O Great God the Lord our Maker , who art a King above all gods , give us the graces of humility and holy religion , that we may worthily praise and worship thy glories , and perfections infinite . We are the people of thy pasture , let thy mercies lead us , and feed and refresh our souls with the divine nutriment of thy Word and Sacraments : we are the sheep of thy hands , do thou guide us that we may never goe astray ; or if we do , bring us home into the sheepfold of our great Shepheard , that we hearing his voyce may not harden our hearts , neither tempting thy mercies , nor provoking thy wrath ; that our hearts being preserved from error , and our ways from obliquity and crookednesse , we may at last enter into thy eternall rest , through the merits and guidance of our great Shepheard Jesus Christ our Mediator and Redeemer . Amen . PSALME 96. A hymne of adoration , and magnifying the glories of God. O Sing unto the Lord a new song : sing unto the Lord all the whole earth . 2 Sing unto the Lord , and praise his name : be telling of his salvation from day to day . 3 Declare his honour unto the heathen : and his wonders unto all people . 4 For the Lord is great , and cannot worthily be praised : he is more to be feared then all gods . 5 As for all the gods of the heathen , they be but idols : but it is the Lord that made the heavens . 6 Glory and worship are before him : power and honour are in his sanctuary . 7 Ascribe unto the Lord ( O ye kindreds of the people : ) ascribe unto the Lord worship and power . 8 Ascribe unto the Lord the honour due unto his name : bring presents , and come into his courts . 9 O worship the Lord in the beauty of holinesse : let the whole earth stand in awe of him . 10 Tell it out among the heathen , that the Lord is King : and that it is he which hath made the round world so fast that it cannot be moved , and how that he shall judge the people righteously . 11 Let the heavens rejoyce , and let the earth be glad : let the sea make a noise , and all that therein is . 12 Let the field be joyfull , and all that is in it : then shall all the trees of the wood rejoyce before the Lord. 13 For he cometh , for he cometh to judge the earth : and with righteousnesse to judge the world , and the people with his truth . The Prayer . O Lord God in whose sanctuary is power and honour , before whose presence is glory and worship , fill our lips and souls with great devotion and reverence towards thee our God : Make us to love thy goodnesse , to adore thy omnipotency , to reverence thy justice , to fear thy Majesty , to admire and tremble at thy omniscience and omnipresence , and to contemplate with the greatest zeal and affections all those glories which thou communicatest to the sons of men , in the revelations of thy gospel , of thy creatures , and of thy miracles , that we may tell of thy greatnesse , and declare thy salvation from day to day ; and when thou commest with righteousnesse to judge the earth , and all people with thy truth , we may rejoyce in thee everlastingly , and sing an eternall Allelujah to thee in thy sanctuary : Grant this for Jesus Christ his sake our Lord and onely Saviour . Amen . PSALME 97. A meditation upon the day of Judgement , and a prayer for mercy and salvation . THE Lord is King , the earth may be glad thereof : yea , the multitude of the Isles may be glad thereof . 2 Clouds and darknesse are round about him : righteousnesse and judgement are the habitation of his seat . 3 There shall goe a fire before him : and burn up his enemies on every side . 4 His lightnings gave shine unto the world : the earth saw it , and was afraid . 5 The hils melted like wax at the presence of the Lord : at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth . 6 The heavens have declared his righteousnesse : and all the people have seen his glory . 7 Confounded be all they that worship carved images , and that delight in vain gods : worship him all yee gods . 8 Sion heard of it , and rejoyced : and the daughters of Judah were glad , because of thy judgements , O Lord. 9 For thou , Lord , art higher then all that are in the earth : thou art exalted farre above all gods . 10 O ye that love the Lord , see that ye hate the thing that is evill : the Lord preserveth the souls of his Saints , he shall deliver them from the hand of the ungodly . 11 There is sprung up a light for the righteous : and joyfull gladnesse for such as be true hearted . 12 Rejoyce in the Lord ye righteous : and give thanks for a remembrance of his holinesse . The Prayer . O Lord our King , Lord of the whole earth , have mercy upon us , and sanctifie us with thy grace , that we may hate every thing that is evill , that we may love thee , give thanks unto thy name , and rejoyce in remembrance of thy holinesse , that in the day of judgement and great terrors , when thou shalt fit in thy seat supported with righteousnesse and judgement , and a fire shall go forth from thy presence , to burn up thy enemies on every side , thou maist preserve our souls in safety from the hand of our enemies , and a light may spring up unto us to preserve us from eternall darknesse and the want of the light of thy countenance , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . Evening Prayer . PSALME 98. A thanksgiving for the redemption of mankinde by Jesus Christ. O Sing unto the Lord a new song : for hee hath done marvellous things . 2 With his own right hand , and with his holy arm : hath he gotten himself the victory . 3 The Lord declared his salvation : his righteousnesse hath he openly shewed in the sight of the heathen . 4 He hath remembred his mercy and truth toward the house of Israel : and all the ends of the world have seen the salvation of our God. 5 Shew your selves joyfull unto the Lord , all ye lands : sing , rejoyce , and give thanks . 6 Praise the Lord upon the harp : sing to the harp with a psalme of thanksgiving . 7 With trumpets also and shawmes : O shew your selves joyfull before the Lord the King. 8 Let the sea make a noise , and all that therein is : the round world , and they that dwell therein . 9 Let the flouds clap their hands , and let the hils bee joyfull together before the Lord : for he is come to judge the earth . 10 With righteousnesse shall he judge the world : and the people with equity . The Prayer . O Most glorious and powerfull Jesu , who with thine own right hand , and with thy holy arm hast gotten to thy self on our behalf the victory over sin , hell , and the grave , remember this thy mercy and truth which thou hast promised to all that beleeve on thee , give us pardon of our sins seal'd unto us by the testimony of the holy Spirit , and of a good conscience , and grant that we by thy strength may fight against our ghostly enemies , and by thy power may overcome them , that we may rejoyce in a holy peace , and sing , and give thee thanks for our victory and our crown . Extend this mercy , and enlarge the effect of thy great victories to the heathen , that all the ends of the world may sing a new song unto thee , and see the salvation of God , that when thou commest to judge the earth , we may all find mercy , and be joyfull together before thee in the festivity of a blessed eternity , through thy mercies , O blessed Saviour and Redeemer Jesu . Amen . PSALME 99. A Prayer for the vertue of religion and devotion in holy places . THe Lord is King , be the people never so unpatient : he sitteth between the Cherubims , be the earth never so unquiet . 2 The Lord is great in Sion : and high above all people . 3 They shall give thanks unto thy Name : which is great , wonderfull , and holy . 4 The kings power loveth judgement , thou hast prepared equity : thou hast executed judgement and righteousnesse in Jacob. 5 O magnifie the Lord our God : and fall down before his footstool , for he is holy . 6 Moses and Aaron among his priests , and Samuel among such as call upon his Name : these called upon the Lord , and he heard them . 7 He spake unto them out of the cloudy pillar : for they kept his testimonies , and the law that he gave them . 8 Thou heardest them ( O Lord our God : ) thou forgavest them , O God , and punishedst their own inventions . 9 O magnifie the Lord our God , and worship him upon his holy hill : for the Lord our God is holy . The Prayer . O Great God , and King of Heaven and earth , thou that sittest between the Cherubims unmoved in the centre of thy own felicity and essentiall tranquillity , undisturbed in the great concussions and unquietnesse of the earth : give unto us thy servants venerable and dreadfull apprehensions of the sanctity and perfections of thy Name and Nature , which is great , wonderfull , and holy . Teach us in all the addresses of our devotion , and in all places appointed for thy service , by all reverence & holinesse of soul and body , to expresse the greatnesse of thy power , and our weaknesse , the majesty of thy glory , and the unworthinesse of our persons , the distance of God and man , of finite and infinite , of Lord and Servant , that the awfulnesse of thy dread majesty may check every unreverent gesture and thought in us , & teach us to make approaches of humility , and fear , that we calling upon thy Name according to our duties , & by the fear of thee being taught to keep thy testimonies , and never to forget the Law thou givest us , we may be delivered from thy wrath and punishment , and at last praise thee upon thy holy hill in thine everlasting habitation through Iesus Christ our Lord. Amen . PSALME 100. A Psalm of praise to God for his mercy & truth : O Be joyfull in the Lord , all ye lands : serve the Lord with gladnesse , and come before him presence with a song . 2 Be ye sure that the Lord he is God : it is he that hath made us , and not we our selves , we are his people , and the sheep of his pasture . 3 O goe your way into his gates with thanskgiving , & into his courts with praise : be thankfull unto him , and speak good of his name . 4 For the Lord is gracious , his mercy is everlasting : and his truth endureth from generation to generation . The Prayer . O Lord our God who hast created us out of nothing , and hast redeemed us from misery and death when we were thine enemies , shewing great expresses of thy loving kindness when we were vessels of wrath , and inheritors of perdition , revealing thy truth unto us in the Sermons of the Gospel : teach us to walk as thou hast commanded us , to believe as thou hast taught us , that we may inherit what thou hast promised us , for thou art the way , the truth , and the life : we are thy people and the sheep of thy pasture , thou art our guide and our defence ; let thy grace teach us to serve thee , and thy holy Spirit assist and promote our endeavours with the blessings of gladnesse and chearfulnesse of Spirit , that we may love to speak good of thy Name , and at last may go into the courts of thy Temple with praise and a song in our mouths , to thy honour and eternall glory , whose mercy and truth is everlasting and revealed unto the Church in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen . PSALME 101. A Prayer for a holy life . MY song shall be of mercy and judgement : unto thee , O Lord , will I sing . 2 O let me have understanding : in the way of godlinesse . 3 When wilt thou come unto me : I will walk in my house with a perfect heart . 4 I will take no wicked thing in hand , I hate the sins of unfaithfulnesse : there shall no such cleave unto me . 5 A froward heart shall depart from me : I will not know a wicked person . 6 Who so privily slandereth his neighbour : him will I destroy . 7 Whoso hath also a proud look , and high stomack : I will not suffer him . 8 Mine eyes look unto such as be faithfull in the land : that they may dwell with me . 9 Whoso leadeth a godly life : he shall be my servant . 10 There shall no deceitfull person dwell in my house : he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight . 11 I shall soon destroy all the ungodly that are in the land : that I may root out all wicked doers from the City of the Lord. The Prayer . O Lord God of eternall purity , who art of pure eyes , and canst behold no unrighteousnesse or impurity : enlighten our understandings , that we may have knowledge in the way of godlinesse ; make our paths straight , and our hearts perfect , take from us the sins of unfaithfulnesse , correct and mortifie in us all froward and peevish dispositions , let us love the society of the Saints , and hate the fellowship of the wicked , that we may not be destroyed with the ungodly , nor be rooted out from the City of the Lord , and banished from the sweetnesse of thy presence , for with thee is light , and health , and salvation , to thy Name be all honour , and glory , and praise ascribed , world without end . Amen . Morning Prayer . PSALME 102. A Prayer for comfort in sadnesse , anxiety of spirit , sicknesse , or any other affliction . HEar my prayer , O Lord : and let my crying come unto thee . 2 Hide not thy face from me in the time of my trouble : encline thine ears unto me when I call , O hear me , and that right soon . 3 For my days are consumed away like smoak : and my bones are burnt up as it were a firebrand . 4 My heart is smitten down , and withered like grasse : so that I forget to eat my bread . 5 For the voyce of my groaning : my bones will scarce cleave to my flesh . 6 I am become like a pelican in the wildernesse : and like an owle that is in the desert . 7 I have watched , and am even as it were a sparrow : that sitteth alone upon the house top . 8 Mine enemies revile me all the day long : and they that are mad upon me , are sworn together against me . 9 For I have eaten ashes as it were bread : and mingled my drink with weeping . 10 And that because of thine indignation and wrath : for thou hast taken me up , and cast me down . 11 My days are gone like a shadow : and I am withered like grasse . 12 But thou ( O Lord ) shalt endure for ever : and ●hy remembrance throughout all generations . 13 Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Sion : for it is time that thou have mercy upon her , yea , the time is come . 14 And why ? thy servants think upon her stones : and it pi●ieth them to see her in the dust . 15 The heathen shall fear thy Name , O Lord : and all the kings of the earth thy majesty . 16 When the Lord shall build up Sion : and when his glory shall appear . 17 When he turneth him unto the prayer of the poore d●sti●ute : and despiseth not their desire . 18 This shall be written for those that come after : and the people which shall be born , shall praise the Lord. 19 For he hath looked down from his sanctuary : out of the heaven did the Lord behold the earth . 20 That he might hear the mournings of such as be in captivity : and deliver the children appointed unto death . 21 That they may declare the Name of the Lord in Sion : and his worship at Jerusalem . 22 When the people are gathered together : and the kingdomes also to serve the Lord. 23 He brought down my strength in my journey : and shortened my days . 24 But I said , O my God , take me not away in the midst of mine age : as for thy years , they endure throughout all generations . 25 Thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth : and the heavens are the work of thy hands . 26 They shall perish , but thou shalt endure : they all shall wax old as doth a garment . 27 And as a vesture shalt thou change them , and they shall be changed : but thou art the same , and thy years shall not faile . 28 The children of thy servants shall continue : and ●heir seed shall stand fast in thy sight . The Prayer . O Eternall God , who endurest for ever , and thy remembrance throughout all generations , have pity upon us according to the infinite treasures of thy loving kindnesse , hear the voice of our groaning , for thy indignation and thy wrath lieth hard upon us , & our sins have put an edge upon thy sword , and a thorn into our wounded consciences . O build up the ruines of our souls , repair the breaches of our comforts and our hopes , and let thy glory now appear , for that shines brightest in the beams of thy mercy , and when thou turnest unto the prayer of poor wretched destitutes , it becomes an eternall monument and a record of thy honour , and all generations which shall be born shall praise thee . Look down , O Lord , from thy Sanctuary , hear the mournings of us and of all distressed people ; send us health an● life so long as it may be a blessing , and do no● shorten our days in wrath , but give us grace so to spend all our time in the works of repētance and holinesse , that when our years fail , and our change is come , we may be translated to the new heavens which shall never perish and wax old , there to continue and stand fast in thy sight for ever , through Iesus Christ our Lord. Amen . PSALME 103. A thanksgiving to God for all his benefits and mercies . PRaise the Lord , O my soul : and all that is within me , praise his holy name . 2 Praise the Lord , O my soul : and forget not all his benefits . 3 Which forgiveth all thy sin : and healeth all thy infirmities . 4 Which saveth thy life from destruction : and crowneth thee with mercy and loving kindnesse . 5 Which satisfieth thy mouth with good things : making thee young and lusty as an eagle . 6 The Lord executeth righteousnesse and judgement : for all them that are oppressed with wrong . 7 He shewed his ways unto Moses : his works unto the children of Israel . 8 The Lord is full of compassion and mercy : long-suffering , and of great goodnesse . 9 He will not alway be chiding : neither keepeth he his anger for ever . 10 He hath not dealt with us after our sins : nor rewarded us according to our wickednesse . 11 For look how high the heaven is in comparison of ●he earth : so great is his mercy also toward them that fear him . 12 Look how wide also the east is from the west : so far hath he set our sins from us . 13 Yea , like as a father pitieth his own children : even so is the Lord mercifull unto them that fear him . 14 For he knoweth whereof we be made : he remembreth that we are but dust . 15 The days of man are but as grasse : for hee flourisheth as a flower of the field . 16 For assoon as the winde goeth over it , it is gone : and the place thereof shall know it no more . 17 But the mercifull goodnesse of the Lord endureth for ever and ever , upon them that fear him : and his righteousnesse upon childrens children . 18 Even upon such as keep his covenant : and think upon his commandements to do them . 19 The Lord hath prepared his seat in heaven : and his kingdome ruleth over all . 20 O praise the Lord , ye angels of his , ye that excell in strength : ye that fulfill his commandement , and hearken unto the voyce of his words . 21 O praise the Lord all ye his hosts : ye servants of his that do his pleasure . 22 O speak good of the Lord all ye works of his , in all places of his dominion : praise thou the Lord , O my soul. The Prayer . O Most merciful God , whose mercy is as high as the heavens , as great and many as the moments of eternity , thou hast opened thy hand wide to fill us with blessings , and the sweet effects of thy loving kindnesse , thou art pitifull as a Father , tender as a Mother , carefull as a guardian , and exceeding mercifull to all them that fear thee : we pray thee to fill our souls with great apprehensions and impresses of thy unspeakable mercies , that our thankfulnesse may be as great as our needs of mercy are , and let thy mercifull loving kindnesse endure for ever and ever upon us all . Keep no anger in store for us , chide us not in thy displeasure , satisfie our mouths with good things , remove all our sins from us as far as the east is from the west , heal all our infirmities and save our lives from destruction , for these are mercies thou delightest in : and because we cannot praise thee accordingly to thy excellencies , take our souls in thy due time , into the land of everlasting praises , that we may spend a whole eternity in ascribing to thy name , praise , and honour , and dominion . Grant this for Jesus Christ his sake our Lord and onely Saviour . Amen . Evening Prayer . PSALME 104. A contemplation of the wisdome and goodnesse of God , manifested in his creatures . PRaise the Lord , O my soul : O Lord my God , thou art become exceeding glorious , thou art clothed with majesty and honour . 2 Thou deckest thy self with light as it were with a garment : and spreadest out the heavens like a curtain . 3 Which layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters : and maketh the clouds his chariot , and walketh upon the wings of the winde . 4 He maketh his angels spirits : and his ministers a flaming fire . 5 He laid the foundations of the earth : that it never should move at any time . 6 Thou coveredst it with the deep like as with a garment : the waters stand in the hils . 7 At thy rebuke they flee : at the voice of thy thunder they are afraid . 8 They go up as high as the hils , and down to the valleys beneath : even unto the place which thou hast appointed for them . 9 Thou hast set them their bounds which they shal not passe : neither turn again to cover the earth . 10 He sendeth the springs into the rivers : which run among the hils . 11 All beasts of the field drink thereof : and the wilde asses quench their thirst . 12 Beside them shall the fowls of the air have their habitation : and sing among the branches . 13 He watereth the hils from above : the earth is filled with the fruit of thy works . 14 He bringeth forth grasse for the cattell : and green herb for the service of men . 15 That he may bring food out of the earth , and wine that maketh glad the heart of man : and oyl to make him a ch●erful countenance , and bread to strengthen mans heart . 16 The trees of the Lord also are full of sap : even the Cedars of Libanus which he hath planted . 17 Wherein the birds make their nests : and the sirretrees are a dwelling for the stork . 18 The high hils are a refuge for the wild goats : and so are the stony rocks for the conies . 19 He appointed the moon for certain seasons : and the sun knoweth his going down . 20 Thou makest darknesse that it may be night : wherein all the beasts of the forest doe move . 21 The lions roaring after their prey : doe seek their meat at God. 22 The sun ariseth , and they get them away together : and lay them down in their dens . 23 Man goeth forth to his work , and to his labour : untill evening . 24 O Lord , how manifold are thy works : in wisdome hast thou made them all , the earth is full of thy riches . 25 So is the great and wide sea also : wherein are things creeping innumerable , both small and great beasts . 26 There go the ships , and there is that Leviathan : whom thou hast made to take his pastime therein . 27 These wait all upon thee : that thou mayest give them meat in due season . 28 When thou givest in them , they gather it : and when thou openest thy hand , they are filled with good . 29 When thou hidest thy face they are troubled : when thou takest away their breath , they die , and are turned again to their dust . 30 When thou lettest thy breath go forth , they shall be made : and thou shalt renew the face of the earth . 31 The glorious majesty of the Lord shall endure for ever : the Lord shall rejoyce in his works . 32 The earth shall tremble at the look of him : if he do but touch the hils , they shall smoke . 33 I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live : I will praise my God while I have my being . 34 And so shall my words please him : my joy shall be in the Lord. 35 As for sinners , they shall be consumed out of the earth , and the ungodly shall come to an end : praise thou the Lord , O my soul , praise the Lord. The Prayer . O Lord God who art exceeding glorious , who art clothed with majesty and honor , thou hast created all things with admirable wisdome , established them with excellent order , and hast provided for them with mercy & singular providence , be pleased to give us grace that we may remember thou hast created us all for thy glory , that thou hast planted thine image on us , and hast crowned all our years with thy mercies and loving kindnesse ; let us never disobey thy will , forget thy mercies , or deface thine image in us , but when all thy creatures praise thee in their manner , let not us whom thou hast made in dignity next to Angels disturb the blessed order of Creation by our sins and irregular disobedience . Open thy hand , O Lord , and fill us with good things both spirituall and temporall , that when thou takest away our breath that we die , and turn again to our dust , thou mayest not hide thy face away from us , but communicate to us the light of thy countenance and the glories of thy Kingdome , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . Morning Prayer . PSALME 105. A commemoration of Gods care of his Church and blessings to his people . O Give thanks unto the Lord , and call upon his Name : tell the people what things he hath done . 2 O let your songs be of him , and praise him : and let your talking be of all his wondrous works . 3 R●joyce in his holy Name : let the heart of them rejoyce that seek the Lord. 4 Seek the Lord and his strength : seek his face evermore . 5 Remember the marvellous works that hee hath done : his wonders , and the judgements of his mouth . 6 O ye seed of Abraham his servant : ye children of Jacob his chosen . 7 Hee is the Lord our God : his judgements are in all the world . 8 Hee hath been alway mindfull of his covenant and promise : that he made to a thousand generations . 9 Even the covenant that he made with Abraham : and the oath that he sware unto Isaac . 10 And appointed the same unto Jacob for a law : and to Israel for an everlasting testament . 11 Saying , Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan : the lot of your inheritance . 12 When there were yet but a few of them : and they strangers in the land . 13 What time as they went from one nation to another : from one kingdome to another people . 14 He suffered no man to doe them wrong : but reproved even Kings for their sakes . 15 Touch not mine Anointed : and doe my Prophets no harm . 16 Moreover , he called for a dearth upon the land : and destroyed all the provision of bread . 17 But he had sent a man before them : even Joseph which was sold to be a bond-servant . 18 Whose feet they hurt in the stocks : the iron entred into his soul. 19 Vntill the time came that his cause was known : the Word of the Lord tried him . 20 The King sent and delivered him : the Prince of the people let him goe free . 21 He made him Lord also of his house : and ruler of all his substance . 22 That he might inform his Princes after his will : and teach his senators wisdome . 23 Israel also came into Egypt : and Jacob was a stranger in the land of Ham. 24 And he increased his people exceedingly : and made them stronger then their enemies . 25 Whos 's heart turned so , that they hated his people : and dealt untruly with his servants ▪ 26 Then sent he Moses his servant : and Aaron whom he had chosen . 27 And these shewed his tokens among them : and wonders in the land of Ham. 28 He sent darknesse , and it was dark : and they were not obedient unto his Word . 29 He turned their waters into bloud : and slew their fish . 30 Their land brought forth frogs : yea , even in their Kings chambers . 31 He spake the word , and there came all manner of flies : and lice in all their quarter . 32 He gave them hailstones for rain : and flames of fire in their land . 33 He smote their vines also and fig-trees : and destroyed the trees that were in their coasts . 34 He spake the word and the grashoppers came , and caterpillers innumerable : and did eat up all the grasse in their land , and devouted the fruit of their ground . 35 He smote all the first-born in their land : even the chief of all their strength . 36 He brought them forth also with silver and gold : there was not one feeble person among their Tribes . 37 Egypt was glad at their departing : for they were afraid of them . 38 He spread out a cloud to be a covering : and fire to give light in the night season . 39 At their desire he brought quailes : and he filled them with the bread of heaven . 40 He opened the rock of stone , and the waters flowed out : so that the rivers ran in dry places . 41 For why ? hee remembred his holy promise : and Abraham his servant . 42 And he brought forth his people with joy : and his chosen with gladnesse . 43 And gave them the lands of the heathen : and they took the labours of the people in possession . 44 That they might keep his statutes : and observe his laws . The Prayer . O Lord God , who art alway mindfull of thy covenant and promise to a thousand generations , and didst deliver the seed of Abraham the children of Jacob thy chosen from the slavery of Egypt , from the waves of the sea , from the rage of Pharaoh , from the thirst and famine of the wildernesse , continue the like mercies to all Christian people ; deliver us from the bondage of our sins , preserve us in the Ark of the Church , that we perish not in the waves of this troublesom world ; save us from the fury of all our temporall and ghostly enemies , feed us with food from heaven , and give us competency of good things on earth , that we may keep thy statutes , and observe thy Laws , and at last receive the promises of a blessed eternity , which in the covenant of thy Gospel thou hast made unto all that beleeve in thee , and are obedient to thy Word . Grant this , O blessed Jesu , to whom with the Father and the holy Ghost be all honour and glory , world without end . Amen . ●vening Prayer . PSALME 106. A commemoration of Gods frequent pardons and mercies to the penitent . O Give thanks unto the Lord , for he is gracious : and his mercy endureth for ever . 2 Who can expresse the noble acts of the Lord : or shew forth all his praise ? 3 Blessed are they that alway keep judgement : and doe righteousnesse . 4 Remember me , O Lord , according to the favour that thou bearest unto thy people : O visit me with thy salvation . 5 That I may see the felicity of thy chosen : and rejoyce in the gladnesse of thy people , and give thanks with thine inheritance . 6 Wee have sinned with our fathers : we have done amisse , and dealt wickedly . 7 Our fathers regarded not thy wonders in Egypt , neither kept they thy great goodnesse in remembrance : but were disobedient at the sea , even at the Red sea . 8 Neverthelesse , he helped them for his names sake : that he might make his power to be known . 9 He rebuked the Red sea also , and it was dried up : so he led them through the deep , as through a wildernesse . 10 And he saved them from the adversaries hand : and delivered them from the hand of the enemy . 11 As for those that troubled them , the waters overwhelmed them : there was not one of them left . 12 Then beleeved they his words : and sang praise unto him . 13 But within a while they forgat his works : and would not abide his counsell . 14 But lust came upon them in the wildernesse : and they tempted God in the desert . 15 And he gave them their desire : and sent leannesse withall into their soul. 16 They angred Moses also in the tents : and Aaron the saint of the Lord. 17 So the earth opened and swallowed up Dathan : and covered the congregation of Abiram . 18 And the fire was kindled in their company : the flame burnt up the ungodly . 19 They made a calf in Horeb : and worshipped the molten image 20 Thus they turned their glory : into the similitude of a calf that eateth hay . 21 And they forgat God their Saviour : which had done so great things in Egypt . 22 Wondrous works in the land of Ham : and fearfull things by the Red sea . 23 So he said he would have destroyed them , had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the gap : to turn away his wrathfull indignation lest he should destroy them . 24 Yea , they thought scorn of that pleasant land : and gave no credance unto his word . 25 But murmured in their tents : and hearkned not unto the voice of the Lord. 26 Then lift he up his hand against them : to overthrow them in the wildernesse . 27 To cast out their seed among the nations : and to scatter them in the lands . 28 They joyned themselves unto Baal-peor : and ate the offering of the dead . 29 Thus they provoked him to anger with their own inventions : and the plague was great among them . 30 Then stood up Phineas , and prayed : and so the plague ceased . 31 And that was counted unto him for righteousnesse : among all posterities for evermore . 32 They angred him also at the waters of strife : so that he punished Moses for their sakes . 33 Because they provoked his spirit : so that he spake unadvisedly with his lips . 34 Neither destroyed they the heathen : as the Lord commanded them . 35 But were mingled among the heathen : and learned their works . 36 Insomuch that they worshipped their idols , which turned to their own decay : yea , they offered their sonnes and daughters unto devils . 37 And shed innocent bloud , even the bloud of their sons and of their daughters : whom they offered unto the idols of Canaan , and the land was defiled with bloud . 38 Thus were they stained with their own works : and went a whoring with their own inventions . 39 Therefore was the wrath of the Lord kindled against his people : insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance . 40 And he gave them over into the hand of the heathen : and they that hated them were Lords over them . 41 Their enemies oppressed them : and had them in subjection . 42 Many a time did he deliver them : but they rebelled against him with their own inventions , and were brought down in their wickednesse . 43 Neverthelesse , when he saw their adversity : hee heard their complaint . 44 He thought upon his covenant , and pitied them according unto the multitude of his mercies : yea , he made all those that had led them away captive , to pity them . 45 Deliver us ( O Lord our God ) and gather us from among the heathen : that we may give thanks unto thy holy Name , and make our boast of thy praise . 46 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting , and world without end : and let all the people say , Amen . The Prayer . O Lord God , full of mercy and pity , who didst many times deliver thy people from their adversity , when thou for their rebelling against thee with their inventions hadst given them into the hand of the heathen : Remember us O Lord , according unto the savour thou bearest unto thy people , and visit us with thy salvation , that though we have done amisse , and dealt wickedly against thee and against thy covenant , yet be pleased to help us for thy Name sake , and make thy power to be known in the mighty deliverance and redemption of us from so great danger and misery . Give us grace to beleeve thy words , to abide thy counsels , to walk in thy Laws , to relinquish our own sinfull and vain desires , to obey our Governours Ecclesiasticall and Civill , that we may not have the lot of Dathan and Abiram , but at last may receive our portion in the felicity of thy chosen , giving thee thanks with thine inheritance , for that thou hast turned from us thy wrathfull indignation , pitying us , and saving us according to the multitude of thy mercies . Thy Name be blessed , O Lord God , everlastingly , and world without end , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . Morning Prayer . PSALME 107. A thanksgiving for deliverance from miseries and dangers . O Give thanks unto the Lord , for he is gracious : and his mercy endureth for ever . 2 Let them give thanks whom the Lord hath redeemed : and delivered from the hand of the enemy . 3 And gathered them out of the lands , from the East , and from the West : from the North , and from the South . 4 They went astray in the wildernesse out of the way : and found no city to dwell in . 5 Hungry and thirsty : their soul fainted in them . 6 So they cried unto the Lord in their trouble : and he delivered them from their distresse . 7 He led them forth by the right way : that they might go to the city where they dwelt . 8 O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodnesse : and declare the wonders that he doth for the children of men ! 9 For he satisfieth the empty soul : and filleth the hungry soul with goodnesse . 10 Such as sit in darknesse and in the shadow of death : being fast bound in misery and iron . 11 Because they rebelled against the word of the Lord : and lightly regarded the counsell of the most High. 12 He also brought down their heart through heavinesse : they fell down , and there was none to help them up . 13 So when they cried unto the Lord in their trouble : he delivered them out of their distresse . 14 For he brought them out of darknesse , and out of the shadow of death : and brake their bonds in sunder . 15 O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodnesse : and declare the wonders that he doth for the children of men ! 16 For he hath broken the gates of brasse : and smitten the bars of iron in sunder . 17 Foolish men are plagued for their offence : and because of their wickednesse . 18 Their soul abhorred all manner of meat : and they were even hard at deaths door . 19 So when they cried unto the Lord in their trouble : he delivered them out of their distresse . 20 He sent his word and healed them : and they were saved from their destruction . 21 O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodnesse : and declare the wonders that he doth for the children of men ! 22 That they would offer unto him the sacrifice of thanksgiving : and tell out his works with gladnesse . 23 They that go down to the sea in ships : and occupy their businesse in great waters . 24 These men see the works of the Lord : and his wonders in the deep . 25 For at his word the stormy winde ariseth : which lifteth up the waves thereof . 26 They are caried up to the heaven , and down again to the deep : their soul melteth away because of the trouble . 27 They reel to and fro , and stagger like a drunken man : ●nd are at their wits end . 28 So when they cry unto the Lord in their trouble : he deliv●reth them out of their distresse . 29 For he maketh the storm to cease : so that the waves thereof are still . 30 Then are they glad , because they be at rest : and so he bri●geth them unto the haven where they would be . 31 O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodnesse : and declare the wonders that he doth for the children of men ! 32 That they would exalt him also in the congregation of the people : and praise him in the seat of the elders . 33 Which turneth the flouds into a wildernesse : and drieth up the water springs . 34 A fruitfull land maketh he barren : for the wickednesse of them that dwell therein . 35 Again he maketh the wildernesse a standing water : and water springs of a dry ground . 36 And th●re he setteth the hungry : that they may build them a City to dwell in . 37 That they may sow their land , and plant vineyards : to yeeld them fruits of increase . 38 He blesseth them , so that they multiply exceedingly : and suffereth not their cattell to decrease . 39 And again , when they are minished and brought low : through oppression , through any plague or trouble . 40 Though he suffer them to be evill intreated through tyrants : and let them wander out of the way in the wildernesse . 41 Yet helpeth he the poor out of misery : and maketh him housholds like a flock of sheep . 42 The righteous will consider this , and rejoyce : and the mouth of all wickednesse shall be stopped . 43 Who so is wise will ponder these things : and they shall understand the loving kindnesse of the Lord. The Prayer . O Lord God , gracious and good , whose mercy endureth for ever , have mercy upon us when in our trouble we cry unto thee ; for when our hearts are brought down through heaviness there is none to help us up , or to deliver us out of our distress , but only thou , ô Lord. We have sinned , we have rebelled against thee , and lightly regarded thy counsels , wee have walked and sate in darknesse and in the shadows of death , being fast bound in the captivity and misery of sin . O bring us out of darknesse , and break our bonds asunder ; guide us through the desert of this world , in which grows nothing but sadnesse and discontent ; still the tempests , and smooth the flouds of misery which are ready to overwhelm us , and in thy due time bring us to eternall rest , and to the haven where we would fain be , that in the congregation of thy holy people , we may praise thee for thy goodnesse , and declare the wonders thou hast done for us in delivering us from sin and misery , and death , and bringing us to a City to dwell in , where there is life , and light , and joy eternall in the beholding the face of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen . Evening Prayer . PSALME 108. A Prayer for victory against our Enemies . O God , my heart is ready , ( my heart is ready ) I will sing and give praise with the best member I have . 2 Awake thou lute and harp : I my self will awake right early . 3 I will give thanks unto thee , O Lord , among the people : I will sing praises unto thee among the nations . 4 For thy mercy is greater then the heavens : and thy truth reacheth unto the clouds . 5 Set up thy selfe ( O God ) above the heavens : and thy glory above all the earth . 6 That thy beloved may be delivered : let thy right hand save them , and hear thou me . 7 God hath spoken in his holinesse : I will rejoyce therefore , and divide Sichem , and mete out the valley of Succoth . 8 Gilead is mine , and Manasses is mine : Ephraim also is the strength of mine head . 9 Juda is my law-giver , Moab is my washpot : over Ed●m will I cast out my shooe , upon the Philistines will I triumph . 10 Who will lead me into the strong city : and who will bring me into Edom ? 11 Hast not thou forsaken us , O God : and wilt not thou , O God , goe forth with our hosts ? 12 O help us against the enemy : for vain is the help of man. 13 Through God we shall doe great acts : and it is he that shall tread down our enemies . The Prayer . O Lord God , whose mercy is greater then the Heavens , and thy glory is above all the earth , be thou exalted in thine owne strength , and magnifie thy power and thy mercy in defending us , and all thy holy Church , against all our enemies temporall and spirituall . Forsake us not O God our defence , for vain is the help of man , do thou strengthen us and go forth with our hosts to battell , that we being defended and armed by thee , may doe acts great and good , fighting thy battels , and putting our confidence in thy righteousnesse onely , and salvation , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . PSALME 109. A Prayer against Gods enemies , and especially Traitors , prophetically intended against the person of Judas . HOld not thy tongue , O God of my praise : for the mouth of the ungodly , yea , and the mouth of the dec●itfull is opened upon me . 2 And they have spoken against me with false tongues : they compassed me about also with words of hatred , and fought against me without a cause . 3 For the love that I had unto them , lo , they take now my contrary part : but I give my self unto prayer . 4 Thus have they rewarded me evill for good : and hatred for my good will. 5 Set thou an ungodly man to be ruler over him : and let Satan stand at his right hand . 6 When sentence is given upon him , let him be condemned : and let his prayer be turned into sin . 7 Let his dayes be few : and let another take his office . 8 Let his children be fatherlesse : and his wife a widow . 9 Let his children be vagabonds , and beg their bread : let them seek it also out of desolate places . 10 Let the extortioner consume all that he hath : and let the stranger spoil his labour . 11 Let there be no man to pity him : nor to have compassion upon his fatherl●sse children . 12 Let his posterity be destroyed : and in the next generation let his name be clean put out . 13 Let the wickednesse of his fathers be had in remembrance in the sight of the Lord : and let not the sin of his mother be done away . 14 Let them alway be before the Lord : that he may root out the memoriall of them from off the earth . 15 And that because his minde was not to doe good : but persecuted the poor helplesse man , that he might slay him that was vexed at the heart . 16 His delight was in cursing , and it shall happen unto him : he loved not blessing , therefore shall it be far from him . 17 He clothed himself with cursing like as with a raiment : and it shall come into his bowels like water , and like oyle into his bones . 18 Let it be unto him as the cloke that he hath upon him : and as the girdle that he is always girded withall . 19 Let it thus happen from the Lord unto mine enemies : and to those that speak evill against my soul. 20 But deal thou with me ( O Lord God ) according unto thy name : for sweet is thy mercy . 21 O deliver me , for I am helplesse and poor : and my heart is wounded within me . 22 I goe hence like the shadow that departeth : and am driven away as the grashopper . 23 My knees are weak through fasting : my flesh is dried up for want of fatnesse . 24 I became also a rebuke unto them : they that looked upon me shaked their heads . 25 Help me ( O Lord my God : ) Oh save me according to thy mercy . 26 And they shall know how that this is thy hand : and that thou Lord hast done it . 27 Though they curse , yet blesse thou : and let them be confounded that rise up against me , but let thy servant rejoyce . 28 Let mine adversaries be clothed with shame : and let them cover themselves with their own confusion , as with a cloke . 29 As for me , I will give great thanks unto the Lord with my mouth : and praise him among the multitude . 30 For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor : to save his soul from unrighteous judges . The Prayer . O God of our praise , who wast contented that thy Son Jesus Christ should be betrayed into the hands of sinners by one of his own Apostles , the Traitor Judas , and in punishment of so great impiety didst suffer Satan to stand at his right hand tempting him to despair , and to give sentence upon himself to condemne himself , and to execute his own judgement , and gavest his Bishoprick to another : let thy righteous judgements finde out all those that are Traitors to their Prince , enemies to the Church , Apostates from Religion , Hypocrites under specious pretences , and beauteous titles ; that they may be clothed with shame , and may cover themselves with their own confusion as with a cloke ; that by thy punishments in this life , they may be driven to a sharp and salutary repentance , and may be saved in the life to come . Deal thou with us , O Lord , according to thy mercy , take away thy curse , and let not thy blessing be far from us ; let not our wickednesse , nor the wickednesse of our fathers be had in remembrance in thy sight , let our minds be alway to do good , and our hearts and lips be given unto prayer , and our prayers so guided by thy assistances , that they be not turned into sin ; that when we go hence like the shadow that departeth , and are driven away like the grashopper , when the days of our vanity and rejoycing are past , we may stand at thy right hand , and our souls be saved from the lot and portion of the unrighteous , through the righteousnesse and passion of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen . Morning Prayer . PSALME 110. A Hymne in the honour of Christs Kingdom , and Priesthood , and exaltation . THe Lord said unto my Lord : Sit thou on my right hand , untill I make thine enemies thy footstool . 2 The Lord shall send the rod of thy power out of Sion : be thou ruler even in the midst among thine enemies . 3 In the day of thy power shall the people offer thee free-will-offerings with an holy worship : the dew of thy birth is of the womb of the morning . 4 The Lord sware and will not repent : Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedek . 5 The Lord upon thy right hand : shall wound even kings in the day of his wrath . 6 He shall judge among the heathen , he shall fill the places with the dead bodies : and smite in sunder the heads over divers countreys . 7 He shall drink of the brook in the way : therefore shall he lift up his head . The Prayer . O Eternall God , Father of our Lord Jesus Christ , who when thy Son had drank of the brook in the way to the grave and to our redemption , ( beginning his passion by the brook Cedron , and tasting the waters of bitternesse till he had drunk off the whole chalice of thy wrath upon the Crosse ) didst lift up his head , and set him at thy right hand till thou shalt make all his enemies his footstool : fill our hearts with his love and praises , that we may pay him the offerings of our souls and bodies in an holy worship , and joyfull thanksgiving for all the parts and mysteries of our redemption , for his birth in the womb of his holy Mother , pure and virginall , like the morning dew , for his Death and Passion , and for his continuall mediation and intercession by which he does officiate in his eternall Priesthood , which is after the order of Melchisedek . Remember us , blessed Jesu , in the Day of thy power , when thou shalt come to judge the world , and the places fill'd with dead bodies shall give up their dead , that we may sit at thy right hand to magnifie and behold the glories of thy Kingdome for ever and ever . Amen . PSALME 111. An Eucharisticall Hymne for the benefits of the holy Gospel , particularly of the blessed Sacrament . I Will give thanks unto the Lord with my whole heart : secretly among the faithfull , and in the congregation . 2 The works of the Lord are great : sought out of all them that have pleasure therein . 3 His work is worthy to be praised and had in honour : and his righteousnesse endureth for ever . 4 The mercifull and gracious Lord hath so done his marvellous works : that they ought to be had in remembrance . 5 He hath given meat unto them that fear him : he shall ever be mind●ull of his coven●n● . 6 He hath shewed his people the power of his works : that he may give them the heritage of the heathen . 7 The works of his hands are verity and judgement : all his commandements are true . 8 They stand fast for ever and ever : and are done in truth and equity . 9 He sent redemption unto his people : he hath commanded his covenant for ever , holy and reverend is his Name . 10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdome : a good understanding have all they that doe thereafter , the praise of it endureth for ever . The Prayer . O Blessed Jesu , whose righteousnesse endureth for ever , thy work is worthy to be praised and had in honour , for that thou hast been mercifull and gracious to us , and hast given meat , even the food of the blessed Sacrament unto them that fear thee , that by participation of thy holy Communion we should have thee in remembrance , and ever be mindfull of thy covenant : plant thy fear in our hearts , give us wisdome and good understanding , and make us to have pleasure in thee , and all thy works , that we obeying the precepts of thy holy Gospel , and performing the conditions of thy covenant , which thou hast established for ever in truth and equity , in verity and judgement , we may worthily praise and adore thy reverend and holy Name among the faithfull in this life , and in the great congregation of saints in the life to come , through thy mercies , O blessed Jesu , to whom with the Father and the holy Ghost be all honour and glory now and for ever . Amen . PSALME 112. A Prayer for the feare of the Lord , for charity , and the blessings of the righteous . BLessed is the man that feareth the Lord : hee hath great delight in his commandements . 2 His seed shall be mighty upon earth : the generation of the faithfull shall be blessed . 3 Riches and plenteousnesse shall be in his house : and his righteousnesse endureth for ever . 4 Unto the godly there ariseth up light in the darkness : he is mercifull , loving , and righteous . 5 A good man is mercifull , and lendeth : and will guide his words with discretion . 6 For he shall never be moved : and the righteous shall be had in an everlasting remembrance . 7 He will not be afraid for any evill tidings : for his heart standeth fast , and beleeveth in the Lord. 8 His heart is stablished and will not shrink : untill he see his desire upon his enemies . 9 He hath dispersed abroad and given to the poor : and his righteousnesse remaineth for ever , his horn shall bee exalted with honour . 10 The ungodly shall see it , and it shall grieve him : he shall gnash with his teeth , and consume away , the desire of the ungodly shall perish . The Prayer . O Lord God who art to be feared in the generations of the world , teach us the fear of thy Name , that we may fear to offend thee , and that delighting in thy Commandements , we may serve thee without fear of our enemies in holinesse and righteousnesse all our days . Let thy light rise upon the darknesse of our understandings ; let thy mercies and gentlenesse cure all thoughts of unmercifulnesse in us , and make us charitable , of tender bowels , yearning with pity over the needs of the poor . Teach us to guide our words with discretion , make us never to be moved from our purposes of holy living , stablish our hearts in thy love , that in the day of restitution of all things , thou mayest give us the portion of the charitable , the rewards of thy right hand , and when the wicked shall gnash with their teeth , and consume away in a sad eternity , we may be satisfied with the riches and plenteousnesse of thy house for ever , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . PSALME 113. A thanksgiving to God for his acts of providence , and particular care over the poor and humble . PRaise the Lord ( ye servants : ) O praise the Name of the Lord. 2 Blessed be the name of the Lord : from this time forth for evermore . 3 The Lords name is praised : from the rising up of the sun , unto the going down of the same . 4 The Lord is high above all heathen : and his glory above the heavens . 5 Who is like unto the Lord our God , that hath his dwelling so high : and yet humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven and earth ? 6 He taketh up the simple out of the dust : and lifteth the poor out of the mire . 7 That he may set him with the princes : even with the princes of his people . 8 He maketh the barren woman to keep house : and to be a joyfull mother of children . The Prayer . O Lord God whose dwelling is on high , and yet thou humblest thy self to behold the things that are in Heaven and earth , have mercy upon us thy humble servants , and lift us up from the gates of death , take us out of the mire that we sink not into the bottomlesse pit of misery and infelicity , and when for our sinnes thou humblest us as low as the dust , let thy mercy exalt us and restore us to the light of thy countenance , and the joy of thy salvation ; that when thou shalt call all the world to judgement from the rising of the Sun to the going down thereof , we may be set with the Princes of thy people , with Abraham , Isaac , and Jacob , in thine eternall Kingdome , to sing praises to thy Name from this time forth for evermore . Amen . Evening Prayer . PSALME 114. A thanksgiving to God for the deliverance of his people from bondage and misery . WHen Israel came out of Egypt : and the house of Jacob from among the strange people . 2 Juda was his sanctuary : and Israel his dominion . 3 The sea saw that and fled : Jordan was driven back . 3 The mountains skipped like rams : and the little hils like young sheep . 5 What aileth thee , O thou sea , that thou fleddest : and thou Jordan , that thou wast driven back ? 6 Ye mountains , that ye skipped like rams : and yee little hils like young sheep ? 7 Tremble thou earth at the presence of the Lord : at the presence of the God of Jacob. 8 Which turned the hard rock into a standing w●ter : and the flint stone into a springing well . The Prayer . O Lord God , at whose presence the earth trembles , who workest salvation and deliverance for thy Church in all ages , and didst deliver thy people from the bondage of Egypt with a mighty hand , and an arm stretched out in miraculous effects , deliver us from the bondage of sin , from the tyranny of the devill , from the Empire and Dominion of the flesh , that our bodies and souls being mortified , our flesh brought under subjection of the spirit , our appetites made subordinate to reason , and our souls wholly conformable to thy will , our hard stony hearts may be converted into hearts of flesh , and into a springing well bringing forth the waters of repentance , and fruits springing up to life eternall , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . PSALME 115. A Prayer against idolatry , and for confidence in the true God. NOt unto us , O Lord , not unto us , but unto thy Name give the praise : for thy loving mercy , and for thy truths sake . 2 Wherefore shall the heathen say : Where is now their God ? 3 As for our God , he is in heaven : he hath done whatsoever pleased him . 4 Their idols are silver and gold : even the work of mens hands . 5 They have mouthes and speak not : eyes have they and see not . 6 They have eares and hear not : noses have they and smell not . 7 They have hands and handle not , feet have they and walk not : neither speak they through their throat . 8 They that make them are like unto them : and so are all such as put their trust in them . 9 But thou house of Israel , trust thou in the Lord : he is their succour and defence . 10 Ye house of Aaron , put your trust in the Lord : he is their helper and defender . 11 Ye that fear the Lord , put your trust in the Lord : he is their helper and defender . 12 The Lord hath been mindfull of us , and he shall blesse us : even he shall blesse the house of Israel , hee shall blesse the house of Aaron . 13 He shall blesse them that fear the Lord : both small and great . 14 The Lord shall encrease you more and more : you and your children . 15 Ye are the blessed of the Lord : which made heaven and earth . 16 All the whole heavens are the Lords : the earth hath he given to the children of men . 17 The dead praise not thee , O Lord : neither all they that go down into the silence . 18 But we will praise the Lord : from this time forth for evermore . Praise the Lord. The Prayer . O Lord God omnipotent , whose seat is in Heaven , and thou hast done whatsoever pleased thee in Heaven and earth , give us thy grace , that in all our troubles we may make thee our Succour and Defence , and put our trust in thee onely , that we receiving thy mercies and the satisfaction of all our hopes from thy plenteousnesse and loving kindnesse , we may give praise unto thy Name , never ascribing to our selves any honour , or the glory and thanks of any good action or prosperous successe , but to thee who art the Author and Giver of all good things . Preserve us from all dangers of idolatry , from worshipping or loving any vain imaginations , and making any thing to be our confidence besides thee our God , that so thou mayest be mindfull of us , and blesse us in all our ways , and when we die and go down into the silence , we may have our portion amongst the blessed of the Lord , in the inheritance of thy Kingdome , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . Morning Prayer . PSALME 116. An act of love and thanksgiving to God , for deliverance from sin and death . I Am well pleased : that the Lord hath heard the voyce of my prayer . 2 That he hath enclined his eare unto me : therefore will I call upon him as long as I live . 4 The snares of death compassed me round about : and the pains of hell gat hold upon me . 4 I shall find trouble and heavinesse , and I shall call upon the name of the Lord : O Lord I beseech thee deliver my soul. 5 Gracious is the Lord and righteous : yea , our God is mercifull . 6 The Lord preserveth the simple : I was in misery , and he helped me . 7 Turn again then unto thy rest , O my soul : for the Lord hath rewarded thee . 8 Any why ? thou hast delivered my soul from de●th : mine eyes from tears , and my feet from falling . 9 I will walk before the Lord : in the land of the living . 10 I beleeved , and therefore will I speak , but I was sore troubled : I said in my haste , All men are liars . 11 What reward shall I give unto the Lord : for all the benefits that he hath done unto me ? 12 I will receive the cup of salvation : and call upon the name of the Lord. 13 I will pay my vows now in the presence of all his people : right dear in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints . 14 Behold ( O Lord ) how that I am thy servant : I am thy servant , and the sonne of thine handmaid , thou hast broken my bonds in sunder . I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving : and will call upon the name of the Lord. 16 I will pay my vows unto the Lord , in the sight of all his people : in the courts of the Lords house , even in the midst of thee , O Jerusalem . Praise the Lord. The Prayer . O Lord God of eternall mercies , Gracious and Righteous , give unto us hearts filled with love and praises to thy holy Name ; for thou hearest our prayers , thou breakest asunder the bonds of our sins , thou deliverest our souls from trouble and heavinesse , and snatchest us from the snares of death , and savest us from the pains of hell . O mercifull God , let our souls rest in thee , and be satisfied in the pleasures of thy mercy , that we may receive the cup of blessing and salvation , and celebrate the Eucharist in honour of thy name , and in remembrance of thy infinite benefits which thou hast done unto us , and at last may pay our great Allelujah to the Lord in the courts of the Lords house , in the midst of the celestiall Jerusalem , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . PSALME 117. An invitation to all people to praise Gods mercy and truth . O Praise the Lord all yea heathen : praise him all ye Nations . 2 For his mercifull kindnesse is ever more and more towards us : and the truth of the Lord endureth for ever . Praise the Lord. The Prayer . O Blessed Jesu who art not only the glory of thy people Israel , but the light of the Gentiles , let thy mercifull kindnesse be ever more and more towards the sons of men , that the nations which have not known thee may ●ear thy truth , and feel thy mercies , and call ●pon thy Name , and thy grace may be confirmed upon us , till we receive the fulnesse and perfection of thy graces in the full fruition of the glories of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen . PSALME 118. A Psalme of thanksgiving for the mercies and salvation which are given us in Jesus Christ. O Give thanks unto the Lord , for he is gracious : because his mercy endureth forever . 2 Let Israel now confesse that he is gracious : and that his mercy endureth for ever . 3 Let the house of Aaron now confesse : that his mercy endureth for ever . 4 Yea , let them now that fear the Lords confesse : that his mercy endureth for ever . 5 I called upon the Lord in trouble : and the Lord heard me at large . 6 The Lord is on my side : I will not fear what man doth unto me . 7 The Lord taketh my part with them that help me : therefore shall I see my desire upon mine enemies . 8 It is better to trust in the Lord : then to put any confidence in man. 9 It is better to trust in the Lord : then to put any confidence in Princes . 10 All nations compassed me round about : but in the name of the Lord will I destroy them . 11 They kept me in on every side , they kept me in ( I say ) on every side : but in the name of the Lord will I destroy them . 12 They came about me like bees , and are extinct even as the fire among the thorns : for in the name of the Lord will I destroy them . Thou hast thrust sore at me , that I might fall : but the Lord was my help . 14 The Lord is my strength and my song : and is become my salvation . 15 The voyce of joy and health is in the dwellings of the righteous : the right hand of the Lord bringeth mighty things to passe . 16 The right hand of the Lord hath the preeminence : the right hand of the Lord bringeth mighty things to passe . 17 I will not die , but live : and declare the works of the Lord. 18 The Lord hath chastened and corrected me : but he hath not given me over unto death . 19 Open me the gates of righteousnesse : that I may goe into them , and give th●nks unto the Lord. 20 This is the ga●e of the Lord : the righteous shall enter into it . 21 I will thank thee for thou hast heard me : and art become my salvation . 22 The same stone which the builders refused : is become the head stone in the corner . 23 This is the Lords doing : and it is marvellous in our eyes . 24 This is the day which the Lord hath made : we will rejoyce and be glad in it . 25 Help me now , O Lord : O Lord send us now prosperity . 26 Blessed be he that commeth in the name of the Lord : we have wished you good luck , ye that be of the house of the Lord. 27 God is the Lord which hath shewed us light : binde the sacrifice with cords , yea , even unto the horns of the altar . 28 Thou art my God , and I will thank thee : thou art my God , and I will praise thee . 29 O give thanks unto the Lord , for he is gracious : and his mercy endureth for ever . The Prayer . O Most gracious Lord , our strength and our song , thou art become our salvation , and thy mercy endureth for ever , be thou on our side , take part with them that help us , let the voyce of joy and health be within our dwellings , and when thou chastenest and correctest us for our sins , give us not over unto death , but fix our faith and hopes upon the head stone in the corner , even our Lord Jesus Christ , that in all the assaults made against us by our ghostly enemies , the right hand of the Lord may have the preeminence , and bring mighty things to passe , even victory and deliverance unto thy servants , that we putting no confidence in the best of men , may trust in thee , O Lord , till at last , when thou openest the everlasting gates of righteousnesse , we may enter in and give thee thanks and praise , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . Evening Prayer . PSALME 119. A Prayer for Religion , zeale , love of the law of God , and meditation in it . BL●ssed are those that are undefiled in the way : and walk in the Law of the Lord. 2 Blessed are they that keep his testimonies : and seek him with their whole heart . 3 For they which do no wickednesse : walk in his ways . 4 Thou hast charged : that we shall diligently keep thy commandements . 5 O that my ways were made so direct : that I might keep thy statutes ! 6 So shall I not be confounded : while I have respect unto all thy commandements . 7 I will thank thee with an unfeigned heart : when I shall have learned the judgements of thy righteousnesse . 8 I will keep thy ceremonies : O forsake me not utterly . The Prayer . O Blessed Lord God , whose words are light and life to the obedient and beleeving soul , let thy grace so purifie our hearts and actions , that we may be undefiled in thy way , keeping thy testimonies and seeking thee with our whole heart ; that our ways being made direct without wandring into by-paths , we may go into our country , the land of eternall and glorious promises , through Iesus Christ our Lord. Amen . II. WHerewithall shall a young man cleanse his way : even by ruling himself after thy word . 2 With my whole heart have I sought thee : O let me not go wrong out of thy commandements . 3 Thy words have I hid within my heart : that I should not sin against thee . 4 Blessed art thou , O Lord : O teach me thy statutes . 5 With my lips have I been telling : of all the judgements of thy mouth . 6 I have had as great delight in the way of thy testimonies : as in all manner of riches . 7 I will talk of thy commandements : and have respect ●●to thy ways . 8 My delight shall be in thy statutes : and I will not forget thy word . The Prayer . GRant , O Lord , that our affections and endeavours be not divided between thee and the world , but that we may seek thee with our whole heart , cleansing our ways from all impurity , giving to thy service our youth , and more perfect age , even all our days , and all our powers , taking more delight in the way of thy testimonies then in all manner of riches and fading pleasures ; that we delighting in thee , and the ways that lead to thee , may be beloved of thee with an eternall love , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . III. O Doe well unto thy servant that I may live : and keep thy word . 2 Open thou mine eyes : that I may see the wondrous things of thy law . 3 I am a stranger upon earth : O hide not thy commandements from me . 4 My soul breaketh out for the very fervent desire : that it hath alway unto thy judgements . 5 Thou hast rebuked the proud : and cursed are they that do erre from thy commandements . 6 O turn from me shame and rebuke : for I have kept thy testimonies . 7 P●inces did also sit and speak against me : but thy ser●ant is occupied in thy statutes . 8 For thy testimonies are my delight : and my counsellers . The Prayer . O Lord God , our Father and our Guardian , we are strangers upon the earth , farre removed from our country , and we are in darknesse and walk in the shadow of death , let not this darknesse seize upon our souls , hide not thy commandements from us , but open our eyes with the light of thy holy Spirit , that we may see the wondrous things of thy law , and admire thy glories , and adore thy might , and obey all thy righteous precepts : and although our hearts be already enkindled with the love of thy law , yet make our desires to serve thee more fervent , that our lukewarmnesse may arise up to the flames and ardors of a Cherubim , that while we are busied in thy statutes , making them our delight and our counsellors , shame and rebuke may always be turned from us , and we ever rejoyce with hope and confidence in thee , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . IV. MY soul cleaveth to the dust : O quicken thou me according to thy word . 2 I have knowledged my ways , and thou heardest me : O teach me thy statutes . 3 Make me to understand the way of thy commandments : and so shall I talk of thy wondrous works . 4 My soul melteth away for very heavinesse : comfort thou me according unto thy word . 5 Take from me the way of lying : and cause thou me to make much of thy law . 6 I have chosen the way of truth : and thy judgements have I laid before me . 7 I have sticken unto thy testimonies : O Lord confound me not . 8 I will run the way of thy commandements : when thou hast set my heart at liberty . The Prayer . WE have chosen the way of thy truth , O Lord , and laid thy judgements before us , and yet through our infirmities , and the disadvantages of the flesh , we are in heavinesse , and drive on slowly like Pharaoh's chariots with the wheels off ; our souls and our desires cleave unto the dust , and to things below , and we are not active in thy services : O quicken us according to thy word , refresh our wearinesse , comfort our sadnesse , take from us the way of lying and vanity , set our hearts at liberty from the bondage of sin , from the fetters of temptation , form the incumbrances of the world , and then we shall run the way of thy ●ommandments , never ceasing to run till we arrive at the land of eternall rest and righteousnesse , where thou livest and reignest , world without end . Amen . Morning Prayer . V. TEach me , O Lord , the way of thy statutes : and I shall keep it unto the end . 2 Give me understanding , and I shall keep thy Law : yea , I shall keep it with my whole heart . 3 Make me to go in the path of thy commandements : for therein is my desire . 4 Encline my heart unto thy testimonies : and not to covetousnesse . 5 O turn away mine eyes , lest they behold vanity : and quicken thou me in thy way . 6 O stablish thy word in thy servant : that I may feare thee . 7 Take away the rebuke that I am afraid of : for thy judgements are good . 8 Behold , my delight is in thy commandements : O quicken me in thy righteousnesse . The Prayer . O Lord God , who art of infinite Sanctity , and hast given us thy Law , that we walking in so divine a rule , may imitate the perfection of thy holinesse , make us to go all our days in the path of thy Commandements : take from us all greedy and inordinate appetite of the creature , let not our hearts be incli●●d to covetousnesse , nor our eyes wander after vanity , but grant , that we being establis●ed in thy Law , and walking in thy fear , may persevere in the ways of righteousnesse , keeping the way of thy Statutes even unto the end ▪ that the rebuke which for our sins we may justly fear , may by thy mercies and pardon be taken away from us , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . VI. LEt thy loving mercy also come unto me , O Lord ▪ even thy salvation , according unto thy word . 2 So shall I make answer unto my blasphemers : for my trust is in thy word . 3 O take not the word of thy truth utterly out of m● mouth : for my hope is in thy judgements . 4 So shall I alway keep thy law : yea , for ever and ever . 5 And I will walk at liberty : for I seek thy commandments . 6 I will speak of thy testimonies also , even before kings : and will not be ashamed . 7 And my delight shall be in thy commandments : which I have loved . 8 My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments ▪ which I have loved : and my study shall be in thy Statute● . The Prayer . LEt thy loving mercy come unto us , O Lord , and thy salvation , for thou always keepest promise , and never disappointest the hopes of them that trust in thee . Give us confidence and boldnesse in thee , that we may never fear or blush to confesse thee before men , but may speak of thy testimonies even before Kings , and may never be ashamed of thy Word , which is the ground of our hope , but that our hands may be lift up to perform thy Law , and our study , our love , and our delight may be in it , even for ever and ever , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . VII . O Think upon thy servant , as concerning thy word : wherein thou hast caused me to put my trust . 2 The same is my comfort in my trouble : for thy word hath quickned me . 3 The proud have had me exceedingly in derision : yet have I not shrinked from thy law . 4 For I remembred thine everlasting judgements , O Lord : and received comfort . 5 I am horribly afraid : for the ungodly that forsake thy law . 6 Thy Statutes have been my songs : in the house of my pilgrimage . 7 I have thought upon thy name , O Lord , in the night season : and have kept thy law . 8 This I had : because I kept thy commandments . The Prayer . THink upon us , O Lord , in all our desires , in all our fears , in all our troubles ; let thy Law give us comfort , redresse , and satisfaction ; that in our trouble we may thence derive comfort , in our fears we may there fix our anchor of hope , and from thence we may get defence against the derisions and insolencies of the proud ; and grant that thy grace may reward thy grace in us , and a further degree of sanctity may crown the first beginnings ; and when by thy assistances we think upon thy Name , and keep thy Law , we begge this onely , that our reward may be still to keep thy Commandments . Grant this for Jesus Christ his sake , our Lord and onely Saviour . Amen . VIII . THou art my portion , O Lord : I have promised to keep thy law . 2 I made my humble petition in thy presence with my whole heart : O be mercifull unto me according to thy word . 3 I called mine own ways to remembrance : and turned my feet unto thy testimonies . 4 I made haste , and prolonged not the time : to keep thy commandements . 5 The congregation of the ungodly have robbed me : but I have not forgotten thy law . 6 At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee : because of thy righteous judgements . 7 I am a companion of all them that fear thee : and keep thy commandements . 8 The earth , O Lord , is full of thy mercy : O teach me thy Statutes . The Prayer . O Dear God , be thou our portion and the lot of our inheritance , and be mercifull unto us when ever we make our humble petition in thy presence , and above all the desires of our souls let us receive satisfaction in this request : give us repentance and thy holy Spirit , that we calling our own ways to remembrance , may be truly sorrowfull for our past sins , and may make haste , prolonging not the time , but early and instantly turn our feet unto thy testimonies , that we being companions of all that fear thee , may be partakers of all the blessings in the communion of Saints , through Iesus Christ our Lord. Amen . IX . O Lord , thou hast dealt graciously with thy servant : according unto thy word . 2 O learn me true understanding and knowledge : for I have beleeved thy commandements . 3 Before I was troubled , I went wrong : but now have I kept thy word . 4 Thou art good and gracious : O teach me thy statutes . 5 The proud have imagined a lie against me : but I will keep thy commandements with my whole heart . 6 Their heart is as fat as brawn : but my delight hath been in thy law . 7 It is good for me that I have been in trouble : that I may learn thy Statutes . 8 The law of thy mouth is dearer unto me : then thousands of gold and silver . The Prayer . THou , O Lord , art gracious even in the execution of thy judgements and displeasure against sinners , & thou sendest chastisement and correction to us when we go wrong , that thou mayest chide us into obedience , and the blessings of eternity : let not idlenesse and sensuality make us remisse in our duty , nor our own vanity and the sense of thy favour make us proud , nor the want of holy discipline make us impudent and refractory , but let thy mercies and judgements learn us thy statutes , and make them dearer to us then thousands of gold and silver , that while we make thy statutes to be our treasure , our heart may be fixed on them in a continuall meditation , through Iesus Christ our Lord. Amen . Evening Prayer . X. THy hands have made me and fashioned me : O give me understanding , that I may learn thy commandments . 2 They that fear thee will be glad when they see me : because I have put my trust in thy word . 3 I know ( O Lord ) that thy judgements are right : and that thou of very faithfulnesse hast caused me to be troubled . 4 O let thy mercifull kindnesse be my comfort : according to thy word unto thy servant . 5 O let thy loving mercies come unto me , that I may live : for thy law is my delight . 6 Let the proud be confounded , for they go wickedly about to destroy me : but I will be occupied in thy commandments . 7 Let such as fear thee , and have known thy testimonies : be turned unto me . 8 O let my heart be sound in thy statutes : that I be not ashamed . The Prayer . O Lord our Maker , thy hands have made us and fashioned us , let thy holy Spirit regenerate us , and thy grace form us anew , that the old man being destroyed , the new man may be produced in righteousnes and sanctity ; that our hearts may be sound in thy statutes without hypocrisy , and inordinate ends , full of candor & ingenuity ; that thy loving mercies comming unto us in a full stream , we may live in them , and be turned unto thee , never to be removed from thy law and love . Grant this for the love of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen . XI . MY soule hath longed for thy salvation : and I have a good hope because of thy word . 2 Mine eyes long sore for thy word : saying , O when wilt thou comfort me ? 3 For I am become like a bottle in the smoke : yet do I not forget thy statutes . 4 How many are the dayes of thy servant : when wilt thou be avenged of them that persecute me ? 5 The proud have digged pits for me : which are not after thy law . 6 All thy commandments are true : they persecute me falsly , O be thou may help . 7 They had almost made an end of me upon earth : but I forsook not thy commandments . 8 O quicken me after thy loving kindnesse : and so shall I keep the testimonies of thy mouth . The Prayer . O Lord our helper , teach us to remember our end , to consider our years that are past , that we in consideration how few the days of thy servants are which are yet to come , may quicken our industry and affections to thy law , that by a double and more active endeavour in the ways of thy Commandments , we may redeem the time , and by thy mercy being delivered from all them that trouble and persecute us , we may be refreshed in thy eternall comforts , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . XII . O Lord , thy word endureth for ever in heaven . 2 Thy truth also remaineth from one generation to another : thou hast laid the foundation of the earth , and it abideth . 3 They continue this day according to thine ordinance : for all things serve thee . 4 If my delight had not been in thy law : I should have perished in my trouble . 5 I will never forget thy commandments : for with them thou hast quickned me . 6 I am thine , oh save me : for I have sought thy commandments . 7 The ungodly laid wait for me , to destroy me : but I will consider thy testimonies . 8 I see that all things come to an end : but thy commandment is exceeding broad . The Prayer . O Lord our Guide , thou hast laid the Foundation of the earth sure , and it abideth , but thy Word endureth for ever in Heaven , & though Heaven and earth shall passe away , yet one title of thy Word shal never passe in vain & unaccomplished ; teach us to obey thee with a regular obedience , that since all the creatures continue according to thine ordinance & serve thee , we only may not disobey thee and disturb the order of Creation by a rebellion of creatures against their Maker , lest thy wrath arise upon us , and we perish in our trouble . Have mercy upon us , and deliver us from thy wrath , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . XIII . LOrd , what love have I unto thy Law : all the day long is my study in it . 2 Thou through thy commandements hast made m● wiser then mine enemies : for they are ever with me . 3 I have more understanding then my teachers : for thy ●estimonies are my study . 4 I am wiser then the aged : because I keep thy commandments . 5 I have refrained my feet from every evil way : that I may keep thy word . 6 I have not shrunk from thy judgements : for thou teachest me . 7 O how sweet are thy words unto my throat : yea sweeter then hony unto my mouth . 8 Through thy commandments I get understanding : ●herefore I hate all wicked ways . The Prayer . O Lord our Governor , who art the Fountain of all wisdom and understanding , and hast commanded that all that lack wisdome should ask it of thee who givest liberally ; make us wise & understanding in the observation of thy Cōmandments , that we may refrain our feet from every evil way , & never shrink from thy judgements , but may delight and study in all the expresses of thy will which thou hast revealed to us by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen . Morning Prayer . XIV . THy word is a lantern unto my feet : and a light unto my paths . 2 I have sworn , and am stedfastly purposed : to keep thy righteous judgements . 3 I am troubled above measure : quicken me ( O Lord ) according to thy word . 5 Let the free-will offerings of my mouth please thee , O Lord : and teach me thy judgements . 5 My soul is alway in my hand : yet do I not forget thy law . 6 The ungodly have laid a snare for me : but yet I swerved not from thy commandments . 7 Thy testimonies have I claimed as mine heritage for ever : and why ? they are the very joy of my heart . 8 I have applied my heart to fulfill thy statutes alway : even unto the end . The Prayer . O Sunne of righteousnesse , that camest to bring light unto the world by thy word , & example , and illumination of thy holy Spirit ; let thy Spirit lead us , thy example guide us , thy word teach us , that we may not love darkness more then light , but may keep thy righteous judgments according to our many purposes & our vow of baptisme : keep us from the snare of the ungodly , and from our own selves , the dangers of our own concupiscence , and th● miseries of our infirmity ; leave not our souls in our own hands , but keep them under thy protection and government , lest we swerve from thy commandments , but that applying our hearts alway to fulfil thy statutes even unto the end , we may possesse thy law as our portion & inheritance for ever . Grant this , O blessed Jesu , for thy promise and for thy mercies sake , that we may glorifie thee in the unity of the most mysterious Trinity now and for evermore . Amen . XV. I Hate them that imagine evil things : but thy law do I love . 2 Thou art my defence and shield : and my trust is in ●hy word . 3 Away from me ye wicked : I will keep the commandments of my God. 4 O stablish me according unto thy word , that I may live : and let me not be disappointed of my hope . 5 Hold thou me up , and I shall be safe : yea , my delight shall be ever in thy statutes . 6 Thou hast trodden down all them that depart from thy statutes : for they imagine but deceit . 7 Thou puttest away all the ungodly of the earth like drosse : therefore I love thy testimonies . 8 My flesh trembleth for fear of thee : and I am afraid of thy judgements . The Prayer . O God our defence & shield , thou that treadest down all them that depart from thy law , and puttest away the ungodly of the earth like drosse , let thy mercies hold us up , that we may be safe from sin and death eternall : make us to hate all evill things , all evil imaginations , that we being stablished with a trust in thee ? and building our expectations ▪ upon thy mercies and promises , we may not be disappointed of our hope , but may live with thee eternally , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . XVI . I Deal with the thing that is lawfull and right : O give me not over unto mine oppressors . 2 Make thou thy servant to delight in that which is good : that the proud do me no wrong . 3 Mine eyes are wasted away with looking for thy health : and for the word of thy righteousnesse . 4 O deal with thy servant according unto thy loving mercy : and teach me thy Statutes . 5 I am thy servant , O grant me understanding : that I may know thy testimonies . 6 It is time for thee , Lord , to lay to thine hand : for they have destroyed thy law . 7 For I love thy commandments : above gold and precious stone . 8 Therefore hold I straight all thy commandments : and all false wayes I utterly abhorre . The Prayer . O Lord God , thou seest with what miseries & dangers we are encompass●d , our ghostly enemies seek to doe us wrong , and to oppresse our souls ; give us not over unto their malice , but arm us against their pride and insolency by faith in thy word , by hope of thy mercies , and looking for thy health , and by love unto thy commandments , that so in this world , & in the eternall retribution of the Saints , thou maist deal with thy servants according to thy loving mercy . Grant this for Jesus Christ his sake our Lord and onely Saviour . Amen . XVII . THy testimonies are wonderfull : therefore doth my soul keep them . 2 When thy word goeth forth : it giveth light and understanding unto the simple . 3 I opened my mouth and drew in my breath : for my ●elight was in thy commandments . 4 O look thou upon me , and be mercifull unto me : as ●hou usest to do unto those that love thy name . 5 Order my steps in thy word : and so shall no wicked●esse have dominion over . 6 O deliver me from the wrongfull dealings of men : ●nd so shall I keep thy commandments . 7 Shew the light of thy countenance upon thy servant : and teach me thy statutes . 8 Mine eles gush out with water : because men keep not thy law . The Prayer . O Just and dear God , shew the light of thy countenance upon thy servants , & let this light give unto us understanding in thy law , that our steps being ordered in thy word , thou maist deliver us from the wrongfull dealings of men , and from the malicious enmities of our Ghostly adversaries , that by their temptations , and our own weaknesse , we may never be brought under the dominion of sin and wickednesse , that when thy word goeth forth to call to judgment all people , quick & dead , thou maist be mercifull unto us , and save us , as thou usest to doe unto those that love thy name . Grant this for the merits and mercies of our dearest Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen . XVIII . RIghteous art thou , O Lord : and true is thy judgement . 2 The testimonies that thou hast commanded : are exceeding righteous and true . 3 My zeal hath even consumed me : because mine enemies have forgotten thy words . 4 Thy word is tried to the uttermost : and thy servant loveth it . 5 I am small , and of no reputation : yet do I not forget thy commandements . 6 Thy righteousnesse is an ev●rlasting righteousnesse : and thy law is the truth . 7 Trouble and heavinesse have taken hold upon mee : yet is my delight in thy commandements . 8 The righteousnesse of thy testimonies is everlasting : O grant me understanding , and I shall live . The Prayer . O Righteous Lord God , whose judgements are true , and thy testimonies exceeding righteous , enkindle our souls with zeal to thy Laws and service , that the continuall remembrance of thy Commandements may so enable our souls , as to give a greatnesse and reputation to us in thy estimation , even the greatnesse of humility and obedience , which are more honourable in thy eyes then all the pomps and vanities of this world . Grant this for his sake , who for our sakes humbled himself to the form of a servant , and became obedient to the death of the Crosse , even Jesus Christ our Lord , to whom with the Father and the holy Spirit be all honour and glory , now and for ever . Amen . Evening Prayer . XIX . I Call with my whole heart : hear me , O Lord , I will keep thy statutes . 2 Yea , even upon thee doe I call : help me , and I shall keep thy testimonies . 3 Early in the morning doe I cry unto thee : for in thy word is my trust . 4 Mine eyes prevent the night-watches : that I might be occupied in thy words . 5 Hear my voyce ( O Lord ) according unto thy loving kindnesse : quicken me according as thou art wont . 6 They draw nigh that of malice persecute me : and are farre from thy law . 7 Be thou nigh at hand , O Lord : for all thy commandements are true . 8 As concerning thy testimonies , I have known long since : that thou hast grounded them for ever . The Prayer . O Lord God of eternall mercy and truth , give us hearts fixed upon thy divine beauties , and an actuall intention in our prayers , that we may call upon thee with our whole hearts , and do thou hear in heaven when we call upon thee : deliver us from all them that of malice draw nigh to persecut● and afflict us , be thou also nigh at hand , and nothing can disturb our safety . Make us to seek to thee early in the morning ; let our eyes and our prayers prevent the night-watches , that we may be safe in our conversation with thee , and our daily approaches to thy Mercy-seat , where thou sittest attended with Cherubims and Seraphims , glorious in thy self , incomprehensible in thy Attributes , and infinitely rejoycing in thy mercies which thou shewest unto us in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen . XX. O Consider mine adversity , and deliver me : for I doe not forget thy law . 2 Avenge thou my cause , and deliver me : quicken me according unto thy word . 3 Health is far from the ungodly : for they regard not thy statutes . 4 Great is thy mercy , O Lord : quicken me as thou art wont . 5 Many there are that trouble me , and persecute me : yet doe I not swerve from thy testimonies . 6 It grieveth me when I see the transgressors : because they keep not thy law . 7 Consider , O Lord , how I love thy commandements : O quicken me according to thy loving kindnesse . 8 Thy word is true from everlasting : all the judgements of thy righteousnesse endure for evermore . The Prayer . O Lord thy mercy is great , thy Word is true from everlasting , and in the truth of thy Word , and in the mercies of thy promises and loving kindnesse thou lovest to be known to the sons of men ; O give us thy health and salvation , that our souls being delivered from the heavy pressure of sin , and quickned in thy Word , thou mayest avenge us of all our ghostly enemies , and deliver us in thy righteousness in the day of thy eternall vengeance upon the ungodly , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . XXI . PRinces have persecuted me without a cause : but my heart standeth in aw of thy words . 2 I am as glad of thy word : as one that findeth great spoils . 3 As for lies , I hate and abhorre them : but thy law doe I love . 4 Seven times a day doe I praise thee : because of thy righteous judgements . 5 Great is the peace that they have which love thy law : and they are not offended at it . 6 Lord , I have looked for thy saving health : and done after thy commandements . 7 My soul hath kept thy testimonies : and loved them exceedingly . 8 I have kept thy commandements and testimonies : for all my ways are before thee . The Prayer . ALL our ways ( O God ) are before thee ; let all our ways be directed by thee , & teach us to walk as in thy presence . Make us to hate and abhorre lies and vanity , and give us so much love , and so much zeal of thy Name and honour , that we may make it a businesse to give thee praises with a frequent and daily devotion , that we standing in awe of thy Word and holy Laws , and doing after thy Commandements , our expectations may be satisfied with thy saving health , and we may at last enjoy the peace which they have that love thy Law , even the peace of a good conscience here , and of a blessed eternity hereafter , through Iesus Christ our Lord. Amen . XXII . LEt my complaint come before thee , O Lord : give me understanding according to thy word . 2 Let my supplication come before thee : deliver me according to thy word . 3 My lips shall speak of thy praise : when thou hast taught me thy statutes . 4 Yea , my tongue shall sing of thy word : for all thy commandements are righteous . 5 Let thine hand help me : for I have chosen thy commandements . 6 I have longed for thy saving health , O Lord : and in thy law is my delight . 7 O let my soul live , and it shall praise thee : and thy judgements shall help me . 8 I have gone astray like a sheep that is lost : Oh seek thy servant , for I do not forget thy commandements . The Prayer . O Lord God , we have gone astray from thy Commandments , and been like lost sheep , thou art our Shepheard and our mercifull Guide ; O seek thy servants , let thy hand help us , let thy care and providence reduce us into the way of thy statutes ; that we being delivered according to thy Word from thy wrath , and from our own corruptions and irregularities , may at last be satisfied with thy saving health , and our lips may speak of thy praise in the quire of Saints and Angels , singing glorious Anthems to all eternity , to the honour of thee , O Lord God eternall , who livest and reignest world without end . Amen . Morning Prayer . PSALME 120. A Prayer to be delivered from false tongues , and cohabitation with wicked persons . WHen I was in trouble , I called upon the Lord : and he heard me . 2 Deliver my soul , O Lord , from lying lips : and from a deceitfull tongue . 3 What reward shall be given or done unto thee , thou false tongue : even mighty and sharp arrows , with hot burning coals . 4 Wo is me , that I am constrained to dwell with Mesech : and to have my habitation among the tents of Cedar . 5 My soul hath long dwelt among them : that be enemies unto peace . 6 I labour for peace , but when I speak unto them thereof : they make them ready to battell . The Prayer . O Lord God , who hearest the prayers of them that call upon thee in their calamities and distresses , have mercy upon us thy servants , who live in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation , whereof we our selves make too great a part ; we beseech thee so to order the circumstances and opportunities of our life , that we may live in the society of holy people , whose example and conversation may be a continuall incentive to the ways of peace and righteousnesse ; and deliver us from a necessity of conversing with turbulent spirits , angry , and unpeacefull dispositions , who upon all occasions make themselves ready to battell . Sanctifie our hearts and lips with a burning coal from thy altar , that our words may be holy and profitable , and keep us from all slander and scandall , and the rewards of both , the sharp arrows of thy vengeance , the hot burning coals of thy wrath . Grant this for Iesus Christ his sake , our Lord and onely Saviour . Amen . PSALME 121. A Prayer for Gods protection over us . I Will lift up mine eyes unto the hils : from whence commeth my help . 2 My help commeth even from the Lord : which hath made heaven and earth . 3 He will not suffer thy foot to be moved : and he that keepeth thee , will not sleep . 4 Behold , he that keepeth Israel : shall neither slumber nor sleep . 5 The Lord himself is thy keeper : the Lord is thy defence upon thy right hand . 6 So that the Sun shall not burn thee by day : neither the moon by night . 7 The Lord shall preserve thee from all evill : yea , it is even he that shall keep thy soul. 8 The Lord shall preserve thy going out , and thy comming in : from this time forth for evermore . The Prayer . O Lord God our keeper , who dwellest upon the eternall hils from whence commeth all our help , let thy mercies and thy providence watch over us by day and night , that neither the vanities of the one , nor the terrors of the other may disturb our peace or safety . Let not our feet be moved , but be fixed upon the Rock Christ Jesus , and so order our goings , making us to walk in the way of thy Commandments , that thou mayest goe in and out before us , till at last we come into thy presence to dwell with thee for evermore , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . PSALME 122. A Prayer for the peace and prosperity of the Church . I Was glad when they said unto me : We will goe into the house of the Lord. 2 Our feet shall stand in thy gates : O Jerusalem . 3 Jerusalem is builded as a city : that is at unity in i● selfe . 4 For thither the Tribes goe up , even the Tribes of the Lord : to testifie unto Israel , to give thanks unto the name of the Lord. 5 For there is the seat of judgement : even the seat of the house of David . 6 O pray for the peace of Jerusalem : they shall prosper that love thee ▪ 7 Peace be within thy wals : and plenteousnesse within thy palaces . 8 For my brethren and companions sakes : I will wish thee prosperity . 9 Yea , because of the house of the Lord our God : I will seek to do thee good . The Prayer . O Blessed Jesu , who didst descend according to thy humane Nature from the house of thy servant David , and hast planted a Church , and defended it with a mighty hand and great assistances be pleased to preserve peace within her wals , and send plenteousnesse within her palaces , that all that love her peace may prosper , and receive the blessings which thou givest to thy faithfull people in the communion of Saints . Take from her all schismes and divisions , that she may be like a city that is at unity within it self , strong in faith , abounding in hope , and rich in the treasures of charity , that at last she may be removed to a fellowship of all those joys and felicities which are laid up for the inhabitants of the heavenly Jerusalem which is from above , and is the mother of us all . Grant this , O blessed Jesu , our only Mediatour and Redeemer . Amen . PSALME 123. An ejaculation , or a lifting up our souls to God for help in trouble . VNto thee lift I up mine eyes : O thou that dwellest in the heavens . 2 Behold , even as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters , and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistresse : even so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God , untill he have mercy upon us . 3 Have mercy upon us , O Lord , have mercy upon us : for we are utterly despised . 4 Our soul is filled with the scornfull reproofe of the wealthy : and with the despite fulnesse of the proud . The Prayer . O Lord God , that dwellest in the heavens , have mercy upon us in all our troubles , in contempt , in our poverty , and when ever we are oppressed by any injurious practices of the proud . Thou art our Lord and Master , we are thy servants , our eyes wait upon thee till thou have mercy upon us : let us not be ashamed of our hope , nor unfaithfull in our services , nor distrustfull of thy providence , but make us diligent labourers in our calling , good husbands of our talents , and faithfull in all thy house , that we first se●●ing thee may at last sit down at meat with thee at thy table in thy Kingdom , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . PSALME 124. A thanksgiving for our deliverance from the power of all our enemies , and a confessing God to be the Author of it . IF the Lord himself had not been on our side ( now may Israel say : ) if the Lord himself had not been on our side when men rose up against us . 2 They had swallowed us up quick : when they were so wrathfully displeased at us . 3 Yea , the waters had drowned us : and the stream had gone over our soul. 4 The deep waters of the proud : had gone even over our soul. 5 But praised ●e the Lord : which hath not given us over for a prey unto their teeth . 6 Our soul is escaped , even as a bird out of the snare of the fowler : the snare is broken , and we are delivered . 7 Our help standeth in the Name of the Lord : which hath made heaven and earth . The Prayer . O Lord God , which hast made Heaven and Earth , in whose Name our help standeth , we praise and blesse thy Name , that in our troubles and temptations thou hast stood on our side , and pleaded for us against them that rose against us . It was thy hand ( O Lord ) and the help of thy mercy that relieved us : the waters of affliction had drowned us , and the stream had gone over our soul , if the Spirit of the Lord had not moved upon the waters : Thou ( O Lord ) didst blast the designs of our enemies with the breath of thy displeasure , and to thee ( O Lord ) we ascribe the praise and honour of our redemption . Perpetuate thy mercies to us , let us never be given over as a prey to our ghostly enemies , but break their snares , discover and weaken all their temptations by which they would destroy our souls , that we being delivered from sin , may be preserved from thy wrath , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . PSALME 125. A Prayer for confidence in God , and for deliverance from the portion of the wicked . THey that put their trust in the Lord , shall be even as the mount Sion : which may not be removed , but standeth fast for ever . 2 The hils stand about Jerusalem : ●ven so standeth the Lord round about his people , from this time forth for evermore . 3 For the rod of the ungodly commeth not into the lot of the righteous : lest the righteous put their hand unto wickednesse . 4 Doe well , O Lord : unto those that be good and true of heart . 5 As for such as turn back unto their own wickednesse : the Lord shall lead them forth with the evill doers , but peace shall be upon Israel . The Prayer . O Lord God , our Trust and Confidence , in whom whosoever trusteth shall never be removed , but standeth fast for ever : let thy mercies and the guard of holy Angels stand round about us , and about all thy holy people , like the hils for our defence and safety , that we may be inaccessible by all the intendments of our enemies . O let us not put our hands to wickednesse , neither let our portion be in the lot of the ungodly , whom thou leadest forth to destruction , but let us receive the blessing which our Lord Iesus left unto his Church , even the peace of God the Father , of the Son , and of the holy Ghost ; to whom be all honour and glory ascribed of men and Angels , now and for ever . Amen . Evening Prayer . PSALME 126. A contemplation of the joys and blessings of them that depart hence in the Lord. WHen the Lord turned again the captivity of Sion : then were we like to them that dream . 2 Then was our mouth filled with laughter : and our tongue with joy . 3 Then said they among the heathen : The Lord hath done great things for them . 4 Yea , the Lord had done great things for us already : whereof we rejoyce . 5 Turn thou our captivity , O Lord : as the rivers in the south . 6 They that sow in tears : shall reap in joy . 7 He that now goeth on his way weeping , and beareth forth good seed : shall doubtlesse come again with joy , and bring his sheaves with him . The Prayer . O Lord God , who hast promised salvation to thy people , and hast done great things for us already , deliver us from the captivity and bondage of sinne and misery . Fill our hearts with holy sorrow and compunction when ever we trespasse against thee , and teach us so to deny our selves , to mortifie our affections , to crucifie our lusts and all the temptations of the flesh , that we going on our way with mourning and weeping , despising the pleasures of this life , may when thy great harvest shall come , and thy reapers the Angels shall separate the wheat from the tares , come before thee with joy , and bring our sheaves with us to be laid up in thy granary , that so we may escape the everlasting burning , through the mercies of Jesus Christ. Amen . PSALME 127. A Prayer for Gods blessing to goe along with the temporall good things he gives us . EXcept the Lord build the house : their labour is but lost that build it . 2 Except the Lord keep the city : the watchman waketh but in vain . 3 It is but lost labour that ye haste to rise up early , and so late take rest , and eat the bread of carefulnesse : for so he giveth his beloved sleep . 4 Lo , children and the fruit of the womb : are an heritage and gift that commeth of the Lord. 5 Like as the arrows in the hand of the giant : even so are the young children . 6 Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them : they shall not be ashamed when they speak with their enemies in the gate . The Prayer . O Lord God , without whose blessing all our labours are vain and unprofitable , and our possessions are but bitter and unpleasant : let thy blessing be upon our labours and our substance , our children , and our dwelling , that the good things of this life may be an heritage and gift from thee , issues of thy favour , and an earnest of a greater blessing : make our souls diligent in thy service , not importunate and greedy for the encrease of riches : let our dwellings be safe and peaceable , and our families increase in thy blessings , that we feeling the comforts of thy favour here , may be stirred up to great desires after the blessings of eternity , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . PSALME 128. A Prayer for the fear of God , and the blessings of the godly . BLessed are all they that fear the Lord : and walk in his ways . 2 For thou shalt eat the labours of thine hands : O well is thee , and happy shalt thou be . 3 Thy wife shall be as the fruitfull vine : upon the wals of thine house . 4 Thy children like the olive-branches : round about thy table . 5 Lo , thus shall the man be blessed : that feareth the Lord. 6 The Lord from out of Sion shall so blesse thee : that thou shall 〈◊〉 Jerusalem in prosperity all thy life long . 7 Yea , th●t thou shalt see thy childrens children : and peace upon Israel . The Prayer . O Lord God , who hast promised to multiply thy blessings upon them that fear thee ; teach us the fear of the Lord , and let thy Spirit so assist us , that we may walk in thy ways with great observation of all our actions , and much diligence to perform thy holy will , that we may receive the blessings of the righteous , blessings of the right hand , and of the left hand , and may rejoyce in the blessing and peace of thy Church , waiting for the consummation of all blessing and peace in thy eternall Kingdome , through Iesus Christ our Lord. Amen . PSALME 129. A Prayer against the enemies of the Church . MAny a time have they fought against me from my youth up : ( may Israel now say . ) 2 Ye● , many a time have they vexed mee from my youth up : but they have not prevailed against me . 3 The plowers plowed upon my back : and made long furrows . 4 But the righteous Lord : hath hewen the snares of the ungodly in pieces . 5 Let them be confounded and turned backward : as many as have evill will at Sion . 6 Let them be even as the grasse growing upon the house tops : which withereth afore it be plucked up . 7 Whereof the mower filleth not his hand : neither he that bindeth up the sheaves , his bosome . 8 So that they which goe by , say not so much as the Lord prosper you : we wish you good luck in the name of the Lord. The Prayer . O Most blessed Iesu , who for our sins didst suffer the plowers to plow upon thy back , and make long furrows , suffering shame and whipping for our sakes , and all the contradictions of sinners , and didst leave sorrows and afflictions intailed upon thy Church , that by suffering with thee , she might at last reign with thee in glory : Deliver us and all thy holy Church , from all that fight against us ; hew the snares of the ungodly in pieces , let the designes of them that have evill will at thy Church , be like the grasse growing upon the house tops , withered and blasted before it comes to maturity ; and make us to prosper under thy mercies , and in the good wishes and devout prayers of holy people , through Iesus Christ our Lord. Amen . PSALME 130. A penitentiall Psalme , or a prayer for pardon and redemption from sins . OUt of the deep have I called unto thee ( O Lord : ) Lord hear my voice . 2 Oh let thine eares consider well : the voice of my complaint . 3 If thou Lord wilt be extream to mark what is done amisse : O Lord , who may abide it ? 4 For there is mercy with thee : therefore shalt thou be feared . 5 I look for the Lord , my soul doth wait for him : in his word is my trust . 6 My soul fleeth unto the Lord : before the morning watch , I say , before the morning watch . 7 O Israel trust in the Lord , for with the Lord there is mercy : and with him is plenteous redemption . 8 And he shall redeem Israel : from all his sins . The Prayer . O Lord God , blessed Iesu , with whom is mercy and plenteous redemption , who didst redeem thy people from all their sins , paying the ransome of thine own bloud to purchase us freedome and salvation : let the height of thy mercy take us up from the deep abysse of sin and misery . O be not extream to mark what we have done amisse , for it is impossible we should abide the extreamity of thy severest judgements : and as thy mercy pardons what is past , so let the sweetness of it beget thy fear in our hearts , that we may not dare to offend so gracious , so mercifull a God , but that trusting in thy Word , and flying unto thee for succour , we may wait for thee till our change commeth , looking for thee in holiness and righteousness all our days . Grant this for thy mercies and compassion sake , O blessed Jesu , our onely Saviour and Redeemer . Amen . PSALME 131. A Prayer for the graces of humility and mortification . LOrd , I am not high minded : I have no proud looks . 2 I doe not exercise my selfe in great matters : which are too high for me . 3 But I refrain my soul , and keep it low , like as a childe that is weaned from his mother : yea , my soul is even as a weaned childe . 4 O Israel trust in the Lord : from this time forth for evermore . The Prayer . O Lord God , before whom the humble Publican ( who durst not lift up his eyes to Heaven , but with confusion of face begged pardon ) was justified and acquitted : give unto us thy servants humility of soul , and modesty in our behaviour , that our looks be not proud , nor our thoughts arrogant , nor our designes ambitious : but that our souls being refrained from all vanity and pride , our affections weaned from great opinions and love of our selves , we may trust in thee , follow the example of our blessed Master , and receive thy promises which thou hast made unto us , in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen . Morning Prayer . PSALME 132. A Prayer for the Church , for the promotion of Religion , for the King , and for the Clergy . LOrd remember David : and all his trouble . 2 How he sware unto the Lord : and vowed a vow unto the Almighty God of Jacob. 3 I will not come within the tabernacle of my house : nor climb up into my bed . 4 I will not suffer mine eyes to sleep , nor mine eye-lids to slumber : neither the temples of my head to take any r●st , 5 Untill I finde out a place for the temple of the Lord : an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob. 6 Lo , we heard of the same at Ephrata : and found it in the wood , 7 We will goe into his tabernacle : and fall low on our knees before his foot-stool . 8 Arise , O Lord , into thy resting place : thou and the ark of thy strength . 9 Let thy Priests be clothed with righteousnesse : and let thy saints sing with joyfulnesse . 10 For thy servant Davids sake : turn not away the presence of thine anointed . 11 The Lord hath made a faithfull oath unto David : and he shall not shrink from it . 12 Of the fruit of thy body : shall I set upon thy seat . 13 If thy children will keep my covenant and my testimonies that I shall learn them : their children also shall sit upon thy seat for evermore . 14 For the Lord hath chosen Sion to be an habitation for himself : he hath longed for her . 15 This shall be my rest for ever : here will I dwell , for I have a delight therein . 16 I will blesse her victuals with increase : and will satisfie her poor with bread . 17 I will deck her Priests with health : and her saints shall rejoyce and sing . 18 There shall I make the horn of David to flourish : I have ordained a lantern for mine anointed . 19 As for his enemies , I shall clothe them with shame : but upon himself shall his crown flourish . The Prayer . O Lord God , who dwellest not in Temples made with hands , and yet hast been pleased to manifest thy presence by speciall blessings and assistances , in places set apart for thy worship , be pleased to hear our prayers , and accept our services when ever we make our addresses to thee in the house of prayer , and fall down low on our knees before thy footstool : let thy Priests be clothed with righteousness , and let thy Saints sing with joyfulness , and let all those that make their approaches unto thee purifie their hearts and hands , that they may offer to thee a pure sacrifice , even the sacrifice of obedience and holinesse , and the expresses of true Religion . Blesse ( O Lord ) thy servant the King , whom thou hast made the Patron and Defender of the Church , make his horn to flourish and be exalted above all his enemies , and let thy Word be as a lantern for thine Anointed , to shew him thy holy will and pleasure , that he seeking thy honour and glory , thy Church may flourish under the covert of his shield and patronage , her victuals may be blessed with increase , her poor satisfied with bread , her Priests decked with health , her Saints with joy , and himself with honour and great renown , and a flourishing diademe , while his enemies sit clothed in shame and misery . Grant this , O blessed God , for Jesus Christ his sake , our Lord and onely Saviour . Amen . PSALME 133. A Prayer for unity in the Church , in a Kingdom , or family . BEhold how good and joyfull a thing it is : breth●en to dwell together in unity . 2 It is like the precious ointment upon the head , that ran down unto the beard : even unto Aarons beard , and went down to the skirts of his clothing . 3 Like as the dew of Hermon : which fell upon the hill of Sion . 4 For there the Lord promised his blessing : and life for evermore . The Prayer . O Blessed Jesu , in whose garment was variety but no rent or seam , have mercy upon thy holy Catholike Church , and all Christian Kingdomes and Families ; and so unite all our hearts and affections by the union of Faith and Charity , that we be not torn into Factions and Schisms , but being anointed with the precious ointment , even the anointing of thy Spirit from above , we may keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace ; and grant that this holy ointment may so knit together the Guides of thy Church , the Rulers of Kingdomes , the Princes of the Nations , that the blessings of it may descend to the skirts of the people , and that thou mayest blesse us with thy graces here and hereafter , give us life for evermore in the participation of thy glorious Kingdom , where thou livest and reignest ever one God , world without end . Amen . PSALME 134. An invitation to the Clergy to be diligent in singing Gods praises publikely . BEhold ( now ) praise the Lord : all ye servants of the Lord. 2 Ye that by night stand in the house of the Lord : even in the courts of the house of our God. 3 Lift up your hands in the sanctuary : and praise the Lord. 4 The Lord that made heaven and earth : give thee blessing out of Sion . The Prayer . O Lord , Creatour and Governour of all the world , thou that madest Heaven and Earth , that all should celebrate thy praise and the glory of thy Name , give great Religion and devout affections to thy Ministers , that by frequent elevation of their hands and hearts in thy Sanctuary , in behalf of themselves and all the people , thy honour may be exalted among all thy servants , Religion may be advanced , and the love of thy Name increased , and thy blessings may descend upon us in a plentifull proportion , to supply all our necessities , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . PSALME 135. A Prayer that God would avenge his People of their Enemies , and an invitation of them to praise his Name . O Praise the Lord , laud ye the Name of the Lord : praise it , O ye servants of the Lord. 2 Ye that stand in the house of the Lord : in the courts of the house of our God. 3 O praise the Lord , for the Lord is gracious : O sing praises unto his name , for it is lovely . 4 For why ? the Lord hath chosen Jacob unto himself : and Israel for his own possession . 5 For I know that the Lord is great : and that our Lord is above all gods . 6 Whatsoever the Lord pleased , that did he in heaven and in earth : and in the sea , and in all deep places . 7 He bringeth forth the clouds from the ends of the world : and sendeth forth lightnings with the rain , bringing the windes out of his treasures . 8 He smote the first-born of Egypt : both of man and beast . 9 He hath sent tokens and wonders into the midst of thee , O thou land of Egypt : upon Pharaoh and all his servants . 10 Hee smote divers Nations : and slew mighty Kings . 11 Sehon king of the Amorites , and Og the king of Basan : and all the kingdomes of Canaan . 12 And gave their land to be an heritage : even an heritage unto Israel his people . 13 Thy Name , O Lord , endureth for ever : so doth thy memoriall , O Lord , from one generation to another . 14 For the Lord will avenge his people : and be gracious unto his servants . 15 As for the images of the heathen , they are but silver and gold : the work of mens hands . 16 They have mouthes and speak not : eyes have they , but they see not . 17 They have eares , and yet they hear not : neither is there any breath in their mouthes . 18 They that make them are like unto them : and so are all they that put their trust in them . 19 Praise the Lord , ye house of Israel : praise the Lord , ye house of Aaron . 20 Praise the Lord , ye house of Levi : ye that fear the Lord , praise the Lord. 21 Praised be the Lord out of Sion : which dwelleth at Jerusalem . The Prayer . O Lord God , in whose sight the death of all the Saints is precious , and to whom the souls of the Martyrs from under the Altar call to avenge their bloud that is shed like water upon the earth ; be gracious unto us thy servants , avenge all thy people of their enemies , that all that hate and persecute thy Church , being either brought to repentance or confusion , thy Name and thy memoriall may be celebrated to all generations , thy Kingdome and thy comming may be hastened , that the Saints may receive the consummation of their glories , by resurrection of their bodies , and receiving the crown of righteousnesse which thou hast prepared for all that put their trust in thee , and that we all standing in the house of the Lord , even in the courts of the house of our God for ever , may praise thy Name which is gracious and lovely , even for ever and ever . Amen . Evening Prayer . PSALME 136. A Prayer of thanksgiving to God for his eternall mercies . O Give thanks unto the Lord , for he is gracious : and his mercy endureth for ever . 2 O give thanks unto the God of all gods : for his mercy endureth for ever . 3 O thank the Lord of all lords : for his mercy endureth for ever . 4 Which onely doth great wonders : for his mercy endureth for ever . 5 Which by his excellent wisdome made the heavens : for his mercy endureth for ever . 6 Which laid out the earth above the waters : for his mercy endureth for ever . 7 Which hath made great lights : for his mercy endureth for ever . 8 The sun to rule the day : for his mercy endureth for ever . 9 The moon and the starres to govern the night : for his mercy endureth for ever . 10 Which smote Egypt with their first-born : for his mercy endureth for ever . 11 And brought out Israel from among them : for his mercy endureth for ever . 12 With a mighty hand and a stretched out arm : for his mercy endureth for ever . 13 Which divided the Red sea in two parts : for his mercy endureth for ever . 14 And made Israel to go through the midst of it : for his mercy endureth for ever . 15 But as for Pharaoh and his host , he overthrew them in the Red sea : for his mercy endureth for ever . 16 Which led his people through the wildernesse : for his mercy endureth for ever . 17 Which smote great kings : for his mercy endureth for ever . 18 Yea , and slew mighty kings : for his mercy endureth for ever . 19 Sehon king of the Amorites : for his mercy endureth for ever . 20 And Og the king of Basan : for his mercy endureth for ever . 21 And gave away their land for an heritage : for his mercy endureth for ever . 22 Even for an heritage unto Israel his servant : for his mercy endureth for ever . 23 Which remembred us when we were in trouble : for his mercy endureth for ever . 24 And hath delivered us from our enemies : for his mercy endureth for ever . 25 Which giveth food to all flesh : for his mercy endureth for ever . 26 O give thanks unto the God of heaven : for his mercy endureth for ever . 27 O give thanks unto the Lord of lords : for his mercy endureth for ever . The Prayer . O God of Heaven , and Lord of lords , who by thy excellent wisdome hast made the Heavens , and onely dost great wonders in Heaven and Earth , making all thy creatures to be expresses of thy power , and of thy loving mercy , let thy mighty hand and stretched out arme lead us through the midst of this world , and the throng of all our enemies , giving us food for the sustenance of our bodies , the light of the sun of righteousness to lead us in our goings , and great apprehensions of thy mercy to excite in us devotion and true Religion , that we praising thy mercies , and being relieved and sustained by thy loving kindnesse , may at last come to the land of promise which thou givest for an heritage to thy people , and may receive the mercies of thy Kingdome , which endure for ever , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . PSALME 137. A Prayer for redemption of the Church from captivity and persecution . BY the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept : when we remembred ( thee ) O Sion . 2 As for our harps , we hanged them up : upon the trees that are therein . 3 For they that led us away captive , required of us then a song and melody in our heavinesse : sing us one of the songs of Sion . 4 How shall wee sing the Lords song : in a strange land ? 5 If I forget thee , O Jerusalem : let my right hand forget her cunning . 6 If I doe not remember thee , let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth : yea , if I preferre not Jerusalem in my mirth . 7 Remember the children of Edom , O Lord , in the day of Jerusalem : how they said , Down with it , down with it , even to the ground . 8 O daughter of Babylon , wasted with misery : yea , happy shall he be that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us . 9 Blessed shall he be that taketh thy children : and throweth them against the stones . The Prayer . O Lord our God , thou hast placed us in this world like pilgrims and strangers far from our Contrey , far from rest ; give us souls and desires so abstract , so religious and contemplative , that all our hopes , our joys , and longings may be to enjoy thee and thy glories in the celestiall Jerusalem : and let thy comforts refresh us in this our captivity and exile , that in our heavinesse thou maist be our joy , our songs and melody may be the songs of Sion , the praises of thy Name , that when thou hast delivered us from the wrath and malice of our enemies , and dashed all their wickednesse ( which they have conceived and would bring forth to our destruction ) against the Rock Christ Jesus , we may be blessed amongst thy children , and be carried into our Countrey the Land of glorious promises , there to reign with thee , who livest and governest all things , world without end . Amen . PSALME 138. A Prayer and a thanksgiving for Gods mercies . I Will give thanks unto thee , O Lord , with my whole heart : even before the gods will I sing praise unto thee . 2 I will worship toward thy holy temple , and praise thy name , because of thy loving kindn●sse and truth : for thou hast magnified thy name and thy word above all things . 3 When I called upon thee , thou heardest me : and enduedst my soul with much strength . 4 All the kings of the earth shall praise thee , O Lord : for they have heard the words of thy mouth . 5 Yea , they shall sing in the ways of the Lord : that great is the glory of the Lord. 6 For though the Lord be high , yet hath he respect unto the lowly : as for the proud , he beholdeth them afarre off . 7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble , yet shalt thou refresh me : thou shalt stretch forth thine hand upon the furiousnesse of mine enemies , and thy right hand shall save mee . 8 The Lord shall make good his loving kindnesse toward me : yea , thy mercy , O Lord , endureth for ever , despise not then the works of thine own hands . The Prayer . O Lord God , who hast magnified thy Name and Word above all things , make good thy loving kindnesses towards us , and endue our souls with much strength , that thine hand being stretched forth upon the furiousness of all our ghostly enemies , and we being saved by thy right hand , may praise thee , and all thy glories , serving thee here with a lowly minde , and a great industry , that at last we may worship thee in thy holy Temple , in the midst of all the Myriads of Angels , where thy glory is great and farre exalted above all gods . Grant this for Jesus Christ his sake our Lord and onely Saviour . Amen . Morning Prayer . PSALME 139. A meditation of the omnipresence of God , and a prayer that we may alwayes walk as in his sight . O Lord , thou hast searched me out , and known mee : thou knowest my down-sitting , and mine up-rising , thou understandest my thoughts long before . 2 Thou art about my path , and about my bed : and spiest out all my ways . 3 For lo , there is not a word in my tongue : but thou , O Lord , knowest it altogether . 4 Thou hast fashioned me behinde and before : and laid thine hand upon me . 5 Such knowledge is too wonderfull and excellent for me : I cannot attain unto it . 6 Whither shall I go then from thy Spirit : or whither shall I go then from thy presence ? 7 If I climb up into heaven , thou art there : if I go down to hell , thou art there also . 8 If I take the wings of the morning : and remain in the uttermost parts of the sea , 9 Even there also shall thy hand lead me : and thy right hand shall hold me . 80 If I say , Peradventure the darknesse shall cover me : then shall my night be turned to day . 11 Yea , the darknesse is no darknesse with thee , but the night is as clear as the day : the darknesse and light ( to thee ) are both alike . 12 For my reins are thine : thou hast covered mee in my mothers womb . 13 I will give thanks unto thee , for I am fearfully and wonderfully made : marvellous are thy works , and that my soul knoweth right well . 14 My bones are not hid from thee : though I be made secretly , and fashioned beneath in the earth . 15 Thine eyes did see my substance , yet being unperfect : and in thy book were all my members written . 16 Which day by day were fashioned : when as yet there was none of them . 17 How dear are thy counsels unto me , O God : O how great is the summe of them ! 18 If I tell them , they are mo in number then the sand : when I wake up , I am present with thee . 19 Wilt thou not slay the wicked , O God : depart from me ye blood-thirsty men . 20 For they speak unrighteously against thee : and thine enemies take thy Name in vain . 21 Do not I hate them , O Lord , that hate thee : and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee ? 22 Yea , I hate them right fore : even as though they were mine enemies . 23 Try me , O God , and seek the ground of my heart : prove me and examine my thoughts . 24 Look well if there be any way of wickednesse in me : and lead me in the way everlasting . The Prayer . O Lord our God , who art infinite in wisdom , and present in all places , filling heaven and earth and hell with the effects of thy mighty power , and communications of thy glorious essence : let thy hand lead us , and thy right hand hold us in all our ways , always considering that thou art present , understanding our thoughts and words , even long before they are , and seeing our most secret ways as clearly as in the sight of the sun : print thy fear mightily upon our souls , that we may be as fearfull of committing sins in secret , as in the eyes of all the world , that we hating all iniquity , and loving thy counsels as our dearest treasures and guide , may , by the paths of a holy life , be conducted into the way everlasting , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . PSALME 140. A Prayer for deliverance from the mischiefe of all wicked persons . DEliver me , O Lord , from the evil man : and preserve me from the wicked man. 2 Which imagine mischief in their hearts : and stirre up strife all the day long . 3 They have sharpned their tongues like a serpent : adders poison is under their lips . 4 Keep me , O Lord , from the hands of the ungodly : preserve me from the wicked men , which are purposed to overthrow my goings . 5 The proud have laid a snare for me , and spread a net abroad with cords : yea , and set traps in my way . 6 I said unto the Lord , Thou art my God : hear the voice of my prayers , O Lord. 7 O Lord God , thou strength of my health : thou hast covered my head in the day of battle . 8 Let not the ungodly have his desire , O Lord : let not his mischievous imaginations prosper , lest they bee too proud . 9 Let the mischief of their own lips fall upon the head of them : that compasse me about . 10 Let hot burning coals fall upon them : let them be cast into the fire and into the pit , that they never rise up again . 11 A man full of words shall not prosper upon the earth : evil shall hunt the wicked person to overthrow him . 12 Sure I am that the Lord will avenge the poor : and maintain the cause of the helplesse . 13 The righteous also shall give thanks unto thy name : and the just shall continue in thy sight . The Prayer . O Lord God , thou strength of our health , thou that avengest the poor , and maintainest the cause of the helplesse , deliver us , O Lord , and preserve us from the evil and wicked man , that neither his example may corrupt us , nor his counsels mislead us , nor his prosperity scandalize us , nor his strife disquiet us , nor his mischief disturb our safety ; but do thou cover our heads in the day of battell and contestation against all our bodily and ghostly enemies , that although they hunt us to overthrow us , yet we may prosper upon earth under thy favour and protection , and at last being removed from all fears , and sadnesse , and dangers , may continue in thy sight , amongst the congregation of the just for ever , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . PSALME 141. A Prayer for the vertue of religion , for holinesse of life , and for deliverance from the snares of our enemies . LOrd , I call upon thee , haste thee unto me : and consider my voyce , when I cry unto thee . 2 Let my prayer be set forth in thy sight , as the incense : and let the lifting up of my hands be an evening sacrifice . 3 Set a watch ( O Lord ) before my mouth : and keep the door of my lips . 4 O let not mine heart be enclined to any evil thing : let me not be occupied in ungodly works , with the men that work wickednesse , lest I eat of such things as please them . 5 Let the righteous rather smite me friendly : and reprove me . 6 But let not their precious balms break mine head : yea , I will pray yet against their wickednesse . 7 Let their Judges be overthrown in stony places : that they may hear my words , for they are sweet . 8 Our bones lie scattered before the pit : like as when one breaketh and heweth wood upon the earth . 9 But mine eyes look unto thee , O Lord God : in thee is my trust , O cast not out my soul. 10 Keep me from the snare which they have laid for me : and from the traps of the wicked doers . 11 Let the ungodly fall into their own nets together : and let me ever escape them . The Prayer . O Lord , our trust and confidence , haste thee unto us , and consider our voyce when we call upon thee in our trouble and necessity ; let our prayers ascend up unto thee as incense , and be as the savour of the evening and the morning sacrifice . We begge of thee nothing but grace and power to fulfill thy will ; let not our hearts be inclined to any evil : set a watch O Lord , before our mouth , and keep the door of our lips , let us not be busied in ungodly works , that we may never offend in our thoughts , or words , or actions ; and when we do amisse , do thou smite us friendly , & reprove us with the checks of a tender conscience , that thy fatherly correction may like precious balm cure all the wounds made by our own infirmities : that we escaping all the snares of wickednesse , may for ever hear and obey thy sweet words , and our souls may never be cast out of thy presence , but for ever may rejoyce in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen . Evening Prayer . PSALME 142. A Prayer in all sadnesse , and in the hour of death . I Cried unto the Lord with my voyce : yea , even unto the Lord did I make my supplication . 2 I poured out my complaints before him : and shewed him of my trouble . 3 When my spirit was in heavinesse , thou knewest my path : in the way wherein I walked have they privily laid a snare for me . 4 I looked also upon my right hand : and saw there was no man that would know me . 5 I had no place to flee unto : and no man cared for my soul. 6 I cried unto thee , O Lord , and said : Thou art my hope and my portion in the land of the living . 7 Consider my complaint : for I am brought very low . 8 O deliver me from my persecutors : for they are too strong for me . 9 Bring my soul out of prison , that I may give thanks unto thy Name : which thing if thou wilt grant me , then shall the righteous resort unto my company . The Prayer . O Lord God , thou art our hope , and our portion in the land of the living , consider our complaint and misery , thou art our place to flee unto , thou onely art our sanctuary ; O hide us under the covert of thy wings , keep us from all the dangers which multiply upon us when our spirits are in heavinesse , and our bodies pressed with infirmities : be thou always at our right hand , and assist us so with the strength of thy grace , that our temptations , and our enemies not being above our strength deriv'd from thee , our soul may with confidence go forth of prison , and give eternall thanks unto thy Name , in the companies of the Righteous , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . PSALME 143. A Prayer that God would pardon our sins , and direct us in the way of righteousnesse . HEare my prayer , O Lord , and consider my desire : hearken unto me for thy truth and righteousnesse sake . 2 And enter not into judgement with thy servant : for in thy sight shall no man living be justified . 3 For the enemy hath persecuted my soul , he hath smitten my life down to the ground : he hath laid me in the darknesse , as the men that have been long dead . 4 Therefore is my spirit vexed within me : and my heart within me is desolate . 5 Yet do I remember the time past , I muse upon all thy works : yea , I exercise my selfe in the works of thy hands . 6 I stretch forth my hands unto thee : my soul gaspeth ●nto thee as a thirsty land . 7 Hear me , O Lord , and that soon , for my spirit waxeth faint : hide not thy face from me , lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit . 8 O let me hear thy loving kindnesse betime● in the morning , for in thee is my trust : shew thou me the way that I should walk in , for I lift up my soul unto thee . 9 Deliver me , O Lord , from mine enemies : for I flee unto thee to hide me . 10 Teach me to do the thing that pleaseth thee , for thou art my God : let thy loving spirit lead me forth into the land of righteousnesse . 11 Quicken me , O Lord , for thy Names sake : and for thy righteousnesse sake bring my soul out of trouble . 12 And of thy goodnesse slay mine enemies : and destroy all them that vex my soul , for I am thy servant . The Prayer . O Lord our Judge , and our Redeemer , hearken unto us for thy truth and righteousnesse sake ; deliver us from the guilt of all our sinnes , and those great punishments which are due to us for the same . Enter not into judgement with us , for in thy sight no man can be justified by any worthinesse of his own . Endue our souls with the righteousnesse of a holy faith , living and working by charity . Shew us the way that we should walk in , teach us to do whatsoever pleaseth thee , quicken our souls in the paths of life , and so continue the conduct of thy Spirit to us , that it may never leave us till we be brought forth of this world , into the land of righteousnesse to dwell with thee eternally , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . Morning Prayer . PSALME 144. A thanksgiving for Victory , and a prayer for the blessings of Peace . BLessed be the Lord my strength : which teacheth my hands to war , and my fingers to fight . 2 My hope and my fortresse , my castle and deliverer , my defender , in whom I trust : which subdueth my people that is under me . 3 Lord , what is man that thou hast such respect unto him : or the son of man that thou so regardest him ? 4 Man is like a thing of nought : his time passeth away like a shadow . 5 Bow the heavens , O Lord , and come down : touch the mountains , and they shall smoke . 6 Cast forth thy lightning , and tear them : shoot out thine arrows , and consume them . 7 Send down thy hand from above : deliver me and take me out of the great waters , from the hand of strange children . 8 Whose mouth talketh of vanity : and their right hand is a right hand of wickednesse . 9 I will sing a new song unto thee , O God : and sing praises unto thee upon a ten-stringed lute . 10 Thou hast given victory unto kings : and hast d●livered David thy servant from the perill of the sword . 11 Save me and deliver me from the hand of strange children : whose mouth talketh of vanity , and their right hand is a right hand of iniquity . 12 That our sons may grow up as the young plants : and that our daughters may be as the polished corners of the Temple . 13 That our garners may be full and plenteous with all manner of store : that our sheep may bring forth thousands , and ten thousands in our streets . 14 That our oxen may be strong to labour , and there be no decay : no leading into captivity , and no complaining in our streets . 15 Happy are the people that be in such a case : yea , blessed are the people which have the Lord for their God. The Prayer . O Lord our strength , our hope and fortresse , our castle and deliverer , our defender in whom we trust ; bow the heavens , O Lord , come down and save us , send down thine hand from above , deliver us , and take us from the great waters , from those miseries and afflictions which come upon us by reason of our sins , from the condition of mortality , and from the hand of strange children , whose right hand is a right hand of wickednesse . Give us , O Lord , victory and peace , and all the blessings of thy peace , with which thou usest to adorn and beautifie the dwellings of the righteous , that we may be happy in the continuall descent of thy favours , but above all , our happinesse may consist in being thy people , and thou being our God , that we may be blessed for ever in so blessed a relation , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . PSALME 145. A meditation of the glory and Majesty of God , and the mightinesse of his kingdome . I Will magnifie thee , O God , my King : and I will praise thy Name for ever and ever . 2 Every day will I give thanks unto thee : and praise thy name for ever and ever . 3 Great is the Lord , and marvellous worthy to bee praised : there is no end of his greatnesse . 4 One generation shall praise thy works unto another : and declare thy power . 5 As for me , I will be talking of thy worship : thy glory , thy praise , and wondrous works . 6 So that men shall speak of the might of thy marvellous acts : and I will also tell of thy greatnesse . 7 The memoriall of thine abundant kindnesse shall be shewed : and men shall sing of thy righteousnesse . 8 The Lord is gracious and mercifull : long-suffering , and of great goodnesse . 9 The Lord is loving unto every man : and his mercy is over all his works . 10 All thy works praise thee , O Lord : and thy saints give thanks unto thee . 11 They shew the glory of thy Kingdome : and talk of thy power . 12 That thy power , thy glory , and mightinesse of thy Kingdome : might be known unto men . 13 Thy kingdome is an everlasting kingdome : and thy dominion endureth throughout all ages . 14 The Lord upholdeth all such as fall : and lifteth up all those that be down . 15 The eyes of all wait upon thee , O Lord : and thou givest them their meat in due season . 16 Thou openest thine hand : and fillest all things living with plenteousnesse . 17 The Lord is righteous in all his ways : and holy in all his works . 18 The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him : yea , all such as call upon him faithfully . 19 He will fulfill the desire of them that fear him : he also will hear their cry , and will help them . 20 The Lord preserveth all them that love him : but scattereth abroad all the ungodly . 21 My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord : and let all flesh give thanks unto his holy name for ever and ever . The Prayer . O God our King , thou art marvellous worthy to be praised , and there is no end of thy greatnesse ; give us enlarged and sanctified hearts , and lips , that we may sing of thy righteousnesse , and magnifie thy glory , thy worship , and wondrous works . All thy works praise thee , O Lord , and thy saints give thanks unto thee . Make us holy and righteous in thy sight , we are already the works of thine hands , and then , wee have a double title to praise thee . Uphold us , O Lord , that we fall not , and lift us up when we are down ; give us me●t in due season for our souls , and for our bodies , that we being filled with the plenteousnesse of thy mercies here , may have our best , and all our desires fulfilled and satisfied hereafter , amongst such as fear thee , and give thanks unto thy holy name for ever . Grant this for Jesus Christ his sake , to whom with thee , O Father , and the holy Spirit , be all honour and glory now and for ever . Amen . PSALME 146. A Prayer that we may trust in God onely , and not in an arm of flesh . PRaise the Lord , O my soul , while I live will I praise the Lord : yea , as long as I have any beeing , I will sing praises unto my God. 2 O put not your trust in Princes , nor in any childe of man : for there is no help in them . 3 For when the breath of man goeth forth , hee shall turn again to his earth : and then all his thoughts perish . 4 Blessed is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help : and whose hope is in the Lord his God. 5 Which made heaven and earth , the sea and all that therein is : which keepeth his promise for ever . 6 Which helpeth them to right that suffer wrong : which feedeth the hungry . 7 The Lord looseth men out of Prison : the Lord gi●eth sight to the blinde . 8 The Lord helpeth them that are fallen : the Lord careth for the righteous . 9 The Lord careth for the strangers , he defendeth the fatherlesse and widow : as for the way of the ungodly , he ●urneth it upside down . 10 The Lord thy God , O Sion , shall be King for evermore : and throughout all generations . The Prayer . O Lord God , who reignest a King for evermore , give us grace that we may make thee our help , and fix our hopes in thee , for thou onely art able to give deliverance . Feed our souls , O Lord , and satisfie us with thy salvation when we hunger and thirst after righteousnesse ; help us to right when we suffer wrong , heal our back-slidings , raise us when we are fallen enlighten the eys of our souls that we walk not in darknesse and the shadow of death , and do thou take care for us in all our ways , and in all our necessities , that when our breath goeth forth , and we turn again to our earth , we may reign with thee in Sion , thy celestiall habitation , for evermore , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . Evening Prayer . PSALME 147. A celebration of Gods wisdome and providence in the ministration of the things of this world , and of his goodnesse towards them that fear him . O Praise the Lord , for it is a good thing to sing praises unto our God : yea , a joyfull and pleasant thing it is to be thankfull . 2 The Lord doth build up Jerusalem : and gather together the outcasts of Israel . 3 He healeth those that are broken in heart : and giveth medicine to heal their sicknesse . 4 He telleth the number of the stars : and calleth them all by their names . 5 Great is our Lord , and great is his power : yea , and his wisdome is infinite . 6 The Lord setteth up the meek : and bringeth the ungodly down to the ground . 7 O sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving : sing praises upon the harp unto our God. 8 Which covereth the heaven with clouds , and prepareth rain for the earth : and maketh the grasse to grow upon the mountains , and herb for the use of men . 9 Which giveth fodder unto the cattell : and feedeth the young ravens that call upon him . 10 He hath no pleasure in the strength of an horse : neither delighteth he in any mans legs . 11 But the Lords delight is in them that fear him : and put their trust in his mercy . 12 Praise the Lord , O Jerusalem : praise thy God , O Sion . 13 For he hath made fast the bars of thy gates : and hath blessed thy children within thee . 14 He maketh peace in thy borders : and filleth thee with the floure of wheat . 15 He sendeth forth his commandement upon earth : and his word runneth very swiftly . 16 He giveth snow like wooll : and scattereth the hoar frost like ashes . 17 He casteth forth his ice like morsels : who is able to abide his frost ? 18 He sendeth out his word , and melteth them : hee bloweth with his winde , and the waters flow . 19 He sheweth his word unto Jacob : his statutes and ordinances unto Israel . 20 He hath not dealt so with any nation : neither have the heathen knowledge of his laws . The Prayer . O Lord God , whose power is great , and thy wisdome infinite , give us broken and contrite hearts , meek spirits , a fear of thy Name , and a trust in thy mercy , that thou maist arise upon us with healing in thy wings , giving us medicine to heal all our ghostly sicknesses , and thy delight may be in us , delighting to doe us good , to feed us when we call upon thee , to set us above our enemies , to give us knowledge of thy Laws , to build up Jerusalem , and to repair the breaches of thy Church , that we may sing praises unto thee , O God , and be thankfull to all eternity , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . PSALME 148. An invitation of all the creatures of the world , to praise God. O Praise the Lord of heaven : praise him in the height . 2 Praise him all ye angels of his : praise him all his host . 3 Praise him sun and moon : praise him all ye stars and light . 4 Praise him all ye heavens : and ye waters that bee above the heavens . 5 Let them praise the Name of the Lord : for he spake the word , and they were made : he commanded , and they were created . 6 He hath made them fast for ever and ever : he hath given them a law which shall not be broken . 7 Praise the Lord upon earth : yee dragons and all deeps . 8 Fire and hail , snow and vapours : winde and storm , fulfilling his word . 9 Mountains and all hils : fruitfull trees , and all cedars . 10 Beasts and all cattell : worms and feathered fowls . 11 Kings of the earth , and all people : princes and all judges of the world . 12 Young men and maidens , old men and children , praise the name of the Lord : for his name onely is excellent , and his praise above heaven and earth . 13 He shall exalt the horn of his people , all his saints shall praise him : even the children of Israel , even the people that serveth him . The Prayer . O Lord God , whose Name onely is excellent , and thy praise above heaven and earth , we adore and blesse thy mercy and thy power for creating us after thine own Image : thou spakest the word , and we were made : thou commandedst , and we were created : and as thou hast established thy Creation with a Law for ever , that all should minister to thy praises in their severall proportions ; so give us grace that the laws of sanctity , of faith , and obedience , which thou hast given to us , may never be broken , that we serving thee not onely in the order of thy creatures , but in the capacity of thy children , may sing thy praises amongst the Angels and the numerous host of Saints reigning in thy Kingdome for ever and ever . Amen . PSALME 149. A meditation of the joyes of Heaven prepared for the Saints . O Sing unto the Lord a new song : let the congregation of saints praise him . 2 Let Israel rejoyce in him that made him : and let the children of Sion be joyfull in their King. 3 Let them praise his name in the dance : let them sing praises unto him with tabret and harp . 4 For the Lord hath pleasure in his people : and helpeth the meek hearted . 5 Let the saints be joyfull with glory : let them rejoyce in their beds . 6 Let the praises of God be in their mouth : and a two-edged sword in their hands . 7 To be avenged of the heathen : and to rebuke the people . 8 To binde their kings in chains : and their nobles with links of iron . 9 That they may be avenged of them , as it is written : Such honour have all his Saints . The Prayer . O Lord our King , in whose honour and salvation all thy Saints rejoyce , give unto thy holy Gospel a free passage in all the world , that Kings and Nobles may be bound with the chains of obedience , discipline , and subordination to all thy holy Laws ; and grant to us thy servants that thy Laws may be so fixed in our hearts , and thy praises in our mouthes , and righteousnesse in all our actions , that we may be written among the righteous , and have our portion with the Saints , who rejoyce in their beds of eternall rest , and are joyfull in the glories of thy Kingdome , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . PSALME 150. An invitation to praise God with all our faculties and powers . O Praise God in his holinesse : praise him in the firmament of his power . 2 Praise him in his noble acts : praise him according to his excellent greatnesse . 3 Praise him in the sound of the trumpet : praise him upon the lute and harp . 4 Praise him in the cymbals and dances : praise him upon the strings and pipe . 5 Praise him upon the well tuned cymbals : praise him upon the loud cymbals 6 Let every thing that hath breath : praise the Lord. The Prayer . O Eternall God , thy holinesse and power and excellent greatnesse are farre above all the praises of men and Angels , and yet thou art pleased in the harmony and concent of a thankfull heart , and a thanks-giving tongue ; touch our hearts with admirable apprehensions of thy Divine perfections , that our songs of thy honour may be devout and illuminate to the height of extasies , and the devotions of a Seraphim , for nothing is proportionable to thy glories but what is infinitely beyond our infirmities . Make us to sing Thee and thy Name while we have breath ; and when we are breathlesse , let our hearts fill up the harmony , and think thy praises so cordially , till our souls being separated from the harsh sound of our bodily organs , we may praise thee when we are all spirit in the state of separation , and in the re-union when our bodies shall be made spirituall , singing to thee exalted praises for ever and ever . To thee O blessed and glorious God be praises and honour and glory ascribed now , and to all eternity . Amen . Amen . DEVOTIONS FOR THE Help and Assistance OF ALL CHRISTIAN PEOPLE : In all occasions and necessities . The third EDITION . LONDON , Printed for R. Royston . 1647. DEVOTIONS FOR SEVERALL OCCASIONS . A Prayer against wandring thoughts , to be said at the beginning of our devotions . ALmighty God , who hast commanded us to pray unto thee without ceasing , and hast added many glorious promises for our incouragement , let thy holy Spirit teach me how to pray ; give me just apprehensions of my wants , zeal of thy glory , great resentment of thy mercies , love of all spirituall employments that are pleasing unto thee ; and do thou help mine infirmities , that the Devill may not abuse my fancy with illusions , nor distract my minde with cares , nor alienate my thoughts with impertinencies , but give me a present minde , great devotion , a heart fixed upon thy divine beauties , and an actuall intention and perseverance in my prayers , that I may glorifie thy Name , doe unto thee true and laudable service , and obtain relief for all my necessities . Hear me , O King of Heaven , when I call upon thee , for thou hast promised mercy to them that pray in the Name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen . Penitentiall Prayers , and a Form of Confession of sinnes to God , to be said upon days of publike or private humiliation . O Lord God of mercy and pardon , give me a just remembrance and sad apprehensions of my sins ; teach me to bewail them with as great an indignation and bitternesse , as I have committed them with complacency and delight . Let my prayers and my confession come into thy presence , and obtain a mercy for me and a pardon . Let not thy justice and severity so remember my sins , as to forget thine own mercy ; and though I have committed that for which I deserve to be condemned , yet thou canst not lose that glorious attribute whence flows comfort to us and hopes of being saved . Spare me therefore , O mercifull God ; for to give pardon to a sinner that confesseth his sinnes , and begges remission , is not impossible to thy power , nor disproportionate to thy justice , nor unusuall to thy mercy and sweetest clemency . Blessed Jesu , acknowledge in me whatsoever is thine , and cleanse me from whatsoever is amisse . Have pity on me now in the time of mercy , and condemne me not when thou commest to judgement , for what profit is there in my bloud ? Thou delightest not in the death of a sinner , but in his conversion there is joy in Heaven ; and when thou hast delivered me from my sins , and saved my soul , I shall praise and magnifie thy Name to all eternity , Mercy , sweet Jesu , Mercy : Lord have mercy upon us . Christ have mercy upon us . Lord have mercy upon us . Our Father which art in Heaven , &c. I am not worthy , O Lord , to look up to Heaven , which is the Throne of thy purity ; for my sins are moe in number then the hairs upon my head , and my heart hath failed me . Lord be mercifull to me a sinner . I have not lived according to thy will , but in the vanity of mine own thoughts , in idle , sinfull , and impertinent language , in foolish actions , in blindnesse of heart , in contempt of thy holy Word and Commandments ; I have not loved thee my God with all my heart , nor feared thee with all my soul , nor served thee with all my might according to thy holy precept , nor loved my neighbour as my self . Lord be mercifull to me a sinner . I have been unthankfull to thy Divine Majesty , forgetting that thou madest me , and preservest me ; to thy Son my blessed Saviour , forgetting the bitter pains he suffered for me ; and to the holy Ghost , forgetting how many gracious influences I have received from him for my help , comfort , and promotion in the wayes of holy Religion , but have rebelled against thee my Maker , have sold my self to work wickednesse , from whence by the passion of thy holy Son I was redeemed , and have resisted the holy Ghost . Lord be mercifull to me a sinner . I have offended thee my God in an inordinate estimation of my self , in vain complacencies , and desires to be esteemed as much or more then others , in not suffering with meeknesse , indifference , and obedience , the humiliations sent to me by thy divine providence , in haughty deportment toward my superiours , equals , and inferiours , and in accepting such honours as have been done to me without returning them to thee the Fountain . Lord be mercifull to me a sinner . I have offended thee my God in impatience , in anger intemperate in degree , inordinate in the object , growing peevish and disquieted by trifling inadvertencies of others , and sleight accidents about me . Lord be mercifull to me a sinner . I have offended thee my God , by being envious at the prosperous successes and advantages of my neighbours , and have had resentments of joy at their displeasures and sadnesses . Lord be mercifull to me a sinner . I have been negligent in performance of my charge , idle in doing my duties , soft and effeminate in my life , indevout in my prayers , slothfull in the exercises of Religion , weary of their length , displeased at their return , without advertency in the execution of them , and glad at an occasion of their pretermission . Lord be mercifull to me a sinner . I have been diligent and curious in pleasing my appetite of meat , and drink , and pleasures , losing my time , pampering my flesh , quenching the Spirit , making matter both for sin and sicknesses , and have not been sedulous in mortifying my body for the subduing mine own intemperances and inordination . Lord be mercifull to me a sinner . I have been an unprovident steward of the good things thou hast given me , I have loved them inordinately , sought them greedily , and unjustly , dispensed them idlely , and parted with them unwillingly : I have not been so charitable to the poor , or so pitifull to the afflicted , or so compassionate to the sick , or so apt to succour and give supply to the miseries of my neighbours as I ought , but have too much minded things below , not setting mine affections upon Heaven and heavenly things , but have been unlike thee in all things , I have been unmercifull and unjust . Lord be mercifull to me a sinner . Mine eyes , O Lord , have wandred after vanity , beholding and looking after things unseemly without displeasure , despising my neighbors , prying into their faults , but have been blinde not seeing mine own sins , and infinite irregularities . Lord be mercifull to me a sinner . I have not with care kept the door of my lips , nor bridled my tongue , but have been excessive in talking , immoderate in dissolute and wanton laughter , apt to lie , to deny truth , to accuse others , to scoffe at them , to aggravate their faults , to lessen their worth , to give rash judgement , to flatter for advantage , to speak of thy Name irreverently , and without religious or grave occasions , our discourses have been allayed with slander and backbiting , not apt to edifie , or minister grace unto the hearers . Lord be mercifull to me a sinner . Mine eares have been greedy after vanity , listening after things unprofitable , or that might tend to the prejudice of my neighbors , and have not with holy appetite listened after thy holy words and conveyances of salvation . Lord be mercifull to me a sinner . I have offended thee by the entertainment of evill thoughts , thoughts of uncleannes●e and impurity , and have not resisted their first beginnings , but have given consent to them explicitly and implicitly , and have brought them up till they have grown into idle words and actions . Lord be mercifull to me a sinner . I have made my self guilty of the sinnes of others by consent , by approving , by not reproving , by cooperating , by encouraging their ill actions , so making mine own heap greater by pulling their deformities upon mine own head . Lord be mercifull to me a sinner . I have employed all my members and faculties both of soul and body in the ways of unrighteousnesse , I have transgressed my duty in all my relations , and in all my actions and traverses of my whole life , even where I might have had most confidence I finde nothing but weaknesse and imperfections . Lord be mercifull to me a sinner . I have broken my vows and purposes of obedience , and holy life , I have been inconstant to all good , refractory to counsels , disobedient to commands , stubborn against admonition , churlish and ungentle in my behaviour , mindfull and revengefull of injuries , forgetfull of benefits , seeking my own ends , deceiving my own soul. Lord be mercifull to me a sinner . My secret sins , O Lord , are innumerable , sins secret to my self through inadvertency , forgetfulness , wilfull ignorance , or stupid negligence ; secret to the world , committed before thee onely , and under the witness of mine own conscience . I am confounded with the multitude of them , and the horror of their remembrance . Oh Jesu God , be mercifull unto me . I. SOn of David , Blessed Redeemer , Lamb of God , that takest away the sins of the world have mercy upon me . O Jesu , be a Jesus unto me , thou that sparedst thy servant Peter that denied thee thrice , thou that didst cast seven Devils out of Mary Magdalen , and forgavest the woman taken in adultery , and didst beare the convert thief from the Crosse , to the joys of Paradise , have mercy upon me also ; for although I have amassed together more sinnes , then all these in conjunction , yet not their sins , nor mine , nor the sins of all the world can equall thy glorious mercy , which is as infinite , and eternall as thy self . I acknowledge , O Lord , that I am vile , but yet redeemed with thy precious bloud ; I am blinde , but thou art the light of the world ; I am weak , but thou art my strong Rock ; I have been dead in trespasses and sins , but thou art my resurrection and my life . Thou , O Lord , lovest to shew mercy , and the expressions of thy mercy , the nearer they come to infinite , the more proportionable they are to thy essence , and like thy self . Behold then , O Lord , a fit object for thy pity : my sins are so great and many that to forgive me , will be an act of glorious mercy , and all the praises which did accrue to thy name , by the forgivenes of David , and Manasses , and S. Paul , and the adulteresse , and the thief , and the Publican , will be multiplied to thy honour , in the forgiveness of me so vile , so unworthy a wretch , that I have nothing to say for my self , but that the greatness of my misery , is a fit object for thy miraculous and infinite mercy . Despise me not , O Lord , for I am thy creature , despise me not , for thou didst die for me , cast me not away in thine anger , for thou camest to seek me , and to save me . Say unto my soul , I am thy salvation ; let thy holy Spirit lead me from the errours of my ways , into the paths of righteousness , to great degrees of repentance , and through all the parts of a holy life , to a godly and a holy death . Grant this , O blessed Jesu , for thy mercies , and for thy pity sake . Amen . II. O Lord God , blessed Jesu , Eternall Judge of quick and dead , I tremble with horrour at the apprehension when I call to mind with what terrors and Majesty thou shalt appear in judgement ; a fire shall go out from thy presence , and a tempest shall be stirred up round about thee , such a tempest as shall rend the rocks , levell the mountains , shake the earth , disorder and dissolve the whole fabrick of the heavens , and where then shall I , vile sinner , appear , when the heavens are not pure in thy sight ? Lord , I tremble when I remember that sad truth , If the righteous scarcely be saved , where then shall the wicked and the ungodly appear ? I know , O Lord , that all my secret impurities shall be laid open before all the Nations of the world , before all the orders and degrees of Angels , in the presence of innumerable millions of beatified spirits . There shall I see many that have taught me innocence and sanctity , many that have given me pious example , many that have dyed for thee , and suffered tortures rather then they would offend thee . O just and dear God , where shall I appear ? who shall plead for me that am so loaden with impurities , with vanity , with ingratitude , with malice , and the terrors of an affrighting conscience ? Lord what shall I do , who am straitned by my own covetousnesse , accused by my own pride , consumed with envy , set on fire by lust , made dull with gluttony , and stupid by drunkennesse , supplanted by ambition , rent asunder with faction and discord , made dissolute with lightness and inconstancy , deceived with hypocrisie , abused with flattery , fool'd with presumption , disturb'd with anger , and disordered by a whole body of sin and death ? But thou shalt answer for me , O Lord my God , thou art my judge and my advocate , and thou art to pass sentence upon me for those sins , for which thou diedst . O reserve not my sins to be punished in the life to come , for then I die eternally , but bring me in this world to a holy , a sharp and salutary repentance . Behold I am in thine hands ; grant I may so weep , and be contrite for my sins , that in the hour of my death I may finde mercy , and in the day of judgement I may be freed from all the terrors of thy wrath , and the sentence of the wicked , and may behold thy face with joy and security , being set at thy right hand , with all thy saints and Angels to sing an eternall Hallelujah to the honour of thy mercies . Amen , sweet Jesu . Amen . III. MOST mercifull and indulgent Jesu , hear the complaint of a sad and miserable sinner , for I have searched into the secret recesses of my soul , and there I finde nothing but horror , and a barren wilderness , a neglected conscience overgrown with sins and cares and beset with fears and sore amazements . I finde that I have not observed due reverence towards my superiours , nor modesty in my discourse , nor discipline in my manners . I have been obstinate in my vain purposes , cosen'd in my own semblances of humility , pertinacious in hatred , bitter in my jesting , impatient of Subjection , ambitious of power , slow to good actions , apt to talk , ready to supplant my neighbours , full of jealousies & suspition , scornfull and censorious , burdensome to my friends , ingratefull to my benefactors , imperious to my inferiours , boasting to have said what I said not , to have seen what I saw not , to have done what I did not , and have both said , and seen , and done what I ought not , provoking thy divine Majesty with a continuall course of sinne and vanity . And yet , O Lord , thou hast spared me all this while , and hast not taken away my life in the midst of my sins , which is a mercy so admirable and of so vast a kindness , as no heart or tongue can think , or speak . If thou hadst dealt with me according as I had deserved , and might justly have expected , I had been now , now at this instant seal'd up to an eternity of torments ; hopelesly miserable , fearing the revelation of thy day with an unsupportable amazement : and now under the sweet influences of thy mercies , I am praying to thee , confessing my sinnes , with shame , indeed at my basenesse and ingratitude , but with a full hope and confidence in thy mercy . O turn the eys of thy divine clemency with a gracious aspect upon a wretched sinner , open the bowels of thy mercy , and receive me into favour . O my dear God , let thy grace speedily work that in me for which thou so long hast spared me , and to which thou didst design me in thy holy purposes and mercies of eternity , even a true faith , and a holy life , conformable to thy will , and in order to eternall blessednesse . I remember , O Lord , the many fatherly expressions and examples of thy mercies to repenting sinners , thy delight in our conversion , thy unwillingnes to destroy us , thy earnest invitation of us to grace and life , thy displeasure at our dangers and miseries , the infinite variety of means thou usest to bring us from the gates of death , and to make us happy to eternity . These mercies , O Lord , are so essentiall to thee , that thou canst not but be infinitely pleased in demonstrations of them . Remember not , O Lord , how we have despised thy mercies , sleighted thy judgements , neglected thy Commandments ; but now at length establish in us great contrition for our sins , lead us on to humble confession and dereliction of them , and let thy grace make us bring forth fruits meet for repentance , fruits of justice , of hope , of charity , of religion and devotion , that we may ●e what thou delightest in , holy , and just , a●d mercifull , vessels prepared for honour , temples of the holy Ghost , and instruments of thy praises to all eternity , O blessed Jesu , who livest and reignest , ever one God , world without end . Amen . O Lord Jesu Christ , Sonne of the eternall God , interpose thy holy Death , thy Crosse and Passion between thy judgement and my soul , now and in the hour of my death , granting unto me grace and mercy , to all faithfull people pardon and peace , to the Church unity and amity , and to all sinners repentance and amendment , to us all life and glory everlasting , who livest and reignest ever one God , world without end . Amen . A Forme of thanksgiving , with a particular enumeration of Gods blessings . MOst glorious Lord God , infinite in mercy , full of compassion , long-suffering , and of great goodness , I adore , and praise , and glorifie thy holy Name , worshipping thee with the lowliest devotions of my soul and body , and give thee thanks for all the benefits thou hast done unto me ; for whatsoever I am , or have , ●or know , or desire as I ought , it is all from thee , thou art the Fountain of beeing and blessing , of sanctity and pardon , of life and glory . Praise the Lord , O my soule , and all that is within me praise his holy Name . Thou , O God , of thine infinite goodness hast created me of nothing , and hast given me a degree of essence next to Angels , imprinting thine Image on me , enduing me with reasonable faculties of will and understanding , to know and choose good , and to refuse evill , and hast put me into a capacity of a blessed immortality . O praise the Lord with me , and let us magnifie his Name together . Thou , O God , of thy great mercy hast given me a comely body , a good understanding , straight limbs , a ready and unloosed tongue , whereas with justice thou mightest have made me crooked and deformed , sottish and slow of apprehension , imperfect and impedite in all my faculties . O give thanks unto the God of Heaven ; for his mercy endureth for ever . Thou , O God , of thy glorious mercies , hast caused me to be born of Christian Parents , and didst not suffer me to be strangled in the womb , but gavest me opportunity of holy Baptism , and hast ever since blessed me with education in Christian Religion . Thy way , O God , is holy : who is so great a God as our God ? Thou , O God , out of thine abundant kindnesse hast made admirable variety of creatures to minister to my use , to serve my necessity , to preserve and restore my health , to be an ornament to my body , to be representations of thy power and of thy mercy . Vnto thee , O God , will I pay my vows : unto thee will I give thanks . Thou , O God , of thine admirable and glorious mercy hast made thine Angels ministring spirits for my protection and defence against all the hostilities of the devill ; thou hast set a hedge about me , and such a guard as all the power of hell and earth cannot overcome : thou hast preserved me by thy holy providence and the ministery of Angels from drowning , from burning , from precipice , from deformities , from fracture of bones , and all the snares of evil , and the great violations of health , which many of my betters suffer . I will give thanks unto thee , O Lord , with my whole heart ; even before the gods will I sing praise unto thee . Thou , O most mercifull God , hast fed me and clothed me , hast raised me up friends and blessed them , hast preserved me in dangers , hast rescued me from the fury of the sword , from the rage of pestilence , from perishing in publike distemperatures and diseases epidemicall , from terrors and affrightments of the night , f●om illusions of the devil and sad apparitions ; thou hast been my guide in my journeys , my refreshment in sadnesses , my hope and my confidence in all my griefs and desolations . O give thanks unto the Lord of lords : for his mercy endureth for ever . But above all mercies it was not lesse then infinite , whereby thou lovedst me and all mankinde when we were lost and dead , and rebels against thy Divine Majesty ; thou gavest thine own begotten Son to seek us when we went astray , to restore us to life when we were dead in trespasses and sins , and to reconcile us to thy self by the mercies and the atonement of an everlasting covenant . He is our God , even the God of whom commeth salvation : God is the Lord by whom we escape death . O most blessed Jesu , I praise and adore thine infinite mercies , humility , and condescension , that for my sake thou wouldst descend from the bosome of thy heavenly Father into the pure womb of an humble Maid , and take on thee my nature , and be born , and cry , and suffer cold , and all the incommodities which the meannesse of a stable could minister to the tendernesse of thy first infancy . Lord , what is man that thou art mindfull of him : and the son of man that thou so regardest him ? I adore thee blessed Jesu , and praise thee for thine immaculate sanctity , for all thy holy precepts and counsels , for thy Divine example , for thy miracles and mysterious revelations of thy Fathers will , for the institution of the holy Sacraments , and all other blessings of thy Propheticall Office. O praise the Lord , for the Lord is gracious : sing praises unto his Name , for it is lovely . I adore and love thee , most blessed Jesu , for all the parts of thy most bitter Passion , for thy being betrayed and accused , buffeted and spit upon , blindfolded and mocked , crowned with thorns and scourged , for thine agony and bloudy sweat , for thy bearing the sad load of the Crosse , and sadder load of our sins , for thy Crucifixion three long hours , when the weight of thy Body was supported with wounds and nails , for thy Death and Buriall , for thy continuall intercession and advocation with thy heavenly Father in behalf of me and all thy holy Church , and all other acts of mediation and redemption , the blessings of thy Priestly Office. O praise the Lord for his goodnesse : and declare the wonders he hath done for the children of men . I adore and magnifie thy holy Name , O most blessed Jesu , for thy triumph over death , hell , sin , and the grave , for thy opening the Kingdome of Heaven to all beleevers , for thy glorious resurrection and ascension , for thy government over all the creatures , for the advancement of thy holy Kingdome , for thy continuall resisting and defeating the intendments of thine enemies against thy Church , by the strength of thine arm , by the mightinesse of thy power , by the glories of thy wisdome ; for those blessed promises thou hast made and performest to thy Church of sending the holy Ghost , of giving her perpetuity of being in defiance of all the gates and powers of Hell and darknesse , and blessing her with continuall assistances , and all other glories of thy Regall Office and power . O sing praises , sing praises unto our God ; O sing praises , sing praises unto our King ; for God is the King of all the earth , sing ye praises with understanding . O most holy Spirit , Love of the Father , Fountain of grace , spring of all spirituall blessings , I adore and praise thy divine excellencies which are essentiall to thy glorious Self in the unity of the most mysterious Trinity , and which thou communicatest to all faithfull people , and to me thy unworthy servant in the unity of the Catholique Church . O magnifie the Lord our God , and fall down before his footstoole : for he is holy . O blessed Spirit , I praise and magnifie thy Name for thy miraculous descent upon the Apostles in Pentecost in mysterious representments , for those great graces and assistances comming upon their heads , and falling down upon us all in the descent of all ages of the Church , for confirmation of our Faith , for propagation of the Gospel , for edification and ornament of thy Family . Thou , O God , shalt endure for ever , and thy remembrance throughout all generations . O most glorious Spirit , I praise and magnifie thy Name for thy inspiration of the Apostles and Prophets , for thy providence and mercy in causing holy Scriptures to be written , and preserving them from the corruptions of Hereticks , from the violences of Pagans and enemies of the Crosse of Christ. I will alwayes give thanks unto the Lord : his praise shall ever be in my mouth . I blesse thy Name for those holy promises and threatnings , those judgements and mercies , those holy precepts and admonitions which thou hast registred in Scriptures , and in the records and monuments of the Church , for all those graces , helps , and comforts whereby thou promotest me in piety , and the ways of true Religion , for baptismall and penitentiall grace , for the opportunities and sweet refreshings of the Sacrament of the Eucharist , for all the advantages thou hast given me of good society , tutors , and governours , for the fears thou hast produced in me as deleteries and impediments of sin , for all my hopes of pardon , and expectation of the promises made by our Lord Jesus Christ to encourage me in the paths of life and sanctity , for all the holy sermons , spirituall books , and lessons , for all the good prayers and meditations , for those blessed waitings and knocking 's at the door of my heart , pitiently tarrying for , and lovingly inviting me to repentance , without ceasing , admonishing and reproving me with the checks of a tender conscience , with exteriour and interiour motives , and for whatsoever other means or incentive of holiness thou hast assisted me withall . I magnifie , and praise , and adore thee and thy goodness . All Nations whom thou hast made and sanctified shall come and worship thee , O Lord , and shall glorify thy Name , for thou art great and dost wondrous things , thou art God alone , and great is thy mercy towards me , thou hast delivered my soul from the nethermost Hell , therefore shall every good man sing of thy praise without ceasing : O my God , I will give thanks unto thee for ever with Cherubims , and Seraphims , and all the companies of the heavenly Host , saying , Holy , Holy , Holy , Lord God of Sabaoth , holy is our God , holy is the Immortall , holy is the Almighty , the Father , the Son , and the holy Ghost , to whom be all honour and glory and dominion and power ascribed of all spirits , and all men , and all creatures , now and for evermore . Amen . I. Prayers preparatory to the receiving of the blessed Sacrament . O Most immaculate and glorious Jesu , behold me miserable sinner , drawing near to thee with the approaches of humility , and earnest desire to be cleansed fron my sins , to be united to thee by the nearest and most mysterious union of charity and Sacramentall participation of thy most holy Body and Bloud : I presume nothing of mine own worthinesse , but I am most confident of thy mercies and infinite loving kindnesse . I know , O Lord , I am blinde , and sick , and dead , and naked , but therefore I come the rather : I am sick , and thou art my Physitian , thou arisest with healing in thy wings , by thy wounds I come to be cured , and to be healed by thy stripes : I am unclean , but thou art the Fountain of purity : I am blinde , and thou art the great Eye of the world , the Sun of righteousnesse , in thy light I shall see light : I am poor , and thou art rich unto all , the Lord of all the creatures . I therefore humbly begge of thy mercy that thou wouldest be pleased to take from me all my sins , to cure my infirmities , to cleanse my filthinesse , to lighten my darknesse , to clothe my nakednesse with the robe of thy righteousnesse , that I may with such reverence , and faith , and holy intention receive thy blessed Body and Bloud in the mysterious Sacrament , that it may be unto me life , and pleasantnesse , and holy nourishment , and that I may be firmly and indissolubly united to thy mysticall Body , and may at last see clearly and without a vail thy face in glory everlasting , who livest and reignest , ever one God world without end . Amen . II. I Adore and blesse thy glorious Majesty , O blessed Jesu , for this great dignation and vouchsafing to me , that thou art pleased for all the infinite multiplication of my sins , and innumerable violations of thy holy Law , still to give thy self unto me , to convey health , and grace , and life , and hopes of glory in the most blessed Sacrament . I adore thee , O most righteous Redeemer , that thou art pleased under the visible signes of Bread and Wine , to convey unto our soules thy holy Body and Bloud , & all the benefits of thy bitter Passion . O my God , I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roofe , but let thy holy Spirit with his purities prepare for thee a lodging in my soul. Thou hast knocked often , O blessed Jesu , at the door of my heart , and wouldest willingly have entred ; behold , O Lord , my heart is ready to receive thee , cast out of it all worldly desires , all lusts and carnall appetites , and then enter in , and there love to inhabit , that the Devill may never return to a place that is so swept and garnished , to fill me full of all iniquity . O thou lover of souls , grant that this holy Sacrament may be a light unto mine eyes , a guide to my understanding , and a joy to my soul , that by its strength I may subdue and mortifie the whole body of sin in me , and that it may produce in me constancy in Faith , fulnesse of wisdom , perfection and accomplishment of all thy righteous commandments , and such a blessed union with thee , that I may never more live unto my self , or to the world , but to thee onely , and by the refreshment of an holy hope , I may be led through the paths of a good life , and persevering piety to the communion and possession of thy Kingdome , O blessed Jesu , who livest and reignest ever one God , world without end . Amen . III. O Lord God , who hast made all things of nought , producing great degrees of essence out of nothing , make me a new creature , and of a sinfull man , make me holy , and just , and mercifull ; that I may receive thy precious Body , devoutly , reverently , with meeknesse , contrition , and great affection , with spirituall comfort and gladnesse at thy mysticall presence . Feed my soul with Bread from Heaven , fill me with charity , conform me to thy will in all things , save me from all dangers bodily and ghostly , assist and guide me in all doubts and fears , prepare and strengthen me against all surreptions and sudden incursion of temptations , cleanse me from all stains of sin , and suffer nothing to abide in me but thy self only , who art the Life of souls , the Food of the Elect , and the joy of Angels . Give me such a gust and an holy relish in this Divine nutriment , that nothing may ever hereafter please me but what savours of thee and thy miraculous sweetnesse . Teach me to loath all the pleasures and beauties of this life , and let my soul be so inebriated with the pleasures of thy Table , that I may be comprehended and swallowed up with thy love and sweetnesse : let me think nothing but thee , covet nothing but thee , enjoy nothing but thee , nothing in comparison with thee , and neither doe not possesse any thing but what leads to thee , and is in order to the performance of thy will and the fruition of thy glories . Transfixe my soul , O blessed Jesu , with so great love to thee , so great devotion in receiving the holy Sacrament , that I may be transformed to the Fellowship of thy sufferings , and admitted to a participation of all the benefits of thy Passion , and to a communion of thy graces and thy glories . I desire to be with thee , dissolve all the chains of my sin , and then come Lord Jesus , come quickly . Let my soul feed on thee greedily , for thou art the spring of light and life , the Fountain of wisdome and health , a torrent of divine pleasure and tranquillity , the Author of peace and comfort : enter into me , sweet Jesu , take thou possession of my soul , and be thou Lord over me and all my faculties , and preserve me with great mercy and tendernesse , that no doubting or infidelity , no impenitence or remanent affection to a sin , no impurity or irreverence may make me unworthy and uncapable of thy glorious approach . Let not my sins crucifie the Lord of life again , let it not be said concerning me , The hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the Table : that this holy Communion may not be unto me an occasion of death , but a blessed peace-offering for my sins , and a gate of life and glory . Grant this , O blessed God , for his sake who is both Sacrifice and Priest , the Master of the Feast , and the Feast it self , even Jesus Christ , to whom with thee , O Father , and the holy Spirit , be all honour and glory , now and for ever . Amen . A Prayer after receiving the consecrated Bread. I Give thanks unto thee Almighty and eternall God , that thou hast not rejected me from thy holy Table , but hast refreshed my soul with the salutary refection of the Body of thy Son Jesus Christ. Lord if I had lived innocently , and had kept all thy Commandments , could have had no proportion of merit to so transcendent a mercy ; but since I have lived in all manner of sin , and multiplied provocations against thy Divine Majesty , thy mercy is so glorious and infinite , that I am amased at the consideration of its immensity . Goe on , O my dear God , to finish so blessed a redemption , and now that thou hast begun to celebrate a marriage and holy union between thy self and my soul , let me never throw off the wedding garment , or stain it with the pollutions of deadly sin , nor seek after other lovers , but let me for ever and ever be united unto thee , being transformed into thy will in this life , and to the likenesse of thy glories in the life to come , who livest and reignest , ever one God , world without end . Amen . After receiving the Cup. O Just and dear God , who out of the unmeasurable abysses of wisdome and mercy hast redeemed us , and offered life , and grace , and salvation to us by the reall exhibition of thy Son Jesus Christ in the Sacrifice of his Death upon the altar of the Crosse , and by commemoration of his bitter agonies in the holy Sacrament ; Grant that that great and venerable sacrifice which we now commemorate sacramentally , may procure of thee for thy whole Church mercy and great assistance in all trials , deliverance from all heresies , schismes , sacriledge , and persecutions , to all sick people health and salvation , redemption for captives , competency of living to the indigent and necessitous , comfort to the afflicted , relief to the oppressed , repentance to all sinners , softnesse of spirit and a tender consience to the obstinate , conversion to the Jews , Turks , and remedy to all that are in any trouble or adversity : And grant to us , O Lord , that this blessed Sacrament and sacrifice of commemoration in vertue of that dreadfull and proper Sacrifice upon the Crosse may obtain for me , and for us all who have communicated this day , pardon and peace ; and that we may derive from thee by this ministery grace to expell all our sins , to mortifie all our lusts , to exterminate all concupiscence , to crucifie all inordination and irregularity , to produce in us humility , and chastity , and obedience , and meeknesse of spirit , and charity , and may become our Defence and Armour against the violences and invasions of all our ghostly enemies , and temporall disadvantages ; and give us this grace and favour , that we may not die in the guilt and commission of a sin without repentance , nor without receiving the blessed Sacrament , but that we may so live and die , that we may at last rest in thy bosome , and be imbraced with the comprehensions of thy eternall charity , who livest and reignest , ever one God , world without end . Amen . All blessing , and praise , and honour , be unto thee , O blessed Redeemer : to thee we the banished and miserable sons of Adam , do call for mercy and defence , to thee we sigh and cry in this valley of tears ; O dearest Advocate , turn those thy mercifull eyes towards us , and shew us thy glorious face in thy Kingdom , where no tears , or sighing , or fears , or sadnesses can approach . Amen , sweetest Jesu , Amen . Prayers preparatory to death . I. A Prayer for a blessed ending , to be said in time of health or sicknesse . O Blessed Jesu , Fountain of eternall mercy , the Life of the soul , and glorious Conquerour over Death and sin , I humbly beseech thee to give me grace so to spend this transitory life in vertuous and holy exercises , that when the day of my death shall come , in the midst of all my pains , I may feel the sweet refreshings of thy holy Spirit comforting my soul , sustaining my infirmities , and relieving all my spirituall necessities : and grant , that in the Unity of the holy Catholique Church , and in the integrity of Christian faith , with confidence and hope of thy mercy , in great love towards thee , in peace with my Neighbours , and in charity with all the world , I may through thy grace depart hence out of this vale of misery , and go unto that glorious country , where thou hast purchased an inheritance for us , with the price of thy most precious bloud , and raignest in it gloriously , in the Unity of thy Father and ours , of thy holy Spirit , and our Ghostly Comforter , ever one God world without end . Amen . II. A Prayer to be said at the beginning of a sicknesse . O Lord my God , who chastisest every one whom thou receivest , and with thy Fatherly correction smitest all those whom thou consignest to the inheritance of sons ; write my soul in the book of life , and number me amongst thy children , whom thou hast smitten with the rod of sicknesse , and by thy chastisements hast brought me into the Lot of the righteous . Thou , O Blessed Jesu , art a helper in the needfull time of trouble ; lay no more upon me then thou shalt enable me to bear , and let thy gentle correction in this life prevent the insupportable stripes of thy vengeance in the life to come . Smite me now that thou mayest spare me to all eternity : and yet , O blessed High Priest , who art touched with a sense of our infirmities , smite me friendly , and reprove me with such a tendernesse as thou bearest unto thy Children , to whom thou conveyest suppletory comforts , greater then the pains of chastisement , and in due time restore me to health , and to thy solemne assemblies again , and to the joy of thy Countenance . Give me patience and humility , and the grace of repentance , and an absolute dereliction of my self , and a resignation to thy pleasures and providence , with a power to do thy will in all things , and then do what thou pleasest to me ; onely in health or sicknesse , in life or death , let me feel thy comforts refreshing my soul , and let thy grace pardon all my sins . Grant this , O Blessed Jesu , for my trust is in thee only , thou art my God , and my mercifull Saviour and Redeemer . Amen . III. A Prayer to be said in the progresse of a sicknesse . O Lord my God , Blessed Jesu , who by thy bitter death and passion hast sweetned the cup of death to us , taking away its bitternesse and sting , and making it an entrance to life and glory , have pity upon me thy servant , who have so deep a share in sin , that I cannot shake off the terrors of death , but that my nature with its hereditary corruption still would preserve it self in a dis-union from the joys of thy Kingdome . Lord , I acknowledge my own infirmities and begge thy pity . It is better for me to be with thee , but the remembrance of my sins doth so depresse my growing confidence , that I am in a great straight between my fears and hopes , between the infirmities of my nature , and the better desires of conforming to thy holy will and pleasure . O my dear Redeemer , wean my soul and all my desires from the flatteries of this world ; pardon all my sins , and consign so great a favour by the comforts , and attestation of thy divinest Spirit , that my own fears being mastered , my sins pardoned , my desires rectified , as the Hart thirst after the springs of water , so my soul may long after thee , O God , and to enter into thy Courts . Heavenly Father , if it may be for thy glory , and my ghostly good , to have the days of my pilgrimage prolonged , I begge of thee health and life ; but if it be not pleasing to thee , to have this cup passe from me , thy will be done : my Saviour hath drunk off all the bitternesse . Behold , O Lord , I am in thine hands , do with me as seemeth good in thine eyes ; though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death , I will fear no evil , for thou art with me , thy rod , and thy staffe comfort me . I will lay me down in peace , and take my rest , for it is thou Lord onely who shalt make me to dwell in everlasting safety , and to partake of the joys of thy Kingdom , who livest and reignest eternall God , world without end . Amen . IV. A Prayer for a sick person , in danger of death . O Lord Jesus Christ , our health and life , our hope , and our resurrection from the dead : I resign my self up to thy holy will and pleasure , either to life , that I may live longer to thy service and my amendment ; or to death to the perpetuall enjoyment of thy presence , and of thy glories . Into thy hands I commend my spirit , for I know , O Lord , that nothing can perish , which is committed to thy mercies . I believe , O Lord , that I shall receive my body again at the resurrection of the just : I relinquish all care of that , onely I begge of thee mercy for my soul ; strengthen it with thy grace against all temptations , let thy loving kindness defend it as with a shield against all the violences and hostile assaults of Satan : let the same mercy be my guard and defence , which protected thy Martyrs , crowning them with victory in the midst of flames , horrid torments , and most cruell deaths . There is no help in me , O Lord , I cannot by my own power , give a minutes rest to my wearied body , but my trust is in thy sure mercies , and I call to minde , to my unspeakable comfort , that thou wert hungry , and thirsty , and wearied , and whipt , and crown'd with Thorns , and mock'd , and crucified for me . O let that mercy which made thee suffer so much , make thee do that for which thou sufferedst so much , pardon me , and save me . Let thy merits answer for my impieties , let thy righteousnesse cover my sins , thy bloud wash away my stains , and thy comforts refresh my soul. As my body grows weak , let thy grace bestronger , let not my faith doubt , nor my hope tremble , nor my charity grow cold , nor my soul be affrighted with the terrors of death ; but let the light of thy countenance enlighten mine eyes , that I sleep not in death eternall ; and when my tongue fails , let thy spirit teach my heart to pray , with strong cryings and groans that are unutterable . O let not the enemy do me any violence , but let thy holy mercies , and thy Angels repell and defeat his malice and fraud , that my soul may by thy strength triumph in the joyes of eternity , in the fruition of thee , my life , my joy , my hope , my exceeding great reward , my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen . V. For a dying Person in , or near the agonies of death . MOst mercifull and Blessed Saviour , have mercy upon the soul of this thy s●rvant ; remember not his ignorances , nor the sins of his youth , but according to thy great mercy remember him in the mercies and glories of thy Kingdome . Thou , O Lord , hast opened the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers , let the everlasting gates be open'd , and receive his Soul ; let the Angels , who rejoyce at the conversion of a sinner , triumph , and be exalted in his deliverance and salvation . Make him partaker of the benefits of thy holy incarnation , life and sanctity , passion and death , resurrection and ascension , and of all the prayers of the Church , of the joy of the elect , and all the fruits of the blessed communion of Saints ; and daily adde to the number of thy beatified servants such as shall be saved , that thy comming may be hastned , and the expectation of the Saints may be fulfilled , and the glory of thee , our Lord Jesu , bee advanced , all the whole Church singing praises to the Honour of thy Name , who livest and reignest ever one God world without end . Amen . VI. O Most mercifull Jesu , who didst die to redeem us from death and damnation , have mercy upon this thy servant , whom thy hand hath visited with sicknesse : of thy goodnesse be pleased to forgive him all his sinnes , and seal his hopes of glory , with the refreshments of thy holy Spirit . Lord give him strength and confidence in thee , asswage his pain , repell the assaults of his Ghostly enemies by thy mercies , and a guard of holy Angels : preserve him in the unity of the Church , keep his senses intire , his understanding right , give him great measure of contrition , true faith , a well grounded hope , and abundant charity , give him a quiet and a joyfull departure , let thy ministring spirits convey his soul to the mansions of peace and rest , there with certainty to expect a joyfull resurrection to the fulnesse of joy at thy right hand , where there is pleasure for evermore . Amen . VII . A Prayer for the joyes of Heaven . O Most glorious Jesu , who art the portion and exceeding great reward of all faithfull people , thou hast beautified humane Nature with glorious immortality , and hast carried the same above all Heavens , above the seat of Angels , beyond the Cherubims and Seraphims , placing it on the right hand of thy heavenly Father , grant to us all the issues of thy abundant charity , that we may live in thy fear , and die in thy favour . Prepare our souls with heavenly vertues for heavenly joys , m●king us righteous here , that we may be beautified hereafter . A Morning Prayer . In the Name of the Father , and of the Son , and of the holy Ghost . Our Father which art in Heaven , &c. I. O Eternall Sun of righteousnesse , who camest from the bosome of thy Father , the Fountain of glorious light , to enlighten the darknesses of the world ; I praise thy Name that thou hast preserved me from the dangers of this night , and hast continued to me still the opportunities of serving thee , and advancing my hopes of a blessed eternity . Let thy mercies shine brightly upon me , and dissipate the clouds and darknesses of my spirit and understanding , rectifie my affections , and purifie my will and all my actions , that whatsoever I shall do or suffer this day , or in my whole life , my words and purposes , my thoughts and my intentions may be sanctified , and be acceptable to thy divine Majesty . Amen . II. GRant that my understanding may know thee , my heart may love thee , and all my faculties and powers may give thee due obedience and serve thee . Preserve me this day from all sin and danger , from all violences and snares of mine enemies , visible and invisible ; let thy holy fear be as a bridle to my distemperatures , and thy love so enkindle and actuate all mine endeavours , that no pleasure or allurements of the world may draw me from thy service , nor any difficulty or temptation may be my hinderance : let the profound humility and innocence of my blessed Saviour keep from me all pride and haughtinesse of mind , all self-love and vain-glory , all obstinacy and disobedience , all fraudulency and hurtfull dissimulation , and let the graces of the holy Ghost take so absolute possession and seizure of my soul , and all its faculties , that I may tread down and cast out the spirit of intemperance and uncleannesse , of malice and envy , of idlenesse and disdain , that I may never despise any of thy creatures , but my self ; that so being little in mine own sight , I may be great in thine . Amen . III. CLothe my soule with the Wedding garment , the habits of supernaturall Faith , and Charity , that I may believe all thy holy promises and revelations without all wavering , and love thee my God with so great devotions and affections , that neither life nor death , prosperity nor adversity , temptations within , nor without , may ever dis-unite me from the love of thee ; but that I may have the most intimate adhesion to thy glories and perfections , of which my condition in this world is capable . Make me to choose vertue with the same freenesse of election , entertain it with as little reluctancy , keep it with as much complacency , actuate it with as many faculties , serve it with as much industry , as I have in time past my vices and pleasures of the world ; and grant that all inordinate affection to the transitory things of this life may daily decay in me , and that I may grow in spirit and ghostly strength , till I come to a perfect man in Christ Jesus . Amen . IV. GIve unto thy servant true humility , great contrition , a tender conscience , an obedient heart , an understanding always busied in honest and pious thoughts , a will tractable and ever prone to do good , affections eaven and moderate , a watchfull custody over my senses , that by those windows sinne may never enter in , nor death by sin . Make me to watch over my tongue , and keep the door of my lips , that no corrupt or unseemly communication proceed out of my mouth , that I may never flanner , calumniate or detract from the reputation of my neighbour ; that I be not busie in the faults of others , but carefull to correct mine own , being gentle and mercifull to others , and severe towards my self , that I may speak much of thy praises , and what I can for the edification of my brethren . Amen . V. GIve me understanding in thy Law , that I may know thy will ; and grace , and strength faithfully to fulfill the same . Give me a fear of thy Name , and of thy threatnings , and a love and hope of thy promises , let me daily feel thy mercies , and remove thy judgements far from me . Imprint in my heart a filiall reverence and awfulness towards thy Divine Majesty , that I may study to please thee with diligence , to worship thee with much devotion , to submit to the disposition of thy providence with thankfulnesse ; and that in conscience of my duty towards thee I may honour the King , obey Magistrates under him , love the Saints , and do all acts of charity according to my opportunity and ability , directing all my actions and intentions , not according to custome , or in pursuance of mine own ends , and temporall advantages , but in thy fear and in holy religion to the advancement of thy honour and glory . Amen . VI. GIve me a soul watchfull in the services of Religion , constant in holy purposes , ingenuous and free from sordid ends or servile flattery , a modest gravity in my deportment , affability and fair courteous demeanour towards all men , austerity in condemning mine own sins , sweetnesse in fraternall correction and reprehending others , mature judgement , a chaste body and a clean soul , patience in suffering , deliberation in my words and actions , good counsels in all my purposes : make me just in performing promises , and in all my duties , sedulous in my calling , profitable to the Common-wealth , a true Son of the Church , and of a disposition meek and charitable towards all men . Amen . VII . LEt this be my portion , and the comfort of my pilgrimage , so long as I am detained in the condition of mortality , and exiled from my heavenly Country , that being free from all fear of mine enemies , and from vexations , cares and sollicitudes of this life , I may be wholly devoted to thy service , that I may attend thee onely , and what tends to thee , that I may rejoyce onely in thee , and my soule may rest in thee ; that without distractions I may entertain thy heavenly Doctrine , and the blessed motions of thy holy Spirit , spending my time in the duties of necessity , in the works of charity , and the frequent office of Religion , with diligence , and patience , and perseverance , and hope , expecting the accomplishment of my days in peace ; that when I go unto my dust , I may be reckoned amongst those blessed souls , whose work it is to give thee praise , and honour , and glory , to all eternity . Amen . Blessed be the holy and undivided Trinity , now and for evermore . Amen . An Evening Prayer . In the Name of the Father , and of the Son , and of the holy Ghost . Our Father which art in Heaven , &c. I. O Lord God , who art the light and splendour of souls , in the brightnesse of thy countenance is eternall Day that knows no night , in thy arms , and in thy protection is all quietnesse , tranquillity , and everlasting repose , while the darkness covers the face of the earth , receive my body and soul into thy custody ; let not the spirits of darkness come near my dwelling , neither suffer my fancy to be abused with illusions of the night . Lord , I am thy servant , and the sheep of thy pasture , let not the devil , who goeth up and down seeking whom he may devour , abuse my body , or make a prey of my soul , but defend me from all those calamities which I have deserved , and protect my soul , that it consent not to any work of darknesse , lest mine enemy say , he hath prevailed over me , or do mischief to a soul redeemed with thy most precious Bloud . Amen . II. PArdon and forgive me all the sins and offences of my youth , the errours of mine understanding , the inordination of mine affections , the irregularity of all mine actions , and particularly whatsoever I have transgressed this day in thought , word , or deed . Lord , let not thy wrath arise , for although I have deserved the extreamest pressure of thine indignation , yet remember my infirmity , and how thou hast sent thy Son to reveal thy infinite mercies to us , and convey pardon and salvation to the penitent . I beseech thee also to accept the heartiest devotion and humblest acknowledgement of a thankfull heart , for thy blessing and preservation of me this day , for unlesse thy Providence and Grace had been my Defence and Guide , I had committed more and more grievous sins , and had been swallowed up by thy just wrath , and severest judgements . Mercy sweet Jesu . III. LOrd , let thy grace be so present with me , that though my body sleep , yet my soul may for ever be watchfull , that I sleep not in sin , or pretermit any opportunity of doing thee service ; let the remembrances of thy goodnesse and glories be first and last with me , and so unite my heart unto thee with habituall charity , that all my actions and sufferings may be directed to thy glory , and every motion and inclination either of soul or body , may in some capacity or other , receive a blessing from thee , and do thee service ; that whether I sleep or wake , travell or rest , eat or drink , live or die , I may always feel the light of thy countenance shining so upon me , that my labours may be easie , my rest blessed , my food sanctified , and my whole life spent with so much sanctity and peace , that escaping from the darknesses of this world , I may at last come to the land of everlasting rest in thy light , to behold light and glory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . Blessed be the holy and undivided Trinity , now and for evermore . Another Prayer for Evening . I. VIsit we beseech thee , O Lord , this habitation with thy mercy , and us thy servants with thy salvation , and repell far from us all the snares of the Enemy . Let thy holy Angels dwell here to keep us in peace and safety , and thy blessing be upon us for ever , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . II : O Lord Jesu Christ , the lively Image of thy Fathers mercies and glories , the Saviour of all them that put their trust in thee ; we offer and present to thee all our strengths , and powers of our souls and bodies , and whatsoever we are , or have , to be preserved , governed , and possest by thee . Preserve us from all vitious , vain , and proud cogitations , unchaste affections , and from all those things which thou hatest . Grant us thy holy charity , that we may love thee above all the world , that we may , with sincerity of intention and zealous affections , seek thee alone , and in thee onely take our rest , inseparably joyning our selves unto thee , who art worthy to be beloved and adored of all thy creatures with lowest prostrations , and highest affection , now and for evermore . Amen . III. O Father of mercies , and God of all comforts , let this blessing be upon us , and upon all the members of thy holy Church : all health and safety both of body and soul , against all our enemies , visible and invisible , now and for ever . Send us a quiet night , and a holy death in the actuall communion of the Catholique Church , and in thy charity , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . Our Father which art in heaven , &c. Now , and in all dangers and afflictions of soul and body , in the hour of death , and in the day of Judgement , save us and deliver us , O sweet Saviour and Redeemer Jesu . Collects to be added upon Various Occasions . I. For the Church : ALmighty and everlasting God , who hast revealed thy glory to Jews and Gentiles in our Lord Jesus Christ , extend thy hand of mercy over all the world , that thy Church may spread like a flourishing vine , and enlarge her borders to the uttermost parts of the earth , that all Nations partaking of the sweet refreshings of thy Gospel , thy Name may be glorified , the honour of our Lord Jesus advanced , his prophecies fulfilled , and his comming hastened . Blesse , O Lord , thy holy Church with all blessings of comfort , assistance , and preservation ; extirpate heresies , unite her divisions , give her patience & perseverance in the faith , and confession of thy name , in despite of all enmities , temptations , and disadvantages ; destroy all wicked counsels intended against her , or any of her children , by the Devill or any of his accursed instruments . Let the hands of thy grace and mercy lead her from this vale of misery , to the triumphant throne of her Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen . II. For the King. O Lord our heavenly Father , High & Mighty , King of Kings , who in thy hands hast the hearts of Kings , and canst turn them as the rivers of water , send the light of thy countenance , and abundance of blessings upon thy servant , our Soveraign Lord King Charles , make him as holy , valiant , and prosperous as King David , wise and rich like Solomon , zealous for the honour of thy Law and temple as Josiah ; and give him all sorts of great assistances , to enable him to serve thee , to glorifie thy name , to protect thy Church , to promote true Religion , to overcome all his enemies , to make glad all his liege people , that he serving thee with all diligence and the utmost of his possibility , his people may serve him with honour and obedience , in thee , and for thee , according to thy blessed word and ordinance , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . III. For the Queen . O God of heaven , Father of mercies , have mercy upon our most gracious Queen , unite her unto thee with the bands of faith and love , preserve her to her lives end in thy favour , and make her an instrument of glory to thy Name , of refreshment to the Church , of joy to all faithfull people of this Kingdome , of a plenteous and blessed Issue to his Majesty , and Crown her with an eternall weight of glory , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . IV. For the Prince of Wales . O Most blessed Jesu , Son of God , who camest from thy Fathers bosome with myriads of blessings to the sons of men ; blesse us all by thy especiall care and providence over the body and soul of the most illustrious Prince , CHARLES . Prepare him with plenty of thy grace , and with great abilities to succeed his Royall Father , in the service of thy Majesty , in defending the Catholique Faith , in comforting thy holy Church , in governing all the people prudently , justly , and religiously , that being partaker of all thy mercies here , in proportion to his necessity and capacity , he may enjoy a fulnesse of thy glory hereafter , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . V. For the Bishops . O Thou great Shepheard and Bishop of our souls , most glorious Jesu , blesse all holy and religious Prelates , especially the Bishops of our Church . O God let abundance of thy grace and benediction descend upon their heads , that by a holy life , by a true and Catholique beliefe , by a confident confession of thy Name , and by a Fatherly care , great sedulity and watchfulnesse over their flock , they may glorifie thee our God , the great lover of Souls , and set forward the salvation of their people , and of others by their example , and at last after a plentifull conversion of souls , they may shine like the Starres in glory , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . VI. For our Parents . O Almighty God , and mercifull Father , who from the loins of our first Parents , Adam & Eve , hast produced mankind , and hast commanded us to honor our Parents ; in pursuance of thy holy Commandment , and of our duty to thee our God , and in thee to them , we do with all humility beg a blessing of thee for our Parents , who from thy mercy and plenty have conveyed many to us ; pardon and forgive all their sins and infirmities , increase in them all goodnesse , give them blessings of the right hand , and blessings of the left ; blesse them in their persons , in their posterity , in the comforts of thy holy Spirit , in a persevering goodnesse , and at last in an eternall weight of glory , through Iesus Christ our Lord. Amen . VII . For our Children . O Father of Heaven , God of all the Creatures , by whose Providence mankinde is increased , I blesse thy Name for bestowing on me that blessing of the righteous man , the blessing of children . Lord blesse them with health , with life , with good understanding , with fair opportunities and advantages of education , society , tutors , and governours ; and above all with the graces of thy holy Spirit , that they may live and be blessed under thy protection , grow in grace , and be in favour with God and Man , and at last may make up the number of thine elect children , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . VIII . For our Patron , our Friends , and Benefactors . O Almighty God , thou Fountain of all good , of all excellency both to Men and Angels , extend thine abundant favour and loving kindnesses to my Patron , to all my Friends and Benefactors ; reward them and make them plentifull compensation for all the good which from thy mercifull Providence they have conveyed unto me . Let the light of thy countenance shine upon them , and let them never come into any desertion , affliction , or sadnesse , but such as may be an instrument of thy glory and their eternall comfort , in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen . IX . A Prayer of a Wife for her Husband . O My God , who hast graciously pleased to call me to the holy state of Matrimony , blesse me in it with the grace of chastity , with ●oyalty , obedience , and complacency to my Husband ; and blesse him with long life , with a healthfull body , with an understanding soule , with abundance of all thy graces , which may make him to be and continue thy servant , a true son of the Church , a supporter and a guide to me his wife , a blessing and a comfort to his children , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . X. Of a Husband for his Wife . O Mercifull God , who art a Father to us thy children , a Spouse to thy holy Church , a Saviour and Redeemer to all mankind , have mercy upon thy handmaid my wife , endue her with all the ornaments of thy heavenly grace , make her to be holy and devout as Hester , loving and amiable as Rachel , fruitfull as Leah , wise as Rebeccah , faithfull and obedient as Sarah , that being filled with thy grace and benediction here , she may be partaker of thy glory hereafter , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . XI . For a Curate to say in behalfe of his Parish . O Blessed Iesu , thou that art an eternall Priest , an universall Bishop , and the Fountain of all ghostly good , have mercy upon this Parish which thou hast cencredited to my charge . Lord , I am unfit for so great a burden , but by thy aid and gracious acceptation I hope for mercy , pardon , and assistance . O Lord , send thy holy Spirit to dwell amongst us : let here be peace and charity , and true Catholike Religion , and holy Discipline . Comfort the comfortlesse , heal the sick , relieve the oppressed , instru●t the ignorant , correct the refractory , keep us all from all deadly sin , and make them obedient to their superiours , friendly to one another , and servants of thy Divine Majesty , that so from thy favour they may obtain blessings in their bodies , in their souls , in their estates , and a supply to all their necessities , till at last they be freed from all dangers and necessities in the full fruition of thy everlasting glories , O blessed Saviour , and Redeemer Iesu. Amen . XII . For a Parishioner to say in behalf of his Curate . O God Almighty , who art pleased to send thy blessings upon us by the Ministration of the Bishops and Priests of thy holy Church , have mercy upon thy servant , to whom is committed the care of my soul , that he , by whose means thou art graciously pleased to advance my spirituall good , may by thy grace and favor be protected , by thy providence assisted , by thy great mercies comforted and relieved in all his necessities bodily and ghostly , through Iesus Christ our Lord. Amen . XIII . For safe Childe-birth . O Blessed Iesu , Son of the eternall God , who according to thy humanity wert born of a holy Maid , who conceived thee without sin , and brought thee forth without pain , have mercy upon me thy humble servant , and as by thy blessing I have conceived , so grant that by thy favourable assistance I may be safely delivered . Lord , grant me patience , and strength , and confidence in thee , and send thy holy Angel to be my guardian in the hour of my travel . O shut not up my soul with sinners , nor my life with them that go down into the pit . I humbly also beg mercy for my childe , grant it may be born with its right shape , give it a comely body , and an understanding soul , life , and opportunity of Baptism , and thy grace from the cradle to the grave , that it may encrease the number of Saints in that holy Fellowship of Saints and Angels , where thou livest and reignest eternall God , world without end . Amen . XIV . Before a Journey . O God , who didst preserve thy servants Abraham and Jacob , thy People Israel , thy servant Tobias , and the wise men of the East in their severall journeys , by thy providence , by a ministery of Angels , by a pillar of fire , and by the guidance of a Star , vouchsafe to preserve us thy servants in the way we are now to goe . Be ( O Lord a guide unto us ) in our preparation , a shadow in the Day , and a covering by Night , a rest to our wearinesse , and a staffe to our weaknesse , a patron in adversity , a protection from danger , that by thy assistance we may perform our journey safely to thy honor , to our own comfort , and with safety may return ; and at last bring us to the everlasting rest of our heavenly Country , through him who is the way , the truth , and the life , our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus . Amen . XV. For afflicted persons . O Lord God , mercifull and gracious , whose compassion extends to all that are in misery and need , and takest delight in the relieving the distresses of the afflicted , give refreshment to all the comfortlesse , provide for the poor , give ease to all them that are tormented with sharp pains , health to the diseased , liberty and redemption to the captives , chearfulnesse of spirit to all them that are in great desolations . Lord , let thy Spirit confirm all that are strong , strengthen all that are weak , and speak peace to afflicted consciences , that the light of thy countenance being restored to them , they may rejoyce in thy salvation , and sing praises unto thy Name , who hast delivered their souls from death , their eyes from tears , and their feet from falling . Grant this for the honour of thy mercies , and the glory of thy Name , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . XVI . For our Enemies . O Blessed Jesu , who wert of so infinite mercies , so transcendent a charity , that thou didst descend from Heaven to the bowels of the earth , that thou mightest reconcile us who were enemies , to the mercies of thy heavenly Father ; and in imitation of so glorious example hast commanded us to love them that hate us ; and to pray for them that are our enemies ; I beseech thee of thine infinite goodnesse , that thou wouldest be pleased to keep me with thy grace in so much meeknesse , justice , and affable disposition , that I may , so far as concerns me , live peaceably with all men , giving no man occasion of offence , and to them who hate me without a cause , I beseech thee give thy pardon , and fill them with charity towards thee and all the world , blesse them with all blessings in order to eternity , that when they are reconciled to thee , we also may be united with the bands of Faith , and Love , and a common Hope , and at last we may be removed to the glories of thy Kingdom , which is full of love and eternall charity , and where thou livest and reignest , ever one God , world without end . Amen . XVII . A Prayer to be said upon Ember-dayes . O Mercifull Jesu , who hast promised perpetuity to the Church , and a permanency in defiance of all the powers of darknesse , and the gates of hell , and to this purpose hast constituted severall orders , leaving a power to the Apostles , and their Successors , the Bishops , to beget Fathers of our souls , and to appoint Priests and Deacons for the edification of the Church , the benefit of all Christian people , and the advancement of thy service : have mercy upon thy Ministers the Bishops , give them for ever great measure of thy holy Spirit , and at this time particular assistances , and a power of discerning and trying the spirits of them who come to be ordained to the Ministery of thy Word and Sacraments ; that they may lay hands suddenly on no man , but maturely , prudently , and piously , they may appoint such to thy service and the Ministery of thy Kingdome , who by learning , discretion , and a holy life are apt instruments for the conversion of souls , to be examples to the people , guides of their manners , comforters of their sorrows , to sustain their weaknesses , and able to promote all the interests of true Religion . Grant this , O great Shepheard and Bishop of our souls , Blessed Jesus , who livest and reignest in the Kingdome of thine eternall Father , one God , world without end . Amen . Sanctus Deus . Sanctus Fortis . Sanctus Immortalis . FINIS . 
A64057	----	Of the sacred order and offices of episcopacie by divine institution, apostolicall tradition and catholique practice together with their titles of honour, secular employment, manner of election, delegation of their power and other appendant questions asserted against the Aerians and Acephali new and old / by Ier. Taylor ... Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. 1647 Approx. 715 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 202 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-12 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A64057 Wing T354 ESTC R11769 13574636 ocm 13574636 100408 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A64057) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 100408) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 804:4) Of the sacred order and offices of episcopacie by divine institution, apostolicall tradition and catholique practice together with their titles of honour, secular employment, manner of election, delegation of their power and other appendant questions asserted against the Aerians and Acephali new and old / by Ier. Taylor ... Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. [16], 386 p. Printed for Richard Royston ..., London : 1647. "Published by His Majesties command." Errata: p. [16] Reproduction of original in Huntington Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. 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Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Episcopacy -- Early works to 1800. 2005-02 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-03 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-05 Rachel Losh Sampled and proofread 2005-05 Rachel Losh Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion OF THE SACRED ORDER AND OFFICES OF EPISCOPACIE , By Divine Institution , Apostolicall Tradition , and Catholique Practice . TOGETHER WITH Their Titles of Honour , Secular Employment , Manner of Election , Delegation of their Power , and other appendant questions , asserted against the Aërians , and Acephali , new and old . By IER : TAYLOR , D. D. Chaplaine in Ordinarie to His MAJESTIE Published by His MAJESTIES Command . ROM . 13. 1. There is no power but of God. The Powers that be , are ordained of God. CONCIL . CHALCED . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . LONDON , Printed for RICHARD ROYSTON , at the Angel in Ivie-lane . 1647. TO THE TRVLY VVORTHY , AND MOST ACCOMPLISHT S t CHRISTOPHER HATTON Knight of the Honourable Order of the BATH . SIR , I AM ingag'd in the defence of a Great Truth , and J would willingly finde a shrowd to cover my selfe from danger , and calumny ; and although the cause both is & ought to be defended by Kings , yet my person must not goe thither to Sanctuary , unlesse it be to pay my devotion , and I have now no other left for my defence , I am robd of that which once did blesse me , and indeed still does , ( but in another manner ) and I hope will doe more ; but those distillations of coelestiall dewes are conveyed in Channels not pervious to an eye of sense , and now adayes we seldome look with other , be the object never so beauteous or alluring . You may then think , Sir , I am forc'd upon You ; may that beg my pardon and excuse , but I should do an injury to Your Noblenesse , if I should onely make You a refuge for my need , ( pardon this truth ) you are also of the fairest choice , not only for Your love of Learning , ( for although that be eminent in You , yet it is not Your eminence ) but for Your duty to H. Church , for Your loyaltie to His sacred Majestie . These did prompt me with the greatest confidence to hope for Your faire incouragement , and assistance in my pleadings for Episcopacy , in which cause Religion , and Majesty , the King , and the Church are 〈…〉 agoe , and registred in the Law to make it authentick , Laici sunt infensi Clericis . Now the Clergy pray , but fight not , and therefore if not specially protected by the King contra Ecclesiam Malignantium , they are made obnoxious to all the contumelies , and injuries , which an envious multitude will inflict upon them . It was observ'd enough in King Edgars time , Quamvis decreta Pontificum , & verba Sacerdotum in convul●is ligaminibus velut fundamenta montium fixa sunt , tamen plerumque tempestatibus , & turbinibus saecularium rerum Religio S. Matris Ecclesiae maculis reproborum dissipatur , acrumpitur . Idcirco Decrevimus Nos &c. There was a sad example of it in K. Iohn's time . For when he threw the Clergy from his Protection , it is incredible what injuries , what affronts , what robberies , yea what murders were committed upon the Bishops , and Priests of H. Church , whom neither the Sacrednesse of their persons , nor the Lawes of God , nor the terrors of Conscience , nor feares of Hell , nor Church-censures , nor the Lawes of Hospitality could protect from Scorne 〈◊〉 neer a tye as the necessity of their own preservation in the midst of so apparent danger , it will tye the Bishops hearts , and hands to the King faster then all the tyes of Lay-Allegiance , ( all the Politicall tyes I mean , ) all that are not precisely religious , and obligations in the Court of Conscience . 2. But the interest of the Bishops is conjunct with the prosperity of the King , besides the interest of their own securitie ; by the obligation of secular advantages . For they who have their livelyhood from the King , and are in expectance of their fortune from him are more likely to pay a tribute of exacter duty , then others , whose fortunes are not in such immediate dependancy on His Majesty . Aeneas Sylvius once gave a merry reason why Clerks advanced the Pope above a Councell , viz. because the Pope gave spirituall promotions , but the Councels gave none . It is but the Common expectation of gratitude , that a Patron Paramount shall be more assisted by his Beneficiaries in cases of necessity , then by those , who receive nothing from him but the common influences of Goverment . 3. But the Bishops duty to the King derives it selfe from a higher fountaine . For it is one of the maine excellencies in Christianity , that it advances the State , and well being of Monarchies , and Bodies Politique . Now then the Fathers of Religion the Reverend Bishops , whose peculiar office it is to promote the interests of Christianity , are by the nature and essentiall requisites of their office bound to promote the Honour and Dignity of Kings , whom Christianity would have so much honour'd , as to establish the just subordination of people to their Prince , upon better principles then ever , no lesse then their precise duty to God , and the hopes of a blissefull immortality . Here then is utile , honestum , and necessarium , to tye Bishops in duty to Kings ; and a threefold Cord is not easily broken . In pursuance of these obligations Episcopacy payes three returnes of tribute to Monarchy . 1. The first is the Duty of their people . For they being by God himselfe set over soules , judges of the most secret recesses of our Consciences , and the venerable Priests under them , have more power to keep men in their duteous subordination to the Prince , then there is in any secular power , by how much more forcible the impressions of the Conscience are , then all the externall violence in the world . And this power they have fairely put into act , for there was never any Protestant Bishop yet in Rebellion , unlesse he turn'd recreant to his Order , and it is the honour of the Church of England , that all her Children , and obedient people are full of indignation against Rebells , be they of any interest , or party whatsoever . For here ( & for it we thanke God and good Princes ) Episcopacy hath been preserv'd in faire priviledges and honour , and God hath blest and honour'd Episcopacy with the conjunction of a loyall people . As if because in the law of Nature the Kingdome and Priesthood were joyned in one person , it were naturall , and consonant to the first justice , that Kings should defend the rights of the Church , and the Church advance the honour of Kings . And when I consider that the first Bishop that was exauctorated was a Prince too , Prince , and Bishop of Geneva , me thinks it was an ill Omen , that the cause of the Prince , and the Bishop should be in Conjunction ever after . 2. A second returne that Episcopacy makes to Royalty is that which is the Duty of all Christians , the paying tributes , and impositions . And though all the Kings Leige people doe it , yet the issues of their duty , and liberality are mightily disproportionate if we consider their unequall Number , and Revenues . And if Clergy-subsidies be estimated according to the smallnesse of their revenue , and paucity of persons , it will not be half so short of the number , and weight of Crownes from Lay Dispensation , as it does farre exceed in the proportion of the Donative . 3. But the assistance that the Kings of England had in their Counsells , and affaires of greatest difficulty , from the great ability of Bishops , and other the Ministers of the Church , I desire to represent in the words of K. Alvred to Walfsigeus the Bishop , in an Epistle where he deplores the misery of his owne age by comparing it with the former times , when the Bishops were learn'd , and exercis'd in publike Counsels . Faelicia tum tempora fuerunt inter omnes Angliae populos ; Reges Deo , & scriptae ejus voluntati obsecundârunt in suâ pace , & bellicis expeditionibus , atque regimine domestico domi se semper tutati fuerint , atque etiam foris nobilitatem suam dilataverint . The reason was , as he insinuates before , Sapi●ntes extiterunt in Anglicâ gente de spirituali gradu &c. The Bishops were able by their great learning , and wisdome to give assistance to the Kings affaires . And they have prosper'd in it , for the most glorious issues of Divine Benison upon this Kingdome were conveyed to us by Bishops hands , I meane the Union of the houses of York & Lancaster , by the Counsells of a Bishop Morton , and of England & Scotland by the treaty of b Bishop Fox , to which if we adde two other in Materia religionis , I meane the conversion of the Kingdom from Paganisme , by S t Augustine Archbishop of Canterbury ; and the reformation , begun and promoted by Bishops , I think we cannot call to mind foure blessings equall to these in any age or Kingdome , in all which God was pleased by the mediation of Bishops , as he useth to doe , to blesse the people . And this may not only be expected in reason , but in good Divinity , for amongst the gifts of the spirit , which God hath given to his Church , are reckon'd Doctors , Teachers , and * helps in government . To which may be added this advantage , that the services of Church-men are rewardable upon the Churches stock ; no need to disimprove the Royall Banks to pay thanks to Bishops . But , Sir , I grow troublesome . Let this discourse have what ends it can ; the use J make of it , is but to pretend reason for my Boldnesse , and to entitle You to my Book : for I am confident you will owne any thing that is but a friends friend to a cause of Loyalty . I have nothing else to plead for your acceptance , but the confidence of your Goodnesse , and that I am a person capeable of your pardon , and of a faire interpretation of my addresse to you , by being SIR Your most affectionate Servant J. TAYLOR . Syllabus Paragraphorum . § , 1. Christ did institute a government in his Church . p. 7 2 This government was first committed to the Apostles by Christ , p. 12 3. With a power of joyning others and appointing Successours in the Apostolate , p. 13 4. This succession into the ordinary office of Apostolate is made by Bishops , p. 15. For the Apostle and the Bishop are all one in name and person , 5. And office , p. 20. 6. Which Christ himselfe hath made distinct from Presbyters , p. 22 7. Giving to Apostles a power to doe some offices perpetually necessary , which to others he gave not , p. 23 As of Ordination , 8. And Confirmation , p. 28 9. And superiority of Iurisdiction . p. 35 10. So that Bishops are successors in the office of Apostleship , according to the generall tenent of antiquitie , p. 49 11. And particularly of S. Peter , p. 54 12 And the institution of Episcopacy as well as of the Apostolate expressed to be Divine by primitive authority . p. 62 13 In pursuance of the Divine institution , the Apostles did ordain Bishops in severall Churches , p. 68 As S t Iames at Ierusalem , S. Simeon to be his successor , 14 S. Timothy at Ephesus , p. 75 15 S. Titus at Creet , p. 85 16 S. Mark at Alexandria , p. 93 17 S. Linus and S. Clement at Rome , p. 96 18 S. Polycarp at Smyrna , and divers others . p. 97 19 So that Episcopacy is at least an Apostolicall Ordinance , of the same authority with many other points generally believed , p. 100 20 And was an office of power and great authority , p. 102 21 Not lessened by the assistance and Councell of Presbyters , p. 104 22 And all this hath been the faith and practice of Christendome , p. 125 23 Who first distinguished names used before in common , p. 128 24 Appropriating the word Episcopus or Bishop to the supream Church-Officer , p. 139 25 Calling the Bishop and him onely the Pastor of the Church , p. 145 26 And Doctor , p. 149 27 And Pontifex , And Sacerdos . p. 150 28 And these were a distinct order from the rest , p. 156 29 To which the Presbyterate was but a degree , p. 160 30 There being a peculiar manner of Ordination to a Bishoprick , p. 161 31 To which Presbyters never did assist by imposing hands . p. 164 32 Bishops had a power distinct , and superiour to that of Presbyters , p. 175 33 Power of Confirmation , p. 198 34 Power of Iurisdiction , p. 209 Which they expressed in attributes of authority and great power . 35 Vniversall obedience given to Bishops by Clergy and Laity . p. 214 36 Bishops were appointed Iudges of the Clergy , and spirituall causes of the Laity . p. 220 37 Presbyters forbidden to officiate without Episcopall license . p. 251 38 Church-goods reserved to Episcopal dispensatiō . 264 39 Presbyters forbidden to leave their own Dioces , or to travell without leave of the Bishop . p. 266 40 The Bishop had power to prefer which of his Clerks he pleased . p. 267 41 Bishops onely did vote in Councels , and neither Presbyters , nor People . p. 282 42 The Bishop had a propriety in the persons of his Clerks . p. 292 43 The Bishops Iurisdiction was over many Congregations , or Parishes . p. 295 44 Their Iurisdiction was ayded by Presbyters , but not impayred . p. 311 45 The government of the Church by Bishops was believed necessary . p. 323 46 They are Schismaticks that separate from their Bishop , p. 327 47 And Hereticks . p. 329 48 Bishops were alwaies in the Church men of great honour , p. 335 49 And trusted with affaires of Secular interest , p. 351 50 And therefore were inforced to delegate their power and put others in substitution , p. 371 51 But they were ever Clergy-men , for there never was any lay-Elders in any Church-office heard of in the Church . p. 375 ERRATA . PAg. 21. line 8. insert , except S. John. Pag. 141. l. 15. Presbyters , read Bishops . Pag. 243. line 14. after Episcopacy , insert &c. & l. 15. after Bishops insert Clerk. Pag. 354. l. 11. read were Farmers . OF THE Sacred Order , and Offices of EPISCOPACY BY DIVINE INSTITUTION , APOSTOLICALL TRADITION , & Catholick practise &c. IN all those accursed machinations , which the device , and artifice of Hell hath invented , for the supplanting of the Church , Inimicus homo , that old superseminator of heresies , and crude mischiefes , hath indeavoured , to be curiously compendious , and with Tarquin's device , putare summa papaverum . And therefore in the three ages of Martyrs , it was a rul'd case in that Burgundian forge , Qui prior erat dignitate prior trahebatur ad Martyrium . The Priests , but to be sure the Bishops must pay for all . Tolleimpios , Polycarpus requiratur . Away with these pedling persecutions , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Lay the axe at the root of the tree . Insomuch that in Rome from S. Peter , and S. Paul to S. Sylvester , thirty three Bishops of Rome , in immediate succession , suffered an Honourable , and glorious Martyrdome , unlesse * Meltiades be perhaps excepted , whom Eusebius , and Optatus report to have lived till the time of the third Consulship of Constantine and Licinius . Conteret caput ejus , was the glorious promise , Christ should break the Divell's head , and though the Divell 's active part of the Duell was farre lesse , yet he would venture at that too , even to strike at the heads of the Church , capita vicaria , for the head of all was past his striking now ; And this , I say , he offered to doe by Martyrdome , but that insteed of breaking , crown'd them . His next onset was by Iulian , and occidere Presbyterium , that was his Province . To shut up publick Schooles , to force Christians to ignorance , to impoverish , and disgrace the Clergy , to make them vile , and dishonourable , these were his arts ; and he did the Divell more service in this finenesse of undermining , then all the open battery of the ten great Rammes of persecution . But this would not take . For that which is without cannot defile a man , So it is in the Church too . Cedunt in bonum , all violences ab extr● . But therefore besides these he attempted by heresies to rent the Churches bowels all in pieces ; but the good Bishops gathered up the scattered pieces & reunited them at Nice , at Constantinople , at Ephesus , at Chalcedon , at Carthage , at Rome , and in every famous place of Christendome , and by God's goodnesse , and the Bishops industry Catholick religion was conserved in Vnity , and integrity . Well! however it is , Antichrist must come at last , and the great Apostacy foretold must be , and this , not without means proportionable to the production of so great declensions of Christianity . When ye heare of warres , and rumors of warres , be not afraid ( said our B. Saviour , ) the end is not yet . It is not warre that will doe this great work of destruction , for then it might have been done long ' ere now . What then will doe it ? We shall know when we see it . In the meane time when we shall find a new device , of which indeed the platforme was laid , in Aërius , and the Acephali , brought to a good possibility of compleating , a thing that whosoever shall heare , his ●ars shall tingle , an abhomination of desolation standing where it ought not , in sacris , in holy persons , and places , and offices , it is too probable that this is the praeparatory for the Antichrist , and grand Apostacy . For if Antichrist shall exalt himselfe above all that is called God , and in Scripture none but Kings , and Priests are such , Dii vocati , Dii facti , I think we have great reason to be suspitious , that he that devests b●th of their power ( and they are , if the King be Christian , in very neer conjunction , ) does the work of Antichrist for him ; especially if the men , whom it most concernes , will but call to mind , that the discipline , or Government , which Christ hath instituted , is that Kingdome , by which he governes all Christendome ( so themselves have taught us ) so that , in case it be proved , that Episcopacy is that government , then they ( to use their own expressions ) throw Christ out of his Kingdome ; and then , either they leave the Church without a head , or else put Antichrist in substitution . We all wish , that our feares in this , and all things else , may be vaine , that what we feare , may not come upon us ; but yet that the abolition of Episcopacy is the fore-runner , and praparatory to the great Apostacy , I have these reasons to shew , at least the probability . First , Because here is a concurse of times ; for now after that these times have been called the last times , for 1600 years together , our expectation of the Great revelation is very neer accomplishing ; & what a Grand innovation of Ecclesiasticall government , contrary to the faith , & practice of Christendome , may portend now in these times , when we all expect Antichrist to be revealed is worthy of a jealous mans inquiry . Secondly , Episcopacy , if we consider the finall cause , was instituted as an obstructive to the diffusion of Schisme and Heresy . So * S. Hierome . In toto orbe decretum est , ut unus de Presbyteris electus superponeretur coeteris , VT SCHISMATVM SHMINA TOLLE●ENTUR . And therefore if Vnity and division be destructive of each other , then Episcopacy is the best deletery in the world for Schisme : and so much the rather because they are in eâdem materiâ ; for Schisme is a division for things either personall , or accidentall , which are matters , most properly the subject of government , and there to be tryed , there to receive their first , and last breath , except where they are starv'd to death by a desuetude ; and Episcopacy is an Unity of person governing , and ordering persons , and things , accidentall , and substantiall ; and therefore a direct confronting of Schisme , not only in the intention of the author of it , but in the nature of the institution . Now then , although Schismes alwaies will be , and this by divine prediction ( which clearly showes the necessity of perpetuall Episcopacy , and the intention of its perpetuity , either by Christ himselfe ordaining it , who made the prophecy , or by the Apostles and Apostolick men at least , who knew the prophecy : ) yet to be sure , these divisions , and dangers shall be greater about , and at the time of the Great Apostacy ; for then , were not the houres turned into minutes , an universall ruine should seize all Christendome [ No flesh should be saved if those daies were not shortned . ] is it not next to an evidence of fact , that this multiplication of Schismes must be removendo prohibens ? and therefore that must be by invalidating Episcopacy , ordayn'd as the remedy and obex of Schisme , either tying their hands behind them , by taking away their coërcion , or by putting out their eyes , by denying them cognisance of causes spirituall , or by cutting off their heads , and so destroying their order . How farre these will lead us , I leave to be considered . This only ; Percute pastores , atque oves despergentur ; and I believe it will be verified at the comming of that wicked one , I saw all Israel scattered upon the Mountaines as sheep having no sheapheard . I am not new in this conception , I learn't it of S. Cyprian ; Christi adversarius , & Ecclesiae ejus inimicus ad hoc , ECCLESIAE PRAEPOSITVM suâ infestatione persequitur , ut , Gubernatore sublato , atrociùs , atque violentiùs circà Ecclesiae naufragia grassetur . The adversary of Christ and enemy of his Spouse therefore persecutes the Bishop , that having taken him away , he may without check pride himselfe in the ruines of the Church ; and a little after speaking of them , that are enemies to Bishops , he sayes , that , Antichristi jam propinquantis adventum imitantur , their deportment is just after the guise of Antichrist who is shortly to be revealed . But be this conjecture vaine , or not , the thing , of it selfe is of deep consideration , and the Catholick practise of Christendome for 1500 years is so insupportable a prejudice against the enemies of Episcopacy , that they must bring admirable evidence of Scripture , or a cleare revelation proved by Miracles , or a contrary undoubted tradition Apostolicall for themselves , or else hope for no beliefe against the prescribed possession of so many ages . But before I begin , mee thinks in this contestation , ubi potior est conditio possidentis , it is a considerable Question ; what will the Adversaries stake against it ? For if Episcopacy cannot make its title good , they loose the benefit of their prescribed possession . If it can ; I feare they will scarce gain so much , as the obedience of the adverse party by it , which yet already is their due . It is very unequall ; but so it is ever , when Authority is the matter of the Question . Authority never gaines by it ; for although the cause goe on its side , yet it looses costs , and dammages ; for it must either by faire condescention to gain the adversaries ' , loose something of it selfe , or , if it asserts it selfe to the utmost , it is but where it was ; but that seldome or never happens , for the very questioning of any authority , hoc ipso , makes a great intrenchment even to the very skirts of its cloathing . But hûc deventumest . Now we are in , we must goe over . FIrst then , that wee may build upon a Rock . Christ did institute a government to order and rule his Church by his authority , according to his lawes , and by the assistance of the B. Spirit . 1. If this were not true , how shall the Church be governed ? For I hope the adversaries of Episcopacy , that are so punctuall to pitch all upon Scripture ground , will be sure to produce cleare Scripture for so maine a part of Christianity , as is the forme of the Government of Christs Church . And , if for our private actions ; and duties Oeconomicall , they will pretend a text , I suppose , it will not be thought possible , Scripture should make default in assignation of the publick Government , insomuch as all lawes intend the publick , and the generall directly ; the private , and the particular , by consequence only , and comprehension within the generall . 2. If Christ himselfe did not take order for a government , then we must derive it from humane prudence , and emergency of conveniences , and concurse of new circumstances , and then the Government must often be changed , or else time must stand still , and things be ever in the same state and possibility . Both the consequents are extreamely full of inconvenience . For if it be left to humane prudence , then either the government of the Church is not in immediate order to the good , and benison of soules , or if it be , that such an institution , in such immediate order to eternity , should be dependant upon humane prudence , it were to trust such a rich commodity in a cock-boat , that no wise Pilot will be supposed to doe . But if there be often changes in government Ecclesiasticall ( which was the other consequent ) in the publike frame I meane , and constitution of it ; either the certain infinity of Schismes will arise , or the dangerous issues of publick inconsistence , and innovation , which , in matters of religion , is good for nothing , but to make men distrust all ; and , come the best that can come , there will be so many Church-governments , as there are humane Prudences . For so ( if I be not mis-informed ) it is abroad in some townes that have discharged Episcopacy . At S t Galles in Switzerland there the Ministers , and Lay-men rule in Common , but a Lay-man is president . But the Consistories of Zurick and Basil are wholly consistent of Lay-men , and Ministers are joyned as assistants only , and Counsellors , but at Schaffhausen the Ministers are not admitted to so much , but in the Huguenot Churches of France , the Ministers doe all . 3. In such cases , where there is no power of the sword for a compulsory ( and confessedly of all sides there can be none in causes & Courts Ecclesiasticall ) if there be no opinion of Religion , no derivation from a divine authority , there will be sure to be no obedience , and indeed nothing but a certain , publick , calamitous irregularity . For why should they obay ? Not for Conscience , for there is no derivation from divine authority . Not for feare , for they have not the power of the sword . 4. If there be such a thing as the power of the keyes , by Christ concredited to his Church , for the binding and loosing delinquents , and penitents respectively on earth , then there is clearely a Court erected by Christ in his Church , for here is the delegation of Iudges , Tu Petrus , v●s Apostoli , whatsoever ye shall bind . Here is a compulsory , ligaveritis ; Here are the causes of which they take cognisance , Quodcunque viz. in materiâ scandali . For so it is limited Matth. 18. but it is indefinite Matth. 16. and Vniversall , Iohn . 20. which yet is to be understood secundùm materiam subjectam , in causes , which are emergent from Christianity , ut sic , that secular jurisdictions may not be intrenched upon . But of this hereafter . That Christ did in this place erect a Iurisdiction , and establish a government ( besides the evidence of fact ) is generally asserted by primitive exposition of the Fathers , affirming , that to S. Peter the Keys were given , that to the Church of all ages a power of binding and loosing might be communicated . Has igitur claves dedit Ecclesiae , ut quae solveret in terrâ , s●luta essent in coelo ; scil . ut ut quisquis in Ecclesiâ ejus dimitti sibi peccata crederet , seque ab iis correctus averteret in ejusdem Ecclesiae gremio constitutus eâdem side atque correctione sanaretur . So * S. Austin . And againe , Omnibus igitur sanctis ad Christi corpus insepar●bilitèr pertinentibus propter hujus vitae proce●●osissima gubernacu●um ad ligand● & solvenda peccat● claves regni coelorum primu● Apostolorum Petrus accepit ; Quoniam nec ille solus , sed universa Ecclesia ligat , solvitque peccata . S. Peter first received the government in the power of binding and loosing . But not he alone but all the Church , to wit , all succession , and ages of the Church . Vniversa Ecclesia , viz. in Pastoribus solis , as * S. Chrysostom , In Episcopis & Presbyteris as † S. Ierome . The whole Church , as it is represented in the Bishops and Presbyters . The same is affirmed by a Tertullian , b S. Cyprian , c S. Chrysostome , d S. Hilary , e Primasius , and generally by the Fathers of the elder , and Divines of the middle ages . 5. When our blessed Saviour had spoken a parable of the sudden coming of the sonne of Man , & commanded them therefore with diligence to stand upon their watch , the Disciples asked him , speakest thou this parable to us , or even to all ? And the Lord said , who then is that faithfull and wise steward , whom his Lord shall make ruler over his houshold to give them their portion of meat in due season ? As if he had said , I speak to You , for to whom else should I speak and give caution for the looking to the house in the Masters absence ? You are by office and designation my stewards , to feed my servants , to governe my house . 6. In Scripture , and other writers , to Feed , and to Governe , is all one when the office is either Politicall or Oeconomicall , or Ecclesiasticall . So he FED them with a faithfull and true heart , and RULED them prudently with all his power . And S. Peter joynes , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 together . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . So does S. Paul , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Rulers or overseers in a flock . Pastors . It is ordinary . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Homer . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Euripides calls the Governors and guides of Chariots , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And our blessed Saviour himselfe is called the Great sheapheard of our soules ; and that we may know the intentum of that compellation , it is in conjunction also with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . He is therefore our sheapheard , for he is our Bishop , our Ruler , and Overseer . Since then Christ hath left Pastors or Feeders in his Church , it is also as certain he hath left Rulers , they being both one in name , in person , in office . But this is of a known truth to all that understand either lawes or languages : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith * Philo , they that feed have the power of Princes and rulers ; the thing is an undoubted truth to most men , but because all are not of a mind something was necessary for confirmation of it . THis government was by immediate substitution delegated to the Apostles by Christ himselfe , in traditione clavium , in spiratione Spiritûs , in missione in Pentecoste . When Christ promised them the Keyes , he promised them power to bind and loose , when he breathed on them the holy Ghost , he gave them that actually , to which by the former promise they were intitled ; and in the octaves of the Passion , he gave them the same authority , which he had received from his Father , and they were the faithfull and wise stewards whom the Lord made RULERS over his Houshold . * But I shall not labour much upon this . Their founding all the Churches from Eastro West , and so , by being Fathers , derived their authority from the nature of the thing , their appointing rulers in every Church , their Synodall decrees de Suffocato & Sanguine , and letters missive to the Churches of Syria and Cilicia , their excommunications of Hymeneus , Alexander , and the incestuous Corinthian , their commanding , and requiring obedience of their people in all things , as S. Paul did of his subjects of Corinth , and the Hebrews by precept Apostolicall , their threatning the Pastorall rod , their calling Synods and publick assemblies , their ordering rites and ceremonies , composing a Symbole as the tessera of Christianity , their publick reprehension of delinquents , and indeed the whole execution of their Apostolate is one continued argument of their superintendency , and superiority of jurisdiction . THis power so delegated was not to expire with their Persons ; For when the Great sheapheard had reduced his wandring sheep into a fold , he would not leave them without guides to governe them , so long as the wolfe might possibly prey upon them , and that is , till the last separation of the Sheep from the Goats . And this Christ intimates in that promise , Ero vobiscum ( Apostolis ) usque ad consummationem saeculi . Vobiscum ; not with your persons , for they dyed long agoe , but vobiscum & v●stri similibus , with Apostles to the end of the world . And therefore that the Apostolate might be successive and perpetuall , Christ gave them a power of ordination , that by imposing hands on others they might impart that power which they received from Christ. For in the Apostles there was something extraordinary ; something ordinary . Whatsoever was extraordinary , as immediate mission , unlimited jurisdiction , and miraculous operations , that was not necessary to the perpetuall regiment of the Church , for then the Church should faile when these priviledges extraordinary did cease . It was not therefore in extraordinary powers and priviledges that Christ promised his perpetuall assistance ; not in speaking of tongues , not in doing miracles , whether in Materiâ censurae , as delivering to Sathan ; or , in materiâ misericordiae , as healing sick people ; or in re Naturali , as in resisting the venome of Vipers , and quenching the violence of flames ; in these Christ did not promise perpetuall assistance , for then it had been done , and still these signes should have followed them that believe . But we see they doe not . It followes then , that in all the ordinary parts of power and office Christ did promise to be with them to the end of the world , and therefore there must remaine a power of giving faculty , and capacity to persons successively for the execution of that , in which Christ promised perpetuall assistance . For since this perpetuall assistance could not be meant of abiding with their persons , who in few years were to forsake the world , it must needs be understood of their function , which either it must be succeeded to , or else it was as temporary as their persons . But in the extraordinary priviledges of the Apostles they had no successors , therefore of necessity a succession must be constituted in the ordinary office of Apostolate . Now what is this ordinary office ? Most certainly since the extraordinary ( as is evident ) was only a helpe for the founding and beginning , the other are such as are necessary for the perpetuating of a Church . Now in clear evidence of ●ence , these offices and powers are Preaching , Baptizing , Consecrating , Ordaining , and Governing . For these were necessary for the perpetuating of a Church , unlesse men could be Christians that were never Christned , nourished up to life without the Eucharist , become Priests without calling of God and Ordination , have their sinnes pardoned without absolution , be members and parts and sonnes of a Church whereof there is no coadunation , no authority , no Governour . These the Apostles had without all Question , and whatsoever they had , they had from Christ , and these were eternally necessary , these then were the offices of the Apostolate , which Christ promised to assist for ever , and this is that which we now call the Order and Office of Episcopacy . FOR although Deacons and Priests have part of these offices , and therefore ( though in a very limited sence ) they may be called successores Apostolorum , to wit , in the power of Baptizing , consecrating the Eucharist , and Preaching ( an excellent example whereof , though we have none in Scripture , yet if I mistake him not we have in Ignatius , calling the Colledge of Presbyters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a Combination of Apostles ) yet the Apostolate and Episcopacy which did communicate in all the power , and offices which were ordinary and perpetuall , are in Scripture clearely all one in ordinary ministration , and their names are often used in common to signify exactly the same ordinary function . 1. The name was borrowed from the Prophet David in the prediction of the Apostacy of Iudas , and Surrogation of S. Matthias ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . His Bishoprick , that is , his Apostolate let another take . The same word according to the translation of the 70. is used by the Prophet Isaiah , in an Evangelicall prediction , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will give thy Princes in peace , and thy Bishops in righteousnesse . Principes Ecclesiae vocat futuros Episcopos , saith * S. Hierome , herein admiring Gods Majesty in the destination of such Ministers whom himselfe calls Princes . And to this issue it is cited by S. Clement in his famous epistle to the Corinthians . But this is no waies unusuall in Scripture . For , 2. S. Iames the Brother of our Lord is called an Apostle , and yet he was not in the number of the twelve , but he was Bishop of Ierusalem . 1. That S. Iames was called an Apostle appears by the testimony of S. Paul , [ But other Apostles saw I●none , save Iames the Lords Brother . ] 2. That he was none of the twelve , appears also because among the twelve Apostles , there were but two Iames's . The sonne of Alpheus , and Iames the sonne of Zebedee , the Brother of Iohn . But neither of these was the Iames whom S. Paul calls the Lords brother . And this S. Paul intimates in making a distinct enumeration of all the appearances which Christ made after the resurrection . First to Cephas , then to the twelve , then to the 500. Brethren , then to Iames , then to all the Apostles . So that here S. Iames is reckoned distinctly from the twelve , and they from the whole Colledge of the Apostles , for there were ( it seems ) more of that dignity then the twelve . But this will also safely rely upon the concurrent testimony of * Hegesippus , * S. Clement , Eusebius , Epiphanius , S. Ambrose , and S. Hierome . 3. That S. Iames was Bishop of Ierusalem , and therefore called an Apostle , appears by the often commemoration of his presidency , and singular eminency in holy Scripture . Priority of order is mentioned , Galat. 2. even before S. Peter , who yet was primus Apostolorum , naturâ unus homo , Cratiâunus Christianus , abundantiore gratiâ unus idemque primus Apostolus ; ( as S. Austin ) yet in his own diocesse S. Iames had priority of order before him . v. 9. And when 1 Iames , 2 Cephas , and 3 Iohn , &c. First Iames before Cephas i.e. S. Peter . S. Iames also was president of that Synod which the Apostles convocated at Ierusalem about the Question of circumcision ; as is to be seen * Act. 15. to him S. Paul made his addresse , Act. 21. to him the brethren carried him , where he was found sitting in his Colledge of Presbyters , there he was alwaies resident , and his seat fixt , and that he liv'd Bishop of Ierusalem for many years together , is clearly testified by all the faith of the Primitive Fathers and Historians . But of this hereafter . 3. Epaphroditus is called the Apostle of th● Philippians . I have sent unto you Epaphrodit●● 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , My compeere and your Apostle . Gradum Apostolatus recepit Epaphroditus , saith Primasius , and what that is we are told by Theodoret , dictus Philippensium Apostolus à S. Paulo , quid hoc aliud nisi Episcopus ? Because he also had received the office of being an Apostle among them , saith S. Ierome upon the same place ; and it is very observeable , that those Apostles to whom our blessed Saviour gave immediate substitution are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Apostles of Iesus Christ , but those other men which were Bishops of Churches , and called Apostles by Scripture , are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Apostles of Churches , or sometime Apostles , alone , but never are intitled of Iesus Christ. Other of the Apostles saw I none but Iames the Lords Brother , Gal. 1. There S. Iames the Bishop of Ierusalem is called an Apostle indefinitely . But S. Paul calls himselfe often the Apostle of Iesus Christ , not of man , neither by man , but by Iesus Christ. So , Peter an Apostle of Iesus Christ , but S. Iames in his Epistle to the Iewes of the dispersion , writes not himselfe the Apostle of Iesus Christ , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Iames the servant of God and of the Lord Iesus Christ. Further yet : S. Paul , although as having an immediate calling from Christ to the office of Apostolate at large , calls himselfe the Apostle of Iesus Christ , yet when he was sent to preach to the Gentiles by the particular direction indeed of the holy Ghost , but by Humane constitution , and imposition of hands ; in relation to that part of his office , and his cure of the uncircumcision , he limits his Apostolate to his Diocesse and calls himselfe , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The Apostle of the Gentiles ; as S. Peter for the same reason , and in the same modification is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , the Apostle of those who were of the Circumcision . And thus Epaphroditus is called the Apostle of the Philippians , who clearely was their Bishop ( as I shall shew in the sequel ) that is , he had an Apostolate limited to the Diocesse of Philippi . Pa●latim verò tempore procedente , & ali● ab his quos Dominus eleger at ordinati sunt Apostoli , sicut ille ad Philippenses sermo declarat , dicens , necessarium autem existimo Epaphroditum , &c. So S. Ierome . In processe of time others besides those whom the Lord had chosen , were ordained Apostles ; and particularly he instances in Epaphroditus from the authority of this instance , adding also that by the Apostles themselves Iudas and Silas were called Apostles . 4. Thus Titus , and some other with him , who came to Ierusalem with the Corinthian benevolence , are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The Apostles of the Churches . Apostles , I say , in the Episcopall sence . They were none of the twelve , they were not of immediate divine mission , but of Apostolike ordination , they were actually Bishops as I shall shew hereafter . Titus was Bishop of Crete , and Epaphroditus of Philippi , and these were the Apostles , for Titus came with the Corinthian , Epaphroditus with the Colossian liberality . Now these men were not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , called , Messengers in respect of these Churches sending them with their contributions . 1. Because they are not called the Apostles of these Churches , to wit , whose almes they carried , but simply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , of the Churches , viz. of their own of which they were Bishops . For if the title of [ Apostle ] had related to their mission from these Churches , it is unimaginable that there should be no terme of relation expressed . 2. It is very cleare that although they did indeed carry the benevolence of the severall Churches , yet S. Paul , not those Churches sent them , And we have sent with them our Brother , &c. 3. They are called Apostles of the Churches , not going from Corinth with the mony , but before they came thither from whence they were to be dispatch't in legation to Ierusalem . [ If any enquire of Titus .... or the Brethren , they are the Apostles of the Church , and the glory of Christ. ] So they were Apostles before they went to Corinth , not for their being imployed in the transportation of their charity . So that it is plaine , that their Apostolate being not relative to the Churches whose benevolence they carried , and they having Churches of their own , as Titus had Crete , Epaphroditus had Philippi , their Apostolate was a fixt residence , and superintendency of their severall Churches . BVt in holy Scripture the identity of the ordinary office of Apostleship and Episcopacy , is clearer yet . For when the holy Spirit had sent seaven letters to the seaven Asian Bishops , the Angell of the Church of Ephesus is commended for trying them , which say they are Apostles and are not , and hathfound themlyars . This Angell of the Church of Ephesus , as Antiquity hath taught us , was at that time Timothy , or * Gajus , the first a Disciple , the other had been an entertainer of the Apostles , and either of them knew them well enough ; it could not be that any man should dissemble their persons & counterfeit himselfe S. Paul , or S. Peter . And if they had , yet little trying was needfull to discover their folly in such a case , and whether it was Timothy or Gajus he could deserve but small commendations for the meer believing of his own eyes and memory . Besides the Apostles all were then dead , and he known to live in Patmos , known by the publick attestation of the sentence of relegation ad insulam . These men therefore dissembling themselves to be Apostles , must dissemble an ordinary function , not an extraordinary person . And indeed by the concurse of of story , place , and time , Diotrephes was the Man S. Iohn cheifly pointed at . For he seeing that of Ephesus there had been an Episcopall chayre plac'd , and Timothy a long while posses'd of it , and * perhaps Gajus after him , if we may trust Dorotheus , and the like in some other Churches , and that S. Iohn had not constituted Bishops in all the other Churches of the lesser Asia , but kept the Iurisdiction to be ministred by himselfe , would arrogantly take upon him to be a Bishop without Apostolicall ordination , obtruding himselfe upon the Church of Ephesus , so becoming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a busy man in anothers Diocesse . This , and such impostors as this the Angell of the Church of Ephesus did try , and discover , and convict , and in it he was assisted by S. Iohn himselfe , as is intimated in S. Iohns third Epistle written to this Gajus [ v. 9. ] I wrote unto the Church ( to wit of Asia ) but Diotrephes who loveth to have the preheminence among them receiveth us not . ] Clearly this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 would have been a Bishop . It was a matter of ambition , a quarrell for superintendency and preheminence that troubled him ; and this also appeares further in that he exercised jurisdiction , and excommunication where he had nothing to doe , [ v. 10. ] He forbids them that would receive the Brethren , and casteth them out of the Church . So that here it is cleare , this false Apostolate , was his ambitious seeking of Episcopall preheminence and jurisdiction without lawfull ordination . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that was his designe , He loved to be the first in the Church , esse Apostolum , esse Episcopum , to be an Apostle , or a Bishop . BVt this office of the ordinary Apostleship or Episcopacy , derives its fountain from a Rock ; Christs own distinguishing the Apostolate from the function of Presbyters . For when our blessed Saviour had gathered many Disciples who believed him at his first preaching , Vocavit Discipulos suos , & elegit duodecem ex ipsis quos & Apostolos nominavit , saith S. Luke . He called his Disciples , and out of them chose twelve , and called them Apostles . That was the first election . Post haec autem designavit Dominus & alios septuaginta duos . That was his second election ; the first were called Apostles , the second were not , and yet he sent them by two and two . We heare but of one commission granted them , which when they had performed and returned joyfull at their power over Divells , wee heare no more of them in the Gospell , but that their Names were written in heaven . Wee are likely therefore to heare of them after the passion , if they can but hold their owne . And so we doe . For after the Passion the Apostles gathered them together , and joyn'd them in Clericall commission by vertue of Christs first ordination of them , for a new ordination we find none in holy Scripture recorded , before we find them doing Clericall offices . Ananias we read baptizing of Saul , Philip the Evangelist we find preaching in Samaria , and baptizing his Converts ; Others also we find , Presbyters at Ierusalem , especially at the first Councell , for there was Iudas sirnamed Iustus , and Silas , and S. Marke , and Iohn ( a Presbyter , not an Apostle as Eusebius reports him ) and Simeon Cleophas who tarried there till he was made Bishop of Ierusalem , these and diverse others , are reckoned to be of the number of the 72 , by Eusebius and Dorotheus . Here are plainly two offices of Ecclesiasticall Ministeries . Apostles and Presbyters , so the Scripture calls them . These were distinct , and not temporary , but succeeded to , and if so , then here is clearely a Divine institution of two Orders , and yet Deacons neither of them . Here let us fix a while . 1. THen ; It is cleare in Scripture that the Apostles did some acts of Ministery which were necessary to be done for ever in the Church , and therefore to be committed to their successors , which acts the seventy Disciples or Presbyters could not doe , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. Denis of the Highest Order of the Hierarchy . The law of God hath reserved the Greater and Diviner Offices to the Highest Order . First , the Apostles impos'd hands in Ordinations , which the 72 did not , the case is knowne , Act. 6. The Apostles called the Disciples , willing them to choose seaven men whom they might constitute in the ministration and over-sight of the poore , They did so , and set them before the twelue Apostles , so they are specified and numbred vers . 2. cum 6. and when they had prayed , they lay'd their hands on them . They , not the Disciples , not the 72 who were there actually present , and seaven of them were then ordayn'd to this Ministery , for they were not now ordayn'd to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as the * Councell of Constantinople calls them , and that these were of the number of the 72. Disciples , Epiphanius bears witnesse . He sent other 72. to preach 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , of which Number were those seaven ordained and set over the widdowes . And the same is intimated by S. Chrysostome , if I understand him right , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . What dignity had these seaven here ordained ? of Deacons ? No ; for this dispensation is made by Priests not Deacons ; and Theophylact more clearely repeating the words of S. Chrysostome , pro more suo , addes this , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The name and dignity of these seaven was no lesse , but even the dignity of Presbyters , only for the time they were appointed to dispense the goods of the Church for the good of the faithfull people . Presbyters they were say S. Chrysostome and Theophylact ; of the number of the 72. saith Epiphanius . But however , it is cleare that the 72. were present , for the whole multitude of the Disciples was as yet there resident , they were not yet sent abroad , they were not scattered with persecution till the Martyrdome of S. Stephen , [ but the twelve called the whole multitude of the Disciples ] to them about this affaire . vers . 2. But yet themselves only did ordaine them . 2. An instance paralell to this , is in the imposition of hands upon S. Paul and Barnabas , in the first ordination that was held at Antioch . [ Now there were in the Church that was at Antioch certain Prophets and Teachers , as Barnabas and Simeon , and Lucius , and Manäen , and Saul . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , while these men were Ministring , the holy Ghost said to them , separate me Barnabas and Saul . ] They did so , they [ fasted , they prayed , they laid their hands on them , and sent them away . So they being sent forth by the holy Ghost , departed into Seleucia . ] This is the story , now let us make our best on 't . Here then was the ordination and imposition of hands complete , and that was said to be done by the holy Ghost which was done by the Prophets of Antioch . For they sent them away , and yet the next words are , so they being sent forth by the holy Ghost . So that here was the thing done , and that by the Prophets alone , and that by the command of the Holy Ghost , and said to be his act . Well! but what were these Prophets ? They were Prophets in the Church of Antioch , not such as Agabus , and the daughters of Philip the Evangelist , Prophets of prediction extraordinary , but Prophets of ordinary office and ministration , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Prophets and Teachers and Ministers . More then ordinary Ministers , for they were Doctors or Teachers , and that 's not all , for they were Prophets too . This even at first sight is more then the ordinary office of the Presbytery . We shall see this cleare enough in S. Paul * where the ordinary office of Prophets is reckoned before Pastors , before Evangelists , next to Apostles , that is next to such Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as S. Paul there expresses it , next to those Apostles to whom Christ hath given immediate mission . And these are therefore Apostles too , Apostles secundi or dinis , none of the twelve , but such as S. Iames , and Epaphroditus , and Barnabas and S. Paul himselfe . To be sure they were such Prophets as S. Paul and Barnabas , for they are reckoned in the number by S. Luke , for here it was that S. Paul although he had immediate vocation by Christ , yet he had particular ordination to this Apostolate or Ministery of the Gentiles . It is evident then what Prophets these were , they they were at the least more then ordinary Presbyters , and therefore they impos'd hands , and they only . And yet to make the businesse up compleat , S. Marke was amongst them , but he impos'd no hands , he was there as the Deacon and Minister [ vers . 5. ] but he medled not , S. Luke fixes the whole action upon the Prophets , such as S , Paul himselfe was , and so did the Holy Ghost too , but neither did S. Marke who was an Evangelist , and one of the 72 Disciples ( as he is reckoned in the Primitive Catalogues by Eusebius and Dorotheus ) nor any of the Colledge of the Antiochian Presbyters , that were lesse then Prophets , that is , who were not more then meere Presbyters . The summe is this : Imposition of hands is a duty & office necessary for the perpetuating of a Church , ne Gens sit Vnius aetatis , least it expire in one age : this power of imposition of hands for Ordination was fix't upon the Apostles and Apostolike men , and not communicated to the 72 Disciples or Presbyters ; for the Apostles , and Apostolike men , did so de facto , and were commanded to doe so , and the 72 never did so , therefore this office and Ministery of the Apostolate is distinct , and superiour to that of Presbyters , and this distinction must be so continued to all ages of the Church , for the thing was not temporary but productive of issue and succession , and therefore as perpetuall as the Clergy , as the Church it selfe . 2. THe Apostles did impose hands for confirmation of Baptized people , and this was a perpetuall act of a power to be succeeded to , and yet not communicated , nor executed by the 72 , or any other meere Presbyter . That the Apostles did confirme Baptized people , and others of the inferiour Clergie could not , is beyond all exception cleare in the case of the Samaritan Christians . Acts. 8. For when S. Philip had converted , and Baptized the Men of Samaria , the Apostles sent Peter and Iohn to lay their hands on them that they might receive the Holy Ghost . S. Philip he was an Evangelist , he was one of the 72 Disciples , * a Presbyter , and appointed to the same ministration that S. Stephen was about the poore Widdowes , yet he could not doe this , the Apostles must and did . This giving of the Holy Ghost by imposition of the Apostles hands , was not for a miraculous gift , but an ordinary Grace . For S. Philip could , and did doe miracles enough , but this Grace he could not give , the Grace of consigning or confirmation . The like case is in Acts. 19. where some people having been Baptized at Ephesus , S. Paul confirmed them , giving them the Holy Ghost by imposition of hands . The Apostles did it ; not the twelue only , but Apostolike men , the other Apostles . S. Paul did it . S. Philip could not , nor any of the 72 , or any other meere Presbyters ever did it , that we find in Holy Scripture . Yea ; but this imposition of hands , was for a Miraculous issue , for the Ephesine Christians received the Holy Ghost , and spake with tongues and prophesied , which effect because it is ceased , certainly the thing was temporary and long agoe expired . 1. Not for this reason to be sure . For extraordinary effects may be temporary , when the function which they attest may be eternall , and therefore are no signes of an extraordinary Ministery . The Apostles preaching was attended by Miracles , and extraordinary conversions of people [ ut in exordio , Apostolos divinorum signorum comitabantur effectus & Spiritûs Sancti gratia , ità ut videres unâ alloquutione integros simul populos ad cultum divinae religionis adduci , & praedicantium verbis nonesse tardiorem audientium fidem , ] as * Eusebius tels of the successe of the preaching of some Evangelists ; yet I hope preaching must not now cease because no Miracles are done , or that to convert one man now would be the greatest Miracle . The Apostles when they curs'd and anathematiz'd a delinquent , he dyed suddainly , as in the case of Ananias and Saphira , whom S. Peter slew with the word of his Ministery , and yet now although these extraordinary issues cease , it is not safe venturing upon the curses of the Church . When the Apostles did excommunicate a sinner , he was presently delivered over to Sathan to be buffeted , that is , to be afflicted with corporall punishments , and now although no such exterminating Angels beat the bodyes of persons excommunicate , yet the power of excommunication I hope still remaines in the Church , and the power of the Keyes is not also gone : So also in the power of confirmation , * which however attended by a visible miraculous descent of the Holy Ghost in gifts of languages and healing , yet like other miracles in respect of the whole integrity of Christian faith , these miracles at first did confirme the function , and the faith for ever . Now then that this right of imposing hands for confirming of baptiz'd people , was not to expire with the persons of the Apostles , appeares from these considerations . 1. Because Christ made a promise of sending Vicarium suum Spiritum , the Holy Ghost in his stead ; and this by way of appropriation is called the promise of the Father ; This was pertinent to all Christendome . Effundam de spiritu meo super omnem carnem , so it was in the Prophecy . For the promise is to you and to your Children 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and to all them that are a farre off , even to as many as the Lord shall call . So it was in the first accomplishing . To all . And this for ever , for [ I will send the Holy Ghost unto you , and he shall abide with you for ever ] for it was in subsidium , to supply the comforts of his desired presence , and must therefore ex vi intentionis be remanent till Christ's comming againe . Now then this promise being to be communicated to all , and that for ever , must either come to us by 1 extraordinary and miraculous mission , or by 2 an ordinary Ministery . Not the first ; for we might as well expect the gift of Miracles . If the second ( as it is most certaine so ) then the mayne Question is evicted , viz : that something perpetually necessary was in the power of the Apostles , which was not in the power of the inferiour Ministers , nor of any , but themselves and their Colleagues , to wit , Ministerium S. Spiritûs , or the ordinary office of giving the holy Ghost by imposition of hands . For this promise was performed to the Apostles in Pentecost , to the rest of the faithfull after Baptisme , Quod n●nunc in confirmandis Neophyt is manûs impositio tribuit singulis , hoc tunc spiritûs sancti descensio , in credentium populo donavit Vniversis , saith Eusebius Emissenus , Now we find no other way of performing it , nor any ordinary conveyance of the Spirit to all people , but this ; and we find that the H. Ghost actually was given this way . Therefore the effect , to wit , the H. Ghost being to continue forever , and the promise of Universall concernement , this way also of it's communication , to wit , by Apostolicall imposition of hands , is also perpetuum ministerium , to be succeeded to and to abide for ever . 2 This Ministery of imposition of hands for confirmation of baptized people is so farre from being a temporary Grace , and to determine with the persons of the Apostles , that it is a fundamentall point of Christianity , an essentiall ingredient to it's cōposition . S. Paul is my Author . [ Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ , let us goe on unto perfection , not laying againe the foundation of Repentance from dead works , faith towards God , the doctrine of baptisme , and of laying on of hands . &c. Here is imposition of hands reckoned as part of the foundation and a principle of Christianity in S. Pauls Catechisme . Now , imposition of hands is used by Name in Scripture but for two Ministrations . 1 For ordination , & 2 for this whatsover it is . Imposition of hands for ordination does indeed give the Holy Ghost , but not as he is that promise which is called the promise of the Father . For the Holy Ghost for ordination was given before the ascension . Iohn . 20. But the promise of the H. Ghost the comforter [ the Paraclete , I say , not the Ordayner or fountaine of Priestly order , that ] was not given till the day of Pentecost ; and besides , it was promis'd to all Christian people , and the other was given onely to the Clergy . * Adde to this , that S. Paul having laid this in the foundation makes his progresse from this to perfection ( as he calls it ) that is to higher mysteries , and then his discourse is immediately of the Priesthood Evangelicall , which is Originally in Christ , ministerially in the Clergy ; so that unlesse we will either confound the termes of his progresse , or imagine him to make the Ministery of the Clergy , the foundation of Christs Priesthood , and not rather contrary , it is cleare that by imposition of hands , S. Paul meanes not ordination , and therefore confirmation , there being no other ordinary Ministery of imposition of hands but these two specifyed in Holy Scripture . For , as for benediction in which Christ used the ceremony , and as for healing in which Ananias and the Apostles us'd it ; the first is clearely no Principle or fundamentall point of Christianity ; and the Second is confessedly extraordinary , therefore the argument is still firme upon it's first principles . 3. Lastly , the Primitive Church did de facto , and beleiv'd themselves to be tyed de jure to use this rite of Confirmation and giving of the Holy Ghost after Baptisme . S. Clemens Alexandrinus in Eusebius tells a story of a young man whom S. Iohn had converted and committed to a Bishop to be brought up in the faith of Christendome , Qui ( saith S. Clement ) eum baptismi Sacramento illuminavit , posteà verò sigillo Domini tanquam perfectâ & tutâ ejus animi custodiâ obsignavit . The Bishop first baptiz'd him , then consign'd him . Iustin Martyr saies ( speaking pro more Ecclesiae , according to the Custome of the Church ) that when the mysteries of baptisme were done , then the faithfull are consign'd , or confirm'd . S. Cyprian relates to this story of S. Philip and the Apostles , and gives this account of the whole affayre , Et idcircò quia legitimum & Ecclesiasticum baptismum consequuti fuerant , baptizarieos ultrà non oportebat ; Sed tantummodò id quod deerat , id à Petro & Iohanne factum erat , ut oratione pro cis habitâ & manu impositâ invocaretur , & infunderetur super eos Spiritus S. Quod nunc quoque apud nos geritur , ut qui in Ecclesiâ baptiz antur , Praepositis Ecclesiae offer antur , ut per nostram orationem ac manûs impositionem Spiritum S. consequantur , & signaculo Dominico confirmentur . S. Peter and S. Iohn by imposing their hands on the Converts of Samaria , praying over them , and giving them the Holy Ghost , made supply to them of what was wanting after Baptisme : and this is to this day done in the Church , for new baptized people are brought to the Bishops , and by imposition of their hands obtaine the Holy Ghost . But for this who pleases to be farther satisfied in the Primitive faith of Christendome , may see it in the decretall Epistles of Cornelius the Martyr to Fabianus recorded by Eusebius ; in the * Epistle written to Iulius and Iulianus Bishops , under the name of S. Clement , in the * Epistle of Vrban P. and Martyr , a in Tertullian , in b S. Austen , and in S. Cyrill of Ierusalem whose whole third Mistagogique Catechi●me is concerning Confirmation . This only . The Catholicks , whose Christian prudence it was , in all true respects to disadvantage Hereticks , least their poyson should infect like a Pest , layd it in Novatus dish as a crime , He was baptized in his bed , and was not confirmed , Vnde nec Spiritum sanctum unquam potuerit promereri , therefore he could never receive the gift of the holy Ghost . So Cornelius in the forequoted Epistle . Whence it is evident , that then it was the beliefe of Christendome , that the holy Ghost was by no ordinary ministery given to faithfull people after Baptisme , but only by Apostolicall , or Episcopall consignation and imposition of hands . What also the faith of Christendome was concerning the Minister of confirmation , and that Bishops only could doe it , I shall make evident in the descent of this discourse . Here the Scene lies in Scripture , where it is cleare that S. Philip , one of the 72. Disciples , as antiquity reports him , and an Evangelist and a Disciple , as Scripture also expresses him , could not impose hands for application of the promise of the Father , and ministeriall giving of the holy Ghost , but the Apostles must goe to doe it ; and also there is no example in Scripture of any that ever did it but an Apostle , and yet this is an ordinary Ministery which de jure ought , & de facto alwaies was continued in the Church . Therefore there must alwaies be an ordinary office of Apostleship in the Church to doe it , that is , an office above Presbyters , for in Scripture they could never doe it , and this is it which we call Episcopacy . 3. THe Apostles were rulers of the whole Church , & each Apostle respectively of his severall Diocesse , when he would fixe his chaire ; & had superintendency over the Presbyters , and the people , and this by Christs donation , the Charter is by the Fathers said to be this . Sicut misit me Pater , sic ego mitto vos . As my Father hath sent me , even so send I you . Manifesta enim est sententia Domini nostri Iesu Christi Apostolos suos mittentis , & ipsis solis potestatem à Patre sibi datam permittentis quibus nos successimus eâdem potestate Ecclesiam Domini gubernantes , said Clarus à Musculâ , the Bishop in the Councell of Carthage related by S. Cyprian and S. Austin . But however it is evident in Scripture , that the Apostles had such superintendency over the inferior Clergy ( Presbyters I mean and Deacons ) and a superiority of jurisdiction , and therefore it is certain that Christ gave it them , for none of the Apostles took this honour , but he that was called of God as was Aaron . 1. Our blessed Saviour gave to the Apostles plenitudinem potestatis . It was sicut misit me Pater , &c. As my Father sent , so I send . You , my Apostles whom I have chosen . This was not said to Presbyters , for they had no commission at all given to them by Christ , but at their first mission to preach repentance , I say no commission at all , they were not spoken to , they were not present . Now then consider . Suppose that as Aërius did deny the Divine institution of Bishops over the Presbyters cum grege , another as confident as he should deny the Divine institution of Presbyters , what proof were there in all the holy Scripture to shew the Divine institution of them as a distinct order from Apostles or Bishops . Indeed Christ selected 72. and gave them commission to preach , but that commission was temporary and expired before the crucifixion for ought appeares in Scripture . If it be said the Apostles did ordaine Presbyters in every City , it is true , but not sufficient , for so they ordained Deacons at Ierusalem , and in all established Churches , and yet this will not tant ' amount to an immediate Divine institution for Deacons , and how can it then for Presbyters ? If we say a constant Catholick traditive interpretation of Scripture , does teach us , that Christ did institute the Presbyterate together with Episcopacy , and made the Apostles Presbyters as well as Bishops ; this is true . But then 1. We recede from the plain words of Scripture , and rely upon tradition , which in this question of Episcopacy will be of dangerous consequence to the enimies of it , for the same tradition , if that be admitted for good probation , is for Episcopall preheminence over Presbyters , as will appeare in the sequel . 2. Though no use be made of this advantage , yet to the allegation it will be quickly answered , that it can never bee proved from Scripture , that Christ made the Apostles Priests first , and then Bishops or Apostles , but only that Christ gave them severall commissions , and parts of the office Apostolicall , all which being in one person , cannot by force of Scripture prove two orders . Truth is , if we change the scene of warre , and say that the Presbyterate , as a distinct order from the ordinary office of Apostleship , is not of Divine institution , the proof of it would be harder then for the Divine institution of Episcopacy . Especially if we consider that in all the enumerations of the parts of Cleric●●l offices , there is no enumeration of Presbyters , but of Apostles there is ; and the other members of the induction are of guifts of Christianity , or par●● of the Apostolate , and either must inferre many more orders , then the Church ever yet admitted of , or none , distinct from the Apostolate , insomuch as Apostles were Pastors , and Teachers , and Evangelists , and Rulers , and had the guift of tongues , of healing , and of Miracles . This thing is of great consideration , and this use I will make of it : That either Christ made the 72 to be Presbyters , and in them instituted the distinct order of Presbyterate , as the ancient Church alwaies did believe , or else he gave no distinct commission for any such distinct order . If the second be admitted , then the Presbyterate is not of immediate divine institution , but of Apostolicall only , as is the Order of Deacons , and the whole plenitude of power is in the order Apostolicall alone , and the Apostles did constitute Presbyters with a greater portion of their own power , as they did Deacons with a lesse . But if the first be said , then the commission to the 72 Presbyters being only of preaching that we find in Scripture , all the rest of their power which now they have is by Apostolicall ordinance , and then although the Apostles did admit them in partem sollicitudinis , yet they did not admit them in plenitudinem potestatis , for then they must have made them Apostles , and then there will be no distinction of order neither by Divine nor Apostolicall institution neither . I care not which part be chosen , one is certain ; but if either of them be true , then since to the Apostles only , Christ gave a plenitude of power , it followes , that either the Presbyters have no power of jurisdiction , as affixed to a distinct order , and then the Apostles are to rule them by vertue of the order and ordinary commission Apostolicall ; or if they have jurisdiction they doe derive it à fonte Apostolorum , and then the Apostles have superiority of Iurisdiction over Presbyters , because Presbyters only have it by delegation Apostolicall . And that I say truth ( besides that there is no possibility of shewing the contrary in Scripture , by the producing any other commission given to Presbyters , then what I have specified , ) I will hereafter shew it to have been the faith and practise of Christendome not only that Presbyters were actually subordinate to Bishops ( which I contend to be the ordinary office of Apostleship ) but that Presbyters have no Iurisdiction essentiall to their order , but derivative only from Apostolicall preheminence . 2. Let us now see the matter of fact . They that can inflict censures upon Presbyters have certainly superiority of Iurisdiction over Presbyters , for Aequalis aequalem coercere non potest , saith the Law. Now it is evident in the case of Diotrephes a Presbyter , and a Bishop Would be , that for his peremptory rejection of some faithfull people from the Catholick communion without cause , and without authority , S. Iohn the Apostle threatned him in his Epistle to Gajus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 &c. Wherefore when I come I will remember him , and all that would have been to very little purpose , if he had not had coercitive jurisdiction to have punish't his delinquency . 3. Presbyters many of them did succeed the Apostles by a new ordination , as Matthias succeeded Iudas , who before his new ordination was one of the 72. as a Eusebius , b Epiphanius , and c S. Ierome affirme , and in Scripture is expressed to be of the number of them that went in and out with Iesus ; S. Clement succeeded S. Peter at Rome , S. Simeon Cleophae succeeded S. Iames at Ierusalem , S. Philip succeeded S. Paul at Caesarea , & diverse others of the 72 , reckoned by Dorotheus , Eusebius , & others of the Fathers , did governe the severall Churches after the Apostles death which before they did not . Now it is cleare that he that receives no more power after the Apostles , then he had under them , can no way be said to succeed them in their Charge , or Churches . It followes then , since ( as will more fully appeare anon ) Presbyters did succeed the Apostles , that under the Apostles they had not such jurisdiction as afterwards they had . But the Apostles had the same to which the Presbyters succeeded to , therefore greater then the Presbyters had before they did succeed . When I say Presbyters succeeded the Apostles , I meane , not as Presbyters , but by a new ordination to the dignity of Bishops , so they succeeded , and so they prove an evidence of fact , for a superiority of Iurisdiction in the Apostolicall Clergy . *** Now that this superiority of Iurisdiction was not temporary , but to be succeeded in , appeares from Reason , and from ocular demonstration , or of the thing done . 1. If superiority of Iurisdiction was necessary in the ages Apostolicall for the regiment of the Church , there is no imaginable reason why it should not be necessary in succession , since upon the emergency of Schismes and Heresies which were foretold should multiply in descending ages , government and superiority of jurisdiction , unity of supremacy , and coërcion was more necessary then at first , when extraordinary gifts might supply , what now we expect to be performed by an ordinary authority . 2. Whatsoever was the regiment of the Church in the Apostles times that must be perpetuall ( not so as to have * all that which was personall , and temporary , but so as to have no other ) for that , and that only is of Divine institution which Christ committed to the Apostles , and if the Church be not now governed as then , We can shew no Divine Authority for our government , which we must contend to doe , and doe it too , or be call'd usurpers . For either the Apostles did governe the Church as Christ commanded them , or not . If not , then they fayl'd in the founding of the Church , and the Church is not built upon a Rock . If they did ( as most certainly they did ) then either the same disparity of jurisdiction must be retayn'd , or else we must be governned with an Unlawfull and unwarranted equality , because not by that which only is of immediate divine institution ; and then it must needs be a fine government , where there is no authority , and where no man is superiour . 3. We see a disparity in the Regiment of Churches warranted by Christ himselfe , and confirmed by the Holy Ghost in fayrest intimation . I meane the seaven Angel-Presidents of the seaven Asian Churches . If these seaven Angels were seaven Bishops , that is , Prelates or Governours of these seaven Churches , in which it is evident and confessed of all sides , there were many Presbyters , then it is certaine that a Superiority of Iurisdiction was intended by Christ himselfe , and given by him , insomuch as he is the fountaine of all power derived to the Church ; For Christ writes to these seaven Churches , and directs his Epistles to the seaven Governours of these Churches calling them Angels , which it will hardly be suppos'd he would have done , if the function had not been a ray of the Sunne of righteousnesse , they had not else been Angels of light , nor starres held in Christ's owne right hand . This is certaine , that the function of these Angels ( whatsoever it be ) is a Divine institution . Let us then see what is meant by these starres and Angels . [ The seaven starres are the Angells of the seaven Churches , and the seaven Candlesticks are the seaven Churches . ] 1. Then it is evident , that although the Epistles were sent with a finall intention for the edification and confirmation of the whole Churches or people of the Diocesse , with an [ Attendite quid Spiritus dicit Ecclesijs ] yet the personall direction was not to the whole Church , for the whole Church is called the Candlestick , and the superscription of the Epistles is not to the seaven Candlesticks , but to the seaven starres which are the Angels of the seaven Churches , viz. the lights shining in the Candlesticks . By the Angell therefore is not , cannot be mean't the whole Church . 2. It is plaine that by the Angel is mean't the Governour of the Church , 1. Because of the title of eminency , The Angel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , the Messenger , the Legate , the Apostle of the Church . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . For these words , Angel , or Apostle , although they signifie Mission or Legation , yet in Scripture they often relate to the persons to whom they are sent . As in the examples before specified . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Their Angels . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The Apostles of the Churches . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The Angel of the Church of Ephesus , and diverse others . Their compellation therefore being a word of office in respect of him that sends them , and of Eminence in relation to them to whom they are sent , shewes that the Angel was the Ruler of each Church respectively . 2. Because acts of jurisdiction are concredited to him ; as , not to suffer false Apostles ; So to the Angel of the Church of Ephesus , which is clearly a power of cognisance and coërcion in causis Clericorum : to be watchfull and strengthen the things that remaine ; as to the Angel of the Church in Sardis , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The first is the office of Rulers , for they Watch for your Soules ; And the second , of Apostles , and Apostolike men . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Iudas and Silas confirm'd the Brethren , for these men , although they were but of the 72 at first , yet by this time were made Apostles and [ cheife men among the Brethren ] S. Paul also was joyned in this worke , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , He went up and downe confirming the Churches . And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . S. Paul. To confirme the Churches , and to make supply of what is deficient in discipline and government , these were offices of power and jurisdiction , no lesse then Episcopall or Apostolicall ; and besides , the Angel here spoken of had a propriety in the people of the Diocesse [ Thou hast a few names even in Sardis ] they were the Bishops people , the Angel had a right to them . And good reason that the people should be his , for their faults are attributed to him , as to the Angel of Pergamus , and diverse others , and therefore they are deposited in his custody , He is to be their Ruler and Pastor , and this is called his Ministery . To the Angel of the Church of Thyatira 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , I have knowne thy Ministery . His office therefore was Clericall , it was an Angel-Minister , and this his office must make him the guide and superiour to the Rest , even all the whole Church , since he was charg'd with all . 3. By the Angel is mean't a singular person , for the reprehensions and the commendations respectively imply personall delinquency , or suppose personall excellencyes . Adde to this that the compellation is singular , and of determinate number , so that we may as well multiply Churches as persons , for the seaven Churches had but seaven starres , and these seaven starres were the Angels of the seaven Churches . And if by seaven starres they may meane 70 times seaven starres ( for so they may if they begin to multiply ) then by one starre they must meane many starres , and so they may multiply Churches too , for there were as many Churches as starres , and no more Angels then Churches , and it is as reasonable to multiply these seaven Churches into 7000 , as every starre into a Constellation , or every Angel into a Legion . But besides the Exigency of the thing it selfe , these seaven Angels are by Antiquity called the seaven Governours or Bishops of the seaven Churches , & their very names are commemorated . Vnto these seaven Churches S. Iohn , saith Arethas , reckoneth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , an equall number of Angel-Governours , and Oecumenius in his scholia upon this place , saith the very same words . Septem igitur Angelos Rectores septem Ecclesiarum debemus intelligere , eò quòd Angelus Nuntius interpretatur , saith S. Ambrose , and againe , Angelos Episcopos dicit sicut docetur in Apocalypsi Iohannis . Let the woman have a covering on her head because of the Angels , that is , in reverence and subjection to the Bishop of the Church , for Bishops are the Angels as is taught in the Revelation of S. Iohn . Divinâ voce sub Angeli Nomine laudatur praepositus Ecclesiae so S. Austin . By the voyce of God the Bishop of the Church is commended under the title of an Angel. Eusebius names some of these Angels who were then Presidents and actually Bishops of these Churches . S. Policarpe was one to be sure , apud Smyrnam & Episcopus & Martyr , saith Eusebius , He was the Angel of the Church of Smyrna ; And he had good authority for it , for he reports it out of Polycrates who a little after , was himselfe an Angell of the Church of Ephesus , and he also quotes S. Irenaeus for it , & out of the Encyclicall Epistle of the Church of Smyrna it selfe , and besides these authorities it is attested by S. † Ignatius , and * Tertullian . S. Timothy was another Angell , to wit , of the Church of Ephesus ; to be sure had beene , and most likely was still surviving . Antipas is reckoned by Name in the Revelation , and he had been the Angel of Pergamus , but before this booke written he was turned from an Angel to a Saint . Melito in all probability was then the Angel of the Church of Sardis . Melito quoque Sardensis Ecclesiae Antistes , & Apollinaris apud Hierapolim Ecclesiam regens celeberrimi inter caeteros habebantur , saith Eusebius . These men were actually living when S. Iohn writ his Revelation , for Melito writ his book de Paschate when Sergius Paulus was Proconsul of Asia , and writ after the Revelation , for he writ a treatise of it , as saith Eusebius . However , at least some of these were then , and all of these about that time were Bishops of these Churches , and the Angels S. Iohn speakes of were such who had Iurisdiction over their whole Diocesse , therefore these , or such as these were the Angels to whom the Spirit of God writ hortatory and commendatory letters , such whom Christ held in his Right hand and fix'd them in the Churches like lights set on a Candlestick that they might give shine to the whole house . The Summe of all is this ; that Christ did institute Apostles and Presbyters or 72 Disciples . To the Apostles he gave a plenitude of power , for the whole commission was given to them in as great and comprehensive clauses as were imaginable , for by vertue of it , they received a power of giving the Holy Ghost in confirmation , and of giving his grace in the collation of holy Orders , a power of jurisdiction and authority to governe the Church : and this power was not temporary , but successive and perpetuall , and was intended as an ordinary office in the Church , so that the successors of the Apostles had the same right and institution that the Apostles themselves had , and though the personall mission was not immediate , as of the Apostles it was , yet the commission and institution of the function was all one . But to the 72 Christ gave no commission but of preaching , which was a very limited commission . There was all the immediate Divine institution of Presbyterate as a distinct order , that can be fairely pretended . But yet farther , these 72 the Apostles did admit in partem sollicitudinis , and by new ordination or delegation Apostolicall , did give them power of administring Sacraments , of absolving sinners , of governing the Church in conjunction and subordination to the Apostles , of which they had a capacity by Christs calling them at first in sortem Ministerii , but the exercise , and the actuating of this capacity they had from the Apostles . So that not by Divine ordination , or immediate commission from Christ , but by derivation from the Apostles ( and therefore in minority and subordination to them ) the Presbyters did exercise acts of order and jurisdiction in the absence of the Apostles or Bishops , or in conjunction consiliary , and by way of advice , or before the consecration of a Bishop to a particular Church . And all this I doubt not , but was done by the direction of the Holy Ghost , as were all other acts of Apostolicall ministration , and particularly the institution of the other order , viz. of Deacons . This is all that can be proved out of Scripture concerning the commission given in the institution of Presbyters , and this I shall afterwards confirme by the practise of the Catholick Church , and so vindicate the practises of the present Church , from the common prejudices that disturbe us , for by this account , Episcopacy is not only a Divine institution , but the only order that derives immediately from Christ. For the present only , I summe up this with that saying of Theodoret speaking of the 72 Disciples . Palmae sunt isti qui nut riuntur ac erudiuntur ab Apostolis . Nam quanquam Christus hos etiam elegit , erant tamen duodecem illis inferiores , & posteà illorum Discipuli & sectatores . The Apostles are the twelve fountaines , and the 72 are the palmes that are nourished by the waters of those fountaines . For though Christ also ordain'd the 72 , yet they were inferior to the Apostles , and afterwards were their followers and Disciples . I know no objection to hinder a conclusion ; only two or three words out of Ignatius , are pretended against the maine question , viz. to prove that he , although a Bishop , yet had no Apostolicall authority , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , I doe not command this as an Apostle , ( for what am I , and what is my Fathers house , that I should compare my selfe with them ) but as your fellow souldier and a Monitor . But this answers it selfe , if we consider to whom he speakes it . Not to his own Church of Antioch , for there he might command as an Apostle , but to the Philadelphians 〈◊〉 might not , they were no part of his Diocesse , he was not their Apostle , and then because he did not equall the Apostles in their commission extraordinary , in their personall priviledges , and in their universall jurisdiction , therefore he might not command the Philadelphians , being another Bishops charge , but admonish them with the freedome of a Christian Bishop , to whom the soules of all faithfull people were deare and precious . So that still Episcopacy and Apostolate may be all one in ordinary office , this hinders not , and I know nothing else pretended , and that Antiquity is clearely on this side , is the next businesse . For , hitherto the discourse hath been of the immediate Divine institution of Episcopacy , by arguments derived from Scripture ; I shall only adde two more from Antiquity , and so passe on to tradition Apostolicall . 1. THE beliefe of the primitive Church is , that Bishops are the ordinary successors of the Apostles , and Presbyters of the 72 , and therefore did believe that Episcopacy is as truly of Divine institution as the Apostolate , for the ordinary office both of one and the other is the same thing . For this there is abundant testimony . Some I shall select , enough to give faire evidence of a Catholick tradition . S. Irenaeus is very frequent and confident in this particular , Habemus annumerare eos qui ab Apostolis instituti sunt Episcopi in Ecclesiis , Er SUCCESSORES EORUM usque ad nos ... Etenim si recondita mysteria scissent Apostoli ... his vel maximè traderent eaquibus etiam ipsas Ecclesias committebant ... quos & SUCCESSORES relinquebant SUUM IPSORUM LOCUM MAGISTERII tradentes . We can name the men the Apostles made Bishops in their severall Churches , appointing them their successors , and most certainly those mysterious secrets of Christianity which themselves knew ; they would deliver to them to whom they committed the Churches , and left to be their successors in the same power and authority themselves had . Tertullian reckons Corinth , Philippi , Thessalonica , Ephesus and others to be Churches Apostolicall , apud quas ipsae adhuc Cathedrae Apostolorum suis locis praesident . Apostolicall they are from their foundation , and by their succession , for Apostles did found them , and Apostles , or men of Apostolick authority still doe governe them . S. Cyprian ; Hoc enim vel maximè Frater , & laboramus & laborare debemus ut Vnitatem à Domino , & per Apostolos NOBIS SUCCESSORIBUS traditam quantùm possumus obtinere curemus . We must preserve the Vnity commanded us by Christ , and delivered by his Apostles to us their Successors . To us Cyprian and Cornelius , for they only were then in view , the one Bishop of Rome , the other of Carthage . And in his Epistle ad Florentium Pupianum ; Nec haec jacto , sed dolens profero , cum te Iudicem Dei constituas & Christi , qui dicit ad Apostolos ac per hoc adomnes praepositos qui Apostolis Vicariâ ordinatione succedunt , qui vos audit , me audit , &c. Christ said to his Apostles , and in them to the Governours or Bishops of his Church who succeeded the Apostles as Vicars in their absence , he that heareth you heareth mee . Famous is that saying of Clarus à Musculâ the Bishop , spoken in the Councell of Carthage and repeated by S. Austin , Manifesta est sententia Domini nostri Iesu Christi Apostolos suos mittentis & ipsis solis potestatem à patre sibi datam permittentis , quibus nos successimus eâdem potestate Ecclesiam Domini gubernantes . Nos successimus . We succeed the Apostles governing the Church by the same power . He spake it in full Councell in an assembly of Bishops , and himselfe was a Bishop . The Councell of Rome under S. Sylvester speaking of the honour due to Bishops expresses it thus , Non oportere quenquam Domini Discipulis , id est , Apostolorum successoribus detrahere . No man must detract from the Disciples of our Lord , that is , from the Apostles successors . S. Hierome speaking against the Montanists for undervalning their Bishops , shewes the difference of the Catholicks honouring , and the Hereticks disadvantaging that sacred order . Apud nos ( saith he ) Apostolorum locum Episcopi tenent , apud eos Episcopus tertius est . Bishops with us [ Catholicks ] have the place or authority of Apostles , but with them [ Montanists ] Bishops are not the first but the third state of Men. And upon that of the Psalmist , pro Patribus nati sunt tibi filii , S. Hierome , and diverse others of the Fathers make this glosse , Pro Patribus Apostolis filii Episcopi ut Episcopi Apostolis tanquam filii Patribus succedant ; The Apostles are Fathers , instead of whom Bishops doe succeed , whom God hath appointed to be made Rulers in all lands . So S. Hierome , S. Austin , and Euthymius upon the 44. Psal. aliàs 45. But S. Austin for his own particular makes good use of his succeeding the Apostles , which would doe very well now also to be considered . Si solis Apostolis dixit , qui vos spernit me spernit , spernite nos : si autem sermo ejus pervenit ad nos , & vocavit nos , & in eorum loco constituit nos , videte ne spernatis nos . It was good counsell not to despise Bishops , for they being in the Apostles places and offices are concerned and protected by that saying , he that despiseth you , despiseth mee . I said it was good counsell , especially if besides all these , we will take also S. Chrysostomes testimony , Potestas anathematizandi ab Apostolis ad successores eorum nimirum Episcopos transiit . A power of anathematizing delinquents is derived from the Apostles to their successors , even to Bishops . S. Ambrose upon that of S. Paul Ephes. 4. Quosdam dedit Apostolos , Apostoli Episcopi sunt , He hath given Apostles , that is , he hath given some Bishops . That 's down right , and this came not by chance from him ; he doubles his assertion . Caput itaque in Ecclesiâ Apostolos posuit , qui legati Christi sunt , sicut dicit idem Apostolus [ pro quo legatione fungimur . ] Ipsi sunt Episcopi , firmante istud Petro Apostolo , & dicente inter caetera de Iudâ , & Episcopatum ejus accipiat alter . And a third time . Numquid omnes Apostoli ? verum est ; Quia in Ecclesiâ Vnus est Episcopus . Bishop and Apostle was all one with S. Ambrose , when hee spake of their ordinary offices ; which puts me in mind of the fragment of Polycrates of the Martyrdome of Timothy in Photius , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The Apostle Timothy was ordained Bishop in the Metropolis of Ephesus by S. Paul , and there enthron'd . To this purpose are those compellations and titles of Bishopricks usually in antiquity . S. Basil calls a Bishoprick , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . So Theodoret. An Apostolicall presidency . The summe is the same which S. Peter himselfe taught the Church , as S. Clement his Scholler , or some other primitive man in his name reports of him . Episcopos ergo vicem Apostolorum gerere Dominum docuisse dicebat , & reliquorum Discipulorum vicem tenere Presbyteros debere insinuabat . He [ Peter ] said that our Lord taught that Bishops were to succeed in the place of the Apostles , and Presbyters in the place of the Disciples . Who desires to be farther satisfied concerning Catholick consent , for Bishops succession to Apostles in their order and ordinary office , he may see it in a Pacianus the renowned Bishop of Barcinona , in b S. Gregory , c S. Iohn Damascen , in S. Sixtus the first his second decretall Epistle , and most plentifully in d S. Caelestine writing to the Ephesine Councell , in the Epistle of e Anacletus de Patriarchis & Primatibus &c. In f Isidore , and in g Venerable Bede . His words are these , sicut duodecem Apostolos formam Episcoporum exhibere simul & demonstrare nemo est qui dubitet : sic & 72 figuram Presbyterorum gessisse sciendum est , tamet si primis Ecclesiae temporibus , ut Apostolica Scriptura testis est , utrique Presbyteri , & utrique vocabantur Episcopi , quorum unum scientiae maturitatem , aliud industriam curae Pastoralis significat . Sunt ergo jure Divino Episcopi à Presbyteris praelatione distincti . As no man doubts but Apostles were the order of Bishops ; so the 72 of Presbyters , though at first they had names in common . Therefore Bishops by Divine right are distinct from Presbyters , and their Prelates or Superiours . TO the same issue drive all those testimonies of Antiquity that call all Bishops ex aequo successors of S. Peter . So S. Cyprian . Dominus noster cujus praecepta metuere & observare debemus , Episcopi honorem & Ecclesiae suaerationem disponens in Evangelio , loquitur & dicit Petro , ego tibi dico , Quia tu es Petrus , &c. Inde per temporum & successionum vices , Episcoporum ordinatio & Ecclesiae ratio decurrit , ut Ecclesia super Episcopos constituatur , &c. When our B. Saviour was ordering his Church and instituting Episcopall dignity , he said to Peter , thou art Peter , and on this rock will I build my Church . Hence comes the order of Bishops , and the constitution or being of the Church , that the Church be founded upon Bishops . &c. The same also S Ierome intimate's , Non est facilè stare loco Pauli , tenere gradum Petri. It is not a small thing , to stand in the place of Paul , to obtaine the degree of Peter , so he , while he disswades Heliodorus from taking on him the great burden of the Episcopall office . Pasceoves meas , said Christ to Peter , and feed the flock of God which is amongst you said S. Peter to the Bishops of Pontus , Galatia , Cappadocia , Asia , and Bithynia . Similia enim Successoribus suis Petrus scripsit praecepta , saith Theodoret , S. Peter gave the same precepts to his successors which Christ gave to him ; And S. Ephrem speaking of S. Basil the Bishop of Caesarea Cappadocia , & sicut rursus Petrus Ananiam & Saphiram fraudantes de precio agri enecavit : ita & Basilius , locum Petri obtinens ejasque paritèr authoritatem libertatemque participans , suam ipsius promissionem fraudantem Valentem redarguit ejusque filium morte mulctavit . As S. Peter did to Ananias and Saphira , So Basil did to Valens and his Sonne for the same delinquency , for he had the place , liberty , and authority of S. Peter . Thus Gaudentius of Brixia calls S. Ambrose the Successor of S. Peter , and Gildas sirnamed the wise , saith that all evill Bishops whatsoever doe with unhallowed and uncleane feete usurpe the seate of S. Peter . But this thing is of Catholike beleife , and of this use . If the order and office of the Apostolate be eternall & to be succeeded in , and this office Superior to Presbyters , and not onely of Divine institution , but indeed the onely order which can clearely show an immediate Divine commission for it's power and authority ( as I have proved of the function Apostolicall ) then those which doe succeed the Apostles in the ordinary office of Apostolate , have the same institution and authority the Apostles had , as much as the successors of the Presbyters have with the first Presbyters , and perhaps more . For in the Apostolicall ordinations , they did not proceed as the Church since hath done . Themselves had the whole Priesthood , the whole commission of the Ecclesiasticall power and all the offices . Now they in their ordayning assistant Ministers , did not in every ordination give a distinct order , as the Church hath done since the Apostles . For they ordayned some to distinct offices , some to particular places , some to one part , some to another part of Clericall imployment , as S. Paul who was an Apostle yet was ordain'd by imposition of hands to goe to the Churches of the Uncircumcision , so was Barnabas : S. Iohn , and Iames , and Cephas to the Circumcision , and there was scarce any publike designe or Grand imployment but the Apostolike men had a new ordination to it , a new imposition of hands as is evident in the Acts of the Apostles . So that the Apostolicall ordinations of the inferiour Clergy were onely a giving of partilar commissions to particular men to officiate such parts of the Apostolicall calling as they would please to imploy them in . Nay sometimes their ordinations were onely a delivering of Iurisdiction when the persons ordayned had the order before , as it is evident in the case of Paul and Barnabas . Of the same consideration is the institution of Deacons to spirituall offices , and it is very pertinent to this Question . For there is no Divine institution for these rising higher then Apostolicall ordinance ; and so much there is for Presbyters as they are now authoriz'd ; for such power the Apostles gave to Presbyters as they have now , and sometimes more , as to Iudas and Silas , and diverse others , who therefore were more then meere Presbyters as the word is now us'd . * The result is this . The office and order of a Presbyter is but part of the office and order of an Apostle , so is a Deacon , a lesser part , so is an Evangelist , so is a Prophet , so is a Doctor , so is a helper , or a Surrogate in Government , but these will not be called orders , every one of them will not I am sure , at least not made distinct orders by Christ , for it was in the Apostles power to give any one or all these powers to any one man , or to distinguish them into so many men , as there are offices , or to unite more or fewer of them . All these I say , clearely make not distinct orders , and why are not all of them of the same consideration ? I would be answered from Grounds of Scripture . For there we fix as yet . * Indeed the Apostles did ordaine such men , and scattered their power at first , for there was so much imployment in any one of them , as to require one man for one office ; but a while after they united all the lesser parts of power into two sorts of men whom the Church hath since distinguished by the Names of Presbyters and Deacons , and called them two distinct orders . But yet if we speak properly & according to the Exigence of Divine institution , there is Vnum Sacerdotiam , one Priesthood appointed by Christ , and that was , the commission given by Christ to his Apostles , and to their Successors precisely , and those other offices of Presbyter and Deacon are but members of the Great Priesthood , and although the power of it , is all of Divine institution , as the power to baptize , to preach , to consecrate , to absolve , to Minister , yet that so much of it should be given to one sort of men , so much lesse to another , that is onely of Apostolicall ordinance . For the Apostles might have given to some onely a power to absolve , to some onely to consecrate , to some onely to baptize . We see that to Deacons they did so . They had onely a power to baptize and preach , whether all Evangelists had so much or no , Scripture does not tell us . * But is to some men they had onely given a power to use the Keyes , or made them officers spirituall to restore such as are overtaken in a fault , and not to consecrate the Eucharist , ( for we see these powers are distinct , and not relative and of necessary conjunction , no more then baptizing and consecrating ) whether or no had those men who have only a power of absolving or consecrating respectively , whether ( I say ) have they the order of a Presbyter ? If yea , then now every Preist hath two orders besides the order of Deacon , for by the power of Consecration he hath the power of a Presbyter , and what is he then by his other power ? But if such a man ordayn'd with but one of these powers have not the order of a Presbyter , then let any man shew me where it is ordayned by Christ , or indeed by the Apostles , that an order of Clerks should be constituted with both these powers , and that these were called Presbyters . I only leave this to be considered . * But all the Apostolicall power we find instituted by Christ , and we also find a necessity , that all that power should be succeeded in , and that all that power should be united in one order , for he that hath the highest , viz. a power of ordination , must needs have all the other , else he cannot give them to any else , but a power of ordination I have proved to be necessary and perpetuall . So that , we have cleare evidence of the Divine institution of the perpetuall order of Apostleship , mary for the Presbyterate I have not so much either reason or confidence for it , as now it is in the Church ; but for the Apostolate , it is beyond exception . And to this Bishops doe succeed . For that it is so , I have proved from Scripture , and because [ no Scirpture is of private interpretation ] I have attested it with the Catholike testimony of the Primitive Fathers , calling Episcopacy , the Apostolate , and Bishops successors of S. Peter in particular , and of all the Apostles in general in their ordinary offices in which they were Superior to the 72 , the Antecessors of the Presbyterate . One objection , I must cleare . For sometimes Presbyters are also called Apostles , and Successors of the Apostles , as in Ignatius , in Irenaeus , in S. Hierome . I answer . 1. They are not called Successores Apostolorum by any dogmaticall resolution or interpretation of Scripture , as the Bishops are in the examples above alleaged ; but by allusion , and participation at the most . For true it is that they succeed the Apostles in the offices of baptizing , consecrating , and absolving in privato foro , but this is but part of the Apostolicall power , and no part of their office as Apostles were superiour to Presbyters . 2. It is observeable that Presbyters are never affirmed to succeed in the power and regiment of the Church , but in subordination , and derivation from the Bishop , and therefore they are never said to succeed in Cathedris Apostolorum , in the Apostolick Sees . 3. The places which I have specifyed , and they are all I could ever meete with , are of peculiar answer . For as for Ignatius in his Epistle to the Church of Trallis , * he calls the Presbytery or company of Priests , the Colledge , or combination of Apostles . But here S. Ignatius as he lifts up the Presbyters to a comparison with Apostles , so he also raises the Bishop to the similitude and resemblance with God. Episcopus typum Dei Patris omnium gerit , Presbyteri verò sunt conjunctus Apostolorum caetus . So that although Presbyters grow high yet they doe not overtake the Bishops , or Apostles , who also in the same proportion grow higher then their first station . This then , will doe no hurt . As for S. Irenaeus , he indeed does say that Presbyters succeed the Apostles , but what Presbyters he means , he tells us , even such Presbyters as were also Bishops , such as S. Peter and S. Iohn was , who call themselves Presbyters , his words are these . Proptereà eis qui in Ecclesiâ sunt Presbyteris abandire oportet his qui successionem habent ab Apostolis , qui cum Episcopatus successione charisma veritatis certum secundùm placitum Patris acceperunt . And a little after , Tales Presbyteros nutrit Ecclesia , de quibus & Propheta ait , & dabo Principes tuos in pace , & Episcopos tuos in Iustitiâ . So that he gives testimony for us , not against us . As for S. Hierome , the third man , he in the succession to the honour of the Apostolate joynes Presbyters with Bishops , and that 's right enough , for if the Bishop alone does succeed in plenitudinem potestatis Apostolicae ordinariae , as I have proved he does , then also it is as true of the Bishop together with his consessus Presbyterorum . Episcopi & Presbyteri habeant in exemplum Apostolos & Apostolicos viros , quorum honorem possidentes , habere nitantur & meritum , those are his words , and inforce not so much as may be safely granted , for reddendo singula singulis , Bishops succeed Apostles , and Presbyters Apostolick men , and such were many that had not at first any power Apostolicall , and that 's all that can be inferred from this place of S. Hierome . I know nothing else to stay me , or to hinder our assent to those authorities of Scripture I have alleadged , and the full voyce of traditive interpretation . THE second argument from Antiquity is the direct testimony of the Fathers for a Divine institution . In this S. Cyprian is most plentifull . Dominus noster ** Episcopi honorem & Ecclesiae suo rationem disponens in Evangelio , dicit Petro &c : Inde per tamporum & successionum vices Episcoporum ordinatio & Ecclesi● rati● decurrit , ut Ecclesia super Episcopos canstituatur & omnis actus Ecclesiae per eosdem Praepositos gubernetur . Cum hos itaque Divinâ l●ge fundatum sit &c : Our Lord did institute in the Gospell the honour of a Bishop . Hence comes the ordination of Bishops , and the Church is built upon them , and every action of the Church is to be governed by them , and this is founded upon a Divine law . Meminisse autem Diaconi debent quoniam Apostolos . i.e. Episcopos , & praepositos Dominus elegit . Our Lord hath chosen Apostles , that is , Bishops and Church-governours . And a little after . Quod si nos aliquid auder● contrà Deum possumus qui Episcopos facit , possunt & contra nos audere Diaconi , à quibus fiunt . We must not attempt any thing against God who hath instituted Bishops . The same Father in his Epistle to Magnus disputes against Novatianus his being a Bishop . Novatianus in Ecclesiâ non est , nec Episcopus computari potest , qui Evangelicâ & Apostolicâ traditione contemptâ , nemini succedens à seipso ordinatus est . If there was both an Evangelicall , and an Apostolick tradition , for the successive ordination of Bishops , by other Bishops , ( as S. Cyprian affirmes there is , by saying Novatianus contemned it , ) then certainly the same Evangelicall power did institute that calling , for the modus of whose election , it took such particular order . S. Ignatius long before him , speaking concerning his absent friend S●tion the Deacon , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . He wishes for the good mans company , because by the grace of God , and according to the law of Iesus Christ , he was obedient to the Bishop and his Clergy . And a little after . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It is home enough . Ye ought to obey your Bishop , and to contradict him in nothing . It is a fearefull thing to contradict him : For whosoever does so , does not mock a visible man , but the invisible , undeceiveable God. For this contumely relates not to man but to God. So S. Ignatius , which could not be true , were it a humane constitution and no Divine ordinance . But more full are those words of his in his Epistle to the Ephesians , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . He that obeyes the Bishop and Clergy obeyes Christ , who did constitute and ordaine them . This is plain and dogmaticall , I would be loath to have two men so famous , so Ancient , and so resolute , speake halfe so much against us . But it is a generall resolve , and no private opinion . For S. Austin is confident in the case with a Nemo ignorat Episcopos Salvatorem Ecclesiis instituisse . Ipse enim priusquam in coelos ascenderet , imponens manum Apostolis , ordinavit eos Episcopos . No man is so ignorant but he knowes that our blessed Saviour appointed Bishops over Churches , for before his ascension into Heaven , he ordained the Apostles to be Bishops . But long before him , Hegesippus going to Rome , and by the way calling in at Corinth , and divers other Churches , discoursed with their severall Bishops , and found them Catholick and Holy , and then staid at Rome three successions of Bishops , Anicetus , Soter , and Eleutherius . Sed in omnibus istis ordinationibus , vel in caeteris quas per reliquas urbes videram ita omnia habebantur , sicut lex antiquitùs tradidit , & Prophetae indicaverunt , ET DOMINUS STATUIT . All things in these ordinations or successions were as our Lord had appointed . All things , therefore both of doctrine and discipline , and therefore the ordinations themselves too . Further yet , and it is worth observing , there was never any Bishop of Rome from S. Peter to S. Sylvester , that ever writ decretall Epistle now extant and transmitted to us , but either professedly or accidentally he said or intimated , that the order of Bishops did come from God. S. Irenaeus speaking of Bishops successors to the Apostles , saith that with their order of Bishoprick , they have received charisma veritatis certum , a true , and certaine or indelible character ; secundùm placitum Patris , according to the will of God the Father . And this also is the doctrine of S. Ambrose , Ideò quanquam melior Apostolus aliquando tamen eget Prophetis , & quià ab uno Deo Patre sunt omnia , singulos Episcopos singulis Ecclesiis praeesse decrevit . God from whom all good things doe come , did decree that every Church should be governed by a Bishop . And againe , Honor igitur , Fratres , & sublimitas Episcopalis , nullis poterit comparationibus adaequari ; Si Regum fulgori compares &c : and a little after , Quid jam de plebeiâ dixerim multitudine , cui non solùm praeferri à Domino meruit , sed ut eam quoque jure tueatur patrio , praeceptis imperatum est Evangelicis . The honour and sublimity of the Bishop is an incomparable preheminence and is by God set over the people , and it is commanded by the precept of the holy Gospell that he should guide them by a Fathers right . And in the close of his discourse , Sic certè à Domino ad B. Petrum dicitur , Petre amas me ? .... repetitum est à Domino tertiò , Pasceoves meas . Quas oves , & quem gregem non solùm tunc B. suscepit Petrus , sed & cum illo nos suscepimus omnes . Our blessed Lord committed his sheep to S. Peter to be fed , and in him we ( who have Pastorall or Episcopall authority ) have received the same authority and commission . Thus also divers of the Fathers speaking of the ordination of S. Timothy to be Bishop , and of S. Paul's intimation , that it was by Prophecy , affirme it to be done by order of the Holy Ghost . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith S. Chrysostome , he was ordained by Prophecy , that is by the Holy Ghost . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Thou wert not made Bishop by humane constitution . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so Oecumenius . By Divine revelation , saith Theodoret. By the command of the Holy Ghost , so Theophylact ; and indeed so S. Paul , to the assembly of Elders and Bishops met at Miletus , Spiritus S. posuit vos Episcopos , the Holy Ghost hath made you Bishops : & to be sure S. Timothy was amongst them , and he was a Bishop , and so were diverse others there present ; therefore the order it selfe is a ray streaming from the Divine beauty , since a single person was made Bishop by revelation . I might multiply authorities in this particular , which are very frequent and confident for the Divine institution of Episcopacy , in † Origen , in the Councell of Carthage recorded by S. Cyprian , in the collection of the * Orientall Canons by Martinus Bracarensis : in the Councells of a Aquisgrane , and b Toledo , and many more . The summe is that which was taught by c S. Sixtus , Apostolorum dispositione , ordinante Domino Episcopi primitùs sunt constituti . The Lord did at first ordaine , and the Apostles did so order it , and so Bishops at first had their Originall constitution . These and all the former who affirme Bishops to be successors of the Apostles , & by consequence to have the same institution , drive all to the same issue , and are sufficient to make faith , that it was the do-doctrine Primitive , and Catholick that Episcopacy is a divine institution , which Christ Planted in the first founding of Christendome , which the Holy Ghost Watered in his first descent on Pentecost , and to which we are confident that God will give an increase by a never failing succession , unlesse where God removes the Candlestick , or which is all one , takes away the starre , the Angell of light from it , that it may be invelop'd in darknesse , usque ad consummationem sae●uli & aperturam tenebrarum . The conclusion of all , I subjoyne in the words of Venerable Bede before quoted , sunt ergo jure Divino Episcopi à Presbyteris praelatione distincti . Bishops are distinct from Presbyters , and Superiour to them by the law of God. THE second Basis of Episcopacy is Apostolicall tradition . We have seen what Christ did , now wee shall see what was done by his Apostles . And since they knew their Masters mind so well , wee can never better confide in any argument to prove Divine institution of a derivative authority then the practise Apostolicall . Apostoli enim Discipuli veritatis existentes , extra omne mendacium sunt , non enim communicat mendacium veritati , sicut non communicant tenebrae luci , sed praesentia alterius excludit alterum . saith S. Irenaeus . FIrst , then , the Apostles did presently after the ascension fixe an Apostle or a Bishop in the chayre of Ierusalem . For they knew that Ierusalem was shortly to be destroyed , they themselves foretold of miseryes and desolations to insue , ( Petrus & Paulus praedicunt cladem Hierosolymitanam , saith Lactantius l. 4. inst . ) famines and warres , and not a stone left upon another was the fate of that Rebellious City by Christs owne prediction , which themselves recorded in Scripture . And to say they understood not what they writ , is to make them Enthusiasts , and neither good Doctors nor wise seers . But it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the holy Spirit which was promised to lead them into all truth would instruct them in so concerning an issue of publike affaires , as was so Great desolation , and therefore they began betimes to establish that Church , and to fixe it upon it's perpetuall base . 2 ly The Church of Ierusalem was to be the president and platforme for other Churches . [ The word of God went forth into all the world , beginning first at Ierusalem ] , and therefore also it was more necessary a Bishop should be there plac'd betimes , that other Churches might see their governement from whence they receiv'd their doctrine , that they might see from what starres their continuall fluxe of light must streame . 3 ly The Apostles were actually dispers'd by persecution , and this to be sure they look'd for , and therefore ( so implying the necessity of a Bishop to governe in their absence or decession any wayes ) they ordayn'd S. Iames the first Bishop of Ierusalem ; there he fixt his chayre , there he liv'd Bishop for 30 yeares , and finish'd his course with glorious Martyrdome . If this be proov'd we are in a fayre way for practise Apostolicall . First , let us see all that is said of S. Iames in Scripture , that may concerne this affayre . Acts. 15. We find S. Iames in the Synod at Ierusalem , not disputing , but giving finall determination to that Great Qu : about Circumcision . [ And when there had beene much disputing , Peter rose up and said &c : ] He first drave the question to an issue , and told them what he beleiv'd concerning it , with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , we trust it will goe as well with us without circumcision , as with our Forefathers who us'd it . But S. Iames when he had summ'd up what had beene said by S. Peter , gave sentence and finall determination . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . wherefore I judge or give sentence . So he . The Acts of Councell which the Brethren or Presbyters did use were deliberative , they disputed , v. 7. S. Peter's act was declarative , but S. Iames his was decisive ; which proves him clearely ( if by reasonablenesse of the thing and the successive practise of Christendome in imitation of this first Councell Apostolicall we may take our estimate ) that S. Iames was the President of this Synod , which considering that he was none of the twelve ( as I proved formerly ) is unimaginable , were it not for the advantage of the place , it being held in Ierusalem , where he was Hierosolymorum Episcopus ( as S. Clement call's him ) especially in the presence of S. Peter , who was primus Apostolus , and decked with many personall priviledges and prerogatives . * Adde to this , that although the whole Councell did consent to the sending of the Decretall Epistle , and to send Iudas and Silas , yet because they were of the Presbytery , and Colledge of Ierusalem , S. Iames his Clergy , they are said , as by way of appropriation to come from S. Iames. Gal. 2. v. 12. Upon which place S. Austin saith thus , Cùm vidisset quosdam venisse à Iacobo , i. e. à Iudaeâ , nam Ecclesiae Hierosolymitanae Iacobus praefuit . To this purpose that of Ignatius is very pertinent calling S. Stephen the Deacon of S. Iames , and in his Epistle to Hero , saying that he did Minister to S. Iames and the Presbyters of Ierusalem , which if we expound according to the knowne discipline of the Church in Ignatius time ( who was Suppar Apostolorum , onely not a contemporary Bishop ) here is plainely the eminency of an Episcopall chayre , and Ierusalem the seat of S. Iames , and the Clergy his owne , of a Colledge of which he was the praepositus Ordinarius , he was their Ordinary . * The second evidence of Scripture is [ Acts. 21. And when we were come to Ierusalem the Brethren received us gladly , and the day following Paul went in with us unto Iames , and all the Elders were present . ] Why unto Iames ? Why not rather into the Presbytery , or Colledge of Elders , if Iames did not eminere , were not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Praepositus or Bishop of them all ? Now that these conjectures are not vayne and impertinent , see it testified by Antiquity , to which in matter of fact , and Church-story , he that will not give faith upon concurrent testimonies , and uncontradicted by Antiquity is a mad man , and may as well disbeleive every thing that he hath not seene himselfe , and can no way prove that himselfe was Christned , and to be sure , after 1600 yeares there is no possibility to disprove a matter of fact that was never question'd or doubted of before , and therefore can never obtayne the faith of any man to his contradictory , it being impossible to prove it . Eusebius reports out of S. Clement . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . S. Peter and S. Iohn although they were honoured of our Lord , yet they would not themselves be , but made Iames sirnamed the Iust , Bishop of Ierusalem ; And the reason is that which is given by Hegesippus in Eusebius for his successor Simeon Cleophae , for when S. Iames was crown'd with Martyrdome , and immediately the City destroyed , Traditur Apostolos qui supererant in commune consilium habuisse quem oportere dignum SUCCESSIONE IACOBI judicari . It was concluded for Simeon , because he was the Kinsman of our Lord as S. Iames also his Predecessor . The same concerning S. Iames is also repeated by Eusebius . Iudaei ergo cùm Paulus provocasset ad Caesarem ..... In Iacobum fratrem Domini CUI AB APOSTOLIS SEDES HIEROSOLYMITANA DELATA FUIT , omnem suam malevolentiam convertunt . In the Apostolicall constitutions under the name of S. Clement the Apostles are brought in speaking thus . De ordinatis autem à nobis Episcopis in vitâ nostrâ , significamus vobis quòd hi sunt ; Hierosolymis ordinatus est Iacobus Frater Domini . S. Iames the Brother of our Lord was ordayned Bishop of Ierusalem by us [ Apostles . ] The same is witnessed by Anacletus . Porrò & Hierosolymitarum primus Episcopus B. Iacobus qui Iustus dicebatur , & secundùm carnem Domini nuncupatus est frater , à Petro , Iacobo , & Iohanne Apostolis est ordinatus . And the same thing in termes is repeated by Anicetus , with a Scimus enim Beatissimum Iacobum &c : Iust as Anacletus before . S. Iames was Bishop of Ierusalem , and Peter , Iames , and Iohn were his Ordayners . But let us see the testimony of one of S. Iames his Successors in the same Chayre , who certainly was the best witnesse of his owne Church Records . S. Cyrill of Ierusalem is the man. Nam de his non mihi solùm , sed etiam Apostolis , & IACOBO HUIVS ECCLESIae OLIM EPISCOPO curae fuit , speaking of the question of circumcision , and things sacrificed to Idols , and againe , he calls S. Iames , primum hujus parochiae Episcopum , the first Bishop of this Diocesse . S. Austin also attests this story . Cathedra tibi quid fecit Ecclesiae Romanae , in quâ Petrus sedit , & in quâ hodiè Anastasius sedet ? Vel Ecclesiae Hierosolymitanae IN QVA IACOBUS SEDIT , & in quâ hodiè Iohannes sedet ? I must not omitt the testimony of S. Ierome , for it will be of great use in the sequel , Iacobus ( saith he ) post passionem Domini statim ab Apostolis Hierosolymorum Episcopus ordinatus , and the same also he repeates out of Hegesippus . * There are many more testimonyes to this purpose , as of S. a Chrysostome , b Epiphanius , S. c Ambrose , the Councell of d Constantinople in Trullo . But Gregorius Turonensis rises a little higher , Iacobus Frater Domini vocitatus , ab ipso Domino nostro Iesu Christo Episcopus dicitur ordinatus . S. Iames the Brother of our Lord is said to have beene ordain'd Bishop by our Lord Iesus Christ himselfe . If by [ Ordinatus ] he meanes [ designatus ] he agrees with S. Chrysostome : But either of them both will serve the turne for the present . But either in one sense or the other it is true , and attested also by Epiphanius , & primus hic accepit Cathedram Episcopatûs , cui concredidit Dominus thronum suum in terrâ primò . S. Iames had first the Episcopall chayre , for our Lord first intrusted his earthly throne to him . And thus we are incircled with a cloud of witnesses , to all which if we adde what I before observed , that S. Iames is in Scripture called an Apostle , and yet he was none of the twelve , and that in the sense of Scripture and the Catholike Church , a Bishop and an Apostle is all one , it followes from the premises , ( and of them already there is faith enough made ) that S. Iames was by Christs owne designation , and ordination Apostolicall made Bishop of the Church of Ierusalem , that is , had power Apostolicall concredited to him which Presbyters had not , and this Apostolate was limited and fixed , as his Successors since have beene . But that this also was not a temporary businesse , and to expire with the persons of S. Iames and the first Apostles , but a regiment of ordinary and successive duty in the Church , it appeares by the ordination of S. Simeon the sonne of Cleophas to be his Successor . It is witnessed by Eusebius , Post martyrium Iacobi .... traditur Apostolos &c. habuisse in commune Concilium quem oporteret dignum successione Iacobi judicari ; omnesque uno consilio , atque uno consensu Simeonem Cleophae filium decrevisse ut Episcopatûs sedem susciperet . The same also he transcribes out of Hegesippus , Posteaquam Iacobus Martyr effectus est .... electione divinâ Simeon Cleophae filius Episcopus ordinatur , electus ab omnibus pro eo quòd esset consobrinus Domini . S. Simeon was ordayn'd Bishop by a Divine election ; And Epiphanius in the Catalogue of the Bishops of Ierusalem , reckons first Iames , and next Simeon , qui sub Trajano crucifixus est . THe next Bishop we find ordayn'd by the Apostles was Timothy at Ephesus . That he was ordayn'd by an Apostle appeares in Scripture . For S. Paul impos'd hands on him , that 's certayne , Excita Gratiam quae in te est per impositionem manuum mearum , by the laying on of MY HANDS . That he was there a Bishop is also apparent , from the power and offices concredited to him . 1. He was to be * resident at Ephesus . And although for the publike necessityes of the Church , and for assistance to S. Paul he might be called sometimes from his Charge , yet there he liv'd and dyed as the Church story writes , there was his ordinary residence , and his avocations were but temporary and occasionall , and when it was , his Cure was supplyed by Tychicus , whom S. Paul sent to Ephesus as his Vicar , as I shall shew hereafter . 2. S. Paul in his epistles to him , gave directions to him for Episcopall deportment as is plaine . A Bishop must be blamelesse , the husband of one wife , &c. 3. S. Paul concredits jurisdiction to S. Timothy . Over the people ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is of as great extent in S. Timothies commission as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Commanding as teaching . Over Presbyters ; but yet so as to make difference between them and the Neotericks in Christianity , the one as Fathers , the other as Brethren . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is denied to be used towards either of them . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Suidas , a dishonourable upbraiding or objurgation . Nay it is more ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is castigo , plagam infero , saith Budaeus : so that , that kind of Rebuking the Bishop is forbidden to use , either toward Priest or Deacon , Clergy or Laity , Old or Young. [ for a Bishop must be no striker . ] but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that 's given him in commission both to old and young , Presbyters and Catechumens , that is , Require them ; postula , provoca . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Synesius . To be provoked to a Duel , to be challenged . and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Chrysostome . Ad precandum vos provoco . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Eurip. Thou makest me , or compeliest me to shed teares . Suavitèr omnia . That 's the way S. Paul takes . Meekely ; but yet so as to doe his office , to keep all in their severall duties , and that is by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , command these things , for so he summes up the Bishops duty towards Presbyters , Neophytes , and Widdowes . Give all these things in charge . Command all to doe their duty . Command , but not objurgate . Et quid negotii esset Episcopo ut Presbyterum non objurgaret si super Presbyterum non haberet potestatem . So Epiphanius urges this argument to advantage . For indeed it had been to little purpose for S. Paul to have given order to Timothy , how he should exercise his jurisdiction over Presbyters and people , if he had had no jurisdiction and coercitive authority at all . Nay , and howsoever S. Paul forbids to Timothy to use 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , yet S. Paul in his second Epistle bids him use it , intimating , upon great occasion . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . To be sure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , if it be but an urging , or an exhortation , is not all , for S. Paul gives him coercitive jurisdiction , as well as directive . Over Widdowes . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Reject the younger Widdowes , viz. à collegio viduarum , ab eleemosynis Ecclesiae . Over Presbyters . for he commands him to have sufficient probate in the accusation of Presbyters , of which if he was not to take cognisance , it was to no purpose to number witnesses . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Receive not a publick accusation [ in foro externo ] against a Priest , Non vocabis in jus nisi in testimonio duorum , &c. to wit , in causes criminall , That is sufficient intimation of the Bishops power TO TAKE COGNISANCE in causes criminall ; then for his punishing in such causes , it followes in the next words , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Reprehend them publikely , that is , disgrace them . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ind●corus ..... 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Homer Iliad . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . So that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in S. Paul , is to call them to publick account ; that 's one part of the jurisdiction . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , is to examine . Plato Epist. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to give an account of one's life ▪ idem in Apolog. And then also it implies punishment upon conviction , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Hom. ● . Iliad . But the words in S. Paul will cleare this businesse . Let them that sinne be publikly sham'd , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that the rest may feare ; A punishment most certainly , something that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Malum in genere poenae . What else should they feare ? to sinne ? Most true . But why upon this reprehension , if not for feare of being punished ? Adde to all this , that here is in this chapter the plaine giving of a jurisdiction , an erection of a judicatory , and is all the way , direction for his proceeding in causes criminall , appears most evidently , v. 21. I charge thee before God and the Lord Iesus Christ and the elect Angells , that thou observe these things , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , without prejudging the cause of any mā before it comes in open contestatiō under publick test of witnesses , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , doing nothing for favour or partiality . Nothing in the world is plainer for the erection of a Consistory then these mandates of S. Paul. Lastly , to make up his Episcopall function compleat S. Paul gives him also direction concerning giving of orders . [ Lay hands suddenly on no man. ] sub testatione ergo ea quae ad ordinationem Ecclesiae mandat custodiri .... Ne facilè aliquis accipiat Ecclesiasticam dignitatem .... peccat enim si non probat & si● ordinet . Melior enim caeteris debet probari qui ordinandus est . Haec Episcopus custodiens , castum se exhibebit religioni , cujus rei in futuro praemium consequetur . So S. Ambrose upon the place , who is so farre from exempting Presbyters from being submitted to the Bishops consistory , that he does appropriate all his former cautions concerning the judicature , and coercitive jurisdiction to causes of the Clergy . Adde to this evidence of Scripture the testimony of Catholike and unquestion'd Antiquity affirming S. Timothy to have beene ordain'd Bishop of Ephesus by S. Paul. Eusebius speaking of the successions to S. Paul , sed & Lucas ( saith he ) in actibus Apostolorum plurimos ejus socios memorat , sicut Timothei & Titi , quorum alter in Ephesi Episcopus ... ab eo ordinatus praeficitur . S. Ambrose affirmes that S. Paul having ordained him Bishop writes his first Epistle to him to instruct him in his Episcopall office . Hunc igitur jam creatum Episcopum instruit per Epistol●m quomodo deberet Ecclesiam ordinare . And that this Epistle was written to instruct S. Timothy for his owne person , and all Bishops in him for their deportment in the office of a Bishop is the united , concurrent testimony of S. a Vincentius , b Tertullian , S. c Chrysostome , S. d Ambrose , e Oecumenius , f Epiphanius , g Primasius , and S. h Gregory . As for Epiphanius in the place now quoted he uses it as an argument against the madnesse and stupidity of Aërius contending a Bishop and a Presbyter to be all one ; docet Divinus Apostoli sermo quis sit Episcopus & quis Presbyter quum dicit ad Timotheum qui erat Episcopus , Presbyterum ne objurges , &c. I shall transcribe no more testimonies for this particular but that of the generall Councell of Chalcedon in the case of Bassianus and Stephanus ; Leontius the Bishop of Magnesia spake it in full Councell , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . From S. Timothy untill now there have beene 27 Bishops ordayned in Ephesus . Who desires a multitude of testimonies ( though enough already have deposed in the cause , beside the evidence of Scripture ) may to these adde that saying of S. Chrysostome , that to Timothy was committed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; of Theodoret , calling him Episcopum Asianorum ; the subscription to the first Epistle to Timothy , ( which if it were not writ by S. Paul , yet at least , will prove a primitive record , and very Ancient , ) the fragment of the Martyrdome of S. Timothy in Photius , i S. Ierome , k Theophylact , l Isidore ▪ and m Nicephorus . And now all is well if after all this Timothy doe not prove an Evangelist , for this one objection will be sufficient to catch at to support a drowning cause , and though neither pertinent nor true , yet shall be laid in the ballance against all the evidence of Scripture and Catholick antiquity . But [ doe the work of an Evangelist ] ( saith S. Paul ) therefore it is cleare S. Timothy was no Bishop . No , was not ? That 's hard . But let us try however . 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , those are the next words , fulfill thy Deaconship . And therefore he was no Bishop ? As well this as the other , for if Deaconship doe not exclude Episcopacy , why shall his being an Evangelist exclude it ? Or why may not his being a Deacon exclude his being an Evangelist , as well as his being an Evangelist , exclude his being a Bishop ? Whether is higher , a Bishoprick , or the office of an Evangelist ? If a Bishops office be higher , and therefore cannot consist with an Evangelist , then a Bishop cannot be a Priest , and a Priest cannot be a Deacon , and an Evangelist can be neither , for that also is thought to be higher then them both . But if the office of an Evangelist be higher , then as long as they are not disparate , much lesse destructive of each other , they may have leave to consist in subordination . For as for the pretence that an Evangelist is an office of a moveable imployment , and a Bishoprick of fixt residence , that will be considered by and by . 2. All the former discourse is upon supposition , that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , implyes the office of a Deacon , and so it may as well as S. Pauls other phrase implyes S. Timothy to be an Evangelist . For if we marke it well it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , doe the worke , not the office of an Evangelist . And what 's that ? We may see it in the verses immediatly going before , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And if this he the work of an Evangelist which S. Paul would have Timothy performe , viz. to preach , to be instant in season , and out of season , to reprove , to rebuke , to exhort , there is no harme done , a Bishop may , nay he must doe all this . 3. Consider we what an Evangelist is , and thence take our estimate for the present . 1. He that writes the story of the Gospell is an Evangelist , so the Greek Scholiast calls him . And in this sense indeed S. Timothy was not an Evangelist , but yet if he had , he might have been a Bishop , because S. Mark was an Evangelist to be sure , and perhaps as sure that he was a Bishop ; sure enough ; for they are both delivered to us by the Catholick testimony of the Primitive Church , as we shall see hereafter , so farre as concernes our Question . But then again ; an Apostle might be an Evangelist , S. Matthew was , and S. Iohn was , and the Apostolicall dignity is as much inconsistent with the office of an Evangelist , as Episcopall preheminence , for I have proved these two names Apostle , and Bishop to signify all one thing . 2. S. Ambrose gives another exposition of [ Evangelists . ] Evangelistae Diaconi sunt sicut fuit Philippus . S. Philip was one of the leaven , commonly called Deacons , and he was also a Presbyter , and yet an Evangelist , and yet a Presbyter in it's proportion is an office of as necessary residence as a Bishop , or else why are Presbyters cry'd out against so bitterly in all cases , for non-residence , and yet nothing hinders , but that S. Timothy , as well as S. Philip , might have been a Presbyter and an Evangelist together , and then why not a Bishop too , for why should a Deaconship , or a Presbyterate consist with the office of an Evangelist , more then a Bishoprick ? 3. Another acceptation of [ Evangelist ] is also in Eusebius . Sed & alii plurimi per idem tempus Apostolorum Discipuli superstites erant .... Nonnulli ex his ardentiores Divinae Philosophiae ... animas suas verbo Dei consecrabant .... ut si quibus fortè provinciis nomen fidei esset incognitum praedicarent , primaque apud eos Evangelii fundamenta collocantes .... Evangelistarum fungebantur officio . They that planted the Gospell first in any Country , they were Evangelists . S. Timothy might be such a one , and yet be a Bishop afterwards . And so were some of this sort of Evangelists . For so Eusebius , Primaque apud eos fundamenta Evangelii collocantes , atque ELECTIS QUIBUS QUE EX IPSIS officium regendae Ecclesiae quam fundaverant committentes , ipsi rursùm ad alias gentes properabant . So that they first converted the Nation , and then govern'd the Church , first they were Evangelists and afterwards Bishops ; and so was Austin the Monke that converted England in the time of S. Gregory and Ethelbert ▪ he was first our Evangelist , and afterwards Bishop of Dover . Nay why may they not in this sence be both Evangelists and Bishops at the same time , insomuch as many Bishops have first planted Christianity in divers Countries , as S. Chrysostome in Scythia , S. Trophimus , S. Denis , S. Marke , and many more . By the way only , according to all these acceptations of the word [ Evangelist ] this office does not imply a perpetuall motion . Evangelists many of them did travell , but they were never the more Evangelists for that , but only their office was writing or preaching the Gospell , and thence they had their name . 4. The office of an Evangelist was but temporary , and take it in either of the two senses of Eusebius or Oecumenius , which are the only true and genuine , was to expire when Christianity was planted every where , and the office of Episcopacy , if it was at all was to be succeeded in , and therefore in no respect could these be inconsistent , at least , not alwaies . * And how S. Paul should intend that Timothy should keep those rules he gave him , [ to the comming of our Lord Iesus Christ , ] if the office for the execution of which he gave him the rules , was to expire long before , is not so easily imagined . For if S. Paul did direct him in a temporary and expiring office , then in no sense , neither in person , nor in succession could those rules of S. Paul be kept till Christs coming , to wit , to judgement . But if he instructed him in the perpetuall office of Episcopacy , then it is easy to understand that S. Paul gave that caution to Timothy , to intimate that those his directions were not personall , but for his successors in that charge , to which he had ordained him , viz. in the sacred order and office of Episcopacy . 5. Lastly , After all this stirre , there are some of the Fathers , that will by no means admit S. Timothy to have been an Evangelist . So S. Chrysostome , so Theophylact , so the Greek Scholiast , now though we have no need to make any use of it , yet if it be true , it makes all this discourse needlesse , we were safe enough without it ; if it be false , then it selfe we see is needlesse , for the allegation of S. Timothy's being an Evangelist , is absolutely impertinent , though it had been true . But now I proceed . TItus was also made a Bishop by the Apostles . S. Paul also was his ordainer . 1. Reliqui te Cretae . There S. Paul fixt his seat for him , at Crete . 2. His worke was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to set in order things that are wanting , viz. to constitute rites and formes of publike Liturgy , to erect a Consistory for cognisance of causes criminall , to dedicate houses for prayer by publick destination for divine Service , and in a word , by his authority to establish such Discipline and Ritualls , as himselfe did judge to be most for edification and ornament of the Church of God. For he that was appointed by S. Paul , to rectify , and set things in order , was most certainly by him supposed to be the Iudge of all the obliquities which he was to rectify . 2. The next worke is Episcopall too , and it is the ordaining Presbyters in every Citty . Not Presbyters collectively in every Citty , but distributively , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Citty by Citty , that is Elders in severall Citties , one in one Citty , Many in many . For by these Elders are certainly meant Bishops . Of the identity of Names I shall afterwards give an account , but here it is plaine S. Paul expounds himselfe to meane Bishops . 1. In termes and expresse words . [ To ordaine Elders in every Citty ; If any be the husband of one wife , &c. For a Bishop must be blamelesse . ] That is , the elders that you are to ordaine in severall Citties must be blamelesse , for else they must not be Bishops . 2. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cannot hinder this exposition , for S. Peter calls himselfe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and S. Iohn , Presbyter electae Dominae , and Presbyter dilectissimo Gajo. Such Presbyters as these were Apostolicall , and that 's as much as Episcopall to be sure . 3. S. Paul addes farther [ a Bishop must be blamelesse AS THE STEWARD OF GOD. Who then is that faithfull and wise Steward , whom his Lord shall make ruler ? ] S. Pauls Bishop is Gods steward , and Gods steward is the ruler of his hous-hold , saies our blessed Saviour himselfe , and therefore not a meere Presbyter , amongst whom indeed there is a parity , but no superintendency of Gods making . 4. S. Paul does in the sequell still qualify his Elders or Bishops with more proprieties of rulers . A Bishop must be no striker , not given to wine . They are exactly the requisites which our blessed Saviour exacts in his Stewards or Rulers accounts . [ If the Steward of the house will drinke and be DRUNKE , and BEATE his fellow servants , then the Lord of that servant shall come and divide him his portion with unbelievers . ] The steward of the hous-hold , this Ruler , must not be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , no more must a Bishop , he must not be given to wine , no striker ; Neque enim pugilem describit sermo Apostolicus , sed Pontificem instituit quid facere non debeat , saith S. Hierome : still then , these are the Rulers of the Church , which S. Titus was to ordaine , and therefore it is required should Rule well his own house , for how else shall hee take charge of the Church of God , implying that this his charge is to Rule the house of God. 5. The reason why S. Paul appointed him to ordaine these Bishops in Citties is in order to coercitive jurisdiction , because [ many unruly and vaine talkers were crept in , vers . 10. ] and they were to be silenced 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Their mouths must be stopped . Therefore they must be such Elders as had superiority of jurisdiction over these impertinent Preachers , which to a single Presbyter , either by Divine or Apostolicall institution no man will grant , and to a Colledge of Presbyters S. Paul does not intend it , for himselfe had given it singly to S. Titus . For I consider , Titus alone had coercitive jurisdiction before he ordayn'd these Elders , be they Bishops , be they Presbyters . The Presbyters which were at Crete before his comming had not Episcopall power , or coercitive jurisdiction , for why then was Titus sent ? As for the Presbyters which Titus ordayn'd , before his ordayning them , to be sure they had no power at all , they were not Presbyters . If they had a coercitive jurisdiction afterwards , to wit , by their ordination , then Titus had it before in his owne person , ( for they that were there before his comming , had not , as I shewed ) and therefore he must also have it still , for he could not loose it by ordaining others , or if he had it not before , how could he give it unto them whom he ordain'd ? For plus juris in alium transferre nemo potest , quàm ipse habet . Howsoever it by then , to be sure , Titus had it in his owne person and then it followes Undeniably , that either this coercitive jurisdiction was not necessary for the Church ( which would be either to suppose men impcccable , or the Church to be exposed to all the inconveniences of Schisme and tumutuary factions without possibility of releife ) or if it was necessary , then because it was in Titus not as a personall prerogative , but a power to be succeded to ; he might ordaine others , he had authority to doe it , with the same power he had himselfe , and therefore since he alone had this coërcion in his owne person , so should his Successors , and then because a single Presbyter , could not have it over his brethren by the confession of all sides , nor the Colledge of Presbyters which were there before his comming had it not , for why then was Titus sent with a new commission , nor those which he was to ordaine if they were but meere Presbyters could not have it , no more then the Presbytes that were there before his comming , it followes that those Elders which S. Paul sent Titus to ordaine being such as were to be constituted in opposition and power over the false Doctors and prating Preachers , and with authority to silence them , ( as is evident in the first chapter of that Epistle ) these Elders ( I say ) are verily , and indeed such as himselfe call's Bishops in the proper sense , and acceptation of the word . 6. The Cretan Presbyters who were there before S. Titus comming , had not power to ordaine others , that is , had not that power which Titus had . For Titus was sent thither for that purpose , therefore to supply the want of that power . And now , because to ordaine others was necessary for the conservation and succession of the Church , that is , because new generations are necessary for the continuing the world , and meere Presbyters could not doe it , and yet this must be done , not onely by Titus himselfe , but after him , it followes undeniably that S. Paul sent Titus to ordaine men with the same power that himselfe had , that is with more then his first Cretan Presbyters , that is Bishops , and he meanes them in the proper sense . 7. That by Elders in severall Cityes he meanes Bishops is also plaine from the place where they were to be ordained , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . In populous Cityes , not in village Townes , For no Bishops were ever suffered to be in village Townes , as is to be seene in the Councell of a Sardis , of b Chalcedon , and S. c Leo , the Cityes therefore doe at least highly intimate that the persons to be ordain'd were not meere Presbyters . The issue of this discourse is , that since Titus was sent to Crete to ordaine Bishops , himselfe was a Bishop to be sure , at least . If he had ordain'd only Presbyters , it would have prov'd that . But this inferres him to be a Metropolitan , forasmuch as he was Bishop of Crete , and yet had many suffragans in subordination to him , of his owne constitution , and yet of proper diocesses . However , if this discourse concludes nothing peculiar , it frees the place from popular prejudice and mistakes , upon the confusion of Episcopus , and Presbyter ; and at least inferres his being a Bishop , if not a great deale more . Yea ; but did not S. Titus ordaine no meere Presbyters ? yes most certainely . But , so he did Deacons too , and yet neither one nor the other are otherwise mentioned in this Epistle but by consequence and comprehension within the superior order . For he that ordaines a Bishop , first makes him a Deacon , ( and then he obtaines 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a good degree ) and then a Presbyter , and then a Bishop . So that these inferior orders are presuppos'd in the authorizing the Supreame , and by giving direction for the qualifications of Bishops , he sufficiently instructs the inferiour orders in their deportment , insomuch as they are probations for advancement to the higher . 2. Adde to this , that he that ordaines Bishops in Cityes sets there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ordinem generativum Patrum , as Epiphanius calls Episcopacy , and therefore most certainely with intention , not that it should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Manus Mortua , but , to produce others , and therefore Presbyters and Deacons . 3. S. Paul made no expresse provision for villages , and yet most certainely did not intend to leave them destitute , and therefore he tooke order that such ordinations should be made in Cityes which should be provisionary for Villages , and that is , of such men as had power to ordaine and power to send Presbyters to what part of their charge they pleased . For since Presbyters could not ordaine other Presbyters , as appeares by S. Paul's sending Titus to doe it there , where , most certainely , many Presbyters before were actually resident , if Presbyters had gone to Villages they must have left the Cityes destitute , or if they staid in Cityes the Villages would have perished , and at last , when these men had dyed both one and the other , had beene made a prey to the wolfe , for there could be no sheapheard after the decay of the first generation . But let us see further into S. Titus his commission and letters of orders , and institution . [ A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject . ] Cognisance of hereticall pravity , and animadversion against the heretick himselfe is most plainely concredited to S. Titus . For first he is to admonish him , then to reject him upon his pertinacy , from the Catholike communion . Cogere autem illos videtur , qui saepe corripit , saith S. Ambrose , upon the establishing a coactive , or coërcitive jurisdiction over the Clergy and whole Diocesse . But I need not specifie any more particulars , for S. Paul committed to S. Titus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all authority and power . The consequence is that which S. Ambrose prefixes to the Comentary on this Epistle . Titum Apostolus consecravit Episcopum , & ideò commonet eum ut sit sollicitus in Ecclesiasticâ ordinatione ▪ id est , ad quosdam qui simulatione quâdam dìgnos se ostentabant ut sublimem ordinem tenerent , simulque & haereticos ex circumcisione corripiendos . And now after so faire preparatory of Scripture we may heare the testimonies of Antiquity witnessing that Titus was by S. Paul made Bishop of Crete . Sed & Lucas ( saith Eusebius ) in actibus Apostolorum .... Timothei meminit & Titi quorum alter in Epheso Episcopus : alter ordinandis apud Cretam Ecclesiis ab eo ordinatus praeficitur . That is it which S. Ambrose expresses something more plainly , Titum Apostolus consecravit Episcopum , The Apostle consecrated Titus Bishop ; and Theodoret , calling Titus , Cretensium Episcopum . The Bishop of the Cretians . And for this reason saith S. Chrysost. S. Paul did not write to Sylvanus , or Silas , or Clemens , but to Timothy and Titus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , because to these he had already committed the government of Churches . But a fuller testimony of S. Titus being a Bishop who please may see in S. a Hierome , in b Dorotheus , in c Isidore , in d Vincentius , in e Theodoret , in f S. Gregory , in g Primatius , h Sedulius , i Theophilact and k Nicephorus . To which if we adde the subscription of the Epistle asserted from all impertinent objections by the clearer testimony of S. l Athanasius , S m Ierome , the Syriack translation , n Oecumenius and o Theophylact , no confident deniall can ever break through , or scape conviction . And now I know not what objection can fairely be made here ; for I hope S. Titus was no Evangelist , he is not called so in Scripture , and all Antiquity calls him a Bishop , and the nature of his offices , the eminence of his dignity , the superiority of jurisdiction , the cognisance of causes criminall , and the whole exigence of the Epistle proclaime him Bishop . But suppose a while Titus had been an Evangelist , I would faine know who succeeded him ? Or did all his office expire with his person ? If so , then who shall reject Hereticks when Titus is dead ? Who shall silence factious Preachers ? If not , then still who succeeded him ? The Presbyters ? How can that be ? For if they had more power after his death then before , and govern'd the Churches which before they did not , then to be sure their government in common , is not an Apostolicall Ordinance , much lesse is it a Divine right , for it is postnate to thē both . But if they had no more power after Titus then they had under him , how then could they succeed him ? There was indeed a dereliction of the authority , but no succession . The succession therefore both in the Metropolis of Crete , and also in the other Cities was made by singular persons , not by a Colledge , for so we find in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 recorded by Eusebius that in Gnossus of Crete , Pinytus was a most eminent Bishop , and that Philip was the Metropolitan at Gortyna . Sed & Pinytus nobilissimus apud Cretam in Episcopis fuit , saith Eusebius . But of this , enough . MY next instance shall be of one that was an Evangelist indeed , one that writ the Gospell , and he was a Bishop of Alexandria . In Scripture we find nothing of him but that he was an Evangelist , and a Deacon , for he was Deacon to S. Paul & Barnabas , when they went to the Gentiles , by ordination and speciall designement made at Antioch ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . They had Iohn to be their Minister ; viz : Iohn whose sirname was Marke . * But we are not to expect all the ordinations made by the Apostles in their acts written by S. Luke , which end at S. Paul's first going to Rome ; but many other things , their founding of diverse Churches , their ordination of Bishops , their journeyes , their persecutions , their Miracles and Martyrdomes are recorded , & rely upon the faith of the primitive Church . And yet the ordination of S. Marke was within the terme of S. Lukes story , for his successor Anianus was made Bishop of Alexandria in the eight yeare of Nero's reigne , five or six yeares before the death of S. Paul. Igitur Neronis PRIMO Imperij anno post Marcum Evangelistam Ecclesiae apud Alexandriam Anianus Sacerdotium suscepit . So the Latin of Ruffinus reads it , in stead of octavo . Sacerdotium , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is the Bishoprick , for else there were many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and Priests in Alexandria besides him , and how then he should be S. Markes successor more then the other Presbyters , is not so soone to be contriv'd . But so the Collecta of the Chapter runs . Quòd post Marcum primus Episcopus Alexandrinae Ecclesiae ordinatus sit Anianus , Anianus was consecrated the first Bishop of Alexandria after S. Marke . * And Philo the Iew telling the story of the Christians in Alexandria , called by the inhabitants , Cultores , and Cultrices , The worshippers , Addit autem adhuc his ( saith Eusebius ) quomodò sacerdotes vel Ministri exhibeant officia sua , vel quae sit suprà omnia Episcopalis apicis sedes , intimating that beside the offices of Priests and Ministers , there was an Episcopall dignity which was apex super omnia , a height above all imployments , established at Alexandria ; and how soone that was , is soone computed , for Philo liv'd in our blessed Saviours time , and was Embassador to the Emperour Cajus , and surviv'd S. Marke a little . But S. Ierome will strike up this businesse , A Marco Evangelistâ ad Heraclam usque , & Dionysiam Episcopos , Presbyteri Egypti semper unum ex se electum in celsiori gradu collocatum Episcopum nominabant . And againe , Marcus interpres Apostoli Petri , & Alexandrinae Ecclesiae primus Episcopus . The same is witnessed by a S. Gregory , b Nicephorus , and divers others . Now although the ordination of S. Marke is not specified in the Acts , as innumerable multitudes of things more , and scarce any thing at all of any of the twelve but S. Peter , nothing of S. Iames the sonne of Thaddaeus , nor of Alpheus , but the Martyrdome of one of them , nothing of S. Bartholomew , of S. Thomas , or Simon zelotes , of S. Iude the Apostle , scarce any of their names recorded , yet no wise man can distrust the faith of such records , which all Christendome hitherto , so farre as we know , hath acknowledged as authentick , and these ordinations cannot possibly goe lesse then Apostolicall , being done in the Apostles times , to whom the care of all the Churches was concredited , they seeing and beholding severall successions in severall Churches before their death , as here at Alexandria , first Saint Marke , then Anianus , made Bishop five or sixe years before the death of S. Peter and S. Paul. But yet who it was that ordain'd S. Marke Bishop of Alexandria ( for Bishop he was most certainly ) is not obscurely intimated by the most excellent man S. Gelasius in the Romane Councell , Marcus à Petro Apostolo in Aegyptum directus verbum veritatis praedicavit , & gloriosè consummavit Martyrium . S. Peter sent him into Egypt to found a Church , and therefore would furnish him with all things requisite for so great imployment , and that could be no lesse , then the ordinary power Apostolicall . BUt in the Church of Rome , the ordination of Bishops by the Apostles , and their successions during the times of the Apostles , is very manifest by a concurrent testimony of old writers . Fundantes igitur , & instruentes beati Apostoli Ecclesiam Lino Episcopatum administrandae Ecclesiae tradiderunt . Hujus Lini Paulus in his quae sunt ad Timotheum Epistolis meminit . Succedit autem ei Anacletus , post cum tertiò loco ab Apostolis Episcopatum sortitur Clemens , qui & vidit ipsos Apostolos , & contulit cum eis , cùm adhuc insonantem praedicationem Apostolorum , & traditionem ante oculos haberet . So S. Irenaeus . * Memoratur autem ex comitibus Pauli Crescens quidam ad Gallias esse praefectus . Linus vero & Clemens in urbe Româ Ecclesiae praefuisse . Many more testimonies there are of these means being ordained Bishops of Rome by the Apostles , as of a Tertullian , b Optatus , c S. Austin , and d S. Hierome . But I will not cloy my Reader with variety of one dish , and bee tedious in a thing so evident and known . S. Iohn ordain'd S. Polycarpe Bishop at Smyrna .... sicut Smyrnaeorum Ecclesia habens Polycarpum ab Iohanne conlocatum refert ; sicut Romanorum Clementem à Petro ordinatum edit , proinde utique & caeterae exhibent quos ab Apostolis in Episcopatum constitutos Apostolici seminis traduces habeant . So Tertullian . The Church of Smyrna saith that Polycarpe was placed there by S. Iohn , as the Church of Rome saith that Clement was ordain'd there by S. Peter , and other Churches have those whom the Apostles made to be their Bishops . Polycarpus autem non solùm ab Apostolis edoctus .... sed etiam ab Apostolis in Asiâ , in eâ quae est Smyrnis Ecclesiâ constitutus Episcopus .... & testimonium his perhibent quae sunt in Asiâ Ecclesiae omnes , & qui usque adhuc successerunt Polycarpo &c. The same also is witnessed by S. Ierome , and * Eusebius : Quoniam autem valdè longum est in tali volumine omnium Ecclesiarum successiones enumerare , to use S. Irenaeus his expression ; It were an infinite labour to reckon up all those whom the Apostles made Bishops with their own hands , as a S. Dionysius the Areopagite at Athens , b Cajus at Thessalonica , c Archippus at Colosse , d Onesimus at Ephesus , e Antipas at Pergamus , f Epaphroditus at Philippi , g Crescens among the Gaules , h Evodias at Antioch , * Sosipater at Iconium , Erastus in Macedonia , Trophimus at Arles , Iason at Tarsus , Silas at Corinth , Onesiphorus at Colophon , Quartus at Berytus , Paul the Proconsul at Narbona , besides many more whose names are not recorded in Scripture , as these forecited are , so many as * Eusebius counts impossible to enumerate ; it shall therefore suffice to summe up this digest of their acts and ordinations in those generall foldings us'd by the Fathers , saying that the Apostles did ordaine Bishops in all Churches , that the succession of Bishops downe from the Apostles first ordination of them was the only argument to prove their Churches Catholick , and their adversaries who could not doe so , to be Hereticall ; This also is very evident , and of great consideration in the first ages while their tradition was cleare , and evident , and not so bepudled as it since hath been with the mixture of Hereticks , striving to spoile that which did so much mischiefe to their causes . Edant origines Ecclesiarum suarum , evolvant ordinem Episcoporum suorum ita per successiones ab initio decurrentem , ut primus ille Episcopus aliquem ex Apostolis , aut Apostolicis viris habuerit authorem & antecessorem , hoc modo Ecclesiae Apostolicae census suos deferunt , &c. And when S. Irenaeus had reckoned twelve successions in the Church of Rome from the Apostles , nunc duodecimo loco ab Apostolis Episcopatum habet Eleutherius . Hâc ordinatione ( saith he ) & successione , & ea quae est ab Apostolis in Ecclesiâ traditio & veritatis praeconiatio pervenit usque ad nos ; & est plenissima haec ostensio unam & candem vivatricem fidem esse quae in Ecclesiâ ab Apostolis usque nunc sit conservata , & tradita in veritate . So that this succession of Bishops from the Apostles ordination , must of it selfe be a very certain thing , when the Church made it a maine probation of their faith ; for the books of Scripture were not all gathered together , and generally received as yet . Now then , since this was a main pillar of their Christianity , viz. a constant reception of it from hand to hand , as being delivered by the Bishops in every chaire , till wee come to the very Apostles that did ordain them , this ( I say ) being their proof , although it could not be more certain then the thing to be proved , which in that case was a Divine revelation , yet to them it was more evident as being matter of fact , and known almost by evidence of sense , and as verily believed by all , as it was by any one , that himselfe was baptized , both relying upon the report of others . * Radix Christianae societatis per sedes Apostolorum , & successiones Episcoporum , certâ per orbem propagatione diffunditur , saith S. Austin . The very root and foundation of Christian communion is spread all over the world , by the successions of Apostles and Bishops . And is it not now a madnesse to say there was no such thing , no succession of Bishops in the Churches Apostolicall , no ordination of Bishops by the Apostles , and so ( as S. Paul's phrase is ) overthrow the faith of some , even of the Primitive Christians , that used this argument as a great weapon of offence against the invasion of haereticks and factious people ? It is enough for us that we can truly say with S. Irenaeus , Habemus annumerare eos qui ab Apostolis instituti sunt Episcopi in Ecclesiis usque ad nos . We can reckon those who from the Apostles untill now were made Bishops in the Churches ; and of this we are sure enough , if there be any faith in Christians . THE summe is this . Although we had not prooved the immediate Divine institution of Episcopall power over Presbyters and the whole flock , yet Episcopacy is not lesse then an Apostolicall ordinance , and delivered to us by the same authority that the observation of the Lord's day is . For , for that in the new Testament we have no precept , and nothing but the example of the Primitive Disciples meeting in their Synaxes upon that day , and so also they did on the saturday in the Iewish Synagogues , but yet ( however that at Geneva , they were once in meditation to have chang'd it into a Thursday meeting to have showne their Christian liberty ) we should think strangely of those men that called the Sunday-Festivall lesse then an Apostolicall ordinance , and necessary now to be kept holy with such observances as the Church hath appointed . * Baptisme of infants is most certainly a holy and charitable ordinance , and of ordinary necessity to all that ever cryed , and yet the Church hath founded this rite upon the tradition of the Apostles ; and wise men doe easily observe that the Anabaptists can by the same probability of Scripture inforce a necessity of communicating infants upon us , as we doe of baptizing infants upon them , if we speak of immediate Divine institution , or of practise Apostolicall recorded in Scripture , and therefore a great Master of Geneva in a book he writ against the Anabaptists , was forced to fly to Apostolicall traditive ordination , and therefore the institution of Bishops , must be served first , as having fairer plea , and clearer evidence in Scripture , then the baptizing of infants , and yet they that deny this , are by the just anathema of the Catholick Church , confidently condemn'd for Hereticks . * Of the same consideration are diverse other things in Christianity , as the Presbyters consecrating the Eucharist ; for if the Apostles in the first institution did represent the whole Church , Clergy and Laity , when Christ said [ Hoc facite , Doe this ] then why may not every Christian man there represented , doe that which the Apostles in the name of all were commanded to doe ? If the Apostles did not represent the whole Church , why then doe all communicate ? Or what place , or intimation of Christ's saying is there in all the foure Gospells , limiting [ Hoc facite , id est , benedicite ] to the Clergy , and extending [ Hoc facite , id est , accipite & manducate ] to the Laity ? This also rests upon the practise Apostolicall and traditive interpretation of H. Church , and yet cannot be denied that so it ought to be , by any man that would not have his Christendome suspected . * To these I adde the communion of Women , the distinction of bookes Apocryphall , from Canonicall , that such books were written by such Evangelists , and Apostles , the whole tradition of Scripture it selfe , the Apostles Creed , the feast of Easter ( which amongst all them that cry up the Sunday-Festivall for a Divine institution , must needs prevaile as Caput institutionis , it being that for which the Sunday is commemorated . ) These and divers others of greater consequence ( which I dare not specify for feare of being misunderstood ) rely but upon equall faith with this of Episcopacy ( though I should wave all the arguments for immediate Divine ordinance ) and therefore it is but reasonable it should be ranked amongst the Credenda of Christianity , which the Church hath entertained upon the confidence of that which we call the faith of a Christian , whose Master is truth it selfe . VVHat their power and eminence was , and the appropriates of their office so ordain'd by the Apostles , appears also by the testimonies before alleadged , the expressions whereof runne in these high termes . Episcopatus administrandae Ecclesiae in Lino . Linus his Bishoprick was the administration of the whole Church . Ecclesiae praefuisse was said of him and Clemens , they were both Prefects of the Church , or Prelates , that 's the Church-word . Ordinandis apud Cretam Ecclesiis praeficitur , so Titus , he is set over all the affaires of the new-founded Churches in Crete . In celsiori gradu collocatus , plac'd in a higher order or degree , so the Bishop of Alexandria , chosen ex Presbyteris , from amongst the Presbyters . Supra omnia Episcopalis apicis sedes , so Philo of that Bishoprick , The seat of Episcopall height above all things in Christianity . These are its honours . Its offices these . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 &c. To set in order whatsoever he sees wanting , or amisse ; to silence vaine prating Preachers , that will not submit to their superiors , to ordaine elders , to rebuke delinquents , to reject Hereticks , viz. from the communion of the faithfull ( for else why was the Angell of the Church of Pergamus reprov'd for tolerating the Nicolaitan hereticks , but that it was in his power to eject them ? And the same is the case of the Angell of Thyatira in permitting the woman to teach and seduce the people ) but to the Bishop was committed the cognisance of causes criminall and particular of Presbyters , ( so to Timothy in the instance formerly alleadged ) nay , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , all authority , so in the case of Titus , and officium regendae Ecclesiae , the office of ruling the Church , so to them all whom the Apostles left in the severall Churches respectively which they had new founded . So Eusebius . For the Bishop was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , set over all , Clergy and Laity , saith S. Clement . This was given to Bishops by the Apostles themselves , and this was not given to Presbyters , as I have already prooved , and for the present , it will sufficiently appeare in this , that Bishops had power over Presbyters , which cannot be supposed they had over themselves , unlesse they could be their own superiours . BUt a Councell , or Colledge of Presbyters might have jurisdiction over any one , and such Colledges there were in the Apostles times , and they did in communi Ecclesiam regere , govern the Church in common with the Bishop , as saith S. Hierom , viz. where there was a Bishop , and where there was none they rul'd without him . * This indeed will call us to a new account , and it relies upon the testimony of S. Hierome which I will set downe here , that wee may leave the sunne without a cloud . S. Ierom's words are these . Idem est enim Presbyter quod Episcopus , & antequam Diaboli instinctu studia in religione fierent , & diceretur in populis , ego sum Pauli ego Apollo , ego autem Cephae , communi Presbyterorum consilio Ecclesiae gubernabantur . Postquam verò unusquisque eos quos baptizabat suos putabat esse , non Christi , in toto orbe decretum est , ut unus de Presbyter is electus superponeretur caeteris ut Schismatum semina tollerentur . Then he brings some arguments to confirme his saying , and summes them up thus . Haec diximus ut ostenderemus apud veteres eosdem fuisse Presbyteros quos Episcopos , & ut Episcopi noverint se magis consuetudine quàm Dominicae dispositionis veritate Presbyteris esse majores : & in communi debere Ecclesiam regere , &c. The thing S. Hierome aymes to prove , is the identity of Bishop , Presbyter , and their government of the Church in common . * For their identity , It is cleare that S. Hierome does not meane it in respect of order , as if a Bishop and a Presbyter had both one office per omnia , one power ; for else he contradicts himselfe most apertly , for in his Epistle ad Evagrium , Quid facit ( saith he ) Episcopus exceptâ ordinatione quòd Presbyter non faciat ? A Presbyter may not ordayne , a Bishop does , which is a cleare difference of power , and by S. Hierome is not expressed in matter of fact , but of right [ quod Presbyter non FACIAT ] not [ non facit ; ] that a Priest may not , must not doe , that a Bishop does , viz. he gives holy orders . * And for matter of fact S. Hierome knew that in his time a Presbyter did not governe in common , but because he conceived it was fit he should be joyn'd in the common regiment and care of the Diocesse , therefore he asserted it as much as he could ; And therefore if S. Hierome had thought that this difference of the power of ordination , had been only customary , & by actuall indulgence , or incroachment , or positive constitution , and no matter of primitive and originall right , S. Hierome was not so diffident but out it should , come what would have come . And suppose S. Hierome , in this distinct power of ordination had intended it onely to be a difference in fact , not in right ( for so some of late have muttered ) then S. Hierome had not said true according to his owne principles , for [ Quid facit Episcopus exceptâ ordinatione quòd Presbyter non faciat ? ] had beene quickly answered , if the Question had onely beene de facto ; For the Bishop governed the Church alone , and so in Iurisdiction was greater then Presbyters , and this was by custome , and in fact at least , S. Hierome saies it , and the Bishop tooke so much power to himselfe , that de facto Presbyters were not suffered to doe any thing sine literis Episco , palibus , without leave of the Bishop , and this S. Hierome complain'd of ; so that de facto the power of ordination was not the onely difference : That then ( if S. Hierome sayes true ) being the onely difference betweene Presbyter and Bishop , must be meant de jure , in matter of right , not humane positive , for that is coincident with the other power of jurisdiction which de facto , and at least by a humane right the Bishop had over Presbyters , but Divine , and then this identity of Bishop and Presbyter by S. Hierom's owne confession cannot be meant in respect of order , but the Episcopacy is by Divine right a superiour order to the Presbyterate . * Adde to this that the arguments which S. Hierome uses in this discourse are to prove that Bishops are sometimes called Presbyters . To this purpose he urges Act. 20. And Philippians 1. and the Epistles to Timothy , and Titus , and some others , but all driving to the same issue . To what ? Not to prove that Presbyters are sometimes called Presbyters ; For who doubts that ? But that Bishops are so may be of some consideration and needes a proofe , and this he Undertooke . Now that they are so called must needes inferre an identity and a disparity in severall respects . An identity , at least of Names , for else it had beene wholly impertinent . A disparity , or else his arguments were to prove idem affirmari de eodem , which were a businesse next to telling pins . Now then this disparity must be either in order , or jurisdiction . By the former probation it is sure that he meanes the orders to be disparate ; If jurisdiction too , I am content , but the former is most certaine , if he stand to his owne principles . This identity then which S. Hierome expresses of Episcopus and Presbyter , must be either in Name or in Iurisdiction . I know not certainely which he meanes , for his arguments conclude onely for the identity of Names , but his conclusion is for identity of jurisdiction , & in communi debere Ecclesiam regere , is the intent of his discourse . If he meanes the first , viz : that of Names , it is well enough , there is no harme done , it is in confesso apud omnes , but concludes nothing ( as I shall shew hereafter ) but because he intends ( so farre as may be guess'd by his words ) a parity and concurrence of jurisdiction , this must be consider'd distinctly . 1. Then ; in the first founding of Churches the Apostles did appoint Presbyters , and inferiour Ministers with a power of baptizing , preaching , consecrating and reconciling in privato foro , but did not in every Church at the first founding it , constitute a Bishop . This is evident in Crete , in Ephesus , in Corinth , at Rome , at Antioch . 2. Where no Bishops were constituted there the Apostles kept the jurisdiction in their owne hands [ There comes upon me ( saith S. Paul ) daily the care or Supravision of all the Churches ] Not all absolutely , for not all of the Circumcision , but all of his charge , with which he was once charged , and of which he had not exonerated himselfe by constituting Bishops there , for of these there is the same reason . And againe [ If any man obey not our word , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , signifie him to me by an Epistle ] so he charges the Thessalonians , and therefore of this Church , S. Paul as yet , clearely kept the power in his owne hands . So that the Church was ever in all the parts of it , govern'd by Episcopall , or Apostolicall authority . 3. For ought appeares in Scripture , the Apostles never gave any externall , or coercitive jurisdiction in publike , and criminall causes , nor yet power to ordaine Rites or Ceremonies , or to inflict censures , to a Colledge of meere Presbyters . * The contrary may be greedily swallowed , and I know not with how great confidence , and prescribing prejudice ; but there is not in all Scripture any commission from Christ , any ordinance or warrant from the Apostles to any Presbyter , or Colledge of Presbyters without a Bishop , or expresse delegation of Apostolicall authority ( tanquam vi●ario suo , as to his substitute in absense of the Bishop or Apostle ) to inflict any censures , or take cognisance of persons and causes criminall . Presbyters might be surrogati in locum Episcopi absentis , but never had any ordinary jurisdiction given them by vertue of their ordination , or any commission , from Christ or his Apostles . This we may best consider by induction of particulars . 1. There was a Presbytery at Ierusalem , but they had a Bishop alwayes , and the Colledge of the Apostles sometimes , therefore whatsoever act they did , it was in conjunction with , and subordination to the Bishop & Apostles . Now it cannot be denyed both that the Apostles were superiour to all the Presbyters in Ierusalem , and also had power alone to governe the Church . I say they had power to governe alone , for they had the government of the Church alone before they ordayn'd the first Presbyters , that is before there were any of capacity to joyne with them , they must doe it themselves , and then also they must retaine the same power , for they could not loose it by giving Orders . Now if they had a power of sole jurisdiction , then the Presbyters being in some publike acts in conjunction with the Apostles cannot challenge a right of governing as affixed to their Order , they onely assisting in subordination , and by dependency . This onely by the way ; In Ierusalem the Presbyters were some thing more then ordinary , and were not meere Presbyters in the present , and limited sense of the word . For Barnabas , and Iudas , and Silas [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Luke calls them ] were of that Presbytery . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . They were Rulers , and Prophets , Chiefe men amongst the Brethren , & yet called Elders , or Presbyters though of Apostolicall power and authority , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Oe●umenius . For truth is , that diverse of them were ordain'd Apostles with an Vulimited jurisdiction , not fix'd upon any See , that they also might together with the twelve , exire in totum mundum . * So that in this Presbytery either they were more then meere Presbyters , as Barnabas , and Iudas , and Silas , men of Apostolicall power , and they might well be in conjunction with the twelve , and with the Bishop , they were of equall power , not by vertue of their Presbyterate , but by their Apostolate ; or if they were but meere Presbyters , yet because it is certaine , and proov'd , and confess'd that the Apostles had power to governe the Church alone , this their taking meere Presbyters in partem regiminis , was a voluntary act , and from this example was derived to other Churches , and then it is most true , that Presbyteros in communi Ecclesiam regere , was rather , consuetudine Ecclesiae , then dominicae dispositionis veritate , ( to use S. Hierom's owne expression ) for this is more evident then that Bishops , doe eminere caeteris , by custome rather then Divine institution . For if the Apostles might rule the Church alone , then that the Presbyters were taken into the Number was a voluntary act of the Apostles , and although fitting to be retain'd where the same reasons doe remaine , and circumstances concurre , yet not necessary because not affixed to their Order ; not , Dominicae dispositionis veritate , and not laudable when those reasons cease , and there is an emergency of contrary causes . 2. The next Presbytery we read of is at Antioch , but there we find no acts either of concurrent , or single jurisdiction , but of ordination indeed we doe , and that performed by such men as S. Paul was , and Barnabas , for they were two of the Prophets reckoned in the Church of Antioch , but I doe not remember them to be called Presbyters in that place , to be sure they were not meere Presbyters as we now Understand the word , as I proved formerly . 3. But in the Church of Ephesus there was a Colledge of Presbyters and they were by the Spirit of God called Bishops , and were appointed by him to be Pastors of the Church of God. This must doe it or nothing . In quo spiritus S. posuit vos Episcopos , In whom the holy Ghost hath made you Bishops . There must lay the exigence of the argument , and if we can find who is meant by [ Vos ] we shall , I hope , gaine the truth . * S. Paul sent for the Presbyters , or Elders to come from Ephesus to Miletus , and to them he spoke . ** It 's true , but that 's not all the [ vos ] , For there were present at that Sermon , Sopater , and Aristarchus , and Secundus , and Gaius , and Timothy , and Tychicus , and Trophimus ; And although he sent to Ephesus as to the Metropolis , and there many Elders were either accidentally , or by ordinary residence , yet those were not all Elders of that Church , but of all Asia , in the Scripture sense , the lessar Asia . For so in the preface of his Sermon S. Paul intimates [ ye know that from the first day I came into Asia after what manner I have beene with you at all seasons ] His whole conversation in Asia was not confin'd to Ephesus , and yet those Elders who were present were witnesses of it all , and therefore were of dispersed habitation , and so it is more clearely infer'd from vers . 25. And now behold I know that YE ALL AMONG WHOM I HAVE GONE preaching the Kingdome of God &c : It was a travaile to preach to all that were present , and therefore most certainly they were inhabitants of places very considerably distant . Now upon this ground I will raise these considerations . 1. If there be a confusion of Names in Scripture , particularly of Episcopus and Presbyter , as it is contended for , on one side , and granted on all sides , then where both the words are used , what shall determine the signification ? For whether ( to instance in this place ) shall Presbyter limit Episcopus , or Episcopus extend Presbyter ? Why may not Presbyter signify one that is verily a Bishop , as Episcopus signify a meere Presbyter ? For it is but an ignorant conceit , where ever Presbyter is named , to fancy it in the proper and limited sense , and not to doe so with Episcopus , and when they are joyned together , rather to believe it in the limited and present sense of Presbyter , then in the proper and present sense of Episcopus . So that as yet we are indifferent upon the termes . These men sent for from Ephesus , are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Elders or Presbyters of the Church , but at Miletus , Spiritus S. posuit vos Episcopos , there they are called Bishops or overseers . So that I may as well say here were properly so called Bishops , as another may say , here were meere Presbyters . * And least it be objected in prejudice of my affirmative , that they could not be Bishops , because they were of Ephesus , there never being but one Bishop in one Church . I answer , that in the Apostles times this was not true . For at Ierusalem there were many at the same time that had Episcopall , and Apostolicall authority , and so at Antioch ; as at Ierusalem , where Iames , and Iudas , and Silas , and the Apostles , and Paul and Barnabas at Antioch , and at Rome , at the same time Peter and Paul , and Linus , and Clemens , but yet but one of them was fixt , and properly the Bishop of that place . But 2 ly All these were not of Ephesus , but the Elders of all Asia , but some from other countries as appears vers . 4. So that although they were all Bishops , wee might easily find distinct Diocesses for them , without incumbring the Church of Ephesus with a multiplyed incumbency . Thus farre then we are upon even termes , the community of compellations used here , can no more force us to believe them all to be meere Presbyters , then Bishops in the proper sense . 2. It is very certain that they were not all meer Presbyters at his fare-well Sermon , for S. Timothy was there , and I proved him to be a Bishop by abundant testimony , and many of those which are reckoned v. 4. were companions of the Apostle in his journey , and imployed in mission Apostolicall for the founding of Churches , and particularly , Sosipater was there , and he was Bishop of Iconium , and Tychicus of Chalcedon in Bythinia , as Dorotheus and Eusebius witnesse ; and Trophimus of Arles in France , for so is witnessed by the suffragans of that province in their Epistle to S. Leo. But without all doubt here were Bishops present as well as Presbyters , for besides the premises we have a witnesse beyond exception , the ancient S. Irenaeus , In Mileto enim conv●catis Episcopis , & Presbyteris qui erant ab Epheso , & à reliquis proximis civitatibus , quoniam ipse festinavit Hierosolymis Pentecosten agere , &c. S. Paul making hast to keep his Pentecost at Ierusalem , at Miletus , did call together the Bishops and Presbyters , from Ephesus , and the neighbouring Citties . * Now to all these in conjunction S. Paul spoke , and to these indeed the Holy Ghost had concredited his Church to be fed , and taught with Pastorall supravision , but in the mean while here is no commission of power , or jurisdiction to Presbyters distinctly , nor supposition of any such praeexistent power . 3. All that S. Paul said in this narration , was spoken in the presence of them all , but not to them all . For that of v. 18. [ ye know how I have been with you in Asia in all seasons , ] that indeed was spoke to all the Presbyters that came from Ephesus and the voisinage , viz. in a collective sense , not in a distributive , for each of them was not in all the circuit of his Asian travailes ; but this was not spoken to Sopater the Beraean , or to Aristarchus the Thessalonian , but to Tychicus , and Trophimus , who were Asians it might be addressed . And for that of v. 25. [ yee all among whom I have gone preaching shall see my face no more , ] this was directed only to the Asians , for he was never more to come thither ; but Timothy to be sure , saw him afterwards , for S. Paul sent for him , a litle before his death , to Rome , and it will not be supposed he neglected to attend him . So that if there were a conjunction of Bishops , and Presbyters at this meeting , as most certainly there was , and of Evangelists , and Apostolicall men besides , how shall it be known , or indeed with any probability suspected that , that clause of vers . 28. Spiritus S. posuit vos Episcopos pascere Ecclesiam Dei , does belong to the Ephesine Presbyters , and not particularly to Timothy , who was now actually Bishop of Ephesus , and to Gajus , and to the other Apostolicall men who had at least Episcopall authority , that is , power of founding , and ordering Churches without a fixt and limited jurisdiction ? 4. Either in this place is no jurisdiction at all intimated de antiquo , or concredited de novo , or if there be , it is in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 28. Bishops , and Feeders ; and then it belongs either to the Bishops alone , or to the Presbyters in conjunction with , and subordination to the Bishops , for to the meer Presbyters it cannot be proved to appertaine , by any intination of that place . 5. How and if these Presbyters , which came from Ephesus and the other parts of Asia were made Bishops at Miletus ? Then also this way all difficulty will be removed . And that so it was is more then probable ; for to be sure , Timothy was now entring , and fixing upon his See ; and it was consonant to the practise of the Apostles , and the exigence of the thing it selfe , when they were to leave a Church to fixe a Bishop in it ; for why else was a Bishop fixt in Ierusalem , so long before in other Churches , but because the Apostles were to be scattered from thence , and there the first bloudy field of Martyrdome was to be fought . And the case was equall here , for S. Paul was never to see the Churches of Asia any more , and he foresaw that ravening wolves would enter into the folds , and he had actually plac'd a Bishop in Ephesus , and it is unimaginable , that he would not make equall provision for other Churches , there being the same necessity from the same danger , in them all , and either S. Paul did it now , or never ; and that about this time the other sixe Asian Churches had Angels , or Bishops set in their candlesticks , is plain , for there had been a succession in the Church of Pergamus , Antipas was dead , and S. Timothy had sate in Ephesus , and S. Polycarpe at Smyrna many years before S. Iohn writ his Revelation . 6. Lastly , that no jurisdiction was in the Ephesine Presbyters , except a delegate , and subordinate , appeares beyond all exception , by S. Pauls first epistle to Timothy , establishing in the person of Timothy power of coercitive jurisdiction over Presbyters , and ordination in him alone , without the conjunction of any in commission with him , for ought appeares either there , or else-where . * 4. The same also in the case of the Cretan Presbyters is cleare . For what power had they of Iurisdiction ? For that is it , we now speak of . If they had none before S. Titus came , we are well enough at Crete . If they had , why did S. Paul take it from them to invest Titus with it ? Or if he did not , to what purpose did he send Titus with all those powers before mentioned ? For either the Presbyters of Crete had jurisdiction in causes criminall equall to Titus after his coming , or they had not . If they had , then what did Titus doe there ? If they had not , then either they had no jurisdiction at all , or whatsoever it was , it was in subordination to him , they were his inferiours , and he their ordinary Iudge and Governour . 5. One thing more before this be left , must be considered concerning the Church of Corinth , for there was power of excommunication in the Presbytery when they had no Bishop , for they had none of diverse yeares after the founding of the Church , and yet S. Paul reprooves them for not ejecting the incestuous person out of the Church . * This is it that I said before , that the Apostles kept the jurisdiction in their hands where they had founded a Church , and placed no Bishop . For in this case of the Corinthian incest the Apostle did make himselfe the sole Iudge . [ For I verily as absent in body but present in spirit have judged already ] and then secondly , S. Paul gives the Church of Corinth commission and substitution to proceed in this cause [ In the name of our Lord Iesus Christ , when ye are gathered together , and MY SPIRIT , that is , My power , My authority , for so he explaines himselfe , MY SPIRIT , WITH THE POWER OF OUR LORD IESVS CHRIST , to deliver him over to Satan . And 3. As all this power is delegate , so it is but declarative in the Corinthians , for S. Paul had given sentence before , and they of Corinth were to publish it . 4. This was a commission given to the whole assembly , and no more concernes the Presbyters , then the people , and so some have contended ; but so it is , but will serve neither of their turnes , neither for an independant Presbytery , nor a conjunctive popularity . As for S. Paul's reprooving them for not inflicting censures on the peccant , I have often heard it confidently averred , but never could see ground for it . The suspicion of it is v. 2. [ And ye are puffed up , and have not rather mourned , that he that hath done this deed might be TAKEN AWAY FROM AMONG YOU ] Taken away . But by whom ? That 's the Question . Not by them , to be sure . For TAKEN AWAY FROM YOU , implies that it is by the power of another , not by their act , for no man can take away any thing from himselfe . He may put it away , not take it , the expression had been very imperfect if this had been his meaning . * Well then : In all these instances , viz. of Ierusalem , Antioch , Ephesus , Crete , and Corinth ( and these are all I can find in Scripture of any consideration in the present Question ) all the jurisdiction was originally in the Apostles while there was no Bishop , or in the Bishop when there was any ; And yet that the Presbyters were joyned in the ordering Church affaires I will not deny , to wit , by voluntary assuming them , in partem sollicitudinis , and by delegation of power Apostolicall , or Episcopall , and by way of assistance in acts deliberative , and consiliary , though I find this no where specified but in the Church of Ierusalem , where I prooved that the Elders were men of more power then meere Presbyters , men of Apostolicall authority . But here lies the issue , and straine of the Question . Presbyters had no jurisdiction in causes criminall , and pertaining to the publick regiment of the Church , by vertue of their order , or without particular substitution , and delegation . For there is not in all Scripture any commission given by Christ to meere Presbyters , no divine institution of any power of regiment in the Presbytery ; no constitution Apostolicall , that meere Presbyters should either alone , or in conjunction with the Bishop governe the Church ; no example in all Scripture of any censure inflicted by any meere Presbyters , either upon Clergy or Laity ; no specification of any power that they had so to doe ; but to Churches where Colledges of Presbyters were resident , Bishops were sent by Apostolicall ordination ; not only with power of imposition of hands , but of excommunication , of taking cognisance even of causes , and actions of Presbyters themselves , as to Titus , and Timothy , the Angell of the Church of Ephesus ; and there is also example of delegation of power of censures from the Apostle to a Church where many Presbyters were fix't , as in the case of the Corinthian delinquent before specified , which delegation was needlesse , if coercitive jurisdiction by censures had been by divine right in a Presbyter , or a whole Colledge of them . Now then , returne we to the consideration of S. Hieromes saying : The Church was governed ( saith he ) communi Presbyterorum consilio , by the common Counsell of the Presbyters . But , 1. Quo jure was this ? That the Bishops were Superiour to those which were then called Presbyters , by custome rather then Divine disposition S. Hierome affirmes ; but that Presbyters were joyned with the Apostles and Bishops at first , by what right was that ? Was not that also by custome and condescension rather then by Divine disposition ? S. Hierome does not say but it was . For he speakes onely of matter of fact , not of right , It might have beene otherwise , though de facto it was so in some places . * 2. [ Communi Presbyterorum consilio ] is true in the Church of Ierusalem , where the Elders were Apostolicall men , and had Episcopall authority and something superadded , as Barnabas , and Iudas and Silas , for they had the authority and power of Bishops , and an unlimited Diocesse besides , though afterwards Silas was fixt upon the See of Corinth . But yet even at Ierusalem they actually had a Bishop , who was in that place superiour to them in Iurisdiction , and therefore does clearely evince , that the common-counsell of Presbyters is no argument against the superiority of a Bishop over them . * 3. [ Communi Presbyterorum consilio ] is also true , because the Apostles call'd themselves Presbyters , as S. Peter , and S. Iohn , in their Epistles . Now at the first , many Prophets , many Elders ( for the words are sometimes us'd in common ) were for a while resident in particular Churches , and did governe in common ; As at Antioch were Barnabas , and Simeon , and Lucius , and Manaën , and Paul. Communi horum Presbyterorum consilio the Church of Antioch for a time was governed ; for all these were Presbyters , in the sense that S. Peter and S. Iohn were , and the Elders of the Church of Ierusalem . * 4. Suppose this had beene true in the sense that any body please to imagine , yet this not being by any divine ordinance , that Presbyters should by their Counsell assist in externall regiment of the Church , neither by any intimation of Scripture , nor by affirmation of S. Hierome , it is sufficient to stifle this by that saying of S. Ambrose , Postquàm omnibus locis Ecclesiae sunt constitutae , & officia ordinata , alitèr composita res est quàm caperat . It might be so at first de facto , and yet no need to be so neither then , nor after . For at first Ephesus had no Bishop of it 's owne , nor Crete , and there was no need , for S. Paul had the supra-vision of them , and S. Iohn , and other of the Apostles , but yet afterwards S. Paul did send Bishops thither ; for when themselves were to goe away , the power must be concredited to another ; And if they in their absence before the constituting of a Bishop had intrusted the care of the Church with Presbyters , yet it was but in dependance on the Apostles , and by substitution , not by any ordinary power , and it ceased at the presence or command of the Apostle , or the sending of a Bishop to reside . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . So S. Ignatius being absent from his Church upon a businesse of being persecuted , he writ to his Presbyters , Doe you feed the flock amongst you , till God shall shew you who shall be your Ruler , viz. My Successor . No longer . Your commission expires when a Bishop comes . * 5. To the conclusion of S. Hieromes discourse , viz. That Bishops are not greater then Presbyters by the truth of divine disposition ; I answer , that this is true in this sense , Bishops are not by Divine disposition greater then all those which in Scripture are called Presbyters , such as were the Elders in the Councell at Ierusalem , such as were they of Antioch , such as S. Peter and S. Iohn , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , all , and yet all of them were not Bishops in the present sense , that is of a fixt and particular Diocesse , and Iurisdiction . * 2 ly S. Hieromes meaning is also true in this sense , [ Bishops by the truth of the Lords disposition are not greater then Presbyters , ] viz. quoad exercitium actûs , that is , they are not tyed to exercise jurisdiction solely in their owne persons , but may asciscere sibi Presbyteros in commune consilium , they may delegate jurisdiction to the Presbyters ; and that they did not so , but kept the exercise of it only in their owne hands in S. Hieromes time , this is it , which he saith is rather by custome , then by Divine dispensation , for it was otherwise at first , viz. de facto , and might be so still , there being no law of God against the delegation of power Episcopall . * As for the last words in the objection , [ Et in communi debere Ecclesiam regere , ] it is an assumentum of S. Hieromes owne ; for all his former discourse was of the identity of Names , and common regiment de facto , not de jure , and from a fact to conclude with a Debere , is a Non sequitur , unlesse this Debere be understood according to the exigence of the former arguments , that is , THEY OUGHT , not by Gods law , but in imitation of the practise Apostolicall ; to wit , when things are as they were then , when the Presbyters are such as then they were ; THEY OUGHT , for many considerations , and in Great cases , not by the necessity of a Divine precept . * And indeed to doe him right he so explaines himselfe , [ Et in communi debere Ecclesiam regere , imitantes Moysen qui cùm haberet in potestate solus praeesse populo Israel , septuaginta elegit , cum quibus populum judicaret . ] The Presbyters ought to Iudge in common with the Bishop , for the Bishops ought to imitate Moses , who might have rul'd alone , yet was content to take others to him , and himselfe only to rule in chiefe . Thus S. Hierome would have the Bishops doe , but then he acknowledges the right of sole jurisdiction to be in them , and therefore though his Councell perhaps might be good then , yet it is necessary at no time , and was not followed then , and to be sure is needlesse now . * For the arguments which S. Hierome uses to prove this his intention what ever it is , I have and shall else where produce , for they yeeld many other considerations then this collection of S. Hierome , and prove nothing lesse then the equality of the offices of Episcocy and Presbyterate . The same thing is per omnia respondent to the paralell place of a S. Chrysostome , It is needlesse to repeat either the objection , or answer . * But however this saying of S. Hierome , and the paralell of S. Chrysostome is but like an argument against an Evident truth , which comes forth upon a desperate service , and they are sure to be kill'd by the adverse party , or to runne upon their owne Swords ; For either they are to be understood in the senses above explicated , and then they are impertinent , or else they contradict evidence of Scripture and Catholike antiquity , and so are false , and dye within their owne trenches . I end this argument of tradition Apostolicall with that saying of S. Hierome in the same place . Postquam Vnusquisque eos quos baptiz abat suos put abat esse , non Christi , & diceretur in populis , Ego sum Pauli , Ego Apollo , Ego autem Cepha , in toto orbe decretum est ut Vnus de Presbyteris electus superponeretur caeter is , ut schismatum semina tollerentur . That is , a publike decree issued out in the Apostles times , that in all Churches one should be chosen out of the Clergy , and set over them , viz. to rule and governe the flock commited to his charge . This I say was in the Apostles times , even upon the occasion of the Corinthian schisme , for then they said I am of Paul , and I of Apollo , and then it was , that he that baptized any Catechumens , tooke them for his owne not as Christs disciples . So that it was , tempore Apostolorum , that this decree was made , for in the time of the Apostles S. Iames , and S. Marke , and S. Timothy , and S. Titus were made Bishops by S. Hieromes expresse attestation ; It was also [ toto orbe decretum ] so that if it had not beene proved to have beene an immediate Divine institution , yet it could not have gone much lesse , it being , as I have proved , and as S. Hierome acknowledges CATHOLIKE , and APOSTOLICK . * BEe ye followers of me as I am of Christ , is an Apostolicall precept . We have seene how the Apostles have followed Christ , how their tradition is consequent of Divine institution ; Next let us see , how the Church hath followed the Apostles , as the Apostles have followed Christ. CATHOLIKE PRACTISE is the next Basis of the power and order of Episcopacy . And this shall be in subsidium to them also that call for reduction of the state Episcopall to a primitive consistence , and for the confirmation of all those pious sonnes of Holy Church , who have a venerable estimate of the publike and authoriz'd facts of Catholike Christendome . * For Consider we , Is it imaginable , that all the world should immediately after the death of the Apostles conspire together to seek themselves , and not , caquae sunt Iesu Christi ; to erect a government of their owne devising , not ordayn'd by Christ , not delivered by his Apostles , and to relinquish a Divine foundation , and the Apostolicall superstructure , which if it was at all , was a part of our Masters will , which whosoever knew , and observed not , was to be beaten with many stripes ? Is it imaginable , that those gallant men who could not be brought off from the prescriptions of Gentilisme to the seeming impossibilities of Christianity , without evidence of Miracle , and clarity of Demonstration upon agreed principles , should all upon their first adhesion to Christianity , make an Universall dereliction of so considerable a part of their Masters will , and leave Gentilisme to destroy Christianity , for he that erects another Oeconomy then what the Master of the family hath ordayn'd , destroyes all those relations of mutuall dependance which Christ hath made for the coadunation of all the parts of it , and so destroyes it in the formality of a Christian congregation or family ? * Is it imaginable , that all those glorious Martyrs , that were so curious observers of Divine Sanctions , and Canons Apostolicall , that so long as that ordinance of the Apostles concerning abstinence from bloud was of force , they would rather dye then eat a strangled hen , or a pudding , ( for so Eusebius relates of the Christians in the particular instance of Biblis and Blandina ) that they would be so sedulous in the contemning the government that Christ left for his family , and erect another ? * To what purpose were all their watchings , their banishments , their fears , their fastings , their penances and formidable austerities , and finally their so frequent Martyrdomes , of what excellency or availe , if after all , they should be hurried out of this world and all their fortunes and possessions , by untimely , by disgracefull , by dolourous deaths , to be set before a tribunall to give account of their universall neglect , and contemning of Christs last testament , in so great an affaire , as the whole government of his Church ? * If all Christendome should be guilty of so open , so united a defiance against their Master , by what argument , or confidence can any misbeliever be perswaded to Christianity , which in all its members for so many ages together is so unlike its first institution , as in its most publike affaire , and for matter of order of the most generall concernement , is so contrary to the first birth ? * Where are the promises of Christ's perpetuall assistance , of the impregnable permanence of the 〈◊〉 ●●ch against the gates of Hell , of the Spirit of truth to lead it into all truth , if she be guilty of so grand an errour , as to erect a throne where Christ had made all levell , or appointed others to sit in it , then whom he suffers . * Either Christ hath left no government , or most certainly the Church hath retain'd that Government whatsoever it is , for the contradictory to these would either make Christ improvident , or the Catholick Church extreamely negligent ( to say no worse ) and incurious of her depositum . * But upon the confidence of all * Christendome ( if there were no more in it ) I * suppose we may fairely venture . Sit anima mea * cum Christianis . THE first thing done in Christendome , upon the death of the Apostles in this matter of Episcopacy , is the distinguishing of Names , which before were common . For in holy Scripture all the names of Clericall offices were given to the superiour order , and particularly all offices , and parts , and persons design'd in any imployment of the sacred Preisthood , were signified by Presbyter and Presbyterium . And therefore least the confusion of Names might perswade an identity and indistinction of office , the wisdome of H. Church found it necessary to distinguish and separate orders , and offices by distinct and proper appellations . [ For the Apostles did know by our Lord Iesus Christ that contentions would arise , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , about the name of Episcopacy , ] saith S. Clement , and so it did in the Church of Corinth , as soon as their Apostle had expired his last breath . But so it was . 1. The Apostles , which I have proved to be the supreame ordinary office in the Church , and to be succeeded in , we called in Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Elders or Presbyters , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith S. Peter the Apostle , the Elders , or Presbyters that are among you , I also who am an Elder , or Presbyter doe intreat . Such elders S. Peter spoke to , as he was himselfe , to wit , those to whom the regiment of the Church was committed , the Bishops of Asia , Pontus , Galatia , Cappadocia , and Bithynia , that is to Timothy , to Titus , to Tycbicus , to Sosipater , to the Angells of the Asian Churches , and all others whom himselfe in the next words points out by the description of their office , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. Feed the flock of God as Bishops , or being Bishops and overseers over it ; And that to rulers he then spake is evident by his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for it was impertinent to have warned them of tyranny , that had no rule at all . * The meere Presbyters , I deny not , but are included in this admonition ; for as their office is involved in the Bishops office , the Bishop being Bishop and Presbyter too , so is his duty also in the Bishops ; so that , pro ratâ the Presbyter knowes what lies on him by proportion and intuition to the Bishops admonition . But againe . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith S. Iohn the Apostle ; and , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The Presbyter to Gajus ; the Presbyter to the elect Lady . 2. * If Apostles be called Presbyters , no harme though Bishops be called so too , for Apostles , and Bishops are all one in ordinary office as I have proved formerly . Thus are those Apostolicall men in the Colledge at Ierusalem called Presbyters , whom yet the Holy Ghost calleth , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , principall men , ruling men , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Presbyters that rule well . By Presbyters are meant Bishops , to whom only according to the intention , and exigence of Divine institution the Apostle had concredited the Church of Ephesus , and the neighbouring Citties , ut solus quisque Episcopus praesit omnibus , as appears in the former discourse . The same also is Acts 20. The Holy Ghost hath made you Bishops , and yet the same men are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The one place expounds the other , for they are both ad idem , and speake of Elders of the same Church . * 3. Although Bishops be called Presbyters , yet even in Scripture names are so distinguished , that meer Presbyters are never called Bishops , unlesse it be in conjunction with Bishops , and then in the Generall addresse , which , in all faire deportments , is made to the more eminent , sometimes Presbyters are , or may be comprehended . This observation if it prove true , will clearely show , that the confusion of names of Episcopus , and Presbyter , such as it is in Scripture , is of no pretence by any intimation of Scripture , for the indistinction of offices , for even the names in Scripture it selfe are so distinguished , that a meere Presbyter alone is never called a Bishop , but a Bishop an Apostle is often called a Presbyter , as in the instances above . But we will consider those places of Scripture , which use to be pretended in those impertinent arguings from the identity of Name , to confusion of things , and shew that they neither enterfere upon the maine Question , nor this observation . * Paul and Timotheus to all the saints which are in Christ Iesus which are at Philippi , with the Bishops and Deacons . I am willinger to choose this instance , because the place is of much consideration in the whole Question , and I shall take this occasion to cleare it from prejudice and disadvantage . * By Bishops are here meant Presbyters , because * many Bishops in a Church could not be , and yet * S. Paul speaks plurally of the Bishops of the * Church of Philippi , and therefore must meane * meere Presbyters * so it is pretended . 1. Then ; By [ Bishops ] are , or may be meant the whole superior order of the clergy , Bishops and Priests , and that he speaks plurally , he , may besides the Bishops in the Church , comprehend under their name the Presbyters too ; for why may not the name be comprehended as well as the office , and order , the inferiour under the superiour , the lesser within the greater ; for since the order of Presbyters is involved in the Bishops order , and is not only inclusively in it , but derivative from it ; the same name may comprehend both persons , because it does comprehend the distinct offices and orders of them both . And in this sense it is ( if it be at all ) that Presbyters are sometimes in Scripture called Bishops . * 2. Why may not [ Bishops ] be understood properly ; For there is no necessity of admiitting that there were any meere Presbyters at all at the first founding of this Church , It can neither be proved from Scripture , not antiquity , if it were denyed : For indeed a Bishop or a company of Episcopall men as there were at Antioch , might doe all that Presbyters could , and much more . And considering that there are some necessities of a Church which a Presbyter cannot supply , and a Bishop can , it is more imaginable that there was no Presbyter , then that there was no Bishop . And certainely it is most unlikely , that what is not expressed , to wit , Presbyters should be onely meant , and that which is expressed should not be at all intended . * 3. [ With the Bishops ] may be understood in the proper sense , and yet no more Bishops in one Diocesse then one , of a fixt residence ; for in that sense is S. Chrysostome and the fathers to be understood in their commentaries on this place , affirming that one Church could have but one Bishop ; but then take this along , that it was not then unusuall in such great Churches , to have many men who were temporary residentiaries , but of an Apostolicall and Episcopall authority , as in the Churches of Ierusalem , Rome , Antioch , there was as I have proved in the premises . Nay in Philippi it selfe , If I mistake not , as instance may be given , full , and home to this purpose . Salutant te Episcopi Onesimus , Bitus , Demas , Polybius , & omnes qui sunt Philippis in Christo , unde & haec vobis Scripsi , saith Ignatius in his Epistle to Hero his Deacon . So that many Bishops ( we see ) might be at Philippi , and many were actually there long after S. Paul's dictate of the Epistle . * 4. Why may not [ Bishops ] be meant in the proper sense ? Because there could not be more Bishops then one , in a Diocesse . No ? By what law ? If by a constitution of the Church after the Apostles times , that hinders not , but it might be otherwise in the Apostles times . If by a Law in the Apostles times , then we have obtained the main question by the shift , and the Apostles did ordain that there should be one , and but one Bishop in a Church , although it is evident they appointed many Presbyters . And then let this objection be admitted how it will , and doe its worst , we are safe enough . * 5. [ With the Bishops ] may be taken distributively , for Philippi was a Metropolis , and had diverse Bishopricks under it , and S. Paul writing to the Church of Philippi , wrote also to all the daughter Churches within its circuit , and therefore might well salute many Bishops , though writing to one Metropolis , and this is the more probable , if the reading of this place be accepted according to Oecumenius , for he reads it not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Coepiscopi● , & Diaconis , Paul and Timothy to the Saints at Philippi , and to our fellow Bishops . * 6. S. Ambrose referres this clause of [ Cum Episcopis , & Diaconis , ] to S. Paul and S. Timothy , intimating that the benediction , and salutation was sent to the Saints at Philippi from S. Paul and S. Timothy with the Bishops and Deacons , so that the reading must be thus ; Paul , and Timothy with the Bishops and Deacons , to all the Saints at Philippi &c. Cum Episcopis & Diaconis , hoc est , cum Paulo , & Timotheo , qui utique Episcopi erant , simul & significavit Diaconos qui ministrabant ei . Ad plebem enim scribit . Nam si Episcopis scriberet , & Diaconi , ad personas eorum scriberet , & loci ipsius Episcopo scribendum erat , non duobus , vel tribus , sicut & ad Titum & Timotheum . * 7. The like expression to this is in the Epistle of S. Clement to the Corinthians , which may give another light to this ; speaking of the Apostles , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . They delivered their first fruits to the Bishops and Deacons . Bishops here indeed may be taken distributively , and so will not inferre that many Bishops were collectively in any one Church , but yet this gives intimation for another exposition of this clause to the Philippians . For here either Presbyters are meant by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Ministers , or else Presbyters are not taken care of in the Ecclesiasticall provision , which no man imagines , of what interest soever he be ; it followes then that [ Bishops and Deacons ] are no more but Majores , and Minores Sacerdotes in both places ; for as Presbyter , and Episcop●s were confounded , so also Presbyter and Diaconus ; And I thinke it will easily be shewen in Scripture , that the word [ Diaconus , ] is given oftner to Apostles , and Bishops , and Presbyters , then to those ministers which now by way of appropriation we call Deacons . But of this anon . Now againe to the main observation . * Thus also it was in the Church of Ephesus , for S. Paul writing to their Bishop , and giving order for the constitution and deportment of the Church orders and officers , gives directions first for Bishops , then for Deacons . Where are the Presbyters in the interim ? Either they must be comprehended in Bishops or in Deacons . They may as well be in one as the other ; for [ Diaconus ] is not in Scripture any more appropriated to the inferiour Clergy , then Episcopus to the Superiour , nor so much neither . For Episcopus was never us'd in the new Testament for any , but such , as had the care , regiment , and supra-vision of a Church , but Diaconus was used generally for all Ministeries . But yet supposing that Presbyters were included under the word Episcopus , yet it is not because the offices and orders are one , but because that the order of a Presbyter is comprehended within the dignity of a Bishop . And then indeed the compellation is of the more principall , and the Presbyter is also comprehended , for his conjunction , and involution in the Superiour , which was the principall observation here intended . Nam in Episcopo omnes ordines sunt , quia primus Sacerdos est , hoc est , Princeps est Sacerdotum , & Propheta & Evangelista , & caetera adimplenda officia Ecclesiae in Ministerio Fidelium . saith S. Ambrose . * So that if in the description of the qualifications of a Bishop , he intends to qualifie Presbyters also , then it is Principally intended for a Bishop , and of the Presbyters only by way of subordination and comprehension . This only by the way , because this place is also abused to other issues ; To be sure it is but a vaine dreame that because Presbyter is not nam'd , that therefore it is all one with a Bishop , when as it may be comprehended under Bishop as a part in the whole , or the inferiour , within the superiour , ( the office of a Bishop having in it the office of a Presbyter and something more ) or else it may be as well intended in the word [ Deacons , ] and rather then the word , [ Bishop ] 1. Because [ Bishop ] is spoken of in the singular number , [ Deacons ] in the Plurall , and so liker to comprehend the multitude of Presbyters . 2. Presbyters , or else Bishops , and therefore much more Presbyters , are called by S. Paul , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Ministers , Deacons is the word , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Deacons by whose Ministration yee beleived ; and 3. By the same argument Deacons may be as well one with the Bishop too , for in the Epistle to Titu● , S. Paul describes the office of a Bishop , and sayes not a word more either of Presbyter or Deacons office ; and why I pray , may not the office of Presbyters in the Epistle to Timothy be omitted , as well as Presbyters , and Deacons too in that to Titus ? or else why may not Deacons be confounded , and be all one with Bishop , as well as Presbyter ? It will , it must be so , if this argument were any thing else but an aëry and impertinent nothing . After all this yet , it cannot be showne in Scripture that any one single , and meere Presbyter is called a Bishop , but may be often found that a Bishop , nay an Apostle is called a Presbyter , as in the instances above , and therefore since this communication of Names is onely in descension , by reason of the involution , or comprehension of Presbyter within ( Episcopus ) , but never in ascension , that is , an Apostle , or a Bishop , is often called Presbyter , and Deacon , and Prophet , and Pastor , and Doctor , but never retrò , that a meere Deacon or a meere Presbyter , should be called either Bishop , or Apostle , it can never be brought either to depresse the order of Bishops below their throne , or erect meere Presbyters above their stalls in the Quire. For we may as well confound Apostle , and Deacon , and with clearer probability , then Episcopus , and Presbyter . For Apostles , and Bishops , are in Scripture often called Deacons . I gave one instance of this before , but there are very many . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was said of S. Matthias when he succeded Iudas in the Apostolate . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said S. Paul to Timothy Bishop of Ephesus . S. Paul is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . A Deacon of the New Testament , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , is said of the first founders of the Corinthian Church ; Deacons by whom ye beleived . Paul and Apollos were the men . It is the observation of S. Chrysostome , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And a Bishop was called a Deacon , wherefore writing to Timothy he saith to him being a Bishop , Fulfill thy Deaconship . * Adde to this , that there is no word , or designation of any Clericall office , but is given to Bishops , and Apostles . The Apostles are called [ Prophets ] Acts 13. The Prophets at Antioch , were Lucius and Manaën , and Paul and Barnabas ; and then they are called [ Pastors ] too ; and indeed , hoc ipso that they are Bishops , they are Pastors . Spiritus S. posuit vos Episcopos PASCERE ECCLESIAM DEI. Whereupon trhe Geeke Scholiast expounds the word [ Pastors ] to signifie Bishops , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And ever since that S. Peter set us a copie in the compellation of the Prototype calling him the Great Sheapherd , and Bishop of our soules , it hath obtayned in all antiquity , that Pastors and Bishops are coincident , and we shall very hardly meet with an instance to the contrary . * If Bishops be Pastors , then they are Doctors also , for these are conjunct , when other offices which may in person be united , yet in themselves are made disparate ; For [ God hath given some Apostles , some Prophets , some Evangelists , some PASTORS AND TEACHERS . ] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , If Pastors , then also Doctors , and Teachers . And this is observed by S. Austin . Pastors , & Doctors whom you would have me to distinguish , I think are one and the same . For Paul doth not say ; some Pastors , some Doctors , but to Pastors he joyneth Doctors , that Pastors might understand it belongeth to their office to teach . The same also is affirmed by Sedulius upon this place . Thus it was in Scripture ; But after the Churches were setled & Bishops fix't upon their severall Sees , then the Names also were made distinct , only those names which did designe temporary offices did expire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. Chrysostome , Thus farre the names were common , viz. in the sense above explicated , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . But immediately the names were made proper and distinct , and to every order it 's owne Name is left , of a Bishop to a Bishop , of a Presbyter to a Presbyter . * This could not be suppos'd at first , for when they were to borrow words from the titles of secular honour , or offices , and to transplant them to an artificiall , and imposed sense ; USE , which is the Master of language , must rule us in this affaire , and USE is not contracted but in some processe , and descent of time . * For at first , Christendome it selfe wanted a Name , and the Disciples of the Glorious Nazarene were Christ'ned first in Antioch , for they had their baptisme some yeares before they had their Name . It had been no wonder then , if per omnia it had so happened in the compellation of all the offices and orders of the Church . BVt immediately after the Apostles , and still more in descending 〈◊〉 Episcopus signified only the Superintendent of the ●●rch , the Bishop in the present , & vulgar concept●●●ome few examples I shal give insteed of Myriads 〈◊〉 Canons of the Apostles the word ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ●●shop is us'd 36 times in appropriation to him that 〈◊〉 Ordinary Ruler & president of the Church above the Clergie and the Laity , being 24 times expressely distinguish'd from Presbyter , and in the other 14 having particular care for government , jurisdiction , censures and Ordinations committed to him as I shall shew hereafter , and all this is within the verge of the first 50 which are received as Authentick , by the Councell of a Nice ; of b Antioch , 25 Canons whereof are taken out of the Canons of the Apostles : the Councell of Gangra calling them Canones Ecclesiasticos , and Apostolicas traditiones ; by the Epistle of the first Councell of Constantinople to Damasus , which Theodoret hath inserted into his story ; by the c Councell of Ephesus ; by d Tertullian ; by e Constantine the Great ; and are sometimes by way of eminency called THE CANONS , sometimes , THE ECCLESIASTICALL CANONS , sometimes , the ancient and received Canons , of our Fathers , sometimes the Apostolicall Canons , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said the Fathers of the Councell in Trullo : and Damascen puts them in order next to the Canon of Holy Scripture : so in effect does Isidore in his preface to the worke of the Councells , for he sets these Canons in front , because Sancti Patres eorum sententias authoritate Synodali roborarunt , & inter Canonicas posuerunt Constitutiones . The H. Fathers have established these Canons by the authority of Councells , and have put them amongst the Canonicall Constitutions . And great reason , for in Pope Stephens time , they were translated into Latine by one Dionysius at the intreaty of Laurentius , because then the old Latine copies were rude and barbarous . Now then this second translation of them being made in Pope Stephens time , who was contemporary with S. Irenaeus and S. Cyprian , the old copie , elder then this , and yet after the Originall to be sure , shewes them to be of prime antiquity , and they are mention'd by S. Stephen in an Epistle of his to Bishop Hilarius , where he is severe in censure of them who doe prevaricate these Canons . * But for farther satisfaction I referre the Reader to the Epistle of Gregory Holloander to the Moderators of the Citie of Norimberg . I deny not but they are called Apocryphall by Gratian , and some others , viz. in the sense of the Church , just as the wisdome of Solomon , or Ecclesiasticus , but yet by most , beleived to be written by S. Clement , from the dictate of the Apostles , and without all Question , are so farre Canonicall , as to be of undoubted Ecclesiasticall authority , and of the first Antiquity . Ignatius his testimony is next in time and in authority , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The Bishop bears the image and representment of the Father of all . And a little after , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . &c. What is the Bishop , but he that hath all authority and rule ? What is the Presbytery , but a sacred Colledge , Counsellors and helpers or assessors to the Bishop ? what are Deacons &c : So that here is the reall , and exact distinction of dignity , the appropriation of Name , and intimation of office . The Bishop is above all , the Presbyters his helpers , the Deacons his Ministers , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , imitators of the Angells who are Ministring Spirits . But this is of so known , so evident a truth , that it were but impertinent to insist longer upon it . Himselfe in three of his Epistles uses it nine times in distinct enumeration , viz. to the Trallians , to the Philadelphians , to the Philippians . * And now I shall insert these considerations . 1. Although it was so that Episcopus , and Presbyter were distinct in the beginning after the Apostles death , yet sometimes the names are used promiscuously , which is an evidence , that confusion of names is no intimation , much lesse an argument for the parity of offices , since themselves , who sometimes though indeed very seldome , confound the names , yet distinguish the offices frequently , and dogmatically . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Where by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he means the Presbyters of the Church of Antioch , so indeed some say , and though there be no necessity of admitting this meaning , because by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he may mean the suffragan Bishops of Syria , yet the other may be fairely admitted , for himselfe their Bishop was absent from his Church , and had delegated to the Presbytery Episcopall jurisdiction to rule the Church till hee being dead another Bishop should be chosen , so that they were Episcopi Vicarii , and by representment of the person of the Bishop and execution of the Bishops power by delegation were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and this was done least the Church should not be only without a Father , but without a Guardian too ; & yet what a Bishop was , and of what authority no man more confident and frequent then Ignatius . * Another example of this is in Eusebius , speaking of the youth whom S. Iohn had converted and commended to a Bishop . Clemens , whose story this was , proceeding in the relation saies , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 &c. But the Presbyter ; unlesse by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here S. Clement means not the Order , but age of the Man , as it is like enough he did , for a little after , he calls him [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] The old man , Tum verò PRESBYTER in domum suam suscipit adolescentem . Redde depositum , O EPISCOPE , saith S. Iohn to him . Tunc graviter suspirans SENIOR &c. So S. Clement . * But this , as it is very unusuall , so it is just as in Scripture , viz. in descent and comprehension , for this Bishop also was a Presbyter , as well as Bishop , or else in the delegation of Episcopall power , for so it is in the allegation of Ignatius . 2. That this name Episcopus or Bishop was chosen to be appropriate to the supreame order of the Clergy , was done with faire reason and designe . For this is no fastuous , or pompous title , the word is of no dignity , and implies none but what is consequent to the just and faire execution of its offices . But Presbyter is a name of dignity and vene●ation , Rise up to the gray head , and it transplants the honour and Reverence of age to the office of the Presbyterate . And yet this the Bishops left , and took that which signifies a meere supra-vision , and overlooking of his charge , so that if we take estimate from the names , Presbyter is a name of dignity , and Episcopus , of office and burden . * [ He that desires the office of a Bishop , desires a good work . ] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Saith S. Chrysostome . Nec dicit si quis Episcopatum desiderat , bonum desiderat gradum , sedbonum ●pus desiderat , quod in majore ordine constitutus possit si velit occasionem habere exercendarum virtutum . So S. Hierome . It is not an honourable title , but a good office , and a great opportunity of the exercise of excellent vertues . But for this we need no better testimony then of S. Isidore . Episcopatus autem vocabulum inde dictum , quòd ille qui superefficitur superintendat , curam scil . gerens subditorum . But , Presbyter Grecè , latinè senior interpretatur , non pro atate , vel decrepitâ senectute , sed propter honorem & dignitatem quam acceperunt . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith ; Iulius Pollux . 3. Supposing that Episcopus and Presbyter had been often confounded in Scripture , and Antiquity , and that , both in ascension and descension , yet as Priests may be called Angells , and yet the Bishop be THE ANGEL of the Church , [ THE ANGEL , ] for his excellency , [ OF THE CHURCH , ] for his appropriate preheminence , and singularity , so though Presbyters had been called Bishops in Scripture ( of which there is not one example but in the senses above explicated , to wit , in conjunction and comprehension ; ) yet the Bishop is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of eminence , THE BISHOP : and in descent of time , it came to passe , that the compellation , which was alwaies his , by way of eminence was made his by appropriation . And a faire precedent of it wee have from the compellation given to our blessed Saviour , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The great sheapheard , and Bishop of our soules . The name [ Bishop ] was made sacred by being the appellative of his person , and by faire intimation it does more immediatly descend upon them , who had from Christ more immediate mission , and more ample power , and therefore [ Episcopus ] and [ Pastor ] by way of eminence are the most fit appellatives for them who in the Church have the greatest power , office and dignity , as participating of the fulnesse of that power and authority for which Christ was called the Bishop of our soules . * And besides this so faire a Copy ; besides the useing of the word in the prophecy of the Apostolate of Matthias , and in the prophet Isaiah , and often in Scripture , as I have showne before ; any one whereof is abundantly enough , for the fixing an appellative upon a Church officer ; this name may also be intimated as a distinctive compellation of a Bishop over a Priest , because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is indeed often used for the office of Bishops , as in the instances above , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used for the office of the inferiours , for S. Paul writing to the Romans , who then had no Bishop fixed in the chaire of Rome , does command them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , this for the Bishop , that for the subordinate Clergy . So then , the word [ Episcopus ] is fixt at first , and that by derivation , and example of Scripture , and faire congruity of reason . BVt the Church used other appellatives for Bishops , which it is very requisite to specifie , that we may understand diverse authorities of the Fathers useing those words in appropriation to Bishops , which of late have bin given to Presbyters , ever since they have begun to set Presbyters in the roome of Bishops . And first , Bishops were called [ Pastors ] in antiquity , in imitation of their being called so in Scripture . Eusebius writing the story of S. Ignatius , Denique cùm Smyrnam venisset , ubi Polycarpus erat , scribit inde unam epistolam ad Ephesios , eorumque Pastorem , that is , Onesimus , for so followes , in quâ meminit Onesimi . Now that Onesimus was their Bishop , himselfe witnesses in the Epistle here mentioned , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 &c. Onesimus was their Bishop , and therefore their Pastor , and in his Epistle ad Antiochenos himselfe makes mention of Evodius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 your most Blessed and worthy PASTOR . * When Paulus Samosatenus first broached his heresie against the divinity of our blessed Saviour , presently a Councell was called where S. Denis Bishop of Alexandria could not be present , Caeteri verò Ecclesiarum PASTORES diversis è locis & urbibus .... convenerunt Antiochiam . In quibus insignes & caeteris praecellentes erant Firmilianus à Caesareâ Cappadociae , Gregorius , & Athenodorus Fratres .... & Helenus Sardensis Ecclesiae Episcopus .... Sed & Maximus Bostrensis Episcopus dignus eorum consortio cohaerehat . These Bishops , Firmilianus , and Helenus , and Maximus were the PASTORS ; and not only so , but Presbyters were not called PASTORS , for he proceedes , sed & Prebyteri quamplurimi , & Diaconi ad supradictam Vrbem .... convenerunt . So that these were not under the generall appellative of Pastors . * And the Councell of Sardis making provision for the manner of election of a Bishop to a Widdow-Church , when the people is urgent for the speedy institution of a Bishop , if any of the Comprovincialls be wanting he must be certifi'd by the Primate , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that the multitude require a Pastor to be given vnto them . * The same expression is also in the Epistle of Iulius Bishop of Rome to the Presbyters , Deacons , and People of Alexandria in behalfe of their Bishop Athanasius , Suscipite itaque Fratres charissimi cum omni divinâ gratiâ PASTOREM VESTRUM AC PRAESULEM tanquam verè 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And a litle after , & gaudere fruentes orationibus qui PASTOREM VESTRUM esuritis & sititis &c : The same is often us'd in S. Hilary and S. Gregory Nazianzen , where Bishops are called PASTORES MAGNI , Great sheapheards , or PASTORS ; * When Eusebius the Bishop of Samosata was banished , Vniversi lachrymis prosequuti sunt ereptionem PASTORIS sui , saith Theodoret , they wept for the losse of their PASTOR . And Eulogius a Presbyter of Edessa when he was arguing with the Prefect in behalfe of Christianity , & PASTOREM ( inquit ) habemus , & nutus illius sequimur , we have a PASTOR ( a Bishop certainely , for himselfe was a Priest ) and his commands we follow . But , I need not specifie any more particular instances ; I touch'd upon it before . * He that shall consider , that to Bishops the regiment of the whole Church was concredited at the first , and the Presbyters were but his assistants in Cities and Villages , and were admitted in partem sollicitudinis , first casually and cursorily , & then by station and fixt residency when Parishes were divided , and endowed , will easily see , that this word [ Pastor ] must needes be appropriated to Bishops to whom according to the conjunctive expression of S. Peter , and the practise of infant Christendome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , was intrusted , first solely , then in communication with others , but alwaies principally . * But now of late , especially in those places where Bishops are exauctorated , and no where else , that I know , but amongst those men that have complying designes , the word [ Pastor ] is given to Parish Priests against the manner and usage of Ancient Christendome ; and though Priests may be called Pastors in a limited , subordinate sense , and by way of participation ( just as they may be called Angels , when the Bishop is the Angell , and so Pastors when the Bishop is the Pastor , and so they are called Pastores ovium in S. Cyprian ) but never are they called Pastores simply , or Pastores Ecclesiae for above 600 yeares in the Church , and I think 800 more . And therefore it was good counsell which S. Paul gave , to avoid vocum Novitates , because there is never any affectation of New words contrary to the Ancient voice of Christendome , but there is some designe in the thing too , to make an innovation : and of this we have had long warning , in the New use of the word [ Pastor ] . IF Bishops were the Pastors , then Doctors also ; it was the observation which S. Austin made out of Ephes. 4. as I quoted him even now , [ For God hath given some Apostles , some Prophets .... some Pastors and Doctors ] . So the Church hath learn'd to speak . In the Greeks Councell of Carthage it was decreed , that places which never had a Bishop of their owne should not now have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a DOCTOR of their owne , that is a Bishop , but still be subject to the Bishop of the Diocesse to whom formerly they gave obedience ; and the title of the chapter is , that the parts of the Diocesse without the Bishops consent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , must not have another Bishop . He who in the title is called Bishop , in the chapter is called the DOCTOR . And thus also , Epiphanius speaking of Bishops calleth them , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Fathers and DOCTORS , Gratia enim Ecclesiae laus DOCTORIS est , saith S. Ambrose , speaking of the eminence of the Bishop , over the Presbyters and subordinate Clergy . The same also is to be seen in S. * Austin , Sedulius , and diverse others . I deny not but it is in this appellative , as in diverse of the rest , that the Presbyters may in subordination be also called DOCTORS , for every Presbyter must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , apt to teach ( but yet this is expressed as a requisite in the particular office of a Bishop ) and no where expressely of a Presbyter that I can find in Scripture , but yet because in all Churches , it was by license of the Bishop , that Presbyters did Preach , if at all , and in some Churches the Bishop only did it , particularly of Alexandria ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith Sozomen ) therefore it was that the Presbyter , in the language of the Church was not , but the Bishop , was often called , DOCTOR of the Church . THe next word which the Primitive Church did use as proper to expresse the offices and eminence of Bishops , is PONTIFEX , and PONTIFICATUS for Episcopacy . Sed à Domino edocti consequentiam rerum , Episcopis PONTIFICATUS munera assignavimus , said the Apostles , as 1 S. Clement reports . PONTIFICALE 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Iohn the Apostle wore in his forehead , as an Ensigne of his Apostleship , a gold plate or medall , when he was IN PONTIFICALIBUS , in his pontificall or Apostolicall habit , saith Eusebius . 2 * De dispensationibus Ecclesiarum Antiqua sanctio tenuit & definitio SS . Patrum in Nicaeâ convenientium .... & si PONTIFICES voluerint , ut cum cis vicini propter utilitatem celebrent ordinationes . Said the Fathers of the Councell of Constantinople . 3 * Quâ tempestate in urbe Româ Clemens quoque tertius post Paulum & Petrum , PONTIFICATUM tenebat , saith 4 Eusebius according to the translation of Ruffinus . * Apud Antiochiam verò Theophilus per idem tempus sextus ab Apostolis Ecclesiae PONTIFICATUM tenebat , saith the same Eusebius . 5 * And there is a famous story of Alexander Bishop of Cappadocia , that when Narcissus Bishop of Ierusalem , was invalid and unfit for government by reason of his extreame age , he was designed by a particular Revelation and a voice from Heaven , Suscipite Episcopum qui vobis à Deo destinatus est ; Receive your Bishop whom God hath appointed for you , but it was when Narcissus jam senio fessus PONTIFICATUS Ministerio sufficere non posset , saith the story . 6 * Eulogius the confessor discoursing with the Prefect , that wish'd him to comply with the Emperour , ask'd him ; Numquid ille unà cum Imperio etiam PONTIFICATUM est consequutus ? He hath an Empire , but hath he also a Bishoprick ? PONTIFICATUS is the word . * But 7 S. Dionysius is very exact in the distinction of clericall offices , and particularly gives this account of the present . Est igitur PONTIFICATUS ordo qui praeditus vi perficiente munera hierarchiae quae perficiunt &c. And a little after , Sacerdotum autem ordo subjectus PONTIFICUM ordini &c. To which agrees 8 S. Isidore in his etymologies , Ideo autem & Presbyteri Sacerdotes vocantur , quia sacrum dant sicut & Episcopi , qui licet Sacerdotes sint , tamen PONTIFICATUS apicem non habent , quia nec Chrismate frontem signant , nec Paracletum spiritum dant , quod solis deberi Episcopis lectio actuum Apostolicorum demonstrat ; and in the same chapter , PONTIFEX Princeps Sacerdotumest . One word more there is often used in antiquity for Bishops , and that 's SACERDOS . Sacerdotum autem ●ipartitu● est ordo , say S. Clement and Anacletus , for they are Majores and Minores . The Majores , Bishops , the Min●res , Presbyters , for so it is in the Apostolicall Constitutions attributed to a S. Clement , Episcopis quidem assignavimus , & attribuimus quae ad PRINCIPATUM SACERDOTII pertinent , Presbyteris verò quae ad Sacerdotium . And in b S. Cyprian , Presbyteri cum Episcopis Sacerdotali honore conjuncti . But although in such distinction and subordination & in concretion a Presbyter is sometimes called Sacerdos , yet in Antiquity Sacerdotium Ecclesiae does evermore signify Episcopacy , and Sacerdos Ecclesiae the Bishop . Theotecnus SACERDOTIUM Ecclesiae tenens in Episcopatu , saith c Eusebius , and summus Sacerdos , the Bishop alwaies , Dandi baptismum jus habet summus SACERDOS , qui est Episcopus , saith d Tertullian : and indeed Sacerdos alone is very seldome used in any respect but for the Bishop , unlesse when there is some distinctive terme , and of higher report given to the Bishop at the same time . Ecclesia est plebs SACERDOTI adunata , & Grex pastori suo adhaerens , saith S. e Cyprian . And that we may know by [ Sacerdos ] he means the Bishop , his next words are , Vnde scire debes Episcopum in Ecclesiâ esse , & Ecclesiam in Episcopo . And in the same Epistle , qui ad Cyprianum Episcopum in carcere literas direxerunt , SAC●RDOTEM Dei agnoscentes , & contestantes . * f Eusebius reckoning some of the chief Bishops assembled in the Councell of Antioch , In quihus erant Helenus Sardensis Ecclesiae Episcopus , & Nicomas ab Iconio , & Hierosolymorum PRAECIPUUS SACERDOS Hymenaeus , & vicinae huic urbis Caesareae Theotecnus ; and in the same place the Bishops of Pontus are called Ponti provinciae SACERDOTES . Abilius apud Alexandriam tredecem annis SACERDOTIO , ministrato diem obiit , for so long he was Bishop , cui succedit Cerdon tertius in SACERDOTIUM . Et Papias similiter apud Hierapolim SACERDOTIUM gerens , for he was Bishops of Hierapolis saith g Eusebius , and the h Bishops of the Province of Arles , speaking of their first Bishop Trophimus , ordained Bishop by S. Peter , say , quod prima inter Gallias Arelatensis civitas missum à Beatissimo Petro Apostolo sanctum Trophimum habere meruit SACERDOTEM . *** The Bishop also was ever design'd when ANTISTES Ecclesiae was the word . Melito quoque Sardensis Ecclesiae ANTISTES , saith Eusebius out of Irenaeus : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the name in Greeke , and used for the Bishop by Iustin Martyr ( and is of the same authority and use with PRAELATUS and praepositus Ecclesiae . ) ANTISTES autem SACERDOS dictus , ab eo quod antestat . Primus est enim in ordine Ecclesiae ; & suprase nullum habet , saith S. Isidore . *** But in those things which are of no Question , I need not insist . One title more I must specify to prevent misprision upon a mistake of theirs of a place in S. Ambrose . The Bishop is sometimes called PRIMUS PRESBYTER . Nam & Timotheum Episcopum à secreatum Presbyterum vocat : quia PRIMI PRESBYTERI Episcopi appellabantur , ut recedente eo sequens ei succederet . Elections were made of Bishops out of the Colledge of Presbyters ( Presbyteri unum ex se electum Episcopum nominabant , saith S. Hierome ) but at first this election was made not according to merit , but according to seniority , and therefore Bishops were called PRIMI PRESBYTERI , that 's S. Ambrose his sense . But S. Austin gives another , PRIMI PRESBYTERI , that is chiefe above the Presbyters . Quid est Episcopus nisi PRIMUS PRESBYTER , h.e. summus Sacerdos ( saith he ) And S. Ambrose himselfe gives a better exposition of his words , then is intimated in that clause before , Episcopi , & Presbyteri una ordinatio est ? Vterque enim Sacer dos est , sed Episcopus PRIMUS est , ut omnis Episcopus Presbyter sit , non omnis Presbyter Episcopus . Hic enim Episcopus est , qui inter Presbyteros PRIMUS est . The bishop is PRIMUS PRESBYTER , that is , PRIMUS SAC●RDOS , h. e. PRINCEPS EST SACERDOTUM , so he expounds it , not Princeps , or Primus INTER PRESBYTEROS , himselfe remaining a meere Presbyter , but PRINCEPS PRESBYTERORUM ; for PRIMUS PRESBYTER could not be Episcopus in another sense , he is the chiefe , not the senior of the Presbyters . Nay Princeps Presbyterorum is used in a sense lower then Episcopus , for Theodoret speaking of S. Iohn Chrysostome , saith , that having been the first Presbyter at Antioch , yet refused to be made Bishop , for a long time . Iohannes enim qui diutissimè Princeps fuit Presbyterorum Antiochiae , ac saepe electus praesul perpetuus vitator dignitatis illius de hoc admirabili solo pullulavit . *** The Church also in her first language when she spake of Praepositus Ecclesiae , meant the Bishop of the Diocesse . Of this there are innumerable examples , but most plentifully in S. Cyprian in his 3 , 4 , 7 , 11 , 13 , 15 , 23 , 27 Epistles ; and in Tertullian his book ad Martyres ; and infinite places more . Of which this advantage is to be made , that the Primitive Church did generally understand those places of Scripture which speak of Prelates , or Praepositi , to be meant of Bishops ; Obedite praepositis , Heb. 13. saith S. Paul , Obey your Prelates , or them that are set over you . Praepositi autem Pastores sunt , saith S. Austin , Prelates are they that are Pastors . But S. Cyprian summes up many of them together , and insinuates the severall relations , expressed in the severall compellations of Bishops . For writing against Florentius Pupianus , ac nisi ( saith he ) apud te purgati fuerimus .... ecce jam sex annis nec fraternitas habuerit Episcopum , nec plebs praepositum , nec grex Pastorem , nec Ecclesia gubernatorem , nec Christus antistitem , nec Deus Sacerdotes ; and all this he means of himselfe , who had then been sixe years Bishop of Carthage , a Prelate of the people , a governour to the Church , a Pastor to the flock , a Priest of the most high God , a Minister of Christ. The summe is this ; When we find in antiquity any thing asserted of any order of the hierarchy , under the names of Episcopus , or Princeps Sacerdotum , or Presbyterorum primus , or Pastor , or Doctor , or Pontifex , or Major , or Primus Sacerdos , or Sacerdotium Ecclesiae habens , or Antistes Ecclesiae , or Ecclesiae sacerdos ; ( unlesse there be a specification , and limiting of it to a parochiall , and inferior Minister ) it must be understood of Bishops in its present acceptation . For these words are all by way of eminency , and most of them by absolute appropriation , and singularity the appellations , and distinctive names of Bishops . BUT , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( saith the Philosopher ) and this their distinction of Names did amongst the Fathers of the Primitive Church denote a distinction of calling , and office , supereminent to the rest . For first Bishops are by all Antiquity reckoned as a distinct office of Clergy . Si quis Presbyter , aut Diaconus , aut quilibet de Numero Clericorum .... pergat ad alienam parochiam praeter Episcopi sui conscientiam , &c. So it is in the fifteenth Canon of the Apostles , and so it is there plainly distinguished as an office different from Presbyter , and Deacon , above thirty times in those Canons , and distinct powers given to the Bishop , which are not given to the other , and to the Bishop above the other . * The Councell of Ancyra inflicting censures upon Presbyters first , then Deacons which had faln in time of persecution , gives leave to the Bishop to mitigate the paines as he sees cause . Sed si ex Episcopis aliqui in iis vel afflictionem aliquam .... viderint , in eorum potestate id esse . The Canon would not suppose any Bishops to fall , for indeed they seldome did , but for the rest , provision was made both for their penances , and indulgence at the discretion of the Bishop . And yet sometimes they did fall , Optatus bewailes it , but withall gives evidence of their distinction of order . Quid commemorem Laicos qui tunc in Ecclesiâ nullâ fuerant dignitate suffulti ? Quid Ministros plurimos , quid Diaconos in tertio , quid Presbyteros in secundo Sacerdotio constitutos ? Ipsi apices , & Principes omnium aliqui Episcopi aliqua instrumenta Divinae Legis impiè tradiderunt . The Laity , the Ministers , the Deacons , the Presbyters , nay the Bishops themselves , the Princes and chiefe of all prov'd traditors . The diversity of order is here fairely intimated , but dogmatically affirmed by him in his 2 d book adv . Parmen . Quatuor genera capitum sunt in Ecclesiâ , Episcoporum , Presbyterorum , Diaconorum , & fidelium . There are foure sorts of heads in the Church , Bishops , Presbyters , Deacons , and the faithfull Laity . And it was remarkable that when the people of Hippo had as it were by violence carried S. Austin to be made Priest by their Bishop Valerius , some seeing the good man weep in consideration of the great hazard and difficulty accruing to him in his ordination to such an office , thought he had wept because he was not Bishop , they pretending comfort told him , quia locus Presbyterii licet ipse majore dignus esset appropinquaret tamen Episcopatui . The office of a Presbyter though indeed he deserv'd a greater , yet was the next step in order to a Bishoprick . So Possidonius tells the story . It was the next step , the next in descent , in subordination , the next under it . So the Councell of Chalcedon , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It is sacriledge to bring downe a Bishop to the degree and order of a Presbyter , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so the Councell permits in case of great delinquency , to suspend him from the execution of his Episcopall order , but still the character remaines , and the degree of it selfe is higher . * Nos autem idcirco haec scribimus ( Fratres chariss . ) quia novimus quàm Sacrosanctum debeat esse Episcopale Sacerdotium , quod & clero , & plebi debet esse exemplo , said the Fathers of the Councell of Antioch , in Eusebius , The office of a Bishop is sacred , and exemplary both to the Clergy , and the People . Interdixit per omnia , Magna Synodus , non Episcopo , non Presbytero , non Diacono licere , &c. And it was a remarkable story that Arius troubled the Church for missing of a Prelation to the order and dignity of a Bishop . Post Achillam enim Alexander .... ordinatur Episcopus . Hoc autem tempore Arius in ordine Presbyterorum fuit , Alexander was ordain'd a Bishop , and Arius still left in the order of meer Presbyters . * Of the same exigence are all those clauses of commemoration of a Bishop and Presbyters of the same Church . Iulius autem Romanus Episcopus propter senectutem defuit , erantque pro●o praesentes Vitus , & Vincentius Presbyteri ejusdem Ecclesiae . They were his Vicars , and deputies for their Bishop in the Nicene Councell , faith Sozomen . But most pertinent is that of the Indian persecution related by the same man. Many of them were put to death . Erant autem horum alii quidem Episcòpi , alii Presbyteri , alii diversorum ordinum Clerici . * And this difference of Order is cleare in the Epistle of the Bishops of Illyri●um to the Bishops of the Levant , De Episcopis autem constituendis , vel comministris jam constitutis si permanserint usque ad finem sani , bene .... Similitèr Presbyteros atque Diaconos in Sacerdotali ordine definivimus , &c. And of Sabbatius it is said , Nolens in suo ordine Manere Presbyteratus , desiderabat Episcopatum ; he would not stay in the order of a Presbyter , but desir'd a Bishoprick . Ordo Episcoporum quadripartitus est , in Patriarchis , Archiepiscopis , Metropolitanis , & Episcopis , saith S. Isidore ; Omnes autem superiùs disignati ordines uno eodemque vocabulo Episcopi Nominantur . But it were infinite to reckon authorities , and clauses of exclusion for the three orders of Bishops , Priests , and Deacons ; we cannot almost dip in any tome of the Councells but we shall find it recorded : And all the Martyr Bishops of Rome did ever acknowledge , and publish it , that Episcopacy is a peculiar office , and order in the Church of God ; as is to be seen in their decretall Epistles , in the first tome of the Councells . * I onely summe this up with the attestation of the Church of England , in the preface to the book of ordination . It is evident to all men diligently reading holy Scripture and Ancient Authors , that from the Apostles times , there have been these ORDERS of Ministers in Christs Church , Bishops , Priests , and Deacons . The same thing exactly that was said in the second Councell of Carthage , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . But wee shall see it better , and by more reall probation , for that Bishops were a distinct order appears by this ; 1. THe Presbyterate was but a step to Episcopacy , as Deaconship to the Presbyterate , and therefore the Councell of Sardis decreed , that no man should be ordain'd Bishop , but he that was first a Reader , and a Deacon , and a Presbyter , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That by every degree he may passe to the sublimity of Episcopacy . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 &c. But the degree of every order must have the permanence and triall of no small time . Here there is clearely a distinction of orders , and ordinations , and assumptions to them respectively , all of the same distance and consideration ; And Theodoret out of the Synodicall Epistle of the same Councell , saies that they complain'd that some from Arrianisme were reconciled , and promoted from Deacons to be Presbyters , from Presbyters to be Bishops , calling it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a greater degree , or Order : And S. Gregory Nazianz. in his Encomium of S. Athanasius , speaking of his Canonicall Ordination , and election to a Bishoprick , saies that he was chosen being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , most worthy , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , coming through all the infertor Orders . The same commendation S. Cyprian gives of Cornelius . Non iste ad Episcopatum subito pervenit , sed per omnia Ecclesiastica officia promotus , & in divinis administrationibus Dominum sepè promeritus ad Sacerdotii sublime fastigium cunct is religionis gradibus ascendit .... & fact us est Episcopus à plurimis Collegiis nostris qui tunc in Vrbe Româ aderant , qui ad nos literas .... de ejus ordinatione miserunt . Here is evident , not only a promotion , but a new Ordination of S. Cornelius to be Bishop of Rome ; so that now the chaire is full ( saith S. Cyprian ) & quisquis jam Episcopus fieri voluerit foris fiat necesse est , nec habeat Ecclesiasticam ordinationem &c. No man else can receive ordination to the Bishoprick . 2. THe ordination of a Bishop to his chaire was done de Novo after his being a Presbyter , and not only so , but in another manner then he had when he was made Priest. This is evident in the first Ecclesiasticall Canon that was made after Scripture . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . A Priest and Deacon must be ordain'd of one Bishop , but a Bishop must be ordain'd by two or three at least . And that we may see it yet more to be Apostolicall , S. Anacletus in his second Epistle reports , Hierosolymitarum primus Episcopus B. Iacobus à Petro , Iacobo , & Iohanne Apostolis est ordinatus . Three Apostles went to the ordaining of S. Iames to be a Bishop , and the selfe same thing is in words affirmed by Anicetus ; ut in ore duorum , veltrium stet omnis veritas ; And S. Cyprian observes that when Cornelius was made Bishop of Rome , there hapned to be many of his fellow Bishops there , & factus est Episcopus à plurimis collegis nostris qui tunc in urbe Româ aderant . These Collegae could not be meer Priests , for then the ordination of Novatus had been more Canonicall , then that of Cornelius , and all Christendome had been deceived , for not Novatus who was ordain'd by three Bishops , but Cornelius had been the Schismatick , as being ordain'd by Priests , against the Canon . But here I observe it for the word [ plurimis , ] there were many of them ordination . * In pursuance of this Apostolicall ordinance , Nicene Fathers decreed that a Bishop should be ordayn'd , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by all the Bishops in the Province , unlesse it be in case of necessity , and then it must be done by three being gathered together , and the rest consenting ; so the ordination to be performed . * The same is ratified in the Councell of Antioch , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . A Bishop is not to be ordain'd without a Synod of Bishops , and the presence of the Metropolitan of the province . But if this cannot be done conviniently , yet however it is required 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the ordinations must be performed by many . The same was decreed in the Councell of Laodicea , can : 12. in the 13. Canon of the African Code , in the 22 th Canon of the first Councell of Arles , and the fifth Canon of the second Councell of Arles , and was ever the practise of the Church ; and so we may see it descend through the bowells of the fourth Councell of Carthage to the inferiour ages . Episcopus qunm ordinatur , duo Episcopi ponant , & ten●ant Evangeliorum codicem super caput , & cervicem ejus , & uno super eum fundente benediction●m , reliqui 〈◊〉 Episcopi qui adsunt manibus suis caput ejus tangant . The thing was Catholike , and Canonicall . It was prima , & immutabilis constitutio , so the first Canon of the Councel of * Epaunū cals it ; And therefore after the death of Meletius Bishop of Antioch , a schisme was made about his successor , & Evagrius his ordination condemn'd ; because , praeter Ecclesiastica● regulam fuerit ordinatus , it was against the rule of Holy Church . Why so ? Solus enim Paulinus eum instituerat plurimas regulas praevaricatus Ecclesiasticas . Non enim praecipiunt ut per se quilibet ordinare possit , sed convocare Vniversos provinciae Sacerdotes , & praeter tres Pontifices ordinationem pènitùs fieri , interdicunt . Which because it was not observ'd in the ordination of Evagrius who was not ordayn'd by three Bishops , the ordination was cassated in the Councell of Rhegium . And we read that when Novatus would faine be made a Bishop in the schisme against Cornelius , he did it tribus adhibitis Episcopis ( saith Eusebius , ) he obtain'd three Bishops , for performance of the action . Now besides these Apostolicall , and Catholike Canons , and precedents , this thing according to the constant , and Vnited interpretation of the Greeke Fathers was actually done in the ordination of S. Timothy to the Bishoprick of Ephesus . [ Neglect not the grace that is in thee by the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery . ] The Latine Fathers expound it abstractly , viz. to signifie the office of Priest-hood , that is , neglect not the grace of Priest-hood that is in thee by the imposition of hands , and this Erasmus helpes by making [ Presbyterij ] to pertaine to [ Gratiam ] by a new inter-punction of the words ; but however , Presbyterij with the Latine Fathers signifies Presbyteratûs , not Presbyterorum , and this Presbyteratus is in their sense used for Episcopatus too . But the Greeke Fathers understand it collectively , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , not simply such , but Bishops too , all agree in that , that Episcopacy is either meant in office , or in person . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . So Oecumenius ; and S. Chrysostome , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . So Theophilact , So Theodoret. The probation of this lies upon right reason , an̄d Catholicke tradition ; For , 3. THE Bishops ordination was peculia● in this respect above the Presbyters , for a Presbyter did never impose hands on a Bishop . On a Presbyter they did ever since the fourth Councell of Carthage ; but never on a Bishop . And that was the reason of the former exposition . By the Presbytery S. Paul meanes Bishops , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Presbyters did not impose hands on a Bishop , and therefore Presbyterium is not a Colledge of meere Presbyters , for such could never ordaine S. Timothy to be a Bishop . The same reason is given by the Latine Fathers why they expound Presbyterium to signifie Episcopacy . For ( saith S. Ambrose ) S. Paul had ordain'd Timothy to be a Bishop , Vnde & quemadmodum Episcopum ordinet ostendit . Neque enim fas erat , aut licebat , ut inferior ordinaret Majorem . So he ; and subjoynes this reason , Nemo n. tribuit quodnon accepit . The same is affirmed by S. Chrysostome , and generally by the authors of the former expositions , that is , the Fathers both of the East , and West . For it was so Generall and Catholike a truth , that Priests could not , might not lay hands on a Bishop , that there was never any example of it in Christendome till almost 600 yeares after Christ , and that but once , and that irregular , and that without imitation in his Successors , or example in his Antecessors . It was the case of Pope Pelagius the first , & dum non essent Episcopi , qui eum ordinarent , inventi sunt duo Episcopi , Iohannes de Perusio , & Bonus de Ferentino , & Andraeas Presbyter de Ostiâ , & ordinaverunt eum Pontificem . Tunc enim non ●rant in Clero qui eum possent promovere . Saith Damasus . It was in case of necessity , because there were not three Bishops , therefore he procur'd two , and a Priest of Ostia to supply the place of the third , that three , according to the direction Apostolicall , and Canons of Nice , Antioch , and Carthage , make Episcopall ordination . * The Church of Rome is concern'd in the businesse to make faire this ordination , and to reconcile it to the Councell of Rhegium , and the others before mentined , who if ask't would declare it to be invalid . * But certainly as the Canons did command three to impose hands on a Bishop , so also they commanded that those three , should be three Bishops , and Pelagius might as well not have had three , as not three Bishops ; and better , because , so they were Bishops the first Canon of the Apostles , approves the ordination if done by two , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And the Nicene Canon is as much exact , in requirng the capacity of the person , as the Number of the Ordainers . But let them answer it . For my part , I beleive that the imposition of hands by Andreas , was no more in that case then if a lay man had done it ; it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and though the ordination was absolutely Un canonicall , yet it being in the exigence of Necessity , and being done by two Bishops according to the Apostolicall Canon , it was valid in naturâ rei , though not in formâ Canonis , and the addition of the Priest was but to cheate the Canon , and cozen himselfe into an impertinent beleife of a Canonicall ordination . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith the Councell of Sardis . Bishops must ordaine Bishops ; It was never heard that Priests did , or de jure might . These premises doe most certainely inferre a reall difference , between Episcopacy , and the Presbytera●e . But whether or no they inferre a difference of order , or onely of degree ; or whether degree , and order be all one , or no , is of great consideration in the present , and in relation to many other Questions . 1. Then it is evident , that in all Antiquity , Ordo , and Gradus were us'd promiscuously . [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] was the Greeke word , and for it the Latins us'd [ Ordo ] as is evident in the instances above mention'd , to which , adde , that Anacletus sayes , that Christ did instituere duos Ordines , Episcop●rum , & Sacerdotum . And S. Leo affirmes ; Primum ordinem esse Episcopalem , secundum Presbyteralem , tertium Leviticum ; And these among the Greekes are call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , three degrees . So the order of Deaconship in S. Paul is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a good degree ; and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c : is a censu●e us'd alike in the censures of Bishops , Priests , and Deacons . They are all of the same Name , and the same consideration , for order , distance , and degree , amongst the Fathers ; Gradus , and ordo are equally affirm'd of them all ; and the word gradus is us'd sometimes for that which is called Ordo most frequently . So Felix writing to S. Austin , Non tantùm ego possum contrà tuam vìrtutem , quià mira virtus est GRADUS EPISCOPALIS ; and S. Cyprian of Cornelius , ad Sacerdotij sublime sastigium cunctis religionis GRADIBUS ascendit . Degree , and Order , are us'd in common , for he that speaks most properly will call that an Order in persons , which corresponds to a degree in qualities , and neither of the words are wrong'd by a mutuall substitution . 2. The promotion of a Bishop ad Munus Episcopale , was at first call'd ordinatio Episcopi . Stirre vp the Grace that is in the , juxta ORDINATIONEM tuam in Episcopatum , saith Sedulius ; And S. Hierome ; Prophetiae grat●am habebat cum ORDINATIONE Episcopatûs . * Neque enim fas erat aut licebat at inferior ORDINARET majorem , saith S. Ambrose , proving that Presbyters might not impose hands on a Bishop . * Romanorum Ecclesia Clementem à Petro ORDINATUM edit , saith Tertullian ; and S. Hierome affirmes that S. Iames was ORDAIND Bishop of Ierusalem immediately after the Passion of our Lord. [ Ordinatus ] was the word at first , and afterwards [ CONSECRATUS ] came in conjunction with it , When Moses the Monke was to be ordain'd , to wit , a Bishop , for that 's the title of the story in Theodoret , and spyed that Lucius was there ready to impose hands on him , absit ( saies he ) vt manus tua me CONSECRET . 3. In all orders , there is the impresse of a distinct Character ; that is , the person is qualified with a new capacity to doe certaine offices , which before his ordination he had no power to doe . A Deacon hath an order or power — Quo pocula vitae Misceat , & latices , cum Sanguine porrigat agni , as Arator himselfe a Deacon expresses it . A Presbyter hath an higher order , or degree in the office or ministery of the Church , whereby he is enabled , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as the Councell of Ancyra does intimate . But a Bishop hath a higher yet ; for besides all the offices communicated to Priests , and Deacons ; he can give orders , which very one thing makes Episcopacy to be a distinct order . For , Ordo , is defin'd by the Schooles to be , traditio potestatis spiritualis , & collatio gratiae , ad obeunda Ministeria Ecclesiastica ; a giving a spirituall power , and a conferring grace for the performance of Ecclesiasticall Ministrations . Since then Episcopacy hath a new ordination , and a distinct power ( as I shall shew in the descent ) it must needs be a distinct order , both according to the Name given it by antiquity , and according to the nature of the thing in the de●●nitions of the Schoole . There is nothing said against this but a fancy of some of the Church of Rome , obtruded indeed upon no grounds ; for they would define order to be a speciall power in relation to the Holy Sacrament , which they call corpus Christi naturale ; and Episcopacy indeed to be a distinct power in relation ad corpus Christi Mysticum , or the regiment of the Church , and ordayning labourers for the harvest , and therefore not to be a distinct order . But this to them that consider things sadly , is true or false according as any man list . For if these men are resolved they will call nothing an order but what is a power in order to consecration of the Eucharist , who can help it ? Then indeed , in that sense , Episcopacy is not a distinct order , that is , a Bishop hath no new power in the consecration of the Venerable Eucharist , more then a Presbyter hath . But then why these men should only call this power [ an order ] no man can give a reason . For , 1. in Antiquity the distinct power of a Bishop was ever called an Order , and I think , before Hugo de S. Victore , and the Master of the Sentences , no man ever deni'd it to be an order . 2. According to this rate , I would faine know how the office of a Sub-deacon , and of an Ostiary , and of an Acolouthite , and of a Reader , come to be distinct Orders ; for surely the Bishop hath as much power in order to consecration de Novo , as they have de integr● . And if I mistake not ; that the Bishop hath a new power to ordaine Presbyters who shall have a power of consecrating the Eucharist , is more a new power in order to consecration , then all those inferiour officers put together have in all , and yet they call them Orders , and therefore why not Episcopacy also , I cannot imagine , unlesse because they will not . *** But however in the meane time , the denying the office and degree of Episcopacy to be a new and a distinct order is an Innovation of the production of some in the Church of Rome , without all reason , and against all antiquity . This onely by the way . The Enemies of Episcopacy call in aide from all places for support of their ruinous cause , and therefore take their maine hopes from the Church of Rom● by advantage of the former discourse . For since ( say they ) that consecration of the Sacrament is the Greatest worke , of the most seeret mystery , greatest power , and highest dignity that is competent to man , and this a Presbyter hath as well as a Bishop , is it likely that a Bishop should by Divine institution be so much Superiour to a Presbyter , who by the confession of all sides communicates with a Bishop in that which is his highest power ? And shall issues of a lesser dignity distinguish the Orders , and make a Bishop higher to a Presbyter , and not rather the Greater raise up a Presbyter to the Counter poise of a Bishop ? Upon this surmise the men of the Church of Rome , would inferre an identity of order , though a disparity of degree , but the Men of the other world would inferre a parity both of order and degree too . The first are already answered in the premises . The second must now be serv'd . 1. Then , whether power be greater , of Ordaining Priests , or Consecrating the Sacrament is an impertinent Question ; possibly , it may be of some danger ; because in comparing Gods ordinances , there must certainely be a depression of one , and whether that lights upon the right side or no , yet peradventure it will not stand with the consequence of our gratitude to God , to doe that , which in Gods estimate , may tant ' amount to a direct Vndervaluing ; but however it is vnprofitable , of no use in case of conscience either in order to faith , or manners , and besides , cannot fixe it selfe upon any basis , there being no way of proving either to be more excellent then the other . 2. The Sacraments , and mysteries of Christianity if compared among themselves , are greater , and lesser in severall respects . For since they are all in order to severall ends , that is , productive of severall effects , and they all are excellent , every rite , and sacrament in respect of its own effect , is more excellent then the other not ordain'd to that effect . For example . Matrimony is ordain'd for a means to preserve chastity , and to represent the mysticall union of Christ and his Church , and therefore in these respects is greater then baptisme , which does neither . But * baptisme is for remission of sinnes and in that is more excellent then Matrimony ; the same may be said for ordination , and consecration , the one being in order to Christs naturall body ( as the Schooles speak ) the other in order to his mysticall body , and so have their severall excellencies respectively ; but for an absolute preheminence of one above the other , I said there was no basis to fixe that upon , and I believe all men will find it so that please to try . But in a relative , or respective excellency , they goe both before , and after one another . Thus Wooll , and a Iewell , are better then each other ; for wooll is better for warmth , and a jewell for ornament . A frogge hath more sense in it , then the Sunne ; and yet the Sunne shines brighter . 3. Suppose consecration of the Eucharist were greater then ordaining Priests , yet that cannot hinder , but that the power of ordaining may make a higher and distinct order , because the power of ordaining , hath in it the power of consecrating and something more ; it is all that which makes the Priest , and it is something more besides , which makes the Bishop . Indeed if the Bishop had it not , and the Priest had it , then supposing consecration to be greater then ordination , the Priest would not only equall , but excell the Bishop , but because the Bishop hath that , and ordination besides , therefore he is higher both in Order , and Dignity . 4. Suppose that Consecration were the greatest Clericall power in the world , and that the Bishop , and the Priest , were equall in the great●st power , yet a lesser power then it , superadded to the Bishop's , may make a distinct order , and superiority . Thus it was said of the sonne of Man. Constituit eum paulò minorem Angelis , he was made a little lower then the Angels . It was but a little lower , and yet so much as to distinguish their Natures , for he took not upon him the NATURE of Angells , but the seed of Abraham . So it is in proportion between Bishop , and Priest ; for though a Priest communicating in the greatest power of the Church , viz. consecration of the venerable Eucharist , yet differing in a lesse is paulò minor Angelis , a little lower then the Bishop , the Angell of the Church , yet this little lower , makes a distinct order , and enough for a subordination . * An Angell , and a man communicate in those great excellencies of spirituall essence , they both discourse , they have both election , and freedome of choice , they have will , and understanding , and memory , impresses of the Divine image , and loco-motion , and immortality . And these excellencies are ( being precisely considered ) of more reall and eternall worth , then the Angelicall manner of moving so in an instant , and those other formes and modalities of their knowledge and volition , and yet for these superadded parts of excellency , the difference is no lesse then specificall . If we compare a Bishop and a Priest thus , what we call difference in nature there , will be a difference in order here , and of the same consideration . 5. Lastly it is considerable , that these men that make this objection , doe not make it because they think it true , but because it will serve a present turne . For all the world sees , that to them that deny the reall presence , this can be no objection ; and most certainly the Anti-episcopall men doe so , in all senses ; and then what excellency is there in the power of consecration , more then in ordination ? Nay is there any such thing as consecration at all ? This also would be considered from their principles . But I proceed . One thing only more is objected against the maine Question . If Episcopacy be a distinct order , why may not a man be a Bishop that never was a Priest , as ( abstracting from the lawes of the Church ) a man may be a Presbyter that never was a Deacon , for if it be the impresse of a distinct character , it may be , imprinted per saltum , and independantly , as it is in the order of a Presbyter . To this I answere , It is true if the powers and characters themselves were independant ; as it is in all those offices of humane constitution , which are called the inferior orders ; For the office of an Acolouthite , of an Exorcist , of an Ostiary , are no way dependant on the office of a Deacon , and therefore a man may be Deacon , that never was in any of those , and perhaps a Presbyter too , that never was a Deacon , as it was in the first example of the Presbyterate in the 72. Disciples . But a Bishop though he have a distinct character , yet it is not disparate from that of a Presbyter , but supposes it ex vi ordinis . For since the power of ordination ( if any thing be ) is the distinct capacity of a Bishop , this power supposes a power of consecrating the Eucharist to be in the Bishop , for how else can he ordaine a Presbyter with a power , that himselfe hath not ? can he give , what himselfe hath not received ? * I end this point with the saying of Epiphani . us , Vox est Aërii haretici unus est ordo Bpisoeperum , & Presbyterorum , una dignitas . To say that Bishops are not a distinct order from Presbyters , was a heresy first broach'd by Aërius , and hath lately been ( at least in the manner of speaking ) countenanc'd by many of the Church of Rome . FOR to cleare the distinction of order , it is evident in Antiquity , that Bishops had a power of imposing hands , for collating of Orders , which Presbyters have not . * What was done in this affaire in the times of the Apostles I have already explicated : but now the inquiry is , what the Church did in pursuance of the practise , and tradition Astolicall . The first , and second Canons of the Apostles command that two , or three Bishops should ordaine a Bishop , and one Bishop should ordaine a Priest , and a Deacon , A Presbyter is not authorized to ordaine , a Bishop is . * S. Dionysius affirmes , Sacerdotem non posse initiari , nisi per invocationes Episcopales , and acknowledges no ordainer but a Bishop . No more did the Church ever ; Insomuch that when Novatus the Father of the old Puritans , did ambire Episcopatum , he was faine to goe to the utmost parts of Italy , and seduce or intreat some Bishops to impose hands on him , as Cornelius witnesses in his Epistle to Fabianus , in Eusebius . * To this we may adde as so many witnesses , all those ordinations made by the Bishops of Rome , mentioned in the Pontificall book of Damasus , Platina , and others . Habitis de more sacris ordinibus Decembris mense , Presbyteros decem , Diaconos duos , &c. creat ( S. Clemens ) Anacletus Presbyteros quinque , Diaconos tres , Episcopos diversis in locis sex numero creavit , and so in descent , for all the Bishops of that succession for many ages together . But let us see how this power of ordination went in the Bishops hand alone , by Law and Constitution ; for particular examples are infinite . In the Councell of Ancyra it is determin'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Rurall Bishops shall not ordaine Presbyters or Deacons in anothers diocesse without letters of license from the Bishop . Neither shall the Priests of the City attempt it . * First not Rurall Bishops , that is , Bishops that are taken in adjutorium Episcopi Principalis , Vicars to the Bishop of the diocesse , they must not ordaine Priests and Deacons . For it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , It is anothers diocesse , and to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , is prohibited by the Canon of Scripture . But then they may with license ? Yes ; for they had Episcopall Ordination at first , but not Episcopall Iurisdiction , and so were not to invade the territories of their neighbour . The tenth Canon of the Councell of Antioch clears this part . The words are these as they are rendred by Dionysius Exiguus . Qui in villis , & vicis constituti sunt Chorepiscopi tametsi manûs impositionem ab Episcopis susceperunt , [ & ut Episcopisunt consecrati ] tamen aportet eos modum proprtum retinere , &c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the next clause [ & ut Episcopi consecrati sunt ] although it be in very ancient Latine copies , years not found in the Greek , but is an assumentum for exposition of the Greek , but is most certainly implyed in it ; for else , what description could this be of Chorepiscopi , above Presbyter● rurales , to say that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for so had country Priests , they had received imposition of the Bishops hands . Either then the Ch●repiscopi had received ordination from three Bishops , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be taken collectively , not distibutively , to wit , that each Country Bishop had received ordination from Bishops , many Bishops in conjunction , and so they were very Bishops , or else they had no more then Village Priests , and then this caution had been impertine●● . * But the City Priests were also included in this prohibition . True it is , but it is in a Parenthesis ; with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in the midst of the Canon , and there was some particular reason for the involving them , not that they ever did actually ordaine any , but that since it was prohibited to the chorepiscopi to ordaine ( to them I say who though for want of jurisdiction they might not ordaine without license , it being in alienâ Parochiâ , yet they had capacity by their order to doe it ) if these should doe it , the Citty Presbyters who were often dispatch'd into the Villages upon the same imployment , by a temporary mission , that the Chorepiscopi were by an ordinary , and fixt residence might perhaps think that their commission might extend farther then it did , or that they might goe beyond it , as well as the Ch●r●pisc●pi , and therefore their way was obstructed by this clause of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * Adde to this ; The Presbyters of the City were of great honour , and peculiar priviledge , as appeares in the thirteenth Canon of the Councell of Neo. Caesare● , and therefore might easily exceed , if the Canon had not beene their bridle . The summe of the Canon is this . With the Bishops licence the Chorepiscopi might ordaine , for themselves had Episcopall ordination , but without licence they might not , for they had but delegate , and subordinate jurisdiction , And therefore in the fourteenth Canon of Ne●-Caesarea are said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , like the 70 Disciples , that is , inferior to Bishops , and the 70 were to the twelve Apostles , viz. in hoc perticulari , not in order , but like them in subordination and inferiority of jurisdiction : but the Citty Presbyters might not ordaine , neither with , nor without licence ; for they are in the Canon only by way of parenthesis , and the sequence of procuring a faculty from the Bishops to collate orders , is to be referred to Chorepiscopi , not to Presbyteri Civitat is , unlesse we should straine this Canon into a sense contrary to the practise of the Catholike Church . Res euim ordinis non possunt delegari , is a most certain rule in Divinity , and admitted by men of all sides , and most different interests . * However we see here , that they were prohibited , and we never find before this time , that any of them actually did give orders , neither by ordinary power , nor extraordinary dispensation ; and the constant tradition of the Church , and practise Apostolicall is , that they never could give orders ; therefore this exposition of the Canon is liable to no exception , but is cleare for the illegality of a Presbyt●r giving holy orders , either to a Presbyter , or a Deacon , and is concluding for the necessity of concurrence both of Episcopall order , and jurisdiction for ordinations , for , re●d●ndo singula singulis , and expounding this Canon according to the sense of the Church , and exigence of Catholike Custome , the Chorepiscopi are excluded from giving orders for want of jurisdiction , and the Priests of the Citty for want of order ; the first may be supplied by a delegate power in literis Episcopalibus , the second cannot , but by a new ordination , that is , by making the Priest a Bishop . For if a Priest of the Citty have not so much power as a Chorepiscopus , as I have proved he hath not , by shewing that the Chorepiscopus then had Episcopall ordination , and yet the Chorepiscopus might not collate orders without a faculty from the Bishop , the City Priests might not doe it , unlesse more be added to them , for their want was more . They not only want jurisdiction , but something besides , and that must needs be order , * But although these Chorepiscopi at the first had Episcopall Ordination , yet it was quickly taken from them for their incroa●h●●● upon the Bishops Diocesse , and as they were but 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 Episcoporum in villis , so their ordination was but to a meere Presbyterate . And this we find , as soone as ever we heare that they had had Episcopall Ordination . For those who in the beginning of the 10 th Canon of Antioch we find had been consecrated as Bishops , in the end of the same Cahon , we find it decreed de novo : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The Chorepiscopus or Country Bishop must be ordayn'd by the Bishop of the Citie , in whose jurisdiction he is ; which was clearly ordination to the order of a Presbyter , and no more . And ever after this all the ordinations they made were only to the inferiour Ministeries , with the Bishop's License too , but they never ordayn'd any to be De●cons , or Priests ; for these were Orders of the Holy Ghost's appointing , and therefore were gratiae Spiritûs Sancti , and issues of order ; but the inferiour Ministeries , as of a Reader , an Ostiary &c. were humane constitutions , and requir'd not the capacity of Episcopall Order to collate them ; for they were not Graces of the Holy Ghost ; as all Orders properly so called are , but might by humane dispensation be bestow'd , as well as by humane Ordinance , they had their first constitution . ** The Chorepiscopi lasted in this consistence till they were quite taken away by the Councell of Hispalis : save only , that such men also were called Chorepiscopi who had beene Bishops of Citied but had fallen from their honour by communicating in Gentile Sacrifices , and by being traditors , but in case they repented and were reconciled , they had not indeed restītution to their See , but , because they had the indelible character of a Bishop , they were allowed the Name , and honour , and sometime the execution of offices Chorepiscopall . Now of this sort of Chorepiscopi no objection can be pretended , if they had made ordinations ; and of the other nothing pertinent , for they also had the ordination , and order of Bishops . The former was the case of Meletius in the Nicene Councell , as is to be seene in the Epistle of the Fathers to the Church of Alexandria . * But however all this while , the power of ordination is so fast held in the Bishops hand , that it was communicated to none though of the greatest priviledge . * I find the like care taken in the Councell of Sardis , for when Musaeus , and Eutychianus had ordain'd some Clerkes , themselves not being Bishops , Gaudentius ( one of the moderate men , 't is likely ) for quietnesse sake , and to comply with the times , would faine have had those Clerks received into Clericall communion ; but the Councell would by no meanes admitt that any should be received into the Clergy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( as B●l●amon expresses upon that Canon , ) but such as were ordain'd by them who were Bishops verily , and indecd . But with those who were ordain'd by Musaeus and E●tychianus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , we will communicate as with Laymen : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for they were no Bishops that impos'd hands ●n them ; and therefore the Clerks were not ordain'd truly , but were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , dissemblers of ordination . Quae autem de Musaeo & Entychiano dicta sunt , trahe etiam ad alios qui non ordinati fveront , &c. Saith Balsamon , intimating , that it is a rul'd case and of publike interest . * The same was the issue of those two famous cases , the one of Ischiras ordain'd of Colluthus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , one that dream'd onely he was a Bishop . Ischiras being ordain'd by him could be no Priest , nor any else of his ordaining , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and Ischyr as himselfe was reduc'd into laycommunion , being depos'd by the Synod of Alexandria , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , falling from the imagination of his Presbyterate , say the Priests and Deacons of Mareotis ; And of the rest that were ordain'd with Ischir as , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. Athanasius , and this so knowne a businesse , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , No man made scruple of the Nullity . ** The paralell case is of the Presbyters ordain'd by Maximus , who was another Bishop in the aire too ; all his ordinations were pronounced null , by the Fathers of the Councell in Constantinople . A third is of the blind Bishop of Agabra imposing hands while his Presbyters read the words of ordination , the ordination was pronounced invalid by the first Councell of Sevill . These cases are so known , I need not insist on them . This onely , In diverse cases of Transgression of the Canons , Clergy men were reduc'd to lay communion , either being suspended , or deposed ; that is , from their place of honour , and execution of their function , with , or without hope of restitution respectively ; but then still they had their order , and the Sacraments conferr'd by them were valid , though they indeed were prohibited to Minister ; but in the cases of the present instance , the ordinations were pronounc'd as null , to have bestowed nothing , and to be meerely imaginary . * But so also it was in case that Bishops ordain'd without a title , or in the diocesse of another Bishop , as in the Councell of † Chalcedon , and of * Anti. ●ch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , And may be it was so in case of ordination by a Presbyter , it was by positive constitution pronounced void , and no more , and therefore may be rescinded by the Counter-mand of an equall power ; A Councell at most may doe it , and therefore without a Councell , a probable necessity will let us loose . But to this the answer is evident . 1. The expressions in the severall cases are severall , & of diverse issue , for in case of those nullities which are meerely Canonicall , they are expressed as then first made , but in the case of ordination by a Non-Bishop , they are onely declared voy'd ipso facto . And therefore in that decree of Chalcedon against Sinetitul●r ordinations , the Canon saith ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , IRRITAM EXISTIMARI manûs impositionem , to be esteem'd as null , that is , not to have Canonicall approbation , but is not declared null , in Naturâ rei , as it is in the foregoing instances . 2. In the cases of Antioch , and Chalcodon , the decree is pro futuro , which makes it evident that those nullities are such as are made by Canon , but in the cases of Colluthus , and Maximus , there was declaration of a past nullity and that before any Canon was made ; and though Synodall declarations pronoun'd such ordinations invalid , yet none decreed so for the future , which is a cleare evidence , that this nullity , viz : in case of ordination by a Non-Presbyter , is not made by Canon , but by Canon * declar'd to be invalid in the nature of the thing . 3. If to this be added , that in antiquity it was dogmatically resolved that by the Nature , and institution of the Order of Bishops ; ordination was appropriate to them , then it will also from hence be evident , that the nullity of ordination without a Bishop is not dependant upon positive constitution , but on the exigence of the institution . ** Now that the power of ordination was onely in the Bishop , even they , who to advance the Presbyters , were willing enough to speake lesse for Episcopacy , give testimony ; making this the proper distinctive cognisance of a Bishop from a Presbyter , that the Bishop hath power of ordination , the Presbyter hath not . So S. Ierome , Quid facit Episcopus ( except â ordinatione ) quod Presbyter non faciat . All things ( saith he ) [ to wit all things of precise order ] are common to Bishops with Priests , except ordination , for that is proper to the Bishop . And S. Chrysostome , Solâ quippe ordinatione superiores illis sunt [ Episcopi ] atque hoctantùm plusquam Presbyteri habere videntur . Ordination is the proper , and peculiar function of a Bishop ; and therefore not given him by positive constitution of the Canon . 4. No man was call'd an heretick for breach of Canon , but for denying the power of ordination to be proper to a Bishop : Aërius was by Epiphanius , Philastrius , and S. Austin condemn'd , and branded for heresie , and by the Catholike Church saith Epiphanius . This power therefore came from a higher spring , then positive and Canonicall Sanction . But now proceed . The Councell held in Trullo , complaining that the incursion of the barbarous people upon the Churches inheritance , saith that it forc'd some Bishops from their residence , & made that they could not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , according to the guise of the Church , give Orders and doe such things as DID BELONG TO THE BISHOP ; and in the sequel of the Canon they are permitted in such cases , ut & diversorum Clericorum ordinationes canonicè faciant , to make Canonicall ordinations of Clergy-men . Giving of Orders is proper , it belongs to a Bishop . So the Councell . And therefore Theodoret expounding that place of S. Paul [ by the laying on the hands of the Presbytery ] interprets it of Bishops ; for this reason , because Presbyters did not impose hands . * There is an imperfect Canon in the Arausican Councell that hath an expression very pertinent to this purpose , Ea quae non nisi per Episcopos geruntur , those things that are not done , but by Bishops , they were decreed still to be done by Bishops , though he that was to doe them regularly , did fall into any infirmity whatsoever , yet non sub praesentiâ suâ Presbyteros agere permittat , sed evocet Episcopum . Here are clearely by this Canon some things suppos'd to be proper to the Bishops , to the action of which Presbyters must in no case be admitted . The particulars , what they are , are not specified in the Canon , but are nam'd before , viz : Orders , and Confirmation , for almost the whole Councell was concerning them , and nothing else is properly the agendum Episcopi , and the Canon else is not to be Understood . * To the same issue is that circum-locutory description , or name of a Bishop , us'd by S. Chrysostome , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The man that is to ordaine Clerks . And all this is but the doctrine of the Catholike Church which S. Epiphanius oppos'd to the doctrine of Aërius , denying Episcopacy to be a distinct order 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( speaking of Episcopacy ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , speaking of Presbytery . The order of Bishops begets Fathers to the Church of God , but the order of Presbyters begets sonnes in baptisme , but no Fathers or Doctors by ordination . * It is a very remarkeable passage related by Eusebius in the ordination of Novatus to be Presbyter , the Bishop did it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , all the whole Clergy was against it , yet the Bishop did ordaine him , and then certainely searce any conjunction of the other Clergy can be imagined ; I am sure none is either expressed or intimated . For it was a rul'd case , and attested by the Uniforme practise of the Church , which was set downe in the third Councell of Carthage , Episcopus vnus esse potest per quem dignatione Divinâ Presbyteri multi constitui possunt . This case I instance the more particularly , because it is an exact determination of a Bishops sole power of ordination . Aurelius made a motion , that , if a Church wanted a Presbyter to become her Bishop , they might demand one from any Bishop . It was granted ; But Posthumianus the Bishop put this case . Deinde qui vnum habuerit , numquid debet illi ipse vnus Presbyter auferri ? How if the Bishop have but one Priest , must his Bishop part with him to supply the necessity of the Neighbour widdow-Church ? Yea , that he must . But how then shall he keepe ordinations when he hath never a Presbyter to assist him ? That indeed would have beene the objection now , but it was none then . For Aurelius told them plainly , there was no inconvenience in it , for though a Bishop have never a Presbyter , no great matter , he can himselfe ordaine many ( and then I am sure , there is sole ordination ) but if a Bishop be wanting to a Church , he is not so easily found . ** Thus it went ordinarily in the stile of the Church , ordinations were made by the Bishop , and the ordainer spoken of as a single person . So it is in the Nicene Councell , the Councell of a Antioch , the Councell of b Chalcedon , and S. Ierome who writing to Pammachius against the errors of Iohn of Ierusalem ; If thou speake ( saith he ) of Paulinianus , he comes now and then to visit us , not as any of your Clergy , but ejus à quo ordinatus est , that Bishop's who ordain'd him . * So that the issue of this argument is this . The Canons of the Apostles , and the rules of the Ancient Councells appropriate the ordination of Bishops to Bishops , of Presbyters to one Bishop , ( for I never find a Presbyter ordain'd by two Bishops together , but onely Origen by the Bishops of Ierusalem , and Caesarea ) Presbyters are never mention'd in conjunction with Bishops at their ordinations , and if alone they did it , their ordination was pronounced invalid and void ab initio . * To these particulars adde this , that Bishops alone were punished if ordinations were Vncanonicall , which were most vnreasonable if Presbyters did joine in them , and were causes in conjunction . But unlesse they did it alone , we never read that they were punishable ; indeed Bishops were pro toto , & integro , as is reported by Sozomen in the case of Elpidius , Eustathius , Basilius of Ancyra , and Eleusius . Thus also it was decreed in the second , and sixt Chapters of the Councell of Chalcedon , and in the Imperiall constitutions . Since therefore we neither find Presbyters join'd with Bishops in commission , or practise , or penalty all this while . I may inferre from the premises the same thing which the Councell of Hispal expresses in direct , and full sentence , Episcopus Sacerdotibus , ac Ministris solus honorem dare potest , solus auferre non potest . The Bishop alone may give the Priestly honour , he alone is not suffer'd to take it away . * This Councell was held in the yeare 657 , and I set it downe here for this purpose to show that the decree of the fourth Councell of Carthage which was the first that licensed Priests to assist Bishops in ordinations yet was not obligatory in the West ; but for almost 300 yeares after , ordinations were made by Bishops alone . But till this Councell no pretence of any such conjunction , and after this Councell sole ordination did not expire in the West for above 200 yeares together ; but for ought I know , ever since then , it hath obtain'd , that although Presbyters joyne not in the consecration of a Bishop , yet of a Presbyter they doe ; but this is onely by a positive subintroduced constitution first made in a Provinciall of Africa , and in other places received by insinuation and conformity of practise . * I know not what can be said against it . I onely find a peice of an objection out of S. Cyprian , who was a Man so complying with the Subjects of his Diocesse , that if any man , he was like to furnish us with an Antinomy . * Hunc igitur ( Fratres Dilectissimi ) à me , & à Collegis qui praesentes aderant ordinatum sciatis . Here either by his Colleagues he meanes Bishops , or Presbyters . If Bishops , then many Bishops will be found in the ordination of one to an inferiour order , which because it was ( as I observ'd before ) against the practise of Christendome , will not easily be admitted to be the sense of S. Cyprian . But if he means Presbyters by [ Collegae ] then sole ordination is invalidated by this example , for Presbyters join'd with him in the ordination of Aurelius . I answer , that it matters not whether by his Colleagues he means one , or the other , for Aurelius the Confessor who was the man ordain'd , was ordain'd but to be a Reader , and that was no Order of Divine institution , no gift of the Holy Ghost , and therefore might be dispensed by one , or more ; by Bishops , or Presbyters , and no way enters into the consideration of this question concerning the power of collating those orders which are gifts of the Holy Ghost , and of divine ordinance ; and therefore , this , although I have seen it once pretended , yet hath no validity to impugne the constant practise of Primitive antiquity . But then are all ordinations invalid which are done by meere Presbyters without a Bishop ? What think we of the reformed Churches ? 1. For my part I know not what to think . The question hath been so often asked with so much violence , and prejudice ; and we are so bound by publike interest to approve all that they doe , that wee have disabled our selves to justify our owne . For we were glad at first of abettors against the Errors of the Romane Church , we found these men zealous in it , we thank'd God for it ( as we had cause ) and we were willing to make them recompence , by endeavouring to justify their ordinations ; not thinking what would follow upon our selves . But now it is come to that issue , that our own Episcopacy is thought not necessary , because wee did not condemne the ordinations of their Presbytery . 2. Why is not the question rather , what we think of the Primitive Church , then what we think of the reformed Churches ? Did the Primitive Councells , and Fathers doe well in condemning the ordinations made by meere Presbyters ? If they did well , what was a vertue in them , is no sinne in us . If they did ill , from what principle shall wee judge of the right of ordinations ? since there is no example in Scripture of any ordination made but by Apostles , and Bishops , and the Presbytery that impos'd hands on Timothy , is by all antiquity expounded either of the office , or of a Colledge of Presbyters ; and S. Paul expounds it to be an ordination made by his owne hands , as appeares by comparing the two epistles to S. Timothy together ; and may be so meant by the principles of all sides , for if the names be confounded , then Presbyter may signify a Bishop , and that they of this Presbytery were not Bishops , they can never prove from Scripture , where all men grant that the Names are confounded . * So that whence will men take their estimate for the rites of ordinations ? From Scripture ? That gives it alwayes to Apostles , and Bishops ( as I have proved ) and that a Priest did ever impose hands for ordination can never be showne from thence . From when 〈◊〉 then ? From Antiquity ? That was so farre from licensing ordinations made by Presbyters alone , that Presbyters in the primitive Church did never joyne with Bishops in Collating holy Orders of Presbyter , and Deacon , till the 4 th Councell of Carthage ; much lesse doe it alone , rightly , and with effect . So that , as in Scripture there is nothing for Presbyters ordaining , so in Antiquity there is much against it ; And either in this particular we must have strange thoughts of Scripture , and Antiquity , or not so faire interpretation of the ordinations of reformed Presbyteries . But for my part I had rather speake a truth in sincerity , then erre with a glorious correspondence . But will not necessity excuse them who could not have orders from Orthodoxe Bishops ? shall we either sinne against our consciences by suscribing to hereticall , and false resolutions in materiâ fidei , or else loose the being of a Church , for want of Episcopall ordinations ? * Indeed if the case were just thus it was very hard with the good people of the transmarine Churches ; but I have here two things to consider . 1. I am very willing to beleive that they would not have done any thing either of error , or suspition , but in cases of necessity . But then I consider that M. Du Plessis , a man of honour , and Great learning does attest , that at the first reformation there were many Arch-Bishops and Cardinalls in Germany , England , France , and Italy that joyn'd in the reformation , whom they might , but did not imploy in their ordinations ; And what necessity then can be pretended in this case , I would faine learne that I might make their defence . But , which is of more , and deeper consideration ; for this might have been done by inconsideration , and irresolution , as often happens in the beginning of great changes , but , it is their constant and resolved practise at least in France , that if any returnes to them they will reordayne him by their Presbytery , though he had before Episcopall Ordination , as both their friends and their enemies beare witnesse . 2. I consider that necessity may excuse a personall delinquency ; but I never heard that necessity did build a Church . Indeed no man is forc'd for his owne particular to committ a sinne , for if it be absolutely a case of necessity , the action ceases to be a sinne ; but indeed if God meanes to build a Church in any place , he will doe it by meanes proportionable to that end ; that is , by putting them into a possibility of doing , and acquiring those things which himselfe hath required of necessity to the constitution of a Church . * So that , supposing that Ordination by a Bishop is necessary for the vocation of Priests , and Deacons ( as I have proved it is ) and therefore for the founding , or perpetuating of a Church , either God hath given to all Churches opportunity and possibility of such Ordinations , and then , necessity of the contrary , is but pretence and mockery , or if he hath not given such possibility , then there is no Church there to be either built , or continued , but the Candlestick is presently removed . There are diverse stories in Ruffinus to this purpose . When Aedesius and Frumentius were surprized by the Barbarous Indians , they preached Christianity , and baptized many , but themselves being but Lay-men could make no Ordinations , and so not fixe a Church . What then was to be done in the case ? Frumentius Alexandriam pergit .... & rem omnem , ut gesta est , narrat EPISCOPO , ac monet , ut provideat virum aliquem dignum quem congregatis jam plurimis Christianis in Barbarico solo Episcopum mittat . Frumentius comes to Alexandria to get a Bishop . Athanasius being then Patriarch ordayn'd Frumentius their Bishop , & tradito ei Sacerdotio , redire eum cum Domini Gratiâ unde venerat jubet .... ex quo ( saith Ruffinus ) in Indiae partibus , & populi Christianorum & Ecclesiae factaae sunt , & Sacer dotium caepit . The same happened in the case of the Iberians converted by a Captive woman ; posteà verò quàm Ecclesia magnificè constructa est , & populi fidem Dei majore ardore sitiebant , captivae monitis ad Imperatorem Constantinum totius Gentis legatio mittitur : Res gesta exponitur : SACERDOTES mittere oratur qui caeptum ergà se Dei munus implerent . The worke of Christianity could not be completed , nor a Church founded without the Ministery of Bishops . * Thus the case is evident , that the want of a Bishop will not excuse us from our endeavours of acquiring one ; and where God meanes to found a Church there he will supply them with those meanes , and Ministeries which himselfe hath made of ordinary and absolute necessity . And therefore if it happens that those Bishops which are of ordinary Ministration amongst us , prove hereticall , still Gods Church is Catholike , and though with trouble , yet Orthodoxe Bishops may be acquir'd . For just so it happen'd when Mauvia Queene of the Saracens was so earnest to have Moses the Hermit made the Bishop of her Nation , and offer'd peace to the Catholikes upō that condition ; Lucius an Arrian troubled the affayre by his interposing and offering to ordayne Moses ; The Hermit discover'd his vilenesse , & ita majore dedecore deformatus compulsus est acquiescere . Moses refus'd to be ordayn'd by him that was an Arrian . So did the reform'd Churches refuse ordinations by the Bishops of the Roman communion . But what then might they have done ? Even the same that Moses did in that necessity ; compulsus est ab Episcopis quos in exilium truserat ( Lucius ) sacerdotium sumere . Those good people might have had orders from the Bishops of England , or the Lutheran Churches , if at least they thought our Churches Catholike , and Christian. If an ordinary necessity will not excuse this , will not an extraordinary calling justifie it ? Yea , most certainely , could we but see an ordinary proofe for an extraordinary calling , viz : an evident prophecy , demonstration of Miracles , certainety of reason , clarity of sense , or any thing that might make faith of an extraordinary mission . But shall we then condemne those few of the Reformed Churches whose ordinations alwaies have beene without Bishops ? No indeed . That must not be . They stand , or fall to their owne Master . And though I cannot justifie their ordinations , yet what degree their Necessity is of , what their desire of Episcopall ordinations may doe for their personall excuse , and how farre a good life , and a Catholike beleife may leade a man in the way to heaven , ( although the formes of externall communion be not observ'd ) I cannot determine . * For ought I know , their condition is the same with that of the Church of Pergamus [ I know thy works , and where thou dwellest , even where Sathans seate is , and thou heldest fast my FAITH , and hast not denied my Name ; Nihilominus habeo adversus te pauca , some few things I have against thee ; ] and yet of them , the want of Canonicall ordinations is a defect which I trust themselves desire to be remedied ; but if it cannot be done , their sinne indeed is the lesse , but their misery the Greater . * I am sure I have said sooth , but whether or no it will be thought so , I cannot tell ; and yet why it may not I cannot guesse , unlesse they only be impeccable , which I suppose will not so easily be thought of them , who themselves thinke , that all the Church possibly may faile . But this I would not have declar'd so freely , had not the necessity of our owne Churches requir'd it , and that the first pretence of the legality , and validity of their ordinations beene boyed up to the height of an absolute necessity ; for else why shall it be called Tyranny in us to call on them to conforme to us , and to the practise of the Catholike Church , and yet in them be called a good and a holy zeale to exact our conformity to them ; But I hope it will so happen to us , that it will be verifyed here , what was once said of the Catholikes under the fury of Iustina , sed tanta fuit perseverantia fidelium populorum , vt animas priùs amittere , quàm Episcopum mallent ; If it were put to our choice , rather to dye ( to wit the death of Martyrs , not rebells ) then loose the sacred order , and offices of Episcopacy , without which no Priest , no ordination , no consecration of the Sacrament , no absolution , no rite , or Sacrament legitimately can be performed in order to eternity . The summe is this . If the Canons , and Sanctions Apostolicall , if the decrees of eight famous Councells in Christendome , of Ancyra , of Antioch , of Sardis , of Alexandria , two of Constantinople , the Arausican Councell , and that of Hispalis ; if the constant successive Acts of the famous Martyr Bishops of Rome making ordinations , if the testimony of the whole Pontificall book , if the dogmaticall resolution of so many Fathers , S. Denis , S. Cornelius , S. Athanasius , S. Hierome , S. Chrysostome , S. Epiphanius , S. Austin , and diverse others , all appropriating ordinations to the Bishops hand : if the constant voice of Christendome , declaring ordinations made by Presbyters , to be null , and voide in the nature of the thing : and never any act of ordination by a Non-Bishop , approoved by any Councell , decretall , or single suffrage of any famous man in Christendome : if that ordinations of Bishops were alwaies made , and they ever done by Bishops , and no pretence of Priests joyning with them in their consecrations , and after all this it was declared heresy to communicate the power of giving orders to Presbyters either alone , or in conjunction with Bishops , as it was in the case of Aërius : if all this , that is , if whatsoever can be imagined , be sufficient to make faith in this particular ; then it is evident that the power , and order of Bishops is greater then the power , and order of Presbyters , to wit , in this Great particular of ordination , and that by this loud voyce , and united vote of Christendome . * BUT this was but the first part of the power which Catholick antiquity affixed to the order of Episcopacy . The next is of Confirmation of baptized people . And here the rule was this , which was thus expressed by Damascen : Apostolorum , & Successorum eorum est per manûs impositionem donum Spiritus sancti tradere . It belongs to the Apostles and their successors to give the Holy Ghost by imposition of hands . But see this in particular instance . The Councell of Eliberis giving permission to faithfull people of the Laity to baptize Catechumens in cases of necessity , and exigence of journey ; ita tamen ut si supervixerit [ baptizatus ] ad Episcopum cum perducat , ut per manûs impositionem proficere possit . Let him be carried to the Bishop to be improv'd by imposition of the BISHOPS hands . This was Law. It was also custome saith S. Cyprian , Quod nunc quoque apud nos geritur , ut qui in Ecclesiâ baptizantur , per Praepositos Ecclesiae offerantur , & per nostram orationem , & manûs impositionem Spiritum sanctum consequantur , & signaculo Dominico consummentur . And this custome was Catholick too , and the Law was of Vniversall concernement . OMNES Fideles per manuum impositionem EPISCOPORUM Spiritum Sanctum post baptismum accipere debent , ut pleni Christiani accipere debent . So S. Vrbane in his decretall Epistle ; And , Omnibus festinandum est sine morâ renasci , & demùm CONSIGNARI AB EPISCOPO Et septiformem Spiritûs sancti gratiam recipere ; so saith the old Author of the fourth Epistle under the name of S. Clement . ALL FAITHFULL baptized people must goe to the Bishop to be consign'd , and so by imposition of the Bishops hands to obtaine the seven fold guifts of the Holy Ghost . Meltiades in his Epistle to the Bishops of Spaine affirmes confirmation in this , to have a speciall excellency besides baptisme , quòd solùm à summis Sacerdotibus confertur , because Bishops only can give confirmation ; And the same is said , & proov'd by S. Eusebius in his third Epistle enjoyning great veneration to this holy mystery , quod ab aliis perfici non potest nisi à summis Sacerdotibus . It cannot , it may not be perform'd by any , but by the Bishops . Thus S. Chrysostome speaking of S. Philip converting the Samaritans , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philip baptizing the men of Samaria , gave not the Holy Ghost to them whom he had baptized . For HE HAD NOT POWER . For this guift was only of the twelve Apostles . And a little after : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . This was PECULIAR to the Apostles . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , whence it comes to passe , that the principall and chiefe of the Church doe it , and none else . And George Pachymeres , the Paraphrast of S. Dionysius ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It is required that a Bishop should consigne faithfull people baptiz'd . For this was the Ancient practise . I shall not need to instance in too many particulars , for that the Ministry of confirmation was by Catholick custome appropriate to Bishops in all ages of the Primitive Church is to be seen by the concurrent testimony of Councells , & Fathers ; particularly of S. Clemens Alexandrinus in * Eusebius , a Tertullian , S. b Innocentius the first , c Damasus , d S. Leo , in e Iohn the third , in S. f Gregory , Amphilochius in the life of S. Basil telling the story of Bishop Maximinus confirming Basilius , and Eubulus , the g Councell of Orleans , and of h Melda , and lastly of i Sevill which affirmes , Non licere Presbyteris .... per impositionem manûs fidelibus baptiz andis paracletum spiritum tradere . It is not lawfull for Presbyters to give confirmation , for it is properly an act of Episcopall power .... Chrismate spiritus S. superinfunditur . Vtraque verò ista manu , & ore Antistitis impetramus . These are enough for authority , and dogmaticall resolution from antiquity . For truth is , the first that ever did communicate the power of confirming to Presbyters was Photius , the first author of that unhappy and long lasting schisme between the Latine , and Greek Churches , and it was upon this occasion too . For when the Bulgarians were first converted , the Greekes sent Presbyters to baptize , and to confirme them . But the Latins sent againe to have them re-confirmed , both because ( as they pretended ) the Greekes had no jurisdiction in Bulgaria , nor the Presbyters a capacity of order to give confirmation . The matters of fact , and acts Episcopall of confirmation are innumerable , but most famous are those confirmations made by S. Rembert Bishop of Brema , and of S. Malchus attested by S. Bernard , because they were ratified by miracle , saith the Ancient story . I end this with the saying of S. Hierome , Exigis ubi scriptum sit ? In Actibus Apostolorum . Sed etiamsi Scripturae authoritas non subesset , totius orbis in hanc partem consensus instar praecepti obtineret . If you aske where it is written ? ( viz. that Bishops alone should confirme ) It is written in the Acts of the Apostles ( meaning , by precedent , though not expresse precept ) but if there were no authority of Scripture for it , yet the consent of all the world upon this particular is instead of a command . *** It was fortunate that S. Hierome hath expressed himselfe so confidently in this affaire , for by this we are arm'd against an objection from his own words , for in the same dialogue , speaking of some acts of Episcopall priviledge and peculiar ministration , particularly , of Confirmation , he saies , it was ad honorem potius Sacerdotii quàm ad legis necessitatem . For the honour of the Priesthood , rather then for the necessity of a law . To this the answer is evident from his own words : That Bishops should give the Holy Ghost in confirmation , is written in the Acts of the Apostles ; and now that this is reserved rather for the honour of Episcopacy , then a simple necessity in the nature of the thing makes no matter . For the question here that is only of concernment , is not to what end this power is reserved to the Bishop , but by whom it was reserved ? Now S. Hierome saies it was done apud Acta , in the Scripture , therefore by Gods Holy Spirit , and the end he also specifies , viz. for the honour of that sacred order , non propter legis necessitatem , not that there is any necessity of law , that confirmation should be administred by the Bishop . Not that a Priest may doe it , but that , as S. Hierome himselfe there argues , the Holy Ghost being already given in baptisme , if it happens that Bishops may not be had ( for he puts the case concerning persons in bondage , and places remote , and destitute of Bishops ) then in that case there is not the absolute necessity of a Law , that Confirmation should be had at all . A man does not perish if he have it not ; for that this thing was reserved to a Bishops peculiar ministration , was indeed an honour to the function , but it was not for the necessity of a Law tying people in all cases actually to acquire it . So that this [ non necessarium ] is not to be referred to the Bishops ministration , as if it were not necessary for him to doe it when it is to be done , not that a Priest may doe it if a 〈◊〉 may not be had , but this non necessity is to be referred to confirmation it selfe ; so that if a Bishop cannot be had , confirmation , though with much losse , yet with no danger , may be omitted . This is the summe of S. Hieroms discourse , this reconciles him to himselfe , this makes him speak conformably to his first assertions , and consequently to his arguments , and to be sure , no exposition can make these words to intend that this reservation of the power of confirmation to Bishops , is not done by the spirit of God , and then let the sense of the words be what they will , they can doe no hurt to the cause ; and as easily may we escape from those words of his , to Rusticus Bishop of Narbona . Sed quia scriptum est , Presbyteri duplici honore honorentur .... praedicare eos decet , utile est benedicere , congruum confirmare , &c. It is quoted by Gratian dist . 95. can . ecce ego . But the glosse upon the place expounds him thus , i. e. in fide , the Presbyters may preach , they may confirme their Auditors , not by consignation of Chrisme , but by confirmation of faith ; and for this , quotes a paralell place for the use of the word [ Confirmare ] by authority of S. Gregory , who sent Zachary his legate into Germany from the See of Rome , ut Orthodoxes Episcopos , Presbyteros , vel quos●unque reperire potuisset in verbo exhortationis perfectos , ampliùs confirmaret . Certainly S. Gregory did not intend that his legate Zachary should confirme Bishops & Priests in any other sense but this of S. Hieroms in the present , to wit , in faith and doctrine , not in rite , and mystery , and neither could S. Hierome himselfe intend that Presbyters should doe it at all but in this sense of S. Gregory , for else he becomes an Antistrephon , and his owne opposite . * Yea , but there is a worse matter then this . S. Ambrose tels of the Egyptian Priests , that they in the absence of the Bishop doe confirme . Denique apud Egyptum Presbyteri consignant si praesens non sit Episcopus . But , 1. The passage is suspitious , for it interrupts a discourse of S. Ambrose's concerning the Primitive Order of election to the Bishopricke , and is no way pertinent to the discourse , but is incircled with a story of a farre different consequence , which is not easily thought to have beene done by any considering and intelligent Author . 2. But suppose the clause is not surreptitious , but naturall to the discourse , and borne with it , yet it is matter of fact , not of right , for S. Ambrose neither approves , nor disproves it , and so it must goe for a singular act against the Catholike practise and Lawes of Christendome . 3. If the whole clause be not surreptitious , yet the word [ Consignant ] is , for S. Austin who hath the same discourse , the same thing , viz : of the dignity of Presbyters , tels this story of the Act and honour of Presbyters in Alexandria , and all Aegypt , almost in the other words of his Master S. Ambrose , but he tells it thus , Nam & in Alexandriâ & per totum Aegyptum si desit Episcopus , Consecrat Presbyter . So that it should not be consignat , but consecrat ; for no story tells of any confirmations done in Aegypt by Presbyters , but of consecrating the Eucharist in cases of Episcopall absence , or commission I shall give account in the Question of Iurisdiction ; that was indeed permitted in Aegypt , and some other places , but Confirmation never , that we can find else where , and this is too improbable to beare weight against evidence and practise Apostolicall , and foure Councells , and 16 ancient Catholike Fathers , testifying that it was a practise and a Law of Christendome that Bishops onely should confirme , and not Priests , so that if there be no other scruple , this Question is quickly at an end . ** But S. Gregory is also pretended in objection ; for he gave dispensation to the Priests of Sardinia , vt baptizatos Vguant , to aneale baptized people . Now anointing the forehead of the baptized person , was one of the solemnityes of confirmation , so that this indulgence does arise to a power of Confirming ; for Vnctio and Chrismatio in the first Arausican Councell , and since that time Sacramentum Chrismatis hath beene the vsuall word for confirmation . But this will not much trouble the buisinesse . Because it is evident that he meanes it not of confirmation , but of the Chrisme in those times by the rites of the Church us'd in baptisme . For in his 9 th Epistle he forbids Priests to anoynt baptized people , now here is precept against precept , therefore it must be understood of severall anoyntings , and so S. Gregory expounds himselfe in this 9 th Epistle , Presbyteri baptizatos infantes signare bis in fronte Chrismate non praesumant . Presbyters may not anoynt baptised people twice , once they might ; now that this permission of anoynting was that which was a ceremony of baptisme , not an act of confirmation , we shall see by comparing it with other Canons . * In the collection of the Orientall Canons by Martinus Bracarensis , It is decreed thus , [ Presbyter praesente Episcopo non SIGNET infantes , nisi forte ab Episcopo fuerit illi praeceptum . A Priest must not signe infantes without leave of the Bishop if he be present . Must not signe them ] that is with Chrisme in their foreheads , and that in baptisme ; for the circumstant Canons doe expressly explicate , and determine it ; for they are concerning the rites of baptisme , and this in the midst of them . And by the way this may answer S. Ambrose his [ Presbyteri consignant absente Episcopo ] in case it be so to be read ; for here wee see a consignation permitted to the presbyters in the Easterne Churches to be used in baptisme , in the absence of the Bishop , and this an act of indulgence and favour , and therefore extraordinary , and of use to S. Ambrose his purpose of advancing the Presbyters , but yet of no objection in case of confimation . * And indeed [ Consignari ] is us'd in Antiquity for any signing with the Crosse , and anealing . Thus it is us'd in the first Arausican Councell for extreame Vnction , which is there in case of extreame necessity permitted to Presbyters : Haereticos in mortis discrimine positos , Si Catholici esse desiderent , si desit Episcopus à Presbyteris cum Chrismate , & benedictione CONSIGNARI placet . Consign'd is the word , and it was clearly in extreame Unction , for that rite was not then ceased , and it was in anealing a dying body , and a part of reconciliation , and so limited by the sequent Canon and not to be fancyed of any other consignation . But I returne . *** The first Councell of Toledo prohibites any from making Chrisme , but Bishops only , and takes order , ut de singulis Ecclesiis ad Episcopum anto diem Paschae Diaconi destinentur , ut confectum Chrisma ab Episcopo destinatum ad diem Paschae possit occurrere ; that the Chrisme be fetch 't by the Deacons from the Bishop to be us'd in all Churches . But for what use ? why , it was destinatum ad diem Pascbae sayes the Canon , against the Holy time of Easter , and then , at Easter was the solemnity of publike baptismes , so that it was to be us'd in baptisme . And this sense being premised , the Canon permits to Presbyters to signe with Chrisme , the same thing that S. Gregory did to the Priests of Sardinia . Statutum verò est , Diaconum non Chrismare , sed Presbyterum absente Episcopo , praesente verò , si ab ipso fuerit praeceptum . Now although this be evident enough , yet it is somthing clearer in the first Arausican Counsell , Nullus ministrorum qui BAPTIZANDI recipit officium sine Chrismate usquam debet progredi , quia inter nos placuit semel in baptismate Chrismari . The case is evident that Chrismation or Consigning with oyntment was us'd in baptisme , and it is as evident that this Chrismation was it which S. Grogory permitted to the Presbyters , not the other , for he expressely forbad the other and the exigence of the Canons , and practise of the Church expound it so , and it is the same which S. Innocent the first decreed in more expresse and distinctive termes , Presbyteris Chrismate baptizetos ungere licet , sed quod ab Episcopo fuerit Consecratum ; there is a cleare permission of consigning with Chrisme in baptisme , but he subjoynes a prohibition to Priests for doing it in confirmation ; non tamen frontem eodem oleo signare , quod solis debetur Episcopis cùm tradunt Spiritum Sanctum Paracletum . By the way ; some , that they might the more clearly determine S. Gregory's dispensation to be only in baptismall Chrisme , read it , [ Vt baptiz andos ungant ] not [ baptizatos ] so Gratian , so S. Thomas , but it is needlesse to be troubled with that , for Innocentius in the decretall now quoted useth the word [ Baptizatos ] and yet clearly distinguishes this power from the giving the Chrisme in Confirmation . I know no other objection , and these wee see hinder not but that having such evidence of fact in Scripture of confirmations done only by Apostles , and this evidence urged by the Fathers for the practice of the Church , and the power of cofirmation by many Councells , and Fathers appropriated to Bishops , and denyed to Presbyters , and in this they are not only Doctors teaching their owne opinion , but witnesses of a Catholike practise , and doe actually attest it as done by a Catholike consent ; and no one example in all antiquity ever produc'd of any Priest that did , no law that a Priest might impose hands for confirmation ; wee may conclude it to be a power Apostolicall in the Originall , Episcopall in the Succession , and that in this power , the order of a Bishop is higher then that of a Presbyter , and so declar'd by this instance of Catholike Practise . THus farre I hope we are right . But I call to mind , that in the Nosotrophium of the old Philosopher that undertook to cure all Calentures by Bathing his Patients in water ; some were up to the Chin , some to the Middle , some to the Knees ; So it is amongst the enemies of the Sacred Order of Episcopacy ; some endure not the Name , and they indeed deserve to be over head and eares ; some will have them all one in office with Presbyters , as at first they were in Name ; and they had need bath up to the Chinne ; but some stand shallower , and grant a little distinction , a precedency perhaps for order sake , but no preheminence in reiglement , no superiority of Iurisdiction ; Others by all meanes would be thought to be quite thorough in behalfe of Bishops order , and power such as it is , but call for a reduction to the primitive state , and would have all Bishops like the Primitive , but because by this meanes they thinke to impaire their power , they may well endure to be up to the ankles , their error indeed is lesse , and their pretence fairer , but the use they make of it , of very ill consequence . But curing the mistake will quickly cure this distemper , That then shall be the present issue , that in the Primitive Church Bishops had more power , and greater exercise of absolute jurisdiction , then now Men will endure to be granted , or then themselves are very forward to challenge . 1. Then ; The Primitive Church expressing the calling and offices of a Bishop , did it in termes of presidency and authority . Episcopus typum Dei Patris omnium gerit , saith S. Ignatius ; The Bishop carryes the representment of God the Father , that is , in power and authority to be sure , ( for how else ? ) so as to be the supreme in suo ordine , in offices Ecclesiasticall . And againe , Quid enim aliud est Episcopus quàm is qui omni Principatu , & potestate superior est ? Here his superiority and advantage is expressed to be in his power ; A Bishop is greater and higher then all other power , viz : in materiâ , or gradu religionis . And in his Epistle to the Magnesians ; Hortor ut hoc sit omnibus studium in Dei concordiâ omnia agere EPISCOPO PRESIDENTE LOCO DEI. Doe all things in Vnity , the Bishop being PRESIDENT IN THE PLACE OF GOD. President in all things . And with a fuller tide yet , in his Epistle to the Church of Smyrna , Honora Episcopum ut PRINCIPEM SACER DOTUM imaginem Dei referentem , Dei quidem propter Principatum , Christi verò propter Sacerdotium . It is full of fine expression both for Eminency of order , and Iurisdiction . The Bishop is the PRINCE OF THE PRIESTS bearring the image of God for his Principality ( that 's his jurisdiction and power ) but of Christ himselfe for his Priesthood , ( that 's his Order . ) S. Ignatius hath spoken fairely , and if we consider that he was so primitive a man that himselfe saw Christ in the flesh , and liv'd a man of exemplary sanctity , and dyed a Martyr , and hath been honoured as holy Catholike by all posterity , certainly these testimonyes must needs be of Great pressure , being Sententiae repetiti dogmatis , not casually slipt from him , and by incogitancy , but resolutely and frequently . But this is attested by the generall expressions of after ages . Fungaris circa eum POTESTATE HONORIS tui , saith S. Cyprian to Bishop Rogatianus . Execute the POWER OF THY DIGNITY upon the refractary Deacon ; And VIGOR EPISCOPALIS , and AUTHORITAS CATHEDRae are the the words expressive of that power whatsoever it be which S. Cyprian calls upon him to assert , in the same Epistle . This is high enough . So is that which he presently subjoynes , calling the Bishops power Ecclesiae gubernandae sublimem ac divinam potestatem , a high and a divine power and authority in regiment of the Church . * Locus Magisterij traditus ab Apostolis , So S. Irenaeus calls Episcopacy ; A place of Mastership or authority deliver'd by the Apostles to the Bishops their successors . * Eusebius speaking of Dionysius , who succeeded Heraclas , he received ( faith he ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The Bishoprick of the PRECEDENCY over the Churches of Alexandria . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith the Councell of Sardis ; to the TOP or HEIGHT os Episcopacy . APICES & PRINCIPES OMNIUM , so Optatus calls Bishops ; the CHEIFE , and HEAD of all ; and S. Denys of Alexandria , Scribit ad Fabianum Vrbis Romae Episcopum , & ad alios quamplurimos ECCLESIARUM PRINCIPES de fide Catholicâ suâ , saith Eusebius . And Origen calls the Bishop , eum qui TOTIUS ECCLESIae ARCEM obtinet , He that hath obtayn'd the TOWER OR HEIGHT of the Church . The Fathers of the Councell of Constantinople in Trullo ordayn'd that the Bishops dispossessed of their Churches by incroachments of Barbarous people upon the Church's pale , so as the Bishop had in eff●ct no Diocesse , yet they should enjoy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the authority of their PRESID●NCY according to their proper state ; their appropriate presidency . And the same Councell calls the Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the PRELATE or PREFECT of the Church ; I know not how to expound it better . But it is something more full in the Greeks Councell of Carthage Commanding that the convert Donatists should be received according to the will and pleasure of the Bishop , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that GOVERNES the Church in that place . * And in the Councell of Antioch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The Bishop hath POWER OVER the affayrs of the Church . * Hoc quidem tempore Romanae Ecclesiae Sylvester retinacula gubernabat . S. Sylvester [ the Bishop ] held the Reynes or the stearne of the Roman Church , saith Theodoret . But the instances of this kind are infinite , two may be as good as twenty , and these they are . The first is of S. Ambrose ; HONOR , & SUBLIMITAS Episcopalis nullis poterit comparationibus adaequari . The HONOUR and SUBLIMITY of the Episcopall Order is beyond all comparison great . And their commission he specifyes to be in Pasce oves meas ; Vnde regendae Sacerdotibus contraduntur , meritò RECTORIBUS suis subdi dicuntur &c : The sheepe are delivered to Bishops , as to RULERS and are made their Subjects ; And in the next chapter , Haec verò cuncta , Fratres , ideò nos praemisisse cognoscere debetis , vt ostenderemus nihil esse in hoc saeculo excellentius Sacerdotibus , nihil SUBLIMIUS EPISCOPIS reperiri : vt cùm dignitatem Episcopatûs Episcoporum oraculis demonstramus , & dignè noscamus quid sumus .... actione potius , quàm Nomine demonstremus . These things I have said that you may know nothing is higher , nothing more excellent then the DIGNITY , AND EMINENCE OF A BISHOP , &c. The other is of S. Hierome , CURA TOTIUS ECCLESIAE AD EPISCOPUM PERTINET , The care of the whole Church appertaines to the Bishop . But more confidently spoken is that in his dialogue adversus Luciferianos ; Ecclesiae salus in SUMMI SACERDOTIS DIGNITATE pendet , cui si non exors quaedam & ab omnibus EMINENS DETUR POTESTAS , tot in Ecclesiis efficientur schismata , quot Sacerdotes , The safety of the Church consists in the DIGNITY OF A BISHOP , to whom vnlesse an EMINENT and UNPARALELL'D POWER be given by all , there will be as many Schismes as Priests . Here is dignity , and authority , and power enough expressed ; and if words be expressive of things ( and there is no other use of thē ) then the Bishop is SUPERIOUR IN A PEERELESSE , AND INCOMPARABLE AUTHORITY , and all the whole Diocesse are his subjects , viz : in regimine Spirituali . BUT from words let us passe to things . For the Faith and practise of Christendome requires obedience , Universall obedience , to be given to Bishops . I will begin againe with Ignatius , that these men who call for reduction of Episcopacy to Primitive consistence , may see what they gaine by it , for the more primitive the testimonies are , the greater exaction of obedience to Bishops ; for it happened in this , as in all other things ; at first , Christians were more devout more pursuing of their duties , more zealous in attestation of every particle of their faith ; and that Episcopacy is now come to so low an ebbe , it is nothing , but that it being a great part of Christianity to honour , and obey them , it hath the fate of all other parts of our Religion , and particularly of Charity , come to so low a declension , as it can scarce stand alone ; and faith , which shall scarce be found upon earth at the comming of the Sonne of Man. But to our businesse . S. Ignatius in his epistle to the Church of Trallis , Necesse itaque est ( saith he ) quicquid facitis , ut sine EPISCOPO NIHIL TENTETIS . So the Latine of Vedelius , which I the rather chuse , because I am willing to give all the advantage I can . It is necessary ( saith the good Martyr ) that whatsoever ye doe , you should attempt nothing without your BISHOP . And to the Magnesians , Decet itaque vos obedire EPISCOPO , ET IN NULLO ILLI REFRAGARI . It is fitting that ye should obey your BISHOP , and in NOTHING to be refractory to him . Here is both a Decet , and a Necesse est , already . It is very fitting , it is necessary . But if it be possible , we have a fuller expression yet , in the same Epistle ; Quemadmodum enim Dominus sine Patre nihil facit , nec enim possum facere à me ipso quicquam : sic & vos SINE EPISCOPO , nec Presbyter , nec Diaconus , nec Laicus . Nec QUICQUAM videatur VOBIS CONSENTANEUM quod sit PRAETER ILLIUS IUDICIUM , quod enim tale est , iniquum est , & Deo inimicum . Here is obedience Vniversall , both in respect of things , and persons ; and all this no lesse then absolutely necessary . For as Christ obey'd his Father in all things , saying , of my selfe I can doe nothing : so nor you without your BISHOP ; whoever you be , whether Priest , or Deacon , or Lay-man . Let nothing please you , which the Bishop mislikes , for all such things are wicked , and in enemity with God. * But it seems S. Ignatius was mightily in love with this precept , for he gives it to almost all the Churches he writes to . Wee have already reckon'd the Trallians , and the Magnesians . But the same he gives to the Priests of Tarsus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Ye Presbyters be subject to your Bishop . The same to the Philadelphians . Sine EPISCOPO nihil facite , Doe nothing without your BISHOP . But this is better explicated in his Epistle to the Church of Smyrna . Sine EPISCOPO NEMO QUIC QUAM FACIAT eorum quae ad Ecclesiam spectant . No man may doe ANY THING WITHOUT THE BISHOP , viz. of those things which belong to the Church . So that this saying expounds all the rest , for this universall obedience is to be understood according to the sense of the Church , viz. to be in all things of Ecclesiasticall cognizance , all Church affaires . And therefore he gives a charge to S. Polycarpe their Bishop ; that he also look to it , that nothing be done without his leave . Nihil sine TUO ARBITRIO agatur , nec item tu quicquam praeter Dei facies voluntatem . As thou must doe nothing against Gods will , so let nothing ( in the Church ) be done without thine . By the way , observe , he saies not , that as the Presbytery must doe nothing without the Bishop , so the Bishop nothing without them ; But , so the Bishop nothing without God. But so it is . Nothing must BE DONE without the Bishop ; And therefore although he incourages them that can , to remaine in Virginity , yet this , if it be either done with pride , or without the Bishop , it is spoiled . For , si gloriatus fuerit , periit , & si id ipsum statuatur SINE EPISCOPO , corruptum est . His last dictate in this Epistle to S. Polycarpe , is with an [ Episcopo attendite , sicut & Deus vobis ] The way to have God to take care of us , is to observe our Bishop . Hinc & vos decet accedere SENTENTIAE EPISCOPI , qui secundùm Deum vos pascit , quemadmodum & facitis , edocti à spiritu ; you must therefore conforme to the sentence of the BISHOP , as indeed yee doe already , being taught so to doe by Gods holy Spirit . There needs no more to be said in this cause , if the authority of so great a man will beare so great a burden . What the man was , I said before : what these Epistles are , and of what authority , let it rest upon * Vedelius , a man who is no waies to be suspected as a party for Episcopacy , or rather upon the credit of a Eusebius , b S. Hierome , and c Ruffinus who reckon the first seven out of which I have taken these excerpta , for naturall and genuine . And now I will make this use of it ; Those men that call for reduction of Episcopacy to the Primitive state , should doe well to stand close to their principles , and count that the best Episcopacy which is first ; and then consider but what S. Ignatius hath told us for direction in this affaire , and see what is gotten in the bargaine . For my part , since they that call for such a reduction hope to gaine by it , and then would most certainly have abidden by it , I think it not reasonable to abate any thing of Ignatius his height , but expect such subordination and conformity to the Bishop as he then knew to be a law of Christianity . But let this be remembred all along , in the specification of the parts of their Iurisdiction . But as yet I am in the generall demonstration of obedience . The Councell of Laodicea having specified some particular instances of subordination , and dependance to the Bishop , summes them up thus , * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . So likewise the Presbyters let them doe nothing without the precept and counsell of the Bishop , so is the translation of Isidore , ad verbum . This Councell is ancient enough , for it was before the first Nicene . So also was that of Arles commanding the same thing exactly . * Vt Presbyteri sine conscientiâ Episcoporum nihil faciant . Sed nec Presbyteris civitatis sine Episcopi praecepto amplius aliquid imperare , vel sine authoritate literarum ejus in Vnaquaque parochiâ aliquid agere , saies the thirteenth Canon of the An●yran Councell according to the Latine of Isidore . The same thing is in the first Councell of Toledo , the very same words for which I cited the first Councell of Arles , viz. That Presbyters doe nothing without the knowledge or permission of the Bishop . * Esto SUBIECTUS PONTIFICI Tuo , & quasi animae parentem suscipe . It is the counsell of S. Hierome . Be subject to thy Bishop and receive him as the Father of thy soule . I shall not need to derive hither any more 〈…〉 the Ecclesiasticall orders ; they therefore are to submit to the government of the Clergy in matters Spirituall with which they are intrusted . For either there is no Government at all , or the Laity must governe the Church , or else the Clergy must . To say there is no Government , is to leave the Church in worse condition then a tyranny . To say that the Laity should governe the Church , when all Ecclesiasticall Ministeries are committed to the Clergy , is to say , Scripture means not what it saies ; for it is to say , that the Clergy must be Praepositi , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and praelati , and yet the prelation , and presidency , and rule is in them who are not ever by Gods spirit called Presidents or Prelates , and that it is not in them who are called so . * In the mean time if the Laity in matters Spirituall are inferior to the Clergy , and must in things pertaining to the Soule be rul'd by them , with whom their Soules are intrusted ; then also much rather they must obey those of the Clergy , to whom all the other Clergy themselves are bound to be obedient . Now since by the frequent precept of so many Councells , and Fathers , the Deacons and Presbyters must submit in all things to the Bishop , much more must the Laity , and since the Bishop must rule in chiefe , and the Presbyters at the most can but rule in conjunction , 〈…〉 S. Iames translated by Ruffinus , saith it was the doctrine of Peter , according to the institution of Christ , that Presbyters should be obedient to their Bishop in all things ; and in his third Epistle ; that Presbyters , and Deacons and others of the Clergy must take heed that they doe nothing without the license of the Bishop . * And to make this businesse up compleat , all these authorities of great antiquity , were not the prime constitutions in those severall Churches respectively , but meere derivations from tradition Apostolicall ; for not only the thing , but the words so often mentioned are in the 40 th Canon of the Apostles . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( the same is repeated in the twenty fourth Canon of the Councell of Antioch ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Presbyters and Deacons must doe nothing . without leave of the Bishop , for to him the Lords people is committed , and he must give an account for their soules . * And if a Presbyter shall contemne his owne Bishop making conventions apart , and erecting another altar , he is to be deposed , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( saith the 32. Canon ) as a lover of Principality : intimating , that he arrogates Episcopall dignity , and so is ambitious of a Principality . The issue then is this . * The Presbyters , and Clergy , and Laity must obey , therefore the Bishop must governe and give them lawes . It was particularly instanc'd in the case of S. Chrysostome , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Theodoret , He adorned , and instructed Pontus with these Lawes , so he , reckoning up the extent of his jurisdiction . * But now descend we to a specification of the power and jurisdiction * of Bishops . * THE Bishops were Ecclesiasticall Iudges over the Presbyters , the inferiour Clergy and the Laity . What they were in Scripture who were constituted in presidency over causes spirituall , I have already twice explicated ; and from hence it descended by a close succession that they who watched for soules they had the rule over them , and because no regiment can be without coërcion , therefore there was inherent in them a power of cognition of causes , and coërcion of persons . * The Canons of the Apostles appointing censures to be inflicted on delinquent person's makes the Bishop's hand to doe it . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . If any Presbyter or Deacon be excommunicated BY THE BISHOP he must not be received by any else , but by him that did so censure him , vnlesse the BISHOP THAT CENSUR'D HIM be dead . The same is repeated in the Nicene Councell ; only it is permitted that any one may appeale to a Synod of BISHOPS , si fortè aliquâ indignatione , aut contentione , aut qualibet commotione Episcopi sui , excommunicati sint , if he thinks himselfe wrong'd by prejudice or passion ; and when the Synod is met , hujusmodi examinent Quaestiones . But by the way it must be Synodus Episcoporum , so the Canon ; ut ita demum hi qui ●b culpas suas EPISCOPORUM SUORUM OFFENSAS meritò contraxerunt dignè etiam à caeteris excommunicati habeantur , quousque in c●mmuni , vel IPSL ERISCOPO SUO UISUM FUERIT humaniorum circà eos ferre sententiam . The Synod of Bishops must ratifie the excommunication of all those who for their delinquencies have justly incurred the displeasure of their Bishop , and this censure to stick upon them till either the Synod , or their owne Bishop shall give a more gentle sentence . ** This Canon we see , relates to the Canon of the Apostles , and affixes the judicature of Priests , and Deacons to the Bishops : commanding their censures to be held as firme and valid : only as the Apostles Canon names Presbyters , and Deacons particularly ; so the Nicene Canon speakes indefinitely and so comprehends all of the Diocesse and jurisdiction . The fourth Councell of Carthage gives in expresse termes the cognisance of Clergy-causes to the Bishop , calling ayd from a Synod in case a Clergy-man prove refractary , and disobedient . Discordantes Clericos Episcopus vel ratione , vel potestate ad concordiam trahat , inobedientes Synodus per audientiam damnet . If the Bishops reason will not end the controversies of Clergy-men , his power must ; but if any man list to be contentious , intimating ( as I suppose out of the Nicene Councell ) with frivolous appeales , and impertinent protraction , the Synod [ of Bishops ] must condemne him , viz. for his disobeying his Bishops sentence . * The Councell of Antioch is yet more particular in it's Sanction for this affayre , intimating a cleare distinction of proceeding in the causes of a Bishop , and the other of Priests , and Deacons . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 &c. If a Bishop shall be deposed by a Synod ( viz. of Bishops , according to the exigence of the Nicene Canon ) or a PRIEST , OR DEACON BY HIS OWNE BISHOP , if he meddles with any Sacred offices he shall be hopelesse of absolution . But here we see that the ordinary Iudge of a Bishop is a Synod of Bishops ; but of Priests and Deacons the Bishop alone : And the sentence of the Bishop is made firme omnimodò in the next Canon ; Si quis Presbyter , vel Diaconus proprio contempto Episcopo .... privatim congregationem effecerit , & altare erexerit , & Episcopo accersente non obedierit nec velit ei parere , nec morem gerere primò & secundò vocanti , hic damnetur omni modo .... Quod si Ecclesiam conturbare , & sollicitare persistat tanquam seditiosus per potestates exter as opprimatur . What Presbyter soever refuses to obey his Bishop and will not appeare at his first , or second Summons , let him be deposed , and if he shall persist to disturbe the Church , let him be given over to the secular powers . * Adde to this the first Canon of the same Councell , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 &c : If any one be excommunicate by his owne Bishop &c : as it is in the foregoing Canons of Nice and the Apostles . The Result of these Sanctions is this . The Bishop is the Iudge : the Bishop is to inflict censures ; the Presbyters , and Deacons are either to obey , or to be deposed : No greater evidence in the world of a Superiour jurisdiction , and this established by all the power they had ; and this did extend , not only to the Clergy , but to the Laity ; for that 's the close of the Canon , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . This constitution is concerning the Laity , and the Presbyters , and the Deacons , and all that are within the rule , viz : that if their Bishop have sequestred them from the holy Communion , they must not be suffered to communicate elsewhere . But the AUDIENTIA EPISCOPALIS , The Bishops Audience-Court is of larger power in the Councell of Chalcedon , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . If any Clergy man have any cause against a Clergy man , let him by no meanes leave his owne Bishop and runne to SECULAR COURTS , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . But first le● the cause be examined before their owne BISHOP , or by the BISHOPS LEAVE before such persons as the contesting parties shall desire . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Whosoever does otherwise let him suffer vnder the censures of the Church . Here is not only a subordination of the Clergy in matters criminall , but also the civill causes of the Clergy must be submitted to the Bishop , under paine of the Canon . * I end this with the at●estation of the Councell of Sardis , exactly of the same Spirit , the same injunction , and almost the same words with the former Canons . Hosius the President said ; If any Deacon , or Priest , or of the inferiour Clergy being excommunicated shall goe to another Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , knowing him to be excommunicated by his owne BISHOP , that other Bishop , must by no meanes receive him into his communion . Thus farre we have matter of publike right , and authority declaring the Bishop to be the Ordinary Iudge of the causes , and perso●s of Clergy men ; and have power of inflicting censures both upon the Clergy , and the Laity . And if there be any weight in the concurrent testimony of the Apostolicall-Canons , of the Generall Councells of Nice , and of Chalcedon , of the Councells of Antioch , of Sardis , of Carthage ; then it is evident , that the Bishop is the Ordinary Iudge in all matters of Spirituall cognisance , and hath power of censures , and therefore a Superiority of jurisdiction . This thing only by the way ; in all these Canons there is no mention made of any Presbyters assistant with the Bishop in his Courts . For though I doubt not but the Presbyters were in some Churches , and in some times 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; and as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Ignatius calls them ; counsellors and assessors with the Bishop ; yet the power , and the right of inflicting censures is only expressed to be in the Bishop , and no concurrent jurisdiction mention'd in the Presbytery : but of this hereafter more particularly . * Now we may see these Canons attested by practice , and dogmaticall resolution . S. Cyprian is the man whom I would choose in all the world to depose in this cause ; because he , if any man , hath given all dues to the Colledge of Presbyters : and yet if he reserves the Superiority of jurisdiction to the Bishop , and that absolutely , and independently of conjunction with the Presbytery , we are all well enough , and without suspition . * Diù patientiam meam tenui ( Fratres Charissimi ) saith he , writing to the Presbyters and Deacons of his Church . He was angry with them for admitting the lapsi without his consent ▪ and though he was as willing as any man to comply both with the Clergy , and people of his D●●cesse , yet he also must assert his owne priviledges , and peculiar . Quod enim non periculam metuere debemus de offensâ Domini , quando aliqui de Presbyteris nec Evangelij nec loci 〈◊〉 memores , ●ed neque futurum Domini judicium , neque nunc praepositum sibi Episcopum cogitantes , quod nunquam omnino sub antecessoribus factum est ut cum cōtumeliâ & contemtu Praeposititotum sibi vendicent . The matter was , that certaine Presbyters had reconciled them that fell in persecution without the performance of penance according to the severity of the Canon ; and this was done without the Bishops leave , by the Presbyters [ Forgetting their owne place and the GOSPELL and their BISHOP set over them ] a thing that was never heard of , till that time . Totum sibi vendicabant , They that might doe nothing without the Bishops leave , yet did this whole affaire of their owne heads . Well! Vpon this S. Cyprian himselfe , by his owne authority alone , suspends them till his returne , and so shewes that his authority was independant , theirs was not , and then promises they shall have a faire hearing before him , in the presence of the Confessors , and all the people . Vtar eâ admonitione quâ me vti Dominus jubet , ut interim prohibeantur offerre , acturi & apud nos , & apud Confessores ipsos , & apud plebem Vniversam causam suam . * Here it is plaine that S. Cyprian suspended these Presbyters , by his owne authority , in absence from his Church , and reserved the further hearing of the cause till it should please God to restore him to his See. But this fault of the Presbyters S. Cyprian in the two next Epistles does still more exaggerate ; saying , they ought to have ask'd the Bishops leave , Sicut in praeteritum semper sub antecessoribus factum est , for so was the Catholike custome ever , that nothing should be done without the Bishops leave ; but now by doing otherwise they did prevaricate the divine commandement , and dishonour the Bishop . Yea , but the Confessors interceeded for the lapsi , and they seldome were discountenanc'd in their requests . What should the Presbyters doe in this ca●e● S. Cyprian tells them , writing to the Confessors . Petitiones itaque , & desideria vestra EPISCOPO servent . Let them keepe your petitions for the BISHOP to consider of . But they did not , therefore he suspended them , because they did not reservare Episcopo honorem Sacerdotij sui , & cathedrae ; Preserve the honour of the Bishops chaire , and the Episcopall authority in presuming to reconcile the penitents without the Bishops leave . The same S. Cyprian in his Epistle to Rogatianus resolves this affayre ; for when a contemptuous bold Deacon had abus'd his Bishop , he complain'd to S. Cyprian who was an Arch-Bishop , and indeed S. Cyprian tells him he did honour him in the businesse that he would complaine to him , cum pro EPISCOPATUS VIGORE , & CATHEDRAE AUTHORITATE haberes potestatem quâ posses de illo statim vindicari ; When as he had power Episcopall and sufficient authority himselfe to have punish'd the Deacon for his petulancy . The whole Epistle is very pertinent to this Question , and is cleare evidence for the great authority of Episcopall jurisdiction , the summe whereof is in this incouragement given to Rogatianus by S. Cyprian ; Fungaris circa cum POTESTATE HONORIS TUI , ut eum vel deponas , vel abstineas . Exercise the power of your honour upon him , and either suspend him , or depose him . * And therefore he commends Cornelius the Bishop of Rome for driving Felicissimus the Schismatick from the Church , vigore pleno quo Episcopum agere oportet with full authority , as becomes a Bishop , Socrates telling of the promotion , and qualities of S. Iohn Chrysostome , saies , that in reforming the lives of the Clergy , he was too fastuous and severe . Mox igitur in ipso initio quum Clericis asper videretur Ecclesiae , erat plurimis ex●sus , & veluti furiosum universi declinabant . He was so rigid in animadversions against the Clergy , that he was hated by them , which clearely showes that the Bishop had jurisdiction , and authority over them ; for tyranny is the excesse of power , & authority is the subject matter of rigour , and austerity . But this power was intimated in that bold speech of his Deacon Serapio , nunquam poteris , â Episcope , hos corrigere , nisi uno baculo percusseris Vniversos . Thou canst not amend the Clergy unlesse thou strikest them all with thy Pastorall rod. S. Iohn Chrystome did not indeed doe so , but non multum post temporis plurimos clericorum pro diversis exemit causis . He deprived , and suspended most of the Clergy men for diverse causes : and for this his severity he wanted no slanders against him ; for the delinquent Ministers set the people on work against him . * But here we see that the power of censures was clearely , and only in the Bishop , for he was incited to have punished all his Clergy , [ Vniversos ; ] And he did actually suspend most of them , [ plurimos : ] and I think it will not be believed the Presbytery of his Church should joyne with their Bishop to suspend themselves . Adde to this that Theodoret also affirmes that Chrysostome intreated the Priests to live Canonically according to the sanctions of the Church , quas quicunque praevaricari praesumerent eas ad tomplum prohibebat accedere , ALL them that transgressed the Canons he forbad them entrance into the Church . *** Thus S. Hierome to Riparius , Miror sanctum Episcopum , in cujus Parochiâ esse Presbyter dicitur , acquiescere furori ejus , & non virgâ APOSTOLICA , virgâque ferreâ confringere vas inutile , & tradere in interitum carnis , ut spiritus salvus fiat . I wonder ( saith he ) that the holy Bishop is not mov'd at the fury of Vigilantius , and does not breake him with his APOSTOLICALL rod , that by this temporary punishment his soule might be saved in the day of the Lord. * Hitherto the Bishops Pastorall staffe is of faire power and coërcion . The Councell of Aquileia convoked against the Arians , is full and mighty in asserting the Bishops power over the Laity , and did actually exercise censures upon the Clergy , where S. Ambrose was the Man that gave sentence against Palladius the Arian ▪ Palladius would have declined the judgement of the Bishops , for he saw he should certainly be condemned and would faine have been judg'd by some honourable personages of the Laity . But S. Ambrose said , Sacerdotes de Laicis judicare debent , non Laici de Sacerdotibus . Bishops must judge of the Laity , not the Laity of Bishops . That 's for the jus ; and for the factum it was the shutting up of the Councell ; S. Ambrose Bishop of Millaine gave sentence [ Pronuncio illum indignum Sacerdotio , & carendum , & in loco ejus Catholicus ordinetur . ] * The same also was the case of Marcellus Bishop of Ancyra in Galatia whom for heresy the Bishops at Constantinople depos'd , Eusebius giving sentence , and chose Basilius in his Roome . * But their Grand-father was serv'd no better . Alexander Bishop of Alexandria serv'd him neither better nor worse . So Theodoret. Alexander autem Apostolicorum dogmatum praedicator , priùs quidem revocare eum admonitionibus , & consilijs nitebatur . Cùm verò eum superbire vidisset , & apertè impietatis facinora praedicare , ex ordine Sacerdotali removit . The Bishop first admonish'd the heretick , but when to his false doctrine he added pertinacy he deprived him of the execution of his Priestly function . This crime indeed deserv'd it highly . It was for a lesse matter that Triferius the Bishop excommunicated Exuperantius a Presbyter , viz. for a personall misdemeanour , and yet this censure was ratified by the Councell of Taurinum , and his restitution was left arbitrio Episcopi , to the good will and pleasure of the Bishop who had censur'd him . statuit quoque de Exuperantio Presbytero sancta Synodu● , qui ad injuriam sancti Episcopi sui Triferii gravia & multa congesserat , & frequentibus ●um contumeliis provocaverat .... propter quam causam ab eo fuerat Dominicâ communione privatus , ut in ejus sit arbitrio restitutio ipsius , in cujus potestate ejus fuit abjectio . His restitution was therefore left in his power , because originally his censure was . * The like was in the case of Palladius a Laick in the same Councell , qui à Triferio Sacerdote fuerat mulctatus , who was punished by Triferius the Bishop ▪ hoc ei humanitate Concilii reservato , at ipse Triferius in potestate habeat , quando voluerit ei relaxare . Here is the Bishop censuring Palladius the Laick , and excommunicating Exuperantius the Priest , and this having been done by his own sole authority was ratified by the Councell , and the absolution reserv'd to the Bishop too , which indeed was an act of favour ; for they having complain'd to the Councell , by the Councell might have been absolved , but they were pleased to reserve to the Bishop his owne power . These are particular instances , and made publike by acts conciliary intervening . But it was the Generall Canon and Law of H. Church . Thus we have it expressed in the Councell of Agatho . Contumaces verò Clerici prout dignitatis ordo permiserit ab Episcopis corrigantur . Refractary Clerks must be punished by their Bishops , according at the order of their dignity allowes . I end this particular with some Canons commanding Clerks to submit to the judgement and censures of their Bishop , under a Canonicall penalty ; and so goe on ad alia . In the second Councell of Carthage , Alypius Episcopus dixit , nee illud praetermittendum est , ut si quis fortè Presbyter ab Episcopo suo correptus , aut excommunicatus , rumore vel superbiâ inflatus , putaverit separatim Deo sacrificia offerenda , vel aliud erigendum altare contra Ecclesiasticam fidem disciplinamque crediderit , non exeat impunitus . And the same is repeated in the Greeke Code of the African Canons . If any Presbyter being excommunicated , or otherwise punished by his Bishop , shall not desist , but contest with his Bishop , let him by no means goe unpunished . * The like is in the Councell of Chalcedon , the words are the same that I before cited out of the Canons of the Councell of Antioch , and of the Apostles . But Carosus the Archimandrite spake home in that action . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The faith of the 318 Fathers of the Councell of Nice into which I was baptized I know , Other faith I know not . They are Bishops ; They have power to excommunicate and condemne , and they have power to doe what they please : other faith then this I know none . * This is to purpose , and it was in one of the foure great Councells or Christendome which all ages since have received , with all veneration and devout estimate . Another of them was that of Ephesus conven'd against Nestorius , and this ratifies those acts of condemnation which the Bishops had passed upon delinquent Clerks . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 &c. They who are for their unworthy practices condemned by the Synod or by their OWN BISHOPS ; although Nestorius did endeavour to restore them , yet their condemnation should still remaine vigorous and confirm'd . Vpon which Canon Balsamon makes this observation , which indeed of it selfe is cleare enough in the Canon . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Hence you have learn'd that Metropolitans and Bishops can judge their Clergy , and suspend them , and sometimes depose them . Nay , they are bound to it , Pastoralis tamen necessitas habet ( ne per plures serpant dira contagia ) separare ab ovibus sanis morbidam . It is necessary that the BISHOP should separate the scabbed sheep from the sound , least their infection scatter , so S. Austin . * And therefore the fourth Councell of * Carthage commands , ut Episcopus accusatores Fratrum excommunicet , That the Bishop excommunicate the accuser of their Brethren ( viz. such as bring Clergy causes* and Catholick doctrine , to be punished in secular tribunalls ; ) For Excommunication is called by the Fathers Mucro Episcopalis , the Bishops sword to cut offenders off from the Catholike communion . I adde no more but that excellent saying of S. Au●tin , which doth freely attest both the preceptive , 〈…〉 power of the Bishop over his whole 〈◊〉 Ergo praecipiant tantummodò nobis quid facere debeiamus qui nobis praesunt , & faciamus orent pro nobis , non autem nos corripiant , & arguant , si non fecerimus . Imó omnia fiant , quoniam Doct●res Ecclesiarum Apostoli omnia faciebant , & praecipiebant quae fierent , & corripiebant si non fierent &c. And againe ; Corripiantur itaque à praepositis suis subditi correptionibus de charitate venientibus , pro culparum diversitate diversis , vel minoribus , vel amplioribus , quia & ipsa quae damnatio nominatur quam facit Episcopale judicium , quâ poenâ in Ecclesiâ nulla major est , potest , si Deus voluerit , in correptionem saluberrimam cedere , atque proficere . Here the Bishops have a power acknowledged in them to command their Diocesse , and to punish the disobedient , and of excommunication by way of proper Ministery , [ damnatio quam facit Episcopale judicium ] a condemnation of the Bishops infliction . Thus it is evident by the constant practice of Primitive Christendome , by the Canons of three Generall Counsells , and divers other Provinciall , which are made Catholick by adoption , and inserting them into the Code of the Catholick Church , that the Bishop was Iudge of his Clergy , and of the Lay-people of his Diocesse ; that he had power to inflict censures upon them in case of delinquency ; that his censures were firme and valid ; and as yet we find no Presbyters joyning either in commission , or fact ▪ in power , or exercise : but excommunication and censures to be appropriated to Bishops and to be only dispatch't by them , either in full Councell , if it was a Bishops cause , or in his own Consistory , if it was the cause of a Priest , or the inferior Clergy , or a Laick , unlesse in cases of appeale , and then it was in plen● Concilio Episcoporum , in a Synod of Bishops ; And all this was confirmed by secular authority , as appears in the Imperiall Constitutions . For the making up this Paragraph complete , I must insert two considerations . First concerning universality of causes within the Bishops cognisance . And secondly of Persons . The Ancient Canons asserting the Bishops power in Cognitione causarum speake in most large , and comprehensive termes . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . They have power to doe what they list . Their power is as large as their will. So the Councell of Chalcedon before cited . It was no larger though , then S. Pauls expression , [ for to this end also did I write , that I might know the proofe of you , whether ye be obedient IN ALL THINGS . ] A large extent of power when the Apostles expected an Universall obedience . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And so the stile of the Church runne in descention , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so Ignatius , ye must doe NOTHING without your BISHOP , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to contradict him in NOTHING . The expression is frequent in him , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to comprehend all things in his judgement , or cognisance , so the Councell of Antioch . * But these Universall expressions must be understood secundùm Materiam subjectam , so S. Ignatius expresses himselfe . Ye must without your Bishop doe nothing ; nothing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , of things pertaining to the Church . So also the Councell of Antioch , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The things of the Church , are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 committed to the Bishop to whom all the people is intrusted . They are Ecclesiasticall persons , it is an Ecclesiasticall power they are indowed with , it is for a spirituall end , viz the regiment of the Church , and the good of soules , and therefore only those things which are in this order are of Episcopall cognisance . And what things are those ? 1. Then , it is certaine that since Christ hath pro●essed , his Kingdome is not of this world , that government which he hath constituted de novo does no way in the world make any intrenchment upon the Royalty . Hostis Herodes impie Christum venire quid times ? Non cripit mortalia Qui regna dat Coelestia . So the Church us'd to sing . Whatsoever therefore the secular tribunall did take cognisance of before it was Christian , the same it takes notice of after it is Christ'ned . And these are ; all actions civill , all publike violations of justice , all breach of Municipall lawes . These the Church hath nothing to doe with , unlesse by the favour of Princes and common-wealths it be indulged to them in honorem Dei & S. Matris Ecclesiae ; but then when it is once indulged , that act which does annull such pious vowes , is just contrary to that religion which first gave them , and then unlesse there was sinne in the donative , the ablation of it is contra honorem Dei & S. Matris Ecclesiae . But this it may be is impertinent . 2. The Bishops ALL , comes in after this ; And he is judge of all those causes which Christianity hath brought in upon a new stock , by it's new distinctive Principles . I say , by it's new Principles ; for there where it extends justice , and pursues the lawes of nature , there the secular tribunall is also extended if it be Christian ; The Bishop gets nothing of that : But those things which Christianity ( as it prescinds from the interest of the republike ) hath introduc'd all them , and all the causes emergent from them the Bishop is judge of . Such are causes of faith , Ministration of Sacraments , and Sacramentals , subordination of inferiour Clergy to their Superiour , censures , irregularities , Orders hierarchicall , rites and ceremonies , liturgyes , and publike formes of prayer , ( as is famous in the Ancient story of Ignatius teaching his Church the first use of Antiphona's and Doxologyes , and thence was deriv'd to all Churches of Christendome ) and all such things as are in immediate dependance of these , as dispensation of Church Vessels , and Ornaments , and Goods , receiving and disposing the Patrimony of the Church , and whatsoever is of the same consideration , according to the 41 Canon of the Apostles . Praecipimus ut in potestate suâ Episcopus Ecclesiae res habeat . Let the Bishop have the disposing the goods of the Church ; adding this reason . Si enim animae hominum pretiosae illi sint credita , multò magis eum oportet curam pecuniarum gerere . He that is intrusted with our pretious soules , may much more be intrusted with the offertoryes of faithfull people . 3. There are some things of a mixt nature ; and something of the secular interest , and something of the Ecclesiasticall concurre to their constitution , and these are of double cognisance : the secular power , and the Ecclesiasticall doe both in their severall capacities take knowledge of them . Such are the delinquencyes of Clergy-men , who are both Clergy , and subjects too ; Clerus Domini , and Regis subditi ; and for their delinquencyes which are in materiâ justitiae the secular tribunall punishes as being a violation of that right which the State must defend , but because done by a person who is a member of the sacred hierarchy , and hath also an obligation of speciall duty to his Bishop , therefore the Bishop also may punish him ; And when the commonwealth hath inflicted a penalty , the Bishop also may impose a censure , for every sinne of a Clergy-man is two . But of this nature also are the convening of Synods , the power whereof is in the King , and in the Bishop severally , insomuch as both the Church and the commonwealth in their severall respects have peculiar interest ; The commonwealth for preservation of peace and charity , in which religion hath the deepest interest ; and the Church , for the maintenance of faith . And therefore both Prince and Bishop have indicted Synods in severall ages , upon the exigence of severall occasions , and have severall powers for the engagement of Clericall obedience , and attendance upon such solemnities . 4. Because Christianity is after the common-wealth , and is a capacity superadded to it , therefore those things which are of mixt cognisance are chiefly in the King ; The Supremacy here is his , and so it is in all things of this nature , which are called [ Ecclesiasticall ] because they are in materiâ Ecclesiae , ad finem religionis , but they are of a different nature , and use from things [ Spirituall ] because they are not issues of those things which Christianity hath introduc'd de integro , and are separate from the interest of the commonwealth in it's particular capacity , for such things only , are properly spirituall . 5. The Bishops jurisdiction hath a compulsory deriv'd from Christ only , viz. infliction of censures by excommunications , or other minores plagae which are in order to it . But yet this internall compulsory through the duty of good Princes to God , and their favour to the Church , is assisted by the secular arme , either superadding a temporall penalty in case of contumacy , or some other way abetting the censures of the Church , and it ever was so since commonwealths were Christian. So that ever since then , Episcopall Iurisdiction hath a double part ; an externall , and an internall ; this is deriv'd from Christ , that from the King , which because it is concurrent in all acts of Iurisdiction , therefore it is , that the King is supreme of the Iurisdiction , viz. that part of it which is the externall compulsory . * And for this cause we shall sometimes see the Emperour , or his Prefect , or any man of consular dignity sit Iudge when the Question is of Faith , not that the Prefect was to Iudge of that , or that the Bishops were not ; But in case of the pervicacy of a peevish heretick who would not submitt to the power of the Church , but flew to the secular power for assistance , hoping by taking sanctuary there , to ingage the favour of the Prince : In this case the Bishops also appealed thither , not for resolution , but assistance , and sustentation of the Church's power . * It was so in the case of Aëtius the Arian , & Honoratus the Prefect , Constantius being Emperour . For , all that the Prefect did , or the Emperour in this case , was by the prevalency of his intervening authority to reconcile the disagreeing parties , and to incourage the Catholikes ; but the precise act of Iudicature even in this case was in the Bishops , for they deposed Aëtius for his heresie , for all his confident appeale , and Macedonius , Eleusius , Basilius , Ortasius , and Dracontius for personall delinquencyes . * And all this is but to reconcile this act to the resolution , and assertion of S. Ambrose , who refus'd to be tryed in a cause of faith by Lay-Iudges , though Delegates of the Emperour . Quando audisti ( Clementissime Imperator ) in causâ fidei Laicos de Episcopo judicâsse ? When was it ever knowne that Lay-men in a cause of Faith did judge a Bishop ? To be sure , it was not in the case of Honoratus the Prefect ; for if they had appealed to him , or to his Master Constantius for judgment of the Article , and not for incouragement and secular assistance , S. Ambrose his confident Question of [ Quando audisti ? ] had quickly been answered , even with saying ; presently after the Councell of Ariminum in the case of Aëtius , and Honoratus . * Nay it was one of the causes why S. Ambrose deposed Palladius in the Councell of Aquileia , because he refused to answer , except it were before some honourable personages of the Laity . And it is observeable that the Arians were the first ( and indeed they offer'd at it often ) that did desire Princes to judge matters of faith , for they despayring of their cause in a Conciliary triall , hoped to ingage the Emperour on their party , by making him Umpire . But the Catholike Bishops made humble , and faire remonstrance of the distinction of powers , and Iurisdictions ; and as they might not intrench upon the Royalty , so neither betray that right which Christ concredited to them to the incroachment of an exteriour jurisdiction and power . It is a good story that Suidas tells of Leontius Bishop of Tripolis in Lydia , a man so famous and exemplary , that he was call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the rule of the Church that when Constantius the Emperour did preside amongst the Bishops , and undertooke to determine causes of meere spirituall cognisance , insteed of a Placet , he gave this answer , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . I wonder that thou being set over things of a different nature , medlest with those things that only appertaine to Bishops . The MILITIA , and the POLITI● are thine , but matters of FAITH , and SPIRIT , are of EPISCOPALL cognisance . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Such was the freedome of the ingenuaus L●●ntius . Answerable to which , was that Christian and faire acknowledgement of Valentinian when the Arian Bishops of Bithynia & the Hellespont sent Hypatianus their legate to desire him , ut dignaretur ad emendationem dogmatis interesse , that he would be pleas'd to mend the Article . Respondens Valentinianus , ait , Mihi quidem quum vnus de populo sim fas non est talia perscrutari . Verùm Sacerdotes apud se ipsos congregentur vbi voluerint . Cumque haec respondisset Princeps in Lampsacum convenerunt Episcopi . So Sozomen reports the story . The Emperour would not meddle with matters of faith , but referred the deliberation , and decision of them to the Bishops to whom by God's law they did appertaine ; Upon which intimation given , the Bishops conven'd in Lampsacum . And thus a double power met in the Bishops . A divine right to decide the article . Mihi fas non est , ( saith the Emperour ) it is not lawfull for me to meddle ; And then a right from the Emperour to assemble , for he gave them leave to call a Councell . These are two distinct powers , One from Christ , the other from the Prince . *** And now upon this occasion , I have faire opportunity to insert a consideration , The Bishops have power over all causes emergent in their diocesses ; all , ( I meane ) in the sense above explicated ; they have power to inflict censures , excommunication is the highest , the rest are parts of it , and in order to it . Whether or no must Church-censures be used in all such causes as they take cognisance of , or may not the secular power find our some externall compulsory in stead of it , and forbid the Church to use excommunication , in certaine cases ? 1. To this , I answer , that if they be such cases in which by the law of Christ they may , or such in which they must use excommunication , then , in these cases no power can forbid them . For what power Christ hath given them , no man can take away . 2. As no humane power can disrobe the Church of the power of excommunication ; so no humane power can invest the Church with a lay Compulsory . For if the Church be not capable of a jus gladij , as most certainly shee is not , the Church cannot receive power to put men to death , or to inflict lesser paines in order to it , or any thing above a salutary penance , I meane in the formality of a Church-tribunall , then they give the Church what shee must not , cannot take . I deny not but Clergy men are as capable of the power of life and death , as any men ; but not in the formality of Clergy-men . A Court of life and death , cannot be an Ecclesiasticall tribunall ; and then if any man , or company of Men should perswade the Church not to inflict her censures upon delinquents , in some cases in which shee might lawfully inflict them , and pretend to give her another compulsory ; they take away the Church-consistory , and erect a very secular Court , dependant on themselves , and by consequence to be appeal'd to from themselves , and so also to be prohibited as the Lay-Superiour shall see cause for . * Whoever therefore should be consenting to any such permutation of power , is traditor potestatis quam S. Mater Ecclesia à sponso suo acceperat , he betrayes the individuall , and inseparable right of holy Church . For her censures shee may inflict upon her delinquent children without asking leave . Christ is her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for that , he is her warrant and security . The other is beg'd , or borrow'd , none of her owne , nor of a fit edge to be us ' d in her abscissions , and coërcions . * I end this consideration with that memorable Canon of the Apostles of so frequent use in this Question , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Let the Bishop have the care or provision for all affaires of the Church , and let him dispense them velut Deo contemplante as in the sight of God , to whom he must be responsive for all his Diocesse . The next Consideration concerning the Bishop's jurisdiction is of what persons he is Iudge ? And because our Scene lyes here in Church-practice I shall only set downe the doctrine of the Primitive Church in this affaire , and leave it under that representation . Presbyters , and Deacons , and inferiour Clerks , and the Laity are already involved in the precedent Canons ; No man there , was exempted of whose soule any Bishop had charge . And all Christs sheepe heare his voice , and the call of his sheap-heard-Ministers . * Theodoret tells a story that when the Bishops of the Province were assembled by the command of Valentinian the Emperour for the choice of a Successor to Auxentius in the See of Millayne , the Emperour wished them to be carefull in the choice of a Bishop , in these words , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Set such an one in the Archiepiscopall throne , that we who rule the Kingdome may sincerely submitt our head unto him , viz : in matters of spirituall import . * And since all power is deriv'd from Christ , who is a King , and a Priest , and a Prophet , Christian Kings are Christi Domini , and Vicars in his Regall power , but Bishops in his Sacerdotall , and Propheticall . * So that the King hath a Supreme Regall power in causes of the Church , ever since his Kingdome became Christian , and it consists in all things , in which the Priestly office is not precisely by Gods law imployed for regiment , and cure of soules , and in these also , all the externall compulsory and jurisdiction in his owne . For when his Subjects became Christian Subjects , himselfe also upon the same termes becomes a Christian Ruler , and in both capacities he is to rule , viz : both as Subjects , and as Christian Subjects , except only in the precise issues of Sacerdotall authority . And therefore the Kingdome , and the Priesthood are excelled by each other in their severall capacities . For superiority is usually expressed in three words , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Excellency , Impery , and Power . The King is supreme to the Bishop in Impery ; The Bishop hath an Excellency , viz. of Spirituall Ministration which Christ hath not concredited to the King ; but in Power , both King , and Bishop have it distinctly in severall capacity ; the King in potentiâ gladii , the Bishop in potestate clavium . The Sword , and the Keyes are the emblems of their distinct power . Something like this is in the third Epistle of S. Clement translated by Ruffinus , Quid enim in praesenti saeculo prophetà gloriosius , Pontifice clarius , Rege sublimius ? King , and Priest , and Prophet , are in their severall excellencies , the Highest powers under heaven . *** In this sense it is easy to understand those expressions often used in Antiquity , which might seem to make intrenchment upon the sacrednesse of Royall prerogatives ; were not both the piety , and sense of the Church sufficiently cleare in the issues of her humblest obedience . * And this is the sense of S. Ignatius that holy Martyr , and disciple of the Apostles : Diaconi , & reliquus Clerus , unà cum populo Vniverso , Militibus , Principibus , & Caesare , ipsi Episcopo pareant . Let the Deacons and all the Clergy , and all the people , the Souldiers , the Princes , and Caesar himselfe obey the Bishop . * This is it , which S. Ambrose said ; Sublimitas Episcopalis nullis poterit comparationibus adaequari . Si Regum fulgori compares , & Principum diademati , erit inferius &c. This also was acknowledged by the great Constantine , that most blessed Prince , Deus vos constituit Sacerdotes , & potestatem vobis dedit , de nobis quoque judicandi , & ideo nos à vobis rectè judicamur . Vos autem non potestis ab hominibus judicari , [ viz. saecularibus , and in causis simplicis religionis . ] So that good Emperour in his oration to the Nicene Fathers . It was a famous contestation that S. Ambrose had with Auxentius the Arian pretending the Emperors command to him to deliver up some certain Churches in his Diocesse to the Arians . His answer was , that Palaces belong'd to the Emperour , but Churches to the Bishop ; and so they did , by all the lawes of Christendome . The like was in the case of S. Athanasius , and Constantius the Emperour , exactly the same per omnia , as it is related by Ruffinus . * S. Ambrose his sending his Deacon to the Emperour , to desire him to goe forth of the Cancelli , in his Church at Millain , showes that then the powers were so distinct , that they made no intrenchment upon each other . * It was no greater power , but a more considerable act , and higher exercise , the forbidding the communion to Theodosius , till he had by repentance , washed out the bloud that stuck upon him ever since the Massacre at Thessalonica . It was a wonderfull concurrence of piety in the Emperour , and resolution and authority in the Bishop . But he was not the first that did it ; For Philip the Emperour was also guided by the Pastorall rod , and the severity of the Bishop . De hoc traditum est nobis , quod Christianus fuerit , & in die Paschae , i.e. in ipsis vigiliis cùm interesse voluërit , & communicare mysteriis , ab Episcopo loci non priùs esse permissum , nisi confiteretur peccata , & inter poenitentes staret , nec ullo modo sibi copiam mysteriorum futuram nisi priùs per poenitentiam , culpas que de eo ferebantur plurimae , deluisset . The Bishop of the place would not let him communicate till hee had wash't away his sinnes by repentance . And the Emperour did so . Ferunt igitur libenter eum quod à Sacerdote imperatum fuerat , suscepisse . He did it willingly , undertaking the impositions laid upon him by the Bishop . I doubt not but all the world believes the dispensation of the Sacraments intirely to belong to Ecclesiasticall Ministery . It was S. Chrysostomes command to his Presbyters , to reject all wicked persons from the holy Communion . If he be a Captaine , a Consull , or a Crowned King that cometh unworthily , forbid him and keep him off , thy power is greater then his . If thou darest not remove him , tell it mee , I will not suffer it , &c. And had there never been more errour in the managing Church-censures , then in the foregoing instances , the Church might have exercised censures , and all the parts of power that Christ gave her , without either scandall or danger to her selfe , or her penitents . But when in the very censure of excommunication there is a new ingredient put , a great proportion of secular inconveniences , and humane interest , when excommunications , as in the Apostles times they were deliverings over to Satan , so now , shall be deliverings over to a forraine enemy , or the peoples rage ; as then , to be buffeted , so now to be deposed , or disinterest in the allegeance of subjects ; in these cases , excommunication being nothing like that which Christ authorized , and no way cooperating toward the end of its institution , but to an end of private designes , and rebellious interest , Bishops have no power of such censures , not is it lawfull to inflict thē , things remaining in that consistence , and capacity . And thus is that famous saying to be understood reported by S. Thomas to be S. Austin's , but is indeed found in the Ordinary Glosse upon Matth. 13. Princeps & multitudo non est excommunicanda . A Prince or a Common wealth are not to be excommunicate . Thus I have given a short account of the Persons , and causes of which Bishops according to Catholick practice did , and might take cognisance . This use only I make of it . Although Christ hath given great authority to his Church in order to the regiment of soules , such a power , quae nullis poterit comparationibus adaequari , yet it hath its limits , and a proper cognisance , viz. things spirituall , and the emergencies , and consequents from those things which Christianity hath introduced de novo , and superadded , as things totally disparate from the precise interest of the Common-wealth ; And this I the rather noted , to show how those men would mend themselves that cry downe the tyranny ( as they list to call it ) of Episcopacy , and yet call for the Presbytery . *** For the Presbytery does challenge cognisance of all causes whatsoever , which are either sinnes directly , or by reduction . * [ All crimes which by the Law of God deserve death . ] There they bring in Murders , Treasons , Witchcrafts , Felonies . Then the Minor faults they bring in under the title of [ Scandalous and offensive ] Nay [ Quodvis peccatum , ] saith Snecanus , to which if we adde this consideration , that they believe every action of any man to have in it the malignity of adamnable sinne , there is nothing in the world , good or bad , vitious or suspitious ; scandalous , or criminall ; true , or imaginary ; reall actions , or personall , in all which , and in all contestations , and complaints one party is delinquent , either by false accusation , or reall injury ; but they comprehend in their vast gripe , and then they have power to nullify all Courts , and judicatories , besides their owne : and being , for this their cognisance they pretend Divine institution , there shall be no causes IMPERFECT in their Consistory , no appeale from them , but they shall heare , and determine with finall resolution , and it will be sinne , and therefore punishable , to complaine of injustice and illegality . * If this be confronted but with the pretences of Episcopacy , and the Modesty of their severall demands , and the reasonablenesse , and divinity of each vindication examined , I suppose , were there nothing but Prudentiall motives to be put into ballance to weigh downe this Question , the cause would soone be determin'd , and the little finger of Presbytery , not only in it's exemplary , and tryed practises , but in its dogmaticall pretensions , is heavier then the loynes , nay then the whole body of Episcopacy ; but it seldome happens otherwise , but that they who usurpe a power , prove tyrants in the execution , whereas the issues of a lawfull power are faire and moderate . BUT I must proceed to the more particular instances of Episcopall Iurisdiction . The whole power of Ministration both of the Word and Sacraments was in the Bishop by prime authority , and in the Presbyters by commission and delegation , insomuch that they might not exercise any ordinary ministration without license from the Bishop . They had power and capacity by their order to Preach , to Minister , to Offer , to Reconcile , and to Baptize . They were indeed acts of order , but that they might not by the law of the Church exercise any of these acts , without license from the Bishop , that is an act or issue of jurisdiction , and shewes the superiority of the Bishop over his Presbyters , by the practice of Christendome . S. Ignatius hath done very good offices in all the parts of this Question , and here also he brings in succour . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It is not lawfull without the Bishop ( viz. without his leave ) either to baptize , or to offer Sacrifice , or to make oblation , or to keep feasts of charity : and a little before ; speaking of the B. Eucharist , and its ministration , and having premised a generall interdict for doing any thing without the Bishops consent , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . But let that Eucharist ( saith he ) be held valid which is celebrated under the Bishop , or under him , to whom the Bishop shall permit . *** * I doe not here dispute the matter of right , and whether or no the Presbyters might de jure doe any offices without Episcopall licence , but whether or no de facto it was permitted them in the primitive Church ? This is sufficient to show , to what issue the reduction of Episcopacy to a primitive consistence will drive ; and if I mistake not , it is at least a very probable determination of the question of right too . For who will imagine that Bishops should at the first in the calenture of their infant devotion , in the new spring of Christianity , in the times of persecution , in all the publike disadvantages of state and fortune , when they anchor'd only upon the shore of a Holy Conscience , that then they should have thoughts ambitious , incroaching , of usurpation and advantages , of purpose to devest their Brethren of an authority intrusted them by Christ , and then too when all the advantage of their honour did only set them upon a hill to feele a stronger blast of persecution , and was not , as since it hath been , attested with secular assistance , and faire arguments of honour , but was only in a meere spirituall estimate , and ten thousand reall disadvantages . This will not be suppos'd either of wise or holy men . But however . Valeat quantum val●●e potest . The question is now of matter of fact , and if the Church of Martyrs , and the Church of Saints , and Doctors , and Confessors now regnant in heaven , be faire precedents for practices of Christianity , we build upon a rock , though we had digg'd no deeper then this foundation of Catholick practise . Upon the hopes of these advantages , I proceed . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . If any Presbyter disrespecting his own Bishop shall make conventions apart , or erect an altar ( viz. without the Bishops license ) let him be deposed ; clearely intimating that potestas faciendi concionem , the power of making of Church-meetings and assemblies , for preaching or other offices is derived from the Bishop ; and therefore the Canon adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . He is a lover of Rule , he is a Tyrant , that is , an usurper of that power & government which belongs to the Bishop . The same thing is also decreed in the Councell of Antioch , and in the Councell of Chalcedon , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , All the most Reverend Bishops cryed out , this is a righteous law , this is the Canon of the holy Fathers . [ This ] viz. The Canon Apostolicall now cited . * Tertullian is something more particular , and instances in Baptisme . Dandi baptismum jus habet summus Sacerdos , qui est Episcopus . Dehinc Presbyteri & Diaconi , non tamen sine Episcopi authoritate , propter honorem Ecclesiae , quo salvo salva pax est ; alioquin etiam Laicis jus est . The place is of great consideration , and carries in it its own objection and its answer . The Bishop hath the right of giving baptisme . Then after him , Presbyters and Deacons , but not without the authority of the Bishop . ( So farre the testimony is clear ) and this is for the honour of the Church . * But does not this intimate it was only by positive constitution , and neither by Divine nor Apostolicall ordinance ? No indeed . It does not . For it might be so ordained by Christ or his Apostles propter honorem Ecclesia ; and no harme done . For it is honourable for the Church , that her Ministrations should be most ordinate , and so they are when they descend from the superior to the subordinate . But the next words doe of themselves make answer , [ Otherwise lay-men have right to baptize ] That is , without the consent of the Bishop Lay-men can doe it as much as Presbyters and Deacons . For indeed baptisme conferred by Lay-men is valid and not to bee repeated , but yet they ought not to administer it , so neither ought Presbyters without the Bishops license : so saies Tertullian , let him answer it . Only the difference is this , Lay-men cannot jure ordinario receive a leave or commission to make it lawfull in them to baptize any ; Presbyters and Deacons may , for their order is a capacity or possibility . ** But besides the Sacrament of Baptisme , Tertullian affirmes the same of the venerable Eucharist . Eucharistiae Sacramentum non de aliorum manu quàm Praesidentium sumimus . The former place will expound this , if there be any scruple in [ Praesidentium ] for clearly the Christians receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist from none but Bishops . I suppose he means [ without Episcopall license . ] whatsoever his meaning is , these are his words . The Councell of Gangra , forbidding conventicles , expresses it with this intimation of Episcopall authority . If any man shall make assemblies privately , & out of the Church , so despising the Chutch , or shall doe any Church-offices 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , without the presence of a Priest by THE DECREE OF A BISHOP , let him be anathema . The Priest is not to be assistant at any meeting for private offices without the Bishops license . If they will celebrate Synaxes privately , it must be by a Priest , and he must be there by leave of the Bishop , & then the assembly is lawfull . * And this thing was so knowne , that the Fathers of the second Councell of Carthage call it ignorance or hypocrisy in Priests to doe their offices without a license from the Bishop . Numidiu● Episcopus Massilytanus dixit , In quibusdam locis sunt Presbyteri qui aut ignorantes simplicitèr , aut dissimulantes audactèr , praesente , & inconsulto Episcopo complurimis in domicilijs agunt agenda , quod disciplinae incongruum cognoscit esse Sanctitas vestra . In some places there are Priests that in private houses doe offices ( houseling of people is the office meant , communicating them at home ) without the consent or leave of the Bishop , being either simply ignorant , or boldly dissembling ; Implying , that they could not else but know their duties to be , to procure Episcopall license for their ministrations . Ab Vniversis Episcopis dictum est . Quisquis Presbyter inconsulto Episcopo agenda in quolibet loco v●luërit celebrare , ipse honroi suo contrarius existit . All the Bishops said , if any Priest without leave of his Bishop shall celebrate the mysteries , be the place what it will be , he is an Enemy to the Bishops dignity . After this in time , but before in authority is the great Councell of Chalcedon . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Let the Clergy according to the tradition of the Fathers , remaine under the power of the Bishops of the City . So that they are for their offices in dependance of the authority of the Bishop . The Canon instances particularly to Priests officiating in Monasteries and Hospitalls , but extends it selfe to an indefinite expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , They must not dissent or differ from their Bishop . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 &c : All they that transgresse this Constitution in ANY WAY , not submitting to their Bishop , let them be punish'd canonically . So that now these generall expressions of obedience and subordination to the Bishop being to be Understood according to the exigence of the matter , to wit , the Ministeries of the Clergy in their severall offices , the Canon extends it's prohibition to all ministrations without the Bishops authority . But it was more clearely and evidently law and practice in the Roman Church , we have good witnesse for it ; S. Leo the Bishop of that Church is my author . Sed neque coram Episcopo licet Presbyteris in baptisterium introire , nec praesente Antistite infantem tingere , aut signare , nec poenitentem sine praeceptione Episcopi sui reconciliare , nec eo praesente nisi illo jubente Sacramentum corpor is & Sanguinis Christi conficere , nec eo coràm posito populum docere , vel benedicere &c. It is not lawfull for the Presbyters to enter into the baptistery , nor to baptize any Catechumens , nor to consecrate the Sacrament of Christs body and bloud in the presencè of the Bishop without his command . From this place of S. Leo , if it be set in conjunction with the precedent , we have faire evidence of this whole particular . It is not lawfull to doe any offices without the Bishops leave ; So S. Ignatius , so the Canons of the Apostles , so Tertullian , so the Councells of Antioch and Chalcedon . It is not lawfull to doe any offices in the Bishops presence without leave , so S. Leo. The Councell of Carthage joynes them both together , neither in his presence , nor without his leave in any place . Now against this practice of the Church , if any man should discourse as S. Hierome is pretended to doe by Gratian , Qui non vult Presbyteros facere quae jubentur à Deo , dicat quis major est Christo. He that will not let Presbyters doe what they are commanded to doe by God , let him tell us if any man be greater then Christ , viz : whose command it is , that Presbyters should preach . Why then did the Church require the Bishop's leave ? might not Presbyters doe their duty without a license ? This is it which the practice of the Church is abundantly sufficient to answer . * For to the Bishop is committed the care of the whole diocesse , he it is that must give the highest account for the whole charge , he it is who is appointed by peculiar designation to feede the flock , so the Canon of the 1 Apostles , so 2 Ignatius , so the Councell of 3 Antioch , so every where ; The Presbyters are admitted in partem sollicitudinis , but still the jurisdiction of the whole Diocesse is in the Bishop , and without the Bishop's admission to a part of it per traditionem subditorum , although the Presbyter by his ordination have a capacity of preaching and administring Sacraments , yet he cannot exercise this without designation of a particular charge either temporary or fixt . And therefore it is , that a Presbyter may not doe these acts without the Bishops leave , because they are actions of relation , and suppose a congregation to whom they must be administred , or some particular person ; for a Priest must not preach to the stones as some say Venerable Bede did , nor communicate alone , the word is destructive of the thing , nor baptize unlesse he have a Chrysome Child , or a Catechumen ; So that all of the Diocesse being the Bishop's charge , the Bishop must either authorize the Priest , or the Priest must not meddle , least he be ( what S. Peter blam'd ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a Bishop in anothers Diocesse : Not that the Bishop did license the acts precisely of baptizing , of consecrating &c. For these he had by his oxdination , but that in giving license he did give him a subject to whom he might apply these relative actions , and did quoad hoc take him in partem sollicitudinis and concredit some part of his diocesse to his administration cum curâ animarum . But then on the other side because the whole cure of the Diocesse is in the Bishop , he cannot exonerate himselfe of it , for it is a burden of Christs imposing , or it is not imposed at all , therefore this taking of Presbyters into part of the regiment and care does not devest him of his own power , or any part of it , nor yet ease him of his care , but that as he must still 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , visit and see to his Diocesse , so he hath authority still in all parts of his Diocesse , and this appears in these places now quoted ; insomuch as when the Bishop came to any place , there the Vicaria of the Presbyters did cease . In praesentiâ Majoris cessat potest as minoris . And , though because the Bishop could not doe all the Minor and daily offices of the Priesthood in every congregation of his Diocesse , therefore he appointed Priests severally to officiate , himselfe looking to the Metropolis and the daughter Churches by a generall supravision ; yet when the Bishop came into any place of his Diocesse , there he being presen● might doe any office , because it was in his own charge , which he might concredit to another , but not exonerate himselfe of it ; And therefore praesente Episcopo ( saith the Councell of Carthage , and S. Leo ) if the Bishop be present , the Presbyter without leave might not officiate ; For he had no subjects of his owne , but by trust and delegation , and this delegation was given him to supply the Bishops absence , who could not simul omnibus interesse , but then , where he was present , the cause of delegation ceasing , the jurisdiction also ceased , or was at least absorpt in the greater , and so without leave might not be exercised ; like the starres which in the noon day have their own naturall light , as much as in the night , but appeare not , shine not in the presence of the Sunne . This perhaps will seem uncouth to those Presbyters , who ( as the Councell of Carthage's expression is ) are contr●rii honort Episcopali ; but yet if we keep our selves in our own forme , where God hath placed us , and where wee were in the Primitive Church , wee shall find all this to be sooth , and full of order . For Consider . The elder the prohibition was , the more absolute & indefinite it runs . [ Without the Bishop it is not lawfull to baptize , to consecrate ] &c. So Ignatius . The prohibition is without limit . But in descent of the Church it runnes , [ praesente Episcopo ] the Bishop being present they must not without leave . The thing is all one , and a derivation from the same originall , to wit , the Vniversality of the Bishops Iurisdiction , but the reason of the difference of expression is this . At first Presbyters were in Citties with the Bishop , and no parishes at all concredited to them . The Bishops lived in Citties , the Presbyters preach'd and offer'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from house to house according as the Bishop directed them . Here they had no ordinary charge , and therefore the first prohibitions runne indefinitely , they must not doe any Clericall offices sine Episcopo , unlesse the Bishop sends them . But then afterwards when the Parishes were distinct , and the Presbyters fix't upon ordinary charges , then it was only , praesente Episcopo , if the Bishop was present , they might not officiate without leave . For in his absence they might doe it , I doe not say without leave , but I say they had leave given them , when the Bishop sent them to officiate in a Village with ordinary or temporary residence ; as it is to this day , when the Bishop institutes to a particular charge , he also gives power hoc ipso , of officiating in that place . So that at first when they did officiate in places by temporary missions , then they were to have leave , but this license was also temporary ; but when they were fixt upon ordinary charges they might not officiate without leave , but then they had an ordinary leave given them in traditione subditorum , and that was done in subsidium Muneres Episcopalis , because it was that part of the Bishops charge , which he could not personally attend for execution of the Minor offices , and therefore concredited it to a Presbyter , but if he was present , a new leave was necessary , because as the power alwaies was in the Bishop , so now the execution also did returne to him when he was there in person , himselfe if he listed , might officiate . All this is excellently attested in the example of S. Austin , of whom Possidonius in his life reports that being but a Presbyter , Valerius the Bishop being a Greek borne , and not well spoken in the Latin tongue , and so unfit for publike orations , eidem Presbytero ( viz. to Austin ) potestatem dedit coram se in Ecclesiâ Evangelium praedicandi , ac frequentissimè tractandi contra . USUM quidem , & CONSUETUDINEM Africanarum Ecclesiarum . He gave leave to Austin then but Presbyter , to preach in the Church , even while himselfe was present , indeed against the VSE and CUSTOME of the African Churches . And for this act of his he suffered soundly in his report . * For the case was thus . In all Africa ever since the first spring of the Arian heresy , the Church had then suffered so much by the preaching of Arius the Presbyter , that they made a Law not to suffer any Presbyter to preach at all , at least in the Mother Church , and in the Bishops presence . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( saith Socrates . ) Thence came this Custome in the African Churches . But because Valerius saw S. Austin so able , and himselfe for want of Latin so unfit , he gave leave to Austin to preach before him , against the Custome of the African Churches . But he addes this reason for his excuse too ; it was not indeed the custome of Africa , but it was of the Orientall Churches . For so Possidonius proceeds , sed & ille vir venerabilis , ac providus , in orientalibus Ecclesiis id ex more fieri sciens , in the Levant it was usuall for Bishops to give Presbyters leave to preach , dummodò factitaretur à Presbytero quod à se Episcopo impleri minimè posse cernebat , which determines us fully in the businesse . For this leave to doe offices was but there to be given where the Bishop himselfe could not fulfill the offices , which showes the Presbyters in their severall charges , whether of temporary mission , or fixt residence , to be but Delegates , and Vicars of the Bishop admitted in partem Sollicitudinis , to assist the Bishop in his great charge of the whole Diocesse . Against this it is objected out of S. Hierome , and it is recorded by Gratian , Ecce ego dico praesentibus Episcopis suis , atque adstantibus in altari Presbyteros posse Sacramenta conficere . Behold , I say that Presbyters may minister Sacraments in presence of the Bishop . So Gratian quotes it indeed , but S. Hierome saies the expresse contrary , unlesse we all have false copies . For in S. Hierome it is not [ Ecce ego dico ] but [ Nec ego dico . ] He does not say it is lawfull for Presbyters to officiate in the presence of their Bishop . Indeed S. Hierome is angry at Rusticus Bishop of Narbona because he would not give leave to Presbyters to preach , nor to blesse &c. This , perhaps it was not well done , but this makes not against the former discourse ; for though it may be fit for the Bishop to give leave , the Church requiring it still more and more in descent of ages , and multiplication of Christians , and Parishes , yet it is cleare that this is not to be done without the Bishops leave , for it is for this very thing that S. Hierome disputes against Rusticus , to show he did amisse , because he would not give his Presbyters license . * And this he also reprehends in his epistle ad Nepotianum , Pessimae consuetudinis est in quibusdam Ecclesiis tacere Presbyteros , & praesentibus Episcopis non loqui . That Presbyters might not be suffered to preach in presence of the Bishop , that was an ill custome , to wit , as things then stood , and it was mended presently after , for Presbyters did preach in the Bishops presence , but it was by license from their Ordinary . For so Possidonius relates , that upon this act of Valerius before mentioned , Posteà currente & volante hujusmodi famâ , bono praecedente exemplo , ACCEPTA AB EPISCOPIS POTESTATE Presbyteri nonnulli coram Episcopis , populis tractare caeperunt verbum Dei. By occasion of this precedent it came to passe , that some Presbyters did preach to the people in the Bishops presence , having first obtain'd faculty from the Bishop so to doe . And a little after it became a custome from a generall faculty and dispensation indulged to them in the second Councell of Vase . Now if this evidence of Church practise be not sufficient to reconcile us to S. Hierome , let him then first be reconciled to himselfe , and then we are sure to be help'd . For in his dialogue against the Luciferians , his words are these , Cui si non exors quaedam & ab omnibus eminens detur potestas , tot efficientur Schismata quot sunt Sacerdotes . Inde venit ut sine Episcopi missione neque Presbyter , neque Diaconus jus habeant baptizandi . Because the Bishop hath an eminent power , and this power is necessary , thence it comes that neither Presbyter nor Deacon may so much as baptize without the Bishops leave . ** This whole discourse showes clearely not only the Bishops to be superiour in jurisdiction , but that they have sole jurisdiction , and the Presbyters only in substitution and vicaridge . ** DIvers other acts there are to attest the superiority of the Bishops jurisdiction over Priests and Deacons , as , that all the goods of the Church were in the Bishops sole disposing , and as at first they were laid at the Apostles feet , so afterwards , at the Bishops . So it is in the 41. Canon of the Apostles , so it is in the Councell of Gangra , and all the world are excluded from intervening in the dispensation , without expresse delegation from the Bishop , as appears in the seventh and eight Canons , and that under pain of an anathema by the holy Councell . * And therefore when in successe of time , some Patrons that had founded Churches and endowed them , thought that the dispensation of those lands did not belong to the Bishop ; of this the third Councell of Toledo complains , and makes remedy , commanding , ut omnia SECUNDUM CONSTITUTIONEM ANTIQUAM , ad Episcopi ordinationem & potestatem pertineant . The same is reniewed in the fourth Councell of Toledo . Noverint autem conditores basilicarum in rebus quas eisdem Ecclesiis conferunt , nullam se potestatem habere , SED IUXTA CANONUM INSTITUTA , sicut Ecclesiam , ita & dotem ejus ad ordinationem Episcopi pertinere . These Councells I produce not as Iudges , but as witnesses in the businesse , for they give concurrent testimony that as the Church it selfe , so the dowry of it too did belong to the Bishops disposition by the Ancient Canons . For so the third Councell of Toledo calls it , antiquam Constitutionem , and it selfe is almost 1100. years old , so that still I am precisely within the bounds of the Primitive Church though it be taken in a narrow sense . For so it was determin'd in the great Councell of Chalcedon , commanding that the goods of the Church should be dispensed by a Clergy steward , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , according to the pleasure or sentence of the Bishop . ADde to this , that without the Bishop's dimissory letters Presbyters might not goe to another Diocesse . So it is decreed in the fifteenth Canon of the Apostles , under paine of suspension or deposition , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the censure ; and that especially , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , if he would not returne when his Bishop calls him . The same is renewed in the Councell of Antioch , cap. 3. and in the Councell of Constantinople in Trullo , cap. 17. the censure there is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , let him be deposed that shall without dimissory letters from his Bishop , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , fix● himselfe in the Diocesse of another Bishop . But with license of his Bishop , he may . Sacerdotes , vel alii Clerici concessione suorum Episcoporum possunt ad alias Ecclesias transmigrare . But this is frequently renewed in many other Synodall decrees , these may suffice for this instance . * But this not leaving the Diocesse is not only meant of promotion in another Church , but Clergy men might not travaile from Citty to Citty , without the Bishops license ; which is not only an argument of his regiment in genere politico , but extends it almost to a despotick ; But so strict was the Primitive Church in preserving the strict tye of duty , and Clericall subordination to their Bishop . The Councell of La●dicea commands a Priest , or Clergy man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , not to travail without Canonicall , or dimissory letters . And who are to grant these letters , is expressed in the next Canon which repeats the same prohibition , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a Priest or a Clerke must not travaile without the command of his Bishop ; and this prohibition is inserted into the body of the Law , de consecrat . dist 5. can . non oportet , which puts in the clause of [ Neque etiam Laicum , ] but this was beyond the Councell , The same is in the Councell of a Agatho . The Councell of b Venice adds a cēsure , that those Clerks should be like persons excommunicate in all those places whither they went , without letters of license from their Bishop . The same penalty is inflicted by the Councell of Epaunum , Presbytero , vel Diacono sine Antistitis sui Epistolis ambulanti communionem nullus impendat . The first Councell of Tourayne in France , and the third Councell of Orleans attest the selfe same power in the Bishop , and duty in all his Clergy . BUT a Coërcitive authority makes not a complete jurisdiction , unlesse it be also remunerative , & [ the Princes of the Nations are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Benefactors ] for it is but halfe a tye to indeare obedience , when the Subject only fears quod prodesse non poterit , that which cannot profit . And therefore the primitive Church , to make the Episcopall jurisdiction up intire , gave power to the Bishop to present the Clerks of his Diocesse to the higher Orders and neerer degrees of approximation to himselfe , and the Clerks might not refuse to be so promoted . Item placuit ut quicunque Clerici vel Diaconi pro necessitatibus Ecclesiarnm non obtemperaverint EPISCOPIS SUIS VOLENTIBUS EOS AD HONOREM AMPLIOREM IN SUA ECCLESIA PROMOVERE , nec illic ministrent in gradu suo unde recedere noluerunt . So it is decreed in the African Code , They that will not by their by Bishop be promoted to a Greater honour in the Church , must not enjoy what they have already . But it is a question of great consideration , and worth a strict inquiry , in whom the right and power of electing Clerks was resident in the Primitive Church : for the right and the power did not alwaies goe together , and also severall Orders had severall manner of election ; Presbyters and inferior Clergy were chosen by the Bishop alone , the Bishop by a Synod of Bishops , or by their Chapter ; And lastly , because of late , strong outcries are made upon severall pretensions , amongst which the people make the biggest noise , though of all , their title to election of Clerks be most empty , therefore let us consider it upon all its grounds . 1. In the Acts of the Apostles , which are most certainely the best precedents for all acts of holy Church we find that [ Paul and Barnabas ordain'd Elders in every Church ] and [ they passed thorough Lystra , Iconium , Antioch , and Derbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , appointing them Elders . * S. Paul chose Timothy Bishop of Ephesus , and he saies of himselfe and Titus , [ For this cause I SENT thee to Crete , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that thou shouldest oppoint Presbyters , or Bishops ( be they which they will ) in every City ] . The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , signifies that the whole action was his . For that he ordain'd them no man questions , but he also APPOINTED THEM , and that was , saith S. Paul , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as I commanded thee . It was therefore an Apostolicall ordinance , that the BISHOP SHOULD APPOINT PRESBYTERS . Let there be halfe so much showne for the people , and I will also indeavour to promote their interest . **** There is onely one pretence of a popular election in Scripture ; It is of the seven that were set over the widdowes . * But first , this was no part of the hierarchy : This was no cure of soules : This was no divine institution : It was in the dispensation of monyes : it was by command of the Apostles the election was made , and they might recede from their owne right : it was to satisfye the multitude : it was to avoid scandall , which in the dispensation of moneyes might easily arise : it was in a temporary office : it was with such limitations , and conditions as the Apostles prescrib'd them : it was out of the number of the 70 that the election was made , if we may beleive S. Epiphanus , so that they were Presbyters before this choice : and lastly , it was onely a Nomination of seven Men , the determination of the buisinesse , and the authority of rejection was still in the Apostles , and indeed the whole power [ Whom WE MAY APPOINT over this businesse ] & after all this , there can be no hurt done by the objection , especially since clearely and indubiously the election of Bishops , and Presbyters was in the Apostles owne persons ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith S. Ignatius of Evodias ; Evodias was first APPOINTED to be your Governour , or Bishop , by the APOSTLES ) and themselves did committ it to others that were Bishops , as in the instances before reckoned . Thus the case stood in Scripture . 2. In the practice of the Church it went according to the same law , and practice Apostolicall . The People did not , might not choose the Ministers of holy Church . So the Councell of Laodicea , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The people must not choose those that are to be promoted to the Priesthood . The prohibition extends to their Non-election of all the Superiour Clergy , Bishops and Presbyters . But who then must elect them ? The Councell of Nice determines that , for in 16 and 17 Canons the Councell forbids any promotion of Clerks to be made , but by the Bishop of that Church where they are first ordayned , which clearely reserves to the Bishop the power of retayning , or promoting all his Clergy . * 3. All Ordinations were made by Bishops alone , ( as I have already prooved . ) Now let this be confronted with the practice of Primitive Christendome , that no Presbyter might be ordain'd sine titulo without a particular charge , which was alwaies custome , and at last grew to be a law in the Councell of Chalcedon , and we shall perceive that the ordainer was the onely chooser ; for then to ordaine a Presbyter was also to give him a charge ; and the Patronage of a Church was not a lay inheritance , but part of the Bishops cure , for he had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the care of the Churches in all the Diocesse ; as I have already showne . And therefore when S. Ierome , according to the custome of Christendome , had specified some particular ordinations or election of Presbyters by Bishops , as how himselfe was made Priest by Paulinus , and Paulinus by Epiphanius of Cyprus , Gaudeat Episcopus judicio suo , cùm tales Christo elegerit Sacerdotes , let the Bishop rejoyce in his owne act , having chosen such worthy Priests for the service of Christ. Thus S. Ambrose gives intimation that the dispensing all the offices in the Clergy was solely in the Bishop . Haec spectet Sacerdos , & quod cuique congruat , id officij deputet . Let the Bishop observe these rules , and appoint every one his office as is best answerable to his condition and capacity . And Theodoret reports of Leontius the Bishop of Antioch , how being an Arian , adversarios recti dogmatis suscipiens , licèt turpem habentes vitam , ad Presbyteratûs tamen ordinem , & Diaconatûs evexit . Eos autem qui Vniversis virtutibus ornabantur , & Apostolica dogmata defendebant , absque honore deseruit . He advanc'd his owne faction , but would not promote any man that was Catholike and pious . So he did . The power therefore of Clericall promotion was in his owne hands . This thing is evident and notorious ; And there is scarce any example in Antiquity of either Presbyters , or people choosing any Priest , but only in the case of S. Austin whom the Peoples hast snatch'd , and carried him to their Bishop Valerius intreating him to ordayne him Priest. This indeed is true , that the testimony of the people , for the life of them that were to be ordayn'd was by S. Cyprian ordinarily required ; In ordinandis Clericis ( Fratres Charissimi ) solemus vos ante consulere , & mores , ac merita singulorum communi consilio ponderare . It was his custome to advise with his people concerning the publike fame of Clerks to be ordayn'd ; It was usuall ( I say ) with him , but not perpetuall , for it was otherwise in the case of Celerinus , and divers others , as I shewed elsewhere . 4. In election of Bishops ( though not of Priests ) the Clergy and the people had a greater actuall interest , and did often intervene with their silent consenting suffrages , or publike acclamations . But first ; This was not necessary . It was otherwise among the Apostles , and in the case of Timothy , of Titus , of S. Iames , of S. Marke , and all the Successors whom they did constitute in the severall chayres . 2 ly . This was not by law , or right , but in fact only . It was against the Canon of the Laodicean Councell , and the 31 th Canon of the Apostles , which under paine of deposition commands that a Bishop be not promoted to his Church by the intervening of any lay power . Against this discourse S. Cyprian is strongly pretended . Quando ipsa [ plebs ] maximè habeat potestatem vel eligendi dignos Sacerdotes , vel indignos recusandi . Quod & ipsum videmus de divinâ authoritate descendere &c. Thus he is usually cited . The people have power to choose , or to refuse their Bishops , and this comes to them from Divine authority . No such matter . The following words expound him better , [ Quod & ipsum videmus de divinâ authoritate descendere , ut Sacerdos PLEBE PRAESENTE sub omnium oculis deligatur , & dignus , atque idoneus publico judicio ac testimonio comprobetur : that the Bishop is chosen publikely , in the presence of the people , and he only be thought fit who is approved by publike judgement , and testimony ; or as S. Paul's phrase is [ he must have a good report of all men ] that is indeed a divine institution , and that to this purpose , and for the publike attestation of the act of election and ordination the peoples presence was required , appeares clearely by S. Cyprian's discourse in this Epistle . For what is the divine authority that he mentions ? It is only the example of Moses whom God commanded to take the Sonne of Eleazer and cloath him with his Fathers robes coram omni Synagogâ , before all the congregation . The people chose not , God chose Eleazar , and Moses consecrated him , and the people stood , and look'd on ; that 's all that this argument can supply . * Iust thus Bishops are , and ever were ordayn'd , non nisi sub populi assistentis conscientiâ , in the sight of the people standing by ; but to what end ? Vt plebe praesente detegantur malorum crimina , vel bonorum merita praedicentur . All this while the election is not in the people , nothing but the publike testimony , and examination , for so it followes , & sit ordinatio justa & legitima quae omnium suffragio , & judicio fuerit examinata . ** But S. Cyprian hath two more proof's whence we may learne either the sense , or the truth of his assertion . The one is of the Apostles ordayning the seven Deacons ( but this we have already examin'd , ) the other of S. Peter choosing S. Matthias into the Apostolate ; it was indeed done in the presence of the people . * But here it is considerable that at this surrogation of S. Matthias the Number of the persons present was but 120 , of which eleven were Apostles , and 72 were Disciples and Presbyters , they make up 83 , and then there remaines but 37 of the Laity , of which many were women , which I know not yet whether any man would admitt to the election of an Apostle , and whether they doe or doe not , the Laity is a very inconsiderable Number if the matter had beene to be carried by plurality of voices ; so that let the worst come that is imaginable , the whole businesse was in effect carried by the Clergy , whom in this case we have no reason to suspect to be divided , and of a distinct , or disagreeing interest . * 2. Let this discourse be of what validity it will , yet all this whole businesse was miraculous , and extraordinary ; For though the Apostles nam'd two Candidates yet the holy Ghost chose them by particular revelation . And yet for all this , it was lawfull for S. Peter alone to have done it without casting lots . An non licebatipsi [ Petro ] eligere ? licebat , & quidem maximè ; verùm id non facit ●e cui videretur gratificari . Quanquam alioqui non erat particeps Spiritûs . For all , he had not as yet received the holy Ghost , yet he had power himselfe to have completed the election . So S. Chrysostome . So that now , if S. Cyprian meanes more then the presence of the people for suffrage of publike testimony , & extends it to a suffrage of formall choice , his proofes of the divine authority are invalid , there is no such thing can be deduc'd from thence , and then this is his complying so much with the people ( which hath beene the fault of many a good man ) may be reckon'd together with his rebaptization . But truth is , he meanes no more then suffrage of testimony , viz : That he who is to be chosen Bishop be for his good life a man of good fame , and approved of before God and all the people , and this is all the share they have in their election . * And so indeed himselfe summes up the whole businesse and tells us of another jus Divinum too . [ Propter quod diligentèr de traditione Divinâ , & Apostolicâ observatione , observandum est & tenendum , quod apud nos quoque , & ferè apud Provincias Vniversas tenetur , ut ad ordinationes ritè celebrandas ad eam plebem cui Praepositus ordinatur , Episcopi ejusdem provinciae proximi quique conveniant , & Episcopus deligatur pl●be praesente que singuloram vitam plenissimè novit . It is most diligently to be observed , for there is a Divine tradition , and an Apostolicall ordinance for it , and it is us'd by us and almost by all Churches , that all the Bishops of the Province assemble to the making of right ordinations , and that a Bishop be chosen in the face of the people who best know their life and conversation . ] So that the Bishops were to make the formall election , the people to give their judgement of approbation in this particular , and so much as concern'd the exemplary piety , and good life of him that was to be their Bishop . Here we see in S. Cyprian is a jus Divinum for the Bishops choosing a Collegue , or a Brother - Bishop , as much as for the presence of the people , and yet the presence was all . And howsoever the people were present to give this testimony , yet the election was clearely in the Bishops , and that by Divine tradition , and Apostolicall observation saith S. Cyprian ; And thus it was in all Churches almost . In Africa this was , and so it continued till after S. Austins time , particularly in the choice of Eradius his successor . It was so in the Greek Church as S. Chrysostome tels us . It was so in Spaine , as S. † Isidore tels us ; and in many other places , that the people should be present , and give acclamation , and tumultuary approbation ; but to the formall election of the Clergy , made by enumeration of votes and subscription , the people never were admitted . 5. Although that in times of persecution , at first , and to comply with the people who were in all respects to be sweetned , to make them with easier appetite swallow the bitter pill of persecution , and also to make them more obedient to their Bishop , if they did , though but in a tumult and noyse cry him up in his ordination , ne plebs invita Episcopum non optatum , aut contemnat , aut oderit , & fiat minùs religiosa quàm convenit , cui non licuerit habere quem voluit , ( for so S. Leo expresses the cause ) yet the formality , and right of proper election was in the Clergy , and often so practised without any consent at all , or intervening act of the people . The right , I say , was in the Bishops , so it was decreed in the Ni●ene Councell , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The Bishop must be appointed or constituted by all the BISHOPS of the province , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It must be confirm'd , and established by the METROPOLITAN . No Presbyters here all this while , no people . * But the exercise of this power is more clearely seen in the Acts of some Councells , where the Fathers degraded some Bishops , and themselves appointed others in their Roomes . * The Bishops in the Councell of Constantinople deposed Marcellus . In cujus locum Basilium in Ancyram miserunt . They sent Basilius Bishop in his roome , saith Sozomen . * Ostendat Bassianus si per Synodum Reverendissimorum Episcoporū , & consuetâ lege Episcopus Ephesiorum Metropolis est constitutus , ( said the Fathers of the Councell of Chalcedō . ) Let Bassianus show that he was made BISHOP OF EPHESUS BY A SYNOD OF BISHOPS , and according to the accustomed Law. The Law I shewed before , even the Nicene Canon . The fathers of which Councell sent a Synodall Epistle to the Church of Alexandria , to tell them they had deposed Militius from the office of a Bishop , only left him the name , but took from him all power , nullam verò omnimodò habere potestatem , neque ELIGENDI , NEQUE ORDINANDI : &c. Neither suffering him to choose nor to ordaine Clerks . It seems then that was part of the Episcopall office in ordinary , placit●s sibi eligere , as the Epistle expresses it in the sequell , to choose whom they listed . But the Councell deposed Melitius , and sent Alexander their Bishop , and Patriarch to rule the Church againe . ** And particularly to come home to the ●ase of the present question , when Auxentius Bishop of Millaine was dead , and the Bishops of the Province ; and the Clergy of the Church , and the people of the Citty , were assembled at the choosing of another , the Emperour makes a speech to the Bishops only , that they should be carefull in their choyce . So that although the people were present , quibus profide , & religione etiam honor deferendus est ( as S. Cyprians phrase is ) to whom respect is to be had , and faire complyings to be used so long as they are pious , catholick , and obedient , yet both the right of electing , and solemnity of ordaining was in the Bishops , the peoples interest did not arrive to one halfe of this . 6. There are in Antiquity diverse precedents of Bishops , who chose their own successors ; it will not be imagined the people will choose a Bishop over his head , and proclaime that they were weary of him . In those daies they had more piety . * Agelius did so , he chose Sisinnius , and that it may appeare it was without the people , they came about him , and intreated him to choose Marcian , to whom they had been beholding in the time of Valens the Emperour ; he complyed with them , and appointed Marcian to be his successor , and Sisinnius whom he had first chosen , to succeed Marcian . * Thus did Valerius choose his successor , S. Austin ; for though the people nam'd him for their Priest , and carried him to Valerius to take Orders , yet Valerius chose him Bishop . And this was usuall ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( as ▪ Epiphanius expresses this case , ) it was ordinary to doe so in many Churches . 7. The manner of election in many Churches was various , for although indeed the Church had commanded it , and given power to the Bishops to make the election , yet in some times and in some Churches the Presbyters , or the Chapter , chose one out of themselves . S. Hierome saies they alwaies did so in Alexandria , from S. Markes time to Heraclas and Dionysius . * S. Ambrose saies that at the first , the Bishop was not , by a formall new election promoted , but recedente uno sequens ei succedebat . As one dyed so the next senior did succeed him . In both these cases no mixture of the peoples votes . 8. In the Church of England the people were never admitted to the choyce of a Bishop from its first becoming Christian to this very day , and therefore to take it from the Clergy , in whom it alwaies was by permission of Princes , and to interest the people in it , is to recede à traditionibus Majorum , from the religion of our forefathers , and to INNOVATE in a high proportion . 9. In those Churches where the peoples suffrage ( by way of testimony , I meane , and approbation ) did concurre with the Synod of Bishops ▪ in the choyce of a Bishop , the people at last according to their usuall guise grew hot , angry , and tumultuous , and then were ingaged by divisions in religion to Name a Bishop of their own sect ; and to disgrace one another by publike scandall , and contestation , and often grew up to Sedition , and Murder ; and therefore although they were never admitted , ( unlesse where themselves usurped ) farther then I have declared , yet even this was taken from them , especially , since in tumultuary assemblies , they were apt to carry all before them , they knew not how to distinguish between power , and right , they had not well learn'd to take deniall , but began to obtrude whom they listed , to swell higher like a torrent when they were check'd ; and the soleship of election , which by the Ancient Canons was in the Bishops , they would have asserted wholly to themselves both in right , and execution . * I end this with the annotation of Zonaras upon the twelfth Canon of the Laodicean Councell . Populi suffragiis olim Episcopi eligebantur ( understand him in the senses above explicated ) Sed cùm multae inde seditiones existerent , hinc factum est ut Episcoporum Vniuscujusque provinciae authoritate eligi Episcopum quemque oportere decreverint Patres : of old time Bishops were chosen , not without the suffrage of the people ( for they concurred by way of testimony and acclamation ) but when this occasion'd many seditions and tumults , the Fathers decreed that a Bishop should be chosen by the authority of the Bishops of the Province . And he addes that in the election of Damasus 137 men were slaine , and that sixe hundred examples more of that nature were producible . Truth is , the Nomination of Bishops in Scripture was in the Apostles alone , and though the Kindred of our Blessed Saviour were admitted to the choyce of Simeon Cleophae , the Successor of S. Iames to the Bishoprick of Ierusalem , as Eusebius witnesses ; it was propter singularem honorem , an honorary , and extraordinary priviledge indulged to them for their vicinity and relation to our Blessed Lord the fountaine of all benison to us ; and for that very reason Simeon himselfe was chosen Bishop too . Yet this was praeter regulam Apostolicam . The rule of the Apostles , and their precedents were for the sole right of the Bishops to choose their Colleagues in that Sacred order . * And then in descent , even before the Nicene Councell the people were forbidden to meddle in election , for they had no authority by Scripture to choose ; by the necessity of times and for the reasons before asserted they were admitted to such a share of the choyce as is now folded up in a peice of paper , even to a testimoniall ; and yet I deny not but they did often take more as in the case of Nilammon , quem cives elegerunt , saith the story out of Sozomen , they chose him alone , ( though God took away his life before himselfe would accept of their choyce ) and then they behav'd themselves oftentimes with so much insolency , partiality , faction , sedition , cruelty , and Pagan basenesse that they were quite interdicted it , above 1200 yeares agone . * So that they had their little in possession but a little while , and never had any due , and therefore now , their request for it is no petition of right , but a popular ambition and a snatching at a sword to hew the Church in peices . But I thinke I need not have troubled my selfe halfe so farre , for they that strive to introduce a popular election , would as faine have Episcopacy out , as popularity of election let in . So that all this of popular election of Bishops , may seeme superfluous . For I consider , that if the peoples power of choosing Bishops be founded upon Gods law , as some men pretend from S. Cyprian ( not proving the thing from Gods law , but Gods law from S. Cyprian ) then Bishops themselves must be by Gods law : For surely God never gave them power to choose any man into that office which himselfe hath no way instituted . And therefore I suppose these men will desist from their pretence of Divine right of popular election , if the Church will recede from her divine right of Episcopacy . But for all their plundering , and confounding , their bold pretences have made this discourse necessary . IF we adde to all these foregoing particulars the power of making lawes to be in Bishops , nothing else can be required to the making up of a spirituall Principality . Now as I have shewne that the Bishop of every Diocesse did give lawes to his owne Church for particulars , so it is evident that the lawes of Provinces and of the Catholike Church , were made by conventions of Bishops without the intervening , or concurrence of Presbyters , or any else for sentence and decision . The instances of this are just so many as there are Councells . S. Athanasius reprehending Constantius the Arian for interposing in the Conciliary determinations of faith , si judicium Episcoporum est ( saith he ) quid cum eo commune habet Imperator ? It is a judgment to be pass'd BY BISHOPS , ( meaning the determination of the article , ) and not proper for the Emperour . And when Hosius of Corduba reprov'd him for sitting President in a Councell , Quis enim videns eum IN DECERNENDO PRINCIPEM SE FACERE EPISCOPORUM , non meritò dicat illum eam ipsam abhominationem desolationis ? He that sits President , makes himselfe chiefe of the Bishops , &c. intimating Bishops only to preside in Councells , and to make decision . And therefore conventus Episcoporum , and Concilium Episcoporum are the words for Generall , and Provinciall Councells . Bis in ann● Episcoporum Concilia celebrentur , said the 38 th Canon of the Apostles ; and Congregatio Episcopalis the Councell of Sardis is call'd by Theodoret. And when the Question was started in the time of Pope Victor about the celebration of Easter , ob quam causam ( saith Eusebius ) conventus Episcoporum , & Concilia per singulas quasque provincias convocantur . Where by the way , it is to be observeable , that at first , even provinciall Synods were onely held by Bishops , and Presbyters had no interest in the decision ; however we have of late sate so neere Bishops in Provinciall assemblies , that we have sate upon the Bishops skirts . But my Lords the Bishops have a concerning interest in this . To them I leave it ; And because the foure generall Councells are the Precedents and chiefe of all the rest , I shall only instance in them for this particular . 1. The title of the Nicene Councell runs thus . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The Canons of the 318 Fathers met in Nice . These Fathers were all that gave suffrage to the Canons , for if there had been more , the title could not have appropriated the Sanction to 318. And that there were no more S. Ambrose gives testimony in that he makes it to be a mysticall number ; Nam & Abraham trecentos decem & octo duxit ad bellum .... De Concilijs id potissimùm sequor quod trecenti decem & octo Sacerdotes .... velut trophaeum extulerunt , ut mihi videatur hoc esse Divinum , quod eodem numero in Concilijs , fidei habemus oraculum , quo in historiâ , pietatis exemplum . Well! 318 was the Number of the Iudges , the Nicene Fathers , and they were all Bishops , for so is the title of the subscriptions , Subscripserunt trecenti decem & octo EPISCOPI qui in eodem Concilio convenerunt ; 13. whereof were Chorepiscopi , but not one Presbyter , save onely that Vitus , and Vincentius subscribed as legates of the Bishop of Rome , but not by their owne authority . 2. The great Councell of Constantinople was celebrated by 150 Bishops : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , That 's the title of the Canons . The Canons of 150 holy Fathers who met in C. P. and that these were all Bishops appeares by the title of S. Gregory Nazianzen's oration in the beginning of the Councell . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The oration of S. Gregory Nazianzen in the presence of 150 Bishops . And of this Councell it was that Socrates speaking , Imperator ( saith he ) nullâ morâ interpositâ Concilium EPISCOPORUM convocat . Here indeed some few Bishops appear'd by Proxy as Montanus Bishop of Claudiopolis by Paulus a Presbyter , and Atarbius Bishop of Pontus by Cylus a Reader , and about some fowre or five more . * This onely , amongst the subscriptions I find Tyrannus , Auxanon , Helladius , and Elpidius calling themselves Presbyters . But their modesty hinders not the truth of the former testimonies ; They were Bishops , saith the title of the Councell , and the Oration , and the Canons , and Socrates ; And least there be scruple concerning Auxanon Presbyter Apameae , because before , Iohannes Apameensis subscribed , which seemes to intimate that one of them was the Bishop , and the other but a Presbyter indeed , without a subterfuge of modesty , the titles distinguishes them . For Iohn was Bishop in the Province of Caele Syria , and Auxanon of Apamea in ●isidia . 3. The third was the Councell of Ephesus , Episcoporum plurium quàm ducentorum , as is often said in the acts of the Councell [ of above 200 Bishops . ] But no Presbyters , for , Cùm Episcopi supra ducentos extiterint qui Nestorium deposuerunt , horum subscriptionibus contenti fuimus . We were content with the subscription of the 200 and odde Bishops , saith the Councell ; and Theodosius junior , in his Epistle to the Synod , Illicitum est ( saith he ) eum qui non sit in ordine sanctissimorum Episcoporum Ecclesiasticis immisceri tractatibus . It is unlawfull for any but them who are in the order of the most holy Bishops , to be interest in Ecclesiasticall assemblies . 4. The last of the foure great conventions of Christendome was , sexcentorum triginta Episcoporum , of 630 Bishops at Chalcedon in Bithynia . But in all these assemblies , no meere Presbyters gave suffrage except by legation from his Bishop , and delegation of authority . And therefore when in this Councell some Laicks , and some Monks , and some Clergy-men , not Bishops , would interest themselves Pulcheria the Empresse sent letters to Consularius to repell them by force ; si praeter nostram evocationem , aut permissionem suorum Episcoporum ibidem commorantur , who come without command of the Empresse , or the Bishops permission . Where it is observeable that the Bishops might bring Clerks with them to assist , to dispute , and to be present in all the action ; And thus they often did suffer Abbots , or Archimandrites to be there , and to subscribe too , but that was praeter regulam , and by indulgence only , and condescension ; For when Martinus the Abbot was requested to subscribe he answered , Non suum esse , sed Episcoporum tantùm subscribere , it belong'd only to Bishops to subscribe to Councells . For this reason the Fathers themselves often call'd out in the Councell , Mitte foras superfluos , Concilium Episcoporum est . But I need not more particular arguments , for till the Councell of Basil , the Church never admitted Presbyters as in their own right to voyce in Councells , and that Councell we know savourd too much of the Schismatick , but before this Councell , no example , no president of subscriptions of the Presbyters either to Oecumenicall , or Provinciall Synods . Indeed to a Diocesan Synod , viz. that of Auxerre in Burgundy , I find 32 Presbyters subscribing . This Synod was neither Oecumenicall nor Provinciall , but meerely the Convocation of a Diocesse . For here was but one Bishop , and some few Abbots , and 32 Presbyters . It was indeed no more then a visitation , or the calling of a Chapter , for of this we receive intimation in the seaventh Canon of that assembly , ut in medio Maio omnes Presbyteri ad Synodum venirent , that was their summons , & in Novembri omnes Abbates ad Concilium : so that here is intimation of a yearely Synod besides the first convention , the greatest of them but Diocesan , and therefore the lesser but conventus Capitularis , or however not enough to give evidence of a subscription of Presbyters to so much as a Provinciall Councell . For the guise of Christendome was alwaies otherwise , and therefore it was the best argument that the Bishops in the Arian hurry used to acquit themselves from the suspition of heresy , Neque nos sumus Arii sectatores ; Quî namque fieri potest , ut cùm simus Episcopi Ario Presbytero auscultemus ? Bishops never receive determination of any article from Priests , but Priests doe from Bishops , Nam vestrum est eos instruere ( saith S. Clement speaking of the Bishops office and power over Priests and all the Clergy , and all the Diocesse ) eorum est vobis obedire , ut Deo cujus legatione fungimini . And a little after ; Audire ergo eum attentiùs oportet , & ab ipso suscicere doctrinam fidei , monita autem vitae à Presbyteris inquirere . Of the Priests we must inquire for rules of good life , but of the Bishop receive positions and determinations of faith . Against this if it be objected , Quod omnes tangit ab omnibus tractari debet , That which is of generall concernement , must also be of generall Scrutiny . I answer , it is true , unlesse where God himselfe hath intrusted the care of others in a body , as he hath in the Bishops , and will require the soules of his Diocesse at his hand , and commanded us to require the Law at their mouths , and to follow their faith , whom he hath set over us . And therefore the determination of Councells pertains to all , and is handled by all , not in diffusion but in representation . For , Ecclesia est in Episcopo , & Episcopus in Ecclesiâ , ( saith S. Cyprian ) the Church is in the Bishop ( viz. by representment ) and the Bishop is in the Church ( viz. as a Pilot in a ship , or a Master in a family , or rather as a steward , and Guardian to rule in his Masters absence ) and for this reason the Synod of the Nicene Bishops is called ( in Eusebius ) conventus orbis terrarum , and by S. Austin , consensus totius Ecclesiae , not that the whole Church was there present in their severall persons , but was there represented by the Catholike Bishops , and if this representment be not sufficient for obligation to all , I see no reason but the Ladyes too , may vote in Councells , for I doubt not , but they have soules too . But however , if this argument were concluding in it selfe , yet it looses its force in England , where the Clergy are bound by Lawes of Parliament , and yet in the capacity of Clergy-men are allowed to choose neither Procurators to represent us as Clergy , nor Knights of the shire to represent us as Commons . * In conclusion of this I say to the Presbyters as S. Ambrose said of the Lay-judges , whom the Arians would have brought to judge in Councell ( it was an old hereticall trick . ) Veniant planè si qui sunt ad Ecclesiam , audiant cum populo , non ut QUIS QUAM IUDEX resideat , sed unu● quisque de suo affectu habeat examen , & eligat quem sequatur . So may Presbyters be present , so they may judge , not for others , but for themselves . And so may the people be present , and anciently were so ; and therefore Councells were alwaies kept in open Churches , [ ubi populus judicat ] not for others , but for themselves , not by externall sentence , but internall conviction , so S. Ambrose expounds himselfe in the forecited allegation . There is no considerable objection against this discourse but that of the first Councell of Ierusalem ; where the Apostles , and ELDERS did meet together to DETERMINE of the question of circumcision . For although in the story of celebration of it , we find no man giving sentence but Peter , and Iames ; yet in 16. Acts , they are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , decrees IUDGED by the Apostles , and Elders . But first , in this the difficulty is the lesse , because [ Presbyter ] was a generall word for all that were not of the number of the twelve , Prophets , Evangelists , Pastors , and Doctors . And then secondly , it is none at all , because Paul , and Barnabas are signally , and by name reckoned as present in the Synod , and one of them Prolocutor , or else both . So that such Presbyters may well define in such conventuall assemblies . 3. If yet there were any difficulty latent in the story , yet the Catholick practice of Gods Church , is certainly the best expositor of such places where there either is any difficulty , or where any is pretended . And of this , I have already given account . * I remember also that this place is pretended for the peoples power of voycing in Councells . It is a pretty pageant ; onely that it is against the Catholick practice of the Church , against the exigence of Scripture , which bids us require the law at the Mouth of our spirituall Rulers , against the gravity of such assemblies , for it would force them to be tumultuous , and at the best , are the worst of Sanctions , as being issues of popularity , and to summe up all , it is no way authoriz'd by this first copy of Christian Councells . The pretence is , in the Synodall * letter written in the name of [ the Apostles , and Elders , and Brethren ] that is , ( saies Geta , ) The Apostles , and Presbyters , and People . But why not BRETHREN , that is , all the Deacons , and Evangelists , and Helpers in Governement , and Ministers of the Churches ? There is nothing either in words , or circumstances to contradict this . If it be ask'd who then are meant by Elders , if by [ Brethren ] S. Luke understands these Church officers ? I answer , that here is such variety , that although I am not certain which officers he precisely comprehends under the distinct titles of Elders , and Brethren , yet here are enough to furnish both with variety , and yet neither to admit meere Presbyters in the present acceptation of the word , nor yet the Laity to a decision of the question , nor authorizing the decretall . For besides the twelve Apostles , there were Apostolicall men which were Presbyters , and something more , as Paul and Barnabas , and Silas ; and Evangelists , and Pastors besides , which might furnish out the last appellative sufficiently . But however without any further trouble it is evident , that this word [ Brethren ] does not distinguish the Laity from the Clergy . [ Now when they heard this , they were pricked in their hearts , and said unto PETER , and to the rest of the APOSTLES , Men and BRETHREN what shall we doe . Iudas and Silas who were Apostolicall men , are called in Scripture , chiefe men among the BRETHREN . But this is too known , to need a contestation . I only insert the saying of Basilius the Emperour in the 8 th Synod . De vobis autem Laicis tam qui in dignitatibus , quàm qui absolutè versamini quid ampliùs dicam non habeo , quàm quòd nullo modo vobis licet de Ecclesiasticis causis sermonem movere , neque penitùs resistere integritati Ecclesiae , & universali Synodo adversari . Lay-men ( saies the Emperour ) must by no means meddle with causes Ecclesiasticall , nor oppose themselves to the Catholick Church , or Councells Oecumenicall . They must not meddle , for these things appertaine to the cognisance of Bishops and their decision . * And now after all this , what authority is equall to this LEGISLATIVE of the Bishops ? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( saith Aristotle ▪ ) They are all evidences of power and authority , to deliberate , to determine , or judge , to make lawes . But to make lawes is the greatest power that is imaginable . The first may belong fairely enough to Presbyters , but I have proved the two latter to be appropriate to Bishops . LAstly , as if all the acts of jurisdiction , and every imaginable part of power were in the Bishop , over the Presbyters & subordinate Clergy , the Presbyters are said to be Episcoporum Presbyteri , the Bishops Presbyters ; as having a propriety in them , and therefore a superiority over them , and as the Bishop was a dispenser of those things which were in bonis Ecclesiae , so he was of the persons too , a Ruler in propriety . * S. Hilary in the book which himselfe delivered to Constantine , Ecclesiae adhuc ( saith he ) per Presbyteros MEOS communionem distribuens , I still give the holy Communion to the faithfull people by MY Presbyters . And therefore in the third Councell of Carthage a great deliberation was had about requiring a Clerke of his Bishop , to be promoted in another Church , .... Denique qui unum habuerit numquid debet illi ipse unus Presbyter auferri ? ( saith Posthumianus . ) If the Bishop have but one Presbyter must that one be taken from him ? Id sequor ( saith Aurelius ) ut conveniam Episcopum ejus , atque ei inculcem quod ejus Clericus à quâlibet Ecclesiâ postuletur . And it was resolved , ut Clericum alienum nisi concedente ejus Episcopo . No man shall retaine another Bishop's without the consent of the Bishop whose Clerk he is . * When Athanasius was abused by the calumny of the hereticks his adversaries , and entred to purge himselfe , Athanasius ingreditur cum Timotheo Presbytero Suo . He comes in with Timothy HIS Presbyter ; and , Arsenius , cujus brachium dicebatur excisum , lector aliquando fuerat Athanasii . Arsenius was Athanasius HIS Reader . Vbi autem ventum est ad Rumores de poculo fracto à Macario Presbytero Athanasii , &c. Macarius was another of Athanasius HIS Priests . So Theodoret. Peter , and Irenaeus were two more of his Presbyters , as himselfe witnesses . Paulinianus comes sometimes to visit us ( saith S. Hierome to Pammachius ) but not as your Clerke , sed ejus à quo ordinatur . His Clerk who did ordaine him . But these things are too known to need a multiplication of instances . The summe is this . The question was , whether or no , and how farre the Bishops had Superiority over Presbyters in the Primitive Church . Their doctrine , and practice have furnished us with these particulars . The power of Church goods , and the sole dispensation of them , and a propriety of persons was reserved to the Bishop . For the Clergy , and Church possessions were in his power , in his administration : the Clergy might not travaile without the Bishops leave : they might not be preferred in another Diocesse without license of their own Bishop : in their own Churches the Bishop had sole power to preferre them , and they must undertake the burden of any promotion if he calls them to it : without him they might not baptize , not consecrate the Eucharist , not communicate , not reconcile penitents , not preach ; not onely , not without his ordination , but not without a speciall faculty besides the capacity of their order : The Presbyters were bound to obey their Bishops in their sanctions , and canonicall impositions , even by the decree of the Apostles themselves , and the doctrine of Ignatius , and the constitution of S. Clement , of the Fathers in the Councell of Arles , Ancyra , and Toledo , and many others : The Bishops were declared to be Iudges in ordinary of the Clergy , and people of their Diocesse by the concurrent suffrages of almost 2000 holy Fathers assembled in Nice , Ephesus , Chalcedon , in Carthage , Antioch , Sardis , Aquileia , Taurinum , Agatho , and by the Emperour , and by the Apostles ; and all this attested by the constant practice of the Bishops of the Primitive Church inflicting censures upon delinquents , and absolving them as they saw cause , and by the dogmaticall resolution of the old Catholicks declaring in their attributes , and appellatives of the Episcopall function that they haye supreme , and universall spirituall power , ( viz. in the sense above explicated ) over all the Clergy and Laity of their Diocesse , as , [ that they are higher then all power , the image of God , the figure of Christ , Christs Vicar , President of the Church , Prince of Priests , of authority incomparable , unparalell'd power , ] and many more , if all this be witnesse enough of the superiority of Episcopall jurisdiction , we have their depositions , wee may proceed as we see cause for , and reduce our Episcopacy to the primitive state , for that is truly a reformation [ id Dominicum quod primum , id haereticum quod posterius ] and then we shall be sure Episcopacy will loose nothing by these unfortunate contestations . BUT against the cause , it is objected super totam Materiam , that Bishops were not Diocesan , but Parochiall , and therefore of so confin'd a jurisdiction that perhaps our Village , or Citty Priests shall advance their Pulpit , as high as the Bishops throne . * Well! put case they were not Diocesan , but parish Bishops , what then ? yet they were such Bishops as had Presbyters , and Deacons in subordination to them , in all the particular advantages of the former instances . 2. If the Bishops had the Parishes , what cure had the Priests ? so that this will debate the Priests as much as the Bishops , and if it will confine a Bishop to a Parish , it will make that no Presbyter can be so much as a Parish-Priest . If it brings a Bishop lower then a Diocesse , it will bring the Priest lower then a Parish . For set a Bishop where you will , either in a Diocesse , or a Parish , a Presbyter shall still keep the same duty and subordination , the same distance still . So that this objection upon supposition of the former discourse , will no way mend the matter for any side , but make it farre worse , it will not advance the Presbytery , but it will depresse the whole hierarchy , and all the orders of H. Church . * But because , this trifle is so much used amongst the enimies of Episcopacy , I will consider it in little , and besides that it does no body any good advantage , I will represent it in it's fucus and show the falsehood of it . 1. Then. It is evident that there were Bishops before there were any distinct Parishes . For the first division of Parishes in the West was by Evaristus , who lived almost 100 years after Christ , and divided Rome into seven parishes , assigning to every one a Presbyter . So Damasus reports of him in the Pontificall book . Hic titulos in urbe Româ divisit Presbyteris , & septem Diaconos ordinavit qui custodirent Episcopum praedicantem propter stylum veritatis . He divided the Parishes , or titles in the City of Rome to Presbyters . The same also is by Damasus reported of Dionysius in his life , hic Presbyteris Ecclesias divisit , & caemiteria , parochiasque & dioeceses constituit . Marcellus increased the number in the yeare 305. Hic fecit caemiterium viâ Salariâ , & 25 Titulos in urbe Roma constituit quasi dioeceses propter baptismum , & poenitentiam multorum qui convertebantur ex Paganis , & propter sepulturas Martyrum . He made a Sepulture , or caemitery for the buriall of Martyrs , and appointed 25. Titles or Parishes : but he addes [ quasi Dioeceses ] as it had been diocesses , that is , distinct and limited to Presbyters , as diocesses were to Bishops ; and the use of parishes which he subjoynes , cleares the businesse ; for he appointed them onely propter baptismum , & poenitentiam multorum & sepulturas , for baptisme , and penance , and buriall ; for as yet there was no preaching in Parishes , but in the Mother-Church . Thus it was in the West . * But in Aegypt we find Parishes divided something sooner then the earliest of these , for Eusebius reports out of Philo that the Christians in S. Markes time had severall Churches in Alexandria . Etiàm DE ECCLESIIS quae apudeos sunt , it a dicit . Est autem in singulis locis consecrata orationi domus &c : But even before this , there were Bishops . For in Rome there were fowre Bishops before any division of Parishes , though S. Peter be reckon'd for none . And before Parishes were divided in Alexandria , S. Marke himselfe who did it was the Bishop , and before that time S. Iames was Bishop of Ierusalem , and in diverse other places where Bishops were , there were no distinct Parishes of a while after Evaristus time , for when Dionysius had assign'd Presbyters to severall Parishes , he writes of it to Severus Bishop of Corduba , & desires him to doe so too in his Diocesse , as appeares in his Epistle to him . * For indeed necessity requir'd it , when the Christians multiplyed and grew to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as * Cornelius call'd the Roman Christians , a great and innumerable people ; and did implere omnia , as Tertullians phrase is , fill'd all places , and publike and great assemblies drew danger upon themselves , and increased jealousies in others , and their publike offices could not be perform'd with so diffused and particular advantage , then they were forc'd to divide congregations , and assigne severall Presbyters to their cure , in subordination to the Bishop , and so we see , the Elder Christianity grew the more Parishes there were . At first in Rome there were none , Evaristus made seven , Dionysius made some more , and Marcellus added 25 , and in Optatus time there were 40. Well then ! The case is thus . Parishes were not divided at first , therefore to be sure they were not of Divine institution . Therefore it is no divine institution that a Presbyter should be fixt upon a Parish , therefore also a Parish is not by Christs ordinance an independant body , for by Christs ordinance there was no such thing at all , neither absolute , nor in dependance neither ; and then for the maine issue , since Bishops were before Parishes ( in the present sense ) the Bishops in that sense could not be Parochiall . * But which was first of a private congregation , or a Diocesse ? If a private congregation , then a Bishop was at first fix't in a private congregation , and so was a Parochiall Bishop . If a Diocesse was first , then the Question will be , how a Diocesse could be without Parishes , for what is a Diocesse but a jurisdiction over many Parishes ? * I answer , it is true that DIOCESSE and PARISH are words us'd now in contradistinction ; And now , a Diocesse is nothing but the multiplication of of many Parishes : Sed non fuit sic ab initio . For at first , a Diocesse was the Citie and the Regio suburbicaria , the neighbouring townes , in which there was no distinction of Parishes : That which was a Diocesse in the secular sense , that is , a particular Province , or division of secular prefecture , that was the assignation of a Bishops charge . * Ephesus , Smyrna , Pergamus , Laodicea were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 heads of the Diocesse , ( saith Pliny , ) meaning in respect of secular jurisdiction ; and so they were in Ecclesiasticall regiment . And it was so upon great reason , for when the regiment of the Church was extended just so as the regiment of the Common-wealth , it was of lesse suspition to the secular power , while the Church regiment was just fixt together with the politicall , as if of purpose to shew their mutuall consistence , and it 's owne subordination . ** And besides this , there was in it a necessity ; for the subjects of another Province , or Diocesse could not either safely , or conveniently meete where the duty of the Common-wealth did not ingage them ; but being all of one prefecture , and Diocesse , the necessity of publike meetings in order to the Common-wealth would be faire opportunity for the advancement of their Christendome . And this , which at first was a necessity in this case , grew to be a law in all , by the sanction of the Councell of * Chalcedon , and of Constantinople in † Trullo , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Let the order of the Church , follow the order and guise of the Common-wealth , viz. in her regiment , and prefefecture . * But in the moderne sense of this division a Bishops charge was neither a Parish , nor a Diocesse , as they are taken in relation ; but a Bishop had the supreme care of all the Christians which he by himselfe , or his Presbyters had converted , and he also had the charge of indeavouring the conversion of all the Country . So that although he had not all the Diocesse actually in communion and subjection , yet his charge , his Diocesse was so much . Iust as it was with the Apostles , to whom Christ gave all the world for a Diocesse , yet at first they had but a smal congregation that did actually obey them . And now to the Question . Which was first , a particular congregation or a Diocesse ? I answere , that a Diocesse was first , that is , the Apostles had a charge before they had a congregation of converts ; And S. Marke was sent Bishop to Alexandria by S. Peter before any were converted . * But ordinarily the Apostles , when they had converted a City or Nation , then fix't Bishops upon their charge , and there indeed the particular congregation was before the Bishop's taking of the Diocesse ; But then , this City , or Nation although it was not the Bishops Diocesse before it was a particular congregation , yet it was part of the Apostles Diocesse , and this they concredited to the Bishops respectively . S. Paul was ordain'd by the Prophets at Antioch , Apostle of the Uncircumcision ; All the Gentiles was his Diocesse , and even of those places he then received power which as yet he had not converted . So that , absolutely , a diocesse was before a particular congregation . But if a diocesse be taken collectively , as now it is , for a multitude of Parishes united under one Bishop , then one must needes be before 20 , and a particular congregation before a diocesse ; but then that particular congregation was not a parish , in the present sense , for it was not a part of a Diocesse taking a Diocesse for a collection of Parishes ; but that particular Congregation was the first fruits of his Diocesse , and like a Graine of Mustard-seed that in time might , and did grow up to a considerable height , even to a necessity of distinguishing titles , and parts of the Diocesse , assigning severall parts , to severall Priests . 2. We see that the Primitive Bishops , before the division of parishes , had the City , and Country ; and after the division of parishes , had them all under his jurisdiction , and ever , even from the Apostles times had severall provinces ( some of them I meane ) within their limits and charges . * The 35 Canon of the Apostles gives power to the Bishop to dispose only of those things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which are under his Diocesse & the Neighbour villages , and the same thing is repeated in the ninth and tenth Canons of the Councell of Antioch calling it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Ancient Canon of our fore fathers ; and yet it selfe is elder then three of the generall Councells , and if then it was an Ancient Canon of the Fathers that the City , and Villages should be subject to the Bishop , surely a Primitive Bishop was a Diocesan . But a little before this was the Nicene Councell , and there I am sure we have a Bishop that is at least a Diocesan . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Let the old Customes be kept . What are those ? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Let the Bishop of Alexandria have power over ALL Egypt , Libya , and Pentapolis , It was a good large Parish ; And yet this parish if we have a mind to call it so , was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , according to the old custome of their forefathers , and yet that was so early that S. Anthony was then alive , who was borne in S. Irenaeus his time , who was himselfe but second from the Apostles . It was also a good large parish that Ignatius was Bishop of , even all Syria , Caelesyria , Mesopotamia , and both the Ciliciae . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The Bishop of Syria he calls himselfe in his epistle to the Romans , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so Theodoret : and besides all these , his Successors , in the Councell of Chalcedon , had the two Phaeniciae , and Arabia yeilded to them by composition . These alone would have made two or three reasonable good parishes , and would have taken up time enough to preambulate , had that been then the guise of Christendome . * But examples of this kind are infinite . Theodorus Bishop of Cyrus was Pastor over 800 parishes , Athanasius was Bishop of Alexandria , Egypt , Thebais , Marcotis , Libya , Ammoniaca , and Pent apolis , saith S. Epiphanius ; And his predecessor Iulianus successor of Agrippinus was Bishop * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , of the Churches about Alexandria . Either it was a Diocesse , or at least a plurality . * † S. Chrysostome had Pontus , Asia , and all Thrace in his parish , even as much as came to sixteen prefectures ; a faire bounds surely ; and so it was with all the Bishops , a greater , or a lesser Diocesse they had ; but all were Diocesan ; for they had severall parishes , singuli Ecclesiarum Episcopi habent sub se Ecclesias , saith Epiphanius in his epistle to Iohn of Ierusalem , and in his book contra haereses , Quotquot enim in Alexandriâ Catholicae Ecclesiae sunt , sub uno Archiepiscopo sunt , privatimque ad has destinati sunt Presbyteri propter Ecclesiasticas necessitates , it aut habitatores vicini sint uniuscujusque Ecclesiae . * All Italy was the parish of Liberius ( saith Socrates . ) Africa was S. Cyprians parish , saith S. Gregory Nazianzen , and S. Basil the Great was parish-Priest to all Cappadocia . But I rather believe if we examine their severall stories they will rather prove Metropolitans , then meere parochians . 3 ly The ancient Canons forbad a Bishop to be ordain'd in a Village , Castle , or Towne . It was so decreed in the Councell of Laodicea before the first Nicene . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . In the Villages , or Countries , Bishops must not be constituted . And this was renewed in the Councell of Sardis , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It is not lawfull to ordaine Bishops in Villages or little Townes to which one Presbyter is sufficient , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but Bishops must ordaine Bishops in those Cities where Bishops formerly have been . * So that this Canon does not make a new Constitution , but perpetuates the old sanction . Bishops ab antiquo were only ordain'd in great Citties , and Presbyters to little Villages . Who then was the Parish Curate ? the Bishop or the Priest ? The case is too apparent . Onely , here it is objected that some Bishops were of small Townes , and therefore these Canons were not observed , and Bishops might be , and were parochiall , as S. Gregory of Nazianzum , Zoticus of Comana , Maris in Dolicha . The one of these is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by * Eusebius ; and another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by † Theodoret , a little Towne . This is all is pretended for this great Scarcrow of parochiall Bishops . * But , first , suppose these had been parishes , and these three parochiall Bishops , it followes not that all were ; not those to be sure , which I have proved to have been Bishops of Provinces , and Kingdomes . 2 ly It is a cleare case , that Nazianzum though a small City , yet was the seate of a Bishops throne , so it is reckoned in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made by Leo the Emperour , where it is accounted inter thronos Ecclesiarum Patriarchae Constantinopolitano subjectarum , & is in the same account with Caesarea , with Ephesus , with Crete , with Philippi , and almost fourescore more . * As for Zoticus , he indeed came from Comana , a Village towne , for there he was born , but he was Episcopus Otrenus , Bishop of Otrea in Armenia , saith † Nicephorus . * And for Maris the Bishop of Dolicha , it was indeed such a small Citty as Nazianzus was , but that proves not but his Diocesse and territory was large enough . Thus was Asclepius vici non grandis , but yet he was Vagensis territorii Episcopus . His seat might usually be in a little Citty , if it was one of those townes in which according to the exigence of the Canons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in which Bishops anciently were ordain'd , and yet the appurtenances of his Diocesse large , and extended , and too great for 100 Parish Priests . 4 ly . The institution of Chorepiscopi proves most evidently that the Primitive Bishops were Diocesan , not Parochiall : for they were instituted to assist the Bishop in part of his Country-charge , and were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Visiters , ( as the Councell of Laodicea calls them . ) But what need such Suffragans , such coadjutors to the managing of a Parish . Indeed they might possibly have been needfull for the managing of a Citty-parish , especially if a whole Citty was a Parish , as these objectors must pretend , or not say Primitive Bishops were Parochiall . But being these Chorepiscopi were Suffragans to the Bishop , and did their offices in the country , while the Bishop was resident in the Citty , either the Bishops parish extended it selfe from Citty to Country ; and then it is all one with a Diocesse , or else we can find no imployment for a Chorepiscopus , or Visiter . * The tenth Canon of the Councell of Antioch , describes their use and power . Qui in villis & vicis constituti sunt Chorepiscopi .... placuit sanctae Synodo ut modum proprium recognoscant , ut gubernent sibi subjectas Ecclesias . They were to governe the Churches delegated to their charge . It seems they had many Churches under their provision , and yet they were but the Bishops Vicars , for so it followes in the Canon ; he must not ordaine any Presbyters , and Deacons absque urbis Episcopo cui ipse subjicitu● , & Regio ; Without leave of the Bishop of the Citty to whom both himselfe , and all the Country is subordinate . 5. The Bishop was one in a Citty wherein were many Presbyters . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith S. Ignatius . There is one Altar in every Church , and ONE BISHOP together with the Presbytery , and the Deacons . Either then a whole City , such as Rome , or Ierusalem ( which as Iosephus reports had 400 Synagogues , ) must be but one Parish , and then they had as good call a Bishops charge a Diocesse , as a Parish in that latitude ; or if there were many Parishes in a Citty , and the Bishop could have but one of them , why , what hindred but that there might in a Citty be as many Bishops , as Presbyters ? For if a Bishop can have but one Parish , why may not every Parish have a Bishop ? But by the ancient Canons , a City though never so great , could have but one for it selfe and all the Country , therefore every parish-Priest was not a Bishop , nor the Bishop a meere parish-Priest . Ne in unâ civitate duo sint Episcopi , was the Constitution of the Nicene Fathers as saith Ruffinus ; and long before this , it was so known a businesse that one City should have but one Bishop , that Cornelius exprobrates to Novatus his ignorance , is ergo qui Evangelium vendicabat , nesciebat in Ecclesiâ Catholicâ unum Episcopum esse debere , ubi videbat esse Presbyteros quadraginta & sex . Novatus ( the Father of the old Puritans ) was a goodly Gospeller that did not know that in a Catholick Church there should be but one Bishop wherein there were 46 Presbyters ; intimating clearely that a Church that had two Bishops is not Catholick , but Schismatick at least , ( if both be pretended to be of a fixt residence ) what then is he that would make as many Bishops in a Church as Presbyters ? He is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he fights against God , if S. Ambrose say true . Deus enim singulis Ecclesiis singulos Episcopos praeesse decrevit . God hath decreed that one Bishop should rule in one Church ; and of what extent his ONE CHURCH was , may easily be guessed by himselfe who was the Ruler , and Bishop of the great City , and province of Millaine . * And therefore when Valerius * as it was then sometimes used in severall Churches had ordain'd S. Austin to be Bishop of Hippo , whereof Valerius was also Bishop at the same time , S. Austin was troubled at it as an act most Uncanonicall , and yet he was not ordain'd to rule in common with Valerius , but to rule in succession and after the consummation of Valerius . It was the same case in Agelius , a Novatian Bishop ordaining Marcian to be his successor , and Sisinnius to succeed him , the acts were indeed irregular , but yet there was no harme in it to this cause , they were ordain'd to succeed , not in conjunction . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( saith Sozomen ) It is a note of Schisme , and against the rule of H. Church to have two Bishops in one chaire . Secundus Episcopus nullus est ( saith S. † Cyprian ) And as Cornelius reports it in his epistle to S. Cyprian , it was the voice of the Confessors that had been the instruments and occasions of the Novatian Schisme by erecting another Bishop ; Nec non ignoramus unum Deum esse , unum Christum esse Dominum quem confessi sumus , unum spiritum sanctum , unum Episcopum in Catholicâ Ecclesiâ esse debere . And these very words the people also used in the contestation about Liberius , and Faelix . For when the Emperour was willing that Liberius should returne to his See , on condition that Faelix the Arian might be Bishop there too , they derided the suggestion , crying out , One God , one Christ , one Bishop . So Theodoret reports . But who lists to see more of this , may be satisfied ( if plenty will doe it ) in a S. Chrysostome , b Theodoret , S. c Hierom , d Oecumenius , e Optatus , S. f Ambrose , and if he please he may read a whole booke of it written by S. Cyprian , de Vnitate Ecclesiae , sive de singularitate Prelatorum . 6 ly . Suppose the ordinary Diocesses had been parishes , yet what were the Metropolitans , and the Primates , were they also parish-Bishops ? Surely if Bishops were parochiall , then these were at least diocesan by their owne argument , for to be sure they had many Bishops under them . But there were none such in the Primitive Church ? yes most certainly . The 35 Canon of the Apostles tells us so , most plainely , and at the worst , they were a very primitive record . Episcopos gentium singularum scire convenit quis inter eos PRIMUS HABEATUR , quem velut caput existiment , & nihil amplius praeter ejus conscientiam gerant , quàm ea sola quae parochiae propriae , & villis quae sub eâ sunt , competunt . The Bishops of every Nation must know who is their PRIMATE , and esteeme him as their HEAD , and doe NOTHING without his consent , but those things that appertaine to their owne Diocesse . And from hence the Fathers of the Councell of Antioch deriv'd their sanction , per singulas regiones Episcopos convenit nosse METROPOLITANUM Episcopum sollicitudinem totius provinciae gerere &c. The Bishops of every province must know that their METROPOLITAN . Bishop does take cure of all the province . For this was an Apostolicall Constitution ( saith S. Clement ) that in the conversion of Gentile Cities in place of the Archflamines , Archbishops , Primates , or Patriarchs should be placed , qui reliquorum Episcoporum judicia , & majora ( quoties necesse foret ) negotiain fide agitarent , & secundùm Dei voluntatem , sicut constituerunt Sancti Apostoli , definirent . * Alexandria was a Metropoliticall See long before the Nicene Councell , as appeares in the sixth Canon before cited ; Nay , Dioscorus the Bishop of that Church was required to bring ten of the METROPOLITANS that he had UNDER HIM to the Councell of Ephesus , by Theodosius and Valentinian Emperours , so that it was a PATRIARCHAT . These are enough to shew that in the Primitive Church there were Metropolitan Bishops . Now then either Bishops were Parochiall , or no : If no , then they were Diocesan ; if yea , then at least many of them were Diocesan , for they had ( according to this rate ) many Parochiall Bishops under them . * But I have stood too long upon this impertinent trifle , but as now a dayes it is made , the consideration of it is materiall to the maine Question . Only this I adde ; That if any man should trouble the world with any other fancy of his owne , and say that our Bishops are nothing like the Primitive , because all the Bishops of the Primitive Church had onely two townes in their charge , and no more , and each of these townes had in them 170 families , and were bound to have no more , how should this man be confuted ? It was just such a device as this in them that first meant to disturbe this Question , by pretending that the Bishops were onely parochiall , not diocesan , and that there was no other Bishop but the Parish-Priest . Most certainely , themselves could not beleive the allegation , onely they knew it would raise a dust . But by God's providence , there is water enough in the Primitive fountaines to allay it . ANother consideration must here be interpos'd concerning the intervening of Presbyters in the regiment of the severall Churches . For though I have twice already showne that they could not challenge it of right either by Divine institution , or Apostolicall ordinance , yet here also it must be considered how it was in the practice of the Primitive Church , for those men that call the Bishop a Pope , are themselves desirous to make a Conclave of Cardinalls too , & to make every Diocesse a Romane Consistory . 1. Then , the first thing we heare of Presbyters ( after Scripture I meane , for of it I have already given account ) is from the testimony of S. Hierome , Antequam studia in religione fierent , & diceretur in populis ego sum Pauli &c : communi Presbyterorum consilio Ecclesiae gubernabantur . Before factions arose in the Church , the Church was govern'd by the common Counsell of Presbyters . Here S. Hierome either meanes it of the time before Bishops were constituted in particular Churches , or after Bishops were appointed . If , before Bishops were appointed , no hurt done , the Presbyters might well rule in common , before themselves had a ruler appointed to governe both them and all the diocesse beside . For so S. Ignatius writing to the Church of Antioch exhorts the Presbyters to feed the flock untill God should declare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom he would make their ruler . And S. Cyprian speaking of Etecusa and some other women that had made defaillance in time of persecution , and so were put to penance , praeceperunt eas Praepositi tantispèr sic esse , donec Episcopus constituatur . The Presbyters , whom sede vacante hee praeter morem suum calls Praepositos , they gave order that they should so remaine till the Consecration of a Bishop . * But , if S. Hierome meanes this saying of his , after Bishops were fixt , then his expression answers the allegation , for it was but communi CONSILIO Presbyterorum , the IUDICIUM might be solely in the Bishop , he was the IUDGE , though the Presbyters were the COUNSELLORS . For so himselfe addes , that upon occasion of those first Schismes in Corinth , it was DECREED in ALL THE WORLD , vt omnis Ecclesiae cura ad unum pertineret , all the care of the diocesse was in the Bishop , and therefore all the power , for it was unimaginable that the burden should be laid on the Bishop , and the strength put into the hands of the Presbyters . * And so S. Ignatius stiles them , [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ] Assessors , and Counsellors to the Bishop . But yet if we take our estimate from Ignatius , The Bishop is THE RULER , without him though all concurr'd , yet nothing could be done , nothing attempted ; The Bishop was Superiour in ALL POWER and AUTHORITY , He was to be obey'd in ALL THINGS , and contradicted in NOTHING ; The Bishops judgement was to sway , and nothing must seeme pleasing to the Presbyters that was crosse to the Bishops sentence : this , and a great deale more which I have formerly made use of , is in Ignatius ; And now let their assistance and Counsell extend as farre as it will , the Bishops authority is invulnerable . But I have already enough discussed this instance of S. Hierome's . § . thither I referre the Reader . 2. But S. Cyprian must doe this businesse for us , if any man , for of all the Bishops , he did acts of the greatest condescension , and seeming declination of Episcopall authority . But let us see the worst . Ad id verò quod scripserunt mihi compresbyteri nostri .... solus rescribere nihil potui , quando à primordio Episcopatûs mei statuerim nihil sine consilio vestro , & sine consensu plebis meae privatâ sententiâ gerere . And againe , quamvis mihi videantur debere pacem accipere , tamen ad consultum vestrum eos dimisi , ne videar aliquid temerè praesumere . And a third time , Quae res cûm omnium nostrum consilium & sententiam spectet , praejudicare ego & soli mihirem communem vindicare non audeo . These are the greatest steps of Episcopall humility that I find in materiâ juridicâ , The summe whereof is this , that S. Cyprian did consult his Presbyters and Clergy in matters of consequence , and resolved to doe nothing without their advice . But then , consider also , it was , statui apud me , I have resolved with my selfe to doe nothing without your Counsell . It was no necessity ab extrà , no duty , no Sanction of holy Church that bound him to such a modesty , it was his owne voluntary act . 2. It was as well Diaconorum , as Presbyterorum consilium that he would have in conjunction , as appeares by the titles of the sixth and eighteenth Epistles , Cyprianus Presbyteris , ac DIACONIS fratribus salutem : So that here the Presbyters can no more challenge a power of regiment in common , then the Deacons , by any Divine law , or Catholike practice . 3. S. Cyprian also would actually have the consent of the people too , and that will as well disturbe the Ius Divinum of an independant Presbytery , as of an independant Episcopacy . But indeed neither of them both need to be much troubled , for all this was voluntary in S. Cyprian , like Moses , qui cùm in potestate suâ habuit vt sol●● possit praesse populo , seniores elegit ( to use S. Hierome's expression ) who when it was in his power alone to rule the people , yet chose seaventy Elders for assistants . For as for S. Cyprian , this very Epistle cleares it that no part of his Episcopall authority was impayred . For he shewes what himselfe alone could doe . Fretus igitur dilectione vestrâ , & religione , quam satis n●vi , his literis & hortor & mando &c. I intreat and COMMAND you .... vice meâ fungamini circa gerenda ea quae administratio religiosa deposcit , Re my substitutes in the administration of Church affayres . He intreates them pro dilectione , because they lov'd him , he COMMANDS THEM PRO RELIGIONE , by their religion , for it was a peice of their religion to obey him , and in him was the governement of his Church , else how could he have put the Presbyters , and Deacons in substitution ? * Adde to this ; It was the custome of the Church that although the Bishop did onely impose hands in the ordination of Clerks , yet the Clergy did approve , & examine the persons to be ordain'd , and it being a thing of publike interest , it was then not thought fit to be a personall action both in preparation , and ministration too ( and for this S. Chrysostome was accus'd in Concilionesario [ as the title of the edition of it , expresses it ] that he made ordinations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) yet when S. Cyprian saw occasion for it , he did ordaine without the consent of the Clergy of his Church , for so he ordained Celerinus , so he ordain'd Optatus , and Satarus , when himselfe was from his Church , and in great want of Clergy-men to assist in the ministration of the daily offices . *** He did as much in jurisdiction too , and censures ; for HIMSELFE did excommunicate Felicissimus and Augendus , and Rep●stus , and Irene , and Paula , as appeares in his 38 , and 39 epistles ; and tells * Rogatianus that he might have done as much to the petulant Deacon that abus'd him by vertue of his Episcopall authority . And the same power singly , and solely , he exercis'd in his acts of favour and absolution ; Vnus atque alius OBNITENTE PLE●E ET CONTRADICENTE , M●A tamen FACILITATE susceptisunt . Indeed here is no contradiction of the Clergy expressed , but yet the absolution said to be his owne act , against the people and without the Clergy . For he alone was the IUDOE , insomuch that he declared that it was the cause of Schisme and heresie that the Bishop was not obey'd , nec UNUS in Ecclesiâ ad tempus Sacerdos , & ad tempus IVDEX VICE CHRISTI COGITATUR , and that ONE high Priest in a Church , and IUDGE INSTEED OF CHRIST is not admitted . So that the Bishop must be ONE , and that ONE must be IUDGE , and to acknowledge more , in S. Cyprians Lexicon is called schisme and heresie . Farther yet , this Iudicatory of the Bishop is independant , and responsive to none but Christ. Actum suum disponit , & dirigit Vnusquisque Episcopus rationem propositi sui Domino redditurus , and againe , habet in Ecclesiae administratione voluntatis suae arbitrium liberum unusquisque Praepositus : rationem actûs sui Domino redditurus . The Bishop is Lord of his owne actions , and may doe what seemes good in his owne eyes , and for his actions he is to account to Christ. This generall account is sufficient to satisfie the allegations out of the 6 th , and 18 th epistles , and indeed , the whole Question . But for the 18 th epistle , there is something of peculiar answer . For first , It was a case of publike concernement , and therefore he would so comply with the publike interest as to doe it by publike counsell , 2 ly , It was a necessity of times that made this case peculiar . NECESSITAS TEMPORUM facit ut non temerè pacem demus , they are the first words of the next epistle , which is of the same matter ; for if the lapsi had been easily , and without a publike and solemne triall reconcil'd , it would have made Gentile Sacrifices frequent , and Martyrdome but seldome , 3 ly , The common counsell which S. Cyprian here said he would expect , was the Councell of the Confessors , to whom for a peculiar honour it was indulged that they should be interested in the publike assoyling of such penitents who were overcome with those feares which the Confessors had overcome . So that this is evidently an act of positive , and temporary discipline , and as it is no disadvantage to the power of the Bishop , so to be sure , no advantage to the Presbyter . * But the clause of objection from the 19 th epistle is yet unanswer'd , and that runs something higher , .... tamen ad consultum vestrum eos dimisine videar aliquid temerè praesumere . It is called presumption to reconcile the penitents without the advice of those to whom he writ . But from this we are fairely deliver'd by the title . Cypriano , & Compresbyteris Carthagini consistentibus ; Caldonius , salutem . It was not the epistle of Cyprian to his Presbyters , but of Caldonius one of the suffragan Bishops of Numidia to his Metropolitan , and now , what wonder if he call it presumption to doe an act of so publike consequence without the advise of his Metropolitan . He was bound to consult him by the Canons Apostolicall , and so he did , and no harme done to the present Question , of the Bishops sole and independant power , and unmixt with the conjunct interest of the Presbytery , who had nothing to doe beyond ministery , counsell , and assistance . 3. In all Churches where a Bishops seat was , there were not alwayes a Colledge of Presbyters , but only in the greatest Churches ; for sometimes in the lesser Cities there were but two , Esse oportet , & aliquantos Presbyteros , at bini sint per Ecclesias , & unus incivitate Episcopus . So S. Ambrose , sometimes there was but one in a Church . Posthumianus in the third Councell of Carthage put the case . D●inde qui unum [ Presbyterum ] habuerit , numquid debet illi ipse unus Presbyter auferri ? The Church of Hippo had but one . Valerius was the Bishop , and Austin was the Priest ; and after him Austin was the Bishop , & Eradius the Priest. Sometimes not one , as in the case Aurelius put in the same Councell now cited , of a Church that had never a Presbyter to be consecrated Bishop in the place of him that dyed ; & once at Hippo they had none , even then when the people snatch'd S. Austin and carried him to Valerius to be ordain'd . In these cases I hope it will not be denied but the Bishop was Iudge alone , I am sure he had but little company , sometimes none at all . 4. But suppose it had been alwaies done that Presbyters were consulted in matters of great difficulty , and possibility of Scandall , for so S. Ambrose intimates , Ecclesia seniores habuit sine quorum Consilio nihil gerebatur in Ecclesiâ ( understand , in these Churches where Presbyteries were fixt ) yet this might be necessary , and was so indeed in some degree at first , which in succession as it prov'd troublesome to the Presbyters ; so unnecessary and impertinent to the Bishops . At first I say it might be necessary . For they were times of persecution , and temptation , and if both the Clergy and people too were not comply'd withall in such exigence of time , and agonies of spirit , it was the way to make them relapse to Gentilisme ; for a discontented spirit will hide it selfe , and take sanctuary in the reedes and mud of Nilus , rather then not take complacence in an imaginary security and revenge . 2. As yet there had been scarse any Synods to determine cases of publike difficulty , and what they could not receive from publike decision , it was fitting they should supply by the maturity of a Consiliary assistance , and deliberation . For although , by the Canons of the Apostles , Bishops were bound twise a yeare to celebrate Synods , yet persecution intervening , they were rather twice a yeare a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a dispersion then a Synod . 3. Although Synods had been as frequently conven'd as was intended by the Apostles , yet it must be length of time , and a successive experience that must give opportunity and ability to give generall rules for the emergency of all particulars , and therefore till the Church grew of ●ome considerable age , a fixt standing Colledge of Presbyters was more requisite then since it hath been , when the frequency of Generall Councells , and Provinciall Synods , and the peace of the Church , and the innumerable volumes of the Fathers , and Decretalls of Bishops , and a digest of Ecclesiasticall Constitutions , hath made the personall assistance of Presbyters unnecessary . 4. When necessity requir'd not their presence and Counsell , their own necessity requir'd that they should attend their severall cures . For let it be considered ; they that would now have a Colledge of Presbyters assist the Bishop whether they think of what followes . For either they must have Presbyters ordain'd without a title , which I am sure they have complain'd of these threescore years , or else they must be forc'd to Non-residence . For how else can they assist the Bishop in the ordinary , and daily occurrences of the Church , unlesse either they have no cure of their own , or else neglect it ? And as for the extraordinary , either the Bishop is to consult his Metropolitan , or he may be assisted by a Synod , if the Canons already constitute doe not aide him , but in all these cases the Presbytery is impertinent . 5. As this assistance of Presbyters was at first for necessity , and after by Custome it grew a Law ; so now retrò , first the necessity fail'd , and then the desuetude abrogated the Law , which before , custome had established . [ quod quâ negligentiâ obsoleverit nescio ] saith S. Ambrose , he knew not how it came to be obsolete , but so it was , it had expired before his time . Not but that Presbyters were still in Mother-Churches ( I meane in Great ones ) In Ecclesiâ enim habemus Senatum nostrum , actum Presbyterorum , we have still ( saith S. Hierome ) in the Church our Senate , a Colledge , or Chapter of Presbyters , ( he was then at Rome , or Ierusalem ) but they were not consulted in Church affaires , & matter of jurisdiction , that was it , that S. Ambrose wondred how it came to passe . And thus it is to this day . In our Mother Churches we have a Chapter too , but the Bishop consults them not in matters of ordinary jurisdiction , just so it was in S. Ambrose his time , and therefore our Bishops have altered no custome in this particular , the alteration was pregnant even before the end of the fowre generall . Councells , and therefore is no violation of a divine right , for then most certainly a contrary provision would have been made in those conventions , wherein so much sanctity , and authority , and Catholicisme and severe discipline were conjunct ; and then besides , it is no innovation in practice which pretends so faire antiquity , but however it was never otherwise then voluntary in the Bishops , and positive discipline in the Church , and conveniency in the thing for that present , and Councell in the Presbyters , and a trouble to the Presbyters persons , and a disturbance of their duties when they came to be fixt upon a particular charge . * One thing more before I leave . I find a Canon of the Councell of Hispalis objected . Episcopus Presbyteris solus honorem dare potest , solus autem auferre non potest . A Bishop may alone ordaine a Priest , a Bishop may not alone depose a Priest. Therefore in censures there was in the Primitive Church a necessity of conjunction of Presbyters with the Bishop in imposition of censures . * To this I answer , first it is evident , that hee that can give an honour , can also take it away , if any body can ; for there is in the nature of the thing no greater difficulty in pulling downe , then in raising up . It was wont alwaies to be accounted easier ; therefore this Canon requiring a conjunct power in deposing Presbyters is a positive constitution of the Church , founded indeed upon good institution , but built upon no deeper foundation , neither of nature or higher institution , then its own present authority . But that 's enough , for we are not now in question of divine right , but of Catholick and Primitive practice . To it therefore I answer , that the conjunct hand required to pull downe a Presbyter , was not the Chapter , or Colledge of Presbyters , but a company of Bishops , a Synodall sentence , and determination , for so the Canon runnes , qui profecto nec a● un● damna●i , nec un● judicante poterunt honoris sui privilegii● exuised praesantati SYNODALL 〈◊〉 quod canon de illis praeceperit definiri . And the same thing was determin'd in the Greekes Councell of Carthage . If a Presbyter or a Deacon be accused , their owne Bishop shall judge them , not alone , but with the assistance of sixe Bishops more , in the case of a Presbyter ; three , of a Deacon ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the causes of the other Clergy the Bishop of the place must ALONE heare and determine them , So that by this Canon , in some things the Bishop might not be alone , but then his assistants were Bishops , not Presbyters , in other things he alone was judge without either , and yet his sentences must not be cla●●cular , but in open Court , in the full Chapter ; for his Presbyters must be present ; and so it is determind for Africa in the fourth Councell of Carthage , Vt Episcopu● nullius causam audiat absque praescutiâ 〈…〉 alioquin irrita erit sententia Episcopi nini praesentiâ Clericonum confirmetur . Here is indeed a necessity of the presence of the Clergy of his Church where his Consistory was kept , least the sentence should be clandestine , and so illegall , but it is nothing but praesentia Clericorum , for it is sententia Episcopi , the Bishops sentence , and the Clerks presence only ; for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Bishop ALONE might give sentence in the causes of the inferior Clergy , even by this Canon it selfe , which is used for objection against the Bishops sole jurisdiction . *** I know nothing now to hinder our processe ; for the Bishops jurisdiction is clearely left in his own hand , and the Presbyters had no share in it , but by delegation and voluntary assumption . Now I proceed in the maine question . VVEE have seen what Episcopacy is in it selfe , now from the same principles let us see what it is to us . And first ; Antiquity taught us it was simply necessary , even to the being and constitution of a Church . That runs high , but we must follow our leaders . * S. Ignatius is expresse in this question . Qui intra altare est , mundus est , quare & obtemperat Episcope , & Sacerdotibus . Qui vetò foris est hic is est , qui sine Episcopo , Sacerdote , & Diacono quicquam agit , & ejusmodi inquinatum habet conscientiam , & infideli deterior est . He that is within the Altar , that is , within the Communion of the Church , he is pure , for he obeyes the Bishop , and the Priests . But he that is without , that is , does any thing without his Bishop and the Clergy , he hath filthy conscience science and is worse then an infidell . NECESSE itaque est , quicquid facitis , ut SINE EPISCOPO NIHIL faciatis . It is NECESSARY that what euer ye doe , ye be sure to doe nothing without the Bishop . Quid enim aliud est Episcopus , &c. For what else is a Bishop but he that is greater then all power ? So that the obeying the Bishop is the necessary condition of a Christian , and Catholick communion , he that does not , is worse then an infidell . The same also he affirmes againe . Quot quot enim Christi sunt partium Episcopi , qui verò ab illo declinant , & cum maledictis communionem amplectuntur , hi cam illis excidentur . All them that are on Christs side , are on the Bishops side , but they that communicate with accursed Schismaticks , shall be cutt off with them . * If then we will be Christ's servants , we must be obedient and subordinate to the Bishop . It is the condition of Christianity . We are not Christians else . So is the intimation of S. Ignatius . * As full and pertinent is the peremptory resolution of S. Cyprian in that admirable epistle of his ad Laps●s , where after he had spoken how Christ instituted the honour of Episcopacy in concrediting the Keyes to Peter and the other Apostles , Inde ( saith he ) per temporum & successionum vices , Episcoporum ordinatio , & ECCLESIAE RATIO decurrit , VT ECCLESIA SUPER EPISCOPOS CONSTITUATUR , & omnis actus Ecclesiae per EOSDEM PRAEPOSITOS gubernetur ▪ Hence is it , that by severall succession of Bishops the Church is continued , so that the CHURCH HATH IT'S BEING , OR CONSTITUTION BY BISHOPS , and every act of Ecclesiasticall regiment is to be disposed by them . Cùm hoc itaque divinâ lege fundatum sit , miror &c. Since therefore this is so ESTABLISHED BY THE LAW OF GOD , I wonder any man should question it , &c. And therefore as in all buildings , the foundation being gone , the fabrick falls , so IF YE TAKE AWAY BISHOPS , the Church must aske a writing of divorce from God , for it can no longer bee called a Church . This account we have from S. Cyprian , and he reenforces againe upon the same charge in his * Epistle ad Florentium Pupianum , where he makes a Bishop to be ingredient into the DEFINITION of a Church . [ Ecclesia est plebs sacerdoti adunata , & Pastori suo Grex adhaerens , The Church is a flock adhering to it's Pastor , and a people united to their Bishop ] for that so he means by Sacerdos , appears in the words subjoyn'd , Vnde & scire debes Episcopum in Ecclesiâ esse , & Ecclesiam in Episcopo , & si qui Cum EPISCOPO NON SIT IN ECCLESIA NON ESSE , & frustrà sibi blandiri eos qui pacem cum Sacerdotibus Dei non habentes obrepunt , & latentèr apud quosdam communicare se credunt &c. As a Bishop is in the Church , so the Church is in the Bishop , and he that does not communicate with the Bishop is not in the Church ; and therefore they vainely flatter themselves that think their case faire and good , if they communicate in conventicles , and forsake their Bishop . And for this cause the holy Primitives were so confident , and zealous for a Bishop , that they would ●ather expose themselves and all their tribes to a persecution , then to the greater misery , the want of Bishops . Fulgentius tells an excellent story to this purpose . When Frasamund King of Byzac in Africa had made anedict that no more Bishops should be consecrate ; to this purpose that the Catholike faith might expire ( so he was sure it would , if this device were perfected ) vt arescentibus truncis absque palmitibus omnes Ecclesiae desolarentur , the good Bishops of the Province met together in a Councell , and having considered of the command of the tyrant , Sacra turba Pontificum qui remanser ant communicato inter se consilio definierunt adversus praeceptum Regis in omnibus locis celebrare ordinationes Pontificum , cogitantes aut Regis iracundiam , si qua forsan existeret , mitigandam , quò faciliùs ordinati in suis plebibus viverent , aut si persecutionis violentia nasceretur , coronandos etiam fidei confessione , quos dignos invenichant promotione . It was full of bravery , and Christian sprite . The Bishops resolved for all the edict against new ordination of Bishops to obey God , rather then man , and to consecrate Bishops in all places , hoping the King would be appeased , or if not , yet those whom they thought worthy of a Mitre were in a faire disposition to receive a Crowne of Martyrdome . They did so . Fit repentè communis assumptio , and they all striv'd who should be first , and thought a blessing would outstrip the hindmost . They were sure they might goe to heaven ( though persecuted ) under the conduct of a Bishop , they knew , without him the ordinary passage was obstructed . Pius the first , Bishop of Rome , and Martyr , speaking of them that calumniate , and disgrace their Bishops endeavouring to make them infamous , they adde ( saith he ) evill to evill , and grow worse , non intelligentes quòd Ecclesia Dei in Sacerdotibus consistit , & cres●it in templum Dei ; Not considering that THE CHURCH OF GOD DOTH CONSIST , or is established in BISHOPS , and growes up to a holy Temple ? To him I am most willing to adde S. Hierome , because he is often obtruded in defiance of the cause . Ecclesiae salus in summi Sacerdotis dignitate pendet , The safety of the Church depends upon the Bishops dignity . THE Reason which S. Hierome gives , presses this businesse to a further particular . For if an eminent dignity , and an Vnmatchable power be not given to him , tot efficientur schismata , quot Sacerdotes . So that he makes Bishops therefore necessary because without them the Unity of a Church cannot be preserved ; and we know that unity , and being , are of equall extent , and if the Unity of the Church depends upon the Bishop , then where there is no Bishop , no pretence to a Church ; and therefore to separate from the Bishop makes a man at least a Schismatick ; For Unity which the Fathers presse so often , they make to be dependant on the Bishop . Nihil sit in vobit quod possit vos dirimere , sed Vnimini Episcop● , subjecti Deo per illum in Christo ( saith S. Ignatius . ) Let nothing divide you , but be united to your Bishop , being subiect to God in Christ through your Bishop . And it is his congè to the people of Smyrna to whom he writ in his epistle to Polycarpus , opto vos semper valere in Deo nostro Iesu Christo , in quo manete per Vnitatem Dei & EPISCOPI , Farewell in Christ Iesus , in whom remaine by the Vnity of God and of the BISHOP . * Quantò vos beatiores judico qui dependetis ab illo [ Episcopo ] vt Ecclesia à Domino Iesu , & Dominus à Patre suo , vt omnià per Vnitatem consentiant . Blessed people are ye that depend upon your Bishop , as the Church on Christ , and Christ on God , that all things may consent in Vnity . * Neque enim aliundè haereses obortae sunt , aut nata sunt schismata , quàm inde quòd Sacerdoti Dei non obtemperatur , nec unus in Ecclesiâ ad tempus Sacerdos , & ad tempus Iudex vice Christi cogitatur . Hen●e come SCHISMES , hence spring HERESYES that the Bishop is not obeyed , and admitted alone to be the high Priest , alone to be the Iudge . The same , S. Cyprian repeates againe , and by it , we may see his meaning clearer . Qui vos audit , me audit &c : Inde enim haereses & schismata obortae sunt & oriuntur , dum Episcopus qui unus est , & Ecclesiae praeest superbâ quorundam praesumptione contemnitur , & homo dignatione Dei honoratus , indignus hominibus judicatur . The pride and peevish haughtinesse of some factious people that contemne their Bishops is the cause of all heresy and Schisme . And therefore it was so strictly forbidden by the Ancient Canons , that any Man should have any meetings , or erect an Altar out of the communion of his Bishop , that if any man prov'd delinquent in this particular , he was punish'd with the highest censures , as appeares in the 32 Canon of the Apostles , in the 6 th Canon of the Councell of Gangra , the 5 th Canon of the Councell of Antioch , and the great Councell of Chalcedon , all which I have before cited . The summe is this , The Bishop is the band , and ligature of the Churches Unity ; and separation from the Bishop is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Theodorets expession is ; a Symbol of faction , and he that separates is a Schismatick . But how if the Bishop himselfe be a heretick , or schismatick ? May we not then separate ? Yes , if he be judg'd so by a Synod of Bishops , but then he is sure to be depos'd too , and then in these cases no separation from a Bishop . For till he be declar'd so , his communion is not to be forsaken by the subjects of his diocesse , least they by so doing become their Iudges judge , and when he is declar'd so , no need of withdrawing from obedience to the Bishop , for the heretick , or schismatick must be no longer Bishop . * But let the case be what it will be , no separation from a Bishop , ut sic , can be lawfull ; and yet if there were a thousand cases in which it were lawfull to separate from a Bishop , yet in no case is it lawfull to separate from Episcopacy ; That is the quintessence , and spirit of schisme , and a direct overthrow to Christianity , and a confronting of a Divine institution . * BUt is it not also heresie ? Aërius was condemned for heresie by the Catholike Church . The heresie from whence the Aërians were denominated was , sermo furiosus magis quàm humanae conditionis , & dicebat , Quid est Episcopus ad Presbyterum , nihil differt hic ab illo . A mad , and an unmanly heresie , to say that a Bishop , and a Priest are all one . So Epiphanius . Assumpsit autem Ecclesia , & IN TOTO MUNDO ASSENSUS FACTUS EST , antequam esset Aërius , & qui ab ipso appellantur Aëriani . And the good Catholike Father is so angry at the heretick Aërius , that he thinks his name was given him by Providence , and he is call'd Aërius , ab aërijs spiritibus pravitatis , for he was possessed with an uncleane spirit , he could never else been the inventer of such hereticall pravity . S. Austin also reckons him in the accursed roll of hereticks , and adds at the conclusion of his Catalogue , that he is NO CATHOLIKE CHRISTIAN that assents to any of the foregoing Doctrines , amongst which , this is one of the principall . Philastrius does as much for him . But against this it will be objected . first , That heresies in the Primitive Catalogues are of a large extent , and every dissent from a publike opinion , was esteemed heresie , 2 ly , Aërius was called heretick , for denying prayer for the dead . And why may he not be as blamelesse in equalling a Bishop , and a Presbyter , as in that other , for which he also is condemn'd by Epiphanius , and S. Austin . 3 ly , He was never condemn'd by any Councell , and how then can he be called heretick ? I answer ; that dissent from a publike , or a received opinion was never called heresie , unlesse the contrary truth was indeed a part of Catholike doctrine . For the Fathers many of them did so , as S. Austin from the Millenary opinion ; yet none ever reckon'd them in the Catalogues of hereticks ; but such things only set them downe there , which were either directly opposite to Catholike beliefe , though in minoribus ●rticulis , or to a holy life . 2 ly , It is true that Epiphanius and S. Austin reckon his denying prayer for the dead to be one of his owne opinions , and hereticall . But I cannot help it if they did , let him and them agree it , they are able to answer for themselves . But yet they accused him also of Arianisme ; and shall we therefore say that Arianisme was no heresie , because the Fathers call'd him heretick in one particular upon a wrong principall ? We may as well say this , as deny the other . 3 ly , He was not condemned by any Councell . No. For his heresie was ridiculous , and a scorne to all wise men ; as Epiphanius observes , and it made no long continuance , neither had it any considerable party . * But yet this is certaine , that Epiphanius , & Philastrius , & S. Austin call'd this opinion of Aërius a heresie and against the Catholike beliefe . And themselves affirme that the Church did so ; and then it would be considered , that it is but a sad imployment to revive old heresies , and make them a peice of the New religion . And yet after all this , if I mistake not , although Aërius himselfe was so inconsiderable as not to be worthy noting in a Councell , yet certainly the one halfe of his error is condemn'd for heresie in one of the foure Generall Councells , viz. the first Councell of Constantinople . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . We call all them hereticks whom the Ancient Church hath condemn'd , and whom we shall anathematize . Will not Aërius come under one of these titles for a condemn'd heretick ? Then see forward . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Here is enough for Aërius and all his hyperaspists , new and old ; for the holy Councell condemnes them for hereticks who doe indeed confesse the true faith , but separate from their Bishops , and make conventicles apart from his Communion . Now this I the rather urge because an Act of Parliament made 1 o of Elizabeth does make this Councell , and the other three of Nice , Ephesus , and Chalcedon , the rule of judging heresyes . I end this particular with the saying of the Councell of Paris against the Acephali ( who were the branch of a Crabstock and something like Aërius , ) cited by Burchard ; Nullâ ratione Clerici aut Sacerdotes habendi sunt , qui sub nullius Episcopi disciplinâ & providentiâ gubernantur . Tales enim Acephalos , id est , sine capite Priscae Ecclesiae consuetudo nuncupavit . They are by no meanes to be accounted Clergy-men , or Priests , that will not be governed by a Bishop . For such men the Primitive Church call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , headlesse , wittlesse people . This onely . Acephali was the title of a Sect , a formall heresy , and condemn'd by the Ancient Church , say the Fathers of the Councell of Paris , Now if we can learn exactly what they were , it may perhaps be another conviction for the necessity of Episcopall regiment . Nicephorus can best informe us . Eodem tempore , & Acephali , quorum dux Severus Antiochenus fuit &c : Severus of Antioch was the first broacher of this heresy . But why were they called Acephali ? id est , sine capite , quem sequuntur haeretici ; Nullus enim eorum reperitur author à quo ex●rti sunt ( saith Isidore ) . But this cannot be , for their head is knowne , Severus was the heresiarch . But then why are they called Acephali ? Nicephorus gives this reason , and withall a very particular account of their heresy , Acephali autem ob eam causam dicti sunt , quòd sub Episcopis non fuerint . They refused to live under Bishops . Thence they had their Name . what was their heresie ? They denied the distinction of Natures in Christ. That was one of their heresies , but they had more ; for they were trium capitulorum in Chalcedone impugnatores , saith Isidore , they opposed three Canons of the Councell of Chalcedon . One we have heard , what their other heresies were , we doe not so well know , but by the Canon of the Councell of Paris , and the intimation of their name we are guided to the knowledge of a second ; They refused to live under the government of a Bishop . And this also was impugnatio unius articuli in Chalcedone , for the eighth Canon of the Councell of Chalcedon commands that the Clergy should be under Episcopall government . But these Acephali would not , they were antiepiscopall men , and therefore they were condemn'd hereticks ; condemn'd , In the Councell of Paris , of Sevill , and of Chalcedon . But the more particular account that Nicephorus gives of them I will now insert , because it is of great use . Proinde Episcopis , & Sacerdotibus apud eos defunctis , neque baptismus juxtà solennem , atque receptum Ecclesiae morem apud eos administratur , neque oblatio , aut res aliqua divina facta , ministeriumvè Ecclesiasticum , sicuti mos est , celebratum est . Communionem verò illi à plurimo tempore asservatam habentes serijs pascalibus in minutissimas incisam partes convenientibus ad se hominibus dederunt . Quo tempore quam quisque voluisset placitam sibi sumebat potestatem . Et proptereà quod quilibet , quod si visum esset , fidei insertum volebat , quamplurima defectorum , atque haereticorum turba exorta est . It is a story worthy observation . When any Bishop dyed they would have no other consecrated in succession , and therefore could have no more Priests when any of them dyed . But how then did they to baptize their Children ? Why , they were faine to make shift , and doe it without any Church-solemnity . But , how did they for the Holy Sacrament , for that could not be consecrated without a Priest , and he not ordain'd without a Bishop ? True , but therefore they , while they had a Bishop , got a great deale of bread consecrated , and kept a long time , and when Easter came , cutt it into small bitts , or crummes rather , to make it goe the farther , and gave it to their people . And must we doe so too ? God forbid . But how did they when all that was gone ? For crummes would not last alwaies . The story specifies it not , but yet I suppose they then got a Bishop for their necessity to help them to some more Priests , and some more crummes ; for I find the Councell of Sevill the Fathers saying , Ingressus est ad nos quidem ex haeresi Acephalorum Episcopus ; They had then it seemes got a Bishop , but this they would seldome have , and never but when their necessity drave them to it . But was this all the inconvenience of the want of Bishops ? No. For every man ( saith Nicephorus ) might doe what he list , & if he had a mind to it , might put his fancy into the Creed , and thence came innumerable troopes of Schismaticks and Hereticks . So that this device was one simple heresie in the root , but it was forty heresies in the fruit , and branches ; clearely proving that want of Bishops is the cause of all Schisme , & recreant opiniōs that are imaginable . I summe this up with the saying of S. Clement the Disciple of S. Peter , Si autem vobis Episcopis non obedierint omnes Presbyteri , &c. tribus , & linguae non obtemperaverint , non solùm infames , sed & extorres à regno Dei , & consortio fidelium , ac à limitibus Sancti Dei Ecclesiae alieni erunt . All Priests , and Clergy-men , and People , and Nations , and Languages that doe not obey their Bishop shall be shut forth of the communion of Holy Church here , and of Heaven hereafter . It runnes high , but I cannot help it , I doe but translate Ruffinus , as he before translated S. Clement . IT seemes then we must have Bishops . But must we have Lord Bishops too ? That is the question now , but such an one as the Primitive piety could never have imagined . For , could they , to whom Bishops were placed in a right and a true light , they who believed , and saw them to be the Fathers of their soules , the Guardian of their life and manners ( as King Edgar call'd S. Dunstan ) the guide of their consciences , the instruments and conveyances of all the Blessings heaven uses to powre upon us , by the ministration of the holy Gospell ; would they , that thought their lives a cheap exchange for a free , and open communion with a Catholick Bishop ; would they have contested upon an aëry title , and the imaginary priviledge of an honour , which is farre lesse then their spirituall dignity , but infinitely lesse then the burden , and charge of the soules of all their Diocesse ? Charity thinks nothing too much , and that love is but little , that grutches at the good words a Bishoprick carries with it . However ; let us see whether titles of honour be either unfit in themselves to be given to Bishops , or what the guise of Christendome hath been in her spirituall heraldry . 1. S. Ignatius in his Epistle to the Church of Smyrna gives them this command . Honora Episcopum ut Principem Sacerdotum , imaginèm Dei referentem . Honour the Bishop as the image of God , as the PRINCE OF PRIESTS . Now since honour , and excellency are termes of mutuall relation , and all excellency that is in men , and things , is but a ray of divine excellency ; so farre as they participate of God , so farre they are honourable . Since then the Bishop carries the impresse of God upon his forehead , and bears Gods image , certainly this participation of such perfection makes him very honourable . And since honor est in honorante , it is not enough that the Bishop is honourable in himselfe , but it tells us our duty , we must honour him , we must doe him honour : and of all the honours in the world , that of words is the cheapest , and the least . S. Paul speaking of the honour due to the Prelates of the Church , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Let them be accounted worthy of double honour . And one of the honours that he there means is a costly one , an honour of Maintenance , the other must certainly be an honour of estimate , and that 's cheapest . * The Councell of Sardis speaking of the severall steps and capacities of promotion to the height of Episcopacy , uses this expression , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . He that shall be found worthy of so Divine a Priesthood , let him be advanced to the HIGHEST HONOUR . * Ego procidens ad pedes ejus rogabam , excusans me , & declinans HONOREM CATHEDRAE , & potestatem , ( saith S. Clement , when S. Peter would have advanc'd him to the Honour and power of the Bishops chaire . ) But in the third epistle speaking of the dignity of Aaron the High-Priest , and then by analogy , of the Bishop , who although he be a Minister in the order of Melchisedek , yet he hath also the honour of Aaron , Omnis enim Pontifex sacro crismate perunctus , & incivitate constitutus , & in Scripturis sacris conditus , charus & preciosus hominibus oppidò esse debet . Every High Priest ordained in the Citty ( viz. a Bishop ) ought forthwith to be Deare , and Precious in the eyes of men . Quem quasi Christi locum tenentem honorare omnes debent , eique servire , & obedientes ad salutem suam fidelitèr existere , scientes quòd sive honor , sive injuria quae ei defertur , in Christum redundat , & a Christo in Deum . The Bishop is Christ's vicegerent , and therefore he is to be obeyed , knowing that whether it be honour , or injury that is done to the Bishop , it is done to Christ , and so to God. * And indeed what is the saying of our blessed Saviour himselfe ? He that despiseth you , despiseth mee . If Bishops be Gods Ministers and in higher order then the rest , then although all discountenance , and disgrace done to the Clergy reflect upon Christ , yet what it done to the Bishop is farre more , and then there is the same reason of the honour . And if so , then the Question will prove but an odde one ; even this , whether Christ be to be honour'd or no , or depressed to the common estimate of Vulgar people ? for if the Bishops be , then he is . This is the condition of the Question . 2. Consider wee , that all Religions , and particularly all Christianity did give titles of honour to their High-Priests , and Bishops respectively . * I shall not need to instance in the great honour of the Priestly tribe among the Iewes , and how highly Honourable Aaron was in proportion . Prophets were called [ Lords ] in holy Scripture . [ Art not thou MY LORD Elijah ? ] said Obed Edom to the Prophet . [ Knowest thou not that God will take THY LORD from thy head this day ? ] said the children in the Prophets Schooles . So it was then . And in the New Testament we find a Prophet HONOURD every where , but in his own Country . And to the Apostles and Presidents of Churches greater titles of honour given , then was ever given to man by secular complacence and insinuation . ANGELS , and GOVERNOURS , and FATHERS OF OUR FAITH , and STARRS , LIGHT OF THE WORLD , the CROWNE OF THE CHURCH , APOSTLES OF IESUS CHRIST , nay , GODS , viz. to whom the word of God came ; and of the compellation of Apostles , particularly , S. Hierom saith , that when S. Paul called himselfe the Apostle of Iesus Christ , it was as Magnifically spoken , as if he had said , Praefectus praetorio Augusti Caesaris , Magister exercit●s Tiberii Imperatoris ; And yet Bishops are Apostles , and so called in Scripture . I have prooved that already . Indeed our blessed Saviour in the case of the two sonnes of Zebedee , forbad them to expect by vertue of their Apostolate any Princely titles , in order to a Kingdome , and an earthly Principality . For that was it which the ambitious woman sought for her sonnes , viz. faire honour , and dignity in an earthly Kingdome ; for such a Kingdome they expected with their Messias . To this their expectation , our Saviours answer is a direct antithesis ; And that made the Apostles to be angry at the two Petitioners , as if they had meant to supplant the rest , and yet the best preferment from them , to wit , in a temporall Kingdome . No ; ( saith our blessed Saviour ) ye are all deceived . [ The Kings of the Nations indeed doe exercise authority , and are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Benefactors ] so the word signifies , [ Gracious Lords ] so we read it , [ But it shall not be so with you . ] what shall not be so with them ? shall not they exercise authority ? [ Who then is that faithfull and wise steward whom his Lord made ruler over his Houshold ? ] Surely the Apostles , or no body . Had Christ authority ? Most certainly . Then so had the Apostles , for Christ gave them his , with a sicut misit me Pater , &c. Well! the Apostles might , and we know they did exercise authority . What then shall not be so with them ? shall not they be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; Indeed if S. Marke had taken that title upon him in Alexandria , the Ptolomies , whose Honourary appellative that was , would have question'd him Highly for it . But if we goe to the sense of the word , the Apostles might be Benefactors , and therefore might be called so . But what then ? Might they not be called Gratious Lords ? The word would have done no hurt if it had not been an ensigne of a secular Principality . For as for the word [ Lord ] I know no more prohibition for that , then for being called RABBI , or MASTER , or DOCTOR , or FATHER . What shall we think now ? May we not be called DOCTORS ? [ God hath constituted in his Church Pastors , and Doctors , saith S. Paul. ] Therefore we may be called so . But what of the other , the prohibition runs alike for all , as is evident in the severall places of the Gospells , and may no man be called MASTER , or FATHER ? let an answer be thought upon for these , and the same will serve for the other also without any sensible error . It is not the word , it is the ambitious seeking of a temporall principality as the issue of Christianity , and an affixe of the Apostolate that Christ interdicted his Apostles . * And if we marke it , our B. Saviour points it out himselfe . [ The Princes of the Nations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , exercise authority over them , and are called Benefactors , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It shall not be so with you . Not so : how ? Not as the Princes of the Gentiles , for theirs is a temporall regiment , your Apostolate must be Spirituall . They rule as Kings , you as fellow servants , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . He that will be first amongst you , let him be your Minister , or servant ; It seems then among Christs Disciples there may be a Superiority , when there is a Minister or servant ; But it must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that this greatnesse doth consist , it must be in doing the greatest service and ministration that the superiority consists in . But more particularly , it must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It must not be [ as the Princes of the Gentiles ] but it must be [ as the sonne of man ] so Christ saies expressely . And how was that ? why , he came to Minister and to serve , and yet in the lowest act of his humility ( the washing his Disciples feet ) he told them , [ ye call me Lord , and Master , and ye say well , for so I am . ] It may be so with you . Nay it must be as the sonne of Man ; But then , the being called Rabbi , or Lord , nay the being Lord in spirituali Magisterio & regimine , in a spirituall superintendency , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , may stand with the humility of the Gospell , and office of Ministration . So that now I shall not need to take advantage of the word * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifies to rule with more then a politicall regiment , even with an absolute , and despotick , and is so used in holy Scripture , viz. in sequiorem partem . God gave authority to Man over the creatures , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word in the septuagint , and we know the power that man hath over beasts , is to kill , and to keep alive . And thus to our blessed Saviour , the power that God gave him over his enemies is expressed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And this wee know how it must be exercised , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a rod of iron , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . He shall break them in pieces like a potters vessell . That 's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . But it shall not be so with you . But let this be as true as it will. The answer needs no way to rely upon a Criticisme . It is cleare , that the forme of Regiment only is distinguished , not all Regiment , and authority taken away . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Not as the Kings of the Gentiles , but as the sonne of man ; so must your regiment be , for sicut misi● me Pater , &c. As my father hath sent me , even so send I you . It must be a government , not for your Imprey , but for the service of the Church . So that it is not for your advancement , but the publick ministery that you are put to rule over the Houshold . * And thus the Fathers expresse the authority and regiment of Bishops . * Qui vocatur ad Episcopatum non ad Principatum vocatur , sed ad servitutem totius siae ( saith Origen . ) And S. Hierom ; Episcopi Sacerdotes se esse noverint , non Dominos ; And yet S. Hierom himselfe writing to S. Austin , calls him , Domine verè sancte , & suscipiende Papa . * Forma Apostolica haec est , Dominatio interdicitur , indicitur Ministratio . It is no Principality that the Apostles have , but it is a Ministery ; a Ministery in chiefe , the officers of which Ministration must governe , and wee must obey . They must governe not in a temporall regiment by vertue of their Episcopacy , but in a spirituall , not for honour to the Rulers , so much as for benefit and service to the subject . So S. Austin . Nomen est operis , non honor is , ut intelligat se non esse Episcopum qui praeesse dilexerit , non prodesse . And in the fourteenth chapter of the same book , Qui imperant serviunt ijs rebus quibus videntur Imperare . Non enim dominandi cupidine imperant , sed officio confulendi , nec principandi superbiâ , sed providendi misericordiâ . And all this is intimated in the Propheticall visions , where the regiment of Christ is design'd by the face of a man ; and the Empire of the world , by Beasts . The first is the regiment of a Father , the second of a King. The first spirituall , the other secular . And of the Fatherly authority it is that the Prophet saies , Instead of Fathers thou shalt have Children , whom thou maist make Princes in all lands . This ( say the Fathers ) is spoken of the Apostles and their Successors the Bishops , who may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Princes or Rulers of Churches , not Princes of Kingdomes by vertue or challenge of their Apostolate . But if this Ecclesiasticall rule , or cheifty be interdicted , I wonder how the Presidents of the Presbyters , the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Reformed Churches will acquit themselves ? How will their Superiority be reconciled to the place , though it be but temporary ? For is it a sinne , if it continues , and no sinne if it lasts but for a weeke ? or is it lawfull to sinne , and domineere , and Lord it over their Brethren for a weeke together ? * But suppose it were , what will they say , that are perpetuall Dictators ? Calvin was perpetuall president ; and Beza , till Danaeus came to Geneva , even for many years together ? * But beyond all this how can the Presbytery which is a fixt lasting body rule and governe in causes Spirituall and Consistoriall , and that over all Princes , and Ministers , and people , and that for ever ? For is it a sinne in Episcopacy to doe so , and not in the Presbytery ? If it be lawfull here , then Christ did not interdict it to the Apostles , for who will think that a Presbytery shall have leave to domineere , and ( as they call it now a dayes ) to Lord it over their Brethren , when a Colledge of Apostles shall not be suffered to governe ? but if the Apostles may governe , then we are brought to a right understanding of our Saviours saying to the sonnes of Zebedee , and then also , their successors , the Bishops may doe the same . If I had any further need of answer or escape , it were easy to pretend , that this being a particular directory to the Apostles , was to expire with their persons . So S. Cyprian intimates . Apostoli pari fuêre consortio praediti , & honoris , & dignitatis ; and indeed this may be concluding against the Supremacy of S. Peter's Successors , but will be no waies pertinent to impugne Episcopall authority . For inter se they might be equall , and yet Superiour to the Presbyters , and the people . Lastly , [ It shall not be so with you ] so Christ said , non designando officium , but Sortem ; not their duty , but their lot ; intimating that their future condition should not be honorary , but full of trouble , not advanc'd , but persecuted . But I had rather insist on the first answer ; in which I desire it be remembred , that I said , seeking temporall Principality to be forbidden the Apostles , as an Appendix to the office of an Apostle . For in other capacities Bishops are as receptive of honour and temporall principalities as other men . Bishops vt sic are not secular Princes , must not seeke for it ; But some secular Princes may be Bishops , as in Germany , and in other places to this day they are . For it is as unlawfull for a B●shop to have any Land , as to have a Country , and a single acre is no more due to the Order , then a Province ; but both these may be conjunct in the s●me person , though still by vertue of Christs precept , the functions and capacities must be distinguish●d ; according to the saying of Synesius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . To confound and intermixe the Kingdome and the Priesthood , is to joyne things incompossible and inconsistent , Inconsistent ( I say ) not in person , but absolutely discrepant in function . 3. Consider we , that S. Peter , when he speakes of the duteous subordination of Sarah to her Husband Abraham , he propunds her as an example to all married women , in these words [ shee obeyed Abraham , and called him Lord ] why was this spoken to Christian women , but that they should doe so too ? And is it imaginable that such an Honourable compellation as Christ allowes every woman to give to her husband , a Mechanick , a hard-handed artisan , he would forbid to those eminent pillars of his Church , those lights of Christendome whom he really indued with a plenitude of power for the regiment of the Catholike Church . Credat Apella . 4. PASTOR , and FATHER , are as honourable titles as any . They are honourable in Scripture . Honour thy Father &c : Thy Father , in all senses . They are also made sacred by being the appellatives of Kings , and Bishops , and that not onely in secular addresses , but even in holy Scripture , as is knowne . * Adde to this ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are used in Scripture for the Prelates of the Church , and I am certaine , that , Duke , and Captaine , Rulers , and Commanders are but just the same in English , that the other are in Greeke , and the least of these is as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or Lord. And then if we consider that since Christ erected a spirituall regiment , and us'd words of secular honour to expresse it , as in the instances above , although Christ did interdict a secular principality , yet he forbad not a secular title ; He us'd many himselfe . 5. The voyce of the Spouse , the holy Church hath alwaies expressed their honourable estimate in reverentiall compellations and Epithets of honour to their Bishops , and have taught us so to doe . * Bishops were called Principes Ecclesiarum , Princes of the Churches . I had occasion to instance it in the question of Iurisdiction . Indeed the third Councell of Carthage forbad the Bishop of Carthage to be called Princeps Sacerdotum , or summus Sacerdos , or aliquid hujusmodi , but onely primae sedis Episcopus . I know not what their meaning was , unlesse they would dictate a lesson of humility to their Primate , that he might remember the principality not to be so much in his person , as in the See , for he might be called Bishop of the prime See. But whatsoever fancy they had at Carthage , I am sure it was a guise of Christendome , not to speake of Bishops sine praefatione honoris , but with honourable mention . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , To our most blessed LORD . So the letters were superscribed to Iulius Bishop of Rome from some of his Brethren ; in Sozomen . Let no man speake Untruths of mee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Nor of MY LORDS THE BISHOPS , said S. Gregory Nazianzen . The Synodicall book of the Councell of Constantinople is inscribed DOMINI● REVERENDISSIMIS , ac pijssimis Fratribus ac Collegis , Damaso , Ambrosio &c : To our most Reverend LORDS , and holy Brethren &c : And the Councell of Illyricum sending their Synodall letters to the Bishops of Asia , by Bishop Elpidius , Haecpluribus ( say they ) persequi non est visum , quòd miserimus vnum ex omnibus , DOMINUM , & Collegam nostrum Elpidium , qui cognosceret , esset ne sicut dictum fuerat à DOMINO , & Collegâ nostro Eustathio . Our Lord , and Brother Elpidius . Our Lord and Brother Eustathius . * The oration in the Councell of Epaunum begins thus . Quod praecipientibus tantis DOMINIS MEIS ministerium proferendi sermonis assumo &c : The Prolocutor tooke that office on him , at the command of so many GREAT LORDS THE BISHOPS . * When the Church of Spayne became Catholike , and adjur'd the Arian heresy , King Recaredus in the third Councell of Toledo made a speech to the Bishops , Non incognitum reor esse vobis , REVERENDISSIMI Sacerdotes &c : Non credimus vestram latere SANCTITATEM &c : vestra Cognovit BEATITUDO &c : VENERANDI PATRES &c : And these often . Your Holinesse , your Blessednesse , Most Reverend , Venerable Fathers ; Those were the addresses the King made to the Fathers of the Synod . Thus it was when Spaine grew Catholike ; But not such a Speech to be found in all the Arian records . They amongst them us'd but little Reverence to their Bishops . But the instances of this kind are innumerable . Nothing more ordinary in Antiquity then to speake of Bishops with the titles of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Domine verè Sancte , & suscipiende Papa , So S. Hierome a Presbyter , to S. Austin a Bishop . Secundùm enim honorum vocabula quae jam Ecclesiae usus obtinuit Episcopatus Presbyterio major est , saith S. Austin . Episcopacy is Greater then the office and dignity of a Presbyter according to the TITLES OF HONOUR which the custome of the Church hath introduc'd . * But I shall summe up these particulars in a totall , which is thus expressed by S. Chrysostome . Haeretici à Diabolo HONORUM VOCABULA Episcopis non dare didicerunt . Hereticks have learned of the Devill not to give due titles of honour to Bishops . The good Patriarch was angry surely when he said so . * For my owne particular , I am confident that my Lords the Bishops doe so undervalue any fastuous , or pompous title , that were not the duty of their people in it , they would as easily reject them , as it is our duties piously to use them . But if they still desire appellatives of honour , we must give them , they are their due , if they desire them not , they deserve them much more . So that either for their humility , or however for their works sake we must [ highly honour them that have the rule over us ] It is the precept of S. Paul , and S. Cyprian observing how Curious our blessed Saviour was that he might give honour to the Priests of the Iewes , even then when they were reeking in their malice hot as the fire of Hell ; he did it to teach us a duty . Docuit enim Sacerdotes veros LEGITIME ET PLENE HONORARI dum circa falsos Sacerdotes ipse talis extitit . It is the argument he uses to procure a full honour to the Bishop . * To these I adde ; If fitting in a THRONE even above the seate of Elders be a title of a great dignity , then we have it confirmed by the voice of all Antiquity calling the Bishops chaire , A THRONE , and the investiture of a Bishop in his Church AN INTHRONIZATION . Quando INTHRONIZANTUR propter communem utilitatem Episcopi &c : saith P. Anterus in his decretall Epistle to the Bishops of Boetica and Toledo . INTHRONING is the Primitive word for the consecration of a Bishop . Sedes in Episcoporum Eccles●is excelsae constitutae & praeparatae , UT THRONUS speculationem & potestatem judicandi à Domino sibi datam materiam docent , ( saith Vrban ) . And S. Ignatius to his Deacon Hero , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , I trust that the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ will show to me Hero sitting upon my THRONE . ** The summe of all is this . Bishops if they must be at all , most certainly must be beloved , it is our dutyes , and their worke deserves it . S. Paul was as deare to the Galathians , as their eyes , and it is true eternally , Form●sipedes Evangelizantium , the feete of the Preachers of the Gospell are beauteous , and then much more of the chiefe . Ideo ista praetulimus ( charissimi ) vt intelligatis potestatem Episcoporum vestrorum , in eisque Deum veneremini , & eos UT ANIMAS VESTRAS diligatis , vt quibus illi non communicant , non communicetis &c : Now , love to our Superiours is ever honourable , for it is more then amicitia , that 's amongst Peeres , but love to our Betters , is Reverence , Obedience , and high Estimate . And if we have the one , the dispute about the other would be a meere impertinence . I end this with the saying of S. Ignatius , & v●s decet non contemnere aetatem Episcopi , sed juxta Dei Patris arbitrium OMNEM ILLI IMPERTIRI REVERENTIAM . It is the WILL OF GOD the Father , that we should give all REVERENCE , HONOUR , or veneration to our Bishops . VVELL ! However things are now , It was otherwise in the Old Religion ; for no honour was thought too great for them whom God had honourd with so great degrees of approximation to himselfe in power , and authority . But then also they went further . For they thought whom God had intrusted with their soules , they might with an equall confidence trust with their personall actions , and imployments of greatest trust . For it was Great Consideration that they who were Antistites religionis the Doctors , and great Dictators of Faith and conscience , should be the composers of those affayres in whose determination , a Divine wisdome , and interests of conscience and the authority of religion were the best ingredients . But , it is worth observing how the Church and the Common-wealth did actions contrary to each other , in pursuance of their severall interests . The Common-wealth still enabled Bishops to take cognisance of causes , and the confidence of their owne people would be sure to carry them thither where they hop'd for faire issue , upon such good grounds as they might fairely expect from the Bishops abilityes , authority , and religion ; But on the other side , the Church did as much decline them as shee could , and made sanctions against it so farre as shee might without taking from themselves all opportunities both of doing good to their people , and ingaging the secular arme to their owne assistance . But this we shall see by consideration of particulars . 1. It was not in Naturâ rei unlawfull for Bishops to receive an office of secular imployment . S. Paul's tent-making was as much against the calling of an Apostle , as sitting in a secular tribunall is against the office of a Bishop . And it is hard , if we will not allow that to the conveniences of a Republike which must be indulged to a private , personall necessity . But we have not S. Paul's example onely , but his rule too , according to Primitive exposition . [ Dare any of you having a matter before another goe to law before the Vnjust , and not before the Saints ? If then ye have judgements of things pertaining to this life , set them to judge who are least esteemed in the Church ] who are they ? The Clergy I am sure , now adayes . But S. Ambrose also thought that to be his meaning seriously . Let the Ministers of the Church be the Iudges . For by [ least esteemed ] he could not meane the most ignorant of the Laity , they would most certainly have done very strange justice , especially in such causes which they Understand not . No , but set them to judge who by their office are Servants , and Ministers of all , and those are the Clergy who ( as S. Paul's expression is ) Preach not themselves , but Iesus to be the Lord , and themselves your servants for Iesus sake . Meliùs dicit apud Dei Ministros agere causam . Yea but S. Paul's expression seemes to exclude the Governours of the Church from intermedling . [ Is there not one wise man among you that is able to Iudge betweene his Brethren ? ] Why Brethren , if Bishops and Priests were to be the Iudges , they are Fathers ? The objection is not worth the noting , but onely for S. Ambrose his answer to it . Ideò autem Fratrem Iudicem eligendum dicit , quià adhuc Rector Ecclesiae illorum non erat ordinatus . S. Paul us'd the word [ Brethren ] for as yet a Bishop was not ordained amongst them of that Church , intimating that the Bishop was to be the man , though till then , in subsidium any prudent Christian man might be imployed . 2. The Church did alwaies forbid to Clergy-men A VOLUNTARY ASSUMPTION of ingagements in REBUS SAECULI . So the sixth Canon of the Apostles , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . A Bishop , and a Priest , and a Deacon , must not assume , or take on himselfe worldly cares . If he does , let him be depos'd . Here the Prohibition is generall . No worldly cares . Not domestick . But how if they come on him by Divine imposition , or accident ? That 's nothing , if he does not assume them ; that is , by his voluntary act acquire his owne trouble . So that if his secular imployment be an act of obedience , indeed it is trouble to him , but no sinne . But if he seekes it , for it selfe , it is ambition . In this sense also must the following Canon be understood . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . A Clerk must not be a Tutor , or Guardian , viz : of secular trust , that is must not seeke a diversion from his imployment by voluntary Tutorship . 3. The Church also forbad all secular negotiation for base ends , not precisely the imployment it selfe , but the illnesse of the intention , and this indeed shee expressely forbids in her Canons . * Pervenit ad Sanctam Synodum quòd quidam qui in Clero sunt allecti PROPTER LUCRA TURPIA conductores alienarum possessionum fiant , & saecularia negotia sub curâ suâ suscipiant , Dei quidem Ministerium parvipendentes , Saecularium verò discurrentes domos & PROPTER AVARITIAM patrimoniorum sollicitudinem sumentes . Clergy men farmers of lands , and did take upon them secular imployment FOR COVETOUS DESIGNES , and with neglect of the Church . These are the things the Councell complain'd of , and therefore according to this exigence the following Sanction is to be understood . Decrevit itaque hoc Sanctum magnumque Concilium , nullum deinceps , non Episcopum , non Clericum vel Monachum aut possessiones conducere , aut negotijs saecularibus se immiscere . No Bishop , No Clergy man , N● Monke must farme grounds , nor ingage himselfe in secular businesse . What in none ? No , none , praeter pupillorum , si fortè leges imponant inexcusabilem curam , an t civitatis Episcopus Ecclesiasticarum rerum sollicitudinem habere praecipiat , aut Orphanorum , & viduarum earum quae sine ullâ defensione sunt , ac personarum quae maximè Ecclesiastico indigent adjutorio , & propter timorem Domini causa deposcat . This Canon will doe right to the Question . All secular affaires , and bargaines either for covetousnesse , or with considerable disturbance of Church offices are to be avoided . For a Clergy man must not be covetous , much lesse for covetise must he neglect his cure . To this purpose is that of the second Councell of Arles , Clericus turpis lucri gratiâ aliquod genus negotiationis non exerceat . But nor here , nor at Chalcedon is the prohibition absolute , nor declaratory of an inconsistence and incapacity ; for , for all this , the Bishop or Clerk may doe any office that is in piâ curâ . He may undertake the supravision of Widdowes , and Orphans . And though he be forbid by the Canon of the Apostles to be a guardian of pupills , yet it is expounded here by this Canon of Chalcedon , for a voluntary seeking it is forbidden by the Apostles , but here it is permitted only with , si fortè leges imponant , if the Law , or Authority commands him , then he may undertake it . That is , if either the Emperor commands him , or if the Bishop permits him , then it is lawfull . But without such command or license it was against the Canon of the Apostles . And therefore S. Cyprian did himselfe severely punish Geminius Faustinus , one of the Priests of Carthage , for undertaking the executorship of the Testament of Geminius Victor : he had no leave of his Bishop so to doe , and for him of his own head to undertake that which would be an avocation of him from his office , did in S. Cyprians Consistory , deserve a censure . 3. By this Canon of Chalcedon , any Clerk may be the Oeconomus or steward of a Church , and dispense her revenue if the Bishop command him . 4. He may undertake the patronage , or assistance of any distressed person that needs the Churches ayde . * From hence it is evident that all secular imployment did not hoc ipso avocate a Clergy-man from his necessary office and duty ; for some secular imployments are permitted him , all causes of piety , of charity , all occurrences concerning the revenues of the Church , and nothing for covetousnesse , but any thing in obedience , any thing I meane of the fore-named instances . Nay the affaires of Church revenues , and dispensation of Ecclesiasticall Patrimony was imposed on the Bishop by the Canons Apostolicall , and then considering how many possessions were deposited first at the Apostles feet , and afterwards in the Bishops hands , we may quickly perceive that a case may occurre in which something else may be done by the Bishop and his Clergy besides prayer and preaching . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . saith Ignatius to S. Polycarpe of Smyrna . Let not the Widdowes be neglected : after God , doe thou take care of them . * Qui locupletes sunt , & volunt , pro arbitrio quisque suo quod libitum est contribuit ; & quod collectum est apud Praesidem deponitur , atque is inde opitulatur Orphanis , & viduis , iisque quivel morbo , vel aliâ de causâ egent : tum iis qui vincti sunt , & peregrè advenientibus hospitibus : & ut uno verbo dicam , omnium indigentium Curator est . All the Collects and Offerings of faithfull people are deposited with the Bishop , and thence he dispenses for the reliefe of the widdowes , and Orphans , thence he provides for travellers , and in one word , he takes care of all indigent , and necessitous people . So it was in Iustin Martyrs time and all this , a man would think , requir'd a considerable portion of his time , besides his studies and prayer and preaching . This was also done even in the Apostles times , for first they had the provision of all the Goods , and persons of the coenobium , of the Church at Ierusalem . This they themselves administred till a complaint arose , which might have prov'd a Scandall ; then they chose seven men , men full of the holy Ghost , men that were Priests , for they were of the 70 Disciples saith Epiphanius , and such men as Preached , and Baptized , so S. Stephen , and S. Philip , therefore to be sure they were Clergy-men , and yet they left their preaching for a time , at least abated of the height of the imployment , for therefore the Apostles appointed them , that themselves might not leave the word of God and serve Tables ; plainly implying that such men who were to serve these Tables , must leave the Ministery of the word , in some sense or degree , and yet they chose Presbyters , and no harme neither , and for a while themselves had the imployment . I say there was no harme done , by this temporary office , to their Priestly function and imployment . For to me it is considerable . If the calling of a Presbyter does not take up the whole man , then what inconvenience though his imployment be mixt with secular allay . But if it does take up the whole man , then it is not ●afe for any Presbyter ever to become a Bishop , which is a dignity of a farre greater burden , and requires more then a Man 's all , if all was requir'd to the function of a Presbyter . But I proceed . 4. The Church prohibiting secular imployment to Bishops and Clerks , doe prohibite it , onely in gradu impedimenti officii Clericalis ; and therefore when the offices are supplyed by any of the Order , it is never prohibited but that the personall abilities of any man may be imployed for the fairest advantages either of Church , or Common-wealth . And therefore it is observeable that the Canons provide that the Church be not destitute , not that such a particular Clerke should there officiate . Thus the Councell of Arles decreed , ut Presbyteri SICUT HACTENUS FACTUM EST , INDISCRETE per diversa non mittantur loca ... ne fortè propter eorum absentiam , & animarum pericula , & Ecclesiarum in quibus constituti sunt , negligantur officia . So that here we see , 1. That it had been usuall to send Priests on Embassyes [ sicut hactenus factum est ] 2. The Canon forbids the indiscreet or promiscuous doing of it ; not that men of great ability & choyce be not imployed , but that there be discretion , or discerning in the choyce of the men . viz. that such men be chosen whose particular worth did by advancing the legation , make compensation for absence from their Churches ; and then I am sure there was no indiscretion in the Embassy , quoad hoc at least ; for the ordinary offices of the Church might be dispensed by men of even abilities , but the extraordinary affaires of both states require men of an heightned apprehension . 3. The Canon only took care that the cure of the soules of a Parish be not relinquished , for so is the title of the Canon , Ne Presbyteri causâ legationis per diversa mittantur loca , curâ animarum relictâ . But then if the cure be supplied by delegation , the feares of the Canon are prevented . * In pursuance of this consideration the Church forbad Clergy-men to receive honour , or secular preferment ; and so it is expressed where the prohibition is made . It is in the Councell of Chalcedon . Qui semel in clero deputati sunt , aut Monachorum vitam expetiverunt , statuimus neque ad militiam , neque ad dignitatem aliquam venire mundanam . That 's the inhibition ; But the Canon subjoynes a temper ; aut hoc tentantes , & non agentes poenitentiam , quo minùs redeant ad hoc quod propter Deum primitùs elegerunt , anathematizari , they must not turne Souldiers , or enter upon any worldy dignity to make them leave their function , which for the honour of God they have first chosen : for then , it seemes , he that tooke on him military honours , or secular prefectures , or consular dignity , could not officiate in holy Orders , but must renounce them to assume the other ; It was in obstruction of this abuse that the Canon directed its prohibition , viz. in this sence clearely , that a Clerk must not so take on him secular offices , as to make him redire in saeculum , having put his hand to the plow , to look back , to change his profession , or to relinquish the Church , and make her become a Widdow . The case of S. Matthew and S. Peter , distinguish , and cleare this businesse . Ecce reliquimus omnia , was the profession of their Clericall office . S. Matthew could not returne to his trade of Publican at all , for that would have taken him from his Apostolate . But S. Peter might and did returne to his nets , for all his reliqui omnia . Plainly telling us that a SECULAR CALLING , a CONTINUED FIX'D ATTENDANCE on a businesse of the world is an impediment to the Clericall office , and ministration , but not a temporary imployment or secession . 5. The Canons of the Church doe as much forbid the cares of houshold , as the cares of publike imployment to Bishops . So the fourth Councell of Carthage decrees . Vt Episcopus nullam rei familiaris curam adse revocet , sed lectioni , & orationi , & verbi Dei praedicationi tantummodò vacet . Now if this Canon be confronted with that saying of S. Paul [ He that provides not for them of his own houshold is worse then an infidell ] it will easily informe us of the Churches intention . For they must provide , saith S. Paul , But yet so provide as not to hinder their imployment , or else they transgresse the Canon of the Councell ; but this caveat may be as well entred , and observed in things Politicall , as Oeconomicall . Thus farre we have seene what the Church hath done in pursuance of her owne interest , and that was that she might with sanctity , and without distraction , tend her Grand imployment ; but yet many cases did occurre in which she did canonically permitt an alienation of imployment , and revocation of some persons from an assiduity of Ecclesiasticall attendance , as in the case of the seven set over the widdowes , and of S. Peter , and S. Paul , and all the Apostles and the Canon of Chalcedon . Now let us see how the Common-wealth also pursued her interest , and because shee found Bishops men of Religion and great trust , and confident abilities , there was no reason that the Common-wealth should be disserv'd in the promotion of able men to a Bishops throne . * Who would have made recompence to the Emperour for depriving him of Ambrose his prefect , if Episcopall promotion had made him incapable of serving his Prince in any great Negotiation ? It was a remarkeable passage in Ignatius , * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . As our Lord is to be observ'd so also must we observe the BISHOP , because he assists and serves the Lord. And wisemen , and of great Vnderstanding must SERVE KINGS , for he must not be serv'd with men of small parts . Here either Ignatius commends Bishops to the service of Kings , or else propounds them as the fittest men in the world to doe them service . For if onely men of great abilities are fit to serve Kings , surely as great abilities are required to inable a man for the service of God in so peculiar manner of approximation . He then that is fit to be a Bishop , is most certainly fit for the service of his King. This is the sence of Ignatius his discourse . For consider . Christianity might be suspected for a designe ; and if the Church should choose the best , and most pregnant Understandings for her imployment , and then these men become incapable of ayding the Republike , the promotion of these men , would be an injury to those Princes whose affayres would need support . * The interest of the Subjects also is considerable . For we find by experience , that no authority is so full of regiment , and will so finely force obedience , as that which is seated in the Conscience ; And therefore Numa Pompilius made his lawes , and imposed them with a face of religious solemnity . For the people are stronger then any one Governour , and were they not awed by Religion , would quickly miscere Sacra prophanis , jumble heaven and earth into a miscellany , and therefore not onely in the Sanction of lawes , but in the execution of them , the Antistites religionis are the most competent instruments ; and this was not onely in all religions that ever were , and in ours ever till now , but even now we should quickly find it , were but our Bishops in that Veneration , and esteeme that by the law of God they ought , and that actually they were in the Calenture of primitive devotion , and that the Doctors of Religion were ever even amongst the most barbarous and untaught Pagans . Upon the confidence of these advantages , both the Emperours themselves when they first became Christian allowed appeales from secular tribunalls to the * Bishops Consistory , even in causes of secular interest , and the people would choose to have their difficulties there ended whence they expected the issues of justice , and religion . * I say this was done as soone as ever the Emperours were Christian Before this time , Bishops , and Priests ( to be sure ) could not be imployed in state affayres , they were odious for their Christianity ; and then no wonder if the Church forbad secular imployment in meaner offices , the attendance on which could by no meanes make recompense for the least avocation of them from their Church imployment . So that it was not onely the avocation but the sordidnesse of the imployment that was prohibited the Clergy in the Constitutions of holy Church . But as soone as ever their imployment might be such as to make compensation for a temporary secession , neither Church nor State did then prohibite it ; And that was as soone as ever the Princes were Christian , for then immediately the Bishops were imployed in honorary negotiations . It was evident in the case of S. Ambrose . For the Church of Millaine had him for their Bishop , and the Emperour had him one of his prefects , and the people their judge in causes of secular cognisance . For when he was chosen Bishop the Emperour who was present at the election cryed out , Gratias tibi ago Domine ... quoniam huic viro ego quidem commisi corpora ; tu autem animas , & meam electionem ostendisti tuae justitiae convenire . So that he was Bishop , and Governour of Millaine at the same time ; And therefore by reason of both these offices S. Austin was forc'd to attend a good while before he could find him at leisure . Non enim quaerere ab eo poteram quod volebam sicut volebam , secludentibus me ab ejus aure , atque ore catervis negotiosorum hominum , quorum infirmitatibus serviebat . And it was his owne condition too , when he came to fit in the chayre of Hippo ; Non permittor ad quod volo vacare ante meridiem ; post meridiem occupationibus hominum teneor . And againe , & homines quidam causas suas saeculares apud nos finire cupientes , quando eis necessarij fuerimus , sic nos Sanctos , & Dei servos appellant , ut negotia terrae suae peragant . Aliquando & agamus negotium salutis nostrae & salut is ipsorum , non de auro , non de argento non de fundis , & pecoribus , pro quibus rebus quotidiè submisso capite salutamur ut dissensiones hominum terminemus . It was almost the businesse of every day to him , to judge causes concerning Gold , and Silver , Cattell , and glebe , and all appertenances of this life . This S. Austin would not have done , if it had not been lawfull , so we are to suppose in charity ; but yet this we are sure of , S. Austin thought it not only lawfull , but a part of his duty , [ quibus nos molestijs idem affixit Apostolus , and that by the authority , not of himselfe , but of him that spake within him , even the H. Ghost : ] so he . Thus also it was usuall for Princes in the Primitive Church to send Bishops their Embassadours . Constans the Emperour sent two Bishops chosen out of the Councell of Sardis together with Salianus the Great Master of his Army to Constantius * S. Chrysostom was sent Embassadour to Gainas . Maruthus the Bishop of Mesopotamia was sent Embassadour from the Emperour to Isdigerdes the King of Persia. S. Ambrose from Valentinian the yonger to the Tyrant Maximus . * Dorotheus was a Bishop and a chamberlaine to the Emperour . Many more examples there are of the concurrence of the Episcopall office , and a secular dignity or imployment . Now then Consider . * The Church did not , might not challenge any secular honour , or imployment by vertue of her Ecclesiasticall dignity precisely . 2. The Church might not be ambitious , or indagative of such imployment . 3. The Churche's interest abstractly considered was not promoted by such imployment , but where there was no greater way of compensation was interrupted and depress'd . 4. The Church ( though in some cases shee was allowed to make secession , yet ) might not relinquish her owne charge , to intervene in anothers ayd . 5. The Church did by no meanes suffer her Clerks , to undertake any low secular imployment , much more did shee forbid all sordid ends , and Covetous designes . 6. The Bishop , or his Clerks might ever do any action of piety , though of secular burden . Clerks were never forbidden to reade Grammer , or Philosophy to youth , to be Masters of Schooles , of Hospitalls , they might reconcile their Neighbours that were falne out , about a personall trespasse , or reall action , and yet since now adayes a Clergy-man's imployment and capacity is bounded within his Pulpit , or reading deske , or his study of Divinity at most , these that I have reckoned are as verily secular as any thing , and yet no law of Christendome ever prohibited any of these or any of the like Nature to the Clergy , nor any thing that is ingenuous , that is fit for a Scholler , that requires either finenesse of parts , or great learning , or overruling authority , or exemplary piety . 7. Clergy-men might do any thing that was imposed on them by their Superiours . 8. The Bishops , and Priests were men of Great ability and surest confidence for determinations of Iustice , in which , religion was ever the strongest binder . And therefore the Princes and People sometimes forc'd the Bishops from their owne interest to serve the Common-wealth , & in it they serv'd themselves directly , and by consequence too , the Church had not only a sustentation from the secular arme , but an addition of honour , and secular advantages , and all this warranted by precedent of Scripture , and the practice of the Primitive Church , and particularly of men whom all succeeding ages have put into the Calender of Saints . * So that it would be considered , that all this while , it is the kings interest , and the Peoples that is pleaded , when we assert a capacity to the Bishops to undertake charges of publike trust . It is no addition to the calling of Bishops . It serves the King , it assists the republike , and in such a plethory , and almost a surfet of Clergy-men as this age is supplied with , it can be no disservice to the Church , whole dayly offices may be plentifully supplyed by Vicars , and for the temporary avocation of some few , aboundant recompence is made to the Church ( which is not at all injured ) by becomming an occasion of indearing the Church , to those whose aide shee is . * There is an admirable epistle written by Petrus Blesensis in the name of the Arch-bishop of Canterbury to P. Alexander the third in the defence of the Bishop of Ely , Winchester & Norwich that attended the Court upon service of the King. Non est novum ( saith he ) quòd Regum Consiliis intersint Episcopi . Sicut enim honestate , & sapientiâ caeteros antecedunt , sic expeditiores , & efficaciores in reip . administratione censentur . Quia sicut Scriptum est [ minùs salubritèr disponitur regnum , quod non regitur consilio sapientum ] In quo notatur eos consiliis Regum debere assistere , qui sciant & velint , & possint patientibus compati , paci terrae , ac populi saluti prospicere , erudire adjustitiam Reges , imminentibus occursare periculis , vitaeque maturioris exemplis informare subditos & quâdam authoritate potestativâ praesumptionem malignantium cohibere . It is no new thing for Bishops to be Counsellors to Princes ( saith he ) their wisdome and piety that enables them for a Bishoprick proclaimes them fit instruments to promote the publike tranquillity of the Common-wealth . They know how to comply with oppressed people , to advance designes of peace , and publike security ; It is their office to instruct the King to righteousnesse , by their sanctity to be a rule to the Court , and to diffuse their exemplary piety over the body of the Kingdome , to mixe influences of religion with designes of state , to make them have as much of the dove as of the serpent , and by the advantage of their religious authority to restraine the malignity of accursed people in whom any image of a God , or of religion is remaining . * He proceeds in the discourse and brings the examples of Samuel , Isaiah , Elisha , Iojada , Zecharias , who were Priests and Prophets respectively , and yet imployed in Princes Courts , and Councells of Kings , and addes this ; Vnum noveritis , quia nisi familiares , & Consiliarii Regis essent Episcopi , suprà dorsum Ecclesiae hodiè fabricarent peccatores , & immanitèr , ac intolerabilitèr opprimeret Clerum praesumptio Laicalis . That 's most true . If the Church had not the advantage of additionall honorary imployments , the plowers would plow upon the Churches back , & make long furrowes . * The whole Epistle is worth transcribing , But I shall content my selfe with this summary of the advantages which are acquir'd both to policy and Religion by the imployment of Bishops in Princes Courts . Istis me diantibus mansuescit circa simplices judiciarius rigor , admittitur clamor pauperum , Ecclesiarum dignitas erigitur , relevatur pauperum indigentia , firmatur in clero libertas , pax in populis , in Monasteriis quies , justitia liberè exercetur , superbia opprimitur , augetur Laicorum devotio , religio fovetur , diriguntur judicia , &c. When pious Bishops are imployed in Princes Councells , then the rigor of Lawes is abated , equity introduced , the cry of the poore is heard , their necessities are made known , the liberties of the Church are conserved , the peace of Kingdomes labour'd for , pride is depressed , religion increaseth , the devotion of the Laity multiplies , and tribunalls are made just , and incorrupt , and mercifull . Thus farre Petrus Blesensis . * These are the effects which though perhaps they doe not alwaies fall out , yet these things may in expectation of reason be look'd for from the Clergy , their principles and calling promises all this , & quia in Ecclesiâ magis lex est , ubi Dominus legis timetur , meliùs dicit apud Dei Ministros agere causam . Faciliùs enim Dei timore sententiam legis veram promunt ; ( saith S. Ambrose , ) and therefore certainly the fairest reason in the world that they be imployed . But if personall defaillance be thought reasonable to disimploy the whole calling , then neither Clergy nor Laity should ever serve a Prince . And now we are easily driven into an understanding of that saying of S. Paul [ No man that warreth entangleth himselfe with the affaires of this life . ] For although this be spoken of all Christian people , and concernes the Laity in their proportion as much as the Clergy , yet nor one , nor the other is interdicted any thing that is not a direct hinderance to their owne precise duty of Christianity . And such things must be par'd away from the fringes of the Laity , as well as the long robe of the Clergy . But if we should consider how little we have now left for the imployment of a Bishop , I am afraid a Bishop would scarce seem to be a necessary function , so farre would it be from being hindered by the collaterall intervening of a Lay-judicature . I need not instance in any particulars ; for if the judging matters and questions of religion be not left alone to them , they may well be put into a temporall imployment , to preserve them from suspition of doing nothing . I have now done with this ; only intreating this to be considered . Is not the King fons utriusque jurisdictionis ? In all the senses of Common-law , and externall compulsory he is . But if so , then why may not the King as well make Clergy-Iudges , as Lay-Delegates ? For ( to be sure ) if there be an incapacity in the Clergy of medling with secular affaires , there is the same at least in the Laity of medling with Church affaires . For if the Clergy be above the affaires of the World , then the Laity are under the affaires of the Church ; or else , if the Clergy be incapable of Lay-businesse , because it is of a different and disparate nature from the Church , does not the same argument exclude the Laity from intervening in Church affaires ? For the Church differs no more from the common-wealth , then the common-wealth differs from the Church . And now after all this , suppose a King should command a Bishop to goe on Embassy to a forraine Prince , to be a Commissioner in a treaty of pacification , if the Bishop refuse , did he doe the duty of a Subject ? If yea , I wonder what subjection that is which a Bishop owes to his Prince , when hee shall not be bound to obey him in any thing but the saying , and doing of his office , to which he is obliged , whether the Prince commands him yea or no. But if no , then the Bishop was tyed to goe , and then the calling makes him no way incapable of such imployment , for no man can be bound to doe a sinne . BUt then did not this imployment , when the occasions were great , and extraordinary , force the Bishops to a temporary absence ? And what remedy was there for that ? For the Church is not to be left destitute , that 's agreed on by all the Canons . They must not be like the Sicilian Bishops whom Petrus Blesensis complains of , that attended the Court , and never visited their Churches , or took care either of the cure of soules , or of the Church possessions . What then must be done ? The Bishops in such cases may give delegation of their power , and offices to others , though now adaies they are complain'd of for their care . I say , for their care ; For if they may intervene in secular affaires , they may sometimes be absent , and then they must delegate their power , or leave the Church without a Curate . *** But for this matter the account need not be long . For since I have proved that the whole Diocesse is in curâ Episcopali , and for all of it , he is responsive to God Almighty , and yet , that instant necessity and the publike act of Christendome hath ratified it , that Bishops have delegated to Presbyters so many parts of the Bishops charge as there are parishes in his Diocesse , the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is pretended for delegation of Episcopall charge , is no lesse then the act of all Christendome . For it is evident at first , Presbyters had no distinct cure at all , but were in common assistant to the Bishop , and were his emissaries for the gaining soules in Citty , or Suburbs ; But when the Bishops divided parishes , and fixt the Presbyters upon a cure , so many Parishes as they distinguished , so many delegations they made ; And these we all believe to be good both in law , and conscience . For the Bishop per omnes divinos ordines propriae hierarchiae exercet mysteria ( saith S. Denis , ) he does not doe the offices of his order by himselfe onely , but by others also , for all the inferior orders doc so operate , as by them he does his proper offices . * But besides this grand act of the Bishops first , and then of all Christendome in consent , we have faire precedent in S. Paul ; for he made delegation of a power to the Church of Corinth to excommunicate the incestuous person . It was a plain delegation ; for he commanded them to doe it , and gave them his own spirit , that is , his own authority ; and indeed without it , I scarce find how the delinquent should have been delivered over to Satan in the sense of the Apostolick Church , that is , to be buffeted , for that was a miraculous appendix of power Apostolick . * When S. Paul sent for Timothy from Ephesus , he sent Tychicus to be his Vicar . [ Doe thy diligence to come unto me shortly , for Demas hath forsaken me &c. And Tychicus have I sent to Ephesus ] Here was an expresse delegation of the power of jurisdiction to Tychicus , who for the time was Curate to S. Timothy . Epaphroditus for a while attended on S. Paul , although he was then Bishop of Philippi , and either S. Paul , or Epaphroditus appointed one in substitution , or the Church was relinquished , for he was most certainly non-resident . * Thus also we find that S. Ignatius did delegate his power to the Presbyters in his voyage to his Martyrdome . Presbyteri pascite gregem qui inter vos est , donec Deus designaverit eum qui principatum in vobis habiturus est . Ye Presbyters doe you feed the flock till God shall designe you a Bishop . Till then . Therefore it was but a delegate power , it could not else have expired in the presence of a Superiour . * To this purpose is that of the Laodicean Councell . Non oportet Presbyteros ante ingressum Episcopi ingredi , & sedere in tribunalibus , nisi fortè aut aegrotet Episcopus , aut in peregrinis ●um esse constiterit . Presbyters must not sit in Consistory without the Bishop , unlesse the Bishop be sick , or absent . So that it seemes what the Bishop does when he is in his Church , that may be committed to others in his absence . And to this purpose S. Cyprian sent a playne commission to his Presbyters . Fretus ergo dilectione & religione vestrâ .... his literis hortor , & Mando vt vos . ... VICE MEA FUNGAMINI circa gerenda ea quae administratio religiosa deposcit . I intreat and command you , that you doe my office in the administration of the affayres of the Church ; and another time he put Herculanus , and Caldonius , two of his Suffragans , together with Rogatianus , and Numidicus , two Priests , in substitution for the excommunicating Faelicissimus and fower more . [ Cùm ego vos pro me VICARIOS miserim . ] So it was just in the case of Hierocles Bishop of Alexandria and Melitius his Surrogate in Epiphanius . Videbatur autem & Melitius praeminere &c : vt qui secundum locum habebat post Petrum in Archiepiscopatu , velut adjuvandi ejus gratiâ sub ipso existens , & sub ipso Ecclesiastica curans . He did Church offices under , and for Hierocles ; And I could never find any Canon or personall declamatory clause in any Councell , or Primitive Father against a Bishop's giving more or lesse of his jurisdiction by way of delegation . * Hitherto also may be referr'd , that when the goods of all the Church which then were of a perplexe and buisy dispensation , were all in the Bishops hand as part of the Episcopall function , yet that part of the Bishops office , the Bishop by order of the Councell of Chalcedon might delegate to a steward ; provided he were a Clergy-man ; and upon this intimation and decree of Chalcedon the Fathers in the Councell of Sevill forbid any lay-men to be stewards for the Church . Elegimus vt vnusquisque nostrûm secundùm Chalcedonensium Patrum decreta ex proprio Clero Oeconomum sibi constituat . But the reason extends the Canon further . Indecorum est enim laicum VICARIUM esse Episcopi , & Saeculares in Ecclesiâ judicare . VICARS OF BISHOPS the Canon allowes , onely forbids lay-men to be Vicars . In uno enim eodemque officio non decet dispar professio , quod etiam in divinâ lege prohibetur , &c : In one and the same office the law of God forbids to joyne men of disparate capacities . This then would be considered . For the Canon pretends Scripture , Precepts of Fathers , and Tradition of antiquity for it's Sanction . * FOR although antiquity approves of Episcopall delegations of their power to their Vicars , yet these Vicars and delegates must be Priests at least . Melitius was a Bishop , and yet the Chancellor of Hierocles Patriarch of Alexandria , So were Herculanus , and Caldonius to S. Cyprian . But they never delegated to any lay-man any part of their Episcopall power precisely . Of their lay-power or the cognisance of secular causes of the people , I find one delegation made to some Gentlemen of the Laity , by Sylvanus Bishop of Troas , when his Clerks grew covetous , he cur'd their itch of gold , by trusting men of another profession so to shame them into justice , and contempt of money . * Si quis autem Episcopus posthâc Ecclesiasticam rem aut LAICALI PROCURATIONE administrandam elegerit .... non solùm a Christo de rebus Pauperum judicatur reus , sed etiàm & Concilio manebit obnoxius . If any Bishop shall hereafter concredit any Church affayres to LAY ADMINISTRATION , he shall be responsive to Christ , and in danger of the Councell . But the thing was of more ancient constitution . For in that Epistle which goes under the Name of S. Clement , which is most certainly very ancient whoever was the author of it , it is decreed , Si qui ex Fratribus negotia habent inter se apud cognitores saeculi non judicentur , sed apud Presbyteros Ecclesiae quicquid illud est dirimatur . If Christian people have causes of difference and judiciall contestation , let it be ended before the PRIESTS . For so S. Clement expounds [ Presbyteros ] in the same Epistle , reckoning it as a part of the sacred Hierarchy . * To this or some paralell constitution S. Hierome relates , saying that [ Priests from the beginning were appointed judges of causes ] . He expounds his meaning to be of such Priests as were also Bishops , and they were Iudges ab initio , from the beginning ( saith S. Hierom ) . So that this saying of the Father may no way prejudge the Bishops authority , but it excludes the assistance of lay-men from their Consistories . Presybter , and Episcopus was instead of one word to S. Hierom , but they are alwaies Clergy , with him and all men else . * But for the mayne Question , S. Ambrose did represent it to Valentinian the Emperour with confidence , and humility , In causâ fidei , vel Ecclesiastici alicujus ordinis eum judicare debere , qui nec Munere impar sit , nec jure dissimilis . The whole Epistle is admirable to this purpose , Sacerdotes de Sacerdotibus judicare , that Clergy-men must onely judge of Clergy-causes ; and this S. Ambrose there call's judicium Episcopale . The Bishops judicature . Si tractandum est , tractare in Ecclesiâ didici , quod Majores fecerunt mei . Si conferendum de fide , Sacerdotum debet esse ista collatio , sicut factum est sub Constantino Aug. memoriae Principe . So that , both matters of Faith and of Ecclesiasticall Order are to be handled in the Church , and that by Bishops , and that sub Imperatore , by permission and authority of the Prince . For so it was in Nice , under Constantine . Thus farre S. Ambrose . * S. Athanasius reports that Hosius Bishop of Corduba , president in the Nicene Councell , said , it was the abhomination of desolation that a lay-man should be judge in Ecclesiasticis judicijs , in Church-causes ; And Leontius calls Church-affayres , Res alienas à Laicis , things of another Court , of a distinct cognisance from the Laity . * To these adde the Councell of Venice , for it is very considerable in this Question . Clerico nisi ex permissu Episcopi sui servorum suorum saecularia judicia adire non liceat . Sed si fortasse Episcopi sui judicium caeperit habere suspectum , aut ipsi de proprietate aliquâ adversus ipsum Episcopum fuerit nat a contentio , aliorum Episcoporum audientiam , NON SAECULARIUM POTESTATUM debebit ambire . Alitèr à communione habeatur alienus . Clergy-men without delegation from their Bishop may not heare the causes of their servants , but the Bishop , unlesse the Bishop be appealed from , then other Bishops must heare the cause , but NO LAY IUDGES by any meanes . * These Sanctions of holy Church it pleased the Emperour to ratifie by an Imperiall edict , for so Iustinian commanded that in causes Ecclesiasticall , Secular Iudges should have no interest , SED SANCTISSIMUS EPISCOPUS SECUNDUM SACRAS REGULAS CAUSAE FINEM IMPONAT . The Bishop according to the Sacred Canons must be the sole judge of Church-matters . I end this with the decretall of S. Gregory one of the fower Doctors of the Church , Cavendum est à Fraternitate vestrâ , ne saecularibus viris , atque non sub regulâ nost●â degentibus res Ecclesiasticae committantur . Heed must be taken that matters Ecclesiasticall be not any waies concredited to secular persons . But of this I have twice spoken already . § . 36. and § . 41. The thing is so evident , that it is next to impudence to say that in Antiquity Lay-men were parties and assessors in the Consistory of the Church . It was against their faith , it was against their practice ; and those few pigmy objections , out of * Tertullian , S. Ambrose , and S. Austin using the word Seniores , or Elders , sometimes for Priests , as being the latine for the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , sometimes for a secular Magistrate , or Alderman , ( for I thinke S. Austin did so in his third booke against Cresconius ) are but like Sophoms to prove that two and two are not foure ; for to pretend such slight , aëry imaginations , against the constant , knowne , open , Catholike practice and doctrine of the Church , and history of all ages , is as if a man should goe to fright an Imperiall army with a single bulrush . They are not worth further considering . * But this is ; That in this Question of lay-Elders the Moderne Aërians and Acephali doe wholly mistake their own advantages . For whatsoever they object out of antiquity for the white , and watry colours of lay-Elders is either a very misprison of their allegations , or else clearly abused in the use of them . For now adayes they are only us'd to exclude and drive forth Episcopacy , but then they misalledge antiquity , for the men with whose Heifers they would faine plough in this Question were themselves Bishops for the most part , and he that was not , would faine have beene , it is knowne so of Tertullian , and therefore most certainly if they had spoken of lay-Iudges in Church matters ( which they never dream'd of ) yet meant them not so as to exclude Episcopacy , and if not , then the pretended allegations can doe no service in the present Question . I am only to cleare this pretence from a place of Scripture totally misunderstood , and then it cannot have any colour from any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , either divine , or humane , but that Lay-Iudges of causes Ecclesiasticall as they are unheard of in antiquity , so they are neither nam'd in Scripture , nor receive from thence any instructions for their deportment in their imaginary office , and therefore may be remanded to the place from whence they came , even the lake of Gebenna , and so to the place of the neerest denomination . * The objection is from S. Paul , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 &c. let the Elders that rule well , be accounted worthy of double honour , especially they that labour in the word & doctrine . especially they . — therefore all Elders doe not so . Here are two sorts of Elders , Preaching Ministers , and Elders not Preachers . Therefore Lay-Elders , and yet all are governours . 1. But why therefore Lay-Elders ? Why may there not be diverse Church-officers , and yet but one , or two of them the Preacher ? [ Christ sent me not to Baptize but to Preach ] saith S. Paul , and yet the commission of [ baptizate ] was as large as [ praedicate ] and why then might not another say , Christ sent me not to Preach , but to Baptize , that is , in S. Pauls sense , not so much to doe one , as to doe the other , and if he left the ordinary ministration of Baptisme , and betook himselfe to the ordinary office of Preaching , then to be sure , some Minister must be the ordinary Baptizer , and so , not the Preacher , for if he might be both ordinarily , why was not S. Paul both ? For though their power was common to all of the same order , yet the execution and dispensation of the Ministeries was according to severall gifts , and that of Prophecy , or Preaching was not dispensed to all in so considerable a measure , but that some of them might be destin'd to the ordinary execution of other offices , and yet because the guift of Prophecy was the greatest , so also was the office , and therefore the sense of the words is this , that all Presbyters must be honour'd , but especially they that Prophecy , doing that office with an ordinary execution and ministery . So no Lay-Elders yet . Adde to this , that it is also plain that all the Clergy did not Preach . Valerius Bishop of Hippo could not well skill in the Latine tongue being a Greek borne , and yet a Godly Bishop , and S. Austin his Presbyter preach'd for him . The same case might occurre in the Apostles times . For then was a concurse of all Nations to the Christian Synaxes , especially in all great Imperiall Citties , and Metropolitans , as Rome , Antioch , Ierusalem , Caesarea , and the like . Now all could not speak with tongues , neither could all Prophecy , they were particular guifts given severally , to severall men appointed to minister in Church-offices . Some Prophecyed , some interpreted ; and therefore is is an ignorant fancy to think that he must needs be a Laick , whosoever in the ages Apostolicall was not a Preacher . 2. None of the Fathers ever expounded this place of Lay-Elders , so that we have a traditive interpretation of it in prejudice to the pretence of our new office . 3. The word Presbyter is never used in the new Testament for a Lay-man , if a Church officer be intended . If it be said , it is used so here , that 's the question , and must not be brought to prove it selfe . 4. The Presbyter that is here spoken of must be maintain'd by Ecclesiasticall revenue , for so S. Paul expounds [ honour ] in the next verse . Presbyters that rule well must be honoured &c. For it is written , thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the Oxe that treadeth out the corne . But now , the Patrons of this new devise are not so greedy of their Lay-Bishops as to be at charges with them , they will rather let them stand alone on their own rotten leggs , and so perish , then fixe him upon this place with their hands in their purses . But it had been most fitting for them to have kept him , being he is of their own begetting . 5. This place speaks not of divers persons , but divers parts of the Pastorall office , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . To rule , and to labour in the word . Iust as if the expression had been in materiâ politicâ . All good Counsellors of State are worthy of double honour , especially them that disregarding their own private , aime at the publike good . This implies not two sorts of Counsellors , but two parts of a Counsellors worth , and quality . Iudges that doe righteousnesse are worthy of double honour , especially if they right the cause of Orphans , and Widdowes , and yet there are no righteous judges that refuse to doe both . 6. All Ministers of H. Church did not preach , at least not frequently . The seven that were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , set over the Widdowes were Presbyters , but yet they were forced to leave the constant ministration of the word to attend that imployment , as I shewed * formerly ; and thus it was in descent too , for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( said Socrates ) A Presbyter does not Preach in Alexandria , the Bishop only did it . And then the allegation is easily understood . For labouring in the word does not signify , only making Homilies or exhortations to the people , but whether it be by word , or writing , or travelling from place to place , still , the greater the sedulity of the person is , and difficulty of the labour , the greater increment of honour is to be given him . So that here is no Lay-Elders ; for all the Presbyters S. Paul speaks of , are to be honoured , but especially those who take extraordinary pains in propagating the Gospell . For though all preach , ( suppose that ) yet all doe not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , take such great pains in it , as is intimated in , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to take bodily labour , and travaile , usque ad lassitudinem , ( so Budaeus renders it . ) And so it is likely S. Paul here means . Honour the good Presbyters , but especially them that travell for disseminating the Gospell . And the word is often so used in Scripture . S. Paul , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . I have travelled in the word more then they all . Not that S. Paul preached more then all the Apostles , for most certainly , they made it their businesse as well as he . But he travelled further and more then they all for the spreading it . And thus it is said of the good Woman that travelled with the Apostles , for supply of the necessities of their diet and houshold offices , [ they laboured much in the Lord. ] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word for them too . So it is said of Persis , of Mary , of Tryphaena , of Triphosa . And since these women were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that travelled with the Apostolicall men and Evangelists , the men also travelled to , and preach'd , and therefore were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is travellers in the word . [ We ought therefore to receive such ] ( saith S. Iohn ) intimating a particular reception of them , as being towards us of a peculiar merit . So that the sense of S. Paul may be this also , All the Rulers of the Church , that is , all Bishops , Apostles , and Apostolick men , are to be honoured , but especially them who , besides the former ruling , are also travellers in the word , or Evangelists . 7. We are furnished with answere enough to infatuate this pretence for Lay-Elders , from the common draught of the new discipline . For they have some that Preach only , and some that Rule , and Preach too , and yet neither of them the Lay-Elder , viz. their Pastors , and Doctors . 8. Since it is pretended by themselves in the Question of Episcopacy , that Presbyter , and Episcopus is all one , and this very thing confidently obtruded in defiance of Episcopacy , why may not Presbyteri in this place signify [ Bishops ? ] And then either this must be Lay-Bishops as well as Lay-Presbyters or else this place is to none of their purposes . 9. If both these offices of RULING and PREACHING may be conjunct in one person , then there is no necessity of distinguishing the Officers by the severall imployments , since one man may doe both . But if these offices cannot be conjunct , then no Bishops must preach , nor no preachers be of the Consistory ( take which government you list ) for if they be , then the offices being united in one person , the inference of the distinct officer , the Lay-Elder , is impertinent . For the meaning of S. Paul would be nothing but this . All Church-Rulers must be honour'd , Especially for their preaching . For if the offices may be united in one person ( as it is evident they may ) then this may be comprehended within the other , and only be a vitall part and of peculiar excellency . And indeed so it is , according to the exposition of S. Chrysostome , and Primasius , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . They rule well , that spare nothing for the care of the flock . So that this is the generall charge , and preaching is the particular . For the work in generall they are to receive double honour , but this of preaching , as then preaching was , had a particular excellency , and a plastick power to forme men into Christianity , especially it being then attested with miracles . But the new office of a Lay-Elder , I confesse I cannot comprehend in any reasonable proportion , his person , his quality , his office , his authority , his subordination , his commission hath made so many divisions and new emergent Questions : and they , none of them all asserted either by Scripture or Antiquity , that if I had a mind to leave the way of God and of the Catholick Church , and runne in pursuit of this meteor , I might quickly be amused , but should find nothing certain but a certainty of being misguided . Therefore if not for conscience sake , yet for prudence , bonum est esse hic , it is good to remaine in the fold of Christ , under the guard , and supravision of those sheapheards Christ hath appointed , and which his sheep have alwaies followed . For I consider this one thing to be enough to determine the Question . [ My sheep ( saith our blessed Saviour ) hear● my voice , if a stranger , or a thiefe come , him they will not heare ] Clearly thus . That Christ's sheep heare not the voice of a stranger , nor will they follow him , and therefore those sheapheards whom the Church hath followed in all ages , are no strangers , but Sheapheards or Pastors of Christs appointing , or else Christ hath had no sheep ; for if he hath , then Bishops are the sheapheards , for them they have ever followed . I end with that golden rule of Vincentius Lirinensis , Magnoperè curandum est ut id teneamus , quod ubique , quod semper , quod ab omnibus creditum est . Hoc est enim verè , proprieque Catholicum . For certainly the Catholick belief of the Church against Arius , Eunomius , Macedonius , Apollinaris , and ( the worst of hereticks ) the Cataphrygians was never more truly received of all , and alwaies , and every where then is the government of the Church by Bishops . Annunciare ergo Christianis Catholicis praeter id quod acceperunt , nunquam licuit , nunquam licet , nunquam licebit . It never was , is , nor ever shall be lawfull to teach Christian people any new thing then what they have received from a primitive fountain , and is descended in the stream of Catholick , uninterrupted succession . * I onely adde , that the Church hath insinuated it to be the duty of all good Catholike Christians to pray for Bishops , and as the case now stands , for Episcopacy it selfe , for there was never any Church-Liturgy but said Letanyes for their KING , and for their BISHOP . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A64057-e190 In Chartâ Edgar . Regi● A. D. 485. apud Hen. Spelman . a Iohn Speeds Hist. l. 9. c. 19. n. 23. p. 716. b Ibid. c. 20. n. 64. p. 747. * 1 Cor. ca ▪ 12. v. 28. Notes for div A64057-e1990 * Maximini jussu Martyrio coronatur . Saith Platina , but that is wholly uncertaine . * in 1. ad Titū Epist. 55. §. 1. Christ did institute a governement in his Church . Simler : de rep : Helvet : fol ▪ 148. & 172. * De doctr . Christ. lib. 1. c. 18. tract . 118. in Iohan. vide etiam tract . 124. & tract . 50. in Ioh , de Agon . Christ. cap. 30 de bapt . contr . Donatist . lib. 3. c. 17. * De Sacerd. lib. 3. † In 16. Matt. a Lib. de pudicit . b Epist. 27. c Lib. qd Christus est Deus . d Lib. 6. de Trinit . e Lib. 3. in Apocal. Luke , 12. 42. Psal : 78. 1. Pet. 5. 2. Acts. 20. * in lib : de eo quod deterior p●tiori infidiatur . § 2. This government was first committed to the Apostles by Christ * vide Hilarium in hunc locum & pp. communitèr . § 3. With a power of joyning others and appointing successors in the Apostolate § 4. This succession into the ordinary office of Apostolate is made by Bishops For the Apostle and the Bishop are all one in name & person * In cap. 60. Isai. v. 17. 1. Galat. 19. 1. Corin. 15. * Vide Carol. Bovium in constit . Apost . Schol. Hieron . de Script . Eccl . in Jacobo . & in 1. Galat . Epiphan . haeres . 78 , 79. Tract . 124. in Iohan. * Vide pag. Philip. 2. 25. In bunc locum ●terque & Theod. in 1. Tim 3. Acts. 13. v. 2 , 3. Rom. 11 , 13. Galat. 2 , 8. In 1. cap. Galat . 2. Corinth . 8 , 23. Vers. 22. V. 23. § 5. And office , Apocal. 2. * Doroth. Synops . * Vide Constit. Apost . per Clement . ubi quidam Iohannes in Epheso Episc. post Timoth. collocatur . § 6. Which Christ himselfe hath made distinct from Presbyters Luke 10. Lib. 3. cap. 3. § 7. Giving to Apostles a power to doe some offices perpetually necessary , which to others he gave not . Eccles. hierarch . c. 5. As of Ordination , * In Trullo . can . 16. Haeres . 20. Homil. 14. in Act. 6. In hanc locū . Acts. 13. Prophetas duplici genere intelligamus , & futura dicentes & Scripturas revelantes . S. Ambros : in 1. Corinth . 12. * Ephes. 4. § 8. And Confirmation , * S. Cyprian : ad Iubajan . * lib : 3 hist : cap. 37. * vide Augast . tract . 6. in 1. Epist. Iohan. Act. 2. 39. Serm. de Penticoste . Hebr. 6. 2. lib : 3. hist : cap. 17. Quaest. 137. ad Orthod : Epist : 73. ad lubajan : * Lib. 6. hist. cap : 33. * in 1. tom . Concil : a lib. de baptismo . c. 8 b lib : 2. contra lit : Petil : cap. 104. & lib. 15. de Trinitic 26. vide etiam S Hieron : contra Luciferianos . S. Ambros : lib. 2. c. 2 de sacramentis Epist : 3. Eusebij P. & M. ad Episc. Tusciae & Campon : I sidor : Hispal de eccles : offic . lib. 2. c. 26. § 9. And Superiority of Iurisdiction , Iohn . 20. 21. Lib. 7. de baptism . Contra Donatist . c. 43. vide etiam S. Cyprian , de Vnit. Eccles. & S. Cyrill . in Ioh. lib. 12. c. 55. Ephes. 4. 1. Corinth . 12. a Lib. 1. hist. c 12. & l. 2. c 9. b Haeres . 20. c De script . Eccles. in Matth. vide Irenaeum l 4. c. 63. Tertul de praescript . * Vt puta , viduarum collegium , & Diaconorum , & coenobium fidelium . &c : Revel . 1. vers . 20. Hebr. 13. Act. 15. 1. Cor. 11. in 1. Apocal. ibid : in 1. Cor. 11. Epist. 162. & in Apocal. lib. 5. c. 24. lib. 4 c. 10. lib. 4. cap. 15. † Epist. ad Policarp . * de praescrip . vide Aretha . in 1. Apoc. lib. 4. cap. 26. In Lucae cap. 10. Epist. ad Philadelph . § 10. So that Bishops are successors in the office of Apostleship , according to the generall tenent of Antiquity . Lib. 3. cap. 3. Lib. de praescript . c. 36. Epist. 42. ad Cornelium . Epist. 69. Lib. 7. c. 43. de baptis . cont . Donatist . Epist. 54. De verbis Dom. serm . 24 In Ephes. 4. In 1. Corinth . 12. 28. In vers . 29. ibid. Biblioth . Phot. n. 254. Lib. 4. c. 18. Epist. 1. a Epist. 1 ▪ ad Simpron . b Homil. 26. in Evang. c Orat. 2. de imagin . d Epist. 7. e Habetur Can. in Novo distinct . 21. f In synod . Hispal . g Lib. 3. c. 15. super Lucam . § 11. And particularly of S. Peter , Epist. 27. ad Lapsos . Epist. 1. Lib. 12. thes . cap. 13. Orat. de laud. Basil : tract . primâ die suae ordinat . Biblioth . SS . PP . tom . 5 in Eccles. ord . in crepat . Acts , 13. * Idem ferè habet in Epist. ad Magnes : & Smyrnens . Lib. 4. c. 43. Cap. 44 ▪ Epist. 13. § 12. And the institution of Episcopacy as well as of the Apostolate expressed to be Divine , by primitive authority , Epist. 27. Epist. 65. Rogatian . Epist. 76. Epist , ad Magnes . Quaest. Vet. & N. Testam . qu. 97. Euseb. lib. 4. c. 22. Lib. 4. c. 43. In 1. Corinth . 12. De dignit . Sacerd . cap. 2. Homil. 4. Graec. 5. lat . in 1. Tim. 1. cap. In 1. Tit. Acts 20. † Hom. 32. in Iohan. * Can. 6. a C. 25. b Octauum Can. 7. c Epist. 2. Lib. 3. in Lucam . c. 15. Lib. 3. cap. 5. § 13. In pursuance of the Divine institution , the Apostles did ordaine Bishops in severall Churches , As S. Iames at Hierusalem . Epist. ad Trall , lib. 2. hist. cap. 1. lib. 3. c. 11. lib. 2. c. 22. lib. 7. c. 46. & lib. 8. cap. ult : Epist. 2. Epist. decret . Vnic : Catech. 4. Catech. 16. lib : 2. cont . lit : Peti● ▪ c. 51. & lib : 2. cont : Crescon : c. 37. lib : de Script . Eccles. in Iacobo . a homil : 38. in 1. Cor. 15. & 33. hom : in 15. Act. b haeres . 66. c in 1. Galat . d cap. 33. homil . 3. in Act. haeres . 78. S. Simeon to be his successor , lib. 3. hist. cap. 11. lib 4. cap. 22. haeres . 66. §14 . S. Timothy at Ephesus , 2. Tim. 1. 6. * 1. Tim. 1. 3. 1. Tim. 3. 1. Tim. 5. 1. 1. Tim. 5. 7. haeres . 75. 2. Tim. 4. 2. 1. Tim. 5. 20. Vers. 22. Lib. 3. c. 4. Praefat. in 1. Tim. a Contr. haeres . b contr Marcion ● . 5. c hom . 〈◊〉 in 1. Timoth. d in 6. cap. in 1. Tim. e in 1. Tim. 4. c. & 5. c. f haeres . 75. g ad Timoth. cap. 4. h in Pastor . part . 2. c. 11. Acts. 11. In Titum . & 1. Philip. In 1. Tim. 3. Biblioth ▪ Photi● . n. 254. i Descript. Eccles. k In praefat . in 1. Timoth. l De vitâ ● morr● SS 87 , & 88. m Lib. 2. c. 34. 2. Tim. 4. 5. In 4. Ephes. Lib. 3. hist. cap. 37. Lib. 10. tripart . hist. cap. 5. Theodoret. 1. Tim. 6. 14 In Ephes. 4. §15 . S. Titus at Crete . Titus . 1. Advers : Iovinian . a cap. 6. b can . 17. c Epist. 87. ad Episc. Afric . Tit. 3. 10. 2. Titus . 15. lib. 3. c. 4. ubi suprà . in 1. Tim. 3. a de Script : Eccl in ●ito . b in Sin●psi . c de vità & morte . S Sanct. d lib. 38. c. 10. e apud Oecumen . in praefat . in Tit. & in 1. Timoth. 3. f in pastor . part . 2. c. 11. g Praefat : in 1. Tim. & in 2. Tim. 1. h in 1. Tim. 1. & in 2. Tim. 1. 6. i in 1. Tit. k lib. 2. c. 34. l In Synopsi Sacr. Script . m ad Paulam & Eustoch . n Comment . ad Titum . o ibid ▪ lib. 4. c. 21. §. 16. S. Marke at Alexandria , Acts. 12. & Acts. 13. lib. 2. hist. cap. 17. Epist. ad Evagr . de Script : Eccles. & in proëm in Matth. a lib. 6. Epist. 371. b lib 14. cap 39. In decret . de lib. authent . & apocryph . § 17. S. Linus , and S. Clement at Rome . lib 3 cap. 3. * Euseb. lib. 3. cap. 4. a de praescript . b lib , 2. contr . Parmen . c Epist. 165. d de Script . Eccles. § 18. S. Polycarpe at Smyrna , & diverse others . De praescript . De Script . Eccles. lib. 3. c. 35. a Euseb. l. 4. c. 23. & lib. 3. c. 4. b Origen . lib. 10. in 16. Rom. c S. Ambros. in 4 Coloss. d Ignatius Epist . ad Ephes. & Euseb. lib. 3. c. 35. e Arethas in 1. Apocal. f Epist. ad Philip. & Theodoret. ib. & in 1. Tim. 3. g Euseb. l. 3. c. 4. apud Gallias . So Ruffinus reads it . In Galatia , so is intimated in Scripture , and so the Roman Martyrol . h Ignatius Epist. ad Antioch . & Euseb. lib. 3. c. 22. * In Martyrologio Roman ▪ * lib. 3. cap. 37. Lib. 3. cap. 3. * Epist. 42 , Vbi supra . § 19. So that Episcopacy is at least an Apostolicall ordinance : of the same authority with many other points generally believed . § 20. And was an office of power and great authority , Vbi supra . apud Euseb. lib. 3. cap. 23. §. 21. Not lessened by the assistance and Councell of Presbyters , Comment . in ep . ad Titum . Ad Nepotian . & de 7. ordin . Eccles. 2. Thess. 3. 14. Act. 15. in Act. Apost . Act. 13. Act. 20. Act. 20. 4. vers . 18. Vbi suprà . Lib. 3. cap. 14. 1. Cor. 5. 3. V. ● . in Ephes. 4. Epist. ad Antioch . a In 1. Tim. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Homil. 11. § 22. And all this hath beene the saith & practise of Christendome . § 23. Who first distinguished Names used before in common . Epist. ad Corinth . 1. Pet. 5. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Chrys. in 1. Phil. In 1. Philip. * Pag. 54. * 1. Timoth , 3. in Ephis . 4. * Idem ait S. Dionysius Eccles . hierarch . cap. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 2 Cor. 6. 4. 1 , Cor. 3. 5. in 1. Philip ; Ephes. 4. Epist. 59. ad Paulinum . § 24. Appropriating the word Episcopus or Bishop to the Supreame Church-officer , a Can. 15. & 16. b c. 9. & alibi . c post advent . Episc. Cypri . d advers . Praxeam . e lib. 3. c. 59. de vitâ Const. Ca. 4. cap. 18. de Orthod : fide Anno Dom : 257. Epist. ad . Trall . Epist , ad Heron . Lib. 7. etymolog . c. 12. Rom. 16. 17. § 25. Calling the Bishop and him only the Pastor of the Church , lib. 3. hist. c. 36. Epist. ad Ephes . Euseb. lib. 7. cap. 24. Can. 6. hist. tripart . lib. 4. c. 29. lib. 4. cap. 14. Theodoret. lib. 4. c. 18. Epist. 11. § 26. And Doctor . haeres . 75. * Epist 59. 1. Tim. 3. lib. 7. c. 19. § 27. And Pontifex . 1 lib. 8. c. ult . Apost . constitut . 2 lib. 3. hist. cap. 31. 3 lib. 9. c. 14. hist. tripart . 4 lib. 3. c. 21. 5 lib. 4. c. 20. 6 Euseb. lib. 6. c. 9. 7 Eccles. hierarch . 8 Lib. 7. 12. And Sacerdos . a Lib. 8. c. 46. b Lib. 3. Ep. 1. c Lib. 7. c. 28. d Lib. de baptism . e Epist. 69. f Euseb. lib. 3. c. 21. g Lib. 3. c. 35. h Epist. Comprovinc . ad S. L●onem . Lib. 4 c. 26. Lib 7. Etymol c. 12. Comment . in 4. Ephes. Quast . Vet. et N. Testam . Qu. 101. In 1. Tim. 3. In 4. Ephes. Epist. 69. § 28. And these were a distinct order from the rest . Can. 1. & 2. Lib. 1. ad Parmen . De vitâ August . c. 4. Can. 29. Lib. 7. c. 26. Can. 3. Nicen. Concil . Lib. 2. c. 1. hist. tripart . Lib. 3. tripart . c. 2. Hist. tripart . l. 11. c. 5. Lib. 7. etymol. c. 12. Per Binium Parts . Can ▪ 2. § 29. To which the Presbyterate was but a degree . Can. 10. Lib. 5. c. 8. Epist. 52. § 30. There being a peculiar manner of Ordination to a Bishoprick . Can. Apost . 1 , & 2. Epist. Vnic● . * Can 4. * Can. 19. Can. 12. Can. 4. * A. D. 509. Theodoret. l. 9. cap 44. Cap. 1. 2. lib. 6. hist. cap. 33. § 31. To which Presbyters never did assist by imposing hands , A.D. 555. in libr. Pontificali . vit . Pelag. 1. Can. 6. Concil . Sardic . Epist. 3. Epist. 84. c. 4. Lib. 1 c. 12. de actis cum Felice Manich . lib 4. Epist. 2. in 1. Tim. 3. de praescript . cap. 32. lib. 4. cap. 23. cap. 1. S. Hieromad Rusticum Narbonens : apud Gratian . dist : 95. can : ec●e ego . casus , i●id● * The Nicen● Creed . * Haeres 75. § 32. For Bishops had a power distinct , and Superiour to that of Presbyters . As of Ordination . Eccles. hier . c. 5. * Lib. 6. cap 33. Can. 13. tripart . hist. lib 2. c , 12. ex Theodoret. Can : 19. Apud Athanas : Apolog. 2. epist. Presb. & Diacon : Mareotic : ad Curiosum & Philagrium . Cap. 4. Cap. 5. † Can. 6. * Can. 13. ad Evagrium . homil . 2. in . 1. Tim. 2. Can. 37. Can. 20. haeres . 7 5. * Euseb. lib. 6. cap. 33. Can. 45. Cap. 19. a Cap. 9. b Cap. 2. & 6. Novell : constir . 6. & 1. 23. cap. 16. Cap : 6. Can : 2 , & 3. Epist. 33. de Eccles. cap. 11. Danaeus part . 2. Isagog ; lib. 2. cap. 22. Perron . repl . fol : 92. impress . 1605. Ecclesihist : lib. 10. cap. 9. per Ruffinum . Ibidem c. 10. & apud Theodoret. l. 1. Eccles : hist. lib. 11. cap. 6. per Ruffinum . § 33. And Confirmation , Epist. de Chorepisc . Epist. ad Iubaian . Apud Sev. Binium in 1. tom . Concil . Homil. 18. in Act. In cap. 5. de Eccles. hierarch . * Lib. 3. hist. cap. 17. a De Baptismo . b Epist. 1. cap. 3. ad Decent . c Epist. 4. d Epist. 88. e Epist. ad . Epis● . German . f Lib. 3. ep . 9. g Apud Gratian . de consecrat . dist . 5. can . ut jejuni . h Ibid. Can. ut Episcopi . i Concil . Hispal . can . 7. vide Anasta . biblioth . praefat . in Can. 8. Synodi . vide Optatum . lib. 2. S. Bernard . in vitâ S Malachiae . Surium . tom . 1. in Febr. dial . adv . Lucifer . Caus. 11. q. 3. can Quod pradecessor . in Ephes. 4. Quaest. 101. Vet. & N. Testam . Basileae . lib. 3. eist p. 26. Can. 52. Can. 2 Can. 20. Can. 1. Epist. 1. ad Decent . Cap. 3. § 34. And jurisdiction , Which they expressed in attributes of authority , and great power , Epist. ad Trallian . lib. 3. epist. ● . lib. 4. cap. 63. lib. 6. hist. cap. 26. Can. 10. lib. 2. adv . Parmen . lib. 6. hist. cap. 26. Homil. 7. in Ierem. Can. 69. Can. 25. hist : tripart : lib. 1. cap. 12. de dignit . sacerdot . c. 2. Cap. 3. Cap. 4. § 35. Requiring Vniversall obedience to be given to Bishops by Clergy and Laity . Epist. as Ephes● . * Apologia pro Ignatio . a Lib. 3. hist. c. 30. b De Script . Eccles. c Apud Euseb. quem Latine reddidit . Can. 56. * Idem videre èst apud Damasum . Epist. de Chorepiscopis . Can. 19. Can. 20. Epist. ad Nepotian . Lib. 5. cap. 28. * § 36. Appointing them to be Iudges of the Clergy and spirituall causes of the Laity . Can. 33. Can. 5. Can. 59. Can. 4. Can. 9. Can. 13 , & 14. Epist. 10. Epist. 1● . Epist. 12. Epist. 65. Epist. 55. Tripart . hist. lib. 10. cap. 3. Ibid. cap. 4. Advers . Vigilant . Epist. 53. Tripart . hist. lib. 3. cap. 9. Tripart . hist. lib. 1. c. 12. Can. 4. Ann. Dom. 397. Cap. 2 ▪ Ca. 8. Can. 10. Act. 4. can . 83. Post epist. Archimandritarum ad Concilium pro Dioscori rehabilitatione . Concil . Ephes. c. 5. C●p. 15. de co●rept . & gratoâ . * Can. 55. Cap. 15. ibid. Novel . constit . 123. c. 11. 2. Corinth . 2. 9. Vbi suprà . Ca. 9. tripart . hist. lib. 10. cap. 9. Tripart . hist. lib. 5. c. 35. S. Ambros. Epist . lib. 2. Epist. 13. In verbo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . hist. tripart . lib. 7. c. 12. * Can. 39. Theodoret. lib. 4. c. 5. * Epist. ad Philadelph . * Lib. de dignit . Sacerd. cap. 2. Lib. 10. Eccles . hist. c. ● . Lib. 10. Eccles . hist. cap. 19. Theodor. lib. 5. c. 18. Euseb lib. 6. cap. 25. Homil. 83. in 26. Matth. In 3. partis Supplem . q. 22 a. 5. Vide Aug. ep . 75. & Gratian . dist . 24. q. 2. c. Si habet sed ibi [ Princeps ] non inseritur , sed tantùm in glossâ ordinariâ . Vide the book of Order of Excomm . in Scotland . & the Hist. of Scotland . Admonit . 2. p. 46. Knox his exhortation to England . § 37. Forbidding Presbyters to officiate without Episcopall license , Epist. ad Smyrn . Can. Apost . 32 Ca. 5. Act. 4. De baptism . De coronâ milit ▪ c. 3. vide S. Chrysost. hom . 11. in 1. Tim. & S. Hieron . dial . adv . Lucifer . Can. 6. Ca. 9. Can. 8. part . 2. Act. 14. Epist. 86. dist . 95. cap. Ecce ego . 1 Can. 40. 2 Epist. ad Ephes. 3 Cap. 24. Lib. 5. c. 22. Ad Rustic . Narbon . dist . 95. can . Ecce ego . ●an . 12. § 38. Reserving Church goods to Episcopall dispensation , An. Do● . 589. Cap. 32. Can. 26. vide Zonaram in hunc Canonem . Videatur Concil . Carthag . Graec. can . 36 ▪ 38. & 41. & Balsam . ibid. & apologia 2. Iustini Martyris . § 39. Forbidding Presbyters to leave their own Diocesse , or to travell without leave of the Bishop . Vide Concil . Epaun. c. 5. & venet . c. 10. Can. 41. Can. 42. a Can. 38. b Can. 5. Can. 6. § 40. And the Bishop had power to preferre which of his Clerks he pleased , Can. 31. 1. Titus . V : 5. Epist. ad Antioch . Gan. 13. Epist. 61. & 62. Hieron . ad Nepotian . lib. 1. offic . cap. 44. Tripart . hist. lib. 5. cap. 32. lib. 1. Epist. 5. Epist. 68. homil . 3. in Act. Epist. 120. lib. 3. de Sacerd . † lib. 2. de offic . Epist. 84. c. 5. Can. 4. Tripart . hist. lib. 3. cap. 9. Act. 11. Tripart . hist. lib. 2. cap. 12. Theodor. lib. 4. c. 5. * Socrat. lib. 5. c. 21. In Ephes. 4. lib. 3. hist. cap. 11. Tripart . hist. lib. 10. c. 14. vide dist . 63. per tot . Gratian. § 41. Bishops onely did Vote in Councells and neither Presbyters , nor People . Epist. ad Solitar . lib. 2. cap. 7. lib. 5. cap. 23. proëm ▪ in lib. de ●ide . lib : 5. cap. 8. Epist. Synod . ad Clerum C. Ptanum . part . 2. act . 3. part . 1 ▪ c. 32. Vide §. 36. de simil . ferè quaestione in fine . Action . 1. Coxcil . Chalced. Concil . Ant●siodor . can . 7. Socrat. lib. 2. c. 7. Epist. 3. pe● Ruffinum . Hebr. 13. 7. & 17. 1. Pet. 5. 2. Act. 20. Epist. 69. Lib. 3. de vitâ Constant. lib. de baptis . cap. 18. Epist. 32. * Acts 15. 23. Lib. 4. polit . ● . 15. § 42. And the Bishop had a propriety in the persons of his Clerks . Can. 45. Concil . Carthag . 3. Eccles. hist. lib. 10. cap. 17. Lib. 2. cap. 8. Athanas. Epist . ad vitam ●olitar : agentes . § 43. Their Iurisdiction was over many congregations , or Parishes , Lib. 2. hist. cap. 17. apud Binium . tom . 1. Concil . * Euseb. lib. 6. cap. 43. Apolog. c. 37. lib. 2. contr . Parmeniam . lib. 5. cap. 29. & 30. Vide Baron . A. D. 39. n. 10. & B. Rhenan , in notit . provinc . Imperial . in descript . Illyrici . * Can. 17. † Can. 38. Can. 6. lib. 5. ca. 23. Action . 7. Epist , ad Leon . 1. Episc. Rom. Haeres . 68. * Concil Chalced act . 16. † Theodoret. lib. 5. c. 28. Apud . S. Hieron . haeres . 69. Lib. 4. c. 12 , Encom . Cyprian . S●Zom . lib. 5. c. 18. Vide apud Euseb . lib. 5. c. 22. Can. 56. Can. 6. * Lib. 5. c. 16. † Lib. 5. cap. 4. Ius Graecc-Rom . p. 89. Vide Baron . An. Dom. 205 n. 27. † Lib. 4. c. 25. Gennad . apud Hieron . Iohan. de Trittenheim de script . Eccles. Epist. ad Philadelph . Lib. 10 , Eccles. hist. Apud Euseb. lib. 6. cap. 33. In 1. Cor. 12. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Epiphan . haeres . 66. n. 6. Possidon . in vitâ S. Aug. cap. 8. Socrat. lib. 5. cap. 21. * Lib. 4. cap. 15. † Lib. 4. Epist. 2. Lib. 2. c. 11. a In 1. Philip. b in 1. Philip . c in 1. Philip . d in 1. Philip . e lib. 2. contr . Parmen . f in 1. Tim. 3. & in 1. Phil. Concil . Antioch . ca. 9. Epist. 1. ad Iacobum Fratrem Domini . vide Concil . Chalced. act . 1. in epist. Theod. & Valentin . Imp. §. 44. And was ayded by Presbyters but not impayred . in Epist. ad Titum . cap. 1. Epist. ad Antioch . Epist. 21. Ad Trallian . Ad Magnes . Epist. 6. Epist. 19. Epist. 18. in 1. ad . Titum . Ius Graeco Rom. pag. 556. * Epist. 65. Epist. 55. ibidem . Epist. 52. Epist. 72. In 1. Timoth. 3. 1. Tim. 1. Vbi suprà . In Isaiae . 3. Can. 6. Can. 20. § 45. So that the government of the Church by Bishops was believed necessary . Epist. ad Tral . Epist. ad Philadelph . Epist. 27. & alibi . * Epist. 69. vide Concil . Byzacenum . An. Dom. 504. & Surium die 1. Ianuar. & Baron . in A. D. 504. Epist. 2. advers . Lucifer . cap. 4. § 46. For they are schismaticks that separate from their Bishop . Epist. ad Magnes . Ad Ephes. S. Cyprian . ep . 55. Epist. 69. Act. 4. §. 47. And Hereticks ▪ haeres . 75. Can. 6. lib. 2. decret . cap. 226. lib. 18. ca. 45 Eccles. hist. lib. 8. cap. 5. Etymol . vbi suprà . Can. 12. Epist. 3. §. 48. And Bishops were alwaies in the Church , men of great Honour . * Can , 10. Graec. Epist. ● ad lacobum . Apocal. 1. 1. Corinth . 4. Iohn 10. In Titum . Matth. 20. Mark 10. Luke 22. Matth. 23. 8 , 9. 10. Ephes. 4. Luke 22. John 13. * In locis ubi suprà . Gen. 1. Psal. 110. Psal. 2. homil . 6. in Isai. S. Bernard . lib. 10. de confiderat . lib. 19. de civit . Dei. cap. 19. De Vnitat ▪ Eccles . Acts. 15. Rom. 12. Hebr. 13. lib. 3. cap. 23. Epist. ad Greg. Nyssen . Theodo et . lib. 5. ● . 9. Theodor. lib. 4. cap. 9. Thedor . lib. 1. c. 4. &c. 5. Athanas. Apolog . 2. Epist. 17. 18. 19. apud . S. Augustin . in Psal. 13. apud Baron . A● . Dom. 5● . n. 2. 1. Thessal . 5. 13. Epist. 65. Epist. decret . Epist. ad Hero● . Vrban . ibid. Epist. ad Mag●es . §. 49. And trusted with affayres of Secular interest . 1. Cor. 6. In hunc Iocum . Vide etiam August . de opere Monach . ca. 29. Can. 7. Latin. Vide Zonar●n Can. Apostol . * Concil . Chalced . Act. 15. can . 3. Can. 14. Epist. 66. * Vide Synod . Roman . sub Sylvestr . c. 4. Concil . Chalced . c. 26. & Zonar . ibid. * Justin. Martyr . Apolog. 2. Apud Burchard lib. 2. decret . cap. 99. Part. 2. Act. 15. Can. 7. Can. 20. * Epist. a● Ephes. * Sozoo● lib. 1. cap. 9. Tripart . hist. lib. 7. cap. 8. S. August . lib. 6. Consess . cap. 4. Epist. 110. Epist. 147. deepore Monach . cap : 29. Tripart . hist : lib : 4. cap. 25. lib : 10. cap : 6. ibid. lib. 11. cap. 8. ibid. lib. 5. Epist. Ambros. 33. Euseb : lib. 8. cap. 1. Epist. 84. In 1. Corinth . 6. 2. Timoth. 2. 4. §. 50. And therefore were inforced to delegate their power and put others in substitution , Eccles. hierdr . 6. 5. 2. Timoth. 4. v. 9. & 12. Philip. 2. v. 25. 26. Epist. ad Antioch . Can. 56. Epist. 9. Epist. 38. & 39. haeres . 68. Concil . Hispal . cap. 6. §. 51. But they were ever Clergy-men , for there never was any lay Elders in any Church office heard of in the Church . Socrat. lib. 7. cap. 37. Concil . Hispa● . ubi suprà . Epist. ad Iacob . Fratr . Dom. * de 7. Ordin . Eccles. * Epist. 13. ad Valent. * Epist. ad Solitar . Suidas in vit● Leontij . Can. 9. A. D. 453. * Novell . constit . 123. lib. 7. epist. 66. Tertull. Apol. c. 33. S. Ambros. in 1. Tim. 5. 1. & lib. 1. de offic . c. 20. S. August . lib. 3. contra Crescon . & Epist. 137. 1. Tim. 5. 17. * §. 48. lib. 5 : cap. 22. Rom. 16. 1. Epist. cap. 3. Cap. 3. adv . haereses . Cap. 14. 
A64099	----	The rule and exercises of holy dying in which are described the means and instruments of preparing our selves and others respectively, for a blessed death, and the remedies against the evils and temptations proper to the state of sicknesse : together with prayers and acts of vertue to be used by sick and dying persons, or by others standing in their attendance : to which are added rules for the visitation of the sick and offices proper for that ministery. Rule and exercises of holy dying. 1651 Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. 1651 Approx. 603 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 208 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2003-11 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A64099 Wing T361A ESTC R28870 10772155 ocm 10772155 45783 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A64099) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 45783) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1411:11) The rule and exercises of holy dying in which are described the means and instruments of preparing our selves and others respectively, for a blessed death, and the remedies against the evils and temptations proper to the state of sicknesse : together with prayers and acts of vertue to be used by sick and dying persons, or by others standing in their attendance : to which are added rules for the visitation of the sick and offices proper for that ministery. Rule and exercises of holy dying. 1651 Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. [36], 339 p., 1 leaf of plates : ill. Printed for R.R. and are to be sold by Edward Martin, bookseller, London : 1651. Added engraved t.p. The Epistle Dedicatory signed: Taylor. Reproduction of original in the Huntington Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. 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Sick -- Prayer-books and devotions. 2000-00 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2001-07 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2002-07 Kirk Davis Sampled and proofread 2003-06 SPi Global Rekeyed and resubmitted 2003-08 Olivia Bottum Sampled and proofread 2003-08 Olivia Bottum Text and markup reviewed and edited 2003-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion The Rule and Exercises of holy Dying by Ier Taylor D. D. THE RVLE AND EXERCISES OF HOLY DYING . In which are described The MEANS and INSTRUMENTS of preparing our selves , and others respectively , for a blessed Death : and the remedies against the evils and temptations proper to the state of Sicknesse . Together with Prayers and Acts of Vertue to be used by sick and dying persons , or by others standing in their Attendance . To which are added . Rules for the visitation of the Sick , and offices proper for that Ministery . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Isoc . ad Demonic . LONDON , Printed for R. R. and are to be sold by Edward Martin Bookseller in Norwich . 1651. To the Right Honourable and most truly Noble RICHARD Lord VAVGHAN , Earl of CARBERY , Baron of EMLIN , and MOLINGAR ; Knight of the Honourable Order of the BATH . My Lord , I Am treating your Lordship as a Roman Gentleman did Saint Augustine and his Mother ; I shall entertain you in a Charnel house , and carry your meditations awhile into the chambers of death , where you shall finde the rooms dressed up with melancholy arts , and fit to converse with your most retired thoughts , which begin with a sigh and proceed in deep consideration , and end in a holy resolution . The sight that S. Augustine most noted in that house of sorrow was the body of Caesar clothed with all the dishonours of corruption , that you can suppose in a six moneths burial . But I know that without pointing , your first thoughts will remember the change of a greater beauty , which is now dressing for the brightest immortality ; and from her bed of darknesse calls to you to dress your soul for that change which shall mingle your bones with that beloved dust , and carry your soul to the same Quire , where you may both sit and sing for ever . My Lord it is your dear Ladies Anniversary , and she deserved the biggest honour , and the longest memory , and the fairest monument , and the most solemne mourning ; and in order to it give me leave ( My Lord ) to cover her Hearse with these following sheets ; this book was intended first to minister to her piety ; and she desired all good people should partake of the advantages which are here recorded : she knew how to live rarely well , and she desired to know how to dye ; and God taught her by an experiment . But since her work is done and God supplyed her with provisions of his own , before I could minister to her , and perfect what she desired , it is necessary to present to your Lordship those bundles of Cypresse which were intended to dresse her Closet , but come now to dresse her Hearse . ( My Lord ) both your Lordship and my self have lately seen and felt such sorrows of death , and such sad departure of Dearest friends , that it is more then high time we should think our selves neerly concerned in the accidents ; Death hath come so neer to you as to fetch a portion from your very heart ; and now you cannot choose but digge your own grave and place your coffin in your eye when the Angel hath dressed your scene of sorrow and meditation with so particular and so neer an object ; and therefore as it is my duty , I am come to minister to your pious thoughts , and to direct your sorrows that they may turn into vertues and advantages . And since I know your Lordship to be so constant and regular in your devotions , and so tender in the matter of justice , so ready in the expressions of charity and so apprehensive of religion , and that you are a person whose work of grace is apt , and must every day grow towards those degrees , where when you arrive you shall triumph over imperfection , and choose nothing but what may please God , I could not by any compendium conduct and assist your pious purposes so well as by that which is the great argument and the great instrument of holy living , the consideration and exercises of death . My Lord , it is a great art to dye well , and to be learnt by men in health , by them that can discourse and consider ; by those whose understanding , and acts of reason are not abated with fear or pains , and as the greatest part of death is passed by the preceding years of our life , so also in those years are the greatest preparation to it : and he that prepares not for death , before his last sicknesse , is like him that begins to study Philosophy when he is going to dispute publikely in the faculty . All that a sick and dying man can do is but to exercise those vertues , which he before acquired , and to perfect that repentance which was begun more early . And of this ( My Lord ) my Book I think is a good testimony , not onely because it represents the vanity of a late and sick-bed repentance , but because it contains in it so many precepts and meditations , so many propositions and various duties , such forms of exercise , and the degrees and difficulties of so many graces which are necessary preparatives to a holy death , that the very learning the duties require study and skill , time and understanding in the wayes of godlinesse ; and it were very vain , to say so much is necessary , and not to suppose more time to learn them , more skill to practise them , more opportunities to desire them , more abilities both of body and mind then can be supposed in a sick , amazed , timerous , and weak person ; whose naturall acts are disabled , whose senses are weak , whose discerning faculties are lessened , whose principles are made intricate and intangled , upon whose eye sits a cloud , and the heart is broken with sicknesse , and the liver pierced thorow with sorrows and the strokes of death . And therefore ( my Lord ) it is intended by the necessity of affairs , that the precepts of dying well be part of the studies of them that live in health , and the dayes of discourse and understanding : which in this case hath another degree of necessity superadded ; because in other notices , an imperfect study may be supplied by a frequent exercise , and a renewed experience : Here , if we practise imperfectly once , we shall never recover the errour : for we die but once ; and therefore it will be necessary that our skill be more exact , since it is not to be mended by triall , but the actions must be for ever left imperfect , unlesse the habit be contracted with study and contemplation before hand . And indeed I were vain , if I should intend this book to be read and studied by dying persons : and they were vainer that should need to be instructed in those graces which they are then to exercise and to finish . For a sick bed is only a school of severe exercise , in which the spirit of a man is tried , and his graces are rehearsed : and the assistances which I have in the following pages given to those vertues which are proper to the state of sicknesse , are such as suppose a man in the state of grace ; or they confirm a good man , or they support the weak , or adde degrees , or minister comfort , or prevent an evil , or cure the little mischiefs which are incident to tempted persons in their weaknesse ; this is the summe of the present designe , as it relates to dying persons . And therefore I have not inserted any advices proper to old age , but such as are common to it and the state of sicknesse ; for I suppose very old age to be a longer sicknesse , it is labour and sorrow when it goes beyond the common period of nature ; but if it be on this side that period , and be healthfull , in the same degree it is so , I reckon it in the accounts of life ; and therefore it can have no distinct consideration . But I do not think it is a station of advantage to begin the change of an evil life in : It is a middle state between life and death-bed , and therefore although it hath more of hopes , then this , and lesse then that , yet as it partakes of either state : so it is to be regulated by the advices of that state , and judged by its sentences . Onely this : I desire , that all old persons would sadly consider that their advantages in that state are very few , but their inconveniences are not few : Their bodies are without strength , their prejudices long and mighty , their vices ( if they have lived wickedly ) are habituall , the occasions of their vertues not many , the possibilities of some ( in the matter of which they stand very guilty ) are past , and shall never return again ( such are , chastity , and many parts of self-deniall ; ) that they have some temptations proper to their age , as peevishnesse , and pride , covetousnesse , and talking , wilfulnesse and unwillingnesse to * learn , and they think they are protected by age from learning anew , or repenting the old ; and do not * leave , but change their vices : And after all this , either the day of their repentance is past , as we see it true in very many , or it is expiring and towards the Sun-set , as it is in all ; and therefore although in these , to recover is very possible , yet we may also remember that in the matter of vertue and repentance , possibility is a great way off from performance ; and how few do repent , of whom it is onely possible that they may ; and that many things more are required to reduce their possibility to act : a great grace , an assiduous ministery , an effective calling , mighty assistances , excellent counsell , great industry , a watchfull diligence , a well disposed mind , passionate desires , deep apprehensions of danger , quick perceptions of duty , and time , and Gods good blessing , and effectuall impression and seconding all this , that to will , and to do , may by him be wrought to great purposes , and with great speed . And therefore it will not be amisse , but it is hugely necessary , that these persons who have lost their time and their blessed opportunities should have the diligence of youth , and the zeal of new converts , and take account of every hour that is left them , and pray perpetually , and be advised prudently , and study the interest of their souls carefully , with diligence , and with fear ; and their old age which in effect is nothing , but a continuall death-bed , dressed with some more order and advantages , may be a state of hope , and labour , and acceptance , through the infinite mercies of God in Jesus Christ. But concerning sinners , really under the arrest of death , God hath made no death-bed covenant , the Scripture hath recorded no promises , given no instructions ; and therefore I had none to give , but onely the same which are to be given to all men that are alive , because they are so , and because it is uncertain when they shall be otherwise ; But then this advice I also am to insert . That they are the smallest number of Christian men , who can be divided by the characters of a certain holinesse , or an open villany : and between these , there are many degrees of latitude , and most are of a middle sort , concerning which we are tied to make the judgements of charity , and possibly God may do so too ; But however , all they are such to whom the rules of holy dying are usefull and applicable , and therefore no separation is to be made in this world ; but where the case is not evident , men are to be permitted to the unerring judgement of God , where it is evident , we can rejoyce or mourn for them that die . In the Church of Rome they reckon otherwise concerning sick and dying Christians then I have done . For they make profession , that from death to life , from sin to grace , a man may very certainly be changed , though the operation begin not before his last hour , and half this , they do upon his death bed ▪ and the other half when he is in his grave : and they take away the eternal punishment in an instant , by a school distinction or the hand of the Priest ; and the temporal punishment shall stick longer , even then when the man is no more measured with time , having nothing to do with any thing of , or under the sun ; but that they pretend to take away too , when the man is dead ; and , God knowes , the poor man for all this , payes them both in hell . The distinction of temporal and eternal is a just measure of pains , when it referres to this life and another ; but to dream of a punishment temporal when all his time is done , and to think of repentance when the time of grace is past , are great errours ; the one in Philosophy , and both in Divinity , and are a huge folly in their pretence , and infinite danger if they are believed ; being a certain destruction of the necessity of holy living , when men dare trust them , and live at the rate of such doctrines . The secret of these is soon discovered : for by such means though a holy life be not necessary , yet a priest is ; as if God did not appoint the Priest to minister to holy living , but to excuse it ; so making the holy calling not onely to live upon the sins of the people , but upon their ruine ; and the advantages of their function to spring from their eternal dangers . It is an evil craft to serve a temporal end upon the death of souls ; that , is an interest not to handled but with noblenesse and ingenuity , fear and caution , diligence and prudence , with great skill , and great honesty , with reverence and trembling , and severity : a soul is worth all that , and the need we have requires all that ; and therefore those doctrines that go lesse then all this , are not friendly , because they are not safe . I know no other great difference in the visitation and treating of sick persons , then what depends upon the article of late repentance ; for all Churches agree in the same essential propositions , and assist the sick by the same internal ministeries ; as for external , I mean unction , used in the Church of Rome , since it is used when the man is above half dead , when he can exercise no act of understanding , it must needs be nothing ; for no rational man can think that any ceremonie can make a spiritual change without a spiritual act of him that is to be changed ; nor work by way of nature , or by charme ; but morally and after the manner of reasonable creatures ; and therefore I do not think that ministery at all fit to be reckoned among the advantages of sick persons . The Fathers of the Councel of Trent first disputed and after their manner at last agreed , that extream unction was instituted by Christ. But afterwards , being admonished by one of their Theologues , that the Apostles ministred unction to infirm people before they were Priests ( the Priestly order according to their doctrine being collated in the institution of the last Supper ) for fear that it should be thought that this unction might be administred by him that was no Priest , they blotted out the word [ instituted ] and put in its stead [ insinuated ] this Sacrament ; and that it was published by Saint Iames. So it is in their Doctrine : and yet in their anathematismes , they curse all them that shall deny it to have been [ instituted ] by Christ. I shall lay no more prejudice against it , or the weak arts of them that maintain it , but adde this onely , that there being but two places of Scripture pretended for this ceremonie , some chief men of their own side have proclaimed those two invalid as to the institution of it ; for Suarez sayes that the unction used by the Apostles in S. Mark 6.13 . is not the same with what is used in the Church of Rome ; and that it cannot be plainly gathered from the Epistle of Saint Iames , Cajetan affirms , and that it did belong to the miraculous gift of healing , not to a Sacrament . The sick mans exercise of grace formerly acquired , his perfecting repentance begun in the dayes of health , the prayers and counsels of the Holy man that ministers , the giving the Holy Sacrament , the Ministery and assistance of Angels , and the mercies of God , the peace of conscience and the peace of the Church are all the assistances and preparatives that can help to dresse his lamp . But if a man shall go to buy oil , when the Bridegroom comes , if his lamp be not first furnish'd , and then trimmed , that in his life , this upon his death-bed , his station shall be without doors , his portion with unbelievers , and the unction of the dying man shall no more strengthen his soul , then it cures his body , and the prayers for him after his death shall be of the same force as if they should pray that he should return to life again the next day , and live as long as Lazarus in his return . But I consider , that it is not well , that men should pretend any thing will do a man good when he dies , and yet the same ministeries and ten times more assistances are found for fourty or fifty years together to be ineffectual ; can extreme unction at last cure what the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist all his life time could not do ? Can prayers for a dead man do him more good then when he was alive ? If all his dayes the man belonged to death and the dominion of sin , and from thence could not be recovered by Sermons , and counsels , and perpetual precepts , and frequent Sacraments , by confessions and absolutions , by prayers and advocations , by external ministeries and internal acts , it is but too certain that his lamp cannot then be furnished ; his extreme unction is onely then of use when it is made by the oil that burned in his lamp in all the dayes of his expectation and waiting for the coming of the Bridegroom . Neither can any supply be made in this case by their practise of praying for the dead : though they pretend for this the fairest precedents of the Church and of the whole world . The Heathens they say did it ; and the Jews did it , and the Christians did it ; some were baptized for the dead in the dayes of the Apostles ; and very many were communicated for the dead * for many ages after : T is true they were so , and did so : the Heathens prayed for an easie * grave and a perpetual spring , that Saffron would rise from their beds of grasse . The Jews prayed that the souls of their dead might be in the garden of Eden , that they might have their part in Paradise , and in the world to come , and that they might hear the peace of the fathers of their generations sleeping in Hebron : and the Christians prayed for a joyful resurrection , for mercy at the day of judgement , for the hastning of the coming of Christ , & the kingdom of God ; and they named all sorts of persons in their prayers , all I mean but wicked persons , all but them that liv'd evil lives ; they named Apostles , Saints , and Martyrs ; and all this is so nothing to their purpose , or so much against it , that the prayers for the dead used in the Church of Rome are moct plainly condemned , because they are against the doctrine and practises of all the world ; in other forms to other purposes , relying upon distinct doctrines , until new opinions began to arise about S. Augustines time , and changed the face of the proposition . Concerning prayer for the dead the Church hath received no commandment from the Lord ; and therefore concerning it we can have no rules , nor proportions , but from those imperfect revelations of the state of departed souls , and the measures of charity , which can relate onely to the imperfection of their present condition , and the terrors of the day of judgement : but to think that any suppletory to an evil life can be taken from such devotions after the sinners are dead may incourage a bold man to sin , but cannot relieve him when he hath . But of all things in the world me thinks men should be most careful not to abuse dying people ; not onely because their condition is pitiable , but because they shall soon be discovered , and in the secret regions of souls , there shall be an evil report concerning those men who have deceived them ; and if we believe we shall go to that place where such reports are made , we may fear the shame and the amazement of being accounted impostors in the presence of Angels , and all the wise holy men of the world . To be erring and innocent is hugely pitiable , and incident to mortality , that , we cannot help ; but to deceive or to destroy so great an interest as is that of a soul , or to lessen its advantages by giving it trifling and false confidences , is injurious and intolerable . And therefore , it were very well , if all the Churches of the world would be extremely curious concerning their offices and ministeries of the visitation of the sick ; that their Ministers they send be holy , and prudent ; that their instructions be severe and safe ; that their sentences be merciful and reasonable ; that their offices be sufficient and devout ; that their attendances be frequent and long ; that their deputations be special , and peculiar ; that the doctrines upon which they ground their offices be true , material and holy ; that their ceremonies be few ; and their advices wary ; that their separation be full of caution ; their judgements not remisse ; their remissions not loose and dissolute ; and that all the whole ministration be made by persons of experience and charity ; for it is a sad thing to see our dead go forth of our hands ; they live incuriously and dye without regard , and the last scene of their life , which should be dressed with all spiritual advantages , is abused by flattery and easie propositions , and let go with carelesnesse and folly . My Lord , I have endeavoured to cure some part of the evil as well as I could ; being willing to relieve the needs of indigent people in such wayes as I can , and therefore have described the duties which every sick man may do alone , and such in which he can be assisted by the Minister ; and am the more confident that these my endeavours will be the better entertained , because they are the first intire body of directions for sick and dying people that I remember to have been published in the Church of England : In the Church of Rome there have been many , but they are dressed with such Doctrines which are sometimes uselesse , sometimes hurtfull , and their whole designe of assistance which they commonly yeeld , is at the best imperfect , and the representment is too carelesse and loose for so severe an imployment : So that in this affair I was almost forced to walk alone , onely that I drew the rules and advices from the fountains of Scripture , and the purest channels of the Primitive Church , and was helped by some experience in the cure of souls . I shall measure the successe of my labours , not by popular noises or the sentences of curious persons , but by the advantage which good people may receive ; my work here is not to please the speculative part of men , but to minister to practise , to preach to the weary , to comfort the sick , to assist the penitent , to reprove the confident , to strengthen weak hands and feeble knees , having scarce any other possibilities left me of doing alms , or exercising that charity by which we shall be judged at Doomsday . It is enough for me to be an underbuilder in the House of God , and I glory in the imployment ; I labour in the foundations , and therefore the work needs no Apology for being plain , so it be strong and well laid . But ( My Lord ) as mean as it is , I must give God thanks for the desires and the strength , and next to him , to you for that opportunity and little portion of leisure which I had to do it in ; for I must acknowledge it publikely ( and besides my prayers , it is all the recompence I can make you ) my being quiet I owe to your Interest , much of my support to your bounty , and many other collaterall comforts I derive from your favour and noblenesse . ( My Lord ) because I much honour you , and because I would do honour to my self , I have written your Name in the entrance of my Book , I am sure you will entertain it because the designe related to your Dear Lady , and because it may minister to your spirit in the day of visitation when God shall call for you to receive your reward for your charity and your noble piety , by which you have not onely endeared very many persons , but in great degrees have obliged me to be My Noblest Lord Your Lordships most thankfull and most humble servant TAYLOR . THE TABLE . CHAP. I. A General preparation towards a holy and blessed death by way of consideration , 1. § I. Consideration of the vanity and shortnesse of mans life , ibid. § II. The consideration reduced to practise , 10. § III. Rules and spiritual arts of lengthening our dayes , and to take off the objection of a short life , 21. § IV. Consideration of the miseries of mans life , 35. § V. The consideration reduced to practise . 43. CHAP. II. A general preparation towards a holy and blessed death , by way of exercise , 48. § I. Three precepts preparatory to a holy death to be practised in our whole life . ibid. § II. Of daily examination of our actions in the whole course of our health , preparatory to our death bed , 55. Reasons for a daily examination , ibid. The benefits of this exercise , 59 § III. Of exercising charity during our whole life , 67. § IV. General considerations to inforce the former practises , 71. The circumstances of a dying mans sorrow and danger , 72. CHAP. III. Of the temptations incident to the state of sicknesse with their proper remedies , 77. § I. Of the state of sicknesse , ibid. § II. Of Impatience , 81. § III. Constituent or integral parts of patience , 84. § IV. Remedies against impatience by way of consideration . 87. § V. Remedies against impatience by way of exercise . 98. § VI. Advantages of sicknesse , 104. Three appendant considerations , 1●0 , 121 , 122. § VII . Remedies against fear of death , by way of consideration . 127 § VIII . Remedies against fear of death , by way of exercise . 134. § IX . General Rules and Exercises whereby our sicknesse may become safe and sanctified , 143. CHAP. IV. Of the practise of the graces , proper to the state of sicknesse which a sick man may practise alone , 156. § I. Of the practise of patience by way of Rule , 156 , 157. § II. Acts of patience by way of prayer and ejaculation . 167. A prayer to be said in the beginning of a sicknesse . 173. An act of resignation to be said in all the evil accidents of his sickness 174. A prayer for the grace of patience 175. A prayer to be said at the taking Physic , 177. § III. Of the practise of the grace of faith in time of sicknesse , 178. § IV. Acts of faith by way of prayer , and ejaculation to be said by sick men in the dayes of their temptation 184. The prayer [ for the grace & strengths of faith , 186. § V. Of repentance in the time of sicknesse , 188. § VI. Rules for the practise of repentance in sicknesse , 195. Means of exciting contrition , &c. 200 § VII . Acts of repentance by way of prayer and ejaculation 208. The prayer ] for the grace and perfection of repentance 210. A prayer for pardon of sins to be said frequently in time of sicknesse 212. An act of holy resolution of amendment of life in case of recovery 214. § VIII . An analysis or resolution of the Decalogue , enumerating the duties commanded , and the sins forbidden in every Commandment , for the helping the sick man in making his confession 216. The special precepts of the Gospel enumerated 69 , 227. § IX . Of the sick mans practise of charity and justice by way of Rule 231. § X. Acts of charity by way of prayer and ejaculation which may also be used for thanksgiving in case of recovery . 238. CHAP. V , Of visitation of the sick , or § I. The assistance that is to be done to dying persons by the ministery of their Clergy-Guides . 242. § II. Rules for the manner of visitations of the sick 245. § III. Of ministring in the sick mans confession of sins and Repentance 250 Arguments and exhortations to move the sick man to confession of sins ibid. Instruments by way of consideration to awaken a careless person and a stupid conscience 255. § IV. Of ministring to the restitution and pardon . or reconciliation of the sick person by administring the holy Sacrament 268. § V. Of ministring to the sick person by the Spiritual man as he is the Physitian of souls 282. Considerations against unreasonable fears concerning forgivenesse of sins , and its uncertainty and danger 283. An exercise against despair in the day of our death 293. § VI. Considerations against Presumption 301. § VII . Offices to be said by the Minister in his visitation of the sick 306. The prayer of S. Eustratius the Martyr 310. A prayer taken out of the Greek Euchologion , &c. 311. The order of recommendation of the soul in its agony 313. Prayers to be said by the surviving friends in behalf of them selves 318. A prayer to be said in the case of a sudden death , or pressing fatall danger 321. § VIII . A peroration concerning the contingencies , and treatings of our departed friends after death , in order to their will and buriall . 322. Vigilate et Orate quia nescitis horam CHAP. I. A general preparation towards a holy and blessed Death : by way of consideration . SECT . I. Consideration of the vanity , and shortnesse of Mans life . A Man is a Bubble ( said the Greek Proverb ) ; which Lucian represents with advantages and its proper circumstances , to this purpose ; saying , that all the world is a storm , and Men rise up in their several generations like bubbles descending à Iove pluvio , from God , and the dew of Heaven , from a tear and drop of Man , from Nature and Providence : and some of these instantly sink into the deluge of their first parent , and are hidden in a sheet of Water , having had no other businesse in the world , but to be born that they might be able to die : others float up and down two or three turns , and suddenly disappear and give their place to others : and they that live longest upon the face of the waters are in perpetual motion , restlesse and uneasy , and being crushed with the great drop of a cloud sink into flatness and a froth ; the change not being great , it being hardly possible it should be more a nothing then it was before . So is every man : He is born in vanity and sin ; he comes into the world like morning Mushromes , soon thrusting up their heads into the air and conversing with their kinred of the same production , and as soon they turn into dust and forgetfulnesse ; some of them without any other interest in the affairs of the world , but that they made their parents a little glad , and very sorrowful : others ride longer in the storm ; it may be until seven yeers of Vanity be expired , and then peradventure the Sun shines hot upon their heads and they fall into the shades below , into the cover of death , and darknesse of the grave to hide them . But if the bubble stands the shock of a bigger drop , and outlives the chances of a childe , of a carelesse Nurse , of drowning in a pail of water , of being overlaid by a sleepy servant , or such little accidents , then the young man dances like a bubble , empty and gay , and shines like a Doves neck or the image of a rainbow , which hath no substance , and whose very imagery and colours are phantastical ; and so he dances out the gayety of his youth , and is all the while in a storm , and endures , onely because he is not knocked on the head by a drop of bigger rain , or crushed by the pressure of a load of indigested meat , or quenched by the disorder of an ill placed humor : and to preserve a man alive in the midst of so many chances , and hostilities , is as great a miracle as to create him ; to preserve him from rushing into nothing and at first to draw him up from nothing were equally the issues of an Almighty power . And therefore the wise men of the world have contended who shall best fit mans condition with words signifying his vanity and short abode . Homer cals a man a leaf , the smallest , the weakest piece of a short liv'd , unsteady plant . Pindar calls him the dream of a shadow : Another , the dream of the shadow of smoak . But S. Iames spake by a more excellent Spirit , saying , Our life is but a vapor ] viz. drawn from the earth by a coelestial influence ; made of smoak , or the lighter parts of water , tossed with every winde , moved by the motion of a superiour body , without vertue in it self , lifted up on high , or left below , according as it pleases the Sun its Foster-father . But it is lighter yet . It is but appearing . A phantastic vapor , an apparition , nothing real ; it is not so much as a mist , not the matter of a shower , nor substantial enough to make a cloud ; but it is like Cassiopeia's chair , or Pelops shoulder , or the circles of Heaven , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for which you cannot have a word that can signify a veryer nothing . And yet the expression is one degree more made diminutive : A vapor , and phantastical , or a meer appearance , and this but for a little while neither : the very dream , the phantasm disappears in a small time , like the shadow that departeth , or like a tale that is told , or as a dream when one awaketh : A man is so vain , so unfixed , so perishing a creature , that he cannot long last in the scene of fancy : a man goes off and is forgotten like the dream of a distracted person . The summe of all is this : That thou art a man , then whom there is not in the world any greater instance of heights and declensions , of lights and shadows , of misery and folly , of laughter and tears , of groans and death . And because this consideration is of great usefulnesse and great necessity to many purposes of wisdom and the Spirit ; all the succession of time , all the changes in nature , all the varieties of light and darknesse , the thousand thousands of accidents in the world , and every contingency to every man , and to every creature does preach our funeral sermon , and calls us to look , and see , how the old Sexton Time throws up the earth , and digs a Grave where we must lay our sins , or our sorrows , and sowe our bodies till they rise again in a fair , or in an intolerable eternity . Every revolution which the sun makes about the world , divides between life and death ; and death possesses both those portions by the next morrow ; and we are dead to all those moneths which we have already lived , and we shall never live them over again : and still God makes little periods of our age . First we change our world , when we come from the womb to feel the warmth of the sun : Then we sleep and enter into the image of death , in which state we are unconcerned in all the changes of the world ; and if our Mothers , or our Nurses die , or a wilde boar destroy our vineyards , or our King be sick , we regard it not , but , during that state , are as disinterest , as if our eyes were closed with the clay that weeps in the bowels of the earth . At the end of seven years , our teeth fall and dye before us , representing a formal prologue to the Tragedie ; and still every seven year it is oddes but we shall finish the last scene : and when Nature , or Chance , or Vice takes our body in pieces , weakening some parts , and loosing others , we taste the grave and the solennities of our own Funerals , first in those parts that ministred to Vice , and next in them that served for Ornament ; and in a short time even they that served for necessity become uselesse , and intangled like the wheels of a broken clock . Baldnesse is but a dressing to our funerals , the proper ornament of mourning , and of a person entred very far into the regions and possession of Death : And we have many more of the same signification : Gray hairs , rotten teeth , dim eyes , trembling joynts , short breath , stiffe limbs , wrinkled skin , short memory , decayed appetite . Every dayes necessity calls for a reparation of that portion which death fed on all night when we lay in his lap , and slept in his outer chambers : The very spirits of a man prey upon the daily portion of bread and flesh , and every meal is a rescue from one death , and layes up for another ; and while we think a thought , we die ; and the clock strikes , and reckons on our portion of Eternity ; we form our words with the breath of our nostrils , we have the lesse to live upon , for every word we speak . Thus Nature calls us to meditate of death by those things which are the instruments of acting it ; and God by all the variety of his Providence , makes us see death every where , in all variety of circumstances , and dressed up for all the fancies , and the expectation of every single person . Nature hath given us one harvest every year , but death hath two : and the Spring and the Autumn send throngs of Men and Women to charnel houses ; and all the Summer long men are recovering from their evils of the Spring , till the dog dayes come , and then the Syrian star makes the summer deadly ; And the fruits of Autumn are laid up for all the years provision , and the man that gathers them eats and sursets , and dies and needs them not , and himself is laid up for Eternity ; and he that escapes till winter , only stayes for another opportunity , which the distempers of that quarter minister to him with great variety . Thus death reigns in all the portions of our time . The Autumn with its fruits provides disorders for us : and the Winters cold turns them into sharp diseases , and the Spring brings flowers to strew our herse , and the Summer gives green turfe and brambles to binde upon our graves . Calentures , and Sur●et , Cold , and Agues , are the four quarters of the year , and all minister to Death ; and you can go no whither , but you tread upon a dead mans bones . The wilde fellow in Petronius that escaped upon a broken table from the furies of a shipwrack , as he was sunning himself upon the rocky shore espied a man rolled upon his floating bed of waves , ballasted w th sand in the folds of his garment , and carried by his civil enemy the sea towards the shore to finde a grave ; and it cast him into some sad thoughts : that peradventure this mans wife in some part of the Continent , safe and warme looks next moneth for the good mans return ; or it may be his son knows nothing of the tempest ; or his father thinks of that affectionate kiss which still is warm upon the good old mans cheek ever since he took a kinde farewel ; and he weeps with joy to think how blessed he shall be when his beloved boy returns into the circle of his Fathers arms . These are the thoughts of mortals , this is the end and sum of all their designes : a dark night , and an ill Guide , a boysterous sea , and a broken Cable , a hard rock , and a rough winde dash'd in pieces the fortune of a whole family , and they that shall weep loudest for the accident , are not yet entred into the storm , and yet have suffered shipwrack . Then looking upon the carkasse , he knew it , and found it to be the Master of the ship , who the day before cast up the accounts of his patrimony and his trade , and named the day , when he thought to be at home : see how the man swims who was so angry two dayes since ; his passions are becalm'd with the storm , his accounts cast up , his cares at an end , his voyage done , and his gains are the strange events of death , which whither they be good or evil , the men that are alive , seldom trouble themselves concerning the interest of the dead . But seas alone do not break our vessel in pieces : Every where we may be shipwracked . A valiant General when he is to reap the harvest of his crowns and triumphs , fights unprosperously , or falls into a Feaver with joy and wine , and changes his Lawrel into Cypresse , his triumphal chariot to an Hearse ; dying the night before he was appointed to perish in the drunkennesse of his festival joyes . It was a sad arrest of the loosenesses and wilder feasts of the French Court , when their King [ Henry 2. ] was killed really by the sportive image of a fight . And many brides have died under the hands of Paranymphs and Maidens dressing them for uneasy joy , the new and undiscerned chains of Marriage : according to the saying of Bensirah the wise Jew , The Bride went into her chamber , and knew not what should befall her there . Some have been paying their vows , and giving thanks for a prosperous return to their own house , and the roof hath descended upon their heads , and turned their loud religion into the deeper silence of a grave : And how many teeming Mothers have rejoyced over their swelling wombs , and pleased themselves in becoming the chanels of blessing to a familie ; and the Midwife hath quickly bound their heads and feet , and carried them forth to burial ? Or else the birth day of an Heir hath seen the Coffin of the Father brought into the house , and the divided Mother hath been forced to travel twice , with a painful birth , and a sadder death . There is no state , no accident no circumstance of our life , but it hath been sowred by some sad instance of a dying friend : a friendly meeting often ends in some sad mischance , and makes an eternal parting : and when the Poet Eschylus was sitting under the walls of his house , an eagle hovering over his bald head , mistook it for a stone , and let fall his oyster , hoping there to break the shell , but pierced the poor mans skull . Death meets us every where , and is procured by every instrument , and in all chances , and enters in at many doors : by violence , and secret influence , by the aspect of a star , and the stink of a mist , by the emissions of a cloud , and the meeting of a vapor , by the fall of a chariot , and the stumbling at a stone , by a full meal , or an empty stomach , by watching at the wine , or by watching at prayers , by the Sun or the Moon , by a heat or a cold , by sleeplesse nights , or sleeping dayes , by water frozen into the hardnesse , and sharpnesse of a dagger , or water thawd into the floods of a river ; by a hair , or a raisin , by violent motion , or sitting still , by severity , or dissolution , by Gods mercy , or Gods anger , by every thing in providence , and every thing in manners , by every thing in nature and every thing in chance . Eripitur persona , manet res , we take pains to heap up things useful to our life , and get our death in the purchase ; and the person is snatch●ed away , and the goods remain : and all this is the law and constitution of nature , it is a punishment to our sins , the unalterable event of providence , and the decree of heaven . The chains that confine us to this condition are strong as destiny and immutable as the eternal laws of God. I have conversed with some men who rejoyced in the death or calamity upon others , and accounted it as a judgement upon them , for being on the other side , and against them in the contention ; but within the revolution of a few moneths the same man met with a more uneasy and unhandsom death : which when I saw , I wept , and was afraid : for I knew that it must be so with all men , * for we also shall die and end our quarrels and contentions by passing to a final sentence . SECT . II. The Consideration reduced to practice . IT will be very material to our best and noblest purposes , if we represent this scene of change and sorrow a little more dressed up in Circumstances , for so we shall be more apt to practice those Rules , the doctrine of which is consequent to this consideration . * It is a mighty change that is made by the death of every person , and it is visible to us who are alive . Reckon but from the spritefulnesse of youth , and the fair cheeks and full eyes of childehood , from the vigorousnesse , and strong flexure of the joynts of five and twenty , to the hollownesse and dead palenesse , to the loathsomnesse and horrour of a three dayes burial , and we shall perceive the distance to be very great , and very strange . But so have I seen a Rose newly springing from the clefts of its hood , and at first it was fair as the Morning , and full with the dew of Heaven , as a Lambs fleece ; but when a ruder breath had forced open its virgin modesty , and dismantled its too youthful and unripe retirements , it began to put on darknesse , and to decline to softnesse , and the symptomes of a sickly age ; it bowed the head , and broke its stalk , and at night having lost some of its leaves , and all its beauty , it fell into the portion of weeds and out-worn faces : The same is the portion of every man , and every woman ; the heritage of worms and serpents , rottennesse and cold dishonour , and our beauty so changed that our acquaintance quickly knew us not , and that change mingled with so much horrour , or else meets so with our fears and weak discoursings , that they who six hours ago tended upon us , either with charitable or ambitious services cannot without some regret stay in the room alone where the body lies stripped of its life and Honour . I have read of a fair young German Gentleman , who living , often refused to be pictured , but put of● the importunity of his friends desire , by giving way that after a few dayes burial they might send a painter to his vault , and if they saw cause for it , draw the image of his death unto the life . They did so , and found his face half eaten , and his midriffe and back bone full of serpents , and so he stands pictured among his armed Ancestours . So does the fairest beauty change , and it will be as bad with you and me ; and then , what servants shall we have to wait upon us in the grave , what friends to visit us , what officious people to cleanse away the moist and unwholsom cloud reflected upon our faces from the sides of the weeping vaults , which are the longest weepers for our funeral . This discourse will be useful , if we consider and practise by the following Rules and Considerations respectivly . 1. All the Rich , and all the Covetous men in the world will perceive , and all the world will perceive for them , that it is but an ill recompence for all their cares , that by this time all that shall be left will be this , that the Neighbours shall say he died a rich man : and yet his wealth will not profit him in the grave , but hugely swell the sad accounts of Doomsday ; And he that kills the Lords people with unjust or ambitious wars for an unrewarding interest , shall have this character , that he threw away all the dayes of his life , that one year might be reckoned with his Name , and computed by his reign , or consulship ; and many men by great labors and affronts , many indignities and crimes labour onely for a pompous Epitaph , and a loud title upon their Marble ; whilest those into whose possessions their heirs , or kinred are entred , are forgotten , and lye unregarded as their ashes , and without concernment or relation , as the turf upon the face of their grave . * A man may read a sermon , the best and most passionate that ever men preached , if he shall but enter into the sepulchres of Kings . In the same Escurial where the Spanish Princes live in greatnesse and power , and decree war or peace , they have wisely placed a coemeterie where their ashes and their glories shall sleep till time shall be no more : and where our Kings have been crowned , their Ancestours lay interred , and they must walk over their Grandsires head to take his crown . There is an acre sown with royal seed , the copy of the greatest change , from rich to naked , from ci●led roofs to arched coffins , from living like Gods to dye like Men. There is enough to cool the flames of lust , to abate the heights of pride , to appease the itch of covetous desires , to ●ully and dash out the dissembling colours of a lustful , artificial , and imaginary beauty . There the warlike and the peaceful , the fortunate and the miserable , the beloved and the despised Princes mingle their dust , and pay down their symbol of Mortality , and tell all the world , that when we die , our ashes shall be equal to Kings , and our accounts easier , and our pains or our crowns shall be lesse . * To my apprehension it is a sad record which is left by Athenaeus concerning Ninus the great Assyrian Monarch , whose life and death is summed up in these words : Ninus the Assyrian had an Ocean of gold , and other riches more then the sand in the Caspian sea : he never saw the stars , and perhaps he never desired it ; he never stirred up the holy fire among the Magi , nor touched his God with the sacred rod according to the Laws ; he never offered sacrifice , nor worshipped the Deity , nor administred justice , nor spake to his people , nor numbred them ; but he was most valiant to eat and drink , and having mingled his wines he threw the rest upon the stones : This man is dead ; Behold his Sepulchre , and now hear where Ninus is . Some times I was Ninus , and drew the breath of a living man , but now am nothing but clay . I have nothing , but what I did eat , and what I served to my self in lust [ that was and is all my portion ; ] the wealth with which I was [ esteemed ] blessed , my enemies meeting together shall bear away , as the mad Thyades carry a raw Goat . I am gone to Hell , and when I went thither , I neither carried Gold , nor Horse , nor silver Chariot . I that wore a Miter , am now a little heap of dust . * I know not any thing that can better represent the evil condition of a wicked man , or a changing greatnesse . From the greatest secular dignity to dust , and ashes , his nature bears him ; and from thence to Hell his sins carry him , and there he shall be for ever under the dominion of chains and devils , wrath , and an intollerable calamity . This is the reward of an unsanctified condition , and a greatnesse ill gotten , or ill administred . 2. Let no man extend his thoughts , or let his hopes wander towards future and far distant events and accidental contingencies . This day is mine and yours , but ye know not what shall be on the morrow : and every morning creeps out of a dark cloud , leaving behinde it an ignorance and silence deep as midnight and undiscerned as are the phantasms that make a Chrysome childe to smile : so that we cannot discern what comes hereafter , unlesse we had a light from Heaven , brighter then the vision of an Angel , even the Spirit of Prophesie . Without revelation we cannnot tell whether we shal eat to morrow , or whether a Squinzy shall choak us : and it is written in the unrevealed folds of Divine Predestination , that many who are this day alive , shall to morrow be laid upon the cold earth , and the women shall weep over their shrowd , and dresse them for their funeral . S. Iames in his Epistle notes the solly of some men his contemporaries , who were so impatient of the event of to morrow , or the accidents of next year , or the good or evils of old age , that they would consult Astrologers and witches , Oracles and Devils what should befall them the next Calends ? what should be the event of such a voyage , what God had written in his book concerning the successe of battels , the Election of Emperors , the Heir of families , the price of Merchandise , the return of the Tyrian fleer , the rate of Sidonian Carpets , and as they were taught by the crafty and lying Daemons , so they would expect the issue ; and oftentimes by disposing their affairs in order toward such events , really did produce some litle accidents according to their expectation ; and that made them trust the Oracles in greater things , and in all . Against this , he opposes his Counsel , that we should not search after forbidden records , much lesse by uncertain significations : for whatsoever is disposed to happen by the order of natural causes , or civil counsels may be rescinded by a peculiar decree of providence or be prevented by the death of the interested persons ; who while their hopes are full , and their causes conjoyned , and the work brought forward , and the sickle put into the harvest , and the first fruits offered , and ready to be eaten , even then if they put forth their hand to an event that stands but at the door , at that door their body may be carried forth to burial , before the expectation shall enter into fruition . When Richilda the Widow of Albert Earl of Ebersberg had feasted the Emperour Henry III. and petitioned in behalf of her Nephew Welpho for some lands formerly possessed by the Earl her Husband ; just as the Emperour held out his hand to signifie his consent , the chamber-floor suddenly fell under them , and Richilda falling upon the edge of a bathing vessel , was bruised to death , and stayed not to see her Nephew sleep in those lands which the Emperour was reaching forth to her , and placed at the door of restitution . 3. As our hopes must be confined , so must our designes ; let us not project long designes ; crafty plots , and diggings so deep that the intrigues of a designe shall never be unfolded till our Grand children have forgotten our vertues or our vices . The work of our soul is cut short , facile , sweet and plain , and fitted to the small portions of our shorter life : and as we must not trouble our inquiry , so neither must we intricate our labour and purposes with what we shall never enjoy . This rule does not forbid us to plant Orchards which shall feed our Nephews with their fruit ; for by such provisions they do something towards an imaginary immortality , and do charity to their Relatives : But such projects are reproved which discompose our present duty by long and future designes ; such which by casting our labours to events at distance , make us lesse to remember our death standing at the door . It is fit for a Man to work for his dayes wages , or to contrive for the hire of a week , or to lay a train to make provisions for such a time as is within our eye , and in our duty , and within the usual periods of Mans life , for whatsoever is made necessary , is also made prudent ; but while we plot , and buisy our selves in the toils of an ambitious war , or the levies of a great estate , Night enters in upon us , and tells all the world , how like fools we lived , and how deceived and miserably we dyed . Seneca tells of Senecio Cornelius , a man crafty in getting , and tenacious in holding a great estate , and one who was as diligent in the care of his body , as of his money , curious of his health , as of his possessions ; that he all day long attended upon his sick and dying friend ; but when he went away was quickly comforted , supped merrily , went to bed cheerfully , and on a sudden being surprized by a Squinzy , scarce drew his breath until the Morning , but by that time dyed , being snatched from the torrent of his fortune , and the swelling tide of wealth , and a likely hope bigger then the necessities of ten men . This accident was much noted then in Rome , because it happened in so great a fortune , and in the midst of wealthy designes ; and presently it made wise men to consider , how imprudent a person he is , who disposes of ten years to come , when he is not Lord of to morrow . 4. Though we must not look so far of● , and prey abroad , yet we must be buisie neer at hand ; we must with all arts of the Spirit seize upon the present , because it passes from us while we speak , and because in it all our certainty does consist . We must take our waters as out of a torrent and sudden shower , which will quickly cease dropping from above , and quickly cease running in our chanels here below ; This instant will never return again , and yet it may be this instant will declare , or secure the fortune of a whole eternity . The old Greeks and Romans taught us the prudence of this rule : but Christianity teaches us the Religion of it . They so seized upon the present that they would lose nothing of the dayes pleasure . Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die ; that was their philosophy ; and at their solemn feasts they would talk of death to heighten the present drinking , and that they might warm their veins with a fuller chalice , as knowing the drink that was poured upon their graves would be cold and without relish . Break the beds , drink your wine , crown your heads with roses , and besinear your curled locks with Nard ; for God bids you to remember death ; so the Epigrammatist speaks the sence of their drunken principles . Something towards this signification is that of Solomon , There is nothing better for a man then that he should eat and drink , and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour , for that is his portion , for who shall bring him to see that which shall be after him ? But although he concludes all this to be vanity , yet because it was the best thing that was then commonly known * that they should seize upon the present with a temperate use of permited pleasures , had reason to say that Christianity taught us to turn this into religion . For he that by a present and a constant holiness secures the present , and makes it useful to his noblest purposes , he turns his condition into his best advantage , by making his unavoidable fate become his necessary religion . To the purpose of this rule is that collect of Tuscan hieroglyphics which we have from Gabriel Simeon . Our life is very short , beauty is a cosenage , money is false and fugitive , Empire is odious , and hated by them that have it not , and uneasy to them that have , victory is alwayes uncertain , and peace most commonly is but a fraudulent bargain ; old age is miserable , death is the period , and is a happy one if it be not sowred by the sins of our life : but nothing continues but the effects of that wisdom which imployes the present time in the acts of a holy religion , and a peaceable conscience : for they make us to live even beyond our funerals , embalmed in the spices and odours of a good name , and entombed in the grave of the Holy Jesus where we shall be dressed for a blessed resurrection to the state of Angels and beatified Spirits . 5. Since we stay not here , being people but of a dayes abode , and our age is like that of a flie , and contemporary with a gourd , we must look some where else for an abiding city , a place in another countrey to fix our house in , whose walls and foundation is God , where we must finde rest , or else be restlesse for ever . For whatsoever ease we can have or fancy here is shortly to be changed into sadnesse , or tediousnesse : it goes away too soon like the periods of our life ; or stayes too long , like the sorrows of a sinner : it s own wearinesse or a contrary disturbance is its load ; or it is eased by its revolution into vanity & forgetfulness ; and where either there is sorrow or an end of joy , there can be no true felicity : which because it must be had by some instrument , and in some period of our duration , we must carry up our affections to the mansions prepared for us above , where eternity is the measure , felicity is their state , Angels are the Company , the Lamb is the light , and God is the portion , and inheritance . SECT . III. Rules and Spiritual arts of lengthening our dayes , and to take off the objection of a short life . IN the accounts of a mans life we do not reckon that portion of dayes in which we are shut up in the prison of the womb : we tell our years from the day of our birth : and the same reason that makes our reckning to stay so long , sayes also that then it begins too soon . For then we are beholding to others to make the account for us : for we know not of a long time , whether we be alive or no , having but some little approaches and symptoms of a life . To feed , and sleep , and move a little , and imperfectly , is the state of an unborn childe ; and when it is born , he does no more for a good while ; and what is it that shall make him to be esteemed to live the life of a man ? and when shall that account begin ? For we should be loath to have the accounts of our age taken by the measures of a beast : and fools and distracted persons are reckoned as civilly dead ; they are no parts of the Common-wealth , not subject to laws , but secured by them in Charity , and kept from violence as a man keeps his Ox ; and a third part of our life is spent , before we enter into a higher order , into the state of a man. 2. Neither must we think , that the life of a Man begins when he can feed himself or walk alone , when he can fight , or beget his like ; for so he is contemporary with a camel , or a cow ; but he is first a man when he comes to a certain , steddy use of reason , according to his proportion , and when that is , all the world of men cannot tell precisely . Some are called at age , at fourteen , some at one and twenty , some never ; but all men , late enough ; for the life of a man comes upon him slowly and insensibly . But as when the Sun approaches towards the gates of the morning , he first opens a little eye of Heaven , and sends away the spirits of darknesse , and gives light to a cock , and calls up the lark to Mattins , and by and by gilds the fringes of a cloud and peeps over the Eastern hills , thrusting out his golden horns , like those which decked the browes of Moses when he was forced to wear a vail , because himself had seen the face of God ; and still while a man tells the story , the sun gets up higher , till he showes a fair face and a full light , and then he shines one whole day , under a cloud often , and sometimes weeping great and little showers , and sets quickly : so is a mans reason and his life . He first begins to perceive himself to see or taste , making little reflections upon his actions of sense , and can discourse of flies and dogs , shells and play , horses and liberty ; but when he is strong enough to enter into arts and little institutions , he is at first entertained with trifles and impertinent things , not because he needs them , but because his understanding is no bigger ; and little images of things are laid before him , like a cock-boat to a whale onely to play withall : but before a man comes to be wise he is half dead with gouts and consumptions , with Catarrhes and aches , with sore eyes , and a worn out body : so that if we must not reckon the life of a man but by the accounts of his reason , he is long before his soul be dressed ; and he is not to be called a man without a wise and an adorned soul , a soul at least furnished with what is necessary towards his well being ; but by that time his soul is thus furnished , his body is decayed ; and then you can hardly reckon him to be alive , when his body is possessed by so many degrees of death . 3. But there is yet another arrest . At first he wants strength of body , and then he wants the use of reason ; and when that is come , it is ten to one , but he stops by the impediments of vice , and wants the strengths of the spirit ; and we know that Body and Soul and Spirit are the constituent parts of every Christian man. And now let us consider , what that thing is , which we call years of discretion ? The young man is passed his Tutors , and arrived at the bondage of a caytive spirit ; he is run from discipline , and is let loose to passion ; the man by this time hath wit enough to chuse his vice , to act his lust , to court his Mistresse , to talk confidently , and ignorantly , and perpetually , to despise his betters , to deny nothing to his appetite , to do things , that when he is indeed a man he must for ever be ashamed of ; for this is all the discretion that most men show in the first stage of their Manhood ; they can discern good from evil ; and they prove their skill by leaving all that is good , and wallowing in the evils of folly , and an unbridled appetite . And by this time , the young man hath contracted vitious habits , and is a beast in manners , and therefore it will not be fitting to reckon the beginning of his life ; he is a fool in his understanding , and that is a sad death ; and he is dead in trespasses and sins , and that is a sadder : so that he hath no life but a natural , the life of a beast or a tree ; in all other capacities he is dead ; he neither hath the intellectual , nor the spiritual life , neither the life of a man , nor of a Christian ; and this sad truth lasts too long . For old age seizes upon most men while they still retain the minds of boyes and vitious youth , doing actions from principles of great folly , and a mighty ignorance , admiring things uselesse and hurtfull , and filling up all the dimensions of their abode with businesses of empty affairs , being at leasure to attend no vertue : they cannot pray , because they are busie , and because they are passionate : they cannot communicate because they have quarrels and intrigues of perplexed causes , complicated hostilities , and things of the world ; and therefore they cannot attend to the things of God , little considering , that they must find a time to die in ; when death comes , they must be at leisure for that . Such men are like Sailers loosing from a port , and tost immediatly with a perpetual tempest lasting till their cordage crack , and either they sink , or return back again to the same place : they did not make a voyage , though they were long at sea . The businesse and impertinent affairs of most men , steal all their time , and they are restlesse in a foolish motion ; but this is not the progress of a man ; he is no further advanc'd in the course of a life though he reckon many years : for still his soul is childish , and trifling like an untaught boy . If the parts of this sad complaint finde their remedy , we have by the same instruments also cured the evils and the vanity of a short life . Therefore , 1. Be infinitely curious you doe not set back your life in the accounts of God by the intermingling of criminal actions , or the contracting vitious habits . There are some vices which carry a sword in their hand and cut a man off before his time . There is a sword of the Lord , and there is a sword of a Man ; and there is a sword of the Devil . Every vice of our own managing in the matter of carnality , of lust , or rage , ambition or revenge is a sword of Sathan put into the hands of a man : These are the destroying Angels , sin is the Apollyon , the destroyer that is gone out , not from the Lord , but from the Tempter ; and we hug the poison , and twist willingly with the vipers , till they bring us into the Regions of an irrecoverable sorrow . We use to reckon persons as good as dead if they have lost their limbs and their teeth , and are confined to an Hospital , and converse with none but Surgeons and Physicians , Mourners and Divines , those pollinctores , the Dressers of bodies and souls to Funeral : But it is worse when the soul , the principle of life is imployed wholly in the offices of death : and that man was worse then dead of whom Seneca tells , that being a rich fool , when he was lifted up from the baths and set into a soft couch , asked his slaves An ego jam sedeo ? Do I now sit . The beast was so drownd in sensuality and the death of his soul , that whether he did sit or no , he was to believe another . Idlenesse and every vice is as much of death as a long disease is , or the expence of ten years : and she that lives in pleasures is dead while she liveth ( saith the Apostle ) , and it is the stile of the Spirit concerning wicked persons , They are dead in trespasses and sins . For as every sensual pleasure and every day of idlenes and useless living lops off a little branch from our short life ; so every deadly sin and every habitual vice does quite destroy us : but innocence leaves us in our natural portions , and perfect period ; we lose nothing of our life , if we lose nothing of our souls health ; and therefore he that would live a full age must avoid a sin , as he would decline the Regions of death , & the dishonors of the grave . 2. If we would have our life lengthened , let us begin b●times to live in the accounts of reason and sober counsels , of religion and the Spirit , and then we shall have no reason to complain that our abode on earth is so short : Many men finde it long enough , and indeed it is so to all senses . But when we spend in waste , what God hath given us in plenty , when we sacrifice our youth to folly , our manhood to lust and rage , our old age to covetousnesse and irreligion , not beginning to live till we are to die , designing that time to Vertue which indeed is infirm to every thing and profit●ble to nothing , then we make our lives short , and lust runs away with all the vigorous and healthful part of it ; and pride and animosity steal the manly portion , and craftinesse and interest possesse old age ; velut ex pleno & abundanti perdimus ; we spend as if we had too much time , and knew not what to do with it : We fear every thing like weak and silly mortals ; and desire strangely and greedily as if we were immortal : we complain our life is short , and yet we throw away much of it , and are weary of many of its parts : We complain the day is long , and the night is long , and we want company , and seek out arts to drive the time away , and then weep because it is gone too soon . But so the treasure of the Capitol is but a small ●state when Caesar comes to finger it , and to pay with it all his Legions ; and the Revenue of all Egypt and the Eastern provinces was but a little summe when they were to support the luxury of Marc. Antony , and feed the riot of Cleopatra : But a thousand crowns is a vast proportion to be spent in the cottage of a frugal person , or to feed a Hermit . Just so is our life ; it is too short to serve the ambition of a haughty Prince , or an usurping Rebel : too little time to purchase great wealth , to satisfie the pride of a vain-glorious fool , to trample upon all the enemies of our just , or unjust interest ; but for the obtaining vertue ; for the purchase of sobriety and modesty , for the actions of Religion God gave us time sufficient , if we make the outgoings of the Morning and Evening , that is , our infancy and old age to be t●ken into the computations of a man. Which we may see in the following particulars . 1. If our childhood being first consecrated by a forward baptisme , it be seconded by a holy education , and a complying obedience ; If our youth be chast and temperate , modest and industrious , proceeding through a prudent and sober Manhood to a Religious old age , then we have lived our whole duration , and shall never die , but be changed in a just time to the preparations of a better , and an immortal life . 2. If besides the ordinary returns of our prayers and periodical and festival solemnities , and our seldom communions we would allow to religion & the studies of wisdom , those great shares that are trifled away upon vain sorrow , foolish mirth , troublesome ambition , buisy covetousnesse , watchful lust , and impertinent amours , and balls and revellings and banquets , all that which was spent vitiously & all that time that lay fallow & without imployment , our life would quickly amount to a great sum . Tostatus Abulensis was a very painful person and a great Cleark , and in the dayes of his manhood he wrote so many books , and they not ill ones , that the world computed a sheet for every day of his life ; I suppose they meant , after he came to the use of reason , and the state of a man : and Iohn Scotus died about the two and thirtieth year of his age ; and yet besides his publike disputations , his dayly Lectures of Divinity in publike and private , the Books that he wrote being lately collected and printed at Lyons do equal the number of volumes of any two the most voluminous Fathers of the Latine Church . Every man is not inabled to such imployments , but every man is called and inabled to the works of a sober and a religious life ; and there are many Saints of God that can reckon as many volumes of religion and mountains of piety , as those others did of good books . S. Ambrose ( and I think from his example , S. Augustine ) divided every day into three tertia's of imployment : eight hours he spent in the necessities of nature and recreation , eight hours in charity and doing assistance to others , dispatching their bu●sinesses , reconciling their enmities , reproving their vices , correcting their errors , instructing their ignorances , transacting the affairs of his Diocesse , and the other eight hours he spent in study and prayer . If we were thus minute and curious in the spending our time , it is impossible but our life would seem very long . For so have I seen an amorous person tell the minutes of his absence from his fancied joy , and while he told the sands of his hour-glasse , or the throbs and little beatings of his watch , by dividing an hour into so many members , he spun out its length by number , and so translated a day into the tediousnesse of a moneth . And if we tell our dayes by Canonical hours of prayer , our weeks by a constant revolution of fasting dayes , or dayes of special devotion , and over all these draw a black Cypresse a veil of penitential sorrow , and severe mortification , we shall soon answer the calumny and objection of a short life . He that governs the day and divides the hours hastens from the eyes and observation of a merry sinner ; but loves so stand still , and behold , and tell the sighs , and number the groans , and sadly delicious accents of a grieved penitent . It is a vast work that any man may do if he never be idle ; and it is a huge way that a man may go in vertue if he never goes out of his way by a vitious habit , or a great crime , and he that perpetually reads good books , if his parts be answerable , will have a huge stock of knowledge . It is so in all things else . Strive not to forget your time , and suffer none of it to passe undiscerned , and then measure your life , and tell me how you finde the measure of its abode . However , the time we live , is worth the money we pay for it : and therefore it is not to be thrown away . 3. When vitious men are dying , and scar'd with the affrighting truths of an evil conscience , they would give all the world for a year , for a moneth ; nay we read of some that called out with amazement inducias usque ad mane , truce but till the morning : and if that year , or some few moneths were given , those men think they could do miracles in it . And let us a while suppose what Dives would have done if he had been loosed from the pains of hell and permitted to live on earth one year . Would all the pleasures of the world have kept him one hour from the Temple ? would he not perpetually have been under the hands of Priests , or at the feet of the Doctors , or by Moses chair , or attending as neer the Altar as he could get , or relieving poor Lazars , or praying to God , and crucifying all his sin ? I have read of a Melancholy person who saw hell but in a dream or vision , and the amazement was such that he would have chosen ten times to die , rather then feel again so much of that horror : and such a person cannot be fancied but that he would spend a year in such holinesse , that the religion of a few moneths would equal the devotion of many years , even of a good man. Let us but compute the proportions . If we should spend all our years of reason so as such a person would spend that one , can it be thought that life would be short and trifling in which he had performed such a religion , served God with so much holinesse , mortified sin with so great a labour , purchased vertue at such a rate , and so rare an industry ? It must needs be that such a man must dye when he ought to die , and be like ripe and pleasant fruit falling from a fair tree and gathered into baske●s for the planters use : He that hath done ●ll his businesse , and is begotten to a glorious hope by the seed of an immortal Spirit , can never die too soon , nor live too long . Xerxes wept sadly when he saw his army of 2300000 men , because he considered that within a hundred years all the youth of that army should be dust and ashes : and yet as Seneca well observes of him , he was the man that should bring them to their graves ; and he consumed all that army in two years , for whom he feared , and wept the death after an hundred . Just so we do all . We complain that within thirty or fourty years , a little more , or a great deal lesse we shall descend again into the bowels of our Mother , and that our life is too short for any great imployment ; and yet we throw away five and ●hirty yeers of our fourty , and the remaining five we divide between art and nature , civility and customs , necessity and convenience , prudent counsels and religion ; but the portion of the last , is little and contemptible , and yet that little is all that we can prudently account of our lives : We bring that fate and that death neer us , of whose approach we are so sadly apprehensive . 4. In taking the accounts of your life do not reckon by great distances , and by the periods of pleasure , or the satisfaction of your hopes , or the stating your desires : but let every intermedial day and hour passe with observation . He that reckons he hath lived but so many harvests , thinks , they come not often enough , and that they go away too soon . Some lose the day with longing for the night , and the night in waiting for the day . Hope and phantastic expectations spend much of our lives ; and while with passion we look for a coronation , or the death of an enemy , or a day of joy , passing from fancy to possession without any intermedial notices , we throw away a precious year , and use it but as the burden of our time , fit to be pared off , and thrown away , that we may come at those little pleasures which first steal our hearts , and then steal our life . 5. A strict course of piety is the way to prolong our lives in the natural sense , and to adde good portions to the number of our years ; and sin is sometimes by natural causality , very often by the anger of God , and the Divine judgement , a cause of sudden and untimely death . Concerning which I shall adde nothing ( to what I have some where else * said of this article ) but onely the observation of Epiphanius : that for 3332 years , even to the twentieth age , there was not one example of a son that died before his Father , but the course of Nature was kept , that he who was first born in the descending line did first die ( I speak of natural death , and therefore Abel cannot be opposed to this observation ) till that Terah the Father of Abraham taught the people a new religion , to make images of clay and worship them ; and concerning him it was first remarked , that Haran died before his Father Terah in the land of his Nativity : God by an unheard of judgement , and a rare accident punishing his newly invented crime : by the untimely death of his son . 6. But if I shall describe a living man ; a man that hath that life that distinguishes him from a fool or a bird , that which gives him a capacity next to Angels ; we shall finde that even a good man lives not long , because it is long before he is born to this life , and longer yet before he hath a mans growth . He that can look upon death , and see its face with the same countenance with which he hears its story ; that can endure all the labours of his life with his soul supporting his body ; that can equally despise riches when he hath them , and when he hath them not ; that is not sadder if they lye in his Neighbours trunks , nor more brag if they shine round about his own walls ; he that is neither moved with good fortune coming to him , nor going from him ; that can look upon another mans lands evenly and pleasedly as if they were his own ; and yet look upon his own , and use them too , just as if they were another mans ; that neither spends his goods prodigally , and like a fool , nor yet keeps them avaritiously and like a wretch ; that weighs not benefits by weight and number , but by the mind & circumstances of him that gives them ; that never thinks his charity expensive if a worthy person be the receiver ; he that does nothing for opinion sake , but every thing for conscience , being as curious of his thoughts , as of his actings in markets and Theaters , and is as much in awe of himself , as of a whole assembly ; he that knowes God looks on , and contrives his secret affairs as in the presence of God and his holy Angels ; that eats and drinks because he needs it , not that he may serve a lust or load his belly ; he that is bountifull and cheerfull to his friends , and charitable and apt to forgive his enemies ; that loves his countrey and obeyes his Prince , and desires and endeavours nothing more then that he may do honour to God , this person may reckon his life , to be the life of a man , and compute his moneths , not by the course of the sun , but the Zodiac and circle of his vertues : because these are such things which fools and children , and birds and beasts cannot have : These are therefore the actions of life , because they are the feeds of immortality . That day in which we have done some excellent thing , we may as truly reckon to be added to our life , as were the fifteen years to the dayes of Hezekiah . SECT . IV. Consideration of the miseries of Mans life . AS our life is very short so it is very miserable , and therefore it is well it is short : God in pity to mankinde , lest his burden should be insupportable and his nature an intolerable load , hath reduced our state of misery to an abbreviature ; and the greate● our misery is , the lesse while it is like to last ; the sorrows of a mans spirit being like ponderous weights which by the greatnesse of their burden make a swifter motion and descend into the grave to rest and ease our wearied limbs ; for then onely we shall sleep quietly when those fetters are knocked off which not onely bound our souls in prison , but also eat the flesh till the very bones open'd the secret garments of their cartilages , discovering their nakednesse and sorrow . 1. Here is no place to sit down in , but you must rise as soon as you are set : for we have gnats in our chambers , and worms in our gardens , and spiders and flies in the palaces of the greatest Kings . How few men in the world are prosperous ? what an infinite number of slaves and beggers , of persecuted and oppressed people fill all corners of the earth with groans , and Heaven it self with weeping prayers , and sad remembrances ? how many Provinces and Kingdoms are afflicted by a violent war , or made desolate by popular diseases ? some whole countreyes are remarked with fatal evils , or periodical sicknesses . Gran Cairo in Egypt feels the plague every three years , returning like a Quartan ague , and destroying many thousands of persons . All the inhabitants of Arabia the desert are in continuall fear of being buried in huge heaps of sand , and therefore dwell in tents and ambu●atory houses or retire to unfruitful mountains to prolong an uneasy and wilder life : and all the Countreyes round about the Adriatic sea feel such violent convulsions by Tempests and intolerable Earthquakes , that sometimes whole cities finde a Tombe , and every man ●inks with his own house made ready to become his Monument , and his bed is crushed into the disorders of a grave . Was not all the world drowned at one deluge , and breach of the Divine anger ? and shall not all the world * again be destroyed by fire ? Are there not many thousands that die every night , and that groan and weep sadly every day ? But what shall we think of that great evil , which for the sins of men , God hath suffered to possess the greatest part of Mankinde ? Most of the men that are now alive , or that have been living for many ages , are Jews , Heathens , or Turcs : and God was pleased to suffer a base Epileptic person , a villain and a vitious to set up a religion which hath filled almost all Asia , and Africa , and some parts of Europe ; so that the greatest number of men and women born in so many kingdoms and provinces are infallibly made Mahumetans , strangers and enemies to Christ , by whom alone we can be saved . This consideration is extremely sad , when we remember how universal , and how great an evil it is , that so many millions of sons and daughters are born to enter into the possession of Devils to eternal ages . These evils are the miseries of great parts of mankinde , and we cannot easily consider more particularly , the evils which happen to us , being the inseparable affections , or incidents to the whole nature of man. 2. We finde that all the women in the world are either born for barrennesse or the pains of Child-birth , and yet this is one of our greatest blessings ; but such indeed are the blessings of this world : we cannot be well with , nor without many things . Perfumes make our heads ake , roses prick our fingers , and in our very blood where our life dwells is the Scene under which nature acts many sharp Feavers and heavy sicknesses . It were too sad if I should tell how many persons are afflicted with evil spirits , with spectres and illusions of the night ; and that huge multitudes of men and women live upon mans flesh : Nay worse yet , upon the sins of men , upon the sins of their sons and of their daughters , and they pay their souls down for the bread they eat , buying this dayes meal with the price of the last nights sin . 3. Or if you please in charity to visit an Hospital , which is indeed a map of the whole world , there you shall see the effects of Adams sin and the ruines of humane nature , bodies laid up in heaps like the bones of a destroyed town , homines precarii spiritus , & malè haerentis , men whose souls seem to be borrowed , and are kept there by art and the force of Medicine ; whose miseries are so great , that few people have charity or humanity enough to visit them , fewer have the heart to dresse them , and we pity them in civility or with a transient prayer , but we do not feel their sorrows by the mercies of a religious pity , and therefore as we leave their sorrows in many degrees unrelieved and uneased , so we contract by our unmercifulnesse a guilt by which our selves become liable to the same calamities . Those many that need pity , and those infinites of people that refuse to pity are miserable upon a several charge , but yet they almost make up all mankinde . 4. All wicked men are in love with that which intangles them in huge variety of troubles , they are slaves to the worst of Masters , to sin and to the Devil , to a passion , and to an imperious woman . Good men are for ever persecuted , and God chastises every son whom he receives , and whatsoever is easy is trifling and worth nothing , and whatsoever is excellent is not to be obtained without labour and sorrow ; and the conditions and states of men that are free from great cares , are such as have in them nothing rich and orderly , and those that have are stuck full of thorns and trouble . Kings are full of care ; and learned men * in all ages have been observed to be very poor , & honestas miserias accusant ; they complain of their honest miseries . 5. But these evils are notorious and confessed ; even they also whose felicity men stare at and admire , besides their splendour and the sharpnesse of their light , will with their appendant sorrows wring a tear from the most resolved eye . For not only the winter quarter is full of storms and cold and darknesse , but the beauteous spring hath blasts and sharp frosts , the fruitful teeming summer is melted with heat , and burnt with the kisses of the sun her friend , and choaked with dust , and the rich Autumn is full of sicknesse , and we are weary of that which we enjoy , because sorrow is its biggest portion : and when we remember that upon the fairest face is placed one of the worst sinks of the body , the nose , we may use it , not only as a mortification to the pride of beauty , but as an allay to the fairest outside of condition which any of the sons and daughters of Adam do possesse . For look upon Kings and conquerours : I will not tell that many of them fall into the condition of servants , and their subjects rule over them , and stand upon the ruines of their families , and that to such persons , the sorrow is bigger then usually happens in smaller fortunes : but let us suppose them still conquerers , and see what a goodly purchase they get by all their pains and amazing fears , and continual dangers . They carry their arms beyond Ister , and passe the Euphrates , and binde the Germans with the bounds of the river Rhyne : I speak in the stile of the Roman greatnesse : for now adayes , the biggest fortune swells not beyond the limits of a petty province or two , and a hill confines the progresse of their prosperity , or a river checks it : But whatsoever tempts the pride and vanity of ambitious persons is not so big as the smallest star which we see scattered in disorder , and unregarded upon the pavement and floor of Heaven . And if we would suppose the pismires had but our understandings , they also would have the method of a Mans greatnesse , and divide their little Mole-hils into Provinces and Exarchats : and if they also grew as vitious and as miserable , one of their princes would lead an army out , and kill his neighbour Ants that he might reign over the next handfull of a Turse . But then if we consider at what price , and with what felicity all this is purchased , the s●ing of the painted snake will quickly appear , and the fairest of their fortunes will properly enter into this account of humane infelicities . We may guesse at it by the constitution of Augustus fortune ; who strugled for his power , first with the Roman Citizens , then with Brutus and Cassius and all the fortune of the Republike ; then with his Collegue Marc. Anthony ; then with his kinred and neerest Relatives ; and after he was wearied with slaughter of the Romans , before he could sit down and rest in his imperial chair he was forced to carry armies into Macedonia , Galatia , beyond Euphrates , Rhyne , and Danubius : And when he dwelt at home in greatnesse and within the circles of a mighty power , he hardly escaped the sword of the Egnatii , of Lepidus , Caepio , and Muraena : and after he had entirely reduced the felicity and Grandeur into his own family , his Daughter , his onely childe conspired with many of the young Nobility , and being joyned with adulterous complications as with an impious sacrament they affrighted and destroyed the fortune of the old man , and wrought him more sorrow then all the troubles that were hatched in the baths and beds of Egypt , between Anthony and Cleopatra . This was the greatest fortune that the world had then , or ever since , and therefore we cannot expect it to be better in a lesse prosperity . 6. The prosperity of this world is so infinitely sowred with the overflowing of evils , that he is counted the most happy who hath the fewest ; all conditions being evil and miserable , they are onely distinguished by the Number of calamities . The Collector of the Roman and forreign examples , when he had reckoned two and twenty instances of great fortunes every one of which had been allayed with great variety of evils ; in all his reading or experience he could tell but of two who had been famed for an intire prosperity ; Quintus Metellus , and Gyges the King of Lydia ; and yet concerning the one of them he tells that his felicity was so inconsiderable ( and yet it was the bigger of the two ) that the Oracle said that Aglaus Sophidius the poor Arcadian Shepherd was more happy then he , that is , he had fewer troubles ; for so indeed we are to reckon the pleasures of this life ; the limit of our joy is the absence of some degrees of sorrow , and he that hath the least of this , is the most prosperous person . But then we must look for prosperity , not in Palaces or Courts of Princes , not in the tents of Conquerers , or in the gaieties of fortunate and prevailing sinners ; but something rather in the Cottages of honest innocent and contented persons , whose minde is no bigger then their fortune , nor their vertue lesse then their security . As for others whose fortune looks bigger , and allures fools to follow it like the wand●ing fires of the night , till they run into rivers or are broken upon rocks with staring and running after them , they are all in the condition of Marius , then whose condition nothing was more constant , and nothing more mutable ; if we reckon them amongst the happy , they are the most happy men , if we reckon them amongst the miserable , they are the most miserable . For just as is a mans condition , great or little , so is the state of his misery ; All have their share ; but Kings and Princes , great Generals and Consuls , Rich men and Mighty , as they have the biggest businesse and the biggest charge , and are answerable to God for the greatest accounts , so they have the biggest trouble ; that the uneasinesse of their appendage may divide the good and evil of the world , making the poor mans fortune as eligible as the Greatest ; and also restraining the vanity of mans spirit which a great Fortune is apt to swell from a vapour to a bubble ; but God in mercy hath mingled wormwood with their wine , and so restrained the drunkennesse and follies of prosperity . 7. Man never hath one day to himself of entire peace from the things of this world , but either somthing troubles him , or nothing satisfies him , or his very fulnesse swells him and makes him breath short upon his bed . Mens joyes are troublesome , and besides that the fear of losing them takes away the present pleasure ( and a man had need of another felicity to preserve this ) they are also wavering and full of trepidation , not onely from their inconstant nature , but from their weak foundation : They arise from vanity , and they dwell upon ice , and they converse with the winde , and they have the wings of a bird , and are serious but as the resolutions of a childe , commenced by chance , and managed by folly and proceed by inadvertency , and end in vanity and forgetfulnesse . So that as Livius Drusus said of himself , he never had any play dayes , or dayes of quiet when he was a boy , for he was troublesome and busie , a restlesse and unquiet man , the same may every man observe to be true of himself : he is alwayes restlesse and uneasy , he dwells upon the waters and leans upon thorns , and layes his head upon a sharp stone . SECT . V. This Consideration reduced to practice . 1. THe effect of this consideration is this ▪ That the sadnesses of this life help to sweeten the bitter cup of Death . For let our life be never so long , if our strength were great as that of oxen and camels ; if our sinews were strong as the cordage at the foot of an Oke , if we were as fighting and prosperous people as Siccius Dentatus , who was on the prevailing side in 120 battels , who had 312 publike rewards assigned him by his Generals and Princes for his valour , and conduct in sieges and short encounters , and besides all this had his share in nine triumphs , yet still the period shall be , that all this shall end in death , and the people shall talk of us a while , good or bad , according as we deserve , or as they please ; and once it shall come to passe , that concerning every one of us it shall be told in the Neighbourhood that we are dead . This we are apt to think a sad story ; but therefore let us help it with a sadder ; For we therefore need not be much troubled that we shall die , because we are not here in ease , nor do we dwell in a fair condition . But our dayes are full of sorrow and anguish , dishonoured and made unhappy with many sins , with a frail and a foolish spirit , intangled with difficult cases of conscience , ins●ared with passions , amazed with fears , full of cares , divided with curiosities and contradictory interests , made aëry and impertinent with vanities , abused with ignorance and prodigious errours , made ridiculous with a thousand weaknesses , worne away with labours , loaden with diseases , daily vexed with dangers and temptations , and in love with misery ; we are weakned with delights , afflicted with want , with the evils of my self , and of all my family , and with the sadnesses of all my friends , and of all good men , even of the whole Church ; and therefore me thinks we need not be troubled that God is pleased to put an end to all these troubles , and to let them sit down in a natural period , which if we please , may be to us the beginning of a better life . When the Prince of Persia wept because his army should all die in the revolution of an age , Artabanus told him , that they should all meet with evils so many and so great , that every man of them should wish himself dead long before that . Indeed it were a sad thing to be cut of the stone ; and we that are in health tremble to think of it ; but the man that is wearied with the disease , looks upon that sharpnesse as upon his cure and remedie : and as none need to have a tooth drawn , so none could well endure it , but he that hath felt the pain of it in his head : so is our life so full of evils , that therefore death is no evil to them that have felt the smart of this , or hope for the joyes of a better . 2. But as it helps to ease a certain sorrow , as a fire drawes out fire , and a nail drives forth a nail ; so it instructs us in a present duty ; that is ; that we should not be so fond of a perpetual storm , nor doat upon the transient gaudes and gilded thorns of this world . They are not worth a passion , not worth a sigh or a groan , not of the price of one nights watching ; and therefore they are mistaken and miserable persons who since Adam planted thorns round about Paradise , are more in love with that hedge , then all the fruits of the garden , sottish admirers of things that hurt them , of sweet poisons , gilded daggers and silken halters . Tell them they have lost a bounteous friend , a rich purchase , a fair farm , a wealthy donative , and you dissolve their patience ; it is an evil bigger then their spirit can bear , it brings sicknesse and death , they can neither eate nor sleep with such a sorrow . But if you represent to them the evils of a vitious habit , and the dangers of a state of sin ; if you tell them they have displeased God , and interrupted their hopes of heaven , it may be they will be so civil as to hear it patiently , and to treat you kindly , and first commend , and then to forget your story , because they prefer this world with all its sorrowes , before the pure unmingled felicities of heaven . But it is strange that any man should be so passionately in love with the thorns that grow on his own ground , that he should wear them for armelets , and knit them in his shirt , and prefer them before a kingdom and immortality . No man loves this world the better for his being poor ; but men that love it , because they have great possessions , love it because it is troublesome and chargeable , full of noise and temptation ; because it is unsafe and ungoverned , flattered and abused : and he that considers the troubles of an overlong garment , and of a crammed stomach , a trailing gown and a loaden Table , may justly understand that all that for which men are so passionate , is their hurt and their objection , that which a temperate man would avoid , and a wise man cannot love . He that is no fool , but can consider wisely ; if he be in love with this world ; we need not despair but that a witty man might reconcile him with tortures , and make him think charitably of the Rack , and be brought to dwell with Vipers and Dragons , and entertain his Guests with the shrikes of Mandrakes , Cats and Scrich Owls , with the filing of iron , and the harshnesse of rending silk ; or to admire the harmony that is made by a herd of Evening wolves when they misse their draught of blood in their midnight Revels . The groans of a man in a fit of the stone are worse then all these ; and the distractions of a troubled conscience are worse then those groans ; and yet a carelesse merry sinner is worse then all that . But if we could from one of the battlements of Heaven espie how many men and women at this time lye fainting and dying for want of bread , how many young men are hewen down by the sword of war ; how many poor Orphans are now weeping over the graves of their Father , by whose life they were enabled to eat . If we could but hear how many Mariners , and Passengers are at this present in a storm , and shrike out because their keel dashes against a Rock , or bulges under them ; how many people there are that weep with want , and are mad with oppression , or are desperate by too quick a sense of a constant infelicity , in all reason we should be glad to be out of the noise and participation of so many evils . This is a place of sorrows and tears , of great evils and a constant calamity ; let us remove from hence , at least in affections and preparation of minde . CHAP. II. A general preparation towards a holy and blessed Death : by way of exercise . SECT . I. Three precepts preparatory to a holy death , to be practised in our whole life . 1. HE that would die well must alwayes loook for death , every day knocking at the gates of the grave , and then the gates of the grave shall never prevail upon him to do him mischief . This was the advice of all the wise and good men of the world ; who especially in the dayes and periods of their joy and festival egressions chose to throw some ashes into their chalices , some sober remembrances of their fatal period . Such was the black shirt of Saladine , the tomb-stone presented to the Emperour of Constantinople on his Coronation day ; the Bishop of Romes two reeds with flax and wax taper , the Egyptian skeleton served up at feasts , and Trimalcions banquet in Petronius , in which was brought in the image of a dead mans bones of silver with spondiles exactly turning to every of the Guests , and saying to every one , that you , and you must die , and look not one upon another , for every one is equally concerned in this sad representment . These in phantastic semblances declare a severe counsel and useful meditation ; and it is not easy for a man to be gay in his imagination , or to be drunk with joy or wine , pride or revenge , who considers sadly that he must ere long dwell in a house of darknesse and dishonour , and his bodie must be the inheritance of worms , and his soul must be what he pleases , even as a man makes it here by his living good or bad . I have read of a young Hermit who being passionately in love with a young Lady could not by all the arts of religion and mortification suppresse the trouble of that fancy , till at last being told that she was dead and had been buried about fourteen dayes , he went secretly to her Vault , and with the skirt of his mantle wiped the moisture from the Carkasse , and still at the return of his temptation laid it before him , saying , Behold this is the beauty of the woman thou didst so much desire ; and so the man found his cure . And if we make death as present to us , our own death , dwelling and dressed in all its pomp of fancy and proper circumstances , if any thing will quench the heats of lust , or the desires of money , or the greedy passionate affections of this world , this must do it . But withall , the frequent use of this meditation , by curing our present inordinations will make death safe and friendly , and by its very custom will make that the King of terrours shall come to us without his affrighting dresses ; and that we shall sit down in the grave as we compose our selves to sleep , and do the duties of nature and choice . The old people that lived neer the Riphaean mountains , were taught to converse with death , and to handle it on all sides and to discourse of it , as of a thing that will certainly come , and ought so to do . Thence their minds and resolutions became capable of death , and they thought it a dishonourable thing , with greedinesse to keep a life that must go from us , to lay aside its thorns , and to return again circled with a glory and a Diadem . 2. He that would die well must all the dayes of his life lay up against the day of death , not only by the general provisions of holinesse and a pious life indefinitely , but , provisions proper to the necessities of that great day of expence , in which a man is to throw his last cast for an eternity of joyes or sorrows ; ever remembring , that this alone well performed is not enough to passe us into Paradise , but that alone done foolishly is enough to send us to hell ; and the want of either a holy life , or death , makes a man to fall short of the mighty price of our high calling . In order to this rule we are to consider what special graces we shall then need to exercise , and by the proper arts of the Spirit , by a heap of proportioned arguments , by prayers , and a great treasure of devotion laid up in Heaven , provide before hand a reserve of strength and mercy . Men in the course of their lives walk lazily and incuriously as if they had both their feet in one shoe , and when they are passively revolved to the time of their dissolution they have no mercies in store , no patience , no faith , no charity to God , or despite of the world , being without gust or appetite for the land of their inheritance , which Christ with so much pain and blood had purchased for them . When we come to die indeed , we shall be very much put to it to stand firm upon the two feet of a Christian , faith and patience . When we our selves are to use the articles , to turn our former discourses into present practise , and to feel what we never felt before , we shall finde it to be quite another thing to be willing presently to quit this life , and all our present possessions for the hopes of a thing which we were never suffered to see , and such a thing of which we may sail so many wayes , and of which if we fail any way we are miserable for ever . Then we shall finde how much we have need to have secured the Spirit of God , and the grace of saith by an habitual , perfect unmovable resolution . * The same also is the case of patience , which will be assaulted with sharp pains , disturbed fancies , great fears , want of a present minde , natural weaknesses , frauds of the Devil , and a thousand accidents and imperfections . It concerns us therfore highly in the whole course of our lives , not onely to accustome our selves to a patient suffering of injuries and affronts , of persecutions and losses , of crosse accidents and unnecessary circumstances ; but also by representing death as present to us , to consider with what arguments then to fortifie our patience ; and by assiduous and fervent prayer to God , all our life long call upon God to give us patience , and great assistances , a strong faith and a confirmed hope , the Spirit of God , and his Holy Angels assistants at that time , to resist and to subdue the devils temptations and assaults ; and so to fortifie our hearts that it break not into intolerable sorrows and impatience , and end in wretchlessenesse and infidelity . * But this is to be the work of our life , and not to be done at once ; but as God gives us time by succession , by parts and little periods . For it is very remarkable that God who giveth plenteously to all creatures , he hath scattered the firmament with stars as a man sowes corn in his fields , in a multitude bigger then the capacities of humane order ; he hath made so much varietie of creatures , and gives us great choice of meats and drinks , although any one of both kindes would have served our needs ; and so in all instances of nature ; yet in the distribution of our time , God seems to be strait-handed , and gives it to us , not as Nature gives us Rivers , enough to drown us , but drop by drop , minute after minute , so that we never can have two minutes together , but he takes away one when he gives us another . This should teach us to value our time , since God so values it , and by his so small distribution of it , tells us , it is the most precious thing we have . Since therefore in the day of our death , we can have but still the same little portion of this precious time , let us in every minute of our life , I mean , in every discernable portion lay up such a stock of reason and good works , that they may convey a value to the imperfect and shorter actions of our death-bed ; while God rewards the piety of our lives by his gracious acceptation and benediction , upon the actions preparatory to our death-bed . 3. He that desires to die well and happily , above all things must be carefull , that he do not live a soft , a delicate and voluptuous life ; but a life severe , holy , and under the discipline of the crosse ; under the conduct of prudence and observation , a life of warfare and sober counsels , labour and watchfulnesse . No man wants cause of tears and a daily sorrow . Let every man consider what he feels and acknowledge his misery ; let him confesse his sin and chastise it ; let him bear his crosse patiently , and his persecutions nobly , and his repentances willingly and constantly ; let him pity the evils of all the world , and bear his share of the calamities of his Brother ; let him long and sigh for the joyes of Heaven ; let him tremble and fear because he hath deserved the pains of hell ; let him commute his eternall fear with a temporall suffering , preventing Gods judgement by passing one of his own ; let him groan for the labours of his pilgrimage , and the dangers of his warfare ; and by that time he hath summed up all these labours ; and duties , and contingencies , all the proper causes , instruments and acts of sorrow , he will finde , that for a secular joy and wantonnesse of spirit , there are not left many void spaces of his life . It was Saint Iames's advice ; Be afflicted , and mourn , and weep ; let your laughter be turned into mourning , and your joy into weeping : And Bonaventure in the life of Christ , reports that the H. Virgin Mother said to S. Elizabeth , That Grace does not descend into the soul of a man but by prayer and by affliction . Certain it is , that a mourning spirit , and an afflicted body are great instruments of reconciling God to a sinner , and they alwayes dwell at the gates of atonement and restitution . But besides this ; a delicate and prosperous life is hugely contrary to the hopes of a blessed eternity . Wo be to them that are at ease in Sion ; so it was said of old ; and our B. Lord said , Wo be to you that laugh , for you shall weep : but Blessed are they that mourn , for they shall be comforted . Here or hereafter we must have our portion of sorrows . He that now goeth on his way weeping and beareth forth good seed with him , shall doubtlesse come again with joy , and bring his sheaves with him . And certainly , he that sadly considers the portion of Dives , and remembers that the account which Abraham gave him for the unavoidablenesse of his torment , was because he had his good things in this life , must in all reason , with trembling run from a course of banquets , and faring deliciously every day , as being a dangerous estate , and a consignation to an evil greater then all danger , the pains and torment of unhappy souls . If either by patience or repentance , by compassion or persecution , by choise or by conformity , by severity or discipline , we allay the festival follies of a soft life , and professe under the Crosse of Christ , we shall more willingly and more safely enter into our grave : But the death-bed of a voluptuous man upbraids his little and cosening prosperities , and exacts pains made * sharper by the passing from soft beds , and a softer mind . He that would die holily and happily , must in this world love tears , humility , solitude and repentance . SECT . II. Of daily examination of our actions , in the whole course of our health , preparatory to our death-bed . HE that will die well and happily , must dresse his soul by a diligent and frequent scrutiny : He must perfectly understand , and watch the state of his soul ; he must set his house in order before he be fit to die . And for this there is great reason , and great necessity . Reasons for a daily examination . 1. For if we consider the disorders of every day , the multitude of impertinent words , the great portions of time spent in vanity , the daily omissions of duty , the coldnesse of our prayers , the indifference of our spirit in holy things , the uncertainty of our secret purposes , our infinite deceptions and hypocrisie , sometimes not known , very often not observed by our selves ; our want of charity , our not knowing in how many degrees of action and purpose every vertue is to be exercised , the secret adherencies of pride , and too forward complacencie in our best actions , our failings in all our relations , the niceties of difference between some vertues and some vices , the secret undiscernable passages from lawfull to unlawfull in the first instances of change , the perpetuall mistakings of permissions for duty , and licentious practises for permissions , our daily abusing the liberty that God gives us , our unsuspected sins in the managing a course of life certainly lawfull , our little greedinesses in eating , our surprises in the proportions of our drinkings , our too great freedoms and fondnesses in lawfull loves , our aptnesse for things sensual , and our deadnesse and tediousnesse of spirit in spiritual employments , besides infinite variety of cases of conscience that do occur in the life of every man , and in all entercourses of every life , and that the productions of sin are numerous and increasing , like the families of the Northern people , or the genealogies of the first Patriarks of the world ; from all this we shall find that the computations of a mans life are buisie as the Tables of Signes and Tangents , and intricate as the accounts of Eastern Merchants : and therefore it were but reason we should summe up our accounts at the foot of every page , I mean , that we call our selves to scrutiny every night when we compose our selves to the little images of Death . 2. For if we make but one Generall account , and never reckon till we die , either we shall onely reckon by great summes , and remember nothing but clamorous and crying sins , and never consider concerning particulars , or forget very many ; or if we could consider all that we ought , we must needs be confounded with the multitude and variety . But if we observe all the little passages of our life , and reduce them into the order of accounts and accusations , we shall finde them multiply so fast , that it will not onely appear to be an ease to the accounts of our death-bed , but by the instrument of shame will restrain the inundation of evils ; it being a thing intolerable to humane modesty to see sins increase so fast , and vertues grow up so slow ; to see every day stained with the spots of leprosie , or sprinkled with the marks of a lesser evil . 3. It is not intended , we should take accounts of our lives onely to be thought religious , but that we may see our evil and amend it , that we dash our sins against the stones , that we may go to God , and to a spirituall Guide , and search for remedies and apply them . And indeed no man can well observe his own groweth in Grace , but by accounting seldomer returns of sin , and a more frequent victory over temptations ; concerning which every man makes his observations according as he makes his inquiries and search after himself : In order to this it was , that Saint Paul wrote ; Before receiving the Holy Sacrament Let a man examine himself , and so let him eat . This precept was given in those dayes when they communicated every day , and therefore a daily examination also was intended . 4. And it will appear highly fitting , if we remember that at the day of judgement , no onely the greatest lines of life , but every branch and circumstance of every action , every word , and thought shall be called to scrutiny and severe judgement ; insomuch that it was a great truth which one said ; Wo be to the most Innocent life if God should search into it , without mixtures of mercy . And therefore we are here to follow S. Pauls advice ; Iudge your selves and you shall not be judged of the Lord. The way to prevent Gods anger is to be angry with our selves , and by examining our actions and condemning the Criminal , by being Assessors in Gods Tribunal , at least we shall obtain the favour of the Court. As therefore , every night we must make our bed the memoriall of our grave , so let our Evening thoughts be an image of the day of judgement . 5. This advice was so reasonable and proper instrument of vertue , that it was taught even to the Scholers of Pythagoras by their Master : Let not sleep seiz upon the Regions of your senses , before you have three times recalled the conversation and accidents of the day : Examine what you have committed against the Divine Law , what you have omitted of your duty , and in what you have made use of the Divine Grace to the purposes of vertue and religion , joyning the Iudge reason to the legislative mind or conscience , that God may reigne there as a Law-giver and a Judge . Then Christs kingdom is set up in our hearts ; then we alwayes live in the Eye of our Judge , and live by the measures of reason , religion , and sober counsels . The benefits we shall receive by practising this advice , in order to a blessed death , will also adde to the account of reason and fair inducements . The Benefits of this exercise . 1. By a daily examination of our actions we shall the easier cure a great sin and prevent its arrival to become habitual . For [ to examine ] we suppose to be a relative duty and instrumentall to something else . We examine our selves that we may finde out our failings , and cure them : and therefore if we use our remedy when the wound is fresh and bleeding , we shall finde the cure more certain , and lesse painfull . For so a Taper when its crown of flames is newly blown off , retains a nature so symbolical to light , that it will with greedinesse reenkindle and snatch a ray from the neighbour fire : So is the soul of Man , when it is newly fallen into sin ; although God be angry with it , and the state of Gods favour , and its own graciousnesse is interrupted , yet the habit is not naturally changed ; and still God leaves some roots of vertue standing , and the Man is modest , or apt to be made ashamed , and he is not grown a bold sinner ; but if he sleeps on it , and returns again to the same sin , and by degrees growes in love with it , and gets the custome , and the strangenesse of it is taken away , then it is his Master , and is sweld into a heap , and is abetted by use , and corroborated by newly entertained principles , and is insinuated into his Nature , and hath possessed his affections , and tainted the will and the understanding ; and by this time a man is in the state of a decaying Merchant , his accounts are so great , and so intricate , and so much in arrear , that to examine it will be but to represent the particulars of his calamity : therefore they think it better to pull the napkin before their eyes , then to stare upon the circumstances of their death . 2. A daily , or frequent examination of the parts of our life will interrupt the proceeding , and hinder the journey of little sins into a heap . For many dayes do not passe the best persons in which they have not many idle words , or vainer thoughts to sully the fair whitenesse of their souls : Some indiscreet passions , or trifling purposes , some impertinent discontents , or unhandsome usages of their own persons or their dearest Relatives . And though God is not extreme to mark what is done amisse , and therefore puts these upon the accounts of his Mercy , and the title of the Crosse , yet in two cases , these little sins combine and cluster ; and we know that grapes were once in so great a bunch , that one cluster was the load of two men : that is , 1. When either we are in love with small sins ; or 2. When they proceed from a carelesse and incurious spirit into frequency and continuance . For so the smallest atomes that dance in all the little cels of the world , are so trifling and immaterial that they cannot trouble an eye , nor vex the tenderest part of a wound where a barbed arrow dwelt ; yet when by their infinite numbers ( as Melissa and Parmenides affirm ) they danced first into order , then into little bodies , at last they made the matter of the world : So are the little indiscretions of our life ; they are alwayes inconsiderable if they be considered , and contemptible if they be not despised , and God does not regard them if we do . We may easily keep them asunder by our daily or nightly thoughts , and prayers , and severe sentences : But even the least sand can check the tumultuous pride , and become a limit to the Sea , when it is in a heap and in united multitudes ; but if the wind scatter and divide them , the little drops and the vainer froth of the water begins to invade the Strand . Our sighes can scatter such little offences ; but then , be sure to breath such accents frequently , least they knot , and combine , and grow big as the shoar , and we perish in sand , in trifling instances . He that despiseth little things , shall perish by little and little . So said the son of Sirach . 3. A frequent examination of our actions will intenerate and soften our consciences , so that they shall be impatient of any rudenesse or heavier load : And he that is used to shrink when he is pressed with a branch of twining Osier , will not willingly stand in the ruines of a house , when the beam dashes upon the pavement . And , provided that our nice and tender spirit be not vexed into scruple , nor the scruple turn into unreasonable fears , nor the fears into superstition ; he that by any arts can make his spirit tender , and apt for religious impressions , hath made the fairest seat for religion , and the unaptest and uneasiest entertainment for sin , and eternal death , in the whole world . 4. A frequent examination of the smallest parts of our lives is the best instrument to make our repentance particular , and a fit remedy to all the members of the whole body of sin . For our examination put off to our death-bed of necessity brings us into this condition , that very many thousands of our sins must be ( or not be at al ) washed off with a general repentance ; which the more general and indefinite it is , it is ever so much the worse : And if he that repents the longest and the oftnest , and upon the most instances , is still during his whole life , but an imperfect penitent , and there are very many reserves left to be wiped off by Gods mercies , and to be eased by collateral assistances , or to be groaned for at the terrible day of judgement ; it will be but a sad story to consider , that the sins of a whole life , or of very great portions of it , shall be put upon the remedy of one examination , and the advices of one discourse , and the activities of a decayed body , and a weak and an amazed Spirit . Let us do the best we can , we shall finde that the meer sins of ignorance , and unavoidable forgetfulnesse will be enough to be intrusted to such a bank , and that if a general repentance will serve towards their expiation , it will be an infinite mercy : but we have nothing to warrant our confidence , if we shall think it to be enough on our death-bed to confesse the notorious actions of our lives , ( and to say [ The Lord be merciful to me for the infinite transgressions of my life , which I have wilfully or carelesly forgot ] for very many of which , the repentance , the distinct , particular , circumstantiate repentance of a whole life would have been too little , if we could have done more . 5. After the enumeration of these advantanges I shall not need to adde that if we decline or refuse to call our selves frequently to account , and to use daily advices concerning the state of our souls , it is a very ill signe , that our souls are not right with God , or that they do not dwell in religion . But this I shall say , that they who do use this exercise frequently will make their conscience much at ease by casting out a daily load of humor and surfet , the matter of diseases and the instruments of death . He that does not frequently search his conscience , is a house without a window , and like a wilde untutored son of a fond and undiscerning widow . But if this exercise seem too great a trouble , and that by such advices , religion will seem a burden , I have two things to oppose against it . 1. One is ; that we had better ●ear the burden of the Lord , then the burden of a base and polluted conscience . Religion cannot be so great a trouble as a guilty soul ; and whatsoever trouble can be fancied in this or any other action of religion , it is onely to unexperienced persons . It may be a trouble at first , just as is every change , and every new accident : but if you do it frequently and accustom your spirit to it , as the custom will make it easy , so the advantages wil make it delectable ; that will make it facile as nature , these will make it as pleasant and eligible as reward . 2. The other thing I have to say is this : That to examine our lives will be no trouble if we do not intricate it with businesses of the world , and the Labyrinths of care and impertinent affairs . A man had need have a quiet and disintangled life , who comes to search into all his actions , and to make judgement concerning his errors and his needs , his remedies and his hopes . They that have great intrigues of the world , have a yoak upon their necks , & cannot look back ; and he that covets many things greedily , and snatches at high things ambitiously , that despises his Neighbour proudly , and bears his crosses peevishly , or his prosperity impotently and passionately ; he that is prodigal of his precious time , and is tenacious and retentive of evil purposes , is not a man disposed to this exercise , he hath reason to be afraid of his own memory , and to dash his glasse in pieces , because it must needs represent to his own eyes an intolerable deformity . He therefore that resolves to live well whatsoever it costs him ; he that will go to Heaven at any rate , shall best tend this duty by neglecting the affairs of the world , in all things where prudently he may . But if we do otherwise , we shall finde that the accounts of our death-bed and the examination made by a disturbed understanding will be very empty of comfort and full of inconveniencies . 6. For hence it comes that men dye so timorously , and uncomfortably , as if they were forced out of their lives by the violencies of an executioner . Then , without much examination they remember how wickedly they have lived , without religion , against the laws of the covenant of grace , without God in the world ; then they see sin goes off like an amazed , wounded , affrighted person from a lost battel , without honour , without a veil , with nothing but shame & sad remembrances . Then they can consider that if they had lived vertuously , all the trouble and objection of that would now be past , and all that had remained should be peace and joy , and all that good which dwells within the house of God , and eternal life . But now they finde they have done amisse and dealt wickedly , they have no bank of good works , but a huge treasure of wrath , and they are going to a strange place , and what shall be their lot is uncertain ; ( so they say , when they would comfort and flatter themselves ) but in truth of religion their portion is sad and intollerable , without hope , and without refreshment ▪ and they must use little silly arts , to make them go off from their stage of sins with some handsom circumstances of opinion : They will in civility be abused that they may die quietly , and go decently to their execution , and leave their friends indifferently contented , and apt to be comforted , and by that time they are gone awhile , they see that they deceived themselves all their dayes , and were by others deceived at last . Let us make it our own case ; we shall come to that state and period of condition , in which we shall be infinitely comforted , if we have lived well , er else be amazed and go off trembling , because we are guilty of heaps of unrepented and unforsaken sins . It may happen we shall not then understand it so , because most men of late ages have been abused with false principles , and they are taught ( or they are willing to believe ) that a little thing is enough to save them , and that heaven is so cheap a purchase , that it will fall upon them whether they will or no. The misery of it is , they will not suffer themselves to be confuted , till it be too late to recant their errour . In the interim , they are impatient to be examined , as a leper is of a comb , and are greedy of the world , as children of raw fruit ; and they hate a severe reproof , as they do thorns in their beds ; and they love to lay aside religion , as a drunken person does to forget his sorrow ; and all the way they dream of fine things , and their dreams prove contrary , and become the hieroglyphics of an eternal sorrow . The daughter of Polycrates dreamed that her Father was lifted up , and that Iupiter washed him and the Sun anointed him ; but it proved to him but a sad prosperity : for after a long life of constant prosperous successes he was surprized by his enemies , and hanged up till the dew of heaven wet his cheeks , and the Sun melted his grease . Such is the condition of those persons who living either in the despight , or in the neglect of religion , lye wallowing in the drunkennesse of prosperity , or worldly cares ; they think themselves to be exalted , till the evil day overtakes them ; and then they can expound their dream of life to end in a sad and hopelesse death . I remember that Cleomenes that was called a God by the Egyptians , because when he was hang'd , a serpent grew out of his body , and wrapt it self about his head , till the Philosophers of Egypt said , it was natural that from the marrow of some bodies such productions should arise : and indeed it represents the condition of some men , who being dead are esteemed saints and beatified persons when their head is encircled with dragons , and is entered into the possession of Devils , that old serpent and deceiver ; For indeed their life was secretly so corrupted , that such serpents fed upon the ruines of the spirit , and the decayes of grace and reason . To be cosened in making judgements concerning our finall condition is extremely easie , but if we be cosened , we are infinitely miserable . SECT . III. Of exercising Charity , during our whole life . HE that would die well and happily must in his life time according to all his capacities exercise charity ; and because Religion is the life of the soul , and charity is the life of religion , the same which gives life to the better part of man which never dies , may obtain of God a mercy to the inferiour part of man in the day of its dissolution . 1. Charity is the great chanel through which God passes all his mercy upon mankinde . For we receive absolution of our sins in proportion to our forgiving our brother : this is the rule of our hopes , and the measure of our desire in this world ; and in the day of death and judgement the great sentence upon mankinde shall be transacted according to our almes , which is the other part of Charity . Certain it is that God cannot , will not , never did reject a charitable man in his greatest needs , and in his most passionate prayers ; for God himself is love , and every degree of charity that dwells in us , is the participation of the divine nature ; and therefore when upon our death-bed , a cloud covers our heads , and we are enwrapped with sorrow ; when we feel the weight of a sicknesse , and do not feel the refreshing visitations of Gods loving kindnesse ; when we have many things to trouble us , and looking round about us , we see no comforter ; then call to minde what injuries you have forgiven , how apt you were to pardon all affronts and real persecutions ? how you embraced peace when it was offered you ? how you followed after peace , when it run from you ? and when you are weary of one side , turn upon the other ; and remember the alms , that by the grace of God , and his assistances you have done , and look up to God , and with the eye of faith behold him coming in the cloud , and pronouncing the sentence of dooms day according to his mercies and thy charity . 2. Charity with its Twin-daughters , almes and forgivenesse is especially effectual for the procuring Gods mercies in the day and the manner of our death : almes deliver from death , said old Tobias , and almes make an atonement for sins , said the son of Sirach : and so said Daniel , and so say all the wise men of the world . And in this sence also is that of S. Peter , Love covers a multitude of sins ; and * S. Clement in his Constitutions gives this counsell ; If you have any thing in your hands , give it that it may work to the remission of thy sins ; for by faith and alms sins are purged . The same also is the counsel of Salvi●n , who wonders that men who are guilty of great and many sins , will not work out their pardon by alms and mercy . But this also must be added out of the words of Lactantius , who makes this rule compleat and useful ; But think not , that because sins are taken away by alms , that by thy money thou mayest purchase a license to sin . For sins are abolished , if because thou hast sinned thou givest to God , that is , to Gods poor servants and his indigent , necessitous creature : But if thou sinnest upon confidence of giving , thy sins are not abolished . For God desires infinitely that men should be purged from their sins , and therefore commands us to repent , But to repent is nothing else , but to professe and affirm ( that is , to purpose and to make good that purpose ) that they will sin no more . Now almes are therefore effective to the abolition and pardon of our sins , because they are preparatory to , and impetratory of the grace of repentance , and are fruits of repentance ; and therefore S. Chrysostom affirmes , that repentance without almes is dead , and without wings , and can never soar upwards to the element of love . But because they are a part of repentance , and hugely pleasing to Almighty God , therefore they deliver us from the evils of an unhappy and accursed death ; for so Christ delivered his Disciples from the sea , when he appeased the storm , though they still sailed in the chanel : and this S. Hierome verifies with all his reading and experience , saying , I do not remember to have read , that ever any charitable person died an evil death : and although a long experience hath observed Gods mercies to descend upon charitable people like the dew upon Gideons fleece when all the world was dry , yet for this also , we have a promise , which is , not onely an argument of a certain number of years ( as experience is ) but a security for eternall ages . Make ye friends of the mammon of unrighteousnesse , that when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations : When faith fails , and chastity is uselesse , and temperance shall be no more , then charity shall bear you upon wings of cherubins , to the eternall mountain of the Lord. I have been a lover of mankinde , and a friend , and mercifull , and now I expect to communicate in that great kindnesse which he shews , that is , the great God and Father of men and mercies : said Cyrus the Persian , on his death-bed . I do not mean this should onely be a death-bed charity , any more then a death-bed repentance ; but it ought to be the charity of our life , & healthfull years ; a parting with portions of our goods then , when we can keep them : we must not first kindle our lights , when we are to descend into our houses of darknesse , or bring a glaring torch suddenly to a dark room , that will amaze the eye and not delight it , or instruct the body ; but if our Tapers have in their constant course descended into their grave crowned all the way with light , then let the death-bed charity be doubled , and the light burn brightest when it is to deck our hearse . But concerning this I shall afterwards give account . SECT . IV. General considerations to enforce the former practises . THese are the generall instruments of preparation , in order to a holy death . It will concern us all to use them diligently and speedily ; for we must be long in doing that which must be done but once ; and therefore we must begin betimes , and lose no time ; especially since it is so great a venture , and upon it depends so great a state . Seneca said well , There is no Science or Art in the world so hard as to live and die well : The professors of other arts are vulgar and many , but he that knows how to do this businesse is certainly instructed to eternity . But then let me remember this , that a wise person will also put most upon the greatest interest . Common prudence will teach us this . No man will hire a Generall to cut wood , or shake hay with a Scepter , or spend his soul and all his faculties upon the purchase of a cockleshell ; but he will fit instruments to the dignity and exigence of the designe ; and therefore since heaven is so glorious a state , and so certainly designed for us , if we please , let us spend all that we have , all our passions and affections , all our study and industry , all our desires and stratagems , all our witty and ingenuous faculties toward the arriving thither , whither if we do come , every minute will infinitely pay for all the troubles of our whole life : If we do not , we shall have the reward of fools , an unpitied and an upbraided misery . To this purpose I shall represent the state of dying and dead men in the devout words of some of the Fathers of the Church , whose sense I shall exactly keep ; but change their order , that by placing some of their dispersed meditations into a chain , or sequell of discourse , I may with their precious stones make an Vnion , and compose them into a jewel ; for though the meditation is plain and easie , yet it is affectionate , and materiall , and true , and necessary . The circumstances of a dying mans sorrow and danger . When the sentence of death is decreed , and begins to be put in execution , it is sorrow enough to see or feel respectively the sad accidents of the agony , and last contentions of the soul , and the reluctancies and unwillingnesses of the body . The forehead wash'd with a new and stranger baptisme , besmeared with a cold sweat , tenacious and clammy , apt to make it cleave to the roof of his coffin ; the nose cold and undiscerning , not pleased with perfumes , nor suffering violence with a cloud of unwholsome smoak ; the eyes dim as a sullied mirror , or the face of heaven , when God shews his anger in a prodigious storm ; the feet cold , the hands stiffe , the Physitians despairing , our friends weeping , the rooms dressed with darknesse and sorrow , and the exteriour parts betraying what are the violences which the soul and spirit suffer ; the nobler part like the lord of the house , being assaulted by exteriour rudenesses , and driven from all the out-works ; at last , faint and weary , with short and frequent breathings , interrupted with the longer accents of sighes , without moisture , but the excrescencies of a spilt humour , when the pitcher is broken at the cisterne ; it retires to its last sort , the heart , whither it is pursued and stormed , and beaten out , as when the barbarous Thracian sacked the glory of the Grecian Empire . Then calamity is great , and sorrow rules in all the capacities of man : then the mourners weep , because it is civil , or because they need thee , or because they fear , but who suffers for thee with a compassion sharp as is thy pain ? Then the noise is like the faint eccho of a distant valley , & few heare , and they will not regard thee , who seemest like a person void of understanding , and of a departing interest . Verè tremendum est mortis sacramentum . But these accidents are common to all that die , and when a speciall providence shall distinguish them , they shall die with easie circumstances ; but as no piety can secure it , so must no confidence expect it , but wait for the time , and accept the manner of the dissolution . But that which distinguishes them is this . He that hath lived a wicked life , if his conscience be alarmed , and that he does not die like a Wolf , or a Tigre without sense or remorse of all his wildnesse , and his injury , his beastly nature , and desert , and untilled manners , if he have but sense of what he is going to suffer , or what he may expect to be his portion , then we may imagine the terrour of their abused fancies , how they see affrighting shapes , and because they fear them , they feel the gripes of Devils , urging the unwilling souls from the kinder and fast embraces of the body , calling to the grave , and hasting to judgement , exhibiting great bills of uncancelled crimes , awaking and amazing the conscience , breaking all their hope in pieces , and making faith uselesse and terrible , because the malice was great and the charity was none at all . Then they look for some to have pity on them , but there is no man. No man dares be their pledge , No man can redeem their soul , which now feels what it never feared . Then the tremblings and the sorrow , the memory of the past sin , and the fear of future pains , and the sense of an angry God , and the presence of some Devils consigne him to the eternall company of all the damned and accursed spirits : then they want an Angel for their guide , and the Holy Spirit for their comforter , and a good conscience for their testimony , and Christ for their Advocate , and they die and are left in prisons of earth or air , in secret and undiscerned regions to weep and tremble , and infinitely to fear the coming of the day of Christ ; at which time they shall be brought forth to change their condition into a worse , where they shall for ever feel more then we can beleeve or understand . But when a good man dies ; one that hath lived innocently or made joy in Heaven at his timely and effective repentance , and in whose behalf the Holy Jesus hath interceded prosperously , and for whose interest the Spirit makes interpellations with groans and sighs unutterable , and in whose defence the Angels drive away the Devils on his death-bed , because his sins are pardoned , and because he resisted the Devil in his life time , and fought successefully , and persevered unto the end , then the joyes break forth through the clouds of sicknesse , and the conscience stands upright , and confesses the glories of God , and owns so much integrity that it can hope for pardon , and obtain it too : Then the sorrowes of the sicknesse , and the flames of the Feaver , or the faintnesse of the consumption do but untye the soul from its chain , and let it go forth , first into liberty , and then to glory ; for it is but for a little while that the face of the skie was black , like the preparations of the night , but quickly the cloud torn and rent , the violence of thunder parted it into little portions , that the Sun might look forth with a watry eye , and then shine without a tear ; but it is an infinite refreshment to remember all the comforts of his prayers , the frequent victory over his temptations , the mortification of his lust , the noblest sacrifice to God in which he most delights , that we have given him our wills , and killed our appeti●es for the interest of his services ; then all the trouble of that is gone , and what remains is a portion in the inheritance of Jesus , of which he now talks no more as a thing at distance , but is entring into the possession . When the veil is rent , and the prison doors are open at the presence of Gods Angel , the soul goes forth full of hope , sometimes with evidence , but alwayes with certainty in the thing , and instantly it passes into the throngs of Spirits , where Angles meet it singing , and the Devils flock with malitious and vile purposes , desiring to lead it away with them into their houses of sorrow ; there they see things which they never saw , and hear voices which they never heard : There the Devils charge them with many sins ; And the Angels remember that themselves rejoyced when they were repented of . Then the Devils aggravate and describe all the circumstances of the sin , and adde calumnies , and the Angels bear the soul forward still , because their Lord doth answer for them : Then the Devils rage and gnash their teeth : they see the soul chast and pure , and they are ashamed ; they see it penitent , and they despair ; they perceive that the tongue was restrained and sanctified , and then hold their peace : Then the soul passes forth and rejoyces , passing by the Devils in scorn and triumph , being securely carried into the bosome of the Lord , where they shall rest till their crowns are finished , and their mansions are prepared , and then they shall feast and sing , rejoyce and worship for * ever and ever . Fearful and formidable to unholy persons is the first meeting with spirits in their separation . But the victory which holy souls receive by the mercies of Jesus Christ , and the conduct of Angels is a joy that we must not understand till we feel it : and yet such which by an early and a persevering piety we may secure : but let us enquire after it no further , because it is secret . CHAP. III. Of the state of sicknesse , and the temptations incident to it with their proper remedies . SECT . I. Of the state of sicknesse . ADams sin brought death into the world , and man did die the same day in which he sinned , according as God had threatned : He did not die , as death is taken for a separation of soul and body ; that is not death properly ; but the ending of the last act of death : just as a man is said to be born , when he ceases any longer to be born in his mothers womb . But whereas to man was intended a life long and happy , without sicknesse , sorrow or infelicity , and this life should be lived here or in a better place , and the passage from one to the other should have been easy , safe and pleasant , now that man sinned , he fell from that state to a contrary . If Adam had stood he should not alwayes have lived in this world ; for this world was not a place capable of giving a dwelling to all those myriads of men and women which should have been born in all the generations of infinite and eternal ages ; for so it must have been , if man had not dyed at all , nor yet have removed hence at all : Neither is it likely that mans innocence should have lost to him all possibility of going thither , where the duration is better , measured by a better time , subject to fewer changes , and which is now the reward of a returning vertue , which in all natural senses is lesse then innocence , save that it is heightned by Christ to an equality of acceptation with the state of innocence : But so it must have been , that his innocence should have been punished with an eternal confinement to this state , which in all reason is the lesse perfect , the state of a traveller , not of one possessed of his inheritance . It is therefore certain Man should have changed his abode : for so did Enoch , and so did Elias , and so shall all the world that shall be alive at the day of judgement : They shall not die , but they shall change their place , and their abode , their duration and their state , and all this without death . That death therefore which God threatned to Adam and which passed upon his posterity , is not the going out of this world , but the manner of going . If he had staid in innocence , he should have gone from hence placidly , and fairly , without vexatious and afflictive circumstances ; he should not have dyed by sickness , misfortune , defect , or unwillingnesse ; but when he fell , then he began to die ; the same day , ( so said God : ) and that must needs be true : and therefore it must mean , that upon that very day he fell into an evil and dangerous condition ; a state of change and affliction ; then death began , that is , the man began to die by a natural diminution , and aptnesse to disease and misery . His first state was and should have been ( so long as it lasted ) a happy duration ; His second was a daily and miserable change ; and this was the dying properly . This appears in the great instance of damnation , which in the stile of Scripture is called eternal death ; not because it kills or ends the duration ; it hath not so much good in it ; but because it is a perpetual infelicity , Change or separation of soul and body is but accidental to death . Death may be with , or without either : but the formality , the curse and the sting of death , that is , misery , sorrow , fear , diminution , defect , anguish , dishonour , and whatsoever is miserable , and afflictive in nature , that is death : death is not an action , but a whole state and condition ; and this was first brought in upon us by the offence of one man. But this went no further then thus to subject us to temporal infelicity . If it had proceeded so as was supposed , Man had been much more miserable ; for man had more then one original sin in this sence : and though this death entred first upon us by Adams fault , yet it came neerer unto us , and increased upon us by the sins of more of our forefathers . For Adams sin left us in strength enough to contend with humane calamities for almost a thousand years together . But the sins of his children , our forefathers , took off from us half the strength about the time of the flood ; and then from 500. to 250. and from thence to 120. and from thence to threescore and ten , so halfing it , till it is almost come to nothing . But by the sins of men in the several generations of the world , death , that is , misery and disease , is hastned so upon us , that we are of a contemptible age ; and because we are to die by suffering evils , and by the daily lessening of our strength and health ; this death is so long a doing , that it makes so great a part of our short life uselesse and unserviceable , that we have not time enough to get the perfection of a single manufacture ; but ten or twelve generations of the world must go to the making up of one wise man , or one excellent Art : and in the succession of those ages , there happens so many changes and interruptions , so many warres and violencies , that seven years fighting sets a whole Kingdom back in learning and vertue , to which they were creeping , it may be , a whole age . And thus also we do evil to our posterity , as Adam did to his , and Cham did to his , and Eli to his , and all they to theirs , who by sins caused God to shorten the life , and multiply the evils of mankinde : and for this reason it is , the world grows worse and worse , because so many original sins are multiplied , and so many evils from Parents descend upon the succeeding generations of men , that they derive nothing from us but original misery . But he who restored the law of Nature , did also restore us to the condition of Nature ; which being violated by the introduction of death , Christ then repaired when he suffered and overcame death for us : that is , he hath taken away the unhappinesse of sicknesse , and the sting of death , and the dishonours of the grave , of dissolution and weaknesse , of decay and change ; and hath turned them into acts of favour , into instances of comfort , into opportunities of vertue ; Christ hath now knit them into rosaries , and coronets , he hath put them into promises and rewards , he hath made them part of the portion of his elect ; they are instruments , and earnests , and securities , and passages to the greatest perfection of humane nature , and the Divine promises . So that it is possible for us now to be reconciled to sicknesse ; It came in by sin , and therefore is cured when it is turned into vertue ; and although it may have in it the uneasinesse of labour , yet it will not be uneasie as sin , or the restlessenesse of a discomposed conscience : If therefore we can well manage our state of sicknesse , that we may not fall by pain , as we usually do by pleasure , we need not fear ; for no evil shall happen to us . SECT . II. Of the first temptation proper to the state of sicknesse ; Impatience . MEn that are in health are severe exactors of patience at the hands of them that are sick , and they usually judge it not by terms of relation , between God and the suffering man ; but between him and the friends that stand by the bed-side . It will be therefore necessary that we truly understand to what duties and actions the patience of a sick man ought to extend . 1. Sighes and groans , sorrow and prayers , humble complaints , and dolorous expressions are the sad accents of a sick mans language ; for it is not to be expected that a sick man should act a part of patience with a countenance like an Orator , or grave like a Dramatick person . It were well if all men could bear an exteriour decencie in their sicknesse , and regulate their voice , their face , their discourse , and all their circumstances by the measures , and proportions of comlinesse and satisfaction to all the standers by . But this would better please them then assist him ; the sick man would do more good to others , then he would receive to himself . 2. Therefore , silence and still composures , and not complaining , are no parts of a sick mans duty ; they are not necessary parts of patience : We find that David roared for the very disquietnesse of his sicknesse ; and he lay chattering like a swallow , and his throat was dry with calling for help upon his God. That 's the proper voice of sicknesse ; and certain it is , that the proper voyces of sicknesse are expressely vocal , and petitory in the eares of God , and call for pity in the same accent , as the cryes and oppressions of Widows and Orphans do for vengeance upon their persecutors , though they say no Collect against them . For there is the voyce of man , and there is the voyce of the disease , and God hears both ; And the louder the disease speaks , there is the greater need of mercy and pity , and therefore God will the sooner hear it . Abels blood had a voice and cried to God , and humility hath a voice and cries so loud to God , that it pierces the clouds ; and so hath every sorrow , and every sicknesse : and when a man cries out , and complains but according to the sorrowes of his pain , it cannot be any part of a culpable impatience , but an argument for pity . 3. Some senses are so subtile , and their perceptions so quick and full of relish , and their spirits so active , that the same load is double upon them , to what it is to another person ; and therefore comparing the expressions of the one to the silence of the other , a different judgement cannot be made concerning their patience : Some natures are querulous , and melancholy , and soft , and nice , and tender , and weeping , and expressive ; others are sullen , dull , without apprehension , apt to tolerate and carry burdens ; and the crucifixion of our Blessed Saviour falling upon a delicate and virgin body , of curious temper , and strict , equall composition , was naturally more full of torment then that of the ruder theeves , whose proportions were course● and uneven . 4. In this case it was no imprudent advice which Cicero gave : Nothing in the world is more amiable then an even temper in our whole life , and in every action : but this evennesse cannot be kept unlesse every man follows his own nature , without striving to i●itate the circumstances of another : and what is so in the thing it self , ought to be so in our judgements concerning the things . We must not call any one impatient if he be not silent in a feaver as if he were asleep , or as if he were dull , as Herods son of Athens . 5. Nature in some cases hath made cryings out , and exclamations to be an entertainment of the spirit , and an abatement or diversion of the pain . For so did the old champions when they threw their fatall nets that they might load their enemy with the snares and weights of death , they groaned aloud , and sent forth the anguish of their spirit into the eyes and heart of the man that stood against them : so it is in the endurance of some sharp pains , the complaints and shrikings , the sharp groans , and the tender accents send forth the afflicted spirits and force a way that they may ease their oppression and their load , that when they have spent some of their sorrows , by a sally sorth , they may returne better able to fortifie the heart . Nothing of this is a certain signe , much lesse an action or part of impatience ; and when our blessed Saviour suffered his last , and sharpest pang of sorrow , he cryed out with a loud voice , and resolved to die , and did so . SECT . III. Constituent or integrall parts of patience . 1. THat we may secure our patience , we must take care that our complaints be without despair . Despair sins against the reputation of Gods goodnesse , and the efficacy of all our old experience : By despair we destroy the greatest comfort of our sorrowes , and turn our sicknesse into the state of Devils , and perishing souls . No affliction is greater then despair , for that is it which makes hell fire , and turns a natural evil into an intolerable ; it hinders prayers , and fills up the intervalls of sicknesse with a worse torture ; it makes all spiritual arts uselesse , and the office of spiritual comforters and guides to be impertinent . Against this , hope is to be opposed ; and its proper acts as it relates to the vertue and exercise of patience are ; 1 Praying to God for help and remedy ; 2 sending for the guides of souls ; 3. using all holy exercises and acts of grace , proper to that state ; which who so does hath not the impatience of despair ; every man that is patient hath hope in God in the day of his sorrows . 2. Our complaints in sicknesse must be without murmure . Murmur sins against Gods providence and government : by it we grow rude , and like the falling Angels , displeased at Gods supremacy : and nothing is more unreasonable : it talks against God , for whose glory all speech was made ; it is proud and phantastic , hath better opinions of a sinner then of the Divine justice , and would rather accuse God then himself . Against this is opposed that part of patience which resignes the man into the hands of God ; saying with old Eli , It is the Lord , let him do what he will ; and [ Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven ] and so by admiring Gods justice and wisdom , does also dispose the sick person for receiving Gods mercy ; and secures him the rather in the grace of God. The proper acts of this part of patience are , 1. To confesse our sins and our own demerits . 2. It increases and exercises humility . 3. It loves to sing praises to God , even from the lowest abysse of humane misery . 3. Our complaints in sicknesse must be without peevishnesse . This sins against civility , and that necessary decency , which must be used toward the ministers and assistants . By peevishnesse we increase our own sorrowes , and are troublesome to them that stand there to ease ours . It hath in it harshnesse of nature , and ungentlenesse , wilfulnesse , and Phantastic opinions , morosity and incivility . Against it are opposed obedience , tractability , easinesse of persuasion , aptnesse to take counsel . The acts of this part of patience are , 1. To obey our Physitians . 2. To treat our persons with respect to our present necessities . 3. Not to be ungentle , and uneasy to the ministers , and nurses that attend us ; But to take their diligent and kinde offices as sweetly as we can , and to bear their indiscretions , or unhandsome accidents contentedly , and without disquietnesse within , or evil language , or angry words without . 4. Not to use unlawful means for our recovery . If we secure these particulars , we are not lightly to be judged of , by noises and postures , by colours and images of things , by palenesse , or tossings from side to side . For it were a hard thing that those persons who are loa●en with the greatnesse of humane calamities , should be strictly tyed to ceremonies and forms of things . He is patient that calls upon God , that hopes for health or heaven , that believes God is wise and just in sending him afflictions ; that confesses his sins and accuses himself , and justifies God ; that expects God will turne this into good ; that is civil to his Physitians and his servants ; that converses with the guides of souls , the ministers of religion ; and in all things submits to Gods will ; and would use no indirect means for his recovery ; but had rather be sick and die , then enter at all into Gods displeasure . SECT . IV. Remedies against impatience , by way of consideration . AS it happens concerning death , so it is in sicknesse which is death● handmaid . It hath the fate to suffer calumny and reproach , and hath a name worse th●n its nature . 1. For there is no sicknesse so great but children endure it , and have natural strengths to bear them out quite through the calamity , what period soever nature hath allotted it . Indeed they make no reflexions upon their sufferings and complain of sicknesse with an uneasy sigh , or a natural groan , but consider not what the sorrows of sicknesse mean ; and so bear it by a direct sufferance , and as a pillar bears the weight of a roof : But then why cannot we bear it so to ? For this which we call a reflexion upon , or a considering of our sicknesse , is nothing but a perfect instrument of trouble , and consequently a temptation to impatience . It serves no end of nature , it may be avoided , and we may consider it onely as an expression of Gods Anger , and an emissary , or procurator of repentance . But all other considering it , except where it serves the purposes of medicine and art , is nothing , but under the colour of reason , an unreasonable device to heighten the sicknesse , and increase the torment . But then , children want this act of reflex perception , or reasonable sense whereby their sicknesse becomes lesse pungent and dolorous ; so also do they want the helps of reason , whereby they should be able to support it . For certain it is , reason was as well given us to harden our spirits and stiffen them in passions and sad accidents , as to make us bending and apt for action : and if in men God hath heightned the faculties of apprehension , he hath increased the auxiliaries of reasonable strengths ; that Gods rod , and Gods staffe might go together , and the beam of Gods countenance may as well refresh us with its light , as scorch us with its heat . But poor children that endure so much , have not inward supports and refreshments to bear them through it ; they never heard the sayings of old men , nor have been taught the principles of severe philosophy , nor are assisted with the results of a long experience , nor know they how to turn a sicknesse into vertue , and a Feaver into a reward ; nor have they any sense of favors , the remembrance of which may alleviate their burden ; and yet nature hath in them teeth and nails enough to scratch , and fight against the sickness , and by such aids as God is pleased to give them , they wade thorough the storm , and murmur not : and besides this yet , although infants have not such brisk perceptions upon the stock of reason , they have a more tender feeling upon the accounts of sense , and their flesh is as uneasy by their natural softnesse and weak shoulders , as ours by our too forward apprehensions . Therefore bear up : either you or I , or some man wiser , and many a woman weaker then us both , or the very children have endured worse evil then this that is upon thee now . That sorrow is hugely tolerable which gives its smart but by instants and smallest proportions of time . No man at once feels the sicknesse of a week , or of a whole day ; but the smart of an instant : and still every portion of a minute , feels but its proper share ; and the last groan ended all the sorrow of its peculiar burden : and what minute can that be , which can pretend to be intolerable ? and the next minute is but the same as the last : and the pain flowes like the drops of a river , or the little shreds of time : and if we do but take care of the present minute , it cannot seem a great charge , or a great burden ; but that care will secure our duty , if we still will but secure the present minute . 3. If we consider how much men can suffer if they list , and how much they do suffer for great and little causes , and that no causes are greater then the proper causes of patience in sicknesse ( that is necessity and religion ) we cannot without huge shame to our nature , to our persons , and to our manners complain of this tax and impost of nature . This experience added something to the old Philosophy . When the Gladiators were exposed naked to each others short swords , and were to cut each others souls away in portions of flesh , as if their forms had been as divisible as the life of worms : they did not sigh or groan , it was a shame to decline the blow , but according to the just measures art . The women that saw the wounds shrike out ; and he that receives it holds his peace . They did not only stand bravely , but would also fall so ; and when he was down , scorn'd to shrink his head , when the insolent conquerer came to lift it from his shoulders : and yet this man in his first designe , onely aimed at liberty , and the reputation of a good fencer ; and when he sunk down , he saw he could onely receive the honour of a bold man ; the noise of which he shall never hear , when his ashes were crammed in his narrow Urne . And what can we complain of the weaknesse of our strengths , or the pressures of diseases , when we see a poor souldier stand in a breach almost starved with cold and hunger ; and his cold apt to be relieved onely by the heats of Anger , a Feaver of a fired musket ? and his hunger slacked by a greater pain , and a huge fear ? this man shall stand in his arms and wounds , patiens liminis atque solis , pale and faint , weary and watchful ; and at night shall have a bullet pulled out of his flesh , and shivers from his bones , and endure his mouth to be sewed up from a violent rent to its own dimension , and all this for a man whom he never saw , or if he did , was not noted by him ; but one that shall condemn him to the gallows if he runs from all this misery . It is seldome that God sends such calamities upon men , as men bring upon themselves , and suffer willingly . But that which is most considerable , is , that any passion and violence upon the spirit of man makes him able to suffer huge calamities , with a certain constancy and an unwearied patience . Scipio Africanus was wont to commend that saying in Xenophon , that the same labours of warfare were easier far to a General then to a common souldier , because he was supported by the huge appetites of honour , which made his hard marches nothing but steppings forward , and reaching at a triumph . Did not the Lady of Sabinus for others interest bear twins privately and without groaning ? Are not the labours and cares , the spare diet , and the waking nights of covetous and adulterous , of ambitious and revengful persons , greater sorrowes and of more smart then a Feaver , or the short pains of childebirth ? what will not render women suffer to hide their shame ? And if vice , and passion , lust , and inferiour appetites can supply to the tenderest persons strengths more then enough , for the sufferance of the greatest natural violences , can we suppose that honesty and religion , and the grace of God are more nice , tender , and effeminate ? 4. Sicknesse is the more tolerable because it cures very many evils , and takes away the sense of all the crosse fortunes which amaze the spirits of some men , and transport them certainly beyond all the limits of patience . Here all losses and disgraces , domestick cares and publick evils , the apprehensions of pity , and a sociable calamity , the fears of want and the troubles of ambition , lie down and rest upon the sick mans pillow . One fit of the stone takes away from the fancies of men , all relations to the world and secular interests ; at least they are made dull and flat , without sharpnesse and an edge . And he that shall observe the infinite variety of troubles which afflicts some busie persons , & almost all men in very busie times , will think it not much amisse that those huge numbers were reduced to certainty , to method , and an order ; and there is no better compendium for this , then that they be reduced to one . And a sick man seems so unconcerned in the things of the world , that although this separation be done with violence ; yet it is no otherwise then all noble contentions are , and all honours are purchased , and all vertues are acquired , and all vices mortified , and all appetites chastised , and all rewards obtained : there is infallibly to all these a difficulty and a sharpnesse annexed , without which there could be no proportion between a work and a reward . To this adde , that sicknesse does not take off the sense of secular troubles , and worldly cares from us , by imploying all the perceptions , and apprehensions of men , by filling all faculties with sorrow , and leaving no room for the lesser instances of troubles ; as little rivers are swallowed up in the Sea : But sicknesse is a messenger of God , sent with purposes of abstraction and separation , with a secret power and a proper efficacie to draw us off from unprofitable and uselesse sorrows : and this is effected partly by reason that it represents the uselessnesse of the things of this world , and that there is a portion of this life in which honours and things of the world cannot serve us to many purposes , partly by preparing us to death , and telling us that a man shall descend thither whence this world cannot redeem us , & where the goods of this world cannot serve us . 5. And yet after all this , sicknesse leaves in us appetites so strong , and apprehensions so sensible , and delights so many , and good things in so great a degree , that a healthlesse body , and a sad disease do seldome make men weary of this world ; but still they would fain find an excuse to live . The gout , the stone , and the toothach , the sciatica , sore eyes , and an aking head , are evils indeed ; But such , which rather then die , most men are willing to suffer , and Mecenas added also a wish , rather to be crucified then to die ; and though his wish was low , timerous , and base , yet we find the same desires in most men , dressed up with better circumstances . It was a cruell mercy in Tamerlan who commanded all the leprous persons to be put to death , as we knock some beasts quickly on their head , to put them out of pain , and lest they should live miserably . The poor men would rather have endured another leprosie , and have more willingly taken two diseases then one death ; therefore Caesar wondred that the old crazed souldier that begged leave he might kill himself , and asked him , Doest thou think then to be more alive then now thou art ? We do not die suddenly , but we descend to death by steps , and slow passages ; and therefore men ( so long as they are sick ) are unwilling to proceed and go forward in the finishing that sad imployment . Between a disease and death , there are many degrees , and all those are like the reserves of evil things , the declining of every one of which is justly reckoned amongst those good things , which alleviate the sicknesse and make it tolerable . Never account that sicknesse intolerable , in which thou hadst rather remaine , then die : And yet if thou hadst rather die then suffer it , the worst of it that can be said is this , that this sicknesse is worse then death ; that is , it is worse then that which is the best of all evils , and the end of all troubles ; and then you have said no great harme against it . 6. Remember that thou art under a supervening necessity . Nothing is intolerable that is necessary ; and therefore when men are to suffer a sharp incision , or what they are pleased to call intolerable , tie the man down to it , and he endures it . Now God hath bound this sicknesse upon thee by the condition of Nature ( for every flower must wither and droop ) it is also bound upon thee by speciall providence , and with a designe to try thee , and with purposes to reward and to crown thee . These cords thou canst not break ; and therefore lie thee down gently , and suffer the hand of God to do what he please , that at least thou mayest swallow an advantage , which the care and severe mercies of God forces down thy throat . 7. Remember that all men have passed this way , the bravest , the wisest , & the best men , have bin subject to sicknes & sad diseases ; and it is esteemed a prodigy , that a man should live to a long age and not be sick : and it is recorded for a wonder concerning Xenophilus the Musitian , that he lived to 106 years of age in a perfect and continual health : No story tells the like of a Prince , or a great or a wise person ; unlesse we have a minde to believe the tales concerning Nestor and the Euboean Sibyl . Old age and healthfull bodies are seldome made the appendages to great fortunes : and under so great , and so universal precedents , so common fate of men , he that will not suffer his portion , deserves to be something else then a man , but nothing that is better . 8. We finde in story that many Gentiles who walked by no light but that of reason , opinion , and humane examples , did bear their sicknesse nobly , and with great contempt of pain , and with huge interests of vertue . When Pompey came from Syria and called at Rhodes , to see Posidonius the Philosopher , he found him hugely afflicted with the gout , and expressed his sorrow , that he could not hear his Lectures from which by this pain he must needs be hindred . Posidonius told him , but you may hear me for all this ; and he discours'd excellently in the midst of his tortures , even then , when the torches were put to his feet , that nothing was good but what was honest ; and therefore nothing could be an evil , if it were not criminal , and summed up his Lectures with this saying ; O pain , in vain doest thou attempt me ; for I will never confesse thee to be an evil as long as I can honestly bear thee . And when Pompey himself was desperately sick at Naples , the Neopolitans wore crowns and triumphed ; and the men of Puteoli came to congratulate his sicknesse , not because they loved him not , but because it was the custome of their countrey to have better opinions of sicknesse then we have . The boyes of Sparta would at their Altars endure whipping till their very entrails saw the light thorow their torn flesh ; and some of them to death , without crying or complaint . Caesar would drink his potions of Rhubarb rudely mixt , and unfitly allayed with little sippings , and tasted the horror of the medicine spreading the loathsomnesse of his physick so , that all the parts of his tongue and palate might have an intire share : and when C. Marius suffered the veins of his leg to be cut out for the curing his gout , and yet shrunk not , he declared not onely the rudenesse of their physick , but the strength of a mans spirit , if it be contracted and united by the aids of reason or Religion , by resolution or any accidentall harshnesse , against a violent disease . 9. All impatience howsoever expressed , is perfectly uselesse to all purposes of ease , but hugely effective to the multiplying the trouble ; and the impatience and vexation is another , but the sharper disease of the two ; it does mischief by it self , and mischief by the disease . For men grieve themselves as much as they please , and when by impatience they put themselves into the retinue of sorrows , they become solemne mourners . For so have I seen the rayes of the Sun or Moon dash upon a brazen vessel whose lips kissed the face of those waters that lodged within its bosome , but being turned back and sent off with its smooth pretences , or rougher waftings , it wandred about the room and beat upon the roof , and still doubled its heat and motion : So is a sicknesse and a sorrow entertained by an unquiet and a discontented man , turned back either with anger , or with excuses ; but then the pain passes from the stomack to the liver , and from the liver to the heart , and from the heart to the head , and from feeling to consideration , from thence to sorrow , and at last ends in impatience , and uselesse murmur , and all the way the man was impotent , and weak ; but the sicknesse was doubled and grew imperious and tyrannicall over the soul and body . Massurius Sabinus tels , that the image of the goddesse Angerona was with a mufler upon her mouth placed upon the Altar of Volupia , to represent , that those persons who bear their sicknesses and sorrows without murmur , shall certainly passe from sorrow to pleasure , and the ease and honours of felicity ; but they that with spite and indignation bite the burning coal , or shake the yoak upon their necks , gall their spirits , and fret the skin , and hurt nothing but themselves . 10. Remember that this sicknesse is but for a short time ; If it be sharp it will not last long ; If it be long , it will be easie and very tolerable . And although S. Eadsine Archbishop of Canterbury had twelve years of sicknesse , yet all that while he ruled his Church prudently , gave example of many vertues , and after his death was enrolled in the Calender of Saints , who had finished their course prosperously . Nothing is more unreasonable then to intangle our spirits in wildnesse , and amazement , like a Partrich fluttering in a net , which she breaks not , though she breaks her wings . SECT . V. Remedies against Impatience by way of exercise . THe fittest instrument of esteeming sicknesse easily tolerable , is to remember that which indeed makes it so ; and that is , that God doth minister proper aids and supports to every of his servants whom he visits with his rod. He knows our needs , he pities our sorrows , he relieves our miseries , he supports our weaknesse , he bids us ask for help , and he promises to give us all that , and he usually gives us more , and indeed it is observable , that no story tells of any godly man , who living in the fear of God fell into a violent and unpardoned impatience in his naturall sicknesse , if he used those means which God and his holy Church have appointed . We see almost all men bear their last sicknesse with sorrowes indeed , but without violent passions ; and unlesse they fear death violently , they suffer the sicknesse with some indifferency ; and it is a rare thing to see a man who enjoyes his reason in his sicknesse , to expresse the proper signes of a direct and solemne impatience . For when God layes a sicknesse upon us , he seizes commonly on a mans spirits , which are the instruments of action and businesse ; and when they are secured from being tumultuous , the sufferance is much the easier ; and therefore sicknesse secures all that , which can do the man mischief . It makes him tame and passive , apt for suffering , and confines him to an unactive condition . To which if we adde , that God then commonly produces fear , and all those passions which naturally tend to humility and poverty of spirit , we shall soon perceive by what instruments God verifies his promise to us , ( which is the great security for our patience , and the easinesse of our condition ) that God will lay no more upon us then he will make us able to ●ear , but together with the affliction he will finde a way to escape : Nay , if any thing can be more then this ; we have two or three promises , in which we may safely lodge our selves , and roul from off our thorns and finde ease and rest : God hath promised to be with us in our trouble , and to be with us in our prayers , and to be with us in our hope and con●idence . 2. Prevent the violence and trouble of thy spirit by an act of thanksgiving ; for which in the worst of sicknesses thou canst not want cause , especially if thou remembrest that this pain is not an eternall pain . Blesse God for that ; But take heed also lest you so order your affairs that you passe from hence to an eternall so●r●w . If that be hard , this will be intolerable , But as for the present evil , a few dayes will end it 3. Remember that thou art a man and a Christian : as the Covenant of nature hath made it necessary , so the covenant of grace hath made it to be chosen by thee , to be a suffering person : either you must renounce your religion , or submit to the impositions of God , and thy portion of sufferings . So that here we see our advantages , and let us use them accordingly . The barbarous and warlike nations of old , could fight well and willingly , but could not bear sicknesse manfully . The Greeks were cowardly in their fights , as most wise men are , but because they were learned and well taught , they bore their sicknesse with patience and severity . The Cimbrians and Celtiberians rejoyce in battail like Gyants , but in their diseases they weep like Women . These according to their institution and designes had unequal courages , and accidental fortitude ; but since our Religion hath made a covenant of sufferings ; and the great businesse of our lives is sufferings , and most of the vertues of a Christian are passive graces , and all the promises of the Gospel are passed upon us through Christs crosse , we have a necessity upon us to have an equal courage in all the variety of our sufferings : for without an universal fortitude we can do nothing of our dutie . 4. Resolve to do as much as you can : for certain it is , we can suffer very much , if we list ; and many men have afflicted themselves unreasonably by not being skilful to consider how much their strength and state could permit ; and our flesh is nice and imperious , crafty to perswade reason that she hath more necessities th●n indeed belong to her , and that she demands nothing superfluous : suffer as much in obedience to God as you can suffer for necessity , or passion , fear , or desire . And if you can for one thing , you can for another , and there is nothing wanting but the minde . Never say ; I can do no more , I cannot endure this . For God would not have sent it , if he had not known thee strong enough to abide it ; onely he that knows thee well already , would also take this occasion to make thee know thy self . But it will be fit that you pray to God to give you a discerning spirit , that you may rightly distinguish just necessity from the flattery and fondnesses of flesh and blood . 5. Propound to your eyes and heart the example of the holy Jesus upon the crosse ; he endured more for thee then thou canst either for thy self or him : and remember that if we be put to suffer , and do suffer in a good cause , or in a good manner , so that in any sense your sufferings be conformable to his sufferings , or can be capable of being united to his , we shall reign together with him . The high way of the Crosse which the King of sufferings hath troden before us , is the way to ease , to a kingdom , and to felicity . 6. The very suffering is a title to an excellent inheritance : for , God chastens every son whom he receives , and if we be not chastised , we are bastards and not sons : and be confident , that although God often sends pardon without correction , yet he never sends correction without pardon , unless it be thy fault : and therefore take every or any affliction as an earnest peny of thy pardon ; and upon condition there may be peace with God , let any thing be welcome that he can send as its instrument or condition . Suffer therefore God to choose his own circumstances of adopting thee , and be content to be under discipline when the reward of that is , to become the son of God : and by such inflictions he hewes and breaks thy body , first dressing it to funeral , and then preparing it for immortality : and if this be the effect or the designe of Gods love to thee ; let it be occasion of thy love to him : and remember that the truth of love is hardly known , but by somewhat that puts us to pain . 7. Use this as a punishment for thy sins ; and so God intends it most commonly ; that is certain , if therefore thou submittest to it , thou approvest of the divine judgement : and no man can have cause to complain of any thing , but of himself ; if either he believes God to be just , or himself to be a sinner : if he either thinks he hath deserved Hell , or that this little may be a means to prevent the greater , and bring him to Heaven . 8. It may be that this may be the last instance , and the last opportunity that ever God will give thee to exercise any vertue , to do him any service , or thy self any advantage ; be careful that thou losest not this ; for to eternal ages , this never shall return again . 9. Or if thou peradventure shalt be restored to health , be carefull that in the day of thy thanksgiving , thou mayest not be ashamed of thy self , for having behaved thy self poorly and weakly upon thy bed : it will be a sensible and excellent comfort to thee , and double upon thy spirit , if when thou shalt worship God for restoring thee , thou shalt also remember that thou didst do him service in thy suffering , and tell that God was hugely gracious to thee in giving thee the opportunity of a vertue , at so easie a rate as a sicknesse , from which thou didst recover . 10. Few men are so sick , but they believe that they may recover ; and we shal seldom see a man lie down with a perfect persuasion that it is his last hour ; for many men have been sicker , and yet have recovered ; but whether thou doest or no , thou hast a vertue to exer●ise , which may be a handmaid to thy patience . Epaphroditus was sick , sick unto death , and yet God had mercy upon him ; and he hath done so to thousands , to whom he found it useful in the great order of things , and the events of universal providence . If therefore thou desirest to recover , here is cause enough of hope ; and hope is designed in the arts of God and of the Spirit , to support patience . But if thou recoverest not , yet there is something that is matter of joy naturally , and very much Spiritually if thou belongest to God , and joy is as certain a support to patience , as hope ; and it is no small cause of being pleased , when we remember that if we recover not , our sicknesse shall the sooner sit down in rest and joy . For recovery by death , as it is easier and better then the recovery by a sickly health , so it is not so long in doing : it suffers not the tediousnesse of a creeping restitution , nor the inconvenience of Surgeons and Physitians , watchfulnesse and care , keepings in , and suffering trouble , fears of relapse and the little reliques of a storm . 11. While we hear , or use , or think of these remedies , part of the sicknesse is gone away , and all of it is passing . And if by such instruments we stand armed and ready dressed before hand , we shall avoid the mischiefs of amazements and surprize ; while the accidents of sicknesse are such as were expected , and against which we stood in readinesse with our spirits , contracted , instructed and put upon the defensive . 12 But our patience will be the better secured , if we consider that it is not violently tempted by the usual arrests of sicknesse ; for patience is with reason demanded while the sicknesse is tolerable ; that is , so long as the evil is not too great ; but if it be also eligible , and have in it some degrees of good , our patience will have in it the lesse difficulty , and the greater necessity . This therefore will be a new stock of consideration . Sicknesse is in many degrees eligible to many men , and to many purposes . SECT . VI. Advantages of Sicknesse . 1. I Consider : one of the great felicities of heaven consists in an immunity from sin : then we shall love God without mixtures of malice ; then we shall enjoy without envy ; then we shall see fuller vessels running over with glory , and crowned with bigger circles , and this we shall behold without spilling from our eyes ( those vessels of joy and grief ) any signe of anger , trouble or a repining spirit : our passions shall be pure , our charity without fear , our desire without lust , our possessions all our own , and all in the inheritance of Jesus , in the richest soil of Gods eternall kingdom . Now half of this reason which makes heaven so happy by being innocent , is also in the state of sicknesse , making the furrows of old age smooth , and the groans of a sick heart apt to be joyned to the musick of Angels ; and though they sound harsh to our untuned ears and discomposed Organs , yet those accents must needs be in themselves excellent which God loves to hear , and esteems them as prayers and arguments of pity , instruments of mercie and grace , and preparatives to glory . In sicknesse , the soul begins to dresse her self for immortality : and first she unties the strings of vanity that made her upper garment cleave to the world and sit uneasily . First she puts off the light and phantastic summer robe of lust , and wanton appetite , and as soon as that Cestus that lascivious girdle is thrown away , then the reins chasten us and give us warning in the night : then that which called us formerly to serve the manlinesse of the body , and the childishnesse of the soul , keeps us waking , to divide the hours with the intervals of prayer , and to number the minutes with our penitential groans : Then the flesh sits uneasily and dwells in sorrow , and then the spirit feels it self at ease , freed from the petulant sollicitations of those passions which in health were as buisie and as restlesse as atomes in the sun , alwayes dancing and alwayes busie and never sitting down till a sad night of grief and uneasinesse draws the vail , and lets them dye alone in se●ret dishonour . 2. Next to this ; the soul by the help of sicknesse knocks off the fetters of pride and vainer complacencies . Then she drawes the curtains , and stops the lights from coming in , and takes the pictures down , those phantastic images of self-love , and gay remembrances of vain opinion , and popular noises . Then the Spirit stoops into the sobrieties of humble thoughts and feels corruption chiding the forwardnesse of fancy , and allaying the vapours of conceit and factious opinions . For humility is the souls grave into which he enters , not to die , but to meditate and i● terre some of its troublesome appendages . There she sees the dust , and feels the dishonours of the body , and reads the Register of all its sad adherencies ; and then she layes by all her vain reflexions , beating upon her Chrystall and pure mirrour from the fancies of strength and beauty , & little decayed prettinesses of the body . And when in sicknesse we forget all our knotty discourses of Philosophy , and a Syllogisme makes our head ake , and we feel our many and loud talkings served no lasting end of the soul , no purpose that now we must abide by ; and that the body is like to descend to the land , where all things are forgotten , then she layes aside all her remembrances of applauses , all her ignorant confidences , and cares onely to know Christ Iesus and him crucified , to know him plainly , and with much heartinesse , and simplicity . And I cannot think this to be a contemptible advantage ▪ for ever since man tempted himself by his impatient desires of knowing , and being as God , Man thinks it the finest thing in the world to know much , and therefore is hugely apt to esteem himself better then his brethren , if he knowes some little impertinencies , and them imperfectly , and that with infinite uncertainty ; But God hath been pleased with a rare art to prevent the inconveniencies apt to arise by this passionate longing after knowledge ; even by giving to every man a sufficient opinion of his own understanding ; and who is there in the world that thinks himself to be a fool , or indeed not fit to govern his brother ? There are but few men but they think they are wise enough , and every man believes his own opinion the soundest , and if it were otherwise , men would burst themselves with envy , or else become irrecoverable slaves to the talking and disputing man. But when God intended this permission to be an antidote of envy , and a satisfaction and allay to the troublesome appetites of knowing , and made that this universal opinion by making men in some proportions equal should be a keeper out , or a great restraint to slavery , and tyranny respectively , Man ( for so he uses to do ) hath turned this into bitternesse : for when nature had made so just a distribution of understanding , that every man might think he had enough , he is not content with that , but will think he hath more then his brother : and whereas it might well be imployed in restraining slavery , he hath used it to break off the bands of all obedience , and it ends in pride and schismes , in heresies and tyrannies : and it being a spiritual evil , it growes upon the soul with old age and flattery , with health and the supports of a prosperous fortune . Now besides the direct operations of the Spirit , and a powerfull grace , there is in nature left to us no remedy for this evil , but a sharp sicknesse , or an equall sorrow , and allay of fortune ; and then we are humble enough to ask counsell of a despised Priest , and to think that even a common sentence from the mouth of an appointed comforter streams forth more refreshment then all our own wiser and more reputed discourses . Then our understandings and our bodies peeping thorow their own breaches see their shame and their dishonour , their dangerous follies , and their huge deceptions , and they go into the clefts of the rock , and every little hand may cover them . 3. Next to these ; As the soul is still undressing , she takes off the roughnesse of her great and little angers , and animosities , and receives the oil of mercies , and smooth forgivenesse , fair interpretations , and gentle answers , designes of reconcilement , and Christian atonement in their places . For so did the wrastlers in Olympus , they stripped themselves of all their garments , and then anointed their naked bodies with oil , smooth and vigorous , with contracted nerves and enlarged voice , they contended vehemently , till they obtained their victory , or their ease , and a crown of Olive ▪ or a huge pity was the reward of their fierce contentions . Some wise men have said , that anger sticks to a mans nature as inseparably as other vices do to the manners of fools , and that anger is never quite cured ; but God that hath found out remedies for all diseases , hath so ordered the circumstances of man , that in worser sort of men , anger and great indignation consume and shrivell into little peevishnesses and uneasie accents of sicknesse , and spend themselves in trifling instances : and in the better and more sanctified , it goes off in prayers , and alms , and solemn reconcilement : And however , the temptations of this state , such I mean which are proper to it , are little and inconsiderable : The man is apt to chide a servant too bitterly , and to be discontented with his nurse , or not satisfied with his Physitian , and he rests uneasily and ( poor man ) nothing can please him ; and indeed these little undecencies must be cured and stopped , lest they run into an inconvenience . But sicknesse is in this particular a little image of the state of blessed Souls , or of Adams early morning in Paradise , free from the troubles of lust , and violencies of anger , and the intricacies of ambition , or the restlesnesse of covetousnesse . For though a man may carry all these along with him into his sicknesse , yet there he will not finde them , and in despite of all his own malice , his soul shall finde some rest from labouring in the galleys , and baser captivity of sin : and if we value those moments of being in the love of God , and in the kingdom of grace , which certainly are the beginnings of felicity , we may also remember that the not sinning actually , is one step of innocence ; and therefore that state is not intolerable , which by a sensible trouble , makes it in most instances impossible to commit those great sins , which make death , and hell , and horrid damnations . And then let us but adde this to it ; that God sends sicknesses , but he never causes sin ; that God is angry with a ●inning person , but never with a man for being sick ; that sin causes God to hate us , and sicknesse causes him to pity us ; that all wise men in the world choose trouble rather then dishonour ; affliction rather then basenesse ; and that sicknesse stops the torrent of sin , and interrupts its violence ; and even to the worst men , makes it to retreat many degrees ; we may reckon sicknesse amongst good things , as we reckon Rhubarb , and Aloës , and child-birth , and labour , and obedience , and discipline : These are unpleasant , and yet safe ; they are troubles in order to blessings , or they are securities from danger , or the hard choices of a lesse and a more tolerable evil . 4. Sicknesse is in some sense eligible , because it is the opportunity and the proper scence of exercising * some vertues . It is that agony in which men are tried for a crown ; and if we remember what glorious things are spoken of the grace of faith , that it is the life of just men , the restitution of the dead in trespasses and sins , the justification of a sinner , the support of the weak , the confidence of the strong , the magazine of promises , and the title to very glorious rewards ; we may easily imagine that it must have in it a work and a difficulty , in some proportion answerable to so great effects . But when we are bidden to beleeve strange propositions , we are put upon it when we cannot judge , and those propositions have possessed our discerning faculties , and have made a party there , and are become domestick before they come to be disputed , and then the articles of faith are so few , and are made so credible , and in their event and in their object are so usefull and gaining upon the affections , that he were a prodigie of man , and would be so esteemed , th●t should in all our present circumstances disbeleeve any point of faith : and all is well as long as the Sun shines , and the fair breath of heaven gently wa●ts us to our own purposes . But if you will try the excellency , and feel the work of faith , place the man in a persecution , let him ride in a storm , let his bones be broken with sorrow , and his eyelids loosened with sicknesse , let his bread be dipped in tears , and all the daughters of Musick be brought low ; Let God commence a quarrell against him , and be bitter in the accents of his anger or his discipline , then God tries your faith . Can you then trust his goodnesse , & beleeve him to be a Father when you groan under his rod ? Can you rely upon all the strange propositions of Scripture , and be content to perish if they be not true ? C●n you receive comfort in the discourses of death and heaven , of immortality , and the resurrection , of the death of Christ , and conforming to his sufferings ? Truth is ; There are but two great periods , in which faith demonstrates it self to be a powerfull , and mighty grace ; and they ●re , persecution and the approaches of death , for the passive part : and a temptation , for the active . In the dayes of pleasure and the night of pain , faith is to fight her agonisticon , to contend for mastery : and faith overcomes all alluring and fond temptations to sin , and faith overcomes all our weaknesses and faintings in our troubles . By the faith of the promises we learn to despise the world , choosing those objects which faith discovers ; and by expectation of the same promises , we are comforted in all our sorrowes , and enabled to look thorow and see beyond the cloud : but the vigor of it is pressed , and called forth , when all our fine discourses come to be reduced to practice . For in our health and clearer dayes , it is easy to talk of putting trust in God : we readily trust him for life when we are in health ; for provisions when we have fair revenues ; and for deliverance when we are newly escaped , but let us come to fit upon the margent of our grave , and let a Tyrant lean hard upon our fortunes , and dwell upon our wrong , let the storm arise , and the keels tosse till the cordage crack , or that all our hopes bulge under us , and descend into the hollownesse of sad misfortunes ; then can you believe , when you neither hear , nor see , nor feel any thing but objections ? This is the proper work of sicknesse : faith is then brought into the theatre , and so exercised , that if it abides but to the end of the contention , we may see that work of faith which God will hugely crown . The same I say of hope , and of charity , or the love of God , and of patience , which is a grace produced from the mixtures of all these : they are vertues which are greedy of danger . And no man was ever honoured by any wise or discerning person for dining upon Persian Carpets , nor rewarded with a crown for being at ease . It was the fire that did honour to Mutius Scevola , poverty made Fabritius famous , Rutilius was made excellent by banishment , Regulus by torments , Socrates by prison , Cato by his death : and God hath crowned the memory of Iob with a wreath of glory because he sate upon his dunghil wisely and temperatly : and his potsheard and his groans mingled with praises and justifications of God , pleased him like an Anthem sung by Angels in the morning of the resurrection . God could not choose but be pleased with the delicious accents of Martyrs , when in their tortures they cryed out nothing but [ Holy Iesus ] and [ blessed be God ] and they also themselves who with a hearty resignation to the Divine pleasure can delight in Gods severe dispensation , will have the transportations of Cherubins , when they enter into the joyes of God. If God be delicious to his servants when he smites them , he will be nothing but ravishments and extasies to their spirits when he refreshes them with overflowings of joy , in the day of recompences . No man is more miserable then he that hath no adversity ; that man is not tryed whether he be good or bad ; and God never crowns those vertues which are onely faculties , and dispositions : but every act of vertue is an ingredient into reward . And we see many children f●irly planted , whose parts of nature were never dressed by art , nor called from the furrowes of their first possibilities by discipline , and institution , and they dwell for ever in ignorance , and converse with beasts : and yet if they had been dressed and exercised , might have stood at the chairs of Princes , or spoken parables amongst the rulers of cities ? Our vertues are but in the seed , when the grace of God comes upon us first : but this grace must be thrown into broken furrowes , and must twice feel the cold , and twice feel the heat , and be softned with storms and showers , and then it will arise into fruitfulnesse and harvests : And what is there in the world to distinguish vertues from dishonours , or the valour of Caesar from the softnesse of the Egyptian Eunuchs , or that can make any thing rewardable , but the labour and the danger , the pain and the difficulty ? Vertue could not be any thing but sensuality , if it were the entertainment of our senses and fond desires ; and Apicius had been the noblest of all the Romans , if seeding a great appetite and despising the severities of temperance had been the work and proper imployment of a wise man. But otherwise do fathers , and otherwise do mothers handle their children : These soften them with kisses and imperfect noises , with the pap and breast milk of soft endearments , they rescue them from Tutors , and snatch them from discipline , they desire to keep them fat and warm , and their feet dry and their bellies full ; and then the children govern , and cry , and prove fools , and troublesome , so long as the feminine republike does endure . But fathers , because they designe to have their children wise and valiant , apt for counsel , or for arms , send them to severe governments , and tye them to study , to hard labour , and a●●lictive contingencies . They rejoyce when the bold boy strikes a lyon with his hunting spear , and shrinks not when the beast comes to affright his early courage . Softnesse is for slaves and beasts , for minstrels and uselesse persons , for such who cannot ascend higher then the state of a fair ox , or a servant entertained for vainer offices : But the man that designes his son for noble imployments , to honours , and to triumphs , to consular dignities and presidences of counsels , loves to see him pale with study or panting with labour , hardned with sufferance or eminent by dangers : and so God dresses us for heaven . He loves to see us strugling with a disease , and resisting the Devil , and contesting against the weaknesses of nature , and against hope to believe in hope , resigning our selves to Gods will , praying him to choose for us , and dying in all things but faith and its blessed consequents , ut ad officium cum periculo simus prompti ; and the danger and the resistance shall endeare the office . For so have I known the boysterous north-winde passe thorough the yielding aire which opened its bosome , and appeased its violence by entertaining it with easie compliance in all the regions of its reception . But when the same breath of Heaven hath been checked with the stiffnesse of a tower , or the united strength of a wood ; it grew mighty , and dwelt there , and made the highest branches stoop , and make a smooth path for it on the top of all its glories : So is sicknesse , and so is the grace of God. When sicknesse hath made the difficulty , then Gods grace hath made a triumph , and by doubling its power hath created new proportions of a reward ; and then shews its biggest glory , when it hath the greatest difficulty to Master , the greatest weaknesses to support , the most busie temptations to contest with : For so God loves that his strength should be seen in our weaknesse , and our danger . Happy is that state of life in which our services to God are the dearest , and the most expensive . 5. Sicknesse hath some degrees of eligibility , at least by an after-choice ; because to all persons which are within the possibilities and state of pardon , it becomes a great instrument of pardon of sins . For as God seldom rewards here and hereafter too : So it is not very often that he punishes in both states ; In great and finall sins he doth so ; but we finde it expressed onely in the case of the sin against the Holy Ghost , which shall never be forgiven in this world , nor in the world to come ; that is , it shall be punished in both worlds , and the infelicities of this world shall but usher in the intollerable calamities of the next . But this is in a case of extremity , and in sins of an unpardonable malice : In those lesser stages of death which are deviations from the rule , and not a destruction and perfect antinomy to the whole institution ; God very often smites with his rod of sicknesse , that he may not for ever be slaying the soul with eternall death . I will visit their offences with the rod , and their sin with scourges : Neverthelesse my loving kindenesse will I not utterly take from him : nor suffer my truth to fail . And there is in the New Testament a delivering over to Satan , and a consequent buffeting for the mortification of the flesh indeed ; but that the soul may be saved in the day of the Lord. And to some persons the utmost processe of Gods anger reaches but to a sharp sicknesse , or at most , but to a temporall death , and then the little momentany anger is spent , and expires in rest , and a quiet grave . Origen , S. Austin , and Cassian say concerning Ananias and Sapphira , that they were slain with a sudden death , that by such a judgement their sin might be punished , and their guilt expiated , and their persons reserved for mercy in the day of judgement . And God cuts off many of his children from the land of the living ; and yet when they are numbred amongst our dead , he findes them in the book of life , written amongst those that shall live to him for ever : and thus it happened to many new Christians in the Church of Corinth for their little undecencies , and disorders in the circumstances of receiving the holy Sacrament . S. Paul sayes ; [ that many amongst them were sick , may were weak , and some were fallen asleep ] He expresses the divine anger against those persons in no louder accents ; which according to the stile of the New Testament , where all the great transactions of duty and reproof are generally made upon the stock of Heaven , and Hell is plainly a reserve , and a period set to the declaration of Gods wrath . For God knowes that the torments of hell are so horrid , so insupportable a calamity , that he is not easy and apt to cast those souls , which he hath taken so much care , and hath been at so much expence to save , into the eternal never dying flames of Hell , lightly , for smaller sins , or after a fairly begun repentance , and in the midst of holy desires to finish it : But God takes such penalties , and exacts such fines of us , which we may pay , salvo contenemento saving the main stake of all , even our precious souls . And therefore S. Augustine prayed to God in his penitential sorrowes . Here O Lord burn and cut my flesh that thou mayest spare me for ever . For so said our blessed Saviour , Every sacrifice must be seasoned with salt , and every sacrifice must be burnt with fire , that is , we must abide in the state of grace , and if we have committed sins we must expect to be put into the state of affliction , and yet the sacrifice will send up a right and un●roubled cloud , and a sweet smell to joyn with the incense of the Altar , where the eternal Priest offers a never ceasing sacrifice . And now I have said a thing against which there can be no exceptions , and of which no just reason can make abatement . For when sicknesse which is the condition of our nature is called for , with purposes of redemption ; when we are sent to death to secure eternal life , when God strikes us that he may spare us , it shewes that we have done things which he essentially hates , and therefore we must be smitten with the rod of God : but in the midst of judgement God remembers mercy and makes the rod to be medicinal , and like the rod of God in the hand of Aaron to shoot forth buds , and leaves , and Almonds , hopes , and mercies and eternal recompences in the day of restitution . This is so great a good to us , if it be well conducted in all the chanels of its intention and designe , that if we had put off the objections of the flesh with abstractions , contempts and separations , so as we ought to do , were as earnestly to be prayed for , as any gay blessing that crowns our cups with joy and our heads with garlands and forgetfulnesse . But this was it which I said , that this may , nay that it ought to be chosen , at least by an after-election : for so said S. Paul , If we judge our selves we shall not be condemned of the Lord , that is , if we judge our selves worthy of the sicknesse ; if we acknowledge and confesse Gods justice in smiting us , if we take the rod of God in our own hands , and are willing to imprint it in the flesh , we are workers together with God , in the infliction , and then the sickness beginning , and being managed in the vertue of repentance , and patience and resignation and charity , will end in peace and pardon and justification , and consignation to glory . That I have spoken truth I have brought Gods Spirit speaking in Scripture for a witnesse . But if this be true , there are not many states of life that have advantages which can out-weigh this great instrument of security to our final condition . Moses dyed at the mouth of the Lord ; said the story ; he died with the kisses of the Lords mouth , ( so the Chaldee Paraphrase ) it was the greatest act of kindesse that God did to his servant Moses ; he kissed him and he died ; But I have some things to observe for the better finishing this consideration . 1. All these advantages and lessenings of evil in the state of sicknesse are onely upon the stock of vertue , and religion . There is nothing can make sicknesse in any sense eligible , or in many senses tolerable but onely the grace of God ; that onely turns sicknesse into easinesse and felicity , which also turnes it into vertue . For whosoever goes about to comfort a vitious person when he lies sick upon his bed , can onely discourse of the necessities of nature , of the unavoidableness of the suffering , of the accidental vexations and increase of torments by impatience , of the fellowship of all the sons of Adam , and such other little considerations , which indeed if sadly reflected upon and found to stand alone , teach him nothing , but the degree of his calamity , and the evil of his condition ; and teach him such a patience and minister to him such a comfort which can only make him to observ decent gestures in his sicknesse , and to converse with his friends and standers by so as may do them comfort , and ease their funeral and civil complaints ; but do him no true advantage . For all that may be spoken to a beast when he is crowned with hairlaces and bound with fillets to the Altar , to bleed to death to appease the anger of the Deity , and to ease the burden of his Relatives . And indeed what comfort can he receive , whose sicknesse as it looks back is an effect of Gods indignation , and fierce vengeance , and if it goes forward and enters into the gates of the grave is a beginning of a sorrow that shall shall never have an ending . But when the sicknesse is a messenger sent from a chastising Father ; when it first turns into degrees of innocence , and then into vertues , and thence into pardon , this is no misery , but such a method of the Divine oeconomy , and dispensation , as resolves to bring us to heaven without any new impositions , but meerly upon the stock and charges of nature . 2. Let it be observed that these advantages which spring from sicknesse , are not in all instances of vertue , nor to all persons . Sicknesse is the proper scene for patience , and resignation , for all the passive graces of a Christian , for faith and hope , and for some single acts of the love of God. But sicknesse is not a fit station for a penitent ; and it can serve the ends of the grace of repentance but accidentally : Sicknesse may * begin a repentance , if God continues life , and if we cooperate with the Divine grace : or sicknesse may help to alleviate the wrath of God and to facilitate the pardon , if all the other parts of this duty be performed in our healthfull state ; so that it may serve at the entrance in , or at the going out . But sicknesse at no hand is a good stage to represent all the substantiall parts of this duty : 1. It invites to it , 2. It makes it appear necessary , 3. It takes off the fancies of vanity , 4. It attempers the spirit , 5. It cures hypocrisie , 6. It tames the fumes of pride , 7. It is the school of patience , 8. And by taking us from off the brisker relishes of the world , it makes us with more gust to taste the things of the Spirit : and all this , onely when God fits the circumstances of the sicknesse , so as to consist with acts of reason , consideration , choice , and a present and reflecting minde : which then God sends when he means that the sickness of the body should be the cure of the soul. But let no man so rely upon it , as by designe , to trust the beginning , the progresse , and the consummation of our piety to such an estate which for ever leaves it unperfect : and though to some persons it addes degrees , and ministers opportunities , and exercises single acts with great advantage , in passive graces , yet it is never an intire or sufficient instrument for the change of our condition , from the state of death to the liberty and life of the sons of God. 3. It were good if we would transact the affairs of our souls with noblenesse and ingenuity , and that we would by an early and forward religion prevent the necessary arts of the Divine providence . It is true , that God cures some by incision , by fire and torments , but these are ever the more obstinate and more unrelenting natures . Gods providence is not so afflictive and full of trouble as that it hath placed sicknesse and infirmity amongst things simply necessary ; and in most persons it is but a sickly and an effeminate vertue which is imprinted upon our spirits with fears and the sorrowes of a feaver , or a peev●sh consumption . It is but a miserable remedy to be beholding to a sicknesse for our health , and though it be better to suffer the losse of a finger , then that the arm and the whole body should putrifie , yet even then also it is a trouble , and an evil to lose a finger . He that mends with sicknesse pares the nails of the beast , when they have already torn off part of the flesh : But he that would have a sicknesse become a clear and an entire blessing , a thing indeed to be reckoned among the good things of God , and the evil things of the world , must lead an holy life , and judge himself with an early sentence , and so order the affairs of his soul , that in the usuall method of Gods saving us , there may be nothing left to be done , but that such vertues should be exercised which God intends to crown : and then , as when the Athenians upon a day of battell with longing and uncertain souls sate in their Common-hall expecting what would be the sentence of the day , at last received a messenger , who onely had breath enough left him to say , [ We are conquerours ] and so died : So shall the sick person , who hath fought a good fight , and kept the faith , and onely wait● for his dissolution , and his sentence , breaths forth his spirit , with the accents of a conquerour , and his sicknesse and his death shall onely make the mercy and the vertue more illustrious . But for the sicknesse it self ; if all the calumnies were true concerning it , with which it is aspersed , yet it is far to be preferred before the most pleasant sin , and before a great secular businesse , and a temporall care ; and some men wake as much in the foldings of the softest beds , as others on the crosse : and sometimes the very weight of sorrow , and the wearinesse of a sicknesse presses the spirit into slumbers and the images of rest , when the intemperate or the lustfull person rolls upon his uneasie thorns , and sleep is departed from his eyes . Certainly it is , some sicknesse is a blessing . Indeed , blindnesse were a most accursed thing , if no man were ever blind , but he whose eyes are pulled out with tortures , or burning basins ; and if sickness were always a testimony of Gods anger , and a violence to a mans whole condition , then it were a huge calamity : but because God sends it to his servants , to his children , to little infants , to Apostles and Saints , with designes of mercy , to preserve their innocence , to overcome temptation , to try their vertue , to fit them for rewards ; it is certain , that sicknesse never is an evil , but by our own faults ; and if we will do our duty , we shall be sure to turn it into a blessing . If the sicknesse be great it may end in death ; and the greater it is , the sooner ; and if it be very little , it hath great intervalls of rest ; if it be between both we may be Masters of it , and by serving the ends of Providence serve also the perfective end of humane nature , and enter into the possession of everlasting mercies . The summe is this ; He that is afraid of pain , is afraid of his own nature , and if his fear be violent , it is a signe his patience is none at all ; and an impatient person is not ready dressed for heaven . None but suffering , humble , and patient persons can go to heaven : and when God hath given us the whole stage of our life to exercise all the active vertues of religion , it is necessary in the state of vertues that some portion and period of our lives be assigned to passive graces ; for patience , for Christian fortitude , for resignation , or conformity to the Divine will. But as the violent fear of sicknesse makes us impatient , so it will make our death without comfort and without religion , and we shall go off from our stage of actions and sufferings , with an unhandsome exit , because we were willing to receive the Kindnesse of God when he expressed it as we listed : But we would not suffer him to be kinde and gracious to us in his own method , nor were willing to exercise and improve our vertues at the charge of a sharp Feaver or a lingring consumption . Woe be to the man that hath lost patience , for what will he do when the Lord shall visit him . SECT . VII . The second temptation proper to the state of sicknesse ; Fear of death , with its remedies . THere is nothing which can make sicknesse unsanctified , but the same also will give us cause to fear death . If therefore we so order our affairs and spirits , that we do no● fear death , our sickness may easily become our advantage , and we can then receive counsel , and consider , and do those acts of vertue , which are in that state the proper services of God : and such which men in bondage and fear are not capable of doing , or of advices how they should , when they come to the appointed dayes of mourning . And indeed if men would but place their designe of being happy in the noblenesse , courage and perfect resolutions of doing handsome things , and passing thorough our unavoidable necessities ; in the contempt and despite of the things of this world , and in holy living , and the perfective desires of our natures , the longings and pursuances after Heaven , it is certain they could not be made miserable by chance and change , by sicknesse and death . But we are so softned and made effeminate with delicate thoughts and meditations of ease , and brutish satisfactions , that if our death comes before we have seized upon a great-fortune , or enjoy the promises of the fortune tellers , we esteem our selves to be robbed of our goods , to be mocked , and miserable . Hence it comes that men are impatient of the thoughts of death ; hence comes those arts of protraction and delaying the significations of old age * ; thinking to deceive the world men cosen themselves , and by representing themselves youthfull , they certainly continue their vanity , till Proserpina pull the perruke from their heads . We cannot deceive God and nature ; for a coffin is a coffin , though it be covered with a pompous veil ; and the minutes of our time strike on , and are counted by Angels , till the period comes which must cause the passing bell to give warning to all the neighbours that thou art dead , and they must be so : and nothing can excuse or retard this : and if our death could be put off a little longer , what advantage can it be in thy accounts of nature or felicity ? They that 3000 years agone dyed unwillingly , and stopped death two dayes , or staid it a week , what is their gain ? where is that week ? and poor spirited men use arts of protraction , and make their persons pitiable , but their condition contemptible ; beeing like the poor sinners at Noahs flood ; the waters drove them out of their lower rooms , then they crept up to the roof , having lasted half a day longer : and then they knew not how to get down : some crept upon the top branch of a tree , and some climbed up to a mountain , and staid it may be three dayes longer ; but all that while they endured a worse torment then death ; they lived with amazement , and were distracted with the ruines of mankinde , and the horrour of an universal deluge . Remedies against the fear of death by way of consideration . 1. God having in this world placed us in a sea , and troubled the sea with a continual storm , hath appointed the Church for a ship , and religion to be the sterne : but there is no haven or port , but death . Death is that harbour whither God hath designed every one , that there he may finde rest from the troubles of the world . How many of the noblest Romans have taken death for sanctuary , and have esteemed it less then shame or a mean dishonour ? And Caesar was cruel to Domitius Captain of Corfinium , when he had taken the town from him , that he refused to signe his petition of death . Death would have hid his head with honour , but that cruel mercy reserved him to the shame of surviving his disgrace . The Holy Scripture giving an account of the reasons of the divine providence taking Godly men from this world ; and shutting them up in a hasty grave , sayes , that they are taken from the evils to come : and concerning our selves it is certain , if we had ten years agone taken seizure of our portion of dust , death had not taken us from good things , but from infinite evils , such which the sun hath seldom seen . Did not Priamus weep oftner then Troilus ? and happy had he been if he had died when his sons were living , and his kingdom safe , and houses full , and his citie unburnt . It was a long life that made him miserable , and an early death onely could have secured his fortune . and it hath happened many times that persons of a fa●r life and a clear reputation , of a good fortune , and an honourable name , have been tempted in their age to folly and vanity , have fallen under the disgrace of dotage , or into an infortunate marriage , or have besottted themselves with drinking , or outlived their fortunes , or become tedious to their friends , or are afflicted with lingring and vexatious diseases , or lived to see their excellent parts buried , and cannot understand the wise discourses and productions of their younger years ; In all these cases and infinite more , do not all the world say but it had been better this man had died sooner ? But so have I known passionate women to shrike aloud when their neerest relatives were dying , and that horrid shrike hath stayed the spirit of the man , a while to wonder at the folly , and represent the inconvenience , and the dying person hath lived one day longer , full of pain , amazed with an undeterminate spirit , distorted with convulsions , and onely come again to act one scene more of a new calamity , and to die with less decency : so also do very many men , with passion and a troubled interest , they strive to continue their life longer , and it may be they escape this sickness , and live to fall into a disgrace ; they escape the storm and fall into the hands of pyrats , and instead of dying with liberty , they live like slaves , miserable and despised , servants to a litle time , and sottish admirers of the breath of their own lungs . Paulus Aemilius did handsomly reprove the cowardice of the King of Macedon , who begged of him for pities sake and humanity , that having conquered him and taken his kingdom from him he would be content with that , and not lead him in triumph a prisoner to Rome . Aemilius told him he need not be beholding to him for that : himself might prevent that in despite of him . But the timorous King durst not die : But certainly every wise man will easily believe that it had been better the Macedonian Kings should have dyed in battel , then protract their life so long , till some of them came to be Scriveners and Joyners at Rome : or that the Tyrant of Sicily better had perished in the Adriatic , then to be wafted to Corinth safely and there turn Schoolmaster . It is a sad calamity that the fear of death shall so imbecill mans courage and understanding , that he dares not suffer the remedie of all his calamities ; but that he lives to say as Liberius did , I have lived this one day longer then I should : either therefore let us be willing to die when God calls , or let us never more complain of the calamities of our life which we feel so sharp and numerous . And when God sends his Angel to us with a scroll of death , let us look on it as an act of mercy , to prevent many sins and many calamities of a longer life ; and lay our heads down softly , and go to sleep without wrangling like babies and froward children . For a man ( at least ) gets this by death , that his calamities are not immortal . But I do not onely consider death by the advantages of comparison , but if we look on it in it self it is no such formidable thing , if we view it on both sides and handle it , and consider all its appendages . 2. It is necessary and therefore not intolerable : and nothing is to be esteemed evil which God and nature have fixed with eternal sanc●ions . It is a law of God , it is a punishment of our sins , and it is the constitution of our nature . Two differing substances were joyned together with the breath of God , and when that breath is taken away they part asunder , and return to their several principles : the soul to God our Father , the body to the earth our Mother : and what in all this is evil ? Surely nothing , but that we are men ; nothing but that we were not born immortall : but by declining this change with great passion , or receiving it with a huge naturall fear , we accuse the Divine Providence of Tyranny , and exclaim against our naturall constitution and are discontent that we are men . 3. It is a thing that is no great matter in it self : if we consider that we die daily , that it meets us in every accident , that every creature carries a dart along with it and can kill us . And therefore when Lysimachus threatned Theodorus to kill him , he told him , that was no great matter to do , and he could do no more then the Cantharides could ; a little flie could do as much . 4. It is a thing that every one suffers , even persons of the lowest resolution , of the meanest vertue , of no breeding , of no discourse . Take away but the pomps of death , the disguises and solemn bug-bears , the tinsell , and the actings by candle-light , and proper and phantastic ceremonies , the minstrels and the noise-makers , the women and the weepers , the swoonings and the shrikings , the Nurses and the Physicians , the dark room and the Ministers , the Kinred and the Watchers , and then to die is easie , ready and quitted from its troublesome circumstances . It is the same harmelesse thing , that a poor shepherd suffered yesterday , or a maid-servant to day ; and at the same time in which you die , in that very night , a thousand creatures die with you , some wise men , and many fools ; and the wisdom of the first will not quit him , and the folly of the latter does not make him unable to die . 5. Of all the evils of the world which are reproached with an evil character , death is the most innocent of its accusation . For when it is present , it hurts no body ; and when it is absent , 't is indeed troublesome , but the trouble is owing to our fears , not to the affrighting and mistaken object : and besides this , if it were an evil , it is so transient , that it passes like the instant , or undiscerned portion of the present time ; and either it is past , or it is not yet ; for just when it is , no man hath reason to complain of so insensible , so sudden , so undiscerned a change . 6. It is so harmelesse a thing , that no good man was ever thought the more miserable for dying , but much the happier . When men saw the graves of Calatinus , of the Servicij , the Scipio's , the Metelli , did ever any man among the wisest Romans think them unhappy ? And when S. Paul fell under the sword of Nero , and S. Peter died upon the crosse , and S. Stephen from an heap of stones was carried into an easier grave , they that made great lamentation over them , wept for their own interest , and after the manner of men ; but the Martyrs were accounted happy , and their dayes kept solemnly , and their memories preserved in never dying honours . When S. Hilary Bishop of Poictiers in France went into the East to reproove the Arian heresie , he heard that a young noble Gentleman , treated with his daughter Abra for marriage : The Bishop wrote to his daughter , that she should not ingage her promise , nor do countenance to that request , because he had provided for her a husband fair , rich , wise and noble , farre beyond her present offer . The event of which was this : She obeyed , and when her father returned from his Eastern triumph to his Western charge , he prayed to God that his daughter might die quickly , and God heard his prayers , and Christ took her into his bosome , entertaining her with antepasts and caresses of holy love , till the day of the marriage Supper of the Lamb shall come . But when the Bishops wife observed this event , and understood of the good man her husband what was done , and why , she never left him alone till he obtained the same favour for her ; and she also at the prayers of S. Hilary went into a more early grave and a bed of joyes . 7. It is a sottish and an unlearned thing to reckon the time of our life as it is short or long , to be good or evil fortune ; life in it self being neither good nor bad , but just as we make it , and therefore so is death . 8. But when we consider , death is not onely better then a miserable life , not onely an easie and innocent thing in it self , but also that it is a state of advantage , we shall have reason not to double the sharpnesses of our sicknesse by our fear of death : Certain it is , death hath some good upon its proper stock : praise and a fair memory , a reverence and religion toward them so great , that it is counted dishonest to speak evil of the dead ; then they rest in peace and are quiet from their labours and are designed to immortality . Cleobis and Biton , Throphonius and Agamedes had an early death sent them as a reward , to the former for their piety to their Mother , to the latter for building of a Temple . To this , all those arguments will minister , which relate the advantages of the state of separation and resurrection . SECT . VIII . Remedies against fear of death , by way of exercise . 1. HE that would willingly be fearlesse of death , must learn to despise the world ; he must neither love any thing passionately , nor be proud of any circumstance of his life . O death how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that liveth at rest in his possessions , to a man that hath nothing to vex him , and that hath prosperity in all things , yea unto him that is yet able to receive meat ? said the son of Sirach . But the parts of this exercise help each other . If a man be not incorporated in all his passions to the things of this world , he will lesse fear to be divorced from them by a supervening death ; and yet because he must part with them all in death , it is but reasonable he should not be passionate for so fugitive and transient interest . But if any man thinks well of himself for being a handsome person , or if he be stronger and wiser then his neighbours , he must remember that what he boasts of will decline into weaknesse and dishonour ; but that very boasting and complacency , will make death keener , and more unwelcome , because it comes to take him from his confidences and pleasures , making his beauty equal to those Ladies that have slept some years in Charnel houses , and their strength not so stubborn as the breath of an infant , and their wisdom such which can be looked for in the land where all things are forgotten . 2. He that would not fear death , must strengthen his spirit with the proper instruments of Christian fortitude . All men are resolved upon this , that to bear grief honestly and temperately and to dye willingly and nobly is the duty of a good and of a valiant man : and they that are not so , are vitious , and fools , and cowards . All men praise the valiant , and honest , and that which the very Heathen admired in their noblest examples , is especially patience and contempt of death . Zeno Eleates endured torments rather then discover his friends or betray them to the danger of the Tyrant : and Calanus the barbarous and unlearned Indian willingly suffered himself to be burnt alive : and all the women did so , to do honour to their Husbands Funeral , and to represent and prove their affections great to their Lords . The religion of a Christian does more command fortitude , then ever did any institution ; for we are commanded to be willing to die for Christ , to dye for the brethren , to dye rather then give offence or scandal ; the effect of which is this ; that he that is instructed to do the necessary parts of his duty ; is by the same instrument fortified against death : As he that does his duty need not fear death : so neither shall he ; the parts of his duty , are parts of his security . It is certainly a great basenesse and pusillanimitie of spirit that makes death terrible and extremely to be avoided . 3. Christian prudence is a great security against the fear of death . For if we be afraid of death it is but reasonable to use all spiritual arts to take off the apprehension of the evil : but therefore we ought to remove our fear , because fear gives to death wings and spurres , and darts . Death hastens to a fearful man : if therefore you would make death harmlesse and slow ; to throw off fear is the way to do it ; and prayer is the way to do that . If therefore you be afraid of death , consider you will have lesse need to fear it , by how much the less you do fear it : and so cure your direct fear by a reflex act of prudence , and consideration . Fannius had not dyed so soon , if he had not feared death : and when Cneius Carbo begged the respite of a little time for a base imployment of the souldiers of Pompey , he got nothing , but that the basenesse of his fear dishonoured the dignity of his third Consulship ; and he chose to dye in a place , where none but his meanest servants should have seen him . I remember a story of the wrastler Polydamas that running into a cave to avoid the storm , the water at last swelled so high , that it began to presse that hollownesse to a ruine : which when his fellowes espied they chose to enter into the common fate of all men , and went abroad : but Polydamas thought by his strength to support the earth till its intolerable weight crushed him into flatnesse and a grave . Many men run for shelter to a place , and they onely finde a remedie for their fears by feeling the worst of evils : fear it self findes no sanctuary but the worst of sufferance ; and they that flye from a battel are exposed to the mercy and fury of the pursuers , who if they faced about , were as well disposed to give laws of life and death , as to take them ; and at worst can but die nobly ; but now even at the very best , they live shamefully or die timorously . Courage is the greatest security ; for it does most commonly safeguard the man , but alwayes rescues the condition from an intolerable evil . 4. If thou wilt be fearlesse of death , endeavour to be in love with the felicities of Saints and Angels : and be once perswaded to believe that there is a condition of living better then this ; that there are creatures more noble then we ; that above there is a countrey better then ours ; that the inhabitants know more and know better ; and are in places of rest and desire : and first learn to value it , and then learn to purchase it ; and death cannot be a formidable thing , which lets us into so much joy & so much felicity . And indeed who would not think his condition mended if he passed from conversing with dull mortals , with ignorant and foolish persons , with Tyrants and enemies of learning , to converse with Homer and Plato , with Socrates and Cicero , with Plutarch and Fabricius ? So the Heathens speculated : but we consider higher . The dead that die in the Lord shall converse with S. Paul , and all the Colledge of the Apostles , and all the Saints and Martyrs ; with all the good men whose memory we preserve in honour : with excellent Kings and holy Bishops , and with the great Shepherd and Bishop of our souls Iesus Christ , and with God himself . For Christ dyed for us , that whether we wake or sleep we might live together with him . Then we shall be free from lust and envy , from fear and rage , from covetousnesse and sorrow , from tears and cowardice ; and these indeed properly are the onely evils that are contrary to felicity and wisdom . Then we shall see strange things and know new propositions , and all things in another manner , and to higher purposes . Cleombrotus was so taken with this speculation , that having learned from Plato's Phaedon the souls abode , he had not patience to stay natures dull leisure , but leapt from a wall to his portion of immortality . And when Pomponius Atticus resolved to die by famine , to ease the great pains of his gout , in the abstinence of two dayes found his foot at ease : But when he began to feel the pleasures of an approaching death , and the delicacies of that ease he was to inherit below , he would not withdraw his foot , but went on and finished his death ; and so did Cleanthes ; and every wise man will despise the little evils of that state , which indeed is the daughter of fear , but the mother of rest , and peace , and felicity . 5. If God should say to us , Cast thy self into the Sea ( as Christ did to S. Peter , or as God concerning Ionas ) I have provided for thee a Dolphin , or a Whale , or a Port , a safety or a deliverance , security or a reward , were we not incredulous and pusillanimous persons if we should tremble to put such a felicity into act , and our selves into possession ? The very duty of resignation , and the love of our own interest are good antidores against fear . In fourty or fifty years we finde evils enough , and arguments enough to make us weary of this life : And to a good man there are very many more reasons to be afraid of life then death , this having in it lesse of evil and more of advantage . And it was a rare wish of that Roman , that death might come onely to wise and excellent persons , and not to fools and cowards , that it might not be a sanctuary for the timerous , but the reward of the vertuous ; and indeed they onely can make advantage of it . 6. Make no excuses to make thy desires of life seem reasonable ; neither cover thy fear and pretences , but suppresse it rather , with arts of severity and ingenuity . Some are not willing to submit to Gods sentence and arrest of death , till they have finished such a designe , or made an end of the last paragraph of their book , or raised such portions for their children , or preached so many sermons , or built their house , or planted their orchard , or ordered their estate with such advantages ; It is well for the modesty of these men that the excuse is ready ; but if it were not , it is certain they would search one out : for an idle man is never ready to die , and is glad of any excuse ; and a busied man hath alwayes something unfinished , and he is ready for every thing but death : and I remember that Petronius brings in Eumolpus composing verses in a desperate storm , and being called upon to shift for himself when the ship dashed upon the rock , cried out to let him alone till he had finished and trimmed his verse , which was lame in the hinder leg ; the man either had too strong a desire to end his verse , or too great a desire not to end his life . But we must know Gods times are not to be measured by our circumstances ; and what I value , God regards not , or if it be valuable in the accounts of men , yet God will supply it with other contingencies of his providence : and if Epaphroditus had died when he had his great sicknesse S. Paul speaks of , God would have secured the work of the Gospel without him , and he could have spared Epaphroditus as well as S. Stephen , and S. Peter , as well as S. Iames : Say no more , but when God calls , lay aside thy papers and first dresse thy soul , and then dresse thy hearse . Blindnesse is odious , and widow-hood is sad , and destitution is without comfort , and persecution is full of trouble , and famine is intolerable , and tears are the sad ease of a sadder heart ; but these are evils of our life , not of our death . For the dead that die in the Lord are so farre from wanting the commodities of this life , that they do not want life it self . After all this , I do not say it is a sin to be afraid of death : we find the boldest spirit that discourses of it with confidence , and dares undertake a danger as big as death , yet doth shrink at the horror of it when it comes dressed in its proper circumstances ; And Brutus who was as bold a Roman to undertake a noble action , as any was since they first reckoned by Consuls , yet when Furius came to cut his throat after his defeat by Anthony , he ran from it like a girl , and being admonished to die constantly , he swore by his life , that he would shortly endure death . But what do I speak of such imperfect persons ? Our B. Lord was pleased to legitimate fear to us , by his agony and prayers in the garden . It is not a sin to be afraid , but it is a great felicity to be without fear , which felicity our dearest Saviour refused to have , because it was agreeable to his purposes to suffer any thing that was contrary to felicity , every thing but sin . But when men will by all means avoid death , they are like those who at any hand resolve to be rich : The case may happen in which they wil blaspheme , and dishonor providence , or do a base action , or curse God , and die : But in all cases they die miserable and insnared , and in no case do they die the lesse for it . Nature hath left us the key of the Churchyard , and custome hath brought Caemeteries and charnell houses into Cities and Churches , places most frequented , that we might not carry our selves strangely in so certain , so expected , so ordinary , so unavoydable an accident . All reluctancy or unwillingnesse to obey the Divine decree , is but a snare to our selves , and a load to our spirits , and is either an intire cause , or a great aggravation of the calamity . Who did not scorn to look upon Xerxes when he caused 300. stripes to be given to the Sea , and sent a chartell of defiance against the Mountain Atho ? Who did not scorn the proud vanity of Cyrus when he took so goodly a revenge upon the river Cyndus for his hard passage over it ? or did not deride or pity the Thracians for shooting arrowes against heaven , when it thunders ? To be angry with God , to quarrell with the Divine providence , by repining against an unalterable , a naturall , an easie sentence , is an argument of a huge folly , and the parent of a great trouble ; as man is base and foolish to no purpose , he throwes away a vice to his own misery and to no advantages of ease and pleasure . Fear keeps men in bondage all their life , saith Saint Paul , and patience makes him his own man , and lord of his own interest and person . Therefore possesse your selves in patience , with reason , and religion , and you shall die with ease . If all the parts of this discourse be true ; if they be better then dreams , and unlesse vertue be nothing but words , as a grove is a heap of trees ; if they be not the Phantasmes of hypochondriacall persons , and designes upon the interest of men , and their perswasions to evil purposes ; then there is no reason , but that we should really desire death , and account it among the good things of God , and the sowre and laborious felicities of man. S. Paul understood it well , when he desired to be dissolved : he well enough knew his own advantages , and pursued them accordingly ; But it is certain that he that is afraid of death , I mean , with a violent and transporting fear , with a fear apt to discompose his duty , or his patience , that man either loves this world too much , or dares not trust God for the next . SECT . IX . General rules and exercises whereby our sicknesse may become safe and sanctified . 1. TAke care that the cause of thy sicknesse be such as may not sowre it in the principle and original causes of it . It a sad calamity to passe into the house of mourning through the gates of intemperance , by a drunken meeting , or the surfets of a loathed and luxurious Table ; for then a man suffers the pain of his own ●olly , and he is like a fool smarting under the whip which his own vitiousnesse twisted for his back ; then a man payes the price of his sin , and hath a pure and an unmingled sorrow in his suffering ; and it cannot be alleviated by any circumstances ; for the whole affair is a meere processe of death and sorrow . Sin is in the head , sicknesse is in the body , and death and an eternity of pains in the tail , and nothing can make this condition intolerable unlesse the miracles of the Divine mercy will be pleased to exchange the eternal anger for the temporal . True it is , that in all sufferings the cause of it makes it noble or ignoble , honour or shame , tolerable or intolerable . For when patience is assaulted by a ruder violence , and by a blow from heaven or earth , from a gracious God , or an unjust man , patience looks forth to the doors which way she may escape , and if innocence or a cause of religion keep the first entrance , then whether she escapes at the gates of life or death there is a good to be received , greater then the evils of a sicknesse ; but if sin thrust in that sicknesse , and that hell stands at the door , then patience turns into fury , and seeing it impossible to go forth with safety , rouls up and down with a circular and infinite revolution , making its motion not from , but upon its own centre ; it doubles the pain and increases the sorrow , till by its weight it breaks the spirit and bursts into the agonies of infinite and eternal ages . If we had seen S. Policarp burning to death , or S. Laurence rosted upon his gridiron , or S. Ignatius exposed to lions , or S. Sebastion pierced with arrowes , or S. Attalus carried about the theatre with scorn unto his death for the cause of Jesus , for religion , for God and a holy conscience , we should have been in love with flames , and have thought the gridiron fairer then the spondae , the ribs of a maritall bed : and we should have chosen to converse with those beasts rather then those men that brought those beasts forth ; and estimated the arrows to be the rayes of light brighter then the moon ; and that disgrace and mistaken pageantry were a solemnity richer and more magficent then Mordecai's procession upon the Kings horse , and in the robes of majesty ; for so did these holy men account them : they kissed their stakes , and hugged their deaths , and ran violently to torments , and counted whippings and secular disgraces to be the enamel of their persons , and the ointment of their heads , and the embalming their names , and securing them for immortality . But to see Sejanus torne in pieces by the people , or Nero crying or creeping timorously to his death when he was condemned to dye more majorum , to see Iudas pale and trembling , full of anguish , sorrow and despair , to observe the groanings and intolerable agonies of Herod and Antiochus , will tell and demonstrate the causes of patience and impatience to proceed from the causes of the suffering ; and it is sin onely that makes the cup bitter and deadly ; when men by vomiting measure up the drink they took in , and sick and sad do again taste their meat turned into choler by intemperance , the sin and its punishment are mingled so , that shame covers the face , and sorrow puts a veil of darknesse upon the heart , and we scarce pity a vile person that is haled to execution for murder or for treason , but we say he deserves it , and that every man is concerned in it that he should dye . If lust brought the sicknesse or the shame ; if we truly suffer the reward of our evil deeds , we must thank our selves ; that is , we are fallen into an evil condition , and are the sacrifice of the Divine justice . But if we live holy lives , and if we enter well in , we are sure to passe on safe , and to goe forth with advantage , if we list our selves . 2. To this relates , that we should not counterfeit sicknesse ; For he that is to be carefull of his passage into a sicknesse will think himself concerned that he fall not into it through a trap door : for so it hath sometimes happened , that such counterfeiting , to light and evil purposes hath ended in a real sufferance : Appian tells of a Roman Gentleman , who to escape the proscription of the Triumvirate , fled , and to secure his privacy counterfeited himself blinde on one eye , and wore a plaister upon it , till beginning to be free from the malice of the three prevailing princes , he opened his hood , but could not open his eye , but for ever lost the use of it , and with his eye paid for his libertie and hypocrisie . And Celius counterfeited the gout , and all its circumstances and pains , its dressings and arts of remedy , and complaint , till at last the gout really entred and spoiled the pageantry . His arts of dissimulation were so witty that they put life and motion into the very image of the disease ; he made the very picture to sigh and groan . It is easie to tell upon the interest of what vertue , such counterfeiting is to be reproved . But it will be harder to snatch the politicks of the world from following that which they call a canonized and authentick precedent● : and Davids counterfeiting himself mad before the King of Gath , to save his life and liberty , wil be sufficient to entice men to serve an end upon the stock & charges of so small an irregularity ; not in the matter of manners , but in the rules and decencies of natural or civil deportment . I cannot certainly tell what degrees of excuse Davids action might put on . This onely : besides his present necessity ; the Laws whose coercitive or directive power David lived under , had lesse of severity and more of liberty ; and towards enemies had so little of restraint , and so great a power , that what amongst them was a direct sin , if used to their brethren the sons of Iacob , was lawfull and permitted to be acted against enemies . To which also I adde this general caution , that the actions of holy persons in Scripture are not alwayes good precedents to us Christians , who are to walk by a rule and a greater strictnesse , with more simplicity and heartinesse of pursuit . And amongst them , sanctity and holy living did in very many of its instances increase in new particulars of duty ; and the prophets reproved many things which the law forbad not , and taught many duties which Moses prescribed not ; and as the time of Christs approach came , so the sermons and revelations too were more evangelical , and like the patterns which were ●ully to be exhibited by the Son of God. Amongst which it is certain , that Christian simplicity and godly sincerity is to be accounted , * and counterfeiting of sicknesse is a huge enemy to this : * it is an upbraiding the Divine providence , * a jesting with fire , * a playing with a thunderbolt , * a making the decrees of God to serve the vitious or secular ends of men ; * it is a tempting of a judgement , * a fal●e accusation of God , * a forestalling and antidating his anger , * it is a cousening of men by making a God party in the fraud ; and therefore if the cousenage returns upon the mans own head , he enters like a fox into his sicknesse , and perceives himself catched in a trap , or earthed in the intolerable dangers of the grave . 3. Although we must be infinitely careful to prevent it , that sin does not thrust us into a sicknesse , yet when we are in the house of sorrow , we should do well to take Physick against sin , and suppose that it is the cause of the evil ; if not by way of natural causality and proper effect , yet by a moral influence , and by a just demerit . We can easily see when a man hath got a surfet ; intemperance is as plain as the hand writing upon the wall , and easier to be read : but covetousness may cause a Feaver as well as drunkennesse , and pride can produce a falling sickness as well as long washings , and dilutions of the brain , and intemperate lust : and we finde it recorded in Scripture that the contemptuous and unprepared manner of reception of the Holy Sacraments caused sicknesse and death ; and Sacriledge and Vow-breach in Ananias and Saphira made them to descend quick into their graves . Therefore when sicknesse is upon us , let us cast about , and if we can , let us finde out the cause of Gods displeasure , that it being removed , we may return into the health and securities of Gods loving kindnesse . Thus in the three years famine David enquired of the Lord what was the matter ? and God answered , it is for Saul , and his bloody house : and then David expiated the guilt , and the people were full again of food and blessing : and when Israel was smitten by the Amorites , Ioshuah cast about , and found out the accursed thing , and cast it out , and the people after that fought prosperously . And what God in that case said to Ioshua , he will also verifie to us ; I will not be with you any more unlesse you destroy the accursed thing from among you . But in pursuance of this we are to observe that although in case of loud and clamorous sins the discovery is easy and the remedie not di●ficult ; yet because Christianity is a nice thing , and religion is as pure as the sun , and the soul of man is apt to be troubled from more principles then the in●ricate and curiosluy composed bodie in its innum●rable parts , it will often happen that if we go to enquire into the particular , we shall never finde it out : and we may suspect drunkennesse when it may be also a morose delectation in unclean thoughts , or covetousnesse , or oppression , or a crafty invasion of my neighbours rights , or my want of charity or my judging unjustly in my own cause , or my censuring my neighbours , or a secret pride , or a base hypocrisie , or the pursuance of little ends with violence and passion , that may have procured the present messenger of death . Therefore ask no more after any one , but heartily endeavour to reform all : sin no more lest a worse thing happen , for a single search or accusation may be the designe of an imperfect repentance ; but no man does heartily return to God , but he that decrees against every irregularity ; and then onely we can be restored to health or life , when we have taken away the causes of sicknesse and a cursed death . 4. He that means to have his sicknesse turn into safety and life , into health and vertue , must make religion the imployment of his sicknesse , and prayer the imployment of his religion . For there are certain compendiums or abbreviatures and shortnings of religion , fitted to several states . They that first gave up their names to Christ , and that turned from Paganism to Christianity had an abbreviature fitted for them ; they were to renounce their false worshippings , and give up their belief , and vow their obedience unto Christ , and in the very profession of this they were forgiven in Baptism . For God hastens to snatch them from the power of the Devil , and therefore shortens the passage , and secures the estate . In the case of poverty God hath reduced this dutie of man , to an abbreviature of those few graces which they can exercise ; such as are patience , contentednesse , truth , and diligence ; and the rest he accepts in good will , and the charities of the soul , in prayers and the actions of a cheap religion . And to most men charity is also an abbreviature . And as the love of God shortens the way to the purchase of all vertues , so the expression of this to the poor , goes a huge way in the requisites , and towards the consummation of an excellent religion : and Martyrdom is another abbreviature : and so is every act of an excellent and heroical vertue . But when we are fallen into the state of sicknesse , and that our understanding is weak and troubled , our bodies sick and uselesse , our passions turned into fear , and the whole state into suffering , God in complyance and mans infirmity hath also turned our religion into such a duty , which a sick man can do most passionately , and a sad man and a timorous can perform effectually , and a dying man can do to many purposes of pardon and mercy , and that is , prayer . For although a sick man is bound to do many acts of vertue of several kindes , yet the most of them are to be done in the way of prayer . Prayer is not onely the religion that is proper to a sick mans condition , but it is the manner of doing other graces which is then left , and in his power . For thus the sick man is to do his repentance , and his mortifications , his temperance and his chastity , by a fiction of imagination bringing the offers of the vertue to the spirit , & making an action of election , and so our prayers are a direct act of chastity when they are made in the matter of that grace ; just as repentance for our cruelty , is an act of the grace of mercie : and repentance for uncleannesse is an act of chastity , is a means of its purchase , an act in order to the habit : and though such acts of vertue which are onely in the way of prayer are ineffective to the intire purchase , and of themselves cannot change the vice into vertue , yet they are good renewings of the grace , and proper exercise of a habit already gotten . The purpose of this discourse is to represent the excellency of prayer , and its proper advantages which it hath in the time of sicknesse . For besides that it moves God to pity , piercing the clouds & making the Heavens like a pricked eye to weep over us , and refresh us with showers of pity ; it also doth the work of the soul , and expresses the vertue of his whole life in effigie , in pictures and lively representments , so preparing it for a never ceasing crown , by renewing the actions in the continuation of a never ceasing , a never hindred affection . Prayer speaks to God , when the tongue is stiffned with the approachings of death : prayer can dwell in the heart and be signified by the hand or eye , by a thought or a groan ; prayer of all the actions of religion is the last alive , and it serves God without circumstances , and exercises material graces by abstraction from matter , and separation , and makes them to be spiritual : and therefore best dresses our bodies for funeral , or recovery , for the mercies of restitution , or the mercies of the grave . 5. In every sicknesse whether it will or will not be so in nature and in the event , yet in thy spirit and preparations resolve upon it , and treat thy self accordingly as if it were a sicknesse unto death . For many men support their unequall courages by flattery and false hopes , and because sicker men have recovered , beleeve that they shall do so ; but therefore , they neglect to adorn their souls , or set their house in order ; besides the temporall inconveniences that often happen by such perswasions and putting off the evil day , such as are , dying Intestate , leaving estates intangled , and some Relatives unprovided for , they suffer infinitely in the interest and affairs of their soul , they die carelesly and surprized , their burdens on , and their scruples unremoved , and their cases of conscience not determined , and like a sheep , without any care taken concerning their precious souls . Some men will never beleeve that a villain will betray them , though they receive often advices from suspicious persons and likely accidents , till they are entered into the snare , and then they beleeve it when they feel it , and when they cannot return ; but so the treason entred , and the man was betrayed by his own folly , placing the snare in the regions and advantages of opportunity . This evil looks like boldnesse and a confident spirit , but it is the greatest timerousnesse and cowardize in the world . They are so fearfull to die , that they dare not look upon it as possible ; and think that the making of a Will is a mortall signe , and sending for a spirituall man an irrecoverable disease , and they are so afraid lest they should think and beleeve now they must die , that they will not take care that it may not be evil in case they should . So did the Eastern slaves drink wine , and wrapt their heads in a vail , that they might die without sense or sorrow , and wink hard that they might sleep the easier . In pursuance of this rule let a man consider , that whatsoever must be done in sicknesse ought to be done in health ; onely let him observe that his sicknesse as a good monitor chastises his neglect of duty , and forces him to live as he alwayes should ; and then all these solemnities and dressings for death , are nothing else but the part of a religious life , which he ought to have exercised all his dayes ; and if those circumstances can affright him , let him please his fancy by this truth , that then he does but begin to live . But it will be a huge folly if he shall think that confession of his sins will kill him , or receiving the holy Sacrament will hasten his agony , or the Priest shall undo all the hopefull language and promises of his Physitian . Assure thy self thou canst not die the sooner ; But by such addresses thou mayest die much the better . 6. Let the sick person be infinitely carefull that he do not fall into a state of death upon a new account ; that is , at no hand commit a deliberate sin , or retain any affection to the old ; for in both cases he falls into the evils of a surprize , and the horrors of a sudden death . For a sudden death is but a sudden joy , if it takes a man in the state and exercises of vertue : and it is onely then an evil when it finds a man unready . They were sad departures when Tegillinus , Cornelius Gallus the Praetor , Lewis the son of Gonzaga Duke of Mantua , Ladislaus king of Naples , Speusippus , Giachettus of Geneva , and one of the Popes died in the forbidden embraces of abused women ; or if Iob had cursed God and so died ; or when a man sits down in despair , and in the accusation and calumny of the Divine mercy ; they make their night sad , and stormy and eternall . When Herod began to sink with the shamefull torment of his bowels , and felt the grave open under him , he imprisoned the Nobles of his Kingdom , and commanded his Sister that they should be a sacrifice to his departing ghost . This was an egresse fit onely for such persons who meant to dwell with Devils to eternall ages , and that man is hugely in love with sin who cannot forbear , in the week of the Assizes , and when himself stood at the barre of scrutiny and prepared for his finall , never to be reversed sentence . He dies suddenly to the worst sense and event of sudden death , who so manages his sicknesse that even that state shall not be innocent , but that he is surprized in the guilt of a new account . It is a signe of a reprobate spirit , and an habituall prevailing , ruling sin , which exacts obedience when the judgement looks him in the face . At least go to God with the innocence and fair deportment of thy person in the last scene of thy life , that when thy soul breaks into the state of separation , it may carry the relishes of religion and sobriety to the places of its abode and sentence . * 7. When these things are taken care for , let the sick man so order his affairs that he have but very little conversation with the world , but wholly ( as he can ) attend to religion , and antedate his conversation in heaven , alwayes having entercourse with God , and still conversing with the Holy Jesus , kissing his wounds , admiring his goodnesse , beging his mercy , feeding on him with faith , and drinking his blood , to which purpose it were very fit ( if all circumstances be answerable ) that the narrative of the passion of Christ be read or discoursed to him at length , or in brief according to the stile of the four Gospels . But in all things , let his care and society be as little secular as is possible . CHAP. IV. Of the practise of the graces , proper to the state of sicknesse , which a sick man may practise alone . SECT . I. Of the practise of Patience . NOw we suppose the man entring upon his Scene of sorrows , and passive graces : It may be he went yesterday to a wedding , merry and brisk , and there he felt his sentence , that he must return home and die . For men very commonly enter into the snare singing , and consider not whither their fate leads them ; nor feared that then the Angel was to strike his stroak ; till his knees kissed the earth , and his head trembles with the weight of the rod , which God put into the hand of an exterminating Angel. But whatsoever the ingresse was , when the man feels his blood boil , or his bones weary , or his flesh diseased with a load of a dispersed and disordered humour , or his head to ake , or his faculties discomposed , then he must consider that all those discourses he hath heard concerning patience and resignation , and conformity to Christs sufferings , and the melancholy lectures of the Crosse , must all of them now be reduced to practise , and passe from an ineffective contemplation to such an exercise as will really try whether we were true disciples of the Crosse , or onely beleeved the doctrines of religion when we were at ease , and that they never passed thorow the ear to the heart , and dwelt not in our spirits . But every man should consider God does nothing in vain , that he would not to no purpose send us Preachers , and give us rules , and furnish us with discourse , and lend us books , and provide Sermons , and make examples , and promise his Spirit , and describe the blessednesse of holy sufferings , and prepare us with daily alarums ; if he did not really purpose to order our affairs so that we should need all this , and use it all , there were no such thing as the grace of patience if we were not to feel a sicknesse , or enter into a state of sufferings ; whether when we are entred , we are to practise by the following rules . The practise and acts of patience by way of rule . 1. At the first addresse and presence of sicknesse , stand still and arrest thy spirit , that it may without amazement , or affright consider that this was that thou lookedst for , and were alwayes certain should happen , and that now thou art to enter into the actions of a new religion , the agony of a strange constitution ; but at no hand suffer thy spirits to be dispersed with fear , or wildnesse of thought , but stay their loosenesse and dispersion by a serious consideration of the present and future imployment . For so doth the Lybian Lion spying the fierce huntsman , first beats himself with the stroaks of his tail , and curles up his spirits , making them strong with union and recollection , till being strook with a Mauritanian spear , he rushes forth into his defence and noblest contention ; and either scapes into the secrets of his own dwelling , or else dies , the bravest of the forrest : Every man when shot with an arrow from Gods quiver , must then draw in all the auxiliaries of reason , and know , that then is the time to try his strength , and to reduce the words of his religion into action , and consider that if he behaves himself weakly and timerously , he suffers never the lesse of sicknesse ; but if he turns to health he carries along with him the mark of a coward and a fool ; and if he descends into his grave , he enters into the state of the faithlesse and unbeleevers . Let him set his heart firm upon this resolution , I must bear it inevitably ; and I will by Gods grace do it nobly . 2. Bear in thy sicknesse all along the same thoughts , propositions , and discourses concerning thy person , thy life , and death , thy soul and religion , which thou hadst in the best dayes of thy health , and when thou didst discourse wisely concerning things spirituall . For it is to be supposed ( and if it be not yet done , let this rule remind thee of it , and direct thee ) that thou hast cast about in thy health and considered concerning thy change , and the evil day , that thou must be sick and die , that you must need a comforter , and that it was certain thou shouldst fall into a state in which all the cords of thy anchor should be stretched , and the very rock and foundation of faith should be attempted ; and whatsoever fancies may disturb you , or whatever weaknesses may invade you , yet consider , when you were better able to judge and governe the accidents of your life , you concluded it necessary to trust in God , and possesse your souls with patience . Think of things as they think that stand by you , and as you did when you stood by others , that it is a blessed thing to be patient , , that a quietnesse of spirit hath a certain reward , that still there is infinite truth and reality in the promises of the Gospel , that still thou art in the care of God , in the condition of a son , and working out thy salvation with labour and pain , with fear and trembling , that now the Sun is under a cloud , but it still sends forth the same influence ; and be sure to make no new principles upon the stock of a quick and an impatient sense , or too busie an apprehension : keep your old principles , and upon their stock discourse and practise on towards your conclusion . 3. Resolve to bear your sicknesse like a child , that is , without considering the evils and the pains , the sorrows and the danger ; but go straight forward , and let thy thoughts cast about for nothing , but how to make advantages of it by the instrument of religion . He that from a high tower looks down upon the precipice and measures the space through which he must descend , and considers what a huge fall he shall have , shall feel more by the horror of it , then by the last dash on the pavement : and he that tells his groans and numbers his sighs , and reckons one for every gripe of his belly , or throb of his distempered pulse , will make an artificiall sicknesse greater then the naturall ; and if thou beest ashamed that a childe should bear an evil better then thou , then take his instrument and allay thy spirit with it . ; reflect not upon thy evil , but contrive as much as you can for duty , and in all the rest , inconsideration will ease your pain . 4. If thou fearest thou shalt need ; observe and draw together all such things as are apt to charm thy spirit , and ease thy fancy in the sufferance . It is the counsell of Socrates : It is ( said he ) a great danger , and you must by discourse and arts of reasoning inchant it into slumber and some rest . It may be thou wert moved much to see a person of honour to die untimely ; or thou didst love the religion of that death bed , and it was dressed up in circumstances fitted to thy needs , and hit thee on that part , where thou wert most sensible ; or some little saying in a Sermon , or passage of a book was chosen and singled out by a peculiar apprehension , and made consent lodge a while in thy spirit , even then when thou didst place death in thy meditation , and didst view it in all its dresse of fancy : whatsoever that was which at any time did please thee in thy most passionate and fantastic part , let not that go , but bring it home at that time especially ; because then thou art in thy weaknesse , such little things will easier move thee then a more severe discourse and a better reason . For a sick man is like a scrupulous : his case is gone beyond the cure of arguments , and it is a trouble that can onely be helped by chance , or a lucky saying ; and Ludovico Corbinelli was moved at the death of Henry the second more then if he had read the saddest Elegy of all the unfortunate Princes in Christendom , or all the sad sayings of Scripture , or the threnes of the funerall prophets . I deny not , but this course is most proper to weak persons ; but it is a state of weaknesse for which we are now providing remedies and instruction ; a strong man will not need it : But when our sicknesse hath rendred us weak in all senses , it is not good to refuse a remedy , because it supposes us to be sick . But then if to the Catalogue of weak persons we adde all those who are ruled by fancy , we shall find that many persons in their health , and more in their sicknesse , are under the dominion of fancy , and apt to be helped by those little things , which themselves have found fitted to their apprehension ; and which no other man can minister to their needs , unlesse by chance , or in a heap of other things . But therefore every man should remember by what instruments he was at any time much moved , and try them upon his spirit in the day of his calamity . 5. Do not choose the kind of thy sicknesse , or the manner of thy death ; but let it be what God please , so it be no greater then thy spirit , or thy patience : and for that , you are to rely upon the promise of God ; and to secure thy self by prayer and industry ; but in all things else , let God be thy chooser , and let it be thy work to submit indifferently , and attend thy duty . It is lawfull to beg of God that thy sicknesse may not be sharp , or noysome , infectious or unusuall , because these are circumstances of evil which are also proper instruments of temptation ; and though it may well concern the prudence of thy religion to fear thy self , and keep thee from violent temptations , who hast so often fallen in little ones ; yet even in these things be sure to keep some degrees of indifferency ; that is , if God will not be intreated to ease thee , or to change thy triall , then be importunate that thy spirit and its interest be secured , and let him do what seemeth good in his eyes ; but as in the degrees of sicknesse thou art to submit to God ; so in the kind of it , ( supposing equall degrees ) thou art to be altogether incurious ; whether God call thee by a consumption or an asthma , by a dropsey or a palsey , by a feaver in thy humours , or a feaver in thy spirits , because all such nicety of choice is nothing but a colour to legitimate impatience , and to make an excuse to murmure privately , and for circumstances , when in the summe of affairs we durst not owne impatience . I have known some persons vehemently wish that they might die of a consumption , and some of these had a plot upon heaven , and hoped by that means to secure it after a carelesse life ; as thinking a lingring sicknesse would certainly infer a lingring and a protracted repentance ; and by that means they thought they should be safest ; others of them dreamed it would be an easier death , and have found themselves deceived , and their patience hath been tired with a weary spirit and a uselesse body , by often conversing with healthfull persons and vigorous neighbours , by uneasinesse of the flesh , and the sharpnesse of his bones , by want of spirits and a dying life ; and in conclusion have been directly debauched by peevishnesse and a fretfull sicknesse , and these men had better have left it to the wisdom and goodnesse of God , for they both are infinite . 6. Be patient in the desires of religion , and take care that the forwardnesse of exteriour actions do not discompose thy spirit : while thou fearest that by lesse serving God in thy disability , thou runnest backward in the accounts of pardon and the favour of God. Be content that the time which was formerly spent in prayer be now spent in vomiting , and carefulnesse and attendances : since God hath pleased it should be so , it does not become us to think hard thoughts concerning it : Do not think that God is onely to be found in a great prayer , or a solemn office ; he is moved by a sigh , by a groan , by an act of love ; and therefore when your pain is great and pungent , lay all your strength upon it , to bear it patiently ; when the evil is something more tolerable , let your mind think some pious , though short meditation ; let it not be very busie , and full of attention ; for that will be but a new temptation to your patience , and render your religion tedious and hatefull ; But record your desires , and present your self to God by generall acts of will and understanding , and by habituall remembrances of your former vigorousnesse , and by verification of the same grace , rather then proper exercises : if you can do more , do it ; but if you cannot , let it not become a scruple to thee ; we must not think man is tyed to the forms of health , or that he who swoons and faints , is obliged to his usual forms and hours of prayer ; if we cannot labour , yet let us love . Nothing can hinder us from that , but our own uncharitablenesse . 7. Be obedient unto thy Physitian in those things that concern him , if he be a person fit to minister unto thee ; God is he onely that needs no help ; and God hath created the Physitian for thine : therefore use him temperately , without violent confidences ; and sweetly without uncivil distrustings , or refusing his prescriptions upon humors or impotent fear . A man may refuse to have his arme or leg cut off , or to suffer the pains of Marius his incision : and if he believes that to dye is the lesse evil , he may compose himself to it without hazarding his patience , or introducing that which he thinks a worse evil ; but that which in this article is to be reproved and avoided , is , that some men will choose to die out of fear of death , and send for Physitians , and do what themselves list , and call for counsel and follow none . When there is reason they should decline him it is not to be accounted to the stock of a sin ; but where there is no just cause , there is a direct impatience . Hither is to be reduced that we be not too confident of the Physitian or drain our hopes of recovery from the ●ountain , through so imperfect chanels ; laying the wells of God dry , and digging to our selves broken cisterns . Physitians are the Ministers of Gods mercies , and providence , in the matter of health and ease , of restitution or death ; and when God shall enable their judgements and direct their counsels , and prosper their medicines , they shall do thee good , for which you must give God thanks , and to the Physitian the honour of a blessed instrument . But this cannot alwayes be done ; and Lucius Cornelius the Lieutenant in Portugal under Fabius the Consul , boasted in the inscription of his monument , that he had lived a healthful and vegete age till his last sicknesse , but then complained he was forsaken by his Physitian , and railed upon Esculapius , for not accepting his vow and passionate desire of preserving his life longer : and all the effect of that impatience and the folly was , that it is recorded to following ages , that he died without reason and without religion . But it was a sad sight to see the favour of all France confined to a Physitian and a Barber , and the King ( Lewis the XI . ) to be so much their servant that he should acknowledge and own his life from them , and all his ease to their gentle dressing of his gout , and friendly ministeries ; for the King thought himself undone and robbed if he should die ; his portion here was fair : and he was loth to exchange his possession for the interest of a bigger hope . 8. Treat thy nurses and servants sweetly and as it becomes an obliged and a necessitous person ; remember that thou art very troublesome to them ; that they trouble not thee willingly ; that they strive to do thee ease and benefit , that they wish it and sigh , and pray for it , and are glad if thou likest their attendance : that whatsoever is amisse is thy disease , and the uneasinesse of thy head or thy side , thy distemper or thy disaffections ; and it will be an unhandsome injustice to be troublesome to them because thou art so to thy self ; to make them feel a part of thy sorrowes that thou mayest not bear them alone ; evilly to requite their care by thy too curious and impatient wrangling , and fretful spirit . That tendernesse is vitious and unnatural that shrikes out under the weight of a gentle cataplasm ; and he will ill comply with Gods rod , that cannot endure his friends greatest kindnesse : And he will be very angry ( if he durst ) with Gods smiting him , that is peevish with his servants that go about to ease him . 9. Let not the smart of your sicknesse make you to call violently for death ; you are not patient , unlesse you be content to live . God hath wisely ordered that we may be the better reconciled with death , because it is the period of many calamities . But where ever the General hath placed thee , stirre not from thy station until thou beest called off , but abide so , that death may come to thee by the designe of him who intends it to be thy advantage ; God hath made sufferance to be thy work , and do not impatiently long for evening , lest at night thou findest the reward of him that was weary of his work ; for he that is weary before his time is an unprofitable servant , and is either idle or diseased . 10 That which remains in the practise of this grace is that the sick man should do acts of patience by way of prayer and ejaculations . In which he may serve himself of the following collection . SECT . II. Acts of patience by way of prayer and ejaculation . I Will seek unto God , unto God will I commit my cause which doth great things and unsearchable : marvellous things without number . To set upon high those that be low , that those which mourn may be exalted to safety . So the poor have hope and iniquity stoppeth her mouth . Behold , happy is the man whom God correcteth : therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty . For he maketh sore and bindeth up , he woundeth and his hands make whole . He shall deliver thee in six troubles , yea in seven there shall no evil touch thee . Thou shalt come to thy grave in a just age like as a shock of corn cometh in his season I remember thee upon my bed , and meditate upon thee in the night watches . Because thou hast been my help , therefore under the shadow of thy wings will I rejoyce . My soul followeth hard after thee , for thy right hand hath upholden me . God restoreth my soul : he leadeth me in the path of righteousnesse for his names sake . Yea though I walk thorough the valley of the shadow of death , I will fear no evil : for thou art with me , thy rod and thy staff , they comfort me . In the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion : in the secret of his tabernacle shal he hide me , he shal set me up upon a rock . The Lord hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary , from the heaven did the Lord behold the earth . To hear the groaning of his prisoners , to loose those that are appointed to death . I cryed unto God with my voice : even unto God with my voice , and he gave ear unto me ; In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord ; my sore ran in the night and ceased not ; my soul refused to be comforted . * I remember God and was troubled : I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed ; thou holdest mine eyes waking : I am so troubled that I cannot speak ; will the Lord cast me off for ever , and will he be favourable no more ? Is his promise clean gone for ever ? doth his promise fail for evermore ? Hath God forgotten to be gracious ? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies ? And I said , this my infirmity : but I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High. No temptation hath taken me , but such as is common to man : but God is faithful who will not suffer me to be tempted above what I am able ; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that I may be able to bear it . Whatsoever things were written afore time , were written for our learning , that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope . Now the God of peace and consolation grant me to be so minded . It is the Lord , let him do what seemeth good in his eyes . Surely the word that the Lord hath spoken is very good : But thy servant is weak ; O remember mine infirmities ; and lift thy servant up that leaneth upon thy right hand . There is given unto me a thorn in the flesh to buffet me . For this thing I besought the Lord thrice , that it might depart from me ; and he said unto me , My grace is sufficient for thee . For my strength is made perfect in weaknesse . Most gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities , that the power of Christ may rest upon me . For when I am weak then am I strong . O Lord thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul ; thou hast redeemed my life . And I said , My strength and my hope is in the Lord , remembring my affliction and my misery ; the wormwood and the gall . My soul hath them still in remembrance , and is humbled within me . This I recall to my minde , therefore I have hope . It is the Lords mercies that we are not consumed , because his compassions fail not . They are new every morning , great is thy faithfulnesse . The Lord is my portion said my soul , therefore will I hope in him . The Lord is good unto them that wait for him , to the soul that seeketh him It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. For the Lord will not cast off for ever . But though he cause grief , yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies . For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men . Wherefore doth a living man complain ? a man for the punishment of his sins ? O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave [ of Jesus ] that thou wouldest keep me secret until thy wrath be past , that thou wouldest appoint me a set time and remember me ! Shall we receive good at the hand of God , and shall we not receive evil ? The sick man may recite or hear recited the following Psalms in the intervals of his agony . I. O Lord rebuke me not in thine anger , neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure . Have mercy upon me , O Lord , for I am weak , O Lord heal me , for my bones are vexed . My soul is also sore vexed , but thou , O Lord how long ? Return O Lord , deliver my soul : O save me for thy mercies sake ▪ For in death no man remembreth thee : in the grave who shall give thee thanks . I am weary with my groaning : all the night make I my bed to swim : I water my couch with my tears . Mine eye is consumed because of grief ; it waxeth old because of all my [ sorrowes . Depart from me all ye workers of iniquity , for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping . The Lord hath heard my supplication : the Lord will receive my prayer . Blessed be the Lord who hath heard my prayer : and hath not turned his mercy from me . II. IN the Lord put I my trust ; how say ye to my soul , flee as a bird to your mountain ? The Lord is in his holy temple , the Lords throne is in heaven , his eyes behold , his eye-lids try the children of men . Preserve me O God ; for in thee do I put my trust . O my soul thou hast said unto the Lord : thou art my Lord , my goodnesse extendeth not to thee . The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup : thou maintainest my lot . I will blesse the Lord who hath given me counsel , my reins also instruct me in the night seasons . I have set the Lord alwayes before me : because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved . Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoyceth , my flesh also shall rest in hope . Thou wilt shew me the path of life : in thy presence is the fulnesse of joy , at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore . As for me I will behold thy face in righteousnesse : I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likenesse . III. HAve mercy upon me , O Lord , for I am in trouble : mine eye is consumed with grief ; yea my soul and my belly . For my life is spent with grief , and my years with sighing : my strength faileth because of mine iniquity and my bones are consumed . * I am like a broken vessel . But I trusted in thee O Lord , I said thou art my God. My times are in thy hand : make thy face to shine upon thy servant : save me for thy mercies sake . When thou saidst , seek ye my face , my heart said unto thee , thy face Lord will I seek . Hide not thy face from me ; put not thy servant away in thy anger : thou hadst been my help , leave me not , neither forsake me , O God of my salvation . I had fainted unlesse I had beleeved the goodnesse of the Lord in the land of the living . O how great is thy goodnesse , which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee : which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee , before the sons of men . Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man , thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues [ from the calumnies and aggravation of sins by Devils . ] I said in my haste , I am cut off from before thine eyes : neverthelesse thou heardest the voice of my supplication , when I cried unto thee . O love the Lord all ye his Saints : for the Lord preserveth the faithfull , and plenteously rewardeth the proud doer . Be of good courage , and he shall strengthen your heart : all ye that hope in the Lord. The Prayer : to be said in the beginning of a sicknesse . O Almighty God mercifull and gracious , who in thy justice didst send sorrow and tears , sicknesse and death into the world as a punishment for mans sins , and hast comprehended all under sin and this sad covenant of sufferings , not to destroy us , but that thou mightest have mercy upon all ; making thy justice to minister to mercy , short afflictions to an eternall weight of glory ; as thou hast turned my sins into sicknesse , so turn my sicknesse to the advantages of holinesse and religion , of mercy and pardon , of faith and hope , of grace and glory : thou hast now called me to the fellowship of sufferings ; Lord by the instrument of religion , let my present condition be so sanctified that my sufferings may be united to the sufferings of my Lord , that so thou mayest pity me , and assist me ; relieve my sorrow and support my spirit ; direct my thoughts , and sanctifie the accidents of my sicknesse ; and that the punishment of my sin may be the school of vertue ; In which since thou hast now entred me , Lord make me a holy proficient ; that I may behave my self as a son under discipline , humbly , and obediently , evenly , and penitently ; that I may come by this means neerer unto thee ; that if I shall go forth of this sicknesse by the gate of life and health , I may return to the world with great strengths of spirit , to run a new race of a stricter holinesse , and a more severe religion : Or if I passe from hence with the out-let of death , I may enter into the bosome of my Lord , and may feel the present joyes of a certain hope of that Sea of pleasures in which all thy Saints and servants shall be comprehended to eternall ages . Grant this for Jesus Christ his sake , our Dearest Lord and Saviour . Amen . An act of resignation to be said by a sick person in all the evil accidents of his sicknesse . O Eternall God , thou hast made me and sustained me , thou hast blessed me in all the dayes of my life , and hast taken care of me in all variety of accidents ; and nothing happens to me in vain ; nothing without thy providence ; and I know thou smitest thy servants in mercy and with designes of the greatest pity in the world : Lord I humbly lie down under thy rod ; do with me as thou pleasest ; do thou choose for me , not onely the whole state and condition of being , but every little and great accident of it . Keep me safe by thy grace , and then use what instrument thou pleasest of bringing me to thee : Lord I am not sollicitous of the passage , so I may get thee . Onely , O Lord , remember my infirmities , and let thy servant rejoyce in thee alwayes , and feel and confesse , and glory in thy goodnesse . O be thou as delightfull to me in this my medicinal sicknesse , as ever thou wert in any of the dangers of my prosperity , let me not peevishly refuse thy pardon at the rate of a severe discipline . I am thy servant and thy creature , thy purchased possession , and thy son , I am all thine , and because thou hast mercy in store for all that trust in thee , I cover my eyes , and in silence wait for the time of my redemption . Amen . A Prayer for the grace of Patience . MOst Mercifull and Gracious Father , who in the redemption of lost Mankind by the passion of thy most holy Son hast established a Covenant of sufferings , I blesse and magnifie thy Name that thou hast adopted me into the inheritance of sons , and hast given me a portion of my elder Brother : Lord , the crosse falls heavy and sits uneasie upon my shoulders ; my spirit is willing , but my flesh is weak , I humbly beg of thee that I may now rejoyce in this thy dispensation and effect of providence ; I know and am perswaded that thou art then as gracious when thou smitest us for amendment or triall , as when thou releevest our wearied bodies , in compliance with our infirmity : I rejoyce O Lord in thy rare and mysterious mercy , who by sufferings hast turned our misery into advantages unspeakable ; for so thou makest us like to thy Son , and givest us a gift that the Angels never did receive ; for they cannot die in conformity to , and imitation of their Lord and ours ; but blessed be thy Name ; we can , and dearest Lord , Let it be so . Amen . II. THou who art the God of patience and consolation strengthen me in the inner man , that I may bear the yoak and burden of the Lord without any uneasie and uselesse murmurs , and ineffective unwillingnesse . Lord , I am unable to stand under the crosse , unable of my self , but thou , O Holy Jesus , who didst feel the burden of it , who didst sink under it , and wert pleased to admit a man to bear part of the load when thou underwentest all for him ; be thou pleased to ease this load by fortifying my spirit ; that I may be strongest when I am weakest , and may be able to do and suffer every thing thou pleasest through Christ which strengthens me . Lord , if thou wilt support me , I will for ever praise thee ; If thou wilt suffer the load to presse me yet more heavily ; I will cry unto thee and complain unto my God , and at last I will lie down and die , and by the mercies and intercession of the Holy Jesus , and the conduct of thy blessed Spirit , and the ministery of Angels , passe into those mansions where Holy souls rest and weep no more . Lord pity me ; Lord sanctifie this my sicknesse ; Lord strengthen me ; Holy Jesus save me and deliver me ; thou knowest how shamefully I have fallen with pleasure ; in thy mercy and very pity , let me not fall with pain too . O let me never charge God foolishly , nor offend thee by my impatience and uneasie spirit , nor weaken the hands and hearts of those that charitably minister to my needs : but let me passe through the valley of tears , and the valley of the shadow of death with safety and peace , with a meek spirit , and a sense of the divine mercies ; and though thou breakest me in pieces , my hope is , thou wilt gather me up in the gatherings of eternity . Grant this eternall God , Gracious Father , for the merits and intercession of our mercifull high Priest , who once suffered for me , and for ever intercedes for me , our most gracious and ever Blessed Saviour Jesus . A Prayer to be said when the sick man takes Physick . O Most blessed and eternall Jesus , thou who art the great Physician of our souls , and the Sun of righteousnesse arising with healing in thy wings ; to thee is given by thy heavenly Father the Government of all the world , and thou disposest every great and little accident to thy Fathers honour , and to the good and comfort of them that love and serve thee : Be pleased to blesse the ministery of thy servant in order to my ease and health , direct his judgement , prosper the medicines , and dispose the chances of my sicknesse fortunately , that I may feel the blessing and loving kindnesse of the Lord , in the ease of my pain , and the restitution of my health ; that I being restored to the society of the living , and to thy solemn Assemblies , may praise thee and thy goodnesse secretly among the faithfull , and in the Congregation of thy redeemed ones , here in the outer-courts of the Lord , and hereafter in thy eternall temple for ever and ever . Amen . SECT . III. Of the practise of the grace of Faith in the time of sicknesse . NOw is the time in which faith appears most necessary and most difficult . It is the foundation of a good life ; and the foundation of all our hopes ; it is that without which we cannot live well , and without which we cannot die well ; it is a grace that then we shall need , to support our spirits to sustain our hopes , to alleviate our sickesse , to resist temptations , to prevent despair : upon the belief of the articles of our religion we can do the works of a holy life ; but upon belief of the promises , we can bear our sicknesse patiently and die cheerfully . The sick man may practise it in the following instances . 1. Let the sick man be careful that he do not admit of any doubt concerning that which he beleeved , and received from common consent in his best health and dayes of election and religion . For if the Devil can but prevail so far as to unfix and unrivet the resolution and confidence or fulnesse of assent , it is easie for him so to unwinde the spirit , that from why to whether or no , from whether or no , to scarcely not , from scarcely not , to absolutely not at all are steps of a descending and falling spirit : and whatsoever a man is made to doubt of by the weaknesse of his understanding in a sicknesse , it will be hard to get an instrument strong or subtle enough to reenforce and ensure ; For when the strengths are gone by which faith held , and it does not stand firme by the weight of its own bulk and great constitution , nor yet by the cordage of a tenacious root , then it is prepared for a ruine , which it cannot escape in the tempests of a sicknesse and the assaults of a Devil . * Discourse and argument , * the line of tradition , and a never * failing experience , * the Spirit of God and the * truth of miracles , * the word of prophecie , * and the blood of Martyrs , * the excellencie of the doctrine and * the necessity of men , * the riches of the promises , * and the wisdom of the revelations , * the reasonablenesse and * sublimity , the * concordance and the * usefulnesse of the articles , and * their complyance with all the needs of man , * and the goverment of common wealths , are like the strings and branches of the roots , by which faith stands firm and unmoveable in the spirit , and understanding of a man. But in sicknesse the understanding is shaken and the ground is removed in which the root did grapple , and support its trunk , and therefore there is no way now , but that it be left to stand upon the old confidences , and by the firmament of its own weight ; it must be left to stand because it alwayes stood there before : and as it stood all his life time in the ground of understanding , so it must now be supported with will and a fixed resolution . But disputation tempts it , and shakes it with trying , and overthrowes it with shaking . Above all things in the world , let the sick man fear a proposition which his sickness hath put into him , contrary to the discourses of health , and a sober untroubled reason . 2. Let the sick man mingle the recital of his Creed together with his devotions , and in that let him account his faith ; not in curiosity and factions , in the confessions of parties and interests ; for some over froward zeals are so earnest to professe their little and uncertain articles , and glory so to die in a particular and divided communion , that in the profession of their faith they lose or discompose their charity ; let it be enough that we secure our interest of heaven , though we do not go about to appropriate the mansions to our sect ; for every good man hopes to be saved as he is a Christian , and not as he is a Lutheran or of another division . However those articles upon which he can build the exercise of any vertue in his sicknesse , or upon the stock of which he can improve his present condition , are such as consist in the greatnesse and goodnesse , the veracity and mercy of God thorough Jesus Christ ; nothing of which can be concerned in the fond disputations which faction and interest hath too long maintained in Christendom . 3. Let the sick mans faith especially be active about the promises of grace , and the excellent things of the gospel ; those which can comfort his sorrowes , and enable his patience ; those upon the hopes of which , he did the duties of his life , and for which he is not unwilling to dye ; such as the intercession and advocation of Christ , remission of sins , the resurrection , the mysterious arts and mercies of mans redemption , Christs triumph over death , and all the powers of hell , the covenant of grace , or the blessed issues of repentance , and above all , the article of eternal life , upon the strength of which 11000 virgins went cheerfully together to their martyrdome , and 20000 Christians were burned by Dioclesian on a Christmas day , and whole armies of Asian Christians offered themselves to the Tribunals of Arius Anthonius , and whole colledges of severe persons were instituted , who lived upon religion , whose dinner was the Eucharist , whose supper was praise , and their nights were watches , and their dayes were labour ; for the hope of which then men counted it gain to lose their estates and gloried in their sufferings , and rejoyced in their persecutions , and were glad at their disgraces ; this is the article that hath made all the Martyrs of Christ confident and glorious , and if it does not more then sufficiently strengthen our spirits to the present suffering it is because we understand it not , but have the appetites of beasts and fools . But if the sick man fixes his thoughts and lets his habitation to dwell here , he swells his hope and masters his fears , and eases his sorrows , and overcomes his temptations . 4. Let the sick man endeavour to turn his faith of the Articles into love of them ; and that will be an excellent instrument , not onely to refresh his sorrows , but to confirm his faith in defiance of all temptations . For a sick man and a disturbed understanding are not competent and fit instruments , to judge concerning the reasonablenesse of a proposition ; But therefore let him consider and love it , because it is usefull and necessary , profitable and gracious ; and when he is once in love with it , and then also renews his love to it , when he feels the need of it ; he is an interested person , and for his own sake will never let it go , and passe into the shadows of doubting , or the utter-darknesse of infidelity . An act of love will make him have a mind to it , and we easily beleeve what we love , but very uneasily part with our belief which we for so great an interest have chosen , and entertained with a great affection . 5. Let the sick person be infinitely carefull that his faith be not tempted by any man , or any thing , and when it is in any degree weakned , let him lay fast hold upon the conclusion , upon the Article it self , and by earnest prayer beg of God to guide him in certainty and safety . For let him consider that the Article is better then all its contrary or contradictory , and he is concerned that it be true , and concerned also that he do beleeve it : but he can receive no good at all , if Christ did not die , if there be no resurrection , if his Creed hath deceived him : therefore all that he is to do is to secure his hold , which he can do no way but by prayer and by his interest . And by this Argument or instrument it was that Socrates refreshed the evil of his condition , when he was to drink his aconite . If the soul be immortall , and perpetuall rewards be laid up for wise souls , then I lose nothing by my death ; but if there be not , then I lose nothing by my opinion , for it supports my spirit in my passage , and the evil of being deceived cannot overtake me when I have no being . So it is with all that are tempted in their faith . If those Articles be not true , then the men are nothing ; if they be true , then they are happy ; and if the Article fails there can be no punishment for beleeving ; but if they be true , my not beleeving destroyes all my portion in them and possibility to receive the excellent things which they contain . By faith we quench the fiery darts of the Devil ; but if our faith be quenched , wherewithall shall we be able to endure the assault ? therefore seiz upon the Article , and secure the great object , and the great instrument , that is , the hopes of pardon , and eternall life through Iesus Christ , and do this by all means and by any instrument artificiall , or inartificiall , by argument , or by stratagem , by perfect resolution , or by discourse , by the hand and ears of premisses , or the foot of the conclusion , by right or by wrong , because we understand it , or because we love it , super totam materiam , because I will , and because I ought , because it is safe to do so , and because it is not safe to do otherwise , because if I do I may receive a good , and because if I do not I am miserable ; either for that I shall have a portion of sorrows , or that I can have no portion of good things . SECT . IV. Acts of faith by way of prayer and ejaculation to be said by sick men in the dayes of their temptation . LOrd whither shall I go ? thou hast the words of eternall life ? I beleeve in God the Father Almighty , and in Jesus Christ his onely Son our Lord , &c. And I beleeve in the Holy Ghost , &c. Lord I beleeve ; help thou mine unbelief . I know and am perswaded by the Lord Jesus ] that none of us liveth to himself , and no man dieth to himself . For whether we live , we live unto the Lord , and whether we die , we die unto the Lord : whether we live therefore or die , we are the Lords . If God be for us , who can be against us ? He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all : how shall he not with him give us all things ? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect ? It is God that justifieth ; who is he that condemneth ? It is Christ that died , yea rather that is risen again , who is even at the right hand of God , who also maketh intercession for us . If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father , Jesus Christ the righteous , and he is the propitiation for our sins . This is a faithfull saying , and worthy of all acceptation , that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners . O grant , that I may obtain mercy , that in me Jesus Christ may shew forth all long-suffering , that I may beleeve in him to life everlasting . I am bound to give thanks unto God alway , because God hath from the beginning chosen me to salvation , through sanctification of the Spirit , and belief of the truth whereunto he called me by the Gospel , to the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself , and God even our Father which hath loved us , and hath given us everlasting consolation , and good hope through grace , Comfort my heart and stablish me in every good word and work . The Lord direct my heart into the love of God , and into the patient waiting for Christ. O that our God would count me worthy of this calling , and fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodnesse , and the work of faith with power . That the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in me , and I in him , according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us who are of the day be sober , putting on the brest-plate of faith and love , and for an helmet , the hope of salvation . For God hath not appointed us to wrath , but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ , who died for us , that whether we wake or sleep , we should live together with him . Wherefore comfort your selves together and edifie one another . There is no name under heaven whereby we can be saved , but onely the Name of the Lord Jesus . And every soul which will not hear that Prophet shall be destroyed from among the people . God forbid that I should glory , save in the Crosse of Jesus Christ. I desire to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified . For to me to live is Christ , and to die is gain . Cease ye from man , whose breath is in his nostrils : for wherein is he to be accounted of ? But the just shall live by faith . Lord , I beleeve that thou art the Christ , the Son of God , the Saviour of the world , the resurrection and the life ; and he that beleeveth in thee , though he were dead , yet shall he live . Jesus said unto her , Said I not to thee , that if thou wouldest beleeve thou shouldst see the glory of God ? O death where is thy sting ? O grave where is thy victory ? the sting of death is sin , and the strength of sin is the Law. But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord make me stedfast and unmoveable alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord ; For I know that my labour is not in vain in the Lord. The Prayer [ for the grace and strengths of faith . O Holy and eternall Jesus , who didst die for me and for all mankind , abolishing our sin , reconciling us to God , adopting us into the portion of thine heritage , and establishing with us a covenant of faith and obedience , making our souls to rely upon spirituall strengths , by the supports of a holy belief , and the expectation of rare promises , and the infallible truths of God : O let me for ever dwell upon the rock , leaning upon thy arm , beleeving thy word , trusting in thy promises , waiting for thy mercies , and doing thy commandements , that the Devil may not prevail upon me , and my own weaknesses may not abuse or unsettle my perswasions , nor my sins discompose my just confidence in thee and thy eternall mercies . Let me alwayes be thy servant and thy disciple , and die in the communion of thy Church , of all faithfull people ; Lord I renounce whatsoever is against thy truth , and if secretly I have or do beleeve any false proposition , I do it in the simplicity of my heart and great weaknesse ; and if I could discover it , would dash it in pieces by a solemn disclaiming it ; for thou art the Way , the Truth , and the Life ; and I know that whatsoever thou hast declared that is the truth of God , and I do firmly adhere to the religion thou hast taught , and glory in nothing so much as that I am a Christian , that thy name is called upon me : O my God , though I die yet will I put my trust in thee . In thee O Lord have I trusted , let me never be confounded . Amen . SECT . V. Of the practise of the Grace of Repentance in time of the Sicknesse . MEn generally do very much dread sudden death , and pray against it passionately ; and certainly it hath in it great inconveniences accidentally to mens estates , to the settlement of families , to the culture and trimming of souls , and it robs a man of the blessings which may be consequent to sickness , and to the passive graces , and holy contentions of a Christian , while he descends to his grave without an adversary or a tryal : and a good man may be taken at such a disadvantage , that a sudden death would be a great evil , even to the most excellent person , if it strikes him in an unlucky circumstance : But these considerations are not the onely ingredients into those mens discourse , who pray violently against sudden deaths ; for possibly if this were all , there may be in the condition of sudden death something to make recompence for the evils of the over-hasty accident . For certainly , it is a lesse temporal evil to fall by the rudenesse of a sword , then the violences of a Feaver , and the axe is much a lesse affliction then a strangury ; and though a sicknesse tries our vertues , yet a sudden death is free from temptation : a sicknesse may be more glorious and a sudden death more safe ; the deadest deaths are best , the shortest and least premeditate ; so Caesar said ; and Pliny called a short death the greatest fortune of a mans life . For even good men have been forced to an undecencie of deportment by the violences of pain : and Cicero observes concerning Hercules , that he was broken in pieces with pain , even then when he sought for immortality by his death , being tortured with a plague knit up in the lappet of his shirt . And therefore as a sudden death certainly loses the rewards of a holy sicknesse , so it makes that a man shall not so much hazard and lose the rewards of a holy life . But the secret of this affair is a worse matter ; men live at that rate ; either of an habitual wickednesse , or else a frequent repetition of single acts of killing and deadly sins , that a sudden death is the ruine of all their hopes , and a perfect consignation to an eternal sorrow . But in this case also , so is a lingring sicknesse ; for our last sicknesse may change us from life to health , from health to strength , from strength to the firmnesse and confirmation of habitual graces ; but it cannot change a man from death to life , and begin and finish that processe which sits not down but in the bosom of blessednesse . He that washes in the morning when his bath is seasonable and healthful is not onely made clean , but sprightly , and the blood is brisk and coloured like the first springing of the morning ; but they that wash their dead , cleanse the skin , and leave palenesse upon the cheek , and stiffnesse in all the joynts . A repentance upon our death-bed bed is like washing the coarse , it is cleanly and civil ; but makes no change deeper then the skin ; But God knowes , it is a custom so to wash them that are going to dwell with dust , and to be buried in the lap of their kinred , earth ; but all their lives time wallow in pollutions without any washing at all ; or if they do it is like that of the Dardani who washed but thrice in all their life time ; when they are born , and when they marry , and when they die ; when they are baptized , or against a solemnity , or for the day of their funeral : but these are but ceremonious washings , and never purifie the soul , if it be stained and hath sullied the whitenesse of its baptismal robes . * God intended we should live a holy life , * he contracted with us in Jesus Christ for a holy life , * he made no abatements of the strictest sense of it , but such as did necessarily comply with humane infirmities or possibilities , that is he understood it in the sense of repentance , which stil is so to renew our duty , that it may be a holy life in the second sense ; that is , some great portion of our life to be spent in living as Christians should , * a resolving to repent upon our death-bed is the greatest mockery of God in the world , and the most perfect contradictory to all his excellent designes of mercy and holinesse ; for therefore he threatned us with hell if we did not , and he promised heaven , if we did live a holy life : and a late repentance promises heaven to us upon other conditions , even when we have lived wickedly . * It renders a man uselesse and intolerable to the world ; taking off the great curb of religion , of fear , and hope , and permitting all impiety with the greatest impunity and incouragement in the world ; * by this means we see so many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Philo calls them , or as the prophets pueros centum annorum , children of almost an hundred years old , upon whose grave we may write the inscriptions which was upon the tomb of Similis in Xiphilin . Here he lies who was so many years , but lived but seven ; * and the course of nature runs counter to the perfect designes of piety , and * God who gave us a life to live to him is only served at our death , when we die to all the world ; * and we undervalue the great promises made by the Holy Jesus , for which the piety , the strictest unerring piety of ten thousand ages is not a proportionable exchange ; yet we think it a hard bargain to get heaven , if we be forced to part with one lust , or live soberly twenty years : But like a Demetrius Afer who having lived a slave all his life time , yet desired to descend to his grave in freedom , begged manumission of his Lord ) we lived in the bondage of our sin all our dayes and hope to dye the Lords freed man : * but above all , this course of a delayed repentance must of necessity therefore be ineffective , and certainly mortal , because it is an intire destruction of the very formality and essential constituent reason of religion ; which I thus demonstrate . When God made man and propounded to him an immortal and a blessed state , as the end of his hopes and the perfection of his condition , he did not give it him for nothing , but upon certain conditions , which although they could add nothing to God , yet they were such things which man could value , and they were his best : and God had made appetites of pleasure in man , that in them the scene of his obedience should lye . For when God made instances of mans obedience , he 1. either commanded such things to be done , which man did naturally desire , or 2. such things which did contradict his natural desires , or 3. such which were indifferent . Not the first and the last . For it could be no effect of love or duty towards God for a man to eat when he was impatiently hungry , and could not stay from eating ; neither was it any contention of obedience or labour of love for a man to look Eastward once a day , or turn his back when the North winde blew fierce and loud . Therefore for the trial and instance of obedience , God made his laws so , that they should lay restraint upon mans appetites ; so that man might part with something of his own , that he may give to God his will , and deny it to himself for the interest of his service ; and chastity is the denyall of a violent desire , and justice is parting with money that might help to inrich me , and meekness is a huge contradiction to pride and revenge ; and the wandring of our eyes , and the greatnesse of our fancy , and our imaginative opinions are to be lessened , that we may serve God ; there is no other way of serving God , we have nothing else to present unto him ; we do not else give him any thing or part of our selves , but when we for his sake part with what we naturally desire ; and difficulty is essential to vertue , and without choice there can be no reward , & in the satisfaction of our natural desires there is no election , we run to them as beasts to the river or the crib . If therefore any man shall teach or practise such a religion that satisfies all our natural desires in the dayes of desire and passion , of lust and appetites , and only turns to God when his appetites are gone , & his desires cease , this man hath overthrown the very being of vertues , and the essential constitution of religion ; Religion is no religion , and vertue is no act of choice , and reward comes by chance and without condition , if we onely are religious when we cannot choose , if we part with our money when we cannot keep it , with our lust when we cannot act it , with our desires when they have left us ; death is a certain mortifier ; but that mortification is deadly , not useful to the purposes of a spiritual life . When we are compeld to depart from our evil customs and leave to live , that we may begin to live , then we dye to dye ; that life is the prologue to death and thenceforth we die eternally . S. Cyril speaks of certain people that chose to worship the sun because he was a day God ; for believing that he was quenched every ●●ght in the sea , or that he had no influence upon them that light up candles and lived by the light of fire , they were confident they might be Atheists all night and live as they list . Men who divide their little portion of time between religion and pleasures , between God and Gods enemy , think that God is to rule , but in his certain period of time , and that our life is the stage for passion and folly , and the day of death for the work of our life ; but as to God , both the day and night are alike , so are the first and the last of our dayes ; all are his due , and he will account severely with us for the follies of the first , and the evil of the last ; The evils and the pains are great which are reserved for those who defer their restitution to Gods favour till their death . And therefore Antisthenes said well ; It is not the happy death , but the happy life that makes man happy . It is in piety as in fame and reputation : he secures a good name but loosely that trusts his fame and celebritie onely to his ashes : and it is more a civilitie 〈◊〉 then the base of a firm reputation , that men speak honour of their departed relatives : but if their life be vertuous it forces honour from contempt , and snatches it from the hand of envy , and it shines thorough the crevises of detraction , and as it anointed the head of the living , so it embalms the body of the dead . From these premises if followes that when we discourse of a sick mans repentance , it is intended to be , not a beginning but the prosecution and consummation of the covenant of repentance , which Christ stipulated with us in Baptisme , and which we needed all our life , and which we began long before this last arrest , and in which we are now to make further progresse , that we may arrive to that integrity and fulnesse of of dutie , that our sins may be blotted out , when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. SECT . VI. Rules for the practise of Repentance in sicknesse . 1. LEt the sick man consider at what gate this sicknesse entred ; and if he can discover the particular , let him instantly , passionately , and with great contrition dash the crime in pieces , lest he descend into his grave in the midst of a sin and thence remove into an ocean of eternal sorrowes ; but if he onely suffers the common fate of man , and knowes not the particular inlet , he is to be governed by the following measures . 2. Inquire into the repentance of thy former life , particularly ; whether it were of a great and perfect grief , and productive of fixed resolutions of holy living , and reductive of these to act ? How many dayes and nights have we spent in sorrow or care , in habitual and actual pursuances of vertue ? what instrument we have chosen and used for the eradication of sin ? how we have judged our selves , and how punished ? and in summe whether we have by the grace of repentance changed our life from criminal to vertuous , from one habit to another ? and whether we have paid for the pleasure of our sin by smart , or sorrow , by the effusion of alms , or pernoctations or abodes in prayers , so as the spirit hath been served in our repentance , as earnestly , and as greatly as our appetites have been provided for in the dayes of our shame and folly ? 3. Supply the imperfections of thy repentance by a general or universal sorrow , for the sins not onely since the last communion or absolution , but of thy whole life ; for all sins known and unknown , repented and unrepented , of ignorance or infirmity , which thou knowest , or which others have accused thee of ; thy clamorous and thy whispering sins , the sinnes of scandall , and the sinnes of a secret conscience , of the flesh and of the spirit : for it would be but a sad arrest to thy soul wandring in strange and unusuall regions to see a scroll of uncancelled sins represented and charged upon thee for want of care and notices , and that thy repentance shall become invalid , because of its imperfections . 4. To this purpose it is usually advised by spirituall persons , that the sick man make an universal confession , or a renovation and repetition of all the particular confessions and accusations of his whole life ; that now at the foot of his account he may represent the summe totall to God , and his conscience , and make provisions for their remedie and pardon according to his present possibilities . 5. Now is the time to make reflex acts of repentance ; that as by a general repentance we supply the want of the just extension of parts : so by this we may supply the proper measures of the intension of degrees . In our health we can consider concerning our own acts whether they be real or hypocritical , essential or imaginary , sincere or upon interest , integrall or imperfect , commensurate or defective , and although it is a good caution of securities after all our care and diligence still to suspect our selves , and our own deceptions , and for ever to beg of God pardon and acceptance in the union of Christs passion , and intercession ; yet in proper speaking , reflex acts of repentance , being a suppletory after the imperfection of the direct , are then most fit to be used when we cannot proceed in , and prosecute the direct actions . To repent because we cannot repent , and to grieve because we cannot grieve , was a device invented to serve the turn of the mother of Peter Gratian ; but it was used by her , and so advised to be in her sicknesse , and last actions of repentance : for in our perfect health and understanding if we doe not understand our first act , we cannot discern our second ; and if we be not sorry for our sins , we cannot be sorry for want of sorrows ; it is a contradiction to say we can ; because want of sorrow to which we are obliged is certainly a great sin ; and if we can grieve for that , then also for the rest ; if not for all , then not for this : but in the dayes of weaknesse the case is otherwise ; for then our actions are imperfect , our discourse weak , our internall actions not discernable , our fears great , our work to be abbreviated , and our defects , to be supplied by spirituall arts ; and therefore it is proper and proportionate to our state , and to our necessity , to beg of God pardon for the imperfections of our repentance , acceptance of our weaker sorrows , supplies out of the treasures of grace , and mercy ; and thus repenting of the evil and unhandsome adherencies of our repentance , in the whole integrity of the duty , it will become a repentance not to be repented of . 6. Now is the time beyond which the sick man must at no hand defer to make restitution of all his unjust possessions , or other mens rights , and satisfactions for all injuries , and violencies according to his obligation , and possibilities ; for although many circumstances might impede the acting it in our lives-time , and it was permitted to be deferred in many cases , because by it , justice was not hindred , and oftentimes piety and equity were provided for ; yet because this is the last scene of our life , he that does not act it so far as he can , or put it into certain conditions and order of effecting , can never do it again , and therefore then to defer it , is to omit it , and leaves the repentance defective in an integrall and constituent part . 7. Let the sick man be diligent and watchfull , that the principle of his repentance be contrition , or sorrow for sins , commenced upon the love of God. For although sorrow for sins upon any motive may lead us to God by many intermediall passages , and is the threshold of returning sinners , yet it is not good , nor effective upon our death-bed ; because repentance is not then to begin , but must then be finished , and completed , and it is to be a supply and reparation of all the imperfections of that duty : and therefore it must by that time be arrived to contrition , that is , it must have grown from fear to love , from the passions of a servant , to the affections of a son ; The reason of which ( besides the precedent ) is this , because when our repentance is in this state , it supposes the man also in a state of grace , a well grown Christian ; for to hate sin out of the love of God is not the felicity of a new convert , or an infant grace ( or if it be , that love also is in its infancy ) but it supposes a good progresse , and the man habitually vertuous , and tending to perfection : and therefore contrition , or repentance so qualified , is usefull to great degrees of pardon , because the man is a gracious person , and that vertue is of good degree , and consequently fit imployment for him that shall work no more , but is to appear before his Judge to receive the hire of his day . And if his repentance be contrition , even before this state of sicknesse , let it be increased by spirituall arts ; and the proper exercises of charity . Means of exciting contrition , or repentance of sins , proceeding from the love of God. TO which purpose the sick man may consider , and is to be reminded ( if he does not ) that there are in God , all the motives and causes of amability in the world ; that God is so infinitely good , that there are some of the greatest and most excellent spirits of heaven , whose work , and whose felicity , and whose perfections , and whose nature it is , to flame and burn in the brightest and most excellent love * that to love God is the greatest glory of Heaven , that in him there are such excellencies , that the smallest rayes of them communicated to our weaker understandings are yet sufficient to cause ravishments and transportations , and satisfactions , and joyes unspeakeable , and full of glory * that all the wise Christians of the world know and feel such causes to love God that they all professe themselves ready to die for the love of God * and the Apostles and millions of the Martyrs did die for him * And although it be harder to live in his love then to die for it , yet all the good people that ever gave their names to Christ did for his love endure the crucifying their lusts , the mortification of their appetites , the contradictions and death of their most passionate , naturall desires * that Kings and Queens have quitted their Diadems , and many married Saints have turned their mutuall vowes into the love of Jesus , and married him onely , keeping a virgin chastity in a married life , that they may more tenderly expresse their love to God * that all the good we have , derives from Gods love to us , and all the good we can hope for is the effect of his love , and can descend onely upon them that love him * that by his love it is that we receive the holy Jesus * and by his love we receive the Holy Spirit , * and by his love we feel peace and joy within our spirits * and by his love we receive the mysterious Sacrament * And what can be greater , then that from the goodnesse and love of God , we receive Jesus Christ , and the Holy Ghost , and Adoption , and the inheritance of sons , and to be coheirs with Jesus , and to have pardon of our sins , and a divine nature , and restraining grace , and the grace of sanctification , and a rest and peace within us , and a certain expectation of glory , * who can choose but love him , who when we had provoked him exceedingly sent his Son to die for us , that we might live with him ; who does so desire to pardon us and save us , that he hath appointed his Holy Son continually to intercede for us ? * That his love is so great that he offers us great kindnesse , and intreats us to be happy , and makes many decrees in heaven concerning the interest of our soul , and the very provision and support of our persons * That he sends an Angel to attend upon every of his servants , and to be their guard , and their guide , in all their dangers and hostilities * That for our sakes he restrains the Devil , and puts his mightinesse in fetters and restraints , and chastises his malice with decrees of grace and safety * That he it is who makes all the creatures serve us , and takes care of our sleeps , and preserves all plants and elements , all mineralls and vegetables , all beasts and birds , all fishes and insects for food to us , and for ornament , for physick and instruction , for variety and wonder , for delight and for religion * That as God is all good in himself , and all good to us , so sin is directly contrary to God , to reason , to religion , to safety and pleasure , and felicity * That it is a great dishonour to a mans spirit to have been made a fool , by a weak temptation , and an empty lust ; and to have rejected God , who is so rich , so wise , so good , and so excellent , so delicious , and so profitable to us * That all the repentance in the world of excellent men does end in contrition , or a sorrow for sins proceeding from the love of God ; because they that are in the state of grace do not fear hell violently , and so long as they remain in Gods favour , although they suffer the infirmities of men , yet they are Gods portion , and therefore all the repentance of just and holy men which is certainly the best , is a repentance not for lower ends but because they are the friends of God , and they are full of indignation that they have done an act against the honour of their Patron , and their dearest Lord and Father * That it is a huge imperfection and a state of weaknesse , to need to be moved with fear or temporall respects , and they that are so , as yet are either immerged in the affections of the world , or of themselves ; and those men that bear such a character , are not yet esteemed laudable persons , or men of good natures , or the sons of vertue . * That no repentance can be lasting , that relies upon any thing but the love of God ; for temporal motives may cease , and contrary contingencies may arise , and fear of hell , may be expelled by natural or acquired hardnesses , and is alwayes the least when we have most need of it , and most cause for it ; for the more habitual our sins are , the more cauterized ▪ our conscience is , the lesse is the fear of hell , and yet our danger is much the greater , * that although fear of hell or other temporal motives may be the first inlet to a repentance , yet repentance in that constitution and under those circumstances cannot obtain pardon ; because there is in that no union with God , no adhesion to Christ , no endeerment of passion , or of spirit , no similitude , or conformity to the great instrument of our peace , our glorious Mediatour : for as yet a man is turned from his sin , but not converted to God ; the first and last of our returns to God being love , and nothing but love : for obedience is the first part of love , and fruition is the last , and because he that does not love God cannot obey him , therefore he that does not love him cannot enjoy him . Now that this may he reduced to practise , the sick man may be advertised that in the actions of repentance * he separate low , temporal , sensual , and self ends from his thoughts , and so do his repentance * that he may still reflect honour upon God ; * that he confesse his justice in punishing , that he acknowledge himself to have deserved the worst of evils , * that he heartily believe and professe , that if he perish finally , yet that God ought to be glorified by that sad event , and that he hath truly merited so intolerable a calamity , * that he also be put to make acts of election and preference ; professing that he would willingly endure all temporal evils rather then be in the disfavour of God or in the state of sin ; for by this last instance he will be quitted from the suspicion of leaving sin , for temporal respects , because he by an act of imagination or fained presence of the object to him , entertains the temporal evil that he may leave the sin ; and therefore unlesse he be a hypocrite does not leave the sin to be quit of the temporal evil . And as for the other motive of leaving sin our of the fear of hell , because that is an evangelical motive conveyed to us by the spirit of God , and is immediate to the love of God ; if the Schoolmen had pleased , they might have reckoned it as the hand-maid , and of the retinue of contrition ; but the more the considerations are sublimed above this , of the greater effect and the more immediate to pardon will be the repentance . 8. Let the sick persons do frequent actions of repentance by way of prayer , for all those sins which are spiritual , and in which no restitution or satisfaction material can be made , and whose contrary acts cannot in kinde be exercised . For penitential prayers in some cases are the only instances of repentance that can be . An envious man , if he gives God hearty thanks for the advancement of his brother , hath done an act of mortification of his envy , as directly as corporal austerities are an act of chastity , and an enemy to uncleanness : and if I have seduced a person that is dead or absent , if I cannot restore him to sober counsels by my discourse and undeceiving him , I can onely repent of that by way of prayer : and intemperance is no way to be rescinded or punished by a dying man but by hearty prayers . Prayers are a great help in all cases ; in some they are proper acts of vertue and direct enemies to sin ; but although alone and in long continuance , they alone can cure some one or some few little habits , yet they can never alone change the state of the man ; and therefore are intended to be a suppletory to the imperfections of other acts ; and by that reason are the proper and most pertinent imployment of a Clinick or death-bed penitent . 9. In those sins whose proper cure is mortification corporal , the sick man is to supply that part of his repentance by a patient submission to the rod of sicknesse : For sicknesse does the work of penances or sharp afflictions , and dry diet , perfectly well : to which if we also put our wills , and make it our act by an after election , by confessing the justice of God , by bearing if sweetly , by begging it may be medicinal , there is nothing wanting to the perfection of this part , but that God confirme our patience and hear our prayers . When the guilty man runs to punishment , the injured person is prevented and hath no whither to go but to forgivenesse . 10. I have learned but of one suppletory more , for the perfection and proper exercise of a sick mans repentance ; but it is such a one as will go a great way in the abolition of our past sinnes , and making our peace with God , even after a lesse severe life : and that is , that the sick man do some heroical actions in the matter of charity , or religion , of justice or severity . There is a story of an infamous thief who having begged his pardon of the Emperor Mauritius was yet put into the Hospital of S. Sampson where he so plentifully bewailed his sins in the last agonies of his death , that the Physitian who attended found him unexpectedly dead , and over his face a handkerchief bathed in tears , and soon after some body or other pretended to a revelation of this mans beatitude . It was a rare grief that was noted in this man , which begat in that age a confidence of his being saved , and that confidence ( as things then went ) was quickly called a revelation . But it was a stranger severity which is related by Thomas Cantipratanus concerning a young Gentleman condemned for robbery and violence , who had so deep a sense of his sin , that he was not content with a single death , but begged to be tormented and cut in pieces joynt by joynt , with intermedial senses , that he might by such a smart signifie a greater sorrow ; Some have given great estates to the poor and to religion ; some have built colledges for holy persons , many have suffered martyrdom , and though those that died under the conduct of the Maccabees in defence of their countrey and religion , had pendants on their breasts consecrated to the idols of the Iamnenses , yet that they gave their lives in such a cause with so great a duty , ( the biggest things they could do or give ) it was esteemed to prevail hugely towards the pardon and acceptation of their persons . An heroic action of uertue is a huge compendium of religion ; for if it be attained to by the usual measures and progresse of a Christian , from inclination to act , from act to habit , from habit to abode , from abode to reigning , from reigning to perfect possession , from possession to extraordinary emanations , that is , to heroick actions , then it must needs do the work of man , by being so great towards the work of God ; but if a man comes thither per saltum , or on a sudden ( which is seldome seen ) then it supposes the man alwayes well inclined , but abused by accident or hope , by confidence or ignorance ; taen it supposes the man for the present in a great fear of evil , and a passionate desire of pardon ; it supposes his apprehensions great , and his time little ; and what the event of that will be , no man can tell ; but it is certain that to some purposes God will account for our religion on our death bed , not by the measures of our time , but the eminency of affection ( as said Celestin the first ) that is , supposing the man in the state of grace , or in the revealed possibility of salvation , then an heroical act hath the reward of a longer series of good actions , in an even and ordinary course of vertue . 11. In what can remain for the perfecting a sick mans repentance , he is to be helped by the ministeries of a spiritual Guide . SECT . VII . Acts of repentance by way of prayer and ejaculation ; to be used especially by old men in their age ; and by all men in their sicknesse . LEt us search and try our wayes , and turne again to the Lord : let us lift up our hearts with our hands unto God in the heavens . We have transgressed and rebelled and thou hast not pardoned : Thou hast covered with anger and persecured us ; thou hast slain , thou hast not pitied , O cover not thy self with a cloud ; but let our prayer passe thorough . I have sinned what shall I do unto thee , O thou preserver of men ? why hast thou set me as a mark against thee , so that I am a burden to my self ? and why doest not thou pardon my transgression , and take away mine iniquity ? for now shall I sleep in the dust , and thou shalt seek me in the morning , but I shall not be . The Lord is righteous for I have rebelled against his commandments . Hear I pray , all ye people , behold my sorrow , behold O Lord I am in distresse , my bowels are troubled , my heart is turned within me , for I have grievously rebelled . Thou O Lord remainest for ever , thy throne from generation to generation : wherefore doest thou forget us for ever , and forsake us so long time ? turn thou us unto thee , O Lord , and so shall we be turned : renew our dayes as of old : O reject me not utterly , and be not exceeding wroth against thy servant . O remember not the sins of my youth , nor my transgressions , but according to thy mercies remember thou me for thy goodnesse sake O Lord : Do thou for me O God the Lord , for thy Names sake , because thy mercy is good , deliver thou me , for I am poor and needy , and my heart is wounded within me ; I am gone like the shadow that declineth , I am tossed up and down as the locust . Then Zacheus stood forth and said , Behold Lord , half of my goods I give to the poor , and if I have wronged any man I restore him fourfold . Hear my prayer O Lord , and consider my desire , let my prayer be set forth in thy sight as the incense , and let the lifting up of my hands be an evening sacrifice . And enter not into judgement with thy servant , for in thy sight shall no man living be justified . Teach me to do the thing that pleaseth thee , for thou art my God , let thy loving spirit lead me forth into the land of righteousnesse . I will [ speak ] of mercy and judgement , unto thee O Lord will I make my prayer : I will behave my self wisely in a perfect way . O when wilt thou come unto me , I will walk in my house with a perfect heart . I will set no wicked thing before my eyes ; I hate the work of them that turn aside , it shall not cleave to me . Hide thy face from my sins , and blot out all mine iniquities ; create in me a clean heart O God , and renew a right spirit within me . Deliver me from blood guiltinesse O God , [ from malice , envy , the follies of lust and violences of passion , &c. ] thou God of my salvation and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousnesse . The sacrifice of God is a broken heart , a broken and a contrite heart , O God thou wilt not despise . Lord I have done amisse ; I have been deceived , let so great a wrong as this be removed . The prayer ] for the grace and perfection of Repentance . I. O Almighty God , thou art the great Judge of all the world , the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ , the Father of mercies , the Father of men and Angels , thou lovest not that a sinner should perish , but delightest in our conversion and salvation , and hast in our Lord Jesus Christ established the Covenant of repentance , and promised pardon to all them that confesse their sins and forsake them ; O my God be thou pleased to work in me what thou hast commanded should be in me . Lord I am a dry tree who neither have brought forth fruit unto thee and unto holinesse , nor have wept out salutary tears , the instrument of life and restitution , but have behaved my self like an unconcerned person in the ruins and breaches of my soul : But O God , thou art my God , earnestly will I seek thee ; my soul thirsteth for thee in a barren and thirsty land where no water is ; Lord give me the grace of tears and pungent sorrow , let my heart be as a land of rivers of waters , and my head a fountain of tears : turn my sin into repentance , and let my repentance proceed to pardon & refreshment . II. SUpport me with thy graces , strengthen me with thy Spirit , soften my heart with the fire of thy love , and the dew of heaven , with penitentiall showers : make my care prudent , and the remaining portion of my dayes like the perpetuall watches of the night , full of caution and observance , strong and resolute , patient and severe , I remember O Lord , that I did sin with greedinesse and passion , with great desires and an unabated choice ; O let me be as great in my repentance as ever I have been in my calamity and shame ; let my hatred of sin be great as my love to thee , and both as neer to infinite , as my proportion can receive . III. O Lord , I renounce all affection to sin , and would not buy my health nor redeem my life with doing any thing against the Lawes of my God ; but would rather die then offend thee . O dearest Saviour have pity upon thy servant , let me by thy sentence be doomed to perpetuall penance during the abode of this life ; let every sigh be the expression of a repentance , , and every groan an acccent of spiritual life , and every stroke of my disease a punishment of my sin , and an instrument of pardon , that at my return to the land of innocence I may eat of the votive sacrifice of the supper of the Lamb , that was from the beginning of the world sl●in for the sins of every sorrowful and returning sinner . O grant me sorrow here , and joy hereafter through Jesus Christ , who is our hope , the resurrection of the dead , the justifier of a sinner , and the glory of all faithful souls . Amen . A prayer for pardon of sins to be said frequently in time of sicknesse ; and in all the portions of old age . I. O Eternal and most gracious Father , I humbly throw my self down at the foot of thy mercy seat , upon the confidence of thy essential mercy , and thy commandment , that we should come boldly to the throne of grace , that we may finde mercy in time of need ; O my God , hear the prayers and cries of a sinner , who calls earnestly for mercy ; Lord my needs are greater then all the degrees of my desire can be ; unlesse thou hast pity upon me I perish infinitely and intolerably ; and then there will be one voice fewer in the quire of singers , who shall recite thy praises to eternal ages . But O Lord in mercy deliver my soul. O save me for thy mercy sake . For in the second death there is no remembrance of thee , in that grave who shall give thee thanks ? II. O Just and dear God , my sins are innumerable , they are upon my soul in multitudes , they are a burden too heavy for me to bear ; they already bring sorrow and sicknesse , shame and displeasure , guilt , and a decaying spirit , a sense of thy present displeasure , and fear of worse , of infinitely worse ; But it is to thee so essential , so delightful , so usual , so desired by thee to shew mercy , that although my sin be very great and my fear proportionable , yet thy mercy is infinitely greater then all the world , and my hope and my comfort rise up in proportions towards it , that I trust the Devils shall never be able to reprove it , nor my own weaknesse discompose it . Lord thou hast sent thy Son to die for the pardon of my sins ; thou hast given me thy holy Spirit , as a seal of adoption to consigne the article of remission of sins ; thou hast for all my sins still continued to invite me to conditions of life , by thy ministers the prophets ; and thou hast with variety of holy acts softned my spirit , and possessed my fancie , and instructed my understanding , and bended and inclined my will , and directed or overruled my passions in order to repentance and pardon , and why should not thy servant beg passionately , and humbly hope for the effect of all these thy strange and miraculous acts of loving kindnesse ? Lord I deserve it not , but I hope thou wilt pardon all my sins , and I beg it of thee for Jesus Christ his sake , whom thou hast made the great endearment of thy promises , and the foundation of our hopes , and the mighty instrument , whereby we can obtain of thee , whatsoever we need and can receive . III. O My God , how shall thy servant be disposed to receive such a favour , which is so great that the ever blessed Jesus did die to purchase for us ; so great that the falling angels never could hope , and never shall obtain ? Lord I do from my soul forgive all that have sinned against me . O forgive me my sins , as I forgive them that have sinned against me ; Lord I confesse my sins unto thee daily , by the accusations and secret acts of conscience ; and if we confesse our sins thou hast called it a part of justice to forgive us our sins , and to cleanse us from all unrighteousnesse . Lord , I put my trust in thee , and thou art ever gracious to them that put their trust in thee . I call upon my God for mercy , and thou art alwayes more ready to hear then we to pray . But all that I can do , and all that I am , and all that I know of my self is nothing but sin , and infirmity , and misery ; therefore I go forth of my self , and throw my self wholly into the arms of thy mercy , through Jesus Christ ; and beg of thee for his death and passions sake , by his resurrection and ascension , by all the parts of our redemption , and thy infinite mercy in which thou pleasest thy self above all the works of the creation , to be pitifull , and compassionate to thy servant in the abolition of all my sins ; so shall I praise thy glories with a tongue not defiled with evil language , and a heart purged by thy grace , quitted by thy mercy , and absolved by thy sentence , from generation to generation . Amen . An act of holy resolution of amendment of life in case of recovery . O Most just and most mercifull Lord God , who hast sent evil diseases , sorrow , & fear , trouble and uneasinesse , briars and thorns into the world , and planted them in our houses , and round about our dwellings to keep sin from our souls or to drive it thence , I humbly beg of thee that this my sicknesse may serve the ends of the Spirit , and be a messenger of spirituall life , an instrument of reducing me to more religious and sober courses ; I know O Lord , that I am unready and unprepared in my accounts , having thrown away great portions of my time in vanity , and set my self hugely back in the accounts of eternity ; and I had need live my life over again , and live it better ; but thy counsels are in the great deep , and thy footsteps in the water ; and I know not what thou wilt determine of me . If I die , I throw my self into the arms of the Holy Jesus , whom I love above all things : and if I perish , I know I have deserved it ; but thou wilt not reject him that loves thee : But if I recover , I will live by thy grace and help to do the work of God , and passionately pursue my interest of Heaven , and serve thee in the labour of love , with the charities of a holy zeal , and the diligence of a firm and humble obedience ; Lord I will dwell in thy temple , and in thy service , religion shall be my imployment , and alms shall be my recreation , and patience shall be my rest , and to do thy will shall be my meat and drink , and to live shall be Christ , and then to die shall be gain . O spare me a little that I may recover my strength before I go hence and be no more seen . Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven . Amen . SECT . VIII . An Analysis or resolution of the Decalogue , and the speciall precepts of the Gospel , describing the duties injoyned and the sins forbidden respectiuely ; for the assistance of sick men in making their confessions to God and his Ministers , and the rendring their repentance more particular and perfect . I THou shalt have none other Gods but me . ] Duties commanded are . 1. To love God above all things . 2. To obey him , and fear him . 3. To worship him with prayers , vows , thanksgivings , presenting to him our souls and bodies , and all such actions and expressions which the consent of Nations , or the Lawes and Customs of the place where we live have appropriated to God. 4. To designe all to Gods glory . 5. To enquire after his will. 6. To beleeve all his word . 7. To submit to his providence . 8. To proceed toward all our lawfull ends by such means as himself hath appointed . 9. To speak and think honourably of God , and recite his praises , and confesse his Attributes and perfections . They sin against this Commandement . 1. Who love themselves or any of the creatures inordinately , and intemperately . 2. They that despise or neglect any of the Divine precepts . 3. They that pray to unknown , or false gods . 4. They that disbeleeve or deny there is a God. 5. They that make vows to creatures . 6. Or say prayers to the honour of men or women , or Angels , as Pater nosters , to the honour of the Virgin Mary , or S. Peter , which is a taking a part of that honour which is due to God , and giving it to the creature , it is , a religion paid to men and women out of Gods proper portion , out of prayers directed to God immediately ; and it is an act contrary to that religion which makes God the last end of all things : for this th●ough our addresses to God , passes something to the creatures , as if they stood beyond him ; for by the intermediall worship paid to God , they ultimately do honour to the man , or Angel. 7. They that make consumptive oblations to the creatures , as the Collyridians who offered cakes , and those that burn incense or candles to the Virgin Mary . 8. They that give themselves to the Devil , or make contracts with him , and use phantastic conversation with him . 9 They that consult Witches and Fortune-tellers . 10. They that rely upon dreams and superstitious observances . 11 That use charmes , spels , superstitious words and characters , verses of Psalms ; the consecrated elements to cure diseases , to be shot free , to recover stolne goods , or inquire into secrets . 12. That are wilfully ignorant of the lawes of God , or love to be deceived in their perswasions ; that they may sin with confidence . 13. They that neglect to pray to God. 14. They that arrogate to themselves the glory of any action or power and do not give the glory to God , as Herod . 15. They that doubt of or disbeleeve any article of the Creed , or any proposition of Scripture , or put false glosses to serve saecular or vitious ends , against their conscience , or with violence any way done to their reason . 16. They that violently or passionately pursue any temporall end with an eagernesse greater then the thing is , in prudent account . 17 They that make religion to serve ill ends , or do good to exil purposes , or evil to good purposes . 18. They that accuse God of injustice , or unmercifulnesse , remissenesse or cruelty ; such as are the presumptuous , and the desperate . 19. All hypocrites and pretenders to religion , walking in forms and shadows , but denying the power of godlinesse . 20. All impatient persons , all that repine or murmur against the prosperities of the wicked , or the calamities of the godly , or their own afflictions . 21. All that blaspheme God , or speak dishonourable things of so Sacred a Majesty . 22. They that tempt God , or rely upon his protection against his rules and without his promise , and besides reason , entring into danger , from which without a miracle they cannot be rescued . 23. They that are bold in the midst of judgement , and fearlesse in the midst of the Divine vengeance , and the accents of his anger . II. Comm. Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven image , nor worship it . The morall duties of this commandement are . 1. To worship God with all bodily worship and externall forms of addresse , according to the custom of the Church we live in . 2. To beleeve God to be a spirituall and pure substance without any visible form , of shape . 3. To worship God in wayes of his own appointing , or by his proportions or measures of nature , and right reason , or publike and holy customes . They sin against this Commandement . 1. That make any image or pictures of the Godhead , or fancy any likenesse to him . 2. They that use images in their religion , designing or addressing any religious worship to them ; For if this thing could be naturally tolerable , yet it is too neer an intolerable for a jealous God to suffer . 3. They that deny to worship God with lowly reverence of their bodies , according as the Church expresses her reverence to God externally . 4. They that invent or practise superstitious worshippings , invented by man against Gods word , or without reason , or besides the publike customes or formes of worshipping , either foolishly or ridiculously , without the purpose of order , decency , proportion to a wise or a religious end , in prosecution of some vertue or duty . III. Comm. Thou shalt not take Gods Name in vain . The duties of this Comm. are ; 1. To honour and revere the most holy Name of God. 2. To invocate his Name directly , or by consequence in all solemn and permitted adjurations , or publike oaths . 3. To use all things and persons upon whom his Name is called , or any wayes imprinted with a regardfull and separate manner of usage , different from common , and far from contempt and scorn . 4. To swear in truth and judgement . They sin against this Commandment ; 1. Who swear vainly and customarily , without just cause , without competent authority . 2. They that blasphem or curse God. 3. They that speak of God without grave cause or solemn occasion . 4. They that forswear themselves ; that is , they that do not perform their vows to God ; or that swear , or call God to witnesse to a lie . 5. They that swear rashly , or maliciously , to commit a sin , or an act of revenge . 6. They that swear by any creature falsely , or any way but as it relates to God , and consequently invokes his testimony . 7. All curious inquiries into the secrets ; and intruders into the mysteries and hidden things of God. 8. They that curse God , or curse a creature by God. 9. They that prophane Churches , holy Utensils , holy persons , holy customes , holy Sacraments . 10 They that provoke others to swear voluntarily , and by designe , or incuriously , or negligently , when they might avoid it . 11 They that swear to things uncertain , and unknown . IV. Comm. Remember that thou keep holy the S. day ] The duties of this Comm. are ; 1. To set apart some portions of our time for the immediate offices of religion , and glorification of God. 2. This to be done according as God or his holy Church hath appointed . 3. One day in seven is to be set apart . 4. The Christian day is to be subrogated into the place of the Jewes day : the resurrection of Christ and redemption of man was a greater blessing then then to create him . 5. God on that day to be worshipped and acknowledged as our Creator , and as our Saviour . 6. The day to be spent in holy offices ; in hearing Divine service , publike prayers , frequenting the Congregations , hearing the word of God read or expounded ; reading good books , meditations , alms , reconciling enmities ; remission of burdens , and of offences , of debts , and of work ; friendly offices , neighbourhood , and provoking one another to good-works ; and to this end , all servile works must be omitted , excepting necessary and charitable offices to men or beasts , to our selves , or others . They sin against this Comm. 1. That do , or compell , or intice others to do servile works without the cases of necessity or charity , to be estimated according to common and prudent accounts . 2. They that refuse or neglect to come to the publike assemblies of the Church , to hear and assist at the divine offices intirely . 3. They that spend the day in idlenesse , forbidden or vain recreations , or the actions of sin and folly . 4. They that buy and sell without the cases of permission . 5. They that travell unnecessary journeys . 6 They that act or assist in conten●ions , or law-suites , markets , fairs , &c. 7. They that on that day omit their private devotion unlesse the whole day be spent in publike . 8. They that by any crosse or contradictory actions against the customes of the Church do purposely desecrate or unhallow and make the day common : as they that in despite and contempt , fast upon the Lords day , lest they may celebrate the festivall after the manner of the Christians . V. Com. Honour thy father and thy mother ] The duties are ; 1. To do honour and reverence and to love our natural parents . 2. To obey all their domestic commands ; for in them the scene of their authority lies . 3. To give them maintenance and support in their needs . 4. To obey Kings and all that are in authority . 5. To pay tribute and honours , custome and reverence . 6. To do reverence to the aged and all our betters . 7. To obey our Masters , spiritual governours and Guides in those things which concern their several respective interest and authority . They sin against this commandment . 1. That despise their parents age , or infirmity . 2. That are ashamed of their poverty and extraction . 3. That publish their vices , errours and infirmities to shame them . 4. That refuse and reject all or any of their lawful commands . 5. Children that marry without or against their consent when it may be reasonably obtained . 6. That curse them , from whom they receive so many blessings . 7 That grieve the souls of their parents by not complying in their desires , and observing their circumstances . 8. That hate their persons , that mock them or use uncomely jestings . 9. That discover their nakednesse voluntarily . 10. That murmure against their injunctions , and obey them involuntarily . 11. All Rebels against their Kings or the supream power in which it is legally and justly invested . 12. That refuse to pay tributes and impositions imposed legally . 13. They that disobey their Masters , murmure or repine against their commands , abuse or deride their persons , talk rudely , &c. 14. They that curse the king in their heart , or speak evil of the ruler of their people . 15. All that are uncivil and rude towards aged persons , mockers and scorners of them . VI. Com. Thou shalt do no murder . The duties are . 1. To preserve our own lives , the lives of our relatives and all with whom we converse ( or who can need us , and we assist ) by prudent reasonable and wary defences , advocations , discoveries of snares , &c. 2. To preserve our health , and the integrity of our bodies and mindes , and of others . 3. To preserve , and follow peace with all men . They sin against this Commandment . 1. That destroy the life of a man or woman , himself or any other . 2. That do violence or dismember , or hurt any part of the body with evil intent . 3. That fight duels or commence unjust wars . 4. They that willingly hasten their own or others death . 5. That by oppression or violence imbitter the spirits of any , so as to make their life sad , and their death hasty . 6. They that conceal the dangers of their neighbor , which they can safely discover . 7. They that sow strife and contention among neighbours . 8. They that refuse to rescue or preserve those whom they can and are obliged to preserve . 9. They that procure abortion . 10 They that threaten , or keep men in fears ; or hate them . VII . Com. Thou shalt not commit adultery . The duties are . 1. To preserve our bodies in the chastity of a single life , or of marriage . 2. To keep all the parts of our bodies in the care and severities of chastity ; so that we be restrained in our eyes as well as in our feet . They sin against this Commandment , 1. Who are adulterous , incestuous , Sodomitical , or commit fornication . 2. They that commit folly alone ; dishonouring their own bodies with softnesse and wantonnesse . 3. They that immoderately let loose the reins of their bolder appetite , though within the protection of marriage . 4 They that by wanton gestures , wandring eyes lascivious dressings , discovery of the nakednesse of themselves or others , filthy discourse , high diet , amorous songs , balls and revellings , tempt and betray themselves , or others to folly . 5. They that marry a woman divorced for adultery . 6. They that divorce their wives , except for adultery , and marry another . VIII . Com. Thou shalt not steal . The duties are . 1. To give every man his due . 2. To permit every man to enjoy his own goods and estate quietly . They sin against this Commandment . 1. That injure any mans estate by open violence , or by secret robbery , by stealth or cousenage , by arts of bargaining or vexatious law-suits . 2. That refuse or neglect to pay their debts , when they are able . 3 That are forward to run into debt knowingly beyond their power , without hopes or purposes of repaiment . 4. Oppressors of the poor . 5. That exact usury of necessitous persons , or of any beyond the permissions of equity as determined by the laws . 6. All sacrilegious persons ; people that rob God of his dues , or of his possessions . 7. All that game , viz. at Cards and Dice , &c. to the prejudice and detriment of other mens estates . 8. They that imbase coyn and mettals and obtrude them for perfect and natural . 9. That break their promises to the detriment of a third person . 10 They that refuse to stand to their bargains . 11. They that by negligence imbecil other mens estates , spoiling or letting any thing perish which is intrusted to them . 12. That refuse to restore the pledge IX . Com. Thou shalt not bear false witnesse . The duties are . 1. To give testimony to truth , when we are called to it by competent authority . 2. To preserve the good name of our neighbours . 3. To speak well of them that deserve it . They sin against this commandment . 1. That speak false things in judgement accusing their neighbors unjustly ; or denying his crime publickly when we are asked , and can be commanded lawfully to tell it . 2. Flatterers , and 3. slanderers , 4. backbiters , 5. and detracters . 6. They that secretly raise jealousies , and suspition of their neighbours causelesly . X. Thou shalt not covet . The duties are . 1. To be content with the portion God hath given us . 2. Not to be covetous of other mens goods . They sin against this commandment . 1. That envy the prosperities of other men . 2. They that desire passionately to be possessed of what is their neighbours . 3. They that with greedinesse pursue riches , honours , pleasures and curiosities . 4. They that are too careful , troubled , distracted or amazed , affrighted and afflicted with being sollicitous in the conduct of temporal blessings . These are the general lines of duty by which we may discover our failings , and be humbled , and confesse accordingly ; onely the penitent person is to remember , that although these are the kindes of sins described after the sense of the Jewish Church , which consisted principally in the external action , or the deed done , and had no restraints upon the thoughts of men , save onely in the tenth commandment , which was mixt and did relate as much to action as to thought ( as appears in the instances ) yet upon us Christians there are many circumstances and degrees of obligation , which endear our duty with greater severity and observation ; and the penitent is to account of himself and enumerate his sins , not onely by external actions or the deed done , but by words & by thoughts ; and so to reckon if he have done it directly or indirectly , if he have caused others to do it , by tempting or incouraging , by assisting or counselling , by not disswading when he could and ought , by fortifying their hands or hearts , or not weakning their evil purposes ; if he have designed or contrived its action , desired it or loved it , delighted in the thought , remembred the past sin with pleasure or without sorrow , these are the by-wayes of sins , and the crooked lanes in which a man may wander and be lost as certainly as in the broad high wayes of iniquity . But besides this , our blessed Lord and his Apostles have added divers other precepts ; some of which have been with some violence reduc'd to the Decalogue , and others have not bin noted at all in the catalogues of confession , I shall therefore describe them entirely , that the sick man discover his failings , that by the mercies of God in Jesus Christ , and by the instrument of repentance he may be presented pure and spotlesse before the throne of God. The special precepts of the Gospel . 1. PRayer , frequent , servent , holy , and persevering . 2. Faith. 3. Repentance , 4. Poverty of spirit , as opposed to ambition , high designes , 5. and in it is humility , or sitting down in the lowest place , and in giving honour to go before another , 6. meeknesse , as it is opposed to waywardnesse , fretfulnesse , immoderate grieving , disdain and scorn , 7. contempt of the world , 8. prudence , or the advantagious conduct of religion , 9. simplicity or sincerity in words and actions , pretences and substances , 10. hope , 11. hearing the word , 12. Reading , 13. Assembling together , 14. obeying them that have the rule over us in spiritual affairs , 15. Refusing to communicate with persons excommunicate : whither also may be reduced , To reject Hereticks . 16 Charity , viz. love to God above all things , brotherly kindnesse , or profitable love to our neighbours as our selves , to be expressed in almes , forgivenesse , and to dye for our brethren , 17 To pluck out the right eye , or violently to rescind all occasions of sin , though dear to us as an eye , 18 To reprove our erring brother , 19 To be patient in afflictions , and longanimity is referred hither , or long sufferance ; which is the perfection and perseverance of patience ; and is opposed to hastinesse and wearinesse of spirit , 20 To be thankful to our benefactors , but above all , in all things to give thanks to God , 21. To rejoyce in the Lord alwayes , 22. Not to quench , not to grieve , not to resist the Spirit , 23 To love our wives as Christ loved his Church , and to reverence our husbands , 24. To provide for our families , 25 Not to be bitter to our children , 26. To bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord , 27. Not to despise prophesying , 28. To be gentle and easie to be intreated , 29. To give no scandal , or offence , 30. To follow after peace with all men and to make peace , 31. Not to go to law before the unbelievers , 32. To do all things that are of good report , or the actions of publick honesty ; abstaining from all apearances of evil , 33 To convert souls or turn sinners from the errour of their wayes . 34. To confesse Christ before all the world , 35. To resist unto blood if God calls us to it , 36. To rejoyce in tribulation for Christs sake , 37. To remember and shew forth the Lords death till his second coming , by celebrating the Lords supper , 38. To believe all the New Testament , 39. To adde nothing to S. Iohns last Book , that is , to pretend to no new revelations , 40. To keep the customs of the Church , her festivals and solemnities , lest we be reproved as the Corinthians were by S. Paul , we have no such customs nor the Churches of God , 41. To contend earnestly for the faith . * Nor to be contentious in matters not concerning the eternal interest of our souls ; but in matters indifferent to have faith to our selves , 42. Not to make schisms or divisions in the body of the Church , 43. To call no man Master upon earth , but to acknowledge Christ our Master , and law giver . 44. not to domineer over the Lords heritage , 45 To try all things , and keep that which is best , 46 To be temperate in all things , 47. To deny our selves , 48. To mortifie our lusts and their instruments , 49. To lend looking for nothing again , nothing by way of increase , nothing by way of recompence . 50 To watch & stand in readines against the coming of the Lord , 51 ▪ Not to be angry without cause , 52. not at al to revile , 53. not to swear , 54 not to respect persons , 55. to lay hands suddenly on no man [ This especially pertains to * Bishops . * To whom also , and to all the Ecclesiastical order it is enjoyned , that they preach the word , that they be instant in season , and out of season , that they rebuke , reprove , exhort with all long suffering and doctrine . 56. To keep the Lords day ( derived into an obligation from a practise Apostolical ) 57. to do all things to the glory of God , 58. to hunger and thirst after righteousnesse and its rewards , 59. to avoid foolish questions , 60 to pray for persecuters , and to do good to them that persecute us , and despitefully use us , 61 to pray for all men , 62. to maintain good works for necessary uses . 63. to work with our own hands that we be not burdensome to others , avoiding idlenesse , 64 to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect , 65. to be liberal and frugal ; for he that will call us to account for our time , will also for the spending our money , 66 not to use uncomely jestings , 67. modesty ; as opposed to boldnesse , to curiosity , to undecency , 68. to be swift to hear , slow to speak , 69. to worship the holy [ Jesus ] at the mention of his holy name ; as of old God was at the mention of [ Jehovah . These are the streight lines of scripture , by which we may also measure our obliquities , and discover our crooked walking ; if the sick man hath not done these things , or if he have done contrary to any of them in any particular , he hath cause enough for his sorrow , and matter for his confession : of which he need no other forms , but that he heartily deplore and plainly enumerate his follies , as a man tells the sad stories of his own calamity . SECT . IX . Of the sick mans practise of charity and justice , by way of rule . 1. LEt the sick man set his house in order before he die ; state his cases of conscience , reconcile the fractures of his family , reunite brethren , cause right understandings , and remove jealousies ; give good counsels for the future conduct of their persons , and estates , charm them into religion by the authority and advantages of a dying person : because the last words of a dying man are like the tooth of a wounded Lion , making a deeper impression in the agony , then in the most vigorous strength . 2. Let the sick man discover every secret of art , or profit , physick , or advantage to mankinde , if he may do it without the prejudice of a third person . Some persons are so uncharitably envious that they are willing that a secret receipt should die with them , and be buried in their grave ; like treasure in the sepulchre of David . But this which is a designe of charity must therefore not be done to any mans prejudice ; and the Mason of Herodotus the King of Aegypt who kept secret his notice of the Kings treasure , and when he was a dying told his son , betrayed his trust then when he should have kept it most sacredly for his own interest . In all other cases let thy charity out-live thee , that thou mayest rejoyce in the mansion of rest , because by thy means many living persons are eased or advantaged . 3. Let him make his will with great justice and piety , that is , that the right heirs be not defrauded for collaterall respects , fancies or indirect fondnesses ; but the inheritances descend in their legall and due channell ; and in those things where we have a liberty , that we take the opportunity of doing vertuously , that is , of considering how God may be best served by our donatives , or how the interest of any vertue may be promoted ; in which we are principally to regard the necessities of our neerest kinred , and relatives , servants and friends . 4. Let the Will or Testament be made with ingenuity , opennesse , and plain expression , that he may not entail a law-suit upon his posterity and relatives , and make them lose their charity , or intangle their estates , or make them poorer by the gift . He hath done me no charity , but dies in my debt that makes me sue for a legacy . 5. It is proper for the estate of sicknesse , and an excellent anealing us to buriall , that we give alms in this state , so burying treasure in our graves , that will not perish but rise again in the resurrection of the just . Let the dispensation of our alms be as little intrusted to our Executors as may be , excepting to lasting and successive portions ; * but with our own present care let us exercise the charity , and secure the stewardship . It was a custome among the old Greeks , to bury horses , clothes , armes , and whatsoever was dear to the dece●sed person , supposing they might need them , and that without clothes they should be found naked by their Judges ; and al the friends did use to bring gifts ; by such liberality thinking to promote the interest of their dead . But we may offer our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our selves best of all ; our doles and funerall meals if they be our own early provisions , will then spend the better ; & it is good so to carry our passing penny in our hand , and by reaching that hand to the poor make a friend in the everlasting habitations . He that gives with his own hand shall be sure to find it , and the poor shall find it : but he that trusts Executors with his charity , & the Oeconomy and issues of his vertue , by which he must enter into his hopes of heaven & pardon , shall find but an ill account , when his Man thee behoueth oft to have this in mind : That thou giveth with thine hand , that shalt thou find ; For widows be slofull , and children be●h unkind , Executors beth covetous , & keep all that they find , If any body ask where the de●ds goods became ●hey answer So God me help & Halidam , he died a poor man. Think on this executors complain he died poor . Think on this . To this purpose wise and pious was the counsell of Salvian ; Let a dying man who hath nothing else of which he may make an effective oblation , offer up to God of his substance ; Let him offer it with compunction and tears , with grief and mourning , as knowing that all our oblations have their value , not by the price , but by the affection : and it is our faith that commends the money , since God receives the money by the hands of the poor , but at the same time gives , and does not take the blessing ; because he receives nothing but his own , and man gives that which is none of his own , that , of which onely he is a steward , and shall be accountable for every shilling . Let it therefore be offered humbly as a Creditor payes his debts , not magnifically as a Prince gives a donative ; and let him remember that such doles do not pay for the sin , but they ease the punishment ; they are not proper instruments of redemption , but instances of supplication , and advantages of prayer ; and when we have done well remember that we have not payed our debt , but showen our willingnesse to give a little of the vast sum we owe : and he that gives plentifully according to the measure of his estate , is still behind hand according to the measure of his sins ; let him pray to God that this late oblation may be accepted , and so it will , if it sails to him in a sea of poenitentiall tears or sorrows , that it is so little , and that it is so late . 6. Let the sick mans charity be so ordered that it may not come onely to deck the funerall and make up the pomp ; charity waiting like one of the solemn mourners ; but let it be continued , that beside the alms of health and sicknesse , there may be a rejoycing in God for his charity , long after his funeralls , so as to become more beneficial and lesse publike ; that the poor may pray in private and give God thanks many dayes together . This is matter of prudence : and yet in this , we are to observe the same regards which we had in the charity and alms of our lives ; with this onely difference , that in the funerall alms also of rich and able persons , the publike customes of the Church are to be observed , and decencie and solemnity , and the expectations of the poor , and matter of publike opinion , and the reputation of religion ; In all other cases , let thy charity consult with humility and prudence , that it never ministers at all to vanity ; but be as full of advantage and usefulnesse as it may . 7. Every man will forgive a dying person , and therefore let the sick man be ready and sure if he can , to send to such persons whom he hath injured , and beg their pardon and do them right ; For in his case , he cannot stay for an opportunity of convenient and advantageous reconcilement ; he cannot then spin out a treaty , nor beat down the price of composition , nor lay a snare to be quit from the obligation and coërcion of lawes ; but he must ask forgivenesse down-right , and make him amends as he can , being greedy of making use of this opportunity of doing a duty , that must be done , but cannot any more , if not now , untill times return again , and tels the minuts backward , so that yesterday shall be reckoned in the portions of the future . 8. In the intervalls of sharper pains , when the sick man am●sses together all the arguments of comfort and testimonies of Gods love to him , and care of him , he must needs find infinite matter of thanksgiving , and glorification of God : and it is a proper act of charity and love to God , and justice too , that he do honour to God on his death-bed for all the blessings of his life , not onely in generall communications , but those by which he hath been separate and discerned from others , or supported and blessed in his own person : Such as are ; [ In all my life time I never broke a bone , I never fell into the hands of robbers ; never into publike shame , or into noysome diseases : I have not begd my bread , nor been tempted by great and unequall fortunes : God gave me a good understanding , good friends , or delivered me in such a danger , and heard my prayers in such particular pressures of my spirit . ] This or the like enumeration and consequent acts of thanksgiving are apt to produce love to God , and confidence in the day of triall ; for he that * gave me blessings in proportion to the state and capacities of my life , I hope also will do so in proportion to the needs of my sicknesse , and my death-bed . This we find practised as a most reasonable piece of piety by the wisest of the Heathens . So Antipater Tarsensis gave God thanks for his prosperous voyage into Greece ; and Cyrus made a handsom prayer upon the tops of the mountains , when by a phantasme he was warned of his approaching death . Receive [ O God ] my Father these holy rites by which I put an end to many and great affairs : and I give thee thanks for thy celestiall signes and prophetic notices , whereby thou hast signified to me what I ought to do and what I ought not : I present also very great thanks that I have perceived and acknowledged your care of me , and have never exalted my self above my condition for any prosperous accident . And I pray that you will grant felicity to my wife , my children , and friends , and to me a death , such as my life hath been . But that of Philagrius in Gregory Nazianzen is eucharisticall , but it relates more especially to the blessings and advantages which are accidentally consequent to sicknesse . I thank thee O Father and maker of all thy children , that thou art pleased to blesse and to sanctifie us even against our wils , and by the outward man purgest the inward , and leadest us through crosse wayes to a blessed ending , for reasons best known unto thee . ] However when we go from our hospitall and place of little intermediall rest in our journey to heaven , it is fit that we give thanks to the major domo for our entertainment . When these parts of religion are finished , according to each mans necessity , there is nothing remaining of personall duty to be done alone , but that the sick man act over these vertues , by the renewings of devotion , and in the way of prayer ; and that is to be continued as long as life , and voice , and reason dwell with us . SECT . X. Acts of charity by way of prayer and ejaculation , which may also be used for thanksgiving , in case of recovery . O My soul thou hast said unto the Lord , thou art my Lord : my goodnesse extendeth not to thee : But to the saints that are in the earth , and to the excellent in whom is all my delight . The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup , thou maintainest my lot . As for God , his way is perfect : the word of the Lord is tried , he is a buckler to all those that trust in him . For who is God save the Lord ? or who is a rock save our God ? It is God that girdeth me with strength , and maketh my way perfect . Be not thou far from me O Lord : O my strength , haste thee to help me . Deliver my soul from the sword , my darling from the power of the dog , save me from the lions mouth : and thou hast heard me also from among the horns of the Unicorns . I will declare thy Name unto my brethren , in the midst of the Congregation will I praise thee . Ye that fear the Lord , praise the Lord ye sons [ of God J Glorifie him and fear before him all ye sons [ of men . For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted , neither hath he hid his face from him , but when he cryed unto him he heard . As the hart panteth after the water brooks , so longeth my soul after thee O God. My soul thirsteth for God , for the living God , when shall I come and appear before the Lord. O my God , my soul is cast down within me ; all thy waves and billows are gone over me : as with a sword in my bones I am reproached : yet the Lord will command his loving kindnesse in the day time , and in the night his song shall be with me , and my prayer unto the God of my life . Blesse ye the Lord in the congregations , even the Lord from the fountains of Israel : My mouth shall shew forth thy righteousnesse and thy salvation all the day , for I know not the numbers thereof . I will go in the strength of the Lord God , I will make mention of thy righteousnesse , even of thine onely . O God thou hast taught me from my youth . And hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works . But I will hope continually , and will yet praise thee more and more . Thy righteousnesse , O God is very high , who hast done great things . O God who is like unto thee ? thou which hast shewed me great and sore troubles shalt quicken me again , and shalt bring me up again from the depth of the earth . Thou shalt encrease thy goodnesse towards me , and comfort me on every side . My lips shall greatly rejoyce when I sing unto thee . And my soul which thou hast redeemed . Blessed be the Lord God , the God of Israel , who only doth wondrous things . And blessed be his glorious name for ever ; and let the whole earth be filled with his glory . Amen . Amen . I love the Lord , because he hath heard my voice , and my supplication . The sorrows of death compassed me , I found trouble and sorrow . Then called I upon the name of the Lord , O Lord I beseech thee deliver my soul. Gracious is the Lord and righteous , yea our God is merciful . The Lord preserveth the simple , I was brought low , and he helped me . Return to thy rest O my soul , the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee . For thou hast delivered my soul from death , mine eyes from tears , and my feet from falling . Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints ; O Lord , truly I am thy servant , I am thy servant and the son of thine handmaid , thou shalt loose my bonds . He that loveth not the Lord Jesus , let him be accursed . O that I might love thee , as well as ever any creature loved thee . He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God. There is no fear in love . The prayer . O Most Gracious and eternal God and loving Father , who hast powred out thy bowels upon us , and sent the son of thy love unto us to die for love , and to make us dwell in love , and the eternal comprehensions of thy divine mercies , O be pleased to inflame my heart with a holy charity ; towards thee and all the world . Lord I forgive all that ever have offended me and beg that both they and I may enter into the possession of thy mercies , and feel a gracious pardon from the same fountain of grace : and do thou forgive me all the acts of scandall , whereby I have provoked or tempted , or lessened , or disturbed any person ; Lord , let me never have my portion amongst those that divide the union , and disturb the peace , and break the charities of the Church , and Christian communion ; And though I am fallen into evil times , in which Christendom is divided by the names of an evil division , yet I am in charity with all Christians , with all that love the Lord Jesus , and long for his coming : and I would give my life to save the soul of any of my brethren ; and I humbly beg of thee that the publike calamity of the severall societies of the Church , may not be imputed to my soul , to any evil purposes . II. LOrd preserve me in the unity of the holy Church , in the love of God , and of my neighbours ; let thy grace inlarge my heart to remember , deeply to resent , faithfully to use , wisely to improve , and humbly to give thanks to thee for all thy favours , with which thou hast enriched my soul , and supported my estate , and preserved my person , and rescued me from danger , and invited me to goodnesse in all the dayes and periods of my life . Thou hast led me thorow it with an excellent conduct : and I have gone astray after the manner of men : but my heart is towards thee . O do unto thy servant as thou usest to do unto those that love thy Name : let thy truth comfort me , thy mercy deliver me , thy staffe support me , thy grace sanctifie my sorrow , and thy goodnesse pardon all my sins : thy Angels guide me with safety in this shadow of death , and thy most holy Spirit lead me into the land of righteousnesse , for thy Names sake which is so comfortable , and for Jesus Christ his sake , our Dearest Lord and most Gracious Saviour . Amen . CHAP. V. Of visitation of the sick : or the assistance that is to be done to dying persons , by the ministery of their Clergy Guides . SECT . I. GOd who hath made no new Covenant with dying persons distinct from the Covenant of the living , hath also appointed no distinct Sacraments for them , no other manner of usages , but such as are common to all the spirituall necessities of living and healthfull persons . In all the dayes of our religion , from our baptisme to the resignation and delivery of our soul , God hath appointed his servants to minister to the necessities , and eternally to blesse , and prudently to guide , and wisely to judge concerning souls ; and the Holy Ghost that anointing from above , descends upon us in severall effluxes , but ever by the ministeries of the Church . Our heads are anointed with that sacred unction Baptisme ( not in ceremony , but in reall and proper effect ) our foreheads in confirmation , our hands in ordinations ; all our senses in the visitation of the sick , and all by the ministery of especially deputed and instructed persons ; and we who all our life time derive blessings from the fountains of grace , by the channels of Ecclesiastical ministeries , must do it then especially , when our needs are most pungent and actuall . 1. We cannot give up our names to Christ , but the Holy man that ministers in religion must enroll them and present the persons , and consigne the grace : when we beg for Gods Spirit , the Minister can best present our prayers , and by his advocation hallow our private desires , and turn them into publike and potent offices . 2. If we desire to be established and confirmed in the grace and religion of our Baptisme , the Holy man , whose hands were anointed by a speciall ordination to that and its symbolical purposes , layes his hands upon the Catechumen and the anointing from above descends by that ministery . 3. If we would eat the body and drink the blood of our Lord , we must addresse our selves to the Lords Table , and he that stands there to blesse and to minister , can reach it forth , and feed thy soul ; and without his ministery thou canst not be nourished with that heavenly feast , nor thy body consigned to immortality , nor thy soul refreshed with the Sacramentall bread from heaven , except by spirituall suppletories , in cases of necessity and an impossible communion . 4. If we have committed sins , the spirituall man is appointed to restore us , and to pray for us , and to receive our confessions , and to enquire into our wounds , and to infuse oil and remedy , and to pronounce pardon . 5. If we be cut off from the communion of the faithfull by our own demerits , their holy hands must reconcile us , and give us peace ; they are our appointed comforters , our instructers , our ordinary Judges ; and in the whole : what the children of Israel beg'd of Moses , that God would no more speak to them alone , but by his servant Moses , lest they should be consumed , God in compliance with our infirmities hath of his own goodnesse established as a perpetuall law in all ages of Christianity ; that God will speak to us by his Ministers , and our solemn prayers shall be made to him by their advocation , and his blessings descend from heaven by their hands , and our offices return thither by their presidencies , and our repentance shall be managed by them , and our pardon in many degrees ministred by them ; God comforts us by their Sermons , and reproves us by their Discipline , and cuts off some by their severity , and reconciles others by their gentlenesse , and relieves us by their prayers , and instructs us by their discourses , and heals our sicknesses by their intercession , presented to God and united to Christs advocation ; and in all this , they are no causes , but servants of the will of God , instruments of the Divine Grace and order , stewards and dispensers of the mysteries , and appointed to our souls to serve and lead , and to help in all accidents , dangers , and necessities . And they who received us in our baptisme , are also to cary us to our grave , and to take care that our end be as our life was , or should have been ; and therefore , it is established as an Apostolical rule ; Is any man sick among you , let him send for the Elders of the Church , and let them pray over him , &c. The sum of the duties and offices respectively implied in these words is in the following rules . SECT . II. Rules for the manner of visitations of sick persons . 1. LEt the Minister of religion be sent to , not onely against the agony of death , but be advised with in the whole conduct of the sicknesse ; for in sicknesse indefinitely , and therefore in every sicknesse , and therefore in such which are not mortall , which end in health , which have no agony , or finall temptations , S. Iames gives the advise : and the sick man being bound to require them , is also tied to do it , when he can know them , and his own necessity . It is a very great evil both in the matter of prudence and piety , that they fear the Priest as they fear the Embalmer ; or the Sextons spade ; and love not to converse with him , unlesse he can converse with no man else ; and think his office so much to relate to the other world , that he is not to be treated with , while we hope to live in this ; and indeed that our religion be taken care of , onely when we die ; and the event is this , ( of which I have seen some sad experience ) that the man is deadly sick , and his reason is uselesse , and he is laid to sleep , and his life is in the confines of the grave , so that he can do nothing towards the trimming of his lamp ; and the Curate shall say a few prayers by him , and talk to a dead man , and the man is not in a condition to be helped ; but in a condition to need it hugely . He cannot be called upon to confesse his sins ; and he is not able to remember them , and he cannot understand an advice , nor hear a free discourse , nor be altered from a passion , nor cured of his fear , nor comforted upon any grounds of reason or religion , and no man can tell what is likely to be his fate ; or if he does , he cannot prophecie good things concerning him , but evil ; Let the spiritual man come when the sick man can be conversed withall , and instructed ; when he can take medicine and amend ; when he understands , or can be taught to understand the case of his soul , and the rules of his conscience ; and then his advice may turn into advantage ; It cannot otherwise be useful . 2. The entercourses of the Minister with the sick man have so much variety in them , that they are not to be transacted at once : and therefore they do not well that send once to see the good man with sorrow , and hear him pray , and thank him and dismisse him civilly , and desire to see his face no more ; To dresse a soul for funeral is not a work to be dispatched at one meeting : At once he needs a comfort , and anon something to make him willing to die ; and by and by he is tempted to impatience , and that needs a special cure , and it is a great work to make his confessions well , and with advantages ; and it may be the man is carelesse and indifferent , and then he needs to understand the evil of his sin , and the danger of his person : and his cases of conscience may be so many and so intricate , that he is not quickly to be reduced to peace ; and one time the holy man must pray , and another time he must exhort ; a third time administer the holy Sacrament ; and he that ought to watch all the periods and little portions of his life , lest he should be suprized and overcome , had need be watched when he is sick , and assisted , and called upon , and reminded of the several parts of his duty , in every instant of his temptation . This article was well provided for among the Easterlings ; for the Priests in their visitations of a sick person did abide in their attendance and ministery for seven dayes together . The want of this makes the visitations fruitlesse and the calling of the Clergy contemptible , while it is not suffered to imprint its proper effects upon them that need it in a lasting ministery . 3. S. Iames advises that when a man is sick he should send for the elders : one sick man for many Presbyters ; and so did the Eastern Churches , they sent for seven : and like a college of Physitians they ministred spiritual remedies , and sent up prayers like a quire of singing Clerks . In cities they might do so , while the Christians were few and the Priests many . But when they that dwelt in the Pagi or villages ceased to be Pagans , and were baptized , it grew to be an impossible felicity , unlesse in few cases , and to some more eminent persons : but because they need it most , God hath taken care that they may best have it ; and they that can , are not very prudent , if they neglect it . 4. Whether they be many or few that are sent to the sick person , let the Curate of his Parish or his own Confessor be amongst them that is , let him not be wholly advised by strangers who know not his particular necessities ; but he that is the ordinary Judge , cannot safely be passed by in his extraordinary necessity , which in so great portions depends upon his whole life past ; and it is a matter of suspicion when we decline his judgement that knowes us best , and with whom we formerly did converse , either by choice or by law , by private election or publike constitution . It concerns us then to make severe and profitable judgements , and not to conspire against our selves , or procure such assistances which may handle us softly , or comply with our weaknesses more then relieve our necessities . 5. When the Ministers of religion are come ; first let them do their ordinary offices , that is , pray for grace to the sick man , for patience , for resignation , for health ( if it seems good to God in order to his great ends . ) For that is one of the ends of the advice of the Apostle ; and therefore the minister is to be sent for , not while the case is desperate , but before the sicknesse is come to its crisis or period . ) Let him discourse concerning the causes of sicknesse , and by a general instrument move him to consider concerning his condition . Let him call upon him to set his soul in order , to trim his lamp , to dresse his soul , to renew acts of grace by way of prayer , to make amends in all the evils he hath done , and to supply all the defects of duty , as much as his past condition requires , and his present can admit . 6. According as the condition of the sickness , or the weaknesse of the man is observed , so the exhortation is to be less and the prayers more , because the life of the man was his main preparatory , and therefore if his condition be full of pain and infirmity , the shortnesse and small number of his own acts is to be supplied by the act of the Ministers and standers by ; who are in such cases to speak more to God for him , then to talk to him . For the prayer of the righteous when it is servent hath a promise to prevail much in behalf of the sick person . But exhortations must prevail with their own proper weight , not by the passion of the Speaker . But yet this assistance by way of prayers is not to be done by long offices , but by frequent . and fervent , and holy : in which offices , if the sick man joyns , let them be short and apt to comply with his little strength , and great infirmities ; if they be said in his behalf without his conjunction , they that pray may prudently use their own liberty , and take no measures , but their own devotions and opportunities and the sick mans necessities . When he hath made this general addresse and preparatory entrance to the work of many dayes and periods , he may descend to particulars by the following instruments and discourses . SECT . III. Of ministring in the sick mans confession of sins and repentance . THe first necessity that is to be served is that of repentance , in which the Ministers can in no way serve him but by first exhorting him to confession of his sins , and declaration of the state of his soul. For unlesse they know the manner of his life , and the degrees of his restitution , either they can do nothing at all , or nothing of advantage , and certainty : His discourses like Ionathans arrows , may shoot short , or shoot over , but not wound where they should , nor open those humours that need a lancet or a cautery . To this purpose the sick man may be reminded . Arguments and exhortations to move the sick man to confession of sins . 1. That God hath made a special promise to confession of sins . He that confesseth his sins and forsaketh them shall have mercy : and if we confesse our sins , God is righteous to forgive us our sins , and to cleanse us from all unrighteousnesse . That confession of sins is a proper act and introduction to repentance . * That when the Jews being warned by the sermons of the Baptist repented of their sins , they confessed their sins to Iohn in the susception of Baptism . * That the converts in the dayes of the Apostles returning to Christianity instantly declared their faith , and their repentance , by confession and declaration of their deeds which they then renounced , abjured , and confessed to the Apostles . * That confession is an act of many vertues together . * It is the gate of repentance , * an instrument of shame and condemnation of our sins , * a glorification of God , so called by Ioshuah particularly in the case of Achan , * an acknowledgement that God is just in punishing ; for by confessing of our sins , we also confesse his justice , and are assessors with God in this condemnation of our selves . * That by such an act of judging our selves we escape the more angry judgement of God. S. Paul expresly exhorting us to it upon that very inducement . * That confession of sins is so necessary a duty , that in all Scriptures it is the immediate preface to pardon , and the certain consequent of godly sorrow , and an integral or constituent part of that grace , which together with faith m●kes up the whole duty of the Gospel . * That in all ages of the Gospel , it hath been taught and practised respectively , that all the penitent made confessions proportionable to their repentance , that is , publike or private , general or particular . * That God by testimonies from heaven , that is , by his word , and by a consequent rare peace of conscience hath given approbation to this holy duty . * That by this instrument those whose office it is to apply remedies to every spiritual sicknesse , can best perform their offices , * that it is by all Churches esteemed a duty necessary to be done in cases of a troubled conscience . * That what is necessary to be done in one case , and convenient in all cases is fit to be done by all persons . * That without confession it cannot easily be judged concerning the sick person whether his conscience ought to be troubled or no , and therefore it cannot be certain that it is not necessary . * That there can be no reason against it but such as consults with flesh and blood , with infirmity and sin , to all which confession of sins is a direct enemy . * That now is that time when all the imperfections of his repentance and all the breaches of his duty are to be made up , and that if he omits this opportunity , he can never be admitted to a salutary and medicinal confession . * That S. Iames gives an expresse precept , that we Christians should confesse our sins to each other , that is , Christian to Christian , brother to brother , the people to their Minister , and then he makes a specification of that duty which a sick man is to do when he hath sent for the elders of the Church . * That in all this there is no force lies upon him , but if he hides his sins he shall not be directed , ( so said the Wise man ) but ere long he must appear before the great Judge of men and Angels ; and his Spirit will be more amazed and confounded to be seen among the Angels of light with the shadowes of the works of darknesse upon him , then he can suffer by confessing to God in the presence of him whom God hath sent to heal him . However , it is better to be ashamed here , then to be confounded hereafter : a pol pudere praestat quam pigere , totidem literis . * That confession being in order to pardon of sins , it is very proper and analogical to the nature of the thing , that it be made there where the pardon of sins is to be administred ; and that , of pardon of sins God hath made the Minister the publisher and dispenser ; and all this is besides the accidental advantages wich accrue to the conscience ; which is made ashamed , and timorous , and restrained by the mortifications and blushings of discovering to a man the faults committed in secret . * That the Ministers of the Gospel are the Ministers of reconciliation , are commanded to restore such persons as are overtaken in a fault , and to that purpose , they come to offer their Ministery , if they may have cognizance of the fault and person . * That in the matter of prudence it is not safe to trust a mans self in the final condition and last security of a mans soul , a man being no good Judge in his own case . And when a duty is so useful in all cases , so necessary in some , and encouraged by promises Evangelical , by Scripture precedents , by the example of both Testaments ; and prescribed by injunctions Apostolical and by the Canon of all Churches , and the example of all ages , and taught us even by the proportions of dutie , and the Analogie to the power Ministerial , and the very necessities of every man ; he that for stubbornnesse or sinful shamefac'dnesse , or prejudice , or any other criminal weaknesse shall decline to do it in the dayes of his danger , when the vanities of the world are worn off , and all affection to sin are wearied , and the sin it self is pungent and grievous , and that we are certain we shal not escape shame for them hereafter , unlesse we be ashamed of them here , and use all the proper instruments of their pardon ; this man I say is very neer death , but very far off from the kingdom of heaven . 2. The spirituall man will find in the conduct of this duty , many cases and variety of accidents , which will alter his course and forms of proceedings . 1. Most men are of a rude indifferency , apt to excuse themselves , ignorant of their condition , abused by evil principles , content with a generall and indefinite confession , and if you provoke them to it by the foregoing considerations , lest their spirits should be a little uneasie , or not secured in their own opinions , will be apt to say , They are sinners , as every man hath his infirm●ty , and he as well as any man ; But God be thanked , they bear no ill will to any man , or are no adulterers , or no rebels , or they have fought on the right side ; and God be mercifull to them for they are sinners . But you shall hardly open their brest further ; and to enquire beyond this , would be to do the office of an accuser . 3 But which is vet worse ; there are very many persons , who have been so used to an habituall course of a constant intem●er●nce , or dissolution in any other instance , that ●he crime is made naturall and necessary , and the conscience hath digested all the trouble , and the man thinks himself in a good estate , and never reckons any sins , but those which are the egressions and passings beyond his ordinary and daily drunkennesse . This happens in the cases of drunkennesse , and intemperate eating , and idlenesse , and uncharitablenesse , and in lying and vain jestings , and particularly in such evils which the lawes do not punish , and publike customs do not shame , but which are contenanced by potent sinners , or evil customs , or good nature , and mistaken civilities . Instruments by way of consideration , to awaken a carelesse person , and a stupid conscience . IN these and the like cases , the spirituall man must awaken the L●thargy , and prick the conscience by representing to him . 1. * That Christianity is a holy and a strict religion . 2. * That many are called but few are chosen . * That the number of them that are to be saved are but very few in respect of those that are to descend into sorrow and everlasting darknesse . * That we have covenanted with God in baptisme , to live a holy life . * That the measures of holinesse in Christian religion are not to be taken by the evil proportions of the multitude , and common ●ame of looser and lesse severe persons , because the multitude is that which does not enter into heaven , but the few , the elect , the holy servants of Jesus . * That every habituall sin does amount to a very great guilt in the whole , though it be but in a small instance . * That if the righteous scarcely be saved , then there will be no place for the righteous and the sinner to appear in , but places of horror and amazement . * That confidence hath destroyed many souls , and many have had a sad portion who have reckoned themselves in the Calendar of Saints . * That the promises of heaven are so great , that it is not reasonable to think that every man , and every life , and an easie religion shall possesse such infinite glories . * That although heaven is a gift , yet there is a great severity and strict exacting of the conditions on our part to receive that gift . * That some persons who have lived strictly for 40. years together , yet have miscarried by some one crime at last , or some secret hypocrisie , or a latent pride , or a creeping ambition , or a phantastic spirit ; and therefore much lesse can they hope to receive so great portions of felicities , when their life hath been a continuall declination from those severities which might have created confidence of pardon and acceptation , through the mercies of God and the merits of Jesus . * That every good man ought to be suspicious of himself , and in his judgement concerning his own condition to fear the worst , that he may provide for the better . * That we are commanded to work out our salvation with fear & trembling . * That this precept was given with very great reason , considering the thousand thousand wayes of miscarrying . * That S. Paul himself , and S. Arsenius , and S. Elzearius , and divers other remarkable Saints had at some times great apprehensions of the dangers of failing of the mighty price of their high calling . * That the stake that is to be secured is of so great an interest , that all our industry , and all the violences we can suffer in the prosecution of it are not considerable . * That this affair is to be done but once , and then never any more unto eternal ages . * That they who professe themselves servants of the institution and servants of the law and discipline of Jesus will find , that they must judge themselves by the proportions of that law by which they were to rule themselves . * That the laws of society and civility , and the voices of my company are as ill judges as they are guides ; but we are to stand or fall by his sentence , who will not consider or value the talk of idle men , or the persuasion of wilfully abused consciences ; but of him , who hath felt our infirmity in all things , but sin , and knowes where our failings are unavoidable , and where and in what degree they are excusable ; but never will endure a sin should seize upon any part of our love , and deliberate choice , or carelesse cohabitation . * That if our conscience accuse us not , yet are we not hereby justified , for God is greater then our consciences . * That they who are most innocent have their consciences most tender and sensible . * That scrupulous persons are alwayes most religious , and that to feel nothing , is not a signe of life but of death . * That nothing can be hid from the eyes of the Lord , to whom the day and the night , publike and private , words and thoughts , actions and designes are equally discernable . * That a lukewarme person is onely secured in his own thoughts , but very unsafe in the event , and despised by God. * That we live in an Age in which that which is called and esteemed a holy life , in the dayes of the Apostles and holy primitives would have been esteemed indifferent , sometimes scandalous , and alwayes cold . That what was a truth of God then , is so now ; and to what severities they were tyed , for the same also we are to be accountable ; and heaven is not now an easier purchase then it was then . * That if he will cast up his accounts , even with a superficial eye , Let him consider how few good works he hath done , how inconsiderable is the relief which he gave to the poor , how little are the extraordinaries of his religion , and how unactive and lame , how polluted and disordered , how unchosen and unpleasant were the ordinary parts and periods of it ? and how many and great sins have stained his course of life , and until he enters into a particular scrutinie , let him only revolve in his minde what his general course hth been ; and in the way of prudence , let him say , whether it was laudable and holy , or onely indifferent and excusable ; and if he can think it onely excusable , and so as to hope for pardon by such suppletories of faith , and arts of persuasion , which he and others use to take in , for auxiliaries to their unreasonable confidence , then he cannot but think it very fit that he search into his own state , and take a Guide , and erect a tribunal , or appear before that which Christ hath erected for him on earth , that he may make his accesse fairer when he shall be called before the dreadfull Tribunal of Christ in the clouds . For if he can be confident upon the stock of an unpraised , or a looser life , and should dare to venture upon wilde accounts , without order , without abatements , without consideration , without conduct , without fear , without scrutinies and confessions , and instruments of amends or pardon , he either knows not his danger , or cares not for it ; and little understands how great a horrour that is , that a man should rest his head for ever upon a cradle of flames , and lye in a bed of sorrows , and never sleep , and never end his groans , or the gnashing of his teeth . This is that which some spiritual persons call a wakening the sinner by the terrours of the law , which is a good analogie or Tropical expression to represent the threatnings of the Gospel , and the dangers of an incurious and a sinning person : but we have nothing else to do with the terrours of the law ; for , Blessed be God , they concern us not ; the terrours of the law were the intermination of curses upon all those that ever broke any of the least Commandements ; once , or in any instance : And to it the righteousnesse of faith is opposed : The terrors of the law admitted no repentance , no pardon , no abatement ; and were so severe , that God never inflicted them at all according to the letter , because he admitted all to repentance , that desired it with a timely prayer , unlesse in very few cases , as of Achan , or Corah , the gatherer of sticks upon the Sabbath-day , or the like : but the state of threatnings in the Gospel is very fearful , because the conditions of avoiding them are easie and ready , and they happen to evil persons after many warnings , second thoughts , frequent invitations to pardon and repentance , and after one entire pardon consigned in Baptism : and in this sense it is necessary that such persons as we now deal withall should be instructed concerning their danger . 4. When the sick man is either of himself , or by these considerations set forward with purposes of repentance , and confession of his sins in order to all its holy purposes , and effects , then the Minister is to assist him in the understanding the number of his sins , that is , the several kinds of them , and the various manners of prevaricating the divine commandments ; for as for the number of the particulars in every kinde , he will need lesse help ; and if he did , he can have it no where but in his own conscience , and from the witnesses of his conversation : Let this be done by prudent insinuation , by arts of remembrance , and secret notices , and propounding occasions and instruments of recalling such things to his minde , which either by publike fame he is accused of , or by the temptations of his condition it is likely he might have contracted . 5. If the person be truly penitent and forward to confesse all that are set before him or offered to his sight at a half face , then he may be complyed withall in all his innocent circumstances , and his conscience made placid and willing , and he be drawn forward by good nature and civilitie , that his repentance in all the parts of it , and in every step of its progresse and emanation , may be as voluntary and chosen as it can . For by that means if the sick person can be invited to do the work of religion , it enters by the door of his will and choice , and will passe on toward consummation , by the instrument of delight . 6. If the sick man be backward and without apprehension of the good natur'd and civil way ; let the Minister take care that by some way or other the work of God be secured ; and if he will not understand , when he is secretly prompted , he must be hollowed to , and asked in plain interrogatives concerning the crime of his life . He must be told of the evil things that are spoken of him in markets and exchanges , the proper temptations and accustomed evils of his calling and condition , of the actions of scandal , and in all those actions which were publike , or of which any notice is come abroad , let care be taken that the right side of the case of conscience be turned toward him ; and the errour truly represented to him , by which he was abused ; as the injustice of his contracts , his oppressive bargains , his rapine & violence ; and if he hath perswaded himself to think well of a scandalous action , let him be instructed and advertised of his folly and his danger . 7. And this advice concerns the Minister of religion to follow without partialitie or fear , or interest : in much simplicity and prudence , and hearty sincerity ; having no other consideration , but that the interest of the mans soul be preserved , and no caution used , but that the matter be represented with just circumstances , and civilities fitted to the person with prefaces of honour and regard ; but so that nothing of the duty be diminished by it , that the introduction do not spoil the sermon , and both together ruine two souls [ of the speaker and the hearer . ] For it may soon be considered ; if the sick man be a poor or an indifferent person in secular account , yet his soul is equally dear to God , and was redeemed with the same highest price , and therfore to be highly regarded : and there is no temptation , but that the spirituall man may speak freely without the allayes of interest , or fear , or mistaken civilities ; but if the sick man be a Prince , or a person of eminence or wealth , let it be remembred it is an ill expression of reverence to his authority ; or of regard to his person , to let him perish for the want of an honest , and just , and a free homily . Let the sick man in the scrutiny of his conscience and confession of his sins , be carefully reminded to consider those sins which are onely condemned in the court of conscience , and no where else . For there are certain secrecies and retirments , places of darknesse , and artificiall veils , with which the Devil uses to hide our sins from us , and to incorporate them into our affections by a constant uninterrupted practise , before they be prejudiced or discovered . 1. There are many sins which have reputation and are accounted honour , as fighting a duel , answering a blow with a blow , carrying armies into a neighbour countrey , robbing with a navy , violently seizing upon a kingdom . 2. Others are permitted by law ; as Vsury in all countreys ; and because every excesse of it is a certain sin , the permission of so suspected a matter makes it ready for us , and instructs the temptation . 3. Some things are not forbidden by lawes , as lying in ordinary discourse , jeering , scoffing , intemperate eating , ingratitude , selling too dear , circumventing another in contracts , importunate intreaties , and temptation of persons to many instances of sin , pride , and ambition . 4. Some others do not reckon the sin against God , if the lawes have seized upon the person ; and many that are imprisoned for debt , think themselves disobliged from payment ; and when they pay the penalty , think they owe nothing for the scandal and disobedience . 5. Some sins are thought not considerable , but go under the title of sins of infirmity , or inseparable accidents of mortality ; such as idle thoughts , foolish talking , looser revellings , impatience , anger , and all the events of evil company . 6. Lastly , many things are thought to be no sins ; such as mispending of their time , whole dayes or moneths of uselesse and impertinent imployment , long gaming , winning mens money in greater portions , censuring mens actions , curiosity , aecquivocating in the prices and secrets of buying and selling , rudenesse , speaking truths enviously , doing good to evil purposes , and the like : Under the dark shadow of these unhappy , and fruitlesse Yew-trees , the enemy of mankind makes very many to lie hid from themselves , sewing before their nakednesse the fig-leaves of popular and idol reputation , and impunity , publike permission , a temporall penalty , infirmity , prejudice , and direct errour in judgement , and ignorance . Now in all these cases the Ministers are to be inquisitive and observant , lest the fallacy prevail upon the penitent to evil purposes of death or diminution of his good ; and that those things which in his life passed without observation , may now be brought forth and passe under sawes and barrows , that is , the severity and censure of sorrow and condemnation . 9. To which I adde for the likenesse of the thing , that the matter of omission be considered ; for in them lies the bigger half of our failings ; and yet in many instances they are undiscerned , because they very often sit down by the conscience , but never upon it ; and they are usually looked upon as poor men do upon their not having coach and horses , or as that knowledge is missed by boyes , and hindes which they never had ; it will be hard to make them understand their ignorance ; it requires knowledge to perceive it ; and therefore he that can perceive it , hath it not . But by this pressing the conscience with omissions , I do not mean , recessions or distances , from states of eminency or perfection ; for although they may be used by the Ministers as an instrument of humility , and a chastiser of too big a confidence , yet that which is to be confessed and repented of , is omission of duty in direct instances and matters of commandement , or collaterall , and personall obligations , and is especially to be considered by Kings and Prelates , by Governours and rich persons , by Guides of souls , and Presidents of learning in publike charge ; and by all others in their proportions . 10. The ministers of religion must take care that the sick mans confession be as minute and particular as it can : and that as few sins as may be , be entrusted to the generall prayer of pardon for all sins : for by being particular and enumerative of the variety of evils which have disordered his life , his repentance is disposed to be more pungent and afflictive , and therefore more salutary and medicinall ; it hath in it more sincerity , and makes a better judgement of the finall condition of the man ; and from thence it is certain , the hopes of the sick man can be more confident and reasonable . 11. The spirituall man that assists at the repentance of the sick must not be inquisitive into all the circumstances of the particular sins , but be content with those that are direct parts of the crime , and aggravation of the sorrow ; Such as frequency , long abode , and earnest choice in acting them , violent desires , great expense , scandall of others , dishonour to the religion , dayes of devotion and religious solemnities , holy places , and the degrees of boldnesse and impudence , perfect resolution , and the habit . If the sick person be reminded or inquired into concerning these , it may prove a good instrument to increase his contrition , and perfect his penitentiall sorrows , and facilitate his ablution , and the means of his amendment . But the other circumstances , as of the relative person in the participation of the crime , the measures or circumstances of the impure action , the name of the injured man or woman , the quality or accidentall condition ; these and all the like are but questions springing from curiosity , and producing scruple , and apt to turn into many inconveniencies . 11. The Minister in this duty of repentance must be diligent to observe concerning the person that repents , that he be not imposed upon by some one excellent thing that was remarkable in the sick mans former life . For there are some people of one good thing . Some are charitable to the poor out of kind-heartednesse , and the same good-nature makes them easie and compliant with drinking persons , and they die with drink , but cannot live with charity : and their alms it may be shall deck their monument , or give them the reward of loving persons , and the poor mans thanks for alms , and procure many temporall blessings , but it is very sad that the reward should be all spent in this world : some are rarely just persons , and punctuall observers of their word with men , but break their promises with God , and make no scruple of that . In these and all the like cases , the spirituall man must be carefull to remark , that good proceeds from an intire and integrall cause , and evil from every part : That one sicknesse can make a man die ; but he cannot live and be called a sound man , without an intire health ; and therefore if any confidence arises upon that stock , so as that it hinder the strictness of the repentance , it must be allayed with the representment of this sad truth ; That he who reserves one evil in his choice , hath chosen an evil portion , and colliquintida and death is in the pot : and he that worships the God of Israel with a frequent sacrifice , and yet upon the anniversary will bow in the house of Venus , and loves to see the follies and the nakednesse of Rimmon , may eat part of the flesh of the sacrifice , and fill his belly , but shall not be refreshed by the holy cloud arising from the altar , or the dew of heaven descending upon the mysteries . 12. And yet the Minister is to estimate , that one ( or more good things ) is to be an ingredient into his judgement , concerning the state of his soul , and the capacities of his restitution , and admission to the peace of the Church ; and according as the excellency and usefulnesse of the grace hath been , and according to the degrees and the reasons of its prosecution , so abatements are to be made in the injunctions and impositions upon the penitent . For every vertue is one degree of approach to God ; and though in respect of the acceptation , it is equally none at all , that is , it is as certain a death if a man dies with one mortall wound , as if he had twenty , yet in such persons who have some one or more excellencies , though not an intire piety , there is naturally a neerer approach to the estate of grace , then in persons who have done evils and are eminent for nothing that is good . But in making judgement of such persons , it is to be inquired into and noted accordingly , why the sick person was so eminent in that one good thing ; whether by choice and apprehension of his duty , or whether it was a vertue from which his state of life ministred nothing to dehort or discourage him , or whether it was onely a consequent of his naturall temper and constitution . If the first , then it supposes him in the neighbourhood of the state of grace , and that in other things he was strongly tempted . The second is a felicity of his education , and an effect of providence . The third is a felicity of his nature and a gift of God in order to spirituall purposes . But yet of every one of these , advantage is to be made . If he conscience of his duty was the principle , then he is ready formed to entertain all other graces upon the same reason , and his repentance must be made more sharp and penall ; because he is convinced to have done against his conscience in all the other parts of his life ; but the judgement concerning his finall state ought to be more gentle , because it was a huge temptation that hindred the man and abused his infirmity : but if either his calling or his nature were the parents of the grace , he is in the state of a morall man , ( in the just and proper meaning of the word ) and to be handled accordingly : that vertue disposed him rarely well to many other good things , but was no part of the grace of sanctification ; and therefore the mans repentance is to begin anew , for all that ; and is to be finished in the returns of health , if God grants it , but if he denies it , it is much , very much the worse for all that sweet natur'd vertue . 13. When the confession is made , the spirituall man is to execute the office of a Restorer and a Iudge in the following particulars and manner . SECT . IIII. Of the ministring to the restitution and pardon , or reconciliation of the sick person , by administring the Holy Sacrament . IF any man be overtaken in a fault , ye which are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meeknesse . That 's the Commission : and Let the Elders of the Church pray over the sick man , and if he have committed sins , they shall be forgiven him , that 's the effect of his power and his ministery . But concerning this , some few things are to be considered . 1. It is the office of the Presbyters and Ministers of religion to declare publike criminals and scandalous persons to be such , that when the leprosie is declared , the flock may avoid the infection and then the man is excommunicate ; when the people are warned to avoid the danger of the man , or the reproach of the crime , to withdraw from his society , and not to bid him God speed , not to eat and celebrate synaxes and Church-meetings with such who are declared criminal and dangerous : and therefore excommunication is in a very great part , the act of the Congregation and communities of the faithfull , and S. Paul said to the Church of the Corinthians , that they had inflicted the evil upon the incestuous person ; that is , by excommunicating him : all the acts of which , are , as they are subjected in the people ; acts of caution and liberty , but no more acts of direct , proper power or jurisdiction , then it was when the scholers of Simon Magus lef● his chair and went to hear S. Peter . But as they are actions of the Rulers of the Church , so they are declarative , ministerial , and effective too by morall causality , that is , by perswasion , and discourse , by argument , and prayer , by homily , and materiall representment , by reasonablenesse of order , and the superinduced necessities of men ; though not by any reall change of state as to the person , nor by diminution of his right , or violence to his condition . 2. He that baptises , and he that ministers the Holy Sacrament , and he that prayes , does holy offices of great advantage , but in these also , just as in the former he exercises no jurisdiction or preheminence after the manner of saecular authority ; and the same is also true if he should deny them . He that refuseth to baptize an indisposed person , hath by the consent of all men no power or jurisdiction over the unbaptized man ; and he that for the like reason refuseth to give him the Communion , preserves the sacrednesse of the mysteries , and does charitie to the undisposed man , to deny that to him which will do him mischief ; and this is an act of separation just as it is for a friend or Physitian to deny water to an Hydropic person , or Italian wines to a hectic feaver , or as if Cato should deny to salute Bibulus , or the Censor of maners to do countenance to a wanton and vitious person : and though this thing was expressed by words of power , such as separation , abstention , excommunication , deposition , yet these words we understand by the thing it self , which was notorious and evident , to be matter of prudence , security and a free , unconstrained discipline ; and they passed into power by consent and voluntary submission ; having the same effect of constraint , fear and authority , which we see in secular jurisdiction , not because ecclesiastical discipline hath a natural proper coercion as lay-Tribunals have , but because men have submitted to it , and are bound to do so upon the interest of two or three Christian graces . 3. In pursuance of this caution and provision the Church superinduced times and manners of abstention , and expressions of sorrow , and canonical punishments which they tyed the delinquent people to suffer before they would admit them to the holy Table of the Lord. For the criminal having obliged himself by his sin , and the Church having declared it when she could take notice of it , he is bound to repent , to make him capable of pardon with God , and to prove that he is penitent , he is to do such actions , which the Church in the vertue and pursuance of repentance shall accept as a testimony of it , sufficient to inform her ; for as she could not binde at all ( in this sence ) till the crime was publike , though the man had bound himself in secret : so neither can she set him free till the repentance be as publike as the sin ; or so as she can note it and approve it : Though the man be free as to God by his internal act , yet as the publication of the sin was accidental to it , and the Church censure consequent to it , so is the publication of repentance and consequent absolution extrinsecal to the pardon , but accidentally and in the present circumstances necessary . This was the same that the Jews did , ( though in other instances and expressions ) and do to this day to their prevarica●ing people ; and the Essenes in their assemblies ; and private Colleges of scholars , and publike Universities . For all these being assemblies of voluntary persons , and such as seek for advantage , are bound to make an artificial authority in their superiours , and so to secure order , and government by their own obedience and voluntary subordination , which is not essential and of proper jurisdiction in the superiour ; and the band of it is not any coe●citive power , but the denying to communicate such benefits which they seek in that communion and fellowship . 4. These I say were introduced in the speciall manners and instances by positive authority , and have not a divine authority commanding them ; but there is a divine power that verefies them , and makes these separations effectual and formidable : for because they are declarative and ministerial in the spirituall man , and suppose a delinquencie and demerit in the other , and a sin against God , our blessed Saviour our hath declared , that what they binde in earth shall be bound in heaven , that is in plain signification ; The same sins and sinners which the Clergie condemns in the face of their assemblies , the same is condemned in heaven before the face of God ; and for the same reason too . Gods law hath sentenced it , and these are the preachers and publishers of his law , by which they stand condemned ; and these laws are they that condemn the sin , or acquit the penitent there and here ; whatsoever they binde here shall be bound there , that is , the sentence of God at the day of judgement shall sentence the same men whom the Church does rightly sentence here ; it is spoken in the future [ it shall be bound in heaven ] not but that the sinner is first bound there , or first absolved there ; but because all binding and loosing in the interval is imperfect and relative to the day of judgement ; the day of the great sentence : therefore it is set down in the time to come , and sayes this only ; The Clergie are tyed by the word and laws of God to condemn such sins and sinners ; and that you may not think it ineffective , because after such sentence the man lives and growes rich , or remains in health and power , therefore be sure it shall be verified in the day of judgement . This is hugely agreeable with the words of our Lord , and certain in reason ; for that the minister does nothing to the final alteration of the state of the mans soul by way of sentence is demonstratively certain , because he cannot binde a man , but such as hath bound himself , and who is bound in heaven by his sin before his sentence in the Church : as also be-because the binding of the Church is meerly accidental , and upon publication only ; and when the man repents he is absolved before God , before the sentence of the Church , upon his contrition and dereliction only ; and if he were not , the Church could not absolve him : The consequent of which evident truth is this , that whatsoever impositions the Church officers impose upon the criminal , they are to avoid scandal , to testifie repentance , and to exercise it , to instruct the people , to make them fear , to represent the act of God , and the secret and the true state of the sinner ; and although they are not essentially necessary to our pardon , yet they are become necessary when the Church hath seized upon the sinner by publike notice of the crime ; necessary ( I say ) for the removing the scandal , and giving testimony of our contrition , and for the receiving all that comfort which he needs , and can derive from the promises of pardon , as they are published by him that is commanded to preach them to all them that repent : and therefore although it cannot be necessary as to the obtaining pardon , that the Priest should in private absolve a sick man from his private sins , and there is no loosing where there was no precedent binding , and he that was only bound before God , can before him onely be loosed , yet as to confess sins to any Christian in private may have many good ends , and to confess them to a Clergy-man may have many more ; so to hear Gods sentence at the mouth of the Ministers , pardon pronounced by Gods embassador , is of huge comfort to them , that cannot otherwise be comforted , and whose infirmity needs it ; and therefore it were very fit it were not neglected in the dayes of our fear and danger , of our infirmities and sorrow . 5. The execution of this ministery , being an act of prudence and charity , and therefore relative to changing circumstances it hath been and in many cases may , and in some must be rescinded and altered ; the time of separation may be lengthned and shortned , the condition made lighter or heavier , and for the same offence the Clergy man is deposed , but yet admitted to the communion , for which one of the people who hath no office to lose , is denyed the benefit of communicating ; and this sometimes when he might lawfully receive it ; and a private man is separate when a multitude or a prince is nor , cannot , ought not ; and at last , when the case of sicknesse and danger of death did occur , they admitted all men that desired it ; sometimes without scruple or difficulty , sometimes with some little restraint in great or insolent cases ( as in the case of Apostacie , in which the Councel of Arls denyed absolution , unlesse they received and gave publike satisfaction by acts of repentance ; and some other Councels denyed at any time to do it to such persons ) according as seemed sitting to the present necessities of the Church : all which particulars declare it to be no part of a divine commandment , that any man should be denyed to receive the Communion if he desires it , and if he be in any probable capacitie of receiving it . 6. Since the separation was an act of libertie and a direct negative , it followes that the restitution was a meer doing that which they refused formerly , and to give the holy Communion was the formality of absolution , and all the instrument and the whole matter of reconcilement , the taking off the punishment , is the pardoning of the sin ; for this without the other is but a word ; and if this be done I care not whether any thing be said or no. Vinum Dominicum ministratoris gratia est : is also true in this sence : to give the chalice and cup is the grace and indulgence of the Minister ; and when that is done the man hath obtained the peace of the Church ; and to do that is all the absolution the Church can give ; and they were vain disputes which were commenced some few ages since , concerning the forms of absolution , whether they were indicative or optative , by way of declaration , or by way of sentence ; for at first they had no forms at all ; but they said a prayer , and after the manner of the Jews laid hands upon the penitent , when they prayed over him , and so admitted him to the holy Communion ; for since the Church had no power over her children , but of excommunicating and denying them to attend upon holy offices and ministeries respectively , neither could they have any absolution , but to admit them thither from whence formerly they were forbidden ; whatsoever ceremonie or forms did signifie , this was superinduced and arbitrary , alterable and accidental , it had variety , but no necessity . 7. The practise consequent to this is , that if the penitent be bound by the positive censures of the Church , he is to be reconciled upon those conditions which the laws of the Church tye him to , in case he can perform them ; if he cannot , he can no longer be prejudiced by the censure of the Church , which had no relation but to the people , with whom the dying man is no longer to converse ; for whatsoever relates to God , is to be transacted in spirituall wayes , by contrition , and internall graces ; and the mercy of the Church is such , as to give him her peace and her blessing upon his undertaking to obey her injunction , if he shall be able ; which injunctions if they be declared by publike sentence , the Minister hath nothing to do in the affairs but to remind him of his obligation , and reconcile him , that is , give him the Holy Sacrament . 8. If the penitent be not bound by publike sentence , the Minister is to make his repentance as great , and his heart as contrite as he can ; to dispose him by the repetition of acts of grace in the way of prayer , and in reall and exteriour instances where he can , and then to give him the Holy Communion in all the same cases , in which he ought not to have denied it to him in his health , that is , even in the beginnings of such a repentance , which by humane signes he beleeves to be reall and holy ; and after this , the event must be left to God. The reason of the rule depends upon this ; Because there is no Divine commandement directly forbidding the Rulers of the Church to give the Communion to any Christian that desires it , and professes repentance of his sins . And all Church discipline in every instance , and to every single person was imposed upon him by men , who did it according to the necessities of this state and constitution of our affairs below ; but we who are but Ministers and delegates of pardon and condemnation , must resigne and give up our judgement when the man is no more to be judged by the sentences of man , and by the proportions of this world , but of the other ; to which if our reconciliation does advantage , we ought in charity to send him forth with all the advantages he can receive ; for he will need them all : and therefore the Nicene Councel commands , that no man be deprived of this necessary pasport in the article of his death , and calls th●s the ancient and canonicall law of the Church : and to minister it , onely supposes the man in the communion of the Church , not alwayes in the state , but ever in the possibilities of sanctification . They who in the article and danger of death were admitted to the communion , and tied to penance if they recovered ( which was ever the custome of the ancient Church , unlesse in very few cases ) were but in the threshold of repentance , in the commencement and first introductions to a devout life : and indeed then it is a fit ministery , that it be given in all the periods of time in which the pardon of sins is working , since it is the Sacrament of that great mystery , & the exhibition of that blood which is shed for the remission of sins . 9. The Minister of religion ought not to give the Communion to a sick person , if he retains the affection to any sin , and refuses to disavow it , or professe repentance of all sins whatsoever , if he be required to do it . The reason is , because it is a certain death to him , and an increase of his misery if he shall so prophane the body and blood of Christ , as to take it into so unholy a breast , where Sathan reignes , and sin is principall , and the Spirit is extinguished ; and Christ loves not to enter , because he is not suffered to inhabite . But when he professes repentance and does such acts of it as his present condition permits , he is to be presumed to intend heartily what he professes solemnly ; and the Minister is onely the Judge of outward act , and by that onely he is to take information concerning the inward . But whether he be so or no , or if he be , whether that be timely , and effectuall and sufficient toward the pardon of sins before God , is another consideration , of which we may conjecture here , but we shall know it at doomsday . The spirituall man is to do his ministery by the rules of Christ , and as the customs of the Church appoint him ; and after the manner of men ; the event is in the hands of God , and is to be expected not directly and wholly according to his ministery ; but to the former life , or the timely * internall repentance and amendment ; of which I have already given accounts . These ministeries are acts of order and great assistances , but the sum of affairs does not relie upon them . And if any man puts his whole repentance upon this time , or all his hopes upon these ministeries , he will find them and himself to fail . 10. It is the Ministers office to invite sick and dying persons to the Holy Sacrament ; such whose lives were fair , and laudable , and yet their sicknesse sad and violent , making them list-lesse and of slow desires , and flower apprehensions ; that such persons who are in the state of grace , may lose no accidentall advantages of spirituall improvement , but may receive into their dying bodies the symboles and great consignations of the resurrection , and into their soules the pledges of immortality ; and may appear before God their Father in the union , and with the impresses and likenesse of their elder Brother . But if the persons be of ill report , and have lived wickedly , they are not to be invited , because their case is hugely suspicious , though they then repent and call for mercy ; but if they demand it , they are not to be denied ; onely let the Minister in generall represent the evil consequents of an unworthy participation ; and if the penitent will judge himself unworthy let him stand candidate for pardon at the hands of God , and stand or fall by that unerring and mercifull sentence ; to which his severity of condemning himself before men , will make the easier and more hopefull addresse . And the strictest among the Christians , who denied to reconcile lapsed persons after baptisme , yet acknowledged that there were hopes reserved in the court of heaven for them , though not here ; since we who are easily deceived by the pretences of a reall return , are tied to dispense Gods graces as he hath given us commission , with fear and trembling , and without too forward confidences , and God hath mercies which we know not of , and therefore because we know them not , such persons were referred to Gods Tribunal , where he would finde them , if they were to be had at all . 11. When the holy Sacrament is to be administred , let the exhortation be made proper to the mystery ; but fitted to the man ; that is , that it be used for the advantages of faith or love , or contrition ; let all the circumstances and parts of the Divine love be represented ; all the mysterious advantages of the blessed Sacrament be declared , * That it is the bread which came from heaven , * That it is the representation of Christs death to all the purposes and capacities of faith , * and the real exhibition of Christs body and blood to all the puposes of the Spirit , * That it is the earnest of the resurrection , * and the seed of a glorious immortality , * That as by our cognation to the body of the first Adam we took in death , so by our union with the body of the second Adam , we shall have the inheritance of life ; for as by Adam came death , so by Christ cometh the resurrection of the dead , * That if we being worthy Communicants of these sacred pledges be presented to God with Christ within us , our being accepted of God is certain even for the sake of his well beloved that dwells within us , * That this is the Sacrament of the body which was broken for our sinnes , of that blood which purifies our souls , by which we are presented to God pure and holy , in the beloved , * That now we may ascertain our hopes and make our faith confident , for he that hath given us his Son , how should not he with him give us all things else ? Upon these or the like considerations , the sick man may be assisted in his addresse , and his faith strengthened , and his hope confirmed , and his charity be enlarged . 12. The manner of the sick mans reception of the holy Sacrament hath in it nothing differing from the ordinary solemnities of the Sacrament , save onely that abatement is to be made of such accidentall circumstances , as by the lawes or customes of the Church healthfull persons are obliged to ; such as fasting , kneeling , &c. though I remember that it was noted for great devotion in the Legate that died at Trent , that he caused himself to be sustained upon his knees , when he received the viaticum or the holy Sacrament before his death , and it was greater in Hunniades that he caused himself to be carried to the Church , that there he might receive his Lord , in his Lords house ; and it was recorded for honour , that William the pious Arch-Bishop of Bourges , a small time before his last agony , sprang out of his bed at the presence of the holy Sacrament , and upon his knees and his face recommended his soul to his Saviour . But in these things no man is to be prejudiced or censured . 13. Let not the holy Sacrament be administred to dying persons , when they have no use of reason to make that duty acceptable , and the mysteries effective to the purposes of the soul. For the Sacraments and ceremonies of the gospel operate not without the concurrent actions and moral influences of the suscipient . To infuse the chalice in to the cold lips of the Clinick may disturb his agony , but cannot relieve the soul , which onely receives improvement by acts of grace and choice , to which the external rites are apt and appointed to minister , in a capable person . All other persons , as fools , children , distracted persons , lethargical , apoplectical , or any wayes senselesse and uncapable of humane and reasonable acts , are to be assisted onely by prayers ; for they may prevail even for the absent , and for enemies , and for all those who joyn not in the office . SECT . V. Of Ministring to the sick person by the Spiritual man , as he is the Physitian of souls . 1. IN all cases of receiving confessions of sick men , and the assisting to the advancement of repentance , the Minister is to apportion to every kinde of sin such spiritual remedies which are apt to mortifie and cure the sin , such as abstinence from their occasions , and opportunities , to avoid temptations , to resist their beginnings , to punish the crime by acts of indignation against the person , fastings and prayer , alms and all the instances of charity , asking forgiveness , restitution of wrongs , satisfaction of injuries , acts of vertue contrary to the crimes : and although in great and dangerous sicknesses they are not directly to be imposed , unlesse they are direct matters of duty , yet where they are medicinall they are to be insinuated , and in general signification remarked to him , and undertaken accordingly : concerning which when he returnes to health he is to receive particular advices ; and this advice was inserted into the penitential of England in the time of Theodore Arch-Bishop of Canterbury , and afterward adopted into the Canon of all the Western Churches . 2. The proper temptations of sick men for which a remedie is not yet provided : are unreasonable fears , and unreasonable confidences , which the Minister is to cure by the following considerations . Considerations against unreasonable fears of not having our sins pardoned . Many good men , especially such who have tender consciences , impatient of the least sin , to which they are arrived by a long grace and a continual observation of their actions , and the parts of a lasting repentance , many times overact their tendernesse , and turn their caution into scruple , and care of their duty into inquiries after the event , and askings after the counsels of God , and the sentences of dooms-day . He that asks of the standers by , or of the Minister , whether they think he shall be saved or damned , are to be answered with the words of pity and reproof . Seek not after new light for the searching into the privatest records of God ; look as much as you list into the pages of revelation ; for they concern your duty ; but the event is registred in heaven , and we can expect no other certain notices of it , but that it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared by the Father of mercies ; we have light enough to tell our duty ; and if we do that we need not fear what the issue will be ; and if we do not , let us never look for more light , or inquire after Gods pleasure concerning our souls , since we so little serve his ends in those things where he hath given us light . But yet this I adde , that as pardon of sins in the old Testament was nothing but removing the punishment which then was temporal , and therefore many times they could tell if their sins were pardoned , and concerning pardon of sins they then had no fears of conscience , but while the punishment was on them , for so long indeed it was unpardoned , and how long it would so remain it was matter of fear , and of present sorrow : Besides this , in the Gospel , pardon of sins is another thing . Pardon of sins is a sanctification : Christ came to take away our sin by turning every one of us from our iniquities . And there is not in the nature of the thing any expectation of pardon , or signe or signification of it , but so far as the thing it self discovers it self ; As we hate sin and grow in grace , and arrive at the state of holinesse , which is also a state of repentance and imperfection ; but yet of sincerity of heart and diligent endeavour , in the same degree we are to judge concerning the forgiveness of sins ; for indeed that is the Evangelical forgivenesse , and it signifies our pardon , because it effects it , or rather it is in the nature of the thing ; so that we are to enquire into no hidden records : forgivenesse of sins is not a secret sentence , a word or a record : but it is a state of change and effected upon us ; and upon our selves we are to look for it , to read it , and understand it . We are onely to be curious of our duty , and confident of the Article of remission of sins , and the conclusion of these premises will be , that we shall be full of hopes of a prosperous resurrection : and our fear and trembling are no instances of our calamity , but parts of duty ; we shall sure enough be wafted to the shore , although we be tossed with the winds of our sighs , and the unevenness of our fears , and the ebbings and flowings of our passions , if we sail in a right chanel , and steere by a perfect compasse , and look up to God , and call for his help , and do our own endeavour . There are very many reasons why men ought not to despair : and there are not very many men that ever go beyond a hope , till they passe into possession ; if our fears have any mixture of hope , that is enough to enable and to excite our duty , and if we have a strong hope , when we cast about , we shall finde reason enough to have many fears : let not this fear weaken our * hands , and if it allay our gayeties and our confidences , it is no harm . In this uncertainty we must abide , if we have committed sins after baptisme : and those confidences which some men glorie in , are not reall supports or good foundations . The fearing man is the safest , and if he fears on his death-bed , it is but what happens to most considering men , and what was to be looked for all his life time , he talked of the terrours of death , and death is the king of terrours : and therefore it is no strange thing if then he be hugely afraid : if he be not it is either a great felicity or a great presumption : but if he wants some degree of comfort or a greater degree of hope , let him be refreshed by considering . 1. That Christ came into the world to save sinners . 2 That God delights not in the confusion and death of sinners . 3. That in heaven there is great joy at the conversion of a sinner . 4. That Christ is a perpetual advocate daily interceding with his Father for our pardon . 5. That God uses infinite arts , instruments and devices to reconcile us to himself . 6. That he prayes us to be in charity with him , and to be forgiven . 7. That he sends Angels to keep us from violence , and evil company , from temptations and surprizes ; and his holy Spirit to guide us in holy wayes , and his servants to warn us and reminde us perpetually ; and therefore since certainly he is so desirous to save us , as appears by his word , by his oaths , by his very nature , and his daily artifices of mercy , it is not likely that he will condemn us without great provocations of his Majesty , and perseverance in them . 8. That the covenant of the Gospel is a covenant of grace , and of repentance , and being established with so many great solemnities and miracles from heaven , must signifie a huge favour , and a mighty change of things , and therefore that repentance which is the great condition of it is a grace that does not expire in little accents and minutes , but hath a great latitude of signification , and a large extension of parts , under the protection of all which persons are safe , even when they fear exceedingly . 9. That there are great degrees and differences of glory in heaven ; and therefore if we estimate our piety by proportions to the more eminent persons and devouter people , we are not to conclude we shall not enter into the same state of glory , but that we shall not go into the same degrees . ( 9 ) That although forgivenesse of sins is consigned to us in Baptism , and that this Baptism is but once , and cannot be repeated , yet forgivenesse of sins is the grace of the gospel , which is perpetually remanent upon us , and secured unto us so long as we have not renounced our Baptisme ; For then we enter into the condition of repentance ; and repentance is not an indivisible grace , or a thing performed at once ; but is working all our lives , and therefore so is our pardon , which ebbes and flowes according as we discompose or renew the decency of our Baptismall promises ; and therefore it ought to be certain , that no man despair of pardon , but he that hath voluntarily renounced his Baptism , or willingly estranged himself from that covenant : He that sticks to it , and still professes the religion , and approves the faith , and endeavours to obey and to do his duty , this man hath all the veracity of God to assure him , and give him confidence that he is not in an impossible state of salvation , unlesse God cuts him off before he can work , or that he begins to work when he can no longer choose . 10. And then let him consider : the more he fears , the more he hates his sin , that is the cause of it , and the lesse he can be tempted to it , and the more desirous he is of heaven , and therefore such fears are good instruments of grace , and good signes of a future pardon . 11. That God in the old law , although he made a Covenant of perfect obedience , and did not promise pardon at all after great sins , yet he did give pardon , and declared it so to them for their own , and for our sakes too : So he did to David , to Manasses , to the whole Nation of the Israelies ten times in the wildernesse , even after their Apostacies , and Idolatries ; and in the Prophets , the mercies of God and his remissions of sins were largely preached ; though in the Law God put on the robes of an angry Judge , and a severe Lord : but therefore in the Gospel , where he hath established the whole summe of affairs upon faith and repentance ; if God should not pardon great sinners that repent after baptisme , with a free dispensation , the Gospel were far harder then the intolerable Covenant of the Law. 12. That if a Proselyte went into the Jewish communion and were circumcised and baptized , he entred into all the hopes of good things which God had promised , or would give to his people , and yet that was but the Covenant of works . If then the Gentile Proselytes by their circumcision and legall baptisme , were admitted to a state of pardon to last so long as they were in the Covenant , even after their admission ; for sins committed against Moses law which they then undertook to observe exactly . In the Gospel which is the Covenant of Faith , it must needs be certain , that there is a great grace given , and an easier conditon entred into , then was that of the Jewish law ; and that is nothing else , but that abatement is made for our infirmities , and our single evils , and our timely repented and forsaken habits of sin , and our violent passions , when they are contested withall , and fought with , and under discipline , and in the beginnings and progresses of mortification . 13. That God hath erected in his Church a whole order of men , the main part and dignity of whose work it is to remit and retain sins by a perpetuall and daily ministery ; and this they do , not onely in baptisme , but in all their offices to be administered afterwards : in the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist which exhibits the Symbols of that blood which was shed for pardon of our sins , and therefore by its continued ministery and repetition declares that all that while we are within the ordinary powers and usuall dispensations of pardon , even so long as we are in any probable dispositions to receive that Holy Sacrament . And the same effect is also signified and exhibited in the whole power of the Keyes , which if it extends to private sins , sins done in secret , it is certain it does also to publike ; but this is a greater testimony of the certainty of the remissibility of our greatest sins ; for publike sins as they alwayes have a sting and a superadded formality of scandall and ill example , so they are most commonly the greatest ; such as murder , sacriledge , and others of unconcealed nature , and unprivate action ; and if God for these worst of evils hath appointed an office of ease and pardon , which is and may daily be administred , that will be an uneasie pusillanimity , and fond suspicion of Gods goodnesse to fear , that our repentance shall be rejected , even although we have not committed the greatest , or the most of evils . 14. And it was concerning baptized Christians that Saint Iohn said , If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father , and he is the propitiation for our sins ; and concerning lapsed Christians S. Paul gave instruction , that if any man be overtaken in a fault , ye which are spiritual restore such a man , in the spirit of meeknesse , considering lest ye also be temted : the Corinthian Christian committed incest , and was pardoned ; and ‑ Simon Magus after he was baptized offered to commit his own sin of Simony , and yet Saint Peter bid him pray for pardon ; and S. Iames tells , that if the sick man sends for the Church , and they pray over him , and he confesse his sins they shall be forgiven him . 15. That onely one sin is declared to be irremissible , the sin against the Holy Ghost , the sin unto death , as S. Iohn calls it , for which we are not bound to pray , for all others we are : and certain it is , no man commits a sin against the Holy Ghost , if he be afraid he hath , and desires that he had not ; for such penitentiall passions are against the definition of that sin . 16. That all the Sermons in the Scripture written to Christians & Disciples of Jesus , exhorting men to repentance , to be afflicted , to mourn and to weep , to confession of sins , are sure testimonies of Gods purpose and desire to forgive us , even when we fall after baptisme ; and if our fall after baptisme were irrecoverable , then all preaching were in vain , and our faith were also vain , and we could not with comfort rehearse the Creed , in which as soon as ever we professe Jesus to have died for our sins , we also are condemned by our own conscience of a sin that shall not be forgiven ; and then all exhortations , and comforts , and fasts , and disciplines were uselesse , and too late ; if they were not given us before we can understand them ; for most commonly as soon as we can we enter into the regions of sin ; For we commit evil actions before we understand , and together with our understanding they begin to be imputed . 17. That if it could be otherwise , infants were very ill provided for in the Church who were baptized , when they have no stain upon their brows , but the misery they contracted from Adam ; and they are left to be Angels for ever after , and live innocently in the midst of their ignorances and weaknesse , and temptations , and the heat and follies of youth ; or else to perish in an eternall ruine : we cannot think or speak good things of God , if we entertain such evil suspicions of the mercies of the Father of our Lord Jesus . 18. That the long-sufferance and patience of God is indeed wonderfull ; but therefore it leaves us in certainties of pardon , so long as there is possibilitie to return , if we reduce ●he power to act . 19. That God calls upon us to forgive our brother seventy times seven times , and yet all that is but like the forgiving a hundred pence for his sake who forgives us ten thousand talents ; for so the Lord professed that he had done to him that was his servant and his domestic . 20. That if we can forgive a hundred thousand times , it is certain God will do so to us ; Our Blessed Lord having commanded us to pray for pardon as we pardon our offending and penitent brother . 21. That even in the case of very great sins , and great judgements inflicted upon the sinners , wise and good men and Presidents of Religion have declared their sense to be , that God spent all his anger , and made it expire in that temporall misery ; and so it was supposed to have been done in the case of Ananias ; but that the hopes of any penitent man may not rely upon any uncertainty , we find in holy Scripture , that those Christians who had for their scandalous crimes deserved to be given over to Sathan to be buffetted , yet had hopes to be saved in the day of the Lord. 22. That God glories in the titles of mercy and forgivenesse , and will not have his appellatives so finite and limited as to expire in one act , or in a seldome pardon . 23. That mans condition were desperate and like that of the falling Angels , equally desperat , but unequally oppressed , considering our infinite weaknesses , and ignorances , ( in respect of their excellent understanding and perfect choice ) if he could be admitted to no repentance after his infant Baptisme : and if he may be admitted to one , there is nothing in the Covenant of the Gospel but he may also to a second , and so for ever as long as he can repent , and return and live to God in a timely religion . 24. That every man is a sinner : In many things we offend all , and if we say we have no sin we deceive our selves ; and therefore either all must perish , or else there is mercy for all ; and so there is , upon this very stock , because Christ died for sinners , and God hath comprehended all under sin that he might have mercy upon all . 25. That if ever God sends temporall punishments into the world with purposes of amendment , and if they be not all of them certain consignations to hel ; and unlesse every man that breaks his leg , or in punishment loses a child , or wife be certainly damned , it is certain that God in these cases is angry and loving , chastises the sin , to amend the person , and smites that he may cure , and judges that he may absolve . 26. That he that will not quench the smoaking flax , nor break the bruised reed , will not tie us to perfection , and the lawes and measures of heaven upon earth ; and if in every period of our repentance he is pleased with our duty , and the voyce of our heart , and the hand of our desires , he hath told us plainly that he will not onely pardon all the sins of the dayes of our folly , but the returns and surprises of sins in the dayes of repentance , if we give no way , and allow no affection , and give no peace to any thing that is Gods enemy ; all the past sins , and al the seldom returning and ever repented evils being put upon the accounts of the Crosse. An exercise against despair in the day of our death . TO which may be added this short exercise , to be used for the curing the temptation to direct despair , in case that the hope and faith of good men be assaulted in the day of their calamity . I consider that the ground of my trouble is my sin ; and if it were not for that I should not need to be troubled ; but the help that all the world looks for , is such as supposes a man to be a sinner . * Indeed if from my self I were to derive my title to heaven , then my sins were a just argument of despair ; but now that they bring me to Christ , that they drive me to an appeal to Gods mercies , and to take sanctuary in the Crosse , they ought not , they cannot infer a just cause of despair . * I am sure it is a stranger thing that God should take upon him hands and feet , and those hands and feet should be nailed upon a crosse , then that a man should be partaker of the felicities of pardon , and life eternall ; and it were stranger yet , that God should do so much for man , and that a man that desires it , that labours for it , that is in life and possibilities of working his salvation , should inevitably misse that end , for which that God suffered so much . For what is the meaning , and what is the extent , and what are the significations of the Divine mercy , in pardoning sinners ? If it be thought a great matter that I am charged with originall sin : I confesse I feel the weight of it in loads of temporall infelicities , and proclivities to sin . But I fear not the guilt of it , since I am baptized ; and it cannot do honour to the reputation of Gods mercy , that it should be all spent in remissions of what I never chose , never acted , never knew of , could not help , concerning which I received no commandement , no prohibition : But ( blessed be God ) it is ordered in just measures that , that originall evil which I contracted without my will , should be taken away without my knowledge ; and what I suffered before I had a being , was cleansed before I had an usefull understanding . But I am taught to beleeve Gods mercies to be infinite , not onely in himself , but to us ; for mercy is a relative terme , and we are its correspondent ; of all the creatures which God made , we onely in a proper sense are the subjects of mercy and remission ; Angels have more of Gods bounty then we have , but not so much of his mercy ; and beasts have little rayes of his kindnesse , and effects of his wisdom and graciousnesse in petty donatives ; but nothing of mercy ; for they have no lawes , and therefore no sins , and need no mercy , nor are capable of any : Since therefore man alone is the correlative or proper object and vessell of reception of an infinite mercy , and that mercy is in giving and forgiving , I have reason to hope that he will so forgive me that my sins shall not hinder me of heaven ; or because it is a gift , I may also upon the stock of the same infinite mercy hope he will give heaven to me ; and if I have it either upon the title of giving , or forgiving , it is alike to me , and will alike magnifie the glories of the Divine mercy . And because eternall life is the gift of God , I have lesse reason to despair ; for if my sins were fewer , and my disproportions towards such a glory were lesse , and my evennesse more , yet it is still a gift , and I could not receive it , but as a free , and a gracious donative ; and so I may still ; God can still give it me ; and it is not an impossible expectation to wait and look for such a gift at the hands of the God of mercy ; the best men deserve it not , and I who am the worst , may have it given me . * And I consider , that God hath set no measures of his mercy , but that we be within the Covenant , that is , repenting persons , endeavouring to serve him with an honest single heart ; and that within this Covenant there is a very great latitude , and variety of persons , and degrees and capacities ; and therefore that it cannot stand with the proportions of so infinite a mercy that obedience be exacted to such a point ( which he never expressed ) unlesse it should be the least , and that to which all capacities though otherwise unequall are fitted , and sufficiently enabled . * But however I finde that the Spirit of God taught the writers of the New Testament to apply to us all in general , and to every single person in particular some gracious words which God in the Old Testament spake to one man upon a special occasion in a single and temporal instance : such are the words which God spake to Ioshuah , I will never fail thee nor forsake thee , and upon the stock of that promise S. Paul forbids covetousnesse , and perswades contentednesse because those words were spoken by God to Ioshuah in another case . If the gracious words of God have so great extension of parts , and intension of kinde purposes , then how many comforts have we upon the stock of all the excellent words which are spoken in the Prophets , and in the Psalms ? and I will never more question whether they be spoken concerning me , having such an authentic precedent so to expound the excellent words of God ; all the treasures of God which are in the Psalms are my own riches , and the wealth of my hope ; there will I look , and whatsoever I can need , that I will depend upon : for certainly if we could understand it ; that which is infinite ( as God is ) must needs be some such kinde of thing ; it must go whither it was never sent , and signifie what was not first intended , and it must warm with its light , and shine with its heat , and refresh when it strikes , and heal when it wounds , and ascertain where it makes afraid , and intend all when it warms one , and mean a great deal in a small word ; and as the Sun passing to its Southern Tropic looks with an open eye upon his sun-burnt Aethiopians , but at the same time sends light from its posterns and collateral influences from the backside of his beams , and sees the corners of the East , when his face tends towards the West , because he is a round body of fire , and hath some little images and resemblances of the infinite ; so is Gods mercy ; when it looked upon Moses it relieved S. Paul , and it pardoned David , and gave hope to Manasses , and might have restored Iudas , if he would have had hope and used himself accordingly . * But as to my own case , I have sinned grievously and frequently . But I have repented it , but I have begged pardon , I have confessed it and forsaken it , I cannot undo what was done , and I perish if God hath appointed no remedie ; if there be no remission : but then my religion falls together with my hope ; and Gods word fails as well as I : but I believe the article of forgivenesse of sins ; and if there be any such thing I may do well ; for , I have , and do , and will do that which all good men call repentance , that is , I will be humbled before God , and mourn for my sin , and for ever ask forgivenesse , and judge my self , and leave it with haste , and mortifie it with diligence , and watch against it carefully ; and this I can do but in the manner of a man , I can but mourn for my sins , as I apprehend grief in other instances ; but I will rather choose to suffer all evils then to do one deliberate act of sin ; I know my sins are greater then my sorrow , and too many for my memory , & too insinuating to be prevented by all my care ; but I know also that God knowes and pities my infirmities ; and how far that will extend , I know not , but that it will reach so far as to satisfie my needs , is the matter of my hope . * But this I am sure of , that I have in my great necessity prayed humbly and with great desire , and sometimes I have been heard in kinde , and sometimes have had a bigger mercy instead of it , and I have the hope of prayers , and the hope of my confession , and the hope of my endeavour , and the hope of many promises and of Gods essential goodnesse ; and I am sure that God hath heard my prayers and verified his promises in temporall instances : for he ever gave me sufficient for my life , and although he promised such supplies and grounded the confidences of them upon our first seeking the kingdom of heaven and its righteousnesse , yet he hath verified it to me , who have not sought it as I ought : But therefore I hope he accepted my endeavour , or will give his great gifts and our great expectation even to the weakest endeavour , to the least , so it be a hearty piety . * And sometimes I have had some chearful visitations of Gods Spirit , and my cup hath been crowned with comfort , and the wine that made my heart glad danced in the chalice , and I was glad that God would have me so ; and therefore I hope this cloud may passe ; for that which was then a real cause of comfort is so still , if I could dis●ern it ; and I shall discern it when the veil is taken from my eyes , * ( and blessed be God ) I can still remember that there are temptations to despair ; and they could not be temptations if they were not apt to perswade ; and had seeming probability on their side ; and they that despair think they do it with greatest reason ; for if they were not confident of the reason , but that it were such an argument as might be opposed or suspected , then they could not despair ; despair assents as firmly and strongly as faith it self ; but because it is a temptation , and despair is a horrid sin , therefore it is certain those persons are unreasonably abused , and they have no reason to despair , for all their confidence ; and therefore although I have strong reasons to condemn my self , yet I have more reason to condemn my despair , which therefore is unreasonable , because it is a sin , and a dishonour to God , and a ruine to my condition ; and verifies it self , if I do not look to it ; for as the hypochondriac person that thought himself dead , made his dream true when he starved himself , because dead people eat not : so do despairing sinners lose Gods mercies by refusing to use , and to believe them . * And I hope it is a disease of judgement , not an intolerable condition that I am falling to , because I have been told so concerning others , who therefore have been afflicted , because they see not their pardon sealed after the manner of this world ; and the affairs of the Spirit are transacted by immaterial notices , by propositions and spiritual discourses , by promises which are to be verified hereafter ; and here we must live in a cloud , in darknesse under a veil , in fear and uncertainties , and our very living by faith and hope , is a life of mystery and secresie , the onely part of the manner of that life in which we shall live in the state of separation ; and when a distemper of body or an infirmity of minde happens in the instances of such secret and reserved affairs , we may easily mistake the manner of our notices for the uncertainty of the thing ; and therefore it is but reason I should stay , till the state and manner of my abode be changed before I despair ; there it can be no sin , nor error , here it may be both ; and if it be that , it is also this ; and then a man may perish for being miserable , and be undone for being a fool . In conclusion , my hope is in God , and I will trust him with the event , which I am sure will be just , and I hope full of mercy . * However , now I will use all the spiritual arts of reason and religion to make me more and more to love God , that if I miscarry , Charity also shall fail , and something that loves God shall perish , and be damned ; which if it be impossible then I may do well . These considerations may be useful to men of little hearts and of great piety ; or if they be persons who have lived without infamy , or begun their repentance so late , that it is very imperfect , and yet so early that it was before the arrest of death . But if the man be a vitious person and hath persevered in a vitious life till his death-bed , these considerations are not proper . Let him inquire in the words of the first Disciples after Pentecost : Men and brethren what shall we do to be saved ? and if they can but entertain so much hope as to enable them to do so much of their dutie as they can for the present , it is all that can be provided for them ; an inquirie in their case can have no other purposes of religion or prudence : and the Minister must be infinitely careful that he do no not go about to comfort vitious persons with the comforts belonging to Gods elect , lest he prostitute holy things , and make them common , and his sermons deceitful , and vices be incouraged in others , and the man himself finde that he was deceived , when he descends into his house of sorrow . But because very few men are tempted with too great fears of failing , but very many are tempted by confidence and presumption ; the Ministers of religion had need be instructed with spiritual armour , to resist this fiery dart of the Devil , when it operates to evil purposes . SECT . VI. Considerations against Presumption . I Have already enumerated many particulars to provoke a drowzy conscience to a scrutinie , and to a suspicion of himself , that by seeing cause to suspect his condition he might more freely accuse himself and attend to the necessities and duties of repentance ; but if either before or in his repentance he grow too big in in his spirit , so as either he does some little violence to the modesties of humilitie , or abate his care and zeal of his repentance , the spiritual man must allay his frowardnesse by representing to him . 1. That the growths in grace are long , difficult , uncertain , hindred , of many parts and great variety . 2. That an infant grace is soon dash'd and discountenanced , often running into an inconvenience and the evils of an imprudent conduct , being zealous , and forward , and therefore confident , but alwayes with the least reason , and the greatest danger ; like children and young fellows whose confidence hath no other reason , but that they understand not their danger and their follies . 3. That he that puts on his armour ought not to boast , as he that puts it off ; and the Apostle chides the Galatians , for ending in the flesh after they had begun in the spirit : 4. that a man cannot think too meanly of himself , but very easily he may think too high . 5 That a wise man will alwayes in a matter of great concernment think the worst , and a good man will condemn himself with hearty sentence . 6. That humility and modesty of judgement and of hope , are very good instruments to procure a mercie and a fair reception at the day of our death ; but presumption or bold opinions serve no end of God or man ; and is alwayes imprudent , ever fatal , and of all things in the world is its own greatest enemy ; for the more any man presumes , the greater reason he hath to fear . 7. That a mans heart is infinitely deceitful , unknown to it self , not certain in his own acts , praying one way , and desiring another , wandring and imperfect , loose and various , worshipping God and entertaining sin , following what it hates , and running from what it flatters , loving to be tempted and betrayed , petulant like a wanton girle , running from , that it might invite the fondnesse and enrage the appetite of the foolish young man or the evil temptation that followes it ; cold and indifferent one while , and presently zealous and passionate , furious and indiscreet ; not understood of it self or any one else , and deceitful beyond all the arts and numbers of observation . 8. That it is certain we have highly sinned against God , but we are not so certain that our repentance is reall and effective , integral and sufficient . 9. That it is not revealed to us whether or no the time of our repentance be not past , or if it be not , yet how far God will give us pardon ; and upon what condition , or after what sufferings or duties , is still under a cloud . 10. That vertue and vice are oftentimes so neer neighbours , that we passe into each others borders without observation , and think we do justice when we are cruel , or call our selves liberal when we are loose and foolish in expences ; and are amorous when we commend our own civilities , and good nature . 11. That we allow to our selves so many little irregularities , that insensibly they swell to so great a heap , that from thence we have reason to fear an evil ; for an army of frogs and flies may destroy all the hopes of our harvest . 12. That when we do that which is lawful , and do all that we can in those bounds we commonly and easily run out of our proportions . 13. That it is not easie to distinguish the vertues of our nature from the vertues of our choice ; and we may expect the reward of temperance , when it is against our nature to be drunk ; or we hope to have the coronet of virgins for our morose disposition , or our abstinence from marriage upon secular ends . 14. That it may be we call every little sigh or the keeping a fish-day the dutie of repentance , or have entertained false principles in the estimate , and measures of vertues ; and contrarie to the Steward in that Gospel , we write down fourscore when we should set downe but fifty . 15. That it is better to trust the goodnesse , and justice of God with our accounts then to offer him large bits . 16. That we are commanded by Christ to sit down in the lowest place , till the Master of the house bids us sit up higher . 17. That when we have done all that we can we are unprofitable servants ; and yet no man does all that he can do ; and therefore is more to be despised and undervalued . 18. That the self-accusing Publican was justified rather then the thanksgiving and confident Pharisee . 19. That if Adam in Paradise , and David in his house , and Solomon in the Temple , and Peter in Christs family , and Iudas in the College of Apostles , and Nicholas among the Deacons , and the Angels in heaven it self did fall so foully and dishonestly , then it is prudent advice that we be not high minded , but fear , and when we stand most confidently take heed lest we fall , and yet there is nothing so likely to make us fall as pride and great opinions ; which ruined the Angels , which God resists , which all men despise , and which betrayes us into carelesnesse and a wretchlesse , undiscerning and an unwary spirit . 4. Now the main parts of the Ecclesiastical ministery are done ; and that which remains is , that the Minister pray over him , and reminde him to do good actions , as he is capable , * to call upon God for pardon , * to put his whole trust in him , * to resigne himself to Gods disposing , * to be patient and even , * to renounce every ill word or thought , or undecent action which the violence of his sicknesse may cause in him , * to beg of God to give him his holy Spirit , to guide him in his agony , and * his holy Angels to guard him in his passage . 5. Whatsoever is besides this , concerns the standers by ; that they do all their ministeries diligently , and temperately , * that they joyn with much charity and devotion in the prayer of the Minister , * that they make no outcries or exclamations in the departure of the soul , * and that they make no judgement concerning the dying person , by his dying quietly or violently , with comfort or without , with great fears or a cheerful confidence , with sense or without , like a lamb or like a lyon , with convulsions or semblances of great pain , or like an expiring and a spent candle ; for these happen to all men , without rule , without any known reason , but according as God pleases to dispense the grace , or the punishment for reasons onely known to himself ; Let us lay our hands upon our mouth , and adore the mysteries of the divine wisdome and providence , and pray to God to give the dying man rest and pardon , and to our selves grace to live well , and the blessing of a holy and a happy death . SECT . VII . Offices to be said by the Minister in his visitation of the sick . IN the Name of the Father , of the Son and of the Holy Ghost . Our Father which art in Heaven , &c. Let the Priest say this prayer secretly . O Eternal Jesus , thou great lover of souls : who hast constituted a ministery in the Church to glorifie thy Name , and to serve in the assistance of those that come to thee , professing thy discipline and service ; give grace to me the unworthiest of thy servants , that I in this my ministery may purely and zealously intend thy glory , and effectually may minister comfort and advantages to this sick person , ( whom God assoil from all his offences ) and grant that nothing of thy grace may perish to him by the unworthinesse of the Minister ; but let thy Spirit speak by me , and give me prudence and charity , wisdom and diligence , good observation and apt discourses , a certain judgement , and merciful dispensation , that the soul of thy servant may passe from this state of imperfection , to the perfections of the state of glory , thorough thy mercies , O Eternal Jesus . Amen . The Psalm . OUt of the depths have I cryed unto thee O Lord : Lord hear my voice : let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications . If thou Lord should mark iniquities : O Lord , who shall stand ? but there is forgivenesse with thee , that thou mayest be feared . I wait for the Lord , my soul doth wait , and in his word do I hope : my soul waiteth for the Lord more then they that watch for the morning . Let Israel hope in the Lord , for with the Lord there is mercy , and with him is plenteous redemption : and he shall redeem his servants from all their iniquities . Wherefore should I fear in the dayes of evil , when the wickednesse of my heels shall compasse me about ? * No man can by any means redeem his brother , nor give to God a ransome for him ( for the redemption of their soul is precious , and it ceaseth for ever ) that he should still live for ever , and not see corruption . But wise men die , likewise the fool and the brutish person perish , and leave their wealth to others : but God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave , for he shall receive me . As for me , I will behold thy face in righteousnesse : I shall be satisfied when I awake in thy likenesse . Thou shalt shew me the path of life , in thy presence is the fulnesse of joy , at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore . Glory be to the Father , &c. As it was in the beginning , &c. Let us Pray . ALmighty God , Father of mercies , the God of peace and comfort , of rest and pardon , we thy servants though unworthy to pray to thee , yet in duty to thee and charity to our brother , humbly beg mercy of thee for him , to descend upon his body and his soul ; One sinner , O Lord , for another , the miserable for the afflicted , the poor for him that is in need ; but thou givest thy graces and thy favours by the measures of thy own mercies , and in proportion to our necessities ; we humbly come to thee in the Name of Jesus , for the merit of our Saviour , and the mercies of our God , praying thee to pardon the sins of this thy servant , and to put them all upon the accounts of the Crosse , and to bury them in the grave of Jesus , that they may never rise up in judgement against thy servant , nor bring him to shame and confusion of face in the day of finall inquiry and sentence . Amen . II. GIve thy servant patience in his sorrows , comfort in this his sicknesse , and restore him to health if it seem good to thee , in order to thy great ends , and his greatest interest . And however thou shalt determine concerning him in this affair , yet make his repentance perfect , and his passage , and his faith strong , and his hope modest and confident , that when thou shalt call his soul from the prison of the body , it may enter into the securities and rest of the sons of God , in the bosome of blessednesse , and the custodies of Jesus . Amen . III. THou , O Lord , knowest all the necessities , and all the infirmities of thy servant , fortifie his spirit with spirituall joyes and perfect resignation , and take from him all degrees of inordinate or insecure affections to this world , and enlarge his heart with desires of being with thee , and of freedome from sins , and fruition of God. IV. LOrd , let not any pain or passion discompose the order and decencie of his thoughts and duty ; and lay no more upon thy servant then thou wilt make him able to bear , and together with the temptation do thou provide a way to escape ; even by the mercies of a longer and a more holy life , or by the mercies of a blessed death , even as it pleaseth thee , O Lord , so let it be . V. LEt the tendernesse of his conscience , and the Spirit of God call to mind his sins , that they may be confessed and repented of : because thou hast promised , that if we confesse our sins , we shall have mercy : Let thy mighty grace draw out from his soul every root of bitternesse , lest the remains of the old man be accursed with the reserves of thy wrath ; but in the union of the Holy Jesus , and in the charities of God and of the world , and the communion of all the saints let this soul be presented to thee blamelesse and intirely pardoned , and thorowly washed through Jesus Christ our Lord. Here also may be inserted the prayers set down after the Holy Communion is administred . The Prayer of S. Eustratius the Martyr to be used by the sick or dying man , or by the Priests , or assistants in his behalf , which he said when he was going to martyrdom . I Will praise thee O Lord , that thou hast considered my low estate , and hast not shut me up in the hands of my enemies , nor made my foes to rejoyce over me : and now let thy right hand protect me , and let thy mercy come upon me , for my soul is in trouble and anguish because of its departure from the body . O let not the assemblies of its wicked and cruell enemies meet it in the passing forth , nor hinder me , by reason of the sins of my passed life . O Lord be favourable unto me , that my so I may not behold the hellish countenance of the spirits of darknesse , but let thy bright and joyfull Angels entertain it . Give glory to thy Holy Name and to thy Majesty ; place me by thy mercifull arm before thy seat of Judgement , and let not the hand of the prince of this world snatch me from thy presence , or bear me into hell . Mercy sweet Jesu . Amen . A Prayer taken out of the Euchologion of the Greek Church , to be said by or in behalf of people in their danger , or neer their death . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. I. BEmired with sins and naked of good deeds , I that am the meat of worms cry vehemently in spirit ; Cast not me wretch away from thy face ; place me not on the left hand who with thy hands didst fashion me ; but give rest unto my soul , for thy great mercy sake , O Lord. II. SUpplicate with tears unto Christ , who is to judge my poor soul , that he would deliver me from the fire that is unquenchable . I pray you all my friends and acquaintance make mention of me in your prayers , that in the day of Judgement I may find mercy at that dreadfull Tribunall . III. Then may the by-standers pray . WHen in unspeakable glory thou dost come dreadfully to judge the whole world , vouchsafe O gracious Redeemer that this thy faithfull servant may in the clouds meet thee cheerfully . They who have been dead from the beginning , with terrible and fearfull trembling stand at thy Tribunall waiting thy just , O Blessed Saviour Jesus . None shall there avoid thy formidable and most righteous judgement . All Kings and Princes with servants stand together and hear the dreadfull voyce of the Judge condemning the people , which have sinned , into hell , from which sad sentence , O Christ deliver thy servant . Amen . Then let the sick man be called upon to rehearse the Articles of his Faith ; or if he be so weak he cannot , let him ( if he have not before done it ) be called to say Amen , when they are recited , or to give some testimony of his faith and confident assent to them . After which it is proper ( if the person be in capacity ) that the Minister examine him , and invite him to confession ; and all the parts of repentance , according to the foregoing rules ; after which , he may pray this prayer of absolution . OUr Lord Jesus Christ who hath given Commission to his Church in his Name , to pronounce pardon to all that are truly penitent , he of his mercy pardon and forgive thee all thy sins , deliver thee from all evils past , present , and future , preserve thee in the faith and fear of his holy Name to thy lives end , and bring thee to his everlasting Kingdom , to live with him for ever and ever . Amen . Then let the sick man renounce all heresies , and whatsoever is against the truth of God , or the peace of the Church , and pray for pardon for all his ignorances and errors , known and unknown . After which let him ( if all other circumstances be fitted ) be disposed to receive the Blessed Sacrament , in which the Curate is to minister according to the form prescribed by the Church . When the rites are finished , let the sick man in the dayes of his sicknesse be imployed with the former offices and exercises before described ; and when the time drawes neer of his dissolution , the Minister may assist by the following order of recommendation of the soul. I. O Holy and most Gracious Saviour Jesus , we humbly recommend the soul of thy servant into thy hands , thy most mercifull hands ; let thy Blessed Angels stand in ministery about thy servant , and defend him from the violence and malice of all his ghos●ly enemies , and drive far from hence all the spirits of darknesse . Amen . II. LOrd receive the soul of this thy servant ; Enter not into judgement with thy servaant ; spare him whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious blood , deliver him from all evil , and mischief ; from the crafts and assaults of the Devil , from the fear of death , and from everlasting death , Good Lord deliver him . Amen . III. IMpute not unto him the follies of his youth , nor any of the errors and miscarriages of his life , but strengthen him in his agony , let not his faith waver , nor his hope fail , nor his charity be disordered : Let none of his enemies imprint upon him any afflictive or evil phantasme ; let him die in peace , and rest in hope , and rise in glory . Amen . IIII. LOrd , we know and beleeve assuredly , that whatsoever is under thy custody , cannot be taken out of thy hands , nor by all the violences of hell robbed of thy protection : preserve the work of thy hands , rescue him from all evil , for whose sake thou didst suffer all evil : Take into the participation of thy glories him to whom thou hast given the seal of Adoption , the earnest of the inheritance of the Saints . Amen . V. LEt his portion be with Abraham , Isaac , and Iacob , with Iob and David , with the Prophets and Apostles , with Martyrs and all thy holy Saints , in the arms of Christ , in the bosome of felicity , in the Kingdom of God to eternall ages . Amen . These following prayers are fit also to be added to the foregoing offices in case there be no communion or entercourse ; but prayer . Let us Pray . O Almighty and eternall God , there is no number of thy dayes or of thy mercies , thou hast sent us into this world to serve thee and to live according to thy lawes ; but we by our sins have provoked thee to wrath , and we have planted thorns and sorrows round about our dwellings , and our life is but a span long , and yet very tedious because of the calamities that inclose us in on every side : the dayes of our pilgrimage are few and evil : we have frail and sickly bodies , violent and distempered passions , long designes and but a short stay , weak understandings , and strong enemies , abused fancies , perverse wils : O Dear God , look upon us in mercy and pity ; let not our weaknesses make us to sin against thee , nor our fear cause us to betray our duty , nor our former follies provoke thy eternall anger , nor the calamities of this world vex us into tediousnesse of spirit and impatience ; but let thy Holy Spirit lead us thorow this vally of misery with safety and peace , with holiness and religion , with spirituall comforts and joy in the Holy Ghost , that when we have served thee in our generations , we may be gathered unto our Fathers , having the testimony of a holy conscience , in the communion of the Catholike Church , in the confidence of a certain faith , and the comforts of a reasonable , religious and holy hope , and perfect charity with thee our God , and all the world ; that neither death nor life , nor Angels , nor principalities , nor powers , nor things present , nor things to come , nor height nor depth , nor any other creature may be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen . II. O Holy and most gracious Saviour Jesus , in whose hands the souls of all faithfull people are laid up till the day of recompence , have mercy upon the body and soul of this thy servant , and upon all thy elect people who love the Lord Jesus , and long for his coming . Lord refresh the imperfection of their condition with the aids of the Spirit of grace , and comfort , and with the visitation and guard of Angels , and supply to them all their necessities known onely unto thee ; let them dwell in peace and feel thy mercies , pitying their infirmities , and the follies of their flesh , and speedily satisfying the desires of their spirits ; and when thou shalt bring us all forth in the day of Judgement , O then shew thy self to be our Saviour Jesus , our Advocate , and our Judge . Lord then remember that thou hast for so many ages prayed for the pardon of those sins which thou art then to sentence . Let not the accusations of our consciences , nor the calumnies and aggravation of Devils , nor the effects of thy wrath presse those souls wh●ch thou lovest , which thou didst redeem , which thou doest pray for , but enable us all by the supporting hand of thy mercy to stand upright in judgement . O Lord have mercy upon us , have mercy upon us , O Lord let thy mercy lighten upon us as our trust is in thee . O Lord in thee have we trusted , let us never be confounded . Let us meet with joy , and for ever dwell with thee , feeling thy pardon , supported with thy graciousnesse , absolved by thy sentence , saved by thy mercy , that we may sing to the glory of thy Name eternall Allelujahs . Amen . Amen . Amen . Then may be added in the behalf of all that are present these ejaculations . O spare us a little that we may recover our strength , before we go hence and be no more seen . Amen . Cast us not away in the time of age , O forsake us not when strength faileth . Amen . Grant that we may never sleep in sin , or death eternall , but that we may have our part of the first resurrection , and that the second death may not prevail over us . Amen . Grant that our souls may be bound up in the bundle of life , and in the day when thou bindest up thy Jewels , remember thy servants for good and not for evil , that our souls may be numbred amongst the righteous Amen . Grant unto all sick and dying Christians , mercy and aids from heaven ; and receive the souls returning unto thee , whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious blood . Amen . Grant unto thy servants to have faith in the Lord Jesus , a daily meditation of death , a contempt of the world , a longing desire after heaven , patience in our sorrows , comfort in our sicknesses , joy in God , a holy life and a blessed death , that our souls may rest in hope and my body may rise in glory , and both may be beatified in the communion of Saints , in the kingdom of God and the glories of the Lord Jesus . Amen . The blessing . Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus that great shepherd of the sheep thorough the blood of the everlasting covenant make you perfect in every good work , to do his will , working in you that which is pleasing in his sight , to whom be glory for ever and ever . Amen . The doxology . To the blessed and onely Potentate , the King of kings , and the Lord of Lords , who only hath immortality , dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto , whom no man hath seen nor can see , be honour and power everlasting . Amen . After the sick man is departed , the Minister if he be present , or the Major dome , or any other fit person may use the following prayers in behalf of themselves . I. ALmighty God , with whom do live the spirits of them that depart hence in the Lord , we adore thy Majesty , and submit to thy providence , and revere thy justice , and magnifie thy mercies thy infinite mercies , that it hath pleased thee to deliver this our brother out of the miseries of this sinful world . Thy counsels are secret , and thy wisdom is infinite ; with the same hand thou hast crowned him and smitten us : thou hast taken him into regions of felicity , and placed him among Saints and Angels , and left us to mourn for our sins and thy displeasure , which thou hast signified to us , by removing him from us to a better , a far better place : Lord turn thy anger into mercie , thy chastisements into vertues , thy rod into comforts , and do thou give to all his neerest relatives comforts from heaven , and a restitution of blessings equall to those which thou hast taken from them . And we humbly beseech thee of thy gracious goodnesse shortly to satisfie the longing desires of those Holy souls who pray , and wait and long for thy second coming . Accomplish thou the number of thine elect , and fill up the Mansions in heaven which are prepared for all them that love the coming of the Lord Jesus ; that we with this our Brother , and all other departed this life in the obedience and faith of the Lord Jesus , may have our perfect consummation and blisse in thy eternall glory , which never shall have ending . Grant this for Jesus Christ his sake our Lord and onely Saviour . Amen . II. O Mercifull God , Father of our Lord Jesus , who is the first fruits of the resurrection and by entring into glory hath opened the kingdom of heaven to all the beleevers , we humbly beseech thee to raise us from the death of sin to the life of righteousnesse , that being partakers of the death of Christ , and followers of his Holy life , we may be partakers of his Spirit and of his promises ; that when we shall depart this life , we may rest in his arms , and lie in his bosom , as our hope is this our brother doth . O suffer us not for any temptation of the world , or any snares of the Devil , or any pains of death to fall from thee . Lord let thy H. Spirit enable us with his grace to fight a good fight with perseverance , to finish our course with holiness , and to keep the faith with constancie unto the end ; that at the day of judgement we may stand at the right hand of the throne of God , and hear the blessed sentence of [ Come ye blessed children of my Father , receive the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world ] O blessed Jesus thou art our Judge , and thou art our Advocate ; even because thou art good and gracious never suffer us to fall into the intolerable pains of hell , never to lye down in sin ; and never to have our portion in the everlasting burning . Mercy sweet Jesu : Mercy . Amen . A prayer to be said in the case of a sudden surprise by death , as by a mortal wound , or evil accidents in childebirth , when the forms and solemnities of preparation cannot be used . O Most gracious Father , Lord of heaven and earth , Judge of the living and the dead , behold thy servants running to thee for pity and mercy in behalf of our selves and this thy servant whom thou hast smitten with thy hasty rod , and a swift Angel ; if it be thy will preserve his life , that there may be place for his repentance and restitution ; O spare him a little that he may recover his strength , before he go hence and be no more seen : but if thou hast otherwise decreed , let the miracles of thy compassion , and thy wonderfull mercy supply to him the want of the usual measures of time , and the periods of repentance and the trimming of his lamp : and let the greatnesse of the calamity be accepted by thee as an instrument to procure pardon for those defects and degrees of unreadiness which may have caused this accident upon thy servant . Lord stirre up in him a great and effectual contrition that the greatnesse of the sorrow , and hatred against sin , and the zeal of his love to thee may in a short time do the work of many dayes ; and thou who regardest the heart and the measures of the minde more then the delay and the measures of time , let it be thy pleasure to rescue the soul of thy servant from all the evils he hath deserved , and all the evils that he fears , that in the glorifications of eternity and the songs which to eternal ages thy Saints and holy Angels shall sing to the honour of thy mighty Name , and invaluable mercies , it may be reckoned among thy glories , that thou hast redeemed this soul from the dangers of an eternall death , and made him partaker of the gift of God , eternall life , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . If there be time , the prayers in the foregoing offices may be added according as they can be fitted to the present circumstances . SECT . VIII . A peroration concerning the contingencies , and treatings of our departed friends after death , in order to their buriall , &c. WHen we have received the last breath of our friend and closed his eyes , and composed his body for the grave , then seasonable is the counsell of the son of Syrach : Weep bitterly and make great moan , and use lamentation as he is worthy , and that a day or two , lest thou be evil spoken of ; and then comfort thy self for thy heavinesse . But take no grief to heart ; for there is no turning again , thou shal● not do him good , but hurt t●y self . Solemn and appointed mournings are good expressions of our dearnesse to the departed soul , and of his worth , and our value of him ; and it hath its praise in nature , and in manners * and publike customs ; but the praise of it is not in the Gospel , that is , it hath no direct and proper uses in religion . For if the dead did die in the Lord , then there is joy to him , and it is an ill expression of our affection and our charity to weep uncomfortably at a change that hath carried my friend to the state of a huge felicity . But if the man did perish in his folly and his sins , there is indeed cause to mourn , but no hopes of being comforted ; for he shall never return to light , or to hopes of restitution ; therefore beware lest thou also come into the same place of torment ; and let thy grief sit down and rest upon thy own turf , and weep till a flower springs from thy eyes to heal the wounds of thy spirit ; turn thy sorrow into caution , thy grief for him that is dead , to thy care for thy self who art alive , lest thou die and fall like one of the fools whose life is worse then death , and their death is the consummation of all infelicities . * The Church in her funeralls of the dead used to sing Psalms , and to give thanks for the redemption and delivery of the soul from the evils and dangers of mortality . And S. Chrysostome asks to what purpose is it that thou singest , Return unto thy rest , O my soul , &c. if thou doest not believe thy friend to be in rest ? and if thou doest , why doest thou weep impertinently and unreasonably ? Nothing but our own losse can justly be deplored ; and him that is passionate for the losse of his money or his advantages , we esteem foolish and imperfect ; and therefore have no reason to love the immoderate sorrows of those , who too earnestly mourn for their dead , when in the last resolution of the inquiry , it is their own evil and present or feared inconveniences they deplore ; the best that can be said of such a grief is , that those mourners love themselves too well . Something is to be given to custom , something to fame , to nature , and to civilities , and to the honour of the deceased friends ; for that man is esteemed to dye miserable , for whom no friend or relative sheds a tear or payes a solemn sigh . I desire to dye a dry death , but am not very desirous to have a dry funeral : some flowers sprinkled upon my grave would do well and comely ; and a soft shower to turn those flowers into a springing memory or a fair rehearsal , that I may not go forth of my doors as my servants carry the entrails of beasts . But that which is to be faulted in this particular is , when the grief is immoderate , and unreasonable ; and Paula Romana deserved to have felt the weight of S. Hieroms severe reproof , when at the death of every of her children , she almost wept her self into her grave : But it is worse yet when people by an ambitious and a pompous sorrow , and by ceremonies invented for the a ostentation of their grief fill heaven and earth with b exclamations and grow troublesome because their friend is happy , or themselves want his company . It is certainly a sad thing in nature to see a friend trembling with a palsie , or scorched with feavers , or dried up like a potsheard with immoderate heats , and rowling upon his uneasie bed without sleep which cannot be invited with c musick , or pleasant murmurs , or a decent stillnesse ; nothing but the servants of cold death , poppy and wearinesse can tempt the eyes to let their curtains down ; and then they sleep onely to tast of death , and make an essay of the shades below ; and yet we weep not here : the period and opportunity for tears we choose when our friend is fallen asleep , when he hath laid his neck upon the lap of his mother , and let his d head down to be raised up to heaven : this grief is ill placed and undecent . But many times it is worse ; and it hath been observ'd that those greater and stormy passions do so spend the whole stock of grief , that they presently admit a comfort and contrary affection , while a sorrow that is even and temperate goes on to its period with expectation and the distances of a just time . The Ephesian Woman that the souldier told of in Petronius , was the talk of all the town , and the rarest example of a dear affection to her husband ; she descended with the corps into the vault , and there being attended with her maiden resolved to weep to death , or dye with famine , or a distempered sorrow : from which resolution nor his , nor her friends , nor the reverence of the principal citizens , who used the intreaties of their charity and their power , could perswade her . But a souldier that watched seven dead bodies hanging upon trees just over against this monument , crept in , and a while stared upon the silent and comely disorders of the sorrow : and having let the wonder a while breath out at each others eyes , at last he fetched his supper and a bottle of wine with purpose to eat and drink , and still to feed himself with that sad prettinesse ; His pity and first draught of wine made him bold and curious to try if the maid would drink , who having many hours since felt her resolution faint as her wearied body , took his kindnesse , and the light returned into her eyes and danced like boyes in a festival ; and fearing lest the pertinaciousnesse of her Mistresse sorrows should cause her evil to revert , or her shame to approach , assayed whether she would endure to hear an argument to perswade her to drink and live . The violent passion had layed all her spirits in wildness and dissolution and the maid found them willing to be gathered into order , at the arrest of any new object ; being weary of the first , of which like leeches they had sucked their fill , till they fell down and burst . The weeping woman took her cordial and was not angry with her maid , and heard the souldier talk , and he was so pleased with the change , that he who first lov'd the silence of the sorrow was more in love with the musick of her returning voice , especially which himself had strung and put in tune ; and the man began to talk amorously , and the womans weak heart and head was soon possessed with a little wine , and grew gay , and talked , and fell in love , and that very night in the morning of her passion , in the grave of her husband , in the pompes of mourning , and in her funeral garments , married her new and stranger Guest . For so the wilde forragers of Lybia being spent with heat , and dissolved by the too fond kisses of the sun , do melt with their common fires , and die with faintnesse , and descend with motions slow and unable to the little brooks that descend from heaven in the wildernesse ; and when they drink they return into the vigor of a new life , & contract strange marriages ; & the Lioness is courted by a Panther , and she listens to his love , and conceives a monster that all men call unnatural , and the daughter of an equivocal passion and of a sudden refreshment : and so also i● was in the Cave at Ephesus : for by this time the souldier began to think it was fit he should return to his watch , and observe the dead bodies he had in charge ; but when he ascended from his mourning bridal chamber , he found that one of the bodies was stolne by the friends of the dead , and that he was fallen into an evil condition , because by the laws of Ephesus his body was to be fixed in the place of it . The poor man returns to his woman , cryes out bitterly , and in her presence resolves to dye to prevent his death , and in secret to prevent his shame ; but now the womans love was raging like her former sadnesse , and grew witty , and she comforted her souldier , and perswaded him to live , lest by losing him who had brought her from death and a more grievous sorrow , she should return to her old solemnities of dying and lose her honour for a dream , or the reputation of her constancy without the change and satisfaction of an enjoyed love . The man would fain have lived if it had been possible , and she found out this way for him , that he should take the body of her first husband whose funeral she had so strangely mourned , and put it upon the gallows in the place of the stolne thief ; he did so and escaped the present danger to possesse a love which might change as violently as her grief had done : But so have I seen a croud of disordered people rush violently and in heaps till their utmost border was restrained by a wall , or had spent the fury of the first fluctuation and watry progress , and by & by it returned to the contrary with the same earnestness , only because it was violent & ungoverned ; a raging passion is this croud , which when it is not under discipline and the conduct of reason , and the proportions of temperate humanity , runs passionatly the way it happens , and by and by as greedily to another side , being swayed by its own weight , and driven any whither by chance , in all its pursuits having no rule , but to do all it can , and spend it self in haste and expire with some shame and much undecency When thou hast wept a while compose the body to burial ; which that it be done gravely , decently and charitably , we have the example of all nations to engage us , and of all ages of the world to warrant : so that it is against common honesty , and publike fame and reputation not to do this office . It is good that the body be kept vailed and secret , and not exposed to curious eyes , or the dishonours wrought by the changes of death discerned and stared upon by impertinent persons . When Cyrus was dying he called his sons and friends to take their leave , to touch his hand , to see him the last time , and gave in charge , that when he had put his veil over his face , no man should uncover it ; and Epiphanius his body was rescued from inquisitive eyes by a miracle ; Let it be interred after the manner of the countrey and the laws of the place , and the dignity of the person . a For so Iacob was buried with great solemnitie , and Iosephs bones were carried into Canaan after they had been embalmed and kept four hundred years : and devout men carried S. Stephen to his burial making great lamentation over him . And Aelian tells that those who were the most excellent persons were buried in purple : b and men of an ordinary courage , and fortune , had their Graves onely trimmed with branches of Olive , and mourning flowers . But when Marc. Anthony gave the body of Brutus to his freed man to be buried honestly , he gave also his own mantle to be thrown into his funeral pile : and the magnificence of the old funeral we may see largely described by Virgil in the obsequies of Misenus , and by Homer in the funeral of Patroclus . It was noted for piety in the men of Iabesh-Gilead that they shewed kindness to their Lord Saul and buried him ; and they did it honourably . And our blessed Saviour who was temperate in his expence , and grave in all the parts of his life and death , as age and sobriety itself ; yet was pleased to admit the cost of Maries ointment upon his head and feet , because she did it against his burial ; and though she little thought it had bin so nigh , yet because he accepted it for that end , he knew he had made her apologie sufficient : by which he remarked it to be a great act of piety , and honorable to inter our friends and relatives according to the proportions of their condition , and so to give a testimony of our hopes of their resurrection . So far is piety : beyond it may be the ostentation and braging of a grief , or a designe to serve worse ends ; such was that of Herod when he made too studied and elaborate a funeral for Aristobulus whom he had murdered ; and of Regulus for his boy , at whose pile he killed dogs , nightingales , parrots , and little horses ; and such also was the expence of some of the Romans , who hating their left wealth gave order by their Testament to have huge portions of it thrown into their fires , bathing their locks which were presently to passe thorough the fire with Arabian and Egyptian liquors , and balsam of Judea . In this as in every thing else , as our piety must not passe into superstition or vain expence , so neither must the excesse be turned into parcimony and chastised by negligence and impiety to the memory of their dead . But nothing of this concerns the dead in real and effective purposes ; nor is it with care to be provided for by themselves . But it is the duty of the living . For to them it is all one whether they be carried forth upon a chariot , or a woodden bier , whether they rot in the air , or in the earth , whether they be devoured by fishes or by worms , by birds or by sepulchral dogs , by water or by fire , or by delay : when Chriton ask'd Socrates how he would be buried , he told him ; I think I shall escape from you , and that you cannot catch me ; But so much of me as you can apprehend , use it as you see cause for , and bury it ; but however do it according to the laws . There is nothing in this but opinion and the decency of fame to be served . Where it is esteemed an honour and the manner of blessed people to descend into the graves of their Fathers , there also it is reckoned as a curse to be buried in a strange land , or that the birds of the air devour them . Some Nations used to eat the bodies of their friends , and esteemed that the most honoured sepulture , but they were barbarous : the Magi never buried any but such as were torn of beasts : the Persians besmeared their dead with wax , and the Aegyptians with gummes , and with great art did condite the bodies , and laid them in charnell houses : But Cyrus the elder would none of all this , but gave command that his body should be interred , not laid in a coffin of gold or silver , but just into the earth , from whence all living creatures receive bir●h and nourishment , and whether they must return . Among Christians the honour which is valued in the behalf of the dead is that they be buried in holy ground , that is in appointed coemitaries , in places of religion , there where the field of God is sowen with the seeds of the resurrection , * that their bodies also may be among the Christians , with whom their hope and their portion is and shall be for ever . Quicquid feceris , omnia haec eodem ventura sunt . That we are sure of ; our bodies shall all be restored to our souls hereafter , and in the intervall they shall all be turned into dust , by what way soever you or your chance shall dresse them . Licinus the freed man slept in a Marble Tombe , but Cato in a little one , Pompey in none , and yet they had the best fate among the Romans , and a memory of the biggest honour . And it may happen that to want a Monument may best preserve their memories , while the succeeding ages shall by their instances remember the changes of the world , and the dishonours of death , and the equality of the dead ; and * Iames the fourth K ▪ of the Scot● obtained an Epitaph for wanting of a Tombe ; and K. Stephen is remembred with a sad story , because 400. years after his death , his bones were thrown into a river , that evil men might sell the leaden coffin . It is all one in the finall event of things . Ninus the Assyrian had a Monument erected whose height was nine furlongs , and the bredth ten ( saith Diodorus ) but Iohn the Baptist had more honor when he was humbly laid in the earth between the bodies of Abdias and Elizeus . And S. Ignatius who was buried in the bodies of Lions , and S. Polycarpe who was burned to ashes , shall have their bones , and their flesh again , with greater comfort then those violent persons who slept amongst kings having usurped their throns when they were alive , and their sepulchres when they were dead . Concerning doing honor to the dead : the consideration is not long . Anciently the friends of the dead used to make their funeral Orations and what they spake of greater commendation was pardoned upon the accounts of friendship ; but when Christianity seized upon the possession of the world , this charge was devolved upon Priests and Bishops , and they first kept the customs of the world , and adorned it with the piety of truth and of religion ; but they also so ordered it that it should not be cheap : for they made funerall Sermons onely at the death of Princes , or of such holy persons , who shall judge the Angels ; the custome descended , and in the channels mingled with the veins of earth thorow which is passed ; and now adayes men that die are commended at a price ; and the measure of their Legacy is the degree of their vertue ; but these things ought not so to be : The reward of the greatest vertue ought not to be prostitute to the doles of common persons , but preserved like Laurell and Coronets , to remark and encourage the noblest things . Persons of an ordinary life should neither be praised publikely nor reproached in private : for it is an office and charge of humanity to speak no evil of the dead , ( which I suppose is meant concerning things not publike and evident ) but then neither should our charity to them teach us to tell a lie , or to make a great flame from a heap of rushes and mushrooms , and make Orations crammed with the narrative of little observances and acts of civil , and necessary , and externall religion . But that which is most considerable , is that we should do something for the dead , something that is reall and of proper advantage . That we performe their will the lawes oblige us , and will see to it ; but that we do all those parts of personall duty which our dead left unperformed , and to which the lawes do not oblige us , is an act of great charity , and perfect kindnesse : and it may redound to the advantage of our friends also , that their debts be payed even beyond the Inventary of their moveables . Besides this , let us right their causes , and assert their honour : When Marcus Regulus had injured the memory of Herennius Senecio , Metius Carus asked him , What he had to do with his dead ? and became his advocate after death , of whose cause he was Patron when he was alive : And David added this also , that he did kindnesse to Mephibosheth for Ionathans sake , and Solomon pleaded his Fathers cause by the sword against Ioab and Shimei . And certainly it is the noblest thing in the world to do an act of kindnesse to him whom we shall never see ; but yet hath deserved it of us , and to whom we would do it if he were present ; and unlesse we do so , our charity is mercenary , and our friendships are direct merchandize , and our gifts are brokage ; but what we do to the dead , or to the living for their sakes , is gratitude and vertue for vertues sake , and the noblest portion of humanitie . And yet I remember that the most excellent Prince Cyrus in his last exhortation to his sons upon his death bed , charms them into peace and union of hearts and designes , by telling them that his soul would be still alive , and therefore fit to be revered : and accounted as awful and venerable as when he was alive ; and what we do to our dead friends is not done to persons undiscerning as a fallen tree , but to such who better attend to their relatives , and to greater purposes though in other manner , then they did here below . And therefore those wise persons who in their funeral orations made their doubt , with an [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , If the dead have any perception of what is done below ] which are the words of Isocrates , in the funeral encomium of Evagoras , did it upon the uncertain opinion of the souls immortality ; but made no question if they were living they did also understand what could concern them . The same words Nazianzen uses at the exequies of his sister Gorgonia , and in the former invective against Iulian ; but this was upon another reason ; even because it was uncertain what the state of separation was , and whether our dead perceive any thing of us till we shall meet in the day of judgement : If it was uncertain then , it is certain , since that time we have had no new revelation concerning it ; but it is ten to one , but when we dye we shall find the state of affairs wholly differing from all our opinions here , and that no man of sect hath guessed any thing at all of it as it is . Here I intend not to dispute , but to perswade , and therefore in the general , if it be probable that they know or feel the benefits done to them , though but by a reflex revelation from God , or some under communication from an Angel , or the s●ock of acquired notices here below , it may the rather endear us to our charities or duties to them respectively ; since our vertues use not to live upon abstractions , and Metaphysical perfections , or inducements ; but then thrive when they have materiall arguments ; such which are not too far from sense . However it be it is certain they are not dead , and though we no more see the souls of our dead friends then we did when they were alive , yet we have reason to beleeve them to know more things and better : And if our sleep be an image of death , we may also observe concerning it , that it is a state of life so separate from communications with the body , that it is one of the wayes of Oracle and prophecy , by which the soul best declares her immortality , and the noblenesse of her actions , and powers , if she could get free from the body , ( as in the state of separation ) or a clear dominion over it , ( as in the resurrection ) : To which also this consideration may be added , that men long time lived the life of sence , before they use their reason ; and till they have sumished their head with experiments and notices of many things , they cannot at all discourse of any thing ; but when they come to use their reason , all their knowledge is nothing but remembrance ; and we know by proportions , by similitudes and dissimilitudes , by relations and oppositions , by causes and effects , by comparing things with things ; all which are nothing , but operations of understanding upon the stock of former notices , of something we knew before ; nothing but remembrances ; all the heads of Topicks which are the stock of all arguments and sciences in the world are a certain demonstration of this : And he is the wisest man that remembers most , and joyns those remembrances together to the best purposes of discourse . From whence it may not be improbably gathered , that in the state of separation if there be any act of understanding , that is , if the understanding be alive , it must be relative to the notices it had in this world , and therefore the acts of it must he discourses upon all the parts and persons of their conversation and relation , excepting onely such new revelations which may be communicated to it ; concerning which we know nothing . But if by seeing Sacrates I think upon Plato , and by seeing a picture I remember a Man , and by beholding two friends I remember my own , and my friends need , ( and he is wisest that drawes most lines from the same Centre , and most discourses from the same Notices ) it cannot but be very probable to beleeve , since the separate souls understand better , if they understand at all , that from the Notices they carried from hence , and what they find there equall or unequall to those Notices , they can better discover the things of their friends then we can here by our conjectures , and craftiest imaginations : and yet many men here can guesse shrewdly at the thoughts and designes of such men with whom they discourse , or of whom they have heard , or whose characters they prudently have perceived . I have no other end in this discourse , but that we may be ingaged to do our duty to our Dead ; lest peradventure they should perceive our neglect , and be witnesses of our transient affections , and forgetfulnesse . Dead persons have religion passed upon them , and a solemn reverence ; and if we think a Ghost beholds us , it may be we may have upon us the impressions likely to be made by love , and fear , and religion . However , we are sure that God sees us , and the world sees us ; and if it be matter of duty towards our Dead , God will exact it : if it be matter of kindnesse , the world will : and as Religion is the band of that , so fame and reputation is the endearment of this . It remains , that we who are alive should so live , and by the actions of Religion attend the coming of the day of the Lord , that we neither be surprized , nor leave our duties imperfect , nor our sins uncanceld , nor our persons unreconciled , nor God unappeased : but that when we descend to our graves we may rest in the bosome of the Lord , till the mansions be prepared , where we shall sing and feast eternally . Amen . Te Deum laudamus . THE END . BEsides this Rule of Holy Dying , the Author hath in Print , 1. The Rule of Holy Living . 2. The Liberty of Prophesying . 3. Episcopacie asserted . 4 o 4. The History of the Life and Death of the ever blessed Iesus Christ. 4 o 5. An Apologie for Authorized and ●et forms of Lyturgie . 4 o 6. A Sermon Preached at Oxon. on the Anniversary of the fifth of November . 4 o 7. Together with 28. Sermons Preached at Golden grove . fol. Lately published , viz. SErmon 1.2 . Of the Spirit of Grace . Rom. 8. ver . 9.10 . Sermon 3.4 . The descending and entailed curse cut off . Exodus 20. part of the 5. verse . Sermon 5.6 . The invalidity of a late , or death-bed repentance . Ier. 13.6 . Sermon 7.8 . The deceitfulnesse of the heart . Ierem. 17.9 . Sermon 9.10.11 . The faith and patience of the Saints : Or the righteous cause oppressed . 1 Pet. 4.17 . Sermon 12.13 . The mercy of the Divine judgements ; or Gods method in curing sinners . Rom. 2.4 . Sermon 14.15 . Of groweth in grace , with its proper instruments and signes . 2 Pet. 3.18 . Sermon 16.17 . Of groweth in sin , or the severall states and degrees of sinners , with the manner how they are to be treated . Iude Epist. ver . 22 , 23. Sermon 18.19 . The foolish exchange . Matth. 16. ver . 26. Sermon 20.21.22 . The Serpent and the Dove , or a Discourse of Christian Prudence . Matth. 10. latter part of ver . 16. Sermon 23.24 . Of Christian simplicitie . Matt. 10. latter part of ver . 16. Sermon 25.26.27 . The Miracles of the Divine Mercy . Psal. 86.5 . A Funerall Sermon , Preached at the Obsequies of the right Honourable the Countesse of Carbery . 2 Sam. 14.14 . A Discourse of the Divine Institution , necessity , sacrednesse , and separation of the Office Ministeriall . Printed for Richard Royston at the Angel in Ivie-Lane . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A64099-e200 * Vel quia nil rectum nisi quod placuit ●ibi ducunt , Vel quia turpe putant parere mino●ibus , & quae Imberbes didicere , senes perdenda fateri . * Tenellis adhuc infantiae suae persuasionibus in senectute puerascunt Mamertus . Concil . Trid. hist lib 4. * Tertul de Monog . S. Cyprian l. 1. ep . 9 Sa. Athan q. 33. S. Cyril . myst . cat . 5. Epiphan . Haeres . 75. Aug. de haeres . c. 33. Concil . Carth. 3. c. 29 * Dii majorum umbris tenuem & sine pondere terram Spirantesque crocos & in urna perpetuum yer . Pers. Sat. 7. Otia das nobis sed qualia forat ulio● Meccenas Placco Virgilio . que m● . Notes for div A64099-e3660 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 4 James 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Nihil sibi quisquam de futuro debet promittere . Id quoque quod te●etur per 〈◊〉 anus exit , & ipsam quam premirous horam , casus inci●it . Volvitur tempus rata quidem lege , sed per obscurum Senec. Ut mortem citius venire credas , Scito jam capitis perisse partem . Navigatione longas & pererratis littoribus alienis , seros in patriam redicus proponimus militiam , & castrensium laborumtarda manu pretia , procurationes , officiorumque per officia processus , cum interim ad latus a ors est : quae q●oniam nun● quam cogitatur nisi aliena , subinde nobis ingerantur ● o●talitatis exempla , non diutius quam mi●annur haesura Senec. Quia lex eadem manet omnes Gemitum dare sorte sub una , Cognataque funera nobit Aliena in mortedolere . Prud. hymn . exequiis defunctor . Aut ubi mors non est si jugulatis aquae ? Martial . — Cur●it mortalibus aevum Nec nasci bis posse datur , fugit hora , ra●itque Tartareus terrens , ac secum ferre sub umbras Si qua animo placuere negat — Sil. Ital. l. 15. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Anceps forma bonum mortalibus . ●xigui donum breve temporis Utsulgor teneris qui radiat genis Momento rapitur , nula laque non dies For● osi spolium corporis abs●ulit , Senec. Rape , congere , auser , posside , relinquendum est . Martial Annos omnes prodeg●t ut ex eo annus unus numeretur , & per mille indignitates laboravit in ●itulum sepulchri Senec. Jam eorum praebendas alii possident , & nes●io utrum de iis cogi●ant . Gerson . * — Me veterum frequens Memphis Pyramidum docet Me pressae tumulo lachryma gloriae Me projecta jacentium , passum Per populos Busta quiritium Et vilis Zephyro jocus , jactati cineres & procerum rogi Lyric . Cas l 2. od . 27. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Menand . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; Quid sit futurum cras fuge quaerer● Et quem fo rs dicrum Cunque da● it , lucro appone . Horat. Nec Babylonios tentaris numeros Vt melius quicquid erit , pati Seu plures hyemes , seu tribuit Jupiter ultimam . Horat. Incertam frustia Mortales funeris horam Quaeritis & qua sit mors aditutura via . Po●na minor certam subito perferre ruinam , Quod timeas gravius sustinuisse diu . Catul. eleg . 1.29 Certa amictimus dum incerta potimꝰ atque hoc eve nit in labore atque indolor ut mors obrepat interim . Plaut . Pseud. Quid brevi fortes iaculemur 〈◊〉 Multa ? Jam te premet nox , Fabulae● Manes Et domus exilis Plutonia . Horat. Epist. 1● I●le enim ex futuro suspenditur , cui i●●itum est prae●●ns Senec. E●tate fruere , mobili c●●su sug●t . Senec Martial . l 2. epig. 59. Eccles 3.12 . & chap. 2.4 . * A 〈◊〉 du●n vivimus , vivamus . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Hoc etiam faciunt ubi discubuere , te entque Pocula saep homines , & inumbrant ora coronis Ex animo ut dicant brevis est hic ●ructus homillis , Jam fuerit neq post unquam revocare licebit Lucret lib. 3. Quis sapiens bono Confidat fragili : dum licet , utere : Tempus sed tacitum subruit : hora Se●per prae●erita deterior subit . Hippol. Bis jam consul trigesimus instat Et numerat paucos vi● tua vita dies . Aedepol proinde ut bene vivitur , diu vivitur . Plaut Trinum . Non accepimus brevem vitam , fed fecimus , nec inopes ejus , sed prodigi sumus . Senec. Sed potes , Publi , geminare magna Secula fama . Quem sui raptum gemuere ●ives Hic diu vixit . Sibi quisque famam Scribat haeredem : rapiunt avarae Caetera Lunae . Huic neque defungi visum est , nec vivere pulchrum ; Cura f●it recte vivere , sicque mori . In spe viventibus , proximum quodque tempus elabitur , subatque aviditas temporis , & miserrimus , atque miserrim● omnia efficiens , me●us mortis ..... Ex hac autem indigentia timer nascitur , & cupiditas futuri ex●dens animum . Senec. * Life of Christ , Part. 3. Disc. 14. Lib. 1. To● . 1. Panar . Sect. 6. Seneca de vita beata . c. 20. Nulla 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 surg●te post quam seder●t●s ; hic es ●ocus pulicu● & culicu●● . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sibyll . Ora● : * Vilis adulator picto iacete , brius ostro Et qui solicitat nuptas , ad pr●mia peccat . Sola prumo●is horret facundia pannis Atque inopi lingua desertas invocat artes . Petron. Hinc & jocus apud Aristophanem in avibus ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Vilis servus habet regni bona , cellaque capti Deridet sestam Romuleamque casa ● . Petron. Omnia crede ●●hi etia ●f licibu dubia sunt . Senec. Et adulterio velut sacramento adacti . facit . Plusque & iterum●ia ●enda cum Antonio mulier . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quem si inter mi sero ●o ●ueri mi serrimus , inter felices , ●elicissimus reperte ba●ur . ●ni sibi necpuer● unquam ferias contigisse . S●di●iosu & fo●o gravis . Notes for div A64099-e7120 Propera vivere , & singulo , die , singulas vitas puta Nihil interest inter diem & secu●lum . Si sap●s , utatis totis Coline diebu , Extremumque tibi semper adesse putes . Martial . Heu , Heu ! nos miseros , quam totus homuncio nil est Sic erimus cuncti postquam nos auseret Orcus : Ergo vivamus dum licet osse , bene . — Certe populi quos despicit Arctos Felices errore suo , quos ille timorum Maximus haud urget Lethi metus — — Inde ruendi In ferrum mens prona viris , animaeque capaces Mortis , & i navum rediturae parcerevitae Qui quotidie vitae tu●e ma num i●posuit n●n indigettempore . Senec. Insere nunc Melibaee pyros , ponc ordine vites . Ch 4. v 9 Neque e●nim Deus u●la ●e perinde atque corporis aeru ●na conciliatur . Na● . Orat. 18. Amo 6.1 Luk. ● . ●5 Mat. 5.4 Psa 1 : 6.6 . * — Sed longi poenas fortuna favoris Exigit a misero , qu●e ●anto pondere famae Res prea it adversas , fatisque prioribus urget . Lucan . l. 8 Hierocl . Ecclus. 1● . 1 . Qui levi comminatione pellitur , non opus est ut fortitudine & armis invadatur . Senec. El●ge vitam optimam , consuetudo faciet jucundissimam . Senec. Securae & quierae mentiae est in omnes vitae parte● discurrere ; occupatorum animi velut sub ●●go sunt , respicere non possunt . Seneca . Respice quid prodest praesenti● temporis aevum , Omne quod est , nihil est , praeter amare Deum . Quod expendi habui , Quod donavi habeo , Quod negavi punior , Quod servavi perdidi . Tob. 4.10 & 12.9 . Ecclus. 2.30 . Dan. 4. 1 Pet. 4.8 Isai 1.17 . * Lib. 7. cap. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Agere autem poenitentiam nihil aliud est quam pronteri & affirmare se non ulterius peccaturum . Orat 2. de poenitentia . Nunquam memmi melegisse mala morte mortuum qui libenter opera charitatis exercuit . ad Nepo . Luk. 16.9 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Da dum tempus habes , tibi propria sit manus haeres ; Auferet hoc nemo quod ●abis ipse Deo. Goner in voce adamant . Quod ●aepe fieri non potest fiat diu . Senec. Nullius rei quam vivere difficilior est scientia . Professores aliarum artium vulgo multique sunt . Senec. Nunc ratio nulla est restan di nulla facultas Aeternas quoniam po●na in ●orte ti●endum . Luc●et . Virtutem videant , intabe●cantque relicta . Nilus . S. Basil. S. Chrysostomus . Ephraem Syrus . S. Martyrius . S. Eustratius Martyr . Chrysostomus . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Philo. Notes for div A64099-e9190 Prima quae vitam dedit , hora carpsit . Hercul . Tur. Nascentes me● rimur sinisque ab origine pendet . Manil. Biulatu , questu , gemitu , fremitibus reso nando multum flebiles voces ●efert . Cic. sus● Conesd●ndu● es● gementi . — Flagrantior aequo Non debet dolor esse viri nec vulnere major . ●u . Sat. 13. Omnino si qu equ●m est do 〈◊〉 nihil est pro●ero 〈◊〉 , qua 〈…〉 singularium 〈◊〉 : quam 〈◊〉 con e●vare non nossis si●a io●um naturam imitans 〈…〉 . Quiaprofundenda voce omne corpus intenditur venitque plaga vehementior . Cic. Tusc Vide chap. 4. Sect. 1. Praetulerim delyrus inersque videri , Dum mea delectant mala me , vel denique fallant , Quam sapere & ●ingi . Hor. lib. 2. ep . 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Vlysses apud Hom. Spectatores vociferantur , ictus tacet . Qui mediocris gladiator ingemuit ? Quis vultum mutavit unquam ? Quis non modo sterit , verum etiam decubuit turpiter ? Tusc. Qu. lib. 2. Debilona facitomanu debilem pede , coxa , lubricos quato dentes , vita dun● superest , bene est . Hanc mihi , vol acuta● , si das , sustineo crucem . Sen. ep . 101. Improbaeque Tigres indulgent patientiam flagello . Impiger & fortis virtute coacta . Cerno equidem gemina camstratos morte Philippos Thessaliaeque rogos & funera gentis Iberae . Rara est in nobilitate senectu●●●erre quam sortem patiuntur omnes nemo recusat . Tusc. l. 2. Cum faces doloris ad● moverentur . Tantum doluerunt , quantum doloribuse inseruerunt . S. Aug. Virgil. ● . 8 v. 2. Ceu rore seges viret , sic croscunt rigui tristia fletibus Urget lachryma lachrymam Fecundusquo sui se numerat dolor Quem fortuna se●el virum udo degenerem lumine viu derit . Illum saepe ferit . — Levius sic patientia quicquid corrigere est nefas . 1 Cor. 10.13 . Psal. 9.9 Mat. 7.7 Iam. ● . 13 P●al . 31.19 , 24. ●sal . 34.21 , 22. Nulla mihi nova nunc facies inopinaque surgit Omnia praecepi atque animo me●um ante revolvi . Virgil. lib. 6. Nunc festinatos nimium tibi sent●t honores Actaque lauriferae damnat Syllana juventae . Lucan . lib. 8. Ubi jam validi● quassatum est viribus aevi Corpus & obtusis ceciderunt viribus artus Claudicat ingenium , delirat lin ●aque n●ensque . Lucr. l. 3. Quatenus excidi penitus vitiu●●irae , Caetera item nequ●unt stultis haeren●ia Hor. l. 1 sat . 3. * Nolo quod cupio ●tatin tenere N●c victor a mi place ▪ pa●ata . Petron. Mors ipsa beatior inde est Quod per cruciamina lethi via panditur ardua justis & ad astra doloribus itur . Prud. hymn . in exeq . defunct . Virtutes avidae periculi . Monstrant quam non poeniteat tanto pretio aesti masse virturem . Senec. Non enim h●laritate nec lascivia , nec risu , aut joco comit● levitatis , sed saepe etia● tristes firmitate & constantia sunt beati . Cicer. de fin . l. ●● Nihil infelicius eo , cui nihil unquam contigit adversi . Non licuit illi se experiti . Senec. — Illa seges votis respondet avari Agricolae , bis quae solem , bis frigora sensit . Virgil. Georg. 1. I anguent per in●rtiam saginata , nec labore tan●um sed mole & ipso sui onere de●eiunt . Senec. Callum per injurias ducunt . Ut sit luminisatque aqu● c●elestis pa●iens latus . Modestia filiorum delectantur , vernularum licentia & canum non puerorum . Ventus ut amittit vires nisi robo●re densae O●currunt silvae spatio diffusu● inani . Lucan . Marcet sine adversario virtus . Laetius est quoti e●magno tibi constat ho●nestum . Ps. 89.33 1 Cor. 5.5 1 ●im . 1.20 . Digni erant in hoc saeculo recipere peccatum suum , ut mundiores exeant ab hac vita , mundati castigatione sibi illata per mortem com nunem , quoniam credentes erant in Christum . Origen S. Aug. l. 3. c. 1. contr . Parmen . & Cassian . colla● . 6. c. 11. 1 Cor. 11.30 . Deut. 4.5 . Haec clemencia non paratur arte Sed norunt cui serviunt leones . Silatus aut renes morbo tentantur acuto . Quaere fugam morbi . vis recte vivere ? quis non ? Si virtus hocuna potest dare , fortis omissis Hoca●e deliciis . Hor. l. 1. ep . 6. * Nec t●● men putaverant ad rem pertinere ubi in cia perent quod pl●cuerat ut sieret . Neque tam aversa unquam videbitur ab ope●e suo providentia ut debiltas inter optima inventa ●it . Detesta . bilis ●rit caecitas si nemo oculos per diderit nisi cui eruondisunt . Memineris ergo maximos dolores morte finiri , parvos habere multa intervalla requietis , mediocrium nos esse dominos . Cicero . Ecclus. 2.14 . * Montiris , juvenem tinctis Lentine , capillis Tam subito corvus qui modo cygnus eras . Non omnes fallis , scit te Proserpina canum , Personam capiti detrahet illa tuo . Mar. l. 3. ep . 43. Audet iter numeratque dies spatioq , viarum Metitur vitam , torquetur morte futur● . Hor. lib. 3. Od. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Soph. Nihil est miserius dubitatione volutantium quar●um evadan● , quantum sit illud quod resta● aut quale ? Seneca l. 17. ep . 102. — Heu quanto melius vel cede peracta Parcere Romano potuit fortuna pudori . Lucan . Haec omnia vidit in flammari , Jovis aram sanguine ●urpari . — Sic longius aevum Destruit ingentes animos & vitasuperstes ; Imperio nisi summa dies cum fine bonorum A●fluit & celeri praevertit tristia leto Dedecori est fortuna prior . Lucan . lib. 8. Mors il● melius quam tu consuluit quidem . — quisquamne secundis Tradere se fatis audet nisi morte parata . Luc. l. 8. Nimirum hac die una plus vixi mihi quam vivendum fuit . Hoc homo morte lucratur ne malum esset immortale . Naz. Nihil in malis ducamus quod fit a Diis immortalibus vel a natura parente omnium● cnstitutum . Concre tum fuit , disere tum est , rediitque unde venerat ; terra deorsum , spirtu ; sursum . Quid ex his omnibus iniquum est ? nihi . Epichar . Natura dedit u●uram vitae ta●quam pecuniae , quid est ergo quod querare si repetat cum vult ? eadem enim lege acceperas . Senec. Vitae est avidus Quisquis non vult mundo secum pe●eunte mori . Sen. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Par est moriri : neque est melius morte in malis rebus miserie . Plaut . Rud. Aut fuit , aut veniet nihil est praesentis in illa . Morsque minus poenae quam mora mortis habet . Virtutem incolu nem odimus Sublatam ex oculis quaerimus invidi Horat. Et laudas nullos nisi mortuos poetas . Mart. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pindar . Ecclus. 41.1 . Amittenda fortitudo est aut sepeliendus dolor . Cic. Forrem polce animum mortis terrore carente ● Qui spatium vitae extremu● inter munera ponat . Hostem cum fugeret se Fan●nius ipse peremit . Mar. Beati er●mus cum corporibꝰ ●e lictis & cupiditatu● & aemu●ationum erimus expertes quodque nunc facimus , cum laxatique curis sumus , ut spectare aliquid yelimus & vi●ere . Tuscul. Qu. Mor utinam pavidos vita subducer● nolle● Sed virtus te sola ● daret — Lucan . Maneant opera interrupta , minaeque Murorum ingentes . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Quam pellunt lachrymae fovent sor●em : dura negant cedere mollibus . Siccas si videat genas Durae cedet hebes sors patientiae . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Il. o. Et cum nihil imminuat doloris , cur f●ustra turpes esse volumus ? Senec. Non le vat misero , dolor virtutem verba pucas ut l●cumligna Solatium est pro honesto dura tolerare & ad causam a patientia respicit . 1 Pet. 2.19 . Heb. 11.36 . Mat. 5.11 Magis his quae patitur vexat causa patiendi . Hi quicquid biberint vomitum remetientur tristes , & bilem suam regustantes . Senec. Tantum cura potest & ars doloris desiit Caelius fingere podagram . Mart. l. 7 ep . 38. Josh. 7.12 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Soph. * Who so him bethost Inwardly and oft How hard it were to flit From bed unto the pit From pit unto pain That nere shall cease again He would not do one sin All the world to win . Inscript . marmori in Ecclosparoch de Feversham in agro Cantiano . Notes for div A64099-e16540 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ipsi ceu vi Deo nullo est opus ; apud Senecam . Scaliger recte emendat ; Ipsi ceu Deo &c Ex Graeco scilicet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . L. Cornel. legatus sub Fabio Consule vividam naturam & virilem animam servavi , quoad animam e●flavi ; & tandem disertus ope medicorum & Esculapii dei ingrati cui me voveram sodalem perpetuo futurum si fila aliquantulum optata protulisset . Vetus inscriptio in Lusitania . Nunc omnibus anxius aris Illachrimat signatque fores & pectore terget Limina ; nunc frustra vo●at exorabile nomen . Papin . l. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Graeci vocant cum ●ors propter impatientiam pe●itur . Job 5.8.10 . vers . 11.16 . 17. 18. 26. Psalm 63.6 . 7 , 8. Psalm 23.3 , 4 , Psalm 27.5 . Psal. 102 v. 19 , 20 Psalm 77.1 , &c 1 Cor. 10.13 . Rom. 15.4 , 5. 1 Sam. 3.18 . 2 Cor. 12.7 , 8 , 9 Lam. 3.18 , 19 , &c. ibid. ibid. Job 14.13 . Job 2.10 . Psal. 6. Psal. 11 Psal. 16 Psal. 17 Psalm 31.9 . 27. 31. Non jam validi , radicibus haerens Pondere fixa suo . Sanctiusque ac reverentius visum de actis ●●orum credere quam scire . facit Fides tua te salvum faciet ; non exercitati● scriptururam . Fides in regula posita est ; ( scil . in symbolo quod jam recitaverat ) habet legem , & salutem de observatione legi●●t exercitatio autem in curiositate consistit , habens gloriam solam de peritiae studio : Cedat curiositas fidei ; cedat gloria saluri . Tert. de praescript . S. Augustinus vocat symbolum comprehensionem fidei vestrae atque perfectionem Cordis signaculum , & nostrae militiae● acramentum . Amb lib. 3. de veland virgin . Aug. serm . 115. Non per difficiles nos Deus ad beatam vita●n quaestiones vocat . In absoluto nobis & facili est aeternitas : ●esum suscitatum a mortuis per Deum credere & ipsum esse Dominum confiteri . S. Hilar. lib. 10. de Trinit . Haec est fides Catholica ( de symbolo suo dixit Athanasiu , velqu cuncque author est . S. Athanas . de fide Nicena , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Ep ad Epict. Tertul. ad Sapul . In Phoedo . Rom. 14.6 . Rom. 8.31 . &c. 1 Joh. 2.1 . 1 Tim. 1.15 . 2 Thes. 2.13 . Ibid. v. 16 , 17. 2 Thes. 3.5 . 2 Thes. 1.11 . 1 Thes. 5.9 , 10. Act. 3.23 . Isa. 2.22 Joh. 11.25 . Ibid. ver . 40. 1 Cor. 15.55 . Ibid. Desce●●li sti ad Olympia sed ne●o praeter te : coronam habes , victoriam non habes . Mitius ille perit subita qui mergitur unda ; Quam sua qui liquidis brachia lassat aquis . Ovid. Etiam innocentes mentiri cogit dolor . Ipse illigatus peste interimor textili . Lavor honesta hora & salubri quae mihi & calorem & sanguine● servet . Rigere & pallere post lavacrum mortuus possum Tertul. Apol. c. 42. Cognata faece sepulti . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aelian . lib. 4. var. hist. cap. 1. Vide August . lib. 50. Hom. Hom. 4. & serm . 57. de te●pore . Faustum ad Paulinum . Ep. 1. in Biblioth . pp. tom . ● . vet . ed t. Concil . Arelat . 1. c. 3. Carthag . 4. c 7.8 . — Quis luce suprema Dimisiste mea●sero non ingemit horas Sil. Ital. l. 15. Sic contra r●rum natnraemunera nota Corvus maturis frugitus ova refert . In Adrian . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vide life of Christ , Dise of repentance Rule of holy living chap. 4. Sect. of repentance ; and volume of Serm. serm . 5 , 6. a Ne tamen ad stygia famulus descenderet umbras Ureret implicitum cum scelerata lues Cavimus — Cogimur a suetis animum suspendere rebus , Atque ut vivamus vivere desinimus Corn. Gallus . Gnossius haec Rhadamanthus habet durissima regna Castigatque auditque dolos subigit ; fateri Quae quis apud superos furto laetatus inani Disttulit in seram commissa piacula mortem . Aened . 6. — Cineri gloria sera venit . Tu mihi quod rarum est , vivo sublime dedisti , Nomen ab exequiis quod dare fama solet . Ou pondre , ou rendre , ou les peines denfers attendre . Quid debent ●aesi a●ere u ●● rei ad paenam confugiunt ? Vera ad Deum conversio in ultim● positorum mente potius est aesti●anda quam tempore . ●el p. ep . 2. c. . vera conversio ) scil . ab insi delitate ad fidem ●hristi per Baptismum . Lamen . 3.41 . Job 7.20 . Lamen . 1.18 , 20. Lamen . 5.19 . Psalm 25.7 . Psalm . 109.21 . Psalm 143. Psalm 101.1 . Psalm 5.1 . Credebant hoc grande nefa , & morte piandum , Si juvenis vetulo non assurrexerat & si Barbato cu●cu●q puer — Iuven. Sat. 13. 1 Thes. 5.17 . Luke 18.1 . 1 Thes. 5.17 . Mark 16.16 . Luke 13.3 Acts 3.19 . Matth. 5.3 . Luke 14.10 . John 13.14 . Math. 5.5 . Colos. 3.1 , 2. Matth. 10.16 . 1 Thes. 5.8 . Rom. 8.24 . Luke 16.29 . Mark 4.44 . 1 Tim. 4.13 . Heb. 10.25 . Heb. 13.17 . Matth. 18.17 . 2 Thes. 3.6 . 2 ep . John 10. Titus 3.10 . Colos. 3.14 . 1 Tim. 1.5 . 1 Tim. 2.22 . Mark 12.30 . Matth. 6.14 . 1 John 3.16 . Matth. 18.9 . Matth. 18.15 . James 1.4 . Luke 21.19 . Heb. 12.3 . Gal. 6.9 . Ephes. 5 20. 2 Thess. 1.3 . Luke 6.32 . 2 Tim. 3.2 . 1 Thes. 5.16 . Philip. 3.1.4.4 . 1 Thes 5.19 . Ephes. 4.30 . Acts. 7.51 . Ephes. 5.33 . 1 Tim. 5.8 . Colos. 3.21 . Ephes. 6.4 . 1 Thes. 5.20 . 2 Tim. 2.24 . Matth. 18.7 . 1 Cor. 10.32 . Heb. 12.14 . 1 Cor. 6.1 . Philip. 4.8 . 2 Cor. 8.21 . 1 Thes. 5.22 . James 5.19 , 20. Matth. 10.32 . Heb. 12.4 . Matth. 5.12 . James 1.2 . Luke 22.19 . Joh. 20.30.31 . Acts 3.23 . Mark 1.1 . Luke 10.16 . Revel . 22.18 . 1 Cor. 11.16 . Jude 3. * Rom. 14.13.22 Rom. 16.17 . Mat. 23.8 , 9 , 10. 1 Pet. 5.3 . 1 John 4.1 . 1 Thes. 5.21 . 1 Cor. 9.25 . Titus 2.2 . Matth. 16.24 . Colos. 3.5 . Rom. 8.13 . Luke 6.34 . Mark 13.35 . Matth. 24.42 & 25.13 . Matth. 5.22 . Ephes. 4.26 . 1 Cor. 6.10 . Matth. 5.22 , Matth. 5.34 . James 2.1 . 1 Tim. 5.22 . 2 Tim. 4.12 . 1 Cor. 10.31 . Matth. 5.6 . Titus 3.9 . Matth. 5.44 . Rom. 12.14 . 1 Tim. 2.1 . Titus 3.14 . Ephes. 4.28 . Matth. 5.48 . 1 Pet. 3.8 . 2 Pet. 1.6 , 7. 2 Cor. 8.7 . 2 Cor. 9.5 . Ephes. 5.4 . 1 Tim. 2.9 . James 1.9 . Philip. 2.10 . Magnifica verba mors prope admota excutit Nam verae voces tum demum pectore ab imo e iciu●tur — Lucret. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyrus apud Xenoph. l. 8. institut . Vide Chap. 1. Sect. 4. * Lucian de luctu . Vid. reg . 6. paulo infr Herod●t . Musa . 5. Plin l. 4. c. ●1 . Xiphilin . in Severo . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Nicarchus . Fallax saepe fides , testataqne vota peri●un● ; Constitues tumulum si ●apis ipse tuum . Written upon a wall in S. Edmunds Church in Lumbard-street . Contra avaritiam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Psal. 16.2 , &c. Psal. 18.30 , 31. Ps. 22.19 . Psal. 42. Psal. 68 26. & Psal. 71. Psal. 71. ibid. Psal. 72 Psal. 116 ibid. ibid. Notes for div A64099-e23870 Exod. 20.19 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Xenoph . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . lib. 8. Jam. 5.14 . James ● . 14 . Gabriel in 4 ●on● . dist . ●● . James 5.16 . Prov. 28 ●3 . 1 John ● . 9 . Matth. 3. ● . Acts 1● 18 1 Cor. 11.31 . Si ta●uerit quis percussus est & non egerit poenitentiam , nec vulnus suum fratri & magist●o voluerit confiteri , magister qui linguam habet ad curandum ●acile ei prodesse non poterit . Si enim ●rubescat aegrotus vulnus medico confiteri , quod ignorat medicina non curat S. Hiezon . ad caput 10. Eccles. Si enim hoe fecerimus & revelavorimus peccam nostra , non solum Deo , sed & his qui pof●une mederi vulneribus nostris atque peccatis , delebuntur peccata nostra . Origen hom . 17. in Lucam . a Plaut . ●●inum . mus . Tam facile & pronum est superos contemnere testes Si morta . lis idem nemo sciat . Juv. Sat. 13. Qui homo culpam admisit in se nullus est tam parvi pre●●● quin pude at , qu●n ▪ urget sese Qui homo culpam admisit in so ●ullus est tam parvi pretij quin pude at , qu'n ●urget sese Plaut . Aulul . Verum hoc se amplecti ●ur uno Hoc amat , h●claudat , matro , ●a●n nullam ego rango . Hor. Ser. l. 1. sat . 2. Apud Surium . die 27. Sept. 1 John 3.20 . 1 Cor. 4.4 . Illi mors gravis incubat q●i notus n●mis omnibus ignotus moritur sibi . Nun● si depositum non insiciatur amicus si reddat veteremou● tota aerugine sollem , Prodigiosa si les & ●huscis ●ign● libelli . Iuven. sat . 13. Gal. 6.1 . Jam. 5.15 . 1 Cor. 5.5 , 12 , 13 2 Cor. 2.6 . Homines in remissione peccatorum ministerium suum exhibe●t , non jus alic . 〈◊〉 potestatis exercent : Neque enim in suo sed in nomine Pat●i , Fihj . & Spiritu , Sancti peccata dimittuntur : ●sti rogant , divinitas donat . S. Ambr. de spir . S. l. 3. c. 19 Summum futuri judicii prae●us dicium est , si quis ita deliquerit ut a communicatione orationis & conventus & on ●is ●ancti commercii rele●etur . Tertul. pol. c. 39. Atque hoc idem innuitur per summam Apostoli censurano , in reos ma imi crimmis , sit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , id est , excommunicatus majori excommunicatione : Don inus veniet : ●cil ad judicandum eum adquod iudiciu haec corsura colesiae est relativa , & inordine . Tum demum pena ▪ dabit ; ad qua nisi resipiscat , hic consignatur . Arelat . ●● 3. Vide 2 Cor. 2 10 & ●● Cyprian ep . 73. Caus. 6. Q. 6 & q. 7. Ca● 13. vide etiam Conc. Ancyr . c. 6 ●ure● . 2. c. 12. O sacrum convivium in quo Christus sumicur , recolitur memoria passi ni● e●us , mens impletur gratia & futurae glorie nobis pignus datur . Ita vide ut prosit illis ignosci quos ad poenam ipse Deus deduxit : quod ad me attinet non sum crudelis , sed vereor no quod remisero patiar . Tryphaena dixit apud Petro●ium . Saeviquoque & implacabiles Domini crude litatem suam impediuntsi quando penitentia fugitivos re duxit . dedititiis hostibus par●imus . * Quaecunque ergo de poenitentia jubendo dicta sunt , non ad exteriorem sed ad interiorem referenda sunt , sine qua nullus unquam Deo reconciliari poterit . Gratian. de penit , d. 1. Quis aliquando . 1. Cor. 2.3 . 1 Cor. 15.22 . Rom. 8.32 . i●e rule of holy living Chap. 4. Sect. 10. & 〈◊〉 of the life of ●esus , Par● 3. Disc. 18. Caus. 26. q. 7. ab infirmis . Matth. 9.6 . Acts 3.26 . Est modus gloriandi in consei●ntia ut noveris fidem tuam esse sinceram , spem tuam esse certam . August . Psal. 149. * Una est nobilitas , argumentumq coloris Ingenui , timidas non habuisse manus . 1 Tim. 1.15 . Ezek. 33.11 . Luke 15.7 . 1 John 2.1 . 1 Cor. 5.20 . Ezek. 18. Joel 2. James 3.2 . 1 Joh. 1.8 . Rom. 11.32 . Rom. 6.23 . Hebr. 13.5 . Vixi , p●●cavi , poenital , naturae cessi . Psalm 130. * Psalm 49. Psal. 16.15 . Heb. 13.20 . 1 Tim. 6.15 , 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iliad . † . Ecolus . 38.17 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; dixit Socrates de Ergastulario lugente . N●mo me lachrymis decoret nec funera fletu Faxit ; cur ? volito vivus per ora virum . Ennius . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Cyrus apud Xenop . * S. Chrysost . hom . 4. Hebr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Il. † . Mors op●i● a est periredum lachrimant sui●●ippol . Sen. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . a Expectavimus ●achrymas ad ostentati nem doloris paratas ut ergo ambitiosu● detonuit te it surerbum pallio caput & m●n●bus inter se usque ad articulorum str●pi um contritis , &c. Petron. b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . c Non Siculae da● pes dulcem elaborabunt sapo●e●o non avium Citharaeque cantus so ●num reducent d — Tremulumque caput descendere jus●it In Coelum & longam manantia labra salivam . a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Iliad . † . b Lib. 6. variae histor . cap. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Nam quid sibi saxa cavata Quod pulchra volunt monumenta Res quid nisi creditur illis Non mortua sed data somno . Prud. hym . in exeq . defunct . — Cupit omnia ferre Prodigus & totos melior succendere census , Desertas e●osus opes ; Statius lib. 2. Silvar . Totus hic locus contemnendus est●m nobis , non negligendus in nostris . Cicero . Id cine●rem aut manes credis curare sepultos ? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fugientibus Trojanis minatus est Hector 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Il. ● . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Xenop . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Sit tibi terra levis mollique tegaris arena Ne tua non possinteruere ossa cane● . Mart * Nam quod requiescere corpus vacuum sine mente videmus Spacium breve restat ut alti repetat collegia sensus : Hinc maxima cura sepulchris impenditur — Prudent . hymn . in exeq . defunc . ●armoreo Licinu tuu●ulo sacet , at Cato parvo , Pompeius nullo , credi nus esse Deos. Varro Aracinus . * Fama orbem replet , mortem for occulit , at tu Desine scrutari quod tegit ossa solum . Si mihi dent animo non impar fata sepulchrum Angusta est tumulo terra Britanna meo . Ce●nit ibi maestos & mortis honore carentes . I eucaspim & Lyciae ductorem classi Orontem . Aeneid . 6. I ustravitque ●iros di , itque novissima verba . Aeneid . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Il. † . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Isoc . Plataica . — miserum in lattore Tenxi flebant & cineri ingrato suprema ferebant . Eneid . 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Il. † . H 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyrus apud Xenop . lib. 8. instit . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Illiad . † . 
A63741	----	Dekas embolimaios a supplement to the Eniautos, or, Course of sermons for the whole year : being ten sermons explaining the nature of faith, and obedience, in relation to God, and the ecclesiastical and secular powers respectively : all that have been preached and published (since the Restauration) / by the Right Reverend Father in God Jeremy Lord Bishop of Down and Connor ; with his advice to the clergy of his diocess. Eniautos. Supplement Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. 1667 Approx. 718 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 115 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-12 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A63741 Wing T308 ESTC R11724 12232752 ocm 12232752 56643 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A63741) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 56643) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 616:11) Dekas embolimaios a supplement to the Eniautos, or, Course of sermons for the whole year : being ten sermons explaining the nature of faith, and obedience, in relation to God, and the ecclesiastical and secular powers respectively : all that have been preached and published (since the Restauration) / by the Right Reverend Father in God Jeremy Lord Bishop of Down and Connor ; with his advice to the clergy of his diocess. Eniautos. Supplement Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. [10], 219 p. : port. Printed for R. Royston ..., London : 1667. First 2 words of title transliterated from Greek. Reproduction of original in the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign Campus). Library. The righteousness Evangelical describ'd ; The Christians conquest over the body of sin ; Fides formata, or, Faith working by love : in three sermons preached at Christ Church, Dublin. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). 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Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Church of England -- Sermons. Sermons, English -- 17th century. Funeral sermons. 2005-02 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-03 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-04 Simon Charles Sampled and proofread 2005-04 Simon Charles Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion ΔΕΚΑΣ ΕΜΒΟΛΙΜΑΙΟΣ A SUPPLEMENT TO THE ΕΝΙΑΥΤΟΣ 〈…〉 Sermons for 〈…〉 Explaining the Nature of Faith , and Obedience , in relation to God , and the Ecclesiastical and Secular Powers respectively . All that have been Preached and Published ( since the Restauration ) By the Right Reverend Father in God JEREMY Lord Bishop of Down and Connor . WITH His Advice to the Clergy of his Diocess . LONDON , Printed for R. Royston Book-seller to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty . 1667. NON MAGNA 〈◊〉 VIMVR . SED VIVIMVS NIHIL OPINIONES GRATIA . OMNIA CONSCEN●●● FACIAM The Titles and Texts of the several Sermons . SERM. I. The Righteousness Evangelical . Matth. 5. 20. For I say unto you , that except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees , ye shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven . SERM. II. The Christians Conquest over the Body of Sin. Rom. 7. 19. For the good that I would , I do not ; but the evil which I would not , that I do . SERM. III. Faith working by Love. James 2. 4. You see then how that by works a man is justified , and not by faith alone . SERM. IV. Preached at an Episcopal Consecration . Luke 12. 42. And the Lord said , Who then is that faithful and wise steward , whom his Lord shall make ruler over his houshold to give them their portion of meat in due season ? verse 43 Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing . SERM. V. Preached at the Opening the Parliament of Ireland . 1. Sam. 15. 22. Behold , to obey is better then sacrifice , and to hearken then the fat of rams : verse 23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft , and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry . SERM. VI. Via Intelligentiae . John 7. 17. If any man will do his will , he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God , or whether I speak of my self . SERM. VII . Preached at the Funeral of the L. Primate of Ireland . Cor. 15. 23. But every man in his own order ; Christ the first fruits , and after they that are Christ's at his coming . SERM. VIII . Countess of Carberies Funeral Sermon . 2 Sam. 14. 14. For we must needs dye , and are as water spilt on the ground which cannot be gathered up again : neither doth God respect any person : yet doth he devise means that his banished be not expelled from him . SERM. IX . & X. The Ministers Duty in Life and Doctrine . In 2 Sermons . Tit. 2. 7. In all things shewing thy self a pattern of good works : In Doctrine shewing uncorruptness , gravity , sincerity . verse 8 Sound Speech that cannot be condemned , that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed , having no evil thing to say of you . Rules and Advices to the Clergy of the Diocess of Down and Connor . IMPRIMATUR , Tho. Tomkyns , RR imo in Christo Patri ac Domino D no Gilberto Divinâ Providentiâ Archi-Episcopo Cantuariensi à Sacris Domesticis . THE Righteousness Evangelical DESCRIBD . THE CHRISTIANS CONQUEST Over the Body of Sin. FIDES FORMATA , OR FAITH working by LOVE . IN THREE SERMONS PREACHED AT CHRIST — CHURCH , DVBLIN . By the Right Reverend Father in God JEREMY Lord Bishop of Down and Connor . The third Edition . LONDON , Printed for R. Royston Book-seller to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty . 1667. TO THE MOST NOBLE AND VERTUOUS PRINCESSE , THE LADY Dutchess of Ormond HER GRACE . Madam , I Present your Grace here with a Testimony of my Obedience , and of your own Zeal for the good of Souls . You were in your great Charity , not only pleased to pardon the weakness of this Discourse , but to hope it might serve as a memorial to those that need it , of the great necessity of living Vertuously , and by the measures of Christianity . Madam , you are too great and too good to have any ambition for the things of this World ; but I cannot but observe that in your designs for the other World , you , by your Charity and Zeal , adopt your self into the portion of those Ecclesiasticks , who humbly hope , and truly labour for the reward that is promised to those wise persons who convert souls , if our Prayers and your Desires that every one should be profited in their eternal concerns , cast in a Symbol towards this great work , and will give you a title to that great reward : But , Madam , when I received your Commands for dispersing some Copies of this Sermon , I perceived it was too little to be presented to your Eminence ; and if it were accompanied with something else of the like nature , it might with more profit advance that end which your Grace so piously designed ; and therefore I have taken this opportunity to satisfie the desire of some very Honourable and very Reverend Personages , who required that the two following Sermons should also be made fit for the use of those who hoped to receive profit by them . I humbly lay them all at your Graces Feet , begging of God , that even as many may receive advantages by the perusing of them , as either your Grace will desire , or he that preached them did intend . And if your Grace will accept of this first Testimony of my concurrence with all the World that know you , in paying those great regards , which your Piety so highly merits , I will endeavour hereafter in some greater instance to pursue the intentions of Your zeal of souls , and by such a service endeavour to do more benefit to others , and by it , as by that which is most acceptable to your Grace , endear the Obedience and Services of , Madam , Your Graces most Humble and Obedient Servant , Jer. Down . THE Righteousness Evangelical DESCRIB'D . SERMON I. MATTH . V. 20. For I say unto you , that except your Righteousness exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees , ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven . REwards and Punishments are the best Sanction of Laws ; and although the Guardians of Laws strike somtimes with the softest part of the hand in their Executions of sad Sentences , yet in the Sanction they make no abatements , but so proportion the Duty to the Reward , and the Punishment to the Crime , that by these we can best tell what Value the Law-giver puts upon the Obedience . Joshuah put a great rate upon the taking of Kiriath-Sepher , when the Reward of the Service was his Daughter and a Dower . But when the Young men ventur'd to fetch David the waters of Bethlehem , they had nothing but the praise of their Boldness , because their Service was no more than the satisfaction of a Curiosity . But as Law-givers by their Rewards declare the Value of the Obedience , so do Subjects also by the grandeur of what they expect , set a value on the Law and the Law-giver , and do their Services accordingly . And therefore the Law of Moses , whose endearment was nothing but temporal goods and transient evils , could never make the comers thereunto perfect : but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Superinduction of a better Hope hath endeared a more perfect Obedience . When Christ brought Life and Immortality to light through the Gospel , and hath promised to us things greater than all our explicite Desires , bigger than the thoughts of our heart , then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith the Apostle , then we draw neer to God ; and by these we are enabled to do all that God requires , and then he requires all that we can do ; more Love , and more Obedience than he did of those who for want of these Helps , and these Revelations , and these Promises , which we have , but they had not , were but imperfect persons , and could do but little more than humane Services . Christ hath taught us more , and given us more , and promised to us more than ever was in the world known or believed before him ; and by the strengths and confidence of these , thrusts us forward in a holy and wise Oeconomy , and plainly declares that we must serve him by the measures of a new Love , do him Honour by wise and material Glorifications , be united to God by a new Nature , and made alive by a new Birth , and fulfil all Righteousness ; to be humble and meek as Christ , to be merciful as our heavenly Father is , to be pure as God is pure , to be partakers of the Divine Nature , to be wholly renewed in the frame and temper of our mind , to become people of a new heart , a direct new Creation , new Principles , and a new being , to do better than all the world before us ever did , to love God more perfectly , to despise the World more generously , to contend for the Faith more earnestly ; for all this is but a proper and a just consequent of the great Promises which our Blessed Law-giver came to publish and effect for all the world of Believers and Disciples . The matter which is here requir'd is certainly very great ; for it is to be more righteous than the Scribes and Pharisees ; more holy than the Doctors of the Law , than the Leaders of the Synagogue , than the wise Princes of the Sanhedrim ; more righteous than some that were Prophets and High Priests , than some that kept the Ordinances of the Law without blame ; men that lay in Sackcloth , and fasted much , and prayed more , and made Religion and the Study of the Law the work of their lives : This was very much ; but Christians must do more . Nuncte marmoreum pro tempore fecimus ; at tu , Si foetura gregem suppleverit , aureus esto . They did well , and we must do better ; their houses were Marble , but our roofs must be gilded and fuller of Glory . * But as the matter is very great , so the necessity of it is the greatest in the world . It must be so , or it will be much worse : unless it be thus , we shall never see the glorious Face of God. Here it concerns us to be wise and fearful ; for the matter is not a question of an Oaken Garland , or a Circle of Bays , and a Yellow Ribband : it is not a question of Money or Land , nor of the vainer rewards of popular noises , and the undiscerning Suffrages of the people , who are contingent Judges of good and evil : but it is the great stake of Life Eternal . We cannot be Christians , unless we be righteous by the new measures : the Righteousness of the Kingdom is now the only way to enter into it ; for the Sentence is fix'd , and the Judgment is decretory , and the Judge infallible , and the Decree irreversible : For I say unto you , said Christ , unless your Righteousness exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees , ye shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven . Here then we have two things to consider . 1. What was the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees . 2. How far that is to be exceeded by the Righteousness of Christians . 1. Concerning the first . I will not be so nice in the Observation of these words , as to take notice that Christ does not name the Sadduces , but the Scribes and Pharisees , though there may be something in it : the Sadduces were called Caraim from Cara , to read ; for they thought it Religion to spend one third part of their day in reading their Scriptures , whose fulness they so admired , they would admit of no suppletory Traditions : But the Pharisees were called Thanaim , that is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they added to the Word of God words of their own , as the Church of Rome does at this day ; they and these fell into an equal fate ; while they taught for Doctrines the Commandments of men , they prevaricated the Righteousuess of God : What the Church of Rome to evil purposes hath done in this particular , may be demonstrated in due time and place ; but what false and corrupt glosses , under the specious Title of the Tradition of their Fathers , the Pharisees had introduc'd , our Blessed Saviour reproves ; and are now to be represented as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that you may see that Righteousness beyond which all they must go that intend that Heaven should be their Journeys end . 1. The Pharisees obeyed the Commandments in the Letter , not in the Spirit : They minded what God spake , but not what he intended . They were busie in the outward work of the hand , but incurious of the affections and choice of the heart . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Justin Martyr to Tryphon the Jew , Ye understand all things carnally 3 that is , they rested 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Nazianzen calls it , in the outward work of Piety , which not only Justin Martyr , but St. Paul calls Carnality , not meaning a carnal Appetite , but a carnal Service . Their errour was plainly this ; they never distinguish'd Duties natural from Duties relative ; that is , whether it were commanded for it self , or in order to something that was better ; whether it were a principal Grace , or an instrumental Action : So God was served in the Letter , they did not much inquire into his Purpose : And therefore they were curious to wash their hands , but cared not to purifie the hearts ; They would give Alms , but hate him that received it ; They would go to the Temple , but did not revere the Glory of God that dwelt there between the Cherubins ; They would fast , but not mortifie their Lusts ; They would say good Prayers , but not labour for the Grace they prayed for . This was just as if a man should run on his Masters errand , and do no business when he came there . They might easily have thought that by the Soul only a man approaches to God , and draws the Body after it ; but that no washing or corporal Services could unite them and the Shechina together , no such thing could make them like to God , who is the Prince of Spirits . * They did as the Dunces in Pythagoras School , who when their Master had said , Fabis abstineto , by which he intended they should not ambitiously seek for Magistracy , they thought themselves good Pythagoreans if they did not eat Beans , and they would be sure to put their Right foot first into the shooe , and their Left foot into the water , and supposed they had done enough ; though if they had not been Fools they would have understood their Masters meaning to have been , that they should put more affections to labour and travel , and less to their pleasure and recreation ; and so it was with the Pharisee : For as the Chaldees taught their Mora●●●y by mystick words , and the Aegyptians by Hieroglyphicks , and the Greeks by Fables ; so did God by Rites and Ceremonies external , leading them by the Hand to the Purities of the Heart , and by the Services of the Body to the Obedience of the Spirit ; which because they would not understand , they thought they had done enough in the observation of the Letter . 2. In moral Duties , where God express'd Himself more plainly , they made no Commentary of kindness ; but regarded the Prohibition so nakedly , and divested of all Antecedents , Consequents , Similitudes , and Proportions , that if they stood clear of that hated name which was set down in Moses Tables , they gave themselves liberty in many instances of the same kindred and alliance : If they abstained from murder , they thought it very well , though they made no scruple of murdering their Brothers Fame ; they would not cut his throat , but they would call him Fool , or invent lies in secret , and publish his disgrace openly ; they would not dash out his brains , but they would be extremely and unreasonably angry with him ; they would not steal their brothers money , but they would oppress him in crafty and cruel bargains . The Commandment forbade them to commit Adultery , but because Fornication was not named , they made no scruple of that ; and being commanded to Honour their Father and their Mother , they would give them good words and fair observances ; but because it was not named that they should maintain them in their need , they thought they did well enough to pretend Corban , and let their Father starve . 3. The Scribes and Pharisees placed their Righteousness in Negatives ; they would not commit what was forbidden , but they car'd but little for the included positive , and the omissions of good Actions did not much trouble them ; they would not hurt their brother in a forbidden instance , but neither would they do him good according to the intention of the Commandment : It was a great innocence if they did not rob the poor , then they were righteous men ; but they thought themselves not much concerned to acquire that god-like excellency , a Philanthropy and love to all mankind : Whosoever blasphem'd God was to be put to death ; but he that did not glorifie God as he ought , they were unconcern'd for him , and let him alone : He that spake against Moses was to die without mercy ; but against the ambitious and the covetous , against the proud man and the unmerciful , they made no provisions . Virtus est vitium fugere , & sapientia prima Stultitiâ caruisse . They accounted themselves good , not for doing good , but for doing no evil ; that was the sum of their Theology . 4. They had one thing more as bad all this : They broke Moses Tables into pieces , and gathering up the fragments took to themselves what part of Duty they pleased , and let the rest alone : For it was a Proverb amongst the Jews , Qui operam dat praecepto , liber est à praecepto ; that is , If he chuses one positive Commandment for his business , he may be less careful in any of the rest . Indeed they said also , Qui multiplicat Legem , multiplicat Vitam ; He that multiplies the Law increa●●s Life ; that is , if he did attend to more good things , it was so much the b●tter ; but the other was well enough : but as for Universal Obedience , that was not the measure of their righteousness ; for they taught that God would put our good works and bad into the balance , and according to the heavier scale give a portion in the world to come ; so that some evil they would allow to themselves and their Disciples , always provided it was less than the good they did . They would devour Widows houses , and make it up by long Prayers : They would love their Nation , and hate their Prince ; offer Sacrifice , and curse Caesar in their heart ; advance Judaism , and destroy Humanity . Lastly , St. Austin summ'd up the difference between the Pharisaical and Evangelical Righteousness in two words ; Brevis differentia inter Legem & Evangelium ; timor & amor . They serv'd the God of their Fathers in the spirit of Fear , and we worship the Father of our Lord Jesus in the Spirit of Love , and by the Spirit of Adoption . And as this slavish Principle of theirs was the cause of all their former Imperfections , so it finally and chiefly express'd it self in these two particulars . 1. They would do all that they thought they lawfully could do . 2. They would do nothing but what was expresly commanded . This was the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees , and their Disciples the Jews ; which because our Blessed Saviour reproves , not only as imperfect then , but as criminal now , calling us on to a new Righteousness , the Righteousness of God , to the Law of the Spirit of Life , to the Kingdom of God and the proper Righteousness thereof , it concerns us in the next place to look after the measures of this , ever remembring that it is infinitely necessary that we should do so ; and men do not generally know , or not consider what it is to be a Christian ; they understand not what the Christian Law forbiddeth or commandeth . But as for this in my Text , it is indeed our great measure : but it is not a question of good and better , but of Good and Evil , Life and Death , Salvation and Damnation ; for unless our Righteousness be weighed by new Weights , we shall be found too light , when God comes to weigh the Actions of all the World : and unless we be more righteous than they , we shall in no wise , that is , upon no other terms in the world , enter into the Kingdom of Heaven . Now concerning this , we shall do very much amiss , if we take our measures by the Manners and Practises of the many who call themselves Christians ; for there are , as Nazianzen expresses it , the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the old and the new Pharisees . I wish it were no worse amongst us ; and that all Christians were indeed Righteous as they were ; est aliquid prodire tenus ; it would not be just nothing . But I am sure that to bid defiance to the Laws of Christ , to laugh at Religion , to make a merriment at the debauchery and damnation of our Brother , is a state of evil worse than that of the Scribes and Pharisees : and yet even among such men how impatient would they be , and how unreasonable would they think you to be , if you should tell them , that there is no present hopes or possibility that in this state they are in they can be saved ! 〈…〉 ●demur nobis esse belluli 〈…〉 , Saperdae cum simus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈…〉 world is too full of Christians whose Righteousness is very little 〈…〉 their Iniquities very great ; and now adays , a Christian is a man 〈…〉 to Church on Sundays , and on the week following will do 〈…〉 things ; 〈◊〉 corvos sequitur , testâque lutoque 〈…〉 quo pes ferat , atque ex tempore vivit , being ●●●ording to the Jewish proverbial reproof , as so many Mephibosheths : discipuli sapientum qui incessu pudefaciunt praeceptorem suum ; their Master teaches them to go uprightly ; but they still show their lame leg , and shame their Master ; as if a man might be a Christian , and yet be the vilest person in the world , doing such things for which the Laws of men have provided smart and shame , and the Laws of God have threatned the intolerable pains of an insufferable and never ending damnation . Example here cannot be our rule unless men were much better , and as long as men live at the rate they do , it will be to little purpose to talk of exceeding the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees : but because it must be much better with us all , or it will be very much worse with us at the latter end , I shall leave complaining and go to the Rule , and describe the necessary and unavoidable measures of the Righteousness Evangelical , without which we can never be saved . 1. Therefore when it is said our Righteousness must exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees , let us first take notice by way of praecognition , that it must at least be so much : we must keep the Letter of the whole Moral Law ; we must do all that lies before us , all that is in our hand : and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifies to be Religious , the Grammarians derive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , from reaching forth the hand : the outward work must be done ; and it is not enough to say , My heart is right , but my hand went aside . Prudentius saith , that St. Peter wept so bitterly , because he did not confess Christ openly , whom he lov'd secretly . Flevit negator denique Ex ore prolapsum nefas , Cum mens maneret innocens , Animusque servârit fidem . A right heart alone will not do it ; or rather the heart is not right when the hand is wrong . If a man strikes his Neighbor , and sayes , Am not I in jest ? It is folly and shame to him , said Solomon . For , once for all ; Let us remember this , that Christianity is the most profitable , the most useful , and the most bountiful institution in the whole world , and the best definition I can give of it is this ; It is the Wisdom of God brought down among us to do good to men ; and therefore we must not do less than the Pharisees , who did the outward work ; at least let us be sure to do all the work that is laid before us in the Commandments . And it is strange that this should be needful to be press'd amongst Christians whose Religion requires so very much more . But so it is , upon a pretence that we must serve God with the mind , some are such fools as to think that it is enough to have a good meaning . Iniquum perpol verbum est , bene vult , nis● qui bene facit . And because we must serve God in the Spirit , therefore they will not serve God with their Bodies ; and because they are called upon to have the power and the life of Godliness , they abominate all external works as mere forms ; and 〈◊〉 the true fast is to abstain from Sin , therefore they will not abstain 〈◊〉 meat and drink , even when they are commanded ; which is 〈◊〉 if a Pharisee being taught the Circumcision of the heart shou●● 〈◊〉 to Circumcise his Flesh ; and as if a Christian , being instructed in the Excellencies of Spiritual Communion , should wholly neglect 〈◊〉 Sacramental ; that is , because the Soul is the life of man , therefore 〈◊〉 fitting to die in a humour , and lay aside the Body . * This is a taking away the Subject of the Question ; for our inquiry is , How we should keep the Commandments ; how we are to do the work that lyes before us , by what Principles , with what Intention , in what Degrees , after what manner , ut bonum bene fiat , that the good thing be done well . This therefore must be presupposed ; we must take care that even our Bodies bear a part in our Spiritual Services . Our voice and tongue , our hands and our Feet , and our very bowels must be servants of God , and do the work of the Commandments . This being ever supposed , our Question is , how much more we must do ; and the first measure is this ; Whatsoever can be signified and ministred to by the Body , the Heart and the Spirit of a man must be the principal Actor . We must not give Alms without a charitable Soul , nor suffer Martyrdom but in Love and in Obedience ; and when we say our Prayers , we do but mispend our time unless our mind ascend up to God upon the wings of desire . Desire is the life of prayer ; and if you indeed desire what you pray for , you will also labour for what you desire ; and if you find it otherwise with your selves , your coming to Church is but like the Pharisees going up to the Temple to pray . If your heart be not present , neither will God ; and then there is a sound of men and women between a pair of dead walls , from whence because neither God nor your Souls are present , you must needs go home without a Blessing . But this measure of Evangelical Righteousness is of principal remark in all the rites and solemnities of Religion ; and intends to say this , that Christian Religion is something that is not seen , it is the hidden man of the heart ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it is God that dwels within ; and true Christians are men , who , as the Chaldee Oracle said , are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , clothed with a great deal of mind . And therefore those words of the Prophet Hosea , Et loquar ad cor ejus , I will speak unto their heart ; is a proverbial expression , signifying to speak spiritual comforts , and in the mystical sence signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to preach the Gospel ; where the Spirit is the Preacher , and the Heart is the Disciple , and the Sermon is of Righteousness and Peace , and Joy in the Holy Ghost . Our Service to God must not be in outward works and Scenes of Religion , it must be something by which we become like to God ; the Divine Prerogative must extend beyond the outward man ; nay , even beyond the mortification of Corporal vices ; the Spirit of God must go in trabis crassitudinem , and mollify all our secret pride , and ingenerate in us a true humility , and a Christian meekness of Spirit , and a Divine Charity . For in the Gospel , when God enjoyns any external Rite or Ceremony , the outward work is always the less principal . For there is a bodily and a carnal part , an outside and a Cabinet of Religion in Christianity it self . When we are baptized , the purpose of God is that we cleanse our selves from all pollution of the Flesh and Spirit , and then we are indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , clean all over . And when we communicate , the Commandment means that we should be made one Spirit with Christ , and should live on him , believing his Word , praying for his Spirit , supported with his Hope , refreshed by his Promises , recreated by his Comforts , and wholly and in all things conformable to his Life ; that is the true Communion . The Sacraments are not made for Sinners until they do repent ; they are the food of our Souls , but our Souls must be alive unto God , or else they cannot eat ; It is good to confess our sins , as St. James sayes , and to open our wounds to the Ministers of Religion , but they absolve none but such as are are truly penitent . Solemn Prayers , and the Sacraments , and the Assemblies of the Faithful , and fasting days , and acts of external worship , are the solemnities and rites of Religion ; but the Religion of a Christian is in the Heart and Spirit . And this is that by which Clemens Alexandrinus defined the Righteousness of a Christian , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : all the parts and faculties that make up a man , must make up our Religion ; but the heart is Domus principalis , it is the Court of the great King ; and he is properly served with interior graces and moral Vertues , with a humble and a good mind , with a bountiful heart , and a willing Soul , and these will command the eye , and give laws to the hand , and make the shoulders stoop ; but anima cujusque est quisque ; a mans soul is the man , and so is his Religion ; and so you are bound to understand it . True it is , God works in us his Graces by the Sacrament ; but we must dispose our selves to a reception of the Divine blessing by Moral instruments . The Soul is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it must work together with God , and the body works together with the soul : But no external action can purifie the soul , because its Nature and Operations being Spiritual it can no more be changed by a Ceremony or an external Solemnity , than an Angel can be caressed with sweet Meats , or a a Mans belly can be filled with Musick or long Orations . The sum is this : No Christian does his Duty to God but he that serves him with all his heart : And although it becomes us to fulfil all righteousness , even the external also ; yet that which makes us gracious in his Eyes is not the external , it is the love of the heart and the real change of the mind and obedience of the spirit ; that 's the first great measure of the Righteousness Evangelical . 2. The Righteousness Evangelical must exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees by extension of our Obedience to things of the same signification ; Leges non ex verbis , sed ex mente intelligendas , sayes the Law. There must be a Commentary of kindness in the understanding the Laws of Christ. We must understand all Gods meaning ; we must secure his service , we must be far removed from the dangers of his displeasure . And therefore our Righteousness must be the purification and the perfection of the Spirit . So that it will be nothing for us not to commit Adultery , unless our Eyes and Hands be chast , and the desires be clean . A Christian must not look upon a woman to lust after her . He must hate Sin in all dimensions , and in all distances , and in every angle of its reception . A Christian must not sin , and he must not be willing to sin if he durst . He must not be lustful , and therefore he must not feed high , nor drink deep , for these make provisions for lust : and amongst Christians , great eatings and drinkings are acts of uncleanness as well as of intemperance , and whatever ministers to sin , and is the way of it ; partakes of its nature and its curse . For it is remarkable that in good and evil the case is greatly different . Mortification ( e. g ) is a duty of Christianity ; but there is no Law concerning the Instruments of it . We are not commanded to roll our selves on thorns , as St. Benedict did ; or to burn our flesh , like St. Martinian ; or to tumble in Snows with St. Francis ; or in pools of water with St. Bernard . A man may chew Aloes , or ly upon the ground , or wear sackcloth if he have a mind to it , and if he finds it good in his circumstances and to his purposes of mortification ; but it may be he may do it alone by the Instrumentalities of Fear and Love ; and so the thing be done , no special Instrument is under a command . * But although the Instruments of vertue are free , yet the Instruments and ministeries of vice are not . Not only the sin is forbidden , but all the wayes that lead to it . The Instruments of vertue are of themselves indifferent , that is , not naturally , but good only for their relation sake , and in order to their end . But the Instruments of vice are of themselves vitious ; they are part of the sin , they have a share in the phantastick pleasure , and they begin to estrange a mans heart from God , and are directly in the prohibition . For we are commanded to fly from temptation , to pray against it , to abstain from all appearances of evil , to make a covenant with our eyes , to pluck them out if there be need . And if Christians do not understand the Commandments to this extension of signification , they will be innocent only by the measures of humane Laws , but not by the righteousness of God. 3. Of the same consideration it is also that we understand Christs Commandments to extend our Duty , not only to what is named , and what is not named of the same nature and design ; but that we abstain from all such things as are like to sins . * Of this nature there are many . All violences of Passion , Irregularities in Gaming , Prodigality of our time , Undecency of action , doing things unworthy of our Birth or our Profession , aptness to go to Law ; Ambitus , or a fierce prosecution even of honourable employments ; misconstruction of the words and actions of our brother ; easiness to believe evil of others , willingness to report the evil which we hear ; curiosity of Dyet , peevishness toward servants , indiscreet and importune standing for place , and all excess in ornaments ; for even this little instance is directly prohibited by the Christian and Royal Law of Charity . For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith S. Paul ; the word is a word hard to be understood ; we render it well enough ; Charity vaunteth not it self ; and upon this S. Basil says , that an Ecclesiastick person ( and so every Christian in his proportion ) ought not to go in splendid and vain Ornaments ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : Every thing that is not wisely useful or proportioned to the state of the Christian , but ministers only to vanity , is a part of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it is a vaunting , which the Charity and the Grace of a Christian does not well endure . * These things are like to sins , they are of a suspicious nature , and not easily to be reconcil'd to the Righteousness Evangelical . It is no wonder if Christianity be nice and curious ; it is the cleanness and the purification of the Soul , and Christ intends to present his Church to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , without spot or wrinkle , or any such thing . N. B. or any such thing . If there be any irregularity that is less than a wrinkle , the Evangelical Righteousness does not allow it . * These are such things which if men will stand to defend , possibly a modest Reprover be more ashamed than an impudent Offender . * If I see a person apt to quarrel , to take every thing in an ill sence , to resent an error deeply , to reprove it bitterly , to remember it tenaciously , to repeat it frequently , to upbraid it unhandsomly , I think I have great reason to say , that this person does not do what becomes the sweetness of a Christian Spirit . If it be replied , It is no where forbidden to chide an offending person , and that it cannot be a fault to understand when a thing is said or done amiss . I cannot return an answer , but by saying , That suppose nothing of it were a sin , yet that every thing of it is so like a sin , that it is the worse for it ; and that it were better not to do so ; at least I think so , and so ought you too , if you be curious of your eternal interest : a little more tenderness here would do well . I cannot say that this dress , or this garment , or this standing for place is the direct sin of pride ; but I am sure it looks like it in some persons ; at least the letting it alone is much better , and is very like humility . And certain it is , that he is dull of hearing who understands not the voice of God , unless it be clamorous in an express and a loud Commandment , proclaimed with Trumpets and Clarions upon mount Sinai ; but a willing and an obedient ear understands the still voice of Christ , and is ready to obey his meaning at half a word ; and that is the Righteousness Evangelical . It not only abstains from sins named , and sins implied , but from the beginnings and instruments of sin ; and from whatsoever is like it . The Jews were so great haters of Swine upon pretensions of the Mosacik rites , that they would not so much as name a Swine , but called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Daber Acher , another thing . And thus the Romans in their Auguries us'd alterum for non bonum . The simile of this St. Paul translates to a Christian duty . Let not fornication be so much as named amongst you , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as is comely amongst Christians , that is , come not neer a foul thing ; speak not of it , let it be wholly banished from all your conversation ; for this niceness and curiosity of duty becometh Saints , and is an instance of the Righteousness Evangelical . I have now done with the first sort of measures of the Christian Righteousness ; these which are the matter of our negative duty ; these are the measures of our caution and our first innocence . But there are greater things behind , which although I must croud up into a narrow room , yet I must not wholly omit them : therefore , 4. The fourth thing I shall note to you is , that whereas the righteousness of the Pharisees was but a fragment of the broken Tables of Moses ; the pursuance of some one Grace , laoinia sanctitatis , a piece of the robe of Righteousness ; the Righteousness Evangelical must be like Christs seamless Coat , all of a piece from the top to the bottom ; it must invest the whole Soul : Misma , Dumah , Massah , said the Proverb of the Rabbins , It is this , and it is the other , and it must be all , it must be an Universal Righteousness ; not a little knot of holy actions scattered in our lives , and drawn into a sum at the day of Judgment , but it must be a state of holiness . It was said of the Paphlagonian Pigeons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , every one of them had two hearts ; but that in our mystical Theology signifies a wicked man. So said Solomon , The perverse or wicked man , derachaim , he is a man of two wayes ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so St. James expresses an unbeliever ; a man that will and will not ; something he does for God , and something for the world ; he hath two minds , and in a good fit , in his well dayes he is full of Repentance , and overflows in piety ; but the Paroxism will return in the day of temptation , and then he is gone infallibly . But know this , that in the Righteousness Evangelical , one duty cannot be exchanged for another , and three vertues will not make amends for one remaining vice . He that oppresses the poor , cannot make amends by giving good Counsel ; and if a Priest be Simonaical , he cannot be esteemed righteous before God by preaching well , and taking care of his Charge . To be zealous for God and for Religion is good , but that will not legitimate cruelty to our Brother . It is not enough for a man to be a good Citizen , unless he be also a good man ; but some men build their houses with half a dozen cross sticks , and turfe is the foundation , and straw is the covering , and they think they dwell securely ; their Religion is made up of two or three vertues , and they think to commute with God , some good for some bad , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as if one deadly wound were not enough to destroy the most healthful constitution in the world . Deceive not your selves . It is all one on which hand we fall : — Vnum operantur Et calor & frigus , sic hoc , sic illud adurit ; Sic tenebrae visum , sic sol contrarius aufert . The Moon may burn us by night as well as the Sun by day : and a man may be made blind by the light of the Sun as well as by the darkness of the evening , and any one great mischief is enough to destroy one man. Some men are very meek and gentle naturally , and that they serve God withal ; they pursue the vertue of their nature : that is , they tye a stone at the bottom of the well , and that 's more than needs ; the stone will stay there without that trouble ; and this good inclination will of it self easily proceed to issue ; and therefore our care and caution should be more carefully employed in mortification of our natures , and acquist of such vertues to which we are more refractory , and then cherish the other too , even as much as we please : but at the same time we are busie in this , it may be we are secret Adulterers , and that will spoil our confidences in the goodness of the other instance : others are greatly bountiful to the poor , and love all mankind , and hurt no body but themselves ; but it is a thousand pities to see such loving good natured persons to perish infinitely by one crime , and to see such excellent good things thrown away to please an uncontrolled and a stubborn lust ; but so do some escape out of a pit , and are taken in a trap at their going forth ; and stepping aside to avoid the hoar Frost , fall into a Valley full of Snow . The Righteousness Evangelical is another kind of thing : it is a holy Conversation , a God-like life , an Universal Obedience , a keeping nothing back from God , a Sanctification of the whole man , and keeps not the Body only , but the Soul and the Spirit unblamable to the coming of the Lord Jesus . 5. And lastly ; The Pharisaical Righteousness was the product of fear , and therefore what they must needs do , that they would do ; but no more : But the Righteousness Evangelical is produced by Love , it is managed by Choice , and cherished by Delight and fair Experiences . Christians are a willing people ; homines bonae voluntatis , men of good will ; arbores Domini . So they are mystically represented in Scripture ; the Trees of the Lord are full of Sap : among the Hebrews the Trees of the Lord did signifie such trees as grew of themselves , and all that are of Gods planting , are such as have a vital principal within , and grow without constraint . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , one said it of Christians ; they obey the Laws , and by the goodness of their lives exceed the Laws ; and certain it is , no man hath the Righteousness Evangelical if he resolves alwayes to take all his liberty in every thing that is meerly lawful ; or if he purpose to do no more than he must needs , that is , no more than he is just commanded . For the Reasons are plain . 1. The Christian that resolves to do every thing that is Lawful , will many times run into danger and inconvenience ; because the utmost extremity of Lawful is so near to that which is Unlawful , that he will often pass into Unlawful undiscernably . Vertues and Vices have not in all their instances a great Land-mark set between them , like warlike Nations separate by prodigious Walls , vast Seas , and portentous Hills ; but they are oftentimes like the bounds of a Parish ; men are fain to cut a cross upon the turf , and make little marks and annual perambulations for memorials : so it is in Lawful and Unlawful , by a little mistake a man may be greatly ruined . He that drinks till his tongue is full as a spunge , and his speech a little stammering and tripping , hasty and disorderly , though he be not gone as far as drunkenness , yet he is gone beyond the severity of a Christian ; and when he is just past into Unlawful , if he disputes too curiously he will certainly deceive himself for want of a wiser curiosity . But 2. He that will do all that he thinks he may lawfully , had need have an infallible guide always by him , who should without error be able to answer all cases of Conscience , which will happen every day in a life so careless and insecure ; for if he should be mistaken , his error is his crime , and not his excuse . A man in this case had need be very sure of his Proposition ; which because he cannot be , in charity to himself he will quickly find that he is bound to abstain from all things that are uncertainly good , and from all disputable evils , from things which although they may be in themselves lawful , yet accidentally , and that from a thousand causes may become unlawful . Pavidus quippe & formidolosus est Christianus , saith Salvian , — atque in tantum peccare metuens , ut interdum & non timenda formidet . A Christian is afraid of every little thing : and he sometimes greatly fea● that he hath sinned , even then when he hath no other reason to be afraid , but because he would not do so for all the world . 3. He that resolves to use all his liberty cannot be innocent , so long as there are in the world so many bold temptations , and presumptuous actions , so many scandals , and so much ignorance in the things of God , so many things that are suspicious , and so many things that are of evil report ; so many ill customs and disguises in the world , with which if we resolve to comply in all that is supposed lawful , a man may be in the regions of death , before he perceive his head to ake ; and instead of a staff in his hand , may have a splinter in his Elbow . 4. Besides all this ; he that thus stands on his terms with God , and so carefully husbands his duty , and thinks to make so good a market of obedience , that he will quit nothing which he thinks he may lawfully keep , shall never be exemplar in his life , and shall never grow in grace , and therefore shall never enter into glory . He therefore that will be righteous by the measures Evangelical , must consider not only what is lawful , but what is expedient ; not only what is barely safe , but what is worthy , that which may secure , and that which may do advantage to that concern that is the greatest in the world . And 2. The case is very like with them that resolve to do no more good than is commanded them . For 1. It is infinitely unprofitable as to our eternal interest , because no man does do all that is commanded at all times ; and therefore he that will not sometimes do more , besides that he hath no love , no zeal of duty , no holy fires in his soul ; besides this , I say , he can never make any amends towards the reparation of his Conscience . Let him that stole steal no more ; that 's well ; but that 's not well enough , for he must , if he can , make restitution of what he stole , or he shall never be pardoned ; and so it is in all our entercourse with God. To do what is commanded is the duty of the present ; we are tyed to this in every present , in every period of our lives ; but therefore if we never do any more than just the present duty , who shall supply the dificiencies , and fill up the gaps , and redeem what is past ? This is a material consideration in the Righteousness Evangelical . But then 2. We must know that in keeping of Gods Commandments every degree of internal duty is under the Commandments ; and therefore whatever we do , we must do it is as well as we can . Now he that does his Duty with the biggest affection he can , will also do all that he can ; and he can never know that he hath done what is commanded , unless he does all that is in his power . For God hath put no limit but love and possibility , and therefore whoever says , Hither will I go and no further , This I will do and no more , Thus much will I serve God , but that shall be all ; he hath the affections of a Slave , and the religion of a Pharisee , the craft of a Merchant , and the falseness of a Broker ; but he hath not the proper measures of the Righteousness Evangelical . But so it happens in the mud and slime of the River Borborus , when the eye of the Sun hath long dwelt upon it , and produces Frogs and Mice which begin to move a little under a thin cover of its own parental matter , and if they can get loose to live half a life , that is all ; but the hinder parts , which are not formed before the setting of the Sun , stick fast in their beds of mud , and the little moyety of a creature dies before it could be well said to live : so it is with those Christians , who will do all that they think lawful , and will do no more than what they suppose necessary ; they do but peep into the light of the Sun of righteousness ; they have the beginnings of life ; but their hinder parts , their passions and affections , and the desires of the lower man are still unformed ; and he that dwells in this state is just so much of a Christian as a Spunge is of a plant , and a mushrom of a shrub : they may be as sensible as an oyster , and discourse at the rate of a child , but are greatly short of the Righteousness Evangelical . I have now done with those parts of the Christian Righteousness , which were not only an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or excess , but an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Pharisaical : but because I ought not to conceal any thing from you that must integrate our duty , and secure our title to the Kingdom of Heaven ; there is this to be added , that this precept of our blessed Saviour is to be extended to the direct degrees of our duty . We must do more duties , and we must do them better . And in this , although we can have no positive measures , because they are potentially infinite , yet therefore we ought to take the best , because we are sure the greatest is not too big ; and we are not sure that God will accept a worse , when we can do a better . Now although this is to be understood of the internal affection only ; because that must never be abated , but God is at all times to be loved and served with all our heart , yet concerning the degrees of external duty , as Prayers , and Alms , and the like , we are certainly tyed to a greater excellency in the degree , than was that of the Scribes and Pharisees . I am obliged to speak one word for the determination of this inquiry , viz. to how much more of external duty Christians are obliged , than was in the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees . In order to this , briefly thus . I remember that Salvian speaking of old men summing up their Repentances , and making amends for the sins of their whole life , exhorts them to Alms and works of Piety . But inquiring how much they should do towards the redeeming of their Souls , answers with a little Sarcasm , but plainly enough to give a wise man an answer . A man , sayes he , is not bound to give away all his goods , unless peradventure he owes all to God ; but in that case I cannot tell what to say ; for then the case is altered . A man is not bound to part with all his estate ; that is , unless his sins be greater than his estate ; but if they be , then he may consider of it again , and consider better . And he need not part with it all , unless pardon be more precious to him than his money , and unless Heaven be worth it all , and unless he knows justly how much less will do it . If he does let him try his skill , and pay just so much and no more than he owes to God : but if he does not know , let him be sure to do enough . His meaning is this : Not that a man is bound to give all he hath , and leave his children beggars ; he is bound from that by another obligation . But as when we are tyed to pray continually , the meaning is , we should consecrate all our time by taking good portions out of all our time for that duty ; the devoutest person being like the waters of Siloam , a perpetual Spring , but not a perpetual Current ; that is alwayes in readiness , but actually thrusting forth his waters at certain periods every day . So out of all our estate we must take for Religion and Repentance such portions as the whole estate can allow ; so much as will consecrate the rest ; so much as is fit to bring when we pray for a great pardon , and deprecate a mighty anger , and turn aside an intolerable fear , and will purchase an excellent peace , and will reconcile a sinner . Now in this case a Christian is to take his measures according to the rate of his contrition and his love , his Religion and his fear , his danger and his expectation , and let him measure his amends wisely ; his sorrow pouring in , and his fear thrusting it down , and it were very well , if his love also would make it run over . For deceive not your selves , there is no other measure but this ; So much good as a man does , or so much as he would do , if he could , so much of Religion and so much of repentance he hath , and no more : and a man cannot ordinarily know that he is in a saveable condition , but by the Testimony which a Divine Philanthropy and a good mind alwaies gives , which is to omit no opportunity of doing good in our several proportions and possibilities . There was an Alms which the Scribes and Pharisees were obliged by the Law to give , the tenth of every third years encrease ; this they alwayes paid , and this sort of Alms is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Righteousness or Justice , but the Alms which Christians ought to give is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it is grace , and it is love , and it is abundance , and so the old Rabbins told : Justitia propriè dicitur in iis quae jure facimus ; benignitas in iis quae praeter jus . It is more than righteousness , it is bounty and benignity , for that 's the Christian measure . And so it is in the other parts and instances of the Righteousness Evangelical . And therefore it is remarkable that the Saints in the Old Testament were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , right men , and the Book of Genesis , as we find it twice attested by S. Hierome , was called by the Ancient Hellenists , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Book of right or just men , the Book of Abraham , Isaac , and Jacob. But the word for Christians is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , good men , harmless , and profitable . Men that are good , and men that do good . In pursuance of which it is further observed by learned men , that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or vertue , is not in the four Gospels ; for the actions of Christs Disciples should not be in gradu virtutis only , vertuous and laudable , such as these Aristotle presses in his Magna Moralia ; they must pass on to a further excellency than so : the same which he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; they must be sometimes , and as often as we can in gradu heroico , or , that I may use the Christian style , they must be actions of perfection . Righteousness was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Alms in the Old Testament , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or perfection was the word for Alms in the New ; as appears by comparing the fifth of St. Matthew , and the sixth of S. Luke together ; and that is the full state of this difference in the inquiries of the Righteousness Pharisaical and Evangelical . I have many more things to say , but ye cannot hear them now , because the time is past . One thing indeed were fit to be spoken of , if I had any time left ; but I can only name it , and desire your consideration to make it up . This great Rule that Christ gives us , does also , and that principally too , concern Churches and Common-wealths , as well as every single Christian. Christian Parliaments must exceed the Religion and Government of the Sanhedrim . Your Laws must be more holy , the condition of the Subjects be made more tolerable , the Laws of Christ must be strictly enforced , you must not suffer your great Master to be dishonoured , nor his Religion dismembred by Sects , or disgraced by impiety : you must give no impunity to vitious persons , and you must take care that no great example be greatly corrupted ; you must make better provisions for your poor than they did , and take more care even of the external advantages of Christs Religion and his Ministers , than they did of the Priests and Levites ; that is , in all things you must be more zealous to promote the Kingdom of Christ , than they were for the Ministeries of Moses . The sum of all is this ; The Righteousness Evangelical is the same with that which the Ancients called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to live an Apostolical life , that was the measure of Christians , the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , men that desired to please God ; that is , as Apostolius most admirably describes it , men who are curious of their very eyes , temperate in their tongue , of a mortified body , and a humble spirit , pure in their intentions , masters of their passions . Men who when they are injured return honourable words ; when they are lessened in their estates , increase in their Charity ; when they are abused , they yet are courteous & give intreaties ; when they are hated , they pay love ; men that are dull in contentions , and quick in loving kindnesses , swift as the feet of Asahel , and ready as the Chariots of Amminadib . True Christians are such as are crucified with Christ , and dead unto all sin ; and finally place their whole love on God , and for his sake upon all mankind this is the description of a Christian , and the true state of the Righteousness Evangelical ; so that it was well said of Athenagoras , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , no Christian is a wicked man , unless his life be a continual lie , unless he be false to God and his Religion . For the Righteousness of the Gospel is in short , nothing else but a transcript of the life of Christ ; De matthana nahaliel ; de nahaliel Bamoth , said R. Joshua ; Christ is the image of God , and every Christian is the image of Christ , whose example is imitable , but it is the best , and his laws are the most perfect , but the most easie , and the promises by which he invites our greater services are most excellent , but most true ; and the rewards shall be hereafter , but they shall abide for ever , and ( that I may take notice of the last words of my Text ) the threatnings to them that fall short of this Righteousness are most terrible , but most certainly shall come to pass ; they shall never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven ; that is , their portion shall be shame and an eternal Prison , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a flood of brimstone , and a cohabitation with Devils to eternal ages : and if this consideration will not prevail , there is no place left for perswasion , and there is no use of reason ; and the greatest hopes and the greatest fears can be no argument or sanction of laws ; and the greatest good in the world is not considerable , and the greatest evil is not formidable ; but if they be , there is no more to be said ; if you would have your portion with Christ , you must be righteous by his measures ; and these are they that I have told you . THE Christians Conquest Over the BODIE of SIN : SERM. II. ROM . VII . 19. For the good that I would , I do not : but the evil which I would not , that I do . WHat the Eunuch said to Philip , when he read the Book of the Prophet Isaiah ; Of whom speaketh the Prophet this , of himself , or some other man ? The same question I am to ask concerning the words of my Text : Does S. Paul mean this of himself , or of some other ? It is hoped that he speaks it of himself ; and means that though his understanding is convinced that he ought to serve God ; and that he hath some unperfect desires to do so ; yet the Law of God without is opposed by a Law of Sin within . We have a corrupted nature , and a body of infirmity , and our reason dwells in the dark , and we must go out of the world before we leave our sin . For besides that some sins are esteemed brave and honourable , and he is a baffled person that dares not kill his Brother like a Gentleman ; our very Tables are made a snare , and our civilities are direct treasons to the soul. You cannot entertain your friend but excess is the measure ; and that you may be very kind to your Guest , you step aside and lay away the Christian ; your love cannot be expressed unless you do him an ill turn , and civilly invite him to a Fever . Justice is too often taught to bow to great interests , and men cannot live without flattery ; and there are some Trades that minister to sin , so that without a sin we cannot maintain our Families ; and if you mean to live , you must do as others do . Now so long as men see they are like to be undone by innocence , and that they can no way live but by compliance with the evil customs of the world , men conclude practically , because they must live they must sin ; they must live handsomly , and therefore must do some things unhandsomely , and so upon the whole matter sin is unavoidable . Fain they would , but cannot tell how to help it . But since it is no better , it is well it is no worse . For it is S. Paul's case , no worse man ; he would and he would not , he did and he did not ; he was willing , but he was not able ; and therefore the case is clear , that if a man strives against sin , and falls unwillingly , it shall not be imputed to him ; he may be a regenerate man for all that . A man must indeed wrangle against sin when it comes , and like a peevish lover resist and consent at the same time , and then all is well ; for this not only consists with , but is a sign of the state of Regeneration . If this be true , God will be very ill served . If it be not true , most men will have but small hopes of being saved , because this is the condition of most men . What then is to be done ? Truth can do us no hurt , and therefore be willing to let this matter pass under examination ; for if it trouble us now , it will bring comfort hereafter . And therefore before I enter into the main enquiry , I shall by describing the state of the man of whom S. Paul speaks here , tell you plainly , who it is that is in this state of sad things , and then do ye make your resolutions according as you shall find it necessary for the saving of your souls ; which I am sure ought to be the end of all preaching . 1. The man S. Paul speaks of is one that is dead , v. 9. one that was deceived and slain , v. 11. one in whom sin was exceeding sinful , v. 13. that is , highly imputed , greatly malicious , infinitely destructive : he is one who is carnal , and sold under sin , v. 14. he is one that sins against his conscience and his reason , v. 16. he is one in whom sin dwells , but the Spirit of God does not dwell ; for no good thing dwells in him , v. 18. he is one who is brought into captivity to the law of sin , he is a servant of uncleanness , with his flesh and members serving the law of sin , v. 25. Now if this be a state of Regeneration , I wonder what is , or can be a state of Reprobation ! for though this be the state of Nature , yet it cannot be the state of one redeemed by the Spirit of Christ ; and therefore flatter not your selves any more , that it is enough for you to have good desires , and bad performances : never think that any sin can reign in you , and yet you be servants of God : that sin can dwell in you , and at the same time the Spirit of God can dwell in you too ; or that life and death can abide together . The sum of affairs is this . If ye live after the flesh , ye shall dye ; but if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body , ye shall live , but not else upon any terms whatsoever . My Text is one of the hard places of S. Paul ; which , as S. Peter says , the ignorant and the unstable wrest to their own damnation . But because in this case the danger is so imminent , and the deception would be so intolerable , S. Paul immediately after this Chapter ( in which under his own person , as was usual with him to do , he describes the state of a natural man advanced no further than Moses Law , and not redeemed by the blood of Christ , or inlightned by the Spirit of God , and taught by the wiser Lessons and Sermons of the Gospel ) immediately spends the next Chapter in opposing the Evangelical state to the Legal , the Spiritual to the Carnal , the Christian to the Natural ; and tells us plainly , he that is redeemed by the blood of Christ , is redeemed from the power of sin : he that is Christs freed man , is not a slave of sin , not captive to the Devil at his will : he that is in the flesh cannot please God , but every servant of Christ is freed from sin , and is a servant of righteousness , and redeemed from all his vain conversation : for this is the end of Christs coming , and cannot be in vain unless we make it so . He came to bless us by turning every one of us from our iniquities . Now concerning this , besides the evidence of the thing it self , that S. Paul does not speak these words of himself , but by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , under his own borrowed person he describes the state of a carnal , unredeemed , unregenerate person , is expresly affirmed by S. Irenaeus and Origen , by Tertullian and S. Basil , by Theodoret and S. Chrysostom , by S. Jerom , and sometimes by S. Austin , by S. Ambrose , and S. Cyril , by Macarius and Theophylact ; and is indeed that true sense and meaning of these words of S. Paul , which words none can abuse or misunderstand , but to the great prejudice of a holy life , and the Patronage of all iniquity . But for the stating of this great case of Conscience , I shall first in short describe to you what are the proper causes which place men , and keep them in this state of a necessity of sinning ; and 2. I shall prove the absolute necessity of coming out of this condition , and quitting all our sin . 3. In what degree this is to be affected . 4. By what Instruments this is to be done ; and all these being practical , will of themselves be sufficient use to the Doctrines , and need no other applicatory but a plain exhortation . 1. What are the causes of this evil , by which we are first placed , and so long kept in a necessity of sinning , so that we cannot do what good we would , nor avoid the evil that we hate ? The first is the evil state of our Nature . And indeed he that considers the daily experiment of his own weak Nature , the ignorance and inconstancy of his soul , being like a sick mans legs , or the knees of Infants , reeling and unstable by disease or by infirmity , and the perpetual leaven and germinations , the thrustings forth , and swelling of his senses , running out like new wine into vapours and intoxicating activities , will readily confess , that though even in Nature there may be many good inclinations to many instances of the Divine Commandments ; yet it can go no further than this velleity , this desiring to do good , but is not able . And it is upon this account that Lactantius brings in the Pagan or natural man complaining , Volo equidem non peccare , sed vincor , indutus enim sum carne fragili & imbecillâ . This is very true ; and I add only this caution . There is not in the corruption of our nature so much as will save us harmless , or make us excusable if we sin against God. Natural corruption can make us criminal , but not innocent ; for though by him that willingly abides in the state of meer Nature , sin cannot be avoided , yet no man is in that state longer than he loves to be so ; for the Grace of God came to rescue us from this evil portion , and is alwayes present to give us a new Nature , and create us over again : and therefore though sin is made necessary to the Natural man by his impotency and fond loves , that is by his unregenerate Nature ; yet in the whole constitution of affairs , God hath more than made it up by his Grace , if we will make use of it . In pueris elucet spes plurimorum , quae ubi emoritur aetate , manifestum est non deficisse naturam , sed curam , said Quintilian . We cannot tell what we are , or what we think in our infancy ; and when we can know our thoughts we can easily observe that we have learned evil things by evil examples , and the corrupt manners of an evil conversation : & ubi per socordiam vires , tempus , ingenium defluxêer , naturae infirmitas accusatur ; that indeed is too true ; we grow lazy , and wanton , and we lose our time , and abuse our parts , and do ugly things , and lay the fault wholly upon our Natural infirmities ; but we must remember that by this time it is a state of Nature , a state of flesh and blood , which cannot enter into Heaven . The natural man and the natural child are not the same thing in true Divinity . The Natural child indeed can do no good ; but the Natural man cannot choose but do evil ; but it is because he will do so ; he is not born in the second Birth , and renewed in the Baptism of the Spirit . 2. We have brought our selves into an accidental necessity of sinning by the evil principles which are suck'd in by great parts of mankind . We are taught ways of going to Heaven without forsaking our sins ; of repentance without restitution ; of being in charity without hearty forgiveness , and without love ; of believing our sins to be pardoned before they are mortified ; of trusting in Christs death without conformity to his life ; of being in Gods favour upon the only account of being of such an opinion ; and that when we are once in , we can never be out . We are taught to believe that the events of things do not depend upon our crucifying our evil and corrupt affections , but upon eternal and unalterable Counsels ; that the promises are not the rewards of obedience , but graces pertaining only to a few praedestinates , and yet men are Saints for all that ; and that the Laws of God are of the race of the Giants , not to be observed by any grace or by any industry : this is the Catechism of the ignorant and the prophane : but without all peradventure the contrary propositions are the way to make the world better : but certainly they that believe these things do not believe it necessary that we should eschew all evil : and no wonder then if when men upon these accounts slacken their industry and their care , find sin still prevailing , still dwelling within them , and still unconquerable by so slight and disheartned labours . For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : every fool and every ignorant person is a child still ; and it is no wonder that he who talks foolishly should do childishly and weakly . 3. To our weak and corrupted nature , and our foolish discourses , men do dayly superinduce evil habits and customs of sinning . Consuetudo mala tanquam hamus infixus animae , said the Father ; an evil custom is a hook in the soul , and draws it whither the Devil pleases . When it comes to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Saint Peter's word is , a heart exercised with covetous practices , then it is also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it is weak and unable to do the good it fain would , or to avoid the evil which in a good fit it pretends to hate . This is so known I shall not insist upon it ; but adde this only , that wherever a habit is contracted , it is all one what the instance be ; it is as easie as delicious , as unalterable in vertue as in vice ; for what helps Nature brings to a vitious habit , the same and much more the Spirit of God , by his power and by his comforts can do in a vertuous ; and then we are well again . You see by this who are , and why they are in this evil condition . The evil natures , and the evil principles , and the evil manners of the world , these are the causes of our imperfect willings , and weaker actings in the things of God ; and as long as men stay here , sin will be unavoidable . For even meat it self is loathsom to a sick stomack ; and it is impossible for him that is heart-sick to eat the most wholsom diet ; and yet he that shall say eating is impossible , will be best confuted by seeing all the healthful men in the world eat heartily every day . 2. But what then ? Cannot sin be avoided ? Cannot a Christian mortifie the deeds of the body ? Cannot Christ redeem us , and cleanse us from all our sins ? Cannot the works of the Devil be destroyed ? That 's the next particular to be inquired of ; Whether or not it be not necessary , and therefore very possible for a servant of God to pass from this evil state of things , and not only hate evil , but avoid it also ? He that saith he hath not sinned , is a liar ; but what then ? Because a man hath sinned , it does not follow he must do so always . Hast thou sinned ? do so no more ( said the wise Bensirach ) ; and so said Christ to the poor Paralytick , Go and sin no more . They were excellent words spoken by a holy Prophet , [ Let not the Sinner say he hath not sinned ; for God shall burn coals of fire upon his head , that saith before the Lord God and his Glory , I have not sinned . ] Well! that case is confessed ; All men have sinned , and come short of the glory of God. But is there no remedy for this ? Must it always be so ? and must sin for ever have the upper hand , and for ever baffle our resolutions , and all our fierce and earnest promises of amendment ? God forbid . There was a time then to come , and , blessed be God , it hath been long come , [ Yet a little while ( saith that Prophet ) and Iniquity shall be taken out of the earth , and Righteousness shall reign among you . ] For , that 's in the day of Christ's Kingdom , the manifestation of the Gospel . When Christ reigns in our hearts by his Spirit , Dagon and the Ark cannot stand together ; we cannot serve Christ and Belial . And as in the state of Nature no good thing dwells within us ; so when Christ rules in us , no evil thing can abide ; For every Plant that my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up , and cast away into the fires of consumption or purification . But how shall this come to pass , since we all find our selves so infinitely weak and foolish ? I shall tell you . It is easier for a Camel to go through the eye of a Needle , than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven , saith Christ. It is impossible to Nature ; it is impossible to them that are given to vanity ; it is impossible for them that delight in the evil snare : But Christ adds , With Men this is impossible , but with God all things are possible . What we cannot do for our selves , God can do for us , and with us . What Nature cannot do , the Grace of God can . So that the thing may be done , not indeed by our selves , but gratia Dei mecum , saith S. Paul ; God and Man together can do it . But if it can be done any way that God has put into our powers , the consequent is this ; No mans good will shall be taken in exchange for the real and actual mortification of his sins . He that sins , and would fain not sin , but sin is present with him whether he will or no , let him take heed ; for the same is the Law of sin , and the Law of death ( saith the Apostle ) ; and that mans heart is not right with God. For it is impossible men should pray for deliverance , and not be heard ; that they should labour , and not be prosperous ; unless they pray amiss , and labour falsely . Let no man therefore please himself with talking of great things , with perpetual conversation in pious discourses , or with ineffective desires of serving God : He that does not practice as well as he talks , and do what he desires , and what he ought to do , confesses himself to sin greatly against his conscience ; and it is a prodigious folly to think that he is a good man , because though he does sin , yet it was against his mind to do so . A mans conscience can never condemn him , if that be his excuse , to say that his conscience check'd him ; ad that will be but a sad Apology at the day of Judgement . Some men talk like Angels , and pray with great fervor , and meditate with deep recesses , and speak to God with loving affections , and words of union , and adhere to him in silent devotion , and when they go abroad are as passionate as ever , peevish as a frighted Fly , vexing themselves with their own reflections : They are cruel in their Bargains , unmerciful to their Tenants , and proud as a Barbarian Prince : They are , for all their fine words , impatient of reproof , scornful to their Neighbours , lovers of money , supream in their own thoughts , and submit to none ; all their spiritual life they talk of , is nothing but spiritual fancy and illusion ; they are still under the power of their passions , and their sin rules them imperiously , and carries them away infallibly . Let these men consider , There are some men think it impossible to do as much as they do : The common Swearer cannot leave that Vice , and talk well ; and these men that talk thus well , think they cannot do as well as they talk ; but both of them are equally under the power of their respective sins , and are equally deceived , and equally not the Servants of God. * This is true ; but it is equally as true , That there is no necessity for all this ; for it ought , and it may be otherwise if we please : For I pray be pleased to hear S. Paul ; Walk in the Spirit , and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh ; There 's your remedy : For the Spirit lusteth against the flesh , and the flesh against the Spirit ; there 's the cause of it ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so that ye may not or cannot do the things ye would ; that 's the blessed consequent and product of that cause : That is plainly , As there is a state of carnality , ( of which S. Paul speaks in my Text ) so that in that state a man cannot but obey the flesh ; so there is also a state of spirituality , when sin is dead , and righteousness is alive ; and in this state the flesh can no more prevail , than the Spirit could do in the other . * Some men cannot chuse but sin ; for the carnal mind is not subject to God , neither indeed can be ( saith S. Paul ) ; but there are also some men that cannot endure any thing that is not good . It is a great pain for a temperate man to suffer the disorders of Drunkenness ; and the shames of Lust are intolerable to a chaste and modest person : This also is affirmed by S. John , Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin , for his seed remaineth in him . So that you see it is possible for a good man not to commit the sin to which he is tempted ; but the Apostle says more , He doth not commit sin , neither indeed can he , because he is born of God. And this is agreeable to the words of our Blessed Saviour ; A corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit , and a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit ; that is ; As the child of Hell is carried to Sin pleno impetu , he does not check at it , he does it and is not troubled ; so on the other side , a child of God is as fully convinc'd of righteousness , and that which is unrighteous is as hateful to him as Colocynths to the taste , or the sharpest punctures to the pupil of the eye . We may see something of this in common experiences . What man of ordinary prudence and reputation can be tempted to steal ? or for what price would he be tempted to murder his friend ? If we did hate all sins as we hate these , would it not be as easie to be as innocent in other instances as most men are in these ? and we should have as few Drunkards as we have Thieves . In such as these we do not complain in the words of my Text , What I would not , that I do ; and what I would I do not . Does not every good man overcome all the power of great sins ? And can he by the Spirit of God and right Reason , by fear and hope conquer Goliath , and beat the Sons of the Giant ; and can he not overcome the little children of Gath ? Or is it harder to overcome a little sin than a great one ? Are not the temptations to little sins very little ? and yet are they greater and stronger than a mighty Grace ? Could the poor Demoniack that liv'd in the Graves , by the power of the Devil break his iron chains in pieces ? and cannot he who hath the Spirit of God dissolve the chains of sin ? Through Christ that strengthens me , I can do all things , saith S. Paul : Satis sibi copiarum cum Publio Decio , & nunquam nimium hostium fore , said one in Livie ; which is best rendred by S. Paul , If God be with us , who can be against us ? Nay , there is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in S. Paul , We are more than Conquerors : For even amongst an Army Conquerors there are degrees of exaltation ; and some serve God like the Centurion , and some like S. Peter ; some like Martha , and some like Mary ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ▪ all good men conquer their temptation , but some with more ease , and some with a clearer Victory ; and more than thus , Non solum viperam terimus , sed ex ea antidotum conficimus , We kill the Viper , and make Treacle of him ; that is , not only escape from , but get advantages by temptations . But we commonly are more afraid than hurt ; Let us therefore lay aside every weight , and the sin that doth so easily beset us ; so we read the words of the Apostle : but S. Chrysostom's rendition of them is better ; for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a perfect passive , and cannot signifie the strength and irresistibility of sin upon us , but the quite contrary ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies the sin that is so easily avoided , as they that understand that language know very well . And if we were so wise and valiant as not to affright our selves with our own terrours , we should quickly find , that by the help of the Spirit of God we can do more than we thought we could . It was said of Alexander , Bene ausus est vana contemnere , he did no great matter in conquering the Persians , because they were a pitiful and a soft people ; only he understood them to be so , and was wise and bold enough not to fear such Images and men of clouts . But men , in the matter of great sins and little , do as the Magicians of Aegypt ; when Moses turned his Rod into a Serpent , it moved them not ; but when they saw the Lice and the Flies , then they were afraid . We see that by the Grace of God we can escape great sins ; but we start at Flies , and a Bird out of a Bush disorders us ; the Lion in the way troubles us not , but a Frog and a Worm affrights us . Remember the saying of S. Paul , Christ came to redeem to himself a Church , and to present it pure and spotless before the Throne of Grace ; and if you mean to be of this number , you must endeavour to be under this qualification , that is , ( as Paul laboured to be ) void of offence both towards God and towards Man. And so I have done with the second Proposition ; It is necessary that all sin great and little should be mortified and dead in us , and that we no longer abide in that state of slavery as to say , The good that I would , I do not ; but the evil that I would not , that I do . 3. In the next place we are to inquire in what degree this is to be effected ; for though in negatives properly there are no degrees , yet unless there be some allays in this Doctrine it will not be so well , and it may be your Experiences will for ever confute my Arguments : For , Who can say that he is clean from his sin ? ( said the Wiseman ) : and as our Blessed Saviour said , He that is innocent among you all , let him throw the first stone at the sinner , and spare not . To this I answer in the words of S. Gregory ; All mans righteousness will be found to be unrighteous , if God should severely enter into judgment ; but therefore even after our innocence we must pray for pardon , ut quae succumbere discussa poterat , ex judicis pietate convalescat , that our innocence , which in strictness of Divine Judgment would be found spotted and stained , by the mercy of our Saviour may be accepted . S. Bernard expresses this well ; Nostra siqua est humilis justitia , recta forsitan sed non pura ; Our humble righteousness is perhaps right in the eyes of God , but not pure ; that is , accepted by his Mercy , but it is such as dares not contend in Judgment . For as no man is so much a sinner , but he sometimes speaks a good word , or does some things not ill ; and yet that little good interrupts not that state of evil : so it is amongst very good men , from whom sometimes may pass something that is not commendable ; and yet their heart is so habitually right towards God , that they will do nothing but ( I do not say which God in justice cannot , but ) which in mercy he will not impute to eternal condemnation . It was the case of David ; He was a man after Gods own heart ; nay it is said , he was blameless save in the matter of Uriah ; and yet we know he numbred the people , and God was angry with him and punished him for it : but because he was a good man and served God heartily , that other fault of his was imputed to him no further : God set a fine upon his head for it , but it was salvo contenemento , the main stake was safe . For concerning good men the question is not , whether or no God could not in the rigour of justice blame their indiscretion , or impute a foolish word , or chide them for a hasty answer , or a careless action , for a less devout prayer , or weak hands , for a fearful heart , or a trembling Faith. These are not the measures by which God judges his Children ; for he knoweth whereof we are made , and he remembers that we are but dust . But the question is , whether any man that is covetous or proud , false to his trust , or a Drunkard , can at the same time be a child of God ? No certainly he cannot . But then we know that God judges us by Jesus Christ , that is , with the allayes of mercy , with an eye of pardon , with the sentences of a Father , by the measures of a man , and by analogy to all our unavoidable abatements . God could enter with us into a more severe judgment , but he would not ; and no justice tied him from exercising that mercy . But according to the measures of the Gospel , he will judge every man according to his works . Now what these measures are is now the question . To which I answer first in general , and then more particularly . 1. In general thus . A Christians innocence is alwayes to be measured by the plain lines and measures of the Commandments ; but are not to be taken into account by uncertain and fond opinions , and the scruples of zealous and timerous persons . My meaning is this . Some men tell us that every natural inclination to a forbidden object is a sin ; which they that believe , finding them to be natural , do also confess that such sins are unavoidable . But if these natural and first motions be sins , then a man sins whether he resists them , or resists them not , whether he prevails or prevails not ; and there is no other difference but this ; he that fights not against , but alwayes yields to his desires , sins greatest ; and he that never yields but fights alwayes , sins oftenest . But then , by this reckoning it will indeed be impossible to avoid millions of sins ; because the very doing of our duty does suppose a sin . If God should impute such first desires to us as sins , we were all very miserable ; but if he does not impute them , let us trouble our selves no further about them , but to take care that they never prevail upon us . Thus men are taught that they never say their Prayers but they commit a sin . Indeed that is true but too often ; but yet it is possible for us by the Grace of God to please him in saying our Prayers , and to be accepted of him . But indeed if God did proceed against us as we do against one another , no man could abide innocent for so much as one hour . But Gods judgment is otherwise : He enquires if the heart be right , if our labour be true , if we love no sin , if we use prudent and efficacious instruments to mortifie our sin , if we go about our Religion as we go about the biggest concerns of our life ; if we be sincere and real in our actions and intentions . For this is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that God requires of us all ; this is that sinless state , in which if God does not find us , we shall never see his glorious face , and if he does find us , we shall certainly be saved by the blood of Jesus . For in the style of Scripture to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the same thing ; to be sincere , and to be without offence is all one . Thus David spake heartily , I am utterly purposed that my mouth shall not offend ; and thou shalt find no wickedness in me . He that endeavours this , and hopes this , and does actions , and uses means accordingly , not being deceived by his own false heart , nor abused by evil propositions , this man will stand upright in the Congregations of the Just ; and though he cannot challenge Heaven by merit , yet he shall receive it as a gift , by promise and by grace . Lex nos innocentes esse jubet , non curiosos , said Seneca . For God takes no judgment of us by any measures , but of the Commandment without , and the heart and the conscience within ; but he never intended his Laws to be a snare to us , or to entrap us with consequences and dark interpretations , by large deductions and witty similitudes of faults ; but he requires of us a sincere heart , and a hearty labour in the work of his Commandments : he calls upon us to avoid all that which his Law plainly forbids , and which our Consciences do condemn . This is the general measure . The particulars are briefly these . 1. Every Christian is bound to arrive at that state , that he have remaining in him no habit of any sin whatsoever . Our old man must be crucified ; the body of sin must be destroyed ; he must no longer serve sin ; sin shall not have the dominion over you . All these are the Apostles words ; that is plainly , as I have already declared , you must not be at that pass , that though ye would avoid sin ye cannot . For he that is so is a most perfect slave , and Christs freed man cannot be so . Nay , he that loves sin , and delights in it , hath no liberty indeed , but he hath more shew of it , than he that obeys it against his will. — Libertatis servaveris umbram , Si quicquid jubeare velis — He that loves to be in the place , is a less prisoner , than he that is confined against his will. 2. He that commits any one sin by choice and deliberation is an enemy to God , and is under the dominion of the flesh . In the case of deliberate sins one act does give the denomination ; he is an Adulterer that so much as once foully breaks the holy Laws of Marriage . He that offends in one is guilty of all , saith S. James . S. Peters Denial , and Davids Adultery had passed on to a fatal issue , if the mercy of God and a great repentance had not interceded . But they did so no more , and so God restored them to Grace and Pardon . And in this sense are the words of S. John , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he that does a sin is of the Devil , and he that is born of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he does not commit a sin , he chooses none , he loves none , he endures none , talia quae non faciet bonae fidei & spei Christianus ; they do no great sin , and love no little one . A sin chosen and deliberately done , is , as Tertullians expression is , crimen devoràtorium salutis ; it devours salvation . For as there are some sins which can be done but once ; as a man can kill his Father but once , or himself but once ; so in those things which can be repeated , a perfect choice is equivalent to a habit , it is the same in principle , that a habit is in the product . In short he is not a child of God , that knowingly and deliberately chooses any thing that God hates . 3. Every Christian ought to attain to such a state of life , as that he never sin , not only by a long deliberation , but also not by passion . I do not say that he is not a good Christian , who by passion is suddenly surpriz'd and falls into folly ; but this I say , that no passion ought to make him choose a sin . For let the sin enter by anger or by desire , it is all one , if the consent be gain'd . It is an ill sign if a man , though on the sudden , consents to a base action . Thus far every good man is tied , not only to endeavour , but to prevail against his Sin. 4. There is one step more ; which if it be not actually effected , it must at least be greatly endeavoured , and the event be left to God : and that is , that we strive for so great a dominion over our sins and lust , as that we be not surprized on a sudden . This indeed is a work of time , and it is well if it be ever done ; but it must alwayes be endeavoured . But in this particular , even good men are sometimes unprosperous . S. Epiphanius , and S. Chrysostom grew once into choler , and they past too far , and lost more than their argument , they lost their reason , and they lost their patience : and Epiphanius wished that S. Chrysostom might not die a Bishop ; and he in a peevish exchange wished that Epiphanius might never return to his Bishoprick ; when they had forgotten their foolish anger , God remembred it , and said Amen to both their cursed speakings . Nay , there is yet a greater example of humane frailty ; St. Paul and Barnabas were very holy persons , but once in a heat they were both to blame , they were peevish and parted company . This was not very much : but God was so displeased , even for this little flye in their Box of Oyntment , that their story sayes , they never saw one anothers face again . These earnest emissions and transportations of passion do sometime declare the weakness of good men ; but that even here we ought at least to endeavour to be more than Conquerors appears in this , because God allows it not , and by punishing such follies does manifest that he intends that we should get victory over our sudden passions , as well as our natural lusts . And so I have done with the third inquiry , in what degree God expects our innocence ; and now I briefly come to the last particular , which will make all the rest practicable ; I am now to tell you how all this can be effected , and how we shall get free from the power and dominion of our sins . 4. The first great instruments is Faith. He that hath Faith like a grain of Mustard-seed can remove Mountains ; the Mountains of sin shall fall flat at the feet of the Faithful man , and shall be removed into the sea , the sea of Christs blood and penitential waters . Faith overcometh the World , saith S. John ; and walk in the spirit , and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh : there are two of our Enemies gone ; the world and the flesh , by Faith and the Spirit , by the Spirit of Faith ; and as for the Devil , put on the shield of Faith , and resist the Devil , and he will flee from you , saith the Apostle ; and the powers of sin seem insuperable to none , but to them that have not Faith ; we do not believe that God intends we should do what he seems to require of us ; or else we think that though Gods grace abounds , yet sin must superabound , expresly against the saying of S. Paul ; or else we think that the evil spirit is stronger than the good Spirit of God. Hear what St. John saith , My little children , ye are of God , and have overcome the evil one ; for the spirit that is in you is greater than that which is in the world . Believest thou this ? If you do , I shall tell you what may be the event of it . When the Father of the boy , possessed with the Devil , told his sad story to Christ , he said ; Master if thou canst do any thing , I pray help me : Christ answered him , If thou canst believe , all things are possible to him that believeth . N. B. And therefore if you do believe this , go to your prayers , and go to your guards , and go to your labour , and try what God will do for you . For whatsoever things ye desire when ye pray , believe that ye shall receive them , and ye shall have them . Now consider ; Do not we every day pray in the Divine Hymn called Te Deum , Vouchsafe , O Lord , to keep us this day without sin ? And in the Collect at morning prayer , [ and grant that this day we fall into no sin , neither run into any kind of danger , but that all our doing may be ordered by thy governance , to do alwayes that which is righteous in thy sight ? ] Have you any hope , or any faith when you say that Prayer ? And if you do your duty as you can , do you think the failure will be on Gods part ? Fear not that ; if you can trust in God , and do accordingly ; though your sins were as scarlet , yet they shall be as white as snow , and pure as the feet of the holy Lamb. Only let us forsake all those weak propositions which cut the nerves of Faith , and make it impossible for us to actuate all our good desires , or to come out from the power of sin . 2. He that would be free from the slavery of sin , and the necessity of sinning must alwayes watch . I , that 's the point ; but who can watch alwayes ? Why every good man can watch alwayes : and that we may not be deceived in this , let us know , that the running away from a temptation is a part of our watchfulness , and every good employment is another great part of it , and a laying in provisions of Reason and Religion before hand , is yet a third part of this watchfulness ; and the conversation of a Christian is a perpetual watchfulness ; not a continual thinking of that one , or those many things which may indanger us ; but it is a continual doing something directly or indirectly against sin . He either prayes to God for his Spirit , or relies upon the Promises , or receives the Sacrament , or goes to his Bishop for Counsel and a Blessing , or to his Priest for Religious Offices , or places himself at the feet of good Men to hear their wise sayings , or calls for the Churches Prayers , or does the duty of his calling , or actually resists Temptation , or frequently renews his holy Purposes , or fortifies himself by Vows , or searches into his danger by a daily examination ; so that in the whole he is for ever upon his guards . * This duty and caution of a Christian is like watching lest a man cut his finger . Wise men do not often cut their fingers , and yet every day they use a knife ; and a mans eye is a tender thing , and every thing can do it wrong , and every thing can put it out ; yet because we love our eyes so well , in the midst of so many dangers , by Gods providence and a prudent natural care , by winking when any thing comes against them , and by turning aside when a blow is offered , they are preserved so certainly , that not one man in ten thousand does by a stroak lose one of his eyes in all his life time . If we would transplant our natural care to a spiritual caution , we might by Gods grace be kept from losing our souls , as we are from losing our eyes ; and because a perpetual watchfulness is our great defence , and the perpetual presence of Gods grace is our great security , and that this Grace never leaves us , unless we leave it , and the precept of a dayly watchfulness is a thing not only so reasonable , but so many easie wayes to be performed , we see upon what terms we may be quit of our sins , and more than Conquerors over all the Enemies and Impediments of Salvation . 3. If you would be in the state of the Liberty of the Sons of God , that is , that you may not be servants of sin in any instance ; be sure in the mortifications of sin , willingly or carelesly to leave no remains of it , no nest-egg , no principles of it , no affections to it ; if any thing remains , it will prove to us as Manna to the sons of Israel on the second day , it will breed worms and stink . Therefore labour against every part of it , reject every proposition that gives it countenance ; pray to God against it all ; and what then ? Why then , Ask and you shall have ( said Christ. ) Nay , say some , it is true , you shall be heard ; but in part only ; for God will leave some remains of sin within us , lest we should become proud by being innocent . So vainly do men argue against Gods goodness and their own blessings and Salvation , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( as S. Basil sayes ) they contrive witty arts to undo themselves , being intangled in the periods of ignorant disputations . But as to the thing it self , if by the remains of sin they mean the propensities and natural inclinations to forbidden objects ; there is no question but they will remain in us so long as we bear our flesh about us ; and surely that is a great argument to make us humble . But these are not the sins which God charges on his people . But if by remains we mean any part of the habit of sin , any affection , any malice or perverseness of the Will ; then it is a contradiction to say that God leaves in us such remains of Sin , lest by innocence we become Proud : for how should Pride spring in a mans heart , if there be no remains of Sin left ? And is it not the best , the surest way to cure the Pride of our hearts , by taking out every root of bitterness , even the root of Pride it self ? Will a Physitian purposely leave the Reliques of a disease , and pretend he does it to prevent a relapse ? And is it not more likely he will relapse , if the sickness be not wholly cured ? * But besides this ; If God leaves any remains of Sin in us , what remains are they , and of what sins ? Does he leave the remains of Pride ? If so ; that were a strange cure , to leave the remains of Pride in us to keep us from being proud . But if not so ; but that all the remains of Pride be taken away by the grace of God blessing our endeavours ; what danger is there of being proud , the remains of which Sin are by the grace of God wholly taken away ? But then , if the Pride of the heart be cured , which is the hardest to be removed , and commonly is done last of all , who can distrust the power of the Spirit of God , or his goodness , or his promises , and say that God does not intend to cleanse his Sons and Servants from all unrighteousness ; and according to S. Pauls prayer , keep their bodies and souls , and spirits , unblameable to the coming of the Lord Jesus ? But however , let God leave what remains he please ; all will be well enough on that side , but let us be careful , as far as we can , that we leave none ; lest it be severely imputed to us , and the fire break out and consume us . 4. Let us without any further question , put this argument to a material issue ; let us do all that we can do towards the destruction of the whole body of sin ; but let us never say we cannot be quit of our Sin , till we have done all that we can do towards the mortification of it . For till that be done , how can any man tell where the fault lies , or whether it can be done or no ? If any man can say that he hath done all that he could do , and yet hath failed of his duty ; if he can say truly , that he hath endured as much as is possible to be endured , that he hath watched alwayes , and never nodded , when he could avoid it , that he hath loved as much as he could love , that he hath waited till he can wait no longer ; then indeed , if he sayes true , we must confess that it is not to be understood . But is there any man in the World that does all that he can do ? If there be , that man is blameless ; if there be not , then he cannot say but it is his own fault that his sin prevails against him . It is true , that no man is free from sin ; but it is as true , that no man does as much as he can against it : and therefore no man must go about to excuse himself by saying , no man is free from his sin ; and therefore no man can be , no not by the powers of grace : for he may as well argue thus ; No man does do all that he can do against it ; and therefore it is impossible he should do what he can do . The argument is apparently foolish , and the excuse is weak , and the deception visible , and sin prevails upon our weak arguings ; but the consequence is plainly this : When any man commits a sin , he is guilty before God ; and he cannot say he could not help it , and God is just in punishing every sin , and very merciful when he forgives us any : but he that says he cannot avoid it , that he cannot overcome his lust , confesses himself a servant of Sin , and that he is not yet redeemed by the blood of the Holy Lamb. 5. He that would be advanced beyond the power and necessity of of sinning must take great caution concerning his thoughts and secret desires : For lust when it is conceived bringeth forth sin ; but if it be suppressed in the conception , it comes to nothing : but we find it hard to destroy the Serpent when the egg is hatched into a Cockatrice . The thought is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; no man takes notice of it , but lets it alone till the sin be too strong , and then we complain we cannot help it . Nolo sinas cogitationem orescere , suffer not your thoughts to grow up : for they usually come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( as S. Basil says ) suddenly , and easily , and without business ; but take heed that you nurse them not ; but if you chance to stumble , mend your pace ; and if you nod , let it awaken you ; for he only can be a good man , that raises himself up at the first trip , that strangles his sin in the birth : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , good men rise up again even before they fall , saith S. Chrysostom . Now I pray consider , that when sin is but in the thought it is easily suppressed ; and if it be stopt there , it can go no further ; and what great mountain of labour is it then to abstain from our sin ? Is not the Adultery of the eye easily cured by shutting the eye-lid ? and cannot the thoughts of the heart be turned aside by doing business , by going into company , by reading or by sleeping ? A man may divert his thoughts by shaking of his head , by thinking any else , by thinking nothing . Da mihi Christianum ( saith S. Austin ) & intelligit quod dico . Every man that loves God understands this , and more than this to be true . Now if things be thus , and that we may be safe in that which is supposed to be the hardest of all , we must needs condemn our selves , and lay our faces in the dust when we give up our selves to any sin ; we cannot be justified by saying we could not help it . For , as it was decreed by the Fathers of the Aurasican Council 2d. Hoc etiam secundum fidem Catholicam credimus , &c. This we believe according to the Catholick Faith , that have received Baptismal Grace ; all that are baptized by the aid and cooperation of Christ , must and can ( if they will labour faithfully ) perform and fulfill those things which belong unto salvation . 6. And lastly , If sin hath gotten the power of any one of us , consider in what degree the sin hath prevailed : If but a little , the battel will be more easie , and the victory more certain ; but then be sure to do it throughly , because there is not much to be done : But if sin hath prevailed greatly , then indeed you have very much to do , therefore begin betimes , and defer not this work till old age shall make it extremely difficult , or death shall make it impossible . Nam quamvis prope te , quamvis temone sub uno Vertentem sese frustra sectabere canthum , Cum rota posterior curras , & in axe secundo . If thou beest cast behind ; if thou hast neglected the duties of thy vigorous age , thou shalt never overtake that strength ; the hinder wheel , though bigger than the former , and measures more ground at every revolution , yet shall never overtake it ; and all the second counsels of thy old age , though undertaken with greater resolution , and acted with the strengths of fear and need , and pursued with more pertinacious purposes than the early repentances of young men , yet shall never overtake those advantages which you lost when you gave your youth to folly , and the causes of a sad repentance . However if you find it so hard a thing to get from the power of one master-sin ; if an old Adulterer does dote , if an old Drunkard be further from remedy than a young sinner , if Covetousness grows with old age , if ambition be still more Hydropick and grows more thirsty for every draught of Honour , you may easily resolve that old age , or your last sickness is not so likely to be prosperous in the mortification of your long prevailing sins . Do not all men desire to end their dayes in Religion , to dye in the arms of the Church , to expire under the conduct of a religious man ? when ye are sick or dying , then nothing but prayers and sad complaints , and the groans of a tremulous repentance , and the faint labours of an almost impossible mortification : then the despised Priest is sent for : then he is a good man , and his words are Oracles , and Religion is truth , and sin is a load , and the sinner is a fool : then we watch for a word of comfort from his mouth , as the fearful Prisoner for his fate upon the Judges answer . That which is true then , is true now ; and therefore to prevent so intollerable a danger , mortifie your sin betime , for else you will hardly mortifie it at all . Remember that the Snail out-went the Eagle and won the goal , because she set out betimes . To sum up all , every good man is a new Creature , and Christianity is not so much a Divine institution , as a Divine frame and temper of Spirit , which if we heartily pray for , and endeavour to obtain , we shall find it as hard and as uneasie to sin against God , as now we think it impossible to abstain from our most pleasing sins . For as it is in the Spermatick vertue of the Heavens , which diffuses it self Universally upon all sublunary bodies , and subtilly insinuating it self into the most dull and unactive Element , produces Gold and Pearls , Life and motion , and brisk activities in all things that can receive the influence and heavenly blessing ; so it is in the Holy Spirit of God , and the word of God , and the grace of God , which S. John calls the seed of God , it is a Law of Righteousness , and it is a Law of the Spirit of Life , and changes Nature into Grace , and dulness into zeal , and fear into love , and sinful habits into innocence , and passes on from grace to grace , till we arrive at the full measures of the stature of Christ , and into the perfect liberty of the sons of God ; so that we shall no more say , The evil that I would not that I do ; but we shall hate what God hates , and the evil that is forbidden we shall not do , not because we are strong of our selves , but because Christ is our strength , and he is in us , and Christs strength shall be perfected in our weakness , and his grace will be sufficient for us : and he will of his own good pleasure work in us , not only to will but also to do , velle & perficere , saith the Apostle , to will and to do it throughly , and fully , being sanctified throughout , to the glory of his Holy name , and the eternal salvation of our souls , through Jesus Christ our Lord , To whom with the Father , &c. FIDES FORMATA ; OR , Faith working by Love. SERM. III. JAMES II. 24. You see then , how that by Works a Man is justified , and not by Faith only . THat we are justified by Faith , S. Paul * tells us ; That we are also justified by Works , we are told in my Text ; and both may be true . But that this Justification is wrought by Faith without Works , to him that worketh not , but believeth ( saith S. Paul ) : That this is not wrought without Works , S. James is as express for his Negative as S. Paul was for his Affirmative ; and how both these should be true , is something harder to unriddle . But , affirmanti incumbit probatio , he that affirms must prove ; and therefore S. Paul proves his Doctrine by the example of Abraham , to whom Faith was imputed for Righteousness ; and therefore not by Works . And what can be answered to this ? Nothing but this , That S. James uses the very same Argument to prove that our Justification is by Works also ; [ For our Father Abraham was justified by works , when he offered up his Son Isaac . ] Now which of these says true ? Certainly both of them ; but neither of them have been well understood ; insomuch that they have not only made divisions of heart among the faithful , but one party relies on Faith to the disparagement of Good Life , and the other makes Works to be the main ground of our hope and confidence , and consequently to exclude the efficacy of Faith : The one makes Christian Religion a lazy and unactive Institution ; and the other , a bold presumption on our selves ; while the first tempts us to live like Heathens , and the other recalls us to live the life of Jews ; while one says , I am of Paul , and another I am of S. James , and both of them put it in danger of evacuating the institution and the death of Christ ; one looking on Christ only as a Law-giver , and the other only as a Saviour . The effects of these are very sad , and by all means to be diverted by all the wise considerations of the Spirit . My purpose is not with subtle Arts to reconcile them that never disagreed ; the two Apostles spake by the same Spirit , and to the same last design , though to differing intermedial purposes : But because the great end of Faith , the design , the definition , the state , the oeconomy of it , is that all Believers should not live according to the flesh , but according to the Spirit . Before I fall to the close handling of the Text , I shall premise some preliminary Considerations to prepare the way of holiness , to explicate the differing sences of the Apostles , to understand the Question and the Duty , by removing the causes of the vulgar mistakes of most men in this Article , and then proceed to the main Inquiry . 1. That no man may abuse himself or others by mistaking of hard words , spoken in mystery , with alegorical expressions to secret senses , wrapt up in a cloud ; such as are [ Faith and Justification , and Imputation , and Righteousness , and Works ] be pleased to consider , That the very word Faith is in Scripture infinitely ambiguous , insomuch that in the Latine Concordances of S. Hierom's Bible , published by Robert Stephens , you may see no less then twenty two several senses and accceptations of of the word Faith , set down with the several places of Scripture referring to them , to which if out of my own own observation I could add no more , yet these are an abundant demonstration , That whatsoever is said of the efficacy of Faith for Justification , is not to be taken in such a sence as will weaken the necessity , and our carefulness of good life , when the word may in so many other sences be taken to verifie the affirmation of S. Paul , of Justification by Faith , so as to reconcile it to the necessity of Obedience . 2. As it is in the word Faith , so it is in Works ; for by Works is meant sometimes the thing done , sometimes the labour of doing , sometimes the good will ; it is sometimes taken for a state of good life , sometimes for the Covenant of Works ; it sometimes means the Works of the Law , sometimes the Works of the Gospel ; sometimes it is taken for a perfect , actual , unsinning Obedience , sometimes for a sincere endeavour to please God ; sometimes they are meant to be such which can challenge the Reward as of Debt ; sometimes they mean only a disposition of the person to receive the favour and the grace of God. Now since our good Works can be but of one kind ( for ours cannot be meritorious , ours cannot be without sin all our life , they cannot be such as need no repentance ) , it is no wonder if we must be justified without Works in this sence ; for by such Works no man living can be justified : And these S. Paul calls the Works of the Law , and sometimes he calls them our righteousness ; and these are the Covenant of Works . But because we came into the World to serve God , and God will be obeyed , and Jesus Christ came into the World to save us from sin , and to redeem to himself a people zealous of good works , and hath to this purpose reveal'd to us all his Fathers Will , and destroyed the works of the Devil , and gives us his holy Spirit , and by him we shall be justified in this Obedience ; therefore when Works signifie a sincere , hearty endeavour to keep all Gods Commands , out of a belief in Christ , that if we endeavour to do so we shall be helped by his grace , and if we really do so we shall be pardoned for what is past , and if we continue to do so we shall receive a Crown of Glory ; therefore it is no wonder that it is said we are to be justified by Works ; always meaning , not the Works of the Law , that is , Works that are meritorious , works that can challenge the reward , works that need no mercy , no repentance , no humiliation , and no appeal to grace and favour ; but always meaning , works that are an obedience to God by the measures of good will , and a sincere endeavour , and the Faith of the Lord Jesus . 3. But thus also it is in the word Justification : For God is justified , and Wisdom is justified , and Man is justified , and a sinner is not justified as long as he continues in sin ; and a sinner is justified when he repents , and when he is pardoned ; and an innocent person is justified when he is declared to be no criminal ; and a righteous man is justified when he is saved ; and a weak Christian is justified when his imperfect Services are accepted for the present , and himself thrust forward to more grace ; and he that is justified may be justified more ; and every man that is justified to one purpose , is not so to all ; and Faith in divers sences , gives Justification in as many ; and therefore though to every sence of Faith there is not always a degree of Justification in any , yet when the Faith is such that Justification is the product and correspondent , as that Faith may be imperfect , so the Justification is but begun , and either must proceed further , or else as the Faith will dy , so the Justification will come to nothing . The like observation might be made concerning Imputation , and all the words used in this Question ; but these may suffice till I pass to other particulars . 4. Not only the word Faith , but also Charity , and Godliness , and Religion , signifie sometimes particular Graces , and sometimes they suppose Universally , and mean Conjugations and Unions of Graces , as is evident to them that read the Scriptures with observation . Now when Justification is attributed to Faith , or Salvation to Godliness , they are to be understood in the aggregate sence : for , that I may give but one instance of this , when S. Paul speaks of Faith as it is a particular Grace , and separate from the rest , he also does separate it from all possibility of bringing us to Heaven ; Though I have all Faith , so that I could remove Mountains , and have no Charity , I am nothing : When Faith includes Charity , it will bring us to Heaven ; when it is alone , when it is without Charity , it will do nothing at all . 5. Neither can this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be salved by saying , That though Faith alone does justifie , yet when she does justifie , she is not alone , but Good Works must follow ; for this is said to no purpose ; 1. Because if we be justified by Faith alone , the work is done whether Charity does follow or no ; and therefore that want of Charity cannot hurt us . 2. There can be no imaginable cause why Charity and Obedience should be at all necessary , if the whole work can be done without it . 3. If Obedience and Charity be not a condition of our Salvation , then it is not necessary to follow Faith ; but if it be , it does as much as Faith , for that is but a part of the condition . 4. If we can besaved without Charity and keeping the Commandments , what need we trouble our selves for them ? if we cannot be saved without them , then either Faith without them does not justifie , or if it does we are never the better , for we may be damned for all that Justification . The Consequent of these Observations is briefly this . 1. That no man should fool himself by disputing about the Philosophy of Justification , and what causality Faith hath in it , and whether it be the act of Faith that justifies , or the habit ? Whether Faith as a Good Work , or Faith as an Instrument ? Whether Faith as it is Obedience , or Faith as it is an Access to Christ ? Whether as a Hand , or as a Heart ? Whether by its own innate Vertue , or by the efficacy of the Object ? Whether as a sign , or as a thing signified ? Whether by introduction , or by perfection ? Whether in the first beginnings , or in its last and best productions ? Whether by inherent worthiness , or adventitious imputation ? Vberiùs ista quaeso , &c. ( that I may use the words of Cicero ) haec enim spinosiora priùs , ut confiteor , me cogunt quam ut assentiar ; These things are knotty and too intricate to do any good ; they may amuse us , but never instruct us ; and they have already made men careless and confident , disputative and troublesome , proud and uncharitable , but neither wiser nor better . Let us therefore leave these weak wayes of troubling our selves or others , and directly look to the Theology of it , the direct duty , the end of Faith , and the work of Faith , the conditions and the instruments of our Salvation , the just foundation of our hopes , how our faith can destroy our sin , and how it can unite us unto God ; how by it we can be made Partakers of Christs death , and Imitators of his life . For since it is evident by the premises , that this article is not to be determined or relyed upon by arguing from words of many significations , we must walk by a clearer light , by such plain sayings and Dogmatical Propositions of Scripture which evidently teach us our duty , and place our hopes upon that which cannot deceive us , that is which require Obedience , which call upon us to glorifie God , and to do good to men , and to keep all Gods Commandments with diligence and sincerity . For since the end of our faith is that we may be Disciples and Servants of the Lord Jesus , advancing his Kingdom here , and partaking of it hereafter ; since we are commanded to believe what Christ taught , that it may appear as reasonable as it is necessary to do what he hath commanded ; since Faith and works are in order one to the other , it is impossible that Evangelical Faith and Evangelical works should be opposed one to the other in the effecting of our Salvation . So that as it is to no purpose for Christians to dispute whether we are justified by Faith or the works of the Law , that is the Covenant of works without the help of Faith and the auxiliaries and allowances of mercy on Gods part , and repentance on ours ; because no Christian can pretend to this : so it is perfectly foolish to dispute whether Christians are to be justified by Faith , or the works of the Gospel ; for I shall make it appear that they are both the same thing . No man disparages Faith but he that sayes , Faith does not work righteousness ; for he that sayes so , sayes indeed it cannot justifie ; for he sayes that Faith is alone : it is Faith only , and the words of my Text are plain ; You see ( saith S. James ) that is , it is evident to your sense , it is as clear as an ocular demonstration , that a man is justified by works and not by Faith only . My Text hath in it these two Propositions ; a negative and an affirmative . The negative is this , 1. By Faith only a man is not justified . The affirmative , 2. By works also a man is justified . When I have briefly discoursed of these , I shall only adde such practical considerations as shall make the Doctrines useful , and tangible , and material . 1. By Faith only a man is not justified . By Faith only , here is meant , Faith without Obedience . For what do we think of those that detain the Faith in Unrighteousness ? they have Faith , they could not else keep it in so ill a Cabinet : but yet the Apostle reckons them amongst the Reprobates ; for the abominable , the Reprobates and the disobedient are all one ; and therefore such persons for all their Faith shall have no part with faithful Abraham : for none are his Children but they that do the works of Abraham . Abraham's faith without Abraham's works is nothing : for of him that hath faith , and hath not works , S. James askes , can Faith save him ? Meaning that it is impossible . For what think we of those that did miracles in Christs name , and in his name cast out Devils ? Have not they Faith ? Yes , omnem fidem , all faith , that is alone , for they could remove Mountains : but yet to many of them Christ will say , Depart from me ye workers of iniquity , I know you not Nay at last , what think we of the Devils themselves ? have not they faith ? yes , and this faith is not fides miraculorum neither , but it is an Operative faith , it works a little ; for it makes them tremble ; and it may be that is more than they faith does to thee : and yet dost thou hope to be saved by a faith that does less to thee than the Devils faith does to him ? That 's impossible . For Faith without works is dead , saith S. James . It is manus arida saith S. Austin , it is a withered hand ; and that which is dead cannot work the life of grace in us , much less obtain eternal life for us . In short , a man may have faith , and yet do the works of unrighteousness ; he may have faith and be a Devil , and then what can such a faith do to him or for him ? It can do him no good in the present constitution of affairs . S. Paul , from whose mistaken works much noise hath been made in this question , is clear in this particular . Nothing in Christ Jesus can avail , but Faith working by Charity ; that is , as he expounds himself once and again ; nothing but a new creature , nothing but keeping the Commandments of God , If faith be defin'd to be any thing that does not change our natures , and make us to be a new Creation unto God ; if keeping the Commandments be not in the definition of faith , it avails nothing at all . Therefore deceive not your selves ; they are the words of our Blessed Lord himself ; Not every one that saith unto me Lord , Lord , that is , not every one that confesses Christ , and believes in him , calling Christ Master and Lord shall be sav'd , but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven . These things are so plain , that they need no Commentary ; so evident , that they cannot be denyed : and to these I add but this one truth ; that faith alone without a good life is so far from justifying a sinner , that it is one of the greatest aggravations of his condemnation in the whole World. For no man can be so greatly damned as he that hath faith ; for unless he knows his Masters will , that is , by faith be convinced , and assents to the revelations of the will of God , he can be beaten but with few stripes : but he that believes hath no excuse , he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , condemn'd by the sentence of his own heart , and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , many stripes , the greater condemnation shall be his portion . Natural reason is a light to the Conscience , but faith is a greater , and therefore if it be not followed , it damns deeper than the Hell of the Infidels and uninstructed . And so I have done with the Negative Proposition of my Text ; a man is not justified by faith alone , that is , by faith which hath not in it Charity and Obedience . 2. If faith alone will not do it , what will ? The affirmative part of the Text answers ; not faith alone ; but works must be an ingredient : a man is justified by works ; and that is now to be explicated and prov'd . It will be absolutely to no purpose to say that faith alone does justifie , if when a man is justified , he is never the nearer to be saved . Now that without Obedience no man can go to Heaven , is so evident in holy Scripture , that he that denyes it , hath no faith . There is no peace saith my God unto the wicked ; and I will not justifie a sinner , saith God ; unless faith purges away our sins it can never justifie . Let a man believe all the revelations of God , if that belief ends in its self and goes no further , it is like physick taken to purge the stomach ; if it do not work , it is so far from bringing health , that it self is a new sickness . Faith is a great purger and purifier of the soul , purifying your hearts by Faith , saith the Apostle . It is the best physick in the World for a sinful soul , but if it does not work , it corrupts in the stomack , it makes us to rely upon weak Propositions and trifling confidences , it is but a dreaming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a Phantastick dream , and introduces Pride or superstition , swelling thoughts and presumptions of the Divine favour : But what saith the Apostle ? Follow Peace with all men , & Holiness , without which no man can see God : Mark that . If Faith does not make you charitable and holy , talk no more of justification by it , for you shall never see the glorious face of God. Faith indeed is a title and relation to Christ ; it is a naming of his names , but what then ? Why then saith the Apostle , Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity . For let any man consider , can the Faith of Christ , and the hatred of God stand together ? Can any man be justified that does not love God ? Or can any man love God and sin at the same time ? And does not he love sin that falls under its temptation , and obeyes it in the lusts thereof , and delights in the vanity , and makes excuses for it , and returns to it with passion , and abides with pleasure ? This will not do it ; such a man cannot be justified for all his believing . But therefore the Apostle shews us a more excellent way : This is a true saying , and I will that thou affirm constantly , that they who have believed in God , be careful to maintain good works . The Apostle puts great force on this Doctrine , he arms it with a double Preface ; the saying is true , and it is to be constantly affirmed ; that is , it is not only true , but necessary ; it is like Pharaoh's dream doubled , because it is bound upon us by the decree of God , and it is unalterably certain , that every Believer must do good works , or his believing will signifie little ; nay more than so , every man must be careful to do good works ; and more yet , he must carefully maintain them , that is , not do them by fits and interrupted returns , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be incumbent upon them , to dwell upon them , to maintain good works , that is , to persevere in them . But I am yet but in the general ; be pleased to go along with me in these particular considerations . 1. No mans sins are pardoned , but in the same measure in which they are mortified , destroyed and taken away ; so that if Faith does not cure our sinful Natures it never can justifie , it never can procure our pardon . And therefore it is , that as soon as ever Faith in the Lord Jesus was Preached , at the same time also they preached Repentance from dead works : in so much that S. Paul reckons it among the fundamentals and first principles of Christianity ; nay , the Baptist preached repentance and amendment of life as a preparation to the Faith of Christ. And I pray consider ; can there be any forgiveness of sins without repentance ? But if an Apostle should preach forgiveness to all that believe , and this belief did not also mean that they should repent and forsake their sin , the Sermons of the Apostle would make Christianity nothing else but the Sanctuary of Romulus , a device to get together all the wicked people of the world , and to make them happy without any change of manners . Christ came to other purposes ; he came to sanctifie us and to cleanse us by his Word ; the word of Faith was not for it self , but was a design of holiness , and the very grace of God did appear , for this end ; that teaching us to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts , we should live holily , justly , and soberly in this present world : he came to gather a People together ; not like Davids Army , when Saul pursued him , but the Armies of the Lord , a faithful people , a chosen generation ; and what is that ? The Spirit of God adds , a People zealous of good works . Now as Christ proved his power to forgive sins by curing the poor mans Palsie , because a man is never pardoned but when the punishment is removed ; so the great act of justification of a sinner , the pardoning of his sins is then only effected , when the spiritual evil is taken away : that 's the best indication of a real and an eternal pardon , when God takes away the hardness of the heart , the love of sin , the accursed habit , the evil inclination , the sin that doth so easily beset us : and when that is gone , what remains within us that God can hate ? Nothing stayes behind , but Gods creation , the work of his own hands , the issues of his holy Spirit . The Faith of a Christian is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it destroyes the whole body of sin ; and to suppose that Christ pardons a sinner , whom he doth not also purge and rescue from the dominion of sin , is to affirm that he justifies the wicked , that he calls good evil , and evil good , that he delights in a wicked person , that he makes a wicked man all one with himself ; that he makes the members of an harlot at the same time also the members of Christ : but all this is impossible , and therefore ought not to be pretended to by any Christian. Severe are those words of our Blessed Saviour , Every plant in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away : Faith ingrafts us into Christ ; by Faith we are inserted into the vine ; but the plant that is ingrafted , must also be parturient and fruitful , or else it shall be quite cut off from the root , and thrown into the everlasting burning : And this is the full and plain meaning of those words so often used in Scripture for the magnification of Faith , The just shall live by Faith : No man shall live by Faith but the just man ; he indeed is justified by Faith , but no man else ; the unjust and the unrighteous man hath no portion in this matter . That 's the first great consideration in this affair ; no man is justified in the least sense of justification , that is , when it means nothing but the pardon of sins , but when his sin is mortified and destroyed . 2. No man is actually justified , but he that is in some measure sanctified . For the understanding and clearing of which Proposition we must know , that justification when it is attributed to any cause , does not alwayes signifie justification actual . Thus when it is said in Scripture , We are justified by the death of Christ , it is but the same thing as to say , Christ dyed for us ; and he rose again for us too , that we might indeed be justified in due time , and by just measures and dispositions ; he dyed for our sins , and rose again for our justification ; that is , by his Death and Resurrection he hath obtained this power , and effected this mercy , that if we believe him and obey , we shall be justified and made capable of all the blessings of the Kingdom . But that this is no more but a capacity of pardon , of grace and of salvation , appears not only by Gods requiring Obedience as a condition on our parts ; but by his expresly attributing this mercy to us at such times and in such circumstances , in which it is certain and evident that we could not actually be justified ; for so saith the Scripture , We when we were enemies , were reconciled to God by the death of his Son ; and while we were yet sinners , Christ dyed for us ; that is , then was our Justification wrought on Gods part , that is , then he intended this mercy to us , then he resolved to shew us favour , to give us Promises , and Laws , and Conditions , and Hopes , and an infallible Oeconomy of Salvation ; and when Faith layes hold on this Grace , and this Justification , then we are to do the other part of it ; that is , as God made it potential by the Death and Resurrection of Christ , so we laying hold on these things by Faith , and working the Righteousness of Faith , that is , performing what is required on our parts , we , I say , make it actual ; and for this very reason it is that the Apostle puts more Emphasis upon the Resurrection of Christ than upon his Death . Who is he that condemneth ? It is Christ that dyed , yea rather , that is risen again . And Christ was both delivered for our sins , and is risen again for our justification ; implying to us , that as it is in the principal , so it is in the correspondent ; our sins indeed are potentially pardoned , when they are marked out for death and crucifixion ; when by resolving and fighting against sin we dye to sin daily , and are so made conformable to his Death ; but we must partake of Christs Resurrection before this Justification can be actual ; when we are dead to sin , and are risen again unto righteousness , then as we are partakers of his Death , so we shall be partakers of his Resurrection ( saith S. Paul ) that is , then we are truly , effectually , and indeed justified , till then we are not . He that loveth Gold shall not be justified , saith the wise Bensirach ; he that is covetous , let his Faith be what it will , shall not be accounted righteous before God , because he is not so in himself , and he is not so in Christ , for he is not in Christ at all ; he hath no righteousness in himself , and he hath none in Christ ; for if we be in Christ , or if Christ be in us , the Body is dead by reason of sin , and the Spirit is life because of righteousness : For this the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that faithful thing , that is , the faithfulness is manifested ; the Emun , from whence comes Emunah , which is the Hebrew word for Faith , from whence Amen is derived . Fiat quod dictum est hinc inde ; hoc fidum est , when God and we both say Amen to our promises and undertakings . Fac fidelis sis fideli , cave fidem fluxam geras , said he in the Comedy , God is faithful , be thou so too , for if thou failest him , thy faith hath failed thee . Fides sumitur pro eo quod est inter utrumque placitum , says one ; and then it is true which the Prophet and the Apostle said , the Just shall live by Faith , in both senses : ex fide mea vivet , ex fide sua ; we live by Gods Faith , and by our own ; by his Fidelity , and by ours . When the righteousness of God becomes your righteousness , and exceeds the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ; when the righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us , by walking not after the flesh , but after the Spirit ; then we are justified by Gods truth and by ours , by his Grace , and our Obedience . So that now we see that Justification and Sanctification cannot be distinguished , but as words of Art signifying the various steps of progression in the same course , they may be distinguished in notion and speculation , but never when they are to pass on to material events ; for no man is justified but he that is also sanctified . They are the express words of S. Paul , Whom he did foreknow , them he did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son , to be like to Christ ; and then it follows , Whom he hath predestinated , so predestinated , them he hath also called , and whom he hath called , them he hath also justified ; and then it follows , Whom he hath justified , them he hath also glorified . So that no man is justified , that is , so as to signifie Salvation , but Sanctification must be precedent to it ; and that was my second consideration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that which I was to prove . 3. I pray consider , that he that does not believe the promises of the Gospel , cannot pretend to Faith in Christ ; but the promises are all made to us upon the conditions of Obedience , and he that does not believe them as Christ made them , believes them not at all . In well doing commit your selves to God as unto a faithful Creator ; there is no committing our selves to God without well doing , For God will render to every man according to his deeds ; to them that obey unrighteousness , indignation and wrath ; but to them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory , and honour , and immortality , to them eternal life . So that if Faith apprehends any other promises , it is illusion , and not Faith ; God gave us none such , Christ purchased none such for us ; search the Bible over and you shall find none such . But if Faith layes hold on these promises that are , and as they are , then it becomes an Article of our Faith , that without obedience and a sincere endeavour to keep Gods Commandments , no man living can be justified : And therefore let us take heed when we magnifie the free Grace of God , we do not exclude the conditions which this free Grace hath set upon us . Christ freely dyed for us , God pardons us freely in our first access to him ; we could never deserve pardon , because when we need pardon we are enemies , and have no good thing in us ; and he freely gives us of his Spirit , and freely he enables us to obey him , and for our little imperfect services he freely and bountifully will give us eternal life ; here is free Grace all the way , and he overvalues his pitiful services , who thinks that he deserves Heaven by them ; and that if he does his duty tolerably , eternal life is not a free gift to him , but a deserved reward . Conscius est animus meus , experientia testis , Mystica quae retuli dogmata vera scio . Non tamen idcirco scio me fore glorificandum , Spes mea crux Christi , gratia , non opera . It was the meditation of the wise Chancellor of Paris : I know that without a good life , and the fruits of repentance , a sinner cannot be justified , and therefore I must live well , or I must dye for ever : But if I do live holily , I do not think that I deserve Heaven , it is the Cross of Christ that procures me grace ; it is the Spirit of Christ that gives me grace ; it is the mercy and the free gift of Christ that brings me unto glory . But yet he that shall exclude the works of Faith from the Justification of a sinner by the blood of Christ , may as well exclude Faith it self ; for Faith it self is one of the works of God : it is a good work , so said Christ to them that asked him . [ What shall we do to work the works of God ? Jesus said , This is the work of God , that ye believe on him whom he hath sent . ] Faith is not only the foundation of good works , but it self is a good work , it is not only the cause of obedience , but a part of it ; it is not as the Son of Sirach calls it , initium adhaerendi Deo , a beginning of cleaving unto God , but it carries us on to the perfection of it . Christ is the Author and finisher of our Faith , and when Faith is finished , a good life is made perfect in our kind : Let no man therefore expect events for which he hath no promise , nor call for Gods fidelity without his own faithfulness , nor snatch at a promise without performing the condition ; nor think faith to be a hand to apprehend Christ , and to do nothing else ; for that will but deceive us , and turn Religion into words , and Holiness into hypocrisie , and the Promises of God into a snare , and the Truth of God into a ly . For when God made a Covenant of Faith , he made also the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Law of Faith ; and when he admitted us to a Covenant of more mercy than was in the Covenant of works , or of the Law , he did not admit us to a Covenant of idleness , and an incurious walking in a state of disobedience , but the mercy of God leadeth us to repentance , and when he gives us better promises , he intends we should pay him a better obedience : when he forgives us what is past , he intends we should sin no more : when he offers us his graces , he would have us to make use of them ; when he causes us to distrust our selves , his meaning is we should rely upon him ; when he enables us to do what he commands us , he commands us to do all that we can . And therefore this Covenant of Faith and Mercy is also a Covenant of Holiness , and the grace that pardons us does also purifie us ; for so saith the Apostle , He that hath this hope purifies himself even as God is pure . And when we are so , then we are justified indeed ; this is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Law of faith ; and by works in this sense , that is by the works of faith , by faith working by love , and producing fruits worthy of amendment of ife , we are justified before God. And so I have done with the affirmative Proposition of my Text ; you see that a man is justified by works . But there is more in it than this matter yet amounts to : for S. James does not say , we are justified by works , and are not justified by faith ; that had been irreconcileable with S. Paul ; but we are so justified by works , that it is not by Faith alone ; it is faith and works together : that is , it is by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the obedience of faith , by the works of Faith , by the Law of faith , by Righteousness Evangelical , by the conditions of the Gospel and the measures of Christ. I have many things to say in this particular ; but because I have but a little time left to say them in , I will sum it all up in this Proposition , That in the question of justification and salvation , faith and good works are no part of a distinction , but members of one entire body . Faith and good works together work the righteousness of God : That is , that I may speak plainly , justifying faith contains in it obedience ; and if this be made good , then the two Apostles are reconciled to each other , and both of them to the necessity , the indispensible necessity of a good life . Now that justifying and saving faith must be defined by something more than an act of understanding , appears not only in this , that S. Peter reckons faith as distinctly from knowledge , as he does from patience , or strength or brotherly kindness ; saying [ Add to your faith vertue , to vertue knowledge ] but in this also ; because an error in life , and whatsoever is against holiness , is against faith : And therefore S. Paul reckons the lawless and the disobedient , murderers of Parents , man-stealing and such things to be against sound Doctrines ; for the Doctrine of faith is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Doctrine that is according to godliness . And when S. Paul prayes against ungodly men , he adds this reason , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for all men have not faith : meaning that wicked men are Infidels and Unbelievers , and particularly he affirms of him that does not provide for his own , that he hath denyed the Faith. Now from hence it follows that faith is godliness , because all wickedness is infidelity , it is an Apostacy from the faith . Ille erit , ille nocens qui me tibi fecerat hostem ; he that sins against God , he is the enemy to the faith of Jesus Christ , and therefore we deceive our selves if we place faith in the understanding only ; it is not that , and it does not well there , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith the Apostle , the Mystery of faith is kept no where , it dwells no where but in a pure conscience . For I consider that since all moral habits are best defined by their operation , we can best understand what faith is by seeing what it does . To this purpose hear S. Paul : By faith Abel offered up to God a more excellent Sacrifice than Cain . By faith Noah made an Ark. By faith Abraham left his Country and offered up his Son. By faith Moses chose to suffer affliction , and accounted the reproach of Christ greater than all the riches of Aegypt . In short , the children of God by faith subdued Kingdoms , and wrought righteousness : To work righteousness is as much the duty and work of faith as believing is . So that now we may quickly make an end of this great inquiry , whether a man is justified by faith , or by works , for he is so by both ; if you take it alone , faith does not justifie , but take it in the aggregate sense as it is used in the question of Justification by S. Paul , and then faith does not only justifie , but it sanctifies too ; and then you need to enquire no further ; obedience is a part of the definition of faith , as much as it is of Charity : This is love saith S. John , that we keep his Commandments . And the very same is affirmed of faith too by Bensirach , He that believeth the Lord will keep his Commandments . I have now done with all the Propositions expressed and implyed in the Text ; give me leave to make some practical Considerations , and so I shall dismiss you from this Attention . The rise I take from the words of S. Epiphanius speaking in praise of the Apostolical and purest Ages of the Church : There was at first no distinction of Sects and Opinions in the Church : she knew no difference of men , but good and bad ; there was no separation made , but what was made by piety or impiety , or ( sayes he ) which is all one , by fidelity and infidelity : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . For faith hath in it the Image of godliness engraven , and infidelity hath the Character of wickedness and prevarication . A man was not then esteemed a Saint for disobeying his Bishop or an Apostle , nor for misunderstanding the hard sayings of S. Paul about predestination ; to kick against the laudable Customs of the Church was not then accounted a note of the godly party : and to despise Government was but an ill mark , and weak indication of being a good Christian. The Kingdom of God did not then consist in words , but in power , the power of godliness ; though now we are fallen into another method : we have turned all Religion into Faith , and our faith is nothing but the productions of interest or disputing ; it is adhering to a party , and a wrangling against all the world beside ; and when it is asked of what Religion he is of , we understand the meaning to be , what faction does he follow ; what are the Articles of his Sect , not what is the manner of his life : and if men be zealous for their party and that interest , then they are precious men , though otherwise they be covetous as the Grave , factious as Dathan , Schismatical as Corah , or proud as the falling Angels . Alas ! these things will but deceive us , the faith of a Christian cannot consist in strifes about words , and perverse disputings of men : These things the Apostle calls prophane and vain bablings ; and mark what he sayes of them , these things will encrease 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They are in themselves ungodliness , and will produce more ; they will encrease unto more ungodliness : but the faith of a Christian had other measures : that was faith then which made men faithful to their vows in Baptism . The faith of a Christian was the best security in contracts , and a Christians word was as good as his bond , because he was faithful that promised ; and a Christian would rather dye than break his word ; and was always true to his trust ; he was faithful to his friend , and loved as Jonathan did David . This was the Christian faith then : their Religion was to hurt no man , and to do good to every man , and so it ought to be : True Religion is to visit the Fatherless and Widow , and to keep our selves unspotted of the World. That 's a good religion , that 's pure and undefiled : so S. James , and S. Chrysostom defines 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , true Religion to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ▪ a pure faith and a godly life , for they make up the whole mystery of godliness ; and no man could then pretend to faith , but he that did do valiantly , and suffer patiently , and resist the Devil , and overcome the world . These things are as properly the actions of Faith , as alms is of Charity , and therefore they must enter into the moral definition of it : And this was truly understood by Salvian , that wise and godly Priest of Massilia ; what is faith , and what is believing ( saith he ) hominem fideliter Christo credere est fidelem Deo esse , h. e. fideliter Dei mandata servare . That man does faithfully believe in Christ who is faithful unto God , who faithfully keeps Gods commandments : and therefore let us measure our faith here by our faithfulness to God , and by our diligence to do our Masters Comandments ; for Christianorum omnis religio sine scelere & maculâ vivere , said Lactantius , the whole religion of a Christian is to live unblameably ; that is , in all holiness and purity of conversation . 2. When our faith is spoken of as the great instrument of justification and salvation , take Abraham's faith as your best pattern , and that will end the dispute , because that he was justified by faith when his faith was mighty in effect ; when he trusted in God , when he believed the promises , when he expected a resurrection of the dead , when he was strong in Faith , when he gave glory to God , when against hope he believed in hope ; and when all this past into an act of a most glorious obedience , even denying his greatest desires , contradicting his most passionate affections , offering to God the best thing he had , and exposing to death his beloved Isaac , his laughters , all his joy at the command of God. By this faith he was justified , saith S. Paul ; by these works he was justified , faith S. James ; that is , by this faith working this obedience . And then all the difficulty is over ; only remember this , your faith is weak and will do but little for you , if it be not stronger then all your secular desires and all your peevish angers . Thus we find in the holy Gospels , this conjunction declared necessary , Whatsoever things ye desire , when ye pray , believe that ye receive them , and ye shall have them . Here is as glorious an event promised to Faith as can be expressed , Faith shall obtain any thing of God. True ; but it is not Faith alone ; but faith in prayer ; Faith praying , not Faith simply believing . So S. James ; the prayer of Faith shall save the sick ; but adds , it must be the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man ; so that faith shall prevail , but there must be prayer in faith , and fervour in prayer , and devotion in fervour , and righteousness in devotion , and then impute the effect to faith if you please , provided that it be declared , that effect cannot be wrought by Faith unless it be so qualified . But Christ adds one thing more ; When ye stand praying , forgive ; but if ye will not forgive , neither will your Father forgive you . So that it will be to no purpose to say a man is justified by faith , unless you mingle charity with it : for without the charity of forgiveness , there can be no pardon ; and then justification is but a word , when it effects nothing . 3. Let every one take heed that by an importune adhering to and relying upon a mistaken Faith , he do not really make a shipwrack of a right Faith. Hymenaeus and Alexander lost their Faith by putting away a good conscience ; and what matter is it of what Religion or Faith a man be of , if he be a Villain and a cheat , a man of no truth , and of no trust , a lover of the World , and not a lover of God ? But I pray consider , can any man have Faith that denyes God ? That 's not possible : and cannot a man as well deny God by an evil action , as by an heretical Proposition ? Cannot a man deny God by works as much as by words ? Hear what the Apostle sayes , They profess that they know God , but in works they deny him , being abominable and disobedient , and unto every good work reprobate . Disobedience is a denying God. Nolumus hunc regnare , is as plain a renouncing of Christ , as nolumus huic credere . It is to no purpose to say we believe in Christ and have Faith , unless Christ reign in our hearts by Faith. 4. From these premises we may see but too evidently , that though a great part of mankind pretend to be saved by Faith , yet they know not what it is , or else wilfully mistake it , and place their hopes upon sand , or the more unstable water . Believing is the least thing in a justifying Faith ; for Faith is a conjugation of many Ingredients , and faith is a Covenant , and faith is a Law , and faith is Obedience , and faith is a Work , and indeed it is a sincere cleaving to , and closing with the terms of the Gospel in every instance , in every particular . Alas ! the niceties of a spruce understanding , and the curious nothings of useless speculation , and all the opinions of men that make the divisions of heart , and do nothing else , cannot bring us one drop of comfort in the day of tribulation , and therefore are no parts of the strength of faith : Nay , when a man begins truly to fear God , and is in the Agonies of Mortification , all these new-nothings and curiosities will lye neglected by , as baubles do by Children when they are deadly sick : But that only is faith that makes us to love God , to do his will , to suffer his impositions , to trust his promises , to see through a cloud , to overcome the World , to resist the Devil , to stand in the day of tryal , and to be comforted in all our sorrows . This is that precious faith so mainly necessary to be insisted on , that by it we may be Sons of the free woman , liberi à vitiis ac ritibus , that the true Isaac may be in us , which is Christ according to the Spirit , the wisdom and power of God , a Divine vigour and life , whereby we are enabled with joy and cheerfulness to walk in the way of God. By this you may try your faith , if you please , and make an end of this question : Do you believe in the Lord Jesus , yea or no ? God forbid else , but if your faith be good it will abide the tryal . There are but three things that make the integrity of Christian faith ; believing the words of God , confidence in his goodness , and keeping his Commandments . For the first , it is evident that every man pretends to it ; if he calls himself Christian , he believes all that is in the Canon of the Scriptures ; and if he did not , he were indeed no Christian. But now consider , what think we of this Proposition ? All shall be damned who believe not the truth , but have pleasure in unrighteousness : Does not every man believe this ? Is it possible they can believe there is any such thing as unrighteousness in the World , or any such thing as damnation ; and yet commit that which the Scriptures call unrighteousness , and which all Laws , and all good men say is so ? Consider how many unrighteous men there are in the world , and yet how few of them think they shall be damned . I know not how it comes to pass , but men go upon strange principles , and they have made Christianity to be a very odd Institution , if it had not better measures than they are pleased to afford it . There are two great roots of all evil , Covetousness and Pride , and they have infected the greatest parts of mankind , and yet no man thinks himself to be either Covetous or Proud : And therefore whatever you discourse against these sins , it never hits any man , but like Jonathans Arrows to David , they fall short or they fly beyond : Salvian complained of it in his time , Hoc ad crimina nostra addimus , ut cum in omnibus rei simus , etiam bonos nos & sanctos esse credamus , This we add unto our crimes , we are the vilest persons in the world , and yet we think our selves to be good people , and when we die make no question but we shall go to Heaven . There is no cause of this , but because we have not so much faith as believing comes to , and yet most men will pretend not only to believe , but to love Christ all this while : And how do they prove this ? Truly they hate the memory of Judas , and curse the Jews that crucified Christ , and think Pilate a very miserable man , and that all the Turks are damned ; and to be called Caiphas is a word of reproach ; and indeed there are many that do not much more for Christ than this comes to ; things to as little purpose , and of as little signification . But so the Jews did hate the memory of Corah as we do of Caiphas , and they builded the Sepulchre of the Prophets ; and we also are angry at them that killed the Apostles and the Martyrs , but in the mean time we neither love Christ nor his Saints ; for we neither obey him , nor imitate them : And yet we should think our selves highly injured , if one should call us Infidels and haters of Christ. But I pray consider ; what is hating of any man , but designing and doing him all the injury and spite we can ? Does not he hate Christ that dishonours him , that makes Christs members the members of an harlot ? That doth not feed and clothe these members ? If the Jews did hate Christ when they crucified him , then so does a Christian too when he crucifies him again . Let us not deceive our selves ; a Christian may be damned as well as a Turk ; and Christians may with as much malice crucifie Christ as the Jews did : And so does every man that sins wilfully ; he spills the blood of Christ , making it to be spent in vain . He that hateth you , hateth me , he that receives you , receives me , said Christ to his Apostles . I wish the world had so much faith as to believe that ; and by this try whether we love Christ , and believe in him or no. I shall for the tryal of our faith ask one easie question ; Do we believe that the story of David and Jonathan is true ? Have we so much faith as to think it possible that two Rivals of a Crown should love so dearly ? Can any man believe this , and not be infinitely ashamed to see Christians ( almost all Christians ) to be irreconcileably angry , and ready to pull their brothers heart out , when he offers to take our Land or money from us ? Why do almost all men that go to Law for right hate one anothers persons ? Why cannot men with patience hear their titles questioned ? But if Christianity be so excellent a Religion , why are so very many Christians so very wicked ? Certainly they do not so much as believe the propositions and principles of their own Religion . For the body of Christians is so universally wicked , that it would be a greater change to see Christians generally live according to their profession , than it was at first from infidelity to see them to turn Believers : The conversion from Christian to Christian , from Christian in title to Christian in sincerity , would be a greater miracle then it was when they were converted from Heathen and Jew to Christian. What is the matter ? Is not repentance from dead works reckoned by S. Paul in Heb. 6. as one of the fundamental points of Christian Religion ? Is it not a piece of our Catechism , the first thing we are taught , and is it not the last thing that we practise ? We had better be without Baptism than without repentance , and yet both are necessary ; and therefore if we were not without faith , we should be without neither . Is not Repentance a forsaking all sin , and an intire returning unto God ? Who can deny this ? And is it not plainly said in Scripture , Vnless ye repent ye shall all perish ? But shew me the man that believes these things heartily : that is , shew me a true penitent , he only believes the doctrines of repentance . If I had time I should examine your faith by your confidence in God , and by your obedience . But if we fall in the meer believing , it is not likely we should do better in the other . But because all the promises of God are conditional , and there can be no confidence in the particular without a promise or revelation , it is not possible that any man that does not live well should reasonably put his trust in God. To live a wicked life , and then to be confident that in the day of our death God will give us pardon , is not faith , but a direct want of faith . If we did believe the promises upon their proper conditions , or believe that Gods Commandments were righteous and true , or that the threatnings were as really intended as they are terribly spoken , we should not dare to live at the rate we do : But wicked men have not faith , saith S. Paul , and then the wonder ceases . But there are such palpable contradictions between mens practices and the fundamentals of our faith , that it was a material consideration of our Blessed Saviour , When the Son of man comes shall he find faith upon earth ? Meaning it should be very hard and scant : every man shall boast of his own goodness ; sed virum fidelem , ( saith Solomon ) but a faithful man who can find ? Some men are very good when they are afflicted . Hanc sibi virtutem fractâ facit urceus ansâ , Et tristis nullo qui tepet igne focus ; Et teges & cimex , & nudi sponda grabati , Fit brevis atque eadem nocte dieque toga . When the gown of the day is the mantle of the night , and cannot at the same time cover the head , and make the feet warm ; when they have but one broken dish and no spoon , then they are humble and modest ; then they can suffer an injury , and bear contempt : but give them riches and they grow insolent ; fear and pusillanimity did their first work , and an opportunity to sin undoes it all . Bonum militem perdidisti , Imperatorem pessimum creasti , said Galba , you have spoiled a good Trooper when you made me a bad Commander . Others can never serve God but when they are prosperous , if they lose their fortune they lose their faith , and quit their Charity : Non rata fides ubi jam melior fortuna ruit ; if they become poor , they become lyars and deceivers of their trust , envious and greedy , restless and uncharitable ; that is , one way or other they shew that they love the world , and by all the faith they pretend to cannot overcome it . Cast up therefore your reckonings impartially ; see what is , what will be required at your hands : do not think you can be justified by faith , unless your faith be greater than all your passions ; you have not the learning , not so much as the common notices of faith , unless you can tell when you are covetous , and reprove your self when you are proud ; but he that is so , and knows it not ( and that is the case of most men ) hath no faith , and neither knows God , nor knows himself . To conclude . He that hath true justifying faith , believes the power of God to be above the powers of nature ; the goodness of God above the merit and disposition of our persons , the bounty of God above the excellency of our works , the truth of God above the contradiction of our weak arguings and fears , the love of God above our cold experience and ineffectual reason , and the necessities of doing good works above the faint excuses and ignorant pretences of disputing sinners : But want of faith makes us so generally wicked as we are , so often running to despair ; so often baffled in our resolutions of a good life : But he whose faith makes him more than Conqueror over these difficulties , to him Isaac shall be born even in his old age ; the life of God shall be perfectly wrought in him , and by this faith so operative , so strong , so lasting , so obedient , he shall be justified , and he shall be saved . THE END . A SERMON Preached at the CONSECRATION Of two Arch-Bishops and Ten Bishops , IN THE Cathedral Church of S. Patrick in DUBLIN . January 27. 1660. BY Jeremy Taylor D. D. Lord Bishop of Down and Connor . Sal liquefit , ut condiat . LONDON , Printed for R. Royston , Bookseller to the Kings most Excellent Majesty . 1666. To the CHRISTIAN READER . MY Obedience to the Commands of the Right Honourable the Lord Justices , and the most Reverend and Learned Primate , and to the desires of my Reverend Brethren , put it past my inquiry , whether I ought to publish this following Sermon . I will not therefore excuse it , and say it might have advantages in the Delivery , which it would want in the Reading ; and the ear would be kind to the Piety of it , which was apparent in the design , when the eye would be severe in its censure of those arguments , which as they could not be longer in that measure of time , so would have appeared more firm , if they could have had liberty to have been pursued to their utmost issue : But Reason lies in a little room , and Obedience in less ; and although what I have here said , may not stop the mouths of Men resolved to keep up a Faction , yet I have said enough to the sober and pious , to them who love Order , and hearken to the voice of the Spouse of Christ , to the Loving and to the Obedient : And for those that are not so , I have no argument fit to be used , but Prayer , and readiness to give them a Reason when they shall modestly demand it . In the mean time I shall only desire them to make use of those Truths which the more Learned of their party have by the evidence of fact been forced to confess . Rivet affirms that it descended ex veteris aevi reliquiis , that Presbyters should be assistants or conjoyned to the Bishops ( who is by this confessed to be the principal ) in the imposition of hands for Ordination . Walo Messalinus acknowledges it to be rem antiquissimam , a most ancient thing that these two Orders , ( viz. ) of Bishops and Presbyters , should be distinct , even in the middle , or in the beginning of the next age after Christ. Dd. Blondel places it to be 35 years after the death of S. John. Now then Episcopacy is confessed to be of about 1600 years continuance : and if before this they can shew any Ordination by meer Presbyters , by any but an Apostle , or an Apostolical man ; and if there were not visibly a distinction of Powers and Persons relatively in the Ecclesiastical Government ; or if they can give a rational account why they who are forced to confess the Honour and distinct Order of Episcopacy for about 16 Ages , should in the dark interval of 35 years ( in which they can pretend to no Monument or Record to the contrary ) yet make unlearned scruples of things they cannot colourably prove ; if ( I say ) they can reasonably account for these things , I for my part will be ready to confess that they are not guilty of the greatest , the most unreasonable and inexcusable schism in the world ; but else they have no colour to palliate the unlearned crime : for will not all wise men in the world conclude , that the Church of God which was then Holy , not in title only and design , but practically and materially ; and persecuted , and not immerged in secular temptations , could not all in one instant joyn together to alter that Form of Church Government , which Christ and his Apostles had so recently established , and without a Divine Warrant destroy a Divine Institution , not only to the confusion of the Hierarchy , but to the ruine of their own Souls ? It were strange that so great a change should be , and no good man oppose it : In toto orbe decretum est ; so S. Hierom : All the world consented in the advancement of the Episcopal Order : And therefore if we had no more to say for it , yet in prudence and piety we cannot say they would innovate in so great a matter . But I shall enter no further upon this enquiry ; only I remember that it is not very many months since the Bigots of the Popish party cryed out against us vehemently , and enquired , Where is your Church of England , since you have no Vnity ? for your Ecclesiastick head of Vnity , your Bishops , are gone : And if we should be desirous to verifie their Argument , so as indeed to destroy Episcopacy , we should too much advantage Popery , and do the most imprudent and most impious thing in the world . But blessed be God who hath restored that Government , for which our late King of glorious memory gave his blood : And that ( methinks ) should very much weigh with all the Kings true hearted Subjects , who should make it Religion not to rob that glorious Prince of the greatest honour of such a Martyrdom . For my part , I think it fit to rest in these words of another Martyr , S. Cyprian , Si quis cum Episcopo non sit , in Ecclesia non esse : He that is not with the Bishop is not in the Church : that is , he that goes away from him , and willingly separates , departs from Gods Church ; and whether he can then be with God , is a very material consideration , and fit to be thought on by all that think Heaven a more eligible good than the interests of a Faction , and the importune desire of rule can countervail . However , I have in the following Papers spoken a few things , which I hope may be fit to perswade them that are not infinitely prejudiced : and although two or three good Arguments are as good as two or three hundred , yet my purpose here was to prove the dignity and necessity of the Office and Order Episcopal , only that it might be as an Oeconomy to convey notice , and remembrances of the great duty incumbent upon all them that undertake this great charge . The Dignity and the Duty take one another by the hand , and are born together : only every Sheep of the Flock must take care to make the Bishops Duty as easie as it can , by Humility and Love , by Prayer and by Obedience . It is at the best very difficult , but they who oppose themselves to Government , make it harder and uncomfortable : But take heed , if they Bishop hath cause to complain to God of thee for thy perversness and uncharitable walking , thou wilt be the loser ; and for us we can only say in the words of the Prophet , We will weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people : But our comfort is in God : for we can do nothing without him , but in him we can do all things : And therefore we will pray , Domine , dabis pacem nobis , omnia enim opera nostra operatus es in nobis : God hath wrought all our works within us ; and therefore he will give us peace , and give us his Spirit . Finally , Brethren , pray for us , that the word of the Lord may have free course , and be glorified even as it is with you ; and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men , for all men have not Faith. A Consecration Sermon Preached at DUBLIN . SERM. IV. Luke XII . 42. And the Lord said , Who then is that faithful and wise Steward , whom his Lord shall make Ruler over his Houshold , to give them their portion of meat in due season . verse 43 Blessed is that Servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . THese words are not properly a question , though they seem so , and the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not interrogative , but hypothetical , and extends who to whosoever ; plainly meaning that whoever is a Steward over Christs houshold , of him God requires a great care , because he hath trusted him with a great employment . Every Steward 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so it is in S. Matthew , * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so it is in my Text ; Every Steward whom the Lord hath or shall appoint over the Family to rule it and to feed it , now and in all generations of men , as long as this Family shall abide on earth ; that is , the Apostles , and they who were to succeed the Apostles in the Stewardship , were to be furnished with the same power , and to undertake the same charge , and to give the same strict and severe accounts . In these words here is something insinuated , and much expressed . 1. That which is insinuated only is , who these Stewards are , whom Christ had , whom Christ would appoint over his Family the Church : they are not here named , but we shall find them out by their proper direction and indigitation by and by . 2. But that which is expressed , is the Office it self , in a double capacity . 1. In the dignity of it , It is a Rule and Government : [ whom the Lord shall make Ruler over his Houshold . ] 2. In the care and duty of it , which determines the Government to be paternal and profitable ; it is a rule , but such a rule as Shepherds have over their flocks , to lead them to good pastures , and to keep them within their appointed walks , and within their folds : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : that 's the work , to give them a measure and proportion of nourishment : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so S. Matthew calls it : meat in the season ; that which is fit for them , and when it is fit ; meat enough , and meat convenient ; and both together mean that which the Greek Poets call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the strong wholsom dyet . 3. Lastly , Here is the reward of the faithful and wise dispensation . The Steward that does so , and continues to do so , till his Lord find him so doing , this man shall be blessed in his deed . [ Blessed is the Servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing . ] Of these in order . 1. Who are these Rulers of Christs Family : for though Christ knew it , and therefore needed not to ask ; yet we have disputed it so much and obeyed so little , that we have changed the plain hypothesis into an intangled question . The answer yet is easie as to some part of the inquiry : The Apostles are the first meaning of the Text ; for they were our Fathers in Christ , they begat Sons and Daughters unto God ; and were a spiritual paternity is evident : we need look no further for spiritual Government , because in the Paternal Rule all Power is founded ; they begat the Family by the power of the Word and the life of the Spirit , and they fed this Family , and ruled it by the word of their proper Ministry : They had the keyes of this house , the Stewards Ensign , and they had the Rulers place ; for they sat on twelve Thrones and judged the twelve Tribes of Israel . But of this there is no question . And as little of another proposition ; that this Stewardship was to last for ever , for the power of Ministring in this Office and the Office it self were to be perpetual : For the issues and powers of Government are more necessary for the perpetuating the Church , than for the first planting ; and if it was necessary that the Apostles should have a rod and a staff at first , it would be more necessary afterwards , when the Family was more numerous , and their first zeal abated , and their native simplicity perverted into arts of hypocrisie and forms of godliness , when Heresies should arise , and the love of many should wax cold . The Apostles had also a power of Ordination ; and that the very power it self does denote , for it makes perpetuity , that could not expire in the dayes of the Apostles ; for by it they themselves propagated a succession . And Christ having promised his Spirit to abide with his Church for ever , and made his Apostles the Channels , the Ministers and conveyances of it , that it might descend as the inheritance and eternal portion of the Family ; it cannot be imagined that when the first Ministers were gone , there should not others rise up in the same places , some like to the first , in the same Office and Ministry of the Spirit . But the thing is plain and evident in the matter of fact also : Quod in Ecclesiâ nunc geritur , hoc olim fecerunt Apostoli , said S. Cyprian ; What the Apostles did at first , that the Church does to this day , and shall do so for ever : For when S. Paul had given to the Bishop of Ephesus rules of Government in this Family , he commands that they should be observed till the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ : and therefore these authorities and charges are given to him and to his Successors ; it is the observation of S. Ambrose upon the warranty of that Text , and is obvious and undeniable . Well then , The Apostles were the first Stewards ; and this Office dies not with them , but must for ever be succeeded in ; and now begins the inquiry , who are the successors of the Apostles : for they are , they must evidently be the Stewards to feed and to rule this Family . There are some that say that all who have any portion of work in the Family , all the Ministers of the Gospel are these Stewards , and so all will be Rulers . The Presbyters surely ; for say they , Presbyter and Bishop is the same thing , and have the same name in Scripture , and therefore the Office cannot be distinguished : To this I shall very briefly say two things , which will quickly clear our way through this bush of thorns . 1. That the word Presbyter is but an honourable appellative used amongst the Jews , as Alderman amongst us ; but it signifies no order at all , nor was ever used in Scripture to signifie any distinct company or order of Clergy : And this appears not only by an induction in all the enumerations of the Offices Ministerial in the New Testament , * where to be a Presbyter is never reckoned either as a distinct Office , or a distinct Order ; but by its being indifferently communicated to all the Superior Clergy , and all the Princes of the People . 2. The second thing I intended to say is this , that although all the Superior Clergy had not only one , but divers common appellatives , all being called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , even the Apostolate it self being called a Deaconship * ; yet it is evident that before the common appellations were fixt into names of propriety , they were as evidently distinguished in their Offices and Powers , as they are at this day in their Names and Titles . To this purpose S. Paul gave to Titus the Bishop of Crete a special Commission , Command and Power to make Ordinations ; and in him , and in the person of Timothy he did erect a Court of Judicature even over some of the Clergy , who yet were called Presbyters ; against a Presbyter receive not an accusation but before two or three witnesses : there is the measure and the warranty of the Audientia Episcopalis , the Bishops Audience Court ; and when the accused were found guilty , he gives in charge to proceed to censures ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You must rebuke them sharply , & you must silence them , stop their mouths , that 's S. Pauls word ; that they may no more scatter their venom in the ears and hearts of the people . These Bishops were commanded to set in order things that were wanting in the Churches , the same with that power of S. Paul , [ other things will I set in order when I come ] said he to the Corinthian Churches ; in which there were many who were called Presbyters , who nevertheless for all that name , had not that power : To the same purpose it is plain in Scripture , that some would have been Apostles that were not ; such were those whom the Spirit of God notes in the Revelation ; and some did love preeminence that had it not , for so did Diotrephes ; and some were Judges of questions , and all were not , for therefore they appealed to the Apostles at Jerusalem ; and S. Philip though he was an Evangelist , yet he could not give confirmation to the Samaritans whom he had baptized , but the Apostles were sent for , for that was part of the power reserved to the Episcopal or Apostolick Order . Now from these premises the conclusion is plain and easie . 1. Christ left a Government in his Church , and founded it in the persons of the Apostles . 2. The Apostles received this power for the perpetual use and benefit , for the comfort and edification of the Church for ever . 3. The Apostles had this Government , but all that were taken into the Ministry , and all that were called Presbyters had it not . If therefore this Government , in which there is so much disparity in the very nature and exercise and first original or it , must abide for ever ; then so must that disparity : If the Apostolate in the first stabiliment was this eminency of power , then it must be so ; that is , it must be the same in the succession , that it was in the foundation . For after the Church is founded upon its Governors , we are to expect no change of Government . If Christ was the Author of it , then as Christ left it , so it must abide for ever : for ever there must be the Governing and the governed , the Superior and the subordinate , the Ordainer and the ordained , the Confirmer and he confirmed . Thus far the way is straight , and the path is plain . The Apostles were the Stewards and the ordinary Rulers of Christs Family by virtue of the order and office Apostolical ; and although this be succeeded to for ever , yet no man for his now , or at any time being called a Presbyter or Elder can pretend to it ; for besides his being a Presbyter , he must be an Apostle too ; else , though he be called in partem sollicitudinis , and may do the office of assistance and under-stewardship , yet the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Government and Rule of the Family belongs not to him . But then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , who are these Stewards and Rulers over the houshold now ? To this the answer is also certain and easie . Christ hath made the same Governors to day as heretofore ; Apostles still . For though the twelve Apostles are dead , yet the Apostolical order is not : it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a generative order , and begets more Apostles . Now who these minores Apostoli are , the successors of the Apostles in that Office Apostolical and supream regiment of souls , we are sufficiently taught in Holy Scriptures ; which when I have clearly shewn to you , I shall pass on to some more practical considerations . 1. Therefore , Certain and known it is , that Christ appointed two sorts of Ecclesiastick persons ; XII . Apostles , and the LXXII . Disciples ; to these he gave a limited commission ; to those a fulness of power ; to these a temporary imployment ; to those a perpetual and everlasting ; from these two societies founded by Christ , the whole Church of God derives the two superiour orders in the sacred Hierarchy ; and as Bishops do not claim a Divine right but by succession from the Apostles ; so the Presbyters cannot pretend to have been instituted by Christ , but by claiming a succession to the LXXII . And then consider the difference , compare the Tables , and all the world will see the advantages of argument we have ; for since the LXXII . had nothing but a mission on a temporary errand ; and more then that , we hear nothing of them in Scripture ; but upon the Apostles Christ powred all the Ecclesiastical power , and made them the ordinary Ministers of that Spirit which was to abide with the Church for ever ; the Divine institution of Bishops , that is , of Successors to the Apostles , is much more clear then that Christ appointed Presbyters , or Successors of the LXXII . And yet if from hence they do not derive it , they can never prove their order to be of Divine institution at all , much less to be so alone . But we may see the very thing it self ; the very matter of fact . S. James the Bishop of Jerusalem , is by S. Paul called an Apostle ; Other Apostles saw I none , save James the Lords Brother . For there were some whom the Scriptures call the Apostles of our Lord ; that is , such which Christ made by his Word immediately , or by his Spirit extraordinarily ; and even into this number and title , Matthias , and S. Paul , and Barnabas were accounted . * But the Church also made Apostles ; and these were called by S. Paul , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Apostles of the Churches , and particularly Epaphroditus was the Apostle of the Philippians ; properly so ( faith Primasius , ) and what is this else but the Bishop saith Theodoret ; for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , those who are now called Bishops were then called Apostles , saith the same Father . The sense and full meaning of which argument is a perfect commentary upon that famous prophecy of the Church , [ Instead of thy Fathers thou shalt have children whom thou mayst make Princes in all Lands ; ] that is , not only the twelve Apostles our Fathers in Christ , who first begat us , were to rule Christs Family , but when they were gone , their Children and Successors should arise in their stead : Et nati natorum , & qui nascentur ab illis , their direct Successors to all generations shall be Principes populi , that is , Rulers and Governours of the whole Catholick Church . De prole enim Ecclesiae crevit eidem paternita● , id est , Episcopi quos illa genuit , & Patres appellat , & constituit in sedibus Patrum , saith S. Austin ; the Children of the Church become Fathers of the faithful ; that is , the Church begets Bishops , and places them in the seat of Fathers , the first Apostles . After these plain and evident testimonies of Scripture , it will not be amiss to say , that this great affair relying not only upon the words of institution , but on matter of fact , passed forth into a demonstration and greatest notoriety by the Doctrine and Practice of the whole Catholick Church : For so S. Irenaeus , who was one of the most Ancient Fathers of the Church , and might easily make good his affirmative ; We can ( says he ) reckon the men who by the Apostles were appointed Bishops in Churches , to be their Successors unto us ; leaving to them the same power and authority which they had . Thus S. Polycarp was by the Apostles made Bishop of Smyrna ; S. Clement Bishop of Rome by S. Peter ; and divers others by the Apostles , saith Tertullian ; saying also that the Asian Bishops were consecrated by S. John. And to be short , that Bishops are the Successors of the Apostles in the Stewardship and Rule of the Church , is expresly taught by S. Cyprian , and S. Hierom , S. Ambrose , and S. Austin , by Euthymius , and Pacianus , by S. Gregory , and S. John Damascen , by Clarius à Muscula , and S. Sixtus , by Anacletus , and S. Isidore ; by the Roman Councel under S. Sylvester , and the Councel of Carthage : and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or succession of Bishops from the Apostles hands in all the Churches Apostolical was as certainly known as in our Chronicles we find the succession of our English Kings , and one can no more be denyed then the other . The conclusion from these Premises I give you in the words of S. Cyprian ; Cogitent Diaconi quod Apostolos , id est , Episcopos Dominus ipse elegerit , Let the Ministers know that Apostles , that is , the Bishops were chosen by our blessed Lord himself : and this was so evident , and so believed , that S. Austin affirms it with a nemo ignorat , No man is so ignorant but he knows this , that our blessed Saviour appointed Bishops over Churches . Indeed the Gnosticks spake evil of this Order ; for they are noted by three Apostles . S. Paul , S. Peter , and S. Jude , to be despisers of Government , and to speak evil of Dignities ; and what Government it was they did so despise , we may understand by the words of S. Jude , they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in the contradiction or gainsaying of Corah , who with his company rose up against Aaron the High Priest ; and excepting these who were the vilest of men , no man within the first 300 years after Christ , opposed Episcopacy . But when Constantine received the Church into his arms , he found it universally governed by Bishops ; and therefore no wise or good man professing to be a Christian , that is , to believe the Holy Catholick Church , can be content to quit the Apostolical Government , ( that by which the whole Family of God was fed , and taught , and ruled , ) and beget to himself new Fathers and new Apostles , who by wanting succession from the Apostles of our Lord , have no Ecclesiastical and Derivative Communion with these fountains of our Saviour . If ever Lirinensis's rule could be used in any question , it is in this : Quod semper , quod ubique , quod ab omnibus ; That Bishops are the Successors of the Apostles in this Stewardship , and that they did always rule the Family , was taught and acknowledged always , and every where , and by all men that were of the Church of God : and if these evidences be not sufficient to convince modest and sober persons in this question , we shall find our faith to fail in many other Articles , of which we yet are very confident : For the observation of the Lords day , the consecration of the holy Eucharist by Priests , the baptizing Infants , the communicating of Women , and the very Canon of the Scripture it self relye but upon the same probation ; and therefore the denying of Articles thus proved , is a way ( I do not say ) to bring in all Sects and Heresies , ( that 's but little ) but a plain path and inlet to Atheism and Irreligion ; for by this means it will not only be impossible to agree concerning the meaning of Scripture , but the Scripture it self , and all the Records of Religion will become useless , and of no efficacy or perswasion . I am entred into a Sea of matter , but I will break it off abruptly , and sum up this inquiry with the words of the Councel of Chalcedon , which is one of the four Generals , by our Laws made the measures of judging Heresies : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , It is sacriledge to bring back a Bishop to the degree and order of a Presbyter . It is indeed a rifling the order , and intangling the gifts , and confounding the method of the Holy Ghost ; it is a dishonouring them whom God would honour , and a robbing them of those spiritual eminencies with which the Spirit of God does anoint the consecrated heads of Bishops . And I shall say one thing more , which indeed is a great truth , that the diminution of Episcopacy was first introduced by Popery ; and the Popes of Rome by communicating to Abbots , and other meer Priests , special graces to exercise some essential Offices of Episcopacy , have made this sacred Order to be cheap , and apt to be invaded . But then adde this : If Simon Magus was in so damnable a condition for offering to buy the gifts and powers of the Apostolical Order , what shall we think of them that snatch them away , and pretend to wear them whether the Apostles and their Successors will or no ? This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to belye the Holy Ghost ; that is the least of it : it is rapine and sacrilege , besides the heresie and schism , and the spiritual lye . For the Government Episcopal , as it was exemplified in the Synagogue , and practised by the same measures in the Temple , so it was transcribed by the eternal Son of God , who translated it into a Gospel Ordinance : it was sanctified by the Holy Spirit , who named some of the persons , and gave to them all power and graces from above : it was subjected in the Apostles first , and by them transmitted to a distinct Order of Ecclesiasticks : it was received into all Churches , consigned in the Records of the Holy Scriptures , preached by the universal voice of all the Christian World , delivered by notorious and uninterrupted practice , and derived to further and unquestionable issue by perpetual succession . I have done with the hardest part of the Text , by finding out the persons intrusted , the Stewards of Christs Family ; which though Christ only intimated in this place , yet he plainly enough manifested in others : The Apostles and their Successors the Bishops , are the men intrusted with this great charge ; God grant they may all discharge it well . And so I pass from the Officers to a consideration of the Office it self , in the next words ; Whom the Lord shall make Ruler over his Houshold , to give them their meat in due season . 2. The Office it self is the Stewardship , that is Episcopacy , the Office of the Bishop : The name signifies an Office of the Ruler indefinitely , but the word was chosen , and by the Church appropriated to those whom it now signifies , both because the word it self is a monition of duty , and also because the faithful were used to it in the dayes of Moses and the Prophets . The word is in the Prophecy of the Church , [ I will give to thee Princes in Peace , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and Bishops in Righteousness , ] upon which place S. Hierom sayes , Principes Ecclesiae vocat futuros Episcopos ; [ The Spirit of God calls them who were to be Christian Bishops , Principes , or chief Rulers , ] and this was no new thing ; for the chief of the Priests who were set over the rest , are called Bishops by all the Hellenist Jews . Thus Joel is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Bishop over the Priests ; and the son of Bani , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Bishop and Visitor over the Levites ; and we find at the purging of the Land from Idolatry , the High Priest placed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Bishops over the House of God. Nay it was the appellative of the High Priest himself , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Bishop Eleazar , the Son of Aaron the Priest , to whom is committed the care of Lamps , and the daily Sacrifice , and the holy unction . Now this word the Church retained , choosing the same Name to her superior Ministers , because of the likeness of the Ecclesiastical Government between the Old and New Testament . For Christ made no change but what was necessary : Baptism was a rite among the Jews , and the Lords Supper was but the post-coenium of the Hebrews changed into a mystery , from a type to a more real exhibition ; and the Lords Prayer was a collection of the most eminent devotions ; of the Prophets and Holy men before Christ , who prayed by the same Spirit ; and the censures Ecclesiastical were but an imitation of the proceedings of the Judaical Tribunals ; and the whole Religion was but the Law of Moses drawn out of its vail into clarity and manifestation ; and to conclude in order to the present affair , the Government which Christ left was the same as he found it ; for what Aaron and his Sons , and the Levites were in the Temple , that Bishops , Priests and Deacons are in the Church ; it is affirmed by S. Hierom more than once ; and the use he makes of it is this , Esto subjectus Pontifici tuo , & quasi animae parentem suscipe ; Obey your Bishop , and receive him as the nursing Father of your Soul. But above all , this appellation is made honourable by being taken by our blessed Lord himself ; for he is called in Scripture the great Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls . But our enquiry is not after the Name , but the Office , and the Dignity and Duty of it ; Ecclesiae gubernandae sublimis ac divina potestos ( so S. Cyprian calls it ) a High and a Divine power from God of governing the Church ; rem magnam & preciosam in conspectu Domini ( so S. Cyril ) a great and pretious thing in the sight of God ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Isidor Pelusiot ; the utmost limit of what is desirable among men : But the account upon which it is so desirable , is the same also that makes it formidable . They who have tryed it , and did it conscientiously , have found the burden so great , as to make them stoop with care and labour ; and they who do it ignorantly or carelesly , will find it will break their bones : For the Bishops Office is all that duty which can be signified by those excellent words of S. Cyprian ; He is a Bishop or Overseer of the Brotherhood , the Ruler of the people , the Shepherd of the Flock , the Governour of the Church , the Minister of Christ , and the Priest of God. These are great titles , and yet less than what is said of them in Scripture , which calls them Salt of the Earth , Lights upon a candlestick , Stars and Angels , Fathers of our Faith , Embassadors of God , Dispensers of the Mysteries of God , the Apostles of the Churches , and the glory of Christ ; but then they are great burdens too : for the Bishop is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , intrusted with the Lords people ; that 's a great charge , but there is a worse matter that follows ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Bishop is he of whom God will require an account for all their souls : they are the words of S. Paul , and transcribed into the 40th Canon of the Apostles , and the 24th Canon of the Councel of Antioch . And now I hope the envy is taken off ; for the honour does not pay for the burden ; and we can no sooner consider Episcopacy in its dignity , as it is a Rule ; but the very nature of that Rule does imply so severe a duty , that as the load of it is almost insufferable , so the event of it is very formidable , if we take not great care . For this Stewardship is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a Principality and a Ministry . So it was in Christ ; he is Lord of all , and yet he was the Servant of all ; so it was in the Apostles , it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , their lot was to be Apostles , and yet to serve and minister ; and it is remarkable , that in Isaiah the 70. use the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Bishop ; but there they use it for the Hebrew word nechosheth , which the Greeks usually render by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and the interlineary translation by Exactores . Bishops are only Gods Ministers and Tribute gatherers , requiring and overseeing them that they do their duty ; and therefore here the case is so , and the burden so great , and the dignity so allayed , that the envious man hath no reason to be troubled that his brother hath so great a load ; nor the proud man plainly to be delighted with so honourable a danger . It is indeed a Rule , but it is paternal ; it is a Government , but it must be neither 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it is neither a power to constrain , nor a commission to get wealth ; for it must be without necessity , and not for filthy lucre sake ; but it is a Rule , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so S. Luke , as of him that ministers ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so S. Mark , as of him that is servant of all ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so S. John ; such a principality as he hath that washes the feet of the weary Traveller ; or if you please , take it in the words of our blessed Lord himself , that [ He that will be chief among you let him be your Minister , ] meaning that if under Christs Kingdom you desire Rule , possibly you may have it ; but all that rule under him are Servants to them that are ruled ; and therefore you get nothing by it , but a great labour and a busie employment , a careful life , and a necessity of making severe accounts . But all this is nothing but the general measures , I cannot be useful or understood unless I be more particular . The particulars we shall best enumerate by recounting those great conjugations of worthy offices and actions by which Christian Bishops have blessed and built up Christendom ; for because we must be followers of them , as they were of Christ , the recounting what they did worthily in their Generations , will not only demonstrate how useful , how profitable , how necessary Episcopacy is to the Christian Church , but it will at the same time teach us our duty , by what services we are to benefit the Church , in what works we are to be employed , and how to give an account of our Stewardship with joy . 1. The Christian Church was founded by Bishops , not only because the Apostles , who were Bishops , were the first Preachers of the Gospel , and Planters of Churches , but because the Apostolical men , whom the Apostles used in planting and disseminating Religion , were by all Antiquity affirmed to have been Diocesan Bishops ; insomuch that as S. Epiphanius witnesses , there were at the first disseminations of the faith of Christ , many Churches who had in them no other Clergy , but a Bishop and his Deacons , and the Presbyters were brought in afterwards as the harvest grew greater : But the Bishops names are known , they are recorded in the book of Life , and their praise is in the Gospel ; such were Timothy and Titus , Clemens and Linus , Marcus and Dionysius , Onesimus and Caius , Epaphroditus and S. James our Lords brother , Evodius and Simeon ; all which , if there be any faith in Christians that gave their lives for a testimony to the faith , and any truth in their stories ; and unless we who believe Thucydides and Plutarch , Livy and Tacitus , think that all Church story is a perpetual Romance , and that all the brave men , the Martyrs and the Doctors of the Primitive Church , did conspire as one man to abuse all Christendom for ever ; I say unless all these impossible suppositions be admitted , all these whom I have now reckoned were Bishops fixed in several Churches , and had Dioceses for their Charges . The consequent of this consideration is this : If Bishops were those upon whose Ministry Christ founded and built his Church , let us consider what great wisdom is required of them that seem to be Pillars : the Stewards of Christs Family must be wise ; that Christ requires : and if the Order be necessary to the Church , wisdom cannot but be necessary to the Order ; for it is a shame if they who by their Office are Fathers in Christ , shall by their unskilfulness be but Babes themselves , understanding not the secrets of Religion , the mysteries of Godliness , the perfections of the Evangelical Law , all the advantages and disadvantages in the Spiritual Life . A Bishop must be exercised in Godliness , a man of great experience in the secret conduct of Souls , not satisfied with an ordinary skill in making Homilies to the people , and speaking common exhortations in ordinary cases ; but ready to answer in all secret inquiries , and able to convince the gainsayers , and to speak wisdom amongst them that are perfect . If the first Bishops laid the foundation , their Successors must not only preserve whatsoever is fundamental , but build up the Church in a most holy Faith , taking care that no Heresie sap the foundation , and that no hay or rotten wood be built upon it ; and above all things , that a most holy life be superstructed upon a holy and unreproveable Faith. So the Apostles laid the foundation , and built the walls of the Church , and their Successors must raise up the roof as high as Heaven . For let us talk and dispute eternally , we shall never compose the controversies in Religion , and establish truth upon unalterable foundations , as long as men handle the word of God deceitfully , that is , with designs and little artifices , and secular partialities ; and they will for ever do so , as long as they are proud or covetous . It is not the difficulty of our questions , or the subtlety of our Adversaries that makes disputes interminable ; but we shall never cure the itch of disputing , or establish Unity , unless we apply our selves to humility , and contempt of riches . If we will be contending , let us contend like the Olive and the Vine , who shall produce best , and most fruit ; not like the Aspine and the Elm , which shall make most noise in a wind . And all other methods are a beginning at a wrong end . And as for the people ; the way to make them conformable to the wise and holy rules of Faith and Government , is by reducing them to live good lives . When the children of Israel gave themselves to gluttony and drunkenness , and filthy lusts , they quickly fell into abominable idolatries ; and S. Paul says , that men make shipwrack of their Faith by putting away a good conscience ; for the mystery of Faith is best preserved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in a pure conscience , saith the same Apostle : secure but that , and we shall quickly end our disputes , and have an obedient and conformable people ; but else never . 2. As Bishops were the first Fathers of Churches , and gave them being ; so they preserve them in being : For without Sacraments there is no Church , or it will be starved and dye ; and without Bishops there can be no Priests , and consequently no Sacraments ; and that must needs be a supreme Order from whence Ordination it self proceeds . For it is evident and notorious , that in Scripture there is no Record of Ordination , but an Apostolical hand was in it ; one of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one of the chief , one of the superior and ruling Clergy ; and it is as certain in the descending ages of the Church , the Bishop always had that power , it was never denyed to him , and it was never imputed to Presbyters : and S. Hierom himself , when out of his anger against John Bishop of Jerusalem he endeavoured to equal the Presbyter with the Bishop , though in very many places he spake otherwise , yet even then also , and in that heat , he excepted Ordination , acknowledging that to be the Bishops peculiar . And therefore they who go about to extinguish Episcopacy , do as Julian did ; they destroy the Presbytery and starve the Flock , and take away their Shepheards , and dispark their pastures , and tempt Gods providence to extraordinaries , and put the people to hard shifts , and turn the channels of salvation quite another way , and leave the Church to a perpetual uncertainty , whether she be alive or dead , and the people destitute of the life of their Souls , and their daily bread , and their spiritual comforts , and holy blessings . The consequent of this is : If Sacraments depend upon Bishops , then let us take care that we convey to the people holy and pure materials , sanctified with a holy Ministry , and ministred by holy persons : For although it be true , that the efficacy of the Sacraments does not depend wholly upon the worthiness of him that ministers ; yet it is as true , that it does not wholly rely upon the worthiness of the Receiver ; but both together relying upon the goodness of God , produce all those blessings which are designed . The Minister hath an influence into the effect , and does very much towards it ; and if there be a failure there , it is a defect in one of the concurring causes ; and therefore an unholy Bishop is a great diminution to the peoples blessing . S. Hierom presses this severely : Impiè faciunt , &c. They do wickedly who affirm , that the holy Eucharist is consecrated by the words [ alone ] and solemn prayer of the Consecrator , and not also by his life and holiness : And therefore S. Cyprian affirms , that none but holy and upright men are to be chosen , who offering their Sacrifices worthily to God , may be heard in their prayers for the Lords people : but for others ; Sacrificia eorum panis luctus ( saith the Prophet Hosea , ) their Sacrifices are like the bread of sorrow , whoever eats thereof shall be defiled . This discourse is not mine but S. Cyprian's : and although his words are not to be understood dogmatically , but in the case of duty and caution ; yet we may lay our hands upon our hearts , and consider how we shall give an account of our Stewardship , if we shall offer to the people the bread of God with impure hands ; it is of it self a pure nourishment , but if it passes through an unclean vessel , it loses much of its excellency . 3. The like also is to be said concerning Prayer : For the Episcopal Order is appointed by God to be the great Ministers of Christs Priesthood , that is , to stand between Christ and the people in the entercourse of prayer and blessing . We will give our selves continually to prayer , said the Apostles , that was the one half of their employment ; and indeed a Bishop should spend very much of his time in holy prayer , and in diverting Gods judgments , and procuring blessings to the people ; for in all times , the chief of the Religion was ever the chief Minister of blessing . Thus Abraham blessed Abimelech , and Melchisedeck blessed Abraham , and Aaron blessed the people ; and without all controversie ( saith the Apostle ) the less is blessed of the greater . But then we know that God heareth not sinners ; and it must be the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man that shall prevail , And therefore we may easily consider that a vitious Prelate is a great calamity to that Flock which he is appointed to bless and pray for . How shall he reconcile the penitents , who is himself at enmity with God ? How shall the Holy Spirit of God descend upon the Symbols at his Prayer who does perpetually grieve him , and quench his holy fires , and drive him quite away ? How shall he that hath not tasted of the Spirit by contemplation , stir up others to earnest desires of Coelestial things ? Or what good shall the people receive , when the Bishop layes upon their head a covetous or a cruel , an unjust or an impure hand ? But therefore , that I may use the words of S. Hierom ; Cum ab Episcopo gratia in populum transfundatur , & mundi totius & Ecclesiae totius condimentum sit Episcopus , &c. Since it is intended that from the Bishop grace should be diffused amongst all the people , there is not in the world a greater indecency than a holy office ministred by an unholy person , and no greater injury to the people , than that of the blessings which God sends to them by the ministeries Evangelical they should be cheated and defrauded by a wicked Steward . And therefore it was an excellent Prayer which to this very purpose was by the Son of Sirach made in behalf of the High-Priests the Sons of Aaron ; [ God give you wisdom in you heart to judge his people in Righteousness , that their good things be not abolished , and that their glory may endure for ever . ] 4. All the Offices Ecclesiastical alwayes were , and ought to be conducted by the Episcopal Order , as is evident in the universal Doctrine and Practice of the Primitive Church : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It is the 40th Canon of the Apostles , Let the Presbyters and Deacons do nothing without leave of the Bishop : but that cafe is known . The consequent of this consideration is no other than the admonition in my Text : We are Stewards of the manifold grace of God , and dispensers of the mysteries of the Kingdom ; and it is required of Stewards that they be found faithful ; that we preach the word of God in season and out of season , that we rebuke and exhort , admonish and correct ; for these God calls Pastores Secundùm cor meum , Pastors according to his own heart , which feed the people with knowledge and understanding ; but they must also comfort the afflicted , and bind up the broken heart ; minister the Sacraments with great diligence , and righteous measures , and abundant charity , alwayes having in mind those passionate words of Christ of S. Peter , If thou lovest me , feed my sheep ; if thou hast any love to me , feed my lambs . And let us remember this also , that nothing can enforce the people to obey their Bishops as they ought , but our doing that duty and charity to them which God requires . There is reason in these words of S. Chrysostom , [ It is necessary that the Church should adhere to their Bishop as the body to the head , as plants to their roots , as rivers to their springs , as Children to their Fathers , as Disciples to their Masters . ] These similitudes express not only the relation and dependency , but they tell us the reason of the Duty : The Head gives light and reason to conduct the Body ; the Roots give nourishment to the Plants ; and the Springs , perpetual emanation of Waters to the Channels : Fathers teach and feed their Children ; and Disciples receive wise Instructions from their Masters : and if we be all this to the People , they will be all that to us ; and Wisdom will compel them to submit , and our Humility will teach them Obedience , and our Charity will invite their compliance ; our good example will provoke them to good works , and our meekness will melt them into softness and flexibility : For all the Lords People are Populus voluntarius , a free and willing people ; and we , who cannot compel their bodies , must thus constrain their Souls , by inviting their Wills , by convincing their Understandings , by the beauty of fair example , the efficacy and holiness , and the demonstrations of the Spirit This is experimentum ejus qui in nobis loquitur Christus , The experiment of Christ that speaketh in us : For to this purpose those are excellent words which St. Paul spake , [ Remember them who have the rule over you , whose faith follow , considering the end of their conversation . ] There lies the demonstration ; and those Prelates who teach good life , whose Sermons , are the measures of Christ , and whose Life is a copy of their Sermons , these must be followed , and surely these will ; for these are burning and shining Lights : but if we hold forth false fires , and by the amusement of evil example call the Vessels that sail upon a dangerous Sea to come upon a Rock , or an iron Shore instead of a safe Harbour , we cause them to make shipwreck of their precious Faith , and to perish in the deceitful and unstable water : Vox operum fortiùs sonat quàm verborum : A good Life is the strongest argument that your Faith is good , and a gentle voice will be sooner entertained than a voice of thunder ; but the greatest eloquence in the world is meek spirit , and a liberal hand ; these are the two Pastoral Staves the Prophet speaks of , nognam & hovelim , beauty and bands ; he that hath the staff of the beauty of holiness , the ornament of fair example , he hath also the staff of bands , atque in funiculis Adam trahet eos , in vinculis charitatis , as the Prophet Hosea's expression is , he shall draw the people after him by the cords of a man , by the bands of a holy charity . But if against all these demonstrations any man will be refractory , we have instead of a Staff an Apostolical Rod , which is the last and latest remedy , and either brings to repentance , or consigns to ruine and reprobation . If there were any time remaining , I could reckon that the Episcopal Order is the Principle of Unity in the Church ; and we see it is so , by the innumerable Sects that sprang up when Episcopacy was persecuted . I could add , how that Bishops were the cause that S. John wrote his Gospel ; that the Christian Faith was for 300 years together bravely defended by the Sufferings , the Prisons , and Flames , the Life and Death of Bishop , as the principal Combatants ; that the Fathers of the Church , whose Writings are held in so great veneration in all the Christian World , were almost all of them Bishops . I could add , That the Reformation of Religion in England was principally by the Preachings and the Disputings , the Writings and the Martyrdom of Bishops : That Bishops have ever since been the greatest defensatives against Popery : That England and Ireland were governed by Bishops ever since they were Christian , and under their Conduct have for so many Ages enjoyed all the blessings of the Gospel . I could add also , That Episcopacy is the great stabiliment of Monarchy ; but of this we are convinced by a sad and too dear bought Experience : I could therefore instead of it , say , That Episcopacy is the great ornament of Religion ; That as it rescues the Clergy from contempt , so it is the greatest preservative of the Peoples Liberty from Ecclesiastick Tyranny on one hand ( the Gentry being little better than Servants while they live under the Presbytery ) , and Anarchy and Licentiousness on the other ; That it endears Obedience , and is subject to the Laws of Princes , and is wholly ordained for the good of Mankind , and the benefit of Souls . But I cannot stay to number all the Blessings which have entered into the World at this door : I only remark these because they describe unto us the Bishops Imployment , which is , to be busie in the service of Souls , to do good in all capacities , to serve every mans need , to promote all publick benefits . to cement Governments , to establish Peace , to propagate the Kingdom of Christ , to do hurt to no man , to do good to every man ; that is , so to minister , that Religion and Charity , publick Peace and Private Blessings may be in their exaltation . As long as it was thus done by the Primitive Bishops , the Princes and the People gave them all honour ; Insomuch that by a Decree of Constantine the Great , the Bishop had power given him to retract the Sentences made by the Presidents of Provinces ; and we find in the Acts of S. Nicholas , that he rescued some innocent persons from death when the Executioner was ready to strike the fatal blow ; which thing , even when it fell into inconvenience , was indeed forbidden by Arcadius and Honorius ; but the confidence and honour was only changed , it was not taken away ; for the condemned Criminal had leave to appeal to the Audientia Episcopalis , to the Bishops Court. This was not any right which the Bishops could challenge , but a reward of their Piety ; and so long as the holy Office was holily administred , the World found so much comfort and security , so much justice and mercy , so many temporal and spiritual Blessings consequent to the Ministries of that Order , that , as the Galatians to S. Paul , men have plucked out their eyes to do them service , and to do them honour : For then Episcopacy did that good that God intended by it ; it was a Spiritual Government , by Spiritual Persons , for Spiritual Ends : Then the Princes and the People gave them honours , because they deserved and sought them not ; then they gave them wealth , because they would dispend it wisely , frugally , and charitably : Then they gave them power , because it was sure to be used for the defence of the innocent , for the relief of the oppressed , for the punishment of evil doers , and the reward of the virtuous : Then they desired to be judged by them , because their Audiences or Courts did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they appeased all furious Sentences , and taught gentle Principles , and gave merciful Measures , and in their Courts were all Equity and Piety , and Christian Determinations . But afterwards , when they did fall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , into secular methods , and made their Counsels vain by pride , and dirtied their sentences with money , then they became like other men ; and so it will be , unless the Bishops be more holy then other men : but when our sanctity and severity shall be as eminent as the calling is , then we shall be called to Councels , and sit in publick meetings , and bring comfort to private Families , and rule in the hearts of men by a jus relationis , such as was between the Roman Emperors and the Senate ; they courted one another into power , and in giving honour strived to out-do each other for from an humble wise man , no man will snatch an imployment that is honourable ; but from the proud and from the covetous every man endeavours to wrest it , and thinks it lawful prize . My time is now done ; and therefore I cannot speak to the third part of my text , the reward of the good Steward and of the bad ; I shall only mention it to you in a short exhortation , and so conclude . In the Primitive Church a Bishop was never admitted to publick penance ; not only because in them every crime is ten , and he that could discern a publick shame , could not deserve a publick honor ; nor yet only because every such punishment was scandalous , and did more evil by the example of the crime , then it could do good by the example of the punishment ; but also because no spiritual power is higher then the Episcopal , and therefore they were to be referred to the Divine judgment , which was likely to fall on them very heavily : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : the Lord will cut the evil Stewards asunder ; he will suffer Schisms and Divisions to enter in upon us , and that will sadly cut us asunder ; but the evil also shall fall upon their persons , like the punishment of quartering Traitors , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 punishment with the circumstances of detestation and exemplarity . Consider therefore what is your great duty . Consider what is your great danger . The lines of duty I have already described ; only remember how dear and pretious Souls are to God , since for their salvation Christ gave his bloud , and therefore will not easily lose them , whom though they had sinned against him , yet he so highly valued ; remember that you are Christs Deputies in the care of Souls , and that you succeed in the place of the Apostles . Non est facile stare loco Pauli , & tenere gradum Petri ; You have undertaken the work of S. Paul , and the Office of S. Peter , and what think you upon this account will be required of us ? S. Hierom expresses it thus . The wisdom and skill of a Bishop ought to be so great , that his countenance , his gesture , his motion , every thing should be vocal , ut quicquid agit , quicquid loquitur , doctrina sit Apostolorum : that whatever he does or speaks be doctrine Apostolical . The ancient Fathers had a pious opinion , that besides the Angel guardian which is appointed to the guard of every man , there is to every Bishop a second Angel appointed to him at the Consecration ; and to this Origen alludes , saying that every Bishoprick hath two Angels , the one visible and the other invisible . This is a great matter , and shews what a precious thing that Order and those Persons are in the eyes of God ; but then this also means , that we should live Angelick lives , which the Church rarely well expresses by saying , that Episcopal dignity is the Ecclesiastick state of perfection , and supposes the persons to be so far advanced in holiness , as to be in the state of confirmation in grace . But I shall say nothing of these things , because it may be they press too hard ; but the use I shall make of it upon occasion of the reward of the good and bad Steward , is to remind you of your great danger . For if it be required of Bishops to be so wise and so holy , so industrious and so careful , so busie and so good up to the height of best examples ; if they be anointed of the Lord , and are the Husbands of the Churches ; if they be the Shepherds of the flock , and Stewards of the houshould ; it is very fit they consider their danger , that they may be careful to do their duty . S. Bernard considers it well in his Epistle to Henry Archbishop of Sens ; If I lying in my Cell , and smoaking under a Bushel , not shining , yet cannot avoid the breath of the winds , but that my light is almost blown out ; what will become of my Candle , if it were placed on a candelstick and set upon a hill ? I am to look to my self alone , and provide for my own salvation ; and yet I offend my self , I am weary of my self , I am my own scandal and my own danger ; my own eye , and mine own belly , and my own appetite find me work enough ; and therefore God help them who besides themselves are answerable for many others . Jacob kept the Sheep of Laban ; and we keep the Sheep of Christ ; and Jacob was to answer for every Sheep that was stoln , and every lamb that was torn by the wild beast ; and so shall we too , if by our fault one of Christs Sheep perish ; and yet it may be there are 100000 Souls committed to the care and conduct of some one Shepherd , who yet will find his own Soul work enough for all his care and watchfulness . If any man should desire me to carry a Frigat into the Indies , in which a 100 men were imbarqued ; I were a mad man to undertake the charge without proportionable skill : and therefore when there is more danger , and more Souls , and rougher Seas , and more secret Rocks , and horrible storms , and the shipwrack is an eternal loss , the matter will then require great consideration in the undertaking , and greatest care in the conduct . Upon this account we find many brave persons in the first and in the middle ages of the Church with great resolution refusing Episcopacy . I will not speak of those who for fear of Martyrdom declined it , but those who for fear of damnation did refuse . S. Bernard was by three rich Cities severally called to be their Bishop , and by two to be their Arch-Bishop , and he refused them ; S. Dominicus refused four successively ; S. Thomas Aquinas refused the Archbishoprick of Naples , and Vincentius Ferrerius would not accept of Valentia , or Ilerda ; and Bernardinus Senensis refused the Bishopricks of Sens , Vrbin and Ferrara . They had reason ; and yet if they had done amiss in that Office which they declined , it had been somthing more excusable ; but if they that seek it be as careless in the Office as they are greedy of the honour , that will be found intolerable . Electus Episcopus ambulat in disco , recusans volvitur in areâ , said the Hermit in S. Hierom , The Bishop walks upon round and trundling stones , but he that refuses it , stands upon a floor . But I shall say no more of it ; because I suppose you have read it and considered it in S. Chrysostoms six books de sacerdotio , in the Apologetie of S. Greg. Naz. in the pastoral of S. Greg. of Rome ; in S. Dionysius's 8 th . Epistle to Demophilus ; in the letters of Epiphanius to S. Hierom , in S. Austins Epistle to Bishop Valerius , in S. Bernards life of S. Malcaby , in S. Hieroms 138. Epistle to Fabiola . These things I am sure you could not read without trembling ; and certainly , if it can belong to any Christian , then [ work out your salvation with fear and trembling ] that 's the Bishops burden . For the Bishop is like a man that is surety for his friend ; he is bound for many , and for great sums ; what is to be done in this case , Solomons answer is the way : Do this now , my Son , deliver thy self , make sure thy friend , give not sleep to thine eyes , nor slumber to thine eye-lids : that is , be sedulous to discharge thy trust , to perform thy charge ; be zealous for souls , and careless of money ; and remember this , that even in Christs Family there was one sad example of an Apostate Apostle ; and he fell into that fearful estate merely by the desire and greediness of money . Be warm in zeal , and indifferent in thy temporalities : For he that is zealous in temporals , and cold in the spiritual ; he that doth the accessories of his calling by himself , and and the principal by his Deputies ; he that is present at the feast of Sheep-shearing , and puts others to feed the flock , hath no sign at all upon him of a good Shepherd . It is not fit for us to leave the word of God , and to serve tables , said the Apostles : And if it be a less worthy Office to serve the Tables even of the poor , to the diminution of our care in the dispensation of Gods Word , it must needs be an unworthy employment to leave the Word of God , and to attend the rich and superfluous furniture of our own Tables . Remember the quality of your Charges . Civitas est , Vigilate ad custodiam & concordiam ; sponsa est , studete am●ri ; oves sunt , intendite pastui : The Church is a Spouse ; the Universal Church is Christs Spouse , but your own Diocess is yours ; behave your selves so that ye be beloved : Your people are as Sheep , and they must be fed , and guided , and preserved , and healed , and brought home : The Church is a City , and you are the watchmen ; take care that the City be kept at unity in it self ; be sure to make peace amongst your people , suffer no hatreds , no quarrels , no Suits at Law amongst the Citizens , which you can avoid ; make peace in your Diocesses by all the ways of prudence , piety , and authority that you can ; and let not your own corrections of criminals be to any purpose but for their amendment , for the cure of offenders as long as there is hope , and for the security of those who are sound and whole : Preach often , and pray continually ; let your Discipline be with charity , and your Censures flow ; let not Excommunications pass for trifles , and drive not away the fly from your brothers forehead with a hatchet ; give Counsel frequently , and Dispensations seldom , but never without necessity or great charity ; let every place in your Diocess say , Invenerunt me vigiles , the Watchmen have found me out , hassovelim ; They that walk the City round have sought me out and found me : Let every one of us ( as St. Paul's expression is ) shew himself a Workman that shall not be ashamed ; operarium inconfusibilem , mark that , such a labourer as shall not be put to shame for his illness or his unskilfulness , his falsness and unfaithfulness , in that day when the great Bishop of Souls shall make his last and dreadful Visitation ; For be sure , there is not a carkase nor a skin , not a lock of wooll nor a drop of milk of the whole Flock , but God shall for it call the Idol Shepherd to a severe account : And how , think you , will his anger burn , when he shall see so many Goats standing at his left hand , and so few Sheep at his right ? and upon inquiry shall find , that his Ministring Shepherds were Wolves in Sheeps cloathing ? and that by their ill Example , or pernicious Doctrines , their care of Money , and carelesness of their Flocks , so many Souls perish ; who if they had been carefully and tenderly , wisely and conscientiously handled , might have shined as bright as Angels ? And it is a sad consideration to remember , how many Souls are pitifully handled in this World , and carelesly dismissed out of this World ; they are left to live at their own rate , and when they are sick they are bidden to be of good comfort , and then all is well ; who when they are dead , find themselves cheated of their precious and invaluable Eternity . Oh , how will those Souls in their eternal Prisons for ever curse those evil and false Guides ! And how will those evil Guides themselves abide in Judgment , when the Angels of wrath snatch their abused People into everlasting Torments ? For will God bless them , or pardon them , by whom so many Souls perish ? Shall they reign with Christ who evacuate the death of Christ , and make it useless to dear Souls ? Shall they partake of Christs Glories , by whom it comes to pass that there is less joy in Heaven it self , even because sinners are not converted , and God is not glorified , and the people is not instructed , and the Kingdom of God is not filled ? Oh no ; the curses of a false Prophet will fall upon them , and the reward of the evil Steward will be their portion ; and they who destroyed the Sheep , or neglected them , shall have their portion with Goats for ever and ever in everlasting burnings , in which it is impossible for a man to dwell . Can any thing be beyond this ? beyond damnation ? Surely a man would think , not : And yet I remember a severe saying of S. Gregory , Scire debent Prelati , quod tot mortibus digni sunt , quot perditionis exempla ad subditos extenderunt ; One damnation is not enough for an evil Shepherd ; but for every Soul who dies by his evil example or pernicious carelesness , he deserves a new death , a new damnation . Let us therefore be wise and faithful , walk warily , and watch carefully , and rule diligently , and pray assiduously ; for God is more propense to rewards then to punishments ; and the good Steward that is wise and faithful in his dispensation , shall be greatly blessed : But how ? He shall be made ruler over the houshold . What is that ? for he is so already . True ; but he shall be much more ; Ex dispensatore faciet procuratorem ; God will treat him as Joseph was treated by his Master ; he was first a Steward , and then a Procurator , one that ruled his Goods without account , and without restraint : Our Ministry shall pass into Empire , our Labour into Rest , our Watchfulness into Fruition , and our Bishoprick to a Kingdom . In the mean time our Bishopricks are a great and weighty Care , and in a spiritual sence our Dominion is founded in Grace , and our Rule is in the hearts of the people , and our Strengths are the Powers of the Holy Ghost , and the Weapons of our warfare are Spiritual ; and the Eye of God watches over us curiously , to see if we watch over our Flocks by day and by night : And though the Primitive Church ( as the the Ecclesiastick Histories observe ) when they deposed a Bishop from his Office , ever concealed his Crime , and made no Record of it ; yet remember this , that God does and will call us to a strict and severe account : Take heed that you may never hear that fearful Sentence , I was hungry , and ye gave me no meat . If you suffer Christs little ones to starve , it will be required severely at your hands : And know this , that the time will quickly come in which God shall say unto thee in the words of the Prophet , Where is the Flock that was given thee , thy beautiful Flock ? What wilt thou say when he shall visit thee ? God of his mercy grant unto us all to be so faithful and so wise as to convert Souls , and to be so blessed and so assisted , that we may give an account of our Charges with joy , to the glory of God , to the edification and security of our Flocks , and the salvation of our own Souls , in that day when the great Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls shall come to Judgment , even our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ ; To whom , with the Father and the Holy Ghost , be all Honour and Glory , Love and Obedience , now and for evermore , Amen . FINIS . Thursday , May 9. ORdered , That the Speaker do give the Reverend Father in God , the Lord Bishop of Down , the Thanks of this House for his yesterdays pains ; and that he desire him to Print his Sermon . John Keating , Cler. Parl. 11 die Maii , 1661. ORdered , That Sir Theophilus Jones Knight , Marcus Trever Esq Sir William Domvile Knight , His Majesties Attorney General , and Richard Kirle Esq be and are hereby appointed a Committee to return Thanks unto the Lord Bishop of Down for his Sermon Preached on Wednesday last unto the Lords Justices , and Lords Spiritual and Temporal , whereunto the House of Commons were invited ; and that they desire his Lordship from this House to cause the same to be forthwith printed and published . Copia Vera. Ex. per Philip Ferneley , Cler. Dom. Com. A SERMON Preached at the Opening of the PARLIAMENT OF IRELAND , May 8. 1661. Before the Right Honourable the Lords Justices , and the Lords Spiritual and Temporal , and the Commons . BY Jeremy Lord Bishop of Down and Connor . Salus in multitudine consulentium . LONDON , Printed for R. Royston , Bookseller to the Kings most Excellent Majesty . 1666. To the Right Honourable The Lords Spiritual and Temporal , and Commons of Ireland Assembled in PARLIAMENT . My Lords and Gentlemen , I Ought not to dispute Your Commands for the printing my Sermon of Obedience , left my Sermon should be protestatio contra factum : here I Know my Example would be the best Vse to this Doctrine , and I am sure to find no inconveniency so great as that of Disobedience ; neither can I be confident that I am wise in any thing but when I obey ; for then I have the Wisdom of my Superior for my warrant , or my excuse . I remember the saying of Aurelius the Emperor , Aequius est me tot & talium amicorum consilium , quam tot tales meam unius voluntatem sequi . I could easily have pretended excuses ; but that day I had taught others the contrary , and I would not shed that Chalice which my own hands had newly filled with Waters issuing from the Fountains of Salvation . My eyes are almost grown old with seeing the horrid mischiefs which came from Rebellion and Disobedience ; and I would willingly now be blessed with observation of Peace and Righteousness , Plenty and Religion , which do already , and I hope shall for ever , attend upon Obedience to the best KING and the best CHVRCH in the World. I see no objection against my hopes , but that which ought least of all in this case to be pretended : Men pretend Conscience against Obedience ; expresly against S. Paul's Doctrine , teaching us to obey for conscience sake ; but to disobey for Conscience in a thing indifferent , is never to be found in the Books of our Religion . It is very hard when the Prince is forc'd to say to his rebellious Subject , as God did to his stubborn People , Quid faciam tibi ? I have tried all the ways I can to bring thee home , and what shall I now do unto thee ? The Subject should rather say , Quid me vis facere ? What will thou have me to do ? This Question is the best end of Disputations . Corrumpitur atque dissolvitur Imperantis officium , si quis ad id quod facere jussus est , non obsequio debito , sed consilio non considerato respondeat , said one in A. Gellius : When a Subject is commanded to obey , and he disputes , and says , Nay , but the other is better ; he is like a Servant that gives his Master necessary Counsel , when he requires of him a necessary Obedience : Utilius parere edicto quam efferre consilium ; he had better obey than give counsel , by how much it is better to be profitable than to be witty , to be full of goodness rather than full of talk and Argument . But all this is acknowledged true in strong men , but not in the weak ; in vigorous , but not in tender Consciences ; for Obedience is strong Meat , and will not down with weak stomacks : As if in the World any thing were easier than to obey ; for we see that the food of Children is Milk and Laws ; the Breast-milk of their Nurses and the Commands of their Parents is all that Food and Government by which they are kept from harm and hunger , and conducted to life and wisdom . And therefore they that are weak Brethren , of all things in the World have the least reason to pretend an excuse for Disobedience ; for nothing can secure them but the wisdom of the Laws ; for they are like Children in minority , they cannot be trusted to their own conduct , and therefore must live at the publick charge , and the wisdom of their Superiors is their guide and their security . And this was wisely advised by S. Paul , Him that is weak in the Faith receive , but not to doubtful disputations ; that 's not the way for him ; Children must not dispute with their Fathers and their Masters : If old men will dispute , let them look to it ; that 's meat for the strong indeed , though it be not very nutritive : but the Laws and the Counsels , the Exhortations and the Doctrines of our Spiritual Rulers , are the measures by which God hath appointed Babes in Christ to become Men , and the weak to become strong ; and they that are not to be received to doubtful disputations , are to be received with the arms of Love , into the embraces of a certain and regular Obedience . But it would be considered , That Tenderness of Conscience is an equivocal term , and does not always signifie in a good sense : For a Child is of tender flesh ; but he whose foot is out of joint , or hath a bile in his arm , or hath strained a sinew , is much more tender . The tenderness of age is that weakness that is in the ignorant and the new beginners : the tenderness of a bile , that is soreness indeed rather than tenderness , is of the diseased , the abused , and the mis-perswaded . The first indeed are to be tenderly dealt with , and have usages accordingly ; but that is the same I have already told ; you must teach them , you must command them , you must guide them , you must chuse for them , you must be their Guardians , and they must comport themselves accordingly . But for that tenderness of Conscience which is the disease and soreness of Conscience , it must be cured by Anodynes and soft usages , unless they prove ineffective , and that the Launcet be necessary . But there are amongst us such tender Stomacks that cannot endure Milk , but can very well digest Iron ; Consciences so tender , that a Ceremony is greatly offensive , but Rebellion is not ; a Surplice drives them away as a bird affrighted with a man of clouts , but their Consciences can suffer them to despise Government , and speak evil of Dignities , and curse all that are not of their Opinion , and disturb the Peace of Kingdoms , and commit Sacrilegs , and account Schism the character of Saints . The true Tenderness of Conscience is , 1. That which is impatient of a Sin. 2. It will not endure any thing that looks like it ; And 3. It will not give offence . Now since all Sin is Disobedience , 1. It will be rarely contingent that a man in a Christian Commonwealth shall be tied to disobey , to avoid Sin ; and certain it is , if such a case could happen , yet 2. nothing of our present Question is so like a Sin , as when we refuse to obey the Laws : To stand in a clean Vestment is not so ill a sight as to see men stand in separation ; and to kneel at the Communion is not so like Idolatry as Rebellion is to Witchcraft . And then 3. For the matter of giving offences , what scandal is greater than that which scandalizes the Laws ? and who is so carefully to be observed , lest he be offended , as the KING ? And if that which offends the weak brother is to be avoided , much more that which offends the strong : for this is certainly really criminal ; but for the other , it is much odds but it is mistaken : And when the case is so put , between the obedient and the disobedient , which shall be offended , and one will , I suppose there is no question but the Laws will take more care of Subjects than of Rebels , and not weaken them in their Duty , in compliance with those that hate the Laws , and will not endure the Government . And after all this , in the conduct of Government what remedy can there be to those that call themselves Tender Consciences ? I shall not need to say that every man can easily pretend it ; for we have seen the vilest part of mankind , men that have done things so horrid , worse than which the Sun never saw , yet pretend tender Consciences against Ecclesiastical Laws : But I will suppose that they are really such , that they in the simplicity of their hearts follow Absolom , and in weakness hide their heads in little Conventicles and places of separation for a trifle ; what would they have done for themselves ? If You make a Law of Order , and in the sanction put a Clause of favour for tender Consciences , do not you invite every Subject to Disobedience by impunity , and teach him how to make his own excuse ? Is not such a Law , a Law without an obligation ? May not every man chuse whether he will obey or no ? and if he pretends to disobey out of Conscience , is not he that disobeys equally innocent with the obedient ; altogether as just , as not having done any thing without leave ; and yet much more Religious and Conscientious ? Quicunque vult is but an ill preface to a Law ; and it is a strange obligation that makes no difference between him that obeys and him that refuses to obey . But what course must be taken with Tender Consciences ? Shall the Execution of the Law be suspended as to all such persons ? That will be all one with the former : For if the Execution be commanded to be suspended , the obligation of the Law by command is taken away , and then it were better there were no Law made . And indeed that is the pretension , that is the secret of the business ; they suppose the best way to prevent Disobedience is to take away all Laws . It is a short way indeed ; there shall then be no Disobedience ; but at the same time there shall be no Government : but the Remedy is worse than the Disease ; and to take away all Wine and Strong Drink to prevent drunkenness , would not be half so great a folly . I cannot therefore tell what to advise in this particular , but that every Spiritual Guide should consider who are tender Consciences , and who are weak Brethren , and use all the ways of Piety and Prudence to instruct and to inform them , that they may increase in Knowledg and Spiritual Vnderstanding . But they that will be always learning , and never come to the knowledge of the Truth ; they that will be Children of a hundred years old , and never come to years of Discretion , they are very unfit to guide others , and to be Curates of Souls : but they are most unfit to reprove the Laws , and speak against the Wisdom of a Nation , when it is confessed that they are so weak that they understand not the fundamental Liberty which Christ hath purchas'd for them , but are servants to a Scruple , and affrighted at a Circumstance , and in bondage under an Indifferent Thing , and so much Idolaters of their Sect or Opinion , as to prefer it before all their own nobler Interests , and the Charity of their Brother , and the Peace of a whole Church and Nation . To You , my Lords and Gentlemen , I hope I may say as Marcus Curius said to a stubborn young man , Non opus Vos habere cive qui parere nesciret ; the Kingdom hath no need of those that know not how to obey . But as for them who have weak and tender Consciences , they are in the state of Childhood and minority ; but then you know that a Child is never happy by having his own humour ; if you chuse for him , and make him to use it , he hath but one thing to do ; but if you put him to please himself , he is troubled with every thing , and satisfied with nothing . We find that all Christian Churches kept this Rule ; They kept themselves and others close to the Rule of Faith , and peaceably suffered one another to differ in Ceremonies , but suffered no difference amongst their own ; they gave Liberty to other Churches , and gave Laws , and no Liberty , to their own Subjects : And at this day the Churches of Geneva , France , Switzerland , Germany , Low-Countries , tye all their people to their own Laws , but tye up no mans Conscience ; if he be not perswaded as they are , let him charitably dissent , and leave that Government , and adhere to his own Communion : If you be not of their mind , they will be served by them that are ; they will not trouble your Conscience , and you shall not disturb their Government . But when men think they cannot enjoy their Conscience unless you give them good Livings , and if you prefer them not you afflict their Consciences , they do but too evidently declare , that it is not their Consciences but their Profits they would have secured . Now to these I have only this to say , That their Conscience is to be enjoyed by the Measures of Gods Word , but the Rule for their Estates is the Laws of the Kingdom ; and I shew you yet a more excellent way ; Obedience is the best security for both , because this is the best conservatory of Charity and Truth and Peace . Si vis brevi perfectus esse , esto obediens etiam in minimis , was the saying of a Saint ; and the World uses to look for Miracles from them whom they shall esteem Saints : but I had rather see a man truly humble and obedient , than to see him raise a man from the dead , said old Pachomius . But to conclude : If weak Brethren shall still plead for Toleration and Compliance , I hope my Lords the Bishops will consider where it can do good , and do no harm ; where they are permitted , and where themselves are bound up by the Laws ; and in all things where it is safe and holy , to labour to bring them ease and to give them remedy : but to think of removing the Disease by feeding the Humor , I confess it is a strange Cure to our present Distempers . He that took clay and spittle to open the blind eyes , can make any thing be collyrium ; but he alone can do it . But whether any humane Power can bring good from so unlikely an Instrument , if any man desires yet to be better informed , I desire him , besides the calling to mind the late sad effects of Schism , to remember that no Church in Christendom ever did it . It is neither the way of Peace nor Government , nor yet a proper Remedy for the cure of a weak Conscience . I shall therefore pray to God , That these men who separate in simplicity may by Gods mercy be brought to understand their own Liberty , and that they may not for ever be Babes and Neophytes , and wax old in trifles , and for ever stay at the entrances and outsides of Religion ; but that they would pass in interiora domûs , and seek after Peace and Righteousness , Holiness and Justice , the Love of God and Evangelical Perfections ; and then they will understand how ill-advised they are who think Religion consists in Zeal against Ceremonies , and speaking evil of the Laws . My Lords and Gentlemen , what I said in pursuance of publick Peace and private Duty , and some little incidences to both , I now humbly present to You , more to shew my own Obedience than to remind you of your Duty , which hitherto You have so well observed in Your amicable and sweet concord of Councels and Affections , during this present Session . I owe many Thanks to You , who heard me patiently , willingly , and kindly ; I endeavoured to please God , and I find I did not displease You : but he is the best hearer of a Sermon who first loves the Doctrine , and then practises it ; and that You have hitherto done , very piously and very prosperously . I pray God continue to direct Your Counsels so that You in all things may please him , and in all things be blessed by him , that all Generations may call You blessed Instruments of a lasting Peace , the Restorers of the old Paths , the Patrons of the Church , Friends of Religion , and Subjects fitted for Your Prince ; who is Just up to the greatest Example , and Merciful beyond all Examples ; a Prince who hath been Nourished , and Preserved , and Restored , and Blessed by Miracles ; a Prince whose Virtues and Fortunes are equally the greatest . A SERMON Preached at the opening of the PARLIAMENT . SERM. V. 1 Sam. 15. latter part of verse 22. Behold to obey is better than sacrifice , and to hearken than the fat of Rams . First part of ver . 23. For Rebellion is as the sin of Witchcraft , and Stubbornness is as Iniquity and Idolatry . IN the World nothing is more easie than to say our Prayers , and to obey our Superiors ; and yet in the World there is nothing to which we are so unwilling as to Prayer , and nothing seems so intolerable as Obedience : for men esteem all Laws to be Fetters , and their Superiors are their Enemies : and when a command is given , we turn into all shapes of excuse to escape from the imposition : For either the authority is incompetent , or the Law it self is Statutum non bonum , or it is impossible to be kept , or at least very inconvenient , and we are to be reliev'd in equity ; or there is a secret dispensation , and it does not bind in my particular case , or not now ; or it is but the law of a man , and was made for a certain end ; or it does not bind the conscience , but 't was only for Political regards ; or , if the worst happen , I will obey passively , and then I am innocent . Thus every man snuffs up the wind , like the wild Asses in the Wilderness , and thinks that Authority is an incroachment upon a mans birth-right ; and in the mean time never considers that Christ took upon him our Nature that he might learn us obedience , and in that also make us become like unto God. In his Justice and his Mercy he was imitable before ; but before the Incarnation of Christ we could not in passive graces imitate God who was impassible : but he was pleased at a great rate to set forward this duty ; and when himself became obedient in the hardest point , obediens usque ad mortem , and is now become to us the Author and Finisher of our Obedience , as well as of our Faith , admonetur omnis aetas fieri posse quod aliquando factum est . We must needs confess it very possible to obey the severest of the Divine Laws , even to dye if God commands , because it was already done by a man ; and we must needs confess it excellent , because it was done by God himself . But this great Example is of universal influence in the whole matter of Obedience : For that I may speak of that part of this Duty which can be useful , and concerns us ; Men do not deny but they must obey in all Civil things , but in Religion they have a Supreme , God only , and Conscience is his interpreter ; and in effect every man must be the Judge whether he shall obey or no. Therefore it is that I say , the example of our Lord is the great determination of this inquiry : for he did obey and suffer , according to the commands of his Superiors under whose Government he was placed ; he gave his back to the smiters , and his cheeks to the nippers ; he kept the Orders of the Rulers , and the Customs of the Synagogues , the Law of Moses and the Rites of the Temple ; and by so doing he fulfilled all righteousness . Christ made no distinctions in his Obedience , but obeyed God in all things , and those that God set over him in all things according to God , and in things of Religion most of all ; because to obey was of it self a great instance of Religion : and if ever Religion comes to be pretended against Obedience in any thing where our Superior can command , it is imposture : For that is the purpose of my Text , Obedience is better than Sacrifice . Our own judgment , our own opinion is the Sacrifice seldom fit to be offered to God , but most commonly deserving to be consumed by fire : but take it at the best , it is not half so good as Obedience ; for that was indeed Christ's Sacrifice , and ( as David said of Goliah's sword , non est alter talis ) there is no other Sacrifice that can be half so good : and when Abraham had lifted up his sacrificing knife to slay his Son , and so expressed his obedience , God would have no more ; he had the Obedience , and he cared not for the Sacrifice . By Sacrifice here then is meant the external and contingent actions of Religion ; by Obedience is meant submission to Authority , and observing the command . Obedience is a not chusing our Duty , a not disputing with our Betters , not to argue , not to delay , not to murmur ; it is not this , but it is much better ; for it is Love , and Simplicity , and Humility , and Vsefulness , and I think these do reductively contain all that is excellent in the whole conjugation of Christian Graces . My Text is a perfect Proposition , and hath no special remark in the words of it ; but is only a great representation of the most useful Truth to all Kingdoms and Parliaments , and Councels and Authorities in the whole world : It is your Charter , and the Sanction of your Authority , and the Stabiliment of your Peace , and the Honour of your Laws , and the great defence of your Religion , and the building up , and the guarding of the Kings Throne . It is that by which all the Societies in Heaven and Earth are firm : without this you cannot have a Village prosperous , or a Ship arrive in Harbour : It is that which God hath bound upon us by hope and fear , by wrath and conscience , by duty and necessity . Obedience is the formality of all Vertues , and every sin is Disobedience : There can no greater thing be said , unless you please to add , that we never read that the earth opened and swallowed up any man alive , but a company of rebellious disobedient people , who rose up against Moses and Aaron , the Prince of the People , and the Priest of God. For Obedience is the most necessary thing in the world , and corruptio optimi est pessima : Disobedience is the greatest evil in the world , and that alone which can destroy it . My Text is instanced in the matter of Obedience to God ; but yet the case is so , that though I shall in the first place discourse of our Obedience to man , I shall not set one foot aside from the main intention of it ; because Obedience to our Superiours is really , and is accounted to be Obedience to God , for they are sent by God , they are his Vicegerents , his Ministers , and his Embassadors . Apostolus cujusque est quisque , say the Jews , Every mans Apostle is himself ; and he that heareth or despiseth you , said Christ , heareth or despiseth me : And the reason is very evident , because it is not to be expected that God should speak to us by himself , but sometimes by Angels , sometimes by Prophets , once by his Son , and alwaies by his Servants . Now I desire two things to be observed . First , We may as well perceive that God speaks to us when he uses the ministry of men as when he uses the ministry of Angels : one is as much declared and as certain as the other . And if it be said , a man may pretend to come from God , and yet deliver nothing but his own errand ; that is no strange thing : but remember also that S. Paul puts this supposition in the case of an Angel , [ If an Angel preach any other Gospel ; ] and we know that many Angels come like Angels of light , who yet teach nothing but the waies of Darkness . So that we are still as much bound to obey our Superior as to obey an Angel : a man is paulò minor angelis , a little lower than the Angels ; but we are much lower than the King. Consider then with what fear and love we should receive an Angel , and so let us receive all those whom God hath sent to us , and set over us ; for they are no less : less indeed in their Persons , but not in their Authorities . Nay the case is nearer yet ; for we are not only bound to receive God's Deputies as God's Angel , but as God himself : For it is the power of God in the hand of a man , and he that resists , resists God's Ordinance . And I pray remember , that there is not only no power greater than God's , but there is no other ; for all Power is his . The consequent of this is plain enough ; I need say no more of it : It is all one to us who commands , God , or God's Vicegerent . This was the first thing to be observed . Secondly , there can be but two things in the world required to make Obedience necessary , the greatness of the Authority , and the worthiness of the Thing . In the first you see the case can have no difference , because the thing it self is but one : There is but one Authority in the world , and that is God's : as there is but one Sun whose light is diffused into all Kingdoms . But is there not great difference in the Thing commanded ? Yes certainly , there is some ; but nothing to warrant disobedience : for whatever the thing be , it may be commanded by man , if it be not countermanded by God. For , 1. It is not required that every thing commanded should of it self be necessary ; for God himself oftentimes commands things which have in them no other excellency than that of Obedience . What made Abraham the friend of God ? and what made his offer to kill his Son to be so pleasing to God ? It had been naturally no very great good to cut the throat of a little child ; but only that it was Obedience . What excellency was there in the journeys of the Patriarchs from Mesopotamia to Syria , from the Land of Canaan into Aegypt ? and what thanks could the sons of Israel deserve that they sate still upon the seventh day of the week ? and how can a man be dearer unto God by keeping of a Feast , or building of a Booth , or going to Jerusalem , or cutting off the foreskin of a Boy , or washing their hands and garments in fair water ? There was nothing in these things but the Obedience . And when our blessed Lord himself came to his Servant to take of him the Baptism of Repentance , alas he could take nothing but the water and the ceremony : for , as Tertullian observes , he was nullius poenitentiae debitor , he was indeed a just person and needed no repentance ; but even so it became him to fulfil all righteousness : but yet even then it was that the Holy Spirit did descend upon his holy head , and crowned that Obedience , though it were but a Ceremony . Obedience , you see , may be necessary , when the Law is not so : For in these cases , God's Son , and God's Servants did obey in things which were made good only by the Commandment : and if we do so in the Instances of humane Laws , there is nothing to be said against it , but that what was not of it self necessary , is made so by the Authority of the Commander and the force of the Commandment : But there is more in it than so . For , 2. We pretend to be willing to obey even in things naturally not necessary , if a divine command does interpose ; but if it be only a commandment of man , and the thing be not necessary of it self , then we desire to be excused . But will we do nothing else ? We our selves will do many things that God hath not commanded , and may not our Superiors command us in many cases to do what we may lawfully do without a commandment ? Can we become a Law unto our selves , and cannot the word and power of our Superiors also become a Law unto us ? hath God given more to a private than to a publick hand ? But consider the ill consequents of this fond opinion . Are all the practices of Geneva or Scotland recorded in the word of God ? are the triffling Ceremonies of their publick Penance recorded in the four Gospels ? are all the rules of decency , and all things that are of good report , and all the measures of Prudence , and the laws of peace and War , and the Customs of the Churches of God , and the lines of publick honesty , are all these described to us by the Laws of God ? If they be , let us see and read them , that we may have an end to all questions and minute cases of Conscience : but if they be not , and yet by the Word of God these are bound upon us in general , and no otherwise ; then it follows that the particulars of all these , which may be infinite , and are innumerable , yet may be the matter of humane Laws ; and then are bound upon us by the power of God put into the hands of man. The consequent is this , that whatsoever is commanded by our Superiors according to the will of God , or whatsoever is not against it , is of necessity to be obeyed . 3. But what if our Princes or our Prelates command things against the Word of God ? what then ? Why nothing then , but that we must obey God and not man ; there 's no dispute of that . But what then again ? Why therefore sayes the Papist I will not obey the Protestant Kings , because against the Word of God they command me to come to Church where Heresie is preached ; and I will not acknowledge the Bishops , saith the Presbyterian , because they are against the Discipline and Scepter of Jesus Christ ; and the Independent hates Parochial meetings , and is wholly for a gathered Church , and supposes this to be the practice Apostolical ; and I will not bring my Child to Baptism , ( saith the Anabaptist ) because God calls none but Believers to that Sacrament ; and I will acknowledge no Clergy , no Lord , no Master , saith the Quaker , because Christ commands us to call no man Master on the earth , and be not called of men Rabbi . And if you call upon these men to obey the Authority God had set over them , they tell you with one voice , with all their hearts , as far as the Word of God will give them leave ; but God is to be obeyed , and not man : and therefore if you put the Laws in execution against them , they will obey you passively , because you are stronger , and so long as they know it they will not stir against you ; but they in the mean time are little less than Martyrs , and you no better than Persecutors . What shall we do now ? for here is evidently a great heap of disorder : they all confess that Authority must be obeyed , but when you come to the tryal , none of them all will do it , and they think they are not bound : but because their Opinions being contrary cannot all be right , and it may be none of them are , it is certain that all this while Authority is infinitely wronged and prejudiced amongst them , when all phantastick Opinions shall be accounted a sufficient reason to despise it . I hope the Presbyterian will join with the Protestant , and say that the Papist , and the Socinian , and the Independent , and the Anabaptist , and the Quaker are guilty of Rebellion and Disobedience , for all their pretence of the Word of God to be on their side : and I am more sure that all these will join with the Protestant , and say that the Presbyterian hath no reason to disobey Authority upon pretence of their new Government , concerning which they do but dream dreams , when they think they see visions . Certain it is that the biggest part of dissenters in the whole world are criminally disobedient ; and it is a thousand to one but that Authority is in the right against them , and ought to be obeyed . It remains now in the next place , that we enquire what Authority is to do in this case , and what these Sectaries and Recusants are to do ; for these are two things worth enquiry . 1. Concerning Authority : All disagreeing persons , to cover their foul shame of Rebellion or Disobedience , pretend Conscience for their Judge , and the Scripture for their Law : Now if these men think that by this means they proceed safely , upon the same ground the Superior may do what he thinks to be his duty , and be at least as safe as they . If the Rebellious Subject can think that by God's Law he ought not to obey ; the Prince may at the same time think that by God's Law he ought to punish him : and it is as certain that he is justly punished , as he thinks it certain he reasonably disobeys . Or is the Conscience of the Superior bound to relax his Laws if the Inferior tells him so ? Can the Prince give Laws to the peoples will , and can the people give measures to the Princes understanding ? If any one of the people can prescribe or make it necessary to change the Law , then every one can ; and by this time every new Opinion will introduce a new Law , and that Law shall be obeyed by him only that hath a mind to it , and that will be a strange Law that binds a man only to do his own pleasure . But because the King's Conscience is to him as sure a Rule as the Conscience of any disobedient Subject can be to himself , the Prince is as much bound to do his duty in Government , as the other can be to follow his Conscience in disagreeing ; and the consequent will be , that whether the Subject be right or wrong in the disputation , it is certain he hath the just reward of Disobedience in the conclusion . If one mans Conscience can be the measure of another mans action , why shall not the Princes Conscience be the Subjects measure ? but if it cannot , then the Prince is not to depart from his own Conscience , but proceed according to the Laws which he judges just and reasonable . 2. The Superior is tied by the Laws of Christian Charity so far to bend in the ministration of his Laws , as to pity the invincible Ignorance and Weakness of his abused people , qui devoratur à malis Pastoribus ( as Hierom's expression is ) that are devour'd by their evil Shepherds : but this is to last no longer than till the Ignorance can be cured , and the man be taught his duty ; for whatsoever comes after this looks so like Obstinacy , that no Laws in the world judge it to be any thing else . And then secondly , this also is to be understood to be the duty of Superiors only in matters of mere Opinion , not relating to Practice . For no mans Opinion must be suffer'd to do mischief , to disturb the peace , to dishonour the Government : not only because every disagreeing person can to serve his end pretend his Conscience , and so claim impunity for his Villany ; but also because those things which concern the good of mankind , and the Peace of Kingdoms are so plainly taught , that no man who thinks himself so wise as to be fit to oppose Authority , can be so foolish as in these things not to know his duty . In other things , if the Opinion does neither bite nor scratch , if it dwells at home in the house of Understanding , and wanders not into the out-houses of Passion and popular Orations , the Superior imposes no Laws , and exacts no Obedience , and destroyes no Liberty , and gives no Restraint : This is the part of Authority . 2. The next enquiry is , What must the dis-agreeing Subject do when he supposes the Superiors command is against the Law of God ? I answer that if he thinks so , and thinks true , he must not obey his Superior in that : but because most men that think so , think amiss , there are many particulars fit by such persons to be considered . 1. Let such men think charitably of others , and that all are not fools or mad-men who are not of the same Opinion with themselves or their own little party . 2. Let him think himself as fallible and subject to mistake as other men are . 3. But let him by no means think that every Opinion of his is an Inspiration from God ; for that is the pride and madness of a pretended Religion : such a man is to be cured by Physick ; for he could not enter into that perswasion by Reason or Experience , and therefore it must enter into him by folly or the anger of God. 4. From hence it will naturally follow , that he ought to think his Opinion to be uncertain , and that he ought not to behave himself like the man that is too confident ; but because his Obedience is Duty , and his Duty certain , he will find it more wise and safe and holy to leave that which is disputable , and pursue that which is demonstrable ; to change his uncertain Opinion for his certain Duty : For it is twenty to one but he is deceived in his Opinion ; but if he be , it is certain that whatsoever his Conscience be , yet in his separation from Authority he is a sinner . 2. Every man who by his Opinion is engaged against Authority , should do well to study his doubtful Opinion less , and Humility and Obedience more . But you say , that this concerns not me , for my disagreeing is not in a doubtful matter , but I am sure I am in the right ; there are no ifs and ands in my case . Well it may be so : but were it not better that you did doubt ? A wise man feareth ( saith Solomon ) and departeth from evil ; but a fool rageth and is confident : and the difference between a Learned man and a Novice is this , that the young fellow cryeth out , I am sure it is so ; the better learned answers , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , possibly it may , and peradventure it is so , but I pray enquire : and he is the best Diviner , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he is the best Judge that conjectures best , not he that is most confident ; for , as Xenophanes said wisely , Man does but conjecture , but God only knows ; and it is no disparagement to a wise man to learn , and by suspecting the fallibility of things and his own aptness to mistake , to walk prudently and safely , with an eye to God , and an ear open to his Superior . Some men are drunk with Phancy , and mad with Opinion : Who believe more strongly than boyes and women ? who are so hard to be perswaded as fools ? and who so readily suspect their Teachers as they who are governed by chance , and know not the intrinsick measures of good and evil ? Qui pauca considerat de facili pronunciat ; it is a little learning and not enough that makes men conclude hastily , and clap fast hold on the Conclusion before they have well weighed the Premises : but Experience and Humility would teach us Modesty and Fear . 3. In all disputes he that obeys his Superior can never be a Heretick in the estimate of Law , and he can never be a Schismatick in the point of Conscience ; so that he certainly avoids one great death , and very probably the other . Res judicata pro veritate accipitur , saith the Law ; if the Judge have given sentence , that sentence is supposed a truth : and Cassidor said according to the sentence of the Law , Nimis iniquum est ut ille patiatur dispendium , qui imperium fecit alienum . Our Obedience secures us from the imputation of evil , and Error does but seldom go in company with Obedience : But however there is this advantage to be gotten by Obedience ; that he who prefers the sentence of the Law before his own Opinion does do an act of great Humility , and exercises the grace of Modesty , and takes the best way to secure his Conscience and the publick Peace , and pleases the Government which he is bound to please , and pursues the excellencies of Unity , and promotes Charity and Godly Love : whereas on the other side , he that goes by himself apart from his Superior , is alwayes materially a Schismatick , and is more likely to be deceived by his own Singularity and Prejudice and Weakness , than by following the Guides God hath set over him : And if he loses Truth , certainly he will get nothing else : for by so doing we lose our Peace too , and give publick offence , and arm Authority against us , and are scandalous in Law , and pull evil upon our heads ; and all this for a proud Singularity , or a trifling Opinion , in which we are not so likely to be deceived , if we trust our selves less , and the publick more . In omnibus falli possum , in obedientia non possum , said S. Teresa , I can in every thing else , but in Obedience I can never be deceived . And it is very remarkable in my Text , that Rebellion or Disobedience is compared to the sin of witchcraft . Indeed it seems strange , for the meaning of it is not only that a Rebel is as much hated by God as a Witch , but it means that the sins are alike in their very natures : quasi peccatum divinationis ( saith the Vulgar Latine ) they that disobey Authority , trusting in their own Opinions , are but like Witches or Diviners ; that is , they are led by an evil spirit ; pride and a lying and deceiving spirit is their Teacher , and their answers are seldom true ; for though they pretend the Truth of God for their Disobedience , yet they fall into the deception of the Devil , and that 's the end of their soothsaying . And let me add this , That when a man distrusts his Superior and trusts himself , if he misses Truth , it will be greatly imputed to him ; he shall feel the evil of his error and the shame of his pride , the reproach of his folly and the punishment of his disobedience , the dishonour of Singularity , and the restlesness of Schism , and the scorn of the multitude : but on the other side , if he obey Authority , and yet be deceived , he is greatly excused , he erred on the safer side , he is defended by the hands of many vertues , and gets peace and love of the Congregation . You see the blessings of Obedience , even in the questions and matters of Religion : but I have something more to say , and it is not only of great use to appease the tumultuary disputations and arguings of Religion which have lately disturbed these Nations , but is proper to be spoken to , and to be reduced to practice by this Honourable and High Court of Parliament . That which I am to say is this ; You have no other way of Peace , no better way to appease and quiet the Quarrels in Religion which have been too long among us , but by reducing all men to Obedience , and all questions to the measures of the Laws : For they on both sides pretend Scripture , but one side only can pretend to the Laws : and they that do admit no Authority above their own to expound Scripture , cannot deny but Kings and Parliaments are the makers and proper expounders of our Laws ; and if ever you mean to have Truth and Peace kiss each other , let no man dispute against your Laws . For did not our blessed Saviour say , that an Oath is the end of all questions , and after depositions are taken , all Judges go to sentence ? What Oaths are to private questions , that Laws are to publick . And if it be said that Laws may be mistaken ; it is true , but may not an Oath also be a Perjury ? and yet because in humane affairs we have no greater certainty , and greater than God gives we may not look for , let the Laws be the last determination ; and in wise and religious Governments no disputation is to go beyond them . 2. But this is not only true in Religious prudence and plain necessity , but this is the way that God hath appointed , and that he hath blessed , and that he hath intended to be the means of ending all questions . This we learn from S. Paul , I exhort that first of all Prayers , and Supplications , and Intercessions , and giving of Thanks be made for all men : for Kings & for all that are in Authority : For all ; for Parliaments and for Councils , for Bishops and for Magistrates : it is for all , and for Kings above all . Well , to what purpose is all this ? that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty . Mark that : Kings and all that are in Authority are by God appointed to be the means of obtaining unity and peace in godliness , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in all the true and godly worshipings of God ; no Unity in Religion without Kings and Bishops , and those that are in Authority . 3. And indeed because this is God's way of ending our Controversies , the matter of Authority is highly to be regarded . If you suffer the Authority of the King to be lessened , to be scrupled , to be denied in Ecclesiastical affairs , you have no way left to silence the tongues and hands of gainsaying people . But so it is , the Kings Authority is appointed and enabled by God to end our questions of Religion : Divinatio in labiis Regis ( saith Solomon ) in judicio non errabit os ejus , Divination and a wise sentence is in the lips of the King , and his mouth shall not erre in judgment . In all Scripture there is not so much for the Popes infallibility , but by this it appears there is divinity in the Kings sentence : for God gives to Kings , who are his Vicegerents , a peculiar spirit . And when Justinian had out of the sense of Julian the Lawyer observed that there were many cases for which Law made no provision , he adds , If any such shall happen , Augustum imploretur remedium , run to the King for remedy ; for therefore God hath set the Imperial fortune over humane affairs , ut possit omnia quae noviter contingunt & emendare & componere , & modis ac regulis competentibus tradere , that the King may amend and rule and compose every new arising question . And it is not to be despised , but is a great indication of this Truth , that the Answers of the Roman Princes and Judges recorded in the Civil Law are such that all Nations of the world do approve them , and are a great testimony how the sentences of Kings ought to be valued , even in matters of Religion , and questions of greatest doubt . Bona conscientia Scyphus est Josephi , said the old Abbot of Kells ; a good Conscience is like Joseph's Cup , in which our Lord the King divines . And since God hath blessed us with so good , so just , so religious and so wise a Prince , let the sentence of his Laws be our last resort , and no questions be permitted after his judgment and legal determination . For Wisdom saith , By me Princes rule , by me they decree justice : and therefore the spirit of the King is a divine eminency , and is as the spirit of the most High God. 4. Let no man be too busie in disputing the laws of his Superiors , for a man by that seldom gets good to himself , but seldom misses to do mischief unto others : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said one in Laertius . Will a Son contend with his Father ? that 's not decent , though the son speak that which is right : he may possibly say well enough , but he does do very ill ; not only because he does not pay his duty and reverential fear , but because it is in it self very often unreasonable to dispute concerning the command of our Superior , whether it be good or no ; for the very commandment can make it not only good , but a necessary good . It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these necessary things , said the Council of Jerusalem : and yet these things were not necessary , but as they were commanded : to abstain from a strangled hen or a bloody pudding could not of themselves be necessary ; but the commandment came , authority did interpose , and then they were made so . 5. But then besides the advantages both of the Spirit , and the authority of Kings in matter of question , the Laws and Decrees of a National Church ought upon the account of their own advantages be esteemed as a final sentence in all things disputed . The thing is a plain command , Hebrews 13. 7. Remember them which have the Rule over you , who have spoken unto you the word of God : this tells what Rulers he means ; Rulers Ecclesiastical : and what of them ? whose faith follow ; they must praeire in articulis ; they are not Masters of your Faith , but Guides of it : and they that sit in Moses chair must be heard and obeyed , said our blessed Saviour . These words were not said for nothing ; and they were nothing if their authority were nothing . For between the laws of a Church and the opinion of a Subject the comparison is the same as between a publick spirit and a private . The publick is far the better , the daughter of God , and the mother of a blessing , and alwayes dwels in light . The publick spirit hath already passed the tryal , it hath been subjected to the Prophets , tryed and searched and approved ; the private is yet to be examined . The publick spirit is uniform and apt to be followed ; the private is various and multiform as chance , and no man can follow him that hath it : for if he follows one , he is reproved by a thousand ; and if he changes he may get a shame , but no truth ; and he can never rest but in the arms and conduct of his Superior . When Aaron and Miriam murmured against Moses , God told them they were Prophets of an inferior rank than Moses was ; God communicated himself to them in dreams and visions ; but the Ruach hakkodesh , the publick spirit of Moses their Prince , that was higher : and what then ? wherefore then ( God said ) were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses ? plainly teaching us , that where there is a more excellent spirit , they that have a spirit less excellent ought to be afraid to speak against it . And this is the full case of the private and publick spirit ; that is , of a Subject speaking against the Spirit and the Laws of the Church . In Heaven , and in the air , and in all the regions of Spirits , the Spirit of a lower Order dares not speak against the Spirit of an higher ; and therefore for a private Spirit to oppose the publick , is a disorder greater than is in Hell it self . To conclude this point ; Let us consider whether it were not an intolerable mischief if the Judges should give sentence in causes of instance by the measures of their own fancy , and not by the Laws ; who would endure them ? and yet why may they not do that as well as any Ecclesiastick person preach Religion , not which the Laws allow , but what is taught him by his own private Opinion ? but he that hath the Laws on his side , hath ever something of true Religion to warrant him , and can never want a great measure of justification : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Laws and the Customs of the Country are the results of wise Counsels or long experience ; they ever comply with Peace and publick benefit : and nothing of this can be said of private Religions ; for they break the Peace and trouble the Conscience , and undoe Government , and despise the Laws , and offend Princes , and dishonour the wisdom of Parliaments , and destroy Obedience . Well , but in the last place , but if we cannot do what the Laws command , we will suffer what they impose ; and then all is well again . But first , who ever did so that could help it ? And secondly , this talking of passive Obedience is but a mockery ; for what man did ever say the Laws were not good , but he also said the Punishment was unjust ? And thirdly , which of all the Recusants did not endeavour to get ground upon the Laws , and secretly or openly asperse the Authority that put him to pain for doing that which he calls his duty ? and can any man boast of his passive Obedience that calls it Persecution ? he may think to please himself , but he neither does or sayes any thing that is for the reputation of the Laws : Such men are like them that sail in a storm ; they may possibly be thrown into a Harbour , but they are very sick all the way . But after all this I have one thing to observe to such persons , That such a passive Obedience as this does not acquit a man before God ; and he that suffers what the Law inflicts is not discharged in the Court of Conscience , but there is still a sinner and a debter : For the Law is not made for the righteous , but for sinners ; that is , the punishment appointed by the Law falls on him only that hath sinned : but an offending subject cannot with the fruit of his body pay for the sin of his Soul : when he does evil he must suffer evil ; but if he does not repent besides , a worse thing will happen to him ; for we are not tyed to obey only for wrath but also for Conscience . Passive Obedience is only the correspondent of wrath , but it is the active Obedience that is required by Conscience ; and whatever the Subject suffers for his own fault , it matters nothing as to his Duty , but this also God will exact at the hands of every man that is placed under Authority . I have now told you the sum of what I had to say concerning Obedience to Laws and to your own Government , and it will be to little purpose to make Laws in matter of Religion , or in any thing else , if the end of it be , that every man shall chuse whether he will obey or no : and if it be questioned whether you be deceived or no , though the suffering such a question is a great diminution to your Authority , yet it is infinitely more probable that you are in the right than that the disobedient Subject is ; because you are conducted with a publick spirit , you have a special title and peculiar portions of the promise of Gods assistance , you have all the helps of Counsel and the advantages of deliberation , you have the Scriptures and the Laws , you are as much concerned to judge according to truth as any man , you have the principal of all capacities and states of men to assist your Consultations , you are the most concerned for Peace , and to please God also is your biggest interest : and therefore it cannot be denied to be the most reasonable thing in the world which is set down in the Law , Praesumptio est pro authoritate imponentis , the presumption of truth ought to be on your side ; and since this is the most likely way for Truth , and the most certain way for Peace , you are to insist in this , and it is not possible to find a better . I have another part or sense of my Text yet to handle ; but because I have no more time of mine own , and I will not take any of yours , I shall only do it in a short Exhortation to this most Honourable Auditory , and so conclude . God hath put a Royal Mantle , and fastned it with a Golden Clasp , upon the shoulder of the KING , and he hath given you the Judges Robe ; the King holds the Scepter , and he hath now permitted you to touch the golden Ball , and to take it a while into your handling , and make Obedience to your Laws to be Duty and Religion : but then remember that the first in every kind is to be the measure of the rest ; you cannot reasonably expect that the Subjects should obey you , unless you obey God. I do not speak this only in relation to your personal duty ; though in that also it would be considered , that all the Bishops and Ministers of Religion are bound to teach the same Doctrines by their Lives as they do by their Sermons ; and what we are to do in the matters of Doctrine , you are also to do in the matters of Laws ; what is reasonable for the advantages of Religion , is also the best Method for the advantages of Government ; we must preach by our good example , and you must govern by it ; and your good example in observing the Laws of Religion will strangely endear them to the affections of the people . But I shall rather speak to you as you are in a capacity of Union and of Government ; for as now you have a new Power , so there is incumbent upon you a special Duty . 1. Take care that all your Power and your Consels be employed in doing honour and advantages to Piety and Holiness . Then you obey God in your publick capacity , when by holy Laws and wise Administrations you take care that all the Land be an obedient and a religious people . For then you are Princely Rulers indeed when you take care of the Salvation of a whole Nation . Nihil aliud est imperium nisi cura salutis alienae , said Ammianus ; Government is nothing but a care that all men be saved . And therefore take care that men do not destroy their Souls by the abominations of an evil life : see that God be obeyed , take care that the breach of the Laws of God may not be unpunished . The best way to make men to be good Subjects to the King is to make them good Servants of God. Suffer not Drunkenness to pass with impunity , let Lust find a publick shame : let the Sons of the Nobility and Gentry no more dare to dishonour God than the meanest of the people shall : let baseness be basely esteemed ; that is , put such Characters of Shame upon dishonourable Crimes , that it be esteemed more against the honour of a Gentleman to be drunk than to be kicked , more shame to fornicate than to be caned : and for honours sake and the reputation of Christianity , take some course that the most unworthy sins of the world have not reputation added to them by being the practice of Gentlemen and persons of good birth and fortunes . Let not them who should be examples of Holiness have an impunity and a licence to provoke God to anger ; lest it be said that in Ireland it is not lawful for any man to sin , unless he be a person of quality . Optimus est reipublicae status , ubi nihil deest nisi licentia pereundi ; In a common-wealth that 's the best state of things , where every thing can be had but a leave to sin , a licence to be undone . 2. As God is thus to be obeyed , and you are to take care that he be , so God also must be honoured , by paying that reverence and religious obedience which is due to those persons whom he hath been pleased to honour , by admitting them to the dispensation of his blessings , and the ministeries of your Religion . For certain it is , this is a right way of giving honour and obedience to God. The Church is in some very peculiar manner the portion and the called and the care of God ; and it will concern you in pursuance of your obedience to God , to take care that they in whose hands Religion is to be ministred and conducted , be not discouraged . For what your Judges are to the ministry of Laws , that your Bishops are in the ministeries of Religion ; and it concerns you that the hands of neither of them be made weak : and so long as you make Religion your care , and Holiness your measure , you will not think that Authority is the more to be despised because it is in the hands of the Church , or that it is a sin to speak evil of dignities , unless they be Ecclesiastical ; but that they may be reviled , and that though nothing is baser then for a man to be a Thief , yet Sacrilege is no dishonour ; and indeed to be an Oppressor is a great and crying sin , yet to oppress the Church , to diminish her rents , to make her beggerly and contemptible , that 's no offence ; and that though it is not lawful to despise Government , yet if it be Church-government , that then the case is altered . Take heed of that , for then God is dishonoured , when any thing is the more despised by how much it relates nearer unto God. No Religion ever did despise their chiefest Ministers ; and the Christian Religion gives them the greatest honour . For honourable Priesthood is like a shower from heaven , it causes blessings every where : but a pitiful , a disheartned , a discouraged Clergy , waters the ground with a water-pot , here and there a little good , and for a little while ; but every evil man can destroy all that work whenever he pleases . Take heed ; in the world there is not a greater misery can happen to any man , then to be an enemy to God's Church . All Histories of Christendome and the whole Book of God have sad records , and sad threatnings , and sad stories of Corah , and Doeg , and Balaam , and Jeroboam , and Vzzah , and Ananias , and Sapphira , and Julian , and of Hereticks and Schismaticks , and sacrilegious ; and after all , these men could not prevail finally , but paid for the mischief they did , and ended their daies in dishonour , and left nothing behind them but the memory of their sin , and the record of their curse . 3. In the same proportion you are to take care of all inferiour Relatives of God and of Religion . Find out methods to relieve the Poor , to accommodate and well dispose of the cures of Souls ; let not the Churches lye wast and in ruinous heaps , to the diminution of Religion , and the reproach of the Nation , lest the nations abroad say , that the Britans are a kind of Christians that have no Churches : for Churches , and Courts of Judicature , and the publick defences of an Imperial City , are res sacrae ; they are venerable in Law , and honourable in Religion . But that which concerns us most is , that we all keep close to our Religion . Ad magnas reipublicae utilitates retinetur Religio in civitatibus , said Cicero ; by Religion and the strict preserving of it , ye shall best preserve the Interests of the Nation : and according to the precept of the * Apostle , Mark them which cause divisions amongst us , contrary to the doctrine that ye have receiv'd , and avoid them . For I beseech you to consider , all you that are true Protestants ; do you not think that your Religion is holy , and Apostolical , and taught by Christ , and pleasing unto God ? If you do not think so , why do you not leave it ? but if you do think so , why are ye not zealous for it ? Is not the Government a part of it ? it is that which immures , and adorns , and conducts all the rest , and is establisht in the 36. Article of the Church , in the publick Service-book , and in the book of Consecration : it is therefore a part of our Religion , and is not all of it worth preserving ? If it be , then they which make Schisms against this Doctrine , by the rule of the Apostle are to be avoided . Beatus qui praedicat verbum inauditum , Blessed is he that preaches a word that was never heard before , so said the Spanish Jesuite : but Christ said otherwise ; No man having drunk old wine straight desires new , for he saith the old is better . And so it is in Religion , Quod primum verum , Truth is alwaies first : and since Episcopacy hath been of so lasting an abode , of so long a blessing , since it hath ever combin'd with Government , and hath been taught by that Spirit that hath so long dwelt in God's Church , and hath now according to the promise of Jesus , that sayes the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church , been restored amongst us by a heap of miracles , and as it went away , so it return'd again in the hand of Monarchy , and in the bosome of our Fundamental Laws ; suffer no evil tongue to speak against this Truth , which hath had so long a testimony from God , and from Experience , and from the wisdom of so many Ages , of all your Ancestors and all your Laws , lest ye be found to speak against God , and neglect the things that belong unto your Peace , and get nothing by it but news and danger , and what other effects ye know not . But Leontinus Bishop of Antioch stroak'd his old white beard and said , When this snow is dissolved , a great deal of dirty weather will follow ; meaning , that when the old Religion should be questioned and discountenanced , the new Religion would bring nothing but trouble and unquietness : and we have found it so by a sad experience . 4. Ye cannot obey God unless ye do Justice : for this also is better then sacrifice , said Solomon , Prov. 21. 3. For Christ , who is the Sun of righteousness , is a Sun and a Shield to them that do righteously . The Indian was not immured sufficiently by the Atlantick sea , nor the Bosphoran by the walls of Ice , nor the Arabian by his meridian Sun ; the Christian Justice of the Roman Princes brake through all inclosures , and by Justice set up Christs standard , and gave to all the world a testimony how much could be done by Prudence and Valour , when they were conducted by the hands of Justice . And now you will have a great trial of this part of your Obedience to God. For you are to give sentence in the causes of half a Nation : and he had need be a wise and a good man that divides the inheritance amongst Brethren ; that he may not be abused by contrary pretences , nor biassed by the Interest of friends , nor transported with the unjust thoughts even of a just Revenge , nor allured by the opportunities of Spoil , nor turn'd aside by Partiality in his own concerns , nor blinded by Gold which puts out the eyes of wise men , nor couzened by pretended zeal , nor wearied with the difficulty of questions , nor directed by a general measure in cases not measurable by it , nor born down by Prejudice , nor abused by resolutions taken before the cause be heard , nor over-ruled by National Interests . For Justice ought to be the simplest thing in the world , and is to be measured by nothing but by Truth and by Laws , and by the Decrees of Princes . But whatever you do , let not the pretence of a different Religion make you think it lawful to oppress any man in his just rights : For Opinions are not , but Laws only , and doing as we would be done to , are the measures of Justice : and though Justice does alike to all men , Jew and Christian , Lutheran and Calvinist ; yet to do right to them that are of another Opinion is the way to win them ; but if you for Conscience sake do them wrong , they will hate you and your Religion . Lastly , as Obedience is better than Sacrtfice , so God also said , I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice ; meaning that Mercy is the best Obedience . Perierat totum quod Deus fecerat , nisi misericordia subvenisset , said Chrysologus ; all the Creatures both of Heaven and earth would perish if Mercy did not relieve us all . Other good things more or less , every man expects according to the portion of his fortune : Ex clementia omnes idem sperant , * but from Mercy and Clemency all the world alike do expect advantages . And which of us all stands here this day , that does not need God's pardon and the Kings ? Surely no man is so much pleased with his own innocence , as that he will be willing to quit his claim to Mercy : and if we all need it , let us all shew it . Naturae imperio gemimus , cum funus adultae Virginis occurrit , vel terrâ clauditur infans , Et minor igne rogi — If you do but see a Maiden carried to her Grave a little before her intended marriage , or an Infant die before the birth of Reason , Nature hath taught us to pay a tributary tear : Alas ! your eyes will behold the ruine of many Families , which though they sadly have deserved , yet Mercy is not delighted with the spectacle ; and therefore God places a watry cloud in the eye , that when the light of Heaven shines upon it , it may produce a Rain-bow to be a Sacrament and a Memorial that God and the Sons of God do not love to see a man perish . God never rejoices in the death of him that dies ; and we also esteem it undecent to have Musick at a Funeral . And as Religion teaches us to pity a condemned Criminal , so Mercy intercedes for the most benigne interpretation of the Laws . You must indeed be as just as the Laws , and you must be as merciful as your Religion : and you have no way to tye these together , but to follow the Pattern in the Mount ; do as God does , who in judgment remembers mercy . To conclude ; If every one in this Honourable Assembly would join together to promote Christian Religion in its true notion , that is , Peace and Holiness , the love of God and the love of our Brother , Christianity in all its proper usefulness , and would not endure in the Nation any thing against the Laws of the Holy Jesus ; if they were all zealous for the Doctrines of Righteousness , and impatient of Sin in your selves and in the people , it is not to be imagined what a happy Nation we should be . But if ye divide into parties , and keep up useless differences of names or interests ; if ye do not join in the bands of Peace , that is , the King and the Church , Religion and the good of the Nation , you can never hope to see a blessing to be the end of your labours . Remember the words of Solomon , Righteousness exalteth a Nation , but sin is a reproach to any people : but when Righteousness is advanced in the hearts and lives of the Nation , who shall dare to reprove your Faith , who can find fault with your Religion ? God of his mercy grant that in all your Consultations the Word of God may be your measure , the Spirit of God may be your guide , and the glory of God may be your end : He of his mercy grant that moderation may be your limit , and Peace may be within your walls as long as you are there , and in all the land for ever after . But remember , that since the honour and service of his Majesty , and the peace and prosperity of the Church , the perpetuity of our fundamental Laws , publick Justice , and the honour of all legal Authority , the advancement of Trade , and the wealth of the Nation is your design ; remember , I pray , what warranty you have to expect all this ; no less than the words of our Blessed Saviour , but it is upon these terms , Seek ye first the Kingdom of God , and the righteousness thereof , and all these things shall be added to you . Amen . FINIS . Via Intelligentiae . A SERMON Preached to the UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN , Shewing by what means the Scholars shall become most Learned and most Useful . Published at their desire . By the R. R. Father in God , Jeremy Lord Bishop of Down , &c. and Vice-Chancellour of that UNIVERSITY . Ad majorem Dei gloriam . LONDON , Printed for R. Royston , Bookseller to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty . 1666. To the READER . PEACE is so great a Blessing , and Disputations and Questions in Religion are so little friends to Peace , that I have thought no mans time can be better spent than in propositions and promotions of Peace , and consequently in finding expedients , and putting periods to all contentious Learning . I have already in a discourse before the Right Honourable the Lords and Commons assembled in this Parliament , prov'd that Obedience is the best medium of Peace and true Religion ; and Laws are the only common term and certain rule and measure of it . Vocatâ ad concionem multitudine , quae coalescere in populum Unius corporis nullâ re praeterquam legibus poterat , said Livy . Obedience to Man is the external instrument ; and the best in the World. To which I now add , that Obedience to God is the best internal instrument ; and I have prov'd it in this discourse . Peace and Holiness are twin-Sisters ; after which because every man is bound to follow , and he that does not shall never see God , I concluded that the Office of a Bishop is in nothing so signally to be exhibited as in declaring by what means these great duties and blessings are to be acquired . This way I have here described is an old way ; for it was Christs way , and therefore it is truth and life : but it hath been so little regarded and so seldom taught , that when I first spake my thoughts of it in the following words before the Little , but Excellent , Vniversity of Dublin , they consented to it so perfectly , and so piously entertained it , that they were pleased with some earnestness to desire me to publish it to the world , and to consign it to them as a perpetual memorial of their duty , and of my regards to them , and care over them in my Station . I was very desirous to serve and please them in all their worthy desires , but had found so much reason to distrust my own abilities , that I could not resolve to do what I fain would have done ; till by a second communication of those thoughts , though in differing words , I had published it also to my Clergy at the Metropolitical Visitation of the most Reverend and Learned Lord Primate of Armagh in my own Diocese . But when I found that they also thought it very reasonable and pious , and joined in the desire of making it publick , I consented perfectly , and now only pray to God it may do that Work which I intended . I have often thought of those excellent words of Mr. Hooker in his very learned Discourse of Justification ; [ Such is the untoward constitution of our Nature , that we do neither so perfectly understand the way and knowledge of the Lord , nor so stedfastly embrace it when it is understood , nor so graciously utter it when it is embraced , nor so peaceably maintain it when it is uttered , but that the best of us are overtaken sometime through blindness , sometime through hastiness , sometime through impatience , sometime through other passions of the mind , whereunto ( God knows ) we are too subject ] That I find by true experience , the best way of Learning and Peace is that which cures all these evils , as far as in the World they are curable ; and that is the waies of Holiness , which are therefore the best and only way of Truth . In Disputations there is no end , and but very little advantage ; but the way of godliness hath in it no Error , and no Doubtfulness . By this therefore I hoped best to applie the Counsel of the Wise man : Stand thou fast in thy sure Understanding , in the way and knowledg of the Lord , and have but one manner of word , and follow the word of peace and righteousness . I have reason to be confident that they who desired me to publish this Discourse will make use of it , and find benefit by it : and if any others do so too , both they and I shall still more and more give God all thanks , and praise , and glory . Via Intelligentiae . SERM. VI. John VII . 17. If any man will do his will , he shall know of the Doctrine , whether it be of God , or whether I speak of my self . THE Ancients in their Mythological Learning tell us , that when Jupiter espyed the Men of the World striving for Truth , and pulling her in pieces to secure her to themselves , he sent Mercury down amongst them , and he with his usual Arts dressed Error up in the Imagery of Truth , and thrust her into the Croud , and so left them to contend still : and though then by Contention men were sure to get but little Truth , yet they were as earnest as ever , and lost Peace too , in their Importune contentions for the very Image of Truth . And this indeed is no wonder : but when Truth and Peace are brought into the world together , and bound up in the same bundle of life ; when we are taught a Religion by the Prince of Peace , who is the Truth it self , to see men Contending for this Truth to the breach of that Peace ; and when men fall out , to see that they should make Christianity their Theme , that is one of the greatest wonders in the World. For Christianity is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a soft and gentle Institution ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it was brought into the World to soften the asperities of humane nature , and to cure the Barbarities of evil men , and the Contentions of the passionate . The Eagle seeing her breast wounded , and espying the Arrow that hurt her to be feathered , cryed out , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the feathered Nation is destroyed by their own Feathers ; That is , a Christian fighting and wrangling with a Christian ; and indeed that 's very sad : but wrangling about Peace too ; that Peace it self should be the argument of a War , that 's unnatural ; and if it were not that there are many who are homines multae religionis , nullius penè pietatis , Men of much Religion and little Godliness , it would not be that there should be so many quarrels in and concerning that Religion which is wholly made up of Truth and Peace , and was sent amongst us to reconcile the hearts of men when they were tempted to uncharitableness by any other unhappy argument . Disputation cures no Vice , but kindles a great many , and makes Passion evaporate into sin : and though men esteem it Learning , yet it is the most useless Learning in the World. When Eudamidas the Son of Archidamas heard old Xenocrates disputing about Wisdom , he asked very soberly , If the old man be yet disputing and enquiring concerning Wisdom , what time will he have to make use of it ? Christianity is all for practice , and so much time as is spent in quarrels about it is a diminution to its Interest : men enquire so much what it is , that they have but little time left to be Christians . I remember a saying of Erasmus , that when he first read the New Testament with fear and a good mind , with a purpose to understand it and obey it , he found it very useful & very pleasant : but when afterwards he fell on reading the vast differences of Commentaries , then he understood it less than he did before , then he began not to understand it : For indeed the Truths of God are best dressed in the plain Culture and simplicity of the Spirit ; but the Truths that men commonly teach are like the reflexions of a Multiplying-glass : for one piece of good money you shall have forty that are phantastical ; and it is forty to one if your finger hit upon the right . Men have wearied themselves in the dark , having been amused with false fires : and instead of going home , have wandred all night 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in untroden , unsafe , uneasie wayes ; but have not found out what their Soul desires . But therefore since we are so miserable , and are in error , and have wandred very far , we must do as wandring Travellers use to do , go back just to that place from whence they wandred , and begin upon a new account . Let us go to the Truth it self , to Christ , and he will tell us an easie way of ending all our Quarrels : For we shall find Christianity to be the easiest and the hardest thing in the World : it is like a secret in Arithmetick , infinitely hard till it be found out by a right operation , and then it is so plain , we wonder we did not understand it earlier . Christ's way of finding out of Truth is by doing the will of God. We will try that by and by , if possible we may find that easie and certain : in the mean time let us consider what wayes men have propounded to find out Truth , and upon the foundation of that to establish Peace in Christendom . 1. That there is but one true way is agreed upon ; and therefore almost every Church of one denomination that lives under Government propounds to you a Systeme or collective Body of Articles , and tells you , that 's the true Religion , and they are the Church , and the peculiar people of God : like Brutus and Cassius , of whom one sayes , Vbicunque ipsi essent , praetexebant esse rempublicam , they supposed themselves were the Common-wealth ; and these are the Church , and out of this Church they will hardly allow salvation : But of this there can be no end ; for divide the Church into Twenty parts , and in what part soever your lot falls , you and your party are damned by the other Nineteen ; and men on all hands almost keep their own Proselytes by affrighting them with the fearful Sermons of Damnation : but in the mean time here is no security to them that are not able to judge for themselves , and no Peace for them that are . 2. Others cast about to cure this evil , and conclude that it must be done by submission to an infallible Guide ; this must do it or nothing : and this is the way of the Church of Rome : Follow but the Pope and his Clergy , and you are safe , at least as safe as their warrant can make you . Indeed this were a very good way , if it were a way at all ; but it is none ; for this can never end our Controversies : not only because the greatest Controversies are about this Infallible Guide ; but also because , 1. We cannot find that there is upon Earth any such Guide at all . 2. We do not find it necessary that there should . 3. We find that they who pretend to be this infallible Guide are themselves infinitely deceived . 4. That they do not believe themselves to be Infallible whatever they say to us ; because they do not put an end to all their own Questions that trouble them . 5. Because they have no peace but what is constrained by force and Government . 6. And lastly , because if there were such a Guide , we should fail of Truth by many other causes : for it may be that Guide would not do his duty ; or we are fallible Followers of this infallible Leader ; or we should not understand his meaning at all times , or we should be perverse at some times , or something as bad : because we all confess that God is an Infallible Guide , and that some way or other he does teach us sufficiently , and yet it does come to pass by our faults that we are as far to seek for Peace and Truth as ever . 3. Some very wise men finding this to fail , have undertaken to reconcile the differences of Christendom by a way of moderation . Thus they have projected to reconcile the Papists and the Lutherans , the Lutherans and the Calvinists , the Remonstrants and Contra-remonstrants , and project that each side should abate of their asperities , and pare away something of their propositions , and joyn in Common terms and phrases of Accommodation , each of them sparing somthing , and promising they shall have a great deal of peace for the exchange of a little of their opinion . This was the way of Cassander , Modrevius , Andreas Frisius , Erasmus , Spalato , Grotius , and indeed of Charles the Fifth in part , but something more heartily of Ferdinand the Second . This device produced the conferences at Poissy , at Montpellier , at Ratisbon , at the Hague , at many places more : and what was the event of these ? Their parties when their Delegates returned , either disclamed their Moderation , or their respective Princes had some other ends to serve , or they permitted the Meetings upon uncertain hopes , and a tryal if any good might come ; or it may be they were both in the wrong , and their mutual abatement was nothing but a mutual quitting of what they could not get , and the shaking hands of false friends ; or it may be it was all of it nothing but Hypocrisie and Arts of Craftiness , and , like Lucian's man , every one could be a man and a Pestle when he pleased . And the Councel of Trent , though under another cover , made use of the artifice , but made the secret manifest and common : for at this day the Jesuits in the Questions de auxiliis Divinae gratiae have prevailed with the Dominicans to use their expressions , and yet they think they still keep the sentence of their own Order . From hence can succeed nothing but folly and a phantastick peace : This is but the skinning of an old sore , it will break out upon all occasions . 4. Others , who understand things beyond the common rate , observing that many of our Controversies and peevish wranglings are kept up by the ill stating of the Question , endeavour to declare things wisely , and make the matter intelligible , and the words clear ; hoping by this means to cut off all disputes . Indeed this is a very good way , so far as it can go ; and would prevail very much , if all men were wise , and would consent to those statings , and would not fall out upon the main enquiry when it were well stated : but we find by a sad experience that few Questions are well stated ; and when they are , they are not consented to ; and when they are agreed on by both sides that they are well stated , it is nothing else but a drawing up the Armies in Battalia with great skill and discipline ; the next thing they do is , they thrust their Swords into one anothers sides . 5. What remedy after all this ? Some other good men have propounded one way yet : but that is a way of Peace rather than Truth ; and that is , that all Opinions should be tolerated and none persecuted , and then all the world will be at peace . Indeed this relies upon a great reasonableness ; not only because Opinions cannot be forced , but because if men receive no hurt it is to be hoped they will do none : But we find that this alone will not do it : For besides that all men are not so just as not to do any Injury ( for some men begin the evil ) besides this ( I say ) there are very many men amongst us who are not content that you permit them ; for they will not permit you , but rule over your Faith , and say that their way is not only true , but necessary ; and therefore the Truth of God is at stake , and all indifference and moderation is carnal Wisdom , and want of Zeal for God : nay more than so , they preach for Toleration when themselves are under the rod , who when they got the rod into their own hands thought Toleration it self to be Intolerable . Thus do the Papists , and thus the Calvinists : and for their Cruelty they pretend Charity : They will indeed force you to come in , but it is in true Zeal for your Soul : and if they do you violence , it is no more than if they pull your Arm out of joint , when to save you from drowning they draw you out of a River ; and if you complain , it is no more to be regarded than the out-cries of Children against their Rulers , or sick men against Physitians . But as to the thing it self , the truth is , it is better in Contemplation than Practice : for reckon all that is got by it when you come to handle it , and it can never satisfie for the infinite disorders happening in the Government ; the scandal to Religion , the secret dangers to publick Societies , the growth of Heresie , the nursing up of parties to a grandeur so considerable as to be able in their own time to change the Laws and the Government . So that if the Question be whether meer Opinions are to be persecuted , it is certainly true , they ought not . But if it be considered how by Opinions men rifle the affairs of Kingdoms , it is also as certain , they ought not to be made publick and permitted . And what is now to be done ? must Truth be for ever in the dark , and the World for ever be divided , and Societies disturbed , and Governments weakned , and our Spirits debauched with Error and the uncertain Opinions and the Pedantry of talking men ? Certainly there is a way to cure all this evil ; and the wise Governour of all the World hath not been wanting in so necessary a matter as to lead us into all Truth . But the way hath not yet been hit upon , and yet I have told you all the wayes of Man and his Imaginations in Order to Truth and Peace : and you see these will not do ; we can find no rest for the soles of our feet amidst all the waters of Contention and Disputations , and little artifices of divided Schools . Every man is a lyar , and his Understanding is weak , and his Propositions uncertain , and his Opinions trifling , and his Contrivances imperfect , and neither Truth nor Peace does come from man. I know I am in an Auditory of inquisitive persons , whose business is to study for Truth , that they may find it for themselves and teach it unto others : I am in a School of Prophets and Prophets Sons , who all ask Pilate's Question , What is Truth ? You look for it in your Books , and you tug hard for it in your Disputations , and you derive it from the Cisterns of the Fathers , and you enquire after the old wayes , and sometimes are taken with new appearances , and you rejoice in false lights , or are delighted with little umbrages and peep of Day : But where is there a man , or a Society of men , that can be at rest in his enquiry , and is sure he understands all the Truths of God ? where is there a man but the more he studies and enquires , still he discovers nothing so clearly as his own Ignorance ? This is a demonstration that we are not in the right way , that we do not enquire wisely , that our Method is not artificial . If men did fall upon the right way , it were impossible so many learned men should be engaged in contrary parties and Opinions . We have examined all wayes but one , all but God's way : Let us ( having missed in all the other ) try this : let us go to God for Truth ; for Truth comes from God only , and his wayes are plain , and his sayings are true , and his promises Yea and Amen : and if we miss the Truth it is because we will not find it : for certain it is , that all that Truth which God hath made necessary , he hath also made legible and plain , and if we will open our eyes we shall see the Sun , and if we will walk in the light , we shall rejoice in the light : only let us withdraw the Curtains , let us remove the impediments and the sin that doth so easily beset us ; that 's God's way . Every man must in his station do that portion of duty which God requires of him , and then he shall be taught of God all that is fit for him to learn : there is no other way for him but this . The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom , and a good understanding have all they that do thereafter . And so said David of himself , I have more understanding than my Teachers ; because I keep thy Commandments . And this is the only way which Christ hath taught us : if you ask , What is Truth ? you must not do as Pilate did , ask the Question , and then go away from him that only can give you an answer ; for as God is the Author of Truth , so he is the Teacher of it ; and the way to learn it is this of my Text : For so saith our blessed Lord , If any man will do his will , he shall know of the Doctrine , whether it be of God or no. My Text is simple as Truth it self , but greatly comprehensive , and contains a Truth that alone will enable you to understand all Mysteries , and to expound all Prophecies , and to interpret all Scriptures , and to search into all Secrets , all ( I mean ) which concern our happinesse and our duty : and it being an affirmative hypothetical , is plainly to be resolved into this Proposition , The way to judge of Religion is by doing of our duty ; and Theologie is rather a Divine life than a Divine knowledge . In Heaven indeed we shall first see , and then love ; but here on Earth we must first love , and love will open our eyes as well as our hearts , and we shall then see and perceive and understand . In the handling of which Proposition I shall first represent to you that the certain causes of our Errors are nothing but direct sins , nothing makes us Fools and Ignorants but living vicious lives ; and then I shall proceed to the direct demonstration of the Article in question , that Holiness is the only way of Truth and Vnderstanding . 1. No man understands the Word of God as it ought to be understood , unless he layes aside all affections to Sin : of which because we have taken very little care , the product hath been that we have had very little wisdom , and very little knowledge in the wayes of God. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Aristotle , wickedness does corrupt a mans reasoning ; it gives him false principles and evil measures of things : the sweet Wine that Vlysses gave to the Cyclops put his eye out ; and a man that hath contracted evil affections , and made a league with sin , sees only by those measures . A Covetous man understands nothing to be good that is not profitable ; and a Voluptuous man likes your reasoning well enough if you discourse of Bonum jucundum , the pleasures of the sense , the ravishments of lust , the noises and inadvertencies , the mirth and songs of merry Company ; but if you talk to him of the melancholy Lectures of the Cross , the content of Resignation , the peace of Meekness , and the Joyes of the Holy Ghost , and of rest in God , after your long discourse and his great silence he cries out , What 's the matter ? He knows not what you mean : Either you must fit his humour , or change your discourse . I remember that Arianus tells of a Gentleman that was banished from Rome , and in his sorrow visited the Philosopher , and he heard him talk wisely , and believed him , and promised him to leave all the thoughts of Rome and splendors of the Court , and retire to the course of a severe Philosopy : but before the good mans Lectures were done , there came 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , letters from Caesar to recall him home , to give him pardon , and promise him great employment : He presently grew weary of the good mans Sermon , and wished he would make an end , thought his discourse was dull and flat ; for his head and heart were full of another story and new principles ; and by these measures he could hear only and he could understand . Every man understands by his Affections more than by his Reason : and when the Wolf in the Fable went to School to learn to spell , whatever letters were told him , he could never make any thing of them but Agnus ; he thought of nothing but his belly : and if a man be very hungry , you must give him meat before you give him Counsel . A mans mind must be like your proposition before it can be entertained : for whatever you put into a man it will smell of the Vessel : it is mans mind that gives the Emphasis , and makes your argument to prevail . And upon this account it is that there are so many false Doctrines in the only Article of Repentance . Men know they must repent , but the definition of Repentance they take from the convenience of their own Affairs : what they will not part with , that is not necessary to be parted with , and they will repent , but not restore : they will say nollem factum , they wish they had never done it ; but since it is done , you must give them leave to rejoice in their purchase : they will ask forgiveness of God ; but they sooner forgive themselves , and suppose that God is of their mind : If you tye them to hard terms , your Doctrine is not to be understood , or it is but one Doctors Opinion , and therefore they will fairly take their leave , and get them another Teacher . What makes these evil , these dangerous and desperate Doctrines ? not the obscurity of the thing , but the cloud upon the heart ; for say you what you will , He that hears must be the Expounder , and we can never suppose but a man will give sentence in behalf of what he passionately loves . And so it comes to pass that , as Rabbi Moses observed , that God for the greatest Sin imposed the least Oblation , as a she-Goat for the sin of Idolatry ; for a woman accused of Adultery , a Barly-Cake : so do most men ; they think to expiate the worst of their sins with a trifling , with a pretended , little , insignificant repentance . God indeed did so , that the cheapness of the Oblation might teach them to hope for pardon ; not from the Ceremony , but from a severe internal repentance : But men take any argument to lessen their repentances , that they may not lessen their pleasures or their estates , and that Repentance may be nothing but a word , and Mortification signifie nothing against their pleasures , but be a term of Art only , fitted for the Schools or for the Pulpit , but nothing relative to Practice , or the Extermination of their sin . So that it is no wonder we understand so little of Religion : it is because we are in love with that which destroyes it ; and as a man does not care to hear what does not please him , so neither does he believe it ; he cannot , he will not understand it . And the same is the Case in the matter of Pride ; the Church hath extremely suffered by it in many ages . Ari●s missed a Bishoprick , and therefore turned Heretick ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith the story , he disturbed and shaked the Church ; for he did not understand this Truth , [ That the peace of the Church was better than the satisfaction of his person , or the promoting his foolish Opinion . ] And do not we see and feel that at this very day the Pride of men makes it seem impossible for many persons to obey their Superiors ? and they do not see what they can read every day , that it is a sin to speak evil of Dignities . A man would think it a very easie thing to understand the 13. Chapter to the Romans , Whosoever resisteth the Power , resisteth ehe Ordinance of God : and yet we know a generation of men to whom these words were so obscure , that they thought it lawful to fight against their King. A man would think it easie to believe that those who were in the gainsaying of Corah , who rose up against the high Priest , were in a very sad condition : and yet there are too many amongst us who are in the gainsaying of Corah , and think they do very well ; that they are the Godly party , and the good people of God. Why ? what 's the matter ? In the world there can be nothing plainer than these words , Let every soul be subject to the higher Powers , and that you need not make a scruple who are these higher powers , it is as plainly said , there is no power but of God ; all that are set over you by the Laws of your Nation , these are over you in the Lord : and yet men will not understand these plain things ; they deny to do their notorious duty , and yet believe they are in the right , and if they sometimes obey for wrath , they oftner disobey for Conscience sake . Where is the fault ? The words are plain , the duty is certain , the Book lies open ; but , alas ! it is Sealed within , that is , men have eyes and will not see , ears and will not hear . But the wonder is the less ; for we know when God said to Jonas , doest thou well to be angry ? he answered God to his face , I do well to be angry even unto the death . Let God declare his mind never so plainly , if men will not lay aside the evil principle that is within , their open love to their secret sin , they may kill an Apostle , and yet be so ignorant as to think they do God good service ; they may disturb Kingdoms , and break the peace of a well-ordered Church , and rise up against their Fathers , and be cruel to their Brethren , and stir up the people to Sedition ; and all this with a cold stomach and a hot liver , with a hard heart and a tender Conscience , with humble carriage and a proud spirit . For thus men hate Repentance , because they scorn to confess an Error ; they will not return to Peace and Truth , because they fear to lose the good opinion of the people whom themselves have couzened ; they are afraid to be good , lest they should confess they have formerly done amiss : and he that observes how much evil is done , and how many Heresies are risen , and how much obstinacy and unreasonable perseverance in folly dwells in the World upon the stock of Pride , may easily conclude that no learning is sufficient to make a proud man understand the truth of God , unless he first learn to be humble . But Obedite & intelligetis ( saith the Prophet ) obey and be humble , leave the foolish affections of sin , and then ye shall understand . That 's the first particular : All remaining affections to sin hinder the learning and understanding of the things of God. 2. He that means to understand the will of God and the truth of Religion must lay aside all inordinate affections to the world . 2 Cor. 3. 14. S. Paul complained that there was at that day a veil upon the hearts of the Jews in the reading of the Old Testament : they looked for a Temporal Prince to be their Messias , and their affections and hopes dwelt in secular advantages ; and so long as that veil was there , they could not see , and they would not accept the poor despised Jesus . For the things of the world , besides that they entangle one another , and make much business , and spend much time , they also take up the attentions of a mans mind , and spend his faculties , and make them trifling and secular with the very handling and conversation . And therefore the Pythagoreans taught their Disciples 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a separation from the things of the body , if they would purely find out truth and the excellencies of wisdom . Had not he lost his labour that would have discoursed wisely to Apicius , and told him of the books of Fate and the secrets of the other World , the abstractions of the Soul and its brisker Immortality , that Saints and Angels eat not , and that the Spirit of a man lives for ever upon wisdom , and holiness and contemplation ? The fat Glutton would have stared a while upon the Preacher , and then have fallen asleep . But if you had discoursed well and knowingly of a Lamprey , a large Mullet , or a Boar , animal propter Convivia natum , and have sent him a Cook from Asia to make new Sawces , he would have attended carefully , and taken in your discourses greedily . And so it is in the Questions and secrets of Christianity : which made S. Paul , when he intended to convert Foelix , discourse first with him about Temperance , Righteousness and Judgment to come . He began in the right point ; he knew it was to no purpose to preach Jesus Christ crucified to an intemperate person , to an Usurper of other mens rights , to one whose soul dwelt in the World , and cared not for the sentence of the last day . The Philosophers began their Wisdom with the meditation of death , and S. Paul his with the discourse of the day of Judgment : to take the heart off from this world and the amabilities of it , which dishonour and baffle the understanding , and made Solomon himself become a child and fool'd into Idolatry , by the prettiness of a talking woman . Men now-a-dayes love not a Religion that will cost them dear . If your Doctrine calls upon Men to part with any considerable part of their estates , you must pardon them if they cannot believe you ; they understand it not . I shall give you one great instance of it . When we consider the infinite unreasonableness that is in the Popish Religion , how against common sense their Doctrine of Transubstantiation is , how against the common Experience of humane nature is the Doctrine of the Popes Infallibility , how against Scripture is the Doctrine of Indulgences and Purgatory ; we may well think it a wonder that no more men are perswaded to leave such unlearned follies . But then on the other side , the wonder will cease , if we mark how many temporal ends are served by these Doctrines . If you destroy the Doctrine of Purgatory and Indulgences you take away the Priests Income , and make the the See Apostolick to be poor ; if you deny the Popes Infallibility , you will despise his Authority , and examine his Propositions , and discover his Failings , and put him to answer hard Arguments , and lessen his Power : and indeed , when we run through all the Propositions of difference between them and us , and see that in every one of them they serve an end of money or of power ; it will be very visible that the way to confute them is not by learned disputations , ( for we see they have been too long without effect , and without prosperity ) the men must be cured of their affections to the World , ut nudi nudum sequantur crucifixum , that with naked and devested affections they might follow the naked Crucified Jesus , and then they would soon learn the truths of God , which till then will be impossible to be apprehended . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Men ( as St. Basil says ) when they expound Scripture , always bring in something of themselves : but till there be ( as one said ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a rising out from their own seats , until they go out from their dark dungeons , they can never see the light of Heaven . And how many men are there amongst us who are therefore enemies to the Religion , because it seems to be against their profit ? The argument of Demetrius is unanswerable ; by this Craft they get their livings : leave them in their Livings , and they will let your Religion alone ; if not , they think they have reason to speak against it . When mens souls are possessed with the World , their souls cannot be invested with holy Truths . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as S. Isidor said : the Soul must be informed , insoul'd , or animated with the propositions that you put in , or you shall never do any good , or get Disciples to Christ. Now because a man cannot serve two Masters ; because he cannot vigorously attend two objects ; because there can be but one soul in any living Creature ; if the World have got possession , talk no more of your Questions , shut your Bibles , and read no more of the Words of God to them , for they cannot tell of the Doctrine , whether it be of God , or of the World. That is the second particular : Worldly affections hinder true understandings in Religion . 3. No man , how learned soever , can understand the Word of God , or be at peace in the Questions of Religion , unless he be a Master over his Passions , Tu quoque si vis Lumine claro Cernere verum , Gaudia pelle , Pelle Timorem : Nubila mens est Vinctáque fraenis Haec ubi regnant . said the wise Boethius ; A man must first learn himself before he can learn God. Tua te fallit Imago : nothing deceives a man so soon as a mans self ; when a man is ( that I may use Plato's expression ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mingled with his nature and his Congenial infirmities of anger and desire , he can never have any thing but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a knowledge partly moral and partly natural : his whole life is but Imagination ; his knowledge is Inclination and Opinion ; he judges of Heavenly things by the measures of his fears and his desires , and his Reason is half of it sense , and determinable by the principles of sense . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , then a man learns well when he is a Philosopher in his Passions . Passionate men are to be taught the first elements of Religion : and let men pretend to as much learning as they please , they must begin again at Christs Cross ; they must learn true mortification and crucifixion of their anger and desires , before they can be good Scholars in Christs School , or be admitted into the more secret enquiries of Religion , or profit in spiritual understanding . It was an excellent Proverb of the Jews , In passionibus Spiritus Sanctus non habitat , the Holy Ghost never dwells in the house of Passion . Truth enters into the heart of man when it is empty and clean and still ; but when the mind is shaken with Passion as with a storm , you can never hear the voyce of the Charmer , though he charm very wisely : and you will very hardly sheath a sword when it is held by a loose and a paralytick Arm. He that means to learn the secrets of Gods wisdom must be , as Plato says , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , his soul must be Consubstantiated with Reason , not invested with Passion : to him that is otherwise , things are but in the dark , his notion is obscure and his sight troubled ; and therefore though we often meet with passionate Fools , yet we seldom or never hear of a very passionate wise man. I have now done with the first part of my undertaking , and proved to you that our evil life is the cause of our Controversies and Ignorances in Religion and of the things of God. You see what hinders us from becoming good Divines . But all this while we are but in the preparation to the Mysteries of Godliness : When we have thrown off all affections to sin , when we have stripp'd our selves from all fond adherences to the things of the world , and have broken the chains and dominion of our Passions ; then we may say with David , Ecce paratum est Cor meum , Deus ; My heart is ready , O God , my heart is ready : then we may say , Speak , Lord , for thy Servant heareth : But we are not yet instructed . It remains therefore that we inquire what is that immediate Principle or Means by which we shall certainly and infallibly be led into all Truth , and be taught the Mind of God , and understand all his Secrets ; and this is worth our knowledge . I cannot say that this will end your Labours , and put a period to your Studies , and make your Learning easie ; it may possibly increase your Labour , but it will make it profitable ; it will not end your Studies , but it will direct them ; it will not make Humane Learning easie , but it will make it wise unto Salvation , and conduct it into true notices and ways of Wisdom . I am now to describe to you the right way of Knowledg : Qui facit Voluntatem Patris mei ( saith Christ ) that 's the way ; do God's Will , and you shall understand God's Word . And it was an excellent saying of S. Peter , Add to your Faith Virtue , &c. If these things be in you and abound , ye shall not be unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For in this case 't is not enough that all our hindrances of Knowledge are removed ; for that is but the opening of the covering of the Book of God ; but when it is opened , it is written with a hand that every eye cannot read . Though the windows of the East be open , yet every eye cannot behold the glories of the Sun : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith Plotinus ; the eye that is not made Solar cannot see the Sun ; the eye must be fitted to the splendor : and it is not the wit of the man , but the spirit of the man ; not so much his head as his heart , that learns the Divine Philosophy . 1. Now in this Inquiry I must take one thing for a praecognitum , that every good man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he is taught of God : and indeed unless he teach us , we shall make but ill Scholars our selves , and worse Guides to others . Nemo potest Deum scire , nisi à Deo doceatur , said St. Irenaeus , ( lib. 6. cap. 13. ) If God teaches us , then all is well ; but if we do not learn Wisdom at his feet , from whence should we have it ? it can come from no other Spring . And therefore it naturally follows , that by how much nearer we are to God , by so much better we are like to be instructed . But this being supposed , as being most evident , we can easily proceed by wonderful degrees and steps of progression in the Oeconomy of this Divine Philosophy : For , 2. There is in every righteous man a new vital Principle ; the Spirit of Grace is the Spirit of Wisdom , and teaches us by secret Inspirations , by proper Arguments , by actual Perswasions , by personal Applications , by Effects and Energies : and as the Soul of a man is the cause of all his vital Operations , so is the Spirit of God the Life of that Life , and the cause of all Actions and Productions Spiritual : And the consequence of this is what St. John tells us of , Ye have received the Vnction from above , and that annointing teacheth you all things : All things of some one kind ; that is , certainly , all things that pertain to life and godliness ; all that by which a man is wise and happy . We see this by common experience . Unless the Soul have a new Life put into it , unless there be a vital Principle within , unless the Spirit of Life be the Informer of the Spirit of the Man , the Word of God will be as dead in the operation as the Body in its powers and possibilities . Sol & Homo generant hominem , saith our Philosophy : A Man alone does not beget a Man , but a Man and the Sun ; for without the influence of the Celestial Bodies all natural Actions are ineffective : and so it is in the operations of the Soul. Which Principle divers Phanaticks , both among us and in the Church of Rome , misunderstanding , look for new Revelations , and expect to be conducted by Ecstasie , and will not pray but in a transfiguration , and live upon raptures and extravagant expectations , and separate themselves from the conversation of men by affectations , by new measures and singularities , and destroy Order , and despise Government , and live upon illiterate Phantasms and ignorant Discourses . These men do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they belie the Holy Ghost : For the Spirit of God makes men wise ; it is an evil Spirit that makes them Fools . The Spirit of God makes us Wise unto Salvation ; it does not spend its holy Influences in disguises and convulsions of the Understanding : Gods Spirit does not destroy Reason , but heightens it ; he never disorders the Beauties of Government , but is a God of Order ; it is the Spirit of Humility , and teaches no Pride ; he is to be found in Churches and Pulpits , upon Altars , and in the Doctors Chairs ; not in Conventicles , and mutinous corners of a House : he goes in company with his own Ordinances , and makes progressions by the measures of life ; his infusions are just as our acquisitions , and his Graces pursue the methods of Nature : that which was imperfect he leads on to perfection , and that which was weak he makes strong : he opens the heart , not to receive murmurs , or to attend to secret whispers , but to hear the word of God ; and then he opens the heart , and creates a new one ; and without this new creation , this new principle of life , we may hear the word of God , but we can never understand it ; we hear the sound , but are never the better ; unless there be in our hearts a secret conviction by the Spirit of God , the Gospel it self is a dead Letter , and worketh not in us the light and righteousness of God. Do not we see this by daily experience ? Even those things which a good man and an evil man know , they do not know them both alike . A wicked man does know that Good is lovely , and Sin is of an evil and destructive nature ; and when he is reproved , he is convinced ; and when he is observed , he is ashamed ; and when he has done , he is unsatisfied ; and when he pursues his sin , he does it in the dark : Tell him he shall die , and he sighs deeply , but he knows it as well as you : Proceed , and say , that after death comes Judgment , and the poor man believes and trembles ; he knows that God is angry with him ; and if you tell him that for ought he knows he may be in Hell to morrow , he knows that it is an intolerable truth , but it is also undeniable : And yet after all this , he runs to commit his sin with as certain an event and resolution as if he knew no Argument against it : These notices of things terrible and true pass through his Understanding as an Eagle through the Air ; as long as her flight lasted the air was shaken , but there remains no path behind her . Now since at the same time we see other persons , not so learned it may be , not so much versed in Scriptures , yet they say a thing is good and lay hold of it ; they believe glorious things of Heaven , and they live accordingly , as men that believe themselves ; half a word is enough to make them understand ; a nod is a sufficient reproof ; the crowing of a Cock , the singing of a Lark , the dawning of the day , and the washing their hands , are to them competent memorials of Religion , and warnings of their duty . What is the reason of this difference ? They both read the Scriptures , they read and hear the same Sermons , they have capable Understandings , they both believe what they hear and what they read , and yet the event is vastly different . The reason is that which I am now speaking of ; the one understands by one Principle , the other by another ; the one understands by Nature , and the other by Grace ; the one by Humane Learning , and the other by Divine ; the one reads the Scriptures without , and the other within ; the one understands as a Son of Man , the other as a Son of God ; the one perceives by the proportions of the world , and the other by the measures of the Spirit ; the one understands by Reason , and the other by Love ; and therefore he does not only understand the Sermons of the Spirit , and perceives their meaning ; but he pierces deeper , and knows the meaning of that meaning ; that is , the secret of the Spirit , that which is spiritually discerned , that which gives life to the Proposition , and activity to the Soul. And the reason is , because he hath a Divine Principle within him , and a new Understanding ; that is plainly , he hath Love , and that 's more than Knowledge ; as was rarely well observed by S. Paul , Knowledge puffeth up , but Charity edifieth ; that is , Charity makes the best Scholars . No Sermons can edifie you , no Scriptures can build you up a holy Building to God , unless the Love of God be in your hearts , and purifie your Souls from all filthiness of the Flesh and Spirit . But so it is in the regions of Stars , where a vast body of Fire is so divided by excentrick motions , that it looks as if Nature had parted them into Orbs and round shells of plain and purest materials : But where the cause is simple , and the matter without variety , the motions must be uniform ; and in Heaven we should either espy no motion , or no variety . But God , who designed the Heavens to be the causes of all changes and motions here below , hath placed his Angels in their houses of light , and given to every one of his appointed Officers a portion of the fiery matter to circumagitate and roll ; and now the wonder ceases : for if it be enquired why this part of the fire runs Eastward , and the other to the South , they being both indifferent to either , it is because an Angel of God sits in the Centre , and makes the same matter turn , not by the bent of its own mobility and inclination , but in order to the needs of Man , and the great purposes of God : And so it is in the Understandings of Men ; when they all receive the same Notions , and are taught by the same Master , and give full consent to all the Propositions , and can of themselves have nothing to distinguish them in the events , it is because God has sent his Divine Spirit , and kindles a new fire , and creates a braver capacity , and applies the Actives to the Passives , and blesses their operation ; For there is in the heart of man such a dead sea , and an indisposition to holy flames , like as in the cold Rivers in the North , so as the fires will not burn them , and the Sun it self will never warm them , till Gods holy Spirit does from the Temple of the New Jerusalem bring a holy flame , and make it shine and burn . The Natural man ( saith the holy Apostle ) cannot preceive the things of the Spirit ; they are foolishness unto him ; for they are spiritually discerned : For he that discourses of things by the measures of sense , thinks nothing good but that which is delicious to the palate , or pleases the brutish part of Man ; and therefore while he estimates the secrets of Religion by such measures , they must needs seem as insipid as Cork , or the uncondited Mushrom ; for they have nothing at all of that in their constitution . A voluptuous person is like the Dogs of Sicily , so fill'd with the deliciousness of Plants that grow in every furrow and hedge , that they can never keep the scent of their Game . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said St. Chrysostom : The fire and water can never mingle ; so neither can sensuality , and the watchfulness and wise discerning of the Spirit . Pilato interroganti de veritate , Christus non respondit ; When the wicked Governour asked of Christ concerning Truth , Christ gave him no answer : He was not fit to hear it . He therefore who so understands the Words of God , that he not only believes but loves the Proposition ; he who consents with all his heart , and being convinc'd of the truth does also apprehend the necessity , and obeys the precept , and delights in the discovery , and lays his hand upon his heart , and reduces the notices of things to the practice of duty ; he who dares trust his proposition , and drives it on to the utmost issue , resolving to go after it whithersoever it can invite him ; this Man walks in the Spirit ; at least thus far he is gone towards it ; his Understanding is brought in obsequium Christi , into the obedience of Christ. This is a loving God with all our mind ; and whatever goes less than this , is but Memory , and not Understanding ; or else such notice of things by which a man is neither the wiser nor the better . 3. Sometimes God gives to his choicest , his most elect and precious Servants , a knowledge even of secret things , which he communicates not to others . We finde it greatly remark'd in the case of Abraham , Gen. 18. 17. And the Lord said , Shall I hide from Abraham that thing that I do ? Why not from Abraham ? God tells us , ver . 19. For I know him , that he will command his Children and his Houshold after him , and they shall keep the way of the Lord , to do justice and judgment . And though this be irregular and infrequent , yet it is a reward of their piety , and the proper increase also of the spiritual man. We find this spoken by God to Daniel , and promised to be the lot of the righteous man in the days of the Messias ; Dan. 12. 10. Many shall be purified , and made white , and tryed ; but the wicked shall do wickedly : and what then ? None of the wicked shall understand , but the wise shall understand . Where besides that the wise man and the wicked are opposed , plainly signifying that the wicked man is a Fool and an Ignorant ; it is plainly said that None of the wicked shall understand the wisdom and mysteriousness of the Kingdom of the Messias . 4. A good life is the best way to understand Wisdom and Religion , because by the experiences and relishes of Religion there is conveyed to them such a sweetness , to which all wicked men are strangers : there is in the things of God to them which practise them a deliciousness that makes us love them , and that love admits us into Gods Cabinet , and strangely clarifies the Understanding by the purification of the Heart . For when our Reason is raised up by the Spirit of Christ , it is turned quickly into experience ; when our Faith relies upon the Principles of Christ , it is changed into Vision ; and so long as we know God only in the ways of man , by contentious Learning , by Arguing and Dispute , we see nothing but the shadow of him , and in that shadow we meet with many dark appearances , little certainty , and much conjecture : But when we know him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , with the eyes of holiness , and the intuition of gracious experiences , with a quiet spirit and the peace of Enjoyment ; then we shall hear what we never heard , and see what our eyes never saw ; then the mysteries of Godliness shall be opened unto us , and clear as the windows of the morning : And this is rarely well expressed by the Apostle , If we stand up from the dead and awake from sleep , then Christ shall give us light . For although the Scriptures themselves are written by the Spirit of God , yet they are written within and without : and besides the light that shines upon the face of them , unless there be a light shining within our hearts , unfolding the leaves , and interpreting the mysterious sense of the Spirit , convincing our Consciences and preaching to our hearts ; to look for Christ in the leaves of the Gospel , is to look for the living amongst the dead . There is a life in them , but that life is ( according to S. Paul's expression ) hid with Christ in God : and unless the Spirit of God be the Promo-condus , we shall never draw it forth . Humane Learning brings excellent ministeries towards this : it is admirably useful for the reproof of Heresies , for the detection of Fallacies , for the Letter of the Scripture , for Collateral testimonies , for exterior advantages ; but there is something beyond this , that humane Learning without the addition of Divine can never reach . Moses was learned in all the Learning of the Egyptians ; and the holy men of God contemplated the glories of God in the admirable order , motion and influences of the Heaven : but besides all this , they were taught of God something far beyond these prettinesses . Pythagoras read Moses's Books , and so did Plato ; and yet they became not Proselytes of the Religion , though they were learned Scholars of such a Master . The reason is , because that which they drew forth from thence was not the life and secret of it . Tradidit arcano quodcunque Volumine Moses . There is a secret in these Books , which few men , none but the Godly , did understand : and though much of this secret is made manifest in the Gospel , yet even here also there is a Letter and there is a Spirit : still there is a reserve for Gods secret ones , even all those deep mysteries which the old Testament covered in Figures , and Stories , and Names , and Prophesies , and which Christ hath , and by his Spirit will yet reveal more plainly to all that will understand them by their proper measures . For although the Gospel is infinitely more legible and plain than the obscurer Leaves of the Law , yet there is a Seal upon them also ; which Seal no man shall open but he that is worthy . We may understand something of it by the three Children of the Captivity ; they were all skill'd in all the wisdom of the Chaldees , and so was Daniel : but there was something beyond that in him ; the wisdom of the most high God was in him , and that taught him a learning beyond his learning . In all Scripture there is a spiritual sense , a spiritual Cabala , which as it tends directly to holiness , so it is best and truest understood by the Sons of the Spirit , who love God , and therefore know him . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , every thing is best known by its own similitudes and analogies . But I must take some other time to speak fully of these things . I have but one thing more to say , and then I shall make my Applications of this Doctrine , and so conclude . 5. Lastly , there is a sort of Gods dear Servants who walk in perfectness , who perfect holiness in the fear of God ; and they have a degree of Clarity and divine knowledge more than we can discourse of , and more certain than the Demonstrations of Geometry , brighter than the Sun , and indeficient as the light of Heaven . This is called by the Apostle the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ is this brightness of God , manifested in the hearts of his dearest Servants . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — But I shall say no more of this at this time , for this is to be felt and not to be talked of ; and they that never touched it with their finger , may secretly perhaps laugh at it in their heart , and be never the wiser . All that I shall now say of it is , that a good man is united unto God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as a flame touches a flame , and combines into splendor and to glory : so is the Spirit of a man united unto Christ by the Spirit of God. These are the friends of God , and they best know Gods mind , and they only that are so know how much such men do know . They have a special Vnction from above : So that now you are come to the top of all ; this is the highest round of the Ladder , and the Angels stand upon it : they dwell in Love and Contemplation , they worship and obey , but dispute not : and our quarrels and impertinent wranglings about Religion are nothing else but the want of the measures of this State. Our light is like a Candle , every wind of vain Doctrine blows it out , or spends the wax , and makes the light tremulous ; but the lights of Heaven are fixed and bright , and shine for ever . But that we may speak not only things mysterious , but things intelligible ; how does it come to pass , by what means and what Oeconomy is it effected , that a holy life is the best determination of all Questions , and the surest way of knowledge ? Is it to be supposed that a Godly man is better enabled to determine the Questions of Purgatory of Transubstantiation ? is the gift of Chastity the best way to reconcile Thomas and Scotus ? and is a temperate man alwaies a better Scholar than a Drunkard ? To this I answer , that in all things in which true wisdom consists , Holiness , which is the best wisdom , is the surest way of understanding them . And this , 1. Is effected by Holiness as a proper and natural instrument : for naturally every thing is best discerned by its proper light and congenial instrument . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . For as the eye sees visible objects , and the understanding perceives the Intellectual ; so does the Spirit the things of the Spirit . The natural man ( saith S. Paul ) knows not the things of God , for they are Spiritually discerned : that is , they are discovered by a proper light , and concerning these things an unsanctified man discourses pitifully , with an imperfect Idea , as a blind man does of Light and Colours which he never saw . A good man , though unlearned in secular notices , is like the windows of the Temple , narrow without and broad within : he sees not so much of what profits not abroad , but whatsoever is within , and concerns Religion and the glorifications of God , that he sees with a broad inspection : But all humane learning without God is but blindness and ignorant folly . But when it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , righteousness dipt in the wells of Truth , it is like an eye of Gold in a rich Garment , or like the light of Heaven , it shews it self by its own splendor . What Learning is it to discourse of the Philosophy of the Sacrament , if you do not feel the vertue of it ? and the man that can with eloquence and subtlety discourse of the instrumental efficacy of Baptismal waters , talks ignorantly in respect of him who hath the answer of a good Conscience within , and is cleansed by the purifications of the Spirit . If the Question concern any thing that can perfect a man and make him happy , all that is the proper knowledge and notice of the good man. How can a wicked man understand the purities of the heart ? and how can an evil and unworthy Communicant tell what it is to have received Christ by Faith , to dwell with him , to be united to him , to receive him in his heart ? The good man only understands that : the one sees the colour , and the other feels the substance ; the one discourses of the Sacrament , and the other receives Christ ; the one discourses for or against Transubstantiation , but the good man feels himself to be changed and so joined to Christ , that he only understands the true sense of Transubstantiation , while he becomes to Christ bone of his bone , flesh of his flesh , and of the same Spirit with his Lord. We talk much of Reformation , and ( blessed be God ) once we have felt the good of it : But of late we have smarted under the name and pretension : The Woman that lost her Groat , everrit domum , not evertit ; she swept the house , she did not turn the house out of doors . That was but an ill Reformation that untiled the Roof and broke the Walls , and was digging down the Foundation . Now among all the pretensions of Reformation , who can tell better what is , and what is not , true Reformation , than he that is truly Reformed himself ? He knows what pleases God , and can best tell by what instruments he is reconciled . The mouth of the just bringeth forth wisdom ; and the lips of the righteous know what is acceptable , saith Solomon . He cannot be cousened by names of things , and feels that Reformation to be Imposture that is Sacrilegious : himself is humble and obedient , and therefore knows that is not Truth that perswades to Schism and Disobedience : and most of the Questions of Christendom are such which either are good for nothing , and therefore to be laid aside ; or if they be complicated with action , and are ministeries of practice , no man can judge them so well as the spiritual man. That which best pleases God , that which does good to our Neighbour , that which teaches sobriety , that which combines with Government , that which speaks honour of God and does him honour , that only is Truth . Holiness therefore is a proper and natural instrument of Divine knowledge , and must needs be the best way of instruction in the Questions of Christendom , because in the most of them a Duty is complicated with the Proposition . No man that intends to live holily can ever suffer any pretences of Religion to be made to teach him to fight against his King. And when the men of Geneva turned their Bishop out of doors , they might easily have considered that the same person was their Prince too ; and that must needs be a strange Religion that rose up against Moses and Aaron at the same time : but that hath been the method ever since . There was no Church till then was ever governed without an Apostle or a Bishop : and since then , they who go from their Bishop have said very often to their King too , Nolumus hunc regnare : and when we see men pretending Religion , and yet refuse to own the Kings Supremacy , they may upon the stock of holiness easily reprove their own folly , by considering that such recusancy does introduce into our Churches the very worst , the most intollerable parts of Popery : For perfect submission to Kings is the glory of the Protestant Cause : and really the reproveable Doctrines of the Church of Rome are by nothing so much confuted , as that they destroy good life by consequent and evident deduction ; as by an Induction of particulars were easie to make apparent , if this were the proper season for it . 2. Holiness is not only an advantage to the learning all wisdom and holiness , but for the discerning that which is wise and holy from what is trifling and useless and contentious ; and to one of these heads all Questions will return : and therefore in all , from Holiness we have the best Instructions . And this brings me to the next Particle of the general Consideration . For that which we are taught by the holy Spirit of God , this new nature , this vital principle within us , it is that which is worth our learning ; not vain and empty , idle and insignificant notions , in which when you have laboured till your eyes are fixed in their Orbs , and your flesh unfixed from its bones , you are no better and no wiser . If the Spirit of God be your Teacher , he will teach you such truths as will make you know and love God , and become like to him , and enjoy him for ever , by passing from similitude to union and eternal fruition . But what are you the better if any man should pretend to teach you whether every Angel makes a species ? and what is the individuation of the Soul in the state of separation ? what are you the wiser if you should study and find out what place Adam should for ever have lived in if he had not fallen ? and what is any man the more learned if he hears the disputes , whether Adam should have multiplyed Children in the state of Innocence , and what would have been the event of things if one Child had been born before his Fathers sin ? Too many Scholars have lived upon Air and empty notions for many ages past , and troubled themselves with tying & untying knots , like Hypocondriacks in a fit of Melancholy , thinking of nothing , & troubling themselves with nothing , and falling out about nothings , and being very wise & very learned in things that are not and work not , and were never planted in Paradise by the finger of God. Mens notions are too often like the Mules , begotten by aequivocal and unnatural Generations ; but they make no species : they are begotten , but they can beget nothing ; they are the effects of long study , but they can do no good when they are produced : they are not that which Solomon calls viam intelligentiae , the way of understanding . If the Spirit of God be our Teacher , we shall learn to avoid evil , and to do good , to be wise and to be holy , to be profitable and careful : and they that walk in this way shall find more peace in their Consciences , more skill in the Scriptures , more satisfaction in their doubts , than can be obtained by all the polemical and impertinent disputations of the world . And if the holy Spirit can teach us how vain a thing it is to do foolish things , he also will teach us how vain a thing it is to trouble the world with foolish Questions , to disturb the Church for interest or pride , to resist Government in things indifferent , to spend the peoples zeal in things unprofitable , to make Religion to consist in outsides , and opposition to circumstances and trifling regards . No , no , the Man that is wise , he that is conducted by the Spirit of God , knows better in what Christs Kingdom does consist , than to throw away his time and interest , and peace and safety ; for what ? for Religion ? no : for the Body of Religion ? not so much : for the Garment of the Body of Religion ? no , not for so much ; but for the Fringes of the Garment of the Body of Religion ; for such and no better are the disputes that trouble our discontented Brethren ; they are things , or rather Circumstances and manners of things , in which the Soul and Spirit is not at all concerned . 3. Holiness of life is the best way of finding out truth and understanding ; not only as a Natural medium , nor only as a prudent medium , but as a means by way of Divine blessing . He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them , he it is that loveth me : and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father , and I will love him , and will manifest my self to him . Here we have a promise for it ; and upon that we may relye . The old man that confuted the Arian Priest by a plain recital of his Creed , found a mighty power of God effecting his own Work by a strange manner , and by a very plain instrument : it wrought a divine blessing just as Sacraments use to do : and this Lightning sometimes comes in a strange manner as a peculiar blessing to good men . For God kept the secrets of his Kingdom from the wise Heathens and the learned Jews , revealing them to Babes , not because they had less learning , but because they had more love ; they were children and Babes in Malice , they loved Christ , and so he became to them a light and a glory . St. Paul had more Learning then they all ; and Moses was instructed in all the Learning of the Egyptians : yet because he was the meekest man upon Earth , he was also the wisest , and to his humane Learning in which he was excellent , he had a divine light and excellent wisdom superadded to him by way of spiritual blessings . And St. Paul , though he went very far to the Knowledge of many great and excellent truths by the force of humane learning , yet he was far short of perfective truth and true wisdom till he learned a new Lesson in a new School , at the feet of one greater then his Gamaliel : his learning grew much greater , his notions brighter , his skill deeper , by the love of Christ , and his desires , his passionate desires after Jesus . The force and use of humane learning , and of this Divine learning I am now speaking of , are both well expressed by the Prophet Isaiah , 29. 11 , 12. And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a Book that is sealed , which men deliver to one that is learned , saying , Read this , I pray thee : and he saith , I cannot , for it is seal'd . And the Book is delivered to him that is not learned , saying , Read this , I pray thee : and he saith , I am not learned . He that is no learned man , who is not bred up in the Schools of the Prophets , cannot read Gods Book for want of learning . For humane Learning is the gate and first entrance of Divine vision ; not the only one indeed , but the common gate . But beyond this , there must be another learning ; for he that is learned , bring the Book to him , and you are not much the better as to the secret part of it , if the Book be sealed , if his eyes be closed , if his heart be not opened , if God does not speak to him in the secret way of discipline . Humane learning is an excellent Foundation ; but the top-stone is laid by Love and Conformity to the will of God. For we may further observe , that blindnesse , errour and Ignorance are the punishments which God sends upon wicked and ungodly men . Etiamsi propter nostrae intelligentiae tarditatem & vitae demeritum veritas nondum se apertissime ostenderit , was St. Austin's expression , The truth hath not yet been manifested fully to us , by reason of our demerits : our sins have hindred the brightness of the truth from shining upon us . And St. Paul observes , that when the Heathens gave themselves over to lusts , God gave them over to strong delusions , & to believe a Lie. But God giveth to a man that is good in his sight , wisdom and knowledge and joy , said the wise Preacher . But this is most expresly promised in the New Testament , and particularly in that admirable Sermon which our blessed Saviour preach'd a little before his death . The Comforter , which is the Holy Ghost , whom the Father , will send in my name , he shall teach you all things . Well : there 's our Teacher told of plainly : But how shall we obtain this teacher , and how shall we be taught ? v. 15 , 16 , 17. Christ will pray for us that we may have this Spirit . That 's well : but shall all Christians have the Spirit ? Yes , all that will live like Christians : for so said Christ , If ye love me , keep my Commandments ; and I will pray the Father , and he will give you another Comforter , that may abide with you for ever ; even the spirit of truth , whom the World cannot receive , because it seeth him not , neither knoweth him . Mark these things . The Spirit of God is our teacher : he will abide with us for ever to be our teacher : he will teach us all things ; but how ? if ye love Christ , if ye keep his Commandments , but not else : if ye be of the World , that is of worldly affections , ye cannot see him , ye cannot know him . And this is the particular I am now to speak to , The way by which the Spirit of God teaches us in all the ways and secrets of God , is Love and Holinesse . Secreta Dei Deo nostro & filiis domus ejus , Gods secrets are to himself and the sons of his House , saith the Jewish Proverb . Love is the great instrument of Divine knowledge , that is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the height of all that is to be taught or learned . Love is Obedience , and we learn his words best when we practise them : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Aristotle ; those things which they that learn ought to practise , even while they practise will best learn. Quisquis non venit , profectò nec didicit : Ita enim Dominus docet per Spiritus gratiam , ut quod quisque didicerit , non tantum cognoscendo videat , sed etiam volendo appetat & agendo perficiat . St. Austin De gratia Christi lib. 1. c. 14. Unlesse we come to Christ , we shall never learn : for so our Blessed Lord teaches us by the grace of his Spirit , that what any one learns , he not only sees it by knowledge , but desires it by choice , and perfects it by practice . 4. When this is reduced to practice and experience , we find not only in things of practice , but even in deepest mysteries , not only the choicest and most eminent Saints , but even every good man can best tell what is true , and best reprove an error . He that goes about to speak of and to understand the mysterious Trinity , and does it by words and names of mans invention , or by such which signifie contingently , if he reckons this mystery by the Mythology of Numbers , by the Cabala of Letters , by the distinctions of the School , and by the weak inventions of disputing people ; if he only talks of Essences and existencies , Hypostases and personalities , distinctions without difference , and priority in Coequalities , and unity in Pluralities , and of superior Praedicates of no larger extent then the inferior Subjects , he may amuse himself , and find his understanding will be like St. Peters upon the Mount of Tabor at the Transfiguration : he may build three Tabernacles in his head , and talk something , but he knows not what . But the good man that feels the power of the Father , and he to whom the Son is become Wisdom , Righteousnesse , Sanctification , and Redemption ; he in whose heart the love of the Spirit of God is spred , to whom God hath communicated the Holy Ghost , the Comforter ; this man , though he understands nothing of that which is unintelligible , yet he only understands the mysteriousnesse of the Holy Trinity . No man can be convinced well and wisely of the Article of the Holy , Blessed , and Vndivided Trinity , but he that feels the mightiness of the Father begetting him to a new life , the wisdom of the Son building him up in a most holy Faith , and the love of the Spirit of God making him to become like unto God. He that hath passed from his Childhood in Grace under the spiritual generation of the Father , and is gone forward to be a young man in Christ , strong and vigorous in holy actions and holy undertakings , and from thence is become an old Disciple , and strong and grown old in Religion , and the conversation of the Spirit ; this man best understands the secret and undiscernable oeconomy , he feels this unintelligible Mystery , and sees with his heart what his tongue can never express , and his Metaphysicks can never prove . In these cases Faith and Love are the best Knowledg , and Jesus Christ is best known by the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ ; and if the Kingdom of God be in us , then we know God , and are known of him ; and when we communicate of the Spirit of God , when we pray for him , and have received him , and entertained him , and dwelt with him , and warmed our selves by his holy fires , then we know him too : But there is no other satisfactory knowledge of the Blessed Trinity but this : And therefore whatever thing is spoken of God Metaphysically , there is no knowing of God Theologically , and as he ought to be known , but by the measures of Holiness , and the proper light of the Spirit of God. But in this case Experience is the best Learning , and Christianity is the best Institution , and the Spirit of God is the best Teacher , and Holiness is the greatest Wisdom ; and he that sins most is the most Ignorant , and the humble and obedient man is the best Scholar : For the Spirit of God is a loving Spirit , and will not enter into a polluted Soul : But he that keepeth the Law getteth the understanding thereof , and the perfection of the fear of the Lord is Wisdom , said the wise Ben-Sirach . And now give me leave to apply the Doctrine to you , and so I shall dismiss you from this attention . Many ways have been attempted to reconcile the differences of the Church in matters of Religion , and all the Counsels of man have yet prov'd ineffective : Let us now try Gods method , let us betake our selves to live holily , and then the Spirit of God will lead us into all Truth . And indeed it matters not what Religion any man is of , if he be a Villain ; the Opinion of his Sect , as it will not save his Soul , so neither will it do good to the Publick : But this is a sure Rule , If the holy man best understands Wisdom and Religion , then by the proportions of holiness we shall best measure the Doctrines that are obtruded to the disturbance of our Peace , and the dishonour of the Gospel . And therefore , 1. That is no good Religion whose Principles destroy any duty of Religion . He that shall maintain it to be lawful to make a War for the defence of his Opinion , be it what it will , his Doctrine is against Godliness . Any thing that is proud , any thing that is peevish and scornful , any thing that is uncharitable , is against the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that form of sound Doctrine which the Apostle speaks of : And I remember that Ammianus Marcellinus telling of George a proud and factious Minister , that he was an Informer against his Brethren , he says , he did it oblitus professionis suae , quae nil nisi justum suadet & lene ; he forgot his Profession , which teaches nothing but justice and meekness , kindnesses and charity . And however Bellarmine and others are pleased to take but indirect and imperfect notice of it , yet Goodness is the best note of the true Church . 2. It is but an ill sign of Holiness when a man is busie in troubling himself and his Superiour in little Scruples and phantastick Opinions , about things not concerning the life of Religion , or the pleasure of God , or the excellencies of the Spirit . A good man knows how to please God , how to converse with him , how to advance the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus , to set forward Holiness , and the Love of God and of his Brother ; and he knows also that there is no Godliness in spending our time and our talk , our heart and our spirits , about the Garments and Outsides of Religion : And they can ill teach others , that do not know that Religion does not consist in these things ; but Obedience may , and reductively that is Religion : and he that for that which is no part of Religion destroys Religion directly , by neglecting that Duty that is adopted into Religion , is a man of Phancy and of the World ; but he gives but an ill account that he is a man of God , and a Son of the Spirit . Spend not your time in that which profits not ; for your labour and your health , your time and your Studies are very valuable ; and it is a thousand pities to see a diligent and a hopeful person spend himself in gathering Cockle-shells and little Pebbles , in telling Sands upon the shores , and making Garlands of useless Daisies . Study that which is profitable , that which will make you useful to Churches and Commonwealths , that which will make you desirable and wise . Only I shall add this to you , That in Learning there are variety of things as well as in Religion : there is Mint and Cummin , and there are the weighty things of the Law ; so there are Studies more and less useful , and every thing that is useful will be required in its time : and I may in this also use the words of our Blessed Saviour , These things ought you to look after , and not to leave the other unregarded . But your great care is to be in the things of God and of Religion , in Holiness and true Wisdom , remembring the saying of Origen , That the Knowledge that arises from Goodness is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , something that is more certain and more divine than all demonstration , than all other Learnings of the World. 3. That 's no good Religion that disturbs Governments , or shakes a foundation of publick Peace . Kings and Bishops are the Foundations and the great Principles of Unity , of Peace , and Government ; like Rachel and Leah they build up the house of Israel : and those blind Sampsons that shake these Pillars , intend to pull the house down . My Son , fear God and the King , saith Solomon , and meddle not with them that are given to change . That is not Truth that loves Changes ; and the new-nothings of Heretical and Schismatical Preachers are infinitely far from the blessings of Truth . In the holy Language Truth hath a mysterious Name , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Emet ; it consists of three Letters , the first and the last and the middlemost of the Hebrew Letters ; implying to us , that Truth is first , and will be last , and it is the same all the way , and combines and unites all extreams ; it ties all ends together . Truth is lasting , and ever full of blessing : For the Jews observe that those Letters which signifie Truth , are both in the figure and the number Quadrate , firm and cubical ; these signifie a Foundation , and an abode for ever . Whereas on the other side , the word which in Hebrew signifies a lye , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Secher , is made of Letters whose numbers are imperfect , and their figure pointed and voluble ; to signifie that a Lye hath no foundation . And this very Observation will give good light in our Questions and Disputes : And I give my instance in Episcopal Government , which hath been of so lasting an abode , of so long a blessing , hath its firmament by the Principles of Christianity , hath been blessed by the issues of that stabiliment ; it hath for sixteen hundred years combined with Monarchy , and hath been taught by the Spirit which hath so long dwelt in Gods Church , and hath now ( according to the promise of Jesus , that says the gates of Hell shall never prevail against the Church ) been re●●ored amongst us by a heap of Miracles ; and as it went away , so now it is returned again in the hand of Monarchy , and in the bosom of our fundamental Laws . Now that Doctrine must needs be suspected of Error , and an intolerable Lie , that speaks against this Truth , which hath had so long a testimony from God , and from the Wisdom and Experience of so many Ages , of all our Ancestors , and all our Laws . When the Spirit of God wrote in Greek , Christ is call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if he had spoken Hebrew , he had been called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Emet , he is Truth , the same yesterday and to day and for ever : and whoever opposes this holy Sanction which Christs Spirit hath sanctified , his Word hath warranted , his Blessings have endeared , his Promises have ratified , and his Church hath always kept ; he fights against this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Emet , and Secher is his portion ; his lot is a Lie , his portion is there where Holiness can never dwell . And now to conclude , to you Fathers and Brethren , you who are , or intend to be of the Clergy ; you see here the best Compendium of your Studies , the best abbreviature of your Labours , the truest Method of Wisdom , and the infallible , the only way of judging concerning the Disputes and Questions in Christendom . It is not by reading multitudes of Books , but by studying the Truth of God : It is not by laborious Commentaries of the Doctors that you can finish your work , but by the Expositions of the Spirit of God : It is not by the Rules of Metaphysicks , but by the proportions of Holiness : And when all Books are read , and all Arguments examined , and all Authorities alledged , nothing can be found to be true that is unholy . Give your selves to reading , to exhortation , and to Doctrine , saith St. Paul. Read all good Books you can ; but exhortation unto good life is the best Instrument , and the best Teacher of true Doctrine , of that which is according to Godliness . And let me tell you this , The great Learning of the Fathers was more owing to their Piety than to their Skill ; more to God than to themselves : and to this purpose is that excellent Ejaculation of St. Chrysostom , with which I will conclude . O blessed and happy men , whose Names are in the Book of Life , from whom the Devils fled , and Hereticks did fear them , who ( by Holiness ) have stopped the mouths of them that spake perverse things ! But I , like David , will cry out , Where are thy loving-kindnesses which have been ever of old ? Where is the blessed Quire of Bishops and Doctors , who shined like Lights in the World , and contained the Word of Life ? Dulce est meminisse ; their very memory is pleasant . Where is that Evodias , the sweet savour of the Church , the Successor and Imitator of the holy Apostles ? Where is Ignatius , in whom God dwelt ? Where is S. Dionysius the Areopagite , that Bird of Paradise , that celestial Eagle ? Where is Hyppolitus , that good man , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that gentle sweet person ? Where is great St. Basil , a man almost equal to the Apostles ? Where is Athanasius , rich in vertue ? Where is Gregory Nyssen , that great Divine ? and Ephrem the great Syrian , that stirred up the sluggish , and awakened the sleepers , and comforted the afflicted , and brought the young men to discipline ; the Looking-glass of the Religious , the Captain of the Penitents , the destruction of Heresies , the receptacle of Graces , the habitation of the Holy Ghost ? These were the men that prevailed against Errour , because they lived according to Truth : and whoever shall oppose you and the Truth you walk by , may better be confuted by your Lives than by your Disputations . Let your adversaries have no evil thing to say of you , and then you will best silence them : For all Heresies and false Doctrines are but like Myron's counterfeit Cow , it deceived none but Beasts ; and these can cozen none but the wicked and the negligent , them that love a Lie , and live according to it . [ But if ye become burning and shining lights ; if ye do not detain the truth in unrighteousness ; if ye walk in light and live in the Spirit ; your Doctrines will be true , and that Truth will prevail . ] But if ye live wickedly and scandalously , every little Schismatick shall put you to shame , and draw Disciples after him , and abuse your Flocks , and feed them with Colocynths and Hemlock , and place Heresie in the Chairs appointed for your Religion . I pray God give you all Grace to follow this Wisdom , to study this Learning , to labour for the understanding of Godliness ; so your Time and your Studies , your Persons and your Labours , will be holy and useful , sanctified and blessed , beneficial to men , and pleasing to God , through him who is the Wisdom of the Father , who is made to all that love him Wisdom , and Righteousness , and Sanctification , and Redemption : To whom with the Father , &c. FINIS . A SERMON Preached in Christs-Church , Dublin , July 16. 1663. AT THE FUNERAL Of the Most Reverend Father in God , JOHN , Late Lord Archbishop of Armagh , and Primate of all Ireland . WITH A Succinct Narrative of His whole Life . The fourth Edition , enlarged . By the Right Reverend Father in God , Jeremy Lord Bishop of Down and Connor . LONDON , Printed for R. Royston Bookseller to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty . 1666. A Funeral Sermon . SERM. VII . 1 Cor. XV. 23. But every Man in his own Order : Christ the first fruits ; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming . THE Condition of Man in this world is so limited and depressed , so relative and imperfect , that the best things he does he does weakly , and the best things he hath are imperfections in their very constitution . I need not tell how little it is that we know ; the greatest indication of this is , That we can never tell how many things we know not : and we may soon span our own Knowledge , but our Ignorance we can never fathom . Our very Will , in which Mankind pretends to be most noble and imperial , is a direct state of imperfection ; and our very liberty of Chusing good and evil is permitted to us , not to make us proud , but to make us humble ; for it supposes weakness of Reason and weakness of Love. For if we understood all the degrees of Amability in the Service of God , or if we had such love to God as he deserves , and so perfect a conviction as were fit for his Services , we could no more Deliberate : For Liberty of Will is like the motion of a Magnetick Needle toward the North , full of trembling and uncertainty till it were fixed in the beloved Point ; it wavers as long as it is free , and is at rest when it can chuse no more . And truly what is the hope of man ? It is indeed the Resurrection of of the Soul in this world from sorrow and her saddest pressures , and like the Twilight to the Day , and the Harbinger of joy ; but still it is but a conjugation of Infirmities , and proclaims our present calamity , only because it is uneasie here , it thrusts us forwards toward the light and glories of the Resurrection . For as a Worm creeping with her belly on the ground , with her portion and share of Adam's Curse , lifts up its head to partake a little of the blessings of the air , and opens the junctures of her imperfect body , and curles her little rings into knots and combinations , drawing up her tail to a neighbourhood of the heads pleasure and motion ; but still it must return to abide the fate of its own nature , and dwell and sleep upon the dust : So are the hopes of a mortal man ; he opens his eyes and looks upon fine things at distance , and shuts them again with weakness , because they are too glorious to behold ; and the Man rejoices because he hopes fine things are staying for him ; but his heart akes , because he knows there are a thousand ways to fail and miss of those glories ; and though he hopes , yet he enjoys not ; he longs , but he possesses not , and must be content with his portion of dust ; and being a worm and no man must lie down in this portion , before he can receive the end of his hopes , the salvation of his Soul in the Resurrection of the dead . For as Death is the end of our lives , so is the Resurrection the end of our hopes ; and as we dye daily , so we daily hope : but Death which is the end of our life , is the enlargement of our Spirits from hope to certainty , from uncertain fears to certain expectations , from the death of the Body to the life of the Soul ; that is , to partake of the light and life of Christ , to rise to life as he did ; for his Resurrection is the beginning of ours : He dyed for us alone , not for himself ; but he rose again for himself and us too . So that if he did rise , so shall we ; the Resurrection shall be universal ; good and bad , all shall rise , but not altogether : First Christ , then we that are Christs ; and yet there is a third Resurrection , though not spoken of here ; but thus it shall be . The dead of Christ shall rise first ; that is , next to Christ ; and after them the wicked shall rise to condemnation . So that you see here is the sum of affairs treated of in my Text : Not whether it be lawful to eat a Tortoise or a Mushroom , or to tread with the foot bare upon the ground within the Octaves of Easter . It is not here inquired whether Angels be material or immaterial ; or whether the dwellings of dead Infants be within the Air or in the Regions of the Earth ; the inquiry here is , whether we are to be Christians or no ? whether we are to live good lives or no ? or whether it be permitted to us to live with Lust or Covetousness acted with all the Daughters of Rapine and Ambition ? whether there be any such thing as sin , any judicatory for Consciences , any rewards of Piety , any difference of Good and Bad , any rewards after this life ? This is the design of these words by proper interpretation : for if men shall dye like Dogs and Sheep , they will certainly live like Wolves and Foxes : but he that believes the Article of the Resurrection , hath entertained the greatest Demonstration in the world , That nothing can make us happy but the Knowledge of God , and Conformity to the life and death of the Holy Jesus . Here therefore are the great Hinges of all Religion : 1. Christ is already risen from the dead . 2. We also shall rise in Gods time and our order . Christ is the first fruits . But there shall be a full Harvest of the Resurrection , and all shall rise . My Text speaks only of the Resurrection of the just , of them that belong to Christ ; explicitely I say of these , and therefore directly of Resurrection to life Eternal . But because he also says there shall be an order for every man ; and yet every man does not belong to Christ ; therefore indirectly also he implies the more universal Resurrection unto Judgment : But this shall be the last thing that shall be done ; for , according to the Proverb of the Jews , Michael flies but with one wing , and Gabriel with two ; God is quick in sending Angels of peace , and they flie apace ; but the messengers of wrath come slowly : God is more hasty to glorifie his Servants than to condemn the wicked . And therefore in the story of Dives and Lazarus we find that the beggar dyed first ; the good man Lazarus was first taken away from his misery to his comfort , and afterwards the rich man dyed : and as the good many times die first , so all of them rise first , as if it were a matter of haste : And as the mothers breasts swell and shoot and long to give food to her babe ; so Gods bowels did yearn over his banished Children , and he longs to cause them to eat and drink in his Kingdom . And at last the wicked shall rise unto condemnation , for that must be done too ; every man in his own order : First Christ , then Christs Servants , and at last Christs Enemies . The first of these is the great ground of our Faith , the second is the consummation of all our hopes : the first is the foundation of God that stands sure , the second is that superstructure that shall never perish : by the first we believe in God unto righteousness , by the second we live in God unto salvation : But the third , for that also is true and must be considered , is the great affrightment of all them that live ungodly . But in the whole , Christs Resurrection and ours is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a Christian ; that as Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to day , and the same for ever , so may we in Christ become the morrow of the Resurrection , the same or better than yesterday in our natural life ; the same body and the same soul tyed together in the same essential union , with this only difference , that not Nature but Grace and Glory with an Hermetick seal give us a new signature , whereby we shall no more be changed , but like unto Christ our head we shall become the same for ever . Of these I shall discourse in order . 1. That Christ who is the first fruits , is the first in this order : he is already risen from the dead . 2. We shall all take our turns , we shall die , and as sure as death we shall all rise again . And 3. This very order is effective of the thing it self . That Christ is first risen , is the demonstration and certainty of ours , for because there is an order in this oeconomy , the first in the kind is the measure of the rest . If Christ be the first fruits , we are the whole vintage , and we shall all die in the order of Nature , and shall rise again in the order of Christ : They that are Christ's , and are found so at his coming , shall partake of his Resurrection . But Christ first , then they that are Christ's : that 's the order . 1. Christ is the first fruits ; he is already risen from the dead : For he alone could not be held by death . Free among the dead . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Death was Sins eldest Daughter , and the Grave-cloaths were her first mantle ; but Christ was Conqueror over both , and came to take that away , and to disarm this . This was a glory fit for the head of mankind , but it was too great and too good to be easily believed by incredulous and weak-hearted Man. It was at first doubted of by all that were concerned ; but they that saw it had no reason to doubt any longer . But what 's that to us who saw it not ? Yes , very much , Valde dubitatum est ab illis , ne dubitaretur à nobis , saith S. Augustine , They doubted very much , that by their confirmation we might be established and doubt no more . Mary Magdalene saw him first , and she ran with joy and said she had seen the Lord , and that he was risen from the dead ; but they believed her not : After that divers women together saw him , and they told it , but had no thanks for their pains , and obtained no credit among the Disciples : The two Disciples that went to Emaus saw him , talked with him , eat with him , and they ran and told it : they told true , but no body believed them : Then S. Peter saw him , but he was not yet got into the Chair of the Catholick Church , they did not think him infallible , and so they believed him not at all . Five times in one day he appeared ; for after all this he appeared to the Eleven ; they were indeed transported with joy and wonder , but they would scarce believe their own eyes , and though they saw him they doubted . Well , all this was not enough ; he was seen also of James , and suffered Thomas to thrust his hand into his side , and appeared to S. Paul , and was seen by five hundred brethren at once . So that there is no capacity of mankind , no time , no place , but had an ocular demonstration of his Resurrection . He appeared to Men and Women , to the Clergy and the Laity , to sinners of both sexes ; to weak men and to criminals , to doubters and denyers , at home and abroad , in publick and in private , in their houses and their journeys , unexpected and by appointment , betimes in the morning and late at night , to them in conjunction and to them in dispersion , when they did look for him and when they did not ; he appeared upon earth to many , and to S. Paul and S. Stephen from Heaven : So that we can require no greater testimony than all these are able to give us ; and they saw for themselves and for us too , that the Faith and certainty of the Resurrection of Jesus might be conveyed to all that shall die and follow Christ in their own order . Now this being matter of fact , cannot be supposed infinite , but limited to time and place , and therefore to be proved by them who at that time were upon the place ; good men and true , simple and yet losers by the bargain , many and united , confident and constant , preaching it all their life , and stoutly maintaining it at their death : Men that would not deceive others , and Men that could not be deceived themselves in a matter so notorious and so proved , and so seen : and if this be not sufficient credibility in a matter of fact as this was , then we can have no story credibly transmitted to us , no Records kept , no Acts of Courts , no Narratives of the dayes of old , no Traditions of our Fathers , no memorials of them in the third Generation . Nay , if from these we have not sufficient causes , and arguments of Faith , how shall we be able to know the will of Heaven upon Earth ? unless God do not only tell it once , but always , and not only always to some men , but always to all men : for if some men must believe others , they can never do it in any thing more reasonably than in this ; and if we may not trust them in this , then without a perpetual miracle no man could have Faith : for Faith could never come by hearing , by nothing but by seeing . But if there be any use of History , any Faith in men , any honesty in manners , any truth in humane entercourse ; if there be any use of Apostles or Teachers , of Ambassadors or Letters , of ears or hearing ; if there be any such thing as the Grace of Faith , that is less than demonstration or intuition , then we may be as sure that Christ the first Fruits is already risen , as all these credibilities can make us . But let us take heed ; as God hates a a lie , so he hates incredulity ; an obstinate , a foolish and pertinacious understanding . What we do every minute of our lives in matters of title and great concernment , if we refuse to do it in Religion , which yet is to be conducted as all humane affairs are , by humane instruments and arguments of perswasion proper to the nature of the thing , it is an obstinacy as cross to humane reason , as it is to Divine Faith. But this Article was so clearly proved , that presently it came to pass that men were no longer ashamed of the Cross , but it was worn upon breasts , printed in the air , drawn upon foreheads , carried upon Banners , put upon Crowns Imperial , presently it came to pass that the Religion of the despised Jesus did infinitely prevail : a Religion that taught men to be meek and humble , apt to receive injuries , but unapt to do any ; a Religion that gave countenance to the poor and pitiful , in a time when riches were adored , and ambition and pleasure had possessed the heart of all mankind ; a Religion that would change the face of things , and the hearts of men , and break vile habits into gentleness and counsel ; that such a Religion , in such a time , by the Sermons and conduct of Fishermen , men of mean breeding and illiberal Arts , should so speedily triumph over the Philosophy of the world , and the arguments of the subtle , and the Sermons of the Eloquent ; the Power of Princes and the Interests of States , the inclinations of nature and the blindness of zeal , the force of custom and the sollicitation of passions , the pleasures of sin and the busie Arts of the Devil ; that is , against Wit , and Power , Superstition and Wilfulness , Fame and Money , Nature and Empire , which are all the causes in this World that can make a thing impossible ; this , this is to be ascribed to the power of God , and is the great demonstration of the Resurrection of Jesus . Every thing was an Argument for it , and improved it ; no Objection could hinder it , no Enemies destroy it ; whatsoever was for them , it made the Religion to encrease ; whatsoever was against them , made it to encrease ; Sun-shine and Storms , fair Weather or foul , it was all one as to the event of things : for they were instruments in the hands of God , who could make what himself should chuse to be the product of any cause ; so that if the Christians had peace , they went abroad and brought in Converts ; if they had no peace but persecution , the Converts came in to them . In prosperity they allured and enticed the World by the beauty of holiness ; in affliction and trouble they amazed all men with the splendour of their Innocence , and the glories of their patience ; and quickly it was that the World became Disciple to the glorious Nazarene , and men could no longer doubt of the Resurrection of Jesus , when it became so demonstrated by the certainty of them that saw it , and the courage of them that dyed for it , and the multitude of them that believed it ; who by their Sermons and their Actions , by their publick Offices and Discourses , by Festivals and Eucharists , by Arguments of Experience and Sense , by Reason and Religion , by perswading rational Men , and establishing believing Christians , by their living in the obedience of Jesus , and dying for the testimony of Jesus , have greatly advanced his Kingdom , and his Power , and his Glory , into which he entred after his Resurrection from the dead . For he is the first Fruits ; and if we hope to rise through him , we must confess that himself is first risen from the dead . That 's the first particular . 2. There is an order for us also : We also shall rise again : Combustúsque senex tumulo procedit adultus , Consumens dat membra rogus ; — The ashes of old Camillus shall stand up spritely from his Urn ; and the Funeral fires shall produce a new warmth to the dead bones of all those who dyed under the arms of all the Enemies of the Roman greatness . This is a less wonder than the former : for admonetur omnis aetas jam fieri posse quod aliquando factum est . If it was done once , it may be done again ; for since it could never have been done but by a power that is infinite , that infinite must also be eternal and indeficient . By the same Almighty power which restored life to the dead body of our living Lord , we may all be restored to a new life in the Resurrection of the dead . When Man was not , what power , what causes made him to be ? whatsoever it was , it did then as great a work as to raise his body to the same being again ; and because we know not the method of Natures secret changes , and how we can be fashioned beneath in secreto terrae , and cannot handle and discern the possibilities and seminal powers in the ashes of dissolved bones , must our ignorance in Philosophy be put in balance against the Articles of Religion , the hopes of Mankind , the Faith of Nations and the truth of God ? and are our opinions of the power of God so low , that our understanding must be his measure ; and he shall be confessed to do nothing unless it be made plain in our Philosophy ? Certainly we have a low opinion of God unless we believe he can do more things than we can understand : But let us hear S. Paul's demonstration ; If the Corn dies and lives again ; if it lays its body down , suffers alteration , dissolution and death , but at the Spring rises again in the verdure of a leaf , in the fulness of the ear , in the kidneys of Wheat ; if it proceeds from little to great , from nakedness to ornament , from emptiness to plenty , from unity to multitude , from death to life : be a Sadducee no more , shame not thy understanding , and reproach not the weakness of thy Faith , by thinking that Corn can be restored to life , and Man cannot ; especially since in every Creature the obediential capacity is infinite , and cannot admit degrees ; for every Creature can be any thing under the power of God , which cannot be less than infinite . But we find no obscure foot-steps of this mystery even amongst the Heathens : Pliny reports that Appion the Grammarian by the use of the Plant Osiris called Homer from his Grave ; and in Valerius Maximus we find that Aelius Tubero returned to life when he was seated in his Funeral pile ; and in Plutarch , that Soleus after three days burial did live ; and in Valerius that Aeris Pamphilius did so after ten days . And it was so commonly believed , that Glaucus who was choked in a Vessel of honey did rise again , that it grew to a Proverb ; Glaucus poto melle surrexit ; Glaucus having tasted honey , dyed and lived again . I pretend not to believe these stories to be true ; but from these instances it may be concluded that they believed it possible that there should be a Resurrection from the dead ; and natural reason , and their Philosophy did not wholly destroy their hopes and expectation to have a portion in this Article . For God knowing that the great hopes of Man , that the biggest endearment of Religion , the sanction of private Justice , the band of Piety and holy Courage , does wholly derive from the Article of the Resurrection , was pleased not only to make it credible , but easie and familiar to us ; and we so converse every night with the Image of death , that every morning we find an argument of the Resurrection . Sleep and Death have but one mother , and they have one name in common . Soles occidere & redire possunt , Nobis cum semel occidit lux brevis , Nox est perpetua una dormienda , Catul. Charnel-houses are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ▪ Coemeteries or sleeping-places , and they that die are fallen asleep , and the Resurrection is but an awakening and standing up from sleep : but in sleep our senses are as fast bound by Nature , as our Joints are by the Grave-cloaths ; and unless an Angel of God waken us every morning , we must confess our selves as unable to converse with men , as we now are afraid to die & to converse with Spirits . But however Death it self is no more ; it is but darkness and a shadow , a rest and a forgetfulness . What is there more in death ? what is there less in sleep ? For do we not see by experience that nothing of equal loudness does awaken us sooner than a mans voice , especially if he be called by name ? and thus also it shall be in the Resurrection : We shall be awakened by the voice of a man , and he that called Lazarus by name from his Grave , shall also call us : for although S. Paul affirms , that the trumpet shall sound , and there shall be the voice of an Arch-Angel ; yet this is not a word of Nature , but of Office and Ministry : Christ himself is that Arch-Angel , and he shall descend with a mighty shout , ( saith the Apostle ) and all that are in the grave shall hear his voice , saith S. John : So that we shall be awakened by the voice of a Man , because we are only fallen asleep by the decree of God ; and when the Cock and the Lark call us up to prayer and labour , the first thing we see is an argument of our Resurrection from the dead . And when we consider what the Greek Church reports , That amongst them the bodies of those that die Excommunicate will not return to dust till the Censure be taken off ▪ we may with a little faith and reason believe , that the same power that keeps them from their natural Dissolution , can recall then to life and union . I will not now insist upon the story of the Rising Bones seen every year in Egypt , nor the pretences of the Chymists , that they from the ashes of Flowers can re-produce from the same materials the same beauties in colour and figure ; for he that proves a certain Truth from an uncertain Argument , is like him that wears a wooden leg when he hath two sound legs already ; it hinders his going , but helps him not : the Truth of God stands not in need of such supporters , Nature alone is a sufficient Preacher : Quae nunc herba fuit , lignum jacet , herba futura , Aeriae nudantur aves cum penna vetusta , Et nova subvestit reparatas pluma volucres . Night and Day , the Sun returning to the same point of East , every change of Species in the same matter , Generation and Corruption , the Eagle renewing her youth , and the Snake her skin , the Silk-worm and the Swallows , the care of posterity and the care of an immortal name , Winter and Summer , the Fall and Spring , the Old Testament and the New , the words of Job , and the Visions of the Prophets , the Prayer of Ezekiel for the resurrection of the men of Ephraim , and the return of Jonas from the Whales belly , the Histories of the Jews and the Narratives of Christians , the Faith of Believers and the Philosophy of the reasonable ; all join in the verification of this Mystery . And amongst these heaps it is not of the least consideration , that there was never any good man , who having been taught this Article , but if he served God , he also relied upon this . If he believed God , he believed this ; and therefore S. Paul says that they who were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , were also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they who had no hope ( meaning of the Resurrection ) were also Atheists , and without God in the world . And it is remarkable what S. Augugustine observes , That when the World saw the righteous Abel destroyed , and that the murderer out-lived his crime , and built up a numerous Family , and grew mighty upon Earth , they neglected the service of God upon that account , till God in pity of their prejudice and foolish arguings took Enoch up to Heaven to recover them from their impieties , by shewing them that their bodies and souls should be rewarded for ever in an Eternal union . But Christ the first fruits is gone before , and himself did promise , that when himself was lifted up he would draw all men after him : Every man in his own order ; first Christ , then they that are Christ's at his coming . And so I have done with the second Particular , not Christ only , but we also shall rise in Gods time and our order . But concerning this order I must speak a word or two , not only for the fuller handling the Text , but because it will be matter of application of what hath been already spoken of the Article of the Resurrection . 3. First Christ and then we : And we therefore because Christ is already risen : But you must remember , that the Resurrection and Exaltation of Christ was the reward of his perfect obedience and purest holiness , and he calling us to an imitation of the same obedience , and the same perfect holiness , prepares a way for us to the same Resurrection . If we by holiness become the Sons of God as Christ was , we shall also , as he was , become the Sons of God in the Resurrection : But upon no other terms . So said our blessed Lord himself : Ye which have followed me in the Regeneration , when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of his glory , ye also shall sit upon Thrones judging the Tribes of Israel . For as it was with Christ the first Fruits , so it shall be with all Christians in their own order : as with the Head , so it shall be with the Members . He was the Son of God by love and obedience , and then became the Son of God by Resurrection from the dead to life Eternal , and so shall we ; but we cannot be so in any other way . To them that are Christ's , and to none else shall this be given : For we must know that God hath sent Christ into the World to be a great example and demonstration of the Oeconomy and Dispensation of Eternal life . As God brought Christ to glory , so he will bring us , but by no other method . He first obeyed the will of God , and patiently suffered the will of God ; he dyed and rose again , and entred into glory ; and so must we . Thus Christ is made Via , Veritas , & Vita , the Way , the Truth , and the Life ; that is , the true way to Eternal life : He first trode this Wine-press , and we must insist in the same steps , or we shall never partake of this blessed Resurrection . He was made the Son of God in a most glorious manner , and we by him , by his merit , and by his grace , and by his example : but other than this there is no way of Salvation for us : That 's the first and great effect of this glorious order . 4. But there is one thing more in it yet : Every man in his own order . First Christ , and then they that are Christ's : But what shall become of them that are not Christs ? why there is an order for them too : First , they that are Christs ; and then they that are not his : * Blessed and holy is he that hath his part in the first Resurrection : There is a first and a second Resurrection even after this life ; The dead in Christ shall rise first : Now blessed are they that have their portion here ; for upon these the second death shall have no power . As for the recalling the wicked from their Graves , it is no otherwise in the sense of the Spirit to be called a Resurrection , than taking a Criminal from the Prison to the Bar , is a giving of Liberty . When poor Attilius Aviola had been seized on by an Apoplexy , his friends supposing him dead carried him to his Funeral pile ; but when the fire began to approach , and the heat to warm the body , he revived , and seeing himself incircled with Funeral flames , called out aloud to his friends to rescue , not the dead , but the living Aviola from that horrid burning : But it could not be , he only was restored from his sickness to fall into death , and from his dull disease to a sharp and intolerable torment . Just so shall the wicked live again ; they shall receive their Souls , that they may be a portion for Devils ; they shall receive their bodies , that they may feel the everlasting burning ; they shall see Christ , that they may look on him whom they have pierced ; and they shall hear the voice of God passing upon them the intolerable sentence ; they shall come from their Graves , that they may go into Hell ; and live again , that they may die for ever . So have we seen a poor condemned Criminal , the weight of whose sorrows sitting heavily upon his soul , hath benummed him into a deep sleep , till he hath forgotten his groans , and laid aside his deep sighings ; but on a sudden comes the Messenger of death , and unbinds the Poppy Garland , scatters the heavy Cloud that incircled his miserable head , and makes him return to acts of life , that he may quickly descend into death and be no more . So is every Sinner that lies down in shame , and makes his grave with the wicked ; he shall indeed rise again , and be call'd upon by the voice of the Archangel ; but then he shall descend into sorrows greater than the reason and the patience of a man , weeping and shrieking louder than the groans of the miserable children in the Valley of Hinnom . These indeed are sad stories , but true as the voice of God , and the Sermons of the Holy Jesus . They are Gods Words , and Gods Decrees ; and I wish that all who profess the belief of these , would consider sadly what they mean. If ye believe the Article of the Resurrection , then you know that in your body you shall receive what you did in the body , whether it be good or bad . It matters not now very much whether our bodies be beauteous or deformed ; for if we glorifie God in our bodies , God shall make our bodies glorious . It matters not much whether we live in ease and pleasure , or eat nothing but bitter herbs ; the body that lies in dust and ashes , that goes stooping and feeble , that lodges at the foot of the Cross , and dwells in discipline , shall be feasted at the eternal Supper of the Lamb. And ever remember this , That beastly pleasures , and lying lips , and a deceitful tongue , and a heart that sendeth forth proud things , are no good dispositions to a blessed Resurrection . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is not good that in the body we live a life of dissolution , for that 's no good harmony with that purpose of Glory which God designs the body . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Phocyllides ; for we hope that from our beds of darkness we shall rise into Regions of light , and shall become like unto God : They shall partake of a Resurrection to life ; and what this can infer is very obvious : For if it be so hard to believe a Resurrection from one death , let us not be dead in trespasses and sins ; for a Resurrection from two deaths will be harder to be believed , and harder to be effected . But if any of you have lost the life of Grace , and so forfeited all your title to a life of Glory , betake your selves to an early and an entire Piety , that when by this first Resurrection you have made this way plain before your face , you may with confidence expect a happy Resurrection from your graves : For if it be possible that the Spirit , when it is dead in sin , can arise to a life of Righteousness ; much more it is easie to suppose , that the body after death is capable of being restor'd again : And this is a consequent of St. Paul's Argument , Rom. 5. 10. If when ye were enemies ye were reconciled by his death , much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life ; plainly declaring , that it is a harder and more wonderful thing for a wicked man to become the friend of God , than for one that is so , to be carried up to heaven and partake of his Glory . The first Resurrection is certainly the greater miracle : But he that hath risen once , may rise again ; and this is as sure as that he that dies once , may die again , and die for ever . But he who partakes of the death of Christ by Mortification , and of his Resurrection by holiness of life and a holy Faith , shall , according to the expression of the Prophet Isaiah , Isa. 26. 20. Enter into his chamber of death ; when Nature and Gods decree shall shut the doors upon him , and there he shall be hidden for a little moment : But then shall they that dwell in dust awake and sing , with Christs dead body shall they arise ; all shall rise , but every man in his own order ; Christ the first fruits , then they that are Christ's at his coming . Amen . I have now done with my meditation of the Resurrection ; but we have a new and a sadder subject to consider . It is glorious and brave when a Christian contemplates those Glories which stand at the foot of the Account of all Gods Servants ; but when we consider , that before all or any thing of this happens , every Christian must twice exuere hominem , put off the Old man , and then lie down in dust , and the dishonours of the grave , it is Vinum Myrrhatum , there is Myrrhe put into our Wine ; it is wholsom , but it will allay all our pleasures of that glorious expectation : But no man can escape it . After that the Great Cyrus had Rul'd long in a mighty Empire , yet there came a Message from Heaven , not so sad it may be , yet as decretory as the Hand-writing on the wall that arrested his Successor Darius , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Prepare thy self , O Cyrus , and then go unto the Gods ; he laid aside his Tire and his beauteous Diadem , and cover'd his face with a cloth , and in a single Linen laid his honour'd head in a poor humble Grave : And none of us all can avoid this Sentence : For if Wit and Learning , great Fame and great Experience ; if wise Notices of Things , and an honourable Fortune ; if Courage and Skill , if Prelacy and an honourable Age , if any thing that could give Greatness and Immunity to a wise and prudent Man , could have been put in bar against a sad day , and have gone for good plea , this sad Scene of Sorrows had not been the entertainment of this Assembly . But tell me , Where are those great Masters , who while they liv'd , flourish'd in their studies ? Jam eorum Praebendas alii possident , & nescio utrum de iis cogitant ; Other men have got their Prebends and their Dignities , and who knows whether ever they remember them or no ? While they liv'd they seem'd nothing ; when they are dead every man for a while speaks of them what they please , and afterwards they are as if they had not been . But the piety of the Christian Church hath made some little provision towards an artificial Immortality for brave and worthy persons ; and the Friendships which our dead contracted while they were alive , require us to continue a fair memory as long as we can ; but they expire in monthly minds , or at most in a faint and declining Anniversary ; — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And we have great reason so to do in this present sad accident of the death of our late most Reverend Primate , whose death the Church of Ireland hath very great reason to deplore ; and we have great obligation to remember his very many worthy Deeds done for this poor afflicted and despised Church . St. Paul made an excellent Funeral Oration , as it were instituting a Feast of All Saints , Who all died having obtained a good report : And that excellent Preacher in the 11. cap. of the Hebrews , made a Sermon of their Commemoration . For since good men , while they are alive , have their Conversation in Heaven ; when they are in Heaven 't is also fit that they should in their good Names live upon Earth . And as their great Examples are an excellent Sermon to the living , and the praising them when Envy and Flattery can have no Interest to interpose , as it is the best and most vigorous Sermon and Incentive to great things ; so to conceal what good God hath wrought by them , is great unthankfulness to God and to good men . When Dorcas died , the Apostle came to see the dead Corps , and the Friends of the deceased expressed their grief and their love by shewing the Coats that she , whilst she lived , wrought with her own hands : She was a good Needle-woman and a good Huswife , and did good to mankind in her little way , and that it self ought not to be forgotten ; and the Apostle himself was not displeased with their little Sermons , and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the women made upon that sad interview . But if we may have the same liberty to record the worthy things of this our most venerable Father and Brother , and if there remains no more of that Envy which usually obscures the splendour of living Heroes ; if you can with your charitable , though weeping , eyes behold the great gifts of God with which he adorned this great Prelate , and not object the failings of humanity to the participation of the Graces of the Spirit , or think that Gods Gifts are the less because they are born in earthen Vessels , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for all men bear Mortality about them , and the Cabinet is not so beauteous as the Diamond that shines within its bosom ; then we may without interruption pay this duty to Piety , and Friendship , and Thankfulness , and deplore our sad loss by telling a true and sad story of this great man , whom God hath lately taken from our eyes . He was bred in Cambridge , in Sidney-Colledge , under Mr. Hulet , a grave and a worthy man ; and he shewed himself not only a fruitful Plant by his great progress in his Studies , but made him another return of gratitude , taking care to provide a good Imployment for him in Ireland , where he then began to be greatly interested . It was spoken as an honour to Augustus Caesar , that he gave his Tutor an honourable Funeral ; and Marcus Antoninus erected a Statue unto his ; and Gratian the Emperour made his Master Ausonius to be Consul : And our worthy Primate , knowing the Obligation which they pass upon us , who do Obstetricare gravidae animae , help the parturient Soul to bring forth Fruits according to its seminal powers , was careful not only to reward the industry of such persons so useful to the Church in the cultivating infantes palmarum , young Plants , whose joynts are to be stretch'd and made streight ; but to demonstrate that his Scholar knew how to value Learning , when he knew so well how to reward the Teacher . Having pass'd the course of his Studies in the University , and done his Exercise with that applause which is usually the Reward of pregnant Wits and hard Study , he was remov'd into York-shire , where first in the City of York he was an assiduous Preacher ; but by the disposition of the Divine Providence he hapned to be engaged at North-Alerton in Disputation with three pragmatical Romish Priests of the Jesuits Order , whom he so much worsted in the Conference , and so shamefully disadvantaged by the evidence of Truth , represented wisely and learnedly , that the famous Primate of York , Archbishop Matthews , a learned and an excellent Prelate , and a most worthy Preacher , hearing of that Triumph , sent for him and made him his Chaplain ; in whose Service he continued till the death of the Primate , but in that time had given so much testimony of his dexterity in the conduct of Ecclesiastical and Civil Affairs , that he grew dear to his Master . In that Imployment he was made Prebendary of York , and then of Rippon , the Dean of which Church having made him his Sub-Dean , he managed the Affairs of that Church so well that he soon acquired a greater fame , and entred into the possession of many hearts , and admiration to those many more that knew him . There and at his Parsonage he continued long to do the duty of a learned and good Preacher , and by his Wisdom , Eloquence , and Deportment , so gain'd the affections of the Nobility , Gentry , and Commons of that Country , that as at his return thither upon the blessed Restauration of His most Sacred Majesty he knew himself oblig'd enough , and was so kind as to give them a Visit ; so they by their coming in great numbers to meet him , their joyful Reception of him , their great Caressing of him when he was there , their forward hopes to enjoy him as their Bishop , their trouble at his Departure , their unwillingness to let him go away , gave signal testimonies that they were wise and kind enough to understand and value his great worth . But while he lived there he was like a Diamond in the dust ( or Lucius Quinctius at the Plough ) ; his low Fortune cover'd a most valuable person , till he became observ'd by Sir Thomas Wentworth Lord President of York , whom we all knew for his great Excellencies , and his great but glorious Misfortunes . This rare Person espied the great Abilities of Doctor Bramhall , and made him his Chaplain , and brought him into Ireland , as one whom he believ'd would prove the most fit Instrument to serve in that design which for two years before his arrival here he had greatly meditated and resolved , the Reformation of Religion , and the Reparation of the broken Fortunes of the Church : The Complaints were many , the Abuses great , the Causes of the Church vastly numerous ; but as fast as they were brought in , so fast they were by the Lord Deputy referred back to Dr. Bramhall , who by his indefatigable Pains , great Sagacity , perpetual Watchfulness , daily and hourly Consultations , reduc'd things to a more tolerable condition than they had been left in by the schismatical Principles of some , and the unjust Prepossessions of others , for many years before : For at the Reformation the Popish Bishops and Priests seemed to conform , and did so , that keeping their Bishopricks they might enrich their Kindred and dilapidate the Revenues of the Church , which by pretended Offices , false Informations , Fee-farms at contemptible Rents , and ungodly Alienations , were made low as Poverty it self , and unfit to minister to the needs of them that serv'd the Altar , or the noblest purposes of Religion : For Hospitality decayed , and the Bishops were easie to be oppressed by those that would ; and they complained , but for a long time had no helper , till God raised up that glorious Instrument the Earl of Strafford , who brought over with him as great affections to the Church and to all publick Interests , and as admirable Abilities , as ever before his time did invest and adorn any of the Kings Vice-gerents ; and God fitted his hand with an Instrument good as his Skill was great : for the first Specimen of his Abilities and Diligence in recovery of some lost Tithes , being represented to His late Majesty of blessed and glorious Memory , it pleased His Majesty upon the death of Bishop Downham to advance the Doctor to the Bishoprick of Derry , which he not only adorned with an excellent Spirit and a wise Government , but did more than double the Revenue , not by taking any thing from them to whom it was due , but by resuming something of the Churches Patrimony , which by undue means was detained in unfitting hands . But his care was beyond his Diocese , and his zeal broke out to warm all his Brethren ; and though by reason of the Favour and Piety of King James the escheated Counties were well provided for their Tithes , yet the Bishopricks were not so well till the Primate , then Bishop of Derry , by the favour of the Lord Lieutenant and his own incessant and assiduous labour and wise conduct , brought in divers Impropriations , cancelled many unjust Alienations , and did restore them to a condition much more tolerable ; I say much more tolerable ; for though he raised them above contempt , yet they were not near to envy ; but he knew there could not in all times be wanting too many that envied to the Church every degree of prosperity : so Judas did to Christ the expence of Oyntment , and so Dionysius told the Priest , when himself stole the golden Cloak from Apollo , and gave him one of Arcadian home-spun , that it was warmer for him in Winter and cooler in Summer . And for ever , since the Church by Gods blessing and the favour of Religious Kings and Princes , and Pious Nobility , hath been endowed with fair Revenues , inim icus homo , the Enemy hath not been wanting by pretences of Religion to take away Gods portion from the Church , as if his Word were intended as an instrument to rob his Houses . But when the Israelites were governed by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and God was their King , and Moses his Lieutenant , and things were of his management , he was pleased by making great Provisions for them that ministred in the service of the Tabernacle to consign this truth for ever ; That Men , as they love God , at the same rate are to make provisions for his Priests . For when himself did it , he not only gave the 48 Cities , with a mile of Glebe round about their City every way , and yet the whole Country was but 140 miles long , or thereabouts from Dan to Beersheba ; but beside this they had the Tithe of all encrease , the first Fruits , Offerings , Vows , Redemptions , and in short , they had 24 sorts of Dues , as Buxtorf relates ; and all this either brought to the Barn home to them without trouble , or else as the nature of the thing required , brought to the Temple ; the first to make it more profitable , and the second to declare that they received it not from the people but from God , not the Peoples kindness but the Lords inheritance ; insomuch that this small Tribe of Levi , which was not the 40th part of the People , as the Scripture computes them , had a Revenue almost treble to any of the largest of the Tribes . I will not insist on what Villalpandus observes , it may easily be read in the 45. of Ezekiel concerning that portion which God reserves for himself and his service ; but whatsoever it be this I shall say , that it is confessedly a Prophecy of the Gospel ; but this I add , that they had as little to do , and much less than a Christian Priest , and yet in all the 24 courses the poorest Priest amongst them might be esteemed a rich man. I speak not this to upbraid any man or any thing but Sacriledge and Murmur , nor to any other end but to represent upon what great and Religious grounds the then Bishop of Derry did with so much care and assiduous labour endeavour to restore the Church of Ireland to that splendor and fulness ; which as it is much conducing to the honour of God and of Religion , God himself being the Judge , so it is much more necessary for you than it is for us , and so this wise Prelate rarely well understood it ; and having the same advantage and blessing as we now have , a gracious King , and a Lieutenant Patron of Religion and the Church , he improved the deposita pietatis , as Origen calls them , the Gages of Piety , which the Religion of the ancient Princes and Nobles of this Kingdom had bountifully given to such a comfortable competency , that though there be place left for present and future Piety to enlarge it self , yet no man hath reason to be discouraged in his duty ; insomuch that as I have heard from a most worthy hand , that at his going into England he gave account to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury of 30000 l. a year , in the recovery of which he was greatly and principally instrumental . But the goods of this World are called waters by Solomon : Stollen waters are sweet , and they are too unstable to be stopt : some of these waters did run back from their proper Channel , and return to another course than God and the Laws intended ; yet his labours and pious Counsels were not the less acceptable to God and good men , and therefore by a thankful and honourable recognition , the Convocation of the Church of Ireland hath transmitted in Record to posterity their deep resentment of his singular services and great abilities in this whole affair . And this honour will for ever remain to that Bishop of Derry ; he had a Zerubbabel who repaired the Temple and restored its beauty , but he was the Joshua , the High-Priest , who under him ministred this blessing to the Congregations of the Lord. But his care was not determined in the exterior part only , and Accessaries of Religion ; he was careful , and he was prosperous in it , to reduce that Divine and excellent Service of our Church to publick and constant Exercise , to Unity and Devotion ; and to cause the Articles of the Church of England to be accepted as the Rule of publick confessions and perswasions here , that they and we might be Populus unius labii , of one heart and one lip , building up our hopes of Heaven on a most holy Faith ; and taking away that Shibboleth which made this Church lisp too undecently , or rather in some little degree to speak the speech of Ashdod , and not the language of Canaan ; and the excellent and wise pains he took in this particular no man can dehonestate or reproach , but he that is not willing to confess that the Church of England is the best Reformed Church in the world . But when the brave Roman Infantry under the Conduct of Manlius ascended up to the Capitol to defend Religion and their Altars from the fury of the Gauls , they all prayed to God , Vt quemadmodum ipsi ad defendendum templum ejus concurrissent , ita ille virtutem eorum numine suo tueretur : That as they came to defend his Temple by their Arms , so he would defend their Persons and that Cause with his Power and Divinity . And this excellent man in the Cause of Religion found the like blessing which they prayed for ; God by the prosperity of his labours and a blessed effect gave testimony not only of the Piety and Wisdom of his purposes , but that he loves to bless a wise Instrument when it is vigorously employed in a wise and religious labour . He overcame the difficulty in defiance of all such pretences as were made even from Religion it self to obstruct the better procedure of real and material Religion . These were great things and matter of great envy , and like the fiery eruptions of Vesuvius might with the very ashes of Consumption have buried another man. At first indeed , as his blessed Master the most holy Jesus had , so he also had his Annum acceptibilem . At first the product was nothing but great admiration at his stupendious parts , and wonder at his mighty diligence and observation of his unusual zeal in so good and great things ; but this quickly passed into the natural daughters of Envy , Suspicion and Detraction , the Spirit of Obloquy and Slander . His zeal for recovery of the Church Revenues was called Oppression and Rapine , Covetousness and Injustice ; his care of reducing Religion to wise and justifiable principles was called Popery and Arminianism , and I know not what names , which signifie what the Authors are pleased to mean , and the people to construe and to hate . The intermedial prosperity of his Person and Fortune , which he had as an earnest of a greater reward to so well-meant labours , was supposed to be the production of Illiberal Arts and ways of getting ; and the necessary refreshment of his wearied spirits , which did not always supply all his needs , and were sometimes less than the permissions even of prudent charity , they called Intemperance : Dederunt enim malum Metelli Nevio poetae ; their own surmises were the Bills of Accusation , and the splendour of his great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or Doing of good works , was the great probation of all their Calumnies . But if Envy be the accuser , what can be the defences of Innocence ? Saucior invidiae morsu , quaerenda medela est , Dic quibus in terris sentiet aeger opem ? Our Blessed Saviour knowing the unsatisfiable angers of men if their Money or Estates were medled with , refused to divide an Inheritance amongst Brethren : it was not to be imagined that this great person ( invested , as all his Brethren were , with the infirmities of Mortality , and yet employed in dividing and recovering and apportioning of Lands ) should be able to bear all that reproach which Jealousie and Suspicion , and malicious Envy could invent against him . But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Sophocles : And so did he ; the Affrightments brought to his great Fame and Reputation made him to walk more warily , and do justly , and act prudently , and conduct his affairs by the measures of Laws , as far as he understood , and indeed that was a very great way : but there was Aperta justitia , clausa manus , Justice was open , but his Hand was shut ; and though every Slanderer could tell a story , yet none could prove that ever he received a Bribe to blind his eyes , to the value of a pair of Gloves : It was his own Expression , when he gave glory to God who had preserved him innocent . But because every mans Cause is right in own eyes , it was hard for him so to acquit himself , that in the Intriques of Law and difficult Cases some of his Enemies should not seem ( when they were heard alone ) to speak reason against him . But see the greatness of Truth and Prudence , and how greatly God stood with him . When the numerous Armies of vexed people , Turba gravis paci , placidaeque inimica quieti , heaped up Catalogues of Accusations , when the Parliament of Ireland imitating the violent procedures of the then disordered English , when his glorious Patron was taken from his head , and he was disrobed of his great defences ; when Petitions were invited and Accusations furnished , and Calumny was rewarded and managed with art and power , when there were above 200 Petitions put in against him , and himself denyed leave to answer by word of mouth ; when he was long imprisoned , and treated so that a guilty man would have been broken into affrightment and pitiful and low considerations ; yet then he himself standing almost alone , like Calimachus at Marathon invested with enemies and covered with arrows , defended himself beyond all the powers of guiltiness , even with the defences of Truth and the bravery of Innocence , and answered the Petitions in writing , sometimes twenty in a day , with so much clearness , evidence of truth , reality of Fact and Testimony of Law , that his very Enemies were ashamed and convinced ; they found they had done like Aesops Viper , they licked the file till their tongues bled ; but himself was wholly invulnerable . They were therefore forced to leave their muster-rolls and decline the particulars , and fall to their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to accuse him for going about to subvert the fundamental Laws ; the way by which great Strafford and Canterbury fell ; which was a device , when all reasons fail'd , to oppress the Enemy by the bold affirmation of a Conclusion they could not prove : they did like those Gladiatores whom the Romans call'd Retiaries , when they could not stab their Enemies with their Daggers , they threw Nets over him , and cover'd him with a general mischief . But the Martyr King Charles the First , of most Glorious and Eternal Memory , seeing so great a Champion likely to be oppress'd with numbers and despair , sent what rescue he could , His Royal Letter for his Bail , which was hardly granted to him ; and when it was , it was upon such hard terms , that his very delivery was a persecution . So necessary it was for them , who intended to do mischief to the Publick , to take away the strongest Pillars of the House . This thing I remark to acquit this great man from the Tongue of slander , which had so boldly spoken , that it was certain something would stick ; yet was so impotent and unarmed , that it could not kill that great Fame which his greater Worthiness had procur'd him . It was said of Hippasus the Pythagorean , that being asked how and what he had done , he answered , Nondum nihil , neque enim adhuc mihi invidetur ; I have done nothing yet , for no man envies me . He that does great things cannot avoid the tongues and teeth of Envy ; but if Calumnies must pass for Evidences , the bravest Hero's must always be the most reproached Persons in the World. Nascitur Aetolicus , pravum ingeniosus ad omne ; Qui facere assuerat , patriae non degener artis , Candida de nigris , & de candentibus atra . Every thing can have an ill name and an ill sense put upon it ; but God , who takes care of Reputations as he does of Lives , by the orders of his Providence confutes the slander , ut memoria justorum sit in benedictionibus , that the memory of the righteous man might be embalm'd with honour : And so it hapned to this great man ; for by a publick Warranty , by the concurrent Consent of both Houses of Parliament , the Libellous Petitions against him , the false Records and publick Monuments of injurious shame were cancell'd , and he was restor'd in integrum to that Fame where his great Labours and just Procedures had first estated him ; which , though it was but justice , yet it was also such honour , that it is greater than the virulence of tongues , which his worthiness and their envy had arm'd against him . But yet the great Scene of the troubles was but newly opened . I shall not refuse to speak yet more of his troubles , as remembring that S. Paul , when he discourses of the glories of the Saints departed , he tells more of their Sufferings than of their Prosperities , as being that Laboratory and Crysable in which God makes his Servants Vessels of honour to his glory . The storm quickly grew high ; & transitum est à linguis ad gladios ; and that was indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Iniquity had put on arms ; when it is armata nequitia , then a man is hard put to it . The Rebellion breaking out , the Bishop went to his Charge at Derry ; and because he was within the defence of Walls , the execrable Traitor Sir Phelim ô Neale laid a snare to bring him to a dishonourable death ; for he wrote a Letter to the Bishop , pretended Intelligence between them , desir'd that according to their former Agreement such a Gate might be deliver'd to him . The Messenger was not advis'd to be cautious , nor at all instructed in the art of Secrecy ; for it was intended that he should be search'd , intercepted , and hang'd for ought they car'd : but the Arrow was shot against the Bishop , that he might be accused for base Conspiracy , and die with shame and sad dishonour . But here God manifested his mighty care of his Servants ; he was pleased to send into the heart of the Messenger such an affrightment , that he directly ran away with the Letter , and never durst come neer the Town to deliver it . This story was published by Sir Phelim himself , who added , That if he could have thus ensnar'd the Bishop , he had good assurance the Town should have been his own : Sed bonitas Dei praevalitura est super omnem malitiam hominis ; The goodness of God is greater than all the malice of men ; and nothing could so prove how dear that sacred Life was to God , as his rescue from the dangers . Stantia non poterant tecta probare Deos : To have kept him in a warm house had been nothing , unless the roof had fallen upon his head ; that rescue was a remark of Divine Favour and Providence . But it seems Sir Phelim's Treason against the Life of this worthy Man had a Correspondent in the Town ; and it broke out speedily ; for what they could not effect by malicious stratagem , they did in part by open force ; they turned the Bishop out of the Town , and upon trifling and unjust pretences search'd his Carriages , and took what they pleas'd , till they were asham'd to take more : they did worse than divorce him from his Church ; for in all the Roman Divorces they said , Tuas tibi res habeto , Take your Goods and be gone ; but Plunder was Religion then . However , though the usage was sad , yet it was recompenced to him by his taking Sanctuary in Oxford , where he was graciously receiv'd by that most incomparable and divine Prince ; but having served the King in York-shire by his Pen , and by his Counsels , and by his Interests , return'd back to Ireland , where under the excellent Conduct of his Grace the now Lord Lieutenant , he ran the risque and fortune of oppressed Vertue . But God having still resolv'd to afflict us , the good man was forc'd into the fortune of the Patriarchs , to leave his Country and his Charges , and seek for safety and bread in a strange Land ; for so the Prophets were us'd to do , wandring up and down in sheeps-cloathing ; but poor as they were , the World was not worthy of them : and this worthy man , despising the shame , took up his Cross and followed his Master . Exilium causa ipsa jubet sibi dulce videri , Et desiderium dulce levat patriae . He was not ashamed to suffer where the Cause was honourable and glorious ; but so God provided for the needs of his Banished , and sent a man who could minister comfort to the afflicted , and courage to the persecuted , and resolutions to the tempted , and strength to that Religion for which they all suffered . And here this great man was indeed triumphant ; this was one of the last and best Scenes of his life : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The last days are the best witnesses of a man. But so it was , that he stood up in publick and brave defence for the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England ; First , by his Sufferings and great Example ; for , Verbis tantùm philosophari , non est Doctoris , sed Histrionis ; To talk well and not to do bravely , is for a Comedian , not a Divine : But this great man did both ; he suffered his own Calamity with great courage , and by his wise Discourses strengthened the hearts of others . For there wanted not diligent Tempters in the Church of Rome , who taking advantage of the Afflictions of His Sacred Majesty , in which state Men commonly suspect every thing , and like men in sickness are willing to change from side to side , hoping for ease and finding none , flew at Royal Game , and hop'd to draw away the King from that Religion which His most Royal Father , the best Man and the wisest Prince in the World , had seal'd with the best Blood in Christendom , and which Himself suck'd in with His Education , and had confirm'd by Choice and Reason , and confess'd publickly and bravely , and hath since restor'd prosperously . Millitiere was the man , witty and bold enough to attempt a zealous and a foolish undertaking , who addressed himself with ignoble , indeed but witty , Arts to perswade the King to leave what was dearer to Him than His Eyes . It is true , it was a Wave dash'd against a Rock , and an Arrow shot against the Sun , it could not reach him ; but the Bishop of Derry turn'd it also , and made it fall upon the Shooters head ; for he made so ingenious , so learned , and so acute Reply to that Book ; he so discover'd the Errors of the Roman Church , retorted the Arguments , stated the Questions , demonstrated the Truth , and sham'd their Procedures , that nothing could be a greater Argument of the Bishops Learning , great Parts , deep Judgment , quickness of Apprehension , and Sincerity in the Catholick and Apostolick Faith ; or of the Follies and Prevarications of the Church of Rome . He worte no Apologies for himself , though it were much to be wished that , as Junius wrote his own Life , or Moses his own Story , so we might have understood from himself how great things God had done for him and by him : but all that he permitted to God , and was silent in his own Defences ; Gloriosius enim est injuriam tacendo fugere , quàm respondendo superare : But when the Honour and Conscience of his King , and the Interest of a true Religion was at stake , the fire burned within him , and at last he spake with his tongue ; he cried out like the Son of Croesus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Take heed and meddle not with the King ; His Person is too sacred , and Religion too dear to him to be assaulted by vulgar hands . In short , he acquitted himself in this Affair with so much Truth and Piety , Learning and Judgment , that in those Papers his Memory will last unto very late succeeding Generations . But this most Reverend Prelate found a nobler Adversary , and a braver Scene for his Contention : He found that the Roman Priests being wearied and baffled by the wise Discourses and pungent Arguments of the English Divines , had studiously declined any more to dispute the particular Questions against us , but fell at last upon a general Charge , imputing to the Church of England the great crime of Schism ; and by this they thought they might with most probability deceive unwary and unskilful Readers ; for they saw the Schism , and they saw we had left them ; and because they consider'd not the Causes , they resolv'd to out-face us in the Charge : But now it was that dignum nactus Argumentum , having an Argument fit to employ his great Abilities , Consecrat hic praesul calamum calamique labores Ante aras Domino laeta trophaea suo ; the Bishop now dedicates his Labours to the service of God and of his Church , undertook the Question , and in a full Discourse proves the Church of Rome not only to be guilty of the Schism , by making it necessary to depart from them ; but they did actuate the Schisms , and themselves made the first separation in the great point of the Popes Supremacy , which was the Palladium for which they principally contended . He made it appear that the Popes of Rome were Usurpers of the Rights of Kings and Bishops ; that they brought in new Doctrines in every Age , that they impos'd their own Devices upon Christendom as Articles of Faith , that they prevaricated the Doctrines of the Apostles , that the Church of England only returned to her Primitive purity , that she joined with Christ and his Apostles , that she agreed in all the Sentiments of the Primitive Church . He stated the questions so wisely , and conducted them so prudently , and handled them so learnedly , that I may truly say , they were never more materially confuted by any man , since the questions have so unhappily disturbed Christendom . Verum hoc eos malè ussit : and they finding themselves smitten under the fifth rib , set up an old Champion of their own , a Goliah to fight against the Armies of Israel ; the old Bishop of Chalcedon , known to many of us , replyed to this excellent Book ; but was so answered by a Rejoinder made by the Lord Bishop of Derry , in which he so pressed the former Arguments , refuted the Cavils , brought in so many impregnable Authorities and Probations , and added so many moments and weights to his discourse , that the pleasures of reading the Book would be the greatest , if the profit to the Church of God were not greater . Flumina tum lactis , tum flumina nectaris ibant , Flavaque de viridi stillabant ilice mella . For so Sampson's Riddle was again expounded , Out of the strong came meat , and out of the eater came sweetness ; his Arguments were strong , and the Eloquence was sweet and delectable ; and though there start up another combatant against him , yet he had only the honour to fall by the hands of Hector : still haeret lateri lethalis arundo ; the headed arrow went in so far , that it could not be drawn out , but the barbed steel stuck behind . And whenever men will desire to be satisfied in those great questions , the Bishop of Derry's Book shall be his Oracle . I will not insist upon his other excellent writings ; but it is known every where with what Piety and acumen he wrote against the Manichean Doctrine of Fatal necessity , which a late witty man had pretended to adorn with a new Vizor ; but this excellent Person washed off the Ceruse and the meritricious paintings , rarely well asserted the oeconomy of the Divine Providence ; and having once more triumphed over his Adversary plenus victoriarum & trophaeorum , betook himself to the more agreeable attendance upon sacred Offices ; and having usefully and wisely discoursed of the sacred Rite of Confirmation , imposed his hands upon the most Illustrious Princes , the Dukes of York and Gloucester , and the Princess Royal , and ministred to them the Promise of the Holy Spirit , and ministerially established them in the Religion and Service of the holy Jesus . And one thing more I shall remark , that at his leaving those Parts upon the Kings Return , some of the Remonstrant Ministers of the Low Countries coming to take their leaves of this great man , and desiring that by his means the Church of England would be kind to them , he had reason to grant it , because they were learned men , and in many things of a most excellent belief ; yet he reproved them , and gave them caution against it , that they approached too near and gave too much countenance to the great and dangerous errors of the Socinians . He thus having served God and the King abroad , God was pleased to return to the King and to us all , as in the days of old , and we sung the song of David . In convertendo captivitatem Sion : When King David and all his Servants returned to Jerusalem , this great person having trod in the Wine-press was called to drink of the Wine , and as an honorary Reward of his great services and abilities , was chosen Primate of this National Church : In which time we are to look upon him , as the King and the Kings great Vicegerent did , as a person concerning whose abilities the World had too great testimony ever to make a doubt . It is true he was in the declension of his age and health ; but his very Ruines were goodly ; and they who saw the broken heaps of Pompey's Theatre , and the crushed Obelisks , and the old face of beauteous Philaenium , could not but admire the disordered glories of such magnificent structures , which were venerable in their very dust . He ever was used to overcome all difficulties , only Mortality was too hard for him ; but still his Vertues and his Spirit was immortal , he still took great care , and still had new and noble designs , and proposed to himself admirable things . He governed his Province with great justice and sincerity ; Vnus amplo consulens pastor gregi , Somnos tuetur omnium solus vigil . And had this remark in all his Government , that as he was a great hater of Sacriledge , so he professed himself a publick Enemy to Non-residence , and often would declare wisely and religiously against it , allowing it in no case but of necessity or the greater good of the Church . There are great things spoken of his Predecessor S. Patrick , that he founded 700 Churches and Religious Convents , that he ordained 5000 Priests , and with his own hands consecrated 350 Bishops . How true the story is I know not ; but we were all witnesses that the late Primate , whose memory we now celebrate , did by an extraordinary contingency of Providence in one day consecrate two Arch-Bishops and ten Bishops ; and did benefit to almost all the Churches in Ireland , and was greatly instrumental to the Re-endowments of the whole Clergy ; and in the greatest abilities and incomparable industry was inferior to none of his most glorious Antecessours . Since the Canonization of Saints came into the Church , we find no Irish Bishop canonized , except S. Laurence of Dublin , and S. Malachias of Down ; indeed Richard of Armagh's Canonization was propounded , but not effected ; but the Character which was given of that learned Primate by Trithemius does exactly fit this our late Father ; Vir in Divinis Scripturis eruditus , secularis Philosophiae jurisque Canonici non ignarus , clarus ingenio , sermone scholasticus , in declamandis sermonibus ad populum excellentis industriae : He was learned in the Scriptures , skill'd in secular Philosophy , and not unknowing in the Civil and Canon Laws , ( in which studies I wish the Clergy were with some carefulness and diligence still more conversant ) he was of an excellent spirit , a Scholar in his discourses , an early and industrious Preacher to the people . And as if there were a more particular sympathy between their souls , our Primate had so great a Veneration to his memory , that he purposed , if he had lived , to have restored his Monument in Dundalke , which Time , or Impiety , or Unthankfulness had either omitted or destroyed . So great a lover he was of all true and inherent worth , that he loved it in the very memory of the dead , and to have such great Examples transmitted to the intuition and imitation of posterity . At his coming to the Primacy he knew he should at first espie little besides the Ruines of Discipline , a Harvest of thorns , and Heresies prevailing in the hearts of the People , the Churches possessed by Wolves and Intruders , Mens hearts greatly estranged from true Religion ; and therefore he set himself to weed the fields of the Church ; he treated the Adversaries sometimes sweetly , sometimes he confuted them learnedly , sometimes he rebuked them sharply . He visited his Charges diligently and in his own person , not by Proxies and instrumental Deputations : Quaerens non nostra , sed nos , & quae sunt Jesu Christi ; he designed nothing that we knew of but the Redintegration of Religion , the Honour of God and the King , the Restoring of collapsed Discipline , and the Renovation of Faith and the Service of God in the Churches . And still he was indefatigable , and , even at the last scene of his life , intended to undertake a Regal Visitation . Quid enim vultis me otiosum à Domino comprehendi ? said one ; he was not willing that God should take him unimployed : But , good man , he felt his Tabernacle ready to fall in pieces , and could go no further , for God would have no more work done by that hand ; he therefore espying this , put his house in order , and had lately visited his Diocese , and done what he then could to put his Charge in order ; for he had a good while since received the sentence of death within himself , and knew he was shortly to render an account of his stewardship ; he therefore upon a brisk alarm of death , which God sent him the last January , made his Will ; in which , besides the prudence and presence of spirit manifested in making just and wise settlement of his Estate , and provisions for his Descendants ; at midnight , and in the trouble of his sickness and circumstances of addressing death , still kept a special sentiment and made confession of Gods admirable mercies , and gave thanks that God had permitted him to live to see the blessed Restauration of His Majesty and the Church of England , confessed his Faith to be the same as ever , gave praises to God that he was born and bred up in this Religion , and prayed to God , and hoped he should die in the Communion of this Church , which he declar'd to be the most pure and Apostolical Church in the whole World. He prayed to God to pardon his frailties and infirmities , relied upon the mercies of God and the merits of Jesus Christ , and with a singular sweetness resigned up his soul into the hands of his Redeemer . But God , who is the great Choragus and Master of the Scenes of Life and Death , was not pleased then to draw the Curtains ; there was an Epilogue to his Life yet to be acted and spoken . He returned to actions and life , and went on in the methods of the same procedure as before ; was desirous still to establish the affairs of the Church , complained of some disorders which he purposed to redress , girt himself to the work ; but though his spirit was willing , yet his flesh was weak ; and as the Apostles in the Vespers of Christs Passion , so he in the eye of his own Dissolution was heavy , not to sleep , but heavy unto death , and looked for the last warning , which seized on him in the midst of business ; and though it was sudden , yet it could not be unexpected , or unprovided by surprize , and therefore could be no other than that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Augustus used to wish unto himself , a civil and well-natured death , without the amazement of troublesome circumstances , or the great cracks of a falling house , or the convulsions of impatience . Seneca tells that Bassus Aufidius was wont to say , Sperare se nullum dolorem esse in illo extremo anhelitu , si tamen esset , habere aliquantum in ipsa brevitate solatii : He hoped that the pains of the last Dissolution were little or none ; or if they were , it was full of comfort that they could be but short . It happened so to this excellent man ; his Passive Fortitude had been abundantly tried before , and therefore there was the less need of it now ; his active Graces had been abundantly demonstrated by the great and good things he did , and therefore his last scene was not so laborious , but God called him away something after the manner of Moses , which the Jews express by Osculum oris Dei , the Kiss of Gods mouth ; that is , a death indeed fore-signified , but gentle and serene , and without temptation . To sum up all ; He was a wise Prelate , a learned Doctor , a just Man , a true Friend , a great Benefactor to others , a thankful Beneficiary where he was obliged himself . He was a faithful Servant to his Masters , a Loyal Subject to the King , a zealous Assertor of his Religion against Popery on one side , and Fanaticism on the other . The practice of his Religion was not so much in Forms and exteriour Ministries , though he was a great observer of all the publick Rites and Ministries of the Church , as it was in doing good for others . He was like Myson , whom the Scythian Anarchasis so greatly praised , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he governed his Family well , he gave to all their due of maintenance and duty ; he did great benefit to mankind ; he had the fate of the Apostle S. Paul , he passed through evil report and good report , as a deceiver and yet true . He was a man of great business and great resort : Semper aliquis in Cydonis domo , as the Corinthians said , There was always somebody in Cydons house . He was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he divided his life into labour and his book ; he took care of his Churches when he was alive , and even after his death , having left 500 l. for the Repair of his Cathedral of Armagh and S. Peters Church in Drogheda : He was an excellent Scholar , and rarely well accomplished ; first instructed to great excellency by natural parts , and then consummated by study and experience . Melanchthon was used to say , that himself was a Logician , Pomeranus a Grammarian , Justus Jonas an Orator , but that Luther was all these . It was greatly true of him , that the single perfections which make many men eminent , were united in this Primate , and made him illustrious . At , at , Quintilium perpetuus sopor Vrget : cui pudor & justitiae soror Incorrupta fides , nudaque veritas Quando ullum invenient parem ? It will be hard to find his Equal in all things : Fortasse tanquam Phoenix anno quingentesimo nascitur , ( that I may use the words of Seneca ) nec est mirum ex intervallo magna generari mediocria & in turbam nascentia saepe fortuna producit : eximia vero ipsa raritate commendat . For in him was visible the great lines of Hooker's Judiciousness , of Jewel's Learning , of the acuteness of Bishop Andrews . He was skilled in more great things than one ; and , as one said of Phidias , he could not only make excellent Statues of Ivory , but he could work in Stone and Brass : He shewed his Equanimity in Poverty , and his Justice in Riches ; he was useful in his Country , and profitable in his Banishment ; for as Paraeus was at Anvilla , Luther at Wittenburg , S. Athanasius and S. Chrysostom in their Banishment , S. Hierom in his retirement at Bethlehem , they were Oracles to them that needed it ; so was he in Holland and France , where he was abroad ; and beside the particular endearments which his friends received from him , for he did do relief to his brethren that wanted , and supplied the Souldiers out of his store in Yorkshire , when himself could but ill spare it ; but he received publick thanks from the Convocation of which he was President , and publick Justification from the Parliament where he was Speaker ; so that although , as one said , Miraculi instar vitae iter , si longum , sine offensione percurrere ; yet no man had greater Enemies , and no man had greater justifications . But God hath taken our Elijah from our heads this day : I pray God that at least his Mantle may be left behind , and that his Spirit may be doubled upon his Successor ; and that we may all meet together with him at the right hand of the Lamb , where every man shall receive according to his deeds , whether they be good or whether they be evil . I conclude with the words of Caius Plinius , Equidem beatos puto quibus Deorum munere datum est , aut facere scribenda , aut scribere legenda : he wrote many things fit to be read , and did very many things worthy to be written ; which if we wisely imitate , we may hope to meet him in the Resurrection of the just , and feast with him in the eternal Supper of the Lamb , there to sing perpetual Anthems to the honour of God the Father , Son and Holy Ghost : To whom be all honour , &c. FINIS . A Funeral Sermon , Preached at the OBSEQUIES Of the Right Honourable and most Vertuous Lady , The Lady FRANCES , Countess of CARBERY : Who deceased October the 9th 1650. at her House Golden-Grove in Caermarthen-shire . By Jeremy Taylor D.D. LONDON , Printed for R. Royston Bookseller to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty . 1666. To the RIGHT HONOURABLE And TRULY NOBLE Richard Lord Vaughan , Earl of Carbery , Baron of Emlim and Molinger , Knight of the Honourable Order of the Bath . My Lord , I Am not ashamed to profess that I pay this part of Service to your Lordship most unwillingly : for it is a sad office to be the chief Minister in a house of mourning , and to present an interested person with a branch of Cypress and a bottle of tears . And indeed , my Lord , it were more proportionable to your needs to bring something that might alleviate or divert your sorrow , than to dress the Hearse of your Dear Lady , and to furnish it with such circumstances , that it may dwell with you , and lie in your Closet , and make your prayers and your retirements more sad and full of weepings . But because the Divine providence hath taken from you a person so excellent , a woman fit to converse with Angels and Apostles , with Saints and Martyrs , give me leave to present you with her Picture , drawn in little and in water-colours , sullyed indeed with tears and the abrupt accents of a real and consonant sorrow ; but drawn with a faithful hand , and taken from the life : and indeed it were too great a loss to be deprived of her example and of her rule , of the original and of the copy too . The age is very evil and deserved her not ; but because it is so evil , it hath the more need to have such lives preserved in memory to instruct our piety , or upbraid our wickedness . For now that God hath cut this tree of Paradise down from its seat of earth , yet so the dead trunk may support a part of the declining Temple , or at least serve to kindle the fire on the Altar . My Lord , I pray God this heap of sorrow may swell your piety till it breaks into the greatest joys of God and of Religion : and remember when you pay a tear upon the Grave , or to the memory of your Lady ( that Dear and most excellent Soul ) that you pay two more : one of repentance for those things that may have caused this breach ; and another of joy for the mercies of God to your Dear departed Saint , that he hath taken her into a place where she can weep no more . My Lord , I think I shall , so long as I live , that is , so long as I am Your Lordships most humble Servant Jer. Taylor . Pietati & Memoriae Sacrum . MOnumentum doloris singularis , paris fati & conditionis posuit Richardus Comes Carberiensis sibi vivo , & mortem nec exoptanti nec metuenti : Et dilectissimae suae Conjugi Franciscae Comitissae in flore aetatis casibus puerperii raptae ex amplexibus Sanctissimi amoris . Fuit illa ( descendat lachrymula Amice Lector ) fuit inter castissimas prima , inter Conjuges amantissima , Mater optima : placidi oris , severae virturis , conversationis suavissimae : vultum hilarem fecit bona conscientia , amabilem , forma plusquam Uxoria . Claris orta Natalibus , fortunam non mediocrem habuit ; erat enim cum Unicâ Germanâ Haeres ex asse . Annos XIII , Menses IV , supra Biduum vixit in Sanctissimo Matrimonio cum SUO quem effusissimè dilexit , & sanctè observavit ; quem novit Prudentissimum , sensit Amantissimum , virum Optimum vidit & laetata est . Enixa prolem numerosam , pulchram , ingenuam , formae & Spei optimae ; quatuor Masculos , Franciscum Dominum Vaughan , Johannem , Althamum , quartum immaturum ; foeminas sex , Dom : Franciscam , Elizabethas duas , Mariam , Margaretam , & Althamiam [ post cujus partum paucis diebus obdormiit . ] Totam prolem Masculam ( si demas abortivum illum ) & foeminas omnes , praeter Elizabetham alteram , & Mariam , superstites reliquit . Pietatis adeóque Spei plena obiit ix . Octobr. MDC.L . Lachrymis suorum omnium tota irrigua conditur in hoc coemeterio , ubi cùm Deo Opt. Max. visum fuerit , sperat se reponendum Conjux moestissimus : intereà temporis luctui , sed pietati magis vacat , ut in suo tempore simul laetentur Par tam Pium , tam Nobile , tam Christianum in gremio Jesu , usque dum Coronae adornentur accipiendae in Adventu Domini . AMEN . Cum ille vitâ defunctus fuerit , Marmor loquetur , quod adhuc tacere jubet virtus Modesta : interim vitam ejus observa , & leges quod posteà hîc inscriptum amabunt & colent Posteri . Ora & abi . A Funeral Sermon , &c. SERM. VIII . 2 Sam. XIV . 14. For we must needs die , and are as water spilt on the ground which cannot be gathered up again : neither doth God respect any person : yet doth he devise means that his banished be not expelled from him . WHen our Blessed Saviour and his Disciples viewed the Temple , some one amongst them cried out , Magister aspice , quales lapides ! Master , behold what fair , what great stones are here ! Christ made no other reply but foretold their dissolution , and a world of sadness and sorrow which should bury that whole Nation , when the teeming cloud of Gods displeasure should produce a storm which was the daughter of the biggest anger , and the mother of the greatest calamity which ever crush'd any of the Sons of Adam ; [ The time shall come that there shall not be left one stone upon another . ] The whole Temple and the Religion , the Ceremonies ordained by God , and the Nation beloved by God , and the Fabrick erected for the Service of God , shall run to their own Period , and lye down in their several Graves . Whatsoever had a beginning can also have an ending , and it shall die , unless it be daily watered with the Purles flowing from the Fountain of Life , and refreshed with the Dew of Heaven , and the Wells of God : And therefore God had provided a Tree in Paradise to have supported Adam in his artificial Immortality : Immortality was not in his Nature , but in the Hands and Arts , in the Favour and Superadditions of God. Man was always the same mixture of Heat and Cold , of Dryness and Moisture ; ever the same weak thing , apt to feel rebellion in the humours , and to suffer the evils of a civil war in his body natural : and therefore health and life was to descend upon him from Heaven , and he was to suck life from a Tree on Earth ; himself being but ingraffed into a Tree of Life , and adopted into the condition of an immortal Nature : But he that in the best of his days was but a Cien of this Tree of Life , by his sin was cut off from thence quickly , and planted upon Thorns , and his portion was for ever after among the Flowers , which to day spring and look like health and beauty , and in the evening they are sick , and at night are dead , and the oven is their grave : And as before , oven from our first spring from the dust on earth , we might have died if we had not been preserved by the continual flux of a rare providence ; so now that we are reduced to the Laws of our own Nature , we must needs die . It is natural , and therefore necessary : It is become a punishment to us , and therefore it is unavoidable ; and God hath bound the evil upon us by bands of natural and inseparable propriety , , and by a supervening unalterable Decree of Heaven ; and we are fallen from our privilege , and are returned to the condition of Beasts , and Buildings , and common things : And we see Temples defiled unto the ground , and they die by Sacrilege ; and great Empires die by their own plenty and ease , full Humours , and factious Subjects ; and huge Buildings fall by their own weight , and the violence of many Winters eating and consuming the Cement , which is the marrow of their bones ; and Princes die like the meanest of their Servants ; and every thing finds a Grave and a Tomb ; and the very Tomb it self dies by the bigness of its pompousness and luxury , — Phario nutantia pondera saxo Quae cineri vanus dat ruitura labor , and becomes as friable and uncombined dust as the ashes of the Sinner or the Saint that lay under it , and is now forgotten in his bed of darkness . And to this Catalogue of mortality Man is inrolled with a [ Statutum est ] It is appointed for all men to once die , and after death comes judgment : And if a Man can be stronger than Nature , or can wrestle with a Decree of Heaven , or can escape from a divine punishment by his own arts , so that neither the Power nor the Providence of God , nor the Laws of Nature , nor the Bands of eternal Predestination can hold him , then he may live beyond the fate and period of Flesh , and last longer than a Flower : But if all these can hold us and tie us to conditions , then we must lay our heads down upon a turf , and entertain creeping things in the cells and little chambers of our eyes , and dwell with worms till time and death shall be no more . We must needs die ] That 's our Sentence : But that 's not all . We are as water spilt on the ground , which cannot be gathered up again . ] Stay , 1. We are as water , weak , and of no consistence , always descending , abiding in no certain place , unless where we are detained with violence ; and every little breath of wind makes us rough and tempestuous , and troubles our faces ; every trifling accident discomposes us ; and as the face of the waters wafting in a storm so wrinkles it self that it makes upon its forehead furrows deep and hollow like a grave ; so do our great and little cares and trifles first make the wrinkles of old age , and then they dig a grave for us : And there is in Nature nothing so contemptible , but it may meet with us in such circumstances , that it may be too hard for us in our weaknesses ; and the sting of a Bee is a weapon sharp enough to pierce the finger of a child or the lip of a Man ; and those Creatures which Nature hath left without weapons , yet they are armed sufficiently to vex those parts of men which are left defenceless and obnoxious to a Sun-beam , to the roughness of a sowre Grape , to the unevenness of a Gravel-stone , to the dust of a Wheel , or the unwholsom breath of a Star looking awry upon a sinner . 2. But besides the weaknesses and natural decayings of our bodies , if chances and contingencies be innumerable , then no man can reckon our dangers , and the praeternatural causes of our deaths : So that he is a vain person whose hopes of life are too confidently encreas'd by reason of his health : and he is too unreasonably timerous , who thinks his hopes at an end when he dwels in sickness . For men die without rule , and with and without occasions ; and no man suspecting or foreseeing any of deaths addresses , and no man in his whole condition is weaker than another . A man in a long Consumption is fallen under one of the solemnities and preparations to death : but at the same instant the most healthful person is as neer death , upon a more fatal and a more sudden , but a less discerned cause . There are but few persons upon whose foreheads every man can read the sentence of death written in the lines of a lingring sickness , but they ( sometimes ) hear the passing-bell ring for stronger men , even long before their own knell calls at the house of their mother to open her womb , & make a bed for them . No man is surer of to morrow than the weakest of his brethren : and when Lepidus and Aufidius stumbled at the threshold of the Senate and fell down and dyed , the blow came from Heaven in a cloud ; but it struck more suddenly than upon the poor slave that made sport upon the Theatre with a praemeditated and fore-described death : Quod quisque vitet , nunquam homini satis cautum est in horas . There are sicknesses that walk in darkness , and there are exterminating Angels that fly wrapt up in the curtains of immateriality and an uncommunicating nature ; whom we cannot see , but we feel their force and sink under their Sword , and from Heaven the vail descends that wraps our heads in the fatal sentence . There is no age of man but it hath proper to it self some posterns and outlets for death , besides those infinite and open ports out of which myriads of men and women every day pass into the dark , and the land of forgetfulness . Infancy hath life but in effigie , or like a spark dwelling in a pile of wood : the candle is so newly lighted , that every little shaking of the taper , and every ruder breath of air puts it out , and it dies . Childhood is so tender , and yet so unwary ; so soft to all the impressions of Chance , and yet so forward to run into them , that God knew there could be no security without the care and vigilance of an Angel-keeper : and the eyes of Parents and the arms of Nurses , the provisions of art , and all the effects of Humane love and Providence are not sufficient to keep one child from horrid mischiefs , from strange and early calamities and deaths , unless a messenger be sent from Heaven to stand sentinel , and watch the very playings and sleepings , the eatings and drinkings of the Children ; and it is a long time before Nature makes them capable of help : for there are many deaths , and very many diseases to which poor babes are exposed ; but they have but very few capacities of Physick : to shew that infancy is as liable to death as old age , and equally exposed to danger , and equally uncapable of a remedy : with this only difference , that old age hath diseases incurable by nature , and the diseases of childhood are incurable by art ; and both the states are the next heirs of death . 3. But all the middle way the case is altered : Nature is strong , and Art is apt to give ease and remedy , but still there is no security ; and there the case is not altered . 1. For there are so many diseases in men that are not understood . 2. So many new ones every year . 3. The old ones are so changed in circumstances , and intermingled with so many collateral complications . 4. The Symptoms are oftentimes so alike . 5. Sometimes so hidden and fallacious . 6. Sometimes none at all ( as in the most sudden and most dangerous Imposthumations . ) 7. And then , the diseases in the inward parts of the body , are oftentimes such , to which no application can be made . 8. They are so far off , that the effects of all medicines can no otherwise come to them , than the effect and juices of all meats ; that is , not till after two or three alterations and decoctions , which change the very species of the medicament . 9. And after all this , very many principles in the art of Physick are so uncertain , that after they have been believed seven or eight Ages , and that upon them much of the practice hath been established , they come to be considered by a witty man , and others established in their stead ; by which men must practise , and by which three or four generations of men more ( as happens ) must live or die . 10. And all this while the men are sick , and they take things that certainly make them sicker for the present , and very uncertainly restore health for the future : that it may appear of what a large extent is humane calamity ; when Gods providence hath not only made it weak and miserable upon the certain stock of a various nature , and upon the accidents of an infinite contingency ; but even from the remedies which are appointed , our dangers and our troubles are certainly encreased : so that we may well be likened to water ; our nature is no stronger , our abode no more certain ; if the sluces be opened , it falls away and runneth apace ; if its current be stopped , it swells and grows troublesome , and spills over with a greater diffusion ; if it be made to stand still , it putrifies : and all this we do . For , 4. In all the process of our health we are running to our grave : we open our own sluces by viciousness and unworthy actions ; we pour in drink , and let out life ; we increase diseases , and know not how to bear them ; we strangle our selves with our own intemperance ; we suffer the fevers and the inflammations of lust , and we quench our souls with drunkenness ; we bury our understandings in loads of meat and surfets : and then we lie down upon our beds , and roar with pain and disquietness of our souls : Nay , we kill one anothers souls and bodies with violence and folly , with the effects of pride and uncharitableness ; we live and die like fools , and bring a new mortality upon our selves ; wars and vexatious cares , and private duells and publick disorders , and every thing that is unreasonable , and every thing that is violent : so that now we may add this fourth gate to the Grave : Besides Nature and Chance , and the mistakes of Art , men die with their own Sins , and then enter into the Grave in haste and passion , and pull the heavy stone of the Monument upon their own heads . And thus we make our selves like water spilt on the ground ; we throw away our lives as if they were unprofitable , ( and indeed most men make them so ) we let our years slip through our fingers like water ; and nothing is to be seen , but like a showr of tears upon a spot of ground ; there is a Grave digged , and a solemn mourning and a great talk in the Neighbourhood , and when the daies are finished , they shall be , and they shall be remembred , no more : And that 's like water too , when it is spilt , it cannot be gathered up again . There is no redemption from the Grave . — inter se mortales mutua vivunt Et quasi cursores vitäi lampada tradunt . Men live in their course and by turns ; their light burns a while , and then it burns blew and faint , and men go to converse with Spirits , and then they reach the taper to another ; and as the hours of yesterday can never return again , so neither can the man whose hours they were , and who lived them over once , he shall never come to live them again , and live them better . When Lazarus , and the widows Son of Naim , and Tebitha , and the Saints that appeared in Jerusalem at the Resurrection of our blessed Lord arose , they came into this world , some as strangers only to make a visit , and all of them to manifest a glory : but none came upon the stock of a new life , or entred upon the stage as at first , or to perform the course of a new nature : and therefore it is observable , that we never read of any wicked person that was raised from the dead : Dives would fain have returned to his brothers house ; but neither he , nor any from him could be sent : but all the rest in the new Testament ( one only excepted ) were expressed to have been holy persons , or else by their age were declared innocent . Lazarus was beloved of Christ : those souls that appeared at the Resurrection were the souls of Saints : Tabitha raised by S. Peter was a charitable and a holy Christian : and the maiden of twelve years old , raised by our blessed Saviour , had not entred into the regions of choice and sinfulness : and the only exception of the widows son , is indeed none at all , for in it the Scripture is wholly silent ; and therefore it is very probable that the same process was used , God in all other instances having chosen to exemplifie his miracles of nature to purposes of the Spirit , and in spiritual capacities . So that although the Lord of Nature did not break the bands of Nature in some instances , to manifest his glory to succeeding great and never failing purposes ; yet ( besides that this shall be no more ) it was also instanced in such persons who were holy and innocent , and within the verge and comprehensions of the Eternal mercy . We never read that a wicked person felt such a miracle , or was raised from the Grave to try the second time for a Crown ; but where he fell , there he lay down dead , and saw the light no more . This consideration I intend to you as a severe Monitor and an advice of carefulness , that you order your affairs so that you may be partakers of the first Resurrection ; that is , from sin to grace , from the death of vitious habits , to the vigour , life , and efficacy of an habitual righteousness : For ( as it hapned to those persons in the New Testament now mentioned , to them ( I say ) in the literal sense ) Blessed are they that have part in the first Resurrection , upon them the second death shall have no power : meaning that they who by the power of Christ and his holy Spirit were raised to life again , were holy and blessed souls , and such who were written in the book of God ; and that this grace hapned to no wicked and vitious person : so it is most true in the spiritual and intended sense : You only that serve God in a holy life ; you who are not dead in trespasses and sins ; you who serve God with an early diligence and an unwearied industry , and a holy Religion , you and you only shall come to life eternal , you only shall be called from death to life ; the rest of mankind shall never live again , but pass from death to death ; from one ●eath to another , to a worse ; from the death of the body , to the eter●al death of body and soul : and therefore in the Apostles Creed there ●s no mention made of the Resurrection of wicked persons ; but of the Resurrection of the body to everlasting life . The wicked indeed shall be ha●e● forth from their graves , from their everlasting prisons , where in chains ●f ●arkness they are kept unto the judgment of the great day : but this ●●●●efore cannot be called in sensu favoris , a Resurrection , but the so●●●●ities of the eternal death ; It is nothing but a new capacity of dying again ; such a dying as cannot signifie rest ; but where death means nothing but an intollerable and never ceasing calamity : and therefore these words of my Text are otherwise to be understood of the wicked , otherwise of the godly : The wicked are spilt like water and shall never be gathered up again ; no not in the gatherings of eternity ; They shall be put into Vessels of wrath and set upon the flames of hell ; but that is not a gathering , but a scattering from the face and presence of God. But the godly also come under the sense of these words : They descend into their Graves , and shall no more be reckoned among the living ; they have no concernment in all that is done under the Sun. Agamemnon hath no more to do with the Turks Armies invading and possessing that part of Greece where he reigned , than had the Hippocentaur who never had a being : and Cicero hath no more interest in the present evils of Christendom , than we have to do with his boasted discovery of Catilines Conspiracy . What is it to me that Rome was taken by the Gauls ? and what is it now to Camillus if different religions be tolerated amongst us ? These things that now happen concern the living , and they are made the scenes of our duty or danger respectively : and when our Wives are dead and sleep in charnel houses , they are not troubled when we laugh loudly at the songs sung at the next marriage feast ; nor do they envy when another snatches away the gleanings of their husbands passion . It is true , they envy not , and they lie in a bosom where there can be no murmur ; and they that are consigned to Kingdoms , and to the feast of the marriage-supper of the Lamb , the glorious and eternal Bridegroom of holy Souls , they cannot think our Marriages here , our lighter laughings and vain rejoicings , considerable as to them . And yet there is a relation continued still : Aristotle , said , that to affirm the dead take no thought for the good of the living , is a disparagement to the laws of that friendship which in their state of separation they cannot be tempted to rescind . And the Church hath taught in general , that they pray for us , they recommend to God the state of all their Relatives , in the union of the intercession that our blessed Lord makes for them and us : and S. Ambrose gave some things in charge to his dying brother Satyrus , that he should do for him in the other world : he gave it him ( I say ) when he was dying , not when he was dead . And certain it is that though our dead friends affection to us is not to be estimated according to our low conceptions , yet it is not less , but much more than ever it was ; it is greater in degree , and of another kind . But then we should do well also to remember , that in this world we are something besides flesh and bloud ; that we may not without violent necessities run into new relations , but preserve the affections we bore to our dead when they were alive : We must not so live as if they were perished , but so as pressing forward to the most intimate participation of the communion of Saints . And we also have some ways to express this relation , and to bear a part in this communion , by actions of intercourse with them , aud yet proper to our state : such as are strictly performing the will of the dead , providing for , and tenderly and wisely educating their children , paying their debts , imitating their good example , preserving their memories privately , and publickly keeping their memorials , and desiring of God with hearty and constant prayer that God would give them a joyful Resurrection , and a merciful Judgment , ( for so S. Paul prayed in behalf of Onesiphorus ) that God would shew them a mercy in that day , that fearful , and yet much to be desired day , in which the most righteous person hath need of much mercy and pity , and shall find it . Now these instances of duty shew that the relation remains still ; and though the Relict of a man or woman hath liberty to contract new relations , yet I do not find they have liberty to cast off the old , as if there were no such thing as immortality of souls . Remember that we shall converse together again ; let us therefore never do any thing of reference to them which we shall be ashamed of in the day when all secrets shall be discovered , and that we shall meet again in the presence of God : In the mean time , God watcheth concerning all their interest , and he will in his time both discover and recompense . For though , as to us , they are like water spilt ; yet , to God , they are as water fallen in the Sea , safe and united in his comprehension , and inclosures . But we are not yet passed the consideration of the sentence : This descending to the grave is the lot of all men , [ neither doth God respect the person of any man ] The rich is not protected for favour , nor the poor for pity , the old man is not reverenced for his age , nor the Infant regarded for his tenderness ; youth and beauty , learning and prudence , wit and strength lie down equally in the dishonours of the Grave . All men , and all natures , and all persons resist the addresses and solennities of death , and strive to preserve a miserable and unpleasant life ; and yet they all sink down and die . For so have I seen the Pillars of a Building assisted with artificial props bending under the pressure of a roof , and pertinaciously resisting the infallible and prepared ruine , Donec certa dies omni compage solutâ Ipsum cum rebus subruat auxilium , Till the determin'd day comes , and then the burden sunk upon the pillars , and disordered the aids and auxiliary rafters into a common ruine and a ruder grave : so are the desires and weak arts of man ; with little aids and assistances of care and Physick we strive to support our decaying bodies , and to put off the evil day ; but quickly that day will come , and then neither Angels nor men can rescue us from our grave ; but the roof sinks down upon the walls , and the walls descend to the foundation ; and the beauty of the face , and the dishonours of the belly , the discerning head and the servile feet , the thinking heart and the working hand , the eyes and the guts together shall be crushed into the confusion of a heap , and dwell with Creatures of an equivocal production , with worms and serpents , the sons and daughters of our own bones , in a house of dirt and darkness . Let not us think to be excepted or deferred : If beauty , or wit , or youth , or nobleness , or wealth , or vertue could have been a defence , and an excuse from the Grave , we had not met here to day to mourn upon the Hearse of an Excellent Lady : and God only knows for which of us next the Mourners shall go about the streets or weep in houses . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We have lived so many years ; and every day and every minute we make an escape from those thousands of dangers and deaths that encompass us round about : and such escapings we must reckon to be an extraordinary fortune , and therefore that it cannot last long . Vain are the thoughts of Man , who when he is young or healthful , thinks he hath a long thread of life to run over , and that it is violent and strange for young persons to die ; and natural and proper only for the aged . It is as natural for a man to die by drowning as by a Fever : And what greater violence or more unnatural thing is it , that the Horse threw his Rider into the River , than that a drunken meeting cast him into a Fever ? and the strengths of youth are as soon broken by the strong sicknesses of youth , and the stronger intemperance , as the weakness of old age by a Cough , or an Asthma , or a continual Rheum : Nay , it is more natural for young Men and Women to die , than for old ; because that is more natural which hath more natural causes , and that is more natural which is most common : but to die with age is an extreme rare thing ; and there are more persons carried forth to burial before the five and thirtieth year of their age , than after it : And therefore let no vain confidence make you hope for long life : If you have lived but little , and are still in youth , remember that now you are in your biggest throng of dangers both of body and soul ; and the proper sins of youth to which they rush infinitely and without consideration , are also the proper and immediate instruments of death . But if you be old you have escaped long and wonderfully , and the time of your escaping is out : you must not for ever think to live upon wonders , or that God will work miracles to satisfie your longing follies , and unreasonable desires of living longer to sin and to the world . Go home and think to die , and what you would choose to be doing when you die , that do daily : for you will all come to that pass to rejoice that you did so , or wish that you had : that will be the condition of every one of us ; for God regardeth no mans person . Well ! but all this you will think is but a sad story : What ? we must die , and go to darkness and dishonour ; and we must die quickly , and we must quit all our delights , and all our sins , or do worse , infinitely worse ; and this is the condition of us all , from which none can be excepted ; every man shall be spilt and fall into the ground , and be gathered up no more . Is there no comfort after all this ? shall we go from hence , and be no more seen , and have no recompense ? Miser , ô miser , aiunt , omnia ademit Vna die infansta mihi tot praemia vitae . Shall we exchange our fair Dwellings for a Coffin , our softer Beds for the moistned and weeping Turf , and our pretty Children for Worms ; and is there no allay to this huge calamity ? yes , there is : There is a [ yet ] in the Text : [ For all this , yet doth God devise means that his banished be not expelled from him . ] All this sorrow and trouble is but a phantasm , and receives its account and degrees from our present conceptions , and the proportion to our relishes and gust . When Pompey saw the Ghost of his first Lady Julia , who vexed his rest and his conscience for superinducing Cornelia upon her bed within the ten months of mourning , he presently fancied it , either to be an illusion , or else that death could be no very great evil : Aut nihil est sensus animis in morte relictum , Aut mors ipsa nihil — Either my dead Wife knows not of my unhandsome marriage , and forgetfulness of her ; or if she does , then the dead live . — longae , canitis si cognita , vitae Mors media est — Death is nothing but the middle point between two lives , between this and another : concerning which comfortable mystery the holy Scripture instructs our Faith and entertains our hope in these words : God is still the God of Abraham , Isaac , and Jacob ; for all do live to him ; and the Souls of Saints are with Christ : I desire to be dissolved ( saith St. Paul ) and to be with Christ , for that is much better : and , Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord ; they rest from their labours , and their works follow them : For we know , that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolv'd , we have a building of God , a house not made with hands , eternal in the heavens : and this state of separation St. Paul calls , a being absent from the Body , and being present with the Lord : This is one of Gods means which he hath devised , that although our Dead are like persons banished from this world , yet they are not expelled from God : They are in the hands of Christ ; they are in his presence ; they are , or shall be clothed with a house of Gods making ; they rest from all their labours ; all tears are wiped from their eyes , and all discontents from their spirits ; and in the state of separation , before the Soul be re-invested with her new house , the Spirits of all persons are with God , so secur'd , and so blessed , and so sealed up for glory , that this state of interval and imperfection is , in respect of its certain event and end , infinitely more desirable than all the Riches , and all the Pleasures , and all the Vanities , and all the Kingdoms of this world . I will not venture to determine what are the circumstances of the abode of Holy Souls in their separate dwellings ; and yet possibly that might be easier than to tell what or how the Soul is and works in this world , where it is in the Body tanquam in alienâ domo , as in a prison , in fetters and restraints ; for here the Soul is discomposed and hindred ; it is not as it shall be , as it ought to be , as it was intended to be ; it is not permitted to its own freedom , and proper operation ; so that all that we can understand of it here , is that it is so incommodated with a troubled and abated instrument , that the object we are to consider cannot be offered to us in a right line , in just and equal propositions ; or if it could , yet because we are to understand the Soul by the Soul , it becomes not only a troubled and abused object , but a crooked instrument ; and we here can consider it just as a weak eye can behold a staff thrust into the waters of a troubled River ; the very water makes a refraction , and the storm doubles the refraction , and the water of the eye doubles the species , and there is nothing right in the thing ; the object is out of its just place , and the medium is troubled , and the organ is impotent : At cum exierit & in liberum coelum quasi in dontum suam venerit ; when the Soul is entred into her own house , into the free regions of the rest , and the neighbourhood of heavenly Joys , then its operations are more spiritual , proper , and proportion'd to its being ; and though we cannot see at such a distance , yet the object is more fitted if we had a capable Understanding ; it is in it self in a more excellent and free condition . Certain it is , that the Body does hinder many actions of the Soul : It is an imperfect Body , and a diseased Brain , or a violent passion that makes Fools : No man hath a foolish Soul ; and the reasonings of men have infinite difference and degrees , by reason of the Bodies constitution . Among Beasts , which have no Reason , there is a greater likeness than between Men , who have : And as by Faces it is easier to know a Man from a Man , than a Sparrow from a Sparrow ; or a Squirrel from a Squirrel ; so the difference is very great in our Souls ; which difference , because it is not originally in the Soul ( and indeed cannot be in simple or spiritual substances of the same species or kind ) it must needs derive wholly from the Body , from its accidents and circumstances ; from whence it follows , that because the Body casts fetters and restraints , hinderances and impediments upon the Soul , that the Soul is much freer in the state of separation ; and if it hath any act of life , it is much more noble and expedite . That the Soul is alive after our death , St. Paul affirms , [ Christ died for us , that whether we wake or sleep , we should live together with him . ] Now it were strange that we should be alive , and live with Christ , and yet do no act of life : The Body when it is asleep does many ; and if the Soul does none , the Principle is less active than the Instrument ; but if it does any act at all in separation , it must necessarily be an act or effect of Understanding ; there is nothing else it can do , but this it can : For it is but a weak and an unlearned Proposition to say , That the Soul can do nothing of it self , nothing without the phantasms and provisions of the Body : For , 1. In this life the Soul hath one principle clearly separate , abstracted , and immaterial ; I mean the Spirit of Grace , which is a principle of life and action , and in many instances does not at all communicate with matter , as in the infusion , superinduction and creation of spiritual Graces 2. As nutrition , generation , eating and drinking , are actions proper to the Body and its state ; so extasies , visions , raptures , intuitive knowledg , and consideration of its self , acts of volition , and reflex acts of understanding , are proper to the Soul. 3. And therefore it is observable , that St. Paul said that he knew not whether his visions and raptures were in or out of the body ; for by that we see his judgment of the thing , that one was as likely as the other , neither of them impossible or unreasonable ; and therefore that the Soul is as capable of action alone as in conjunction . 4. If in the state of Blessedness there are some actions of the Soul which do not pass through the Body , such as contemplation of God , and conversing with Spirits , and receiving those influences and rare immissions which coming from the Holy and Mysterious Trinity make up the Crown of Glory ; it follows , that the necessity of the Bodies ministery is but during the state of this life , and as long as it converses with fire and water , and lives with corn and flesh , and is fed by the satisfaction of material appetites ; which necessity and manner of conversation when it ceases , it can be no longer necessary for the Soul to be served by phantasms and material representations . 5. And therefore when the Body shall be re-united , it shall be so ordered that then the Body shall confess it gives not any thing , but receives all its being and operation , its manner and abode from the Soul ; and that then it comes not to serve a necessity , but to partake a Glory . For as the operations of the Soul in this life begin in the Body , and by it the object is transmitted to the Soul ; so then they shall begin in the Soul , and pass to the Body : And as the operations of the Soul by reason of its dependence on the Body are animal , natural , and material ; so in the resurrection the body shall be spiritual by reason of the preeminence , influence , and prime operation of the Soul. Now between these two states stands the state of separation , in which the operations of the Soul are of a middle nature , that is , not so spiritual as in the resurrection , and not so animal and natural as in the state of conjunction . To all which I add this consideration , That our Souls have the same condition that Christs Soul had in the state of separation , because he took on him all our Nature , and all our Condition ; and it is certain , Christs Soul in the three days of his separation did exercise acts of life , of joy and triumph , and did not sleep , but visited the Souls of the Fathers , trampled upon the pride of Devils , and satisfied those longing Souls which were Prisoners of hope : And from all this we may conclude , That the Souls of all the Servants of Christ are alive , and therefore do the actions of life , and proper to their state ; and therefore it is highly probable that the Soul works clearer , and understands brighter , and discourses wiser , and rejoyces louder , and loves noblier , and desires purer , and hopes stronger than it can do here . But if these arguments should fail , yet the felicity of Gods Saints cannot fail : For suppose the Body to be a necessary Instrument , but out of tune and discomposed by sin and anger , by accident and chance , by defect and imperfections , yet that it is better than none at all ; and that if the Soul works imperfectly with an imperfect Body , that then she works not at all when she hath none : And suppose also that the Soul should be as much without sense or perception in death , as it is in a deep sleep , which is the image and shadow of death ; yet then God devises other means that his banished be not expelled from him . For 2. God will restore the Soul to the Body , and raise the Body to such a perfection that it shall be an Organ fit to praise him upon ; it shall be made spiritual to minister to the Soul , when the Soul is turned into a Spirit ; then the Soul shall be brought forth by Angels from her incomparable and easie bed , from her rest in Christs holy Bosom , and be made perfect in her being , and in all her operations : And this shall first appear by that perfection which the Soul shall receive as instrumental to the last Judgment ; for then she shall see clearly all the Records of this World , all the Register of her own Memory : For all that we did in this life is laid up in our Memories ; and though dust and forgetfulness be drawn upon them , yet when God shall lift us from our dust , then shall appear clearly all that we have done , written in the Tables of our Conscience , which is the Souls Memory . We see many times , and in many instances , that a great Memory is hindred and put out , and we thirty years after come to think of something that lay so long under a Curtain ; we think of it suddenly , and without a line of deduction , or proper consequence : And all those famous Memories of Simonides and Theodactes , of Hortensius and Seneca , of Sceptius , Metrodorus , and Carneades of Cyneas the Embassadour of Pyrrhus , are only the Records better kept , and less disturbed by accident and disease : For even the Memory of Herods son of Athens , of Bathyllus , and the dullest person now alive , is so great , and by God made so sure a Record of all that ever he did , that as soon as ever God shall but tune our Instrument , and draw the Curtains , and but light up the Candle of Immortality , there we shall find it all , there we shall see all , and the whole world shall see all ; then we shall be made fit to converse with God after the manner of Spirits , we shall be like to Angels . In the mean time , although upon the perswasion of the former Discourse it be highly probable that the Souls of Gods Servants do live in a state of present blessedness , and in the exceeding joys of a certain expectation of the revelation of the day of the Lord , and the coming of Jesus ; yet it will concern us only to secure our state by holy living , and leave the event to God , that ( as St. Paul said ) whether present or absent , whether sleeping or waking , whether perceiving or perceiving not , we may be accepted of him ; that when we are banished this World , and from the light of the Sun , we may not be expelled from God , and from the light of his countenance , but that from our beds of sorrows our Souls may pass into the Bosom of Christ , and from thence to his right hand in the day of Sentence : For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ ; and then if we have done well in the Body , we shall never be expelled from the beatifical presence of God , but be Domesticks of his Family , and Heirs of his Kingdom , and Partakers of his Glory . Amen . I Have now done with my Text , but yet am to make you another Sermon . I have told you the necessity and the state of death , it may be too largely for such a sad story ; I shall therefore now with a better compendium teach you how to live , by telling you a plain Narative of a Life , which if you imitate , and write after the Copy , it will make that death shall not be an evil , but a thing to be desired , and to be reckoned among the purchases and advantages of your Fortune . When Martha and Mary went to weep over the Grave of their Brother , Christ met them there , and preached a Funeral Sermon , discoursing of the Resurrection , and applying to the purposes of Faith , and confession of Christ , and glorification of God. We have no other , we can have no better precedent to follow : and now that we are come to weep over the grave of our Dear Sister , this rare Personage , we cannot chuse but have many virtues to learn , many to imitate , and some to exercise . I chuse not to declare her Extraction and Genealogy ; it was indeed fair and honourable ; but having the blessing to be descended from Worthy and Honour'd Ancestors , and her self to be adopted and ingraffed into a more Noble Family ; yet she felt such outward Appendages to be none of hers , because not of her choice , but the purchase of the Virtues of others , which although they did engage her to do noble things , yet they would upbraid all degenerate and less honourable Lives than were those which began and encreased the honour of the Families . She did not love her Fortune for making her noble ; but thought it would be a dishonour to her if she did not continue a Nobleness and Excellency of Virtue fit to be owned by Persons relating to such Ancestors . It is fit for us all to honour the Nobleness of a Family : but it is also fit for them that are Noble to despise it , and to establish their Honour upon the foundation of doing excellent things , and suffering in good causes , and despising dishonourable actions , and in communicating good things to others : For this is the rule in Nature ; Those Creatures are most honourable which have the greatest power , and do the greatest good : And accordingly my self have been witness of it , how this excellent Lady would by an act of humility and Christian abstraction strip her self of all that fair Appendage and exteriour Honour which decked her Person and her Fortune , and desired to be owned by nothing but what was her own , that she might only be esteemed honourable according to that which is the Honour of a Christian , and a wise Person . 2. She had a strict and severe education , and it was one of Gods Graces and Favours to her : For being the Heiress of a great Fortune , and living amongst the throng of persons in the sight of vanities and empty temptations , that is , in that part of the Kingdom where Greatness is too often express'd in great follies and great vices , God had provided a severe and angry Education to chastise the forwardnesses of a young Spirit and a fair Fortune , that she might for ever be so far distant from a vice , that she might only see it and loath it , but never taste of it , so much as to be put to her choice whether she would be virtuous or no. God intending to secure this Soul to himself , would not suffer the follies of the world to seize upon her by way of too neer a trial or busie temptation . 3. She was married young ; and besides her businesses of Religion , seemed to be ordained in the providence of God to bring to this honourable Family a part of a fair Fortune , and to leave behind her a fairer Issue , worth ten thousand times her Portion : And as if this had been all the publick business of her life , when she had so far served Gods ends , God in mercy would also serve hers , and take her to an early blessedness . 4. In passing through which line of providence , she had the art to secure her eternal Interest , by turning her Condition into Duty , and expressing her Duty in the greatest eminency of a virtuous , prudent , and rare affection , that hath been known in any example . I will not give her so low a testimony , as to say only that she was chast ; She was a Person of that severity , modesty , and close Religion ( as to that particular ) that she was not capable of uncivil temptation ; and you might as well have suspected the Sun to smell of the Poppy that he looks on , as that she could have been a person apt to be sullied by the breath of a soul question . 5. But that which I shall note in her , is that which I would have exemplar to all Ladies , and to all Women : She had a love so great for her Lord , so intirely given up to a dear affection , that she thought the same things , and loved the same loves , and hated according to the same enmities , and breathed in his soul , and lived in his presence , and languished in his absence ; and all that she was or did , was only for and to her dearest Lord : Si gaudet , si flet , St tacet , hunc loquitur , Coenat , propinat , poscit , negat , innuit , unus Naevius est : — And although this was a great enamel to the beauty of her Soul , yet it might in some degrees be also a reward to the Virtue of her Lord : For she would often discourse it to them that convers'd with her , that he would improve that interest which he had in her affection to the advantages of God and of Religion ; and she would delight to say , that he called her to her Devotions , he encouraged her good inclinations , he directed her piety , he invited her with good Books ; and then she loved Religion , which she saw was not only pleasing to God , and an act or state of duty , but pleasing to her Lord , and an act also of affection and conjugal obedience ; and what at first she loved the more forwardly for his sake , in the using of Religion , left such relishes upon her spirit , that she found in it amability enough to make her love it for its own . So God usually brings us to him by instruments of nature and affections , and then incorporates us into his Inheritance by the more immediate relishes of Heaven , and the secret things of the Spirit . He only was ( under God ) the light of her eyes , and the cordial of her spirits , and the guide of her actions , and the measure of her affections , till her affections swell'd up into a Religion , and then it could go no higher , but was confederate with those other duties which made her dear to God : which rare combination of Duty and Religion , I chuse to express in the words of Solomon ; She forsook not the guide of her youth , nor brake the Covenant of her God. 6. As she was a rare Wife , so she was an excellent Mother : For in so tender a constitution of spirit as hers was , and in so great a kindness towards her Children , there hath seldom been seen a stricter and more curious care of their persons , their deportment , their nature , their disposition , their learning , and their customs : And if ever kindness and care did contest , and make parties in her , yet her care and her severity was ever victorious ; and she knew not how to do an ill turn to their severer part , by her more tender and forward kindness . And as her custom was , she turned this also into love to her Lord : For she was not only diligent to have them bred nobly and religiously , but also was careful and sollicitous that they should be taught to observe all the circumstances and inclinations , the desires and wishes of their Father ; as thinking that virtue to have no good circumstances , which was not dressed by his copy , and ruled by his lines , and his affections : And her prudence in the managing her children was so singular and rare , that when ever you mean to bless this family , and pray a hearty and a profitable prayer for it , beg of God , that the children may have those excellent things which she designed to them , and provided for them in her heart and wishes , that they may live by her purposes , and may grow thither , whither she would fain have brought them . All these were great parts of an excellent Religion , a● they concerned her greatest temporal relations . 7. But if we examine how she demeaned her self towards God , there also you will find her not of a common , but of an exemplar piety : She was a great reader of Scripture , confining her self to great portions every day ; which she read not to the purposes of vanity , and impertinent curiosities , not to seem knowing , or to become talking , not to expound and rule ; but to teach her all her duty , to instruct her in the knowledge and love of God and of her Neighbours ; to make her more humble , and to teach her to despise the world and all its gilded vanities ; and that she might entertain passions wholly in design and order to Heaven . I have seen a female Religion that wholly dwelt upon the face and tongue ; that like a wanton and an undressed tree spends all its juice in suckers and irregular branches , in leafs and gum , and after all such goodly outsides you should never eat an Apple , or be delighted with the beauties , or the perfumes of a hopeful blossom . But the Religion of this excellent Lady was of another constitution ; It took root downward in humility , and brought forth fruit upward in the substantial graces of a Christian , in Charity and Justice , in Chastity and Modesty , in fair Friendships and sweetness of Society : She had not very much of the forms and outsides of godliness , but she was hugely careful for the power of it , for the moral , essential , and useful parts ; such which would make her be , not seem to be , religious . 8. She was a very constant person at her prayers , and spent all her time which Nature did permit to her choice , in her devotions , and reading and meditating , and the necessary offices of houshold Government ; every one of which is an action of Religion , some by nature , some by adoption . To these also God gave her a very great love to hear the word of God preached ; in which because I had sometimes the honour to minister to her , I can give this certain testimony , that she was a diligent , watchful , and attentive hearer : and to this had so excellent a judgment , that if ever I saw a woman whose judgment was to be revered , it was hers alone : and I have sometimes thought that the eminency of her discerning faculties did reward a pious discourse , and placed it in the regions of honour and usefulness , and gathered it up from the ground , where commonly such Homilies are spilt , or scattered in neglect and inconsideration . But her appetite was not soon satisfied with what was useful to her soul : she was also a constant Reader of Sermons , and seldom missed to read one every day ; and that she might be full of instruction and holy principles , she had lately designed to have a large Book , in which she purposed to have a stock of Religion transcribed in such assistances as she would chuse , that she might be readily furnished and instructed to every good work . But God prevented that , and hath filled her desires , not out of Cisterns and little Aquaeducts , but hath carried her to the Fountain , where she drinks of the pleasures of the River , and is full of God. 9. She always lived a life of much innocence , free from the violences of great sins : her person , her breeding , her modesty , her honour , her Religion , her early marriage , the Guide of her soul , and the Guide of her youth , were as so many fountains of restraining grace to her , to keep her from the dishonours of a crime . Bonum est portare jugum ab adolescentiâ , it is good to bear the yoke of the Lord from our youth ; and though she did so , being guarded by a mighty providence , and a great favour and grace of God from staining her fair soul with the spots of hell , yet she had strange fears and early cares upon her ; but these were not only for her self , but in order to others , to her neerest Relatives : For she was so great a lover of this Honourable Family of which now she was a Mother , that she desired to become a channel of great blessings to it unto future ages , and was extremely jealous lest any thing should be done , or lest any thing had been done , though an Age or two since , which should intail a curse upon the innocent posterity ; and therefore ( although I do not know that ever she was tempted with an offer of the crime ) yet she did infinitely remove all sacriledge from her thoughts , and delighted to see her estate of a clear and dis-intangled interest : she would have no mingled rights with it ; she would not receive any thing from the Church , but Religion and a Blessing : and she never thought a curse and a sin far enough off , but would desire it to be infinitely distant ; and that as to this Family God had given much honour and a wise head to govern it , so he would also for ever give many more blessings : and because she knew the sins of Parents descend upon Children , she endeavoured by justice and religion , by charity and honour to secure that her channel should convey nothing but health , and a fair example and a blessing . 10. And though her accounts to God were made up of nothing but small parcels , little passions , and angry words , and trifling discontents , which are the allays of the piety of the most holy persons ; yet she was early at her repentance ; and toward the latter end of her days , grew so fast in Religion , as if she had had a revelation of her approaching end , and therefore that she must go a great way in a little time : her discourses more full of religion , her prayers more frequent , her charity increasing , her forgiveness more forward , her friendships more communicative , her passion more under discipline ; and so she trimmed her lamp , not thinking her night was so neer , but that it might shine also in the day time , in the Temple , and before the Altar of Incense . But in this course of hers there were some circumstances , and some appendages of substance , which were highly remarkable . 1. In all her Religion , and in all her actions of relation towards God , she had a strange evenness and untroubled passage , sliding toward her Ocean of God and of infinity with a certain and silent motion . So have I seen a River deep and smooth passing with a still foot and a sober face , and paying to the Fiscus , the great Exchequer of the Sea , the Prince of all the watry bodies , a tribute large and full : and hard by it a little brook skipping and making a noise upon its unequal and neighbour bottom ; and after all its talking and bragged motion , it payed to its common Audit no more than the Revenues of a little cloud , or a contemptible vessel : So have I sometimes compared the issues of her Religion to the solemnities and famed outsides of anothers piety . It dwelt upon her spirit , and was incorporated with the periodical work of every day : she did not believe that Religion was intended to minister to fame and reputation , but to pardon of sins , to the pleasure of God , and the salvation of souls . For Religion is like the breath of Heaven ; if it goes abroad into the open air , it scatters and dissolves like Camphyre : but if it enters into a secret hollowness , into a close conveyance , it is strong and mighty , and comes forth with vigour and great effect at the other end , at the other side of this life , in the days of death and judgment . 2. The other appendage of her Religion , which also was a great ornament to all the parts of her life , was a rare modesty and humility of spirit , a confident despising and undervaluing of her self . For though she had the greatest judgment , and the greatest experience of things and persons that I ever yet knew in a person of her youth , and sex , and circumstances ; yet as if she knew nothing of it , she had the meanest opinion of her self ; and like a fair taper , when she shined to all the room , yet round about her own station she had cast a shadow and a cloud , and she shined to every body but her self . But the perfectness of her prudence and excellent parts could not be hid ; and all her humility , and arts of concealment , made the vertues more amiable and illustrious . For as pride sullies the beauty of the fairest vertues , and makes our understanding but like the craft and learning of a Devil : so humility is the greatest eminency , and art of publication in the whole world ; and she in all her arts of secrecy and hiding her worthy things , was but like one that hideth the wind , and covers the oyntment of her right hand . I know not by what instrument it happened ; but when death drew neer , before it made any show upon her body , or revealed it self by a natural signification , it was conveyed to her spirit : she had a strange secret perswasion that the bringing this child should be her last scene of life : and we have known , that the soul when she is about to disrobe her self of her upper garment , sometimes speaks rarely , Magnifica verba mors propè admota excutit ; sometimes it is Prophetical ; sometimes God by a superinduced perswasion wrought by instruments , or accidents of his own , serves the ends of his own providence and the salvation of the soul : But so it was , that the thought of death dwelt long with her , and grew from the first steps of fancy and fear , to a consent , from thence to a strange credulity , and expectation of it ; and without the violence of sickness she dyed , as if she had done it voluntarily , and by design , and for fear her expectation should have been deceived , or that she should seem to have had an unreasonable fear , or apprehension ; or rather ( as one said of Cato ) sic abiit è vitâ ut causam moriendi nactam se esse gauderet , she dyed , as if she had been glad of the opportunity . And in this I cannot but adore the providence , and admire the wisdom and infinite mercies of God : For having a tender and soft , a delicate and fine constitution and breeding , she was tender to pain , and apprehensive of it , as a childs shoulder is of a load and burden : Grave est tenerae cervici jugum ; and in her often discourses of death , which she wonld renew willingly and frequently , she would tell , that she feared not death , but she feared the sharp pains of death : Emori nolo , me esse mortuam non curo : The being dead , and being freed from the troubles and dangers of this world , she hoped would be for her advantage , and therefore that was no part of her fear : But she believing the pangs of death were great , and the use and aids of reason little , had reason to fear lost they should do violence to her spirit and the decency of her resolution . But God that knew her fears and her jealousie concerning her self , fitted her with a death so easie , so harmless , so painless , that it did not put her patience to a severe trial . It was not ( in all appearance ) of so much trouble , as two fits of a common ague ; so careful was God to remonstrate to all that stood in that sad attendance , that this soul was dear to him : and that since she had done so much of her duty towards it , he that began would also finish her redemption , by an act of a rare providence , and a singular mercy . Blessed be that goodness of God , who does so careful actions of mercy for the ease and security of his servants . But this one instance was a great demonstration that the apprehension of death is worse than the pains of death ; and that God loves to reprove the unreasonableness of our fears , by the mightiness , and by the arts of his mercy . She had in her sickness ( if I may so call it , or rather in the solemnities and graver preparations towards death ) some curious and well-becoming fears , concerning the final state of her soul : But from thence she passed into a deliquium , or a kind of trance , and as soon as she came forth of it , as if it had been a vision , or that she had conversed with an Angel , and from his hand had received a labell or scroll of the Book of Life , and there seen her name enrolled , she cryed out aloud , [ Glory be to God on high : Now I am sure I shall be saved . ] Concerning which manner of discoursing we are wholly ignorant what judgment can be made : but certainly there are strange things in the other world ; and so there are in all the immediate preparations to it ; and a little glimpse of heaven , a minutes conversing with an Angel , any ray of God , any communication extraordinary from the Spirit of comfort , which God gives to his servants in strange and unknown manners , are infinitely far from illusions ; and they shall then be understood by us , when we feel them , and when our new and strange needs shall be refreshed by such unusual visitations . But I must be forced to use summaries and arts of abbreviature in the enumerating those things in which this rare Personage was dear to God and to all her Relatives . If we consider her Person , she was in the flower of her age , Jucundum cum aetas florida ver ageret ; of a temperate , plain and natural diet , without curiosity or an intemperate palate ; she spent less time in dressing , than many servants ; her recreations were little and seldom , her prayers often , her reading much : she was of a most noble and charitable soul ; a great lover of honourable actions , and as great a despiser of base things ; hugely loving to oblige others , and very unwilling to be in arrear to any upon the stock of courtesies and liberality ; so free in all acts of favour , that she would not stay to hear her self thanked , as being unwilling that what good went from her to a needful or an obliged person should ever return to her again : she was an excellent friend , and hugely dear to very many , especially to the best and most discerning persons ; to all that conversed with her , and could understand her great worth and sweetness : she was of an honourable , a nice , and tender reputation ; and of the pleasures of this world , which were laid before her in heaps , she took a very small and inconsiderable share , as not loving to glut her self with vanity , or take her portion of good things here below . If we look on her as a Wife , she was chast and loving , fruitful and discreet , humble and pleasant , witty and complyant , rich and fair ; and wanted nothing to the making her a principal and precedent to the best Wives of the World , but a long life , and a full age . If we remember her as a Mother , she was kind and severe , careful and prudent , very tender , and not at all fond , a greater Lover of her Childrens Souls than of their Bodies , and one that would value them more by the strict rules of honour and proper worth , than by their relation to her self . Her Servants found her prudent , and fit to govern , and yet open-handed , and apt to reward ; a just Exactor of their duty , and a great Rewarder of their diligence . She was in her house a Comfort to her dearest Lord , a Guide to her Children , a Rule to her Servants , an Example to all . But as she related to God in the offices of Religion , she was even and constant , silent and devout , prudent and material ; she loved what she now enjoys , and she feared what she never felt , and God did for her what she never did expect : her fears went beyond all her evil ; and yet the good which she hath received was , and is , and ever shall be beyond all her hopes . She lived as we all should live , and she died as I fain would die — Et cum supremos Lachesis perneverit annos , Non aliter cineres mando jacere meos . I pray God I may feel those mercies on my Death-bed that she felt , and that I may feel the same effect of my repentance which she feels of the many degrees of her innocence . Such was her death , that she did not die too soon ; and her life was so useful and excellent , that she could not have lived too long . Nemo parum diu vixit qui virtutis perfectae perfecto functus est munere . And as now in the grave it shall not be enquired concerning her , how long she lived , but how well ; so to us who live after her , to suffer a longer calamity , it may be some ease to our sorrows , and some guide to our lives , and some securiry to our conditions , to consider that God hath brought the piety of a young Lady to the early rewards of a never ceasing and never dying Eternity of Glory : And we also , if we live as she did , shall partake of the same glories ; not only having the honour of a good Name , and a dear and honour'd Memory , but the glories of these glories , the end of all excellent labours , and all prudent counsels , and all holy Religion , even the salvation of our Souls in that day when all the Saints , and among them this excellent Woman , shall be shewn to all the World to have done more , and more excellent things than we know of or can describe . Mors illos consecrat , quorum exitum & qui timent , laudant : Death consecrates and makes sacred that person whose excellency was such , that they that are not displeased at the death , cannot dispraise the life ; but they that mourn sadly , think they can never commend sufficiently . FINIS . THE Whole Duty OF THE CLERGY IN LIFE , BELIEF , AND DOCTRINE : Described , and pressed effectually upon their Consciences in Two Sermons on Tit. 2. 7,8 . Preached in so many several VISITATIONS . By the Right Reverend Father in God JEREMY Lord Bishop of Down and Connor . LONDON , Printed for R. Royston Bookseller to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty . 1666. Imprimantur Hae duae Conciones . Tho. Tomkyns , RR imo in Christo Patri ac Domino D no Gilberto Divinâ Providentiâ Archi-Episcopo Cantuariensi à Sacris Domesticis . THE Ministers Duty IN LIFE & DOCTRINE . SERM. IX . Tit. II. 7 , 8. In all things shewing thy self a pattern of good works : In Doctrine shewing uncorruptness , gravity , sincerity . Sound Speech that cannot be condemned , that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed , having no evil thing to say of you . AS God in the Creation of the World first produced a mass of matter , having nothing in it but an obediential capacity and passivity ; which God separating into classes of division , gave to every part a congruity to their respective forms , which in their distinct Orbs and Stations they did receive in order , and then were made beauteous by separations and a new Oeconomy ; and out of these he appointed some for Servants , and some for Government ; and some to eat , and some to be eaten ; some above , and some below ; some to be useful to all the rest , and all to minister to the good of man , whom he made the Prince of the Creation , and a Minister of the Divine glory : So God hath also done in the new Creation ; all the world was concluded under sin , it was a corrupt mass , all mankind had corrupted themselves ; but yet were capable of Divine influences , and of a nobler form , producible in the new birth : here then Gods Spirit moves upon the waters of a Divine Birth , and makes a separation of part from part , of corruption from corruption ; and first chose some Families to whom he communicated the Divine influences and the breath of a nobler life ; Seth and Enoch , Noah and Abraham , Job and Bildad , and these were the special Repositories of the Divine Grace , and Prophets of righteousness to glorifie God in themselves , and in their Sermons unto others . But this was like enclosing of the Sun ; he that shuts him in , shuts him out ; and God who was and is an infinite goodness , would not be circumscribed and limited to a narrow circle : goodness is his Nature , and infinite is his Measure , and communication of that goodness is the motion of that eternal being : God g. breaks forth as out of a Cloud , and picks out a whole Nation ; the Sons of Israel became his Family , and that soon swell'd into a Nation , and that Nation multiplied till it became too big for their Country , and by a necessary dispersion went , and did much good , and gained some servants to God out of other parts of mankind . But God was pleased to cast lots once more , and was like the Sun already risen upon the earth , who spreads his rays to all the corners of the habitable World , that all that will open their eyes and draw their Curtains , may see and rejoice in his light . Here God resolved to call all the World ; he sent into the high ways and hedges , to the corners of the Gentiles , and the high ways of the Jews , all might come that would ; for the sound of the Gospel went out into all Lands : and God chose all that came , but all would not ; and those that did , he gathered into a fold , marked them with his own mark , sent his Son to be the great Shepherd and Bishop of their Souls ; and they became a peculiar People unto God , a little Flock , a new Election . And here is the first separation and singularity of the Gospel ; all that hear the voice of Christ's first call , all that profess themselves his Disciples , all that take his signature , they and their Children are the Church , an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 called out from the rest of the World , the elect and the chosen of God. Now these being thus chosen out , culled and picked from the evil Generations of the World , he separates them from others , to gather them to himself ; he separates them and sanctifies them to become holy ; to come out ( not of the companies so much , as ) from the evil manners of the world : God chuses them unto holiness , they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , put in the right order to eternal life . All Christians are holy unto the Lord , and g. must not be unholy in their conversation ; for nothing that is unholy shall come neer to God : That 's the first great line of our duty : But God intends it further : All Christians must not be only holy , but eminently holy . For John indeed baptized with water , but that 's but a dull and unactive Element , and moves by no principle , but by being ponderous ; Christ baptizes with the Holy Ghost and with fire , and God hates lukewarmness ; and when he choses to him a peculiar People , he adds , they must be zealous of good works . But in this affair , there are many steps and great degrees of progression . 1. All Gods People must be delivered from all sin ; for as Christ came wholly to destroy the works of the Devil , so he intends also to present his Church as a pure Virgin unto Christ ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , without scandal , without hypocrisie , without spot or wrinkle , or any such thing : For to be quit from sin , that is , from all affection to it , is supposed in the Christians life : denying ungodliness and worldly lusts , and being cleansed from all filthiness of flesh and spirit , and having escaped from all corruption that is in the world through lust ; this is not so much commanded as supposed : without this nothing can be done , nothing can be hoped : this is but the foundation of the Christian , who is intended to be a habitation of God , a member of Christ , a temple of the holy Spirit of God : the building follows . 2. All Christians must acquire all the graces of the holy Spirit of God ; S. Peter gives the Catalogue [ Faith , and Vertue , and Knowledge , and Temperance , and Patience , and Godliness , and Brotherly kindness , and Charity ] and that you may see what is the spirit of a Christian , what an activity and brisk principle is required to the acquisition of these things ; the Apostle gives this percept , that for the acquiring these things , we should give 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , all diligence ; no lazy worker is a good Christian , he must be diligent ; and not every diligence , nor every degree of good diligence , but it must be all , omnem omniuo diligentiam , give all diligence . 3. There is yet another degree to be added here too : It is not enough for a Christian to be free from corruption , and to have these graces ; and g. to be diligent , very diligent to obtain them ; but they must be in us and abound , N. B. they must be in us ; these graces and this righteousness must be inherent ; it is not enough for us that Christ had them for us ; for it is true , if he had not had them , we should never have received those or any thing else that is good : but he had them , that we might have them , and follow his steps who knew no sin , and fulfilled all righteousness . They must be in us , saith S. Peter ; and not only so , they must also abound in us , that 's the end of Christ's death , that 's the fruit of his Spirit : they must be plentiful like a full Vintage , or like Euphrates in the time of ripe Fruits ; they must swell over the banks : for when they are but in gradu virtutis , in the lowest step of sincerity , they may fall from the tree like unripe fruit , and be fit for nothing but for Prodigals and Swine ; they must be in their season and period , great and excellent , and eminent ; they must take up all our faculties , fill up all our time , spend all our powers , satisfie the will , and be adequate to all the powers of our choice ; that is , as S. Peter adds , they must be so , that we make our calling and election sure ; so as that we shall never any more depart from God : well thus far you see how severe and sacred a thing it is to be a Christian. 4. But there are yet three steps more beyond this : God requires of us perseverance ; a thrusting all this forward , even unto the end : without peace and holiness no man shall see God , saith the Author to the Hebrews ; but that 's not all , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , follow after peace and holiness with all men , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , without which ; it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , without which peace , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , without which following of peace and holiness ; that is , unless we endure all contradiction of sinners and objections ; without following it close and home to the utmost issue , to the end of all righteousness , tending even to comprehension , to consummation and perfection , no man shall see God ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , is good and great , to dwell in holiness : but that 's not enough , it must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too , we must still pursue it , and that unto the end : for he that endureth unto the end shall be saved . 5. And what more ? yes there is something yet : For besides this extension of duration , there must be intensio graduum : for nondum comprehendimus , nondum perfecti sumus , we have not yet comprehended , we are not yet made perfect ; but that must be aimed at : Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect ; be ye meek as Christ is , be ye holy as God is holy ; pure as your Father in Heaven is pure ; and who can be so ? no man can be so in degree ; but so in kind , every man must desire , and every man must contend to be , and g. it is possible , else it had never been required . 6. And now after all this , one thing more is to be done : you must be so for your selves , and you must be so for others : you must be so as to please God , and you must be so to edifie your Brethren : Let your light so shine before men , that they may glorifie your Father which is in Heaven ; let it be so eminent and conspicuous , that all that see your conversation , and all that come into your Congregations may be convinced , and falling down and worshipping , may say of a truth the Spirit of the Lord is in you . And g. our Blessed Saviour in his Sermon upon the Mount , which is the summary of a Christians life , at the end of the eight beatitudes , tells all his Followers and Disciples : ye are the salt of the world , ye are the light of the world ; and g. the Kingdom of Heaven , or the Gospel is compared to a woman that hid in three measures of meal , the Jews , the Turks , the Heathen Idolaters , her Leaven , till all was leavened : our Light must be so shining , our Conversation so exemplar as to draw all the world after us ; that they that will not , may be ashamed , and they that wil , lmay be allured by the beauty of the flame . These are the proportions and measures of every Christian , for from the days of John the Baptist , the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence , and the violent take it by force ; that although , John the Baptist was the greatest that ever was born of woman , yet , he that is least in the Kingdom of Heaven , the meanest of the Laity , may be greater than he . This is a great height , and these things I have premised , not only to describe the duty of all that are here present , even of all Christians whatsoever , that you may not depart without your portion of a blessing ; but also as a foundation of the ensuing periods , which I shall address to you my Brethren of the Clergy , the Fathers of the people ; for I speak in a School of the Prophets , Prophets and Prophets Sons ; to you who are or intend to be so . For God hath made a separation of you even beyond this separation : he hath separated you yet again ; he hath put you anew into the Chrysoble , he hath made you to pass through the fire seven times more . For it is true , that the whole community of the People is the Church ; Ecclesia sancta est communio sanctorum , the holy Catholick Church is the communion of Saints ; but yet by the voice and consent of all Christendom , you are the Church by way of propriety , and eminency , and singularity [ Church-men ] that 's your appellative : all are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , spiritual men , all have received the Spirit , and all walk in the Spirit , and ye are all sealed by the Spirit unto the day of Redemption , and yet there is a spirituality peculiar to the Clergy : If any man be overtaken in a fault , ye which are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness : you who are spiritual by office and designation , of a spiritual calling , and spiritual employment ; you who have the Spirit of the Lord Jesus , and minister the Spirit of God , you are more eminently spiritual ; you have the Spirit in graces and in powers , in sanctification and abilities , in Office and in Person ; the Vnction from above hath descended upon your heads and upon your hearts ; you are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of eminency and praelation , spiritual men . All the people of God were holy ; Corah and his company were in the right so far ; but yet Moses and Aaron were more holy , and stood neerer to God. All the people are Prophets : It is now more than Moses wish , for the Spirit of Christ hath made them so : If any man prayeth or prophesieth with his head covered ; or if any woman prophesieth with her head uncovered , they are dishonoured ; but either man or woman may do that work in time and place ; for in the latter days I will pour out of my Spirit , and your daughters shall prophesie : and yet God hath appointed in his Church Prophets above these , to whose Spirit all the other Prophets are subject ; and as God said to Aaron and Miriam concerning Moses , to you I am known in a dream or a vision , but to Moses I speak face to face ; so it is in the Church , God gives of his Spirit to all men , but you he hath made the Ministers of his Spirit : Nay the people have their portion of the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven , so said S. Paul ; To whom ye forgive any thing , to him I forgive also ; and to the whole Church of Corinth he gave a Commission in the Name of Christ , and by his Spirit to deliver the incestuous person unto Satan ; and when the primitive Penitents stood in their penitential stations , they did Chairs Dei adgeniculari , & toti populo legationem orationis suae commendare ; and yet the Keys were not only promised , but given to the Apostles to be used then , and transmitted to all Generations of the Church ; and we are Ministers of Christ , and Stewards of the manifold Mysteries of God ; and to us is committed the word of reconciliation . And thus in the Consecration of the mysterious Sacrament , the people have their portion ; for the Bishop or the Priest blesses , and the People by saying Amen to the mystick Prayer is partaker of the Power , and the whole Church hath a share in the power of Spiritual Sacrifice ; Ye are a royal Priesthood , Kings and Priests unto God ; that is , so ye are Priests as ye are Kings ; but yet Kings and Priests have a glory conveyed to them , of which the people partake but in minority , and allegory , and improper communication : But you are , and are to be respectively that considerable part of mankind by whom God intends to plant holiness in the World ; by you God means to reign in the hearts of men ; and g. you are to be the first in this kind , and consequently the measure of all the rest : To you g. I intend this , and some following Discourses in order to this purpose : I shall but now lay the first stone , but it is the corner stone in this foundation . But to you , I say , of the Clergy , these things are spoken properly ; to you these Powers are conveyed really ; upon you God hath poured his Spirit plentifully ; you are the Choicest of his Choice , the Elect of his Election , a Church pick'd out of the Church , Vessels of honour so your Masters use , appointed to teach others , authorised to bless in his Name ; you are the Ministers of Christ's Priesthood , Under-labourers in the great Work of Mediation and Intercession , Medii inter Deum & Populum ; you are for the People towards God , and convey Answers and Messages from God to the People : These things I speak , not only to magnifie your Office , but to inforce and heighten your Duty ; you are holy by Office and Designation ; for your very Appointment is a Sanctification and a Consecration , and g. whatever holiness God requires of the People , who have some little portions in the Priesthood Evangelical , he expects it of you , and much greater , to whom he hath conveyed so great Honours , and admitted so neer unto himself , and hath made to be the great Ministers of his Kingdom and his Spirit : and now as Moses said to the Levitical Schismaticks , Corah and his Company , so I may say to you , Seemeth it but a small thing unto you that the God of Israel hath separated you from the Congregation of Israel to bring you to himself , to do the Service of the Tabernacle of the Lord , and to stand before the Congregation to minister to them ? And he hath brought thee neer to him . Certainly if of every one of the Christian Congregation God expects a holiness that mingles with no unclean thing ; if God will not suffer of them a luke-warm and an indifferent service , but requires zeal of his Glory , and that which St. Paul calls the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the labour of love ; if he will have them to be without spot or wrinkle , or any such thing ; if he will not endure any pollution in their Flesh or Spirit ; if he requires that their Bodies , and Souls , and Spirits be kept blameless unto the coming of the Lord Jesus ; if he accepts of none of the people , unless they have within them the conjugation of all Christian Graces ; if he calls on them to abound in every Grace , and that in all the periods of their progression , unto the ends of their lives , and to the consummation and perfection of Grace ; if he hath made them Lights in the World , and the Salt of the Earth , to enlighten others by their good Example , and to teach them and invite them by holy Discourses , and wise Counsels , and Speech seasoned with Salt ; what is it think ye , or with what words is it possible to express what God requires of you ? They are to be Examples of Good life to one another ; but you are to be Examples even of the Examples themselves ; that 's your duty , that 's the purpose of God , and that 's the design of my Text , That in all things ye shew your selves a pattern of good works ; in Doctrine shewing uncorruptness , gravity , sincerity , sound speech that cannot be condemned ; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed , having no evil thing to say of you . Here then is , 1. Your Duty . 2. The degrees and excellency of your Duty . The Duty is double : 1. Holiness of Life . 2. Integrity of Doctrine . Both these have their heightnings in several degrees . 1. For your Life and Conversation , it ought not only to be good , not only to be holy , but to be so up to the degrees of an excellent example ; Ye must be a pattern . 2. Ye must be patterns , not only of Knowledg and Wisdom , not of contemplation and skill in Mysteries , not of unprofitable Notions , and ineffective Wit and Eloquence ; but of something that is more profitable , of something that may do good , something by which mankind shall be better ; of something that shall contribute to the felicity and comfort of the world ; a pattern of good works . 3. It must not be a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a type or pattern to be hidden or laid in Tabernacles , like those Images of Molech and Remphan , which the Spirit of God in the Old Testament calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Succoth Benoth , little Repositories or Boots to hide their Images and patterns of their gods ; but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , you must be exhibited and shewn forth , brought forth into action and visibility , and notorious observation . 4. There is also another mystery and duty in this word ; for Molech and Remphan they were patterns and figures , but they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , patterns which the people made ; but to Titus St. Paul commanded that he himself should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he should give a pattern to the people ; that is , the Ministers of Christ must not be framed according to the peoples humour , they must not give him rules , nor describe his measures ; but he should be a rule to them ; he is neither to live with them so as to please their humours , or to preach Doctrines populo ut placerent quas fecissent fabulas : but the people are to require the Doctrine at his mouth , and he is to become exemplar to them according to the pattern seen in the Mount , according to the Laws of the Religion and the example of Christ. 5. It must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; he must be a pattern in all things : It is not enough that the Minister be a loving person , a good neighbourly man , that he be hospitable , that he be not litigious , that he be harmless , and that he be diligent ; but in every Grace he must praeferre facem , hold a torch , and shew himself a light in all the Commands of God. These are the measures of his Holiness , the pattern in his Life and Conversation . Secondly , Integrity of Doctrine . The matter of the Doctrine you are to preach hath in it four qualifications . 1. It must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , incorrupt ; that is , it must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it must be according to the analogy of Faith , no Heretical mixtures , pure Truths of God. 2. It must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , grave , and clean , and chast ; that is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no vain and empty notions , little contentions , and pitiful disputes ; but becoming the wisdom of the Guide of Souls , and the Ministers of Christ. And 3. It must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , sound speech , so we read it ; the word properly signifies salutary and wholesome ; that is , such as is apt for edification , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; for the building men up in a most holy faith , and a more excellent charity ; not feeding the people with husks and droffe , with Colocynths and Gourds , with gay Tulips and useless Daffodils , but with the bread of life , and medicinal Plants springing from the margin of the Fountains of Salvation . This is the matter of their Doctrine ; and this also hath some heightnings , and excellencies , and extraordinaries : For , 4. It must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so evidently demonstrated , that no man shall be able to reprove it ; so certainly holy , that no man shall be willing to condemn it . And 5. It must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sincere , not polluted with foul intentions and little devices of secular interests , complying with the lusts of the potent , or the humours of the time ; not byass'd by partiality , or bending in the flexures of humane policy : it must be so conducted that your very Enemies , Schismaticks and Hereticks , and all sorts of gainsayers , may see that you intend Gods glory , and the good of Souls ; and g. that as they can say nothing against the Doctrine deliver'd ; so neither shall they find fault with him that delivers it : and he that observes all this , will indeed be a pattern both of Life and Doctrine ; both of good words , and good works . But I shall not be so minute in my discourse , as in the division : the duties and the manner or degrees of the duties I shall handle together , and give you the best measures I can both for institution of Life and excellency of Doctrine . It is required of every one of you , that in all things you shew your selves a pattern of good works . That 's the first thing requir'd in a Minister : And this is upon infinite accounts necessary ; 1. In general . 2. In particular . 1. In general . The very first words of the whole Psalter are an argument of this necessity : Blessed is the man that walketh not in the Councel of the ungodly , nor standeth in the way of sinners , nor sitteth in the chair of the mockers , the seat of the scornful . The Doctors Chair or Pulpit must have nothing to do with the irrisores , that mock God , and mock the people ; he must neither walk with them , nor stand with them , nor sit with them ; that is , he must have no fellowship with the unfruitful workers of darkness , but rather reprove them ; for they that do preach one thing and do another are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mockers ; they destroy the benefit of the people , and diminish the blessings of God ; and binding burdens on the peoples shoulders which they will not touch with the top of their finger , they secretly laugh and mock at the people , as at the Asses of Issachar fit to be cousened into unnecessary burdens . These words are greatly to be regarded : The Primitive Church would admit no man to the superiour Orders of the Clergy , unless among other praerequir'd dispositions , they could say all Davids Psalter by heart ; and it was very well , besides many other reasons , that they might in the front read their own duty , so wisely and so mysteriously by the Spirit of God made praeliminary to the whole Office. To the same purpose is that observation of S. Hierome made concerning the vesting of the Priests in the Levitical ministrations ; the Priest put on the Humeral , beset with precious stones , before he took the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or the rationale upon his breast , to signifie that first the Priest must be a shining light , resplendent with good works , before he fed them with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the rational Milk of the Word : concerning which symbolical precept you may please to read many excellent things to this purpose in S. Hierom's Epistle to Fabiola . It will be more useful for us to consider those severe words of David in the 50. Psalm ; But unto the wicked , God saith , what hast thou to do to declare my statutes , or that thou shouldst take my Covenant in thy mouth : seeing thou hatest instruction and castest my words behind thee ? The words are a sad upbraiding to all ungodly Ministers , and they need no Commentary ; for whatever their Office and Employment be to teach Gods people , yet unless they regard the Commandments of God in their heart and practice themselves , they having nothing to do with the Word of God , they sin in taking the Covenant , a Testament of God into their mouth . God said to the sinner , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Raschaah , that is , to him that had sinned and had not repented of his sins ; so the Chaldee Paraphrase reads it ; Impio a qui non agit poenitentiam & orat in praevaricatione dixit Deus . Indeed if none could be admitted to this Ministry but those who had never sinn'd , the Harvest might be very great , but the Labourers would be extremely few , or rather none at all ; but after repentance they must be admitted , and not before ; Iniquitas opilabit os eorum , iniquity shall stop their mouths , saith David ; that ought to silence them indeed : And this was David's care when he had fallen into the foul crimes of Murder and Adultery ; he knew himself unfit and unable , though he were a Prophet , to teach others the Laws of God ; but when he prayed to God to restore him to a free Spirit , he addes ; Then will I teach transgressors thy ways , and sinners shall be converted unto thee : till then it was to no purpose for him to Preach . But thou when thou art converted , said Christ to Peter , strengthen the Brethren . The Primitive Church had a degree of severity beyond this , for they would not admit any man who had done publick Penance to receive holy Orders : To which purpose they were excellent words which P. Hormisda spake in his Letters to the Bishops of Spain , in which he exhorts them to the observation of the ancient Canons of the Church , telling them that , They who are promoted to the Clergy ought to be better than others ; nam longâ debet vitam suam probatione monstrare , cui gubernacula committuntur Ecclesiae [ non negamus , &c. we deny not but amongst the Laity there are many whose manners are pleasing to God , but the faithful Laws of God seek for him Souldiers that are approved , and they ought rather to afford to others by themselves an example of a religious life , than require it from them ] ideoque nullus ex poenitentibus debet ordinari , quisnam quem paulo antè jacentem viderat , veneretur Autistitem ? None of the publick Penitents must be ordained , for who will esteem that Priest venerable , whom a little before he saw dishonoured by scandalous and publick Crimes ? But this is to be understood of them only , as the Prophet Amos expresses it , qui corripiuntur in portâ , who are rebuked in the gate , condemned by publick sentence , and are blotted with the Reproaches of the Law. But in all cases , Turpe est Doctori cum culpa redarguit ipsum . The guilt of the sin which a man reproves , quite spoils his Sermon : ipsam obmutescere facundiam , si aegra sit conscientia , said S. Ambrose , a sick conscience spoils the tongue of the Eloquent , and makes it stammer . For how shall any man preach against sin , or affright his people from their dangers , if he denies Gods justice ? and if he thinks God is just , why is not he confounded that with his own mouth pronounces damnation against himself ? Nothing confounds a man so much , as to be judged out of his own mouth : Esse munda studeat manus quae diluere sordes curat , said S. Gregory , the hand that means to make another clean , should not it self be dirty . But all this is but in general ; there are yet considerations more particular and material . 1. A Minister of an evil life cannot do so much good to his charges , he cannot profit them , he is not useful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he pulls down as fast , or faster than he builds up : Thalmud absque opere , non est magnum Thalmud , said the Jews Proverb ; a good Sermon without a good example , is no very good Sermon . For besides that such a man is contemptible to his people ; contemptible , not only naturally , but by Divine Judgment ( according to that of the Prophet , propter quod dedi vos contemptibiles omni populo ; for this very reason I have made you to be scorned in the eyes of all the people ) but besides this , it is very considerable what S. Chrysostom says ; si praedicas & non facis , opus proponis tanquam impossibile ; he that preaches mortification and lives voluptuously , propounds the duty as if it were impossible : for certainly if it be good , and if it be possible , a man will ask , why is it not done ? it is easie for him that is well to give a sick man counsel ; verùm tu si hic esses , certè aliter sentires , when it comes to be his own case , when the sickness pinches , and when the belly calls for meat , where 's the fine oration then ? omnia quae vindicâris in alio , tibi ipsi vehementer fugienda sunt : etenim non modo accusator , sed ne objurgator ferendus est qui , quod in alio vitium reprehendit , in eo ipso deprehenditur ; whatsoever you reprove in others must be infinitely avoided by your self ; for no man will endure an Accuser , no nor so much as a man to chide for that fault in which himself was taken . But if your charges see you bear your sickness patiently , and your Cross nobly , and despise money generously , and forgive your Enemy bravely , and relieve the poor charitably ; then he sees your Doctrine is tangible and material , it is more then words , and he loves you , and considers what you say . In the East the Shepherds used to go before their sheep , to which our Blessed Saviour alludes , my sheep hear my voice and follow me ; but our Shepherds are forced to drive them , and affright them with dogs and noises ; it were better if themselves did go before . 3. A Minister of an evil life cannot preach with that fervour and efficacy , with that life & spirit as a good man does ; for besides that he does not himself understand the secrets of Religion , and the private inducements of the Spirit , and the sweetness of internal joy , and the unexpressible advantages of a holy peace ; besides this , he cannot heartily speak all that he knows ; he hath a clog at his foot , and a gag in his teeth , there is a fear and there is a shame , and there is a guilt and a secret willingness that the thing were not true ; and some little private arts to lessen his own consent , and to take off the asperities and consequent troubles of a clear conviction . To which if we add , that there is a secret envy in all wicked men against the prosperities of goodness ; and if I should say no more , this alone were enough to silence a Boanerges , and to make his Thunder still and easie as an Oaten pipe : nonne id flagitium est , te aliis consilium dare , foris sapere , tibi non posse auxiliari ? That 's a burning shame and an intolerable wickedness , that a Minister shall be like Marcotis , or the Statue of Mercury , shew the way to others , and himself stand still like a painted block ; to be wise abroad , and a very fool in his own concerns , and unable to do himself good . Dicit Reslakis , ornate ipsum , posteae ornato alios ; first trim thy self , and then adorn thy Brother , said the Rabbins : but certain it is , he that cannot love to see others better than himself , it cannot be that he should heartily endeavour it . Scilicet expectes ut tradat mater honestos Atque alios mores quam quos habet ? utile porro Filiolam turpi vetulae producere turpem . It is not to be expected that a diseased Father should beget wholsome Children : like will come from like , whether the principle be good or evil . But secondly ; For this is but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , this is but the least evil , there is yet much worse behind : A wicked Minister cannot with success and benefit pray for the people of his Charges ; and this is a great matter , for Prayer is the Key of David ; and God values it at so high a rate , that Christ is made the Prince of all Intercession , and God hath appointed Angels to convey to his Throne of Grace the Prayers of the Saints ; and he hath made Prophets and Priests , even the whole Clergy , the peculiar Ministers of Prayer ; Orabit pro eo Sacerdos , the Priest shall pray for him , the Priest shall make an attonement for his sin , and it shall be forgiven him . And Gods anger is no where more fiercely described , than when things come to that pass , that he will not hear the Priest or Prophet praying for the people ; g. pray not thou for this people , neither lift up Prayer nor cry for them , neither make intercession to me ; for behold mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place : when the Prayers of the gracious and acceptable persons , the presidents of prayer are forbidden , then things are desperate ; it is a greater Excommunication : the man sins a sin unto death ; and I say not that thou pray for him that sins unto death . This I say is the Priests Office , and if the people lose the benefit of this they are undone : to Bishop Timothy , S. Paul gave it in charge , That Supplications , and Prayers , and Intercessions be made for all men ; and S. James advised the sick to send for the Elders of the Church ( the Bishops and Priests ) and let them pray over them ; and then , their sins shall be forgiven them : but how ? that is supposed , the Minister prays fervently , and be a righteous man ; for the effectual fervent Prayer of a righteous man availeth much , it is promised on no other terms : Qualis vir talis oratio , is an old rule ; as is the man , such is his Prayer . The Prayer of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord , said Solomon ; he cannot prevail for himself , much less for others . I remember that Bias being once in a storm , and a company of Villains in the Ship being affrighted , called upon their Gods for help : Cavete ( said he ) ne vos Dii interesse sentiunt , take heed lest the Gods perceive you to be here , lest we all perish for your sakes ; and upon surer grounds it was that David said , If I regard iniquity in my heart , the Lord will not hear my Prayer . And what then do you think will be the event of those Assemblies , where he that presents the prayers of all the people is hateful to God ? Will God receive the oblation that is presented to him by an impure hand ? The Levitical Priests were commanded to wash before they sacrificed ; and every man is commanded to repent before he prays ; My Son hast thou sinned , do so no more , [ and then ] ask pardon for thy former fault ; and can we hope that the Minister , who with wrath and doubting , and covetousness presents the peoples prayers , that ever those intercessions shall pierce the clouds and ascend to the Mercy-Seat , and descend with a blessing ? Believe it not ; a man that is ungracious in his life , can never be gracious in his Office , and acceptable to God : we are abundantly taught this by those excellent words of God by the Prophet Micah ; The Heads of Sion judge for reward , and the Priests thereof teach for hire , and the Prophets thereof divine for money ; yet will they lean upon the Lord , and say , is not the Lord among us ? As if God had said , nothing is so presumptuous and unreasonable as to lean upon God , and think he will be among us when the Priests and the Prophets are covetous and wicked : No , he declares it expresly , v. 7. Then shall the Seers be ashamed , and the Divines confounded , yea they shall all cover their lips ; for there is no answer of God ; God will not answer : For sometimes the case is so , that though Noah , Daniel , and Job were there , God would not hear ; that is , when the people are incorrigibly wicked , and the decree is irrevocably gone out for judgment : But there are other times in which the prayers of innocent people being presented by an ungracious Minister and Intercessor , are very much hindred in prevailing . In such cases , God is put to Extraordinaries , and Christ and Christs Angels are then the suppletories , and at the best , the peoples prayers go alone , they want the assistance of the Angel of the Church , and they get no help or furtherance from him , and probably very much hindrance : according to that of S. Greg. Cum is qui displicet ad intercedendum mittitur , irati animus ad deteriora provocatur : Alexander hated to see Zercon , and g. if he had interceded for Clytus , it would but have hastened his death : a mans suit thrives the worse for having a hated Intercessor . If g. he that robs a Church of a Patin , or a Chalice , be a sacrilegious person , what is he that steals from the Church of God ( so far as lies in him ) the fruit of all their holy Prayers ; that corrupts the Sacrifice , and puts Colliquintida into the Cups of Salvation , and mingles death in the pottage provided for the Children and Disciples of the Prophets ? I can say no more , but to expostulate with them in those upbraiding words of God in the Prophet ; Do they provoke me to anger saith the Lord ? do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces ? Confundentur Divini , & operient vultus suos omnes ; all such Divines shall be confounded , and shall cover their faces in the day of sad accounts . Divini sunt non Theologi , they are Diviners and not Divines ; Witches rather than Prophets : they are the Sons of Bosor , and have no Portion in the Oeconomy of God : In short , if so much holiness as I formerly described , be required of him that is appointed to preach to others , to offer spiritual sacrifices for the People , to bless the People , to divert Judgments from them , to deprecate the wrath of God , to make an attonement for them , and to reconcile them to the eternal mercy ; certain it is , that though the Sermons of a wicked Minister may do some good , not so much as they ought , but some they can : but the Prayer of a wicked Minister does no good at all ; it provokes God to anger , it is an abomination in his righteous eyes . Thirdly , The Ecclesiastical Order is by Christ appointed to minister his holy Spirit to the People ; The Priests in Baptism , and the holy Eucharist , and Prayer , and Intercession ; The Bishop in all these , and in Ordination besides , and in Confirmation , and in Solemn Blessing : Now then consider what will be the event of this without effect : Can he minister the Spirit from whom the Spirit of God is departed ? And g. since all wickedness does grieve the Spirit of God , and great wickedness defiles his Temples , and destroys them unto the ground , and extinguishes the Spirit that drives iniquity away ; these persons are no longer spiritual men ; they are carnal , and sold under sin , and walk not in the Spirit ; they are spiritual just as Simon Magus was a Christian , or as Judas was an Apostle ; he had the name of it ; but what says the Scripture ? he fell from it by transgression ; only this , as he that is Baptized has for ever a title to the Promises , and a possibility of Repentance , and a right to Restitution , until he renounces all , and never will or can repent ; so there is in all our holy Orders an indelible character , and they can by a new life be restored to all their powers ; but in the mean time while they abide in sin and carnality , the cloud is over the face of the Sun , and the Spirit of God appears not in a fiery tongue , that is not in material and active demonstrations ; and how far he will be ministred by the Offices of an unworthy man , we know not , only by all that is said in Scripture we are made to fear , that things will not be so well with the people , till the Minister be better ; only this we are sure of , that though one man may be much the worse for another mans sin , yet without his own fault no man shall perish ; and God will do his work alone ; and the Spirit of God , though he be ordinarily conveyed by Ecclesiastical Ministries , yet he also comes irregularly , and in ways of his own , and prevents the external Rites , and prepossesses the hearts of his Servants ; and the people also have so much portion in the Evangelical Ministration , that if they be holy , they shall receive the holy Ghost in their hearts , and will express him in their lives , and themselves also become Kings and Priests unto God , while they are zealous of good works . And to this purpose may the proverb of the Rabbins be rightly understood , Major est qui respondit Amen , quam qui benedicit ; He that sayes Amen is greater than he that blesses or prays ; meaning , if he heartily desires what the other perfunctorily and with his lips only utters , not praying with his heart , and with the acceptabilities of a good life , the Amen shall be more than all the Prayer , and the People shall prevail for themselves , when the Priest could not ; according to the saying of Midrasich Tehillim , Quicunque dicit Amen omnibus viribus suis , ei aperiuntur portae paradisi , sicut dictum est , & ingredietur gens justa ; He that says Amen with his whole power , to him the gates of Paradise shall be open , according to that which is said , And the righteous Nation shall enter in . ] And this is excellently discoursed of by S. Austin , Sacramentum gratiae dat etiam Deus per malos , ipsam vero gratim non nisi per seipsum , vel per sanctos suos ; and g. he gives remission of sins by himself , or by the members of the Dove ; so that good Men shall be supplied by God. But as this is an infinite comfort to the people , so it is an intolerable shame to all wicked Ministers ; the benefit which God intended to minister by them , the people shall have without their help , and whether they will or no ; but because the people get nothing by their ministration , or but very little , the Ministers shall never have their portion where the good people shall inhabit to eternal Ages : And I beseech you to consider what an infinite confusion that will be at the day of Judgment , when they to whom you have preach'd Righteousness shall enter into everlasting glory , and you who have preached it shall have the curse of Hanameel , and the reward of Balaam ; the wages of unrighteousness . But thus it was when the Wise men asked the Doctors where Christ should be born , they told them right ; but the Wise men went to Christ and found him , and the Doctors sate still and went not . Fourthly , Consider , That every sin which is committed by a Minister of Religion is more than one , and it is as soon espied too ; for more men look upon the Sun in an Eclipse than when he is in his beauty : but every spot I say is greater , every mote is a beam ; it is not only made so , but it is so ; it hath not the excuses of the people , is not pitiable by the measures of their infirmity : and g. 1. It is reckoned in the accounts of malice , never of ignorance : for ignorance it self in them is always a double sin ; and g. it is very remarkable , that when God gave command to the Levitical Priests to make attonement for the sins of ignorance in the people , there is no mention made of the Priests sin of ignorance ; God supposed no such thing in them , and Moses did not mention it , and there was no provision made in that case , as you may see at large in Levit. 4. and Numb . 15. But 2. because every Priest is a man also , observe how his sin is described , Levit. 4. 3. If the Priest that is anointed do sin according to the sin of the People ; that is , if he be so degenerate , and descend from the glory where God hath placed him , and do sin after the manner of the people , then he is to proceed to remedy : intimating that it is infinitely besides expectation ; it is a strange thing , it is like a monstrous production , it is unnatural that a Priest should sin according as the People do ; however , if he does , it is not connived at which a sentence gentle , as that finds which is a sin of ignorance , or the sin of the people : no , it is not ; for it is always malice , it is always uncharitableness , for it brings mischief to their Congregations , and contracts their blessings into little circuits , and turns their bread into a stone , and their Wine to Vinegar : And then besides this , 3. It is also scandalous , and then it is infinitely against Charity ; such Ministers make the people of God to sin , and that 's against the nature of their Office and design of their persons : God sent them to bring the people from sin , and not to be like so many Jeroboams , the Sons of Nebat , to set forward the Devils Kingdom , to make the people to transgress the Covenant of their God : For they who live more by example than by precept , will more easily follow the works of their Minister than the words of God ; and few men will aspire to be more righteous than their guide ; they think it well if they be as he is : and hence it is no wonder that we see iniquity so popular . Oppida tota canem venerantur , nemo Dianam ; every man runs after his lusts and after his money , because they see too many of the Clergy little looking after the ways of godliness . But then consider , let all such persons consider , 5. That the accounts which an ungodly and an irreligious Minister of Religion shall make , must needs be intolerable ; when besides the damnation which shall certainly be inflicted upon them for the sins of their own lives , they shall also reckon for all the dishonours they do to God , and to Religion , and for all the sins of the people , which they did not in all just ways endeavour to hinder , and all the sins which their Flocks have committed by their evil example and undisciplin'd lives . 6. I have but two words more to say in this affair : 1. Every Minister that lives an evil life , is that person whom our Blessed Saviour means under the odious appellative of a Hireling : For he is not the hireling that receives wages , or that lives of the Altar ; sine farinâ non est lex , said the DD. of the Jews ; without bread-corn no man can preach the Law ; and S. Paul though he spared the Corinthians , yet he took wages of other Churches , of all , but in the Regions of Achaia ; and the Law of Nature and the Law of the Gospel have taken care , that he that serves at the Altar should live of the Altar , and he is no hireling for all that ; but he is a hireling that does not do his duty ; he that flies when the Wolf comes , says Christ , he that is not present with them in dangers , that helps them not to resist the Devil , to master their temptations , to invite them on to piety , to gain souls to Christ ; to him it may be said as the Apostle did of the Gnosticks , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Gain to them is godliness ; and Theology is but artificium venale , a trade of life , to fill the belly and keep the body warm . An cuiquam licere putas , quod cuivis non licet ? Is any thing lawful for thee that is not lawful for every man ; and if thou dost not mind in thy own case whether it be lawful or no , then thou dost but sell Sermons , and give Counsel at a price , and like a flye in the Temple , taste of every Sacrifice , but do nothing but trouble the religious Rites : for certain it is , no man takes on him this Office , but he either seeks those things which are his own , or those things which are Jesus Christs ; and if he does this , he is a Minister of Jesus Christ ; if he does the other , he is the hireling , and intends nothing but his belly , and God shall destroy both it and him . 7. Lastly : These things I have said unto you that ye sin not ; but this is not the great thing here intended ; you may be innocent and yet not zealous of good works ; but if you be not this , you are not Good Ministers of Jesus Christ : But that this is infinitely your duty , and indispensably incumbent on you all , besides the express words of my Text , and all the precepts of Christ and his Apostles , we have the concurrent sence of the whole Church , the Laws and expectations of all the world , requiring of the Clergy a great and an examplar sanctity : for g. it is , that upon this necessity is founded the Doctrine of all Divines in their Discourses of the states and orders of Religion ; of which you may largely inform your selves in Gerson's Treatise De perfectione Religionis , in Aquinas 22. q. 184. and in all his Scholars upon that Question ; the sum of which is this , That all those institutions of Religions , which S. Anselm calls factitias Religiones , that is , the Schools of Discipline in which men forsaking the world give themselves up wholly to a pious life , they are indeed very excellent if rightly performed ; they are status perfectionis acquirendae , they are excellent institutions for the acquiring perfection ; but the state of the superior Clergy is status perfectionis exercendae , they are states which suppose perfection to be already in great measures acquired , and then to be exercised , not only in their own lives , but in the whole Oeconomy of their Office : and g. as none are to be chosen but those who have given themselves up to the strictness of a holy life ( so far as can be known ; ) so none do their duty , so much as tolerably , but those who by an exemplar sanctity become patterns to their Flocks of all good works . Herod's Doves could never have invited so many strangers to their Dove-cotes , if they had not been besmeared with Opobalsamum : But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Didymus , make your Pigeons smell sweet and they will allure whole Flocks ; and if your life be excellent , if your virtues be like a precious oyntment , you will soon invite your Charges to run in odorem unguentorum , after your precious odours : But you must be excellent , not tanquam unus de populo , but tanquam homo Dei , you must be a man of God , not after the common manner of men , but after Gods own heart ; and men will strive to be like you , if you be like to God : but when you only stand at the door of virtue , for nothing but to keep sin out , you will draw into the folds of Christ none but such as fear drives in . Ad majorem Dei gloriam , to do what will most glorifie God , that 's the line you must walk by : for to do no more than all men needs must , is servility , not so much as the affection of Sons ; much less can you be Fathers to the people , when you go not so far as the Sons of God : for a dark Lanthorn , though there be a weak brightness on one side , will scarce inlighten one , much less will it conduct a multitude , or allure many followers by the brightness of its flame . And indeed the Duty appears in this , that many things are lawful for the people which are scandalous in the Clergy ; you are tied to more abstinences , to more severities , to more renunciations and self-denials , you may not with that freedom receive secular contentments that others may ; you must spend more time in Prayers , your Alms must be more bountiful , your hands more open , your hearts enlarged ; others must relieve the poor , you must take care of them ; others must shew themselves their brethren , but you must be their Fathers : they must pray frequently and fervently , but you must give your selves up wholly to the Word of God and Prayer ; they must watch and pray that they fall not into temptation , but you must watch for your selves and others too ; the people must mourn when they sin , but you must mourn for your own infirmities , and for the sins of others ; and indeed , if the life of a Clergy-man does not exceed even the piety of the People , that life is in some measure scandalous : and what shame was ever greater than is described in the Parable of the Traveller going from Jerusalem to Jericho , when to the eternal dishonour of the Levite and the Priest , it is told that they went aside , and saw him with a wry neck and a bended head , but let him alone and left him to be cured by the good Samaritane ? The Primitive Church in her Discipline used to thrust their delinquent Clergy in laicam communionem , even then when their faults were but small , and of less reproach than to deserve greater censures ; yet they lessened them by thrusting them into the Lay Communion , as most fit for such Ministers who refused to live at the height of Sacerdotal piety . Remember your dignity to which Christ hath called you : shall such a man as I flee , said the brave Eleazar ? shall the Stars be darkness , shall the Embassadors of Christ neglect to do their King honour , shall the glory of Christ do dishonourable and inglorious actions ? Ye are the glory of Christ , saith S. Paul ; remember that , I can say no greater thing ; unless possibly this may add some moments for your care and caution , that potents potenter cruciabuntur , great men shall be greatly tormented if they sin ; and to fall from a great height is an intolerable ruine . Severe were the words of our Blessed Saviour , Ye are the Salt of the earth ; if the Salt have lost his savour , it is thenceforth good for nothing , neither for Land , nor yet for the Dunghil : a greater dishonour could not be expressed ; he that takes such a one up will shake his fingers . I end this with the saying of S. Austin , Let your religious prudence think that in the world , especially at this time , nothing is more laborious , more difficult , or more dangerous than the Office of a Bishop or a Priest , or a Deacon : Sed apud Deum nihil beatius , si eo modo militetur quo noster Imperator jubet : but nothing is more blessed if we do our duty according to the Commandment of our Lord. I have already discoursed of the integrity of life , and what great necessity there is , and how deep obligations lie upon you , not only to be innocent and void of offence , but also to be holy ; not only pure , but shining ; not only to be blameless , but to be didactick in your lives ; that as by your Sermons you preach in season , so by your lives you may preach out of season ; that is , at all seasons , and to all men , that they seeing your good works may glorifie God on your behalf , and on their own . THE Ministers Duty IN LIFE & DOCTRINE . SERM. X. The second Sermon on Titus 2. 7. In Doctrine shewing uncorruptness , gravity , sincerity , &c. NOW by the order of the words and my own undertaking , I am to tell you what are the Rules and Measures of your Doctrine which you are to teach the people . 1. Be sure that you teach nothing to the people , but what is certainly to be found in Scripture : Servemus eas mensuras quas nobis per Legislatorem Lex spiritualis enunciat ; the whole spiritual Law given us by our Law-giver , that must be our measures ; for though by perswasion and by faith , by mis-perswasion and by error , by false Commentaries and mistaken glosses , every man may become a Law unto himself , and unhappily bind upon his Conscience burdens which Christ never imposed ; yet you must bind nothing upon your Charges , but what God hath bound upon you ; you cannot become a Law unto them , that 's the only priviledge of the Law-giver , who , because he was an interpreter of the Divine Will , might become a Law unto us , and because he was faithful in all the house , did tell us all his Fathers Will ; and g. nothing can be Gods Law to us but what he hath taught us . But of this I shall need to say no more but the words of Tertullian ; Nobis nihil licet ex nostro arbitrio indulgere , sed nec eligere aliquid quod de suo arbitrio aliquis induxerit : Apostolos Domini habemus Authores , qui nec ipsi quicquam de suo arbitrio quod inducerent elegerunt , sed acceptam à Christo disciplinam fideliter nationibus assignarunt . Whatsoever is not in and taken from the Scriptures , is from a private spirit , and that is against Scripture certainly ; for no Scripture is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith S. Peter , it is not , it cannot be of private interpretation ; that is , unless it come from the Spirit of God , which is that Spirit that mov'd upon the waters of the new Creation as well as of the old , and was promised to all , to you and to your Children , and to as many as the Lord our God shall call , and is bestowed on all , and is the earnest of all our inheritance , and is given to every man to profit withall ; it cannot prove God to be the Author , nor be a light to us to walk by , or to show others the way to Heaven . This Rule were alone sufficient to guide us all in the whole Oeconomy of our Calling , if we were not weak and wilful , ignorant and abused : but the holy Scripture hath suffered so many interpretations , and various sounds and seemings , and we are so prepossess'd and predetermin'd to misconstruction by false Apostles without , and prevailing passions within , that though it be in it self sufficient , yet it is not so for us ; and we may say with the Eunuch , How can I understand unless some man should guide me ? and indeed in S. Paul's Epistles there are many things hard to be understood ; and in many other places we find that the well is deep , and unless there be some to help us to draw out the latent senses of it , our souls will not be filled with the waters of Salvation . Therefore that I may do you what assistances I can , and if I cannot in this small portion of time instruct you , yet that I may counsel you and remind you of the best assistances that are to be had ; if I cannot give you rules sufficient to expound all hard places , yet that I may shew how you shall sufficiently teach your people by the rare rules and precepts recorded in places that are or may be made easie , I shall first give you some advices in general , and then descend to more particular Rules and Measures . 1. Because it is not to be expected that every Minister of the Word of God should have all the gifts of the Spirit , and every one to abound in Tongues , and in Doctrines , and in Interpretations ; you may therefore make great use of the Labours of those worthy persons whom God hath made to be lights in the several Generations of the world , that a hand may help a hand , and a Father may teach a Brother , and we all be taught of God : for there are many who have by great skill , and great experience , taught us many good rules for the interpretation of Scripture ; amongst which those that I shall principally recommend to you , are the Books of S. Austin , De utilitate credendi , and his 3. lib. De Doctrina Christiana ; the Synopsis of Athanasius , the prooemes of Isidore , the Prologues of S. Hierom ; I might well adde the Scholia of Oecumenius , the Catenae of the Greek Fathers ; and of later times , the Ordinary and Interlineary glosses ; the excellent Book of Hugo de S. Victore , de eruditione didascaticâ ; Ars interpretandi Scripturas , by Sixtus Senensis : Serarius his Prolegomena ; Tena his Introduction to the Scriptures ; together with Laurentius è Villa-Vincentio , Andreas Hyperius de ratione studii Philosophici , and the Hypotiposes of Martinus Cantapratensis : Arias Montanus his Joseph , or de Arcano Sermone , is of another nature , and more fit for Preachers , and so is Sanctes Paguine his Isagoge ; but Ambrosius Catharinus his Book duarum clavium ad sacram scripturam , is useful to many good purposes : But more particularly , and I think more usefully , are those seven Rules of interpreting Scriptures written by Tichonius , and first made famous by S. Austin's commendation of them , and inserted into the 5th tome of the Biblioth . ss . pp. Sebastian Perez wrote 35 Rules for the interpretation of Scripture : Franciscus Ruiz drew from the ancient Fathers 234 Rules : besides those many learned Persons who have writ Vocabularies , Tropologies , and Expositions of Words and Phrases ; such as are Flacius Illyricus , Junius , Hierome Lauretus , and many others , not infrequent in all publick Libraries . But I remember , that he that gives advice to a sick man in Ireland to cure his sickness , must tell him of medicaments that are facilè parabilia , easie to be had , and cheap to be bought , or else his counsel will not profit him ; and even of these God hath made good provision for us ; for although many precious things are reserv'd for them that dig deep and search wisely , yet there are medicinal Plants , and Corn and Grass , things fit for Food and Physick to be had in every field . And so it is in the Interpretation of Scripture ; there are ways of doing it well and wisely without the too laborious methods of weary Learning , that even the meanest Labourers in Gods Vineyard may have that which is fit to minister to him that needs . g. 2. In all the Interpretations of Scripture the literal sense is to be presum'd and chosen , unless there be evident cause to the contrary . The reasons are plain ; because the literal sense is natural , and it is first , and it is most agreeable to some things in their whole kind ; not indeed to Prophesies , nor to the Teachings of the Learned , nor those Cryptick ways of institution by which the Ancients did hide a light , and keep it in a dark lanthorn from the temeration of ruder handlings and popular Preachers : but the literal sense is agreeable to Laws , to the publication of Commands , to the revelation of the Divine Will , to the Concerns of the Vulgar , to the foundations of Faith , and to all the notice of things , in which the Idiot is as much concern'd as the greatest Clerks . From which Proposition these three Corollaries will properly follow ; 1. That God hath plainly and literally describ'd all his Will both in belief and practice , in which our essential duty , the duty of all men is concern'd . 2. That in plain expressions we are to look for our duty , and not in the more secret places and darker corners of the Scripture . 3. That you may regularly , certainly and easily do your duty to the people , if you read and literally expound the plain sayings , and easily expressed Commandments , and Promises and Threatnings of the Gospel , and the Psalms and the Prophets . 3. But then remember this also ; That not only the Grammatical or prime signification of the word is the literal sense ; but whatsoever is the prime intention of the speaker , that is the literal sense ; though the word be to be taken metaphorically , or by translation signifie more things than one . The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous ; this is literally true ; and yet it is as true , that God hath no eyes properly : but by [ eyes ] are meant , Gods providence ; and though this be not the first literal sense of the word [ eyes ] it is not that which was at first impos'd and contingently ; but it is that signification which was secondarily impos'd , and by reason and proportion . Thus when we say God cares for the righteous , it will not suppose that God can have any anxiety or afflictive thoughts ; but [ he cares ] does as truly and properly signifie provision , as caution ; beneficence , as fear ; and g. the literal sense of it is , that God provides good things for the righteous . For in this case the rule of Abulensis is very true ; Sensus literalis semper est verus , the literal sense is always true ; that is , all that is true which the Spirit of God intended to signifie by the words ; whether he intended the first or second signification ; whether that of voluntary and contingent , or that of analogical and rational institution . Other Sheep have I , said Christ , which are not of this fold : that he did not mean this of the pecus lanigerum is notorious ; but of the Gentiles to be gathered into the priviledges and fold of Israel : For in many cases the first literal sense is the hardest , and sometimes impossible , and sometimes inconvenient ; and when it is any of these , although we are not to recede from the literal sense ; yet we are to take the second signification , the tropological or figurative . If thy right eye offend thee pluck it out , said Christ : and yet no man digs his eyes out ; because the very letter or intention of this Command bids us only to throw away that , which if we keep , we cannot avoid sin : for sometimes the letter tells the intention , and sometimes the intention declares the letter ; and that is properly the literal sense which is the first meaning of the Command in the whole complexion : and in this , common sense , and a vulgar reason will be a sufficient guide , because there is always some other thing spoken by God , or some principle naturally implanted in us , by which we are secur'd in the understanding of the Divine Command . He that does not hate Father and Mother for my sake , is not worthy of me : the literal sense of hating us'd in Scripture is not always malice , but sometimes a less loving ; and so Christ also hath expounded it : He that loves Father or Mother more than me , is not worthy of me . But I shall not insist longer on this ; he that understands nothing but his Grammar , and hath not convers'd with men and books , and can see no farther then his fingers ends , and makes no use of his reason , but for ever will be a child ; he may be deceiv'd in the literal sense of Scripture ; but then he is not fit to teach others : but he that knows words signifie Rhetorically as well as Grammatically , and have various proper significations , and which of these is the first is not always of it self easie to be told ; and remembers also that God hath given him reason , and observation , and experience , and conversation with wise men , and the proportion of things , and the end of the Command , and parallel places of Scripture in other words to the same purpose ; will conclude , that since in plain places all the duty of man is contain'd , and that the literal sense is always true , and ( unless men be wilful or infortunate ) they may with a small proportion of Learning find out the literal sense of an easie Moral Proposition : will I say conclude , that if we be deceiv'd , the fault is our own ; but the fault is so great , the man so supine , the negligence so inexcusable , that the very consideration of humane infirmity is not sufficient to excuse such Teachers of others , who hallucinate or praevaricate in this . The Anthropomorphites fell foully in this matter , and supposed God to have a face , and arms , and passions as we have ; but they prevail'd not : And Origen was in one instance greatly mistaken , and thinking there was no literal meaning but the prime signification of the word , understood the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to make an Eunuch , to his own prejudice ; but that passed not into a doctrine : But the Church of Rome hath err'd greatly in pertinacious adhering , not to the Letter , but to the Grammar ; nor to that but in one line or signification of it : and Hoc est corpus meum must signifie nothing but Grammatically ; and though it be not by their own confessions to be understood without divers figures in the whole complexion , yet peevishly and perversly they will take it by the wrong handle ; and this they have pass'd into a doctrine that is against sense and reason , and experience , and Scripture and Tradition , and the common interpretation of things , and publick peace and utility , and every thing by which mankind ought to be govern'd and determin'd . 4. I am to adde this one thing more ; That we admit in the interpretation of Scripture but one literal sense ; I say , but one prime literal sense ; for the simplicity and purity of the Spirit , and the philanthropy of God will not admit that there should in one single Proposition be many intricate meanings , or that his sense should not certainly be understood , or that the people be abus'd by aequivocal and doubtful senses ; this was the way of Jupiter in the sands , and Apollo Pythius , and the Devils oracles : but be it far from the wisdom of the Spirit of God. 5. But then take in this Caution to it ; That although there be but one principal literal sense , yet others that are subordinate may be intended subordinately ; and others that are true by proportion , or that first intention , may be true for many reasons , and every reason applicable to a special instance ; and all these may be intended as they signifie , that is , one only by prime design , and the other by collateral consequence . Thus when it is said , Thou art my Son , this day have I begotten thee ; the Psalmist means it of the eternal generation of Christ ; others seem to apply it to his birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary ; and S. Paul expounds it Hebr. 1. of the Resurrection of Christ : This is all true ; and yet but one literal sense primely meant ; but by proportion to the first the others have their place , and are meant by way of similitude . Thus we are the Sons of God , by adoption , by creation , by favour , by participation of the Spirit , by the laver of regeneration ; and every man for one or other of these reasons can say Our Father which art in heaven ; and these are all , parts of the literal sense , not different , but subordinate and by participation : but more than one prime literal sense must not be admitted . 6. Lastly ; Sometimes the literal sense is lost by a plain change of the words ; which when it is discover'd , it must be corrected by the fountain ; and till it be , so long as it is pious , and commonly receiv'd , it may be us'd without scruple . In the 41. Psalm the Hebrews read , My soul hath longed after the strong , the living God ; Deum fortem , vivum : In the vulgar Latine , it is Deum fontem vivum , the living fountain ; and it was very well , but not the literal sense of Gods Spirit : But when they have been so often warned of it , that they were still in love with their own letter and leave the words of the Spirit , I think was not justifiable at all : And this was observ'd at last by Sixtus and Clement , and corrected in their Editions of the Bible , and then it came right again . The sum is this ; he that with this moderation and these measures construes the plain meaning of the Spirit of God , and expounds the Articles of Faith , and the Precepts of Life according to the intention of God signified by his own words , in their first or second signification , cannot easily be cousen'd into any Heretical Doctrine ; but his Doctrine will be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the pure word and mind of God. 2. There is another sense or interpretation of Scripture , and that is mystical or spiritual ; which the Jews call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Midrash ; which Elias the Levite calls omne commentarium quod non est juxta simplicem & literalem sensum , every gloss that is not according to their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Peschat , to the literal sense ; and this relates principally to the Old Testament : Thus the waters of the Deluge did signifie the waters of Baptism ; Sarah and Agar , the Law and the Gospel ; the brazen Serpent , the Passion of Christ ; the conjunction of Adam and Eve , the communion of Christ and his Church ; and this is called the spiritual sense , S. Paul being our warrant ; Our Fathers eat of the same spiritual meat , and drank of that same spiritual rock ; now that rock was not spiritual , but of solid stone ; but it signified spiritually ; for that rock was Christ. This sense the Doctors divide into Tropological , Allegorical , and Anagogical ; for methods sake , and either to distinguish the things , or to amuse the persons : for these relate but to the several spiritual things signified by divers places ; as matters of faith , precepts of manners , and celestial joys : you may make more if you please , and yet these are too many to trouble mens heads , and to make Theology an art and craft to no purpose . This spiritual sense is that which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or the sense that lies under the cover of words : Concerning this I shall give you these short Rules , that your Doctrine be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , pure and without heretical mixtures , and the leaven of false Doctrines ; for above all things this is to be taken care of . 1. Although every place of Scripture hath a literal sense , either proper or figurative , yet every one hath not a spiritual and mystical interpretation ; and g. Origen was blam'd by the Ancients for forming all into spirit and mystery ; one place was reserv'd to punish that folly . Thus the followers of the Family of love and the Quakers expound all the Articles of our Faith , all the hopes of a Christian , all the stories of Christ into such a clancular and retir'd sense , as if they had no meaning by the letter , but were only an Hieroglyphick or a Phythagorean Scheme ; and not to be opened but by a private key , which every man pretends to be borrowed from the Spirit of God , though made in the forges here below : To which purposes the Epistles of S. Hierom to Avitus , to Pammachius and Oceanus are worth your reading . In this case men do as he said of Origen , Ingenii sui acumina putant esse Ecclesiae Sacramenta ; Every man believes God meant as he intended , and so he will obtrude his own dreams instead of Sacraments . g. 2. Whoever will draw spiritual senses from any History of the Old or New Testament , must first allow the literal sense , or else he will soon deny an Article of necessary belief . A story is never the less true , because it is intended to profit as well as to please ; and the narrative may well establish or insinuate a precept and instruct with pleasure ; but if because there is a Jewel in the golden Cabinet , you will throw away the inclosure , and deny the story that you may look out a mystical sense , we shall leave it arbitrary for any man to believe or disbelieve what story he please ; and Eve shall not be made of the rib of Adam , and the Garden of Eden shall be no more then the Hesperides , and the story of Jonas a well dress'd fable : and I have seen all the Revelation of S. John turn'd into a moral Commentary in which every person can signifie any proposition , or any virtue , according as his fancy chimes . This is too much , and therefore comes not from a good principle . 3. In Moral Precepts , in Rules of Polity and Oeconomy there is no other sense to be inquired after but what they bear upon the face ; for he that thinks it necessary to turn them into some further spiritual meaning , supposes that it is a disparagement to the Spirit of God to take care of Governments , or that the duties of Princes and Masters are no great Concerns , or not operative to eternal felicity , or that God does not provide for temporal advantages ; for if these things be worthy Concerns , and if God hath taken care of all our Good , and if godliness be profitable to all things , and hath the promise of the life that now is and that which is to come , there is no necessity to pass on to more abstruse senses , when the literal and proper hath also in it instrumentality enough towards very great spiritual purposes . God takes care for servants , yea for Oxen , and all the beasts of the field ; and the letter of the Command enjoyning us to use them with mercy , hath in it an advantage even upon the spirit and whole frame of a mans soul : and g. let no man tear those Scriptures to other meanings beyond their own intentions and provisions . In these cases , a spiritual sense is not to be inquired after . 4. If the letter of the story inferres any undecency or contradiction , then it is necessary that a spiritual or mystical sense be thought of ; but never else is it necessary . It may in other cases be useful , when it does advantage to holiness ; and may be safely us'd , if us'd modestly ; but because this spiritual or mystical interpretation when it is not necessary cannot be certainly prov'd , but relies upon fancy , or at most , some light inducement ; no such interpretation can be us'd as an argument to prove an Article of Faith , nor relied upon in matters of necessary Concern : The three measures of meal in the Gospel , are but an ill argument to prove the Blessed and Eternal Trinity ; and it may be the three Angels that came to Abraham will signifie no more than the two that came to Lot , or the single one to Manoah , or S. John ; this Divine Mystery relies upon a more sure foundation ; and he makes it unsure that causes it to lean upon an unexpounded vision that was sent to other purposes . Non esse contentiosis & infidelibus sensibus ingerendum , said S. Austin of the Book of Genesis : Searching for Articles of Faith in the by-paths and corners of secret places , leads not to faith but to infidelity , and by making the foundations unsure , causes the Articles to be questioned . I remember that Agricola in his Book de animalibus subterraneis tells of a certain kind of spirits that use to converse in Mines and trouble the poor Labourers : They dig mettals , they cleanse , they cast , they melt , they separate , they joyn the Ore ; but when they are gone , the men find just nothing done , not one step of their work set forward : So it is in the Books and Expositions of many men ; They study , they argue , they expound , they confute , they reprove , they open secrets , and make new discoveries ; and when you turn the bottom upwards , up starts nothing ; no man is the wiser , no man is instructed , no truth discover'd , no proposition clear'd , nothing is alter'd , but that much labour and much time is lost ; and this is manifest in nothing more than in Books of Contrversie , and in mystical Expositions of Scripture : Quaerunt quod nusquam est , inveniunt tamen ; Like Isidore who in contemplation of a Pen observ'd that the nib of it was divided into two , but yet the whole body remain'd one : Credo propter mysterium ; he found a knack in it , and thought it was a mystery . Concerning which I shall need to say no more but that they are safe when they are necessary , and they are useful when they teach better ; and they are good when they do good : but this is so seldom and so by chance , that oftentimes if a man be taught truth , he is taught it by a lying Master ; it is like being cur'd by a good witch , an evil spirit hath an hand in it ; and if there be not errour and illusion in such interpretations , there is very seldom any certainty . What shall I do to my vineyard said God : Isai. 5. Auferam sepem ejus ; I will take away the hedge , that is , custodiam Angelorum saith the gloss , the custody of their Angel guardians : and Isai. 9. God says , Manasseh humeros suos comedit , Manasseh hath devour'd his own shoulders ; that is , gubernatores dimovit say the Doctors , hath remov'd his Governours , his Princes and his Priests ; it is a sad complaint 't is true ; but what it means is the Question : but although these senses are pious and may be us'd for illustration and the prettiness of discourse ; yet there is no further certainty in them than what the one fancies and the other is pleas'd to allow . But if the spiritual sense be prov'd , evident and certain then it is of the same efficacy as the literal ; for it is according to that letter by which Gods Holy Spirit was pleas'd to signifie his meaning ; and it matters not how he is pleas'd to speak , so we understand his meaning : and in this sense that is true which is affirm'd by S. Gregory ; Allegoriam interdum aedificare fidem ; sometimes our faith is built up by the mystical words of the Spirit of God. But because it seldom happens that they can be prov'd , g. you are not to feed your flocks with such herbs whose virtue you know not , of whose wholesomness or powers of nourishing you are wholly or for the most part ignorant : we have seen and felt the mischief , and sometimes derided the absurdity : God created the Sun and the Moon , said Moses ; that is , said the extravagants of Pope Boniface the 8th , the Pope and the Emperour : And Behold here are two swords said S. Peter : It is enough said Christ ; enough for S. Peter ; and so he got the two swords , the temporal and spiritual , said the gloss upon that Text. Of these things there is no beginning , and no end ; no certain principles , and no good conclusion . These are the two ways of expounding all Scriptures ; these are as the two witnesses of God , by the first of which he does most commonly , and by the latter of which he does sometimes declare his meaning ; and in the discovery of these meanings , the Measures which I have now given you are the general land-marks , and are sufficient to guide us from destructive errours . It follows in the next place , that I give you some Rules that are more particular according to my undertaking , that you in your duty , and your charges in the provisions to be made for them may be more secure . 1. Although you are to teach your people nothing but what is the Word of God ; yet by this Word I understand all that God spake expresly , and all that by certain consequence can be deduced from it . Thus Dionysius Alexandrinus argues , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; he that in Scripture is called the Son and the Word of the Father , I conclude he is no stranger to the essence of the Father : And S. Ambrose derided them that called for express Scripture for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , since the Prophets and the Gospels acknowledge the unity of substance in the Father and the Son ; and we easily conclude the Holy Ghost to be God , because we call upon him ; and we call upon him , because we believe in him ; and we believe in him , because we are baptized into the faith and profession of the Holy Ghost . This way of teaching our Blessed Saviour us'd when he confuted the Sadduces in the Question of the Resurrection ; and thus he confuted the Pharisees in the Question of his being the Son of God. The use I make of it is this , that right reason is so far from being an exile from the inquiries of Religion , that it is the great ensurance of many propositions of faith ; and we have seen the faith of men strangely alter , but the reason of man can never alter ; every rational truth supposing its principles , being eternal and unchangeable . All that is to be done here , is to see that you argue well , that your deduction be evident , that your reason be right : for Scripture is to our understandings as the grace of God to our wills ; that instructs our reason , and this helps our wills ; and we may as well chuse the things of God without our wills , and delight in them without love , as understand the Scriptures or make use of them without reason . Quest. But how shall our reason be guided , that it may be right , that it be not a blind guide , but direct us to the place where the star appears , and point us to the very house where the babe lieth ; that we may indeed do as the wise men did ? To this I answer . 2. In the making deductions the first great measure to direct our reason and our inquiries is the analogy of faith : that is , let the fundamentals of faith be your Cynosura , your great light to walk by ; and whatever you derive from thence let it be agreeable to the principles from whence they come . It is the rule of S. Paul , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Let him that prophesies do it according to the proportion of faith ; that is , let him teach nothing but what is revealed , or agreeable to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the prime credibilities of Christianity ; that is , by the plain words of Scripture let him expound the less plain , and the superstructure by the measures of the foundation , and doctrines be answerable to faith , and speculations relating to practice , and nothing taught as simply necessary to be believed , but what is evidently and plainly set down in the holy Scriptures ; for he that calls a proposition necessary , which the Apostles did not declare to be so , or which they did not teach to all Christians learned and unlearned , he is gone beyond his proportions . For every thing is to be kept in that order where God hath plac'd it : there is a classis of necessary Articles , and that is the Apostles Creed , which Tertullian calls regulam fidei , the rule of faith ; and according to this we must teach necessities ; but what comes after this , is not so necessary ; and he that puts upon his own doctrines a weight equal to this of the Apostles declaration , either must have an Apostolical authority , and an Apostolical infallibility , or else he transgresses the proportion of faith , and becomes a false Apostle . 3. To this purpose it is necessary that you be very diligent in reading , laborious and assiduous in the studies of Scripture : not only lest ye be blind seers , and blind guides ; but because without great skill and learning ye cannot do your duty . A Minister may as well sin by his ignorance as by his negligence ; because when light springs from so many angles , that may enlighten us , unless we look round about us and be skill'd in all the angles of reflection , we shall but turn our backs upon the Sun , and see nothing but our own shadows . Search the Scriptures , said Christ ; Non dixit legite , sed scrutamini , said S. Chrysostome ; quia oportet profundius effodere , ut quae altè delitescunt invenire possimus . Christ did not say , read , but search the Scriptures ; turn over every page , inquire narrowly , look diligently , converse with them perpetually , be mighty in the Scriptures : for that which is plain there , is the best measures of our faith and of our doctrines . The Jews have a saying ; Qui non advertit quod supra & infra in Scriptoribus legitur , is pervertit verba Dei viventis : He that will understand Gods meaning , must look above and below , and round about ; for the meaning of the Spirit of God is not like the wind blowing from one point , but like light issuing from the body of the Sun ; it is light round about ; and in every word of God there is a treasure , and something will be found somewhere to answer every doubt , and to clear every obscurity , and to teach every truth by which God intends to perfect our understandings . But then , take this rule with you ; Do not pass from plainess to obscurity , nor from simple principles draw crafty conclusions , nor from easiness pass into difficulty , nor from wise notices draw intricate nothings , nor from the wisdom of God lead your hearers into the follies of men ; your principles are easie , and your way plain , and the words of faith are open , and what naturally flows from thence will be as open ; but if without violence and distortion it cannot be drawn forth , the proposition is not of the family of faith . Qui nimis emungit , elicit sanguinem ; he that wrings too hard , draws blood ; and nothing is fit to be offer'd to your charges and your flocks but what flows naturally and comes easily , and descends readily and willingly from the fountains of salvation . 4. Next to this analogy or proportion of faith , let the consent of the Catholick Church be your measure , so as by no means to prevaricate in any doctrine in which all Christians always have consented . This will appear to be a necessary Rule by and by ; but in the mean time , I shall observe to you , that it will be the safer because it cannot go far ; it can be instanced but in three things , in the Creed , in Ecclesiastical Government , and in external forms of worship and Liturgy . The Catholick Church hath been too much and too soon divided : it hath been us'd as the man upon a hill us'd his heap of heads in a Basket ; when he threw them down the hill , every head run his own way , quot capita tot sentèntiae ; and as soon as the Spirit of Truth was opposed by the Spirit of Error , the Spirit of peace was disordered by the Spirit of division : and the Spirit of God hath over-power'd us so far , that we are only fallen out about that , of which if we had been ignorant we had not been much the worse ; but in things simply necessary , God hath preserved us still unbroken ; all Nations , and all Ages recite the Creed , and all pray the Lords Prayer , and all pretend to walk by the Rule of the Commandments ; and all Churches have ever kept the day of Christs Resurrection , or the Lords day holy ; and all Churches have been governed by Bishops , and the Rites of Christianity have been for ever administred by separate Orders of men , and those men have been always set apart by Prayer and the imposition of the Bishops hands ; and all Christians have been baptized , and all baptized persons were or ought to be , and were taught that they should be confirm'd by the Bishop , and Presidents of Religion ; and for ever there were publick forms of Prayer , more or less in all Churches ; and all Christians that were to enter into holy wedlock , were ever joined or blessed by the Bishop or the Priest : in these things all Christians ever have consented , and he that shall prophecy or expound Scripture to the prejudice of any of these things , hath no part in that Article of his Creed ; he does not believe the Holy Catholick Church , he hath no fellowship , no communion with the Saints and Servants of God. It is not here intended that the doctrine of the Church should be the Rule of Faith distinctly from , much less against the Scripture ; for that were a contradiction to suppose the Church of God , and yet speaking and acting against the will of God ; but it means , that where the question is concerning an obscure place of Scripture , the practice of the Catholick Church is the best Commentary . Intellectus qui cum praxi concurrit , est spiritus vivificans , said Cusanus . Then we speak according to the Spirit of God , when we understand Scripture in that sense in which the Church of God hath always practis'd it . Quod pluribus , quod sapientibus , quod omnibus videtur , that 's Aristotles Rule ; and it is a Rule of Nature ; every thing puts on a degree of probability as it is witnessed by wise men , by many wise men , by all wise men : and it is Vincentius Lirinensis great Rule of truth ; Quod ubique , quod semper , quod ab omnibus : and he that goes against what is said always , and every where , and by all Christians , had need have a new revelation , or an infallible spirit , or he hath an intolerable pride and foolishness of presumption . Out of the Communion of the Universal Church no man can be saved ; they are the body of Christ ; and the whole Church cannot perish , and Christ cannot be a head without a body , and he will for ever be our Redeemer , and for ever intercede for his Church , and be glorious in his Saints ; and g. he that does not sow in these furrows , but leaves the way of the whole Church , hath no pretence for his errour , no excuse for his pride , and will find no alleviation of his punishment . These are the best measures which God hath given us to lead us in the way of truth , and to preserve us from false doctrines ; and whatsoever cannot be prov'd by these measures , cannot be necessary . There are many truths besides these ; but if your people may be safely ignorant of them , you may quietly let them alone , and not trouble their heads with what they have so little to do : things that need not to be known at all , need not to be taught : for if they be taught , they are not certain , or are not very useful ; and g. there may be danger in them besides the trouble ; and since God hath not made them necessary , they may be let alone without danger ; and it will be madness to tell stories to your flocks of things which may hinder salvation , but cannot do them profit . And now it is time that I have done with the first great remark of doctrine noted by the Apostle in my Text ; all the Guides of souls must take care that the doctrine they teach be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , pure and incorrupt , the word of God , the truth of the Spirit . That which remains is easier . 2. In the next place it must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , grave , and reverend , no vain notions , no pitiful contentions , and disputes about little things , but becoming your great employment in the ministery of souls : and in this the Rules are easie and ready . 1. Do not trouble your people with controversies : whatsoever does gender strife the Apostle commands us to avoid ; and g. much more the strife it self : a controversie is a stone in the mouth of the hearer , who should be fed with bread , and it is a temptation to the Preacher , it is a state of temptation ; it engages , one side in lying , and both in uncertainty and uncharitableness ; and after all , it is not food for souls ; it is the food of contention , it is a spiritual law-suit , and it can never be ended ; every man is right , and every man is wrong in these things , and no man can tell who is right or who is wrong . For as long as a word can be spoken against a word , and a thing be opposite to a thing ; as long as places are hard , and men are ignorant or knowing but in part ; as long as there is money and pride in the world , and for ever till men willingly confess themselves to be fools and deceiv'd , so long will the saw of contention be drawn from side to side . That which is not cannot be numbred , saith the Wise man : no man can reckon upon any truth that is got by contentious learning ; and whoever troubles his people with questions , and teaches them to be troublesome , note that man , he loves not peace , or he would fain be called Rabbi , Rabbi . Christian Religion loves not tricks nor artifices of wonder , but like the natural and amiable simplicity of Jesus , by plain and easie propositions leads us in wise paths to a place where sin and strife shall never enter . What good can come from that which fools begin , and wise men can never end but by silence , and that had been the best way at first , and would have stifled them in the Cradle ? What have your people to do whether Christs body be in the Sacrament by Consubstantiation , or Transubstantiation ; whether Purgatory be in the centre of the earth or in the air , or any where or no where ? and who but a mad man would trouble their heads with the intangled links of the phantatick chain of Predestination ? Teach them to fear God and honour the King , to keep the Commandments of God , and the Kings Commands because of the oath of God ; learn them to be sober and temperate , to be just and to pay their debts , to speak well of their neighbours and to think meanly of themselves ; teach them charity , and learn them to be zealous of good works . Is it not a shame that the people should be fill'd with Sermons against Ceremonies , and Declamations against a Surplice , and tedious Harangues against the poor aëry sign of the Cross in Baptism ? These things teach them to be ignorant ; it fills them with wind , and they such dry nurses ; it makes them lazy and useless , troublesome and good for nothing . Can the definition of a Christian be , that a Christian is a man that rails against Bishops and the Common Prayer-book ? and yet this is the great labour of our neighbours that are crept in among us ; this they call the work of the Lord ; and this is the great matter of the desir'd reformation ; in these things they spend their long breath , and about these things they spend earnest prayers , and by these they judge their brother , and for these they revile their Superiour , and in this doughty cause they think it fit to fight and dye . If S. Paul or S. Anthony , S. Basil or S. Ambrose ; if any of the primitive Confessors or glorious Martyrs should awake from within their curtains of darkness , and find men thus striving against Government for the interest of disobedience , and labouring for nothings , and preaching all day for shadows and Moon-shine ; and that not a word shall come from them to teach the people humility , not a word of obedience or self-denial ; they are never taught to suspect their own judgment , but always to prefer the private Minister before the publick , the Presbyter before a Bishop , Fancy before Law , the Subject before his Prince , a Prayer in which men consider not at all , before that which is weighed wisely and considered ; and in short , a private spirit before the publick , and Mas John before the Patriarch of Jerusalem : if , I say , S. Paul or S. Anthony should see such a light , they would not know the meaning of it , nor of what Religion the Country were , nor from whence they had deriv'd their new nothing of an institution . The Kingdom of God consists in wisdom and righteousness , in peace and holiness , in meekness and gentleness , in chastity and purity , in abstinence from evil and doing good to others ; in these things place your labours , preach these things , and nothing else but such as these ; things which promote the publick peace and publick good ; things that can give no offence to the wise and to the virtuous : For these things are profitable to men , and pleasing to God. 2. Let not your Sermons and Discourses to your people be busie arguings about hard places of Scripture ; if you strike a hard against a hard , you may chance to strike fire , or break a mans head ; but it never makes a good building : Philosophiam ad syllabus vocare , that 's to no purpose ; your Sermons must be for edification , something to make the people better and wiser , wiser unto salvation , not wiser to discourse ; for if a hard thing get into their heads , I know not what work you will make of it , but they will make nothing of it , or something that is very strange : Dress your people unto the imagery of Christ , dress them for their funerals , help them to make their accounts up against the day of Judgment . I have known some Persons and some Families that would religiously educate their Children , and bring them up in the Scriptures from their cradle ; and they would teach them to tell who was the first man , and who was the oldest , and who was the wisest , and who was the strongest ; but I never observ'd them to ask who was the best , and what things were requir'd to make a man good : the Apostles Creed was not the entertainment of their pretty talkings , nor the Life of Christ , the story of his bitter Passion ; and his incomparable Sermon on the Mount went not into their Catechisms . What good can your flocks receive if you discourse well and wisely , whether Jephthab sacrificed his daughter or put her into the retirements of a solitary life ; nor how David's numbring the people did differ from Joshua's ; or whether God took away the life of Moses by a Apoplexy or by the kisses of his mouth ? If Scholars be idly busie in these things in the Schools , custom and some other little accidents may help to excuse them ; but the time that is spent in your Churches and conversation with your people must not be so thrown away : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that 's your rule ; let your speech be grave and wise , and useful and holy , and intelligible ; something to reform their manners , to correct their evil natures , to amend their foolish customs ; to build them up in a most holy faith . That 's the second rule and measure of your preachings that the Apostle gives you in my Text. 3. Your speech must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , salutary and wholesome : and indeed this is of greatest concerne , next to the first , next to the truth and purity of ▪ that doctrine ; for unlesse the doctrine be made fit for the necessities of your people , and not only be good in it self , but good for them , you lose the end of your labours , and they the end of your preachings ; your preaching is vain , and their faith is also vain . The particulars of this are not many , but very useful . 1. It is never out of season to preach good works ; but when you do , be careful that you never indirectly disgrace them by telling how your adversaries spoil them . I do not speak this in vain ; for too many of us account good works to be Popery , and so not only dishonour our Religion , and open wide the mouths of adversaries , but disparage Christianity it self , while we hear it preached in every Pulpit , that they who preach good works , think they merit heaven by it ; and so for fear of merit , men let the work alone ; to secure a true opinion they neglect a good practice , and out of hatred of Popery , we lay aside Christianity it self . Teach them how to do good works , and yet to walk humbly with God ; for better it is to do well even upon a weak account , than to do nothing upon the stock of a better proposition : and let it never be used any more as a word of reproach unto us all , that the faith of a Protestant , and the works of a Papist , and the words of a Phanatick make up a good Christian. Believe well , and speak well , and do well ; but in doing good works a man cannot deceive any one but himself by the apendage of a foolish opinion ; but in our believing only and in talking , a man may deceive himself , and all the world ; and God only can be safe from the cousenage . Like to this is the case of external forms of worship , which too many refuse , because they pretend that many who use them , rest in them and pass no further : For besides that no sect of men teaches their people so to do , you cannot without uncharitableness suppose it true of very many . But if others do ill , do not you do so too ; and leave not out the external forms for fear of formality , but joyn the inward power of godliness ; and then they are reproved best , and instructed wisely , and you are secured . But remember , that prophaneness is commonly something that is external ; and he is a prophane person who neglects the exterior part of Religion : and this is so vile a crime , that hypocrisie while it is undiscovered is not so much mischievous as open prophaneness , or a neglect and contempt of external Religion . Do not despise external Religion , because it may be sincere , and do not rely upon it wholly , because it may be counterfeit ; but do you preach both , and practise both ; both what may glorifie God in publick , and what may please him in private . 2. In deciding the questions and causes of Conscience of your flocks , never strive to speak what is pleasing , but what is profitable , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as was said of Isidor the Philosopher ; you must not give your people words , but things , and substantial food . Let not the people be prejudiced in the matter of their souls upon any terms whatsoever , and be not ashamed to speak boldly in the cause of God ; for he that is angry when he is reproved , is not to be considered , excepting only to be reproved again ; if he will never mend , not you , but he will have the worst of it ; but if he ever mends , he will thank you for your love , and for your wisdom , and for your care : and no man is finally disgraced for speaking of a truth ; onely here , pray for the grace of prudence , that you may speak opportunely and wisely , lest you profit not , but destroy an uncapable subject . Lastly ; The Apostle requires of every Mnister of the Gospel that his speech and doctrine should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , unreprovable : not such against which no man can cavil ; for the Pharisees found fault with the wise discourses of the eternal Son of God ; and Hereticks and Schismaticks prated against the Holy Apostles and their excellent Sermons ; but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is such as deserves no blame , and needs no pardon , and flatters not for praise , and begs no excuses , and makes no Apologies ; a discourse that will be justified by all the sons of wisdom : now that yours may be so , the preceding rules are the best means that are imaginable . For so long as you speak the pure truths of God , the plain meaning of the Spirit , the necessary things of Faith , the useful things of Charity , and the excellencies of Holiness , who can reprove your doctrine ? But there is something more in this word which the Apostle means , else it had been an uselesse repetition : and a man may speak the truths of God , and yet may be blame-worthy by an importune , unseasonable and imprudent way of delivering them , or for want of such conduct which will place him and his doctrine in reputation and advantages . To this purpose these advices may be useful . 1. Be more careful to establish a truth than to reprove an error . For besides that a truth will when it is established , of it self reprove the error sufficiently ; men will be lesse apt to reprove your truth , when they are not ingaged to defend their own propositions against you . Men stand upon their guard , when you proclaim war against their doctrine . Teach your doctrine purely and wisely , and without any angry reflexions ; for you shall very hardly perswade him whom you go about publickly to confute . 2. If any man have a revelation or a discovery of which thou knowest nothing but by his preaching , be not too quick to condemn it ; not onely lest thou discourage his labour and stricter inquiries in the search of truth , but lest thou also be a fool upon record ; for so is every man that hastily judges what he slowly understands . Is it not a monument of a lasting reproach , that one of the Popes of Rome condemned the Bishop of Sulzback for saying that there were Antipodes ? and is not Pope Nicholas deserted by his own party for correcting the Sermons of Berengarius , and making him recant into a worse error ? and posterity will certainly make themselves very merry with the wise sentences made lately at Rome against Galileo , and the Jansemists . To condemn one truth is more shameful than to broach two errors : for he that in an honest and diligent inquiry misses something of the mark , will have the Apologies of humane infirmity , and the praise of doing his best ; but he that condemns a truth when it is told him , is an envious fool , and is a murderer of his Brothers fame , and his Brothers reason . 3. Let no man upon his own head reprove the Religion that is established by Law and a just supreme Authority : for no reproofs are so severe as the reproofs of Law ; and a man will very hardly defend his opinion that is already condemned by the wisdom of all his Judges . A mans Doctrine possibly may be true though against Law ; but it cannot be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , unreproveable ; and a Schismatick can in no case observe this Rule of the Apostle . If something may be amiss when it is declared by Laws , much easier may he be in an errour , who goes upon his own account , and declares alone : and g. it is better to let things alone than to be troublesome to our Superiours by an impertinent wrangling for reformation . We find that some Kings of Judah were greatly prais'd , and yet they did not destroy all the Temples of the false gods which Solomon had built ; and if such publick persons might let some things alone that were amiss , and yet be innocent , trouble not your self that all the world is not amended according to your pattern ; see that you be perfect at home , that all be rightly reform'd there ; as for reformation of the Church , God will never call you to an account . Some things cannot be reform'd , and very many need not , for all thy peevish dreams ; and after all , it is twenty to one but thou art mistaken , and thy Superiour is in the right ; and if thou wert not proud , thou wouldst think so too . Certain it is , he that sows in the furrows of Authority , his Doctrine cannot so easily be reprov'd as he that plows and sows alone . When Theophilus Bishop of Alexandria fell into the hands of the Egyptian Monks who were ignorant and confident , they handled him with great rudeness , because he had spoken of the immateriality of the Divine Nature ; the good man to escape their fury was forc'd to give them crafty and soft words , saying ; Vidi faciem vestram ut faciem Dei : which because they understood in the sense of the Anthropomorphites , and thought he did so too , they let him depart in peace . When private persons are rude against the Doctrines of Authority , they are seldom in the right ; but g. are the more fierce , as wanting the natural supports of truth , which are Reason and Authority , gentleness and plain conviction ; and g. they fall to declamation and railing , zeal and cruelty , trifling and arrogant confidencies . They seldom go asunder : It is the same word in Greek that signifies , disobedience and cruelty : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is both ; he that will endure no bridle , that man hath no mercy . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ▪ Confidence is that which will endure no bridle , no curb , no Superiour . It is worse in the Hebrew ; the Sons of Belial , signifie people that will endure no yoke , no Government , no imposition ; and we have found them so , they are Sons of Belial indeed . This is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that kind of boldness and refractory confidence that S. Paul forbids to be in a Minister of Religion , 1 Tit. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , not confident ; that is , let him be humble and modest , distrusting his own judgment , believing wiser men than himself ; never bold against Authority , never relying on his own wit. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Aristotle ; that man is bold and presumptuous , who pleases himself , and sings his own Songs , all voluntary nothing by his Book . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said the Tragedy . Every confident man is ignorant , and by his ignorance troublesome to his Country , but will never do it honour . 4. Whatever Scriptures you pretend for your Doctrine , take heed that it be not chargeable with foul consequences ; that it lay no burden upon God , that it do not tempt to vanity , that it be not manifestly serving a temporal end , and nothing else ; that it be not vehemently to be suspected to be a design of State , like the Sermon at Pauls-Cross by Dr Shaw in Richard the Third's time ; that it do not give countenance and confidence to a wicked life ; for then your Doctrine is reproveable for the appendage , and the intrinsick truth or falshood will not so much be inquir'd after as the visible and external objection : if men can reprove it in the outside , they will inquire no further . But above all things nothing so much will reproach your Doctrine , as if you preach it in a railing dialect ; we have had too much of that within these last 30 years . Optatus observes it was the trick of the Donatists , Nullus vestrum est qui non convitia nostra suis tractatibus misceat : There is none of you but with his own writings mingles our reproaches ; you begin to read Chapters , and you expound them to our injuries ; you comment upon the Gospel , and revile your brethren that are absent ; you imprint hatred and enmity in your peoples hearts , and you teach them war when you pretend to make them Saints . They do so , their Doctrine is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; that 's the least which can be said . If you will not have your Doctrine reprehensible , do nothing with offence , and above all offences avoid the doing or saying those things that give offence to the King and to the Laws , to the voice of Christendom and the publick Customs of the Church of God. Frame your life and preachings to the Canons of the Church , to the Doctrines of Antiquity , to the sense of the ancient and holy Fathers . For it is otherwise in Theology then it is in other Learnings . The experiments of Philosophy are rude at first , and the observations weak , and the principles unprov'd ; and he that made the first lock was not so good a work-man as we have now adays : But in Christian Religion they that were first were best , because God and not man was the Teacher ; and ever since that , we have been unlearning the wise notices of pure Religion , and mingling them with humane notices and humane interest . Quod primum , hoc verum : and although concerning Antiquity I may say as he in the Tragedy ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I would have you be wise with them and under them , and follow their faith , but not their errours ; yet this can never be of use to us , till Antiquity be convicted of an errour by an authority great as her own , or a reason greater , and declar'd by an authoriz'd Master of Sentences . But however , be very tender in reproving a Doctrine for which good men and holy have suffer'd Martyrdom , and of which they have made publick confession ; for nothing reproves a Doctrine so much as to venture it abroad with so much scandal and objection : and what reason can any Schismatick have against the Common Prayer-book , able to weigh against that argument of blood which for the testimony of it was shed by the Q. Mary Martyrs ? I instance the advice in this particular , but it is true in all things else of the like nature . It was no ill advice whoever gave it to the favourite of a Prince ; Never make your self a profess'd enemy to the Church ; for their interest is so complicated with the publick , and their calling is so dear to God , that one way or other , one time or other God and man will be their defender . The same I say concerning Authority and Antiquity ; never do any thing , never say or profess any thing against it : for besides that if you follow their measures you will be secur'd in your faith and in your main duty ; even in smaller things , they will be sure to carry the cause against you , and no man is able to bear the reproach of singularity . It was in honour spoken of S. Malachias my Predecessor in the See of D. in his life written by S. Bernard ; Apostolicas sanctiones & decreta SS . pp. in cunctis Ecclesiis statuebat . I hope to do something of this for your help and service , if God gives me life and health , and opportunity : But for the present I have done . These Rules if you observe , your Doctrine will be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it will need no pardon , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , never to be reprov'd in Judgment . I conclude all with the wise saying of Bensirach ; Extoll not thy self in the counsel of thine own heart , that thy soul be not torn in pieces as a Bull straying alone . FINIS . RULES AND ADVICES TO THE CLERGY OF THE DIOCESSE OF DOWN & CONNOR , For their Deportment in their Personal and Publick Capacities . Given by Jer. Taylor , Bishop of that Diocess , at the Visitation at LISNEGARVEY . The third Edition . LONDON , Printed for R. Royston Book-seller to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty . 1667. Rules and Advices to the Clergy . I. Personal Duty . II. Of Prudence required in Ministers . III. The Rules and Measures of Government to be used by Ministers , in their respective Cures . IV. Rules and Advices concerning Preaching . V. Rules and Advices concerning Catechism . VI. Rules and Advices concerning the Visitation of the Sick. VII . Of ministring the Sacraments , publick Prayers , and other duties of Ministers . RULES AND ADVICES TO THE CLERGY . I. Personal Duty . rule I REmember that it is your great Duty , and tied on you by many Obligations , that you be exemplar in your lives , and be Patterns and Presidents to your Flocks : lest it be said unto you , Why takest thou my Law into thy mouth , seeing thou hatest to be reformed thereby ? He that lives an idle life may preach with Truth and Reason , or as did the Pharisees ; but not as Christ , or as one having Authority . rule II Every Minister in taking accounts of his life , must judge of his Duty by more strict and severer measures , than he does of his People ; and he that ties heavy burthens upon others , ought himself to carry the heaviest end : and many things may be lawful in them , which he must not suffer in himself . rule III Let every Minister endeavour to be learned in all spiritual wisdom , and skilful in the things of God ; for he will ill teach others the way of godliness , perfectly , that is himself a babe and uninstructed . An Ignorant Minister is an head without an eye ; and an Evil Minister is salt that hath no savour . rule IV Every Minister , above all things , must be careful that he be not a servant of Passion , whether of Anger or Desire . For he that is not a master of his Passions will always be useless , and quickly will become contemptible and cheap in the eyes of his Parish . rule V Let no Minister be litigious in any thing ; not greedy or covetous ; not insisting upon little things , or quarrelling for , or exacting of every minute portion of his dues ; but bountiful and easie ; remitting of his right , when to do so may be useful to his people , or when the contrary may do mischief , and cause reproach . Be not over-righteous ( saith Solomon ) , that is , not severe in demanding , or forcing every thing , though it be indeed his due . rule VI Let not the name of the Church be made a pretence for personal covetousness ; by saying , you are willing to remit many things , but you must not wrong the Church : for though it be true , that you are not to do prejudice to succession , yet many things may be forgiven upon just occasions , from which the Church shall receive no incommodity ; but be sure that there are but few things which thou art bound to do in thy personal capacity , but the s●me also , and more , thou art obliged to perform , as thou art a publick person . rule VII Never exact the offerings , or customary wages , and such as are allowed by Law , in the ministration of the Sacraments , nor condition for them , nor secure them before-hand ; but first do your office , and minister the Sacrame●●s purely , readily , and for Christs sake ; and when that is done , receive what is your due . rule VIII Avoid all Pride , as you would flee from the most frightful Apparition , or the most cruel Enemy ; and remember that you can never truly teach Humility , or tell what it is , unless you practise it your selves . rule IX Take no measures of Humility , but such as are material and tangible ; such which consist not in humble words , and lowly gestures ; but what is first truly radicated in your Souls , in low opinion of your selves , and in real preferring others before your selves ; and in such significations , which can neither deceive your selves nor others . rule X Let every Curate of Souls strive to understand himself best ; and then to understand others . Let him spare himself least ; but most severely judge , censure , and condemn himself . If he be learned , let him shew it by wise teaching , and humble manners . If he be not learned , let him be sure to get so much Knowledge as to know that , and so much Humility , as not to grow insolent , and puffed up by his Emptiness . For many will pardon a good man that is less learned ; but if he be proud , no man will forgive him . rule XI Let every Minister be careful to live a life as abstracted from the Affairs of the world , as his necessity will permit him ; but at no hand to be immerg'd and principally imploy'd in the Affairs of the World : What cannot be avoided , and what is of good report , and what he is oblig'd to by any personal or collateral Duty , that he may do , but no more . Ever remembring the Saying of our Blessed Lord ; In the world ye shall have trouble ; but in me ye shall have peace : and consider this also , which is a great Truth ; That every degree of love to the world , is so much taken from the Love of God. rule XII Be no otherwise sollicitous of your Fame and Reputation , but by doing your Duty well and wisely ; in other things refer your self to God : but if you meet with evil Tongues , be careful that you bear reproaches sweetly and temperately . rule XIII Remember that no Minister can govern his people well , and prosperously , unless himself hath learn'd humbly and cheerfully to obey his Superiour . For every Minister should be like the good Centurion in the Gospel : himself is under authority , and he hath people under him . rule XIV Be sure in all your Words and Actions to preserve Christian simplicity and ingenuity ; to do to others , as you would be done unto your self ; and never to speak what you do not think . Trust to Truth , rather than to your Memory : for this may fail you , that will never . rule XV Pray much and very fervently , for all your Parishioners , and all men that belong to you , and all that belong to God ; but especially for the Conversion of Souls : and be very zealous for nothing , but for Gods glory , and the salvation of the World , and particularly of your Charges : Ever remembring that you are by God appointed , as the Ministers of Prayer , and the Ministers of good things , to pray for all the World , and to heal all the World , as far as you are able . rule XVI Every Minister must learn and practise Patience , that by bearing all adversity meekly , and humbly , and cheerfully , and by doing all his Duty with unwearied industry , with great courage , constancy , and Christian magnanimity , he may the better assist his people in the bearing of their crosses , and overcoming their difficulties . rule XVII He that is holy , let him be holy still , and still more holy , and never think he hath done his work , till all be finished by perseverance , and the measures of perfection in a holy Life , and a holy Death : but at no hand must he magnifie himself by vain separations from others , or despising them that are not so holy . II. Of Prudence required in Ministers . rule XVIII REmember that Discretion is the Mistress of all Graces ; and Humility is the greatest of all Miracles : and without this , all Graces perish to a mans ▪ self ; and without that , all Grac●● are useless unto others . rule XIX Let no Minister be governed by the opinion of his People , and destroy his Duty , by unreasonable compliance with their humours , lest as the Bishop of Granata told the Governours of Leria and Patti , like silly Animals they take burdens upon their backs at the pleasure of the multitude , which they neither can retain with Prudence , nor shake off with Safety . rule XX Let not the Reverence of any man cause you to sin against God ; but in the matter of Souls , being well advis'd , be bold and confident ; but abate nothing of the honour of God , or the just measures of your Duty , to satisfie the importunity of any man whatsoever , and God will bear you out . rule XXI When you teach your people any part of their duty , as in paying their debts , their tithes and offerings , in giving due reverence and religious regards , diminish nothing of admonition in these particulars , and the like , though they object , That you speak for your selves , and in your own cases . For counsel is not the worse , but the better , if it be profitable both to him that gives , and to him that takes it . Only do it in simplicity , and principally intend the good of their souls . rule XXII In taking accounts of the good Lives of your selves or others , take your measures by the express words of Scripture ; and next to them estimate them by their proportion and compliance with the publick measures , with the Laws of the Nation , Ecclesiastical and Civil , and by the Rules of Fame , of publick Honesty and good Report ; and last of all by their observation of the Ordinances and exteriour parts of Religion . rule XXIII Be not satisfied when you have done a good work , unless you have also done it well ; and when you have , then be careful that vain-glory , partiality , self-conceit , or any other folly or indiscretion , snatch it not out of your hand , and cheat you of the reward . rule XXIV Be careful so to order your self , that you fall not into temptation and folly in the presence of any of your Charges ; and especially that you fall not into chidings and intemperate talkings , and sudden and violent expressions : Never be a party in clamours and scoldings , lest your Calling become useless , and your Person contemptible : Ever remembring that if you cheaply and lightly be engag'd in such low usages with any Person , that Person is likely to be lost from all possibility of receiving much good from your Ministry . III. The Rules and Measures of Government to be used by Ministers in their respective Cures . rule XXV USe no violence to any man , to bring him to your opinion ; but by the word of your proper Ministry ; by Demonstrations of the Spirit , by rational Discourses , by excellent Examples , constrain them to come in : and for other things they are to be permitted to their own liberty , to the measures of the Laws , and the conduct of their Governours . rule XXVI Suffer no quarrel in your Parish , and speedily suppress it when it is begun ; and though all wise men will abstain from interposing in other mens affairs , and especially in matters of Interest , which men love too well ; yet it is your Duty here to interpose , by perswading them to friendships , reconcilements , moderate prosecutions of their pretences ; and by all means you prudently can , to bring them to peace and brotherly kindness . rule XXVII Suffer no houses of Debauchery , of Drunkenness or Lust in your Parishes ; but implore the assistance of Authority for the suppressing of all such meeting-places and nurseries of Impiety : and as for places of publick Entertainment , take care that they observe the Rules of Christian Piety , and the allowed measures of Laws . rule XXVIII If there be any Papists or Sectaries in your Parishes , neglect not frequently to confer with them in the spirit of meekness , and by the importunity of wise Discourses seeking to gain them . But stir up no violences against them ; but leave them ( if they be incurable ) to the wise and merciful disposition of the Laws . rule XXIX Receive not the people to doubtful Disputations : and let no names of Sects or differing Religions be kept up amongst you , to the disturbance of the publick Peace and private Charity : and teach not the people to estimate their Piety by their distance from any Opinion , but by their Faith in Christ , their Obedience to God and the Laws , and their Love to all Christian people , even though they be deceived . rule XXX Think no man considerable upon the point or pretence of a tender Conscience , unless he live a good life , and in all things endeavour to approve himself void of offence both toward God and Man : but if he be an humble Person , modest and inquiring , apt to learn and desirous of information ; if he seeks for it in all ways reasonable and pious , and is obedient to Laws , then take care of him , use him tenderly , perswade him meekly , reprove him gently , and deal mercifully with him , till God shall reveal that also unto him , in which his unavoidable trouble and his temptation lies . rule XXXI Mark them that cause Divisions among you , and avoid them : for such Persons are by the Scripture called Scandals in the abstract ; they are Offenders and Offences too . But if any man have an Opinion , let him have it to himself , till he can be cur'd of his disease by time , and counsel ; and gentle usages . But if he separates from the Church , or gathers a Congregation , he is proud , and is fallen from the Communion of Saints , and the Unity of the Catholick Church . rule XXXII He that observes any of his people to be zealous , let him be careful to conduct that zeal into such channels where there is least danger of inconveniency ; let him employ it in something that is good ; let it be press'd to fight against sin . For Zeal is like a Cancer in the Breast ; feed it with good flesh , or it will devour the Heart . rule XXXIII Strive to get the love of the Congregation ; but let it not degenerate into popularity , Cause them to love you and revere you ; to love with Religion , not for your compliance ; for the good you do them , not for that you please them . Get their love by doing your Duty , but not by omitting or spoiling any part of it : Ever remembring the severe words of our Blessed Saviour , Wo be to you when all men speak well of you . rule XXXIV Suffer not the common people to prattle about Religion and Questions ; but to speak little , to be swift to hear , and slow to speak ; that they learn to good works for necessary uses , that they work with their hands , that they may have wherewithal to give to them that need ; that they study to be quiet , and learn to do their own business . rule XXXV Let every Minister take care that he call upon his Charge , that they order themselves so , that they leave no void spaces of their time , but that every part of it be filled with useful or innocent employment . For where there is a space without business , that space is the proper time for danger and temptation ; and no man is more miserable than he that knows not how to spend his time . rule XXXVI Fear no mans person in the doing of your Duty wisely , and according to the Laws : Remembring always , that a servant of God can no more be hurt by all the powers of wickedness , than by the noise of a Flies wing , or the chirping of a Sparrow . Brethren , do well for your selves : do well for your selves as long as you have time ; you know not how soon death will come . rule XXXVII Entertain no Persons into your Assemblies from other Parishes , unless upon great occasion , or in the destitution of a Minister , or by contingency and seldom visits , or with leave : lest the labour of thy Brother be discouraged , and thy self be thought to preach Christ out of envy , and not of good will. rule XXXVIII Never appeal to the judgment of the people in matters of controversie ; teach them obedience , not arrogancy ; teach them to be humble , not crafty . For without the aid of false guides you will find some of them of themselves apt enough to be troublesome : and a question put into their heads , and a power of judging into their hands , is a putting it to their choice whether you shall be troubled by them this week or the next ; for much longer you cannot escape . rule XXXIX Let no Minister of a Parish introduce any Ceremony , Rites or Gestures , though with some seeming Piety and Devotion , but what are commanded by the Church , and established by Law : and let these also be wisely and usefully explicated to the people , that they may understand the reasons and measures of obedience ; but let there be no more introduc'd , lest the people be burdened unnecessarily , and tempted or divided . IV. Rules and Advices concerning Preaching . rule XL LEt every Minister be diligent in preaching the Word of God , according to the ability that God gives him : Ever remembring , that to minister Gods Word unto the People is the one half of his great Office and Employment . rule XLI Let every Minister be careful that what he delivers be indeed the Word of God : that his Sermon be answerable to the Text ; for this is Gods Word , the other ought to be according to it ; that although in it self it be but the word of Man , yet by the purpose , truth , and signification of it , it may in a secondary sense be the Word of God. rule XLII Do not spend your Sermons in general and indefinite things , as in Exhortations to the people to get Christ , to be united to Christ , and things of the like unlimited signification ; but tell them in every duty , what are the measures , what circumstances , what instruments , and what is the particular minute meaning of every general Advice . For Generals not explicated do but fill the peoples heads with empty notions , and their mouths with perpetual unintelligible talk : but their hearts remain empty , and themselves are not edified . rule XLIII Let not the humours and inclinations of the people be the measures of your Doctrines , but let your Doctrines be the measure of their perswasions . Let them know from you what they ought to do ; but if you learn from them what you ought to teach , you will give but a very ill account at the day of Judgment , of the souls committed to you . He that receives from the people what he shall teach them , is like a Nurse that asks of her Child what Physick she shall give him . rule XLIV Every Minister in reproofs of sin and sinners , ought to concern himself in the faults of them that are present , but not of the absent ; nor in reproof of the times ; for this can serve no end but of Faction and Sedition , publick Murmur and private Discontent ; besides this , it does nothing but amuse the people in the faults of others , teaching them to revile their Betters , and neglect the dangers of their own souls . rule XLV As it looks like flattery and design to preach nothing before Magistrates but the duty of their people and their own eminency ; so it is the beginning of Mutiny to preach to the people the duty of their Superiours and Supreme ; it can neither come from a good Principle , nor tend to a good End. Every Minister ought to preach to his Parish , and urge their duty : S. John the Baptist told the Souldiers what the Souldiers should do , but troubled not their heads with what was the duty of the Scribes and Pharisees . rule XLVI In the reproof of sins be as particular as you please , and spare no mans sin , but meddle with no mans person ; neither name any man , nor signifie him , neither reproach him , nor make him to be suspected ; he that doth otherwise makes his Sermon to be a Libel , and the Ministry of Repentance an instrument of Revenge ; and so doing he shall exasperate the man , but never amend the sinner . rule XLVII Let the business of your Sermons be to preach holy Life , Obedience , Peace , Love among neighbours , hearty love , to live as the old Christians did , and the new should ; to do hurt to no man , to do good to every man : For in these things the honour of God consists , and the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus . rule XLVIII Press those Graces most that do most good , and make the least noise ; such as giving privately and forgiving publickly ; and prescribe the grace of Charity by all the measures of it which are given by the Apostle , 1 Cor. 13. For this grace is not finished by good words , nor yet by good works , but it is a great building , and many materials go to the structure of it . It is worth your study , for it is the fulfilling of the Commandments . rule XLIX Because it is impossible that Charity should live , unless the lust of the tongue be mortified , let every Minister in his charge be frequent and severe against slanderers , detractors and backbiters ; for the Crime of backbiting is the poyson of Charity ; and yet so common , that it is pass'd into a Proverb , [ After a good dinner let us sit down and backbite our neighbours . ] rule L Let every Minister be careful to observe , and vehement in reproving those faults of his Parishioners , of which the Laws cannot or do not take cognizance , such as are many degrees of intemperate drinkings , gluttony , riotous living , expences above their ability , pride , bragging , lying in ordinary conversation , covetousness , peevishness , and hasty anger , and such like . For the Word of God searches deeper then the Laws of men ; and many things will be hard to prove by the measures of Courts , which are easie enough to be observed by the watchful and diligent eye and ear of the Guide of Souls . rule LI In your Sermons to the people , often speak of the four last things , of Death and Judgment , Heaven and Hell : of the Life and Death of Jesus Christ , of Gods Mercy to repenting sinners , and his Severity against the impenitent ; of the formidable Examples of Gods anger pour'd forth upon Rebels , Sacrilegious , Oppressors of Widows and Orphans , and all persons guilty of crying Sins : These are useful , safe and profitable ; but never run into Extravagancies and Curiosities , nor trouble your selves or them with mysterious Secrets ; for there is more laid before you than you can understand ; and the whole duty of man is , To fear God and keep his Commandments . Speak but very little of the secret and high things of God , but as much as you can of the lowness and humility of Christ. rule LII Be not hasty in pronouncing damnation against any man or party in a matter of disputation . It is enough that you reprove an Errour ; but what shall be the sentence against it at the day of Judgment , thou knowest not , and therefore pray for the erring person , and reprove him , but leave the sentence to his judge . rule LIII Let your Sermons teach the duty of all states of men to whom you speak ; and particularly take care of Servants and Hirelings , Merchants and Tradesmen , that they be not unskilful , nor unadmonished in their respective duties ; and in all things speak usefully and affectionately ; for by this means you will provide for all mens needs , both for them that sin by reason of their little understanding , and them that sin because they have evil , dull , or depraved affections . rule LIV In your Sermons and Discourses of Religion , use primitive , known and accustomed words , and affect not new Phantastical or Schismatical terms : Let the Sunday Festival be called the Lords day ; and pretend no fears from the common use of words amongst Christians . For they that make a business of the words of common use , and reform Religion by introducing a new word , intend to make a change but no amendment , they spend themselves in trifles , like the barren turf that sends forth no medicinable herbs , but store of Mushromes ; and they give a demonstration that they are either impertinent people , or else of a querulous nature ; and that they are ready to disturb the Church , if they could find occasion . rule LV Let every Minister in his charge , as much as he can , endeavour to destroy all popular errors and evil principles taken up by his people , or others with whom they converse ; especially those that directly oppose the indispensable necessity of a holy life : let him endeavour to understand in what true and useful sense Christs active obedience is imputed to us ; let him make his people fear the deferring of their Repentance , and putting it off to their death-bed ; let him explicate the nature of Faith , so that it be an active and quickning principle of Charity ; let him , as much as he may , take from them all confidences that slacken their obedience and diligence ; let him teach them to impute all their sins to their own follies and evil choice , and so build them up in a most holy faith to a holy life ; ever remembring that in all ages it hath been the greatest artifice of Satan to hinder the increase of Christs Kingdom , by destroying those things in which it does consist , viz. Peace and Righteousness , Holiness and Mortification . rule LVI Every Minister ought to be careful that he never expound Scriptures in publick contrary to the known sense of the Catholick Church , and particularly of the Churches of England and Ireland , nor introduce any Doctrine against any of the four first General Councils ; for these , as they are measures of truth , so also of necessity ; that is , as they are safe , so they are sufficient ; and besides what is taught by these , no matter of belief is necessary to salvation . rule LVII Let no Preacher bring before the people in his Sermons or Discourses , the Arguments of great and dangerous Heresies , though with a purpose to confute them : for they will much easier retain the Objection than understand the Answer . rule LVIII Let not the Preacher make an Article of Faith to be a matter of dispute ; but teach it with plainness and simplicity , and confirm it with easie arguments and plain words of Scripture , but without objection ; let them be taught to believe , but not to argue , lest if the arguments meet with a scrupulous person , it rather shake the foundation by curious inquiry , than establish it by arguments too hard . rule LIX Let the Preacher be careful that in his Sermons he use no light , immodest or ridiculous expressions , but what is wise , grave , useful and for edification ; that when the Preacher brings truth and gravity , the people may attend with fear and reverence . rule LX Let no Preacher envy any man that hath a greater audience , or more same in Preaching than himself ; let him not detract from him or lessen his reputation directly or indirectly : for he that cannot be even with his brother but by pulling him down , is but a dwarf still ; and no man is the better for making his brother worse . In all things desire that Christ's Kingdom may be advanc'd ; and rejoice that he is served , whoever be the Minister ; that if you cannot have the fame of a great Preacher , yet you may have the reward of being a good man ; but it is hard to miss both . rule LXI Let every Preacher in his Parish take care to explicate to the people the Mysteries of the great Festivals , as of Christmas , Easter , Ascension-day , Whitsunday , Trinity Sunday , the Annuntiation of the blessed Virgin Mary ; because these Feasts containing in them the great Fundamentals of our Faith , will with most advantage convey the mysteries to the people , and fix them in their memories , by the solemnity and circumstances of the day . rule LXII In all your Sermons and Discourses speak nothing of God but what is honourable and glorious ; and impute not to him such things , the consequents of which a wise and good man will not owne : never suppose him to be author of sin , or the procurer of our damnation . For God cannot be tempted , neither tempteth he any man. God is true , and every man a lyar . rule LXIII Let no Preacher compare one Ordinance with another ; as Prayer with Preaching , to the disparagement of either ; but use both in their proper seasons , and according to appointed Order . rule LXIV Let no man preach for the praise of men ; but if you meet it instantly watch and stand upon your guard , and pray against your own vanity ; and by an express act of acknowledgment and adoration return the praise to God. Remember that Herod was for the omission of this smitten by an Angel ; and do thou tremble , fearing left the judgment of God be otherwise than the sentence of the people . V. Rules and Advices concerning Catechism . rule LXV EVery Minister is bound upon every Lords day before Evening Prayer , to instruct all young people in the Creed , the Lords Prayer , the Ten Commandments , and the Doctrine of the Sacraments , as they are set down and explicated in the Church Catechism . rule LXVI Let a Bell be tolled when the Catechising is to begin , that all who desire it may be present ; but let all the more ignorant and uninstructed part of the people , whether they be old or young , be requir'd to be present : that no person in your Parishes be ignorant in the foundations or Religion : Ever remembring , that if in these things they be unskilful , whatever is taught besides , is like a house built upon the sand . rule LXVII Let every Minister teach his people the use , practice , methods and benefits of meditation or mental prayer . Let them draw out for them helps and rules for their assistance in it ; and furnish them with materials , concerning the life and death of the ever blessed Jesus , the greatness of God , our own meanness , the dreadful sound of the last Trumpet , the infinite event of the two last sentences at doomsday : let them be taught to consider what they have been , what they are , and what they shall be ; and above all things what are the issues of eternity ; glories never to cease , pains never to be ended . rule LXVIII Let every Minister exhort his people to a frequent confession of their sins , and a declaration of the state of their Souls ; to a conversation with their Minister in spiritual things , to an enquiry concerning all the parts of their duty : for by preaching , and catechising , and private entercourse , all the needs of Souls can best be serv'd ; but by preaching alone they cannot . rule LXIX Let the people be exhorted to keep Fasting days , and the Feasts of the Church ; according to their respective capacities ; so it be done without burden to them , and without becoming a snare ; that is , that upon the account of Religion , and holy desires to please God , they spend some time in Religion , besides the Lords-day : but be very careful that the Lords-day be kept religiously , according to the severest measures of the Church , and the commands of Authority : ever remembring that as they give but little Testimony of Repentance and Mortification , who never fast ; so they give but small evidence of their joy in God and Religion , who are unwilling solemnly to partake of the publick and Religious Joys of the Christian Church . rule LXX Let every Minister be diligent in exhorting all Parents and Masters to send their Children and Servants to the Bishop at the Visitation , or other solemn times of his coming to them , that they may be confirm'd : And let him also take care that all young persons may by understanding the Principles of Religion , their vow of Baptism , the excellency of Christian Religion , the necessity and advantages of it , and of living according to it , be fitted and disposed , and accordingly by them presented to the Bishop , that he may pray over them , and invocate the holy Spirit , and minister the holy Rite of Confirmation . VI. Rules and Advices concerning the Visitation of the Sick. rule LXXI EVery Minister ought to be careful in visiting all the Sick and Afflicted persons of his Parish : ever remembring , that as the Priests lips are to preserve knowledge , so it is his duty to minister a word of comfort in the time of need . rule LXXII A Minister must not stay till he be sent for ; but of his own accord and care to go to them , to examine them , to exhort them to perfect their repentance , to strengthen their faith , to encourage their patience , to perswade them to resignation , to the renewing of their holy vows , to the love of God , to be reconcil'd to their neighbours , to make restitution and , amends , to confess their sins , to settle their estate , to provide for their charges , to do acts of piety and charity ; and above all things , that they take care they do not sin towards the end of their lives . For if repentance on our death-bed seem so very late for the sins of our life ; what time shall be left to repent us of the sins we commit on our death-bed ? rule LXXIII When you comfort the afflicted , endeavour to bring them to the true love of God ; for he that serves God for Gods sake , it is almost impossible he should be oppressed with sorrow . rule LXXIV In answering the cases of conscience of the sick or afflicted people , consider not who asks , but what he asks ; and consult in your answers more with the estate of his soul , than the conveniency of his estate ; for no flattery is so fatal as that of the Physician or the Divine . rule LXXV If the sick person enquires concerning the final estate of his soul , he is to be reprov'd rather than answer'd ; only he is to be called upon to finish his duty , to do all the good he can in that season , to pray for pardon and acceptance ; but you have nothing to do to meddle with passing final sentences ; neither cast him down in despair , nor raise him up to vain and unreasonable confidences . But take care that he be not carelesly dismiss'd . rule LXXVI In order to these and many other good purposes , every Minister ought frequently to converse with his Parishioners ; to go to their houses , but always publickly , with witness , and with prudence , left what is charitably intended be scandalously reported : and in all your conversation be sure to give good example , and upon all occasions to give good counsel . VII . Of ministring the Sacraments , publick Prayers , and other duties of Ministers . rule LXXVII EVery Minister is oblig'd publickly or privately to read the Common Prayers every day in the week , at Morning and Evening ; and i● great . Towns and populous places conveniently inhabited , it must be read in Churches , that the daily sacrifice of Prayer and Thanksgiving may never cease . rule LXXVIII The Minister is to instruct the people , that the Baptism of their children ought not to be ordinarily deferr'd longer than till the next Sunday after the birth of the child ; left importune and unnecessary delay , occasion that the child die before it is dedicated to the service of God and the Religion of the Lord Jesus , before it be born again , admitted to the Promises of the Gospel , and reckon'd in the account of the second Adam . rule LXXIX Let every Minister exhort and press the people to a devout and periodical Communion , at the least three times in the year , at the great Festivals : but the devouter sort , and they who have leisure , are to be invited to a frequent Communion : and let it be given and received with great reverence . rule LXXX Every Minister ought to be well skill'd and studied in saying his Office , in the Rubricks , the Canons , the Articles , and the Homilies of the Church , that he may do his duty readily , discreetly , gravely , and by the publick measures of the Laws . To which also it is very useful that it be added , that every Minister study the ancient Canons of the Church , especially the Penitentials of the Eastern and Western Churches : let him read good Books , such as are approved by publick authority ; such which are useful , wise and holy ; not the scriblings of unlearned parties , but of men learned , pious , obedient and disinterested and amongst these , such especially which describe duty and good life , which minister to Faith and Charity , to Piety and Devotion ; Cases of Conscience , and solid expositions of Scripture . Concerning which learned and wise persons are to be consulted . rule LXXXI Let not a Curate of Souls trouble himself with any studies , but such which concern his own or his people duty ; such as may enable him to speak well , and to do well ; but to meddle not with controversies , but such by which he may be enabled to convince the gainsayers in things that concern publick peace and a good life . rule LXXXII Be careful in all the publick administrations of your Parish , that the poor be provided for . Think it no shame to beg for Christs poor members ; stir up the people to liberal alms by your word and your example . Let a collection be made every Lords-day , and upon all solemn meetings , and at every Communion ; and let the Collection be wisely and piously administred : ever remembring , that at the day of Judgment nothing shall publickly be proclaimed , but the reward of alms and mercy . rule LXXXIII Let every Minister be sure to lay up a treasure of comforts and advices , to bring forth for every mans need in the day of his trouble ; let him study and heap together Instruments and Advices for the promoting of every virtue , and remedies and arguments against every vice ; let him teach his people to make acts of virtue not onely by external exercise , but also in the way of Prayer and internal meditation . In these and all things else that concern the Ministers duty , if there be difficulty you are to repair to your Bishop for further advice , assistance and information . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A63741-e1150 Heb. 7. 19. Ga. 3. 3. & Gal. 6. 12 , 13. Phil. 3. 34. Sed Belzebulis callida Commenta Christus destruit . De legib●● l , scire Prov : 28. 14. S. Hier. in comment . Isai. 8. Isidor . l. 13. Orig. cap. 13. Comman . in 12. Isai & l. 6. in Ezek. c. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Legat. pro Christianis ▪ Notes for div A63741-e3860 Rom. 8. 13. Gal. 5. 16. Rom. 8. 7. 1 Joh. 3. 9. Matth. 7. 18. Heb. 12. 1. 1 Joh. 3. 8. 1 Joh. 4. 4. Mark. 9. 23. Ille laudatur , qui ut●coeperint statim interficit cogitata , & allidit ad petram . Notes for div A63741-e6240 * Rom. 3. 28. 4. 5. 5. 1. 10. 10. Gal. 2. 16. James 2. 9. 1 Cor. 13. 2. Tuscul. 1. Iames. 2. 14. Gal. 5. 6. Gal. 6. 15. 1 Cor. 7. 19. Isai. 57. 21. Exod. 25. 7. Heb. 12. 14. Titus 3. 8. Hebr. 6. 1. 1 Joh. 3. 8. Eph. 5. 25. Tit. 2. 11. John. 15. 2. Rom. 5. 8. 10. Rom. 8. 28. Rom. 4 ▪ 25. Ecclus. 31 ▪ Rom. 8. 10. Plaut . Captiv . Rom. 8. 29. Rom. 2. 6 7 , 8. Joh. 6. 28. 29. 2 Pet. 1. 5. 2 Thes. 3. 2. 1 Tim. 5. 8. Heb. 11. Ecclus. 32. 24. Panar . lib. 1. edit . Basil. p. 8. l. 46. 2 Tim. 2. 16. Instit l. 5. c. 9. Mark. 12. 24. Tit. 1. 16. 2 Thes. 2. 12. Lib. 3. Notes for div A63741-e9570 EP. 69. Jerem. 9. 1. Esa. 26. 12. 2 Thes. 3 : 1. Notes for div A63741-e9840 Cap. 24. 25. Epist. 73. ad Jubai . 1 Tim. 6. 14. * Rom. 12. 6. Eph : 4. 11. 1 Cor : 12. 28. * Acts 1. 25. 1 Tim. 5. 19. 1 Tit. 11. & 2 Titus 15. Cap. 2. v. 3. Gal. 1. 19. * 1 Cor. 8. 23. Philip. 2. 25. Psalm 45. 16. in 1 Cor. 12. in Psalm 44. Epist. 1. Simpronianum . Epist. 65. ad Rogat . Quast . V. & N. T. q. 197. Isa. 60.17 . Hunc locum etiam citat S. Clemens Ep. ad Cor. Neh. 11. 10. 2 Kin 11. 18. Numb . 4. 16. Epist. 2. ad Nep●● . Epistol . ad Evagriu● . Heb. 13 , 17 Acts 1. 25. Isai. 60. 17. 1 Pet. 5. 1. 5. Luke 22 , 27. Mark 10. 43. John 13. 13. Lib. 3. Tit. 1. 1 Tim. 1. 19 : 2 Tim. 3. 9. In Cap. 2. Zeph. Lib. 1. Ep. 4. Dial. adv . Lucifer . Eccle. 45. 26. Et 24 C. Concil Antioch . 1 Cor. 4. 1 , 2 , 3. Jer. 3. 15. Heb. 13. 7. Z●ch . 11. 7. Cap. 11. Prov. 6 ▪ 3 ▪ 4. D. Bernard . ad Henr. Episc. Senensem . 2 Tim. 2. J●r . 13. 20 : 21. Notes for div A63741-e15120 Nullum malum maj●● aut infeliciter feraci●● qu●m inobedic●tia . Seneca . 1 Tim. 2. 1. Prov. 16. 10. L. 8. cod . de veteri jure enucleando . Petr● Cellensis lib. de Conscientia . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Num. 12. 6 , 7 , 8 Seneca . * Rom. 16. 17. Seneca . Prov. 24. 34. Notes for div A63741-e17720 Ecclus. 5. 10. Vulg. Edit . Lat. Notes for div A63741-e18000 Psal. 111. 10. Psal. 119. Nazianz. ad Philagrium . 2 Pet. 1. 1 John 2. 27. 1 Cor. 2. 14. Eph. 5. 14. Prov. 10. 31 , 32. John. 14. 21. Rom. 1. 25 , 26. Eccl. 2. 26. John 14. 26 Lib. 2. Ethic. c. 1. Nullum bonum perfectè noscitur quod non perfectè amatur . Aug. lib 83. qu. de gratia Christi . Ecclus. 21. 11. Lib. de Con. summat . seculi inter opera . Ephrem Syri . Notes for div A63741-e23580 Synes . hym . 6. 1 Thes. 4 ▪ 16. John 5. 28. Dracuntim de opere Dei. Luke 14. 14. Rev. 20. 6. 1 Thes. 4. 16. Numb . 1. 46. 3. 39. Seld. Hist. of Tythes , c. 2. See Philo. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Tract . 25. in S. Matthew . De scriptor . Eccles. Epist. 30. Synes . Ep. 57. Notes for div A63741-e28450 a Tim. 1. 18. Il 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vide 1. Cor. 15. 18. 1. Thess. 4. ●6 . Rev. 14. 13. John. 5. 24. 2 Cor. 5. 8 , & 6. 1 Thess. 5. 10. Prov. 2. 17. Notes for div A63741-e30930 2 Pet. 1. 5. 2 Pet. 1. 8. Heb. 12. 14. Gal. 6. 1. Numb . 16. 9. Psal. 50. 16 , 17. Psal. 107. 42. Psal. 51. 13. Amos 5. 10. Mal. 2. Ciccro Act. 5. in Verrem . Juvenal . Numb . 15. 5. Lev. 4. 35. Jer. 7. 16. 20. Exod. 30. 40. Ecclus. Micah . 3. 11. Jer. 7. 19. Mich. 3. 7. Levit 4. Numb . 15. Vide Origen homil . 2. in Levit. Geoponic . l. 14. Epist. 148. Notes for div A63741-e34840 Origen . Centrahaeres . Verbi non son● sed sensu sapiunt . Hilar. Isid Orig. l. 6. c. 14. John 10. 37. Rom. 12. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Eurip. Lib. 4. adv . Parmen . Ecclus. 6. 2. Notes for div A63741-e39250 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 
A63711	----	A collection of offices or forms of prayer in cases ordinary and extraordinary. Taken out of the Scriptures and the ancient liturgies of several churches, especially the Greek. Together with the Psalter or Psalms of David, according to the Kings translations; with arguments to the same. Collection of offices or forms of prayer publick and private Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. 1657 Approx. 808 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 299 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2009-03 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A63711 Wing T300 ESTC R203746 99863582 99863582 115790 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A63711) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 115790) Images scanned from microfilm: (Thomason Tracts ; 202:E1600[1]) A collection of offices or forms of prayer in cases ordinary and extraordinary. Taken out of the Scriptures and the ancient liturgies of several churches, especially the Greek. Together with the Psalter or Psalms of David, according to the Kings translations; with arguments to the same. Collection of offices or forms of prayer publick and private Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. [592] p. : ill. (metal cut) Printed by J. Flesher for R. Royston, at the sign of the Angel in Ivy-lane., London, : 1658. [i.e. 1657] Signatures: A a-b c⁶ d-e B-F G-H⁴ I K⁶ L² M-X ² A-N O² . Title page and quires d-e printed in red and black. "The psalter" has separate divisional title page and pagination. A reissue, with cancel title page and A7, of: A collection of offices or forms of prayer publick and private. Annotation on Thomason copy: "Decemb:"; the 8 in the imprint date has been crossed out and replaced with a "7". Reproduction of the original in the British Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). 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Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Church of England -- Prayer-books and devotions -- English. Church of England -- Liturgy -- Early works to 1800. Prayer -- Early works to 1800. 2000-00 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2001-00 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2001-08 TCP Staff (Michigan) Sampled and proofread 2001-09 Aptara Rekeyed and resubmitted 2002-08 John Latta Sampled and proofread 2002-08 John Latta Text and markup reviewed and edited 2002-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion FORMS of PRAYER Publick and Private . Together with The PSALTER or PSALMS of David , after the KINGS Translation . Cum clamore valido et lachrymis preces , offerens , exauditus est pro suā reverentiā . A Collection of offices OR FORMS of PRAYER IN Cases Ordinary and Extraordinary . Taken out of the Scriptures and the ancient Liturgies of several Churches , especially the GREEK . Together with The Psalter or Psalms of David , according to the Kings Translations ; with Arguments to the same . S. Ignatius . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LONDON , Printed by J. Flesher for R. Royston , at the sign of the Angel in Ivy-lane . 1658. The PREFACE . WHen Judges were instead of Kings , and Hophni and Phinehas were among the Priests , every man did what was right in his own eyes , but few did what was pleasing in the eyes of the Lord ; and the event was this , God put on his fierce anger against them , and stirr'd up and arm'd the Enemies of their Country and Religion , and they prevail'd very farre , against the expectation and confidence of them who thought the goodness of their cause would have born out the iniquity of their persons , and that the impiety of their adversaries would have disabled them even from being made Gods scourges and instruments of punishing his own people : The sadness of the event proved the vanity of their hopes ; for that which was the instrument of their worship , the determination of their religious addresses , the place where God did meet his people , from which the Priests spake to God , and God gave his Oracles , that they dishonourably and miserably lost : The ark of the Lord was taken , the impious Priests ( who made the Sacrifice of the Lord to become an abomination to the people ) were slain with the sword of the Philistines , old Eli lost his life , and the wife of Phinehas died with sorrow , and the miscarriages of childbirth , crying out , That the Glory was departed from Israel , because the Ark of God was taken . 2. In these things we also have been but too like the sons of Israel ; for when we sinned as greatly , we also have groaned under as great and sad a calamity . For we have not onely felt the evils of an intestine Warre , but God hath smitten us in our spirit , and laid the scene of his judgements especially in Religion ; he hath snuffed our lamp so near , that it is almost extinguished , and the sacred fire was put into a hole of the earth , even then when we were forced to light those tapers that stood upon our Altars , that by this sad truth better then by the old ceremony we might prove our succession to those holy men who were constrained to sing hymnes to Christ in dark places and retirements . 3. But I delight not to observe the correspondencies of such sad accidents , which as they may happen upon divers causes , or may be forc'd violently by the strength of fancy , or driven on by jealousy , and the too fond opinings of troubled hearts and afflicted spirits ; so they doe but help to vex the offending part , and relieve the afflicted but with a phantastick and groundless comfort : I will therefore deny leave to my own affections to ease themselves by complaining of others : I shall onely crave leave that I may remember Jerusalem and call to minde the pleasures of the Temple , the order of her services , the beauty of her buildings , the sweetness of her songs , the decency of her Ministrations , the assiduity and Oeconomy of her Priests and Levites , the daily sacrifice , and that eternal fire of devotion that went not out by day nor by night ; these were the pleasures of our peace , and there is a remanent felicity in the very memory of those spiritual delights which we then enjoyed as antepasts of heaven , and consignations to an immortality of joyes . And it may be so again when it shall please God who hath the hearts of all Princes in his hand , and turneth them as the rivers of waters ; and when men will consider the invaluable loss that is consequent , and the danger of sin that is appendant to the destroying such forms of discipline and devotion in which God was purely worshipped , and the Church was edified , and the people instructed to great degrees of piety , knowledge , and devotion . 4. And such is the Liturgy of the Church of England . I shall not need to enumerate the advantages of Liturgy in general , though it be certain that some Liturgy or other is most necessary in publick addresses , that so we may imitate the perpetual practice of all setled Churches since Christianity , or ever since Moses Law or the Jewish Church came to have a setled foot , and any rest in the land of Canaan . [ 2. ] That we may follow the example , and obey the precept of our blessed Saviour , who appointed a set form of devotion ( and certainly they that profess enmity against all Liturgy can in no sense obey the precept given by him who gave command , When ye pray , say , Our Father . [ 3. ] That all that come may know the condition of publick Communion , their Religion , and manner of address to God Almighty . [ 4. ] That the truth of the proposition , the piety of the desires , and the honesty of the petitions , the simplicity of our purposes , and the justice of our designs may be secured before-hand , because Whatsoever is not of faith is sin ( and it is impossible that we should pray to God in the extempore prayers of the Priest , by any faith but unreasonable , unwarranted , insecure and implicit . ) [ 5. ] That there may be union of hearts , and spirits , and tongues . [ 6. ] That there may be a publick symbol of Communion in our prayers , which are the best instruments of endearing us to God , and to one another ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Private prayer not assisted with the concord and unity of a publick spirit is weaker and less effectual , saith S. Basil. [ 7. ] That the Ministers less learned may have provisions of devotions made for them . [ 8. ] That the more learned may have no occasion of ostentation ministred to them , lest their best actions , their prayers , be turned into sin . [ 9. ] That extravagant levities , and secret impieties be prevented . [ 10. ] That the offices Ecclesiastical may the better secure the articles of Religion . [ 11. ] That they may edify the people by being repositories of holy and necessary truths ready form'd out of their needs , and described in their Books of daily use ; for that was one of the advices of the Apostle , teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms , and hymns , and spiritual songs . [ 12. ] That men by the intervening of authority may be engaged to certain devotions . [ 13. ] That not onely the duty , but the very form of its ministration may be honoured by the countenance of authority , and not be exposed to contempt by reason of the insufficiency of its external warrant . [ 14. ] That the assignation of such offices , & appropriating them to the ministery of certain persons may be a cancel to secure the inclosures of the Clerical orders from the usurpings and invasions of pretending and unhallowed spirits , [ 15. ] That indetermination of the office may not introduce indifferency , nor indifferency lead in a freer liberty , or liberty degenerate into licentiousness , or licentiousness into folly , and vanity ; and these come sometime attended with secular designs , lest these be cursed with the immission of a peevish spirit upon our Priests , and that spirit be a teacher of lies , and these lies become the basis of impious theoremes , which are certainly attended with ungodly lives ; and then either Atheism or Antichristianism may come , according as shall happen in the conjunction of time and other circumstances ; for this would be a sad climax , a ladder upon which are no Angels ascending or descending , because the degrees lead to darkness and misery . 5. But that which is of special concernment is this , that the Liturgy of the Church of England hath advantages so many and so considerable as not onely to raise it self above the devotions of other Churches , but to endear the affections of good people to be in love with Liturgy in general . 6. For to the Churches of the Romane Communion we can say that ours is reformed , to the reformed Churches we can say that ours is orderly and decent ; for we were freed from the impositions and lasting errours of a tyrannical spirit , and yet from the extravagancies of a popular spirit too : our reformation was done without tumult , and yet we saw it necessary to reform ; we were zealous to cast away the old errours , but our zeal was balanced with consideration and the results of authority : Not like women or children when they are affrighted with fire in their clothes ; we shak'd off the cole indeed , but not our garments lest we should have exposed our Churches to that nakedness which the excellent men of our sister Churches complained to be among themselves . 7. And indeed it is no small advantage to our Liturgy , that it was the off-spring of all that authority which was to prescribe in matters of Religion . The king and the Priest , which are the Antistites Religionis , and the preservers of both the Tables joyn'd in this work , and the people as it was represented in Parliament were advised withal , in authorizing the form after much deliberation ; for the Rule , Quod spectat ad omnes ab omnibus tractari debet , was here observed with strictness , and then as it had the advantages of discourse , so also of authorities , its reason from one and its sanction from the other , that it might be both reasonable and sacred and free , not onely from the indiscretions , but ( which is very considerable ) from the scandal of popularity . 8. And in this I cannot but observe the great wisdome and mercy of God in directing the contrivers of the Liturgy with the spirit of zeal and prudence , to allay the furies and heats of the first affrightment . For when men are in danger of burning , so they leap from the flames , they consider not whither but whence : and the first reflections of a crooked tree are not to straightness , but to a contrary incurvation , yet it pleased the Spirit of God so to temper and direct their spirits , that in the first Liturgy of King Edward they did rather retain something that needed further consideration , then reject any thing that was certainly pious and holy ; and in the second Liturgy , that they might also throughly reform , they did rather cast out something that might with good profit have remained , then not satisfy the world of their zeal to reform , of their charity in declining every thing that was offensive , and the clearness of their light in discerning every semblance of errour or suspicion in the Romane Church . 9. The truth is , although they fram'd the Liturgy with the greatest consideration that could be , by all the united wisdome of this Church and State , yet as if Prophetically to avoid their being charg'd in after ages with a crepusculum of Religion , a dark , twilight , imperfect Reformation , they joyn'd to their own starre all the shining tapers of the other reformed Churches , calling for the advice of the most eminently learned and zealous Reformers in other Kingdomes , that the light of all together might shew them a clear path to walk in . And this their care produced some change ; for upon the consultation the first form of King Edwards Service-book was approved with the exception of a very few clauses , which upon that occasion were review'd and expung'd , till it came to that second form and modest beauty it was in the Edition of M D L II , and which Gilbertus a German approved of as a transcript of the ancient and primitive forms . 10. It was necessary for them to stay somewhere . Christendome was not onely reformed , but divided too , and every division would to all ages have called for some alteration , or else have disliked it publickly ; and since all that cast off the Romane yoke , thought they had title enough to be called Reformed , it was hard to have pleased all the private interests and peevishness of men that called themselves friends , and therefore that onely in which the Church of Rome had prevaricated against the word of God , or innovated against Apostolical tradition , all that was par'd away . But at last she fix'd , and strove no further to please the people , who never could be satisfied . 11. The Painter that exposed his work to the censure of the common passengers , resolving to mend it as long as any man could finde fault , at last had brought the eyes to the ears and the ears to the neck , and for his excuse subscrib'd , Hanc populus fecit . But his [ Hanc ego ] that which he made by the rules of art , and the advice of men skill'd in the same mystery was the better peece . The Church of England should have par'd away all the Canon of the Communion , if she had mended her peece at the prescription of the Zuinglians ; and all her office of Baptism , if she had mended by the rules of the Anabaptists , and kept up Altars still by the example of the Lutherans , and not have retain'd decency by the good will of the Calvinists ; and now another new light is sprung up , she should have no Liturgy at all , but the worship of God be left to the managing of chance , and indeliberation , and a petulant fancy . 12. It began early to discover its inconvenience ; for when certain zealous persons fled to Frankford to avoid the funeral piles kindled by the Romane Bishops in Queen Maries time , as if they had not enemies enough abroad they fell foul with one another , and the quarrel was about the Common Prayer Book , and some of them made their appeal to the judgement of M r Calvin , whom they prepossessed with strange representments , and troubled phantasms concerning it , and yet the worst he said upon the provocation of those prejudices was that even its vanities were tolerable . Tolerabiles ineptias was the unhandsome Epithete he gave to some things which he was forc'd to dislike by his over-earnest complying with the Brethren of Frankford . 13. Well! upon this the wisdome of this Church & State saw it necessary to fixe where with advice she had begun , and with counsel she had once mended . And to have altered in things inconsiderable upon a new design or sullen mislike , had been extreme levity , and apt to have made the men contemptible , their authority slighted , and the thing ridiculous , especially before adversaries , that watch'd all opportunity and appearances to have disgraced the Reformation . Here therefore it became a Law , was established by an Act of Parliament , was made solemne by an appendant penalty , against all that on either hand did prevaricate a sanction of so long and so prudent consideration . 14. But the Common Prayer-book had the fate of S. Paul , for when it had scap'd the storms of the Romane Sea , yet a viper sprung out of Queen Maries fires , which at Frankford first leap'd upon the hand of the Church , but since that time it hath gnawn the bowels of its own Mother , and given it self life by the death of its Parent and Nurse . 15. For as for the Adversaries from the Romane party , they were so convinc'd by the piety and innocence of the Common Prayer-Book , that they could accuse it of no deformity , but of imperfection , of a want of some things which they judged convenient , because the error had a wrinckle on it and the face of antiquity . And therefore for ten or eleven years they came to our Churches , joyn'd in our devotions , and communicated without scruple , till a temporal interest of the Church of Rome rent the Schism wider , and made it gape like the jaws of the grave . And let me say , it addes no small degree to my confidence and opinion of the English Common Prayer-Book , that amongst the numerous Armies sent from the Romane Seminaries , ( who were curious enough to enquire , able enough to finde out , and wanted no anger to have made them charge home any errour in our Liturgy , if the matter had not been unblameable , and the composition excellent ) there was never any impiety or heresy charg'd upon the Liturgy of the Church ; ( for I reckon not the calumnies of Harding , for they were onely in general , calling it [ Darkness , &c. ] from which aspersion it was worthily vindicated by M. Deering . ) The truth of it is , the Compilers took that course which was sufficient to have secur'd it against the malice of a Spanish Inquisitor , or the scrutiny of a more inquisitive Presbytery , for they put nothing of controversy into their prayers , nothing that was then matter of question ; onely because they could not prophecy , they put in some things which since then have been called to question , by persons whose interest was highly concerned to finde fault with something . But that also hath been the fate of the Penmen of holy Scripture , some of which could prophecy , and yet could not prevent this . But I doe not remember that any man was ever put to it to justify the Common Prayer against any positive , publick , and professed charge by a Romane Adversary : Nay , it is transmitted to us by the testimony of persons greater then all exceptions , that Paulus 4 t●s in his private entercourses and Letters to Queen Elizabeth did offer to confirm the English Common Prayer Book , if she would acknowledge his Primacy and authority , and the Reformation derivative from him . And this lenity was pursued by his Successor Pius 4 tus , with an [ omnia de nobis tibi polliceare ] he assured her she should have any thing from him , not onely things pertaining to her soul , but what might conduce to the establishment and confirmation of her Royal Dignity ; amongst which , that the Liturgy newly established by her authority should not be rescinded by the Popes power , was not the least considerable . 16. And possibly this hath cast a cloud upon it in the eyes of such persons who never will keep charity or so much as civility but with those with whom they have made a league offensive and defensive against all the world . This hath made it to be suspected of too much complianc● with that Church , and her Offices of devotion , and that it is a very Cento composed out of the Mass Book , Pontifical , Breviaries , Manuals , and Portuises of the Romane Church . 17. I cannot say but many of our Prayers are also in the Romane Offices . But so they are also in the Scripture , so also is the Lords Prayer , and if they were not , yet the allegation is very inartificial , and the charge peevish and unreasonable , unless there were nothing good in the Romane Books , or that it were unlawful to pray a good prayer which they had once stain'd with red letters . The Objection hath not sense enough to procure an answer upon its own stock , but by reflection from a direct truth , which uses to be like light manifesting it self and discovering darkness . 18. It was first perfected in King Edward the sixths time , but it was by and by impugned through the obstinate & dissembling malice of many : They are the words of M. Fox in his Book of Martyrs . Then it was reviewed and published with so much approbation , that it was accounted the work of God ; but yet not long after there were some persons qui divisionis occasionem arripiebant ( saith Alesius ) vocabula & penè syllabas expendendo , they tried it by points and syllables , and weighed every word , and sought occasions to quarrel , which being observed by Archbishop Cranmer , he caused it to be translated into Latine and sent it to Bucer , requiring his judgement of it , who returned this answer , That although there are in it some things quae rapi possunt ab inquietis ad materiam contentionis , which by peevish men may be cavill'd at , yet there was nothing in it but what was taken out of the Scriptures , or agreeable to it , if rightly understood ; that is , if handled and read by wise and good men . The zeal which Archbishop Grindal , Bishop Ridly , D r Taylor , and other the holy Martyrs and Confessors in Queen Maries time expressed for this excellent Liturgy before and at the time of their death , defending it by their disputations , adorning it by their practice , and sealing it with their blouds , are arguments which ought to recommend it to all the sons of the Church of England for ever , infinitely to be valued beyond all the little whispers and murmurs of argument pretended against it : and when it came out of the flame , and was purified in the Martyrs fires , it became a vessell of honour , and used in the house of God in all the days of that long peace which was the effect of Gods blessing , and the reward ( as we humbly hope ) of an holy Religion , and when it was laid aside in the days of Queen Mary , it was [ to the great decay of the due honour of God , and discomfort to the Professors of the truth of Christs Religion ] they are the words of Queen Elizabeth , and her grave and wise Parliament . 19. Archbishop Cranmer in his purgation , A. D. 1553. made an offer if the Queen would give him leave , to prove All that is contained in the Common Prayer Book , to be conformable to that order which our blessed Saviour Christ did both observe and command to be observed . And a little after he offers to joyn issue upon this point , That the Order of the Church of England , set out by authority of the innocent and godly Prince Edward the sixth , in his high Court of Parliament , is the same that was used in the Church fifteen hundred years past . 20. And I shall go near to make his words good . For , very much of our Liturgy is the very words of Scriptures . The Psalms and Lessons , and all the Hymnes save one , are nothing else but Scripture , and owe nothing to the Romane Breviaries for their production or authority . So that the matter of them is out of question holy and true ; As for the form , none ever misliked it but they that will admit no form , for all admit this that admit any . But that these should be parts of Liturgy needs not to be a question , when we remember that Hezekiah and the Princes made it a Law to their Church to sing praises to the Lord with the words of David , and of Asaph the Seer , and that Christ himself did so and his Apostles after the manner of the Jews in the Feast of Passeover , sung their Hymnes and portions of the great Allelujah in the words of David and Asaph the Seer too , and that there was a song in heaven made up of the words of Moses and David , and Jeremy the Seer , and that the Apostles and the Church of God always chose to doe so , according to the commandment of the Apostle , that we sing Psalms and Hymnes to God. I know not where we can have better then the Psalms of David and Asaph , and these were ready at hand for the use of the Church , insomuch that in the Christian Synaxes , particularly in the Churches of Corinth S. Paul observed that every man had a Psalm , it was then the common devotion , and Liturgy of all the faithful , and so for ever ; and the Fathers of the fourth Councel of Toledo justify the practice of the Church in recitation of the Psalms and Hymnes by the example of Christ and his Apostles , who after Supper sung a Psalm : and the Church did also make hymns of her own , in the honour of Christ & sung them : Such as was the [ Te Deum ] made by S. Ambrose and S. Augustine , and they stood her in great stead , not onely as acts of direct worship to Christ , but as Conservators of the articles of Christs Divinity , of which the Fathers made use against the heretick Artemon , as appears in Eusebius lib. 5. cap. 28. Eccles. Hist. 21. That reading the Scripture was part of the Liturgy of the Apostolical ages , we finde it in the tenth Canon of the Apostles , in Albinus Flaccus , Rabanus Maurus and in the Liturgy attributed to S. James . Deinde leguntur fusissimè oracula sacra veteris Testamenti & Prophetarum , & Filii Dei Incarnatio demonstratur , Passio , Resurrectio ex mortuis , ascensus in Coelum , secundus item adventus ejus cum gloria . Atque id fit singulis diebus , &c. 22. So that since thus farre the matter of our devotions is warranted by Gods Spirit , and the form by the precedents of Scripture too , and the ages Apostolical , above half of the English Liturgy is as Divine as Scripture it self , and the choice of it for practice is no less then Apostolical . 23. Of the same consideration is the Lords Prayer , commanded by our blessed Saviour in two Evangelists ; the Introit is the Psal. 95. and the Responsories of Morning and Evening Prayer , ejaculations taken from the words of David and Hezekiah ; the Decalogue recited in the Communion is the ten words of Moses , and without peradventure was not taken into the Office in imitation of the Romane ; for although it was done upon great reason , and considering the great ignorance of the people they were to inform , yet I think it was never in any Church Office before , but in Manuals and Catechisms onely : yet they are made Liturgick by the suffrages at the end of every Commandement , and need no other warrant from antiquity but the 20. Chapter of Exodus . There are not many parts beside , and they which are , derive themselves from an elder house then the Romane Offices ; The Gloria Patri was composed by the Nicene Councel , the latter Versicle by S. Jerome , though some eminently learned ( and in particular ) Baronius is of an opinion that it was much more ancient . It was at first a confession of faith , and used by a newly baptized Convert and the standers by , and then it came to be a Hymne , and very early annexed to the Antiphones , and afterwards to the Psalms and Hymnes , all except that of S. Ambrose beginning with [ Te Deum ] because that of it self is a great Doxology . It is seven times used in the Greek Office of Baptism , and in the recitation of it the Priest and people stood all up and turned to the East , and this custome ever continued in the Church , and is still retained in the Church of England in conformity to the ancient and Primitive custome , save onely that in the Let any we kneel , which is a more humble posture but not so ancient , the Letanies having usually been said walking , not kneeling or standing . But in this the variety is an ornament to the Churches garment . S. Gregory added this Doxology to the Responsory at the beginning of prayer , after , O Lord make hast to help us ; That was the last , and yet above a thousand years old , and much elder then the body of Popery . And as for the latter part of the Doxology , I am clearly of opinion , that though it might by S. Hierome be brought into the Latine Church , yet it was in the Greek Church before him , witness that most ancient Hymne or Doxology , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . However , as to the matter of the Doxology , it is no other then the Confession of the three most blessed persons of the Trinity which Christ commanded , and which with greatest solemnity we declare in Baptism ; and certainly we can no ways better , or more solemnly and ritually give glory to the Holy Trinity , then by being baptized into the profession and service of it . The Trisagion was taught to the Greek Church by Angels ; but certain it is , it sprang not from a Romane fountain ; and that the Canon of our Communion is the same with the old Canon of the Church many hundred years before Popery had invaded the simplicity of Christian Religion , is evident , if we compare the particulars recited by S. a Basil , b Innocentius , his Epistle to John Archbishop of Lyons , c Honorius the Priest , d Alcuinus , and e Walafridus Strabo , and if we will , we may adde the Liturgy said to be S. James's , and the Constitution of S. f Clement , ( for whoever was the author of these , certainly they were ancient ) Radulphus Tongrensis and the later Ritualists , Cassander , Pamelius , Hittorpius , Jacobus Goar and the rest . 24. And that we may be yet more particular , the very Prayer for Christs Catholick Church , in the Office of Communion , beside that it is nothing but a plain execution of an Apostolical precept , set down in the Preface of the Prayer , it was also used in all times , and in all Liturgies of the ancient Church . And we finde this attested by S. g Cyril of Jerusalem , Deinde postquam confectum est illud spirituale sacrificium ... obsecramus Deum pro communi Ecclesiarum pace , pro tranquillitate mundi , pro Regibus , &c. To the same purpose also there is a testimony in S. Chrysostome , which because it serves not onely here , but also to other uses , it will not be amiss here to note it : Quid autem sibi vult [ primum omnium ? ] In obsequio scil . quotidiano , perpetu●que divinae religionis ritu . Atque id noverunt fideles quomodo diebus singulis mane & vespere orationes fundantur ad Dominum , quomodo pro omni mundo & Regibus , & omnibus qui in sublimitate positi sunt , obsecrationes in Ecclesia fiant . Sed forte quis dixerit , pro omnibus , quod ait , tantum fideles intelligi voluisse . At id verum non esse quae sequuntur , ostendunt . Denique ait , pro Regibus , neque enim tunc Reges Deum colebant . It is evident by this , that the custome of the Church was not onely in the celebration of the holy Communion , but in all her other Offices to say this Prayer , not onely for Christs Catholick Church , but for all the world . 25. And that the charity of the Church might not be misconstrued , he produces his warrant . S. Paul not onely expresly commands us to pray for all men , but addes by way of instance , for Kings , who then were unchristian , and heathen in all the world . But this form of Prayer is almost word for word in S. Ambrose . Haec regula Ecclesiastica est tradita à Magistro gentium quâ utuntur Sacerdotes nostri , ut pro omnibus supplicent ... deprecantes pro Regibus ... orantes pro iis quibus sublimis potestas credita est , ut in justitia & veritate gubernent ... postulantes pro iis qui in necessitate varia sunt , ut eruti & liberati Deum collaudent incolumitatis Authorem . So farre goes our form of Prayer . But S. Ambrose addes , Referentes quoque gratiarum actiones . ... And so it was with us in the first Service-books of King Edward , and the Preface to the Prayer engages us to a thanksgiving ; but I know not how it was stoln out , the Preface still remaining , to chide their unwariness that took down that part of the building , and yet left the gate standing . But if the Reader please to be satisfied concerning this Prayer , which indeed is the longest in our Service-book , and of greatest consideration , he may see it taken up from the universal custome of the Church , and almost in all the words of the old Liturgies , if he will observe the Liturgies themselves of S. Basil , S. Chrysostome , and the concurrent testimonies of a Tertullian , b S. Austin , c Celestine , d Gennadius , e Prosper , and f Theophylact . 26. I shall not need to make any excuses for the Churches reading those portions of Scripture which we call Epistles and Gospels before the Communion . They are Scriptures of the choicest , and most profitable transaction . And let me observe this thing , That they are not onely declarations of all the mysteries of our redemption , and rules of good life , but this choice is of the greatest compliance with the necessities of the Christian Church that can be imagined . For if we deny to the people a liberty of reading Scriptures , may they not complain as Isaac did against the inhabitants of the land , that the Philistines had spoiled his well , and the fountains of living water ; If a free use to all of them , and of all Scriptures were permitted , should not the Church her self have more cause to complain of the infinite licentiousness and loosness of interpretations , and of the commencement of ten thousand errours , which would certainly be consequent to such permission ? Reason and Religion will chide us in the first , reason and experience in the latter . And can the wit of man conceive a better temper and expedient , then that such Scriptures onely or principally should be laid before them all in daily Offices , which contain in them all the mysteries of our redemption , and all the rules of good life ? which two things are done by the Gospels , and Epistles respectively : the first being a Record of the life and death of our blessed Saviour ; the latter , instructions for the edification of the Church , in pious and Christian conversation ; and all this was done with so much choice , that as obscure places are avoided by design , as much as could be , so the very assignation of them to certain festivals , the appropriation of them to solemn and particular days does entertain the understandings of the people with notions proper to the mystery , and distinct from impertinent and vexatious questions . And were this design made something more minute , and applicable to the various necessities of times , and such choice Scriptures permitted indifferently , which might be matter of necessity and great edification , the people of the Church would have no reason to complain that the fountains of our Saviour were stopp'd from them , nor the Rulers of the Church , that the mysteriousness of Scripture were abused by the petulancy of the people to consequents harsh , impious , and unreasonable in despight of government , in exauctoration of the power of superiours , or for the commencement of schisms and heresies . The Church with great wisdome hath first held this torch out , and though for great reasons intervening and hindering , it cannot be reduced to practice , yet the Church hath shewn her desire to avoid the evil that is on both hands , and she hath shewn the way also , if it could have been insisted in . But however , this choice of the more remarkable portions of Scripture is so reasonable and proportionable to the nature of the thing , that because the Gospels and Epistles bear their several shares of the design , ( the Gospel representing the foundation , and prime necessities of Christianity , and the mysterious parts of our Redemption , the summe , the faith , and the hopes of Christianity ) therefore it is attested by a ceremony of standing up , it being a part of the confession of faith : but the Epistles containing superstructures upon that foundation , are read with religious care , but not made formal or solemn by any other circumstance . The matter contains in it sufficient of reason and of proportion , but nothing of necessity , except it be by accident , and as authority does intervene by way of sanction . 27. But that this reading of Epistles and Gospels before the Communion was one of the earliest customes of the Church , I finde it affirmed by Rabanus Maurus . Sed enim initio mos iste cantandi non erat , qui nunc in Ecclesia ante sacrificium celebratur : Sed tamen epistolae Pauli recitabantur & sanctum Euangelium . The custome of reading S. Pauls Epistles , and the holy Gospel before the Sacrament was from the beginning . Some other portions of Scripture were read upon emergent occasions instead of the Epistle , which still retain the name of Epistle , but it is so seldome , that it happens upon two Sundays onely in the year , upon Trinity Sunday , and the 25. Sunday after ; upon Saints days it happens oftner , because the story requires a particular rememoration , and therefore is very often taken out of the Acts of the Apostles , but being in substitution onely of the ordinary portion of the Epistle of S. Paul , or other the Apostles , it keeps the name of the first design , though the change be upon good reason , and much propriety . 28. There remains now nothing but the Let any and Collects to be accounted for : for the matter of which I shall need to say nothing , because the Objections whatsoever have been against them are extremely low , and rather like the intemperate talk of an angry child , then pressures of reason or probability , excepting where they are charg'd with their vertues , for their charity in praying for all men , for their humility in acknowledging such a worthlesness in our selves , as not to dare to ask our petitions upon our own confidences . These things fall like water against a rock , or like the accusations against our blessed Saviour , the unreasonableness of them splits themselves . 29. But for the form I think themselves will make answer , when they consider that they are nothing but a pursuit of that Apostolical precept , which next to the Lords Prayer was the first Scripture pattern whence the Church fram'd her Liturgies , First of all , let there be made intercessions and prayers and supplications , and giving of thanks for all men . In which words if there be not an impertinent repetition of divers words to the same sense , then needs must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , be as much distinct from each other in their form , as they are all from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 30. S. Augustine expounds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prayers made in and about the blessed Eucharist . Ideo in hujus sanctificatione & distributionis praeparatione existimo Apostolum jussisse propriè fieri . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , id est , orationes . Interpellationes autem vel postulationes siunt cùm populus benedicitur . 31. But S. Augustine if he were not deceived in his Criticism , says that beside the general name of Prayer , which is signified by all those words , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Scripture signifies votum or desire , such surely as we express by sudden and short emissions , and then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is but a prayer , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is , but an expression of short and ejaculatory desires , and may be better applied to such forms of prayer as are our Collects , rather then the longer and more solemn parts of the Canon of Communion . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though it signify an address to God , yet it may with propriety enough be applied to our interlocutory prayers where the people bear a share ; for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies congressum or colloquium , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isocrat . make no frequent societies or confederations with them . However , although Grammarians may differ in assigning these several words to their proper , minute , and incommunicable signification , yet it is most clear , that they mean not prayers distinct , and made several by the variety of matter , but several addresses differing onely in modo orandi , and therefore by these are intended the several forms of prayer and supplication : and the Church hath at all times used prayers of all variety , long and short , ejaculatory , determined and solemn . And the Church of England understood it in this variety , calling the short jaculatory prayers and responsories by the names of Letanies , or suffrages , which I should render in the phrase of S. Austin to be postulationes , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but the longer Collects he calls prayers , which is the true rendring of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( I suppose ) and therefore twice in the Letany , after the short responsories , the Priest says [ Let us pray ] by that minding the people of the Apostles precept , that prayer as well as supplications be made . * For the Letanies it is certain , the form is of great antiquity ; Mamercus Bishop of Vienna made solemn Letanies 400. years after Christ , and he and all his Diocess repeated them together : And therefore I know not what matter of doubt there can be reasonable in the form , since besides that we have the wisdome of so many ages , and holy and prudent persons to confirm them , the form is made with design to represent all the needs of the Catholick Church , and to make the prayer it self fitted for an active and an intense devotion ; and that it cooperates rarely well to these ends , is so true , that of the first every man is judge , of the second , every man may be judge that will without prejudice , and with pious predispositions use the form ; for if they help my devotion infinitely , they may doe as much to another , if he be disposed as I am ; and he that says they doe no advantage or singular relish to my spirit , may as well tell me the meat I eat does not please me because he loves it not ; but the exceptions which are against it are so phantastick , and by chance , that unless it be against a single adversary , and by personal engagement , they cannot be noted in the series of a positive discourse . Sometimes they are too long , and sometimes they are too short , and yet the objectors will make longer and shorter when they please ; and because no law of God hath prescribed to us in such circumstances , if the Church leaves the same liberty to their private devotions , it is not reasonable they should prescribe to her in publick , and in such minutes , in which the ordinary prudence of one wise man is abundantly sufficient to give him Laws and directions , and in matters of greater difficulty . 32. Of the same consideration is the form of our Church Collects , which are made pleasant by their variety of matter , are made energetical and potent by that great endearment of [ per Jesum Christum Dominum nostrum ] are cleared from a neighbourhood of tediousness by their so quick intercision and breakings off , and have for their precedent the forms of Prayer used by the religious of Palestine mentioned by Cassian , Et hae fuerunt Monachorum jaculatoriae orationes , ut frequentiùs Dominum deprecantes jugiter eidem cohaerere possimus , & ut insidiantis . Diaboli jacula quae infligere nobis tum praecipuè insistit cùm oramus , succinctâ vitemus brevitate . In all these forms of prayer there is no difference but what is circumstantial , and therefore although these circumstances be of great efficacy for the procuring of accidental advantages to our spirits which are often swayed , moved and determined by a manner as much as by an essence , yet there is in it nothing of duty and obligation , and therefore it is the most unreasonable thing in the world to make any of these things to be a question of Religion . 33. I shall therefore press these things no further , but note that since all Liturgy is and ever was either prose or verse , or both , and the Liturgy of the Church of England as well as most others , is of the last sort , I consider that whatsoever is in her devotions besides the Lessons , Epistles and Gospels ( the body of which is no other thing , then was the famous Lectionarium of S. Jerome ) is a compliance with these two dictates of the Apostle for Liturgy : the which , one for verse , the other for prose , in 1 Psalms and 2 Hymns and 3 Spiritual songs [ for verse : ] for prose , 4 deprecations , and 5 prayers , and 6 intercessions , and 7 giving of thanks , will warrant and commend , as so many parts of duty , all the portions of the English Liturgy . 34. If it were worth the pains , it were very easy to enumerate the Authors , and especially the occasions and time when the most minute passages , such I mean as are known by distinct appellatives , came into the Church , that so it may appear , our Liturgy is as ancient and primitive in every part , as it is pious and unblameable , and long before the Church got such a beam in one of her eyes , which was endevoured to be cast out at the reformation . But it will not be amiss to observe that very many of them were inserted as Antidotes , and deleteries to the worst of heresies , as I have discours'd already , & such was that clause [ through Jesus Christ our Lord , who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the holy Spirit ever one God ] and some other phrases parallel were put in , in defiance of the Macedonians , and all the species of the Antitrinitarians , and used by S. Ambrose in Millain , S. Austin in Africa , and Idacius Clarus in Spain ; and in imitation of so pious precedents , the Church of England hath inserted divers clauses into her Offices . 35. There was a great instance in the administration of the blessed Sacrament . For upon the change of certain clauses in the Liturgy upon the instance of Martin Bucer , instead of [ the bloud of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for you preserve your body and soul unto everlasting life ] was substituted this [ take and eat this in remembrance , &c. ] and it was done lest the people accustomed to the opinion of Transubstantiation and the appendant practices , should retain the same doctrine upon intimation of the first clause . But in the beginning of Queen Elizabeths reign , when certain persons of the Zuinglian opinion would have abused the Church with Sacramentary doctrine , and pretended the Church of England had declared for it in the second clause of 1552 ; the wisdome of the Church thought it expedient to joyn both the clauses ; the first lest the Church should be suspected to be of the Sacramentary opi●ion , the latter lest she should be mistaken as a Patroness of Transubstantiation . And both these with so much temper and sweetness , that by her care she rather prevented all mistakes , then by any positive declaration in her prayers , engaged her self upon either side ; that she might pray to God without strife and contention with her brethren . For the Church of England had never known how to follow the names of men , but to call Christ onely her Lord and Master . 36. But from the inserting of these and the like clauses which hath been done in all ages , according to several opportunities and necessities , I shall observe this advantage which is in many , but is also very signally in the English Liturgy , we are thereby enabled and advantaged in the meditation of those mysteries , de quibus festivatur in sacris ( as the Casuists love to speak ) which upon solemn days we are bound to meditate and make to be the matter and occasion of our address to God ; for the offices are so ordered that the most indifferent and careless cannot but be reminded of the mystery in every Anniversary , which if they be summ'd up will make an excellent Creed , ( and then let any man consider what a rare advantage it will be to the belief of such propositions when the very design of the Holy-day teaches the hard handed Artizan the name and meaning of an article ) and yet the most forward and religious cannot be abused with any semblances of superstition . The life and death of the Saints which is very precious in the eyes of God , is so remembred by his humble and afflicted handmaid the Church of England , that by giving him thanks and praise , God may be honoured , the Church instructed by the proposition of their example , and we give testimony of the honour and love we owe and pay unto Religion by the pious veneration and esteem of those holy and beatified persons . 37. Certain it is , that there is no part of Religion , as it is a distinct vertue , and is to be exercised by interiour acts and forms of worship , but is in the offices of the Church of England . For if the soul desires to be humbled she hath provided forms of Confession to God before his Church ; if she will rejoyce and give God thanks for particular blessings , there are forms of thanksgiving described and added by the Kings authority upon the Conference at Hampton-Court , which are all the publick , solemne , and foreseen occasions for which by Law and order provision could be made : if she will commend to God the publick and private necessities of the Church , and single persons , the whole body of Collects and devotions supplies that abundantly : if her devotion be high and pregnant , and prepared to fervency and importunity of congress with God , the Letanies are an admirable pattern of devotion , full of circumstances proportionable for a quick and an earnest spirit ; when the revolution of the Anniversary calls on us to perform our duty of special meditation , and thankfulness to God for the glorious benefits of Christs Incarnation , Nativity , Passion , Resurrection , and Ascension ( blessings which doe as well deserve a day of thanksgiving as any other temporal advantage , though it be the pleasure of a victory ) then we have the offices of Christmass , the Annunciation , Easter and Ascension : if we delight to remember those holy persons , whose bodies rest in the bed of peace , and whose souls are deposited in the hands of Christ , till the day of restitution of all things , we may by the Collects and days of Anniversary festivity not onely remember , but also imitate them too in our lives , if we will make that use of the proportions of Scripture allotted for the festival which the Church intends ; to which if we adde the advantages of the whole Psalter which is an intire body of devotion by it self , and hath in it forms to exercise all graces by way of internal act and spiritual intention , there is not any ghostly advantage which the most religious can either need or fancy , but the English Liturgy in its entire constitution will furnish us withall . And certainly it was a very great wisdome , and a very prudent and religious Constitution so to order that part of the Liturgy , which the ancient called the Lectionarium , that the Psalter should be read over twelve times in the year , the old Testament once , and the new Testament thrice , beside the Epistles and Gospels , which renew with a more frequent repetition such choice places as represent the intire body of faith and good life . There is a defalcation of some few Chapters from the intire body in the order , but that also was part of the wisdome of the Church not to expose to publick ears and common judgements , some of the secret rites of Moses Law , or the more mysterious prophecies of the new Testament , whose sense and meaning the event will declare , if we by mistaken and anticipated interpretations doe not obstruct our own capacities , and hinder us from beleeving the true events , because they answer not those expectations with which our own mistakes have prepared our understandings : as it hapned to the Jews in the case of Antiochus , and to the Christians in the person of Antichrist . 38. Well! thus as it was framed in the body of its first Constitution and second alteration , those excellent men whom God chose as instruments of his honour and service in the reformation , to whom also he did shew what great things they were to suffer for his Names sake , approved of it with high testimony , promoted it by their own use and zeal , and at last sealed it with their bloud . 39. That they had a great opinion of the piety and unblameable composure of the Common Prayer-book , appears 1 in the challenge made in its behalf by the Archbishop Cranmer , to defend it against all the world of Enemies ; 2 by the daily using it in time of persecution and imprisonment ( for so did Bishop Ridley , and D r Taylor , who also recommended it to his wife for a legacy : ) 3 by their preaching in behalf of it ( as many did ) 4 by Hulliers hugging it in his flames with a posture of great love and forwardness of entertainment , 5 besides the direct testimony which the most eminent learned amongst the Queen Mary Martyrs have given of it . Amongst which that of the learned Rector of Hadley , D r Rowland Taylor , is most considerable : his words are these in a Letter of his to a friend ; [ But there was after that by the most innocent King Edward ( for whom God be praised everlastingly ) the whole Church Service with great deliberation , and the advice of the best learned men of the Realm , and authorized by the whole Parliament , and received and published gladly by the whole Realm : which Book was never reformed but once , and yet by that one reformation it was so fully perfected according to the rules of our Christian Religion in every behalf , that no Christian conscience could be offended with any thing therein contained . I mean of that Book reformed . ] 40. I desire the words may be considered and confronted against some other words lately published , which charge these holy and learned men but with a half-fac'd light , a darkness in the confines of Egypt , and the suburbs of Goshen . And because there is no such thing proved of these blessed Men , and Martyrs , and that it is easy to say such words of any man that is not fully of our minde , I suppose the advantage and the outweighing authority will lie on our part in behalf of the Common Prayer-book , especially since this man and divers others died with it and for it according as it hapned by the circumstance of their charges and articles , upon which they died ; for so it was in the cases of John Rough , John Philpot , Cutbert Simson , and seven others burnt in Smithfield , upon whom it was charged in their indictments , that they used , allowed , preached for , and maintained respectively the Service-book of King Edward . To which articles they answered affirmatively , and confessed them to be true in every part , and died accordingly . 41. I shall press this argument to issue in the words of S. Ambrose cited to the like purpose by Vincentius Lirinensis . Librum sacerdotalem quis nostrum resignare audeat , signatum à Confessoribus , & multorum jam martyrio consecratum ? Quomodo fidem eorum possumus denegare , quorum victoriam praedicamus ? Who shall dare to violate this Priestly book , which so many Confessors have consigned , and so many Martyrs have hallowed with their bloud ? How shall we call them Martyrs , if we deny their faith , how shall we celebrate their victory , if we dislike their cause ? If we beleeve them to be crown'd , why shall we deny but that they strove lawfully ? So that if they dying in attestation of this Book were Martyrs , why doe we condemne the Book for which they died ? If we will not call them Martyrs , it is clear we have chang'd our Religion since then . And then it would be considered whether we are fallen ? For the Reformers in King Edwards time died for it , in Q. Elizabeths time they avowed it under the protection of an excellent Princess , but in that sad interval of Q. Maries reign it suffered persecution , and if it shall doe so again , it is but an unhandsome compliance for Reformers to be unlike their Brethren , and to be like their Enemies , to doe as doe the Papists , and onely to speak great words against them ; and it will be sad for a zealous Protestant to live in an age that should disavow K. Edwards and Q. Elizabeths Religion and manner of worshipping God , & in an age that shall doe as did Q. Maries Bishops , persecute the Book of Common Prayer , and the Religion contained in it . God help the poor Protestants in such times : But let it doe its worst , if God please to give his grace , the worst that can come is but a Crown , and that was never denied to Martyrs . 42. In the mean time I can but with joy and Eucharist consider with what advantages and blessings the pious Protestant is entertained and blessed , and arm'd against all his needs by the constant and Religious usage of the Common Prayer-book . For besides the direct advantages of the Prayers and devotions , some whereof are already instanc'd , ( and the experience of holy persons will furnish them with more ) there are also forms of solemne benediction and absolution in the Offices , and if they be not highly considerable , there is nothing sacred in the Evangelical Ministery , but all is a vast plain , and the Altars themselves are made of unhallowed turf . 43. Concerning Benediction ( of which there are four more solemne forms in the whole Office , two in the Canon of the Communion , one in Confirmation , one in the Office of Marriage ) I shall give this short account , that without all question the less is blessed of the greater , and it being an issue spiritual , is rather to be verified in spiritual relation , then in natural or political . And therefore if there by any such thing as regeneration by the Ministery of the word , and begetting in Christ , and Fathers and Sons after the common faith ( as the expressions of the Apostle make us to beleeve ) certain it is , the blessings of Religion doe descend most properly from our spiritual Fathers , and with most plentiful emanation . And this hath been the Religion of all the world , to derive very much of their blessings by the Priests particular and signal ministration ; Melchisedech blessed Abraham , Isaac blessed Jacob , and Moses and Aaron blessed the people . So that here is benediction from a Prince , from a Father , from the Aaronical Priest , from Melchisedech , of whose order is the Christian , in whose Law it is a sanction , that in grea● needs especially , the Elders of the Church be sent for , and let them pray over him that is distressed . That is the great remedy for the great necessity . And it was ever much valued in the Church , insomuch that Nectarius would by no means take investiture of his Patriarchal Sea , until he had obtained the benediction of Diodorus the Bishop of Cilicia : Eudoxia the Empress brought her son Theodosius to S. Chrysostome for his blessing , and S. Austin and all his company received it of Innocentius Bishop of Carthage ; It was so solemne in all marriages , that the marrying of persons was called Benediction . So it was in the fourth Councel of Carthage , Sponsus & sponsa cùm benedicendi sunt à Sacerdote , &c. benedicendi , for married . ... And in all Church Offices it was so solemne , that by a Decree of the Councel of Agatho , A. D. 380. it was decreed , ante benedictionem Sacerdotis populus egredi non praesumat . By the way onely , here is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for two parts of the English Liturgy . For the benediction in the Office of marriage by the authority of the Councel of Carthage , and for concluding the Office of Communion with the Priests or Bishops benediction by warrant of the Councel of Agatho , which Decrees having been derived into the practice of the universal Church for very many ages , is in no hand to be undervalued , lest we become like Esau , and we miss it when we most need it . For my own particular , I shall still press on to receive the benediction of holy Church , till at last I shall hear a Venite benedicti , and that I be reckoned amongst those blessed souls who come to God by the ministeries of his own appointment , and will not venture upon that neglect , against which the piety and wisdome of all Religions in the world infinitely doe prescribe . 44. Now the advantages of confidence which I have upon the forms of benediction in the Common Prayer-book are therefore considerable , because God himself prescribed a set form of blessing the people , appointing it to be done not in the Priests extempore , but in an established form of words : and because , as the authority of a prescript form is from God , so that this form may be also highly warranted , the solemne blessing at the end of the Communion , is in the very words of S. Paul. 45. For the forms of Absolution in the Liturgy , though I shall not enter into consideration of the Question concerning the quality of the Priests power which is certainly a very great ministery , yet I shall observe the rare temper , and proportion which the Church of England uses in commensurating the forms of Absolution to the degrees of preparation and necessity . At the beginning of the Morning and Evening Prayer after a general Confession usually recited before the devotion is high and pregnant , ( whose parts like fire enkindle one another ) there is a form of Absolution in general , declarative and by way of proposition . In the Office of the Communion , because there are more acts of piety and repentance previous and presupposed , there the Churches form of Absolution is optative and by way of intercession . But in the Visitation of the sick , when it is supposed and enjoyned that the penitent shall disburthen himself of all the clamorous loads upon his conscience , the Church prescribes a medicinal form by way of delegate authority , that the parts of justification may answer to the parts of good life . For as the penitent proceeds so does the Church : pardon and repentance being terms of relation they grow up together till they be compleat ; this the Church with greatest wisdom supposes to be at the end of our life ; ( grace by that time having all its growth that it will have here ) & therefore then also the pardon of sins is of another nature then it ever was before , if being now more actual and compleat , whereas before it was in fieri in the beginnings and smaller increases , and upon more accidents apt to be made imperfect and revocable . So that the Church of England in these manners of dispensing the power of the Keys does cut off all disputings and impertinent wranglings , whether the Priests power were Judicial or declarative ; for possibly it is both , and it is optative too , and something else yet , for it is an emanation from all the parts of his Ministery , and he never absolves , but he preaches or prays or administers a Sacrament ; for this power of remission is a transcendent , passing through all the parts of the Priestly Offices ; For the keys of the Kingdome of heaven are the promises & the threatnings of the Scripture , and the prayers of the Church , and the Word and the Sacraments , and all these are to be dispensed by the Priest , and these keys are committed to his Ministery , and by the operation of them all he opens and shuts heaven gates ministerially ; and therefore S. Paul calls it verbum reconciliationis , and says it is dispensed by Ministers , as by Embassadors or Delegates : and therefore it is an excellent temper of the Church , so to prescribe her forms of Absolution , as to shew them to be results of the whole Priestly Office , of Preaching , of dispensing Sacraments , of spiritual Cure , and authoritative deprecation . And the benefit which pious and well disposed persons receive by these publick Ministeries , as it lies ready formed in our blessed Saviours promise [ erit solutum in coelis ] so men will then truly understand when they are taught to value every instrument of grace or comfort by the exigence of a present need , as in a sadness of spirit , in an unquiet conscience , in the arrest of death . 46. I shall not need to procure advantages to the reputation of the Common Prayer , by considering the imperfections of whatsoever hath been offered in its stead : but yet * ; a 1 form of worship , composed to the dishonour of the Reformation , accusing it of darkness , and intolerable inconvenience 2 a direction without a rule : 3 a rule without restraint : 4 a prescription leaving an indifferency to a possibility of licentiousness : 5 an office without any injunction of external acts of worship , not prescribing so much as kneeling : 6 an office that onely once names reverence , but forbids it in the ordinary instance , and enjoyns it in no particular : 7 an office that leaves the form of ministration of Sacraments so indifferently , that if there be any form of words essential , the Sacrament is in much danger to become invalid , for want of provision of due forms of Ministration : 8 an office that complies with no precedent of Scripture , nor of any ancient Church : 9 that must of necessity either want authority , or it must preferre novelty before antiquity : 10 that accuses all the Primitive Church of indiscretion at the least : 11 that may be abused by the indiscretion , or ignorance , or malice of any man that uses it : 12 into which , heresy or blasphemy may creep without possiblity of prevention : 13 that hath no external forms to entertain the fancy of the more common spirits : 14 nor any allurement to perswade and en●ice its adversaries : 15 nor any means of adunation and uniformity amongst its confidents : 16 an office that still permits children , in many cases of necessity to be unbaptized , making no provision for them in sudden cases : 17 that will not suffer them to be confirmed at all , ( ut utroque Sacramento renascantur , as S. Cyprians phrase is , that they may be advantaged by a double rite : ) 18 that joyns in marriage as Cacus did his oxen , in rude , inform and unhallowed yokes : 19 that will not doe piety to the dead , nor comfort to the living , by solemn and honorary offices of funeral : 20 that hath no forms of blessing the people any more 21 then described forms of blessing God , which are just none at all : 22 an office that never thinks of absolving penitents , or exercising the power of the Keys , after the custome and rites of Priests : 23 a Liturgy that recites no Creed , no Confession of Faith , so not declaring either to Angels or men , according to what Religion they worship God ; but entertaining , though indeed without a symbole , Arrians , Macedonians , Nestorians , Manichees , or any other Sect , for ought there appears to the contrary : 24 that consigns no publick Canon of Communion , but leaves that as casual and phantastick as any of the lesser offices : 25 an office that takes no more care then chance does , for the reading the holy Scriptures : 26 that never commemorates a departed Saint : 27 that hath no Communion with the Church Triumphant , any more then with the other parts of the Militant : 28 that never thanks God for the redemption of the world by the Nativity , and passion , Resurrection , and Ascension of our blessed Saviour Jesus , but condemnes the memorial even of the Scripture Saints , and the memorial of the miraculous blessings of redemption of mankinde by Christ himself , with the same accusation it condemnes the Legends and portentous stories of the most suspected part of the Romane Calendar : 29 an office that out of zeal against Judaism condemnes all distinction of days , unless they themselves distinguish them : that leaves no signature of piety upon the Lords day , and yet the Compilers doe enjoyn it to a Judaical superstition : 30 an office that does by implication undervalue the Lords Prayer , for it never injoyns it , and does but once permit it : 31 an office that is new without authority , and never made up into a sanction by an Act of Parliament : an order or Directory of devotion that hath all these ingredients and capacities ( and such a one there is in the world ) I suppose is no equal match to contest with and be put in balance against the Liturgy of the Church of England , which was with so great deliberation compiled out of Scriptures , the most of it , all the rest agreeing with Scriptures , and drawn from the Liturgies of the ancient Church , and made by men famous in their generations , whose reputation and glory of Martyrdome hath made it immodest for the best of men now to compare themselves with them : and after its composition considered by advices from abroad , and so trimm'd and adorn'd that no excrescency didremain ; the Rubricks of which Book was writ in the bloud of many of the Compilers , which hath had a testimony from Gods blessing in the daily use of it , accompanying it with the peace of an age , established and confirmed by six Acts of Parliament directly and collaterally , and is of so admirable a composure , that the most industrious wits of its Enemies could never finde out an objection of value enough to make a doubt , or scarce a scruple in a wise spirit . But that I shall not need to set a night-piece by so excellent a beauty , to set it off the better , it s own excellencies are Orators prevalent enough , that it shall not need any advantages accidental . 47. And yet this excellent Book hath had the fate to be cut in pieces with a pen-knife , and thrown into the fire , but it is not consumed ; at first it was sown in tears and is now watered with tears , yet never was any holy thing drowned and extinguished with tears . It began with the Martyrdom of the Compilers , and the Church hath been vexed ever since by angry spirits , and she was forced to defend it with much trouble and unquietness : but it is to be hop'd that all these storms are sent but to increase the zeal and confidence of the pious sons of the Church of England . Indeed the greatest danger that ever the Common Prayer-book had , was the indifferency and indevotion of them that used it but as a common blessing ; and they who thought it fit for the meanest of the Clergy to read prayers ; and for themselves onely to preach , though they might innocently intend it , yet did not in that action consult the honour of our Liturgy ; except where charity or necessity did interpose . But when excellent things goe away , and then look back upon us , as our blessed Saviour did upon S. Peter , we are more mov'd then by the nearer embraces of a full and an actual possession . I pray God it may prove so in our case , and that we may not be too willing to be discouraged ; at least that we may not cease to love and to desire what is not publickly permitted to our practice and profession . 48. But because things are otherwise in this affair then we had hop'd , and that in very many Churches in stead of the Common Prayer which they use not , every man uses what he pleases , and all men doe not choose well , and where there are so many choosers there is nothing regular , and the Sacraments themselves are not so solemnly ministred as the sacredness and solemnity of the mysteries do require , and in very many places where the old excellent forms are not permitted , there is scarce any thing at all , but something to shew there was a shipwrack , a plank or a cable , a Chapter or a Psalm ; some who were troubled to see it so , and fain would see it otherwise , did think it might not be amiss that some of the Ancient forms of other Churches , & of the prayers of Scriptu●e should be drawn together , and laid before them that need ; as supposing that these or the like materials would make better fuel for the fires of devotion then the straw and the stubble which some men did suddenly or weakly rake together when ever they were to dress their Sacrifice : Now although these prayers have no authority to give them power , yet they are humbly and charitably intended , and that may get them love , and they have been ( as to the matter of them ) approved by persons of great learning and great piety , and that may sufficiently recommend them to the use of those who have no other , or no better , and they no way doe violence to Authority , and therefore the use of them cannot be insecure ; and they contain in them no matter of question or dispute , and therefore cannot be justly suspected of interest or partiality : and they are ( especially in the chiefest offices ) collected out of the devotions of the Greek Church , with some mixture of the Mozarabick and AEthiopick , and other Liturgies , and perfected out of the fountains of Scripture , and therefore for the material part have great warrant and great authority : and therefore if they be used with submission to Authority , it is hop'd they may doe good ; and if they be not used , no man will be offended . 49. I hope there will be no need of an apology or an excuse for doing an act of charity ; If no man will confess that he needs any of these , they can be let alone , for they are intended onely for them that doe ; but if there be a need , these prayers may help to obtain of God to take that need away , and to supply it in the mean while . But there is nothing else intended in this design but that we may see what excellent forms of prayer were used in the ancient Church , what a rare repository of Devotion the Scripture is , how it was the same spirit of prayer that assisted the Church of England , and other Churches of God , how much better the Curates of souls may help themselves with these or the like offices , then with their own extempore , how their present needs may be supplied , and their devotion enlarged , and a day of Religion intirely spent , and a provision made for some necessities in which our calamities and our experience of late have too well instructed us . For which and for other great reasons all Churches have admitted variety of Offices . In the Greek Church it is notorious , they have three publick Books , and very many added afterwards by their Patriarchs , their Bishops , and their Priests ; some are said often , and others sometimes : and in Spain the Mozarabick office was used until the time of Alfonsus the 6 th , and to this very day in six Parishes in Toledo , and in the Cathedral Church it self in the Chappel of Frier Francis Ximenez ; and at Salamanca upon certain days in the Chappel of Doctor Talabricensis . And after all , these may be admitted into the use and ministery of families , for all the necessities of which here is something provided . 50. He that gathered these things together intends as humbly , as piously , as charitably as he can doe in any action whatsoever ; and if any of his brethren can tell his heart better then himself , I am sure he may say much more of it ; but if any man can think I have in it any purpose less pious , or less severe , or that there is any obliquity , or any thing but what is here expressed , I must answer for it if there be , and he must answer for it if there be not . January hath xxxi . days . The Moon xxx . Sun in Aquar . riseth h. 7. m. 52. sec. 34. In lat . 52. setteth h. 4. m. 7. sec. 26. Jan. 10.   h. 8. m. 3. sec. 56. In lat . 54.   h. 3. m. 56. sec. 4.           Morning prayer . Evening prayer .           1 Lesson . 2 Lesson . 1 Lesson . 2 Less . 19 1 A Calend. Circumcision * * * * 8 2 b 4 Non.   Gen. 1. Matt. 1 Gen. 2. Rom. 1.   3 c 3   3 2 4 2 16 4 d Pr. No.   5 3 6 3 5 5 e Nonae . Edward K. 7 4 8 4   6 f 8 Idus Epiphany * * * * 13 7 g 7   Gen. 9. Matt. 5 Gen. 12 Rom. 5. 2 8 A 6 Lucian . 13 6 14 6   9 b 5   15 7 16 7 10 10 c 4   17 8 18 8   11 d 3   19 9 20 9 18 12 e Pr. Idus   21 10 22 10 7 13 f Idus Hilary Bp. 23 11 24 11   14 g 19 Cal. of February 25 12 26 12 15 15 A 18   27 13 28 13 4 16 b 17   29 14 30 14   17 c 16 Sulpitius Bp. 31 15 32 15 12 18 d 15 Prisca Virg. 33 16 34 16 1 19 e 14 Ulstan Bp. 35 17 37 1 Cor. 1.   20 f 13 Fabian 38 18 39 2 9 21 g 12 Agnes 40 19 41 3   22 A 11 Vincent . Mart. 42 20 43 4 17 23 b 10   44 21 45 5 6 24 c 9 Timothy Bp. 46 22 47 6   25 d 8 Conv. S. Paul. * * * * 14 26 e 7 Polycar . Mart. Gen. 48 Mat. 23 Gen. 49 1 Cor. 7. 3 27 f 6   50 24 Exod. 1 8   28 g 5   Exod. 2 25 3 9 11 29 A 4 Valerius Bp. 4 26 5 10 19 30 b 3 C. R. M. 7 27 8 11 8 31 c Pr. Cal.   9 28 10 12 February hath xxviii . days . The Moon xxix . Sun in Pisc. riseth h. 7. m. o. sec. 28. latit . 52. setteth h. 4. m. 59 sec. 32. Feb. 8.   h. 7. m. 1. sec. 40. latit . 54.   h. 4. m. 58 sec. 20.           Morning prayer . Evening prayer .           1 Lesson . 2 Lesson . 1 Lesson . 2 Less .   1 d Calend. Fast Exo. 11 Mark 1 Exo. 12 1 Cor. 13 16 2 e 4 Non. Purific . Mary . * 2 * 14 5 3 f 3 Blasius Exo. 13 3 Exo. 14 15   4 g Pr. No.   15 4 16 16 13 5 A Nonae Agathe 17 5 18 2 Cor. 1 2 6 b 8 ld .   19 6 20 2   7 c 7   21 7 22 3 10 8 d 6   23 8 24 4   9 e 5 Apollon . Virg 32 9 33 5 18 10 f 4 Scholast . Virg. 34 10 Lev. 18 6 7 11 g 3   Lev. 19 11 20 7   12 A Prid. ld .   26 12 Nu. 11 8 15 13 b Idus   Nu. 12 13 13 9 4 14 c 16 Cal. Valentine 14 14 16 10   15 d 15   17 15 20 11 12 16 e 14   21 16 22 12 1 17 f 13   23 Lu. di . 1 24 13   18 g 12   25 dim . 1 27 Galat. 1 9 19 A 11   30 2 31 2   20 b 10   32 3 35 3 17 21 c 9   36 4 Deut. 1 4 6 22 d 8   Deut. 2 5 3 5   23 e 7 Fast 4 6 5 6 14 24 f 6 S. Matthias * 7 * Ephes. 1 3 25 g 5   6 8 7 2   26 A 4   8 9 9 3 11 27 b 3 Aug. B. Hippo 10 10 11 4   28 c Pr. Cal. Osw. p , & Co. 12 11 15 5 in every Bissextile the Golden Numbers are to be supposed to stand the day after the place they now possess , as 16 upon the 3. day , 5 upon the 4 , 13. upon the 6 , and so in all the rest , because in every Leap-year the changes of the Moon are upon those following days . March hath xxxi . days . The Moon xxx . Sun in Ariet● riseth h. 6. m. 0. sec. 0. sets h. 6. m. 0. sec. 0. throughout the World. March 10.   h. 6. m. 0. sec. 0.             Morning prayer . Evening prayer .           1 Lesson . 2 Lesson . 1 Lesson . 2 Less 19 1 d Calend. David Deu. 16 Luk. 12 Deu. 17 Ephes. 6 8 2 e 6 Non. Cedde 18 13 19 Philip. 1 16 3 f 5   20 14 21 2 5 4 g 4   22 15 24 3   5 A 3   25 16 26 4 13 6 b Pr. No.   27 17 28 Coloss. 1 2 7 c Nonae . Perpetua 29 18 30 2   8 d 8 Id.   31 19 32 3 10 9 e 7   33 20 34 4   10 f 6   Josua 1 21 Josua 2 1 Thess. 1 18 11 g 5   3 22 4 2 7 12 A 4 Gregory . 5 23 6 3   13 b 3   7 24 8 4 15 14 c Prid. Id.   9 John 1 10 5 4 15 d ldus   23 2 24 2 Thess. 1   16 e 17 Cal. Aprilis . Judg. 1 3 Judg. 2 2 12 17 f 16 Patrick Bp. 3 4 4 3 1 18 g 15 Edward 5 5 6 1 Tim. 1   19 A 14 Joseph . sp . Mar 7 6 8 2 , 3 9 20 b 13 Cuthbert 9 7 10 4   21 c 12 Benedict 11 8 12 5 17 22 d 11   13 9 14 6 6 23 e 10   15 10 16 2 Tim. 1   24 f 9 Fast 17 11 18 2 14 25 g 8 Ann●n Mary * 12 * 3 3 26 A 7   Judg. 19 13 Judg. 20 4   27 b 6 Init. R. Caroli 21 14 Ruth 1 Titus 1 11 28 c 5 Dorothy Virg. Ruth 2 15 3 2 , 3   29 d 4   4 16 1 Sam. 1 Philemon . 19 30 e 3   1Sam . 2 17 3 Hebr. 1 8 31 f Pr. Cal. Adelme Bp. 4 18 5 2 April hath xxx . days . The Moon xxix . Sun in Taur . riseth h. 4. m. 50. sec. 32. latit . 52. setteth h. 7. m. 0. sec. 28. April 9.   h. 4. m. 56. sec. 20. latit . 54.   h. 7. m. 1. sec. 40.           Morning prayer . Evening prayer .           1 Lesson . 2 Lesson . 1 Lesson . 2 Less . 16 1 g Calend.   1 Sam. 6 Joh. 19 1 Sa. 7 Hebr. 3. 5 2 A 4 Non.   8 20 9 4   3 b 3 Richard. 10 21 11 5 13 4 c Pr. No. Ambrose . 12 Acts 1 13 6 2 5 d Nonae .   14 2 15 7   6 e 8 Id.   16 3 17 8 10 7 f 7   18 4 19 9   8 g 6   20 5 21 10 18 9 A 5   22 6 23 11 7 10 b 4   24 7 25 12   11 c 3 Guthliac . Con 26 8 27 13 15 12 d Prid. Id.   28 9 29 James 1 4 13 e Idus   30 10 31 2   14 f 18 Cal. May. 2 Sam. 1 11 2 Sa. 2 3 12 15 g 17 Oswal . Archb. 3 12 4 4 1 16 A 16   5 13 6 5   17 b 15   7 14 8 1 pet . 1 9 18 c 14   9 15 10 2   19 d 13 Alphege 11 16 12 3 17 20 e 12   13 17 14 4 6 21 f 11   15 18 16 5   22 g 10   17 19 18 2 Pet. 1 14 23 A 9 S. George . 19 20 20 2 3 24 b 8 Ulfrid . Conf. 21 21 22 3   25 c 7 Mark Evang. * 22 * 1John 1 11 26 d 6   2 Sa. 23 23 2 Sa. 24 2   27 e 5   1 Kin. 1 24 1 Kin. 2 3 19 28 f 4   3 25 4 4 8 29 g 3   5 26 6 5   30 A Pr. Cal.   7 27 8 2 , 3 John May hath xxxi . days . The Moon xxx . Sun in Gem. riseth h. 4. m. 7. sec. 26. latit . 52.   setteth h. 7. m. 52. sec. 34. May 11   h. 3. m. 56. sec. 4. latit . 54.   h. 8. m. 3. sec. 56.           Morning prayer . Evening prayer .           1 Lesson . 2 Lesson . 1 Lesson . 2 Less . 16 1 b Calend. Phil. & Jacob. * * * Jude 5 2 c 6 Non.   1 Kin. 9 Acts 28 1 Ki. 10 Rom. 1   3 d 5 Inv. of Cross. 11 Matt. 1 12 2 13 4 e 4   13 2 14 3 2 5 f 3   15 3 16 4   6 g Pr. No. Joh. Porr . L●● . 17 4 18 5 10 7 A Nonae . Jo. of Beverly 19 5 20 6   8 b 8 Id.   21 6 22 7 18 9 c 7   2 Kin. 1 7 2 Kin. 2 8 7 10 d 6   3 8 4 9   11 e 5   5 9 6 10 15 12 f 4   7 10 8 11 4 13 g 3   9 11 10 12   14 A Prid. ld .   11 12 12 13 12 15 b Idus   13 13 14 14 1 16 c 17 Cal. June . 15 14 16 15   17 d 16   17 15 18 16 9 18 e 15   19 16 20 1 Cor. 1   19 f 14 Dunstan . 21 17 22 2 17 20 g 13   23 18 24 3 6 21 A 12   25 19 Ezra 1 4   22 b 11   Ezra 3. 20 4 5 14 23 c 10   5 21 6 6 3 24 d 9   7 22 9 7   25 e 8 Aldelmus Bp. Neh. 1 23 Neh. 2 8 11 26 f 7 Augustine . 4 24 5 9   27 g 6 Bede Pri●st . 6 25 8 10 19 28 A 5   9 26 10 11 8 29 b 4   13 27 Hest. 1 12 16 30 c 3   Hest. 2 28 3 13 5 31 d Pr. Cal. Petronil . Virg. 4 Mark 1 5 1● June hath xxx . days . The Moon xxix . Sun in Cancer riseth h. 3. m. 44. sec. 36. latit . 52. setteth h. 8. m. 15. sec. 24. June 11.   h. 3. m. 32. sec. 48. latit . 54.   h. 8. m. 27. sec. 12.           Morning prayer . Evening prayer .           1 Lesson . 2 Lesson . 1 Lesson . 2 Less . ● 1 e Calend. Nicom . Ma●t . Hest. 6 Mark 2 Hest. 7 1. Cor. 15 13 2 f 4 Non.   8 3 9 16 2 3 g 3 Erasm. Bish. Job 1 4 Job ●2 2 Cor. 1   4 A Pr. No.   3 5 4 2 10 5 b Nonae . Boniface Bish. 5 6 6 3   6 c 8 Id.   7 7 8 4 18 7 d 7   9 8 10 5 7 8 e 6   11 9 12 6   9 f 5   13 10 14 7 15 10 g 4   15 11 16 8 4 11 A 3 Barnabas Ap. * * * *   12 b Prid. Id.   17,18 Mar. 12 Job 19 2 Cor. 9 12 13 c Idus   20 13 21 10 1 14 d 18 Cal. of July . 22 14 23 11   15 e 17   24 , 25 15 26 , 27 12 9 16 f 16   28 16 29 13   17 g 15 Botulph . Con. 30 Luke 1 31 Galat. 1 17 18 A 14   32 2 33 2 6 19 b 13   34 3 35 3   20 c 12   36 4 37 4 14 21 d 11   38 5 39 5 3 22 e 10 Alban Martyr 40 6 41 6   23 f 9 Fast 42 7 Prov. 1 Ephef . I 11 24 g 8 John Bapt●st * * * *   25 A 7   Prov. 2 Luke 8 Prov. 3 Ephes. 2 19 26 b 6   4 9 5 3 8 27 c 5   6 10 7 4   28 d 4 Leo Bp. ●ast 8 11 9 5 16 29 e 3 Peter & Paul * * * * 5 30 f Pr. Cal.   Pro. 10 Luk. 12 Pro. 11 Ephes. 6 July hath xxxi . days . The Moon xxx . Sun in Leo riseth h. 4. m. 7. sec. 26. In lat . 52. setteth h. 7. m. 52. sec. 34. July 12.   h. 3. m. 56. sec. 4. In lat . 54.   h. 8. m. 3. sec. 56.           Morning prayer . Evening prayer .           1 Lesson . 2 Lesson . 1 Lesson . 2 Less .   1 g Calend. Visit. of Mary Pro. 12 Luk. 13 Pro. 13 Philip. 1 13 2 A 6 Non.   14 14 15 2 2 3 b 5   16 15 17 3   4 c 4   18 16 19 4 10 5 d 3   20 17 21 Coloss. 1   6 e Pr. No.   22 18 23 2 18 7 f Nonae .   24 19 25 3 7 8 g 8 Idus   26 20 27 4   9 A 7 Cyril Bp. 28 21 29 1 Thess. 1 15 10 b 6   31 22 Eccles. 1 2 4 11 c 5 Benedict . Eccles. 2 23 3 3   12 d 4   4 24 5 4 12 13 e 3   6 John 1 7 5 1 14 f Pr. Idus   8 2 9 2 Thess. 1   15 g Idus Swithin 10 3 11 2 ● 16 A 17 Cal. of August 12 4 Jerem. 1 3   17 b 16 Kenelm . King Jerem. 2 5 3 1 Tim. 1 17 18 c 15 Arnulph Bp. 4 6 5 2 , 3 6 19 d 14   6 7 7 4   20 e 13 Marg. Virg. 8 8 9 5 14 21 f 12   10 9 11 6 3 22 g 11 Mary Magd. 12 10 13 2 Tim. 1   23 A 10   14 11 15 2 11 24 b 9 Fast 16 12 17 3   25 c 8 James Ap●stle * 13 * 4 19 26 d 7 Anne Mother Jer. 18 14 19 Titus 1 8 27 e 6 of Mary . 20 15 21 2 , 3   28 f 5 Samson Bp. 22 16 23 Philemon 6 29 g 4   24 17 25 Hebr. 1 5 30 A 3   26 18 27 2   31 b ● r. Cal. German Bp. 28 19 29 3 August hath xxxi . days . The Moon xxx . Sun in Virg riseth h. 4. m. 59. sec. 32. latit . 52. setteth h. 7. m. 0. sec. 28. August 13.   h. 4. m. 56. sec. 20. latit . 54.   h. 7. m. 1 , sec. 40.           Morning prayer . Evening prayer .           1 Lesson . 2 Lesson . 1 Lesson . 2 Less . 13 1 c Calend. Lammas Jere. 30 Joh. 20 Jere. 31 Hebr 4. 2 2 d 4 Non.   32 21 33 5   3 e 3   34 Acts 1. 35 6 10 4 f Pr. No.   36 2 37 7   5 g Nonae .   38 3 39 8 18 6 A 8 Id. Transfigurat . 40 4 41 9 7 7 b 7 Name of IHS 42 5 43 10   8 c 6   44 6 45 , 46 11 15 9 d 5   47 7 48 12 4 10 e 4 Laurence 49 8 50 13   11 f 3   51 9 52 James 1 12 12 g Prid. Id.   Lam. 1 10 Lam. 2 2 1 13 A Idus   3 11 4 3   14 b 19 Cal. of September 5 12 Ezec. 2 4 9 15 c 18   Ezec. 3 13 6 5   16 d 17   7 14 13 1 Pet. 1 17 17 e 16   14 15 18 2 6 18 f 15   33 16 34 3   19 g 14   Dan. 1 17 Dan. 2 4 14 20 A 13   3 18 4 5 3 21 b 12 Bernar. Conf. 5 19 6 2 Pet. 1   22 c 11   7 20 8 2 11 23 d 10 Tim. Ep. Fast 9 21 10 3   24 e 9 Barth●s . Ap●●● * 22 * 1 John 1 19 25 f 8 Lewis King Dan. 11 23 Dan. 12 2 8 26 g 7   Hist. Su 24 Prov. 30 3   27 A 6   Hosea 1 25 Hos. 2 , 3 4 16 28 b 5   4 26 5 , 6 5 5 29 c 4 Behead . of Joh. 7 27 8 2 & 3 Joh.   30 d 3   9 28 10 Jude 3 31 e Pr. Cal. Paulinus Bp. 11 Matt. 1 12 Rom. 1 September hath xxx . days . The Moon xxix . Sun in Libra riseth h. 6. m. 0. sec. 0. sets h. 6. m. 0. throughout the World. Septemb. 13.   h. 6. m. 0. sec. 0.           Morning prayer . Evening prayer .           1 Lesson . 2 Lesson . 1 Lesson . 2 Less . 2 1 f Calend. Giles Hos. 13. Matt. 2 Hos. 14 Rom. 2 10 2 g 4 Non.   Joel 1 3 Joel 2 3   3 ● 3   3 4 Amos 1 4 18 4 b Pr. No.   Amos 2 5 3 5 7 5 c Nonae .   4 6 5 6   6 d 8 Id.   6 7 7 7 15 7 e 7 Enurchus Bp. 8 8 9 8 4 8 f 6 Nativ . Mary Obad. 1 9 Jonah 1 9   9 g 5   Jon. 2 , 3 10 4 10 12 10 A 4   Micah 1 11 Mich. 2 11 1 11 b 3   3 12 4 12   12 c Prid. Id.   5 13 6 13 9 13 d Idus   7 14 Nah. 1 14   14 e 18 Cal. of Octob. Ex - Nah. 2 15 3 15 17 15 f 17 altation of ● Hab. 1 16 Hab. 2 16 6 16 g 16   3 17 Zeph. 1 1 Cor. 1   17 A 15 Lambert Bp. Zeph. 2 18 3 2 14 18 b 14   Hagg. 1 19 Hagg. 2 3 3 19 c 13   Zech. 1 20 Zec. 2 , 3 4   20 d 12 Fast 4 , 5 21 6 5 11 21 e 11 S. Matt●ew * 22 * 6   22 f 10   Zach. 7 23 Zech. 8 7 19 23 g 9   9 24 10 8 8 24 A 8   11 25 12 9   25 b 7 Firminius Bp. 13 26 14 10 16 26 c 6 Cyprian . Malac. 1 27 Malac. 2 11 5 27 d 5   3 28 4 12.   28 c 4 Exuperius Bp. Tobit . 1 Mark 1 Tobit 2 13 13 29 f 3 S. ●ichael * 2 * 14 2 30 g Pr. Cal. Hierome Pres. Tobit 3 3 Tobit 4 15 October hath xxxi . days . The Moon xxx . Sun in Scorp . riseth h. 7. m. 0. sec. 28. latit . 52. setteth h. 4. m. 59. sec. 32. Octob. 3.   h. 7. m. 1. sec. 40. latit . 54.   h. 4. m. 58. sec. 20.           Morning prayer . Evening prayer .           1 Lesson . 2 Lesson . 1 Lesson . 2 Less .   1 A Calend. Remigius Exod , ● . ad verse 14. Mark 4 Joth . 20 1 Cor. 16 10 2 b 6 Non. Leodeger . Bp. Tobit 7 5 22 2 Cor. 1   3 c 5   9 6 Tob. 10 2 18 4 d 4   11 7 12 3 7 5 e 3   13 8 14 4   6 f Pr. No. S. Faith Judith 1 9 Judith 2 5 15 7 g Nonae .   3 10 4 6 4 8 A 8 Id. Pelagia Virg. 5 11 6 7   9 b 7   7 12 8 8 12 10 c 6   9 13 10 9 1 11 d 5   11 14 12 10   12 e 4 Wilthfrid Bp. 13 15 14 11 9 13 f 3 Edward King 15 16 16 12   14 g Prid. Id.   Wisd. 1 Lu. di . 1 Wisd. 2 13 17 15 A Idus   3 dim . 1 4 Galat. 1 6 16 b 17 Cal. of November 5 2 6 2   17 c 16 Ethelderd . Vir 7 3 8 3 14 18 d 15 Luke Evan● . * 4 * 4 3 19 e 14 Fredesw . Virg. Wisd. 9 5 Wis. 10 5   20 f 13   11 6 12 6 11 21 g 12 11000 Virg. 13 7 14 Ephes. 1.   22 A 11 Mary Salom. 15 8 16 2 19 23 b 10   17 9 18 3 8 24 c 9   19 10 Ecclus 1 4   25 d 8 Crispine Ecclus 2 11 3 5 16 26 e 7   4 12 5 6 5 27 f 6 Fast 6 13 7 Philip. 1   28 g 5 Simon & Jude * 14 * 2 13 29 A 4 Narcissus Bp. Ecclus 8 15 Ecclus 9 3 2 30 b 3   10 16 11 4   31 c Pr. Cal. Fast 12 17 13 Coloss. 1 November hath xxx . days . The Moon xxix . Sun in Sagittar . riseth h. 7. m. 52. sec. 34. latit . 52. setteth h. 4. m. 7. sec. 26. Novemb. 12.   h. 8. m. 3. sec. 56. latit . 54.   h. 3. m. 56. sec. 4.           Morning prayer . Evening prayer .           1 Lesson . 2 Lesson . 1 Lesson . 2 Less . 10 1 d Calend. All Saints * * * * 18 2 e 4 Non.   Ecclus 14 Luc. 18 Ecclus 15 Coloss. 2 7 3 f 3 Wenefrid 16 19 17 3   4 g Pr. No.   18 20 19 4 15 5 A Nonae   20 21 21 1 Thess. 1 4 6 b 8 Id. Leonard 22 22 23 2   7 c 7 Willibr . archb . 24 23 25 & 26 ad verse 6. 3 12 8 d 6   27 24 28 4 1 9 e 5   29 John 1 30 5   10 f 4   31 2 32 2 Thess. 1 9 11 g 3 Martin Bp. 33 3 34 2   12 A Prid. Id.   35 4 36 3 17 13 b Idus Brice Bp. 37 5 38 1 Ti ● 1 6 14 c 18 Cal. of December . 39 6 40 ●●3   15 d 17 Machure Bp. 41 7 42 4 14 16 e 16   43 8 44 5 3 17 f 15 Hugh Bp. 45 9 46 adv . 20 6   18 g 14   47 10 48 2 Tim. 1 11 19 A 13 Elizabeth 49 11 50 2   20 b 12 Edmund King 51 12 Baruc. 1 3 19 21 c 11 Present . Mary . Baruc. 2 13 3 4 8 22 d 10 Cicily Vi●g . 4 14 5 Titus 1   23 e 9 Clement Bp. 6 15 ●saiah 1 2 , 3 16 24 f 8   Isaiah 2 16 3 Philemon 5 25 g 7 Katherine Vir. 4 17 5 Hebr. 1   26 A 6   6 18 7 2 13 27 b 5   8 19 9 3 2 28 c 4   10 20 11 4   29 d 3 Fast 12 21 13 5 10 30 e Pr. Cal. Andrew Apost * A●●s 1 * 6 December hath xxxi . The Moon xxx . Sun in Capric . riseth h. 8. m. 15. sec. 24. latit . 52. setteth h. 3. m. 44. sec. 36. Decemb. 11.   h. 8. m. 27. sec. 12. latit . 54.   h. 3. m. 32. sec. 48.           Morning prayer . Evening prayer .           1 Lesson . 2 Lesson . 1 Lesson . 2 Less .   1 f Calend.   Isai. 14 Acts 2 Isai. 15 Hebr. 7 18 2 g 4 Non.   16 3 17 8 7 3 A 3 Barbara 18 4 19 9   4 b Pr. No. Osmund Bp. 20 , 21 5 22 10 15 5 c Nonae   23 6 24 11 4 6 d 8 Id. Nicholas Bp. 25 dim . 7 26 12   7 e 7   27 dim . 7 28 13 12 8 f 6 Concep . Mary 29 8 30 James 1. 1 9 g 5   31 9 32 2   10 ● 4   33 10 34 3 9 11 b 3   35 11 36 4   12 c Prid. Id.   37 12 38 5 ●7 13 d Idus Lucie Virg. 39 13 40 1 Pet. 1 6 14 e 19 Cal. of January . 41 14 42 2   15 f 18   43 15 44 3 ●● 16 g 17 O Sapientia 45 16 46 4 3 17 A 16   47 17 48 5   18 b 15   49 18 50 2 Pet. 1 ●1 19 c 14   51 19 52 2   20 d 13 Fast 53 20 54 3 19 21 e 12 Thom. Apost . * 21 * 1 John 1 8 22 f 11   Isai. 55 22 Isai. 56 2   23 g 10   57 23 58 3 16 24 A 9   59 24 60 4 5 25 b 8 Christmass . * * * *   26 c 7 S. Stephen . * * * * 3 27 d 6 ● . John. * * * * 2 28 e 5 ●nnocents . * Acts 25 * 1 John 5   29 f 4   Isai. 61 26 Isai. 62 2 John 10 30 g 3   63 27 64 3 John   3● A Pr. Cal. ●ilvester Bp. 65 28 66 Jude Proper Lessons to be read on Sundays , and all the moveable Feasts throughout the year , whose Lessons are not set down in the Calendar . Sundays of Advent . Mattens . Evensong . 1 Isaiah 1. Isaiah 2. 2 5 24 3 25 26 4 30 32       Sundays after Christmass . Mattens . Evensong . 1 Isaiah 37. Isaiah 38. 2 41 43       Sundays after Epiphany . Mattens . Evensong . 1 Isaiah 44. Isaiah 46. 2 51 53 3 55 56 Sundays after Epiphany . Mattens . Evensong . 4 Isaiah 57. Isaiah 58. 5 59 64 Septuagesima Genesis 1. Genesis 2. Sexagesima 3 6 Quinquages . 9 12 Quadragesima or the First Sunday in Lent. 19 22 2 27 34 3 39 42 4 43 45 5 Exodus 3. Exod. 5. 6 9 10 Easter day     1 Lesson . Exod. 12. Exodus 14. 2 Lesson . Rom. 6. Acts 2. Sundays after Easter . Mattens . Evensong . 1 Numbers 16. Numbers 22. 2 23 25 3 Deuteron . 4. Deuteronom . 5. 4 6 7 5 8 9 Ascension day . 10 2 Kings 2. Sunday after Ascension day . 12 Deuteron . 13. Whitsunday .     1 Lesson . 16 Wisdome 1. 2 Lesson . Acts 10. from v. 34. to the end . Acts 19. to v. 21. Trinity Sunday     1 Lesson . Genesis 18. Josua 1. 2 Lesson . Matth. 3.   Sundays after Trinity .     1 Josua 10. Josua 23. 2 Judges 4. Judges 5. 3 1 Samuel 2. 1 Samuel 3. Sundays after Trinity . Mattens . Evensong . 4 1 Samuel 12. 1 Samuel 13. 5 15 17 6 2 Samuel 12. 2 Samuel 21. 7 22 24 8 1 Kings 13. 1 Kings 17. 9 18 19 10 21 22 11 2 Kings 5. 2 Kings 9. 12 10 18 13 19 23 14 Jeremiah 5. Jeremiah 22. 15 35 36 16 Ezech. 2. Ezech. 14. 17 16 18 18 20 24 19 Daniel 3. Daniel 6. 20 Joel 2. Micah 6. Sundays after Trinity . Mattens . Evensong . 21 Habakkuk 2. Proverbs 1. 22 Proverbs 2. 3 23 11 12 24 13 14 25 15 16 26 17 19 Proper Lessons for Holy days , and the four days before Easter . S. Andrew . Proverbs 20. Proverbs 21. S. Thomas . 23 24 Nativity of our blessed Saviour .   Isaiah 7. from v. 10. to the end . 1 Lesson . Isaiah 9. Titus 3. from v. 2 Lesson . Luk. 2. to v. 15 4. to the end . S. Stephen . Proverbs 28. Eccles. 4. 1 Lesson . Act. 6. from v. Acts 7. from v. 2 Lesson . 8. to c. 7. v. 30. 30. to ver . 55. S. John.     1 Lesson . Eccles. 5. Eccles. 6. 2 Lesson . Apocal. 1. Apocal. 22. Innocents . Jer. 31. to v. 18 Wisdome 1. Mattens . Evensong . Circumcision     1 Lesson . Genes . 17. Deut. 10. to v. 12 2 Lesson . Rom. 2. Coloss. 2. Epiphany . Isaiah 40.   1 Lesson . Luke 3. to the Isaiah 49. 2 Lesson . middle of v. 23 John 2. to v. 12. Conversion of Wisdome 5.   S. Paul. 1 Less . Acts 22. unto Wisdome 6. 2 Less . vers . 22. Acts 26. Purific . of the Virg. MARY . Wisdome 9. Wisdome 12. S. Matthias . 19 Ecclus. 1. Annunciation of our Lady . Ecclus. 2. 3 Wednesday before Easter . Hosea 13. Hosea 14. Thursday . Daniel 9. Jeremy 31. Goodfriday . Genesis 22. Isaiah 53. Easter even . Zechary 9. Exodus 13. Munday in Easter week .     1 Lesson . Exodus 16. Exodus 17. 2 Lesson Matthew 28. Acts 3. Tuesday in Easter week . Exodus 20.   1 Lesson . Luke 24. unto Exodus 32. 2 Lesson . vers . 13. 1 Corinth . 15. S. Mark. Ecclus. 4. Ecclus. 5. Philip and ●acob . 1 Les. Eccles. 7 1 Less . 9.   2 Les. Acts 8.   Mattens . Evensong . Munday in Whitsonweek . Genesis 11. Numbers 11. 1 Lesson . unto v. 10. from verse 16. 2 Lesson . 1 Corinth . 12. unto verse 30. Tuesday in Whitsonweek . 1 Sam 19. from v. 18. to the end . Deuteron . 30. S. Barnabas .     1 Lesson . Ecclus 10. Ecclus. 12. 2 Lesson . Acts 14. Acts 15. to v. 36 S. John Bapt.     1 Lesson . Malachy 3. Malachy 4. 2 Lesson . Matth. 3. Mat. 14. to v. 13 S. Peter .     1 Lesson . Exodus 15. Ecclus. 19. 2 Lesson . Acts 3. Acts 4. S. James . Ecclus. 21. Ecclus. 23. S. Barthol . 25 29 S. Matthew . 35 38 S. Michael . 39 44 S. Luke . 51 Job 1. S. Simon and Jude . Job 24 & 25. 42 All Saints . Wisd. 3. to v. 13. Wisd. 5. to v. 17 1 Lesson . Heb. 11. from ver . Apoc. 19. unto 2 Lesson . 33. to the 7. verse of the 12. Chapter . verse 17. * Note that when two Lessons are not set down in this Table of the Festivals , the second Lesson is that which is appointed on ordinary days in the Calender . Of Holidays . These to be observed for Holidays and none other , by the Laws of England . ALL Sundays in the year . The days of the feasts of the Circumcision of our Lord Jesus Christ. Of the Epiphany . Of the Purification of the blessed Virgin. Of S. Matthias the Apostle . Of the Annuntiation of the blessed Virgin. Of S. Mark the Evangelist . Of S. Philip and Jacob the Apostles . Of the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. Of the Nativity of Saint John Baptist. Of S. Peter the Apostle . Of S. James the Apost . Of S. Bartholomew the Apostle . Of S. Matthew the Apostle . Of S. Michael the Archangel . Of S. Luke the Evangelist . Of S. Simon and Jude the Apostles . Of All Saints . Of S. Andrew the Ap. Of S. Thomas the Ap. Of the Nativity of our Lord. Of S. Stephen the Mart. Of S. John the Evang. Of the holy Innocents . Munday and Tuesday in Easter week . Munday and Tuesday in Whitsonweek . Note that in Bissextile or Leap-year , when the sixt of the Calends of March are twice repeated , under the letter F. the Feast of S. Matthias is to be kept on the latter of the two , according to the old verses , Bissextum sextae Martis tenuere Calendae Posteriore die celebrantur Festa Mathiae . A CALCULATION OF All the moveable Feasts of the CHURCH of ENGLAND during 50 Years . An Almanack for 50. years . The year of our Lord The Golden Number The Epact The Dominical Letter Sundays after the Epiphany Septuagesima Sunday Shrovetuesday 1657 5 25 d 2 Jan. 25 Febr. 10 1658 6 6 c 4 Febr. 7 23 1659 7 17 b 3 Jan. 30 15 1660 8 28 A g 6 Feb. 19 Mar. 7 1661 9 9 f 4 10 Febr. 26 1662 10 20 e 2 Jan. 26 11 1663 11 1 d 5 Febr. 15 Mar. 3 1664 12 12 c b 4 7 Febr. 23 1665 13 23 A 2 Jan. 22 7 1666 14 4 g 5 Febr. 11 27 1667 15 15 f 3 3 19 1668 16 26 e d 1 Jan. 19 4 1669 17 7 c 4 Febr. 7 23 1670 18 18 b 3 Jan. 30 15 1671 19 29 A 6 Febr. 19 Mar. 7 1672 1 11 g f 4 4 Febr. 20 1673 2 22 e 2 Jan. 26 11 1674 3 3 d 5 Febr. 15 Mar. 3 1675 4 14 c 3 Jan. 31 Febr. 16 1676 5 25 b A 2 23 8 1677 6 6 g 5 Febr. 11 27 1678 7 17 f 2 Jan. 27 12 1679 8 28 e 5 Febr. 16 Mar. 4 1680 9 9 d c 4 8 Febr. 24 1681 10 20 b 3 Jan. 30 15 1682 11 1 A 5 Febr. 12 28 1683 12 12 g 4 4 20 1684 13 23 f e 2 Jan. 27 12 1685 14 4 d 5 Febr. 15 Mar. 3 1686 15 15 c 3 Jan. 31 Febr. 16 1687 16 26 b 2 23 8 An Almanack for 50. years . The year of our Lord Easter day Rogation Sunday Ascension day Trinity Sunday Sundays after Trinity Advent Sunday 1657 Mar. 29 May 3 7 May 24 26 Nov. 29 1658 April 11 16 20 June 6 24 28 1659 3 8 12 May 29 25 27 1660 22 27 31 June 17 23 Dec. 2 1661 14 19 23 9 24 1 1662 Mar. 30 4 8 May 25 26 Nov. 30 1663 April 19 24 28 June 14 23 29 1664 10 15 19 5 24 27 1665 Mar. 26 April 30 4 May 21 27 Dec. 3 1666 April 15 May 20 24 June 10 24 2 1667 7 12 16 2 25 1 1668 Mar. 22 April 26 April 30 May 17 27 Nov. 29 1669 April 11 May 16 May 20 June 6 24 28 1670 3 8 12 May 29 25 27 1671 23 28 June 1 June 18 27 Dec. 3 1672 7 12 May 16 2 25 1 1673 Mar. 30 4 8 May 25 26 Nov. 30 1674 April 19 24 28 June 14 23 29 1675 4 9 13 May 30 25 28 1676 Mar. 26 April 30 4 21 27 Dec. 3 1677 April 15 May 20 24 June 10 24 2 1678 Mar. 31 5 9 May 26 26 1 1679 April 20 25 29 June 15 23 Nov. 30 1680 11 16 20 6 24 28 1681 3 8 12 May 29 25 27 1682 16 21 25 June 11 24 Dec. 3 1683 8 13 17 3 25 2 1684 Mar. 30 4 8 May 25 26 Nov. 30 1685 April 19 24 28 June 14 23 29 1686 4 9 13 May 30 25 28 1687 Mar. 27 1 5 22 26 27 An Almanack for 50. years . The year of our Lord The Golden Number The Epact The Dominical Letter Sundays after the Epiphany Septuagesima Sunday Shrovetuesday 1688 17 7 A g 5 Feb. 12 Febr. 27 1689 18 18 f 2 Jan. 27 12 1690 19 29 e 5 Feb. 16 Mar. 4 1691 1 11 d 4 8 Febr. 24 1692 2 22 c b 2 Jan. 24 9 1693 3 3 A 5 Febr. 12 28 1694 4 14 g 4 4 20 1695 5 25 f 1 Jan. 20 5 1696 6 6 e d 4 Febr. 9 25 1697 7 17 c 3 Jan. 31 16 1698 8 28 b 6 Febr. 20 Mar. 8 1699 9 9 A 4 5 Febr. 21 1700 10 20 g f 3 Jan. 28 13 1701 11 1 e 5 Febr. 16 Mar. 4 1702 12 12 d 3 1 Febr. 17 1703 13 23 c 2 Jan. 24 9 1704 14 4 b A 5 Febr. 13 28 1705 15 15 g 4 4 20 1706 16 26 f 1 Jan. 20 5 An Almanack for 50. years . The year of our Lord Easter day Rogation Sunday Ascension day Trinity Sunday Sundays after Trinity Advent Sunday 1688 April 15 May 20 May 24 June 10 24 Dec. 2 1689 Mar. 31 5 9 May 26 26 1 1690 April 20 25 29 June 15 23 Nov. 30 1691 12 17 21 7 24 29 1692 Mar. 27 1 5 May 22 26 27 1693 April 16 21 25 June 11 24 Dec. 3 1694 8 13 17 3 25 2 1695 Mar. 24 April 28 2 May 19 27 1 1696 April 12 May 17 21 June 7 24 Nov. 29 1697 4 9 13 May 30 25 28 1698 24 29 June 2 June 19 23 27 1699 9 14 May 18 4 25 Dec. 3 1700 Mar. 31 5 9 May 26 26 1 1701 April 20 25 29 June 15 23 Nov. 30 1702 5 10 14 May 31 25 29 1703 Mar. 28 2 6 23 26 28 1704 April 16 21 25 June 11 24 Dec. 3 1705 8 13 17 3 25 2 1706 Mar. 24 April 28 May 2 May 19 27 1 A Table To finde Easter for ever . The Golden Number . A B C D E F G 1 April 9. 10 11 12 6 7 8 2 Mar. 26. 27 28 29 30 31 April 1 3 April 16. 17 18 19 20 14 15 4 April 9. 3 4 5 6 7 8 5 Mar. 26. 27 28 29 23 24 15 6 April 16. 17 11 12 13 14 15 7 April 2. 3 4 5 6 Mar. 31 April 1 8 April 23. 24 25 19 20 21 22 9 April 9. 10 11 12 13 14 8 10 April 2. 3 Mar. 28 29 30 31 April 1 11 April 16. 17 18 19 20 21 22 12 April 9. 10 11 5 6 7 8 13 Mar. 26. 27 28 29 30 31 25 14 April 16. 17 18 19 13 14 15 15 April 2. 3 4 5 6 7 8 16 Mar. 26. 27 28 22 23 24 25 17 April 16. 10 11 12 13 14 15 18 April 2. 3 4 5 Mar. 30 31 April 1 19 April 23. 24 18 19 20 21 22 When you have found the Sunday letter for that year on which you require Easter , guide your eye downward from it , till you come over against that number which is Prime for that year , and that number which is directly under the Dominical and collateral to the Prime shews the time of Easter . But note that the name of the Moneth is set at the left hand , or else just with the Figure , and follows not as in other Tables by descent but collaterally . A Table of what is contained in this Book . A Preface . The Church Calendar ; with a Table of Lessons for every day of the year . An advertisement to the Reader touching the lengthening or shortning of the Offices . Morning Prayer throughout the year . Evening Prayer throughout the year . Additionals to the former Offices . viz. A prayer before Sermon . A prayer after Sermon . A prayer when a sick person desires to be publickly prayed for . A prayer for seasonable weather . A prayer on the same occasion , or in the time of any other judgment . A shorter form of Morning prayer for a family . A short form of Evening prayer for a family . Varieties to be added upon the great Festivals or Solemnities of the year , viz. Upon Christmass day . Good Friday . Easter day . Ascension day . Whitsunday . Trinity Sunday . A Collect to be used upon any of the Festivals or commemoration of the Apostles . * Note that the Collect for Christmass day may be used upon the Annunciation . An Office or Order for administration of the holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper . A form of administration of the Holy Sacrament of Baptism . Devotions and proper offices for Women , viz. An Office for safe child-birth . An Office of publick Thanksgiving for safe childbirth , or deliverance from any great sickness , calamity , or fear . A prayer to be said immediately after the womans delivery : to be said by the Minister or any other attendant . A prayer for the new born child . A prayer to be said by a new married wife . A prayer for a fruitful womb . A prayer to be said by an afflicted wife in behalf of a vicious husband . A prayer of thanksgiving if she have escaped any violence or danger from him . A mothers prayer for her children . The Widows prayer . A prayer to be used by the widow if she have children of both sexes . The Offices or Forms of Prayer and Devotion for the miserable and afflicted , viz. An Office to be said in the days of persecution of a Church by Sacrilegious or violent persons . A prayer for an Army , or Navy in time of War. An Office for Prisoners . for Prisoners in General . of Debt . of Crime . condemn'd to death or Warre , or Oppression . An Office or form of prayer for Sailers or Mariners . A form of prayer and blessing to be used over him that in the beginning of a journey desires the prayers of the Minister of the Church . A prayer in behalf of Fools or Changelings . A prayer for Madmen . A prayer in behalf of Hereticks and seduced persons . * Note that these three last prayers are also to be used upon Good Friday . An Office at the Visitation of the sick . An Office for Burial of the dead . A form of d●●otion to be used and said in the days of sorrow and affliction , of a family or private person . A private prayer to be said by or for a person apt to be afflicted with fear of death . Gods anger . the uncertain state of his soul. A form of Thanksgiving , after a plentiful harvest . after recovery from a a plague or other sickness . after a Victory , or the prosperous ending of a Warre . The Great Penitential Letanies . The Psalter or Psalms of David after the Kings Translations , with Arguments newly fitted to the design and sense of every Psalm . An Advertisement to them that shall use these PRAYERS . BEcause no prayers are the more pleasing to God for being long , and they are oftentimes displeasing even to good men if they be very long ; and yet on the other side , if the devotion be long it is the better , and if that be lasting , it ought to be supplied with materials , like gummes to the Altar of incense , and fuel for the holy fires : he that collected these devotions did design to serve the advantages both of length and shortness , that the most devout may be fitted , and the most secular and imployed may not be wearied . 1. Therefore , although every thing is set down at length , that the trouble of references and turnings back might be avoided , and therefore seem longer then they are ; and the Hymnes are sometimes double , that the variety might be more apt to please and to instruct , and the Offices are made full , that upon the more solemne days when people come with a greater and more active devotion and greater leisure , their time and their piety might be imployed ; yet on other days there is but one Lesson appointed , and one Hymne to follow it . 2. The prayers are divided into smaller portions , that with ease any of them may be omitted by persons whose occasions force them from their attendance on longer Offices ; besides that there are two forms of Morning and Evening Prayer , the one shorter , the other longer . 3. In the beginning of Morning and Evening Prayer , some of the devotions which are set down are desired and intended to be used but seldome ; not onely to avoid tediousness , but for other reasons very obvious , that the Ministers more solemn power and office might not be less regarded , by being daily ( and consequently very often without just dispositions ) offered : I mean it concerning the form of Absolution . The Confession may be shortned as there is cause , by making use onely of some of the sections , and leaving out the other . 4. If upon Communion days , the morning Prayer and the Communion Office be not read at one time , but the morning Prayer be read at seven or eight of the clock in the morning ; and the Communion office at the time of celebration ; or if it be convenient that they be both together , if then the Sermon be in the afternoon , the length will be very tolerable . 5. These Prayers being intended onely as a charitable ministery to them who are not permitted to use those which were appointed formerly , there is no necessity upon any one , and he may use as much or as little as he please , and therefore no man will have cause to complain of length or shortness . ☞ For the Offices themselves , I pray God bless them to all those ends whither they are designed , and to which in their own nature they can minister : And as I humbly recommend them to Gods blessing , so I doe submit them to the judgement of my afflicted Mother the Church of England , and particularly to the censure of my spiritual Superiours : and I desire that these Prayers may no longer be used in any publick place , then my L ds the B ps upon prudent enquiries and grave considerations shall perceive them apt to minister to Gods glory , and useful to the present or future necessities of the Sons and Daughters of the Church of England . MORNING PRAYER , Throughout the YEARE . Say one or more of these Sentences . HE that covereth his sins shall not prosper : but he that confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy . Prov. 28. 13. To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses , though we have rebelled against him . Neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God to walke in his lawes which he hath set before us by his servants the prophets . Dan. 9. 10. If we say that we have no sin we deceive our selves , and the truth is not in us . But if we confesse our sins , he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sins , and to cleanse us from all unrighteousnesse 1 John 1. 8 , 9. The sacrifices of God , are a broken spirit ; a broken and a contrite heart , O God thou wilt not despise . ●sal . 51. 17. Cast away from you all your transgressions whereby ye have transgressed , and make you a new heart , and a new spirit . For why will ye die ? I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth , saith the Lord God. Wherefore turne your selves and live ye . Ezek. 18. 31 , 32. After which say , Draw nigh therefore unto God , and he will draw nigh unto you . Cleanse your hands and purifie your hearts . Humble your selves in the sight of the Lord , and make a confession of your sins unto him , with a hearty sorrow and a humble hope , begging for pardon at the throne of Grace . Let us pray . The Confession . I. O Almighty God , Great Lord of Heaven and Earth , we miserable sinners with fear and shame cast our selves downe before thee , humbly confessing our manifold sins and unsufferable wickednesses , by which we have deserved thy wrath , and that we should be separated from the sweetest comforts of thy presence for ever . II. We confesse O Great God we have sinned against thee by knowledge and by ignorance , by folly and by surprize , by word and deed , by anger and desires , by night and by day , in private and in publick , by the lusts of the flesh , and the vanity and pride of our spirits : our sins of omission are infinite , and the sins of our tongue cannot be numbred ; O God thy words and lawes are holy , and thy judgements are terrible ; but we have broken all thy righteous lawes and commandements , and we have great cause to be afraid of thy severest judgements , and where shall we appeare , when thou art angry with us ? III. But thou shalt answer for us , O Lord our God : Thou art our Judge , but thou art our Redeemer ; we have sin'd , but thou O Blessed Jesus art our Advocate . Have mercy upon us ; have mercy upon us most miserable sinners ; Enter not into judgement with us least we die , let not thine anger arise least we be consumed ; but spare us gracious Lord , spare thy servants whom thou hast redeem'd with thy most precious blood ; O reserve not evil in store for us against the day of vengeance , but shew thy goodnesse in us , and let thy mercies be magnified upon us ; deliver us O Lord from the power of sin ; and preserve us from the punishments of it through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . The Deprecation to be used upon solemn daies or at the discretion of him that ministers . I. O Lord our God whose power is infinite , whose glory is supreme , whose mercie is without measure , whose goodnesse is unspeakeable , despise not thy returning servants who earnestly beg for pardon and to be reconciled to thee : sanctify O God our bodies and soules , search out our spirits , and cast out all iniquity from within us ; all weak principles and false arguings , every impure lust and filthy desire , all pride and envie , all hypocrisie and lying , all inordinate love of this world , and base Covetousnesse ; all hardnesse of heart , and unrelenting dispositions , all peevishnesse and hasty anger , all mindfulnesse of injuries and revengfulnesse , all blasphemy and irreligion ; and every motion of soule and body which can withdraw us from thee , and is against thy will and commandement . II. Gracious Father give us perfect pardon for what is past , and a perfect repentance of all our evills , that for the time to come we may with pure spirits , with broken and contrite hearts , with sanctified lips and holy desires serve thee religiously , walke humbly with our God , converse justly and charitably with men , and possesse our soules in patience and holinesse , and our bodies in sanctification and honour through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . The prayer of absolution to be said by the Minister alone according to his piety and discretion when he sees cause , [ not frequently . OUr Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus , the great shepheard and Bishop of our soules , that lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world , who promised paradise to the repenting theife , and gave pardon to the woman taken in adultery , he pardon and forgive all your sins knowne and unknowne . *** O Blessed Jesus , in whatsoever thy servants as men bearing flesh about them , and inhabiting this world , or deceived by the Devil , have sinn'd , whether in word or deed , whether in thought or desire , whether by omission or commission , let it be forgiven unto them by thy word and by thy spirit ; and for ever preserve thy servants from sinning against thee , and from suffering thine eternal anger , for thy promise sake , and for thy glorious Names sake , O Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus . Amen . Then devoutly and distinctly say the Lords Prayer . Our Father which art in heaven * Hallowed be thy Name * Thy Kingdome come * Thy will be done in earth as it is in Heaven * Give us this day our daily bread * And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespas against us * And lead us not into temptation * But deliver us from evil . For thine is the Kingdom , the power and the Glory , for ever and ever . Amen . The Doxology . GLory be to the Father of mercies , the Father of Men and Angels , the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Glory be to the most holy and eternall sonne of God , the Blessed Saviour and Redeemer of the World ; the Advocate of sinners , the Prince of Peace , the Head of the Church , and the mighty Deliverer of all them that call upon him . Glory be to the holy and Eternall spirit of God , the Holy Ghost the comforter , the sanctifying and life-giving Spirit . All Glory and thankes , all honour and power , all love and obedience , be to the Blessed and undivided Trinity , one God Eternall . The Heavens declare thy glory : the Earth confesses thy providence : the sea manifests thy power ; and every spirit , and every understanding creature celebrates thy greatnesse for ever end ever * All glory and majesty , all praises and dominion be unto thee O God , Father Son and Holy Ghost for ever and ever . Amen . Then arising from their knees let the Psalter be read in order as shall be judged convenient : that is to say : The ordinary portions for every day , Morning and Evening prayers and Psalmes particularly chosen for speciall dayes of festivity , or of Humiliation , respectively . After the Psalmes , ending with , [ Glory be to the Father &c. Read a chapter in the old Testament . The chapter out of the old Testament is to be read on Sundaies and Festivals ; and not omitted without great occasion : but on ordinary daies , it may suffice after the Psalmes immediately to reade the lesson out of the new Testament . After which recite this Hymne to the honour of God ; saying the verses interchangeably . * REjoyce in the Lord ye righteous : for praise is comely for the Upright . ¶ The word of the Lord is true , and all his works are faithfull . * He loveth righteousnesse and judgement : the earth is full of the goodnesse of the Lord. ¶ By the word of the Lord were the Heavens made , and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth . * He gathereth the waters of the Sea together as an heape : he layeth up the depth in storehouses . ¶ Let all the earth fear the Lord : let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him . * Behold the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him : upon them that hope in his mercie . ¶ To deliver their soules from death : and to keep them alive in the time of famine . * Many are the afflictions of the righteous : but the Lord delivereth him out of all . ¶ Evill shall slay the wicked : and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate . * Incline not my heart to any evill thing , to practise wicked works with Men that work iniquity : and let me not eat of their dainties : ¶ Cause me to heare thy loving kindenesse in the morning : for in thee do I trust : cause me to know the way wherein I should walke : for I lift up my soule unto thee . * Teach me to do thy will , for thou art my God ; thy spirit is good : lead me into the Land of uprightnesse . ¶ Gather not my soule with sinners : nor my life with bloody men . * The poor man cried , and the Lord heard him ; and saved him out of all his troubles . ¶ O tast and see that the Lord is good : blessed is the man that trusteth in him . * O how great is thy goodnesse which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee ; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee , before the sons of Men. ¶ Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of Man , Thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavillion , from the strife of tongues . * O love the Lord all ye his Saints : for the Lord preserveth the faithfull , and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer . ¶ Be of good courage and he shall strengthen your heart , all you that hope in the Lord. Glory be to the Father &c. Or this . * SIng praises unto God , sing praises : sing praises unto our King , sing praises . For God is the King of all the Earth : sing ye praises with understanding . ¶ God reigneth over the Nations : God sitteth upon the throne of his holinesse . * He is our refuge and strength : a very present helpe in trouble . ¶ Many O Lord our God are thy wonderfull workes which thou hast done , and thy thoughts which are towards us : They cannot be reckon'd in order . * For God is my King of old , working salvation in the midst of the Earth . ¶ Thou didst cleave the fountaine and the floud ; thou driest up mighty rivers . * The daye is thine , the night also is thine : thou hast prepared the light and the Sunne . ¶ Thou hast set all the borders of the Earth , thou hast made Summer and Winter . * Give unto the Lord the glorie due unto his name : worship the Lord in the beautie of Holinesse . ¶ The voice of the Lord is upon the waters : the God of glory thundreth , the Lord is upon many waters . * The voice of the Lord is powerfull : the voice of the Lord is full of Majesty . ¶ The voice of the Lord maketh the hindes to calve , and discovereth the forests : and in his temple doth every man speake of his glory . * Be glad in the Lord , and rejoyce ye righteous : and shout for joy all ye that are upright in Heart . ¶ For this God is our God for ever and ever , he will be our guide unto death . Glory be to the Father . &c. Then read a lesson out of one of the four Gospells , or the Acts of the Holy Apostles : in order , or by choice upon extraordinary occasions . After which recite one of these following Psalmes . * THe mighty God even the Lord hath spoken , and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going downe thereof . ¶ Out of Sion , the perfection of beauty , God hath shined . * Our God shall come , and shall not keep silence : a fire shall devour before him , and it shall be very tempestuous round about him . ¶ He shall call to the heavens from above , & to the Earth that he may Judge his people . * And the heavens shall declare his righteousnesse , for God is Judge himselfe . ¶ His Name shall endure for ever : his name shall be continued as long as the Sun : and men shall be blessed in him : all Nations shall call him blessed . * Blessed be the Lord God the God of Israel who onely doth wondrous things . ¶ And blessed be his Glorious Name for ever : and let the whole Earth be filled with his glory . Amen . Amen . Glory be to the Father &c. As it was in the beginning &c. Or this , to be said especially on Communion daies . Psalme . 23. * THe Lord is my Shepherd , I shal not want . ¶ He maketh me to lie down in Green pasture , he leadeth me beside the still waters . * He restoreth my soule : he leadeth me in the paths of righteousnesse , for his Names sake . ¶ Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death , I will fear no evill , for thou art with me ; thy rod and thy staffe they comfort me . * Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies , thou anointest my head with oyle , my cup runneth over . ¶ Surely goodnesse and mercy shall follow me all the daies of my life , and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever . Glory be to the Father &c. Then say the Apostles Creed [ or the Nicene creed if it be a great festival of the Church . I Believe in God the Father Almighty maker of Heaven and earth * And in Jesus Christ his onely son our Lord * which was conceived by the holy Ghost , borne of the Virgin Mary * suffered under Pontius Pilate , was crucified , dead , and buried * He descended into hell * The third day he rose againe from the dead * He ascended into Heaven , and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty * From thence he shall come to judge the quicke and the Dead . * I believe in the holy Ghost * The holy Catholick Church the communion of Saints * the forgivenesse of sins * the resurrection of the body * and the life everlasting . Amen . The Nicene Creed to be said upon the great Solemnities of the yeare . I Beleive in one God the Father Almighty , maker of Heaven and earth , and of all things visible and invisible : and in one Lord Jesus Christ , the onely begotten Sonne of God , begotten of his Father before all worlds , God of God , Light of light , very God of very God begotten , not made , being of one substance with the Father , by whom al things were made : who for us men & for our salvation came downe from heaven , and was incarnate by the holy Ghost of the virgin Mary , and was made man , and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate . He suffered , and was buried , and the third day he rose againe according to the Scriptures , and ascended into heaven , and sitteth on the right hand of the Father . And he shall come againe with glory to judge both the quick & the dead : whose kingdome shall have no end . And I beleive in the holy Ghost , the Lord and giver of life , who proceedeth from the Father and the Son , who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified , whospake by the Prophets . And I believe one Catholique and Apostolique Church . I acknowledge one Baptisme for the remission of sins . And I looke for the resurrection of the Dead , and the life of the world to come . Amen . After the Creed . Minister . The Lord be with you . People . And with thy Spirit . Let us Pray . OUr Father which art in heaven * hallowed be thy Name * Thy Kingdome come * Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven * Give us this day our daily bread * And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespasse against us * And lead us not into temptation * But deliver us from evill . For thine is the Kingdome , the power and the Glory , for ever and ever . Amen . I. O Great King of heaven and earth , the Lord and patron of all ages , receive thy servants approaching to the throne of grace in the Name of Jesus Christ ; give unto every one of us what is best for us , cast out all evill from within us , work in us a fulnesse of holinesse , of wisedome and spiritual understanding , that we increasing in the knowledge of God may be fruitfull in every Good worke through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . The collect for the morning . II. O Almighty Father great God of all the world , who dwellest in the light to which no man can approach , in thy presence there is no night in the light of thy countenance there is perpetuall day : We thy servants whom thou hast preserved this night , who blesse and glorifie thee this day , who live by thy power , who desire to walk by thy lawes , to be blessed by thy providence , to be defended by thy Almighty hand , humbly pray unto thee that this day , and all the daies of our lives may be holy and peaceable ; send thy holy spirit the spirit of peace , to be the guide of our waie , the guard of our soules and bodies . Grant that all the chances and accidents of this day may be healthfull to our bodies , and profitable to our soules ; and that we may spend the remaining portion of our life in blessing and peace and holinesse . Make thou the latter end of our daies to be Christian , without shame & without torment ; and when we shall appeare before thy dreadfull seat of Judgement grant that we may not be confounded , but may stand upright in the congregation of the Saints , acquitted by the death of Christ , justified by his resurrection , pardon'd by his sentence , saved by his mercy , that we may rejoyce in his salvation , and sing thy praises for ever and ever . Amen . A prayer against temptations . III. O God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ , thy Name is great , thy essence is infinite , thy goodnesse is eternal , and thy power hath no limit ; thou art the God and Lord of all , Blessed for evermore ; Looke downe in mercie and compassion from thy dwelling , heare our prayers and supplications , and deliver us from all temptations of the world , the flesh , and the Devill . Take not thy grace from us , let us never want thy helpe in our needs , nor thy comfort in the day of our danger and calamity . Never try us beyond our strengths , nor afflict us beyond our Patience , nor smite us but with a Fathers rod * We have no strengths of our owne , thou art our confidence , our rock and our strong salvation . Save us O God , from the miseries of this world , and never let us suffer the intolerable calamities of the next . Rescue us from the evils we have done , and preserve us from the evils we have deserved , that we living before thee with clean hearts , and undefiled bodies , and sanctified spirits , may at the day of Judgement be presented pure and spotlesse by the blood of the lamb , that we may sing eternall . Allelujahs in heavenly places to the honour of God our Saviour who hath redeemed our soules from death , our eyes from tears , and our feet from falling . Grant this in the richnesse of thy mercy through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . Then shall be added upon all Sundaies and Festivals of the yeare this following prayer : and upon other daies as opportunitie is to be had : all or some portions . The prayers for kings &c. and the state Ecclesiastical are never to be omitted : but on ordinary daies it may suffice to recite them omitting so much of either as is included in the Columnes . [ * ] The prayer of intercession , for all states of Men and Women in the Catholick Church . I. SAve us defend and keep us in thy fear and love O thou God of mercy and grace : Give unto us the light of thy countenance , pardon of our sins , health of our body , sanctification of our spirits , peace from heaven , and salvation of our soules in the day of our Lord Jesus . Amen . For the Catholick Church . II. HEar our praiers for thy holy Church Catholick which thou hast redeemed with thy blood , sealed and sanctified with thy spirit : Extirpate all heresies and false doctrines , unite all her divisions , let her be prosperous under thy favour , and the protection of Kings and Princes and the whole secular arme : that she may daily celebrate thy Name , with strict obedience , and pure spiritual sacrifices , that she may be accepted and prevaile in her daily and nightly prayers , and that the gates of hell may never prevaile against her : let her live in the spirit , and reigne in thy glory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . For the supreme power . III. WE pray unto thee O great King of Heaven and earth for all Christian Kings , Princes , Governours and states : Crowne them with justice and peace , and with the love of God , and the love of their people [ * ] let holinesse be the ornament of their heads ; invest them with the armour of righteousnesse , and let the anointing from above make them Sacred and venerable , wise and holy [ * ] that being servants of the King of Kings , friends of religion , Ministers of justice , and patrons of the poor , they may at last inherit a portion in the Kingdome of our Lord Jesus . For the state Ecclesiastical . IV. REmember all them that doe the Lords worke in the ministery and conduct of soules . Give them great gifts and great holinesse [ * ] that wisely and charitably , diligently and zealously , prudently and acceptably , they may be guides to the blind , comforters to the sad and weary , that they may strengthen the weake , and confirme the strong , separate the vile from the precious , boldly rebuke sinne , patiently suffer for the truth , and be exemplary in their lives [ * ] that in all their actions and sermons , in their discipline and ministrations , they may advance the good of soules , and the honour of our Lord Jesus . Amen . For all orders and states of men , &c. V. O Blessed God who art rich in mercie and compassion , take care of all states of Men and Women in the Christian Church , the Nobility and Gentry , Magistrates and Judges , Advocates and Physicians , Merchants and Artificers , Husbandmen and Tradesmen , the Labourers and the Hirelings : give them grace in their several callings to glorifie thee , and to keep a good conscience both towards God and towards Man , that they may find eternal comfort in the glorious day of our Lord Jesus . For the miserable and afflicted . VI. In mercie remember the poor and needy , the widdowes and the Fatherlesse , the strangers and the friendlesse , the oppressed and the greived , the Decrepit and the sickly , the yong men and the tempted , the weake of heart and the weake in body , them that languish and them that are dying ; Releive their necessities , comfort their sorrowes , sanctifie their calamities , strengthen their weaknesses , and suffer not the Devil to prevaile over them in the daies of their sorrow and disadvantage : and in thy due time deliver them from their sad bondage into thy glorious liberty of the sons of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. VII . BE a guide to the travellers , a star and a port to Mariners , the comfort and strength of Miners and Gallislaves . Pity good God , all Gentlemen that are fallen into poverty and sad misfortunes , strengthen and deliver all women that are in sharp and dangerous labour , all them that roar and groane with intolerable paines and noisome diseases : Have mercy and compassion upon all that are afflicted with illusion of the night and frightfull apparitions , that are haunted or possessed with evill spirits , or troubled with despairing or amazed consciences , with the stone and with the gout , with violent colics and greivous ulcers : give them pity and give them patience , a speedy deliverance from their calamity , and a sanctified use of the rod of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. VIII . WE pray unto thee O Blessed Father in behalfe of all that are in banishment & captivity , in fetters or hard services , in want or extreme poverty , in great fear or in any great passion . Keep them from sinning against thee , and from being swallowed by too great a sorrow . Let the accidents of their lives be under the command of reason , and of thy holy spirit , and end in holinesse and comfort , in peace and joyes eternall , through the mercies of our God in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen . For the preservation from danger and evill . IX . KEep us O God from famine and pestilence , from Earthquakes and inundations , from fire and sword , from invasion by foreign enemies and from civil warres , from false religion and from discountenancing the true : let every Christian soule find pity at the throne of grace : let all our errors and ignorances find pardon by Christ , and remedie by the holy spirit of Christ ; hear all our praiers , releive all our necessities , sanctifie all the events of thy providence , and the changes of our life , that we may for ever love and for ever fear thee , and all things may worke together for our Good unto thy glory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . The blessing . The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ , and the love of God , and the communication of the holy spirit of God be with us , and with all our Relatives , and with all the servants of God this day and for evermore . Amen . The end of Morning Prayer . EVENING PRAYER , Throughout the YEARE . EVENING PRAYER , Throughout the YEARE . Say one or more of these Sentences . O Lord the hope of Israel , all that forsake thee shall be ashamed , because they have for saken the Lord , the fountaine of living waters . O Lord though our iniquities testifie against us , have mercy upon us for thy names sake ; for our backslidings are many , we have sinned against thee . Seeke the Lord while he may be found : call upon him when he is neer . There is no peace saith my God to the wicked . Who is a God like unto thee , that pardoneth iniquity , and passeth by the remnant of the transgression of his heritage ? he retaineth not his anger for ever , because he delighteth in mercie . Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts , and let him return unto the Lord , and he will have mercy upon him , and to our God for , he will abundantly pardon . Thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabits eternity , whose name is holy , I dwell in the high and holy place , with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit , to revive the spirit of the humble , and to renew the heart of them that are contrite . After which adde this short exhortation . I Beseech you that are present to joyne with me in a humble confession of sins to Almighty God , casting your selves downe with all humility before the throne of Grace . The Confession . I. ALmighty God powerfull and mercifull , thou art a jealous God against persevering sinners , but a gracious father to the penitent , let thy mercifull eares be opened to the petitions of thy servants who with sorrow and shame confesse their sins unto thee . II. We have loved the world , not thee : we have obeyed the desires of our owne hearts , not thy holy lawes and Commandements : we have often left our dutie undone , but cease not to please our senses and to feed greedily upon vanity : thou hast commanded us to love our brethren , and instead of loving them we have slandered and reproached , injured and tempted them , envied their good , and rejoyced in their calamity . III. O Blessed God we are asham'd when we rememberd our owne follies , our violent passions , our peevishnesse and pride , our vaine thoughts and unprofitable words , our uncharitable and uselesse conversation : we spend our daies in idlenesse and folly , our nights in the images and causes of death ; and though our sins are so many that we cannot number them , yet we so little apprehend our owne dangers that we neither leave them utterly nor heartily deplore them . IV. But O God thou God of pity and compassion have mercy upon us : For thou art our Father , mercifull and gracious , and thou hast revealed to mankind an infinite mercy in Jesus Christ. For his sake be pleased to give us repentance , and to give us pardon , and grant that our soules being wash'd in the blood of the holy Lambe and the Baptisme of repentance , we may live a gracious , a holy and a blessed life , in all godlinesse and honesty , and sobriety , and may die in the love of God , in the charity of our neighbours , in the Communion of the Church and in a sure and certaine hope of life eternal , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . The prayer of Absolution to be said by the Minister alone according to his piety and discretion when he sees cause . OUr Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus the great Shepherd and Bishop of our soules , that lambe of God that taketh away the sins of the world , who promised Paradise to the repenting theife , and gave pardon to the woman taken in adultery , he pardon and forgive all your sins knowne and unknowne . *** O Blessed Jesus in whatsoever thy servants as men bearing flesh about them , and inhabiting this world , or deceived by the Devill , have sinn'd whether in word or deed , whether in thought or desire , whether by omission or commission , let it be forgiven unto them by thy word and by thy spirit ; and for ever preserve thy servants from sinning against thee , and from suffering thine eternall anger , for thy promise sake , and for thy glorious Names sake , O Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus . Amen . Then devoutly and distinctly say the Lords Prayer . OUr Father which art in heaven * Hallowed be thy Name * Thy Kingdome come * Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven * Give us this day our daily bread* And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespasse against us* And lead us not into temptation* But deliver us from evill . For thine is the Kingdome , the power and the Glory , for ever . Amen . The Doxology . GLory be to the Father of mercies , the Father of Men and Angels , the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Glory be to the most holy and eternall sonne of God , the Blessed Saviour and Redeemer of the World ; the Advocate of sinners , the Prince of Peace , the Head of the Church , and the mighty Deliverer of all them that call upon him . Glory be to the holy and Eternall spirit of God , the Holy Ghost the comforter , the sanctifying and life-giving Spirit . All Glory and thankes , all honour and power , all love and obedience , be to the Blessed and undivided Trinity , one God Eternall . The Heavens declare thy glory : the Earth confesses thy providence : the sea manifests thy power ; and every spirit , and every understanding creature celebrates thy greatnesse for ever and ever* All glory and majesty , all praises and dominion be unto thee O God , Father , Son and Holy Ghost , for ever and ever . Amen . Then arising from their knees let the Psalme's be said in order , unlesse some extraordinary occasion doe intervene : in which case let Psalmes be selected according to the occasion , or as is afterwards described , concluding with , Glory be to the Father . &c. Then read upon all Sundaies and Festivals of the yeare a chapter in the old Testament ; either in order or by choice . After the lesson recite this Hymne . * I Will remember the workes of the Lord : surely I will remember the wonders of old : I will meditate of allthy workes , and talke of thy doings . ¶ Thy way O God is in the sanctuary : who is so great a God as our God ? * Thou art the God that doest wonders , thou hast declared thy strength among the people . ¶ Thou even thou art to be feared : and who may stand in thy sight when thou art angry . * For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup , and the wine is red : it is full of mixture , and he powreth out of the same : but the dregs thereof all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out and drink them . ¶ But I will declare for ever : I will sing praises to the God of Jacob. * For thou art my hope O Lord God : thou art my trust from my youth . ¶ By thee have I been holden up from the wombe : thou art he that tooke me out of my Mothers bowels , my praise shall be continually of thee . * For the Lord is a sun and a sheild : the Lord will give grace and glory : and no good thing will he withhold from them that live a godly life . ¶ O Lord of Hosts ; Blessed is the Man that putteth his trust in thee . Glory be to the Father &c. Or this . * GOd is greatly to be fear'd in the assembly of the Saints : and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him . ¶ Thou rulest the raging of the sea : when the waves thereof arise thou stillest them . * The heavens are thine , the earth also is thine : as for the world , and the fulnesse thereof , thou hast founded them . ¶ Justice and judgement are the habitation of thy throne , mercy and truth shall go before thy face . * For loe thine enemies O Lord , loe thine enemies shall perish : all the workers of iniquity shall be scattered . ¶ The righteous shall flourish like a Palme tree : he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon . * Those that be planted in the house of the Lord , shall flourish in the Courts of our God. ¶ They shall still bring forth fruit in their old age : they shall be fat and flourishing . ¶ To shew that the Lord is upright : he is our rock , and there is no unrighteousnesse in him . Glory be to the Father . &c. Then read a lesson out of the Epistle of S. Paul , or any of the Canonical Epistles ; in order or selected upon special occasions . After the lesson , say this Psalme . * GIve eare O Lord unto my prayer : and attend to the voice of my supplications . ¶ Turne us O God of our salvation , and cause thine anger towards us to cease . * For thou Lord art good and ready to forgive , and plenteous in mercy to all them that call upon thee . ¶ O Remember not against us former iniquities , let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us . * Helpe us O God of our salvation , for the glory of thy name : deliver us and purge away our sins for thy names sake . ¶ Teach us thy way O God , and we will walke in thy truth : unite our hearts to fear thy Name . * O satisfy us early with thy mercy , that we may rejoyce and be glad all our daies . ¶ So we thy people and sheep of thy pasture will give thee thankes for ever : we will shew forth thy praise from generation to generation . Glory be to the Father , &c. Or this . * IN thee O Lord doe I put my trust , let me never be ashamed : deliver me in thy righteousnesse . ¶ Into thy hand I commend my spirit ; thou hast redeemed me O Lord God of truth . * Make thy face to shine upon thy servants : save us for thy mercies sake . ¶ For great is thy goodnesse which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee : which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men . * The Angel of the Lord encamped round about them that fear him , and delivereth them . ¶ Thou art my hiding place , thou shalt preserve me from trouble : thou shalt compasse me about with songs of deliverance . * Thou makest darknesse and it is night , wherein all the beasts of the forest doe creep forth . ¶ O Lord how manifold are thy workes ! in wisdome hast thou made them all : the earth is full of thy riches . * The Glory of the Lord shall endure for ever : the Lord shall rejoyce in his workes . ¶ He appointed the moone for certaine seasons ; and the sun knoweth his going downe . * I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live . I will sing praise unto my God while I have my being : my meditation of him shall be sweet , I will rejoyce in the Lord. ¶ I will both lay me downe in peace and sleep : for thou Lord makest me dwell in safety . Glory be to the Father , &c. Or else say 103. Psalme , or the 91. or the 121. Then shall follow the Apostles Creed . I Beleeve in God the Father Almighty maker of Heaven and earth * And in Jesus Christ his onely son our Lord * which was conceived by the holy Ghost , borne of the Virgin Mary * suffered under Pontius Pilate , was crucified , dead , and buried * He descended into hell * The third day he rose againe from the dead * He ascended into Heaven , and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty * From thence he shall come to judge the quicke and the Dead . * I believe in the holy Ghost * The holy Catholick Church , the communion of Saints * the forgivenesse of sins * the resurrection of the body * and the life everlasting . Amen . Minister . The Lord be with you . People . And with thy Spirit . Let us Pray . Our Father which art in heaven * Hallowed be thy Name * Thy Kingdome come * Thy will be done in earth as it is in Heaven * Give us this day our daily bread * And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us * And lead us not into temptation * But deliver us from evil . For thine is the Kingdom , the power and the Glory , for ever and ever . Amen . Then followes the first collect as at Morning Prayer . I. O Great King of heaven and earth , the Lord and patron of all ages , receive thy servants approaching to the throne of Grace in the Name of Jesus Christ. Give unto every one of us what is best for us , cast out all evil from within us , work in us a fulnesse of holinesse , of wisedome and spiritual understanding , that we increasing in the knowledge of God may be fruitful in every Good worke through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . Or this . SAve us , defend and keep us in thy fear and love O thou God of mercy and grace . Give unto us the light of thy countenance ; pardon of our sins , health of body , sanctification of our spirits , peace from heaven , and salvation of our soules in the day of our Lord Jesus . Amen . I. For repentance and a Holy life . ALmighty God the fountaine of holinesse and felicity who by thy word and by thy spirit dost conduct all thy servants in the waies of peace and sanctity , inviting them by promises , and winning them by love , endearing them by necessities , and obliging them by the perpetual testimonies of thy loving kindnesse , grant unto us so truly to repent us of our sins , so carefully to reforme our errors , so diligently to watch over all our actions , so industriously to doe all our duty , that we may never transgresse thy Holy lawes willingly ; but that it may be the worke of our lives to obey thee , the joy of our soules to please thee , the satisfaction of all our hopes , and the perfection of our desires to live with thee in the holinesse of thy Kingdome of grace and glory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . II. For Peace . O Almighty and most gracious Father who art the fountaine of peace , and the Father of Unions , we pray unto thee for peace , for love , and for thy salvation , Let a holy peace for ever dwell in our consciences . Let peace and holinesse , and Gods blessing for ever adorne , support and enlarge this * family . Let there be peace and Union of minds in all Christian assemblies , one heart , and one voice , the same faith and an eternal charity . Make warrs to cease in all the world , that the peace and the designe of the Gospel may be advanced , the lawes of the holy Jesus may be obeyed , and his Name be magnified in all the world for ever and ever . Amen . III. For all Christian Princes and the Ecclesiastical state . ALmighty God who rulest in the Kingdomes of men , and in all events of the world , defend those with thy mercy whom thou hast adorned with thy power , lift up the horne , advance the just interests of all Christian Kings , Princes , and states by the power of thy venerable and lifegiving passion . *** Give unto all them who serve thee in the ministeries of religion wisedome and holinesse , the blessings of peace , and great abilities to minister prosperously to the good of soules by the power and aides of thy holy Spirit of wisdome . IV. Pardon all our sins ; take away our iniquities from us all , and preserve us from all danger and trouble , from need and persecution , from the temptations of the Devill , from the violence and fraud of all our enemies . Keep us O God from sinning against thee , and from suffering thy wrath , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . V The collect for the Evening . O Almighty Father who givest the Sun for a light by day , and the ordinances of the Moone and of the Stars for a light by night , vouchsafe to receive us this night and ever into thy favour and protection , defending us from all sad casualties and evill accidents , ruling and governing us with thy holy spirit , that all darknesse and hurtfull ignorance , all infidelity and weaknesse of heart , all inordinate fear and carnall affections may be remooved far from us , that we being justified by the mercies of God in our Lord Jesus , may be sanctified by thy spirit , and glorified by thy infinite mercies in the day of the glorious appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen . VI. For a blessed death . O Most gracious and most holy Redeemer who by dying for us becamest the author of life unto us , and hast subdued all the powers of hell and the grave , taking away the sting of death and breaking in peices the powers of darknesse ; have mercy upon us now and at the hour of our Death : Let thy holy Spirit governe all our words and actions , our thoughts and designes , our civill entercourse , and the duties of religion ; and grant to us so perfectly to obey his commandements , and attend his motions all the daies of our life , that we may by holy habits and a constant performance of our dutie waite for the coming of our Lord , and be ready to enter with him at whatsoever hour he shall come . VII . O be mercifull unto us in the day of our calamity , and of thy visitation : strengthen our faith in the day of our sicknesses & trial , when the Cloud is thicke & the storme is great : that we may rely upon thy grace , invocate thy mercies , hope in thy goodnesse , and receive the end of our hopes the salvation of our soules . O Let us never descend into the dwellings of the wicked , nor into the place of them that know not God ; but be pleas'd here to guide us with thy councell , and after that receive us with thy glory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . Or this . O Eternall God thou fountaine of life and pardon , there is no number of thy daies nor of thy mercies ; be mercifull unto us now and at the hour of our death ; let not thy servants be arrested with sudden death , that we be neither unready in our accounts , nor snatched hence with an imperfect duty , nor surprised in an act of sin , nor called upon when our lampes are untrimm'd ; let it be neither violent nor untimely , hasty , nor unblessed but after the ordinary visitation of men , having in it an excellent patience and an exemplar piety , and the greatest senses and demonstrations of thy eternall mercies . Preserve O God our reason and religion , our faith and our hope , our sense and our speech perfect and usefull till the last of our daies , and grant that we may die the death of the righteous , and let our last end be like to his , free from debt and deadly sin , having first discharg'd all our obligations of justice , and made competent provision for our relatives , that none of ours be left miserable and unprovided in our departure ; but grant that being blessed by thy providence , and sanctified with thy spirit , they may for ever be servants of the Lord Jesus . II. Thou knowest Lord the secrets of our hearts , shut not up thy mercifull eyes and eares unto our prayers , but spare us O Lord most holy , O God most mighty , O holy and mercifull Saviour , thou most worthy Judge eternall , suffer us not at our last hour for any paines of death to fall from thee ; but strengthen us with a mighty grace and support us with an infinite mercy , giving us perfect measures or repentance and great treasures of charity , that at the generall resurrection in the last day we may be found acceptable in thy sight , and receive that blessing which thy welbeloved son shall then pronounce to all them that love and feare thee , saying , Come ye Blessed children of my Father , receive the kingdome prepared for you from the beginning of the world . * This mercy O most mercifull Father vouchsafe to give unto us and all thy servants through Jesus Christ our Mediator and Redeemer . Amen . Here may be inserted any of the portions of the prayer of intercession , which is at the end of Morning Prayer . The Blessing . THe Lord blesse you and keep you : The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you . The Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon you and give you peace : The blessing of God Almighty , the Father , Son and Holy Ghost be amongst you and abide with you , and be your portion for ever and ever . Amen . The end of Evening Prayer . To be added to the foregoing Offices upon speciall occasions immediately before the blessing at Morning or Evening Prayer . A prayer before Sermon . O Lord God fountaine of life , giver of all good things who givest to men the blessed hope of eternall life by our Lord Jesus Christ , and hast promised thy holy Spirit to them that aske him ; Be present with us in the dispensation ofthy holy word [ * and Sacraments ] grant that we being preserved from all evil by thy power , and among the diversities of opinions and judgments in this world from all errors and false doctrines , and led into all truth by the conduct of thy holy spirit , may for ever obey thy heavenly calling : that we may not be onely hearers of the word of life , but doers also of good workes , keeping faith and a good conscience , living an unblameable life , usefully and charitably , religiously and prudently in all godlinesse and honesty before thee our God , and before all the world , that at the end of our mortal life we may enter into the light and life of God to sing praises and eternall hymnes to the glory of thy name in eternal ages , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . In whose name let us pray in the words which himselfe commanded . saying , OUr Father which art in heaven * Hallowed be thy Name * Thy Kingdome come * Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven * Give us this day our daily bread * And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespasse against us * And lead us not into temptation * But deliver us from evill . For thine is the Kingdome , the Power and the Glory , for ever and ever . Amen . A prayer of Thanksgiving after Sermon ; if it be convenient by reason of the time or other circumstances . I. ALmighty God our glory and our hope , our Lord and Master , the Father of mercy and the God of all comfort , we humbly present to thee the sacrifice of a thankfull spirit in a joyfull acknowledgment of those infinite favours , by which thou hast supported our state , enriched our spirits , comforted our sorrowes , releiv'd our necessities , blessed and defended our persons , instructed our ignorances and promoted our eternall interest . * We praise thy name for that portion of thy holy word of which thou hast made us partakers this day . Grant that it may bring forth fruit unto thee , and unto holinesse in our whole life , to the glory of thy holy name , the edification of our Brethren , and the eternall comfort of our soules in the day of our Lord Jesus . II. Have mercy upon all that desire , and upon all that need our praiers . Ease the paines of the sick , support the spirit of the disconsolate , heare the cries of Orphans and Widdowes in their calamity , and restore all that are oppressed to their rights , and sanctify to them all their wrongs ; pity the folly , and pity the calamities of poor mankind ; in mercy remembring them that are appointed to die , comfort and support their spirits , perfect and accept their repentance , and receive the soules returning unto thee , whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious blood . III. Lord pity and pardon , direct and blesse , sanctify and save us all . Give repentance to all that live in sinne , and perseverance to all thy sons and servants for his sake who is thy beloved , and the foundation of all our hopes , Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus , to whom with the Father and the holy Spirit be all honour and glory , praise and adoration , love and obedience now and for evermore . Amen . If this whole office be said at Morning or Evening Prayer respectively ; the Collect before sermon here put downe , may be used instead of the Usual prayer before sermon ; ending with the Lords prayer : and the Sermon to begin immediately before the blessing . The Sermon being ended ; the prayer of thankes-giving may be said , and the congregation dismissed with the blessing set downe at the end of Evening Prayer . A prayer when a sick person desires to be publikely prayed for . I. O Almighty and most gracious Father who art the fountaine of life and health and pardon , hear the prayers of thy servants in behalfe of our Brother [ or Sister ] the miserable for the afflicted , of sinners for him [ or her ] whom thou hast smitten . Lord lay no more upon him then thou shalt enable him to beare , but give him patience ; and doe thou thy selfe open a door for his escape , even by a holy and a reformed life , and a speedy recovery , or else by a blessed death , as thou in thy infinite loving kindnesse shalt choose for thy glory and his eternall interest . II. Lord give unto thy servant a perfect repentance and a perfect pardon of all his sins . Remember not the errors of his youth , the weaknesse of his spirit , the surprises of his life , and the crimes of his choice : but joyne his present sufferings to the passion , his prayers to the intercession , and his repentance to the merits of our dearest Saviour Jesus , that he may be pardoned and pitied , comforted and supported , sanctified and saved in the day of recompenses . III. Blessed Jesus who hast overcome all the powers of sinne , Hell and the grave , take from thy servant all inordinate fear of death , give him a perfect resignation of his will and conformity to thine ; restraine the power of the enemy , that he may not prevaile against the soule which thou hast redeemed : If it be thy will give him a speedy restitution of his health , and a holy use of the affliction : or if thou hast otherwise decreed , preserve him in thy fear and favour , and receive his soule to mercy , to pardon , and eternal life through thy mercies and for thy compassion sake , O Blessed Saviour and Redeemer Jesus . Amen . I. For seasonable weather in time of drowth , immoderate raine , or scarcity , or death of Cattel , &c. O Lord God whose providence is universal and sufferest nothing to happen in vaine , have mercy upon thy servants who have deserved thy wrath and to suffer thy indignation in every expression by which thou art pleas'd to signifie it . Thou O God coverest the Heaven with clouds , and preparest raine for the earth ; thou makest the grasse to growe upon the mountains , and herbe for the use of men : Thou givest fodder unto the cattel , and feedest the young ravens that call upon thee ; Heare us O God who are thy servants , and the sheep of thy pasture ; we have indeed wandered and gone astray , but doe thou be mercifull unto us and bring us home to thee : Take away thine anger from us ; Blesse the labours of the husbandman , and the fruits of the feild , refresh the weary earth with seasonable showers [ or , * seasonable weather ] for thou hast the key of raine , and the key of providence , thou didst bind up the heavens with ribs of iron , and thou didst open againe the sluces of water at the prayer of thy servant Elijah , and thy hand is not shortned , and thy mercies have no limit . II. Open thy hand O God and fill us with thy loving kindnesse , that the Mower may fill his hand , and he that bindeth up the sheaves his bosome , that our garners may be full with all manner of store ; that our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets : That our oxen may be strong to labour , that there be no breaking in , or going out , that our hearts may be replenish'd with food and gladnesse , that there be no complaining in our streets . Give us sufficient for this life ; food and raiment , the light of thy countenance , and contented spirits ; and thy grace to seeke the Kingdom of heaven and the righteousnesse thereof in the first place , and then we are sure all these things shall be added unto us . Grant the desires and heare the prayer of thy servants for Jesus Christ his sake our Lord and onely saviour . Amen . Or this upon the same occasion , or in the time of any other judgement . ALmighty Father , Lord of Heaven & Earth , we have sinned , and thou hast smitten us , & al our evils that we suffer are drawne upon our heads by our owne impious hands ; let thy threatnings and thy judgments , thy love and thy feare , thy promises and thy precepts ; worke in thy servants an excellent repentance , and let our repentance obtaine thy favour , and thy favour remove the present evil [ of Drowth , of immoderate raine , of Murren , of Plague , of Warre , of Sicknesse ] from us [ according to the present occasion ] ; sanctify unto us thy rod , and support us with thy staffe , and restore us to those comforts which we need and which thou hast promised to give to them that love and feare thee , that repent of their sins , and beg for pardon ; through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen . A shorter forme of Morning prayer for a Family . A more private office for the family to be said betimes in the Morning on Sundaies , or at any houre of the morning upon the other daies of the weeke . In the name of our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus . Our Father , &c. The morning Hymne . * HEarken unto the voice of my cry , my King , and my God , for unto thee will I pray . ¶ My voice shalt thou hear in the morning . O Lord in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee and will looke up . * Great is our Lord and greatly to be praised ; his eyes are ever upon the righteous , and his ears are open unto their cry . ¶ Thy mercy O Lord is in the heavens ; and thy faithfulnesse reacheth unto the clouds . * Thy righteousnesse is like the great mountaines , thy judgements are a great deep : O Lord thou preservest both man and beast . ¶ How excellent is thy loving-kindnesse O Lord , therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings . * For with thee is the fountaine of life : in thy light we shall see light . ¶ According to thy name O God , so is thy praise to the ends of the earth : thy right hand is full of righteousnesse . * The Lord , the Lord God is mercifull and gracious , long-suffering and abundant in goodnesse and truth , keeping mercy for thousands , forgiving iniquity , and transgression and sin , and that will by no means clear the guilty . ¶ What is man that thou shouldest magnifie him , and that thou shouldest set thy heart upon him ? * And that thou shouldest visit him every morning , and try him every moment ! ¶ If thou wouldest seek unto God betimes , and make thy supplication to the Almighty : * If thou wert pure and upright , surely now he would awake for thee , and make the habitation of thy righteousnesse prosperous . ¶ O Lord be gracious unto us , we have waited for thee , be thou our arme every morning ; our salvation also in the time of trouble . * O send out thy light and thy truth , let them lead me , let them bring me to thy holy hill , unto thy dwelling . ¶ O put your trust in the Lord , for with the Lord there is mercy , and with him is plenteous redemption : he shall redeem his people from their sins . * Then shall their light breake forth as the morning , and their health shall spring forth speedily ; for the glory of the Lord shall be their reward . Glory be to the Father , and to the Son , and to the Holy Ghost , As it was in the beginning , is now , and ever shall be world without end . If there be time and conveniency , let a chapter be read out of the Sapiential bookes in order . viz. The proverbs of Solomon , Ecclesiastes , the Wisedome of Solomon , Ecclesiasticus . Then shall follow the Creed , To be said by all together . I Beleeve in God the Father Almighty maker of Heaven and earth * And in Jesus Christ his onely son our Lord * which was conceived by the holy Ghost , borne of the Virgin Mary * suffered under Pontius Pilate , was crucified , dead , and buried* He descended into hell * The third day he rose againe from the dead * He ascended into Heaven , and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty * From thence he shall come to judge the quicke and the Dead . * I believe in the holy Ghost * The holy Catholick Church , the communion of Saints * the forgivenesse of sins * the resurrection of the body * and the life everlasting . Amen . Minister . The Lord be with you People . And with thy spirit . I. Let us pray . O Eternall and most blessed Saviour Jesus , thou art the bright morning star , and the sun of righteousnesse , thou dost enlighten our eyes with thy beauties , and our hearts with thy comfort and with the joyes of God , thou art the fountaine of health and life , of peace and truth , of rest and holinesse ; thou givest to them that want , thou comfortest them that suffer , thou forgivest them that repent , and hearest the prayers of all them that call upon thee ; we adore thee and praise thy glories , and rejoyce in thy salvation , and give thee thanks for thy blessing and defending us this night , from all the evill which we have deserved every day , and from all the violences and snares by which the enemie of mankind would have hurt us , or destroyed us , unlesse he had been restrained by thy eternall goodnesse and thy almighty power . Blessed be God. II. We acknowledge O God and Father of our life that we are lesse then the least of all thy mercies , and our iniquity is greater then we can bear : our thoughts are vaine , our words are foolish and uselesse , injurious and uncharitable , our actions criminall and hatefull ; our devotion cold , our passions violent and unreasonable ; our duties imperfect , our repentance little , our holinesse none at all . O God our Judge we confesse before thee that we neither know thee as we ought , nor have taken care that we might ; we live in the world to our selves , but without just regards of thee and of religion ; we daily receive thy blessings , and yet we provoke thee every day ; we tremble not at thy judgements though we have deserved them , nor fear till the evil day comes upon us ; we are greedy of doing evill , but impatient of suffering any : in prosperity we forget thy severity and justice : in afflictions we are timorous and amazed , & dare not relie upon thy goodnesse , nor with confidence and love expect the effects of thy mercies and forgivenesse . Every thing can tempt us to sin , and we fall infallibly ; but by all the arts of thy Spirit and the methods of thy mercy we are not brought to obey thee as we ought : Our state is sad , our condition is sinfull , our hopes are broken , and we often forget our selves , and still neglect and despise our owne danger . III. BUt O God our Father , mercifull , and gracious , have mercy upon us . Be pleased to admit thy servants to a full pardon of all our sins , let us not persevere in any one sinne , nor passe from one sin to another . Smite us not O God in thy anger , and let not thy wrath descend upon our guilty heads . Thy anger O God is insufferable , thy vengeance is the portion of accursed soules , and thou hast prepared the everlasting fire for the Devill and his Angels for ever . O Lord thou Father of our life and lover of soules , let us never have our portion in the bottomlesse pit , in the lake that burueth with fire and brimstone for ever : but let our portion be in the actions of repentance , in the service of God , in the aids and comforts of thy Spirit , in dutie and holinesse , in the light of thy countenance , and in the likenesse and in the inheritance of our Lord Jesus . O God let not thy arrowes smite us , nor thy judgements consume us ; keep us from all expressions of thy wrath , and let us rejoice in thy mercies and loving-kindnesses for ever and ever . Amen . IV. And that thy servants may reasonably and humbly hope for thy final mercies and deliverance , be pleased to give us all that we need in order to the performance of our dutie , and worke all that in us by which we may please thee . Instruct us in thy truth , and prepare the means of salvation for us , providing for the necessities , and complying with the capacities of evey one of us . Take from us all blindnesse of heart , and carelessenesse of spirit , all irreligion , and wilful ignorance . Create in us a love of holy things , and open our hearts that we may perceive and love and retaine the things of God with diligence , and humility and industry . O God our Father , pity our weaknesses & temptations , our avocations and unavoidable divertisements , the prejudices and evill contingencies happening in the state of our lives : Enable us with sufficient and active graces to doe whatsoever thou requirest of us severally . Require no more of any one of us then thou hast or shalt give unto us , neither doe thou exact all that ; for we all confesse our weaknesses and defects , our strange imperfections and inexcusable wandrings and omissions : but be pleased to cure all our vitious inclinations ; and take care to remoove from us all those temptations which without thy mighty grace are not to be avoided , and if they come are by our weaknesses not to be overcome . Keep us O God from flattery and irreligion , from vicious complyances , and evill customes , and let not the reverence of any man cause us to sin against thee ; keep us upright in our religion and worshippings of thee , and let no change of the World engage us in a state of life against our duty for Jesus Christ his sake our Dearest Lord and Saviour . V. Keep us O God by thy holy Spirit of grace from all the sins of idlenesse and intemperance , from injustice and sensuality , from the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes , from the pride of life and vanity of spirit , from being carelesse of our dutie of false in our trust , from breach of promise or reproachfull language , from slandering or traducing any man , from false accusation and false witnesse , from faction and envie ; Grant us thy grace that we may be diligent in our businesse , just in our charges , provident of our time , watchfull in our dutie , carefull of every word we speak . O make us to be pleased in the offices of religion , usefull to those that imploy us , dutifull to our superiors , loving to each other , conscientious in private , humble in publick , patient in adversity , religious and thankful in prosperity . VI. O Blessed God take care of our soules , and of our bodies : keep us from sharp and tedious sicknesses ; let us never fall into want , or be unprovided for in our age , and forsake us not O God , when we are gray-headed ; Grant us great measures of thy Spirit , that we may abstaine from all appearances of evill , and from all occasions of it , and that we may take care to doe whatsoever is honest and of good report , that having laid up a treasure of good workes against the day of thy visitation , we may rejoyce in the day of our death , and find mercy at the day of judgement , through the goodnesse of our God , and by the grace of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen . VII . Blesse and sanctify , defend and save all Christian Kings , Princes , Governors and States ; Grant that all powers , Civil and Ecclesiasticall may joyne together in the promoting the honour of God and the kingdome of the Lord Jesus , and may find the blessings of God , and the rewards of the Lord Jesus in this world and in the world to come . Give health and comfort , peace and holinesse , long life and increase of grace to the cheifest of this family [ his Wife and children ] grant that their portion may be in religion , and the love of God , keep them from all evill by the guard of Angels , and lead them into all good by the conduct of thy good Spirit . VIII . In mercy and great compassion remember all them that are miserable and afflicted , persecuted or poore , that have lost their estates or lost their liberty , their health or their peace , their innocence or their hopes ; restore them O Lord to all good , and to all usefull comforts , and let not the enemie of mankind invade thy portion , or destroy any soule for whom thou hast paid the price of thy most precious blood . Hear us O God in mercy , and blesse all our relations , and prosper all our labours , and sanctify all our intentions , and forgive us all our sins , and releive all our necessities , and defend us from all dangers , and especially from our own selves , from our evill habits , and foolish customes , from our weake principles and sad infirmities , from our evill concupiscence and vitious inclinations , from the power of the Devill , and from thy wrath , and bring us in mercy and truth , in holinesse and comfort , in labour and certainty to a fruition of the glories of God , in the inheritance of our blessed Saviour . Grant this O God our Father , for the merits and by the redemption and intercession of our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen . THe grace of our Lord Jesus Christ , and the love of God , and the communication of the holy Spirit of God be with us , defend and guide , sanctify and save us , and al our relatives , and all the servants of God this day and for evermore . Amen . A short forme of Evening prayer for a family . In the name of our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus . Our Father , &c. The HYMNE . O* Lord our Lord how excellent is thy Name in all the Earth , thou hast set thy glory above the Heavens . ¶ When I consider thy heavens , the work of thy fingers , the moone and the stars which thou hast ordained . * What is man that thou art mindfull of him , and the Son of man that thou visitest him ? ¶ For thou hast made him little lower then the Angels , and hast crowned him with glory and honour . * Thou madest him to have dominion over the workes of thy hands : and hast put all things under his feet . ¶ All sheep and oxen , yea and the beasts of the feild , the fowle of the aire , and the fishes of the sea . * O Lord our Governour how excellent is thy name in all the world ! ¶ The heavens declare the glory of God ; and the firmament sheweth his handy work . * Day unto day uttereth speech , and night unto night sheweth knowledge . ¶ Their line is gone out through all the earth , and their words to the end of the world . * To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee and not be silent : O Lord my God I will give thankes unto thee for ever . ¶ Shew me thy wayes O Lord , teach me thy paths , lead me in thy truth and teach me ; for thou art the God of my salvation , on thee doe I wait all the day . * Remember O Lord thy tender mercies and thy loving-kindnesses ; for they have been ever of old . ¶ Remember not the sins of my youth , nor my transgression : according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodnesse sake O Lord. * For thy names sake O Lord pardon mine iniquity , for it is very great : O keepe my soule and deliver me , let me not be ashamed , for I put my trust in thee . ¶ That which I see not teach thou me : I have done iniquity , but I will doe no more : for there is no darkenesse , nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves . * For his eyes are upon the wayes of man , and he seeth all his goings : but none saith , where is God my maker who giveth songs in the night . ¶ But I put my trust in thee O Lord ; I have said thou art my God ? * Into thy hand I commend my spirit , thou hast redeemed me O Lord God of truth . ¶ I will lay me downe in peace : for thou Lord only makest me dwell in safety . Glory be to the Father , &c. As it was in the beginning , &c. Or this . * PReserve me O God , for in thee doe I put my trust : O my soule thou hast said unto the Lord , thou art my Lord : my goodnesse extendeth not to thee ; ¶ But to the Saints which are in the earth , and to the excellent in whom is all my delight . * The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup : thou maintainest my lot . ¶ I will blesse the Lord who hath given me counsell : my reines also instruct me in the night seasons . * I have set the Lord alwaies before me : because he is at my right hand I shall not be mooved . Therefore my heart is glad , and my glory rejoyceth : my flesh also shall rest in hope . ¶ For thou wilt not leave my soule in hell : neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy one to see corruption . * Thou wilt shew me the path of life ; in thy presence is the fulnesse of joy , at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore . ¶ As the heart panteth after the water brookes , so panteth my soule after thee O God. * My soule thirsteth for God , for the living God ; when shall I come and appeare in the presence of God ? ¶ The Lord will command his loving-kindnesse in the day time , and in the night his song shall be with me ; I will make my prayer unto the God of my life . * For thou art the God that doest wonders ; thy way O God is in the sanctuary : who is so great a God as our God ? ¶ Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the Fowler , and from the noisome pestilence . * Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night : nor for the arrow that flieth by day . ¶ For he shall give his Angels charge over thee to keepe thee in all thy waies ; they shall beare thee in their hands least thou dash thy foot against a stone . * I will remember thee upon my bed , and meditate on thee in the night-watch ; for thou hast been my health , therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoyce . ¶ Blessed be the Lord , who daily loadeth us with benefits , even the God of our salvation . * He that is our God is the God of salvation : and unto God the Lord belong the issues of death . ¶ Also unto thee O Lord belongeth mercy : for thou rendrest to every man according to his worke . Glory be to the Father , &c. As it was in the beginning , &c. The Lesson . 1 Thessal . 5. 2. YOur selves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so commeth as a theife in the night . * For when they shall say , peace and safety , then sudden destruction commeth upon them , as travail upon a woman with child : and they shall not escape . * But ye brethren are not in darknesse , that that day should overtake you as a theife ; ye all are children of the light and children of the day : we are not of the night or of darknesse ? * Therefore let us not sleepe as doe others ; but let us watch and be sober . * For they that sleep , sleep in the night , and they that be drunken are drunken in the night . * But let us who are of the day be sober , putting on the breast-plate of faith and love , and for an helmet the hope of salvation . * For God hath not appointed us to wrath ; but to obtaine salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ : * Who died for us , that whether we wake or sleepe , we should live together with him . Or read a chapter in the Sapientiall bookes in order . After the lesson recite the Creed . I beleive in God the Father Almighty , &c. The Lord be with you . Ans. And with thy Spirit . Let us Pray . I. The confession of sins taken out of the prayer of S. Ephraim the Syrian . O Almighty God who dwellest in the inaccessible light , before whom the greatest mountaines are like the dust of the ballance , and in whose sight the heavens are not pure , and the Angels tremble , and the Saints are charg'd with folly , and all the world shall feare in thy glorious presence ; we confesse to thee O Lord , Father of heaven and earth , all those sins which we have wrought in private and in publick ; for thou knowest all things , and nothing is hid from thy righteous eyes . Thou art the God of mercy and pity , and thou wouldst have all , even strangers to be sav'd ; we fly therefore unto thee who art the lover and Saviour of all the soules of the faithfull . Have pity upon us who have many times imbitterd and greiv'd thy most holy spirit , to the joy of our enemies and the sad ruine of our pitiable and wounded soules . Behold O God we have been dead in sins and trespasses , and servants to thy enemy . There is no kind of sins but we have committed , or would have committed ; If it were pleasant , we cared not for the foulnesse , but if we were tempted we did fall ; and where we did fall , there we did love to lie ; we have sinn'd worse then the adulteresse or the theife , more then the publican or the prodigal , oftner then David or Manasses : we have sinn'd against greater mercies , a more determin'd conscience , a better law , a clearer revelation , more terrible threatnings , and better , much better promises . II. We know O God and tremble at the sad remembrance , that all our sins shall be plac'd before our faces at the day of thy dreadfull appearance ; O looke upon us with a mighty pity , let not the Angel of wrath snatch our precious soules from thy beatifick presence ; Take not the sweet refreshments of thy Spirit from us one houre . O Dearest Lord , thou lover of soules , take not our lives from us while our soules are unprepared and unready , unexcus'd and unpardon'd ; for thou knowest the abysse of our sins , and thou knowest what is that abysse of flames and anger which is prepared for foolish and unwary soules . III. Most Blessed Saviour Jesus thou gavest thy life to redeeme us from death ; and thou art the Judge of those actions for which thou wert a sacrifice ; and to give sentence upon those men for whom thou art an advocate and makest perpetuall intercession : O suffer us not to fall under thine eternall anger ; destroy the whole body of sin in us ; bring our understandings into the obedience of God , our affections under the dominion of reason , our reason into a perfect subordination to thy Holy Spirit ; that we may love thee and feare thee , and by repentance and charity may enter into thy favour , and dwell there by a holy perseverance all our daies , through Jesus Christ our Lord. IV. The Prayers . DOe thou open our eyes that we may see our own vilenesses and forsake them , and our foolish errors that we may amend them , and all our infirmities that we may watch against them , and all our dutie that we may pursue it earnestly and passionately , prudently and intirely , presently and for ever . Cause us to returne to our duty with greater fervor and devotion then ever we have sinn'd against thee with pleasure and delight , and as we have dishonourd thee by our unworthinesse , so grant that we may glorifie thee tentimes more , weeping bitterly for our sins , watching against them strictly , hating them infinitely , and forsaking them utterly . O grant that we may every day renew our repentances and vowes of a better life , and make us to doe every day what we promise , and what is our dutie ; so imprinting a holy religion and a severe repentance in our spirits , that we may confesse our sins with a reall and humble sorrow , and beg for pardon because we desire it , and aske for thy helpe because wee will make use of it , and number our sins because wee will leave them , not resting in formes of godlinesse , but living in the power of it , in love and duty , in holinesse and godly choice through Jesus Christ our Lord. V. MOst Gracious God and Father imprint in our hearts great apprehensions of thy power and thy glories , of thy judgement and thy mercies ; of our sins and of our change approaching , of our fugitive life and the day of our death , of our duty and our danger , and the inexpressible terrors of the day of Judgement ; and in proportion to such apprehensions teach us O God to walke in this world with fear and caution , with hope and purity , with diligence and devotion , religiously and usefully , humbly and charitably , with love and obedience to thee , with love and Justice to our neighbours , with sober spirits and chast bodies , with temperance and peace , with faith and patience , with health and holinesse , in the favour of God and the friendlinesse of our neighbours , in the communion of the Church , and in obedience to all good lawes ; that we being blessed by thy providence , defended by thy ministring Angels , conducted by thy good Spirit , instructed by thy word , nourished by the body of Christ , cleansed by his blood , and clothed with his righteousnesse , may grow from grace to grace in the increase of God to the fulnesse of Christ , being subjects of thy Kingdome of grace in this world , and heirs of the Kingdome of glory in the world to come through Jesus Christ our Lord. VI. GIve us pardon , O thou God of mercy and peace , for all the errors and follies , the ignorances and omissions , the rash words and imprudent actions of which any of us hath been guilty this day or at any time before ; we confesse our sins every day , and yet every day sin against thee ; and we pray unto thee for all the blessings that we neede , and thou givest us all that we pray for and much more ; but yet we regard thee not , but every day have new matter of shame and sorrow . Lord have mercy upon us . Christ have mercy upon us . Lord have mercy upon us . FOr if thou Lord wilt be extreme to marke what is done amisse , we shall not be able to abide or stand upright in judgement : Thy mercy is great , and thou hast blessed us this day , and kept us from the evils of our inclination , and the evils of temptation : and though in the things wherein our consciences doe not accuse us we are not justified , but by thy mercies & loving-kindnesse in Christ Jesus , yet we rejoyce in thy goodnesse to us , and praise thy bounties and thy love , and hope in thy mercies , and beg of thee that thou wilt pardon us and keepe us , this night and ever ; sanctify and save us , blesse us at home and abroad , in the workes of our calling and the duties of religion , in our persons and relations ; make us to doe what pleaseth thee , and to be what thou hast designed us to be , and to receive what thou hast promised , and to keepe us from all the evill we have deserved , for Jesus Christ his sake our dearest Lord and Saviour . Amen . THe Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ , and the love of God , and the Communication of the holy Spirit of God be with us , and with all our relatives , and with all the servants of God for ever and ever . Amen . Varieties to be added upon the great Festivals of the Yeare . Upon Christmas day . The Psalmes appointed at Morning Prayer . Psalme 2. Psalme 45. Psalme 110. Evening Prayer . Psalme 87. Psalme 89. The Hymne for Christmas day , to be said after the second lesson at Morning and Evening Prayer . * PRaise waiteth for thee O God in Sion : and unto thee shall the vow be performed . * O thou that hearest prayer unto thee shall all flesh come . * Blessed is the man whom thou choosest , and causest to approach unto thee , that he may dwell in thy courts : He shall be satisfied with the goodnesse of thy house , even of thy Holy Temple . * By terrible things in righteousnesse wilt thou answer us O God of our salvation , who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth , and of them that are a far off upon the sea . * Come and hear all ye that fear God , and I will declare what he hath done for my soule . * The people that walked in darknesse hath seen a great light ; and they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death , upon them hath the light shin'd . * O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodnesse , and declare the wonders that he hath done for the children of men . * He turneth the wildernesse into a standing water , and dry ground into water-springs . * He maketh the barren woman to keep house , and to be a joyfull mother of Children . * For unto us a child is borne , unto us a son is given , and the government shall be upon his shoulders . * His name shall be called wonderfull , counsellor , the mighty God , the everlasting Father , the prince of peace . * Of the increase of his Government and peace there shall be no end . * He shall sit upon the throne of David to order his Kingdome , and to establish it with judgement and justice for ever and ever . * O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodnesse , and declare the wonders that he hath done for the children of Men. Minister . Glory be to God on high . Answer . And on earth peace , good will towards men . Minister , Amen . Answer , Amen . Then proceed to the Nicene Creed . The collect to be inserted after the first collect of the Morning and Evening prayer ; and may be said during the twelve daies . ALmighty God who hast so loved the world that for our redemption from sin & misery thou gavest thy son , that he taking upon him our nature , and being borne of a Virgin , might performe to thee the obedience which mankind owed , and pay the price in which we were indebted , and teach us what thou wouldest have us to doe , and convey to us all the good which thou didst designe for us ; overshadow us with thy holy Spirit of grace , that we may conceive Christ in our hearts by faith , relyup on him in a holyhope , and expresse him in anexcellent charity ; that as he was pleased to take upon him our nature , so we may be borne againe , and be partakers of the Divine nature , that conforming to his image , following his example , and being filled with his Spirit , we may grow in the knowledge and love of God , and live in righteousnesse ; that being thy sons by a holy adoption , we may partake of the inheritance of thy welbeloved son , the firstborne of all the creatures , our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Amen . Upon Good Friday . Instead of the Psalmes of the day read at Morning Prayer . Psalme 22. Psalme 25. Psalme 51. Evening Prayer Psalme 81. Psalme 85. Psalme 86. Psalme 88. or any three of them . The Collect. O Most Blessed , most gracious Saviour Jesus who by thyobedience unto death even the death of the crosse didst become the sacrifice of the world , the great example of patience , the Lord of life , the good shepherd laying downe thy life for thy sheepe , and the mediator betweene God and man ; let thy wounds heale , thy blood cleanse , thy death make us to live , and thy Spirit make us to worke righteousnesse all our daies ; that we may by thy aide and by thy example obey our heavenly Father with all our powers and all our faculties , with our reason and our affections , with our soules and with our bodies , with our time and with our estate , in prosperity and adversity ; that we may beare our crosse patiently , and doe thy worke cheerefully , and be ready to benefit mankind with great charity and great industry , that being followers of thy life and partakers of thy death , we may receive a part in the resurrection of the just to the joyes of God in thy inheritance O most blessed , most Gracious Saviour Jesus . Amen . For Easter day . The Psalmes appointed for Morning Prayer . Psalme 30. Psalme 45. Psalme 47. Evening Prayer . Psalme 57. Psalme 66. Psalme 72. The Hymne to be said after the second lesson at Morning and Evening prayer . IN thee O Lord I have put my trust , let me never be put to confusion , but rid me and deliver me in thy righteousnesse ; incline thine ear unto me and save me . ¶ Be thou my strong hold whereunto I may alway resort : thou hast promised to helpe me , for thou art my house of defence and my Castle . * For thou O Lord God art the thing that I long for : thou art my hope even from my youth . ¶ Thorough thee have I beene holden up ever since I was borne : thou art he that tooke me out of my mothers wombe ; my praises shall be alwaies of thee . * O let my mouth be filled with thy praise that I may sing of thy glory and honour all the day long . ¶ Thy righteousnesse O God in very high : and great things are they which thou hast done : O God who is like unto thee● * O what great troubles and adversities hast thou shewed me ? and yet didst thou turne and refresh me : yea and broughtest me from the deepe of the earth againe . ¶ Thou hast brought to me great honour , and comforted me on every side . * Therefore will I praise thee and thy faithfulnesse O God playing upon an instrument of musick : unto thee will I sing upon the harp , O thou holy one of Israel . ¶ My lips will be faine when I sing unto thee : and so will my soule whom thou hast delivered . * Blessed be the Lord God , even the God of Israel , which onely doth wondrous things . ¶ And blessed be the Name of his Majesty for ever , and all the earth shall be filled with his Majesty . Amen . Amen . Glory be to the Father &c. As it was in the beginning &c. The Collect , O Most Holy , most Glorious Saviour and redeemer Jesu who for our sakes didst descend from the glories of God to the paines and labours of the earth , and didst passe from a painfull life to an ignominious death , from the bitternesse of death to the darkenesse of the grave , and by thy divine power didst raise thy selfe from death to life againe ; we give thee thanks for thy infinite love to us and all mankind ; we acknowledge thee to be our Lord , and confesse thee to be our God , we adore thy Majesty , and rejoyce in thy mercies ; we humbly pray thee to enable us with thy Spirit to beleive all thy doctrines , and to obey all thy Commandements , that after a holy and a religious life spent in doing honour to thy holy Name we may be partakers of thy holy resurrection , passing from death to life , from the darkenesses of the grave to the light of Heaven , from an imperfect duty to the perfection of holinesse in the fruition of the joyes of God in thy eternall Kingdome , O Most holy , Most Glorious Saviour and Redeemer Jesu . Amen . Upon Ascension day . Instead of the Psalmes of the day read at Morning Prayer . Psalme 15. Psalme 21. Psalme 24. Evening Prayer Psalme 92. Psalme 96. Psalme 97. The Collect. O Blessed High Priest , Holy Jesus , King of the world and head of the Church , who when thou hadst taken upon thee our Nature and our sin , and appeased thy Fathers wrath , and perform'd all his will , and overcome death and rescued all obedient soules from the hand of the enemy , didst ascend to thy Eternall Father , and open the Kingdome of Heaven to all beleivers ; thou hast espoused thy Church unto thy selfe with the eternall circles of thy providence , with thy love and with thy care , with thy word and with thy Spirit , thy promises and thy holy intercession ; thou hadst a feeling of our infirmities , and art our mercifull High Preist makeing intercession for us for ever ; O be pleased to represent and supply all our wants , excuse all our infirmities , pity all our calamities , pardon our sins , and send downe thy holy spirit of grace into our hearts , that though we walke upon the earth yet our conversation may be in heaven , and there also may be our portion and inheritance for ever through thy mercies O most Gracious Saviour and Redeemer Jesus . Amen . For Whitsunday . Psalmes for Morning Prayer . Psalme 87. Morning Prayer . Psalme 89. Evening Prayer . Psalme 2. Evening Prayer . Psalme 45. Evening Prayer . Psalme 110. The Hymne to be said after the second lesson at Morning and Evening Prayer . * SIng a loud unto God our strength : make a joyfull noise unto the God of Jacob. ¶ I will remember the workes of the Lord : surely I will remember thy wonders of old : I will meditate of all thy workes , and talke of thy doings . * Thy way O God is in the sanctuary : who is so great a God as our God ? thou art the God that doest wonders ; thou hast declared thy strength among the people . ¶ Vow and pay unto the Lord your God : let all that be round about him bring presents unto him that ought to be feared . * He shall cut off the spirit of princes : he is terrible to the Kings of the earth . ¶ Say unto God , how terrible art thou in thy workes : thorough the greatnesse of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee . * Sion heard and was glad , and the daughters of Judah rejoyced : because of thy judgements O Lord. ¶ For thou Lord art high above all the earth : thou art exalted farre above all Gods. * Light is sowne for the righteous , and gladnesse for the upright in heart . ¶ Rejoyce in the Lord ye righteous : and give thankes at the remembrance of his Holinesse . * The Lord hath made knowne his salvation : his righteousnesse hath he openly shewed in the sight of the Heathen . ¶ He hath remembred his mercy and truth toward the house of Israel : all the ends of the earth have seene the salvation of our God. * Give unto the Lord ( O ye kinreds of the people ) give unto the Lord glory and strength . ¶ For he commeth , For he commeth to judge the earth : he shall judge the world with righteousnesse , and the people with his truth . Glory be to the Father , &c. As it was in the beginning &c. The Collect. O Eternall God the Great Father of spirits , the great Lover of soules , who didst send thy holy Spirit upon thy Church in the day of Pentecost , and hast promised that he shall abide with thy Church for ever , let thy holy Spirit lead us into all truth , defend us from all sin , enrich us with his gifts , refresh us with his comforts , rule in our hearts for ever , conduct us with his truth , and lead us in the way everlasting , that we living by thy Spirit , and walking in him , may by him be sealed up to the day of our redemption ; O let thy Spirit witnesse to our spirits that we are the children of God , and make us to be so for ever , through Jesus our Lord , who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the same Spirit one God world without end . Amen . Upon Trinity Sunday . O Blessed ineffable and most mysterious Trinity how admirable are thy beauties , how incomparable are thy perfections , how incomprehensible are those relations of the three most Blessed Persons , which we believe and admire and adore but understand not ! The Angels are amazed in the unimaginable beauties of that glorious presence , and are swallowed up with the Ocean of thy infinity . How then can we who are in the lowest order of understanding creatures , and have removed our selves further from thee and the participation of thy excellencies , by a sinfull life , praise thee either according to our duty , or thy glories ! yet be pleased to accept the humblest adorations , and with a favourable and a gracious eye behold the lowest worshippings and duty of thy servants . We confesse and glory in thy omnipotency , thy immensity , thy goodnesse , thy uncircumscribed Nature , thy truth , thy mercy , thy omniscience . O let us also receive thy blessings and gracious influences , that we may adore thee with all our powers and possibilities for ever , love thee with all our affections for ever , serve with our best and earliest and all our industry : that being here wholly inebriated with love , and busied in thy service and the duties of a holy obedience , we may to all eternity rejoyce in the beholding of those glories , which are above all capacities , above all heavens , above all Angels , even those glories which streame forth from the throne of the Eternall God the Father , the Sonne and the holy Ghost , to whom be glory and dominion , honour and adoration , eternally confessed due and humbly paid by all men and all Angels world without end Amen . A Collect to be used upon any of the Festivals , or Commemoration of the Apostles . ALmighty God who hast built thy holy Church upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets , Jesus Christ himselfe being the cheife corner stone , we blesse and magnifie thy Name , thy holy and ever glorious Name for thy great graces which thou gavest to thy Apostles , and Prophets , and Martyrs in the daies of their flesh ; and this day we have thy servant [ S. Paul S. Peter S. James , &c. here name the Apostle &c. ] in remembrance ; praising thee for the benefits which the church hath received by his ministery and example ; we pray unto thee to give us thy grace , that we [ obeying thy doctrine which he taught and publish'd and ] following his example as he followed Christ , we also may with safety and holinesse passe through this vally of tears , that serving thee in our generation , advancing thy honour , and obeying thy lawes , we may in the society and communion of Saints and Angels sing eternall Hallelujahs to the honour of thy mercy and of thy majesty through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . An Office or Order for the Holy Sacrament : of the LORDS SUPPER . An Office or order for the Administration of the Holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper according to the way of the Apostolicall Churches and the doctrine of the Church of England . THE ANTECOMMUNION . OUr Father which art in heaven , Hallowed be thy Name , Thy Kingdome come , Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven , Give us this day our daily bread , And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespasse against us , And lead us not into temptation But deliver us from evill . For thine is the Kingdome , the Power and the Glory , for ever and ever . Amen . The Collect. O King of Glory , Lord and Maker of the World , thou art a God knowing all things , and all thoughts even long before they are , be thou present with us in this religious solemnity calling upon thee . Deliver us from the shame of our sins , from the corruption and evill inclinations that attend them , an● from all the evils that may justly follow them . Cleanse our wills and our understandings from all evill lusts and concupiscence , from the deceits of the world , from the violence and snares of the Devill , from all guile and hypocrisy , from every evill word and worke , that we may serve thee faithfully , worship thee religiously , and pray unto thee acceptably through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . Then shall the Minister humbly say this prayer of preparation first in behalfe of himselfe , then of the congregation . O Lord God who in mercy and great compassion doest consider thy people and hast given unto us thy unworthy servants , miserable sinners , confidence and commandement to present our selves before thee at thy holy table to represent a holy , venerable and unbloody sacrifice for our sins , and for the errors and ignorances of all thy people , looke upon me the meanest and most polluted of all them that approach to thy sacred presence . Pity me O God and wash away all my sins . Cleanse my heart , and my hands , my head and my lips from all impurities of the flesh and spirit : and remoove far from me all irreverence and undecency , all foolish imaginations and vaine reasonings , and by the power of the Holy Ghost make me worthy for this ministery , accepting this service for his sake whose sacrifice I represent , and by whose commandement I minister , even our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen . HAve mercy upon this thy people who with hungry and thirsty soules come to be refreshed & comforted by the divine Nutriment of thy Holy Body and Blood. Pity our infirmities , despise not our unworthynesse , Curse not our follies , and take not from thy servants thy grace and the light of thy Divine Countenance , but according to the multitude of thy great mercies doe away all our offences that without selfe condemnation we may appear before thy glory , covered with the vaile of Jesus , adorned with the robe of his righteousnesse , and illustrated with the brightnesse of thy Divine spirit ; that we may live by thy grace , and feel thy mercy and pardon in this world and in the world to come through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . Then shall the Minister rising up rehearse with a loud voice the Eight Beatitudes : the people still kneeling . Minister . Our Lord Jesus seeing the multitudes , went up into a mountaine ; and he opened his mouth , and taught them saying . 1. BLessed are the poor in spirit : for theirs is the Kingdome of heaven . People . Lord pardon our faults and incline our hearts to obey thee that we may inherit this blessing . Minister . 2. Blessed are they that mourne : for they shall be comforted . People . Lord pardon our faults and incline our hearts to obey thee that we may inherit this blessing . Minister . 3. Blessed are the meeke : for they shall inherit the Earth . People . Lord pardon our faults and incline our hearts to obey thee that we may inherit this blessing . Minister . 4. Blessed are they which hunger and thirst after righteousnesse : for they shall be filled . People . Lord pardon our faults and incline our hearts to obey thee that we may inherit this blessing . Minister . 5. Blessed are the mercifull : for they shall obtaine mercie . People . Lord pardon our faults and incline our hearts to obey thee that we may inherit this blessing . Minister . 6. Blessed are the pure in heart : for they shall see God. People . Lord pardon our faults and incline our hearts to obey thee that we may inherit this blessing . Minister . 7. Blessed are the peace-makers : for they shall be called the children of God. People . Lord pardon our faults and incline our hearts to obey thee that we may inherit this blessing . Minister . 8. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousnesse sake : for theirs is the Kingdome of heaven . People . Lord make us ready in heart and body to obey thee in every thing , that we may inherit all these blessings in the Kingdome of our Lord Jesus . Amen . Let us Pray . O Lord God our Creator who hast given us life and being , and hast showne unto us the way of salvation , vouchsafing to us the revelation of Heavenly Mysteries , and hast commanded to us this service in the power of the Holy Ghost and obedience of the Lord Jesus , be thou well pleased O Lord with this our service and dutie , and grant that with a holy fear , and a pure conscience we may finish this service , presenting a holy sacrifice holily unto thee , that thou maist receive it in heaven , and smell a sweet odor in the union of the eternall sacrifice which our Blessed Lord perpetually offers ; and accept us graciously as thou didst entertaine the gifts of Abel , the sacrifice of Noah , the services of Moses and Aaron , the peace-offering of Samuel , the repentance of David and the incense of Zecharias ; and as from the hands of thy Holy Apostles thou didst accept this ministery ; so vouchsafe by the hands of us miserable sinners to finish and perfect this oblation , that it may be sanctified by the Holy Ghost , and be accepted in the Lord Jesus ; that we being adopted into the society and participation of his holinesse and sufferings , admitted to his service , incorporated to his body , united to his purity , made partakers of his intercession , pardoned by his mercy , sanctified by his grace , confirmed by his strengths , professing his religion , beleiving in his word , hoping in his promises , and keeping all his commandements may receive the reward of faithfull and wise stewards in the day of righteous judgement . Grant this O God for his sake who is the food of our soules , and the joy of our hearts , the object of our faith and hope , and the great example of charity and all excellencies , our Lord and Saviour Jesus , Christ. Amen . Then all arising from their knees , shall be read some portions of scripture , relating to the present Mystery . viz. 1 EPistle of S. Paul to the Corinthians , 11 chap. from verse 23. to the end . The Gospel according to S. Marc. 14. 2. verse unto verse the 26. Or , 1 Epistle of S. Paul written to the Corinthians , 10 chapter from verse 1. to the 18. Gospel according to S. Matthew 26. verse 17. to verse 30. Sometimes one of these may suffice , but never above two are to be us'd at once , one out of the Epistles , one out of the Gospels . Then shall follow this Eucharistical Hymne , all standing up , reciting the verses interchangeably . ONe thing have I desired of the Lord , that I will seek after ; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the daies of my life , to behold the beautie of the Lord , and to visit his Temple . ¶ For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion , in the secret of his Tabernacle shall he hide me , and set me upon a rock . * Therefore will I offer in the Tabernacle sacrifices of joy , I will sing and speake praises unto the Lord. ¶ The Lord is my light and my salvation , whom shall I fear ? the Lord is the strength of my life , of whom shall I be afraid ? * Examine O Lord and prove me : try my reines and my heart . ¶ For thy loving-kindnesse is before my eyes : and I will walk in thy truth . * I have not sate with vaine persons ; neither will I goe in with dissemblers . ¶ I will wash my hands in innocency : and so will I compasse thine altar , O Lord. * That I may publish with the voice of thanks-giving , and tell of all thy wondrous workes , ¶ O tast and see that the Lord is good : blessed is the man that trusteth in him . * Look at the generations of old and see , did ever any trust in the Lord and was confounded ? or did any abide in his fear and was forsaken ? or whom did he ever despise that called upon him ? ¶ For the Lord is full of compassion and mercie , longsuffering and very pitiful , and forgiveth sins , and saveth in time of affliction . * Ye therefore that fear the Lord , beleive him : and your reward shall not faile . ¶ They that fear the Lord , will seek that which is well pleasing unto him : and they that love him shall be filled with the law . * They that fear the Lord will prepare their hearts , & humble their souls in his sight . ¶ For as his Majesty is , even so is his mercy . * What shall I render unto the Lord for all the benefits which he hath done unto me ? ¶ I will take the cup of salvation , and call upon the Name of the Lord. * Returne unto thy rest O my soule : for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee . ¶ I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving , and call upon the Name of the Lord. * The Lord hath been mindfull of us and he will blesse us ; he will bless them that fear the Lord , both small and great . ¶ Blessed be the name of our God , from this time forth for evermore . Praise the Lord. Glory be to the Father , &c. As it was in the beginning &c. Then shall the Minister with a loud voice pronounce this Commination . THus saith the Lord Jesus , I am Alpha and Omega the beginning and the end , the first and the last . Blessed are they that doe his commandement , that they may have right to the tree of life , and may enter in through the gates into the City . For without are Dogs and Sorcerers , Whoremongers and Murderers . The Idolaters and the Filthy , the Fearful and the Unbeleiving , the Hypocrite and the Liars , the Drunkards and the Envious , the hinderers of Gods word , and the Slanderers of their neighbours , the Swearers and the Covetous , the Impenitent and the Uncharitable shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone . And behold I come quickly , and my reward is with me to give every man according as his worke shall be . I Jesus have sent mine Angel to testifie unto you these things in the Churches . I am the root and off-spring of David ; and the bright morning-star , And the Spirit and the Bride say come , and let him that heareth come : and let him that is athirst come , and whosoever wil , let him take the water of life freely . BUt first cleanse your hands and purifie your hearts , repent you truly of all your sins past , retaine no affection to any thing that displeases God : Resolve against all sin , strive against all , pray against all , watch against all , and so shall ye be meet partakers of this holy table : But if any of you here present live in any knowne sin of which ye have not truly repented , and which you doe not mean presently and utterly to forsake , In the name of Jesus Christ I pronounce every such person to be unworthy of these holy mysteries , and that he cannot receive them but to his condemnation . Judge therefore your selves brethren that ye be not judged of the Lord : for it is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the living God , and who is able to dwell with the everlasting burning ? But if any of you after this severe admonition shall presume to approach these sacred mysteries with an impure and disobedient heart ; let him know that he pollutes the blood of the everlasting Covenant , he eates and drinkes damnation to himselfe , not discerning the Lords Body . I have given you warning , I have discharged my duty . ALl you who truly repent you of your sins , and are in love and charity with your neighbours , and intend to lead a holy life in all godlinesse and sobriety and honesty , draw neer and take these holy mysteries to your comfort ; first make your humble confession of sins to God , and meekly beg his pardon for what is past , and his grace for the time to come . The Confession to be said by all kneeling . ALmighty God , we miserable sinners doe humbly confesse , and are truly sorrowfull for our many and great , our innumerable and intolerable crimes of which our consciences doe accuse us by night and by day , and by which we have provoked thy severest wrath and indignation against us . We have broken all thy righteous lawes and commandements by word or by deed , by vaine thoughts or sinfull desires : we have sinn'd against thee in all our relations , in all places and at all times , we can neither reckon their number , nor bear their burden , nor suffer thy anger which we have deserved . But thou O Lord God , art merciful and gracious : have mercy upon us : Pardon us for all the evils we have done : Judge us not for all the good we have omitted : Take not thy favour from us , but delight thou to sanctifie us and save us , and work in us to will and to doe of thy good pleasure all our duty , that being sanctified by thy Spirit , and delivered from our sins , we may serve thee in a religious and a holy conversation , thorough Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . Then the Minister rising up shall pronounce , Absolution in the form described at Morning Prayer . OUr Blessed Lord and Savior Jesus the great Shepheard and Bishop of our Souls , that Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world , who promised Paradise to the repenting Theef , and gave pardon to the woman taken in Adultery , he pardon and forgive all your sins known and unknown . *** O Blessed Jesus , in whatsoever thy servants as men bearing flesh about them , and inhabiting this world , or deceived by the Devil , have sinned , whether in word or deed , whether in thought or desire , whether by omission or commission , let it be forgiven unto them by thy word and by thy Spirit ; and for ever preserve thy servants from sinning against thee , and from suffering thine eternal anger for thy promise sake , and for thy glorious Names sake , O Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus . Amen . Then all rising up . There shall be made a collection for the poor by the Deacon or Clerk while the Minister reads some of these sentences , or makes an exhortatation to charity and almes . TO doe good and to distribute forget not : for with such sacrifices God is well pleased . Hebr. 13. 16. Blessed is he that considereth the poor and needy : the Lord shall deliver him in the time of trouble : The Lord will preserve him and keep him alive , and he shall be blessed upon the earth , and thou wilt not deliver him into the will of his Enemies . The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing : thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness . Psal. 41. 1 , 2 , 3. He which soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly , and he which soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully . Every man according as he purposeth in his heart , so let him give , not grudgingly or of necessity , for God loveth a cheerful giver . 2 Cor. 9. 6 , 7. Make to your selves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness , that when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations . Luke 16. 9. Give almes of such things as ye have , and behold all things are clean unto you . Lu. 11. 41. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand , Come ye blessed children of my Father , inherit the kingdome prepared for you from the beginning of the world . For I was an hungred , and ye gave me meat ; I was thirsty , and ye gave me drink ; I was a stranger , and ye took me in ; Naked , and ye cloathed me ; I was sick and ye visited me ; I was in prison and ye came unto me . Matth. 25. 34 , 35. Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things . Be not deceived , God is not mocked : for whatsoever a man soweth , that shall he also reap . Gal. 6. 6 , 7. If there be none fit to gather : the Minister himself shall gather it . And when he hath done or received it from the hand of him that gathered it , let him in an humble manner present it to God , laying it on the Communion table ; secretly and devoutly saying ; LORD accept the oblation and almes of thy people : and remember thy servants for this thing at the day of Judgement . Then shall follow the address to the H. Mysteries ; the poeple shall come up to the H. Table where it is the custome , or neer it , where it is most fit to communicate : and then , The Minister shall say . Let us pray . O God who by thy unspeakable mercy hast sent thy onely begotten Son into the world , that he might bring the wandring sheep into his fold , turn not away from us miserable sinners , who worship and invocate thee in these Holy Mysteries . For we doe not approach to thee in our own righteousness , but in the hope and confidence of that glorious mercy by which thou hast sent thy holy Son to redeem miserable and lost Mankind . We humbly beseech thee to grant that these mysteries which thou hast ordein'd to be ministeries of salvation to us , may not become an occasion of our condemnation , but of pardon of our sins , of the renovation of our souls , of the sanctification and preservation of our bodies , that we may become well pleasing to thee our God , in the obedience of our Lord Jesus , with whom , and with thy holy Spirit , thou reignest over all , one God , Blessed for evermore . Amen . Minister . Lift up your hearts . People . We lift them up unto the Lord. Minister . Let us give thanks unto our Lord God. People . It is just and right so to doe . Minister . It is indeed truly just , righteous , and fitting ; to praise and to glorifie , to worship and adore , to give thanks and to magnifie thee the great Maker of all creatures visible and invisible , the treasure of all good , temporal and eternal : The fountain of all life , mortal and immortal : The Lord and God of all things in Heaven and Earth , the great Father of his Servants , the great Master of his Children . The Heavens and the Heaven of Heavens , and every power therein ; the Sun and the Moon , and all the starres of the sky ; the sea and the earth , the heights above and the depths below ; Jerusalem that is from above , the Congregation celestial , the Church of the first-born written in the Heavens , the spirits of the Prophets and of just men made perfect , the souls of the Apostles and all holy Martyrs , Angels and Arch-angels , Thrones and Dominions , Principalities and Powers , the spirits of Understanding and the spirits of Love , with never ceasing Hymns and perpetual Anthemes cry out Night and Day , Holy , holy , holy , Lord God of Hosts : Heaven and Earth are full of thy glory . Hosanna . Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest . Here beginneth the COMMUNION . After a decent pause for short Meditation , The Minister shall with a loud voice say , Our Father , &c. And then this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Denunciation . LET all corruptible flesh be silent , and stand with fear and trembling , and think within it self nothing that is earthly , nothing that is unholy . The King of Kings and the Lord of Lords , Christ our God comes down from Heaven unto us , and gives himself to be meat for the souls of all faithful people . * All the glorious companies of Angels behold this and wonder , and love and worship Jesus . Every throne and Dominion , the cherubims with many eyes , and the Seraphims with many wings cover their faces before the majesty of his glory ; and sing a perpetual song for ever : Allelujah , Allelujah . Globe to God on high , and in earth peace , good will towards men . Allelujah . Then shall follow this Prayer of Consecration , to be said by the Minister standing . I. HAve mercy upon us , O Heavenly Father , according to thy glorious mercies and promises , send thy Holy Ghost upon our hearts , and let him also descend upon these gifts , that by his good , his holy , his glorious presence , he may sanctifie and enlighten our hearts , and he may blesse and sanctifie these gifts . That this Bread may become the Holy Body of Christ. Amen . And this Chalice may become the life-giving Bloud of Christ. Amen . That it may become unto us all that partake of it this day , a Blessed instrument of Union with Christ , of pardon and peace , of health and blessing , of holinesse and life Eternal , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . II. Holy and blessed art thou O king of Eternal ages , fountain and giver of all righteousness . * Holy art thou the eternal and onely begotten son of God , our Lord Jesus Christ , Redeemer of the world . * Holy art thou O Blessed Spirit that searchest all things , even the depths and hidden things of God. Thou O God art Almighty : thou art Good and gracious , Dreadful and venerable , Holy and merciful to the work of thine own hands . Thou didst make man according to thine image : thou gavest him the riches and the rest of Paradise : When he fell and broke thy easy Commandement thou didst not despise his folly , nor leave him in his sin , but didst chastise him with thy rod , and restrain him by thy law , and instruct him by thy Prophets , and at last didst send thy Holy Son into the world that he might renew and repair thy broken image . The People shall answer , Blessed be God. He comming from heaven and taking our flesh by the power of the Holy Ghost of the V●rgin Mary conversed with men , and taught us the way of God , and the dispensation of Eternal life . People . Holy Jesus ! Blessed be God. But when for the redemption of us sinners he would suffer death upon the Cross without sin , for us who were nothing but sin and misery , in the night in which he was betrayed , he took bread , he looked up to heaven , he gave thanks , he sanctified it , he brake it and gave it to his Apostles , saying , ( Take eat , * This is my body which is broken for you . Doe this in remembrance of me . Likewise after Supper he took the Cup , and when he had given thanks and blessed it , he gave it to them , saying , Drink ye all of this , for * this , is my bloud of the new Testament , which is shed for you and for many , for the remission of sins . Doe this in remembrance of me . For as often as ye shall eat this Bread , and drink this Cup , ye shall shew forth the Lords death till he come . The people shall answer , Amen . Minister . We beleeve and we confess . People . We declare thy death and confess thy resurrection . Then the Minister kneeling shall say this prayer of Oblation . I. WE sinners thy unworthy servants in remembrance of thy life-giving passion , thy Cross and thy pains , thy death and thy burial , thy resurrection from the dead , and thy ascension into Heaven , thy sitting at the right hand of God , making intercession for us , and expecting with fear and trembling thy formidable and glorious return to judge the quick and dead , when thou shalt render to every man according to his works , doe humbly present to thee , O Lord , this present sacrifice of remembrance and thanksgiving , humbly and passionately praying thee not to deal with us according to our sins , nor recompence us after our transgressions ; but according to thy abundant mercy , and infinite goodness , to blot out and take away the hand-writing that is against us in the book of remembrances which thou hast written : and that thou wilt give unto us spiritual , celestial , and eternal gifts , which neither eye hath seen , nor ear hath heard , neither hath it entred into the heart of man to understand , which God hath prepared for them that love him , thorough Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . Then shall follow the reception and distribution of the Holy Sacrament . The Minister first receiving , and privately saying this short prayer . O Blessed Jesus , My Lord and my God , thou art the celestial food and the life of every man that cometh unto thee . I have sinned against heaven and before thee , and am not worthy to partake of these holy Mysteries : but thou art my merciful Saviour : grant that I may religiously , thankfully , and without reproof partake of thy Blessed body and blood for the remission of my sins , and unto life eternal . Amen . Then reverently taking in his hand the consecrated bread that he means to eat , let him say , THE Body of our Lord Jesus which was broken for me , preserve my body and Soul into everlasting life . Amen . Then praying a while privately let him receive the Chalice saying , THE Bloud of our Lord Jesus Christ which was shed for the remission of my sins , cleanse my Soul , and preserve it into everlasting life . Amen . Then let him pray awhile privately , and recommend to God his own personal necessities spiritual and temporal , and the needs of all his Relatives , &c. After that , let him distribute it first to the Clergy that helps to officiate , and after that , to the whole Congregation that offers themselves , saying the same words , changing the person . While the Minister of the Mysteries is praying privately ; the people may secretly pray thus , or to this purpose . I Beleeve O God and confess that thou art Christ the Son of the living God , who came into the world to save sinners whereof I am chief . Lord make me this day partaker of thy heavenly Table ; for thou dost not give thy secrets to thy enemies , but to the sons of thine own house . Let me never give thee a Judas kiss ; I confess thee and thy glories , I invocate thee and thy mercies : I trust upon thee and thy goodness like the thief upon the Cross ; Lord remember me in thy kingdome , with the remembrances of an everlasting love . Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof ; but as thou didst safe to lie in a Manger with beasts , and to enter into the house of Simon the leper , nor didst despife the repenting harlot when she kissed thy feet ; so vouchsafe to lodge in my soul , though it be a place of beastly affections and unreasonable passions ; throw them out and dwell there for ever ; purifie my soul , accept the sinner , cleanse the leper , so shall I be worthy to partake of this Divine Banquet . Amen . When every of the Communicants hath received in both kinds , let the Paten and Chalice ( if any of the consecrated Elements remain ) be decently covered , and then shall follow these prayers . THE POSTCOMMUNION . The Minister and People devoutly kneeling shal say the Lords prayer the people repeating every petition after the Minister . Our Father which art in heaven . Hallowed be thy Name . Thy Kingdome come . Thy will be done in earth as it is in Heaven . Give us this day our daily bread . And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass aganist us . And lead us not into temptation . But deliver us from evil . For thine is the Kingdom , the Power and the Glory , for ever and ever . Amen . Then the Minister shall pray this prayer for the Catholick Church . I. REceive O Eternal God this sacrifice for and in behalf of al Christian people whom thou hast redeemed with the bloud of thy Son , and purchased as thine own inheritance . From the fountains of mercy , the springs of our Blessed Saviour , let all thy people upon whom the name of Jesus is called , receive confirmation and increase of grace , fruitfulness in good works , and perfect understanding in the way of godliness : Defend O God thy Church and preserve her from all heresy and scandal , from sacrilege and Simony , from covetousness and pride , from factions and schism , from Atheisme and irreligion , from all that persecute the truth , & from all that work wickedness , and let not thegates of hell prevail against her , nor any evil come neer to hurt her . II. Give thy blessing O God to this Nation ; remember us for good and not for evil ; be reconcil'd unto us in the Son of thy love , and let not thine anger be any longer upon us , nor thy jealousy burn like fire . Send us health and peace , justice and truth , good laws and good government ; an excellent religion undivided , undisturbed ; temperate air , seasonable , showers , wholesome dewes , fruitful seasons : Crown the year with goodness , and let the clouds drop fatness , that we may glorify thy name , and confess thy goodness while thou bearest witness to us from heaven , filling our hearts with food and gladness . III. With a propitious eye & a great pity behold the miseries of mankind ; put a speedy period to all our sins and to all our calamities : Hear the sighings of the distressed , the groans of the sick , the prayers of the oppressed , the desires of the poor and needy ; support the weakness of them that languish and faint ease the pains of them that are in affliction and call to thee for help . Take from the miserable all tediousness of spirit and despair : Pardon all the penitents , reform the vitious , confirme the holy , and let them be holy still ; pity the folly of young men , their little reason and great passion , succour the infirmities and temptations of the aged , preserving them that they may not sin towards the end of their lives , for Jesus Christ his sake . IV. Admit O Blessed God into the society of our prayers and the benefits of this Eucharist our Fathers and Brethren , our wives and children , our friends and Benefactours , our charges and relatives , all that have desired our prayers and all that need them , all that we have , and all that we have not remembred ; thou knowest all their necessities and all their dwellings ; their joyes and their sorrows , their hopes and their fears , the number of their sins and the measures of their repentances ; O dear God sanctifie them and us , let our portion be in the good things of God , in religion and purity , in the peace of Conscience , and the joyes of the Holy Ghost , in the love of God and of our Neighbours . O gather us to the feet of thy elect when thou wilt , and in what manner thou art pleased : onely let us appear before thee without shame and without sins through the merits of JESUS Christ , our most mercifull Saviour and Redeemer . Amen . Then shall follow the Eucharistical prayers . I. GLory be to thee , O God our Father , who hast vouchsafed to make us at this time partakers of the Body and Bloud of thy holy Son : We offer unto thee O God our selves , our souls and bodies , to be a reasonable , holy , and living sacrifice unto thee . Keep us under the shadow of thy wings and defend us from all evil , and conduct us by thy Holy Spirit of grace into all good ; for thou who hast given thy holy Son unto us , how shalt not thou with him give us all things else ? Blessed be the Name of our God for ever and ever . Amen . II. Glory be to thee O Christ our King , the onely begotten Son of God , who wert pleas'd to become a sacrifice for our sins , a redemption from calamity , the Physician and the Physick , the life and the health , the meat and the drink of our souls ; thou by thy unspeakable mercy didst descend to the weakness of sinful flesh remaining still in the perfect purity of spirit , and hast made us partakers of thy holy Body and Bloud : O condemne us not when thou comest to judgement , but keep us ever in thy truth , in thy fear and in thy favour , that we may have our portion in thine inheritance where holiness and purity , where joy and everlasting praises doe dwell for ever and ever . Amen . III. Proceeding from glory to glory , we still glorifie thee O Father of Spirits , and pray thee for ever to continue thy goodness towards us . Direct our way aright , establish us in holy purposes , keep us unspotted in thy faith , let the enemy have no part in us , but conforme us for ever to the likeness of thy holy Sonne ; lead us on to the perfect adoption of our Souls and to the redemption of our bodies from corruption , and fill our hearts and tongues with everlasting praises of thy name thorough Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . The Blessing . The peace of God which passeth all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God and of his Sonne Jesus Christ our Lord ; and the blessing of God Almighty , and Father , Son and Holy Spirit , be upon you and abide with you , and be your portion for ever and ever . Amen . The end of the Communion Office. A form of Administration of the Holy Sacrament : OF BAPTISME . A FORM OF Administration of the Holy Sacrament OF BAPTISME . Pure water being provided and put into the Fount , or into a Lavatory of silver , or some other clean vessell , fit and decent for this sacred action ; the Minister being vested in an Ecclesiastical habit shall begin with this exhortation . Dearly beloved Brethren , FOrasmuch as from our first parents we derive nothing but flesh and corruption , and that flesh and bloud cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven ; it is necessary that every man who is reckoned in Adam should be also reckoned in Christ , that every one who is born of the flesh , be also born again , and born of the spirit , that every son of man by nature may become the son of God by Adoption , be incorporated into Christ , intitled to the promises and become heir of heaven by grace and faith in Jesus Christ , and that this cannot be done but by being admitted to the Covenant of grace in Baptisme , our Blessed Saviour , saying , that except a man be born again of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdome of God ; let us humbly and devoutly pray unto God in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that he will be pleased to send down his holy Spirit upon these waters of Baptisme ; that they may become to this infant [ * all that shall be washed in them ] a laver of regeneration , and a well of water springing up to life eternal : and that this infant may be admitted to the Covenant of grace and pardon , of mercy and holiness , receiving from grace , what by nature he cannot have , that being baptised in water to the remission of sins , he may all his life walk in this Covenant of grace and holiness , as a lively member of the holy Church which is the mysticall body of Christ our Head. Let us Pray . I. O Almighty and Eternal God , Father of Men and Angels , Lord of heaven and earth , whose spirit moving upon the waters at the beginning of the world produced every living and every moving creature ; thou by the flood of waters did wash away the iniquity of the old world , and by preserving to thy self a generation of holy persons whom thou didst bring up from those waters didst consign to us a type of regeneration ; Look O Lord graciously upon the face of thy Church , and multiply in her thy regenerations , and the new births of thy Spirit . With the abundance of thy grace make thy holy city to rejoice , and still open this holy fountain of Baptisme for the reformation and sanctification of all the nations of the world , that thy blessed Spirit sanctifying these waters , a new and heavenly off-spring may hence arise , full of health and light ; that humane nature , which was made after thy own image , being reformed and restored to the honour of its first beginning , may be cleansed from all the impure adherencies of sin , preserved from the Dominion of it , and rescued from all its sad effects , that what shall be so born in the wombe of the Church , may dwell in the house of God , and Reign with thee for ever in the inheritance of our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus . Amen . II. OUR Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus who was baptized of John in Jordan , who walked upon the waters , who converted water into wine , who out of his precious side shed forth bloud and water , the two Sacraments of life , unto his holy Church , and commanded his disciples to teach all nations , baptizing them with water in the Name of the Father , of the Son , and of the Holy Ghost : he blesse and sanctifie by his holy Spirit this water , that it may be instrumental and effective of grace , of pardon and sanctification : Hear us O most gracious God that whoever shall be baptized in this water may be renewed by thy grace , justified by thy mercy , sanctified by thy Spirit , preserved by thy providence and guided by thy word , that in this water springing from the Paradise of God the Soul [ or Souls ] presented unto thee may be cleansed and purified , and that there may be added to thy Church daily such as shall be saved in the day of thy glorious appearing , O Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus . Amen . Then the Minister and People arising from their knees the following Gospel shall be read . Hear the words of the holy Gospel written by S. Matthew in the third chapter , &c. Verse 13. to verse 17. inclusively . THen cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him . * But John forbad him , saying , I have need to be baptized of thee and commest thou to me ? And Jesus answering said unto him , Suffer it to be so now ; for thus it becommeth us to fulfill all righteousness . Then he suffered him . And Jesus when he was baptised went up straitway out of the water , and loe the heavens were opened unto him , and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a Dove and lighting upon him . * And loe a voice from heaven saying , This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased . Hear likewise what S. Mark writeth in his tenth chapter . Verse 13. & 17. exclusively . THE Jews ] brought children [ to Christ ] that he should touch them , and his Disciples rebuked those that brought them . * But when Jesus saw it he was much displeased and said unto them . Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not , for of such is the kingdome of God. Verily I say unto you , whosoever shall not receive the kingdome of God as a little child he shall not enter therein . * And he took them up in his armes , put his hands upon them and blessed them . FRiends in these Gospels you see the actions and hear the words of our Blessed Saviour , how he commanded little children to be brought unto him , how he rebuked those that would have kept them away , how readily he blessed them , how kindly he embraced them , how he pronounced them capable of , and entitled to the kingdome of God : how he commanded us to receive the kingdome as infants received it , and affirmed that we can no way receive it but by being like them : you know also that although Christ commanded them to be brought unto him , there is no ordinary and appointed way for Infants to come to Christ , and no way po●●●ble for them to be brought to Christ but by this new birth and regeneration in the laver of Baptisme : you see also by the example and words of our Blessed Lord himself , that even the most innocent persons ought to be baptized . For he himself who knew no sin , was yet baptized in the Baptisme of Repentance , and so to doe was the fulfilling of righteousness ; we may therefore easily perceive that the innocence of infants and their freedom from actual sin cannot excuse them from Baptisme : and if we remember that although our Blessed Saviour required faith of them who came to be healed of their diseases , yet by the * faith of others who came in behalf of such as could not be brought or could not come , the sick person was healed ; we are sufficiently instructed that although Infants have no more actual faith then they have actual sin , yet the faith of others can be & is by the usual and revealed method of the divine mercy as well imputed to them to the purposes of grace and life , as the sin of Adam can be imputed to the purposes of death , that as in Adam all die so in Christ all should be made alive : we may therefore from these certain evidences conclude that God alloweth in you this obedience and charity in bringing this child to Christ , to receive all blessings of which he is capable , a title to the promises and adoption to be the child of God , a sanctification by the spirit , a designation to the service of Christ , and putting him into the order of eternal life . Therefore [ as circumcision was the seal of the righteousness of faith , and yet min●stred to infants eight daies old , and commanded so severely , that God said the uncircumcised child whole flesh is not circumcised● that soul shall be cut off from his people : so Baptisme which is now the * seal of the same faith and the same righteousness , and a figure like unto the former is to be administred to infants although they have no more actual faith then the children of the Israelites had ; our Blessed Saviour having made Baptisme as necessary in the new Testament as Circumcision in the Old. For because little children can receive the kingdome of God , and in infants there is no incapacity of receiving the mercies of God , the adoption to be children of God , a title to the promises , the covenant of repentance and a right to pardon ; whosoever shall deny to baptize infants when he is justly required , is sacrilegious and uncharitable . Since therefore the Church of God hath so great , so cleer so , indubitable a warrant to baptize infants , and therefore did alwaies practice it , ] let us humbly and charitably give thanks to God for his great mercies unto us all , and with meekness and love recommend this child to the grace of God. Let us pray . O Almighty and eternal God who hast redeemed us from sin and shame , from the gates of hell and the sting of death , and from ignorance and darkness by thy holy Son , who is that light which lightneth every man that cometh into the world , we praise and glorifie thy name that thou hast called us to the knowledge of thy will , and the love of thy name , and the service of thy majesty which is perfect freedome , the freedome of the sons of God. II. As thou hast dealt graciously with us so deal with this infant whom we humbly bring and offer to our blessed Saviour Jesus , that he should receive him and blesse him with the blessings of an everlasting love . Receive him O most gracious Lord , who is thy child by creation , make him thine also by adoption into thy covenant of grace and favour : let him be consigned with thy Sacrament , be admitted into Christs kingdome , enter into his warfare , beleeve his doctrine , labour and hope for his promises , that this child witnessing here a good confession , may have his understanding for ever brought unto the obedience , his affections to the love , and all his faculties to the service of Christ ; and after he hath served thee in his generation he may receive his part and portion in thy glory thorough Jesus Christ our Lord. Then arising from their knees the Minister shall say unto the Godfathers and Godmothers as followeth . WEl beloved friends , you have brought this child to be presented unto Christ as a servant of his laws and a Disciple of his doctrine , ye have prayed that God would receive him and give him a portion in the Gospel and kingdome of his Son ; ye have heard what promises God hath made on his part , and ye beleeve and know all his words are yea , and Amen , and not one tittle of them shall pass unaccomplished ; now therefore because it is a Covenant of grace and favour on Gods part and of faith and obedience on ours , though God prevents us with his grace , and begins to doe for us before we can doe any thing to him , yet you , under whose power this child is , and by whose faith and charity this child comes to Christ in holy Baptisme , must also on his [ or her ] behalf promise that he will forsake the devil and all his wicked works , that he will faithfully beleeve Christs holy Gospel , and dutifully keep all Christs Commandements . Minister . Dost thou abjure and renounce and promise to forsake the Devil and all his wicked works , not to listen to his temptations , not to be led by the flesh , by the vain powers of the world , by carnal or covetous desires , but thou wilt be the servant of the Lord Jesus ? Answer . I forsake them all and will be a servant of Jesus . Minister . Dost thou beleeve in God the Father Almighty maker of Heaven and Earth ? And in Jesus Christ his onely begotten Son our Lord ? And that he was conceived by the holy Ghost , borne of the Virgin Mary , that he suffered under Pontius Pilate , was crucified , dead , and buried , that he went down into hell , and also did rise againe the third day , that he ascended into Heaven , and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty , and from thence he shall come again at the end of the world to judge the quicke and the dead ? And dost thou believe in the holy Ghost , the Catholick Church , the Communion of Saints , the remission of sins , the resurrection of the flesh , and everlasting life after death ? Answer . All this I will profess and stedfastly beleeve . Minister . Wilt thou be baptized into this faith . Answer . That is my desire . Let us Pray . O Almighty God , who hast given the promise of thy Spirit to us and to our children , even to as many as the Lord our God shall call ; Give thy holy Spirit to this infant that the evil spirits of darkness may not take thy portion from thee , nor hurt the body , nor deceive the understanding , nor corrupt the will , nor tempt the affections of this infant : but that thy Spirit who bloweth where it listeth , & no man knows whence he cometh nor whether he goeth , may be in this child as the seed of God springing up to life eternal , that the kingdom of God which is within , and commeth not with observation , may early rule and conduct this infant , prevent the folly of his childhood from growing up to sins in his youth , and may work strongly in him when his weakness , his ignorances and temptations are most powerful to prevail upon him ; that from his cradle to his grave he may be guided by the Spirit of God in the paths of the divine Commandements . Admit him O God into the bosome of the Church , into the armes of thy mercy , into a right of the promises , into the service of Christ , into the Communion of Saints ; and give him power to become the Son of God , that being buried with Christ in Baptisme , he may also rise with him thorough the faith of the operation of God thorough the same our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen . Then the Minister of the Sacrament shall take the child in his armes and ask the Name . Then naming the child aloud he shall dip the head or face or body of the child in the water , saying , N. I baptize thee in the Name of the Father , and of the Son , and of the Holy Ghost . Dipping the head at the naming of the holy Trinity . If the child be weak , or any other great Cause intervene , it may suffice instead of dipping to sprinkle water on the face , using the same form of words . Then shall the priest make the sign of the Cross upon the childs forehead , saying , WE sign this child with the sign of the Cross , and enroll him a Soldier under the banner of Christ to signifie , and in ceremony to represent , that the duty of this and all baptized persons is manfully to fight under the banner of Christ against the flesh , the world , and the Divel , all the daies of their life : and by the power which Christ our Blessed Lord who hath the key of David hath given unto me , I admit this child into the Communion of Saints , into the bosome of the visible Church , the kingdome of Grace , and the title to the promises Evangelical , and the hopes of glory . OUr Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus who when he had overcome the sharpness of death did open the kingdom of heaven to all beleevers , and gave unto his Church the keyes of the kingdome , that his ministers might let into it all that come to him , he of his infinite goodness and truth , make good his gracious promises upon this infant , that what we doe on earth according to his will , he may confirme in heaven by his spirit and by his word , to the glory of the blessed and undivided Trinity , God the Father , Son , and Holy Ghost . Amen . Then shall the Minister adde this Invitation . SEeing now ( dearly Beloved ) that this infant hath received holy Baptisme , and is washed in the laver of regeneration , admitted into the bosome of the Church , into the Covenant of faith and repentance , pardon and holiness ; let us give thanks to God for these graces , and pray that this child may lead his life according to the present undertaking . I. WE give thee thanks and praise O heavenly and most gracious Father , that it hath pleased thee to call this child to thy holy Baptism , to renew him with thy holy Spirit , to admit him into the Church , to adopt him for thy child , and to receive him unto the profession of thy faith : and we humbly beseech thee to grant unto him thy grace to accompany him all the daies of his life , that he may hold fast the profession of his faith , making his calling and election sure , that his body being washed in pure water , and he tasting of the heavenly gift , being made partaker of the holy Ghost , and sprinkled in his heart from an evil Conscience , he may follow thee in the regeneration , and after the end of this life he may for ever be with them who have washed their robes and made them white in the bloud of the Lamb. Grant this , O God our Father thorough Jesus Christ our Blessed Saviour and Redeemer . II. O most holy , most gracious Saviour Jesus who lovest thy Church , and hast given thy self for it , that thou mayest sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water in the word ; do thou with thy holy Spirit enlighten , and with thy word instruct the understanding of this child that he may live by faith , and may perceive the secrets of thy kingdom , and know thy will , and obey thy laws , and promote thy glory . III. O God be thou his Father for ever , Christ his elder Brother and his Lord ; the Church his Mother ; let the body of Christ be his food , the bloud of Christ his drink , and the Spirit the earnest of his inheritance . Let faith be his learning , Religion his imployment , his whole life be spiritual , heaven the object of his hopes , and the end of his labours ; let him be thy servant in the kingdome of grace , and thy Son in the kingdome of glory thorough Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . Then shall the priest adde this blessing . OUr Blessed Lord God , the Father of men and Angels , who hath sent forth his An-Angels ministers , appointing them to minister to the good of them who shall be heirs of salvation , he of his mercy and goodness send his Holy Angel to be the Guardian of this child , and keep him from the danger and violence of fire and water , of falls and sad accidents , from evil tongues , and evil eyes , from witchcraft and all impressions of the spirits of darkness , from Convulsions and Rickets , from madness and stupidity , from folly and evil principles , from bad examples and from evil teachers , from crookedness and deformity , from the mutilation of a member or the loss of sense , from being useless and unprofitable , from being impious , harsh natur'd and unreasonable ; and make him a wise , useful , and a holy person , belov'd of men , and belov'd of God , thorough Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . Amen . YOU the Godfathers and Godmother of the child as you have done this charity to the infant to bring him to Holy Baptisme , so you must be sure to continue your care over him till he be instructed in his duty , taught what vow he hath made by you , and how he shall perform it : To this purpose you shall take care that he may learn the Lords prayer , the Apostles Creed , and the Commandements of our Lord , that he may know how to pray , what to beleeve , and what to practise , and when he is in all these things competently instructed , neglect not any opportunity of bringing him to the Bishop that he by imposition of hands and invocation of the holy Spirit of God may procure blessing and spiritual strength to this child . Which duty when you have done you are discharged of this trust , and from the mercies of God may humbly hope for the reward of your charity . So ends the office of Baptisme . THE DEVOTIONS and PROPER OFFICES for WOMEN . An office for safe Childbirth . I. O Almighty Father of Men and Angels , in whose hands are the keyes of life and death , of the womb and of the grave , look down at this time in great mercy and gentlest compassion upon thy servant . Thou hast O God upon the weakest of mankind fixed the sharpest decree of painful childbirth : but so thou lovest to magnifie thy mercies and thy power , that thy strength may be seen in our weakness : so let it be O God unto thy handmaid , let thy loving kindness be her confidence and her rest , her hope and her security , now and in the hour of her travail . II. LORD let thy holy Angels be present with thy servant in their holy and charitable ministeries about her person ; it is a great thing that we require ; but we beg it of the great King of Heaven and Earth , the Lord of Angels , who hath promised that his Angels shall stand in circuit round about them that fear the Lord : Look O Lord upon her fear , it is humble , but it is trembling : look upon her love , and make it what it is not yet : doe thou sanctifie her fear of thee , and change it into obedience , and carefulness of duty ; increase her love of thee , and make it to be pure and perfect , operative and buisie , zealous and obedient : make it to grow up to the perfections of a Christian , and pass unto the beauties of holyness ; so shall thy servant feel thy daily mercies , and no evil shall come neer to hurt her . III. GRacious Father give thy servant leave to rely upon thy glorious promises : thou hast commanded us to call upon thee in our trouble , and hast promised to deliver us : O look upon thy handmaid , leave her not nor forsake her , for trouble is hard at hand , and there is none that can help or deliver , but onely thou O God. In thee O Lord doe we trust , let thy servants never be confounded . Be pleased O Lord to give thy servant patience , and dereliction of her own desires , perfect resignation of her own will , and a conformity to thine ; that she may with joy receive the blessing which thou wilt choose for her , and which we humbly beg of thee , even that she may have a holy , a healthful , a joyful and a safe deliverance of her burden : Lord keep her from all sad accidents and evil contingencies , from violent pains and passions , from all undecency of Comportment and unquietness of Spirit , from impatience and despair , from doing any thing that is criminal , or feeling any thing that is intolerable . IV. O Lord my God give thy servants leave to pray to thee in behalf of this thy handmaid , that thou wilt not cut her off in the middest of her daies , nor forsake her when her strength faileth : but spare her O God , not for any purposes of vanity , or the satisfaction of any impotent or secular desires , but that she may live to serve thee , to redeem her time mispent in folly , to get victory over temptations , and perfect dominion over her passions , to grow great in religion , and of an excellent charity and devotion . O spare her a little that she may recover her strength , before she goes hence and be no more seen : so shall thy servant rejoice in thy mercies , and speak of thy loving kindness in the Church of thy redeemed ones ; and will spend her daies in holiness and zealous pursuances of religion . Remove her sinnes far from her as the East is from the west ; for thou didst send thy most holy Son to die for us , and redeem us from all the powers of sin and hell : thou knowest whereof we were made , and remembrest that we are but dust : O doe not visit her sins upon her by a hasty death , but manifest thy mercies and thy pardon by giving her a mighty grace , that she may live a holy life : and be pleas'd to grant this also that those impresses of pious resolutions and religious purposes of fear and love , of hope and desire , which thy grace in the circumstances of her present condition makes upon her , may abide in her soul for ever , and in the daies of ease and safety may be as operative and productive of holiness , as now they are of a hearty prayer and passionate desires for thy mercies upon her in a safe and blessed child-birth . V. LORD bless her child , grant it may be born with a right shape and a perfect body , with a comely countenance and streight limbs , with intire senses and expedite faculties , with an excellent power of understanding and sweet dispositions , and let thy holy Spirit of grace conduct it to the Sacrament of Baptisme , and in safety and holiness from the Cradle to the grave . Grant this O Eternal God for his sake who was born of a holy maid , and suffered the infirmities of nature , and dyed for our sins , and rose again for our Justification , even our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen . An Office of Publick Thanks-giving for Women after their delivery from Child-birth ; [ or any great sickness , or calamity , or fear . ] At the end of the morning prayer immediately before the blessing , the woman presenting her self before God on her knees in some convenient place neer to him that ministers , begin with this exhortation . FOrasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God who hath commanded us when we are afflicted to pray , and hath promised to be with us in trouble , and hath made good his truth and mercy unto you in standing at your right hand in the day of your sorrow and danger , giving you safe deliverance [ and a living and a hopeful child * ] you shall therefore return to him the sacrifice of a thankful and joyful heart in an humble acknowledgement of the divine mercies and goodness unto you in this great blessing and deliverance [ from the pain and peril of Childbirth . ] Or else name any other instance in which the Minister is required to give thanks . The psalm or Hymn of Thansgiving . * THE Lord is my Shepheard , I shall not want ; he maketh me lie down in green pastures , he leadeth me besides the still waters . ¶ He restoreth my Soul , he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his names sake . * Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil : for thou art with me ; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me . ¶ I will declare thy name unto my Brethren : in the midst of the Congregation will I praise thee . * Ye that fear the Lord praise him , for he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted , neither hath he hid his face from him , but when he cryed unto him he heard . ¶ O Lord my God I cryed unto thee and thou hast healed me . * O Lord thou hast brought up my Soul from the grave , thou hast kept me alive that I should not go down to the pit . ¶ Sing unto the Lord O ye Saints of his , and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness . * For his anger endureth but for a moment ; in his favour is life : weeping may endure for a night , but joy cometh in the morning . ¶ I cryed unto thee O Lord : unto the Lord I made my supplication . * What profit is there in my bloud , when I goe down into the pit ? shall the dust praise thee ? shall it declare thy truth ? ¶ Hear O Lord and have mercy upon me : Lord be thou my helper . * Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing : thou hast put off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness . ¶ To the end that my glory may sing praise unto thee and not be silent : O Lord my God I will give thanks to thee for ever . Glory be to the Father , &c. As it was in the beginning &c. Or else say the [ Te Deum . VVE praise thee , O God , we knowledge thee to be the Lord. ¶ All the earth doth worship thee : the Father everlasting . * To thee all Angels cry aloud : the heavens and all the powers therein . ¶ To thee Cherubim , and Seraphim , continually do cry , * Holy , holy , holy , Lord God of Sabbaoth , ¶ Heaven and earth are full of the majesty of thy glory . * The glorious company of the Apostles praise thee . ¶ The goodly fellowship of the Prophets praise thee . * The noble armie of Martyrs praise thee . ¶ The holy Church thoroughout all the world doth acknowledge thee : * The Father , of an infinite majesty . ¶ Thy honourable , true , and onely Son. * Also the holy Ghost , the Comforter . ¶ Thou art the King of glory , O Christ. * Thou art the everlasting Son , of the Father ¶ When thou tookest upon thee to deliver man : thou didst not abhorre the Virgins womb . * When thou haddest overcome the sharpness of death : thou didst open the kingdome of heaven to all beleevers . * Thou sittest at the right hand of God : in the glory of the Father . ¶ We beleeve that thou shalt come to be our judge . * We therefore pray thee help thy servants : whom thou hast redeemed with thy precious bloud . ¶ Make them to be numbred with thy Saints in glory everlasting . * O Lord save thy people , and bless thine heritage . ¶ Govern them : and lift them up for ever . * Day by day we magnifie thee . ¶ And we worship thy name : ever world without end . * Vouchsafe , O Lord , to keep us this day without sin . ¶ O Lord have mercy upon us : have mercy upon us . * O Lord let thy mercy lighten upon us : as our trust is in thee . ¶ O Lord in thee have I trusted : let me never be confounded . Minister . The Lord be with you . Answer . And with thy Spirit . Let us pray . O Most merciful Saviour and Redeemer Jesus , who wert born of a pure and a holy maid , who hast felt the calamities of Mankind , and knowest how to pity our infirmities , and rejoicest in doing and shewing mercy to all that need and to all that call to thee for succour , we give thee thanks and praise that thou hast heard the prayers and considered the cries , and releeved the necessities of this thy servant , and kept her life from the grave , still continuing to her a portion in the land of the living , and opportunities of serving thee . O be pleased to continue and increase and to sanctifie thy mercies to thy servant : pardon al her sins , pity her infirmities , enable her duty , keep her from all evil by thy blessed providence , let her portion be in the things of God and of Religion , in the light of thy countenance , and the service of thy Majesty ; that she walking humbly and devoutly before thee ; piously and dutifully to her Relatives , doing justice , and giving good example to those with whom she shall converse , may find the rewards of holiness , and the eternal mercies of God in the day of thy glorious appearing , O Blessed Saviour and Redeemer Jesus . Amen . Then shall be added this form of blessing . THE Lord bless you and keep you : The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you . The Lord lift up the light of his Countenance upon you and give you peace . The blessing of God Almighty , Father , Son , and Holy Ghost , be amongst you , and abide with you , and be your portion for ever and ever . Amen . A Prayer to be said immediately after the Womans delivery , either by the Priest or by any other in attendance . O Almighty Lord and Father who healest every sickness and every disease , and art ever gracious and alwaies present to the prayers of them who in the day of trouble call upon thy holy Name , thou hast given delivery to this thy servant [ and made her the mother of a living child ] still be pleased to continue and renew thy loving kindness unto her ; keep her from all violent accidents and intolerable pains , from colds and feavers , defend her by the custody of thy holy Angels of light , from all impresses of the powers of darkness : give her rest and ●eep , a quiet spirit , and an easie ●ody , Confidence in thee and a daily sense of thy ●●ercies ; a speedy restitution of health and strength , and a thankful heart to praise thee in the Congregation of Saints , and to serve thee with an increasing and a persevering duty all the daies of her life , thorough Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . Then if there be time and fitted circumstances adde this prayer for the Child . O Eternal God who hast promised to be a Father to a thousand generations of them that love and fear thee ; be pleased to bless this child who is newly come into a sad and most sinful world . O God preserve his life , and give him the grace and Sacrament of Baptismal regeneration : doe thou receive him and enable him to receive thee , that he may have power to become the child of God ; keep him [ or her ] from the spirits that walk at noon , and from the evil Spirits of the night , from all charms and inchantments , from suddain death and violent accidents : give unto him a gracious heart and an excellent understanding , a ready and unloosed tongue , a healthful and a useful body and a wise soul , that he may serve thee and advance thy glory in this world , and may increase the number of thy Saints and servants in the kingdome of our Lord Jesus . Amen . To God the Father of our Lord Jesus : To the eternal son of God , the son of man : To the Spirit of the Father and the Son : Be all honour and glory , praise and thanksgiving , love and obedience , now and for evermore . Amen . A prayer to be said by a new married wife entring into a family . I. O Eternal God the Father of wisedom and mercy , thou hast been my guide and my defence all my daies , thou didst take me from my mothers womb , and didst conduct me thorough the varieties of my life with much mercy and the issues of a loving and wise providence : I bless thy name O Lord for all thy dispensations ; thou hast done all things with infinite goodness and infinite wisedome : thou hast kept me from the effects of thy wrath , and the evils of my own infirmities : thou didst defend me from evils by the guard of Angels , and didst lead me into good by the conduct of thy holy Spirit : Thou hast alwaies heard my prayer , ever being more ready to bless me then I to ask it : thou hast said unto me , I will never leave thee nor forsake thee ; be therefore graciously pleased to hear the prayer of thy hand-maid , that I may have the aids of an excellent providence and a mighty grace to doe my duty in all my relations , in all varieties and changes of the world , until my great change shall come . II. GIve thy blessing to thy servant my dear husband , give him a long life and a confirmed health ; encircle him with blessings , adorne him with thy grace , nourish him with content , refresh him with a perpetual succession of comforts , let the light of thy Countenance be upon him in all his actions and the accidents of his life , and grant that he may still more and more increase in the love and fear of thy holy name , that despising the things of this world he may hunger and thirst after the things of God and of religion , and may have his portion in the gathering together of the Saints in the kingdome of grace and glory . III. BLess me , even me , O my Father , and grant that I may in all things doe my duty to thee my God : give me a perfect command over all my passions and affections , that they being subject to my will , and my will guided by reason , and my reason by religion , I may never suffer any undecency or violent transport , but may pass thorough all the accidents of my life with meekness and a sober spirit , with patience and charity , with prudence and holiness . O be pleased to give thy servant a right judgement in all things , that I may not be amazed at trifles nor discomposed by every contrariety of accidents , nor passionate for the things of the world , nor discontent if thou shouldest smite me : but that I may with an even and a quiet spirit doe my duty , and comply with every variety of thy providence , and obey my husband , and be amiable in his eyes , and useful and careful for his children : ever desiring to approve my self to thee in a holy and hearty obedience , in piety and devotion , in patience and humility , in chastity and purity , in all holiness of conversation : and doe thou give thy holy and blessed Spirit to guide and teach me all my daies , that I may overcome all my infirmities , and comply with and bear the infirmities of others , and charitably pardon their errors , and fairly expound their actions , and wisely perceive their intentions , and with a Christian ingenuity deport my self in all things , giving offence to none but doing good to all I can ; that I may receive pardon from thee for all my sins , and a pity for all my infirmities , and thy blessing upon all my actions , and a sanctification of all my intentions , and when my life is done I may have the peace of God , and the testimony of a holy Conscience to accompany me to my grave , and to consign me to a holy and a blessed resurrection , to partake of the inheritance which thou hast provided for thy saints and servants . Grant this for Jesus Christ his sake our dearest Lord and Saviour . Amen . For a fruitful Womb. I. O Most gracious and eternal God , Father and Lord of all the creatures , thou didst sanctifie marriage in the state of Innocence , in the dwellings of paradise , & didst design it for the production of mankind , and didst give it as one of the first blessings of mankind . O be pleased to look upon thy handmaid who waits for thy mercy , and humbly begs of thy infinite goodness to make me partaker of that blessing which thou didst design to all the sons and daughters of Adam : thou O God hast the keyes of heaven and hell , of rain and providence , of the womb and the grave : O let not thy servant feel the curse of dry breasts and a barren womb , but make me a joyful Mother of children , that thy handmaid may serve thee in increasing the number of thy redeemed ones , and may minister blessings to this family into which thou hast adopted me , and may bring comfort to my dear husband , whom doe thou bless , and love , and sanctifie for ever . II. O God I confess I am unworthy of this or any other favour ; I am less then the least of thy mercies , yet our weakness and unworthiness cannot be the measures of thy mercy : thou art good and gracious , infinitely gracious , essentially good , and delightest in shewing mercy to them that call upon thee , & put their trust in thee : O dear God I remember that thou didst releive the sorrows of thy servant Hannah , and gavest her the blessing of children ; thou didst blesse the womb of Elizabeth who was barren ; thou spakest the word and the rocks did rend , and they sent forth a pleasant stream : Thy hand is not shortned and thy mercies are not less then ever , no less then infinite , and why should not thy servant hope that thou wilt hear my prayer and grant the desire of my soul ? Even so O gracious father let it be as thou pleasest : thy wisedom is infinite , and thy counsels are secret , and the waies and lines of thy providence are like the path of a bird in the aire , not to be discovered by our weak sight . III. I Know O God that thou lovest to hear our prayers , and thou delightest in the humble , passionate and resigned desires of thy servants . Although O God I desire this blessing with an earnestness as great as any temporal favour , yet I humbly submit my desires , my interests , my content and all that I am or have to thy holywill and pleasure , humbly begging of thee that I may cheerfully suffer , and obediently doe thy will , and choose what thou choosest , and observe the waies of thy providence , and revere thy judgement , and wait for thy mercy , and delight in thy dispensation , and expect that all things shall work together for good to them that fear thee . O let thy holy Spirit for ever be present with me , and make me to fear thee and to love thee above all the things in the world for ever , and then no ill can come unto thy servant : for whosoever loves thee cannot perish . Hear the prayer of thy servant , and releive my sorrow , and sanctify my desires and accept me in the Son of thy love and of thy desires , our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen . A prayer to be used by an afflicted wife in behalf of a vitious Husband . I. O Eternal Father thou preserver of men , thou great lover of souls , who didst send thy holy Son to die that mankind might be redeemed , and sin might be destroyed : Thou knowest how intolerable a thing it is that a Soul should to eternal ages be incircled with thy wrath , and the indignation of a mighty and an angry God ; and therefore dost love to doe miracles of mercy , because thou lovest not that a sinner should perish : Be pleased to give thy handmaid leave to present her humble desires in behalf of a sinner , one sinner for another ; the miserable for him that is ready to perish . Lord look down in mercy upon my Husband ; snatch him from the jawes of Hell , suffer him not to perish in his sin ; but open his eyes with the light of thy word and of thy Spirit , that he may espy his danger , that he may behold the deformity of his sins [ the injuriousness of his actions , the folly of his pleasures ] the iniquity of his vowes . II. CLeanse his hands and heart from all unrighteousness [ from bloud-guiltiness , from rapine , from violence , from cruelty ] O Lord , and purifie his soul and body from all impurity , [ from all intemperance , from the violence and fury of passion ] giving him a perfect repentance , and a perfect pardon : and if it be thy will , let me also some way or other cooperate towards the recovery of his precious soul ; and be pleased to remember the sufferings of thy handmaid , not that he may receive evil , but that I may find good from thy gracious hands in the day of recompence , thorough Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . If she have escaped any violence intended against her by his malice or passion ; then adde this prayer of thanksgiving . O God my God and Father , thou hast strangely preserv'd and rescued me from evil , thou hast made decrees in heaven for my safety and preservation ; and for the glory of thy own name thou hast diverted the arrow that was directed against me . What am I O Lord , and what can I doe , or what have I done that thou shouldest doe this for me ? I am O God a miserable sinner , and I can doe nothing without a mighty grace , and I have done nothing by my self but what I am asham'd of , and yet I have received great mercies and miracles of providence . I see , O God , I see that thy goodness is the cause and the measure of all my hopes and all my good : and upon the confidence and greatness of that goodness I humbly beg of thy sacred Majesty to keep and defend me from all evil by thy wise providence ; to lead me into all good by the conduct of thy divine Spirit ; and where I have done amiss give me pardon , and where I have been mistaken give me pity , and where I have been injured give me thy favour and a gracious exchange ; that I may serve thee here with diligence and love , and hereafter may rejoice with thee and love thee as I desire to love thee , and as thou deservest to be loved , even with all the powers and degrees of passion and essence , to eternal ages , in the inheritance of Jesus , whom I love , for whom I will not refuse to die , in whom I desire to live and die ; to whom with thee O gracious Father and the holy Spirit be all honour and glory , love and obedience for ever and ever . Amen . A Mothers prayer for her children . I. MOst Gracious and Eternal God , Father of our Lord Jesus Christ , Father of Men and Angels , Father of mercies and God of all comforts , thou hast promised to be a Father to a thousand generations of them that love and fear thee ; be thou a God and a Father to me and the children which thou hast given me . Enable me O Lord to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and in the fear of God to the praise of thy holy Name . O give me thy grace and favour that I may instruct them with diligence and meekness , govern them with prudence and holiness , provide for them useful imployments and competent provisions of life and comfort , leading them in the paths of religion and justice , by example and precepts of holiness ; never provoking them to wrath , never indulging them in their follies , never conniving at an unworthy action : and that all my children may be thine , O preserve them in thy favour , or take them away from hence while they are . If thou pleasest , let them live to a full age , but secure to them a full measure of piety and holiness thorough Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . II. TO this end give them grace to obey their Parents , that doing the duty , they may receive the promise ; preserve them from sin and shame , from youthful follies and youthful crimes . Sanctifie them thoroughout in their bodies , and souls , and spirits ; that their thoughts may be pure and holy , not displeasing or misbecomming the eye of him who is the searcher of hearts ; let their words be true , prudent and ingenuous , seasoned with grace and apt to minister grace unto the hearers : let all their actions in their whole life be such as becommeth the servants of Jesus , holy and useful , that they may not be burdens to the publick , or to their family , but pleasing thee and doing good to others they may increase in the love of God , and in favour with men , and may have the portion of the meek and humble in this world , and of the pure and merciful in the world to come thorough Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . The VViddows Prayer . I. O Eternal God , most Gracious Lord and my most merciful Father , thou art my refuge and my hope , my sanctuary and my rock my guardian and protector all my daies . I have offended thee and thou hast smitten me , I have deserved very much evil , and thou hast corrected me with the gentle visitation of a Fathers rod : and though thy hand is heavy and thy rod presseth me sore by reason of my own weakness and infirmities , yet when I consider how little I suffer in respect of what I have deserved , I cannot but adore thy goodness , and delight in thy mercies , and run for help and comfort , support and conduct from that hand which smites me . O my God give me patience under thy afflicting hand ; for my impatience I feare hath provoked thee to anger , and hath doubled my owne calamity ; and since my duty is my proper cure , and will make thy hand easy , and thy anger little , give thy servant a quiet and a r●signed , a humble and a meeke spirit , that I may not become my owne tormenter , and my sin may not be my owne punishment . II. O My gracious Lord , doe to me what seemeth good in thy owne eyes ; I am like clay in the hands of the potter , and what am I that I should repine against the acts of thy providence and dispensation ? Behold O God , thy Hand-maid is but a worme before thee ; shall dust and ashes repine against God ? Thou art just and righteous in all thy wayes , and though thou hast afflicted mee sore , yet blessed be thy holy Name I have not lost my hope , and I can yet pray , and I will trust in thee though I die ; onely be thou pleased to let this thy heavy hand efforme in me the effects of grace , and conforme me to the likenesse of the holy Jesus my dearest Saviour ; that I may so beare the Crosse that I may never displease him , nor dishonour the excellent name of a Christian by which I am called . III. I Am O my God by the meanes of thy heavy hand not onely under the discipline of a Child , but have also obtained a new title to thy especial providence and protection ; for thou art the patron of the poore , the helper of the friendlesse , the father of the fatherlesse , and the defender of the widowes , and if these be the effects of thy anger , and that when thou smitest us thy verystrokes are healing , and thy displeasure is medicinal , what shall thy servant expect will be the effect of thy pardon and loving kindnesse ? but yet O my Lord helpe me in my duty , and though I have failed in all my relations hitherto , by my impatience and murmure , by my carelesse comportment and undutifull behaviour towards thee ; yet now let my sad state of Widdowhood be a state of holinesse and repentance , of devotion and a severe religion . Let me recollect my years in bitternesse , and my soule in sorrow for my sins ; let me have no affections for the things of this world ; but let my hope and all my joy , my desires and my conversation be in heaven , and all my imployment and care be how I may enjoy thee in holy and spiritual unions and adherencies . IV. O Lord I know that the way of man is not in himself : it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps : I have often resolved to live innocently , and I have often broken all my holy purposes ; and I cannot of my self thinke one good thought as of my self , but my sufficiency is of thee ; thou art my strength : O preserve thy servant in my single state of Widdowhood , that I may never have any thought of change till the day of my great change shall come ; be thou O God a covering of the eyes unto thy hand-maid ; let me have no loves but thine , no affections but for thy service ; and since thou hast broken in pieces that holy band of conjugal society which thy holy ordinance did tye between my deare [ Lord and ] Husband and thy handmaid , give me thy grace dearly to preserve his memory , to retaine the impresses and remembrances of that affection , and to entertaine no new ones ; but wholly imploy my time , my estate , and all my powers in [ bringing up my children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord , in making fair and fitting provisions for them , in giving them good example ] in bearing the burthen of the Lord sweetly , in prayers and fastings , in almes and piety , in reading and meditating , in spirituall and Sacramental Communions , that when the worke of my life is done , I may find pardon and favour , and acceptance at the hands of my Lord , and a portion among thy saints and servants . If there be children of both sexes let the following portion be added . V. O My God now thy servant hath taken upon me to speake to my Lord , let not my Lord be angry not reject the prayer of his servant , interceding and praying for my children , the pledges of my deare [ Lord and ] Husband : preserve them O God in the strictest duty and services to thy self : O be thou their God and father , let thy providence be their portion , thy service their imployment , thy Angels their guards ; keepe them so by thy preventing and restraining grace that they may not by their owne sins provoke thee to anger and jealousy ; and let not the sins of their forefathers be visited upon them in thy anger and displeasure : thou lovest to shew mercy , and thou delightest in the affections of thy loving kindnesse , and thou art displeased when our vilenesses constraine thee to powre down thy judgements on us . O be pleased to grant that they living in holy obedience to thee , may feel a perpetuall streame of mercy , refreshing and supporting them , and let them not bear anothers burthen , for thou art just and merciful , righteous and true , and hast sentenc'd every one to bear their own iniquity . VI. GReat God of mercy , heale all the breaches of this family , preserve and encrease the remaining comforts and advantages of it , support the estate , renew thy favour to it , and perpetually poure down thy blessings upon it ; for the light of thy countenance and thy gracious influence does preserve and blesse , support and nourish , honour and advance persons , and families , and kingdomes . Blesse my eldest son ; give him an obedient and a loving spirit , a provident and a wise heart , a worthy and a pious comportment , a blessed [ and an honourable ] posterity : to my younger sons give health and holinesse , wisdom and faire fortunes , the love of God and good men : to my daughters give thy perpetuall grace and favour , that they may live in honour and a severe chastity , free from sin and shame , from temptation and a snare , and let their portion be in the blessing , in the love and service of God. Let them live in the favour of God and man , usefull to others , and honour to their family , a comfort to all their relatives and friends , and servants to thy divine Majesty . VII . PReserve me thy servant from all evil , lead me into all good ; change my sorrowes into comforts , my infirmity into spirituall strength ; take all iniquity from mee , and let thy servant never depart from thee . I am thine , O save mee ; I am thine , sanctify me and preserve me for ever ; that neither life nor death , health nor sicknesse , prosperity nor adversity , weakeness within nor crosse accidents without may ever separate me from the love of God , which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen , Blessed Jesus , Amen . The Offices or Formes OF Prayer and Devotion for The Miserable and Afflicted . An Office to be said in the daies of persecution of a Church , by sacrilegious or violent persons . Our Father which art in Heaven , &c. Minister . O God make speed to save us . Answer . O Lord make hast to help us . Minister . Glory be to the Father , &c. Answer . As it was in the beginning , &c. I. A Hymne petitory and complaining . O God the Heathen are come into thine inheritance : thy holy Temple have they defiled , and made Jerusalem an heape of stones . ¶ The adversaries roare in the midst of the congregations , and set up their banners for tokens . * They have set fire upon thy holy places : and have defiled the dwelling places of thy Name , even unto the ground . ¶ They have destroyed all the carved worke thereof with axes and hammers . * Yea they have said in their hearts , Let us make havock of them altogether : thus have they spoiled the houses of God in the land . ¶ O God how long shall the adversary doe this dishonour ? how long shall the enemy blaspheme thy name ; for ever ? * Why withdrawest thou thy hand , even thy right hand ? pluck it out of thy bosome : for they have devoured Jacob , and laid wast his dwelling place . ¶ They have said , come and let us root them out , that they be no more a people , and that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance . * Hold not thy tongue O God ; keepe not still silence : refraine not thy selfe O God : for they have cast their heads together with one consent , and are con●ederate against thee . ¶ They have taken crafty counsel against thy people , and consulted against thy hidden ones . * O Lord God of hosts how long wilt thou be angry with thy people that prayeth ? ¶ Thou feedest them with the bread of teares , and givest them plenteousnesse of teares to drinke . * Wil t thou be displeased at us for ever ? and wilt thou stretch out thy wrath from one generation to another ? ¶ Wilt thou not turne again and quicken us , that thy people may rejoice in thee ? * Will the Lord absent himselfe for ever ? and will he be no more intreated ? Is his mercy cleane gone for ever ? and is his promise come utterly to an end for evermore ? ¶ Hath God forgotten to be gracious ? and will he shut up his loving kindnesse in displeasure ? * O doe thou bring the wickednesse of the ungodly to an end , but guide thou the just . ¶ Bring downe the ungodly and malicious : take away his iniquity and thou shalt find none . * Shew thy marvellous loving kindnesse , thou that art the Saviour of them that put their trust in thee , from such as resist thy right hand . ¶ So will not we goe back from thee : quicken us and we will call upon thy name . * Turne us again O Lord God of Hosts . ¶ Cause thy face to shine , and we shall be saved . * Glory be to the Father , &c. ¶ As it was in the beginning , &c. I. A Hymne consolatory , in time of persecution . * THE Lord is in his Holy temple ; the Lords seat is in Heaven ; his eyes consider the poore : and his eyelids trie the children of men . ¶ Blessed is the Nation whose God is the Lord : and the people whom he hath chosen for his owne inheritance . * For thou shalt save thy people that are in adversity : and shalt bring downe the high lookes of the proud . ¶ Thou shalt keep them O Lord , thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever : For the righteous Lord loveth righteousnesse ; his countenance will behold the thing that is just . * For the oppression of the poore , for the sighing of the needy , now will I arise saith the Lord , I will set him in safety from him that swelleth against him . ¶ For the Lord will not faile his people , neither will he forsake his inheritance : untill righteousnesse turne againe unto judgement : and all such as be true in heart shall follow it . * O how plentifull is thy goodnesse which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee , and that thou hast prepared for them that put their trust in thee , even before the sons of men ! ¶ Thou shalt hide them privily by thine owne presence from the provoking of al men ; thou shalt keepe them secretly in thy tabernacle from the strife of tongues . * Great plagues remaine for the Ungodly : but who so putteth his trust in the Lord , mercy embraceth him on every side . ¶ He calleth upon the Lord , and the Lord heareth him , yea and saveth him out of all his troubles . * He delivers their soules from death , and feedeth them in the daies of famine : They shall not be confounded in the perillous time , and in the daies of dearth they shall have enough . ¶ The Lord ordereth a good mans going , and maketh his way acceptable to himselfe . * Though he fall , he shall not be cast away : for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand . ¶ Thou Lord shalt save both man and beast : how excellent is thy mercy O God! and the children of men shall put their trust under the shadow of thy wings . * O tast and see how gracious the Lord is : blessed is the man that trusteth in him . ¶ The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous , and his ears are open unto their prayers . * The righteous cry and the Lord heareth them , and delivereth them out of all their troubles . ¶ O love the Lord all ye his Saints : for the Lord preserveth them that are faithful , and plenteously rewardeth the proud doer . * The salvation of the righteous commeth of the Lord : which is also their strength in the time of trouble . ¶ And the Lord shall stand by them and save them : he shall deliver them from the Ungodly , and shall save them , because they put their trust in him . Glory be to the Father , &c. As it was in the beginning &c. The following Hymnes may be said in the publike or private calamities of a Church , of a family , of a single person ; under persecution or oppression , false imprisonment , unjust and vexatious law-suites , &c. III. * MY soule waiteth still upon God : for of him commeth my salvation . He verily is my strength and my salvation , so that I shall not greatly fall . ¶ Thou also shalt light my candle : the Lord my God shall make my darknesse to be light . * Thou hast given a token for such as fear thee , that they may triumph because of the truth . ¶ Therefore were thy beloved delivered : helpe me with thy right hand and heare me . * O praise the Lord which dwelleth in Sion : shew the people of his doings . ¶ For when he maketh inquisition for bloud , he remembreth and forgetteth not the complaint of the poore . * For the poore shall not alwaies be forgotten : the patient abiding of the meek shall not perish for ever . ¶ He hath not despised nor abhorred the low estate of poore : he hath not hid his face from him , but when he called unto him he heard him . * Wherefore should the wicked blaspheme God , while he doth say in his heart , Tush thou God carest not for it ? ¶ Surely thou hast seene it : for thou beholdest ungodlinesse and wrong , that thou maiest take the matter into thine hand : the poore committeth himselfe unto thee : for thou art the helper of the freindlesse . * Lord thou hast heard the desire of the poore : thou preparest their heart and thine eare hearkneth thereto . ¶ To help the fatherlesse and poore to their right : that the man of the earth be no more exalted against them . * O cast thy burden upon the Lord and he shall nourish thee : and shall not suffer the righteous to fall for ever . ¶ Hold thee still in the Lord , and abide patiently upon him : but greive not thy selfe at him whose way doth prosper , against the man that doth after evil counsels . * For wicked doers shall be rooted out : but they that waite upon the Lord , they shall inherit the earth . ¶ For yet a little while and the wicked shall not be : yea thou shalt diligently consider his place , and it shall not be . * But the meeke shall inherit the earth , and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace . ¶ So that a man shall say , Verily there is a reward for the righteous : doubtlesse there is a God that judgeth the Earth . * Glory be to the Father &c. ¶ As it was in the beginning &c. IIII. A Hymne consolatory and petitory for the Church and Clergy in times of persecution . * BLessed are they that dwell in thy house ; they will be alwaies praising thee . ¶ Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee , in whose heart are thy waies . * Blessed is the people O Lord that can rejoyce in thee : they shall walke in the light of thy countenance . ¶ For the Lord God is a sunne and a shield : the Lord will give grace and glory , and no good thing will he withhold from them that walke uprightly . * Many O Lord my God are thy wonderful workes which thou hast done , and thy thoughts which are towards us : they cannot be reckoned up in order to thee : if I would declare and speake of them , they are more then can be numbred . ¶ Many shall see it and feare , and put their trust in the Lord. * The wicked watcheth the righteous , and seeketh occasion to slay him : but the Lord will not leave him in his hand , nor condemne him when he is judged . ¶ The righteous shall rejoyce in the Lord , and put his trust in him : and all they that are true of heart shall be glad . * Keepe innocency and take heed unto the thing that is right : for that shall bring a man peace at the last . ¶ They that sow in teares shall reape in joy . * He that now goeth on his way weeping , and beareth forth good seed , shall doubtlesse come againe with joy , and bring his sheaves with him . ¶ The Lord from out of Sion shall so blesse thee , that thou shalt see Jerusalem in prosperity all thy life long , and peace upon Israel . * For God will save Sion , and build the Cities of Judah , that men may dwell there and have it in possession . ¶ The posterity also of his servants shall inherit it , and they that love his name shall dwell therein . * Arise O Lord into thy resting place , thou and the Arke of thy strength . ¶ Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt ; thou hast cast out the heathen and planted it . * Thou madest roome for it ; and when it had taken root it filled the land . ¶ The hills were covered with the shadow of it : and the boughs thereof were like the goodly Cedar trees . * Why hast thou then broken downe her hedge , that al that goe by pluck off her grapes . ¶ The wild boare out of the wood doth root it up , and the wild beasts of the field devoure it . * Turne thee againe thou God of hosts : behold and visit this vine , and the place of thy vineyard that thy right hand hath planted , and the branch that thou madest so strong for thy selfe . ¶ Turne us againe O God , shew the light of thy countenance , and we shall be whole . * Let thy Priests be clothed with righteousnesse . ¶ Let thy Saints sing with joyfulnesse . * So we thy people and sheepe of thy pasture will give thee thanks for ever . ¶ We will shew forth thy praise from generation to generation . * Glory be to the Father &c. ¶ As it was in the beginning &c. If there be occasion adde the Lxxxix Psalme . and the xxi . and the Lxi. Then for the lesson , Read. Judges II. or or III. I. Samuel . XXXI Ezra IX . Nehemiah IX . Daniel IX . or Mathew XIX . vers . 16 to the end of Mat. XX Matthew XXI . * If there be famine , or dearth , or drowth , read Jerem. 14. If two lessons be read at one meeting , then let one of the former Hymnes be read between the two lessons ; and omitted before . If but one lesson be read , or After the second lesson [ if there be two ] say this Psalme . * PLeade thou my cause O Lord with them that strive with me : for they have laid their net to destroy me without a cause , yea even without a cause have they made a pit for my soule . ¶ Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoyce over me : neither let them winke with the eye that hate me without a cause . * For they speake not peace , but they devise deceitfull matters against them that are quiet in the land . ¶ They rewarded me evill for good , to the great discomfort of my soule . * Stirre up thy selfe and awake to my judgement , even unto my cause , my God and my Lord. ¶ Judge me O Lord my God according to my righteousnesse , and let them not rejoyce over me . * And my soule shall be joyful in the Lord : it shall rejoyce in his salvation . ¶ All my bones shall say , Lord who is like unto thee which deliverest the poore from him that is too strong for him , yea the poore and needy from him that spoileth him ? * Let them shout for joy and be glad that favour my righteous cause , yea let them say continually , let the Lord be magnified which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servants . ¶ Trust in the Lord and doe good , so shalt thou dwell in the land , and verily thou shalt be fed . * Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him : fret not thy selfe because of him who prospereth in his way , because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to passe . ¶ For the Lord shall laugh at him : for he seeth that his day is comming . * Glory be to the Father &c. ¶ As it was in the beginning &c. Minister . The Lord be with you . Answer . And with thy Spirit . Let us pray . Our Father which art in Heaven , &c. The Collect. ALmighty and everlasting God who hatest nothing that thou hast made , and lovest not that a sinner should die ; before thee and before thy Angels there is joy in heaven at the conversion of a sinner ; thou hast promised pardon to the penitent , and salvation to them that persevere : O grant that we may never presume on thy mercy , or despise the riches of thy goodnesse ; but that thy forbearance and long suffering may lead us to repentance : create and make in us new and contrite hearts , that we truly mourning for our sins , and forsaking them , condemning our selves , and justifying thee , crucifying the old man , and becomming new creatures may obtaine of thee mercy and remission , that though we are now worthily punished for our sins , by the comfort of thy grace we may be mercifully releived through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen . I. The prayer for the Church . O Eternal God , thou preserver of men and the Great lover of soules , have pitty and compassion upon thine afflicted handmaid the Church of [ England ] Thou hast humbled us for our pride , and chastised us for our want of discipline . O forgive us all our sins by which thou hast been provoked to anger and to Jealousie , to despise our sorrowes and to arme thy selfe against us . II. Blessed God smite us not with a final and exterminating judgement , call not the watchmen off from their guards , nor the Angels from their charges : let us not die by a famine of thy Word and Sacraments : If thou smitest us with the rod of a man , thou canst sanctify every stroke unto us , and canst bring good out of the evil , and delightest to doe so : but nothing can bring us a recompence if thou hatest us , and sufferest the soules of thy people to perish . III. Unite our hearts and tongues , take away the Spirit of error and division from amongst us ; and so order all the accidents of thy providence that religion may increase , and our devotion may be great and popular , and truth may be incouraged and promoted , and thy Name glorified , and thy servants comforted and instructed , that thy holy Spirit may rule , and all interests may stoope and obey , publish and advance the honour of our Lord Jesus . Amen . For the Superiour Clergy . O Most blessed Saviour Jesus , King of Heaven and earth , the head and prince of the Catholick Church , who hast appointed thy servants Ministers and stewards in the house of thy Father to give bread to the hungry , and drinke to them that thirst after the water of life flowing from the Fountaines of our Saviour : continue and blesse , sanctify and adorne with thy gifts and graces all the Spiritual guides and governours which thou hast appointed over us ; that they may continue in thy service to comfort the afflicted , to instruct the ignorant , to confirme the strong , to defend and promote thy truth , to intercede for thy servants , to open the kingdome of heaven to all beleivers , and to shut up the disobedient and rebellious in everlasting prisons , by the keyes of the Kingdome , by thy word and Sacraments , by thy power and by thy Spirit ; remove not the Candlestick from us , neither doe thou quench the light of Israel ; but let thy servants [ our Bishops , and Priests ] be like burning and shining lights in the Temple of God by a continual , never failing , never broken succession , offering up the daily sacrifice , rejoycing in the plenty of peace and the imployments of thy house , in holy offices and a daily ministration ; that thou being for ever pleas'd and for ever glorified , we may be thy peculiar people , a chosen generation , a royal priest-hood , clothed with righteousnesse and singing with joyfulnesse Eternall Hallelujahs to the honour of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . For Priests and the Inferiour Clergy . MOst Blessed and Eternal Jesu , who art a Preist for ever after the order of Melchisedek , and hast separated thy servants to minister to thee in holy offices , and to convey holy things unto the people ; give unto all thy servants the Ministers of thy word and Sacraments the spirit of prudence and knowledge , of faith and charity , of watchfulnesse and holy zeale , that they as good helpes in Government may declare thy will faithfully to their congregations , and administer the Sacraments purely and devoutly , and by their holy life become an example to thy litle flock , that so they with cheerfulnesse and joy may render an account of their charge , and may by thy mercy obtaine the blessing of thy Preisthood , & the glories of thy Kingdome O most Blessed and Eternall Saviour who livest and reignest with the Father and the holy Spirit eternal God world without end . Amen . The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ &c. To this office may be added the confession of sins taken out of S. Ephraim the Syrian , [ in the Evening prayer for a family ] and said immediately before the collect . Or else . Immediately before the blessing ( as opportunity shall require or permit ) may be said the Let any described at the end of these devotions . Any of these prayers or psalmes may upon any occasion ordinary or extraordinary be used in any of the other offices . In time of VVarre ; to the foregoing offices may be added these following prayers , taken out of a special office published by the authority of Queene Elizabeth 1597. I. A prayer for an Army , or Navy in time of VVarre O Almighty Lord God of hosts , the prince of peace and the everlasting Counsellor , we humbly beseech thee so to conduct , encourage and defend our [ Armies and Fleets ] with thy mighty arme , and thy wise providence that what they shall attempt or take in hand for defence of this [ Church and State ] may be prosperous and blessed . Direct and lead them all in safety , strengthen their Governours and leaders with sound counsell and wise Conduct : The officers and souldiers with ready obedience and valiant resolution . Blesse their conflicts with signal victories ; give them blessed opportunities of effecting the purposes of peace and justice with the least bloodshed . Preserve them from contagious diseases , from the violence of sword and sicknesses , from evill accidents , or crafty designes , from treachery or surprise , from carelesnesse of their duty , and fromall irreligion , from confusion or feare , from mutiny and disorder . Give them an happy and an honourable returne , that we being defended from our enemies , thy servant [ our Soveraigne , or Supreme ] may rejoice in thy mercies , and thy church may give thee thankes in the daies of peace , and all thy people may worship thee in a holy religion , giving thee praise and honour and glory for ever in Eternal ages through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . Or this . I. O Most mighty Lord God who reignest over all the Kingdomes of Men , thou hast power in thy hand to cast downe and to raise up , to save thy servants and to rebuke their enemies , and in all ages hast given victory to the people , effecting by small numbers what man cannot doe by the multitude of an Host : Let thy eares be now open unto our praiers and thy merciful eyes upon our trouble and our danger . O Lord doe thou judge our cause in righteousnesse and mercy , prosper our armes , and defend our armies . Establish us in the rights thou hast given us , in our lands and in our goods , in our Government and in our lawes , in our Religion and in all the holy orders which thou hast appointed to minister to all who shall be heires of salvation . II. Never let ambition or Cruelty , thirst of Empire or thirst of blood , the greedinesse of of spoile , or the pleasures of a victory make us either to love warre , or to neglect all the just wayes of peace : and grant unto the Army such piety and prudence , such happy circumstances and blessed events , that none of them may doe any act misbecoming Christians , Disciples and servants of the prince of peace . Doe thou O God blesse them in all their just actions and necessary defences , that they may neither doe wrong , nor suffer any . Let not our enemies have their unjust desires , nor their mischeivous imaginations prosper , leaft we become a scorne and derision to our oppressors . The race is not to the swift , nor the battle to thestrong , and a horse is counted but a vaine thing to save a man : but our trust is in the name of the Lord our God , he is our strength and our defence , for it is thou O Lord who canst indifferently save with many or with few . III. Wherefore from thy holy sanctuary open thine eyes and behold , stretch forth thy hand and helpe , defend and save our Armies and Navies , O thou God of power , from all evil of man , and all evil of chance . Cover their heads in the day of battle and danger : send thy feare before thy servants , that our enemies may flee before them : let thy faith make them valiant in fight , and put to flight the armies of [ Aliens , Rebels &c. ] and by this shall thy servants know thou favourest us in that our Enemy doth not triumph against us , and shall alwaies confesse to the praise of thy name that it was thou Lord the sheild of our hope and the sword of our glory , who hast done great things for us ; and evermore say , Praised be the Lord that hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servants . Heare us O Lord for the glory of thy name , for thy loving mercy , and for thy truth sake through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . An Office for Prisoners . THe foregoing ordinary Offices are fitted for all mankind in General , and so may be also used by these in their Prisons : To which they may adde what is fit for them in the following devotions : and upon Solemne occasion , or upon special necessity or devotion they may intirely and distinctly use the following prayers and psalmes , &c. In the Name of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus . Our Father which art in Heaven , &c. Versicle . O God make speed to save us . Answer . O Lord make hast to helpe us . Glory be to the Father &c. As it was in the beginning &c. The Psalme . I Will cry unto God with my voice ; even unto God will I cry with my voice and he shall hearken unto me . ¶ In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord ; in the night my sore ceased not : my soule refused to be comforted . * When I am in heavinesse I will thinke upon God : when my heart is vexed I will complaine . ¶ O remembet how short my time is : wherefore hast thou made all men for nought . * I goe hence like the shadow that departeth , and am driven away as the grashopper : But the Lord shall endure for ever , he hath also prepared his seat for judgement . ¶ For he shall judge the world in righteousnesse ; and minister true judgement unto his people . * The Lord also will be a defence for the oppressed , even a refuge in due time of trouble . ¶ And they that know thy Name will put their trust in thee : for thou Lord hast never failed them that seeke thee . * Deliver me O Lord from the evil man : preserve me from the violent man. ¶ I know that the Lord will maintaine the cause of the afflicted , and the right of the poore . * Surely the righteous shall give thankes unto they Name : the upright shall dwell in thy presence . ¶ O let the sorrowful sighing of the prisoners come before thee : according to the greatnesse of thy power preserve thou those that are appointed to die . * The humble shall consider this and be glad : Seeke ye after God and your soule shall live . ¶ For the Lord heareth the poore : and despiseth not his prisoners . * Who is like unto the Lord our God , who dwelleth on high ? ¶ Who humbleth himselfe to behold the things that are in heaven and earth ? * He raiseth up the poore out of the dust , and lifteth the needy out of the Dunghil . ¶ Blessed be the name of the Lord , from this time forth for evermore . * For he satisfieth the longing soule : and filleth the hungry soule with goodnesse . ¶ Such as sit in darknesse and in the shadow of death , being bound in affliction and iron . * He bringeth them out of darknesse and the shadow of death , and breaketh their bands in sunder . ¶ O that men would praise the Lord for his goodnesse , and declare the wonders that he doth for the children of men . Glory be to the Father &c. As it was in the beginning &c. Or this . IN thee O Lord have I put my trust : let me never be put to confusion : but rid me and deliver me in thy righteousnesse , incline thine eare unto me and save me . ¶ Be thou my strong hold whereunto I may alwayes resort : thou hast promised to helpe me , for thou art my house of defence and my Castle . * As for the children of men they are but vanity : the children of men are deceitful : upon the weights they are altogether lighter then vanity it selfe . ¶ O trust not in wrong and robbery , give not your selves unto vanity : if riches increase set not your heart upon them . * Up Lord , why sleepest thou ? awake and be not absent from us for ever . ¶ Wherefore hidest thou thy face , and forgettest our misery and trouble ? * For our soul is brought low even unto the dust : our belly cleaveth unto the ground . ¶ O cast thy burden upon the Lord , and he shall nourish thee : and shall not suffer the righteous to fall for ever . * For this God is our God for ever : he shall be our guide unto death . ¶ There the wicked cease from troubling : and there the weary be at rest . * There the prisoners rest together : they heare not the voice of the oppressor . ¶ The small and great are there : and the servant is free from his Master . * Blessed is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help , and whose hope is in the Lord his God. ¶ Which helpeth them to right that suffer wrong , which feedeth the hungry . * The Lord looseth men out of prison , the Lord giveth sight to the blind , he helpeth them that fall : the Lord careth for the righteous . ¶ Praise the Lord O my soule , while I live will I praise the Lord , yea as long as I have any being , I will sing praises unto my God. Glory be to the Father &c. As it was in the beginning &c. The Lesson . Read Genesis 39. Genesis 40. Isai. 42. 51. Jerem. 32. or Jerem. 37. Jerem. 52. Matthew 25. Acts 5. Acts 16. Let these be read at several times : and if the office be said in private , let him that reads and is interested , meditate a while . After which let him humbly kneele downe and pray . I. The Prayer for all Prisoners . O Almighty God , the Merciful Father of all that put their trust in thee , looke downe from the beauteous throne of thy glory with much mercy and compassion upon us thy servants , who are children of misery , full of sin and full of calamity , whose onely hope is in the mercies and loving kindnesse of the Lord. O doe thou pardon all our trespasses and debts by which we are in arrears to thee ; put them upon the accounts of the Crosse ; for our Blessed and most gracious Lord hath paid our price to redeeme us from the Eternal prisons : and be thou pleased to enrich us with thy holy Spirit ; that we may be strong in faith , abounding in hope , established in a holy patience , and rich in charity ; expecting with meeknesse and submission when the times of refreshment shall come from the presence of the Lord , our Blessed Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Amen . II. For Prisoners of Debt . ENable us O God thou treasure of all goodnesse and all plenty and all justice , to doe our dutie to those to whom we are obliged , let not their kindnesse to us be injurious to them , nor our poverty become their calamity , but doe thou enable us by the miracles of thy mercy to doe what we are bound to doe ; or incline our creditors to accept what we can , and make us willing to doe according to the utmost of our power ; and doe thou make it up in the blessings of plenty and mercy what is diminished to them by our poverty and infelicity . Restore us O God to the light of thy countenance , to the sense of thy mercies and refreshments : sanctify our present condition ; make us humble and obedient , quiet and peaceable , temperate and patient : let not our calamities exasperate our spirit ; nor the present affliction make us to seeke for comfort in the creature , much lesse in vice and the stupors of drunkennesse , in prophane noises and evil company . O let our hopes be in thee , and our joy in thee onely and in thy service through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . III. For Prisoners of Crime . O Eternal and most Holy Saviour Jesus , who wert brighter then an Angel , purer then the morning starre , and yet wert pleas'd for our redemption to take upon thee our guilt , that suffering our punishment thou mightest rescue us from an intolerable state of evil : Thou didst for our sakes suffer thy selfe to be imprison'd in the house of the High-preist , and have thy holy hands bound with cords , that thou mightest procure to us the liberty of the sons of God ; O looke upon us with a gracious eye . Thou didst suffer and yet wert innocent , we suffer lesse then we have deserved ; and hope in thy goodnesse that we never shall suffer so much . O heare our cries from the bottom of our prisons , from the depths of our sorrowes ; let this affliction be thy discipline to worke contrition and repentance in our hearts . Thou art just O God in all that we suffer , and thou art to be glorified ; and shame and confusion of face belongs unto us as it is this day : but never let us suffer the confusion of a sad eternity : Accept our sorrow and repentance , our suffering and our shame ; that in the blood of the Lambe and in the teares of repentance our sins being washed , our soules may be presented pure and spotlesse before the throne of grace , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . IV. If the Prisoners be condemned to death then adde this prayer . O Most mercifull Saviour who didst glorify thy mercy by giving pardon and promising paradise to the repenting theife ; thy mercies have no limit , and thy loving kindnesse cannot be measured ; O heare the cries and deepest groanings of miserable perishing sinners , who cannot looke up with any hope , but onely because thy glorious mercy is greater then can be understood , and by thy owne measures thou doest good to the miserable and calamitous . Thou didst add fifteene yeares to the daies of Hezekiah upon his prayer ; but he was righteous . Thou didst lift up the head of Manasses from the Dungeon , and gavest pardon to him when he cried mightily ; but he was a timely penitent . O give mercy to thy Enemies , that faine would be reconcil'd to thee ; to the impenitent , that faine would be admitted to repentance ; to miserable and undone persons , who desire that the infinitenesse of thy mercy should be glorified upon those whom nothing can releive but what is infinite as thy selfe . O give pardon to thy servants , give patience , a conformity to thy will , and a dereliction of their owne ; let thy Blessed Angels stand in circuit round about and rescue this miserable company [ man , woman &c ] from all the violence and fraud of the Spirits of darknesse , from the weakenesse of humane nature , from the curse and power of evil habits , and from Eternal damnation through the mercies of God and the grace of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen . I. For Prisoners under oppression , by false accusation , by unjust warre , for a good Conscience , or unreasonable dealings of men , by vexatious law-suits and violent , injurious bargaines . O Almighty God most mercifull , most gracious Father , who hast glorified thy eternal son and exalted him to be a covenant for the people , a light of the Gentiles , to open the blind eyes , to bring out the prisoners from the prison , and them that sit in darkenesse out of the prison-house : Thou standest at the right hand of the poore to save his soule from unrighteous Judges ; thou art a defence for the oppressed and a refuge in due time , in the time of trouble ; O looke upon thy servants who suffer wrong from the violent and unjust usages of our oppressors : If it be thy will , speedily rescue us from our calamity ; we submit to thy will and pleasure , and adore thy providence and thy wisedome in every dispensation ; but we begge of thee , together with the suffering , give us patience and a way for us to escape ; and sanctify both thy justice in our suffering , and thy mercy in our delivery . Doe thou judge our cause O Lord , defend our persons , give good unto our persecutors , and not evil , give them a love of justice and repentance , pardon and holinesse ; send peace O Lord in all our daies and in al our dwellings ; let there be no leading into captivity , no complaining in the houses of bondage ; and let not our portion be with persecutors , but with the poore and the persecuted , with the harmelesse and the innocent , with them that doe good , and suffer evil for Jesus Christ his sake , our Lord and onely Saviour . Amen . II. O God of mercy extend thy loving kindnesse to all thy servants who are under the same or any other great affliction : deliver them O God from all evil , from their owne weaknesse and their enemies power ; blesse them with thy providence , sanctify them by thy grace , pardon them by thy mercy , defend them with thy power , conduct them by thy Spirit , enrich them with thy wisedome , and bring them to all holy and usefull comforts in this world , and to never ceasing glories in the world to come through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . THE Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ , and the love of God , and the Communication of the holy Spirit of God be with us and with all our relatives , and with all the servants of God for ever and ever . Amen . An office or forme of prayer for Sailers or Mariners . Our Father which art in Heaven , &c. Versicle . O God make speed to save us . Answer . O Lord make hast to helpe us . Glory be to the Father &c. As it was in the beginning &c. The Psalme . * BLessed is he that hath the God of Jacob for his helpe ; and whose hope is in the Lord his God. ¶ Which made Heaven and Earth , the Sea and all that therein is : which feedeth the hungry . * The Lord is great and cannot worthily be praised : he is more to be feared then all Gods. ¶ His dominion is from one sea to the other : and from the floud unto the worlds end . * Whither then shall I goe from thy Spirit ? or whither shall I goe from thy presence ? ¶ If I climbe up into heaven thou art there ; If I goe down to hell thou art there also . * If I take the wings of the morning , and remaine in the uttermost parts of the sea . ¶ Even there also shall thy hand lead me ; and thy right hand shall hold me . * They that goe downe to the sea in ships , and doe businesse in great waters . ¶ These men see the workes of the Lord , and his wonders in the deep . * For he commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind , which lifteth up the waves thereof . ¶ They mount up to the heaven , they goe downe againe to the depths : their soul is melted because of trouble . * They reele to and fro and stagger like a drunken man , and are at their wits-end . ¶ Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble , and he bringeth them out of their distresses . * He maketh the storme a calme so that the waves thereof are still . ¶ Then are they glad because they be at quiet : so he bringeth them unto the desired haven . * O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodnesse , and for his wonderfull workes to the sons of men . ¶ O Lord God of hosts who is like unto thee : thy truth most mighty Lord is on every side . * Thou rulest the raging of the sea : thou stillest the waves thereof when they arise . ¶ Thou shalt shew us wonderful things in thy righteousnesse O God of our salvation ; thou that art the hope of all the ends of the earth , and of them in the broad sea . * They also that dwell in the uttermost parts of the earth shall be afraid at thy tokens : thou that makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to praise thee . ¶ The Lord hath said I will bring my people again as I did from Basan , mine owne will I bring again as I did some time from the deepe of the sea . * Glory be to the Father &c. ¶ As it was in the beginning &c. Or this ; to be said especially in a storme or danger of Shipwrack . * THE Lord is King : Ever since the world began hath thy seat been prepared : thou art from everlasting . ¶ The flouds are risen O Lord , the flouds have lift up their voice : the flouds lift up their waves . * The waves of the sea are mighty and rage horribly : but the Lord that dwelleth on high is mightier . ¶ Awake , awake , put on strength O arme of the Lord : awake as in the ancient daies , in the generations of old . * Art not thou he which hath dried the sea , the waters of the great deepe , that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to passe over ? ¶ Thou art the God that doeth wonders : and hast declared thy power among the people . * Thou hast mightily delivered thy people , even the sons of Jacob and Joseph . ¶ The waters saw thee O God , the waters saw thee , and were afraid : the depths also were troubled . * The clouds powred out waters , the aire thundred , and thine arrowes went abroad . ¶ The voice of thy thunder was heard round about , the lightnings shone upon the ground , the earth was mooved and shooke withall . * Thy way is in the sea , and thy paths in the great waters : and thy footsteps are not knowne . ¶ Therefore I will cry unto God with my voice , even unto God will I cry with my voice , and he shall hearken unto me . * Heare me O God in the multitude of thy mercy : even in the truth of thy salvation . ¶ Take me out of the mire that I sinke not : O let me be delivered from them that hate me , and out of the deepe waters . * Let not the water-flood drowne me , neither let the deep swallow me up : and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me . ¶ Heare me O Lord for thy loving kindnesse is comfortable : turne thee unto me according to the multitude of thy mercies . * Who is like unto thee O Lord amongst the Gods ? who is like thee , glorious in holinesse , fearfull in praises , doing wonders ? ¶ O hide not thy face from thy servants ; for we are in trouble : O hast and heare us . * Our soules are full of trouble , and our life draweth nigh unto the grave . ¶ O thou that hearest prayer , unto thee shall all flesh come : O let our prayer enter into thy presence , incline thine eare unto our calling . Glory be to the Father , &c. As it was in the beginning &c. If there be time and opportunity to read any portions of scripture suitable to the necessity , then read , If they be pursued by Pirates , Exodus 14. from verse 21. to the 20. verse of the 15. chapter . If they be in danger of Shipwrack , Read Jonah 1. or Jonah 2. or Acts 27. At other times , Read Matthew 8. or Matthew 14. or Marke 4. or Luke 8. The Prayer . I. O Almighty God and Father of heaven and earth , who settest a bound to the sea , and restrainest his waves by a heap of sand , by mountaines and by rocks , by thy word and by thy Spirit , saying , hither shall thy proud waves passe and no further ; looke upon us thy servants , whose lives are in our hands , and we dwell in the shadowes of death night and day ; we know O Lord and confesse the floods and waves of passion doe frequently overrun us , and we are drown'd in the stormes and overwhelmed with iniquity . Our [ Oaths , Blasphemies , Impieties , Irreligious actions ] are lowder then the fiercest winds , and call aloud upon thee for vengeance ; and many of us in our greatest danger provoke thee with the greattest unreasonablenesse and violence of impiety . But O God our God be gracious unto thy people who accuse our selves , and confesse our guilt , and acknowledge thy justice , and beg thy goodnesse , and pray to thee for safety and defence , for deliverance and for pardon , for thy conduct and thy blessing . Keepe us O God from stormes and quicksands , from Pirats and Rocks , from error and impieties , from all evil contingencies and all evil actions ; let our voyage be safe to our persons and to our goods ; let it be blessed by thy providence and thy holy Spirit , that we may returne with comfort and with advantages of trade [ or successe ] and thy servants may glorify thee in the land of the living , in the church of the first-borne , the congregation of thy redeemed ones , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . II. In a storme , or danger of Pirates or Shipwrack . O Eternal and most holy Saviour Jesus , who in the daies of thy flesh and thy infirmity didst command the winds and rebuke the seas , and they obeyed thee ; and thou art now exalted farre above all principalities and powers , above all heavens and all Angels , and art the King of the world and the great Prince of the whole Creation ; and thou hast commanded us to come boldly to the throne of grace and hast promised we should find help in time of need ; looke downe upon thy servants , who in the abysse of the seas , and the abysse of our trouble , invocate the abysse of thy mercies ; speak peace unto our consciences , and command our enemies to be in peace with us , or to have no power against us ; rebuke the winds [ restrain the violent and injurious ] thou art our refuge ; be thou therefore our defence and our security , and rescue us from the present danger ; we know O God that the Devil is a great prince and rules in the aire , and in the hearts of the children of disobedience ; but thou art the King & Lord over him and all princes of the world ; thou art the prince of Spirits and restrainest the Spirits of princes , let not the enemy of mankind execute his cruel envy against us ; nor any of the elements nor any of his instruments be able to doe us any violence . III. O refuse not to heare the prayers , and to consider the cries , and to behold and pity the neede of them that call upon thee , that put their trust in thee , that have laid up all their hopes in thee and thy infinite and eternall goodnesse : we have no strengths of our owne ; but thou art our confidence ; be thou also our portion and our guide , our defence and our shield , a star in the night , and a covering by day : Strengthen our faith O God and increase our hope ; that in the greatest danger we may against hope beleive in hope , and with faith and love expect the salvation of the Lord , and may find thy goodnesse rescuing us from this present feare , and defending us in all our difficulties , and sanctifying every accident , and sweetning every event of providence , and consigning us bythese blessings to a finall delivery from all our sins , and from the evils which our sins deserve ; to the glory of God , to the salvation of our soules in thy day , in thy glorious day O Eternal and most holy Saviour and Redeemer Jesus . Amen . The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ , &c. A forme of prayer and blessing to be used over him that in the beginning of a journey by Land or Sea begs the prayers of the Minister of the Church . The Prayer . O Almighty God , most gracious and most merciful , who art a God afar off as well as nigh at hand , and hast sent thy Ministring Angels to Minister good to them that shall be heires of salvation ; be thou pleased to send thy holy Angel before this thy servant N. to defend him from the heat of the day , and the cold of the night , from the arrow that flies at noone , and the evil spirits that walke in darknesse , from errors & falls , from precipices and fracture of bones , from [ pirates and ] robbers , from evil intentions and evil accidents , from violent weather and violent feares , from all impressions of evil men , and evil spirits ; let this journey be safe and usefull to thy servant , comfortable to his relatives , holinesse to the Lord , and glory to thy name through Jesus Christ our Lord. The Blessing . THe Lord blesse thee and keepe thee ; the Lord make his face to shine upon thee , and be gracious unto thee : He keepe thee from all evil by the custody of Angels , and lead thee into all good by the conduct of his good Spirit . Amen . Let the providence and love of God be thy defence and thy security , his grace be thy portion , his service thy imployment : He goe in and out before thee , and keepe thee in all thy wayes , and lead thee in all his . He bring thee back againe in peace and safety , and prosper all thy innocent and holy purpofes ; and when the few and evil daies of thy pilgrimage are ended , he of his infinite mercy bring thee to the regions of holinesse and eternal peace through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . I. A prayer to be used in behalfe of Fooles , or Changelings . O Eternal and most blessed Saviour Jesus ; who art the wisedome of the Father , and art made unto us wisedome , righteousnesse , sanctification and Redemption , have pity upon the miserable people to whom thou hast given life and no understanding . Thou didst create us of nothing , and gavest us being when we were not , and createdst in us capacity of blessings when we had none , and gavest us many when we did not understand them ; thou bringest infants from the wombe , and from the state of nature to the state of grace , and from their mothers breasts thou doest often convey them to the bosome of Jesus , and yet they doe nothing , but thou art glorified in thy free gift . O be gracious to all Natural fooles and innocents ; for thou hatest nothing which thou hast made , and lovest every soule which thou hast redeemed ; we that have reason can deserve heaven no more then these can : but these doe not deserve hell so much as we have done . Impute not to them their follies that are unavoidable , nor the sins which they discerne not , nor the evils which they cannot understand ; keepe them from all evil and sad mischances , and make supply of their want of the defences of reason by the special guard of Angels and let thy obedience and thy sufferings be accepted , and thy intercession prevaile for them : that since they cannot glorify thee by a free obedience , thou mayest be glorified by thy free mercies to them ; and for their destitution of good in this world let them receive eternal blessings in the world to come through thy mercies O eternal and most Blessed Saviour Jesus . Amen . II. A prayer for Madmen . ALmighty God whose wisedome is infinite , whose mercy is eternal , whose tranquillity is essential , and whose goodnesse hath no shore ; In judgement remember mercy , and doe thou delight to magnify thy mercy upon them who need it but cannot aske it ; who are in misery but feele it not ; who doe actions without choice , and choose without discretion and sober understanding . Pity the evil they suffer , and pardon the evils that they have done , and impute not unto them the evils which they rather beare then act ; and let not their entry into this calamity be an exclusion from their future pardon ; but let this sad calamity and judgement which they beare be united to the sufferings of our Lord , and be sanctified by his intercession , and become an instrument of their peace . Lord restore them to their health and understanding ; take from them all violent passions , and remove all evil objects far from their eyes and eares ; create a cleane heart , and renew a right Spirit in them : Give them sober thoughts and meeke Spirits , contempt of the world , and love of holy things ; suffer them not to doe violence to any man , and let no man doe violence to them : let them be safe under the conduct of thy providence , and the publick lawes : and be innocent under the conduct of thy holy Spirit ; that when thou shalt returne and speake peace to thy people , they may rejoyce in thy mercies and salvation ; thou didst O God shew mercy to Nebuchadnezar & gavest to him the heart of a man after he had sin'd and fallen into the lot of beasts and wildnesse ; and thy hand is not shortned that thou canst not helpe ; but let thy mercies and loving kindnesse returne upon thy servants as at first , that thou mayest rejoyce in thy mercies and salvation ; because thou hast pleasure in the prosperity of thy Servants . Grant this Almighty God and Father , for Jesus Christ his sake our Lord and dearest Saviour . Amen . III. A prayer in behalfe of Hereticks and seduced persons . O Most blessed , most Gracious Saviour Jesus , who art the way and the truth and the life , thou art a light to them that sit in darkenesse , the light that lightneth every man that commeth into the world ; preserve thy Church in peace and truth , in love and holinesse to thy second comming : Reduce every misbeleiver to the fold of thy Church ; instruct every ignorant person in the wayes of Godly wisedome ; subdue the pride of man , and bring every understanding to the obedience of thy sacred law . Let no mans vanity or ignorance divide the church , let not any holy truth be sullied with the mixture of impure and heretical doctrines ; nor evil principles disorder the beauties of religion and godly living ; nor any doctrines of men be taught as the commandement of God ; but grant that the truth of God may be publikely maintained , constantly taught , hūbly beleived , zealously practized by all men in their several stations : that in the church of God there be no contention but in giving honour to each other , and glory to God in all the wayes of faith and charity through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . II. Blesse the ministery of thy holy word in its ordinary dispensation ; grant it may prevaile mightily for the convincing of them that have no faith , for the reprooving of the errors of them whose faith is not pure ; for the confirming them who are weake in faith ; for the perfecting them who are novices in faith ; open the hearts of all gainsayers , take from them all their prejudices and all their passions , their secular interests and confident opinions , that they may humbly and meekely attend to the voice of God in the mouths of thy servants , in the pages of scripture , in the doctrines of the Spirit ; that they may doe nothing against the truth but for the truth ; that they may not quench the Spirit , nor despise prophecying , nor shut their eyes against the light , and their hearts against the love of God : but grant that in all things being obedient to the heavenly calling , they may receive the blessings of truth and peace in this world , and in the world to come , exalting the kingdome , and partaking the glories of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen . These three last prayers are to be used upon any of the great Festivals of the yeare ; especially Easter day : Ascension day ; Whitsunday ; and upon 8 dayes after these Festivals : or upon good Friday . Prayers and Psalmes to be used by the Minister and Curate of Soules at the Visitation of the sick . In the Name of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus . Our Father which art in Heaven , &c. Minister . O God make speed to save us . Answer . O Lord make hast to helpe us . * Glory be to the Father &c. ¶ As it was in the beginning &c. Then recite this Psalme . * REbuke me not O Lord in thine anger , neither correct me in thy heavy displeasure . ¶ Have mercy upon me O Lord , for I am weake : O Lord heate me , for my bones are vexed . * My soule is also sore troubled : but Lord how long wilt thou punish me ! ¶ Turne thee O Lord and deliver my soule : O save me for thy mercies sake . * For in death no man remembreth thee : and who will give thee thankes in the pit ? ¶ Shall the dust give thankes unto thee ? or shall men declare thy truth in the grave , in the land where all things are forgotten ? * My time is in thy hand , O let me not be confounded : shew thy servant the light of thy countenance , and save me for thy mercy sake . ¶ My life is waxen weake with sorrow , and my yeares are consum'd in mourning . * Mine eye is consum'd with very heavinesse : and my strength faileth me because of mine iniquity . ¶ For thine arrowes stick fast in me , and thy hand presseth me sore . * There is no health in my flesh because of thy displeasure : neither is there any rest in my bones by reason of my sins . ¶ For my wickednesses are gone over mine head ; and are like a sore burden too heavy for me to beare . * But I will confesse my wickednesse and be sorry for my sin . ¶ Against thee have I sinned and done evil in thy sight : that thou mightest be justified in thy saying , and cleare when thou art judged . * O give me the comfort of thy helpe againe : cast me not away from thy presence ; and take not thy holy Spirit from me . ¶ Be thou my strong rock and the house of defence , that thou mayest save me : be thou also my guide & lead me for thy Names sake . * Into thy hand I commend my Spirit : for thou hast redeemed me O Lord thou God of truth . ¶ In God is my health and my glory : he is the rock of my might : in God is my trust . * Blessed is the man whom thou choosest and receivest unto thee : he shall dwell in thy court , and shall be satisfied with the pleasures of thy house , even of thy holy temple . ¶ O praise our God ye people : and make the voice of his praise to be heard : which holdeth our soule in life ; and suffereth not our feet to slip . Glory be to the Father &c. As it was in the beginning &c. Or this . * IN thee O Lord have I put my trust , let me never be put to confusion : deliver me in thy righteousnesse . ¶ Lord let me know mine end , and the number of my dayes : that I may be certified how long I have to live . * Behold thou hast made my dayes as it were a span long : and mine age is even as nothing in respect of thee : and verily every man living is altogether vanity . ¶ And now Lord what is my hope ? truly my hope is even in thee . * Deliver me from all mine offences : take thy plague away from me , I am even consumed by the means of thy heavy hand . ¶ When thou with rebukes doest chasten man for sin , thou makest his beauty to consume away like as it were a moth fretting a garment : every man therefore is but vanity . * Heare my prayer O Lord , and with thine eares consider my calling : hold not thy peace at my teares . ¶ For I am a stranger with thee and a sojourner ; as all my fathers were . * O spare me a little that I may recover my strength , before I goe hence and be no more seen . ¶ O Lord let it be thy pleasure to deliver me : make hast O Lord to helpe me . * O send out thy light and thy truth that they may lead me ; and bring me unto thy holy hill and to thy dwelling . ¶ Up Lord , why sleepest thou ? awake and be not absent from us for ever : hide not thy face from us , and forget not our misery and trouble . * For our soule is brought low , even unto the dust : our belly cleaveth unto the ground . ¶ Arise and helpe us ; and deliver us for thy mercies sake . * Glory be to the Father , &c. ¶ As it was in the beginning , &c. Then may the Minister read John XI . from the first verse to the 47. or else this short lesson Matthew 25. from verse 1 to the 14. THen the kingdome of heaven shall be likened unto ten virgins , which tooke their lamps , and went to meete the bridegrome . And five of them were wise , and five foolish . The foolish tooke their lamps , but tooke no oyle with them . But the wise tooke oyle in their vessels with their lampes . Now while the bridegrome tarryed long , all slumbred and slept . And at midnight there was a cry made , Behold , the bridegrome cometh : goe out to meet him . Then all those virgins arose , and trimmed their lamps . And the foolish said to the wise , Give us of your oyle , for our lamps are out . But the wise answered , saying , we feare left there will not be enough for us and you : but goe ye rather to them that sell , and buy for your selves . And when they went to buy , the bridegrome came : and they that were ready went in with him to the wedding , and the gate was shut . Afterwards came also the other virgins , saying , Lord Lord , open to us . But he answered , and said , verily I say unto you , I know you not . Watch therefore : for ye know neither the day nor the houre , when the Sonne of man will come . After the lesson as he sees occasion let him adde some discourse of his owne , short , and pertinent to the necessities of the sick person ; ever being careful that he doe him all his assistances , and call upon him to perfect that which can never be perfected but in this world , i. e. his repentance . Immediately after this exhortation ; or [ if it was done before , or is better reserv'd to another time , then immediately ] after the lesson , or the Psalme according to the discretion of him that ministers , and according to the circumstances of the sick man ; let him adde these prayers . Let us pray . I. A prayer for repentance . O Almighty God and most merciful Father , who delightest not in the death of a sinner , but that he be converted from his sin , and thou be turned from thine anger ; give unto thy servant a deepe contrition for his [ her ] sins , a perfect hatred of them , a timely and an intire dereliction of them ; grace to feare thee , and grace to love thee : powers to serve thee , and time and grace to finish all the worke of God which thy servant ought to doe ; that the soule of thy servant being washed white in the bloud of Jesus , may be justified by thy mercy , sanctified by thy Spirit , blessed by thy providence , saved by thy infinite and eternal goodnesse through Jesus Christ our Lord. II. For Patience and Ease . O Almighty and most gracious Saviour who didst suffer with meeknesse and patience those severe stripes of thy Fathers wrath which we did deserve but thou didst feele , and hast established with mankind a Covenant of faith and patience , a law of sufferings , making the way of the crosse to be the way of heaven : give to thy servant thy grace , that according to thy excellent example and holy commandement he may beare the burden of the Lord , with an even and a willing , an obedient and a loving Spirit . O let him never charge thee foolishly , nor murmure secretly , nor make too much hast ; but with faith and hope submit his body and soule to thy merciful and just dispensation ; that he may not discompose the duties of his repentance by a new sin , nor provoke thee to anger by his impatience , nor offend them who charitably minister to him , nor neglect the doing of any thing that can be in his power or in his duty , to his body or his soule . O God be mercifull unto thy servant and presse not him [ or her ] with an unequal load ; but remember that we are but flesh , and vanity , that we are crushed before the Moth , and die in thy displeasure : give him ease and rest , a quiet mind and a peacefull conscience : make thou all his bed in his sicknesse ; and deliver him not into the will of his Spiritual enemies : but glorify thy mercies , and make thy goodnesse illustrious upon thy servant through Jesus Christ our Lord. III. Against death , and the feare of it . O Eternal God who for the sin of man didst send death into the world , and by the Resurrection of thy holy Son , didst bring life to all beleivers ; have mercy upon this thy servant whom thou hast smitten with thy rod , and brought into the vally of teares , and the shadow of death ; O let not thy feirce anger goe beyond a fatherly correction : let this rod be discipline , not vengeance ; let it kill his sin , but not the man : but in judgement remember mercy ; take from thy servant all inordinate feare ; give him a present mind , a hopeful Spirit , a faithful heart , a perfectly repenting conscience , a charitable and a devout soule . Take from him the feare , and take from him the sentence of death ; preserve his life , and restore his health if that be best for him ; for to thy power we submit ; on thy goodnesse we doe depend , by thy wisedome we desire to be governed , and that thy love should choose for thy servant . But if thou hast otherwise decreed , O grant to thy servant the comforts of a holy hope , and the strengths of an unconquerable faith ; the constancy of an unmooved patience , and the meekenesse of a perfect resignation ; that to him to live may be Christ , and to die may be gaine ; that whether he lives or dies he may be thine through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . IV. For Pardon . O Most gracious and eternal Son of God , who onely hast power to forgive sins , and to rescue erring soules from the power of sin , and from the wrath of God , be gracious to● thy servant who confesses thy justice in his suffering , and begs to feele thy mercy in his pardon , and thy pity in his ease and restitution . Contend no longer with the miserable who confesses himselfe guilty : reject him not that begs for remission of his sins and remission of thy anger ; remember not the follies of his childhood , nor the vanities of his youth , the sins of his tongue , nor the sins of his anger ; the sins of desire , nor the innumerable breaches of charity ; his infinite omissions of duty , & the inexcusable actions of his choice . Thou hast glorified thy selfe in all generations of the world by giving pardon to the penitent , and ease to the afflicted , comfort to the comfortlesse and refreshment to the weary ; Behold O God the sorrowes of thy servant ; and remember his sins no more . Behold the passion and the paines which our blessed Lord suffered for our sins ; and let not the sins of thy servants cause thee to take another forfeiture , and produce another and an eternall anger : but spare thy servant in thy anger ; and remember him in thy mercy , and pity him in thy infinite compassion , and releive him with thy mighty grace , and deliver him from his sins , and bring him to thy glory , through Jesus Christ our Lord. V. If he be in or neere the agonies of death . O Blessed God thou lover of soules and the Saviour of thy servants , who gavest thy Son to die for us that we might live in him ; looke with mercy and great compassion upon the soule of thy servant for whom the Lord Jesus gave his precious bloud . Now O God is that sad period in which he is to be consign'd over to his final sentence ; now is the day of his great expence ; his needes of mercy are great as his sins , and great as his dangers , and great as all his enemies ; let him [ or her ] receive the fruit of all his labours , a blessed returne of all his prayers , the grace of thy promises , and the effect of all the sufferings of the holy Jesus : Now O God let him find the end of his hopes , and a just peace in his conscience , a spiritual communion with Christ , and the benefit of all his Passion , pardon of his sins , and the sweetest visitations of thy holy Spirit the comforter . Now let him feele the effect of thy mighty power and of thy glorious victory over sin and all the powers of darkenesse : let them have no portion in him ; and let thine angers end in comfort and pardon , in the visitation of Angels and the glorious appearing of thy holy Spirit . Now let him feele the truth of religion , and the substance of the things he hath hoped for ; the verification of thy promises , and the goodnesse of God ; let all the sermons of the Gospel passe into real exhibition of thy loving kindnesse ; and let thy servant rejoyce in the portions of the blessed , in the redemption of his soule , in the communion of Saints , in the society of the spirits of just men made perfect , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Then shall the Minister recommend the soule of the Dying man , if it be departing the body . I. O Most Blessed and most gracious Saviour Jesus , into thy holy hands we commend the soule of this our Brother [ or Sister ] praying thee to defend it from all evil , from the wrath of God which he hath deserved , from the evil Spirits of darkenesse which are ready to devoure it , from the flames of hell from whence nothing can rescue it but the mercies of God in our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen . II. Let thy holy Angels receive this soule from her prison and ruinous house of clay , and carry it to the region of loving and obedient soules in the bosome of Jesus , there with joy and longing , with the assurance of hope and a peaceful charity to expect the Resurrection of the just and the day of thy righteous judgement . Amen . III. O let not the Devils accuse this soule before thee , or if they doe let them not prevaile ; but interpose thy death and passion , thy mediation and intercession between thy judgement and this soule , now at her departure and at the day of judgement , that in the terrors of that day , this soule may stand upright , supported by the armes of thy eternal mercy . Amen . IV. Let not this soule carry along with her the infirmities of her present state , but be immur'd with a guard of loving and blessed Spirits to defend her against all the hostilities and incursions of all evil Angels . Now she shall see what she never saw , and heare what she never heard , and know what was never revealed below ; O grant that she may have aydes that her she never did neede , even mighty assistances in proportion to her new and strang erstate , that whatsoever is in the darkenesse or in the fire , in the secret regions of wrath , and the horrible places of torment and fearful exspectations may not afflict or affright the lambe of thy flock , the price of thy bloud , the child of thy kingdome , and the portion of thine owne inheritance . Amen . V. O sweetest Jesu say unto this soule This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise ; say unto this foule Feare not , for it is my Fathers pleasure to give thee a Kingdome ; Let this soule dwell in safe and pleasant regions ; and be supported with the hope of God , comforted with a holy conscience , rejoyce in a confirm'd pardon , be recreated with the visitation of Angels , and walke in white whithersoever the Lambe shall goe . Amen . VI. Give unto this decaying dying body a blessed and a glorious resurrection ; to this weary and afflicted , this penitent and redeemed soule a portion in the blessed sentence of the right hand amongst the blessed children of thy Father , who shall receive the Kingdome prepared for them from the beginning of the world . Amen . VII . Remember O God the good things which by thy grace and by the aides of thy holy Spirit thy servant hath done in all his life : and remember not his evil deedes which by the weakenesse of the flesh , and the temptations of the Devil , and the evil contingencies of this world have afflicted and humbled the soule of thy servant : remember thy holy Son did die for these ; and thy holy Spirit was the cause of those ; and for whom thou hast given thy Son , and to whom thou hast given thy Spirit , give thy eternal pardon , and thy eternal glories , thorough Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . After the soule is departed ; the Minister may say this prayer in behalfe of the living friends and relatives of the dead . ALmighty God who governest all things in heaven and earth with infinite wisedome and infinite mercy , and bringest good out of evil , comfort out of sorrow , and after a gentle visitation dost refresh thy children with the light of thy countenance , with the blessings of thy providence , with the returnes of thy grace , and the comforts of thy holy Spirit ; have mercy upon this family , and returne to them all with thy loving kindnesse , exchanging their present sorrow into the advantages of holinesse and blessing . Be thou now and ever what thou gloriest in ; a Father of the Fatherlesse , a Husband to the Widow , a God of comfort to them that mourn● in secret . Grant that thy servant may not weepe as men without hope , nor murmure at thy dispensation , nor complaine of any thing but themselves , nor desire any thing but that thy will be done , nor doe any thing but what is agreeable to thy holy word and commandement ; and grant that when thou smitest any of us it may increase thy feare in us , and when thou doest good to any of us in smiting or forbearing , in chastising or comforting , it may increase thy love in us : and let thy holy Spirit so prevail over all our wills and understandings , our affections and the outward man , our interests and our hopes , that we may live in this world pleasing to thee , and may goe out of this world with the peace of a holy conscience , and may have a joyful resurrection in the last day , to a participation of the glories of God thorough Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . The Blessing . THE Lord blesse you and keepe you ; the Lord make his face to shine upon you , and be gracious unto you . The Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon you and give you peace . The blessing of God Almighty , the Father , Son and holy Ghost , be amongst you and abide with you and be your portion for ever and ever . Amen . Prayers and devotions to be us'd at the Burial of the Dead . The Minister , before the Corps entring at the Church doore , may begin with one or more of these sentences . A Good name is better then precious ointment : and the day of death , then the day of ones birth . It is better to goe to the house of mourning , then to goe to the house of feasting : for that is the end of all men , and the living will lay it to his heart . I am the resurrection and the life saith the Lord : He that beleiveth in me , yea though he were dead , yet shall he live . And whosoever liveth and beleiveth in me shall not die for ever . It is appointed to all men once to die , and after death comes judgement . I would not have you to be ignorant concerning them which are asleepe that we sorrow not even as others without hope . For if we beleive that Jesus died and rose again , even so them also which sleepe in Jesus will God bring with him . After the Corps is set downe in the body of the Church ; let Morning or Evening prayer be read according to the time of the day , with this difference onely . Instead of the usual Psalmes , Read Psalme 39. Psalme 49. Psalme 90. For the first lesson read Job 14. or 19. After the first lesson read Psalme 88. For the second lesson read 1 Corinth . 15. from verse 12 to the end . After the second lesson read [ Nunc dimittis . * LOrd now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word : ¶ For mine eyes have seen thy salvation . * Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people . ¶ To be a light to lighten the Gentiles and to be the glory of thy people Israel . Glory be to the Father &c. As it was in the beginning &c. After the usual prayers are done ; then the Corps carried being to the grave , the Minister shall read this lesson . Ecclesiastes 12. REmember now thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth , while the evil daies come not , nor the yeers draw nigh , when thou shalt say , I have no pleasure in them . While the sun , or the light , or the moon , or the stars be not darkned , nor the clouds return after the rain : In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble , and the strong men shall bow themselves , and the grinders cease , because they are few , and those that look out of the windows be darkned . And the doors shall be shut in the streets , when the sound of the grinding is low , and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird , and all the daughters of musick shall be brought low . Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high , and feares shall be in the way , and the almond-tree shall flourish , and the grashopper shall be a burden , and desire shall fail ; because man goeth to his long home , and the mourners go about the streets : Or ever the silver cord be loosed , or the golden bowle be broken , or the pitcher be broken at the fountain , or the wheel broken at the cistern . Then shall the dust retrun to the earth as it was : and the spirit shall returne unto God who gave it . People . Blessed be God. The Minister while they are preparing to interre the Corps shall say this Psalme . * THE wicked is driven away in his wickednesse : but the righteous hath hope in his death . ¶ I said in the cutting off of my daies : I shall goe to the gates of the grave ; I am deprived of the residue of my yeares . * I said I shall not see the Lord , even the Lord in the land of the living : I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world . ¶ I have set the Lord alwaies before me : because he is at my right hand , I shall not be mooved . * Therefore my heart is glad , and my glory rejoyceth : my flesh also shall rest in hope . ¶ For thou wilt not leave my soule in hell : neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption . * As for me , I will behold thy face in righteousnesse : when I awake with thy likenesse I shall be satisfied . ¶ Thou wilt shew me the path of life : in thy presence is the fulnesse of joy , and at thy right hand there is pleasure for evermore . * Glory be to the Father &c. ¶ As it was in the beginning &c. When the Corps is in the grave the Minister shall say Forasmuch as it hath pleas'd Almighty God to take to himselfe the soule of our deare brother here departed ; we lay his body in the ground ; for out of it was it taken ; dust it is , & unto dust it does return , but we lay it downe in a sure and certain hope of the resurrection from the grave . For the Lord himselfe shall descend from heaven with a shout , with the voice of the Archangel , and with the trump of God : and the dead in Christ shall rise first , then those which are alive and remaine shall be caught up together with them in the clouds , to meet the Lord in the aire : and so shall we be ever with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words . Let us pray . * Lord have mercy upon us . ¶ Christ have mercy upon us . * Lord have mercy upon us . Our Father which art in Heaven &c. I. O Almighty God with whom doe live the spirits of the just men made perfect , we give thee humble thankes that thou hast delivered the soule of thy servant N. N. from the calamities of this life ; putting a period to his sin and to his paines ; O be pleased shortly to fill up the numbers of thine elect , and hasten thy kingdome ; and to us thy servants grant that we may die to sin and live to righteousnesse , living a holy and a gracious life , peaceable and blessed , that when we have served thee in our generations we may die the death of the righteous , leaving a good name and a faire example behind , and our good workes may follow us ; that being holy in our lives we may be blessed in our death , and with this thy servant , and all other departed in thy love and feare , may lie in the bosome of our Lord , till by the trump of God we shall be awakened in the resurrection of the just , to reigne with thee in thy Kingdome through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . II. O most blessed Saviour Jesus who art the resurrection and the life , and in whose sight the death of thy saints is precious , looke upon us thy servants whose life is vanity , and our dayes passe away like a tale that it told , and as the remembrance of a passenger that stayeth but a night ; the dayes of our pilgrimage are few and evil , and we disquiet our selves in vaine : O looke upon us with a gracious eye ; give us thy holy Spirit of wisedome and peace to guide us in the wayes of God , that our affections and our conversation being in heaven ; and being weaned from this world we may die daily , and every day be doing good ; that laying up a treasure of good workes , we may rejoyce in the day of our death , and may be freed from the terrors of the day of judgement , and the gates of hell may not prevail against us . O preserve us from that eternal wrath which shall destroy all thine enemies , and let our portion be with the charitable and the merciful , on the right hand of the Father , where thou sittest and reignest in the glory of God to eternal ages world without end Amen . If it be opportune , then here may be added one of the prayers [ for a blessed death ] at the end of Evening prayer throughout the yeare : ending with the usual benediction . The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ &c. A forme of Devotion TO Be used and said in the daies OF Sorrow and Affliction . A forme of Devotion to be used and said , in the daies of Sorrow and Affliction of a family or of private persons . In the name of the Father , the Son and the Holy Ghost . Our Father , &c. O God make speed to save us . O Lord make hast to helpe us . Glory be to the Father , &c. As it was in the beginning &c. The Psalme . HIde not thyface far from me O Lord , put not thy servant away in anger : thou hast been my helpe , leave me not neither forsake me , O God of my salvation . ¶ O my God , I cry in the day time , but thou hearest not , and in the night season I am not silent . * But thou art holy , O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel . ¶ Our Father trusted in thee , they trusted in thee and thou didst deliver them . * But I am a worme , and no man : smitten of thee Lord , afflicted , tormented , forsaken . ¶ Thou hast filled me with bitternesse , and hast made me drunken with worm-wood , thou hast remooved my soule far off from peace , and I have forgotten prosperity . * But O God thou art my God , early will I seek thee , be not thou far from me O Lord , O my strength hast thee to help me . ¶ I acknowledge my sin unto thee , and mine iniquity have I not hid , I will confesse my transgressions unto the Lord , O doe thou forgive the iniquity of my sin . * Thou art my hiding place , thou shalt preserve me from trouble : thou shalt compasse me about with songs of deliverance . ¶ Lord make me to know my end , and the measure of my daies , what it is , that I may know how fraile I am . * Behold thou hast made my daies as an hand breadth , and mine age is as nothing before thee : verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity . ¶ And now O Lord what wait I for ! Surely my hope is in thee . * Deliver me from all my transgressions , remove thy stroke away from me ; I am even consumed by the blow of thy hand . ¶ When thou with rebukes dost chasten man for iniquity , thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moath ; Surely every man is vanity . * Hear my prayer O Lord and give eare unto my cry , hold not thy peace at my teares : For I am a stranger with thee , and a sojourner as all my Fathers were . ¶ O spare me a little , that I may recover my strength , before I goe hence and be no more seen . * Let all those that seek thee , rejoyce and be glad in thee : Let such as love thy salvation say continually , The Lord be magnified . ¶ But I am poor and needy , yet the Lord careth for me : thou art my helpe and my deliverer , make no tarrying O my God. Amen . Amen . Amen . Then Read , The second Chapter of Ecclesiasticus . or The sixt Chapter of S. Matthews Gospel . or The twelfth Chapter to the Romans . or The 5 Chapter of the 2 d Epistle to the Thessalonians . or The 1 of Timothy the 6. Chapter . or Hebrews 12. or James 5 th . These at several times . After the chapter is read ; sit still a while and consider of such comforts , or instructions as are in the chapter fitted to your needs . If this office be said by a Minister in the company of the afflicted person ; then he may adde such useful and comfortable discourses as are occasion'd by the chapter , and then say the following Collect. After meditation or discourse , humbly kneel down , and pray . I. An act of Repentance . O My God and Father , in vaine doe we beg to have thy heavy hand taken from us , so long as the cause remaines : Our sins , O God , our sins are so great , so numerous , so intolerable , that we must needs with shame hide our face , and confesse we have deserved all the evill that we suffer , and all that which thou hast threatned : we have O God more to give thee thanks for , then we have to deplore . It is thy infinite mercy that we are yet kept from feeling thy severest judgements . It is thy mercy that we have our senses and our understandings ; that we have the use of thy word and sacraments ; that we have not intolerable pains of body , and unsufferable troubles in our mind ; It is thy blessing that we have bread , that we have many friends , that we have the praiers of thy faithfull servants ; that we have faith in thee , and that we have hope . It is thy infinite mercy , that are we yet kept from the unsufferable pains of hell , & are permitted to pray to thee , to relie upon thy mercies , to worke out our salvation , and to expect thy loving kindnesse in the Land of the living . II. All the evils that we suffer , we have deserved , but nothing of this good have we deserved ; we are lesse then the least of all thy mercies ; and our sins are greater then the greatest of all our sufferings . * And now O God thou who hast so mercifully dealt with thy servants in taking a lesse fine of us , then in justice thou mightest have exacted , be pleased also to proceed in the methods of thy mercy ; and make our present sufferings be instrumental of thy glory , of the pardon of our sins , of the sanctifications of our Spirits , of the humiliation of our soules , that like silver tried in the fire , we may come forth more pure , vessels of honour , pleasing and acceptable to thee in Jesus Christ. II. An act of patience and resignation . WEE know O God that thou art infinietly wise and infinitely good , and thou disposest all the events of thy creatures of excellent purposes , and delightest to bring good out of evill . Behold O God we are thy servants , and thy creatures , do to us as seemeth good in thine eyes , onely give us patience , and a long suffering Spirit , that we may not murmure secretly when we complaine openly ; that we may not make hast in the day of our calamity , but with a quiet spirit expect and wait for the time of our redemption . But make no long tarrying O Lord , make hast to helpe us , O God of our salvation ; and be pleased to give us a light from heaven , that with the eye of faith , we may see beyond the cloud , and looke for those comforts which thou didst prepare for thy servants that love thee and put their trust in thee , and have laid up all their hopes in the bosome of God. IV. An act of hope . O God our God , thou hast said unto us , I will never leave you nor forsake you ; thou hast often eased our calamities , and taken off thy severe hand , thou hast promised to be with us in time of need , thou delightest to deliver them whose confidence is in thy goodnesse . Thou hast supported our spirits in the day of our sorrow , and hast given us many intervals , and spaces of refreshment , and renewest thy loving kindnesse day by day : O let us never have our portion amongst the hopelesse and desperate . Let us alwaies pray to thee , and hope in thee , and in every period of our affliction let us doe some actions of virtue , by which we may please thee , and be accepted so long as we can pray . Thou hast commanded us to hope , and we doe hope that these comforts shall refresh our soules , that thy mercies will support us under our afflictions , that thy Spirit shall comfort us in it , and thy grace and thy glorious providence shall speedily deliver us from it . Amen Blessed Jesu , Amen . V. The Petition . ANd now O most mercifull Father , give thy servants admittance to present our complaint before the throne of grace , and let our petition enter into thy presence : thy arrows stick fast in us , and thy hand presseth us sore : Open thy heart , the treasure and spring of mercie , and thence let comforts and refreshments descend upon thy servants . Put a blessed period to our sorrows , but first put a stop to our sins ; let us not sin against thee , when for sinne thou art smiting us ; Let us never charge thee foolishly , nor behave our selves peevishly towards others , but use all the means we can to ease their sorrows , to lighten their burdens , to sweeten their lives , that so we may expect from thy goodnesse a more plentifull and abundant measure of loving kindnesse . VI. Lord put a barr and stop unto our passions ; make them to be humble ministers of religion [ and prudent government ] but never let us suffer any violent transportations in our selves , never be provoked to any bitternesse , never to be harsh or cruell towards any , never to speak any thing peevishly and undecently , never to put too much upon any temporall interest ; In all things let us behold thy providence , and reverence thy justice , and adore thy majesty , and feel thy mercy , and obey thy Spirit ; and if thou shalt still persevere to smite us , and to try thy servants , let not thy punishing us ever cause us to sin against thee . Let not our own follies be our scourges , lest we sin against thee , and loose thy blessing for ever . VII . Be pleased O my God , to adde this favour unto thy servants , that our trouble may not be doubled or increase by our own infirmities : take from us all troublesome fancies and too quick apprehensions of our sorrows ; Blessed be thy Name , they are finite , and they are temporall sorrows , they are lesse then our sins , and they are lesse then thy mercies ; Give me grace to despise the world , and all its interests and possessions , that while we set not our affections upon them , we may not be too much afflicted , when we are crossed in them ; but let our great care be to please thee , our greatest fears , least we should sin against thee ; let our dutie be our imployment , thy providence our portion , thy Spirit our guide , thy law our rule : That when this cloud is passed over , we may see the brightnesse of thy face , and perpetual showers of grace and mercy , refreshing our sad and weary spirits : so shall thy servants sing praises to the honour of thy Name , when thou shalt have saved our soules from death , our eyes from teares , and our feet from falling : grant these mercies O blessed God , and Father , for Jesus Christ his sake our dearest Lord and Saviour . Amen . A private prayer to be said by or for a person ( mutatis mutandis ) apt to be afflicted with feare of death or Gods anger , and the uncertaine state of his , of her soule . O Eternal God most gracious Father , in much mercy & compassion behold me thy servant loaden with my sins , encompassed with infirmity , assaulted by enemies without , and apt to be betrayed by my owne weaknesses within . If I am cheerfull , I am apt to be carelesse of my dutie , If I am sad , I am timorous and unsafe , too ready to distrust thee , and to sinke under the burden of those calamities which by my sins I have deserved . O God I confesse with sorrow and shame , that I resolve often to give my selfe intirely to thy service , but I am so perpetually beaten with the violent tempests and stormes of passion , that all my hopes and all my feares grow unactive and uselesse and are overcome by them , and sinke under my owne evil customes and infirmities . [ Lust , Pride , Ambition , Anger , ] And under this state of infelicity I groane and labour , and to thee I humbly make my complaint ; for thou art my hope and my strength , my rock and my might , my Saviour and defender , my support and my deliverer . O hear the saddest cries of thy humble and afflicted servant , and give me ease from my greatest sorrowes : Give me a cheerfull heart , and a severe spirit , a love of thy mercies , and a trembling at thy judgements , an infinite desire to please thee , and a great fear to offend thee ; and though I humbly desire of thy glorious goodnesse , to secure and promote my eternall interest by what instruments thou pleasest , yet because thou art my Father and my mercifull God , I begg of thy infinite goodnesse to take care of my infirmities , and to pity my weaknesses ; and make my religion to be to me the pleasantest thing in the world : that nothing may tempt me from thee , and prevaile in the daies of my weaknesses and disadvantage . II. O Blessed God be pleas'd to give me a perfect repentance for all my sins ; and admit me to a full pardon , and not onely so , but if it be thy gracious will consigne this my pardon by some testimony from heaven , by a holy and humble hope , by a strong faith , and a cheerfull spirit , by joy in God , and a command over my passions , by meeknesse and charity , by forgiving every one that troubles me , and every one that offends me . O God my God give to thy servant an excellent religion , and a devout spirit , and grant that I may take great pleasure in the service of God , in obedience to my spirituall superiors , in doing the works of that dutie to which thou hast called me in my present state of life ; and never suffer me to fall into a despairing or an amazed conscience , into the evils of a tedious or impatient , a wounded or an afflicted spirit : but grant that rejoycing in thee evermore and delighting in doing my dutie , in mortifying my passions , in loving and serving my dearest Relations , I may be preserved in thy fear and thy favour , and nothing may be able to separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus . Amen . III. O my deareft Saviour take from thy servant all inordinate fear of death , and give me a great desire after heaven and heavenly things : and when thou shalt call me from this world , conduct me by the graces and comforts of thy Holy Spirit evenly and holily , certainly and cheerfully , to the regions of hope and joy , that in thy armes I may expect and long for the day of recompences and of thy glorious appearing . O God hear the prayer and most passionate desires of thy servant : and since thou hast commanded us in the time of need to come with boldnesse to the throne of grace , grant that I may be accepted by thy mercies and loving kindnesse , through the merits and intercession of my Lord , in whom I desire to live , and for whom I will not refuse to die , our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus , to whom with thee O blessed Father and most Holy Spirit , I humbly give all honour and thankes , and glory , and love and service , and desire to doe so for ever . Amen . A forme or prayer of Thanksgiving . The Preface , to the following office . Since it hath pleased God to heare our prayers and to give us the blessing we now feele and rejoyce in , [ the blessing of Peace , Health , Plenty , Victory &c. ] let us faithfully and devoutly give thankes unto God for his great benefit and grace ; and say , Psalmes Eucharistical or of thanksgiving , upon special times of festivity : to be added to any of the foregoing offices : or to be said distinctly After a plentifull Harvest . Our Father which art in Heaven , &c. * O Be joyful in God all ye lands : sing praises unto the honour of his Name , make his praise to be glorious . ¶ O come hither and behold the works of God , how wonderful he is in his doing toward the children of men . * Thou visitest the earth and blessest it , thou makest it very plenteous . ¶ Thou waterest her furrowes , thou sendest raine into the little vallies thereof : thou makest it soft with the drops of raine and blessest the increase of it . * Thou crownest the yeare with thy goodnesse : and thy clouds drop fatnesse . ¶ They shall drop upon the dwellings of the wildernesse : and the little hils shall rejoyce on every side . * The folds shall be full of sheepe , the vallies also shall stand so thick with corne , that they shall laugh and sing . ¶ Praised be God which hath not cast out our prayer , nor turned his mercy from us . * Let us now feare the Lord our God that giveth raine , both the former and the latter raine in his season : ¶ He reserveth unto us the appointed weekes of the harvest . * Lord what is man that thou hast respect unto him ! or the Son of man that thou so regardest him ! ¶ The eyes of all waite upon the O Lord , and thou givest them their meat in due season . * Thou openest thine hand : and fillest all things living with plenteousnesse . ¶ The Lord is righteous in all his wayes , and holy in all his workers . * The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him : yea all such as call upon him faithfully . ¶ He will fulfill the desire of them that fear him : he also will hear their cry and will help them . * That our sons may grow up as the young plants : and that our daughters may be as the polished corners of the Temple . ¶ That our garners may be full and plenteous with all manner of store : that our sheep may bring forth thousands , and ten thousands in our streets . * That our oxen may be strong to labour ; that there be no decay ; no leading into captivity , and no complaining in our streets . ¶ Happy are the people that be in such a case ; yea blessed be the people which have the Lord for their God. Glory be to the Father &c. As it was in the beginning &c. II. After recovery of a City , family or single person from the Plague , or any great sicknesse . * O Come hither and hearken all ye that fear God ; & I will tell you what he hath done for my soule . ¶ I called unto him with my mouth , and gave him praises with my tongue : O Lord my God I cried unto thee and thou hast healed me . * Thou Lord hast brought my soule out of Hell : thou hast kept my life from them that goe downe to the pit . ¶ O what great troubles and adversities hast thou shewed me , and yet didst thou turne and refresh me ! yea and broughtest me from the deepe of the earth againe . * Sing praises unto the Lord , O ye saints of his , and give thankes unto him for the remembrance of his holinesse . ¶ For his wrath endureth but the twinkling of an eye , and in his pleasure is life : heavinesse may endure for a night , but joy commeth in the morning . * Praised be the Lord daily , even the God which helpeth us and powreth his benefits upon us . ¶ He is our God , even the God of whom commeth salvation : God is the Lord by whom we escape death . * I will be glad and rejoyce in thy mercy : for thou hast considered my trouble , and hast knowen my soule in adversity . ¶ Thou hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy : but hast set my feet in a large roome . * Thou hast turned my heavinesse into joy ; thou hast put off my sackcloth , and girded me with gladnesse . ¶ Therefore shall every good man sing of thy praises without ceasing : O my God I will give thankes unto thee for ever . Glory be to the Father &c. As it was in the beginning &c. III. After a victory , or the prosperous ending of a Warre . BLessed be the Lord my strength , which teacheth my hands to warre and my fingers to fight . ¶ My hope and my fortresse , my castle and deliverer , my defender in whom I turst , which subdueth my people that is under me . * When my spirit was in heavinesse thou knewest my path : in the way wherein I walked had they privily laid a snare for me . ¶ I cried unto the Lord and said , Thou art my hope and my portion in the land of the living . ¶ Thou didst send downe thine hand from above : thou didst deliver me and take me out of the great waters , from the hand of strange children . ¶ Thou hast given victory unto Kings , and hast delivered David thy servant from the perill of the sword . * For I know that the Lord is great , and that our Lord in above all Gods. ¶ Whatsoever that Lord pleased , that did he in heaven and in earth , in the sea and in all deep places . * The Lord is on my side ; I will not feare what man doth unto me : ¶ The Lord taketh my part with them that helpe me : therefore shall I fee my desire upon mine enemies . * It is better to trust in the Lord , then to put any confidence in man. ¶ It is better to trust in the Lord , then to put any cofidence in princes . * The Lord is my strength and my song : and is become my salvation . ¶ The voice of joy and health is in the dwellings of the righteous : The right hand of the Lord bringeth mighty things to pass . * The right hand of the Lord hath the preheminence : the right hand of the Lord bringeth mighty things to pass . ¶ He maketh warrs to cease in all the world : he breaketh the bow and knappeth the speare in sunder , and burneth the chariots in the fire . * Behold how good and joyfull a thing it is ; brethren to dwell together in Unity . ¶ It is like the precious ointment upon the head that ran downe unto the beard , even unto Aarons beard , and went downe to the skirts of his clothing . * For there the Lord promised his blessing , and life for evermore . ¶ The Lord liveth , and blessed be my strong helper : and praised be the God of my salvation . * Glory be to the Father &c. ¶ As it was in the beginning &c. If there be any other occasion , instead of these use Te Deum Laudamus , &c. After each of these Eucharistical Psalmes , shall be added as followeth . Minister . Lift up your hearts . Answer . We lift them up unto the Lord. Minister . Let us give thankes unto the Lord our God. Answer . It is meet and right so to doe . Minister . I. IT is very meet , right and our bounden duty that we should at all times and in all places give thanks and praise , honour and adoration , love and duty to thee O Lord God , the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort ; who hast knowne our soule in adversity , and delivered us from the evil we have deserved , and hast given us good things we deserved not : we confesse O God that we are lesse then the least of all thy mercies ; but thy immense thy unlimited goodnesse and loving kindnesse rejoyces in doing us good , in preserving us from evil , in heaping thy benefits upon us , in giving to us witnesse from heaven [ in feeding our hearts with food and gladnesse : ] in delivering us from our enemies : [ in snatching us from the power of the grave ] in commanding thy destroying Angel to hurt us not ] Holy Jesus , Blessed be God. II. We are thy servants and thy children ; we are all thine ; and have no interest but thy service ; thou art our God , and all our hopes are laid up in thee : Thou art gracious when thou smitest us ; but we cannot expresse thy infinite sweetness when thou releivest our necessity , when thou sustainest our sorrowes , when thou dost deliver us from thy wrath , when thou hearest our prayers , when thou powrest thy benefits upon us . O give unto thy servants thankfull hearts , obedient and loving Spirits , carefulnesse of duty , charity and humility , zeale of thy glory , submission to thy divine will and pleasure ; that serving thee with all our powers , loving thee with all our faculties , obeying thee in al instances , delighting in thee in all dispensations , we may be conducted thorough all varieties of providence , and defended in all temptations of our enemies , and releived in all the necessities of our life , and assisted in all particulars of duty , that so we may passe through this valley of teares in peace and meeknesse , in faith and charity , with the confidence of a holy hope , and in the strength of thy righteous promises , to the fruition of those mercies which are the portion of willing and obedient soules , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . The great penitential Letanies ; To be said according to the discretion of him that ministers : especially in the time of Lent ; and upon solemn Fasting daies . O Blessed God Father of mercies who hast sent thy Son to redeeme us from sin and wrath , have mercy upon us rebellious and perishing children , lost and miserable sinners . O Blessed Saviour Jesus who wert the price of lost mankind , and gavest thy selfe a sacrifice for our sins , have mercy upon miserable and lost , but sorrowful and returning sinners . O Blessed Spirit of the Father who didst come into the world to sanctify and to teach , to illuminate and to guide it , have mercy upon us foolish and ignorant , lost and miserable sinners . O most Blessed and Mysterious Trinity , God the Fathers , Son and holy Spirit , have mercy upon us perishing and miserable sinners . 1. Pardon O God the vanities of our childhood , and the sins of our youth , our backward and dull ignorance , our forward and active malice , our early sins and slow repentances , our hastinesse to all evil , and our unwillingnesse to all good things whatsoever . If thou Lord wilt be extreme to marke what is done amisse , O Lord who may abide it ? 2. O God of mercy pardon our want of discipline , our aversenesse to learne good things , our desires of evil , the first insinuations of sin , our morose delectation in vaine thoughts , our pleasure in evil remembrances , our entertaining little images of sin , our love of the temptation , our fondnesse after trifles , our want of love and want of understanding of the things of God. Cast us not away from thy presence and take not thy holy Spirit from us . 3. O God of mercy , pardon the infinite number of our foolish thoughts and voluptuous desires , our proud imaginations & phantastick pleasures , our secret deliciousnesse in what thou hast forbidden , our desires to die , our contempt and neglect of life ; our foolish contrivances and trifling purposes , our ridiculous designes and unreasonable intentions . Turne thy face from our sins O Lord and put out all our misdeeds . 4. O God of mercy pardon the infinite omissions of our duty ; our seldome prayers and frequent wandring of our head and heart ; our foolish arts to cosen our selves and to cheat our soules of duty and reward ; our wicked rejoycings when we were forc'd to omit our devotion , and our listlesse manner of attending to them ; our dulnesse in hearing , our deadnesse in observing ; our excuses and pretences , our wearinesse of body and tediousnesse of Spirit , our dulnesse and sleepinesse , our seldome reading and more seldome meditating , our losse of many opportunities of receiving the holy Communion , and our making use of all opportunities of pleasure and vanity . But there is mercy with thee , therefore shalt thou be feared . 5. O God of mercy pardon all the sins of our proud and prejudicate understandings , our wilful ignorance and voluntary neglect of the instruments of salvation , the weaknesse & imperfection of our faith , and our trifling notices of things , our distrust of thee and our confidence in the creatures , our superstitious fancies and foolish opinions , our weake conjectures and easinesse to beleive , our suspicions and jealousies of thee , and our wicked sentences and evil reportings concerning thy actions and thy attributes , our relying upon dreames , and our not relying upon thy world , our love of being abus'd in our perswasions , and our beleiving doctrines for interest and passion , our weake inquiries and confident opinions , our doubtings & trepidations in the day of temptations , and our unreasonable confidences , boastings and presumptions when we are properous , easy and untempted . Lord be merciful to our sins for they are very many . 6. O God of mercy pardon the sins of our will ; our violent prosecutions of pleasure , and our hatings of religion , our unwillingnesse to please thee , and our fiercenesse of desire to please our selves ; our unwillingnesse to submit to thylawes & to the events of thy providence , our disobedience to revelations , to the advices of the wise and the discourses of the learned , to the voice of God and the lessons of the Spirit , our unreasonable choice and malicious determinations , our yeildings to the whispers of the flesh , and our obstinacy against the motions of illuminated reason . O give us the comfort of thy helpe againe , and establish us with thy free Spirit . 7. O God of mercy pardon the inordination and irregularity of our affections ; our anger is hasty and quick , unreasonable and immoderate , a perpetual storme and a perpetual folly ; our desires are passionate and great , sensual and intemperate , we fear the feares of men , and our hopes are of things that profit not ; we love that which destroyes us , and doe not love that by which we can be made alive ; we rejoyce in the wayes of death , and our sorrow is not unto amendment of life ; every sad accident of the world does amaze us , but we are not afflicted when we loose thy favour , when we doe foolish things , and enter into the portions of thy displeasure . Lord be merciful unto us , for our sins are very great . 8. O God of mercy pardon the hypocrisy of our lives , our desires to seeme holy , our neglect of being so , our being satisfied with shadowes and outsides , with an unactive faith , with the faith of Devils and the hope of hypocrites , with the comforts of the presumptuous and the confidences of the proud : we have rested in outward workes and have not secur'd the truth of the Spirit ; we confesse our sins and still commit them ; we pray against them and yet we love them ; we call thee Father and obey thee not ; we say thou art our Lord and yet we doe not feare thee ; we approach thee with our lips , and our hearts are far from thee ; wee bow our heads and lift up our hearts and hands against thee : we humble our selves in flattery , and mortifie our affections with deceit ; we pretend religion to serve our owne worldly ends ; resting in formes of godlinesse but denying the power of it . O God be merciful unto us , for our state is very miserable . 9. O God of mercy pardon our impatience and immortification , our secret murmures and open rebellions ; our temptings of God , our provocations of thee to anger , our entring into needlesse dangers , the deferring of our repentance and the hardning of our faces against thy judgements , our contempt of thy mercies , and turning thy grace into wantonnesse , despising thy long suffering and thy goodnesse , and trusting boldly where thou hast given us no ground of hope or comfort . O Blessed Jesu that takest away the sins of the world have mercy upon us . 10 O God of mercy pardon the innumerable sins of our tongue , our vaine and common swearings , our bold affirmatives of what we know to be false or know not to be true , our crafty and insnaring talke , our secret and injurious whispers , our backbiting and detraction , our undervaluing our Brother and easily reporting evil , our bragging and vainglorious words , our laying snares for praise , our flattering some and reproaching others , our clamorous revilings and uncharitable chidings , and in whatsoever we have spoken against thee or against our Brother . O Lambe of God that takest away the sins of the world have mercy upon us . 11. O God of mercy pardon our abuses of thy sacred and venerable Name ; our unworthy usages of our selves upon whom thy Name is called , our profanation of thy word , our irreverent using the Sacraments , our dishonouring thy houses of prayer , our curious inquiries into the secrets of God and the secrets of men , our wilful angring and provoking our neighbours to cursing and swearing and all intemperate wrath , our unnecessary troubling them and betraying them to folly and indignation . O remember not our old sins , but have mercy upon us and that speedily . 12. O God of mercy pardon our abuse of holy times and holy offices , our neglect of assembling our selves together , our vaine recreations and foolish imployments , the prodigality of our precious time in idle gaming and uselesse businesse , our being idle servants or cruel Masters , false in our trust , or unreasonable in our commands , our peevish neglect of the customes of the Church & our schismatical behaviour in the congregations of the Lord. Helpe us O God of our salvation , and for the glory of thy Name , save thy sinful servants . 13. O God of mercy , pardon all our rebellions against thee and against thy representatives , our lawful Superiors ; our irreverence and disobedience , our murmurs and repinings against them , our rude words and perverse disputings , our neglect of their persons and desires , our publication of their faults and rejoycing in their infirmi●es , our being asham'ed of their poverty and condition , our boasting of our kinred and extraction , our secret cursings or open reviling the ministers of justice , our mocking and scorning old and aged persons , and whatsoever is irreverent , froward , disobedient , unjust or uncharitable towards our betters . O deliver us and purge away our sins for thy Names sake . 14. O God of mercy pardon all our cruel thoughts , our provoking words , and injurious actions , cleanse our hands from violence and our hearts from bloud-guiltinesse O God , forgive us our uncharitable treating or our selves or others , our unjust wranglings and peevish quarrels , our taking things and words in an evil sence and to purposes of discord and dissension , our threatning and keeping men in feares , our not rescuing , or not preserving those whom we could and ought to have preserved , our imbittering the spirit of our neighbour , our unpeaceable dispositions , our tempting and betraying , our wounding and killing our own soules and the soules of our brethren , whom we ought to have snatch'd from the fire , and according to our powers withheld from the everlasting burning . O take away our iniquity from us , and remember our sins no more . 15. O God of mercy , pardon our gluttony and drunkennesse , the disorders of our diet and the disorders of our passion , our wanton thoughts & wandring eyes , our impure desires and all our actions of uncleanesse , our lascivious dressings and idle consumptions of our time , our making provisions for the flesh to fulfill the lusts of it , the dishonourings of our body , and the pollutions of our spirit , our making the members of Christ be the members of an harlot , and defiling the temples of the holy Ghost by unnatural actions and desires not to be nam'd and much lesse to be entertain'd , our softnesse and effeminacy , our sensualities and studies of the flesh and all the excesses and irregularities within that state which thou hast blessed and sanctified : but we are uncleane , we are uncleane . O Cleanse our soules from sin ; take away our iniquity and thou shal● find none . 16. O God of mercy , pardon our injustices and rapines , our open invasion and secret underminings of the rights of others , our greedy desires and fierce pursuances of money , our love of wealth and our hastinesse to be rich , our arts of unequal bargaining and deceitful words , our unjust law suits and the vexatious prosecutions of just or unjust , our detaining the wages of the hireling and our defalking of his dues , our pressing upon the necessities of the poore , and raising prices for their need , our hard and oppressive contracts , our rigors of justice and varieties of injustice , our want of charity and tenacious retaining our money , our reception or retention of unjust purchases ; our sacriledge and simony , our entring into the feilds of the Fatherlesse , wronging the helpelesse widow who is thy care ; our forwardnesse to run into debt and our carelessenesse to come out of it ; our improvident conduct of our estates and our foolish mispendings , our causing diminution to the goods of others and the avaritious increasing of our owne . Wash us throughly from our iniquity , and cleanse us from our sin . 17. O God of mercy forgive us our breach of promise to men , and of our holy vowes made to thee our God : our wilful or carelesse lying , our false accusation or false witnessing , our perverting righteous judgement by bribery or false information , and causing the innocent to suffer ; our leading the blind out of his way ; our accusing others , and justifying our selves , our false excuses and fain'd pretences , our causlesse affirmings and denyings , our jealousies and suspicions and all the iniquity of our hearts and tongues . Hide thy face from our sins and blot out all our transgressions . 18. O God of mercy pardon our envy and our discontented hearts , our ambitions and curiosities , our rejoycings in the evil of our neighbours , and our repining and displeasure at his advancement , our violent and distracting carefulnesse for the things of this world , our affrightments in every sad accident , and all our covetous thoughts and degenerous and unworthy practises . Lord Jesu be mercifull to us miserable but penitent and returning sinners . O that our head were waters , and our eyes a fountaine of teares that we might weepe day and night till thou wert reconciled to thy people . Thy congregation is an assembly of adulterous and treacherous men . We have bent our tongues like a bow for lies , but we are not valiant for the truth upon earth ; we have proceeded from evil to evil and we have not knowne thee . [ Every one deceives his neighbour , and weary themselves to commit iniquity : for these things thou hast visited us in anger , thou hast fed us with wormwood , and given us water of gall to drinke . Thou hast sent the sword upon us to consume us and the spirit of division to scatter us abroad . ] But in thee O Lord is our confidence and our glory ; for thou dost exercise loving kindnesse , judgement and righteousnesse in the earth , for in these things thou dost delight . O Lord therefore , correct us , but with judgement , not in thine anger , least thou bring us to nothing : we pray not against sorrow ; but pray to multiply our penitential sorrowes upon us ; that we may truly mourne for our offences against thee , and may with great caution take care we may no more offend thee , and redeeme the time which we have spent in vanity ; and imploy the remaining portion of our dayes in the wayes of peace and righteousnesse , of wisedome and the feare of God ; that when thou shalt send thy Angels to gather the wheat into thy granary , we may be bound up in the bundle of life and dwell in the house of God for ever , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 / 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . THE END . THE PSALTER : OR , PSALMS of DAVID , After the KING'S Translation . With ARGUMENTS to every PSALM . Te decet Hymnus . THE BOOK OF PSALMS . Mo. Pr. PSAL. I. The good man describ'd : of true piety , and the fruits of it : the judgments of God upon the wicked . BLessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly , nor standeth in the way of sinners , nor sitteth in the seat of the scornfull . 2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord , and in his law doth he meditate day and night . 3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water , that bringeth forth his fruit in his season ; his leaf also shall not wither , and whatsoever he doth shall prosper . 4 The ungodly are not so : but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away . 5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment , nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous . 6 For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous : but the way of the ungodly shall perish . PSAL. II. The endevours of evill m●n against the kingdome of David and of Christ : The eternity of Christs kingdome , and the stability and amplitude of the Church : The attempts of the ungodly against it are ineffectuall : Kings are invited to be subjects of Christs kingdome . WHy do the heathen rage , and the people imagine a vain thing ? 2 The Kings of the earth set themselves , and the Rulers take counsel together , against the Lord , and against his anointed , saying , 3 Let us break their bands asunder , and cast away their cords from us . 4 He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh : the Lord shall have them in derision . 5 Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath , and vex them in his sore displeasure . 6 Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Sion . 7 I will declare the decree : the Lord hath said unto me , Thou art my son , this day have I begotten thee . 8 Ask of me , and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance , and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession . 9 Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron , thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potters vessel . 10 Be wise now therefore , O ye kings : be instructed ye Judges of the earth . 11 Serve the Lord with fear , and rejoyce with trembling . 12 Kisse the son lest he be angry , and ye perish from the way , when his wrath is kindled but a little : blessed are all they that put their trust in him . PSAL. III. David stying from the face of his son Absalom , strengtheas himself in the goodnesse of God , and his experience of it : He prayes for himself and his people : They who are under the Crosse must pray , and trust in God. LOrd , how are they increased that trouble me ? many are they that rise up against me . 2 Many there be which say of my soul , There is no help for him in God. Selah . 3 But thou O Lord , art a shield for me ; my glory , and the lifter up of mine head . 4 I cried unto the Lord with my voice , and he heard me out of his holy hill . Selah . 5 I laid me down and slept ; I awaked , for the Lord sustained me . 6 I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people , that have set themselves against me round about . 7 Arise , O Lord , save me , O my God ; for thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheek-bone : thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly . 8 Salvation belongeth unto the Lord : thy blessing is upon thy people . Selah . PSAL. IV. David prayes to God in his trouble● Exhorts Absaloms party that they should not be offended at the Kings cause , because he was afflicted : He exhorts his own party that they should ●ear the crosse patiently , rely upon God , and give him glory , and expect salvation from him ; and not to dote upon the prosperity of the wicked . HEar me , when I call , O God of my righteousnesse : thou hast enlarged me when I was in distresse , have mercy upon me , and hear my prayer . 2 O ye sons of men , how long will ye turn my glory into shame● how long will ye love vanity , and seek after leasing ? Selah . 3 But know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly , for himself : the Lord will hear when I call unto him . 4 Stand in aw , and sin not : commune with your own heart upon your bed , and be still . Selah . 5 Offer the sacrifices of righteousness : & put your trust in the Lord. 6 There be many that say , Who will shew us any good ? Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us . 7 Thou hast put gladnesse in my heart , more then in the time that their corn and their wine encreased . 8 I will both lay me down in peace , and sleep : for thou Lord onely makest me dwell in safety . PSAL. V. David relying on the testimony of a good conscience , and the justice of God , that he will certainly destroy the wicked , and set his face against proud and lying rebels , Achitophel or Doeg , comforts himself in Gods goodnesse , and his hopes of returning to the house of God : and exhorts the faithfull to praise him . GIve eare to my words , O Lord , consider my meditation . 2 Hearken unto the voice of my cry , my king , and my God : for unto thee will I pray . 3 My voice shalt thou hear in the morning , O Lord , in the morning early will I direct my prayer unto thee , and will look up . 4 For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickednesse ; neither shall evill dwell with thee . 5 The foolish shall not stand in thy sight : thou hatest all workers of iniquity . 6 Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing : the Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitfull man. 7 But as for me , I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy : and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple . 8 Lead me , O Lord ; in thy righteousnesse , because of my enemies : make thy way straight before my face . 9 For there is no faithfulnesse in their mouth , their inward part is very wickednesse ; their throat is an open sepulchre , they flatter with their tongue . 10 Destroy thou them , O God : let them fall by their own counsels : cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions , for they have rebelled against thee . 11 But let all those that put their trust in thee , rejoyce : let them ever shout for joy : because thou defendest them : let them also that love thy name , be joyfull in thee . 12 For thou , Lord , wilt blesse the righteous , with favour wilt thou compasse him as with a shield . Ev. Pr. PSAL. VI. David being afflicted with sicknesse● and sensible of Gods anger , prayes against it , implores the Divine mercy , renounces all communion with evill men , and evill works , prayes for life and health , ease and rem●ssion : and finding ease nad comfort , gives thanks to God. O Lord , rebuke me not in thine anger , neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure . 2 Have mercy upon me , O Lord , for I am weak : O Lord heale me , for my bones are vexed . 3 My soul is also sore vexed : but thou , O Lord , how long ? 4 Return , O Lord , deliver my soul : oh save me for thy mercies sake . 5 For in death there is no remembrance of thee : in the grave who shall give thee thanks ? 6 I am weary with my groaning , all the night make I my bed to swim : I water my couch with my tears . 7 Mine eye is consumed because of griefe ; it waxeth old because of all mine enemies . 8 Depart from me all ye workers of iniquity ; for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping . 9 The Lord hath heard my supplication ; the Lord will receive my prayer . 10 Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed : let them return and be ashamed suddenly . PSAL. VII . David justifies himself against the reproches of Shimei , who accus'd him to have caused the death of King Saul and his family , and to have usurp'd the Kingdome : he prayes to be delivered from the injuries of his adversary , to be restored to his Kingdome , and to be a veng'd of his enemy . O Lord my God , in thee do I put my trust : save me from all them that persecute me , and deliver me . 2 Lest he tear my soul like a lion , rending it in pieces , while there is none to deliver . 3 O Lord my God , if I have done this ; if there be iniquity in my hands : 4 If I have rewarded evill unto him that was at peace with me : ( yea , I have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy ) 5 Let the enemy persecute my soul , and take it , yea , let him tread down my life upon the earth , and lay mine honour in the dust . Selah . 6 Arise , O Lord , in thine anger , lift up thy self because of the rage of mine enmies : and awake for me to the judgment that thou hast commanded . 7 So shall the congregation of the people compasse thee about : for their sakes therefore return thou on high . 8 The Lord shall judge the people : judge me , O Lord , according to my righteousnesse , and according to my integrity that is in me . 9 O let the wickednesse of the wicked come to an end , but establish the just : for the righteous God tryeth the hearts and reins . 10 My defence is of God , which saveth the upright in heart . 11 God judgeth the righteous , and God is angry with the wicked every day . 12 If he turn not , he will whet his sword ; he hath bent his bow , and made it ready . 13 He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death ; he ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors . 14 Behold , he travelleth with iniquity , and hath conceived mischief , and brought forth falshood . 15 He made a pit and digged it , and is faln into the ditch which he made . 16 His mischief shall return upon his own head , and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate . 17 I will praise the Lord according to his righteousnesse : and will sing praise to the name of the Lord most high . PSAL. VIII . The glory and magnificence of God , his love to Man , his providence over the world : an act of praise and adoration of God. O Lord our Lord , how excellent is thy name in all the earth ! who hast set thy glory above the heavens . 2 Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength , because of thine enemies , that thou mightest still the enemie and the avenger . 3 When I consider thy heavens , the work work of thy fingers , the moon and the starres which thou hast ordained ; 4 What is man , that thou art mindfull of him ? and the son of man that thou visitest him ? 5 For thou hast made him a little lower then the angells , and hast crown'd him with glory and honour . 6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands ; thou hast put all things under his feet . 7 All sheep and oxen , yea , and the beasts of the field : 8 The fowl of the air , and the fish of the sea , and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas . 9 O Lord our Lord , how excellent is thy name in all the earth● Mo. Pr. PSAL. IX . The Church praises God for her victory over her enemies : God takes care of his Church : will destroy them that oppose her : The faithfull are exhorted to put their trust in God. I Will praise thee , O Lord , with my whole heart , I will shew forth all thy marvellous works . 2 I will be glad and rejoyce in thee : I will sing praise to thy name , O thou most high . 3 When mine enemies are turned back , they shall fall and perish at thy presence . 4 For thou hast maintained my right and my cause , thou sa●est in the throne judging right . 5 Thou hast rebuked the heathen , thou hast destroyed the wicked ; thou hast put out their name for ever and ever . 6 O thou enemy , destructions are come to a perpetuall end : and thou hast destroyed cities , their memoriall is perished with them . 7 But the Lord shall endure for ever : he hath prepared his throne for judgment . 8 And he shall judge the world in righteousnesse , he shall minister judgment to the people in uprightnesse . 9 The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed , a refuge in times of trouble . 10 And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee : for thou , Lord , hast not for saken them that seek thee . 11 Sing praises to the Lord , which dwelleth in Sion : declare among the people his doings . 12 When he maketh inquisition for blood , he remembreth them : he forgetteth not the cry of the humble . 13 Have mercy upon me , O Lord , consider my trouble which I suffer of them that hate me , thou that liftest me up from the gates of death : 14 That I may shew forth all thy praise in the gates of the daughter of Sion : I will rejoyce in thy salvation . 15 The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made : in the net which they hid , is their own foot taken . 16 The Lord is known by the judgement which he executeth : the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands . Higgaion , Selah . 17 The wicked shall be turned into hell , and all the nations that forget God. 18 For the needy shall not alway be forgotten : the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever . 19 Arise , O Lord , let not man prevaile , let the heathen he judged in thy sight . 20 Put them in fear , O Lord : that the nations may know themselves to be but men . PSAL. X. The Church under the oppression of persecutors , sadly complains to God , describes their m●●ice and violence , and implores the Divine aid against atheisticall and cruell persons . WHy standest thou afar off ? O Lord , why hidest thou thy self in times of trouble ? 2 The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor : let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined . 3 For the wicked boasteth of his hearts desire , and blesseth the covetous , whom the Lord abhorreth . 4 The wicked , thorow the pride of his countenance , will not seek after God : God is not in all his thoughts . 5 His wayes are alwayes grievous : thy judgements are far above out of his sight : as for all his enemies , he puffeth at them . 6 He hath said in his heart , I shall not be moved : for I shall never be in adversity . 7 His mouth is full of cursing , and deceit , and fraud : under his tongue is mischief and vanity . 8 He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages : in the secret places doth he murder the innocent : his eyes are privily set against the poor . 9 He lyeth in wait secretly as a lyon in his den : he lyeth in wait to catch the poor : he doth catch the poor when he draweth him into his ●et . 10 He croucheth , & humbleth himself that the poor may fall by his strong ones . 11 He hath said in his heart , God hath forgotten : he hideth his face , he will never see it . 12 Arise O Lord , O God lift up thine hand : forget not the humble . 13 Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God ? he hath said in his heart , Thou wilt not require it . 14 Thou hast seen it , for thou beholdest mischief and spite to requite in with thy hand : the poor committeth himself unto thee , thou art the helper of the fatherlesse . 15 Break thou the arm of the wicked , and the evill man : seek out his wickedness till thou find none . 16 The Lord is king for for ever and ever : the heathen are perished out of his land . 17 Lord , thou hast heard the desire of the humble : thou wilt prepare their heart , thou wilt cause thine eare to hear . 18 To judge the fatherlesse and the oppressed , that the man of the earth may no more oppresse . PSAL. XI . The Church afflicted with the arts and fraud of false brethren , runs to God in hope and prayer ; acknowledges God to be a just Judge , both to the godly and to the wicked . IN the Lord put I my trust : how say ye to my soul , Flee as a bird to your mountain ? 2 For lo , the wicked bend their bow , they make ready their arrow upon the string : that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart . 3 If the foundations be destroyed , what can the righteous doe ? 4 The Lord is in his holy temple , the Lords throne is in heaven : his eyes behold , his eye-lids try the children of men . 5 The Lord tryeth the righteous : but the wicked and him that loveth violence , his soul hateth . 6 Upon the wicked he shall rain snares , fire , and brimstone , and an horrible tempest : this shall be the portion of their cup. 7 For the righteous Lord loveth righteousnesse , his countenance doth behold the upright . Ev. Pr. PSAL. XII . David complains of the iniquity of his time ; the falshood all flattery of men : he declares Gods care of the poore and the oppressed , and the excellency of the Word of God. HElp Lord , for the godly man ceaseth : for the faithfull fail from among the children of men . 2 They speak vanity every one with his neighbour : with flattering lips , & with a double heart do they speak . 3 The Lord shall cut off and flattering lips , and the tongue that speaketh proud things . 4 Who have said , With our tongue will we prevail , our lips are our own : who is lord over us ? 5 For the oppression of the poore , for the sighing of the needy , now will I arise ( saith the Lord ) I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him . 6 The words of the Lord are pure words : as silver tried in a furnace of earth , purified seven times . 7 Thou shalt keep them ( O Lord ) thou shalt preserve them frō this generation for ever . 8 The wicked walk on every side , when the vilest men are exalted . PSAL. XIII . David expostulating concerning his own infirmity , the importunity of his enemies , and the delaying of the Divine aides , prayes to God for deliverance , hopes and rejoyces in his mercy . HOw long wilt thou forget me ( O Lord ) for ever ? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me ? 2 How long shall I take counsel in my soul , having sorrow in my heart daily ? how long shall mine enemie be exalted over me ? 3 Consider and hear me , O Lord my God : lighten mine eyes , lest I sleep the sleep of death . 4 Lest mine enemies say , I have prevailed against him : and those that trouble me , rejoice when I am moved . 5 But I have trusted in thy mercy , my heart shall rejoyce in thy salvation . 6 I will sing unto the Lord , because he hath dealt bountifully with me . PSAL. XIV . The practical atheisme of the world , and the universal iniquity of mankind is here complained of , and their readinesse to oppresse the poore : but God will call them to judgment , and relieve the oppressed . THe fool hath said in his heart , There is no God : they are corrupt , they have done abominable works , there is none that doth good . 2 The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men : to see if there were any that did understand , and seek God. 3 They are all gone aside , they are all together become filthy : there is none that doth good , no not one . 4 Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge ? who eate up my people as they eate bread , and call not upon the Lord. 5 There were they in great fear : for God is in the generation of the righteous . 6 You have shamed the counsel of the poor ; because the Lord is his refuge . 7 O that the salvation of Israel were come out of Sion ! when the Lord bringeth back the captivity of his people , Jacob shall rejoyce , and Israel shall be glad . Mo. Pr. PSAL. XV. The godly , and they who are to be heirs of heaven , are describ'd by their integrity of life , their truth , their justice , and contempt of money . LOrd , who shall abide in thy tabernacle ? who shall dwell in thy holy hill ? 2 He that walketh uprightly , and worketh righteousness , and speaketh the truth in his heart . 3 He that backbiteth not with his tongue , nor doth evill to his neighbour , not taketh up a reproch against his neighbour . 4 In whose eyes a vile person is contemned ; but he honoureth them that fear the Lord : he that sweareth to his own hurt , and changeth not . 5 He that putteth not out his money to usury , nor taketh reward against the innocent . He that doth these things , shall never be moved . PSAL. XVI . David confesses God to be his G●● , and protests against all idolatrous worshippings : he rejoyces in God for his present blessings , his preservation and prosperity , the aides of his grace , and the hopes of Eternall life , through the resu●rection of Christ. PReserve me , O God : for in thee do I put my trust . 2 O my soul , thou hast said unto the Lord , Thou art my Lord : my goodnesse extendeth not to thee : 3 But to the Saints that are in the earth , and to the excellent in whom is all my delight . 4 Their sorrows shall be multiplyed , that hasten after another God : their drink-offerings of blood will I not offer , nor take up their names into my lips . 5 The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance , and of my cup : thou maintainest my lot . 6 The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places ; yea , I have a goodly heritage . 7 I will blesse the Lord , who hath given me counsell : my reins also instruct me in the night seasons . 8 I have set the Lord alwayes before me : because he is at my right hand , I shall not be moved . 9 Therefore my heart is glad , and my glory rejoyceth : my flesh also shall rest in hope . 10 For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell ; neither wilt thou suffer thine holy One to see corruption . 11 Thou wilt shew me the path of life : in thy presence is fulnesse of joy , at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore . PSAL. XVII . David appealing to God concerning his innocency , does passionately implore his patronage against his prosperous enemies : he prophesies of the resurrection . HEar the right , O Lord , attend unto my cry , give eare unto my prayer that goeth not out of feigned lips . 2 Let my sentence come forth from thy presence : let thine eyes behold the things that are equall . 3 Thou hast proved mine heart , thou hast visited me in the night , thou hast tryed me , and and shalt find nothing : I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgresse . 4 Concerning the works of men , by the word of thy lips , I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer . 5 Hold up my goings in thy paths , that my footsteps slip not . 6 I have called upon thee , for thou wilt hear me , O God : incline thine eare unto me , and hear my speech . 7 Shew thy marvellous loving kindnesse , O thou that savest by thy right hand , them which put their trust in thee , from those that rise up against them . 8 Keep me as the apple of the eye : hide me under the shadow of thy wings , 9 From the wicked that oppresse me , from my deadly enemies , who compasse me about . 10 They are inclosed in their own fat : with their mouth they speak proudly . 11 They have now compassed us in our steps : they have set their eyes bowing down to the earth . 12 Like as a Lion that is greedy of his prey , and as it were a young lion lurking in secret places . 13 Arise O Lord , disappoint him , cast him down : deliver my soul from the wicked , which is thy sword : 14 From men which are thy hand , O Lord , from men of the world , which have their portion in this life , and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure : they are full of children , and leave the rest of their substance to their babes . 15 As for me , I will behold thy face in righteousnesse : I shall be satisfied , when I awake , with thy likenesse . Ev. Pr. PSAL. XVIII . David toward the end of his life sings a song of victory to God for all his triumphs and grea● successes in his warres : he gives thanks , & puts his trust in God. I will love thee , O Lord my strength . 2 The Lord is my rock , and my fortresse , and my deliverer : my God , my strength in whom I will trust , my buckler , and the horn of my salvation , and my high tower . 3 I will call upon the Lord , who is worthy to be praised : so shall I be saved from mine enemies . 4 The sorrowes of death compassed me , and the flouds of ungodly men made me afraid . 5 The sorrowes of hell compassed me about : the snares of death prevented me . 6 In my distresse I called upon the Lord , and cryed unto my God : he heard my voyce out of his temple , and my cry came before him , even into his ears . 7 Then the earth shook and trembled ; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken , because he was wroth . 8 There went up a smoke out of his nostrils , and fire out of his mouth devoured : coals were kindled by it . 9 He bowed the heavens also and came down : and darknesse was under his feet . 10 And he rode upon a cherub , and did flie : yea , he did flie upon the wings of the wind . 11 He made darknesse his secret place : his pavilion round about him , were dark waters , and thick clouds of the skies . 12 At the brightnesse that was before him his thick clouds passed , hail-stones and coals of fire . 13 The Lord also thundred in the heavens , and the Highest gave his voice ; hailstones and coals of fire . 14 Yea , he sent out his arrows , and scattered them ; and he shot out lightnings , and discomfited them . 15 Then the channels of waters were seen , and the foundations of the world were discovered : at thy rebuke , O Lord , at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils . 16 He sent from above , he took me , and drew me out of many waters . 17 He delivered me from my strong enemy , and from them which hated me : for they were too strong for me . 18 They prevented me in the day of my calamity : but the Lord was my stay . 19 He brought me forth also into a large place : he delivered me , because he delighted in me . 20 The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousnesse , according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me . 21 For I have kept the wayes of the Lord , and have not wickedly departed from my God. 22 For all his judgments were before me , and I did not put away his statutes from me . 23 I was also upright before him : and I kept my self from mine iniquity . 24 Therefore hath the Lord recompensed me according to my right●nesse , according to the cleannesse of my hands in his eye-sight . 25 With the mercifull thou wilt shew thy self mercifull , with an upright man thou wilt shew thy self upright . 26 With the pure thou wilt shew thy self pure , and with the froward thou wilt shew thy self froward . 27 For thou wilt save the afflicted people : but thou wilt bring down high looks . 28 For thou wilt light my candle : the Lord my God will enlighten my darknesse . 29 For by thee I have run through a troop : and by my God have I leaped over a wall . 30 As for God , his way is perfect : the word of the Lord is tryed : he is a buckler to all those that trust in him . 31 For who is God save the Lord ? or who is a rock save our God ? 32 It is God that girdeth me with strength , and maketh my way perfect . 33 He maketh my feet like hindes feet , and setteth me upon my high places . 34 He teacheth my hands to war , so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms . 35 Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation : and thy right hand hath holden me up , and thy gentlenesse hath made me great . 36 Thou hast enlarged my steps under me ; that my feet did not slip . 37 I have pursued mine enemies , & overtaken them : neither did I turn again till they were consumed . 38 I have wounded them that they were not able to rise : they are fallen under my feet . 39 For thou hast girded me with strength unto battell : thou hast subdued under me those that rose up against me . 40 Thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies : that I might destroy them that hate me . 41 They cryed , but there was none to save them : even unto the Lord , but he answered them not . 42 Then did I beat them small as the dust before the wind : I did cast them out as the dirt in the streets . 43 Thou hast deliver'd me from the strivings of the people : and thou hast made me the head of the heathen : a people whom I have not known shall serve me . 44 Assoon as they hear of me , they shall obey me : the strangers shall submit themselves unto me . 45 The strangers shall fade away , and be afraid out of their close places . 46 The Lord liveth , and blessed be my rock : and let the God of my salvation be exalted . 47 It is God that avengeth me , and subdueth the people under me . 48 He delivereth me from mine enemies : yea thou liftest me up above those that rise up against me : thou hast delivered me from the violent man. 49 Therefore will I give thanks unto thee ( O Lord ) among the heathen : and sing praises unto thy name . 50 Great deliverance giveth he to his King : and sheweth mercy to his anointed , to David , and to his seed for evermore . Mo. Pr. PSAL. XIX . David declaring the glory of God manifested in the Creation , and in his Word , prayes to God so pardon of all sins , little & great known and unknown ; and that he may be directed and accepted by God through Ch●ist his Redeem●r . THe heavens declare the glory of God : and the firmament sheweth his handy work . 2 Day unto day uttereth speech , and night unto night sheweth knowledge . 3 There is no speech nor language , where their voice is not heard . 4 Their line is gone out through all the earth , and their words to the end of the world : in them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun . 5 Which is as a Bridegroom comming out of his chamber , and rejoyceth as a strong man to run a race . 6 His going forth is from the end of the heaven , and his circuit unto the ends of it : and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof . 7 The law of the Lord is perfect , converting the soul : the testimony of the Lord is sure , making wise the simple . 8 The statutes of the Lord are right , rejoyc●ng the heart : the commandment of the Lord is pure , enlightning the eyes . 9 The fear of the Lord is clean , enduring for ever : the judgments of the Lord are true & righteous altogether . 10 More to be desired are they then gold , yea , then much fine gold : sweeter also then hony , & the hony comb . 11 Moreover , by them is thy servant warned : and in keeping of them there is great reward . 12 Who can understand his errors ? cleanse thou me from secret faults . 13 Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins , let them not have dominion over me : then shall I be upright , and I shall be innocent from the great transgression . 14 Let the words of my mouth , and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight , O Lord my strength and my redeemer . PSAL. XX. A Prayer for the King going forth to battel : an act of trust and confidence in God. THe Lord hear thee in the day of trouble , the name of the God of Jacob defend thee . 2 Send thee help from the sanctuary : and strengthen thee out of Sion . 3 Remember all thy offerings , and accept thy burnt sacrifice . Selah . 4 Grant thee according to thine own heart , and fulfill all thy counsell . 5 We will rejoyce in thy salvation , and in the name of our God we wil set up our banners : the Lord fulfill all thy petitions . 6 Now know I , that the Lord saveth his anointed : he will hear him from his holy heaven , with the saving strength of his right hand . 7 Some trust in chariots , and some in horses : but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. 8 They are brought down and faln , but we are risen and stand upright . 9 Save Lord , let the king hear us when we call . PSAL. XXI . A thanksgiving to God for the Kings victory over the Ammonites : the destruction of the Kings enemies : an act of adoration of God. THe king shall joy in thy strength , O Lord : and in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoyce ! 2 Thou hast given him his hearts desire , and hast not withholden the request of his lips . Selah . 3 For thou preventest him with the blessings of goodnesse : thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head . 4 He asked life of thee , and thou gavest it him , even length of daies for ever and ever . 5 His glory is great in thy salvation , honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him . 6 For thou hast made him most blessed for ever : thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance . 7 For the king trusteth in the Lord , and through the mercy of the most High , he shall not be moved . 8 Thine hand shall find out all thine enemies , thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee . 9 Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger : the Lord shall swallow them up in his wrath , and the fire shall devour them . 10 Their fruit shalt thou destroy from the earth , and their seed from among the children of men . 11 For they intended evill against thee : they imagined a mischievous device , which they are not able to perform . 12 Therefore shalt thou make them turn their back , when thou shalt make ready thine arrows upon thy strings , against the face of them . 13 Be thou exalted , Lord , in thine own strength : so will we sing and praise thy power . Ev. Pr. PSAL. XXII . A description of the agonies and passion of Christ : his Propheticall office , Priesthood , and everlasting kingdome : the universality , piety , and perpetuity of his Church . MY God , my God , why hast thou forsaken me ? why art thou so far from helping me , and from the words of my roaring ? 2 O my God , I cry in the day time , but thou hearest not ; and in the night season , and am not silent . 3 But thou art holy , O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel . 4 Our fathers trusted in thee : they trusted , and thou didst deliver them . 5 They cryed unto thee , and were delivered : they trusted in thee & were not confounded 6 But I am a worm , and no man ; a reproch of men , and despised of the people . 7 All they that see me , laugh me to scorn : they shoot out the lip , they shake the head , saying , 8 He trusted on the Lord , that he would deliver him : let him deliver him seeing he delighted in him . 9 But thou art he that took me out of the womb ; thou didst make me hope , when I was upon my mothers brests . 10 I was cast upon thee from the womb : thou art my God from my mothers belly . 11 Be not far from me , for trouble is near ; for there is none to help 12 Many buls have compassed me : strong buls of Bashan have beset me round . 13 They gaped upon me with their mouths , as a ravening and a roaring lion . 14 I am poured out like water , and all my bones are out of joint : my heart is like wax , it is melted in the midst of my bowels . 15 My strength is dryed up like a potsheard : and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws ; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death . 16 For dogs have compassed me , the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me : they pierced my hands and my feet . 17 I may tell all my bones : they look and stare upon me . 18 They part my garments among them , and cast lots upon my vesture . 19 But be not thou far from me , O Lord ; O my strength , haste thee to help me . 20 Deliver my soul from the sword : my darling from the power of the dog . 21 Save me from the lions mouth : for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns . 22 I will declare thy name unto my brethren : in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee . 23 Ye that fear the Lord , praise him ; all ye the seed of Jacob , glorifie him ; and fear him , all ye the seed of Israel . 24 For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted : neither hath he hid his face from him , but when he cryed unto him , he heard . 25 My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation : I will pay my vows before them that fear him . 26 The meek shall eat and be satisfied : they shall praise the Lord that seek him ; your heart shall live for ever . 27 All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord : and all the kindreds of the nations shal worship before thee . 28 For the kingdom is the Lords : and he is the governor among the nations . 29 All they that be fat upon the earth , shall eat and worship : all they that goe down to the dust , shall bow before him , and none can keep alive his own soul. 30 A seed shall serve him , it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation . 31 They shall come , and shall declare his righteousnesse unto a people that shall be born , that he hath done this . PSAL. XXIII . An act of thanksgiving to Christ our Shepherd for temporall and spirituall goods given to his sheep : together with an act of trust and hope in him . THe Lord is my shepherd , I shall not want . 2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures : he leadeth me beside the still waters . 3 He restoreth my soul : he leadeth me in the paths of righteousnesse for his names sake 4 Yea , though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death , I will fear no evill : for thou art with me , thy rod and thy staff they comfort me . 5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies : thou anointest my head with oil , my cup runneth over . 6 Surely goodnes & mercy shall follow me all the dayes of my life : and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever . Mo. Pr. PSAL. XXIV . Gods dominion ore the world : the just praedispositions of them who are to be admitted to Gods Temple : a prophesie of Christs ascention into Heaven , under the type of placing the ark in Solomons temple . THe earth is the Lords , and the fulnesse thereof ; the world , and they that dwell therein . 2 For he hath founded it upon the seas , and established it upon the floods . 3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord ? and who shall stand in his holy place ? 4 He that hath clean hands , and a pure heart ; who hath not lift up his soul unto vanity , nor sworn deceitfully . 5 He shall receive the blessing from the Lord , and righteousness from the God of his salvation . 6 This is the generation of them that seek him , that seek thy face , O Jacob. Selah . 7 Lift up your heads , O ye gates , and be ye lift up , ye everlasting doors , and the king of glory shall come in . 8 Who is this king of glory ? the Lord strong and mighty , the Lord mighty in battel . 9 Lift up your heads , O ye gates , even lift them up , ye everlasting doors , and the king of glory shall come in . 10 Who is this king of glory ? the Lord of hosts , he is the king of glory . Selah . PSAL. XXV . David oppressed with the Conscience of his sins , and the sense of the Divine anger , prayes for pardon , relyes upon Gods goodnesse , beggs mercy and deliverance for himself and for the Church . The Psalm is paenitentiall . UNto thee , O Lord , do I lift up my soul 2 O my God , I trust in thee , let me not be ashamed : let not mine enemies triumph over me . 3 Yea , let none that wait on thee be ashamed ; let them be ashamed which transgresse without cause . 4 Shew me thy wayes , O Lord , teach me thy paths . 5 Lead me in thy truth , and teach me : for thou art the God of my salvation , on thee doe I wait all the day . 6 Remember , O Lord , thy tender mercies , and thy loving kindnesses : for they have ever been of old . 7 Remember not the sins of my youth , nor my transgressions : according to thy mercy remember thou me , for thy goodnesse sake , O Lord. 8 Good and upright is the Lord : therefore will he teach sinners in the way . 9 The meek will he guide in judgment : and the meek will he teach his way . 10 All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth , unto such as keep his covenant , and his testimonies . 11 For thy names sake , O Lord , pardon mine iniquity : for it is great . 12 What man is he that feareth the Lord ? him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose . 13 His soul shall dwell at ease : and his seed shall inherit the earth . 14 The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him : and he will shew them his covenant . 15 Mine eyes are ever towards the Lord : for he shall pluck my feet out of the net . 16 Turn thee unto me , and have mercy upon me : for I am desolate and afflicted . 17 The troubles of my heart are enlarged : O bring thou me out of my distresses . 18 Look upon mine affliction , and my pain , and forgive all my sins . 19 Consider mine enemies , for they are many , and they hate me with cruell hatred . 20 O keep my soul and deliver me : let me not be ashamed , for I put my trust in thee . 21 Let integrity and uprightnesse preserve me : for I wait on thee . 22 Redeem Israel , O God , out of all his troubles . PSAL. XXVI . David puts● his trust in God , separates himself from the communion of wicked persons , but delighting in the Communion of Saints , prayes to be delivered from the evil portion of the wicked . JUdge me , O Lord , for I have walked in my integrity : I have trusted also in the Lord : therefore I shall not slide . 2 Examine me , O Lord , and prove me ; try my reins and my heart . 3 For thy loving kindness is before mine eyes : and I have walked in thy truth . 4 I have not sate with vain persons , neither will I goe in with dissemblers . 5 I have hated the congregation of evil● doers : and will not sit with the wicked . 6 I will wash mine hands in innocency : so will I compasse thine altar , O Lord. 7 That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving , and tell of all thy wondrous works . 8 O Lord , I have loved the habitation of thy house , and the place where thine honour dwelleth . 9 Gather not my soul with sinners , nor my life with bloody men : 10 In whose hands is mischief : and their right hand is full of bribes . 11 But as for me , I will walk in my integrity : redeem me , and be mercifull unto me . 12 My foot standeth in an even place : in the congregations will I blesse the Lord. Ev. Pr. PSAL. XXVII . David being forc'd to be absent from the publike assemblies of the faithfull longs to be restored : puts his trust in God , hopes and prayes to be deliver'd from Saul , and desires immunity from secular troubles , to be directed in the wayes of God , and exhorts the Church to put her trust in God. THe Lord is my light , and my salvation , whom shall I fear ? the Lord is the strength of my life , of whom shall I be afraid ? 2 When the wicked , even mine enemies and my foes came upon me to eat up my flesh , they stumbled and fell . 3 Though an host should encamp against me , my heart shall not fear : though war should rise against me , in this will I be confident . 4 One thing have I desired of the Lord , that will I seek after , that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the dayes of my life , to behold the beauty of the Lord , and to enquire in his temple . 5 For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion : in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me , he shall set me up upon a rock . 6 And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me : therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy , I will sing , yea , I will sing praises unto the Lord. 7 Hear , O Lord , when I cry with my voyce : have mercy also upon me , and answer me . 8 When thou saidst , Seek ye my face ; my heart said unto thee , Thy face , Lord , will I seek . 9 Hide not thy face far from me , put not thy servant away in anger : thou hast been my help , leave me not , neither forsake me , O God of my salvation . 10 When my father and my mother forsake me , then the Lord will take me up . 11 Teach me thy way , O Lord , and lead me in a plain path , because of mine enemies . 12 Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies : for false witnesses are risen up against me , and such as breath out cruelty . 13 I had fainted , unlesse I had believed to see the goodnesse of the Lord in the land of the living . 14 Wait on the Lord : be of good courage , and he shall strengthen thine heart : wait , I say , on the Lord. PSAL. XXVIII . David prayes against his secret and treacherous enemies , that he may be quit of their snares and of their society : and prayes for the Church . UNto thee will I cry , O Lord my rock , be not silent to me : lest if thou be silent to me , I become like them that go down into the pit . 2 Hear the voice of my supplications , when I cry unto thee : when I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle . 3 Draw me not away with the wicked , and with the workers of iniquitie : which speak peace to their neighbours , but mischief is in their hearts . 4 Give them according to their deeds , and according to the wickednesse of their endeavors : give them after the work of their hands , render to them their desert . 5 Because they regard not the works of the Lord , nor the operation of his hands , he shall destroy them , and not build them up . 6 Blessed be the Lord , because he hath heard the voice of my supplications . 7 The Lord is my strength , and my shield , my heart trusted in him , and I am helped : therefore my heart greatly rejoyceth , and with my song will I praise him . 8 The Lord is their strength , and he is the saving strength of his anointed . 9 Save thy people , and blesse thine inheritance : feed them also , & lift them up for ever . PSAL. XXIX . A● psalme of adoration and fear , and of the glorification of God to be said in great tempests and thunders : Princes and great men are exhorted to worship and fear before the Great God of Heaven and Earth . GIve unto the Lord ( O ye mighty ) give unto the Lord glory and strength . 2 Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name ; worship the Lord in the beauty of holinesse . 3 The voice of the Lord is upon the waters : the God of glory thundereth , the Lord is upon many waters . 4 The voice of the Lord is powerful ; the voice of the Lord is ful of majestie . 5 The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars : yea , the Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon . 6 He maketh them also to skip like a calf : Lebanon , and Sirion like a young unicorn . 7 The voice of the Lord divideth the flames of fire . 8 The voice of the Lord shaketh the wildernesse : the Lord shaketh the wildernesse of Kadesh . 9 The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve , and discovereth the forests : and in his temple doth every one speak of his glory . 10 The Lord sitteth upon the floud : yea , the Lord sitteth King for ever . 11 The Lord will give strength unto his people , the Lord will blesse his people with peace . Mo. Pr. PSAL. XXX . A thanksgiving for restitution to health after a great sicknesse ; which David sang when he dedicated his new cedar-house to God ; after the Hebrew Custome . IWil extol thee , O Lord , for thou hast lifted me up , and hast not made my foes to rejoice over me . 2 O Lord my God , I cried unto thee , and thou hast healed me . 3 O Lord thou hast brought up my soul from the grave : thou hast kept me alive that I should not go down to the pit . 4 Sing unto the Lord , ( O ye Saints of his ) and give thanks at the remembrance of his holinesse . 5 For his anger endureth but a moment ; in his favour is life : weeping may endure for a night , but joy cometh in the morning . 6 And in my prosperity I said , I shal never be moved . 7 Lord , by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong : thou didst hide thy face , and I was troubled . 8 I cried to thee , O Lord : and unto the Lord I made supplication . 9 What profit is there in my blood , when I go down to the pit ? shall the dust praise thee ? shal it declare thy truth ? 10 Hear , O Lord , and have mercy upon me : Lord be thou my helper . 11 Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing : thou hast put off my sackcloth , and girded me with gladnesse . 12 To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee , and not be silent : O Lord my God , I wil give thanks unto thee for ever . PSAL. XXXI . David prayes to God for his salvation , represents his great danger ; by his own example proves God to be bountifull to his servants : prayes against his enemies : gives thanks to God for his benefi●s : exhorts the faithfull to love God , and to constancy of mind . IN thee , O Lord , do I put my trust , let me never be ashamed : deliver me in thy righteousnesse . 2 Bow down thine eare to me , deliver me speedily : be thou my strong rock , for an house of defence to save me . 3 For thou art my rock and my fortresse : therefore for thy names sake lead me , and guide me . 4 Pull me out of the net , that they have laid privily for me : for thou art my strength . 5 Into thine hand I commit my spirit : thou hast redeemed me , O Lord God of truth . 6 I have hated them that regard lying vanities : but I trust in the Lord. 7 I will be glad , and rejoice in thy mercie : for thou hast considered my trouble ; thou hast known my soul in adversities ; 8 And hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemie : thou hast set my feet in a large room . 9 Have mercie upon me , O Lord , for I am in trouble ; mine eye is consumed with grief , yea , my soul and my belly . 10 For my life is spent with grief , and my years with sighing : my strength faileth because of mine iniquity , and my bones are consumed . 11 I was a reproch among all mine enemies , but especially among my neighbours , and a fear to mine acquaintance : they that did see me without , fled from me . 12 I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind : I am like a broken vessel . 13 For I have heard the slander of many , fear was on every side , while they took counsell together against me , they devised to take away my life . 14 But I trusted in thee , O Lord : I said , Thou art my God. 15 My times are in thy hand : deliver me from the hand of mine enemies , and from them that persecute me . 16 Make thy face fo shine upon thy servant : save me for thy mercies sake . 17 Let me not be ashamed , O Lord , for I have called upon thee : let the wicked be ashamed , and let them be silent in the grave . 18 Let the lying lips be put to silence : which speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous . 19 O how great is thy goodnesse , which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee ; w ch thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee , before the sons of men ! 20 Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man : thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues . 21 Blessed be the Lord ; for he hath shewed me his marvellous kindnesse , in a strong city . 22 For I said in my hast , I am cut off from before thine eyes : neverthelesse thou heardest the voyce of my supplications , when I cryed unto thee . 23 O love the Lord , all ye his saints : for the Lord preserveth the faithfull , and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer . 24 Be of good courage , and he shall strengthen your heart , all ye that hope in the Lord. Ev. Pr. PSAL. XXXII . The blessednesse of Man consists in the pardon of sins : which is to be obtained by confession of them : we are exhorted to repentance , and to joy in God , who punishes the wicked , and preserves the faithfull . The psalme is paenitentiall . Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven , whose sin is covered . 2 Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity , and in whose spirit there is no guile . 3 When I kept silence , my bones waxed old , through my roaring all the day long . 4 For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me : my moisture is turned into the drought of summer . Selah . 5 I acknowledged my sin unto thee , and mine iniquitie I have not hid : I said I will confesse my transgressions unto the Lord ; and thou forgavest the iniquitie of my sin . Selah . 6 For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee , in a time when thou maist be found : surely in the floods of great waters , they shall not come nigh unto him . 7 Thou art my hiding-place , thou shalt preserve me from trouble : thou shalt compasse me about with songs of deliverance . Selah . 8 I will instruct thee , and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go : I will guide thee with mine eye . 9 Be ye not as the horse , or as the mule which have no understanding : whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle , lest they come near unto thee . 10 Many sorrowes shall be to the wicked : but he that trusteth in the Lord , mercy shall compasse him about . 11 Be glad in the Lord , and rejoyce ye righteous : and shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart . PSAL. XXXIII . The just are exhorted to feare and to praise God for his goodnesse and his justice , his wisdome and his providence in Creating and governing the world : we are to trust in God alone , and not in any creature . God preserves all that rely upon him . REjoyce in the Lord , O ye righteous , for praise is comely for the upright . 2 Praise the Lord with harp : sing unto him with the psalterie , and an instrument of ten strings . 3 Sing unto him a new song , play skilfully with a loud noise . 4 For the word of the Lord is right : and all his works are done in truth . 5 He loveth righteousnesse : the earth is full of the goodnesse of the Lord. 6 By the word of the Lord were the heavens made : and all the host of them , by the breath of his mouth . 7 He gathereth the waters of the sea together , as an heap : he layeth up the depth in store-houses . 8 Let all the earth fear the Lord : let all the inhabitants of the world stand in aw of him . 9 For the spake , and it was done ; he commanded , and it stood fast . 10 The Lord bringeth the counsell of the heathen to nought : he maketh the devices of the people of none effect . 11 The counsell of the Lord standeth for ever , the thoughts of his heart to all generations . 12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord : and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance . 13 The Lord looketh from heaven : he beholdeth all the sons of men . 14 From the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth . 15 He fashioneth their hearts alike : he considereth all their works . 16 There is no king saved by the multitude of an host : a mighty man is not delivered by much strength . 17 An horse is a vain thing for safety : neither shall he deliver any by his great strength . 18 Behold , the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him : upon them that hope in his mercy : 19 To deliver their soul from death , and to keep them alive in famine . 20 Our soul waiteth for the Lord : he is our help and our shield . 21 For our heart shall rejoyce in him : because we have trusted in his holy name . 22 Let thy mercy ( O Lord ) be upon us according as we hope in thee . PSAL. XXXIV . David gives thanks to God for his delivery from Achish king of Gath : he exhorts to piety of life , to trust in God : Angels are the Guardians of the faithfull : the custody of the tongue is the way to live prosperously : God sets his face against the wicked ; and tak's care of the righteous in their affliction . I Will blesse the Lord at all times : his praise shall continually be in my mouth . 2 My soul shall make her boast in the Lord : the humble shall hear thereof , and be glad . 3 O magnifie the Lord with me , and let us exalt his name together . 4 I sought the Lo●d , and he heard me , and delivered me from all my fears . 5 They looked unto him , and were lightned : and their faces were not ashamed . 6 This poor man cryed , and the Lord heard him ; and saved him out of all his troubles . 7 The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him , and delivereth them . 8 O taste and see that the Lord is good : blessed is the man that trusteth in him . 9 O fear the Lord , ye his Saints : for there is no want to them that fear him . 10 The young lions doe lack , and suffer hunger : but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing . 11 Come ye children , hearken unto me : I will teach you the fear of the Lord. 12 What man is he that desireth life , and loveth many dayes , that he may see good ? 13 Keep thy tongue from evill , and thy lips from speaking guile . 14 Depart from evil , and doe good : seek peace and pursue it . 15 The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous , and his ears are open unto their cry . 16 The face of the Lord is against them that doe evill , to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth . 17 The righteous cry , and the Lord heareth ; and delivereth them out of all their troubles . 18 The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart : and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit . 19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous : but the Lord delivereth him out of them all . 20 He keepeth all his bones : not one of them is broken . 21 Evill shall slay the wicked : and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate . 22 The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants : and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate . Mo. Pr. PSAL. XXXV . David prayes to be defended from Sycophants and informers , and from false friends his secret enemies , who falsely accused him before Saul : he appeales to God the judge of their falshood and his own innocence : he prayes against them , and for his own partie , and promises to give praises to God. PLead my cause ( O Lord ) with them that strive with me : fight against them that fight against me . 2 Take hold of shield and buckler , and stand up for mine help . 3 Draw out also the spear , and stop the way against them that persecute me : say unto my soul , I am thy salvation . 4 Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul : let them be turned back & brought to confusion that devise my hurt . 5 Let them be as chaffe before the wind : and let the angel of the Lord chase them . 6 Let their way be dark and slippery , and let the angel of the Lord persecute them . 7 For without cause have they hid for me their net , in a pit , which without cause they have digged for my soul. 8 Let destruction come upon him at unawares , & let his net that he hath hid , catch himself : into that very destruction let him fall . 9 And my soul shall be joyfull in the Lord , it shall rejoice in his salvation . 10 All my bones shall say , Lord , who is like unto thee , which deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him ; yea , the poor and the needy , from him that spoileth him ? 11 False witnesses did rise up ; they laid to my charge things that I knew not . 12 They rewarded me evill for good , to the spoiling of my soul. 13 But as for me , when they were sick , my clothing was sackcloth : I humbled my soul with fasting , and my prayer returned into mine own bosome . 14 I behaved my self as though he had been my friend , or brother : I bowed down heavily , as one that mourneth for his mother . 15 But in mine adversity they rejoyced , & gathered themselves together : yea , the abjects gathered themselves together against me , and I knew it not , they did tear me and ceased not . 16 With hypocriticall mockers in feasts : they gnashed upon me with their teeth . 17 Lord , how long wilt thou look on ? rescue my soul from their destructions , my darling from the lions . 18 I will give thee thanks in the great cōgregation : I will praise thee amōg much people . 19 Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoyce over me : neither let them wink with the eye , that hate me without a cause . 20 For they speak not peace , but they devise deceitfull matters against them that are quiet in the land . 21 Yea , they opened their mouth wide against me , and said , Aha , aha , our eye hath seen it . 22 This thou hast seen ( O Lord ) keep not silence : O Lord , be not far from me . 23 Stir up thy self , and awake to my judgment , even unto my cause , my God and my Lord. 24 Judge me , O Lord my God , according to thy righteousnesse , and let them not rejoyce over me . 25 Let them not say in their hearts , Ah , so would we have it : let them not say , We have swallowed him up . 26 Let them be ashamed and brought to confusion together that rejoyce at mine hurt : let them be clothed with shame and dishonour that magnifie themselves against me . 27 Let them shout for joy , and be glad , that favour my righteous cause : yea , let them say continually , Let the Lord be magnified , which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant . 28 And my tongue shall speak of thy righteousnesse , and of thy praise all the day long . PSAL. XXXVI . A character of the wicked man : a celebration of the divine goodnesse , justice and truth : God communicates himselfe to his Saints gloriously in the other world : David prayes for the Righteous , and for protection from the violence of the proud . THe transgression of the wicked saith within my heart , that there is no fear of God before his eyes . 2 For he flattereth himself in his own eyes , untill his iniquity be found to be hatefull . 3 The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit : he hath left off to be wise , and to doe good . 4 He deviseth mischief upon his bed , he setteth himself in a way that is not good ; he abhorreth not evil . 5 Thy mercy ( O Lord ) is in the heavens ; and thy faithfulnesse reacheth unto the clouds . 6 Thy righteousnesse is like the great mountains ; thy judgments are a great deep ; O Lord , thou preservest man and beast . 7 How excellent is thy loving kindnesse , O God ? therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings . 8 They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatnesse of thy house : and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures . 9 For with thee is the fountain of life : in thy light shall we see light . 10 O continue thy loving kindnesse unto them that know thee ; and thy righteousnesse to the upright in heart . 11 Let not the foot of pride come against me , and let not the hand of the wicked remove me . 12 There are the workers of iniquity fallen : they are cast down , and shall not be able to rise . Ev. Pr. PSAL. XXXVII . A description of the false prosperity of the wicked : the security and reall happinesse of the Godly manifested even under their afflictions . The differing end of the Godly and the wicked . The Godly are exhorted to piety and patience , and confidence in God : Great promises to the servants of God : great threatnings to the ungodly . FRet not thy self because of evil-doers , neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity . 2 For they shall soon be cut down like the grasse , and wither as the green herb . 3 Trust in the Lord , and doe good , so shalt thou dwell in the land , and verily thou shalt be fed . 4 Delight thy self also in the Lord ; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart . 5 Commit thy way unto the Lord : trust also in him , and he shall bring it to passe . 6 And he shall bring forth thy righteousnesse as the light , and thy judgment as the noon-day . 7 Rest in the Lord , and wait patiently for him : fret not thy self because of him who prospereth in his way , because of the man who bringeth wicked devises to passe . 8 Cease from anger , and forsake wrath : fret not thy self in any wise to do evill . 9 For evil-doers shall be cut off : but those that wait upon the Lord , they shall inherit the earth . 10 For yet a little while and the wicked shall not be : yea , thou shalt diligently consider his place , and it shall not be . 11 But the meek shall inherit the earth : and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace . 12 The wicked plotteth against the just , and gnasheth upon him with his teeth . 13 The Lord shall laugh at him , for he seeth that his day is coming . 14 The wicked have drawn out the sword , and have bent their bow to cast down the poor and needy , and to slay such as be of upright conversation . 15 Their sword shall enter into their own heart : and their bowes shall be broken . 16 A little that a righteous man hath , is better then the riches of many wicked . 17 For the arms of the wicked shall be broken : but the Lord upholdeth the righteous . 18 The Lord knoweth the dayes of the upright : and their inheritance shall be for ever . 19 They shall not be ashamed in the evill time : and in the dayes of famine they shall be satisfied . 20 But the wicked shall perish , and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs , they shall consume : into smoke shall they consume away . 21 The wicked borroweth , and payeth not again : but the righteous sheweth mercy and giveth . 22 For such as be blessed of him , shall inherit the earth : and they that be cursed of him , shall be cut off . 23 The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord : and he delighteth in his way . 24 Though he fall , he shall not be utterly cast down : for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand . 25 I have been young and now am old : yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken , nor his seed begging bread . 26 He is ever mercifull , and lendeth : and his seed is blessed . 27 Depart from evill , and doe good , and dwell for evermore . 28 For the Lord loveth judgment , and forsaketh not his saints , they are preserved for ever : but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off . 29 The righteous shall inherit the land , and dwell therein for ever . 30 The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom● and his tongue talketh of judgment . 31 The law of his God is in his heart , none of his steps shall slide . 32 The wicked watcheth the righteous , and seeketh to slay him . 33 The Lord will not leave him in his hand , nor condemn him when he is judged . 34 Wait on the Lord , and keep his way , and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land : when the wicked are cut off , thou shalt see it . 35 I have seen the wicked in great power : and spreading himself like a green bay-tree . 36 Yet he passed away , and lo he was not : yea , I sought him , but he could not be found . 37 Mark the perfect man , and behold the upright : for the end of that man is peace . 38 But the transgressors shall be destroyed together , the end of the wicked shall be cut off . 39 But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord , he is their strength in the time of trouble . 40 And the Lord shall help them , and deliver them : he shall deliver them from the wicked , and save them because they trust in him . Mo. Pr. PSAL. XXXVIII . David very grievously afflicted by disease , deplores his sins as the cause of his calamity : he complains of his sadnesse and his sicknesse : that he was forsaken by his friends and upbraided by his enemies : he flies to God for help , and begs pardon of his sins and ease from his affliction , The psalm is paenitential . O Lord , rebuke me not in thy wrath : neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure . 2 For thine arrowes stick fast in me , and thy hand presseth me sore . 3 There is no soundnesse in my flesh , because of thine anger : neither is there any rest in my bones , because of my sin . 4 For mine iniquities are gone over mine head : as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me . 5 My wounds stink , and are corrupt , because of my foolishnesse . 6 I am troubled , I am bowed down greatly ; I goe mourning all the day long . 7 For my loyns are filled with a lothsome disease : and there is no soundnesse in my flesh . 8 I am feeble and sore broken : I have roared because of the disquietnesse of my heart . 9 Lord , all my desire is before thee : and my groaning is not hid from thee . 10 My heart panteth , my strength faileth me : as for the light of mine eyes , it also is gone from me . 11 My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore : and my kinsmen stand afar off . 12 They also that seek after my life , lay snares for me : and they that seek my hurt , speak mischievous things , and imagine deceits all the day long . 13 But I , as a deaf man heard not ; and I was as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth . 14 Thus I was as a man that heareth not , and in whose mouth are no reproofs . 15 For in thee , O Lord , do I hope : thou wilt hear me , O Lord my God. 16 For I said , Hear me , lest otherwise they should rejoice over me : when my foot slippeth , they magnifie themselves against me . 17 For I am ready to halt , and my sorrow is continually before me 18 For I will declare mine iniquity , I will be sorry for my sin . 19 But mine enemies are lively , & they are strong : and they that hate me wrongfully are multiplyed . 20 They also that render evill for good , are mine adversaries : because I follow the thing that good is . 21 Forsake me not , O Lord : O my God be not far from me . 22 Make haste to help me , O Lord my salvation . PSAL. XXXIX . David being sick , restrains himself from repining against God , tells of the vanity of life : prayes for deliverance from his affliction , for pardon of his sins , and space and time of further repen●ance . The Psalm is paeniten●ial . I Said , I will take heed to my wayes , that I sin not with my tongue : I will keep my mouth with a bridle , while the wicked is before me . 2 I was dumb with silence , I held my peace even from good , and my sorrow was stirred . 3 My heart was hot within me , while I was musing the fire burned : then spake I with my tongue . 4 Lord , make me to know mine end , and the measure of my dayes , what it is : that I may know how frail I am . 5 Behold , thou hast made my dayes as an hand breadth , and mine age is as nothing before thee : verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity . Selah . 6 Surely every man walketh in a vain shew : surely they are disquieted in vain : he heapeth up riches , and knoweth not who shall gather them . 7 And now , Lord , what wait I for ? my hope is in thee . 8 Deliver me from all my transgressions , make me not the reproch of the foolish . 9 I was dumb , I opened not my mouth , because thou didst it . 10 Remove thy stroak away from me : I am consumed by the blow of thine hand . 11 When thou w th rebukes dost correct man for iniquitie , thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth : surely every man is vanity . Selah . 12 Hear my prayer , O Lord , and give ear unto my cry , hold not thy peace at my tears : for I am a stranger with thee , and a sojourner , as all my fathers were . 13 O spare me , that I may recover strength , before I goe hence , and be no more . PSAL. XL. David praiseth God for his delivery from troubles : and prayeth to be desended from imminent and approching dangers : The obedience of Christ , and his sacrifice , and the abolition of the Mosaic rites are prophetically declar'd . I Waited patiently for the Lord , and he inclined unto me , and heard my cry . 2 He brought me up also out of an horrible pit , out of the mirie clay , and set my feet upon a rock , and established my goings . 3 And he hath put a new song in my mouth , even praise unto our God : many shall see it , and fear , and shall trust in the Lord. 4 Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust : and respecteth not the proud , nor such as turn aside to lies . 5 Many , O Lord my God , are thy wonderful works which thou hast done , and thy thoughts which are to us-ward : they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee : if I would declare and speak of them , they are mo then can be numbred . 6 Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire , mine ears hast thou opened : burnt-offering and sin-offering hast thou not required . 7 Then said I , Lo , I come : in the volume of the book it is written of me : 8 I delight to doe thy will , O my God : yea , thy law is written within my heart . 9 I have preached righteousnesse in the great congregation : lo , I have not refrained my lips , O Lord , thou knowest . 10 I have not hid thy righteousnesse within my heart , I have declared thy faithfulnesse & thy salvation : I have not concealed thy loving kindnesse and thy truth from the great congregation . 11 Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me , O Lord : let thy loving kindnesse and thy truth continually preserve me . 12 For innumerable evils have compassed me about , mine iniquities have taken hold upon me , so that I am not able to look up : they are mo then the hairs of my head , therefore my heart faileth me 13 Be pleased , O Lord , to deliver me : O Lord make haste to help me . 14 Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it : let them be driven backward , and put to shame that wish me evil 15 Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame , that say unto me , Aha , aha . 16 Let all those that seek thee , rejoyce and be glad in thee : let such as love thy salvation , say continually , The Lord be magnified . 17 But I am poor & needy , yet the Lord thinketh upon me : thou art my help and my deliverer , make to tarrying , O my God. Ev. Pr. PSAL. XLI . The blessings and rewards of the Charitable man : David complains that his pretended friends were real enemies : he prayes to God , and gives him thanks for his recovery from his sicknesse . BLessed is he that considereth the poor ; the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble . 2 The Lord will preserve him and keep him alive , and he shall be blessed upon the earth ; and thou wilt not deliver him into the will of his enemies . 3 The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing : thou wilt make all his bed in his sicknesse . 4 I said , Lord be mercifull unto me , heal my soul , for I have sinned against thee . 5 Mine enemies speak evill of me : when shall he die , and his name perish ? 6 And if he come to see me , he speaketh vanitie : his heart gathereth iniquity to it self , when he goeth abroad , he telleth it . 7 All that hate me whisper together against me : against me do they devise my hurt . 8 An evill disease , say they , cleaveth fast unto him : and now that he lieth , he shall rise up no more . 9 Yea , mine own familiar friend in whom I trusted , which did eat of my bread , hath lift up his heel against me . 10 But thou , O Lord , be mercifull unto me , and raise me up , that I may requite them . 11 By this I know that thou favourest me , because mine enemie doth not triumph over me . 12 And as for me , thou upholdest me in mine integritie : and settest me before thy face for ever . 13 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel , from everlasting , and to everlasting . Amen and amen . PSAL. XLII . David ( as some suppose ) being driven beyond Jordan and forc'd to be absent from the place of the Arke and the publike service of God , complains and longs and prayes to be restored : he is troubled that his enemies suppose him forsaken of his God : comforts himself in hope of restitution to the place of Gods service : he mingles his complaints with hopes : and at last comforts himself in God , and there rests . AS the hart panteth after the water-brooks , so panteth my soul after thee , O God. 2 My soul thirsteth for God , for the living God : when shall I come and appear before God ? 3 My tears have been my meat day and night , while they continually say unto me , Where is thy God ? 4 When I remember these things , I pour out my soul in me ; for I had gone with the multitude , I went with them to the house of God ; with the voice of joy and praise , with a multitude that kept holy-day . 5 Why art thou cast down , O my soul ? and why art thou disquieted in me ? hope thou in God , for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance . 6 O my God , my soul is cast down within me : therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan , and of the Hermonites from the hill Mizar . 7 Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy water-spouts : all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me . 8 Yet the Lord will command his loving kindnesse in the day-time , and in the night his song shall be with me , and my prayer unto the God of my life . 9 I will say unto God , My rock , why hast thou forgotten me ? why goe I mourning , because of the oppression of the enemie ? 10 As with a sword in my bones , mine enemies reproch me : while they say daily unto me , Where is thy God ? 11 Why art thou cast down , O my soul ? and why art thou disquieted within me ? hope thou in God , for I shall yet praise him , who is the health of my countenance , and my God. PSAL. XLIII . This psalm is an appendix to the former , and of the same argument . JUdge me , O God , and plead my cause against an ungodly nation : O deliver me from the deceitfull and unjust man. 2 For thou art the God of my strength , why dost thou cast me off ? why goe I mourning because of the oppression of the enemie ? 3 O send out thy light and thy truth ; let them lead me , let them bring me unto thy holy hil , & to thy tabernacles . 4 Then will I goe unto the altar of God , unto God my exceeding joy : yea , upon the harp will I praise thee , O God , my God. 5 Why art thou cast down , O my soul ? and why art thou disquieted within me ? hope in God , for I shall yet praise him , who is the health of my countenance , and my God. Mo. Pr. PSAL. XLIV . The Church under persecution , and in dispersion complains sadly to God , and craves his defence and aide against her enemies : because she suffers for the cause of God. WEE have heard with our ears , O God , our fathers have told us , what work thou didst in their dayes in the times of old . 2 How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand , and plantedst them ; how thou didst afflict the people , and cast them out . 3 For they god not the land in possession by their own sword , neither did their own arm save them : but thy right hand , and thine arm , and the light of thy countenance , because thou hadst a favour unto them . 4 Thou art my king , O God , command deliverances for Jacob. 5 Through thee will we push down our enemies : through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us . 6 For I will not trust in my bow , neither shall my sword save me . 7 But thou hast saved us from our enemies , and hast put them to shame that hated us . 8 In God we boast all the day long : and praise thy name for ever . Selah . 9 But thou hast cast off , and put us to shame ; and goest not forth with our armies . 10 Thou makest us to turn back from the enemy : and they which hate us spoil for themselves . 11 Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat : and hast scattered us among the heathen . 12 Thou sellest thy people for nought , and dost not increase thy wealth by their price . 13 Thou makest us a reproch to our neighbours , a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us . 14 Thou makest us a by-word among the heathen : a shaking of the head among the people . 15 My confusion is continually before me , and the shame of my face hath covered me . 16 For the voice of him that reprocheth and blasphemeth : by reason of the enemie and avenger . 17 All this is come upon us ; yet have we not forgotten thee , neither have we dealt falsly in thy covenant . 18 Our heart is not turned back : neither have our steps declined from thy way . 19 Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons , and covered us with the shadow of death . 20 If we have forgotten the name of our God , or stretched out our hands to a strange god : 21 Shall not God search this out ? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart . 22 Yea , for thy sake are we killed all the day long : we are counted as sheep for the slaughter . 23 Awake , why sleepest thou , O Lord ? arise , cast us not off for ever . 24 Wherefore hidest thou thy face ? and forgettest our affliction , and our oppression ? 25 For our soul is bowed down to the dust ; our belly cleaveth unto the earth . 26 Arise for out help , and redeem us for thy mercies sake . PSAL. XLV . A marriage song between Christ & his Church : the glories of the Bridegroom , and the beauties of the spirituall Bride . MY heart is enditing a good matter : I speak of the things which I have made touching the king : my tongue is the pen of a ready writer . 2 Thou art fairer then the children of men : grace is poured into thy lips : therefore God hath blessed thee for ever . 3 Gird thy sword upon thy thigh , O most mighty : with thy glory and thy majesty . 4 And in thy majesty ride prosperously , because of truth and meeknesse , and righteousnesse : and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things . 5 Thine arrowes are sharp in the heart of the kings enemies ; whereby the people fall under thee . 6 Thy throne ( O God ) is for ever and ever : the sceptre of thy kingdome is a right sceptre . 7 Thou lovest righteousnesse , and hatest wickednesse : therefore God , thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladnesse above thy fellowes . 8 All thy garments smell of myrrhe , and aloes , and cassia ; out of the ivorie palaces , whereby they have made thee glad . 9 Kings daughters were among thy honourable women : upon thy right hand did stand the queen is gold of Ophir . 10 Hearken ( O daughter ) and consider , and incline thine ear , forget also thine own people , and thy fathers house . 11 So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty : for he is thy Lord , and worship thou him . 12 And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift , even the rich among the people shall intreat thy favour . 13 The kings daughter is : all glorious within ; her clothing is of wrought gold . 14 She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needle-work : the virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto thee . 15 With gladnesse & rejoycing shall they be brought : they shall enter into the kings palace 16 In stead of thy fathers shall be thy children , when thou mayest make princes in all the earth . 17 I will make thy name to be remembred in all generations : therefore shall the people praise thee for ever and ever . PSAL. XLVI . A thanksgiving after victory obtained against the Enemies of the Church : an act of trust and confidence in God. GOd is our refuge and strength : a very present help in trouble 2 Therefore will not we fear , though the earth be removed : and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea . 3 Though the waters thereof roar , and be troubled , though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof . Selah . 4 There is a river , the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God : the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High. 5 God is in the midst of her : she shall not be moved ; God shall help her , and that right early . 6 The heathen raged , the kingdoms were moved : he uttered his voyce , the earth melted . 7 The Lord of hosts is with us : the God of Jacob is our refuge . Selah . 8 Come , behold the works of the Lord , what desolation he hath made in the earth . 9 He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth : he breaketh the bow , & cutteth the spear in sunder , he burneth the chariot in the fire . 10 Be still , and know that I am God : I will be exalted among the heathen , I will be exalted in the earth . 11 The Lord of hosts is with us : the God of Jacob is our refuge . Selah . Ev. Pr. PSAL. XLVII . The Church of the Jewes is exhorted to worship and confesse Christ : whose dominion is over the Jewes and Gentiles . O clap your hands ( all ye people ) shout unto God with the voyce of triumph . 2 For the Lord most high is terrible ; he is a great king over all the earth . 3 He shall subdue the people under us , and the nations under our feet . 4 He shall choose our inheritance for us , the excellency of Jacob whom he loved . Selah . 5 God is gone up with a shout , the Lord with the sound of a trumpet . 6 Sing praises to God , sing praises : sing praises unto our king , sing praises . 7 For God is the king of all the earth , sing ye praises with understanding . 8 Ged reigneth over the heathen : God sitteth upon the throne of his holinesse . 9 The princes of the people are gathered together , even the people of the God of Abraham : for the shields of the earth belong unto God : he is greatly exalted . PSAL. XLVIII . A psalme of thanksgiving for Hezekiahs delivery from Sennacherib : The description of his overthrow : a celebration of the Divine benefit : an exhortotion of the Jewes to rejoyce in God● and to repair Jerusalem . GReat is the Lord , and greatly to be praised in the city of our God , in the mountain of his holinesse . 2 Beautifull for situation , the joy of the whole earth is mount Sion , on the sides of the north , the city of the great king . 3 God is known in her palaces for a refuge . 4 For lo , the kings were assembled , they passed by together . 5 They saw in , and so they marvelled , they were troubled and hasted away . 6 Fear took hold upon them there , and pain , as of a woman in travail . 7 Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east-wind . 8 As we have heard , so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts , iu the city of our God , God will establish it for ever . Selah . 9 We have thought of thy loving kindnesse , O God , in the midst of thy temple . 10 According to thy name , O God , so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth : thy right hand is full of righteousnesse . 11 Let mount Sion rejoyce , let the daughters of Judah be glad , because of thy judgments . 12 Walk about Sion , and goe round about her : tell the towers thereof . 13 Mark ye well her bulwarks , consider her palaces ; that ye may tell it to the generation following . 14 For this God is our God for ever and ever : he will be our guide even unto death . PSAL. XLIX . The danger of trusting in riches : they cannot redeeme a life : rich men die like the poore : rich men are not to be envied : riches are an evill temptation . HEar this all ye people , give eare all ye inhabitants of the world . 2 Both low and high , rich and poor together . 3 My mouth shall speak of wisdome : and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding . 4 I will incline mine eare to a parable ; I will open my dark saying upon the harp . 5 Wherefore should I fear in the dayes of evil , when the iniquity of my heels shall compasse me about ? 6 They that trust in their wealth , and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches : 7 None of them can by any means redeem his brother , nor give to God a ransome for him : 8 ( For the redemption of their soul is precious , and it ceaseth for ever ) 9 That he should still live for ever , and not see corruption . 10 For he seeth that wise men die , likewise the fool and the brutish person perish , and leave their wealth to others . 11 Their inward thought is , that their houses shall continue for ever , and their dwelling-places to all generations ; they call their lands after their own names . 12 Neverthelesse , man being in honour , abideth not : he is like the beasts that perish . 13 This their way is their folly ; yet their posterity approve their sayings . Selah . 14 Like sheep they are laid in the grave , death shall feed on them ; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning , & their beauty shall consume in the grave , from their dwelling . 15 But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave ; for he shall receive me . Selah . 16 Be not thou afraid when one is made rich , when the glory of his house is increased : 17 For when he dyeth , he shall carry nothing away : his glory shall not descend after him . 18 Though whiles he lived , he blessed his soul : and men will praise thee , when thou dost well to thy self . 19 He shall goe to the generation of his fathers , he shall never see light . 20 Man that is in honour and understandeth not , is like the beasts that perish . Mo. Pr. PSAL. L. A Prophesie of the abrogation of the Law , and the preaching of the Gospel : the sacrifices of Moses , & the rites of hypocrites are unprofitable : praise and prayer and obedience are the best sacrifices : the wicked preachers are reprov'd . THE mighty God , even the Lord hath spoken , and called the earth from the rising of the sun , unto the going down thereof . 2 Out of Sion the perfection of beauty , God hath shined . 3 Our God shall come , & shall not keep silence : a fire shall devour before him , and it shall be very tempestuous round about him . 4 He shall call to the heavens from above , & to the earth , that he may judge his people . 5 Gather my saints together unto me : those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice . 6 And the heavens shall declare his righteousnesse : for God is judge himself . Selah . 7 Hear , O my people , and I will speak ; O Israel , and I will testifie against thee : I am God , even thy God. 8 I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices , or thy burnt-offerings , to have been continually before me . 9 I will take no bullock out of thy house , nor he-goats out of thy folds . 10 For every beast of the forest is mine , and the cattel upon a thousand hils . 11 I know all the fowls of the mountains : and the wilde beasts of the field are mine . 12 If I were hungry , I would not tell thee , for the world is mine , and the fulnesse thereof 13 Will I eat the flesh of buls , or drink the blood of goats ? 14 Offer unto God thanksgiving , and pay thy vows unto the most High. 15 And call upon me in the day of trouble ; I will deliver thee , and thou shalt glorifie me . 16 But unto the wicked God saith , What hast thou to doe to declare my statutes , or that thou shouldst take my covenant in thy mouth ? 17 Seeing thou hatest instruction , and castest my words behind thee . 18 When thou sawest a thief , then thou consentedst with him , and hast been partaker with adulterers . 19 Thou givest thy mouth to evill , and thy tongue frameth deceit . 20 Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother : thou slanderest thine own mothers son . 21 These things hast thou done , and I kept silence : thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thy self : but I will reprove thee , and set them in order before thine eyes . 22 Now consider this , ye that forget God , lest I tear you in pieces , and there be none to deliver . 23 Who so offereth praise , glorifieth me : and to him that ordereth his conversation aright ; will I shew the salvation of God. PSAL. LI. David upon Nathans reproving him in the matter of Uriah and Bathsheba , confesseth his sin , humbles himself , prayes for pardon , and for the restitution of Gods holy Spirit , for the taking away his sin , and the cleansing of his soul : He prays for , and prophetically describes the Repentance Evangelical and the time of the Gospel , and the kingdome of the Messias . The psalm is paenitentiall . HAve mercy on me , O God , according to thy loving kindnesse : according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions . 2 Wash me throughly from mine iniquity , and cleanse me from my sin . 3 For I acknowledge my transgressions : and my sin is ever before me . 4 Against thee , thee only have I sinned , and done this evil in thy sight : that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest , and be clear when thou judgest . 5 Behold , I was shapen in iniquity : and in sin did my mother conceive me . 6 Behold , thou desirest truth in the inward parts : and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdome . 7 Purge me with hyssop , and I shall be clean : wash me , and I shall be whiter then snow . 8 Make me to hear joy and gladnesse : that the bones which thou hast broken , may rejoyce . 9 Hide thy face from my sins ; and blot out all mine iniquities . 10 Create in me a cleane heart , O God ; and renew a right spirit within me . 11 Cast me not away from thy presence ; and take not thy holy spirit from me . 12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation : and uphold me with thy free spirit . 13 Then will I teach transgressors thy wayes , and sinners shall be converted unto thee . 14 Deliver me from blood-guiltinesse , O God , thou God of my salvation : and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousnesse . 15 O Lord open thou my lips , and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise . 16 For thou desirest not sacrifice , else would I give it : thou delightest not in burnt-offering . 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit : a broken and a contrite heart , O God , thou wilt not despise . 18 Doe good in thy good pleasure unto Sion : build thou the walls of Jerusalem . 19 Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousnesse , with burnt-offering and whole burnt-offering : then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar . PSAL. LII . Upon Doegs informing Saul against Abimelech and the Priests , and their sad death consequent , David exclaims against the falshood and fact of Doeg ; denounces the Divine Judgments against him : he comforts the godly ; and incourages himself in hope of his own prosperity through the goodnesse of God. WHyboastest thou thy self in mischief , O mighty man ? the goodnesse of God endureth continually . 2 Thy tongue deviseth mischiefes : like a sharp rasor , working deceitfully . 3 Thou lovest evill more then good : and lying rather then to speak righteousnesse . Selah . 4 Thou lovest all devouring words , O thou deceitfull tongue . 5 God shall likewise destroy thee for ever , he shall take thee away , and pluck thee out of thy dwelling place , and root thee out of the land of the living . Selah . 6 The righteous also shall see , and fear , and shall laugh at him . 7 Lo , this is the man that made not God his strength : but trusted in the abundance of his riches , and strengthened himself in his wickednesse . 8 But I am like a green olive-tree in the house of God : I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever . 9 I will praise thee for ever , because thou hast done it : and I will wait on thy name , for it is good before thy saints . Ev. Pr. PSAL. LIII . The practical Atheist is describ'd : The universal iniquity of the world : he ●●rophesies of the miseries of the Church under Antiochus : and encourages them to expect deliverance from the goodnesse of God. THe fool hath said in his heart , There is no God ; corrupt are they , and have done abominable iniquity : there is none that doth good . 2 God looked down from heaven upon the children of men , to see if there were any that did understand , that did seek God. 3 Every one of them is gone back , they are altogether become filthy ; there is none that doth good , no not one . 4 Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge ? who eat up my people , as they eate bread ; they have not called upon God. 5 There were they in great fear , where no fear was : for God hath scattered the bones of him that encampeth against thee , thou hast put them to shame , because God hath despised them . 16 O that the salvation of Israel were come out of Sion ! whē God bringeth back the captivity of his people , Jacob shall rejoyce , and Israel shall be glad . PSAL. LIV. David complains of his being discover'd to Saul by the men of Ziph : he prayes for help from God , and to be avenged of his enemies : promises to glorifie God upon his delivery . SAve me , O God , by thy name , and judge me by thy strength . 2 Hear my prayer , O God ; give eare to the words of my mouth . 3 For strangers are risen up against me , and oppressors seek after my soul ; they have not set God before them . Selah . 4 Behold God is mine helper : the Lord is with them that uphold my soul. 5 He shall reward evill unto mine enemies ; cut them off in thy truth . 6 I will freely sacrifice unto thee ; I will praise thy name ( O Lord ) for it is good . 7 For he hath delivered me out of all trouble : and mine eye hath seen his desire upon mine enemies . PSAL. LV. David upon his fear of being discover'd by the men of Keilah , or upon the conjunction of Achitophol with Absalom , prays to God for his own safety , and the division and confusion of his enemies counsel : he complains of his own restlesse and insecure condition ; the falsenesse of his supposed friends : encourages himself and others to put their whole trust in God : and foretels the suddain and immature death of his Enemies . GIve ear to my prayer , O God : and hide not thy self from my supplication . 2 Attend unto me , and hear me : I mourn in my complaint , and make a noise , 3 Because of the voice of the enemie , because of the oppression of the wicked : for they cast iniquity upon me , & in wrath they hate me . 4 My heart is sore pained within me : and the terrors of death are faln upon me . 5 Fearfulnesse and trembling are come upon me , and horror hath overwhelmed me . 6 And I said , O that I had wings like a dove ; for then would I flie away , and be at rest . 7 Lo then would I wander far off , and remain in the wildernesse . Selah . 8 I would hasten my escape from the windie storm and tempest . 9 Destroy , O Lord , & divide their tongues : for I have seen violence and strife in the citie . 10 Day and night they go about it upon the wals thereof : mischief also & sorrow are in the midst of it . 11 Wickednesse is in the midst thereof : deceit and guile depart not from her streets . 12 For it was not an enemie that reproched me , then I could have born it ; neither was it he that hated me , that did magnifie himself against me , then I would have hid my self from him . 13 But it was thou , a man , mine equall , my guide , and mine acquaintance . 14 We took sweet counsell together , and walked unto the house of God in company . 15 Let death seise upon them , & let them goe down quick into hell : for wickednesse is in their dwellings , and among them . 16 As for me , I will call upon God : and the Lord shall save me . 17 Evening & morning , and at noon will I pray , and cry aloud : and and he shall hear my voice . 18 He hath delivered my soul in peace from the battel that was against me : for there were many with me . 19 God shall hear & afflict them , even he that abideth of old , Selah : because they have no changes , therefore they fear not God. 20 He hath put forth his hands against such as be at peace with him : he hath broken his covenant . 21 The words of his mouth were smoother then butter , but war was in his heart : his words were softer then oil , yet were they drawn swords . 22 Cast thy burden upon the Lord , and he shall sustain thee : he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved . 23 But thou , O God , shalt bring them down into the pit of destruction : bloody and deceitfull men shall not live out half their dayes , but I will trust in thee . Mo. Pr. PSAL. LVI . David being in Gath , and known by the Courtiers of Achish , prayes to God to be defended from his cruell enemies : complains of their snares and their injuries : comforts himself in God : and promises to give him thanks and praise for his delivery . BE mercifull unto me , O God , for man would swallow me up : he fighting daily oppresseth me . 2 Mine enemies would daily swallow me up : for they be many that fight against me , O thou most High. 3 What time I am afraid , I will trust in thee . 4 In God I will praise his word , in God I have put my trust , I will not fear what flesh can doe unto me . 5 Every day they wrest my words : all their thoughts are against me for evill . 6 They gather thēselves together , they hide themselves , they mark my steps when they wait for my soul. 7 Shall they escape by iniquity ? in thine anger cast down the people , O God. 8 Thou tellest my wandrings , put thou my tears into thy bottle : are they not in thy book ? 9 When I cry unto thee , then shall mine enemies turn back : this I know , for God is for me . 10 In God wil I praise his word : in the Lord will I praise his word . 11 In God have I put my trust : I will not be afraid what man can doe unto me . 12 Thy vowes are upon me , O God : I will render praises unto thee . 13 For thou hast delivered my soul from death : wilt not thou deliver my feet from falling , that I may walk before God in the light of the living ? PSAL. LVII . When David had been hid in a cave in the desert of Engedi he prayes this prayer to be deliver'd from Saul : complains of his sad condition : describes their impiety : and rejoyces in God , and adores his greatnesse . BE mercifull unto me , O God , be mercifull unto me , for my soul trusteth in thee : yea in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge , untill these calamities be overpast . 2 I will cry unto God most high : unto God that performeth all things for me . 3 He shall send from heaven & save me from the reproch of him that would swallow me up ; Selah . God shall send forth his mercy and his truth . 4 My soul is among lions , and I lie even among them that are set on fire , even the sons of men , whose teeth are spears and arrows , and their tongue a sharp sword . 5 Be thou exalted , O God , above the heavens : let thy glory be above all the earth . 6 They have prepared a net for my steps , my soul is bowed down : they have digged a pit before me , into the midst whereof they are faln themselves . Selah . 7 My heart is fixed , O God , my heart is fixed : I will sing and give praise . 8 Awake up my glory , awake psalterie and harp : I my self will awake early . 9 I will praise thee , O Lord , among the people : I will sing unto thee among the nations 10 For thy mercy is great unto the heavens , and thy truth unto the clouds . 11 Be thou exalted , O God , above the heavens : let thy glory be above all the earth . PSAL. LVIII . When David was by Abner and Sauls Councel condemned of Treason , be complains of their injustice : prayes against them , and foretells their destruction . DO ye indeed speak righteousnesse , O congregation ? doe ye judge uprightly , O ye sons of men ? 2 Yea , in heart you work wickednesse , you weigh the violence of your hands in the earth . 3 The wicked are estranged from the womb , they goe astray , assoon as they be born , speaking lies . 4 Their poyson is like the poyson of a serpent ; they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear : 5 Which will not hearken to the voice of the charmer , charming never so wisely . 6 Break their teeth , O God , in their mouth : break out the teeth of the young lions , O Lord. 7 Let them melt away as waters , which run continually : when he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows , let them be as cut in pieces . 8 As a snail which melteth , let every one of them passe away : like the untimely birth of a woman , that they may not see the sun . 9 Before your pots can feel the thorns , he shall take them away as with a whirlwind , both living , and in his wrath . 10 The righteous shall rejoyce when he seeth the vengeance : he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked . 11 So that a man shall say , Verily there is a reward for the righteous : verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth . Ev. Pr. PSAL. LIX . When David was besieged by Sauls , officers in his own house , he prayed this Psalm to be delivered from them : he prayes against them : and having by Michols arts escaped , promises to sing praises to God. DEliver me from mine enemies , O my God : defend me from them that rise up against me . 2 Deliver me from the workers of iniquity , and save me from bloody men . 3 For ●o , they lie in wait for my soul ; the mighty are gathered against me ; not for my transgression , nor for my sin , O Lord. 4 They run and prepare themselves without my fault : awake to help me , and behold . 5 Thou therefore , O Lord God of hosts , the God of Israel , awake to visit all the heathen : be not mercifull to any wicked transgressors . Selah . 6 They return at evening : they make a noise like a dog , and go round about the city . 7 Behold they belch out with their mouth : swords are in their lips ; for who , say they , doth hear ? 8 But thou , O Lord , shalt laugh at them ; thou shalt have all the heathen in derision . 9 Because of his strength will I wait upon thee : for God is my defence . 10 The God of my mercy shall prevent me : God shall let me see my desire upon mine enemies . 11 Slay them not , left my people forget : scatter them by thy power ; and bring them down , O Lord our shield . 12 For the sin of their mouth , and the words of their lips , let them even be taken in their pride : and for cursing and lying which they speak . 13 Consume them in wrath , consume them , that they may not be : and let them know that God ruleth in Jacob , unto the ends of the earth . Selah . 14 And at evening let them return , and let them make a noise like a dog , and goe round about the city . 15 Let them wander up and down for meat , and grudge if they be not satisfied . 16 But I will sing of thy power , yea I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning : for thou hast been my defence and refuge in the day of my trouble . 17 Unto thee , O my strength , wil I sing : for God is my defence , and the God of my mercy . PSAL. LX. David prayed this in his expedition against the Syrians and Idumeans : he expostulates with God as if he had left his people : comforts himself with the word of God spoken by Samuel , that h● should possesse all the land : h● prayes to God for help , and puts his trust in him . O God , thou hast cast us off ; thou hast scattered us , thou hast been displeased , O turn thy self to us again . 2 Thou hast made the earth to tremble ; thou hast broken it : heal the breaches thereof , for it shaketh . 3 Thou hast shewed thy people hard things : thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment . 4 Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee : that it may be displayed because of the truth . Selah . 5 That thy beloved may be delivered ; save with thy right hand , and hear me . 6 God hath spoken in his holinesse , I will rejoyce : I will divide Shechem , and mete out the valley of Succoth . 7 Gilead is mine , and Manasseh is mine , Ephraim also is the strength of mine head ; Judah is my law-giver . 8 Moab is my washpot , over Edom will I cast out my shoe : Philistia , triumph thou because of me . 9 Who will bring me into the strong city ? who will lead me into Edom ? 10 Wilt not thou , O God , which hadst cast us off ? and thou , O God , which didst not go out with our armies ? 11 Give us help frō trouble : for vain is the help of man. 12 Through God we shall doe valiantly : for he it is that shall tread down our enemies . PSAL. LXI . David wandring up and down Palestine in his flight from Saul [ or Absalom ] impsores the aid of God , which ever was his sa●ctuary : he promis●● to himself return to his city , and the Tabernacle ; and the lengthning of his life and kingdome : promises thankfulnesse to God. ] HEar my cry , O God , attend unto my prayer . 2 From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee , when my heart is overwhelmed : lead me to the rock that is higher then I. 3 For thou hast been a shelter for me , and a strong tower from the enemie . 4 I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever : I will trust in the covert of thy wings . Selah . 5 For thou , O God , hast heard my vows : thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear thy name . 6 Thou wilt prolong the kings life : and his years as many generations . 7 He shall abide before God for ever : O prepare mercy and truth which may preserve him . 8 So will I sing praise unto thy name for ever , that I may daily perform my vows . Mo. Pr. PSAL. LXII . David in his troubles upbraids to his enemies their falshood and their violence : God is the onely refuge and security of the faithfull : no trust to be had in man : much lesse in sin : God is mercifull and just in giving reward . TRuly my soul waiteth upon God : from him cometh my salvation . 2 He onely is my rock and my salvation : he is my defence ; I shall not be greatly moved . 3 How long will ye imagin mischief against a man ? ye shall be slain all of you ; as a bowing wall shall ye be , and as a tottering fence . 4 They onely consult to cast him down from his excellencie , they delight in lies : they blesse with their mouth , but they curse inwardly . Selah . 5 My soul , wait thou onely upon God : for my expectation is from him . 6 He onely is my rock and my salvation ; he is my defence ; I shall not be moved . 7 In God is my salvation & my glory : the rock of my strength , & my refuge is in God. 8 Trust in him at all times , ye people , pour out your heart before him : God is a refuge for us . Selah . 9 Surely men of low degree are vanity , and men of high degree are a lie : to be laid in the balance they are altogether lighter then vanity . 10 Trust not in oppression , and become not vain in robbery : if riches increase , set not your heart upon them . 11 God hath spoken once ; twice have I heard this , that power belongeth unto God. 12 Also unto thee , O Lord , belongeth mercy : for thou rendrest to every man according to his work . PSAL. LXIII . David being compel'd to fly complaines of his forc'd absence from Gods Tabernacle , and the pleasures and the festivities of religion : promises at his return to fit himself with the joyes which he then wanted : comforts himself with the memory of the deliverances he had formerly . O God , thou art my God , early will I seek thee : my soul thirsteth for thee , my flesh longeth for thee in a drie and thirsty land , where no water is . 2 To see thy power and thy glory , so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary . 3 Because thy loving kindnesse is better then life : my lips shall praise thee . 4 Thus will I blesse thee while I live : I will lift up my hands in thy name . 5 My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatnesse ; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyfull lips : 6 When I remember thee upon my bed , and meditate on thee in the night watches . 7 Because thou hast been my help ; therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoyce . 8 My soul followeth hard after thee : thy right hand upholdeth me . 9 But those that seek my soul to destroy it , shall goe into the lower parts of the earth . 10 They shall fall by the sword , they shall be a portion for foxes . 11 But the king shall rejoyce in God , every one that sweareth by him shall glory : but the mouth of them that speak lies , shall be stopped . PSAL. LXIV . David in troubles from the perfecutions of Saul flyes to God : he prayes to be defended from their snares and assemblings : he describes their evil tongues : foretells their destruction and calamity : it shall proceed from God , and be confessed to do so : he promises that himself and all the true worshippers of God shall rejoyce in him : and their hopes and confidence shall increase . HEar my voyce , O God , in my prayer ; preserve my life from fear of the enemy . 2 Hide me from the secret counsell of the wicked ; from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity : 3 Who whettheir tongue like a sword , and bend their bowes to shoot their arrows , even bitter words . 4 That they may shoot in secret at the perfect : suddenly doe they shoot at him , and fear not . 5 They encourage themselves in an evil matter : they commune of laying snares privily , they say , Who shall see them ? 6 They search out iniquities , they accomplish a diligent search : both the inward thought of every one of them , and the heart is deep . 7 But God shall shoot at them with an arrow , suddenly shall they be wounded . 8 So they shall make their own tongue to fall upon thēselves : all that see them , shal flee away . 9 And all men shall fear , and shall declare the work of God ; for they shall wisely consider of his doing . 10 The righteous shal be glad in the Lord , and shall trust in him ; and all the upright in heart shall glory . Ev. Pr. PSAL. LXV . God is praised for his blessings to his Chu●ch ; temporall blessings and spirituall : a thanksgiving for rain and plenty . PRaise waiteth for thee , O God , in Sion : and unto thee shall the vow be performed . 2 O thou that hearest prayer , unto thee shall all flesh come . 3 Iniquities prevaile against me : as for our transgressions , thou shalt purge them away . 4 Blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee , that he may dwell in thy courts : we shall be satisfied with the goodnesse of thy house , even of thy holy temple . 5 By terrible things in righteousnesse wilt thou answer us , O God of our salvation : who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth , and of them that are afarre off upon the sea . 6 Which by his strength setteth fast the mountains ; being girded with power . 7 Which stilleth the noise of the seas , the noise of their waves , and the tumult of the people . 8 They also that dwell in the uttermost parts are afraid at thy tokens ; thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoyce . 9 Thou visitest the earth and waterest it : thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God which is full of water : thou preparest them corn , when thou hast so provided for it . 10 Thou waterest the ridges thereof abundantly : thou settlest the furrows thereof : thou makest it soft with showres , thou blessest the springing thereof . 11 Thou crownest the year with thy goodnesse , and thy paths drop fatnesse . 12 They drop upon the pastures of the wildernesse : and the little hills rejoyce on every side . 13 The pastures are clothed with flocks ; the valleys also are covered over with corn ; they shout for joy , they also sing . PSAL. LXVI . An exhortation to all people to glorifie the name of God : particularly for his blessings to the sons of Israel : God trieth his children ; a commemoration of Gods acts of loving kindnesse in particular to the Author of this psalme ( who was not David ) God regards not the prayers of the wicked . MAke a joyful noise unto God , all ye lands . 2 Sing forth the honor of his name : make his praise glorious . 3 Say unto God , How terrible art thou in thy works ! through the greatnesse of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee . 4 All the earth shall worship thee , and shall sing unto thee , they shall sing to thy name . Selah . 5 Come and see the works of God : he is terrible in his doing toward the children of men . 6 He turned the sea into dry land : they went through the flood on foot , there did we rejoyce in him . 7 He ruleth by his power for ever , his eyes behold the nations : let not the rebellious exalt themselves . Selah . 8 O blesse our God ye people , and make the voyce of his praise to be heard . 9 Which holdeth our soul in life , and suffereth not our feet to be moved . 10 For thou O God , hast proved us : thou hast tryed us , as silver is tryed . 11 Thou broughtest us into the net , thou laidst affliction upon our loyns . 12 Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads , we went through fire & through water : but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place . 13 I will goe into thy house with burnt-offerings : I will pay thee my vows , 14 Which my lips have uttered , and my mouth hath spoken when I was in trouble . 15 I will offer unto thee burnt-offerings of fatlings , with the incense of rams : I will offer bullocks with goats . Selah . 16 Come and hear all ye that fear God , and I will declare what he hath done for my soul. 17 I cryed unto him with my mouth , and he was extolled with my tongue . 18 If I regard iniquity in my heart : the Lord will not hear me . 19 But verily God hath heard me : he hath attended unto the voice of my prayer . 20 Blessed be God , which hath not turned away my prayer , nor his mercy from me . PSAL. LXVII . The Church prayes that the kingdome of God may be manifested amongst the Jews , and be spread unto the Gentiles : and be declared by blessings spirituall and temporall : and that God may be exalted in all . GOd be mercifull unto us , and blesse us : and cause his face to shine upon us . Selah . 2 That thy way may be known upon earth , thy saving health among all nations . 3 Let the people praise thee , O God ; let all the people praise thee . 4 O let the nations be glad and sing for joy : for thou shalt judge the people righteously , and govern the nations upon earth . Selah . 5 Let the people praise thee , O God ; let al the people praise thee 6 Then shall the earth yeeld her increase ; and God , even our own God shall blesse us . 7 God shall blesse us , and all the ends of the earth shall fear him . Mo. Pr. PSAL. LXVIII . David prophecies of Christs triumph over his Enemies : of his resurrection and ascention ; of the sending the Holy Ghost : of the gathering his Church ; the calling the Gentiles : the excision of the Jewes : and the blessings which shal be to all Christs servants under his reign : an act of the glorification of God. LEt God arise , let his enemies be scattered : let them also that hate him , flee before him . 2 As smoke is driven away , so drive thē away : as wax melteth before the sire , so let the wicked perish at the presence of God. 3 But let the righteous be glad : let them rejoyce before God , yea let them exceedingly rejoyce . 4 Sing unto God , sing praises to his name : extol him that rideth upon the heavens by his name JAH , & rejoyce before him . 5 A father of the fatherlesse , and a judge of the widows , is God in his holy habitation . 6 God setteth the solitarie in families : he bringeth out those w ch are bound with chains , but the rebellious dwell in a dry land . 7 O God , when thou wentest●● forth before thy people ; when thou didst march through the wildernesse ; Selah . 8 The earth shook , the heavens also dropped at the presence of God ; even Sinai it self was moved at the presence of God , the God of Israel . 9 Thou , O God , didst send a plentifull rain , whereby thou didst confirm thine inheritance , when it was weary 10 Thy congregation hath dwelt therein : thou , O God , hast prepared of thy goodnesse for the poor . 11 The Lord gave the word , great was the company of those that published it . 12 Kings of armies did flee apace : and she that tarried at home , divided the spoil . 13 Though ye have lien among the pots , yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove covered with silver , and her feathers with yellow gold . 14 When the Almighty scattered kings in it , it was white as snow in Salmon . 15 The hill of God is as the hill of Bashan , an high hill as the hill of Bashan . 16 Why leap ye , ye high hils ? this is the hill which God desireth to dwel in , yea the Lord will dwel in it for ever . 17 The chariots of God are twenty thousand , even thousands of angels : the Lord is among them as in Sinai , in the holy place . 18 Thou hast ascended on high , thou hast led captivity captive : thou hast received gifts for men ; yea , for the rebellious also , that the Lord God might dwell among them . 19 Blessed be the Lord , who daily loadeth us with benefits , even the God of our salvation . Selah . 20 He that is our God , is the God of salvation ; and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death . 21 But God shall wound the head of his enemies : and the hairy scalp of such an one as goeth on still in his trespasses . 22 The Lord said , I will bring again from Bashan , I will bring my people again from the depths of the sea : 23 That thy foot may be dipped in the blood of thine enemies , and the tongue of thy dogs in the same . 24 They have seen thy goings , O God , even the goings of my God , my king , in the sanctuary . 25 The singers went before , the players on instruments followed after ; amongst them were the damsels playing with timbrels . 26 Blesse ye God in the congregations , even the Lord from the fountain of Israel . 27 There is little Benjamin with their ruler , the princes of Judah and their counsel , the princes of Zebulun , and the princes of Naphtali . 28 Thy God hath cōmanded thy strength : strengthen , O God , that which thou hast wrought for us . 29 Because of thy temple at Jerusalem , shall kings bring presents unto thee . 30 Rebuke the company of spear-men , the multitude of the bulls , with the calves of the people , till every one submit himself with pieces of siver : scatter thou the people that delight in war. 31 Princes shall come out of Egypt , Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God. 32 Sing unto God , ye kingdoms of the earth : O sing praises unto the Lord. Selah . 33 To him that rideth upon the heavens of heavens , which were of old , lo , he doth send out his voice , and that a mighty voice . 34 Ascribe ye strength unto God : his excellency is over Israel , and his strength is in the clouds . 35 O God , thou art terrible out of thy holy places , the God of Israel is he that giveth strength and power unto his people : blessed be God. Ev. Pr. PSAL. LXIX . David being a type of Christ complains of his evil usage and hard sufferings : of the wickednesse and number of his Enemies : prayes for the safety of himself and the confusion of his Enemies : God takes care of the poore : They shall praise him . SAve me , O God , for the waters are come in unto my soul. 2 I sink in deep mire , where there is no standing ; I am come into deep waters , where the floods overflow me . 3 I am weary of my crying , my throat is dryed : mine eyes fail while I wait for my God. 4 They that hate me without a cause , are mo then the hairs of my head : they that would destroy me being mine enemies wrongfully , are mighty : then I restored that which I took not away . 5 O God , thou knowest my foolishnesse ; and my sins are not hid from thee . 6 Let not them that wait on thee , O Lord God of hosts , be ashamed for my sake : let not those that seek thee , be confounded for mysake , O God of Israel 7 Because for thy sake I have born reproch : shame hath covered my face . 8 I am become a stranger unto my brethren , and an alien unto my mothers children . 9 For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up ; and the reproches of them that reproched thee , are faln upon me . 10 When I wept , & chastened my soul with fasting , that was to my reproch . 11 I made sackcloth also my garment : and I became a proverb to them . 12 They that sit in the gate , speak against me ; and I was the song of the drunkards . 13 But as for me , my prayer is unto thee , O Lord , in an acceptable time : O God , in the multitude of thy mercy hear me , in the truth of thy salvation . 14 Deliver me out of the mire , and let me not sink : let me be delivered from them that hate me , and out of the deep waters . 15 Let not the water-flood overflow me , neither let the deep swallow me up , and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me . 16 Hear me , O Lord , for thy loving kindnesse is good : turn unto me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies . 17 And hide not thy face from thy servant , for I am in trouble : hear me speedily . 18 Draw nigh unto my soul , and redeem it : deliver me because of mine enemies . 19 Thou hast known my reproch , and my shame , and my dishonour : mine adversaries are all before thee . 20 Reproch hath broken my heart , and I am full of heavinesse : and I looked for some to take pity , but there was none ; and for comforters , but I found none . 21 They gave me also gall for my meat , and in my thirst they gave me vineger to drink . 22 Let their table become a snare before them : and that which should have been for their welfare , let it become a trap . 23 Let their eyes be darkened that they see not ; and make their loyns continually to shake . 24 Poure out thine indignation upon them , and let thy wrathfull anger take hold of them . 25 Let their habitation be desolate , and let none dwell in their tents . 26 For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten , and they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded . 27 Adde iniquity to their iniquity ; and let them not come into thy righteousnesse . 28 Let them be blotted out of the book of the living , and not be written with the righteous . 29 But I am poor , and sorrowfull : let thy salvation ( O God ) set me up on high . 30 I will praise the name of God with a song , and will magnifie him with thanksgiving . 31 This also shall please the Lord better then an ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs . 32 The humble shall see this , and be glad : and your heart shall live that seek God. 33 For the Lord heareth the poor , and despiseth not his prisoners . 34 Let the heaven and the earth praise him , the seas , and every thing that moveth therein . 35 For God will save Sion , and will build the cities of Judah : that they may dwell there , and have it in possession . 36 The seed also of his servants shall inherit it : and they that love his name shall dwell therein . PSAL. LXX . David prayes for speedy deliverance from the party of Absalom : that they may be confounded ; that all the just may rejoyce in God , who is their deliverer and defence . MAke haste , O God , to deliver me ; make haste to help me , O Lord. 2 Let them be ashamed and confounded that seek after my soul : let them be turned backward , and put to confusion , that desire my hurt . 3 Let them be turned back for a reward of their shame , that say , Aha , aha . 4 Let all those that seek thee , rejoyce , and be glad in thee : and let such as love thy salvation say continually , Let God be magnified . 5 But I am poor and needy , make haste unto me , O God : thou art my help and my deliverer , O Lord , make no tarrying . Mo. pr. PSAL. LXXI . David expresse ; his trust to be in God , who was his hope from his childhood : prayes for defence in his old age : prays against his enemies : relies upon God : confesses that by him he hath had salvation all his life : he praises God for it . IN thee , O Lord , do I put my trust , let me never be put to confusion . 2 Deliver me in thy righteousness , and cause me to escape : incline thine eare unto me , and save me . 3 Be thou my strong habitation , whereunto I may continually resort : thou hast given commandment to save me , for thou art my rock and my fortresse . 4 Deliver me , O my God , out of the hand of the wicked , out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man. 5 For thou art my hope , O Lord God : thou art my trust from my youth . 6 By thee have I been holden up from the womb : thou art he that took me out of my mothers bowels , my praise shall be continually of thee . 7 I am as a wonder unto many ; but thou art my strong refuge . 8 Let my mouth be filled with thy praise , and with thy honour all the day . 9 Cast me not off in the time of old age , forsake me not when my strength faileth . 10 For mine enemies speak against me : and they that lay wait for my soul , take counsell together . 11 Saying , God hath forsaken him : persecute and take him , for there is none to deliver him . 12 O God , be not far from me : O my God , make haste for my help . 13 Let them be confounded and consumed , that are adversaries to my soul : let them be covered with reproch and dishonour , that seek my hurt . 14 But I will hope continually , and will yet praise thee more and more . 15 My mouth shall shew forth thy righteousnesse , and thy salvation all the day : for I know not the numbers thereof . 16 I will goe in the strength of the Lord God : I will make mention of thy righteousnesse , even of thine onely . 17 O God , thou hast taught me from my youth : and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works . 18 Now also when I am old and grayheaded , O God , forsake me not : untill I have shewed thy strength unto this generation , and thy power to every one that is to come . 19 Thy righteousnesse also , O God , is very high , who hast done great things : O God , who is like unto thee ? 20 Thou which hast shewed me great & sore troubles , shalt quicken me again , & shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth . 21 Thou shalt increase my greatnesse , & cōfort me on every side 22 I will also praise thee with the psalterie , even thy truth , O my God : unto thee will I sing with the harp , O thou holy one of Israel . 23 My lips shall greatly rejoyce when I sing unto thee : and my soul which thou hast redeemed . 24 My tongue also shall talk of thy righteousnesse all the day long : for they are confounded , for they are brought unto shame , that seek my hurt . PSAL. LXXII . David being neer his death , prayes for a prosperous reign to his son Solomon : instructs him in the duty of a king : it is Propheticall of Christs Kingdome . GIve the king thy judgments , O God , and thy righteousnesse unto the kings son . 2 He shall judge thy people with righteousnesse , and thy poor with judgment . 3 The mountains shal bring peace to the people , and the little hils , by righteousnesse . 4 He shall judge the poor of the people , he shall save the children of the needy , and shall break in pieces the oppressour . 5 They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure , throughout all generations . 6 He shal come down like rain upon the mown grasse : as showrs that water the earth . 7 In his dayes shall the righteous flourish : and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth . 8 He shall have dominion also from sea to sea , and from the river unto the ends of the earth . 9 They that dwell in the wildernesse shall bow before him : and his enemies shall lick the dust . 10 The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents : the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts . 11 Yea , all kings shall fall down before him : all nations shall serve him . 12 For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth : the poor also , and him that hath no helper . 13 He shall spare the poor and needy , and shall save the souls of the needy . 14 He shall redeeme their soul from deceit and violence : and precious shall their blood be in his sight . 15 And he shall live , and to him shall be given of the gold of Sheba ; prayer also shall be made for him continually , and daily shall he be praised . 16 There shall be an handfull of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains , the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon , and they of the city shall flourish like grasse of the earth . 17 His name shall endure for ever : his name shall be continued as long as the sun : and men shall be blessed in him ; all nations shall call him blessed . 18 Blessed be the Lord God , the God of Israel , who onely doth wondrous things . 19 And blessed be his glorious name for ever , and let the whole earth be filled with his glory : Amen , and amen . 20 The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended . Ev. Pr. PSAL. LXXIII . Asaph being troubled at the afflictions of the Godly , and the prosperity of the wicked , and disputing concerning the providence , at last concludes it to be certain that God loves the pious , exhorts the church not to be offended at this dispensation : but depend on God : and wait for deliverance at the end of things . TRuly God is good to Israel , even to such as are of a clean heart . 2 But as for me , my feet were almost gone : my steps had wellnigh slipt . 3 For I was envious at the foolish , when I saw the prosperity of the wicked . 4 For there are no bands in their death : but their strength is firm . 5 They are not in trouble as other men : neither are theyplagued like other men . 6 Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain : violence covereth them as a garment . 7 Their eyes stand out with fatnesse : they have more then heart could wish . 8 They are corrupt , and speak wickedly concerning oppression : they speak loftily . 9 They set their mouth against the heavens ; and their tongue walketh through the earth . 10 Therefore his people return hither : and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them . 11 And they say , How doth God know ? and is there knowledge in the most High ? 12 Behold , these are the ungodly , who prosper in the world , they increase in riches . 13 Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain , and washed my hands in innocencie . 14 For all the day long have I been plagued , and chastened every morning . 15 If I say , I will speak thus : behold , I should offend against the generation of thy children . 16 When I thought to know this , it was too painfull for me . 17 Untill I went into the sanctuary of God ; then understood I their end . 18 Surely thou didst set them in slippery places : thou castedst them down into destruction . 19 How are they brought into desolation , as in a moment ? they are utterly consumed with terrors . 20 As a dream when one awaketh ; so , O Lord , when thou awakest thou shalt despise their image . 21 Thus my heart was grieved , and I was pricked in my reins . 22 So foolish was I , and ignorant : I was as a beast before thee . 23 Neverthelesse , I am continually with thee : thou hast holden me by my right hand . 24 Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel , and afterward receive me to glory . 25 Whom have I in heaven but thee ? and there is none upon earth that Idesire besides thee 26 My flesh and my heart faileth : but God is the strength of my heart , and my portion for ever . 27 For lo , they that are far from thee , shall perish : thou hast destroyed all them that goe a whoring frō thee . 28 But it is good for me to draw near to God : I have put my trust in the Lord God , that I may declare all thy works . PSAL. LXXIV . Asaph expostulates with God his delay to help his people , and of the greatnesse of their calamity : he prayes for help : h● commmorates the blessings of old : & represents the horrid cruelty and impiety of the Churches enemies : and particularly their sacrilege : he complains that Gods Oracles are ceased : the Prophets gone : the Enemies suppose that God also is departed ; that his name suffers : h● prayes for the safety of the Church : the glory of God : & the overthrow of his enemies . O God , why hast thou cast us off for ever ? why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture ? 2 Remember thy cōgregation which thou hast purchased of old : the rod of thine inheritance which thou hast redeemed , this mount Sion wherein thou hast dwelt . 3 Lift up thy feet unto the perpetuall desolations : even all that the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary . 4 Thine enemies roar in the midst of thy congregations : they set up their ensignes for signs . 5 A man was famous according as he had lifted up axes upon the thick trees . 6 But now they break down the carved work thereof at once , with axes and hammers . 7 They have cast fire into thy sanctuary , they have defiled by casting down the dwelling-place of thy name to the ground . 8 They said in their hearts , Let us destroy them together : they have burnt up all the synagogues of God in the land . 9 We see not our signs , there is no more any prophet , neither is there among us any that knoweth how long . 10 O God , how long shall the adversary reproch ? shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever ? 11 Why withdrawest thou thy hand , even thy right hand ? pluck it out of thy bosome . 12 For God is my king of old , working salvation in the midst of the earth . 13 Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength : thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters . 14 Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces , and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wildernesse . 15 Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood : thou driedst up mighty rivers . 16 The day is thine , the night also is thine : thou hast prepared the light and the sun . 17 Thou hast set all the borders of the earth : thou hast made summer and winter . 18 Remember this , that the enemy hath reproched , O Lord , and that the foolish people have blasphemed thy name . 19 O deliver not the soul of thy turtle-dove unto the multitude of the wicked , forget not the congregation of thy poor for ever . 20 Have respect unto the covenant : for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty . 21 O let not the oppressed return ashamed : let the poor and needy praise thy name . 22 Arise , O God , plead thine own cause : remember how the foolish man reprocheth thee daily . 23 Forget not the voice of thine enemies : the tumult of those that rise up against thee increaseth continually . Mo. Pr. PSAL. LXXV . The Psalm is Prophetical of Christs Kingdome , his power , and his glory : and his comming to judgment . UNto thee , O God , doe we give thanks , unto thee doe we give thanks : for that thy name is near , thy wondrous works declare . 2 When I shall receive the congregation , I will judge uprightly . 3 The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved : I bear up the pillars of it . Selah . 4 I said unto the fools , Deal not foolishly ; and to the wicked , Lift not up the horn . 5 Lift not up your horn on high : speak not with a stiffe neck . 6 For promotion commeth neither from the east , nor from the west , nor from the south 7 But God is the judge : he putteth down one , and setteth up another . 8 For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup , and the wine is red : it is full of mixture , and he poureth out of the same : but the dregs thereof all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out , and drink them . 9 But I will declare for ever ; I will sing praises to the God of Jacob. 10 All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off ; but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted . PSAL. LXXVI . A song of thanksgiving and glorification of God for victory obtained against the enemies of the Church : the power of God to execute his own will : his anger is irresistable : all are exhorted to glorifie God. IN Judah is God known : his name is great in Israel . 2 In Salem also is his tabernacle , and his dwelling-place in Sion . 3 There brake he the arrows of the bow , the shield , & the sword , and the battel . Selah . 4 Thou art more glorious and excellent then the mountains of prey . 5 The stout-hearted are spoiled , they have slept their sleep : & none of the men of might have found their hands . 6 At thy rebuke , O God of Jacob , both the chariot and horse are faln into a dead sleep . 7 Thou , even thou art to be feared , & who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry ? 8 Thou didst cause judgement to be heard from heaven ; the earth feared , and was still , 9 When God arose to judgment to save all the meek of the earth . Selah . 10 Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee : the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain . 11 Vow , and pay unto the Lord your God ; let all that be round about him bring presents unto him that ought to be feared . 12 He shall cut off the spirit of princes : he is terrible to the kings of the earth . PSAL. LXXVII . Asaph pressed with a great calamity argues with God for his long hiding his face from him : He calls to mind Gods former mercies , the power of his works , and his mercies to his servants ; as arguments to produce a present confidence . I Cried into God with my voice : even unto God with my voice , and he gave ear unto me . 2 In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord ; my sore ran in the night , and ceased not : my soul refused to be comforted . 3 I remēbred God , and was troubled : I complained , and my spirit was overwhelmed . Selah . 4 Thou holdest mine eyes waking : I am so troubled that I cannot speak . 5 I have considered the dayes of old , the years of ancient times . 6 I call to remembrance my song in the night : I commune with mine own heart , and my spirit made diligent search . 7 Will the Lord cast off for ever ? and will he be favourable no more ? 8 Is his mercy clean gone for ever ? doth his promise fail for evermore ? 9 Hath God forgotten to be gracious ? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies ? Selah . 10 And I said , This is my infirmity : but I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High. 11 I will remember the works of the Lord : surely I will remember thy wonders of old . 12 I will meditate also of all thy work , and talk of thy doings . 13 Thy way , O God , is in the sanctuary : who is so great a God as our God ? 14 Thou art the God that doest wonders ; thou hast declared thy strength among the people . 15 Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people , the sons of Jacob & Joseph . Selah . 16 The waters saw thee , O God , the waters saw thee : they were afraid ; the depths also were troubled . 17 The clouds poured out water , the skies sent out a sound : thine arrows also went abroad . 18 The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven : the lightnings lightned the world , the earth trembled and shook . 19 Thy way is in the sea , and thy path in the great waters , and thy footsteps are not known . 20 Thou leddest thy people like a flock , by the hand of Moses and Aaron . Ev. Pr. PSAL. LXXVIII . The history of Gods intercourse with his people from Moses to David ; in blessing , in punishing , in delivering them . The p●rpetuity of the Kingdome in the Tribe of Judah . GIve ear , O my people , to my law : incline your ears to the words of my mouth . 2 I will open my mouth in a parable : I will utter dark sayings of old : 3 Which we have heard and known : and our fathers have told us 4 We will not hide them from their children , shewing to the generation to come , the praises of the Lord : and his strength and his wonderfull works that he hath done . 5 For he established a testimony in Jacob , & appointed a law in Israel which he commanded our fathers : that they should make them known to their children 6 That the generation to come might know them , even the children which should be born : who should arise and declare them to their children : 7 That they might set their hope in God , and not forget the works of God : but keep his commandments . 8 And might not be as their fathers , a stubborn and rebellious generation , a generation that set not their heart aright : and whose spirit was not stedfast with God. 9 The children of Ephraim being armed and carrying bowes , turned back in the day of battell . 10 They kept not the covenant of God : and refused to walk in his law . 11 And forgat his works : and his wonders that he had shewed them . 12 Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers : in the land of Egypt , in the field of Zoan . 13 He divided the sea , and caused them to passe through : and he made the waters to stand as an heap . 14 In the day-time also the led them with a cloud : and all the night with a light of fire . 15 He clave the rocks in the wildernesse : and gave them drink as out of the great dephts . 16 He brought streams also out of the rock , and caused waters to run down like rivers . 17 And they sinned yet more against him : by provoking the most High in the wildernesse . 18 And they tempted God in their heart : by asking meat for their lust . 19 Yea , they spake against God : they said , Can God furnish a table in the wildernesse ? 20 Behold , he smote the rock , that the waters gushed out , and the streams overflowed ; can he give bread also ? can he provide flesh for his people ? 21 Therefore the Lord heard this , and was wroth , so a fire was kindled against Jacob , and anger also came up against Israel : 22 Because they believed not in God : and trusted not in his salvation : 23 Though he had commanded the clouds from above , and opened the doors of heaven : 24 And had rained down manna upon them to eat , and had given them of the corn of heaven . 25 Main did eate angels food : he sent them meat to the full . 26 He caused an east-wind to blow in the heaven : and by his power he brought in the south-wind . 27 He rained flesh also upon them as dust : and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea . 28 And he let it fall in the midst of their camp , round about their habitations . 29 So they did eate , and were well filled : for he gave them their own desire . 30 They were not estranged from their lust : but while their meat was yet in their mouths , 31 The wrath of God came upon them , and slew the fattest of them , and smote down the chosen men of Israel . 32 For all this they sinned still : and believed not for his wondrous works . 33 Therefore their dayes did he consume in vanity , and their years in trouble . 34 When he slew them , then they sought him : and they returned and enquired early after God. 35 And they remembred that God was their rock , and the high God their redeemer . 36 Neverthelesse , they did flatter him with their mouth ; and they lied unto him with their tongues . 37 For their heart was not right with him : neither were they stedfast in his covenant . 38 But he being full of compassion , forgave their iniquity , and destroyed them not ; yea , many a time turned he his anger away , and did not stir up all his wrath . 39 For he remembred that they were but flesh ; a wind that passeth away and cometh not again . 40 How oft did they provoke him in the wildernesse : and grieve him in the desert ? 41 Yea , they turned back and tempted God : and limited the holy one of Israel . 42 They remembred not his hand : nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy . 43 How he had wrought his signs in Egypt , and his wonders in the field of Zoan : 44 And had turned their rivers into blood ; and their floods , that they could not drink . 45 He sent divers sorts of flies among them , which devoured them ; and frogs which destroyed them . 46 He gave also their increase unto the caterpiller , and their labour unto the locust . 47 He destroyed their vines with hail , and their sycomore-trees with frost . 48 He gave up their cattell also to the hail , and their flocks to hot thunderbolts . 49 He cast upon them the fiercenesse of his anger , wrath and indignation and trouble , by sending evil angels among them . 50 He made a way to his anger , he spared not their soul from death : but gave their life over to the pestilence . 51 And smote all the first-born in Egypt : the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham : 52 But made his own people to goe forth like sheep ; and guided them in the wildernesse like a flock . 53 And he led them on safely , so that they feared not : but the sea overwhelmed their enemies . 54 And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary : even to this mountain , which his right hand had purchased . 55 He cast out the heathen also before them , and divided them an inheritance by line : and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents . 56 Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God , and kept not his testimonies . 57 But turned back and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers : they were turned aside like a deceitfull bow . 58 For they provoked him to anger with their high places , and moved him to jealousie with their graven images . 59 When God heard this , he was wroth , and greatly abhorred Israel . 60 So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh , the tent which he placed among men : 61 And delivered his strength into captivity , and his glory into the enemies hand . 62 He gave his people over also unto the sword : and was wroth with his inheritance . 63 The fire consumed their young men : and their maidens were not given to marriage . 64 Their priests fell by the sword : and their widows made no lamentation . 65 Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep , and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine . 66 And he smote his enemies in the hinder-parts : he put them to a perpetuall reproch . 67 Moreover , he refused the tabernacle of Joseph : and chose not the tribe of Ephraim . 68 But chose the tribe of Judah , the mount Sion which he loved . 69 And he built his sanctuary like high palaces ; like the earth which he hath established for ever . 70 He chose David also his servant & took him from the sheepfolds : 71 From following the ewes great with young , he brought him to feed Jacob his people , and Israel his inheritance . 72 So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart : and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands . No. Pr. PSAL. LXXIX . Asaph describes the cruelty and impiety of the churches Enemies : he prayes to God to turne his anger against them that know him not : to pardon the sins of his people : to deliver them : they shall praise him . O God , the heathen are come into thine inheritance , thy holy temple have they defiled ; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps . 2 The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven , the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth . 3 Their bloud have they shed like water round about Jerusalem : and there was none to bury them . 4 We are become a reproch to our neighbours : a scorn and derision to them that are round about us . 5 How long Lord , wilt thou be angry for ever ? shall thy jealousie burn like fire ? 6 Poure out thy wrath upon the heathen that have not known thee , and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name . 7 For they have devoured Jacob , and laid wast his dwelling-place . 8 O remember not against us former iniquities : let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us : for we are brought very low . 9 Help us , O God of our salvation , for the glory of thy name : and deliver us , and purge away our sins for thy names sake . 10 Wherefore should the heathen say , Where is their God ? let him be known among the heathen in our sight by the revenging of the blood of thy servants which is shed . 11 Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee , according to the greatnesse of thy power : preserve thou those that are appointed to die . 12 And render unto our neighbours seven-fold into their bosome , the reproch wherewith they have reproched thee , O Lord. 13 So we thy people and sheep of thy pasture , will give thee thanks for ever : we will shew forth thy praise to all generations . PSAL. LXXX . Asaph prayes for the Church and for the king : complaines of the afflicted state of Gods people : describes it : prayes for help to it : and promises obedience and glorification of God. Glve ear , O Shepherd of Israel , thou that leadest Joseph like a flock , thou that dwellest between the cherubims , shine forth . 2 Before Ephraim , & Benjamin , & Manasseh , stir up thy strength , and come and save us . 3 Turn us again , O God : and cause thy face to shine , and we shall be saved . 4 O Lord God of hosts , how long wilt thou be angry against theprayer of thy people ? 5 Thou feedest them with the bread of tears : and givest them tears to drink in great measure . 6 Thou makest us a strife unto our neighbours : and our enemies laugh among themselves . 7 Turn us again , O God of hosts , and cause thy face to shine , and we shall be saved . 8 Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt : thou hast cast out the heathen , and planted it . 9 Thou preparedst room before it , and didst cause it to take deep root ; and it filled the land . 10 The hills were covered with the shadow of it , & the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars . 11 She sent out her boughs unto the sea , and her branches unto the river . 12 Why hast thou then broken down her hedges , so that all they which passe by the way doe pluck her ? 13 The boar out of the wood doth waste it : and the wild beast of the field doth devour it . 14 Return , we beseech thee , O God of hosts : look down from heaven , and behold and visit this vine : 15 And the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted : and the branch that thou madest strong for thy self . 16 It is burnt with fire , it is cut down : they perish at the rebuke of thy countenance . 17 Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand : upon the son of man whom thou madest strong for thy self . 18 So will not we goe back from thee : quicken us , and we will call upon thy name . 19 Turn us again , O Lord God of hosts , cause thy face to shine , and we shall be saved . PSAL. LXXXI . The prophet exhorts the people to praise God with voyce and instrum●nts , and celebrates the feast of trumpets : in the person of God he enumerates Gods blessings upon the people : how much evil they have suffer'd for their disobedience : and how much good they might have received if they had been obedient . SIng aloud unto God our strength : make a joyfull noise unto the God of Jacob. 2 Take a psalm , and bring hither the timbrel : the pleasant harp with the psalterie . 3 Blow up the trumpet in the new moon : in the time appointed on our solemn feast-day . 4 For this was a statute for Israel , and a low of the God of Jacob. 5 This he ordained in Joseph for a testimony , when he went out through the land of Egypt : where I heard a language that I understood not . 6 I moved his shoulder from the burden : his hands were delivered from the pots . 7 Thou calledst in trouble and I delivered thee ; I answered thee in the secret place of thunder : I proved thee at the waters of Meribah . Selah . 8 Hear , O my people , and I will testifie unto thee : O Israel , if thou wilt hearken unto me ; 9 There shall no strange god be in thee : neither shalt thou worship any strange god . 10 I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt : open thy mouth wide , and I will fill it . 11 But my people would not hearken to my voyce : and Israel would none of me . 12 So I gave them up unto their ownhearts lust : and they walked in their own counsels . 13 O that my people had hearkned unto me , and Israel had walked in my wayes ! 14 I should soon have subdued their enemies , and turned my hand against their adversaries . 15 The haters of the Lord should have submitted thēselves unto him : but their time should have endured for ever . 16 He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat : and with hony out of the rock should I have satisfied thee . Ev. Pr. PSAL. LXXXII . The duty of Princes and Magistrates : The punishment of them that are evil : God will judge the Judges . GOd standeth in the congregation of the mighty : he judgeth among the Gods. 2 How long will ye judge unjustly : and accept the persons of the wicked ? Selah . 3 Defend the poor and fatherlesse : doe justice to the afflicted and needy . 4 Deliver the poor and needy : rid them out of the hand of the wicked . 5 They know not , neither will they understand ; they walk on in darknesse : all the foundations of the earth are out of course . 6 I have said , Ye are gods : and all of you are children of the most High. 7 But ye shall die like men , and fall like one of the princes . 8 Arise , O God , judge the earth : for thou shalt inherit all nations . PSAL. LXXXIII . The impiety of the sacrilegious viol●ters of the peace and poss●ssions of the Church : the curse of the sacrilegious : a changing estate . KEep not thou silence , O God : hold not thy peace , and be not still , O God. 2 For lo , thine enemies make a tumult : and they that hate thee , have lift up the head . 3 They have taken crafty counsel against thy people , and consulted against thy hidden ones . 4 They have said , Come , and let us cut them off from being a Nation : that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance . 5 For they have consulted together with one consent : they are cōfederate against thee . 6 The tabernacles of Edom , and the Ishmaelites : of Moab , and the Hagarens . 7 Gebal , & Ammon , and Amalek , the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre . 8 Assur also is joyned with them : they have holpen the children of Lot. Selah . 9 Doe unto them as unto the Midianites : as to Sisera , as to Jabin , at the brook of Kison : 10 Which perished at En-dor : they became as dung from the earth . 11 Make their nobles like Oreb , and like Zeeb : yea all their princes as Zebah , and as Zalmunna : 12 Who said , Let us take to our selves the houses of God in possession . 13 O my God , make them like a wheel : as the stubble before the wind . 14 As the fire burneth the wood : and as the flame setteth the mountains on fire ; 15 So persecute them with thy tempest ; and make them afraid with thy storm . 16 Fill their faces with-shame : that they may seek thy name , O Lord. 17 Let them be confounded and troubled for ever : yea let them be put to shame , and perish . 18 That men may know , that thou whose name alone is JEHOVAH , art the most high over all the earth . PSAL. LXXXIV . David being banished from the place where the Ark was , declares his own unhappinesse , and admires the felicity of them that attend there : be prayes to be restored to it : God is the sure defence of his servants . HOw amiable are thy tabernacles , O Lord of hosts ! 2 My soul longeth , yea , even fainteth for the courts of the Lord : my heart and my flesh cryeth out for the living God. 3 Yea , the sparrow hath found an house , and the swallow a nest for her self , where she may lay her young ; even thine altars , O Lord of hosts , my king , and my God. 4 Blessed are they that dwell in thy house : they will be still praising thee . Selah . 5 Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee : in whose heart are the waies of them . 6 Who passing through the valley of Baca , make it a well : the rain also filleth the pools . 7 They goe from strength to strength , every one of them in Zion appeareth before God. 8 O Lord God of hosts , hear my prayer : give ear , O God of Jacob . Selah . 9 Behold , O God our shield , and look upon the face of thine anointed . 10 For a day in thy courts is better then a thousand : I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God , then to dwell in the tents of wickednesse . 11 For the Lord is a sun and shield : the Lord will give grace and glory : no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly . 12 O Lord of hosts , blessed is the man that trusteth in thee . PSAL. LXXXV . A commemoration of the redemption from captivity : he expostulates concerning Gods anger : he prayes for restitution : he ● rcis●s an act of hope in God. LOrd , thou hast been favourable unto thy land : thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob. 2 Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people , thou hast covered all their sin . Selah . 3 Thou hast taken away all thy wrath : thou hast turned thy self from the fiercenesse of thine anger . 4 Turn us , O God of our salvation , and cause thine anger towards us to cease . 5 Wilt thou be angry with us for ever ? wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations ? 6 Wilt thou not revive us again : that thy people may rejoyce in thee ? 7 Shew us thy mercy , O Lord , and grant us thy salvation . 8 I will hear what God the Lord will speak : for he will speak peace unto his people , and to his saints : but let them not turn again to folly . 9 Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him ; that glory may dwell in our land . 10 Mercy and truth are met together : righteousnesse and peace have kissed each other . 11 Truth shal spring out of the earth : and righteousnesse shal look down from heaven . 12 Yea , the Lord shall give that which is good : and our land shall yield her increase . 13 Righteousnesse shall goe before him : and shall set us in the way of his steps . Mo. Pr. PSAL. LXXXVI . David prays in the day of his trouble : he c●lebrates Gods praises , his mercies and his bounty : prophesies of the universality of Christs kingdome : prayes and imp●ones the excellency of the Divine mercy to give him some signall testim●●y of his favour . BOwe down thine ear , O Lord , hear me : for I am poor and needy . 2 Preserve my soul , for I am holy : O thou my God , save thy servant that trusteth in thee . 3 Be mercifull unto me , O Lord : for I cry unto thee daily . 4 Rejoyce the soul of thy servant : for unto thee ( O Lord ) do I lift up my soul. 5 For thou Lord art good , and ready to forgive : and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee . 6 Give ear , O Lord , unto my prayer : and attend to the voice of my supplications . 7 In the day of my trouble I will call upon thee : for thou wilt answer me . 8 Among the gods there is none like unto thee ( O Lord ) neither are there any works like unto thy works . 9 All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee , O Lord : and shall glorifie thy name . 10 For thou art great and doest wondrous things : thou art God alone . 11 Teach me thy way , O Lord , I will walk in thy truth : unite my heart to fear thy name . 12 I will praise thee , O Lord my God , with all my heart : and I will glorifie thy name for evermore . 13 For great is thy mercy toward me : and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell . 14 O God , the proud are risen against me , and the assemblies of violent men have sought after my soul : and have not set thee before thē . 15 But thou , O Lord , art a God full of compassion , and gracious : long-suffering , & plenteous in mercy and truth . 16 O turn unto me , and have mercy upon me , give thy strength unto thy servant , and save the son of thy handmaid . 17 Shew me a token for good , that they which hate me may see it , and be ashamed : because thou , Lord , hast holpen me , and comforted me . PSAL. LXXXVII . A mysticall description of the beauties of the celestiall Jerusalem . HIs foundation is in the holy mountains . 2 The Lord loveth the gates of Zion , more then all the dwellings of Jacob. 3 Glorious things are spoken of thee , O city of God. Selah . 4 I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon , to them that know me ; behold Philistia , and Tyre , with Ethiopia : this man was born there . 5 And of Zion it shall be said , This and that man was born in her : and the Highest himself shall establish her . 6 The Lord shall count when he writeth up the people , that this man was born there . Selah . 7 As well the singers , as the players on instruments shall be there : all my springs are in thee . PSAL. LXXXVIII . A description of the passion and dolours of Christ , suffering his Fathers anger for our sins . O Lord God of my salvation , I have cryed day and night before thee . 2 Let my prayer come before thee : incline thine eare unto my crie . 3 For my soul is full of troubles : and my life draweth nigh unto the grave . 4 I am counted with them that goe down into the pit : I am as a man that hath no strength . 5 Free among the dead like the slain that lie in the grave , whom thou remembrest no more : and they are cut off from thy hand . 6 Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit , in darknesse , in the deeps . 7 Thy wrath lieth hard upom me : and thou hast afflicted me w th all thy waves . Selah . 8 Thou hast put away mine acquaintance far from me : thou hast made me an abomination unto them : I am shut up , and I cannot come forth . 9 Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction , Lord , I have called dayly upon thee , I have stretched out my hands unto thee . 10 Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead ? shall the dead arise and praise thee ? Selah . 11 Shall thy loving kindnesse be declared in the grave ? or thy faithfulnesse in destruction ? 12 Shall thy wonders be known in the dark ? & thy righteousnesse in the land of forgetfulnes ? 13 But unto thee have I cried , O Lord , and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee 14 Lord , why castest thou off my soul ? why hidest thou thy face from me ? 15 I am afflicted and ready to die , from my youth up : while I suffer thy terrours , I am distracted . 16 Thy fierce wrath goeth over me : thy terrors have cut me off . 17 They came round about me daily like water : they compassed me about together . 18 Lover and friend hast thou put far from me : and mine acquaintance into darknesse . PSAL. LXXXIX . A Prophesie of Christs kingdome : its perpetuity and eternity : and under the type of the successors of David , he teach●s that God will punish the Christian people if they sinne ; but the promises to the Church shall never fail . I Wil sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever ; with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations . 2 For I have said , Mercy shall be built up for ever : thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens . 3 I have made a covenant with my chosen : I have sworn unto David my servant . 4 Thy seed will I establish for ever , and build up thy throne to all generations . Selah . 5 And the heavens shall praise thy wonders , O Lord : thy faithfulnesse also in the congregation of the saints . 6 For who in the heaven can be compared unto the Lord ? who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the Lord ? 7 God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints : and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him . 8 O Lord God of hosts , who is a strong Lord like unto thee ? or to thy faithfulnesse round about thee ? 9 Thou rulest the raging of the sea : when the waves thereof arise , thou stillest them . 10 Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces , as one that is slain ; thou hast scattered thine enemies with thy strong arm . 11 The heavens are thine , the earth also is thine : as for the world , and the fulness thereof , thou hast founded thē . 12 The north and the south thou hast created them : Tabor and Hermon shall rejoyce in thy name . 13 Thou hast a mighty arm : strong is thy hand , and high is thy right hand . 14 Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne : mercy and truth shall goe before thy face . 15 Blessed is the people that know the joyfull sound : they shall walk , O Lord , in the light of thy countenance . 16 In thy name shall they rejoyce all the day : and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted . 17 For thou art the glory of their strength : and in thy favour our horn shall be exalted . 18 For the Lord is our defence : and the holy one of Israel is our king . 19 Then thou spakest in vision to thy holy one , and saidst , I have laid help upon one that is mighty : I have exalted one chosen out of the people . 20 I have found David my servant : with my holy oyl have I anointed him . 21 With whom my hand shall be established : mine arm also shall strengthen him . 22 The enemy shall not exact upon him : nor the son of wickednesse afflict him . 23 And I will beat down his foes before his face : and plague them that hate him . 24 But my faithfulnesse and my mercy shall be with him : and in my name shall his horn be exalted . 25 I will set his hand also in the sea , and his right hand in the rivers . 26 He shall cry unto me , Thou art my father , my God , and the rock of my salvation . 27 Also I will make him my first-born : higher then the kings of the earth . 28 My mercy will I keep for him for evermore : and my covenant shall stand fast with him . 29 His seed also will I make to endure for ever , and his throne as the dayes of heaven . 30 If his children forsake my law , and walk not in my judgements ; 31 If they break my statutes , and keep not my commandments : 32 Then will I visit their transgression with the rod , and their iniquity with stripes . 33 Neverthelesse , my loving kindnesse will I not utterly take from him : nor suffer my faithfulnesse to fail . 34 My covenant will I not break : nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips . 35 Once have I sworn by my holinesse , that I will not lye unto David . 36 His seed shall endure for ever ; and his throne as the sun before me . 37 It shall be established for ever as the moon , and as a faithfull witnesse in heaven . Selah . 38 But thou hast cast off and abhorred , thou hast been wroth with thine anointed . 39 Thou hast made void the covenant of thy servant : thou hast profaned his crown , by casting it to the ground . 40 Thou hast broken down all his hedges : thou hast brought his strong hold to ruine . 41 All that passe by the way spoil him : he is a reproch to his neighbours . 42 Thou hast set up the right hand of his adversaries : thou hast made all his enemies to rejoyce . 43 Thou hast also turned the edge of his sword : and hast not made him to stand in the battell . 44 Thou hast made his glory to cease : and cast his throne down to the ground . 45 The dayes of his youth hast thou shortened : thou hast covered him with shame . Selah . 46 How long , Lord , wilt thou hide thy self for ever ? shall thy wrath burn like fire ? 47 Remember how short my time is : wherefore hast thou made all men in vain ? 48 What man is he that liveth , and shall not see death ? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave ? Selah . 49 Lord , where are thy former loving kindnesses , which thou swarest unto David in thy truth ? 50 Remember ( Lord ) the reproch of thy servant : how I do bear in my bosom the reproch of all the mighty people ; 51 Wherewith thine enemies have reproched , O Lord , wherewith they have reproched the footsteps of thine anointed . 52 Blessed be the Lord for ever more . Amen , and amen . Mo. Pr. PSAL. XC . Moses prayer : God is our everlasting defence : he is eternall : he hath made our life short and frail : a prayer for a holy and a happy life . LOrd , thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations . 2 Before the mountains were brought forth , or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world : even from everlasting to everlasting , thou art God. 3 Thou turnest man to destruction : and sayest , Return ye children of men . 4 For a thousand years in thy sight , are but as yesterday when it is past , and as a watch in the night . 5 Thou car●iest them away as with a floud , they are as a sleep ; in the morning they are like grasse which groweth up . 6 In the morning it flourisheth , and groweth up : in the evening it is cut down , and withereth . 7 For we are consumed by thine anger , and by thy wrath are we troubled . 8 Thou hast set our iniquities before thee , our secret sins in the light of thy countenance . 9 For all our dayes are passed away in thy wrath : we spend our yeares as a tale that is told . 10 The dayes of our yeares are threescore yeares and ten ; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years , yet is their strength labour and sorrow : for it is soon cut off , and we flie away . 11 Who knoweth the power of thine anger ? even according to thy fear , so is thy wrath . 12 So teach us to number our dayes , that we may apply our hearts unto wisdome , 13 Return ( O Lord ) how long ? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants . 14 O satisfie us early with thy mercy ; that we may rejoyce , and be glad all our dayes . 15 Make us glad according to the dayes wherein thou hast afflicted us , and the years wherein we have seen evill . 16 Let thy work appeare unto thy servants , and thy glory unto their children . 17 And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us : and establish thou the work of our hands upon us ; yea , the work of our hands establish thou it . PSAL. XCI . Gods particular care of his servants in the time of imminent danger , and popular diseases , and contingencies : our trusting in God procures his patronage . HE that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High , shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty . 2 I will say of the Lord , He is my refuge , and my fortresse : my God , in him will I trust . 3 Surely , he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler : and from the noysome pestilence . 4 He shall cover thee with his feathers , and under his wings shalt thou trust : his truth shall be thy shield and buckler . 5 Thou shalt not be afraid for the terrour by night : nor for the arrow that flyeth by day : 6 Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darknesse : nor for the destruction that wasteth at noon day . 7 A thousand shall fall at thy side , and ten thousand at thy right hand : but it shall not come nigh thee . 8 Onely with thine eyes shalt thou behold , and see the reward of the wicked . 9 Because thou hast made the Lord which is my refuge , even the most High , thy habitation : 10 There shall no evill befall thee , neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling . 11 For he shall give his angels charge over thee , to keep thee in all thy wayes . 12 They shall bear thee up in their hands : lest thou d●sh thy foot against a stone . 13 Thou shalt tread upon the lion , and adder : the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet . 14 Because he hath set his love upon me , therefore will I deliver him : I will set him on high , because he hath known my name . 15 He shall call upon me , and I will answer him : I will be with him in trouble , I will deliver him , and honour him . 16 With long life will I satisfie him , and shew him my salvation . PSAL. XCII . The Church admires the works , the greatnesse and goodnesse of God : the sudden fall of the wicked : the prosperity and security of the Godly . IT is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord , and to sing praises unto thy name , O most High : 2 To shew forth thy loving kindnesse in the morning , and thy faithfulnesse every night ; 3 Upon an instrument of ten strings , and upon the psalterie ; upon the harp with a solemn sound . 4 For thou , Lord , hast made me glad through thy work : I will triumph in the works of thy hands . 5 O Lord , how great are thy works ! and thy thoughts are very deep . 6 A brutish man knoweth not : neither doth a fool understand this . 7 When the wicked spring as the grasse , and when all the workers of iniquity doe flourish : it is that they shall be destroyed for ever . 8 But thou , Lord , art most high for evermore 9 For lo , thine enemies , O Lord , for lo , thine enemies shall perish : all the workers of iniquity shall be scattered . 10 But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn : I shall be anointed with fresh oyl . 11 Mine eye also shal see my desire on mine enemies : and mine ears shall hear my desire of the wicked that rise up against me . 12 The righteous shal flourish like the palm-tree : he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon . 13 Those that be planted in the house of the Lord , shall flourish in the courts of our God 14 They shall still bring forth fruit in old age : they shall be fat and flourishing . 15 To shew that the Lord is upright : he is my rock , and there is no unrighteousness in him . Ev. Pr. PSAL. XCIII . The m●gnificence and power of Christ our eternall King : his power and truth in d●fending his elect in the dayes of storm : the ho●inesse of Christs law : and Christs Church . THe Lord reigneth , he is clothed with majesty , the Lord is clothed with strength , wherewith he hath girded himself : the world also is stablished , that it cannot be moved . 2 Thy throne is established of old : thou art from everlasting . 3 The flouds have lifted up , O Lord , the flouds have lifted up their voice : the flouds lift up their waves . 4 The Lord on high is mightier then the noise of many waters , yea then the mighty waves of the sea . 5 Thy testimonies are very sure : holiness becometh thine house , O Lord , for ever . PSAL. XCIV . David inveighs against them who supposing God not to take care of humane affairs , do what they list , and oppress the poor : H● proves the Divine omniscience : he encourages the just to put their trust in God : God will reward the wicked , and defend the righteous . O Lord God , to whom vengeance belongeth : O God , to whom vengeance belongeth , shew thy self . 2 Lift up thy selfe thou judge of the earth : render a reward to the proud . 3 Lord , how long shall the wicked , how long shall the wicked triumph ? 4 How long shall they utter and speak hard things ? and all the workers of iniquity boast themselves ? 5 They break in pieces thy people , O Lord , and afflict thine heritage . 6 They slay the widow and the stranger , & murder the fatherless . 7 Yet they say , The Lord shall not see : neither shall the God of Jacob regard it . 8 Understand , ye brutish among the people : and ye fools , when will ye be wise ? 9 He that planted the ear , shall he not hear ? he that formed the eye , shall he not see ? 10 He that chastiseth the heathen , shall not he correct ? he that teacheth man knowledge , shall not he know ? 11 The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man , that they are vanity . 12 Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest , O Lord , and teachest him out of thy law : 13 That thou mayest give him rest from the dayes of adversity , untill the pit be digged for the wicked . 14 For the Lord will not cast off his people , neither will he forsake his inheritance . 15 But judgment shall return unto righteousnesse : and all the upright in heart shall follow it . 16 Who will rise up for me against the evil doers ? or who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity ? 17 Unlesse the Lord had been my help , my soul had almost dwelt in silence . 18 When I said , My foot slippeth : thy mercy , O Lord , held me up . 19 In the multitude of my thoughts within me , thy comforts delight my soul. 20 Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee , which frameth mischief by a law ? 21 They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous : & condemn the innocent blood . 22 But the Lord is my defence : and my God is the rock of my refuge . 23 And he shall bring upon them their own iniquity , and shall cut them off in their own wickednesse : yea , the Lord our God shall cut them off . Mo. Pr. PSAL. XCV . An invitation to the worship and the service of God ; to a speedy repentance : The example of ob● durate and impenitent persons : Gods w●ath and zeale against them . O Come , let us sing unto the Lord : let us make a joyfull noise to the rock of our salvation . 2 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving , and make a joyfull noise unto him with psalms . 3 For the Lord is a great God ; and a great king above all Gods. 4 In his hand are the deep places of the earth : the strength of the hills is his also . 5 The sea is his , and he made it : and his hands formed the drie land . 6 O come , let us worship & bow down : let us kneel before the Lord our maker . 7 For he is our God and we are the people of his pasture , and the sheep of his hand : to day if ye will hear his voice , 8 Harden not your heart , as in the provocation , and as in the day of temptation in the wildernesse : 9 When your fathers tempted me , proved me , and saw my work . 10 Fourty years long was I grieved with this generation ; and said , It is a people that do erre in their heart , and they have not known my wayes . 11 Unto whom I sware in my wrath , that they should not enter into my rest . PSAL. XCVI . Jewes and Gentiles are invited to praise God : a prophesie of Christs kingdome and of his coming to judgement . O Sing unto the Lord a new song : sing unto the Lord all the earth . 2 Sing unto the Lord , blesse his name : shew forth his salvation from day to day . 3 Declare his glory among the heathen , his wonders among all people . 4 For the Lord is great , and greatly to be praised : he is to be feared above all gods . 5 For all the gods of the nations are idols : but the Lord made the heavens . 6 Honour and majesty are before him : strength and beauty are in his sanctuary . 7 Give unto the Lord ( O ye kindreds of the people ) give unto the Lord glory & strength . 8 Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name : bring an offering and come into his courts . 9 O worship the Lord in the beauty of holinesse : fear before him all the earth . 10 Say among the heathen , that the Lord reigneth : the world also shall be established that it shall not be moved ; he shall judge the people righteously . 11 Let the heavens rejoyce , & let the earth be glad : let the sea roar , and the fulness thereof . 12 Let the field be joyful , & all that is therein : then shall all the trees of the wood rejoyce 13 Before the Lord ; for he cometh , for he cometh to judge the earth : he shall judge the world with righteousnesse , and the people with his truth . PSAL. XCVII . A prophetical description of the day of judgment : a curse to idolaters : an exhortation to good life : the joyes of the Godly . THe Lord reigneth , let the earth rejoyce : let the multitude of isles be glad thereof . 2 Clouds and darknesse are round about him : righteousnesse and judgement are the habitation of his throne . 3 A fire goeth before him , and burneth up his enemies round about . 4 His lightnings enlightened the world : the earth saw and trembled . 5 The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord : at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth . 6 The heavens declare his righteousnesse : and all the people see his glory . 7 Confounded be all they that serve graven images , that boast themselves of idols : worship him all ye Gods. 8 Sion heard , and was glad , and the daughters of Judah rejoyced ; because of thy judgements , O Lord. 9 For thou , Lord , art high ahove all the earth : thou art exalted far above all gods . 10 Ye that love the Lord , hate evill : he preserveth the souls of his saints , he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked . 11 Light is sown for the righteous , and gladnesse for the upright in heart . 12 Rejoyce in the Lord , ye righteous : and give thanks at the remembrance of his holinesse . Ev. Pr. PSAL. XCVIII . A hymne of glorification of Christ triumphing over his enemies and givi●g judgement against them . O Sing unto the Lord a new song , for he hath done marvellous things : his right hand , and his holy arm hath gotten him the victory . 2 The Lord hath made known his salvation : his righteousnesse hath he openly shewed in the sight of the heathen . 3 He hath remembred his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel : all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. 4 Make a joyfull noise unto the Lord , all the earth : make a loud noise , and rejoyce , and sing praise . 5 Sing unto the Lord with the harp : with the harp , and the voice of a psalme . 6 With trumpets and sound of cornet : make a joyfull noise before the Lord , the king . 7 Let the sea roar , and the fulnesse thereof : the world , and they that dwell therein . 8 Let the flouds clap their hands : let the hills be joyfull together , 9 Before the Lord ; for he cometh to judge the earth : with righteousnesse shall he judge the world , and the people with equity . PSAL. XCIX . The glory of the kingdome of Christ : his justice and his power : his mercifulnesse : and his praise . THe Lord reigneth , let the people trēble : he sitteth between the cherubims , let the earth be moved . 2 The Lord is great in Zion , and he is high above all people . 3 Let them praise thy great & terrible name : for it is holy . 4 The Kings strength also loveth judgement , thou dost establish equity , thou executest judgment and righteousness in Jacob. 5 Exalt ye the Lord our God , and worship at his footstool : for he is holy . 6 Moses and Aaron among his Priests , and Samuel among them that call upon his name : they called upon the Lord , and he answered them . 7 He spake unto them in the cloudy pillar : they kept his testimonies , and the ordinance that he gave them . 8 Thou answeredst them , O Lord our God : thou wast a God that forgavest them , though thou tookest vengeance on their inventions . 9 Exalt the Lord our God , and worship at his holy hill : for the Lord our God is holy . PSAL. C. A glorification of God : a commemoration of his excellencies , his truth and his mercy . MAke a joyful noise unto the Lord , all ye lands . 2 Serve the Lord with gladness : come before his presence with singing . 3 Know ye that the Lord he is God , it is he that hath made us , and not we our selves ; we are his people , and the sheep of his pasture . 4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving , and into his courts with praise : be thankfull unto him and bless his name . 5 For the Lord is good ; his mercy is everlasting : and his truth endureth to all generations . PSAL. CI. David being newly made King , promises to reign in righteousnesse and holiness : that he will entertain none but good men to his counsel and employments : that he will do justice upon the evil doers . I Will sing of mercy and judgement : unto thee , O Lord , will I sing . 2 I will behave my selfe wisely in a perfect way , O when wilt thou come unto me ? I will walk within thy house with a perfect heart . 3 I will set no wicked thing before my eyes : I hate the work of them that turn aside , it shall not cleave to me . 4 A froward heart shall depart from me : I will not know a wicked person . 5 Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour , him will I cut off : him that hath an high look , and and a proud heart , will not I suffer . 6 Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land , that they may dwel with me : he that walketh in a perfect way , he shall serve me . 7 He that worketh deceit , shall not dwell within my house : he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight . 8 I will early destroy all the wicked of the land : that I may cut off all wicked doers from the city of the Lord. Mo. Pr. PSAL. CII . The Psalmist prayes to God in behalfe of the Jewes in their captivity : describes their calamity : foretells their return speedily : he complains of their enemies ; he prayes to be preserved from an untimely and an hasty death : The mortality of the Heavens : and the eternity of God. HEare my prayer , O Lord , and let my cry come unto thee . 2 Hide not thy face from me in the day when I am in trouble , encline thine ear unto me : in the day when I call , answer me speedily . 3 For my dayes are consumed like smoke : and my bones are burnt as an hearth . 4 My heart is smitten and withered like grass : so that I forget to eat my bread . 5 By reason of the voice of my groaning , my bones cleave to my skin . 6 I am like a pellican of the wilderness : I am like an owle of the desart . 7 I watch , and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top . 8 Mine enemies reproch me all the day : and they that are mad against me , are sworn against me . 9 For I have eaten ashes like bread , and mingled my drink with weeping : 10 Because of thine indignation and thy wrath : for thou hast lifted me up , and cast me down . 11 My dayes are like a shadow , that declineth : and I am withered like grass . 12 But thou , O Lord , shalt endure for ever , & thy remembrance unto all generations . 13 Thou shalt arise , and have mercy upon Zion : for the time to favour her , yea the set time is come . 14 For thy servants take pleasure in her stones , and favour the dust thereof . 15 So the heathen shall fear the name of the Lord : and all the kings of the earth thy glory . 16 When the Lord shall build up Zion , he shall appear in his glory . 17 He will regard the prayer of the destitute , and not despise their prayer . 18 This shall be written for the generation to come : and the people which shall be created , shall praise the Lord. 19 For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary : from heaven did the Lord behold the earth 20 To hear the groaning of the prisoner , to loose those that are appointed to death ; 21 To declare the name of the Lord in Zion , and his praise in Jerusalem : 22 When the people are gathered together , and the kingdomes to serve the Lord. 23 He weakened my strength in the way ; he shortened my dayes . 24 I said , O my God , take me not away in the midst of my dayes : thy yeares are throughout all generations . 25 Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth : and the heavens are the work of thy hands . 26 They shall perish , but thou shalt endure , yea all of them shall wax old like a garment : as a vesture shalt thou change them , and they shall be changed . 27 But thou art the same , and thy yeares shall have no end . 28 The children of thy servants shall continue , and their seed shall be established before thee . PSAL. CIII . A celebration of the Divine mercies and bounty : his great readinesse to forgive : the vanity of mans life : the permanent goodness of God to his servants : the praises of God. BLess the Lord , O my soul : and all that is within me , bless his holy name . 2 Bless the Lord , O my soul , and forget not all his benefits . 3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities : who healeth all thy diseases . 4 Who redeemeth thy life from destruction : who crowneth thee with loving kindness & tender mercies . 5 Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things : so that thy youth is renewed like the eagles . 6 The Lord executeth righteousness and judgement for all that are oppressed . 7 He made known his wayes unto Moses , his acts unto the children of Israel . 8 The Lord is merciful and gracious , slow to anger , and plenteous in mercy . 9 He will not alwayes chide : neither will he keep his anger for ever . 10 He hath not dealt with us after our sins : nor rewarded us according to our iniquities . 11 For as the heaven is high above the earth : so great is his mercy toward them that fear him . 12 As far as the east is from the west : so far hath he removed our transgressions from us . 13 Like as a father pitieth his children : so the Lord pitieth them that fear him . 14 For he knoweth our frame : he remembreth that we are dust . 15 As for man , his daies are as grass : as a flower of the field , so he flourisheth . 16 For the wind passeth over it , and it is gone ; and the place thereof shall know it no more . 17 But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that feare him : and his righteousness unto childrens children . 18 To such as keep his covenant , and to those that remember his commandements to do them . 19 The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens : and his kingdom ruleth over all . 20 Bless the Lord ye his angels that excell in strength , that doe his commandments , hearkening unto the voice of his word . 21 Bless ye the Lord all ye his hosts , ye ministers of his that do his pleasure . 22 Bless the Lord all his works in all places of his dominion : bless the Lord , O my soul. Ev. Pr. PSAL. CIV . A psalm celebrating the honour of God in the fabrick , the beauty , the order , the government of the world ; declaring the goodness , the wisdom , ●the omnipotence , and omnipresence of God. BLess the Lord , O my soul : O Lord my God , thou art very great , thou art clothed with honour and majesty . 2 Who coverest thy self with light , as with a garment : who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain . 3 Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters , who maketh the clouds his chariot , who walketh upon the wings of the wind . 4 Who maketh his angels spirits : his ministers a flaming fire . 5 Who laid the foundations of the earth ; that it should not be removed for ever . 6 Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment : the waters stood above the mountains . 7 At thy rebuke they fled : at the voyce of thy thunder they hasted away . 8 They go up by the mountains : they goe down by the valleys unto the place which thou hast founded for them . 9 Thou hast set a bound that they may not passe over : that they turn not again to cover the earth . 10 He sendeth the springs into the valleys , which run among the hills . 11 They give drink to every beast of the field : the wild asses quench their thirst . 12 By them shall the fowles of the heaven have their habitation , which sing among the branches . 13 He watereth the hills from his chambers : the earth is satisfied with the fruit of thy works . 14 He causeth the grass to grow for the cattel , and herb for the service of man : that he may bring forth food out of the earth : 15 And wine that maketh glad the heart of man , & oyl to make his face to shine , and bread which strengtheneth mans heart . 16 The trees of the Lord are full of sap : the cedars of Lebanon which he hath planted . 17 Where the birds make their nests : as for the stork , the fir-trees are her house . 18 The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats : and the rocks for the conies . 19 He appointeth the moon for seasons ; the sun knoweth his going down . 20 Thou makest darkness , and it is night : wherein all the beasts of the forrest doe creep forth . 21 The young lions roar after their prey , and seek their meat , from God. 22 The sun ariseth , they gather themselves together , and lay them down in their dens . 23 Man goeth forth to his work , and to his labour untill the evening . 24 O Lord , how manifold are thy works ! in wisdom hast thou made them all : the earth is full of thy riches . 25 So is this great & wide sea , wherein are things creeping innumerable , both small and great beasts . 26 There goe the ships ; there is that leviathan , whom thou hast made to play therein . 27 These wait all upon thee : that thou mayest give them their meat in due season . 28 That thou givest them , they gather : thou openest thine hand , they are filled with good . 29 Thou hidest thy face , they are troubled ; thou takest away their breath , they die , and return to their dust . 30 Thou sendest forth thy spirit , they are created : and thou renewest the face of the earth . 31 The glory of the Lord shall endure for ever : the Lord shall rejoyce in his works . 32 He looketh on the earth , and it trembleth ; he toucheth the hills , and they smoke . 33 I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live : I will sing praise unto my God , while I have my being . 34 My meditation of him shall be sweet : I will be glad in the Lord 35 Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth , and let the wicked be no more : bless thou the Lord , O my soule . Praise ye the Lord. Mo. Pr. PSAL. CV . David exhorts the Church of God to praise him for the gracious covenant he made with Abraham ; and all the favours from that time to the time of their departure out of Egypt . O Give thankes unto the Lord ; call upon his name : make knowne his deeds among the people . 2 Sing unto him , sing psalms unto him ; talk ye of all his wondrous works . 3 Glory ye in his holy name : let the heart of them rejoyce that seek the Lord. 4 Seek the Lord and his strength : seek his face evermore . 5 Remember his marvellous works that he hath done , his wonders , and the judgements of his mouth . 6 O ye seed of Abraham his servant : ye children of Jacob his chosen 7 He is the Lord our God , his judgements are in all the earth . 8 He hath remembred his covenant for ever : the word which he commanded to a thousand generations . 9 Which covenant he made with Abraham , and his oath unto Isaac : 10 And confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law , and to Israel for an everlasting covenant . 11 Saying , unto thee will I give the land of Canaan , the lot of your inheritance . 12 When they were but a few men in number : yea , very few , and strangers in it . 13 When they went from one nation to another , from one kingdome to another people . 14 He suffered no man to do them wrong : yea , he reproved kings for their sakes : 15 Saying , Touch not mine anoynted , and doe my prophets no harm . 16 Moreover , he called for a famine upon the land : he brake the whole staffe of bread . 17 He sent a man before them , even Joseph who was sold for a servant . 18 Whose feet they hurt with fetters : he was laid in iron . 19 Untill the time that his word came : the word of the Lord tried him . 20 The king sent and loosed him : even the ruler of the people , and let him go free . 21 He made him Lord of his house , and ruler of all his substance 22 To bind his princes at his pleasure : and reach his senatours wisdome . 23 Israel also came into Egypt : and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham. 24 And he increased his people greatly : and made them stronger then their enemies . 25 He turned their heart to hate his people , to deale subtilly with his servants . 26 He sent Moses his servant , & Aaron whom he had chosen . 27 They shewed his signs among them , and wonders in the land of Ham. 28 He sent darkness , and made it dark : and they rebelled not against his word . 29 He turned their waters into blood , and slew their fish . 30 The land brought forth frogs in abundance , in the chambers of their kings . 31 He spake , and there came divers sorts of flies , and lice in all their coasts . 32 He gave them hail for rain : and flaming fire in their land . 33 He smote their vines also and their fig-trees : and brake the trees of their coasts . 34 He spake , and the locusts came : and caterpillars , and that without number , 35 And did eat up all the herbs in their land : and devoured the fruit of their ground . 36 He smote also the first-born in their land ; the chief of all their strength . 37 He brought them forth also with silver & gold : and there was not one feeble person among their tribes . 38 Egypt was glad when they departed : for the fear of them fell upon them . 39 He spread a cloud for a covering : and fire to give light in the night . 40 The people asked , and he brought quails : and satisfied them with the bread of heaven . 41 He opened the rock , and the waters gushed out , they ran in the dry places like a river . 42 For he remembred his holy promise , and Abraham his servant . 43 And he brought forth his people with joy , and his chosen with gladness : 44 And gave them the lands of the heathen : and they inherited the labour of the people : 45 That they might observe his statutes , & keep his laws . Praise ye the Lord. Ev. Pr. PSAL. CVI. A narrative of Gods dealing with the Israelites after their departure out of Egypt till they were possessed of the land of Canaan : Gods goodness to them : their sins against him : his smiting them : their repenting : Gods healing them ; and so by a continual revolution . PRaise ye the Lord , O give thanks unto the Lord , for he is good , for his mercy endureth for ever . 2 Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord ? who can shew forth all his praise ? 3 Blessed are they that keep judgement : and he that doth righteousness at all times . 4 Remember me , O Lord , with the favour that thou bearest unto thy people : O visit me with thy salvation . 5 That I may see the good of thy chosen , that I may rejoyce in the gladness of thy nation : that I may glory with thine inheritance . 6 We have sinned with our fathers : we have committed iniquity , we have done wickedly . 7 Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt , they remembred not the multitude of thy mercies , but provoked him at the sea , even at the Red sea . 8 Nevertheless , he saved them for his names sake : that he might make his mighty power to be known . 9 He rebuked the Red sea also , and it was dried up : so he led them through the depths as through the wilderness . 10 And he saved them from the hand of him that hated them : and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy . 11 And the waters covered their enemies : there was not one of them left . 12 Then believed they his words , they sang his praise . 13 They soon forgat his works , they waited not for his counsel : 14 But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness , and tempted God in the desart . 15 And hee gave them their request , but sent leanness into their soul. 16 They envied Moses also in the camp , and Aaron the saint of the Lord. 17 The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan , and covered the company of Abiram . 18 And a fire was kindled in their company , the flame burnt up the wicked . 19 They made a calf in Horeb , and worshipped the molten image . 20 Thus they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass . 21 They forgat God their Saviour , which had done great things in Egypt : 22 Wondrous works in the land of Ham , and terrible things by the Red sea . 23 Therefore he said that he would destroy them , had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach , to turn away his wrath , lest he should destroy them . 24 Yea , they despised the pleasant land : they believed not his word : 25 But murmured in their tents , and hearkened not unto the voyce of the Lord. 26 Therefore he lifted up his hand against them , to overthrow them in the wilderness : 27 To overthrow their seed also among the nations , and to scatter them in the lands . 28 They joyned themselves also unto Baal-peor , and ate the sacrifices of the dead . 29 Thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions : and the plague brake in upon them . 30 Then stood up Phineas , and executed judgement : and so the plague was stayed . 31 And that was counted unto him for righteousnesse , unto all generations for evermore . 32 They angred him also at the waters of strife , so that it went ill with Moses for their sakes : 33 Because they provoked his spirit , so that he spake unadvisedly with his lips . 34 They did not destroy the nations , concerning whom the Lord commanded them : 35 But were mingled among the heathen , and learned their works . 36 And they served their idols : which were a snare unto them . 37 Yea , they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils . 38 And shed innocent blood , even the blood of their sons and of their daughters , whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan : and the land was polluted with blood . 39 Thus were they defiled with their own works : and went a whoring with their own inventions . 40 Therefore was the wrath of the Lord kindled against his people , insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance . 41 And he gave them into the hand of the heathen : and they that hated them , ruled over them . 42 Their enemies also oppressed them , and they were brought into subjection under their hand . 43 Many times did he deliver them , but they provoked him with their counsell , and were brought low for their iniquity . 44 Neverthelesse , he regarded their affliction when he heard their cry . 45 And he remembred for them his covenant , and repented according to the multitude of his mercies . 46 He made them also to be pittied of all those that carried them captives . 47 Save us , O Lord our God , and gather us from among the heathen , to give thanks unto thy holy name , and to triumph in thy praise . 48 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting : and let all the people say , Amen . Praise ye the Lord. Mo. Pr. PSAL. CVII . A declaration of the goodnesse and gentlenesse of God to the afflicted that call upon him : particularly to the banished , to the strangers , to the Captives , to the sick , to Mariners in stormes ; and in his providence in the varieties of the world . O Give thanks unto the Lord , for he is good : for his mercy endureth for ever . 2 Let the redeemed of the Lord say so , whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy : 3 And gathered them out of the lands , from the east and from the west , from the north and from the south . 4 They wandered in the wildernesse in a solitary way , they found no city to dwell in . 5 Hungry and thirsty , their soul fainted in them . 6 Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble , and he delivered them out of their distresses . 7 And he led them forth by the right way , that they might goe to a city of habitation . 8 Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodnesse , and for his wonderfull works to the children of men . 9 For he satisfieth the longing soul , and filleth the hungry soul with goodnesse . 10 Such as sit in darknesse and in the shadow of death , being bound in affliction and iron : 11 Because they rebelled against the words of God , and contemned the counsel of the most High ; 12 Therefore he brought down their heart with labour , they fell down and there was none to help . 13 Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble , and he saved them out of their distresses . 14 He brought them out of darknesse , and the shadow of death , and brake their bands in sunder . 15 Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodnesse , and for his wonderful works to the children of men . 16 For he hath broken the gates of brasse , and cut the bars of iron in sunder . 17 Fools , because of their transgression , and because of their iniquities , are afflicted . 18 Their soul abhorreth all mannner of meat , and they draw near unto the gates of death . 19 Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble , he saveth them out of their distresses . 20 He sent his word , and healed them , & delivered them from their destructions . 21 O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness , and for his wonderful works to the children of men . 22 And let them sacrifice their sacrifices of thanksgiving , and declare his works with rejoycing . 23 They that goe down to the sea in ships , that do business in great waters : 24 These see the works of the Lord , and his wonders in the deep 25 For he commandeth , and raiseth the stormy wind , which lifteth up the waves thereof . 26 They mount up to the heaven , they go downe againe to the depths : their soul is melted because of trouble . 27 They reel to and fro , and stagger like a drunken man , and are at their wits end . 28 Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble , & he bringeth them out of their distresses . 29 He maketh the storm a calm , so that the waves thereof are still . 30 Then are they glad because they be quiet ; so he bringeth them to their desired haven . 31 O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness , and for his wonderful works to the children of men . 32 Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people , and praise him in the assembly of the elders . 33 He turneth rivers into a wilderness , and the water-springs into dry ground : 34 A fruitfull land into barrenness , for the wickednesse of them that dwell therein . 35 He turneth the wilderness into a standing water , and dry ground into water-springs . 36 And there he maketh the hungry to dwell , that they may prepare a city for habitation : 37 And sow the fields , and plant vineyards , which may yield fruits of increase . 38 He blesseth them also , so that they are multiplied greatly , and suffereth not their cattell to decrease . 39 Again they are minished and brought low through oppression , affliction and sorrow . 40 He poureth contempt upon princes , and causeth them to wander in the wildernesse , where there is no way . 41 Yet setteth he the poor man on high from affliction , and maketh him families like a flock . 42 The righteous shall see it , and rejoyce ; and all iniquity shall stop her mouth . 43 Whoso is wise , and will observe those things , even they shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord. Ev. Pr. PSAL. CVIII . David rej●yces for a late deliverance from his enemies : he recites the promises of God : and intimates a prayer that God would enlarge his kingdom : he directly prayes for help : and puts his trust in God. O God , my heart is fixed , I will sing and give praise , even with my glory . 2 Awake psaltery & harp : I my self will awake early . 3 I will praise thee O Lord , among the people : and I will sing praises unto thee among the nations . 4 For thy mercy is great above the heavens : and thy truth reacheth unto the clouds . 5 Be thou exalted , O God , above the heavens : and thy glory above all the earth ; 6 That thy beloved may be delivered : save with thy right hand and answer me . 7 God hath spoken in his holiness , I will rejoyce , I will divide Shechem , and mete out the valley of Succoth . 8 Gilead is mine , Manasseh is mine , Ephraim also is the strength of mine head , Judah is my law-giver . 9 Moab is my washpot , over Edom will I cast out my shoe : over Philistia will I triumph . 10 Who will bring me into the strong city ? who will lead me into Edom ? 11 Wilt not thou , O God , who hast cast us off ? and wilt not thou , O God , go forth with our hosts ? 12 Give us help from trouble : for vain is the help of man. 13 Through God we shall do valiantly : for he it is that shall tread down our enemies . PSAL. CIX . David being almost oppressed with the calumnies of Do●g , and the injuries from Sauls family , does bitterly curse th●m : he complains to God for protection and deliverance : and puts his trust in him . HOld not thy peace , O God of my praise . 2 For the mouth of the wicked , and the mouth of the deceitfull are opened against me : they have spoken against me with a lying tongue . 3 They compassed me about also with words of hatred : and fought against me without a cause . 4 For my love , they are my adversaries : but I give my self unto prayer . 5 And they have rewarded me evill for good , and hatred for my love . 6 Set thou a wicked man over him : and let Satan stand at his right hand . 7 When he shall be judged , let him be condemned , and let his prayer become sin . 8 Let his dayes be few , and let another take his office . 9 Let his children he fatherlesse , and his wife a widow . 10 Let his children be continually vagabonds , and beg ; let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places . 11 Let the extortioner catch all that he hath : and let the stranger spoil his labour . 12 Let there be none to extend mercy unto him : neither let there be any to favour his fatherlesse children . 13 Let his posterity be cut off , and in the generation following let their name be blotted out . 14 Let the iniquity of his fathers be remēbred with the Lord : & let not the sin of his mother be blotted out . 15 Let them be before the Lord continually , that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth . 16 Because that he remembred not to shew mercy , but persecuted the poor & needy man , that he might even slay the broken in heart . 17 As he loved cursing , so let it come unto him : as he delighted not in blessing , so let it be far from him . 18 As he clothed himself with cursing like as with his garment : so let it come into his bowels like water , and like oyl into his bones . 19 Let it be unto him as the garment which covereth him , and for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually . 20 Let this be the reward of mine adversaries from the Lord , & of them that speak evill against my soul. 21 But do thou for me , O God the Lord , for thy names sake : because thy mercy is good , deliver thou me . 22 For I am poor & needy , and my heart is wounded within me . 23 I am gone like the shadow when it declineth : I am tossed up and down as the locust . 24 My knees are weak through fasting : and my flesh faileth of fatnesse . 25 I became also a reproch unto them : when they looked upon me , they shaked their heads . 26 Help me , O Lord my God : O save me according to thy mercy : 27 That they may know , that this is thy hand : that thou Lord hast done it . 28 Let them curse , but blesse thou : when they arise , let them be ashamed : but let thy servant rejoyce . 29 Let mine adversaries be clothed with shame : and let them cover themselves with their own confusion , as with a mantle . 30 I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth : yea , I will praise him among the multitude . 31 For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor , to save him from those that condemn his soul. Mo. pr. PSAL. CX . David prophesies of the Kingdome and Priesthood of Christ : of his glorious victories over his enemies ; but of his passion in the way to it . THe Lord said unto my Lord , Sit thou at my right hand , untill I make thine enemies thy footstool . 2 The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion : rule thou in the midst of thine enemies . 3 Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power , in the beauties of holinesse from the womb of the morning : thou hast the dew of thy youth . 4 The Lord hath sworn , and will not repent , Thou art a priest for ever , after the order of Melchisedek . 5 The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath . 6 He shall judge among the heathen , he shall fill the places with the dead bodies : he shall wound the heads over many countries . 7 He shall drink of the brook in the way : therefore shall he lift up the head . PSAL. CXI . A Paschal hyma reci●ing the great benefits the Church receives by our redemption wrought by Christ. PRaise ye the Lord , I will praise the Lord with my whole heart , in the assembly of the upright , and in the congregation . 2 The works of the Lord are great , sought out of all them that have pleasure therein . 3 His work is honourable and glorious : and his righteousnesse endureth for ever . 4 He hath made his wonderfull works to be remembred : the Lord is gracious and full of compassion . 5 He hath given meat unto them that fear him : he will ever be mindful of his covenant . 6 He hath shewed his people the power of his works , that he may give them the heritage of the heathen . 7 The works of his hands are verity and judgment ; all his commandments are sure . 8 They stand fast for ever and ever , and are done in truth and uprightnesse . 9 He sent redemption unto his people , he hath commanded his covenant for ever : holy and reverend is his name . 10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdome , a good understanding have all they that do his commandments : his praise endureth for ever . PSAL. CXII . The blessednesse of the just : the stability of the charitable : the envies of the wicked . PRaise ye the Lord. Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord , that delighteth greatly in his commandments . 2 His seed shall be mighty upon earth : the generation of the upright shall be blessed . 3 Wealth and riches shall be in his house : and his righteousnesse endureth for ever . 4 Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness : he is gracious , and full of compassion , and righteous . 5 A good man sheweth favour , and lendeth ; he will guide his affairs with discretion . 6 Surely he shall not be moved for ever : the righteous shall be in everlasting remembance 7 He shall not be afraid of evil tidings : his heart is fixed , trusting in the Lord. 8 His heart is established , he shall not be afraid , untill he see his desire upon his enemies . 9 He hath dispersed , he hath given unto the poor ; his righteousness endureth for ever ; his horn shall be exalted with honour . 10 The wicked shall see it , and be grieved ; he shall gnash with his teeth , and melt away : the desire of the wicked shall perish . PSAL. CXIII . A publication of the Divine providence : Gods graciousnesse to the humble and a●●●icted . PRaise ye the Lord , praise , O ye servants of the Lord , praise the name of the Lord. 2 Blessed be the name of the Lord , from this time forth & for evermore . 3 From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same , the Lords name is to be praised . 4 The Lord is high above all nations , and his glory above the heavens . 5 Who is like unto the Lord our God , who dwelleth on high ? 6 Who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven , and in the earth ? 7 He raiseth up the poor out of the dust , and lifteth the needy out of the dunghil : 8 That he may set him with princes , even with the princes of his people . 9 He maketh the barren woman to keep house ; and to be a joyfull mother of chidren : praise ye the Lord. Ev. Pr. PSAL. CXIV . The miracles which God wrought for Israel in the widerness when they came from Egypt . WHen Israel went out of Egypt , the house of Jacob from a people of strange language : 2 Judah was his sanctuary , and Israel his dominion . 3 The sea saw it , and fled ; Jordan was driven back . 4 The mountains skipped like rams , and the little hills like lambs . 5 What ailed thee , O thou sea , that thou fleddest ? thou Jordan , that thou wast driven back ? 6 Ye mountains , that ye skipped like rams ; and ye little hills , like lambs ? 7 Tremble thou earth at the presence of the Lord : at the presence of the God of Jacob : 8 Which turned the rock into a standing water , the flint into a fountain of waters . PSAL. CXV . A glorification of God for his truth and mercy : the vanity of idols : no trusting in them : all sorts of men are exhorted to praise God , and to hope in him : God blesses us : and we must blesse God. NOt unto us , O Lord , not unto us , but unto thy name give glory , for thy mercy , and for thy truthes sake . 2 Wherefore should the heathen say , Where is now their God ? 3 But our God is in the heavens , he hath done whatsoever he pleased . 4 Their idols are silver and gold , the work of mens hands . 5 They have mouths , but they speak not : eyes they have , but they see not . 6 They have eares , but they hear not : noses have they , but they smell not . 7 They have hands , but they handle not : feet have they , but they walk not ; neither speak they thorough their throat . 8 They that make them are like unto them : so is every one that trusteth in them . 9 O Israel , trust thou in the Lord : he is their help and their shield . 10 O house of Aaron , trust in the Lord : he is their help & their shield 11 Ye that fear the Lord , trust in the Lord : he is their help and their shield . 12 The Lord hath beeen mindfull of us , he will bless us , he will bless the house of Israel , he will bless the house of Aaron . 13 He will bless them that fear the Lord , both small and great . 14 The Lord shall encrease you more and more , you and your children . 15 You are blessed of the Lord , which made heaven and earth . 16 The heaven , even the heavens are the Lords : but the earth hath he given to the children of men . 17 The dead praise not the Lord , neither any that go down into silence . 18 But we will bless the Lord from this time forth & for evermore . Praise ye the Lord. Mo. Pr. PSAL. CXVI . David being delivered from Saul in the wilderness of Maon , sings praises to God in this psalm . I Love the Lord , because he hath heard my voice , and my supplications . 2 Because he hath inclined his eare unto me , therefore will I call upon him as long as I live . 3 The sorrowes of death compassed me ; and the pains of hell gat hold upon me : I found trouble & sorrow 4 Then called I upon the name of the Lord ; O Lord I beseech thee , deliver my soul. 5 Gracious is the Lord , & righteous : yea , our God is mercifull , 6 The Lord preserveth the simple : I was brought low , and he helped me . 7 Return unto thy rest , O my soul , for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee . 8 For thou hast delivered my soul from death , mine eyes from tears , and my feet from falling . 9 I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living . 10 I believed , therefore have I spoken : I was greatly afflicted . 11 I said in my haste , All men are liars . 12 What shall I render unto the Lord , for all his benefits towards me ? 13 I will take the cup of salvation , and call upon the name of the Lord. 14 I will pay my vows unto the Lord , now in the presence of all his people . 15 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints . 16 Oh Lord , truly I am thy servant , I am thy servant , and the son of thy handmaid : thou hast loosed my bonds . 17 I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving , & will call upon the name of the Lord. 18 I will pay my vows unto the Lord , now in the presence of all his people . 19 In the courts of the Lords house , in the midst of thee , O Jerusalem . Praise ye the Lord. PSAL. CXVII . A Doxology to God for his mercy and truth : it is also propheticall of the calling the Gen●iles . O Praise the Lord , all yee nations : praise him all ye people . 2 For his mercifull kindnesse is great towards us : and the truth of the Lord endureth for ever . Praise ye the Lord. PSAL. CXVIII . A thanksgiving and gratulation to God for his being victorious over the Philistims , and his establishment in his kingdome : it figures the Church going to her Temples , giving thanks to God , praying for blessing , and the priests blessing God and th● people , and appointing sacrifices : The coming of the Messias : and the joyes of the world at his coming . O Give thanks unto the Lord , for he is good : because his mercy endureth for ever . 2 Let Israel now say , that his mercy endureth for ever . 3 Let the house of Aaron now say , that his mercy endureth for ever . 4 Let them now that fear the Lord say , that his mercy endureth for ever . 5 I called upon the Lord in distresse : the Lord answered me , and set me in a large place . 6 The Lord is on my side , I wil not fear : what can man do unto me ? 7 The Lord taketh my part with them that help me : therefore shall I see my desire upon them that hate me . 8 It is better to trust in the Lord then to put confidence in man. 9 It is better to trust in the Lord , then to put confidence in princes . 10 All nations compassed me about : but in the name of the Lord I will destroy them . 11 They compassed me about , yea , they compassed me about : but in the name of the Lord I will destroy them . 12 They compassed me about like bees , they are quenched as the fire of thorns : for in the name of the Lord I will destroy them . 13 Thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall : but the Lord helped me . 14 The Lord is my strength and song : and is become my salvation 15 The voyce of rejoycing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous : the right hand of the Lord doth valiantly . 16 The right hand of the Lord is exalted : the right hand of the Lord doth valiantly . 17 I shall not die but live , and declare the works of the Lord. 18 The Lord hath chastened me sore : but he hath not given me over unto death . 19 Open to me the gates of righteousness : I will go in to them , and I will praise the Lord. 20 This gate of the Lord , into which the righteous shall enter . 21 I will praise thee , for thou hast heard me , and art become my salvation . 22 The stone which the builders refused , is become the head-stone of the corner . 23 This is the Lords doing , it is marvellous in our eyes . 24 This is the day which the Lord hath made , we will rejoyce and be glad in it . 25 Save now , I beseech thee , O Lord : O Lord , I beseech thee , send now prosperity . 26 Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord : we have blessed you out of the house of the Lord. 27 God is the Lord , which hath shewed us light ; bind the sacrifice with cords , even unto the horns of the altar . 28 Thou art my God , and I will praise thee ; thou art my God , I will exalt thee . 29 O give thanks unto the Lord , for he is good : for his mercy endureth for ever . Ev. Pr. PSAL. CXIX . David teaches that all true happiness consists in keeping the commandments : he prayes to God to produce in him a great love of them , and to give him right understanding in them : promises and threatnings are intermingled with great variety of expressions of the same earnest d●sire he had keep to the laws of God. BLessed are the undefiled in the way , who walk in the law of the Lord. 2 Blessed are they that keep his testimonies , and that seek him with the whole heart . 3 They also do no iniquity : they walk in his wayes . 4 Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently . 5 O that my wayes were directed to keep thy statutes ! 6 Then shall I not be ashamed , when I have respect unto all thy commandments . 7 I will praise thee with uprightnesse of heart , when I shall have learned thy righteous judgements . 8 I will keep thy statutes : O forsake me not utterly . BETH . 9 VVHerewithall shal a young man cleanse his way ? by taking heed thereto according to thy word . 10 With my whole heart have I sought thee : O let me not wander from thy commandments . 11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart , that I might not sin against thee . 12 Blessed art thou , O Lord : teach me thy statutes . 13 With my lips have I declared all the judgements of thy mouth . 14 I have rejoyced in the way of thy testimonies , as much as in all riches . 15 I will meditate in thy precepts , and have respect unto thy wayes . 16 I will delight my self in thy statutes : I wil not forget thy word . GIMEL . 17 DEal bountifully with thy servant , that I may live and keep thy word . 18 Open thou mine eyes , that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law . 19 I am a stranger in the earth , hide not thy commandments from me . 20 My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgements at all times . 21 Thou hast rebuked the proud that are cursed , which do erre from thy commandments . 22 Remove from me reproch and contempt , for I have kept thy testimonies . 23 Princes also did sit and speak against me : but thy servant did meditate in thy statutes . 24 Thy testimonies also are my delight , and my counsellors . DALETH . 25 MY soul cleaveth unto the dust : quicken thou me according to thy word . 26 I have declared my wayes , and thou heardest me : teach me thy statutes . 27 Make me to understand the way of thy precepts : so shall I talk of thy wondrous works 28 My soul melteth for heaviness : strengthen thou me according to thy word . 29 Remove from me the way of lying : and grant me thy law graciously . 30 I have chosen the way of truth : thy judgements have I laid before me . 31 I have stuck unto thy testimonies : O Lord put me not to shame . 32 I will run the way of thy commandments , when thou shalt inlarge my heart . Mo. Pr. HE. 33 TEach me , O Lord , the way of thy statutes , and I shall keep it unto the end . 34 Give me understanding , & I shall keep thy law : yea I shall observe it with my whole heart . 35 Make me to go in the path of thy commandments , for therein do I delight . 36 Incline my heart unto thy testimonies , & not to covetousness . 37 Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity : and quicken thou me in thy way . 38 Stablish thy word unto thy servant , who is devoted to thy fear . 39 Turn away my reproch which I fear : for thy judgements are good . 40 Behold , I have longed after thy precepts : quicken me in thy righteousness . VAU . 41 LEt thy mercies come also unto me , O Lord : even thy salvation according to thy word . 42 So shall I have wherewith to answer him that reprocheth me : for I trust in thy word . 43 And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth ; for I have hoped in thy judgments . 44 So shall I keep thy law continually , for ever and ever . 45 And I will walk at liberty : for I seek thy precepts . 46 I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings , and will not be ashamed . 47 And I will delight my self in thy commandments which I have loved . 48 My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments , which I have loved : and I will meditate in thy statutes . ZAIN . 49 REmember the word unto thy servant , upon which thou hast caused to me hope . 50 This is my comfort in my affliction : for thy word hath quickned me . 51 The proud have had me greatly in derision : yet have I not declined from thy law . 52 I remembred thy judgements of old , O Lord : and have comforted my self . 53 Horrour hath taken hold upon me : because of the wicked that forsake thy law . 54 Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage . 55 I have remembred thy name , O Lord , in the night , and have kept thy law . 56 This I had , because I kept thy precepts . CHETH . 57 THou art my portion , O Lord , I have said , that I would keep thy words . 58 I intreated thy favour with my whole heart : be merciful unto me according to thy word . 59 I thought on my wayes , and turned my feet unto thy testimonies . 60 I made haste , and delayed not to keep thy commandments . 61 The bands of the wicked have robbed me : but I have not forgotten thy law . 62 At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee : because of thy righteous judgements . 63 I am a companion of all them that feare thee , and of them that keep thy precepts . 64 The earth , O Lord , is full of thy mercy : teach me thy statutes . TETH . 65 THou hast dealt well with thy servant , O Lord , according to thy word . 66 Teach me good judgment , & knowledg : for I have believed thy commandments . 67 Before I was afflicted , I went astray : but now have I kept thy word . 68 Thou art good , and doest good ; teach me thy statutes . 69 The proud have forged a lie against me : but I will keep thy precepts with my whole heart . 70 Their heart is as fat as grease , but I delight in thy law . 71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted : that I might learn thy statutes . 72 The law of thy mouth is better unto me , then thousands of gold and silver . Ev. Pr. JOD . 73 THY hands have made me and fashioned me : give me understanding , that I may learn thy commandments . 74 They that feare thee , will be glad when they see me : because I have hoped in thy word . 75 I know , O Lord , that thy judgements are right ; and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me . 76 Let , I pray thee , thy mercifull kindness be for my comfort , according to thy word unto thy servant . 77 Let thy tender mercies come unto me , that I may live : for thy law is my delight . 78 Let the proud be ashamed , for they dealt perversely with me without a cause ; but I will meditate in thy precepts . 79 Let those that fear thee , turn unto me , and those that have known thy testimonies . 80 Let my heart be sound in thy statutes ; that I be not ashamed . CAPH . 81 MY soul fainteth for thy salvation : but I hope in thy word . 82 Mine eyes fail for thy word , saying , When wilt thou comfort me ? 83 For I am become like a bottle in the smoke : yet doe I not forget thy statutes . 84 How many are the dayes of thy servant ? when wilt thou execute judgement on them that persecute me ? 85 The proud have digged pits for me , which are not after thy law . 86 All thy commandments are faithfull : they persecute me wrongfully : help thou me . 87 They had almost consumed me upon earth : but I forsook not thy precepts . 88 Quicken me after thy loving kindness ; so shall I keep the testimony of thy mouth . LAMED . 89 FOr ever , O Lord , thy word is setled in heaven . 90 Thy faithfulnesse is unto all generations : thou hast established the earth , and it abideth . 91 They continue this day according to thine ordinances : for all are thy servants . 92 Unlesse thy law had been my delights , I should then have perished in mine affliction . 93 I will never forget thy precepts : for with them thou hast quickned me . 94 I am thine , save me : for I have sought thy precepts . 95 The wicked have waited for me to destroy me : but I will consider thy testimonies . 96 I have seen an end of all perfection ; but thy commandment is exceeding broad . MEM. 97 O How love I thy law ! it is my meditation all the day . 98 Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser then mine enemies : for they are ever with me . 99 I have more understanding then all my teachers : for thy testimonies are my meditation . 100 I understand more then the ancients : because I keep thy precepts . 101 I have refrained my feet from every evill way : that I may keep thy word . 102 I have not departed from thy judgments : for thou hast taught me . 103 How sweet are thy words unto my taste ! yea , sweeter then honey to my mouth . 104 Through thy precepts I get understanding : therefore I hate every false way . Mo. Pr. NUN . 105 THy word is a lamp unto my feet , & a light unto my path . 106 I have sworn , and I will perform it , that I will keep thy righteous judgments . 107 I am afflicted very much : quicken me , O Lord , according unto thy word . 108 Accept , I beseech thee , the free-will-offerings of my mouth , O Lord , & teach me thy judgments . 109 My soul is continually in my hand : yet doe I not forget thy law . 110 The wicked have laid a snare for me : yet I erred not from thy precepts . 111 Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever : for they are the rejoycing of my heart . 112 I have inclined mine heart to perform thy statutes alway , even unto the end . SAMECH . 113 I Hate vaine thoughts : but thy law do I love . 114 Thou art my hiding-place , and my shield : I hope in thy word . 115 Depart from me , ye evil doers ; for I will keep the commandments of my God 116 Uphold me according unto thy word , that I may live : and let me not be ashamed of my hope . 117 Hold thou me up , and I shall be safe : and I will have respect unto thy statutes continually . 118 Thou hast trodden down all them that erre from thy statutes , for their deceit is falsehood . 119 Thou puttest away all the wicked of the earth like drosse : therefore I love thy testimonies . 120 My flesh trembleth for fear of thee , and I am afraid of thy judgements . AIN . 121 I Have done judgement and justice : leave me not to mine oppressours . 122 Be surety for thy servant for good : let not the proud oppress me . 123 Mine eyes fail for thy salvation , and for the word of thy righteousness . 124 Deal with thy servant according unto thy mercy , and teach me thy statutes . 125 I am thy servant , give me understanding , that I may know thy testimonies . 126 It is time for thee , Lord , to work : for they have made void thy law . 127 Therefore I love thy commandments above gold , yea , above fine gold . 128 Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right ; and I hate every false way . PE. 129 THy testimonies are wonderful : therefore doth my soul keep them . 130 The entrance of thy words giveth light : it giveth understanding unto the simple . 131 I opened my mouth , and panted : for I longed for thy commandments . 132 Look thou upon me , and be mercifull unto me , as thou usest to do unto those that love thy name . 133 Order my steps in thy word : and let not any iniquity have dominion over me . 134 Deliver me from the oppression of man : so will I keep thy precepts . 135 Make thy face to shine upon thy servant : and teach me thy statutes . 136 Rivers of waters run down mine eyes : because they keep not thy law . TSADDI . 137 RIghteous art thou , O Lord , and upright are thy judgements . 138 Thy testimonies that thou hast commanded , are righteous , and very faithfull . 139 My zeal hath consumed me : because mine enemies have forgotten thy words . 140 Thy word is very pure : therefore thy servant loveth it . 141 I am small and despised : yet do not I forget thy precepts . 142 Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness , and thy law is the truth . 143 Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me : yet thy commandments are my delights . 144 The righteousness of thy testimonies is everlasting : give me understanding , and I shall live . Ev. Pr. KOPH . 145 I Cryed with my whole heart , heare me , O Lord : I will keep thy statutes . 146 I cryed unto thee , save me & I shall keep thy testimonies . 147 I prevented the dawning of the morning , and cryed : I hoped in thy word . 148 Mine eyes prevent the night-watches , that I might meditate in thy word . 149 Hear my voyce according unto thy loving kindness : O Lord quicken me according to thy judgement . 150 They draw nigh that follow after mischief : they are far from thy law . 151 Thou art near , O Lord : and all thy commandments are truth . 152 Concerning thy testimonies , I have known of old , that thou hast founded them for ever . RESH . 153 COnsider mine affliction , and deliver me : for I doe dot forget thy law . 154 Plead my cause , and deliver me : quicken me according to thy word . 155 Salvation is far from the wicked : for they seek not thy statutes . 156 Great are thy tender mercies , O Lord , quicken me according to thy judgements . 157 Many are my persecutors , and mine enemies : yet do I not decline from thy testimonies . 158 I beheld the transgressours , and was grieved : because they kept not thy word . 159 Consider how I love thy precepts : quicken me , O Lord , according to thy loving kindness . 160 Thy word is true from the beginning : and every one of thy righteous judgements endureth for ever . SCHIN . 161 PRinces have persecuted me without a cause : but my heart standeth in aw of thy word . 162 I rejoyce at thy word , as one that findeth great spoil . 163 I hate and abhor lying : but thy law do I love . 164 Seven times a day do I praise thee : because of thy righteous judgements . 165 Great peace have they which love thy law : and nothing shall offend them . 166 Lord , I have hoped for thy salvation , and done thy commandements . 167 My soul hath kept thy testimonies : and I love them exceedingly . 168 I have kept thy precepts and thy testimonies : for all my waies are before thee . TAU . 169 LEt my crye come near before thee , O Lord : give me understanding according to thy word . 170 Let my supplication come before thee : deliver me according to thy word . 171 My lips shall utter praise , when thou hast taught me thy statutes . 172 My tongue shall speak of thy word : for all thy commandments are righteousness . 173 Let thine hand help me : for I have chosen thy precepts . 174 I have longed for thy salvation , O Lord : and thy law is my delight . 175 Let my soul live , and it shall praise thee : and let thy judgements help me . 176 I have gone astray like a lost sheep , seek thy servant : for I do not forget thy commandments . Mo. Pr. PSAL. CXX . The Psalmist being compelled to live amongst ungodly and factious people , complains to God , and craves help and remedy . IN my distress I cryed unto the Lord , and he heard me . 2 Deliver my soul , O Lord , from lying lips , and from a deceitfull tongue . 3 What shall be given unto thee ? or what shall be done unto thee , thou false tongue ? 4 Sharp arrows of the mighty , with coals of Juniper . 5 Wo is me that I sojourn in Mesech , that I dwell in the tents of Kedar . 6 My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace . 7 I am for peace : but when I speak , they are for war. PSAL. CXXI . This Psalm is an act of trust in God , our great preserver by day and night , at home and abroad . I Will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help . 2 My help cometh from the Lord , which made heaven and earth . 3 He will not suffer thy foot to be moved : he that keepeth thee will not slumber . 4 Behold , he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep . 5 The Lord is thy keeper : the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand . 6 The sun shall not smite thee by day , nor the moon by night . 7 The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil : he shall preserve thy soul. 8 The Lord shall preserve thy going out , and thy coming in , from this time forth and even for evermore . PSAL. CXXII . A preparatory hymn for the people of God in their ascent to the places and solemnities of religion : he prayes for the prosperity of the Church . I Was glad when they said unto me , Let us goe into the house of the Lord. 2 Our feet shall stand within thy gates , O Jerusalem . 3 Jerusalem is builded as a city , that is compact together : 4 Whither the tribes go up , the tribes of the Lord , unto the testimony of Israel , to give thanks unto the name of the Lord. 5 For there are set thrones of judgement : the thrones of the house of David . 6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem : they shall prosper that love thee . 7 Peace be within thy walls , and prosperity within thy palaces . 8 For my brethren and companions sakes , I will now say , Peace be within thee . 9 Because of the house of the Lord our God , I will seek thy good . PSAL. CXXIII . The people under the tyranny of Antiochus complain to God of their sad condition ; and humbly wait on God. UNto thee lift I up mine eyes , O thou that dwellest in the heavens . 2 Behold , as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters , and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress ; so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God , untill that he have mercy upon us . 3 Have mercy upon us , O Lord , have mercy upon us : for we are exceedingly filled with contempt . 4 Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning of those that are at ease , and with the contempt of the proud . PSAL. CXXIV . The people newly escaped from their enemies acknowledge their great danger , and God onely to be the author of their safety and their victory . IF it had not been the Lord who was on our side , now may Israel say : 2 If it had not been the Lord who was on our side , when men rose up against us : 3 Then they had swallowed us up quick , when their wrath was kindled against us : 4 Then the waters had overwhelmed us , the stream had gone over our soul : 5 Then the proud waters had gone over our soul. 6 Blessed be the Lord , who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth . 7 Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers ; the snare is broken and we are escaped . 8 Our help is in the name of the Lord , who made heaven and earth . PSAL. CXXV . The perpetuity of the Church : Gods continuall presence with her : the lot of the wicked differs from the portion of Gods people . THey that trust in the Lord shal be as mount Zion , which cannot be removed , but abideth for ever . 2 As the mountains are round about Jerusalem , so the Lord is round about his people , from henceforth even for ever . 3 For the rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous : lest the righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity . 4 Do good , O Lord , unto those that be good , and to them that are upright in their hearts . 5 As for such as turn aside unto their crooked wayes , the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity : but peace shall be upon Israel . Ev. Pr. PSAL. CXXVI . Thy joy of the Jewes at their retu●n from Babylon : they pray for the remaining part : the future joy of them that presently mourn . WHen the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion , we were like them that dream . 2 Then was our mouth filled with laughter , and our tongue with singing : Then said they among the heathen , The Lord hath done great things for them . 3 The Lord hath done great things for us : whereof we are glad . 4 Turne again our captivity , O Lord , as the streames in the south . 5 They that sow in tears , shall reap in joy . 6 He that goeth forth and weepeth , bearing precious seed , shall doubtlesse come again with rejoycing , bringing his sheaves with him . PSAL. CXXVII . Without God we must und●rtake nothing : children are a blessing to the righteous . EXcept the Lord build the house , they labour in vain that build it : except the Lord keep the city , the watchman waketh but in vain . 2 It is vain for you to rise up early , to sit up late , to eat the bread of sorrows : for so he giveth his beloved sleep . 3 Lo , children are an heritage of the Lord : & the fruit of the womb is his reward . 4 As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man : so are children of the youth . 5 Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them : they shall not be ashamed , but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate . PSAL. CXXVIII . The blessi●gs of them that fear God ; in their wives and children , and the peace of the Church . BLessed is every one that feareth the Lord : that walketh in his wayes . 2 For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands : happy shalt thou be , and it shall be well with thee . 3 Thy wife shall be as a fruitfull vine by the sides of thine house : thy children like olive plants , round about thy table . 4 Behold , that thus shall the man be blessed , that feareth the Lord. 5 The Lord shall blesse thee out of Zion : and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem , all the dayes of thy life . 6 Yea , thou shalt see thy childrens children , and peace upon Israel . PSAL. CXXIX . The indefatigable malice of the enemies of the Church : they prevail not : but are at last accursed and cut off . MAny a time have they afflicted me from my youth , may Israel now say : 2 Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth : yet they have not prevailed against me . 3 The plowers plowed upon my back : they made long their furrows . 4 The Lord is righteous : he hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked . 5 Let them all be confounded and turned back that hate Zion . 6 Let them be as the grasse upon the house tops , which withereth afore it groweth up : 7 Wherewith the mower filleth not his hand : nor he that bindeth sheaves , his bosome . 8 Neither doe they which goe by , say , The blessing of the Lord be upon you : we blesse you in the name of the Lord. PSAL. CXXX . A prayer for pardon of sins : an act of hope in God : and a celebration of his mercy . The Psalm is paenitential . OUt of the depths have I cryed unto thee , O Lord. 2 Lord hear my voice : let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications . 3 If thou , Lord , shouldest mark iniquities ; O Lord , who shall stand ? 4 But there is forgiveness with thee , that thou mayst be feared . 5 I wait for the Lord , my soul doth wait , and in his word do I hope . 6 My soul waiteth for the Lord , more then they that watch for the morning : I say , more then they that watch for the morning . 7 Let Israel hope in the Lord , for with the Lord there is mercy , and with him is plenteous redemption . 8 And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities . PSAL. CXXXI . David being accused by Sauls servants that be aspir'd to the Kingdom , protests his innocence , his humble thoughts , and meek deportment : he calls on all to trust in God. LOrd , my heart is not haughty , nor mine eyes lofty : neither do I exercise my self in great matters , or in things too high for me . 2 Surely I have behaved and quieted my self as a child that is weaned of his mother : my soul is even as a weaned child . 3 Let Israel hope in the Lord , from henceforth and for ever . Mo. Pr. PSAL. CXXXII . David h●ving vowed to build a Temple to God was not permitted ; but the place was shewn to him where his son should build it : he prepares this psalm for the dedication of it : prophecies of the stability of Christs Church , and the blessings of his Ministers and people . LOrd , remember David , and all his afflictions . 2 How he sware unto the Lord , and vowed unto the mighty God of Jacob. 3 Surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house , nor go up into my bed : 4 I will not give sleep to mine eyes , or slumber to mine eye-lids , 5 Untill I find out a place for the Lord : an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob . 6 Lo , we heard of it at Ephratah : we found it in the fields of the wood . 7 We will go into his tabernacles : we will worship at his footstool . 8 Arise , O Lord , into thy rest : thou , & the ark of thy strength . 9 Let thy priests be clothed with righteousnesse : and let thy saints shout for joy . 10 For thy servant Davids sake , turn not away the face of thine anointed . 11 The Lord hath sworn in truth unto David , he will not turn from it , Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne . 12 If thy children will keep my covenant and my testimony , that I shall teach them ; their children also shall sit upon thy throne for evermore . 13 For the Lord hath chosen Zion : he hath desired it for his habitation . 14 This is my rest for ever : here will I dwell , for I have desired it . 15 I will abundantly blesse her provision : I will satisfie her poor with bread . 16 I will also clothe her priests with salvation : and her saints shall shout aloud for joy . 17 There will I make the horn of David to bud : I have ordained a lamp for mine anointed . 18 His enemies will I clothe with shame : but upon himself shall his crown flourish . PSAL. CXXXIII . The amability of peace , and the blessings of Christian unity are describ'd . BEhold , how good and how pleasant it is , for brethren to dwell together in unity . 2 It is like the precious oyntment upon the head , that ran down upon the beard , even Aarons beard , that went down to the skirts of his garment . 3 As the dew of Hermon , and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion ; for there the Lord commanded the blessing , even life for evermore . PSAL. CXXXIV . An exhortation to the Ministers of Religion to attend to their appointed houres of prayer . BEhold , blesse ye the Lord , all ye servants of the Lord , which by night stand in the house of the Lord. 2 Lift up your hands in the sanctuary : and blesse the Lord. 3 The Lord that made heaven & earth , blesse thee out of Zion . PSAL. CXXXV . The Ministers of Religion are further called upon to attend to the recitation of the Divine praises , by arguments drawn from consideration of the works of God , from the greatnesse of his name , from his justice to all , and his loving kindnesse to his servants : the vanity of Idols , and their worshippers . PRaise ye the Lord , praise ye the name of the Lord , praise him , O ye servants of the Lord. 2 Ye that stand in the house of the Lord , in the courts of the house of our God. 3 Praise ye the Lord , for the Lord is good : sing praises unto his name , for it is pleasant . 4 For the Lord hath chosen Jacob unto himself , and Israel for his peculiar treasure . 5 For I know that the Lord is great , and that our Lord is above all gods . 6 Whatsoever the Lord pleased , that did he in heaven and in earth , in the seas , and all deep places . 7 He causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth , he maketh lightnings for the rain : he bringeth the wind out of his treasuries . 8 Who smote the first-born of Egypt , both of man and beast . 9 Who sent tokens and wonders into the midst of thee , O Egypt , upon Pharaoh , and upon all his servants . 10 Who smote great nations , and slew mighty kings : 11 Sihon king of the Amorites , and Og king of Bashan , and all the kingdoms of Canaan : 12 And gave their land for an heritage , an heritage unto Israel his people . 13 Thy name , O Lord , endureth for ever , and thy memoriall , O Lord , throughout all generations . 14 For the Lord will judge his people , and he will repent himself concerning his servants . 15 The idols of the heathen are silver and gold , the work of mens hands . 16 They have mouths , but they speak not ; eyes have they , but they see not . 17 They have eares , but they hear not , neither is there any breath in their mouthes . 18 They that make them are like unto them : so is every one that trusteth in them . 19 Blesse the Lord , O house of Israel : blesse the Lord , O house of Aaron . 20 Blesse the Lord , O house of Levi ; ye that fear the Lord , blesse the Lord. 21 Blessed be the Lord out of Zion , which dwelleth at Jerusalem . Praise ye the Lord. Ev. Pr. PSAL. CXXXVI . The people of God are called upon to confesse the greatnesse and goodnesse , the providence and mercy of the Lord : by arguments taken from the works of God to the children of Israel and to all the world : all Gods works are in mercy : This mercy is Eternall . O Give thanks unto the Lord , for he is good : for his mercy endureth for ever . 2 O give thanks unto the God of gods : for his mercy endureth for ever . 3 O give thanks to the Lord of lords : for his mercy endureth for ever . 4 To him who alone doth great wonders : for his mercy endureth for ever . 5 To him that by wisdom made the heavens : for his mercy endureth for ever . 6 To him that stretched out the earth above the waters : for his mercy endureth for ever . 7 To him that made great lights : for his mercy endureth for ever . 8 The sun to rule by day : for his mercy endureth for ever . 9 The moon and stars to rule by night : for his mercy endureth for ever . 10 To him that smote Egypt in their first-born : for his mercy endureth for ever . 11 And brought out Israel from among them : for his mercy endureth for ever . 12 With a strong hand , and with a stretched out arm : for his mercy endureth for ever . 13 To him which divided the Red sea into parts : for his mercy endureth for ever . 14 And made Israel to passe through the midst of it : for his mercy endureth for ever . 15 But overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red sea : for his mercy endureth for ever . 16 To him which led his people through the wildernesse : for his mercy endureth for ever . 17 To him which smote great kings : for his mercy endureth for ever . 18 And slew famous kings : for his mercy endureth for ever . 19 Sihon king of the Amorites : for his mercy endureth for ever . 20 And Og the king of Bashan : for his mercy endureth for ever . 21 And gave their land for an heritage : for his mercy endureth for ever . 22 Even an heritage unto Israel his servant : for his mercy endureth for ever . 23 Who remembred us in our low estate : for his mercy endureth for ever . 24 And hath redeemed us from our enemies : for his mercy endureth for ever . 25 Who giveth food to all flesh : for his mercy endureth for ever . 26 O give thanks unto the God of heaven : for his mercy endureth for ever . PSAL. CXXXVII . The Jewes being in the Babylonish Captivity deplore their sad condition : they remember the pleasures of Jerusalem and the religion of the Temple ; they long to be there : and pray for the Divine Judgments to descend upon their persecutors . BY the rivers of Babylon , there we sat down , yea we wept , when we remembred Zion . 2 We hanged our harps upon the willows , in the midst thereof . 3 For there they that carryed us away captive , required of us a song ; and they that wasted us , required of us mirth , saying , Sing us one of the songs of Zion . 4 How shall we sing the Lords song in a strange land ? 5 If I forget thee , O Jerusalem , let my right hand forget her cunning . 6 If I doe not remember thee , let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth ; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy . 7 Remember , O Lord , the children of Edom , in the day of Jerusalem ; who said , Rase it , rase it , even to the foundation thereof . 8 O daughter of Babylon , who art to be destroyed : happy shall he be that rewardeth thee , as thou hast served us . 9 Happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones . PSAL. CXXXVIII . David being freed from the persecution of Saul , and invested in the Kingdome , promises to celebrate the Divine praises before all the Kings of the earth : whom he exhorts to doe the same : he puts his trust in God for the future : he prayes to have these mercies continued and enlarged . I Will praise thee with my whole heart , before the gods will I sing praise unto thee . 2 I will worship towards thy holy temple , and praise thy name , for thy loving kindnesse , and for thy truth : for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name . 3 In the day when I cryed , thou answeredst me : and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul. 4 All the kings of the earth shall praise thee , O Lord , when they hear the words of thy mouth . 5 Yea , they shall sing in the waies of the Lord : for great is the glory of the Lord. 6 Though the Lord be high , yet hath he respect unto the lowly : but the proud he knoweth afar off . 7 Though I walk in the mids of trouble , thou wilt revive me ; thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies , and thy right hand shall save me . 8 The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me : thy mercy , O Lord , endureth for ever : forsake not the works of thine own hands . Mo. Pr. PSAL. CXXXIX . The Divine Omniscience , and Omnipresence largely described : the thoughts of God are unsearchable : the wicked are cursed : the Psalmist prayes to be defended from them : he hates their waies : and prayes to be conducted in the waies of God. O Lord , thou hast searched me , & known me . 2 Thou knowest my down-sitting , and mine up-rising , thou understandest my thought afar off . 3 Thou compassest my path , and my lying down , and art acquainted with all my waies . 4 For there is not a word in my tongue , but lo , O Lord , thou knowest it altogether . 3 Thou hast beset me behind and before , and laid thine hand upon me . 6 Such knowledge is too wonderfull for me ; it is high , I cannot attain unto it . 7 Whither shall I goe from thy spirit ? or whither shall I flee from thy presence ? 8 If I ascend up into heaven , thou art there : if I make my bed in hell , behold , thou art there . 9 If I take the wings of the morning , & dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea : 10 Even there shall thy hand lead me , and thy right hand shall hold me . 11 If I say , Surely the darknesse shall cover me : even the night shall be light about me . 12 Yea , the darknesse hideth not from thee , but the night shineth as the day : the darknesse and the light are both alike to thee . 13 For thou hast possessed my reins : thou hast covered me in my mothers womb . 14 I will praise thee , for I am fearfully and wonderfully made ; marvellous are thy works , and that my soul knoweth right well . 15 My substance was not hid from thee , when I was made in secret : and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth . 16 Thine eyes did see my substance yet being unperfect , and in thy book all my members were written , which in continuance were fashioned , when as yet there was none of them . 17 How precious also are thy thoughts unto me , O God ? how great is the summe of them ? 18 If I should count them , they are mo in number then the sand : when I wake , I am still with thee . 19 Surely thou wilt slay the wicked , O God : depart from me therefore ye bloody men . 20 For they speak against thee wickedly , and thine enemies take thy name in vain . 21 Do not I hate them , O Lord , that hate thee ? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee ? 22 I hate them with perfect hatred : I count them mine enemies . 23 Search me , O God , and know my heart : try me , and know my thoughts . 24 And see if there be any wicked way in me , and lead me in the way everlasting . PSAL. CXL . David being persecuted by Do●g and the men of Ziph prayes to God for his safety and defence from their evil tongues : he prayes against his Enemies : he trusts in God that he shall be safe ; and that his Enemies shall be destroyed . DEliver me , O Lord , from the evil man : preserve me from the violent man. 2 Which imagine mischiefs in their heart ; continually are they gathered together for warre . 3 They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent ; adders poyson is under their lips . Selah . 4 Keep me , O Lord , from the hands of the wicked , preserve me frm the violent man , who have purposed to overthrow my goings . 5 The proud have hid a snare for me , and cords , they have spread a net by the way-side : they have set gins for me . Selah . 6 I said unto the Lord , Thou art my God : hear the voice of my supplications , O Lord. 7 O God the Lord , the strength of my salvation ; thou hast covered my head in the day of battell . 8 Grant not , O Lord , the desires of the wicked , further not his wicked device , lest they exalt themselves . Selah . 9 As for the head of those that compasse me about , let the mischief of their own lips cover them . 10 Let burning coals fall upon them , let them be cast into the fire ; into deep pits , that they rise not up again . 11 Let not an evil speaker be established in the earth : evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him . 12 I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted , and the right of the poor . 13 Surely the righteous shall give thanks unto thy name , the upright shall dwell in thy presence . PSAL. CXLI . David being in his flight and trouble prayes that God would so , compose his mind , and restraine his tongue that through anger or impatience he may not offend : and that he may have no part or society with the wicked : he prayes to be defended from their snares , and that they may perish with their own arts . LOrd , I cry unto thee , make haste unto me , give ear unto my voice , when I cry unto thee . 2 Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense , and the lifting up of my hands , as the evening sacrifice . 3 Set a watch ( O Lord ) before my mouth , keep the door of my lips . 4 Incline not my heart to any evil thing , to practise wicked works with men that work iniquity : and let me not eat of their dainties . 5 Let the righteous smite me , it shall be a kindnesse ; and let him reprove me , it shall be an excellent oyl , which shal not break my head : for yet my prayer also shall be in their calamities . 6 When their judges are overthrown in stony places , they shall hear my words , for they are sweet . 7 Our bones are scattered at the graves mouth , as when one cutteth and cleaveth wood upon the earth . 8 But mine eyes are unto thee , O God the Lord : in thee is my trust , leave not my soul destitute . 9 Keep me from the snare which they have laid for me , and the gins of the workers of iniquity . 10 Let the wicked fall into their own nets , whilest that I withall escape . Ev. Pr. PSAL. CXLII . David being imprison'd in a cave , and besieged by Saul , prayes to God to be delivered out of his present danger : he intends this delivery to be in order to the glorification of God. I Cryed unto the Lord with my voice : with my voice unto the Lord did I make my supplication . 2 I poured out my complaint before him : I shewed before him my trouble . 3 When my spirit was overwhelmed within me , then thou knewest my path : in the way wherein I walked , have they privily laid a snare for me . 4 I looked on my right hand , and beheld , but there was no man that would know me : refuge failed me : no man cared for my soul. 5 I cried unto thee , O Lord , I said , Thou art my refuge , and my portion in the land of the living . 6 Attend unto my cry , for I am brought very low ; deliver me from my persecutours : for they are stronger then I. 7 Bring my soul out of prison , that I may praise thy name : the righteous shall compass me about : for thou shalt deale bountifully with me . PSAL. CXLIII . David being persecuted by Absaloms party implores Gods ayde : confesses his unworthinesse and sinne : describes his sad state of affairs : he com●orts himself with the memory of Gods greatworks : he prayes for defence against his enemies , and deliverance from them : and to be conducted by the good spirit of God : and that his Enemies may be cut off . The psalme is paenitential . HEar my prayer , O Lord , give ear to my supplications : in thy faithfulness answer me , and in thy righteousnesse . 2 And enter not into judgment with thy servant : for in thy sight shall no man living be justified . 3 For the enemy hath persecuted my soul , he hath smitten my life down to the ground : he hath made me to dwell in darknesse , as those that have been long dead . 4 Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me : my heart within me is desolate . 5 I remember the dayes of old , I meditate on all thy works : I muse on the work of thy hands . 9 I stretch forth my hands unto thee : my soul thirsteth after thee , as a thirsty land . Selah . 7 Hear me speedily , O Lord , my spirit faileth : hide not thy face from me , lest I be like unto them that goe down into the pit . 8 Cause me to hear thy loving kindnesse in the morning , for in thee doe I trust : cause me to know the way wherein I should walk , for I lift up my soul unto thee . 9 Deliver me , O Lord , from mine enemies : I flee unto thee to hide me . 10 Teach me to do thy will , for thou art my God : thy spirit is good , lead me into the land of uprightnesse . 11 Quicken me , O Lord , for thy names sake : for thy righteousnesse sake bring my soul out of trouble . 12 And of thy mercy cut off mine enemies , and destroy all them that afflict my soul : for I am thy servant . Mo. Pr. PSAL. CXLIV . David praises God for helping him in battels against the Philistims : and giving him an intire possession of his kingdome : he admires Gods goodnesse to man , and the condescensions of his providence : he prayes for defence against the preparations of other Enemies against him : and for prosperity to his people , and plenty in the field and in the stall : the blessednesse of the servants of God. Blessed be the Lord my strength , which teacheth my hands to war , and my fingers to fight . 2 My goodnesse and my fortresse , my high tower and my deliverer , my shield , and he in whom I trust : who subdueth my people under me . 3 Lord , what is man , that thou takest knowledge of him ? or the son of man , that thou makest account of him ? 4 Man is like to vanity : his dayes are as a shadow that passeth away . 5 Bow thy heavens , O Lord , and come down : touch the mountains , and they shall smoke . 6 Cast forth lightning , and scatter them : shoot out thine arrows , and destroy them . 7 Send thine hand from above , rid me , and deliver me out of great waters : from the hand of strange children , 8 Whose mouth speaketh vanity ; and their right hand is a right hand of falshood . 9 I will sing a new song unto thee , O God : upon a psaltery , and an instrument of ten strings will I sing praises unto thee . 10 It is he that giveth salvation unto kings : who delivereth David his servant from the hurtfull sword . 11 Rid me and deliver me from the hand of strange children ; whose mouth speaketh vanity , and their right hand is a right hand of falshood . 12 That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth ; that our daughters may be as corner-stones , polished after the similitude of a palace : 13 That our garners may be full , affording all manner of store : that our sheep may bring forth thousands , and ten thousands in our streets : 14 That our oxen may be strong to labour ; that there be no breaking in , nor going out ; that there be no complaining in our streets , 15 Happy is that people , that is in such a case : yea , happy is that people , whose God is the Lord. PSAL. CXLV . This Psalm is part of the Allelujah : it is wholly a celebration of the Divine praises , from the greatnesse of God , his infinite power , his immense Majesty , his goodnesse , his clemency , his justice , his providence and bounty , and his readinesse to hear the prayers of them that fear him . I Will extoll thee , my God , O King , and I will blesse thy name for ever and ever . 2 Every day will I blesse thee , and I will praise thy name for ever and ever . 3 Great is the Lord , and greatly to be praised , and his greatnesse is unsearchable . 4 One generation shall praise thy works to another , and shall declare thy mighty acts . 5 I will speak of the glorious honour of thy majesty , and of thy wondrous works . 6 And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts ; and I will declare thy greatnesse . 7 They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodnesse , and shall sing of thy righteousnesse . 8 The Lord is gracious , and full of compassion ; slow to anger , and of great mercy . 9 The Lord is good to all : and his tender mercies are over all his works . 10 All thy works shal praise thee , O Lord , and thy saints shal blesse thee . 11 They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdome and talk of thy power . 12 To make known to the sons of men , his mighty acts , and the glorious majesty of his kingdome . 13 Thy kingdome is an everlasting kingdome , and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations . 14 The Lord upholdeth all that fall : and raiseth up all those that be bowed down . 15 The eyes of all wait upon thee , & thou givest them their meat in due season . 16 Thou openest thine hand , and satisfiest the desire of every living thing . 17 The Lord is righteous in all his wayes , and holy in all his works . 18 The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him , to all that call upon him in truth . 19 He will fulfill the desire of them that fear him : he also will hear their cry , and will save them . 20 The Lord preserveth all them that love him : but all the wicked will he destroy . 21 My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord : and let all flesh blesse his holy name for ever and ever . PSAL. CXLVI . An exhortation to praise God : in him alone we are to trust : he is the Creator of all : his truth is eternall : he is just , bountifull , and gracious , and King for ever . PRaise ye the Lord : praise the Lord , O my soul. 2 While I live , will I praise the Lord : I will sing praises unto my God , while I have any being . 3 Put not your trust in Princes , nor in the son of man , in whom there is no help . 4 His breath goeth forth , he returneth to his earth : in that very day his thoughts perish . 5 Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help , whose hope is in the Lord his God : 6 Which made heaven and earth , the sea , and all that therein is : which keepeth truth for ever : 7 Which executeth judgement for the oppressed , which giveth food to the hungry : the Lord looseth the prisoners . 8 The Lord openeth eyes of the blinde : the Lord raiseth them that are bowed down : the Lord loveth the righteous . 9 The Lord preserveth the strangers ; he relieveth the fatherless and widow : but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down . 10 The Lord shall reign for ever , even thy God , O Zion , unto all generations . Praise ye the Lord. Ev. Pr. PSAL. CXLVII . An exhortation to recite Gods praises from the consideration of his blessings to his people : his defence and establishment of them : his power and wisdome manifested in the heavens : his care over all the creatures , men and beasts : from summer and winter : and especially from consideration of the excellency of his Law and of his Word communicated to his people . PRaise ye the Lord : for it is good to sing praises unto our God : for it is pleasant , & praise is comely . 2 The Lord doth build up Jerusalem : he gathereth together the outcasts of Israel . 3 He healeth the broken in heart , & bindeth up their wounds . 4 He telleth the number of the stars : he calleth them all by their names . 5 Great is our Lord , and of great power : his understanding is infinite . 6 The Lord lifteth up the meek : he casteth the wicked down to the ground . 7 Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving : sing praises upon the harp unto our God : 8 Who covereth the heaven with clouds , who prepareth rain for the earth , who maketh grasse to grow upon the mountains . 9 He giveth to the beast his food , and to the young ravens which cry . 10 He delighteth not in the strength of the horse : he taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man. 11 The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him , in those that hope in his mercy . 12 Praise the Lord , O Jerusalem : praise thy God , O Zion . 13 For he hath strengthened the bars of thy gates : he hath blessed thy children within thee . 14 He maketh peace in thy borders , and filleth thee with the finest of the wheat : 15 He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth : his word runneth very swiftly . 16 He giveth snow like wool : he scattereth the hoar frost like ashes . 17 He casteth forth his ice like morsels : who can stand before his cold ? 18 He sendeth out his word , and melteth them : he causeth his wind to blow , and the waters flow . 19 He sheweth his word unto Jacob , his statutes and his judgements unto Israel . 20 He hath not dealt so with any nation : and as for his judgements , they have not known them . Praise ye the Lord. PSAL. CXLVIII . All the Creation in the severall ranks of creatures is called upon to be instrumental in the celebration of the Divine praises . PRaise ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord from the heavens : praise him in the heights . 2 Praise ye him all his angels : praise ye him all his hosts . 3 Praise ye him sun and moon : praise him all ye stars of light . 4 Praise him ye heavens of heavens , and ye waters that be above the heavens . 5 Let them praise the name of the Lord : for he commanded , and they were created . 6 He hath also stablished them for ever and ever : he hath made a decree which shall not passe . 7 Praise the Lord from the Earth , ye dragons and all deeps . 8 Fire and hail , snow and vapour , stormy wind fulfilling his word . 9 Mountains and all hills , fruitfull trees and all cedars . 10 Beasts and all cattell , creeping things , and flying fowl . 11 Kings of the earth , and all people ; princes , and all judges of the earth . 12 Both young men and maidens , old men and children . 13 Let them praise the name of the Lord : for his name alone is excellent , his glory is above the earth and heaven . 14 He also exalteth the horn of his people , the praise of all his saints ; even of the children of Israel , people near unto him . Praise ye the Lord. PSAL. CXLIX . The praises of God and his glory in the prosperity of his Church : the priviledges and advantages of the saints in the old Testament ; and in the spiritual sense to be translated to the Christian Church . PRaise ye the Lord : sing unto the Lord a new song , and his praise in the congregation of saints . 2 Let Israel rejoyce in him that made him : let the children of Zion be joyfull in their king . 3 Let them praise his name in the dance : let them sing praises unto him with the timbrell and harp . 4 For the Lord taketh pleasure in his people : he will beautifie the meek with salvation . 5 Let the saints be joyfull in glory : let them sing aloud upon their beds . 6 Let the high praises of God be in their mouth , and a two-edged sword in their hand . 7 To execute vengeance upon the heathen , and punishments upon the people . 8 To bind their kings with chains , and their nobles with fetters of iron . 9 To execute upon them the judgement written : this honour have all his saints . Praise ye the Lord. PSAL. CL. David calls upon the Church to recite Gods praises : and especially upon the Levites , whose office it was to sing and play on instruments of musick in the service of God : he uses the word [ praise ] thirteen times in this short Psalm , according to the number of the thirteen Attributes of God which the Rabbins usually reckon . PRaise ye the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary : praise him in the firmament of his power . 2 Praise him for his mighty acts : praise him according to his excellent greatnesse . 3 Praise him with the sound of the trumpet : praise him with the psaltery and harp . 4 Praise him with the timbrel and dance : praise him with stringed instruments and organs . 5 Praise him upon the loud cymbals : praise him upon the high sounding cymbals . 6 Let every thing that hath breath , praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. The End. Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A63711-e300 Coloss. 3● Tortura Torti P. 142. Cambd. Annal. A. D. 1560. 2 Chron. 29. Apoc. 15. Exod. 15. Psal. 145. Jer. 10. 6,7 . a De Spir. sanct . c. 27. b De celebratione Missarum c. cum Matth. c In gemma animi l. 1. c. 86. d De Divin . Offic. e Super Act. 20. Una autem Sabbathi . f L. 8. c. 17. g Myst●gog . Catcchis . 5. Hom. 6. i● 1 Epist. ad Tim. In Comment . a Apologet. c. 14. b Ep 59. ad Paulin. c Ep. 1. d De dogmat . Eccles. cap. 30. e L. 1. de vocat . gent. c. 4. f In Commentar . Institut . Cleric . l. 1. c. 32. 1 Tim. 2. Epist. 59. ad Paulin. q. 5. De instit . Cleric . lib. 1. c. 32. Acts and Monument . pag. 1385. pag. 1608 , 1565. pag. 1840. pag. 1844. & alibi . Pag. 1848 , 1649 , 1840. Contra haeres . c. 7. Num. 6. 23. * Directory . Notes for div A63711-e64560 * Or Parish or Church or Commonwealth . Notes for div A63711-e66380 * This clause is to be omitted if there be no Sacrament that day . * According to the present need of raine or fair weather respectively . Notes for div A63711-e66890 Here name what relation you please . Notes for div A63711-e70540 Apocal. 22. * The Minister at those words shall touch the Bread. * Here he must touch or handle the Chalice . Notes for div A63711-e73630 * If the place be populous and Baptismes frequent , and this water be kept ( as it is usual in most Churches both of East and West : ) then that clause within the Columns ) may be used , else not . Matt. 8. 13. & Matth. 9. 28. John 4. 50. Mark. 9. 23. All this may be omitted between the Columnes , according to the discretion of him that ministers . * Rom. 41. 11 , 12 , 13 , 17. Gallat . 3. 14. 29 Notes for div A63711-e74800 * This may be inserted or omitted according to the present circumstances . ] If she have children insert this within the Colūns Notes for div A63711-e79190 Jer. 42. 
A64145	----	The worthy communicant, or, A discourse of the nature, effects, and blessings consequent to the worthy receiving of the Lords Supper and of all the duties required in order to a worthy preparation : together with the cases of conscience occurring in the duty of him that ministers, and of him that communicates : to which are added, devotions fitted to every part of the ministration / by Jeremy Taylor ... Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. 1667 Approx. 701 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 215 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2006-02 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A64145 Wing T418 ESTC R11473 13298910 ocm 13298910 98913 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A64145) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 98913) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 439:21) The worthy communicant, or, A discourse of the nature, effects, and blessings consequent to the worthy receiving of the Lords Supper and of all the duties required in order to a worthy preparation : together with the cases of conscience occurring in the duty of him that ministers, and of him that communicates : to which are added, devotions fitted to every part of the ministration / by Jeremy Taylor ... Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. [14], 414, [1] p. Printed by T.R. for J. Martyn, J. Allestry, and T. Dicas, and are to be sold by Thomas Basset ..., London : 1667. Added engraved t.p. Advertisement on p. [1] at end. Reproduction of original in Bodleian Library. 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Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Lord's Supper -- Church of England. 2005-02 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-08 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-10 Andrew Kuster Sampled and proofread 2005-10 Andrew Kuster Text and markup reviewed and edited 2006-01 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion The Worthy Communicant . Which things the Angels desire to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet 1.12 . The Worthy COMMUNICANT : OR , A Discourse of the Nature , Effects , and Blessings consequent to the Worthy Receiving of the LORDS SUPPER ; And of all the Duties required in order to a Worthy Preparation . TOGETHER With the Cases of Conscience occurring in the Duty of him that Ministers , and of him that Communicates . To which are added , Devotions fitted to every part of the Ministration . BY JEREMY TAYLOR , D. D. and Lord Bishop of Down and Connor . LONDON , Printed by T. R. for J. Martyn , J. Allestry , and T. Dicas , and are to be sold by Thomas Basset at his Shop in St. Dunstans Church-yard in Fleetstreet . 1667. To the Most ILLUSTRIOUS PRINCESS Her Highness Royal MARY Princess of Great Britain , Dowager of Orange , &c. MADAM , ALthough none of the Subjects of these Nations can , in propriety of speaking , be a stranger to the Royal Family , from whom every single person receives the daily emanations of many Blessings ; yet besides this , there is much in your Royal Highness by which your Princely Person is related to all amongst us that are or would be excellent . For where Vertue is in her exaltation , to that excellent Person all that are or would be thought vertuous do address themselves , either to be directed or encouraged , for example or for patronage , for the similitude of affection or likeness of design ; and therefore , Madam , although it is too great a confidence in me , something a stranger , to make this Address to so high-born and great a Princess ; yet when I considered that you are the Sister of my King , and the Servant of my God , I know there was nothing to be expected but serenity and sweetness , gentleness and goodness , Royal favours and Princely graces ; and therefore in such fruitful showers I have no cause to fear that my fleece shall be dry , when all that is round about it shall be made irriguous with your Princely influence . I shall therefore humbly hope that your Royal Highness will first give me pardon , and then accept this humble oblation from him who is equally your servant for your great Relations , and for your great Excellencies : For I remember with what pleasure I have heard it told , that your Highness's Court hath been in all these late days of sorrow a Sanctuary to the afflicted , a Chappel for the Religion , a Refectory to them that were in need , and the great Defensative of all men and all things that are excellent ; and therefore it is but duty , that by all the acknowledgments of Religion that honour should be paid to your Royal Highness , which so eminent vertues perpetually have deserved . But because you have long dwelt in the more secret recesses of Religion , and that for a long time your Devotion hath been eminent , your obedience to the strictest rules of Religion hath been humble and diligent , even up to a great example , and that the service of God hath been your great Care and greatest Imployment , your Name hath been dear and highly honourable amongst the Sons and Daughters of the Church of England ; and we no more envy to Hungary the great Name of St. Elizabeth , to Scotland the glorious memory of St. Margaret , to France the triumph of the piety of St. Genovese , nor St. Katharine to Italy , since in your Royal Person we have so great an example of our own , one of the Family of Saints , a Daughter to such a glorious Saint and Martyr , a Sister to such a King , in the arms of whose Justice and Wisdom we lie down in safety , having now nothing to employ us , but in holiness and comfort to serve God , and in peace and mutual charity to enjoy the blessings of the Government under so great , so good a King. But Royal Madam , I have yet some more personal ground for the confidence of this Address ; and because I have received the great honour of your reading and using of divers of my Books , I was readily invited to hope that your Royal Highness would not reject it , if one of them desired upon a special title to kiss your Princely hand , and to pay thanks for the gracious reception of others of the same Cognation . The stile of it is fit for Closets , plain and useful ; the matter is of the greatest concernment , a rule for the usage of the greatest solennity of Religion : For as the Eucharist is by the venerable Fathers of the Church called the Queen of Mysteries ; so the worthy Communicating in this , is the most Princely Conjugation of Graces in the whole Rosary of Christian Religion ; and therefore the more proportioned and fitted for the handling of so Princely a Person , whom the beauty of the Body , and the greatness of Birth , and excellency of Religion , do equally contend to represent excellent and illustrious in the eyes of all the world . Madam , it is necessary that you be all that to which these excellent graces and dispositions do design you : and to this glorious end , this Manual may if you please add some moments ; the effecting of which is all my design , except only that it is intended , and I humbly pray that it may be look'd upon as a testimony of that greatest Honour which is paid you by the hearts and voyces of all the Religious of this Church , and particularly of MADAM , Your Highness most humble and most devoted Servant , Jeremy Dunensis . The Contents of this Book . THe Introduction , Page 1 CHAP. I. OF the nature , excellencies , uses , and intention of the holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper . p. 10 Section 1. Of the several apprehensions of men concerning it . Ibid. Sect. 2. What it is which we receive in the holy Sacrament . p. 17 Sect. 3. That in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper there are represented and exhibited many great blessings upon the special account of that sacred ministry , proved in General . p. 33. Sect. 4. The blessings and graces of the holy Sacrament enumerated and proved particularly . p. 46 Sect. 5. Practical conclusions from the preceding discourses . p. 64 Sect. 6. Devotions preparatory to this mystery . p. 77 CHAP. II. OF our general preparation to the worthy reception of the blessed Sacrament , and the participation of the Mysteries . p. 82 Section 1. Of Examination of our selves in order to the holy Communion . p. 83 Sect. 2. Of the Examination of our desires . p. 89 Sect. 3. Of our examination concerning remanent affections to sin . p. 100 Sect. 4. Of examination of our selves in the matter of our Prayers in order to a holy Communion . p. 114 Sect. 5. Of preparatory examination of our selves in some other instances . p. 122 Sect. 6. Devotions to be used upon the daies of our Examination ; relative to that duty . p. 133 CHAP. III. OF Faith , as it is a necessary disposition to the blessed Sacrament . p. 142 Sect. 1. Of Catechumens or unbaptized persons . p. 143 Sect. 2. Of Communicating Infants . p. 147 Sect. 3. Whether Innocents , Fools , and Mad men may be admitted to the holy Communion . p. 156 Sect. 4. Of actual faith as it is a necessary disposition to the Sacrament . p. 159 Sect. 5. Of the proper and specifick work of Faith in the reception of the holy Communion . p. 172 Sect. 6. Meditations and devotions relative to this preparatory grace : to be used in the daies of preparation ; or at any time of spiritual Communion . p. 190 CHAP. IV. OF Charity , preparatory to the blessed Sacrament . p. 197 Sect. 1. Ibid. Sect. 2. Of doing good to our neighbours . p. 201 Sect. 3. Of speaking good of our neighbours . p. 204 Sect. 4. Forgiveness of injuries a necessary part of preparation to the holy Sacrament . p. 208. Sect. 5. Devotions relative to this grace of charity ; to be used by way of exercise and preparation to the Divine Mysteries ; in any time or part of our life : but especially before and at the Communion . p. 252 CHAP. V. OF repentance preparatory to the blessed Sacrament . p. 258 Sect. 1. Ibid. Sect. 2. The necessity of repentance in order to the holy Sacrament . p. 261 Sect. 3. What actions of repentance are specially required in our preparations to the holy Sacrament . p. 267 Sect. 4. How far we must have proceeded in our general repentance and emendation of our lives before we Communicate . p 289 Sect. 5. What significations of repentance are to be accepted by the Church in admission of penitents to the Communion . p. 329 Sect. 6. Whether may every Minister of the Church and Curate of Souls reject impenitent persons , or any criminals from the holy Sacrament , untill themselves be satisfied of their repentance and amends . p. 334 Sect. 7. Penitential Soliloquies , Ejaculations , Exercises , and preparatory Prayers to be used in all the dayes of preparation to the holy Sacrament . p. 347 CHAP. VI. OF our actual and ornamental preparation to the reception of the blessed Sacrament . p. 355 Sect. 1. Ibid. Sect. 2. Rules for examination of our Consciences against the day of our Communion . p. 359 Sect. 3. Of an actual supply to be made of such actions and degrees of good as are wanting ; against a Communion-day . p. 366 Sect. 4 Devotions to be used upon the morning of the Communion . p. 373 CHAP. VII . OF our comportment in and after our Receiving the blessed Sacrament . p. 378 Sect. 1. Of the circumstances and manner of Reception of the Divine Mysteries . Ibid. Sect. 2. Acts of vertues and graces relative to the mystery , to be used before or at the celebration of the Divine Sacrament . p. 381 Sect. 3. An advice concerning him who only Communicates spiritually . p. 390 THE INTRODUCTION . WHen St. Joseph and the Blessed Virgin Mother had for a time lost their most holy Son , they sought him in the villages and the high-ways , in the retinues of their kindred , and the Caravans of the Galilean Pilgrims ; but there they found him not : At last , almost despairing , faint and sick with travel and fear , with desires and tedious expectations , they came into the Temple to pray to God for conduct and success ; knowing and believing assuredly , that if they could find God , they should not long miss to find the Holy Jesus ; and their faith deceived them not : For they sought God , and found him that was God and man in the midst and circle of the Doctors . But being surprised with trouble and wonder , they began a little to expostulate with the Divine Child , why he would be absent so long , and leave them ( as it must needs be when he is absent from us ) in sorrow and uncertain thoughts . This question brought forth an answer which will be for ever useful to all that shall inquire after this Holy Child : For as they complained of his absence , so he reproved their ignorance ; How is it that you have so fondly looked for me , as if I were used to wander in unknown paths without skill , and without a guide ? why did ye inquire after me in high-ways , and village-fields ? ye never knew me wander , or lose my way , or abide but where I ought ; why therefore did ye not come hither to look for me ? Did ye not know that I ought to be in * my fathers house ? that is , there where God is worshipped , where he loves to dwell , where he communicates his blessing and holy influences , there and there only we are sure to meet our dearest Lord. For this reason , the place of our address to God and holy conversation with him , he is pleased to call his house , that with confidence we may expect to meet him there when we go to worship : and when the Solemnities of Religion were confined to the Tabernacle , he therefore made it to be like a house of use and dwelling , that in that figure he might tell us where his delight and his aboad would be ; and therefore God furnished the Tabernacle with the Utensils of a Prophets room at least , a Table and a Candlestick ; and the Table must have dishes and spoons , bowls and covers belonging to it ; the Candlesticks must have Lamps , and the Lamps must be continually burning . And besides this , the house of God must have in it a continual fire , the fire must not go out by night nor day ; and to this the Prophet alludes ; God ] hath his fire in Sion , and his hearth or furnace in Jerusalem : And after all , there must be meat in his house too . And as this was done by the Sacrifices of old , so by the Lords Supper in the New Testament ; So that now it is easie to understand the place and the reason of Christs aboad ; even in his Fathers house , there where his Father dwells , and loves to meet his servants , there we are sure to finde the Lord. For as God descended and came into the Tabernacle invested with a cloud ; so Christ comes to meet us clothed with a Mystery ; he hath a house below as well as above ; here is his dwelling , and here are his Provisions ; here is his fire , and here his meat ; hither God sends his Son , and here his Son manifests himself : the Church and the holy Table of the Lord , the Assemblies of Saints , and the Devotions of his people , the Word and the Sacrament , the Oblation of Bread and Wine , and the offering of our selves , the Consecration and the Communion , are the things of God , and of Jesus Christ ; and he that is imployed in these , is there where God loves to be , and where Christ is to be found ; in the Imployments in which God delights , in the Ministries of his own choice , in the work of the Gospel , and the methods of Grace , in the oeconomy of Heaven , and the dispensations of eternal happiness . And now that we may know where to find him , we must be sure to look after him ; he hath told us where he would be , behind what pillar , and under what cloud , and covered with what vail , and conveyed by what ministry , and present in what Sacrament ; and we must not look for him in the high-wayes of ambition and pride , of wealth or sensual pleasures ; these things are not found in the house of his Father , neither may they come neer his dwelling . But if we seek for Christ , we shall find him in the methods of Vertue , and the paths of Gods Commandments ; in the houses of Prayer , and the offices of Religion ; in the persons of the poor , and the retirements of an afflicted soul : we shall find him in holy reading and pious meditation , in our penitential sorrows , and in the time of trouble , in Pulpits and upon Altars , in the Word and in the Sacraments : If we come hither as we ought , we are sure to finde our Beloved , him whom our soul longeth after . Sure enough Christ is here ; but he is not here in every manner , and therefore is not to be found by every inquirer , nor touched by every hand , nor received by all comers , nor entertained by every guest . He that means to take the air , must not use his fingers , but his mouth ; and he that receives Christ must have a proper , that is , a spiritual instrument , a purified heart , consecrated lips , and a hallowed mouth , a tongue that speaks no evil , and a hand that ministers to no injustice , and to no uncleanness : For a disproportionate intrument is an undecency , and makes the effect impossible both in nature and morality . Can a man bind a thought with chains , or carry imaginations in the palm of his hand ? Can the beauty of the Peacocks train , or the Estrich plume , be delicious to the palat and the throat ? Does the hand intermeddle with the joys of the heart , or darkness that hides the naked , make him warm ? Does the Body live as does the Spirit , or can the Body of Christ be like to common food ? Indeed the Sun shines upon the good and bad ; and the Vines give Wine to the drunkard , as well as to the sober man : Pirates have fair winds and a calm Sea , at the same time when the just and peaceful Merchant man hath them . But although the things of this world are common to good and bad , yet Sacraments and spiritual joys , the food of the soul and the blessing of Christ , are the peculiar right of Saints : and the Rites of our Religion are to be handled by the measures of Religion , and the things of God by the rules of the Spirit ; and the Sacraments are Mysteries , and to be handled by Mystic persons , and to be received by Saints ; and therefore whoever will partake of Gods secrets , must first look into his own ; he must pare off whatsoever is amiss , and not without holiness approach to the Holiest of all Holies , nor eat of this Sacrifice with a defiled head , nor come to this feast without a nuptial garment , nor take this remedy without a just preparative . For though in the first motions of our spiritual life , Christ comes alone and offers his Grace , and enlivens us by his Spirit , and makes us begin to live , because he is good , not because we are ; yet this great mysterious Feast , and magazine of Grace and glorious mercies , is for those only that are worthy ; for such only who by their cooperation with the Grace of God , are fellow-workers with God in the laboratories of salvation . The Wrastler that Clemens of Alexandria tells us of , addressing himself to his contention , and espying the Statue of Jupiter Pisaeus , prayed aloud ; If all things , O Jupiter , are rightly prepared on my part , if I have done all that I could do , then do me justice , and give me the Victory : And this is a breviate of our case . He that runneth in races , saith the Apostle , he that contends for mastery , is temperate in all things , and this at least must he be that comes to find Christ in these Mysteries ; he must be prepared by the rules and method of the Sanctuary ; there is very much to be done on his part , there is an heap of duties , there is a state of excellency , there are preparations solemn and less solemn , ordinary and extraordinary , which must be premised before we can receive the mysterious blessings , which are here not only consign'd , but collated and promoted , confirmed and perfected . The holy Communion , or Supper of the Lord , is the most sacred , mysterious and useful conjugation of secret and holy things and duties in the Religion . It is not easie to be understood , it is not lightly to be received : It is not much opened in the writings of the New Testament , but still left in its mysterious Nature : It is too much untwisted and nicely handled by the writings of the Doctors , and by them made more mysterious ; and like a Doctrine of Phylosophy , made intricate by explications , and difficult by the aperture and dissolution of distinctions . So we sometimes espie a bright cloud formed into an irregular figure ; when it is observed by unskilful and phantastick travellers , looks like a Centaure to some , and as a Castle to others : some tell that they saw an Army with Banners , and it signifies War ; but another wiser than his fellow says , it looks for all the world like a flock of Sheep , and foretels Plenty ; and all the while it is nothing but a shining cloud , by its own mobility and the activity of a wind cast into a contingent and inartificial shape : So it is in this great Mystery of our Religion , in which some espie strange things which God intended not , and others see not what God hath plainly told : some call that part of it a Mystery which ●none , and others think all of it nothing but a meer ceremony and a sign : some say it signifies , and some say it effects , some say it is a Sacrifice , and others call it a Sacrament ; some Schools of learning make it the Instrument of Grace in the hand of God ; others say that it is God himself in that Instrument of Grace : some call it venerable , and others say as the vain men in the Prophet , that the Table of the Lord is contemptible : some come to it with their sins on their head , and others with their sins in their mouth : some come to be cured , some to be quickned , some to be nourished , and others to be made alive : some out of fear and reverence take it but seldom , others out of devotion take it frequently ; some receive it as a means to procure great graces and blessings , others as an Eucharist , and an office of thanksgiving for what they have received : some call it an act of obedience meerly , others account it an excellent devotion , and the exercising of the virtue of Religion ; some take it to strengthen their Faith , others to beget it , and yet many affirm that it does neither , but supposes Faith before-hand as a disposition ; Faith in all its degrees , according to the degree of Grace whither the Communicant is arrived : Some affirm the Elements are to be blessed by prayers of the Bishop or other Minister ; others say , it is only by the mystical words , the words of institution ; and when it is blessed , some believe it to be the natural body of Christ ; others , to be nothing of that , but the blessings of Christ , his Word and his Spirit , his Passion in representment , and his Grace in real exhibition : And all these men have something of reason for what they pretend ; and yet the words of Scripture from whence they pretend , are not so many as are the several pretensions . My purpose is not to dispute , but to persuade ; not to confute any one , but to instruct those that need ; not to make a noise , but to excite devotion ; not to enter into curious , but material inquiries , and to gather together into an union all those several portions of truth , and differing apprehensions of mysteriousness , and various methods and rules of preparation , and seemingly opposed Doctrines , by which even good men stand at distance , and are afraid of each other : For since all societies of Christians pretend to the greatest esteem of this , above all the Rites or external parts and ministries of Religion , it cannot be otherwise , but that they will all speak honourable things of it , and suppose holy things to be in it , and great blessings one way or other to come by it ; and it is contemptible only among the prophane and the Atheistical ; all the innumerable differences which are in the discourses and consequent practices relating to it , proceed from some common truths , and universal notions , and mysterious or inexplicable words , and tend all to reverential thoughts , and pious treatment of these Rites and holy Offices ; and therefore it will not be impossible to find honey or wholsome dews upon all this variety of plants ; and the differing opinions , and several understandings of this mystery , which ( it may be ) no humane understanding can comprehend , will serve to excellent purposes of the Spirit ; if , like men of differing interest , they can be reconciled in one Communion , at least the ends and designs of them all can be conjoyned in the design and ligatures of the same reverence , and piety , and devotion . My purpose therefore is to discourse of the nature , excellencies , uses , and intention of the holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper , the blessings and fruits of the Sacrament , all the advantages of a worthy Communion , the publick and the private , the personal and the Ecclesiastical , that we may understand what it is , what we go about , and how it is to be treated . I shall account also concerning all the duties of preparation , ordinary and extraordinary , more and less solemn ; of the rules and manners of deportment in the receiving ; the gesture and the offering , the measures and instances of our duty , our comport and conversation in and after it ; together with the cases of conscience that shall occur under these titles respectively , relating to the particular matters . It matters not where we begin ; for if I describe the excellencies of this Sacrament , I find it engages us upon matters of duty , and inquiries practical . If I describe our duty , it plainly signifies the greatness and excellency of the Mystery : the very notion is practical , and the practice is information ; we cannot discourse of the secret , but by describing our duty ; and we cannot draw all the lines of duty , but so much duty must needs open a Cabinet of Mysteries . If we understand what we are about , we cannot chuse but be invested with fear and reverence ; and if we look in with fear and reverence , it cannot be but we shall understand many secrets . But because the natural order of Theology is by Faith to build up good life , by a rectified Understanding to regulate the Will and the Affections , I shall use no other method , but first discourse of the excellent Mystery , and then of the duty of the Communicant , direct and collateral . CHAP. I. Of the Nature , Excellencies , Vses , and Intention of the Holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper . SECT . I. Of the several apprehensions of men concerning it . WHen our Blessed Lord was to nail the hand writing of Ordinances to his Cross , he was pleased to retain two Ceremonies , Baptism and the Holy Supper ; that Christians may first wash , add then eat ; first be made clean , and then eat of the Supper of the Lamb : and it cannot be imagined but that this so signal and peculiar retention of two Ceremonies is of great purpose and remarkable vertues . The matter is evident in the instance of Baptism ; and as the Mystery is of the foundation of Religion , so the vertue of it is inserted into our Creed , and we all believe one Baptism for the remission of our sins ; and yet the action is external , the very Mystery is by a Ceremony , the allusion is bodily , the Element is water , the minister a sinful man , and the effect is produced out of the Sacrament in many persons and in many instances , as well as in it ; and yet that it is effected also by it and with it , in the conjunction with due dispositions of him that is to be baptized , we are plainly taught by Christs Apostles and the symbols of the Church . But concerning the other Sacrament there are more divisions and thoughts of heart ; for it is never expressly joyned with a word of promise , and where mention is made of it in the Gospels , it is named only as a duty and a Commandment , and not as a grace , or treasure of holy blessings ; we are bidden to do it , but promised nothing for a reward , it is commanded to us , but we are not invited to obedience by consideration of any consequent blessing : and when we do it , so many holy things are required of us , which as they are fit to be done ; even when we do not receive the Blessed Sacrament ; so they effect salvation to us by vertue of their proper and proportioned promises in the vertue of Christs death however apprehended and understood . Upon this account some say that we receive nothing in the B. Eucharist ; but we commemorate many blessed things which we have received ; that it is affirmed in no Scripture that in this mystery we are to call to minde the death of Christ , but because we already have it in our minde , we must also have it in our hearts , and publish it in our confessions and Sacramental representment , and therefore it is not the memory , but the commemoration of Christs death ; that as the anniversary sacrifices in the law were * a commemoration of sins every year ; not a calling them to minde ; but a confession of their guilt and of our deserved punishment ; so this Sacrament is a representation of Christs death by such symbolical actions as himself graciously hath appointed : but then , excepting that to do so is an act of obedience , it exercises no other vertue , it is an act of no other grace , it is the instrument of no other good ; it is neither vertue nor gain , grace nor profit . And whereas it is said to confirm our faith , this also is said to be unreasonable ; for this being our own work , cannot be the means of a Divine grace ; not naturally ; because it is not of the same kind , and faith is no more the natural effect of this obedience ; than chastity can be the product of Christian fortitude ; not by Divine appointment ; because we find no such order ; no promise , no intimation of any such event ; and although the thing it self indeed shall have what reward God please to apportion to it as it is obedience ; yet of it self it hath no other worthiness ; it is not so much as an argument of persuasion ; for the pouring forth of wine can no more prove or make faith that Christs blood was poured forth for us , than the drinking the wine can effect this persuasion in us that we naturally , though under a vail , drink the natural blood of Christ ; which the Angels gathered as it ran into golden phials , and Christ multiplied to a miracle like the loaves and fishes in the Gospel . But because nothing that naturally remains the same in all things as it was before , can do any thing that it could not do before ; the Bread and wine which have no natural change , can effect none ; and therefore we are not to look for an egge where there is nothing but order ; and a blessing where there is nothing but an action ; and a real effect where there is nothing but an analogy , a Sacrament , a mystical representment , and something fit to signify , and many things past , but nothing that is to come . This is the sense and discourse of some persons that call for an express word , or a manifest reason to the contrary , or else resolve that their belief shall be as unactive as the Scriptures are silent in the effects of this mystery . Only these men will allow the Sacraments to be , marks of Christianity , symbols of mutual Charity , testimonies of a thankful mind to God , allegorical admonitions of Christian mortification , and spiritual alimony , symbols of grace conferred before the Sacrament , and rites instituted to stir up faith by way of object and representation ; that is , occasionally and morally , but neither by any Divine or physical , by natural or supernatural power , by the work done , or by the Divine institution . This indeed is something but very much too little . But others go as far on the other hand and affirm that in the Blessed Sacrament we receive the body and blood of Christ ; we chew his flesh , we drink his blood ; for his flesh is meat indeed and his blood is drink indeed , and this is the Manna which came down from heaven ; our bodies are nourished , our souls united to Christ ; and the Sacrament is the infallible instrument of pardon to all persons that do not maliciously hinder it ; and it produces all its effects by vertue of the Sacrament it self so appointed ; and that the dispositions of the Communicants are only for removing obstacles and impediments , but effect nothing ; the sumption of the Mysteries does all in a capable subject ; as in infants who do nothing , in penitents who take away what can hinder ; for it is nothing but Christ himself ; the body that dyed upon the crosse is broken in the hand of him that ministers , and by the teeth of him that communicates ; and when God gives us his Son in this Divine and glorious manner , with heaps of miracles to verify heaps of blessings , how shall not he with him give us all things else ? They who teach this doctrine call the holy Sacrament ; The host , the unbloody sacrifice ; the flesh of God , the body of Christ , God himself , the Mass , the Sacrament of the Altar . I cannot say that this is too much ; but that these things are not true ; and although all that is here said , that is of any material benefit and reall blessing is true ; yet the blessing is not so conferred , it is not so produced . A third sort of Christians speak indefinitely and gloriously of this Divine mystery ; they speak enough , but they cannot tell what ; they publish great and glorious effects ; but such which they gather by similitude and analogy , such which they desire , but cannot prove ; which indeed they feel , but know not whence they do derive them : they are blessings which come in company of the Sacraments , but are not alwayes to be imputed to them ; they confound spiritual senses with mystical expressions , and expound mysteries to natural significations : that is , they mean well but do not alwayes understand that part of Christian Philosophy which explicates the secret nature of this Divine Sacrament , and the effect of it is this ; that they sometimes put too great confidence in the mystery ; and look for impresses which they find not , and are sometimes troubled that their experience does not answer to their Sermons ; and meet with scruples instead of comforts , and doubts instead of rest . and anxiety of mind in the place of a serene and peaceful conscience . But these men both in their right and in their wrong enumerate many glories of the holy Sacrament which they usually signifie in these excellent appellatives , calling it , the Supper of the Lord ; the bread of elect souls , and the wine of Angels , the Lords body , the New Testament and the calice of benediction , spiritual food , the great Supper , the Divinest and Archisymbolical feast ; the banquet of the Church , the celestial dinner , the spiritual , the sacred , the mystical , the formidable , the rational Table , the supersubstantial bread , the bread of God , the bread of life , the Lords mystery , the great mystery of salvation , the Lords Sacrament , the Sacrament of piety , the sign of unity , the contesseration of the Christian communion , the Divine grace , the Divine making grace , the holy thing , the desirable , the comunication of Good , the perf●ction and consummation of a Christian , the holy particles , the gracious symbols , the holy gifts , the Sacrifice of commemoration , the intellectual and mystical good , the hereditary donative of the New Testament , the Sacrament of the Lords body , the Sacrament of the Calice , the Paschal Oblation , the Christian pasport , the mystery of perfection , the great Oblation , the Worship of God , the life of Souls , the Sacrament of our price and our Redemption ; and some few others much to the same purposes , all which are of great and useful signification ; and if the explications and consequent propositions were as justifiable as the title● themselves are sober and useful , they would be apt only for edification , and to minister to the spirit of devotion . That therefore is to be the design of the present Meditations , to represent the true and proper and mysterious nature of this divine nutriment of our souls ; to account what are the blessings God reacheth forth to us in the Mysteries , and what returns of duty he expects from all to whom he gives his most holy Son. I shall only here add the names and appellatives which the Scripture gives to these Mysteries , and place it as a part of the foundation of the following doctrines ; It is by the Spirit of God called , The bread that is broken , and the cup of blessing , the breaking of bread ; the body and blood of the Lord ; the communication of his body , and the communication of his blood ; the feast of charity or love ; the Lords Table , and the Supper of the Lord. Whatsoever is consequent to these titles we can safely own , and our faith may dwell securely , and our devotion like a pure flame , with these may feed , as with the spices and gums upon the Altar of Incense . SECT . II. What it is which we receive in the holy SACRAMENT . IT is strange that Christians should pertinaciously insist upon carnal significations and natural effects in Sacraments and Mysteries , when our blessed Lord hath given us a sufficient light to conduct and secure us from such mis-apprehensions . [ The flesh profiteth nothing : the words which I speak unto you , they are spirit and they are life , ] that is , the flesh is corruption , and its senses are Ministers of death : and this one word alone was perpetually sufficient for Christ's Disciples . For when upon occasion of the grosse understanding of their Masters words by the men of Capernaum , they had been once clearly taught that the meaning of all these words was wholly spiritual ; they rested there and inquired no further : insomuch that when Christ at the institution of the Supper affirmed of the bread and wine , that they were his body and his blood , they were not at all offended , as being sufficiently before instructed in the nature of that Mystery . And besides this , they saw enough to tell them that what they eat was not the natural body of their Lord : This was the body which himself did or might eat with his body : one body did eat , and the other was eaten ; both of them were his body , but after a diverse manner . For the case is briefly this ; We have two lives , a natural and a spiritual , and both must have bread for their support and maintenance in proportion to their needs , and to their capacities : and as it would be an intollerable charity to give nothing but spiritual nutriment to a hungry body , and pour diagrams , and wise propositions into an empty stomach ; so it would be as useless and impertinent to feed the Soul with wheat , or flesh , unless that were the conveyance of a spiritual delicacy . In the holy Sacrament of the Eucharist the body of Christ , according to the proper signification of a humane body is not at all , but in a sense differing from the proper and natural body , that is , in a sense more agreeing to Sacraments ; so St. Hierom expresly . [ Of this sacrifice which is wonderfully done in the commemoration of Christ we may eat , but of that sacrifice which Christ offered on the altar of the Crosse by it self , or in its own nature , no man may eat ] For it is his flesh which is under the form of bread , and his blood which is in the form and tast of wine : for the flesh is the Sacrament of flesh , and blood is the Sacrament of blood : for by flesh and blood that is invisible , spiritual , intelligible , the visible and tangible body of our Lord Jesus Christ is consigned , full of the grace of all vertues , and of Divine Majesty . ] So St Augustine . For therefore ye are not to eat that body which ye see , nor to drink that blood which my crucifiers shall pour out : it is the same , and not the same ; the same invisibly , but not the same visibly . ] For until the world be finished , the Lord is above , but the truth of the Lord is with us . The body in which he rose again must be in one place , but the truth of it is every where diffused . ] For there is one truth of the body in the Mystery , and another truth simply and without Mystery . It is truly Christs body both in the Sacrament , and out of it ; but in the Sacrament it is not the natural truth , but the spiritual and the mystical . And therefore it was that our Blessed Saviour , to them who apprehended him to promise his natural body and blood for our meat and drink , spake of his ascension into heaven , that we might learn to look from heaven to receive the food of our souls , heavenly and spiritual nourishment , said St. Athanasius . For this is the letter which in the New Testament kills him who understands not spiritually what is spoken to him , under the signification of meat and flesh , and blood and drink : So Origen For this bread does not go into the body ( for to how many might his body suffice for meat ? ) but the bread of eternal life supports the substance of our spirit ; and therefore it is not touch'd by the body , nor seen with the eyes , but by faith it is seen and touched : So St. * Ambrose . And all this whole mystery hath in it neither carnal sense , nor carnal consequence , saith St. * Chrysostom . ] But to believe in Christ is to eat the bread ; and therefore why do you prepare your teeth and stomach ? believe him , and you have eaten him ] they are the words of S. Austin . For faith is that intellectual mouth , as S. Brasil calls it ) which is within the man , by which he takes in nourishment . But what need we to draw this water from the lesser cisterns ? we see this truth reflected from the spring it self , the fountains of our blessed Saviour , I am the bread of life , he that cometh unto me shall not hunger , and he that believeth on me shall not thirst ; and again , He that eats my flesh hath life abiding in him , and I will raise him up at the last day ; The plain consequent of which words is this , that therefore this eating and drinking of Christs flesh and blood , can only be done by the Ministeries of life and of the spirit , which is opposed to nature , and flesh , and death . And when we consider , that he who is not a spiritual and a holy person does not feed upon Christ , who brings life eternal to them that feed on him , it is apparent that our manducation must be spiritual , and therefore so must the food ; and consequently , it cannot be natural flesh , however altered in circumstance and visibilities , and impossible or incredible changes . For it is not in this spiritual food as it was in Manna , of which our Fathers did eat and died ; but whosoever eats this divine nutriment shall never die . The Sacraments indeed and symbols , the exterior part and ministeries may be taken unto condemnation ; but the food it self never . For an unworthy person cannot feed on this food , because here to eat Christs flesh is to do our duty , and to be established in our title to the possession of the eternal promises . For so Christ disposed the way of salvation , not by flesh , but by the spirit , saith Tertullian ; that is , according to his own exposition , Christ is to be desired for life , and to be devoured by hearing , to be chewed by the understanding , and to be digested by faith ; and all this is the method and oeconomy of heaven , which whosoever uses and abides in it , hath life abiding in him . He that in this world does any other way look for Christ , shall never find him ; and therefore , if men say , Loe here is Christ , or loe there he is in the desart , or he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in the Cupboards or Pantries where bread or flesh is laid , believe it not : Christs body is in heaven , and it is not upon earth : the heavens must contain him till the time of restitution of all things , and so long as we are present in the body , we are absent from the Lord. In the mean time we can taste and see that the Lord is gracious , that he is sweet : but Christ is so to be tasted as he is to be seen , and no otherwise ; but here we walk by faith and not by sight , and here also we live by faith , and not by meer or only bread , but by that Word which proceedeth out from God ; that as meat is to the body , so is Christ to the soul , the food of the soul , by which the souls of the just do live . He is the bread which came down from heaven , the bread which was born at Bethl●hem , the house of bread , was given to us to be the food of our souls for ever . The meaning of which mysterious and Sacramental expressions , when they are reduced to easie & intelligible significations , is plainly this ; By Christ we live and move and have our spiritual being in the life of grace , and in the hopes of glory . He took our life , that we might partake of his ; he gave his life for us , that he might give life to us : He is the Author and finisher of our faith , the beginning and perfection of our spiritual life . Every good thought we think , we have it from him ; every good word we speak , we speak it by his spirit [ for no man can say that Jesus is the Lord , but by the holy Ghost : ] and all our prayers are by the aids and communications of the spirit of Christ , who helpeth our infirmities , and by unutterable groans , and unexpressible representment of most passionate desires , maketh intercession for us . In fine , all the principles and parts , all the actions and progressions of our spiritual life , are derivations from the Son of God , by whom we are born and nourished up to life Eternal . 2. Christ being the food of our souls , he is pleased to signifie this food to us by such symbols and similitudes as his present state could furnish us withal . He had nothing about him but flesh and blood , which are like to meat and drink ; and therefore what he calls himself , saying , I am the bread of life , he afterwards calls his flesh and his blood , saying , My flesh is meat indeed , my blood is drink indeed ; that is , that you may perceive me to be indeed the food of your souls , see , here is meat and drink for you , my flesh and my blood ; so to represent himself in a way that was neerest to our capacity , and in a more intelligible manner ; not further from a Mystery , but neerer to our manner of understanding ; and yet so involved in figure , that it is never to be drawn neerer than a Mystery , till it comes to experience , and spiritual relish and perception . But because we are not in darknesse , but within the fringes and circles of a bright cloud , let us search as far into it as we are guided by the light of God , and where we are forbidden by the thicker part of the cloud , step back and worship . 3. For we have yet one further degree of charity and manifestation of this Mystery . The flesh of Christ is his word ; the blood of Christ is his spirit ; and by believing in his word , and being assisted and conducted by his spirit , we are nourished up to life ; and so Christ is our food , so he becomes life unto our souls . Thus St. Clemens of Alexandria , and Tertullian affirm the Church in their days to have understood this Mystery , saying , The word of God is called flesh and blood : For so the eternal wisdom of the Father calls to every simple soul that wanteth understanding , come eat of the bread and drink of the wine which I have mingled : and that we may know what is this bread and wine , he adds , forsake the foolish and live , and go in the way of understanding . Our life is wisdom , our food is understanding . The Rabbins have an observation , that when ever mention is made in the Book of the Proverbs of eating and drinking , there is meant nothing but wisdom and the Law : and when the Doctors using the words of Scripture , say , Come and eat flesh in which there is much fatness , they would be understood to say , Come and hear wisdom , and learn the fear of God , in which there is great nourishment and advantage to your souls . Thus Wisdom is called Water , and Vnderstanding Bread , by the son of Sirach [ with the bread of understanding shall she feed him , and give him the water of wisdom to drink . ] It is by the Prophet Isaiah called water and wine ; and the desires of righteousness are called hunger and thirst by our blessed Saviour in his Sermon on the Mount : And in pursuance of this mysterious truth , we find that God in his anger threatens a famine of hearing the words of the Lord : when we want Gods word , we die with hunger , we want that bread on which our souls do feed . It was an excellent Commentary which the Jewish Doctors make upon those words of the Prophet [ with joy shall ye draw waters from the wells of salvation ] that is , from the choicest or wisest of the just men , saith Rabbi Jonathan ; from the chief Ministers of Religion , the Heads of the people , and the Rulers of the Congregation ; because they preach the Word of God , they open the wells of salvation , from the fountains of our Saviour giving drink and refreshment to all the people . Thus the Prophet Jeremy expresses his spiritual joy , and the sense of this Mystery ; Thy words were found and I did eat them , and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart ; for I am called by thy Name , O Lord God of Hosts : the same with that of our Blessed Saviour ; My words are spirit , and they are life , they give life and comfort , they refresh our souls , and feed them up to immortality . As the body or flesh of Christ is his Word , so the blood of Christ is his Spirit in real effect and signification . For as the body without blood is a dead and liveless trunck , so is the Word of God without the Spirit a dead and ineffective Letter : and this Mystery we are taught in that incomparable Epistle to the Hebrews : For by the blood of Christ we are sanctified ; and yet that which sanctifies us is the spirit of grace , and both these are one : For so saith the Apostle , the blood of Christ was offered up for us , for the purification of our consciences from dead works ; but this offering was made through the eternal spirit ; and therefore he is equally guilty and does the same impiety , he who does d●sp●te to the spirit of Grace , and he who accounts the blood of the Covenant an unholy thing ; for by this spirit and by this blood we are sanctified , by this spirit , and by the blood of the everlasting Cov●nant , Jesus Christ does perfect us in every good work ; so that these are the same Ministry of salvation , and but one and the same Oeconomy of God. Thus St. Peter affirms , That by the precious blood of Christ we are redeemed from our vain conversation ; and it is every where affirmed , that we are purified and cleansed by the blood of Christ , and yet these are the express effects of his Spirit : for by the spirit we mortifie the deeds of the body ; and we are justified and sanctified in the name of our Lord Jesus by the spirit of our God. By which expressions we are taught to distinguish the natural blood of Christ from the spiritual ; the blood that he gave for us , from the blood which he gives to us ; that was indeed by the spirit , but was not the same thing ; but this is the spirit of grace , and the spirit of wisdom . And therefore , as our Fathers were made to drink into one spirit , when they drank of the water of the rock ; so we also partake of the spirit when we drink of Christs blood , which came from the spiritual rock when it was smitten : for thus according to the Doctrine of St. John , the water a●d the blood and the spirit are one and the same glorious purposes . As it was with our Fathers in the beginning , so it is now with us , and so it ever shall be , world without end : for they fed upon Christ , that is , they believed in Christ , they expected his day , they lived upon his promises , they lived by faith in him : and the same meat and drink is set upon our Tables : and more than all this , as Christ is the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world , so he shall be the food of souls in heaven , where they who are accounted worthy shall sit down and be feasted in the eternal Supper of the Lamb : concerning which blessedness our B. Saviour saith , Blessed is he that eateth bread in the Kingdom of God ; for he hath appointed to his chosen ones to eat and drink , at his table in his Kingdom ; plainly teaching us , that by eating and drinking Christ , is meant in this world to live the life of the spirit , and in the other world it is to live the life of glory : here we feed upon duty , and there we feed upon reward : our wine is here mingled with water and with myrrhe , there it is mere and unmixt ; but still it is called meat and drink , and still is meant grace and glory , the fruits of the spirit and the joy of the spirit ; that is , by Christ we here live a spiritual life , and hereafter shall live a life eternal . Thus are sensible things the Sacrament and representation of the spiritual and eternal ; and spiritual things are the fulfillings * of the sensible . But the consequent of these things is this ; that since Christ always was , is , and shall be the food of the faithful , and is that bread which came down from heaven ; since we eat him here , and shall eat him there , our eating both here and there is spiritual ; only the word of teaching shall be changed into the word of glorification , and our faith into Charity ; and all the way our souls live a new life by Christ , of which , eating and drinking is the Symbol and the Sacrament . And this is not done to make this mystery obscure , but intelligible and easie . For so the pains of hell are expressed by fire , which to our flesh is most painful ; and the joyes of God by that which brings us greatest pleasure , by meat and drink , and the growth in grace by the natural instruments of nutrition ; and the work of the Soul by the ministeries of the body , and the graces of God by the blessings of nature , for these we know , and we know nothing else , and but by phantasmes and ideas of what we see and feel we understand nothing at all . Now this is so far from being a diminution of the glorious mystery of our Communion , that the changing all into spirituality is the greatest increase of blessing in the world : And when he gives us his body and his blood , he does not fill our stomachs with good things , for of whatsoever goes in thither , it is affirmed by the Apostle , that God will destroy both it and them , but our hearts are to be replenished , and by receiving his spirit we receive the best thing that God gives ; not his liveless body , but his flesh with life in it , that is , his doctrine and his spirit to imprint it , so to beget a living faith and a lively hope that we may live and live for ever . 4. St. John having thus explicated this mystery in general , of our eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ ; added nothing in particular concerning any Sacraments , these being in particular instances of the general mystery and communion with Christ. But what is the advantage we receive by the Sacraments , besides that which we get by the other and distinct ministeries of faith , I thus account in general . The word and the spirit are the flesh and the blood of Christ ; that is the ground of all . Now because there are two great Sermons of the Gospel which are the summe total and abbreviature of the whole word of God , the great messages of the word incarnate , Christ was pleased to invest these two words with two Sacraments , and assist those two Sacraments , as he did the whole word of God , with the presence of his Spirit , that in them we might do more signally and solemnly what was in the ordinary ministrations done plainly and without extraordinary regards . Believe and repent ; is the word in Baptisme , and and there solemnly consigned ; and here it is that by faith we feed on Christ : for faith as it is opposed to works , that is , the new Covenant of faith as it is opposed to the old Covenant of works , is the covenant of repentance ; repentance is expressly included in the new covenant , but was not in the old ; but by faith in Christ we are admitted to pardon of our sins if we repent and forsake them utterly . Now this is the word of faith ; and this is that which is called the flesh or body of Christ , for this is that which the soul feeds on , this is that by which the just do live ; and when by the operation of the holy spirit , the waters are reformed to a Divine Nature or efficacy , the baptized are made clean , the● are sanctified and presented pure and spotless unto God. This mystery * St. Austin rightly understood when he affirmed , that we are made partakers of the body and blood of Christ when we are in baptisme incorporated into his body ; we are baptized in the passion of our Lord , so * Tertullian , to the same sense with that of St. Paul , we are buried with him in baptisme into his death ; that is , by baptisme are conveyed to us all the effects of Christ's death ; the flesh and blood of Christ crucified are in baptisme reached to us by the hand of God , by his holy spirit , and received by the hand of man , the Ministery of a holy faith . So that it can without difficulty be understood that as in receiving the word and the spirit illuminating us in our first conversion , we do truely feed on the flesh and drink the blood of Christ who is the bread that came down from heaven ; so we do it also , and do it much more in baptisme , because in this , besides all that was before , there was superadded a rite of Gods appointment . The difference is only this ; That out of the Sacrament , the spirit operates with the word in the ministery of man ; in Baptisme the spirit operates with the word in the ministery of God. For here God is the preacher , the Sacrament is Gods sign , and by it he ministers life to us by the flesh and blood of his Son , that is , by the death of Christ into which we are baptized . And in the same Divine method the word and the spirit are ministred to us in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper . For as in Baptisme so here also there is a word proper to the ministery . So often as ye eat this bread , and drink this cup , ye declare the Lords death till he come . This indeed is a word of comfort . Christ died for our sins ; that is , our repentance which was consigned in baptisme shall be to purpose ; we shall be washed white and clean in the blood of the sacrificed Lamb. This is verbum visibile ; the same word read to the eye and to the ear . Hear the word of God is made our food in a manner so near to our understanding , that our tongues and palats feel the Metaphor and the Sacramental signification ; here faith is in triumph and exaltation : but as in all the other ministeries Evangelical , we eat Christ by faith , here we have faith also by eating Christ : Thus eating and drinking is faith ; it is faith in mystery , and faith in ceremony ; it is faith in act , and faith in habit ; it is exercised and it is advanced ; and therefore it is certain that here we eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ with much eminency and advantage . The sum is this . Christs body , his flesh , and his blood are therefore called our meat and our drink , because by his incarnation and manifestation in the flesh he became life unto us : So that it is mysterious indeed in the expression , but very proper and intelligible in the event , to say that we eat his flesh and drink his blood , since by these it is that we have and preserve life . But because what Christ begun in his incarnation , he finished in his body on the crosse , and all the whole progression of mysteries in his body , was still an operatory of life and spiritual being to us ; the Sacrament of the Lords Supper being a commemoration and exhibition of this death which was the consummation of our redemption by his body and blood , does contain in it a visible word , the word in symbol and visibility , and special manifestation . Consonant to which Docrtine , the Fathers by an elegant expression call the blessed Sacrament , [ the extension of the Incarnation . ] So that here are two things highly to be remarked . 1. That by whatsoever way Christ is taken , out of the Sacrament , by the same he is taken in the Sacrament : and by some wayes here , more than there . 2. That the eating and drinking the consecrated symbols is but the body and lesser part of the Sacrament : the life and the spirit , is believing greatly , and doing all the actions of that believing , direct and consequent . So that there are in this , two manducations , and Sacramental , and the Spiritual . That does but declare and exercise this : and of the sacramental manducation as it is alone , as it is a ceremony , as it does only consigne or expresse the internal ; it is true to affirm that it is only an act of obedience : but all the blessings and conjugations of joy which come to a worthy Communicant proceed from that spiritual eating of Christ , which as it is done out of the Sacrament very well , so in it and with it , much better . For here being ( as in baptisme ) a double significatory of the spirit , a word , and a sign of his own appointment , it is certain he will joyn in this Ministration . Here we have bread and drink , flesh and blood , the word and the spirit , Christ in all his effects , and most gracious communications . This is the general account of the nature and purpose of this great mystery . Christians are spiritual men , faith is their mouth , and wisdom is their food , and believing is manducation , and Christ is their life , and truth is the Air they breath , and their bread is the word of God , and Gods spirit is their drink , and righteousness is their robe , and Gods laws are their light , and the Apostles are their salt ; and Christ is to them all in all : for we must put on Christ , and we must eat Christ , and we must drink Christ : we must have him within us , and we must be in him : he is our vine , and we are his branches ; he is a door , and by him we must enter ; he is our shepherd , and we his sheep : Deus meus & omnia , he is our God , and he is all things to us : that is , plainly , he is our Redeemer , and he is our Lord : He is our Saviour and our Teacher : by his Word and by his Spirit he brings us to God and to felicities eternal , and that is the sum of all . For greater things than these we can neither receive nor expect : But these things are not consequent to the reception of the natural body of Christ , which is now in heaven ; but of his Word and of his Spirit , which are therefore indeed his body and his blood , because by these we feed on him to life eternal . Now these are indeed conveyed to us by the several ministries of the Gospel , but especially in the Sacraments , where the Word is preached and consigned , and the Spirit is the teacher , and the feeder , and makes the Table full , and the Cup to overflow with blessing . SECT . III. That in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper there are represented and exhibited many great blessings upon the special account of that sacred ministery , proved in General . IN explicating the Nature of this Divine mystery in general , as I have manifested the nature and operations and the whole ministery to be spiritual , and that not the natural body and blood of Christ is received by the mouth , but the word and the spirit of Christ , by faith and a spiritual hand , and upon this account have discovered their mistake , who think the secret lies in the outside , and suppose that we tear the natural flesh of Christ with our mouthes : So I have by consequent explicated the secret which others indefinitely and by conjecture and zeal do speak of , and know not what to say , but resolve to speak things great enough ; it remains now that I consider for the satisfaction of those that speak things too contemptible of these holy mysteries ; who say , it is nothing but a commemoration of Christs death , an act of obedience , a ceremony of memorial , but of no spiritual effect , and of no proper advantage to the soul of the receiver . Against this , besides the preceding discourse convincing their fancy of weakness and derogation , the consideration of the proper excellencies of this mystery in its own seperate nature will be very useful . For now we are to consider how his natural body enters into his oeconomy and dispensation . For the understanding of which are to consider that Christ besides his Spiritual body and blood did also give us his natural , and we receive that by the means of this . For this he gave us but once , then , when upon the Crosse he was broken for our sins ; this body could die but once and it could be but at one place at once , and Heaven was the place appointed for it , and at once all was sufficiently effected by it which was design'd in the Counsel of God. ●or by the vertue of that death Christ is become the Author of life unto us and of salvation ; he is our Lord and our Lawgiver ; but it he received all power in heaven and earth , and by it he reconciled his Father to the world , and in vertue of that he intercedes for us in heaven , and sends his spirit upon earth , and feeds our souls by his word , he instructs us to wisdom and admits us to repentance , and gives us pardon , and by means of his own appointment nourishes us up by holinesse to life eternal . This body being carried from us into heaven ; cannot be touch'd or tasted by us on earth ; but yet Christ left to us symbols and Sacraments of this natural body ; not to be , or to convey that natural body to us , but to do more and better for us ; to convey all the blessings and graces procured for us by the breaking of that body , and the effusion of the blood : which blessings being spiritual are therefore called his body spiritually , because procured by that body which died for us ; and are therefore called our food , because by them we live a new life in the spirit , and Christ is our bread and our life , because by him after this manner we are nourished up to life eternal . That is plainly thus : Therefore we eat Christs spiritual body , because he hath given us his natural body to be broken , and his natural blood to be shed , for the remission of our sins and for the obtaining the grace and acceptability of repentance . For by this gift , and by this death , he hath obtained this favour from God , that by faith in him and repentance from dead works , by repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ , we may be saved . To this sense of the Mystery are those excellent words of the Apostle : He bare our sins upon his own body on the Tree , that he might deliver us from the present evil world , and sanctifie and purge us from all pollution of flesh and spirit , that he might destroy the works of the devil , that he might redeem us from all iniquity , that he might purchase to himself a peculiar people , zealous of good works , and that we being dead unto sin ▪ might live unto righteousnesse . Totum Christiani nominis & pondus & fructus , mors Christi . All that we are , or do , or have , is produced and effected by the death of Christ. Now because our life depends upon his death , the ministry of this life must relate ●o the ministry of this death ; and we have nothing to glory in but the Crosse of Christ : the Word preached is nothing , but Jesus Christ crucified : and the Sacraments are the most eminent way of declaring this word : for by Baptism we are buried into his death , and by the Lords Supper we are partakers of his death : we communicate with the Lord Jesus as he is crucified ; but now , since all belong to this , that Word and that Mystery that is highest and neerest in this relation , is the principal and chief of all the rest ; and that the Sacrament of the Lords Supper is so , is evident beyond all necessity of inquiry , it being instituted in the vespers of the Passion , it being the Sacrament of the passion , a sensible representation of the breaking Christs body , of the effusion of Christs blood ; it being by Christ himself intituled to the passion , and the symbols invested with the names of his broken body , and his blood poured forth , and the whole ministry being a great declaration of this death of Christ , and commanded to be continued until his second coming . Certainly by all these it appears , that this Sacrament is the great ministry of life and salvation : here is the publication of the great word of salvation : here is set forth most illustriously the body and blood of Christ , the food of our souls ; much more clearly than in Baptism , much more effectually than in simple enunciation , or preaching and declaration by words ; for this preaching is to strangers and infants in Christ to produce faith , but this Sacramental enunciation is the declaration and confession of it by men in Christ ; a glorying in it , giving praise for it , a declaring it to be done , and own'd , and accepted , and prevailing . The consequent of these things is this , That if any Mystery , Rite or Sacrament be effective of any spiritual blessings , then this is much more , as having the prerogative and illustrious principality above every thing else in its own kind , or of any other-kind in exteriour or interiour Religion : I name them both , because as in Baptism the water alone does nothing , but the inward cooperation with the outward oblation does save us , yet to Baptism the Scriptures attribute the effect : so it is in this sacred solemnity , the external act is indeed nothing but obedience , and of it self only declares Christs death in rite and ceremony , yet the worthy communicating of it does indeed make us feed upon Christ , and unites him to the soul , and makes us to become one spirit , according to the words of S. Ambrose , Ideo in similitudinem quidem accipis sacramentum , sed verae naturae gratiam virtutemque consequeris , [ thou rec●iv●st the Sacrament as the similitude of Christs body , but thou shalt receive the grace and the virtue of the true nature . ] I shall not enter into so useless a discourse , as to inquire whether the Sacraments confer grace by their own excellency and power with which they are endued from above , because they who affirm they do , require so much duty on our parts as they also do who attribute the effect to our moral disposition : but neither one nor the other say true : for neither the external act , nor the internal grace and morality , does effect our pardon and salvation ; but the spirit of God , who blesses the symbols , and assists the duty , makes them holy , and this acceptable . Only they that attribute the efficacy to the Ministration of the Sacrament , chose to magnifie the immediate work of man , rather than the immediate work of God , and prefer the external , at least in glorious appellations , before the internal : and they that deny efficacy to the external work , and wholly attribute the blessing and grace to the moral cooperation , make too open a way for despisers to neglect the divine Institution , and to lay aside or lightly esteem the Sacraments of the Church . It is in the Sacraments as it is in the Word preached , in which not the sound , or the letters and syllables , that is , not the material part , but the formal , the sense and the signification , prepare the mind of the hearer to receive the impresses of the holy spirit of God , without which all preaching and all Sacraments are ineffectual : so does the internal and formal part , the signification and sense of the Sacrament , dispose the spirit of the receiver the rather to admit and entertain the grace of the spirit of God there consigned , and there exhibited , and there collated : but neither the outward nor the inward part does effect it , neither the Sacrament nor the moral disposition ; only the spirit operates by the Sacrament , and the Communicant receives it by his moral dispositions , by the hand of faith . And what have we to do to inquire into the philosophy of Sacraments ? these things do not work by the methods of nature : But here the effect is imputed to this cause , and yet can be produced without this cause , because this cause is but a s●gn in the hand of God , by which he tells the soul when he is willing to work . Thus Baptism was the instrument and sign in the hands of God to confer the holy Spirit upon believers : but the holy Ghost sometimes comes like lightning , and will not stay the period of usual expectation ; for when Cornelius had heard St. Peter preach , he received the holy Ghost : and as sometimes the holy Ghost was given because they had been baptized , now he and his company were to be baptized because they had received the holy Ghost : and it is no good argument to say , The graces of God are given to believers out of the Sacrament , ergo , not by or in the Sacrament ; but rather thus , If Gods grace overflows sometimes , and goes without his own instruments , much more shall he give it in the use of them : If God gives pardon without the Sacrament , then rather also with the Sacrament : For supposing the Sacraments in their design and institution to be nothing but signs and ceremonies , yet they cannot hinder the work of God : and therefore holinesse in the reception of them , will do more than holinesse alone : for God does nothing in vain ; the Sacraments do something in the hand of God , at least they are Gods proper and accustomed times of grace ; they are his seasons and our opportunity : when the Angel stirs the pool , when the Spirit moves upon the waters , then there is a ministry of healing . For consider we the nature of a Sacrament in general , & then pass on to a particular enumeration of the blessings of this , the most excellent . When God appointed the bow in the clouds to be a Sacrament , and the memorial of a promise , he made it our comfort , but his own sign : I will remember my Covenant between me and the earth , and the waters shall be no more a flood to d●stroy all flesh . This is but a token of the Covenant ; and yet at the appearing of it God had thoughts of truth and mercy to mankind ; The bow shall be in the cloud , and I will look upon it , that I may remember the everlasting Covenant between me and every creature . Thus when Elisha threw the wood into the waters of Jordan ; Sacramentum ligni , the Sacrament of the wood , Tertullian calls it ; that chip made the iron swim , not by any natural or any infused power , but that was the Sacrament or sign at which the Divine power then passed on to effect and emanation . When Elisha talked with the King of Israel about the war with Syria , he commanded him to smite upon the ground , and he smote thrice and stayed . This was Sacramentum victoriae , the Sacrament of his future victory : For the man of God was wroth with him , and said , Thou shouldest have smitten five or six times , then thou hadst smitten Syria until thou hadst consumed it ; whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice . In which it is remarkable , that though it was not that smiting that beat the Syrians , but the ground ; yet God would effect the beating of the Syrians by the proportion of that Sacramental smiting . The Sacraments are Gods signs , the opportunities of grace and act●on Be baptized and wash away thy sins , said Ananias to Saul : and therefore it is cal●'d the laver of regeneration and of the ren●wing of the holy Gh●st ; that is , in that Sacrament , and at that corporal ablution , the work of the spirit is done : for although it is not that washing of it self , yet God does so do it at that ablution , which is but the similitude of Christs death , that is , the Sacrament and symbolical representation of it ; that to that very similitude a very glorious effect is imputed , for if we have been planted together in the LIKENESSE of his death , we shall be also in the LIKENESS of his Resurrection . For the mystery is this : by immersion in Baptism , and emersion , we are configured to Christs Burial , and to his Resurrection : that 's the outward part ; to which if we add the inward , which is there intended , and is expressed by the Apostle in the following words ; knowing that our old man is crucified with him , that the body of sin might be destroyed , that henceforth we should not serve sin ; that 's our spiritual death , which answers to our configuration with the death of Christ in Baptism ; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father , even so we also should walk in n●wness of life ; there 's the correspondent of our configuration to the resurrection of Christ : that is if we do that duty of Baptism , we shall receive that grace : God offers us the mercy at that time , when we promise the duty , and do our present portion . This St. Peter calls the stipulation of a good conscience , the postulate and bargain which man then makes with God , who promises us pardon and immortality , resurrection from the dead , and life eternal , if we repent toward God , and have faith in the Lord Jesus , and if we promise we have and will so abide . The same is the case in the other most glorious Sacrament : it is the same thing in neerer representation : only what is begun in Baptism , proceeds on to perfection in the holy Communion . Baptism is the antitype of the passion of Christ ; and the Lords Supper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that also represents Christs passion : Baptism is the union of the members of Christ and the admission of them under one head into one body : as the Apostle affirms we are all baptized into one body ; and so it is in the Communion , the bread which we break , it is the communion of the body of Christ ; for we being many , are one body and one bread : in baptisme we partake of the death of Christ : and in the Lords Supper we do the same , in that as Babes , in this as men in Christ ; so that what effects are affirmed of one , the same are in greater measure true of the other ; they are but several rounds of Jacobs ladder reaching up to heaven upon which the Angels ascend and descend ; and the Lord sits upon the top . And because the Sacraments Evangelical be of the like kind of mystery with the Sacraments of old ; from them we can understand , that even signs of secret graces , do exhibit as well as signifie : for besides that there is a natural analogy between the ablution of the body and the purification of the soul , between eating the holy bread and drinking the sacred calice , and a participation of the body and blood of Christ , it is also in the method of the divine oeconomy ; to dispense the grace which himself signifies in a ceremony of his own institution ; thus at the Unction of Kings , Priests and of Prophets , the sacred power was bestowed , and as a Canon is invested in his dignity by the tradition of a book , and an Abbat by his staffe , a Bishop by a ring ( they are the words of St. Bernard : ) so are divisions of graces imparted to the diverse Sacraments . And therefore although it ought not to be denyed , that when in Scripture and the writings of the holy Doctors of the Church , the collation of grace is attributed to the s●gn , it is by a metonymy and a Sacramental manner of speaking , yet it is also a synecdoche of the part for the whole ; because both the Sacrament and the grace are joyned in the lawful and holy use of them , by Sacramental union , or rather by a confederation of the parts of the holy Covenant . Our hearts are purified by faith , and so our consciences are also made clean in the cestern of water . By faith we are saved ; and yet he hath sav●d us by the laver of regeneration , and they are both joyned together by St. Paul , Christ gave himself for his Church , that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word : that is , plainly by the Sacrament , according to the famous Commentary of St. Austin , accedat verbum ad elementum & tum fit sacramentum , when the word and the element are joyned , then it is a perfect Sacrament , and then it does effect all its purposes and intentions . Thus we find that the grace of God is given by the imposition of hands ; and yet as Austin rightly affirmes , God alone can give his holy spirit , and the Apostles did not give the holy Ghost to them upon whom they laid their hands , but prayed that God would give it , and he did so at the imposition of their hands . Thus God sanctified Aaron , and yet he said to Moses , thou shalt sanctifie Aaron : that is , not that Moses did it instead of God , but Moses did it by his ministery , and by visible Sacraments and rites of Gods appointment , and though we are born of an immortal seed , by the word of the living God , yet St. Paul said to the Corinthians , I have begotten you through the Gos●el , and thus it is in the greatest as well as in the least , he that drinks Christ's blood , and eats his body hath life abiding in him , it is true of the ●acrament and true of the spiritual manducation and may be indifferently affirmed of either , when the other is not excluded , for as the Sacrament operates only by the vertue of the spirit of God ; so the spirit ordinarily works by the instrumentality of the Sacraments . And we may as well say , that faith is not by hearing , as that grace is not by the Sacraments , for as without the spirit , the word is but a dead letter , so with the spirit , the Sacrament is the means of life and grace : And the meditation of St. Chrysostom is very pious and reasonable , If we were wholly incorporeal , God would have given us graces unclothed with signs and Sacraments , but because our spirits are in earthen vessels , God conveyes his graces to us by sensible ministrations . ] The word of God operates as secretly as the Sacraments , and the Sacraments as powerfully as the word , nay the word is alwayes joyned in the worthy administration of the Sacrament , which therefore operates both as word and sign by the ear and by the eyes and by both in the hand of God , and the conduct of the spirit , effect all that God intends , and that a faithful receiver can require and pray for . For justification and sanctification are continued acts : they are like the issues of a Fountain into its receptacles , God is alwayes giving , and we are alwayes receiving , and the signal effects of Gods holy spirit , sometimes give great indications , but most commonly come without observation , and therefore in these things we must not discourse as in the conduct of o●her causes and operations natural : for although in natural effects , we can argue from the cause to the event , yet in spiritual things we are to reckon only from the sign to the event . And the signs of grace we are to place in stead of natural causes , because a Sacrament in the hand of God , is a proclamation of his graces , he then gives us notice that the springs of heaven are opened : and then is the time to draw living waters from the fountains of salvation . When Jonathan shot his arrows beyond the boy , he then by a Sacrament sent salvation unto David ; he bad him be gone and flie from his Fathers wrath ; and although Jonathan did do his business for him by a continual care and observation , yet that symbol brought it unto David ; for so are we conducted to the joyes of God by the methods and possibilities of men . In conclusion ; the sum is this , The Sacraments and symbols if they be considered in their own nature , are just such as they seem , water , and bread , and wine ; they retain the names proper to their own natures ; but because they are made to be signs of a secret mystery ; and water is the symbol of purification of the soul from sin , and bread and wine , of Christs body and blood ; therefore the symbols and Sacraments receive the names of what themselves do sign ; * they are the body and they are the blood of Christ ; they are Metonymically such . But because yet further , they are instruments of grace in the hand of God , and by these his holy spirit changes our hearts and translates us into a Divine nature ; therefore the whole work is attributed to them ; by a Synecdoche ; that is , they do in their manner the work for which God ordained them , and they are placed there for our sakes , and speak Gods language in our accent , and they appear in the outside ; we receive the benefit of their ministery , and God receives the glory . SECT . IV. The blessings and Graces of the Holy Sacrament enumerated and proved particularly . IN the reception of the blessed Sacrament ; there are many blessings which proceed from our own actions , the conjugations of moral duties , the offices of preparation and reception , the reverence and the devotion ; of which I shall give account in the following Chapters ; here I am to enumerate those graces which are intended to descend upon us from the spirit of God in the use of the Sacrament it self precisely . But first I consider that it must be infinitely certain that great spiritual blessings are consequent to the worthy receiving this Divine Sacrament ; because it is not at all received but by a spiritual hand : for it is either to be understood in a carnal sense that Christs body is there eaten , or in a spiritual sense . If in a carnal , it profits no●hing . If in a spiritual he be eaten , let the meaning of that be considered , and it will convince us that innumerable blessings are in the very reception and Communion . Now what the meaning of this spiritual eating is ; I have already declared in this chapter , and shall yet more fully explicate in the sequel . * In the Sacrament we do not receive Christ carnally ; but we receive him spiritually ; and that of it self is a conjugation of blessings and spiritual graces . The very understanding what we do , tells us also what we receive . But I descend to particulars . 1. And first I reckon that the Sacrament is intended to increase our faith : for although it is with us in this Holy Sacrament , as it was with Abraham in the Sacrament of circumcision ; he had the grace of faith before he was circumcised ; and received the Sacrament after he had the purpose and the grace ; and we are to believe , before we receive these symbols of Christ death ; yet as by loving we love more , and by the acts of patience we increase in the spirit of mortification ; so by believing we believe more ; and by publication * of our confession we are made confident , and by seeing the signs of what we believe , our very senses are incorporated into the article ; and he that hath shall have more , and when we concorporate the sign with the signification , we conjoyn the word and the spirit , and faith passes on from believing to an imaginary seeing ; and from thence to a greater earnestness of believing , and we shall believe more abundantly ; this increase of faith not being only a natural and proper production of the exercise of its own acts ; but a blessing and an effect of the grace of God in that Sacrament ; it being certain , that since the Sacrament being of Divine institution it could not be to no purpose ( for in spiritualibus Sacramentis ubi praecipit virtus , servit effectus , where the commandment comes from him that hath all power , the action cannot be destitute of an excellent event ) and therefore that the representing of the death of Christ being an act of faith , and commanded by God must needs in the hands of God be more effectual than it is in its own nature ; that faith shall then increase not only by the way of nature , but by Gods blessing his own instruments , can never be denied but by them that neither have faith nor experience . For this is the proper scene and the very exaltation of faith : the Latine Church for a long time into the very words of consecration of the calice , hath put words relating to this purpose , [ For this is the cup of my blood of the New and Eternal Testament , the mystery of faith , which for you and for many shall be shed for the remission of sins . ] And if by faith we eat the flesh of Christ ; as it is confessed by all the Schools of Christians , then it is certain , that when so manifestly and solemnly according to the divine appointment we publish this great confession of the death of Christ , we do in all senses of spiritual blessing eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ ; and let that be expounded how we list , we are not in this world capable , and we do not need a greater blessing and God may s●y in the words of Isaac to his son Esau , with corn and wine have I sustained [ thee ] and what is there left that I can do unto thee my son ? To eat the flesh and to drink the blood of Christ Sacramentally is an act of faith , and every act of faith joyned with the Sacrament does grow by the nature of grace , and the measures of a blessing , and therefore is eating of Christ spiritually , and this reflexion of acts like circles of a glorious and eternal fire , passes on in the univocal production of its own parts till it passe from grace to glory . 2. Of the same consideration it is , that all the graces which we do exercise by the nature of the Sacrament requiring them , or by the necessity of the commandment of preparation , do here receive increase upon the account of the same reason ; but I instance only in that of Charity , of which this is signally and by an especial remark the Sacrament : and therefore these holy conventions are called by St. Jude , feasts of charity , which were Christian Festivals , in which also they had the Sacrament adjoined ; but whether that do effect this persuasion or no , yet the thing it self is dogmatically affirmed in St. Pauls explication of that mystery , * we are one body because we partake of one bread ; that is , plainly , Christ is our head , and we the members of his body , and are united in this mystical union by the holy Sacrament ; not only because it symbolically does teach our duty , and promotes the grace of charity by a real signature , and a sensible Sermon ; nor yet only because it calls upon Christians by the publick Sermons of the Gospel , and the duties of preparation , and the usual expectations of conscience and Religion ; but even by the blessing of God , and the operation of the holy Spirit in the Sacrament , which ( as appears plainly by the words of the Apostle ) is designed to this very end , to be a reconciler and an atonement in the hand of God , a band of charity , and the instrument of Christian Communion ; that we may be one body , because we partake of one bread ; that is , we may be mystically united by the Sacramental participation : and therefore it was not without mystery , that the Congregation of all Christ servants , his Church , and this Sacramental bread , are both in Scripture called by the same name : This bread is the body of Christ , and the Church is Christs body too ; for by the communion of this bread all faithful people are confederated into one body , the body of our Lord. Now it is to be observed , that although the expression is tropical * and figurative , that we are made one body , because it is meant in a spiritual sense ; yet that spiritual sense means the most real event in the world ; we are really joyned to one common Divine principle , Jesus Christ our Lord , and from him we do communicate in all the blessings of his grace , and the fruits of his passion , and we shall , if we abide in this union , be all one body of a spiritual Church in heaven , there to reign with Christ for ever . Now unless we think nothing Good but what goes in at our eyes or mouth ; if we think there is any thing good beyond what our senses perceive , we must confess this to be a real and eminent benefit ; and yet whatever it be , it is therefore effected upon us by this Sacrament , because we eat of one bread . The very repeating the words of St. Paul is a satisfaction in this inquiry ; they are plain and easie , and whatever interpretation can be put upon them , it can only vary the manner of effecting the blessing , and the way of the Sacramental efficacy ; but it cannot evacuate the blessing , or confute the thing : Only it is to be observed in this , as in all other instances of the like nature , that the grace of God in the Sacrament usually is a blessing upon our endeavours , for spiritual graces and the blessings of sanctification do not grow like grasse , but like corn ; not whether we do any husbandry or no , but if we cultivate the ground , then by Gods blessing the fruits will spring and make the Farmer rich , if we be disposed to receive the Sacrament worthily , we shall receive this fruit also . Which fruit is thus expressed , saying , [ this Sacrament is therefore given unto us that the body of the Church of Christ in the earth may be joyned , or united with our head which is in the heavens . ] 3. The blessed Sacrament is of great efficacy for the remission of sins ; not that it hath any formal efficacy , or any inherent vertue to procure pardon , but that it is the ministery of the death of Christ and the application of his blood , which blood was shed for the remission of sins , and is the great means of impetration , and as the Schools use to speak , is the meritorious cause of it . For there are but two wayes of applying the death of Christ : an internal grace and an external ministery . Faith is the inward applicatory , and if there be any outward at all , it must be the Sacraments ; and both of them are of remarkable vertue in this particular ; for by baptisme we are baptized into the death of Christ , and the Lords supper is an appointed enunciation and declaration of Christs death , and it is a Sacramental participation of it . Now to partake of it Sacramentally , is by Sacrament to receive it , that is , so to apply it to us , as that can be applyed : it brings it to our spirit , it propounds it to our faith , it represents it as the matter of Eucharist , it gives it as meat and drink to our souls , and rejoyces in it in that very formality in which it does receive it , viz , as broken for , as shed for the remission of our sins . Now then what can any man suppose a Sacrament to be , and what can be meant by sacramental participation ? for unless the Sacraments do communicate what they relate to ; they are no communion or communication at all ; for it is true that our mouth eats the material signs ; but at the same time , faith eats too , and therefore must eat , that is , must partake of the thing signified ; faith is not maintained by ceremonies : the body receives the body of the mystery ; we eat and drink the symbols with our mouths , but faith is not corporeal , but feeds upon the mystery it self ; it entertains the grace , and enters into that secret which the spirit of God conveyes under the signature . Now since the mystery is perfectly and openly expressed to be the remission of sins ; if the soul does the work of the soul , as the body the work of the body , the soul receives remission of sins , as the body does the symbols of it and the Sacrament . But we must be infinitely careful to remember that even the death of Christ brings no pardon to the impenitent persevering sinner ; but to him that repents truely , & so does the Sacrament * of Christs death ; this can do no more than that : and therefore let no man come with his guilt about him , and in the heat and in the affections of his sin , and hope to find his pardon by this ministery . He that thinks so will but deceive , wil but ruine himself . They are excellent but very severe words , which God spake to the Jews , and which are a prophetical reproof of all unworthy Communicants in these divine mysteries , What hath my beloved to do in my house seeing she hath wrought l●wdness with many ? The holy flesh hath passed from thee when thou doest evil , that is , this holy sacrifice , the flesh and blood of thy Lord shall slip from thee without doing thee any good , if thou hast not ceased from doing evil . But the vulgar Latin reads these words much more emphatically to our purpose , Shall the holy flesh take from thee thy wickedness in which thou rejoycest ? Deceive not thy self ; thou hast no part nor portion in this matter . For the holy Sacrament operates indeed and consigns our pardon , but not alone ; but in conjunction with all that Christ requires as conditions of pardon ; but when the conditions are present , the Sacrament ministers pardon , as pardon is ministred in this world ; that is , by parts , and in order to several purposes , and with power of revocation , by suspending the Divine wrath , by procuring more graces , by obtaining time of repentance ; and powers and possibilities of working out our salvation ; and by setting forward the method and Oeconomy of our salvation . For in the usual methods of God , pardon of sins is proportionable to our repentance ; which because it is all that state of Piety we have in this whole life after our first sin ; pardon of sins is all that effect of grace which is consequent to that repentance ; and the worthy receiving of the holy Communion , is but one conjugation of holy actions and parts of repentance , but indeed it is the best and the noblest , and such in which man does best cooperate towards pardon , and the grace of God does the most illustriously consign it . But of these particulars I shall give full account when I shall discourse of the preparations of repentance . 4. It is the greatest solemnity of prayer , the most powerful Liturgy and means of impetration in this world . For when Christ was consecrated on the crosse and became our High Priest , having reconciled us to God by the death of the crosse , he became infinitely gracious in the eyes of God , and was admitted to the celestial and eternal Priesthood in heaven ; where in the vertue of the crosse he intercedes for us , and represents an eternal sacrifice in the heavens on our behalf . That he is a Priest in heaven appears in the large discourses and direct affirmatives of St. Paul ; that there is no other sacrifice to be offered , but that on the crosse ; it is evident , because he hath but once appeared in the end of the world to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself ; and therefore since it is necessa●y that he hath something to offer so long as he is a Priest , and there is no other sacrifice but that of himself offered upon the crosse ; it follows that Christ in heaven perpetually offers and represents that sacrifice to his heavenly Father , and in vertue of that obtains all good things for his Church . Now what Christ does in heaven he hath commanded us to do on earth , that is , to represent his death , † to commemorate this sacrifice , by humble prayer and thankful record ; and by faithful manifestation and joyful Eucharist to lay it before the eyes of our heavenly Father , so ministring in his Priesthood , and doing according to his commandment and his example ; the Church being the image of heaven , the Priest the Minister of Christ , the holy Table being a Copy of the celestial altar ; and the eternal sacrifice of the Lamb slain from the beginning of the World , being alwayes the same ; it bleeds no more after the finishing of it on the Crosse ; but it is wonderfully represented in heaven , and graciously represented here ; by Christs action there , by his commandment here ; and the event of it is plainly this , that as Christ in vertue of his sacrifice on the crosse intercedes for us with his Father ; so does the Minister of Christs Priest-hood here , that the vertue of the eternal sacrifice may be salutary and effectual to all the needs of the Church both for things temporal , and eternal : and therefore it was not without great mystery and clear signification that our blessed Lord was pleased to command the representation of his death and sacrifice on the crosse should be made by breaking bread and effusion of wine ; to signifie to us the nature and sacredness of the Liturgy we are about , and that we minister in the Priest-hood of Christ ; who is a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedeck ; that is , we are Ministers in that unchangable Priest-hood imitating in the external Ministery , the prototype Melchisedeck : Of whom it is said , † he brought forth bread and wine and was the Priest of the most high God ; and in the internal imitating the antitype or the substance , Christ himself ; who offered up his body and blood for atonement for us , and by the Sacraments of bread and wine , and the prayers of oblation and intercession commands us to officiate in his Priest-hood , in the external ministring like Melchisedeck ; in the internal after the manner of Christ himself . This is a great and a mysterious truth , which as it is plainly manifested in the Epistle to the Hebrews , so it is understood by the ancient and holy Doctors of the Church . So St. Ambrose . [ Now Christ is offered , but he is offered as a man , as if he received his passion ; but he offers himself as a Priest , that he may pardon our sins ; here in image or representation , there in truth , as an Advocate interceding with his Father for us . ] So St. Chrysostom ; In Christ once the Sacrifice was offered , which is powerful to our eternal salvation ; but what then do we ? do not we offer every day ? what we daily offer is at the memorial of his death , and the Sacrifice is one , not many ; because Christ was once offered : but this Sacrifice is the example or representation of that . And another : Christ is not impiously slain by us , but piously sacrificed ; and by this means we declare the Lords death till he come : for here through him we humbly do in earth , which he as a son who is heard according to his reverence , does powerfully for us in heaven , where as an advocate he intercedes with his Father , whose office or work it is ; for us to exhibit and interpose his flesh which he took of us and for us , and as it were to presse it upon his Father . To the same sense is the meditation of St. Austin : By this he is the Priest and the Oblation , the Sacrament of which he would have the daily Sacrifice of the Church to be ; which because it is the body of that head , she learns from him to offer her self to God by him , who offered himself to God for her . And therefore this whole Office is called by St. Basil , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the prayer of oblation , the great Christian Sacrifice and Oblation in which we present our prayers and the needs of our selves and of our brethren unto God in virtue of the great Sacrifice , Christ upon the Crosse , whose memorial we then celebrate in a divine manner , by divine appointment . The effect of this I represent in the words of Lyra : [ That which does purge and cleanse our sins must be celestial and spiritual , and that which is such hath a perpetual efficacy , and needs not to be done again ; but that which is daily offered in the Church , is a daily commemoration of that one Sacrifice which was offered on the Crosse , according to the command of Christ , Do this in commemoration of me . ] Now this holy Ministry and Sacrament of this death , being according to Christs commandment and in our manner a representation of the eternal Sacrifice , an imitation of Christs intercession in heaven in vertue of that Sacrifice , must be after the pattern in the Mount , it must be as that is , pur â prece , as Tertullians phrase , is by pure prayer ; it is an intercession for the whole Church present and absent in the virtue of that Sacrifice . I need add no more , but leave it to the meditation , to the joy and admiration of all Christian people to think , and to enumerate the blessings of this Sacrament , which is so excellent a representation of Christs death , by Christs commandment ; and so glorious an imitation of that intercession which Christ makes in heaven for us all ; it is all but the representment of his death , in the way of prayer and interpellation ; Christ as head , and we as members ; he as High Priest , and we servants as his Ministers : and therefore I shall stop here , and leave the rest for wonder and Eucharist : we may pray here with all the solemnity and advantages imaginable ; we may with hope and comfort use the words of David , I will take the cup of salvation , and call upon the name of the Lord : we are here very likely to prevail for all blessings , * for this is by way of eminency , glory , and singularity , Calix benedictionis , the cup of blessing which we bless , and by which God will bless us , and for which he is to be blessed for evermore . 5. By the means of this Sacrament our bodies are made capable of the resurrection to life and eternal glory . For when we are externally and symbolically in the Sacrament , and by faith and the spirit of God internally united to Christ , and made partakers of his body and his blood , we are joyned and made one with him who did rise again ; and when the head is risen , the members shall not see corruption for ever , but rise again after the pattern of our Lord. If by the Sacrament we are really united and made one with Christ , then it shall be to us in our proportion as it was to him ; we shall rise again , and we shall enter into glory . But it is certain we are united to Christ by it ; we eat his body and drink his blood Sacramentally by our mouths , and therefore really and spiritually by our spirits and by spiritual actions cooperating . * For what good will it do us to partake of his body , if we do not also partake of his spirit ? but certain it is , if we do one , we do both ; cum naturalis per sacramentum proprietas perfectae sacramentum sit unitatis , as St. Hilaries expression is ; the natural propriety , viz the outward elements by the Sacrament , that is , by the institution and blessing of God , become the Sacrament of a perfect unity , which beside all the premisses is distinctly affirmed in the words of the Apostle ; we which are sanctified , and he which sanctifies are all of one ; and again , the bread which we break , is it not the communication of the body of Christ ; and the cup which we drink is it not the communication of the blood of Christ ? plainly saying , that by this holy ministery we are joyned and partake of Christs body and blood , and then we become spiritually one body , and therefore shall receive in our bodies all the effects of that spiritual union ; the chief of which in relation to our bodies , is resurrection from the grave . And this is expresly taught by the Ancient Church . So St. Irenaeus teaches us . As the bread which grows from the earth , receiving the calling of God , ( that is , blessed by prayer and the word of God ) is not now common bread , but the Eucharist , consisting of two things , an earthly , and an heavenly : so also our bodies receiving the Eucharist , are not now corruptible , but have the hope of resurrection . And again , when the mingled calice and the made bread receives the word of God viz. is consecrated and blessed , it is made the Eucharist of the body and blood of Christ out of those things by which our body is nourished , and our substance does consist : and how shall any one deny that the flesh is capable of the gift of God , which is eternal life , which is nourished by the body and blood of Christ ? And St. Ignatius calls the blessed Eucharist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; the medicine of immortallity , for the drink is his blood who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , incorruptible love and eternal life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so the Fathers of the Nicene Councel ; the symbols of our resurrection , the meat nourishing to immortallity and eternal life , so Cyril of Alexandria ; for this is to drink the blood of Jesus , to be partakers of the Lords incorruptibility , said St. Clement . For bread is food , and blood is life ; but we drink the blood of Christ , himself commanding us that together with him , we may by him be partakers of eternal life ; So St. Cyprian , aut quicunque sit author Sermon . de coenâ Domini . 6. Because this is a ministry of grace by bodily ceremonies , and conveys spiritual blessings by temporal ministrations ; there is something also of temporal regard directly provided for our bodies by the holy Sacrament . It sometimes is a means in the hand of God for the restoring and preserving respectively of our bodily health , and secular advantages : I will not insist upon that of St. Gorgonia ▪ who being oppressed with a violent head-ach , threw her self down before the holy Table where the Sacrament was placed , and prayed with passion and pertinacy till she obtained relief and ease in that very place : Nor that of St. Ambrose , who having trod upon a Gentlemans foot afflicted with the gout , in the time of ministration , gave him the holy smbols , and told him it was good for his sicknesse also , and that he presently found his cure . I my self knew a person of great sanctity , who was afflicted to deaths door with a vomiting , and preparing her self to death by her viaticum the holy Sacrament , to which she always bore a great reverence , she was infinitely desirous and yet equally fearful to receive it , lest she should reject that by her infirmity which in her spirit she passionately longed for ; but her desire was the greater passion , and prevailed ; she received it , and swallowed it , and after great and earnest reluctancy being forced to cast it up , in zeal and with a new passion took it in again , and then retained it , and from that instant speedily recovered , against the hope of her Physician , and the expectation of all her friends . God does miracles every day ; and he who with spittle and clay cured the blind mans eyes , may well be supposed to glorifie himself by the extraordinary contingences and Sacramental contacts of his own body . But that which is most famous and remarked is , that the Austrian Family do attribute the rise of their House to the present Grandeur , to W●lliam Earl of Hasburgh , and do acknowledg it to be a reward of his piety in the venerable treatment and usage of these Divine mysteries . It were easier to heap together many rare contingences and miraculous effects of the holy Sacrament , than to find faith to believe them now-adayes ; and therefore for this whole affair I relie upon the words of Saint Paul , affirming that God sent sicknesses and sundry kinds of death to punish the Corinthian irreverent treatment of the Blessed Sacrament ; and therefore it is not to be deemed , but that life and health will be the consequent of our holy usages of it : for if by our fault it is a savour of death ; it is certain , by the blessing and intention of God it is a favour of life . But of these things in particular we have no promise , and therefore such events as these cannot upon this account of faith and certain expectations be designed by us in our communions . If God please to send any of them , as sometimes he hath done , it is to promote his own glory and our value of the Blessed Sacrament the great ministry of salvation . 7. The sum of all I represent in these few words of St. Hilary . These holy mysteries being taken , cause that Christ shall be in us , and we in Christ ; and if this be more than words ; we need no further inquiry into the particulars of blessing consequent to a worthy communion , for if God hath given his Son unto us , how shall not he with him give us all things else ? nay all things that we need are effected by this , said St. Clement of Alexandria , one of the most antient Fathers of the Church of Christ : Eucharistia qui per fidem sunt participes , sanctifi●antur & corpore & animâ : They who by faith are partakers of the Eucharist are sanctified both in body and in soul. Fonte renascentes membris & sanguine Christi Vescimur , atque ideo templum Deitatis habemur . Sedul . How great therefore and how illustrious benefits ( it is the meditation of St. Eusebius Emissenus ) does the power of the Divine blessing produce ? you ought not to esteem it strange and impossible ; for how earthly and mortal things are converted into the substance of Christ , ask thy self , who art regenerated in Christ : Not long since , thou wast a stranger from life , a pilgrim and wanderer from mercy , and being inwardly dead thou wert banished from the way of life . On a sudden being initiated in the laws of Christ , and renewed by the Mysteries of Salvation , thou didst passe suddenly into the body of the Church not by seeing , but by believing , and from a son of perdition , thou hast obtained to be adopted a son of God by a secret purity : remaining in a visible measure , thou art invisibly made greater than thy self , without any increase of quantity , thou art the same thou wert , and yet very much another person in the progression of Faith , to the outward nothing is added , but the inward is wholly changed , and so a man is made the son of Christ , and Christ is formed in the mind of a man. As therefore suddenly without any bodily perception , the former vileness being laid down , on the sudden thou hast put on a new dignity , and this that God hath done , that he hath cured thy wounds , washed off thy staines , wiped away thy spots , is trusted to thy discerning , not thy eyes : so when thou ascendest the reverend altar to be satisfied with spiritual food , by faith regard , honour , admire the holy body of God , touch it with thy mind , take it with the hand of thy heart even with the draught of the whole inward man : SECT . V. Practical conclusions from the preceding Discourses . THe first I represent in the words of St. Augustin , who reduces this whole doctrine to practice in these excellent words [ let this whole affair thus far prevail with us that we may eat the flesh , [ and drink ] the blood of Christ , not only in the Sacrament , which many evil persons doe ; but let us eat and drink unto the participation of the spirit ; that as members we may abide in the Lords body , that we may be quickened by his spirit ; and let us not be scandalized because many do temporally eat and drink with us , who yet in the end shall find eternal torments ] that is ; let us remember that the exteriour ministery is the least part of it ; and externally and alone it hath in it nothing excellent , as being destitute of the sanctity that God requires , and the grace that he does promise , and it is common to wicked men and good : but when the signs and the thing signified , when the prayers of the Church and the spirit of God , the word and the meaning , the sacrament and the grace do concur ; then it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it is a venerable cup , and full of power , and more honourable than all our possessions , it is a holy thing saith Origen and appointed for our sanctification . For Christ in the Sacrament is Christ under a vail : as without the hand of faith we cannot take Christ , so we must be sure to look here with an eye of faith , and whatsoever glorious thing is said of the holy Sacrament ; it must be understood of the whole Sacrament , body and spirit , that is , the Sacramental and the spiritual Communion . 2. Let no man be lesse confident in his holy faith and persuasion concerning the great blessings and glorious effects which God designs to every faithful and obedient soul in the communication of these Divine mysteries , by reason of any difference of judgement which is in the several Schools of Christians concerning the effects and consequent blessings of this Sacrament . For all men speak honourable things of it , except wicked persons , and the scorners of Religion , and though of several persons like the beholders of a dove walking in the sun , as they stand in several aspects and distances , some see red and others purple , and yet some perceive nothing but green , but all allow and love the beauties : so do the several forms of Christians , according as they are instructed by their first teachers , or their own experience conducted by their fancy and proper principles , look upon these glorious mysteries some as vertually containing the reward of obedience , some as solemnities of thanksgiving and records of blessings , some as the objective increasers of faith , others as the Sacramental participations of Christ , others as the acts & instruments of natural union , yet all affirm some great things or other of it , and by their differences confesse the immensity and the glory . For thus Manna represented to every man the taste that himself did like , but it had in its own potentiality all those tasts and dispositions eminently , and altogether , those feasters could speak of great and many excellencies , and all confessed it to be enough , and to be the food of Angels : so it is here , it is that to every mans faith , which his faith wisely apprehends ; and though there are some who are of little faith , and such receive but a less proportion of nourishment , yet by the very use of this Sacrament the appetite will increase , and the apprehensions grow greater , and the faith will be more confident and instructed ; and then we shall see more , and feel more . For this holy nutriment is not only food , but physick too , and although to him who believes great things of his Physitian , and of his medicine , it is apt to do the more advantage ; yet it will do its main work , even when we understand it not , and nothing can hinder it ; but direct infidelity , or some of its foul and deformed ministers . 3. They who receive the blessed Sacrament must not suppose that the blessings of it , are effected as health is by physick , or warmth by the contact and neighbourhood of fire ; but as musick one way affects the soul , and witty discourses another , and joyful tidings a way differing from both the former , so the operations of the Sacrament are produced by an energy of a nature intirely differing from all things else ; But however it is done , the thing that is done is this , no grace is there improved , but what we bring along with us : no increases but what we exercise ; we must bring faith along with us , and God will increase our faith , we must come with charity , and we shall go away with more , we must come with truly penitential hearts , and to him that hath shall be given , and he shall have more abundantly : he shall be a better penitent : when he hath eaten the sacrifice that was slain for our sins , and died in the body , that we might live in the spirit and die no more . For he is the bread from heaven , he is the grain of wheat which falling into the earth , unless it dies it remains alone , but if it dies , it brings forth fruit and brings it forth abundantly . 4. Although the words , the names , and sayings concerning the Blessed Sacrament are mysterious and inexplicable , yet they do , nay , therefore weare sure they signifie some great thing , they are in the very expression beyond our understanding , & therefore much more are the things themselves too high for us : but therefore we are taught three things . 1. To walk humbly with our God , that is , in all entercourses with him to acknowledg the infinite distance between his immensitie and our nothing ; his wisdom and our ignorance ; his secrets and our apprehensions ; he does more for us than we can understand . It was an excellent saying of Aristotle which Seneca reports of him , Nunquam nos verecundiores esse debere , quam cum de Diis agitur , we ought never to be more bashful and recollect , than when we are to speak any thing of God. Timidè de pot●state Deorum , & pauca dicenda sunt , said Cicero , we must speak of his power and glory , timorously and sparingly , with joyfulness and singleness or simplicity of heart , so the first Christians eat their Bread , their Eucharist , so we understand the words of St. Luke . 2. To walk charitably with our disagreeing brother , that this may be indeed a Sacrament of charity , and not to wonder if he be mistaken in his discourses of that which neither he nor you can understand . 3. Though it be hard to be understood : yet we must be careful that with simplicitie we admire the secret , and accept the mystery ; but at no hand by pride or ignorance , by interest or vanity to wrest this myste●y , to ignoble senses , or to evil events , or to dangerous propositions , or to our own damnation . 5. Whatever propositons any man shall entertain in his manner of discoursing of these mysteries ; let him be sure to take into his notice and memorie , those great appellatives with which the purest ages of the Church , the most ancient Liturgies , and the most eminent Saints of God use to adorn and invest this great mysteriousness . In the Greek Liturgie attributed to St. James ; the Sacramental Symbols are called , sanctified , honourable , precious , celestial , unspeakable , incorruptible , glorious , fearful , formidable , divine ; in the use of which Epithets , as we have the warranty and consent of all the Greek Churches since they ever had a Liturgy ; so we are taught only to have reverend usages and religious apprehensions of the Divine mysteries , but if by any appellative we can learn a duty , it is one of the best waies of entring into the secret . To which purpose the ages Primitive and Apostolical did use the word Eucharist : the name and the use we learn from Origen ; the Bread which is called the Eucharist , is the Symbol of our thanksgiving towards God. But it is the great and most usual appellative for the holy Supper ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , we find in * Ignatius , St. Clemens . Justin Martyr , the Syrian Paraphrast , Origen , and ever after amongst the Greeks , a●d afterwards amongst the Latins . By him we understand that then we receive great blessings , since ●he very mystery it self obliges us to great thank●ulness . I have instanced in this as an example to the use of the other Epithets and appellatives which from Antiquity I have enumerated . 6. He that desires to enter furthest into the secrets of this mystery , and to understand more than others , can better learn by love * than by inquiry . He that keepeth the law of the Lord getteth the understanding thereof , saith the wise Bensirach ; if he will prepare himself diligently , and carefully observe the dispensations of the Spirit , and receive it humbly , and treat it with great reverence , and dwell in the communion of Saints , and pass through the mystery with great devotion and purest simplicity , and converse wi●h the purities of the Sacrament frequ●ntly , ●nd with holy intention , this man shall unde●stand more by his experience , than the greatest Cle●ks can by all their subtilties , the commentaries of the Doctors , and the glosses of inquisitive men : Obey and ye shall understand , said the Prophet : and our blessed Saviour assur'd us , that if we continue in his word , then we shall know the truth ; and if any man will do his will , he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God or no. For we have not turned from our iniquities , that we might understand the truth , said Daniel : for the love of the Lord ( saith the wise man ) passeth all things for illumination . 7. Let no man advance the preaching of the word of God , to the disparagement . or to occasion the neglect of the Sacraments . For though it be true , that faith comes by hearing ; yet it is not intended that by hearing alone faith is ingendred ; for the faith of the Apostles came by seeing ; and St. Pauls faith did not come by hearing ; but by intuition and revelation ; and hearing in those words of St. Paul does not signifie the manner of ministration ; but the whole Oeconomie of the word of God , the whole office of preaching ; which is done most usefully to babes and strangers by sermon and homily , but more gloriously and illustriously to men , by Sacraments . But however , be it so or otherwise ; yet one ordinance ought not to exclude the other , much less to disparage the other , and least of all to undervalue that which is the most eminent : but rather let every Christian man and woman think ; that if the word ministred by the spirit is so mightie , it must be more , when the word and the spirit joyn with the Sacrament , which is their proper significatorie . He that is zealous for the word of God does well ; but let him remember , that the word of God is a goodly ring and leads us into the circles of a blessed eternity ; but because the Sacrament is not without the word , they are a jewel encha'sd in gold when they are together . The Ministeries of the Gospel are all of a piece ; they , though in several manners , work the same salvation by the conduct of the s●me spirit . 8. Let no man in the reception of the Sacrament , and in his expectation of blessings and events from it , limit his hopes and belief to any one particular , for that will occasion a littleness of faith , and may make it curious , scrupulous and phantastical ; rather let us adore the secret of God , and with simple expectations receive it ; disposing our selves to all the effects that may come rather with fear and indefinite apprehensions , than with dogmatical and confident limitations ; for this may beget scruples and diminution of value ; but that hinders nothing , but advances the reverential treatments and opinion . 9. He that guesses at the excellency and power of the Sacrament , by the events that himself feels ; must be sure to look for no other than what are eminently or virtually contained in it ; that is , he must not expect that the Sacrament will make him rich ; or discover to him stoln goods , or cure the Tooth-ach , or Countercharm Witches , or appease a Tempest if it be thrown into the Sea. These are such events which God hath not made the effects of religion ; but are the hopes and expectations of vain and superstitious people . and I remember that Pope Alexander the third in the Council of Lateran wrote to the Bishop of S. Agatha advice how to treat a woman who took the Holy Sacrament into her mouth , and ran with it to kiss her husband , hoping by that means to procure her husbands more intense affection . But the story tells that she was chastis'd by a miracle , and was not cur'd but by a long and severe repentance . 10. He that watches for the effects and blessings of the Sacrament , must look for them in no other manner , than what is agreeable to the usual dispensation ; we must not look for them by measures of nature and usual expectations : not that as soon as we have received the Symbols , we shall have our doubts answered ; or be comforted in our spirit as soon as we have given thanks for the holy blood ; or be satisfied in the inquiries of faith , as soon as the prayers of consecration and the whole ministery is ended ; or prevail in our most passionate desires as soon as we rise from our knees ; for we enter into the blessings of the Sacrament by prayer , and the exercise of proper graces ; both which being spiritual instruments of vertues , work after the manner of spiritual things ; that is , not by any measure we have , but as God please ; only that in the last event of things , and when they are necessary , we shall find them there : Gods time is best , but we must not judge his manner by our measures , nor measure eternity by time , or the issues of the spirit , by a measuring line . The effects of the Sacrament are to be expected as the effect of prayers : not one prayer or one solemn meeting , but persevering and pas●ionate , fervent and lasting prayers ; a continual desire and a dayly address is the way of prevailing In the morning sow thy seed , and in the evening with-hold not thy hand , for thou knowest not whether sh●ll prosper ▪ either this or that , or whether they shall be both alike good . 11. He that looks for the effects and blessings told of to be appendant to the Sacrament , must expect them upon no other terms , but such as are the conditions of a worthy Communion . If thou doest find thy faith as dead after the reception as it was before ; it may be it is because thy faith was not only little , but reprovable : or thou didst not pray vehemently , or thou art indisposed by some secret disadvantage : or thou hast not done thy duty : and he shall imprudently accuse that physick for useless and unfit , that is not suffered to work by the incapacity , the ill-diet , the weak stomack , or some evil accident of the patient . 12. Let no man judge of himself or of the blessings and efficacy of the Sacrament it self , or of the prosperity and acceptation of his service in this ministery by any sensible relish , by the gust and deliciousnesse which he sometimes perceives , and other times does not perceive For these are fine accidents and given to some persons often , to others very seldom , to all irregularly , as God please : and sometimes are the effects of natural and accidental dispositions , and sometimes are illusions . But that no man may fall into inconvenience for want of them : we are to consider that the want of them proceeds from diverse causes . 1. It may be the palate of the Soul is indispos'd by listlesness or sorrow , anxiety or weariness . 2. It may be we are too much immerg'd in secular affairs and earthly affections . 3. Or we have been unthankfull to God when we have received some of these spiritual pleasures , and he therefore withdraws those pleasant entertainments . 4. Or it may be , we are therefore without relish and gust , because the Sacrament is too great for our weakness , like the bright Sun to a mortal eye ; the object is too big for our perceptions , and our little faculties . 5. Sometimes God takes them away least we be lifted up and made vain . 6. Sometimes for the confirmation and exercise of our faith ; that we may live by faith and not by sense . 7. Or it may be that by this driness of spirit God intends to make us the more fervent and resign'd in our direct and solemn devotions , by the perceiving of our wants and weakness , and in the infinite inability , and insufficiency of our selves . 8. Or else it happens to us irremediably and inevitably , that we may perceive these accidents are not the fruits of our labour , but gifts of God , dispensed wholly by the measures of his own choice . 9. The want of just and severe dispositions to the Holy Sacrament may possibly occasion this uncomfortableness . 10. Or we do not relish the Divine Nutriment now , so as at other times , for want of spiritual mastication , that is , because we have not considered deeply , and meditated wisely and holily . 11. Or there is in us too much self-love and delight in , and adherence to the comforts we find in other objects . 12. Or we are carelesse of little sins , and give too much way to the dayly incursions of the smaller irregularities of our lives . If upon the occasion of the want of these sensible comforts and delightful relishes , we examine the causes of the want , and suspect our selves in these things , where our own faults may be the causes , and there make amends ; or if we submit our selves in those particulars where the causes may relate to God , we shall do well , and receive profit . But unlesse our own sin be the cause of it , we are not to make any evil judgment of our selves by reason of any such defect ; much lesse diminish our great value of the blessings consequent to a worthy communion . 13. But because the pardon of sins is intended to be the great effect of a worthy Communion , and of this men are most solicitous , and for this they pray passionately , and labour earnestly , and almost all their lives , and it may be in the day of their death have uncertain souls ; and therefore of this men are most desirous to be satisfied , if they apprehend themselves in danger , that is , if they be convinced of their sin , and be truly penitent ; although this effect seems to be least discernable , and to be a secret reserved for the publication and trumpet of the Arch-Angel at the day of Doom ; yet in this we can best be satisfied . For because when our sins are unpardoned , we are under the wrath of God to be expressed as he pleases , and in the method of eternal death ; now if God intends not to pardon us , he will not bless the means of pardon ; if we shall not return to his final pardon , we shall not passe through the intermedial ; if he will never give us glory , he will never give us the increase of grace . If therefore we repent of our sins , and pray for pardon : if we confess them and forsake them : if we fear God and love him : if we find that our desires to please him do increase , that we are more watchful against sin , and hate it more : that we are thirsty after righteousnesse : if we find that we increase in duty , then we may look upon the tradition of the holy Sacramental Symbols as a direct consignation of pardon : not that it is them compleated ; for it is a work of time , it is as long in doing as repentance is in perfecting , it is the effect of that , depending on its cause in a perpetual operation ; but it is then working , and if we go on in duty , God will proceed to finish the methods of his grace , and snatch us from eternal death which we have deserved , and bring us unto glory . And this he is pleased by the Sacramental all the way to consigne : God speaks not more articulately in any voice from Heaven than in such real indications of his love and favour . 14. Lastly , since the Sacrament is the great solemnity of prayer , and imitation of Christs intercession in Heaven ; let us here be both charitable and religious in our prayers ; interceding for all states of men and women in the Christan Church ; and representing to God all the needs of our selves and of our Relatives . For then we pray with all the advantages of the spirit , when we pray in the faith of Christ crucified , in the love of God and of our neighbour , in the advantages of solemn piety , in the communion of Saints , in the imitation of Christs intercession , and in the union with Christ himself Spiritual and Sacramental ; and to such prayers as these nothing can be added , but that which will certainly come , that is , a blessed hearing and a gracious answer . SECT . III. Devotions preparatory to this Mystery . Ejaculations . I. 1. I Will praise thee with my whole heart ; before the Angels will I sing praise unto thee . 2. I will worship towards thy holy Temple , and praise thy Name for thy loving kindnesse and for thy truth ; for thou hast magnified above all thy name , the word of thy praise . 3. In the day when I call upon thee , thou shalt answer : and shalt multiply strength in my soul. 4. How precious are thy thoughts unto me O God : how great is the sum of them ! The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me : Thy mercy O Lord endureth for ever . 5. I wait for the Lord : my soul doth wait , and in his word do I hope . 6. My soul doth wait for the Lord more than they that keep the morning watches : that they may observe the time of offering the morning sacrifices . 7. O let my soul hope in the Lord ; for with the Lord there is mercy , and with him is plenteous redemption : he shall redeem his people from all iniquitie . II. 1. Our Lord is gentle and just : our God is merciful . 2. The Lord keepeth the simple : I was humbled , but the Lord looked after my redemption . 3. O my soul , return thou unto thy rest : because the Lord hath restored his good things unto thee . 4. He hath snatched my soul from death , mine eyes from tears , and my feet from falling : I will therefore walk before the Lord in the land of the living . 5. I have believed , therefore will I speak : in the assemblies of just men I will greatly praise the Lord. 6. What shall I return unto the Lord : all his retributions are repayed upon me . 7. I will bear the chalice of redemptions in the Kingdom of God : and in the name of the Lord I will call upon my God. III. 1. I will pay my vows unto the Lord : I will then shew forth his Sacraments unto all the people . 2. Honourable before the Lord is the death of his holy one : and thereby thou hast broken all my chains . 3. I have sworn , and I will perform it : that I will keep thy righteous judgments . 4. I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth : yea I will praise him among the multitude . 5. For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor : to save him from them that condemn his soul. 6. His work is honourable and glorious , and his righteousnesse remaineth for ever : He hath made his wonderful works to be remembred . 7. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion : he hath given meat unto them that fear him : he will ever be mindful of his covenant : he hath shewed his people the power of his works , blessed be God. The Prayers to be used in any day or time of preparation to the Holy Sacrament . I. O Thou shepherd of Israel , thou that feedest us like sheep ; thou makest us to lie down in pleasant pastures , and leadest us by the still waters running from the clefts of the rock , from the wounds of our Lord , from the fountains of salvation ; thou preparest a table for us , and anointest our heads with the unction from above , and our cup runneth over : let the blood of thy wounds , and the water of thy side , wash me clean , that I may with a pure clean soul come to eat of the purest sacrifice , the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world . II. THou givest thy self to be the food of our souls in the wonders of the Sacrament , in the faith of thy Word , in the blessings and graces of thy Spirit : Perform that in thy Servant , which thou hast prepared and effected in thy Son ; strengthen my infirmities , heal my sicknesses ; give me strength to subdue my passions , to mortifie my inordinations , to kill all my sin : increase thy Graces in my soul ; enkindle a bright devotion ; extinguish all the fires of hell , my lust and my pride , my envy , and all my spiritual wickednesses ; pardon all my sins , and fill me with thy Spirit , that by thy Spirit thou maist dwell in me , and by obedience and love I may dwell in thee , and live in the life of grace till it pas● on to glory and immensity , by the power and the blessings , by the passion and intercession of the Word incarnate ; whom I adore , and whom I love , and whom I will serve for ever and ever . III. O Mysterious God , ineffable and glorious Majesty ; what is this that thou hast done to the sons of men ? thou hast from thy bosom sent thy Son to take upon him our nature ; in him thou hast opened the fountains of thy mercy , and hast invited all penitent sinners to come to be pardoned , all the oppressed to be eased , all the sorrowful to be comforted , all the sick to be cured , all the hungry to be filled , and the thirsty to be refreshed with the waters of life , and sustained with the wine of elect souls ; admit me , O God , to this great effusion of loving kindness , that I may partake of the Lord Jesus , that by him I may be comforted in all my griefs , satisfied in all my doubts ; healed of all the wounds of my soul , and the bruises of my spirit ; and being filled with the bread of heaven , and armed with the strength of the Spirit ; I may begin , continue , and finish my journey thorow this valley of tears , unto my portion of thy heavenly kingdom , whither our Lord is gone before to prepare a place for every loving and obedient soul. Grant this , O Eternal God , for his sake who died for us , and intercedes for us , and gives himself daily to us , our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus . Amen . CHAP. II. Of our General Preparation to the worthy Reception of the Blessed Sacrament , and the participation of the Mysteries . IN all the Scriptures of the New Testament there are no words of particular duty relating to the Blessed Sacrament , and expressing the manner of our address to the Mysteries , but those few words of St. Paul , Let a man examine himself , and so let him eat . The Apostle expresses one duty , and intimates another . The duty of preparation is expressed : but because this is a relative duty , and is not for it self , but for something beyond , he implies the other to be the great duty to which this preparation does but minister . 1. A man must examine himself . 2. And a man must eat . A man must not eat of these Mysteries till he be examined ; for that were dangerous , and may prove fatal : but when a man is examined , he must eat ; for else that examinations were to no purpose . SECT . I. Of Examination of our selves in order to the Holy Communion . THere is no duty in Christianity that is partly solemn and partly moral , that hath in it more solemnity and more morality than this one duty ; and in the greatest declension of Religion , still men have fear when they come to receive this holy Sacrament . They that have no Religion will fear when they come to die ; and they who have but a little , will fear when they come to communicate . But although men who believe this to be the greatest secret and sacrednesse of our Religion , do more in their addresses to this than to any thing else , yet many of them that do come , consider that they are only commanded to examine themselves ; and that according to the ordinary methods is easily done . It is nothing but asking our selves a few questions : Do I believe ? Do I repent ? and am I in charity ? To these the answers are ready enough ; I do believe that Christ gave his body and blood for me , as for all mankind ; and that Christ is mystically present in the Sacrament : I have been taught so all my life , and I have no reason to doubt it . 2. I do also repent according to the measures I am taught : I am sorry I have sinned , I wish I had not done it ; and I promise to do so no more : and this I do constantly before every Communion ; and before the next comes I have reason enough to renew my vows ; I was never so good as my word yet , but now I will. 3. I am also in charity with all the World ; and against this good time , I pray to God to forgive them ; for I do . This is the usual examination of Consciences ; to which we add a fasting day , and on that we may say more prayers than usual ; and read some good discourses of the Sacrament ; and then we are dressed like the friends of the Bridegroom , and with confidence come to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. But this examination , hath it self need to be examined . Noah laboured a hundred years together in making the Ark that he and a few more might be saved : and can we think in an hour to prepare our souls for the entertainment of him that made all the World ? This will very hardly be done . For although our duty of preparation is contained in this one word , of [ Try , or Examine ] it being after the manner of mysteries , mysteriously and secretly described , yet there is great reason to believe that there is in it very much duty , and therefore we search into the secret of the word , and to what purposes it is used in the New-Testament . 1. It signifies to try and search , to enter into the depths and secrets , the varieties and separations and divisibilities of things . The word is taken from the tryers of Gold : which is tryed by the touch-stone ; and in great cases , is tryed by the fire . And in this sense St. Paul might relate to the present condition of the Christians , who were often under a fiery t●yal For the holy Communion being used by the Primitive Christians according to its intention , was indeed a great consolation to the Martyrs and Confessors , as appears often in St. Cyprian : and this blessing and design was mystically represented to the Church in the circumstance of the institution , in being done immediately before the passion : they who were to pass through this fiery tryal , ought to examine themselves against this solemnity in order to that last tryal , and see whether or no they were vessels of sanctification and honour ; for none else were fit to communicate but they also that were fit to die ; Christ would give himself to none but to them who are ready to give themselves for him ; according to that saying of Christ , * If any man hear my voice and open the door , I will come into him and sup with him and he with me . To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me &c. That is , those who are tryed by the experiments of a great love , and a great patience , that out of love are willing to suffer , and with patience do suffer unto the end ; these are the guests at my heavenly Table : for labour and affrightment put a price upon the Martyrs Crown , while his vertue grows in danger , and like the water-plants ever grow higher than the Floods . Now the use that we can make of this sense of the word is that we also are to examine what we are likely to be , or what we have been in the day of persecution ; how we have passed through the fire ? Did we contract the smel of fire , or the pollution of smoak ? or are we improved by the purification of the discerning flames ? Did we do our duties then , and then learn to do them better ? or did we then only like glasse , bend in all the flexures and mobilities of the flame , and then mingle with the ashes , incorporating with the interests and foulest pollutions of the world ? or were we like Gold , patient of the hammer , and approved by the stone of tryal ? like Gold in the fire , did we untwist our selves from all complications and mixtures with impurer drosse ? certain it is , that by persecution and by mony * men are in all capacities and relations best examined how they are in their Religion and their Justice . Sometimes God tries his friends as we try one another , by the infelicities of our lives ; when we are unhappy in our affliction , if we be not unhappy in our friend too , he is a right good one ; and God will esteem of us so , if we can say with David , though thou hast smitten us into the place of Dragons , yet have we not forgotten thee ; and my soul is alway in my hand , that is , I am alwayes in danger and trouble , and I bear death about me , yet do I not forsake thy Commandments . This indeed is Gods way of Examination of us ; but that 's all one ; for we must examine our selves here in order to our duty , and state of being , as God will examine us hereafter in order to what we have been and done . And there is no greater testimony of our being fit to receive Christ , than when we are ready to die for him . But this is a final trial : we must have some steps of progression before we come thus far . 2. There is a way something less than this ; Lycurgus instituted among the Spartans , that the Princes , the Magistrates , the Souldiers and every Citizen that was capable of dignity should be tryed ; They examined their lives whether they had lived according to the rate of their employment or pretensions ; and those who were so examined were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tryed and examined men ; and if they were persons quitting themselves like men , they were ascribed into the number of the good Citizens . That is our way , to try whether we be instructed and rightly prepared to this good work , and that is to be examined by a course and order of good works , that was the old and true way of examining . For examination is but a relative duty ; and nothing of it self , for no man is the better for being examined if being examined there follows nothing after it . He that is examined , either must be approved , or else in St. Pauls phrase he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a reprobate ; and to what purpose is it that every man should examine himself , but in case that he find himself unfit , to abstain and forbear to come : for if he comes unworthy he dies for it ; and therefore to Examine must signifie ; let every man examine himself so that he be approved ; and so the word is used by St. Paul , Happy is he that doth not condemn himself in that which be approveth : The word signifies both to examine and to approve that is indeed to examine as wise men should ; [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith Suidas ] it is all one as to judge righteous Judgment after due examination ; and that is expresly added by the Apostle , in the same Chapter , after the precept of examination , judge your selves that you be not judged of the Lord ; that is , your examination of your selves will prevent the horrours of the eternal scrutiny ; your condemnation of your sins will prevent Gods condemnation of you for them ; and then when you examine so as to judge , and so condemn your sins that you approve your selves to God and your own Consciences , then you have examined rightly . The sense then is this : Let a man examine and prove himself , whether he be fit to come to the holy Communion , and so let him eat : not so if upon examination he be found unfit : but because it is intended he should come , and yet must not come without due and just preparations , let him who comes to the holy Communion , be sure that he worthily prepare himself . These then are the great inquiries : 1. How a man shall so examine himself , as to know whether he be fit or no. 2. What are those necessary dispositions without which a man cannot be worthily prepared . The first will represent the general rules of preparation . The second inquiry will consider the more particular . SECT . II. Of the Examination of our desires . EVery one that comes to the holy Sacrament must have earnest affections and desires towards God and Religion , and particularly toward these Divine mysteries , and therefore he must examine accordingly whether or no he be willing and passionately desirous to do all his duty ? His saying that he is so , I do not suppose to be a sufficient satisfaction to a serious inquiry , unless he really feels himself to be so . For we find that all men pretend that they have earnest desires to be saved ; and very many espying the beauties of wisdom , the brightness of chastity , the health of temperance , the peace of meek persons , and the reputation an● joy of the charitable ; wish that they were such excellent persons . But they consider not , that it is the splendor , not the vertue ; the reputation , not the usefulness ; the reward , and not the duty that they are in love withal : our desires of holiness are too often like our desires of being cut of the stone , or suffering causticks or cupping-glasses , an unwilling willingness , a hard and a fatal necessity , and therefore something of a consequent choice ; since it can be no better , it must be no worse : but this can never make our duty pleasant , we can never be heartily reconciled to the things of God as long as we feel smart and pain in the ministeries of Religion : we suffer Religion , and endure the laws of God , but we love them not . He that comes to God whether he will or no , confesses the greatness of God and the demonstrations of Religion , but sees no amability and comeliness in it ; and shall find as little of the reward . It is true that force and fear may bring us in to God ; and the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom ; and Christ said , compel them to enter , and our natural needs , or our superinduced calamities may force us to run to God , and affright us into Religion as into a Sanctuary : but then if we enter at this door we must examine whether we be taken with the beauties of the interior house : does fear make us look , and does looking make us like ? if holy desires , and love be not in the beginning or the progression , we shall do the work of grace pittifully , and our preparations coldly , and our attentions distractedly , and receive the Sacraments without effect . Now concerning our desires , we shall best judge of them by the proper effects and significations of desire . Signes and Indications of the sincerity and heartinesse of our desires . Are his affections warm and earnest , inqu●sitive and longing , interrested and concern'd in the things of God ? I do not say it is necessary that he find those passions and degrees of fierceness , which passionate persons find in sensual objects . But yet it is very fit that we inquire concerning those degrees and excesses of desire ; not that he is unfit who finds them not ; but that they who have them , can also receive comfort in their inquiry , and become examples to others and invite them forwards by the arguments of amability which they feel . But our passions and desires are so to be inquired of ; that we find no rest in our souls concerning this question unless we do indeed set a high value upon these mysteries ; and love to partake of them * and desire them reasonably , and without very great cause not to omit the opportunities which the Church gives and requires us to use , and to exceed the lowest measure of the law , for he that onely communicates when he is commanded ; communicates in obedience but not in love , for though obedience to God is love ; yet our Obedience to man is most commonly fear ; at least we cannot so well be sure that we are passionate enough , and have love enough to these mysteries , when the law of men , that is , when something without is our measure . For Ecclesiastical laws have necessity most commonly for their limit ; and that is the least of all holy measures : lesse than their determination we cannot go and be innocent : but if we will make judgement concerning our love and our desires , we must frequent these holy mysteries by the measures and suggestion of something that is within , if it be love ; it will have no measures but it self , and nothing can give it limits but the circumstances of things themselves and the possibilities of our persons and affairs . 2. Besides this coming upon necessity , our desires are very much to be suspected , if compliance and custom or reputation be the ingredients , and prevail above any better motive that can be observed . As force makes hypocrites , so favour and secular advantages make flatterers in Religion , and when a Prince or a Ruler , a Master of a Family or any one that hath power to oblige , is heartily religious , Religion will quickly be in fashion . Those persons which come upon such inducements are by our blessed Saviour signified by the parable of the corn that fell by the high way , they presently receive it with joy , and it springs quickly if the sun shines , but when persecution comes they hang the head , and slack their pace , and appear seldome , and shew that they had no depth of root . These men serve God when Religion is rich and prosperous ; they come to Christ for the loaves ; but care but little for the mystery . As long as the Religion stayes at this port , it is good for nothing , and the very entry it self is suspicious , fear is better than this , but if it passe on to create an effective and material love , it will be well at last . 3. They that are easily diverted from communicating and apt to be excused from the solemnity , these men have just cause to suspect their desires to be too cold to kindle the fires upon this altar , and to consume this sacrifice , they have not love , and come against their will , some men are hindred by every thing ; if a stranger come to the house , if they be indisposed with a littlehead ach , if they have affairs of the world , if a neighbour be angry with them , if a merry meeting be appointed the day before ; this is a suspicious indifferency and lukewarmness . They that are not desirous to use all opportunities and to take all advantages , and long for all the benefits , want very much of that hunger and thirst after the righteousness of God which is fulfilled in those mysteries , and to which Christ hath promised such ample satisfaction . I do not say that every man is bound to communicate every time that he can have it , and that it is lukewarmness not to desire it so often as it is in our power , but he that refuses it , when it is in his opportunity , when his circumstances are fitted , when by the measures of piety and Religion it is decent and useful to him to do it , ( of which I shall afterwards give account ) that man is guilty of a criminal indifference , and when he does come , may fear that he hath not spiritual hunger enough for so divine a banquet . 4. They that in their preparation take the least measures that are practised or allowed , and rest there and increase not , have neither value for the Sacrament , nor desires of the blessing , nor expectations of any fruit ; and therefore cannot have this holy appetite in due proportion , because they see no sufficient moving cause ; and they look for little , and finde less , and therefore can never be true desirers : For he that thinks there is no great matter in it , will have no great stomach for it ; and he that will do no great matter for it , certainly expects no great excellency in it : and such are all they that take the least measures of preparation , who therefore shall find the least measures of blessing ; and in spiritual things that which is called positively the least , is just none at all ; he that shall be called least in the kingdom , shall be quite shut out . This is an indifferency both in the cause and in the effect : They feel no great blessings consequent to their reception , and therefore their aff●ctions are cold ; and because they are so , they shall for ever be without the blessing . 5. They only can be confident that their desires are right , who feel sharpnesses and zeal in their acts of love . For in spiritual things every abatement is by the mixture of the contrary ; and therefore when things are ind●fferent , we cannot tell which shall be accepted or accounted of ; and when there is as much evil as good , the evil is only abated , but the good is destroyed , and is not accepted : and therefore till the victory be clear and evident , we cannot have much comfort ; but the strong desire is only certain and comfortable to the spirit . Great desires are a great pain ; and the Spouse in the Canticles complains that she is sick of love , and then calls upon Christ to comfort her with flaggons of wine . Lesse desires than the greatest , if they be real and effective of the work , are fit for such persons as are not the greatest in Religion : but in all spiritual progressions we are sure that our desires shall never cease growing , till they be full of God , and are swell'd up to immensity ; and till they come to some greatnesse , that they are like hunger and thirst , or like the breasts of a fruitful Nurse , full and in pain till they be eased , we cannot be so confident that things are well with us in this particular . Are we in trouble till we converse with our Lord in all the ways of spiritual entercourse ? Do we rejoyce when a Communion day comes ? And is our joy fixed upon consideration of that holy necessity of doing good works at that time especially , and receiving the aids of Grace , and the helps of the Sacrament liberally ? When it is thus , it is well ; tha● we can be sure of : All measures of desire which are so little , that we can compare them to no natural similitude of earnestnesse and appetite , we can only say that they are yet very uncomfortable ; and if we come often and pray that we may have lively relish and appetite to the Mysteries , it may be well in time ; but as yet we cannot be sure that it is so . There is only in this case one help to our examination and our confidence : He that comes because God commands him , in a direct and certain obedience to the words of Christ , or in a deep sorrow for his sins , coming hither in hopes of remedy ; or in a great apprehension of his infirmity , addressing himself hither for support and strength ; this man , although he feels no sensual punctures and natural sharpnesses of desire , yet he comes well , and upon a right principle : For St. Austin reckoning what predisposition is necessary by way of preparation to the holy Sacrament , reckons hunger , and the sense of our sins and our infirmities ; but if he wants the pleasure of these passionate indications , he must be careful that he be sure in the intellectual and religious choice ; for that is the thing which is intended to be signified by all the exterior passions : but when he hath no sign , he must be the more careful he have the thing signified , and then all is right again . But happy is that soul which comes to these springs of salvation as the Hart to the water brooks , panting and thirsty , longing and passionate , weary of sin , and hating vanity , and reaching out the heart and hands to Christ ; and this we are taught by the same Mystery represented under other Sacraments ; the waters of the spiritual Rock of which our fathers drank in the wilderness ; the Rock was Christ , and those waters were his blood in Sacrament : and with the same appetite they drank those Sacramental waters withal , we are to receive these divine Mysteries Evangelical . Now let us by the aids of memory and fancy consider the children of Israel in the wildernesse , in a barren and dry land where no water was , marching in dust and fire , not wet with the dew of heaven , wholly without moisture save only what dropt from their own brows : the air was fire , and the vermin was fire ; the flying serpents were of the same cognation with the firmament , their sting was a flame , their venome was a fever , and the fever a calenture , and their whole state of abode and travel was a little image of the day of judgment , when the elements shall melt with fervent heat : These men like Salamanders walking in fire , dry with heat , and scorched with thirst , and made yet more thirsty by calling upon God for water ; suppose , I say , these thirsty souls hearing Moses to promise that he will smite the Rock , and that a River should break forth from thence ; observe how presently they ran to the foot of the springing stone , thrusting forth their heads and tongues to meet the water , impatient of delay , crying out that the water did not move like light , all at once : and then suppose the pleasure of their drink , the unsatiableness of their desire , the immensity of their appetite ; they took in as much as they could , and they desired much more . This was their Sacrament of the same Mystery , and this was their manner of receiving it ; and this teaches us to come to the same Christ with the same desires : For if that water was a type of our Sacrament , or a Sacrament of the same secret blessing , then that thirst is a signification of our duty , that we come to receive Christ in all the ways of reception with longing appetites , preferring him before all the interests in the world , as birds do corn above jewels , or hungry men meat before long orations . For it is worth observing , that there being in the Old Testament thirteen Types and Umbrages of this holy Sacrament , eleven of them are of meat and drink : such are * the tree of life in the midst of Paradice , * the bread and wine of Melchisedeck , * the fine meal that Sarah kneaded for the Angels entertainment , * the Manna , * and the roasted paschal Lamb (a) , * the springing Rock , * and the bread of proposition to be eaten by the Priests , * the barley cake in the host of Midian , * Sampsons Fathers oblation upon the rock , * the honey-comb that opened the eyes of Jonathan , * and the bread which the Angel brought to Elijah , in the strength of which he was to live fourty days : all this to shew , that the Sacrament is the life of the spiritual man , and the food of his soul , the light of his eyes , and the streng●h of his heart ; and not only all this , and very much more of this nature , but to represent our duty also , and the great principle of preparation : Meat is the object and hunger is the address . The wine is the wine of Angels ; but if you desire it not , what should you do with it ? for the wine that is not to satisfie your need , can do nothing but first minister to vanity , and then to vice ; first to wantonness , and then to drunkenness . St. Austin expressing the affections of his Mother Monica to the Blessed Sacrament , says , that her soul was by the ligatures of faith united so firmly to the Sacrifice which is dispensed in the Lords Supper , that a Lion or a Dragon could not drag her away from thence , and it was said of St. Katherine , that she went to the Sacraments as a sucking infant to his mothers breasts : and this similitude St. Chrisostom presses elegantly , [ See you not with what pretty earnestnesse and alacrity infants match their nurses breast ? how they thrust their lips into the flesh ( like the sting of a Bee. ) Let us approach to this Table with no lesse desire , and with no lesse suck the nipple of the holy Calice ; yet with greater desire let us suck the grace of the holy Spirit . ] And it is reported that our Blessed Lord taught St. Mechtildis , When you are to receive the holy Communion , desire and wish to the praise of my Name to have all desire and all love that ever was kindled in any heart towards me , and so come to me ; for so will I inflame , and so will I accept thy love , not as it is , but as thou desirest it should be in thee . Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden saith Christ : that is , they that groan under the burden of their sins , and feel the load of their infirmities , and desire pardon and remedy ; they that love the instruments of grace as they are channels of Salvation : they that come to the Sacrament out of earnest desires to receive the blessings of Christ's death and of his intercession , these are the welcome guests : for so saith God , Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it , for he hath filled the hungry with good things : said the holy Virgin Mother , for Christ is food and refreshment to none else : for the full he hath sent empty away . If therefore you understand your danger , and deeply resent the evil of your infirmities and sinful state ; if you confesse your selves miserable and have all corresponding apprehensions ; if ye long for remedy and would have it upon any termes ; if you be hungry at your very heart , and would fain have food and Phys●ck , health and spiritual advantages : if you understand what you need , and desire what you understand ; if these desires be as great as they are reasonable , and as lasting as they are great ; if they be as inquisitive as they are lasting , and as operative as they are inquisitive ; that is , if they be just and reasonable pursuances of the means of grace ; if they carry you by fresh and active appetites to the communion ; and that this may be to purpose ; if they fix you upon such methods as will make the Communion effect that which God designed and which we need , then we shall perceive the blessings and fruits of our holy desires : according to those words of David ( as it is rendered in the vulgar Latin ) the Lord hath heard the desire of the poor ; and his ear hath hearkned to the preparation of their heart . An earnest desire is a good preparation , and God will attend unto it . Concerning this therefore we are first to examine our selves . Upon the account of our earnest desires , it is seasonable to inquire , whether to communicate frequently be an instance of that holy desire which we ought to have to these sacred Mysteries ? and whether all men be bound to communicate frequently , and what measure is the safest and best in this inquiry ? But because the answer to this depends upon some other propositions of differing matter ; I reserve it to its proper place , where it will be a consequent of those propositions . SECT . III. Of our Examination concerning Remanent Affections to Sin. HE that desires communicate worthily , must examine himself whether there be not in him any aff●ction to sin remaining . This examination is not any part of repentance , but a trial of it ; for of preparatory repentance I shall give larger accounts in its own place : but now we are to try whether that duty be done , that if it be we may come ; if not , we may be remanded , and go away till we have performed it : For he that comes must have repented first ; but now he is to be examined whether he have or no done that work so materially , that it is also prosperously ; that is , whether he have done it not only solemnly and ritually , but effectively ; whether he have so washed , that he is indeed clean from any soul and polluting principle . When the Heathens offered a Sacrifice to their false gods , they would make a severe search to see if there were any crookednesse or spot , any uncleannesse or deformity in their Sacrifice . The Priest was wont to handle the liver , and search the throbbing he●rt ; he inquires if the blood springs right , and if the lungs be sound ; he thrusts his hand into the region of the lower belly , and looks i●●here be an ulcer , or a schirrus , a stone , or a bed of gravel : Now the observation which Tertullian makes upon these Sacrifical Rites is pertinent to this rule . When your impure Pri●sts look after a pure Sacrifice , why do they not rather inquire into their own heart , than into the lambs appurtenance ? why do they not ask after the lust of the Sacrifice●s , more than the little spot upon the bulls liver ? The rites of Sacrifices were but the monitions of duty ; and the Priests inquiry into the puri●y of the beast was but a precept represented in ceremony and hieroglyphick , commanding us to take care that the man be not lesse pure and perfect than the beast . For if an unclean man brings a clean Sacrifice , the sacrifice shall not cleanse the man , but the man will pollute the Sacrifice ; let them bring to God a soul pure and spotless , lest when God espying a soul humbly lying before the Altar , and finding it to be polluted with a remaining filthinesse , or the reproaches of a sin , he turns away his head and hates the Sacrifice . And God who taught the Sons of Israel in figures and shadows , and required of the Levitical Priests to come to God clean and whole , straight , and with perfect bodies , meant to tell us , that this bodily precept in a carnal Law , does in a spiritual Religion signifie a spiritual purity . For God is never called a lover of bodies , but the great lover of souls ; and he that comes to redeem our souls from sin and death , from shame and reproach , would have our souls brought to him as he loves them ; An unclean soul is a deformity in the eyes of God ; it is indeed spiritually discerned , but God hath no other eyes but what are spirits and flames of fire . Here therefore it concerns us to examine our selves strictly and severely , always remembring , that to examine our selves ( as it is here intended ) is not a duty compleated by examining ; for this carries us on to the Sacrament , or returns us to the mortifications of repentance . But sometimes our sins are so notorious , that they go before unto judgment and condemnation , and they need no examining : and whatsoever is not done against our wills , cannot be besides our knowledg , and so cannot need examination , but remembring only ; and therefore I do not call upon the drunkard to examine himself concerning temperance , or the wanton concerning his uncleanness , or the oppressor concerning his cruel covetousness , or the customary swearer concerning his profaneness . No man needs much inquiry to know whether a man be alive or dead when he hath lost a vital part . But this caution is given to the returning sinner , to the repenting man , to him that weeps for his sins , and leaves what was the shame of his face and the reproach of his heart . For we are quickly apt to think we are washed enough ; and having remembred our shameful falls , we groan in method , and weep at certain times ; we bid our selves be sorrowful , and tune our heart-strings to the accent and key of the present solemnity ; and as sorrow enters in dresse and imagery when we bid her , so she goes away when the scene is done . Here , here it is that we are to examine whether shows do make a real change ; whether shadows can be substances , and whether to begin a good work splendidly can effect all the purposes of its designation . Have you wept for your sin so that you were indeed sorrowful and afflicted in your spirit ? Are you so sorrowful that you hate it ? Do you so hate it that you have left it ? And have you so left it that you have left it all , and will you do so for ever ? These are particulars worth the inquiring after . How then shall we know ? Signs by which we may examine and tell whether our affections to sin remain . 1. Because in examining our selves concerning this , we can never be sure but by the event of things , and the heart being deceitful above all things , we secretly love what we professe to hate , we deny our lovers , and desire they should still press us , we command away the sin from our presence , for which we dy if it stayes away ; therefore while we are in this prepartaory duty of examination , the best sign whereby we can reasonably suppose all affection to sin to be gone away , is if we really believe that we shall never any more commit that sin to which we are most tempted , and most inclined , and by which we most frequently fall . Here is a copious matter for examination . 2. When thou doest examine thy self , thou canst not but remember how often thou hast sinned by wantonnesse , perhaps , or by intemperance ; but now thou sayest thou wilt do so no more . If thou hadst never said so and failed , it might have been likely enough ; but the Sun does not rise and set so often as thou hast sinned and broken all thy holy vows : and thy resolution to put away thy sin is but like Amnon thrusting out his sister after he had enjoyed her and was weary : Sin looks ugly after it hath been handled ; and thou having lost thy innocence and thy peace for nothing but the exchange of shame and indignation , thou art vexed , peevish , and unsatisfied , and then thou resolvest thou wilt sin no more . But thou wilt find this to be no great matter , but a great deception ; for thou only desirest it not , because for the present the appetite is gone ; thou hast no fondness for it , because the pleasure is gone ; and like him who having scratched the skin till the blood comes , to satisfie a disease of pleasure and uncleannesse , feeling the smart thou resolvest to scratch no more . 3. But consider I pray and examine better ; is the disease cured because the skin is broken ? will the appetite return no more ? and canst not thou again be tempted ? is it not likely that the sin will look prettily , and talk flattering words , and entice thee with softnesses and easie fallacies ? and wilt not thou then lay thy foolish head upon the lap of the Philistian damsel , and sleep till thy locks be cut , and all thy strength is gone ? wilt not thou forget thy shame and thy repentance , thy sick stomach and thy aking-head , thy troubled conscience and thy holy vows , when thy friend calls thee to go and sin with him , to walk aside with him into the regions of foolish mirth and an unperceived death ? Place thy self by consideration and imaginative representment in the circumstances of thy former temptation ; and consider when thou canst be made to desire , and art invited to desire , and naturally doest desire , can thy resolution hold out against such a battery : 4. In order to this ; examine whether there be in thee any good principle stronger than all the Arguments and flatteries of thy sin ? but above all things , examine whether there be not in thee this principle , that if thou dost sin again in great temptation , that thou wilt and mayest repent again ? Take heed of that : for it is certain , no man lives in the regions of temptation , to whom sin can seem pleasant , but he will fall when the temptation comes strongly , if he have this principle within him , that though he do commit that sin , he may and will repent : for then sin hath got a Paranymph and a sollicitor , a warrant and an advocate ; if you think that you can so order it , that you shall be as sure of heaven , though you do this sin as though you do it not , you can have no security ; your resolutions are but glass ; they may look like diamonds to an undescerning eye , but they will last no longer then till the next rude temptation falls upon them . 5. Examine yet further : is your case so , that you have no reserves of cases in which your sin shall prevail ? you resolve to leave the partner of your follies , and you go from her lest you be tempted ? It is well ; it is very well : but is not your heart false as water ; and if you should see her again , do you not perceive that your resolution hath brought you to a little shame , because it will upbraid thy falshood and inconstancy ? you resolve against all intemperate anger , and you deny the importunity of many trifling occurrencies : but consider ; if you be provoked , and if you be despised , can your flesh and blood endure it then ? It may be Calpurnius or Tocca shall not perswade thee to go to the baths of Lucrinus ; but if Mecoenas calls thee , or the Consul desires thy company , thou canst resist no longer . Thou didst play the fool with poor Calenia , and thou art troubled at thy folly ; and art ashamed when thou doest remember how often thou wentest into the Summoenium and peeped into the titles of those unhappy women whose bodies were the price of a Roman penny : but art thou so severe and chast that thou wilt die rather than serve the imperious lust of Julia ? or wilt thou never be scorched with the flames of Corinna's beauty ? It is nothing to despise a cheap sin and a common temptation ; but art thou strong enough to overcome the strongest argument that thy sin hath ? Examine thy self here wisely and severely . It is not thy part saying , I will sin no more . He that hath new dined can easily resolve to fast at night : but when thou art hungry , and invited , and there is rare meat on the table , and thy company stayes for thee and importunes thee , canst thou then go on with thy fasting day ? if thou canst , it is as it should be : but let not thy resolution be judged by short sayings : but first by great considerations , and then by proportionable events . If neither the biggest temptation , nor thy trifling hopes , nor thy foolish principles , nor weak propositions can betray thee , then thou mayest with reason say that you have no affection so strong as the love of God , no passion so great as thy repentance , no pleasure equal to that of an holy conscience , and then thou mayest reasonably believe that there is in thee no affection to sin remaining . But something more is to be added . 6. In the examination of this particular ; take no accounts of your self by the present circumstances , and by your thoughts and resolutions in the dayes of Religion and solemnity : but examine how it is with you in the dayes of ordinary conversation , and in the circumstances of secular imployments . For it is with us in our preparations to the holy Communion , as it is with women that sit to have their pictures drawn : they make themselves brave and adorned and put on circumstances of beauty to represent themselves to their friends and to their posterity with all the advantages of art and dressing . But he that loves his friends picture because it is like her , and desires to see in image what he had in dayly conversation , would willingly see her in picture as hee sees her every day ; and that is most like her , not which resembles her in extraordinary , and by the sophistrie of dressing , but as she looked when she went about in the government of her family . So must we look upon our selves in the dresses of every day in the week ; and not take accounts of our selves as we trick up our souls against a communion day . For he that puts on fine cloaths for one day or two , must not suppose himself to be that Prince which he only personates . We dresse our selves upon a day of Religion ; and then we cannot endure to think of sin ; and if we do we sigh , and when we sigh , we pray , and suppose that if we might die upon that day , it would be a good dayes work ; for we could not die in a better time . But let us not deceive our selves . That is our picture that is like us every day in the week : and if you are as just in your buying and selling , as you are when you are saying your prayers ; if you are as chast in your conversation , as you are in your religious retirement ; if your temperance be the same every day , as it is in your thoughts upon a fasting day ; if you wear the same habits of virtue every day in the week , as you put on upon a Communion day , you have more reason to think your selves prepared , than by all the extempore piety and solemn Religion that rises at the sound of a Bell , and keeps her time by the Calendar of the Church , more than by the laws of God. This is not so to be understood as if it were not fit that against a solemn time and against a communion day , our souls should be more adorned , and our lamps better dressed , and our lights snuffed , and our Religion more active , and the habits of grace should exercise more acts : But this is meant only ; that though the acts of virtue are not so frequent on ordinary dayes , yet there must be no act of vice upon them at all ; and the habits of grace must be the same , and the inclinations regular , and the disposition ready , and the desires prest : and you shall better know the estate of your soul by examining how you converse with your Merchant , than by considering how cautiously you converse with your Priest. He that talks to a Prince will talk as wisely as he can , but if you will know what the man is , inquire after him in his house , and how he is with all his relations . For no man stands upon his Guard alwayes , as he does sometimes . If therefore , upon examining you would understand what you are , examine your self ; not by your cloaths , but by your body ; not by the extraordinaries of a solemn religion , but by the ordinaries of a daily conversation . These are the best Signs I can tell of ; but they are to be made use of , with the following cautions . 1. Although in trying whether your resolutions are likely to hold , and your affections to sin are gone , you must not rely upon words , but place your self in the scene and circumstances of your temptation , and try whether you be likely to hold out when sin comes with all the offers of advantage ; yet be carefull that this examination of your own strength against temptation become not a temptation to you , and this is especially to be attended to in the matter of lust and fear . For the very imaginations of a lustfull object are of themselves a direct temptation ; and he that dresses his fancie with remembrances of this vanitie , opens a door to let the sin in . Murenia's little boy being afraid of the wolf at the door , opened the door to see if he were gone , and let the beast in : and since the fancy is the proper scene of lust , he that brings the temptation there , brings it where it can best prevail . Therefore in our examination concerning this evil , and whether we be likely to stand in this war , we are to examine our selves only , whether we are perfectly resolved to fly and not to fight , that is , whether we will secure our selves by the proper arts of the spirit of prudence : for if any thing can make us come neer this Devil , we are lost without remedy . The temptations in the matter of fear are something like it , if you will examine whether you love God so well that you would dye for him , inquire as well and wisely as you can , but be not too particular . Satisfie your self with a general answer , and rest in this , if you finde that the apprehension of death is not so great as the apprehension of sin ; if you pray against fear , and heap up arguments to confirm your courage and your hope , if you finde that you despise those instances of persecution that you meet with ; for the rest , believe in God , who it may be will not give strengths before you need them ; and therefore be satisfied with thus much , that your present strength is sufficient for any present trial ; and when a greater comes , God hath promised to give you more strength when you shall have need of more . But examine your self by what is likely to fall upon you actually . It may be you have cause to fear that you shall be made poor for a good conscience , or imprisoned for your duty , or banished for religion , consider if you love God so well that you are likely to suffer that , which is likely to happen to you ; but do not dress your examination with rare contingencies and unlikely accidents , and impossible cases . Do not ask your self whether you would endure the rack for God , or the application of burning Basons to your eyes , or the torment of a slow fire , or whether you had rather go to hell than commit a sin ; this is too phantastick a trial ; and when God ( it may be ) knowing your weakness , will never put you to it really , do not you tempt your self by fancy , and an afflictive representment . Domitian was a cruel man , false and bloody ; and to be neer him was a perpetual danger : enough to try the constancy of the bravest Roman . But once that he might be wanton in his cruelty ; he invited the chiefest of the Patricii to Supper ; who coming in obedience and fear enough , entred into a Court all hanged with blacks , and from thence were conducted into dining rooms by the Pollinctors , who used to dress the bodies unto Funerals : the lights of heaven ( we may suppose ) were quite shut out by the approaching night and arts of obscurity ; when they were in those charnel houses ( for so they seemed ) every one was placed in order , a black Pillar or Coffin set by him , and in it a dim taper besmeared with brimstone that it might burn faint , and blew , and solemn ; where when they had stood a while like designed sacrifices , or as if the Prince were sending them on solemn Embassie to his brother the Prince of Darkness ; on a sudden entred so many naked Black-Moors , or Children besmear'd with the horrid juice of the sepia , who having danced a little in phantastick and Devils postures , retired a while , and then returned serving up a banquet as at solemn funerals ; and Wine brought to them in Urnes instead of Goblets ; with deepest silence , now and then interrupted with fearful groans and shriekings . Here the Senators , who possibly could have strugled with the abstracted thoughts of death , seeing it dressed in all the fearful imagerie and Ceremonies of the grave ; had no powers of Philosophy or Roman courage ; but falling into a lipothymie or deep swooning , made up this pageantry of death with a representing of it unto the life . This scene of sorrows was over-acted , and it was a witty cruelty to kill a wise man , by making him too imaginative and phantastical . It is not good to break a staffe by too much trying the strength of it , or to undo a mans soul by a useless and so phantastick a temptation . For he that tries himself further than he hath need of , is like Palaemons shepherd , who fearing the foot-bridge was not strong enough to try it , loaded it so long , till by his unequal trial he broke that which would have born a bigger burden than he had to carry over it . Some things will better suffer a long usage , than an unequal trial . 2. When any man hath by the former measures examined himself , how his affections do stand to sin and folly , by whatsoever signs he is usually made confident ; let him be sure to make abatements of his confidence , if he have found that he hath failed already in despight of all his Arts , and all his purposes . If we have often fallen back from our resolutions , there is then no sign left for us but the thing signified : nothing can tell us how our affections are , but by observing what they do . For he that hath broken his word with me , when it was in his power to keep it ; hath destroyed my confidence in him : but if he hath deceived me twice or thrice in the same thing ; for shame and prudence sake I will venture no more , if I can be disobliged . If we therefore have fail'd of our promises to God so many times , that we can speak nothing reasonably of our proceedings , nor imagine what thoughts God hath concerning us , but the hardest and the worst ; though we have great reason to rejoyce in Gods long suffering and infinite patience , yet by any signs which can be given we have no reason to trust our selves . ●or if we shall now examine ; we can tell no more than we could do before , we were alwayes deceived in our conjectures and pretences ; and it is more likely now ; because sin hath so long prevailed ; and by our frequent relapses we must at least learn this truth , that our hearts are false , and our promises are not to be trusted . In this case , no testimony is credible but an eye witnesse . Therefore let us leave all artificial examinations and betake our selves to the solid and material practices of a religious life . We must do something really , before we can by inquiring tell how it is with us . When we have resolved , and in some measure performed our resolution ; when we have stood the shock of a temptation and found our heart firm as in a day of religion ; when we perceive sin to be weaker , and the kingdom of grace to grow in power ; when we feel that all our holy vows are more than words , and that we are not the same easie fools , alwayes giving God good words but never performing them ; but that now we have set our foot upon the enemy , and are not infallibly carried away when our temptation comes ; then we may inquire further , and look after the former signes and indications of spiritual life , and the just measures of preparation . Till then let us not trouble our selves with the particulars of spiritual arts and the artificial methods of religion ; for things are not so well with us as we suppose . SECT . IV. Of Examination of our selves in the matter of our Prayers in order to a Holy Communion . THe Holy Sacrament is in its nature and design a solemn prayer , and the imitation of the intercession which our glorious High Priest continually makes for us in heaven ; and as it is our ministery , and contains our duty , it is nothing else but the solemnity and great oeconomy of prayer , for the whole , and for every member , and for all and every particular necessity of the Church ; and all the whole conjugation of Offices , and union of hearts , and conjunction of Ministers , is nothing but the advantages , and solemnity , and sanctification of Prayer ; and therefore in order to do this work in solemnity as we ought , it were fit that we examine our selves how we do it in ordinary and daily offices . For since there are so many excellent promises made to Prayer , and that nothing more disposes us to receive the grace of the Sacraments , and the blessings of Communion , than holy Prayer ; since Prayer can obtain every thing , it can open the windows of heaven , and shut the gates of hell ; it can put a holy constraint upon God , and detain an Angel till he leave a blessing ; it can open the treasures of rain , and soften the iron ribs of rocks , till they melt into tears and a flowing river : Prayer can unclasp the girdles of the North , saying to a Mountain of Ice , Be thou removed hence , and cast into the bottom of the Sea ; it can arrest the Sun in the midst of his course , and send the swift winged winds upon our errand ; and all those strange things , and secret decrees , and unrevealed transactions which are above the clouds , and far beyond the regions of the stars , shall combine in ministery and advantages for the praying man : It cannot be but we should feel less evil , and much more good than we do , if our Prayers were right . But the state of things is thus : It is an easie duty , and there are many promises , and we do it often , and yet we prevail but little . Is it not a strange thing , that our friends die round about us , and in every family some great evil often happens , and a Church shall suffer persecution for many years together without remedy , and a poor man groans under his oppressor , who is still prosperous , and we cannot rescue the life of a servant from his fatal grave ; and still we pray , and do not change the course of providence in a single instance many times , whether the instance be of little or of great concernment : what is the matter ? we patiently suffer our prayers to be rejected , and comfort our selves by saying , that it may be the thing is not fit for us , it is against the decree of God , or against our good , or to be denied is better ; and there is a secret order of thing● and events , to which a denial does better minister than a concession . This is very true , but not always when we are denied ; for it is not always in mercy , but in anger very often we are denied , because our duty is ill performed : For if our Prayers were right , the Providence of God would often find out ways to reconcile his great ends with our great desires ; and we might be saved hereafter , and yet delivered here besides ; and sometimes we should have heaven and prosperity too , and the crosse should be sweetned , and the days of affliction should for our sakes be shortned , and death would not come so hastily , and yet we should be preserved innocent in the midst of an evil generation , though it waited for the periods and usual determinations of nature : Let us rectifie our Prayers , and try what the event will be ; it is worth so much at least ; but however , as to the present case , if we perform this duty pitifully and culpably , it is not to be expected we should communicate holily . The gradation and correspondencies of this holy ministry will demonstrate this truth . For what Christ did once upon the Crosse in real Sacrifice , that he always does in heaven by perpetual representment and intercession ; what Christ does by his supream Priest-hood , that the Church doth by her ministerial ; what he does in heaven , we do upon earth ; what is performed at the right hand of God , is also represented and in one manner exhibited upon the holy Table of the Lord : and what is done on Altars upon solemn days , is done in our Closets in our daily offices ; that is , God is invocated , and God is appeas'd , and God is reconciled , and God gives us blessings and the fruits of Christs passion in the vertue of the sacrificed Lamb ; that is , we believing and praying , are blessed and sanctified and saved through Jesus Christ. So that as we pray so we communicate : if we pray well , we may communicate well , else at no hand . Now in this , besides that we are to take account of our Prayers by all those measures of the Spirit which we have learned in the holy Scriptures , there are two great lines of duty by which we can well examine our selves in this particular . 1. That our Prayers must be the work of our hearts , not of our lips ; that is , that we heartily desire what we so carefully pray for : and God knows this is not very ordinary . For besides that we are not in love with the things of God , and have no worthy value for Religion , there are many things in our Prayer which we ask for , and do not know what to do with if we had them , and we do not feel any want of them , and we care not whether we have them or no. We ask for the Spirit of God , for Wisdom , and for a right Judgment in all things ; and yet there are not many in our Christian Assemblies who use to trouble themselves at all with judging concerning the Mysteries of Godlinesse . Men pray for humility , and yet at the same time think that all that which is indeed humility , is a pitiful poornesse of spirit , pusilanimity , and want of good breeding . We pray for contrition and a broken heart ; and yet if we chance to be melancholy we long to be comforted , and think that the Lectures of the Crosse bring Death , and therefore are not the way of Eternal Life . We pray sometimes that God may be first and last in all our thoughts ; and yet we conceive it no great matter whether he be or no ; but we are sure that he is not , but the things of the world do take up the place of God ; and yet we hope to be saved for all that , and consequently are very indifferent concerning the return of that Prayer . We frequently call upon God for his grace , that we may never fall into sin ; now in this , besides that we have no hopes to be heard , and think it impossible to arrive to a state of life in which we shall not commit sins , yet if we do sin , we know there is a remedy so ready , that we believe we are not much the worse if we do . Here are prayers enough , but where are the desires all this while ? We pray against covetousnesse , and pride , and gluttony ; but nothing that we do but is either covetousnesse or pride ; so that our Prayers are terminated upon a word , not upon a thing . We do covetous actions , and speak proud words , and have high thoughts , and do not passionately desire to have affections contrary to them , but only to such notions of the sin as we have entertained , which are such as will do no real prejudice or mortification to the sin : and whatever our Prayers are , yet it is certain our desires are so little , and so content with any thing of this nature , that for very many spiritual petitions we are indifferent whether they be granted or not . But if we are poor or persecuted , if we be in fear or danger , if we be heart-sick or afflicted with an uncertain soul , then we are true desirers of relief and mercy ; we long for health , and desire earnestly to be safe ; our hearts are pinch'd with the desire , and the sharpnesse of the appetite is a pain ; then we pray , and mind what we do . * He that is in fear of death , does not when he prays for life think upon his money and his sheep ; the entring of a fair woman into the room does not bend his neck , and make him look off from the Princes face of whom he sues for pardon . And if we had desires as strong as our needs , and apprehensions answerable to our duty , it were not possible that a man should say his prayers and never think of what he speaks : but as our attention is , so is our desire , trifling and impertinent ; it is frighted away like a bird , which fears as much when you come to give it meat , as if you came with a design of death . When therefore you are to give sentence concerning your Prayers , your ●rayer-book is the least thing that is to be examined ; your Desires are the principal , for they are fountains both of action and passion . Desire what you pray for ; for certain it is , you will pray passionately if you desire ferven●ly . Prayers are but the body of the bird ; Desires are its Angels wings . 2. If you will know how it is with you in the matter of your Prayers , examine whether or no the form of your Prayer be the rule of your life . Every Petition to God is a Precept to man ; and when in your Litanies you pray to be delivered from malice and hypocrisie , from pride and envy , from fornication and every deadly sin ; all this is but a line of duty , and tells us that we must never consent to an act of pride , or a thought of envy , to a temptation of uncleannesse , or the besmearings and evil paintings of hypocrisie . * But we when we pray against a sin think we have done enough ; and if we ask for a grace , suppose there is no more required . Now Prayer is an instrument of help , a procuring auxilliaries of God , that we may do our duty ; and why should we ask for help , if we be not our selves bound to do the thing ? Look not therefore upon your prayers as a short method of ease and salvation , but as a perpetual monition of duty ; and by what we require of God , we see what he requires of us ; and if you want a system or collective body of holy precepts , you need no more but your prayer book ; and if you look upon them first as duties , then as prayers , that is things fit to be desired , and fit to be laboured for , your prayers will be much more usefull ; not so often vain , nor so subject to illusion , not so destitute of effect , or so failing of the promises . The prayers of a Christian must be like the devotions of the husbandman . God speed the plough , that is , labour and prayer together ; a prayer to bless our labour . Thus then we must examine . Is desire the measure of our prayer ? and is labour the fruit of our desire ? if so ; then what we ask we shall receive as the gift of God and the reward of our labour ; but unless this be the state of o●r prayer , we shall finde that the receiving of the Sacrament will be as ineffective because it will be as imperfect as our prayer . For prayer and Communion differ but as great and little in the same kinde of duty . Communion is but a great , publick and solemn addresse and prayer to God through Jesus Christ : and if we be not faithful in a little we shall not be intrusted in a greater ; he that does not pray holily and prosperously , can never communicate acceptably . This therefore must be severely and prudently examined . But let us remember this ; that there is nothing fit to be presented to God but what is great and ●xcellent ; for nothing comes from him but what is great and best ; and nothing should be returned to him that is little and contemptible in its kinde . It is a mysterious elegancie that is in the Hebrew of the Old Testament ; when the Spirit of God would call any thing very great , or very excellent , he calls it [ of the Lord ] ; so the affrightment of the Lord ; that is , a great affrightment fell upon them ; and the fearful fire that fell upon the shepherds and sheep of Job is called the fire of God : and when David took the speare and water-pot from the head of Saul while he and his guards were sleeping , it is said , that the sleep of the Lord , that is , a very great sleep was fallen upon them . Thus we read of the flames of God , and a land of the darknesse of God , that is , vehement flames , and a land of exceeding darknesse : and the reason is , because when God strikes , he strikes vehemently , so that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God : And on the other side , when he blesses he blesses excellently ; and therefore when Naomie blessed Boaz , she said , Let him be blessed of the Lord , that is , according to the Hebrew manner of speaking , Let him be exceedingly blessed . In proportion to all this , whatsoever is offered to God should be of the best ; it should be a devout Prayer , a fervent , humble , passionate supplication . He that prays otherwise , must expect the curses and contempt of his lukewarmness , and will be infinitely unworthy to come to the holy Communion , whether they that come intend to present their Prayers to God in the union of Christs intercession , which is then solemnly imitated and represented . An indevout Prayer can never be joined with Christs Prayers . Fire will easily combine with fire , and flame marries flame ; but a cold devotion and the fire of this Altar can never be friendly and unite in one pyramid to ascend together to the regions of God and the Element of love . If it be a prayer of God , that is , fit to be intitled , fit to be presented unto him , it must be most vehement and holy . The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man , only can be confident to prevail ; nothing else can ever be sanctified by a conjunction with this sacrifice of prayer , which must be consumed by a heavenly fire . There is not indeed any greater indication of our worthiness or unworthiness to receive the holy Communion than to examine and understand the state of our daily prayer . SECT . V. Of preparatory examination of our selves in some other instances . HE that comes to the holy Communion must examine himself concerning his passions ; whether that which usually transports him to undecency and shame , to sin and folly , be brought under the dominion of grace , under the command of reason , under the Empire of the spirit . For the passions of the soul are the violences and storms of reason , neither reason nor grace can be heard to speak when they are loud ; and in vain it is that you tell a passionate person of the interests of wisdom and Religion . We see it in fools who have no allay of reason ; their anger is rage , their jealousie is madness , their desires are ravenous , their loves are troublesome and unseasonable , their hopes are groundless but ever confident , their fears are by chance , but alwayes without measure : and a fool when his belly is full may as soon be perswaded into temperate discourses , as he that is passionate , to be obedient to God and to the rules of his own felicity . A great fear and a constant vertue are seldom found in one man ; and a coward is vertuous by chance , and so song as he is let alone ; but unless the fear of God be greater than the fear of man , it is in the power of his enemy whether that man shall be happy or wise . And so it is in a great or easie anger ; every man and every thing can put a peevish person out of his Religion . It cannot in these and all the like cases be well , unless by examining we find that our spirit is more meek , our passion easier overcome , and the paroxysms or fits return lesse frequently , and the symptomes be lesse malignant . In this instance we must be quick and severe ; and begin betimes to take a course with these vermin and vipers of the soul. Suetonius tells , that when the witty flatterers of Cesar had observed that no frogs did breed in his Grandfathers Villa which was in the suburbs of Rome , they set themselves to invent a reason which should flatter the Prince , and boldly told abroad that when young Octavius was a childe he once in sport forbad them to make a noise , and for ever after they were silent and left those pools ; ever since Octavius began to speak , they left off to make their noises and their dwellings there . If we suppresse our passions that make inarticulate noises in the soul , if betimes and in their infancie we make them silent , we shall find peace in all our dayes . But an old passion , an inveterate peevishness , an habitual impotency of lust and vile desires are like an old Lion ; he will by no means be made tame and taught to eat the meat of peace and gentleness . If thy passion be lasting and violent , thou art in a state of evil : if it be sudden and frequent , transient and volatile , thou wilt often fall into sin ; and though every passion be not a sin , yet every excess of passion is a diminution of reason and Religion ; and when the acts are so frequent that none can number them , what effects they leave behind , and how much they disorder the state of grace , none can tell . Either therefore suffer no passion to transport and govern you , or no examination can signifie any thing . For no man can say that a very passionate man is a very good man ; or how much he is beloved of God who playes the fool so frequently ; nor how long God will love him who is at the mercy of his imperious passion , which gives him laws and can every day change his state from good to bad . It was well said of one ; If you give the reines to grief , every thing that crosses thee can produce the biggest grief ; and the causes of passions are as they are made within . He that checks at every word , and is jealous of every look , and disturb'd at every accident , and takes all things by the wrong handle , and reflects upon all disturbances , switches and spurs his passion , and strives to overtake sin and to be tied to infelicity : but nothing can secure our Religion , but binding our passions in chains , and doubling our guards upon them , least like mad-folk● they break their locks and bolts and do all the mischief for which they can have instruments and opportunity . Concerning some sorts of passionate persons , it may be truly said , that they are very unfit to communicate , but that th●y are fit , it can be confidently said of none . Here therefore let us thus examine our selves . Are your desires unreasonable , passionate , impotent and transporting ? If God refuses to give you what you desire , can you lay your head softly down upon the lap of providence and rest content without it ? Do you thankfully receive what he gives , and when he gives you not what you covet , can you still confesse his goodness and glorifie his will and wisdom , without any amazement , dissatisfaction , or secret murmurs ? Can you be at peace within when your purposes are defeated ; and at peace abroad with him that stands in the way between you and your desires ? And how is it with you in your angers ? Does it last so long , or return so frequently as before ? Have you the same malice , or have you the same peevishness ? For one long anger and twenty short ones have no very great difference , save only that in short and sudden angers we are surprised ; and not so in the other : but it is an intolerable thing alwayes to be surprised , and a thousand times to say , I was not aware , or I was mistaken . But let us without excuses examine our selves in this matter , for this is the great Magazine of vertue or vice ; here dwells obedience or licentiousness , a close knot , or an open liberty , little pleasures , and great disturbances , loss of time , and breach of vows . But if that we may come to Christ we have stopped so many avenues of sin and fountains of temptation , it may be very well ; but without it , it can never . 2. He that comes to the Holy Communion must examine himself whether his lusts be mortified , or whether they be only changed . For many times we have a seeming peace when our open enemies are changed into false friends ; and we think our selves holy persons because we are quit of carnal crimes , and yet in exchange for them , we are dying with spiritual . It is an easie thing to reprove a murderer , and to chide a foolish drunkard , to make a liar blush , and a thief to run away . But you may be secretly proud when no man shall dare to tell you so ; and to have a secret envy and yet to keep company with the best and most religious persons . A little examination will serve your turn to know whether you have committed adultery , or be a swearer ; but to know whether your intentions be holy , whether you love the praise of men more than the praise of God , whether religious or secular interest be the dearer , whether there be any hypocrisie or secret malice in your heart , hath something of more secret consideration . Do not you sometimes secretly rejoyce in the diminution or disparagement of your brother ? Do not you tell his sad and shameful story with some pleasure ? Are you not quick in telling it , and willing enough it should be believed ? Would you not fain have him lesse than your self ; not so eminent , not so well esteemed , and therefore do not you love to tell a true story of him that is not so very much for his commendation ? These things must be examined , not that it can be thought that a man must be without fault when he comes , but that he must cherish none , he must leave none unexamined ; he must discover as much as he can and crucifie all that he can discover . He that hath mortified his carnal appetite , and is proud of his conquest ; or prayes often & reproaches him that does not ; and gives almes , and secretly undervalues him that cannot ; or is of a right opinion , but curses him that is in the wrong ; or leaves his ambitious pursuits and vain glorious purposes , but sits at home and is idle , is like a man who stands by a fire in a wide and a cold room ; he scorches on one side and freezes on the other : whereas the habits of vertue are like a great mantle , and the man is warm and well all over . But it is an ill cure for the ague to fall into a feavour , or to be eased of sore eyes by a diversion of the rheum upon the lungs : and that soul that turns her back upon one sin and her face to another is ( it may be ) weary of the instance , but not of the iniquity : and rolling upon an uneasie bed of thorns , chooses only to be tormented in another part : but finding the same sense there because the part is informed by the same spirit , and no difference between the thorn in the side and the thorn in the hand , perceives her self miserable and incirled with calamity . But when from carnal crimes which bring shame , a man falls into spiritual crimes which most men let alone ; from those sins which every thing can reprove to a secret venom and an undiscerned ulcer ; a man may come to the Communion , and the holy man that Ministers cannot reject him ; but he causes no joy before the Angels ; and because he does not examine wisely and judge severely , he is discerned by God , and shall be judged , when to be judged , means all one with being condemned . 3. When we examine our selves in order to receiving of the blessed Sacrament , we must be careful that we do not limit our examination ; and confine it to the time since our last receiving . For some persons who think themselves spiritual , usually examine how they have comported themselves since the last communion only , and accordingly make judgement upon themselves ; and these men possibly may do well enough ; if they be of the number of them of whom our blessed Saviour affirms , that they need no repentance , that is , no change of life , no inquiry but into the measures of progression . But there are but few who live at that rate , and they that do , it may be have not that confidence . But to them and all men else , it were safe advice , that the inquiry how they have lived since the last communion should be but one part of their examination . 1. Because they who so limit their inquiries must needs suppose that till then all was well , and that they communicated worthily ; and consequently that all the whole work and Oeconomy of salvation was then performed ; every one of which supposals hath an uncertain truth , but a very certain danger . 2. They who so limit their examination suppose that at every Communion they begin the world anew ; whereas our future life is to be a progression upon the old stock , and judgement is to be made of this that comes after by that which went before ; and therefore these limited examinations must needs be of lesse use and purpose . True it is , that at every Communion we are to begin a new life ; and so we ought every day ; that is , we ought to be as zealous , and as penitent , and resolute and affectionate , as if we never had begun before ; we ought so to suspect the imperfection of what is past , that we are to look upon our selves but as new beginners ; that by apprehending the same necessity we may have the same passion , the same fervour and holy fires . But in the matter of examining we must consider how much hath been pardoned , that we may examine how thankful we have been , and what returns we have made : we must observe all our usual failings , that we may now set our guards accordingly : we must remember in what weak part we were smitten , that we may still pray against it ; and we must renew our sad remembrances that we may continue our sad repentances , and we must look upon our whole life that we may be truely humbled . He that only examines how it is with him since the last Communion , will think too well of himself if he spies his bills of accusation to be small , but every man will find cause enough to hide his face in the dust , and to come with fear and trembling when he views the sum total of his life , which certainly will appear to be full of shame and of dishonour . 3. We are not to limit our examinations to the interval since the last Communion , because much of our present duty is relative to the first parts of our life . For all the former vows of obedience though we have broken them a thousand times , yet have still an obliging power ; and there are many contingencies of our life which require peculiar usages and treatments of our selves , and there are many follies which we leave by degrees , and many obligations which are of continual duty ; and it may be that our passion did once carry us to so extream to intollerable a violence ; perhaps twenty years ago , that we are still to keep our fears and tremblings about us , lest the same principle produce the same evil event . When Horatius Cocles had won that glorious victory over the three Sabine Brothers , and entring gloriously into Rome espied his sister wetting his Laurel with her unseasonable tears for the death of one of them whom she love with the honour of a wife and the passion of a lover ; and being mad with rage and pride , because her sorrow allayd his joyes and glory , kill'd her with that sword by which her servant died : Sometimes passion makes a prodigious excursion and passes on to the greatest violence , and the most prodigious follies ; and though it be usually so restrained by reason and Religion that such transvolations are not frequent ; yet one such act is an eternal testimony how weak we are , and how mischievous a passion can be . It is a miracle of providence that in the midst of all the rudenesses and accidents of the world , a man preserves his eyes , which every thing can extinguish and put out : and it is no lesse a miracle of grace , that in the midst so many dishonourable loves there are no more horrid tragoedies : and so many brutish angers do not produce more cruel sudden murders ; and that so much envy does not oftener break out into open hostilities ; it is indeed a mighty grace that pares the nails of these wild beasts , and makes them more innocent in their effects , than they are in their nature ; but still the principle remains : there is in us the same evil nature , and the same unruly passion , and therefore as there ought to be continual guards upon them , so there must be continual inquiries made concerning them ; and every thing is to be examined , lest all be lost upon a sudden . 4. We must not limit our examination to the interval of the last Communion , because our first repentances must still proceed and must never be at an end . For no man was so pardoned at the last Communion but that he is still obliged to beg pardon for those sins he then repented of . He must always repent , & always pray and never be at peace with the first sins of his youth ; and the sorrows of the first day must be the duty of every day ; and that examination must come into this account ; and when we inquire after our own state we must not view the little finger , but the whole man. For in all the forrest the ape is the handsomest beast so long as he shewes nothing but his hand ; but when the inquiring and envious beasts looked round about him , they quickly espied a foul deformity . There are in the state of a mans soul some good proportions , and some well dayes , and some fortunate periods , but he that is contented with beholding them alone , cares more to please himself than to please God , and thinks him to be happy whom man , not whom God approves . By this way twenty deceptions and impostures may abuse a man. See therefore what you are from head to foot , from the beginning to the end , from the first entry to your last progression ; and although it be not necessary that we always actually consider all ; yet it will be necessary that we alwayes truly know it all , that our relative duties , and our imperfect actions , and our collateral obligations , and the direct measures of the increase of grace may be justly discerned and understood . 4. He that examines himself and would make right judgement of his state and of his duty must not do it by single actions , but by states of life and habits of Religion . If we can say truly that neither prosperity nor adversity , neither crosse nor crown , imployment nor retirement , publick offices nor houshold-cares do disorder us in our duty to God and our relations ; that is , if we safely and wisely passed through , or converse in any one of these states of life , it is very likely that things are well with us . But the consideration of single actions will do but little . Some acts of charity , and many prayers , and the doing one noble action , or being once or twice very bountiful , or the strugling with one danger , and the speaking for God in one contestation ; these are excellent things , and good significations of life , but not alwayes of health and strength , not of a state of grace . Now because in the holy Communion we are growing up to the measures of the fulness of Christ , we can no otherwise be fitted to it , but by the progressions and increase of a man , that is , by habits of grace and states and permanencies of Religion ; and therefore our examinations must be accordingly . SECT . VI. Devotions to be used upon the days of our Examination , relative to that duty . The Hymne . THe Lord is in his holy temple , the Lords throne is in heaven : his eyes behold , his eye lids try the children of men . The Lord tryeth the righteous : but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth . For the righteous Lord loveth righteousnesse : his countenance doth behold the upright . The words of the Lord are pure words : as silver tried in a furnace of earth , purified seven times . Thou hast proved mine heart , thou hast visited me in the night , thou hast tried me and shalt find nothing : I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress . Hold up my goings in thy paths : that my footsteps slip not . As for God , his way is perfect : the word of the Lord is tryed ; he is a buckler to all those that trust in him . For who is God save the Lord ? and who is our rock save our God ? Judge me O Lord ; for I have walked in mine integrity : but I trust in the Lord , therefore I shall not slide . Examine me , O Lord , and prove me ; try my reins and my heart : for thy loving-kindnesse is before mine ey●s , and I will walk in thy truth I will not sit with vain persons : neither will I go in with dissemblers . I hate the Congregation of evil doers : and will not sit with the wicked . I will wash mine hands in innocency : so will I compasse thine Altar O ●ord . That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving : and tell of all thy wondrous works But as for me , I will walk in my integrity : redeem me and be merciful unto me . So shall my foot stand in an even place : and in the congregations will I blesse the Lord. Glory be to the Father , &c. As it was in the beginning , &c. The Prayers . O Eternal and most Glorious God , who sittest in heaven ruling over all things from the beginning ; thou dwellest on high , and yet humblest thy self to behold the things that are in heaven and earth ; thou hast searched me , O Lord , and known me ; thou understandest my thoughts afar off , and art acquainted with all my ways ; for there is not a word in my tongue but thou O Lord knowest it altogether : Be pleased to impart unto thy servant a ray of thy heavenly light , a beam of the Sun of righteousnesse ; open mine eyes that I may see the wondrous things of thy Law , that I may walk in them all my days : Set all my sins before my face , that I may speedily and earnestly and perfectly repent and forsake them all : Give me a sight of my infirmities , that I may watch against them ; discover to me all my evil and weak principles , that I may reform them ; and whatsoever is wanting in me towards the understanding of any thing whereby I may please thee and perfect my duty , I beg of thee to reveal that also unto me , that my duty may not be undiscerned , and my faith may not be reproved , and my affections may not be perverse , and hardned in their foolish pursuance , and a secret sin may not lye undiscovered and corrupting my soul. II. GIve me an ingenuous and a severe spirit , that whatever judgment of charity I make concerning others , I may give a right judgment concerning my own state and actions , condemning the criminal , censuring the suspicious , suspecting what seems allowable , and watchful even over the best , that I may in the spirit of repentance and mortification correct all my irregularities , and reform my errours , and improve the good things which thou hast given me ; that endeavouring to approve my actions to my conscience , and my conscience to thy law , I may not be a reprobate , but approved by thee in the great day of examination of all the world , and be reckoned amongst thy Elect , thy secret ones , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . A short form of Humiliation , after our Examination . I. THY Judgments O Lord God are declared in thunder , and with fear and dread thou shakest all my bones , and my soul trembles when I consider that great day in which thou shalt judge all the world , and that infinite justice which will not spare the mighty for his greatnesse , nor the poor for his poverty ; and thy unlimited power , which can mightily destroy all them that will not have thee to reign over them . II. O most dreadful Judge . I stand in amazement when I consider that the heavens are not pure in thine eyes : and if thou foundest perversnesse in thy Angels , and didst not spare them , what shall become of me ? The stars fell from heaven ; and what can I presume , who am but dust and ashes ? They whose life that seemed holy are fallen into an evil portion ; and after they have eaten the bread of Angels , they have been delighted with Carobe-nuts , with husks and draffe of Swine . III. There is no holinesse , O God , if thou withdrawest thy hand ; no wisdom profits if thy government does cease . No courage can abide , no chastity can remain pure ; no watchfulnesse keep us safe , unlesse thou doest continue to strengthen us , to purifie us , to make us stand . When thou leavest us , we drown and perish ; when thy grace and mercy visits us , we are lifted up and stand upright . We are unstable , and unsecure , unlesse we be confirmed by thee ; but we seek to thee for thy help ; and yet depart from the wayes of thy commandements . IV. O how meanly and contemptibly do I deserve to be thought of ! how little and inconsiderable is the good which I do ? and how vast , how innumerable , how intolerable are the evils which I have done ? I submit O God , I submit to the abysses of thy righteous and unsearchable judgements ; for I have been searching for a little some little good in me ; but I finde nothing . Much indeed of good I have received ; but I have abused it ; thou hast given me thy grace ; but I have turned it into wantonnesse : thou hast enabled me to serve thee ; but I have served my self ; but never but when I was thy enemy : so that in me , that is , in my flesh dwelleth no good thing . V. I am a deep abysse , O God , of folly and calamity ; I have been searching my heart , and can find no good thing ; I have been searching , and I cannot find out all the evil . Thou didst create in me a hope of glory , but I have lost my confidence ; and men have sometimes spoken good things of me , but I know not where they are ; and who shall raise me up when I fall down before thy face in thy eternal judgment ? VI. I will no more desire , I will no more suffer , I will no more seek , I will no more be moved by the praises of men ; for behold they speak , but they know nothing : Thou art silent , but thou knowest all things , and I increase the number of my sins . What shall I do , O thou preserver of men ! I will lay my face in the dust , and confess my self to be nothing . VII . Pity my shame O God : bind up my wounds ; lift me from the dust ; raise me up from this nothing , and make me something ; what thou wilt , what thou wilt delight in . Take away the partition wall , the hindrance , the sin that so easily besets me ; and bring me unto Jesus , to my sweetest Saviour Jesus ; unite me unto him ; and then although in my self I am nothing , yet in him I shall be what I ought to be , and what thou canst not chuse but love . Amen , Amen . A Prayer for holy and fervent desires of Religion , and particularly of the Blessed Sacrament . O Most Blessed , most glorious Lord and Saviour Jesus ; thou that waterest the furrows of the earth , and refreshest her wearinesse , and makest it very plenteous , behold O God my desart and unfruitful soul ; I have already a parched ground , give me a land of Rivers of Waters ; my Soul is dry but not thirsty ; it hath no water , nor it desires none ; I have been like a dead man to all the desires of heaven . I am earnest and concerned in the things of the world ; but very indifferent , or rather not well enduring the severities and excellencies of Religion . I have not been greedy of thy Word , or longed for thy Sacraments . The worst of thy followers came runing after thee for loaves , though they cared not for the miracle ; but thou offerest me loaves and miracles together , and I have cared for neither : Thou offerest me thy self , and all thy infinite sweetnesses ; I have needed even the compulsion of laws to drive me to thee ; and then indeed I lost the sweetnesse of thy presence , and reaped no fruit . These things O God are not well , they are infinitely amiss . But thou that providest meat , thou also givest appetite ; for the desire and the meat , the necessity and the relief are all from thee . II. Be pleased therefore , O my dearest Lord , to create in thy servant a great hunger and thirst after the things of thy kingdom and the righteousnesse of it , all thy holy graces , and all the holy ministeries of grace ; that I may long for the bread of heaven , thirst after the fountains of salvation , and as the Hart panteth after the brooks of water , so my soul may desire thee O Lord. O kindle such a holy flame in my soul , that it may consume all that is set before me ; that it may be meat and drink to me to do thy will. III. Grant O blessed Jesus that I may omit no opportunity of serving thee , of conversing with thee , of receiving thee ; let me not rest in the least and lowest measures of necessity , but passe on to the excellencies of love , and the transportations of an excellent Religion , that there may remain in me no appetite for any thing but what thou lovest ; that I may have no satisfaction but in a holy Conscience , no pleasure but in Religion , no joy but in God , and with sincerity and zeal heartinesse and ingenuity , I may follow after righteousnesse , and the things that belong unto my peace , until I shall arrive in the land of eternal peace and praises , where thou livest and reignest for ever world without end . Amen . CHAP. III. Of Faith , as it is a necessary disposition to the Blessed Sacrament . EXamination of our selves is an inquiry whether we have those dispostions which are necessary to a worthy Communion . Our next inquiry is after the dispositions themselves , what they ought to be , and what they ought to effect ; that we may really be that which we desire to be found when we are examined . I have yet only described the ways of examining ; now I am to set down those things whereby we can approved , and without which we can never approach to these divine Mysteries with worthinesse , or depart with joy . These are three ; 1. Faith , 2. Charity , 3. Repentance . SECT . I. Of Catechumens , or unbaptised persons . THE Blessed Sacrament before him that hath no faith is like messes of meat set upon the graves of the dead * , they smell not that nidour which quickens the hungry belly ; they feel not the warmth , and taste not the juyce ; for these are provided for them that are alive , and the dead have no portion in them . This is the first great line of introduction , and necessarily to be examined : we have the rule from the Apostle ; Examine your selves whether ye be in the faith , prove your own selves Know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Ch●ist is in you except ye be reprobates ? As if he had said , ye are reprobates , and Jesus Christ shall never dwell in you , except by faith ; without this you can never receive him ; and therefore examine strictly your selves concerning your faith . But the necessity of this preparation by faith hath a double sense , and a proportionable necessity . 1. It means that no unbaptised person can come to the holy Communion . 2. It means that those that are baptized have an actual and an operative faith , properly relative to these divine Mysteries , and really effective of all the works of faith . Of this we have the most ancient and indubitable records of the Primitive Church : For in the Apology which Justin Martyr made for the Christians , he gives this account of the manner of dispensing the holy Eucharist . It is lawful for none to participate of this Eucharistical bread and wine , but to him who believes those things to be true which are taught by us , and to him that is washed in the laver of regeneration , which is to the remission of sins , and who live as Christ hath commanded Shut the pro●hane and the unhallowed people out of doors . So. Orpheus sang . None comes to this holy feast but they whose sins are cleansed in Baptism , who are sa●ctified in ●hose holy waters of regeneration , who have obedient Souls , ea●s attentive to the Sermons of the Gospel , and hearts open to the words of Christ. These are they who see by a brighter light , and walk in the warm●h of a more refreshing Sun ; they live in a better air , and are irradiated with a purer beam , the glories of the Sun of righteousnesse ; and they only are to eat the precious food of the sacrificed lamb : For by Baptism we are admitted to the spiritual life , and by the holy Communion we nourish and preserve it . But although Baptism be always necessary , yet alone it is not a sufficient qualification to the holy Communion ; but there must be an actual faith also in every Communicant . Neither faith alone , nor baptism alone can suffice ; but it must be the actual faith of baptized persons which disposes us to this sacred Feast : For the Church gives the Communion neither to Catechumens , nor to Infants , nor to mad men , nor to natural fools . Catechumens not admitted to the holy Communion . Of this , besides the testimony of Justin Martyr , St. Cyril of Alexandria gives this full acoount . [ We refuse to give the Sacraments to Catechumens , although they already know the truth , and with a loud voice confesse the faith of Christ , because they are not yet enriched with the holy Ghost , who dwells in them who are consummated and perfected by Baptism : But when they have been baptized , because it is believed that the holy Ghost does dwell within them , they are not prohibited from the contact and communion of the body of Christ. And therefore to them who come to the mystical benediction , the Ministers of the Mystery cry with a loud voice , Sancta sanctis , Let holy things be given to sanctified persons : signifying , that the contact and sanctification of Christs body does agree with them only who in their spirits are sanctified by the holy Ghost . ] And this was the certain and perpetual Doctrine and Custom of the Church ; insomuch that in the primitive Churches they would not suffer unbaptized persons so much as to see the Consecration of the holy Mysteries , as is to be seen in many Ecclesiastical Records . * The reason of this is no●hing but the nature and analogy of the thing it self . For we first come to Christ by faith , and we first come to Christ by Baptism ; they are the two doors of the Tabernacle , which our Lord hath pi●ched and not man. By faith we desire to go in , and by baptism we are admitted . Faith knocks at the door , and baptism sets it open : but until we are in the house , we cannot be entertained at the Masters Table : they that are in the high ways and hedges must be called in , and come in at the doors , and then they shall be feasted . The one is the moral entrance , and the other is the ritual . Faith is the door of the soul , and baptism is the door of the man. Faith is the spiritual addresse to God , and baptism is the Sacramental . Baptism is like the pool of Siloam appointed for healing ; it is salutary and medicinal : but the Spirit of God is that great Angel that descends thither and makes them virtual ; and faith is the hand that puts us in . So that faith alone does not do it ; and therefore the unbaptized must not Communica●e : So neither will baptism alone admit us ; and therefore Infants and Innocents are yet uncapable . But that 's the next inquiry . SECT . II. Of Communicating Infants . Question . Whether Infants are to be admitted to the Holy Communion ? WHether the holy Communion may be given to Infants , hath been a great question in the Church of God ; which in this instance hath not been as in others , divided by parties and single persons , but by whole ages : for from some of the earliest ages of the Church , down to the time of Charles the Great , that is , for above six hundred years , the Church of God did give the holy Communion to newly baptized Infants . St. Cyprian recounts a miracle of an Infant , into whose mouth ( when the parents had ignorantly and carelesly left the babe ) the Gentile Priests had forced some of their Idol Sacrifice : But when the Minister of the Church came to pour into the mouth the Calice of our Lord , it resisted , and being over-powred grew sick , and fell into convulsions . By which narrative the practice of the Church of that age is sufficiently declared . Of the matter of fact there is no question ; but they went further . The Primitive Church did believe it necessary to the salvation of Infants : St. Austin believed that this Doctrine and practice descended from the Apostles ; that without both the Sacraments no person could come to life , or partake of the Kingdom of heaven ; which when he had endeavoured to prove largely , he infers this conclusion : It is in vain to promise salvation and life eternal to little children , unlesse they be baptized , and receive the body and blood of Christ since the necessity of them both is attested by so many , so great , and so divine Testimonies . And that this practice continued to the time of Charlemaine , appears by a Constitution in his Capitular , saying [ That the Priest should always have the Eucharist ready , that when any one is sick , or when a child is weak , he may presently give him the Communion , lest he die without it . ] And Alcuinus recites a Canon expresly charging , that as soon as ever the Infants are baptized , they should receive the holy Communion before they suck , or receive any other nourishment . The same also is used by the Greeks , by the Aethiopians , by the Bohemians and Moravians : and it is confessed by Maldonate * , that the opinion of St. Austin and Innocentius , that the Eucharist is necessary even to Infants , prevailed in the Church for six hundred years together . But since the time of Charles the Great , that is , for above eight hundred years , this practice hath been omitted in the Western Churches generally ; and in the Council of Trent it was condemned as unfit , and all men commanded to believe , that though the ancient Churches did do it upon some probable reasons , yet they did not believe it necessary . Concerning which I shall not interrupt the usefulnesse which I intend in this discourse , by confuting the Canon ; though it be intolerable to command men to believe in a matter of fact contrary to their evidence , and to say that the Fathers did not believe it to be necessary , when they say it is , and used it accordingly : yet because it relates to the use of this divine Sacrament , I shall give this short account of it . The Church of Rome , and some few others , are the only refusers and condemners of this ancient and Catholick practice : But upon their grounds they cannot reasonably deny it . 1. Because Infants are by them affirmed to be capable of the grace and benefits of the Eucharist : for to them who put no bar ( as Infants put none ) the Sacraments by their inherent virtue confer grace , and therefore particularly it is affirmed , * that if Infants did now receive the Eucharist , they should also receive grace with it : and therefore it is not unreasonable to give it to them , who therefore are capable of it , because it will do them benefit ; and it is consequently ( upon these grounds ) uncharitable to deny it . For , 2. They allow the ground upon the supposition of which the Fathers did most reasonably proceed ; and they only deny the conclusion . For by the words of Christ , it is , absolutely necessary to eat his flesh and drink his blood : and if those words be understood of Sacramental manducation ( in which interpretation both the ancients and the Church of Rome do consent ) then it is absolutely necessary to communicate . For although there are other ways of eating his flesh and drinking of his blood , besides the Sacramental manducation , yet Christ in this place meant no other ; and if of this he spake when he said [ Without doing this we have no life in us , ] then it will not be sufficient to baptize them , though it baptism they should receive the same grace as in the Eucharist ; because abstracting from the benefit and grace of it , it is made necessary by the Commandment , and by the will of God it is become a means indispensibly necessary to salvation . It is necessary by a necessity of the means , and a necessity of precept . True it is , that in each of the Sacraments there is a proportion of the same effect , as I have already discoursed ; yet this cannot lessen the necessity that is upon them both ; for so Pharaohs dream was doubled , not to signifie divers events , but a double certainty ; and therefore although children even in baptism are partakers of the death of Christ , and are incorporated into and made partakers of his body ; yet because Christ hath made one as necessary as the other , and both for several proportions of the same reason , the Church of Rome must either quit the Principle , or retain the consequent ; for they have digged a ditch on both sides , and on either hand they are fallen into inconvenience . But it will be more material to consider the question as it is in it self , and without relation to any Schools of learning . Therefore , 3. It is certain that in Scripture there is nothing which directly forbids the giving the Holy Communion to Infants . For though we are commanded to examine , and so to eat ; yet this precept is not of it self necessary , but by reason of an introduced cause ; just as they are commanded to believe and repent who are to be baptized ; that is , persons that need it , and that can do it , they must : and Infants without examination can as well receive the effect of the Eucharist , as without repentance they can have the effect of Baptism . For if they be communicated , they and the whole Assembly do declare the Lords death ; for that is done by vertue of the whole solemnity , and it is done by the conj●nct devotion of the whole Community ; it is done by the Prayers and Offices of the Priest , and it is done by the action of every one that communicates : it is done in Baptism ; and yet they are baptized who cannot with their voices publish the Confession . Infants indeed cannot discern the Lords body , so neither can they discern truth from falshood , an Article of Faith from an heretical Doctrine ; and yet to discern the one , is as much required as to discern the other : but in both the case is equal ; for they must discern when they can confound or dishonour ; but till they can do evil , they cannot be tied to do good . And it were hard to suppose the whole Church of God in her best and earliest times to have continued for above six hundred years in a practical error ; it will not well become our modesty to judge them without further inquiry and greater evidence . 4. But as there is no prohibition of it , so no command for it . For as for the words of our blessed Lord recited by St. John , upon which the holy Fathers did principally rely , they were spoken before the Institution of both the Sacraments , and indifferently relate to either ; that is , indeed to them both , as they are the ministries of faith ; but to neither in themselves directly , or in any other proportion , or for any other cause ; for faith is the principal that is there intended ; for the whole analogy of the discourse drawn forth of its cloud and allegory , infers only the necessity of being Christs Disciples , of living the life of grace , of feeding in our hearts on Christ , of living in him , and by him , and for him , and to him ; which is the work of faith , and believing in Christ , as faith signifies the being of Christs Disciple . 5. The thing it self then being left in the midst , and undetermined , it is in the power of the Church to give it or to deny it : ●or in all things where Christ hath made no Law , the Church hath liberty to do that which is most for the glory of God , and the edification of all Christian people . And therefore although the Primitive Church did confirm newly baptized persons , and communicate them ; yet as with great reason she did change the time of Confirmation from their first Baptism , till they could give an account of their faith ; so with equal authority , when she hath an equal reason , she may change and limit the time of ministring the Communion . The Church is tied to nothing but to the Laws of the Sacrament , and the Laws of Reason , and the Laws of Charity . But that either of them is reasonable enough , may appear in the following considerations . For the Primitive Church had all this to justifie their practice : That the Sacraments of the Gospel are the great channels of the grace of God : * That this grace always descends upon them that do not hinder it , and therefore certainly to Infants ; And some do expresly affirm it , and none can with certainty deny , but that Infants if they did receive Communion , should also in so doing receive the fruits of it : * That to Baptism there are many acts of predisposition required , as well as to the Communion ; and yet the Church , who very well understands the obligation of these precepts , supposes to children to be obliged to those predispositions to either Sacrament , but fits every Commandment to a capable subject : * That there is something done on Gods part , and something on ours ; that what belongs to us , obliges us then when we can hear and understand , but not before ; but that what is on Gods part is always ready to them that can receive it : * That Infants although they cannot alone come to Christ , yet the Church their Mother can bring them in her arms : * That they who are capable of the grace of the Sacrament , may also receive the sign ; and therefore the same grace being conveyed to them in one Sacrament , may also be imparted to them in the other : * That as they can be born again without their own consent , so they can be sed by the hands of others ; and what begins without their own actual choice , may be renewed without their own actual desire : * and that therefore it may be feared lest , if upon the pretence of figurative speeches , allegories and allusions , and the injunction of certain dispositions , the holy Communion be denied them , a gap be opened upon equal pretences to deny them Baptism . * That since the Jewish Infants being circumcised , is used as an argument that they might be baptized their eating of the Paschal Lamb may also be a competent warrant to eat of that Sacrament , in which also , as in the other , the sacrificed Lamb is represented as offered and slain for them . Now The Church having such fair probabilities and prudential motives , and no prohibition , is she shall use her power to the purposes of kindnesses and charity , she is not easily to be reproved , lest without necessity we condemn all the Primitive Catholick Church , and all the Modern Churches of the East and South to this day ; especially since without all dispositions Infants are baptized ; there is less reason why they may not be communicated , having already received some real dispositions towards this , even all the grace of the Sacrament of Baptism , which is certainly something towards the other : And after all , the refusing to communicate Infants entred into the Church , upon an unwarrantable ground . For though it was confessed that the Communion would do them benefit , yet it was denied to them then when the Doctrine of Transubstantiation entred , upon pretence lest by puking up the holy Symbols the Sacrament should be dishonoured ; which indeed , though that Doctrine were true , were infinitely unreasonable ; as supposing that Christ , who suffered his body to be broken upon the Cross that he might convey grace to them and us , would refuse to expose the symbols to the accidents of a childs stomach , and rather deny them that grace than endure that sight ; who yet does daily suffer mice and mouldiness to do worse unto it . But on the other side , they that without interest and partiality deny to communicate Infants , can consider that Infants being in Baptism admitted to the Promises of the Gospel , and their portion in the Kingdom of Christ , can have upon them no necessity to be communicated . For by their first Sacrament they are drawn from their meer natural state , and lifted up to the adoption of Sons ; and by the second Sacrament alone they can go no further : * That although the first grace which is given in Baptism be given them as their first being , yet the second graces are given to us upon other accounts , even for well using the first free grace : * That in Baptism there were promises made , which are to be personally accepted and verified before any new grace can be Sacramentally imparted : * That it was necessity which gave them Baptism before their Reason ; and that necessity heing served , there can be no profit in proceeding upon the same method without the same reason : * That Baptism is the Sacrament of the new born , the beginning , the gate of the Church , the entry of the Kingdom , the birth of a Christian ; but the holy Eucharist is the Sacrament of them that grow in grace , of them that are perfect in Christ Jesus : * And lastly , to him that lists to be contentious , we are to say as St. Paul did , We have no such custom , nor the Churches of God. Now these probabilities on both sides may both of them be heard , and both of them prevail in the sense of the former determination : For by the first it may appear that to communicate Infants is lawful ; but the second proves that it is not necessary : for having in baptism received sufficient title to the Kingdom of Heaven , they who before the use of reason cannot sin and cannot fall from the grace they have received , cannot be obliged to the use of that Sacrament which is for their reparation and security : and therefore in this case the present practice of the Church is to be our rule and measure of peace , and determination of the Article . SECT . III. Whether Innocents , Fools , and Mad-men may be admitted to the Holy Communion ? TO this I answer , That if fools can desire it , and can be kept innocent , the Church did never deny it to them ; but unless they be capable of love and obedience in some degree , they must in no case be admitted . A vicious fool is intolerable ; and he that knows nothing of it , nor can be taught any thing , must be permitted to the mercies of God and the prayers of the Church ; but he that is not capable of Laws , can be no part of a Society , and therefore hath nothing to do with Communion . If he can but learn so much that it is good for his soul , if he can desire to go to God , and if he can in any degree believe in Christ , he will be judged according to what he hath , and not according to what he hath not ; but if he cannot discern between good and evil , but ●ndifferently likes and does one and the other , though mercy is to be hoped for him in the last account , yet because he does that which is materially evil , and cannot discern what is spiritually good , he must not be admitted so much as to the Symbols of the divine Mysteries . But concerning Mad men the case is otherwise ; and therefore I am to answer with a distinction . If from a state of sin and debauchery they entred into their madness , their case is sad and infinitely to be deplored ; but their debt-books are sealed up , they are like dead men , until they be restored to reason they cannot be restored to grace , and therefore not admitted to the Sacrament . But if they were men of a good life , they may in their intervals , that is , when they can desire it , and when they will not use the Sacrament irreverently , be communicated . For the seed of God abides within them , and no accident of nature can destroy the work of God , and the impresses of the spirit ; nothing but their own wills can do that . For in these cases it is a good rule , and of great use in the practice of the Sacrament : Whoever can communicate spiritually , may be admitted to communicate Sacramenttally ; that is , they who are in a state of grace , and can desire it , must not be rejected : And therefore good men falling into this calamity , when they have any ease from their sadnesse , and that they can return to words of order , and composed thoughts , though but for a while , though but in order to that ministery , are not to be rejected . But on the other side , whoever can hinder the effect of the Sacrament , they are not to be admitted to it , unless they do not only not hinder it , but actually dispose themselves to it : For if they can do evil , they can and ought to do good ; and therefore vicious madmen having been and still remaining in a state of evil , cannot be admitted till they do good ; and therefore never while their madnesse remains . The godly man that is so afflicted may ; but yet not till the fire that was hidden makes some actual and bright emissions . But then lastly , For others who are of a probable life , concerning whom no man can tell whether they be in the state of grace or no ; because no man can tell whether he that comes with that sadnesse be capable or no , no man can tell whether he does well or ill ; and therefore he must determine himself by accidents and circumstances , and prudential considerations , having one eye upon the designs and compliances of charity , and the other upon the reverence of the Sacrament . And the case is in all things alike with dying persons , past the use of speech and reason . SECT . IV. Of actual faith as it is a necessary disposition to the Sacrament . BEsides the faith that is previous to Baptisme , or is wrapped up in the offices of that Sacrament , the Church of God admitted only such persons to the Sacrament whom she called Fideles or Faithful , by a propriety or singularity and eminency of appellation . They accounted it not enough barely to believe or to be professors ; for the penitents , and the lapsed and the Catechumens were so ; but they meant , such persons whose faith was operative and alive and justifying ; such men whose faith had overcome the world , and overcome their lusts , and conquered their spiritual enemy ; such who by faith were real servants of Christ , disciples of his doctrine , subjects of his Kingdom and obedient to his institution . Such a faith as this is indeed necessary to every worthy communicant ; because without such a faith a Christian is no more but a name ; but the man is dead ; and dead men eat not . Of this therefore we are to take strict and severe accounts : which we shall best do by the following measures . 1. Every true Christian believer must consent to the Articles of his belief by an assent firmer than can be naturally produced from the ordinary arguments of his persuasion . Men believe the resurrection ; but it is because they are taught it in their child-hood , and they inquire no further in their age : their Parents and their Priests , the laws of the Church and the Religion of the Country make up the demonstration ; but because their faith is no stronger than to be the daughter of such arguments , we find they commonly live at such a rate , as if they did neither believe nor care whether it were so or no. The confidence of the article makes them not to leave off violently to pursue the interests of this world , and to love and labour for the other . Before this faith can enable them to resist a temptation they must derive their assent from principles of another nature ; and therefore because few men can dispute it with arguments invincible and demonstrative and such as are naturally apt to produce the most perfect assent , it is necessary that these men of all other should believe it because it is said to come from God , and rely upon it because it brings to God , trust it because it is good , acknowledge it certain because it is excellent ; that there may be an act of the will in it , as well as of the understanding , and as much love in it as discourse . For he that only consents to an article because it is evident , is indeed convinced , but hath no excellency in his faith but what is natural , nothing that is gracious and moral : true Christian faith must have in it something of obscurity , something that must be made up by duty and by obedience : but it is nothing but this ; we must trust the evidence of God in the obscurity of the thing . Gods testimony must be clear to him , and the thing in all other senses not clear ; and then to trust the article because God hath said it , must have in it an excellency which God loves and that he will reward . In order to this , it is highly considerable that the greatest argument to prove our Religion , is the goodness and the holiness of it : it is that which makes peace and friendships , content and comfort , which unites all relations and endears the relatives , it relieves the needy and defends the widdow , it ends strife and makes love endless ; all other arguments can be opposed and tempted by wit and malice , but against the goodness of the Religion no man can speak , by which it appears that the greatest argument is that which moves love intending by love to convince the understanding . But then for others who can enquire better ; their inquiries also must be modest and humble , according to the nature of the things , and to the designes of God : they must not disbelieve an article in Christianity which is not proved like a conclusion in Geometry ; they must not be witty to object , and curious to enquire beyond their limit : for some are so ingeniously miserable , that they will never believe a proposition in Divinity if any thing can be said against it ; they will be credulous enough in all the affairs of their life , but impenetrable by a Sermon of the Gospel ; they will believe the word of a man and the promise of their neighbour ; but a promise of Scripture signifies nothing unless it can be proved like a proposition in the Metaphysicks . If Sempronius tell them a story , it is sufficient if he be a just man , and the narrative be probable : but though Religion be taught by many excellent men who gave their lives for a testimony , this shall not passe for truth till there is no objection left to stand against it . The reason of these things is plain : they do not love the thing ; their interest is against it : they have no joy in Religion ; they are not willing and desirous that the things shall appear true . When love is the principle , the thing is easie to the understanding , the objections are nothing , the arguments are good , and the Preachers are in the right . Faith assents to the revelations of the Gospel , not only because they are well proved , but because they are excellent things ; not only because my reason is convinced ; but my reason yields upon the fairer termes because my affections are gained . For if faith were an assent to an article but just so far as it is demonstrated , then faith were no vertue , and infidelity were no sin ; because in this there is no choice , and no refusal : but where that which is probable is also naturally indemonstrable , and yet the conclusion is that in which we must rejoyce , and that for which we must earnestly contend , and that in the belief of which we serve God , and that for which we must be ready to die . It is certain that the understanding observing the credibility , and the will being pleased with the excellency , they produce a zeal of belief , because they together make up the demonstration . For a reason can be opposed by a reason , and an argument by an argument ; but if I love my Religion , nothing can take me from it , unless it can pretend to be more useful and more amiable , more perfective and more excellent than heaven and immortality , and a kingdom and a crown of peace , and all the things and all glories of the Eternal God. 2. That faith which disposes to the holy Communion must have in it a fulness of confidence and relying upon God , a trusting in , and a real expectation of the event of all the promises of the Gospel . God hath promised sufficien● for the things of this life to them that serve him . They who have great revenues and full bags can easily trust this promise : but if thou hast neither mony nor friends , if the labour of thy hands , and the successe of thy labour fails thee , how is it then ? Can you then relie upon the promise ? What means your melancholy and your fear , your frequent sighs and the calling of your self miserable and undone ? Can God only help with means ? or cannot he also make the means , or help without them ; or see them when you see them not ? or is it that you fear whether he will or no ? He that hath promised , if he be just , is alwayes willing , whether he be able or no ; and therefore , if you do not doubt of his power , why should you at all doubt of his willingness ? For if he were not able , he were not Almighty ; if he were not willing to perform his promise , then he were not just : and he that suspects that , hath neither faith nor love for God , of all things in the world , faith never distrusts the good will of God , in which he most glories to communicate him self to mankind . If yet your fear objects and sayes that all is well on Gods part ; but you have provoked him by your sins , and have lost all title to the promise ; I can say nothing against that , but that you must speedily repent and amend your fault , and then all will be quickly well on your part also , and your faith will have no objection , and your fears will have no excuse . When the glutton Apicius had spent a vast revenue in his prodigious feastings , he kill'd himself for fear of starving : but if Caesar had promised to give him all Sicily or the revenues of Egypt , the beast would have lived and eaten . But the promises of God give to many of us no security , not so much as the promise of our rich friend , who yet may be disabled , or may break his word , or die . * But let us trie again . * God hath promised that all things shall work together for good to them that fear him . Do we believe that our present affliction will do so ? Will the loss of our goods , the diminution of our revenue , the amission of our honour , the death of our eldest son , the unkindness of a husband , the frown of our Prince , the defeating of our secular hopes , the unprosperous event of our imployment ? Do we find that our faith is right enough really to be satisfied in these things so much as to be pleased with Gods order and method of doing good to us by these unpleasing instruments ? Can we rejoyce under the mercy by the joys of believing at the same time when we groan under the affliction by the passions of sense ? Do we observe the design of cure , when we feel the pain and the smart ? Are we patient under the evil , being supported by the expectation of the good which is promised to follow ? This is the proper work of faith , and its best indication . Plutarch tells that when the cowards of Lacedaemon depicted upon their shields the most terrible beasts they could imagine , their design was to affright their enemies that they might not come to a close fight ; they would fain have made their enemies afraid ; because themselves were so . Which when Lacon espied , he painted upon a great shield nothing but a little fly for his device ; and to them who said he did it that he might not be noted in the battle , he answered ; yea but I mean to come so neer the enemy , that he shall see the little fly . This is our case , our afflictions seem to us like Gorgons heads , Lions and Tigres , things terrible in picture , but intolerable in their fury ; but if we come neer and consider them in all the circumstances ; they are nothing but a fly upon a shield , they cannot hurt us , and they ought not to affright us , if we remember that they are conducted by God , that they are the effect of his care and the impresse of his love , that they are the method and order of a blessing , that they are sanctified and eased by a promise ; and that a present ease it may be would prove a future infelicity . If our faith did rely upon the promise , all this were nothing ; but our want of faith does cause all the excesse of trouble . For the question is not whether or no we be afflicted , whether we be sick , or crossed in our designs , or deprived of our children , this we feel and mourn for : but the question is , whether all this may not , or be not intended to bring good to us ? Not whether God smiles or no , but to what purposes he smiles ? Not whether this be not evil , but whether this evil will not bring good to us ? If we do believe , why are we without comfort and without patience ? If we do not believe it , where is our faith ? And why does any of us come to the holy Communion if we do not believe it will be for our good ? but if we do think it will , why do we not think so of our crosse ? for the promise is that every thing shall . Cannot the rod of God do good as well as the bread of God ? and is not he as good in his discipline as in his provision ? Is not he the same in his School as at his Table ? Is not his physick as wholesome as his food ? It is not reason , but plainly our want of faith that makes us think otherwise . Faith is the great magazine of all the graces and all the comforts of a Christian : and therefore the Devil endeavours to corrupt the truth of it by intermingling errours , the sincerity of it by hypocrisie , the ingenuity of it by interest , the comforts of it by doubting , the confidences of it by objections and secular experiences and present considerations ; by adherence to humane confidences , and little sanctuaries , and the pleasures of the world and the fallibilities of men . * When Xerxes had a great army to conduct , and great successes to desire , and various contingencies to expect , he left off to sacrifice to his Country gods , forsook Jupiter and the Sun , and in Lydia espying a goodly Platan tree , tall and strait and spread , he encamped all his army in the fields about it , hung up bracelets and coronets upon the branches , and with costly offerings made his petitions to the beauteous tree ; and when he march'd away he left a guard upon his God , lest any thing should do injury to the plant of which he begged to be defended from all injury . By such follies as these does the Devil endeavour to deflour our holy faith and confidences in God : we trust in man who cannot trust himself ; we relie upon riches , that relie upon nothing ; for they have no stabiliment , and they have no foundation ; but are like atoms in the air ; the things them●elves can bear no weight , a●d the foundation cannot bear them . In our afflictions we look for comfort from wine or company , from a friend that talkes well , or from any thing that brings us present ease , but in the mean time we look not into the promises of God which are the store houses of comfort ; and like the dogs at Hippocrene , we lick the water drops that fall upon the ground and take no notice of the fountain and the full vessels . These things are so necessary to be considered in order to our preparation to the Communion , as they are necessary to be reduced to practice in order to a Christian Conversation : for the holy Communion is the summary and compendium of the Religion and duty of a whole life ; and as faith cannot be holy , material and acceptable without it contain in it a real trust in the promises of God ; so neither can it be a sufficient disposition to the receiving the divine mysteries unlesse upon this ground it be holy , acceptable and material . 3. That faith which is a worthy preparatory to the holy Communion must be the actual principle and effective of a good life : a faith in the threatnings and in the Commandments of God. Who can pretend to be a Christian and yet not believe those words of St. Paul [ Follow after peace with all men and holiness , without which no man shall see God ? ] and yet if we do believe it , what do we think will become of us , who neither follow peace nor holiness , but follow our anger and pursue our lust ? If we do believe this , we had need look about us and live at another rate than men commonly do . But we still remain peevish and angry , malicious and unplacable , apt to quarrel and hard to be reconciled , lovers of money and lovers of pleasures , but careless of holiness and Religion ; as if they were things fit only to be talked on , and to be the subject of Theological discourses , but not the rule of our lives and the matter of our care . It is expresly said by St. Paul ; He that eateth and drinketh unworthily , eateth and drinketh damnation to himself . Now if we observe what crouds of people in great Cities come to the holy Communion , good and bad , penitent and impenitent , the covetous and the proud , the crafty Merch●nt from yesterdays fraud , and the wanton fool from his last nights lust , we may easily perceive that not many men believe these words . He that sayes to me , drink not this for it is poyson , hath given me a law and an affrightment , and I dare not disobey him , if I believe him ; and if we did believe St. Paul , I suppose we should as little dare to be damned as to be poyson'd . Our Blessed Saviour told us , that with what measure we mete to others , it shall be measured to us again ; but who almost believes this , and considers what it means ? Will you be content that God should despise you as you despise your brother ? that he should be as soon angry with you , as you are with him ? that he should strike you as hastily , and as seldom pardon you , and never bare with your infirmities , and as seldom interpret fairly what you say or do , and be revenged as frequently as you would be ? And what think we of these sayings [ Into the heavenly Jerusalem there shall in no wise enter any thing that defileth , or prophaneth , neither whatsoever worketh abomination , or maketh a lie ? ] Do men believe God , and yet doing these things hope to be saved for all these terrible sayings ? [ Now the works of the flesh are manifest , adultery , fornication , uncleanness , lasciviousness , &c. of which I tell you before , that they which do such th●ngs shall not inherit the Kingdom of God. ] Certainly if we did believe that these things are spoken in earnest , we should not account fornication such a decent crime , so fashionable and harmless ; or make such a maygame of the fearful lectures of damnation . For if these words be true ; will men leave their sins , or are they resolved to suffer damnation , as being lesse troublesome than to quit their vain Mistresses ? surely that 's not it ; but they have some little subterfuges and illusions to trust to . They say they will relie upon Gods mercy . Well they may ; if in well doing they commit their souls to him as to a faithful Creator : but will they make God their enemy , and then trust in him while he remains so ? That will prove an intollerable experiment ; for so said God , when he caused his name to be proclaimed to the host of Israel ; The Lord God merciful and gracious : he caused to be added ; and that will by no means quit the guilty . By no means ? No , by no means , let us believe that as well as the other . For the passion of our Redeemer , the intercession of our high Priest , the Sacraments of the Church , the body and blood of Christ , the mercies of God , the saying Lord , Lord , the priviledges of Christians , and the absolution of the Priest , none of all this , and all this together shall do him no good that remains guilty , that is , who is impenitent , and does not forsake his sin . If we had faith we should believe this , and should not dare to come to the holy Communion with an actual guiltiness of many crimes , and in confidence of pardon , against all the truth of Divine relations , and therefore without faith . But then here we may consider , that no man in this case can hope to be excused from the necessities of a holy life upon pretence of being saved by his faith . For if the case be thus ; these men have it not . For he that believes in God , believes his words ; and they are very terrible to all evil persons : For in Christ Jesus nothing can avail , but a new creature , nothing but keeping the Commandments of God , nothing but faith working by charity : they are the words of God. Wicked men therefore can never hope to be saved by their faith , or by their faith to be worthy Communicants , for they have it not . Who then can ? He only by his faith is worthily disposed to the Communion , and by his faith can be saved , who by his faith lives a life of grace ; whose faith is to him a magazine of holy principles , whose faith endears obedience , and is the nurse of a holy hope , and the mother of a never failing charity . He shall be saved by his faith who by his faith is more than conquerour ; who resists the Devil and makes him flie , and gives laws to his passions , and makes them obedient ; who by his faith overcomes the world and removes mountains , the mountains of pride and vanity , ambition and secular designs ; and whose faith casteth out Devils , the Devil of lust and the Devil of intempe●ance , the spirit that appears like a goat , and the spirit that comes in the shape of a swine : he whose faith opens the blind mans eyes and makes him to see the things of God , and cures the lame hypocrite and makes him to walk uprightly . For these signs shall follow them that believe ( said our blessed Saviour ; ) and by these as by the wedding garment we are fitted to this heavenly Supper of the King. In short , for what ever end faith is designed , whatever propositions it intends to perswade , to what duties soever it does engage , to what state of things soever it ought to efform us , and whithersoever the nature and intention of the grace does drive us , thither we must go , that we must do , all those things we must believe , and to that end we must direct all our actions and designs . For ●he nature of faith discovers it self in the affairs of our Religion as in all things ; if we believe any thing to be good we shall labour for it ; if we think so , we shall do so ; and if we run after the vanities of the world and neglect our interest of heaven , there is no other account to be given of it , but because we do not believe the threatnings and the Laws of God , or that heaven is not so considerable as those sottish pleasures and t●ifling regards for which all pains is too much , though we think all labour and all passion is too little . * Plutar●h tells that when poverty desired to have a childe she lay with the God Porus their God of plen●y , and she proved with childe and brought forth Love , by which they intended to represent the nature of the Divine love ; it is born of a rich Father and a poor mother ; that is , it proceeds from a contempt of the world and a value of God ; an emptiness of secular affections and a great estimate of wisdom and Religion . But therefore it is that God and the fruits of his garden , and the wealth of his treasure , and the meat of his Table , and the graces of his spirit are not gustful and delicious , because we dote upon mushromes and colliquintida . But as Manna was given in the desart and it became pleasant when they had nothing else to eat : So it is in ●he sweetnesses of Religion ; we cannot live by faith , and rejoyce in the banquets of our Saviour , unlesse our souls dwell in the wilderness ; that is , where the pleasures and appetites of ●he world may not prepossesse our palates and debauch our reasonings . And this was mysterio●sly spoken by the Psalmist , The broad places of the wilderness shall wax fat , and the hills shall be en●ircled with joy ; that is , whatsoever ●s barren and desolate , not full of the things and affections of the world shall be inebriated with the pleasures of Religion and rejoyce in Sacraments , in faith and holy expectations . But the love of mony and the love of pleasures are the intrigues and fetters to the understanding ; but he only is a faithful man who * restrains his passions and despises the world and rectifies his love , that he may believe a right , and put that value upon Religion as that it become the satisfaction of our spirit and the great object of all our passionate desires ; pride and prejudice are the Parents of misbelief , but humility and contempt of the world first bear faith upon their knees , and then upon their hands . SECT . V. Of the proper and Specifick work of Faith in the reception of the holy Communion . HEre I am to enquire into two practical questions . 1. What stresse is to be put upon faith in this Mystery : that is , how much is every one bound to believe in the article of this Sacrament before he can be accounted competently prepared in his understanding , and by his faith ? 2. What is the use of faith in the reception of the Blessed Sacrament ? and in what sense , and to what purposes , and with what truth it is said that in the holy Sacrament we receive Christ by faith ? How much every man is bound to believe of this mystery . If I should follow the usual opinions , I should say that to this preparatory faith it is necessary to believe all the niceties and mysteriousnesse of the blessed Sacrament . Men have introduced new opinions and turned the key in this lock so often till it cannot be either opened or shut , and they have unravel'd the clue so long till they have intangled it ; and not only reason is made blind by staring at what she never can perceive , but the whole article of the Sacrament is made an objection and temptation even to faith it self ; and such things are taught by some Churches and some Schooles of learning , which no Philosophy did ever teach , no Religion ever did reveal , no prophet ever preach , and which no faith ever can receive : I mean it in the prodigious article of Transubstantiation ; which I am not here to confute , but to reprove upon practical considerations ; and to consider those things that may make us better , and not strive to prevail in disputation . That therefore we may know the proper offices of faith in the believing what relates to the holy Sacrament , I shall describe it in several propositions . 1. It cannot be the duty of faith to believe any thing against our sense ; what we see and taste to be bread , what we see and taste and smell to be wine , no faith can engage us to believe the contrary . For by our senses Christianity it self , and some of the greatest Articles of our belief were known by them who from that evidence conveyed them to us by their testimony ; and if the perception of sense were not finally to be relied upon , Miracles could never be a demonstration , nor any strange event prove an unknown proposition : for the Miracle can never prove the Article , unless our eyes or hands approve the miracle ; and the Divinity of Christs person , and his mission and his power could never have been proved by the Resurrection , but that the resurrection was certain and evident to the eyes and hands of so many witnesses . Thus Christ to his Apostles proved himself to be no spirit , by exposing his flesh and bones to be felt ; and he wrought faith in St. Thomas by his fingers ends ; the wounds that he saw and felt were the demonstrations of his faith : and in the Primitive Church the Valentinians and Marcionites , who said Christs body was phantastical , were confused by no other argument but of sense : For sense is the evidence of the simple , and the confirmation of the wise ; it can confute all pretences , and reprove all deceitful subtilties ; it turns opinion into knowledge , and doubts into certainty ; it is the first endearment of love , and the supply of all understanding : from what we see without , we know what to believe within ; and no demonstration in the world can be greater than the evidence of sense . Our senses are the great arguments of vertue and vice ; and if it be not safe to rely upon that evidence , we cannot tell what pleasure and pain is ; and a man that is born blind may as well have the true idea of colours , as we could have of pain , if our senses could not tell us certainly : and all those arguments from heaven by which God prevails upon all the world , as Oracles , and Vrim and Thummim , and still voices , and loud thunders , and the daughter of a voice , and messages from above , and Prophets on earth , and lights and Angels , all were nothing ; for faith could not come by hearing , if our hearing might be illusion . That therefore which all the world relies upon for their whole Religion , that which to all the world is the great means and instrument of the glorification of God , even our seeing of the works of God , and eating his provisions , and beholding his light ; that which is the great ministery of life , and the conduit of good and evil to us , we may rely upon for this article of the Sacrament : what our faith relies upon in the whole , she may not contradict in this . Tertullian said , that [ It is ( not only unreasonable , but ) unlawful to contradict the testimony of our sense , lest the same question be made of Christ himself , lest it be suspected that he also might be deceived when he heard his Fathers voice from heaven ] That therefore which we see upon our Altars and Tables , that which the Priest handles , that which the Communicant does taste , is bread and wine ; our senses tell us that it is so , and therefore faith cannot be enjoined to believe it not to be so . Faith gives a new light to the soul , but it does not put our eyes out ; and what God hath given us in our nature , could never be intended as a snare to Religion , or to engage us to believe a lie . Faith sees more in the Sacrament than the eye does , and tastes more than the tongue does , but nothing against it : and as God hath not two wills contradictory to each other , so neither hath he given us two notices and perceptions of objects , whereof the one is affirmative and the other negative of the same thing . 2. Whatsoever is against right reason , that no faith can oblige us to believe . For although reason is not the positive and affirmative measures of our faith , and God can do more than we can understand , and our faith ought to be larger than our reason , and take something into her heart that reason can never take into her eye ; yet in all our Creed there can be nothing against reason . If true reason justly contradicts an article , it is not of the houshold of faith . In this there is no difficulty , but that in practice we take care that we do not call that reason which is not so : for although a mans reason is a right Judge , yet it ought not to passe sentence in an inquiry of faith , until all the information be brought in ; all that is within , and all that is without ; all that is above , and all that is below ; all that concerns it in experience , and all that concerns it in act ; whatsoever is of pertinent observation , and whatsoever is revealed : for else reason may argue very well , and yet conclude falsly ; it may conclude well in Logick , and yet infer a false Proposition in Theology : but when our Judge is fully and truly informed in all that where she is to make her judgment , we may safely follow it , whithersoever she invites us . If therefore any society of men calls upon us to believe in our Religion what is false in our experience ; to affirm that to be done , which we know is impossible it ever can be done ; to wink hard that we may see the better ; to be unreasonable men , that we may off●r to God a reasonable sacrifice ; they make Religion so to be seated in the will , that our understanding will be uselesse , and can never minister to it . But as he that shuts the ●ye hard , and with violence curles the eye lid , forces a phantastick fire from the crystalline humor , and espies a light that never shines , and sees thousands of little fires that never burn : So is he that blinds the eye of his reason , and pretends to see by an eye of faith ; he makes little images of notion , and some atoms dance before him ; but he is not guided by the light , nor instructed by the proposition , but sees like a man in his sleep , and grows as much the wiser as the man that dreamt of a Lycanthropy , and was for ever after wisely wary not to come neer a River . He that speaks against his own reason , speaks against his own conscience ; and therefore it is certain , no man serves God with a good conscience that serves him against his reason . For though in many cases reason must submit to faith , that is , natural reason must submit to supernatural , and the imperfect informations of art to the perfect revelations of God ; yet in no case can a true reason and a right faith oppose each other : and therefore in the article of the Sacrament , the impossible affirmatives concerning Transubstantiation , because they are against all the reason of the world , can never be any part of the faith of God. 3. Whatsoever is m●tter of curiosity that our faith is not obliged to believe or confess . For the faith of a Christian is pure as light , plain as a Commandment , easie as childrens Lessons : it is not given to puzzle the understanding , but to instruct it ; it brings clarity to it , not darknesse and obscurity . Our faith in this Sacrament is not obliged to inquire or to tell how the ho●y bread can feed the soul , or the calice purifie our spirits ; how Christ is united to us and yet we remain imperfect even then when we are all one with him that is perfect : there is no want of faith though we do not understand the secret manner how Christ is really present , and yet this reality be no other but a reality of event and positive effect ; though we know not that Sacramental is more than figurative , and yet not so much as natural , but greater in another kind . It is not a duty of our faith to discern how Christs body is broken into ten thousand pieces and yet remains whole at the same time ; or how a body is present by faith only , when it is naturally absent , and yet faith ought to believe things to be as they are , and not to make them what of themselves they are not . We need not to be amazed concerning our faith , when our overbusie reason is amazed in the article ; and our faith is not defective though we confesse we do not understand how Christs body is there incorporeally , that is , a body after the manner of a Spirit ; or though we cannot apprehend how the Symbols should make the grace presential , and yet that the grace of God in the receiver can make the Symbols operative and energetical . The faith that is required of those who come to the holy Communion is of what is revealed plainly , and taught usually ; what sets devotion forward , not what ministers to curiosity ; that which the Good and the plain , the easie and the simple man can understand . For if thou canst not understand the reciprocations and pulses of thy own arteries , the motion of thy blood , the feat of thy memory , the rule of thy dreams , the manner of digestion , the disease of thy bowels , and the distempers of thy spleen , things that thou bearest about thee , that cause to thee pain & sorrow ; it is not to be expected that thou shouldest understand the secrets of God , the causes of his will , the impulses of his grace , the manner of his Sacraments , and the Oeconomy of his spirit . Gods works are secret , and his words are deep , and his dispensations mysterious , and therefore too high for thy understanding . St. Gregory Nazianzen * sayes of God ; the more you think you comprehend of him in your understanding , the lesse he is comprehended ; like the sand of the glass which the harder you grasp the less you can retain ; or like the sand of the sea which you can never number ; but by going about it , you are confounded , and by doing something of it , you make it impossible to do the rest . Curious inquiries are like the contentions of Protogenes and Apelles who should draw the smallest line ; and after two or three essayes they left this monument of their art , that they drew three lines so curiously that they were scarcely to be discerned . And therefore since faith is not concerned in intrigues and hard questions , it were very well if the Sacrament it self were not disguised , and charity disordered by that which is not a help but a temptation to Faith it self . In the holy Communion we must retain an undoubted faith , but not enquire after what manner the secrets of God are appointed . Whether it be or no ; that is the object of faith to enquire , and to accept accordingly . What it is , he that is to teach others and speak mysteries may modestly dispute : but how it is , nothing but curiosity will look after . The Egyptians used to say , that unknown darknesse is the first principle of the world ; not meaning that darknesse was before light ; but by Darkness they mean God , as Damascius the Platonist rightly observes ; saying , This darknesse or obscurity is the beginning of every intellectual being , and every Sacramental action : and therefore in their ceremonies they usually made three acclamations to the unknown Darkness ; that is , to God , whose secrets are pervious to no eye , whose dwelling is in a light that is not to be discerned , whose mysteries are not to be understood by us , and whose Sacraments are objects of faith and wonder , but not to be disordered by the mistaking , undiscerning eye of people that are curious to ask after what they shall never understand . Faith is oftentimes safer in her ignorance than in busie questions ; and to enquire after the manner of what God hath plainly and simply told , may be an effect of infidelity , but never an act of faith . If concerning the things of God we once ask Why or How , we argue our doubt and want of confidence : and therefore it was an excellent Counsel of S. Cyril : Believe firmly in the mysteries , and consent to the words of Christ : but never so much as speak or think , How is this done ? In your faith be as particular and minute , as Christ was in his expressions of it , * but no more . He hath told us , This is his body This is his blood : believe it and so receive it : but he hath not told us how it is so ; it is behind a cloud , and tied up with a knot of secrecy ; therefore let us lay our finger on our mouth , and worship humbly . But he that looks into the eye of the Sun shall be blind ; and he that searches into the secrets of Majesty shall be confounded with the glory . The next enquiry is , What is the use of faith in this Sacrament ? It is tied but to little duty , and a few plain articles ; what then is the use and advantages of it ? To what graces does it minister , and what effect does it produce ? To this the answer is easie , but yet such as introduces a further enquiry . Faith indeed is not curious but material : and therefore in the contemplation of this mysterious Sacrament and its Symbols , we are more to regard their signification than their matter ; their holy imployment than their natural usuage , what they are by grace than what they are by nature ; what they signifie rather than what they are defin'd . Faith considers not how they nourish the body , but how they support and exalt the soul : that they are Sacramental not that they are also nutritive ; that they are made holy to purposes of Religion , not that they are salutary to offices of nature ; that is , what they are to the spirit , not what they are to sense and disputation . For to faith Christ is present ; by faith we eat his flesh , and by faith we drink his blood ; that is , we communicate not as men , but as faithful and believers ; the meaning , and the duty , and the effect of which are now to be inquired . 1. It signifies that Christ is not present in the Sacrament corporally ; or naturally , but spiritually ; for thus the carnal and spiritual sense are opposed . So St. Chrysostom upon those words of Christ ; the flesh profiteth nothing : what is it to understand carnally ? To understand them simply and plainly as they are spoken . For they are not to be judged as they seem , but all mysteries are to be considered with internal eyes , that is , spiritually . For the carnal sense does not penetrate to the understanding of so great a secret , saith St. Cyprian . For therefore we are not devourers of flesh , because we understand these things spiritually . So Theophilaect . 2. Since the spiritual sense excludes the natural and proper , it remains that the expression which is natural be in the sense figurative and improper ; and if the holy Sacrament were not a figure , it could neither be a sign nor a Sacrament . But therefore it is called the body and blood of Christ because it is the figure of them ; as St. Austin largely discourses ; [ ●or so when good Friday draws neer , we say to morrow or the next day is the passion of our Lord ; although that passion was but once , and that many ages since : and upon the Lords day , we say , to day our blessed Lord arose from the dead although so many years be passed since ; and why is no man so foolish as to reprove us of falshood , but because on these dayes is the similitude of those things which were done so long since . Was not Christ once sacrificed ? and yet he is sacrificed still on the solemnities of Easter , and every day in the Communions of the people ; neither does he say false , who being asked , shall say that he is sacrificed ; for if the Sacraments had not a similitude of those things whereof they are Sacraments , they would be no Sacraments at all . But most commonly , by their similitudes things receive their names . ] Thus Tertullian expresses this mystery . This is , my body , that is , the figure of my body ; and St. Gregory Nazianzen calls the Passeover , because it antedated the Lords Supper , a figure of a figure . 3. But St. Austin added well ; The body of Christ is truth and figure too . The holy Sacrament is not only called the Lords body and blood , for the figure , similitude and Sacramentality ; but for the real exhibition and ministration of it . For it is truly called the body of Christ , because there is joyned with it the vital power , vertue and efficacy of the body ; and therefore it is called by St. Austin , the intelligible , the invisible , the spiritual body ; by St. Hierom ▪ the Divine and spiritual flesh ; the celestial thing , by St. Irenaeus ; the spiritual food : and the body of the divine Spirit , by St. Ambrose : for by this means it can very properly be called the body and blood of Christ ; since it hath not only the figure of his death externally , but internally it hath hidden and secret the proper and divine effect , the life-giving power of his body ; so that though it be a figure , yet it is not meerly so ; not only the sign and memorial of him that is absent , but it bears along with it the very body of the Lord , that is , the efficacy and divine vertue of it . Thus our blessed Saviour said of John the Baptist , that Elias is already come , because he came in the power and spirit of Elias . As John was Elias , so is the holy Sacrament the body and blood of Christ , because it hath the power and spirit of the body of Christ. And therefore the ancient Doctors of the Church in their Sermons of these divine Mysteries , use the word Nature and Substance , not understanding these words in the natural or Philosophical , but a Theological , in a sense proper to the Schools of Christians ; by Substance meaning the power of the substance ; by Nature , the gracious effect of his natural body : the nature and use and mysteriousnesse of Sacraments so allowing them to speak , and so requiring us to understand . 4. And now to this spiritual food must be sitted a spiritual manner of reception ; and this is the work of faith ; that spiritual blessings may invest the spirit , and be conveyed by proportioned instruments , lest the Sacrament be like a treasure in a dead hand , or musick in the grave . But this I chuse rather to represent in the words of the Fathers of the Church than mine own . [ We see ( saith St. Epiphanius ) what our Saviour took into his hands , as the Gospel says , he arose at supper and took this , an● when he had given thanks , he said , This is my body ; and we see it is not equal , nor like to it , neither to the invisible Deity , nor to the flesh : for this is of a round form , without sense : but by grace he would say , This is mine ; and every one hath faith in this saying : For he that doth not believe this to be true as he hath said , he is fallen from grace and salvation . But that which we have heard , that we believe ; that it is his . ] And again , [ The bread indeed is our food ; but the virtue which is in it , is that which gives us life : by faith and efficacy , by hope and the perfection of the Mysteries , and by the title of sanctification , it should be made to us the perfection of salvation . ] For these words are spirit and life ; and the flesh pierces not into the understanding of this depth , unlesse faith come . ] * But then , [ The bread is food , the blood is life , the flesh is substance , the body is the Church ] For the body is indeed shewn , it is slain , and given for the nourishment of the world , that it may be spiritually distributed to every one , and be made to every one the conservatory of them to the resurrection of eternal life , ] saith St. Athanasius . Therefore because Christ said , This is my body , let us not at all doubt , but believe , and receive it with the eye of the soul ; for nothing sensible is delivered us ; but by sensible things he gives us insensible or spiritual , ] so St. Chrysostom : [ For Christ would not that they who partake of the divine Mysteries should attend to the nature of the things which are seen , but let them ( by faith ) believe the change that is made by grace . [ For according to the substance of the creatures , it remains after consecration the same it did before : But it is changed inwardly by the powerful vertue of the holy Spirit ; and faith sees it , it feeds the soul , and ministers the substance of eternal life : for now faith sees it all whatsoever it is . From these excellent words we are confirmed in these two things . 1. That the divine Mysteries are of very great efficacy and benefit to our souls . 2. That Faith is the great instrument in conveying these blessings to us . For as St. Cyprian affirms , the Sacraments of themselves cannot be without their own vertue ; and the divine Majesty does at no hand absent it self from the Mysteries . ] But then unless by faith we believe all this that Christ said , there is nothing remaining but the outward Symbols , and the sense of flesh and blood , which profits nothing . But to believe in Christ , is to eat the flesh of Christ. I am the bread of life , he that cometh to me shall not hunger ; that is , he shall be filled with Christ : and he that believeth in me shall not thirst : coming to Christ , and believing in him , is the same thing : that is , he that believes Christs Words and obeys his Commandments ; he that owns Christ for his Law-giver and his Master , for his Lord and his Redeemer ; he who lays down his sins in the grave of Jesus , and lays down himself at the foot of the Crosse , and his cares at the door of the Temple , and his sorrows at the Throne of Grace ; he who comes to Christ to be instructed , to be commanded , to be relieved , and to be comforted ; to this person Christ gives his body and blood , that is food from heaven . And then the bread of life , and the body of Christ , and eating his flesh , and drinking his blood , are nothing else but mysterious and Sacramental expressions of this great excellency ; that whoever does this , shall partake of all the benefits of the Crosse of Christ , where his body was broken , and his blood was poured forth for the remission of our sins , and the salvation of the world . But still that I may use the expression of St. Ambrose , Christ is handled by faith , he is seen by faith , he is not touched by the body , he is not comprehended by the eyes . 5. But all the inquiry is not yet past : For thus we rightly understand the mysterious Propositions ; but thus we do not fully understand the mysterious Sacrament . For since coming to Christ in all the addresses of Christian Religion , that is , in all the ministeries of faith , is eating of the body and drinking the blood of Christ , what does faith in the reception of the blessed Sacrament that it does not do without it ? Of this I have already given an account * : But here I am to add , That in the holy Communion all the graces of a Christian , all the mysteries of the Religion are summ'd up as in a divine compendium ; and whatsoever moral or mysterious is done without , is by a worthy Communicant done more excellently in this divine Sacrament : for here we continue the confession of our faith which we made in Baptism ; here we perform in our own persons what then was undertaken for us by another ; here that is made explicit which was but implicit before ; what then was in the root , is now come to a full year ; what was at first done in mystery alone , is now done in mystery and moral actions and vertuous excellencies together : here we do not only here the words of Christ , but we obey them ; we believe with the heart , and here we confesse with the mouth , and we act with the hand , and incline the head , and bow the knee , and give our heart in sacrifice : here we come to Christ , and Christ comes to us ; here we represent the death of Christ as he would have us represent it , and remember him as he commanded us to remember him ; here we give him thanks , and here we give him our selves ; here we defie all the works of darknesse , and hither we come to be invested with a robe of light , by being joined to the Son of Righteousnesse , to live in his eyes ; and to walk by his brightnesse , and to be refreshed with his warmth , and directed by his spirit , and united to his glories . So that if we can receive Christs body and drink his blood out of the Sacrament , much more can we do it in the Sacrament : For this is the chief of all the Christian Mysteries , and the union of all Christian Blessings , and the investiture of all Christian Rights , and the exhibition of the Charter of all Christian Promises , and the exercise of all Christian Duties . Here is the exercise of our faith , and acts of obedience , and the confirmation of our hope , and the increase of our charity . So that although God be gracious in every dispensation , yet he is bountiful in this : although we serve God in every vertue , yet in the worthy reception of this divine Sacrament there must be a conjugation of vertues , and therefore we serve him more : we drink deep of his loving kindnesse in every effusion of it ; but in this we are inebriated : he always fills our cup , but here it runs over . The effects of these Considerations are these . 1. That by [ Faith ] in our dispositions and preparations to the holy Communion , is not understood only the act of faith , but the body of faith ; not only believing the articles , but the dedication of our persons ; not only a yielding up of our understanding , but the engaging of our services ; not the hallowing of one faculty , but the sanctification of the whole man. That faith which is necessary to the worthy receiving this divine Sacrament , is all that which is necessary to the susception of Baptism , and all that which is produced by hearing the word of God , and all that which is exercised in every single grace ; all that by which we live the life of grace , and all that which works by charity , and makes a new creature , and justifies a sinner , and is a keeping the Commandments of God. 2. If the manducation of Christs flesh and drinking his blood be spiritual , and done by faith , and is effected by the spirit , and that this faith signifies an intire dedition of our selves to Christ , and sanctification of the whole man to the service of Christ , then it follows , that the wicked do not Communicate with Christ , they eat not his flesh , and they drink not his blood : They eat and drink indeed ; but it is gravel in their teeth , and death in their belly ; they eat and drink damnation to themselves . For unlesse a man be a member of Christ , unlesse Christ dwells in him by a living faith , he does not eat the bread that came down from heaven . They lick the rock , saith St. Cyprian , but drink not the waters of its emanation : They receive the skin of the Sacrament , and the bran of the flesh , saith St. Bernard . But it is in this divine nutriment as it is in some fruits ; the skin is bitterness , and the inward juice is salutary and pleasant : the outward Symbols never bring life , but they can bring death ; and they of whom it can be said ( according to the expression of St. Austin ) they eat no spiritual meat , but they eat the sign of Christ , must also remember what old Simeon said in his prophecy of Christ , He is a sign set for the fall of many ; but his flesh and blood spiritually eaten , is resurrection from the dead . SECT . VI. Meditations and Devotions relative to this Preparatory Grace ; to be used in the days of Preparation , or at any time of spiritual Communion . St. Bernard's Meditation and Prayer . THE Calice which thou ( O sweetest Saviour Jesus ) didst drink , hath made thee infinitely amiable ; it was the work of my redemption . Certainly nothing does more pleasingly invite , or more profitably require , or more vehemently affect me than this love : for by how much lower thou didst for me descend in the declinations of humility , by so much art thou dearer to me in the exaltations of thy charity and thy glory . * Learn , O my soul , how thou oughtest to love Christ , who hath given us his flesh for meat , his blood for drink , the water of his side for our lavatory , and his own life for the price of our redemption . He is stark and dead cold who is not set on fire by the burning and shining flames of such a charity . I. Blessed Saviour Jesus , the author and finisher of our faith , the fountain of life and salvation ; by thee let us have accesse to thy Heavenly Father , that by thee he may accept us , who by thee is revealed to us . Let thy innocence and purity procure pardon for our uncleannesse and disobedience ; let thy humility extinguish our pride and vanity ; thy meeknesse extinguish our anger , and thy charity cover the multitude of our sins . II. O blessed Advocate and Mediator , intercede for us with thy Father and ours , with thy God and ours ; and grant that by the grace which thou hast found , by the prerogative which thou hast deserved , by the mercy which thou hast purchased for us , that as thou wert partaker of our sufferings and infirmities , so we by thy death and resurrection , and by thy infinite gracious intercession , may be made partakers of thy holinesse and thy glory . III. Let the brightnesse of the divine grace for ever shine upon thy servants , that we being purified from all errour and infidelity , from weak fancies and curious inquiries , may perceive and adore the wisdom and the love of God in the truth and mysteriousnesse of this Divine Sacrament : And be pleased to lighten in our spirits such a burning love , and such a shining devotion , that we may truly receive thee , and be united unto thee ; that we may feed on thee the celestial Manna , and may with an eye of faith see thee under the cloud and in the vail ; and at last may see thee in the brightest effusions of thy glory . Amen . A Confession of Faith in order to the Mysteries of the Holy Sacrament ; taken out of the Liturgy of St. Clement ; to be used in the days of Preparation or Communion . HOly , Holy , Holy , Lord God of Sabbaoth ; Heaven and Earth are full of thy glory . Blessed art thou , O God , and blessed is thy Name for ever and ever , Amen . For thou art holy , and in all things thou art sanctified and most exalted , and sittest on high above all for ever and ever . Holy is thy only begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ , who in all things did minister to thee his God and Father , both in the creation of the world , and in the excellent providence and conservation of it . He suffered not mankind to perish ; but gave to him the Law of nature , and a Law written in Tables of stone , and reproved them by his Prophets , and sent his Angel to be their guards : And when men had violated the natural Law , and broken that which was written ; when they had forgotten the Divine Judgment manifested in the deluge upon the old world , in fire from heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah , in many plagues upon the Egyptians , in the slaughters of the Philistins , and when the wrath of God did hang over all the world for for their iniquity , according to thy will he who made man resolved to become a man ; he who is the Law-giver would be subject to Laws ; he that is the High Priest would be made a Sacrifice , and the great Shepherd of our souls would be a Lamb and be slain for us . Thee his God and Father he appeased , and reconciled unto the world , and freed all men from the instant anger : He was born of a Virgin , born in flesh ; He is God , and the Word , the beloved Son , the first born of every creature ; according to the Prophecies which went before him , of the seed of of Abraham and David , and of the Tribe of Judah . He who is the maker of all that are born , was conceived in the womb of a Virgin ; and he that is void of all flesh , was incarnate and made flesh : He was born in time who was begotten from eternity : He conversed piously with men and instructed them with his holy Laws and doctrine : He cured every disease and every infirmity : He did signs and wonders among the people : He slept and eat and drank , who feeds all the living with food , and fills them with his blessing : He declared thy Name to them who knew it not : He enlightned our ignorances : He enkindled Godliness , and fulfilled thy will , and finished all that which thou gavest him to do . All this when he had done , he was taken by the hands of wicked men , by the treachery of false Priests and an ungodly people , he suffered many things of them , and by thy permission suffered all shame and reproach . He was delivered to Pilate the President , who judged him that is the Judge of the quick and dead , and condemned him who is the Saviour of all others . He who is impassible was crucified ; and He died who is of an immortal nature ; and they buried him by whom others are made alive ; that by his death and passion he might free them for whom he came , and might dissolve the bands of the Devil , and deliver men from all his crafty malices . But then he rose again from the dead , he conversed with his Disciples forty days together , and then was received up into heaven , and there sits at the right hand of God his Father . We therefore being mindful of these things which he did and suffered for us , give thanks to thee Almighty God , not as much as we should , but as much as we can : and here fulfil his Ordinance [ and believe all that he said , and know and confess that he hath given us his body to be the food , and his blood to be the drink of our souls ; that in him we live and move and have our being ; that by him we are taught , by his strength enabled , by his graces prevented , by his spirit conducted , by his death pardoned , by his resurrection justified , and by his intercession defended from all our enemies , and set forward in the way of holinesse and life eternal . ] O grant that we and all thy servants , who by faith and Sacramental participation communicate with the Lord Jesus , may obtain remission of our sins , and be confirmed in piety , and may be delivered from the power and illusions of the Devil ; and being filled with thy Spirit , may become worthy members of Christ , and at last may inherit eternal Life ; through the same our Lord Jesus Christ , Amen . CHAP. IV. Of Charity , preparatory to the Blessed Sacrament . SECT . I. THE second great Instrument of preparation to the blessed Sacrament , is Charity : for though this be involved in faith , as in its cause and moral principle , yet we are to consider it in the proper effects also of it , in its exercise and operations relative to the Mysteries . For they that speak distinctly , and give proprieties of employment to the two Sacraments , by that which is most signal and eminent in them both respectively , call Baptism the Sacrament of Faith , and the Eucharist the Sacrament of Charity ; that is , Faith in Baptism enters upon the work of a good life ; and in the holy Eucharist it is actually productive of that Charity , which at first was designed and undertaken . For Charity is that fire from heaven , which unlesse it does enkindle the Sacrifice , God will never accept it for an atonement . This God declared to us by his Laws given to the sons of Israel and Aaron . The Sacrifice that was Gods portion was to be eaten and consumed by himself , and therefore to be devoured by the holy fire that came down from heaven : And this was imitated by the Persians , who worshipped the fire , and thought what the fire devoured , their god had plainly eaten . So Maximus Tyrius tells of them , that bringing their Sacrifices , they were wont to say , O Fire our Lord , eat this meat . And Pindar * in his Olympiaes tells of the Rhodians , that when they brought a Sacrifice to Jupiter , and had by chance forgotten to bring their fire , he accepting of their good intentions , and pitying their forgetfulnesse , rained down upon them a golden shower from a yellow cloud ; that is , a shower of fire came and consumed their sacrifice . Now this is the great emblem of Charity : the flame consumes the feasters Sacrifice , and makes it a divine nutriment ; our Charity it purifies the Oblation , and makes their Prayers accepted , The Tables of the Lord , like the Delian Altars , must not be defiled with blood and death , with anger and revenge , with wrath and indignation : and this is to be in all senses of duty and ministration an unbloody Sacrifi●e . The blood of the Crosse was ●he last that was to have been shed . The Laws can shed more , but nothing else . For by remembring and representing the effusion of blood , not by shedding it , our expiation is now perfected and compleat : but nothing hinders it more than the spirit of war and death ; not only by the emissions of the hand , or the apertures of a wound , but by the murder of the tongue , and the cruelties of the heart , or by an unpeaceable disposition . It was love that first made Societies , and love that must continue our Communions : and God who made all things by his power , does preserve them by his love ; and by union and society of parts every creature is preserved . When a little w●ter is spilt from a full Vessel , and falls into its enemy dust , it curles it self into a drop , and so stands equally armed in every point of the circle , dividing the Forces of the enemy , that by that little union it may stand as long as it can ; but if it be dissolved into flatnesse , it is changed into the nature and possession of the dust . War is one of Gods greatest plagues ; and therefore when God in this holy Sacrament pours forth the greatest effusion of his love , peace in all capacities , and in all dimensions , and to all purposes , he will not endure that they should come to these love-feasts * who are unkind to their brethren , quarrelsom with their neighbours , implacable to their enemies , apt to contentions , hard to be reconciled , soon angry , scarcely appeased . These are dogs , and must not come within the holy place , where God who is the Congregating Father , and Christ the great minister of peace , and the holy spirit of love are present in mysterious Symbols and most gracious Communications . For although it be true that God loves us first , yet he will not continue to love us , or proceed in the methods of his kindnesse , unlesse we become like unto him and love . For by our love and charity he will pardon us , and he will comfort us , and he will judge us , and he will save us ; and it can never be well with us till love that governs heaven it self be the Prince of all our actions and our passions . * By this we know we are translated from death to life , by our love unto our brethren : That 's the testimonial of our comfort . I was hungry and ye fed me : I was hungry and ye fed me not : These are the Tables of our fi●al judgment . If ye love me , keep my Commandments : That 's the measure of our obedience . In that ye have done kindnesse to one of these little ones , ye have done it unto me : That is the installing of the Saints in their Thrones of Glory . If thou bringest a gift to the altar , leave it there ; go and be reconciled to thy brother : That 's the great instrument of our being accepted . No man can love God and hate his brother : That 's the rule of our examination in this particular . This is a new Commandment , that ye love one another : There 's th● great precept of the Gospel . This is an old Commandment , that ye love one another : There is the very Law of Nature . And to sum up all ; Love is the fulfilling of the Law ; that 's the excellency and perfection of a man ; and there is the expectation of all reward , and the doing all our du●y , and the sanctification of every action , and the spirit of life : It is the heart and the fire and the salt of every Sacrifice ; it is the crown of every Communion . And all this mysterious excellency is perfectly represented by that divine exhortation made by Saint Paul ; Purge out therefore the old leaven , that ye may be a new lump , as ye are unleavened . For even Christ our Passeover is sacrificed for us . Therefore let us keep the feast , not with old leaven , neither with the leaven of MALICE and wickednesse , but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth . Now concerning this grace , if we will inquire after it in order to a worthy receiving the holy Communion , we must inquire after the effects and offices of Charity ; and by the good we do , or are ready to do , take an account of our selves in this particular . The offices and general duties are three . 1. Doing good . 2. Speaking good , and , 3. ●orgiving evil . SECT . II. Of doing good to our Neighbours . HE that loves me does me good ; for until love be beneficial , it is not my good , but his fancy and pleasure that delights in me . I do not examine this duty by our alms alone ; for although they are an excellent instrument of life ( for alms deliver from death , said the Angel to old Tobit ) yet there are some who are bountiful to the poor , and yet not charitable to their neighbour . You can best tell whether you have charity to your brother , by your willingnesse to oblige him , and do him real benefit , and keeping him from all harm we can . Do you do good to all you can ? Will you willingly give friendly counsel ? Do you readily excuse your neighbours faults ? Do you rejoyce when he is made glad ? Do you delight in his honour and prosperity ? Do you stop his entry into folly and shame ? Do not you laugh at his miscarriages ? Do you stand ready in mind to do all good offices to all you can converse with ? For nothing makes Societies so fair and lasting , as the mutual endearment of each other by good offices ; and never any man did a good turn to his brother , but one time or other himself did eat the fruit of it . The good man in the Greek Epigram that found a dead mans scul unburied , in kindnesse digging a grave for it , opened the inclosures of a Treasure : And we read in the Annals of France , that when Goutran King of Burgundy was sleeping by the murmurs of a little brook , his Servant espied a Lizard coming from his Masters head , and essayed to passe the water ; but seeming troubled because it could not , he laid his sword over the brook , and made an iron bridge for the little beast , who passing entred into the earth , and speedily returned back to the King , and disturb'd him ( as it is supposed ) into a dream , in which he saw an iron bridge which landed him at the foot of the mountain , where if he did dig he should find a great heap of gold . The servant expounded his Masters dream , and shewed him the iron bridge ; and they digged where the Lizard had entred , where they found indeed a Treasure ; and that the Servants piety was rewarded upon his Lords head , and procured wealth to one and honour to the other . There is in humane nature a strange kind of noblenesse and love to return and exchange good offices : but because there are some dogs who bite your hand when you reach them bread , God by the ministery of his little creatures tells , that if we will not , yet he will certainly recompence every act of piety and charity we do one to another . * This the ●gyptians did well signifie in one of the new names of their Constellations : For when the wife of Ptolomaeus Euergetes had vowed her hair to the Temple upon condition her husband might return in safety , and she did consecrate the beauty of her head to the ornaments of Religion , Comonus the Astronomer told her that the Gods had p●aced her hair among the Stars ; and to this day they call one knot of Stars by the name of Berenices hair . For every such worthinesse like this will have an immortal name in some Record , and it shall be written above the Stars , and set by the names of the Sons of God , who by doing worthy things have endeared Communions and Societies of mankind . In all the Sacrifices of the Ancients they were hugely kind to one another ; they invited their friends to partake the Sacrifice , and called them to a portion of the pardon , that they might eat of that mercy and that forgivenesse which they expected from their God. Then they sent portions to the absent ; then they renewed Leagues , and re-established Peace , and made marriages , and joined Families , and united hearts , and knitted Interests by a thred and chain of mutual acts of kindness and endearment : And so should we , when we come to this holy Sacrifice ; we must keep our hearts entire to God , and divide them amongst our Brethren , and heartily love all them who feed upon the same Christ , who live by the same faith , who are entertained by the same hope , and are confederate by the laws , and the events and the causes , by the acts and emanation of the same Charity . * But this thing is plain ; no discourse here is useful , but an exhortation ; all that can be said is this ; that it is decent and it is useful , and it is necessary that we be very kind and very charitable to all the members of Christ ; with whom we are joyned by the ligatures of the same body , and supported by the strength of the same nourishment , and blessed by influences from the same Divine head , the Lord Jesus Christ. SECT . III. Of speaking good of our neighbours . IF it be not in our hands to do well , it must be in our hearts ; and the contrary must never be upon our tongues ; we are sure we can speak well , or we can abstain from speaking ill . If it be otherwise with us , we can not be welcome here ; we shall not worthily communicate . God opens his mouth and his heart and his bowels , his bosome and his treasures to us in this holy Sacrament , and calls to us to draw water as from a river ; and can we come to drink of the pleasant streams that we may have only moisture enough to talk much and long against the honour of our brother or our sister ? * Can it be imagined that Christ who never spake an ill word , should take thee into his arms , and feast thee at his table , and dwell in thy heart , and lodge thee in his bosome , who makest thy self all one with the Devil ; whose office and work it is to be an accuser of the Brethren ? No , Christ never will feast serpents at his Table * , persons who have stings instead of tongues , and venom in all the moisture of their mouth , and reproach is their language . We should easily consent that he ●hat ki●●●d a man yesterday and is likely to kill another to morrow were not this day worthy to Communicate : now some persons had rather lose their lives than lose their honour ; what then think we of their preparation to the holy communion , that make nothing of murdering their brothers or their sisters same ? that either invent evil stories falsely and maliciously , or believing them easily , report them quickly , and aggravate them spitefully , and scatter them diligently ? He that delights to report evil things of me , that will not endure so much as to have me well spoken of , hath certainly but little kindness to me : he would very hardly die for me , or lay out great sums of mony for me , that will not afford me the cheapest charity of a good word . The Jewes have a saying ; that it were better that a man were put into a flame of fire , than he should publickly disgrace his Neighbour . But in this there are two great considerations that declare the unworthiness of it . 1. They who readily speak reproachfully of others , destroy all the love and combinations of charity in the world ; they ruine the excellency and peculiar priviledge of mankind , whose nature it is to delight in society , and whose needs and nature make it necessary . Now slander and reproach and speaking evil one of another poysons love , and brings in hatred , and corrupts friendship , and tempts the biggest vertue by anger to passe unto revenge . For an evil tongue is a perpetual storm ; it is a daily temptation and no vertue can without a miracle withstand its temptation . If you strike a lamprey but once with a rod ( saith the Greek proverb ) you make him gentle ; but if often you provoke him . A single injury is entertained by Christian patience like a stone into a pocket of wooll ; it rests soft in the embraces of a meek spirit , which delights to see it self overcome a wrong by a worthy sufferance ; but he that loves to do injury by talk , does it in all companies , and takes all occasions , and brings it in by violence , and urges it rudely , till patience being weary goes away , and is waited upon by Charity , which never forsakes or goes away from patience . A wound with the tongue is like a bruise , it cannot be cured in four and twenty hours . 2. No man sins singly in such instances as these . Some men commit one murder and never do another ; some men are surprized and fall into uncleanness or drunkenness ; but repent of it speedily and never again return to folly : but an evil and an uncharitable tongue is an accursed principle ; it is in its very nature and original equal to an evil habit , and it enters without temptation , and dwells in every part of our conversation , and injures every man , and every woman : and is like the evil spirit that was in love with Tobias his wife ; if you drive him from Nineve , he will run to the utmost parts of Egypt , there also unlesse an Angel binde him , he will do all the mischief in the world , for there is not in the world a worse Devil than a devilish tongue * But I am not now to speak of it as it is injurious to our neighbour , but as it is an hinderance to our worthy communicating , The mouth that speaketh lies , or stings his neighbour , or boasteth proud things , is not fit to drink the blood of the sacrificed Lamb. Christ enters not into those lips from whence slander and evil talkings do proceed , and the tongue that loves to dispraise his brother , can not worthily celebrate the praises and talk of the glorious things of God ; and let no man deceive himself , an injurious talker is an habitual sinner ; and he that does not learn the discipline of the tongue , can never have the charity of Christ , or the blessings of the peaceful Sacrament . * Persons that slander or disgrace their brother are bound to make restitution ; It is as if they had stoln a jewel , they must give it back again , or not come hither . But they that will neither do nor speakwell of others * are very far from charity , and they that are so , ought to be as far from the Sacrament , or they will not be very far from condemnation . But a good man will be as careful of the reputation , as of the life of his brother ; and to be apt to speak well of all men is a sign of a charitable and a good man ; and that goes a great way in our preparation to a worthy Communion . SECT . IV. Forgiveness of injuries a necessary part of preparation to the holy Sacrament . THis duty is expressed not only as obligatory to us , but as relative to the Holy Sacrament , in the words of our blessed Saviour , When thou bringest thy gift to the Altar , and there remembrest that thy Brother hath ought against thee , leave there thy g●ft and go , be first reconciled to thy brother , and then come and offer . This Precept was indeed instanced in the Levitical Sacrifices and Jewish Altars ; but because , as St. Irenaeus observes , the Precepts of Christ , however expressed , relate to Moses Law but less principally , and chiefly designe an Evangeli al duty * ; therefore he referrs these words to the celebration of the Christian Eucharistical Sacrifice and Oblation ; concerning which he hath these excellent words : From the beginning God respected Abels offering because he offered in righteousness and singleness of heart . But God regarded not the Sacrifice of Cain , because he had a heart divided from his Brother , full of zeal and malice , and therefore God who knoweth all secrets thus reproves him . If thou doest rightly offer , but not rightly divide , be quiet , God will not be appeased with thy sacrifice . For if any one in outward appearance offers a clean , a right , and a pure sacrifice , but in his soul does not truly apportion his communion to his neighbour , he hath sin within , and by his external sacrifice does not bring God unto him , neither will the oblation profit him at all , unless the malice that he hath conceived within does cease , but that sin will make him every day more and more a murderer . ] In pursuance of this ; St. Cyril tells , that the Ancient Christians were wont before the Communion to kiss each other as a Symbol of reconciled minds , and forgotten injuries ; and in confirmation of this practice brings the preceptive words of our Lord now cited . And our blessed Saviour himself adds a parallel to the first precept , which gives light and explication to it : [ When you stand praying , if you have any thing against any man forgive him , that your Father which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses ] and so Christ taught us to pray [ Forgive us our trespasses , as we forgive them that trespass against us . ] Let us consider what we do , and consider what we say . Do we desire to be forgiven no otherwise ? Do not we exact every little ignorance , and grow warm at every mistake ? And are not we angry at an unavoidable chance ? Would we have God do so to us , and forgive us in no other manner than as we do , that is , turn his anger into every shape , and smite us in every part ? Or would we have God pardon us only for little things , for a rash word , or an idle hour spent less severely ? If we do so to our Brother , it is a great matter , but if he reviles us to our head , if he blasphemes , and dishonours us , if he rob us , if he smite us on the face , what then ? We rob God of his honour , his Priests of their reverence , his houses of their beauty , his Churches of their maintenance : we talk vile things of his holy Name , we despise Religion , we oppose his Honour , and care not for his Service . It is certain we do not usually forgive things of this nature to our brother ; what then will become of our prayer ? And what will be the effect of our Communion ? And yet it is certain , there is nothing in the world easier than to forgive an injury . It costs us nothing , after it is once suffered ; and if our passions and foolish principles would give us leave to understand it ; the precise duty of forgiveness is a perfect negative ; it is a letting things alone as they are , and making no more evils in the world , in which already there was one too many , even that which thou didst suffer . And indeed , that forgiveness is the best which is the most perfect negative ; that is ▪ in malice be children ; whose pretty quarrells though they be fierce as a sudden spark , yet they are as innocent as the softest part of their own flesh , and as soon out as that sudden spark , and forgotten perfectly as their first dream : and that 's true forgiveness : and without this we can never pray with just and perfect confidence and expectations . St. Peter gives this precept in a considerable instance ; Give honour unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel that your prayers be not hindred ; that is , consider that they are weak and tender , easily moved , and soon disordered ; their understanding is less , and their passions more ; and if it happens to be so , bear their burdens , comply with their innocent passions , pity their infirmities , supply the breaches made by their indiscretions , take no notice of little inconveniences : Counsel sweetly , reprove tenderly , strike no fires , and enkindle no flames ; that is , do all that you can for peace , without peevish quarrels and little commencements of a Domestick War : for if you give way to any thing of this nature , it will hinder your prayers ; for how shall the husband and the wife pray together if they be angry at each other ? For without love and without peace it is to no purpose to pray . The devotion of a man that is not in actual peace and kindness with his wife , is like a hot dead coal , it will burn his fingers that touches it ; but it is wholly useless : but he that lives in peace with her , in love and prudent conduct , his devotion is a flaming fire ; it kindles all that is round about it , it warms and shines , it is beauteous in it self , and it is useful to others ; it is fit for the house , and fit for the Altar ; it will set the Incense on smoaking , and put the sacrifice on fire . And so it is in every instance of society and conversation ; but I instanced in this the rather , because charity at home and a peaceable society in a Family is the first of all publick unions . When Philip of Macedon perswaded the Greek Embassadors that they should invite their Cities to peace and concord , Demaratus of Corinth began to laugh at him for his counsel , and thought it a thing ridiculous for him to speak of peace among the Greek Republicks , who was alwaies wrangling at home with his wise Olympias , But as to the present matter , The fourth Council of Carthage refused to accept the oblations of quarrelling and angry persons ; it is like that of the High Priests in the case of Judas his restitution of the money , they would not put it into the Treasury because it was the price of blood . Now because our blessed Master in his Law hath handled all great angers and uncharitableness under the title of murder ; The Church thought it reasonable not to receive the offerings , that is to reject from the Communion all those persons that were in mutual feuds , enmities and fierce angers . I wonder ( saith St. Cyprian ) what peace they can look for that are at war with their brethren ? These men may be compelled by the injunction of s●vere fastings to be reconciled : said Fabianus the Martyr . And in the decree of P. Victor it was expressely commanded , that they should be driven from the communion of all faithful people , who are not in peace , and have no charity to all their Brethren . This decree was renewed and earnestly pressed in the Council of Agatho . They that will not by the grace of God working within them lay aside the hat●ed and long suits and dissentions , first let them be reproved by the Priests of the City . But if they will not at their reproof lay aside their enmities , let them by a most just excommumunication be driven from the Congregations of the Church . ] Which Decree the Church of England hath inserted into the second Rubrick before her office of Communion ; of which I shall afterwards give account . But for the present we may consider that it is infinitely reasonable , that he that needs and comes for a great pardon , should not stick at the giving of a little , and he that desires to be like God , and comes to be united to him , should do like him , that is rejoyce in remitting offences rather than in punishing them . In this as in all other things we must follow Gods example ; for in this alone he else will follow ours . In imitating him it is certain we are innocent ; and if in this he follows us , though we be wicked , yet he is holy , because revenge is his , and he alone is to pay it . If therefore we will forgive , he will ; if we will not , neither will he : for he makes his spear as long , and his angers as lasting as we do ours . But this duty , and the great reasonableness and necessity I shall represent in the excellent words of the Talmudists , recorded also by the famous Bensirach * [ He that revengeth shall find vengeance of the Lord , and he will surely keep his sins in remembrance . Forgive thy neighbour the hurt that he hath done unto thee , so shall thy sins also be forgiven when thou prayest . One man keepeth anger against another , and doth he seek healing from the Lord ? He sheweth no mercy to a man that is like himself , and doth he ask forgiveness for his own sins ? If he that is but flesh nourish hatred , who will intreat for pardon of his sins ? ] The duty is plain , and the reason urgent , and the Commandment express , and the threatning terrible , and the promise excellent . There is in this no more to be said ; but that we consider concerning the manner of reducing it to practice , in order to our preparation to a worthy Communion : and consider the special cases of conscience relating to this great duty . 1. Therefore we are bound to forgive every man that offends us . For concerning every one of our Brethren it is equally true , that he is an excellent creation , that he is thy brother , that he is heir of the same hopes , born to the same inheritance , descended of the same Father , nursed by the Church which is his Mother and thine ; that there is in him Gods Image drawn by the same hand , described in the same lines ; that there are in him many good things for which he can be loved , and many reasons in him for which he ought to be pardoned ; God hath made many decrees for him , and the Angels minister to him , and Christ died for him , and his soul is very precious in the eyes of God , and in Heaven it self the man whom thou hatest is very considerable ; and there , there are great desires for his temporal and eternal happiness , and why shouldest thou despise , and why shouldest thou stand out against all this ? 2. Not only every man , but every offence must be forgiven . The Wise man saies , [ That for some things there will be no returning again : a blow indeed , or an evil word may be pardoned ; but for upbraiding and pride , and disclosing secrets , and a treacherous wound every friend will depart , and never return again . ] But he only tells how it will be , not what ought to be ; what it is likely to be in matter of fact ; not how it should be in case of conscience : and he means this of societies and civil friendships ; but in Religion , we go higher , and even these also , and greater than these must be pardoned ; unless we would prescribe a limit to Gods mercy in the remission of our sins . He will pardon every sin of ours , for the pardon of which we can rightly pray ; but yet we must pray for it , and hope it upon no measures but those of our , forgiveness ; O Jupiter ( said the distressed Prince ) hear our prayers according to our piety , look upon us , and as we do , so give us help , and there is no instance that can be considerable to the lessening or excusing of this duty . We must forgive not only injuries in the matter of money ; but in all errours and crimes whatsoever in which any man can sin , and thou canst be offended . 3. Although in these things there is no difficulty ; yet in the intention and expressions of this duty there is some . For if it be inquired what is meant by forgiving ; many men suppose it is nothing but saying , I forgive him with all my heart , and I pray God forgive him ; But this is but words , and we must have more material significations of it then so , because nothing can commute for the omission of the necessary parts of this duty . It is therefore necessary that we observe these measures . 1. Every man that hath received injuries be they never so great , must have a mind perfectly free from all intentions of revenge in any instance whatsoever . For when the question is concerning forgiving him that did the wrong , every man can best answer his question by placing himself in the seat of him that did the offence , and considering to what purposes , and by what significations , and in what degrees , and to what event of things himself would fain be pardoned , if he were in his case and did repent the injury and did desire pardon . That 's the measure and the rule ; and we learn it from * Chrysologus . Thou art a sinful man , and thou wouldst that God and man should alwaies forgive thee . Do thou forgive alwaies ; so much , so often , so intirely as thou wouldest be pardoned thy self ; so much , so often , and so intirely give pardon to thy enemy : and this together with the reason of it is well expressed in the Gospel of the Nazarens . If thy Brother sins against thee in words , and offers thee satisfaction seven times in a day , receive him . Simon his Disciple saith unto him , seven times in a day ? The Lord answers , yea , I say unto you , seventy times seven times . For even amongst the Prophets also , after they were annointed with the Holy Ghost , there was found the word of sin , that is , they also offended in their tongues . Against this there is no objection , but what is made by the foolish discourses of young men , fighters and malicious , who by the evil manners of the world are taught to call revenge gallantry , and the pardoning of injuries to be pusillanimity and cowardice : for this Devil that dwells in tombs and and cannot be bound with chains , prevailes infinitly upon this account amongst the more glorious part of mankind ; but ( as all other things are , which oppose the wisdom of God ) is infinitely unreasonable ; there being nothing in the world a greater testimony of impotency and effiminacy of spirit than a desire of revenge . Who are so cruel as Cowards , and who so revengeful as the weakest and the most passionate women ? Wise Crysippus , and gentle Thales , and the good old man who being to drink his poyson refused to give any of it to his persecutor ; these men did not think revenge a pleasure , or a worthy satisfaction . Fot what man is so barbarous as to recover his leprosie by sucking the life blood from dying infants ? a good man would rather endure ten leprosies than one such remedie . Such a thing is revenge ; it pretends to cure a wound but does it with an intolerable remedy . It was the song of Cyclops to his sheep ; feed you upon the tender herbs , I mean to feed upon the flesh and drink the blood of the Greeks ; this is a violence not only to the laws and manners , but even to the very nature of men . Lions indeed and Tygres do with a strange curiosity eye and observe him that struck them , and they fight with him above all the hunters ; to strike again is the return of beasts ; but to pardon him that smote me , is the bravest amends and the noblest way of doing right unto our selves ; whilest in the wayes of a man and by the methods of God , we have conquered our enemy into a friend . But revenge is the disease of honour , and is as contrary to the wisdom and bravery of men as dwelling in rivers and wallowing in fires is to their natural manner of living , and he who out of pretence of valour pursues revenge is like to him , who because fire is a glorious thing , is willing to have a St. Anthonies fire in his face . 2. He that is injured must so pardon , as that he must not pray to God to take revenge of his enemy . It was noted as a pitiful thing of Brutus , that when his army was broken and himself exposed to the insolencies of his enemies , and that he could not revenge himself , he cryed out most passionately in the words of the Greek tragedy , to Jupiter to take vengeance of young Octavius . But nothing is more against the nobleness of a Christian spirit , and the interest of a holy communion , than when all meet together to pray for all , and all for every one , that any man should except his enemy ; that he who prayes for blessings to the whole mystical body of Christ , should secretly desire that one member should perish . If one prayes for thee , and another prayes against thee , who knows whether thou shalt be blessed or accursed ? 3. He that means to communicate worthily must so forgive his enemy , as never to upbraid his crime any more . For we must so forgive as that we forget it ; not in the sense of nature , but perfectly in the sense of charity . For to what good purpose can any man keep a record of a shrewd turn , but to become a spie upon the actions of his enemy , watchful to do him shame , or by that to aggravate every new offence ? It was a malicious part of Darius , when the Athenians had plundered Sardis , he resolving to remember the evil turn till he had done them a mischief , commanded one of his servants that every time he waited at supper , he should thrice call upon him , Sr. remember the Athenians . The Devil is apt enough to do this office for any man ; and he that keeps in mind an injury , needs no other tempter to uncharitableness but his own memory . He that resolves to remember it , never does forgive it perfectly ; but , is the under officer of his own malice . ●or as rivers that run under ground do infallibly fall into the sea and mingle with the salt waters : so is the injury that is remembred ; it runs under ground indeed , and the anger is head , but it tends certainly to mischief ; and though it be sometimes lesse deadly for want of opportunity , yet it is never lesse dangerous . 4. He that would communicate worthily must so pardon his enemy , that though he be certain the man is in the wrong , and sinned against God in the cause , yet he must not under pretence of righting God and Religion and the laws , pursue his own anger and revenge , and bring him to evil . Every man is concerned that evil be to him that loves it , but we cozen our selves by thinking that we have nothing to do to pardon Gods enemies , and vile persons . It is true , we have not ; but neither hath any private man any thing to do to punish them ; but he that cannot pardon Gods enemy , can pray to God that he would : and it were better to let it all alone , than to destroy charity upon pretence of justice or Religion . For if this wicked man were thy friend , it may very well be supposed that thou wouldest be very kind to him , though he were Gods enemy : and we are easie enough to think well of him that pleases us , let him displease whom he list besides . 5. He may worthily communicate , that so pardons his enemy , as that he endeavour to make him to be his friend . Are you ready to do him good ? Can you relieve your enemy , if he were in want ? Yes ; it may be you can , and you wish it were come to that . And some men will pursue their enemy with implacable prosecutions till they have got them under their feet ; and then they delight to lift them up , and to speak kindly to the man , and to forgive him with all the noblenesse and bravery in the world . But let us take heed , lest instead of shewing mercy we make a triumph . Relieve his need and be troubled that he needs it . Rescue him from the calamity which he hath brought upon himself , or is fallen into by misadventure , but never thrust him down , that thou mayest be honoured and glorious by raising him from that calamity in which thou art secretly delighted , that he is intangled . Lycurgus of S●arta in a tumult made against him by some Citizens lost an eye : which fact the wiser part of the people infinitely detesting , gave the villain that did it into their Princes power ; and he used it worthily ; he kept him in his house a year , he taught him vertue , and brought him forth to the people a worthy Citizen . To pardon thy enemy as David pardoned Absalom , that 's true charity ; and he that does so pardon , needs no further inquiry into the case of conscience . It was an excellent saying of Seneca . [ When thou doest forgive thy enemy , rather seem to acquit him than to pardon him ; rather excuse the fault , than only forbear the punishment : for no punishment is greater , than so to order thy pardon , that it shall glorifie thy kindness , and upbraid and reproach his sin . 6. He that would be truly charitable in his forgiveness , and with just measures would communicate , must so pardon his enemy , that he restore him to the same state of love and friendship as before . This is urged by St. Bernard ; as the great imitation of the Divine mercy . God hath so freely , so intirely pardoned our sins , that he neither condemns by revenging , nor confounds by upbraiding , nor loves lesse by imputing . He revenges not at all , he never upbraides , and when he hath once pardoned , he never imputes it to any evil purposes any more , And just so must our reconciliation be ; we must love him as we loved him before ; for if we love him lesse , we punish him , if our love was valuable ; then he is forgiven indeed when he hath lost nothing . I should be thought severe if I should say that the true forgiveness and reconciliation does imply a greater kindness after than before ; but such is the effect of repentance , and so is the nature of love . [ There is more joy over one sinner that repenteth , than over ninety and nine just persons that need no repentance : ] and a broken * love is like a broken bone , set it well , and it is the stronger for the fracture . When Nicanor railed upon Philip of Macedon , he slighted him , and he railed still ; he then reproved him , but withal forgave him , and still he railed ; but when he forgave him , and g●ve him a donative , he sealed Nicanors pardon , he confuted his calumny , and taught him virtue . But this depends not upon the injured person alone , but upon the return and repentance of him that did it . For no man is the better with God for having sinned against him ; and no man for having injured his brother can be the better beloved by him : But if the sinner double his care in his repentance , and if the offending man increase his kindnesse , justice , and endearments in his returns to friendship , then it is the duty of charity so to pardon , so to restore as the man deserves ; that is , the sin must not be remembred in anger , to lessen the worthinesse of his amends . And this is that which our Blessed Saviour says , [ If he shall return and say , I repent , thou shalt forgive him . ] But the understanding of this great duty will require a little more exactnesse : let us therefore inquire more particularly into the practical Questions or Cases of Conscience relating to this duty . 1. How far we are bound to forgive our enemy that does repent , and how far him that does not ? 2. How long and how often must we proceed in our pardon to the penitent ? 3. What indications and signs of repentance are we to require and accept as sufficient ? 4. Whether after every relapse must the conditions of his pardon be harder than before ? 5. Whether the injured person be bound to offer peace and seek for reconcilement ? or whether may he let it alone , if the offending party does not seek it ? 6. Whether the precept of charity and forgivenesse obliges us not to go to Law ? 7. What charity or forgivenesse the offended Husband or Wife is to give to the other in case of adultery repented of ? Question I. Whether we are to forgive him that does not repent , and how far if he does , and how far if he does not ? If he have done me no wrong , there is nothing to be forgiven ; and if he offers to give me satisfaction , he is out of my debt . But if he hath been injurious , and does not repair me , then I have something to pardon . But what reason is there in that Religion that requires me to reward a sinner with a gift , to take my enemy into my bosome , to invite new injuries * by suffering and kindly rewarding the old ? For by this means we may have injuries enough , and sin shall live at the charge of the good mans piety , and charity shall be the fuel of malice ; what therefore is our duty in this case ? I answer , That there is a double sort of pardon or forgivenesse : The first and least is that which neither exacts revenge our selves , nor requires it of God , nor delights in it if it happens : and this is due to all ; those very enemies that do not repent , that cease not still to persecute you with evil , must thus be pardoned ; whether they care for it or no , whether they ask it or ask it not . For these we must also pray , we must blesse them , we must speak as much good of them as occasion and justice do require , and we must love them ; that is , do them justice , and do them kindnesse ; and this expresly required of us by our blessed Saviour * . But there is also another forgivenesse ; that is , a restitution to the first state of trust ; to love him as well , to think as well of him ; and this is only due to them that repent , and ask pardon and make amends as they can : for then the proper office of thy charity is to pity thy brothers infirmity , to accept his sorrow , to entertain his friendship and his amends , and to put a period to his repentance for having troubled thee . For his satisfaction and restitution hath taken away the material part of the injury ; and thou art as well as thou wert before , or at least he would fain have thee so ; and then there can be nothing else done but what is done by thy charity ; and by this thou must bear a share in his sorrow , believe his affirmation , accept his repentance , cancel his guilt , take off the remanent obligations , remove suspicion from him , entertain no jealousies of him , but in all things trust him where charity is not imprudent . For it is not always safe to imploy a person that hath deceived my trust and done me wrong . But if you perceive that he may wisely be trusted and imployed , charity must take off the objection of his former sailing . If by repentance he hath cut off the evil that he did thee , and that evil by which he did it , then if you refuse to imploy him because he once did you wrong , it is revenge and not prudence . If he offended thee by pride , by anger , by covetousn●sse , it is not enough that he say , Sir , forgive me , I will make you amends : It is enough to make you pardon him , and perfectly to be reconciled to him ; but unlesse his repentance hath destroyed his covetousnesse , his anger , or his pride , the evil principle remains , and he will injure thee again . Which thing if wisely and without pretences thou canst really perceive , to trust or to imploy him in such instances in which he formerly did thee injury , is not prudent nor safe ; and no charity ties thee to be a fool , and to suffer thy self to be tempted . Only be careful that you do not mistake jealousie for prudence , and so lose the rewards of charity ; lest when we think our selves wise , we become fools . Question II. How long and how often must we proceed in our forgiveness , and accept of the repentance of injurious persons ? To this we need no answer but the words of our Blessed Saviour ; If thy Brother trespasse against thee seven times in a day , and seven times in a day turn again to thee , saying , I repent , thou shalt forgive him . Now this seven times in a day , and seventy times seven times , is not a determined number , but signifies infinitely . Seven times in a day do I praise thee , said David . From this definite number some Ages of the Church took their pattern for their Canonical hours . It was well enough , though in the truth of the thing he meant , I will praise thee continually : and so must our pardoning be . For if Christ hath forgiven thee but seventy times seven times ( saith St. Austin ) then do thou also stop there ; let his measure be thine . If he denied to spare thee for the next fault , do thou so to thy Brother . But St. Hierom observes concerning this number , That Christ required us to forgive our Brother seventy times seven times in a day ; that is , four hundred and ninety times ; meaning , that we must be ready to forgive him oftner than he can need it . Now though he that sins frequently and repents frequently , gives great reason to believe that his repentances are but pretended , and that such repentances before God signifie nothing ; yet that is nothing to us ; it may be they are rendred ineff●ctual by the relapse , and that they were good for the present , as Ahabs was : but whether they be or be not , yet if he be not ashamed to repent so often , we must think it no shame and no imprudence to forgive him , and to forgive him so , that he be restored intirely to his former state of good things ; that is , there must be no let in thy charity ; if there be in prudence , that 's another consideration : But his second repentance must be accepted as well as his first , and his tenth as well as his fifth . And if any man think it hard so often to be tied to accept his repentance , let him understand that it is because himself hath not yet been called to judgment ; he hath not heard the voice of the exactor , he hath not yet been delivered to the tormentors , nor summed up his own accounts , nor beheld with amazement the vast number of his sins . He that hath in deepest apprehension placed himself before the dreadful Tribunal of God , or felt the smart of conscience , or hath been affrighted with the fears of hell , or remembers how often he hath been spared from an horrible damnation , will not be ready to strangle his Brother , and afflict him for a trifle , because he considers his own dangers of perishing for a sum which can never be paid , if it never be forgiven . Question III. What indications and signs of repentance are we to require and to accept as sufficient ? I answer , that for this circumstance there is as proper an use and exercise of our charity as in the direct forgiveness . We are not to exact securities and demonstrations Mathematical , nor to demand the extremity of things . If thy enemy be willing to make an amends , accept of his very willingnesse for some part , and his amends for the other . Let every good act be forwardly entertained , and persuade you heartily that all is well within . If you can reasonably think so , you are bound to think so ; for after all the signs of repentance in the world he may deceive you ; and whether his heart be right or not , you can never know but by the judgment of charity ; and that you may better use betimes . For when ever your returning enemy saies he does repent ( that is , gives humane and probable indications of his repentance ; ) you cannot tell but that he saies true ; and therefore you must forgive . The words of Christ are plain ; if he returns , saying , I do repent : then it is a duty , and we can stay no longer ; for he that confesses his sin , and praies for pardon , hath done great violence and mortification to himself ; he hath punished his fault * ; and then there is nothing left to be done by the offended party but to return to mercy and charity . * But in this affair it is remarkable what we are commanded by our blessed Lord : Agree with thine adversary quickly , &c. l●ft thou be constrained to pay the utmost farthing . Plainly intimating ; that in reconcilements and returns of friendship there is supposed alwaies something to be abated , something clearly forgiven : for if he pay thee to the utmost farthing , thou hast forgiven nothing It is merchandise and not forgivenesse to restore him that does as much as you can require . Be not over righteous , saith Solomon ; that is , let charity do something of thy work , allow to her , place , and powers , and opportunity . It was an excellent saying of St. Bernard : [ God is never called the God of revenges , but the Father of mercies ; because the original of his revenges he takes from us and our sins , but the original and the causes of his forgivenesse he takes from himself : ] and so should we ; that we restore him that did us wrong to our love again ; let it not be wholly , because he hath done all that can be required , but something upon our own account ; let our mercy have a share in it ; that is , let us accept him readily , receive him quickly , believe him easiy , expound all things to the better sense , take his word , and receive his repentance ; and forgive him at the beginning of it ; not to interrupt his repentance , but to incourage it : and that 's the proper work of charity in the present Article . Question IV. Whether after every relapse must the conditions of his pardon be harder than before ? I answer , that I find no difference in the expression of our blessed Saviour . It is all one after seven times , and after seventy times , and after seventy times seven times ; If he shall return saying I repent , that 's all is here required . But then because by saying [ I repent ] is not meant only the speaking it , but also doing it ; must at least be probable that he does so , as well as say so ; therefore although as soon as he does so , so soon you must forgive him , yet 1. After the first forgivenesse , and at the second and third offence , we are not obliged so readily to believe his saying , as after the first offence ; at which time although he did violence to justice and charity , yet he had not broken his faith as now he hath ; and therefore the oftner he hath relapsed , the more significations he ought to give of the truth of his repentance . He that is pardoned and sins again cannot expect so easily to be acquitted the third time as at the first , saith S Basil. At the first fault we must believe his saying , because we know nothing to the contrary ; but when he hath often said so , and it is seen so often that he did not say true , he that is forgiven and then relapses is obliged to do more the next time he pretends repentance . 2. Alt●ough we ●re bound to forgive him intirely even after a thousand injuries , if he does truly repent ; yet this person cannot expect to be imployed , or to be returned to all his former capacities of good ; because it is plain , he hath not cured the evil principle , the malicious heart , or the evil eye , the slanderous tongue , or the unjust hand ; his covetous desire , and his peevish anger : and then though we must be ready in heart to receive him to all the degrees of his former condition , when he shall be capable , and is the same man that ought to be imployed ; yet till he be so , or appears so in prudent and reasonable indications , he must be pardoned heartily , and prayed for charitably , but he must be handled cautiously , It must not be harder for thee to pardon him after ten thousand relapses and returns : but after so much variety of folly and weak instances , it will be much harder for him to say and prove he does repent . But in this our charity must neither be credulous , nor morose ; too easie , nor too difficult ; but it is secure , if it pardons him , and prayes for him whether he repents or no. 3. There are some significations of repentance , which charity never can refuse ; but must accept the offending person as a convert and a penitent . 1. Such is open and plain confession of the fault , with the circumstances of shame and dishonour ; for he that does so much rudeness to himself as to endure the shame of his sin , rather than not to return to duty ; gives great testimony that he returns in earnest . And this can no waies be abated , unless he have done so before ; and that his confession is but formal , and his shame is passed into shamelesness . In this case we may expect some more real argument . 2. Whatsoever are the great usual signs and expresses of repentance before God , those also are to be accepted by us when they are done before men ; and though we may be deceived in these things , and God cannot : yet they are the best we can get , and something we must rely upon . And because like God we cannot discern the hearts of men ; yet we rightly follow his example , when we do that which is the next best , and expound the action to the best and most favourable sense of charity . 3. An oath if it be not taken lightly is a great presumption of an innocent , a sincere and a repenting soul. It is the sign of an ill mind not to trust him that swears seldom , and alwaies solemnly , and for ought we know , justly , said Amphides . For a solemn sacred oath is a double hedge , and it is guarded by a double fear ; lest I abuse my friend , and lest I provoke my God : and the blessed Apostle saith , That an oath is the end of all strife ; meaning , amongst persons who can cease to strive , and can cease to be injurious . It is so among them who have Religion , and who can be fit for society . For there is no man whose oath it can be fit to take , but it is also fit , that having sworn , he should be trusted . But it is seldom that our charity can be put to such extremities : and in no conversation can it happen , that a man shall do an injury , and repent , and do it again twenty times , and a hundred times in the revolution of a few daies . If such things could be , those men are intolerable upon other accounts , and though charity must refuse no man , and forgiveness must alway stand at your door ready to let in all that knock , yet the accidents of the world , caution and prudence , and innocent fears , will dispose of our affairs in other channels of security , and cut off the occasions of such disputes ; so certain is that observation of St. Heirom which I men●ioned before ; that we are tied to forgive oftner than our Brother can sin : but then also so safe are we , whose charity must be bigger than the greatest temptation : and yet no temptation is like to happen but what is less than an ordinary charity . Question V. Whether the injured person be bound to offer peace ? Or may he let it alone , and worthily communicate , if the offending party does not seek it ? To the Question , whether of the parties must begin the peace ? I answer , that both are bound . For although he that did the injury is bound in conscience and justice to go to him whom he hath injured , and he is not a true penitent if he does not ; and he must not for his part be accepted to the Communion ; of which I am to give account in the Chapter of repentance ; yet because we are now upon the title of Charity , I am to add , that if the Criminal does not come ; the offended person must offer peace ; he must go or send to him . If others begin the quarrel , do thou begin the peace , said Seneca . For sometimes the offender desires pardon , but dares not ask it : he begs it by interpretation and tacite desire ; consult therefore with his modesty , his infirmity , and his shame . He is more bound to do it than thou art , yet thou canst better do it than he can . It is not alwaies safe for him : it is never unsafe for thee . It may be an extream shame to him ; it is ever honourable to thee : it may be sometimes to his loss ; it is alwaies thy gain : for this was the resolution of Hesiod's Riddle , Half is more than the whole ; A dinner of herbs with peace is better than a stalled Oxe with contention ; and therefore upon all accounts it is for thy advantage to make the offer . I add also , it is thy duty . I do not say , that in justice thou art bound ; but in charity thou art , and in obedience to thy Lord. If thy Brother offend thee , go and tell him . Go thou , saies Christ. For by so doing we imitate God , whom though we have so often , so infinitely offended , yet he thought thoughts of peace , and sent to us Embassadors of peace * , and Ministers of reconciliation . When Pompey and Marcus Crassus were to quit their Consulships , Cueius Aurelius , I know not upon what account , ran into the Forum , and cried out , that Jupiter appearing to him in his dream commanded that they should be reconciled before they were discharged by the people : which when the people also required , Pompey stirred not but Crassus did ; he reached out his hand to his Collegue , saying , I do nothing unworthy of my self , O Romans , If I first offer peace to Pomp●y , whom you honoured with the title of Great before he was a Man , and with a Triumph before he was a Senator . We cannot want better arguments of peacefulness : It is no shame to thee to offer peace to thy offending Brother , when thy God did so to thee , who was greatly provoked by thee , and could as greatly have been revenged ; and it is no disparagement that thou shouldest desire the reconcilement with him for whom Christ became a Sacrifice , and to whom he offers , as he does to thee , the Communion of his body and bloud . * Thou art ( I say ) bound in charity to thy Brothers soul , whose repentance thou canst easily invite by thy kind offer , and thou makest his return easie , thou takest away his objection and temptation , thou securest thy own right better , and art invested in the greatest glory of mankind ; thou doest the work of God , and the work of thy own soul ; thou carriest pardon , and ease and mercy with thee ; and who would not run and strive to be first in carrying a pardon , and bringing messages of peace and joyfulness ? Consider therefore that death divides with you every minute ; you quarrel in the morning , and it may be you shall dye at night ; run quickly and be reconciled for fear you anger last longer than your life . It was a pretty victory which Euclid got of his angry Brother , who being highly displeased , cried out , Let me perish if I be not revenged : But he answered , And let me perish if I do no not make you kind , and quickly to forget your anger . That gentle answer did it , and they were friends presently , and for ever after . It is a shame if we be out done by Heathens , and especially in that grace , which is the ornament and jewel of our Religion , that is , in forgiving our enemies , in appeasing anger , in doing good for evil , in returning prayers for cursings , and gentle usages for rude treatments : this is the glory of Christianity * , as Christianity is the glory of the world . I end this with the advice of St. Bernard : let every man who desires to come worthily to the Sacrament of peace , the communion of Christs body ; for the wrong that he does be ready to ask pardon , and for the wrong that he receives be ready to give pardon , and so Christs members will be in peace . Quest. VI. Whether the precept of forgiveness , and the charity of the Communion must of necessity put a period to all Law-suits ? To this I answer ; that suits at Law in matters Criminal relating to injuries done or suff●r'd are so often mingled with interests of anger and revenge , they are so often conducted violently and passionately ; that he who forbi●s angers and reve●ge , does also in effect forbid suits of Law upon the account of injuries receiv'd . But this is to be understood only of such repetitions of right , or vindications of wrong as cannot or will not be separated from revenge . Thus if the Law which God gave to Moses in the matter of injuries , were the measure of our judicatories . [ An eye for an eye , and a tooth for a tooth ] it were not lawful to go to Law to get his eye put out that had extinguish'd mine : for this does not repair me , but only afflicts him . A Wolf is in nature less hateful than a Viper . He wounds that he may drink the blood , and kills that he may eat : but the Viper smites that he may kill , and gets nothing by it . So is every Law-suit that vexes one and repairs no man. But the rules and measures of conscience in this particular are briefly these . 1. If the injury be transient and passes away in the Act ; it is not lawful for a Christian to go to Law , because he cannot rescind the act , and he cannot repair himself , and that which remains is nothing but revenge , which can never consist with charity . 2. The case is the same if the injury be permanent , but irremediable ; for if nothing can be rescinded , if no amends can be made , it is but a phantastick pleasure to delight in the affliction of him that injur'd me . If cutting off his arm would make mine grow ; if striking him upon the face would bring me a new tooth in stead of that which he struck out of mine , then there might be a just cause of going to Law ; but when the evil remains after all that the Law can do ; it is enough that I lost a limb , I will not lose my charity ; which i● left me to make amends to me , and to procure a blessing to make me reparation . If by my arm I got my living , it is fit that he that cut my arm off should give me maintenance ; because he can repair my losse of livelihood , though he can never restore my arm ; and to cause him to be barely afflicted for my affliction , when I am not relieved by his affliction , is barbarism and a rude uncharitableness . To revenge is but the more excusable way of doing injury . Nay , Maximus Tyrius sayes , it is worse ; the revenging man is worse than the injurious : and therefore to prosecute him in Law who did me wrong , and cannot now amend me , is but uncharitableness acted under the visor of authority , so Methridates affirm'd that usually men carry arms against a thief * , for revenge as much as for their security : it is in many cases nothing else but revenge . 3. He th●t hath receiv'd an injury must not avenge himself by going to Law , though with a purpose to prevent another injury that is tolerable and inconsiderable . The reason is , because if he fears an evil that is but little , the smalnes of the evil , and the uncertainty of its event are not considerable if compar'd to the evil of revenge that is included , to the trouble of the suit , to the evil of our Brothers punishment , to his shame and to his smart , to his expence and his disorder : and the charity of forgiveness shall never have a proper season for its exercise , or an opportunity to get a reward , if every excuse and every degree of temptation , or seeming warranty , can legitimate that action which is more like a revenge , than it can be to prudence , and a reasonable caution . All quarrellngs and contentions at Law for little matters are arguments of impatience , of a peevish spirit , and an uncharitable mind . He is a very miserable man that is unquiet when a mouse runs over his shooe , or a fly does kiss his cheek , Whatsoever is little and tolerable must be let alone , said Aristides ; and Apollonius answered , that wars must not be undertaken for great causes , nor suits at Law for little ones . There is in such persons who run to Courts and complain for every small offence , such a stock of anger and peevishness , and such a spirit of fire within them , that every breath and every motion from without can put it into a flame ; and the Devil will never be wanting to minister occasions to such prepar'd materials . It is told in the Annals of France , that when the Kings of England and France in a deadly war had their armies ready to joyn b●ttel ; the French officers having felt the force of the Engl●sh valo●r , were not willing to venture the hazard of a battel , and perswaded their King to offer conditions of peace . The treaty was accepted , and the two Kings withdrew into an old Chappel in the field ; where when they had dicours'd themselves into kindness , they resolved to part friends and to appoint Commissionners to finish the Treaty . But as they were going out , a great Serpent issued out of the ruinous wall and made toward the Kings , who being affrighted with the danger , drew their swords and in that manner ran out of the Chappel . Their guards who in equal numbers attended at the door , seeing their Princes in a fright and with their swords drawn , suppos'd they were fighting , and without any sign , instantly drew upon each other ; which alarm the two armies taking , instantly engag'd in a bloody fight , and could not for all the power of their Kings be totally disengag'd till the night parted them . Just such is the danger of an angry and quarrelsome spirit . He hath his sword by his side , and his army in the field , his hand is up and his heart is ready ; and he wants nothing but an occasion , a Serpent to set him on ; and that will never be wanting as long as the old Serpent the Devil hath any malice or any power . But let us not deceive our selves : we are bound very far by the laws of charity to the soul of our Brother ; and we are very much concern'd that he be saved , and therefore our Blessed Saviour commanded us , if our brother have sinned against us , to reprove him ; not presently to hale him up to the Judge , or deliver him up to the Law ; but to use meanes and charitable instruments , not for his vexation but his conversion . And he little regards his brothers soul , who by suits of Law and arts of affliction provokes him to more anger , or hardens him in his sin , or hinders his repentance , or vexes him into impatience . But to return to the particular case . The preventing of every evil is not a sufficient pretence ( though it were true ) to commence a suit at Law , For when our blessed Saviour commands us to reprove our offending brother ; he speaks of such a one as is still in wrong and the state of injustice , a person from whom we are not sure but we may receive another injury , and yet even to this person we are commanded to be charitable in our reproof and private admonition , but are not permitted to be quick and fierce in our complaints at Law. For it is not dishonourable if a wise man be railed at , be smitten , be cheated , be derided by fools and evil persons : but to do any thing of this again , that is inhumane and inglorious . But this case is fully determined even by a heathen : you must not return evil to your enemy , although we be in danger to suffer a greater mischief ▪ and therefore not vex him at Law. For that is the defence of beasts ; who cannot keep themselves harmless but by doing a greater mischief : a tooth or a claw , a horn or a heel , these defend the beast ; who that he may not receive a wound , defends himself so that he will kill his enemy . And yet this amongst evil men is called prudent . It is not by this discourse intended that we may not take securities of him against future mischiefs , if we can do it without doing him a mischief ; but under the colour of securing our selves for the future , we must not be revenged for what is past ; neither must our revenge in small matters be used at all as an instrument of our security . If we can be secured without his affliction , we must take that way to be secured ; but if by revenges and direct inflictions of evil , or procurations of punishment , we attempt it , we are not charitable . And this is the perfect meaning of our blessed Saviour , If thine enemy take thy cloak , let him take thy coat also ; and if he strike thee on thy right cheek , tu●n thy left to him , and let him strike thee again . These words are not to be understood literally and precisely ; not so as to forbid all securities or avoiding of future evils ; for Christ himself did not do so when an evil servant smote him ; and St. Paul did not so when the High Priest commanded him to be smitten on the face ; they neither of them received it silently , nor turned the other cheek . And what if he that smote one cheek will smite no more ? or will smite the same ? How if we are not able to bear a second blow ? Or how if the offering the other cheek provoke thy enemy to scorn thee , and tempt or provoke him to strike thee , who intended no such second blow ? And were it not evidently better to withdraw from him that smites ? or to sweeten him with gentle language ? It is therefore certain these words are to be understood in the sense of prudence , equity , and charity ; that is , when you are injured , you may use all that is for your innocent defence and unmingled guards ; you may without all peradventure pray him to be quiet , you may give him reasons and arguments to let you alone ; you may give good words ; you may give blessing for cursing , that 's certainly permitted ; or you may run away ; you may flee from City to City ; or you may complain to him ; you may reprove him , and expostulate the injury with him , as Christ did , and as did St. Paul. But what is then meant by turning the other cheek ? Our blessed Saviour using an idiotism of his own language and a phrase used by the Prophet in the prediction of Christs meeknesse and passion , he turned his che●ks to tht nippers , means , that we must not resist with doing violence or affliction to him that smites ; any innocent guard , but nothing violent ; any thing that is harmless , but nothing vexations , but rather than do another evil , suffer another ; ] and this evidently demonstrates , that the preventing of every injury is no sufficient warrant to legitimate the bringing of our enemy to be punished at Law for what is past . The sum is this . No man is forbidden to lock his doors , to bar his windows , or to run from evil , or to divert it , or to reprove it . But , 1. In this question we speak of evil already done , and against revenges , not against defences ; for that which is done cannot be undone ; and therefore revenge is foolish and malicious : but that which is not done , may be prevented by all arts of gentleness and innocence ; and therefore defences are prudent , and they are lawful . 2. We speak here of little dangers and tolerable evils ; and a man must not go to Law because the Musician keeps false time with his foot ; it is not for a small matter that a man must disquiet his Brother ; he must rather suffer two , than do one evil . 4. But if the evil we fear be intolerable , and yet c●rtain , or very probable to happen , we may appeal to the Law for sanctuary or defence , though this appeal do procure affliction to our enemy ; always provided that this evil be not directly intended , nor desired secretly , nor delighted in when it happens , and be made as little as it can , prosecuted with as easie circumstances , without vexatious measures , but not without necessity . For in all ent●rcourses with our enemy there are but two things to be considered by us : how we may do him good , how we may keep our selves from evil . The latter the Law of Charity and collateral duties do permit or enjoyn respectively ; but of the former our Blessed Saviour hath made special provision . For when our blessed Lord commanded us first to reprove secretly our offending Brother , and then before witnesse if there be need ; the reason he gives is only that we may bring him to repentance , that you may gain him by rescuing his soul from guiltinesse , and his actions from injuriousnesse . If this course will not prevail , then tell it to the Church ; complain of him publickly , bring him before the Christian Judicatories ; but still that he may repent ; for if he repents , he must be thy brother still , lov'd as dearly , treated as friendly , caressed as sweetly , handled as tenderly , conversed with as obligingly . But if none of all this will prevail for his good , then look you only to the other part of the permission ; that is , that you be secured from his evil : you have done all that you are tied to do for his repentance in this method , but you have not yet done all ●hat you are tied to do in charity ; for still you must afford him all those kindnesses which Christ requires of thee for thy enemy ; that is , to pray for him , and to love him . But you may secure your selves by all means which his violence and your case hath m●de necessary . But this I say is in case the evil be intolerable , or that ●o avoid it be a matter of duty , or charity to those to whom you are obliged . Though my old friend and new enemy Ca●bo do me little spites , and kill my Deer , or shoot my Pigeons , or trespasse upon my grasse , I must not be avenged on him at the Law , or right my self by afflicting him , but strive for the rewards of patience , and labour for the fruits of my charity , and for the rest use all the guards of prudence that I can : yet if he takes away my childrens portions , or fires my houses , or exposes me and mine to beggary or destitution , I must do that duty which my charity to my children , and my justice does oblige me ; I may defend my childrens right , though that defence exposes him to evil that does the evil . I may not let Carbo alone , and suffer my children to be undone . I must provide for my own , according to their condition and states of life ; if this provision be but necessary or competent , according to prudent , modest , and wise accounts , and be not a contention for excesses and extravagancies of wealth . He that goes to Law for another , hath greater warrant than he that does it for himself ; for it is more likely to be charity in their case , and revenge in my own ; and certainly in the disputes of charity our children are to be preferred before our enemies . In short . If the vexation that is brought by the suit of Law upon an injurious person be not revenge , and if the defence be necessary , or greatly charitable , and if the injury be intolerable or greatly afflictive , in all these cases Christ hath left us to the liberties of Nature , and Reason , and the Laws . 5. No man must in his own case prosecute his enemy to death or capital punishment . The reasons are , because no mans temporal evil , his injury , his disgrace , his money , and his wound are not a competent value for the life of a man ; and when beyond this , there is no evil that we can do , it can in no sense consist with charity that goes so far . He that prosecutes his enemy to death forgives nothing , forbears nothing of that injury ; he means no good to his enemy , desires not his amendment , is not careful of his repentance , is not ambitious to gain a brother , to secure the interest of a soul for God , to get himself the rewards of charity ; and it is a sad thing to make thy adversary pay the utmost farthing , even whilst he is in the way , and to send him to make his accounts to God reeking in his sins , and his crimes broad blown about his ears . There are not many cases in which it can consist with the spirit of Christianity for the Laws themselves to put a criminal hastily to death * . Whatsoever is necessary that is lawful ; and of the necessities of the publick , publick persons are to judge ; only they are to judge according to the analogy and gentlenesse of the Christian Law , by a Christian spirit , and to take care of souls as well as of bodies and estates . * If the criminal can be amended , as oftentimes he can , it is much better for a Common-wealth that a good Citizen be made , than that he be taken away while he is evil * . Strabo tells of some Nations dwelling about Caucasus that never put their greatest malefactors to death : and * Diodorus says , that Sabacon , a pious and good King of Egypt , changed capital punishments into slavery and profitable works , and that with excellent successe , because it brought more profit to the publick , and brought the criminal to repentance and a good mind . Balsamo says the Greek Emperours did so ; and St. Augustin advises it as most fitting to be done . But if this in some case be better in the publick it self , it is necessary in the private ; and it is necessary in our present inquiry , in order to charity preparatory to the holy Communion : and in the Council of Eliberis there is a Canon , [ If any Christian accuse another at the Law , and prosecute him to banishment or death , let him not be admitted to the Communion , no not so much as in the article of death . ] For he whose malice passed unto the death of his brother , must not in his death receive the Communion of the faithful ; and the seal of the Charities of God. But this was severe , and it is to be understood only to be so , unlesse when we are commanded to prosecute a criminal , by the interest of necessary justice , and publick charity , and the command of the Laws : But in other cases , he that hath done so , let him repent greatly , and long , and at last Communicate : That 's the best expedient . Question VII . Whether the Laws of Forgiv●●esse , and the Charities of the Communio● , oblige the injured person to forgive the adulterous Husband or Wife , if they do repent ? There are two cases in which it is so far from being necessary , that it is not lawful to do some things of kindnesse , which in all other cases are indeed true charity , and highly significative of a soul truly merciful , and worthy to Communicate . 1. When to retain the adulterous person is scandalous ; ( as in the Primitive Church it was esteemed so in Clergy men ) then s●ch persons though they be penitent , must no● be suffered to cohabit ; they must be pa●doned to a●l purposes which are not made unlawful by accident , and to all purposes which may minister unto their repentance and salvation : but charity must not be done to a single person with offence to ●he Chu●ch ; and a Criminal must not receive adv●ntage by the prejudice of the holy and the innocen● . Against this I have nothing to oppose , but t●at those ●hurches which di● fo●bid this forgiven●sse , upon pretence of scandal , should also have considered whether or no that the forgiveness of the Criminal * , and the charitable toleration of the injury , and the patient labours of love , and the endeavours of rep●●tance , be not only more profitable to them both , but also more exemplar to others . 2. The other is the case of direct d●nger ; if the sin of the offending party be promoted by the charity of the injured man or woman , it is made unlawful so far to forgive as to cohabit ; if this charity will let her loose to repent of her repentance , it turns to uncharitablenesse , and can n●ver be a duty . But except it be in these cases , it is not only lawful , but infinitely agreeable to the duty of charity , to restore the repenting person to his first condition of love and society . But this is such a charity , as although it be a counsel of perfection , and a nobleness of forgivenesse , yet that the forgivenesse shall extend to society , and mutual endearments of cohabitation , is under no Commandment ; because the union of Marriage being broken by the adultery , that which only remains of obligation is the charities of a Christian to a Christian , without the relation of Husband and Wife . The first must be kept in the height of Christian dearnesse and communion ; but if the second can minister to the good of Souls , it is an heroick charity to do it ; but in this there ought to be no snare , for the●e is no commandment . To the answers given to these Cases of Cons●ience , I am to add this caution ; That although these cases are only the inquiries and concerns of private persons , and do not oblige P●inces , Parents , Judges , Lords of Servants , in their publick c●pacity , and they may justly punish the offender though the injury be done against themselves * , yet in these cases the punishment must be no other than * as the lancet or the cupping-glasse , as fasting , or ill-tasting drugs ; they are painful , but are also wholly given as ministeries of health . For so sometimes we put crooked sticks into the fire , we bow and beat and twist them , not to break , but to make them strait and useful . So we correct the evil inclinations of our children , and the intolerable manners of our servants , by afflictions of the body and griefs of the mind : all is well so long as it is necessary , and so long as it is charitable . I remember that when Augustus was to give sentence upon a Son that would have killed his Father , he did not according to the severity of the Laws command him to be tied in a Sack with a Cock , a Serpent , and an Ape , and thrown into Tiber , but only to be banish'd whither his Father pleas'd ; remembring , that although the Son deserv'd the worst , yet Fathers lov'd to inflict the least ; and although in Nature none ought to drink but the hungry and the thirsty , yet in Judicatories none ought to punish but they that neither hunger nor thirst ; because they that do it against their wills , exceed not the measures of charity and necessity . But both Fathers and Princes , Judges and Masters , have their limits and measures before they smite , and other measures to be observ'd when they do smite . O Christian Judge do the office of a pious Father , said St. Austin to Count Marcellinus . A man should not use a man prodigally (a) but be as sparing of another mans blood as of his own . (b) Pun●sh the sinner , pity the man. But to conclude these inquiries fully . It is very considerable , that in many cases , even when it is lawful to bring a Criminal to punishment , or to go to Law , and that it is just so to do ; yet this whole dispute being a question of charity , we are to go by other measures than in the other ; and when in these cases we do nothing but what is just ; we must remember that we are Christians , and must never expect to go to heaven , unless we do also what is charitable . Therefore inquire no more into how much is just and lawful in these cases ; but what is charitable , and what is best , and what is safest ; for then the cases of conscience are best determined , when our reward also shall greatly be secured . For it is in these inquiries of charity in order to the holy Communion , as it is in the Communion it self . Not every one shall perish that does not receive the holy Communion ; but yet to receive it is of great advantage to our souls in order to our obtaining the joyes of heaven : so is every expression of charity ; that very action which in some cases may be safely omitted , may in all cases , where there is not a contradicting duty , be done with great advantages . For he that thinks to have the reward , and the heaven of Christians by the actions of justice and the omissions of charity , is like him who worships the Image of the Sun , while at the same time he turns his back upon the Sun himself . This is so essentially reasonable , that even the Heathens knew it , and urged it as a duty to be observed in all their sacrifices and solemnities . When you pray to God ( said one of their own Prophets ) and offer a holy cloud of frankincense , come not to the gentle Deity , with ungentle hearts and hands : for God is of the same cognation or kindred with a good man ; gentle as a man , apt to pity , apt to do good ; just , as we ought to be , but infinitely more than we are : and therefore he is not good , cannot partake with him who is essentially and unalterably so . Peter Comestor tells of an old opinion and tradition of the Ancients , that forty years before the day of Judgment the Bow which God placed in the clouds shall not be seen at all : meaning , that since the Rain-bow was placed there as a sign of mercy and reconcilement , when the Sacrament of mercy and peace shall disappear , then God will come to judge the world in fire and an intolerable tempest , in which all the uncharitable , unforgiving persons shall for ever be confounded . Remember alwaies what the Holy Jesus hath done for thee : I shall represent it in the words of St. Bernard : [ O blessed Jesus , we have heard strange things of thee . All the world tells us such things of thee that must needs make us to run after thee . They say , that thou despisest not the poor , nor refusest the returning sinner . We are told , that thou didst pardon the Thief when he confessed his sin , and confessed thee ; and Mary Magdalen when she wept ; and didst accept the Syrophoenician when she prayed ; and wouldst not give sentence of condemna●ion upon the woman taken in adultery , even because she looked sadly , and was truly ashamed : thou didst not reject him that sate at the receipt of Custome , nor the humble Publican , nor the Disciple that denied thee , nor them that persecuted thy Disciples , no , not them that crucified thee . These are thy precious oyntments , apt with their sweetness to allure all the world after thee , and with their vertue to heal them . After thee and thy sweet Odours , O blessed Jesu , we will run . ] Happy is he that saies so , and does so , enkindling his charity in the bloud of Christ ( as St. Ignatius his expression is ) transcribing his example into our conversation ; for we can no way please him , but by being like him : and in the blessings of Christ , and the Communion of his body and bloud , the uncharitable and revenging man shall never have a portion . SECT . V. Devotions relative to this grace of Charity ; to be used by way of exercise and preparation to the Divine Mysteries ; in any time or part of our life : but especially before and at the Communion . The Hymn , containing acts of love to God and to our Neighbour . COme behold the works of the Lord : what desolations he hath made in the earth . He maketh Wars to cease unto the ends of the earth : he breaketh the bow , and cutteth the spear in sunder , he burneth the chariot in the fire . But unto the wicked said God , what hast thou to do to declare my Statutes , or that thou shouldst take my Covenant in thy mouth , seeing thou hatest instruction , and castest my words behind thee ? Thou sittest and speakest against thy Brother ; thou slanderest thine own mothers Son. These things thou hast done , and I kept silence : but I will reprove thee , and set them in order before thine eyes . Now consider this ye that forget God , lest I tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver . Deliver me from bloud-guiltiness O God , thou God of my salvation ; and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness . Blessed is he that considereth the poor : the Lord will deliver him in the time of trouble , The Lord will deliver him and keep him alive , and he shall be blessed upon the earth ; and thou wilt not deliver him into the will of his enemies . The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing : thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness . But I said , Lord be merciful to me : heal my soul for I have sinned against thee . Yet the Lord will command his loving kindness in the day time , and in the night his song shall be with me , and my prayer unto the God of my life : O send out thy light and thy truth , let them lead me , let them bring me to thy holy Hill , and to thy Tabernacles . Then will I go unto the Altar of God my exceeding joy : yea upon the harp will I praise thee O God my God. The righteous shall be glad in the Lord , and shall trust in him ; and all the upright in heart shall glory . Do good O Lord to them that are true of heart , and evermore mightily defend them : Do good in thy good pleasure unto Sion , build thou the walls of Jerusalem . In God will I praise his word : in the Lord will I praise his word : Thy vows are upon me O God , I will render praises unto thee . For thou hast delivered our souls from death : wilt not thou deliver our feet from falling , that we may walk before God in the light of the living ? I will love thee O God , and praise thee for ever , because thou hast done it : and I will wait on thy name , for it is good before thy Saints . Glory be to the Father , &c. A Prayer for the grace of Charity , &c. O Most gentle , most merciful and gracious Saviour Jesu , thou didst take upon thee our nature to redeem us from sin and misery ; thou wert for us led as a Lamb to the slaughter , and as a Sheep before the shearer is dumb , so thou openedst not thy mouth ; thou turnedst thy back to the smiters , and thy cheeks to the nippers , thou wert mock'd and whip'd , crucified and torn , but thou didst nothing but good to thy enemies , and prayedst with loud cries for thy persecutors , and didst heal the wound of one that come to lay violent hands upon thee ; O plant in my heart gentleness and patience , a meek and a long suffering spirit ; that I may never be transported with violent angers , never be disordered by peevishness , never think thoughts of revenge ; but may with meekness receive all injuries that shall be done to me , and patiently bear every cross accident , and with charity may return blessing for cursing , good for evil , kind words for foul reproaches , loving admonitions for scornful upbraidings , gentle treatments for all derisions and affronts , that living all my daies with meekness and charity , keeping peace with all men , and loving my neighbour as my self , and thee more than my self , and more than all the world , I may at last come into the regions of peace and eternal charity , where thou livest , who lovest all men , and wouldst have none to perish , but all men to be saved through thee , O most merciful Saviour and Redeemer Jesu , Amen . An act of Forgiveness to be said with all earnestness and sincerity before every Communion . O God , my God , I have sinned grievously against thee : I am thy debtor in a vast and an Eternal debt , and if thou shouldest take the forfeiture , I shall be for ever bound in eternal prisons , even till I pay the utmost farthing : But I hope in thy mercies , that thou wilt forgive me my ten thousand Talents ; and I also do in thy presence forgive every one that hath offended me ; whoever hath taken my goods privately and injuriously , or hurt my person , or contrived any evil against me whether known or unknown ; who ever hath lessened my reputation , detracted from my best endeavours , or hath slandered me , or reproached , reviled , or in any word or way done me injury ; I do from the bottom of my soul forgive him ; praying thee also that thou wilt never impute to him any word , or thought , or action done against me ; but forgive him as I desire thou wouldst also forgive me all that I have sinned against thee , or any man in the world . Give him thy grace , and a holy repentance for whatever he hath done amiss ; grant he may do so no more : keep me from the evil tongues and injurious actions of all men , and keep all my enemies from all the expresses of thy wrath : and let thy grace prevail finally upon thy servant , that I may never remember any injury to the prejudice of any man , bu● that I may walk towards my enemies as Christ did ; who received much evil , but went about seeking to do go●d to every man ; and if ever it shall be in my power and my opportunity to return evill , O then grant that the spirit of love and forgiveness may triumph over all anger , and malice , and revenge ; that I may be the Son of God , and ma● love God , and prove my love to thee by my love to my Brother , and by obedience to all thy Laws , through the Son of thy love , by whom thou art reconciled to mankind , our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus , Amen . Vers. Remember not Lord our offences , nor the offences of our forefathers , neither take thou vengeance of our sins . Resp. Spare us good Lord , spare thy people whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious blood , and be not angry with us for ever , Amen . CHAP. V. Of Repentance , preparatory to the Blessed Sacrament . SECT . I. WHen Isaac and Abimelech had made a covenant of peace and mutual agreement , they would not confirm it by a Sacramental Oath till the next morning , that they might swear fasting , for the reverence and religious regard of the solemn Oath ( saith Lyra. ) But Philo says they did it Symbolically , to represent that purity and cleanness of soul which he that swears to God , or comes to pay his vows , ought to preserve with great Religion . He that in a religious and solemn addresse comes to God , ought to consider whether his body be free from uncleannesse , and his soul from vile affections . He that is righteous , let him be righteous still ; and he that is justified , let him be justified , yet more , saith the Spirit of God ; and then it follows , He that thirsts , let him come and drink of the living waters freely and without money : meaning , that when our affections to sin are gone , when our hearts are clean , then we may freely partake of the feast of the supper of the Lamb. For as in natural forms , the more noble they are , the more noble dispositions are required to their production ; so it is in the spiritual : for when Christ is to be efformed in us , when we are to become the Sons of God , flesh of his flesh , and bone of his bone , we must be washed in water , and purified by faith , and sanctified by the spirit , and cleansed by an excellent repentance ; we must be confirmed by a holy hope , and softned by charity . So God hath ordered in the excellent fabrick of humane bodies : First our meat is prepared by fire , then macerated by the teeth , then digested in the stomach , where the first separation is made of the good from the bad , the wholesom juyces from the more earthy parts : these being sent down to earth , the other are conveyed to the Liver , where the matter is separated again , and the good is turned into blood , and the better into spirits ; and thence the body is supplied with blood ; and the spirits repair unto the heart and head , that thence they may be sent on Embassies for the ministeries of the body , and for the work of understanding . So it is in the dispensation of the affairs of the soul : The ear , which is the mouth of the soul , receives all meat , and the senses entertain the fuel for all passions , and all interests of vertue and vice . But the understanding makes the first separation , dividing the clean from the unclean : But when the spirit of God comes and purifies even the separate matter , making that which is morally good to be spiritual and holy , first cleansing us from the sensualities of flesh and blood , and then from spiritual iniquities that usually debauch the soul , then the holy nourishment which we receive passes into divi●e excellencies . But if sensuality be in the palate , and intemperance in the stomach ; if lust be in the liver , and anger in the heart , it corrupts the holy food , and makes that to be a savour of death , which was intended for health and holy blessi●gs . But therefore when we have lived in the corrupted air of evil company , and have sucked in the vile juices of coloquintida and the deadly henbane ; when that is within the heart which defiles the man , the soul must be purged by repentance , it must be washed by tears , and purified by penitential sorrow . For he that comes to this holy Feast with an unrepenting heart , is like the flies in the Temple upon the day of Sacrifice : the little insect is very busie about the flesh of the slain beasts ; she flies to every corner of the Temple ; and she tastes the flesh before the portion is laid before the God : but when the nidour and the delicacy hath called such an unwelcome guest , she corrupts the Sacrifice , and therefore dies at the Altar , or is driven away by the officious Priest. So is an unworthy Communicant ; he comes it may be with p●ssion and an earnest zeal ; he hopes to be fed , and he hopes to be made immortal ; he thinks he does a holy action , and shall receive a holy blessing ; but what is his portion ? It is a glorious thing to be feasted at the Table of God ; glorious to him that is invited and prepared , but not to him that is unprepared , hateful , and impenitent . But it is an easie thing to say that a man must repent before he communicates ; so he must before he prayes , before he dies , before he goes a journey , the whole life of a man is to be a continual repentance * ; but if so ; then what particular is that which is required before we receive the holy Communion ? For if it be an universal duty of infinit , extent , of unlimited comprehension ; then every Christian must alwayes be doing some of the offices of repentance : but then , which are the peculiar parts and offices of this grace which have any special and immediate relation to this solemnity ? for if there be none ; the Sermons of repent●nce are nothing but the general doctrine of good life , but of no special efficacy in our preparation . The answer to this , will explicate the intricacy , and establish the measures of our duty in this proper relation , in order to this ministery . SECT . II. The necessity of repentance in order to the holy Sacrament . 1. THe holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper does not produce it's intended effect upon an unprepared subject . He that gives his body to that which is against the spirit , & his spirit to the affections of the body , cannot receive the body of Christ in a spiritual maner . He that receives Christ , must in great truth be a servant of Christ. It is not lawful ( saith Justin * Martyr ) for any one to receive the holy Eucharistical bread and to drink of the sacred Calice , but to him that believes , and to him that lives according to Christs Commandment . For as St. Paul argues of the infinite undecency of fornication , because it is a making the members of Christ to become the members of an harlot : upon the same account it is infinitely impossible that any such polluted persons should become the members of Christ to the intents of blessing and the spirit . How can Christs body be communicated to them who are one flesh with an harlot ? and so it is in all other sins : we cannot partake of the Lords table , and the table of Devils . A wicked person and a Communicant are of contrary interests , of differing relations , designed to divers ends , fitted with other dispositions , they work not by the same principles , are not weighed in the same ballance , nor meted by like measures : and therefore they that come must be innocent or return to innocence ; that is , they must repent , or be such persons as need no repentance : and St. Ambrose gives this account of the practise of the Church in this affair . This is the * order of this mystery which is every where observed , that first by the pardon of our sins our souls be healed , and the wounds cured with the medicine of repentance , and then that our souls be plentifully nourished by this holy Sacrament : and to this purpose he expounds the parable of the prodigal son saying [ that no man ought to come to this Sacrament unless he have the wedding ring and the wedding garment ; ] unless he have receiv'd the seal of the spirit , and is cloathed with white garments , the righteousness and justification of the Saints . And to the same purpose it is , that St. Cyprian complains of some in his Church , who not having repented , not being put under discipline by the Bishop and the Clergy , yet had the Sacrament ministred to them : against whom he presses the severe words of St. Paul ; He that eats and drinks unworthily , eats and drinks damnation to himself ; that is , he that repents not of his sins before he comes to the Holy Sacrament , comes before he is prepared , and therefore before he should : and St. Basil hath a whole chapter on purpose to prove [ that it is not safe for any man that is not purged from all pollution of flesh and spirit to eat the body of the Lord ] and that is the title of the chapter : The wicked think to appease God with rivers of oyl , and hecatombs of oxen , and with flocks of sheep : they think by the ceremony and the gift to make peace with God ; to get pardon for their sin , and to make way for more : but they lose their labour ( saies the comedy ) and throw away their cost : because God accepts no breakers of their vowes ; he loves no mans sacrifice , that does not truly love his service : what if you empty all the Maevanian valleys , and drive the fat lambs in flocks unto the Altars ? what if you sacrifice a herd of white buls from Clitumnus ? One sacrifice of a troubled spirit , one offering of a broken heart is a better oblation then all the weal●h which the fields of the wicked can produce . God by the forms and rites of sacrifice * teaches us how to come to the Altars , whether for Prayer or Eucharist ; we must be sure to bring no evil passion , no spiritual disease along with us ; faith Philo. The sacrament of the Lords Supper is the Christian sacrifice , and though the lamb of God is represented in a pure oblation , yet we must bring something of our own : our lusts must be crucified * , our passions brought in fetters , bound in chains , and laid down at the foot of the throne of God. We must use our sins as the asses first colt was to be used among the Jewes ; there is no redeeming of it but only by the breaking of its neck : and when a sinner comes to God groaning under his load , carrying the dead body of his lusts and laying them before the Altar of God , saying [ this is my pride that almost ruin'd me : here is the corps of my lusts , they are now dead , and as carkasses are more heavy then living bodies , so now my sin feels more ponderous because it is mortified : I now feel the intollerable burden , and I cannot bear it . ] When a sinner makes this address to God , coming with a penitential soul , with a holy sorrow , and with holy purposes , then no oblation shall be more pleasing , no guest more welcome , no sacrifice more accepted . The Sacrament is like the word of God , if you receive it worthily , it will do you good ; if unworthily , it will be your death and your destruction . Here the penitent can be cleansed , and here the impenitent are consumed : here they that are justified shall be justified still , and they that are unholy become more unholy and accursed : here they that have not , shall have more abundantly , and they that have not , shall lose what they have already : here the living are made strong and happy , and the dead do die again . He that giveth honour to a fool ( saith Solomon ) is like him that bindeth a stone in the sling : so we read it ; but so , it is not easie to tell the meaning . The vulgar Latine reads it : As he that throws a stone into the heap of Mercury : so is he that giveth honour to a fool : and so the Proverb is easie . For the Gentiles did of old worship Mercury by throwing stones at him : now giving honour to a fool is like throwing a stone at Mercury , that is , a strange and unreasonable act : for as the throwing of stones is against all natural and reasonable way of Worship and Religion ; and is against the way of honour : so is a fool as strange and unfit a person to receive it . But when Rabbi Manasses threw stones at Mercury in contempt and defiance of the image and th● false god , he was questioned for idolatry , and paid his liberty in exchange for his outward worship of what he secretly hated : but by his external act he was brought to judgment , and condemned for his hypocrisie . This is the case of every one that in a state of sins comes to the holy Sacrament ; he comes to receive the bread of God , and throws a stone at him ; he pretends worship and secretly hates him ; and no man must come hither , but all that is within him , and all that is without , must be symbolical to the nature and holiness of the mysteries , to the designs and purposes of God. In short ; The full sense of all this is expressed in the Canon-Law , in a few words . A Sacrament is not to be given but to him that repents : for there must no sinful habit , or impure affection remain in that tabernacle where God means to place his holy spirit . It is like bringing of a swine into the Propitiatory : such a presence cannot stand with the presence of the Lord. It is Dagon before the Ark ; the Chechinah , the glory of the Lord wil depart from that unhallowed place . But because the duty of Repentance , as it is a particular grace , is limited and affirmative , and therefore is determinable by proper relations and accidents , and there is a special necessity of repentance before the receiving of the Sacrament ; we must inquire more particularly : 1. What actions or parts of repentance are necessary in our preparation to the receiving these Divine mysteries . 2. How far a penitent must be advanced in a good life , before he may come safely ; and how far , before he m●y come with confidence . 3. What significations of repentance are to be accepted by the Church . 4. Whether in case the duty be not performed , may every Minister of the Sacrament refuse to admit the wicked person , or the imperfect penitent that offers himself and persists in the desire of it . SECT . III. What actions of repentance are specially required in our preparations to the Holy Sacrament ? THe particular actions of repentance , which are to be performed in their proper seasons , which cannot be alwaies actual because they have variety , and cannot be attended to altogether , all such particulars of repentance are then in their season , they have this for their opportunity . For it is an admirable wisdom of God so to dispose the times and advantages of Religion , that by the solennities of duty our dispersions are gathered up , our wandrings are united , our indifferencies are kindled , our weariness is recreated , our spirits are made busie , our attention is called upon , our powers are made active , our vertues fermented : we are called upon , and looked after , and engaged . For as it is in motion , and as it is in lines , a long and a straight progression diminishes the strength , and makes languishing and infirmity ; but by doubling the point , or making a new Centre the moving body gathers up its parts and powers into a narrower compass , and by union , as by a new beginning , is rescued from weakness and diminution : So it is in the life of a Christian ; when he first sets forth , he is zealous and forward , full of appetite , and full of holy fires : but when his little fuel is consumed , and his flame abates , when he goes on & grows weary , when he mingles with the world , and by every conversation is polluted or allayed ; when by his very necessary affairs of life he is made secular and interested , apt to tend his civil regards , and to be remiss in the spiritual ; by often and long handling of money , beginning too much to love it : then we are interrupted in our declining piety , we are called upon by Religion , and by the sacrednesse of this holy duty are made to begin again , not to go back , but to be re-enkindled . Every time we receive the holy Sacrament all our duties are summed up ; we make new vowes , we chastise our negligence , we mend our pace , we actuate our holy purposes , and make them stronger , we enter upon Religion as if we had never done any thing before ; we bring again our first penitential heats : and as when we pray , and pray long , our devotion slackens , and our attention becomes trifling , and by wandring thoughts we are gone very far from the observation of the offices ; the good man that ministers calls out to us , Let us pray : and then the wandring thoughts run home , then we are troubled that we have lost so much of our ●rayers , as we have not attended to ; then we begin ag●in , and pray the more passionately by how much we observe our selves to have been more negligent before . If God did not particularly call upon us by these religious necessities , and stop us by the solemn return of the Sacrament , and stir up our fires , and remind us of our duty , and make actual seasons and opportunities for actual and great attendencies on religion , if God did not make some daies , and some necessities , and some opportunities for heaven ; the soul and her interest would not be at all regarded . For this life is the day for the body , and our needs do indeed require so much attendance , and imploy so much of our affections , and spend so much of our time , that it is necessary some abstractions and separations of time and offices be made . Receiving the holy Sacrament is like a Lock upon the waters ; which makes them rise higher , and begin a fuller stream as from a new principle of emanation : So that the repentance which is the duty of our life and dispersed over all the parts and periods of it , like the waters in the first Creation upon the face of the whole earth , is gathered together against the day of the Lords Communion as into a bosome and congregation of penitential waters . * Then you are to mourn for your sins , and to resolve against them , then you are to remember what vowes you have already made and broken , how often you have prevaricated in your duty , and by what temptations you are used to fall : then you are to renew the strength of your purposes , to fortifie your tenderest part , and to cut off all advantages from the enemy : then you must prune your Vine , and make the branches bleed ; then the Bridegroom comes , and you must trim your Lamp , and adorn it with the culture of Religion : that is , against the day of Communion , you must sum up all the parts of your repentance ; for the Sacrament is a summary of all the mysteries , and all the duty of the whole religion of a Christian. But Baptism and the holy Eucharist do nothing for us unless we do good works , and perfect them with a conjugation of holy duties , bringing forth fruits meet for repentance . But our iniquity must be yet a little more particular . There are some actions of repentance which must be finished and made perfect before we receive the holy Communion : and there are some which will be finishing all our life . Concerning the first the question is , which they are , and what must be done concerning them . Concerning the second , we are to inquire how far we must have proceeded in them before we may communicate . Those parts of repentance which must be finished before we approach the blessed Sacrament , are these : 1. We must have renounced , perfectly renounced all affections to sin , and firmly purpose to amend all , to sin no more , to lead a new life in all solid and material practises of vertue . This we learn from Origen : [ We eat the bread which is made a holy thing , and which sanctifies and makes holy all them who use it with holy and salutary purposes ] and designs of living holily : not by a solemn and pompous profession only , but with a real and hearty resolution : resolving not to say so , and be a fool ; but to say so , because indeed we mean so ; not to profess it because it is the custome of Christians , and the expectation of the solemnity , but because we intend really to be quit of the sin for ever . Now concerning our purposes of amendment , these things are to be taken careof : 1. That they be made prudently , attentively , sincerely , and with intuition upon a credible , possible , and designed effect . For there are some that make vowes ( purposes I cannot call them ) which they believe impossible to keep , and no man can wisely purpose such things , of which he hath such belief : but they believe themselves inevitably engaged to commit a sin , and yet as inevitably engaged to say they will not . The Greeks tell of a famous fool among them ; her name was Acco , who when she saw her self in a glasse , would discourse as wisely as she could to the other woman , and supposed her own shadow to be one of her neighbours ; with whom sometimes she had great business , but alwaies huge civilities ; only she could never agree which of them should go away first , or take the upper hand . Such wise resolvers are some persons : they take the shadow of it for a substance , and please themselves by the entertainment of the images of things ; and think that the outside and the words of a promise are the only thing that God requires ; they and their promises do not know which shall go away first ; the resolution quickly dies , and the man presently after ; but the sin lives and abides there still , and will do so for ever . Cast about and see ; you have promised what you are likely to perform ; and do you intend it in good earnest never to consent to a sin , in no circumstance , and for no argument , and by no temptation ? For he that resolves never to commit that , which he knows he shall commit , is like him who resolves he will never die ; his vain resolution sets not his death back one hour . It is hypocrisie and lying to say it before God , and it is folly and madness to pretend that we will do it , to our selves ; but of this I h●ve already spoken * 2. He that in his preparation to the holy Communion purposes to live a holy life , must not judge of the goodnesse of his purposes by the present intendment , but by the consequent performance . He must not think it is well yet , because many good purposes are broken by temptations , disordered by supervening accidents , frustrate by impotency , and laid aside by the purposes to the contrary ; such which Plutarch compares to windy eggs , which though they look fairly , yet produce no birds . Now by this consideration it is not intended that a man must defer his Communion till he hath fully performed all his purposes of a holy life , for then he should never Communicate till he dies : but by this we are advised to make such inq●iry , and to use such cautions , and to require such indications of the reality of our purposes , as becomes wise , interested , and considering persons , who are undone if they be deceived , and receive damage by the prophane and u●holy usages of the Divine Mysteries , if they were cozen'd and abused themselves in the sinceri●y and ●fficacy of their preparatory purposes . Plato tells that Alc●biades did sometimes wish Socrat●s h●d been dead , because he was ashamed to see him , for that he had not kept the promises which he had so often made to him . If we who often have communicated , do find that the purposes of reformation which we have formerly made proved ineffective ; if we perceive that we have begged pardon for our lust , and yet still remain under the power of the passion ; if we have deplored our pride , and yet cannot endure to have others preferred before us ; if we have resolved against our hasty angers , and yet after the Communion find our peevishness to return as often * , and to abide as long , and still to forrage and to prevail , we are like those foolish birds who having conceived by the wind , lay their eggs in the sand , and forget the place , and the waters wash them away . In such cases as these something more must be done besides making resolutions . Let every man make some experiment of himself , and give some instances of performance , and get ground of his passion ; and make no great haste to passe instantly to the holy Communion ; you may more safely stay one day longer , than passe on one minute too soon : but be sure of this , the fierce saying of a few warm and holy words is not a sufficient preparation to these sacred Mysteries ; and they who upon such little confidencies as these have hastned hither , have afterwards found causes enough to deplore their profane follies and presumptions ; for they see when they have eaten the Sop , they go out to sin against the Lord ; as soon as the sacred Calice hath refreshed their lips , they dishonour God with their mouths , and retain their affections here below fastned to earth and earthly things . This is it that makes our Communions have so little fruit . Men resolve to be good , and then Communicate ; they resolve they will hereafter , but they are not yet , and yet they will Communicate ; they resolve , and think no more of it , as if performance were no part of the duty and the obligation . In such cases it is not good to be hasty ; for a little stay will do better than twenty arguments to inforce your purposes . You must make new resolutions , and re-enforce your old ; but if you have already tried , and have sound your purposes to be easily untwisted , and that , like the Scenes at Masques , they were only for that show , to serve at that solemnity , learn to be more wary and more afraid the next time . The first folly was too bad , but to do so often is intolerable . But here are two Cases to be resolved . Question I. But of what nature and extent must our preparatory resolution be ? Must we resolve against all sin , or against some kinds only ? If only against some sorts , then we are not clean all over . If against all , then we find it impossible for us to perform it : And then either it is not necessary to resolve , or not necessary to perform , or not necessary to Communicate . I answer ; It is one thing to say , I shall never fall , I shall never be mistaken , I shall never be surpris'd , or I shall never slacken my watchfulness and attention ; and another thing to resolve against the love and choice of every sin . It is not always in our powers to avoid being surprised , or being deceived , or being dull and sleepy in our carefulnesse and watches . Every good and well-meaning Christian cannot promise to himself security ; but he may be tempted , or over-pressed with a sudden fear when he cannot consider , and be put sometimes to act before he can take counsel : and though there is no one sin we do but we do it voluntarily , and might escape it if we would make use of the grace of God ; yet the inference cannot run forth to all : we cannot therefore always escape all ; any one we can , but not every one . The reason is , because concerning any one if we make a question , then we can and do deliberate ; then we can attend , and we can consider , and summon up the arts and auxiliaries of Reason and Religion , and we can hear both sides speak ; and therefore we can chuse : for he that can deliberate , can take either side ; for if he could not chuse when he hath considered which to chuse , he were more a fool in considering , than by any inconsideration in the world ; for he not only does unreasonably by sinning , but he considers unreasonably and to no purpose , since his consideration cannot alter the case . Certain it is , by him that can consider , every sin can be avoided : But then , this is as certain , that it is not possible always to consider ; but surprise and ignorance , haste and dulness , indifference and weariness , are the entries at which some things that are not good will enter ; but these things are such , which by how much they are the lesse voluntary , by so much they are the less imputed . Thus therefore he that means to Communicate worthily , must resolve against every sin , the greatest and the least ; that is , 1. He must resolve never to commit any sin concerning which he can deliberate : and , 2. He must resolve so to stand upon his g●ard , that he may not frequently be surprised ; he must use prayer against all , and prudent caution in his whole conversation , and all the instruments of grace for the destruction of the whole body of sin : and though in this valley of tears there are but few so happy souls as to triumph over all infirmities , we know of none , and if God hath any such on earth , they are peculiar jewels kept in undiscerned cabinets ; yet all that intend to serve God heartily , must aim at a return to that state of innocence , to the possibility of which Christ hath as certainly recovered us , as we lost it by our own follies and the sin of Adam : that is , we must continually strive , and every day get ground of our passions , and grow in understanding and the fear of God , that we be not so often deluded , nor in so many things be ignorant , nor be so easily surprised , nor so much complain of our weakness , nor the imperfection of our actions be in so many instances unavoidable . But in the matters of choice , in voluntary and deliberate actions , we must resolve not to sin at all . In these things we must be more than conquerors . 2. He that intends worthily to Communicate , before his coming must quit all his next and immediate occasions * of habitual sins , all those states of evil , by which so long as he dwells he cannot stand uprightly . For to resolve against all sin , and yet to retain that temptation , which hath been to this time stronger than all your resolutions , is to abide in the midst of a torrent , against which you cannot swim , and yet resolve never to be drown'd * . There is no dallying in this case : He that will not throw out the bond woman and her son , he that will still retain the concubine , let him resolve what he will , and will what he is commanded , and profess what he purposes ; his profession is nothing but words , and his resolutions will prove as unstable as the thinnest air , which is not able to support a fly , unless with her wings she fans it into an accidental thicknesse . This may seem the hardest commandment of Christianity ; and Christ calls it a cutting off the right hand , and plucking out the right eye ; as if it were the greatest violence of the world . Indeed it is often times a great inconvenience to our affairs and fortune : For it may be he by whom we live is he by whom we sin , and we cannot eat but we must be in danger . If the case be so , it is indeed harder to leave the sin ; but yet the command of pulling out our eye is not the hardness , but is an act of easiness , and an instrument of facilitation : For first it must be remembred , that it is a question of souls , and no interest can be laid in balance against a soul ; it is moments against Eternity , money against heaven , life eternal against a little pension ; and therefore this precept of pulling out the right eye is very easie , when it is made the price or instrument of avoiding eternal torments : A man had better pull his heart out , than nurse a lust by which he shall die for ever . But then next to this it is considerable , that this precept of putting out the right eye , that is , removing the next occasion of sin , is so far from being an hard commandment , that it is perfectly a complying with our infirmities , and a securing of our greatest interests ; by this he conducts us tenderly , because we have no strength . For if Christ had done as Xenocrates in Valerius , and commanded his Disciples to dwell in danger that they might triumph more gloriously , we had reason to suspect our selves , and to tremble under the load of the imposition ; but Christ knew it would never consist with our safety , and never conduce to his Fathers glory ; therefore Christ bids us to avoid the occasion . He would not have weak and amorous persons to converse with fair women , that make weak eyes , and by the eyes wound the heart of a foolish man. For as Trithemius observes , good Angels never appeared in the likenesse of women , they are tempters and temptations : and therefore because of the danger Christ would not have us look ; unlesse we can do it with safety , we must not be in their company . And therefore as God gave us legs and hands in great kindnesse , yet we give money to have them cut off when they endanger the whole body : so must we quite cut off the advantages of our estate , and the pleasures of our life , rather than die eternally . There is no other variety but this ; if we be tempted in our state of life or of society , we must do violence to our fortune or our will : But the particulars of the case are these . 1. If it be easie to quit the occasion , do it lest you be tempted ; for it is worth some pain to be secured in the question of your soul. When Alcibiades was sent for from Sicily to Athens to be tried for his life , he hid himself , and left this answer to be sent ; It is better to decline a trial than to escape from under it : And so it is here : It is glorious indeed to escape ; but it is the safer way not to put it to the venture ; and therefore when you can , decline the trial ; for he that resolves to live , and yet will live under the ruins of a falling house , is but little better than a fool . 2. If it be difficult to part with the tempting occasion of your sin , then consider whether you can dwell with it , and yet not sin ; if you can , you may ; for if you neither love your danger , nor can easily part with it , it is sufficient that by plain force you resist it . 3. But if by sad experience you have learned your own weaknesse , and that as long as you dwell neer the furnace you are scorched with the flames , no interest in this world must make you lose your hopes of the other . It is not good to walk by a bank-side , or to play in the hollow seat of an aspe . He that hath escaped often is not secure ; but he that hath already smarted under the calamity , hath not so much left him to alleviate the evil as the miserable excuse of , I did not think it : for he hath found that it was so dangerous . But therefore he must decline no trouble * that he may save his soul ; and that estate is well spent that secures such an interest . But if a man be afraid of his forehead , he must not gather hony from a Bee-hive : and in many cases , if a man stands upon the matter of inconvenience , he must not pretend to be a servant of God. If you dwell in a temptation you are in danger of Eternal death , and to be secure against such a danger , what danger is it which a wise man will not endure ? All the glories of his Father could never have tempted Phaethon to have come near one of the horses of the Sun after they had given him such an horrid fall . When you have seen your self over-powred by the temptation , come not near it any more : change your dwelling ; let not one house hold you both , nor the same stars ever see you meet . But that this must be done before you receive the blessed Sacrament is therefore affirmed ; because no man can resolve against all sin , unlesse he be stronger than his temptation , or flie from it . But he that chooses to dwell with the next and proper opportunity of sin ; either he directly loves the sin , or by interpretation he loves not God , who will not for his service suffer the inconvenience of leaving his Mistresse , or venture the favour of his Patron , or is afraid to grieve his tempter , or will at no hand suffer the diminution of his fortune . It may be deferred upon the same terms upon which it can be quite omitted : that is , when upon any sure account we are impregnable against it ; but if you know not that , then you must flie away directly . If you cannot with water quench your fi●e ▪ take the wood from under it . I only add one general advice which will fit all sorts of persons that desire truely to serve God and to arrive at an excellent state of vertue ; Although they live in the world and are engaged by their duty and relations to many secular divertisements , yet as they must do what they can to change these into Religion and into some good thing one way or other ; so by these difficulties and divertisements they will find it to be impossible that they should do any thing that is greatly good ; unlesse they cut off all superfluous company , and visits and amusements . That which is necessary is too much , and if it were not necessary it would not be tolerable , but that which is more than needs , is a mil-stone about the neck of Religion , and makes it impossible to be excellently virtuous . Question . II. But is he that intends to communicate bound to quit all those occasions of sin , by which himself was tempted , and did fall , and die ? 1. I answer , That it is impossible he should . If you live in delights your chastity is tempted ; your humility is assaulted by receiving honour ; your Religion by much businesse : your truth by much talk ; your charity by living in the world ; and yet we must not hasten out of it , nor swear eternal silence , nor lay aside all our business , nor quit our preferment and honourable imployment , nor refuse all secular comforts and live in pains that we may preserve these respective graces : and yet something we must do ; some occasions must be quitted , before we communicate . To that therefore the answer is certain and indisputable ; that the occasion that is immediate to the sin , must be quitted in that in which it does minister to sin . A woman is not bound to spoil her face , though by her beauty she hath fallen : because her beauty was not the immediate cause ; it was her unguarded conversation , and looser society ; the laying her treasure open , or her wanton comportment . For beauty will invite a noble flame , as soon as kindle a smoaking brand ; and therefore the face may be preserved and the chastity too , if that be removed which brings the danger and stands closer to the sin . 2. When Dionsius of Sicily gave to Aristippus five Attick talents , he and his servant dragged them home upon their backs : but finding himself too glad of his mony , he threw it into the sea , as supposing the money to be the tempter , and no safety to be had , as long as it was above the water . If he had thought right , he had done right : if he could not have cured his covetousness and kept the mony , he had done well to part with it ; but it may be he might have been as safe , and yet wiser too . But the resolution is this . In this question distinguish the next occasion from that which is farther off ; and we are bound to quit that not this , because the vertue may be secured without it . A man may very well live in the world , and yet serve God ; and if he be hindred by the world , it is not directly that , but something else by which the cure must be effected : but if nothing else will do it , then there is no distinction , no difference between the neerest occasion and that which is farther off : for they must be all quitted : the face must be disordered , the beauty sullied , the mony thrown away , the world renounced , rather than God be provoked to anger , and thy soul ruined by thy inevitable sin . 3. He that comes to the holy Sacrament must before his coming so repent of his injury , of his rapine , of his slander , or what ever the instance be , that before he communicates he make actual restitution , perfect amends , intire satisfact●on , and be really reconciled to his offended brother . This is to be understood in these cases . 1. If the injury be remaining and incumbent on thy brother : for it is not fit for thee to receive benefit by Christs death , so long as by thee thy Brother feels an injury . Thou art unjust so long as thou continuest the wrong : and if the evil goes on , the repentance cannot : No man that repents does injure any man : and this Eucharistical sacrifice will never sanctifie any man unlesse he have the holy spirit of God , neither will the Lord bring advantages or give him blessing consequent to these solemn prayers , if he hath already injured the Lord , or proceeds to do injury to his brother . There is no repentance unlesse the penitent as much as he can , make that to be undone which is done amisse ; and therefore because the action can never be undone , at least undo the mischief ; unty the bands of thy neighbours arms , do justice and judgement ; that 's repentance ; restore the pledges ; give again that you had robbed , ask pardon for thy injury , return to peace , put thy neighbour if thou canst into the same state of good from whence by thy sin he was removed . That a good repentance that bears fruit , and not that which produces leaves only . When the heathens gods were to choose what trees they would have sacred to them and used in their festivals ; Jupiter chose the Oake , Venus the Myrtle , Apollo loved the Laurel , but wise Minerva took the Olive . The other trees gave no fruit ; an uselesse apple from the Oak , or little berries from the Laurel and the Myrtle ; but besides the show , they were good but for very little : but the Olive gives an excellent fruit , fit for food and Physick , which when Jupiter observed , he kissed his daughter , and called her wise : for all pompousness is vain , and the solemn Religion stands for nothing , unlesse that which we do , be profitable and good for material uses . Cui bono ? To what purpose is our repentance ? Why do we say we are sorrowful ? What 's that ? Nollem factum . I wish I had never done it ; for I did amiss . If you say as you think , make that it shall be no more ; do no new injury , and cut off the old . Restore him to his fame , to his money , to his liberty , and to his lost advantages . 2. But this must suppose that it is in thy power to do it . If it be in thy power to do it , and thou doest it not , thou canst not reasonably pretend that thou art so much as sorrowful . For what repentance is it which enjoyes the pleasure and the profit of the sin , that reaps the pleasant fruits of it , that eats the revenues , that gathers the grapes from our neighbours vine , that dwells in the fields of the Fatherlesse and kneads his bread with the infusion of the widdows tears ? The snake in the Apologue crept into the holy Phial of sacred oyle . and lickt it up till she swell'd so big that she could not get forth from the narrow entrance , but she was forced to refund it every drop , or she had there remained a prisoner for ever . And therefore tell me no more thou art sorry for what thou hast done : if thou retainest the purchase of thy sin , thou lovest the fruit of it , and therefore canst not curse the tree . Thou didst never love the sin for it self without the profit , and therefore if thou still dost love that , thou lovest the sin as much as ever ; neither more nor less ; but thou art still the same man. Question III. But can it in no case be lawful to put off our restitution or reconciliation with our brother ? Is it not sufficient to resolve to do it afterward , and in the mean time to receive the Sacrament ? For if the heart be peaceful , and the mind be just , the outward work may follow in its due time , and all be well enough . I answer : That a man is not tied in that Mathematical instant in which he remembers his injustice to go and make restitution . He is not tied to go out of the Church , or to rise at midnight , or to leave his meat , as Tobit did to go and bury the dead ; unless there ●e danger that if he do not do it then it shall never be done at all : For in this case , he must do it , whether it be convenient or inconvenient , whether it be seasonable or not . But every man is bound to do it as soon as he morally can , and he must go about it , as he does about other actions in which he is mightily concerned . If a man d●d diligently examine himself , and yet thought not of the obligation ( though that can hardly be supposed ; yet if it be so , and he did not think of it ) till he were kneeling before the holy Table , then it were sufficient to resolve to do it speedily after , because he cannot without scandal remove and go forth , but without prejudice to his brother he can stay till next day . If he inquired diligently , and had a mind ready to do every thing which he could learn to be his duty , there was no unworthiness in him to hinder him from coming ; and this cannot be prejudiced by a new and sudden discovery , if it be entertained with the same justice and readiness of mind . But else ; what you can learn in these cases ought to be done at all , must be done before the Communion , if we can : that is , there must be no let in the will , no imperfect resolution , no indifference of affections to it . If it can be done before , it must . For so said our blessed Saviour , If at the Altar thou remembrest , go and be reconciled . That is , if thou art not reconciled , if thou art not in charity , or if thou beest in thy heart still injurious , and hast not a just and a righteous soul , go even from before the Altar ; but if thou hast a real charity , and hast done the duties of these graces by a moral diligence ; you may come ; and a sudden remembrance of an undiscovered obligation need not to expose thee to the reproach of a sudden departure : provided I say alwaies that thou wert indeed truly reconciled , and truly charitable . For by our Lords express command you must at no hand offer till thou beest in charity : till thou hast forgiven , or till thou doest cease to hate , till thou beest reconciled , that 's our Saviours word ; for it is the inward grace which thou art tied to in all circumstances , and therefore in that ; but to the outward , something else may be necessary and fit to be considered . Nothing can hinder thee from charity , in any circumstances whatsoever ; from present or actual restitution , many things may , and yet thou be innocent . But if thou beest an angry person , or an unjust , or malice be upon thy heart , or injustice upon thy hand , let not thy hand be upon the Altar , nor thy heart upon the Sacrament . If thy Brother hath ought against thee , I know not why thou shouldest make hast to receive the Sacrament , make hast to be reconciled : There is haste of this ; there is no such haste of the other , but that thou mayest stay , till thou hast done thy duty . Only remember this : Every deferring of it , is some degree of unwillingness to do it ; and therefore it is not good to trust thy own word , till thou hast served thy own end . After thou hast received , thou wilt think that there is less need than before , and therefore thou wilt make less haste . For what a religious man said in the case of a dying person , is also in proportion true of him who is to Communicate . He that will not restore presently if he can , is not to be absolved , is not to be communicated , although he promise restitution . Because it cannot be likely that he intends it heartily , that puts it off longer than the day of its extreme , or the day of its positive necessity . Let us not deceive our selves : of all the things in the world the holy Sacrament was never intended to give countenance to sinners , or palliation to a sin ; warranty or colour , excuse , or perpetuity . * There is a hard expression in the Prophet , They have filled the Land with violence ; and have returned to provoke me to anger , and lo , they put the branch to their nose ] and behold they are as mockers ; So the LXX . read it ; but make no mention of puting the branch to their nose . Theodotion puts them both together : they hold out the branch like mockers ; and to this Symmachus gives yet a little more light ; They lifted up the branch , making a noise like them that mock with their noses . But this interpretation is something hard ; there is yet an easier , and that which makes these words pertinent to our present duty , and a severe reproof to them who come to this holy service of God , not with the love of sons and duty of servants , but with the disaffect●on of enemies . The carrying of branches in the superstition of the Gentiles and the custome of the Jews was a sign of honour . Thus they carried the Pine-tree before the shepherds God ; they gave the Cypress to Sylvanus , and the Abricot-tree to Isis ; and th● branches of Palmes the Jews did carry before our blessed Saviour : and this is it that God complains of ; They carried branches as if they did him honour ; but they held them to their noses like mockers : that is , they mocked him secretly when they worshipped him publickly ; they came with fair pretences and foul hearts ; their ceremony was religious all over , but their lives were not answerable . The difficulty came from the homonymy of the Hebrew word , which signified a Bran●h and a noise : and it will be as difficult to distinguish an hypocrite from a Communicant , unless we really purpose to live better , and do so ; unless we leave the next occasions to sin , and do justice and judgment , and cease to do evil , and cause that my brother shall no longer feel the evils of my injustice , and of my foolish crimes . SECT . IV. How far we must have proceeded in our General repentance and emendation of our lives before we Communicate ? TO this I answer , that No man is fit to Communicate , but he that is fit to die : that is , he must be in the state of grace ; and he must have trimmed his lamp : he must stand readily prepared by a state of repentance ; and against the solemn time , he must make that state more actual , and his graces operative . Now in order to this , it is to be considered ; that preparation to death hath great latitude ; and not only he is fit to die who hath attained to the fulness of the stature of Christ , to a perfect man in Christ Jesus ; but every one who hath renounced his sin with heartinesse and sincerity , and hath begun to mortifie it . But in these cases of beginning , or of Infancy in Christ ; though it be certain that every one who is a new Creature , though but newly become so , is born of God , and hath life abiding in him , and therefore shall not passe into condemnation : yet concerning such persons the Rulers of Souls and Ministers of Sacraments have nothing but a judgment of charity , and the sentences of hope relating to the persons ; the state is so little and so allayed , and so near to the late state of death from which they are recovering , that God only knows how things are with them ; yet because we know that there is a beginning in which new converts are truly reconciled , there is a first period of life , and as we cannot say in many cases that this is it ; so in many we cannot say , this is not ; therefore the Church hopes well of persons that die in their early progressions of piety ; and consequently refuses not to give to them these divine Mysteries . Whoever are reconciled to God , may be reconciled to the Church ; whose office it is only to declare the Divine Sentence , and to administer it , and to help towards the verification of it . But because the Church cannot be surer of any person that his sins are pardoned , that he is reconciled to God , that he is in the state of Grace , that if he then dies he shall be saved , than a man himself can be of himself and in his own case , which certainly he knows better than any man else ; and that our degrees of hope and confidence of being saved when it is not presumption , but is prudent and reasonable , does increase in proportion to our having well used and improved Gods grace , and inlarges it self by our proportions of mortification and spiritual life ; and every man that is wise and prudent , abides in fears and uncertain thoughts , till he hath gotten a certain victory over all his sins ; and though he dies in hope , yet not without trembling , till he finds that he is more than conquerour ; therefore in proportion to this address to death , must also be our address to the holy Sacrament . For no man is fit to die , but he that can be united unto Christ ; and ●he only that can be so , must be admitted to a participation of his body and his bloud . It is the same case , in both we dwell with Christ ; and the two states differ but in degrees ; it is but a passing from altar to altar , from that where the Minister of the Church officiates , to that where the head of the Church does intercede . There is this only difference ; there may be some proportions of haste to the Sacrament , more than unto death , upon this account ; because the reception of the Sacrament in worthy dispositions does increase those excellencies in which death ought to find us ; and therefore we may desire to communicate , because we perceive a want of g●ace ; and yet for the same reason we may at the same time be afraid to die ; because after that , we can receive no more ; but as that finds us , we shall abide for ever . But he that fears justly , may yet in many cases die safely ; and he shall find that his fears when he was alive were useful to the caution and zeal and hastiness of repentance ; but were no certain indication that God was not reconciled unto him . The best and severest persons do in the greatest parts of their spiritual life complain of their imperfect state , and feel the load of their sins , and apprehend with trembling the sad consequents of their sins , and every day contend against them ; and forget all that is past of good actions done , and press forwards still to more grace , and are as hungry as if they had none at all and those men if they die , go to Christ and shall reign with him for ever ; and yet many of them go with a trembling heart , and though considering the infinite obliquity of them they cannot over-value their sins , yet considering the infinite goodness of God , and his readiness to accept it , they undervalue their repentance , and are safe in their humility , and in Gods goodness , when in many other regards they think themselves very unsafe . Now such men as these must not be as much afraid to communicate as they are afraid to die ; but these and all men else must not communicate till they be in that condition , that if they did die ▪ it would go well with them : and the reason is plain : because every friend of God dying so , is certainly saved ; and he that is no friend of God is unworthy to partake of the Table of the Lord. But for the reducing the Answer of this Question to practice and to particular considerations : I am to advise these things . 1. Because no man of an ordinary life , and a newly begun repentance ought hastily to pronounce himself acquitted , and in the state of grace , and in the state of salvation , in this rule of proportion ; we are only to take the judgment of charity , not of certainty , and what is usually by wise and good men sup●osed to be the certain , though the least measure of hopeful expectations in order to death , that we must suppose also to be our least measure of repentance preparatory to the blessed Sacrament . 2. This measure must not be taken in the daies of health and carelesness ; but when we are either actually in apprehension , or at least in deep meditation of death ; when it is dressed with all such terrors and material considerations , that it looks like the King of terrors , and at least makes our spirits full of fear and of sobriety . 3. This measure must be carefully taken without the allay of foolish principles , or a careless spirit , or extravagant confidences of personal predestination , or of being in any sect ; but with the common measures which Christians take when they weigh sadly their sins and their fears of the Divine displeasure ; let them take such proportions which considering men relie upon when they indeed come to die ; for few sober men die upon such wild accounts as they rely upon in talk and interest when they are alive . He that prepares himself to death , considers how deeply God hath been displeased , and what hath been done towards a reconciliation ; and he that can probably hope by the usual measures of the Gospel that he is in probability of pardon , hath by that learnt by what measures he must prepare himself to the holy Sacrament . 4. Some persons are of a timorous conscience , and apt to irregular and unreasonable fears , and nothing but a single ray from heaven can give them any portions of comfort , and these men never trust to any thing they do , or to any thing that is done for them ; and fear by no other measures but by consideration of the intolerable misery which they should suffer if they did miscarry ; and because these men can speak nothing and think nothing comfortable of themselves in that agony , or in that meditation ; therefore they can make use of this rule by the proportions of that judgment of charity which themselves make of others ; and in what cases , and in what dispositions they conclude others to die in the Lord ; if they take those or the like measures for themselves , and accordingly in those dispositions address themselves to the holy Sacrament , they will make that use of this rule which is intended , and which may do them benefit . 5. As there are great varieties and degrees of fitness to death ; so also to the holy Sacrament ; he that hath lived best , hath enough to deplore when he dies , and causes enough to beg for pardon of what is past , and for aids in the present need ; and when he does communicate , he hath in some proportion the same too ; he hath causes enough to come humbly , to come as did the Publican , and to say , as did the Centurion , Lord , I am not worthy : but he that may die with most confidence because he is in the best dispositions , he also may communicate with most comfort , because he does it with most holiness . 6. But the least measures of repentance ; less than which cannot dispose us to the worthy reception of the holy Mysteries are these : 1. As soon as we are smitten with the terrors of an afflicted conscience , and apprehend the evil of sin , or fear the Divine Judgments , and upon that account resolve to leave our sin , we are not instantly worthy and fit to communicate . Attrition is not a competent disposition to the blessed Sacrament ; because although it may be the gate and entrance of a spiritual life , yet it can be no more , unless there be love in it ; unless it be contrition , it is not a state of favour and grace , but a disposition to it . He that does not yet love God , cannot communicate with Christ ; and he that resolves against sin out of fear only , or temporal regards , hath given too great testimony that he loves the sin still , and will return to it , when that which hinders him shall be removed . Faith working by charity is the wedding garment ; and he that comes hither not vested with this , shall be cast into outer darkness . But the words of St. Paul are express as to this particular . In Christ Jesus nothing can avail but faith working by love ; and therefore without this , the Sacrament it self will do no good ; and if it does no good , it cannot be but it will do harm . Our repentance disposing us to this Divine feast , must at least be contrition , or a sorrow for sins , and purposes to leave them , by reason of the love of God working in our hearts . 2. But because no man can tell whether he hath the love of God in him , but by the proper effects of love , which is keeping the Commandments ; no man must approach to the holy Sacrament upon the account of his mere resolution to leave sin : untill he hath broken the habit , untill he hath cast away his fetters , untill he be at liberty from sin , and hath shaken off its laws and dominion ; so that he can see his love to God entring upon the ruines of sin , and perceives that Gods Spirit hath advanced his Scepter , by the declension of the sin that dwelt within ; till then he may do well to stand in the outward Courts ; lest by a too hasty entrance into the Sanctuary he carry along with him the abominable thing , and bring away from thence the intolerable sentence of condemnation . A man cannot rightly judge of his love to God , by his acts and transports of fancy , or the emanations of a warm passion ; but by real events and changes of the heart . The reason is plain , because every man hath first loved sin , and obeyed it , and untill that obedience be changed , that first love remains , and that is absolutely inconsistent with the love of God : an act of love , that is , a loving ejaculation , a short prayer affirming and professing love , is a very unsure warrant for any man to conclude that his repentance is indeed contrition : for wicked persons may in their good intervals have such sudden fires ; and all men that are taught to understand contrition to be a sorrow for sins proceeding from the love of God , and that love of God to be sufficiently signified by single acts of loving prayer , can easily by such forms and ready exercises fancy , and conclude themselves in a very good condition at an easie rate . But contrition is therefore necessary , because attrition can be but the one half of repentance ; it can turn us away from sin , but it cannot convert us unto God ; that must be done by love , and that love , especially in this case , is manifestly nothing else but obedience : and untill that obedience be evident and discernable , we cannot pronounce any comfort concerning our state of love ; without which no man can see God , and no man can taste him or feel him without it . 3. A single act of obedience in the instance of any kind where the scene of repentance lies , is not a sufficient preparation to the holy Sacrament , nor demonstration of our contrition : unless it be in the case of repentance only for single acts of sin . In this case , to oppose a good to an evil , an act of proportionable abstinence to a single act of intemperance , for which we are really sorrowful ▪ and ( as we suppose ) heartily troubled , and confess it , and pray for pardon , may be admitted as a competent testimonial that this sorrow is real , and this repentance is contrition ; because it does as much for vertue , as in the instance it did for vice : alwaies provided that whatsoever aggravations or accidental grandeurs were in the sin , as scandal , deliberation , malice , mischief , hardness , delight , or obstinacy , be also proportionably accounted for in the reckonings of the repentance . But if the penitent return from a habit or state of sin , he will find it a harder work to quit all his old affection to sin , and to place it upon God intirely ; and therefore he must stay for more arguments than one or a few single acts of grace : not only because a few may proceed from many causes accidentally , and not from the love of God ; but also because his love and habitual desires of sin must be naturally extinguished by many contrary acts of virtue ; and till these do enter , the old love does naturally abide . It is true , that sin is extinguished not only by the natural force of the contrary actions of vertue , but by the Spirit of God , by aids from heaven , and powers supernatural ; and Gods love hastens ou● pardon and acceptation ; yet still , this is done by parts and methods of natural progression ; after the manner of nature , though by the aids of God ; and therefore it is fit that we expect the changes , and make our judgment by material events , and discerned mutations , before we communicate in these mysteries , in which whoever unworthily does communicate , enters into death . 4. He that hath resolved against all sin , and yet falls into it regula●ly at the next temptation , is yet in a state of evil , and unworthiness to communicate ; because he is under the dominion of sin , he obeys it , though unwillingly ; that is he grumbles at his fetters , but still he is in slavery and bondage . But if having resolved against all sin , he delights in none , deliberately chooses none , is not so often surprized , grows stronger in grace , and is mistaken but seldom , and repents when he is , and arms himself better , and watches more carefully against all , and increases still in knowledge ; whatever imperfection is still adherent to the man unwillingly , does indeed allay his condition , and is fit to humble and cast him down ; but it does not make him unworthy to communicate , because he is in the state of grace ; he is in the Christian warfare , and is on Gods side ; and the holy Sacrament , if it have any effect at all , is certainly an instrument or a sign in the hands of God to help his servants , to inlarge his grace , to give more strengths , and to promote them to perfection . 5. But the sum of all is this ; He that is not freed from the dominion of sin , he that is not really a subject of the Kingdom of grace ; he in whose mortal body sin does reign , and the Spirit of God does not reign , must at no hand present himself before the holy Table of the Lord ; because , whatever dispositions and alterations he may begin to have in order to pardon and holiness , he as yet hath neither , but is Gods enemy , and therefore cannot receive his holy Son. 6. But because the change is made by parts and effected by the measures of other intellectual and spiritual changes , that is , after the manner of men , from imperfection to perfection by all the intermedial steps of moral degrees , and good and evil in some periods have but a little distance though they should have a great deal ; and it is at first very hard to know whether it be life or death ; and after that , it is still very difficult to know whether it be health or sickness ; and dead men cannot eat , and sick men scarce can eat with benefit , at least are to have the weakest and the lowest diet : and after all this , it is of a consequence infinitely evil , if men eat this Supper indisposed and unfit : It is all the reason of the world that returning sinners should be busie in their repentances , and do their work in the field ( as it is in the parable of the Gospel ) and in their due time come home , and gird themselves and wait upon their Lord , and when they are bidden and warranted , then to sit down in the Supper of their Lord. But in this case it is good to be as sure as we can ; as sure as the analogy of these divine Mysteries require , and as our needs permit . 7. He that hath committed a single act of sin a little before the Communion , ought for the reverence of the holy Sacrament to abstain till he hath made proportionable amends ; and not only so , but if the sin was inconsistent with the state of grace , and destroyed or interrupted the divine favour , as in cases of fornication , murder , perjury , any malicious or deliberate known great crime , he must comport himself as a person returning from a habit or state of sin ; and the reason is , because he that hath lost the divine favour cannot tell how long he shall be before he recovers it , and therefore would do well not to snatch at the portion and food of Sons , whilest he hath reason to fear that he hath the state and calamity of Dogs , who are caressed well , if they feed on fragments and crums that are thrown away . Now this Doctrine and these cautions , besides that they are consonant to Scripture and the analogy of this divine Sacrament , are nothing else but what was directly the sentiment of all the best , most severe , religious and devoutest ages of the Primitive Church . For true it is , the Apostles did indefinitely admit the faithful to the holy Communion ; but they were persons wholly enflamed with those holy fires which Jesus Christ sent from heaven to make them burning and shining lights ; such which our dearest Lord , with his blood still warm and fresh , filled with his holy love ; such whose spirits were so separate from the affections of the world , that they laid their estates at the Apostles feet , and took with joy the spoiling of their goods ; such who by improving the graces they had received , did come to receive more abundantly ; and therefore these were fit to receive the bread of the strong . But this is no invitation for them to come who feel such a lukewarmnesse and indifference of spirit and devotion , that they have more reason to suspect it to be an effect of evil life , rather than of infirmity : for them who feel no heats of love but of themselves ; for them who are wholly immerg'd in secular affections and interests ; for them who are full of passions , and void of grace ; these from the example of the others may derive caution , but no confidence : So long as they persever'd in the Doctrine of the Apostles , so long they also did continue in the breaking of bread and solemn conventions for prayer : for to persevere in the Doctrine of the Apostles signified a life most exactly Christian ; for that was the Doctrine Apostolical , according to the words of our Lord , teaching to observe all things which I have commanded you . And by this method the Apostolical Churches and their descendants did administer these holy Mysteries ; a full and an excellent testimony whereof we have in that excellent Book of Ecclesiastical Hierarchy commonly attributed to St. Dionys. The Church drives from the Sacrifice of the Temple [ meaning the divine Sacrament ] such persons for whom it is too sublime and elevated : First , those who are not yet instructed and taught concerning the participation of the Mysteries : Next , those who are fallen from the holy and Christian state , [ meaning Apostates , and such as have renounced their Baptism , or fallen from the grace of it , by a state of deadly sin , or foulest crimes . ] Thirdly , they who are possessed with evil spirits : And lastly , those who indeed have begun to retire from sin to a good life , but they are not yet purified from the phantasms and images of their past inordinations , by a divine habitude and love , with purity and without mixture . And to conclude , they who are not yet perfectly united to God alone , and to speak according to the style of Scripture , they who are not intirely inculpable and without reproach . And when St. Soter exhorted all persons to receive upon the day of the Institution , or the vespers of the Passion , he excepted those who were forbidden because they had committed any grievous sin . But what was the Doctrine and what were the usages of the Primitive Church in the ministery of the Blessed Sacrament , appears plainly in the two Epistles of St. Basil to Amphilochius in the Canons of Ancyra , those of Peter of Alexandria , Gregory Thaumaturgus , and Nyss●en , which make up the Penitential of the Greek Church , and are explicated by Balsamo ; in which we find sometimes the penance of two years imposed for a single theft ; four years , and seven years , for an act of uncleannesse , eleven years for perjury , fifteen years for adultery and incest ; that is , such persons were for so many years sep●rate from the Communion , and by a holy life and strict observances of penitential impositions , were to give testimony of their contrition and amends . The like to which are to be seen in the Penitentials of the Western Church ; that of Theodorus Archbishop of Canterbury , that of venerable Bede , the old Roman , and that of Rabanus Maurus Archbishop of Mentz : The reason of which severity we find thus accounted in St. Basil ; [ All this is done that they may try the fruits of their repentance : For we do not judge of these things by the time , but by the manner of their repentance . ] For the Bishop had power to shorten the days of their separation and abstention ; and he that was an excellent penitent was much sooner admitted ; but by the injunction of so long a trial , they declar'd that much purification was necessary for such an address . And if after , or in these penitential years of abstention , they did not mend their lives , though they did perform their penances , they were not admitted . These were but the Churches signs ; by other accidents and manifestations if it hapned that a great contrition was signified , or a secret incorrigibility became publick , the Church would admit the first sooner , and the latter not at all . * For it was purity and holinesse that the Church required of all her Communicants ; and what measure of it she required , we find thus testified : [ The faithful which hath been regenerated by baptism ought to be nourished by the participation of the divine Mysteries ; and being cloathed with Jesus Christ , and having the quality of a child of God , he ought to receive the nutriment of life eternal , which the Son of God himself hath given us : and this nutriment is obedience to the word of God , and execution of his will , of which Jesus Christ hath said , Man lives not by bread alone ; but my meat is to do my Fathers will ] and a little after he affirms [ that whereas St. Paul saith that Jesus Christ hath appointed us to eat his body in memory of his death , the true remembrance which we ought to have of his death , is to place before our eyes that which the Apostle saith , that we were wholly dead , and Jesus Christ died for us , to the end that we should no more live unto our selves , but to him alone , and that so we should do him honour , and give him thanks for his death by the purity of our life , without which we engage our selves in a terrible damnation if we receive the Eucharist . ] And again : [ He that , not having this charity which presses us , and causes us to live for him who died for us , dares approach to the Eucharist , grieves the holy Spirit . For it is necessary that he who comes to the memorial of Jesus Christ , who died and rose again for us , should not only be clean from all impurity of flesh and spirit ; but that he should demonstrate the death of him who died and rose for us , by being dead unto sin , to the world , and to himself , and that he lives no more but only to God through Jesus Christ. ] And therefore St. Cyprian complains as of a new and worse persecution , that lapsed persons are admitted to the Communion before they have brought forth fruits of a worthy repentance ; and affirms , that such an admission of sinners is to them as hail to the young fruits , as a blasting wind to the trees , as the murren to the cattel , as a tempest to the ships : The ships are overturned and broken , the fruits fall , the trees are blasted , the cattel die , and the poor sinner by being admitted too soon to the ministeries of eternal life , falls into eternall death . And if we put together some words of S● . Ambrose , they clearly declare this Doctrine , and are an excellent Sermon : Thou comest to the Altar , the Lord Jesus calls thee ; he sees thee to be clean from all sin , because thy sins are wash'd away , therefore he judges thee worthy of the c●lestial Sacraments , and therefore he invites thee to the heavenly banquet : Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth ] But some desire to be admitted to penance , that presently they may receive the Communion : These men do not so much desire themselves to be absolved , as that the Priest be bound ; for they do not put off their own evil conscience . ] But I would that the guilty man should hope for pardon ; let him require it with tears , seek it with sighs , beg to obtain it by the weepings of all the people , and if he be denied the Communion again and again , let him consider that his prayer was not sufficiently earnest ; let him weep more and pray more ] To which I shall add some like words of St. Austin , [ Therefore my dearest Brethren , let every one consider his conscience , and when he finds himself wounded with any crime , first let him take care with prayers and fastings and alms to cleanse his conscience , and so let him receive the Eucharist .... for he that knowing his guilt , shall humbly remove himself from the Altar for the amendment of his life , shall not fear to be wholly ex-communicate from that eternal and celestial banquet : For this Divine Sacrament is not to be eaten with confidence and boldnesse , but with fear and all manner of purity , saith St. Chrysostome ; for impudence in these approaches will certainly slay the souls . ] For th●s is the body whither none but Eagles are to gather ; because they ought to be sublime and elevated souls , such which have nothing of earthliness in them , that do not sit and prey upon the ground , that are not immerg'd in the love of Creatures ; but such whose flight is towards heaven , whose spirit does behold the Sun of Righteousnesse with a penetrating contemplation , and piercing eyes : for this is the Table of Eagles , and not of Owls ] And therefore this Saint complains of some [ who did approach to the Eucharist as it were by chance , or rather by custom and constraint of Laws , rather than by argument and choice . In whatsoever estate their souls are , they will partake of these Mysteries because it is Lent , or because it i● the feast of the Epiphany : but certain it is , that it is not the time which puts us into a capacity of doing this action . For it is not Lent nor the Epiphany which makes us worthy to approach to the Son of God ; * But the sincerity and purity of the soul : with this come at any time ; but without this , never . In fine , it is the general doctrine of the holy Fathers , and the publick practice of the Primitive Church , that no impenitent person should come to these divine Mysteries : and they that are truly penitent should practice deep humility , and undergo many humiliatiōns , and live in a state of repentance , till by little and little they have recover'd the holinesse they had lost , and must for a long time live upon the word of God , before they approach to the holy Table to be nourished by his body . For so should every prodigal child cry unto his Lord , [ Drive me not O Lord out of thy doors , lest the enemy espying a wanderer and a vagabond , take me for a slave . I do not yet desire to approach to thy holy Table , thy mystical and terrible Table ; for I have not confidence with my impure eyes to behold the holy of holies . Only suffer me to enter into thy Church amongst the Catechumens , that by beholding what is there celebrated , I may by little and little enter again into the participation of them ; to the end that the Divine Waters of thy Word running upon me , may purifie my ears from the impressions which have been made upon them by ungodly songs , and from the filthinesse they have left behind ; and seeing how the righteous people partake by a holy violence of thy precious jewels , I may conceive a burning desire to have hands worthy to receive the same excellencies . I end this collection of the ancient Doctrine of the Church with recitation of the words of Gennadius , [ I perswade and exhort Christians to receive the Communion every Lords day ; but so that if their mind be free from all affection of sinning : For he who still hath will or desires of sin , he is burdened and not purified by receiving the Eucharist . And therefore although he be bitten [ or griev'd ] with sin , let him for the future renounce all will to sin , and before he communicate let him satisfie with prayers and tears ; and being confident of the mercy of our Lord , who uses to pardon sins upon a pious confession , let him come to the Eucharist without doubting . But this I say of him who is not pressed with capital and deadly sins ; for such a person , if he will not receive the Eucharist to judgment and condemnation , let him make amends by publick penance , and being reconcil'd by the Bishop or Priest , let him communicate . I doubt not also but such grievous sins may be extinguish'd by private satisfactions ; but this must be done by changing the course of his life , by a professed study of Religion , by a daily and perpetual mourning or contrition , that through the mercy of God he may do things contrary to these whereof he does repent ; and then humbly and suppliant let him every Lords day communicate to the end of his life . This advice of Gennadius declares the sentiment of the Church , that none must communicate till they have worthily repented , and in the way of piety and contrition made amends for their faults as well as they may ; and have put themselves into a state of vertue contrary to their state of sin , that is , have made progression in the reformation of their lives ; that they are really changed and become new men , not in purpose only , but actually and in the commencement of holy habits . And therefore it is remarkable that he advises that these persons who do not stand in the place of publick penitents , should upon the commission of grievous faults enter into Religion ; he means into solitude , and retirement , and renunciation of the world , that by attending wholy to the severities and purities of a religious life , they may by such strictnesses and constant piety be fitted for the communion . Now whatever ends besides this , the Divine Providence might have , yet it is not to be neglected , that when the ancient discipline of the Church , of penances and satisfactions was gone into desuetude , the Spirit of Religion entred more fully into the world , and many religious orders and houses were instituted , that at least there , the world might practise that severity in private which the change of affairs in the face of the Church had taken from the publick ministeries ; Penance went from the Churches into desarts and into Monasteries ; but when these were corrupted , and the manners of men were worse corrupted , it is hard to say whither it is gone now . It may be yet done in private , and under the hand of a spiritual guide ; or by the spirit of penance in the heart of a good man , and by the conduct of a wise counsellor ; but besides that the manners of men are corrupted , the doctrines also are made so easie , and the Communion given to sects and opinions , or indifferently to all ; that it is very rare to see them who have sinn'd grievously repent worthily ; who therefore can never be worthy communicants , for no impenitents can partake of Christ , who as S. Hierom cals him , is the prince of penance , and the head of them who by repentance come unto salvation . But this was his advice to them that commit grievous sins , such which lay the conscience wast , and whose every single action destroyes our being in the state of grace . But as for them whose sins are but those of dayly incursion , and of infirmity , or imperfection , such which a great diligence and a perpetual watchfulness might have prevented , but an ordinary care would not ; these must be protested against , they must not joyn with our consent , our will must be against them , and they must be confess'd and deplor'd , and prayed against before we may communicate . * This is the sense of the Church of God. Having established this great general measure of preparation , it will not be very difficult to answer that great question often disputed amongst spiritual persons : viz. Question . I. Whether is it better to communicate seldom or frequently ? To this I answer ; That it is without peradventure very much better to receive it every day , than every week ; and better every week , then every month : Christiani omni die carnes agni comedunt , said Origen , Christians every day eat of the flesh of the sacrificed lamb . And St. Basil expresly affirms , that to communicate every day and to partake of the body and blood of Christ , is excellent and very profitable ; Christ himself having manif●stly said it , he that eats my flesh and drinks my blood , hath life eternal . For if the Sacrament does no benefit to souls , and produces no blessings , then a man can institute a Sacrament ; for he may appoint any thing that shall be good for nothing . But if it be an instrument in the hand of God to procure blessings to us , and spiritual emolument , if it be a means of union with Christ ; who would not willingly live with him and converse with him for ever ? It is good to be with Christ : and S. Hierom said ; I would to God that we could alwayes receive with a pure conscience and without self-condemnation . It is without dispute , that it is better to be with Christ in all the wayes of being with him * than to be away from him one hour , this therefore ought to be no part of the question . But because there is more required to the receiving Christ , than eating the Symbols , and a man may eat to his condemnation , and increase his sins , and swell his sad accounts and be guilty of Christs body and blood , if he does not take heed ; therefore first men must be prepar'd , and be in the state of holiness ; or else they may not receive at all , and they that are so , may receive it frequently ; the oftner the better . So Hierom and St. Austin tell that even till their dayes the cu●tome of receiving every day remained in the Churches of Rome and Spain ; and all the Ancient Fathers exhort to a frequent communion ; but just as Physicians exhort men to eat the best and heartiest meats ; not the sickly and the infant , but the strong man and the healthful . And this we find thus determined by S. Chrysostom : [ There are some living in desarts who receive but once in a year , or it may be once in two years : what then ? whom shall we account best of ? them that receive but once , or that receive but seldome , or that receive frequently ? Neither one , nor the other : But them that communicate with a sincere conscience , with a pure heart , and an unreprovable life . They that are such , let them alwayes communicate : and they that are not so , let them not approach so much as once ; because they do nothing but draw upon themselves the judgements of God , and make themselves worthy of condemnation . ] To which if we add the excellent discourse of S. Austin in this question , the consequents of it may suffice to determine the whole inquiry . [ Some will say , that the Eucharist is not to be receiv'd every day . If you ask why ? he tels you ; because some dayes are to be chosen in which a man may live more purely and continently , that so he may come to so great a Sacrament more worthily , because he that eats and drinks unworthily , eats and drinks damnation to himself . On the other side , another sayes ; if thou hast received so great a wound , and contracted so violent a disease , that such remedies are to be deferr'd ; every such man ought by the authority of the Bishop to be remov'd f●om the Altar and put to penance , and by the same authority be reconcil'd . For this is to receive unworthily , then to receive when a man should be doing penance , and not according to his own pleasure offer himself to , or withdraw himself from the Communion . But if his sins be not so great , as to deserve excommunication , he ought not to separate himself from the dayly medicine of the Lords Body . Between these , possibly a man may determine the question better ; if he admonishes that men should abide in the peace of Christ. But let every one do what according to his faith he piously believes ought to be done . For neither of them dishonours the body and blood of the Lord , if they in their several wayes contend who shall most honour the most holy Sacrament . For Zachaeus and the Centurion did not prefer themselves before one another , when the one received Christ into his house , and the other said he was not worthy to receive him under his roof ; both of them honouring our Blessed Saviour by a divers , and almost a contrary way , both of them were miserable by sins , and both of them obtain'd mercy . ] Now from the words of these two Saints put together , we may collect these resolutions . 1. The question does no way concern evil men , desperately or greatly wicked ; for they so remaining , or committing such sins , quae non committit omnis bonae fidei speique Christianus * ; which exclude men from the Kingdom of heaven , and cannot stand with the hopes of a good man , are separate from the Spirit of the Lord , and ought not to touch the body of our Lord. 2. Neither does it concern such imperfect persons and half Christians , who endeavour to accord the rules of the Gospel with their irregular and ruling passions ; who would enter into heaven , and yet keep their affections for earth and earthly interests ; who part stakes between God and the world , and resolve to serve two Masters ; who commit oftentimes deliberate and great sins , and repent , and yet sin again when the temptation comes ▪ for they are yet very far from the Kingdom of God , and therefore ought not to be admitted to the portion of sons , and the bread of children . 3. It concerns only such whose life does not dishonour their profession ; who pretend to be servants of Christ , and indeed are so in great truth ; whose faith is strengthned with hope , and their hope animated with charity ; who cannot pretend to be more perfect than men , yet really contend to avoid all sin , like the children of God , who have right to be nourished by the body of the Lord , Corpus Christi quod ipsi sunt , because they are indeed members of his body , and joyned in the same Spirit . The question is not between the Publican and the Pharisee ; but between the converted Publican and the proselyte Centurion ; between two persons , who are both true honour ours of Christ. and penitent sinners , and humbled persons , and have no affection for sin remaining : the question then is , which is more to be commended , he that out of love receives Christ , or he who out of humility and reverence abstains because he thinks himself not worthy enough . To this St. Chrysostome answers , 4. They that are such have a right to receive every day ; and because they are rightly disposed it is certain that a frequent Communion is of great advantage to them , and therefore they that frequent it not are like to be losers : For this is the daily bread , the heavenly supersubstantial bread , by which our souls are nourished to life eternal . This is the medicine against our daily imperfections and intrudings of lesser crimes and sudden emigration of passions : it is the great consignation of pardon ; and St. Ambrose argues well ; [ If Christs bloud is powred forth for the remission of sins ; then I ought , as often * as I can , receive it when it is poured forth to me , that because I sin often , I may perpetually have my remedy . ] Which discourse of his , is only to be understood of those imperfections of our life which perpetually haunt those good men who are growing in grace , untill they come to perfection and consummation in grace . 5. They that in conscience of their past sins , and apprehension of their repentance do abstain for fear of irreverence and the sentence of condemnation ; do very well as long as they find that their sin returns often , or tempts strongly , or prevails dangerously ; and because our returns to God and the mortifications of sin are divisible , and done by parts and many steps of progression ; they that delay their Communion that they may be surer , do very well , provided that they do not stay too long ; th●t is , that their fear do not t●rn to timorousness , their religion do not change into superstition ; their distrust of themselves into a jealousie of God ; their apprehension of the greatness of their sin into a secret diffidence of the greatness of the Divine mercy . And therefore in the first conversions of a sinner , this reverence may be longer allowed to a good man , than afterwards . But it must be no longer allowed than till he hath once communicated . For if he hath once been partaker of the Divine mysteries since his repentance ; he must no longer forbear ; for in this case it is true , that he who is not fit to receive every day , is fit to receive no day . If he thinks that he ought wholly to abstain , let him use his caution and his fear to the advantages of his repentance , and the heightning of his longings ; but if he may saf●ly come once , he may piously come often . He ca●not long stand at this distance , if he be the man he is supposed : But for the time of his total abstention let him be conducted by a spiritual guide whom he may safely trust . For if he cannot by the usual methods of repentance , and the known Sermons of the Gospel be reduced to peace , and a quiet conscience ; let him declare his estate to a spiritual Guide , and if he thinks it fit to absolve him , that is , to declare him to be in the state of grace and pardon ; it is all the warrant which with the testimony of Gods Spirit bearing witness to our spirit we can expect in this world . I remember what a religious person said to Petrus Celestinus , who was a great Saint , but of a timorous conscience in this particular , Thou abstainest from the blessed Sacrament because it is a thing so sacred and formidable that thou canst not think thy self worthy of it . Well , suppose that . But I pray who is worthy ? Is an Angel worthy enough ? No c●r●ainly , if we consider the greatness of the mystery . But consider the goodness of God , and the usual measures of good men , and the commands of Christ inviting us to come , and commanding us , and then , Cum timore & reverentiâ frequenter operare ; Receive it often with feare and reverence . To which purpose these two things are fit to be considered . 1. Supposing this fear and reverence to be good and commendable in his case who really is fit to communicate , but does not think so ; yet if we compare it with that grace which prompts a good man to take it often , we may quickly perceive which is best . Certainly that act is in its own nature best which proceeds from the best and the most perfect grace ; but to abstain , proceeds from fear ; and to come frequently , being worthily disposed , is certainly the product of love and holy hunger , the effect of the good Spirit , who by his holy fires makes us to thirst after the waters of salvation . As much then as love is better than fear ; so much it is to be preferred that true penitents and well-grown Christians should frequently address themselves to these Sacramental Unions with their Lord. 2. The frequent use of this Divine Sacrament proceeds from more , as well as from more noble vertues . For here is obedience and zeal , worship and love , thanksgiving and oblation , devotion and joy , holy hunger and holy thirst , an approach to God in the waies of God , union and adherence , confidence in the Divine goodness , and not only hope of pardon , but a going to receive it ; and the omission of all these excellencies , cannot in the present case , be recompenced by an act of religious fear : For this can but by accident and upon supposition of something that is amiss , be at all accounted good , and therefore ought to give place to that which supposing all things to be as they ought , is directly good , and an obedience to a Divine Commandment . For we may not deceive our selves : the matter is not so indifferent , as to be excused by every fair pretence : It is unlawful for any man unprepared by repentance and its fruits , to communicate ; but it is necessary that we should be prepared that we may come . For plague and death threaten them that do not communicate in this mysterious banquet ; as certainly as danger is to them who come unduly and as it happens . ] For the Sacrament of the Lords body is commanded to all men , saith Tertullian ; and it is very remarkable what St. Austin said in this affair . [ The force of the Sacraments is of an unspeakable value , and therefore it is sacriledge to despise it . For that is impiously despised without which we cannot come to the perfection of piety . ] So that although it is not in all cases the meer not receiving that is to be blamed , but the despising it ; yet when we consider that by this means we arrive at perfection , all causless recusancy , is next to contempt by interpretation . One thing more I am to add , whereas some persons abstain from a frequent Communion for fear lest by frequency of receiving they should less esteem the Divine mysteries , and fall into lukewarmness and indevotion ; the consideration is good : and such persons indeed may not receive it often , but not for that reason ; but because they are not fit to receive it at all . For whoever grows worse by the Sacrament , as Judas after the Sop , hath an evil spirit within him ; for this being by the design of God a savour of life ; it is the fault of the receiver if it passes into death , and diminution of the spiritual life . He therefore that grows less devout , and less holy , and less reverent , must start back and take physick and throw out the evil spirit that is within him ; for there is a worm in the heart of the tree , a peccant humour in the stomach , it could not be else , that this Divine nutriment should make him sick . Question II. But is every man bound to communicate that is present , or that comes into a Church where the Communion is prepared , though but by accident , and without design ; and may no man that is fit , omit to communicate in every opportunity ? To this I answer : That in the Primitive Church it was accounted scandalous and criminal to be present at the holy Offices , and to go out at the celebration of the Mysteries . [ What cause is there , O Hearers , that ye see the Table and come not to the Banquet ? ] said St. Austin . [ If thou stand by , and do not communicate , thou art wicked , thou art shameless , thou art impudent . So St. Chrysostome : and to him that objects , he is not worthy to communicate , he answers , that then neither is he fit to pray . And the Council of Antioch * and of Bracara commanded that those who did not communicate should be driven from the Churches . And Palladius tells , that when St. Macarius had by his prayers cured a poor miserable woman that was bewitched , and fancied her self to be a horse ; he advised her , Never to depart from the Church of God , or to abstain from the Communion of the Sacraments of Christ. For this misfortune hath pr●vailed upon you because for these five weeks you have not communicated . ] Now this was but a relative crime ; and because their custome was such * ( which is alwaies to be understood according to their acknowledged measures , viz. that only pious persons were to be meant , and required in that expectation ; this will not conclude that of it self , and abstracting from the scandal , it was in all cases unlawful to recede from the mysteries at sometimes . ●or sometimes a man may be called off by the necessities of his calling , or the duties of charity or piety . A General of an Army , a Prince , a Privy Counsellor , a Judge , a Merchant may be very fit to communicate , even then when they cannot , or it may be ought not to stay . But if he can stay , and be a good man , and rightly disposed by the habits of a good life , he ought to stay and communicate ; and so much the rather , if it be in any degree scandalous to go away . The reason is ; because if he be a good man , he can no more be surprised by an unexpected Communion , than by a sudden death ; which although it may find him in better circumstances , yet can never find him Unprovided . But in this case , St. Austins moderate determination of the case is very useful , Let every one do as he is perswaded in his mind ; for a man may with a laudable fear and reverence abstain ; if he shall be perswaded that he ought not to communicate unless besides his habitual grace , he hath kindled the fires of an actual devotion and preparation special : and so much the rather , because he may communicate very frequently , and to great purposes and degrees of a spiritual life , though he omit that single opportunity in which he is surpris'd ; and though it be very useful for a good man to communicate often , yet it is not necessary that he communicate alwaies ; only let every pious soul consider , that it is argument of the Divine love to us , that these fountains are alwaies open ; that the Angel frequently moves these waters , and that Christ saies to every prepared heart as to the multitudes that followed him into the wilderness , I will not send them away fasting lest they faint in the way . And if ●hrist be ever ready offering his holy body and bloud , it were very fit we should entertain him : for he never comes but he brings a blessing . Question III. But how often is it advisable that a good man should Communicate ? Once in a year , or thrice , or every month , or every fortnigbt ; every sunday , or every day ? This question hath troubled very many ; but to little purpose . For it is all one as if it were asked , How often should a healthful man eat ; or he that hath infirmities , take Physick ? And if any man should say that a good man should do well to pray three times a day ; he said true ; and yet it were better to pray five times , and better yet to pray seven times ; but if he does , yet he must leave spaces for other duties . But his best measures for publick and solemn prayer , is the custom of the Church in which he lives ; and for private , he can take no measures but his own needs , and his own leisure , and his own desires , and the examples of the best and devoutest persons , in the same circumstances . And so it is in the frequenting the holy Communion . The laws of the Church must be his least measure . The custome of the Church may be his usual measure ; But if he be a devout person ; the spirit of devotion will be his certain measure ; and although that will consult with prudence and reasonable opportunities , yet it consults with nothing else ; but communicates by its own heights and degrees of excellency . St. Hierom advises Eustochium , a noble Virgin , and other religious persons to communicate twice every month ; some did every Sunday ; and this was so general a custome in the Ancient Church , that the Sunday was called , The day of bread ; as we find in St. Chrysostome : and in consonancy to this the Church of England commands that the Priests resident in Collegiate or Cathedral Churches should do so : and they whose work and daily imployment is to Minister to religion , cannot in such circumstances pretend a reasonable excuse to the contrary . But I desire these things may be observed : 1. That when the Fathers make a question concerning a frequent Communion , they do not dispute whether it be adviseable that good people should communicate every month , or every fortnight , or whether the more devout and less imploy'd may communicate every week ; for of this they make no question ; but whether every days Communion be fit to be advised , that they question : and I find , that as they are not earnest in that , so they indefinitely give answer , that a frequent Communion is not to be neglected at any hand , if persons be worthily prepared . 2. The frequency of Communion is to be estimated by the measures of devout people in every Church respectively . And although in the Apostolical Ages they who Communicated but once a fortnight were not esteemed to do it frequently ; yet now they who communicate every month , and upon the great Festivals of the year besides , and upon other solemn or contingent occasions , and at marriages , and at visitations of the sick , may be said to communicate frequently , in such Churches where the Laws enjoyn but three or four times every year , as in the Church of England , and the Lutheran Churches . But this way of estimating the frequency of Communion is only when the causes of inquiry are for the avoiding of scandal , or the preventing of scruples ; but else , the inward hunger and thirst , and the spirit of devotion married to opportunity , can give the truest measures . 3. They that communicate frequently , if they do it worthily , are charitable and spiritual persons , and therefore cannot judge or undervalue others that do not . For no man knows concerning others by what secret principles and imperfect propositions they are guided . For although these measures we meet with in Antiquity are very reasonable , yet few do know them ; and all of them do not rely upon them ; and their own customs , or the private word of their own guides , or their fears , or the usages of the Church in which they live , or some leading example , or some secret impediment which ought not , but is thought sufficient ; any of these , or many other things , may retard even good persons from such a frequency as may please others ; and that which one calls opportunity , others do not ; but however , no man ought to be prejudiced in the opinion of others : For besides all this now reckoned , The receiving of the holy Sacrament is of that nature of good things which can be supplied by internal actions alone , or sometimes by other external actions in conjunction ; and it hath a suppletory of its own , viz. Spiritual Communion , ( of which I am to give account in its proper place . ) And when we consider that some men are of strict consciences , and some Churches are of strict Communions , and will not admit Communicants but upon such terms which some men cannot admit , it will follow that as S. Austins expression is , Men should live in the peace of Christ , and do according to their Faith : but in these things no man should judge his Brother . In this no man can directly be said to do amiss , but he that loathes Manna , and despises the food of Angels , or neglects the Supper of the Lamb , or will not quit his sin , or contend towards perfection , or hath not the spirit of devotion , or does any way by implication say , That the Table of the Lord is contemptible . 4. These rules and measures now given , are such as relate to those who by themselves or others are discernably in , or discernably out of the state of grace . But there are some which are in the confines of both states , and neither themselves nor their guides can tell to what dominion they do belong . Concerning such , they are by all means to be thrust or invited forward , and told of the danger of a real or seeming neutrality in the service of God ; of the hatefulnesse of tepidity , of the uncomfortablenesse of such an indifference : and for the Communions of any such person , I can give no other advice , but that he take his measures of frequency by the Laws of his Church , and add what he please to his numbers by the advice of a spiritual guide , who may consider whether his Penitent , by his conjugation of preparatory actions , and heaps of holy duties at that time usually conjoyn'd , do or is likely to receive any spiritual progresse : For this will be his best indication of life , and declare his uncertain state , if he thrive upon his spiritual nourishment . If it prove otherwise , all that can be said of such persons is , that they are members of the visible Church , they are in that net where there are fishes good and bad , they stand amongst the wheat and the tares , they are part of the lump , but whether leavened or unleavened , God only knows ; and therefore they are such to whom the Church denies not the bread of Children ; but whether it does them good or hurt , the day only will declare : for to such persons as these the Church hath made Laws for the set time of their Communion . Christmas , Easter , and Whitsontide were appointed for all Christians that were not scandalous and openly criminal , by P. Fabianus ; and this Constitution is imitated by the best constituted Church in the world , our dear Mo●her the Church of England : and they who do not at these times , or so frequently communicate , are censured by the Council of Agathon * as unfit to be reckoned among Christians , or Members of the Catholick Church . Now by these Laws of the Church , it is intended indeed that all men should be called upon to discusse and shake off the yoke of their sins , and enter into the salutary state of repentance ; and next to the perpetual Sermons of the Church , she had no better means to ingage them into returns of piety ; hoping that by the grace of God and the blessings of the Sacrament , the repentance which at these times solemnly begins , may at one time or other fix and abide ; these little institutions and disciplines being like the sudden heats in the body , which sometimes fix into a burning , though most commonly they go away without any further change . But the Church in this case does the best she can , but does not presume that things are well ; and indeed as yet they are not : and therefore such persons must passe further , or else their hopes may become illusions , and make the men asham'd . 5. I find that amongst the holy Primitives they who contended for the best things , and lov'd God greatly , were curious even of little things ; and if they were surpriz'd with any sudden undecency , or a storm of passion , they did not dare that day to communicate . [ When I am angry , or when I think any evil thought , or am abus'd with any illusion or foul phansie of the night , intrare non audeo , I dare not enter , said St. Jerome , I am so full of horrour and dread , both in my body and my mind . ] This was also the case of St. Chrysostom , who when Eusebius had unreasonably troubled him with an unseasonable demand of justice against Antonine , just as he was going to consecrate the blessed Sacrament , departed out of the Church , and desired one of the Bishops , who by chance was present , to do the office for him ; for he would not offer the Sacrifice at that time , having some trouble in his Spirit . 2. To this are to be reduc'd all such great actions which in their whole constitution are great and lawful ; but because so many things are involved in their transaction , whereof some unavoidably will be amiss , or may reasonably be suppos'd so , may have something in the whole and at the last to be deplor'd : In such cases as these , some great examples have been of advices to abstain from the Communion , till by a general but a profound repentance for what hath been amiss , God is deprecated , and the causes of Christian hope and confidence do return . In the Ecclesiastical History we read , that when Theodosius had fought prosperously against Eug●nius the Usurper of the Empire , when his cause was just and approved by God , not only giving testimony by the prediction and warranty of a religious Hermit , but also by prodigious events , by winds and tempests fighting for him , and by which he restored peace to the Church , and tranquility to the Empire : yet he by the advice of S. Ambrose abstain'd a while from the holy Sacrament , and would not carry blood upon his hands * , though justly shed , unto the Altar ; not only following the president of David , who because he was a man of blood might not build a Temple , but for fear lest some unfit appendage should stick to the management of a just imployment . 3. Of the same consideration it is , if a person whose life should be very exemplar , is guilty of such a single folly which it may be would not dishonour a meaner man , but is a great vanity and reproach to him ; a little abstention , and a penitential separation ( when it is quit from scandal ) was sometimes practis'd in the Ancient Church , and is adviseable also now in fitting circumstances . Thus when Gerontius the Deacon had vainly talked that the Devil appear'd to him one night , and that he had bound him with a chain , St. Ambrose commanded him to abide in his house , and not to come to the Church , till by penances and sorrow he had expiated such an indiscretion , which to a man had in reputation for wisdom , is as a fly in a box of oyntment , not only uselesse , but mischievous . And S. Bernard commends S. Malachie because he reprov'd a Deacon for attending at the Altar the day after he had suffered an illusion in the night . It had been better he had abstain'd from the Altar one day , and by that intermediate expiation and humility have the next day return'd to a more worthy ministery . 4. One degree of curious caution I find beyond all this , in an instance of St. Gregory the Great , in whose life we find , that he abstain'd some days from the holy Communion , because there was found in a Village neer to Rome a poor man dead , no man could tell how ; but because the good Bishop fear'd he might have been starv'd , and that he died for want of provision ; he supposing it might reflect upon him as a defect in his Government , or of his personal Charity , thought it fit to deplore the accident , and to abstain from the Communion , till he might hope for pardon , in case he had done amiss . If these things proceed from the sincerity of a well disposed spirit , that can suffer any trouble rather than that of sin , the product is well enough , and in all likelihood would always be well , if the case were conducted by a prudent spiritual guide ; for then it would not change into scruples and superstition . But these are but the fears and cautions and securities of a tender spirit ; but are not an answer to the Question , Whether it be lawful for such persons to Communicate ? For certainly they may , if all things else be right ; and they may be right in the midst of such little accidents . But these belong to the questions of perfection and excellencies of grace ; these are the extraordinaries of them who never think they do well enough : and therefore they extended no further than to a single abstention , or some little proportionable retirement ; and may be useful when they are in the hands of prudent and excellent persons . SECT . V. What significations of Repentance are to be accepted by the Church in admission of Penitents to the Communion . THis inquiry will quickly be answered , when we consider that the end why the Church enjoyns publick or private amends respectively to any convict or confessed Criminal , she only does it as a Mother and a Physician to souls , and a Minister of the Divine Pardon , and the Conductress of penitential Processes : she does it that the man may be recovered from the snare of the enemy , that she may destroy the work of the Devil , that the sinner may become a good Christian : and therefore the Church , when she conducts any mans repentance , is bound to enjoyn so many external Ministeries , that if they be really joyned with the external contrition and reformation , will do the work of reconcilement in the Court of heaven . The Church can exact none but what she can see or some way take external notice of ; but by these externals intends to minister to the internal repentance ; which when it is sufficiently signified by any ways that she may prudently rely upon as testimonies and ministeries of a sufficient internal contrition and real amends , she can require no more , and she ought not to be content with lesse . It is therefore infinitely unsafe and imprudent to receive the Confessions of Criminals , and after the injunction of certain cursory penances , to admit them to the Blessed Sacrament without any further emendation , without any trial of the sincerity of their conversion , before it is probable that God hath pardon'd them , before their affections to sin are dead , before the spirit of mortification is entred , before any vice is exterminated , or any vertue acquired : Such a loosnesse of discipline is but the image of repentance ( whether we look upon it as it is described in Scripture , or as it was practised by the Primitive Church ) which at least is a whole change of life , a conversion of the whole man to God. And it is as bad when a notorious criminal is put to shame one day , for such a sin which could not have obtain'd the peace of the Church under the severity and strictness of fifteen years , amongst the holy Primitives . Such publick Ecclesiastical penances may suffice to remove the scandal from the Church , when the Church will be content upon so easie terms ; for she only can tell what will please her self . But then such discipline must not be esteem'd a sufficient ministery of repentance , nor a just disposition to pardon . For the Church ought not to give pardon , or to promise the peace of God upon terms easier than God himself requires ; and therefore when repentance comes to be conducted by her , she must require so much as will extinguish the sin , and reform the man , and make him and represent him good . All the liberty that the Church hath in this , is what is given her by the latitude of the judgment of charity ; and yet oftentimes a too easie judgment is the greatest uncharitableness in the world , and makes men confident and careless and deceiv'd : and therefore although gentle sentences are useful when there is danger of dispair or contumacy , yet that is rather a palliation of a disease than a cure ; and therefore the method must be chang'd as soon as it can , and the severe and true Sermons of the Gospel must be either proclaimed aloud , or insinuated prudently and secretly , and men be taught to rely upon them and their consequents , and upon nothing else ; for they will not deceive us . But the corrupt manners of men , and the corrupt doctrines of some Schools , have made it almost impossible to govern souls as they need to be governed . The Church may indeed chuse whether she will impose on Criminals any exterior significations of repentance , but accept them to the Communion upon their own accounts of a sincere conversion and inward contrition ; but then she ought to do this upon such accounts as are indeed real and sufficient , and effective and allowed ; that is , when she can understand that such an emendation is made , and the man is really reformed , she can pronounce him pardoned ; or which is all one , she may communicate him . And farther yet ; she can by Sermons declare all the necessary parts of repentance , and the conditions of pardon , and can pronounce limited and hypothetical or conditional pardons ; concerning which the penitent must take care that they do belong to him . But if she does undertake to conduct any repentances exteriously , it is to very little purpose to do it any way that is not commensurate to that true internal repentance which is effective of pardon . Indeed every single act of penance does something towards it ; but why something should be enjoyned that is not sufficient , and that falls infinitely short of the end of its designation , though the Church may use her liberty , yet it is not easie to understand the reason . But I leave this to the consideration of those who are concerned in Governments publick , or in the private conduct of souls , to whom I earnestly and humbly recommend it ; and I add this only , that when the Ancient Churches did absolve and communicate dying penitents , though but newly return'd from sin , they did it de benè esse , or with a hope it might do some good , and because they thought it a case of necessity , and because there was no time left to do better : but when they did as well as they could , they could not tell what God would do ; and though the Church did well , it may be it was very ill with the souls departed . But because that is left to God , it is certain some things were done upon pious confidence and venture , for which there was no promise in the Gospel . That which the Church is to take care of is , that all her children be sufficiently taught what are the just measures of preparation and worthy disposition to these Divine mysteries ; and that she admits none , of whom she can tell that they are not worthy ; such as are notorious adulterers , homicides , incestuous , perjurers , habitually peevish to evil effects , and permanently angry ( for this I find reckoned amongst the Primitive Catalogues of persons to be excluded from the Communion ) rapines , theft , sacriledge , false witness , pride , covetousness and envy . It would be hard to reduce this rule to practice in all these instances , unless it be by consent and voluntary submission of penitent persons . But that which I remark is this : that Proud persons and the Covetous , the Envious and the Angry were esteemed fit to be excommunicate ; that is , infinitely unfit to be admitted to the blessed Sacrament ; and that by the rules of their discipline they were to do many actions of publick and severe penance and mortifications before they would admit them . Now then the case is this . They did esteem more things to be requir'd to the integrity of repentance , and God not to be so soon reconcil'd , and the Devil not soon dispossess'd , and mens resolutions not so fit to be trusted , and more to be required to pardon than confession and the pronouncing absolution ; all this otherwise than we do , and therefore so long as they did conduct repentances ; they requir'd it as it should be ; being sure that no repentance that was joyned with hope and charity could be too much , but it might quickly be too little ; and therefore although the Church may take as little as she please for a testimonial of repentance , and suppose the rest is right though it be not signified ; yet when she either in publick or in private is to manage repentances she must use no measure , but that which will procure pardon , and extinguish both the guilt and dominion of sin . The first may be of some use in government ; but of little avail to souls , and to their eternal interest : therefore in the first she may use her liberty and give her self measures , in the latter she hath no other but what are given her by the nature of repentance , and its efficacy and order to pardon , and the designs of God , for the reformation of our souls and the extermination of sin . SECT . VI. Whether may every Minister of the Church and Curate of Souls reject impenitent persons , or any criminals from the holy Sacrament , until themselves be satisfied of their repentance and amends ? SEparation of sinners from the Blessed Sacrament was either done upon confession and voluntary submission of the penitent ; or by publick conviction and notoreity . Every Minister of religion can do the first , for he that submits to my judgment , does choose my sentence ; and if he makes me Judge , he is become my subject in a voluntary Government : and therefore I am to judge for him when it is fit that he should communicate : only , if when he hath made me Judge , he refuses to obey my counsel , he hath dissolved my Government , and therefore will receive no further benefit by me . * But concerning the latter of these ; a separation upon publick conviction or notoreity ; that requires an authority that is not precarious and changeable . Now this is done two waies ; either by authority forbidding , or by authority restraining and compelling ; that is , by the word of our proper ministry , disswading him that is unworthy from coming , and threatning him with Divine judgments if he does come ; or else rejecting of him , in case that he fears not those threatnings , but persists in his desires of having it . Now of the first of these , every Minister of the Word and Sacraments is a competent Minister ; for all that minister to souls are to tell them of their dangers , and by all the effects of their office to present them pure and spotless unto God ; the Seers must take care that the people may see ; lest by their blindness they fall into the bottomless pit . And when the Curates of souls have declared the will of God in this instance , and denounced his judgments to unworthy Communicants , and told to all that present themselves who are worthy , and who are not , they have delivered their own souls ; all that remains is , that every person take care concerning his own affairs . For the second , viz denying to minister to Criminals though demanding it with importunity ; that is an act of prudence and caution in some cases , and of authority in others . When it is matter of caution , it is not a punishment but a medicine ; according to those excellent words of S. Cyprian ; To be cast out ( viz. ; for a time , from the Communion ) is a remedy and a degree towards the recovery of our spiritual health : and because it is no more ; it cannot be pretended to be any mans right to do it ; but it may be in his duty when he can ; but therefore this must depend upon the consent of the penitent . For a Physician must not in despite of a man cut off his leg to save his life : the sick man may choose whether he shall or no. But sometimes it is an act of authority ; as when the people have consented to such a discipline , or when the secular arm by assisting the Ecclesiastical , hath given to it a power of mixt jurisdiction ; that is , when the spiritual power of paternal regiment which Christ hath given to his Ministers the supreme Curates , is made operative upon the persons and external societies of men . Now of this power the Bishops are the prime and immediate subjects , partly under Christ , and partly under Kings ; and of this power , inferiour Ministers are capable by delegation , but no otherwise ; they being but Deputies and Vicars in the cure of souls under their superiours , from whom they have received their order and their charge . And thus I suppose we are to understand the Rubrick before our Communion office ; which warrants ●he Curate not to suffer open and notorious evil livers by whom the Congregation is offended , and those between whom he perceiveth malice and hatred to reign , to be partakers of the Lords Table . In the first , the case is of notorious Criminals , and is to be understood of a notoreity of Law ; and in this the Curate is but a publisher of the Judges sentence : In the second , the Criminal is ipso facto excommunicate ; and therefore in this the Curate is but the Minister of the Sentence of the Law , or at least hath a delegate authority to pass the Churches Sentence in a matter that is evident . But this is seldom practised otherwise than by rejecting such persons by way of denunciation of the divine Judgments ; and if it be so understood , the Curate hath done his duty which God requires ; and I believe the Laws of England will suffer him to do no more by his own authority . But this is to be reduced to practice by the following measures . 1. Every man is to be presumed fit , that is not known to be unfit ; and he that is not a publi●k Criminal , is not to be suppos'd unworthy to Communicate . It may be he is ; but that himself only knows , and he can only take care ; but no man is to be prejudiced by imperfect and disputable principles , by conjectures and other mens measures , by the rules of Sects and separate Communities : And if a man may belong to God and himself not know it , he may do so when his Curate knows it not . 2. No man may be separated from the Communion for any private sin , vehemently or lightly suspected . This censure must not pass but when the crime is manifest and notorious ; that is , when it is delated and convict in any publick Assembly , Civil or Ecclesiastical , or is evident to a Multitude , or confessed . This is the express Doctrine of the Church in St. Austin's time , who affirms that the Ecclesiasticks have no power to make separations of sinners not confessed nor convict . And besides many others it relies upon this prudential consideration which Linwood hath well observed ; [ Every Christian hath a right in the receiving the Eucharist , unlesse he loses it by deadly sin : Therefore when it does not appear in the face of the Church that such an one hath lost his right , it ought not in the face of the Church to be denied to him ; otherwise a licence would be given to evil Priests , according to their pleasure with this punishment to afflict whom they list . ] 3. Every sinner that hath been convict , or hath confessed , and affirms himself to be truly penitent , is to be believed , where by the Laws of the Church he is not bound to passe under any publick discipline : For no man can tell but that he says true ; and because every degree of repentance is accepted to some dispositions and proportions of pardon , and God hath not told us the just period of his being reconcil'd , and his mercy is divisible as our return , and unknown to us ; he that knows that without repentance he eats damnation , and professes upon that very account that he is penitent , may be taught as many more things as the Curate please , or as he is supposed to need ; but must not be rejected from the Holy Communion , if he cannot be perswaded . ●or this judgment is secret , and is to pass between God and the soul alone ; for because no man can tell , no man can judge ; and the Curate who knows not how it is , cannot give a definite sentence . 4. But if there come any accidental obligation upon Criminals ; as if by the Laws of a Church to which they are subjected , it be appointed they shall give publick evidence and amends , they are to be judg'd by those measures , and are not to be restor'd ordinarily , till they have by publick measures proved their repentance . This relies upon all those grounds upon which obedience to Ecclesiastical Rulers is built . 5. It is lawful for the Guides of souls to admit to the Communion such persons whom they believe not to be fit and worthily prepared , if they will not be perswaded to retire : It is evident in the case of Kings and all Supream Powers , and great Communities , and such who being rejected will be provok'd into malice and persecution . [ Such indeed the Church sometimes tolerates , lest being provoked they disturbe the people of God : but what does it profit them not to be cast out of the Assemblies of the godly , if they deserve to be cast out ? To deserve ejection is the highest evil ; and to no purpose is he mingled in the Congregations of the faithful , who is excluded from the society of God , and the mystical body of Christ. ] And it is also evident in the Societies of the Church , which we know by the words of Christ and by experience are a mixt multitude : And since the Scripture does not exempt a secret sinner from the Communion , why wilt thou endeavour to except him ? It is St. Austins argument . And who shall rej●ct every man that he believes to be proud , or covetous , or envious ? Who shall define pride , or convince a single person of a proud heart , or of his latent envy ? and who shall give rules by which every single man that is to blame can be convinc'd of covetousnesse ? If it be permitted to the discretion of the Parish Priest , you erect a gibbet and a rack by which he shall be enabled to torment any man ; and you give him power to slander or reproach all his neighbours ; if you go about to give him measures you shall never do it wisely or piously ; for no rules can be sufficient to convince any proud man ; and if you make the Parish Curate judge of these rules , you had as good leave it to his discretion ; for he will use them as he please : and after all , you shall never have all the people good ; and if not , you shall certainly have them hypocrites ; and therefore it cannot be avoided , but unfit persons will be admitted : for since the Kingdom of Grace is within us . and Gods chosen ones are his secret ones , and he only knows who are his , it will be strange that visible Sacraments should be given only to an invisible Society : and after all , if to communicate evil men be unavoidable , it cannot be unlawful . I do not say that persons unprepar'd may come ; for they ought not , and if they do , they die for it : but I say , if they will come it is at their peril , and to no mans prejudice but their own , if they be plainly and severely admonished of their duty and their danger ; and therefore that every man must judge of his own case with very great severity and ●ear , even then when the Guides of souls must judge with more gentlenes● and an easier charity ; when we must suspect our little faults to be worse than they seem , and our n●gligences more inexcusable , and sear a sin when there is none , and are ready to accuse our selves for every indiscretion , an● think no repent●nce great enough for the foulnesse of 〈◊〉 sin● , and at the same time when we judge for oth●●s , we ought to esteem their certain good th●ng● better than they do , and their certain evils less● , and their disputable good things certain , and ●h●ir u●certain evils none at all , or very excusable . And ●herefore it was to very great purpose that th● Apost●e gave command , that eve●y man should examine hims●lf and so let him ea● * , that is , let it be done as it may be done thorowly ; l●t him do it whose case it is , and who is most concerned that it be done well ; let it be done so that it may not be allayed and lessened by the judgment of charity ; and therefore let a man do it himself : For when the Curate comes to do it , he cannot do it well , unless he do it with mercy ; for he must make abatements , which the sinners case does not often need in order to his reconciliation and returns to God , where severity is much better than gentle sentences . But the Minister of Religion must receive in some cases such persons who ought not to come , and who should abstain when themselves give righteous judgment upon themselves . For if it be lawful for Christian people to communicate with evil persons , it is lawful for Christian Priests to minister it ; it being commanded to the people in some cases to withdraw themselves from a Brother that walks inordinately ; but no where commanded , that a Minister of Religion shall refuse to give it to him that requires it , and is within the Communion of the Church , and is not yet as an heathen and a publican : and it is evident , that in the Churches of Corinth the Communion was given to persons who for unworthiness fell under the divine anger ; and yet no man was reprov'd but the unworthy Communicants , and themselves only commanded to take care of it . For he that says the people may not communicate with wicked persons , falls into the errour of the Donatists , which St. Austin and others have infinitely confuted ; but he that says the people may , ought not to deny but that the Priest may ; and if he may communicate with him , it cannot be denied but he may minister to him . But this was the case of the Sons of Israel , who did eat Manna , and drank of the rock * ; and yet that rock was Christ , and that Manna was also his Sacrament , and yet with many of these God was angry , and they fell in the wildernesse . And if Baptism was given as soon as ever men were converted , in the very day of their change , and that by the Apostles themselves , and yet the same Christ is there consigned and exhibited ; we may remember that in Scripture we find no difference in the two Sacraments as to this particular . But in this there needs not much to be said ; they that think things can be otherwise , and have tried , have declar'd to all the world by the event of things , that although the guides of souls may by wise and seasonable discourses persuade and prevail with some few persons , yet no man can reform the world ; and if all were rejected whose life does not please the Curate , some will not care , and will let it quite alone ; and others that do care , will never the more be mended , but turn hypocrites ; and they are the worst of men , but most readily communicated : Some other evils do also follow ; and when we have reckoned schisms , partialities , reproaches , animosities and immortal hatreds between Priest and People , we have not reckon'd the one half . 6. When to separate Criminals can be prudent and useful , and is orderly , limited , and legal , it ought not to be omitted * upon any consideration , because it is the sinews and whole strength of Ecclesiastical discipline , and is a most charitable ministery to souls , and brings great regard to the holy Sacrament , and produces reverence in the Communicants , and is a deletery to sin , and was the perpetual practice of the best Ages of the Church , and was blest with an excellent corresponding piety in their Congregations ; upon which account , and of other consideraons , S. Cyprian (a) , S. Basil (b) , S. Chrysostom (c) , and divers others , call upon Prelates and people to exercise and undergo respectively this Ecclesiastical discipline . But this hath in it some variety 1. For if the person be a notorious , a great and incorrigible Criminal , refusing to hear , the Church proceeding against him upon complaint , confession or notoreity , and consequently to be esteem'd as a Heathen and a Publican ; then comes in the Apostolical rules ; with such a one not to eat ; and withdraw from such a one , for there is no accord between Christ and Belial , between a Christian and a Heathen or an Unbeliever ; that is , one who is thrust into the place and condition of an Infidel , and give n●t th●t which is holy unto Dogs . 2. But if he be within the Communion of the Church , and yet a Criminal , not delated , not convict , not legally condemned ; and yet privately known to be such , or publickly suspected and scandalous ; the Minister of Religion must separate him by the word of his ministry , and tell him his danger , and use all the means he can to bring him to repentance and amends before he admits him ; if the Minister of Religion omits this duty , he fals und●r the curse threatned by God in the Prophet , If he does not warn him , if he does not speak to the wicked to give him warning to save his life ; his blood shall be upon him . 3. If there be a regular jurisdiction established , and this spiritual authority be backed with the secular , it must be used according to the measures of its establishment , and for the good of the Church in general , and of the sinner in particular ; that is , although the person be not as a heathen , and excommunicate by the Churches sentence , yet he must be rejected for a time , and thrust into repentance and measures of satisfaction , and as he must not refuse , so must not the Minister of the Sacrament otherwise admit him ; and in this sense it was that S. Chrysostom said , he would rather lose his life , than admit unworthy men to the Lords Table . 7. But because piety hath suffer'd shipwrack ; and all discipline h●th been lost in t●e storm , and good manne●s have been thrown over board ; the best remedy in the world that yet remains and is in use amongst the most p●ous sons and daughters of the Church , is that they would conduct their repentance by the continual advices and ministery of a spiritual guide ; for by this alone or principally , was the primitive piety a●d repentances advanced to the excellency which we often admire but seldom imitate , and the event will be , that besides we shall be guided in the wayes of holiness in general , we shall be at peace as to the times and manner of receiving the holy Sacrament , our penitential abstentions and season●ble returns : and we sh●ll not so frequently feel the effects of the Divine anger upon our persons as a reproach of our folly , a●d the punishment of our unworthy receiving the Divine mysteries . And this was earnestly advised and pressed upon their people by the holy Fathers , who had as great experience in their conduct , as they had zeal for the good of souls [ Let no man say ; I repent in private ; I repent before God in secret . God who alone does pardon , does know that I am contrite in heart . For was it in vain , was it said to no purpose ; whatsoever ye shall loose in earth shall be loosed in heaven ? we evacuate the Gospel of God , we frustrate the words of Christ ] so S. Austin . [ And therefore when a man hath spoken the sentence of the most severe medicine , let him come to the Presidents of the Church , who are to minister in the power of the Keyes to him ; and beginning now to be a good son , keeping the order of his Mother , let him receive the measure and manner of his repentances from the Presidents of the Sacraments . ] Concerning this thing , I shall never think it fit to dispute , for there is nothing to inforce it , but enough to perswade it , but he that tries , will find the benefit of it himself , and will be best able to tell it to all the world . SECT . VII . Penitential Soliloquies , Ejaculations , Exercises , and preparatory Prayers to be us'd in all the days of preparation to the Holy Sacrament . I. ALmighty and eternal God , the fountain of all vertue , the support of all holy hope , the Author of pardon , of life , and of salvation ; thou art the comforter of all that call upon thee ; thou hast concluded all under sin , that thou mightest have mercy upon all : Look upon me O God , and have pity on me lying in my blood and misery , in my shame and in my sins , in the fear and guilt of thy wrath , in the shadow of death , and in the gates of hell . I confesse to thee O God what thou knowest already ; but I confesse it to manifest thy justice , and to glorifie thy mercy who hast spared me so long , ●hat I am guilty of the vilest and basest follies which usually dishonour the fools and the worst of the sons of men . II. I have been proud and covetous , envious and lustful , angry and greedy , indevout and irreligious ; restless in my passions , sensual and secular , but hating wise counsels , and soon weary of the Offices of a holy Religion . I cannot give an account of my time , and I cannot reckon the sins of my tongue . My crimes are intolerable , and my imperfections shameful , and my omissions innumerable ; and what shall I do O thou preserver of men ? I am so vile that I cannot express it , so sinful that I am hateful to my self , and much more abominable must I needs be in thy eyes . I have sinn'd against thee without necessity , sometimes without temptation , only because I would sin , and would not delight in the ways of peace : I have been so ingrateful , so foolish , so unreasonable , that I have put my own eyes out , that I might with confidence and without fear sin against so good a God , so gracious a Father , so infinite a Power , so glorious a Majesty , so bountiful a Patron , and so mighty a Redeemer , that my sin is grown shameful and aggravated even to amazement . I can say no more , I am asham'd , O God , I am amaz'd , I am confounded in thy presence . III. But yet O God thou art the healer of our breaches , and the lifter up of our head ; and I must not despair ; and I am sure thy goodness is infinite , and thou dost not delight in the death of a sinner ; and my sins , though very great , are infinitely less than thy mercies , which thou hast revealed to all penitent and returning sinners in Jesus Christ. I am not worthy to look up to heaven ; but be thou pleased to look down into the dust , and lift up a sinner from the dunghil ; let me not perish in my folly , or be consumed in thy heavy displeasure . Give me time and space to repent ; and give me powers of Grace and aids of thy spirit ; that as by thy gift and mercy I intend to amend whatsoever is amiss , so I may indeed have grace and power faithfully to fulfil the same . Inspire me with the spirit of repentance and mortification , that I may always fight against my sins till I be more than conquerour . Support me with a holy hope , confirm me with an excellent , operative , and unreprovable faith , and enkindle a bright and a burning charity in my soul : Give me patience in suffering , severity in judging and condemning my sin , and in punishing the sinner , that judging my self , I may not be condemned by thee ; that mourning for my sins , may rejoyce in thy pardon ; that killing my sin , I may live in righteousness ; that denying my own will , I may always perform thine ; and by the methods of thy Spirit I may overcome all carnal and spiritual wickednesses , and walk in thy light , and delight in thy service , and perfect my obedience , and be wholly delivered from my sin , and for ever preserved from thy wrath , and at last passe on from a certain expectation to an actual fruition of the glories of thy Kingdom , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen , Amen , Amen . 1. I am in thy sight O Lord a polluted person ; sin like a crust of leprosie hath overspread me : I am a scandal to others , a shame to my self , a reproach to my relations , a burden to the earth , a spot in the Church , and deserve to be rejected and scorn'd by thee . 2. But this O God I cannot bear : It is just in thee to destroy me ; but thou delightest not in that : I am guilty of death ; but thou lovest rather that I should live . 3. O let the cry of thy Sons blood , who offers an eternal Sacrifice to thee , speak on my behalf , and speak better things than the blood of Abel . 4. My conscience does accuse me , the Devils rejoyce in my fall and aggravate my crimes , already too great ; and thy holy Spirit is grieved by me : But my Saviour Jesus died for me , and thou pittiest me , and thy holy Spirit still calls upon me , and I am willing to come ; but I cannot come unlesse thou drawest me with the cords of love . 5. O draw me unto thee by the Arguments of charity , by the endearments of thy mercies , by the order of thy providence , by the hope of thy promises , by the sense of thy comforts , by the conviction of my understanding , by the zeal and passion of holy affections , by an unreprovable faith and an humble hope , by a religious fear and an increasing love , by the obedience of precepts and efficacy of holy example , by thy power and thy wisdom , by the love of thy Son and the grace of thy Spirit : Draw me O God , and I will run after thee , and the sweetnesses of thy precious ointments . 6. I am not worthy O Lord , I am not worthy to come into thy presence , much less to eat the flesh of the Sacrificed Lamb : For my sins , O Blessed Saviour Jesus , went along in confederation with the High Priests , in treachery with Judas , in injustice with Pilate , in malice with the people . 7. My sins and the Jews crucified thee ; my hypocrisie was the kiss that betrai'd thee ; my covetous and ambitious desires were the thorns that pricked thy sacred head ; my vanity was the knee that mocked thee ; my lusts disrobed thee , and made thee naked to shame and cruel scourgings ; my anger and malice , my peevishness and revenge , were the bitter gall which thou did●t taste ; my bitter words and cursed speaking were the vinegar which thou didst drink ; and my scarlet sins made for thee a purple robe of mockery and derision ; and where shall I vile wretch appear , who have put my Lord to death , and expos'd him to an open shame , and crucified the Lord of Life ? 8. Where should I appear but before my Saviour , who died for them that have murdered him , who hath lov'd them that hated him , who is the Saviour of his enemies , and the life of the dead , and the redemption of captives , and the advocate for sinners , and all that we do need , and all that we can desire ? 9. Grant that in thy wounds I may finde my safety , in thy stripes my cure , in thy pain my peace , in thy cross my victory , in thy resurrection my triumph , and a crown of righteousness in the glories of thy eternal Kingdom . Amen , Amen . S. Austins penitential Prayer . Before thy eyes , O gracious Lord , we bring our crimes ; before thee we expose the wounds of our bleeding souls . That which we suffer is but little ; but that which we deserve is intolerable : We fear the punishment of our sins , but cease not pertinaciously to proceed in sinning : Our weakness is sometimes smitten with thy rod , but our iniquity is not changed ; our grieved mind is troubled , but our stiff neck is not bended with the flexures of a holy obedience ; our life spends in vanity and trouble , but amends it self in nothing : When thou smitest us , then we confess our sin ; but when thy visitation is past , then we forget that we have wept : When thou stretchest forth thy hand , then we promise to do our duty ; but when thou takest off thy hand , we perform no promises : If thou strikest , we cry to thee to spare us ; but when thou sparest , we again provoke thee to strike us . Thus O God the guilty confess before thee ; and unless thou givest us pardon , it is but just that we perish : But O Almighty God our Father , grant to us what we ask , even though we deserve it not ; for thou madest us out of nothing , else we had not any power to ask . ] Pardon us , O gracious Father , and take away all our sin , and destroy the work of the Devil ; and let the enemy have no part nor portion in us ; but acknowledg the work of thy own hands , the price of thy own blood , the sheep of thy own fold , the members of thy own body , the purchase of thine own inheritance ; and make us to be what thou hast commanded ; give unto us what thou hast designed for us ; enable us for the work thou hast injoin'd us , and bring us to the place which thou hast prepared for us by the blood of the everlasting Covenant , and by the pains of the Cross , and the glories of thy Resurrection , O blessed and most glorious Saviour and Redeemer Jesus . Amen . CHAP. IV. Of our Actual and Ornamental Preparation to the Reception of the Blessed Sacrament . SECT . I. HE that is dressed by the former measures is always worthy to communicate ; but he that is always well vested , will against a wedding day be more adorn'd ; and the five wise Virgins that stood ready for the coming of the Bridegroom , with oyl in their lamps and fire on their oyl , yet at the notice of his coming trimm'd their lamps , and made them to burn brighter . The receiving of the Blessed Sacrament is a receiving of Christ ; and here the soul is united to her Lord ; and this Feast is the Supper of the Lamb , and the Lamb is the Bridegroom , and every faithful soul is the Bride ; and all this is but the image of the state of blessednesse in heaven , where we shall see him without a vail , whom here we receive under the vail of Sacraments ; and there we shall live upon him without a figure , to whom we are now brought by significations and representments corporal . But then as we here receive the same thing as there , though after a less perfect manner ; it is also very fit we should have here the same , that is , a heavenly conversation , though after the manner of men living upon the earth . It is true , that the blessed souls receive Christ always , and they live accordingly , in perpetual uninterrupted glorifications of his name , and conformities to his excellencies . Here we receive him at certain times , and at such times we should make our conversation coelestial , and our holiness actual , when our addresses are so ; so that in our actual addresses to the reception of these divine Mysteries , there is nothing else to be done , but that what in our whole life is done habi●ually , at that time be done actually ▪ No man is fit to die , but he who is safe if he dies suddenly ; and yet he that is so fitted , if he hears the noise of the Bridegrooms coming , will snuff his lamp , and stir up the fire , and apply the oyl ; and so must he that hath warning of his Communion . He that communicates every day , must live a life of a continual Religion ; and so must he who in any sense communicates frequently , if he does it at all worthily ; but he that lives carelesly , and dresses his soul with the beginnings of vertues against a Communion day , is like him that repents not till the day of his death ; if it succeeds well , it is happy for him ; but if it does not , he may blame himself for being confident without a promise . Every worthy Communicant must prepare himself by a holy life , by mortification of all his sins , by the acquisition of all Christian graces ; and this is not the work of a day , or a week ; but by how much the more these things are done , by so much the better we are prepar'd . So that the actual addresse and proper preparation to the Blessed Sacrament is indeed an inquiry whether we are habitually prepar'd ; that is , whether we be in the state of grace ; whether we belong to Christ , whether we have faith and charity , whether we have repented truly . If we be to communicate next week , or it may be to morrow , these things cannot be gotten to day , and therefore we must stay till we be ready . And if by our want of preparation we be compelled for the s●ving of our souls , and lest we die , to abstain from this holy feast , let us consider what our case would be if this should be the last coming of the Brideg●oom . This is but the warning of that ; this is but his last coming a little antedated ; and God graciously calls us now to be prepared here , that we may not be unprepared then ; but it is a formidable thing to be thrust out when we see others enter . And therefore when the Masters of spiritual life call upon us to set apart a day , or two , or three , for preparation to this holy Feast , they do not mean that any man who on the Thursday is unfit and unworthy , should be fitted to communicate on Sunday ; but that he should on those days try whether he be or no , and pass from one degree of perfection to a greater , from the less perfect to the more ; for let us think of it as we please , there is no other preparation ; and it might otherwise seem a wonder to us , why St. Paul who particularly speaks of it , and indeed the whole New Testament , should say nothing of any particular preparation to this holy ●east ; but only gives us caution that we do not receive it unworthily , but gives us no particular rule or precept but this one , that a man should examine himself , and so let him eat : I say , this might seem very strange , but that we find there is and there can be no worthy preparation to it but a life of holiness , and that every one who names the Lord Jesus should depart from iniquity ; and therefore , that against the day of Communion there is nothing peculiarly and signally required , but to examine our selves , to see if all be right in the whole ; and what is wanting towards our proportion of perfection and ornament , to supply it . So that the immediate preparation to the holy Communion can have in it but three parts and conjugations of duty . 1. An examination of our conscience . 2. An actual supply of such actions as are wanting . 3. Actual devotion , and the exercise of special graces by way of prayer , so to adorn our present state and dispositions . SECT . II. Rules for Examination of our Consciences against the day of our Communion . HOw we are to examine our selves concerning such states of life and conjugations of duty as are properly relative to the great and essential preparation and worthiness to communicate , I have already largely consider'd * : Now I shall add such practical advices which may with advantage minister to the actual reception , such which concern the immediate preparatory and ornamental address ; that we may reduce the former Doctrine to action and exercise against that time ; and this will serve as an appendix , and for the compleating the former measures . 1. In the days of your address consider the greatness of the work you go about ; that it is the highest mystery of the whole Religion you handle ; that it is no less than Christ himself in Sacrament that you take ; that as sure as any Christian does ever receive the Spirit of God , so sure every good man receives Christ in the Sacrament ; that to receive Christ in Sacrament is not a diminution or lessening of the blessing ; it is a real communion with him , to all material events of blessing and holiness ; that now every Communicant does an act that will contribute very much to an happy or unhappy eternity ; that by this act and its appendages a man may live or die for ever ; that a man cannot at all be supposed in any state , that this thing will be indifferent to him in that state , but will set him forward to some very great event ; that this is the greatest thing that God gives us in the world , and if we do it well , it is the greatest thing we can do in the world ; and therefore when we have considered these things in general , let us examine whether we be persons in any sense fitted to such glorious communications , and prepar'd by such dispositions which the greatnesse of the Mystery may in its appearance seem to require . Some may perceive their disproportion at the first sight , and need to examine no farther . It is as if a Jew in Rome with his basket and bottle of hay should be advised to stand Candidate for the Consulship ; you mock him if you speak of it : and therefore if you find your case like this , start back and come not neer . It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , there 's Divinity in it ; and to the wicked it brings brimstone and fire . 2. Next to this general consideration , examine your self concerning those things in which you are or may be offensive to others : For although every man is to begin at home , yet that which is first to be chang'd is that which is not only evil in it self , but afflictive to others ; that which is sin and shame , that which offends God and my neighbour too ; that is , it is criminal , and it is scandalous . Examine therefore thy self about injuriousness , robbery , detraction , obloquy , scolding , much prating , peevish conversation , ungentle nature , ap●ness to quarrel , and the like : For thus if like Zachary and Elizabeth we walk unblameably , and unreprovable before all the world , certain it is , the Church will not reject us from the Communion ; and we have purchas'd a good deg●ee in the faith , and shall think our condition worth preserving and worth improving . 3. Examine thy self concerning all entercourses in the matter of men , whether any unhandsome contract was made , any fraudulent bargain , any surprise or out-witting of thy weaker , thy confident , or unwary Brother ; and whatever you do , place that right : For money is a snare ; and in contracts we are of all things soonest deceived , and are very often wrong , and yet never think so , and we do every thing before we part with this . But when every thing is set right here , we may better hope of other things ; for either they are right , or will with less difficulty be made so . 4. Like to this , for the matter of the inquiry , is that we examine our selves in the matter of our debts , whether we detain them otherwise than in justice we are oblig'd ? Here we must examine whether we be able to pay them ? If so , whether presently or afterwards ? By what we are disabled ? Whether we can and ought to alter the state of our expences ? What probability we have to pay them at all ? How we can secure that they shall be paid ? and if they cannot , how much can we do towards it ? And what amends can we make to our Creditors ? And how we mean to end that entercourse ? For this ought to be so far at least stated , that we may be sure we do no injustice , and do no injury that we can avoid . This is a material consideration , and of great effect unto the peace of conscience , and a worthy dispo●ition to the holy Communion . 5. Let us examine our selves how we spend our time . Is it imployed in an honest calling , in worthy studies , in useful business , in affairs of government , in something that is charitable , in any thing that is useful ? But if we throw away great portions of it , of which we can give no sober account ; although the Laws chastise us not , and appoint no guardians to conduct our estates , as it does to fools and mad men ; yet we are like to fall into severer hands ; and God will be angry . But they are very unfit to entertain Christ , who when they have received his Sacrament resolve to dwell in idleness and foolish divertisements , and have no business but recreation . At the best , it is but a suspicious state of life , that can give no wise account to God and the Common-wealth . 6. Examine thy self in the particulars of thy relation ; especially where thou governest and takest accounts of others , and exactest their faults , and art not so obnoxious to them as they to thee . Princes , and Generals , and Parents , and Husbands , and Masters think more things are lawful to them towards their inferiours , than indeed there are ; and as they may easily transgress in discipline and reproof , so they very often fail in making provisions for the souls and bodies of their inferiours ; and proceed with more confidence and to greater progressions in evil because they pass without animadversion , or the notice of laws . These persons are not often responsible to their subordinates , but alwaies for them ; and therefore it were good that we took great notice of it our selves , because few else do . 7. Let us examine our selves concerning the great and little accidents of our private entercourse and conversation in our family ; especially between man and wife in the little quarrellings and accidental unkindnesses wherein both think themselves innocent , and it may be both are to blame . If the matter be disputable , then do thou dispute it with thy self , or rather condemn thy self ; for if it be fit to be questioned , it is certainly in some measure fit to be repented of . For either in the thing it self , or in the misapprehension of the thing , or in the not expounding it well , or in the not suffering it , or in the not concealing it , or in the not turning it into vertue , or in the not forgiving it , or not conducting it prudently , it is great odds but thou art to blame . These little rencontres between man and wife are great hindrances to prayer , as St. Peter intimates ; and by consequence do infinitely indispose us to the greatest solennity of prayer , the holy Sacrament ; and therefore ought to be strictly surveyed , and the principles rescinded , and the beginnings stopt , or else we shall communicate without fruit . 8. Be sure against a day of Communion to examine thy self in those things which no law condemns , but yet are of ill report , such as are sumptuous and expensive cloathing , great feasts , gaudy dressings , going often to Taverns , phantastick following of fashions , inordinate merriments , living beyond our means ; in these and the like , we must take our measures by a proportion to the prudence and severity of Christian Religion , and by observation of the customs and usages of the best and wisest persons in every condition of men and women . For that we do things which are of good report is a precept of the Apostle : and as by little illnesses in the body ; so by the smallest indispositions in the soul , if they be proceeded in , we may finish ●he method of an eternal death . And these things , although when they are argued , may in many particulars by witty men be represented in themselves as innocent , yet they proceed from an evil and unsafe principle , and not from a spirit fitted to dwell with Christ , and live upon Sacraments and secret participations . 9. Let us with curiosity examine our souls in such actions which are condemned by the Laws of God and man respectively , but are not defined , and the guilty person cannot in many cases be argued and convinced ; such as are pride and covetousness . For when external actions can proceed from many principles , as a haughty gate from pride , or an ill habit of body , or imitation , or carelesness , or humour ; it will be hard for any man to say , I am proud because I lift up my feet too high ; and who can say that a degree of care and thriftiness in my case and in my circumstances is covetousness ? Here as we must be gentle to others , so we must be severe to our selves ; and not only condemn the very first entries of an infant sin ; but suspect his approaches , and acknowledge a fault before it be certain and evident . In these things we must the rather examine our selves ; because we can be the most certain accusers of our selves ; and the inquiries are of great concernment , because they are that curiosity of piety and security of condition which becomes persons of growth in grace , and such as are properly fitted to the Communion : and indeed they are of things most commonly neglected ; men usually living at that rate ▪ that if they be not scandalous , they suppose themselves to be Saints and fitted for the nearest entercourse with Christ. These instances of examination do suppose that we have already examined our selves concerning all habits of sin , and laid aside every discernable weight , and repented of every observed criminal action ; and broken every custome of lesser irregularities , and are reformed by the measures of Laws and express Commandments , and are changed from death to life ; and that we are persons so far advanced that we need not to regard what is behind , but to press forward towards the state of a perfect man in Christ Jesus . For he that is in that state of things , that he is to examine how many actions of uncleanness , or intemperance , or slander he hath committed since the last Communion , is not fit to come to another , but must change his life , and repent greatly before he comes hither . SECT . III. Of an actual supply to be made of such actions and degrees of good as are wanting ; against a Communion-day . 1. IF on a Communion-day , we need very much examination , we can make but little supply of those many defects which it is likely a diligent inquiry will discover ; and therefore it is highly advisable , that as we ought to repent every day , and not put it all off till the day of our Communion or our death ; so we should every day examine our selves , at the shutting in of the day , or at our going to bed ; for so St. Basil , St. Chrysostome , St. Anthony and St. Austin , St. Ephrem and St. Dorotheus do advise . Others advise that it be done twice every day : and indeed the oftner we recollect our selves : 1. The more weaknesses we shall observe , and 2. the more faults correct , and 3. watch the better , and 4. repent the more perfectly , and 5. offend less , and 6. be more prepared for death , and 7. be more humble , and 8. with ease prevent the contracting of evil habits , and 9. interrupt the union of little sins into a chain of death , and 10. more readily prevail upon our passions , and 11. better understand our selves , and 12. more frequently converse with God , and 13. oftner pray , and 14. have a more heavenly conversation , and in fine , 15. be more fitted for a frequent and holy Communion . 2. The end of examination is , 1. That we grieve for all our sins . 2. That we resolve to amend all . * 3. That we actually watch and pray against all : Therefore it is necessary that when we have examined against a Communion day ; 1. We alwaies do actions of contrition for every thing we have observed to be amiss ; 2. That we renew our resolutions of better obedienc● , 3. And that we pray for particular strength against our failings . 3. He that would communicate with fruit must so have ordered his examinations , that he must not alwaies be in the same method . He must not alwaies be walking with a candle in his hands , and prying into corners ; but they must be swept and garnished , and be kept clean and adorned . His examinations must be made full and throughly and be productive of inferiour resolutions , and must pass on to rules and exercises of caution . That is , 1. We must consider where we fail oftenest . 2. From what principle this default comes . 3. What are the best remedies . 4. We must pass on to the real and vigorous use of them : and when the case is thus stated and drawn into rules and resolutions of acting them ; we are only to take care we do so ; and every day examine whether we have or no. But we must not at all dwell in this relative and preparatory and ministring duty . But if we find that we have reason to do so ; let us be sure that something is amiss ; we have played the hypocrites , and done the work of the Lord negligently or falsly . 4. If any passion be the daily exercise or temp●ation of our life , let us be careful to put the greatest distress upon that , and therefore against a Communion-day , do something in defiance and diminution of that ; chastise it , if it hath prevailed : reenforce thy resolutions against it , examine all thy aids , see what hath been prosperous , and pursue that point ; and if thou hast not at all prevailed , then know , all is not well ; for he communicates without fruit , who makes no progressions in his mortifications and conquest over his passions . It may be we shall be long exercised with the remains of the Canaanites ; for it is in the matter of Passions as Seneca said of Vices , We fight against them not to conquer them intirely , but that they may not ●onquer us ; not to kill them , but to bring them under command ; and unless we do that , we cannot be sure that we are in the state of grace ; and therefore cannot tell if we do , or do not worthily communicate . For by all the exteriour actions of our life we cannot so well tell how it is with us , as by the observation of our affections and passions , our wills and our desires . For I can command my foot , and it must obey ; and my hand , and it cannot resist ; but when I bid my appetite obey , or my anger be still , or my will not to desire , I find it very often to rebell against my word , and against Gods word ] Therefore let us be sure to take some effective course with the appetite , and place our guards upon the inward man ; and upon our preparation daies do some violence to our lusts and secret desires , by holy resolutions , and severe purposes , and rules of caution , and by designing a course of spiritual arts and exercises for the reducing them to reason and obedience : something that may be remembred ; and something that will be done . * But to this let this caution be added ; that of all things in the world we be careful of relapses into our old follies or infirmities ; for if things do not succeed well afterwards , they were not well ordered at first . 5. Upon our communion daies , and daies of prep●ration ; let us endeavour to stir up every grace which we are to exercise in our conversation ; and thrust our selves forward in zeal of those graces : that we begin to amend our lukewarmness , and repair our sins of omission . For this is a day of sacrifice ; and every sacrifice must be consumed by fire , and therefore , now is the day of improvement , and the proper season for the zeal of duty ; and if upon the solemn day of the soul we do not take care of omissions , and repair the great and little forgetfulnesses , and omissions of duty , and pass from the infirmities of a man to the affections of a Saint , we may all our life time abide in a state of lukewarmness , disimprovement and indifference ; To this purpose , 6 Compare day with day , week with week , Communion with Communion , time with time , duty with duty , and see if you can observe any advantage , any ground gotten of a passion ; any further degree of the spirit of mortificaton , any new permanent fires of devotion ; for by volatile , sudden and transient flames we can never guess steadily . But be sure never to think you are at all improved unless you observe your defects to be , 1. fewer : 2. or lighter : or 3. at least not to be the same ; but of another kind and ins●ance , against which you had not made particular provisions formerly ; but now upon this new observation and experience you must . 7. Upon or against a Communion day endeavour to put your soul into that order and state of good things , as if that day you were to die ; and consider that unless you dare die upon that day , if God should call you , there is but little reason you should dare to receive the Sacrament of life , or the ministry of death . He that communicates worthily is justified from sins ; and to him death can have no sting , to whom the Sacrament brings life and health ; and therefore let every one that is to communicate place himself by meditation in the gates of death , and suppose himself seated before the Tribunal of Gods Judgment , and see whether he can reasonably hope that his sins are pardoned , and cured , and extinguished . And then if you judge righteous judgement , you will soon find what pinches most , what makes you most afraid , what was most criminal , or what is least mortified ; and so you will learn to make provisions accordingly . 8. If you find any thing yet amiss , or too suspicious , or remaining to evill purposes , the reliques of the scattered enemy after a war , resolve to use some general instrument of piety or repentance , that may , by being useful in all the parts of your life and conversation , meet with every stragling irregularity , and by perpetuity and an assiduous force clear the coast . 1. Resolve to have the presence of God frequently in your thought . 2. Or endeavour and resolve to bring it to pass to have so great a dread and reverence of God , that you may be more ashamed and really troubled and confounded to sin in the presence of God than in the sight and observation of the best and severest man. 3. Or else resolve to punish thy self with some proportionable affliction of the body or spirit for every irregularity or return of undecency in that instance in which thou sets thy self to mortifie any one special passion or temptation : Or 4. Firmly to purpose in every thing which is not well , not to stay a minute , but to repent instantly of it , severely to condemn it , and to do something at the first opportunity for amends : Or 5. To resolve against an instance of infirmity for some short , sure , and conquerable periods of time : as if you be given to prating , resolve to be silent , or to speak nothing but what is pertinent for a day ; or for a day not to be angry ; and then sometimes for two daies ; and so diet your weak soul with little portions of food till it be able to take in and digest a full meal : Or 6. Meditate often every day of death , or the day of judgment . By these and the like instruments it will happen to the remains of sin , as it did to the Aegyptians ; what is left by the Hail , the Catterpiller will destroy ; and what the Catterpiller leaves , the Locusts will eat . These instruments will eat up the remains of sin as the poor gather up the gleanings after the Carts in harvest . 9. But if at any Communion and in the use of these advices you do not perceive any sensible progression in the spirit of mortification or devotion ; then be sure to be ashamed , and to be humbled for thy indisposition and slow progression in the discipline of Christ : and if thou beest humbled truly for thy want of improvement , it is certain thou hast improved . And if you come with fear and trembling , it is very probable you will come in the spirit of repentance and devotion . These exercises and measures will not seem many , long and tedious * as the rules of art ; if we consider that all are not to be used at all times , nor by every person ; but are instruments fitted to several necessities , and useful when they can do good , and to be used no longer . ●or he that uses these or any the like advices by way of solemnity , and in periodical returns , will still think fit to use them at every Communion as long as he lives ; but he that uses them as he should , that is , to effect the work of reformation upon his soul , may lay them all aside , according to his work is done . But if we would every day do something of this ; if we would every day prepare for the day of death , or which is of a like consideration , for the day of our Communion ; if we would every night examine our passed day , and set our things in order ; if we would have a perpetual entercourse and conversation with God ; or , which is better than all examinations in the world , if we would actually attend to what we do , and consider every action , and speak so little that we might consider it , we should find that upon the day of our Communion we should have nothing to do , but the third particular , that is , the offices of Prayer and Eucharist , and to renew our graces by prayer and exercises of devotion . SECT . IV. Devotions to be used upon the morning of the Communion . 1. O Blessed Lord , our gracious Saviour and Redeemer Jesus , King of Kings and Lord of Lords ; thou art fairer than the children of men ; upon thee the Angels look and behold and wonder ; what am I O Lord , that thou who fillest heaven and earth , shouldst descend and desire to dwell with me , who am nothing but folly and infirmity , misery and sin , shame and death ? 2. I confess , O God , that when I consider thy greatness and my nothing , thy purity and my uncleanness , thy glory and my shame ; I see it to be infinitely unreasonable and presumptuous that I should approach to thy sacred presence , and desire to partake of thy Sacraments , and to enter into thy grace , and to hope for a part of thy glory . But when I consider thy mercy and thy wisdome , thy bounty and thy goodness , thy readiness to forgive , and thy desires to impart thy self unto thy servants ; then I am lifted up with hope ; then I come with boldness to the throne of grace . Even so O Lord because thou hast commanded it , and because thou lovest it should be so . 3. It was never heard O Lord from the beginning of the world , that thou didst ever despise him that called upon thee , or ●orsake any man that abides in thy fear , or that any person who trusted in the Lord , was ever confounded . But if I come to thee , I bring an unworthy person to be united unto thee ; if I come not , I shall remain unworthy for ever ; If I stay away , I fear to lose thee ; If I come , I fear to offend thee , and that will lose thee more , and my self too at last . I know O God I know , my sins have separated between me and my God ; but thy love and thy passion , thy holiness and thy obedience hath reconciled us : and though my sins deter me , yet they make it necessary for me to come ; and though thy greatness amazes me ▪ yet it is so full of goodness that it invites me . 4. O therefore blessed Saviour , who didst for our sakes take upon thee our passions and sensibilities , our weaknesses and our sufferings , who wert hungry after the temptation of the Devil , weary and thirsty in thy discourse with the woman of Samaria , who didst weep over Lazarus , wert afflicted in the garden , whipt in the Consistory , nail'd on the Cross , pierc'd with a spear , wrapp'd in li●nen , laid in the grave , and so art become a 〈◊〉 High Priest and pitiful to our infi●●●●ie● ; be pleased to receive a weary sinner , 〈◊〉 overburd●ne●●●nscience , an afflicted polluted soul i●to thy c●re and conduct , into thy custody and ●●re . I know that a thousand years of tears and sorrow , the purity of Angels , the love of Saints , and the humiliation of the greatest penitent is not sufficient to make we worthy to dwell with thee , to be united to thy infinity , to be fed with thy body , and refreshed with thy purest bloud , to become bone of thy bone , and flesh of thy flesh , and spirit of thy spirit . 5. But what I cannot be of my self , let me be made by thee ; I come to thee , wounded and bruised and bleeding ; for thou art my Physician , arise then with healing in thy wings ; I am thirsty and faint , as the Hart longeth after the water brooks , so longeth my soul after thee O God ; thou art the eternal fountain , from whence spring the waters of comfort and salvation ; I am hungry and empty and weak , and I come running after thee because thou hast the words of eternal life ; O send me not away empty , for I shall faint and die ; I cannot live without thee . O let vertue go forth from thee and heal all my sickness ; do thou appear to my soul in these mysteries ; heal my sores , purifie my stains , enlighten my darkness , turn me from all vain imaginations and illusions of the enemy , all perverseness of will , all violence and inordination of passions , sensual desires and devillish angers , lust and malice , gluttony and pride , the spirit of envy and the spirit of detraction ; let not sin reign in my members , nor the Devil lead my will captive , nor the world abuse my understanding and debauch my conversation . 6. O Jesus be a Jesus unto me : and let this Sacrament be a savour of life , and thy holy body the bread of life , and thy precious bloud the purifier of my sinful life . Grant I may receive these Divine mysteries for the amendment of my life , and the defensative against my sins ; for the increase of vertue and the perfection of my spirit ; Grant that I may from thee thus Sacramentally communicated derive prevailing grace for the amendment of my life ; spiritual wisdom for the discerning the waies of peace ; the spirit of love , and the spirit of purity ; that in all my life I may walk worthy of thy gracious favours which thou givest to me unworthy ; that I may do all my works in holiness and right intention , that I may resist every temptation with a never fainting courage , and a caution never surprized , and a prudence never deceived . 7. Sweetest Saviour , I come to thee upon thy invitation , and thy commandment ; I could not come to thee but by thee ; O let me never go from thee any more , but enter into my heart ; feed me with thy word , sustain me with thy spirit , refresh me with thy comforts , and let me in this divine mystery receive thee my dearest Saviour ; and be thou my wisdom and my righteousness , , my sanctification and redemption ; let me receive this holy nutriment as the earnest of an eternal inheritance , as a defensative against all spiritual danger , for the eviction of all the powers of the enemy , as an incentive of holy love , and a strengthning of my faith , for the increasing of a holy hope , and the consummation of a heavenly love , that thou being one with me , and I with thee , I may by thee be gracious in the eyes of thy heavenly Father , and may receive my portion amongst the inheritance of Sons , O eternal and most gracious Saviour and Redeemer Jesu . Amen , Amen . CHAP. VII . Of our Comportment in and after our Receiving the Blessed Sacrament . SECT . I. Of the Circumstances and Manner of Reception of the Divine Mysteries . IT is the custom of the Church of great antiquity , and proportionable regard , that every Christian that is in health should receive the Blessed Sacrament fasting . The Apostles and primitive Bishops at first gave it after Supper , or together with it ; but that soon passed into inconvenience ; and some were drunken , and some were empty and despis'd , and the Holy Sacrament was dishonour'd , and the Lords body was not discerned , and God was provoked to anger , and the sinners were smitten and died in their sin ; as appears in the sad narrative which St. Paul makes of the misdemeanours and the misfortunes in the Corinthian Churches . Something like to which , is that which Socrates tells of some Christians in Aegypt ; they celebrated the Holy Communion at evening , but never till they had fill●d themselves with varities of choice meat . Of some also in Africa that communicated at evening St. Austin speaks ; and of others who communicated both morning and evening : At evening , because S. Paul called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Lords Supper ; and in the morning , from the universal custom of the Church , which in most places from the very days of the Apostles prevail'd , that the holy Eucharist should be given to none but to them that were fasting : which thing was also decreed in the third Council of Carthage , and hath been observed ever since . And in this the Church hath not without good reason taken up the custom . For besides that the intemperance of them that f●asted before they communicated , did not only give scandal to the Religion , but did infinitely indispose them that came , and dishonour the Divine Mysteries ; and such feastings would for ever be a temptation and a snare , and therefore could not be cured so well as by taking the occasion away ; besides these things , the Church observed , that in the time of the Synagogue , the Servants of God did religiously abstain from meat and drink upon all their solemn feast days , till their great Offices of Religion were finish'd ; and that upon this account the Jews were scandaliz'd at the Disciples for eating the ears of corn early on their Sabbath ; and Christ excus'd them only upon the reason of their hunger , that is , upon necessity or charity : and after all , even by natural reason and experience we find that they pray and worship best who are not loaden with meat and drink ; and that therefore this solemnity being the greatest worship of God in the whole Religion , consequently ought to be done with all advantages ; it was therefore very reasonable that the Church took up this custom ; and therefore they who causelesly do prevaricate it , shall bear their own burden , and are best reproved by St. Pauls words . We have no such custom , nor the Churches of God. But sick people and the weak are as readily to be excused in this thing , as the Apostles were by Christ in the case before mentioned : For necessity and charity are to be preferr'd before such ceremonies and circumstances of address . 1. When you awake in the morning of your Communion day , give God thanks particularly that he hath blessed thee with so blessed an opportunity of receiving the Symbols of pardon , the ministery of the Spirit , the Sacrament of Christ himself , the seed of immortality , and the Antepast of heaven , and hasten earlier out of your bed : The cock crowing that morning is like the noise that is made of the coming of the Bridegroom ; and therefore go out to meet him , but rise that you may trim your lamp . When you are up , presently address your self to do such things as you would willingly be found doing when the Bridegroom calls , and you are to appear before him to hear your final sentence . 2. Make a general confession of your sins , and be very much humbled in the sense and apprehension of them . Compare the state and union of all your evils , with the state and grandeur of that favour which God intends that day to consign to you ; and then think what you are , and what God is ; what you have done , and what God intends to do ; how ill you have deserved , and yet how graciously you are dealth with . And consider what an infinite distance there is between that state which you have deserved , and that good which you are to have ; by considering how intolerable your case would have been , if God had dealt with you as you deserve , and as he hath dealt with very many who sinn'd no more than you have done ; and yet in what felicities you are placed by the mercies of your good God ; that you are in the hopes , and in the methods , and in the participations of pardon and eternal life . 3. The effect of this consideration ought to be , that you make acts of general contrition for all your sins known and unknown : That you renew your purposes and vows of better obedience : That you exercise acts of special graces ; and that you give God most hearty and superexalted thanks with all the transports and ravishments of spirit , for so unspeakable , so unmeritable , so unrewardable a loving kindness . 4. Worship Jesus : Love him ; dedicate thy self to him ; recollect what he hath done for thy soul , what glories he laid aside , with what meanness he was invested , what pains he suffered , what shame he endur'd , what excellencies he preach'd what wisdom he taught , what life he liv'd , what death he died , what Mysteries he hath appointed , by what ministeries he conveys himself to thee , what rare arts he uses to save thee ; and after all , that he intercedes for thee perpetually in heaven , presenting to his heavenly Father that great Sacrifice of himself which he finished on the Cross , and commands thee to imitate in this Divine and Mysterious Sacrament ; and in the midst of these thoughts and proportionable exercises and devotions , address thy self to the solemnities and blessings of the day . 5. Throw away with great diligence and severity all unholy and all earthly thoughts ; and think the thoughts of heaven : for when Christ descends he comes attended with innumerable companies of Angels , who all behold and wonder , who love and worship Jesus ; and in this glorious imployment and society let thy thoughts be pure , and thy mind celestial , and thy work Angelical , and thy spirit full of love , and thy heart of wonder ; thy mouth all praises , investing and incircling thy prayers as a bright cloud is adorned with fringes and margents of light . 6. When thou seest the holy man minister , dispute no more , inquire no more , doubt no more , be divided no more ; but believe , and behold with the eyes of faith and of the spirit , that thou seest Christs body broken upon the Cross , that thou seest him bleeding for thy sins , that thou feedest upon the food of elect souls , that thou puttest thy mouth to the hole of the rock that was smitten , to the wound of the side of thy Lord , which being pierced streamed forth Sacraments , and life , and holiness , and pardon , and purity , and immortality upon thee . 7. When the words of Institution are pronounced , all the Christians us'd to say Amen ; giving their consent , confes●ing that faith , believing that word , rejoicing in that Mystery which is told us when the Minister of the Sacrament in the person of Christ says , This is my body , This is my blood ; This body was broken for you , and this blood was poured forth for you ; and all this for the remission of your sins . And remember , that the guilt of eternal damnation which we have all incurr'd , was a great and an intolerable evil , and unavoidable if such miracles of mercy had not been wrought to take it quite away ; and that it was a very great love which would work such glorious mercy , rather than leave us in so intolerable a condition . A greater love than this could not be ; and a less love than this could not have rescued us . 8. When the holy Man reaches forth his hands upon the Symbols , and prays over them , and intercedes for the sins of the people , and breaks the holy bread , and pours forth the sacred calice , place thy self by faith and meditation in heaven , and see Christ doing in his glorious manner this very thing which thou seest ministred and imitated upon the Table of the Lord ; and then remember that it is impossible thou shouldest miss of eternal blessings , which are so powerfully procur'd for thee by the Lord himself ; unless thou wilt despise all this , and neglect so great salvation , and chusest to eat with swine the dirty pleasures of the earth , rather than thus to feast with Saints and Angels , and to eat the body of thy Lord with a clean heart and humble affections . 9. When the consecrating and ministring hand reaches forth to thee the holy Symbols , say within thy heart as did the Centurion , Lord I am not worthy : but entertain thy Lord as the women did the news of the resurrection , with fear and great joy (a) ; or as the Apostles , with rejoycing and singleness of heart (b) ; that is , clear , certain and plain believing , and with exultation and delight in the loving kindness of the Lord. 10. But place thy self upon thy knees , in the humblest and devoutest posture of worshippers , and think not much in the lowest manner to worship the King of Men and Angels , the Lord of heaven and earth , the great lover of souls , and the Saviour of the body ; him whom all the Angels of God worship ; him whom thou confessest worthy of all , and whom all the world shall adore , and before whom they shall tremble at the day of judgment : For if Christ be not there after a peculiar manner , whom or whose body do we receive ? But if he be present to us , not in mystery only , but in blessing also , why do we not worship ? But all the Christians always did so from time immemorial . No man eats this flesh unless he first adores , said S. Austin : [ For the wise men and the Barbarians did worship this body in the manger with very much fear and reverence : let us therefore who are Citizens of heaven at least not fall short of the Barbarians . But thou seest him not in the Manger , but on the Altar ; and thou beholdest him not in the Virgins arms , but represented by the Priest , and brought to thee in Sacrifice by the holy Spirit of God ] So. St. Chrysostome argues : and accordingly this reverence is practised by the Churches of the East , and West , and South ; by the Christians of India ; by all the Greeks , as appears in their answer to the Cardinal of Guise ; by all the Lutheran Churches ; by all the world , sa●es Erasmus ; only now of late , some have excepted themselves . But the Church of England chooses to follow the reason and the piety of the thing it self , the example of the Primitive Church , and the consenting voice of Christendome [ And if it be irreverent to sit in the sight and before the face of him whom you ought to revere ; how much more in the presence of the living God , where the Angel the president of prayer does stand , must it needs be a most irreligious thing to sit , unless we shall upbraid to God ; that our prayers to him have wearied us ? ] It is the argument of Tertullian . To which many of the Fathers add many other fair inducements , but I think they cannot be necessary to be produced here ; because all Christians generally kneel when they say their prayers , and when they bless God , an● I suppose no man communicates but he does both ; and therefore needs no o●her inducement to perswade him to kneel , * especially since Christ himself , and St. Stephen , and ●he Apostle St. Paul used that posture in their devotions ; that or lower ; for St. Paul kneeled upon the shore ; and our Lord himself fell prostrate on the earth . But to them that refuse , I shall only use the words of Scripture , which the Fathers of the Council of Turon applied to this particular : Why art thou proud O dust and ashes ? And when Christ opens his heart and gives us all that we need or can desire ; it looks like an ill return , if we shall dispute with him concerning the humility of a gesture and a circumstance . 11. When thou dost receive thy Lord , do thou also receive thy Brother into thy heart and into thy bowels . Thy Lord relieves thee , do thou relieve him ; and never communicate but be sure to give thy alms for one part of thy offering . St. Cyprian does with some vehemency upbraid some wealthy persons in his time who came to the celebration of the Lords Supper , and neglected the Corban , or the ministring to the Saints . Remember that by mercy to the poor the sentence of dooms-day shall be declared ; because what we do to them we do to Christ ; and who would not relieve Christ who hath made himself poor to make us rich ? And what time is so seasonable to feed the members of Christ , as that , when he gives his body to feed us , and that , when his members are met together to confess , to celebrate , to remember , and to be joyned to their head and to one another ? In short , The Church alwaies hath used at that time to be liberal to her poor ; and that being so seasonable and blessed an opportunity , and of it self also a proper act of worship and sacrifice , of religion and homage , of thankfulness and charity ; it ought not to be omitted ; and it can have no measure , but that of your love , and of your power , and the other accidents of your life and your religion . 12. As soon as ever you have taken the holy Elements into your mouth , and stomach ; remember that you have taken Christ into you , after a manner indeed which you do not understand , but to all purposes of blessing and holiness , if you have taken him at all . And now consider that he who hath given you his Son , with him will give you all things else : therefore represent to God through Jesus Christ all your needs , and the needs of your relatives ; signifie to him the condition of your soul ; complain of your infirmities ; pray for help against your enemies ; tell him of your griefs ; represent your fears , your hopes , and your desires . But it is also the great sacrifice of the world which you have then assisted in , and represented ; and now you being joyned to Christ are admitted to intercede for others , even for all mankind , in all necessities , and in all capacities ; pray therefore for all for whom Christ d●ed ; especially for all that communicate that day , for all that desire it ; that their prayers and yours being united to the intercession of your Lord , may be holy and prevail . 13. After you have given thanks , and finished your private and the publick devotions , go home , but do not presently forget the solemnity , and sink from the sublimity of devotion and mystery into a secular conversation , like a falling star , from brightness into dirt . The Ethiopians would not spit that day they had communicated , thinking they might d●shonour the Sacrament if before the consumption of the Symbols they should spit : but although they meant reverence , yet they express'd it ill . It was better which is reported of St. Margaret a daughter of the King of Hungary , that the day before she was to communicate she fasted with bread and water : and after the Communion she retired her self till the evening , spending the day in meditations , prayers , and thanksgiving ; and at night she eat her meal . Her imployment was very well sitted to the day ; but for her meal , it is all one when she eat it , so that by eating , or abstaining she did advantage to her spiritual imployment . But they that as soon as the office is finished part wi●h Christ , and carry their mind away to other interests , have a suspicious indifferency to the things of God. They have brought their Lord into the house , and themselves slip out at the back-door , Otherwise does the Spouse entertain her beloved Lord , I found him whom my soul loveth , I held him , and would not let him go . He that considers the advantages of prayer which every faithful soul hath upon a Communion day , will not easily let them sl●p ; but tell all his said stories to his Lord , and make all his wants known ; and as Jacob to the A●gel , will not let him go till he hath given a blessing . Upon a Communion-day Christ who is the beloved of the soul is gone to rest , and every secular imployment that is not necessary and part of duty , and every earthly thought does waken our Beloved before he please , let us take heed of that . 14. But what we do by devotion and solemn religion that day , we must do every day by the material practice of vertues ; we must verifie all our holy vows and promises ; we must keep our hearts curiously ; restrain our passions powerfully ; every day proceed in the mortification of our angers and desires ; in the love of God and of our neigh●●urs , and in the patient toleration of all injuries which men offer , and all the evil by which God will try us . Let not drunkenness enter , or evil words go forth of that mouth through which our Lord himself hath passed . The Heathens used to be drunk at their Sacrifices ; but by this sacrifice Eucharistical it is intended we should be filled with the Spirit . If we have communicated worthily , we have given our selves to Christ ; we have given him all our liberty and our life , our bodies and our souls , our actions and our passions , our affections and our faculties , what we are , and what we have ; and in exchange have received him ; and we may say with St. Paul , I live : but not I ; But Christ liveth in me . So that we must live no more unto the world , but unto God ; and having fed upon Manna , let us not long to return to Aegypt to feed on Garlick . For as when men have drank wine largely , the mind is free and the heart at liberty from care : so when we have drank ●he bloud of Christ , the cup of our salvation , the chains of the old man are untied , and we must forget our secular conversation ] So St. Cyprian , a : But the same precept is better given by Saint Paul , b , But the love of Christ constraineth u● , becuase we thus judge — that he died for all , that th●y which live should not henceforth live unto themselves , but unto him which died for them and rose again . Therefore if any man be in Christ , he is a new creature : old things are past away , b●hold all things are become new . He that hath communicated ; and does not afterwards live by the measures of that daies duty , hath but acted a scene of Religion but himself shall dearly pay the p●ice of the pompous and solemn hypocrisie . Remember that he is sick , who is not the better for the bread he eats ; and if thou dost not by the aids of Christ whom thou hast received subdue thy passion and thy sin , thou hast eaten the bread of idleness ; for so ( saith St Hierom ) does every one , who when he hath taken of the Sacrific● of the Lords body , does not persevere in good works , imitating that in deed which he hath celebrated in mystery . Let us take heed ; for the Angels are present in these mysteries to wait upon their Lord and ours : and it is a matter of great caution which was said by Vincentius Ferrerius : The Angels that assist at this Sacrament , would kill every unworthy Communicant ; unless the Divine mercy and long sufferance did cause them to forbear a speedy execution , that the blessed Sacrament might acquire its intention , and become a favour of life unto us . SECT . II. Acts of Vertues and Graces relative to the Mystery , to be us'd before or at the Celebration of the Divine Sacrament . I. The Address . IT is well , O sweetest Saviour Jesus , it is very well that thou art pleas'd to be a daily Sacrifice for us , and to become our daily supersubstantial bread to feed our souls . Certain it is , that we by our daily failings and the remaining pollution of our sins , frequently sink down to the bottom of thy displeasure . But do thou grant that being refreshed by the Sacrament and recreated by thy grace , strengthened by thy spirit , and comforted with thy miraculous sweetness , my heart and my affections may be lifted up on high . II. O grant that by thee my soul may be lifted up to thee , and from her self may pass into thee , with a pure mind , with an unfeigned Religion , with an unblameable faith and burning devotion , with filial piety and a profound reverence . For thou art the true God , the word of life , the bright Image and splendour of thy Fathers Glory , the reward of the Saints and the Lord of Angels , the brightness of eternal light , the unspotted mirrour of eternal purity . An Act of Love. Thee alone O Lord my soul desires ; thou art eternal sweetness in my soul. If the perfume of thy oyntment be sufficient to all the the world , what is the refection of thy Table ? If we live by every word proceeding out of thy mouth , what felicity and joy is it to live upon thee the eternal Word , chewing thee by faith , and digesting thee by love , and entertaining thee in our hearts for ever ? How shall not my bowels melt into thee the Sun of righteousness ? How is it that I do not forget all deliciousness besides thee ? A single pleasure , poor and empty , wearying and unsatisfying , hath often made me to forget thee . Now that thou art truly and effectively present with me , how can any other pleasure in the world seem pleasant to me any more ? I will forget all the world , I will quit all the world to live on thee , if thou pleasest O dearest Saviour : but do thou open thy ark and repositories of sweetness , and fill my soul and all my desires , that there may be no room for any thing else . Thou hast called unto me to open my hand and thou wouldst fill it : But I would not open it ; I held the world fast , and kept my hand shut , and would not let it go . But do thou open it for me ; not my hand only , but my mouth ; not my mouth , but my heart also . An Act of Desire after Jesus . O blessed Jesus , that hast said , it is thy delight to be with the sons of men : Thou hast made thy self the companion of our journeys , the light of our ignorance , the remedy of our infirmity . Dwell with me sweetest Saviour , and delight in me . It is no small thing I ask ; O my God , can it ever be that my God should delight in me ? That 's too much O God ; Grant that I may delight in thee , and do thou delight to pardon me , to sanctifie and to save me . Grant that I may never offend thee , that I may never grieve thy Holy Spirit , that I may not provoke the Angel of the everlasting Covenant to anger . But thou delightest in the works of thy hand , in the graces of the Spirit , in thy own excellencies and glories . Endue me with thy graces ; fill me with thy excellencies ; let me communicate of thy spirit ; and then enjoy these thy delights with thy servant ; for thou canst not else delight in me . Thou art thy own essential joy , and everlasting blessedness , and inseparable felicity : But this thou hast said , that thou delightest to be with the Sons of men , because thou truly lovest us . Blessed be thy Name for ever and ever . An Act of Thanksgiving . O Blessed Saviour Jesus , I adore the secrets of thy eternal wisdom , I admire the mysteriousness of our salvation , and I love and praise and give all possible thanks to thee the Author of our spiritual life , the Deliverer that came out of Sion , the Redeemer of thy people , the spoiler of all spiritual wickedness in heavenly places , the conqueror over sin and death , the triumpher over Devils ; thou hast taken from our strongest enemies all their armour , and divided the spoil : Grant that I may know nothing but thee , account all things loss in comparison of thee , and endeavour to be made conformable to thee , in the imitation of thy actions and obedience of thy Laws ; in the fellowship of thy sufferings , in the communion of thy graces , and participation of thy glories ; that beginning here to praise thy Name according as I can , I may hereafter for ever rehearse and adore thy excellencies according to the measures of glory for ever and ever . Amen . Ejaculations and Meditations to be us'd at any time ; but particularly after the Consecration of the Symbols , when the holy Man that ministers is bringing the Sacrament . 1. O holy Jesu , I behold thee stretch'd upon the Cross , with thy arms spread , ready to embrace and receive all mankind into thy bosome . 2. I come Lord Jesus , I come ; O take me to thee in the comprehensions of an unalterable , of an everlasting love : for thou hast opened thy heart as well as thine arms , and hast prepar'd a lodging place for me in the seat of love . 3. I see the Symbols , the holy bread , and the blessed cup ; but I also contemplate thy authority establishing these rites ; I adore thy wisdom , who hast made these Mysteries like thy own infancy ; I see thy self wrapt up in swadling clouts , and cover'd with a vail : I hear thy voice blessing these Symbols , thy mercy reaching out my pardon , thy holy Spirit sanctifying my spirit , thy blessed self making intercession for me at the eternal Altar in the heavens . 4. Thy infinite arm of mercy is reached unto us , and our arm of faith reaches unto thee : Blessed be Jesus , who will be joyned unto his servants . 5. This is thy body , O blessed Saviour Jesus , and this is thy blood ; but these are not thy wounds . My Lord had the smart , but we the ease ; his were the sufferings , but ours the mercy : he felt the load of stripes , but from thence a holy balm did flow upon us : He felt the thorns , but we shall have the Crown : and after he had paid the price , we got the purchase . Holy Jesus ! Blessed be God. 6. I adore thy unspeakable goodness ; I delight in thy unmeasurable mercy ; I rejoyce in thy cross ; I desire to know nothing but the Lord Jesus and him crucified . O let the power of thy Cross prevail against all the powers of darkness : let the wisdom of thy Cross make me wise unto salvation : let the peace of thy Cross reconcile me to thy eternal Father , and bring to me peace of Conscience : let the victory of thy Cross mortifie all my evil and corrupt affections : let the triumph of thy Cross lead me on to a state of holiness , that I may sin no more , but in all things please thee and in all things serve thee , and in all things glorifie thee . 7. Great and infinite are thy glories ; infinite and glorious are thy mercies ; who is like unto the Lord our God who dwelleth on high , and yet humbleth himself to behold the things that are in Heaven and earth ? Heaven it self does wholly minister to our salvation ; God takes care of us , God loves us first . God will not suffer us to perish ; but imployes all his attributes for our good . The Son of God dies for us : the holy Spirit descends upon us and teaches us : the Angels minister to us : the Sacrament is our food ; Christ is married to our souls : and heaven it self is offered to us for our portion . 8. O God my God assist me now and ever , graciously and greatly : Grant that I may not receive bread alone ; for man cannot live by that ; but that I may eat Christ ; that I may not search into the secret of nature , but inquire after the miracles of grace . I do admire , I worship , and I love . Thou hast overcome , O Lord , thou hast overcome ; Ride on triumphantly because of thy words of truth and peace ; load my soul in this triumph as thy own purchase ; thy love hath conquer'd , and I am thy servant for ever . 9. Thou wilt not dwell in a polluted house ; make my soul clean , and do thou consecrate it into a Temple , O thou great Bishop of our souls , by the inhabitation of thy holy spirit of purity : Let not these teeth that break the bread of Angels , ever grind the face of the poor ; let not the hand of Judas be with thee in the dish ; let not the eyes which see the Lord , any more behold vanity ; let not the members of Christ ever become the members of a harlot , or the ministers of unrighteousness . 10. I am nothing , I have nothing , I desire nothing but Jesus , and to be in Jerusalem the holy City from above . Make haste O Lord , Behold my heart is ready , my heart is ready : Come Lord Jesus , come quickly . When the holy Man that Ministers reaches the consecrated Bread , suppose thy Lord entring into his Courts , and say , Lord I am not worthy thou shouldest come under my roof ; but speak the word Lord , and thy servant shall be whole . After receiving of the Bread , pray thus : Blessed be the Name of our gracious God : Hosannah to the Son of David ; Blessed is he that cometh in the name of our Lord. Hosannah in the highest : Thou O blessed Saviour Jesus hast given me thy precious body to be the food of my soul ; and now O God , I humbly present to thee my body and soul , every member and every faculty , every action and every passion . Do thou make them fit for thy service : Give me an understanding to know thee , and wisdom like as thou didst to thy Apostles ; ingenuity and simplicity of heart , like to that of Nathanael ; zeal and perfect repentance , like the return of Zacheus . Give me eyes to see thee as thy Martyr Stephen had ; an ear to hear thee as Mary , a hand to touch thee as Thomas , a mouth with Peter to confess thee , an arm with Simeon to embrace thee , feet to follow thee with thy Disciples , an heart open like Lydia to entertain thee ; that as I have given my members to sin and to uncleanness , so I may henceforth walk in righteousness and holiness before thee all the days of my life . Amen , Amen . If there be any time more between the receiving the holy Body , and the blessed Chalice , then add , O immense goodness , unspeakable mercy ; delightful refection , blessed peace-offering , effectual medicine of our souls ; Holy Jesus , the food of elect souls , coelestial Manna , the bread that came down from heaven , sweetest Saviour ; grant that my soul may relish this divine Nutriment with spiritual ravishments and love great as the flames of Cherubims : and grant that what thou hast given me for the remission of my sins , may not ●y my fault become the increase of them . Grant that in my heart I may so digest thee by a holy faith , so convert thee into the unity of my spirit by a holy love , that being conformed to the likeness of thy death and resurrection by the crucifying of the old man , and the newness of a spiritual and a holy life I may be incorporated as a sound and living member into the body of thy holy Church , a member of that body whereof thou art head ; that I m●y abide in thee , and bring forth fruit in thee , and in the resurrection of the Just , my body of infirmity being reformed by thy power may be configured to the similitude of thy glorious body , and my soul received into a participation of the eternal Supper of the Lamb ; that where thou art , there I may be also , beholding thy face in glory O blessed Saviour and Redeemer Jesus , Amen . When the holy Chalice is offered , attend devoutly to the blessing , and joyn in heart with the words of the Minister ; saying Amen . I will receive the Cup of salvation and call upon the Name of our Lord. After receiving of the holy Cup ; pray thus : It is finished : Blessed be the name of our gracious God ; Blessing , glory , praise and honour , love and obedience , dominion and thanksgiving be to him that sitteth on the Throne , and to the Lamb for ever and ever . I bless and praise thy Name , O eternal Father , most merciful God , that thou hast vouchsafed to admit me to a participation of these dreadful and desirable mysteries : unworthy though I am , yet thy love never fails : and though I too often have repented of my repentances and fallen back into sin , yet thou never repentest of thy loving kindness : Be pleased therefore now in this day of mercy , when thou openest the treasures of heaven , and rainest Manna upon our souls to refresh them when they are weary ; of thy infinite goodness to grant that this holy Communion may not be to me unto judgment and condemnation ; but it may be sweetness to my soul ; health and safety in every temptation ; joy and peace in every trouble ; lig●t and strength in every word and work , comfort and defence in the hour of my death against all the oppositions of the spirits of darkness ; and grant that no unclean thing may be in me who have received thee into my heart and soul. II. Thou dwellest in every sanctified soul , she is the habitation of Sion , and thou ta●est it for thine own ; and thou hast consecrated it to thy self by the operation of glorious mysteries within her . O be pleased to receive my soul presented to thee in this holy Communion for thy dwelling place , make it a house of prayer and holy meditations , the seat of thy Spirit , the repository of graces : reveal to me thy mysteries , and communicate to me thy gifts ; and love me with that love thou bearest to the Sons of thy house : Thou hast given me thy Son , with him give me all things else which are needful to my body and soul in order to thy glory , and my salvation , through Jesus Christ our Lord. III. An act of Love and Eucharist to be added if there be time and opportunity . O Lord Jesu Christ , Fountain of true and holy love , nothing is greater than thy love , nothing is sweeter , nothing more holy : Thy love troubles none ; but is entertained by all that feel it with joy and exultation , and it is still more desired , and is ever more desirable : Thy love O dearest Jesu gives liberty , drives away fear , feels no labour , but suffers all ; it eases the weary , and strengthens the weak , it comforts them that mourn , and feeds the hungry . Thou art the beginning and the end of thy own love ; that thou mayest take occasion to do us good , and by the methods of grace to bring us to glory . Thou givest occasion , and createst good things , and producest affections , and stirrest up the appetite , and dost satisfie all holy desires . Thou hast made me , and fed me , and blessed me , and preserved me , and sanctified me that I might love thee , and thou would'st have me to love thee , that thou mayest love me for ever . O give me a love to thee that I may love thee as well as ever any of thy servants loved thee ; according to that love which thou by the Sacrament of love workest in thy secret ones . Abraham excelled in faith , Job in patience , Isaac in fidelity , Jacob in simplicity , Joseph in chastity , David in religion , Josiah in zeal , and Manasses in repentance ; but as yet thou hadst not communicated the Sacrament of love ; that grace was reserved till thou thy self shouldst converse with man and teach him love . Thou hast put upon our hearts the sweetest and easiest yoke of love ; to enable us to bear the burden of man and the burden of the Lord ; give unto thy servant such a love , that whatsoever in thy service may happen contrary to flesh and bloud , I may not feel it ; that when I labour I may not be weary ▪ when I am despised I may not regard it ; that adversity may be tolerable , and humility be my sanctuary , and mortification of my passions the exercise of my daies , and the service of my God , the joy of my soul ; that loss to me may be gain , so I win Christ ; and death it self the entrance of an eternal life , when I may live with the Beloved , the joy of my soul , the light of my eyes , My God , and all things , the blessed Saviour of the world , my sweetest Redeemer Jesus . Amen . An Eucharistical Hymn taken from the Prophecies of the Old Testament relating to the blessed Sacrament . Praise ye the Lord ; I will praise the Lord with my whole heart ; in the Assembly of the upright , and in the Congregation . He hath made his wonderful works to be remembred , the Lord is gracious and full of compassion : He hath given meat unto them that fear him , he will ever be mindful of his Covenant . His bread shall be fat , and he shall yield royal dainties . Binding his Foal unto the vine , and his Asses colt unto the choice vine : he washed his garment in wine , and his cloaths in the bloud of grapes . In this mountain shall the Lord of Hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things , a feast of wine on the lees . He will swallow up death in victory , and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces , and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth , for the Lord hath spoken it . And the Lord their God shall save them as the flock of his people , for how great is his goodness , and how great is his beauty ? Corn shall make the young men chearful , and new wine the virgins . The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his Temple , even the messenger of the Covenant whom ye delight in . He shall purifie the sons of Levi , and purge them as gold and silver , that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness . O Israel return unto the Lord thy God : for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity . Take with you words , and turn to the Lord ▪ saying , Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously : so will we render the calves of our lips : for in thee the Fatherless findeth mercy . The Lord hath said , I will heal their backslidings , I will love them freely , for mine anger is turned away . They that dwell under his shadow shall return : they shall revive as the corn , and blossom as the Vine ; the memorial thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon . The poor shall eat and be satisfied ; they shall praise the Lord that seek him ; your heart shall live for ever : for he hath placed peace in our borders , and fed us with the flower of wheat . For from the rising of the Sun even unto the going down of the same , the Name of the Lord shall be great among the Gentiles , and in every place Incense shall be offered unto his Name and a pure offering : for his Name shall be great among all Nations . Who so is wise , he shall understand these thi●gs , and the prudent shall know them : for the waies of the Lord are right , and the just shall walk in them : but the transgressors shall fall therein . Glory be to the Father , &c. A Prayer to be said after the Communion in behalf of our souls and all Christian people . 1. O most merciful and gracious God , Father of our Lord Jesus Christ , the Lord of glory ; thou art the great lover of souls , and thou hast given thy holy Son to die for our salvation , to redeem us from sin , to destroy the work of the Devil , and to present a Church to thee pure and spotless and undefiled ; relying upon thy goodness , trusting in thy promises , and having received my dearest Lord into my soul , I humbly represent to thy divine Majesty the glorious sacrifice which our dearest Jesus made of himself upon the Cross , and by a never ceasing intercession now exhibites to thee in heaven in the office of an eternal Priesthood ; in behalf of all that have communicated this day in the Divine Mysteries in all the Congregations of the Christian world ; and in behalf of all them that desire to communicate , and are hindred by sickness or necessity , by fear or scruple , by censures Ecclesiastical , or the sentence of their own consciences . 2. Give unto me O God and unto them a portion of all the good prayers which are made in heaven and earth ; the intercession of our Lord , and the supplications of all thy servants ; and unite us in the bands of the common faith and a holy charity ; that no interests or partialities , no sects or opinions may keep us any longer in darkness and division . 3. Give thy blessing to all Christian Kings and Princes , all Republicks and Christian Governments ; grant to them the Spirit of mercy and justice , prudence and diligence ; the favour of God and the love of their people ; and grace and blessing , that they may live at peace with thee and with one another ; remembring the command of their Lord and King , the serene and reconciling Jesus . 4. Give an Apostolical Spirit to all Ecclesiastical Prelates and Priests ; grant to them zeal of souls , wisdom to conduct their charges , purity to become exemplar , that their labours and their lives may greatly promote the honour of the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus . O grant unto thy flock to be fed with wise and holy shepherds ; men fearing God and hating covetousness ; free from envy , and full of charity ; that being burning and shining lights , men beholding ●heir light may rejoyce in that light and glorifie thee our Father which art in heaven . 5. Have mercy upon all states of men and women in the Christian Church , the Governors and the governed , the rich and the poor , high and low ; grant to every of them in their several station to live with so much purity and faith , simplicity and charity , justice and perfection , that thy will may be done in Earth as it is in Heaven . 6. Relieve all oppressed Princes , defend and restore their rights , and suppress all violent and warring spirits that unjustly disturb the peace of Christendom : Relieve and comfort all Gentlemen that are fallen into poverty and sad misfortunes : Comfort and support all that are sick , and deliver them from all their sorrows , and all the powers of the enemy , and let the spirit of comfort and patience , of holiness and resignation , descend upon all Christian people whom thou hast in any instance visited with thy rod : And be graciously pleas'd to pity poor mankind ; shorten the days of our trouble , and put an end to the days of our sin , and let the Kingdom of our dearest Lord be set up in every one of our hearts , and prevail mightily and for ever . 7. I humbly present to thy Divine Majesty this glorious Sacrifice which thy servants this day have represented upon earth in behalf of my dearest Relations , [ Wife , Children , Husband , Parents , Friends , &c. ] Grant unto them whatsoever they want , or wisely and holily desire ; keep them for ever in thy fear and favour : grant that they may never sin against thee , never fall into thy displeasure , never be separated from thy love and from thy presence ; but let their portion be in the blessing and in the service , in the love and in the Kingdom of God for ever and ever . 8. Have mercy upon all strangers and aliens from the Kingdom of thy Son ; let the sweet sound of thy Gospel be heard in all the corners of the earth ; let not any soul , the work of thy own hands , the price of thy Sons blood , be any longer reckon'd in the portions of thy Enemy ; but let them all become Christians ; and grant that all Christians may live according to the Laws of the holy Jesus , without scandal and reproach , full of faith and full of charity . 9. Give thy grace speedily to all wicked persons , that they may repent and live well , and be saved : To all good people give an increase of gifts and holiness , and the grace of perseverance and Christian perfection : To all Hereticks and Schismaticks grant the Spirit of humility and truth , charity and obedience ; and suffer none upon whom the Name of Christ is called to throw themselves away , and fall into the portion of the intolerable burning . 10. For all mankind whom I have and whom I have not remembred , I humbly represent the Sacrifice of thy eternal Son , his merits and obedience , his life and death , his resurrection and ascension , his charity and intercession ; praying to thee in vertue of our glorious Saviour , to grant unto us all the graces of an excellent and perfect repentance , an irreconcilable hatred of all sin , a great love of God , an exact imitation of the holiness of the ever blessed Jesus , the spirit of devotion , conformable will and religious affections , an Angelical purity and a Seraphical love ; thankful hearts , and joy in God ; and let all things happen to us all in that order and disposition as may promote thy greatest glory and our duty , our likeness to Christ and the honour of his Kingdom . Even so Father let it be , because it is best , and because thou lovest it should be so ; bring it to a real and unalterable event by the miracles of grace and mercy , and by the blood of the everlasting Covenant poured forth in the day of the Lords love ; whom I adore , and whom I love , and desire that I may still more and more love , and love for ever . Amen , Amen . SECT . III. An Advice concerning him who only Communicates Spiritually . THere are many persons well disposed by the measures of a holy life to communicate frequently ; but it may happen that they are unavoidably hindred . Some have a timerous conscience , a fear , a pious fear , which is indeed sometimes more pitiable than commendable . Others are advis'd by their spiritual Guides to abstain for a time , that they may proceed in the vertue of repentance further yet , before they partake of the Sacrament of love : and yet if they should want the blessings and graces of the Communion , their remedy which is intended them would be a real impediment . Some are scandalized and offended at irremediable miscarriages in publick Doctrines or Government , and cannot readily overcome their prejudice , nor reconcile their consciences to a present actual Communion . Some dare not receive it at the hands of a wicked Priest of notorious evil life . Some can have it at no Priest at all , but are in a long journey , or under a Persecution , or in a Country of a differing perswasion . Some are sick ; and some cannot have it every day , but every day desire it . Such persons as these , if they prepare themselves with all the essential and ornamental measures of address , and eanestly desire that they could actually Communicate , they may place themselves upon their knees , and building an Altar in their heart , celebrate the death of Christ , and in holy desire joyn with all the Congregations of the Christian world , who that day celebrate the holy Communion ; and may serve their devotion by the former Prayers and actions Eucharistical , changing only such circumstantial words which relate to the actual participation : And then they may remember and make use of the comfortable Doctrine of S. Austin ; [ It is one thing ( saith that learned Saint ) to be born of the Spirit , and another thing to be fed of the Spirit : As it is one thing to be born of the flesh , which is when we are born of our mother ; and another thing to be fed of the flesh , which is done when she suckles her Infant by that nourishment which is chang'd into food that he might eat and drink with pleasure , by which he was born to life : when this is done without the actual and Sacramental participation , it is called spiritual Manducation . ] Concerning which I only add the pious advice of a religious person ; Let every faithful soul be ready and desirous often to receive the holy Eucharist to the glory of God : But if he cannot so often Communicate Sacramentally as he desires , let him not be afflicted , but remain in perfect resignation to the will of God , and dispose himself to a spiritual Communion : For no man and no thing can hinder a well-disposed soul , but that by holy desires she may , if she please , communicate every day . To this nothing is necessary to be added , but that this way , is to be used never but upon just necessity , and when it cannot be actual : not upon peevishness and spiritual pride ; not in the spirit of schism and fond opinions ; not in despight of our Brother , and contempt or condemnation of the holy Congregations of the Lord ; but with a living faith , and an actual charity , and great humility , and with the Spirit of devotion ; and that so much the more intensly and fervently , by how much he is really troubled for the want of actual participation in the Communion of Saints ; and then , that is true which S. Austin said , Crede & manducasti ; Believe and thou hast eaten . Adora Jesum . FINIS . A Catalogue of some Books to be sold by Tho. Basset , at his shop under St. Dunstans Church in Fleetstreet . SCintilla Altaris : Primitive Devotion in the Feasts and Fasts of the Church of England . By Edw. Sparke D. D. And also Devotions on the three grand Solemnities last added to the Liturgy of the Church of England : viz. The Fifth of November . viz. The Thirtieth of January . viz. The Twenty ninth of May. By the same Author . Officium Quotidianum : or , A Manual of Private Devotions : By the Most Reverend Father in God Dr. William Laud , late Lord Arch-bishop of Canterbury . The New Common-Prayer , with choice Cuts in Copper newly engraven ; Suited to all the Feasts and Fasts of the Church of England throughout the year , in all the Pocket-Volumes . A Collection of all the Statutes in force from the year 1640. to this present time , in a fair Character , Printed by His Majesties Printers . The Reader is also desired to take notice , That there is another Counterfeit Impression , in a small Character , and very imperfect , wanting ten Acts now in force ; said to be Printed by Ja. Flesher , Hen. Twyford , and J. Streater , with Mr. Manbee 's Name of Lincolns-Inn in the Title . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A64145-e2450 * So the Syriac Interpreter renders the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the places of my Father ; In iis quae patris mei sunt : So the Arabic Version . In negotiis patris mei , in my Fathers business . So Castellio , Piscator , and our English Bibles . But the second reddition is more agreeable with the words of the Greek , and the first is more consonant to the use of that phrase in the N. T. So Joh. 19.27 . St. John received the Mother of our Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , recepit eam in domum suam : so Beza and our English Translation : he took her to his own house . And thus St. Chrysostom uses the same phrase , Serm. 52. in Genes . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; Whither do you drive the just man ? do you not know that where-ever he sets his foot , he is within his fathers house , or territory ? Isa. 31.9 . O Tarpeie Pater , qui Templa secundam Incolis à coelo sedem — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Notes for div A64145-e2930 Heb. 6.1.2 . Act. 2.38 . * Heb. 10.3 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Desiderata . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , h●stia hostiarum , mysterium mysteriorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Dominicum . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Pet. 2.13 . 1 Cor. 11.20.8.29 . 1 Cor. 10.16 . Jude v. 12 Acts 16.2 Duplex vita , duplicem poscit panem . St , Aug. oportuit autem , non solum primitias nostrae naturae in participationem venire melioris , sed omnes quotquot velint homines & secundâ nativitate nasci , & nutriti cibo novo , & huic nativitati accommodato , atque ita praevenire mensuram perfectionis . Damasc. de fide orthod . l. 4. c. 14. Et quoniam spiritualis est Adam , oportuit & nativitatem spiritualem esse , similiter & cibum . Ib. ibid. in Levit : & habetur de consecrat : dist . 2. secundum se. habet . de consecrat , dist . 2. Epist. ad . Iren. Ibid. vide eund . in Joha● . tract . 50. In tract . verb. Quicunque dixerit verbum in filium hominis . In Levit. c. 10. hom . 7. * De Sacram . l. 5. c. 4. & in Luc. l. 6. c. 8. * In Johan . 6. hom . 47. Tract . 26. in Johan . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . S. Basil in Ps. 33 Joh. 6.35 . v. 54 , 56. Res ipsa cujus Sacramentum est , omni homini ad vitam , nulli ad exitium quicunque ejus particeps suerit . S. Aug tract 16. in Joh. de resur . car . c. 37. Annon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hoc mysterium pronunciat [ Nestorius ] & irreligiose fidelium mentes in sensus adulterinos detrudit ac humanis cogitationibus aggreditur , quae solâ purâ & inexquisitâ fide accipiuntur . S. Cyril lib. ad Euophium anathem . 11. Quod esca est carni , hoc anim●e fides . S. Cypr. de coen● Dom. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apud Arabas & Hebraeos significat panem & corpus . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . S. Chrysost Pedag. 1. lib. de resur . car . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Euseb. l. 3. Eccles. Theol. M. S Prov. 9.5 . Moreh . Nevouch . l. 1. c. 30. Pedag. 1. lib. de resur . car . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Euseb. l. 3. Eccles. Theol. M. S Prov. 9.5 . Moreh . Nevouch . l. 1. c. 30. Ecclus. 15.3 . Isa. 55.1 , 2. Mat. 5.6 . Amos. 8.11 . Isa. 12.3 . à selectis justorum ; à capitibus & primariis coetus . Jer. 15.16 . Heb. 9.14 . 10.29 . 13.20 . Luke 14.15 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Sibyl . Erithr . Orac. Luk. 22.30 . Eâ formâ quâ semper carnalia in figuram spiritualium antecedunt . Tertul . de baptis . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Philo. Allegor . In ratione sacrorum par est & animae & corporis causa , nam plerunque quae non possunt circa animam fieri , fiunt circa corpus . Servius in illud Virgil. [ vittasque resolvit ] & lib. 4. In sacris quae exhiberi non poterunt , simulabantur & erant pro veris. Joh. Chap. 6. * Ad infantes apud Bedam . * Tingimur in passione Domini . Tertul. l. de bapt . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . S. Cyril . vocatbaptismum Catech. 11 Rom. 5.10 . Col. 1.20 , 21 , 22. Tit. 2.14 . Heb. 2.9 , 14. Heb. 9.15 1 Pet. 1.18 . 1 Pet. 2.24 . Tertul. l. 3. c. 8. contr . Marcion . Figura est ergo praecipiens , passioni Domini esse communicandum , & suaviter atque utiliter recondendum in memoria , quo pro nobis caro ejus crucifixa & vulnerata sit . S. August . de doctr . Christ. l. 3. Et tu qui accipis panem divinae ejus substantiae in illo participas alimento . S. Ambros. lib. 66. de sacram . Hic umbra , hic imago , illic veritas : umbra in lege , imago in evangelio , veritas in coelestibus . Idem de offic . lib. 4. cap. 48. [ si quis verò transire potuerit ab hâc umbrâ , veniat ad imaginem rerum , & videat adventum Christi in carne factum , videat eum pontificem , offerentem quidem & nunc patri hostias , & postmodum oblaturum , & intelligat haec omnia imagines esse spiritualium rerum , & corporalibus officiis coelestia designari . Origen in Psal. 38. Vide eund . hom . 7. in Levit. & Epiphanium in Anchorato . De sacram . l. 6. Gen. 9.15 . 2 Kings 6.6 . advers . Judaeos . 2 Kings 13.18 , 19. Acts 22.16 . Rom. 6.5 . & 8.11 . Rom. 6.5 . v. 6. v. 4. 1 Pet. 3.16 . Et institutio paria , & significatio similia , & finis facit aequalia , S. August . apud Bedam in 1 Cor. 10. So Cyril , Hierom. catech . 2. 1 Cor. 12.13 . 1 Cor. 10.16.17 . Serm. de coenâ Dui . Acts 15.9 . Ephes. 5.26 . Rom. 3.28 . Luk. 7.50 . Tit. 3.5 . Eph. 5.26 . 2 Tim. 1.6 lib. 15. de Trinit . cap. 26. Act. 8.18 . St. Aug. lib. 3. in Levit. pu . 84. * S. Austin . in Levit. q. 57. solet autem res quae significat , ejus rei nomine quam significat , nuncupari . Theodoret. dial . 1. c. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * Chap. 3. Sect. 5. * Ante communicationem corporis Christi & sanguinis , juxta Orientalium partium morem , unanimiter clarâ voce sacratissimum fidei recenseant Symbolum , ut primum populi quam credulitatem teneant , fateantur . Concil . Tolet. 3. c. 2. & St. Ambros. quibus [ symbolis ] vescentes confessionem fidei suae addebant : respondebant . Amen . Idem etiam sancitum in Concil . Agath . Euseb. Emiss . habetur de consecrat dist . 2. Jude 12. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Corpus sumus de conscientiâ Religionis , & disciplinae unitate , & spei foedere . Coimus ad Deum quasi manu factâ pre●ptionibus ambiamus . Haec vis Deo grata est Tertul. apol . cap. 39. Idem ad vers . haeret . cap. 20. ait Sacramentum esse contesserationem mutuae dilectionis in membris Ecclesiae inter se. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Isid. Pelusiot . Serm. 8. ad fratres in erem . Hoc Sacramentum ideo nobis datum est ut corpus Ecclesiae Christi in terris cum capite quod est in coelis coadunetur ] Itaque petendo panem nostrum quotidianum perpetuitatem postulamus in Christo , & individuitatem à corpore ejus . Tertul. de orat . Et ideo panem nostrum , i.e. Christum dari nobis quotidie petimus , ut qui in Christo manemus , à sanctificatione ejus & corpore non ●ecedamus St. Cyprian de orat . Domin . * Qui scel eratè vivunt in Ecclesiâ , & communicare non desinunt putantes setali communione mundari , discant nihil ad emundationem proficere dicente prophetâ , quid est quod dilectus meus facit in domo meâ scelera multa ? nunquid carnes sanctae auferent à te malitias tuas ? Jer. 11.15 . Isidor . Hispal . de summo bono lib. 1. cap. 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. Heb. 7.24 . Heb. 8.3 . † Nonne semel immolatus est Christus in seipso ? & tamen in Sacramento non solum per omnes paschae solennitates , sed omni die populis immolatur . Nec utique mentitur qui interrogatus , eum responderit immolari : si enim Sacramenta quandam similitudinem earum rerum quarum Sacramenta sunt non haberent , omnino Sacramenta non essent St. Aug. Epist. ad Bonifac . 23. Quia corpus assumptum ablaturus erat ab oculis , & illaturus syderibus , necessarium erat ut die coenae Sacramentum nobis corporis & sanguinis consecraretur , ut coleretur jugiter per mysterium quod semel offerebatur in precium , ut quia quotidiana & indefessa currebat pro omnium salute redemptio , perpetua esset redemptionis oblatio , & perennis victima illa viveret in memoria , & semper praesens esset in gratia , vera unica , & perfecta hostia , fide aestimanda non specie , neque exteriori censenda visu sed interiore affectu . Unde coelestis confirmat authoritas , quia caro mea verè est cibus , & sanguis meus verè est potus . Recedat ergo omne infidelitatis ambiguum quoniam qui author est muneris , idem testis est veritatis . Euseb. Emiss . & habetur de consecrat . dist . 2. † Non sine mysterio , sine re , vel panis ad aram , Vel vinum fertur cui superaddis aquam . Utraque sub typico ritu , formaque futuri , Melchisedec Domino sacrificasse serunt . Hildebert . Cenoman . Melchisedec Domino panem vinumque litavit , Christus idem faciens , pactum vetus evacuavit . Hugo Card. — Rex ille Salem , qui munere tali , Mystica praemisit summi libamina Christi . Claud. Marian victor . lib. 3. in Genes . Psal. 116. * Hinc ergo pensemus quale sit hoc sacramentum , quod pro absolutione nostrâ passionem unigeniti filii imitetur . Quis n. fidelium habere dubium posset in ipsâ immolationis horâ ad Sacerdotis vo●●m coelos aperiri , in illo Jesu Christi mysterio angelorum choros ●●lesse : S. Gregor . in homil . Paschali . * Humana enim caro quae erat peccato mortua , carnī mundae unita , incorporata , unum cum illâ effecta , vivit de spiritu ejus , sicut unum corpus de suo spiritu , St. Aug. Epist. ad Iren. Condescendens Deus nostris fragilitatibus , influit oblatis vim vitae convertens ea in veritatem propriae carnis , ut corpus vitae quasi quoddam semen vivificativum inveniatur in nobis . 8. Cyril . ad Calosyrium . St. Cyril . l. 11. in Johan . c. 26. Christus suo corpore per communionem mysticam benedicens credentibus & secum & inter nos unum corpus efficit . de Trinit . lib. 8. Lib. 4. c. 34. St. Clem. Alex . lib. 2. paedag . c. 2. Bibere Jesu sanguinem est participem esse incorruptionis Domini . lib. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Epist. ad Ephes. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 1 Cor. 11.26 . Haec sumpta & hausta faciunt ut nos in Christo & Christus in nobis sit . lib. 8. de Trinit . habetur de consecrat . dist . lib. 2. paed . c. 2. Tract . 17. in Johan . Contenti sint ad venera●ionem figuris defendentibus a vilitate secretam . Macrob. in somn . Scip. l. 1. c. 2. St. Chrysost . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Origen . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Denat . Deor. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Lib. 8. contr . Celsum . * Epist. ad Smyr . Sect. 1. of this Chap. Ecclus. 21.11 . * Nam animalis homo , ho● est , qui sequitur cogitationes humanas & animales sive naturales , non est capax eorū , quae sunt supra naturam , & spiritualiū , atque ita & spiritualem esum carnis Dominicae non intelligit , cujus qui non sunt participes , non erunt participes aeternae vi●ae . Theophylact in cap. 6. Joh. Joh. 8.31 , 32. Ecclus. 25 11. 1 Joh. 1.1 . Concil . Later . part 50. cap. 30 Eccles. 11.6 . Notes for div A64145-e10150 1 Cor. 11.20 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Non edit Israel sine amaris caulibus agnum , Tolle tuam , Christum qui cupis esse , crucem , Quos amat , aerumnis etenim Deus angit , at illis Foetior exhausto palma labore venit . Lib. de lapsis . & Epist. 54. Nunc non infirmis sed fortibus pax necessaria est ; nec morientibus , sed viventibus communicatio à nobis danda est : ut quos excitamus & hortamur ad praelium , non inermes & nudos relinquamus : sed protectione sanguinis & corporis Christi muniamus : & cum ad hoc fiat Eucharistia , ut possit accipientibus esse tutela , quos tutos esse contra adversarium volumus , munimento Dominicae saturiritatis armemus . * Revel . 3.20 , 21. — sit laurea justis Ex pretio quod terror agit , mansuraque virtus Crescit in ad versis , quae testibus usa periclis Ad meritum discrimen habet Arat. Diacon . lib. 2. in acta . * Ecclus. 81.9 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suidas . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Rom. 14 , 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Phil. 1.4 , 10. Gal. 6.4 . Ephes. 5.10 . * Ut perdunt propriam mortalia corpora vitam , Si nequeunt escas sumere corporeas : Sic animae nisi deliciis rationis alantur Dum Verbi aeterni pane carent , pereunt . Namquid erit quod dira procul fastidia pellat Cum se ipso refugit mens saturare Deo ▪ Prosper Epigr. (a) Sint desiderii post eseas pocula magni Praesertim , quia carnes assas sumpsimus agni Assa caro nobis facit ora magis sitibunda , Quam tenerae carnes , qua● mollis decoquit unda . Petrus Blesens . In actis Lovaniensibus dicitur de B. Idâ : ex ore & naribus fluere sanguinem solere , qui non sistebatur donec ad Sacram mensam se sisteret ad sedandum vehemens ejus communicandi cum eo quem ardenter amaverat desiderium . cap. 9. In Matth. cap. 26. hom . 83. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Chrys. hom . 24. in 1. ad Corinth . Luk. 1.53 Psa. 10 . 1● Chap. 5. Sect. 4. Et fibras pecorum & spirantia consulit exta . Virg. Miror com hostiae probantur penes vos à vitiosissimis Sacerdotibus , cur praecordia potiùs victimarum , quàm ipsorum sacrificantium examinantur : Apolog. c. 30. Submonentur in his Symbolis ut quoties accedunt ad altaria , vel nuncupaturi vota , vel reddituri nullum vitium , nullumque morbum asserant in animâ . Ph●lo . Conentur omnino nitidam & immaculatam [ animam ] in conspectu Dei producere ne visam aversetur . Philo. Si mortale corpus , multo magis immortalem animam . Idem . Salvatorem nostrum ( fratres charissimi ) suscepturi , totis viribus debemus nos cum ipsius adjutorio praeparare , & omnes latebras animae nostrae diligenter aspicere , ne fortè sit in nobis aliquod peccatum absconditum , quod & conscientiam nostram confundat & mordeat , & oculos Divinae Majestatis offendat . S. Ambros . de Sacram. See Chap. 1. Sect. 4. N. 4. Gen. 35.15 . Job 1.16 . Cant. 8.6 . Jerem. Dolori si fraena remiseris nulla meteria non est maxima . Haec brevis est illa perennis aqua . — hic habitat constricta licentia nodo Et flecti faciles irae vinoque madentes Excubiae Jocundique metus , & non secura voluptas Et lasciva volant levibus perjuria pennis . Claudian . de nuptiis Honorii . Notes for div A64145-e13630 * The sine dulce nihil , Domine , Nec juvat ore quid appetere , Pocula ni prius atque cibos Christe tuus favor imbuerit , Omnia sanctificante fide . Prudentius hymno 3. ante cibum . 2 Cor. 13.5 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . — purior illos Solis fervor alit , pretiosaque pabula libant . * Dionys. Eccles. hierarch . Microlog . observ . Eccles. cap. 51. in biblioth . PP . Cabas . exposit . liturg . cap. 15.16 . Germanus Patr. C. P. in rerum Ecclesiast . theoria . Durandus . ration . Divin . offic . l. 4. & l. 6. Albe●tus Magnus de officio Missae tract . 3. c. 23. Alcuinus de divin . offic . Aquinas Summ. 3. q. 80. art . 4. St. Cyprianus lib. de lapsis . Si ergo , ut tot & tanta Divina testimonia concinunt , nec salus nec vita aeterna sine baptismo & corpore & sanguine Domini cuiquam expectanda sunt , frustra sine his promittitur parvulis . lib. 1. de peccat . merit . & remiss . cap. 20. &c. 24. vide eundem de verbis Apostoli ad Bonifac. Epist. 23. ad vitalem epist. 106. cont . duas epistol . Pelagian . l. 1. c. 22. & lib. 4. c. 4. lib. contr . Julian c. 2. & S. Cyprian . lib. 3. Test. ad Quirin . c. 25. Author Hypognost . in operibus S. August . idem ait expresse S. Paulinus Epist. Nolanus epist . 12. ad Severum . S. Cyril . Hieros . Catech. 3. c. 1. Idem dixit P. Innocentius . Capit. Caroli Mag. lib. 1. cap. 161. Alcuin . lib. de divinis offic . Idem videre est in Ordine Romano quem edidit Michael Hittorpius . * Maldonatus in Johan . 6. num . 116. Vide Hierem. Patr. C. P. doctr . exhor . ad Germanos Alvarez in it in . Aethiop . Joachimum Vadianum in notat . lib. 1. fol. 14. de Sacram . Eucharistae concil . Trid. Sess. 21. can . 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , dixit Agatho apud Aristot. * Franc. à victor . de Euchar. n. 75. John 6.53 . John 3.5 . Chap. 1. Sect. 3. John 6.53 . See Chap. 1. Sect. 2. & 3. Victoria . Relect. de Eucharist . ubi supr● . Quaeque latent meliora puta . poenam Phaethon pro munere poscis . Heb. 12.14 . 1 Cor. 11.28 . Mat. 7.2 . Revel . 21.27 . Galat. 5.21 . Mark 16.17.18 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Just. Mart. * Isid. & Osir. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Delicata est Divina consolatio quae non datur admit tentibus alienam . S. Bernard . * Fraenetur ergo corporum cupidines Detersa ut intus emicet prudentia , Sic excitato perspicax acumine Liberque flatu laxiore Spiritus Reum parentem rectius precabitur . Prudent . in Cathemerin . vide Real presence per totum . 1 John 1.1 , 2 , 3. See Real Presence , Sect. 10. See this largely discoursed of in the Rule of Consci●nce , lib. 1. chap. 2. Rule 3. Ubi ad profunditatem Sacramentorum perventum est , om●i● Platonicorum caligavit subtilitas . S. Cyprian . de Spir. S. — exigua est vis Humani ingenii , tantóque angusta labori . Quippe minor natura aciem si intendere tentet Acrius ac penetrare Dei secreta supremi , Quis dubitet victo fragilem lacessere visu . Vimque fatigatae mentis sub pectore parvo Turbari , invalidisque hebetem succumbere curis ? Prudent . in Symmach . l. 2. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Orat . 1. Oportet igitur nos in sumptionibus Divinorum mysteriorum indubitatam retinere fidem & non quaerere quo pacto . S. Bernardus . An sit , fidei est inquirere : quid sit , Philosophi : quomodo sit , Curiosi . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Multa etenim benè tecta latent , nescitaque prosunt Dum mansueta fides quaedam dilata modestè Sustinet , & nullo ignorat non edita damno . Prosper advers . ingrat , c. 35. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Just. Mart. Firmam fidem mysteriis adhibentes , nunquam in t●m sublimibus rebus illud Quomodo aut cogitemus aut proferamus . lib. 4. in Johan . c. 13. * Non patiar me quicquam nescire de eo quemamem . Plin. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Chrysost. homil . 2. in 2 Tim. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Idem & S. Cyril . in defens . anathem . idem asserit . In Johan . hom . 46. vide etiam August . in Psal. 98. Epist. 23. ad Bonifac . vide eundem contr . Adimantum cap. 12. Non dubitavit dicere Dominus hoc est corpus meum , cum signum daret corporis sui . Dicitur item ab Origene & Chrysostomo ; in cap. 26. Mat. homil . 83. Typus & Symbolum : ab eodem Origene , S. Basilio , & S. Ambrosio , & aliis ; exemplum exemplar , & imago . Contr. Marcion . lib. 4. Laus fidei est crederequod non vides . Aug. Immortalitatis alimonia datur , à communibus cibis differens , corporalis substantiae retinens speciem , sed virtutis Divinae invisibili efficientiaâ probans adesse praesentiam . S. Cyprian de coena Dom. In Anchorato . Autor lib. de coenâ Dom. Fides non habet meritum , cui humana ratio praebet experimentum . St. Gregor . * Arcanum coeli Dominus pro tempore celat Ut sic nostra fides ad justitiam doceatur , Et fidei major merces exinde sequatur . Petr. Blesens . de peccat . in Spir. S. S. Chrysost . ubi suprà in Mat. 26. Theodoret . dial . 1. Bertram de corp . & sang . Domini . ubi supra . John 6.35 . in Lucam lib. 6. c. 8. * Chap. 1. Sect. 2. Panis qui de coelo descend it non nisi ab eo accipitur qui Dominum habet & Christi membrum est . S. Hilar. de . Trinit . l. 8. Non manducant spiritualiter , sed premunt dentibus signum corporis & sanguinis . Notes for div A64145-e17660 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Od. 7. Epulantes adludit flamma . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Diaconi solebant enunciare in Synaxi . Scelera dissident . Seneca . * Facinus saevum & atrox inter pocula atque epulas , ubi libare Diis dapes , ubi benè precari mos esset , ad spectaculum scorti procacis in sinu Consulis rec●bantis , mactatam humanam victimam esse , & cruore mensam respersam . Sic Valerius Antiates apud Livium , lib. 39. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Dionys. Areop . * Cum nostros animos amor quo coelum regitur , regit . Boeth . consol . Philos. 1 Cor. 5.7 , 8. Tobit 12.9 . — Ille capillos coelo infert , inopes qui miseratus alit . Billii antholog . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * Inter epulas , ubi benè precari mos erat . Livius . lib. 39. — gravior terras infestat Echidna Cum sua vipereae jaculantur toxica linguae Atque homini fit homo serpens , O prodiga culpae Germina , natur●eque utero fatalia monstra ! Queis nimis innocuo volupe est in sanguine rictus . Tingere , fraternasque sibras , cognataque pasci Viscera , & arrosae deglubere funera famae Quae morum ista lues ? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Sed miserere tui rabido nec perditus ore Fumantem nasum vivi tentaveris ursi . Sit placidus licet & lambat digitosque manusque Si dolor et bilis , si justa coegerit ira , Ursus erit . Martial . * Cede Hircana Tigris , Fremanthi Bellua , cede Tuque genas obnube tuas natura pudori , Laeviu● ingenium est homini ; gravioraque fata Lingua cruenta serens , non uno in funere ludit . Nefas enim est per os quo profertur Nomen illud sanctissimum , quicquam turpe progredi . * De Catone dixit Plutarchus , Mensam inprimis putabat esse amicitiae conciliandae aptam ; ac frequens illic laudatio egregiorum virorum introducebatur ; frequens etiam malorum & improborum oblivio , nec vituperationi eorum , vel commendationi permittebat in convivium suum Cato accessum . * De Catone dixit Plutarchus , Mensam inprimis putabat esse amicitiae conciliandae aptam ; ac frequens illic laudatio egregiorum virorum introducebatur ; frequens etiam malorum & improborum oblivio , nec vituperationi eorum , vel commendationi permittebat in convivium suum Cato accessum . Mat. 5.23 , 24. * See this discoursed and proved . Rule of Conscience , Book 2. Chap. 3. Rule 15. Irenae . lib. 4. c. 34. St. Cyril . Hier. mystag . Cat. 5. Mar. 11.25 . Ignoramus sine pace Communionem . S. Hieron Epist. 62. ad Theophilum . 1 Pet. 3.7 . Cap. 93 : Concil . Carth. 4. Oblationes dissidentium fratrum , neque in Sacrario , neque in Gazophylacio Episcopi recipiant . Nunquam mihi contingat turbatum ad pacis accedere sacrificium ; cum ira & disceptatione accedere ad sacramentum , in quo Deus indubitanter est , reconcilians mundum sibi . Certe non recipitur munus quodcunque meum quod defero ad Altare , nisi ante placato fratre , quem me forte laesisse meminero , quanto minus si meipsum non pacavero prius ? S. Bernard , de praecept : & dispens . Quam sibi pacem promittunt inimici fratrum ? Possunt tales acerrimis inediis macerari donec reconcilientur . Fabian . dist . 90. cap. si quis . Epist. 2. ad Afros . Placuit ut ( sicut plerunque fit ) quicunque odio aut longinqua inter se lite dissenserint & ad pacem revocari divina intentione nequiverint , a Sacerdotibus civitatis primitus arguantur , Quod si inimicitias deponere perniciosa intentione noluerint , de Ecclesiae coetu justissima excommunicatione pellantur . Concil . Agath . can . 31. Det ille veniam facile , cui venia est opus . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Libanius . Si repetes , repetet , si durus es , ille rogantem Abjiciet , fusas conteret atque preces . In reliquis exempla tibi , namque omnibus ille Praebet , at hic sequitus quod prior ipse facis : Utque solet speculum quas cepit reddere formas . Aequa ita lanx lanci dia futura tua est . Antholog . Billii . * Ecclus. 28.1 , 2.3 . Ecclus. 22.22 . Jupiter omnipotens precibus si flecteris ullis , Aspice nos , hoc tantum , ut si pietate meremur , Da deinde auxilium . Aeneid . 2. Dimittenda sunt debita , non pecuniae solum , sed omnium causarum , culparum , criminum , quicquid homo incurrere poterit ; in his tibi quum incurrerit alter , ignosce . * Homo sine peccato esse non potes , & vis semper tibi dimitti . Dimitte semper . Quantum vis tibi dimitti , tantum dimitte . Quoties vis dimitti tibi toties dimitte imo quia vis totum dimitti tibi , totum dimitte . Chrysologus . Qui ne tuberibus propriis offendat amicum Postulat , ignoscat verrucis illius ; aequum est Peccatis veniam poscentem reddere rurfus . Horat. 1. Serm. 3. — quippe minuti Semper & infirmi est animi , exiguique voluptas Ultio , continuo sic collige , quod vindictâ Nemo magis gaudet quam foemina Crysippus non dicet idem , nec mite Thaletis Ingenium . dulcique senex vicinus Hymetto , Qui partem acceptae saeva inter vincla cicutae Accusatori nollet dare . Juvenal . Pascite vos herbas , sociis ego pascor Achivis . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Quidenim prodest siunus prote oret ad Dominum & alius adversum te Deum interpellet ? S. Chrysost. in 5. Matth. Herod lib. 5. Quae vindicta prior quam cùm formido superbos Flectit , & assuetum spoliis affligit egestas ? Claudian de bello Getico . Nostrapte culpâ facimus ut malis expediat esse , Dum nimium dici nos bonos studemus & benignos . Terent. in Phorm . Cum autem ignoscis , ita beneficium tuum tempera , ut non ignoscere videaris sed absolvere : quia gravissimum poenae genus est contumeliosa venia . Tam liberaliter Dominus omnem condonavit injuriam , ut jam nec damnet ulciscendo , nec confundat improperando , nec minus diligat imputando . St. Bernard in Cantic . * Nam in hominum aetate multa eveniunt hujusmodi Capiunt voluptates , mox rursum miserias , Irae interveniunt , redeunt rursum in gratiam . Verùm irae si quae fortè eveniunt hujusmodi Inter eos rursum si reventum in gratiam est Bis tanto amici sunt , inter se quam prius . Plaut . in Amp. * Veterem ferendo injuriam invitas novam . * Mat. 5.24 . Luk. 17.4 . de verbis Domini . Ut toties peccanti fratri dimitteres in die , quoties ipse peccare non posset . * Poenaeque genus vidisse precantem . * Poenaeque genus vidisse precantem . Serm. 5. de Natali . Recte non pater judiciorum vel ultionum dicitur , sed pater misericordiarum : quod miserendi causam sumat ex proprio , judicandi & ulciscendi magis sumat ex nostro ; feil . ex nostris peccatis . Veniam delicti assequutus , si iterum peccat , gravius judicium sibi preparat . Summ. moral . Quisquis juranti nihil credit Illemet facile pejerare scit . Apposito juramento cautio● & diligentior animus fit ; à duobus enim sibi tum cavet , & ne laedat amicos , & ne peccet in Deos. Sophocles . Dissentio ab aliis , à te reconciliatio incipiat . Senec. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 18.15 . * Cogitans cogitationes pacis Deus prior nos accessit & legatos ministrosque reconciliationis ad nos destinavit . S. Gregor . Dispeream , si non persuasero . * Christi sanguis de cruce clamans pacem loquitur , & reconciliationem ; quin idem sanguis quoniam à nobis bibitur , si mod● dignè bibitur , clamat in corporibus nostris verba pacifica . S. Cyprian . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Chrysost. homil . 27. in 1 Cor. Inhumanum verbum est & quidem pro injusto receptum ultio , & à contumeliâ non differt nisi ordine . Qui dolorem regerit , tantùm excusatius peccat . Seneca . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * Adversus latronem , si nequeunt pro salute , pro ultione tamen suâ ferrum omnes stringere . — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Luke 17.3 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Plato . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * See Rule of Conscience , Book 3. Chap. 2. page 114. * Nemo dubitabit quin si nocentes mutari in bonam mentem aliquo modo possint , sicut posse interdum conceditur , salvos eos esse magis è repub . sit , quam puniri . Quintil. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * Epist. 160. alicui utili operi eorum integra membra deserviant . See Rule of Conscience . Book 1. chap. 5. rule 8. Concil . ●liber . 2. * Uxoris vitium tollas opus est aut sere● : Qui tollit vitium , uxorem commodiusculam ●ibi praestat ; qui sert , sese meliorem facit . Varro . * See Rule of Conscience , Book 4. * Quomodo scalpellum & abstinentia & alia quae profutura torquent : sic ingentia vitia prava dolore corporis animique corrigimus . Seneca . Memor non de quo censeret , sed cui in consilio esset . Imple Christiane Judex pii patris officium . (a) Homini non est homine prodigè utendum . (b) Duo ista nomina cum dicimus , homo & peccator , non utique frustra dicuntur : quia peccator est , corrige ; quia homo miserere . S. August . apud Gratian. — justa precari Thure pio , caedumque feros avertite ritus . Mite & cognatum est homini Deus — Silius Ital. 4. In Cantica . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Ad Ephes. Notes for div A64145-e23230 Rev. 22.11 . — 17. ●●ta praegusto Deûm , Moror inter aras , Templa perlustro omnia . ●st glori●sus sanè convictus Deûm , Sed illi qui invitatur , non qui invisus est . * See the doctrine and practise of Repentance , Chap. 1. & 2. * Just. Martyr apol . 2. Non per id quod recte foris oblatum est sacrificium ad se ducit Deum , intus habens peccatum . Ire . l. 4. c. 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Non bene inaequales veniunt ad aratra juvenci . * Ubique mysterii ordo servatur , ut prius per remissionem peccatorum Vulneribus medicina tribuatur , postea alimonia mensae coelestis exuberet . lib. 6. in Luc. c. 37. Nemo huc accedere debet nisi qui signaculum justitiae custodierit , aut receperit lib. 7. c. 66. Lib. 3. epist. 14. Nondum poenitentiâ actâ , nondum fact● exomologesi , nondum manu eis ab Episcopo & Clero impositâ Eucharistia eis datur . 1 Cor. 11.28 . St. Basil. lib. 2. de baptism . cap. 3. Quid juvat hoc , templo nostros immittere mores Et bona Diis ex hac sceleratâ ducere pulpâ ? Atque hoc scelesti illi in animum inducunt suum Jovem se placa●e donis hostiis . Et operam & sumptum perdunt ; ideò fit Quia nihil ei acceptum est à peri juris supplicii . — qua nunc tibi pauper acerrâ Digna litem ! nec si vacuet Maevania valles , Aut praestent niveos Clitumnae novalia tautos Sufficiam , sed saepe Diis hos inter honores Cespes , & exiguo placuerunt farra Salino : Statius . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Philo. * Quin horres , vererisque talia committere , ac altaria frequentare ? quomodo immaculata sacrorum mysteria aud es attingere ? Hortor igitur te , ut vel committere hujusmodi desinas , vel à venerandis altaris sacrificiis abstineas , ne quando ignem de coelo capiti a●cersens tuo , turpè meritas poenas , ut optasti , luas . Sic Zosymum Presbyterum arguit St. Isidorus Pelusiota . l. 5. ep . 12. Omnia Sacramenta obsunt indignè tractantibus : prosunt tamen dignè sumentibus , sicut & verbum Dei. S. August . contr . epist. Parmen . Pro. 2● . 8 . Cap illud . dist , 95. Non poenitentibus istud infundi non potest quia Sacramenti genus est . — enodes trunci resecentur , ut inde Exeat in coelum ramis faelicibus arbor . Parum est baptizari , & Eucharistiam accipere , nisi quis factis & opere perficiat . S. Cyprian . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Lib. 8. advers . Celsum . * Chap. 2. Sect. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . See Great Exemplar , Part 2. Sect. 12. n. 34. * Talis mensae fuisti particeps , & cum omnibus deberes esse mitior , & clementior , & par Angelis , fuisti omnium curdelissimus . Gustavisti sanguinem Dominicum , & ne sic quidem fratrem agnoscis . St. Chrysost. homil . 27. in Corinth . — accipimus sacrâ data pocula dextrâ Quae simul arenti fitientes hausimus ore Et pudet & reseram ; pro verbis edere coepi Murmur , & in terram , toto procumbere vultu . Metamorph. 15. Proinde quicquid est , da spatium & tempus tibi , Quod ratio nequit , saepe sanavit mora . * Invitat autem pauperes , debiles , caecos , ut ostendatur quod nulla debilitas corporis excludit à regno rariusque delinquat cui desit illecebra peccandi . St. Ambrose . * Qui proponit sibi , & dicit habere volo quod vincam : hoc est , vivere desidero , & volo sub ruinâ , August . de singul . Cleric . Projice quae cunque cortuum laniant , quae si aliter extrahi nequirent , cor ipsum cum illis evellendum erat . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Nemo se tuto periculis offerre jam crebro potest , Quem saepe transit casus , aliquando invenit . Tragoed . * Nec quisquam fruitur veris odoribus Hyblaeis apibus aut spoliat favos . Si fronti caveat , si timeat rubos . Nunquam periculum sine periculo vincitur . Senec. Vitaret coelum Phaëthon si viveret , et quos Optavit stultè , tangere nollet equos . St. Bernard . Quando nec oblatio sanctificare illic possit ubi spiritus sanctus non sit , nec cuiquam Dominus per ejus orationes & preces profit qui Dominum [ vel fratrem ] violavit . St. Cyprian Epist. 63. Ezek. 18.19 . Oliva nobis propter fructus est gratior . Si res aliena propter quam peccatum est , cum reddi possit , non redditur , non agitur poenitentia sed singitur : si autem non veraciter agitur , non remittitur peccatum , nisi restituatur ablatum : sed ut dixi quum restitui potest . S. August . ad Macedon . Quod invenisti & non reddidisti , rapuisti : quantum potuisti , fecisti : qui alienum negat , si potuit , tollit . St. Aug. de verb. Apost . Qui tardè vult . diu noluit . Ezek. 8.17 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal. 5.6 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 2.48 . Mat. 28. Cap. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 · cap. 2. ad Amphiloch , * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ibid. Lib. 1. de bapt . cap. 3. Vide etiam S. Cyprian . lib. de lapsis & epist. 28. S. Ambr. lib. 5. de Sacram. c. 2. Lib. 2. de poenit . c. 9. Lib. 1. de poenit . c. 16. Serm. 252. de tempore . Homil. 24. in 1 Corinth . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Homil. 3. in 1. cap. Epist. Ephes. Homil. de prodigo . De dogmat . Eccles . c. 53. S. Hierom in Isai. c. 3. Princeps poenitentiae & caput eorum qui salvantur per poenitentiam Christus est . * Non saturantur ergo nisi famelici : qui à vitiis perfectè jejunantes divina Sacramenta percipiunt in plenitudine virtutis . Et quia sine peccato electi etiam viri esse non possunt , quid restat , nisi ut à peccatis quibus eos humana fragilitas maculare non desinit , evacuari quotidiè conentur ? Nam qui quotidie non exhaurit quod delinquit , et si minima sint peccata quae congerit , paulatim anima repletur , atque ei auferunt fructum internae Saturitatis . Gregor . lib. 2. in Reg. cap. 1. Ad Caesaream patriciam . * Quocunque loco fuero Jesum meum desidero : Quam laetus si invenero ! Quam felix si tenuero ! Contr. Jovin . & epist. ad Lucin. Homil. 17. in ep . ad Heb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * S. Aug. de verbis Apost . ser. 29. c. 6. S. August . de civit . Dei. li. 22. cap. 10. Eucharistia medicina est aegrotis , peregrinantibus diaeta , debiles confortat , valentes delectat , languorem sanat , sanitatem firmat : fit homo mansue●ior ad correptionem , pati●ntior ad laborem , ardentior ad amorem , sagacior ad cautelam , ad obediendum promptior , ad gratiarum actiones devotior . S. Bernard . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . S. Ignat. Epist. ad Ephes. See the second exhortation in the office of the Communion . Apud Surium . S. Bonavent . de profectu relig . lib. 2. cap. 77. Stultus est timor & reverentia minus prudens illius , qui ad Dominum se vocantem & invitantem non accedit , sed procrastinat . Gerson in Magnificat . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Homil. 24. in 1 Cor. 10. Tertul. de coron . mil. c. 3. Lib. 19. c. 11. ad Faustum . De verb. Domini secund . Joh. Serm. 2. Homil. 3. ad cap. 1. Ephes. * Apud Zonaram . Hist. SS . patrum . c. 19. * S. Cyprian . l. 4. ep . 7. S. Ambros. l. 5. de sacram . c. 4. S. Aug. Epist. 118. Euseb. l. 1. de demonstr . evang . c. 10. Metuebat Maria , ne amor Magistri sui in corpore suo refrigesceret , si corpus ejus non inveniret , quo viso recalescebat . Origen . homil . 1. ex variis . Ad Eustoc . Virg. c. 9. Hom. 5. de resurrect . An. Christi 236. ut Sabellicus & Volaterranus referunt . * Can. 18. Advers . Vigilant . Palladius in vitâ S. Chrysost. * Tu genitor cape sacra manu , patriosque penates Me bello è tanto digressum , & caede recenti Attrectare nefas : donec me flumine vivo Abluero — Aeneid . 1. In vitâ S. Malachiae , Cui injungens poenitentiam , non debueras , inquit , hodiè ministrasse , sed verecundè te subtrahere sacris , & deferre tantis tamque Divinis mysteriis , ut hâc humilitate purgatus , dignius exinde ministrares . Si cito rediret homo ad pristinam beatitudinem , ludus illi esset cadere in mortem . S. Aug. Serm. 34. de diversis . In ipsâ Ecclesia ubi maximè misereri decet , quam maximè decet forma justitiae , nequis à communionis consortio abstentus , brevi lachrymulâ atque ad tempus paratâ , vel etiam uberioribus fletibus Communionem , quam plurimis debet postulare temporibus , facilitate sacerdotis extorqueat . S. Ambros. in Psal. 118. in haec verba . Miserere mei secundum eloquium tuum . Si permansissemus illâ in munditiâ quae nobis per baptismum data est , verè faelices essemus , sed non permansimus . Cecidimus enim per nostram culpam , non solum in peccata , sed etiam in crimina , propter quae peccatores ab Ecclesiâ separantur : qualia sunt , Homicidia , adulteria , fo●nicationes , sacrilegia , rapinae , furta , falsa testimonia , superbia , invidia , avaritia , diutina iracundia , Ebrietas assidua . Fulbert . Carnot . Ser. 2. ad Populum . Nam ejici remedium est & gradus ad recuperandam sanitatem . lib. de dupl . Martyr . See Rule of conscience , l. 3. c. 3. & 4. Omnibus Episcopis & Presbyteris interdicimus segregare aliquem à sacrâ communione , antequam causa monstretur propter quam sanctae regulae hoc fieri jubent . Collat. 9. tit . 15. c. 11. de Sanctissimis Ep●scopis . Nos à communione quenquam prohibere non possumus , nisi aut sponte confessum , aut in aliquo judicio Ecclesiastico vel saeculari nominatum atque convictum . Homil. 50. & de Medicin● poenit . super illud 1 Cor. 5. si quis frater . De celebrat . Missar . See Rul● of Conscience , l. 3. c. 1. &c. 4. S. Cyprian , sive quicunque sit Author libri d● duplici Martyrio . Ad hoc enim altare quod nunc in Ecclesiâ est , in terrâ positum , ad Mysteriorum Divinorum signacula celebranda , multi etiam scelerati possunt accedere : quoniam Deus commendat in hoc tempore patientiam suam , ut in futuro exerat severitatem suam . Ad illud autem altare quo praecursor pro nobis introivit Jesus , quo caput Ecclesiae praecessit , membris caeteris secuturis , nullus eorum accedere poterit , de quibus dixit Apostolus , Quoniam qui talia agunt regnum Dei non possidebunt . S. Aug. homil . 50. c. 9. * In hâc ergo poenitentiâ majorem quisque in se severit●tem debet exercere ut à seipso judicatus non judicetur à Deo , sicut idem Apostolus ait . Si enim nos judicaremus , à Domino non judicaremur . Ascendat itaque homo adversum se tribunal mentis suae , si timet illud quod oportet nos exhiberi ante tribunal Christi , ut illud recipiat Unusquisque quod per corpus gessit , sive bonum , sive malum ; constituat se ante faciem suam ne hoc ei postea fiat . Nam minatur hoc Deus peccatori , dicens , arguam te , & statuam te ante faciem tuam . Atque ita constituto in corde judicio , adsit accusatrix cogitatio , testis conscientia , carnifex timor . Inde quidam sanguis animi consitentis per lachrymas profluat . Postremò ab ipsa mente talis sententia proferatur , ut se indignum homo judicet participatione corporis & sanguinis Domini : ut qui separari à regno coelorum timet per ultimam sententiam summi Judicis , per Ecclesiasticam disciplinam à Sacramento coelestis panis interim separetur . Versetur ante oculos imago futuri judicii , ut cum alii accedunt ad altare Dei , quo ipse non accedit , cogitet quàm sit contremiscenda illa poena , quâ percipientibus aliis vitam aeternam , alii in mortem praecipitantur aeternam . S. August . homil . 50. c. 9. * Quemadmodum tu comedis Christi corpus , sic illi Manna ; & quomodo tu bibis sanguinem sic illi aquam ex petrâ . S. Chrysost. homil . 18. in 2 Corinth . Ne dum purgatissimam Ecclesiam volunt instituere , brevi nullam habeant . Bullinger ad Bezam . * Quantum ruboris civitari turpiter se gorendo incusserunt , tantum laudis gravitèr puniti adferant . Valer. Max. Ezek. 13.18 . (a) De lapsis & lib. 3. ep . 15. (b) Epist. ad Amphil. c. 2.84.85 . (c) Non parva vobis imminet ultio , si quem cujuspiam conscium nequitiae , hujus mensae participem concedatis , sanguis ejus de vestris manibus exquiretur . S. Chrysost. homil . 60. ad pop . Antioch . See Rule of conscience , l. 3. c. 4. rule 9. p. 257. 1 Cor. 5.11 . 2 Thess. 3.6 . Ezek. 3.18 . Homil. 83. in Matth. Homil. 49. Ibid. Notes for div A64145-e30540 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Panem Angelorum sub Sacramento manducamus in terris , eundem sine Sacramento manifestius edemus in coelis , non ministerio corporali saepe repetitis actionibus ad eundem revertentes : Sed consummato Sacerdotio nostro erit & permanebit perpetua & stabilis , implens & reficiens nos sufficientiâ , quâ proferet se palam absque ullis integumentis , omnibus conspicabilis summi praesentia sacerdotis . S. Cyprian . de coenâ Dom. cap. 2. Ecce panis Angelorum Factus cibus viatorum . Qui nos pascis hic mortales , Tuos ibi commensales Cohaeredes & Sodales Fac Sanctorum civium . Hymn . Eccles. * Cap. 2. 1 Pet. 3.7 . Serm. 1. de instit . Monach. Serm. de poenit . in illud Psalmi . In Cubilibus vestris compungimini . lib. 50. homil . 44. Pugnamus , non ut penitus vincamus , sed ne vincamur . S. Aug. lib. 8. confess . cap. 9. * Quisquis amore venit , nescit se ferre laborem Nemo laboret jacet , quisquis amore venit . Ven. Fortunat. lib. 3. epigr. 37. Notes for div A64145-e31610 1 Cor. 11.21 , 30. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Socrat. l. 5. epist. 118. ad Januar. Ut Sacramenta Altaris non nisi à jejunis hominibus celebrentur , excepto uno die anniversario , quo coena Domini celebratur . Vide Zonar . in hunc Canon : & Concil Matiscon . 2. & Petrum Abailardum epist. 8. S. Cyprian de coenâ Dom. sanguinem sugimus , &c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Justin Martyr . Illud quaeso vir Sapientissime ipsâ re approbes ; quis sit iste Deus quem vobis Christiani quasi proprium vendicatis , & in locis abditis praesentem vos videre componitis ? dixit Maximus Medaurensis in epist. ad S. Augustinum tom . 2. ep . 43. post medium . (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Mat. 28.8 (b) Act. 2.46 . Atque illud etiam scire cupio quo consilio aut quâ mente fueris ut in epulo C. Arcii familiaris mei cum togâ pullâ accumberes ? quis unquam coenavit atratus ? Cicer. epist. ad Atticum . Qui potuî ( dixit Aaron ) cum tristis fuerim , offerre sacrificium ? In Psal. 99. Vide etiam S. Ambros. carnem Christi in Mysteriis adoramus . de Spir. S. lib. 3. cap. 12. S. Bernard . de coen Domini ad Petrum presbyterum . Johannes Petrus Maffeu● , hist. Ind. Orient . lib. 2. circa med . Resp. ad Quaesi . 6. Vide Erasm. lib. 9. epist. ad Pellicanum cujus initium [ Evangelii vigor . Lib. de orat . * Ante focos olim scamnis considere longis . Mos erat : at mensae credere adesse Deos. Ovid. 5. ●astor . Cant. 3.4 . Tu pane vitae accepto , facis rem mortis , & non horreseis ? Nescis quam multa mala proficiscantur & subeant ex deliciis . S. Chrysost. homil . 27. in 1 Cor. Ille crucem , plagas , alapassputa aspera passus , Ostendit tibi quae te tolerare decet . Walafrid . Abbas de Pass . Ora ego servabo puris non sordida sacris . Queis nostrum supero cum Patre , jungo genus . Nazianz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Gal. 2.20 . Pros●●l●● E●angelium Ab●t in viam ●entium : Q●i sanctae pacis o●●um elegerat , Redit ad ollas carnium : Regale sacerdotium Ad c●●nis impropertium degenerat . Sic Petrus Bl●sensis deplorat recidivationem ad carnis delicias . Post S● . Communionem . a S. Cyprian lib. 2. epist. 3. ad Caecilium . b 2 Cor. 5.14 , 15. S. Hier. in Pro. 31.27 . Serm. 4. de corpore Christi . Prov. 8. S. Ambr. Serm. 44. de S. Latrone . 1 Cor. 1.23 , 24. Col. 1.20 . 1 Cor. 15.57 . Nempe amor in parvâ te jubet esse casâ . Serm. 11. de verbi● Domini . Bles. in reg . Tyron . Spirit . sect . 4. n. 3. Tract . 25. & 26. in Johan . 
A64139	----	XXV sermons preached at Golden-Grove being for the vvinter half-year, beginning on Advent-Sunday, untill Whit-Sunday / by Jeremy Taylor ... Sermons. Selections Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. 1653 Approx. 968 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 171 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-12 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A64139 Wing T408 ESTC R17859 11741887 ocm 11741887 48497 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A64139) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 48497) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 552:1) XXV sermons preached at Golden-Grove being for the vvinter half-year, beginning on Advent-Sunday, untill Whit-Sunday / by Jeremy Taylor ... Sermons. Selections Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. [14], 334 [i.e. 326], [1] p. Printed by E. Cotes, for Richard Royston ..., London : 1653. Reproduction of original in the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign Campus). Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Church of England -- Sermons. Sermons, English -- 17th century. 2005-02 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-04 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-05 Mona Logarbo Sampled and proofread 2005-05 Mona Logarbo Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion XXV SERMONS PREACHED AT GOLDEN-GROVE : Being for the VVinter half-year , BEGINNING ON ADVENT-SUNDAY , UNTILL WHIT-SUNDAY . By JEREMY TAYLOR , D. D. Vae mihi si non Evangelizavero . LONDON , Printed by E. Cotes , for Richard Royston at the Angel in Ivie-Lane . M. D C. LIII . To the right Honourable and truely Noble , RICHARD Lord VAUHAN , Earle of Carbery , &c. MY LORD , I Have now by the assistance of God , and the advantages of your many favours , finished a Year of Sermons ; which if , like the first year of our Saviours preaching , it may be annus acceptabilis , an acceptable year to God , and his afflicted hand-maid the Church of England , a reliefe to some of her new necessities , and an institution or assistance to any soule ; I shall esteem it among those honors and blessings , with which God uses to reward those good intentions which himselfe first puts into our hearts , and then recompenses upon our heads . My Lord , They were first presented to God in the ministeries of your family : For this is a blessing for which your Lordship is to blesse God , that your Family is like Gideons Fleece , irriguous with a dew from heaven , when much of the voicinage is dry ; for we have cause to remember that Isaac complain'd of the Philistims , who fill'd up his wells with stones , and rubbish , and left no beauvrage for the Flocks ; and therefore they could give no milke to them that waited upon the Flocks , and the flocks could not be gathered , nor fed , nor defended . It was a designe of ruine , and had in it the greatest hostility ; and so it hath been lately ; — undique totis Vsque adeo turbatur agris . En ! ipse capellas Protenus aeger ago ; hanc etiam vix Tityre duco . But , My Lord , this is not all : I would faine also complaine that men feele not their greatest evill , and are not sensible of their danger , nor covetous of what they want , nor strive for that which is forbidden them ; but that this complaint would suppose an unnaturall evill to rule in the hearts of men ; For who would have in him so little of a Man , as not to be greedy of the Word of God , and of holy Ordinances , even therefore because they are so hard to have ? and this evill , although it can have no excuse , yet it hath a great and a certain cause ; for the Word of God still creates new appetites , as it satisfies the old ; and enlarges the capacity , as it fils the first propensities of the Spirit . For all Spirituall blessings are seeds of Immortality , and of infinite felicities , they swell up to the comprehensions of Eternity ; and the desires of the soule can never be wearied , but when they are decayed ; as the stomach will be craving every day , unlesse it be sick and abused . But every mans experience tels him now , that because men have not Preaching , they lesse desire it ; their long fasting makes them not to love their meat ; and so wee have cause to feare , the people will fall to an Atrophy , then to a loathing of holy food , and then Gods anger will follow the method of our sinne , and send a famine of the Word and Sacraments . This we have the greatest reason to feare , and this feare can be relieved by nothing but by notices and experience of the greatnesse of the Divine mercies and goodnesse . Against this danger in future , and evill in present , as you and all good men interpose their prayers , so have I added this little instance of my care and services ; being willing to minister in all offices and varieties of imployment ; that so I may by all meanes save some , and confirme others ; or at least , that my selfe may be accepted of God in my desiring it . And I thinke I have some reasons to expect a speciall mercy in this , because I finde by the constitution of the Divine providence , and Ecclesiasticall affaires , that all the great necessities of the Church have been served by the zeale of preaching in publick , and other holy ministeries in publick or private , as they could be had . By this the Apostles planted the Church , and the primitive Bishops supported the faith of Martyrs , and the hardinesse of Confessors , and the austerity of the Retired . By this they confounded Hereticks , and evill livers , and taught them the wayes of the Spirit , and left them without pertinacy , or without excuse . It was Preaching that restored the splendour of the Church , when Barbarisme , and Warres , and Ignorance either sate in , or broke the Doctors Chaire in pieces : For then it was that divers Orders of religious , and especially of Preachers were erected ; God inspiring into whole companies of men a zeal of Preaching : And by the same instrument God restored the beauty of the Church , when it was necessary shee should be reformed ; it was the assiduous and learned preaching of those whom God chose for his Ministers in that work , that wrought the Advantages and persuaded those Truths , which are the enamel and beautie of our Churches . And because by the same meanes all things are preserved , by which they are produc'd , it cannot but be certaine , that the present state of the Church requires a greater care and prudence in this Ministerie then ever ; especially since by Preaching some endevour to supplant Preacbing , and by intercepting the fruits of the flocks to dishearten the Shepheards from their attendances . My Lord , your great noblenesse and religious charitie hath taken from mee some portions of that glory which I designed to my selfe in imitation of St. Paul towards the Corinthian Church ; who esteemed it his honour to preach to them without a revenue ; and though also like him I have a trade , by which as I can be more usefull to others , and lesse burthensome to you , yet to you also under God , I owe the quiet and the opportunities and circumstances of that , as if God had so interweaved the support of my affaires with your charitie , that he would have no advantages passe upon mee , but by your interest ; and that I should expect no reward of the issues of my Calling , unlesse your Lordship have a share in the blessing . My Lord , I give God thanks that my lot is fallen so fairely , and that I can serve your Lordship in that ministerie , by which I am bound to serve God , and that my gratitude and my duty are bound up in the same bundle ; but now , that which was yours by a right of propriety , I have made publick , that it may still be more yours , and you derive to your selfe a comfort , if you shall see the necessitie of others serv'd by that which you heard so diligently , and accepted with so much pietie , and I am persuaded have entertain'd with that religion and obedience , which is the dutie of all those who know , that Sermons are arguments against us , unlesse they make us better ; and that no Sermon is received as it ought , unlesse it makes us quit a vice , or bee in love with vertue ; unlesse we suffer it in some instance or degree to doe the work of God upon our soules . My Lord , in these Sermons I have medled with no mans interest , that onely excepted , which is Eternall ; but if any mans vice was to be reproved , I have done it with as much severitie as I ought ; some cases of Conscience I have here determined ; but the speciall designe of the whole , is to describe the greater lines of Dutie , by speciall arguments : and if any witty Censurer shall say , that I tell him nothing but what he knew before ; I shall be contented with it , and rejoyce that he was so well instructed , and wish also that he needed not a Remembrancer : but if either in the first , or in the second ; in the institution of some , or the reminding of others , I can doe God any service ; no man ought to be offended , that Sermons are not like curious inquiries after New-nothings , but pursuances of Old truths . However , I have already many faire earnests that your Lordship will bee pleased with this tender of my service , and expression of my great and dearest obligations , which you daily renew or continue upon , My noblest Lord , Your Lordships most affectionate and most obliged Servant JEREMY TAYLOR . Titles of the Sermons , their Order , Number , and Texts . SErmon 1. 2. 3. Dooms-day Book ; or , Christs Advent to Judgement . Folio 1. 15. 30. 2 Cor. 5. 10. For we must all appear before the Judgement seat of Christ , that every one may receive the things done in his body , according to that he hath done , whether it be good or bad . Sermon 4. 5. 6. The Return of Prayers ; or , The conditions of a Prevailing Prayer . fol. 44. 57. 69. Joh. 9. 31. Now we know that God heareth not sinners , but if any man be a worshipper of God and doth his will , him he heareth . Sermon 7. 8. 9. Of Godly Fear , &c. fol. 83. 95. 114. Heb. 12. part of the 28th . & 29th . vers . Let us have grace whereby we may serve God with reverence and godly fear . For our God is a consuming Fire . Sermon 10. 11. The Flesh and the Spirit . fol. 125. 139. Matt. 26. 41. latter part . The Spirit indeed is willing , but the Flesh is weak . Sermon 12. 13. 14. Of Lukewarmnesse and Zeal ; or , Spiritual Terrour . fol. 152. 164. 179. Jer. 48. 10. first part . Cursed be he that doth the work of the Lord deceitfully . Sermon 15. 16. The House of Feasting ; or , The Epicures Measures . fol. 191. 204. 1 Cor. 15. 32. last part . Let us eat and drink , for to morrow we die . Sermon 17. 18. The Marriage Ring ; or , The Mysteriousnesse and Duties of Marriage . fol. 219. 232. Ephes. 5. 32 , 33. This is a great mysterie ; But I speak concerning Christ and the Church . Neverthelesse , let every one of you in particular so love his Wife even as himselfe , and the Wife see that she reverence her Husband . Sermon 19. 20. 21. Apples of Sodome ; or , The Fruits of Sin. fol. 245. 260. 273. Rom. 6. 21. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed ? For the end of those things is death . Sermon 22. 23. 24. 25. The good and evill Tongue . Of Slander and Flattery . The Duties of the Tongue . fol. 286. 298. 311. 323. Ephes. 4. 25. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth , but that which is good to the use of edifying , that it may minister grace unto the hearers . Titles of the 28 Sermons , their Order , Numbers and Texts . Being the second Volume . SErmon 1 , 2. Of the Spirit of Grace . Fol. 1. 12. Rom. 8. ver . 9 , 10. But ye are not in the flesh , but in the Spirit , if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you . Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ , he is none of his . * And if Christ be in you , the body is dead because of sin , but the Spirit is life , because of righteousness . Sermon 3 , 4. The descending and entailed curse cut off , fol. 24. 40. Exodus 20 part of the 5. verse . I the Lord thy God am a jealous God , visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children , unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me . 6. And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me , and keep my commandments . Sermon 5 , 6. The invalidity of a late , or death-bed repentance , fol. 52. 66. Jerem. 13. 16. Give glory to the Lord your God , before he cause darkness , and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains : and while ye look for light ( or , lest while ye look for light ) he shall turn it into the shadow of death and make it grosse darknesse . Sermon 7 , 8. The deceitfulness of the heart , fol. 80. 92. Jeremiah 17. 9. The heat is deceitful above all things , and desperately wicked ; who can know it ? Sermon 9 , 10 , 11. The faith and patience of the Saints ; Or , the righteous cause oppressed . fol. 104. 119. 133. 1 Pet. 4. 17. For the time is come that judgement must begin at the house of God : and if it first begin at us , what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel of God ? 18. And if the righteous scarcely be saved , where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear ? Sermon 12 , 13. The mercy of the Divine judgements ; or , Gods method in curing sinners , fol. 146. 159. Romans 2. 4. Despisest thou the riches of his goodnesse , and forbearance and long-suffering , not knowing that the goodnesse of God leadeth thee to repentance ? Sermon 14 , 15. Of growth in grace , with its proper instruments and signs . fol. 172. 173. 2 Pet. 3. 18. But grow in grace , and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ , to whom be glory both now and for ever . Amen . Sermon 16 , 17. Of growth in sin , or the several states and degrees of sinners , with the manner how they are to be treated . fol. 197. 210. Jude Epist. ver . 22 , 23. And of some have compassion , making a difference : * And others save with fear , pulling them out of the fire . Sermon 18 , 19. The foolish exchange . fol. 224. 237. Matth. 16. ver . 26. For what is a man profited , if he shall gain the whole world , and lose his own soul ? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul ? Sermon 20 , 21 , 22. The Serpent and the Dove ; or , a discourse of Christian Prudence . fol. 251. 263. 274. Matth. 10. latter part of ver . 16. Be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmlesse as doves . Sermon 23 , 24. Of Christian simplicity . 289. 301. Matth 10. latter part of verse 16. And harmless as Doves . Sermon 25 , 26 , 27. The miracles of the Divine Mercy . fol. 313. 327. 340. Psal. 86. 5. For thou Lord art good and ready to forgive , and plenteous in mercy to all them that call upon thee . A Funeral Sermon preached at the Obsequies of the Right Honorable the Countess of Carbery . fol. 357. 2 Sam. 14. 14. For we must needs dye , and are as water spilt on the ground which cannot be gathered up again : neither doth God respect any person : yet doth he devise means that his banished be not expelled from him . A Discourse of the Divine Institution , necessity , sacredness , and separation of the Office Ministerial . Sermon , I. ADVENT SUNDAY . DOOMS-DAY BOOK : OR , CHRIST'S Advent to Judgement . 2 Cor. 5. 10. For we must all appear before the Judgment seat of CHRIST , that every one may receive the things done in his body , according to that he hath done , whether it be good or bad . VErtue and Vice are so essentially distinguished , and the distinction is so necessary to be observed in order to the well being of men , in private , and in societies , that to divide them in themselves , and to separate them by sufficient notices , and to distinguish them by rewards , hath been designed by all Laws , by the sayings of wise men , by the order of things , by their proportions to good or evill ; and the expectations of men have been fram'd accordingly ; that Vertue may have a proper seat in the will and in the affections , and may become amiable by its own excellency and its appendant blessing ; and that Vice may be as naturall an enemy to a man as a Wolf to the Lamb , and as darknesse to light ; destructive of its being , and a contradiction of its nature . But it is not enough that all the world hath armed it self against Vice , and by all that is wise and sober amongst men , hath taken the part of Vertue , adorning it with glorious appellatives , encouraging it by rewards , entertaining it with sweetnesses , and commanding it by edicts , fortifying it with defensatives , and twining with it in all artificiall compliances ; all this is short of mans necessity ; for this will in all modest men secure their actions in Theatres , and High-wayes , in Markets , and Churches , before the eye of Judges , and in the society of Witnesses . But the actions of closets and chambers , the designs and thoughts of men , their discourses in dark places , and the actions of retirements and of the night , are left indifferent to Vertue or to Vice ; and of these , as man can take no cognisance , so he can make no coercitive ; and therefore above one half of humane actions is by the Laws of man left unregarded , and unprovided for : and besides this , there are some men who are bigger then Lawes , and some are bigger then Judges , and some Judges have lessened themselves by fear and cowardize , by bridery and flattery , by iniquity and complyance ; and where they have not , yet they have notices but of few causes ; and there are some sins so popular and universall , that to punish them is either impossible or intolerable ; and to question such , would betray the weaknesse of the publick rods and axes , and represent the sinner to be stronger then the power that is appointed to be his bridle ; and after all this , we finde sinners so prosperous , that they escape , so potent , that they fear not , and sin is made safe when it growes great , — Facere omnia saevè Non impunè licet , nisi dum facis — and innocence is oppressed , and the poor cry , and he hath no helper ; and he is oppressed , and he wants a Patron : and for these and many other concurrent causes , if you reckon all the causes that come before all the Judicatories of the world , though the litigious are too many , and the matters of instance are intricate and numerous , yet the personall and criminall are so few , that of 20000 sins that cry aloud to God for vengeance , scarce two are noted by the publick eye and chastis'd by the hand of Justice ; it must follow from hence , that it is but reasonable for the interest of vertue and the necessities of the world , that the private should be judg'd , and vertue should be tyed upon the spirit , and the poor should be relieved , and the oppressed should appeal , and the noise of Widows should be heard , and the Saints should stand upright , and the Cause that was ill judged should be judged over again , and Tyrants should be call'd to account , and our thoughts should be examined , and our secret actions view'd on all sides , and the infinite number of sins which escape here should not escape finally ; and therefore God hath so ordained it , that there shall be a day of doom wherein all that are let alone by men shall be question'd by God , and every word and every action shall receive its just recompence of reward . For we must all appear before the Judgement seat of Christ , that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done , whether it be good or bad . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so it is in the best copies , not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The things done in the body , so we commonly read it ; the things proper or due to the body ; so the expression is more apt and proper ; for not only what is done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the body , but even the acts of abstracted understanding and volition , the acts of reflexion and choice , acts of self-love and admiration , and what ever else can be supposed the proper and peculiar act of the soul or of the spirit , is to be accounted for at the day of Judgement : and even these may be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , because these are the acts of the man in the state of conjunction with the body . The words have in them no other difficulty or variety , but contain a great truth of the biggest interest ; and one of the most materiall constitutive Articles of the whole Religion , and the greatest endearment of our duty in the whole world . Things are so ordered by the great Lord of all the creatures , that whatsoever we do or suffer shall be call'd to account , and this account shall be exact , and the sentence shall be just , and the reward shall be great ; all the evils of the world shall be amended , and the injustices shall be repaid , and the divine Providence shall be vindicated , and Vertue and Vice shall for ever be remark'd by their separate dwellings and rewards . This is that which the Apostle in the next verse cals the terror of the Lord ; it is his terror , because himself shall appear in his dresse of Majesty and robes of Justice , and it is his terror , because it is of all the things in the World the most formidable in it self , and it is most fearfull to us : where shall be acted the interest and finall sentence of eternity ; and because it is so intended , I shall all the way represent it as the Lords terror , that we may be afraid of sin , for the destruction of which this terror is intended . 1. Therefore we will consider the persons that are to be judged , with the circumstances of our advantages or our sorrowes : [ We must all appear . ] 2. The Judge and his Judgement seat : [ before the Judgment seat of Christ. ] 3. The sentence that they are to receive ; the things due to the body , good or bad ; according as we now please , but then cannot alter . Every one of these are dressed with circumstances of affliction and afrightment to those to whom such terrors shall appertain as a portion of their inheritance . 1. The persons who are to be judged : even you , and I , and all the world : Kings and Priests , Nobles and Learned , the Crafty and the Easie , the Wise and the Foolish , the Rich and the Poor , the prevailing Tyrant and the oppressed Party shall all appear to receive ther Symbol ; and this is so farre from abating any thing of its terror and our dear concernment , that it much increases it : for although concerning Precepts and Discourses we are apt to neglect in particular what is recommended in generall , and in incidencies of Mortality and sad events the singularity of the chance heightens the apprehension of the evill ; yet it is so by accident and only in regard of our imperfection ; it being an effect of self-love or some little creeping envie which adheres too often to the infortunate and miserable ; or else because the sorrow is apt to increase by being apprehended to be a rare case and a singular unworthinesse in him who is afflicted , otherwise then is common to the sons of men , companions of his sin , and brethren of his nature , and partners of his usuall accidents ; yet in finall and extreme events the multitude of sufferers does not lessen but increase the sufferings ; and when the first day of Judgement happen'd , that ( I mean ) of the universall deluge of waters upon the old World , the calamity swell'd like the floud , and every man saw his friend perish , and the neighbours of his dwelling , and the relatives of his house , and the sharers of his joyes , and yesterdaies bride , and the new born heir , the Priest of the Family , and the honour of the Kindred , all dying or dead , drench'd in water and the divine vengeance ; and then they had no place to flee unto , no man cared for their souls ; they had none to goe unto for counsell , no sanctuary high enough to keep them from the vengeance that raip'd down from heaven : and so it shall be at the day of Judgement , when that world and this and all that shall be born hereafter , shall passe through the same Red sea , and be all baptized with the same fire , and be involv'd in the same cloud , in which shall be thundrings and terrors infinite ; every Mans fear shall be increased by his neighbours shriekes , and the amazement that all the world shall be in , shall unite as the sparks of a raging furnace into a globe of fire , and roul upon its own principle , and increase by direct appearances , and intolerable reflexions . He that stands in a Church-yard in the time of a great plague , and hears the Passing-bell perpetually telling the sad stories of death , and sees crowds of infected bodies pressing to their Graves , and others sick and tremulous , and Death dress'd up in all the images of sorrow round about him , is not supported in his spirit by the variety of his sorrow : and at Dooms-day , when the terrors are universall , besides that it is in it self so much greater because it can affright the whole world , it is also made greater by communication and a sorrowfull influence ; Grief being then strongly infections : when there is no variety of state but an intire Kingdome of fear ; and amazement is the King of all our passions , and all the world its subjects : and that shrieke must needs be terrible , when millions of Men and Women at the same instant shall fearfully cry out , and the noise shall mingle with the Trumpet of the Archangell , with the thunders of the dying and groaning heavens , and the crack of the dissolving world , when the whole fabrick of nature shall shake into dissolution and eternall ashes . But this generall consideration may be hightned with four or five circumstances . 1. Consider what an infinite multitude of Angels and Men and Women shall then appear ; it is a huge assembly when the Men of one Kingdome , the Men of one Age in a single Province are gathered togother into heaps and confusion of disorder ; But then all Kingdomes of all ages , all the Armies that ever mustered , all that World that Augustus Caesar taxed , all those hundreds of Millions that were slain in all the Roman Wars from Numa's time till Italy was broken into Principalities and small Exarchats , all these , and all that can come into numbers , and that did descend from the loins of Adam , shall at once be represented ; to which account if we adde the Armies of Heaven , the nine orders of blessed Spirits , and the infinite numbers in every order , we may suppose the numbers fit to expresse the Majesty of that God , and the terror of that Judge , who is the Lord and Father of all that unimaginable multitude . Erit terror ingens tot simul tantorúmque populorum . 2. In this great multitude we shall meet all those who by their example and their holy precepts have like tapers enkindled with a beam of the Sun of righteousnesse enlightned us , and taught us to walk in the paths of justice . There we shall see all those good men whom God sent to preach to us , and recall us from humane follies and inhumane practises : and when we espie the good man that chid us for our last drunkennesse or adulteries , it shall then also be remembred how we mocked at counsell , and were civilly modest at the reproof , but laugh'd when the man was gone , and accepted it for a religious complement , and took our leaves and went and did the same again . But then things shall put on another face , and what we smil'd at here , and slighted fondly , shall then be the greatest terror in the world ; Men shall feel that they once laugh'd at their own destruction , and rejected health when it was offered by a man of God upon no other condition , but that they would be wise , and not be in love with death . Then they shall perceive , that if they had obeyed an easie and a sober counsell , they had been partners of the same felicity which they see so illustrious upon the heads of those Preachers whose work is with the Lord , and who by their life and Doctrine endeavoured to snatch the Soul of their friend or relatives from an intolerable misery . But he that sees a crown put upon their heads that give good counsell , and preach holy and severe Sermons with designs of charity and piety , will also then perceive that God did not send Preachers for nothing , on trifling errands and without regard : but that work which he crowns in them he purposed should be effective to us , perswasive to the understanding , and active upon our consciences . Good Preachers by their Doctrine , and all good men by their lives are the accusers of the disobedient , and they shall rise up from their seats , and judge and condemn the follies of those who thought their piety to be want of courage , and their discourses pedanticall , and their reproofs the Priests trade , but of no signification , because they prefer'd moments before eternity . 3. There in that great assembly shall be seen all those Converts who upon easier terms , and fewer miracles , and a lesse experience , and a younger grace , and a seldomer Preaching , and more unlikely circumstances have suffered the work of God to prosper upon their spirits , and have been obedient to the heavenly calling . There shall stand the men of Ninevch , and they shall stand upright in Judgement , for they at the preaching of one man in a lesse space then forty dayes returned unto the Lord their God ; but we have heard him call all our lives , and like the deaf Adder stopt our ears against the voice of Gods servants , charme they never so wisely . There shall appear the men of Capernaum , and the Queen of the South , and the Men of Berea , and the first fruits of the Christian Church , and the holy Martyrs , and shall proclaim to all the world that it was not impossible to do the work of Grace in the midst of all our weaknesses , and accidentall disadvantages : and that the obedience of Faith , and the labour of Love , and the contentions of chastity , and the severities of temperance and self-deniall , are not such insuperable mountains , but that an honest and a sober person may perform them in acceptable degrees , if he have but a ready ear , and a willing minde , and an honest heart : and this seen of honest persons shall make the Divine Judgement upon sinners more reasonable and apparently just ; in passing upon them the horrible sentence ; for why cannot we as well serve God in peace as others served him in war ? why cannot we love him as well when he treats us sweetly and gives us health and plenty , honours or fair fortunes , reputation or contentednesse , quietnesse and peace , as others did upon gibbets and under axes , in the hands of tormentors , and in hard wildernesses , in nakednesse and poverty , in the midst of all evill things and all sad discomforts ? Concerning this no answer can be made . 4. But there is a worse sight then this yet , which in that great assembly shall distract our sight and amaze our spirits . There men shall meet the partners of their sins , and them that drank the round when they crown'd their heads with folly and forgetfulnesse , and their cups with wine and noises . There shall ye see that poor perishing soul whom thou didst tempt to adultery and wantonnesse , to drunkennesse or perjury , to rebellion or an evill interest , by power or craft , by witty discourses or deep dissembling , by scandall or a snare , by evill example or pernicious counsell , by malice or unwarinesse ; and when all this is summ'd up , and from the variety of its particulars is drawn into an uneasie load and a formidable summe , possibly we may finde sights enough to scare all our confidences , and arguments enough to presse our evill souls into the sorrowes of a most intolerable death . For however we make now but light accounts and evill proportions concerning it , yet it will be a fearfull circumstance of appearing , to see one , or two , or ten , or twenty accursed souls despairing , miserable , infinitely miserable , roaring and blaspheming , and fearfully cursing thee as the cause of its eternall sorrowes . Thy lust betray'd and rifled her weak unguarded innocence ; thy example made thy servant confident to lye , or to be perjur'd ; thy society brought a third into intemperance and the disguises of a beast ; and when thou feest that soul with whom thou didst sin drag'd into hell , well maist thou fear to drink the dregs of thy intolerable potion ; And most certainly it is the greatest of evils to destroy a soul for whom the Lord Jesus dyed , and to undoe that grace which our Lord purchased with so much sweat and bloud , pains and a mighty charity . And because very many sins , are sins of society and confederation ; such are fornication , drunkennesse , bribery , simony , rebellion , schisme , and many others , it is a hard and a weighty consideration what shall become of any one of us who have tempted our Brother or Sister to sin and death : for though God hath spar'd our life , and they are dead and their debt-books are sealed up till the day of account , yet the mischief of our sin is gone before us , and it is like a murther , but more execrable , the soul is dead in trespasses and sins , and sealed up to an eternall sorrow , and thou shalt see at Dooms-day what damnable uncharitablenesse thou hast done . That soul that cryes to those rocks to cover her , if it had not been for thy perpetuall temptations , might have followed the Lamb in a white robe ; and that poor man that is cloathed with shame and flames of fire , would have shin'd in glory , but that thou didst force him to be partner of thy basenesse . And who shall pay for this losse ? a soul is lost by thy means ; thou hast defeated the holy purposes of the Lord 's bitter passion by thy impurities ; and what shall happen to thee by whom thy Brother dies eternally ? Of all the considerations that concern this part of the horrors of Dooms-day nothing can be more formidable then this , to such whom it does concern : and truly it concerns so many , and amongst so many , perhaps some persons are so tender , that it might affright their hopes and discompose their industries and spritefull labours of repentance ; but that our most mercifull Lord hath in the midst of all the fearfull circumstances of his second coming interwoven this one comfort relating to this , which to my sense seems the most fearfull and killing circumstance : Two shall be grinding at one mill ; the one shall be taken , and the other left . Two shall be in a bed ; the one shall be taken , and the other left ; that is , those who are confederate in the same fortunes , and interests , and actions , may yet have a different sentence : for an early and an active repentance will wash off this account , and put it upon the tables of the Crosse ; and though it ought to make us diligent and carefull , charitable and penitent , hugely penitent , even so long as we live , yet when we shall appear together , there is a mercy that shall there separate us , who sometimes had blended each other in a common crime . Blessed be the mercies of of God , who hath so carefully provided a fruitfull shower of grace to refresh the miseries and dangers of the greatest part of mankind . Thomas Aquinas was used to beg of God that he might never be tempted from his low fortune to Prelacies and dignities Ecclesiasticall ; and that his minde might never be discomposed or polluted with the love of any creature ; and that he might by some instrument or other understand the state of his deceased Brother ; and the story sayes , that he was heard in all : In him it was a great curiosity , or the passion and impertinencies of a uselesse charity to search after him , unlesse he had some other personall concernment , then his relation of kindred . But truly , it would concern very many to be solicitous concerning the event of those souls with whom we have mingled death and sin ; for many of those sentences which have passed and decreed concerning our departed relatives , will concern us dearly , and we are bound in the same bundles , and shall be thrown into the same fires , unlesse we repent for our own sins , and double our sorrows for their damnation . 5. We may consider that this infinite multitude of men and women , Angels and Devils , is not ineffective as a number in Pythagoras Tables , but must needs have influence upon every spirit that shall there appear . For the transactions of that court are not like Orations spoken by a Grecian Orator in the circles of his people , heard by them that croud nearest him , or that sound limited by the circles of aire , or the inclosure of a wall ; but every thing is represented to every person , and then let it be considered , when thy shame and secret turpitude , thy midnight revels and secret hypocrisies , thy lustfull thoughts , and treacherous designes , thy falshood to God and startings from thy holy promises , thy follies and impieties shall be laid open before all the world , and that then shall be spoken by the trumpet of an Archangell upon the house top , the highest battlements of Heaven , all those filthy words and lewd circumstances which thou didst act secretly , thou wilt find that thou wilt have reason strangely to be ashamed . All the wise men in the world shall know how vile thou hast been : and then consider ; with what confusion of face wouldst thou stand in the presence of a good man and a severe , if peradventure he should suddenly draw thy curtain , and finde thee in the sins of shame and lust ; it must be infinitely more , when God and all the Angels of heaven and earth , all his holy myriads , and all his redeemed Saints shall stare and wonder at thy impurities and follies . I have read a story that a young Gentleman being passionately by his mother disswaded from entring into the severe courses of a religious and single life , broke from her importunity by saying , Volo servare animam meam , I am resolved by all means to save my soul. But when he had undertaken a rule with passion , he performed it carelesly and remisly , and was but lukewarm in his Religion , and quickly proceeded to a melancholy and wearied spirit , and from thence to a sicknesse and the neighbourhood of death ; but falling into an agony and a phantastick vision , dream'd that he saw himself summon'd before Gods angry throne , and from thence hurryed into a place of torments , where espying his Mother , full of scorn she upbraided him with his former answer , and asked him , Why he did not save his soul , by all means , according as he undertook . But when the sick man awaked and recovered , he made his words good indeed , and prayed frequently , and fasted severely , and laboured humbly , and conversed charitably , and mortified himself severely , and refused such secular solaces which other good men received to refresh and sustain their infirmities , and gave no other account to them that asked him but this : If I could not in my extasie or dream endure my Mothers upbraiding my follies and weak Religion , how shall I be able to suffer , that God should redargue me at Dooms-day , and the Angels reproach my lukewarmnesse , and the Devlls aggravate my sins , and all the Saints of God deride my follies and hypocrisies ? The effect of that mans consideration may serve to actuate a meditation in every one of us : for we shall all be at that passe , that unlesse our shame and sorrowes be cleansed by a timely repentance , and cover'd by the Robe of Christ , we shall suffer the anger of God , the scorn of Saints and Angels , and our own shame in the generall assembly of all mankind . This argument is most considerable to them who are tender of their precious name and sensible of honour ; if they rather would chuse death then a disgrace , poverty rather then shame , let them remember that a sinfull life will bring them to an intolerable shame at that day , when all that is excellent in heaven and earth shall be summon'd as witnesses and parties in a fearfull scrutiny . The summe is this ; All that are born of Adam shall appear before God and his Christ , and all the innumerable companies of Angels and Devils shall be there : and the wicked shall be afrighted with every thing they see ; and there they shall see those good men that taught them the waies of life , and all those evill persons whom themselves have tempted into the waies of death , and those who were converted upon easier termes , and some of these shall shame the wicked , and some shall curse them , and some shall upbraid them , and all shall amaze them , and yet this is but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the beginning of those evils which shall never end till eternity hath a period ; but concerning this they must first be judged ; and that 's the second generall consideration , We must appear before the Judgement seat of Christ , and that 's a new state of terrors and afrightments . Christ who is our Saviour , and is our Advocate , shall then be our Judge , and that will strangely change our confidences and all the face of things . 2. That 's then the place and state of our appearance , Before the Judgement seat of Christ : ] For Christ shall rise from the right hand of his Father , he shall descend towards us and ride upon a cloud , and shall make himself illustrious by a glorious Majesty , and an innumerable retinue and circumstances of terror and a mighty power : and this is that which Origen affirms to be the sign of the Son of Man. Remalcus de Vaux in Harpocrate divino affirms that all the Greek and Latine Fathers consentientibus animis asseverant , hoc signo Crucem Christi significari , do unanimously affirm that the representment of the Crosse , is the sign of the Son of Man spoken of Mat. 24. 30. And indeed they affirm it very generally , but Origen after his manner is singular , hoc signum Crucis erit , cum Dominus ad judicandum venerit , so the Church used to sing , and so it is in the Sibyls verses ; O lignum felix in quo Deus ipse pependit , Nec te terra capit , sed coeli tecta videbis Cum renovata Dei facies ignita micabit . The sign of the Crosse is that sign of the Son of Man , when the Lord shall come to Judgement : and from those words of Scripture [ They shall look on him whom they have pierced ] it hath been freely entertain'd at the day of Judgement , Christ shall signifie his person by something that related to his passion , his crosse , or his wounds , or both . I list not to spin this curious cobweb ; but Origen's opinion seems to me more reasonable ; and it is more agreeable to the Majesty and Power of Christ to signifie himself with proportions of his glory rather then of his humility , with effects of his being exalted into Heaven , rather then of his poverty and sorrowes upon Earth ; and this is countenanced better by some Greek copies ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so it is commonly read , the sign of the Son of man in Heaven , that is ( say they ) the signe of the Son of man imprinted upon a cloud ; but it is in others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the signe of the Son of man who is in the heavens ; not that the signe shall bee imprinted on a cloud , or in any part of the heavens , but that hee who is now in the heavens , shall when he comes down , have a signe and signification of his own , that is , proper to him , who is there glorified , and shall return in glory ; and he disparages the beauty of the Sun , who inquires for a Rule to know when the Sun shines , or the light breaks forth from its chambers of the East ; and the Son of man shall need no other signification , but his infinite retinue , and all the Angels of God worshipping him , and sitting upon a cloud , and leading the heavenly Host , and bringing his Elect with him , and being clothed with the robes of Majesty , and trampling upon Devils , and confounding the wicked , and destroying Death : but all these great things shall be invested with such strange circumstances , and annexes of Mightynesse , and Divinity , that all the world shall confesse the glories of the Lord ; and this is sufficiently signified by St. Paul , We shall all be set before the throne or place of Christ's judicature ; For it is written , As I live , saith the Lord , every knee shall bow to me , and every tongue shall cenfesse to God : that is , at the day of Judgment , when wee are placed ready to receive our Sentence , all knees shall bow to the holy Jesus , and confesse him to be God the Lord ; meaning , that our Lords presence shall be such , as to force obeysance from Angels , and Men , and Devils ; and his addresse to Judgement shall sufficiently declare his Person , and his Office , and his proper glories . This is the greatest Scene of Majesty that shall be in that day , till the Sentence bee pronounced ; But there goes much before this which prepares all the world to the expectation and consequent reception of this mighty Judge of Men and Angels . The Majesty of the Judge , and the terrors of the Judgement shall bee spoken aloud by the immediate forerunning accidents , which shall bee so great violences to the old constitutions of Nature , that it shall break her very bones , and disorder her till shee be destroyed . St. Hierom relates out of the Jews books , that their Doctors use to account 15 days of prodigie immediately before Christ's coming , and to every day assigne a wonder , any one of which , if wee should chance to see in the days of our flesh , it would affright us into the like thoughts , which the old world had when they saw the countreys round about them cover'd with water , and the Divine vengeance ; or as those poor people neer Adria , and the Mediterranean sea , when their houses and Cities are entring into graves , and the bowells of the earth rent with convulsions and horrid tremblings . The sea ( say they ) shall rise 15 cubits above the highest Mountaines , and thence descend into hollownesse , and a prodigious drought , and when they are reduc'd again to their usuall proportions , then all the beasts and creeping things , the monsters , and the usuall inhabitants of the sea shall be gathered together , and make fearfull noyses to distract Mankind : The birds shall mourne and change their song into threnes and sad accents , rivers of fire shall rise from East to West , and the stars shall be rent into threds of light , and scatter like the beards of comets ; Then shall bee fearfull earthquakes , and the rocks shall rend in pieces , the trees shall distill bloud , and the mountains and fairest structures shall returne unto their primitive dust ; the wild beasts shall leave their dens and come into the companies of men , so that you shall hardly tell how to call them , herds of Men or congregations of Beasts ; Then shall the Graves open , and give up their dead , and those which are alive in nature , and dead in fear , shall be forc'd from the rocks , whither they went to hide them , and from caverns of the earth , where they would fain have been concealed ; because their retirements are dismantled , and their rocks are broken into wider ruptures , and admit a strange light into their secret bowels ; and the men being forc'd abroad into the theatre of mighty horrors shall run up and downe distracted and at their wits end ; and then some shall die , and some shall bee changed , and by this time the Elect shall bee gathered together from the foure quarters of the world , and Christ shall come along with them to judgment . These signes , although the Jewish Doctors reckon them by order and a method , concerning which they had no revelation ( that appeares ) nor sufficiently credible tradition , yet for the main parts of the things themselves , the holy Scripture records Christs own words , and concerning the most terrible of them ; the summe of which , as Christ related them , and his Apostles recorded and explicated , is this : The earth shall tremble , and the powers of the heavens shall bee shaken , the sun shall bee turned into darknesse , and the moon into bloud ; that is , there shall bee strange eclipses of the Sun , and fearfull aspects in the Moon , who when she is troubled looks red like bloud ; The rocks shall rend , and the elements shall melt with fervent heat . The heavens shall bee rolled up like a parchment , the earth shall bee burned with fire , the hils shall be like wax , for there shall goe a fire before him , and a mighty tempest shall be stirred round about him : Dies irae , Dies illa Solvet sêclum in faviliâ , Teste David cum Sibyllâ . The Trumpet of God shall sound , and the voice of the Archangell , that is , of him who is the Prince of all that great army of Spirits , which shall then attend their Lord , and wait upon and illustrate his glory ; and this also is part of that which is called the signe of the Son of Man ; for the fulfilling off all these praedictions , and the preaching the Gospel to all Nations , and the Conversion of the Jews , and these prodigies , and the Addresse of Majesty make up that signe . The notice of which things some way or other came to the very Heathen themselves , who were alarum'd into caution and sobriety by these dreadfull remembrances : — Sic cum compage solutâ Saecula tot mundt suprema coëgerit hora Antiquum repetens , iterum chaos , omnia mistis Sidera sideribus concurrent : ignea pontum Astra petent , tellus extendere littora nolet , Excutietque fretum ; fratri contraria Phoebe Ibit — Totaque discors Machina divulsi turbabit foedera Mundi . Which things when they are come to passe , it will be no wonder if mens hearts shall faile them for feare , and their wits bee lost with guilt , and their fond hopes destroyed by prodigie and amazement ; but it will bee an extreme wonder , if the consideration and certain expectation of these things shall not awake our sleeping spirits , and raise us from the death of Sin , and the basenesse of vice and dishonorable actions , to live soberly and temperately , chastly and justly , humbly and obediently , that is , like persons that believe all this , and such who are not mad men or fools , but will order their actions according to these notices . For if they doe not believe these things , where is their Faith ? If they doe believe them , and sin on , and doe as if there were no such thing to come to passe , where is their Prudence , and what is their hopes , and where their Charity ? how doe they differ from beasts , save that they are more foolish ? for beasts goe on and consider not , because they cannot ; but we can consider , and will not ; we know that strange terrors shall affright us all , and strange deaths and torments shall seise upon the wicked , and that we cannot escape , and the rocks themselves will not bee able to hide us from the fears of those prodigies which shall come before the day of Judgement ; and that the mountains ( though when they are broken in pieces we call upon them to fall upon us ) shall not be able to secure us one minute from the present vengeance ; and yet we proceed with confidence or carelesnesse , and consider not that there is no greater folly in the world , then for a man to neglect his greatest interest , and to die for trifles and little regards , and to become miserable for such interests which are not excusable in a Childe . He that is youngest hath not long to live : Hee that is thirty , forty , or fifty yeares old , hath spent most of his life , and his dream is almost done , and in a very few moneths hee must be cast into his eternall portion ; that is , hee must be in an unalterable condition , his finall Sentence shall passe according as hee shall then bee found : and that will be an intolerable condition , when he shall have reason to cry out in the bitternesse of his soule , Eternall woe is to mee , who refus'd to consider when I might have been saved and secured from this intolerable calamity . But I must descend to consider the particulars and circumstances of the great consideration , Christ shall be our Judge at Doomes-day . SERMON , II. Part II. 1. IF we consider the person of the Judge , we first perceive that he is interested in the injury of the crimes he is to sentence . Videbunt quem crucifixerunt , and they shal look on him whom they have pierced . It was for thy sins that the Judge did suffer such unspeakable pains as were enough to reconcile all the world to God : The summe and spirit of which pains could not be better understood then by the consequence of his own words , My God , my God , why hast thou forsaken me ? meaning , that he felt such horrible , pure , unmingled sorrowes , that although his humane nature was personally united to the Godhead , yet at that instant he felt no comfortable emanations by sensible perception from the Divinity , but he was so drenched in sorrow , that the Godhead seemed to have forsaken him . Beyond this , nothing can be added : but then , that thou hast for thy own particular made all this in vain and ineffective , that Christ thy Lord and Judge should be tormented for nothing , that thou wouldst not accept felicity and pardon when he purchased them at so dear a price , must needs be an infinite condemnation to such persons . How shalt thou look upon him that fainted and dyed for love of thee , and thou didst scorn his miraculous mercies ? How shall we dare to behold that holy face that brought salvation to us , and we turned away and fell in love with death , and kissed deformity and sins ? and yet in the beholding that face consists much of the glories of eternity . All the pains and passions , the sorrowes and the groans , the humility and poverty , the labours and the watchings , the Prayers and the Sermons , the miracles and the prophecies , the whip and the nails , the death and the buriall , the shame and the smart , the Crosse and the grave of Jesus shall be laid upon thy score , if thou hast refused the mercies and design of all their holy ends and purposes . And if we remember what a calamity that was which broke the Jewish Nation in pieces , when Christ came to judge them for their murdering him who was their King and the Prince of life , and consider that this was but a dark image of the terrors of the day of Judgement , we may then apprehend that there is some strange unspeakable evill that attends them that are guilty of this death , and of so much evill to their Lord. Now it is certain if thou wilt not be saved by his death ; you are guilty of his death ; if thoa wilt not suffer him to save thee , thou art guilty of destroying him ; and then let it be considered what is to be expected from that Judge before whom you stand as his murtherer and betrayer . * But this is but half of this consideration . 2. Christ may be crucified again , and upon a new account put to an open shame . For after that Christ had done all this by the direct actions of his Priestly Office , of sacrificing himself for us , he hath also done very many things for us which are also the fruits of his first love and prosecutions of our redemption . I will not instance in the strange arts of mercy that our Lord uses to bring us to live holy lives ; But I consider , that things are so ordered , and so great a value set upon our souls since they are the images of God , and redeemed by the Bloud of the holy Lamb , that the salvation of our souls is reckoned as a part of Christs reward , a part of the glorification of his humanity . Every sinner that repents causes joy to Christ , and the joy is so great that it runs over and wets the fair brows and beauteous locks of Cherubims and Seraphims , and all the Angels have a part of that banquet ; Then it is that our blessed Lord feels the fruits of his holy death , the acceptation of his holy sacrifice , the graciousnesse of his person , the return of his prayers . For all that Christ did or suffer'd , and all that he now does as a Priest in heaven , is to glorifie his Father by bringing souls to God : For this it was that he was born and dyed , that he descended from heaven to earth , from life to death , from the crosse to the grave ; this was the purpose of his resurrection and ascension , of the end and design of all the miracles and graces of God manifested to all the world by him ; and now what man is so vile , such a malicious fool , that will refuse to bring joy to his Lord by doing himself the greatest good in the world ? They who refuse to do this , are said to crucifie the Lord of life again , and put him to an open shame : that is , they , as much as in them lies , bring Christ from his glorious joyes to the labours of his life , and the shame of his death ; they advance his enemies , and refuse to advance the Kingdome of their Lord ; they put themselves in that state in which they were when Christ came to dye for them ; and now that he is in a state that he may rejoyce over them , ( for he hath done all his share towards it ) every wicked man takes his head from the blessing , and rather chuses that the Devill should rejoyce in his destruction , then that his Lord should triumph in his felicity . And now upon the supposition of these premises , we may imagine that it will be an infinite amazement to meet that Lord to be our Judge whose person we have murdered , whose honour we have disparaged , whose purposes we have destroyed , whose joyes we have lessened , whose passion we have made ineffectuall , and whose love we have trampled under our profane and impious feet . 3. But there is yet a third part of this consideration . As it will be inquir'd at the day of Judgement concerning the dishonours to the person of Christ , so also concerning the profession and institution of Christ , and concerning his poor Members ; for by these also we make sad reflexions upon our Lord. Every man that lives wickedly disgraces the religion and institution of Jesus , he discourages strangers from entring into it , he weakens the hands of them that are in already , and makes that the adversaries speak reproachfully of the Name of Christ ; but although it is certain our Lord and Judge will deeply resent all these things , yet there is one thing which he takes more tenderly , and that is , the uncharitablenesse of men towards his poor : It shall then be upbraided to them by the Judge , that himself was hungry and they refused to give meat to him that gave them his body and heart-bloud , to feed them and quench their thirst ; that they denyed a robe to cover his nakednesse , and yet he would have cloathed their souls with the robe of his righteousnesse , lest their souls should be found naked in the day of the Lords visitation ; and all this unkindnesse is nothing but that evill men were uncharitable to their Brethren , they would not feed the hungry , nor give drink to the thirsty , nor cloath the naked , nor relieve their Brothers needs , nor forgive his follies , nor cover their shame , nor turn their eyes from delighting in their affronts and evill accidents ; this is it which our Lord will take so tenderly , that his Brethren for whom he died , who suck'd the paps of his Mother , that fed on his Body and are nourished with his Bloud , whom he hath lodg'd in his heart and entertains in his bosome , the partners of his Spirit and co-heirs of his inheritance , that these should be deny'd relief and suffered to go away ashamed , and unpitied ; this our blessed Lord will take so ill , that all those who are guilty of this unkindnesse , have no reason to expect the favour of the Court. 4. To this if we adde the almightinesse of the Judge , his infinite wisdome and knowledge of all causes , and all persons , and all circumstances , that he is infinitely just , inflexibly angry , and impartiall in his sentence , there can be nothing added either to thè greatness or the requisites of a terrible and an Almighty Judge . For who can resist him who is Almighty ? Who can evade his scrutiny that knows all things ? Who can hope for pity of him that is inflexible ? Who can think to be exempted when the Judge is righteous and impartial ? But in all these annexes of the great Judge , that which I shall now remark , is that indeed which hath terror in it , and that is , the severity of our Lord. For then is the day of vengeance and recompenses , and no mercy at all shall be shewed , but to them that are the sons of mercy ; for the other , their portion is such as can be expected from these premises . 1. If we remember the instances of Gods severity in this life , in the daies of mercy and repentance , in those dayes when Judgement waits upon Mercy , and receives lawes by the rules and measures of pardon , and that for all the rare streams of loving kindnesse issuing out of Paradise and refreshing all our fields with a moisture more fruitfull then the flouds of Nilus , still there are mingled some stormes and violences , some fearfull instances of the Divine Justice , we may more readily expect it will be worse , infinitely worse at that day , when Judgement shall ride in triumph , and Mercy shall be the accuser of the wicked . But so we read , and are commanded to remember , because they are written for our example , that God destroyed at once five cities of the plain , and all the country ; and Sodome and her sisters are set forth for an example , suffering the vengeance of eternall fire . Fearfull it was when God destroyed at once 23000 for fornication , and an exterminating Angell in one night killed 185000 of the Assyrians , and the first born of all the families of Egypt , and for the sin of David in numbring the people threescore and ten thousand of the people dyed , and God sent ten tribes into captivity and eternall oblivion and indistinction from a common people for their idolatry . Did not God strike Corah and his company with fire from Heaven ? and the earth open'd and swallowed up the congregation of Abiram ? And is not evill come upon all the world for one sin of Adam ? Did not the anger of God break the nation of the Jewes all in pieces with judgements so great , that no nation ever suffered the like , because none ever sin'd so ? And at once it was done , that God in anger destroyed all the world , and eight persons only escaped the angry Baptisme of water , and yet this world is the time of mercy ; God hath open'd here his Magazines , and sent his holy Son as the great channell and fountain of it too : here he delights in mercy , and in judgement loves to remember it , and it triumphs over all his works , and God contrives instruments and accidents , chances and designs , occasions and opportunities for mercy : if therefore now the anger of God makes such terrible eruptions upon the wicked people that delight in sin , how great may we suppose that anger to be , how severe that Judgement , how terrible that vengeance , how intolerable those inflictions which God reserves for the full effusion of indignation on the great day of vengeance ? 2. We may also guesse at it by this ; if God upon all single instances , and in the midst of our sins , before they are come to the full , and sometimes in the beginning of an evill habit be so fierce in his anger , what can we imagine it to be , in that day when the wicked are to drink the dregs of that horrid potion , and count over all the particulars of their whole treasure of wrath ? This is the day of wrath , and God shall reveal , or , bring forth his righteous Judgements . The expression is taken from Deut. 32. 34. Is not this laid up in store with me , and sealed up among my treasures ? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , I will restore it in the day of vengeance , for the Lord shall judge his people , and repent himself for his servants . For so did the Lybian Lion that was brought up under discipline , and taught to endure blowes , and eat the meat of order and regular provision , and to suffer gentle usages , and the familiarities of societies ; but once he brake out into his own wildnesse , Dedidicit pacem subitò feritate reversâ , and kil'd two Roman boyes ; but those that sorrage in the Lybian mountains tread down and devour all that they meet or master ; and when they have fasted two dayes , lay up an anger great as is their appetite , and bring certain death to all that can be overcome : God is pleased to compare himself to a Lion ; and though in this life he hath confin'd himself with promises and gracious emanations of an infinite goodnesse , and limits himself by conditions and covenants , and suffers himself to be overcome by prayers , and himself hath invented wayes of atonement and expiation , yet when he is provoked by our unhandsome and unworthy actions , he makes sudden breaches , and tears some of us in pieces , and of others he breaks their bones or affrights their hopes and secular sayeties , and fils their house with mourning and Cypresse , and groans and death : But when this Lion of the tribe of Judah shall appear upon his own mountain , the mountain of the Lord , in his naturall dresse of Majesty , and that Justice shall have her chain and golden fetters taken off , then Justice shall strike , and Mercy shall not hold her hands ; she shall strike sore strokes , and pity shall not break the blow ; and God shall account with us by minutes , and for words , and for thoughts , and then he shall be severe to mark what is done amisse ; and that Justice may reign intirely , God shall open the wicked mans treasure , and tell the sums , and weigh grains and scruples : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Philo upon the place of Deuteronomy before quoted : As there are treasures of good things ; and God hath Crowns and Scepters in store for his Saints and servants , and Coronets for Martyrs , and Rosaries for Virgins , and Phials full of Prayers , and bottles full of tears , and a register of sighs and penitentiall groans : so God hath a treasure of wrath and fury , of scourges and scorpions , and then shall be produced the shame of lust , and the malice of envie , and the groans of the oppressed , and the persecutions of the Saints , and the cares of covetousnesse , and the troubles of ambition , and the insolencies of traitors , and the violences of rebels , and the rage of anger , and the uneasinesse of impatience , and the restlesnesse of unlawfull desires ; and by this time the monsters and diseases will be numerous , and intolerable , when Gods heavie hand shall presse the sanies and the intolerablenesse , the obliquity and the unreasonablenesse , the amazement and the disorder , the smart and the sorrow , the guilt and the punishment out from all our sins , and pour them into one chalice , and mingle them with an infinite wrath , and make the wicked drink off all the vengeance , and force it down their unwilling throats with the violence of Devils and accursed Spirits . 3. We may guesse at the severity of the Judge by the lesser strokes of that Judgement which he is pleased to send upon sinners in this world , to make them afraid of the horrible pains of Dooms-day : I mean the torments of an unquiet conscience , the amazement and confusions of some sins and some persons . For I have sometimes seen persons surpriz'd in a base action , and taken in the circumstances of crafty theft , and secret unjustices before their excuse was ready ; They have changed their colour , their speech hath faltered , their tongue stammer'd , their eyes did wander and fix no where , till shame made them sink into their hollow eye-pits to retreat from the images and circumstances of discovery ; their wits are lost , their reason uselesse , the whole order of their soul is discomposed , and they neither see , nor feel , nor think as they use to do , but they are broken into disorder by a stroke of damnation and a lesser stripe of hell ; but then if you come to observe a guilty and a base murtherer , a condemned traytor , and see him harrassed first by an evill conscience , and then pull'd in pieces by the hangmans hooks , or broken upon sorrows and the wheel , we may then guesse ( as well as we can in this life ) what the pains of that day shall be to accursed souls : But those we shall consider afterwards in their proper scene ; now only we are to estimate the severity of our Judge by the intolerablenesse of an evill conscience ; if guilt will make a man despair , and despair will make a man mad , confounded and dissolved in all the regions of his senses and more noble faculties , that he shall neither feel , nor hear , nor see any thing but spectres and illusions , devils and frightfull dreams , and hear noises , and shriek fearfully , and look pale and distracted like a hopelesse man from the horrors and confusions of a lost battell upon which all his hopes did stand , then the wicked must at the day of Judgement expect strange things and fearfull , and such which now no language can expresse , and then no patience can endure . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Then only it can truly be said that he is inflexible and inexorable . No prayers then can move him , no groans can cause him to pity thee : therefore pity thy self in time , that when the Judge comes thou mayest be one of the sons of everlasting mercy , to whom pity belongs as part of thine inheritance ; for all else shall without any remorse ( except his own ) be condemned by the horrible sentence . 4. That all may think themselves concerned in this consideration , let us remember that even the righteous and most innocent shall passe through a severe triall . Many of the Ancients explicated this severity by the fire of conflagration , which say they shall purifie those souls at the day of Judgement , which in this life have built upon the foundation hay and stubble , works of folly and false opinions , and states of imperfection . So S. Austins Doctrine was , Hoc aget caminus , alios in sinistrâ separabit , alios in dextrâ quodam modo eliquabit , The great fire at Dooms-day shall throw some into the portion of the left hand , and others shall be purified and represented on the right : and the same is affirmed by Origen * and Lactantius ; and S. Hilary thus expostulates , Since we are to give account for every idle word , shall we long for the day of Judgement , in quo est nobis indefessus ille ignis ebeundus in quo subeunda sunt gravia illa expiandae à peccatis animae supplicia , Wherein we must every one of us passe that unwearied fire in which those grievous punishments for expiating the soul from sins must be endured ; for to such as have been baptized with the Holy Ghost it remaineth that they be consummated with the fire of Judgement . And S. Ambrose addes , That if any be as Peter or as John , they are baptiz'd with this fire , and he that is purged here had need to be purged there again : Illic quoque nos purificet quando dicat dominus , Intrate in requiem meam , Let him also purifie us , that every one of us being burned with that flaming sword , not burned up or consumed , we may enter into Paradise and give thanks unto the Lord who hath brought us into a place of refreshment . This opinion of theirs is , in the main of it , very uncertain , relying upon the sense of some obscure places of Scripture , is only apt to represent the great severity of the Judge at that day , and it hath in it this only certainty , that even the most innocent person hath great need of mercy , and he that hath the greatest cause of confidence , although he runs to no rocks to hide him , yet he runs to the protection of the Crosse , and hides himself under the shadow of the Divine mercies : and he that shall receive the absolution of the blessed sentence , shall also suffer the terrors of the day , and the fearfull circumstances of Christs coming . The effect of this consideration is this : That if the righteous scarcely be saved , where shall the wicked and the sinner appear ? Quid faciet virgula deserti , ubi concutietur cedrus Paradisi ? Quid faciet agnus , cum tremit aries ? Si coelum fugiat , ubi manebit terra ? said S. Gregory . And if S. Paul whose conscience accus'd him not , yet durst not be too confident , because he was not hereby justified , but might be found faulty by the severer Judgement of his Lord ; how shall we appear with all our crimes and evill habits round about us ? If there be need of much mercy to the servants and friends of the Judge , then his enemies shall not be able to stand upright in Judgement . 5. But the matter is still of more concernment . The Pharisees beleeved that they were innocent if they abstained from criminall actions , such as were punishable by the Judge ; and many Christians think all is well with them , if they abstain from such sins as have a name in the Tables of their Lawes : But because some sins are secret and not discernible by man ; others are publick , but not punished , because they are frequent and perpetuall , and without externall mischiefs in some instances , and only provocations against God ; men think that in their concernments they have no place : and such are jeering and many instances of wantonnesse , and revelling , doing petty spites , and doggednesse , and churlishnesse , lying and pride : and beyond this , some are very like vertues ; as too much gentlenesse and slacknesse in government , or too great severity and rigor of animadversions , bitternesse in reproof of sinners , uncivill circumstances , imprudent handlings of some criminals , and zeal ; Nay there are some vile things , which through the evill discoursings and worse manners of men are passed into an artificiall and false reputation , and men are accounted wits for talking Atheistically , and valiant for being murderers , and wise for deceiving and circumventing our Brothers ; and many irregularities more , for all which we are safe enough here . But when the day of Judgement comes , these shall be called to a severe account , for the Judge is omniscient and knows all things , and his tribunall takes cognisance of all causes , and hath a coërcitive for all , all things are naked and open to his eyes ( saith S. Paul ) therefore nothing shall escape for being secret : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — And all prejudices being laid aside it shall be considered concerning our evill rules , and false principles ; Cum cepero tempus , ego justitias judicabo ; when I shall receive the people , I shall judge according unto right : so we read ; [ When we shall receive time , I will judge justices and judgements ] so the vulgar Latin reads it ; that is , in the day of the Lord , when time is put into his hand and time shall be no more , he shall judge concerning those judgements when men here make of things below ; and the fighting man shall perceive the noises of drunkards and fools that cryed him up for daring to kill his Brother , to have been evill principles ; and then it will be declared by strange effects , that wealth is not the greatest fortune ; and ambition was not but an ill counsellor ; and to lye for a good cause was no piety ; and to do evill for the glory of God was but an ill worshipping him ; and that good nature was not well imploy'd when it spent it self in vicious company , and evill compliances ; and that piety was not softnesse and want of courage ; and that poverty ought not to have been contemptible ; and that cause that is unsuccessefull , is not therefore evill ; and what is folly here , shall be wisdome there ; then shall men curse their evill guides and their accursed superinduced necessities , and the evill guises of the world ; and then when silence shall be found innocence , and eloquence in many instances condemned as criminall ; when the poor shall reign , and Generals and Tyrants shall lye low in horrible regions ; when he that lost all shall finde a treasure , and he that spoil'd him shall be found naked and spoil'd by the destroyer , then we shall finde it true , that we ought here to have done what our Judge , our blessed Lord shall do there , that is , take our measures of good and evill by the severities of the word of God , by the Sermons of Christ , and the four Gospels , and by the Epistles of S. Paul , by Justice and charity , by the Lawes of God and the lawes of wise Princes and Republicks , by the rules of Nature and the just proportions of Reason , by the examples of good men and the proverbs of wise men , by severity and the rules of Discipline : for then it shall be , that truth shall ride in triumph , and the holinesse of Christs Sermons shall be manifest to all the world ; that the Word of God shall be advanced over all the discourses of men , and Wisdome shall be justified by all her children . Then shall be heard those words of an evill and trady repentance , and the just rewards of folly ; [ We fools thought their life madnesse ; but behold they are justified before the throne of God , and we are miserable for ever . ] Here men think it strange if others will not run into the same excesse of riot ; but there they will wonder how themselves should be so mad and infinitely unsafe by being strangely and inexcusably unreasonable . The summe is this ; The Judge shall appear cloathed with wisdome , and power , and justice , and knowledge , and an impartiall Spirit , making no separations by the proportions of this world , but by the measures of God , not giving sentence by the principles of our folly and evill customes , but by the severity of his own Laws and measures of the Spirit . Non est judicium Dei sicut hominum , God does not judge as Man judges . 6. Now that the Judge is come thus arrayed , thus prepared , so instructed , let us next consider the circumstances of our appearing and his sentence ; and first I consider that men at the day of Judgement that belong not to the portion of life , shall have three sorts of accusers , 1. Christ himself , who is their Judge . 2. Their own conscience , whom they have injured and blotted with characters of death and foul dishonour . 3. The Devill , their enemy , whom they served . 1. Christ shall be their accuser , not only upon the stock of those direct injuries ( which I before reckoned ) of crucifying the Lord of life , once and again , &c. But upon the titles of contempt and unworthinesse , of unkindnesse and ingratitude ; and the accusation will be nothing else but a plain representation of those artifices and assistances , those bonds and invitations , those constrainings and importunities which our dear Lord used to us to make it almost impossible to lye in sin , and necessary to be sav'd . For it will , it must needs be a fearfull exprobration of our unworthinesse , when the Judge himself shall bear witnesse against us , that the wisdome of God himself was strangely imployed in bringing us safely to felicity . I shall draw a short Scheme , which although it must needs be infinitely short of what God hath done for us , yet it will be enough to shame us . * God did not only give his Son for an example , and the Son gave himself for a price for us , but both gave the holy Spirit to assist us in mighty graces , for the verifications of Faith , and the entertainments of Hope , and the increase and perseverance of Charity . * God gave to us a new nature , he put another principle into us , a third part of a perfective constitution : we have the Spirit put into us , to be a part of us , as properly to produce actions of a holy life , as the soul of man in the body does produce the naturall . * God hath exalted humane nature , and made it in the person of Jesus Christ , to sit above the highest seat of Angels , and the Angels are made ministring spirits , ever since their Lord became our Brother . * Christ hath by a miraculous Sacrament given us his body to eat , and his bloud to drink , he made waies that we may become all one with him . * He hath given us an easie religion , and hath established our future felicity upon naturall and pleasant conditions , and we are to be happy hereafter if we suffer God to make us happy here ; and things are so ordered , that a man must take more pains to perish , then to be happy . * God hath found out rare wayes to make our prayers acceptable , our weak petitions , the desires of our imperfect souls to prevail mightily with God ; and to lay a holy violence , and an undeniable necessity upon himself ; and God will deny us nothing but when we aske of him to do us ill offices , to give us poisons and dangers , and evill nourishment , and temptations ; and he that hath given such mighty power to the prayers of his servants , yet will not be moved by those potent and mighty prayers to do any good man an evill turn , or to grant him one mischief ; in that only God can deny us . * But in all things else God hath made all the excellent things in heaven and earth to joyn towards holy and fortunate effects ; for he hath appointed an Angell to present the prayers of Saints , and Christ makes intercession for us , and the holy Spirit makes intercession for us with groans unutterable ; and all the holy men in the world pray for all and for every one ; and God hath instructed us with Scriptures , and precedents , and collaterall and direct assistances to pray ; and he incouraged us with divers excellent promises , and parables , and examples , and teaches us what to pray and how , and gives one promise to publique prayer , and another to private prayer , and to both the blessing of being heard . * Adde to this account that God did heap blessings upon us without order , infinitely , perpetually and in all instances , when we needed , and when we needed not . * He heard us when we pray'd , giving us all and giving us more then we desired ; * He desired that we should aske , and yet he hath also prevented our desires ; * He watch'd for us , and at his own charge sent a whole order of men whose imployment is to minister to our souls : and if all this had not been enough , he had given us more also . * He promised heaven to our obedience , a Province for a dish of water , a Kingdome for a prayer , satisfaction for desiring it , grace for receiving , and more grace for accepting and using the first . * He invited us with gracious words and perfect entertainments ; * He threatned horrible things to us if we would not be happy ; * He hath made strange necessities for us , making our very repentance to be a conjugation of holy actions , and holy times , and a long succession ; * He hath taken away all excuses from us , he hath called us off from temptation , he bears our charges , he is alwaies before-hand with us in every act of favour , and perpetually slow in striking , and his arrowes are unfeathered , and he is so long , first in drawing his sword , and another long while in whetting it , and yet longer in lifting his hand to strike , that before the blow comes the man hath repented long , unlesse he be a fool and impudent ; and then God is so glad of an excuse to lay his anger aside , that certainly if after all this we refuse life and glory , there is no more to be said ; this plain story will condemn us : but the story is very much longer , and as our conscience will represent all our sins to us , so the Judge will represent all his Fathers kindnesses , as Nathan did to David , when he was to make the justice of the Divine Sentence appear against him . * Then it shall be remembred that the joyes of every daies piety would have been a greater pleasure every night , then the remembrance of every nights sin could have been in the morning ; * That every night , the trouble and labour of the daies vertue would have been as much passed and turned to as very a nothing , as the pleasure of that daies sin ; but that they would be infinitely distinguished by the remanent effects . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , So Musonius expressed the sense of this inducement ; and that this argument would have grown so great by that time we come to dye , that the certain pleasures , and rare confidences , and holy hopes of a death-bed would be a strange felicity to the man when he remembers he did obey , if they were compared to the fearfull expectations of a dying sinner , who feels by a formidable and afrighting remembrance that of all his sins nothing remains but the gains of a miserable eternity . * The offering our selves to God every morning , and the thanksgiving to God every night , hope and fear , shame and desire , the honour of leaving a fair name behinde us , and the shame of dying like a fool , every thing indeed in the world is made to be an argument and an inducement to us to invite us to come to God and be sav'd ; and therefore when this , and infinitely more shall by the Judge be exhibited in sad remembrances , there needs no other sentence , we shall condemn our selves with a hasty shame , and a fearfull confusion , to see how good God hath been to us , and how base we have been to our selves . Thus Moses is said to accuse the Jewes ; and thus also he that does accuse , is said to condemn , as Verres was by Cicero , and Claudia by Domitius her accuser , and the world of impenitent persons by the men of Nineveh , and all , by Christ their Judge . I represent the horror of this circumstance to consist in this , besides the reasonablenesse of the Judgement , and the certainty of the condemnation , it cannot but be an argument of an intolerable despair to perishing souls , when he that was our Advocate all our life , shall in the day of that appearing be our Accuser and our Judge , a party against us , an injur'd person in the day of his power , and of his wrath , doing execution upon all his own foolish and malicious enemies . * 2. Our conscience shall be our accuser , ] but this signifies but these two things ; 1. that we shall be condemned for the evils that we have done , and shall then remember ; God by his power wiping away the dust from the tables of our memory , and taking off the consideration and the voluntary neglect and rude shufflings of our cases of conscience . For then we shall see things as they are , the evill circumstances and the crooked intentions , the adherent unhandsomenesse and the direct crimes : for all things are laid up safely , and though we draw a curtain of cobweb over them , and few figleaves before our shame , yet God shall draw away the curtain , and forgetfulnesse shall be no more , because with a taper in the hand of God all the corners of our nastinesse shall be discovered . And secondly it signifies this also , that not only the Justice of God shall be confessed by us in our own shame and condemnation , but the evill of the sentence shall be received into us , to melt our bowels and to break our heart in pieces within us , because we are the authors of our own death , and our own inhumane hands have torn our souls in pieces . Thus farre the horrors are great , and when evill men consider it , it is certain they must be afraid to dye . Even they that have liv'd well , have some sad considerations , and the tremblings of humility , and suspicion of themselves . I remember S. Cyprian tels of a good man who in his agony of death saw a phantasme of a noble and angelicall shape , who frowning and angry said to him , Pati timetis , exire non vultis , Quid faciam vobis ? Ye cannot endure sicknesse , ye are troubled at the evils of the world , and yet you are loth to dye and to be quit of them , what shall I do to you ? Although this is apt to represent every mans condition more of lesse , yet concerning persons of wicked lives , it hath in it too many sad degrees of truth ; they are impatient of sorrow , and justly fearfull of death , because they know not how to comfort themselves in the evill accidents of their lives ; and their conscience is too polluted to take death for sanctuary , and to hope to have amends made to their condition by the sentence of the day of Judgement . Evill and sad is their condition who cannot be contented here , nor blessed hereafter ; whose life is their misery , and their conscience is their enemy , whose grave is their prison , and death their undoing , and the sentence of Dooms-day , the beginning of an intolerable condition . 3. The third sort of accusers , are the Devils ; and they will do it with malicious and evill purposes ; The Prince of the Devils hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for one of his chiefest appellatives : The accuser of the Brethren he is by his professed malice , and imployment ; and therefore God who delights that his mercy should triumph , and his goodnesse prevail over all the malice of men and Devils , hath appointed one whose office is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to reprove the accuser , and to resist the enemy , and to be a defender of their cause who belong to God. The holy Spirit is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a defender , the evill spirit is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the accuser , and they that in this life belong to one or the other , shall in the same proportion be treated at the day of Judgement . The Devill shall accuse the Brethren , that is , the Saints and servants of God , and shall tell concerning their follies and infirmities , the sins of their youth , and the weaknesse of their age , the imperfect grace , and the long schedule of omissions of duty , their scruples and their fears , their diffidences and pusillanimity , and all those things which themselves by strict examination finde themselves guilty of , and have confessed , all their shame and the matter of their sorrowes , their evill intentions and their little plots , their carnall confidences , and too fond adherences to the things of this world , their indulgence and easinesse of government , their wilder joyes and freer meals , their losse of time and their too forward and apt compliances , their trifling arrests and little peevishnesses , the mixtures of the world with the things of the Spirit , and all the incidences of humanity he will bring forth and aggravate them by the circumstance of ingratitude , and the breach of promise , and the evacuating all their holy purposes , and breaking their resolutions , and rifling their vowes ; and all these things being drawn into an intire representment , and the bils clog'd by numbers , will make the best man in the world ●●em foul and unhandsome , and stained with the characters of death and evill dishonour . But for these there is appointed a defender ; The holy Spirit that maketh intercession for us , shall then also interpose , and against all these things shall oppose the passion of our blessed Lord , and upon all their defects shall cast the robe of his righteousnesse ; and the sins of their youth shall not prevail so much as the repentance of their age ; and their omissions be excused by probable intervening causes , and their little escapes shall appear single , and in disunion , because they were alwaies kept asunder by penitentiall prayers and sighings , and their seldome returns of sin by their daily watchfulnesse , and their often infirmities by the sincerity of their souls , and their scruples by their zeal , and their possions by their love , and all by the mercies of God and the sacrifice which their Judge offer'd , and the holy Spirit made effective by daily graces and assistances . These therefore infallibly go to the portion of the right hand , because the Lord our God shall answer for them . But as for the wicked , it is not so with them ; for although the plain story of their life be to them a sad condemnation , yet what will be answered when it shall be told concerning them , that they despised Gods mercies , and feared not his angry judgements ; that they regarded not his word , and loved not his excellencies ; that they were not perswaded by the promises , nor afrighted by his threatnings ; that they neither would accept his government , nor his blessings ; that all the sad stories that ever hapned in both the worlds , ( in all which himself did escape till the day of his death , and was not concerned in them save only that he was called upon by every one of them , which he ever heard or saw or was told of , to repentance , that all these ) were sent to him in vain ? But cannot the Accuser truly say to the Judge concerning such persons , They were thine by creation , but mine by their own choice : Thou didst redeem them indeed , but they sold themselves to me for a trifle , or for an unsatisfying interest : Thou diedst for them , but they obeyed my commandements : I gave them nothing , I promised them nothing but the filthy pleasures of a night , or the joyes of madnesse , or the delights of a disease : I never hanged upon the Crosse three long hours for them , nor endured the labours of a poor life 33 years together for their interest ; only when they were thine by the merit of thy death , they quickly became mine by the demerit of their ingratitude , and when thou hadst cloathed their soul with thy robe , and adorned them by thy graces , we strip'd them naked as their shame , and only put on a robe of darknesse , and they thought themselves secure and went dancing to their grave like a drunkard to a sight , or a flie unto a candle ; and therefore they that did partake with us in our faults , must divide with us in our portion and fearfull interest ? This is a sad story because it ends in death , and there is nothing to abate or lessen the calamity . It concerns us therefore to consider in time , that he that tempts us will accuse us , and what he cals pleasant now he shall then say was nothing , and all the gains that now invite earthly souls and mean persons to vanity , was nothing but the seeds of folly , and the harvest is pain and sorrow , and shame eternall . * But then since this horror proceeds upon the account of so many accusers , God hath put it into our power by a timely accusation of our selves in the tribunall of the court Christian to prevent all the arts of aggravation which at Dooms-day shall load foolish and undiscerning souls . He that accuses himself of his crimes here , means to forsake them , and looks upon them on all sides , and spies out his deformity , and is taught to hate them , he is instructed and prayed for , he prevents the anger of God and defeats the Devils malice , and by making shame the instrument of repentance , he takes away the sting , and makes that to be his medicine which otherwise would be his death : and concerning this exercise , I shall only adde what the Patriarch of Alexandria told an old religious person in his hermitage ; having asked him what he found in that desert ; he was answered , only this , Indesinenter culpare & judicare meipsum ; to judge and condemn my self perpetually , that is the imployment of my solitude . The Patriarch answered , Non est alia via , There is no other way . By accusing our selves we shall make the Devils malice uselesse , and our own consciences dear , and be reconciled to the Judge by the severities of an early repentance , and then we need to fear no accusers . SERMON , III. Part , III. 3. IT remaines that we consider the Sentence it self , We must receive according to what we have done in the body , whether it be good or bad . Judicaturo Domino lugubre mundus immugiet , & tribus adtribum pectora ferient . Potentissimi quondam neges nudo latere palpitabunt : So St. Hierom meditates concerning the terror of this consideration . The whole world shall groan when the Judge comes to give his Sentence , tribe and tribe shall knock their sides together ; and through the naked breasts of the most mighty Kings you shall see their hearts beat with fearfull tremblings . Tunc Aristotelis argumenta parum proderunt , cum venerit filius pauperculae quaestuariae judicare orbem terrae . Nothing shall then be worth owning , or the means of obtaining mercy , but a holy conscience ; all the humane craft and trifling subtilties shall be uselesse , when the Son of a poor Maid shall sit Judge over all the world . When the Prophet Joel was describing the formidable accidents in the day of the Lords Judgement , and the fearfull Sentence of an angry Judge , he was not able to expresse it , but stammered like a Childe , or an amazed imperfect person , A. A. A. diei , quia propè est Dies Domini ; it is not sense at first ; he was so amazed , he knew not what to say , and the Spirit of God was pleased to let that signe remain like Agamemnon's sorrow for the death of Iphigenia , nothing could describe it but a vail ; it must be hidden and supposed ; and the stammering tongue that is full of fear , can best speak that terror which will make all the world to cry , and shriek , and speak fearfull accents , and significations of an infinite sorrow and amazement . But so it is , there are two great days in which the fate of all the world is transacted . This life is mans day , in which man does what he please , and God holds his peace . Man destroys his Brother , and destroyes himselfe , and confounds Governments , and raises Armies , and tempts to sin , and delights in it , and drinks drunk , and forgets his sorrow , and heaps up great estates , and raises a family and a name in the Annals , and makes others fear him , and introduces new Religions , and confounds the old , and changeth Articles as his interest requires , and all this while God is silent , save that he is loud and clamorous with his holy precepts , and over-rules the event ; but leaves the desires of men to their owne choice , and their course of life such as they generally choose . But then , God shall have his day too ; the day of the Lord shall come , in which he shall speak , and no man shall answer , he shall speak in the voyce of thunder and fearfull noyses , and man shall doe no more as he please , but must suffer as he hath deserved . When Zedekiah reigned in Jerusalem , and persecuted the Prophets , and destroyed the interests of Religion , and put Jeremy into the Dungeon , God held his peace ; save onely that he warned him of the danger , and told him of the disorder ; but it was Zedekiah's day , and he was permitted to his pleasure . But when he was led in chains to Babylon , and his eyes were put out with burning Basons and horrible circles of reflected fires , then was Gods day , and his voyce was the accent of a fearfull anger , that broke him all in pieces . It will be all our cases , unlesse we hear God speak now , and doe his work , and serve his interest , and bear our selves in our just proportions , that is , as such , the very end of whose being , and all our faculties is to serve God , and doe justice , and charities to our Brother . For if we doe the work of God in our own day , wee shall receive an infinite mercy in the day of the Lord. But what that is , is now to be inquired . What wee have done in the body ] But certainly this is the greatest terror of all . The thunders and the fires , the earthquakes and the trumpets , the brightnesse of holy Angels , and the horror of accursed Spirits , the voyce of the Archangel ( who is the Prince of the heavenly host ) and the Majesty of the Judge , in whose service all that Army stands girt with holinesse and obedience , all those strange circumstances which have been already reckoned , and all those others which wee cannot understand , are but little praeparatories and umbrages of this fearfull circumstance . All this amazing Majesty and formidable praeparatories are for the passing of an eternall Sentence upon us according to what we have done in the body . Woe and alas ! and God help us all . All mankind is an enemy to God , his nature is accursed , and his manners are depraved . It is with the nature of man , and with all his manners , as Philemon said of the nature of foxes . — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Every fox is crafty and mischievous , and if you gather a whole herd of them there is not a good natur'd beast amongst them all ; so it is with man ; by nature he is the child of wrath , and by his manners he is the child of the Devill ; wee call Christian , and wee dishonour our Lord , and we are Brethren , but we oppresse and murther one another ; it is a great degree of sanctity now a-days not to be so wicked as the worst of men ; and wee live at the rate as if the best of men did design to themselves an easier condemnation ; and as if the generality of men consider'd not concerning the degrees of death , but did beleeve that in hell no man shall perceive any ease or refreshment in being tormented with a slower fire . For consider what we doe in the body ; 12 or 14 years passe before we choose good or bad ; and of that which remaines above halfe is spent in sleep and the needs of Nature ; for the other halfe it is divided as the Stag was when the beasts went a hunting , the Lyon hath five parts of sixe : The businesse of the world takes so much of our remaining portion , that Religion and the service of God have not much time left that can be spar'd ; and of that which can , if we consider how much is allowed to crasty arts of cousenage , to oppression and ambition , to greedy desires , and avaritious prosecutions , to the vanities of our youth , and the proper sins of every age , to the meer idlenesse of man and doing nothing , to his fantastick imaginations of greatnesse , and pleasures , of great and little devices , of impertinent law-suites and uncharitable treatings of our Brother ; it will be intolerable when we consider that we are to stand or fall eternally , according to what we have done in the body . Gather it all together , and set it before thy eyes ; Almes and Prayers are the summe of all thy good . Were thy prayers made in feare and holinesse , with passion and desire ? Were they not made unwillingly , weakly , and wandringly , and abated with sins in the greatest part of thy life ? Didst thou pray with the same affection and labour as thou didst purchase thy estate ? Have thy alms been more then thy oppressions , and according to thy power ? and by what means didst thou judge concerning it ? How much of our time was spent in that ? and how much of our estate was spent in this ? But let us goe one step further : How many of us love our enemies ? or pray for , and doe good to them that persecute and affront us ? or overcome evill with good , or turn the face again to them that strike us , rather then be reveng'd ? or suffer our selves to be spoil'd or robbed without contention and uncharitable courses ? or lose our interest rather then lose our charity ? And yet by these precepts we shall be judged . I instance but once more . Our blessed Saviour spake a hard saying : Every idle word that men shall speak , they shall give account thereof at the day of Judgement . For by thy words thou shalt be justified , and by thy words thou shalt be condemned ; and upon this account may every one weeping and trembling say with Jcb , Quid faciam cum resurrexerit ad judicandum Deus ? What shall I doe when the Lord shall come to judgement ? Of every idle word ] O blessed God! what shall become of them who love to prate continually , to tell tales , to detract , to slander , to back-bite , to praise themselves , to undervalue others , to compare , to raise divisions , to boast ? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; Who shall be able to stand upright , not bowing the knee with the intolerable load of the sins of his tongue ? If of every idle word we must give account , what shall we doe for those malicious words that dishonor God , or doe despite to our Brother ? Remember how often we have tempted our Brother , or a silly woman to sin and death ? How often we have pleaded for unjust interests , or by our wit have cousened an easie , and a beleeving person , or given evill sentences , or disputed others into false perswasions ? Did we never call good evill , or evill good ? Did we never say to others , thy cause is right , when nothing made it right , but favour and money , a false advocate or a covetous Judge ? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so said Christ , every idle word , that is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so St. Paul uses it , every false word , every lie shall be called to judgement ; or as some Copies read it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , every wicked word shall be called to judgment . For by [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] Idle words , are not meant words that are unprofitable or unwise , for fooles and silly persons speak most of those , and have the least accounts to make ; but by vaine the Jewes usually understood false ; and to give their mind to vanity , or to speak vanity , is all one as to mind or speak falshoods with malicious and evill purposes . But if every idle word , that is , every vain and lying word shall be called to judgment , what shall become of men that blaspheme God , or their Rulers , or Princes of the people , or their Parents ? that dishonour the Religion , and disgrace the Ministers ? that corrupt Justice and pervert Judgment ? that preach evill doctrines , or declare perverse sentences ? that take Gods holy Name in vain , or dishonour the Name of God by trifling and frequent swearings ; that holy Name by which wee hope to bee saved , and which all the Angels of God fall down and worship ? These things are to be considered , for by our own words we stand or fall , that is , as in humane Judgements the confession of the party , and the contradiction of himselfe , or the failing in the circumstances of his story , are the confidences or presumptions of law , by which Judges give sentence ; so shall our words be , not onely the means of declaring a secret sentence , but a certain instrument of being absolved or condemned . But upon these premises , we see what reason we have to fear the sentence of that day , who have sinned with our tongues so often , so continually , that if there were no other actions to be accounted for , we have enough in this account to make us die , and yet have committed so many evill actions that if our words were wholly forgotten , wee have infinite reason to seare concerning the event of that horrible sentence . The effect of which consideration is this , that we set a guard before our lips , and watch over our actions with a care , equall to that fear which shall be at Doomes-day , when we are to passe our sad accounts . But I have some considerations to interpose . 1. But ( that the sadnesse of this may a little be relieved , and our endevours be encouraged to a timely care and repentance ) consider , that this great sentence , although it shall passe concerning little things , yet it shall not passe by little portions , but by generall measures ; not by the little errors of one day , but by the great proportions of our life ; for God takes not notice of the infirmities of honest persons that alwayes endevour to avoid every sin , but in little intervening instances are surprized ; but he judges us by single actions , if they are great , and of evill effect ; and by little small instances , if they be habituall . No man can take care concerning every minute ; and therefore concerning it Christ will not passe sentence but by the discernible portions of our time , by humane actions , by things of choice and deliberation , and by generall precepts of care and watchfulnesse , this sentence shall be exacted . 2ly . The sentence of that day shall be passed , not by the proportions of an Angell , but by the measures of a Man ; the first follies are not unpardonable , but may bee recovered ; and the second are dangerous , and the third are more fatall ; but nothing is unpardonable but perseverance in evill courses . 3ly . The last Judgement shall bee transacted by the same Principles by which we are guided here : not by strange and secret propositions , or by the fancies of men , or by the subtilties of uselesse distinctions , or evill perswasions ; not by the scruples of the credulous , or the interest of sects , nor the proverbs of prejudice , nor the uncertain definitions of them that give laws to subjects by expounding the decrees of Princes ; but by the plain rules of Justice , by the ten Commandements , by the first apprehensions of conscience , by the plain rules of Scripture , and the rules of an honest mind , and a certain Justice . So that by this restraint and limit of the finall sentence , we are secur'd we shall not fall by scruple or by ignorance , by interest or by faction , by false perswasions of others , or invincible prejudice of our own , but we shall stand or fall by plain and easie propositions , by chastity or uncleannesse , by justice or unjustice , by robbery or restitution : and of this wee have a great testimony by our Judge and Lord himselfe ; Whatsoever yee shall bind in earth shall be bound in heaven , and whatsoever yee loose shall be loosed there ; that is , you shall stand or fall according to the Sermons of the Gospel , as the Ministers of the Word are commanded to preach , so yee must live here , and so yee must be judged hereafter ; yee must not look for that sentence by secret decrees or obscure doctrines , but by plain precepts and certain rules . But there are yet some more degrees of mercy . 4. That sentence shall passe upon us not after the measures of Nature , and possibilities , and utmost extents , but by the mercies of the Covenant ; we shall be judged as Christians rather then as men , that is , as persons to whom much is pardoned , and much is pityed , and many things are ( not accidentally , but consequently ) indulged , and great helps are ministred , and many remedies supplyed , and some mercies extraregularly conveyed , and their hopes enlarged upon the stock of an infinite mercy , that hath no bounds but our needs , our capacities , and our proportions to glory . 5. The sentence is to be given by him that once dyed for us , and does now pray for us , and perpetually intercedes ; and upon soules that he loves , and in the salvation of which himself hath a great interest , and increase of joy . And now upon these premises we may dare to consider what the sentence it self shall be , that shall never be reversed , but shall last for ever and ever . Whether it be good or bad . ] I cannot discourse now the greatnesse of the good or bad , so farre ( I mean ) as is revealed to us ; the considerations are too long to be crouded into the end of a Sermon ; onely in generall : 1. If it be good , it is greater then all the good of this world , and every mans share then , in every instant of his blessed eternity is greater then all the pleasures of Mankind in one heap . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . A man can never wish for any thing greater then this immortality , said Posidippus . 2. To which I adde this one consideration , that the portion of the good at the day of sentence shall be so great , that after all the labours of our life , and suffering persecutions , and enduring affronts , and the labour of love , and the continuall feares and cares of the whole duration and abode , it rewards it all , and gives infinitely more ; Non sunt condignae passiones hujus saeculi ; all the torments and evills of this world are not to be estimated with the joyes of the Blessed : It is the gift of God ; a donative beyond the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the military stipend , it is beyond our work , and beyond our wages , and beyond the promise , and beyond our thoughts , and above our understandings , and above the highest heavens , it is a participation of the joyes of God , and of the inheritance of the Judge himselfe . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is a day of recompenses , in which all our sorrowes shall be turn'd into joyes , our persecutions into a crown , the Crosse into a Throne , poverty to the riches of God , losse , and affronts , and inconveniences , and death , into scepters , and hymnes , and rejoycings , and Hallellujahs , and such great things which are fit for us to hope , but too great for us to discourse of , while we see as in a glasse darkly and imperfectly . And he that chooses to do an evill , rather then suffer one , shall finde it but an ill exchange , that he deferred his little to change for a great one . I remember that a servant in the old Comedy did chuse to venture the lash rather then to feel a present inconvenience , Quia illud aderat malum , istud aberat longiùs : illud erat praesens , huic erant dieculae : but this will be but an ill account , when the rods shall for the delay be turned into Scorpions , and from easie shall become intolerable . Better it is to suffer here , and to stay till the day of restitution for the good and the holy portion ; for it will recompense both for the suffering and the stay . But how if the portion be bad ? It shall be bad to the greatest part of mankinde ; that 's a fearfull consideration ; the greatest part of men and women shall dwell in the portion of Devils to eternall ages . So that these portions are like the Prophets figs in the vision ; the good are the best that ever were , and the worst are so bad that worse cannot be imagined . For though in hell the accursed souls shall have no worse then they have deserved , and there are not there overrunning measures as there are in heaven , and therefore that the joyes of heaven are infinitely greater joyes then the pains of hell are great pains , yet even these are a full measure to a full iniquity , pain above patience , sorrowes without ease , amazement without consideration , despair without the intervals of a little hope , indignation without the possession of any good , there dwels envie and confusion , disorder and sad remembrances , perpetuall woes and continuall shriekings , uneasinesse and all the evils of the soul. But if we will represent it in some orderly circumstances , we may consider , 1. That here , all the troubles of our spirits are little participations of a disorderly passion ; A man desires earnestly , but he hath not , or he envies because another hath something besides him , and he is troubled at the want of one , when at the same time he hath a hundred good things ; and yet ambition and envie , impatience and confusion , covetousnesse and lust are all of them very great torments ; but there these shall be in essence and abstracted beings ; the spirit of envie , and the spirit of sorrow ; Devils , that shall inflict all the whole nature of the evill and pour it into the minds of accursed men ; where it shall sit without abatement : for he that envies there , envies not for the eminence of another that sits a little above him , and excels him in some one good ; but he shall envie for all ; because the Saints have all , and they have none ; therefore all their passions are integral , abstracted , perfect passions ; and all the sorrow in the world at this time , is but a portion of sorrow ; every man hath his share , and yet besides that which all sad men have , there is a great deal of sorrow which they have not , and all the Devils portion besides that ; but in hell , they shall have the whole passion of sorrow in every one , just as the whole body of the Sun is seen by every one in the same Horizon ; and he that is in darknesse enjoyes it not by parts , but the whole darknesse is the portion of one as well as of another . If this consideration be not too Metaphysicall , I am sure it is very sad , and it relies upon this ; that as in heaven there are some holy Spirits whose crown is all love ; and some in which the brightest jewell is understanding ; some are purity , and some are holinesse to the Lord : so in the regions of sorrow , evill and sorrow have an essence and proper being , and are set there to be suffer'd intirely by every undone man that dies there for ever . 2. The evils of this world are materiall and bodily ; the pressing of a shoulder , or the straining of a joynt ; the dislocation of a bone , or the extending of an artery ; a bruise in the flesh , or the pinching of the skin ; a hot liver , or a sickly stomach ; and then the minde is troubled because its instrument is ill at ease ; but all the proper troubles of this life are nothing but the effects of an uneasie body , or an abused fancy , and therefore can be no bigger then a blow or a cousenage , then a wound or a dream ; only the trouble increases as the soul works it ; and if it makes reflex acts and begins the evill upon its own account , then it multiplies and doubles , because the proper scene of grief is open'd , and sorrow peeps through the corners of the soul. But in those regions and daies of sorrow when the soul shall be no more depending upon the body , but the perfect principle of all its actions , the actions are quick , and the perceptions brisk , the passions are extreme and the motions are spirituall ; the pains are like the horrors of a Devill , and the groans of an evill spirit ; not slow like the motions of a heavie foot , or a loaden arme , but quick as an Angels wing , active as lightning ; and a grief then , is nothing like a grief now , and the words of mans tongue which are fitted to the uses of this world , are as unfit to signifie the evils of the next , as person , and nature , and hand , and motion , and passion are to represent the effects of the Divine attributes , actions and subsistence . 3. The evill portions of the next world is so great , that God did not create or design it in the first intention of things , and production of essences ; he made the Kingdome of Heaven , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , from the foundation of the world ; for so it is observable , that Christ shall say to the Sheep at his right hand , Receive the Kingdome prepared for you from the beginning of the world ; but to the Goats and accursed spirits , he speaks of no such primitive and originall design ; it was accidentall and a consequent to horrid crimes , that God was forced to invent and to after create that place of torments . 4. And when God did create and prepare that place , he did not at all intend it for man , it was prepared for the Divill and his Angels , so saith the Judge himself , Go ye cursed into everlasting fire , prepared for the Devill and his Angels , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which my Father prepared for the Devill , so some copies read it : God intended it not for man , but man would imitate the Devils pride , and listen to the whispers of an evill spirit , and follow his temptations , and rebell against his Maker ; and then God also against his first design resolved to throw such persons into that place that was prepared for the Devill : for so great was the love of God to mankind , that he prepared joyes infinite and never ceasing for man before he had created him ; but he did not predetermine him to any evill ; but when he was forced to it by mans malice , he doing what God forbad him , God cast him thither where he never intended him ; but it was not mans portion : he designed it not at first , and at last also he invited him to repentance , and when nothing could do it , he threw man into anothers portion , because he would not accept of what was designed to be his own . 5. The evill portion shall be continuall without intermission of evill ; no dayes of rest , no nights of sleep , no ease from labour , no periods of the stroke , nor taking off the hand , no intervals between blow and blow ; but a continued stroke , which neither shortens the life , nor introduces a brawny patience , or the toleration of an oxe , but it is the same in every instant , and great as the first stroke of lightning ; the smart is great for ever as at the first change , from the rest of the grave to the flames of that horrible burning . The Church of Rome amongst some other strange opinions hath inserted this one into her publick Offices ; that the perishing souls in hell may have sometimes remission and refreshment like the fits of an intermitting feaver : for so it is in the Roman Missal printed at Paris , 1626. in the Masse for the dead ; Ut quia de ejus vitae qualitate diffidimus , & si plenam veniam animaipsius obtinere non potest , saltem vel inter ipsa tormenta quae forsan patitur , refrigerium de abundantia miserationum tuarum sentiat : and something like this is that of Prudentius , Sunt & Spiritibus saepè nocentibus , Poenarum celebres sub Styge feriae , &c. The evill spirits have ease of their pain , and he names their holiday , then when the Resurrection of our Lord from the grave is celebrated : Marcent suppliciis Tartara mitibus , Exultátque sui carceris otio Umbrarum populus liber ab ignibus : Nec fervent solito flumina sulphure . They then thought that when the Paschall taper burn'd , the flames of hell could not burn , till the holy wax was spent : but because this is a fancy without ground or revelation , and is against the Analogie of all those expressions of our Lord , Where the worm dyeth not , and the fire is never quenched , and divers others , it is sufficient to have noted it without further consideration ; the pains of hell have no rest , no drop of water is allowed to cool the tongue , there is no advocate to plead for them , no mercy belongs to their portion , but fearfull wrath and continuall burnings . 6. And yet this is not the worst of it ; for as it is continuall during its abode : so its abode is for ever , it is continuall and eternall . Tertullian speaks something otherwise , Pro magnitudine cruciatus non diuturni , verùm sempiterni ; not continuall , or the pains of every day , but such which shall last for ever . But Lactantius is more plain in this affair ; The same divine fire by the same power and force shall burn the wicked , and shall repair instantly whatsoever of the body it does consume : Ac sibi ipsi aeternum pabulum subministrabit , and shall make for it self an eternall fuell . Vermibus & flammis & discruciatibus aevum Immortale dedit , senio ne poena periret Non pereunte animâ — So Prudentius eternall wormes , and unextinguished flames , and immortall punishment is prepared for the ever-never dying souls of wicked men . Origen is charged by the ancient Churches for saying that after a long time the Devils and the accursed souls shall be restored to the Kingdome of God ; and that after a long time again they shall be restored to their state ; and so it was from their fall and shall be forever ; and it may be that might be the meaning of Tertullians expression , of cruciatus non diuturni sed sempiterni . Epiphanius charges not the opinion upon Origen , and yet he was free enough in his animadversion and reproof of him ; but S. Austin did , and confuted the opinion in his books De civitate Dei. However , Origen was not the first that said the pains of the damned should cease ; Justin Martyr in his Dialogue with Tryphon expresses it thus . Neither do I say that all the souls do dye , for that indeed would be to the wicked a gain unlooked for : What then ? the souls of the godly in a better place , of the wicked in a worse , do tarry the time of Judgement ; then they that are worthy shall never dye again ; but those that are designed to punishment shall abide so long as God please to have them to live and to be punished : But I observe , that the primitive Doctors were very willing to believe that the mercy of God would finde out a period to the torment of accursed fouls ; but such a period , which should be nothing but eternall destruction , called by the Scripture the second death : only Origen ( as I observed ) is charg'd by S. Austin to have said they shall return into joyes ; and back again to hell by an eternall revolution . But concerning the death of wicked souls , and its being broke into pieces with fearfull torments and consumed with the wrath of God , they had entertain'd some different fancies very early in the Church , as their sentences are collected by S. Hierome at the end of his Commentaries upon Isay ; and Ireneus disputes it largely , that they that are unthankfull to God in this short life and obey him not , shall never have an eternall duration of life in the ages to come , sed ipse se privat in saeculum saeculi perseverantiâ , he deprives his soul of living to eternall ages ; for he supposes an immortall duration not to be naturall to the soul , but a gift of God , which he can take away , and did take away from Adam , and restored it again in Christ to them that beleeve in him and obey him : for the other , they shall be raised again to suffer shame , and fearfull torments , and according to the degree of their sins , so shall be continued in their sorrowes , and some shall dye and some shall not dye ; the Devill and the Beast , and and they that worshipped the Beast , and they that were marked with his Character , these S. John saith shall be tormented for ever and ever ; he does not say so of all ; but of some certain great criminals ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , all , so long as God please , some for ever and ever , and some not so severely ; And whereas the generall sentence is given to all wicked persons , to all on the left hand , to go into everlasting fire : it is answered , that the fire indeed is everlasting , but not all that enters into it is everlasting ; but only the Devils for whom it was prepared and others more mighty criminals ( according as S. John intimates ) though also everlasting signifies only to the end of its proper period . Concerning this Doctrine of theirs so severe , and yet so moderated , there is lesse to be objected then against the supposed fancy of Origen : for it is a strange consideration to suppose an eternall torment to those to whom it was never threatned ; to those who never heard of Christ ; to those that liv'd probably well , to heathens of good lives ; to ignorants and untaught people ; to people surprised in a single crime ; to men that dye young in their naturall follies and foolish lusts ; to them that fall in a sudden gaiety and excessive joy ; to all alike ; to all infinite and eternall , even to unwarned people ; and that this should be inflicted by God who infinitely loves his creature , who dyed for them , who pardons easily , and pities readily , and excuses much , and delights in our being saved , and would not have us dye , and takes little things in exchange for great : it is certain that Gods mercies are infinite , and it is also certain that the matter of eternall torments cannot truly be understood ; and when the School-men go about to reconcile the Divine justice to that severity , and consider why God punishes eternally a temporall sin or a state of evill , they speak variously , and uncertainly , and unsatisfyingly . But that in this question we may separate the certain from the uncertain ; 1. It is certain that the torments of hell shall certainly last as long as the soul lasts ; for eternall and everlasting can signifie no lesse but to the end of that duration , to the perfect end of the period in which it signifies . So Sodom and Gomorrah , when God rained down hell from heaven upon the earth ( as Salvian's expression is ) they are said to suffer the vengeance of eternall fire : that is , of a fire that consumed them finally , and they never were restored : and so the accursed souls shall suffer torments till they be consumed ; who because they are immortall either naturally or by gift , shall be tormented for ever , or till God shall take from them the life that he restored to them on purpose to give them a capacity of being miserable ; and the best that they can expect is to despair of all good , to suffer the wrath of God , never to come to any minute of felicity , or of a tolerable state , and to be held in pain till God be weary of striking . This is the gentlest sentence of some of the old Doctors . But 2. the generality of Christians have been taught to beleeve worse things yet concerning them ; and the words of our blessed Lord , are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , eternall affliction or smiting ; Nec mortis poenas mors altora finiet hujus , Horaque erit tantis ultima nulla malis . And S. John , who well knew the minde of his Lord , saith ; The smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever , and they have no rest day nor night : that is , their torment is continuall , and it is eternall . Their second death shall be but a dying to all felicity , for so death is taken in Scripture ; Adam dyed when he eat the forbidden fruit ; that is , he was lyable to sicknesse and sorrowes , and pain and dissolution of soul and body : and to be miserable , is the worse death of the two ; they shall see the eternall felicity of the Saints , but they shall never taste of the holy Chalice . Those joyes shall indeed be for ever and ever ; for immortality is part of their reward , and on them the second death shall have no power ; but the wicked shall be tormented horridly and insufferably till death and hell be thrown into the lake of fire , and shall be no more , which is the second death . But that they may not imagine that this second death shall be the end of their pains , S. Iohn speaks expresly what that is ; Rev. 21. 8. The fearfull and unbeleeving , the abominable and the murderers , the whoremongers and sorcerers , the idolaters and all lyars shall have their part in the lake wich burneth with fire and brimstone , which is the second death ; no dying there , but a being tormented , burning in a lake of fire , that is the second death . For if life be reckoned a blessing , then to be destitute of all blessing is to have no life , and therefore to be intolerably miserable is this second death , that is , death eternall . 3. And yet if God should deal with man hereafter more mercifully and proportionably to his weak nature , then he does to Angels , and as he admits him to repentance here , so in hell also to a period of his smart , even when he keeps the Angels in pain for ever ; yet he will never admit him to favour , he shall be tormented beyond all the measure of humane ages , and be destroyed for ever and ever . It concerns us all who hear and beleeve these things , to do as our blessed Lord will do before the day of his coming ; he will call and convert the Jews and strangers : Conversion to God is the best preparatory to Dooms-day : and it concerns all them who are in the neighbourhood and fringes of the flames of hell , that is , in the state of sin , quickly to arise from the danger , and shake the burning coals off our flesh , lest it consume the marrow and the bones : Exuenda est velociter de incendio sarcina , priusquam flammis supervenientibus concremetur . Nemo diu tutus est periculo proximus , saith S. Cyprian , No man is safe long , that is so neer to danger ; for suddenly the change will come , in which the Judge shall be called to Judgement , and no man to plead for him , unlesse a good conscience be his Advocate ; and the rich shall be naked as a condemned criminall to execution ; and there shall be no regard of Princes or of Nobles , and the differences of mens account shall be forgotten , and no distinction remaining but of good or bad , sheep and goats , blessed and accursed souls . Among the wonders of the day of Judgement our blessed Saviour reckons it , that men shall be marrying and giving in marriage , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 marrying and crosse marrying , that is , raising families and lasting greatnesse and huge estates ; when the world is to end so quickly , and the gains of a rich purchase so very a trifle , but no trifling danger ; a thing that can give no security to our souls , but much hazards and a great charge . More reasonable it is , that we despise the world and lay up for heaven , that we heap up treasures by giving almes , and make friends of unrighteous Mammon ; but at no hand to enter into a state of life , that is all the way a hazard to the main interest , and at the best , an increase of the particular charge . Every degree of riches , every degree of greatnesse , every ambitious imployment , every great fortune , every eminency above our brother , is a charge to the accounts of the last day . He that lives temperately and charitably , whose imployment is religion , whose affections are fear and love , whose desires are after heaven and do not dwell below ; that man can long and pray for the hastning of the coming of the day of the Lord. He that does not really desire and long for that day , either is in a very ill condition , or does not understand that he is in a good . * I will not be so severe in this meditation as to forbid any man to laugh , that beleeves himself shall be called to so severe a Judgement ; yet S. Hierom said it , Coram coelo & terrâ rationem reddemus totius nostrae vitae ; & tu rides ? Heaven and earth shall see all the follies and basenesse of thy life ; and doest thou laugh ? That we may , but we have not reason to laugh loudly and frequently , if we consider things wisely , and as we are concerned : but if we do , yet praesentis temporis ita est agenda laetitia , ut sequentis judicii amaritudo nunquam recedat à memoriâ : so laugh here that you may not forget your danger , lest you weep for ever . He that thinks most seriously and most frequently of this fearfull appearance , will finde that it is better staying for his joyes till this sentence be past ; for then he shall perceive whether he hath reason or no. In the mean time wonder not that God who loves mankinde so well , should punish him so severely : for therefore the evill fall into an accursed portion , because they despised that which God most loves , his Son and his mercies , his graces and his holy Spirit ; and they that do all this , have cause to complain of nothing but their own follies ; and they shall feel the accursed consequents then when they shall see the Judge sit above them angry and severe , inexorable and terrible ; under them an intolerable hell ; within them , their consciences clamorous and diseased ; without them , all the world on fire ; on the right hand , those men glorified whom they persecuted or despised ; on the left hand , the Devils accusing ; for this is the day of the Lords terror , and who is able to abide it ? Seu vigilo intentus studiis , seu dormio , semper Iudicis extremi nostras tuba personet aures . SERMON , IV. The Returne of PRAYERS . Or , The Conditions of a PREVAILING PRAYER . John 9. 31. Now wee know that God heareth not sinners , but if any man be a worshipper of God and doth his will , him he heareth . I Know not which is the greater wonder , either that prayer , which is a duty so easie and facile , so ready and apted to the powers , and skill , and opportunities of every man , should have so great effects , and be productive of such mighty blessings ; or that we should be so unwilling to use so easie an instrument of procuring so much good . The first declares Gods goodnesse , but this publishes mans folly and weaknesse , who finds in himself so much difficulty to perform a condition so easie and full of advantage . But the order of this infelicity is knotted like the foldings of a Serpent ; all those parts of easinesse which invite us to doe the duty , are become like the joynts of a bulrush , not bendings , but consolidations and stiffenings ; the very facility becomes its objection , and in every of its stages , wee make or finde a huge uneasiresse . At first wee doe not know what we ask , and when we doe , then we finde difficulty to bring our wils to desire it ; and when that is instructed and kept in awe , it mingles interest , and confounds the purposes ; and when it is forc'd to ask honestly and severely , then it wills so coldly , that God hates the prayer ; and if it desires fervently , it sometimes turns that into passion , and that passion breaks into murmurs or unquietnesse ; or if that be avoyded , the indifferency cooles into death , or the fire burns violently , and is quickly spent ; our desires are dull as a rock , or fugitive as lightening ; either wee aske ill things earnestly , or good things remissely ; we either court our owne danger , or are not zealous for our reall safety ; or if we be right in our matter , or earnest in our affections , and lasting in our abode , yet we misse in the manner ; and either we aske for evill ends , or without religion and awefull apprehensions ; or we rest in the words and signification of the prayer ; and never take care to passe on to action ; or else we sacrifice in the company of Corah being partners of a schisme , or a rebellion in religion ; or we bring unhullowed censers ; our hearts send up to God an unholy smoak , a cloud from the fires of lust , and either the flames of lust or rage , of wine or revenge kindle the beast that is laid upon the altar ; or we bring swines flesh , or a dogs neck ; whereas God never accepts , or delights in a prayer , unlesse it be for a holy thing , to a lawfull end , presented unto him upon the wings of Zeal and love , of religious sorrow or religious joy ; by sanctified lips , and pure hands , and a sincere heart . It must be the prayer of a gracious man ; and he is onely gracious before God , and acceptable , and effective in his prayer , whose life is holy , and whose prayer is holy ; For both these are necessary ingredients to the constitution of a prevailing prayer ; there is a holinesse peculiar to the man , and a holinesse peculiar to the prayer , that must adorn the prayer before it can be united to the intercession of the Holy Jesus , in which union alone our prayers can be prevailing . God heareth not sinners : ] so the blind man in the text , and confidently [ this we know : ] he had reason indeed for his confidence ; it was a proverbiall saying , and every where recorded in their Scriptures , which were read in the synagogues every Salbath day . For what is the hope of the hypocrite ? ( saith Job ) will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him ? No , he will not . For if I regard iniquity in my heart , the Lord will not hear mee , said David ; and so said the Spirit of the Lord by the Son of David . When distresse and anguish cometh upon you , Then shall they oall upon mee , but I will not answer ; they shall seek mee early , but they shall not find mee ; and Isaiah , When you spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you , yea when you make many prayers I will not hear ; your hands are full of bloud : and again , When they fast I will not hear their cry , and when they will offer burnt offerings and oblations , I will not accept them . For they have loved to wander , they have not refrained their feet , therefore the Lord will not accept them ; hee will now remember their iniquity , and visit their sins : Upon these and many other authorities it grew into a proverb ; Deus non exaudit peccatores : it was a known case and an established rule in the religion ; Wicked persons are neither fit to pray for themselves , nor for others . Which proposition let us first consider in the sense of that purpose which the blind man spoke it in , and then in the utmost extent of it , as its analogie and equall reason goes forth upon us and our necessities . The man was cured of his blindnesse , and being examined concerning him that did it , named and gloryed in his Physician : but the spitefull Pharisees b●d him give glory to God , and defie the Minister ; for God indeed was good , but he wrought that cure by a wicked hand . No ( says he ) this is impossible . If this man were a sinner and a false Prophet ( for in that instance the accusation was intended ) God would not hear his prayers , and work miracles by him in verification of a lye . A false Prophet could not work true miracles ; this hath received its diminution when the case was changed ; for at that time when Christ preached , Miracles was the onely , or the great verification of any new revelation ; and therefore it proceeding from an Almighty God , must needs be the testimony of a Divine truth ; and if it could have been brought for a lye , there could not then have been sufficient instruction given to mankind , to prevent their beleef of false Prophets , and lying doctrines . But when Christ proved his doctrine by miracles , that no enemy of his did ever doe so great before or after him ; then he also told , that after him his friends should doe greater ; and his enemies should do some , ( but they were fewer , and very inconsiderable ) and therefore could have in them no unavoydable cause of deception ; because they were discovered by a Prophesie ; and caution was given against them by him that did greater miracles ; and yet ought to have been beleeved if he had done but one ; because against him there had been no caution , but many prophesies creating such expectations concerning him , which he verified by his great works . So that in this sense of working miracles , though it was infinitely true that the blind man said , then when he said it , yet after that the case was alter'd : and Sinners , Magicians , Astrologers , Witches , Hereticks , Simoniacks and wicked persons of other instances , have done miracles , and God hath heard sinners , and wrought his own works by their hands , or suffered the Devill to doe his works under their pretences ; and many at the day of Judgment shall plead that they have done miracles in Christs name , and yet they shall be rejected ; Christ knows them not , and their portion shall bee with dogs , and goats , and unbeleevers . There is in this case onely this difference , that they who doe miracles in opposition to Christ , doe them by the power of the Devill , to whom it is permitted to doe such things which wee think miracles ; and that is all one as though they were : but the danger of them is none at all , but to them that will not beleeve him that did greater miracles , and prophesied of these lesse , and gave warning of their attending danger , and was confirmed to be a true teacher by voices from heaven , and by the resurrection of his body after a three days buriall : So that to these the proposition still remains true , God hears not sinners , God does not work those miracles ; but concerning sinning Christians , God in this sense and towards the purposes of miracles does hear them , and hath wrought miracles by them , for they doe them in the name of Christ , and therefore Christ said , cannot easily speak ill of him ; and although they either prevaricate in their lives , or in superinduced doctrines , yet because the miracles are a verification of the Religion , not of the opinion , of the power or truth of Christ , not of the veracity of the man , God hath heard such persons many times whom men have long since , and to this day call Hereticks , such were the Novatians and Arrians ; For to the Heathens they could onely prove their Religion by which they stood distinguished from them ; but we find not that they wrought miracles among the Christians , or to verifie their superstructures and private opinions . But besides this yet , we may also by such means arrest the forwardnesse of our judgments and condemnations of persons disagreeing in their opinions from us ; for those persons whose faith God confirmed by miracles was an intire faith , and although they might have false opinions , or mistaken explications of true opinions , either inartificiall or misunderstood , yet we have reason to beleeve their faith to be intire , for that which God would have the Heathen to beleeve , and to that purpose prov'd it by a miracle , himselfe intended to accept first to a holy life , and then to glory . The false opinion should burn , and themselves escape . One thing more is here very considerable , that in this very instance of working miracles , God was so very carefull not to hear sinners or permit sinners , till he had prevented all dangers to good and innocent persons , that the case of Christ and his Apostles working miracles was so clearly separated and remarked by the finger of God , and distinguished from the impostures and pretences of all the many Antichrists that appeared in Palestine , Cyprus , Crete , Syria , and the voicinage , that there were but very few Christians that with hearty perswasions fell away from Christ , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Galen , It is not easie to teach anew him that hath been taught by Christ : And St. Austin tels a story of an unbeleeving man , that being troubled that his wife was a Christian , went to the Oracle to aske by what means hee should alter her perswasion ; but he was answered , it could never be done , he might as well imprint characters upon the face of a torrent or a rapid river , or himself fly in the air , as alter the perswasion of a hearty and an honest Christian ; I would to God it were so now in all instances , and that it were so hard to draw men from the severities of a holy life , as of old they could be cousened , disputed , or forced out of their faith . Some men are vexed with hypocrisie , and then their hypocrisie was punished with infidelity and a wretchlesse spirit . Demas , and Simon Magus , and Ecebolius , and the lapsed Confessors are instances of humane craft or humane weaknesse ; but they are scarce a number that are remarked in Ancient story to have fallen from Christianity by direct persuasions , or the efficacy of abusing arguments and discourses . The reason of it is the truth in the text ; God did so avoyd hearing sinners in this affair , that he never permitted them to doe any miracles so as to doe any mischief to the souls of good men ; and therefore it is said , the enemies of Christ came in the power of signes and wonders able to deceive ( if it were possible ) even the very elect ; but that was not possible ; without their faults it could not be ; the elect were sufficiently strengthened , and the evidence of Christs being heard of God , and that none of his enemies were heard of God to any dangerous effect , was so great , that if any Christian had apostatized or fallen away by direct perswasion , it was like the sin of a falling Angell , of so direct a malice that he never could repent , and God never would pardon him , as St. Paul twice remarks in his Epistle to the Hebrews . The result of this discourse is the first sense and explication of the words , God heareth not sinners , viz. in that in which they are sinners : a sinner in his manners may be heard in his prayer in order to the confirmation of his faith , but if he be a sinner in his faith God hears him not at all in that wherein he sins ; for God is truth and cannot confirm a lye , and when ever he permitted the Devill to doe it , he secur'd the interest of his Elect , that is , of all that beleeve in him and love him , lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting . 2. That which yet concerns us more neerly is , that God heareth not sinners , that is , if wee be not good men , our prayers will doe us no good : wee shall be in the condition of them that never pray at all . The prayers of a wicked man are like the breath of corrupted lungs , God turns away from such unwholsome breathings . But that I may reduce this necessary doctrine to a method ; I shall consider that there are some persons whose prayers are sins ; and some others whose prayers are ineffectuall : some are such who doe not pray lawfully ; they sin when they pray while they remain in that state and evill condition ; others are such who doe not obtain what they pray for , and yet their prayer is not a direct sin : the prayer of the first is a direct abomination , the prayer of the second is hindred ; the first is corrupted by a direct state of sin , the latter by some intervening imperfection and unhandsome circumstance of action ; and in proportion to these , it is required , 1. that he be in a state and possibility of acceptation ; and 2. that the prayer it selfe be in a proper disposition . 1. Therefore wee shall consider what are those conditions which are required in every person that prays , the want of which makes the prayer to be a sin ? 2ly . What are the conditions of a good mans prayer , the absence of which makes that even his prayer returns empty ? 3ly . What degrees and circumstances of piety are required to make a man fit to be an intercessor for others , both with holinesse in himself and effect to them he prays for ? And 4ly . as an appendix to these considerations , I shall adde the proper indices and significations by which we may make a judgment whether God hath heard our prayers or no. 1. Whosoever prays to God while he is in a state , or in the affection to sin , his prayer is an abomination to God. This was a truth so beleeved by all Nations of the world , that in all Religions they ever appointed baptismes and ceremoniall expiations to cleanse the persons before they presented themselves in their holy offices . Deorum Templa cum adire disponitis ab , omni vos labe puros , lautos , castissimósque praestatis , said Arnobius to the Gentiles : When you addresse your selves to the Temples of your Gods , you keep your selves chast , and clean , and spotlesse . They washed their hands , and wore white garments , they refused to touch a dead boyd , they avoyded a spot upon their clothes as they avoyded a wound upon their head , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . That was the religious ground they went upon ; an impure thing ought not to touch that which is holy , much lesse to approach the Prince of purities ; and this was the sense of the old world in their lustrations , and of the Jews in their preparatory baptismes ; they wash'd their hands to signifie that they should cleanse them from all iniquity , and keep them pure from bloud and rapine ; they washed their garments , but that intended they should not be spotted with the flesh ; and their follies consisted in this , that they did not looke to the bottome of their lavatories ; they did not see through the vail of their ceremonies . Flagitiis omnibus inquinati veniunt ad precandum , & se piè sacrificasse opinantur , si cutem laverint , tanquam libidines intra pectus inclusas ulla amnis abluat , aut ulla Maria purificent , said Lactantius ; they come to their prayers dressed round about with wickednesse , ut quercus hederâ , and think God will accept their offering if their skin be wash'd ; as if a river could purifie their lustfull souls , or a sea take off their guilt . But David reconciles the ceremony with the mysterie , I will wash my hands , I will wash them in innocency , and so will I goe to thine altar . Hae sunt verae munditiae ( saies Tertullian ) non quas plerique superstitione curant ad omnem orationem , etiam cum lavacro totius corporis aquam sumentes . This is the true purification , not that which most men doe , superstitiously cleansing their hands and washing when they go to prayers , but cleansing the soul from all impiety , and leaving every affection to sin ; then they come pure to God : And this is it which the Apostle also signifies , having translated the Gentile and Jewish ceremony into the spirituality of the Gospell , I will therefore that men pray every where , levantes puras manus , lifting up cleane hands , so it is in the Vulgar Latine , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so it is in the Greek , holy hands : That 's the purity that God looks for upon them that lift up their hands to him in prayer : and this very thing is founded upon the Naturall constitution of things , and their essentiall proportion to each other . 1. It is an act of profanation for any unholy person to handle holy things , and holy offices . For if God was ever carefull to put all holy things into cancels , and immure them with acts and laws and cautions of separation ; and the very sanctisication of them was nothing else but the solemn separating them from common usages , that himself might bee distinguished from men by actions of propriety ; it is naturally certain , he that would be differenc'd from common things , would be infinitely divided from things that are wicked : If things that are lawfull may yet be unholy in this sense ; much more are unlawfull things most unholy in all senses . If God will not admit of that which is beside Religion , he will lesse endure that which is against Religion . And therefore if a common man must not serve at the altar , how shall he abide a wicked man to stand there ? No : he will not indure him , but he will cast him and his prayer into the separation of an infinite and eternall distance . Sic profanatis sacris peritura Troja perdidit primùm Deos , So Troy entred into ruine when their prayers became unholy , and they profan'd the rites of their Religion . 2. A wicked person while he remains in that condition is not the naturall object of pity : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Zeno ; Mercy is a sorrow or a trouble at that misery which falls upon a person which deserv'd it not . And so Aristotle desines it , it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , When we see the person deserves a better fortune , or is dispos'd to a fairer intreaty , then wee naturally pity him , and Sinon pleaded for pity to the Trojans , saying , — Miserere animi non digna serentis . For who pityeth the tears of a base man who hath treacherously murthered his friend ? or who will lend a friendly sigh when he sees a traitor to his country passe forth through the execrable gates of cities ? and when any circumstance of basenesse , that is , any thing that takes off the excuse of infirmity , does accompany a sin ( such as are ingratitude , perjury , perseverance , delight , malice , treachery ) then every man scorns the criminall , and God delights and rejoyces in , and laughs at the calamity of such a person . When Vitellius with his hands bound behind him , his Imperiall robe rent , and with a dejected countenance and an ill name was led to execution , every man cursed him , but no man wept . Deformitas exitus misericordiam abstulerat , saith Tacitus , The filthinesse of his life and death took away pity . So it is with us in our prayers ; while we love our sin we must nurse all its children ; and when we roare in our lustfull beds , and groane with the whips of an exterminating Angell , chastising those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( as Aretas calls them ) the lusts of the lower belly , wantonnesse , and its mother intemperance , we feel the price of our sin , that which God foretold to be their issues , that which he threatned us withall , and that which is the naturall consequent , and its certaine expectation , that which we delighted in , and chose , even then when we refused God , and threw away felicity , and hated vertue . For punishment is but the latter part of sin ; it is not a new thing and distinct from it : or if we will kisse the Hyaena , or clip the Lamia about the neck , we have as certainly chosen the taile , and its venemous embraces , as the face and lip . Every man that sins against God , and loves it , or , which is all one , continues in it , for by interpretation that is love , hath all the circumstances of unworthinesse towards God ; hee is unthankfull , and a breaker of his vowes , and a despiser of his mercies , and impudent against his judgments , he is false to his profession , false to his faith , hee is an unfriendly person , and useth him barbarously who hath treated him with an affection not lesse then infinite ; and if any man does half so much evill , and so unhandsomely to a man , we stone him with stones and curses , with reproach , and an unrelenting scorn . And how then shall such a person hope that God should pity him ? for God better understands , and deeper resents , and more essentially hates , and more severely exacts the circumstances and degrees of basenesse then we can doe ; and therefore proportionably scorns the person and derides the calamity . Is not unthankfulnesse to God a greater basenesse and unworthinesse then unthanfulnesse to our Patron ? And is not hee as sensible of it and more then wee ? These things are more then words ; and therefore if no man pities a base person , let us remember that no man is so base in any thing as in his unhandsome demeanour towards God. Doe wee not professe our selves his servants , and yet serve the Devill ? Doe we not live upon Gods provision , and yet stand or work at the command of lust , or avarice , humane regards and little interests of the world ? We call him Father when we desire our portion , and yet spend it in the society of all his enemies . In short : Let our actions to God and their circumstances be supposed to be done towards men , and we should scorn our selves ; and how then can we expect God should not scorne us , and reject our prayer when we have done all the dishonour to him , and with all the unhandsomnesse in the world ? Take heed lest we fall into a condition of evill , in which it shall be said , You may thank your selves ; and be infinitely afraid lest at the same time we be in a condition of person in which God will upbraid our unworthinesse , and scorne our persons , and rejoyce in our calamity . The first is intolerable , the second is irremediadle ; the first proclaims our folly , and the second declares Gods finall justice ; in the first there is no comfort , in the latter there is no remedy ; that therefore makes us miserable , and this renders us desperate . 3. This great truth is further manifested by the necessary and convenient appendages of prayer requir'd , or advis'd , or recommended in holy Scripture . For why is Fasting prescribed together with prayer ? For neither if we eat are we the better , neither if we eat not are we the worse ; and God does not delight in that service , the first , second , and third part of which is nothing but pain and self-affliction . But therefore fasting is usefull with prayer , because it is a penall duty , and an action of repentance ; for then onely God hears sinners , when they enter first into the gates of repentance , and proceed in all the regions of sorrow , and carefulnesse ; and therefore we are commanded to fast , that we may pray with more spirituality , and with repentance , that is , without the loads of meat , and without the loads of sin . Of the same consideration it is that almes are prescribed , together with prayer , because it is a part of that charity without which our soules are enemies to all that which ought to be equally valued with our owne lives . But besides this , we may easily observe what speciall undecencies there are , which besides the generall malignity and demerit , are speciall deleteries and hinderances to our prayers , by irreconciling the person of him that prays . 1. The first is unmercyfulnesse . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said one in Stobaeus , and they were well joyned together . He that takes Mercy from a Man is like him that takes an Altar from the Temple ; the Temple is of no use without an Altar , and the Man cannot pray without mercy ; and there are infinite of prayers sent forth by men which God never attends to , but as to so many sins ; because the men live in a course of rapine , or tyranny , or oppression , or uncharitablenesse , or something that is most contrary to God , because it is unmercifull . Remember , that God sometimes puts thee into some images of his own relation . We beg of God for mercy , and our Brother begs of us for pity : and therefore let us deal equally with God and all the world . I see my selfe fall by a too frequent infirmity , and still I beg for pardon , and hope for pity ; thy brother that offends thee , he hopes so too , and would fain have the same measure , and would be as glad thou wouldst pardon him , as thou wouldest rejoyce in thy own forgivenesse . I am troubled when God rejects my prayer , or in stead of hearing my petition , sends a judgement : Is not thy Tenant , or thy Servant , or thy Client so to thee ? does not he tremble at thy frown , and is of an uncertaine soule till thou speakest kindly unto him , and observes thy lookes as hee watches the colour of the bean coming from thy box of Sentence , life or death depending on it ? when he begs of thee for mercy , his passion is greater , his necessities more pungent , his apprehension more brisk , and sensitive , his case dressed with the circumstances of pity , and thou thy selfe canst better feel his condition then thou doest usually perceive the earnestnesse of thy own prayers to God ; and if thou regardest not thy brother whom thou seest , whose case thou feelest , whose circumstances can afflict thee , whose passion is dressed to thy fancy , and proportioned to thy capacity , how shall God regard thy distant prayer , or be melted with thy cold desire , or softned with thy dry story , or moved by thy unrepenting soul ? If I be sad , I seek for comfort , and goe to God and to the ministry of his creatures for it ; and is it not just in God to stop his own fountaines , and seal the cisterns and little emanations of the creatures from thee , who shuttest thy hand , and shuttest thy eye , and twistest thy bowells against thy brother , who would as fain be comforted as thou ? It is a strange Iliacall passion that so hardens a mans bowells , that nothing proceeds from him but the name of his own disease , a Miserere mei Deus , a prayer to God for pity upon him that will not shew pity to others . We are troubled when God through severity breaks our bones , and hardens his face against us ; but we think our poor brother is made of iron , and not of flesh and bloud , as we are . God hath bound mercy upon us by the iron bands of necessity ; and though Gods mercy is the measure of his justice , yet justice is the measure of our mercy , and as we doe to others it shall be done to us , even in the matter of pardon and of bounty , of gentlenesse and remission , of bearing each others burdens , and faire interpretation ; Forgive us our trespasses as wee forgive them that trespasse against us , so we pray . The finall sentence in this affair is recorded by St. James , Hee that shews no mercy shall have justice with out mercy : as thy poor brother hath groan'd under thy cruelty and ungentle nature without remedy , so shalt thou before the throne of God ; thou shalt pray , and plead , and call , and cry , and beg again , and in the midst of thy despairing noyses be carryed in the regions of sorrow , which never did , and never shall feel a mercy . God never can heare the prayers of an unmercifull man. 2. Lust and uncleannesse is a direct enemy to the Praying man , and an obstruction to his prayers ; for this is not onely a prophanation , but a direct sacriledge ; it defiles a Temple to the ground ; it takes from a man all affection to spirituall things , and mingles his very soul with the things of the world ; it makes his understanding low , and his reasonings cheap and foolish , and it destroys his confidence , and all his manly hopes ; it makes his spirit light , effeminate , and fantastick , and dissolves his attention , and makes his mind so to disaffect all the objects of his desires , that when he prays he is as uneasy as an impaled person , or a condemned criminall upon the hook or wheel ; and it hath in it this evill quality , that a lustfull person cannot pray heartily against his sin ; he cannot desire his cure , for his will is contradictory to his Collect , and he would not that God should hear the words of his prayer , which he poor man never intended . For no crime so seises upon the will as that ; some sins steale an affection , or obey a temptation , or secure an interest , or work by the way of understanding , but lust seises directly upon the will , for the Devil knows well that the lusts of the body are soon cured ; the uneasynesse that dwels there is a disease very tolerable , and every degree of patience can passe under it . But therefore the Devill seises upon the will , and that 's it that makes adulteries and all the species of uncleannesse ; and lust growes so hard a cure , because the formality of it is , that it will not be cured ; the will loves it , and so long as it does , God cannot love the Man ; for God is the Prince of purities , and the Son of God is the King of Virgins , and the holy Spirit is all love , and that is all purity and all spirituality : And therefore the prayer of an Adulterer , or an uncleane person , is like the sacrifices to Moloch , or the rites of Flora , ubi Cato spectator esse non potuit , a good man will not endure them , much lesse will God entertaine such reekings of the Dead sea and clouds of Sodome . For so an impure vapor begotten of the slime of the earth , by the feavers and adulterous heats of an intemperate Summer sun , striving by the ladder of a mountaine to climbe up to heaven , and rolling into various figures by an uneasy , unfixed revolution , and stop'd at the middle region of the aire , being thrown from his pride and attempt of passing towards the seat of the stars , turnes into an unwholsome flame , and like the breath of hell is confin'd into a prison of darknesse , and a cloud , till it breaks into diseases , plagues and mildews , stink and blastings : so is the prayer of an unchast person , it strives to climbe the battlements of heaven , but because it is a flame of sulphur , salt and bitumen , and was kindled in the dishonorable regions below , deriv'd from hell , and contrary to God , it cannot passe forth to the element of love , but ends in barrennesse and murmur , fantastick expectations , and trifling imaginative confidences , and they at last end in sorrows and despaire . * Every state of sin is against the possibility of a mans being accepted ; but these have a proper venome against the graciousnesse of the person , and the power of the prayer . God can never accept an unholy prayer , and a wicked man can never send forth any other ; the waters passe thorough impure aquaeducts and channels of brimstone , and therefore may end in brimstone and fire , but never in forgivenesse , and the blessings of an eternall charity . Henceforth therefore , never any more wonder that men pray so seldome ; there are few that feel the relish , and are enticed with the deliciousnesse , and refreshed with the comforts , and instructed with the sanctity , and acquainted with the secrets of a holy prayer : But cease also to wonder , that of those few that say many prayers , so few find any return of any at all . To make up a good and a lawfull prayer there must be charity , with all its daughters , almes , forgivenesse , not judging uncharitably ; there must be purity of spirit , that is , purity of intention ; and there must be purity of the body and soule , that is , the cleannesse of chastity ; and there must be no vice remaining , no affection to sin : for he that brings his body to God , and hath left his will in the power of any sin , offers to God the calves of his lips , but not a whole burnt-offering ; a lame oblation , but not a reasonable sacrifice ; and therefore their portion shall be amongst them whose prayers were never recorded in the book of life , whose tears God never put into his bottle , whose desires shall remaine ineffectuall to eternall ages . Take heed you doe not lose your prayers ; for by them you hope to have eternall life ; and let any of you whose conscience is most religious and tender , consider what condition that man is in , that hath not said his prayers in thirty or forty years together ; and that is the true state of him who hath lived so long in the course of an unsanctified life ; in all that while he never said one prayer that did him any good ; but they ought to be reckoned to him upon the account of his sins . Hee that is in the affection , or in the habit , or in the state of any one sin whatsoever , is at such distance from and contrariety to God , that he provokes God to anger in every prayer hee makes : And then adde but this consideration ; that prayer is the great summe of our Religion , it is the effect , and the exercise , and the beginning , and the promoter of all graces , and the consummation and perfection of many ; and all those persons who pretend towards heaven , and yet are not experienced in the secrets of Religion , they reckon their piety , and account their hopes , onely upon the stock of a few prayers ; it may be they pray twice every day , it may be thrice , and blessed be God for it ; so farre is very well ; but if it shall be remembred and considered , that this course of piety is so farre from warranting any one course of sin , that any one habituall and cherished sin destroyes the effect of all that piety , wee shall see there is reason to account this to be one of those great arguments with which God hath so bound the duty of holy living upon us , that without a holy life we cannot in any sense be happy , or have the effect of one prayer . But if we be returning and repenting sinners , God delights to hear , because he delights to save us : — Si precibus , dixerunt , numina justis Victa remollescunt — When a man is holy , then God is gracious , and a holy life is the best , and it is a continuall prayer ; and repentance is the best argument to move God to mercy , because it is the instrument to unite our prayers to the intercession of the Holy Jesus . SERMON , V. Part II. AFter these evidences of Scripture , and reason deriv'd from its analogy , there will be lesse necessity to take any particular notices of those little objections which are usually made from the experience of the successe and prosperities of evill persons . For true it is , there is in the world a generation of men that pray long and loud , and aske for vile things , such which they ought to fear , and pray against , and yet they are heard ; The fat upon earth eat and worship : But if these men aske things hurtfull and sinfull , it is certain God hears them not in mercy : They pray to God as despairing Saul did to his Armour-bearer , Sta super me & interfice me , stand upon me and kill me ; and he that obey'd his voice did him dishonour and sinn'd against the head of his King , and his own life . And the vicious persons of old pray'd to Laverna , — Pulchra Laverna , Da mihi fallere , da justum sanctúmque videri , Noctem peccatis & fraudibus objice nubem . Give me a prosperous robbery , a rich prey , and secret escape , let me become rich with theeving and still be accounted holy . For every sort of man hath some religion or other , by the measures of which they proportion their lives and their prayers ; Now as the holy Spirit of God teaching us to pray , makes us like himself in order to a holy and an effective prayer ; and no man prayes well , but he that prays by the Spirit of God , the Spirit of holinesse , and he that prayes with the Spirit must be made like to the Spirit , he is first sanctified and made holy , and then made fervent , and then his prayer ascends beyond the cloud ; first he is renewed in the spirit of his minde , and then he is inflamed with holy fires , and guided by a bright starre ; first purified and then lightned , then burning and shining : so is every man in every of his prayers . He is alwayes like the spirit by which he prayes : If he be a lustfull person , he prayes with a lustfull spirit ; if he does not pray for it , he cannot heartily pray against it . If he be a Tyrant or an usurper , a robber or a murtherer , he hath his Laverna too , by which all his desires are guided , and his prayers directed , and his petitions furnished . He cannot pray against that spirit that possesses him , and hath seised upon his will and affections : If he be fill'd with a lying spirit , and be conformed to it in the image of his minde , he will be so also in the expressions of his prayer , and the sense of his soul. Since therefore no prayer can be good but that which is taught by the Spirit of grace , none holy but the man whom Gods Spirit hath sanctified , and therefore none heard to any purposes of blessing which the holy Ghost does not make for us ( for he makes intercession for the Saints , the Spirit of Christ is the praecentor or the rector chori the Master of the Quire ) it followes that all other prayers being made with an evill Spirit must have an evill portion ; and though the Devils by their Oracles have given some answers , and by their significations have foretold some future contingencies , and in their government and subordinate rule have assisted some armies , and discovered some treasures , and prevented some snares of chance , and accidents of men , yet no man that reckons by the measures of reason or religion , reckons witches and conjurors amongst blessed and prosperous persons : these and all other evill persons have an evill spirit , by the measures of which their desires begin and proceed on to issue ; but this successe of theirs neither comes from God , nor brings felicity : but if it comes from God , it is anger , if it descends upon good men , it is a curse , if upon evill men , it is a sin , and then it is a present curse , and leads on to an eternall infelicity . Plutarch reports that the Tyrians tyed their gods with chains , because certain persons did dream that Apollo said he would leave their City , and go to the party of Alexander , who then besieged the town : and Apollodorus tels of some that tied the image of Saturne with bands of wooll upon his feet . So are some Christians ; they think God is tyed to their sect , and bound to be of their side and the interest of their opinion ; and they think he can never go to the enemies party so long as they charme him with certain formes of words or disguises of their own ; and then all the successe they have , and all the evils that are prosperous , all the mischiefs they do , and all the ambitious designs that do succeed , they reckon upon the account of their prayers ; and well they may ; for their prayers are sins , and their desires are evill , they wish mischief , and they act iniquity , and they enjoy their sin : and if this be a blessing or a cursing , themselves shall then judge , and all the world shall perceive , when the accounts of all the world are truly stated ; then when prosperity shall be called to accounts , and adversity shall receive its comforts , when vertue shall have a crown , and the satisfaction of all sinfull desires shall be recompensed with an intolerable sorrow , and the despair of a perishing soul. Nero's Mother prayed passionately that her son might be Emperor ; and many persons of whom S. Iames speaks , pray to spend upon their lusts , and they are heard too : some were not ; and very many are : and some that sight against a just possessor of a country pray that their wars may be prosperous , and sometimes they have been heard too : and Julian the Apostate prayed , and sacrificed , and inquired of Daemons , and burned mans flesh , and operated with secret rites , and all that he might craftily and powerfully oppose the religion of Christ , and he was heard too , and did mischief beyond the malice and effect of his predecessors , that did swim in Christian bloud : but when we sum up the accounts at the foot of their lives , or so soon as the thing was understood , and finde that the effect of Agrippina's prayer was , that her son murdered her ; and of those lustfull petitioners , in St. Iames , that they were given over to the tyranny and possession of their passions , and baser appetites ; and the effect of Iulian the Apostate's prayer was , that he liv'd and died a professed enemy of Christ ; and the effect of the prayers of usurpers is , that they do mischief , and reap curses , and undoe mankinde , and provoke God , and live hated , and die miserable , and shall possesse the fruit of their sin to eternall ages ; these will be no objections to the truth of the former discourse , but greater instances , that if by hearing our prayers we mean , or intend a blessing , we must also by making prayers mean , that the man first be holy and his desires just and charitable , before he can be admitted to the throne of grace , or converse with God by the entercourses of a prosperous prayer . That 's the first generall . 2. Many times good men pray , and their prayer is not a sin , but yet it returns empty ; because although the man be , yet the prayer is not in proper disposition ; and here I am to account to you concerning the collaterall and accidentall hinderances of the prayer of a good man. The first thing that hinders the prayers of a good man from obtaining its effect is a violent anger , a violent storm in the spirit of him that prayes . For anger sets the house on fire , and all the spirits are busie upon trouble , and intend propulsion , defence , displeasure or revenge ; it is a short madnesse , and an eternall enemy to to discourse , and sober counsels , and fair conversation ; it intends its own object with all the earnestnesse of perception , or activity of designe , and a quicker motion of a too warm and distempered bloud ; it is a feaver in the heart , and a calenture in the head , and a fire in the face , and a sword in the hand , and a fury all over ; and therefore can never suffer a man to be in a disposition to pray . For prayer is an action and a state of entercourse , and desire , exactly contrary to this character of anger . Prayer is an action of likenesse to the holy Ghost , the Spirit of gentlenesse and dove-like simplicity ; an imitation of the holy Jesus , whose Spirit is meek up to the greatnesse of the biggest example , and a conformity to God whose anger is alwaies just , and marches slowly , and is without transportation , and often hindred , and never hasty , and is full of mercy ; prayer is the peace of our spirit , the stilnesse of our thoughts , the evennesse of recollection , the seat of meditation , the rest of our cares , and the calme of our tempest ; prayer is the issue of a quiet minde , of untroubled thoughts , it is the daughter of charity , and the sister of meeknesse ; and he that prayes to God with an angry , that is , with a troubled and discomposed spirit , is like him that retires into a battle to meditate , and sets up his closet in the out quarters of an army , and chooses a frontier garrison to be wise in . Anger is a perfect alienation of the minde from prayer , and therefore is contrary to that attention which presents our prayers in a right line to God. For so have I seen a lark rising from his bed of grasse and soaring upwards singing as he rises , and hopes to get to heaven , and climbe above the clouds ; but the poor bird was beaten back with the loud sighings of an eastern winde , and his motion made irregular and unconstant , descending more at every breath of the tempest , then it could recover by the libration and frequent weighing of his wings ; till the little creature was forc'd to sit down and pant , and stay till the storm was over , and then it made a prosperous slight , and did rise and sing as if it had learned musick and motion from an Angell as he passed sometimes through the aire about his ministeries here below : so is the prayers of a good man ; when his affairs have required businesse , and his businesse was matter of discipline , and his discipline was to passe upon a sinning person , or had a design of charity , his duty met with the infirmities of a man , and anger was its instrument , and the instrument became stronger then the prime agent , and raised a tempest , and overrul'd the man ; and then his prayer was broken , and his thoughts were troubled , and his words went up towards a cloud , and his thoughts pull'd them back again , and made them without intention ; and the good man sighs for his infirmity , but must be content to lose that prayer , and he must recover it when his anger is removed and his spirit is becalmed , made even as the brow of Jesus , and smooth like the heart of God ; and then it ascends to heaven upon the wings of the holy dove , and dwels with God till it returnes like the usefull Bee , loaden with a blessing and the dew of heaven . But besides this ; anger is a combination of many other things every one of which is an enemy to prayer ; it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so it is in the severall definitions of it , and in its naturall constitution . It hath in it the trouble of sorrow , and the heats of lust , and the disease of revenge , and the boylings of a feaver , and the rashnesse of praecipitancy , and the disturbance of persecution ; and therefore is a certain effective enemy against prayer which ought to be a spirituall joy , and an act of mortification ; and to have in it no hears but of charity and zeal ; and they are to be guided by prudence and consideration , and allayed with the deliciousnesse of mercy , and the serenity of a meek and a quiet spirit ; and therefore S. Paul gave caution , that the sun should not go down upon our anger , meaning , that it should not stay upon us till evening prayer ; for it would hinder our evening sacrifice ; but the stopping of the first egressions of anger , is a certain artifice of the Spirit of God to prevent unmercifulnesse , which turns not only our desires into vanity , but our prayers into sin ; and remember that Elijah's anger , though it was also zeal , had so discomposed his spirit when the two Kings came to inquire of the Lord , that though he was a good man and a Prophet , yet he could not pray , he could not inquire of the Lord , till by rest and musick he had gathered himself into the evennesse of a dispassionate and recollected minde ; therefore let your prayers be without wrath . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for God by many significations hath taught us , that when men go to the altars to pray , or to give thanks , they must bring no sin , or violent passion along with them to the sacrifice , said Philo. 2. Indifferency and easinesse of desire is a great enemy to the successe of a good mans prayer ; When Plato gave Diogenes a great vessell of Wine who ask'd but a little , and a few Carrawaies , the Cynic thank'd him with his rude expression ; Cum interrogaris quot sint duo & duo , respondes viginti ; ita non secundum ea quae rogaris das , nec ad ea quae interrogaris respondes : Thou neither answerest to the question thou art asked , nor givest according as thou art desired ; but being inquired of , how many are two and two , thou answerest twenty . So it is with God and us in the intercourse of our prayers : we pray for health , and he gives it us , it may be , a sicknesse that carries us to eternall life ; we pray for necessary support for our persons and families , and he gives us more then we need ; we beg for a removall of a present sadnesse , and he gives us that which makes us able to bear twenty sadnesses , a cheerfull spirit , a peacefull conscience , and a joy in God , as an antepast of eternall rejoycings in the Kingdome of God ; But then although God doth very frequently give us beyond the matter of our desires , yet he does not so often give us great things beyond the spirit of our desires , beyond the quicknesse , vivacity , and fervor of our minds ; for there is but one thing in the world that God hates besides sin , that is , indifferency and lukewarmnesse ; which although it hath not in it the direct nature of sin , yet it hath this testimony from God , that it is loathsome and abominable , and excepting this thing alone , God never said so of any thing in the New Testament , but what was a direct breach of a commandement . The reason of it is , because lukewarmnesse or an indifferent spirit is an undervaluing of God and of Religion , it is a separation of reason from affections , and a perfect conviction of the understanding to the goodnesse of a duty , but a refusing to follow what we understand . For he that is lukewarm alwaies understands the better way , and seldome pursues it ; he hath so much reason as is sufficient , but he will not obey it ; his will does not follow the dictate of his understanding , and therefore it is unnaturall . It is like the phantastick fires of the night , where there is light and no heat , and therefore may passe on to the reall fires of hell , where there is heat and no light ; and therefore although an act of lukewarmnesse is only an undecency , and no sin ; yet a state of lukewarmnesse is criminall , and sinfull state of imperfection and undecency ; an act of indifferency hinders a single prayer from being accepted ; but a state of it makes the person ungracious and despised in the Court of heaven : and therefore S. Iames in his accounts concerning an effective prayer , not only requires that he be a just man who prayes , but his prayer must be fervent ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , an effectuall fervent prayer , so our English reads it ; it must be an intent , zealous , busie , operative prayer ; for consider what a huge undeceney it is , that a man should speak to God for a thing that he values not ; or that he should not value a thing , without which he cannot be happy ; or that he should spend his religion upon a trifle ; and if it be not a trifle , that he should not spend his affections upon it . If our prayers be for temporall things , I shall not need to stirre up your affections to be passionate for their purchase ; we desire them greedily , we run after them intemperately , we are kept from them with huge impatience , we are delayed with infinite regret , we preferre them before our duty , we aske them unseasonably , we receive them with our own prejudice , and we care not , we choose them to our hurt and hinderance , and yet delight in the purchase ; and when we do pray for them , we can hardly bring our selves to it , to submit to Gods will , but will have them ( if we can ) whether he be pleased or no ; like the Parasite in the Comedy , Qui comedit quod fuit & quod non fuit , he eat all and more then all , what was set before him , and what was kept from him . But then for spirituall things , for the interest of our souls , and the affairs of the Kingdome , we pray to God with just such a zeal as a man begs of the Chirurgeon to cut him of the stone ; or a condemned man desires his executioner quickly to put him out of his pain , by taking away his life ; when things are come to that passe , it must be done , but God knows with what little complacency and desire , the man makes his request : And yet the things of religion and the spirit , are the only things that ought to be desired vehemently , and pursued passionately , because God hath set such a value upon them that they are the effects of his greatest loving kindnesse ; they are the purchases of Christs bloud , and the effect of his continuall intercession , the fruits of his bloudy sacrifice , and the gifts of his healing and saving mercy , the graces of Gods Spirit , and the only instruments of felicity ; and if we can have fondnesses for things indifferent , or dangerous , our prayers upbraid our spirits when we beg coldly and tamely for those things for which we ought to dye , which are more precious then the globes of Kings , and weightier then Imperiall Scepters , richer then the spoils of the Sea , or the treasures of the Indian hils . He that is cold and tame in his prayers , hath not tasted of the deliciousnesse of Religion , and the goodnesse of God ; he is a stranger to the secrets of the Kingdome , and therefore he does not know what it is either to have hunger or satiety ; and therefore neither are they hungry for God , nor satisfied with the world , but remain stupid and inapprehensive , without resolution and determination , never choosing clearly , nor pursuing earnestly ; and therefore never enter into possession , but alwaies stand at the gate of wearinesse , unnecessary caution , and perpetuall irresolution . But so it is too often in our prayers ; we come to God because it is civill so to do , and a generall custome , but neither drawn thither by love , nor pinch'd by spirituall necessities , and pungent apprehensions ; we say so many prayers because we are resolved so to do , and we passe through them sometimes with a little attention , sometimes with none at all , and can we think that the grace of Chastity can be obtain'd at such a purchase , that grace that hath cost more labours then all the persecutions of faith , and all the disputes of hope , and all the expence of charity besides , amounts to ? Can we expect that our sinnes should be washed by a lazie prayer ? Can an indifferent prayer quench the flames of hell , or rescue us from an eternall sorrow ? Is lust so soon overcome , that the very naming it can master it ? Is the Devill so slight and easie an enemy , that he will fly away from us at the first word , spoken without power , and without vehemence ? Read and attend to the accents of the prayers of Saints . I cryed day and night before thee , O Lord ; my soul refused comfort ; my throat is dry with calling upon my God , my knees are weak through fasting ; and , Let me alone , sayes God to Moses ; and , I will not let thee go till thou hast blessed me , said Jacob to the Angell . And I shall tell you a short character of a fervent prayer out of the practise of S. Hierome , in his Epistle to Eustochium de custodiâ virginitatis . Being destitute of all help I threw my self down at the feet of Jesus ; I water'd his feet with tears , and wiped them with my hair , and mortified the lust of my flesh with the abstinence and hungry diet of many weeks ; I remember that in my crying to God , I did frequently joyn the night and the day , and never did intermit to call , nor cease from beating my brest , till the mercy of the Lord brought to me peace and freedome from temptation . After many tears , and my eyes fixed in heaven , I thought my self sometimes encircled with troops of Angels , and then at last I sang to God , We will run after thee into the smell and deliciousnesse of thy precious ointments ; such a prayer as this will never return without its errand . But though your person be as gracious as David or Job , and your desire as holy as the love of Angels , and your necessities great as a new penitent , yet it pierces not the clouds , unlesse it be also as loud as thunder , passionate as the cries of women , and clamorous as necessity . And we may guesse at the degrees of importunity by the insinuation of the Apostle : Let the marryed abstain for a time , ut vacent orationi & jejunio , that they may attend to Prayer ; it is a great attendance , and a long diligence that is promoted by such a separation ; and supposes a devotion that spends more then many hours ; for ordinary prayers , and many hours of every day might well enough consist with an ordinary cohabitation ; but that which requires such a separation cals for a longer time and a greater attendance then we usually consider . For every prayer we make is considered by God , and recorded in heaven ; but cold prayers are not put into the account in order to effect and acceptation ; but are laid aside like the buds of roses which a cold wind hath nip'd into death , and the discoloured tawny face of an Indian slave : and when in order to your hopes of obtaining a great blessing , you reckon up your prayers with which you have solicited your suit in the court of heaven , you must reckon , not by the number of the collects , but by your sighs and passions , by the vehemence of your desires , and the fervour of your spirit , the apprehension of your need , and the consequent prosecution of your supply . Christ pray'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with loud cryings , and S. Paul made mention of his scholars in his prayers night and day . Fall upon your knees and grow there , and let not your desires cool , nor your zeal remit , but renew it again and again , and let not your offices and the custome of praying put thee in mind of thy need , but let thy need draw thee to thy holy offices ; and remember how great a God , how glorious a Majesty you speak to , therefore let not your devotions and addresses be little . Remember how great a need thou hast ; let not your desires be lesse . Remember how great the thing is you pray for ; do not undervalue it with thy indifferency . Remember that prayer is an act of Religion ; let it therefore be made thy businesse : and lastly , Remember that God hates a cold prayer , and therefore will never blesse it , but it shall be alwaies ineffectuall . 3. Under this title of lukewarmnesse and tepidity may be comprised also these Cautions : that a good mans prayers are sometimes hindred by inadvertency , sometimes by want of perseverance . For inadvertency or want of attendance to the sense and intention of our prayers , it is certainly an effect of lukewarmnesse , and a certain companion and appendage to humane infirmity ; and is only so remedyed as our prayers are made zealous , and our infirmities passe into the strengths of the Spirit . But if we were quick in our perceptions , either concerning our danger , or our need , or the excellency of the object , or the glories of God , or the niceties and perfections of Religion , we should not dare to throw away our prayers so like fools , or come to God and say a prayer with our minde standing at distance , trissing like untaught boyes at their books , with a truantly spirit . I shall say no more to this , but that in reason we can never hope that God in heaven will hear our prayers , which we our selves speak and yet hear not at the same time when we our selves speak them with instruments joyned to our ears ; even with those organs which are parts of our hearing faculties . If they be not worth our own attending to , they are not worth Gods hearing ; If they are worth Gods attending to , we must make them so by our own zeal , and passion , and industry , and observation , and a present and a holy spirit . But concerning perseverance , the consideration is something distinct . For when our prayer is for a great matter , and a great necessity , strictly attended to , yet we pursue it only by chance or humour , by the strengths of fancy , and naturall disposition ; or else our choice is cool as soon as hot , like the emissions of lightning , or like a sun-beam often interrupted with a cloud , or cool'd with intervening showers : and our prayer is without fruit because the desire lasts not , and the prayer lives like the repentance of Simon Magus , or the trembling of Felix , or the Jewes devotion for seven dayes of unleavened bread , during the Passeover or the feast of Tabernacles ; but if we would secure the blessing of our prayers , and the effect of our prayers , we must never leave till we have obtain'd what we need . There are many that pray against a temptation for a moneth together , and so long as the prayer is servent , so long the man hath a nolition , and a direct enmity against the lust ; he consents not all that while ; but when the moneth is gone , and the prayer is removed , or becomes lesse active , then the temptation returnes , and forrages , and prevails , and seises upon all our unguarded strengths . There are some desires which have a period , and Gods visitations expire in mercy at the revolution of a certain number of dayes ; and our prayer must dwell so long as Gods anger abides ; and in all the storm we must out cry the noyse of the tempest , and the voices of that thunder . But if we become hardned , and by custome and cohabitation with the danger lose our fears , and abate of our desires and devotions , many times we shall finde , that God by a sudden breach upon us will chastise us for letting our hands go down . Israel prevailed no longer then Moses held up his hands in prayer ; and he was forced to continue his prayer , till the going down of the Sun ; that is , till the danger was over , till the battell was done . But when our desires , and prayers are in the matter of spirituall danger , they must never be remitted , because our danger continues for ever , and therefore so must our watchfulnesse , and our guards . Vult n. Deus rogari , vult cogi , vult quâdam importunitate vinci ( sayes S. Gregory ) God loves to be invited , intreated , importun'd with an unquiet , restlesse desire and a persevering prayer . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Proclus . That 's a holy and a religious prayer , that never gives over , but renewes the prayer , and dwels upon the desire ; for this only is effectuall . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , God hears the persevering man , and the unwearied prayer . For it is very considerable , that we be very curious to observe ; that many times a lust is sopita , non mortua , it is asleep ; the enemy is at truce , and at quiet for a while , but not conquered , not dead ; and if we put off our armour too soon , we lose all the benefit of our former war , and are surprised by indiligence and a carelesse guard . For God sometimes binds the Devill in a short chain , and gives his servants respite , that they may feel the short pleasures of a peace , and the rest of innocence , and perceive what are the eternall felicities of heaven , where it shall be so for ever ; But then we must return to our warfare again ; and every second assault is more troublesome , because it finds our spirits at ease , and without watchfulnesse , and delighted with a spirituall rest , and keeping holiday . But let us take heed ; for whatsoever temptation we can be troubled withall by our naturall temper , or by the condition of our life , or the evill circumstances of our condition , so long as we have capacity to feel it , so long we are in danger , and must watch thereunto with prayer and continuall diligence . And when your temptations let you alone , let not you God alone ; but lay up prayers and the blessings of a constant devotion against the day of tryall . Well may your temptation sleep , but if your prayers do so , you may chance to be awakened with an assault that may ruine you . However , the rule is easie : Whatsoever you need , aske it of God so long as you want it , even till you have it . For God therefore many times defers to grant , that thou mayst persevere to aske ; and because every holy prayer is a glorification of God by the confessing many of his attributes , a lasting and a persevering prayer is a little image of the Allellujahs and services of eternity ; it is a continuation to do that according to our measures which we shall be doing to eternall ages : therefore think not that five or six hearty prayers can secure to thee a great blessing , and a supply of a mighty necessity . He that prays so , and then leaves off , hath said some prayers , and done the ordinary offices of his Religion , but hath not secured the blessing , nor used means reasonably proportionable to a mighty interest . 4. The prayers of a good man are oftentimes hindered , and destiture of their effect for want of praying in good company ; for sometimes an evill or an obnoxious person hath so secured and ascertained a mischief to himself , that he that stayes in his company or his cratfick must also share in his punishment : and the Tyrian sailers with all their vows and prayers could not obtain a prosperous voyage so long as Jonas was within the Bark ; for in this case the interest is divided , and the publick sin prevails above the private piety . When the Philosopher asked a penny of Antigonus , he told him it was too little for a King to give ; when he asked a talent , he told him it was too much for a Philosopher to receive ; for he did purpose to cousen his own charity , and elude the others necessity , upon pretence of a double inequality . So it is in the case of a good man mingled in evill company : if a curse be too severe for a good man , a mercy is not to be expected by evill company ; and his prayer , when it is made in common , must partake of that event of things which is appropriate to that society . The purpose of this caution is , that every good man be carefull that he do not mingle his devotion in the communions of hereticall persons , and in schismaticall conventicles ; for although he be like them that follow Absalom in the simplicity of their heart , yet his intermediall fortune , and the event of his present affairs may be the same with Absaloms ; and it is not a light thing , that we curiously choose the parties of our Communion . I do not say it is necessary to avoid all the society of evill persons ; for then we must go out of the world ; and when we have thrown out a drunkard , possibly we have entertain'd an hypocrite ; or when a swearer is gone , an oppressor may stay still ; or if that be remedied , yet pride is soon discernible , but not easily judicable : but that which is of caution in this question is , that we never mingle with those , whose very combination is a sin ; such as were Corah and his company that rebelled against Moses their Prince ; and Dathan and Abiram that made a schisme in Religion against Aaron the Priest : for so said the Spirit of the Lord , Come out from the congregation of these men , lest ye perish in their company ; and all those that were abused in their communion , did perish in the gain ▪ saying of Corah . It is a sad thing to see a good man cousened by fair pretences , and allured into an evill snare ; for besides , that he dwels in danger , and cohabits with a dragon , and his vertue may change by evill perswasion , into an evill disposition , from sweetnesse to bitternesse , from thence to evill speaking , from thence to beleeve a lye , and from beleeving to practise it ; besides this , it is a very great sadnesse , that such a man should lose all his prayers to very many purposes : God will not respect the offering of those men who assemble by a peevish spirit ; and therefore although God in pity regards the desires of a good man if innocently abused , yet as it unites in that assembly , God will not hear it to any purposes of blessing , and holinesse ; unlesse we keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace , we cannot have the blessing of the Spirit in the returns of a holy prayer ; and all those assemblies which meet together against God or Gods Ordinances , may pray and call , and cry loudly , and frequently , and still they provoke God to anger ; and many times he will not have so much mercy for them as to deny them ; but le ts them prosper in their sin , till it swels to intolerable and impardonable . * But when good men pray with one heart , and in a holy assembly , that is , holy in their desires , lawfull in their authority , though the persons be of different complexion , then the prayer flies up to God like the hymns of a Quire of Angels ; for God that made body and soul to be one man , and God and man to be one Christ , and three persons are one God , and his praises are sung to him by Quires , and the persons are joyned in orders , and the orders into hierarchies , and all , that God may be served by unions and communities , loves that his Church should imitate the Concords of heaven , and the unions of God , and that every good man should promote the interests of his prayers by joyning in the communion of Saints in the unions of obedience and charity , with the powers that God and the Lawes have ordained . The sum is this , If the man that makes the prayer be an unholy person , his prayer is not the instrument of a blessing , but a curse ; but when the sinner begins to repent truly , then his desires begin to be holy . But if they be holy , and just , and good , yet they are without profit and effect , if the prayer be made in schisme , or an evill communion , or if it be made without attention , or if the man soon gives over , or if the prayer be not zealous , or if the man be angry . There are very many waies for a good man to become unblessed and unthriving in his prayers , and he cannot be secure unlesse he be in the state of grace , and his spirit be quiet , and his minde be attentive , and his society be lawfull , and his desires carnest , and passionate , and his devotions persevering , lasting till his needs be served , or exchanged for another blessing : so that , what Laelius ( apud Cicer. de senectute ) said concerning old age , neque in summâ inopiâ levis esse senectus potest , ne sapienti quidem , nec insipienti etiam in summâ coptâ non gravis ; that a wise man could not bear old age if it were extremely poor ; and yet if it were very rich , it were intolerable to a fool ; we may say concerning our prayers ; they are sins and unholy , if a wicked man makes them , and yet if they be made by a good man they are ineffective , unlesse they be improved by their proper dispositions . A good man cannot prevail in his prayers , if his desires be cold , and his affections trifling , and his industry soon weary , and his society criminall ; and if all these appendages of prayer be observed , yet they will do no good to an evill man , for his prayer that begins in sin , shall end in sorrow . SERMON , VI. Part , III. 3. NExt I am to inquire and consider ; what degrees and circumstances of piety are requir'd to make us fit to be intercessors for others , and to pray for them with probable effect ? I say with probable effect ; for when the event principally depends upon that which is not within our own election , such as are the lives and actions of others , all that we can consider in this affair is , whether wee be persons fit to pray in the behalf of others that hinder not , but are persons within the limit and possibilities of the presentmercy . When the Emperour Maximinus was smitten with the wrath of God , and a sore disease for his cruell persecuting the Christian cause , and putting so many thousand innocent and holy persons to death , and he understood the voice of God and the accents of thunder , and discerned that cruelty was the cause , he revoked their decrees made against the Christians , recall'd them from their caves and deserts , their sanctuaries , and retirements , and enjoyned them to pray for the life and health of their Prince . They did so , and they who could command mountaines to remove , and were obeyed , they who could doe miracles , they who with the key of prayer could open Gods four closets , of the wombe and the grave , of providence and rain , could not obtain for their bloudy Emperour one drop of mercy , but he must die miserable for over . God would not be intreated for him , and though he loved the prayer because he loved the Advocates , yet Maximinus was not worthy to receive the blessing . And it was threatned to the rebellious people of Israel , and by them to all people that should sin grievously against the Lord , God would break their staffe of bread , and even the righteous should not be prevailing intercessors ; Though Noah , Job , or Daniel were there , they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousnesse , saith the Lord God : and when Abraham prevailed very far with God in the behalf of Sodome , and the five Cities of the Plain ; it had its period ; If there had been ten righteous in Sodom it should have been spared for their sakes , but four onely were found , and they onely delivered their own souls too ; but neither their righteousnesse , nor Abrahams prayer prevailed any further ; and we have this case also mentioned in the New Testament : If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death , he shall aske and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death . At his prayer the sinner shall receive pardon ; God shall give him life for them , to him that prays in their behalf that sin ; provided it be not a sin unto death . For there is a sin unto death , but I doe not say that he shall pray for it . There his Commission expires , and his power is confin'd . For there are some sins of that state and greatnesse that God will not pardon . S. Austin in his books de sermone Domini in monte affirms it , concerning some one single sin of a perfect malice . It was also the opinion of Origen and Athanasius , and is followed by venerable Bede ; and whether the Apostle means a peculiar state of sin , or some one single great crime which also supposes a precedent and a present state of criminall condition ; it is such a thing as will hinder our prayers from prevailing in their behalf ; we are therefore not encouraged to pray , because they cannot receive the benefit of Christs intercession , and therefore much lesse of our Advocation , which onely can prevail by vertue and participation of his mediation . For whomsoever Christ prays , for them wee pray , that is , for all them that are , within the covenant of repentance , for all whose actions have not destroyed the very being of Religion , who have not renounc'd their faith , nor voluntarily quit their hopes , nor openly opposed the Spirit of grace , nor grown by a long progresse to a resolute and finall impiety , nor done injustices greater then sorrow , or restitution , or recompense , or acknowledgment . However , though it may be uncertain and disputed concerning the number of sins unto death , and therefore to pray , or not to pray , is not matter of duty ; yet it is all one , as to the effect , whether we know them or no ; for though we intend charity when we pray for the worst of men , yet concerning the event God will take care , and will certainly return thy prayer upon thy own head , though thou didst desire it should water and refresh thy neighbors drynesse ; and St. John so expresses it as if he had left the matter of duty undetermin'd ; because the instances are uncertain ; yet the event is certainly none at all , therefore because we are not encouraged to pray , and because it is a sin unto death , that is , such a sin that hath no portion in the promises of life , and the state of repentance . But now , suppose the man for whom wee pray to be capable of mercy , within the covenant of repentance , and not farre from the Kingdome of heaven ; yet , 2ly . No prayers of others can further prevail then to remove this person to the next stage in order to felicity . When S. Monica prayed for her son , she did not pray to God to save him , but to cōvert him ; and when God intended to reward the prayers and almes of Cornelius , he did not do it by giving him a Crown , but by sending an Apostle to him to make him a Christian ; the meaning of which observation is , that we may understand , that as in the person prayed for , there ought to be the great disposition of being in a saveable condition ; so there ought also to be all the intermediall aptnesses : for just as he is disposed , so can we prevail , and the prayers of a good man first prevail in behalf of a sinner , that he shall be invited , that he shall be reproved , and then that he shall attend to it , then that he shall have his heart open'd , and then that he shall repent : And still a good mans prayers follow him thorough the severall stages of pardon , of sanctification , of restraining graces , of a mighty providence , of great assistance , of perseverance , and a holy death . No prayers can prevaile upon an undisposed person . For the Sun himself cannot enlighten a blind eye , nor the soule move a body whose silver cord is loosed , and whose joints are untyed by the rudenesse and dissolutions of a pertinacious sicknesse . But then , suppose an eye quick , and healthfull , or apt to be refreshed with light and a friendly prospect , yet a glow-worm or a diamond , the shels of pearl , or a dead mans candle , are not enough to make him discern the beauties of the world , and to admire the glories of creation . Therefore , 2. As the persons must be capable for whom we pray , so they that pray for others must be persons extraordinary in something : 1. If persons be of an extraordinary piety , they are apt to be intercessors for others . This appeares in the case of Job : When the wrath of God was kindled against Eliphaz , and his two friends , God commanded them to offer a sacrifice ; but my servant Job shall pray for you , for him will I accept : and it was so in the case of the prevaricating Israelites ; God was full of indignation against them , and smote them , Then stood up Phinehas and prayed , and the plague ceased . For this man was a good man , and the spirit of an extraordinary zeal filled him , and he did glory to God in the execution upon Zimri and his fair Madianite . And it was a huge blessing that was intail'd upon the posterity of Abraham , Isaac , and Jacob ; because they had a great Religion , a great power with God , and their extraordinary did consist especially in the matter of prayers and devotion ; for that was eminent in them besides their obedience : for so Maimonides tells concerning them , that Abraham first instituted Morning prayer . The affairs of Religion had not the same constitution then as now . They worshipped God never but at their Memorials , and in places , and seldome times of separation . The bowed their head when they came to a hallowed stone , and upon the top of their staffe , and worshipped when they came to a consecrated pillar , but this was seldome ; and they knew not the secrets and the priviledges of a frequent prayer , of intercourses with God by ejaculations , and the advantages of importunity : and the Doctors of the Jews that record the prayer of Noah , who in all reason knew the secret best , because he was to teach it to all the world , yet have transmitted to us but a short prayer of some seaven lines long ; and this he onely said within the Ark , in that great danger , once on a day , provoked by his fear , and stirred up by a Religion then made actuall , in those days of sorrow and penance . But in the descending ages , when God began to reckon a Church in Abraham's family , there began to be a new institution of offices , and Abraham appointed that God should be prayed to every morning . Isaac being taught by Abraham , made a law , or at least commended the practise , and adopted it into the Religion , that God should be worshipped by decimation or tithing of our goods ; and he added an order of prayer to be said in the afternoon ; and Jacob to make up the office compleat added evening prayer ; and God was their God , and they became fit persons to blesse , that is , of procuring blessings to their relatives ; as appears in the instances of their own families ; of the King of Egypt , and the Cities of the Plain . For a man of an ordinary piety is like Gideons fleece , wet in its own locks ; but it could not water a poor mans Garden . But so does a thirsty land drink all the dew of heaven that wets its face , and a great shower makes no torrent , nor digs so much as a little furrow that the drils of the water might passe into rivers , or refresh their neighbours wearinesse ; but when the earth is full , and hath no strange consumptive needs , then at the next time when God blesses it with a gracious shower , it divides into portions , and sends it abroad in free and equall communications , that all that stand round about may feel the shower . So is a good mans prayer ; his own cup is full , it is crowned with health , and overflowes with blessings , and all that drink of his cup , and eat at his table are refreshed with his joys , and divide with him in his holy portions . And indeed he hath need of a great stock of piety , who is first to provide for his own necessities , and then to give portions to a numerous relation . It is a great matter that every man needs for himself ; the daily expences of his own infirmities , the unthriving state of his omission of duties , and recessions from perfection , and sometimes the great losses and shipwracks , the plundrings and burning of his house by a fall into a deadly sin ; and most good men are in this condition , that they have enough to doe to live , and keep themselves above water ; but how few men are able to pay their own debts , and lend great portions to others ? The number of those who can effectually intercede for others to great purposes of grace and pardon , are as soon told as the number of wise men , as the gates of a City , or the entries of the river Nilus . But then doe but consider what a great ingagement this is to a very strict and holy life . If we chance to live in times of an extraordinary trouble , or if our relatives can be capable of great dangers , or great sorrows , or if we our selves would doe the noblest friendship in the world , and oblige others by acts of greatest benefit ; if we would assist their souls , and work towards their salvation ; if we would be publick ministers of the greatest usefulness to our countrey ; if we would support Kings , and relieve the great necessities of Kingdoms ; if we would be effective in the stopping of a plague , or in the successe of armies ; a great and an exemplar piety , and a zealous and holy prayer can do all this . Semper tu hoc facito ut cogites , Id optimum esse , tute ut sis optimus ; si id nequeas , saltem ut optimis sis proximus . He that is the best man towards God , is certainely the best Minister to his Prince or Countrey , and therefore doe thou endevour to be so ; and if thou canst not be so , be at least next to the best . For in that degree in which our Religion is great , and our piety exemplar , in the same we can contribute towards the fortune of a Kingdome : and when Elijah was taken into heaven , Elisha mourn'd for him because it was a losse to Israel : My Father , my father , the chariots of Israel and horsemen thereof : But consider how uselesse thou art , when thou canst not by thy prayers obtain so much mercy as to prevaile for the life of a single Trooper , or in a plague beg of God for the life of a poor Maid-servant ; but the ordinary emanations of providence shall proceed to issue without any arrest , and the sword of the Angel shall not be turn'd aside in one single infliction . Remember , although he is a great and excellent person that can prevaile of God for the interest of others , yet thou that hast no stock of grace and favour , no interest in the Court of heaven , art but a mean person ; extraordinary in nothing ; thou art unregarded by God , cheap in the sight of Angels , uselesse to thy Prince or Countrey ; thou maist hold thy peace in a time of publick danger . For , Kings never pardon Murtherers at the intercession of Theeves ; and if a mean Mechanick should beg a Reprieve for a condemned Traitor , he is ridiculous and impudent ; so is a vicious Advocate or an ordinary person with God. It is well if God will hear him begging for his owne pardon ; hee is not yet disposed to plead for others . And yet every man that is in the state of grace , every man that can pray without a sinfull prayer , may also intercede for others ; and it is a duty for all men to doe it ; all men I say who can pray at all acceptably ; I will therefore that prayers , and supplications , and intercessions , and giving of thanks be made for all men ; and this is a duty that is prescrib'd to all them that are concern'd in the duty and in the blessings of Prayer ; but this is it which I say ; if their piety be but ordinary , their prayer can be effectuall but in easy purposes , and to smaller degrees ; but he that would work effectively towards a great deliverance , or in great degrees towards the benefit or ease of any of his relatives , can be confident of his successe but in the same degree in which his person is gracious . There are strange things in heaven ; judgments there are made of things and persons by the measures of Religion ; and a plain promise produces effects of wonder and miracle ; and the changes that are there made are not effected by passions , and interests , and corporall changes , and the love that is there is not the same thing that it is here , it is more beneficiall , more reasonable , more holy , of other designes , and strange productions ; and upon that stock it is that a holy poor man that possesses no more ( it may be ) then an Ewe-lambe , that eats of his bread , and drinks of his cup , and is a daughter to him , and is all his temporall portion , this poor man is ministred to by Angels , and attended to by God , and the Holy Spirit makes intercession for him , and Christ joyns the mans prayer to his own advocation , and the man by prayer shall save the City , and destroy the fortune of a Tyrant army , even then when God sees it good it should be so ; for he will no longer deny him any thing , but when it is no blessing ; and when it is otherwise , his prayer is most heard when it is most denyed . 2ly . That we should prevaile in intercessions for others , we are to regard and to take care , that as our piety , so also must our offices be extraordinary . He that prays to recover a family from an hereditary curse , or to reverse a Sentence of God , to cancell a Decree of heaven gone out against his friend , hee that would heale the sick with his prayer , or with his devotion prevaile against an army , must not expect such great effects upon a Morning or Evening Collect , or an honest wish put into the recollections of a prayer , or a period put in on purpose . Mamercus Bishop of Vienna , seeing his City and all the Diocese in great danger of perishing by an earthquake , instituted great Letanies , and solemn supplications , besides the ordinary devotions of his usuall hours of prayer ; and the Church from his example took up the practise , and translated it into an anniversary solemnity , and upon St. Mark 's day did solemnly intercede with God to divert or prevent his judgments falling upon the people , majoribus Litaniis , so they are called ; with the more solemn supplications they did pray unto God in behalf of their people . And this hath in it the same consideration that is in every great necessity ; for it is a great thing for a man to be so gracious with God , as to be able to prevaile for himself and his friend , for himself and his relatives ; and therefore in these cases , as in all great needs , it is the way of prudence and security , that we use all those greater offices which God hath appointed as instruments of importunity , and arguments of hope , and acts of prevailing , and means of great effect and advocation : such as are , separating days for solemn prayer , all the degrees of violence , and earnest addresse , fasting and prayer , almes and prayer , acts of repentance and prayer , praying together in publick with united hearts , and above all , praying in the susception and communication of the holy Sacrament ; the effects and admirable issues of which we know not , and perceive not ; we lo●e because we desire not , and choose to lose many great blessings rather then purchase them with the frequent commemoration of that sacrifice which was offered up for all the needs of Mankind , and for obtaining all favours and graces to the Catholick Church . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , God never refuses to hear a holy prayer , and our prayers can never be so holy , as when they are offered up in the union of Christs sacrifice : For Christ by that sacrifice reconcil'd God and the world . And because our needs continue , therefore we are commanded to continue the memory , and to represent to God that which was done to satisfie all our needs : Then we receive Christ ; we are after a secret and mysterious , but most reall and admirable manner made all one with Christ ; and if God giving us his Son could not but with him give us all things else , how shall he refuse our persons when we are united to his person , when our souls are joined to his soul , our body nourished by his body , and our souls sanctified by his bloud , and cloth'd with his robes , and marked with his character , and sealed with his Spirit , and renewed with holy vows , and consign'd to all his glories , and adopted to his inheritance ? when we represent his death , and pray in vertue of his passion , and imitate his intercession , and doe that which God commands , and offer him in our manner that which he essentially loves ? can it be that either any thing should be more prevalent , or that God can possibly deny such addresses , and such importunities ? Try it often , and let all things else be answerable , and you cannot have greater reason for your confidence . Doe not all the Christians in the world that understand Religion , desire to have the holy Sacrament when they die ; when they are to make their great appearance before God , and to receive their great consignation to their eternall sentence , good or bad ? And if then be their greatest needs , that is their greatest advantage , and instrument of acceptation . Therefore if you have a great need to be serv'd , or a great charity to serve , and a great pity to minister , and a dear friend in a sorrow , take Christ along in thy prayers , in all thy ways thou canst take him ; take him in affection , and take him in a solemnity , take him by obedience and receive him in the Sacrament ; and if thou then offerest up thy prayers and makest thy needs known , if thou nor thy friend be not relieved , if thy party be not prevalent , and the war be not appeased , or the plague be not cured , or the enemy taken off , there is something else in it ; but thy prayer is good and pleasing to God , and dressed with circumstances of advantage , and thy person is apt to be an intercessor , and thou hast done all that thou canst ; the event must be left to God ; and the secret reasons of the deniall either thou shalt find in time , or thou maist trust with God , who certainly does it with the greatest wisdome , and the greatest charity . I have in this thing onely one caution to insert , viz. That in our importunity and extraordinary offices for others , we must nor make our accounts by multitude of words , and long prayers , but by the measures of the Spirit , by the holynesse of the soul , and the just nesse of the desire , and the usefulnesse of the request , and its order to Gods glory , and its place in the order of providence , and the sincerity of our heart , and the charity of our wishes , and the perseverance of our advocation . There are some ( as Tertullian observes ) qui loquacitatem facundiam existimant , at impudentiam constantiam deputant ; They are praters , and they are impudent , and they call that constancy and importunity : concerning which , the advice is easy : Many words or few are extrinsecall to the nature , and not at all considered in the effects of prayer ; but much desire and much holinesse , are essentiall to its constitution ; but we must be very curious that our importunity do not degenerate into impudence and a rude boldnesse . Capitolinus said of Antonius the Emperour and Philosopher , sanè quamvis esset constans , erat etiam verecundus ; he was modest even when he was most pertinacious in his desires . So must wee ; though wee must not be ashamed to aske for whatsoever we need , Rebus semper pudor absit in arctis , and in this sense it is true that Stasimus in the Comedy said concerning Mear , Verecundari neminem apud mensam decet , Nam ibi de divinis & humanis cernitur : Men must not be bashfull so as to lose their meat ; for that is a necessity that cannot bee dispensed withall : so it is in our prayers , whatsoever our necessity calls to us for , we must call to God for ; and he is not pleased with that rusticity or fond modesty of being ashamed to ask of God any thing that is honest and necessary ; yet our importunity hath also bounds of modesty , but such as are to be expressed with other significations ; and he is rightly modest towards God , who without confidence in himself , but not without confidence in Gods mercy , nor without great humility of person , and reverence of addresse , presents his prayers to God as earnestly as he can ; Provided alwayes , that in the greatest of our desires , and holy violence , we submit to Gods will , and desire him to choose for us . Our modesty to God in prayers hath no other measures but these : 1. Distrust of our selves : 2. Confidence in God : 3. Humility of person : 4. Reverence of addresse : and 5. Submission to Gods will : These are all , unlesse also you will adde that of Solomon : Be not rash with thy mouth , and let not thy heart be hasty to utter a thing before God , for God is in heaven , and thou upon earth , therefore let thy words be few . These things being observed , let your importunity be as great as it can , it is still the more likely to prevaile , by how much it is the more earnest , and signified and represented by the most offices extraordinary . 3ly . The last great advantage towards a prevailing intercession for others , is , that the person that prayes for his relatives , be a person of an extraordinary dignity , imployment or designation . For God hath appointed some persons and callings of men to pray for others , such are Fathers for their Children , Bishops for their Dioceses , Kings for their Subjects , and the whole Order Ecclesiasticall for all the men and women in the Christian Church . And it is well it is so ; for as things are now , and have been too long , how few are there that understand it to be their duty , or part of their necessary imployment , that some of their time , and much of their prayers , and an equall portion of their desires be spent upon the necessities of others ? All men doe not think it necessary , and fewer practise it frequently ; and they but coldly , without interest , and deep resentment : it is like the compassion we have in other mens miseries , we are not concerned in it , and it is not our case , and our hearts ake not when another mans children are made fatherlesse , or his wife a sad widow : and just so are our prayers for their relief : If we thought their evils to be ours , if wee and they as members of the same body had sensible and reall communications of good and evill ; if we understood what is really meant by being members one of another , or if we did not think it a spirituall word of art , instrumentall onely to a science , but no part of duty , or reall relation , sure we should pray more earnestly one for another then we usually doe . How few of us are troubled when he sees his brother wicked , or dishonorably vicious ? Who is sad and melancholy when his neighbour is almost in hell ? when he sees him grow old in iniquity ? How many days have we set apart for the publick relief and interests of the Kingdome ? How earnestly have we fasted , if our Prince be sick or afflicted ? What almes have we given for our brothers conversion ? or if this be great , how importunate and passionate have we been with God by prayer in his behalf , by prayer and secret petition ? But however , though it were well , very well , that all of us would think of this duty a little more ; because besides the excellency of the duty it self , it would have this blessed consequent , that for whose necessities we pray , if we doe desire earnestly they should be relieved , we would , when ever we can , and in all we can , set our hands to it ; and if we pity the Orphan children , and pray for them heartily , we would also , when we could , relieve them charitably : but though it were therefore very well that things were thus with all men , yet God who takes care for us all , makes provision for us in speciall manner ; and the whole Order of the Clergy are appointed by God to pray for others , to be Ministers of Christs Priesthood , to be followers of his Advocation , to stand between God and the people , and present to God all their needs , and all their desires . That this God hath ordained and appointed , and that this rather he will blesse and accept , appears by the testimony of God himself , for he onely can be witnesse in this particular ; for it depends wholly upon his gracious favour and acceptation . It was the case of Abraham and Abimelech : Now therefore restore the man his wife , for he is a Prophet , and he will pray for thee , and thou shalt live ; and this caused confidence in Micah : Now know I that the Lord will doe me good , seeing I have a Levite to my Priest : meaning , that in his Ministery , in the Ministery of Priests , God hath established the alternate returns of blessing and prayers , the entercouses between God and his people ; And thorough the descending ages of the synagogue it came to be transmitted also to the Christian Church , that the Ministers of Religion are advocates for us under Christ , by the Ministery of Reconciliation , by their dispensing the holy Sacraments , by the Keyes of the Kingdome of heaven , by Baptisme , and the Lords Supper , by binding and loosing , by the Word of God and Prayer ; and therefore saith St. James , If any man be sick among you , let him send for the Elders of the Church , and let them pray over him : meaning that God hath appointed them especially , and will accept them in ordinary , and extraordinary ; and this is that which is meant by blessing . A Father blesses his childe , and Solomon blessed his people , and Melchisedec the Priest blessed Abraham , and Moses blessed the Sons of Israel , and God appointed the Leviticall Priests to blesse the congregation ; and this is more then can be done by the people ; for though they can say the same prayer , and the People pray for their Kings , and Children for their Parents , and the Flock for the Pastor , yet they cannot blesse him as he blesses them ; for the lesse is blessed of the greater , and not the greater of the lesse ; and this is without all contradiction , said S. Paul : the meaning of the mysterie is this , That God hath appointed the Priest to pray for the People , and because he hath made it to be his ordinary office and imployment , he also intends to be seen in that way which he hath appointed , and chalked out for us ; his prayer , if it be found in the way of righteousnesse , is the surer way to prevaile in his intercessions for the people . But upon this stock comes in the greatest difficulty of the text : for if God heareth not sinners , there is an infinite necessity that the Ministers of Religion should be very holy : For all their ministeries consist in preaching and praying ; to these two are reducible , all the ministeries Ecclesiasticall which are of divine institution : so the Apostles summ'd up their imployment ; But we will give our selves continually to prayer , and to the ministery of the Word ; to exhort , to reprove , to comfort , to cast down , to determine cases of conscience , and to rule in the Church by the word of their proper Ministery ; and the very making lawes Ecclesiasticall , is the ministery of the word ; for so their dictates passe into lawes by being duties injoyn'd by God , or the acts , or exercises , or instruments of some injoyn'd graces . To prayer is reduced administration of the Sacraments : but binding and loosing , and visitation of the sick are mixt offices , partly relating to one , partly to the other . Now although the Word of God preached , will have a great effect , even though it be preached by an evill Minister , a vicious person ; yet it is not so well there , as from a pious man ; because by prayer also his preaching is made effectuall , and by his good example his Homilies and Sermons are made active ; and therefore it is very necessary in respect of this half of the Ministers office , [ The preaching of Word ] he be a good man ; unlesse he be , much perishes to the people , most of the advantages are lost . But then for the other half ; all those ministeries which are by way of prayer are rendred extremely invalid , and ineffectuall , if they be ministred by an evill person . For upon this very stock it was that St. Cyprian affirmed that none were to be chosen to the Ministery but immaculati & integri antistites , holy and upright men , who offering their sacrifices worthily to God , and holily , may be heard in their prayers which they make for the safety of the Lords people . But he presses this caution to a further issue : that it is not only necessary to choose holy persons to these holy Ministeries for fear of losing the advantages of a sanctified Ministery ; but also that the people may not be guilty of an evill communion , and a criminall state of society . Nec enim sibi plebs blandiatur quasi immunis à contagione delicti esse possit cum sacerdote peccatore communicans , the people cannot be innocent if they communicate with a vitious priest : for so said the Lord by the Prophet Hosea , Sacrificia eorum panis luctus ; their sacrifices are like bread of sorrow , whosoever eat thereof shall be defiled . The same also he sayes often and more vehemently , ibid. & lib. 4. ep . 2. But there is yet a further degree of this evill . It is not only a losse , and also criminall to the people to communicate with a Minister of a notorious evill life and scandalous , but it is affirmed by the Doctors of the Church to be wholly without effect : their prayers are sins , their Sacraments are null and ineffective , their communions are without consecration , their hand is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a dead hand , the blessings vain , their sacrifices rejected , their ordinations imperfect , their order is vanished , their character is extinguished , and the holy Ghost will not descend upon the mysteries when he is invocated by unholy hands and unsanctified lips . This is a sad story , but it is expresly affirmed by Dionysius , by St. Hierom upon the 2. chapter of Zephaniah , affirming that they do wickedly who affirm eucharistiam imprecantis facere verba , non vitam , & necessariam esse tantum solennem orationem & non sacerdotum merita : that the Eucharist is consecrated by the Word and solemn prayer , and not by the life and holinesse of the Priest ; and by St. Gelasius a by the Author of the imperfect work attributed to St. Chrysostome a who quotes the 8th . book of the Apostolicall Constitutions for the same Doctrine ; the words of which in the first chapter are so plain that Bovius b and Sixtus Senensis c accuse both the Author of the Apostolicall Constitutions , and St. Hierom and the Author of these Homilies to be guilty of the Doctrine of Iohn Hus , who for the crude delivery of this truth was sentenced by the councell of Constance . To the same sense and signification of Doctrine is that which is generally agreed upon by almost all persons ; that he that enters into his Ministery by Simony receives nothing but a curse , which is expresly affirmed by Petrus Damiani d and Tarasius e the Patriarch of Constantinople , by St. Gregory f , and St. Ambrose g . For if the holy Ghost leaves polluted Temples and unchast bodies , if he takes away his grace from them that abuse it , if the holy Ghost would not have descended upon Simon Magus at the prayer of St. Peter , if St. Peter had taken money for him : it is but reasonable to beleeve the holy Ghost will not descend upon the simoniacall , unchast Concubinaries , Schismaticks and scandalous Priests , and excommunicate . And beside the reasonablenesse of the Doctrine , it is also further affirmed by the councell of Neocaesarea , by St. h Chrysostome , i Innocentius , k Nicolaus the first , and by the Master of the Sentences upon the saying of God by the Prophet Malachic . 1. Maledicam benedictionibus vestris , I will curse your blessings ; upon the stock of these Scriptures , reasons , and authorities , we may see how we are to understand this advantage of intercession . The prayer and offices of holy Ministers are of great advantages for the interest of the people ; but if they be ministred to by evill men , by vicious , and scandalous Ministers , this extraordinary advantage is lost , they are left to stand alone , or to fall by their own crimes ; so much as is the action of God , and so much as is the piety of the man that attends and prayes in the holy place with the Priest , so far he shall prevail , but no further ; and therefore the Church hath taught her Ministers to pray thus in her preparatory prayer to consecration , Quoniam me peccatorem inter te & eundem populum Medium esse voluisti , licet in me boni operis testimonium non agnoscas , officium dispensationiis creditae non recuses , nec per me indignum famulum tuum eorum salutis pereat pretium , pro quibus victima factus salutaris , dignatus es fieri redemptio . For we must know that God hath not put the salvation of any man into the power of another . And although the Church of Rome by calling the Priests actuall intention simply necessary , and the Sacraments also indispensably necessary , hath left it in the power of every Curate to damn very many of his Parish ; yet it is otherwise with the accounts of truth , and the Divine mercy ; and therefore he will never exact the Sacraments of us by the measures and proportions of an evill Priest , but by the piety of the communicant , by the prayers of Christ , and the mercies of God. But although the greatest interest of salvation depends not upon this Ministery , yet as by this we receive many advantages , if the Minister be holy : so if he be vicious , we lose all that which could be conveyed to us by his part of the holy Ministration ; every man and woman in the assembly prays and joynes in the effect , and for the obtaining the blessing ; but the more vain persons are assembled , the lesse benefits are received even by good men there present : and therefore much is the losse , if a wicked Priest ministers , though the summe of affairs is not intirely turned upon his office or default ; yet many advantages are . For we must not think that the effect of the Sacraments is indivisibly done , at once , or by one ministery ; but they operate by parts , and by morall operation , by the length of time , and a whole order of piety , and holy ministeries ; every man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a fellow-worker with God in the work of his salvation ; and as in our devotion , no one prayer of our own alone prevails upon God for grace and salvation , but all the devotions of our life are upon Gods account for them ; so is the blessing of God brought upon the people by all the parts of their religion , and by all assistances of holy people , and by the ministeries not of one , but of all Gods Ministers , and relies finally upon our own faith , and obedience , and the mercies of God in Jesus Christ ; but yet for want of holy persons to minister , much diminution of blessing , and a losse of advantages is unavoidable ; therefore if they have great necessities , they can best hope that God will be moved to mercy on their behalf , if their necessities be recommended to God by persons of a great piety , of a holy calling , and by the most solomn offices . Lastly , I promised to consider concerning the signs of having our prayers heard ; concerning which , there is not much of particular observation ; but if our prayers be according to the warrant of Gods Word , if we aske according to Gods will , things honest and profitable , we are to relye upon the promises , and we are sure that they are heard ; and besides this , we can have no sign but the thing signified ; when we feel the effect , then we are sure God hath heard us ; but till then we are to leave it with God , and not to aske a sign of that , for which he hath made us a promise . And yet Cassian hath named one sign , which if you give me leave I will name unto you . It is a sign we shall prevail in our prayers , when the Spirit of God moves us to pray , cum fiduciâ & quasi securitate impetrandi , with a confidence and a holy security of receiving what we aske . But this is no otherwise a sign , but because it is a part of the duty ; and trusting in God is an endearing him , and doubting is a dishonour to him ; and he that doubts hath no faith ; for all good prayers relye upon Gods Word ; and we must judge of the effect by prudence : for he that askes what is not lawfull , hath made an unholy prayer ; if it be lawfull and not profitable , we are then heard when God denies us ; and if both these be in the prayer , he that doubts is a sinner , and then God will not hear him ; but beyond this I know no confidence is warrantable ; and if this be a signe of prevailing , then all the prudent prayers of all holy men shall certainely be heard , and because that is certain , we need no further inquiry into signes . I summe up all in the words of God by the Prophet : Run to and fro thorow the streets of Jerusalem , and see , and know , and seek in the broad places thereof , if you can finde a man , if there be any that executeth judgment , that seeketh truth , virum quaerentem fidem , a man that seeketh for faith , & propitius ero ei , and I will pardon it . God would pardon all Jerusalem for one good mans sake ; there are such dayes and opportunities of mercy when God at the prayer of one holy person will save a people ; and Ruffinus spake a great thing , but it was hugely true : Quis dubitet mundum stare precibus sanctorum ? the world it self is established and kept from dissolution by the prayers of Saints ; and the prayers of Saints shall hasten the day of Judgement ; and we cannot easily find two effects greater . But there are many other very great ones ; for the prayers of holy men appease Gods wrath , drive away temptations , resist and overcome the Devill : Holy prayer procures the ministery and service of Angels , it rescinds the Decrees of God , it cures sicknesses , and obtains pardon , it arrests the Sun in its course , and staies the wheels of the Charet of the Moon ; it rules over all Gods creatures , and opens and shuts the storehouses of rain ; it unlocks the cabinet of the womb , and quenches the violence of fire , it stops the mouthes of Lions , and reconciles our sufferance and weak faculties , with the violence of torment , and sharpnesse of persecution ; it pleases God and supplies all our needs . But Prayer that can do thus much for us , can do nothing at all without holinesse ; for God heareth not sinners , but if any man be a worshipper of God and doth his will , him he heareth . Sermon , VII . Of godly Fear , &c. Part I. Heb. 12. part of the 28th . and the 29th . verses . Let us have Grace whereby we may serve God with reverence and godly fear . For our God is a consuming fire . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so our Testaments usually read it from the authority of Theophylact ; Let us have grace : But some copies read it in the indicative mood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , we have grace , by which we do serve ; and it is something better consonant to the discourse of the Apostle . For having enumerated the great advantages which the Gospell hath above those of the Law , he makes an argument à majori ; and answers a tacite objection . The Law was delivered by Angels , but the Gospell by the Son of God : The Law was delivered from Mount Sinai , the Gospell from Mount Sion , from the heavenly Jerusalem : The Law was given with terrors and noises , with amazements of the standers by , and Moses himself the Minister did exceedingly quake and fear , and gave demonstration how infinitely dangerous it was by breaking that Law to provoke so mighty a God , who with his voice did shake the earth ; but the Gospell was given by a meek Prince , a gentle Saviour , with a still voice , scarce heard in the streets . But that this may be no objection , he proceeds and declares the terror of the Lord ; Deceive not your selves , our Law-giver appeared so upon earth , and was so truly , but now he is ascended into heaven , and from thence he speaks to us . See that ye refuse not him that speaketh , for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth , much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven : for as God once shaked the earth , and that was full of terror , so our Lawgiver shall do , and much more , and be farre more terrible , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said the Prophet Haggai , which the Apostle quotes here , he once shook the earth . But , once more I shake , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it is in the Prophesie ; I will shake not the earth only , but also heaven with a greater terror then was upon Mount Sinai , with the voice of an Archangell , with the trump of God , with a concussion so great , that heaven and earth shall be shaken in pieces , and new ones come in their room . This is an unspeakable and an unimaginable terror : Mount Sinai was shaken , but it stands to this day , but when that shaking shall be , the things that are shaken shall be no more ; that those things that cannot be shaken may remain , that is , not only that the clestiall Jerusalem may remain for ever , but that you who do not turn away from the faith and obedience of the Lord Jesus , you who cannot be shaken nor removed from your duty , you may remain for ever ; that when the rocks rend , and the mountains flie in pieces like the drops of a broken cloud , and the heavens shall melt , and the Sun shall be a globe of consuming fire , and the Moon shall be dark like an extinguish'd candle , then you poor men who could be made to tremble with an ague , or shake by the violence of a Northern winde , or be remov'd from your dwellings by the unjust decree of a persecutor , or be thrown from your estates by the violence of an unjust man , yet could not be removed from your duty , and though you went trembling , yet would go to death for the testimony of a holy cause , and you that would dye for your faith would also live according to it ; you shall be established by the power of God , and supported by the arme of your Lord , and shall in all this great shaking be unmovable as the corner stone of the gates of the new Jerusalem , you shall remain and abide for ever . This is your case . And to summe up the whole force of the argument , the Apostle addes the words of Moses : as it was then , so it is true now , Our God is a consuming fire : He was so to them that brake the Law , but he will be much more to them that disobey his Son , he made great changes then , but those which remain are farre greater , and his terrors are infinitely more intolerable ; and therefore although he came not in the spirit of Elias , but with meeknesse and gentle insinuations , soft as the breath of heaven , not willing to disturb the softest stalk of a violet , yet his second coming shall be with terrors , such as shall amaze all the world , and dissolve it into ruine , and a Chaos . This truth is of so great efficacy to make us do our duty , that now we are sufficiently enabled with this consideration . This is the grace which we have to enable us , this terror will produce fear , and fear will produce obedience , and we therefore have grace , that is , we have such a motive to make us reverence God and fear to offend him , that he that dares continue in sin and refuses to hear him that speaks to us from heaven , and from thence shall come with terrors , this man despises the grace of God , he is a gracelesse , fearlesse , impudent man , and he shall finde that true in hypothesi , and in his own ruine , which the Apostle declares in thesi , and by way of caution , and provisionary terror , Our God is a consuming fire ; this is the sense and design of the text . Reverence and godly fear , they are the effects of this consideration , they are the duties of every Christian , they are the grace of God. I shall not presse them only to purposes of awfulnesse and modesty of opinion , and prayers against those strange doctrines which some have introduc'd into Religion , to the destruction of all manners and prudent apprehensions of the distances of God and man ; such as are the Doctrine of necessity of familiarity with God , and a civill friendship , and a parity of estate , and an unevennesse of adoption ; from whence proceed rudenesse in prayers , flat and undecent expressions , affected rudenesse , superstitious sitting at the holy Sacrament , making it to be a part of Religion to be without fear and reverence ; the stating of the Question is a sufficient reproof of this folly ; whatsoever actions are brought into Religion without reverence and godly fear , are therefore to be avoided because they are condemned in this advice of the Apostle , and are destructive of those effects which are to be imprinted upon our spirits by the terrors of the day of Judgement . But this fear and reverence the Apostle intends should be a deletery to all sin whatsoever : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , sayes the Etymologicum , whatsoever is terrible is destructive of that thing for which it is so ; and if we fear the evill effects of sin , let us flie from it , we ought to fear its alluring face too ; let us be so afraid , that we may not dare to refuse to hear him whose Throne is heaven , whose Voice is thunder , whose Tribunall is clouds , whose Seat is the right hand of God , whose Word is with power , whose Law is given with mighty demonstration of the Spirit , who shall reward with heaven and joyes eternall , and who punishes his rebels that will not have him to reign over them , with brimstone and fire , with a worm that never dies , and a fire that never is quenched ; let us fear him who is terrible in his Judgements , just in his his dispensation , secret in his providence , severe in his demands , gracious in his assistances , bountifull in his gifts , and is never wanting to us in what we need ; and if all this be not argument strong enough to produce fear , and that fear great enough to secure obedience , all arguments are uselesse , all discourses are vain , the grace of God is ineffective , and we are dull as the Dead sea , unactive as a rock , and we shall never dwell with God in any sense , but as he is a consuming fire , that is , dwell in the everlasting burnings . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Reverence and caution , modesty and fear , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so it is in some copies , with caution and fear ; or if we render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be fear of punishment , as it is generally understood by interpreters of this place , and is in Hesychius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , then the expression is the same in both words , and it is all one with the other places of Scripture , Work out your salvation with fear and trembling , degrees of the same duty , and they signifie all those actions and graces which are the proper effluxes of fear ; such as are reverence , prudence , caution , and diligence , chastity and a sober spirit : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so also say the Grammarians ; and it means plainly this ; since our God will appear so terrible at his second comming , let us passe the time of our sojourning here in fear , that is , modestly without too great confidence of our selves ; soberly without bold crimes , which when a man acts he must put on shamelesnesse ; reverently towards God , as fearing to offend him ; diligently observing his commandements , inquiring after his will , trembling at his voice , attending to his Word , revering his judgements , fearing to provoke him to anger , for it is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Thus far it is a duty . Concerning which , that I may proceed orderly , I shall first consider how far fear is a duty of Christian Religion . 2. Who and what states of men ought to fear , and upon what reasons . 3. What is the excesse of fear , or the obliquity and irregularity whereby it becomes dangerous , penall , and criminall , a state of evill and not a state of duty . 1. Fear is taken sometimes in holy Scripture for the whole duty of man , for his whole Religion towards God. And now Israel what doth the Lord thy God require of thee , but to fear the Lord thy God , &c. fear is obedience , and fear is love , and fear is humility , because it is the parent of all these , and is taken for the whole duty to which it is an introduction . The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdome , a good understanding have all they that do thereafter , the praise of it endureth for ever ; and , Fear God and keep his Commandements , for this is the whole duty of man : and thus it is also used in the New Testament : Let us cleanse our selves from all filthinesse of the flesh and spirit , perfecting holinesse in the fear of God. 2. Fear is sometimes taken for worship : for so our blessed Saviour expounds the words of Moses in Mar. 4. 10. taken from Deut. 10. 20. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God , so Moses ; Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God , and him only shalt thou serve , said our blessed Saviour : and so it was used by the Prophet Jonah , I am an Hebrew , and I fear the Lord the God of Heaven , that is , I worship him ; he is the Deity that I adore , that is my worship and my Religion ; and because the new Colony of Assyrians did not do so , at the beginning of their dwelling there , they feared not the Lord , that is , they worshipped other Gods , and not the God of Israel , therefore God sent Lions among them which slew many of them . Thus far fear is not a distinct duty , but a word signifying something besides it self ; and therefore cannot come into the consideration of this text . Therefore 3. Fear as it is a religious passion is divided as the two Testaments are ; and relates to the old and new Covenant , and accordingly hath its distinction . In the Law , God used his people like servants ; in the Gospell , he hath made us to be sons . In the Law he enjoyn'd many things , hard , intricate , various , painfull , and expensive ; in the Gospell he gave commandements , not hard , but full of pleasure , necessary and profitable to our life , and well being of single persons and communities of men . In the Law , he hath exacted those many precepts by the covenant of exact measures , grains and scruples ; in the Gospel , he makes abatement for humane infirmities , temptations , morall necessities , mistakes , errors , for every thing that is pitiable , for every thing that is not malicious , and voluntary . In the Law , there are many threatnings , and but few promises , the promise of temporal prosperities branch'd into single instances ; in the Gospell , there are but few threatnings , and many promises : And when God by Moses gave the 10 Commandements , only one of them was sent out with a promise , the precept of obedience to all our parents and superiors ; but when Christ in his first Sermon recommended 8 duties , Christian duties to the College of Disciples , every one of them begins with a blessing and ends with a promise , and therefore grace is opposed to the Law. So that upon these differing interests , the world put on the affections of Servants , and Sons : They of old feared God as a severe Lord , much in his commands , abundant in threatnings , angry in his executions , terrible in his name , in his Majesty , and appearance , dreadfull unto death ; and this the Apostle cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The spirit of bondage , or of a servant . But we have not received that Spirit , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , unto fear , not a servile fear , but the Spirit of adoption and a filiall fear we must have ; God treats us like sons , he keeps us under discipline , but designs us to the inheritance : and his government is paternall , his disciplines are mercifull , his conduct gentle , his Son is our Brother , and our Brother is our Lord , and our Judge is our Advocate , and our Priest hath felt our infirmities , and therefore knows to pity them , and he is our Lord , and therefore he can relieve them : and from hence we have affections of sons ; so that a fear we must not have , and yet a fear we must have ; and by these proportions we understand the difference . Malo vereri quàm timeri me à meis , said one in the Comedy , I had rather be reverend then fear'd by my children . The English doth not well expresse the difference , but the Apostle doth it rarely well . For that which he cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Rom. 8. 15. he cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 2 Tim. 1. 7. The spirit of bondage is the spirit rather of timorousnesse , of fearfulnesse rather then fear ; when we are fearfull that God will use us harshly ; or when we think of the accidents that happen , worse then the things are , when they are proportion'd by measures of eternity : and from this opinion conceive forc'd resolutions and unwilling obedience . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Aristotle , Good men are guided by reverence , not by fear , and they avoid not that which is afflictive , but that which is dishonest : they are not so good whose rule is otherwise . But that we may take more exact measures , I shall describe the proportions of Christian or godly fear by the following propositions . 1. Godly fear is ever without despair ; because Christian fear is an instrument of duty , and that duty without hope can never go forward . For what should that man do who like Nausiclides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; hath neither spring nor harvest , friends nor children , rewards nor hopes ? A man will very hardly be brought to deny his own pleasing appetite , when for so doing he cannot hope to have a recompense ; when the mind of a man is between hope and fear , it is intent upon its work ; at post quam adempta spes est , lassus , curâ confectus stupet , if you take away the hope the minde is weary , spent with care , hindred by amazements ; aut aliquem sumpserimus temerariâ in Deos desperatione , saith Arnobius ; a despair of mercy makes men to despise God ; and the damned in hell when they shall for ever be without hope , are also without fear ; their hope is turned into despair , and their fear into blasphemy , and they curse the fountain of blessing , and revile God to eternall ages . When Dionysius the Tyrant imposed intolerable tributes upon his Sicilian subjects , it amazed them , and they petitioned and cryed for help , and flatter'd him , and fear'd and obey'd him carefully , but he impos'd still new ones , and greater , and at last left them poor as the valleys of Vesuvius , or the top of Aetna ; but then all being gone , the people grew idle , and carelesse , and walked in the markets , and publick places , cursing the Tyrant , and bitterly scoffing his person and vices ; which when Dionysius heard , he caused his Publicans and Committees to withdraw their impost ; for now , sayes he , they are dangerous , because they are desperate , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when men have nothing left they will despise their Rulers : and so it is in Religion ; audaces cogimur esse metu . If our fears be unreasonable , our diligence is none at all , and from whom we hope for nothing , neither benefit nor indemnity , we despise his command and break his yoke , and trample it under our most miserable feet . And therefore Aeschylus cals these people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , hot , mad , and furious , carelesse of what they do , and he opposes them to pious and holy people . Let your confidence be allayed with fear , and your fear be sharpned with the intertextures of a holy hope , and the active powers of our souls are furnished with feet and wings , with eyes and hands , with consideration and diligence , with reason and incouragements . But despair is part of the punishment that is in hell , and the Devils still do evill things because they never hope to receive a good , nor finde a pardon . 2. Godly fear must alwaies be with honourable opinion of God , without disparagements of his mercies , without quarrellings at the intrigues of his providence , or the rough wayes of his Justice , and therefore it must be ever relative to our selves and our own failings and imperfections . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , God never walks perversely towards us , unlesse we walk crookedly towards him . And therefore persons that only consider the greatnesse and power of God , and dwell for ever in the meditations of those severe executions which are transmitted to us by story , or we observe by accident , and conversation , are apt to be jealous concerning God , and fear him as an enemy , or as children fear fire , or women thunder , only because it can hurt them ; Saepius illud cogitant quid possit is cujus in ditione sunt , quàm quid debeat facere ( Cicero pro Quinctio ) they remember oftner what God can do then what he will ; being more afrighted at his Judgements , then delighted with his mercy . Such as were the Lacedaemonians , when ever they saw a man grow popular , or wise , or beloved , and by consequence powerfull , they turned him out of the countrey : and because they were afraid of the power of Ismenias , and knew that Pelopidas and Pherenicus and Androclydes could hurt them , if they listed , they banished them from Sparta , but they let Epaminondas alone , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as being studious and therefore unactive , and poor and therefore harmlesse ; It is harder when men use God thus , and fear him as the great Justiciar of the world , who sits in heaven , and observes all we do , and cannot want excuse to punish all mankinde . But this caution I have now inserted for their sakes whose Schooles and Pulpits raise doctrinall fears concerning God , which if they were true , the greatest part of mankinde would be tempted to think they have reason not to love God , and all the other part that have not apprehended a reason to hate him , would have very much reason to suspect his severitie , and their own condition . Such are they which say that God hath decreed the greatest part of mankinde to eternall damnation , and that only to declare his severity and to manifest his glory by a triumph in our torments , and rejoycings in the gnashing of our teeth . And they also fear God unreasonably , and speak no good things concerning his Name , who say that God commands us to observe Lawes which are impossible ; that think he will condemn innocent persons for errors of Judgement which they cannot avoid , that condemn whole Nations for different opinions , which they are pleased to call Heresie ; that think God will exact the duties of a man by the measures of an Angell , or will not make abatement for all our pitiable infirmities . The precepts of this caution are , that we remember Gods mercy to be over all his works , that is , that he shewes mercy to all his creatures that need it ; that God delights to have his mercy magnified in all things , and by all persons , and at all times , and will not suffer his greatest honour to be most of all undervalued ; and therefore as he that would accuse God of injustice were a blasphemer , so he that suspects his mercy , dishonours God as much , and produces in himself that fear which is the parent of trouble , but no instrument of duty . 3ly , Godly fear is operative , diligent , and instrumentall to caution and strict walking : for so fear is the mother of holy living ; and the Apostle urges it by way of upbraiding : What! doe wee proveke God to anger ? are we stronger then he ? meaning , that if we be not strong enough to struggle with a feaver , if our voyces cannot out-roar thunder , if we cannot check the ebbing and flowing of the sea , if we cannot adde one cubit to our stature , how shall we escape the mighty hand of God ? And here heighten your apprehensions of the Divine power , of his justice , and severity , of the fiercenesse of his anger , and the sharpnesse of his sword , the heavynesse of his hand , and the swiftnesse of his arrows , as much as ever you can ; provided the effect passe on no further , but to make us reverent and obedient : but that fear is unreasonable , servile , and unchristian , that ends in bondage and servile affections , scruple and trouble , vanity and incredulity , superstition and desperation : It s proper bounds are humble and devout prayers , and a strict and a holy piety , ( according to his laws ) and glorifications of God , or speaking good things of his holy Name ; and then it cannot be amisse : wee must be full of confidence towards God , we must with cheerfulnesse relye upon Gods goodnesse for the issue of our souls , and our finall interest , but this expectation of the Divine mercy must be in the ways of piety . Commit your selves to God in well-doing as unto a faithfull Creator . Alcibiades was too timorous , who being called from banishment refused to return , and being asked if he durst not trust his country , answered , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : In every thing else , but in the question of his life he would not trust his Mother , lest ignorantly she should mistake the black bean for the white , and intending a favour should doe him a mischief . We must , we may most safely trust God with our souls ; the stake is great , but the venture is none at all . For he is our Creator , and he is faithfull ; he is our Redeemer , and he bought them at a dear rate ; he is our Lord , and they are his own ; he prays for them to his heavenly Father , and therefore he is an interested person . So that he is a Party , and an Advocate , and a Judge too ; and therefore there can be no greater security in the world on Gods part : and this is our hope , and our confidence : but because we are but earthen vessels , under a law , and assaulted by enemies , and endangered by temptations , therefore it concerns us to fear , lest we make God our enemy , and a party against us : And this brings me to the next part of the consideration ; Who and what states of men ought to feare , and for what reasons ? for as the former cautions did limit , so this will encourage ; those did direct , but this will exercise our godly Feare . 1. I shall not here insist upon the generall reasons of feare , which concern every man , though it be most certain , that every one hath cause to fear , even the most confident , and holy , because his way is dangerous and narrow , troublesome and uneven , full of ambushes and pitfalls ; and I remember what Polynices said in the Tragedy when he was unjustly throwne from his Fathers Kingdome , and refused to treat of peace but with a sword in his hand , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . every step is a danger for a valiant man when he walkes in his enemies countrey ; and so it is with us ; we are espyed by God , and observed by Angels , we are betrayed within , and assaulted without , the Devill is our enemy , and we are fond of his mischiefs ; he is crafty , and we love to be abused ; hee is malicious , and wee are credulous ; hee is powerfull , and wee are weak ; hee is too ready of himself , and yet wee desire to be tempted ; the world is alluring , and wee consider not its vanity ; sin puts on all pleasures , and yet wee take it though it puts us to pain : In short , wee are vain , and credulous , and sensuall , and trifling ; wee are tempted , and tempt our selves , and we sin frequently , and contract evill habits , and they become second natures , and bring in a second death miserable and eternall : Every man hath need to feare , because every man hath weaknesses , and enemies , and temptations , and dangers , and causes of his own . But I shall onely instance in some peculiar sorts of men , who it may be , least think of it , and therefore have most cause to fear . 1t. Are those of whom the Apostle speaks , Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) said the Greek proverb ; In ordinary fish we shall never meet with thornes , and spiny prickles : and in persons of an ordinary even course of life we finde it too often , that they have no checks of conscience , or sharp reflexions upon their conditions ; they fall into no horrid crimes , and they think all is peace round about them : But you must know , that as Grace is the improvement and bettering of Nature , and Christian graces are the persections of Morall habits , and are but new circumstances , formalities , and degrees ; so it grows in naturall measures by supernaturall aides , and it hath its degrees , its strengths and weaknesses , its promotions and arrests , its stations and declensions , its direct sicknesses and indispositions ; and there is a state of grace that is next to sin ; it inclines to evill and dwels with a temptation , its acts are imperfect , and the man is within the Kingdome , but he lives in its borders , and is dubiae jurisdictionis . These men have cause to fear ; These men seem to stand , but they reel indeed , and decline toward danger and death . Let these men ( saith the Apostle ) take heed lest they fall , for they shake already ; such are persons whom the Scriptures call weak in faith . I doe not mean new beginners in Religion , but such who have dwelt long in its confines , and yet never enter into the heart of the countrey ; such whose faith is tempted , whose piety does not grow , such who yeeld a little , people that doe all that they can lawfully doe , and study how much is lawfull , that they may lose nothing of a temporall interest : people that will not be Martyrs in any degree , and yet have good affections , and love the cause of Religion , and yet will suffer nothing for it : these are such which the Apostle speaks , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , They think they stand , and so they doe , upon one leg , that is , so long as they are untempted ; but when the Tempter comes , then they fall and bemoan themselves , that by losing peace they lost their inheritance . There are a great many sorts of such persons : some when they are full , are content , and rejoyce in Gods providence , but murmur and are amazed when they fall into poverty . They are chaste so long as they are within the protection of marriage , but when they return to liberty they fall into bondage , and complain they cannot help it ; They are temperate and sober , if you let them alone at home , but call them abroad and they will lose their sober thoughts , as Dinah did her honour , by going into new company . These men in these estates think they stand , but God knows they are soon weary , and stand stiffe as a Cane , which the heat of the Sirian star or the flames of the Sun cannot bend ; but one sigh of a Northern wind shakes them into the tremblings of a palsey : In this the best advice is , that such persons should watch their own infirmities , and see on which side they are most open , and by what enemies they use to fall , and to fly from such parties as they would avoid death . But certainly they have great cause to fear , who are sure to be sick when the weather changes ; or can no longer retain their possession but till an enemy please to take it away , or will preserve their honour but till some smiling temptation aske them to forgoe it . 2ly , They also have great reason to fear whose repentance is broken into fragments , and is never a whole or entire change of life : I mean those that resolve against a sin , and pray against it , and hate it in all the resolutions of their understanding , till that unlucky period comes in which they use to act it , but then they sin as certainly as they will infallibly repent it , when they have done : these are a very great many Christians who are esteemed of the better sort of penitents , yet feel this feaverish repentance to be their best state of health ; they fall certainly in the returns of the same circumstances , or at a certain distance of time , but God knows they doe not get the victory over their sin , but are within its power . For this is certain , they who sin and repent , and sin again in the same or the like circumstances , are in some degree under the power and dominion of sin ; when their actions can be reduc'd to an order or a method , to a rule or a certainty , that oftner hits then fails , that sin is habituall ; though it be the least habit , yet a habit it is ; every course , or order , or method of sin ; every constant or periodicall return , every return that can be regularly observed , or which a man can foresee , or probably foretell , even then when he does not intend it , but prays against it , every such sin is to be reckoned not for a single action , or upon the accounts of a pardonable infirmity , but it is a combination , an evill state , such a thing as the man ought to feare concerning himselfe , lest he be surpriz'd and call'd from this world before this evill state be altered : for if he be , his securities are but slender , and his hopes will deceive him . It was a severe doctrine that was maintain'd by some great Clerks and holy men in the Primitive Church , That Repentance was to be but once after Baptism : One Faith , one Lord , one Baptisme ; one Repentance ; * all these the Scripture saith ; and it is true , if by repentance we mean the entire change of our condition ; for he that returns willingly to the state of an unbeleeving , or a heathen profane person , intirely , and choosingly , in defiance of , and apostasie from his Religion , cannot be renew'd againe ( as the Apostle twice affirms in his Epistle to the Hebrews ) . But then , concerning this state of Apostasie , when it hapned in the case , not of Faith , but of Charity and obedience , there were many fears and jealousies : they were therefore very severe in their doctrines , lest men should fall into so evill a condition , they enlarged their fear that they might be stricter in their duty ; and generally this they did beleeve , that every second repentance was worse then the first , and the third worse then the second , and still as the sin returned , the Spirit of God did the lesse love to inhabit ; and if he were provoked too often , would so withdraw his aides and comfortable cohabitation , that the Church had little comfort in such children ; so said Clemens Alexandr . stromat . 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Those frequent and alternate repentances , that is , repentances and sinnings interchangeably , differ not from the conditions of men that are not within the covenant of grace , from them that are not beleevers , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , save onely ( says he ) that these men perceive that they sin , they doe it more against their conscience then infidels and unbeleevers ; and therefore they doe it with lesse honesty and excuse , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , I know not which is worse , either to sin knowingly or wilfully , or to repent of our sin , and sin it over again . And the same severe doctrine is delivered by Theodoret in his 12 book against the Greeks , and is hugely agreeable to the discipline of the Primitive Church : And it is a truth of so great severity , that it ought to quicken the repentance and sowre the gayeties of easy people , and make them fear , whose repentance is therefore ineffectuall , because it is not integrall or united , but broken in pieces by the intervention of new crimes ; so that the repentance is every time to begin anew ; and then let it be considered what growth that repentance can make that is never above a week old , that is for ever in its infancy , that is still in its birth , that never gets the dominion over sin . These men , I say , ought to fear , lest God reject their persons , and deride the folly of their new begun repentances , and at last be weary of giving them more opportunities , since they approve all , and make use of none , their understanding is right and their will a slave , their reason is for God and their affections for sin ; these men ( as the Apostles expression is ) walk not as wise but as fools : for we deride the folly of those men that resolve upon the same thing a thousand times , and never keep one of those resolutions . These men are vaine and light , easy and effeminate , childish and abused ; these are they of whom our blessed Saviour said those sad decretory words , Many shall strive to enter in , and shall not be able . SERMON , VIII . Part II. 3. THey have great reason to feare , whose sins are not yet remitted ; for they are within the dominion of sin , within the Kingdome of darknesse , and the regions of feare : Light makes us confident , and Sin checks the spirit of a man into the pusillanimity and cowardize of a girle or a conscious boy : and they doe their work in the days of peace and a wealthy fortune , and come to pay their symbole in a warre or in a plague ; then they spend of their treasure of wrath , which they laid up in their vessels of dishonour ! And indeed , want of feare brought them to it ; for if they had known how to have accounted concerning the changes of mortality , if they could have reckoned right concerning Gods judgements falling upon sinners , and remembred that themselves are no more to God then that Brother of theirs that died in a drunken surfeit , or was kill'd in a Rebell warre , or was before his grave corrupted by the shames of lust ; if they could have told the minutes of their life , and passed on towards their grave at least in religious and sober thoughts , and consider'd that there must come a time for them to die , and after death comes judgement , a fearfull and an intolerable judgement , it would not have come to this passe , in which their present condition of affairs doe amaze them , and their sin hath made them lyable unto death , and that death is the beginning of an eternall evill . In this case it is naturall to fear ; and if men consider their condition , and know that all the felicity , and all the security they can have , depends upon Gods mercy pardoning their sins , they cannot choose but fear infinitely , if they have not reason to hope that their sins are pardoned . * Now concerning this , men indeed have generally taken a course to put this affair to a very speedy issue . God is mercifull , and God forgive mee , and all is done : or it may be a few sighs , like the deep sobbings of a man that is almost dead with laughter , that is , a trifling sorrow returning upon a man after he is full of sin , and hath pleased himselfe with violence , and revolving onely by a naturall change from sin to sorrow , from laughter to a groan , from sunshine to a cloudy day ; or it may be the good man hath left some one sin quite , or some degrees of all sin , and then the conclusion is firm , he is rectus in Cur●â , his sins are pardoned , he was indeed in an evill condition , but now he is purged , he is sanctified and clean . These things are very bad , but it is much worse that men should continue in their sin , and grow old in it , and arrive at confirmation , and the strength of habituall wickednesse , and grow fond of it , and yet think if they die , their account stands as fair in the eyes of Gods mercy , as St. Peter's after his tears and sorrow . Our sins are not pardoned easily and quickly ; and the longer and the greater hath been the iniquity , the harder and more difficult and uncertain is the pardon ; it is a great progresse to return from all the degrees of death to life , to motion , to quicknesse , to purity , to acceptation , to grace , to contention , and growth in grace , to perseverance , and so to pardon . For pardon stands no where but at the gates of heaven . It is a great mercy that signifies a finall and universall acquittance . God sends it out in little scroles , and excuses you from falling by the sword of the enemy , or the secret stroke of an Angell in the days of the plague ; but these are but little entertainments and inticings of our hopes to work on towards the great pardon which is registred in the leaves of the Book of Life . And it is a mighty folly to think , that every little line of mercy signifies glory and absolution from the eternall wrath of God ; and therefore it is not to be wondred at , that wicked men are unwilling to dye ; it is a greater wonder that many of them dye with so little resentment of their danger and their evill . There is reason for them to tremble when the Judge summons them to appear . When his messenger is clothed with horror , and speaks in thunder ; when their conscience is their accuser , and their accusation is great , and their bills uncancell'd , and they have no title to the crosse of Christ , no advocate , no excuse ; when God is their enemy , and Christ is the injur'd person , and the Spirit is grieved , and sicknesse and death come to plead Gods cause against the man ; then there is reason that the naturall fears of death should be high and pungent , and those naturall fears encreased by the reasonable and certain expectations of that anger which God hath laid up in heaven for ever , to consume and destroy his enemies . And indeed if we consider upon how trifling and inconsiderable grounds most men hope for pardon ( if at least that may be call'd hope , which is nothing but a carelesse boldnesse , and an unreasonable wilfull confidence ) we shall see much cause to pity very many who are going merrily to a sad and intolerable death . Pardon of sins is a mercy which Christ purchased with his dearest blood , which he ministers to us upon conditions of an infinite kindnesse , but yet of great holinesse and obedience , and an active living faith ; it is a grace , that the most holy persons beg of God with mighty passion , and labour for with a great diligence , and expect with trembling fears , and concerning it many times suffer sadnesses with uncertain soules , and receive it by degrees , and it enters upon them by little portions , and it is broken as their sighs and sleeps . But so have I seen the returning sea enter upon the strand , and the waters rolling towards the shore , throw up little portions of the tide , and retire as if nature meant to play , and not to change the abode of waters ; but still the floud crept by little steppings , and invaded more by his progressions then he lost by his retreat , and having told the number of its steps , it possesses its new portion till the Angell calls it back , that it may leave its unfaithfull dwelling of the sand : so is the pardon of our sins , it comes by slow motions , and first quits a present death , and turnes , it may be , into a sharp sicknesse ; and if that sicknesse prove not health to the soul , it washes off , and it may be will dash against the rock again , and proceed to take off the severall instances of anger , and the periods of wrath ; but all this while it is uncertain concerning our finall interest , whether it be ebbe or floud ; and every hearty prayer , and every bountifull almes still enlarges the pardon , or addes a degree of probability and hope ; and then a drunken meeting , or a covetous desire , or an act of lust , or looser swearing , idle talk , or neglect of Religion , makes the pardon retire ; and while it is disputed between Christ and Christs enemy who shall be Lord , the pardon fluctuates like the wave , striving to climbe the rock , and is wash'd off like its own retinue , and it gets possession by time and uncertainty , by difficulty , and the degrees of a hard progression . When David had sinned but in one instance , interrupting the course of a holy life by one sad calamity , it pleased God to pardon him ; but see upon what hard terms : He prayed long , and violently , he wept sorely , he was humbled in sackcloth and ashes , he eat the bread of affliction , and drank of his bottle of tears ; he lost his Princely spirit , and had an amazing conscience ; he suffer'd the wrath of God , and the sword never did depart from his house , his Son rebell'd , and his Kingdome revolted ; he fled on foot , and maintained Spies against his childe , hee was forc'd to send an army against him that was dearer then his owne eyes , and to fight against him whom he would not hurt for all the riches of Syria and Egypt ; his concubines were desir'd by an incestuous mixture , in the face of the sun before all Israel , and his childe that was the fruit of his sin , after a 7 days feaver dyed , and left him nothing of his sin to show , but sorrow , and the scourges of the Divine vengeance ; and after all this , God pardoned him finally , because he was for ever sorrowfull , and never did the sin againe . He that hath sinned a thousand times for David's once , is too confident , if he thinks that all his shall be pardoned at a lesse rate then was used to expiate that one mischief of the religious King : The son of David died for his father David , as well as he did for us ; he was the Lambe slain from the beginning of the world ; and yet that death , and that relation , and all the heap of the Divine favours which crown'd David with a circle richer then the royall diadem , could not exempt him from the portion of sinners , when he descended into their pollutions . I pray God we may find the sure mercies of David , and may have our portion in the redemption wrought by the Son of David ; but we are to expect it upon such terms as are revealed , such which include time , and labour , and uncertainty , and watchfulnesse , and fear , and holy living . But it is a sad observation that the case of pardon of sins is so administred , that they that are most sure of it have the greatest fears concerning it , and they to whom it doth not belong at all are as confident as children and fooles , who believe every thing they have a mind to , not because they have reason so to doe , but because without it they are presently miserable . The godly and holy persons of the Church , work out their salvation with fear and trembling ; and the wicked goe to destruction with gayety and confidence : these men think all is well , while they are in the gall of bitternesse , and good men are tossed in a tempest , crying and praying for a safe conduct , and the sighs of their feares , and the wind of their prayers waft them safely to their port . Pardon of sins is not easily obtain'd ; because they who onely certainly can receive it , find difficulty , and danger , and fears in the obtaining it ; and therefore their case is pityable and deplorable , who when they have least reason to expect pardon , yet are most confident and carelesse . But because there are sorrows on one side and dangers on the other , and temptations on both sides , it will concern all sorts of men to know when their sins are pardoned . For then when they can perceive their signes certain and evident , they may rest in their expectations of the Divine mercies ; when they cannot see the signes , they may leave their confidence , and change it into repentance , and watchfulnesse , and stricter observation ; and in order to this , I shall tell you that which shall never faile you ; a certaine signe that you may know whether or no , and when , and in what degree your persons are pardoned . 1. I shall not consider the evils of sin by any Metaphysicall and abstracted effects , but by sensible , reall , and materiall . Hee that revenges himself of another , does something that will make his enemy grieve , something that shall displease the offender as much as sin did the offended ; and therefore all the evills of sin are such as relate to us , and are to bee estimated by our apprehensions . Sin makes God angry , and Gods anger if it be turned aside will make us miscrable and accursed , and therefore in proportion to this we are to reckon the proportions of Gods mercy in forgivenesse , or his anger in retaining . 2. Sin hath obliged us to suffer many evills , even whatsoever the anger of God is pleased to inflict ; sicknesse and dishonour , poverty and shame , a caytive spirit , and a guilty conscience , famine and war , plague and pestilence , sudden death and a short life temporall death or death eternall , according as God in the severall covenants of the Law and Gospel hath expressed . 3. For in the law of Moses sin bound them to nothing but temporall evills , but they were sore , and heavy , and many ; but these only there were threatned ; in the Gospel Christ added the menaces of evills , spirituall and eternall . 4. The great evill of the Jews was their abscission and cutting off from being Gods people , to which eternall damnation answers amongst us ; and as sicknesse , and war , and other intermediall evills were lesser strokes in order to the finall anger of God against their Nation , so are these and spirituall evills intermediall , in order to the Eternall destruction of sinning and unrepenting Christians . 5. When God had visited any of the sinners of Israel with a grievous sicknesse , then they lay under the evil of their sin , and were not pardoned till God took away the sicknesse ; but the taking the evill away , the evill of the punishment , was the pardon of the sin ; to pardon the sin is to spare the sinner : and this appears ; For when Christ had said to the man sick of the palsey , Son thy sins are forgiven thee , the Pharisees accused him of blasohemy , because none had power to forgive sins but God onely ; Christ to vindicate himselfe gives them an ocular demonstration , and proves his words : that yee may know the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins , he saith to the man sick of the palsey , Arise and walk ; then he pardoned the sin , when he took away the sicknesse , and proved the power by reducing it to act ; for if pardon of sins be any thing else , it must be easier or harder : if it be easier , then sin hath not so much evill in it as a sicknesse , which no Religion as yet ever taught . If it be harder , then Christs power to doe that which was harder , could not be proved by doing that which was easier . It remaines therefore , that it is the same thing to take the punishment away , as to procure or give the pardon ; because as the retaining the sin was an obligation to the evill of punishment , so the remitting the sin is the disobliging to its penalty . So farre then the case is manifest . 6. The next step is this , that although in the Gospel God punishes sinners with temporall judgements , and sicknesses , and deaths , with sad accidents , and evill Angels , and messengers of wrath ; yet besides these lesser strokes , he hath scorpions to chastise , and loads of worse evils to oppresse the disobedient ; he punishes one sin with another , vile acts with evill habits , these with a hard heart , and this with obstinacy , and obstinacy with impenitence , and impenitence with damnation . Now because the worst of evills which are threatned to us are such which consign to hell by persevering in sin , as God takes off our love and our affections , our relations and bondage under sin , just in the same degree he pardons us ; because the punishment of sin being taken off and pardoned , there can remaine no guilt . Guiltinesse is an unsignificant word , if there be no obligation to punishment . Since therefore spirituall evils , and progressions in sin , and the spirit of reprobation , and impenitence , and accursed habits , and perseverance in iniquity are the worst of evils , when these are taken off , the sin hath lost its venome , and appendant curse ; for ▪ sin passes on to eternall death onely by the line of impenitence , and it can never carry us to hell , if we repent timely and effectually ; in the same degree therefore that any man leaves his sin , just in the same degree he is pardoned , and he is sure of it . For although curing the temporall evill was the pardon of sins among the Jews , yet wee must reckon our pardon by curing the spirituall . If I have sinned against God in the shamefull crime of Lust , then God hath pardoned my sins , when upon my repentance and prayers he hath given me the grace of Chastity . My Drunkennesse is forgiven , when I have acquir'd the grace of Temperance , and a sober spirit . My Covetousnesse shall no more be a damning sin , when I have a loving and charitable spirit ; loving to do good , and despising the world : for every further degree of sin being a neerer step to hell , and by consequence the worst punishment of sin , it follows inevitably , that according as we are put into a contrary state , so are our degrees of pardon , and the worst punishment is already taken off . And therefore we shall find that the great blessing , and pardon , and redemption which Christ wrought for us , is called sanctification , holinesse , and turning us away from our sins : So St. Peter , Yee know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things , as silver and gold , from your vain conversation ; that 's your redemption , that 's your deliverance : you were taken from your sinfull state , that was the state of death , this of life and pardon ; and therefore they are made Synonyma by the same Apostle , According as his divine power hath given us all things that pertain to life and godlinesse : to live and to be godly , is all one ; to remain in sin and abide in death , is all one ; to redeem us from sin , is to snatch us from hell ; he that gives us godlinesse , gives us life , and that supposes pardon , or the abolition of the rites of eternall death : and this was the conclusion of St. Peter's Sermon , and the summe totall of our redemption and of our pardon ; God having raised up his Son , sent him to blesse us in turning away every one of you from your iniquity ; this is the end of Christs passion and bitter death , the purpose of all his and all our preaching , the effect of baptisme , purging , washing , sanctifying ; the work of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper , the same body that was broken , and the same blood that was shed for our redemption , is to conform us into his image and likenesse of living and dying , of doing and suffering ; The case is plain , just as we leave our sins , so Gods wrath shall be taken from us ; as we get the graces contrary to our former vices , so infallibly we are consign'd to pardon . If therefore you are in contestation against sin ; while you dwell in difficulty , and sometimes yeeld to sin , and sometimes overcome it , your pardon is uncertain , and is not discernible in its progresse ; but when sin is mortified and your lusts are dead , and under the power of grace , and you are led by the Spirit , all your fears concerning your state of pardon are causelesse , and afflictive without reason ; but so long as you live at the old rate of lust or intemperance , of covetousnesse or vanity , of tyranny or oppression , of carelesnesse or irreligion , flatter not your selves , you have no more reason to hope for pardon then a begger for a Crown , or a condemned criminall to be made Heir apparent to that Prince whom he would traiterously have slain . 4. They have great reason to fear concerning their condition , who having been in the state of grace , who having begun to lead a good life , and give their names to God by solemne deliberate acts of will and understanding , and made some progresse in the way of Godlinesse , if they shall retire to folly , and unravell all their holy vows , and commit those evils from which they formerly run as from a fire or inundation , their case hath in it so many evills that they have great reason to fear the anger of God , and concerning the finall issue of their souls . For return to folly hath in it many evils beyond the common state of sin and death ; and such evils which are most contrary to the hopes of pardon . 1. He that falls back into those sins he hath repented of , does grieve the holy Spirit of God by which he was sealed to the day of redemption . For so the Antithesis is plain and obvious ; If at the conversion of a sinner there is joy before the beatified Spirits , the Angels of God , and that is the consummation of our pardon and our consignation to felicity , then we may imagine how great an evill it is to grieve the Spirit of God , who is greater then the Angels . The Children of Israel were carefully warned that they should not offend the Angel : Behold , I send an Angel before thee , beware of him , and obey his voyce , provoke him not , for he will not pardon your transgressions , that is , he will not spare to punish you if you grieve him : Much greater is the evill if we grieve him who sits upon the throne of God , who is the Prince of all the Spirits : and besides , grieving the Spirit of God is an affection that is as contrary to his felicity , as lust is to his holinesse ; both which are essentiall to him . Tristitia enim omnium spirituum nequissima est , & pessima servis Dei , & omnium spiritus exterminat , & cruciat Spiritum sanctum , said Hennas : Sadnesse is the greatest enemy to Gods servants ; if you grieve Gods Spirit , you cast him out ; for he cannot dwell with sorrow and grieving ; unlesse it be such a sorrow which by the way of vertue passes on to joy and never ceasing felicity . Now by grieving the holy Spirit , is meant , those things which displease him , doing unkindnesse to him , and then the grief which cannot in proper sense seise upon him will in certain effects return upon us : Ita enim dica ( said Seneca ) sacer intra nos Spiritus sedet , bonorum , malorúmque nostrorum observator & custos , hic prout à nobis tractatus est , ita nos ipse tractat . There is a holy spirit dwels in every good man , who is the observer and guardian of all our actions , and as we treat him , so will he treat us . Now we ought to treat him sweetly and tenderly , thankfully and with observation . Deus praecepit Spiritum sanctum , utpote pro naturae suae bono tenerum & delicatum , tranquillitate , & lenitate , & quiete , & pace tractare , said Tertullian de Spectaculis . The Spirit of God is a loving and a kind Spirit , gentle and easy , chast and pure , righteous and peaceable , and when he hath done so much for us as to wash us from our impurities , and to cleanse us from our stains , and streighten our obliquities , and to instruct our ignorances , and to snatch us from an intolerable death , and to consign us to the day of redemption , that is , to the resurrection of our bodies from death , corruption , and the dishonors of the grave , and to appease all the storms and uneasynesse , and to make us free as the Sons of God , and furnished with the riches of the Kingdome , and all this with innumerable arts , with difficulty , and in despite of our lusts and reluctancies , with parts and interrupted steps , with waitings and expectations , with watchfulnesse and stratagems , with inspirations and collaterall assistances , after all this grace , and bounty , and diligence , that we should despite this grace , and trample upon the blessings , and scorn to receive life at so great an expence , and love of God , this is so great a basenesse and unworthynesse , that by troubling the tenderest passions , it turns into the most bitter hostilities ; by abusing Gods love it turns into jealousie , and rage , and indignation . Goe and sin no more , lest a worse thing happen to thee . 2. Falling away after we have begun to live well is a great cause of fear , because there is added to it the circumstance of inexcuseablenesse . The man hath been taught the secrets of the Kingdome , and therefore his understanding hath been instructed ; he hath tasted the pleasures of the Kingdome , and therefore his will hath been sufficiently entertain'd . He was entred into the state of life , and renounced the ways of death , his sin began to be pardoned , and his lusts to be crucified , he felt the pleasures of victory , and the blessings of peace , and therefore fell away , not onely against his reason , but also against his interest ; and to such a person the Questions of his soul have been so perfectly stated , and his prejudices and inevitable abuses so cleerly taken off , and he was so made to view the paths of life and death , that if he chooses the way of sin again , it must be , not by weaknesse or the infelicity of his breeding , or the weaknesse of his understanding , but a direct preference or prelation , a preferring sin before grace , the spirit of lust before the purities of the soul , the madnesse of drunkennesse before the fulnesse of the Spirit , money before our friend , and above our Religion , and Heaven , and God himself . This man is not to be pityed upon pretence , that he is betrayed , or to be relieved because he is oppressed with potent enemies , or to be pardoned because he could not help it , for he once did help it , he did overcome his temptation , and choose God , and delight in vertue , and was an heir of heaven , and was a conqueror over sin and delivered from death ; and he may do so still , and Gods grace is upon him more plentifully , and the lust does not tempt so strongly : and if it did , he hath more power to resist it ; and therefore if this man fals , it is because he wilfully chooses death , it is the portion that he loves , and descends into with willing and unpityed steps . Quàm vilis facta es nimis iterans vias tuas ! said God to Judah . 3. He that returns from vertue to his old vices , is forced to doe violence to his own reason , to make his conscience quiet : he does it so unreasonably , so against all his fair inducements , so against his reputation , and the principles of his society , so against his honour , and his promises , and his former discourses and his doctrines , his censuring of men for the same crimes , and the bitter invectives and reproofs which in the dayes of his health and reason he used against his erring Brethren , that he is now constrained to answer his own arguments , he is intangled in his own discourses , he is shamed with his former conversation ; and it will be remembred against him , how severely he reproved , and how reasonably he chastised the lust which now he runs to in despite of himself and all his friends . And because this is his condition , he hath no way left him , but either to be impudent , which is hard for him at first ; it being too big a naturall change to passe suddenly from grace to immodest circumstances and hardnesses of face and heart : or else , therefore he must entertain new principles and apply his minde to beleeve a lye ; and then begins to argue , There is no necessity of being so severe in my life ; greater sinners then I have been saved ; Gods mercies are greater then all the sins of man ; Christ dyed for us , and if I may not be allowed to sin this sin , what ease have I by his death ? or , this sin is necessary , and I cannot avoid it ; or , it is questionable , whether this sin is of so deep a die as is pretended ; or , flesh and bloud is alwaies with me , and I cannot shake it off ; or , there are some Sects of Christians that do allow it , or if they do not , yet they declare it easily pardonable , upon no hard terms , and very reconcileable with the hopes of heaven ; or , the Scriptures are not rightly understood in their pretended condemnations ; or else , other men do as bad as this , and there is not one in ten thousand but hath his private retirements from vertue ; or else , when I am old , this sin will leave me , and God is very pityfull to mankinde . But while the man like an intangled bird flutters in the net , and wildly discomposes that which should support him , and that which holds him , the net and his own wings , that is , the Lawes of God and his own conscience and perswasion , he is resolved to do the thing , and seeks excuses afterwards ; and when he hath found out a fig-leav'd apron that he could put on , or a cover for his eyes , that he may not see his own deformity , then he fortifies his error with irresolution and inconsideration ; and he beleeves it , because he will ; and he will , because it serves his turn : then he is entred upon his state of fear ; and if he does not fear concerning himself , yet his condition is fearfull , and the man haih 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a reprobate minde , that is , a judgement corrupted by lust : vice hath abused his reasoning , and if God proceeds in the mans method , and lets him alone in his course , and gives him over to beleeve a lye , so that he shall call good evill , and evill good , and come to be heartily perswaded that his excuses are reasonable and his pretences fair , then the man is desperately undone through the ignorance that is in him , as St. Paul describes his condition ; his heart is blinde , he is past feeling , his understanding is darkned , then he may walk in the vanity of his minde , and give himself over to lasciviousnesse , and shall work all uncleannesse with greedinesse ; then he needs no greater misery : this is the state of evill which his fear ought to have prevented , but now it is past fear , and is to be recovered with sorrow , or else to be run through till death and hell are become his portion ; siunt novissima illus pejora pejoribus , his latter end is worse then his beginning . 4. Besides all this it might easily be added , that he that fals from vertue to vice again , addes the circumstance of ingratitude to his load of sins ; he sins against Gods mercy , and puts out his own eyes ; he strives to unlearn , what with labour he hath purchased , and despises the trabell of his holy daies , and throws away the reward of vertue for an interest which himself despised the first day in which he began to take sober counsels ; he throws himself back in the accounts of eternity , and slides to the bottome of the hill , from whence with sweat and labour of his hands and knees he had long been creeping ; he descends from the spirit to the flesh , from honour to dishonour , from wise principles to unthrifty practises , like one of the vainer fellowes , who grows a fool , and a prodigall , and a begger , because he delights in inconsideration , in the madnesse of drunkennesse , and the quiet of a lazy and unprofitable life . So that this man hath great cause to fear , and if he does , his fear is as the fear of enemies and not sons ; I do not say that it is a fear that is displeasing to God , but it is such a one as may arrive at goodnesse , and the fear of sons , if it be rightly manag'd . For we must know that no fear is displeasing to God ; no fear of it self , whether it be fear of punishment , or fear to offend ; the fear of servants , or the fear of sons : But the effects of fear doe distinguish the man , and are to be entertain'd or rejected accordingly . If a servile fear makes us to remove our sins , and so passes us towards our pardon and the receiving such graces which may endear our duty and oblige our affection ; that fear is imperfect , but not criminall , it is the beginning of wisdome , and the first introduction to it ; but if that fear sits still or rests in a servile minde , or a hatred of God , or speaking evill things concerning him , or unwillingnesse to do our duty , that which at first was indifferent , or at the worst imperfect , proves miserable and malicious ; so we do our duty , it is no matter upon what principles we do it ; it is no matter where we begin , so from that beginning we passe on to duties and perfection . If we fear God as an enemy , an enemy of our sins and of our persons for their sakes , as yet this fear is but a servile fear , it cannot be a filiall fear since we our selves are not sons ; but if this servile fear makes us to desire to be reconcil'd to God , that he may no longer stay at enmity with us , from this fear we shall soon passe to carefulnesse , from carefulnesse to love , from love to diligence , from diligence to perfection ; and the enemies shall become servants , and the servants shall become adopted sons , and passe into the society and the participation of the inheritance of Jesus : for this fear is also reverence , and then our God in stead of being a consuming fire , shall become to us the circle of a glorious crown , and a globe of an eternall light . SERMON , IX . Part III. IAm now to give account concerning the excesse of fear , not directly and abstractedly as it is a passion , but as it is subjected in Religion , and degenerates into superstition ▪ For so among the Greeks , fear is the ingredient and half of the constitution of that folly ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Hesychius , it is a fear of God , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that 's more ; it is a timorousnesse : the superstitious man is afraid of the gods ( said the Etymologist ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , fearing of God as if he were a tyrant , and an unreasonable exacter of duty upon unequall terms , and disproportionable , impossible degrees , and unreasonable , and great and little instances . 1. But this fear some of the old Philosophers thought unreasonable in all cases , even towards God himself ; and it was a branch of the Epicurean Doctrine , that God medled not any thing below , and was to be loved and admired , but not feared at all ; and therefore they taught men neither to fear death , nor to fear punishment after death , nor any displeasure of God : His terroribus ab Epicuro soluti non metuimus Deos , said Cicero ; and thence came this acceptation of the word , that superstition should signifie an unreasonable fear of God : It is true , he and all his scholars extended the case beyond the measure , and made all fear unreasonable ; but then , if we upon grounds of reason and divine revelation shall better discern the measure , of the fear of God ; whatsoever fear we find to be unreasonable , we may by the same reason call it superstition , and reckon it criminall , as they did all fear ; that it may be call'd superstition , their authority is sufficient warrant for the grammar of the appellative ; and that it is criminall , we shall derive from better principles . But besides this , there was another part of its definition , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the superstitious man is also an Idolater , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , one that is afraid of something besides God. The Latines according to their custome , imitating the Greeks in all their learned notices of things , had also the same conception of this , and by their word [ Superstitio ] understood the worship of Daemons or separate spirits ; by which they meant , either their minores Deos , or else their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their braver personages whose souls were supposed to live after death ; the fault of this was the object of their Religion ; they gave a worship or a fear to whom it was not due ; for when ever they worship'd the great God of heaven and earth , they never cal'd that superstition in an evill sense , except the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the● that beleeved there was no God at all . Hence came the etymology of superstition : it was a worshipping or fearing the spirits of their dead Heroes , quos superstites credebant , whom they thought to be alive after their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Deification ; or , quos superstantes credebant , standing in places and thrones above us ; and it alludes to that admirable description of old age which Solomon made beyond all the Rhetorick of the Greeks and Romans [ Also they shall be afraid of that which is high , and fears shall be in the way ] intimating the weaknesse of old persons , who if ever they have been religious , are apt to be abused into superstition ; They are afraid of that which is high , that is , of spirit and separate souls , of those excellent beings which dwell in the regions above ; meaning , that then they are superstitious . However , fear is most commonly its principle , alwaies its ingredient . For if it enter first by credulity and a weak perswasion , yet it becomes incorporated into the spirit of the man , and thought necessary , and the action it perswades to dares not be omitted , for fear of an evill themselves dream of : upon this account the sin is reducible to two heads : the 1. is , Superstition of an undue object . 2. Superstition of an undue expression to a right object . 1. Superstition of an undue object , is that which the Etymologist cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the worshipping of idols ; the Scripture addes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sacrificing to Daemons * in St. Paul and in * Baruch ; where although we usually read it sacrificing to Devils , yet it was but accidentall that they were such ; for those indeed were evill spirits who had seduced them , and tempted them to such ungodly rites ; ( and yet they who were of the Pythagorean sect , pretended a more holy worship , and did their devotion to Angels : ) But whosoever shall worship Angels do the same thing ; they worship them because they are good and powerfull , as the Gentiles did the Devils whom they thought so ; and the error which the Apostle reproves , was not in matter of Judgement , in mistaking bad angels for good , but in matter of manners and choice ; they mistook the creature for the Creator ; and therefore it is more fully expressed by St. Paul in a generall signification , they worshipped the creature , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 besides the Creator , so it should be read ; if we worship any creature besides God , worshipping so as the worship of him becomes a part of Religion , it is also a direct superstition ; but concerning this part of superstition , I shall not trouble this discourse , because I know no Christians blamable in this particular but the Church of Rome , and they that communicate with her in the worshipping of Images , of Angels , and Saints , burning lights and perfumes to them , making offerings , confidences , advocations and vowes to them , and direct and solemn divine worshipping the Symbols of bread and wine , when they are consecrated in the holy Sacrament . These are direct superstition , as the word is used by all Authors profane and sacred , and are of such evill report , that where ever the word Superstition does signifie any thing criminall , these instances must come under the definition of it . They are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a cultus superstitum , a cultus Daemonum , and therefore besides that they have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a proper reproof in Christian Religion , are condemned by all wise men , which call superstition criminall . But as it is superstition to worship any thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 besides the Creator , so it is superstition to worship God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , otherwise then is decent , proportionable or described . Every inordination of Religion that is not in defect , is properly called superstition : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Maximus Tyrius , The true worshipper is a lover of God , the superstitious man loves him not , but flatters : To which if we adde , that fear , unreasonable fear is also superstition , and an ingredient in its definition ; we are taught by this word to signifie all irregularity and inordination in actions of Religion . The summe is this ; the Atheist cal'd all worship of God superstition ; the Epicurean cal'd all fear of God superstition , but did not condemn his worship ; the other part of wise men cal'd all unreasonable fear , and inordinate worship superstition , but did not condemn all fear : But the Christian , besides this , cals every error in worship in the manner , or excesse , by this name , and condemns it . Now because the three great actions of Religion are , to worship God , to fear God , and to trust in him , by the inordination of these three actions , we may reckon three sorts of this crime ; the excesse of fear , and the obliquity in trust , and the errors in worship , are the three sorts of superstition : the first of which is only pertinent to our present consideration . 1. Fear is the duty we owe to God as being the God of power and Justice , the great Judge of heaven and earth , the avenger of the cause of Widows , the Patron of the poor , and the Advocate of the oppressed , a mighty God and terrible , and so essentiall an enemy to sin , that he spared not his own Son , but gave him over to death , and to become a sacrifice , when he took upon him our Nature , and became a person obliged for our guilt . Fear is the great bridle of intemperance , the modesty of the spirit , and the restraint of gaieties and dissolutions ; it is the girdle to the soul , and the handmaid to repentance , the arrest of sin , and the cure or antidote to the spirit of reprobation ; it preserves our apprehensions of the divine Majesty , and hinders our single actions from combining to sinfull habits ; it is the mother of consideration , and the nurse of sober counsels , and it puts the soul to fermentation and activity , making it to passe from trembling to caution , from caution to carefulnesse , from carefulnesse to watchfulnesse , from thence to prudence , and by the gates and progresses of repentance , it leads the soul on to love , and to felicity , and to joyes in God that shall never cease again . Fear is the guard of a man in the dayes of prosperity , and it stands upon the watch-towers and spies the approaching danger , and gives warning to them that laugh loud , and feast in the chambers of rejoycing , where a man cannot consider by reason of the noises of wine , and jest , and musick : and if prudence takes it by the hand , and leads it on to duty , it is a state of grace , and an universall instrument to infant Religion , and the only security of the lesse perfect persons ; and in all senses is that homage we owe to God who sends often to demand it , even then when he speaks in thunder , or smites by a plague , or awakens us by threatning , or discomposes our easinesse by sad thoughts , and tender eyes , and fearfull hearts , and trembling considerations . But this so excellent grace is soon abused in the best and most tender spirits ; in those who are softned by Nature and by Religion , by infelicities or ca●es , by sudden accidents or a sad soul ; and the Devill observing , that fear like spare diet starves the feavers of lust , and quenches the flames of hell , endevours to highten this abstinence so much as to starve the man , and break the spirit into timorousnesse and scruple , sadnesse and unreasonable tremblings , credulity and trifling observation , suspicion and false accusations of God ; and then vice being turned out at the gate , returns in at the postern , and does the work of hell and death by running too inconsiderately in the paths which seem to lead to heaven . But so have I seen a harmlesse dove made dark with an artificiall night , and her eyes ceel'd and lock'd up with a little quill , soaring upward and flying with amazement , fear and an undiscerning wing , she made toward heaven , but knew not that she was made a train and an instrument , to teach her enemy to prevail upon her and all her defencelesse kindred : so is a superstitious man , zealous and blinde , forward and mistaken , he runs towards heaven as he thinks , but he chooses foolish paths ; and out of fear takes any thing that he is told or fancies ; and guesses concerning God by measures taken from his own diseases and imperfections . But fear when it is inordinate , is never a good counsellor , nor makes a good friend ; and he that fears God as his enemy is the most compleatly miserable person in the world . For if he with reason beleeves God to be his enemy , then the man needs no other argument to prove that he is undone then this , that the fountain of blessing ( in this state in which the man is ) will never issue any thing upon him but cursings . But if he fears this without reason , he makes his fears true by the very suspicion of God , doing him dishonour , and then doing those fond and trifling acts of jealousie which will make God to be what the man feared he already was ; We do not know God , if we can think any hard thing concerning him . If God be mercifull , let us only fear to offend him ; but then let us never be fearfull , that he will destroy us when we are carefull not to displease him . There are some persons so miserable and scrupulous , such perpetuall tormentors of themselves with unnecessary fears , that their meat and drink is a snare to their consciences ; if they eat , they fear they are gluttons , if they fast , they fear they are hypocrites , and if they would watch , they complain of sleep as of a deadly sin ; and every temptation though resisted , makes them cry for pardon ; and every return of such an accident , makes them think God is angry ; and every anger of God will break them in pieces . These persons do not beleeve noble things concerning God , they do not think that he is as ready to pardon them , as they are to pardon a sinning servant ; they do not beleeve how much God delights in mercy , nor how wise he is to consider and to make abatement for our unavoidable infirmities ; they make judgement of themselves by the measures of an Angell , and take the accounts of God by the proportions of a Tyrant . The best that can be said concerning such persons is , that they are hugely tempted , or hugely ignorant . For although ignorance is by some persons named the mother of devotion ; yet if it fals in a hard ground , it is the mother of Atheisme , if in a soft ground , it is the parent of superstition : but if it proceeds from evill or mean opinions of God , ( as such scruples and unreasonable fears do many times ) it is an evill of a great impiety , and in some sense , and if it were in equall degrees , is as bad as Atheisme ; for he that sayes there was no such man as Julius Caesar , does him lesse displeasure , then he that sayes there was , but that he was a Tyrant , and a bloudy parricide . And the Cimmerians were not esteemed impious for saying that there was no sun in the heavens ; But Anaxagoras was esteemed irreligious for saying the sun was a very stone : And though to deny there is a God is a high impiety and intolerable , yet : he sayes worse , who beleeving there is a God sayes , he delights in humane sacrifices , in miseries and death , in tormenting his servants , and punishing their very infelicities and unavoidable mischances . To be God , and to be essentially and infinitely good , is the same thing , and therefore to deny either is to be reckoned among the greatest crimes in the world . Adde to this , that he that is afraid of God , cannot in that disposition love him at all ; for what delight is there in that religion which drawes me to the Altar as if I were going to be sacrificed , or to the Temples as to the Dens of Bears ? Oderunt quos metuunt , sed colunt tamen : whom men fear they hate certainly , and flatter readily , and worship timorously ; and he that saw Hermolaus converse with Alexander ; and Pausanias follow Philip the Macedonian ; or Chaereas kissing the feet of Cajus Caligula would have observed how sordid men are made with fear , and how unhappy and how hated Tyrants are in the midst of those acclamations , which are loud , and forc'd , and unnaturall , and without love or fair opinion . And therefore although the Atheist sayes there is no God , the scrupulous , fearfull , and superstitious man does heartily wish what the other does beleeve . But that the evill may be proportionable to the folly , and the punishment to the crime , there is no man more miserable in the world , then the man who fears God as his enemy , and Religion as a snare , and duty as intolerable , and the Commandements as impossible , and his Judge as implacable , and his anger as certain , unsufferable , and unavoidable : whither shall this man goe ? where shall he lay his burden ? where shall he take sanctuary ? for he fears the Altars as the places where his soul bleeds and dies ; and God who is his Saviour he looks upon as his enemy ; and because he is Lord of all , the miserable man cannot change his service unlesse it be apparently for a worse . And therefore of all the evils of the minde , fear is certainly the worst and the most intolerable ; levity and rashnesse have in it some spritefulnesse , and greatnesse of action ; anger is valiant ; desire is busie and apt to hope ; credulity is oftentimes entertain'd and pleased with images and appearances : But fear is dull , and sluggish , and treacherous , and flattering , and dissembling , and miserable , and foolish . Every false opinion concerning God is pernicious and dangerous ; but if it be joyned with trouble of spirit , as fear , scruple or superstition are , it is like a wound with an inflamation , or a strain of a sinew with a contusion , or contrition of the part , painfull and unsafe ; it puts on to actions when it self is driven ; it urges reason ▪ and circumscribes it , and makes it pityable , and ridiculous in its consequent follies ; which if we consider it , will sufficiently reprove the folly , and declare the danger . Almost all ages of the world have observed many instances of fond perswasions and foolish practises proceeding from violent fears and scruples in matter of Religion . Diomedon and many other Captains were condemned to dye , because after a great Naval victory they pursued the flying enemies , and did not first bury their dead . But Chabrias in the same case first buryed the dead , and by that time the enemy rallyed , and returned and beat his Navy , and made his masters pay the price of their importune superstition ; they fear'd where they should not , and where they did not , they should . From hence proceeds observation of signs , and unlucky dayes ; and the people did so when the Gregorian account began , continuing to call those unlucky dayes which were so signed in their tradition or Erra pater , although the day upon this account fell 10 dayes sooner ; and men were transported with many other trifling contingencies and little accidents ; which when they are one entertain'd by weaknesse , prevail upon their own strength , and in sad natures and weak spirits have produced effects of great danger and sorrow . Aristodemas King of the Messenians in his warre against the Spartans , prevented the sword of the enemies by a violence done upon himself , only because his dogs howl'd like wolves , and the Soothsayers were afraid because the Briony grew up by the wals of his Fathers house : and Nicias Generall of the Athenian forces sate with his armes in his bosome , and suffered himself and 40000 men tamely to fall by the insolent enemy , only because he was afraid of the labouring and eclipsed Moon . When the Marble statues in Rome did sweat ( as naturally they did against all rainy weather ) the Augures gave an alarum to the City ; but if lightning struck the spire of the Capitoll , they thought the summe of affairs , and the Commonwealth it self was indanger'd . And this Heathen folly hath stuck so close to the Christian , that all the Sermons of the Church for 1600 years have not cured them all : But the practises of weaker people and the artifice of ruling Priests have superinduced many new ones . When Pope Eugenius sang Masse at Rhemes , and some few drops from the Chalice were spilt upon the pavement , it was thought to foretell mischief , warres , and bloud , to all Christendome , though it was nothing but carelesnesse and mischance of the Priest : and because Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury sang the Masse of Requiem upon the day he was reconcil'd to his Prince , it was thought to foretell his own death by that religious office : and if men can listen to such whispers , and have not reason and observation enough to confute such trifles , they shall still be afrighted with the noise of birds , and every night-raven shall foretell evill as Micaiah to the King of Israel , and every old woman shall be a Prophetesse , and the events of humane affairs which should be managed by the conduct of counsell , of reason , and religion , shall succeed by chance , by the slight of birds , and the meeting with an evill eye , by the falling of the salt , or the decay of reason , of wisdome , and the just religion of a man. To this may be reduc'd the observation of dreams , and fears commenced from the fancies of the night . For the superstitious man does not rest , even when he sleeps , neither is he safe because dreams usually are false , but he is afflicted for fear they should tell true . Living and waking men have one world in common , they use the same air and fire , and discourse by the same principles of Logick and reason ; but men that are asleep have every one a world to himself , and strange perceptions ; and the superstitious hath none at all ; his reason sleeps , and his fears are waking , and all his rest , and his very securities to the fearfull man turn into afrights and insecure expectation of evils , that never shall happen ; they make their rest uneasie and chargeable , and they still vex their weary soul , not considering there is no other sleep , for sleep to rest in ▪ and therefore if the sleep be troublesome , the mans cares be without remedy till they be quite destroyed . Dreams follow the temper of the body , and commonly proceed from trouble or disease , businesse or care , an active head and a restlesse minde , from fear or hope , from wine or passion , from fulnesse or emptinesse , from phantastick remembrances or from som Daemon good or bad : they are without rule and without reason , they are as contingent as if a man should study to make a Prophesie , and by saying 10000 things may hit upon one true , which was therefore not foreknown though it was forespoken : and they have no certainty because they have no naturall causality nor proportion to those effects which many times they are said to foresignifie . The dream of the yolk of an egge importeth gold ( saith Artemidorus ) and they that use to remember such phantastick idols are afraid to lose a friend when they dream their teeth shake , when naturally it will rather signifie a scurvy ; for a naturall indisposition and an imperfect sense of the beginning of a disease , may vex the fancy into a symbolicall representation ; for so the man that dreamt he swam against a stream of bloud , had a Plurisie beginning in his side : and he that dreamt he dipt his foot in water , and that it was turn'd to a Marble , was intic'd into the fancie by a beginning dropsie : and if the events do answer in one instance , we become credulous in twenty ; for want of reason we discourse our selves into folly and weak observation , and give the Devill power over us in those circumstances in which we can least resist him . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , A theef is consident in the twilight ; if you suffer impressions to be made upon you by dreams , the Devill hath the reins in his own hands , and can tempt you by that which will abuse you when you can make no resistance . Dominica the wife of Valens the Emperor dreamt that God threatned to take away her only son for her despitefull usage of St. Basil : the fear proceeding from this instance was safe and fortunate ; but if she had dreamt in the behalf of a Heretick , she might have been cousened into a false proposition upon a ground weaker then the discourse of a waking childe . Let the grounds of our actions be noble , beginning upon reason , proceeding with prudence , measured by the common lines of men , and confident upon the expectation of an usuall providence . Let us proceed from causes to effects , from naturall means to ordinary events , and believe felicity not to be a chance but a choice , and evill to be the daughter of sin and the Divine anger , not of fortune and fancy ; let us fear God when we have made him angry ; and not be afraid of him when we heartily and laboriously do our duty ; our fears are to be measured by open revelation and certain experience , by the threatnings of God and the sayings of wise men , and their limit is reverence , and godlinesse is their end ; and then fear shall be a duty , and a rare instrument of many : in all other cases it is superstition or folly , it is sin or punishment , the Ivy of Religion , and the misery of an honest and a weak heart , and is to be cured only by reason and good company , a wise guide and a plain rule , a cheerfull spirit and a contented minde , by joy in God according to the commandements , that is , a rejoycing evermore . 2. But besides this superstitious fear , there is another fear directly criminall , and it is cald , worldly fear , of which the Spirit of God hath said , But the fearfull and incredulous shall have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone , which is the second death ; that is , such fears which make men to fall in the time of persecution , those that dare not own their faith in the face of a Tyrant , or in despite of an accursed Law. For though it be lawfull to be afraid in a storm , yet it is not lawfull to leap into the sea ; though we may be more carefull for our fears , yet we must be faithfull too ; and we may flie from the persecution till it overtakes us , but when it does , we must not change our Religion for our safety , or leave the robe of Baptisme in the hand of the tempter , and run away by all means . St. Athanasius for 46 years did run and fight , he disputed with the Arrians and fled from their Officers ; and that flies , may be a man worth preserving , if he bears his faith along with him , and leaves nothing of his duty behinde ; but when duty and life cannot stand together , he that then flies a persecution by delivering up his soul , is one that hath no charity , no love to God , no trust in promises , no just estimation of the rewards of a noble contention . Perfect love casts out fear ( saith the Apostle ) that is , he that loves God will not fear to dye for him , or for his sake to be poor . In this sense no man can fear man and love God at the same time ; and when St. Laurence triumph'd over Valerianus , St. Sebastian over Diocletian , St. Vincentius over Dacianus , and the armies of Martyrs over the Proconsuls , accusers , and executioners , they shew'd their love to God by triumphing over fear , and leading captivity captive by the strength of their Captain , whose garments were red from Bozrah . 3. But this fear is also tremulous and criminall , if it be a trouble from the apprehension of the mountains and difficulties of duty , and is called pusillanimity . For some see themselves encompassed with temptations , they observe their frequent fals , their perpetuall returns from good purposes to weak performances , the daily mortifications that are necessary , the resisting naturall appetites , and the laying violent hands upon the desires of flesh and bloud , the uneasinesse of their spirits , and their hard labours , and therefore this makes them afraid ; and because they despair to run through the whole duty in all its parts and periods , they think as good not begin at all , as after labour and expence to lose the Jewell and the charges of their venture . St. Austin compares such men to children and phantastick persons afrighted with phantasmes and specters ; Terribiles visu formae , the sight seems full of horror , but touch them and they are very nothing , the meer daughters of a sick brain , and a weak heart , an infant experience and a trifling judgement : so are the illusions of a weak piety ▪ or an unskilfull unconsident soul ; they fancy to see mountains of difficulty , but touch them and they seem like clouds riding upon the wings of the winde , and put on shapes as we please to dream . He that denies to give almes for fear of being poor , or to entertain a Disciple for fear of being suspected of the party , or to own a duty for fear of being put to venture for a crown , he that takes part of the intemperance because he dares not displease the company , or in any sense fears the fears of the world , and not the fear of God , this man enters into his portion of fear betimes , but it will not be finished to eternall ages . To fear the censures of men when God is your Judge , to fear their evill when God is your defence , to fear death when he is the entrance to life and felicity , is unreasonable and pernicious ; but if you will turn your passion into duty , and joy , and security , fear to offend God , to enter voluntarily into temptation , fear the alluring face of lust , and the smooth entertainments of intemperance , fear the anger of God when you have deserved it , and when you have recover'd from the share , then infinitely fear to return into that condition , in which whosoever dwels is the heir of fear and eternall sorrow . Thus farre I have discoursed concerning good fear and bad , that is , filiall and servile : they are both good , if by servile we intend initiall or the new beginning fear of penitents ; a fear to offend God upon lesse perfect considerations : But servile fear is vitious when it still retains the affection of slaves , and when its effects are hatred , wearinesse , displeasure , and want of charity : and of the same cognations are those fears which are superstitious , and worldly . But to the former sort of vertuous fear , some also adde another which they call Angelicall , that is , such a fear as the blessed Angels have , who before God hide their faces , and tremble at his presence , and fall down before his footstool , and are ministers of his anger and messengers of his mercy , and night and day worship him with the profoundest adoration . This is the same that is spoken of in the Text : Let us serve God with reverence and godly fear ; all holy fear partakes of the nature of this which Divines call Angelicall , and it is expressed in acts of adoration , of vowes , and holy prayers , in hymnes , and psalmes , in the eucharist and reverentiall addresses ; and while it proceeds in the usuall measures of common duty , it is but humane ; but as it arises to great degrees , and to perfection , it is Angelicall and Divine ; and then it appertains to mystick Theologie , and therefore is to be considered in another place ; but for the present , that which will regularly concern all our duty , is this , that when the fear of God is the instrument of our duty , or Gods worship , the greater it is , it is so much the better . It was an old proverbiall saying among the Romans , Religentem esse oportet , religiosum , nefas ; Every excesse in the actions of religion is criminall ; they supposing that in the services of their gods , there might be too much . True it is , there may be too much of their undecent expressions , and in things indifferent , the very multitude is too much , and becomes an undecency : and if it be in its own nature undecent or disproportionable to the end , or the rules , or the analogy of the Religion , it will not stay for numbers to make it intolerable ; but in the direct actions of glorifying God , in doing any thing of his Commandements , or any thing which he commands , or counsels , or promises to reward , there can never be excesse or superfluity : and therefore in these cases , do as much as you can ; take care that your expressions be prudent , and safe , consisting with thy other duties ; and for the passions or vertues themselves , let them passe from beginning to great progresses , from man to Angel , from the imperfection of man to the perfections of the sons of God ; and when ever we go beyond the bounds of Nature , and grow up with all the extention , and in the very commensuration of a full grace , we shall never go beyond the excellencies of God : For ornament may be too much , and turn to curiosity ; cleanlinesse may be changed into nicenesse ; and civill compliance may become flattery ; and mobility of tongue may rise into garrulity ; and fame and honour may be great unto envie ; and health it self , if it be athletick , may by its very excesse become dangerous : but wisdome , and duty , and comelinesse , and discipline , a good minde , and eloquence , and the fear of God , and doing honour to his holy Name , can never exceed : but if they swell to great proportions , they passe through the measures of grace , and are united to felicity in the comprehensions of God , in the joyes of an eternall glory . Sermon , X. The Flesh and the Spirit : Part I. Matt. 26. 41. latter part . The Spirit indeed is willing , but the Flesh is weake . FRom the beginning of days Man hath been so crosse to the Divine commandements , that in many cases there can be no reason given why a man should choose some ways , or doe some actions , but onely because they are forbidden ; When God bade the Isaaelites rise and goe up against the Canaanites , and possesse the Land , they would not stirre ; the men were Anakims , and the Cities were impregnable , and there was a Lyon in the way ; but presently after , when God forbad them to goe , they would and did goe , though they died for it . I shall not need to instance in particulars , when the whole life of man is a perpetuall contradiction ; and the state of Disobedience is called the contradiction of Sinners ; even the man in the Gospell that had two sons , they both crossed him , even he that obeyed him , and he that obeyed him not : for the one said , he would , and did not ; the other said , he would not , and did : and so doe we ; we promise faire , and doe nothing ; and they that doe best are such as come out of darknesse into light , such as said they would not , and at last have better bethought themselves ; And who can guesse at any other reason why men should refuse to be temperate ? for he that refuses the commandement , first does violence to the commandement , and puts on a proeternaturall appetite , he spoils his health , and he spoils his understanding ; he brings to himself a world of diseases , and a healthlesse constitution , smart and sickly nights , a loathing stomach , and a staring eye , a giddy brain , and a swell'd belly , gouts and dropsies , catarrhes and oppilations . If God should enjoyne man to suffer all this , heaven and earth should have heard our complaints against unjust laws , and impossible commandements : for we complain already , even when God commands us to drink so long as it is good for us ; this is one of his impossible laws : it is impossible for us to know when we are dry , or when we need drink ; for if we doe know , I am sure it is possible enough , not to lift up the wine to our heads . And when our blessed Saviour hath commanded us to love our enemies , we think we have so much reason against it , that God will easily excuse our disobedience in this case , and yet there are some enemies whom God hath commanded us not to love , and those we dote on , we cherish and feast them , and as S. Paul in another case , upon our uncomely parts we bestow more abundant comelinesse . For whereas our body it self is a servant to our soule , we make it the heir of all things , and treat it here already , as if it were in Majority ; and make that which at the best was but a weak friend , to become a strong enemy ; and hence proceed the vices of the worst , and the follies and imperfections of the best ; the spirit is either in slavery , or in weaknesse , and when the flesh is not strong to mischief , it is weak to goodnesse ; and even to the Apostles our blessed Lord said , the spirit is willing , but the flesh is weak . The spirit ] that is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the inward man , or the reasonable part of man , especially as helped by the Spirit of Grace , that is willing : for it is the principle of all good actions , the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the power of working is from the spirit ; but the flesh is but a dull instrument , and a broken arme , in which there is a principle of life , but it moves uneasily ; and the flesh is so weak , that in Scripture to be in the flesh signifies a state of weaknesse , and infirmity ; so the humiliation of Christ is expressed by being in the flesh , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , God manifested in the flesh ; and what S. Peter calls [ put to death in the flesh ] St. Paul calls [ crucified through weaknesse ; ] and , yee know that through the infirmity of the flesh I preached unto you , said S. Paul : but here , flesh is not opposed to the spirit as a direct enemy , but as a weak servant : for if the flesh be powerfull and opposite , the spirit stays not there : — veniunt ad candida tecta columbae : The old man and the new cannot dwell together ; and therefore here , where the spirit inclining to good , well disposed , and apt to holy counsels , does inhabit in society with the flesh , it means onely a weak and unapt nature , or a state of infant-grace , for in both these , and in these onely the text is verified . 1. Therefore we are to consider the infirmities of the flesh naturally . 2. It s weaknesse in the first beginnings of the state of grace , its daily pretensions and temptations , its excuses and lessenings of duty . 3. What remedies there are in the spirit to cure the evils of nature . 4. How far the weaknesses of the flesh can consist with the Spirit of grace in well grown Christians : This is the summe of what I intend upon these words . 1. Our nature is too weak in order to our duty and finall interest , that at first it cannot move one step towards God , unlesse God by his preventing grace puts into it a new possibility . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . There is nothing that creeps upon the earth , nothing that ever God made , weaker then Man ; for God fitted Horses and Mules with strength , Bees and Pismires with sagacity , Harts and Hares with swiftnesse , Birds with feathers and a light aëry body ; and they all know their times , and are fitted for their work , and regularly acquire the proper end of their creation ; but man that was designed to an immortall duration , and the fruition of God for ever ▪ knows not how to obtain it ; he is made upright to look up to heaven , but he knows no more how to purchase it then to climbe it . Once , man went to make an ambitious tower to outreach the clouds , or the praeternaturall risings of the water , but could not do it ; he cannot promise himself the daily bread of his necessity upon the stock of his own wit or industry ; and for going to heaven , he was so far from doing that naturally , that as soon as ever he was made he became the son of death , and he knew not how to get a pardon for eating of an apple against the Divine commandement : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said the Apostle , By nature we were the sons of wrath , that is , we were born heirs of death , which death came upon us from Gods anger for the sin of our first Parents ; or by nature , that is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , really , not by the help of fancy , and fiction of law , for so Oecumenius and Theophylact expound it ; but because it does not relate to the sin of Adam in its first intention , but to the evill state of sin , in which the Ephesians walked before their conversion ; it signifies that our nature of it self is a state of opposition to the spirit of grace , it is privatively opposed , that is , that there is nothing in it that can bring us to felicity ; nothing but an obedientiall capacity ; our flesh can become sanctified , as the stones can become children unto Abraham , or as dead seed can become living corn ; and so it is with us , that it is necessary God should make us a new creation , if he means to save us ; he must take our hearts of stone away , and give us hearts of flesh ; he must purge the old leaven , and make us a new conspersion ; he must destroy the flesh , and must breath into us Spiritum vitae , the celestiall breath of life , without which we can neither live , nor move , nor have our being . No man can come unto mee ( said Christ ) unlesse my Father draw him , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The Divine love must come upon us and snatch us from our imperfection , enlighten our understanding , move and stirre our affections , open the gates of heaven , turn our nature into grace , entirely forgive our former prevarications , take us by the hand , and lead us all along , and we onely contribute our assent unto it ; just as a childe when he is tempted to learne to goe , and called upon , and guided , and upheld , and constrain'd to put his feet to the ground , lest he feel the danger by the smart of a fall ; just so is our nature and our state of flesh . God teaches us , and invites us , he makes us willing and then makes us able , he lends us helps , and guides our hands , and feet ; and all the way constrains us , but yet so as a reasonable creature can be constrained ; that is , made willing with arguments , and new inducements , by a state of circumstances , and conditionall necessities : and as this is a great glorification of the free grace of God , and declares our manner of cooperation , so it represents our nature to be weak as a childe , ignorant as infancy , helplesse as an orphan , averse as an uninstructed person , in so geat degrees that God is forced to bring us to a holy life by arts great and many as the power and principles of the Creation ; with this onely difference , that the subject matter and object of this new creation is a free agent ; in the first it was purely obedientiall and passive ; and as the passion of the first was an effect of the same power that reduced it to act ; so the freedome of the second is given us in our nature by him that onely can reduce it to act ; for it is a freedome that cannot therefore choose , because it does not understand , nor taste , nor perceive the things of God ; and therefore must by Gods grace be reduced to action , as at first the whole matter of the world was by Gods Almightynesse ; for so God worketh in us to will and to doe of his owne good pleasure . 2. But that I may instance in particulars , our naturall weaknesse appears best in two things , even in the two great instances of temptation , pleasure and pain ; in both which the flesh is destroyed if it be not helped by a mighty grace , as certainly as the Canes doe bow their heads before the breath of a mighty wind . 1. In pleasure we see it by the publick miseries and follies of the world . An old Greek said well , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , There is amongst men nothing perfect , because men carry themselves as persons that are lesse then money , servants of gain and interest ; we are like the follish Poet that Horace tells of : Gestit enim nummum in loculos dimittere , posthàc . Securus , cadat , an recto stet fabula talo . Let him but have money for rehearsing his Comedy , he cares not whether you like it or no ; and if a temptation of money comes strong and violent , you may as well tye a wilde dog to quietuesse with the guts of a tender Kid , as suppose that most men can doe vertuously when they may sin at a great price . Men avoyd poverty , not onely because it hath some inconveniencies ; for they are few and little ; but because it is the nurse of vertue ; they run from it as Children from strict Parents and Tutors , from those that would confine them to reason , and sober counsels , that would make them labour , that they may become pale and lean , that they may become wise : but because Riches is attended by pride and lust , tyranny and oppression , and hath in its hand all that it hath in its heart ; and Sin waits upon Wealth ready dress'd and fit for action , therefore in some temptations they confesse how little their souls are , they cannot stand that assault ; but because this passion is the daughter of Voluptuousnesse , and very often is but a servant sin , ministring to sensuall pleasures , the great weaknesse of the flesh is more seen in the matter of carnall crimes , Lust and Drunkennesse . Nemo enim se adsuefacit ad vitandum & ex animo evellendum ea quae molesta ei non sunt . Men are so in love with pleasure , that they cannot think of mortifying or crucifying their lust ; we doe violence to what we hate , not to what we love . But the weaknesse of the flesh , and the empire of lust is visible in nothing so much , as in the captivity and folly of wise men . For you shall see some men fit to governe a Province , sober in their counsells , wise in the conduct of their affaires , men of discourse and reason , fit to sit with Princes , or to treat concerning peace and warre , the fate of Empires , and the changes of the world , yet these men shall fall at the beauty of a woman as a man dies at the blow of an Angell , or gives up his breath at the sentence and decree of God. Was not Solomon glorious in all things but when he bowed to Pharaoh's daughter , and then to Devils ? and is it not published by the sentence and observation of all the world , that the bravest men have been softned into effeminacy by the lisping charms , and childish noyses of Women and imperfect persons ? A faire slave bowed the neck of stout Polydamas , which was stiffe and inflexible to the contentions of an enemy : and suppose a man set like the brave boy of the King of Nicomedia in the midst of temptation by a witty beauty , tyed upon a bed with silk and pretty violences , courted with musick and perfumes , with promises and easie postures , invited by opportunity and importunity , by rewards and impunity , by privacy and a guard ; what would his nature doe in this throng of evils and vile circumstances ? The grace of God secur'd the young Gentleman , and the Spirit rode in triumph ; but what can flesh do in such a day of danger ? Is it not necessary that we take in auxiliaries from Reason and Religion , from heaven and earth , from observation and experience , from hope and fear , and cease to be what we are , lest we become what we ought not ? It is certain that in the cases of temptations to voluptuousnesse , a man is naturally , as the Prophet said of Ephraim , like a Pigeon that hath no heart , no courage , no conduct , no resolution , no discourse , but falls as the water of Nilus when it comes to its cataracts , it falls infinitely and without restraint ; And if we consider how many drunken meetings the Sunne sees every day , how many ▪ Markets and Faires and Clubs , that is , so many solemnities of drunkennesse , are at this instant under the eye of heaven ; that many Nations are marked for intemperance , and that it is lesse noted because it is so popular , and universall , and that even in the midst of the glories of Christianity there are so many persons drunk , or too full with meat , or greedy of lust , even now that the Spirit of God is given to us to make us sober , and temperate , and chaste , we may well imagine , since all men have flesh , and all men have not the spirit , the flesh is the parent of sin , and death , and it can be nothing else . And it is no otherwise when we are tempted with pain . We are so impatient of pain , that nothing can reconcile us to it ; not the laws of God , not the necessities of nature , not the society of all our kindred , and of all the world , not the interest of vertue , not the hopes of heaven ; we will submit to pain upon no terms , but the basest and most dishonorable ; for if sin bring us to pain , or affront , or sicknesse , we choose that , so it be in the retinue of a lust , and a base desire ▪ but we accuse Nature , and blaspheme God , we murmur and are impatient when pain is sent to us from him that ought to send it , and intends it as a mercy when it comes . But in the matter of afflictions and bodily sicknesse we are so weak and broken , so uneasie and unapt to sufferance , that this alone is beyond the cure of the old Philosophy . Many can endure poverty , and many can retire from shame and laugh at home , and very many can endure to be slaves ; but when pain and sharpnesse are to be endured for the interests of vertue , we finde but few Martyrs ; and they that are , suffer more within themselves by their fears and their temptations , by their uncertain purposes and violences to Nature , then by the Hang-mans sword ; the Martyrdome is within ; and then he hath won his Crown , not when he hath suffered the blow , but when he hath overcome his fears , and made his spirit conqueror . It was a sad instance of our infirmity , when of the 40 Martyrs of Cappadocia set in a freezing lake , almost consummate , and an Angell was reaching the Crowne , and placing it upon their brows , the flesh fail'd one of them , and drew the spirit after it ; and the man was called off from his Scene of noble contention , and dyed in warm water : — Odi artus , fragilémque hunc corporis usum Desertorem animi — We carry about us the body of death , and we bring evils upon our selves by our follies , and then know not how to bear them ; and the flesh forsakes the spirit . And indeed in sicknesse the infirmity is so very great , that God in a manner at that time hath reduced all Religion into one vertue , Patience with its appendages is the summe totall of almost all our duty that is proper to the days of sorrow : and we shall find it enough to entertain all our powers , and to imploy all our aids ; the counsels of wise men , and the comforts of our friends , the advices of Scripture , and the results of experience , the graces of God , and the strength of our own resolutions are all then full of imployments , and find it work enough to secure that one grace . For then it is that a cloud is wrapped about our heads , and our reason stoops under sorrow , the soul is sad , and its instrument is out of tune , the auxiliaries are disorder'd , and every thought sits heavily , then a comfort cannot make the body feel it , and the soule is not so abstracted to rejoyce much without its partner ▪ so that the proper joyes of the soul , such as are hope , and wise discourses , and satisfactions of reason , and the offices of Religion , are felt , just as we now perceive the joyes of heaven , with so little relish , that it comes as news of a victory to a man upon the Rack , or the birth of an heir to one condemned to dye ; he hears a story which was made to delight him , but it came when he was dead to joy and all its capacities ; and therefore sicknesse , though it be a good Monitor , yet it is an ill stage to act some vertues in ; and a good man cannot then doe much , and therefore he that is in the state of flesh and blood , can doe nothing at all . 4. But in these considerations we find our nature in disadvantages ; and a strong man may be overcome when a stronger comes to disarme him ; and pleasure and pain are the violences of choice and chance ; but it is no better in any thing else : for nature is weak in all its strengths , and in its fights , at home , and abroad , in its actions and passions ; we love some things violently , and hate others unreasonably ; any thing can fright us when we should be confident , and nothing can scare us when we ought to feare ; the breaking of a glasse puts us into a supreme anger , and we are dull and indifferent as a Stoick when we see God dishonour'd ; we passionately desire our preservation , and yet we violently destroy our selves , and will not be hindred ; we cannot deny a friend when he tempts us to sin and death , and yet we daily deny God when he passionately invites us to life and health ; we are greedy after money , and yet spend it vainly upon our lusts ; we hate to see any man flatter'd but our selves ; and we can endure folly if it be on our side , and a sin for our interest ; we desire health , and yet we exchange it for wine and madnesse ; we sink when a persecution comes , and yet cease not daily to persecute our selves , doing mischiefs worse then the sword of Tyrants , and great as the malice of a Devill . 5. But to summe up all the evills that can be spoken of the infirmities of the flesh ; the proper nature and habitudes of men are so foolish and impotent , so averse and peevish to all good , that a mans will is of it self onely free to choose evils . Neither is it a contradiction to say liberty , and yet suppose it determin'd to one object onely ; because that one object is the thing we choose . For although God hath set life and death before us , fire and water , good and evill , and hath primarily put man into the hands of his owne counsell , that he might have chosen good as well as evill , yet because he did not , but fell into an evill condition and corrupted manners , and grew in love with it , and infected all his children with vicious examples ; and all nations of the world have contracted some universall stains , and the thoughts of mans hearts are onely evill , and that continually , and there is not one that doth good , no not one that sinneth not : since ( I say ) all the world have sinned , we cannot suppose a liberty of indifferency to good and bad ; it is impossible in such a liberty ▪ that there should be no variety , that all should choose the same thing ; but a liberty of complacency or delight we may suppose ; that is so , that though naturally he might choose good , yet morally he is so determin'd with his love to evill , that good seldome comes into dispute ; and a man runs to evill as he runs to meat or sleep ; for why else should it be , that every one can teach a childe to be proud , or to swear , to lie , or to doe little spites to his play-fellow , and can traine him up to infant follies ? But the severity of Tutors and the care of Parents , discipline and watchfulnesse , arts and diligence , all is too little to make him love but to say his prayers , or to doe that which becomes persons design'd for honest purposes , and his malice shall out-run his yeares ; he shall be a man in villany before he is by law capable of choice or inheritance ; and this indisposition lasts upon us for ever , even as long as we live , just in the same degrees as flesh and blood does rule us : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Art of Physicians can cure the evills of the body , but this strange propensity to evill nothing can cure but death ; the grace of God eases the malignity here , but it cannot be cured but by glory ▪ that is , this freedome of delight or perfect unabated election of evill , which is consequent to the evill manners of the world , although it be lessened by the intermediall state of grace , yet it is not cured untill it be changed into its quite contrary ; but as it is in heaven , all that is happy , and glorious , and free , yet can choose nothing but the love of God , and excellent things , because God fills all the capacities of Saints , and there is nothing without him that hath any degrees of amability : so in the state of nature , of flesh and blood , there is so much ignorance of spirituall excellencies , and so much proportion to sensuall objects , which in most instances and in many degrees are prohibited , that as men naturally know no good , but to please a wilde , indetermin'd , infinite appetite ; so they will nothing else but what is good in their limit and proportion ; and it is with us as it was with the shee-goat that suckled the wolves whelp ; he grew up by his nurses milke , and at last having forgot his foster mothers kindnesse , eat that udder which gave him drink and nourishment ; Improbit as nullo flectitur obsequio ; for no kindnesse will cure an ill nature and a base disposition : so are we in the first constitution of our nature ; so perfectly given to naturall vices , that by degrees we degenerate into unnaturall , and no education or power of art can make us choose wisely or honestly : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Phalaris , There is no good nature but onely vertue ; till we are new created , we are wolves and serpents , free and delighted in the choice of evill , but stones and iron to all excellent things and purposes . 2. Next I am to consider the weaknesse of the flesh , even when the state is changed , in the beginning of the state of grace : For many persons , as soon as the grace of God rises in their hearts , are all on fire , and inflamed ; it is with them as Homer said of the Syrian starre , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It shines finely , and brings feavers ; splendor and zeal are the effects of the first grace , and sometimes the first turnes into pride , and the second unto uncharitablenesse ; and either by too dull and slow motions , or by too violent and unequall , the flesh will make pretences , and too often prevail upon the spirit , even after the grace of God hath set up its banners in our hearts . 1. In some dispositions that are forward and apt , busie and unquiet , when the grace of God hath taken possessions , and begins to give laws , it seems so pleasant and gay to their undiscerning spirits , to be delivered from the sottishnesse of lust , and the follies of drunkennesse , that reflecting upon the change , they begin to love themselves too well , and take delight in the wisdome of the change , and the reasonablenesse of the new life ; and then they by hating their own follies , begin to despise them that dwell below ; It was the tricke of the old Philosophers whom Aristophanes thus describes , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; pale , and barefoot , and proud ; that is , persons singular in their habit , eminent in their institution , proud and pleased in their persons , and despisers of them that are lesse glorious in their vertue then themselves ; and for this very thing our blessed Saviour remarks the Pharisees ; they were severe and phantasticall advancers of themselves , and Judgers of their neighbors ; and here , when they have mortified corporall vices , such which are scandalous and punishable by men , they keep the spirituall , and those that are onely discernible by God : these men doe but change their sin from scandall to danger , and that they may sin more safely they sin more spiritually . 2. Sometimes the passions of the flesh spoyle the changes of the Spirit , by naturall excesses , and disproportion of degrees ; it mingles violence with industry , and fury with zeale , and uncharitablenesse with reproofe , and censuring with discipline , and violence with desires , and immortifications in all the appetites and prosecutions of the soule . Some think it is enough in all instances , if they pray hugely and fervently ; and that it is religion , impatiently to desire a victory over our enemies , or the life of a childe , or an heir to be born ; they call it holy , so they desire it in prayer ; that if they reprove a vicious person , they may say what they list , and be as angry as they please ; that when they demand but reason , they may enforce it by all means ; that when they exact duty of their children , they may be imperious and without limit ; that if they designe a good end , they may prosecute it by all instruments ; that when they give God thanks for blessings , they may value the thing as high as they list , though their persons come into a share of the honour ; here the spirit is willing and holy , but the flesh creeps too busily , and insinuates into the substance of good actions , and spoyles them by unhandsome circumstances ; and then the prayer is spoil'd for want of prudence of conformity to Gods will , and discipline and government is imbittered by an angry spirit ; and the Fathers authority turns into an uneasie load , by being thrust like an unequall burden to one side , without allowing equall measures to the other : And if we consider it wisely , we shall find that in many good actions the flesh is the bigger ingredient , and we betray our weak constitutions even when we do Justice or Charity ; and many men pray in the flesh , when they pretend they pray by the spirit . 3. In the first changes and weak progresses of our spirituall life , we find a long weaknesse upon us , because we are long before we begin , and the flesh was powerfull and its habits strong , and it will mingle indirect pretences with all the actions of the spirit ; If we mean to pray , the flesh thrusts in thoughts of the world ; and our tongue speaks one thing and our heart means another ; and we are hardly brought to say our prayers , or to undertake a fasting day , or to celebrate a Communion : and if we remember that all these are holy actions , and that we have many opportunities of doing them all , and yet doe them very seldome , and then very coldly , it will be found at the foot of the account , that our flesh and our naturall weaknesse prevailes oftner then our spirituall strengths : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they that are bound long in chains feel such a lamenesse in the first restitutions of their liberty , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by reason of the long accustomed chain and pressure , that they must stay till Nature hath set them free , and the disease be taken off as well as the chain ; and when the soul is got free from her actuall pressure of sins , still the wound remaines , and a long habitude , and longing after it , a looking back , and upon the presenting the old object , the same company , or the remembrance of the delight , the fancy strikes , and the heart fails , and the temptations returne and stand dressed in form and circumstances , and ten to one but the man dies again . 4. Some men are wise and know their weaknesses , and to prevent their startings back , will make fierce and strong resolutions , and bind up their gaps with thornes , and make a new hedge about their spirits ; and what then ? this shews indeed that the spirit is willing ; but the storm arises , and windes blow , and rain descends , and presently the earth trembles , and the whole fabrick falls into ruine and disorder . A resolution ( such as we usually make ) is nothing but a little trench which every childe can step over ; and there is no civill man that commits a willing sin , but he does it against his resolution ; and what Christian lives , that will not say , and think , that he hath repented in some degree ; and yet still they commit sin , that is , they break all their holy purposes as readily as they lose a dream ; and so great is our weaknesse , that to most men the strength of a resolution is just such a restraint as he suffers who is imprisoned in a curtain , and secured with dores and bars of the finest linnen : for though the spirit be strong to resolve , the flesh is weak to keep it . 5. But when they have felt their follies , and see the linnen vail rent , some that are desirous to please God , back their resolutions with vows , and then the spirit is fortified , and the flesh may tempt and call , but the soul cannot come forth , and therefore it triumphs and acts its interest easily and certainly ; and then the flesh is mortified ; It may be so . But doe not many of us inquire after a vow ? And we consider it may be it was rash , or it was an impossible matter , or without just consideration , and weighing of circumstances , or the case is alter'd , and there is a new emergent necessity , or a vow is no more then a resolution made in matter of duty ; both are made for God , and in his eye and witnesse ; or if nothing will doe it , men grow sad and weary , and despaire , and are impatient , and bite the knot in pieces , with their teeth , which they cannot by disputing , and the arts of the tongue . A vow will not secure our duty , because it is not stronger then our appetite ; and the spirit of man is weaker then the habits and superinduced nature of the flesh ; but by little and little it falls off , like the finest thread twisted upon the traces of a chariot ; it cannot hold long . 6. Beyond all this , some choose excellent guides , and stand within the restraints of modesty , and a severe Monitor ; and the Spirit of God hath put a veile upon our spirits , and by modesty in women and young persons , by reputation in the more aged , and by honour in the more noble , and by conscience in all , have fortified the spirit of Man , that men dare not prevaricate their duty though they be tempted strongly , and invited perpetually ; and this is a partition wall that separates the spirit from the flesh , and keeps it in its proper strengths and retirements . But here the spirit of man , for all that it is assisted , strongly breaks from the inclosure , and runnes into societies of flesh , and sometimes despises reputation , and sometimes supplies it with little arts of flattery , and self-love , and is modest as long as it can be secret , and when it is discovered , it growes impudent ; and a man shelters himselfe in crouds and heaps of sinners , and beleeves that it is no worse with him then with other mighty criminals , and publick persons , who bring sin into credit amongst fooles and vicious persons ; or else men take false measures of fame or publick honesty , and the world being broken into so many parts of disunion , and agreeing in nothing but in confederate vices , and grown so remisse in governments , and severe accounts , every thing is left so loose , that honour and publick fame , modesty , and shame , are now so slender guards to the spirit , that the flesh breaks in and makes most men more bold against God then against men , and against the laws of Religion , then of the Common-wealth . 7. When the spirit is made willing by the grace of God , the flesh interposes in deceptions and false principles . If you tempt some man to a notorious sin , as to rebellion , to deceive his trust , or to be drunk , he will answer , he had rather die then doe it : But put the sin civilly to him , and let it be disguised with little excuses , such things which indeed are trifles , but yet they are colours fair enough to make a weak pretence , and the spirit yeelds instantly . Most men choose the sin , if it be once disputable whether it be a sin or no ? If they can but make an excuse , or a colour , so that it shall not rudely dash against the conscience with an open professed name of Sin , they suffer the temptation to doe its worst . If you tempt a man , you must tell him 't is no sin , or it is excusable : this is not rebellion , but necessity , and selfe defence ; it is not against my allegiance , but is a performing of my trust ; I doe it for my friend , not against my Superiour ; I doe it for a good end , and for his advantage ; this is not drunkennesse , but free mirth , and fair society ; it is refreshment , and entertainment of some supernumerary hours ; but it is not a throwing away my time , or neglecting a day of salvation ; and if there be any thing more to say for it , though it be no more then Adams fig-leaves , or the excuses of children and truants , it shall be enough to make the flesh prevail , and the spirit not to be troubled ; for so great is our folly , that the flesh always carries the cause , if the spirit can be cousen'd . 8. The flesh is so mingled with the spirit , that we are forced to make distinctions in our appetite , to reconcile our affections to God and Religion , lest it be impossible to doe our duty ; we weep for our sins , but we weep more for the death of our dearest friends , or other temporall sadnesses ; we say we had rather die then lose our faith , and yet we doe not live according to it ; we lose our estates and are impatient , we lose our vertue and bear it well enough ; and what vertue is so great , as more to be troubled for having sin'd , then for being asham'd , and begger'd , and condemn'd to die ? Here we are forced to a distinction : there is a valuation of price , and a valuation of sense : or the spirit hath one rate of things , and the flesh hath another ; and what we beleeve the greatest evill , does not alwayes cause to us the greatest trouble ; which shews plainly , that we are imperfect carnall persons , and the flesh will in some measure prevaile over the spirit ; because we will suffer it in too many instances , and cannot help it in all . 9. The spirit is abated and interrupted by the flesh , because the flesh pretends it is not able to doe those ministeries which are appointed in order to Religion ; we are not able to fast , or if we watch , it breeds gouts and catarrhes ; or charity is a grace too expensive , our necessities are too big to do it ; or we cannot suffer pain ; and sorrow breeds death , and therefore our repentances must be more gentle , and we must support our selves in all our calamities : for we cannot beare our crosses without a freer refreshment , and this freedome passes on to licence , and many melancholy persons drowne their sorrows in sin and forgetfulnesse , as if sin were more tolerable then sorrow , and the anger of God an easier load then a temporall care : here the flesh betrayes its weaknesse and its follies : For the flesh complains too soon , and the spirit of some men like Adam being too fond of his Eve , attends to all its murmurs and temptations ; and yet the flesh is able to bear farre more then is required of it in usuall duties . Custome of suffering will make us endure much , and feare will make us suffer more , and necessity makes us suffer any thing ; and lust and desire makes us to endure more then God is willing we should ; and yet we are nice , and tender , and indulgent to our weaknesses , till our weaknesses grow too strong for us . And what shall we doe to secure our duty , and to be delivered of our selves , that the body of death which we bear about us may not destroy the life of the spirit ? I have all this while complain'd , and you see not without cause ; I shall afterwards tell you the remedies for all this evill . In the mean time , let us have but mean opinions of our selves ; let us watch every thing of our selves as of suspected persons , and magnifie the grace of God , and be humbled for our stock and spring of follies , and let us look up to him who is the fountaine of grace and spirituall strengths . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And pray that God would give us what we ask , and what we ask not ; for we want more helps then we understand , and we are neerer to evill then we perceive , and we bear sin and death about us , and are in love with it ; and nothing comes from us but false principles , and silly propositions , and weak discourses , and startings from our holy purposes , and care of our bodies , and of our palates , and the lust of the lower belly ; these are the imployment of our lives ; but if wee design to live happily and in a better place , it must be otherwise with us ; we must become new creatures , and have another definition , and have new strengths , which we can onely derive from God , whose grace is sufficient for us , and strong enough to prevail over all our follies and infirmities . SERMON , XI . Part II. IF it be possible to cure an evill nature , we must inquire after remedies for all this mischief . In order to which I shall consider ; 1. That since it is our flesh and bloud that is the principle of mischief , we must not think to have it cured by washings and light medicaments ; the Physitian that went to cure the Hectick with quick-silver and fasting spittle , did his Patient no good , but himself became a proverb ; and he that by easie prayers and a seldome fast , by the scattering of a little almes , and the issues of some more naturall vertue thinks to cure his evill nature , does fortifie his indisposition , as a stick is hardened by a little fire , which by a great one is devoured . Quanto satius est mentem potius eluere quae malis cupiditatibus sordidatur , & uno virtutis as sidei lavacro universa vitia depellere ? Better it is by an intire body of vertue , by a living and active faith to cleanse the minde from every vice , and to take off all superinduced habits of sin ; Quod qui fecerit , quamlibet inquinatum ac sordidum corpus gerat , satis purus est . If we take this course , although our body is foul , and our affections unquiet , and our rest discomposed , yet we shall be masters of our resolution , and clean from habituall sins , and so cure our evill nature . For our nature was not made evill but by our selves ; but yet we are naturally evill , that is , by a superinduced nature ; just as drunkards and intemperate persons have made it necessary to drink extremely , and their nature requires it , and it is health to them ; they dye without it , because they have made to themselves a new constitution , and another nature , but much worse then that which God made ; their sin made this new nature ; and this new nature makes sin necessary and unavoidable : so it is in all other instances ; Our nature is evill , because we have spoil'd it ; and therefore the removing the sin which we have brought in , is the way to cure our nature : for this evill nature is not a thing which we cannot avoid ; we made it , and therefore we must help it ; but as in the superinducing this evill nature , we were thrust forward by the world and the Devill , by all objects from without , and weaknesse from within ; so in the curing it we are to be helped by God and his most holy Spirit . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . We must have a new nature put into us , which must be the principle of new counsels , and better purposes , of holy actions and great devotion ; and this nature is deriv'd from God , and is a grace and a favour of heaven . The same Spirit that caused the holy Jesus to be born after a new and strange manner , must also descend upon us and cause us to be born again , and to begin a new life upon the stock of a new nature . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Origen , From him it first began that a divine and humane nature were weaved together , that the humane nature by communication with the celestiall may also become divine , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Not only in Jesus , but in all that first beleeve in him , and then obey him , living such a life as Jesus taught : and this is the summe totall of the whole design ; As we have liv'd to the flesh , so we must hereafter live to the spirit : as our nature hath been flesh , not only in its originall , but in habits and affection ; so our nature must be spirit in habit and choice , in design and effectuall prosecutions ; for nothing can cure our old death , but this new birth ; and this is the recovery of our nature , and the restitution of our hopes , and therefore the greatest joy of mankinde . — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is a fine thing to see the light of this sun , and it is pleasant to see the storm allayed and turned into a smooth sea and a fresh gale ; our eyes are pleased to see the earth begin to live , and to produce her little issues with particolour'd coats : — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nothing is so beauteous as to see a new birth in a childlesse family ; And it is excellent to hear a man discourse the hidden things of Nature , and unriddle the perplexities of humane notices and mistakes ; it is comely to see a wise man sit in the gates of the City , and give right judgement in difficult causes : But all this is nothing to the excellencies of a new birth ; to see the old man carryed forth to funerall with the solemn tears of repentance , and buryed in the grave of Jesus , and in his place a new creation to arise , a new heart , and a new understanding , and new affections , and excellent appetites : for nothing lesse then this can cure all the old distempers . 2. Our life , and all our discourses , and every observation , and a state of reason , and a union of sober counsels , are too little to cure a peevish spirit , and a weak reasoning , and silly principles , and accursed habits , and evill examples , and perverse affections , and a whole body of sin and death . It was well said in the Comedy . Nunquam ita quisquam bene subductâ ratione ad vitam fuit , Quin aetas , usus semper aliquid apportet novi , Aliquid moneat ; ut illa quae scire credas , nescias , Et quae tibi put as prima , in experiundo repudies . Men at first think themselves wise , and are alwaies most confident when they have the least reason ; and to morrow they begin to perceive yesterdayes folly , and yet they are not wise ; But as the little Embryo in the naturall sheet and lap of its mother , first distinguishes into a little knot , and that in time will be the heart , and then into a bigger bundle , which after some dayes abode grows into two little spots , and they if cherished by nature will become eyes , and each part by order commences into weak principles , and is preserved with natures greatest curiosity ; that it may assist first to distinction , then to order , next to usefulnesse , and from thence to strength , till it arrive at beauty , and a perfect creature : so are the necessities , and so are the discourses of men ; we first learn the principles of reason , which breaks obscurely through a cloud , and brings a little light , and then we discern a folly , and by little and little leave it , till that enlightens the next corner of the soul ; and then there is a new discovery ; but the soul is still in infancy and childish follies ; and every day does but the work of one day ; but therefore art , and use , experience , and reason , although they do something , yet they cannot do enough ; there must be something else : But this is to be wrought by a new principle , that is , by the Spirit of grace : Nature and reason alone cannot do it , and therefore the proper cure is to be wrought by those generall means of inviting and cherishing , of getting and entertaining Gods Spirit , which when we have observed , we may account our selves sufficiently instructed toward the repair of our breaches , and the reformation of our evill nature . 1. The first great instrument of changing our whole nature into the state of grace , flesh into the spirit , is a firm belief , and a perfect assent to , and hearty entertainment of the promises of the Gospell ; for holy Scripture speaks great words concerning faith . It quenches the fiery darts of the Devill , saith St. Paul , it overcomes the world , saith St. John , it is the fruit of the Spirit , and the parent of love , it is obedience , and it is humility , and it is a shield , and it is a brestplate , and a work , and a mysterie , it is a fight and it is a victory , it is a pleasing God , and it is that whereby the just do live ; by faith we are purified , and by faith we are sanctified , and by faith we are justified , and by faith we are saved : by this we have accesse to the throne of grace , and by it our prayers shall prevail for the sick , by it we stand , and by it we walk , and by this Christ dwels in our hearts , and by it all the miracles of the Church have been done ; it gives great patience to suffer , and great confidence to hope , and great strength to do , and infallible certainty to enjoy the end of all our faith , and satisfaction of all our hopes , and the reward of all our labours , even the most mighty price of our high calling : and if faith be such a magazine of spirituall excellencies , of such universall efficacy , nothing can be a greater antidote against the venome of a corrupted nature . But then this is not a grace seated finally in the understanding , but the principle that is designed to , and actually productive of a holy life ; It is not only a beleeving the propositions of Scripture as we beleeve a proposition in the Metaphysicks , concerning which a man is never the honester whether it be true of false ; but it is a beleef of things that concern us infinitely , things so great that if they be so true as great , no man that hath his reason and can discourse , that can think and choose , that can desire and work towards an end , can possibly neglect . The great object of our faith , to which all other articles do minister , is , resurrection of our bodies and souls to eternall life , and glories infinite . Now is it possible that a man that beleeves this , and that he may obtain it for himself , and that it was prepared for him , and that God desires to give it him , that he can neglect and despise it , and not work for it , and perform such easie conditions upon which it may be obtained ? Are not most men of the world made miserable at a lesse price then a thousand pound a year ? Do not all the usurers and merchants , all tradesmen and labourers under the Sun toil and care , labour and contrive , venture and plot for a little money , and no man gets , and scarce any man desires so much of it as he can lay upon three acres of ground ; not so much as will fill a great house ; and is this sum , that is such a trifle , such a poor limited heap of dirt , the reward of all the labour , and the end of all the care , and the design of all the malice , and the recompence of all the wars of the world ; and can it be imaginable , that life it self , and a long life , an eternall and a happy life , a kingdome , a perfect kingdome , and glorious , that shall never have ending , nor ever shall be abated with rebellion , or fears , or sorrow , or care , that such a kingdome should not be worth the praying for , and quitting of an idle company , and a foolish humour , or a little drink , or a vicious silly woman for it ? surely men beleeve no such thing . They do not relye upon those fine stories that are read in books , and published by Preachers , and allow'd by the lawes of all the world . If they did , why do they choose intemperance and a feaver , lust and shame , rebellion and danger , pride and a fall , sacriledge and a curse , gain and passion , before humility and safety , religion and a constant joy , devotion and peace of conscience , justice and a quiet dwelling , charity and a blessing , and at the end of all this , a Kingdome more glorious then all the beauties the Sun did ever see . Fides est velut quoddam aeternitatis exemplar , praeterita simul & praesentia & futura sinu quodam vastissimo comprehendit , ut nihil ei praetereat , nil pereat , praeeat nihil ; Now , Faith is a certain image of eternity , all things are present to it , things past and things to come , are all so before the eyes of faith , that he in whose eye that candle is enkindled , beholds heaven as present , and sees how blessed thing it is to dye in Gods favour , and to be chim'd to our grave with the Musick of a good conscience . Faith converses with the Angels , and antedates the hymnes of glory ; every man that hath this grace is as certain that there are glories for him , if he perseveres in duty , as if he had heard and sung the thanksgiving Song for the blessed sentence of Dooms-day . And therefore it is no matter if these things are separate and distant objects ; none but children and fools are taken with the present trifle , and neglect a distant blessing , of which they have credible and beleeved notices . Did the merchant see the pearls and the wealth he designs to get in the trade of 20 years ? And is it possible that a childe should , when he learns the first rudiments of Grammar , know what excellent things there are in learning , whither he designs his labour , and his hopes ? We labour for that which is uncertain , and distant , and beleeved , and hoped for with many allaies , and seen with diminution , and a troubled ray ; and what excuse can there be that we do not labour for that which is told us by God , and preach'd by his holy Son , and confirmed by miracles , and which Christ himself dyed to purchase , and millions of Martyrs dyed to witnesse , and which we see good men , and wise beleeve with an assent stronger then their evidence , and which they do beleeve because they do love , and love because they do beleeve ? There is nothing to be said ; but that faith which did enlighten the blind , and cleanse the Lepers , and wash'd the soul of the Aethiopian ; that faith that cures the sick , and strengthens the Paralytick , and baptizes the Catechumens , and justifies the faithfull , and repairs the penitent , and confirms the just , and crowns the Martyrs ; that faith if it be true and proper , Christian and alive , active and effective in us , is sufficient to appease the storm of our passions , and to instruct all our ignorances , and to make us wise unto salvation ; it will , if we let it do its first intention , chastise our errors , and discover our follies , it will make us ashamed of trifling interests , and violent prosecutions , of false principles , and the evill disguises of the world ; and then our nature will return to the innocence and excellency in which God first estated it ; that is , our flesh will be a servant of the soul , and the soul a servant to the spirit ; and then , because faith makes heaven to be the end of our desires , and God the object of our love and worshippings , and the Scripture the rule of our actions , and Christ our Lord and Master , and the holy Spirit our mighty assistance and our Counsellour , all the little uglinesses of the world , and the follies of the flesh will be uneasie , and unsavory , unreasonable , and a load ; and then that grace , the grace of faith , that layes hold upon the holy Trinity , although it cannot understand it , and beholds heaven before it can possesse it , shall also correct our weaknesses , and master all our aversations ; and though we cannot in this world be perfect masters , and triumphant persons , yet we be conquerors and more ; that is , conquerors of the direct hostility , & sure of a crown to be revealed in its due time . 2. The second great remedy of our evill Nature and of the loads of the flesh , is devotion , or a state of prayer , and entercourse with God. For the gift of the Spirit of God , which is the great antidote of our evill natures , is properly and expresly promised to prayer ; If you who are evill give good things to your children that aske you , how much more shall your Father from heaven give his holy Spirit to them that aske it ? That which in S. Luke is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the holy Spirit , is called in St. Matthew , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , good things ; that is , the holy Spirit is all that good that we shall need towards our pardon , and our sanctification , and our glory , and this is promised to Prayer ; to this purpose Christ taught us the Lords Prayer , by which we are sufficiently instructed in obtaining this Magazine of holy and usefull things . But Prayer is but one part of devotion ; and though of admirable efficacy towards the obtaining this excellent promise , yet it is to be assisted by the other parts of devotion , to make it a perfect remedy to our great evill . He that would secure his evill Nature , must be a devout person , and he that is devout , besides , that he prayes frequently , he delights in it as it is a conversation with God ▪ he rejoyces in God , and esteems him the light of his eyes , and the support of his confidence , the object of his love , and the desires of his heart ; the man is uneasie but when he does God service ; and his soul is at peace and rest when he does what may be accepted : and this is that which the Apostle counsels , and gives in precept ; Rejoyce in the Lord alwaies , and again I say rejoyce ; that is , as the Levites were appointed to rejoyce , because God was their portion in tithes and offerings , so now that in the spirituall sense God is our portion , we should rejoyce in him , and make him our inheritance , and his service our imployment , and the peace of conscience to be our rest , and then it is impossible we should be any longer slaves to sin , and afflicted by the baser imployments of the flesh , or carry burdens for the Devill ; and therefore the Scholiast upon Juvenal observed well , Nullum malum gaudium est , Notrue joy can be evill ; and therefore it was improperly said of Virgil , Mala gaudia mentis , calling lust and wilde desires , the evill joyes of the minde ; Gaudium enim nisi sapienti non contingere , said Seneca , none but a wise and a good man can truly rejoyce ; The evill laugh loud , and sigh deeply , they drink drunk , and forget their sorrowes , and all the joyes of an evill man is only arts of forgetfulnesse , devices to cover their sorrow , and make them not see their death , and its affrighting circumstances ; but the heart never can rejoyce , and be secure , be pleased and be at rest , but when it dwels with holinesse : the joyes that come from thence are safe and great , unchangeable and unabated , healthfull and holy ; and this is true joy : and this is that which can cure all the little images of pleasure , and temptation which debauch our nature , and make it dwell with hospitals , in the region of diseases and evill sorrowes . St. Gregory well observed the difference : saying , that Corporall pleasures when we have them not , inkindle a flame and a burning desire in the heart , and make a man very miserable , before he tasts them ; the appetite to them is like thirst and the desires of a feaver , the pleasure of drinking will not pay for the pain of the desire ; and when they are enjoyed , they instantly breed satiety and a loathing . But spirituall rejoycings , and delights are loathed by them that have them not , and despised by them that never felt them ; but when they are once tasted they increase the appetite and swell it to bigger capacities ; and the more they are eaten , the more they are desired , and cannot become a wearinesse because they satisfie all the way , and only increase the desire , because themselves grow bigger and more amiable . And therefore when this new and stranger appetite , and consequent joy arises in the heart of man , it so fils all the faculties , that there is no gust , no desire left for toads and vipers , for hemlock and the deadly night-shade . Sirenas , hilarem navigantium poenam , Blandásque mortes , gandiúmque crudele , Quas nemo quondam deserebat auditas , Prudens Ulysses dicitur reliquisse . Then a man can hear the musick of songs and dances , and think them to be heathenish noises ; and if he be engaged in the society of a woman singer , he can be as unconcerned as a marble statue ; he can be at a feast and not be defil'd , he can passe through theatres as though a street ; then he can look on money as his servant , nec distant aera lupinis , he can use it as the Greeks did their sharp coins , to cast accounts withall , and not from thence take the accounts of his wealth or his felicity . If you can once obtain but to delight in prayer , and to long for the day of a Communion , and to be pleased with holy meditation , and to desire Gods grace with great passion , and an appetite keen as a Wolf upon the cold plains of the North ; If you can delight in Gods love , and consider concerning his providence , and busie your selves in the pursuit of the affairs of his Kingdome , then you have the grace of devotion , and your evill nature shall be cured . 3. Because this great cure is to be wrought by the Spirit of God , which is a new nature in us , we must endevour to abstain from those things which by a speciall malignity are directly opposite to the spirit of reason , and the spirit of grace ; and those are drunkennesse and lust . He that is full of wine cannot be full of the spirit of God ; St. Paul noteth the hostility . Be not drunk with wine , but be filled with the Spirit ; a man that is a drunkard does perire cito , he perishes quickly , his temptations that come to him make but short work with him ; a drunkard is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; our English well expresses it , it is a sottishnesse , and the man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , an uselesse , senselesse person , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; of all the evils of the world nothing is worse to a mans self , nothing is more harmfull then this ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Crobylus , it deprives a wise man of his counsell and his understanding : now , because it is the greatest good that nature hath , that which takes it away must needs be our greatest enemy . Nature is weak enough of it self , but drunkennesse takes from it all the little strengths that are left to it , and destroyes the spirit ; and the man can neither have the strengths ▪ of nature , nor the strengths of grace ; and how then can the man do wisely or vertuously ? Spiritus sanctus amat sicca corda , the Spirit of Godloves dry hearts , said the Christian Proverb ; and Josephus said of Samson , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it appears he was a Prophet , or a man full of the Spirit , by the temperance of his diet ; and now that all the people are holy unto the Lord , they must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Plutarch said of their consecrated persons ; they must have dry and sober purities : for by this means their reason is usefull , and their passions not violent , and their discourse united , and the precious things of their memory at hand , and they can pray , and read , and they can meditate and practise , and then they can learn where their naturall weaknesses are most urgent , and how they can be tempted , and can secure their aides accordingly ; but how is it possible that such a man should cure all the evils of his Nature , and repair the breaches of Adams sin , and stop all the effect which is upon him from all the evils of the world , if he delights in seas of drink , and is pleased with the follies of distemper'd persons , and laughs loud at the childish humours and weak discourses of the man that can do nothing but that for which Dionysius slew Antiphon , and Timagenes did fall from Caesars friendship ; that is , play the fool and abuse his friend ; He cannot give good counsell or spend an hour in wise sayings ; but half a day they can talk ut foret unde corona cachinnum tollere possit , to make the crowd laugh and consider not . And the same is the case of lust ; because it is exactly contrary to Christ the King of Virgins , and his holy Spirit , who is the Prince of purities and holy thoughts ; it is a captivity of the reason , and an inraging of the passions , it wakens every night , and rages every day , it desires passionately and prosecutes violently , it hinders businesse and distracts counsell , it brings jealousies and enkindles wars , it sins against the body , and weakens the soul , it defiles a Temple , and drives the holy Spirit forth , and it is so intire a prosecution of the follies and weaknesses of nature , such a snare and a bait to weak and easie fools , that it prevails infinitely , and rages horribly , and rules tyrannically ; it is a very feaver in the reason , and a calenture in the passions ; and therefore either it must be quenched , or it will be impossible to cure our evill natures : The curing of this is not the remedy of a single evill , but it is a doing violence to our whole nature ; and therefore hath in it the greatest courage and an equall conduct , and supposes spirituall strengths great enough to contest against every enemy . 4. Hither is to be reduced , that we avoid all flatterers and evill company ; for it was impossible that Alexander should be wise and cure his pride and his drunkennesse , so long as he entertain'd Agesius and Agnon , Bagoas and Demetrius , and slew Parmenio and Philotas , and murder'd wise . Calisthenes ; for he that loves to be flattered , loves not to change his pleasure ; but had rather to hear himself cal'd wise , then to be so . Flattery does bribe an evill nature , and corrupt a good one ; and make it love to give wrong judgement , and evill sentences ; he that loves to be flatter'd can never want some to abuse him , but he shall alwaies want one to counsell him , and then he can never be wise . 5. But I must put these advices into a heap ; he therefore that will cure his evill nature , must set himself against his chiefest lust , which when he hath overcome , the lesser enemies will come in of themselves . He must endevour to reduce his affections to an indifferency ; for all violence is an enemy to reason and counsell , and is that state of disease for which he is to enquire remedies . 8. It is necessary that in all actions of choice he deliberate and consider , that he may never do that for which he must aske a pardon , and he must suffer shame and smart : and therefore Cato did well reprove Aulus Albinus for writing the Roman story in the Greek tongue , of which he had but imperfect knowledge ; and himself was put to make his Apologie for so doing ; Cato told him that he was mightily in love with a fault , that he had rather beg a pardon then be innocent ; Who forc'd him to need the pardon ? And when beforehand we know we must change from what we are or do worse , it is a better compendium not to enter in from whence we must uneasily retire . 9. In all the contingencies of chance and variety of action , remember that thou art the maker of thy own fortune , and of thy own sin ; charge not God with it either before or after ; The violence of thy own passion is no superinduced necessity from him , and the events of providence in all its strange variety can give no authority or patronage to a foul forbidden action , though the next chance of war or fortune be prosperous and rich . An Egyptian robber sleeping under a rotten wall was awaken'd by Serapis , and sent away from the ruine ; but being quit from the danger , and seeing the wall to slide , thought that the Daemon lov'd his crime , because he had so strangely preserved him from a sudden and a violent death . But Serapis told him , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , I saved you from the wall to reserve you for the wheel ; from a short and a private death , to a painfull and disgracefull ; and so it is very frequently in the event of humane affairs : men are saved from one death , and reserved for another ; or are preserved here to be destroyed hereafter ; and they that would judge of actions by events , must stay till all events are passed ; that is , till all their posterity be dead , and the sentence is given at Dooms-day ; in the mean time , the evils of our nature are to be look'd upon without all accidentall appendages ; as they are in themselves , as they have an irregularity and disorder , an unreasonablenesse and a sting ; and be sure to relye upon nothing , but the truth of lawes and promises ; and take severe accounts by those lines which God gave us on purpose to reprove our evill habits and filthy inclinations . Men that are not willing to be cured are glad of any thing to cousen them ; but the body of death cannot be taken off from us , unlesse we be honest in our purposes and severe in our counsels , and take just measures , and glorifie God , and set our selves against our selves , that we may be changed into the likenesse of the sons of God. 9. Avoid all delay in the counsels of Religion . Because the aversation and perversnesse of a childes nature may be corrected easily ; but every day of indulgence and excuse increases the evill , and makes it still more naturall , and still more necessary . 10. Learn to despise the world ; or , which is a better compendium in the duty , learn but truly to understand it ; for it is a cousenage all the way ; the head of it is a rainbow , and the face of it is flattery ; its words are charmes , and all its stories are false ; its body is a shadow , and its hands to knit spiders webs ; it is an image and a noise , with a Hyaena's lip and a Serpents tail ; it was given to serve the needs of our nature , and in stead of doing it , it creates strange appetites , and nourishes thirsts and feavers ; it brings care and debauches our nature , and brings shame and death as the reward of all our cares . Our nature is a disease , and the world does nourish it ; but if you leave to feed upon such unwholesome diet , your nature reverts to its first purities , and to the entertainments of the grace of God. 4. I am now to consider , how farre the infirmities of the flesh can be innocent , and consist with the spirit of grace . For all these counsels are to be entertain'd into a willing spirit , and not only so , but into an active : and so long as the spirit is only willing , the weaknesse of the flesh will in many instances become stronger then the strengths of the spirit . For he that hath a good will , and does not do good actions which are required of him , is hindred , but not by God that requires them , and therefore by himself , or his worst enemy . But the measures of this question are these . 1. If the flesh hinders us of our duty , it is our enemy ; and then our misery is not , that the flesh is weak , but that it is too strong ; But 2. when it abates the degrees of duty and stops its growth , or its passing on to action and effect , then it is weak , but not directly , nor alwaies criminall . But to speak particularly . If our flesh hinders us of any thing that is a direct duty , and prevails upon the spirit to make it do an evill action , or contract an evill habit , the man is in a state of bondage and sin : his flesh is the mother of corruption , and an enemy to God. It is not enough to say , I desire to serve God , and cannot as I would : I would fain love God above all the things in the world , but the flesh hath appetites of its own that must be served : I pray to be forgiven as I forgive others ; but flesh and bloud cannot put up such an injury : for know that no infirmity , no unavoidable accident , no necessity , no poverty , no businesse can hinder us from the love of God , or forgiving injuries , or being of a religious and a devout spirit ; Poverty and the intrigues of the world are things that can no more hinder the spirit in these duties , then a strong enemy can hinder the sun to shine , or the clouds to drop rain . These things which God requires of us , and exacts from us with mighty penalties , these he hath made us able to perform ; for he knows that we have no strength but what he gives us ; and therefore as he binds burdens upon our shoulders , so he gives us strength to bear them ; and therefore he that sayes he cannot forgive , sayes only that his lust is stronger then his religion ; his flesh prevails upon his spirit . For what necessity can a man have to curse him whom he cals enemy ? or to sue him , or kill him , or do him any spite ? A man may serve all his needs of nature , though he does nothing of all this ; and if he be willing , what hinders him to love , to pardon to wish well , to desire ? The willing is the doing in this case ; and he that sayes he is willing to do his duty , but he cannot , does not understand what he sayes . For all the duty of the inner man consists in the actions of the will , and there they are seated , and to it all the inferiour faculties obey in those things which are direct emanations , and effects of will. He that desires to love God , does love him ; indeed men are often cousened with pretences , and in some good mood are warm'd with a holy passion , but it signifies nothing ; because they will not quit the love of Gods enemies ; and therefore they do not desire , what they say they doe : but if the will and heart be right , and not false and dissembling , this duty is , or will be done infallibly . 2. If the spirit and the heart be willing , it will passe on to outward actions in all things where it ought , or can . He that hath a charitable soul will have a charitable hand ; and will give his money to the poor , as he hath given his heart to God : For these things which are in our hand are under the power of our will , and therefore are to be commanded by it . He that sayes to the naked , be warm and cloathed , and gives him not the garment that lies by him , or money to buy one , mocks God , and the poor , and himself . Nequam illud verb●m est , bene vult , nisi qui bene facit , said the Comedy ; It is an evill saying , he wishes well , unlesse he do well . 3. Those things which are not in our power , that is , such things in which the flesh is inculpably weak , or naturally , or politically disabled , the will does the work of the outward and of the inward man ; we cannot cloath Christs body , he needs it not ; and we cannot approach so sacred and separate a presence ; but if we desire to do it , it is accounted as if we had . The ignorant man cannot discourse wisely and promote the interest of souls , but he can love souls , and desire their felicity ; though I cannot build Hospitals and Colledges , or pour great summes of money into the lap of the poor , yet if I incourage others and exhort them , if I commend and promote the work , I have done the work of a holy Religion . For in these and the like cases , the outward work is not alwaies set in our power ; and therefore without our fault is omitted , and can be supplyed by that which is in our power . 4. For that is the last caution , concerning this question . No man is to be esteemed of a willing spirit , but he that endevours to doe the outward work , or to make all the supplies that he can ; not only by the forwardnesse of his spirit , but by the compensation of some other charities , or devotion , or religion . Silver and gold have I none , and therefore I can give you none : But I wish you well ; How will that appear ? why thus , Such as I have I will give you : Rise up and walk . I cannot give you gold , but I can give you counsell ; I cannot relieve your need , but I can relieve your sadnesse ; I cannot cure you , but I can comfort you ; I cannot take away your poverty , but I can ease your spirit ; and God accepts us ( saith the Apostle ) according to what a man hath , and not according to what he hath not . Only as our desires are great , and our spirits are willing , so we shall finde wayes to make supply of our want of ability and expressed liberality . Et labor ingenium misero dedit , & sua quemque Advigilare sibi jussit fortuna premendo . What the poor mans need will make him do , that also the good mans charity will ; it will finde out wayes and artifices of relief , in kinde , or in value ; in comfort , or in prayers ; in doing it himself , or procuring others : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The necessity of our fortune , and the willingnesse of our spirits will do all this ; all that it can , and something that it cannot ; You have relieved the Saints ( saith St. Paul ) according to your power , yea and beyond your power ; Only let us be carefull in all instances , that we yeeld not to the weaknesse of the flesh , nor listen to its fair pretences ; for the flesh can do more then it sayes , we can do more then we think we can ; and if we doe some violence to the flesh , to our affairs , and to the circumstances of our fortune , for the interest of our spirit , we shall make our flesh usefull , and the spirit strong , the flesh and its weaknesse shall no more be an objection , but shall comply , and co-operate , and serve all the necessities of the spirit . Sermon , XII . Of Lukewarmnesse , and Zeal : OR SPIRITVALL TERROVR . Part I. Jer. 48. 10. vers . first part . part . Cursed be he that doth the work of the Lord deceitfully . CHrists Kingdome being in order to the Kingdome of his Father , which shall be manifest at the day of Judgement , must therefore be spirituall , because then it is , that all things must become spirituall , not only by way of eminency , but by intire constitution and perfect change of natures . Men shall be like Angels , and Angels shall be comprehended in the lap of spirituall and eternall felicities ; the soul shall not understand by materiall phantasmes , neither be served by the provisions of the body , but the body it self shall become spirituall , and the eye shall see intellectuall objects , and the mouth shall feed upon hymns and glorifications of God ; the belly shall be then satisfied by the fulnesse of righteousnesse , and the tongue shall speak nothing but praises , and the propositions of a celestiall wisdome ; the motion shall be the swiftnesse of an Angell ; and it shall be cloathed with white as with a garment : Holinesse is the Sun , and righteousnesse is the Moon in that region ; our society shall be Quires of singers , and our conversation wonder ; contemplation shall be our food , and love shall be the wine of elect souls ; and as to every naturall appetite there is now proportion'd an object , crasse , materiall , unsatisfying , and allayed with sorrow and uneasinesse : so there be new capacities and equall objects , the desires shall be fruition , and the appetite shall not suppose want , but a faculty of delight , and an unmeasureable complacency : the will and the understanding , love and wonder , joyes every day and the same forever ; this shall be their state who shall be accounted worthy of the resurrection to this life ; where the body shall be a partner , but no servant ; where it shall have no work of its own , but it shall rejoyce with the soul ; where the soul shall rule without resistance , or an enemy , and we shall be fitted to enjoy God who is the Lord and Father of spirits . In this world we see it is quite contrary : we long for perishing meat , and fill our stomachs with corruption ; we look after white and red , and the weaker beauties of the night ; we are passionate after rings and seals , and inraged at the breaking of a Crystall ; we delight in the society of fools and weak persons ; we laugh at sin , and contrive mischiefs ; and the body rebels against the soul , and carries the cause against all its just pretences ; and our soul it self is above half of it earth , and stone in its affections , and distempers ; our hearts are hard , and inflexible to the softer whispers of mercy and compassion , having no loves for any thing but strange flesh , and heaps of money , and popular noises , for misery and folly ; and therefore we are a huge way off from the Kingdome of God , whose excellencies , whose designs , whose ends , whose constitution is spirituall and holy , and separate , and sublime , and perfect . Now between these two states of naturall flesh , and heavenly spirit , that is , the powers of darknesse , and the regions of light , the miseries of man , and the perfections of God ; the imperfection of nature where we stand by our creation , and supervening follies , and that state of felicities whither we are designed by the mercies of God , there is a middle state ; the Kingdome of grace wrought for us by our Mediator , the man Christ Jesus , who came to perfect the vertue of Religion , and the designs of God , and to reforme our Nature , and to make it possible for us to come to that spirituall state where all felicity does dwell . The Religion that Christ taught is a spirituall Religion , it designs ( so far as this state can permit ) to make us spirituall ; that is , so as the spirit be the prevailing ingredient . God must now be worshipped in spirit , and not only so , but with a fervent spirit ; and though God in all religions did seise upon the spirit , and even under Moses Law did by the shadow of the ceremony , require the substantiall worship , by cutting off the flesh intended the circumcision of the heart ; yet because they were to minde the outward action , it took off much from the intention , and activity of the spirit ; Man could not doe both busily : And then they fail'd also in the other part of a spirituall Religion ; for the nature of a spirituall Religion is , that in it we serve God with our hearts and affections ; and because while the spirit prevails , we do not to evill purposes of abatement converse with flesh and bloud , this service is also fervent , intense , active , wise , and busie , according to the nature of things spirituall . Now because God alwayes perfectly intended it , yet because he lesse perfectly required it in the Law of Moses , I say they fell short in both . For , 1. They so rested in the outward action , that they thought themselves chast , if they were no adulterers , though their eyes were wanton as Kids , and their thoughts polluted as the springs of the wildernesse when a Panther and a Lionesse descend to drink and lust ; and if they did not rob the Temple , they accounted it no sin if they murmur'd at the riches of Religion ; and Josephus reproves Polybius for saying that Antiochus was punished for having a design of sacriledge ; and therefore Tertullian sayes of them , they were nec plenae , nec adeò timendae disciplinae ad innocentiae veritatem ; this was their righteousnesse which Christ said unlesse we will exceed , we shall not enter into the Kingdome of heaven , where all spirituall perfections are in state and excellency . 2. The other part of a spirituall worship is a fervour and a holy zeal of Gods glory , greatnesse of desire , and quicknesse of action : of all this the Jewes were not carefull at all , excepting the zealots amongst them , and they were not only fervent but inflamed ; and they had the earnestnesse of passion for the holy warmth of Religion ; and in stead of an earnest charity they had a cruell discipline , and for fraternall correction they did destroy a sinning Israelite : and by both these evill states of Religion they did the work of the Lord deceitfully ; they either gave him the action without the heart , or zeal without charity , or religion without zeal , or ceremony without religion , or indifferency without desires ; and then God is served by the outward man and not the inward ; or by part of the inward and not all ; by the understanding and not by the will ; or by the will when the affections are cold and the body unapt , and the lower faculties in rebellion , and the superior in disorder , and the work of God is left imperfect , and our persons ungracious , and our ends unacquired , and the state of a spirituall kingdome not at all set forward towards any hope or possibility of being obtained . All this Christ came to mend , and by his Lawes did make provision that God should be served intirely , according as God alwaies designed , and accordingly required by his Prophets , and particularly in my Text , that his work be done sincerely , and our duty with great affection ; and by these two provisions , both the intension and the extension are secured ; our duty shall be intire , and it shall be perfect , we shall be neither lame nor cold , without a limb , nor without naturall heat , and then the work of the Lord will prosper in our hands : but if we fail in either , we do the Lords work deceitfully , and then we are accursed . For so saith the Spirit of God ; Cursed be he that doth the work of the Lord deceitfully . 1. Here then is the duty of us all : 1. God requires of us to serve him with an integrall , intire , or a whole worship and religion . 2. God requires of us to serve him with earnest and intense affections ; The intire purpose of both which , I shall represent in its severall parts by so many propositions . 3. I shall consider concerning the measures of zeal , and its inordinations . 1. He that serves God with the body without the soul , serves God deceitfully . My son give me thy heart ; and though I cannot think that Nature was so sacramentall , as to point out the holy and mysterious Trinity by the triangle of the heart , yet it is certain that the heart of man is Gods speciall portion , and every angle ought to point out towards him directly ; that is , the soul of man ought to be presented to God , and given to him as an oblation to the interest of his service . 1. For , to worship God with our souls confesses one of his glorious attributes ; it declares him to be the searcher of hearts , and that he reads the secret purposes , and beholds the smallest arrests of fancy , and bends in all the flexures and intriques of crafty people , and searches out every plot and trifling conspiracy against him , and against our selves , and against our brethren . 2. It advances the powers and concernments of his providence , and confesses all the affairs of men , all their cabinets and their nightly counsels , their snares and two-edged mischiefs to be over-rul'd by him ; for what he sees he judges , and what he judges he rules , and what he rules must turn to his glory ; and of this glory he reflects rayes and influences upon his servants , and it shall also turn to their good . 3. This service distinguishes our duty towards God from all our conversation with man , and separates the divine commandements from the imperfect decrees of Princes and Republiques ; for these are satisfied by the outward work , and cannot take any other cognisance of the heart , and the will of man , but as himself is pleased to signifie . He that wishes the fiscus empty , and that all the revenues of the Crown were in his counting-house , cannot be punished by the Lawes , unlesse himself become his own traytor and accuser ; and therefore what man cannot discern , he must not judge , and must not require ? but God sees it and judges it , and requires it , and therefore reserves this as his own portion and the chiefest feudall right of his Crown . 4. He that secures the heart , secures all the rest ; because this is the principle of all the moral actions of the whole man , & the hand obeys this , and the feet walk by its prescriptions ; we eat and drink by measures which the soul desires and limits ; and though the naturall actions of man are not subject to choice & rule , yet the animal actions are under discipline ; and although it cannot be helped but we shall desire , yet our desires can receive measures , and the lawes of circumstances , and be reduced to order , and nature be changed into grace , and the actions animall ( such as are , eating , drinking , laughing , weeping , &c. ) shall become actions of Religion ; and those that are simply naturall ( such as , being hungry and thirsty ) shall be adopted into the retinue of religion , and become religious by being order'd , or chastis'd , or suffered , or directed ; and therefore God requires the heart , because he requires all ; and all cannot be secured without the principle be inclosed . But he that seals up a fountain , may drink up all the waters alone , and may best appoint the channels where it shall run , and what grounds it shall refresh . 5. That I may summe up many reasons in one ; God by requiring the heart secures the perpetuity and perseverance of our duty , and its sincerity , and its integrity , and its perfection : for so also God takes account of little things ; it being all one in the heart of man , whether maliciously it omits a duty in a small instance or in a great ; for although the expression hath variety and degrees in it in relation to those purposes of usefulnesse and charity whither God designs it , yet the obedience and disobedience is all one , and shall be equally accounted for ; and therefore the Jew Tryphon disputed against Justin , that the precepts of the Gospell were impossible to be kept , because it also requiring the heart of man did stop every egression of disorders : for making the root holy and healthfull , as the Balsame of Judaea , or the drops of Manna in the evening of the sabbath ; it also causes that nothing spring thence but gummes fit for incense , and oblations for the Altar of proposition , and a cloud of perfume fit to make atonement for our sins , and being united to the great sacrifice of the world to reconcile God and man together . Upon these reasons you see it is highly fit that God should require it , and that we should pay the sacrifice of our hearts ; and not at all think that God is satisfied with the work of the hands , when the affections of the heart are absent . He that prayes because he would be quiet , and would fain be quit of it , and communicates for fear of the lawes , and comes to Church to avoid shame , and gives almes to be eased of an importunate begger , or relieves his old parents because they will not dye in their time , and provides for his children lest he be compled by Lawes and shame , but yet complains of the charge of Gods blessings , this man is a servant of the eyes of men , and offers parchment or a white skin in sacrifice , but the flesh and the inwards he leaves to be consumed by a stranger fire . And therefore this is a deceit that robs God of the best , and leaves that for religion which men pare off : It is sacriledge , and brings a double curse . 2. He that serves God with the soule without the body , when both can be conjoyned , doth the work of the Lord deceitfully . Paphnutius , whose knees were cut for the testimony of Jesus , was not obliged to worship with the humble flexures of the bending penitents : and blinde Bartimeus could not read the holy lines of the Law , and therefore that part of the work was not his duty ; and God shall not call Lazarus to account for not giving almes , nor St. Peter and St. John for not giving silver and gold to the lame man , nor Epaphroditus for not keeping his fasting dayes when he had his sicknesse . But when God hath made the body an apt minister to the soul , and hath given money for almes , and power to protect the oppressed , and knees to serve in prayer and hands to serve our needs , then the soul alone is not to work ; but as Rachel gave her maid to Jacob and she bore children to her Lord upon her Ministresse knees , and the children were reckoned to them both , because the one had fruitfull desires and the other a fruitfull wombe : so must the body serve the needs of the spirit ; that what the one desires the other may effect , and the conceptions of the soul may be the productions of the body ; and the body must bow when the soul worships , and the hand must help when the soul pities , and both together do the work of a holy Religion ; the body alone can never serve God without the conjunction and preceding act of the soul ; and sometimes the soul without the body is imperfect and vain ; for in some actions there is a body and a spirit , a materiall and a spirituall part ; and when the action hath the same constitution that a man hath , without the act of both it is as imperfect as a dead man ; the soul cannot produce the body of some actions any more then the body can put life into it ; and therefore an ineffective pity and a lazie counsell , an empty blessing , and gay words , are but deceitfull charity . Quod peto , da , Caï , non peto consilium . He that gave his friend counsell to study the Law , when he desired to borrow 20 l. was not so friendly in this counsell as he was uselesse in his charity ; spirituall acts can cure a spirituall malady , but if my body needs relief , because you cannot feed me with Diagrams , or cloath me with Euclids elements , you must minister a reall supply by a corporall charity to my corporall necessity . This proposition is not only usefull in the doctrine of charity , and the vertue of religion , but in the professions of faith , and requires that it be publick , open , and ingenuous . In matters of necessary duty it is not sufficient to have it to our selves , but we must also have it to God , and all the world ; and as in the heart we beleeve , so by the mouth we confesse unto salvation : he is an ill man that is only a Christian in his heart , and is not so in his professions and publications ; and as your heart must not be wanting in any good profession and pretences , so neither must publick profession be wanting in every good and necessary perswasion . The faith and the cause of God must be owned publiquely ; for if it be the cause of God , it will never bring us to shame . I do not say , what ever we think , we must tell it to all the world , much lesse at all times , and in all circumstances ; but we must never deny that which we beleeve to be the cause of God in such circumstances in which we can and ought to glorifie him . But this extends also to other instances . He that swears a false oath with his lips , and unswears it with his heart , hath deceived one more then he thinks for ; himself is the most abused person : and when my action is contrary to men they will reprove me , but when it is against my own perswasion , I cannot but reprove my self ; and am witnesse , and accuser , and party , and guilty , and then God is the Judge , and his anger will be a fierce executioner , because we do the Lords work deceitfully . 3. They are deceitfull in the Lords work that reserve one faculty for sin , or one sin for themselves , or one action to please their appetite , and many for Religion . Rabbi Kimchi taught his Scholars , Cogitationem pravam Deus non habet vice facti , nisi concepta fuerit in Dei fidem & Religionem ; that God is never angry with an evill thought , unlesse it be a thought of Apostasie from the Jewes religion ; and therefore , provided that men be severe and close in their sect and party , they might roll in lustfull thoughts ; and the torches they light up in the Temple might smoke with anger at one end , and lust at the other , so they did not flame out in egressions of violence and injustice , in adulteries and fouler complications : nay they would give leave to some degrees of evill actions ; for R. Moses and Selomoh taught , that if the most part of a mans actions were holy and just , though in one he sinned often , yet the greater ingredient should prevail , and the number of good works should outweigh the lesser account of evill things ; and this Pharisaicall righteousnesse is too frequent even amongst Christians . For who almost is there that does not count fairly concerning himself , if he reckons many vertues upon the stock of his Religion , and but one vice upon the stock of his infirmity ; half a dozen to God , and one for his company , or his friend ; his education , or his appetite ? and if he hath parted from his folly , yet he will remember the fleshpots , and please himself with a phantastick sin , and call it home through the gates of his memory , and place it at the door of fancy , that there he may behold it and consider concerning what he hath parted withall , out of the fears and terrors of religion , and a necessary unavoidable conscience . Do not many men go from sin to sin even in their repentance ? they go backward from sin to sin , and change their crime as a man changes his uneasie load , and shakes it off from one shoulder to support it with the other . How many severe persons , virgins and widows are so pleased with their chastity , and their abstinence even from lawfull mixtures , that by this means they fall into a worse pride ? insomuch that I remember St. Austin said , Audeo dicere superbis continentibus expedit cadere , they that are chaste and proud , it is sometimes a remedy for them to fall into sin , and by the shame of lust to cure the devill of pride , and by the sin of the body to cure the worser evils of the spirit ; and therefore he addes , that he did beleeve , God in a severe mercy did permit the barbarous nations , breaking in upon the Roman Empire , to violate many virgins professed in Cloisters and religious Families to be as a mortification of their pride , lest the accidentall advantages of a continent life should bring them into the certain miseries of a spirituall death , by taking away their humility , which was more necessary then their virgin state ; It is not a cure that men may use , but God permits it sometimes with greater safety through his wise conduct and over-ruling providence ; St. Peter was safer by his fall ( as it fell out in the event of things ) then by his former confidence . Man must never cure a sin by a sin ; but he that brings good out of our evill , he can when he please . But I speak it , to represent how deceitfully many times we do the work of the Lord. We reprove a sinning Brother , but do it with a pompous spirit ; we separate from scandall , and do it with glory , and a gaudy heart ; we are charitable to the poor , but will not forgive our unkinde enemies ; or we powre relief into their bags , but we please our selves and drink drunk , and hope to commute with God , giving the fruit of our labours or effluxes of money for the sin of our souls : And upon this account it is that two of the noblest graces of a Christian are to very many persons made a savour of death , though they were intended for the beginning and the promotion of an eternal life ; and those are faith and charity ; some men think if they have faith , it is enough to answer all the accusations of sin which our consciences or the Devils make against us : If I be a wanton person , yet my faith shall hide it , and faith shall cover the follies of drunkennesse , and I may all my life relye upon faith , at last to quit my scores . For he that is most carefull is not innocent , but must be saved by faith , and he that is least carefull may have faith , and that will save him . But because these men mistake concerning faith , and consider not that charity or a good life is a part of that faith that saves us , they hope to be saved by the Word , they fill their bellies with the story of Frimalcions banquet , and drink drunk with the newes of wine , they eat shadows , and when they are drowning , catch at the image of the trees which hang over the water , and are reflected from the bottome . But thus many men do with charity , [ Give almes and all things shall be clean unto you , said our Blessed Saviour : ] and therefore , many keep a sin alive , and make account to pay for it , and God shall be put to relieve his own poor at the price of the sin of another of his servants ; charity shall take lust or intemperance into protection , and men will not be kinde to their brethren , unlesse they will be also at the same time unkinde to God. I have understood concerning divers vicious persons , that none have been so free in their donatives and offerings to Religion and the Priest as they : and the Hospitals that have been built , and the High-wayes mended at the price of souls , are too many for Christendome to boast of in behalf of charity . But as others mistake concerning faith , so these do concerning its twin sister . The first had faith without charity , and these have charity without hope ; for every one that hath this hope , that is , the hope of receiving the glorious things of God promised in the Gospell , purifies himself even as God is pure ; faith and charity too , must both suppose repentance ; and repentance is the abolition of the whole body of sin , the purification of the whole man. But the summe of the Doctrine and case of conscience in this particular is this . 1. Charity is a certain cure of sins that are past , not that are present . He that repents and leaves his sin , and then relieves the poor and payes for his folly by a diminution of his own estate , and the supplies of the poor , and his ministring to Christs poor members , turns all his former crimes into holinesse ; he purges the slains and makes amends for his folly , and commutes for the baser pleasure with a more noble usage : so said Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar [ Break off thy sins by righteousnesse , and thine iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor : ] first be just , and then be charitable ; for it is pity almes , which is one of the noblest services of God , and the greatest mercy to thy Brother , should be spent upon sin , and thrown away upon folly . 2. Faith is the remedy of all our evils , but then it is never of force , but when we either have endevoured or undertaken to do all good ; this in baptisme , that after : faith and repentance at first ; and faith and charity at last ; and because we fail often by infirmity , and sometimes by inadvertency , sometimes by a surprize , and often by omission ; and all this even in the midst of a sincere endevour to live justly , and perfectly ; therefore the passion of our Lord payes for thus , and faith layes hold upon that . But without a hearty and sincere intent , and vigorous prosecution of all the parts of our duty , faith is but a word , not so much as a cover to a naked bosome , nor a pretence big enough to deceive persons that are not willing to be cousened . 3. The bigger ingredient of vertue and evill actions will prevail , but it is only when vertue is habituall , and sins are single , interrupted , casuall and seldome ▪ without choice and without affection ; that is , when our repentance is so timely that it can work for God , more then we served under the tyranny of sin ; so that if you will account the whole life of man , the rule is good , and the greater ingredient shal prevail , and he shall certainly be pardoned and accepted whose life is so reformed , whose repentance is so active , whose return is so early , that he hath given bigger portions to God then to Gods enemy . But if we account so , as to divide the measures in present possession , the bigger part cannot prevail ; a small or a seldome sin spoils not the sea of piety ; but when the affection is divided , a little ill destroyes the whole body of good ; the cup in a mans right hand must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it must be pure although it be mingled ; that is , the whole affection must be for God , that must be pure and unmingled ; if sin mingles in seldome and unapproved instances , the drops of water are swallowed up with a whole vintage of piety , and the bigger ingredient is the prevailing ; in all other cases it is not so : for one sin that we choose and love and delight in , will not be excused by 20 vertues : and as one broken link dissolves the union of the whole chain , and one jarring and untuned string spoils the whole musick ; so is every sin that seises upon a portion of our affections ; if we love one , that one destroyes the acceptation of all the rest ; And as it is in faith , so it is in charity . He that is a Heretick in one article , hath no saving faith in the whole ; and so does every vicious habit , or unreformed sin destroy the excellency of the grace of charity ; a wilfull error in one article is Heresie , and every vice in one instance is Malice , and they are perfectly contrary , and a direct darknesse to the two eyes of the soul , faith and charity . 4. There is one deceit more yet , in the matter of the extension of our duty , destroying the integrity of its constitution : for they do the work of God deceitfully , who think God sufficiently served with abstinence from evill , and converse not in the acquisition and pursuit of holy charity and religion . This Clemens Alexandrinus affirmes of the Pharisees , they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they hoped to be justified by abstinence from things forbidden ; but if we will be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sons of the kingdome , we must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Besides this , and supposing a proportionable perfection in such an innocence , we must love our brother and do good to him , and glorifie God by a holy Religion , in the communion of Saints , in faith and Sacraments , in almes and counsell , in forgivenesses and assistances . Flee from evill , and do the thing that is good , and dwell for evermore , said the Spirit of God in the Psalmes : and St. Peter [ Having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust , give all diligence to adde to your faith vertue , to vertue patience , to patience godlinesse , and brotherly kindnesse and charity . Many persons think themselves fairly assoiled , because they are no adulterers , no rebels , no drunkards , not of scandalous lives ; In the mean time like the Laodiceans , they are naked and poor ; they have no catalogue of good things registred in heaven , no treasures in the repositories of the poor , neither have the poor often prayed concerning them , Lord remember thy servants for this thing at the day of Judgement . A negative Religion is in many things the effects of lawes and the appendage of sexes , the product of education , the issues of company and of the publick , or the daughter of fear and naturall modesty , or their temper and constitution , and civill relations , common fame , or necessary interest . Few women swear and do the debaucheries of drunkards ; and they are guarded from adulterous complications by spies and shame , by fear and jealousie , by the concernment of families , and the reputation of their kindred , and therefore they are to account with God beyond this civill and necessary innocence , for humility and patience , for religious fancies and tender consciences , for tending the sick and dressing the poor , for governing their house and nursing their children ; and so it is in every state of life . When a Prince or a Prelate , a noble and a rich person hath reckon'd all his immunities and degrees of innocence from those evils that are incident to inferiour persons , or the worser sort of their own order , they do the work of the Lord , and their own too , very deceitfully , unlesse they account correspondencies of piety to all their powers and possibilities : they are to reckon and consider concerning what oppressions they have relieved , what causes and what fatherlesse they have defended , how the work of God and of Religion , of justice and charity hath thriv'd in their hands . If they have made peace , and encouraged Religion by their example and by their lawes , by rewards and collaterall incouragements , if they have been zealous for God and for Religion , if they have imployed ten talents to the improvement of Gods bank , then they have done Gods work faithfully ; if they account otherwise , and account only by ciphers , and negatives , they can expect only the rewards of innocent slaves ; they shall escape the furca and the wheel , the torments of lustfull persons , and the crown of flames , that is reserved for the ambitious ; or they shall not be gnawn with the vipers of the envious , or the shame of the ingratefull ; but they can never upon this account hope for the crowns of Martyrs , or the honorary ▪ rewards of Saints , the Coronets of virgins , and Chaplets of Doctors and Confessors : And though murderers and lustfull persons , the proud and the covetous , the Heretick and Schismatick are to expect flames and scorpions , pains and smart , ( poenam sensus , the Schooles call it ) yet the lazic and the imperfect , the harmlesse sleeper and the idle worker shall have poenam damni , the losse of all his hopes , and the dishonours of the losse ; and in the summe of affairs it will be no great difference whether we have losse or pain , because there can be no greater pain imaginable then to lose the sight of God to eternall ages . 5. Hither are to be reduced as deceitfull workers , those that promise to God , but mean not to pay what they once intended ; * people that are confident in the day of ease , and fail in the danger ; * they that pray passionately for a grace , and if it be not obtained at that price go no further , and never contend in action for what they seem to contend in prayer ; * such as delight in forms and outsides , and regard not the substance and design of every institution ; * that think it a great sin to tast bread before the receiving the holy Sacrament , and yet come to communicate with an ambitious and revengefull soul ; * that make a conscience of eating flesh , but not of drunkennesse ; * that keep old customes and old sins together ; * that pretend one duty to excuse another ; religion against charity , or piety to parents against duty to God , private promises against publick duty , the keeping of an oath against breaking of a Commandement , honour against modesty , reputation against piety , the love of the world in civill instances to countenance enmity against God ; these are the deceitfull workers of Gods work , they make a schisme in the duties of Religion , and a warre in heaven worse then that between Michael and the Dragon ; for they divide the Spirit of God , and distinguish his commandements into parties and factions ; by seeking an excuse , sometimes they destroy the integrity and perfect constitution of duty , or they do something whereby the effect and usefulnesse of the duty is hindred : concerning all which this only can be said , they who serve God with a lame sacrifice and an imperfect duty , a duty defective in its constituent parts , can never enjoy God ; because he can never be divided : and though it be better to enter into heaven with one foot , and one eye , then that both should be cast into hell , because heaven can make recompence for this losse ; yet nothing can repair his losse who for being lame in his duty shall enter into hell , where nothing is perfect , but the measures and duration of torment , and they both are next to infinite . SERMON , XIII . Part II. 2. THe next enquiry , is into the intention of our duty : and here it will not be amisse to change the word fraudulentèr ; or dolosè , into that which some of the Latin Copies doe use , Maledictus qui facit opus Dei [ negligentèr , ] Cursed is he that doth the work of the Lord negligently , or remissely : and it implyes , that as our duty must be whole , so it must be fervent ; for a languishing body may have all its parts , and yet be uselesse to many purposes of nature : and you may reckon all the joynts of a dead man , but the heart is cold , and the joynts are stiffe and fit for nothing but for the little people that creep in graves : and so are very many men ; if you summe up the accounts of their religion , they can reckon dayes and months of Religion , various offices , charity and prayers , reading and meditation , faith and knowledge , catechisme and sacraments , duty to God and duty to Princes , paying debts and provision for children , confessions and tears , discipline in families , and love of good people ; and it may be , you shall not reprove their numbers , or find any lines unfill'd in their tables of accounts ; but when you have handled all this and consider'd , you will find at last you have taken a dead man by the hand , there is not a finger wanting , but they are stiffe as Isicles , and without flexure as the legs of Elephants ; such are they whom S. Bernard describes , whose spirituall joy is allayed with tediousnesse , whose compunction for sins is short and seldome , whose thoughts are animall , and their designes secular , whose Religion is lukewarm ; their obedience is without devotion , their discourse without profit , their prayer without intention of heart , their reading without instruction , their meditation is without spirituall advantages , and is not the commencement and strengthning of holy purposes ; and they are such whom modesty will not restrain , nor reason bridle , nor discipline correct , nor the fear of death and hell can keep from yeelding to the imperiousnesse of a foolish lust that dishonors a mans understanding , and makes his reason , in which he most glories , to be weaker then the discourse of a girle , and the dreams of the night . In every action of Religion God expects such a warmth , and a holy fire to goe along , that it may be able to enkindle the wood upon the altar , and consume the sacrifice ; but God hates an indifferent spirit . Earnestnesse and vivacity , quicknesse and delight , perfect choyce of the service , and a delight in the prosecution , is all that the spirit of a man can yeeld towards his Religion : the outward work is the effect of the body ; but if a man does it heartily and with all his mind , then religion hath wings and moves upon wheels of fire ; and therefore when our blessed Saviour made those capitulars and canons of Religion , to love God , and to love our neighbors ; besides , that the materiall part of the duty [ love ] is founded in the spirit , as its naturall seat , he also gives three words to involve the spirit in the action , and but one for the body : Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart , and with all thy soule , and with all thy mind ; and lastly , with all thy strength ; this brings in the body too ; because it hath some strengths , and some significations of its own ; but heart and soule and mind mean all the same thing in a stronger and more earnest expression ; that is , that we doe it hugely , as much as we can , with a cleer choice , with a resolute understanding , with strong affections , with great diligence : Enerves animos odisse virtus solet , Vertue ha●es weak and ineffective minds , and tame easie prosecutions ; Loripedes , people whose arme is all flesh , whose foot is all leather , and an unsupporting skin ; they creep like snakes , and pursue the noblest mysteries of Religion , as Naaman did the mysteries of Rimmon , onely in a complement , or for secular regards ; but without the mind , and therefore without Zeal ; I would thou wert either hot or cold , said the Spirit of God to the Angell or Bishop of Laodicea . In feasts or sacrifices the Ancients did use apponere frigidam or calidam ; sometimes they drank hot drink , sometimes they poured cold upon their graves , or in their wines , but no services of Tables or Altars were ever with lukewarm . God hates it worse then stark cold ; which expression is the more considerable , because in naturall and superinduc'd progressions , from extreme to extreme , we must necessarily passe through the midst ; and therefore it is certain , a lukewarm Religion is better then none at all , as being the doing some parts of the work designed , and neerer to perfection then the utmost distance could be ; and yet that God hates it more , must mean that there is some appendant evill in this state which is not in the other , and that accidentally it is much worse : and so it is , if we rightly understand it ; that is , if we consider it , not as a being in , or passing through the middle way , but as a state and a period of Religion . If it be in motion , a lukewarm Religion is pleasing to God ; for God hates it not for its imperfection , and its naturall measures of proceeding ; but if it stands still and rests there , it is a state against the designes , and against the perfection of God , and it hath in it these evills . 1. It is a state of the greatest imprudence in the world ; for it makes a man to spend his labour for that which profits not , and to deny his appetite for an unsatisfying interest ; he puts his moneys in a napkin ; and he that does so , puts them into a broken bag ; he loses the principall for not encreasing the interest . He that dwells in a state of life that is unacceptable , loses the money of his almes , and the rewards of his charity , his hours of prayer , and his parts of justice ; he confesses his sins and is not pardoned , he is patient , but hath no hope , and he that is gone so far towards his countrey , and stands in the middle way , hath gone so far out of his way ; he had better have stay'd under a dry roof , in the house of banishment , then to have left his Gyarus , the Island of his sorrow , and to dwell upon the Adriatick : So is he that begins a state of Religion , and does not finish it ; he abides in the high-way , and though he be neerer the place , yet is as far from the rest of his countrey as ever ; and therefore all that beginning of labour was in the prejudice of his rest , but nothing to the advantages of his hopes . He that hath never begun , hath lost no labour ; Jactura praeteritorum , the losse of all that he hath done , is the first evill of the negligent and luke-warm Christian ; according to the saying of Solomon : He that is remisse or idle in his labour , is the brother of him that scattereth his goods . 2. The second appendant evill is , that lukewarmnesse is the occasion of greater evill ; because the remisse easie Christian shuts the gate against the heavenly breathings of Gods holy Spirit ; he thinks every breath that is fan'd by the wings of the holy Dove , is not intended to encourage his fires , which burn , and smoke , and peep through the cloud already ; it tempts him to security ; and if an evill life be a certain inlet to a second death , despaire on one side , and security on the other are the bars and locks to that dore , he can never passe forth again while that state remains ; who ever slips in his spirituall walking does not presently fall ; but if that slip does not awaken his diligence , and his caution , then his ruine begins , vel pravae institutionis deceptus exordio , aut per longam mentis incuriam , & virtute animi decidente , as St. Austin observes ; either upon the pursuit of his first error , or by a carelesse spirit , or a decaying slackned resolution ; all which are the direct effects of lukewarmnesse . But so have I seen a fair structure begun with art and care , and raised to halfe its stature , and then it stood still by the misfortune or negligence of the owner , and the rain descended , and dwelt in its joynts , and supplanted the contexture of its pillars , and having stood a while like the antiquated Temple of a deceased Oracle , it fell into a hasty age , and sunk upon its owne knees , and so descended into ruine : So is the imperfect , unfinished spirit of a man ; it layes the foundation of a holy resolution , and strengthens it with vows and arts of prosecution , it raises up the walls Sacraments , and Prayers , Reading , and holy Ordinances ; and holy actions begin with a slow motion , and the building stays , and the spirit is weary , and the soul is naked , and exposed to temptation , and in the days of storm take in every thing that can doe it mischief ; and it is faint and sick , listlesse and tired , and it stands till its owne weight wearies the foundation , and then declines to death and sad disorder , being so much the worse , because it hath not onely returned to its first follies , but hath superadded unthankfulnesse and carelesnesse , a positive neglect , and a despite of holy things , a setting a low price to the things of God , lazinesse and wretchlesnesse ; all which are evills superadded to the first state of coldnesse , whither he is with all these loads and circumstances of death easily revolv'd . 3. A state of lukewarmnesse is more incorrigible then a state of coldnesse ; while men flatter themselves that their state is good , that they are rich and need nothing , that their lamps are dressed , and full of ornament . There are many that think they are in their countrey as soon as ever they are weary , and measure not the end of their hopes by the possession of them , but by their precedent labour , which they overvalue , because they have easie and effeminate souls . S. Bernard complains of some that say , Sufficit nobis , nolumus esse meliores quàm Patres nostri : It is enough for us to be as our forefathers , who were honest and usefull in their generations , but be not over-righteous : These men are such as think they have knowledge enough to need no teacher , devotion enough to need no new fires , perfection enough to need no new progresse , justice enough to need no repentance ; and then because the spirit of a man and all the things of this world are in perpetuall variety and change , these men decline when they have gone their period ; they stand still , and then revert ; like a stone returning from the bosome of a cloud , where it rested as long as the thought of a childe , and fell to its naturall bed of earth , and dwelt below for ever . He that says he will take care he be no worse , and that he desires to be no better , stops his journey into heaven , but cannot be secure against his descending into hell : and Cassian spake a hard saying , Frequentèr vidimus de frigidis & carnalibus ad spiritualem venisse fervorem , de tepidis & animalibus omninò non vidimus : Many persons from vicious , and dead , and cold , have passed into life and an excellent grace , and a spirituall warmth , and holy fires ; but from lukewarm and indifferent never any body came to an excellent condition , and state of holynesse : rarissimè S. Bernard sayes , very extremely seldome ; and our blessed Saviour said something of this , The Publicans and the Harlots goe before you into the Kingdome of heaven ; they are moved by shame , and punished by disgrace , and remarked by punishments , and frighted by the circumstances and notices of all the world , and separated from sober persons by laws and an intolerable character ; and the sense of honour , and the care of their persons , and their love of civill societie , and every thing in the world can invite them towards vertues . But the man that is accounted honest , and does justice , and some things of Religion , unlesse he finds himselfe but upon his way and feels his wants , and groans under the sense of his infirmities , and sighs under his imperfections , and accounts himself not to have comprehended , but still presses towards the mark of his calling , unlesse ( I say ) he still increases in his appetites of Religion as he does in his progression , he will think he needs no counsellor , and the spirit of God whispers to an ear that is already fill'd with noyses , and cannot atrend to the heavenly calling . The stomach that is already full , is next to loathing , and that 's the prologue to sicknesse , and a rejecting the first wholesome nutriment which was entertained to relieve the first naturall necessities : Qui non proficit vult deficere , said S. Bernard : He that goes not forward in the love of God , and of Religion , does not stand still , but goes for all that , but whither such a motion will lead him , himself without a timely care shall feel by an intolerable experiment . In this sense and for these reasons it is that although a lukewarm Christian hath gone forward some steps towards a state of holynesse , and is advanced beyond him that is cold , and dead , and unconcerned , and therefore speaking absolutely and naturally , is neerer the Kingdome of God then he , that is not yet set out ; yet accidentally , and by reason of these ill appendages , he is worse , in greater danger , in a state equally unacceptable , and therefore must either goe forward , and still doe the work of God carefully , and diligently , with a Fervent spirit , and an Active hand , with a willing heart , and a chearefull eye , or it had been better he had never begun . 2. It concerns us next to enquire concerning the duty in its proper instances , that we may perceive to what parts and degrees of duty it amounts ; we shall find it especially in the duties of faith , of prayer , and of charity . 1. Our faith must be strong , vigorous , active , confident , and patient , reasonable , and unalterable , without doubting , and feare , and partiality . For the faith of very many men , seems a duty so weak and indifferent , is so often untwisted by violence , or ravel'd and intangled in weak discourses , or so false and fallacious by its mixture of interest , that though men usually put most confidences in the pretences of faith , yet no pretences are more unreasonable . 1. Our faith and perswasions in Religion is most commonly imprinted in us by our country , and we are Christians at the same rate as we are English or Spaniards , or of such a family ; our reason is first stained and spotted with the dye of our kindred , and country , and our education puts it in grain , and whatsoever is against this we are taught to call a temptaiton : in the mean time we call these accidentall and artificiall perswasions by the name of faith , which is onely the are of the countrey , or an heireloome of the family , or the daughter of a present interest . Whatever it was that brought us in , we are to take care that when we are in , our faith be noble , and stand upon its most proper and most reasonable foundation ; it concerns us better to understand that Religion which we call Faith , and that faith whereby we hope to be saved . 2. The faith and the whole Religion of many men is the production of fear . Men are threatned into their perswasions , and the iron rod of a Tyrant converts whole nations to his principles , when the wise discourses of the Religion seems dull as sleep , and unprevailing as the talk of childhood . That 's but a deceitfull faith which our timorousnesse begot , and our weaknesse nurses , and brings up . The Religion of a Christian is immortall , and certaine , and perswasive , and infallible , and unalterable , and therefore needs not be received by humane and weake convoycs , like worldly and mortall Religions : that faith is lukewarm , and easie , and trifling , which is onely a beleef of that which a man wants courage to disbeleeve . 3. The faith of many men is such , that they dare not trust it : they will talk of it , and serve vanity , or their lust , or their company , or their interest by it , but when the matter comes to a pinch , they dare not trust it . When Antisthenes was initiated into the mysteries of Orph●us , the Priest told him , that all that were of that Religion , immediately after death should be perfectly happy ; the Philosopher asked him , why he did not dye if he beleeved what he said ? such a faith as that , was fine to talk of at table , or eating the sacrifices of the Religion , when the mystick man was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 full of wine and flesh , of confidence and religion ; but to dye , is a more material consideration , and to be chosen upon no grounds , but such a faith which really comes from God , and can secure our reason , and our choyce , and perfect our interest and designes . And it hath been long observed concerning those bold people that use their reason against God that gave it , they have one perswasion in their health , and another in their sicknesse , and fears ; when they are well , they blaspheme , when they die , they are superstitious ; It was Bias his case when he was poyson'd by the Atheismes of Theodorus , no man died more like a coward and a fool ; as if the gods were to come and goe as Bias pleased to think and talk : so one said of his folly . If God be to be feared when we die , he is also to be feared in all our life , for he can for ever make us die ; he that will doe it once , and that when he please , can alwayes . And therefore all those perswasions against God , and against Religion , are onely the production of vicious passions , of drink or fancy , of confidence and ignorance , of boldnesse or vile appetites , of vanity or fiercenesse , of pride or flatteries ; and Atheisme is a proportion so unnaturall and monstrous , that it can never dwell in a mans heart as faith does , in health and sicknesse , in peace and warre , in company and alone , at the beginning and at the end of a designe ; but comes from weake principles , and leaves shallow and superficiall impressions ; but when men endevour to strengthen and confirme it , they onely strive to make themselves worse then they can . Naturally a man cannot be an Atheist : for he that is so , must have something within him that is worse either then man or devill . 4. Some measure their faith by shews and apparencies , by ceremonies and names , by professions and little institutions . Diogenes was angry at the silly Priest that thought he should be immortall because he was a Priest , and would not promise so concerning Agesilaus , and Epaminondas , two noble Greeks that had preserved their country , and lived vertuously . The faith of a Christian hath no signification at all but obedience and charity ; if men be just , and charitable , and good , and live according to their faith , then onely they are Christians ; whatsoever else is pretended is but a shadow and the image of a grace ; for since in all the sects and institutions of the world , the professors did in some reasonable sort conform to the rules of the profession ( as appears in all the Schooles of Philosophers , and Religions of the world , and the practises of the Jews , and the usages and the countrey customes of the Turks ) it is a strange dishonour to Christianity , that in it alone men should pretend to the faith of it , and doe nothing of what it perswades , and commands upon the account of those promises , which it makes us to beleeve . * He that means to please God by his faith , must have his faith begotten in him by the Spirit of God , and proper arguments of Religion ; he must professe it without feare , he must dare to die for it , and resolve to live according to its institution ; he must grow more confident , and more holy , have fewer doubtings and more vertues , he must be resolute and constant , far from indifferency , and above secular regards ; he must by it regulate his life , and value it above his life ; he must contend earnestly for the faith , by the most prevailing arguments , by the arguments of holy living , and ready dying , by zeale and patience , by conformity and humility , by reducing words to actions , fair discourses to perfect perswasions , by loving the article , and encreasing in the knowledge and love of God and his Son Jesus Christ ; and then his faith is not negligent , deceitfull , artificiall and improper , but true , and holy , and reasonable , and usefull , zealous and sufficient , and therefore can never be reproved . 2. Our prayers and devotions must be fervent and zealous , not cold , patient , easie , and soon rejected ; but supported by a patient spirit , set forwards by importunity , continued by perseverance , waited on by attention , and a present mind , carryed along with holy but strong desires , and ballasted with resignation , and conformity to the divine will ; and then it is , as God likes it , and does the work to Gods glory and our interest effectively . He that asks with a doubting mind , and a lazy desire , begs for nothing but to be denyed ; we must in our prayers be earnest , and fervent , or else we shall have but a cold answer ; for God gives his grace according as we can receive it ; and whatsoever evill returnes we meet in our prayers , when we ask for good things , is wholly by reason of our wandring spirits , and cold desires ; we have reason to complain that our minds wander in our prayers , and our diversions are more prevailing then all our arts of application , and detention ; and we wander sometimes even when we pray against wandring : and it is in some degrees naturall , and unevitable : but although the evill is not wholly to be cured , yet the symptomes are to be eased ; and if our desires were strong , and fervent , our minds would in the same proportion be present ; we see it by a certain and regular experience ; what we love passionately , we perpetually think on , and it returnes upon us whether we will or no ; and in a great fear the apprehension cannot be shaken off ; and therefore if our desires of holy things were strong and earnest , we should most certainly attend our prayers : it is a more violent affection to other things that carries us off from this ; and therefore if we lov'd passionately what we aske for daily , we should aske with hearty desires , and an earnest appetite , and a present spirit ; and however it be very easie to have our thoughts wander , yet it is our indifferency and lukewarmnesse that makes it so naturall : and you may observe it , that so long as the light shines bright , and the fires of devotion , and desires flame out , so long the mind of a man stands close to the altar , and waits upon the sacrifice ; but as the fires die and desires decay , so the mind steals away and walks abroad to see the little images of beauty and pleasure , which it beholds in the falling stars and little glow-wormes of the world . The river that runs slow and creeps by the banks , and begs leave of every turfe to let it passe , is drawn into little hollownesses , and spends it selfe in smaller portions , and dies with diversion ; but when it runs with vigorousnesse and a ful stream , and breaks down every obstacle , making it even as its own brow , it stays not to be tempted by little avocations , and to creep into holes , but runs into the sea through full and usefull channels : So is a mans prayer , if it moves upon the feet of an abated appetite , it wanders into the society of every trifling accident , and stays at the corners of the fancy , and talks with every object it meets , and cannot arrive at heaven ; but when it is carryed upon the wings of passion and strong desires , a swift motion and a hungry appetite , it passes on through all the intermediall regions of clouds , and stays not till it dwells at the foot of the Throne , where mercy sits , and thence sends holy showers of refreshment . I deny not but some little drops will turn aside , and fall from the full channell by the weaknesse of the banks , and hollownesse of the passage ; but the main course is still continued : and although the most earnest and devout persons feel and complain of some loosenesse of spirit , and unfixed attentions , yet their love and their desire secure the maine portions , and make the prayer to be strong , fervent , and effectuall . Any thing can be done by him that earnestly desires what he ought ; secure but your affections and passions , and then no temptation will be too strong ; A wise man , and a full resolution , and an earnest spirit can doe any thing of duty ; but every temptation prevailes when we are willing to die ; and we usually lend nothing to devotion but the offices that flatter our passions ; we can desire and pray for any thing that may serve our lust , or promote those ends which we covet , but ought to tear and fly from : but the same earnestnesse , if it were transplanted into Religion and our prayers , would serve all the needs of the spirit , but for want of it we do the Lords work deceitfully . 3. Our Charity also must be fervent : Malus est miles qui ducem suum gemens sequitur , He that follows his Generall with a heavy march and a heavy heart is but an ill souldier ; but our duty to God should be hugely pleasing , and we should rejoyce in it : it must passe on to action , and doe the action vigorously ; it is called in Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the labour and travail of love ; A friend at a sneese and an almes-basket full of prayers , a love that is lazy , and a service that is uselesse , and a pity without support , are the images and colours of that grace , whose very constitution and designe is , beneficence and well-doing . He that loves passionately will not onely doe all that his friend needs , but all that himself can ; for although the law of charity is fulfilled by acts of profit , and bounty , and obedience , and labour ; yet it hath no other measures but the proportions and abundance of a good mind ; and according to this , God requires that we be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , abounding , and that alwayes , in the work of the Lord ; if we love passionately , we shall doe all this , for love endures labour , and calls it pleasure , it spends all and counts it a gain , it suffers inconveniencies , and is quickly reconciled to them ; if dishonours and affronts be to be endured , love smiles and calls them favours , and wears them willingly . — alii jacuere ligati Turpitèr , atque aliquis de Diis non tristibus optat Sic fieri turpis , — It is the Lord , said David , and I will be yet more vile , and it shall be honour unto me ; thus did the Disciples of our Lord goe from tribunals rejoycing that they were accounted worthy to suffer stripes for that beloved name ; and we are commanded to rejoyce in persecutions , to resist unto bloud , to strive to enter in at the strait gate , not to be weary of well doing ; doe it hugely , and doe it alwayes . Non enim votis neque suppliciis muliebribus auxilia Deorum parantur ; sed vigilando , agendo , benè consulendo omnia prosperè cedunt . No man can obtain the favour of God by words and imperfect resolutions , by lazie actions , and a remisse piety , but by severe counsells , and sober actions , by watchfulnesse and prudence , by doing excellent things with holy intentions , and vigorous prosecutions . Ubi socordiae & ignaviae te tradideris nequidquam Deos implorabis : If your vertues be lazy , your vices will be bold and active : and therefore Democritus said well , that the painfull and the soft-handed people in Religion differ just as good men and bad ; nimirùm spe bonâ , the labouring charity hath a good hope , but a coole Religion hath none at all , and the distinction will have a sad effect to eternall ages . These are the great Scenes of duty in which we are to be fervent and zealous ; but because earnestnesse and zeal are circumstances of a great latitude ; and the zeale of the present age is starke cold , if compar'd to the fervors of the Apostles , and other holy primitives ; and in every age a good mans care may turne into scruple , if he sees that he is not the best man , because he may reckon his owne estate to stand in the confines of darknesse , because his spark is not so great as his neighbors fires , therefore it is fit that we consider concerning the degrees of the intention and forward heats ; for when we have found out the lowest degrees of zeale , and a holy fervour , we know that duty dwels there , and whatsoever is above it is a degree of excellence ; but all that is lesse then it , is lukewarmnesse , and the state of an ungracious and an unaccepted person . 1. No man is fervent and zealous as he ought , but he that preferres Religion before businesse , charity before his own case , the reliefe of his brother before money , heaven before secular regards , and God before his friend or interest . Which rule is not to be understood absolutely , and in particular instances , but alwayes generally ; and when it descends to particulars , it must be in proportion to circumstances , and by their proper measures : for , 1. In the whole course of life it is necessary that we prefer Religion before any state that is either contrary to it , or a lessening of its duties . He that hath a state of life in which he cannot at all in fair proportions tend to Religion , must quit great proportions of that , that he may enjoy more of this , this is that which our blessed Saviour calls pulling out the right eye if it offend thee . 2. In particular actions , when the necessity is equall , he that does not preferre Religion is not at all zealous ; for although all naturall necessities are to be served before the circumstances and order of Religion , yet our belly and our back , our liberty and our life , our health , and a friend are to be neglected rather then a Duty when it stands in its proper place , and is requir'd . 3. Although the things of God are by a necessary zeale to be preferred before the things of the world ; yet we must take heed that we doe not reckon Religion , and orders of worshipping , onely to be the things of God , and all other duties to be the things of the world ; for it was a Pharisaicall device to cry Corban , and to refuse to relieve their aged Parents ; it is good to give to a Church , but it is better to give to the Poor ▪ and though they must be both provided for , yet in cases of dispute Mercy carries the cause against Religion and the Temple . And although Mary was commended for choosing the better part , yet Mary had done worse if she had been at the foot of her Master when she should have relieved a perishing brother . Martha was troubled with much serving ; that was more then need , and therefore she was to blame ; and sometimes hearing in some circumstances may be more then needs ; and some women are troubled with over-much hearing , and then they had better have been serving the necessities of their house . 4. This rule is not to be extended to the relatives of Religion ; for although the things of the Spirit are better then the things of the World , yet a spirituall man is not in humane regards to be preferred before Princes and noble personages . Because a man is called spirituall in severall regards , and for various measures and manners of partaking of the Spirit of grace , or co-operating toward the works of the Spirit . * A King and a Bishop both , have callings in order to godlinesse , and honesty , and spirituall effects , towards the advancement of Christs Kingdome , whose representatives severally they are . * But whether of these two works more immediately , or more effectively , cannot at all times be known ; and therefore from hence no argument can be drawn concerning doing them civill regards ; * and possibly , the partaking the Spirit is a neerer relation to him , then doing his ministeries , and serving his ends upon others ; * and if relations to God and Gods Spirit could bring an obligation of giving proportionable civill honour , every holy man might put in some pretence for dignities above some Kings and some Bishops . * But as the things of the Spirit are in order to the affairs of another world , so they naturally can inferre onely such a relative dignity , as can be expressed in spirituall manners . But because such relations are subjected in men of this life , and we now converse especially in materiall and secular significations , therefore we are to expresse our regards to men of such relations by proportionable expressions : but because civill excellencies are the proper ground of receiving and exacting civill honors , and spirituall excellencies doe onely claim them accidentally , and indirectly , therefore in titles of honour and humane regards the civill praeeminence is the appendix of the greatest civill power and imployment , and is to descend in proper measures ; and for a spirituall relation to challenge a temporall dignity , is as if the best Musick should challenge the best cloathes , or a Lute-string should contend with a Rose for the honour of the greatest sweetnesse . * Adde to this , that although temporall things are in order to spirituall , and therefore are lesse perfect , yet this is not so naturally ; for temporall things are properly in order to the felicity of man in his proper and present constitution ; and it is by a supernaturall grace that now they are thrust forward to a higher end of grace and glory ; and therefore temporall things , and persons , and callings have properly the chiefest temporall regard ; and Christ took nothing of this away from them , but put them higher , by sanctifying and ennobling them . * But then the higher calling can no more suppose the higher man , then the richest trade can suppose the richest man. From callings to men , the argument is fallacious ; and a Smith is a more usefull man then he that teaches Logick ; but not always to be more esteemed , and called to stand at the chairs of Princes and Nobles . * Holy persons and holy things and all great relations are to be valued by generall proportions to their correlatives , but if wee descend to make minute and exact proportions , and proportion an inch of temporall to a minute of spirituall , we must needs be hugely deceived , unlesse we could measure the motion of an Angell by a string , or the progressions of the Spirit by weight and measure of the staple . * And yet if these measures were taken , it would be unreasonable that the lower of the higher kind should be preferr'd before the most perfect and excellent in a lower order of things . A man generally is to be esteemed above a woman , but not the meanest of her subjects before the most excellent Queen ; not alwayes this man before this woman . Now Kings and Princes are the best in all temporall dignities , and therefore if they had in them no spirituall relations and consequent excellencies ( as they have very many ) yet are not to be undervalu'd to spirituall relations , which in this world are very imperfect , weak , partiall ; and must stay till the next world before they are in a state of excellency , propriety and perfection ; and then also all shall have them , according to the worth of their persons , not of their calling . * But lastly , what men may not challenge is not their just and proper due ; but spirituall persons and the neerest relatives to God stand by him but so long as they dwell low and safe in humility , and rise high in nothing but in labours , and zeal of soules , and devotion . * In proportion to this rule , a Church may be pull'd down to save a Town , and the Vessels of the Church may be sold to redeem Captives when there is a great calamity imminent , and prepared for reliefe and no other way to succour it . But in the whole , the duty of zeale requires that we neglect an ordinary visit rather then an ordinary prayer , and a great profit rather then omit a required duty . No excuse can legitimate a sin ; and he that goes about to distinguish between his duty and his profit , and if he cannot reconcile them , will yet tie them together like a Hyaena and a Dog , this man pretends to Religion , but secures the world , and is indifferent and lukewarme towards that , so he may be warme and safe in the possession of this . 2. To that fervour and zeal that is necessary and a duty , it is required that we be constant and persevering . Eslo sidelis ad mortem , said the Spirit of God to the Angel of the Church of Smyrna , Be faithfull unto death , and I will give thee a crown of life : For he that is warm to day , and cold to morrow , zealous in his resolution and weary in his practises , fierce in the beginning , and slack and easie in his progresse , hath not yet well chosen what side he will be of ; he sees not reason enough for Religion , and he hath not confidence enough for its contrary ; and therefore he is duplicis animi , as St. James calls him , of a doubtfull mind . For Religion is worth as much to day as it was yesterday , and that cannot change though we doe ; and if we doe , we have left God , and whither he can goe that goes from God , his owne sorrowes will soon enough instruct him . This fire must never goe out , but it must be like the fire of heaven , it must shine like the starres , though sometimes cover'd with a cloud , or obscur'd by a greater light ; yet they dwell for ever in their orbs , and walk in their circles , and observe their circumstances , but goe not out by day nor night , and set not when Kings die , nor are extinguish'd when Nations change their Government : So must the zeal of a Christian be , a constant incentive of his duty , and though sometimes his hand is drawne back by violence or need , and his prayers shortned by the importunity of businesse , and some parts omitted by necessities , and just complyances , yet still the fire is kept alive , it burns within when the light breaks not forth , and is eternall as the orb of fire , or the embers of the Altar of Incense . 3. No man is zealous as he ought , but he that delights in the service of God : without this no man can persevere , but must faint under the continuall pressure of an uneasie load . If a man goes to his prayers as children goe to schoole , or give alms as those that pay contribution , and meditate with the same willingnesse with which young men die , this man does personam sustinere , he acts a part which he cannot long personate , but will find so many excuses and silly devices to omit his duty , such tricks to run from that which will make him happy , he will so watch the eyes of men , and be so sure to doe nothing in private ; he will so often distinguish and mince the duty into minutes and little particles , he will so tie himself to the letter of the Law , and be so carelesse of the intention and spirituall designe , he will be punctuall in the ceremony , and trifling in the secret , and he will be so well pleased when he is hindred by an accident not of his own procuring , and will have so many devices to defeat his duty ; and to cosuen himselfe , that he will certainly manifest that he is afraid of Religion , and secretly hates it ; he counts it a burthen , and an objection , and then the man is sure to leave it , when his circumstances are so fitted . But if we delight in it , we enter into a portion of the reward as soon as we begin the worke , and the very grace shall be stronger then the temptation in its very pretence of pleasure ; and therefore it must needs be pleasing to God , because it confesses God to be the best Master , Religion the best work , and it serves God with choice , and will , and reconciles our nature to it , and entertaines our appetite , and then there is no ansa or handle left whereby we can easily be drawne from duty , when all parties are pleased with the imployment . But this delight is not to be understood as if it were alwayes required that we should feele an actuall cheerfulnesse , and sensible joy ; such as was that of Jonathan when he had newly tasted honey , and the light came into his eyes , and he was refreshed and pleasant . This happens sometimes when God please to intice , or reward a mans spirit , with little Antepasts of heaven ; but such a delight onely is necessary , and a duty , that we alwayes choose our duty regularly , and undervalue the pleasures of temptation , and proceed in the work of grace with a firme choice and unabated election ; our joy must be a joy of hope , a joy at least of confident sufferers , the joys of faith and expectation ; rejoycing in hope , so the Apostle calls it ; that is , a going forward upon such a perswasion as sees the joyes of God laid up for the Children of men : and so the sun may shine under a cloud ; and a man may rejoyce in persecution , and delight in losses ; that is , though his outward man groanes , and faints , and dies , yet his spirit , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the inner man is confident and industrious , and hath a hope by which it lives and works unto the end : It was the case of our blessed Saviour in his agony ; his soule was exceeding sorrowfull unto death , and the load of his Fathers anger crushed his shoulder , and bowed his knees to the ground ; and yet he chose it , and still went forward , and resolved to die , and did so ; and what wee choose wee delight in ; and wee thinke it to be eligible , and therefore amiable , and fit by its proper excellencies and appendages to be delighted in ; it is not pleasant to the flesh at all times , for its dignity is spirituall and heavenly ; but therefore it is proportioned to the spirit , which is as heavenly as the reward , and therefore can feel the joys of it , when the body hangs the head , and is uneasie and troubled . These are the necessary parts of zeale ; of which if any man failes , he is in a state of lukewarmnesse , and that is a spirituall death . As a banished man or a condemned person is dead civilly ; he is diminutus capite , he is not reckoned in the census , nor partakes of the priviledges , nor goes for a person , but is reckoned among things in the possession of others : so is a lukewarm person ; he is corde diminutus , he is spiritually dead , his heart is estranged from God , his affections are lessened , his hope diminished , and his title cancell'd , and he remains so , unlesse , 1. he prefers Religion before the world , and 2. spiritually rejoyces in doing his duty , and 3. doe it constantly , and with perseverance . These are the heats and warmth of life ; whatsoever is lesse then this , is a disease , and leads to the coldnesse and dishonors of the grave . SERMON , XIV . Part III. 3. SO long as our zeal and forwardnesse in Religion hath only these constituent parts , it hath no more then can keep the duty alive : but beyond this , there are many degrees of earnestnesse and vehemence which are progressions towards the state of perfection , which every man ought to design and desire to be added to his portion : of this sort I reckon frequency in prayer , and almes above our estate . Concerning which two instances I have these two cautions to insert . 1. Concerning frequency in prayer , it is an act of zeal so ready and prepared for the spirit of a man , so easie and usefull , so without objection , and so fitted for every mans affairs , his necessities and possibilities , that he that prayes but seldome , cannot in any sense pretend to be a religious person . For in Scripture there is no other rule for the frequency of prayer given us , but by such words which signifie we should do it alwaies , Pray continually : and , Men ought alwayes to pray and not to faint . And then , men have so many necessities , that if we should esteem our needs to be the circumstances and positive determination of our times of prayer , we should be very far from admitting limitation of the former words , but they must mean that we ought to pray frequently every day . For in danger and trouble , naturall Religion teaches us to pray : In a festivall fortune our prudence , and our needs inforce us equally . For though we feel not a present smart , yet we are certain then is our biggest danger : and if we observe how the world treats her darlings , men of riches and honour , of prosperity and great successe , we cannot but confesse them to be the most miserable of all men , as being in the greatest danger of losing their biggest interest . For they are bigger then the iron hand of Law , and they cannot be restrain'd with fear : the hand grasps a power of doing all that which their evill heart can desire , and they cannot be restrained with disability to sin ; they are flatter'd by all mean , and base , and indiligent persons , which are the greatest part of mankinde ; but few men dare reprove a potent sinner ; he shall every day be flattered and seldome counselled : and his great reflexions and opinions of his condition makes him impatient of reproof , and so he cannot be restrain'd with modesty : and therefore as the needs of the poor man , his rent day , and the cryes of his children , and the oppression he groans under , and his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , his uneasie , ill sleeping care will make him run to his prayers , that in heaven a new decree may be passed every day for the provisions of his daily bread : so the greater needs of the rich , their temptations , and their dangers , the flattery and the vanity , the power and the pride , their businesse and evill estate of the whole world upon them , cals upon them to be zealous in this instance that they pray often , that they pray without ceasing ; For there is great reason they should do so , and great security and advantage , if they do ; For , he that prayes well and prayes often , must needs be a good and a blessed man ; and truly he that does not , deserves no pity for his misery . For when all the troubles and dangers of his condition may turn into his good , if he will but desire they should ; when upon such easie terms he may be happy , for there is no more trouble in it then this , Aske and ye shall receive ; that 's all that is required ; no more turnings and variety in their road ; when ( I say ) at so cheap a rate , a poor man may be provided for , and a rich man may escape damnation , they that refuse to apply themselves to this remedy , quickly , earnestly , zealously , and constantly , deserves the smart of his poverty and the care of it , and the scorne if he be poor , and if he be rich it is fit he should ( because he desires it ) dye by the evils of his proper danger . * It was observed by Cassian ; orationibus maximè insidiantur Daemones , the Devill is more busie to disturb our prayers , then to hinder any thing else . For else it cannot be imagined why we should be brought to pray so seldome , and to be so listlesse to them , and so trifling to them . No , The Devill knowes upon what hard terms he stands with the praying man ; he also knows that it is a mighty emanation of Gods infinite goodnesse and a strange desire of saving mankinde , that he hath to so easie a duty promised such mighty blessings . For God knowing that upon hard terms we would not accept of heaven it self , and yet hell was so intolerable a state , that God who loved us would affixe heaven to a state of prayer and devotion ; this , because the Devill knowes to be one of the greatest arts of the Divine mercy , he labours infinitely to supplant ; and if he can but make men unwilling to pray , or to pray coldly , or to pray seldome , he secures his interest , and destroys the mans ; and it is infinitely strange , that he can and doth prevail so much in this so unreasonable temptation . Opposuisti nubem ne transiret oratio , the mourning Prophet complained there was a cloud passed between heaven and the prayer of Judah ; a little thing God knowes ; it was a wall which might have been blown down with a few hearty sighs , and a few penitentiall tears ; or if the prayers had ascended in a full and numerous body , themselves would have broken through that little partition ; but so the Devill prevails often ; opponit nubem : he claps a cloud between ; some little objection ; a stranger is come ; or my head akes ; or the Church is too cold ; or I have letters to write ; or I am not disposed ; or it is not yet time , or the time is past : these , and such as these are the clouds , the Devill claps between heaven and us ; but these are such impotent objections , that they were as soon confuted as pretended , by all men that are not fools , or professed enemies of Religion , but that they are clouds : which sometimes look like Lions and Bears , Castles , and wals of fire , armies and horses ; and indeed are any thing that a man will fancy ; and the smallest article of objection managed and conducted by the Devils arts , and meeting with a wretchlesse , carelesse , indevout spirit , is a Lion in the way , and a deep river ; it is impassable , and it is impregnable . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; as the Sophister said in the Greek Comedy , Clouds become any thing as they are represented ; Wolves to Simon , Harts to Cleonymus ; For the Devill fits us with clouds according as we can be abused ; and if we love affairs of the world , he can contrive its circumstances so , that they shall crosse our prayers ; and so it is in every instance : and the best way to cure this evill is prayer ; pray often , and pray zealously , and the sun of righteousnesse will scatter these clouds , and warm our hearts with his holy fires : But it is in this , as in all acquired habits ; the habit makes the actions easie and pleasant ; but this habit cannot be gotten without frequent actions : habits are the daughters of action , but then they nurse their mother , and produce daughters after her image , but far more beautifull and prosperous . For in frequent prayer there is so much rest and pleasure , that as soon as ever it is perceived , the contrary temptation appears unreasonable ; none are so unwilling to pray as they that pray seldome ; for they that do pray often , and with zeal , and passion and desire , feel no trouble so great as when they are forced to omit their holy offices and hours of prayer . It concerns the Devils interest to keep us from all the experience of the rewards of a frequent and holy prayer ; and so long as you will not try and taste how good and gracious the Lord is to the praying man , so long you cannot see the evill of your coldnesse and lukewarm state ; but if you would but try , though it be but for curiosity sake , and informe your selves in the vanity of things , and the truth of pretences , and the certainty of Theologicall propositions , you should finde your selves taken in a golden snare , which will tye you to nothing but felicity , and safety , and holinesse , and pleasures . But then the caution which I intended to insert is this ; that frequency in prayers , and that part of zeal which relates to it , is to be upon no account but of an holy spirit , a wise heart , and reasonable perswasion ; for if it begins upon passion or fear , in imitation of others , or desires of reputation , honour or phantastick principles , it will be unblessed and weary , unprosperous and without return or satisfaction : therefore if it happen to begin upon a weak principle , be very curious to change the motive , and with all speed let it be turned into religion and the love of holy things , then let it be as frequent as it can prudently , it cannot be amisse . 2. When you are entred into a state of zealous prayer , and a regular devotion , what ever interruption you can meet with , observe their causes and be sure to make them irregular , seldome , and contingent , that your omissions may be seldome and casuall , as a bare accident ; for which no provisions can be made ; for if ever it come , that you take any thing habitually and constantly from your prayers , or that you distract from them very frequently , it cannot be but you will become troublesome to your self ; your prayers will be uneasie , they will seem hinderances to your more necessary affairs of passion and interest , and the things of the world : and it will not stand still , till it comes to Apostasie , and a direct despite and contempt of holy things . For it was an old rule , and of a sad experience , Tepiditas si callum obduxerit fiet apostasia , if your lukewarmnesse be habituall and a state of life , if it once be hardned by the usages of many daies , it changes the whole state of the man , it makes him an apostate to devotion . Therefore be infinitely carefull in this particular ; alwayes remembring the saying of St. Chrysostome , Docendi , praedicandi officia & alia cessant suo tempore , precandi autem nunquam ; there are seasons for teaching , and preaching , and other outward offices ; but prayer is the duty of all times , and of all persons , and in all contingences : From other things in many cases we can be excused , but from prayer never . In this therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it is good to be zealous . 2. Concerning the second instance I named , viz. To give almes above our estate , it is an excellent act of zeal , and needs no other caution to make it secure from illusion and danger , but that our egressions of charity do not prejudice justice . See that your almes do not other men wrong , and let them do what they can to thy self , they will never prejudice thee by their abundance ; but then be also carefull that the pretences of justice do not cousen thy self of thy charity , and the poor of thine almes , and thy soul of the reward . He that is in debt is not excused from giving almes till his debts are paid ; but only from giving away such portions which should and would pay them , and such which he intended should do it : There are lacernae divitiarum , and crums from the table , and the gleanings of the harvest , and the scatterings of the vintage , which in all estates are the portions of the poor , which being collected by the hand of providence , and united wisely may become considerable to the poor , and are the necessary duties of charity ; but beyond this also , every considerable relief to the poor is not a considerable diminution to the estate , and yet if it be , it is not alwaies considerable in the accounts of Justice ; for nothing ought to be pretended against the zeal of almes , but the certain omissions or the very probable retarding the doing that , to which we are otherwise obliged . He that is going to pay a debt and in the way meets an indigent person that needs it all , may not give it to him unlesse he knowes by other means to pay the debt ; but if he can do both , he hath his liberty to lay out his money for a Crown . But then in the case of provision for children our restraint is not so easie , or discernible ; 1. Because we are not bound to provide for them in a certain portion , but may do it by the analogies and measures of prudence , in which there is a great latitude . 2. Because our zeal of charity is a good portion for them , and layes up a blessing for inheritance . 3. Because the fairest portions of charity are usually short of such sums which can be considerable in the duty of provision for our children . 4. If we for them could be content to take any measure lesse then all , any thing under every thing that we can , we should finde the portions of the poor made ready to our hands sufficiently to minister to zeal , and yet not to intrench upon this case of conscience ; But the truth is ; we are so carelesse , so unskil'd , so unstudied in religion , that we are only glad to make an an excuse , and to defeat our souls of the reward of the noblest grace : we are contented if we can but make a pretence ; for we are highly pleased if our conscience be quiet , and care not so much that our duty be performed ; much lesse that our eternall interest be advanced in bigger portions . We care not , we strive not , we think not of getting the greater rewards of Heaven ; and he whose desires are so indifferent for the greater , will not take pains to secure the smallest portion ; and it is observable , that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the least in the Kingdome of heaven , is as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as good as none ; if a man will be content with his hopes of the lowest place there , and will not labour for something beyond it , he does not value it at all , and it is ten to one , but will lose that for which he takes so little pains , and is content with so easie a security . He that does his almes , and resolves that in no case he will suffer inconvenience for his brother whose case it may be is intolerable , should do well to remember that God in some cases requires a greater charity ; and it may be we shall be called to dye for the good of our brother : and that although it alwaies supposes a zeal , and a holy fervour , yet sometimes it is also a duty , and we lose our lives if we go to save them ; and so we do with our estates ; when we are such good husbands in our Religion , that we will serve all our own conveniences before the great needs of a hungry and afflicted brother , God oftentimes takes from us that which with so much curiosity we would preserve , and then we lose our money , and our reward too . 3. Hither is to be reduced * the accepting and choosing the counsels Evangelicall : * the virgin or widow estate in order to Religion : * selling all and giving it to the poor : * making our selves Eunuchs for the Kingdome of Heaven : * offering our selves to death voluntary , in exchange or redemption of the life of a most usefull person , as Aquila and Priscilla , who ventur'd their lives for St. Paul : * the zeal of souls : * St. Paul's preaching to the Corinthian Church without wages : remitting of rights and forgiving of debts , when the obliged person could pay , but not without much trouble : * protection of calamitous persons with hazard of our own interest and a certain trouble ; concerning which and all other acts of zeal , we are to observe the following measures , by which our zeal will become safe and holy , and by them also we shall perceive the excesses of Zeal , and its inordinations , which is the next thing I am to consider . 1. The first measure , by which our zeal may comply with our duty , and its actions become laudable , is charity to our neighbour . For since God receives all that glorification of himself whereby we can serve and minister to his glory , reflected upon the foundation of his own goodnesse , and bounty , and mercy , and all the Allellujahs that are or ever shall be sung in heaven are praises and thank givings , and that God himself does not receive glory from the acts of his Justice , but then when his creatures will not rejoyce in his goodnesse and mercy , it followes that we imitate this originall excellency and pursue Gods own method , that is , glorifie him in via misericordiae , in the way of mercy , and bounty , charity , and forgivenesse , love , and fair compliances ; There is no greater charity in the world then to save a soul , nothing that pleases God better , nothing that can be in our hands greater or more noble , nothing that can be a more lasting and delightfull honour , then that a perishing soul , snatched from the flames of an intolerable Hell , and born to Heaven upon the wings of piety and mercy , by the Ministery of Angels , and the graces of the holy Spirit , shall to eternall ages blesse God and blesse thee , Him , for the Author and finisher of salvation , and thee for the Minister and charitable instrument ; that bright starre must needs look pleasantly upon thy face for ever , which was by thy hand plac'd there , and had it not been by thy Ministery might have been a footy coal , in the regions of sorrow . Now in order to this , God hath given us all some powers , and ministeries , by which we may by our charity promote this Religion , and the great interest of souls : Counsels , and prayers , preaching , and writing , passionate desires , and fair examples , going before others , in the way of godlinesse , and bearing the torch before them that they may see the way and walk in it . This is a charity that is prepared more or lesse for every one ; and by the way we should do well to consider what we have done towards it . For as it will be a strange arrest at the day of Judgement to Dives , that he fed high and sufferred Lazarus to starve , and every garment that lies by thee and perishes while thy naked brother does so too for want of it , shall be a bill of Inditement against thy unmercifull soul ; so it will be in every instance : in what thou couldst profit thy brother and didst not , thou art accountable ; and then tell over the times , in which thou hast prayed for the conversion of thy sinning brother ; and compare the times together , and observe whether thou hast not tempted him or betrayed him to a sin , or encourag'd him in it , or didst not hinder him when thou mightest more frequently then thou hast humbly , and passtonately , and charitably , and zealously bowed thy head , and thy heart , and knees to God to redeem that poor soul from hell whither thou seest him descending with as much indifferency as a stone into the bottome of a well . In this thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it is a good thing to be zealous , and put forth all your strength , for you can never go too far . But then be carefull that this zeal of thy neighbours amendment be only expressed in waies of charity , not of cruelty or importune justice . He that strikes the Prince for justice , as Solomons expression is , is a companion of murderers ; and he that out of zeal of Religion shall go to convert Nations to his opinion by destroying Christians whose faith is intire and summ'd up by the Apostles ; this man breaks the ground , with a sword , and sowes tares , and waters the ground with bloud , and ministers to envie and cruelty , to errors and mistake , and there comes up nothing but poppies to please the eye and fancy , disputes and hypocrisie , new summaries of Religion estimated by measures of anger , and accursed principles ; and so much of the religion as is necessary to salvation is laid aside , and that brought forth that serves an interest , not holinesse ; that fils the Schooles of a proud man , but not that which will fill Heaven . Any zeal is proper for Religion , but the zeal of the sword , and the zeal of anger ; this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the bitternesse of zeal ; and it is a certain temptation to every man against his duty ; for if the sword turns preacher and dictates propositions by empire in stead of arguments , and ingraves them in mens hearts with a ponyard , that it shall be death to beleeve what I innocently and ignorantly am perswaded of , it must needs be unsafe to try the spirits , to try all things , to make inquiry ; and yet without this liberty , no man can justifie himself before God or man , nor confidently say , that his Religion is best ; since he cannot without a finall danger make himself able to give a right sentence , and to follow that which he findes to be the best ; this may ruine souls by making Hypocrites , or carelesse and complyant against conscience or without it ; but it does not save souls , though peradventure it should force them to a good opinion : This is inordination of zeal ; for Christ by reproving St. Peter drawing his sword , even in the cause of Christ , for his sacred and yet injured person , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( saith Theophylact ) teaches us not to use the sword though in the cause of God , or for God himself ; because he will secure his own interest , only let him be served as himself is pleased to command : and it is like Moses passion , it throwes the tables of the Law out of our hands , and breaks them in pieces out of indignation to see them broken . This is the zeal that is now in fashion , and hath almost spoyl'd Religion ; men like the Zelots of the Jewes cry up their Sect and in it their interest , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; they affect Disciples and fight against the opponents ; and we shall finde in Scripture , that when the Apostles began to preach the meeknesse of the Christian institution , salvations , and promises , charity and humility , there was a zeal set up against them ; the Apostles were zealous for the Gospell , the Jewes were zealous for the Law : and see what different effects these two zeals did produce ; the zeal of the Law came to this , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; they stirred up the City , they made tumults , they persecuted this way unto the death , they got letters from the high Priest , they kept Damascus with a Garrison , they sent parties of souldiers to silence and to imprison the Preachers , and thought they did God service , when they put the Apostles to death , and they swore neither to eat nor to drink till they had killed Paul. It was an old trick of the Jewish zeal , Non monstrare vias eadem nisi sacra colenti , Quaesitum ad fontem solos deducere verpos . They would not shew the way to a Samaritan , nor give a cup of cold water but to a circumcised brother . That was their zeal ; But the zeal of the Apostles was this ; they preached publickly and privately , they prayed for all men , they wept to God for the hardnesse of mens hearts , they became all things to all men that they might gain some , they travel'd through deeps and deserts , they indured the heat of the Syrian Starre , and the violence of Euroclydon , winds and tempests , seas and prisons , mockings and scourgings , fastings and poverty , labour and watching , they endured every man and wronged no man , they would do any good thing and suffer any evill if they had but hopes to prevail upon a soul ; they perswaded men meekly , they intreated them humbly , they convinced them powerfully , the watched for their good but medled not with their interest , and this is the Christian zeal , the zeal of mecknesse , the zeal of charity , the zeal of patience , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in these it is good to be zealous , for you can never goe farre enough . 2. The next measure of zeal is prudence . For , as charity is the matter of zeal , so is discretion the manner . It must alwaies be for good to our neighbour , and there needs no rules for the conducting of that , provided ▪ the end be consonant to the design , that is , that charity be intended , and charity done . But there is a zeal also of Religion or worshipping , and this hath more need of measures and proper cautions . For Religion can turn into a snare , it may be abused into superstition , it may become wearinesse in the spirit , and tempt to tediousnesse , to hatred , and despair : and many persons through their indiscreet conduct and furious marches , and great loads taken upon tender shoulders and unexperienced , have come to be perfect haters of their joy , and despisers of all their hopes , being like dark Lanthorns , in which a candle burnes bright , but the body is incompassed with a crust and a dark cloud of iron ; and these men keep the fires and light of holy propositions within them , but the darknesse of hell , the hardnesse of a vexed heart hath shaded all the light , and makes it neither apt to warm nor to enlighten others , but it turnes to fire within , a feaver and a distemper dwels there , and Religion is become their torment . 1. Therefore our zeal must never carry us beyond that which is profitable . There are many institutions , customes , and usages introduced into Religion upon very fair motives , and apted to great necessities ; but to imitate those things when they are disrobed of their proper ends is an importune zeal , and signifies nothing but a forward minde , and an easie heart , and an imprudent head ; unlesse these actions can be invested with other ends and usefull purposes . The primitive Church were strangely inspired with a zeal of virginity , in order to the necessities of preaching and travelling , and easing the troubles and temptations of persecution ; but when the necessity went on , and drove the holy men into deserts , that made Colleges of Religious , and their manner of life was such ; so united , so poor , so dressed , that they must live more non saeculari , after the manner of men divore'd from the usuall entercourses of the world , still their desire of single life increased ; because the old necessity lasted , and a new one did supervene . Afterwards the case was altered , and then the single life was not to be chosen for it self , nor yet in imitation of the first precedents ; for it could not be taken out from their circumstances and be used alone . He therefore that thinks he is a more holy person for being a virgin or a widower , or that he is bound to be so because they were so , or that he cannot be a religious person because he is not so , hath zeal indeed , but not according to knowledge . But now if the single state can be taken out and put to new appendages , and fitted to the end of another grace or essentiall duty of Religion , it will well become a Christian zeal to choose it so long as it can serve the end with advantage and security . Thus also a zealous person is to chuse his fastings ; while they are necessary to him , and are acts of proper mortification , while he is tempted , or while he is under discipline , while he repents , or while he obeys ; but some persons fast in zeal , but for nothing else ; fast when they have no need , when there is need they should not ; but call it religion to be miserable or sick ; here their zeal is folly , for it is neither an act of Religion nor of prudence , to fast when fasting probably serves no end of the spirit ; and therefore in the fasting dayes of the Church , although it is warrant enough to us to fast if we had no end to serve in it but the meer obedience , yet it is necessary that the superiors should not think the Law obeyed , unlesse the end of the first institution be observed ; a fasting day is a day of humiliation , and prayer ; and fasting being nothing it self , but wholly the handmaid of a further grace , ought not to be devested of its holinesse and sanctification , and left like the wals of a ruinous Church , where there is no duty performed to God , but there remains something of that which us'd to minister to Religion . The want of this consideration hath caus'd so much scandall and dispute , so many snares and schismes concerning Ecclesiasticall fasts . For when it was undressed and stripp'd of all the ornaments and usefull appendages , when from a solemn day it grew to be common ; from thence to be lesse devout by being lesse seldome and lesse usefull ; and then it passed from a day of Religion to be a day of order , and from fasting till night , to fasting till evening-song , and evening-song to be sung about twelve a clock ; and from fasting it was changed to a choice of food , from eating nothing to eating fish , and that the letter began to be stood upon , and no usefulnesse remain'd but what every of his own piety should put into it , but nothing was enjoyn'd by the Law , nothing of that exacted by the superiours , then the Law fell into disgrace , and the design became suspected , and men were first insnared , and then scandalized , and then began to complain without remedy , and at last took remedy themselves without authority ; the whole affair fell into a disorder and a mischief ; and zeal was busie on both sides , and on both sides was mistaken , because they fell not upon the proper remedy , which was to reduce the Law to the usefulnesse and advantages of its first intention . But this I intended not to have spoken . 2. Our zeal must never carry us beyond that which is safe . Some there are who in their first attempts and entries upon Religion while the passion that brought them in remains , undertake things as great as their highest thoughts ; no repentance is sharp enough , no charities expensive enough , no fastings afflictive enough , then totis Quinquatribus orant ; and finding some deliciousnesse at the first contest , and in that activity of their passion , they make vowes to binde themselves for ever to this state of delicacies . The onset is fair : but the event is this . The age of a passion , is not long , and the flatulent spirit being breathed out , the man begins to abate of his first heats , and is ashamed : but then he considers that all that was not necessary , and therefore he will abate something more and from something to something , at last it will come to just nothing , and the proper effect of this is , indignation and hatred of holy things , an impudent spirit , carelessenesse or despair . Zeal sometimes carries a man into temptation : and he that never thinks he loves God dutifully or acceptably , because he is not imprison'd for him , or undone , or design'd to Martyrdome , may desire a triall that will undoe him . It is like fighting of a Duell to shew our valour . Stay till the King commands you to fight and die , and then let zeal do its noblest offices . This irregularity and mistake was too frequent in the primitive Church , when men and women would strive for death , and be ambitious to feel the hangmans sword ; some miscarryed in the attempt , and became sad examples of the unequall yoking a frail spirit with a zealous driver . 3. Let Zeal never transport us to attempt any thing but what is possible . M. Teresa made a vow that she would do alwaies that which was absolutely the best . But neither could her understanding alwaies tell her which was so , nor her will alwayes have the same fervours : and it must often breed scruples , and sometimes tediousnesse , and wishes that the vow were unmade . He that vowes never to have an ill thought , never to commit an error , hath taken a course that his little infirmities shall become crimes , and certainly be imputed by changing his unavoidable infirmity into vow-breach . Zeal is a violence to a mans spirit , and unlesse the spirit be secur'd by the proper nature of the duty , and the circumstances of the action , and the possibilities of the man ; it is like a great fortune in the meanest person , it bears him beyond his limit , and breaks him into dangers and passions , transportations and all the furies of disorder that can happen to an abused person . 4. Zeal is not safe unlesse it be in re probabili too , it must be in a likely matter . For we that finde so many excuses to untie all our just obligations , and distinguish our duty into so much finenesse , that it becomes like leaf-gold apt to be gone at every breath ; it can not be prudent that we zealously undertake what is not probable to be effected . If we do , the event can be nothing but portions of the former evill , scruple and snares , shamefull retreats and new fantastick principles ; In all our undertakings we must consider what is our state of life , what our naturall inclinations , what is our society , and what are our dependencies ; by what necessities we are born down , by what hopes we are biassed ; and by these let us measure our heats and their proper businesse . A zealous man runs up a sandy hill ; the violence of motion is his greatest hinderance , and a passion in Religion destroys as much of our evennesse of spirit , as it sets forward any outward work ; and therefore although it be a good circumstance and degree of a spirituall duty , so long as it is within , and relative to God and our selves ; so long it is a holy flame ; but if it be in an outward duty , or relative to our neighbours , or in an instance not necessary , it sometimes spoils the action , and alwaies endangers it . But I must remember we live in an age in which men have more need of new fires to be kindled within them and round about them , then of any thing to allay their forwardnesse : there is little or no zeal now but the zeal of envie , and killing as many as they can , and damning more then they can ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , smoke and lurking fires do corrode and secretly consume : therefore this discourse is lesse necessary . A Physitian would have but small imployment near the Riphaean Mountains , if he could cure nothing but Calentures ; Catarrhes , and dead palfies , Colds and Consumptions are their evils , and so is lukewarmnesse and deadnesse of spirit , the proper maladies of our age : for though some are hot when they are mistaken , yet men are cold in a righteous cause ; and the nature of this evill is to be insensible , and the men are farther from a cure because they neither feel their evill , nor perceive their danger . But of this I have already given account : and to it , I shall only adde what an old spirituall person told a novice in religion , asking him the cause why he so frequently suffered tediousnesse in his religious offices ; Nondum vidisti requiem quam speramus , nec tormenta quae timemus ; young man , thou hast not seen the glories which are laid up for the zealous and devout , nor yet beheld the flames which are prepared for the lukewarm , and the haters of strict devotion . But the Jewes tell that Adam having seen the beauties , and tasted the delicacies of Paradise , repented and mourned upon the Indian Mountains for three hundred years together : and we who have a great share in the cause of his sorrowes , can by nothing be invited to a persevering , a great , a passionate religion , more then by remembring what he lost , and what is laid up for them whose hearts are burning lamps , and are all on fire with Divine love , whose flames are fann'd with the wings of the holy Dove , and whose spirits shine and burn with that fire which the holy Jesus came to enkindle upon the earth . Sermon , XV. The House of Feasting : OR THE EPICVRES MEASVRES . Part I. 1 Cor. 15. 32. last part . Let us eat and drink , for to morrow we dye . THis is the Epicures Proverb , begun upon a weak mistake ; started by chance , from the discourses of drink , and thought witty by the undiscerning company , and prevail'd infinitely , because it struck their fancy luckily , and maintained the merry meeting ; but as it happens commonly to such discourses , so this also , when it comes to be examined by the consultations of the morning , and the sober hours of the day , it seems the most witlesse , and the most unreasonable in the world . When Seneca describes the spare diet of Epicurus and Metrodorus , he uses this expression ; Liberaliora sunt alimenta carceris : sepositos ad capitale supplicium , non tam angustè , qui occisurus est , pascit . The prison keeps a better table , and he that is to kill the criminall to morrow morning , gives him a better supper over night . By this he intended to represent his meal to be very short : for as dying persons have but little stomach to feast high ; so they that mean to cut the throat will think it a vain expence to please it with delicacies , which after the first alteration must be poured upon the ground , and looked upon as the worst part of the accursed thing . And there is also the same proportion of unreasonablenesse , that because men shall die to morrow , and by the sentence and unalterable decree of God , they are now descending to their graves , that therefore they should first destroy their reason , and then force dull time to run faster , that they may dye sottish as beasts , and speedily as a flie : But they thought there was no life after this ; or if there were , it was without pleasure , and every soul thrust into a hole , and a dorter of a spans length allowed for his rest , and for his walk ; and in the shades below no numbring of healths by the numerall letters of Philenium's name , no fat Mullets , no Oysters of Luerinus , no Lesbian or Chian Wines , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Therefore now enjoy the delicacies of Nature , and feel the descending wines distilled through the limbecks of thy tongue , and larynx , and suck the delicious juice of fishes , the marrow of the laborious Oxe , and the tender lard of Apultan Swine , and the condited bellies of the scarus ; but lose no time ; for the Sun drives hard , and the shadow is long , and the dayes of mourning are at hand , but the number of the dayes of darknesse and the grave cannot be told . Thus they thought they discoursed wisely , and their wisdome was turned into folly ; for all their arts of providence , and witty securities of pleasure were nothing but unmanly prologues to death , fear and folly , sensuality and beastly pleasures . But they are to be excused rather then we . They placed themselves in the order of beasts and birds , and esteemed their bodies nothing but receptacles of flesh and wine , larders and pantries ; and their soul the fine instrument of pleasure and brisk perception , of relishes and gusts , reflexions and duplications of delight ; and therefore they treated themselves accordingly . But then why we should do the same things , who are led by other principles , and a more severe institution , and better notices of immortality , who understand what shall happen to a soul hereafter , and know that this time is but a passage to eternity , this body but a servant to the soul , this soul a minister to the Spirit , and the whole man in order to God and to felicity ; this I say is more unreasonable , then to eat aconite to preserve our health , and to enter into the floud that we may die a dry death ; this is a perfect contradiction to the state of good things , whither we are designed , and to all the principles of a wise Philophy , whereby we are instructed that we may become wise unto salvation . That I may therefore do some assistances towards the curing the miseries of mankinde , and reprove the follies and improper motions towards felicity , I shall endevour to represent to you , 1. That plenty and the pleasures of the world are no proper instruments of felicity . 2. That intemperance is a certain enemy to it ; making life unpleasant , and death troublesome and intolerable . 3. I shall adde the rules and measures of temperance in eating and drinking , that nature and grace may joyne to the constitution of mans felicity . 1. Plenty and the pleasures of the world are no proper instrument of felicity . It is necessary that a man have some violence done to himself before he can receive them : for natures bounds are , non esurire , non sitire , non algere , to be quit from hunger , and thirst , and cold , that is , to have nothing upon us that puts us to pain ; against which she hath made provisions by the fleece of the sheep , and the skins of beasts , by the waters of the fountain , and the hearbs of the field , and of these no good man is destitute , for that share that he can need to fill those appetites and necessities he cannot otherwise avoid : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . For it is unimaginable that Nature should be a mother naturall and indulgent to the beasts of the forrest , and the spawn of fishes , to every plant and fungus , to cats and owles , to moles and bats , making her store-houses alwaies to stand open to them , and that for the Lord of all these , even to the noblest of her productions she should have made no provisions , and only produc'd in us appetites sharp as the stomach of Wolves , troublesome as the Tigres hunger , and then run away , leaving art and chance , violence and study , to feed us and to cloath us . This is so far from truth , that we are certainly more provided for by nature then all the world besides ; for everything can minister to us ; and we can passe into none of Natures cabinets , but we can finde our table spread : so that what David said to God , Whither shall I go from thy presence ? If I go to heaven , thou art there , if I descend to the deep , thou art there also ; if I take the wings of the morning and flie into the uttermost parts of the wildernesse , even there thou wilt finde me out , and thy right hand shall uphold me : we may say it concerning our table , and our wardrobe ; If we go into the fields , we finde them till'd by the mercies of heaven , and water'd with showers from God to feed us and to cloath us ; if we go down into the deep , there God hath multiplyed our stores , and fill'd a magazine which no hunger can exhaust ; the aire drops down delicacies , and the wildernesse can sustain us , and all that is in nature , that which feeds Lions , and that which the Oxe eats , that which the fishes live upon , and that which is the provision for the birds , all that can keep us alive ; and if we consider , that of the beasts and birds for whom nature hath provided but one dish , it may be flesh or fish , or herbes or flies , and these also we secure with guards from them , and drive away birds and beasts from that provision which Nature made for them , yet seldome can we finde that any of these perish with hunger : much rather shall we finde that we are secured by the securities proper for the more noble creatures , by that providence that disposes all things , by that mercy that gives us all things , which to other creatures are ministred singly ; by that labour that can procure what we need , by that wisdome that can consider concerning future necessities , by that power that can force it from inferiour creatures , and by that temperance which can fit our meat to our necessities . For if we go beyond what is needfull , as we finde sometimes more then was promised , and very often more then we need , so we disorder the certainty of our felicity , by putting that to a hazard which nature hath secur'd . For it is not certain that if we desire to have the wealth of Susa , or garments stain'd with the bloud of the Tyrian fish , that if we desire to feed like Philoxenus , or to have tables loaden like the boards of Vitellius , that we shall never want . It is not Nature that desires these things , but lust and violence ; and by a discase we enter'd into the passion and the necessity , and in that state of trouble it is likely we may dwell for ever , unlesse we reduce our appetites to natures measure . Si ventri benè , si lateri est , pedibūsque tuis , nil Divitiae poterunt Regales addere majus . And therefore it is that plenty and pleasures are not the proper instruments of felicity . Because felicity is not a jewell that can be lock'd in one mans cabinet . God intended that all men should be made happy , and he that gave to all men the same naturall desires , and to all men provision of satisfactions by the same meats and drinks , intended that it should not go beyond that measure of good things which corresponds to those desires which all men naturally have . He that cannot be satisfied with common provisions , hath a bigger need then he that can ; it is harder , and more contingent , and more difficult , and more troublesome , for him to be satisfied ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; said Epicurus , I feed sweetly upon bread and water , those sweet and easie provisions of the body , and I defie the pleasures of costly provisions ; And the man was so confident that he had the advantage over wealthy tables , that he thought himself happy as the Immortall Gods , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : For these provisions are easie , they are to be gotten without amazing cares ; no man needs to flatter , if he can live as Nature did intend : Magna pars libertatis est benè moratus venter : he need not swell his accounts , and intricate his spirit with arts of subtlety and contrivance , he can be free from fears ; and the chances of the world cannot concern him . And this is true , not only in those severe and Anachoreticall and Philosophicall persons , who lived meanly as a sheep , and without variety as the Baptist , but in the same proportion it is also true in every man that can be contented with that which is honestly sufficient . Maximus Tyrius considers concerning the felicity of Diogenes , a poor Synopean , having not so much nobility as to be born in the better parts of Greece ; but he saw that he was compel'd by no Tyrant to speak or do ignobly ; he had no fields to till , and therefore took no care to buy cattell , and to hire servants ; he was not distracted when a rent-day came ; and fear'd not when the wise Greeks play'd the fool and fought who should be Lord of that field that lay between Thebes and Athens ; he laugh'd to see men scramble for dirty silver , and spend 10000. Attick talents for the getting the revenues of 200 Philippics ; he went with his staffe and bag into the camp of the Phoconses , and the souldiers reverenc'd his person and despised his poverty , and it was truce with him whosoever had wars ; and the Diadem of Kings , and the Purple of the Emperors , the Mitre of high Priests , and the divining staffe of Soothsayers were things of envie and ambition , the purchase of danger , and the rewards of a mighty passion : and men enter'd into them by trouble and extreme difficulty , and dwelt under them as a man under a falling roof , or as Damocles under the Tyrants sword , Nunc lateri incumbens — mox deinde supinus , Nunc cubat in faciem , nunc recto pectore surgens , Sleeping like a condemned man ; and let there be what pleasure men can dream of in such broken slumbers , yet the fear of waking from this illusion and parting from this phantastick pleasure , is a pain and torment which the imaginary felicity cannot pay for . Cui cum paupertate benè convenit , dives est ; non qui parum habet , sed qui plus cupit , pauper est . All our trouble is from within us ; and if a dish of lettice and a clear fountain can cool all my heats , so that I shall have neither thirst nor pride , lust nor revenge , envie nor ambition , I am lodg'd in the bosome of felicity ; and indeed no men sleep so soundly , as they that lay their head upon Natures lap . For a single dish and clean chalice lifted from the springs , can cure my hunger and thirst : but the meat of Ahasuerus feast cannot satisfie my ambition and my pride . Nullâ re egere , Dei proprium ; quàm paucissimis autem , Deo proximum , said Socrates . He therefore that hath the fewest desires and the most quiet passions , whose wants are soon provided for , and whose possessions cannot be disturbed with violent fears , he that dwels next door to satisfaction , and can carry his needs and lay them down where he please , this man is the happy man , and this is not to be done in great designs , and swelling fortunes . Dives jam factus desiit gaudere lentè , Cariùs edit & bibit , & latatur dives , quàm pauper , qui in quolibet , in parato , in inempto gaudet , & facilè epulari potest , dives nunquam . For as it is in plants which nature thrusts forth from her navell , she makes regular provisions , and dresses them with strength and ornament , with easinesse and a full stature , but if you thrust a Jessamine there where she would have had a Daisie grow , or bring the tall firre from dwelling in his own countrey , and transport the orange or the almond-tree neer the fringes of the North starre , Nature is displeased , and becomes unnaturall , and starves her sucklings , and renders you a return lesse then your charge and expectation : so it is in all our appetites ; when they are naturall and proper , nature feeds them and makes them healthfull and lusty , as the course issue of the Scythian clown ; she feeds them and makes them easie without cares and costly passion ; but if you thrust an appetite into her which she intended not , she gives you sickly and uneasie banquets , you must struggle with her for every drop of milk she gives beyond her own needs ; you may get gold from her entrails , and at a great charge provide ornamants for your Queens and Princely women : but our lives are spent in the purchase ; and when you have got them , you must have more ; for these cannot content you , nor nourish the spirit . Ad supervacua sudatur . A man must labour infinitely to get more then he needs ; but to drive away thirst and hunger , a man needs not sit in the fields of the oppressed poor , nor lead armies , nor break his sleep , & contumeliosam humanitatem pati , and to suffer shame and danger , and envie and affront , and all the retinue of infelicity . — Quis non Epicurum Suspicit , exigui laetum plantaribus horti ? If men did but know what felicity dwels in the cottage of a vertuous poor man , how sound his sleeps , how quiet his breast , how composed his minde , how free from care , how easie his provision , how healthfull his morning , how sober his night , how moist his mouth , how joyfull his heart , they would never admire the noises and the diseases , the throng of passions , and the violence of unnaturall appetites , that fill the houses of the luxurious , and the heart of the ambitious : Nam neque divitibus contingunt gaudia solis . These which you call pleasures are but the imagery and phantastick appearances , and such appearances even poor men may have . It is like felicity that the King of Persia should come to Babylon in the winter , and to Susa in the summer ; and be attended with all the servants of 127 Provinces , and with all the Princes of Asia . It is like this , that Diogenes went to Corinth in the time of vintage , and to Athens when winter came , and in stead of Courts visited the Temples and the Schooles , and was pleased in the society of Scholars and learned men , and conversed with the Students of all Asia and Europe . If a man loves privacy , the poor fortune can have that when Princes cannot ; if he loves noises , he can go to Markets and to Courts , and may glut himself with strange faces , and strange voices , and stranger manners , and the wilde designs of all the world : and when that day comes in which we shall dye , nothing of the eating and drinking remains , nothing of the pomp and luxury , but the sorrow to part with it , and shame to have dwelt there where wisdome and vertue seldome comes , unlesse it be to call men to sober counsels , to a plain and a severe and more naturall way of living ; and when Lucian derides the dead Princes and Generals , and sayes that in hell they go up and down selling salt meats and crying Mussels , or begging ; and he brings in Philip of Macedon , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , mending of shooes in a little stall ; he intended to represent , that in the shades below and in the state of the grave , the Princes and voluptuous have a being different from their present plenty , but that their condition is made contemptible and miserable by its disproportion to their lost and perishing voluptuousnesse . The result is this , that Tiresias told the Ghost of Menippus enquiring what state of life was nearest to felicity , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The private life , that which is freest from tumult and vanity , noise and luxury , businesse and ambition , nearest to nature and a just entertainment to our necessities ; that life is nearest to felicity . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Therefore despise the swellings and the diseases of a disordered life , and a proud vanity ; be troubled for no outward thing beyond its merit ; enjoy the present temperately , and you cannot choose but be pleased to see that you have so little share in the follies and miseries of the intemperate world . 2. Intemperance in eating and drinking is the most contrary course to the Epicures design in the world ; and the voluptuous man hath the least of pleasure ; and upon this proposition , the consideration is more materiall and more immediately reducible to practise , because in eating and drinking men please themselves so much , and have the necessities of Nature to usher in the inordination of gluttony and drunkennesse , and our need leads in vice by the hand , that we know not how to distinguish our friend from our enemy ; and St. Austin is sad upon this point ; Thou O Lord hast taught me that I should take my meat as I take my Physick , but while I passe from the trouble of hunger to the quietnesse of satisfaction , in the very passage I am insnared by the cords of my own concupiscence ; Necessity bids me passe , but I have no way to passe from hunger to fulnesse , but over the bridge of pleasure ; and although health and life be the cause of eating and drinking , yet pleasure , a dangerous pleasure thrusts her self into attendance , and sometimes endeavours to be the principall , and I do that for pleasures sake which I would only do for health ; and yet ▪ they have distinct measures whereby they can be separated , and that which is enough for health is too little for delight , and that which is for my delight destroyes my health , and still it is uncertain for what end I doe indeed desire ; and the worst of the evill is this , that the soul is glad because it is uncertain , and that an excuse is ready , that under the pretence of health , Obumbret negotium voluptatis , the design of pleasure may be advanced and protected . How farre the ends of naturall pleasure may lawfully be enjoyed , I shall afterwards consider ; In the mean time , if we remember that the Epicures design is pleasure principally , we may the better reprove his folly by considering that intemperance is a a plain destruction to all that which can give reall and true pleasure . 1. It is an enemy to health , without which it is impossible to feel anything of corporall pleasure . 2. A constant full table hath in it lesse pleasure then the temperate provisions of the Hermite , or the Labourer , or the Philosophicall table of Scholars , and the just pleasures of the vertuous . 3. Intemperance is an impure fountain of vice , and a direct nurse of uncleannesse . 4. It is a destruction of wisdome . 5. It is a dishonour and disreputation to the person and the nature of the man. It is an enemy to health : which is as one cals it , ansa voluptatum & condimentum vitae ; it is that handle by which we can apprehend , and perceive pleasures , and that sauce that only makes life delicate ; for what content can a full table administer to a man in a feaver ? and he that hath a sickly stomach admires at his happinesse that can feast with cheese and garlick , unctious breuuages and the low tasted spinage : Health is the opportunity of wisdome , the fairest scene of Religion , the advantages of the glorifications of God , the charitable ministeries to men ; it is a state of joy and thanksgiving , and in every of its period feels a pleasure from the blessed emanations of a mercifull providence . The world does not minister , does not feel a greater pleasure , then to be newly delivered from the racks or the gratings of the stone , and the torments and convulsions of a sharp colick : and no Organs , no Harp , no Lute can sound out the praises of the Almighty Father so spritefully , as the man that rises from his bed of sorrowes , and considers what an excellent difference he feels from the groans and intolerable accents of yesterday . Health carries us to Church and makes us rejoyce in the communion of Saints , and an intemperate table makes us to lose all this . For this is one of those sins which S. Paul affirms to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , manifest , leading before unto judgement . It bears part of its punishment in this life , and hath this appendage like the sin against the holy Ghost , that it is not remitted in this world , nor in the world to come ; that is , if it be not repented of , it is punished here and hereafter , which the Scripture does not affirm concerning all sins , and all cases . But in this the sinner gives sentence with his mouth and brings it to execution with his own hands ; Paena tamen praesens , cum tu deponis amictum Turgidus , et crudum pavonem in balneaportas . The old gluttons among the Romans , Heliogabalus , Tigellius , Crispus , Montanus , notaeque per oppida buccae , famous Epicures , mingled their meats with vomitings ; so did Vitellius , and enter'd into their baths to digest their Phesants , that they might speedily return to the Mullet and the Eeles of Syene , and then they went home and drew their breath short till the morning , and it may be not at all before night , Hinc subitae mortes , atque intestata senectus . Their age is surprised at a feast , and gives them not time to make their will , but either they are choked with a large morsell , and there is no room for the breath of the lungs , and the motions of the heart ; or a feaver burns their eyes out , or a quinzie punishes that intemperate throat that had no religion , but the eating of the fat sacrifices , the portions of the poor and of the Priest ; or else they are condemned to a Lethargie if their constitutions be dull , and if active , it may be they are wilde with watching . Plurimus hinc aeger moritur vigilando : sed illum Languorem peperit cibus imperfectus , & haerens Ardenti stomacho — So that the Epicures geniall proverb may be a little alter'd , and say , Let us eat and drink , for by this means to morrow we shall die ; but that 's not all , for these men live a healthlesse life ▪ that is , are long , are every day dying , and at last dye with torment . Menander was too soft in his expression , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; that it is indeed a death , but gluttony is a pleasant death , — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . For this is the gluttons pleasure , to breath short and difficultly , scarce to be able to speak , and when he does , he cries out , I dye and rot with pleasure . But the folly is as much to be derided as the men to be pityed , that we daily see men afraid of death with a most intolerable apprehension , and yet increase the evill of it , the pain , and the trouble , and the suddennesse of its coming , and the appendage of an unsufferable eternity . Rem struere exoptant caeso bove , Mercuriúmque Arcessunt fibrâ — They pray for herds of cattell , and spend the breeders upon feasts and sacrifices . For why do men go to Temples and Churches , and make vowes to God and daily prayers , that God would give them a healthfull body , and take away their gout and their palsies , their feavers and apoplexies , the pains of the head and the gripings of the belly , and arise from their prayers and powre in loads of flesh and seas of wine , lest there should not be matter enough for a lusty disease ? Poscis opem nervis , corpúsque fidele senectae . Esto age , sed grandes patinae tucetáque crassa Annuere his superos vetuere , Jov émque morantur . But it is enough that the rich glutton shall have his dead body condited and embalmed ; he may be allowed to stink and suffer corruption while he is alive ; These men are for the present living sinners and walking rottennesse , and hereafter will be dying penitents and perfumed carcasses , and their whole felicity is lost in the confusions of their unnaturall disorder . When Cyrus had espyed Astyages and his fellowes coming drunk from a banquet loaden with variety of follies and filthinesse , their legs failing them , their eyes red and staring , cousened ▪ with a moist cloud , and abused by a doubled object , their tongues full as spunges , and their heads no wiser , he thought they were poysoned , and he had reason ; for what malignant quality can be more venomous and hurtfull to a man then the effect of an intemperate goblet , and a full stomach ? it poysons both the soul and body . All poysons do not kill presently , and this will in processe of time , and hath formidable effects at present . But therefore me thinks the temptations which men meet withall from without , are in themselves most unreasonable and soonest confuted by us . He that tempts me to drink beyond my measure , civilly invites me to a feaver ; and to lay aside my reason , as the Persian women did their garments and their modesty at the end of feasts : and all the question then will be , which is the worse evill , to resuse your uncivill kindnesse , or to suffer a violent headach , or to lay up heaps big enough for an English Surfeit . Creon in the Tragedy said well , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , It grieve thee O stranger , or to he affronted by thee , then to be tormented by thy kindnesse the next day and the morrow after ; and the freed man of Domitius the Father of Nero suffered himself to be kild by his Lord ; and the sonne of Praxaspes by Cambyses , rather then they would exceed their own measures up to a full intemperance , and a certain sicknesse , and dishonour . For , ( as Plutarch said well ) to avoid the opinion of an uncivill man , or being clownish , to run into a pain of thy sides or belly , into madnesse or a head-ach , is the part of a fool and a coward , and of one that knowes not how to converse with men citra pocula & nidorem , in any thing but in the famelick smels of meat and vertiginous drinkings : Ebrius & petulans , qui nullum forte cecîdit , Dat poenas , noctem patitur lugentis amicum Pelidae — A drunkard and a glutton feels the torments of a restlesse night , although he hath not kil'd a man ; that is , just like murtherers and persons of an afrighting conscience ; so wake the glutton , so broken and sick , and disorderly are the slumbers of the drunkard . Now let the Epicure boast his pleasures , and tell how he hath swallowed the price of Provinces , and gobbets of delicious flesh purchased with the rewards of souls ; let him brag furorem illum conviviorum & foedissimum patrimoniorum exitium culinam , of the madnesse of delicious feasts , and that his kitchin hath destroyed his Patrimony ; let him tell that he takes in every day , — Quantum Lauseia bibebat , As much wine as would refresh the sorrowes of 40 languishing prisoners ; or let him set up his vain-glorious triumph , Ut quod multi Damalis meri Bassum Threiciâ vicit amystide , That he hath knock'd down Damalis with the 25th . bottle , and hath outfeasted Anthony or Cleopatra's luxury ; it is a goodly pleasure and himself shall bear the honour . — Rarum & memorabile magni Gutturis exemplum , conducendúsque magister . But for the honour of his banquet he hath some ministers attending that he did not dream of , and in the midst of his loud laughter , the gripes of the belly and the feavers of the brain , Pallor & genae pendulae , oculorum ulcera , tremulae manus , furiales somni , inquies nocturna , as Pliny reckons them , palenesse and hanging cheeks , ulcers of the eyes and trembling hands , dead or distracted sleeps , these speak aloud , that to day you eat and drink , that to morrow you may dye , and dye for ever . It is reported concerning Socrates , that when Athens was destroyed by the plague , he in the midst of all the danger escaped untouched by sicknesse , because by a spare and severe diet , he had within him no tumult of disorderly humours , no factions in his bloud , no loads of moisture prepared for charnell houses , or the sickly hospitals ; but a vigorous heat , and a well proportioned radicall moysture ; he had enough for health and study , Philosophy and Religion , for the temples and the Academy , but no superfluities to be spent in groans and sickly nights : And all the world of gluttons is hugely convinced of the excellency of temperance in order to our temporall felicity and health , because when themselves have left vertue , and sober dyet , and counsels , and first lost their temperance , and then lost their health , they were forc'd to run to temperance and abstinence for their cure , Vilis enim tenuisque mensa ( ut loquuntur pueri ) sanitatis mater est , Then , a thin diet and a humbled body , fasting and emptinesse , and arts of scattering their sin and sicknesse , is in season ; but by the same means they might preserve their health , by which they do restore it ; but when they are well , if they return to their full tables and oppressing meals , their sicknesse was but like Vitellius vomiting , that they might eat again ; but so they may entail a fit of sicknesse upon every full moon , till both their virtue and themselves decrease into the corruptions and rottennesse of the grave . But if they delight in sharp feavers and horrid potions , in sowre palats and heaps of that which must be carryed forth , they may reckon their wealthy pleasures to be very great and many , if they will but tell them one by one with their sicknesses and the multitude of those evils they shall certainly feel before they have thrown their sorrowes forth . These men ( as St. Paul's expression is ) heap up wrath against the day of wrath , and the revelation of the day of Gods most righteous judgements . Strange therefore it is that for the stomach which is scarce a span long , there should be provided so many furnaces and ovens , huge fires and an army of cooks , cellars swimming with wine , and granaries sweating with corn ; and that into one belly should enter the vintage of many Nations , the spoils of distant Provinces , and the shell-fishes of severall seas . When the Heathens feasted their Gods , they gave nothing but a fat oxe , a ram , or a kid , they powred a little wine upon the Altar , and burned a handfull of gum ; but when they feasted themselves , they had many vessels fill'd with Campanian wine , turtles of Liguria , Sicilian beeves , and wheat from Egypt , wilde boars from Illyrium , and Grecian sheep , variety , and load , and cost , and curiosity : and so do we . It is so little we spend in Religion , and so very much upon our selves , so little to the poor , and so without measure to make our selves sick , that we seem to be in love with our own mischief , and so passionate for necessity and want , that we strive all the wayes we can to make our selves need more then nature intended . I end this consideration with the saying of the Cynic ; It is to be wondred at that men eat so much for pleasures sake ; and yet for the same pleasure should not give over eating , and betake themselves to the delights of temperance , since to be healthfull and holy is so great a pleasure . However , certain it is that no man ever repented that he arose from the table sober , healthfull , and with his wits about him ; but very many have repented that they sate so long , till their bellies swelled , and their health , and their vertue , and their God is departed from them . SERMON , XVI . Part II. 2. A Constant full Table is lesse pleasant then the temperate provisions of the vertuous , or the naturall banquets of the poore . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Epicurus , Thanks be to the God of Nature , that he hath made that which is necessary to be ready at hand , and easie to be had , and that which cannot easily be obtained , is not necessary it should be at all ; which in effect is to say , it cannot be constantly pleasant ; for necessity and want makes the appetite , and the appetite makes the pleasure ; and men are infinitely mistaken when they despise the poor mans Table , and wonder how he can endure that life that is maintain'd without the excise of pleasure , and that he can suffer his days labour , and recompense it with unsavory herbs , and potent garleek , with water-cresses , and bread colour'd like the ashes that gave it hardnesse ; he hath a hunger that gives it deliciousnesse ; and we may as well wonder that a Lyon eats raw flesh , or that a Wolfe feeds upon the turfe , they have an appetite proportionable to this meat , and their necessity , and their hunger , and their use , and their nature are the Cooks that dresse their provisions , and make them delicate : And yet if water and pulse , naturall provisions , and the simple diet were not pleasant , as indeed they are not to them who have been nursed up and accustomed to the more delicious , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , yet it is a very great pleasure to reduce our appetites to Nature , and to make our reason rule our stomach , and our desires comply with our fortunes , and our fortunes be proportionable to our persons . Non est voluptas aqua & polenta , ( said a Philosopher ) sed summa voluptas est posse ex his capere voluptatem , It is an excellent pleasure to be able to take pleasure in worts and water , in bread and onions ; for then a man can never want pleasure when it is so ready for him , that nature hath spread it over all its provisions . Fortune and Art gives delicacies ; Nature gives meat and drink ; and what nature gives , fortune cannot take away , but every change can take away what onely is given by the bounty of a full fortune ; and if in satisfaction and freedome from care , and security and proportions to our own naturall appetite , there can be pleasure , then we may know to value the sober and naturall Tables of the vertuous and wise , before that state of feastings which a War can lessen , and a Tyrant can take away , or the Pirates may intercept , or a Blast may spoyle , and is alwayes contingent , and is so far from satisfying , that either it destroys the appetite , and capacity of pleasure , or increases it beyond all the measures of good things . He that feasts every day , feasts no day , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and however you treat your selves , sometimes you will need to be refreshed beyond it ; but what will you have for a Festivall , if you wear crowns every day ? even a perpetuall fulnesse will make you glad to beg pleasure from emptynesse , and variety from poverty or a humble Table . Plerumque gratae principibus vices , Mundaeque parvo sub lare pauperum Coenae sine aulaeis , & ostro , Sollicitam explicuere frontem . But however , of all the things in the world a man may best and most easily want pleasure , which if you have enjoyed , it passes away at the present , and leaves nothing at all behinde it , but sorrow and sowre remembrances . No man felt a greater pleasure in a goblet of wine , then Lysimachus when he fought against the Getae ; and himselfe and his whole Army were compell'd by thirst to yeeld themselves to bondage ; but when the wine was sunk as farre as his navel , the pleasure was gone , and so was his Kingdome and his liberty ; for though the sorrow dwells with a man pertinaciously , yet the pleasure is swift as lightning , and more pernicious ; but the pleasures of a sober and a temperate Table are pleasures till the next day , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Timotheus said of Plato's Scholars , they converse sweetly , and are of perfect temper and delicacy of spirit even the next morning ; whereas the intemperate man is forced to lye long in bed , and forget that there is a Sun in the skie ; he must not be call'd till he hath concocted , and slept his surfeit into a truce and a quiet respite ; but whatsoever this man hath suffer'd , certain it is that the poore mans head did not ake , neither did he need the juice of poppies , or costly cordials , Physitians or Nurses , to bring him to his right shape again ; like Apuleius's Asse with eating roses : and let him turne his hour-glasse , he will finde his head akes longer then his throat was pleased ; and which is worst , his glasse runs out with joggings and violence , and every such concussion with a surfeit makes his life look neerer its end , and ten to one but it will before its naturall period be broken in pieces . If these be the pleasures of an Epicures Table , I shall pray that my friends may never feele them ; but he that sinneth against his Maker shall fall into the calamities of intemperance . 3. Intemperance is the Nurse of vice ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Venus milk , so Aristophanes calls wine , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Mother of all grievous things : so Pontianus . For by the experience of all the world , it is the band to lust : and no man must ever dare to pray to God for a pure soul in a chaste body , if himself does not live temperately , if himselfe make provisions for the flesh , to fulfill the lusts of it ; for in this case he shall find that which enters into him shall defile him more then he can be cleansed by those vain prayers that come from his tongue , and not from his heart . Intemperance makes rage and choler , pride and fantastick principles ; it makes the body a sea of humours , and those humours the seat of violence : by faring deliciously every day men become senselesse of the evills of manking , inapprehensive of the troubles of their Brethren , unconcerned in the changes of the world , and the cryes of the poor , the hunger of the fatherlesse , and the thirst of widows : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Diogenes , Tyrants never come from the cottages of them that eat pulse and course fare , but from the delicious beds and banquets of the effeminate and rich feeders . For to maintain plenty and luxury sometimes wars are necessary , and oppressions and violence : but no Land-lord did ever grinde the face of his Tenants , no Prince ever suck'd bloud from his subjects for the maintenance of a sober and a moderate proportion of good things . And this was intimated by S. James , Doe not rich men oppresse you , and draw you before the Judgment seat ? For all men are passionate to live according to that state in which they were born , or to which they are devolved , or which they have framed to themselves ; Those therefore that love to live high and deliciously , Et quibus in solo vivendi causa palato , who live not to God , but to their belly , not to sober counsels , but to an intemperate table , have framed to themselves a manner of living which oftentimes cannot be maintain'd , but by injustice and violence , which coming from a man whose passions are made big with sensuality and an habituall folly , by pride and forgetfulnesse of the condition and miseries of mankind , are alwayes unreasonable , and sometimes intolerable . — regustatum digito terebrare salinum Contentus perages , si vivere cum Jove tendis . Formidable is the state of an intemperate man , whose sin begins with sensuality , and grows up in folly and weak discourses , and is fed by violence and applauded by fooles and parasites , full bellies , and empty heads , servants and flatterers , whose hands are full of flesh and blood , and their hearts empty of pity and naturall compassion ; where religion cannot inhabit , and the love of God must needs be a stranger ; whose talk is loud , and trifling , injurious and impertinent ; and whose imployment is the same with the work of the sheep or the calfe , alwayes to eat ; their loves are the lusts of the lower belly , and their portion is in the lower regions to eternall ages , where their thirst , and their hunger , and their torment shall be infinite . 4. Intemperance is a perfect destruction of Wisdome . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a full gorg'd belly never produc'd a sprightly mind : and therefore these kind of men are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , slow bellies , so S. Paul concerning the intemperate Cretans out of their owne Poet : they are like the Tigres of Brasil , which when they are empty are bold , and swift , and full of sagacity , but being full , sneak away from the barking of a village dog . So are these men , wise in the morning , quick and fit for businesse ; but when the sun gives the signe to spread the tables , and intemperance brings in the messes , and drunkennesse fills the bouls , then the man fals away , and leaves a beast in his room ; nay worse , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they are dead all but their throat and belly , so Aristophanes hath fitted them with a character , carkasses above halfe way ; Plotinus descends one step lower yet ; affirming such persons , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they are made trees , whose whole imployment and life is nothing but to feed and suck juices from the bowels of their Nurse and Mother ; and indeed commonly they talke as trees in a wind and tempest , the noise is great and querulous , but it signifies nothing but trouble and disturbance . A full meal is like Sisera's banquet , at the end of which there is a nail struck into a mans head : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so Porphyrie ; it knocks a man down , and nayls his soul to the sensuall mixtures of the body . For what wisdome can be expected from them , whose soul dwels in clouds of meat , and floats up and down in wine , like the spilled cups which fell from their hands , when they could lift them to their heads no longer ? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : It is a perfect shipwrack of a Man , the Pilot is drunk and the helm dash'd in pieces , and the ship first reels , and by swallowing too much is it self swallowed up at last . And therefore the Navis Agrigentina , the madnesse of the young fellows of Agrigentum , who being drunk , fancyed themselves in a storm , and the house the ship ; was more then the wilde fancy of their cups , it was really so , they were all cast away , they were broken in pieces by the foul disorder of the storm . Hinc vini atque somni degener discordia , Libido sordens , inverecundus lepos , Variaeque pestes languidorum sensuum . Hinc frequenti marcida oblectamine Scintilla mentis intorpescit nobilis , Animscsque pigris stertit in praecordiis . The senses languish , the spark of Divinity that dwels within is quenched , and the mind snorts , dead with sleep and fulnesse in the fouler regions of the belly . So have I seen the eye of the world looking upon a fenny bottome , and drinking up too free draughts of moysture gather'd them into a cloud , and that cloud crept about his face , and made him first look red , and then cover'd him with darknesse and an artificiall night : so is our reason at a feast . Putrem resudans crapulam Obstrangulatae mentis ingenium premit . The clouds gather about the head , and according to the method and period of the children , and productions of darkness , it first grows red , and that rednesse turns into an obscurity , and a thick mist , and reason is lost to all use and profitablenesse of wise and sober discourses ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a cloud of folly and distraction darkens the soul , and makes it crasse and materiall , polluted and heavy , clogg'd and loaden like the body : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , And there cannot be any thing said worse , reason turnes into folly , wine and flesh into a knot of clouds , the soul it self into a body , and the spirit into corrupted meat ; there is nothing left but the rewards and portions of a fool to be reaped and enjoyed there , where flesh and corruption shall dwell to eternall ages ; and therefore in Scripture such men are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Hesternis vitiis animum quoque praegravant : Their heads are grosse , their soules are immerged in matter , and drowned in the moystures of an unwholsome cloud ; they are dull of hearing , slow in apprehension , and to action they are as unable as the hands of a childe , who too hastily hath broken the inclosures of his first dwelling . But temperance is reasons girdle , and passions bridle , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so Homer in Stobaeus , that 's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , prudence is safe , while the man is temperate , and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is opposed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a temperate man is no fool , for temperance is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , such as Plato appointed to night-walkers , a prison to restraine their inordinations ; it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Pythagoras calls it ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so Socrates ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so Plato ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so Iämblicus , It is the strength of the soule , the foundation of vertue , the ornament of all good things , and the corroborative of all excellent habits . 5. After all this , I shall the lesse need to add , that intemperance is a dishonor and disreputation to the nature , and the person , and the manners of a Man. But naturally men are ashamed of it , and the needs of nature shal be the vail for their gluttony , and the night shall cover their drunkennesse . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which the Apostle rightly renders , They that are drunk are drunk in the night ; but the Priests of Heliopolis never did sacrifice to the Sun with wine ; meaning , that this is so great a dishonor , that the Sun ought not to see it ; and they that think there is no other eye but the Sun that sees them , may cover their shame by choosing their time ; just as children doe their danger by winking hard , and not looking on . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , To drink sweet drinks and hot , to quaffe great draughts , and to eat greedily ; Theophrastus makes them characters of a Clown . And now that I have told you the foulnesse of the Epicures feasts and principles , it will be fit that I describe the measures of our eating and drinking , that the needs of nature may neither become the cover to an intemperate dish , nor the freer refreshment of our persons be changed into scruples , that neither our vertue nor our conscience fall into an evill snare . 1. The first measure of our eating and drinking is our natural needs , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; these are the measures of nature , that the body be free from pain , and the soul from violence . Hunger , and thirst , and cold are the naturall diseases of the body ; and food , and rayment , are their remedies , and therefore are the measures . In quantum sitis atque fames , & frigora poscunt , Quantum Epicure tibi parvis suffecit in hortis . But in this there are two cautions . 1. Hunger and thirst are onely to be extinguished while they are violent and troublesome , and are not to be provided for to the utmost extent and possibilities of nature ; a man is not hungry so long , till he can eat no more , but till its sharpnesse and trouble is over , and he that does not leave some reserves for temperance , gives all that he can to nature , and nothing at all to grace ; For God hath given a latitude in desires and degrees of appetite ; and when he hath done , he laid restraint upon it in some whole instances , and of some parts in every instance ; that man might have something to serve God of his own , and something to distinguish him from a beast in the use of their common faculties . Beasts cannot refrain but fill all the capacity , when they can ; and if a man does so , he does what becomes a beast , and not a man. And therefore there are some little symptomes of this inordination , by which a man may perceive himself to have transgressed his measures ; Ructation , uneasie loads , singing , looser pratings , importune drowsinesse , provocation of others to equall and full chalices ; and though in every accident of this signification , it is hard for another to pronounce that the man hath sinned , yet by these he may suspect himself , and learn the next time to hold the bridle harder . 2. This hunger must be naturall , not artificiall and provoked : For many men make necessities to themselves , and then think they are bound to provide for them . It is necessary to some men to have garments made of the Calabrian fleece stain'd with the blood of the murex , and to get money to buy pearls round and orient ; scelerata hoc fecit pulpa ; but it is the mans luxury that made it so ; and by the same principle it is , that in-meats , what is abundant to nature is defective and beggerly to art ; and when nature willingly rises from Table , when the first course of flesh , plain , and naturall is done , then art , and sophistry , and adulterate dishes invite him to taste and die , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 well may a sober man wonder that men should be so much in love with earth and corrution , the parent of rottennesse , and a disease , that even then when by all laws witches and inchanters , murderers and manstealers are chastised and restrain'd with the iron hands of death , yet that men should at great charges give pensions to an order of men , whose trade it is to rob them of their temperance , and wittily to destroy their health ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Greek Fathers call such persons ; — curvae in terris animae & coelestium inanes , people bowed downe to the earth ; lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God : Aretinas mentes , so Antidamus calls them , men framed in the furnaces of Etruria , Aretine spirits , beginning and ending in flesh and filthynesse ; dirt and clay all over . But goe to the Crib thou glutton , and there it will be found that when the charger is clean , yet natures rules were not prevaricated ; the beast eats up all his provisions because they are naturall and simple ; or if he leaves any , it is because he desires no more then till his needs be served ; and neither can a man ( unlesse he be diseased in body or inspirit , in affection or in habit ) eat more of naturall and simple food then to the satisfactions of his naturall necessities . He that drinks a draught or two of water , and cooles his thirst , drinks no more till his thirst returnes ; but he that drinks wine , drinks it again , longer then it is needfull , even so long as it is pleasant . Nature best provides for her self when she spreads her own Table ; but when men have gotten superinduced habits , and new necessities ; art that brought them in must maintain them , but wantonnesse and folly wait at the table , and sickness and death take away . 2. Reason is the second measure , or rather the rule whereby we judge of intemperance ; For whatsoever loads of meat or drink make the reason uselesse , or troubled , are effects of this deformity ; not that reason is the adequate measure , for a man may be intemperate upon other causes , though he doe not force his understanding , and trouble his head . Some are strong to drink , and can eat like a wolfe , and love to doe so , as fire to destroy the stubble ; such were those Harlots in the Comedy , Quae cum amatore suo cum coenant liguriunt : These persons are to take their accounts from the measures of Religion , and the Spirit ; though they can talk still or transact the affaires of the world , yet if they be not fitted for the things of the Spirit , they are too full of flesh or wine , and cannot or care not to attend to the things of God. But reason is the limit beyond which temperance never wanders ; and in every degree in which our discourse is troubled , and our soul is lifted from its wheels , in the same degree the sin prevails . Dum sumus in quâdam delinquendi libidine , nebulis quibusdam insipientiae mens obducitur , saith St. Ambrose , when the flesh-pots reek , and the uncovered dishes send forth a nidor and hungry smels , that cloud hides the face , and puts out the eye of reason ; and then tell them mors in ollâ , that death is in the pot , and folly in the chalice , that those smels are fumes of brimstone , and vapours of Egypt ; that they will make their heart easie , and their head sottish , and their colour pale , and their hands trembling , and their feet tormented : ( Mullorum leporúmque & suminis exitus hic est , Sulphureúsque color carnificésque pedes . For that is the end of delicacies , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Dio Chrysostom . palenesse and effeminacy , and lazinesse , and folly : ) yet under the dominion of the pleasures of sensuality , men are so stript of the use of reason , that they are not onely uselesse in wise counsels and assistances , but they have not reason enough to avoid the evils of their own throat and belly : when once their reason fails , we must know , that their temperance and their religion went before . 3. Though reason be so strictly to be preserved at our tables as well as at our prayers , and we can never have leave to doe any violence to it ; yet the measures of Nature may be enlarged beyond the bounds of prime and common necessity . For besides hunger and thirst , there are some labours of the body , and others of the mind , and there are sorrows and loads upon the spirit by its communications with the indispositions of the body ; and as the labouring man may be supplyed with bigger quantities , so the student and contemplative man with more delicious and spritefull nutriment : for as the tender and more delicate easily-digested meats will not help to carry burthens upon the neck , and hold the plough in society and yokes of the laborious oxen ; so neither will the pulse and the leeks , Lavinian sausages , and the Cisalpine tucets or gobbets of condited buls flesh minister such delicate spirits to the thinking man ; but his notion will be flat as the noyse of the Arcadian porter , and thick as the first juice of his countrey lard , unlesse he makes his body a fit servant to the soul , and both fitted for the imployment . But in these cases necessity , and prudence , and experience are to make the measures and the rule ; and so long as the just end is fairly designed , and aptly ministred to , there ought to be no scruple concerning the quantity or quality of the provision : and he that would stint a Swain by the commons of a Student , and give Philotas the Candian , the leavings of Plato , does but ill serve the ends of temperance , but worse of prudence and necessity . 4. Sorrow and a wounded spirit may as well be provided for in the quantity and quality of meat and drink , as any other disease ; and this disease by this remedy as well as by any other . For great sorrow and importune melancholy may be as great a sin as a great anger ; and if it be a sin in its nature , it is more malignant and dangerous in its quality ; as naturally tending to murmur and despair , wearinesse of Religion , and hatred of God , timorousnesse and jealousies , fantastick images of things and superstition ; and therefore as it is necessary to restrain the feavers of anger , so also to warm the freezings and dulnesse of melancholy by prudent and temperate , but proper and apportion'd diets ; and if some meats and drinks make men lustfull , or sleepy , or dull , or lazy , or spritely , or merry , so far as meats and drinks can minister to the passion , and the passion minister to vertue , so far by this means they may be provided for . Give strong drink to him that is ready to perish , and wine to those that be of heavy hearts , let him drink and forget his poverty , and remember his misery no more , said King Lemuel's Mother . But this is not intended to be an habituall cure , but single and occasionall ; for he that hath a pertinacious sorrow is beyond the cure of meat and drink , and if this become every days physick , it will quickly become every days sin . 2. It must alwayes keep within the bounds of reason , and never seise upon any portions of affection : The Germans use to mingle musick with their bowls , and drink by the measures of the six Notes of Musick : Ut relevet miserum fatum , solitósque labores : but they sing so long that they forget not their sorrow onely , but their vertue also , and their Religion ; and there are some men that fall into drunkennesse because they would forget a lighter calamity , running into the fire to cure a calenture , and beating their brains out to be quit of the aking of their heads . A mans heavynesse is refreshed long before he comes to drunkennesse ; for when he arrives thither , he hath but chang'd his heavynesse , and taken a crime to boot . 5. Even when a man hath no necessity upon him , no pungent sorrow , or naturall or artificiall necessity , it is lawfull in some cases of eating and drinking to receive pleasure and intend it . For whatsoever is naturall and necessary , is therefore not criminall , because it is of Gods procuring ; and since we eate for need , and the satisfaction of our need is a removing of a pain , and that in nature is the greatest pleasure , it is impossible that in its own nature it should be a sin . But in this case of Conscience , these cautions are to be observed : 1. So long as nature ministers the pleasure and not art , it is materially innocent . Si tuo veniat jure , luxuria est : But it is safe while it enters upon natures stock ; for it is impossible that the proper effect of health , and temperance , and prudent abstinence should be vicious ; and yet these are the parents of the greatest pleasure , in eating and drinking . Malum panem expecta , bonus fiet ; etiam illum tenerum tibi & siligineum fames reddet : If you abstaine and be hungry , you shall turne the meanest provision into delicate , and desireable . 2. Let all the pleasure of meat and drink be such as can minister to health , and be within the former bounds . For since pleasure in eating and drinking is its naturall appendage , and like a shadow follows the substance , as the meat is to be accounted , so is the pleasure : and if these be observed , there is no difference whether nature or art be the Cook. For some constitutions , and some mens customes , and some mens educations , and necessities , and weaknesses are such , that their appetite is to be invited , and their digestion helped , but all this while we are within the bounds of nature and need . 3. It is lawfull when a man needs meat to choose the pleasanter , even meerly for their pleasures ; that is , because they are pleasant , besides that they are usefull ; this is as lawfull as to smell of a rose , or to lye in feathers , or change the posture of our body in bed for ease , or to hear musick , or to walk in gardens rather then the high-wayes ; and God hath given us leave to be delighted in those things which he made to that purpose , that we may also be delighted in him that gives them . For so as the more pleasant may better serve for health , and directly to refreshment , so collaterally to Religion : Alwayes provided , that it be in its degree moderate , and we temperate in our desires , without transportation and violence , without unhandsome usages of our selves , or taking from God and from Religion any minutes and portions of our affections . When Eicadastes the Epicure saw a goodly dish of hot meat serv'd up , he sung the verse of Homer , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and swallowed some of it greedily , till by its hands of fire it curled his stomach , like parchment in the flame , and he was carryed from his banquet to his grave . Non poterat letho nobiliore mori : It was fit he should dye such a death ; but that death bids us beware of that folly . 4. Let the pleasure as it came with the meat , so also passe away with it . Philoxenus was a beast , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he wisht his throat as long as a Cranes , that he might be long in swallowing his pleasant morsels : Moeret quòd magna pars felicitatis exclusa esset corporis angustiis ; he mourned because the pleasure of eating was not spread over all his body , that he might have been an Epicure in his hands : and indeed , if we consider it rightly , great eating and drinking is not the greatest pleasure of the taste , but of the touch ; and Philoxenus might feel the unctious juyce slide softly down his throat , but he could not taste it in the middle of the long neck ; and we see that they who mean to feast exactly , or delight the palate , do libare or pitissare , take up little proportions and spread them upon the tongue or palate ; but full morsells and great draughts are easie and soft to the touch ; but so is the feeling of silke , or handling of a melon , or a moles skin , and as delicious too as eating when it goes beyond the appetites of nature , and the proper pleasures of taste , which cannot be perceived but by a temperate man. And therefore let not the pleasure be intended beyond the taste ; that is , beyond those little naturall measures in which God intended that pleasure should accompany your tables . Doe not run to it beforehand , nor chew the chud when the meal is done ; delight not in the fancies , and expectations , and remembrances of a pleasant meal ; but let it descend in latrinam , together with the meals whose attendant pleasure is . 5. Let pleasure be the lesse principall , and used as a servant ; it may be modest and prudent to strew the dish with Sugar , or to dip thy bread in vinegar , but to make thy meal of sauces , and to make the accessory become the principall , and pleasure to rule the table , and all the regions of thy soule , is to make a man lesse and lower then an Oglio , of a cheaper value then a Turbat ; a servant and a worshipper of sauces , and cookes , and pleasure , and folly . 6. Let pleasure as it is used in the regions and limits of nature and prudence , so also be changed into religion and thankfulnesse . Turtures cum bibunt non resupinant colla , say Naturalists , Turtles when they drink lift not up their bills ; and if we swallow our pleasures without returning the honour and the acknowledegment to God that gave them , we may largè bibere jumentorum modo , drink draughts as large as an Oxe , but we shall die like an Oxe , and change our meats and drinks into eternall rottennesse . In all Religions it hath been permitted to enlarge our Tables in the days of sacrifices and religious festivity . Qui Veientarum festis potare diebus , Campanâ solitus trullâ , vappámque profestis . For then the body may rejoyce in fellowship with the soule , and then a pleasant meal is religious , if it be not inordinate . But if our festivall dayes like the Gentile sacrifices end in drunkennesse [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] and our joyes in Religion passe into sensuality and beastly crimes , we change the Holy-day into a day of Death , and our selves become a Sacrifice as in the day of Slaughter . To summe up this particular , there are , as you perceive , many cautions to make our pleasure safe , but any thing can make it inordinate , and then scarce any thing can keep it from becoming dangerous . Habet omnis hoc voluptas , Stimulis agit furentes , Apiúmque par volantum , Ubi grata mella fudit , Fugit & nimis tenaci Ferit icta corda morsu . And the pleasure of the honey will not pay for the smart of the sting . Amores enim & deliciae maturè & celeritèr deflorescunt , & in omnibus rebus voluptatibus maximis fastidium finitimum est . Nothing is so soon ripe and rotten as pleasure , and upon all possessions and states of things , loathing looks , as being not far off ; but it sits upon the skirts of pleasure . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . He that greedily puts his hand to a delicious table , shall weep bitterly when he suffers the convulsions and violence by the divided interests of such contrary juices : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . For this is the law of our nature and fatall necessity ; life is alwayes poured forth from two goblets . And now after all this , I pray consider , what a strange madness and prodigious folly possesses many men , that they love to swallow death , and diseases , and dishonor , with an appetite which no reason can restrain . We expect our servants should not dare to touch what we have forbidden to them ; we are watchfull that our children should not swallow poysons , and filthinesse , and unwholesome nourishment ; we take care that they should be well manner'd and civil and of fair demeanour ; and we our selves desire to be , or at least to be accounted wise ; and would infinitely scorne to be call'd fooles ; and we are so great lovers of health , that we will buy it at any rate of money or observance ; and then for honour , it is that which the children of men pursue with passion , it is one of the noblest rewards of vertue , and the proper ornament of the wise and valiant , and yet all these things are not valued or considered , when a merry meeting , or a looser feast calls upon the man to act a scene of folly and madnesse , and healthlesnesse and dishonour . We doe to God what we severely punish in our servants ; we correct our children for their medling with dangers , which themselves preferre before immortality ; and though no man think himselfe fit to be despised , yet he is willing to make himselfe a beast , a sot , and a ridiculous monkey , with the follies and vapors of wine ; and when he is high in drinke or fancy , proud as a Grecian Orator in the midst of his popular noyses , at the same time he shall talk such dirty language , such mean low things , as may well become a changeling and a foole , for whom the stocks are prepared by the laws , and the just scorne of men . Every drunkard clothes his head with a mighty scorne , and makes himselfe lower at that time then the meanest of his servants ; the boyes can laugh at him when he is led like a cripple , directed like a blinde man , and speakes like an infant , imperfect noyses , lisping with a full and spungy tongue , and an empty head , and a vaine and foolish heart : so cheaply does he part with his honour for drink or loads of meat ; for which honour he is ready to die , rather then hear it to be disparaged by another ; when himselfe destroyes it , as bubbles perish with the breath of children . Doe not the laws of all wise Nations marke the drunkard for a foole , with the meanest and most scornfull punishment ? and is there any thing in the world so foolish as a man that is drunk ? But good God! what an intolerable sorrow hath seised upon great portions of Mankind , that this folly and madnesse should possesse the greatest spirits , and the wittyest men , the best company , the most sensible of the word honour , and the most jealous of loosing the shadow , and the most carelesse of the thing ? Is it not a horrid thing , that a wise , or a crafty , a learned , or a noble person should dishonour himselfe as a foole , destroy his body as a murtherer , lessen his estate as a prodigall , disgrace every good cause that he can pretend to by his relation , and become an appellative of scorne , a scene of laughter or derision , and all , for the reward of forgetfulnesse and madnesse ? for there are in immoderate drinking no other pleasures . Why doe valiant men and brave personages fight and die rather then break the laws of men , or start from their duty to their Prince , and will suffer themselves to be cut in pieces rather then deserve the name of a Traitor or perjur'd ? and yet these very men to avoyd the hated name of Glutton or Drunkard , and to preserve their Temperance , shall not deny themselves one luscious morsell , or poure a cup of wine on the ground , when they are invited to drink by the laws of the circle or wilder company . Me thinks it were but reason , that if to give life to uphold a cause be not too much , they should not think too much to be hungry and suffer thirst for the reputation of that cause ; and therefore much rather that they would thinke it but duty to be temperate for its honour , and eat and drink in civill and faire measures , that themselves might not lose the reward of so much suffering , and of so good a relation , nor that which they value most be destroyed by drink . There are in the world a generation of men that are ingag'd in a cause , which they glory in , and pride themselves in its relation and appellative : but yet for that cause they will doe nothing but talk and drink ; they are valiant in wine , and witty in healths , and full of stratagem to promote debauchery ; but such persons are not considerable in wise accounts ; that which I deplore is , that some men preferre a cause before their life , and yet preferre wine before that cause , and by one drunken meeting set it more backward in its hopes and blessings , then it can be set forward by the counsels and armes of a whole yeer . God hath ways enough to reward a truth without crowning it with successe in the hands of such men . In the mean time they dishonour Religion , and make truth be evill spoken of , and innocent persons to suffer by their very relation , and the cause of God to be reproached in the sentences of erring and abused people ; and themselves lose their health and their reason , their honour and their peace , the rewards of sober counsels , and the wholesome effects of wisdome . Arcanum neque tu scrutaberis ullius unquam , Commissúmque teges , & vino tortus & irâ . Wine discovers more then the rack , and he that will be drunk is not a person fit to be trusted : and though it cannot be expected men should be kinder to their friend , or their Prince , or their honour , then to God , and to their own souls , and to their own bodies ; yet when men are not moved by what is sensible and materiall , by that which smarts and shames presently , they are beyond the cure of Religion , and the hopes of Reason ; and therefore they must lie in hell like sheep , death gnawing upon them , and the righteous shall have domination over them in the morning of the resurrection . Seras tutior ibis ad lucernas , Haec hora non est tua , cum furit Lyaeus Cùm regnant rosae , cùm madent capilli . Much safer it is to go to the severities of a watchfull and a sober life ; for all that time of life is lost , when wine , and rage , and pleasure , and folly steale away the heart of a man , and make him goe singing to his grave . I end with the saying of a wise man ; He is fit to sit at the table of the Lord , and to feast with Saints , who moderately uses the creatures which God hath given him : But he that despises even lawfull pleasures , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , shall not onely sit and feast with God , but reign together with him , and partake of his glorious Kingdome . Sermon , XVII . THE MARRIAGE RING : OR THE Mysteriousnesse and Duties of Marriage . Part I. Ephes. 5. 32 , 33. This is a great mysterie , But I speak concerning Christ and the Church . Neverthelesse let every one of you in particular so love his Wife even as himself , and the Wife see that shee reverence her Husband . THe first blessing God gave to man was society , and that society was a Marriage , and that Marriage was confederate by God himself , and hallowed by a blessing : and at the same time , and for very many descending ages , not only by the instinct of Nature , but by a superadded forwardnesse ( God himself inspiring the desire ) * the world was most desirous of children , impatient of barrennesse , accounting single life a curse , and a childlesse person hated by God. The world was rich and empty , and able to provide for a more numerous posterity then it it had . — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . You that are rich Numenius , you may multiply your family , poor men are not so fond of children ; but when a family could drive their heards , and set their children upon camels , and lead them till they saw a fat soil watered with rivers , and there sit down without paying rent , they thought of nothing but to have great families , that their own relations might swell up to a Patriarchat , and their children be enough to possesse all the regions that they saw , and their grand-children become Princes , and themselves build cities and call them by the name of a childe , and become the fountain of a Nation . This was the consequent of the first blessing , Increase and multiply . The next blessing was the promise of the Messias , and that also increased in men and women a wonderfull desire of marriage : for as soon as God had chosen the family of Abraham tobe the blessed line , from whence the worlds Redeemer should descend according to the flesh , every of his daughters hoped to have the honour to be his Mother , or his Grand-mother or something of his kindred : and to be childelesse in Israel was a sorrow to the Hebrew women great as the slavery of Egypt , or their dishonours in the land of their captivity . But when the Messias was come , and his doctrine was published , and his Ministers but few , and the Disciples were to suffer persecution , and to be of an unsetled dwelling , and the Nation of the Jews , in the bosome and society of which the Church especially did dwell , were to be scattered and broken all in pieces with fierce calamities , and the world was apt to calumniate and to suspect and dishonour Christians upon pretences , and unreasonable jealousies , and that to all these purposes the state of marriage brought many inconveniences ; it pleased God in this new creation to inspire into the hearts of his servants a disposition and strong desires to live a single life , lest the state of marriage should in that conjunction of things become an accidentall impediment to the dissemination of the Gospell , which cal'd men from a confinement in their domestick charges to travell , and flight , and poverty , and difficulty , and Martyrdome : upon this necessity the Apostles and Apostolicall men published Doctrines , declaring the advantages of single life , not by any commandement of the Lord , but by the spirit of prudence , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for the present and then incumbent necessities , and in order to the advantages which did accrew to the publick ministeries and private piety . There are some ( said our blessed Lord ) who make themselves Eunuchs for the Kingdome of Heaven , that is , for the advantages and the ministery of the Gospell , non ad vitae bonae meritum ( as St. Austin in the like case ) not that it is a better service of God in it self , but that it is usefull to the first circumstances of the Gospell and the infancy of the Kingdome , because the unmarryed person does 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , is apt to spirituall and Ecclesiasticall imployments : first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , holy in his own person , and then sanctified to publick ministeries ; and it was also of ease to the Christians themselves , because as then it was , when they were to flie , and to flie for ought they knew , in winter , and they were persecuted to the four winds of heaven ; and the nurses and the women with childe were to suffer a heavier load of sorrow because of the imminent persecutions ; and above all , because of the great fatality of ruine upon the whole nation of the Jewes , well it might be said by St. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Such shall have trouble in the flesh , that is , they that are marryed shall , and so at that time they had : and therefore it was an act of charity to the Christians to give that counsell , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I do this to spare you , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : for when the case was alter'd and that storm was over , and the first necessities of the Gospel served , and the sound was gone out into all nations ; in very many persons it was wholly changed , and not the marryed but the unmarryed had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 trouble in the flesh ; and the state of marriage returned to its first blessing , & non non erat bonum homini esse solitarium , and it was not good for man to be alone . But in this first intervall , the publick necessity and the private zeal mingling together did sometimes over-act their love of single life , even to the disparagement of marriage , and to the scandall of Religion ; which was increased by the occasion of some pious persons renouncing their contract of marriage , not consummate , with unbeleevers . For when Flavia Domitilla being converted by Nereus and Achilleus the Eunuchs , refused to marry Aurelianus to whom she was contracted ; if there were not some little envie and too sharp hostility in the Eunuchs , to a marryed state , yet Aurelianus thought himself an injur'd person , and caus'd St. Clemens who vail'd her , and his spouse both , to dye in the quarrell . St. Thecla being converted by St. Paul grew so in love with virginity , that she leap'd back from the marriage of Tamyris where she was lately ingaged . St. Iphigenia denyed to marry King Hirtacus , and it is said to be done by the advice of St. Matthew . And Susanna the Niece of Diocletian refus'd the love of Maximianus the Emperour ; and these all had been betrothed ; and so did St. Agnes and St. Felicula , and divers others then and afterwards ; insomuch , that it was reported among the Gentiles , that the Christians did not only hate all that were not of their perswasion , but were enemies of the chast lawes of marriage ; And indeed some that were called Christians were so ; forbidding to marry , and commanding to abstain from meats . Upon this occasion it grew necessary for the Apostle to state the question right , and to do honour to the holy rite of marriage , and to snatch the mystery from the hands of zeal and folly , and to place it in Christs right hand , that all its beauties might appear , and a present convenience might not bring in a false Doctrine , and a perpetuall sin , and an intolerable mischief . The Apostle therefore who himself * had been a marryed man , but was now a widower , does explicate the mysteriousnesse of it , and describes it's honours , and adornes it with rules and provisions of Religion , that as it begins with honour , so it may proceed with piety , and end with glory . For although single life hath in it privacy and simplicity of affaires , such solitarinesse and sorrow , such leasure and unactive circumstances of living , that there are more spaces for religion if men would use them to these purposes ; and because it may have in it much religion and prayers , and must have in it a perfect mortification of our strongest appetites , is therefore a state of great excellency ; yet concerning the state of marriage we are taught from Scripture and the sayings of wise men , great things and honourable . Marriage is honourable in all men , so is not single life ; for in some it is a share and a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a trouble in the flesh , a prison of unruly desires which is attempted daily to be broken . Celibare or single life is never commanded ; but in some cases marriage is ; and he that burns , sins often if he marries not , he that cannot contain must marry , and he that can contain is not tyed to a single life , but may marry and not sin . Marriage was ordained by God , instituted in Paradise , was the relief of a naturall necessity , and the first blessing from the Lord ; he gave to Man not a friend , but a wife , that is , a friend and a wife too : ( for a good woman is in her soul the same that a man is , and she is a woman only in her body ; that she may have the excellency of the one , and the usefulnesse of the other , and become amiable in both : ) it is the seminary of the Church , and daily brings forth sons and daughters unto God ; it was ministred to by Angels , and Raphael waited upon a young man that he might have a blessed marriage , and that that marriage might repair two sad families , and blesse all their relatives . Our blessed Lord , though he was born of a malden , yet she was vail'd under the cover of marriage , and she was marryed to a widower ; for Joseph the supposed Father of our Lord had children by a former wife . The first Miracle that ever Jesus did , was to doe honour to a wedding ; marriage was in the world before sin , and is in all ages of the world the greatest and most effective antidote against sin , in which all the world had perished if God had not made a remedy ; and although sin hath sour'd marriage , and stuck the mans head with cares , and the womans bed with sorrowes in the production of children , yet these are but throws of life and glory ; and she shall be saved in child-bearing , if she be found in faith and righteousnesse . Marriage is a Schoole and exercise of vertue ; and though Marriage hath cares , yet the single life hath desires which are more troublesome and more dangerous , and often end in sin , while the cares are but instances of duty and exercises of piety ; and therefore if single life hath more privacy of devotion , yet marriage hath more necessities and more variety of it , and is an exercise of more graces . In two vertues celibate or single life may have the advantage of degrees ordinarily and commonly , that is , in chastity and devotion : but as in some persons this may fail , and it does in very many , and a marryed man may spend as much time in devotion as any virgins or widowes do , yet as in marriage even those vertues of chastity and devotion are exercised : so in other instances , this state hath proper exercises and trials for those graces , for which single life can never be crown'd ; Here is the proper seene of piety and patience , of the duty of Parents and the charity of relatives ; here kindnesse is spread abroad , and love is united and made firm as a centre : Marriage is the nursery of heaven ; the virgin sends prayers to God , but she carries but one soul to him ; but the state of marriage fils up the numbers of the elect , and hath in it the labour of love , and the delicacies of friendship , the blessing of society , and the union of hands and hearts ; it hath in it lesse of beauty , but more of safety then the single life ; it hath more care , but lesse danger ; it is more merry , and more sad ; is fuller of sorrowes , and fuller of joyes ; it lies under more burdens , but it is supported by all the strengths of love and charity , and those burdens are delightfull . Marriage is the mother of the world , and preserves Kingdomes , and fils Cities , and Churches , and Heaven it self : Celibate , like the flie in the heart of an apple , dwels in a perpetuall sweetnesse , but sits alone , and is confin'd and dies in singularity ; but marriage , like the usefull Bee , builds a house and gathers sweetnesse from every flower , and labours and unites into societies and republicks , and sends out colonies , and feeds the world with delicacies , and obeys their king , and keeps order , and exercises many vertues , and promotes the interest of mankinde , and is that state of good things to which God hath designed the present constitution of the world . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Single life makes men in one instance to be like Angels , but marriage in very many things makes the chast pair to be like to Christ. This is a great mystery , but it is the symbolicall and sacramentall representment of the greatest mysteries of our Religion . Christ descended from his Fathers bosome , and contracted his divinity with flesh and bloud , and marryed our Nature , and we became a Church , the spouse of the bridegroom , which he cleansed with his bloud , and gave her his holy Spirit for a dowry , and heaven for a joynture ; begetting children unto God by the Gospel ; this spouse he hath joyn'd to himself by an excellent charity , he feeds her at his own table , and lodges her nigh his own heart , provides for all her necessities , relieves her sorrowes , determines her doubts , guides her wandrings , he is become her head , and she as a signet upon his right hand ; he first indeed was betrothed to the Synagogue and had many children by her , but she forsook his love , and then he marryed the Church of the Gentiles , and by her as by a second venter had a more numerous issue , atque una domus est omnium filiorum ejus , all the children dwell in the same house , and are heirs of the same promises , intituled to the same inheritance . Here is the eternall conjunction , the indissoluble knot , the exceeding love of Christ , the obedience of the Spouse , the communicating of goods , the uniting of interests , the fruit of marriage , a celestiall generation , a new creature ; Sacramentum hoc magnum est ; this is the sacramentall mystery represented by the holy rite of marriage ; so that marriage is divine in its institution , sacred in its union , holy in the mystery , sacramentall in its signification , honourable in its appellative , religious in its imployments : It is advantage to the societies of men , and it is holinesse to the Lord. Dico autem in Christo & Ecclesiâ , ] It must be in Christ and the Church . If this be not observed , marriage loses its mysteriousnesse : but because it is to effect much of that which it signifies , it concerns all that enter into those golden fetters to see that Christ and his Church be in at every of its periods , and that it be intirely conducted and over-rul'd by Religion ; for so the Apostle passes from the sacramentall rite to the reall duty ; Neverthelesse , that is , although the former discourse were wholly to explicate the conjunction of Christ and his Church by this similitude , yet it hath in it this reall duty , that the man love his wife , and the wife reverence her husband ; and this is the use we shall now make of it , the particulars of which precept I shall thus dispose . 1. I shall propound the duty as it generally relates to Man and Wife in conjunction . 2. The duty and power of the Man. 3. The rights and priviledges and the duty of the Wife . 1. In Christo & Ecclesia ] that begins all , and there is great need it should be so , for they that enter into the state of marriage cast a dye of the greatest contingency , and yet of the greatest interest in the world , next to the last throw for eternity . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . life or death , felicity or a lasting sorrow are in the power of marriage . A woman indeed ventures most , for she hath no sanctuary to retire to , from an evill husband ; she must dwell upon her sorrow , and hatch the egges which her own folly or infelicity hath produced ; and she is more under it , because her tormentor hath a warrant of prerogative , and the woman may complain to God as subjects do of tyrant Princes , but otherwise she hath no appeal in the causes of unkindenesse . And though the man can run from many hours of his sadnesse , yet he must return to it again , and when he sits among his neighbours he remembers the objection that lies in his bosome , and he sighes deeply . Ah tum te miserum , malique fati Quem attractis pedibus patente portâ Percurrent mugiléque raphanique The boyes , and the pedlers , and the fruiterers shall tell of this man , when he is carryed to his grave , that he lived and dyed a poor wretched person . The Stags in the Greek Epigram , whose knees were clog'd with frozen snow upon the mountains , came down to the brooks of the vallies , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , hoping to thaw their joynts with the waters of the stream ; but there the frost overtook them , and bound them fast in ice , till the young heardsmen took them in their stranger snare . It is the unhappy chance of many men , finding many inconveniences upon the mountains of single life , they descend into the vallies of a marriage to refresh their troubles , and there they enter into fetters , and are bound to sorrow by the cords of a mans or womans peevishnesse : and the worst of the evill is , they are to thank their own follies ; for they fell into the snare by entring an improper way : Christ and the Church were no ingredients in their choice : but as the Indian women , enter into folly for the price of an Elephant , and think their crime warrantable ; so do men and women change their liberty for a rich fortune ( like Eriphyle the Argive , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , she prefer'd gold before a good man ) and shew themselves to be lesse then money by overvaluing that to all the content and wise felicity of their lives : and when they have counted the money and their sorrowes together , how willingly would they b buy with the losse of all that money , modesty , or sweet nature to their relative ! the odde thousand pound would gladly be allowed in good nature and fair manners . As very a fool is he that chooses for c beauty principally ; cui sunt eruditi oculi & stulta mens ( as one said ) whose eyes are witty , and their soul sensuall ; It is an ill band of affections to tye two hearts together by a little thread of red and white . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And they can love no longer but untill the next ague comes , and they are fond of each other but at the chance of fancy , or the small pox , or childebearing , or care , or time , or any thing that can destroy a pretty flower . But it is the basest of all when lust is the Paranymph and solicits the suit , and makes the contract , and joyn'd the hands ; for this is commonly the effect of the former , according to the Greek proverb , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . At first for his fair cheeks and comely beard , the beast is taken for a Lion , but at last he is turn'd to a Dragon or a Leopard , or a Swine . That which is at first beauty on the face may prove lust in the manners . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , So Eubulus wittily reprehended such impure contracts ; they offer in their maritall sacrifices nothing but the thigh and that which the Priests cut from the goats when they were laid to bleed upon the Altars . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said St. Clement . He or she that looks too curiously upon the beauty of the body , looks too low , and hath flesh and corruption in his heart , and is judg'd sensuall and earthly in his affections and desires . Begin therefore with God , Christ is the president of marriage and the holy Ghost is the fountain of purities and chast loves , and he joynes the hearts ; and therefore let our first suit be in the court of heaven , and with designs of piety , or safety , or charity ; let no impure spirit defile the virgin purities and castifications of the soul , ( as St. Peters phrase is ) let all such contracts begin with religious affections . Conjugium petimus , partúmque uxoris , at illi Notum qui pueri , qualisve futura sit uxor . We sometimes beg of God for a wife or a childe , and he alone knows what the wife shall prove , and by what dispositions and manners and into what fortune that childe shall enter : but we shall not need to fear concerning the event of it , if religion , and fair intentions , and prudence manage , and conduct it all the way . The preservation of a family , the production of children , the avoiding fornication , the refreshment of our sorrowes by the comforts of society , all these are fair ends of marriage and hallow the entrance ; but in these there is a speciall order ; society was the first designed , It is not good for man to be alone ; Children was the next , Increase and multiply ; but the avoiding fornication came in by the superfetation of the evill accidents of the world . The first makes marriage delectable , the second necessary to the publick , the third necessary to the particular ; This is for safety ; for life and heaven it self ; Nam simulac venas inflavit dira cupido , Huc juvenes aequum est descendere ; — The other have in them joy and a portion of immortality : the first makes the mans heart glad , the second is the friend of Kingdomes , and cities , and families , and the third is the enemy to hell , and an antidote of the chiefest inlet to damnation : but of all these the noblest end is the multiplying children , Mundus cum patet , Deorum tristium atque inferûm quasi patet janua ; propterea uxorem liberorum quaerendorum causâ ducere religiosum est , said Varro , It is religion to marry for children ; and Quintilian puts it into the definition of a wife , est enim uxor quam jungit , quam diducit utilitas ; cujus haec reverentia est , quòd videtur inventa in causa liberorum , and therefore St. Ignatius when he had spoken of Elias , and Titus , and Clement , with an honourable mention of their virgin state , lest he might seem to have lessened the marryed Apostles , at whose feet in Christs Kingdome he thought himself unworthy to sit , he gives this testimony , they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that they might not be disparaged in their great names of holinesse and severity , they were secured by not marrying to satisfie their lower appetites , but out of desire of children . Other considerations , if they be incident and by way of appendage , are also considerable in the accounts of prudence ; but when they become principles , they defile the mystery and make the blessing doubtfull : Amabit sapiens , cupient caeteri , said Afranius , love is a fair inducement , but desire and appetite are rude , and the characterismes of a sensuall person : Amare justi & boni est , cupere impotentis ; to love , belongs to a just and a good man ; but to lust , or furiously and passionately to desire , is the sign of impotency and an unruly minde . 2. Man and wife are equally concerned to avoid all offences of each other in the beginning of their conversation : every little thing can blast an infant blossome ; and the breath of the south can shake the little rings of the Vine , when first they begin to curle like the locks of a new weaned boy ; but when by age and consolidation they stiffen into the hardnesse of a stem , and have by the warm embraces of the sun and the kisses of heaven brought forth their clusters , they can endure the storms of the North , and the loud noises of a tempest , and yet never be broken : so are the early unions of an unfixed marriage ; watchfull and observant , jealous and busie , inquisitive and carefull , and apt to take alarum at every unkind word . For infirmities do not manifest themselves in the first scenes , but in the succession of a long society ; and it is not chance or weaknesse when it appears at first , but it is want of love or prudence , or it will be so expounded ; and that which appears ill at first usually affrights the unexperienced man or woman , who makes unequall conjectures , and fancies mighty sorrowes by the proportions of the new and early unkindnesse . It is a very great passion , or a huge folly , or a certain want of love , that cannot preserve the colours and beauties of kindnesse , so long as publick honesty requires man to wear their sorrows for the death of a friend . Plutarch compares a new marriage to a vessell before the hoops are on , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , every thing dissolves their tender compaginations , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , when the joynts are stiffned and are tyed by a firm compliance and proportion'd bending , scarcely can it be dissolved without fire or the violence of iron . After the hearts of the man and the wife are endeared and hardned by a mutuall confidence , and an experience longer then an artifice and pretence can last , there are a great many remembrances and some things present that dash all little unkindnesses in pieces . The little boy in the Greek Epigram , that was creeping down a precipice was invited to his safety by the sight of his mothers pap , when nothing else could entice him to return : and the band of common children , and the sight of her that nurses what is most dear to him , and the endearments of each other in the course of a long society , and the same relation is an excellent security to redintegrate and to call that love back which folly and trifling accidents would disturb . — Tormentum ingens nubentibus haeret Quae nequeunt parere , & partu retinere maritos , When it is come thus farre , it is hard untwisting the knot ; but be carefull in its first coalition , that there be no rudenesse done ; for if there be , it will for ever after be apt to start and to be diseased . 3. Let man and wife be carefull to stifle little * things , that as fast as they spring , they be cut down and trod upon ; for if they be suffered to grow by numbers , they make the spirit peevish , and the society troublesome , and the affections loose and easie by an habituall aversation . Some men are more vexed with a slie then with a wound ; and when the gnats disturbe our sleep , and the reason is disquieted but not perfectly awakened ; it is often seen that he is fuller of trouble then if in the day light of his reason he were to contest with a potent enemy . In the frequent little accidents of a family , a mans reason cannot alwaies be awake ; and when his discourses are imperfect , and a trifling trouble makes him yet more restlesse , he is soon betrayed to the violence of passion . It is certain that the man or woman are in a state of weaknesse and solly then , when they can be troubled with a trifling accident ; and therefore it is not good to tempt their affections when they are in that state of danger . In this case the caution is , to subtract fuell from the sudden flame ; for stubble though it be quickly kindled , yet it is as soon extinguished , if it be not blown by a pertinacious breath , or fed with new materials ; adde no new provocations to the accident , and do not inflame this , and peace will soon return , and the discontent will passe away soon , as the sparks from the collision of a flint : ever remembring that discontents proceeding from daily little things , do breed a secret undiscernible disease , which is more dangerous then a feaver proceeding from a discerned notorious surfeit . 4. Let them be sure to abstain from all those things which by experience and observation they finde to be contrary to each other . They that govern Elephants never appear before them in white , and the masters of buls keep from them all garments of bloud and scarlet , as knowing that they will be impatient of civill usages and discipline when their natures are provoked by their proper antipathies . The ancients in their maritall Hieroglyphicks us'd to depict Mercury strnding by Venus , to signifie , that by fair language and sweet intreaties , the mindes of each other should be united ; and hard by them Suadam & Gratias descripserunt , they would have all deliciousnesse of manners , compliance and mutuall observance to abide . 5. Let the husband and wife infinitely avoid a curious distinction of mine and thine ; for this hath caused all the lawes , and all the suits , and all the wars in the world ; let them who have but one person , have also but one interest . The husband and wife are heirs to each other ( as Dionysius Halicarnasseus relates from Romulus ) if they dye without children , but if there be children , the wife is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a partner in the inheritance ; But during their life the use and impolyment is common to both their necessities , and in this there is no other difference of right , but that the man hath the dispensation of all , and may keep it from his wife just as the governour of a Town may keep it from the right owner ; he hath the power , but no right to do so . And when either of them begins to impropriate , it is like a tumor in the flesh , it drawes more then its share , but what it feeds on turns to a bile : and therefore the Romans forbad any donations to be made between man and wife , because neither of them could transser a new right of those things which already they had in common ; but this is to be understood only concerning the uses of necessity and personall conveniences ; for so all may be the womans , and all may be the mans in severall regards . Corvinus dwels in a farm and receives all its profits , and reaps and sowes as he please , and eats of the corn and drinks of the wine , it is his own : but all that also is his Lords , and for it , Corvinus payes acknowledgement ; and his patron hath such powers and uses of it as are proper to the Lords ; and yet for all this , it may be the Kings too , to all the purposes that he can need , and is all to be accounted in the census and for certain services , and times of danger : So are the riches of a family , they are a womans as well as a mans ; they are hers for need , and hers for ornament , and hers for modest delight , and for the uses of Religion and prudent charity ; but the disposing them into portions of inheritance , the assignation of charges and governments , stipends and rewards , annuities and greater donatives are the reserves of the superior right , and not to be invaded by the under-possessors . But in those things where they ought to be common , if the spleen or the belly swels and drawes into its capacity much of that which should be spent upon those parts which have an equall right to be maintain'd , it is a dropsie or a consumption of the whole , something that is evill because it is unnaturall and monstrous . Macarius in is 32 Homily speaks fully in this particular , a woman betrothed to a man bears all her portion , and with a mighty love pours it into the hands of her husband , and sayes , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , I have nothing of my own , my goods , my portion , my body and my minde is yours . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , all that a woman hath is reckoned to the right of her husband ; not her wealth and her person only , but her reputation and her praise ; So Lucian . But as the earth , the mother of all creatures here below , sends up all its vapours and proper emissions at the command of the Sun , and yet requires them again to refresh her own needs , and they are deposited between them both in the bosome of a cloud as a common receptacle , that they may cool his flames , and yet descend to make her fruitfull : so are the proprieties of a wife to be dispos'd of by her Lord ; and yet all are for her provisions , it being a part of his need to refresh and supply hers , and it serves the interest of both while it serves the necessities of either . These are the duties of them both , which have common regards and equall necessities , and obligations ; and indeed there is scarce any matter of duty , but it concerns them both alike , and is only distinguished by names , and hath its variety by circumstances and little accidents : and what in one is call'd love , in the other is called reverence ; and what in the wife is obedience , the same in the man is duty . He provides , and she dispenses ; he gives commandements , and she rules by them ; he rules her by authority , and she rules him by love ; she ought by all means to please him , and he must by no means displease her . For as the heart is set in the midst of the body , and though it strikes to one side by the prerogative of Nature , yet those throbs and constant motions are felt on the other side also , and the influence is equall to both : so it is in conjugall duties ; some motions are to the one side more then to the other , but the interest is on both , and the duty is equall in the severall instances . If it be otherwise , the man injoyes a wife as Periander did his dead Melissa , by an unnaturall union , neither pleasing , nor holy , uselesse to all the purposes of society , and dead to content . SERMON , XVIII . Part II. THe next inquiry is more particular , and considers the power and duty of the man ; Let every one of you so love his wife even as himself ; she is as himself , the man hath power over her as over himself , and must love her equally . A husbands power over his wife is paternall and friendly , not magisteriall and despotick . The wife is in perpetuâ tutelâ , under conduct and counsell ; for the power a man hath is founded in the understanding , not in the will or force ; it is not a power of coercion , but a power of advice , and that government that wise men have over those who are fit to be conducted by them : Et vos in manu & in tutelâ non in servitio debetis habere eas , & malle patres vos , & viros , quàm dominos dici , said Valerius in Livie ; Husbands should rather be Fathers then Lords . Homer addes more soft appellatives to the character of a husbands duty , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Thou art to be a father and a mother to her , and a brother : and great reason , unlesse the state of marriage should be no better then the condition of an Orphan . For she that is bound to leave father and mother , and brother for thee , either is miserable like a poor fatherlesse childe , or else ought to finde all these and more in thee . Medea in Euripides had cause to complain when she found it otherwise . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Which St. Ambrose well translates : It is sad ] when virgins are with their own money sold to slavery ; and that services are in better state then marriages ; for they receive wages , but these buy their fetters and pay dear for their losse of liberty : and therefore the Romans expressed the mans power over his wife but by a gentle word , Nec verò mulieribus praefectus reponatur , qui apud Graecos creari solet , sed sit censor qui viros doceat moderari uxoribus ; said Cicero , let there be no governour of the women appointed but a censor of manners , one to teach the men to moderate their wives , that is , fairly to induce them to the measures of their own proportions . It was rarely observed of Philo , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when Adam made that fond excuse for his folly in eating the forbidden fruit , he said [ The woman thou gavest to be with me she gave me ] He saies not [ the woman which thou gavest to me ] no such thing ; she is none of his goods , none of his possessions , not to be reckoned among his servants ; God did not give her to him so ; but [ the woman thou gavest to be with me ] that is , to be my partner , the companion of my joyes and sorrowes , thou gavest her for use , not for dominion . The dominion of a man over his wife is no other then as the soul rules the body ; for which it takes a mighty care , and uses it with a delicate tendernesse , and cares for it in all contingencies , and watches to keep it from all evils , and studies to make for it fair provisions , and very often is led by its inclinations and desires , and does never contradict its appetites , but when they are evill , and then also not without some trouble and sorrow ; and its government comes only to this , it furnishes the body with light and understanding , and the body furnishes the soul with hands and feet ; the soul governs , because the body cannot else be happy , but the government is no other then provision ; as a nurse governs a childe when she causes him to eat and to be warm , and dry and quiet ; and yet even the very government it self is divided ; for man and wife in the family are as the Sun and Moon in the firmament of heaven ; He rules by day , and she by night , that is , in the lesser and more proper circles of her affairs ; in the conduct of domestick provisions and necessary offices , and shines only by his light and rules by his authority : and as the Moon in opposition to the Sun shines brightest , that is , then , when she is in her own circles and separate regions ; so is the authority of the wife then most conspicuous when she is separate and in her proper sphere , in Gynaeceo in the nursery and offices of domestick employment ; but when she is in conjunction with the Sun her Brother , that is , in that place and employment in which his care and proper offices are imployed , her light is not seen , her authority hath no proper businesse ; but else there is no difference : for they were barbarous people , among whom wives were in stead of servants , said Spartianus in Caracalla ; and it is a sign of impotency and weaknesse to force the camels to kneel for their load , beccuse thou hast not spirit and strength enough to climbe : to make the affections and evennesse of a wife bend by the flexures of a servant , is a sign the man is not wise enough to govern , when another stands by . So many differences as can be in the appellatives of Dominus and Domina , Governour and Governesse , Lord and Lady , Master and Mistresse , the same difference there is in the authority of man and woman , and no more ; Si tu Caius ego Caia , was publickly proclaimed upon the threshold of the young mans house , when the bride enter'd into his hands and power ; and the title of Domina in the sense of the civill Law was among the Romans given to wives . Hi Dominam Ditis thalamo diducere adorti , said Virgil : where though Servius saies it was spoken after the manner of the Greeks who call'd the wife 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lady or Mistresse , yet it was so amongst both the Nations , Ac domûs Dominam voca , saies Catullus ; Haerebit Dominae vir comes ipse suae , so Martial ; and therefore although there is a just measure of subjection and obedience due from the wife to the husband ( as I shall after explain ) yet nothing of this is expressed in the mans character , or in his duty ; he is not commanded to rule , nor instructed how , nor bidden to exact obedience , or to defend his priviledge ; all his duty is signified by love , by nourishing and cherishing , by being joyned to her in all the unions of charity , by not being bitter to her , by dwelling with her according to knowledge , giving honour to her : so that it seems to be with husbands , as it is with Bishops and Priests , to whom much honour is due , but yet so that if they stand upon it , and challenge it , they become lesse honourable ; and as amongst men and women humility is the way to be prefer'd ; so it is in husbands , they shall prevail by cession , by sweetnesse and counsell , and charity and compliance . So that we cannot discourse of the mans right , without describing the measures of his duty ; that therefore followes next . Let him love his wife even as himself : ] that 's his duty , and the measure of it too ; which is so plain , that if he understands how he treats himself , there needs nothing be added concerning his demeanour towards her , save only that we adde the particulars , in which holy Scripture instances this generall commandement . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . That 's the first . Be not bitter against her ; and this is the least Index and signification of love ; a civill man is never bitter against a friend or a stranger , much lesse to him that enters under his roof , and is secured by the lawes of hospitality . But a wife does all that , and more ; she quits all her interest for his love , she gives him all that she can give , she is as much the same person as another can be the same , who is conjoyned by love , and mystery , and religion , and all that is sacred and profane . Non equidem hoc dubites amborum foedere certo Consentire dies , & ab uno sidere duci ; They have the same fortune , the same family , the same children , the same religion , the same interest , the same flesh [ erunt duo in carnem unam ] and therefore this the Apostle urges for his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , no man hateth his own flesh , but nourisheth and cherisheth it ; and he certainly is strangely sacrilegious and a violator of the rights of hospitality and sanctuary , who uses her rudely , who is fled for protection , not only to his house , but also to his heart , and bosome . A wise man will not wrangle with any one , much lesse with his dearest relative ; and if it be accounted undecent to embrace in publick , it is extremely shamefull to brawle in publick , for the other is in it self lawfull , but this never , though it were assisted with the best circumstances of which it is capable . Marcus Aurelius said , that a wise man ought often to admonish his wife , to reprove her seldome , but never to lay his hands * upon her : neque verberibus neque maledictis exasperandam uxorem , said the Doctors of the Jewes ; and Homer brings in Jupiter sometimes speaking sharply to Juno ( according to the Greek liberty and Empire ) but made a pause at striking her , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the Ancients use to sacrifice to Juno 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the president of Marriage without gall , and St. Basil observes and urges it , by way of upbraiding quarrelling husbands ; etiam vipera virus ob nuptiarum venerationem evomit , the Viper casts all his poison when he marries his female , Tu duritiam animi , tu feritatem , tu crudelitatem ob unionis reverentiam non deponis ? He is worse then a viper who for the reverence of this sacred union will not abstain from such a poisonous bitternesse ; and how shall he embrace that person whom he hath smitten reproachfully ? for those kindnesses are undecent which the fighting man payes unto his wife . St. Chrysostome preaching earnestly against this barbarous inhumanity of striking the wife , or reviling her with evill language , saies it is as if a King should beat his Viceroy and use him like a dog ; from whom most of that reverence and majesty must needs depart which he first put upon him , and the subjects shall pay him lesse duty , by how much his Prince hath treated him with lesse civility ; but the losse redounds to himself ; and the government of the whole family shall be disordered , if blowes be laid upon that shoulder which together with the other ought to bear nothing but the cares and the issues of a prudent government . And it is observable that no man ever did this rudenesse for a vertuous end ; it is an incompetent instrument , and may proceed from wrath and folly , but can never end in vertue and the unions of a prudent and fair society . Quòd si verberaveris exasperabis morbum , ( saith St. Chrysostome ) asperitas enim mansuetudine non aliâ asperitate dissolvitur ; if you strike you exasperate the wound , and ( like Cato at Utica in his despair ) tear the wounds in pieces ; and yet he that did so ill to himself whom he lov'd well , he lov'd not women tenderly , and yet would never strike ; And if the man cannot endure her talking , how can she endure his striking ? But this caution contains a duty in it which none prevaricates but the meanest of the people , fools and bedlams , whose kindnesse is a curse , whose government is by chance and violence , and their families are herds of talking cattell . Sic alternos reficit cursus Alternus amor , sic astrigeris Bellum discors exulat or is . Haec concordia temperat aequis Elementamodis , ut pugnantia Vicibus cedant humida siccis , Jungantque sidem frigora flammis . The maritall love is infinitely removed from all possibility of such rudenesses : it is a thing pure as light , sacred as a Temple , lasting as the world ; Aamicitia quae desinere potuit nunquam vera fuit , said one ; that love that can cease was never true : it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so Moses call'd it ; it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so St. Paul ; it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so Homer ; it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so Plutarch ; that is , it contains in it all sweetnesse , and all society , and all felicity , and all prudence , and all wisdome . For there is nothing can please a man without love , and if a man be weary of the wise discourses of the Apostles , and of the innocency of an even and a private fortune , or hates peace or a fruitfull year , he hath reaped thorns and thistles from the choicest flowers of Paradise ; For nothing can sweeten felicity it self , but love ; but when a man dwels in love , then the brests of his wife are pleasant as the droppings upon the hill of Hermon , her eyes are fair as the light of heaven , she is a fountain sealed , and he can quench his thirst , and ease his cares , and lay his sorrowes down upon her lap , and can retire home as to his sanctuary and refectory , and his gardens of sweetnesse and chast refreshments . No man can tell but he that loves his children , how many delicious accents make a mans heart dance in the pretty conversation of those dear pledges , their childishnesse , their stammering , their little angers , their innocence , their imperfections , their necessities are so many little emanations of joy and comfort to him that delights in their persons and society ; but he that loves not his wife and children , feeds a Lionesse at home , and broods a nest of sorrowes ; and blessing it self cannot make him happy ; so that all the commandements of God injoyning a man to love his wife , are nothing but so many necessities and capacities of joy . She that is lov'd is safe , and he that loves is joyfull . Love is a union of all things excellent ; it contains in it proportion and satisfaction , and rest , and confidence ; and I wish that this were so much proceeded in , that the Heathens themselves could not go beyond us in this vertue , and its proper , and its appendant happinesse . Tiberius Gracchus chose to die for the safety of his wife ; and yet me thinks to a Christian to do so , should be no hard thing ; for many servants will dye for their masters , and many Gentlemen will die for their friend ; but the examples are not so many of those that are ready to do it for their dearest relatives , and yet some there have been . Baptista Fregosa tels of Neapolitan that gave himself a slave to the Moores , that he might follow his wife ; and Dominicus Catalusius the Prince of Lesbos kept company with his Lady when she was a Leper ; and these are greater things then to die . But the cases in which this can be required are so rare and contingent , that holy Scripture instances not the duty in this particular ; but it contains in it that the husband should nourish and cherish her , that he should refresh her sorrowes and intice her fears into confidence and pretty arts of rest ; for even the fig-trees that grew in Paradise had sharp pointed leaves , and harshnesses fit to mortifie the too forward lusting after the sweetnesse of the fruit . But it will concern the prudence of the husbands love to make the cares and evils as simple and easie as he can , by doubling the joyes and acts of a carefull friendship , by tolerating her infirmities , ( because by so doing , he either cures her , or makes himself better ) by fairly expounding all the little traverses of society and communication , by taking every thing by the right handle , ( as Plutarchs expression is ) for there is nothing but may be misinterpreted , and yet if it be capable of a fair construction , it is the office of love to make it . — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Love will account that to be well said , which it may be was not so intended ; and then it may cause it to be so another time . 3. Hither also is to be referred that he secure the interest of her vertue and felicity by a fair example ; for a wife to a husband , is like a line or superficies , it hath dimensions of its own , but no motion or proper affections ; but commonly put on such images of vertues or vices as are presented to them by their husbands Idea : and if thou beest vicious , complain not that she is infected that lies in the bosome ; the interest of whose love ties her to transcribe thy copy and write after the characters of thy manners . Paris was a man of pleasure , and Helena was an adulteresse , and she added covetousnesse upon her own account . But Ulysses was a prudent man , and a wary counsellor , sober and severe , and he efformed his wife into such imagery as he desir'd , and she was chast as the snows upon the mountains , diligent as the fatall sisters , alwaies busie , and alwaies faithfull : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , she had a lazie tongue and a busie hand . 4. Above all the instances of love , let him preserve towards her an inviolable faith , and an unspotted chastity , for this is the marriage Ring , it tyes two hearts by an eternall band ; it is like the Cherubims flaming sword set for the guard of Paradise ; he that passes into that garden , now that is immur'd by Christ and the Church , enters into the shades of death . No man must touch the forbidden Tree , that in the midst of the garden , which is the tree of knowledge and life . Chastity is the security of love , and preserves all the mysteriousnesse like the secrets of a Temple . Under this lock is deposited security of families , the union of affections , the repairer of accidentall breaches . — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . This is a grace that is shut up and secur'd by all arts of heaven , and the defence of lawes , the locks and bars of modesty , by honour and reputation , by fear and shame , by interest and high regards ; and that contract that is intended to be for ever , is yet dissolv'd and broken by the violation of this ; nothing but death can do so much evill to the holy ties of marriage , as unchastity and breach of faith can . The shepherd Cratis falling in love with a she goat , had his brains beaten out with a buck as he lay asleep ; and by the lawes of the Romans , a man might kill his daughter or his wife if he surprised her in the breach of her holy vowes , which are as sacred as the threads of life , secret as the privacies of the sanctuary , and holy as the society of Angels . Nullae sunt inimicitiae nisi amoris acerbae , and God that commanded us to forgive our enemies left it in our choice , and hath not commanded us to forgive an adulterous husband or a wife ; but the offended parties displeasure may passe into an eternall separation of society and friendship . Now in this grace it is fit that the wisdome and severity of the man should hold forth a pure taper , that his wife may by seeing the beauties and transparency of that Crystall dresse her minde and her body by the light of so pure reflexions ; It is certain he will expect it from the modesty and retirement , from the passive nature and colder temper , from the humility and fear , from the honour and love of his wife , that she be pure as the eye of heaven : and therefore it is but reason that the wisdome and noblenesse , the love and confidence , the strength and severity of the man should be as holy and certain in this grace , as he is a severe exactor of it at her hands , who can more easily be tempted by another , and lesse by her self . These are the little lines of a mans duty , which like threds of light from the body of the Sun do clearly describe all the regions of his proper obligations . Now concerning the womans duty , although it consists in doing whatsoever her husband commands , and so receives measures from the rules of his government , yet there are also some lines of life depicted upon her hands , by which she may read and know how to proportion out her duty to her husband . 1. The first is obedience ; which because it is no where enjoyned that the man should exact of her , but often commanded to her to pay , gives demonstration that it is a voluntary cession that is required , such a cession as must be without coercion and violence on his part , but upon fair inducements , and reasonablenesse in the thing , and out of love , and honour on her part . When God commands us to love him , he means we should obey him ; This is love that ye keep my Commandements , and , if ye love me ( said our Lord ) keep my Commandements : Now as Christ is to the Church , so is man to the wife : and therefore obedience is the best instance of her love ; for it proclaims her submission , her humility , her opinion of his wisdome , his preeminence in the family , the right of his priviledge , and the injunction imposed by God upon her sexe , that although in sorrow she brings forth children , yet with love and choice she should obey . The mans authority is love , and the womans love is obedience ; and it was not rightly observed of him that said , when woman fell God made her timorous that she might be rul'd , apt and easie to obey , for this obedience is no way founded in fear , but in love and reverence . Receptae reverentiae est si mulier viro subsit , said the Law ; unlesse also that we will adde , that it is an effect of that modesty which like rubies adorn the necks and cheeks of women . Pudicitia est , pater , eos magnificare qui nos socias sumpserunt sibi ; said the maiden in the comedy : It is modesty to advance and highly to honour them who have honoured us by making us to be the companions of their dearest excellencies ; for the woman that went before the man in the way of death , is commanded to follow him in the way of love : and that makes the society to be perfect , and the union profitable , and the harmony compleat . Inferior Matrona suo sit , Sexte , marito ; Non aliter siunt foemina virque pares . For then the soul and body make a perfect man when the soul commands wisely , or rules lovingly , and cares profitably , and provides plentifully , and conducts charitably , that body which is its partner and yet the inferiour . But if the body shall give lawes , and by the violenco of the appetite , first abuse the understanding , and then possesse the superior portion of the will and choice , the body and the soul are not apt company , and the man is a fool and miserable . If the soul rules not , it cannot be a companion ; either it must govern , or be a slave ; Never was King deposed and suffered to live in the state of peerage and equall honour , but made a prisoner , or put to death ; and those women that had rather lead the blinde then follow prudent guides , rule fools and easie men , then obey the powerfull and the wise , never made a good society in a house ; a wife never can become equall but by obeying ; but so her power while it is in minority , makes up the authority of the man integrall , and becomes one government , as themselves are one man. Male and Female created he them , and called their name Adam , saith the holy Scripture ; they are but one : and therefore the severall parts of this one man must stand in the place where God appointed , that the lower parts may do their offices in their own station , and promote the common interest of the whole . A ruling woman is intolerable , — Faciunt graviora coactae Imperio sexus — But that 's not all ; for she is miserable too : for , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It is a sad calamity for a woman to be joyned to a fool or a weak person ; it is like a guard of geese to keep the Capitoll , or as if a flock of sheep should read grave lectures to their shepherd , and give him orders where he shall conduct them to pasture . O verè Phyrgiae , neque enim Phryges , It is a curse that God thereatned sinning persons , Devoratum est robur eorum , facti sunt quasi mulieres . Effeminati dominabuntur eis . To be ruled by weaker people , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to have a fool to ones master is the fate of miserable and unblessed people : and the wife can be no waies happy , unlesse she be governed by a prudent Lord , whose commands are sober counsels , whose authority is paternall , whose orders are provisions , and whose sentences are charity . But now concerning the measures and limits of this obedience , we can best take accounts from Scripture : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith the Apostle , in all things ; ut Domino , as unto the Lord ; and that 's large enough ; as unto a Lord ut Ancilla Domino , so St. Hierom understands it , who neither was a friend to the sexe nor to marriage ; But his mistake is soon confuted by the text ; It is not ut Dominis , be subject to your husbands as unto Lords , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , in all religion , in reverence and in love , in duty and zeal , in faith and knowledge ; or else 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signifie , wives be so subject to your husbands , but yet so , that at the same time ye be subject to the Lord. For that 's the measure of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all things ; and it is more plain in the parallell place , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is fit in the Lord : Religion must be the measure of your obedience and subjection : intra limites disciplinae , so Tertullian expresses it . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so Clemens Alex. In all things let the wise be subject to the husband , so as to do nothing against his will , those only things excepted in which he is impious or refractary in things pertaining to wisdome and piety . But in this also there is some peculiar caution . For although in those things which are of the necessary parts of faith and holy life , the woman is only subject to Christ , who only is and can be Lord of consciences , and commands alone where the conscience is instructed and convinced ; yet as it is part of the mans office to be a teacher , and a prophet , and a guide , and a Master ; so also it will relate very much to the demonstration of their affections to obey his counsels , to imitate his vertues , to be directed by his wisdome , to have her perswasion measured by the lines of his excellent religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , It were hugely decent ( saith Plutarch ) that the wife should acknowledge her husband for her teacher and her guide ; for then when she is what he please to efform her , he hath no cause to complain if she be no better : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , his precepts and wise counsels can draw her off from vanities ; and as he said of Geometry , that if she be skill'd in that , she will not easily be a gamester or a dancer , may perfectly be said of Religion . If she suffers her self to be guided by his counsell , and efformed by his religion ; either he is an ill master in his religion , or he may secure in her and for his advantage an excellent vertue . And although in matters of religion the husband hath no empire and command , yet if there be a place left to perswade , and intreat , and induce by arguments , there is not in a family a greater endearment of affections then the unity of religion : and anciently it was not permitted to a woman to have a religion by her self . Eosdem quos maritus nosse Deos & colere solos uxor debet ( said Plutarch . ) And the rites which a woman performes severally from her husband are not pleasing to God ; and therefore Pomponia Graecina because she entertain'd a stranger religion was permitted to the judgement of her husband Plantius . And this whole affair is no stranger to Christianity . For the Christian woman was not suffered to marry an unbelieving man ; and although this is not to be extended to different opinions within the limits of the common faith , yet thus much advantage is won or lost by it ; that the complyance of the wife , and submission of her understanding to the better rule of her husband in matters of Religion , will help very much to warrant her , though she should be misperswaded in a matter lesse necessary ; yet nothing can warrant her in her separate rites and manners of worshippings , but an invincible necessity of conscience , and a curious infallible truth ; and if she be deceived alone , she hath no excuse ; if with him , she hath much pity , and some degrees of warranty under the protection of humility , and duty , and dear affections ; and she will finde that it is part of her priviledge and right to partake of the mysteries and blessings of her husbands religion . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Romulus . A woman by the holy Lawes hath right to partake of her husbands goods , and her husbands sacrifices , and holy things . Where there is a schisme in one bed , there is a nursery of temptations , and love is persecuted and in perpetuall danger to be destroyed ; there dwell jealousies , and divided interests , and differing opinions , and continuall disputes , and we cannot love them so well whom we beleeve to be lesse beloved of God , and it is ill uniting with a person concerning whom my perswasion tels me that he is like to live in hell to eternall ages . 2. The next line of the womans duty is compliance , which S. Peter cals , the hidden man of the heart , the ornament of a meek and a quiet spirit , and to it he opposes the outward and pompous ornament of the body ; concerning which as there can be no particular measure set down to all persons , but the propositions are to be measured by the customes of wise people , the quality of the woman , and the desires of the man ; yet it is to be limited by Christian modesty , and the usages of the more excellent and severe matrons . Menander in the Comedy brings in a man turning his wife from his house because she stain'd her hair yellow , which was then the beauty , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . A wise woman should not paint . A studious gallantry in cloathes cannot make a wise man love his wife the better . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said the Comedy , such gayeties are fit for tragedies , but not for the uses of life : decor occultus , & tecta venustas , that 's the Christian womans finenesse , the hidden man of the heart , sweetnesse of manners , humble comportment , fair interpretation of all addresses , ready compliances , high opinion of him , and mean of her self . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , To partake secretly , and in her heart of all his joyes and sorrowes , to beleeve him comly and fair , though the Sun hath drawn a cypresse over him , ( for as marriages are not to be contracted by the hands and eye , but with reason and the hearts : so are these judgements to be made by the minde , not by the sight : ) and Diamonds cannot make the woman vertuous , nor him to value her who sees her put them off then , when charity and modesty are her brghtest ornaments . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. And indeed those husbands that are pleased with undecent gayeties of their wives , are like fishes taken with ointments and intoxicating baits , apt and easie for sport and mockery , but uselesse for food : and when Circe had turned Ulysses companions into hogs and monkies , by pleasures and the inchantments of her bravery and luxury , they were no longer usefull to her , she knew not what to do with them ; but on wise Ulysses she was continually enamour'd . Indeed the outward ornament is fit to take fools , but they are not worth the taking ; But she that hath a wise husband , must intice him to an eternall dearnesse by the vail of modesty , and the grave robes of chastity , the ornament of meeknesse , and the jewels of faith and charity ; she must have no fucus but blushings , her brightnesse must be purity , and she must shine round about with sweetnesses and friendship , and she shall be pleasant while she lives , and desired when she dies . If not , — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Her grave shall be full of rottennesse and dishonour , and her memory shall be worse after she is dead : after she is dead : For that will be the end of all merry meetings ; and I choose this to be the last advice to both . 3. Remember the dayes of darknesse , for they are many ; The joyes of the bridal chambers are quickly past , and the remaining portion of the state is a dull progresse without variety of joyes , but not without the change of sorrowes ; but that portion that shall enter into the grave must be eternall . It is fit that I should infuse a bunch of myrrhe into the festivall goblet , and after the Egyptian manner serve up a dead mans bones at a feast ; I will only shew it and take it away again ; it will make the wine bitter , but wholesome ; But those marryed pairs that live , as remembring that they must part again , and give an account how they treat themselves and each other , shall at the day of their death be admitted to glorious espousals , and when they shall live again , be marryed to their Lord , and partake of his glories , with Abraham and Joseph , S. Peter and St. Paul , and all the marryed Saints . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . All those things that now please us shall passe from us , or we from them , but those things that concern the other life are permanent as the numbers of eternity : and although at the resurrection there shall be no relation of husband and wife , and no marriage shall be celebrated , but the marriage of the Lambe , yet then shall be remembred how men and women pass'd through this state which is a type of that , and from this sacramentall union all holy pairs shall passe to the spirituall and eternall , where love shall be their portion , and joyes shall crown their heads , and they shall lye in the bosome of Jesus , and in the heart of God to eternall ages . Amen . Sermon , XIX . APPLES of SODOM : OR The Fruits of Sinne. Part. I. Romans 6. 21. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed ? For the end of those things is death . THe son of Sirach did prudently advise concerning making judgements of the felicity or infelicity of men : Judge none blessed before his death ; for a man shall be known in his children . Some men raise their fortunes from a cottage to the chaires of Princes , from a sheep-coat to a throne , and dwell in the circles of the Sun , and in the lap of prosperity ; their wishes and successe dwell under the same roof , and providence brings all events into their design , and ties both ends together with prosperous successes ; and even the little conspersions and intertextures of evill accidents in their lives are but like a faing'd note in musick , by an artificiall discord making the ear covetous , and then pleased with the harmony into which the appetite was inticed by passion , and a pretty restraint ; and variety does but adorn prosperity , and make it of a sweeter relish , and of more advantages ; and some of these men descend into their graves without a change of fortune , Eripitur persona , manet res . Indeed they cannot longer dwell upon the estate , but that remains unrifled , and descends upon the heir , and all is well till the next generation : but if the evill of his death , and the change of his present prosperity for an intolerable danger of an uncertain eternity , does not sowre his full chalice ; yet if his children prove vicious , or degenerous , cursed , or unprosperous , we account the man miserable , and his grave to be strewed with sorrowes and dishonours . The wise and valiant Chabrias grew miserable by the folly of his son Ctesippus ; and the reputation of brave Germanicus began to be ashamed , when the base Caligula entred upon his scene of dishonourable crimes . Commodus the wanton and feminine son of wise Antoninus gave a check to the great name of his Father ; and when the son of Hortensius Corbius was prostitute , and the heir of Q. Fabius Maximus was disinherited by the sentence of the city Praetor , as being unworthy to enter into the fields of his glorious Father , and young Scipio the son of Africanus was a fool and a prodigall ; posterity did weep afresh over the monuments of their brave progenitors , and found that infelicity can pursue a man , and overtake him in his grave . This is a great calamity when it fals upon innocent persons : and that Moses died upon Mount Nebo in the sight of Canaan , was not so great an evill , as that his sons Eliezer and Gersom were unworthy to succeed him ; but that Priesthood was devolv'd to his Brother , and the Principality to his servant : And to Samuel , that his sons prov'd corrupt , and were exauthorated for their unworthinesse , was an allay to his honour and his joyes , and such as proclaims to all the world , that the measures of our felicity are not to be taken by the lines of our own person , but of our relations too ; and he that is cursed in his children , cannot be reckoned among the fortunate . This which I have discoursed concerning families in generall , is most remarkable in the retinue and family of sin ; for it keeps a good house , and is full of company and servants , it is served by the possessions of the world , it is courted by the unhappy , flatter'd by fools , taken into the bosome by the effeminate , made the end of humane designs , and feasted all the way of its progresse ; wars are made for its interest , and men give or venture their lives that their sin may be prosperous ; all the outward senses are its handmaids , and the inward senses are of its privie chamber ; the understanding is its counsellour , the will its friend , riches are its ministers , nature holds up its train , and art is its emissary to promote its interest and affairs abroad : and upon this account , all the world is inrolled in its taxing tables , and are subjects or friends of its kingdome , or are so kinde to it as to make too often visits , and to lodge in its borders ; because all men stare upon its pleasures , and are intic'd to tast of its wanton delicacies . But then if we look what are the children of this splendid family , and see what issue sinne produces , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it may help to unite the charme . Sin and concupiscence marry together , and riot and feast it high , but their fruits , the children and production of their filthy union , are ugly and deform'd , foolish and ill natur'd ; and the Apostles cals them by their names , shame and death . These are the fruits of Sin , the apples of Sodom , fair outsides , but if you touch them , they turn to ashes and a stink ; and if you will nurse these children , and give them whatsoever is dear to you , then you may be admitted into the house of feasting , and chambers of riot where sin dwels ; but if you will have the mother , you must have the daughters ; the tree and the fruits go together ; and there is none of you all that ever enter'd into this house of pleasure , but he left the skirts of his garment in the hands of shame , and had his name roll'd in the chambers of death . What fruit had ye then ? That 's the Question . In answer to which question we are to consider , 1. What is the summe totall of the pleasure of sin ? 2. What fruits and relishes it leaves behinde by its naturall efficiency ? 3. What are its consequents by its demerit , and the infliction of the superadded wrath of God , which it hath deserved ? Of the first St. Paul gives no account , but by way of upbraiding asks , what they had ? that is , nothing that they dare own , nothing that remains : and where is it ? shew it ; what 's become of it ? Of the second he gives the summe totall ; all its naturall effects are shame and its appendages . The third , or the superinduc'd evils by the just wrath of God , he cals death , the worst name in it self , and the greatest of evils that can happen . 1. Let us consider what pleasures there are in sin ; most of them are very punishments . I will not reckon nor consider concerning envie , which one in Stobaeus cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the basest spirit and yet very just , because it punishes the delinquent in the very act of sin , doing as Aelian saies of the Polypus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , when he wants his prey , he devours his own armes ; and the leannesse , and the secret pangs , and the perpetuall restlesnesse of an envious man feed upon his own heart , and drink down his spirits , unlesse he can ruine or observe the fall of the fairest fortunes of his neighbour . The fruit of this tree are mingled and sowre , and not to be indured in the very eating . Neither will I reck on the horrid afrightments and amazements of murder , nor the uneasinesse of impatience , which doubles every evill that it feels , and makes it a sin , and makes it intolerable ; nor the secret grievings , and continuall troubles of peevishnesse , which makes a man uncapable of receiving good , or delighting in beauties and fair intreaties , in the mercies of God and charities of men . It were easie to make a catalogue of sins , every one of which is a disease , a trouble in it's very constitution and its nature : such are loathing of spirituall things , bitternesse of spirit , rage , greedinesse , confusion of minde , and irresolution , cruelty and despite , slothfulnesse and distrust , unquietnesse and anger , effeminacy and nicenesse , prating and sloth , ignorance and inconstancy , incogitancy and cursing , malignity and fear , forgetfulnesse and rashnesse , pusillanimity and despair , rancour and superstition : if a man were to curse his enemy , he could not wish him a greater evill then these ; and yet these are severall kinds of sin which men choose , and give all their hopes of heaven in exchange for one of these diseases . Is it not a fearfull consideration that a man should rather choose eternally to perish , then to say his prayers heartily , and affectionately ? But so it is with very many men ; they are driven to their devotions by custome , and shame , and reputation , and civill compliances ; they sigh and look sowre when they are called to it , and abide there as a man under the Chirurgeons hands , smarting aud fretting all the while ; or else he passes the time with incogitancy , and hates the imployment , and suffers the torments of prayers which he loves not ; and all this , although for so doing it is certain he may perish : what fruit , what deliciousnesse can he fancy in being weary of his prayers ? There is no pretence or colour for these things . Can any man imagine a greater evill to the body and soul of a man , then madnesse , and furious eyes , and a distracted look , palenesse with passion , and trembling hands and knees , and furiousnesse , and folly in the heart and head ? and yet this is the pleasure of anger , and for this pleasure men choose damnation . But it is a great truth , that there are but very few sins that pretend to pleasure : although a man be weak and soon deceived , and the Devill is crafty , and sin is false and impudent , and pretences are too many , yet most kinds of sins are reall and prime troubles to the very body , without all manner of deliciousnesse , even to the sensuall , naturall , and carnall part ; and a man must put on something of a Devill before he can choose such sins , and he must love mischief because it is a sin ; for in most instances there is no other reason in the world . Nothing pretends to pleasure but the lusts of the lower belly , ambition , and revenge ; and although the catalogue of sins is numerous as the production of fishes , yet these three only can be apt to consen us with a fair outside ; and yet upon the survey of what fruits they bring , and what taste they have , in the manducation , besides the filthy relish they leave behind , we shall see how miserably they are abused and fool'd , that expend any thing upon such purchases . 2. For a man cannot take pleasure in lusts of the flesh , in gluttony , or drunkennesse , unlesse he be helped forward with inconsideration and folly . For we see it evidently that grave and wise persons , men of experience and consideration are extremely lesse affected with lust and loves ; the hare-brain'd boy , the young gentleman that thinks nothing in the world greater then to be free from a Tutor , he indeed courts his folly and enters into the possession of lust without abatement ; consideration dwels not there ; but when a sober man meets with a temptation , and is helped by his naturall temper , or invited by his course of life ; if he can consider , he hath so many objections and fears , so many difficulties and impediments , such sharp reasonings and sharper jealousies concerning its event , that if he does at all enter into folly , it pleases him so little , that he is forced to do it in despite of himself ; and the pleasure is so allayed , that he knowes not whether it be wine or vinegar ; his very apprehension and instruments of relish are fill'd with fear and contradicting principles , and the deliciousnesse does but affricare cutem , it went but to the skin ; but the allay went further ; it kept a guard within , and suffered the pleasure to passe no further . A man must resolve to be a fool , a rash , inconsiderate person , or he will feel but little satisfaction in the enjoyment of his sin : indeed he that stops his nose , may drink down such corrupted waters , and he understood it well who chose rather to be a fool , Dum mala delectent mea me , vel denique fallant , Quàm sapere & ringi — so that his sins might delight him , or deceive him , then to be wise and without pleasure in the enjoyment . So that in effect , a man must lose his discerning faculties , before he discerns the little phantastick joyes of his concupiscence ; which demonstrates how vain , how empty of pleasure that is , that is beholding to folly and illusion , to a jugling and a plain cousenage , before it can be fancyed to be pleasant . For it is a strange beauty that he that hath the best eyes cannot perceive , and none but the blinde or blear-ey'd people can see ; and such is the pleasure of lust , which by every degree of wisdome that a man hath is lessened and undervalued . 3. For the pleasures of intemperance , they are nothing but the reliques and images of pleasure , after that nature hath been feasted ; For so long as she needs , that is , so long as temperance waits , so long pleasure also stands there . But as temperance begins to go away , having done the ministeries of Nature , every morsell ; and every new goblet is still lesse delicious , and cannot be endured but as men force nature by violence to stay longer then she would : How have some men rejoyced when they have escaped a cup ! and when they cannot escape , they pour it in , and receive it with as much pleasure as the old women have in the Lapland dances ; they dance the round , but there is a horror and a harshnesse in the Musick ; and they call it pleasure , because men bid them do so : but there is a Devill in the company , and such as is his pleasure , such is theirs : he rejoyces in the thriving sin , and the swelling fortune of his darling drunkenesse , but his joyes are the joyes of him that knowes and alwayes remembers that he shall infallibly have the biggest damnation ; and then let it be considered how forc'd a joy that is , that is at the end of an intemperate feast . Non benè mendaci risus componitur ore , Nec benè sollicitis ebria verba sonant . Certain it is , intemperance takes but natures leavings ; when the belly is full and nature cals to take away , the pleasure that comes in afterwards is next to loathing : it is like the relish and taste of meats at the end of the third course , or the sweetnesse of honey to him that hath eaten til he can endure to take no more ; and in this , there is no other difference of these men from them that die upon another cause , then was observed among the Phalangia of old , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , some of these serpents make men die laughing , and some to die weeping : so does the intemperate , and so does his brother that languishes of a consumption ; this man dies weeping , and the other dies laughing : but they both die infallibly , and all his pleasure is nothing but the sting of a serpent , immixto liventia mella veneno , it wounds the heart , and he dies with a Tarantula dancing and singing till he bowes his neck , and kisses his bosome with the fatall noddings and declensions of death . 4. In these pretenders to pleasure which you see are but few , and they not very prosperous in their pretences , there is mingled so much trouble to bring them to act and injoyment , that the appetite is above half tired before it comes ; It is necessary a man should be hugely patient that is ambitious , Ambulare per Britannos , Scythicas pati pruinas : no man buy 's death and damnation at so dear a rate , as he that sights for it , and endures cold and hunger , — Patiens liminis atque solis , The heat of the sun , and the cold of the threshold ; the dangers of war , and the snares of a crafty enemy ; he lies upon the ground with a severity greater then the penances of a Hermit , and fasts beyond the austerity of a rare penitent ; with this only difference , that the one does it for heaven , the other for an uncertain honour , and an eternity of flames . But however , by this time that he hath won something , he hath spent some years , and he hath not much time left him to rest in his new purchase , and he hath worn out his body , and lessen'd his capacity of feeling it ; and although it is ten to one he cannot escape all the dangers he must venture at , that he may come near his trifle , yet when he is arrived thither , he can never long enjoy , nor well perceive or taste it ; and therefore there are more sorrowes at the gate , then there can dwell comforts in all the rooms of the houses of pride and great designs . And thus it is in revenge , which is pleasant only to a devill , or a man of the same cursed temper . He does a thing which ought to trouble him , and will move him to pity what his own vile hands have acted ; but if he does not pity , that is , be troubled with himself and wish the things undone , he hath those affections by which the Devill doth rejoyce in destroying souls ; which affections a man cannot have , unlesse he be perfectly miserable , by being contrary to God , to mercy , and to felicity ; and after all , the pleasure is false , phantastick , and violent ; it can do him no good , it can do him hurt : 't is ods but it will ; and on him that takes revenge , revenge shall be taken ; and by a reall evill he shall dearly pay for the goods that are but airy and phantasticall ; It is like a rolling stone , which when a man hath forced up a hill , will return upon him with a greater violence , and break those bones whose sinews gave it motion . The pleasure of revenge is like the pleasure of eating chalk and coals ; a foolish disease made the appetite , and it is entertain'd with an evill reward ; it is like the feeding of a Cancer or a Wolfe , the man is restlesse till it be done , and when it is , every man sees how infinitely he is removed from satisfaction or felicity . 5. These sins when they are entertain'd with the greatest fondnesse from without , it must have but extreme little pleasure , because there is a strong faction , and the better party against them : something that is within contests against the entertainment , and they sit uneasily upon the spirit when the man is vexed , that they are not lawfull ▪ The Persian King gave Themistocles a goodly pension , assigning Magnesia with the revenue of 50 talents for his bread , Lampsacum for his wine , and Myos for his meat ; but all the while he fed high and drunk deep , he was infinitely afflicted that every thing went crosse to his undertaking , and he could not bring his ends about to betray his country ; and at last he mingled poison with his wine , and drank it off , having first intreated his friends to steal for him a private grave in his own countrey . Such are the pleasures of the most pompous and flattering sins : their meat and drink are good and pleasant at first , and it is plenteous and criminall ; but its imployment is base , and it is so against a mans interest , and against what is and ought to be dearest to him , that he cannot perswade his better parts to consent , but must fight against them and all their arguments . These things are against a mans conscience , that is , against his reason and his rest ; and something within makes his pleasure sit uneasily . But so do violent perfumes make the head ache , and therefore wise persons reject them ; and the eye refuses to stare upon the beauties of the Sun , because it makes it weep it self blinde ; and if a luscious dish please my palat , and turns to loathing in the stomach , I will lay aside that evill , and consider the danger and the bigger pain , not that little pleasure . So it is in sin , it pleases the senses , but diseases the spirit , and wounds that : and that it is as apt to smart as the skin , and is as considerable in the provisions of pleasure and pain respectively : and the pleasures of sin to a contradicting reason , are like the joyes of wine to a condemned man , — Difficile est imitari gaudia falsa , Difficile est tristi fingere mente jocum . It will be veryhard to delight freely in that which so vexes the more tender and most sensible part ; so that , what Pliny said of the Poppies growing in the river Caïcus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it brings a stone in stead of a flower or fruit ; so are the pleasures of these pretending sins ; the flower at the best is stinking , but there is a stone in the bottome , it is gravell in the teeth , and a man must drink the bloud of his own gums when he manducates such unwholesome , such unpleasant fruit . — Vitiorum gaudia vulnus habent . They make a wound , and therefore are not very pleasant . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , It is a great labour , and travail to live a vicious life . 6. The pleasure in the acts of these few sins that do pretend to it , is a little limited nothing , confin'd to a single faculty , to one sense , having nothing but the skin for its organ , or instrument , an artery , or something not more considerable then a Lute-string ; and at the best it is but the satisfaction of an appetite which reason can cure , which time can appease , which every diversion can take off ; such as is not perfective of his nature , nor of advantage to his person ; it is a desire to no purpose , and as it comes with no just cause , so can be satisfied with no just measures ; it is satisfied before it comes to a vice , and when it is come thither , all the world cannot satisfie it : a little thing will weary it , but nothing can content it . For all these sensuall desires are nothing but an impatience of being well and wise , of being in health , and being in our wits ; which two things if a man could endure ( and it is but reasonable , a man would think , that we should ) he would never lust to drown his heart in seas of wine , or oppresse his belly with loads of undigested meat , or make himself base as the mixtures of a harlot , by breaking the sweetest limits , and holy festivities of marriage . Malum impatientia est boni , said Tertullian , it is nothing else ; to please the sense , is but to do a mans self mischief ; and all those lusts tend to some direct dissolution of a mans health , or his felicity , his reason , or his religion ; it is an enemy that a man carries about him , and as the spirit of God said concerning Babylon , Quantum in deliciis fuit , tantum dat illi tormentum & luctum , Let her have torment and sorrow according to the measure of her delights ; is most eminently true in the pleasing of our senses ; the lust and desire is a torment ; the remembrance and the absence is a torment , and the enjoyment does not satisfie , but disables the instrument , and tires the faculty ; and when a man hath but a little of what his sense covets , he is not contented , but impatient for more ; and when he hath loads of it , he does not feel it ; for he that swallowes a full goblet does not taste his wine : and this is the pleasure of the sense ; nothing contents it but that which he cannot perceive : and it is alwaies restlesse , till he be weary ; and all the way unpleased , till it can feel no pleasure ; and that which is the instrument of sense is the means of its torment ; by the faculty by which it tasts , by the same it is afflicted ; for so long as it can taste , it is tormented with desire , and when it can desire no longer , it cannot feel pleasure . 7. Sin hath little or no pleasure lin its very injoyment ; because its very manner of entry and production is by a curse and a contradiction ; it comes into the world like a viper through the sides of its mother by means unnaturall , violent , and monstrous . Men love sin only because it is forbidden ; Sin took occasion by the Law , saith St. Paul , it could not come in upon its own pretences , but men rather suspect a secret pleasure in it because there are guards kept upon it ; Sed quia caecus inest vitiis amor , omne futurum Despicitur , suadéntque brevem praesentia fructum , Et ruit in vetitum damni secura libido . Men run into sin with blinde affections , and against all reason despise the future , hoping for some little pleasure for the present ; and all this is only because they are forbidden : Do not many men sin out of spight ? some out of the spirit of disobedience , some by wildenesse , and indetermination , some by impudence , and because they are taken in a fault , — Frontémque à crimine sumunt , Some because they are reproved , many by custome , others by importunity : Ordo fuit crevisse malis — It grows upon crab-stocks , and the lust it self is sowre and unwholesome ; and since it is evident , that very many sins come in wholly upon these accounts , such persons and such sins cannot pretend pleasure ; but as Naturalists say of pulse , cum maledictis & probris serendum praecipiunt , ut laetiùs porventat ; the countrey people were used to curse it and rail upon it all the while that it was sowing , that it might thrive the better ; t is true with sins , they grow up with curses , with spite and contradiction , peevishnesse and indignation , pride and cursed principles ; and therefore pleasure ought not to be the inscription of the box ; for that 's the least part of its ingredient and constitution . 8. The pleasures in the very enjoying of sin are infinitely trifling and inconsiderable , because they passe away so quickly ; if they be in themselves little , they are made lesse by their volatile and fugitive nature . But if they were great , then their being so transient does not only lossen the delight , but changes it into a torment , and loads the spirit of the sinner with impatience and indignation . Is it not a high upbraiding to the watchfull adulterer , that after he hath contriv'd the stages of his sin , and tyed many circumstances together with arts and labour , and these joyn and stand knit and solid only by contingency , and are very often born away with the impetuous torrent of an inevitable accident , like Xerxes bridge over the Hellespont , and then he is to begin again , and sets new wheels a going ; and by the arts , and the labour , and the watchings , and the importunity , and the violence , and the unwearied study , and indefatigable diligence of many moneths he enters upon possession , and finds them not of so long abode as one of his cares , which in so vast numbers made so great a portion of his life afflicted ? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The enjoying of sin for a season , St. Paul cals it ; he names no pleasures ; our English translation uses the word of enjoying pleasures ; but if there were any , they were but for that season , that instant , that very transition of the act , which dies in its very birth , and of which we can only say as the minstrell sung of Pacuvius when he was carryed dead from his supper to his bed , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , A man can scarce have time enough to say it is alive , but that it was : nullo non se die extui●t , it died every day , it lived never unto life , but lived and dyed unto death , being its mother , and its daughter : The man dyed before the sin did live , and when it had lived , it consign'd him to dye eternally . Adde 〈◊〉 this , that it so passes away , that nothing at all remains behind it , that is pleasant : it is like the path of an arrow in the air ; the next morning no man can tell what is become of the pleasures of the last nights sin : they are no where but in Gods books , deposited in the conscience , and sealed up against the day of dreadfull accounts ; but as to the man they are as if they never had been ; and then let it be considered , what a horrible aggravation it will be to the miseries of damnation , that a man shall for ever perish for that , which if he looks round about he cannot see , nor tell where it is . He that dies , dies for that which is not ; and in the very little present he findes it an unrewarding interest , to walk seven dayes together over sharp stones only to see a place from whence he must come back in an hour . If it goes off presently , it is not worth the labour ; if it stayes long , it growes tedious : so that it cannot be pleasant , if it stayes ; and if it does stay , it is not to be valued : Haec mala mentis gaudia . It abides too little a while to be felt , or called pleasure ; and if it should abide longer , it would be troublesome as pain , and loath'd like the tedious speech of an Orator pleading against the life of the innocent . 9. Sin hath in its best advantages but a trifling inconsiderable pleasure : because not only God and reason , conscience and honour , interest and lawes , do sowre it in the sense and gust of pleasure , but even the devill himself either being over-ruled by God , or by a strange unsignificant malice makes it troublesome and intricate , intangled and involv'd ; and one sin contradicts another , and vexes the man with so great variety of evils , that if in the course of Gods service he should meet with half the difficulty , he would certainly give over the whole imployment . Those that St. James speaks of who prayed that they might spend it upon their lusts , were covetous and prodigall , and therefore must endure the torments of one to have the pleasure of another ; and which is greater , the pleasure of spending , or the displeasure that it is spent , and does not still remain after its consumption , is easie to tell : certain it is , that this lasts much longer . Does not the Devill often tempt men to despair , and by that torment put bars and locks upon them , that they may never return to God ? Which what else is it but a plain indication that it is intended , the man should feel the images and dreams of pleasure , no longer but till he be without remedy ? Pleasure is but like centries or woodden frames , set under arches , till they be strong by their own weight and consolidation to stand alone ; and when by any means the Devill hath a man sure , he takes no longer care to cousen you with pleasures , but is pleased that men should begin an early hell , and be tormented before the time . Does not envie punish or destroy flattery ; and self-love sometimes torment the drunkard ; and intemperance abate the powers of lust , and make the man impotent ; and lazinesse become a hinderance to ambition ; and the desires of man wax impatient upon contradicting interests , and by crossing each others design on all hands lessen the pleasure , and leave the man tormented ? 10. Sinne is of so little relish and gust , so trifling a pleasure , that it is alwayes greater in expectation then it is in the possession . But if men did before hand see , what the utmost is , which sinne ministers to please the beastly part of man , it were impossible it should be pursued with so much earnestnesse and disadvantages . It is necessary it should promise more then it can give ; Men could not otherwise be cousened . And if it be inquired , why men should sin again , after they had experience of the little and great deception ? It is to be confessed , it is a wonder they should ; but then we may remember that men sinne again , though their sinne did afflict them ; they will be drunk again , though they were sick ; they will again commit folly , though they be surprised in their shame , though they have needed an hospitall ; and therefore there is something else that moves them , and not the pleasure ; for they doe it without and against its interest ; but either they still proceed , hoping to supply by numbers what they finde not in proper measures ; or God permits them to proceed as an instrument of punishment ; or their understandings and reasonings grow cheaper ; or they grow in love with it , and take it upon any terms ; or contract new appetites , and are pleased with the baser and the lower reward of sinne : but whatsoever can be the cause of it , it is certain , by the experience of all the world , that the fancy is higher , the desires more sharp , and the reflexion more brisk , at the door and entrance of the entertainment , then in all the little and shorter periods of its possession : for then it is but limited by the naturall measures , and abated by distemper , and loathed by enjoying , and disturbed by partners , and dishonoured by shame and evill accidents ; so that as men coming to the river Lucius , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and seeing waters pure as the tears of the spring , or the pearls of the morning , expects that in such a fair promising bosome , the inmates should be fair and pleasant , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but findes the fishes black , filthy , and unwholesome ; so it is in sinne , its face is fair and beauteous , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Softer then sleep , or the dreams of wine , tenderer then the curds of milk , & Euganeâ quantumvis mollior agnâ ; but when you come to handle it , it is filthy , rough as the Porcupine , black as the shadowes of the night , and having promised a fish it gives a scorpion , and a stone in stead of bread . II. The fruits of its present possession , the pleasures of its taste are lesse pleasant , because no sober person , no man that can discourse does like it long , — Breve sit quod turpiter audes . But he approves it in the height of passion , and in the disguises of a temptation ; but at all other times he findes it ugly and unreasonable ; and the very remembrances must at all times abate its pleasures , and sowre its delicacies . In the most parts of a mans life he wonders at his own folly , and prodigious madnesse , that it should be ever possible for him to be deluded by such trifles ; and he sighes next morning , and knowes it over night ; and is it not therefore certain that he leans upon a thorne , which he knowes will smart , and he dreads the event of to morrow ? But so have I known a bold trooper fight in the confusion of a battell , and being warm with heat and rage received from the swords of his enemy , wounds open like a grave ; but he felt them not , and when by the streams of bloud he found himself mark'd for pain , he refused to consider then , what he was to feel to morrow : but when his rage had cool'd into the temper of a man , and a clammy moisture had checked the fiery emission of spirits , he wonders at his own boldnesse , and blames his fate , and needs a mighty patience to bear his great calamity . So is the bold and merry sinner , when he is warm with wine and lust , wounded and bleeding with the strokes of hell , he twists with the fatall arm that strikes him , and cares not ; but yet it must abate his gayety , because he remembers that when his wounds are cold and considered , he must roar or perish , repent or do worse ; that is , be miserable or undone . The Greeks call this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the felicity of condemned slaves feasted high in sport . Dion Prusaeus reports that when the Persians had got the victory , they would pick out the noblest slave , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , They make him a King for three dayes , and cloath him with royall robes , and minister to him all the pleasures he can choose , and all the while he knowes he is to dye a sacrifice to mirth and folly . But then let it be remembred what checks and allayes of mirth the poor man starts at , when he remembers the axe and the altar where he must shortly bleed ; and by this we may understand what that pleasure is , in the midst of which the man sighs deeply , when he considers what opinion he had of this sin in the dayes of counsell and sober thoughts , and what reason against it , he shall feel to morrow when he must weep or die . Thus it happens to sinners according to the saying of the Prophet , Qui sacrificant hominem osculabuntur Vitulum , He that gives a man in sacrifice shall kisse the calf , that is , shall be admitted to the seventh chappell of Moloch to kisse the Idoll : a goodly reward for so great a price , for so great an iniquity . After all this I doe not doubt but these considerations will meet with some persons that think them to be protestatio contra factum , and fine pretences against all experience ; and that for all these severe sayings , sin is still so pleasant as to tempt the wisest resolution . Such men are in a very evill condition : and in their case only I come to understand the meaning of those words of Seneca ; Malorum ultimum est mala sua amare , ubi turpia non solùm delectant , sed etiam placent . It is the worst of evils when men are so in love with sin that they are not only delighted with them but pleased also ; not only feel the relish with too quick a sense , but also feel none of the objections , nothing of the pungency , the sting , or the lessening circumstances . However , to these men I say this only , that if by experience they feel sin pleasant , it is as certain also by experience , that most sins are in their own nature sharpnesses and diseases ; * and that very few do pretend to pleasure : * That a man cannot feel any deliciousnesse in them , but when he is helped by folly and inconsideration ; that is , a wise man cannot , though a boy or a fool can be pleased with them : * That they are but reliques and images of pleasure left upon Natures stock , and therefore much lesse then the pleasures of naturall vertues : * That a man must run through much trouble before he brings them to act and enjoyment : * That he must take them in despite of himself , against reason and his conscience , the tenderest parts of man and the most sensible of affliction : * They are at the best so little , that they are limited as one sense , not spread upon all the faculties like the pleasures of vertue , which make the bones fat by an intellectuall rectitude , and the eyes spritely by a wise proposition , and pain it self to become easie by hope and a present rest within : * It is certain ( I say ) by a great experience , that the pleasures of sin enter by cursings and a contradictory interest , and become pleasant not by their own relish , but by the viciousnesse of the palat , by spite and peevishnesse , by being forbidden and unlawfull ; * And that which is its sting is at some times the cause of all its sweetnesse it can have ; * They are gone sooner then a dream ; * They are crossed by one another , and their Parent is their Tormentor , * and when sinnes are tyed in a chain , with that chain they dash one anothers brains out , or make their lodging restlesse . * It is never lik'd long ; * and promises much and performes little ; * it is great at distance , and little at hand , against the nature of all substantiall things ; * And after all this , how little pleasure is left , themselves have reason with scorn and indignation to resent . So that if experience can be pretended against experience , there is nothing to be said to it but the words which Phryne desired to be writ on the gates of Thebes , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Phryne the harlot built it up , but Alexander digg'd it down ; the pleasure is supported by little things , by the experience of fools and them that observed nothing , and the relishes tasted by artificiall appetites , by art and cost , by violence and preternaturall desires , by the advantage of deception and evill habits , by expectation and delayes , by dreams and inconsiderations , these are the harlots hands that build the fairy castle , but the hands of reason and religion , sober counsels and the voice of God , experience of wise men , and the sighings and intolerable accents of perishing or returning sinners dig it down , and sow salt in the foundations , that they may never spring up in the accounts of men that delight not in the portion of fools and forgetfulnesse . Neque enim Deus ita viventibus quicquam promisit boni , neque ipsa per se mens humana talium sibi conscia quicquam boni sperare audet . To men that live in sinne God hath promised no good , and the conscience it self dares not expect it . SERMON , XX. Part II. WE have already opened this dunghill cover'd with snow , which was indeed on the outside white as the spots of leprosie , but it was no better ; and if the very colours and instruments of deception , if the fucus and ceruse be so spotted and sullyed , what can we suppose to be under the wrinkled skin , what in the corrupted liver , and in the sinks of the body of sin ? That we are next to consider : But if we open the body , and see what a confusion of all its parts , what a rebellion and tumult of the humors , what a disorder of the members , what a monstrosity or deformity is all over , we shall be infinitely convinced , that no man can choose a sin , but upon the same ground on which he may choose a feaver , or long for madnesse or the gout . Sin in its naturall efficiency hath in it so many evils , as must needs afright a man , and scare the confidence of every one that can consider . * When our blessed Saviour shall conduct his Church to the mountains of glory , he shall present it to God without spot or wrinkle , that is , pure and vigorous , intirely freed from the power , and the infection of sin . Upon occasion of which expression it hath been spoken that sin leaves in the soul a stain or spot , permanent upon the spirit ; discomposing the order of its beauty , and making it appear to God in sordibus in such filthinesse , that he who is of pure eyes cannot behold . But roncerning the nature or proper effects of this spot or stain , they have not been agreed . Some call it an obligation or a guilt of punishment ; so Scotus . Some fancy it to be an elongation from God , by a dissimilitude of conditions ; so Peter Lombard . Alexander of Ales sayes it is a privation of the proper beauty and splendor of the soul , with which God adorn'd it in the creation and superaddition of grace ; and upon this expression they most agree , but seem not to understand what they mean by it ; and it signifies no more , but as you describing sicknesse , call it a want of health , and folly a want of wisdome ; which is indeed to say what a thing is not , but not to tell what it is : But that I may not be hindred by this consideration , we may observe that the spots and stains of sin are metaphoricall significations of the disorder and evill consequents of sin ; which it leaves partly upon the soul , partly upon the state and condition of a man ; as meeknesse is called an ornament , and faith a shield , and salvation a helmet , and sin it self a wrinkle , corruption , rottennesse , a burden , a wound , death , filthinesse : so it is a 3 defiling of a man , that is , as the body contracts nastinesse and dishonour by impure contacts , and adherencies , so does the soul receive such a change as must be taken away before it can enter into the eternall regions , and house of purity . But it is not a distinct thing , not an inherent quality , which can be separated from other evill effects of sin , which I shall now reckon by their more proper names ; and St. Paul comprises under the scornfull appellative of shame . 1. The first naturall fruit of sin is ignorance . Man was first tempted by the promise of knowledge ; he fell into darknesse by beleeving the Devill holding forth to him a new light . It was not likely good should come of so foul a beginning ; that the woman should beleeve the Devill putting on no brighter shape then a snakes skin , she neither being afraid of sin nor afrighted to hear a beast speak , and he pretending so weakly in the temptation , that he promised only that they should know evill ; for they knew good before ; and all that was offered to them was the experience of evill : and it was no wonder that the Devill promised no more ; for sin never could perform any thing but an experience of evill , no other knowledge can come upon that account ; but the wonder was , why the woman should sin for no other reward , but for that which she ought to have fear'd infinitely ; for nothing could have continued her happinesse , but not to have known evill . Now this knowledge was the introduction of ignorance . For when the understanding suffered it self to be so baffled as to study evill , the will was as foolish to fall in love with it , and they conspir'd to undoe each other . For when the will began to love it , then the understanding was set on work to commend , to advance , to conduct and to approve , to beleeve it , and to be factious in behalf of the new purchase . I do not beleeve the understanding part of man received any naturall decrement or diminution . For if to the Devils their naturals remain intire , it is not likely that the lesser sin of man should suffer a more violent and effective mischief . Neither can it be understood how the reasonable soul being immortall both in it self and its essentiall faculties , can lose or be lessened in them , any more then it can die . But it received impediment , by new propositions : It lost and willingly forgot what God had taught , and went away from the fountain of truth , and gave trust to the father of lies , and it must without remedy grow foolish ; and so a man came to know evill , just as a man is said to taste of death : for in proper speaking , as death is not to be felt , because it takes away all sense ; so nether can evill be known , because whatsoever is truly cognoscible , is good and true ; and therefore all the knowledge a man gets by sin is to feel evill : he knowes it not by discourse , but by sense ; not by proposition , but by smart ; The Devill doing to man as Esculapius did to Neoclides , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he gave him a formidable collyrium to torment him more : the effect of which was , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : the Devill himself grew more quick-sighted to abuse us , but we became more blinde by that opening of our eyes . I shall not need to discourse of the Philosophy of this mischief , and by the connexion of what causes ignorance doth follow sin : but it is certain , whether a man would fain be pleased with sin , or be quiet , or fearlesse when he hath sinned , or continue in it , or perswade others to it , he must do it by false propositions , by lyings and such weak discourses as none can beleeve but such as are born fools , or such as have made themselves so , or are made so by others . Who in the world is a verier fool , a more ignorant wretched person then he that is an Atheist ? A man may better beleeve there is no such man as himself , and that he is not in being , then that there is no God : for himself can cease to be , and once was not , and shall be changed from what he is , and in very many periods of his life knowes not that he is ; and so it is every night with him when he sleeps : but none of these can happen to God ; and if he knowes it not , he is a fool . Can any thing in this world be more foolish then to think that all this rare fabrick of heaven and earth can come by chance , when all the skill of art is not able to make an Oyster ? To see rare effects and no cause ; an excellent government and no Prince ; a motion without an immovable ; a circle without a centre ; a time without eternity ; a second without a first ; a thing that begins not from it self , and therefore not to perceive there is something from whence it does begin , which must be without beginning ; these things are so against Philosophy , and naturall reason , that he must needs be a beast in his understanding that does not assent to them . This is the Atheist : the fool hath said in his heart , there is no God. That 's his character : the thing framed saies that nothing framed it ; the tongue never made it self to speak , and yet talks against him that did ; saying , that which is made , is , and that which made it , is not . But this folly is as infinite as hell , as much without light or bound , as the Chaos or the primitive nothing . But in this , the Devill never prevailed very farre ; his Schooles were alwaies thin at these Lectures : some few people have been witty against God , that taught them to speak before they knew to spell a syllable ; but either they are monsters in their manners , or mad in their understandings , or ever finde themselves confuted by a thunder or a plague , by danger or death . But the Devill hath infinitely prevail'd in a thing that is almost as senselesse and ignorant as Atheisme , and that is idolatry ; not only making God after mans image , but in the likenesse of a calf , of a cat , of a serpent ; making men such fools as to worship a quartan ague , fire and water , onions and sheep . This is the skill man learned , and the Philosophy that he is taught by beleeving the D●vill . * What wisedome can there be in any man , that cals good evill , and evill good ; to say fire is cold , and the Sun black , that fornication can make a man happy , or drunkennesse can make him wise ? And this is the state of a sinner , of every one that delights in iniquity ; he cannot be pleased with it if he thinks it evill ; he cannot endure it , without beleeving this proposition , that there is in drunkennesse , or lust , pleasure enough , good enough to make him amends for the intolerable pains of damnation . But then if we consider upon what nonsense principles the state of an evill life relies , we must in reason be impatient , and with scorn and indignation drive away the fool ; such as are : sense is to be preferred before reason , interest before religion , a lust before heaven , moments before eternity , money above God himself ; that , a mans felicity consists in that which a beast enjoyes ; that , a little in present uncertain , fallible possession , is better then the certain state of infinite glories hereafter ; what childe , what fool can think things more weak , and more unreasonable ? And yet if men do not go upon these grounds , upon what account do they sin ? sin hath no wiser reasons for it self then these : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the same argument that a flye hath to enter into a candle , the same argument a fool hath , that enters into sin ; it looks prettily , but rewards the eye , as burning basons do , with intolerable circles of reflected fire . Such are the principles of a sinners Philosophy . And no wiser are his hopes ; all his hopes that he hath is , that he shall have time to repent of that which he chooses greedily ; that he whom he every day provokes will save him , whether he will or no ; that he can in an instant , or in a day make amends for all the evils of 40 years ; or else that he shall be saved whether he does or no ; that heaven is to be had for a sigh , or a short prayer , and yet hell shall not be consequent to the affections , and labours , and hellish services of a whole life ; he goes on and cares not , he hopes without a promise , and refuses to beleeve all the threatnings of God ; but beleeves he shall have a mercy for which he never had a revelation . If this be knowledge or wisdome , then there is no such thing as folly , no such disease as madnesse . But then consider , that there are some sins whose very formality is a lye . Superstition could not be in the world , if men did beleeve God to be good and wise , free and mercifull , not a tyrant , not an unreasonable exactor : no man would dare do in private , what he fears to do in publick , if he did know that God sees him there , and will bring that work of darknesse into light . But he is so foolish as to think , that if he sees nothing , nothing sees him ; for if men did perceive God to be present , and yet do wickedly , it is worse with them then I have yet spoke of ; and they beleeve another lie ; that to be seen by man will bring more shame , then to be discerned by God ; or that the shame of a few mens talk is more intolerable then to be confounded before Christ , and his army of Angels , and Saints , and all the world . * He that excuses a fault by telling a lie , beleeves it better to be guilty of two faults , then to be thought guilty of one ; and every hypocrite thinks it not good to be holy , but to be accounted so , is a fine thing ; that is , that opinion is better then reality , and that there is in vertue nothing good , but the fame of it . * And the man that takes revenge , relies upon this foolish proposition ; that his evill that he hath already suffer'd growes lesse if another suffers the like ; that his wound cannot smart , if by my hand he dies that gave it . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the sad accents and dolefull tunes are increased by the number of mourners , but the sorrow is not at all lessened . I shall not need to thrust into this account the other evils of mankinde that are the events of ignorance , but introduc'd by sin ; such as are our being moved by what we see strongly , and weakly by what we understand ; that men are moved rather by a fable then by a syllogisme , by parables then by demonstrations , by examples then by precepts , by seeming things then by reall , by shadowes then by substances ; that men judge of things by their first events , and measure the events by their own short lives , or shorter observations ; that they are credulous to beleeve what they wish , and incredulous of what makes against them , measuring truth or falshood by measures that cannot fit them , as foolishly as if they should judge of a colour by the dimensions of a body , or feel musick with the hand ; they make generall conclusions from particular instances , and take account of Gods actions by the measures of a man. Men call that justice that is on their side , and all their own causes are right , and they are so alwayes ; they are so when they affirm them in their youth , and they are so when they deny them in their old age ; and they are confident in all their changes ; and their first error which they now see , does not make them modest in the proposition which they now maintain ; for they do not understand that what was , may be so again : So foolish and ignorant was I ( said David ) and as it were a beast before thee . Ambition is folly , and temerity is ignorance , and confidence never goes without it , and impudence is worse , and zeal or contention is madnesse , and prating is want of wisdome , and lust destroyes it , and makes a man of a weak spirit , and a cheap reasoning ; and there are in the Catalogue of of sins very many , which are directly , kinds and parts , and appendages of ignorance ; such as are blindnesse of minde , affected ignorance , and wilfull ; neglect of hearing the word of God , resolved incredulity , forgetfulnesse of holy things , lying and beleeving a lye ; this is the fruit of sin , this is the knowledge that the Devill promised to our first parents as the rewards of disobedience ; and although they sinn'd as weakly and fondly , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , upon as slight grounds and trifling a temptation and as easie a deception as many of us since , yet the causes of our ignorance are increased by the multiplication of our sins ; and if it was so bad in the green tree , it is much worse in the dry ; and no man is so very a fool as the sinner , and none are wise but the servants of God , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The wise Chaldees and the wiser Hebrewes which worship God chastly and purely , they only have a right to be called wise ; all that do not so are fools and ignorants , neither knowing what it is to be happy , nor how to purchase it ; ignorant of the noblest end , and of the competent means towards it : they neither know God nor themselves , and no ignorance is greater then this or more pernicious . What man is there in the world that thinks himself covetous or proud ? and yet millions are , who like Harpaste think that the house is dark , but not themselves . Vertue makes our desires temperate and regular , it observes our actions , condemns our faults , mortifies our lusts , watches all our dangers and temptations : but sin makes our desires infinite , and we would have we cannot tell what ; we strive that we may forget our faults ; we labour that we may neither remember nor consider ; we justifie our errors , and call them innocent , and that which is our shame we miscall honour ; and our whole life hath in it so many weak discourses and trifling propositions , that the whole world of sinners is like the Hospitall of the insensati , madnesse and folly possesses the greater part of mankinde . What greater madnesse is there then to spend the price of a whole farm in contention for three sheaves of corn ? and yet tantum pectora caecae noctis habent , this is the wisdome of such as are contentious , and love their own will more then their happinesse , their humour more then their peace . — Furor est post omnia perdere naulum . Men lose their reason , and their religion , and themselves at last for want of understanding ; and all the wit and discourses by which sin creeps in , are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , frauds of the tongue , and consultations of care : but in the whole circle of sins there is not one wise proposition , by which a man may conduct his affairs , or himself become instructed to felicity . This is the first naturall fruit of sin : It makes a man a fool , and this hurt sin does to the understanding , and this is shame enough to that in which men are most apt to glory . Sin naturally makes a man weak ; that is , unapt to do noble things : by which I do not understand a naturall disability : for it is equally ready for a man to will good as evill , and as much in the power of his hands to be lifted up in prayer to God as against his Brother in a quarrell ; and between a vertuous object and his faculties there is a more apt proportion , then between his spirit and a vice ; and every act of grace does more please the minde , then an act of sin does delight the sense ; and every crime does greater violence to the better part of man , then mortification does to the lower ; and often times a duty consists in a negative , as not to be drunk , not to swear , and it is not to be understood that a man hath naturally no power not to do ; if there be a naturall disability , it is to action , not to rest or ceasing ; and therefore in this case , we cannot reasonably nor justly accuse our Nature , but we have reason to blame our manners which have introduced upon us a morall disability ; that is , not that the faculty is impotent and disabled , but that the whole man is ; for the will in many cases desires to do good , and the understanding is convinced and consents , and the hand can obey , and the passions can be directed , and be instrumentall to Gods service : but because they are not used to it , the will finds a difficulty to do them so much violence , and the understanding consents to their lower reasonings , and the desires of the lower man do will stronger ; and then the whole man cannot do the duty that is expected . There is a law in the members , and he that gave that law is a tyrant , and the subjects of that law are slaves , and oftentimes their ear is bored , and they love their fetters and desire to continue that bondage for ever ; The law is the law of sin , the Devill is the tyrant , custome is the sanction or the sirmament of the law ; and every vicious man is a slave , and chooses the vilest master , and the basest of services , and the most contemptible rewards . Lex enim peccati est violentia consuetudinis , quâ trahitur & tenetur animus etiam invitus , eo merito quo in eam volens illabitur ; said St. Austin ; The law of sin is the violence of custome , which keep a mans minde against his minde , because he entred willingly , and gave up his own interest , which he ought to have secur'd for his own felicity , and for his service who gave for it an invaluable price : And indeed in questions of vertue and vice there is no such thing as Nature ; or it is so inconsiderable , that it hath in it nothing beyond an inclination which may be reverted ; and very often not so much ; nothing but a perfect indifferency , we may if we will , or we may choose ; but custome brings in a new nature , and makes a Biass in every faculty . To a vicious man some sins become necessary ; Temperance makes him sick ; severity is death to him ; it destroys his chearfulnesse and activity ; it is as his nature , and the desire dwels for ever with him , and his reasonings are framed for it and his fancy , and in all he is helped by example , by company , by folly , and inconsideration ; and all these are a faction and a confederacy against the honour and service of God. And in this , Philosophy is at a stand , nothing can give an account of it but experience , and sorrowfull instances ; for it is infinitely unreasonable , that when you have discoursed wisely against unchastity , and told , that we are separated from it by a circumvallation of Lawes of God and man , that it dishonours the body , and makes the spirit caitive , that it is fought against by arguments sent from all the corners of reason and religion , and the man knows all this , and beleeves it , and prayes against his sin , and hates himself for it , and curses the actions of it ; yet oppose against all this but a fable or a merry story , a proverb or a silly saying , the sight of his mistresse , or any thing but to lessen any one of the arguments brought against it , and that man shall as certainly and clearly be determined to that sin , as if he had on his side all the reason of the world . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Custome does as much as Nature can doe ; it does sometimes more , and superinduces a disposition contrary to our naturall temper . Eudemus had so used his stomach to so unnaturall drinks , that , as himself tels the story , he took in one day two and twenty potions in which Hellebore was infused , and rose at noon , and supp'd at night , and felt no change . So are those that are corrupted with evill customes , nothing will purge them ; if you discourse wittily , they hear you not ; or if they do , they have twenty wayes to answer , and twice twenty to neglect it : if you perswade them to promise to leave their sin , they do but shew their folly at the next temptation , and tell that they did not mean it : and if you take them at an advantage when their hearts are softned with a judgement or a fear , with a shame or an indignation , and then put the bars and locks of vowes upon them , it is all one ; one vow shall hinder but one action , and the appetite shall be doubled by the restraint , and the next opportunity shall make an amends for the first omission : or else the sin shall enter by parts ; the vow shall only put the understanding to make a distinction , or to change the circumstance , and under that colour the crime shall be admitted , because the man is resolved to suppose the matter so dressed was not vowed against . But then when that is done , the understanding shall open that eye that did but wink before , and see that it was the same thing , and secretly rejoyce that it was so cousened : for now the lock is open'd , and the vow was broken against his will , and the man is at liberty again , because he did the thing at unawares , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , still he is willing to beleeve the sin was not formall vow-breach , but now he sees he broke it materially , and because the band is broken , the yoke is in pieces , therefore the next action shall go on upon the same stock of a single iniquity without being afrighted in his conscience at the noise of perjury . I wish we were all so innocent as not to understand the discourse ; but it uses to be otherwise . Nam si discedas , laqueo tenet ambitiosi Consuetudo mali : — & in aegro corde senescit . Custome hath waxen old in his deceived heart , and made snares for him that he cannot disintangle himself ; so true is that saying of God by the Prophet , Can an Aethiop change his skin ? then may ye learn to do well when ye are accustomed to do evill . But I instance in two things which to my sense seem great aggravations of the slavery and weaknesse of a customary sinner . The first is , that men sin against their interest . They know they shall be ruin'd by it ; it will undoe their estates , lose their friends , ruine their fortunes , destroy their body , impoverish the spirit , load the conscience , discompose his rest , confound his reason , amaze him in all his faculties , destroy his hopes , and mischief enough besides ; and when he considers this , he declares against it ; but , Cum bona verba erumpant , affectus tamen ad consuetudinem relabuntur , the man gives good words , but the evill custome prevails ; and it happens as in the case of the Tyrinthians , who to free their nation from a great plague , were bidden only to abstain from laughter , while they offered their sacrifice : but they had been so us'd to a ridiculous effeminacy , and vain course of conversation , that they could not , though the honour and splendor of the Nation did depend upon it . God of his mercy keep all Christian people from a custome in sinning ; for if they be once fallen thither , nothing can recover them but a miraculous grace . 2. The second aggravation of it is , that custome prevails against experience . Though the man hath already smarted , though he hath been disgraced , and undone , though he lost his relation and his friends , he is turn'd out of service , and disimployed , he begs with a load of his old sins upon his shoulders , yet this will not cure an evill custome : Do not we daily see how miserable some men make themselves with drunkennesse , and folly ? Have not we seen them that have been sick with intemperance , deadly sick , enduring for one drunken meeting , more pain then are in all the fasting dayes of the whole year ? and yet do they not the very next day go to it again ? Indeed some few are smitten into the beginning of repentance , and they stay a fortnight , or a moneth , and it may be resist two or three invitations ; but yet the custome is not gone , Nec tu cum obstiteris semel , instantique negaris Parêre imperio , Rupi jam vincula , dicas . Think not the chain is off when thou hast once or twice resisted ; or if the chain be broke , part remains on thee , like a cord upon a dogs neck , Nam & luctata canis nodum arripit ; attamen illi Cum fugit , à collo trahitur pars magna catenae . He is not free that drawes his chain after him ; and he that breaks off from his sins with greatest passion , stands in need of prosperous circumstances , and a strange freedome from temptation , and accidentall hardnesse , and superinduced confidence , and a preternaturall severity ; Opus est aliquâ fortunae indulgentiâ adhuc inter humana luctanti , dum noaumillum exolvit & omne vinculum mortale , for the knot can hardly be untied which a course of evill manners hath bound upon the soul ; and every contingency in the world can intangle him that wears upon his neck the links of a broken chain . Nam qui ab eo quod amat , quàm extemplò suavi is sagittatis percussus est , illico res foras labitur , liquitur ; if he sees his temptation again he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , his kindnesse to it , and conversation with his lust undoes him , and breaks his purposes , and then he dies again , or fals upon that stone that with so much pains he removed a little out of his way ; and he would lose the spent wealth , or the health and the reputation over again , if it were in his power . Philomusus was a wilde young fellow in Domitian's time , and he was hard put to it to make a large pension to maintain his lust and luxury , and he was every moneth put to beggerly arts to feed his crime . But when his father died and left him all , he disinherited himself ; he spent it all though he knew he was to suffer that trouble alwayes , which vexed his lustfull soul in the frequent periods of his violent want . Now this is such a state of slavery , that persons that are sensible ought to complain , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that they serve worse lords them Egyptian task-masters , there is a lord within that rules and rages , Intus & in jecore aegro pascuntur domini ; sin dwels there , and makes a man a miserable servant : and this is not only a Metaphoricall expression , under which some spirituall and metaphysicall truth is represented , but it is a physicall , materiall truth , and a man endures hardship , he cannot move but at this command , and not his outward actions only , but his will and his understanding too are kept in fetters and foolish bondage : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Marcus Antoninus ; The two parts of a man are rent in sunder , and that that prevails is the life , it is the man , it is the eloquence perswading every thing to its own interest . * And now consider what is the effect of this evill . A man by sin is made a slave , he loses that liberty that is dearer to him then life it self ; and like the dog in the fable , we suffer chains and ropes only for a piece of bread ; when the Lion thought liberty a sufficient reward and price for hunger , and all the hardnesses of the wildernesse . Do not all the world fight for liberty , and at no terms will lay down armes till at least they be cousened with the image and colour of it ? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; and yet for the pleasure of a few minutes we give our selves into bondage ; and all the world does it , more or lesse . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Either men are slaves to fortune , or to lust ; to covetousnesse , or tyranny ; something or other compels him to usages against his will and reason ; and when the lawes cannot rule him , money can ; divitiae enim apud sapientem virum in servitute sunt , apud stultum in imperio ; for money is the wise mans servant , and the fools Master : but the bondage of a vicious person , is such a bondage as the childe hath in the wombe , or rather as a sick man in his bed ; we are bound fast by our disease , and a consequent weaknesse , we cannot go forth though the doors be open , and the fetters knockt off , and vertue and reason like St. Peters Angel call us and b●at us upon the sides , and offer to go before us , yet we cannot come forth from prison ; for we have by our evill customes given hostages to the Devill , never to stirre from the enemies quarter ; and this is the greatest bondage that is imaginable , the bondage of conquered , wounded , unresisting people : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Vertue only is the truest liberty : And if the Son of God make us free , then are we free indeed . 3. Sin does naturally introduce a great basenesse upon the spirit , expressed in Scripture in some cases by the Devils entring into a man , as it was in the case of Judas , after he had taken the sop , Satan entred into him ; and St. Cyprian speaking of them that after Baptisme lapsed into foul crimes , he affirms that spiritu immundo quasi redeunte quatiuntur , ut manifestum sit Diabolum in baptismo side credentis excludi , si sides postmedum defecerit regredi ; Faith , and the grace of Baptisme turns the Devill out of possession : but when faith fails , and we loose the bands of Religion , then the Devill returns ; that is , the man is devolved into such sins of which there can be no reason given , which no excuse can lessen , which are set off with no pleasure , advanced by no temptations , which deceive by no allurements and flattering pretences : such things which have a proper and direct contrariety to the good Spirit , and such as are not restrained by humane laws ; because they are states of evill rather then evill actions , principles of mischief rather then direct emanations ; such as are , u. thankfulnesse , impiety , giving a secret blow , fawning bypocrisie , detraction , impudence , forgetfulnesse of the dead , and forgetting to do that in their absence which we promised to them in presence , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; Concerning which sorts of unworthinesse it is certain they argue a most degenerous spirit , and they are the effect , the naturall effect of malice and despair , an unwholesome ill natur'd soul , a soul corrupted in its whole constitution . I remember that in the Apologues of Phaedrus , it is told concerning an ill natured fellow , that he refused to pay his Symbol , which himself and all the company had agreed should be given for every disease , that each man had ; he denying his itch to be a disease ; but the company taking off the refusers hat for a pledge , found that he had a scal'd head , and so demanded the money double ; which he pertinaciously resisting , they threw him down , and then discovered he was broken bellied , and justly condemned him to pay three Philippicks : — Quae fuerat fabula , poenafuit . One disease discovers it self by the hiding of another , and that being open'd discovers a third ; He that is almost taken in a fault , tels a lye to escape ; and to protect that lye , he forswears himself ; and that he may not be suspected of perjury , he growes impudent ; and that sin may not shame him , he will glory in it , like the slave in the Comedy , who being torn with whips , grinn'd , and forc'd an ugly smile that it might not seem to smart . * There are some sins which a man that is newly fallen , cannot entertain . There is no crime made ready for a young sinner , but that which nature prompts him to . Naturall inclination is the first tempter , then compliance , then custome , but this being helped by a consequent folly , dismantles the soul , making it to hate God , to despise Religion , to laugh at severity , to deride sober counsels , to flie from repentance , to resolve against it , to delight in sin without abatement of spirit or purposes : For it is an intolerable thing for a man to be tormented in his conscience for every sin he acts ; that must not be ; he must have his sin and his peace too , or else he can have neither long : and because true peace cannot come , [ for there is no peace , saith my God , to the wicked ] therefore they must make a phantastick peace by a studied cousening of themselves , by false propositions , by carelesnesse , by stupidity , by impudence , by sufferance , and habit ; by conversation , and daily acquaintances ; by doing some things as Absalom did when he lay with his fathers concubines , to make it impossible for him to repent , or to be forgiven , something to secure him in the possession of hell ; Tute hoc intristi quod tibi exedendum est , the man must thorough it now ; and this is it that makes men fall into all basenesse of spirituall sins , [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , when a man is come to the bottome of his wickednsse , he despises all ] such as malice and despite , rancor and impudence , malicious studied ignorance , voluntary contempt of all Religion , hating of good men and good counsels , and taking every wise man and wise action to be his enemy ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And this is that basenesse of sin which Plato so much detested , that he said he should blush to be guilty of , though he knew God would pardon him , and that men should never know it , propter solam peccati turpitudinem , for the very basenesse that is in it . A man that is false to God , will also , if an evill temptation overtakes him , betray his friend ; and it is notorious in the covetous and ambitious , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , — — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They are an unthankfull generation , and to please the people , or to serve their interest will hurt their friends . That man hath so lost himself to all sweetnesse and excellency of spirit , that is gone thus farre in sin , that he looks like a condemned man , or is like the accursed spirits preserved in chains of darknesse and impieties unto the Judgement of the great Day , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , this man can be nothing but evill ; for these inclinations and evill forwardnesses , this dyscrasie and gangren'd disposition does alwaies suppose a long or a base sin for their parent ; and the product of these is a wretchlesse spirit ; that is , an aptnesse to any unworthinesse , and an unwillingnesse to resist any temptation ; a perseverance in basenesse , and a consignation to all damnation , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , If men do evill things , evill things shall be their reward . If they obey the evill spirit , an evill spirit shall be their portion ; and the Devill shall enter into them as he entred into Judas , and fill them full of iniquity . SERMON , XXI . Part III. 4. ALthough these are shamefull effects of sin , and a man need no greater dishonour then to be a fool and a slave , and a base person , all which sin infallibly makes him ; yet there are some sins which are directly shamefull in their nature , and proper disreputation , and a very great many sins are the worst and basest in severall respects ; that is , every of them hath a venomous quality of its own , whereby it is marked and appropriated to a peculiar evill spirit . The Devils sin was the worst , because it came from the greatest malice : Adams was the worst , because it was of most universall efficacy and dissemination : Judas sin the worst of men , because against the most excellent person ; and the relapses of the godly are the worst , by reason they were the most obliged persons . But the ignorance of the Law is the greatest of evils , if we consider its danger , but covetousnesse is worse then it , if we regard its incurable and growing nature : luxury is most alien from spirituall things , and is the worst of all in its temptation and our pronenesse ; but pride growes most venomous by its unreasonablenesse and importunity , arising even from the good things a man hath ; even from graces , and endearments , and from being more in debt to God. Sins of malice and against the Holy Ghost oppugn the greatest grace with the greatest spite ; but Idolatry is perfectly hated by God by a direct enmity . Some sins are therefore most hainous , because to resist them is most easie , and to act them there is the least temptation : such as are severally , lying , and swearing . There is a strange poison in the nature of sins , that of so many sorts , every one of them should be the worst . Every sin hath an evill spirit , a Devill of its own to manage , to conduct , and to imbitter it : and although all these are Gods enemies , and have an appendant shame in their retinue , yet to some sins shame is more appropriate , and a proper ingredient in their constitutions : such as are lying , and lust , and vow-breach , and inconstancy . God sometimes cures the pride of a mans spirit by suffering his evill manners , and filthy inclination to be determin'd upon lust ; lust makes a man afraid of publick eyes , and common voices ; it is ( as all sins else are , but this especially ) a work of darknesse , it does debauch the spirit , and make it to decay and fall off from courage and resolution , constancy and severity , the spirit of government and a noble freedome ; and those punishments which the nations of the world have inflicted upon it , are not smart so much as shame : Lustfull souls are cheap and easie , trifling and despised in all wise accounts ; they are so farre from being fit to sit with Princes , that they dare not chastise a sinning servant that is private to their secret follies ; It is strange to consider what laborious arts of concealment , what excuses and lessenings , what pretences and fig-leaves men will put before their nakednesse and crimes ; shame was the first thing that entred upon the sin of Adam , and when the second world began , there was a strange scene of shame acted by Noah and his sons , and it ended in slavery and basenesse to all descending generations . We see the event of this by too sad an experience . What arguments , what hardnesse , what preaching , what necessity can perswade men to confesse their sins ? they are so ashamed of them , that to be conceal'd they preferre before their remedy ; and yet in penitentiall confession the shame is going off , it is like Cato's coming out of the Theatre , or the Philosopher from the Taverne ; it might have been shame to have entred , but glory to have departed for ever ; and yet ever to have relation to sin is so shame-full a thing , that a mans spirit is amazed , and his face is confounded when he is dressed of so shamefull a disease . And there are but few men that will endure it , but rather choose to involve it in excuses and deniall , in the clouds of lying , and the white linnen of hypocrisie : and yet when they make a vail for their shame , such is the fate of sin , the shame growes the bigger and the thicker ; we lye to men , and we excuse it to God ; either some parts of lying , or many parts of impudence , darknesse , or forgetfulnesse , running away , or running further in , these are the covers of our shame , like menstruous rags upon a skin of leprosie : But so sometimes we see a decayed beauty besmear'd with a lying fucus , and the chinks fill'd with ceruse ; besides that it makes no reall beauty , it spoils the face , and betrayes evill manners ; it does not hide old age , or the change of years , but it discovers pride or lust ; it was not shame to be old , or wearied and worn out with age , but it is a shame to dissemble nature by a wanton vizor . So sin retires from blushing into shame ; if it be discover'd , it is not to be endured , and if we go to hide it , we make it worse . But then if we remember how ambitious we are for fame and reputation , for honour and a fair opinion , for a good name all our dayes , and when our dayes are done , and that no ingenuous man can enjoy any thing he hath , if he lives in disgrace , and that nothing so breaks a mans spirit as dishonour , and the meanest person alive does not think himself fit to be despised ; we are to consider into what an evill condition sin puts us , for which we are not only disgraced and disparaged here , marked with disgracefull punishments , despised by good men , our follies derided , our company avoided , and hooted at by boyes , talk'd of in fairs and markets , pointed at , and described by appellatives of scorn , and everybody can chide us , and we dye unpitied , and lye in our graves eaten up by wormes , and a foul dishonour ; but after all this , at the day of Judgement we shall be called from our charnell houses , where our disgrace could not sleep , and shall in the face of God , in the presence of Angels and Devils , before all good men and all the evill , see , and feel the shame of all our sins written upon our foreheads : Here in this state of misery and folly we make nothing of it ; and though we dread to be discovered to men , yet to God we confesse our sins without a trouble or a blush ; but tell an even story , because we finde some formes of confession prescrib'd in our prayer books ; and that it may appear how indifferent and unconcerned we seem to be , we read and say all , and confesse the sins we never did , with as much sorrow and regret as those that we have acted a thousand times . But in that strange day of recompences , we shall finde the Devill to upbraid the criminall , Christ to disown them , the Angels to drive them from the seat of mercy , and shame to be their smart , the consigning them to damnation ; they shall then finde , that they cannot dwell where vertue is rewarded , and where honour and glory hath a throne ; there is no vail but what is rent , no excuse to any but to them , that are declared as innocent ; no circumstances concerning the wicked to be considered , but them that aggravate ; then the disgrace is not confin'd to the talk of a village , or a province , but is scattered to all the world , not only in one age shall the shame abide , but the men of all generations shall see , and wonder at the vastnesse of that evill that is spread upon the souls of sinners for ever and ever ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . No night shall then hide it , for in those regions of darknesse where the dishonoured man shall dwell for ever , there is nothing visible but the shame ; there is light enough for that , but darknesse for all things else : and then he shall reap the full harvest of his shame ; all that for which wise men scorned him , and all that for which God hated him ; all that in which he was a fool , and all that in which he was malicious ; that which was publick , and that which was private ; that which fools applauded , and that which himself durst not own ; the secrets of his lust , and the criminall contrivances of his thoughts ; the base and odious circumstances , and the frequency of the action , and the partner of his sin ; all that which troubles his conscience , and all that he willingly forgets , shall be proclaim'd by the trumpet of God , by the voice of an Archangell in the great congregation of spirits and just men . There is one great circumstance more of the shame of sin , which extremely enlarges the evill of a sinfull state , but that is not consequent to sin by a naturall emanation , but is superinduc'd by the just wrath of God : and therefore is to be consider'd in the third part , which is next to be handled . 3. When the Boeotians asked the Oracle , by what they should become happy ? the answer was made , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , wicked and irreligious persons are prosperous : and they taking the Devill at his word , threw the inspired Pythian , the ministring witeh , into the sea , hoping so to become mighty in peace and warre . The effect of which was this , The Devill was found a lyar , and they fools at first , and at last felt the reward of irreligion . For there are to some crimes such events , which are not to be expected from the connexion of naturall causes , but from secret influences and undiscernible conveyances ; * that a man should be made sick for receiving the holy Sacrament unworthily , and blinde for resisting the words of an Apostle , a preacher of the Lawes of Jesus , and dye suddenly for breaking of his vow , and committing sacriledge , and be under the power and scourge of an exterminating Angell for climbing his Fathers bed , these are things beyond the worlds Philosophy . But as in Nature , so in Divinity too there are Sympathies and Antipathies , effects which we feel by experience , and are forewarned of by revelation , which no naturall reason can judge , nor any providence can prevent but by living innocently , and complying with the Commandements of God. The rod of God , which cometh not into the lot of the righteous , strikes the sinning man with sore strokes of veng eance . 1. The first that I shall note is that which I called the aggravation of the shame of sin ; and that is , an impossibility of being concealed in most cases of heinous crimes ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , let no man suppose that he shall for ever hide his sin : a single action may be conveyed away under the covert of an excuse or a privacy , escaping as Ulysses did the search of Polyphemus , and it shall in time be known that it did escape , and shall be discover'd that it was private ; that is , that it is so no longer . But no wicked man that dwelt and delighted in sin , did ever go off from his scene of unworthinesse without a filthy character , The black veile is thrown over him before his death , and by some contingency or other he enters into his cloud , because few sins determine finally in the thoughts ; but if they dwell there , they will also enter into action , and then the thing discovers it self ; or else the injured person will proclaim it , or the jealous man will talk of it before it 's done , or curious people will inquire and discover , or the spirit of detraction shall be let loose upon him , and in spite shall declare more then he knowes , not more then is true , The Ancients , especially the Scholars of Epicurus , beleev'd that no man could be secured or quiet in his spirit from being discovered . Scelus aliqua tutum , nulla securum tulit ; They are not secure even when they are safe ; but are afflicted with perpetuall jealousies ; and every whisper is concerning them , and all new noises , are arrests to their spirits ; and the day is too light , and the night is too horrid , and both are the most opportune for their discovery ; and besides the undiscernible connexion of the contingencies of providence , many secret crimes have been published by dreams , and talkings in their sleep . It is the observation of Lucretius , Multi de magnis per somnum rebus loquuntur , Indictóque sui facti persaepe fuêre . And what their understanding kept a guard upon , their fancy let loose ; fear was the bars and locks , but sleep became the key to open , even then when all the senses were shut , and God rul'd alone without the choice and discourse of man. And though no man regards the wilder talkings of a distracted man , yet it hath sometimes hapned that a delirium and a feaver , fear of death , and the intolerable apprehensions of damnation have open'd the cabinet of sin , and brought to light all that was acted in the curtains of night , Quippe ubi se multis per somnia saepe loquentes , Aut morbo delirantes protrâxe feruntur , Et celata diu in medium peccata dedisse . But there are so many wayes of discovery , and amongst so many , some one does so certainly happen that they are well summ'd up by Sophocles , by saying , that time hears all and tels all , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . A cloud may be its roof and cover till it passes over , but when it is driven by a fierce winde , or runs fondly after the Sun , it layes open a deformity , which like an ulcer had a skin over it , and a pain within , and drew to it a heap of sorrowes big enough to run over all its inclosures . Many persons have betrayed themselves by their own fears , and knowing themselves never to be secure enough , have gone to purge themselves of what no body suspected them ; offer'd an Apology , when they had no accuser but one within ; which like a thorn in the flesh , or like a word in a fools heart , was uneasie till it came out ; Non amo se nimium purgitantes , when men are over-busie in justifying themselves , it is a sign themselves think they need it . Plutarch tels of a young gentleman that destroyed a swallow's nest , pretending to them that reproved him for doing the thing , which in their superstition the Greeks esteemed so ominous , that the little bird accused him for killing his Father . And to this purpose it was that Solomon gave counsell : Curse not the King , no not in thy thought , nor the rich in thy bedchamber , for a bird of the air shall carry the voice , and that that hath wings shall tell the matter ; Murder and treason have by such strange wayes been revealed , as if God had appointed an Angell president of the revelation , and had kept this in secret and sure ministry to be as an argument to destroy Atheisme from the face of the earth , by opening the secrets of men with this key of providence . Intercepting of letters , mistaking names , false inscriptions , errors of messengers , faction of the parties , fear in the actors , horror in the action , the majesly of the person , the restlesnesse of the minde , distracted looks , wearinesse of the spirit , and all under the conduct of the Divine wisdome , and the Divine vengeance , make the covers of the most secret sin transparent as a net , and visible as the Chian wines in the purest Crystall . For besides that God takes care of Kings and of the lives of men , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , driving away evill from their persons , and watching as a Mother to keep gnats and flies from her dear boy sleeping in the cradle , there are in the machinations of a mighty mischief , so many motions to be concentred , so many wheels to move regularly , and the hand that turns them does so tremble , and there is so universall a confusion in the conduct , that unlesse it passes suddenly into act , it will be prevented by discovery , and if it be acted it enters into such a mighty horror , that the face of a man will tell what his heart did think , and his hands have done . And after all , it was seen and observed by him that stood behinde the cloud , who shall also bring every work of darknesse into light in the day of strange discoveries and fearfull recompences : and in the mean time certain it is , that no man can long put on a person and act a part , but his evill manners will peep through the corners of the white robe , and God will bring an hypocrite to shame even in the eyes of men . 2. A second superinduced consequent of sin brought upon it by the wrath of God , is sin ; when God punishes sin with sin he is extreamly angry ; for then the punishment is not medicinal , but finall and exterminating ; God in that case takes no care concerning him , though he dies and dies eternally . I do not here speak of those sins which are naturally consequent to each other , as evill words to evill thoughts , evill actions to evill words , rage to drunkennesse , lust to gluttony , pride to ambition ; but such which God suffers the mans evill nature to be tempted to by evill opportunities : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , This is the wrath of God , and the man is without remedy . It was a sad calamity , when God punished Davids adultery by permitting him to fall to murder , and Solomons wanton and inordinate love , with the crime of idolatry , and Ananias his sacriledge with lying against the holy Ghost , and Judas his covetousnesse with betraying his Lord , and that betraying with despair , and that despair with self-murder . — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , One evill invites another , and when God is angry and withdrawes his grace , and the holy Spirit is grieved and departs from his dwelling , the man is left at the mercy of the mercilesse enemy , and he shall receive him only with variety of mischiefs ; like Hercules when he had broken the horn of Achelous , he was almost drown'd with the floud that sprung from it ; and the evill man when he hath pass'd the first scene of his sorrowes , shall be intic'd or left to fall into another . For it is a certain truth , that he who resists , or that neglects to use Gods grace , shall fall into that evill condition , that when he wants it most , he shall have least . It is so with every man ; he that hath the greatest want of the grace of God shall want it more ; if this great want proceeded once from his own sin . Habenti dabitur , said our blessed Lord , to him that hath shall be given , and he shall have more abundantly ; from him that hath not shall be taken , even that which he hath . It is a remarkable saying of David ; I have thought upon thy name O Lord in the night season , and have kept thy Law ; this I had because I kept thy Commandements : keeping Gods Commandements , was rewarded with keeping Gods Commandements ; And in this world God hath not a greater reward to give ; for so the soul is nourished unto life , so it growes up with the increase of God , so it passes on to a perfect man in Christ , so it is consigned for heaven , and so it enters into glory ; for glory is the perfection of grace , and when our love to God is come to its state and perfection , then we are within the circles of a Diadem , and then we are within the regions of felicity . And there is the same reason in the contrary instance . The wicked person fals into sin , and this he had because he sinn'd against his maker . Tradidit Deus eos in desideria cordis eorum : and it concerns all to observe it ; and if ever we finde that a sin succeeds a sin in the same instance , it is because we refuse to repent ; but if a sin succeeds a sin in another instance , as if lust followes pride , or murder drunkennesse ; it is a sign that God will not give us the grace of repentance : he is angry at us with a destructive fury , he hath dipt his arrowes in the venome of the serpent , and whets his sword in the forges of hell ; then it is time that a man withdraw his foot , and that he start back from the preparations of an intolerable ruine : For though men in this case grow insensible , and that 's part of the disease , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith Chrysostome , it is the biggest part of the evill that the man feels it not , yet the very antiperistasis or the contrariety , the very horror and bignesse of the danger may possibly make a man to contend to leap out of the fire ; and sometimes God works a miracle , and besides his own rule delights to reform a dissolute person , to force a man from the grave , to draw him against the bent of his evill habits ; yet it is so seldome that we are left to consider , that such persons are in a desperate condition , who cannot be saved unlesse God is pleased to work a miracle . 3. Sinne brings in its retinue , fearfull plagues and evill angels , messengers of the displeasure of God , concerning which , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , there are enough of dead ; I mean the experience is so great , and the notion so common , and the examples so frequent , and the instances so sad , that there is scarce any thing new in this particular to be noted ; but something is remarkable , and that is this , that God even when he forgives the sin , does reserve such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , such remains of punishment , and those not only to the lesse perfect , but to the best persons , that it makes demonstration , that every sinner is in a worse condition then he dreams of . For consider ; can it be imagined that any one of us should escape better then David did ? we have reason to tremble when we remember what he suffered , even when God had seal'd his pardon . Did not God punish Zedekiah with suffering his eyes to be put out in the house of bondage ? was not God so angry with Valentinian , that he gave him into his enemies hand to be flay'd alive ? Have not many persons been struck suddenly in the very act of sin , and some been seised upon by the Devill and carryed away alive ? These are fearfull contingencies : but God hath been more angry yet ; rebellion was punished in Corah and his company , by the gaping of the earth , and the men were buryed alive ; and Dathan and Abiram were consumed with fire for usurping the Priests office : But God hath struck severely since that time ; and for the prostitution of a Lady by the Spanish King , the Moors were brought in upon his Kingdome , and rul'd there for 700. years . And have none of us known an excellent and good man to have descended , or rather to have been thrust into a sin , for which he hath repented , which he hath confessed , which he hath rescinded , and which he hath made amends for as he could , and yet God was so severely angry that this man was suffered to fall in so big a calamity , that he dyed by the hands of violence , in a manner so seemingly impossible to his condition , that it looked like the biggest sorrow that hath happened to the sons of men ? But then let us consider how many and how great crimes we have done ; and tremble to think that God hath exacted so fearfull pains , and mighty punishments for one such sin which we , it may be , have committed frequently . Our sin deserves as bad as theirs ; and God is impartial , and we have no priviledge , no promise of exemption , no reason to hope it ; what then do we think shall become of this affair ? where must we suffer this vengeance ? For that it is due , that it is just we suffer it , these sad examples are a perfect demonstration . We have done that for which God thought flaying alive not to be too big a punishment : that for which God hath smitten Kings with formidable plagues ; that for which governments have been changed , and nations enslaved , and Churches destroyed , and the Candlestick removed , and famines and pestilences have been sent upon a whole Kingdome ; and what shall become of us ? why do we vainly hope it shall not be so with us ? If it was just for these men to suffer what they did , then we are at least to expect so much ; and then let us consider into what a fearfull condition sin hath put us , upon whom a sentence is read , that we shall be plagued like Zedekiah , or Corah , or Dathan , or the King of Spain , or any other King who , were , for ought we know , infinitely more innocent and more excellent persons then any of us . What will become of us ? For God is as just to us as to them ; and Christ dyed for them as well as for us ; and they have repented more then we have done ; and what mercy can we expect that they might not hope for , upon at least as good ground as we ? Gods wayes are secret , and his mercies and justice dwell in a great abysse ; but we are to measure our expectations by revelation and experience . But then what would become of us , if God should be as angry at our sin as at Zedekiahs , or King Davids ? where have we in our body room enough for so many stripes , as our sin ought justly to be punished withall ? or what security or probability have we that he will not so punish us ? For I did not represent this sad story , as a matter of possibility only , that we may fear such fearfull strokes as we see God lay upon sinners ; but we ought to look upon it as a thing that will come some way or other , and for ought we know we cannot escape it . So much , and more is due for the sin , and though Christ hath redeemed our souls , and if we repent we shall not die eternally , yet he hath no where promised we shall not be smitten . It was an odde saying of the Devill to a sinner whom he would fain have had to despair ; Me è Coelo ad Barathrum demisit peccatum , & vos ullum in terra locum tutum existimabitis ? Sin thrust me from heaven to hell , and do you think on earth to have security ? Men use to presume that they shall go unpunished ; but we see what little reason we have so to flatter and undoe our selves , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , He that hath sinn'd must look for a Judgement , and how great that is , we are to take our measures by those sad instances of vengeance by which God hath chastised the best of men , when they have committed but a single sin ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , sin is damnable and destructive : and therefore as the asse refused the barley which the fatted swine left , perceiving by it he was fatted for the slaughter ; Tuum libenter prorsus appeterem cibam , Nisi qui nutritus illo est , jugulatus foret ; we may learn to avoid these vain pleasures which cut the throat after they are swallowed , and leave us in that condition that we may every day fear , lest that evill happen unto us , which we see fall upon the great examples of Gods anger ; and our fears cannot , ought not at all to be taken off , but by an effective , busie , pungent , hasty , and a permanent repentance ; and then also but in some proportions , for we cannot be secured from temporall plagues , if we have sinn'd ; no repentance can secure us from all that ; nay Gods pardon , or remitting his finall anger , and forgiving the pains of hell , does not secure us here : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; but sin lies at the door ready to enter in , and rifle all our fortunes . 1. But this hath two appendages which are very considerable ; and the first is , that there are some mischiefs which are the proper and appointed scourges of certain sins , and a man need not aske ; Cujus vulturis hoc erit cadaver ? what vultur , what death , what affliction shall destroy this sinner ? The sin hath a punishment of its own which usually attends it , as giddinesse does a drunkard . He that commits sacriledge , is marked for a vertiginousnesse and changeable fortune ; Make them , O my God , like unto a wheel , of an unconstant state : and we and our fathers have seen it , in the change of so many families , which have been undone by being made rich : they took the lands from the Church , and the curse went along with it , and the misery and the affliction lasted longer then the sin . Telling lies frequently hath for its punishment to be given over to believe a lye , and at last , that no body shall beleeve it but himself ; and then the mischief is full , he becomes a dishonoured and a baffled person . The consequent of lust is properly shame ; and witchcraft is still punished with basenesse , and beggery ; and oppression of widowes hath a sting , for the tears of the oppressed are to the oppressour , like the waters of jealousie , making the belly to swell , and the thigh to rot ; the oppressor seldome dies in a tolerable condition : but is remark'd towards his end with some horrible affliction . The sting of oppression is darted as a man goes to his grave . In these and the like , God keeps a rule of striking , In quo quis peccat , in eo punitur . The Divine Judgement did point at the sin , lest that be concealed by excuses , and protected by affection , and increased by passion , and destroy the man by its abode . For some sins are so agreeable to the spirit of a fool and an abused person , because he hath fram'd his affections to them , and they comply with his unworthy interest , that when God out of an angry kindnesse , smites the man , and punishes the sin , the man does fearfully defend his beloved sin , as the serpent does his head which he would most tenderly preserve . But therefore God that knowes all our tricks and devices , our stratagems to be undone , hath therefore apportioned out his punishments , by analogies , by proportions , and entaile : so that when every sin enters into its proper portion , we may discern why God is angry , and labour to appease him speedily . 2. The second appendage to this consideration is this , that there are some states of sin which expose a man to all mischief , as it can happen by taking off from him all his guards , and defences ; by driving the good Spirit from him , by stripping him of the guards of Angels . But this is the effect of an habituall sin , a course of an evill life , and it is called in Scripture , a grieving the good Spirit of God. But the guard of Angels is in Scripture only promised to them that live godly ; The Angels of the Lord pitch their tents round about them that fear him , and delivereth them , said David . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And the Hellenists use to call the Angels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 watchmen ; which custody is at first designed and appointed for all , when by baptisme they give up their names to Christ , and enter into the covenant of Religion . And of this the Heathen have been taught something by conversation with the Hebrewes and Christians ; unicuique nostrum dare paedagogum Deum , said Seneca to Lucilius , non primarium , sed ex eorum numero , quos Ovidius vocat ex plebe deos . There is a guardian God assigned to every one of us , of the number of those which are of the second order ; such are those of whom David speaks , before the Gods will I sing praise unto thee ; and it was the doctrine of the Stoicks , that to every one there was assigned a Genius and a Juno : Quamobrem major coelitum populus etiam quam hominum intelligi potest , quum singuli ex semetipsis totidem Deos faciant , Junones gentosque adoptando sibi , said Pliny . Every one does adopt Gods into his family and get a Gunius and a Juno of their own , Junonem meam iratam habeam ; it was the oath of Quartilla in Petronius ; and Socrates in Plato is said to swear by his Juno ; though afterwards among the Romans it became the womans oath , and a note of effeminacy ; But the thing they aim'd at was this , that God took a care of us below , and sent a ministring spirit for our defence ; but that this is only upon the accounts of piety , they knew not . But we are taught it by the Spirit of God in Scripture . For , the Angels are ministring spirits , sent forth to minister to the good of them who shal be heirs of salvation ; and concerning St. Peter , the faithfull had an opinion , that it might be his Angell ; agreeing to the Doctrine of our blessed Lord , who spake of Angels appropriate to his little ones , to infants , to those that belong to him . Now what God said to the sons of Israel is also true to us Christians ; Behold I send an Angell before thee , beware of him and obey his voice , provoke him not , for he will not pardon your trangressions . So that if we provoke the Spirit of the Lord to anger by a course of evill living , either the Angell will depart from us , or if he staies , he will strike us . The best of these is bad enough , and he is highly miserable , — Qui non sit tanto hoc custode securus , whom an Angell cannot defend from mischief , nor any thing secure him from the wrath of God. It was the description and character which the Erythrean Sibyl gave of God , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It is Gods appellative to be a giver of excellent rewards to just and innocent persons : but to assign to evill men fury , wrath , and sorrow for their portion . If I should lanch further into this Dead sea , I should finde nothing but horrid shriekings , and the skuls of dead men utterly undone . Fearfull it is to consider , that sin does not only drive us into calamity , but it makes us also impatient , and imbitters our spirit in the sufferance : * It cryes loud for vengeance , and so torments men before the time , even with such fearfull outcries , and horrid alarms , that their hell begins before the fire is kindled . * It hinders our prayers , and consequently makes us hopelesse and helplesse . * It perpetually affrights the conscience , unlesse by its frequent stripes it brings a callousnesse and an insensible damnation upon it . * It makes us to lose all that which Christ purchased for us , all the blessings of his providence , the comforts of his spirit , the aids of his grace , the light of his countenance , the hopes of his glory ; it makes us enemies to God , and to be hated by him more then he hates a dog ; and with a dog shall be his portion to eternall ages ; with this only difference , that they shall both be equally excluded from heaven ; but the dog shall not , and the sinner shall descend into hell ; and which is the confirmation of all evill ; for a transient sin God shall inflict an eternall Death . Well might it be said in the words of God by the Prophet , ponam Babylonem in possessionem Erinacei , Babylon shall be the possession of an Hedgehog : that 's a sinners dwelling ; incompassed round with thornes and sharp prickles , afflictions and uneasinesse all over . So that he that wishes his sin big and prosperous , wishes his Bee as big as a Bull , and his Hedgehog like an Elephant ; the pleasure of the honey would not cure the mighty sting ; and nothing make recompense , or be a good , equall to the evill of an eternall ruine . But of this there is no end . I summe up all with the saying of Publius Mimus , Tolerabilior est qui mori jubet quàm qui malè vivere , He is more to be endured that puts a man to death , then he that betrayes him into sin . For the end of this is death eternall . Sermon , XXII . THE GOOD and EVILL TONGUE . Ephes. 4. 29. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth , but that which is good to the use of edifying , that it may minister grace unto the hearers . HE that had an ill memory did wisely comfort himselfe by reckoning the advantages he had by his forgetfulnesse . For by this means he was hugely secured against malice , and ambition ; for his anger went off with the short notice and observation of the injury ; and he saw himself unfit for the businesses of other men , or to make records in his head , & undertake to conduct the intrigues of affairs of a multitude , who was apt to forget the little accounts of his own seldom reading . He also remembred this , that his pleasures in reading books were more frequent , while he remembred but little of yesterdays study , and tomorrow the book is newes , and with its novelties gives him fresh entertainment , while the retaining brain layes the book aside , and is full already . Every book is new to an ill memory , and one long book is a Library , and its parts return fresh as the morning , which becomes a new day , though by the revolution of the same sun . Besides these , it brought him to tell truth for fear of shame , and in meer necessity made his speech little and his discourses short ; because the web drawn from his brain was soon spun out , and his fountain grew quickly dry , and left running through forgetfulnesse . * He that is not eloquent and faire spoken , hath some of these comforts to plead in excuse of his ill fortune , or defective nature . For if he can but hold his peace , he shall be sure not to be troublesome to his company , not mark'd for lying , or become tedious with multiplicity of idle talk . He shall be presumed wise , and oftentimes is so ; he shall not feel the wounds of contention , nor be put to excuse an ill taken saying , nor sigh for the folly of an irrecoverable word ; If his fault be that he hath not spoken , that can at any time be mended , but if he sinn'd in speaking , it cannot be unspoken again . Thus he escapes the dishonor of not being believed , and the trouble of being suspected ; he shall never fear the Sentence of Judges , nor the Decrees of Courts , high reproaches , or the angry words of the proud , the contradiction of the disputing man , or the thirst of talkers . By these and many other advantages , he that holds his peace , and he that cannot speak , may please themselves ; and he may at least have the rewards and effects of solitarinesse , if he misses some of the pleasures of society . But by the use of the tongue , God hath distinguished us from beasts , and by the well or ill using it we are distinguished from one another ; and therefore though silence be innocent as death , harmlesse as a roses breath to a distant passenger , yet it is rather the state of death then life ; and therefore when the Egyptians sacrificed to Harpocrates their god of Silence , in the midst of their rites they cryed out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The Tongue is an Angel , good or bad , that 's as it happens ; Silence was to them a god , but the Tongue is greater ; it is the band of humane entercourse , and makes men apt to unite in Societies and Republicks ; and I remember what one of the Ancients said , that we are better in the company of a known dog , then of a man whose speech is not known , ut externus alieno non sit hominis vice ; a stranger to a stranger in his language , is not as a man to a man ; for by voices and homilies , by questions and answers , by narratives and invectives , by counsell and reproofe , by praises and hymnes , by prayers and glorifications , we serve Gods glory , and the necessities of men ; and by the tongue our Tables are made to differ from Mangers , our Cities from Deserts , our Churches from Herds of beasts and flocks of sheep . Faith comes by hearing , and hearing by the Word of God , spoken by the tongues of men and Angels ; and the blessed Spirits in heaven cease not from saying night and day their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , their song of glory to him that sitteth on the throne , and to the Lambe for ever and ever ; and then our imployment shall be glorious as our state , when our tongues shal to eternall ages sing Allelujahs to their Maker and Redeemer ; and therefore since Nature hath taught us to speak , and God requires it , and our thankfulnesse obliges us , and our necessities engage us , and charity sometimes calls for it , and innocence is to be defended , and we are to speak in the cause of the oppressed , and open our mouths in the cause of God : and it is alwayes a seasonable prayer , that God would open our lips , that our mouth may doe the work of heaven , and declare his praises , and shew forth his glory ; it concerns us to take care that nature be changed into grace , necessity into choice , that while we speak the greatnesse of God , and minister to the needs of our neighbor , and doe the works of life and religion , of society and prudence , we may be fitted to bear a part in the songs of Angels , when they shall rejoyce at the feast of the marriage supper of the Lambe . But the tongue is a fountain both of bitter waters and of pleasant ; it sends forth blessing , and cursing ; it praises God , and railes at men ; it is sometimes set on fire , and then it puts whole Cities in combustion ; it is unruly , and no more to be restrained then the breath of a tempest ; it is volatile and fugitive : reason should go before it , and when it does not , repentance comes after ; it was intended for an organ of the divine praises , but the Devill often playes upon it , and then it sounds like the Scriech-owle , or the groans of death ; sorrow and shame , folly and repentance are the notes , and formidable accents of that discord . We are all naturally 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , lovers of speech , more or lesse ; and God reproves it not , provided that we be also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , wise and materiall , usefull and prudent in our discourses . For since speech is for conversation , let it be also charitable and profitable ; let it be without sin , but not without profit and grace to the hearers , and then it is as God would have it ; and this is the precept of the text , first telling us what we should avoyd , and then telling us what we should pursue ; what our discourse ought not to be , and 2ly . what it ought to be ; there being no more variety in the structure of the words , I shall 1. discourse of the vices of the tongue ; 2. of its duty and proper employment . 1. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , corrupt or filthy communication ; so we read it ; and it seems properly to note such communication as ministers to wantonnesse ; such as are the Fescennines of Ausonius , the excrement and spume of Martial's verse , and the Ephesiaca of Xenophon ; indeed this is such a rudenesse as is not to be admitted into civill conversation ; and is wittily noted by the Apostle , charging that fornication should not be once named among them as becometh Saints ; not meaning that the vice should not have its name and filthy character , but that nothing of it be named , in which it can be tempting or offensive ; nothing tending to it , or teaching of it , should be named : we must not have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , fornication in our talk ; that 's such a basenesse , that it not onely grieves the Divine Spirit , but dishonors all its channels and conveyances : the proper language of the sin is not fit to be used so much as in reproofe ; and therefore I have sometimes wondred how it came to passe , that some of the Ancients , men wise and modest , chaste and of sober spirits , have faln into a fond liberty of declamation against uncleannesse , using such words which bring that sin upon the stage of fancy , and offend auriculas non calentes , sober and chaste eares . For who can without blushing read Seneca describing the Looking-glasse of Hostius , or the severe but looser words of Persius , or the reproofes of St. Hierom himselfe , that great Patron of virginity , and exacter of chastity ? yet more then once he reproves filthy things with unhandsome language : St. Chrysostome makes an Apology for them that doe so ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , you cannot profit the hearers unlesse you discover the filthinesse , for the withdrawing the curtain is shame and confutation enough for so great a basenesse ; and Chirurgeons care not how they defile their hands , so they may doe profit to the patient . And indeed there is a materiall difference in the designe of him that speaks ; if he speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , according to his secret affection and private folly , it is certainly intolerable ; but yet if he speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , out of a desire to profit the hearer , and cure the criminall , though it be in the whole kinde of it honest and well meant ; yet that it is imprudent , Irritamentum Veneris languentis & acris Divitis urticae — and not wholly to be excused by the faire meaning , will soon be granted by all who know what danger and infection it leaves upon the fancy , even by those words by which the spirit is instructed . Ab hâc scabie tenemus ungues , it is not good to come near the leprosie , though to cleanse the Lepers skin . But the word which the Apostle uses [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] means more then this . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Eupolis , and so it signifies musty , rotten , and outworn with age ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , iusty peace , so Aristophanes : and according to this acception of the word , we are forbidden to use all language that is in any sense corrupted , unreasonable , or uselesse ; language proceeding from our old iniquity , evill habits , or unworthy customes , called in the style of Scripture the remains of the old man , and by the Greeks , doting or talking fondly ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; the boy talkes like an old dotard . 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies wicked , filthy , or reproachfull , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , any thing that is in its own nature criminall and disgracefull , any language that ministers to mischief . But it is worse then all this : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it is a deletery , an extinction of all good , for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it is a destruction , an intire corruption of all Morality ; and to this sense is that of Menander quoted by St. Paul , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Evill words corrupt good manners . And therefore under this word is comprised all the evill of the tongue , that wicked instrument of the unclean Spirit , in the capacity of all the appellatives . 1. Here is forbidden the uselesse , vain , and trifling conversation , the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the god of Flies , so is the Devils name , he rules by these little things , by trifles and vanity , by idle and uselesse words , by the entercourses of a vain conversation . 2. The Devill is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , an Accuser of the Brethren , and the calumniating , slandering , undervaluing , detracting tongue does his work , that 's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the second that I named , for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so Hesychius ; it is slander , hatred , and calumny . 3. But the third is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Devils worst appellative , the Destroyer , the dissolute , wanton , tempting , destroying conversation ; and its worst instance of all is flattery , that malicious cousening devill , that strengthens our friend in sin , and ruines him from whom we have received , and from whom we expect good . Of these in order , and first of the trifling , vain , uselesse , and impertinent conversation , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , let no vain communication proceed out of your mouth . 1. The first part of this inordination is multiloquium , talking too much : concerning which , because there is no rule or just measure for the quantity , and it is as lawfull , and sometimes as prudent to tell a long story as a short , and two as well as one , and sometimes ten as well as two ; all such discourses are to take their estimate by the matter , and the end , and can onely be altered by their circumstances and appendages . Much speaking is sometimes necessary , sometimes usefull , sometimes pleasant ; and when it is none of all this , though it be tedious and imprudent , yet it is not alwayes criminall . Such was the humour of the Gentleman Martial speaks of , he was a good man , and full of sweetnesse and justice and noblenesse , but he would read his nonsense verses to all companies at the publick games and in private feasts , in the baths , and on the beds , in publick and in private , to sleeping and waking people . Vis quantum mali facias videre ? Virjustus , probus , innocens timeris . Every one was afraid of him , and though he was good , yet he was not to be endured : The evill of this is very considerable in the accounts of prudence , and the effects and plaisance of conversation : and the Ancients described its evill well by a proverbiall expression ; for when a sudden silence arose , they said that Mercury was entred , meaning , that he being their loquax numen , their prating god , yet that quitted him not , but all men stood upon their guard , and called for aid and rescue , when they were seised upon so tedious an impertinence . And indeed there are some persons so full of nothings , that like the strait sea of Pontus they perpetually empty themselves by their mouth , making every company or single person they fasten on , to be their Propontis ; such a one as was Anaximenes , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , He was an Ocean of words , but a drop of understanding . And if there were no more in this then the matter of prudence , and the proper measures of civill conversation , it would yet highly concern old men , and young men and women to separate from their persons the reproach of their sex and age , that modesty of speech be the ornament of the youthfull , and a reserved discourse be the testimony of the old mans prudence . Adolescens from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said one : a young man is a talker for want of wit , and an old man for want of memory ; for while he remembers the things of his youth , and not how often he hath told them in his old age , he grows in love with the trifles of his youthfull dayes , and thinks the company must doe so too ; but he canonizes his folly , and by striving to bring reputation to his first dayes , he loses the honor of his last . But this thing is considerable to further issues ; for though no man can say , that much speaking is a sin , yet the Scripture sayes , In multiloquio peccatum non deerit , Sin goes along with it , and is an ingredient in the whole composition . For it is impossible but a long and frequent discourse must be served with many passions , and they are not alwayes innocent ; for he that loves to talke much , must rem corradere , scrape materials together to furnish out the scenes and long orations ; and some talke themselves into anger , and some furnish out their dialogues with the lives of others ; either they detract , or censure ; or they flatter themselves , and tell their owne stories with friendly circumstances , and pride creeps up the sides of the discourse ; and the man entertains his friend with his owne Panegyrick ; or the discourse lookes one way and rowes another , and more mindes the designe then its own truth ; and most commonly will be so ordered that it shall please the company , ( and that , truth or honest plainnesse seldome does ) or there is a byasse in it , which the more of weight and transportation it hath , the lesse it hath of ingenuity . Non credo Auguribus qui aureis rebus divinant , like Sooth-sayers , men speak fine words to serve ends , and then they are not beleeved , or at last are found lyars , and such discourses are built up to serve the ministeries or pleasures of the company , but nothing else . Pride and flattery , malice and spite , self-love and vanity , these usually wait upon much speaking ; and the reward of it is , that the persons grow contemptible and troublesome , they engage in quarrels , and are troubled to answer exceptions , some will mistake them , and some will not beleeve them , and it will be impossible that the minde should be perpetually present to a perpetuall talker , but they will forget truth and themselves , and their own relations . And upon this account it is , that the Doctors of the Primitive Church doe literally expound those minatory words of our blessed Saviour ; Verily I say unto you , of every idle word that men shall speak , they shall give account at the day of Judgement . And by idle words , they understand , such as are not usefull to edification and instruction . So St. Basil , So great is the danger of an idle word , that though a word be in its owne kinde good , yet unlesse it be directed to the edification of faith , he is not free from danger that speaks it : To this purpose are the words of St. Gregory ; while the tongue is not restrained from idle words , ad temeritatem stultae increpationis efferatur , it is made wilde , or may be brought forth to rashnesse and folly : And therein lies the secret of the reproofe : A periculo liber non est , & ad temeritatem efferatur , the man is not free from danger , and he may grow rash , and foolish , and run into crimes , whilest he gives his Tongue the reins , and lets it wander , and so it may be fit to be reproved , though in its nature it were innocent . I deny not but sometimes they are more severe . St. Gregory calls every word vain or idle , quod aut ratione justae necessitatis , aut intentione piae utilitatis caret : and St. Hierom calls it vain , quod sine utilitatis & loquentis dicitur & audientis , which profits neither the speaker nor the hearer . The same is affirmed by St. Chrysostom * , and Gregory Nyssen * upon Ecclesiastes , and the same seems intimated in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as it is in some copies , every word that is idle or empty of businesse . But for the stating the case of Conscience , I have these things to say . 1. That the words of our blessed Saviour being spoken to the Jews , were so certainly intended as they best and most commonly understood , and by [ vain ] they understood false or lying , not uselesse or imprudent ; and yet so though our blessed Saviour hath not so severely forbidden every empty , unsignificant discourse , yet he hath forbidden every lie , though it be in genere bonorum , as St. Basil's expression is ; that is , though it be in the intention charitable , or in the matter innocent . 2. Of every idle word we shal give account , but yet so , that sometimes the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the judgment shall fall upon the words , not upon the persons ; they be hay and stubble , uselesse and impertinent , light and easie , the fire shall consume them , and himselfe shall escape with that losse ; he shall then have no honor , no fair return for such discourses , but they shall with losse and prejudice be rejected and cast away . 3. If all unprofitable discourses be reckoned for idle words and put upon the account , yet even the capacities of profit are so large and numerous , that no man hath cause to complain that his tongue is too much restrained by this severity . For in all the wayes in which he can doe himselfe good , or his neighbour , he hath his liberty ; he is onely to secure the words from being directly criminal , and himselfe from being arrested with a passion , and then he may reckon it lawfull even upon the severest account to discourse freely , while he can instruct , or while he can please his neighbour ; Aut prodesse solent , aut delectare — while himselfe gets a fair opinion and a good name , apt to serve honest and fair purposes ; he may discourse himselfe into a friendship , or help to preserve it ; he may serve the works of art or nature , of businesse publick or private , the needs of his house , or the uses of mankinde , he may increase learning , or confirm his notices , cast in his symbol of experience and observation , till the particulars may become a proverbiall sentence and a rule ; he may serve the ends of civility and popular addresses , or may instruct his brother or himselfe , by something which at that time shall not be reduc'd to a precept by way of meditation , but is of it selfe apt at another time to doe it ; he may speak the praises of the Lord by discoursing of any of the works of creation , and himselfe or his brother may afterwards remember it to that purpose ; he may counsell or teach , reprove or admonish , call to minde a precept , or disgrace a vice , reprove it by a parable or a story , by way of Idea or witty representment ; and he that can finde talke beyond all this , discourse that cannot become usefull in any one of these purposes , may well be called a prating man , and expect to give account of his folly in the dayes of recompense . 4. Although in this latitude a mans discourses may be free and safe from judgement , yet the man is not , unlesse himself designe it to good and wise purposes , not alwayes actually , but by an habituall and generall purpose . Concerning which he may by these measures best take his accounts . 1. That he be sure to speak nothing that may minister to a vice , willingly and by observation . 2. If any thing be of a suspicious and dubious nature , that he decline to publish it . 3. That by a prudent morall care he watch over his words , that he doe none of this injury and unworthinesse . 4. That he offer up to God in his prayers all his words , and then look to it , that he speak nothing unworthy to be offered . 5. That he often interweave discourses of Religion , and glorifications of God , instructions to his brother , and ejaculations of his owne , something or other not onely to sanctifie the order of his discourses , but to call him back into retirement and sober thoughts , lest he wander and be carried off too far into the wilde regions of impertinence ; and this Zeno calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to dip our tongues in understanding . In all other cases the rule is good , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , either keep silence , or speak something that is better then it ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so Isocrates constantly enough to this Evangelicall precept ; a seasonable silence , or a profitable discourse , choose you whether ; for whatsoever cometh of more is sin , or else is folly at hand , and will be sin at distance . Lastly , 5. This account is not to be taken by little traverses and intercourses of speech , but by greater measures , and more discernible portions , such as are commensurate to valuable portions of time ; for however we are pleased to throw away our time , and are weary of many parts of it , yet are impatiently troubled when all is gone , yet we are as sure to account for every considerable portion of our time , as for every summe of money we receive ; and in this it was , that St. Bernard gave caution , Nemo parvi aestimet tempus quod in verbis consumitur otiosis , Let no man think it a light matter that he spend his pretious time in idle words ; let no man be so weary of what flies away too fast , and cannot be recalled , as to use arts and devices to passe the time away in vanity , which might be rarely spent in the interests of eternity . Time is given us to repent in , to appease the divine anger , to prepare for and hasten to the society of Angels , to stir up our slackned wills , and enkindle our cold devotions , to weep for our daily iniquities , and to sigh after , and work for the restitution of our lost inheritance ; and the reward is very inconsiderable that exchanges all this for the pleasure of a voluble tongue : and indeed this is an evill that cannot be avoyded by any excuse that can be made for words that are in any sense idle , though in all senses of their owne nature and proper relations they be innocent . They are a throwing away something of that which is to be expended for eternity , and put on degrees of folly , according as they are tedious and expensive of time to no good purposes . * I shall not after all this need to reckon more of the evill consequent to the vain and great talker ; but if these already reckoned were not a heap big enough , I could easily adde this great evill ; that the talking man makes himselfe artificially deafe , being like a man in the steeple when the bells ring , you talke to a deafe man , though you speake wisely ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Good counsell is lost upon him , and he hath serv'd all his ends when he pours out whatsoever he took in ; for he therefore loaded his vessell that he might pour it forth into the sea . These and many more evils , and the perpetuall unavoydable necessity of sinning by much talking , hath given great advantages to silence , and made it to be esteemed an act of Discipline and great Religion . St. Romualdus upon the Syrian mountaine severely kept a seaven years silence : and Thomas Cantipratensis tels of a religious person in a Monastery in Brabant , that spake not one word in 16 years . But they are greater examples which Palladius tels of , Ammona who liv'd with 3000 Brethren in so great silence , as if he were an Anachoret ; but Theona was silent for 30 years together , and Johannes surnamed Silentiarius was silent for 47 years . But this morosity and sullennesse is so far from being imitable and laudable , that if there were no direct prevarication of any commands expressed or intimated in Scripture , yet it must certainly either draw with it , or be it self an infinite omission of duty , especially in the externall glorifications of God , in the institution or advantages of others , in thanksgiving and publick offices , and in all the effects and emanations of spirituall mercy . This was to make amends for committing many sins by omitting many duties , and in stead of digging out the offending eye , to pluck out both , that they might neither see the scandall nor the duty ; for fear of seeing what they should not , to shut their eyes against all light . It was more prudent which was reported of St. Gregory Nazianzen , who made Silence an act of Discipline , and kept it a whole Lent in his religious retirements , cujus facti mei si causam quaeris ( said he in his account he gives of it ) idcircò à sermone prorsus abstinui , ut sermonibus meis moderari discam ; I then abstained wholly , that all the yeer after I might be more temperate in my talke . This was in him an act of caution , but how apt it was to minister to his purpose of a moderated speech for the future , is not certaine ; nor the philosophy of it , and naturall efficacy easie to be apprehended . It was also practised by way of penance , with indignation against the follies of the Tongue , and the itch of prating , so to chastise that petulant member , as if there were a great pleasure in prating , which when it grew inordinate , it was to be restrained and punished like other lusts . I remember it was reported of St. Paul the Hermit , Scholar of St. Anthony , that having once asked whether Christ or the old Prophets were first , he grew so ashamed of his foolish Question , that he spake not a word for 3 years following : And Sulpitius , as St. Hierom reports of him , being deceived by the Pelagians , spoke some fond things , and repenting of it , held his tongue till his dying day , ut peccatum quod loquendo contraxerat tacendo penitùs emendaret . Though the pious minde is in such actions highly to be regarded , yet I am no way perswaded of the prudence of such a deadnesse and Libitinarian Religion ; Murmuracum secum & rabiosa silentia rodunt , so such importune silence was called , and understood to be a degree of stupidity and madnesse ; for so Physicians among the signes of that disease in dogs , place their not barking ; and yet , although the excesse and unreasonablenesse of this may be well chastised by such a severe reproofe , yet it is certaine , in silence there is wisdome , and there may be deep religion . So Aretaeus describing the life of a studious man , among others , he inserts this , they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , without colour , pale and wise , when they are young , and by reason of their knowledge , silent as Mutes , and dumb as the Seriphian frogs . And indeed it is certaine , great knowledge , if it be without vanity , is the most severe bridle of the Tongue . For so have I heard that all the noyses and prating of the poole , the croaking of frogs and toads is hushed and appeased upon the instant of bringing upon them the light of a candle or torch . Every beam of reason and ray of knowledge checks the dissolutions of the Tongue . But , ut quisque contemptissimus & maximè ludibrio est , ita solutissimae linguae est , said Seneca , Every man as he is a fool and contemptible , so his tongue is hanged loose , being like a bell , in which there is nothing but tongue and noise . Silence therefore is the cover of folly , or the effect of wisdome ; but it is also religious , and the greatest mystick rites of any institution are ever the most solemn and the most silent ; the words in use are almost made Synonymous ; There was silence made in heaven for a while , said St. John , who noted it upon occasion of a great solemnity , and mysterious worshippings or revelations to be made there . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , one of the gods is within , said Telemachus , upon occasion of which his Father reproved his talking . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Be thou also silent and say little , let thy soule be in thy hand , and under command , for this is the rite of the gods above . And I remember that when Aristophanes describes the Religion in the Temple of Esculapius , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The Priest commanded great silence when the mysteriousnesse was nigh ; and so among the Romanes , Ite igitur pueri , linguis animisque faventes , Sertaque delubris & farra imponite cultris . But now although silence is become religious , and is wise and reverend , and severe , and safe , and quiet , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Hippocrates affirms of it , without thirst , and trouble , and anguish ; yet it must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it must be seasonable , and just , not commenced upon chance or humour , not sullen and ill-natur'd , not proud and full of fancy , not pertinacious and dead , not mad and uncharitable , nam sic etiam tacuisse nocet . He that is silent in a publick joy hath no portion in the festivity , or no thankfulnesse to him that gave the cause of it . And though of all things in the world , a prating Religion , and much talke in holy things does most profane the mysteriousnesse of it , and dismantles its regards , and makes cheap its reverence , and takes off fear and awfulnesse , and makes it loose and garish like the laughters of drunkennesse , yet even in Religion there are seasons to speak ; and it was sometimes pain and grief to David to be silent ; But yet , although tedious and dead silence hath not a just measure of praise and wisdome ; yet the worst silence of a religious person is more tolerable and innocent , then the usuall pratings of the looser and foolish men . Pone Domine custodiam ori meo & ostium circumstantiae labiis meis , said David , Put a guard O Lord unto my mouth , and a dore unto my lips ; upon which St. Gregory said well , Non parietem , sed ostium petit , quod viz. aperitur & clauditur ; he did not ask for a wall , but for a dore ; a dore that might open and shut : and it were well it were so indeed . Labia tua sicut vitta coccinea , so Christ commends his Spouse in the Canticles ; Thy lips are like a scarlet hair-lace , that is tyed up with modesty from folly and dissolution . For however that few people offend in silence and keeping the dore shut too much , yet in opening it too hastily , and speaking too much and too foolishly , no man is without a load of guiltynesse , and some mouths like the gates of death Noctes atque dies patent — are open night and day , and he who is so cannot be innocent : It is said of Cicero , he never spake a word which himself would fain have recalled , he spake nothing that repented him . St. Austin in his 7. Ep. to Marcellinus sayes , it was the saying of a fool and a sot , not of a wise man , and yet I have read the same thing to have been spoken by the famous Abbat Pambo in the Primitive Church ; and if it could be well said of this man who was sparing and severe in talke , it is certain it could not be said of the other , who was a talking bragging person . SERMON , XXIII . Part II. THe consideration hitherto hath been of the immoderation and generall excesse in speaking without descending to particular cases : but because it is a principle and parent of much evill , it is with great caution to be cured , and the evill consequents will quickly disband . But when we draw neer to give counsell , we shall finde that upon a talking person scarce any medicine will stick . 1. Plutarch advises that such men should give themselves to writing , that making an issue in the arme , it should drain the flouds of the head ; supposing that if the humour were any way vented , the tongue might be brought to reason . But the experience of the world hath confuted this ; and when Ligurinus had writ a Poem , he talked of it to all companies he came in ; But however , it can be no hurt to try , for some have been cured of bleeding at the nose , by opening a vein in the arm . 2. Some advise , that such persons should keep company with their betters , with grave , and wise , and great persons , before whom men doe not usually bring forth all , but the better parts of their discourse , and this is apt to give assistance by the help of modesty ; and might doe well if men were not apt to learn to talk more in the society of the aged , and out of a desire to seem wise and knowing , be apt to speak before their opportunity . 3. Consideration of the dangers and consequent evills hath some efficacy in nature to restrain our looser talkings , by the help of fear and prudent apprehensions . Aelian tels of the geese flying over the mountain Taurus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that for fear of Eagles nature hath taught them to carry stones in their mouths , till they be past their danger ; care of our selves , desire of reputation , appetites of being believed , love of societies and faire complyances , fear of quarrels and misinterpretation , of lawsuits and affronts , of scorne and contempt , of infinite sins , and consequently the intolerable wrath of God , these are the great endearments of prudent and temperate speech . 4. Some advise that such persons should change their speech into businesse and action : and it were well if they chang'd it into any good thing , for then the evill were cured ; but action and businesse is not the cure alone , unlesse we adde solitarinesse ; for the experience of this last age hath made us to feel , that companies of working people have nurs'd up a strange Religion ; the first , second , and third part of which is talking and folly , save onely that mischief , and pride , and fighting came in the retinue . But he that works and works alone , he hath imployment , and no opportunity . But this is but a cure of the symptome and temporary effect ; but the disease may remain yet . Therefore , 5. Some advise that the businesse and imployment of the Tongue be changed into Religion , and if there be a pruritus or itch of talking , let it be in matters of Religion , in prayers and pious discourses , in glorifications of God , and the wise sayings of Scripture and Holy men ; this indeed will secure the material part , and make that the discourses in their nature shall be innocent . But I fear this cure will either be improper , or unsufficient . For in prayers , multitude of words is sometime foolish , very often dangerous , and of all things in the world we must be carefull we bring not to God the sacrifice of fooles ; and the talking much of the things of Scripture hath ministred often to vanity , and divisions . But therefore whoever will use this remedy must never dwell long upon any one instance , but by variety of holy duties entertaine himselfe ; for he may easily exceed his rule in any thing , but in speaking honorably of God , and in that let him enlarge himselfe as he can ; he shall never come to equall , much lesse to exceed that which is infinite . 6. But some men will never be cured without a Canker or a Squinsie ; and such persons are taught by all men what to doe , for if they would avoyd all company , as willingly as company avoyds them , they might quickly have a silence great as midnight , and prudent as the Spartan brevity . But Gods grace is sufficient to all that will make use of it ; and there is no way for the cure of this evill , but the direct obeying of a counsel , and submitting to the precept , and fearing the divine threatning ; alwayes remembring , that of every word a man speaks , he shall give account at the day of Judgement : I pray God shew us all a mercy in that day , and forgive us the sins of the Tongue . Amen . Citò lutum colligit amnis exundans , said St. Ambrose , Let your language be restrained within its proper channels and measures , for if the river swels over the banks , it leaves nothing but dirt and filthinesse behinde ; and besides the great evills and mischiefs of a wicked tongue , the vain tongue , and the trifling conversation hath some proper evils ; 1. Stultiloquium , or speaking like a fool : 2. Scurrilitas , or immoderate and absurd jesting : 3. And revealing secrets . 1. Concerning Stultiloquy , it is to be observed that the Masters of spirituall life meane nor , the talke and uselesse babble of weak and ignorant persons ; because in their proportion they may serve their little mistaken ends of civility and humanity , as seemingly to them , as the strictest and most observed words of the wiser ; if it be their best , their folly may be pityed , but not reproved , and to them there is no caution to be added , but that it were well if they would put the bridle into the hands of another , who may give them check when themselves cannot ; and no wisdome can be required or usefull to them , but to suspect themselves and choose to be conducted by another . For so the little birds and laborious bees , who having no art and power of contrivance , no distinction of time , or foresight of new necessities , yet being guided by the hand , and counsel'd by the wisdome of the supreme power , their Lord , and ours , doe things with greater nicenesse and exactnesse of art , and regularity of time , and certainty of effect , then the wise Counsellour , who standing at the back of the Princes chaire , guesses imperfectly , and counsels timorously , and thinks by interest , and determines extrinsecall events by inward and unconcerning principles ; because these have understanding , but it is lesse then the infinity of accidents and contingences without ; but the other having none , are wholly guided by him that knows and determines all things : So it is in the imperfect designes and actions and discourses of weaker people ; if they can be rul'd by an understanding without , when they have none within , they shall receive this advantage , that their owne passions shall not transport their mindes , and the divisions and weaknesse of their owne sense and notices shall not make them uncertaine , and indeterminate ; and the measures they shall walke by , shall be disinterest and even , and dispassionate , and full of observation . But that which is here meant by Stultiloquy , or foolish speaking , is the Lubricum verbi , as St. Ambrose calls it , the slipping with the tongue , which prating people often suffer , whose discourses betray the vanity of their spirit , and discover the hidden man of the heart . For no prudence is a sufficient guard , or can alwayes stand in excubiis still watching , when a man is in perpetuall flouds of talke ; for prudence attends after the manner of an Angels ministery ; it is dispatched on messages from God , and drives away enemies , and places guards , and calls upon the man to awake , and bids him send out spies and observers , and then goes about his own ministeries above : but an Angell does not sit by a man , as a nurse by the babies cradle , watching every motion and the lighting of a flie upon the childes lip : and so is prudence ; it gives us rules and proportions cut our measures , and prescribes us cautions , and by generall influences orders our particulars ; but hee that is given to talke cannot be secured by all this ; the emissions of his tongue are beyond the generall figures and lines of rule ; and he can no more be wise in every period of a long and running talke , then a Lutenist can deliberate and make every motion of his hand by the division of his notes , to be chosen and distinctly voluntary . And hence it comes that at every corner of the mouth a folly peeps out , or a mischiefe creeps in . A little pride and a great deale of vanity will soon escape , while the man mindes the sequel of his talke , and not that uglinesse of humour which the severe man that stood by , did observe , and was ashamed of . Doe not many men talke themselves into anger , skrewing up themselves with dialogues and fancy , till they forget the company and themselves ? and some men hate to be contradicted , or interrupted , or to be discovered in their folly ; and some men being a little conscious , and not striving to amend it by silence , they make it worse by discourse ; a long story of themselves , a tedious praise of another collaterally to do themselves advantage , a declamation against a sin to undoe the person , or oppresse the reputation of their neighbour , unseasonable repetition of that which neither profits nor delights , trifling contentions about a goats beard , or the blood of an oyster , anger and animosity , spite and rage , scorn and reproach begun upon Questions , which concern neither of the litigants , fierce disputations , strivings for what is past , and for what shall never be , these are the events of the loose and unwary tongue ; which are like flies and gnats upon the margent of a poole , they doe not sting like an Aspic , or bite deep as a Bear , yet they can vex a man into a feaver and impatience , and make him uncapable of rest and counsel . 2. The second is Scurrility , or foolish jesting . This the Apostle so joyns with the former 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , [ foolish speaking and jestings which are not convenient ] that some think this to be explicative of the other , and that St. Paul using the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( which all men before his time used in a good sense ) meanes not that which indeed is witty and innocent , pleasant and apt for institution , but that which fooles and Parasites call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but indeed is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , what they called facetiousnesse and pleasant wit , is indeed to all wise persons a meer Stultiloquy , or talking like a foole ; and that kinde of jesting is forbidden . And indeed I am induc'd fully to this understanding of St. Pauls words by the conjunctive particle [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] which he uses , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and filthinesse , and [ foolish talking , or jesting ] just as in the succeeding verse he joynes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , uncleannesse ( so we read it ) or covetousnesse ; one explicates the other , for by covetousnesse is meant any defraudation ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , fraudator , so St. Cyprian renders it : and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 St. Hierom derives from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to take more then a man should ; and therefore when St. Paul said , Let no man circumvent his brother in any matter , he expounds it of adultery ; and in this very place he renders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , stuprum , lust ; and indeed it is usuall in Scripture , that Covetousnesse being so universall , so originall a crime , such a prolifick sin , be called by all the names of those sins by which it is either punished , or to which it tempts , or whereby it is nourished ; and as here it is called uncleannesse or corruption ; so in another place it is called idolatry . But to returne ; This jesting which St. Paul reproves , is a direct 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or the jesting of Mimics and Players , that of the foole in the play , which in those times , and long before , and long after , were of that licentiousnesse that they would abuse Socrates or Aristides : and because the rabble were the laughers , they knew how to make them roare aloud with a slovenly and wanton word , when they understood not the salt and ingenuity of a witty and usefull answer , or reply ; as is to be seen in the intertextures of Aristophanes Comedies . But in pursuance of this of St. Paul , the Fathers of the Church have been very severe in their censures of this liberty . St. Ambrose forbids all . Non solùm profusos , sed etiam omnes jocos declinandos arbitror ; Not onely the looser jestings , but even all are to be avoyded : Nay , licèt interdum joca honesta & suavia sint , tamen ab Ecclesiâ horrent regulâ , the Church allowes them not , though they be otherwise honest and pleasant ; for how can we use those things we finde not in holy Scriptures ? St. Basil gives reason for this severity ; jocus facit animam remissam & erga praecepta Dei negligentem ; and indeed that cannot be denyed ; those persons whose soules are dispersed and ungathered by reason of a wanton humour of intemperate jesting , are apt to be trifling in their Religion . St. Hierom is of the same opinion , and adds a commandement of a full authority , if at least the record was right ; for he quotes a saying of our blessed Saviour out of the Gospel of the Nazarens , Nunquam laeti sitis nisi cum fratrem vestrum in charitate videritis , Never be merry but when you see your brother in charity : and when you are merry , St. James hath appointed a proper expression of it ; and a fair entertainment to the passion ; If any man be merry , let him sing Psalmes . But St. Bernard who is also strict in this particular , yet he addes the temper . Though jesting be not fit for a Christian , interdum tamen si incidant , ferendae fortassis , referendae nunquam : magis interveniendum cautè & prudentèr nugacitati : If they seldome happen , they are to be borne , but never to be returned and made a businesse of ; but we must rather interpose warily and prudently to hinder the growth and progresse of the trifle . But concerning this case of conscience , we are to remember , these holy persons found jesting to be a trade ; such were the ridicularii among the Romanes , and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among the Greeks ; and this trade besides its own unworthinesse , was mingled with infinite impieties ; and in the institution , and in all the circumstances of its practise , was not onely against all prudent severity , but against modesty and chastity , and was a licence in disparagement of vertue ; and the most excellent things and persons were by it undervalued ; that in this throng of evill circumstances finding a humour placed , which without infinite warinesse could never pretend to innocence , it is no wonder they forbad all ; and so also did St. Paul upon the same account . And in the same state of reproofe to this day , are all that doe as they did : such as are professed jesters , people that play the foole for money , whose employment and study is to unclothe themselves of the covers of reason , or modesty , that they may be laugh'd at . And let it be considered , how miserable every sinner is , if he does not deeply and truely repent ; and when the man is wet with teares and covered with sorrow , crying out mightily against his sins , how ugly will it look when this is remembred the next day that he playes the foole , and raises his laughter louder then his prayers and yesterdayes groans , for no interest but that he may eat ? A Penitent and a Jester is like a Grecian piece of money , on which were stamped a Helena on one side and a Hecuba on the other , a Rose and a deadly Aconite , a Paris and an Aesop , nothing was more contrary ; and upon this account this folly was reproved by St. Hierom , Verum & haec à sanctis viris penitùs propellenda , quibus magis convenit flere atque lugere ; Weeping and penitentiall sorrow , and the sweet troubles of pity and compassion become a holy person , much better then a scurrilous tongue . But the whole state of this Question is briefly this . 1. If jesting be unseasonable , it is also intolerable ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 2. If it be immoderate it is criminall , and a little thing here makes the excesse ; it is so in the confines of folly , that as soon as it is out of dores it is in the regions of sin . 3. If it be in an ordinary person , it is dangerous ; but if in an eminent , a consecrated , a wise , and extraordinary person , it is scandalous . Inter saeculares nugae sunt , in ore Sacerdotis blasphemiae ; so St. Bernard . 4. If the matter be not of an indifferent nature , it becomes sinfull by giving countenance to a vice , or making vertue to become ridiculous . 5. If it be not watcht that it complies with all that heare , it becomes offensive and injurious . 6. If it be not intended to fair and lawfull purposes , it is sowre in the using . 7. If it be frequent , it combines and clusters into a formall sinne . 8. If it mingles with any sin , it puts on the nature of that new unworthinesse , beside the proper uglynesse of the thing it selfe ; and after all these , when can it be lawfull or apt for Christian entertainment ? The Ecclesiasticall History reports that many jests passed between St. Anthony the Father of the Hermits , and his Scholar St. Paul ; and St. Hilarion is reported to have been very pleasant , and of a facete , sweet , and more lively conversation ; and indeed plaisance , and joy , and a lively spirit , and a pleasant conversation , and the innocent caresses of a charitable humanity , is not forbidden ; plenum tamen suavitatis & gratiae sermonem non esse indecorum , St. Ambrose affirmed ; and here in my text our conversation is commanded to be such , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that it may minister grace , that is , favour , complacence , cheerfulnesse ; and be acceptable and pleasant to the hearer : and so must be our conversation ; it must be as far from sullennesse , as it ought to be from lightnesse ; and a cheerfull spirit is the best convoy for Religion ; and though sadnesse does in some cases become a Christian , as being an Index of a pious minde , of compassion , and a wise proper resentment of things , yet it serves but one end , being useful in the onely instance of repentance ; and hath done its greatest works , not when it weeps and sighs , but when it hates and grows carefull against sin . But cheerfulnesse and a festivall spirit fills the soule full of harmony , it composes musick for Churches and hearts , it makes and publishes glorifications of God , it produces thankfulnesse and serves the ends of charity , and when the oyle of gladnesse runs over , it makes bright and tall emissions of light and holy fires , reaching up to a cloud , and making joy round about : And therefore since it is so innocent , and may be so pious and full of holy advantage , whatsoever can innocently minister to this holy joy does set forward the work of Religion and Charity . And indeed charity it selfe , which is the verticall top of all Religion , is nothing else but an union of joyes , concentred in the heart , and reflected from all the angles of our life and entercourse . It is a rejoycing in God , a gladnesse in our neighbours good , a pleasure in doing good , a rejoycing with him ; and without love we cannot have any joy at all . It is this that makes children to be a pleasure , and friendship to be so noble and divine a thing ; and upon this account it is certaine that all that which can innocently make a man cheerfull , does also make him charitable ; for grief , and age , and sicknesse , and wearinesse , these are peevish and troublesome ; but mirth and cheerfulnesse is content , and civil , and compliant , and communicative , and loves to doe good , and swels up to felicity onely upon the wings of charity . In this account here is pleasure enough for a Christian in present , and if a facete discourse and an amicable friendly mirth can refresh the spirit , and take it off from the vile temptations of peevish , despairing , uncomplying melancholy , it must needs be innocent and commendable . And we may as well be refreshed by a clean and a brisk discourse , as by the aire of Campanian wines ; and our faces and our heads may as well be anointed and look pleasant with wit and friendly entercourse , as with the fat of the Balsam tree ; and such a conversation no wise man ever did , or ought to reprove . But when the jest hath teeth and nails , biting or scratching our Brother * , when it is loose and wanton * , when it is unseasonable * , and much , or many * , when it serves ill purposes * , or spends better time * , then it is the drunkennesse of the soul , and makes the spirit fly away , seeking for a Temple where the mirth and the musick is solemne and religious . But above all the abuses which ever dishonoured the tongues of men , nothing more deserves the whip of an exterminating Angel , or the stings of scorpions , then profane jesting : which is a bringing of the Spirit of God to partake of the follies of a man ; as if it were not enough for a man to be a foole , but the wisdome of God must be brought into those horrible scenes : He that makes a jest of the words of Scripture , or of holy things , playes with thunder , and kisses the mouth of a Canon , just as it belches fire and death ; he stakes heaven at spurnpoint , and trips crosse and pile whether ever he shall see the face of God or no ; he laughs at damnation , while he had rather lose God then lose his jest ; nay ( which is the horror of all ) he makes a jest of God himselfe , and the Spirit of the Father and the Son to become ridiculous . Some men use to read Scripture on their knees , and many with their heads uncovered , and all good men with fear and trembling , with reverence and grave attention . Search the Scriptures , for therein you hope to have life eternall ; and , All Scripture is written by inspiration of God , and is fit for instruction , for reproofe , for exhortation , for doctrine , not for jesting ; but he that makes that use of it , had better part with his eyes in jest , and give his heart to make a tennisball ; and that I may speak the worst thing in the world of it , it is as like the materiall part of the sin against the holy Ghost , as jeering of a man is to abusing him ; and no man can use it but he that wants wit and manners as well as he wants Religion . 3. The third instance of the vain trifling conversation , and immoderate talking is , revealing secrets ; which is a dismantling and renting off the robe from the privacies of humane entercourse ; and it is worse then denying to restore that which was intrusted to our charge ; for this not onely injures his neighbors right , but throws it away , and exposes it to his enemy ; it is a denying to give a man his own arms , and delivering them to another , by whom he shall suffer mischief . He that intrusts a secret to his friend , goes thither as to sanctuary , and to violate the rites of that is sacriledge , and profanation of friendship , which is the sister of Religion , and the mother of secular blessing ; a thing so sacred , that it changes a Kingdome into a Church , and makes Interest to be Piety , and Justice to become Religion . But this mischief growes according to the subject matter and its effect ; and the tongue of a babbler may crush a mans bones , or break his fortune upon her owne wheel ; and whatever the effect be , yet of it self it is the betraying of a trust , and by reproach , oftentimes passes on to intolerable calamities , like a criminal to his scaffold through the execrable gates of Cities ; And though it is infinitely worse when the secret is laid open out of spite or treachery , yet it is more foolish when it is discovered for no other end but to serve the itch of talking , or to seem to know , or to be accounted worthy of a trust ; for so some men open their cabinets to shew onely that a treasure is laid up , and that themselves were valued by their friend , when they were thought capable of a secret ; but they shall be so no more ; for he that by that means goes in pursuit of reputation , loses the substance by snatching at the shadow , and by desiring to be thought worthy of a secret , proves himselfe unworthy of friendship or society . D' Avila tels of a French Marquesse , young and fond , to whom the Duke of Guise had conveyed notice of the intended massacre , which when he had whispered into the Kings ear , where there was no danger of publication , but onely would seem a person worthy of such a trust , he was instantly murder'd , lest a vanity like that might unlock so horrid a mysterie . I have nothing more to adde concerning this , but that if this vanity happens in the matters of Religion , it puts on some new circumstances of deformity : And if he that ministers to the souls of men , and is appointed to restore him that is overtaken in a fault , shall publish the secrets of a conscience , he prevaricates the bands of Nature and Religion , in stead of a Father he turns an Accuser , a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he weakens the hearts of the penitent , and drives the repenting man from his remedy by making it to be intolerable ; and so Religion becomes a scandall , and his duty is made his disgrace , and Christs yoke does bow his head unto the ground , and the secrets of the Spirit passe into the shames of the world , and all the sweetnesses by which the severity of the duty are alleviated and made easie , are imbittered and become venemous by the tongue of a talking fool . Valerius Soranus was put to death by the old and braver Romanes , ob meritum profanae vocis , quòd contra interdictum Romae nomen eloqui fuit ausus ; because by prating he profan'd the secret of their Religion , and told abroad that name of the City which the Tuscan rites had commanded to be concealed , lest the enemies of the people should call from them their tutclar gods , which they could not doe but by telling the proper relation . And in Christianity all Nations have consented to disgrace that Priest , who loves the pleasure of a fools tongue before the charity of souls , and the arts of the Spirit , and the noblenesse of the Religion ; and they have inflicted upon him all the censures of the Church , which in the capacity of an Ecclesiasticall person he can suffer . These I reckon as the proper evils of the vain and trifling tongue ; for though the effect passes into further mischief , yet the originall is weaknesse and folly , and all that unworthynesse which is not yet arrived at malice . But hither also upon the same account some other irregularities of speech are reducible , which although they are of a mixt nature , yet are properly acted by a vain and a loose tongue ; and therefore here may be considered not improperly . 1. The first is common Swearing , against which St. Chrysostome spends twenty homilies : and by the number and weight of arguments hath left this testimony , that it is a foolish vice , but hard to be cured ; infinitely unreasonable , but strangely prevailing ; almost as much without remedy as it is without pleasure ; for it enters first by folly , and grows by custome , and dwels with carelesnesse , and is nurs'd by irreligion , and want of the fear of God ; it profanes the most holy things , and mingles dirt with the beames of the Sun , follies and trifling talke interweav'd and knit together with the sacred name of God ; it placeth the most excellent of things in the meanest and basest circumstances , it brings the secrets of heaven into the streets , dead mens bones into a Temple ; Nothing is a greater sacriledge then to prostitute the great name of God to the petulancy of an idle tongue , and blend it as an expletive to fill up the emptinesse of a weak discourse . The name of God is so sacred , so mighty , that it rends mountains , it opens the bowels of the deepest rocks , it casts out Devils and makes Hell to tremble , and fills all the regions of Heaven with joy ; the name of God is our strength and confidence , the object of our worshippings , and the security of all our hopes ; and when God had given himselfe a Name , and immur'd it with dread and reverence ; like the garden of Eden with the swords of Cherubims , and none durst speak it but he whose lips were hallowed , and that at holy and solemn times , in a most holy and solemne place ; I mean the High Priest of the Jews at the solemnities when he entred into the sanctuary , then he taught all the world the majesty and veneration of his Name ; and therefore it was , that God made restraints upon our conceptions and expressions of him : and as he was infinitely curious , that from all the appearances he made to them , they should not depict or ingrave an image of him ; so he tooke care that even the tongue should be restrained , and not be too free in forming images and representments of his Name ; and therefore as God drew their eyes from vanity , by putting his name amongst them , and representing no shape ; so even when he had put his name amongst them , he took it off from the tongue and placed it before the eye ; for Jehovah was so written on the Priests Mitre , that all might see and read , but none speak it but the Priest. But besides all this , there is one great thing concerning the Name of God , beyond all that can be spoken or imagined else ; and that is , that when God the Father was pleased to pour forth all his glories , and imprint them upon his holy Son in his exaltation , it was by giving him his holy Name , the Tetragrammaton or Jehovah made articulate ; to signifie God manifested in the flesh ; and so he wore the character of God , and became the bright image of his person . Now all these great things concerning the Name of God are infinite reproofes of common and vain swearing by it , Gods name is left us here to pray by , to hope in , to be the instrument and conveyance of our worshippings , to be the witnesse of truth and the Judge of secrets , the end of strife and the avenger of perjury , the discerner of right and the severe exacter of all wrongs ; and shall all this be unhallowed by impudent talking of God without sense , or feare , or notices , or reverence , or observation ? One thing more I have to adde against this vice of a foolish tongue , and that is , that as much prating fils the discourse with lying , so this trifling swearing changes every trifling lye into a horrid perjury ; and this was noted by St. James , But above all things swear not at all , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that ye may not fall into condemnation ; so we read it , following the Arabian , Syrian , and Latin books , and some Greek Copies ; and it signifies , that all such swearing and putting fierce appendages to every word , like great iron bars to a straw basket , or the curtains of a tent , is a direct condemnation of our selves : For while we by much talking regard truth too little , and yet bind up our trifles with so severe a band , we are condemned by our owne words ; for men are made to expect what you bound upon them by an oath , and account your trifle to be serious ; of which when you faile , you have given sentence against your selfe : And this is agreeable to those words of our blessed Saviour , Of every idle word you shall give account ; for by thy words thou shalt be condemned , and by thy words thou shalt be justified . But there is another reading of these words , which hath great emphasis and power , in this article , Swear not at all , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that you may not fall into hypocrisie , that is , into the disreputation of a lying , deceiving , cousening person ; for he that will put his oath to every common word , makes no great matter of an oath ; for in swearing commonly , he must needs sometimes swear without consideration , and therefore without truth ; and he that does so in any company , tels the world he makes no great matter of being perjured . All these things put together may take off our wonder at St. James expression , of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , above all things sweare not , ] it is a thing so highly to be regarded , and yet is so little considered , that it is hard to say , whether there be in the world any instance in which men are so carelesse of their danger and damnation , as in this . The next appendage of vain and trifling speech is contention , wrangling and perpetuall talke proceeding from the spirit of contradiction : Profert enim mores plerumque oratio , & animi secreta detegit : Nec sine causâ Graeci prodiderunt , ut vivat quemque etiam dicere , said Quintilian : For the most part , a mans words betray his manners , and unlocks the secrets of the mind : And it was not without cause that the Greeks said , As a man lives so he speaks ; for so indeed Menander , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and Aristides , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : So that it is a signe of a peevish , an angry and quarrelling disposition , to be disputative and busie in Questions , and impertinent oppositions . You shall meet with some men ( such were the Sceptics , and such were the Academics of old ) who will not endure any man shall be of their opinion , and will not suffer men to speak truth , or to consent to their own propositions , but will put every man to fight for his owne possessions , disturbing the rest of truth , and all the dwellings of unity and consent ; clamosum altercatorem , Quintilian calls such a one . This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , an overflowing of the heart and of the gall ; and it makes men troublesome , and intricates all wise discourses , and throws a cloud upon the face of truth , and while men contend for truth , error drest in the same habit flips into her chaire , and all the litigants court her for the divine sister of wisdome . Nimirùm altercando veritas amittitur : There is noyse but no harmony , fighting but no victory , talking but no learning , all are teachers and all are wilfull , every man is angry , and without reason and without charity . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Their mouth is a spear , their language is a two-edged sword , their throat is a shield , ( as Nonnus his expression is ) and the clamors and noyses of this folly is that which St. Paul reproves in this chapt . Let all bitternesse and clamor be put away . People that contend earnestly , talke loud ; Clamor equus est irae , cum prostraveris equitem dejeceris , saith St. Chrysostom , Anger rides upon noyse as upon a horse , still the noyse and the rider is in the dirt ; and indeed so to doe is an act of fine strength , and the cleanest spirituall force that can be exercised in this instance ; and though it be hard in the midst of a violent motion instantly to stop , yet by strength and good conduct it may be done . But he whose tongue rides upon passion , and is spur'd by violence and contention , is like a horse or mule without a bridle , and without understanding , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , No person that is clamorous can be wise . These are the vanities and evill fruits of the easie talker ; the instances of a trifling impertinent conversation ; and yet it is observable , that although the instances in the beginning be onely vain , yet in the issue and effects they are troublesome and full of mischief : and that we may perceive , that even all effusion and multitude of language and vainer talke cannot be innocent , we may observe that there are many good things which are wholly spoyl'd if they doe but touch the tongue ; they are spoyl'd with speaking : such as is the sweetest of all Christian graces , humility , and the noblest actions of humanity , the doing favors and acts of kindnesse . If you speak of them , you pay your selfe , and lose your kindnesse ; humility is by talking changed into pride and hypocrisie , and patience passes into peevishnesse , and secret trust into perfidiousnesse , and modesty into dissolution , and judgement into censure ; but by silence and a restrained tongue all the first mischiefs are avoyded , and all these graces preserved . SERMON , XXIV . Part III. Of Slander and Flattery . HE that is twice asked a Question , and then answers , is to be excused if he answers weakly . But he that speaks before he be asked , had need take care he speak wisely ; for if he does not , he hath no excuse ; and if he does , yet it loses halfe its beauty ; and therefore the old man gave good counsell in the Comedie to the Boy , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The profits of a restrained modest tongue cannot easily be numbred any more then the evills of an unbridled and dissolute . But they were but infant mischiefs , which for the most part we have already observed as the issues of vain and idle talking ; but there are two spirits worse then these : 1. The spirit of detraction ; and 2. The spirit of flattery . The first is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , from whence the Devill hath his name , He is an Accuser of the brethren . But the second is worse ; it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , damnable and deadly ; it is the nurse of vice , and the poyson of the soule . These are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , sowre and filthy communication ; the first is rude , but the latter is most mischievous , and both of them to be avoyded like death , or the despairing murmurs of the damned . 1. Let no calumny , no slandering , detracting communication proceed out of your mouth ; the first sort of this is that which the Apostle calls whispering , which signifies to abuse our neighbor secretly , by telling a private story of him . — linguáque refert audita susurro , for here the man playes a sure game as he supposes , a mischiefe without a witnesse , — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Anacreon calls them ; the light , swift arrows of a calumniating tongue ; they pierce into the heart and bowels of the man speedily . These are those which the holy Scripture notes by the disgracefull name of Talebearers : Thou shalt not goe up and down as a Talebearer among the people ; for there are six things which God hates , ( saith Solomon ) yea the seventh is an abomination unto him , it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as bad and as much hated by God as an idol , and that is , a whisperer or tale-bearer that soweth contention amongst brethren . This kinde of communication was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among the Greeks , and was as much hated as the Publicans among the Jewes , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , It is a vile thing , O ye Athenians , it is a vile thing for a man to be a Sycophant , or a Tale-bearer , and the dearest friendships in the world cannot be secure where such whisperers are attended to . Te singente nefas Pyladen odisset Oresles , Thesea Pirithoi destituisset amor : Tu Siculos fratres , & majus nomen Atridas , Et Ledae poteras dissociare genus . But this crime is a conjugation of evils , and is productive of infinite mischiefs ; it undermines peace , and saps the foundation of friendship ; it destroyes families , and rends in pieces the very heart and vitall parts of charity ; it makes an evill man , party , and witnesse , and judge , and executioner of the Innocent , who is hurt though he deserv'd it not ; Et si non aliquà nocuisses , mortuus esses , and no mans interest nor reputation , no mans peace or safety can abide , where this nurse of jealousie , and parent of contention like the earwig creeps in at the ear , and makes a diseased noyse , and scandalous murmur . 2. But such tongues as these , where they dare , and where they can safely , love to speak louder , and then it is detraction ; when men under the colour of friendship will certainly wound the reputation of a man , while by speaking some things of him fairly , he shall without suspicion be beleeved when he speaks evill of him ; such was he that Horace speaks of , Me Capitolinus convictore usus amicóque &c. Capitolinus is my friend , and we have long liv'd together , and obliged each other by mutuall endearments , and I am glad he is acquitted by the criminall Judges , Sed tamen admiror , quo pacto judicium illud Fugerit — yet I confesse I wonder how he should escape ; but I 'le say no more , because he is my friend . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , sayes Polybius ; This is a new way of accusation to destroy a man by praises . These men strike obliquely like a wilde swine , or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or like buls in a yoke , they have horns upon their necks , and doe you a mischief when they plough your ground ; and as Joab slew Abner , he took him by the beard and kissed him , and smote him under the fift rib that he died ; so doth the detracting tongue , like the smooth tongued lightning , it will break your bones when it kisses the flesh ; so Syphax did secretly wound Massinissa , and made Scipio watchfull and implacable against Sophonisba , onely by commending her beauty and her wit , her constancy and unalterable love to her country , and by telling how much himselfe was forc'd to break his faith by the tyranny of her prevailing charmes . This is that which the Apostle calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a crafty and deceitfull way of hurting , and renders a mans tongue venemous as the tongue of a serpent , that bites even though he be charm'd . 3. But the next is more violent , and that is railing or reviling ; which Aristotle in his Rhetoricks says is very often the vice of boys and of rich men , who out of folly or pride , want of manners , or want of the measures of a man , wisdome and the just proportions of his brethren , doe use those that erre before them most scornfully and unworthily ; and Tacitus noted it of the Claudian family in Rome , an old and inbred pride and scornfulnesse made them apt to abuse all that fell under their power and displeasure ; quorum superbiam frustrà per obsequium & modestiam essugeres ; No observance , no prudence , no modesty can escape the reproaches of such insolent and high talkers . A. Gellius tels of a boy that would give every one that he met a box on the ear ; and some men will give foul words , having a tongue rough as a Cat , and biting like an Adder , and all their reproofes are direct scoldings , their common entercourse is open contumely . There have been in these last ages examples of Judges who would reproach the condemned and miserable criminall , deriding his calamity , and reviling his person . Nero did so to Thraseas , and the old Heathens to the primitive Martyrs , pereuntibus addita Iudibria , said Tacitus of them , they crucified them again by putting them to suffer the shame of their fouler language , they rail'd at them when they bowed their heads upon the crosse , and groan'd forth the saddest accents of approaching death . This is that evill that possessed those of whom the Psalmist speaks . Our tongues are our owne , we are they that ought to speak , who is Lord over us ? that is , our tongues cannot be restrained ; and St. James said something of this , The tongue is an unruly member which no man can tame ; that is , no private person , but a publick may ; for he that can rule the tongue , is fit also to govern the whole body , that is , the Church or Congregation ; Magistrates and the Governours of souls , they are by severity to restraine this inordination , which indeed is a foul one ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , no evill is worse or of more open violence to the rest and reputation of men , then a reproachfull tongue . And it were well if we considered this evill , to avoyd it in those instances , by which our conversation is daily stain'd . Are we not often too imperious against our servants ? Do we not entertain and seed our own anger with vile and basest language ? Doe not we chastise a servants folly or mistake , his error or his chance , with language fit to be used by none but vile persons , and towards none but dogs ? Our blessed Saviour restraining the hostility and murther of the tongue , threatens hell fire to them that call their brother foole ; meaning , that all language which does really and by intention disgrace him in the greater instances , is as directly against the charity of the Gospel , as killing a man was against the severity and justice of the law . And although the word it self may be us'd to reprove the indiscretions , and carelesse follies of an idle person , yet it must be used onely in order to his amendment , * by an authorized person , * in the limits of a just reproofe , * upon just occasion , * and so as may not doe him mischief in the event of things . For so we finde that our blessed Saviour cal'd his Disciples , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , foolish ; and S. James used 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , vain man , signifying the same with the forbidden raca , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , vain , uselesse , or empty ; and St. Paul calls the Galatians , mad , and foolish , and bewitched ; and Christ called Herod , Fox ; and St. John called the Pharisees , the generation of vipers ; and all this matter is wholly determined by the manner , and with what minde it is done : If it be for correction and reproofe towards persons that deserve it , and by persons whose authority can warrant a just and severe reproofe , and this also be done prudently , safely , and usefully , it is not contumely ; But when men upon all occasions revile an offending person , lessening his value , sowring his spirit , and his life , despising his infirmities , tragically expressing his lightest misdemeanour , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , being tyrannically declamatory , and intolerably angry for a trifle , these are such , who , as Apollonius the Philosopher said , will not suffer the offending person to know when his fault is great , and when 't is little . For they who alwayes put on a supreme anger , or expresse the lesse anger with the highest reproaches , can doe no more to him that steals , then to him that breaks a Crystall : Non plus aequo , non diutius aequo , was a good rule for reprehension of offending servants ; But no more anger , no more severe language then the thing deserves ; if you chide too long , your reproofe is changed into reproach ; if too bitterly , it becomes railing ; if too loud , it is immodest ; if too publick , it is like a dog . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so the man told his wife in the Greek Comedy ; to follow me in the streets with thy clamorous tongue is to doe as dogs doe , not as persons civill or religious . 4. The fourth instance of the calumniating filthy communication , , is that which we properly call slander , or the inventing evill things , falsely imputing crimes to our neighbor : Falsum crimen quasi venenatum telum , ( said Cicero ) A false tongue or a foul lye against a mans reputation , is like a poysoned arrow , it makes the wound deadly , and every scratch to be incurable . Promptissima vindicta contumelia , said one , To reproach and rail is a revenge that every girl can take . But falsely to accuse is spiteful as Hel , and deadly as the blood of Dragons . Stoicus occidit Baream , delator amicum . This is the direct murther of the Tongue , for life and death are in the hand of the tongue , said the Hebrew proverbe , and it was esteemed so vile a thing , that when Jesabel commanded the Elders of Israel to suborn false witnesses against Naboth , she gave them instructions to take two men , the sons of Belial ; none else were fit for the imployment . Quid non audebis perfida lingua loqui ? This was it that broke Ephraim in judgement , and executed the fierce anger of the Lord upon him ; God gave him over to be oppressed by a false witnesse , quoniam coepit abire post sordes , therefore he suffered calumny , and was overthrown in judgement . This was it that humbled Joseph in fetters , and the iron entred into his soule , but it crushed him not so much as the false tongue of his revengefull Mistresse , untill his cause was known , and the Word of the Lord tryed him . This was it that flew Abimelech , and endanger'd David ; it was a sword in manu linguae Doeg , in the hand of Doegs tongue . By this Siba cut off the legs of Mephibosheth , and made his reputation lame for ever ; it thrust Jeremy into the dungeon , and carryed Susanna to her stake , and our Lord to his Crosse ; and therefore against the dangers of a slandering tongue , all laws have so cautelously arm'd themselves , that besides the severest prohibitions of God often recorded in both Testaments , God hath chosen it to be one of his appellatives to be the Defender of them , a party for those , whose innocency and defencelesse state makes them most apt to be undone by this evill spirit ; I mean pupils , and widows , the poore , and the oppressed . And in pursuance of this charity the Imperiall laws have invented a juramentum de calumniâ on oath to be exhibited to the Actor or Plaintiff , that he beleevs himself to have a just cause , and that he does not implead his adversary calumniandi animo , with false instances , and indefencible allegations ; and the Defendant is to swear that he thinks himselfe to use onely just defences , and perfect instances of resisting ; and both of them obliged themselves , that they would exact no proofe but what was necessary to the truth of the Cause . And all this defence was nothing but necessary guards . For , a spear , and a sword , and an arrow is a man that speaketh false witnesse against his neighbour . And therefore the laws of God added yet another bar against this evill , and the false Accuser was to suffer the punishment of the objected crime : and as if this were not sufficient , God hath in severall ages wrought miracles , and raised the dead to life , that by such strange appearances they might relieve the oppressed Innocent , and load the false accusing Tongue with shame and horrible confusion . So it happen'd in the case of Susanna , the spirit of a manwas put into the heart of a childe to acquit the vertuous woman ; and so it was in the case of Gregory Bishop of Agrigentum , falsely accused by Sabinus and Crescentius ; Gods power cast the Devill out of Eudocia , the Devill or spirit of Slander , and compelled her to speak the truth . St. Austin in his book De curâ pro mortuis , tels of a dead Father that appeared to his oppressed Son , and in a great matter of Law delivered him from the teeth of false accusation . So was the Church of Monts rescued by the appearance of Aia the deceased wife of Hidulphus their Earle , as appears in the Hanovian story ; and the Polonian Chronicles tell the like of Stanislaus Bishop of Cracovia , almost oppressed by the anger and calumny of Boleslaus their King ; God relieved him by the testimony of St. Peter their Bishop , or a Phantasme like him . But whether these records may be credited or no , I contend not ; yet it is very materiall which Eusebius relates of the three false witnesses accusing Narcissus Bishop of Jerusalem , of an infamous crime , which they did , affirming it under severall curses : the first wishing that if he said false , God would destroy him with fire ; the second , that he might die of the Kingsevil ; the third , that he might be blind : and so it came to passe ; the first being surprised with fire in his owne roofe , amaz'd and intricated , confounded and despairing , paid the price of his slander with the pains of most fearfull flames : and the second perished by pieces , and Chirurgeons , and torment : which when the third saw , he repented of his fault , cryed mightily for pardon , but wept so bitterly , and found at the same time the reward of his calumny , and the acceptation of his repentance : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Cleanthes , nothing is more operative of spitefull and malicious purposes , then the calumniating Tongue . In the Temple at Smyrna there were Looking-glasses which represented the best face as crooked , ugly , and deformed ; the Greeks call these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : and so is every false tongue ; it lies in the face of heaven , and abuses the ears of justice , it oppresses the Innocent , and is secretly revenged of vertue , it defeats all the charity of laws , and arms the supreme power , and makes it strike the Innocent ; it makes frequent appeals to be made to heaven , and causes an oath , in stead of being the end of strife , to be the beginning of mischief ; it calls the name and testimony of God to seale an injury ; it feeds and nourishes cruell anger , but mocks justice , and makes mercy weep her selfe into pity , and mourne because she cannot help the Innocent . 5. The last instance of this evill I shall now represent is Cursing ; concerning which I have this onely to say ; that although the causelesse curse shall return upon the tongue that spake it , yet because very often there is a fault on both sides , when there is reviling or cursing on either , the danger of a cursing tongue is highly to be declined , as the biting of a mad dog , or the tongue of a smitten serpent . For as envy is in the evill eye , so is cursing in the reproachfull tongue ; it is a kinde of venome and witchcraft , an instrument by which God oftentimes punishes anger and uncharitablenesse ; and by which the Devill gets power over the bodies and interests of men : For he that works by Thessalic ceremonies , by charmes , and non-sense words , by figures and insignificant characterismes , by images and by rags , by circles and imperfect noyses , hath more advantage and reall title to the opportunities of mischief , by the cursing tongue ; and though God is infinitely more ready to doe acts of kindnesse then of punishment , yet God is not so carelesse a regarder of the violent and passionate wishes of men , but he gives some over to punishment , and chastises the follies of rage , and the madnesse of the tongue by suffering it to passe into a further mischief then the harsh sound and horrible accents of the evill language . By the tongue we blesse God and curse men ( saith St. James ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , reproaching is cursing ; and both of them opposed to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to blessing ; and there are many times and seasons in which both of them passe into reall effect . These are the particulars of the second . 3. I am now to instance in the third sort of filthy communication , that in which the Devill does the most mischief , by which he undoes souls ; by which he is worse then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , an Accuser : For though he accuses maliciously , and instances spitefully , and heaps objections diligently , and aggravates bitterly , and with all his powers endeavors to represent the separate souls to God as polluted and unfit to come into his presence , yet this malice is ineffective , because the scenes are acted before the wise Judge of Men and Angels , who cannot be abused ; before our Father and our Lord , who knows whereof we be made , and remembreth that we are but dust ; before our Saviour and our elder Brother , who hath felt our infirmities , and knows kow to pity , to excuse , and to answer for us : But though this accusation of us cannot hurt them who will not hurt themselves , yet this malice is prevailing when the spirit of flattery is let forth upon us . This is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Destroyer , and is the most contrary thing to charity in the whole world : and St. Paul noted it in his character of Charity , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Charity vaunteth not it selfe , so we translate it , but certainly not exactly , for it signifieth easinesse , complying foolishly , and flattering , Charity flattereth not , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith Suidas out of St. Basil , it signifies any thing that serves rather for ornament then for use , for pleasure then for profit . Et eo plectuntur poetae quàm suo vitio saepiùs , Ductabilitate nimiâ vestrâ aut perperitudine , saith the Comedy ; the Poets suffer more by your easinesse and flattery , then by their owne fault . And this is it which St. Paul sayes is against charity . For it to call a man foole and vitious , be so high an injury , we may thence esteem what a great calamity it is to be so ; and therefore he that makes him so , or takes a course he shall not become other , is the vilest enemy to his person , and his felicity ; and this is the mischief that is done by flattery ; it is a designe against the wisdome , against the repentance , against the growth and promotion of a mans soul. He that persuades an ugly , deformed man , that he is handsome , a short man that he is tall , a bald man that he hath a good head of hair , makes him to become ridiculous and a foole , but does no other mischief . But he that persuades his friend that is a goat in his manners , that he is a holy and a chaste person , or that his loosenesse is a signe of a quick spirit , or that it is not dangerous but easily pardonable , a trick of youth , a habit that old age will lay aside as a man pares his nailes , this man hath given great advantage to his friends mischief ; he hath made it grow in all the dimensions of the sin , till it grows intolerable , and perhaps unpardonable . And let it be considered , what a fearfull destruction and contradiction of friendship or service it is , so to love my self and my little interest , as to preferre it before the soul of him whom I ought to love . By my flattery I lay a snare to get 20 l. and rather then lose this contemptible sum of money , I will throw him that shall give it me ( as far as I can ) into hell , there to roar beyond all the measures of time or patience . Can any hatred be more , or love be lesse , can any expression of spite be greater , then that it be said , you will not part with 20 l. to save your Friends , or your Patrons , or your Brothers soul ? and so it is with him that invites him to , or confirms him in his folly , in hopes of getting something from him ; he will see him die , and die eternally , and help forward that damnation , so he may get that little by it . Every state is set in the midst of danger , as all trees are set in the wind , but the tallest endure the greatest violence of tempest : No man flatters a begger , if he does a slovenly and a rude crime it is entertained with ruder language , and the mean man may possibly be affrighted from his fault , while it is made so uneasie to him by the scorn and harsh reproaches of the mighty . But Princes and Nobles often die with this disease : And when the Courtiers of Alexander counterfeited his wry neck , and the Servants of the Sicilian Tyrant pretended themselves dim sighted , and on purpose rushed one against another , and overthrew the meat as it was served to his table , onely because the Prince was short-sighted , they gave them sufficient instances in what state of affaires they stood with them that waited ; it was certain they would commend every foolish answer , and pretend subtilty in every absurd question , and make a petition that their base actions might passe into a law , and be made to be the honor and sanctity of all the people : and what proportions or wayes can such great personages have towards felicity , when their vice shall be allowed and praised , every action that is but tolerable shall be accounted heroicall , and if it be intolerable among the wise , it shall be called vertuous among the flatterers ? Carneades said bitterly , but it had in it too many degrees of truth ; that Princes and great personages never learn to doe any thing perfectly well , but to ride the great horse , quia scil . ferociens bestia adulari non didicit , because the proud beast knows not how to flatter , but will as soon throw him off from his back as he will shake off the son of a Potter . But a Flatterer is like a neighing Horse , that neigheth under every rider , and is pleased with every thing , and commends all that he sees , and tempts to mischief , and cares not , so his friend may but perish pleasantly . And indeed that is a calamity that undoes many a soul ; we so love our peace , and sit so easily upon our own good opinions , and are so apt to flatter our selves , and leane upon our own false supports , that we cannot endure to be disturb'd or awakened from our pleasing lethargy . For we care not to be safe , but to be secure , not to escape hell , but to live pleasantly ; we are not solicitous of the event , but of the way thither , and it is sufficient , if we be perswaded all his well ; in the mean time we are carelesse whether indeed it be so or no , and therefore we give pensions to fools and vile persons to abuse us , and cousen us of felicity . But this evill puts on severall shapes , which we must discover , that they may not cousen us without our observation . For all men are not capable of an open flattery . And therefore some will dresse their hypocrisie and illusion so , that you may feel the pleasure , and but secretly perceive the complyance and tendernesse to serve the ends of your folly ? perit procari , si latet , said Plancus , If you be not perceived , you lose your reward ; if you be too open , you lose it worse . 1. Some flatter by giving great names , and propounding great examples ; and thus the Aegyptian villains hung a Tumblers rope upon their Prince , and a Pipers whistle ; because they called their Ptolemy by the name of Apollo their God of Musick . This put buskins upon Nero , and made him fidle in all the great Towns of Greece . When their Lords were Drunkards , they called them Bacchus ; when they were Wrestlers , they saluted them by the name of Hercules ; and some were so vain as to think themselves commended , when their Flatterers told aloud , that they had drunk more then Alexander the Conquerour . And indeed nothing more abuses easie fooles that onely seek for an excuse for their wickednesse , a Patron for their vice , a warrant for their sleepy peace , then to tell stories of great examples remarked for the instances of their temptation . When old Cato commended meretricious mixtures , and to prevent adulteries permitted fornication , the youth of the succeeding ages had warrant enough to goe ad olentes fornices , into their chambers of filthy pleasure ; Quidam notus homo cum exiret fornice ; macte Virtute esto ( inquit ) sententia dia Catonis : And it would passe the goblets in a freer circle , if a flattering man shall but say , Narratur & prisci Catonis saepè mero caluisse virtus , that old Cato would drink hard at sun-set . When Varro had noted , that wise and severe Salust , who by excellent sententious words had reproved the follies of lust , was himselfe taken in adultery , The Romane youth did hug their vice , and thought it grew upon their nature like a mans beard , and that the wisest men would lay their heads upon that threshold ; and Seneca tels that the women of that age despised the adultery of one man onely ; and hated it like marriage , and despis'd that as want of breeding , and grandeur of spirit , because the braver Spartans did use to breed their children promiscuously , as the Heards-men doe cattle from the fairest Buls . And Arrianus tels that the women would defend their basenesse by the doctrine of Plato , who maintain'd the community of women . This sort of flattery is therefore more dangerous , because it makes the temptation ready for mischief , apted and dressed with proper , materiall , and imitable circumstances . The way of discourse is far about , but evill examples kill quickly . 2. Others flatter by imitation : for when a crime is rare and insolent , singular and out of fashion , it must be a great strength of malice and impudence that must entertain it ; but the flattering man doing the vice of his Lord takes off the wonder , and the fear of being stared at ; and so incourages it by making it popular and common . Plutarch tels of one that divorced himself from his wife because his friend did so ; that the other might be hardened in the mischief ; and when Plato saw his scholars stoop in the shoulders , and Aristotle observed his to stammer , they began to be lesse troubled with those imperfections which they thought common to themselves and others . 3. Some pretend a rusticity and downright plainnesse , and upon the confidence of that humour their friends vice , and flatter his ruine . Seneca observed it of some of his time ; alius quidam adulatione clam utebatur parcè , alius ex aperto palàm , rusticitate simulatâ , quasi simplicitas illa ars non sit . They pretend they love not to dissemble , and therefore they cannot hide their thoughts ; let their friend take it how he will , they must commend that which is commendable ; and so man that is willing to dye quietly , is content with the honest heartynesse and downright simplicity of him that with an artificial rudenesse dress'd the flattery . 4. Some will dispraise themselves that their friend may think better of himselfe , or lesse severely of his fault . 5. Others will reprove their friend for a trifle , but with a purpose to let him understand , that this is all ; for the honest man would have told his friend if it had been worse . 6. Some will laugh and make a sport of a vice , and can hear their friend tell the cursed narrative of his adultery , of his drunkennesse , of his craft and unjust purchases ; and all this shall prove but a merry scene ; as if damnation were a thing to be laughed at , and the everlasting ruine of his friend were a very good jest . But thus the poor sinner shall not be affrighted from his danger , nor chastised by severe language , but the villain that eats his meat shall take him by the hand , and dance about the pit till he fals in , and dies with shame and folly . Thus the evill Spirit puts on shapes enough ; none to affright the man , but all to destroy him ; and yet it is filthy enough when it is invested with its own character : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Parasite or Flatterer is a beast that is all belly , looking round with his eye , watchfull , ugly , and deceitfull , and creeping on his teeth ; they feed him , and kill them that reach him bread : for that 's the nature of all vipers . I have this one thing onely to insert , and then the caution will be sufficient , viz. that we doe not think all praise given to our friend to be flattery , though it be in his presence . For sometimes praise is the best conveyance for a precept , and it may nourish up an infant vertue , and make it grow up towards perfection , and its proper measures and rewards . Friendship does better please our friend then flattery , and though it was made also for vertue , yet it mingles pleasures in the chalice , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it is delicious to behold the face of a friendly and a sweet person ; and it is not the office of a friend alwayes to be sowre , or at any time morose ; but free , open , and ingenuous , candid and humane , not denying to please , but ever refusing to abuse or corrupt . For as adulterine metals retain the lustre and colour of gold , but not the value ; so flattery in imitation of friendship takes the face and outside of it , the delicious part ; but the flatterer uses it to the interests of vice , and a friend by it serves vertue ; and therefore Plutarch well compared friendship to medicinall oyntments , which however delicious they be , yet they are also usefull , and minister to healing . But flattery is sweet and adulterate , pleasant but without health . He therefore that justly commends his friend to promote and incourage his vertue , reconciles vertue with his friends affection , and makes it pleasant to be good ; and he that does so , shall also better be suffered when he reproves , because the needing person shall finde that then is the opportunity and season of it , since he denyed not to please so long as he could also profit . I onely adde this advice , that since selfe-love is the serpents milk that feeds this viper flattery , we should doe well to choke it with its mothers milk ; I mean , learn to love our selves more , for then we should never endure to be flattered . For he that because he loves himselfe , loves to be flattered , does , because he loves himself , love to entertain a man to abuse him , to mock him , and to destroy him finally . But he that loves himselfe truly , will suffer fire , will endure to be burnt , so he may be purified ; put to pain , so he may be restored to health ; for of all sauces ( said Euenus ) sharpnesse , severity , and fire is the best . SERMON , XXV . Part IV. The Duties of the Tongue . Ephes. 4. latter part of the 29 verse . — But that which is good to the use of edifying , that it may minister grace unto the hearers . LOquendi ministros habemus homines , tacendi Deos , said one ; Men teach us to speak , and God teaches us to hold our tongue . The first we are taught by the lectures of our Schools ; the latter , by the mysteries of the Temple . But now in the new institution , we have also a great Master of speaking ; and though silence is one of the great paths of Innocence , yet Holy speaking is the instrument of Spirituall Charity , and is a glorification of God : and therefore this kinde of speaking is a degree of perfection beyond the wisdome and severity of silence . For although garrulity and foolish inordinate talking is a conjunction of folly and sin , and the prating man while he desires to get the love of them he converses with , incurres their hatred ; while he would be admir'd , is laughed at ; he spends much and gets nothing , he wrongs his friends and makes sport to his enemies , and injures himselfe ; he is derided when he tels what others know , he is indanger'd if he tels a secret and what they know not ; he is not beleeved when he tels good news , and when he tels ill news he is odious : and therefore that silence which is a cure of all this evill is an excellent portion of safety and Religion ; yet it is with holy speaking and innocent silence as it is with a Hermit and a Bishop ; the first goes to a good school , but the second is proceeded towards greater perfection ; and therefore the practicall life of Ecclesiasticall Governors being found in the way of holinesse and zeale , is called status perfectionis , a more excellent and perfect condition of life , and farre beyond the retirements and inoffensive life of those innocent persons which doe so much lesse of profit , by how much charity is better then meditation , and going to heaven by religion and charity , by serving God and converting soules , is better then going to heaven by prayers and secret thoughts : So it is with silence , and religious communication . That does not offend God ; this glorifies him : That prevents Sin ; this sets forward the interests of Religion . And therefore Plutarch said well , Qui generosè & regio more instituuntur , primum tacere , deinde loqui discunt . To be taught first to be silent , then to speak well and handsomely , is education fit for a Prince ; and that is St. Paul's method here : first we were taught how to restraine our tongues in the foregoing instances , and now we are called to imploy them in Religion . 1. We must speak that which is good ] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , any thing that may serve the ends of our God and of our Neighbour , in the measures of Religion and usefulnesse . But it is here as in all other propositions of Religion . God to us , who are in the body , and conducted by materiall phantasmes , and understanding nothing but what we feel , or is conveyed to us by the proportions of what we doe or have , hath given us a Religion that is fitted to our condition and constitution . And therefore when we are commanded to love God , by this love Christ understands obedience ; when we are commanded to honour God , it is by singing and reciting his praises , and doing things which cause reputation and honour : and even here when we are commanded to speak that which is good , it is instanced in such good things which are really profitable , practically usefull ; and here the measures of God are especially by the proportions of our neighbour . And therefore , though speaking honorable things of God be an imployment that does honour to our tongues and voices , yet we must tune and compose even these notes so , as may best profit our neighbour ; for so it must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , good speech , such as is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for the edification of necessity : the phrase is an Hebraisme , where the genitive case of a substantive is put for the adjective ; and meanes , that our speech be apted to necessary edification , or such edification as is needfull to every mans particular case ; that is , that we so order our communication , that it be apt to instruct the ignorant , to strengthen the weak , to recall the wanderer , to restraine the vicious , to comfort the disconsolate , to speak a word in season to every mans necessity , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that it may minister grace , something that may please and profit them , according as they shall need ; all which I shall reduce to these three heads : 1. To Instruct. 2. To Comfort . 3. To Reprove . 1. Our conversation must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , apt to teach . For since all our hopes on our part depend upon our obedience to God , and conformity to our Lord Jesus , by whom our endevours are sanctified and accepted , and our weaknesses are pardoned , and all our obedience relies upon , and is incouraged and grounded in faith , and faith is founded naturally and primarily in the understanding , we may observe that it is not onely reasonably to be expected , but experimentally felt , that in weak and and ignorant understandings there are no sufficient supports for the vigorousnesse of a holy life ; there being nothing , or not enough to warrant and strengthen great resolutions , to reconcile our affections to difficulties , to make us patient of affronts , to receive deeper mortifications , and ruder usages , unlesse where an extraordinary grace supplies the want of ordinary notices , as the Apostles were enabled to their preachings : But he therefore that carries and imports into the understanding of his Brother , notices of faith , and incomes of spirituall propositions , and arguments of the Spirit , enables his brother towards the work and practises of a holy life : and though every argument which the Spirit of God hath made and recorded in holy Scripture , is of it selfe inducement great enough to endear obedience ; yet it is not so in the event of things to every mans infirmity , and need ; but in the treasures of the Spirit , in the heaps and variety of institution , and wise discourses , there will not onely be enough to make a man without excuse , but sufficient to doe his work and to cure his evill , and to fortifie his weaker parts , and to comply with his necessities ; for although Gods sufficient grace is present to all that can use it , yet if there be no more then that , it is a sad consideration to remember , that there are but few that will be saved , if they be helped but with just so much as can possibly doe the work : and this we may well be assured of , if we consider that God is never wanting to any man in what is simply necessary ; but then if we adde this also , that of the vast numbers of men who might possibly be saved , so few really are so , we shall perceive that that grace which onely is sufficient , is not sufficient ; sufficient to the thing , is not sufficient for the person ; and therefore that God does usually give us more , and we need more yet ; and unlesse God works in us to will and to doe , we shall neither will nor doe ; though to will be in the power of our hand , yet we will not will ; it follows from hence that all they who will comply with Gods method of graciousnesse , and the necessities of their Brethren , must endevour by all meanes , and in all their owne measures , and capacities to lay up treasures of notices and instructions in their brothers soul , that by some argument or other they may be met withall and taken in every corner of their conversation . Adde to this , that the duty of a man hath great variety , and the souls of men are infinitely abused , and the persuasions of men are strangely divided , and the interests of men are a violent and preternaturall declination from the strictnesses of vertue , and the resolutions of men are quickly altered , and very hardly to be secured , and the cases of conscience are numerous and intricate , and every state of life that hath its proper prejudice , and our notices are abused by our affections , and we shall perceive that men generally need knowledge enough to over-power all their passions , to root out their vitious inclinations , to master their prejudice , to answer objections , to resist temptations , to refresh their wearynesse , to fixe their resolutions , and to determine their doubts ; and therefore to see your brother in a state of ignorance , is to see him unfurnished and unprepared to all good works , a person safe no longer then till a temptation comes , and one that cannot be saved but by an absolute unlimited predestination , a favour of which he hath no promise , no security , no revelation ; and although to doe this God , hath appointed a speciall Order of men , the whole Ecclesiasticall Order , whom he feeds at his owne charges , and whom men rob at their owne perill , yet this doth not disoblige others : for every Master of a family is to instruct , or cause his family to be instructed , and catechised ; every Governour is to instruct his charge , every Man his Brother , not alwayes in person , but ever by all possible and just provisions . For if the people dye for want of knowledge , they who are set over them shall also die for want of charity . Here therefore we must remember , that it is the duty of us all , in our severall measures and proportions , to instruct those that need it , and whose necessity is made ready for our ministration ; and let us tremble to think what will be the sad account which we shall make when even our families are not taught in the fundamentals of Religion ; for how can it be possible for those who could not account concerning the stories of Christs life and death , the ministeries of their redemption , the foundation of all their hopes , the great argument of all their obediences ; how can it be expected that they should ride in triumph over all the evills which the Devill , and the World , and their owne follies daily present to them in the course of every dayes conversation ? And it will be an ill return to say , that God will require no more of them then he hath given them ; for suppose that be true in your own sense , yet he will require it of thee , because thou gavest them no more ; and however , it is a formidable danger , and a trifling hope for any man to put all the hopes of his being saved upon the onely stock of ignorance ; for if his ignorance should never be accounted for , yet it may leave him in that state in which his evills shall grow great , and his sins may be irremediable . 2. Our Conversation must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , apt to comfort the disconsolate ; and then this , men in present can feel no greater charity . For since halfe the duty of a Christian in this life consists in the exercise of passive graces , and the infinite variety of providence , and the perpetuall adversity of chances , and the dissatisfaction and emptynesse that is in things themselves , and the wearynesse and anguish of our spirit does call us to the trial and exercise of patience even in the dayes of sunshine , and much more in the violent storms that shake our dwellings , and make our hearts tremble ; God hath sent some Angels into the world , whose office it is to refresh the sorrowes of the poore , and to lighten the eyes of the disconsolate ; he hath made some creatures whose powers are chiefly ordain'd to comfort ; wine , and oyle , and society , cordials and variety ; and time it selfe is checker'd with black and white ; stay but till to morrow , and your present sorrow will be weary , and will lie downe to rest . But this is not all . The third person of the holy Trinity is known to us by the name and dignity of the Holy Ghost the Comforter , and God glories in the appellative , that he is the Father of mercies , and the God of all comfort , and therefore to minister in the office is to become like God , and to imitate the charities of heaven ; and God hath fitted mankinde for it ; he most needs it , and he feels his brothers wants by his owne experience , and God hath given us speech , and the endearments of society , and pleasantness of conversation , and powers of seasonable discourse , arguments to allay the sorrow , by abating our apprehensions and taking out the sting , or telling the periods of comfort , or exciting hope , or urging a precept , and reconciling our affections , and reciting promises , or telling stories of the Divine mercy , or changing it into duty , or making the burden lesse by comparing it with greater , or by proving it to be lesse then we deserve , and that it is so intended , and may become the instrument of vertue . And certain it is , that as nothing can better doe it , so there is nothing greater , for which God made our tongues , next to reciting his prayses , then to minister comfort to a weary soul. And what greater measure can we have , then that we should bring joy to our brother , who with his dreary eyes looks to heaven and round about , and cannot finde so much rest as to lay his eye-lids close together , then that thy tongue should be tun'd with heavenly accents , and make the weary soul to listen for light and ease , and when he perceives that there is such a thing in the world , and in the order of things , as comfort and joy , to begin to break out from the prison of his sorrows at the dore of sighs and tears , and by little and little melt into showres and refreshment ? This is glory to thy voyce , and imployment fit for the brightest Angel. But so have I seen the sun kisse the frozen earth which was bound up with the images of death , and the colder breath of the North , and then the waters break from their inclosures , and melt with joy , and run in usefull channels , and the flies doe rise againe from their little graves in walls , and dance a while in the aire , to tell that there is joy within , and that the great mother of creatures will open the stock of her new refreshment , become usefull to mankinde , and sing prayses to her Redeemer : So is the heart of a sorrowfull man under the discourses of a wise Comforter , he breaks from the despairs of the grave , and the fetters and chains of sorrow , he blesses God , and he blesses thee , and he feels his life returning ; for to be miserable is death , but nothing is life but to be comforted ; and God is pleased with no musick from below so much as in the thanksgiving songs of relieved Widows , of supported Orphans , of rejoycing , and comforted , and thankfull persons . This part of communication does the work of God and of our Neighbors , and bears us to heaven in streams of joy made by the overflowings of our brothers comfort . It is a fearfull thing to see a man despairing . None knows the sorrow and the intolerable anguish but themselves , and they that are damned ; and so are all the loads of a wounded spirit , when the staffe of a mans broken fortune bowes its head to the ground , and sinks like an Osier under the violence of a mighty tempest . But therefore in proportion to this I may tell the excellency of the imployment , and the duty of that charity which bears the dying and languishing soul from the fringes of hell to the seat of the brightest stars , where Gods face shines and reflects comforts for ever and ever . And though God hath for this especially intrusted his Ministers and Servants of the Church , and hath put into their hearts and notices great magazines of promises , and arguments of hope and arts of the Spirit , yet God does not alwayes send Angels on these embassies , but sends a man ut sit homo homini Deus , that every good man in his season may be to his brother in the place of God , to comfort and restore him ; and that it may appear how much it is the duty of us all to minister comfort to our brother , we may remember that the same words and the same arguments doe oftentimes more prevaile upon our spirits when they are applyed by the hand of another , then when they dwell in us , and come from our owne discoursings . This is indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to the edification of our needs , and the greatest and most holy charity . 3. Our communication must in its just season be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , we must reprove our sinning brother ; for the wounds of a friend are better then the kisses of an enemy ( saith Solomon : ) we imitate the office of the great Shepheard and Bishop of souls , if we goe to seek and save that which was lost ; and it is a fearfull thing to see a friend goe to hell undisturbed , when the arresting him in his horrid progresse may possibly make him to return ; this is a course that will change our vile itch of judging and censuring others into an act of charity ; it will alter slander into piety , detraction into counsell , revenge into friendly and most usefull offices , that the Vipers flesh may become Mithridate , and the Devill be defeated in his malicious imployment of our language . He is a miserable man whom none dares tell of his faults so plainly , that he may understand his danger ; and he that is uncapable and impatient of reproof , can never become a good friend to any man. For besides that himself would never admonish his friend when he sins , ( and if he would , why should not himself be glad of the same chairty ? ) he is also proud , and Scorner is his name ; he thinks himself exempt from the condition and failings of men , or if he does not , he had rather goe to hell then be call'd to his way by an angry Sermon , or driven back by the sword of an Angell , or endure one blushing , for all his hopes and interests of heaven . It is no shame to be reproved , but to deserve it ; but he that deserves it , and will doe so still , shall increase his shame into confusion , and bring upon himselfe a sorrow bigger then the calamities of war , and plagues and hospitals , and poverty . He onely is truely wise , and will be certainly happy , that so understands himself and hates his sin , that he will not nurse it , but get to himselfe a Reprover on purpose , whose warrant shall be liberty , whose thanks shall be amendment , whose entertainment shall be obedience ; for a flattering word is like a bright sun-shine to a sore Eye , it increases the trouble , and lessens the sight ; Haec demum sapiet dictio quae feriet ; The severe word of the reproving man is wise and healthfull : But because all times and all circumstances , and all persons are not fit for this imployment : — et plurima sunt quae Non audent homines pertusâ dicere laenâ ; Some will not endure that a pore man , or an obliged person should reprove them , and themselves are often so unprofitable servants that they will rather venture their friends damnation then hazard their owne interest , therefore in the performance of this duty of the usefull communication , the following measures are fit to be observed . 1. Let not your reproofe be publick and personall : if it be publick , it must be in generall ; if it be personall , it must be in private ; and this is expressely commanded by our blessed Saviour : If thy Brother offends , tell it him between him and thee ; for when it comes afterwards in case of contumacy to be declared in publick , it passes from fraternall correption to Ecclesiasticall discipline . When Socrates reproved Plato at a feast , Plato told him , it had been better he had told him his fault in private ; for to speak it publickly is indecency : Socrates replyed ; and so it is for you publickly to condemne that indecency . For it is the nature of man to be spitefull when he is shamed , and to esteem that the worst of evils , and therefore to take impudence and perseverance for its cover , when his shame is naked : And for this indiscretion Aristomenes the Tutor of Ptolemy , who before the Corinthian Embassadors reproved the King for sleeping at the solemne audience , profited nothing , but enraged the Prince , and was himself forc'd to drink poyson . But this warinesse is not alwayes necessary . For 1. a publick and an authoriz'd person , may doe it publickly , and may name the person as himself shall judge expedient . — secuit Lucilius urbem : Te Lupe , te Muti ; & genuinum fregit in illis : Omne vafer vitium — Lucilius was a censor of manners , and by his office he had warrant and authority . 2. There are also some cases in which a publick reproofe is prudent , and that is when the crime is great , but not understood to be any at all ; for then it is Instruction and Catechism , and layes aside the affront and trouble of reproofe . Thus Ignatius the Martyr did reprove Trajan sacrificing at the Altar in the sight of all the Officers of the Army ; and the Iews were commanded to reprove the Babylonians for Idolatry in the land of their Captivity : and if we see a Prince in the confidence of his pride , and carelesnesse of spirit , and heat of war spoyle a Church or rob God , it is then fit to tell him the danger of Sacriledge , if otherwise he cannot well be taught his danger , and his duty . 3. There are some circumstances of person in which by interpretation , duty or custome a leave is indulged or presum'd , that liberty may be prudently used , publickly to reprove the publick vices : so it was in the old days of the Romans ; vice had then so little footing and authority , so few friends and advocates , that the Prophets and Poets used a bolder liberty to disgrace whatsoever was amisse ; — unde illa priorum Scribendi quodcunque animo flagrante liberet Simplicitas — and much of the same liberty is still reserved to Pulpits , and to the Bishops office , save onely , that although they may reprove publickly , yet they may not often doe it personally . 2. Use not to reprove thy brother for every thing , but for great things onely : for this is the office of a Tutor , not of a Friend ; and few men will suffer themselves to abide alwayes under Pupillage . When the friend of Philotimus the Physician came to him to be cured of a sore finger , he told him , Heus tu , non tibi cum reduvia est negotium , he let his finger alone , and told him that his liver was impostumate : and he that tells his friend that his countenance is not grave enough in the Church , when it may be the man is an Atheist , offers him a cure that will doe him no good , and to chastise a trifle is not a worthy price of that noblest liberty and ingenuity which becomes him that is to heale his brothers soule . But when a vice stains his soule , when he is a foole in his manners , when he is proud , and impatient of contradiction , when he disgraces himselfe by talking weakly , and yet beleeves himselfe wise , and above the confidence of a sober person , then it concerns a friend to rescue him from folly . So Solon reproved Croesus , and Socrates Alcibiades , and Cyrus chid Cyaxares , and Plato told to Dion that of all things in the world he should beware of that folly , by which men please themselves , and despise a better judgement : quia ei vitio adsidet solitudo , Because that folly hath in it singularity , and is directly contrary to all capacities of a friendship , or the entertainments of necessary reproofe . 3. Vse not liberty of reproofe in the dayes of sorrow and affliction ; for the calamity it self is enough to chastise the gayeties of sinning persons , and to bring him to repentance ; it may be sometimes fit to insinuate the mention of the cause of that sorrow , in order to repentance , and a cure : But severe and biting language is then out of season , and it is like putting vineger to an enflamed and smarting eye , it increases the anguish , and tempts unto impatience . In the accidents of a sad person , we must doe as nurses to their falling children , snatch them up and still their cryings , and entertain their passion with some delightfull avocation ; but chide not then when the sorrowfull man needs to be refreshed . When Crater the Cynic met Demetrius Phalereus in his banishment and trouble , he went to him and spoke to him friendly , and used his Philosophy in the ministeries of comfort , and taught him to bear his trouble nobly , and so wrought upon the criminal , and wilde Demetrius ; and he moved him to repentance , who if he had been chidden ( as he expected ) would have scorn'd the manners of the Cynic , and hated his presence and institution ; and Perseus kil'd Euchus and Eulaeus , for reproving his rashnesse , when he was newly defeated by the Romanes . 4. Avoid all the evill appendages of this liberty : for since to reprove a sinning brother is at the best but an unwelcome and invidious employment , though it may also be understood to be full of charity ; yet therefore we must not make it to be hatefull by adding reproach , scorn , violent expressions , scurrility , derision , or bitter invectives . Hieron invited Epicharmus to supper , and he knowing that Hieron had unfortunately kil'd his friend , replyed to his invitation , Atque nuper cum amicos immolares non vorasti , I think I may come , for when thou didst sacrifice thy friends thou didst not devour them . This was a bitter sarcasme , and might with more prudence and charity have been avoyded . They that intend charitably and conduct wisely , take occasions and proper seasons of reproof , they doe it by way of question and similitude , by narrative and apologues , by commending something in him that is good , and discommending the same fault in other persons by way that may disgrace that vice , and preserve the reputation of the man. Ammonius observing that his Scholars were nice and curious in their diet , and too effeminate for a Philosophicall life , caused his freed man to chastise his boy for not dining without vinegar , and all the while look'd upon the young Gentlemen , and read to them a lecture of Severity . Thus our dearest Lord reproved St. Peter , he look'd upon him when the signe was given with the crowing of the Cock , and so chid him into a showre of penitentiall tears . Some use to mingle prayses with their reprehensions , and to invite their friends patience to endure remedy , by ministring some pleasure with their medicine ; for as no wise man can well indure to be praised by him that knows not how to disprayse , and to reprove ; so neither will they endure to be reproved by him that knows not how to praise ; for reproof from such a man betrayes too great a love of himselfe , and an illiberall spirit : He that will reprove wisely , must efform himselfe into all images of things which innocently and wisely he can put on ; not by changing his manners , his principles , and the consequences of his discourse , ( as Alcibiades was supposed to doe ) for it is best to keep the severity of our owne principles , and the manner of our owne living : for so Plato lived at Syracuso , just as he lived in the Academy ; he was the same to Dionysius that he was to Dion : But this I mean , that he who meanes to win soules , and prevail to his brothers institution , must as St. Paul did , effigiate and conform himself to those circumstances of living , and discourse , by which he may prevaile upon the persuasions , by complying with the affections and usages of men . These are the measures by which we are to communicate our counsels and advices to our erring Brethren : to which I adde this last advice , That no man should at that time in which he is reproved give counsell and reproofe to his Reprover , for that betrayes an angry spirit , and makes discord out of piety , and changes charity into wrangling , and it looking like a revenge , makes it appear that himself took the first reproofe for an injury . That which remaines now is , that I persuade men to doe it , and that I persuade men to suffer it ; 't is sometimes hard to doe it , but the cause is onely , because it is hard to bear it ; for if men were but apprehensive of their danger , and were not desirous to die , there were no more to be said in this affair ; they would be as glad to entertain a severe Reprover as a carefull Physitian ; of whom because most men are so willing to make use , so thankfull for their care , so great valuers of their skill , such lovers of their persons ; no man is put to it to persuade men to be Physitians , because there is no need to persuade men to live , or to be in health : if therefore men would as willingly be vertuous as be healthfull , as willingly doe no evill as suffer none , be as desirous of heaven as of a long life on earth , all the difficulties and temptations against this duty of reproving our sinning brother would soon be conceal'd ; but let it be as it will , we must doe it in duty and piety to him that needs , and if he be impatient of it , he needs it more : Et per hujusmodi offensas emetiendum est confragosum hoc iter : it is a troublesome imployment , but it is duty and charity ; and therefore when it can with hope of successe , with prudence and piety be done , no other consideration ought to interpose . And for the other part , those I mean who ought to be reproved , they are to remember , that themselves give pensions to Preacher on purpose to be reproved if they shall need it* , that God hath instituted a holy Order of men to that very purpose* , that they should be severally told of all that is amisse* , that themselves chide their children and their servants for their good , and that they may amend* , and that they endure thirst to cure their dropsies* , that they suffer burnings to prevent the gangrenes* , and endure the cutting off a limbe to preserve their lives * , and therefore that it is a strange witchcraft and a prodigious folly , that at so easie a mortification as the suffering of a plain friendly reproofe , they will not set forward their interest of heaven , and suffer themselves to be set forward in their hopes of heaven : — dura fatemur Esse , sed ut valeas multa dolenda feras . And when all remember that flattery and importune silence suffer the mighty to perish like fooles and inconsiderate persons , it ought to awake our spirits , and make us to attend to the admonitions of a friend , with a silence great as midnight , and watchfull as a widows eyes . It was a strange thing that Valentinian should in the midst of so many Christian Prelates make a law to establish Polygamy , and that no Bishop should dare to reprehend him . The effect of it was this , that he had a son by a second wife , the first being alive and not divorc'd , and he left him heir of a great part of the Empire ; and what the effect of that was to this soul , God who is his Judge best knows . If now at last it be inquir'd whether every man is bound to reprove every man , if he sins , and if he converse with him ? I answer , that if it should be so , it were to no purpose , and therefore for it there is no commandement ; every man that can may instruct him that wants it ; but every man may not reprove him that is already instructed ; that is an act of charity , for which there are no measures , but the others necessity , and his own opportunity ; but this is also an act of discipline , and must in many cases suppose an authority ; and in all cases such a liberty as is not fit to be permitted to mean , and ignorant , and inferiour persons ; I end this with the saying of a wise person , advising to every one concerning the use of the tongue , aut lucrentur vitam loquendo , aut tacendo abscondant scientiam ; if they speak , let them minister to the good of souls ; if they speak not , let them minister to sobriety ; in the first they serve the end of charity , in the other of humility . THE END . ERRATA . PAg. 10. l. 35. r. entertained that at . p. 6. l. 30. seen r. scene . 29. 21. dear r. clear . 152. 4. terrour r. fervour . 71. 40. the bowed r. they bowed . 87. 41. reverend r. reverenc'd . 112. 27. r. illius pejora prioribus . 100. 1. one r. once . 102. 21. that flies r. he that flies . 142. 16. r. true or false . 98. 45. if it be turned r. if it be not turned . 283. ult . r. get a Genius . 309. 40. still r. till . 334. 5. r. his soul. 33. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lege ( forsan ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 52. 29. lege 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 140. 9. lege 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 200. ult . lege 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . In margin . p. 225. 5. lege 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A64139-e2150 Florus . Rom. 4. 10. Lucan . l. 1. Notes for div A64139-e4000 Rom. 2. 5. In Psal. 103. * In Ierem. hom . 13. & in Luk. hom . 14. & Lactantius lib. 7. instit . c. 21. Hilarius in Psal. 118. octer . 3. & in Mat. can . 2. In Psal. 118. serm . 3. Heb. 4. Psal. 74. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Revel . 8. 3. Rom. 8. 26. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. Notes for div A64139-e6710 Ioel 1. Mat. 12. 36. Iob 31. 14. Eph. 5. 6. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 1. 2. Xenoph. 1. Mat. 25. 34. 41. Hymn . 5. lib. Cathemer . Lib. 2. cap. 65. 1. 2. Rev. 14. 11. Rev. 20. 14. Notes for div A64139-e10110 Job 27. 9. Ps. 6. 6. 18. Prov. 1. 28. Isa. 1. 15. Ier. 14. 12. 10. Vide etiam Ps. 34. 6 Micah 3 4. 1 Pet. 3. 12. Iam. 2. 13. Notes for div A64139-e12570 Psal , 22. 29. See 2. Sermon of lukewarmnesse and zeal . Notes for div A64139-e14850 Ezek. 14. 14. 1 Ioh. 5. 16. Chap. 42. 7 , 8. Eccles. 5. 2. Gen. 20. 7. Iudg. 17. 13. Iames 5. 14. Heb. 7. 7. Act. 6. 4. Lib. 1. ep . 4. Ad Demo. a 1. q. 1. c. sacrosancta . a Homil. 53. b In scholiis ad hunc locum . c Lib. 6 , A. D. 108. Biblioth . d Ep. 16. Biblioth . pp. tom . 3. n. 19. e Decret . 1. q. 1. ad c. eos qui. f Lib. 6. regist . 5. in decretis & l. 7. c. 120. g De dignit . sacerd . c. 5. h Can. 9. orat . 4. de sacerd . i 1. in ep . 20. hom . 1. part . 2. ep . 27. k Ep. 9. tom . 3 ad Michael . imperater . d. in 4 dist . 13. Collat. 9. cap. 32. Ierem. 5. 1. Notes for div A64139-e18370 Vers. 25. 2. 7. Deut. 4. 24. 1 Pet. 1. 17. Deut. 10. 12. Psal. 111. 10. Eccles. 12. 13. 2 Cor. 7. 1. Ionah 1. 9. King. 17. 25. Mat. 5. ad v. 10. Ioh. 1. 17. Rom. 6. 14 , 15. Rom. 6. 15. 1 Cor. 10. 22. 1 Pet. 4. 19. Apud Eurip. in Phoenissis . 1 Cor. 10. 12. * Heb 6. 6. Heb. 10 26. 2 Pet. 2. 22. Notes for div A64139-e21300 Mat. 9. 2. 1 Pet. 1. 18. 2 Ep. 1. 3. Act. 3. 26. 1. Exod. 23. 20. 21. Ier. 2. 36. Ephes. 4. 17 , 18. Mat. 12. 45. vide 2 Pet. 2. 10. Notes for div A64139-e23390 Lib. de nat . Deorum . Eccles. 12 5. * 1 Cor. 10. 20. * 4. 7. ● Rom. 11. 25. Eurip. Revel . 21. 8. Notes for div A64139-e26040 Eph. 2. 3. Plutar. Notes for div A64139-e28730 Lactantius . Euripides . Ephes. 4. 16. 1 Ioh. 5. 4. Luk. 11. 13. Mat. 7. 11. Phil. 4. 4. Ephes. 5. 18. Trinummus . Notes for div A64139-e31720 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 3. Dan. 4. 27. Notes for div A64139-e33980 Prov. 18. 9. His qui sacris visis abeunt ad inferos Homines beati sunt , solis quia vivere Contingit illic istis , turba caetera Omnium malorum generi incidit . See Sermons of the Return of Prayer , Part 2 1. 2. 3. 4. Notes for div A64139-e36830 Lam. 3. 44. Arislo . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Mat. 5. 16 ▪ 3. Iam. 3. 14. Notes for div A64139-e39230 Horace . Senec. Per. sat . 2. S. Chrysost. Notes for div A64139-e42560 3. Iam. 2. 6. 4. Prudent . hym . de jejun . Clem. Alexandr . 5. Alcaeus . 3. 1. Chrysost. Viz. ab Areto , unde sicut ex aliis Etruriae figulinis testacea vasa Romam d●ferebant . 3. 4. Prov. 31. 6. Senec● . Boetius l. 3. Metr . 7. Notes for div A64139-e46540 * Quemlibet hominem cui non est uxor , minimè esse hominem , cum etiam in Scriptura digatur , Masculum & foeminam creavit eos & vocavit no men corum Adam self hominem . R. Eliezer dixit in Gem. Bab. Quicunque negligit praecepium de multiplicatione humani generis habendum esse veluti homicidam . Christiani & apud Athenas , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 refert Julius Pollux l. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Idem ctiam Laccdaemoue & Romae . vide Festum verb. uxorium , atque ibi Joseph . Scat. Etiam Judaei qui praeceptum esse viris 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aiunt uno ore concedunt tamen dispensatum esse cum ils qui assiduo legis studio vacare volunt , aliàs etiam immunibus ab acriori carnis stimulo . Maimon . cap. 15. Halach . Ishoth . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. Epist. ad Philadelth . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Ignatius epislol . dd Philadelph . Et Clemens idem ait a pud Eusebiumbist . Eccles. lib. 3. sed tamen eam non circumduxit sicut Petrus : probat autem eae Philip. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Plato . Adde quòd . Eunuchus nulla pietate movetur , Nee generi natisve cavet clementia cunctis In similes animosque ligant conscrtia damni . Claudian . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Siquis patriam majorem parentem extinguit , in eo culpa est , quod facit prosua parte quise eunuchat aut aliquâ liberos producit , i. e. differt eorum procreationem . Varro in lege Maenia . a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. b Non ego illam mihi dotem duco esse quae dos dicitur , Sed pudicitiam & pudorem , & sedatum cupidinem , Deûm metum , parentum amorem , & cognatûm concordiam . Plaut . in Amphit . c Facies , non uxor amatur . Tres rugae subeant , & se cutis arida laxet , Fiant obscuri dentes , oculique minores , Collige sarcinutas dicet libertus , & exi . Juven . Sat. 6. Macrobius ex Varrone . Epist. ad Philadelph . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * Quaedam parva quidem , scd uon toleranda maritis . — Hujùs n. rari summique voluptas Nulla boni , quoties animocorrupta superbo Plus aloos quam mellis habet — Juven . Sat. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Notes for div A64139-e49670 Exhort . ad virg . Aeneid . 6. Epithal. Juliae . Eph. 5. 25. Col. 3. 19. 1 Pet. 3. 7. * Ah lapis est , ferrumque , suam quicunque pucllam Verberat , è coelo diripit ille Deos. Sit satis è membus tenuem praescindere vestem , Sit satis ornatus dissoluisse cemas , Sit lachrymas movisse satis , quater ille beatus , Quo tenera irato flere puella potest . Sed manibus qui saeviu erit , scutúmque sudemque It gerat , & miti sit procul à Venere . Tibull . Iliad . 0. Homil. 7. Hexaem . Felices ter & amplius Quos irrupta tenet copula , nec malis Divulsus querimoniu Suprema citius solvet amor die . Horat. Uxoris vitium tollas opus est , aut feras : Qui tollit vitium , uxorem commodiusculam Sibi praestat ; qui fert , sese meliorem facit . Varro . Eurip. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . C. alia D. solut . Matrim . Pluatus in Sticho . Gen. 5. 2. Juvenal . Esai . 3. 4. Ephes. 5. 24. Col. 3. 18. Stromat . 7. — Quis deditus autem Usque adeò est , ut non illam quam laudibus essert , Horreat , inque diem septenis oderit horts ? Juven . Sat. 6. 1 Pet. 3. 4. Malo Venusinam quèm te Cornelia mater Gracchorum , si cum magnis virtutibus offers Grande supercilium , & numer as in dote triumpho . Juven Sat. 6. Quid juvat ornato procedere vitta capillo , Teque peregrinis vendere muneribus , Naturaeque decus mercato perdere cultu , Nec sinere in proprils membra nitere bonis ? Propert. l. 1. cl . 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Notes for div A64139-e53780 Eccles. 11. 28. Heb. 11. 25. Juven . Hos. 13. 2. Plat. de Rep. Notes for div A64139-e57010 Ephes. 5. Psa. 38. 4. & 65. 2 Tim. 3. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. Plutarch . Scneca de vitâ beatâ . Euripid. Ioh. 13. 27. Cypr. Ep. 76. Eurip. Notes for div A64139-e60240 Eccles. 10. 20. Homer . Ps. 119. 55 , 56. Phaedrus . Psal. 83. Psal. 33. Excd. 23. 10. Notes for div A64139-e63190 Homil. 4. in ep . Rom. Lib. 3. ep . 44 Supellex ejus garrulitas . Comoed . Muliebre ingenium p●cluvium . Accius in Andromedâ . Sola laboranti potuit succwrere Lunae . Matt. 12. 36. In Reg. brevior . Lib. 7. Moral . c. 17. ubi sup . in cap. 12 Matt. * in Ps. 118. * cap. 1. 1. 2. 3. 4. Eurip. 5. Serm. de triplici custodiā . Eurip. Plunu . Notes for div A64139-e66540 Ephes. 1. 4 , 5. Lib. de Offic. In ep . ad Ephes. Vide St. Chrysostom homil . 6. in Matth. Vbi supra . 1. Chap. 5. v. 12. Matth. 12. Notes for div A64139-e70280 Levit. 19. 6. Prov. 6. 17. & 26. 20. James 3. Matt. 23. 17 , 19. Luk. 24. 25. Levit. 6. Zech. 7. Luk. 3. c. 11. l. 6. c. 7. 1 Cor. 13. 5. Notes for div A64139-e74370 Prov. 27. 6. Jer. 10. 11. 
A64109	----	The rule and exercises of holy living. In which are described the means and instruments of obtaining every vertue, and the remedies against every vice, and considerations serving to the resisting all temptations. Together with prayers containing the whole duty of a Christian, and the parts of devotion fitted to all occasions, and furnish'd for all necessities. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. 1650 Approx. 723 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 221 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2009-03 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A64109 Wing T371 ESTC R203748 99863584 99863584 115792 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A64109) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 115792) Images scanned from microfilm: (Thomason Tracts ; 171:E1257[1]) The rule and exercises of holy living. In which are described the means and instruments of obtaining every vertue, and the remedies against every vice, and considerations serving to the resisting all temptations. Together with prayers containing the whole duty of a Christian, and the parts of devotion fitted to all occasions, and furnish'd for all necessities. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. Vaughan, Robert, engraver. [24], 410, [2] p. Printed [by R. Norton] for Richard Royston at the Angel in Ivie-lane, London : MDCL. [1650] Printer's name from colophon. With an engraved title page: "The rule and exercises of holy living by Jer. Taylor D:D.", signed: Ro: Vaughan sculp:. 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Christian life -- Early works to 1800. 2000-00 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2001-06 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2001-07 TCP Staff (Michigan) Sampled and proofread 2003-06 SPi Global Rekeyed and resubmitted 2003-07 Olivia Bottum Sampled and proofread 2004-01 SPi Global Rekeyed and resubmitted 2004-02 Rina Kor Sampled and proofread 2004-02 Rina Kor Text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-04 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion THE RULE AND EXERCISES OF HOLY LIVING By Ier. Taylor D : D ▪ Non magna loquimur sed vivimus . LONDON printed for R : Royston in I●ye lane . 1650. THE RVLE AND EXERCISES OF HOLY LIVING . In which are described The MEANS and INSTRUMENTS of obtaining every Vertue , and the Remedies against every Vice , and Considerations serving to the resisting all temptations . Together with Prayers containing the whole duty of A Christian , and the parts of Devotion fitted to all Occasions , and furnish'd for all Necessities . LONDON , Printed for Richard Royston at the Angel in Ivie-Lane . MDCL . To the right Honourable and truly Noble RICHARD Lord VAUGHAN , Earl of Carbery , Baron of Emlin , and Molingar , Knight of the honourable Order of the Bath . My Lord , I Have lived to see Religion painted upon Banners , and thrust out of Churches , and the Temple turned into a Tabernacle , and that Tabernacle made ambulatory , and covered with skins of Beasts and torn Curtains , and God to be worshipped not as he is the Father of our Lord Iesus ( an afflicted Prince , the King of sufferings ) nor , as the God of peace ( which two appellatives God newly took upon him in the New Testament , and glories in for ever : ) but he is owned now rather as the Lord of Hosts , which title he was pleased to lay aside when the Kingdom of the Gospel was preached by the Prince of peace But when Religion puts on Armor , and God is not acknowledged by his New Testament titles , Religion may have in it the power of the Sword , but not the power of Godliness ; and we may complain of this to God , and amongst them that are afflicted , but we have no remedy , but what we must expect from the fellowship of Christs sufferings ; and the returns of the God of peace . In the mean time , and now that Religion pretends to stranger actions upon new principles ; and men are apt to prefer a prosperous errour before an afflicted truth ; and some will think they are religious enough if their worshipings have in them the prevailing ingredient ; and the Ministers of Religion are so scattered that they cannot unite to stop the inundation , and from Chaires or Pulpits , from their Synods or Tribunals , chastise the iniquity of the errour and the ambition of evil Guides , and the infidelity of the willingly seduced multitude ; and that those few good people who have no other plot in their religion but to serve God and save their soules , do want such assistances of ghostly counsel as may serve their emergent needs , and assist their endeavours in the acquist of vertues , and relieve their dangers when they are tempted to sinne and death , I thought I had reasons enough inviting me to draw into one body those advices which the severall necessities of many men must use at some time or other , and many of them , daily : that by a collection of holy precepts they might lesse feel the want of personall and attending Guides , and that the rules for conduct of soules might be committed to a Book which they might alwayes have ; since they could not alwayes have a Prophet at their needs , nor be suffered to go up to the house of the Lord to inquire of the appointed Oracles . I know , my Lord , that there are some interested persons who adde scorn to the afflictions of the Church of ENGLAND , and because she is afflicted by Men , call her forsaken of the Lord , and because her solemn assemblies are scattered , think that the Religion is lost , and the Church divorc'd from God , supposing CHRIST ( who was a Man of sorrows ) to be angry with his Spouse when she is like him , [ for that 's the true state of the Errour ] and that he who promised his Spirit to assist his servants in their troubles , will , because they are in trouble take away the Comforter from them , who cannot be a comforter , but while he cures our sadnesses , and relieves our sorrowes , and turnes our persecutions into joyes , and Crowns , & Scepters . But concerning the present state of the Church of England , I consider , that because we now want the blessings of external communion in many degrees , and the circumstances of a prosperous and unafflicted people , we are to take estimate of our selves with single judgements , and every Man is to give sentence concerning the state of his own soul by the precepts and rules of our Lawgiver , not by the after decrees and usages of the Church ; that is , by the essential parts of Religion rather then by the uncertain significations of any exteriour adherencies : for though it be uncertain , when a Man is the Member of a Church , whether he be a Member of Christ or no , because in the Churches Net there are fishes good and bad ; yet we may be sure that if we be Members of Christ , we are of a Church to all purposes of spiritual religion and salvation : and in order to this give me leave to speak this great truth . That Man does certainly belong to God , who 1 Believes and is baptized into all the Articles of the Christian faith , and studies to improve his knowledge in the matters of God , so as may best make him to live a holy life . 2 He that in obedience to Christ worships God diligently , frequently , and constantly with natural Religion , that is , of prayer , praises , and thanksgiving . 3 He that takes all opportunities to remember Christs death by a frequent Sacrament ( as it can be had ) or else by inward acts of understanding , will , and memory ( which is the spiritual communion ) supplies the want of the external rite . 4 He that lives chastly . 5 And is merciful . 6 And despises the World , using it as a Man , but never suffering it to rif●e a duty . 7 And is just in his dealing , and diligent in his calling . 8 He that is humble in his spirit . 9 And obedient to Government . 10 And content in his fortune and imployment . 11 He that does his duty because he loves God. 12 And especially if after all this he be afflicted , & patient , or prepared to suffer affliction for the cause of God. The Man that hath these twelve signes of grace & predestination does as certainly belong to God , & is his Son , as surely as he is his creature . And if my brethren in persecution , and in the bands of the Lord Iesus can truly shew these markes , they shall not need be troubled that others can shew a prosperous outside , great revenues , publick assemblies , uninterrupted successions of Bishops , prevailing Armies , or any arme of flesh , or lesse certain circumstance . These are the markes of the Lord Jesus , and the characters of a Christian : This is a good Religion : and these things Gods grace hath put into our powers , and Gods Lawes have made to be our duty , and the nature of Men , and the needs of Common-wealths have made to be necessary : the other accidents & pomps of a Church are things without our power , and are not in our choice ; they are good to be used when they may be had , and they help to illustrate or advantage it : but if any of them constitute a Church in the being of a society and a Government , yet they are not of its constitution as it is Christian , and hopes to be saved . And now the case is so with us that we are reduced to that Religion which no Man can forbid ; which we can keep in the midst of a persecution ; by which the Martyrs in the dayes of our Fathers went to Heaven ; that by which we can be servants of God , and receive the Spirit of Christ , and make use of his comforts , and live in his love , and in charity with all men ; and they that do so cannot perish . My Lord , I have now described some general lines and features of that Religion which I have more particularly set down in the following pages : in which I have neither served nor disserved the interest of any party of Christians as they are divided by uncharitable names from the rest of their brethren ; and no Man will have reason to be angry with me for refusing to mingle in his unnecessary or vitious quarrels : especially while I study to doe him good by conducting him in the narrow way to Heaven , without intricating him in the Labyrinths and wilde turnings of Questions , and uncertaine talkings . I have told what Men ought to do ; and by what means they may be assisted ; and in most cases I have also told them why ; and yet with as much quicknesse as I could thinke necessary to establish a Rule , and not to ingage in Homily or Discourse . In the use of which Rules ( although they are plain , useful , and fitted for the best , and for the worst understandings , and for the needs of all men , yet ) I shall desire the Reader to proceed with the following advices . 1. They that will with profit make use of the proper instruments of vertue , must so live , as if they were alwayes under the Physicians hand . For the Counsels of Religion are not to be applyed to the distempers of the soul , as men use to take Hellebore ; but they must dwell together with the Spirit of a man , and be twisted about his understanding for ever : They must be used like nourishment ; that is , by a daily care and meditation ; not like a single medicine , and upon the actual pressure of a present necessity . For counsels and wise discourses applyed to an actual distemper , at the best are but like strong smels to an Epileptick person , sometimes they may raise him , but they never cure him . The following rules if they be made familiar to our natures , and the thoughts of every day , may make Vertue and Religion become easy and habitual : but when the temptation is present , and hath already seized upon some portions of our consent , we are not so apt to be counsel'd , and we finde no gust or relish in the Precept : the lessons are the same , but the instrument is unstrung , or out of tune . 2. In using the instruments of vertue we must be curious to distinguish instruments from duties ; and prudent advices from necessary injunctions ; and if by any other means the duty can be secured , let there be no scruples stirred concerning any other helps ; onely , if they can in that case strengthen and secure the duty , or help towards perseverance , let let them serve in that station in which they can be placed . For there are some persons in whom the Spirit of God hath breathed so bright a flame of love , that they do all their acts of vertue by perfect choice , and without objection ; and their zeal is warmer then that it will be allayed by temptation : and to such persons mortification by Philosophical instruments , as fasting , sackcloth , and other rudenesses to the body is wholly useless : It is alwayes a more uncertain means to acquire any vertue , or secure any duty ; & if love hath filled all the corners of our soul , it alone is able to do all the work of God. 3. Be not nice in stating the obligations of Religion ; but where the duty is necessary , and the means very reasonable in it self , dispute not too busily whether in all Circumstances it can fit thy particular ; but super totam materiam , upon the whole , make use of it . For it is a good signe of a great Religion , and no imprudence when we have sufficiently considered the substance of affairs , then to be easy , humble , obedient , apt and credulous in the circumstances which are appointed to us in particular by our spiritual Guides , or in general , by all wise men in cases not unlike . He that gives Almes , does best , not alwayes to consider the minutes and strict measures of his ability , but to give freely , incuriously and abundantly . A man must not weigh grains in the accounts of his repentance ; but for a great sinne have a great sorrow , and a great severity ; and in this take the ordinary advices ; though it may be , a lesse rigour might not be insufficient : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or Arithmeticall measures , especially of our own proportioning , are but arguments of want of Love , and of forwardnesse in Religion ; or else are instruments of scruple , and then become dangerous . Use the rule heartily and enough , and there will be no harme in thy errour , if any should happen . 4. If thou intendest heartily to serve God , and avoid sinne in any one instance , refuse not the hardest and most severe advice that is prescribed in order to it , though possibly it be a stranger to thee ; for whatsoever it be , custome will make it easy . 5. When many instruments for the obtaining any vertue or restraining any vice are propounded , observe which of them fits thy person , or the circumstances of thy need , and use it rather then the other : that by this means thou may'st be engaged to watch and use spiritual arts and observation about thy soul. Concerning the managing of which as the interest is greater , so the necessities are more , and the cases more intricate , and the accidents and dangers greater and more importunate ; and there is greater skill required then in the securing an estate , or restoring health to an infirme body . I wish all men in the world did heartily believe so much of this as is true ; it would very much help to do the work of God. Thus ( My Lord ) I have made bold by your hand to reach out this little scroll of cautions to all those who by seeing your honour'd name set before my Book , shall by the fairnes of such a Frontispiece be invited to look into it . I must confess it cannot but look like a designe in me , to borrow your name and beg your Patronage to my book , that if there be no other worth in it , yet at least it may have the splendour and warmth of a burning glasse , which borrowing a flame from the Eye of Heaven , shines and burns by the rayes of the Sun its patron . I will not quit my self from the suspicion : for I cannot pretend it to be a present either of it self fit to be offered to such a Personage , or any part of a just return , ( but I humbly desire you would own it for an acknowledgement ) of those great endearments , and noblest usages you have past upon me : But so , men in their Religion , give a piece of Gum , or the fat of a cheap Lamb in Sacrifice to him that gives them all that they have or need : and unlesse He who was pleased to imploy your Lordship as a great Minister of his Providence in making a Promise of his good to me , the meanest of his servants [ that he would never leave me nor forsake me ] shall enable me by greater services of Religion to pay my great Debt to your Honour , I must still increase my score ; since I shall now spend as much in my needs of pardon for this boldnesse , as in the reception of those favours by which I stand accountable to your Lordship in all the bands of service and gratitude ; though I am in the deepest sense of duty and affection My most Honoured Lord , Your Honours most obliged and Most Humble Servant TAYLOR . THE TABLE . CHAP. I. Consideration of the general instruments , and means serving to a holy life : by way of introduction . Page 1 Sect. 1. Care of our time and the manner of spending it . Page 4 23 Rules for imploying our time . Page 7 The 5 benefits of this exercise . Page 16 Sect. 2. Purity of intention or purpose in all our actions , &c. Page 17 10. Rules for our intentions . Page 19 8 Signes of purity of intention . Page 22 3 Appendant Considerations . Page 26 Sect. 3. The consideration and practise of the presence of God Page 27 6 Several manners of the divine presence . Page 28 10 Rules of exercising this consideration . Page 33 The 5 benefits of this exercise . Page 36 Prayers and Devotions according to the Religion and purposes of the faregoing considerations . Page 39 Devotions for ordinary dayes . Page 40 CHAP. II. Of Christian sobriety . Page 61 Sect. 1. Of sobriety in the general sence . Page 61 5 Evil consequents of voluptuousnesse or sensuality Page 62 3 Degrees of sobriety . Page 63 6 Rules for suppressing voluptuousnesse . Page 64 Sect. 2. Of Temperance in eating and drinking . Page 67 4 Measures of Temperance in eating . Page 69 8 Signes and effects of Temperance . Page 70 Of Drunkennesse . Page 72 7 Evil consequents to drunkennesse . Page 73 8 Signes of drunkennesse . Page 75 11 Rules for the obtaining temperance : Page 76 Sect. 3. Of Chastity . Page 80 The 10 evil consequents of uncleannesse . Page 83 7 Acts of Chastity in general . Page 88 5 Acts of Virginal or Maiden Chastity . Page 89 5 Rules for Widows or Vidual Chastity . Page 91 6 Rules for married persons , or ma●rimonial chastity . Page 92 10 Remedies against uncleannesse . Page 95 Sect. 4. Of Humility . Page 100 9 Arguments against pride by way of consideration Page 100 19 Acts or offices of humility . Page 103 14 Means and exercises of obtaining and increasing the grace of humility . Page 111 17 Signes of humility . Page 117 Sect. 5. Of Modesty . Page 119 4 Acts & duties of Modesty as it is opposed to curiosity Page 119 6 Acts of Modesty as it is opposed to boldness . Page 123 10 Acts of Modesty as it is opposed to undecency . Page 124 Sect. 6. Of Contentednesse in all estates and accidents . Page 128 2 General arguments for content . Page 129 8 Instruments or exercises to procure contentednes . Page 135 8 Means to obtain content by way of consideration . Page 148 The Considerations applyed to particular cases . Page 148 Of Poverty . Page 156 The charge of many Children . Page 163 Violent Necessities . Page 164 Death of Children , Friends , &c. Page 166 Vntimely Death . Page 167 Death unseasonable . Page 169 Sudden Deaths or violent . Page 171 Being Childlesse . Page 171 Evil , or unfortunate Children . Page 172 Our own Death . Page 172 Prayers for the several graces and parts of Christian sobriety , fitted to the necessity of several persons . Page 173 CHAP. III. Of Christian Iustice. Page 180 Sect. 1. Of Obedience to our Superiours . Page 182 15 Acts and duties of obedience to all our Superiours . Page 183 12 Remedies against disobedience by way of consideration . Page 187 3 Degrees of obedience . Page 192 Sect. 2. Of Provision , or that part of justice which is due from Superiours to inferiours . Page 193 12 Duties of kings and all the supream power , as Law-givers . Page 194 2 Duties of Superiours as they are Iudges . Page 197 5 Duties of parents to their children Page 199 Duty of Husbands and wives reciprocally . Page 202 7 Duties of Masters of Families Page 203 Duty of Guardians or Tutors . Page 204 Sect. 3. Of Negotiation or civil contracts . Page 205 13 Rules and measures of Iustice in bargaining Page 205 Sect. 4. Of Restitution . Page 211 7 Rules of making Restitution as it concerns the persons obliged . Page 212 9 As it concerns other circumstances . Page 216 Prayers to be said in relation to the several obligations and offices of Iustice. Page 220 CHAP. IIII. Of Christian religion . Page 227 1. Of the internal actions of religion . Page 228 Sect. 1. Of Faith. Page 229 The 7 acts and offices of Faith. Page 229 8 Signes of true Faith. Page 231 8 Means and instruments to obtain Faith. Page 234 Sect. 2. Of Christian Hope . Page 236 The 5 acts of Hope . Page 237 5 Rules to govern our Hope . Page 238 12 Means of Hope and Remedies against despair Page 240 Sect. 3. Of Charity or the Love of God. Page 246 The 8 acts of Love to God. Page 248 The 3 measures and rules of Divine Love. Page 251 6 Helps to encrease our Love to God , by way of exercise . Page 252 The 2 several states of Love to God ▪ Page 256 viz. The state of obedience . Page 256 The state of zeal . Page 256 8 Cautions and rules concerning zeal . Page 257 2. Of the external actions of Religion Page 260 Sect. 4. Of Reading or Hearing the word of God. Page 260 5 General considerations concerning it . Page 263 5 Rules for hearing or reading the word of God. Page 262 4 Rules for reading spiritual books or hearing sermons . Page 264 Sect. 5. Of Fasting . Page 266 15 Rules for Christian Fasting . Page 266 Benefits of Fasting . Page 272 Sect. 6. Of keeping Festivals and dayes holy to the Lord , particularly the Lords day . Page 273 10 Rules for keeping the Lords day & other Christian Festivals . Page 276 3. Of the mixt actions of Religion Page 281 Sect. 7. Of Prayer ▪ Page 281 8 Motives to Prayer . Page 281 16 Rules for the practise of Prayer . Page 283 6 Cautions for making vowes . Page 291 7 Remedies against wandring thoughts in Prayer . Page 293 10 Signes of tediousnesse of Spirit in our prayers , and all actions of Religion . Page 295 11 Remedies against tediousnesse of Spirit . Page 296 Sect. 8. Of Almes . Page 302 The 18 several kindes of corporal Almes . Page 303 The 14 several kindes of spiritual Almes . Page 304 The 5 several kindes of mixt Almes . Page 305 16 Rules for giving Almes . Page 305 13 Motives to Charity . Page 313 Remedies against the parents of unmercifulness . Page 316 1.9 Against Envy by way of consideration . Page 316 2.12 Remedies against anger by way of exercise . Page 317 13 Remedies against anger by way of consid . Page 322 3.7 Remedies against Covetousnesse . Page 325 Sect. 9. Of Repentance . Page 332 11 Acts and parts of Repentance . Page 335 4 Motives to Repentance . Page 344 Sect. 10. Of Preparation to and the manner how to receive the holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper . Page 347 14 Rules for Preparation and worthy Communicating . Page 349 The effects and benefits of worthy Communicating . Page 357 Prayers for all sorts of Men , and all necessities relating to the several parts of the vertue of religion . Page 360 The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living , &c. CHAP. I. Consideration of the general instruments and means serving to a holy Life : by way of Introduction . IT is necessary that every Man should consider , that since God hath given him an excellent nature , wisdom and choice , an understanding soul , and an immortal spirit , having made him Lord over the Beasts , and but a little lower then the Angels ; he hath also appointed for him a work and a service great enough to imploy those abilities , and hath also designed him to a state of life after this , to which he can onely arrive by that service and obedience . And therefore as every man is wholly Gods own portion by the title of creation : so all our labours and care , all our powers and faculties must be wholly imployed in the service of God , even all the dayes of our life , that this life being ended , we may live with him for ever . Neither is it sufficient that we think of the service of God as a work of the least necessity , or of small imployment , but that it be done by us as God intended it ; that it be done with great earnestnesse and passion , with much zeal and desire : that we refuse no labour , that we bestow upon it much time , that we use the best guides , and arrive at the end of glory by all the wayes of grace , of prudence and religion . And indeed if we consider how much of our lives is taken up by the needs of nature , how many years are wholly spent before we come to any use of reason , how many years more before that reason is useful to us to any great purposes , how imperfect our discourse is made by our evil education , false principles , ill company , bad examples , and want of experience ; how many parts of our wisest and best years are spent in eating and sleeping , in necessary businesses , and unnecessary vanities , in worldly civilities , and lesse useful circumstances , in the learning arts and sciences , languages or trades ; that little portion of hours that is left for the practises of piety , and religious walking with God , is so short and trifling , that were not the goodnesse of God infinitely great , it might seem unreasonable or impossible for us to expect of him eternal joyes in heaven , even after the well spending those few minutes which are left for God , and Gods service , after we have served our selves , and our own occasions . And yet it is considerable , that the fruit which comes from the many dayes of recreation and vanity is very little , and although we scatter much , yet we gather but little profit : but from the few hours we spend in prayer and the exercises of a pious life , the return is great and profitable ; and what we sowe in the minutes and spare portions of a few years , grows up to crowns and scepters in a happy and a glorious eternity . 1. Therefore , Although it cannot be enjoyn'd , that the greatest part of our time be spent in the direct actions of devotion and religion , yet it will become , not onely a duty , but also a great providence to lay aside for the services of God , and the businesses of the Spirit as much as we can : because God rewards our minutes with long and eternal happinesse ; and the greater portion of our time we give to God , the more we treasure up for our selves ; and No man is a better Merchant than he that layes out his time upon God , and his money upon the Poor . 2. Onely it becomes us to remember and to adore Gods goodnesse for it , that God hath not onely permitted us to serve the necessities of our nature , but hath made them to become parts of our duty ; that if we by directing these actions to the glory of God intend them as instruments to continue our persons in his service , he by adopting them into religion may turn our nature into grace , and accept our natural actions , as actions of religion , God is pleased to esteem it for a part of his service , if we eat or drink ; so it be done temperately , and as may best preserve our health , that our health may enable our services towards him : And there is no one minute of our lives ( after we are come to the use of reason ) but we are , or may be doing the work of God , even then when we most of all serve our selves . 3. To which if we adde , that in these and all other actions of our lives we alwayes stand before God , acting , and speaking and thinking in his presence , and that it matters not that our conscience is seal'd with secresie , since it lies open to God , it will concern us to behave our selves carefully , as in the presence of our Judge . These three considerations rightly manag'd , and applyed to the several parts and instances of our lives , will be like Elisha stretched upon the childe , apt to put life and quicknesse into every part of it , and to make us live the life of grace , and do the work of God. I shall therefore by way of introduction reduce these three to practise , and shew how every Christian may improve all and each of these to the advantage of piety , in the whole course of his life : that if he please to bear but one of them upon his spirit , he may feel the benefit , like an universal instrument , helpful in all spiritual and temporal actions . SECT . I. The first general instrument of holy living : Care of our time . HE that is choice of his time will also be choice of his company , and choice of his actions , lest the first ingage him in vanity and losse , and the latter by being criminal be a throwing his time and himself away , and a going back in the accounts of eternity . God hath given to man a short time here upon earth , and yet upon this short time eternity depends : but so , that for every hour of our life ( after we are persons capable of laws , & know good from evil ) we must give account to the great Judge of Men and Angels . And this is it which our blessed Saviour told us , that we must account for every idle word ; not meaning , that every word which is not designd to edification , or is lesse prudent , shall be reckoned for a sin , but that the time which we spend in our idle talking and unprofitable discoursings , that time which might and ought to have been imployed to spiritual and useful purposes , that is to be accounted for . For we must remember , that we have a great work to do , many enemies to conquer , many evils to prevent , much danger to run through , many difficulties to be master'd , many necessities to serve , and much good to do , many children to provide for , or many friends to support , or many poor to relieve , or many diseases to cure , besides the needs of nature , and of relation , our private and our publick cares , and duties of the world , which necessity and the Providence of God hath adopted into the family of Religion . And that we need not fear this instrument to be a snare to us , or that the duty must end in scruple , vexation , and eternal fears , we must remember , that the life of every man may be so ordered ( and indeed must , ) that it may be a perpetual serving of God : The greatest trouble and most busy trade , and wordly incombrances , when they are necessary or charitable , or profitable in order to any of those ends , which we are bound to serve whether publick or private , being a doing Gods work . For God provides the good things of the world to serve the needs of nature , by the labours of the Plowman , the skill and pains of the Artisan , and the dangers and traffick of the Merchant : These men are in their callings the Ministers of the Divine providence , and the stewards of the creation , and servants of the great family of God , the World , in the imployment of procuring necessaries for food and clothing , ornament and Physick . In their proportions also , a King and a Priest , and a Prophet , a Judge and an Advocate , doing the works of their imployment according to their proper rules , are doing the work of God , because they serve those necessities which God hath made , and yet made no provisions for them but by their Ministery . So that no man can complain , that his calling takes him off from religion , his calling it self and his very worldly imployment , in honest trades and offices is a serving of God , and if it be moderately pursued , and according to the rules of Christian prudence , will leave void spaces enough for prayers and retirements of a more spiritual religion . God hath given every man work enough to do , that there shall be no room for idlenesse , ●nd yet hath so ordered the world , that there shall be space for devotion . He that hath the fewest businesses of the world , is called upon to spend more time in the dressing of his soul , and he that hath the most affairs , may so order them , that they shall be a service of God ; whilst at certain periods they are blessed with prayers and actions of religion , and all day long are hallowed by a holy intention . However , so long as Idlenesse is quite shut out from our lives , all the sins of wantonnesse , softnesse and effeminacy are prevented , and there is but little room left for temptation : and therefore to a busie man temptation is fain to climbe up together with his businesses , and sins creep upon him onely by accidents and occasions ; whereas to an idle person they come in a full body , and with open violence , and the impudence of a restlesse importunity . Idlenesse is called the sin of Sodom and her daughters , and indeed is the burial of a living man , an idle person being so uselesse to any purposes of God and man , that he is like one that is dead , unconcerned in the changes and necessities of the world : and he onely lives to spend his time , and eat the fruits of the earth , like vermin or a wolf , when their time comes they dye and perish , and in the mean time do no good ; they neither plow nor carry burdens : all that they do , either is unprofitable , or mischievous . Idlenesse is the greatest prodigality in the world : it throwes away that , which is invaluable in respect of its present use , and irreparable when it is past , being to be recovered by no power of art or nature . But the way to secure and improve our time we may practise in the following rules . Rules for imploying our Time. 1. In the morning , when you awake , accustome your self to think first upon God , or something in order to his service ; and at night also , let him close thine eyes ; and let your sleep be necessary and healthful , not idle and expensive of time , beyond the needs and conveniencies of nature ; and sometimes be curious to see the preparation which the sun makes , when he is coming forth from his chambers of the East . 2. Let every man that hath a calling , be diligent in pursuance of its imployment , so as not lightly , or without reasonable occasion to neglect it in any of those times , which are usually and by the custome of prudent persons and good husbands imployed in it . 3. Let all the Intervals , or void spaces of time be imployed in prayers , reading , meditating , works of nature , recreation , charitie , friendlinesse and neighbourhood , and means of spiritual and corporal health : ever remembring , so to work in our calling , as not to neglect the work of our high calling ; but to begin and end the day with God , with such forms of devotion , as shall be proper to our necessities . 4. The resting dayes of Christians , and Festivals of the Church must in no sense be dayes of idlenesse : for it is better to plow upon holy dayes , then to do nothing , or to do vitiously ; but let them be spent in the works of the day , that is , of Religion and Charity , according to the rules appointed * . 5. Avoid the company of Drunkards and busie-bodies , and all such as are apt to talk much to little purpose : for no man can be provident of his time , that is not prudent in the choice of his company : and if one of the Speakers be vain , tedious and trifling , he that hears , and he that answers in the discourse are equal losers of their time . 6. Never talk with any man , or undertake any trifling imployment meerly to passe the time away : for every day well spent may become a day of salvation , and time rightly employed is an acceptable time . And remember , that the time thou triflest away was given thee to repent in , to pray for pardon of sins , to work out thy salvation , to do the work of grace , to lay up against the day of Judgement , a treasure of good works , that thy time may be crowned with Eternity . 7. In the midst of the works of thy calling often retire to God in short prayers and ejaculations , and those may make up the want of those larger portions of time , which it may be thou desirest for devotion , and in which thou think'st other persons have advantage of thee : for so thou reconcilest the outward work , and thy inward calling , the Church and the Common-wealth , the imployment of thy body and the interest of thy soul ; for be sure , that God is present at thy breathings and hearty sighings of prayer assoon , as at the longer offices of lesse busied persons ; and thy time is as truely sanctified by a trade , and devout , though shorter prayers , as by the longer offices of those whose time is not filled up with labour and useful businesse . 8. Let your imployment be such as may become a reasonable person ; and not be a businesse fit for children or distracted people ; but fit for your age and understanding . For a man may be very idlely busy , and take great pains to so little purpose , that in his labors and expence of time he shall serve no end but of folly , and vanity . There are some Trades , that wholly serve the ends of idle persons and fools ; and such as are fit to be seized upon by the severity of laws , and banisht from under the sun : and there are some people who are busy , but it is as Domitian was , in catching flyes . 9. Let your imployment be fitted to your person and calling . Some there are that imploy their time in affairs infinitely below the dignity of their person , and being called by God , or by the Republick to help to bear great burdens , and to judge a people , do enfeeble their understandings , and disable their persons by sordid and bruitish businesse . Thus Nero went up and down Greece , and challenged the Fidlers at their trade . Aeropus a Macedonian King made Lanterns . Harcatius the King of Parthia was a Mole-catcher : and Biantes the Lydian filed needles . He that is appointed to minister in holy things , must not suffer secular affairs and sordid arts to eat up great portions of his imployment : a Clergy man must not keep a Tavern , nor a Judge be an Inne-keeper ; and it was a great idlenesse in Theophylact the Patriarch of C. P. to spend his time in his stable of horses , when he should have been in his study , or the Pulpit , or saying his holy offices . Such imployments are the diseases of labour , and the rust of time which it contracts , not by lying still , but by dirty imployment . 10. Let your imployment be such as becomes a Christian , that is , in no sence mingled with sin ; for he that takes pains to serve the ends of covetousnesse , or ministers to anothers lust , or keeps a shop of impurities or intemperance , is idle in the worst sence ; for every hour so spent runs him backward , and must be spent again in the remaining and shorter part of his life , and spent better . 11. Persons of great quality , and of no trade , are to be most prudent and curious in their imployment and traffick of time . They are miserable , if their education hath been so loose and undisciplin'd , as to leave them unfurnished of skill to spend their time : but most miserable are they , if such misgovernment and unskilfulnesse make them fall into vitious and baser company , and drive on their time by the sad minutes and periods of sin and death . * They that are learned know the worth of time , and the manner how well to improve a day ; and they are to prepare themselves for such purposes , in which they may be most useful in order to arts of arms : to counsel in publick , or government in their Countrey : But for others of them that are unlearn'd , let them choose good company , such as may not tempt them to a vice , or joyn with them in any ; but that may supply their defects by counsel and discourse , by way of conduct or conversation . Let them learn easy and useful things , read history , and the laws of the Land , learn the customs of their Countrey , the condition of their own estate , profitable and charitable contrivances of it : let them study prudently to govern their families , learn the burdens of their Tenants , the necessities of their neighbours , and in their proportion supply them , and reconcile their enmities , and prevent their Law-suits , or quickly end them , and in this glut of leisure and disimployment , let them set apart greater portions of their time for religion , and the necessities of their Souls . 12. Let the women of noble birth and great fortunes do the same things in their proportions and capacities , nurse their children , look to the affairs of the house , visit poor cottages , and relieve their necessities , be curteous to the neighbourhood , learn in silence of their husbands , or their spiritual Guides , read good books , pray often , and speak little , and learn to do good works for necessary uses , for by that phrase S. Paul expresses the obligation of Christian women to good houswifery , and charitable provisions for their family and neighbourhood . 13. Let all persons of all conditions avoid all delicacy and nicenesse in their clothing or diet , because such softnesse engages them upon great mispendings of their time , while they dresse and combe out all their opportunities of their morning devotion , and half the dayes severity , and sleep out the care and provision for their Souls . 14. Let every one of every condition avoid curiosity , and all enquiry into things that concern them not . For all businesse in things that concerns us not , is an imploying our time to no good of ours , and therefore not in order to a happy Eternity . In this account our neighbours necessities are not to be reckoned ; for they concern us as one member is concern'd in the grief of another ; but going from house to house , tatlers , and busie-bodies , which are the canker and rust of idlenesse , as id●enesse is the rust of time , are reprooved by the Apostle in severe language , and forbidden in order to this exercise . 15. As much as may be cut off all impertinent and uselesse imployments of your life , unnecessary and phantastick visits , long waitings upon great personages , where neither dutie nor necessity , nor charity obliges us , all vain meetings , all laborious trifles , and whatsoever spends much time to no real , civil , religious , or charitable purpose . 16. Let not your recreations be lavish spenders of your time , but choose such which are healthful , short , transient , recreative , and apt to refresh you ; but at no hand dwell upon them , or make them your great imployment : for he that spends his time in sports , and calls it recreation , is like him , whose garment is all made of fringes , and his meat nothing but sawces , they are healthlesse , chargeable and uselesse . And therefore avoid such games which require much time or long attendance ; or which are apt to steal thy affections from more severe imployments . For to whatsoever thou hast given thy affections , thou wilt not grudge to give thy time . Natural necessity and the example of S. Iohn ( who recreated himself with sporting with a tame Partridge ) teach us that it is lawful to relax and unbend our bow , but not to suffer it to be unready or unstrung . 17. Set apart some portions of every day for more solemn devotion and religious imployment , which be severe in observing : and if variety of imployment or prudent affairs , or civil society presse upon you , yet so order thy rule , that the necessary parts of it be not omitted ; and though just occasions may make your prayers shorter , yet let nothing but a violent , sudden and impatient necessity make thee upon any one day wholly to omit thy morning and evening devotions ; which if you be forced to make very short , you may supply and lengthen with ejaculations and short retirements in the day time in the midst of your imployment , or of your company . 18. Do not the work of God negligently and idlely : let not thy heart be upon the world , when thy hand is lift up in prayer : and be sure to prefer an action of religion in its place and proper season before all worldly pleasure , letting secular things ( that may be dispensed with in themselves , ) in these circumstances wait upon the other ; not like the Patriarch who ran from the Altar in S. Sophia to his stable in all his Pontificals , and in the midst of his office , to see a Colt newly fallen from his beloved and much valued Mare Phorbante . More prudent and severe was that of Sr. Thom. More , who being sent for by the King when he was at his prayers in publick , returned answer , he would attend him when he had first perfomed his service to the KING of Kings . And it did honour to Rusticus , that when Letters from Caesar were given to him , he refused to open them , till the Philosopher had done his Lecture . In honouring God and doing his work , put forth all thy strength , for of that time onely thou mayest be most confident that it is gain'd , which is prudently and zealously spent in Gods Service . 19. When the Clock strikes , or however else you shall measure the day , it is good to say a short ejaculation every hour , that the parts and returns of devotion may be the measure of your time ; and do so also in all the breaches of thy sleep , that those spaces which have in them no direct businesse of the world may be filled with religion . 20. If by thus doing you have not secured your time by an early and forehanded care , yet be sure by a timely diligence to redeem the time , that is , to be pious and religious in such instances in which formerly you have sinned , and to bestow your time especially upon such graces , the contrary whereof you have formerly practised , doing actions of chastity & temperance with as great a zeal and earnestnesse as you did once act your uncleannesse : and then , by all arts to watch against your present and future dangers , from day to day securing your standing ; this is properly to redeem your time , that is , to buy your security of it at the rate of any labour and honest arts . 21. Let him that is most busied set apart some solemn time every year , in which , for the time quitting all worldly businesse , he may attend wholly to fasting and prayer , and the dressing of his soul by confessions , meditations and attendances upon God ; that he may make up his accounts , renew his vows , make amends for his carelessenesse , and retire back again from whence levity and the vanities of the world , or the importunity of temptations , or the distraction of secular affairs have carried him . 22. In this we shall be much assisted , and we shall finde the work more easie , if before we sleep every night * we examine the actions of the past day with a particular scrutiny , if there have been any accident extraordinary : as , long discourse , a Feast , much businesse , variety of company : If nothing but common hath happened , the lesse examination will suffice : only let us take care that we sleep not without such a recollection of the actions of the day , as may represent any thing that is remarkable , and great , either to be the matter of sorrow or thanksgiving : for other things , a general care is proportionable . 23. Let all these things be done prudently and moderately ; not with scruple and vexation . For these are good advantages , but the particulars are not divine commandements ; and therefore are to be used as shall be found expedient to every ones condition . For , provided that our duty be secured ; for the degrees and for the instruments , every man is permitted to himself and the conduct of such who shall be appointed to him . He is happy , that can secure every hour to a sober or a pious imployment : but the duty consists not scrupulously in minutes and half hours , but in greater portions of time ; provided , that no minute be imployed in sin , and the great portions of our time be spent in sober imployment ; and all the appointed dayes and some portions of every day be allowed for Religion . In all the lesser parts of time we are left to our own elections and prudent management , and to the consideration of the great degrees and differences of glory that are laid up in Heaven for us , according to the degrees of our care and piety and diligence . The benefits of this Exercise . This exercise , besides that it hath influence upon our whole lives , it hath a special efficacy for the preventing of 1. Beggerly sins , that is , those sins which idlenesse and beggery usually betray men to ; such as are lying , flattery , stealing , and dissimulation . 2. It is a proper antidote against carnal sins , and such as proceed from fulnesse of bread and emptinesse of imployment . 3. It is a great instrument of preventing the smallest sins and irregularities of our life , which usually creep upon idle , disimployed , and incurious persons . 4. I● not onely teaches us to avoid evil , but ingages us upon doing good , as the proper businesse of all our dayes . 5. It prepares us so against sudden changes , that we shall not easily be surprized at the sudden coming of the day of the Lord : For he that is curious of his time , will not easily be unready and unfurnished . SECT . II. The second general instrument of Holy Living : Purity of intention . THat we should intend and designe Gods glory in every action we do , whether it be natural or chosen , is expressed by S. Paul , Whether ye eat or drink , do all to the glory of God : Which rule , when we observe ; every action of nature becomes religious , and every meal is an act of worship , and shall have its reward in its proportion , as well as an act of prayer . Blessed be that goodnesse and grace of God , which out of infinite desire to glorifie and save mankinde , would make the very works of nature capable of becoming acts of vertue , that all our life time we may do him service . This grace is so excellent , that it sanctifies the most common action of our life , and yet so necessary , that without it the very best actions of our devotion are imperfect and vitious . For he that prayes out of custome , or gives almes for praise , or fasts to be accounted religious , is but a Pharisee in his devotion , and a beggar in his alms , and an hypocrite in his fasts . But a holy end sanctifies all these , and all other actions which can be made holy , and gives distinction to them and procures acceptance . For , as to know the end , distinguishes a Man from a Beast : so to chuse a good end , distinguishes him from an evil man. Hezekiah repeated his good deeds upon his sick bed , and obtained favour of God ; but the Pharisee was accounted insolent for doing the same thing ; because this man did it to upbraid his brother , the other to obtain a mercy of God. Zecharias questioned with the Angel about his message , and was made speechlesse for his incredulity ; but the blessed Virgin Mary questioned too , and was blamelesse ; for she did it to enquire after the manner of the thing ; but he did not believe the thing it self : He doubted of Gods power , or the truth of the Messenger ; but ●he onely of her own incapacity . This was it which distinguished the mourning of David from the exclamation of Saul : the confession of Pharaoh from that of Manasses ; the tears of Peter from the repentance of Iudas : For the praise is not in the deed done , but in the manner of its doing . If a man visits his sick friend , and watches at his pillow for charity sake , and because of his old affection we approve it : but if he does it in hope of legacy , he is a Vulture , and onely watches for the carkasse . The same things are honest and dishonest : the manner of doing them , and the end of the designe makes the separation . Holy intention is to the actions of a man that which the soul is to the body , or form to its matter , or the root to the tree , or the Sun to the World , or the Fountain to a River , or the Base to a Pillar : for without these the body is a dead trunk , the matter is sluggish , the tree is a block , the world is darknesse , the river is quickly dry , the pillar rushes into flatnesse and a ruine ; and the action is sinful , or unprofitable and vain . The poor Farmer that gave a dish o● cold water to Artaxerxes was rewarded with a golden goblet ; and he that gives the same present to a Disciple in the name of a Disciple shall have a Crown : but if he gives water in despite when the Disciple needs wine or a Cordial , his reward shall be to want that water to cool his tongue . * But this duty must be reduced to rules . Rules for our intentions . 1. In every action reflect upon the end ; and in your undertaking it , consider why you do it , and what you propound to your self for a reward , and to your action as its end . 2. Begin every action in the Name of the Father , of the Son , and of the Holy Ghost : the meaning of which is , that we be careful , that we do not the action without the permission or warrant of God. 2. That we designe it to the glory of God , if not in the direct action , yet at least in its consequence ; if not in the particular , yet at least in the whole order of things and accidents . 3. That it may be so blessed , that what you intend for innocent and holy purposes , may not by any chance or abuse , or misunderstanding of men be turned into evil , or made the occasion of sin . 3. Let every action of concernment be begun with prayer , that God would not onely blesse the action , but sanctifie your purpose ; and make an oblation of the action to God : holy and well intended actions being the best oblations and presents we can make to God ; and when God is entitled to them , he will the rather keep the fire upon the Altar bright and shining . 4. In the prosecution of the action , renew and re-inkindle your purpose by short ejaculations to these purposes . [ Not unto us O Lord , not unto us , but unto thy Name let all praise be given : ] and consider , [ Now I am working the work of God : I am his servant , I am in a happy imployment , I am doing my Masters businesse ; I am not at my own dispose , I am using his talents , and all the gain must be his : ] for then be sure , as the glory is his , so the reward shall be thine . If thou bringest his goods home with increase , he will make thee ruler over Cities . 5. Have a care that while the Altar thus sends up a holy fume , thou doest not suffer the birds to come & carry away the Sacrifice : that is , let not that which began well , and was intended for Gods glory , decline and end in thy owne praise , or temporal satisfaction , or a sin . A story told to represent the vilenesse of unchastity is well begun ; but if thy female auditor be pleased with thy language , and begins rather to like thy person for thy story , then to dislike the crime : be watchful , lest this goodly head of gold descend in silver and brasse , and end in iron and clay , like Nebuchadnezzars image ; for from the end it shall have its name and reward . 6. If any accidental event which was not first intended by thee can come to passe , let it not be taken into thy purposes , nor at all be made use of ; as if by telling a true story you can do an ill turn to your enemy , by no means do it ; but when the temptation is found out , turn all thine enmity upon that . 7 In every more solemne action of Religion , joyn together many good ends , that the consideration of them may entertain all your affections , and that when any one ceases , the purity of your intention may be supported by another supply . He that fasts onely to tame a rebellious body , when he is provided of a remedy either in Grace or Nature , may be tempted to leave off his fasting . But he that in his fast intends the mortification of every unruly appetite , an accustoming himself to bear the yoke of the Lord , a contempt of the pleasures of meat and drink , humiliation of all wilder thoughts , obedience , and humility , austerity and charity , and the convenience and assistance to devotion , and to do an act of repentance ; whatever happens , will have reason enough to make him to continue his purpose , and to sanctifie it . And certain it is , the more good ends are designed in an action , the more degrees of excellency the man obtains . 8. If any temptation to spoil your purpose happens in a religious duty , do not presently omit the action , but rather strive to rectifie your intention and to mortifie the temptation . S. Bernard taught us this rule . For when the Devil observing him to preach excellently , and to do much benefit to his hearers , tempted him to vain glory , hoping that the good man to avoid that , would cease preaching , he gave this answer onely , I neither began for thee , neither for thee will I make an end . 9. In all actions which are of long continuance , deliberation and abode , let your holy and pious intention be actual , that is , that it be by a special prayer , or action , by a peculiar act of resignation or oblation be given to God : but in smaller actions , and little things , and indifferent , fail not to secure a pious habitual intention , that is , that it be included within your general care , that no action have an ill end ; and that it be comprehended in your general prayers , whereby you offer your self and all you do to Gods glory . 10. Call not every temporal end , a defiling of thy intention , but onely , 1. When it contradicts any of the ends of God , or 2. When it is principally intended in an action of religion . For sometimes a temporal end is part of our duty : and such are all the actions of our calling , whether our imployment be religious or civil . We are commanded to provide for our family : but if the Minister of Divine offices shall take upon him that holy calling for covetous or ambitious ends , or shall not designe the glory of God principally and especially , he hath polluted his hands and his heart ; and the fire of the Altar is quenched , or it sends forth nothing but the smoak of mushromes , or unpleasant gums . And it is a great unworthinesse to prefer the interest of a creature before the ends of God the Almighty Creator . But because many cases may happen in which a mans heart may deceive him , and he may not well know what is in his own spirit ; therefore by these following signes we shall best make a judgement whether our intentions be pure , and our purposes holy . Signes of purity of intention . 1. It is probable our hearts are right with God , and our intentions innocent and pious , if we set upon actions of religion or civil life with an affection proportioned to the quality of the work ; that we act our temporal affairs with a desire no greater then our necessity ; and that in actions of religion we be zealous , active , and operative , so far as prudence will permit ; but in all cases , that we value a religious designe before a temporal ; when otherwise they are in equal order to their several ends : that is , that whatsoever is necessary in order to our souls health be higher esteemed than what is for bodily ; and the necessities , the indispensable necessities of the spirit be served before the needs of nature , when they are required in their several circumstances : Or plainer yet ; when we choose any temporal inconvenience , rather than commit a sin , and when we choose to do a duty rather than to get gain . But he that does his recreation , or his merchandise cheerfully , promptly , readily and busily , and the works of religion slowly , flatly , and without appetite , and the spirit moves like Pharaohs chariots when the wheels were off , it is a signe that his heart is not right with God , but it cleaves too much to the world . 2. It is likely our hearts are pure , and our intentions spotlesse , when we are not solicitous of the opinion and censures of men ; but onely that we do our duty , and be accepted of God. For our eyes will certainly be fixed there from whence we expect our reward : and if we desire that God should approve us , it is a signe we do his work , and expect him our pay-Master . 3. He that does as well in private between God and his own soul as in publick , in Pulpits , in Theatres , and Market-places , hath given himself a good testimony that his purposes are full of honesty , noblenesse and integrity . For what Helkanah said to the Mother of Samuel , Am not I better to thee then ten sons ? Is most certainly verified concerning God : that he , who is to be our Judge , is better then ten thousand witnesses . But he , that would have his vertue published , studies not vertue , but glory . He is not just , that will not be just without praise : but he is a righteous man that does justice , when to do so , is made infamous : and he is a wise man who is delighted with an ill name that is well gotten . And indeed that man hath a strange covetousnesse , or folly , that is not contented with this reward , that , He hath pleased God. And see what he gets by it ? He that does good works for praise , or secular ends sells an inestimable jewel for a trifle ; and that which would purchase Heaven for him , he parts with for the breath of the people , which at the best is but aire , and that not often wholsome . 4. It is well also when we are not sollicitous or troubled concerning the effect and event of all our actions ; but that being first by Prayer recommended to him , is left at his dispose : for then in case the event be not answerable to our desires , or to the efficacy of the instrument , we have nothing left to rest in , but the honesty of our purposes ; which it is the more likely we have secur'd , by how much more we are indifferent concerning the successe . S. Iames converted but eight persons , when he preacht in Spain ; and our blessed Saviour converted fewer , then his own Disciples did : And if thy labours prove unprosperous , if thou beest much troubled at that , it is certain thou didst not think thy self secure of a reward for your intention , which you might have done if it had been pure and just . 5. He loves vertue for Gods sake and its own , that loves and honours it wherever it is to be seen ; but he that is envious or angry at a vertue that is not his own , at the perfection or excellency of his Neighbour , is not covetous of the vertue , but of its reward and reputation , and then his intentions are polluted . It was a great ingenuity in Moses , that wished all the people might be prophets ; but if he had designed his own honour , he would have prophecyed alone . But he that desires onely that the work of God and religion shall go on , is pleased with it , who ever is the instrument . 6. He that despises the world and all its appendant vanities is the best Judge ; & the most secur'd of his intentions , because he is the furthest removed from a temptation . Every degree of mortification is a testimony of the purity of our purposes , and in what degree we despise sensual pleasure , or secular honours , or worldly reputation , in the same degree we shall conclude our heart , right to religion and spiritual designes . 7. When we are not sollicitous concerning the instruments and means of our actions , but use those means which God hath laid before us , with resignation , indifferency and thankfulnesse , it is a good signe that we are rather intent upon the end of Gods glory , than our own conveniency or temporal satisfaction . He that is indifferent whether he serve God in riches or in poverty is rather a seeker of God , than of himself ; and he that will throw away a good book , because it is not curiously guilded , is more desirous to please his eye , than to inform his understanding . 8. When a temporal end consisting with a spiritual and pretended to be subordinate to it happens to fail and be defeated , if we can rejoyce in that so Gods glory be secured , and the interests of religion ; it is a great signe our hearts are right , and our ends prudently designed and ordered . When our intentions are thus ballanced , regulated and discerned , we may consider , 1. That this exercise is of so universal efficacy in the whole course of a holy life , that it is like the soul to every holy action , and must be provided for in every undertaking ; and is of it self alone sufficient to make all natural and indifferent actions to be adopted into the family of religion . 2. That there are some actions , which are usually reckoned as parts of our religion , which yet of themselves are so relative and imperfect , that without the purity of intention they degenerate : and unlesse they be directed and proceed on to those purposes which God designed them to , they return into the family of common , secular , or sinful actions . Thus almes are for charity : fasting for temperance : prayer is for religion : humiliation is for humility : austerity or sufferance is in order to the vertue of patience ; and when these actions fail of their several ends , or are not directed to their own purposes , alms are mispent ; fasting is an impertinent trouble ; prayer is but lip-labour ; humiliation is but hypocrisie ; sufferance is but vexation ; for such were the alms of the Pharisee , the fast of Iezabel , the prayer of Iudah reproved by the Prophet Isaiah , the humiliation of Ahab , the martyrdome of Hereticks ; in which nothing is given to God but the body , or the forms of religion , but the soul , and the power of godlinesse is wholly wanting . 3. We are to confider that no intention can sanctifie an unholy or unlawful action : Saul the King disobeyed Gods commandment , and spared the cattel of Amalek to reserve the best for sacrifice : And Saul the Pharisee persecuted the Church of God with a designe to do God service : and they that kild the Apostles had also good purposes , but they had unhallowed actions : When there is both truth in election and charity in the intention ; when we go to God in wayes of his own choosing , or approving , then our eye is single , and our hands are clean , and our hearts are pure . But when a man does evil that good may come of it , or good to an evil purpose , that man does like him that rowls himself in thorns that he may sleep easily : he rosts himself in the fire , that he may quench his thirst with his own sweat ; he turns his face to the East that he may go to bed with the Sun. I end this with the saying of a wise Heathen . He is to be called evil that is good onely for his own sake : Regard not how full hands you bring to God , but how pure : Many cease from sin out of fear alone , not out of innocence or love of vertue , and they ( as yet ) are not to be called innocent , but timerous . SECT . III The third general instrument of holy living : or the practise of the presence of God. THat God is present in all places , that he sees every action , hears all discourses , and understands every thought , is no strange thing to a Christian ear , who hath been taught this doctrine , not onely by right reason , and the consent of all the wise men in the world , but also by God himself in holy Scripture . [ Am I a God at hand ( saith the Lord ) and not a God afar off ? Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him ? ( saith the Lord ) Do not I fill heaven and earth ? Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight : but all things are naked and open to the eyes of him with whom we have to do ; for in him we live and move and have our being . ] God is wholly in every place , included in no place , not bound with cords ( except those of love ) not divided into parts , not changeable into several shapes , filling heaven and earth with his present power , and with his never absent nature . So S. Augustine expresses this article . So that we may imagine God to be as the Aire and the Sea , and we all inclos'd in his circle , wrapt up in the lap of his infinite nature , or as infants in the wombs of their pregnant Mothers : and we can no more be removed from the presence of God , than from our own being . Several manners of the divine presence . The presence of God is understood by us in several manners and to several purposes . 1. God is present by his essence , which because it is infinite cannot be contained within the limits of any place : and because he is of an essential purity , and spiritual nature , he cannot be undervalued by being supposed present in the places of unnatural uncleannesse : because as the sun reflecting upon the mud of strands and shores is unpolluted in its beams : so is God not dishonoured when we suppose him in every of his Creaturer , and in every part of every one of them , and is still as unmixt with any unhandfome adherence , as is the soul in the bowels of the body . 2. God is every where present by his power . He roules the Orbs of Heaven with his hand , he fixes the Earth with his Foot , he guides all the Creatures with his Eye , and refreshes them with his influence : He makes the powers of Hell to shake with his terrours , and binds the Devils with his Word , and throws them out with his command ; and sends the Angels on Emba●●ies with his decrees : He hardens the joynts of Infants , and confirms the bones when they are fashioned beneath secretly in the earth : He it is that assists at the numerous productions of fishes , and there is not one hollownesse in the bottom of the sea , but he shows himself to be Lord of it , by sustaining these the Creatures that come to dwell in it : And in the wildernesse , the Bittern and the Stork , the Dragon and the Satyr , the Unicorn and the Elk live upon his provisions , and revere his power , and feel the force of his Almightinesse . 3. God is more specially present in some places by the several and more special manifestations of himself to extraordinary purposes . 1. By glory : Thus his fear is in Heaven ; because there he fits incircled with all the outward demonstrations of his glory , which he is pleased to show to all the inhabitants of those his inward and secret Courts . And thus they that die in the Lord may be properly said to be gone to God ; with whom although they were before , yet now they enter into his Courts , into the secret of his Tabernacle , into the retinue and splendor of his glory . That is called walking with God , but this is dwelling or being with him . I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ , so said Paul. But this manner of the Divine presence is reserved for the elect people of God , and for their portion in their countrey . 4. God is by grace and benediction specially present in holy places , and in the solemn assemblies of his servants . If holy people meet in grots and dens of the earth , when persecution or a publick necessity disturbs the publick order , circumstance , and convenience , God fails not to come thither to them : but God is also by the same or a greater reason present there where they meet ordinarily , by order , and publick authority : There God is present ordinarily , that is , at every such meeting . God will go out of his way to meet his Saints , when themselves are forced out of their way of order by a sad necessity : but else , Gods usual way is to be present in those places where his servants are appointed ordinarily to meet . But his presence there signifies nothing but his readinesse to hear their prayers , to blesse their persons , to accept their offices , and to like even the circumstance of orderly and publick meeting . For thither , the prayers of consecration , the publick authority separating it , and Gods love of order , and the reasonable customes of Religion , have in ordinary , and in a certain degree fixed this manner of his presence ; and he loves to have it so . 5. God is especially present in the hearts of his people by his holy Spirit : and indeed the hearts of holy men are Temples in the truth of things , and in type and shadow they are of Heaven it self . For God reigns in the hearts of his servants . There is his Kingdom . The power of grace hath subdued all his enemies . There is , his power . They serve him night and day and give him thanks and praise ; that is , his glory : This is the religion and worship of God in the Temple . The temple it self is the heart of man ; Christ is the High Priest , who from thence sends up the incense of prayers and joyns them to his own intercession , and presents all together to his Father ; and the Holy Ghost by his dwelling there , hath also consecrated it into a Temple ; and God dwels in our hearts by faith , and Christ by his Spirit , and the Spirit by his purities ; so that we are also Cabinets of the Mysterious Trinity ; and what is this short of Heaven it self , but as infancy is short of manhood , and letters of words ? The same state of life it is , but not the same age . It is Heaven in a Looking-glasse , ( dark , but yet true ) representing the beauties of the soul , and the graces of God , and the images of his eternal glory by the reality of a special presence . 6. God is especially present in the consciences of all persons good and bad , by way of testimony and judgement : that is , he is there a remembrancer to call our actions to minde , a witnesse to bring them to judgement , and a Judge to acquit or to condemne . And although this manner of presence is in this life after the manner of this life , that is , imperfect , and we forget many actions of our lives ; yet the greatest changes of our state of grace or sin , our most considerable actions are alwayes present , like Capital Letters to an aged and dim eye : and at the day of judgement God shall draw aside the cloud and manifest this manner of his presence more notoriously , and make it appear , that he was an observer of our very thoughts ; and that he onely laid those things by which because we covered with dust and negligence they were not then discerned . But when we are risen from our dust and imperfection , they all appear plain and legible . Now the consideration of this great truth is of a very universal use in the whole course of the life of a Christian. All the consequents and effects of it are universal . * He that remembers that God stands a witnesse and a judge , beholding every secrecy ; besides his impiety , must have put on impudence if he be not much restrained in his temptation to sin . For the greatest part of sinnes is taken away , if a man have a witnesse of his conversation : And he is a great despiser of God who sends a Boy away when he is going to commit fornication , and yet will dare to do it , though he knows God is present , and cannot be sent o●● : as if the eye of a little Boy were more awful , then the all-seeing eye of God. He is to be fear'd in publick , he is to be fear'd in private : if you go forth he spies you : if you go in he sees you : when you light the candle he observes you : when you put it out , then also God marks you : Be sure that while you are in his sight you behave your self as becomes so holy a presence . But if you will sin , retire your self wisely , and go where God cannot see : For no where else can you be safe . And certainly , if men would alwayes actually consider , and really esteem this truth , that God is the great Eye of the World , alwayes watching over our actions , and an ever open ear to hear all our words , and an unwearied arm ever lifted up to crush a sinner into ruine , it would be the readiest way in the world to make sin to cease from amongst the children of men , and for men to approach to the blessed estate of the Saints in Heaven , who cannot sin , for they alwayes walk in the pres●nce and behold the face of God. * This instrument is to be reduced to practise according to the following Rules . Rules of exercising this consideration . 1. Let this actual thought often return , that God is omnipresent filling every place , and say with David , Whither shall I go from thy Spirit , or whither shall I flee from thy presence ? If I ascend up into heaven , thou art there . If I make my bed in hell , thou art there , &c. This thought by being frequent will make an habitual dread and reverence towards God , and fear in all thy actions : For it is a great necessity and ingagement to do unblameably , when we act before that Judge , who is infallible in his sentence , all knowing in his information , severe in his anger , powerful in his providence , and intolerable in his wrath and indignation . 2. In the beginning of actions of Religion , make an act of adoration , that is , solemnly worship God , and place thy self in Gods presence , and behold him with the eye of faith , and le● thy desires actually six on him as the object of thy worship , and the reason of thy hope , and the fountain of thy blessing . For when thou hast placed thy self before him , and kneelest in his presence , it is most likely , all the following parts of thy devotion will be answerable to the wisdom of such an apprehension , and the glory of such a presence . 3. Let every thing you see , represent to your spirit the presence , the excellency and the power of God , and let your conversation with the creatures lead you unto the Creator ; for so shall your actions be done more frequently with an actual eye to Gods presence , by your often seeing him in the glasse of the creation . In the face of the Sun you may see Gods beauty : In the fire you may feel his heat warming , in the water his gentleness to refresh you : he it is that comforts your spirit whē you have taken Cordials : it is the dew of Heaven that makes your field give you bread ; and the breasts of God are the bottles that minister drink to your necessities . This Philosophy which is obvious to every mans experience , is a good advantage to our piety , and by this act of understanding , our wills are check'd from violence and misdemeanour . 4. In your retirement make frequent colloquies or short discoursings between God and thy own soul. Seven times a day do I praise thee : and in the night season also I thought upon thee when I was waking . So did David : and every act of complaint or thanksgiving , every act of rejoycing or of mourning , every petition and every return of the heart in these entercourses , is a going to God , an appearing in his presence , and a representing him present to thy spirit and to thy necessity . And this was long since by a spiritual person called , a building to GOD a Chappell in our heart . It reconciles Martha's im ployment with Maries Devotion , Charity , and Religion ; the necessities of our calling , and the imployments of devotion . For thus in the midst of the works of your Trade , you may retire into your Chappel [ your Heart ] and converse with GOD by frequent addresses and returns . 5. Represent and offer to GOD , acts of love and fear , which are the proper effects of this apprehension , and the proper exercise of this consideration . For as GOD is every where present by his power , he calls for reverence and godly fear : As he is present to thee in all thy needs , and relieves them , he deserves thy love ; and since in every accident of our lives we finde one or other of these apparent , and in most things we see both , it is a proper and proportionate return , that to every such demonstration of God , we expresse our selves sensible of it by admiring the Divine goodnesse , or trembling at his presence , ever obeying him because we love him , and ever obeying him because we fear to offend him . This is that which Enoch did , who thus walked with God. 6. Let us remember that God is in us , and that we are in him : we are his workmanship , let us not deface it : we are in his presence , let us not pollute it by unholy and impure actions . God hath also wrought all our works in us : and because he rejoyces in his own workes , if we defile them , and make them unpleasant to him , we walk perversly with GOD , and he will walk crookedly toward us . 7. God is in the bowels of thy brother , refresh them when he needs it , and then you give your almes in the presence of God , and to God , and he feels the relief which thou providest for thy brother . 8. God is in every place ; suppose it therefore to be a Church : and that decency of deportment and piety of carriage , which you are taught by religion or by custome , or by civility and publick manners to use in Churches , the same use in all places : with this difference onely , that in Churches let your deportment be religious in external forms and circumstances also ; but there and every where let it be religious in abstaining from spiritual undecencies , and in readinesse to do good actions : that it may not be said of us , as God once complained of his people ; Why hath my beloved done wickednesse in my house ? 9. God is in every creature : be cruel towards none , neither abuse any by intemperance . Remember that the creatures and every member of thy own body is one of the lesser cabinets and receptacles of God. They are such which God hath blessed with his presence , hallowed by his touch , and separated from unholy use by making them to belong to his dwelling . 10. He walks as in the presence of God , that converses with him in frequent prayer and frequent communion , that runs to him in all his necessities : that asks counsel of him in all his doubtings , that opens all his wants to him , that weeps before him for his sins ; that asks remedy and support for his weaknesse , that fears him as a Judge , reverences him as a Lord , obeyes him as a Father , and loves him as a Patron . The Benefits of this exercise . The benefit of this consideration and exer●ise being universal upon all the parts of piety , I shall lesse need to speci●ie any particulars ; but yet most properly this exercise of considering the divine presence is , 1. an excellent help to prayer , producing in us reverence and awfulnesse to the divine Majesty of God , and actual devotion in our offices . 2. It produces a confidence in God , and fearlessenesse of our enemies , patience in trouble , and hope of remedie , since God is so nigh in all our sad accidents , he is a disposer of the hearts of men , and the events of things , he proportions out our tryals , and supplyes us with remedie , and where his rod strikes us , his staffe supports us : To which we may adde this , that God who is alwayes with us , is especially by promise with us in tribulation , to turn the misery into a mercy , and that our greatest trouble may become our advantage by intitling us to a new manner of the Divine presence . 3. It is apt to produce joy and rejoycing in God ; we being more apt to delight in the partners and witnesses of our conversation ; every degree of mutual abiding and conversing being a relation and an endearment : we are of the same houshold with God ; he is with us in our natural actions to preserve us , in our recreations to restrain us , in our publick actions to applaud or reprove us , in our private to observe us , in our sleeps to watch by us , in our watchings to refresh us : and if we walk with God in all his wayes as he walks with us in all ours , we shall finde perpetual reasons to enable us to keep that rule of God , Rejoyce in the Lord alwayes , and again I say rejoyce . And this puts me in minde of a saying of an old religious person , [ There is one way of overcoming our ghostly enemies , spiritual mirth , and a perpetual bearing of God in our mindes ] This effectively refists the Devil , and suffers us to receive no hurt from him . 4. This exercise is apt also to enkindle holy desires of the enjoyment of God , because it produces joy when we do enjoy him ; The same desires that a weak man hath for a Defender , the sick man for a Physitian , the poor for a Patron , the childe for his Father , the espoused Lover for her betrothed . 5. From the same fountain are apt to issue humility of spirit , apprehensions of our great distance and our great needs , our daily wants , and hourly supplies , admiration of Gods unspeakable mercies : It is the cause of great modesty and decency in our actions ; it helps to recollection of minde , and restrains the scatterings and loosnesse of wandring thoughts ; it establishes the heart in good purposes , and leadeth on to perseverance ; it gains purity and perfection , ( according to the saying of God to Abraham , Walk before me and be perfect ) holy fear , and holy love , and indeed every thing that pertains to holy living : when we see our selves placed in the Eye of God who sets us on work and will reward us plenteously , to serve him with an Eye-service is very pleasing ; for he also sees the heart : and the want of this consideration was declared to be the cause why Israel sinned so grievously , [ For they say the Lord hath forsaken the earth , and the Lord seeth not : therefore the land is full of blood , and the city full of perversenesse . ] What a childe would do in the eye of his Father , and a Pupil before his Tutor , and a Wife in the presence of her Husband , and a servant in the sight of his Master , let us alwayes do the same : for we are made a spectacle to God , to Angels , and to men ; we are alwayes in the sight and presence of the Allseeing and Almighty God ; who also is to us a Father , and a Guardian , a Husband , and a Lord. Prayers and Devotions according to the religion and purposes of the foregoing Considerations . I. For grace to spend our time well . O Eternal God who from all eternity doest behold and love thy own glories and perfections infinite , and hast created me to do the work of God , after the manner of men , and to serve thee in this generation , and according to my capacities ; give me thy grace , that I may be a curious and prudent spender of my time , so as I may best prevent or resist all temptations , and be profitable to the Christian Common-wealth , and by discharging all my duty may glorifie thy Name . Take from me all slothfulnesse and give me a diligent and an active spirit , and wisdom to choose my imployment , that I may do works proportionable to my person , and to the dignity of a Christian , and may fill up all the spaces of my time with actions of religion and charity , that when the Devil assaults me , he may not finde me idle ; and my dearest Lord , at his sudden coming may finde me busie in lawful , necessary , and pious actions , improving my talent intrusted to me by thee my Lord , that I may enter into the joy of my Lord to partake of his eternal felicities , even for thy mercie sake , and for my dearest Saviours sake . Amen . Here follows the devotion of ordinary dayes ; for the right imployment of those portions of ●ime which every day must allow for religion . The first prayers in the Morning as soon as we are dressed . Humbly and reverently compose your self , with heart lift up to God and your head bowed , and meekly kneeling upon your knees , say the Lords Prayer : after which use the following Collects , or as many of them as you shall choose . Our Father which art in Heaven , &c. I. An act of adoration being the song that the Angels sing in Heaven . HOly , Holy , Holy , Lord God Almighty , which was , and is , and is to come : Heaven and Earth , Angels and Men , the Aire and the Sea give glory , and honour , and thanks to him that sitteth on the throne , who liveth for ever and ever . All the blessed spirits and souls of the righteous cast their crowns before the throne , and worship him that liveth for ever and ever . Thou art worthy , O Lord , to receive glory and honour , and power , for thou hast created all things , and for thy pleasure they are and were created . Great and marvellous are thy works , O Lord God Almighty : Just and true are thy wayes , thou King of Saints . Thy wisdom is infinite , thy mercies are glorious ; and I am not worthy O Lord to appear in thy presence before whom the Angels hide their faces . O Holy and Eternal Jesus , Lamb of God who wert slain from the beginning of the world , thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every nation , and hast made us unto our God Kings and Priests and we shall reigne with thee for ever . Blessing , honour , glory and power be unto him that sitteth on the throne , and to the Lamb for ever and ever . Amen . II. An act of thanksgiving being the song of David for the Morning . SIng praises unto the Lord O ye saints of his , and give thanks to him for a remembrance of his holinesse . For his wrath indureth but the twinkling of an eye , and in his pleasure is life : heavinesse may endure for a night , but joy cometh in the morning . Thou Lord hast preserved me this night from the violence of the spirits of darknesse , from all sad casualtyes , and evil accidents , from the wrath which I have every day deserved : thou hast brought my soul out of hell , thou hast kept my life from them that go down into the pit : thou hast shewed me marvellous great kindesse and hast blessed me for ever : the greatnesse of thy glory reacheth unto the heavens , and thy truth unto the clouds . Therefore shall every good man sing of thy praise without ceasing , O my God I will give thanks unto thee for ever . Allelujah . III. An act of oblation or presenting our selves to God for the day . MOst Holy and Eternal God , Lord and Soveraigne of all the creatures , I humbly present to thy divine Majesty , my self , my soul and body , my thoughts and my words , my actions and intentions , my passions and my sufferings to be disposed by thee to thy glory , to be blessed by thy providence , to be guided by thy counsel to be sanctified by thy spirit , and afterwards that my body and soul may be received into glory : for nothing can perish which is under thy custody ; and the enemy of souls cannot devour what is thy portion , nor take it out of thy hands . This day , O Lord , and all the dayes of my life I dedicate to thy honour ; and the actions of my calling to the uses of grace , and the religion of all my dayes to be united to the merits and intercession of my holy Saviour Jesus , that in him and for him I may be pardoned and accepted . Amen . IV. An act of repentance or contrition . FOr as for me , I am not worthy to be called thy servant , much lesse am I worthy to be thy son , for I am the vilest of sinners and the worst of men , a lover of the things of the world , and a despiser of the things of God , [ proud and envious , lustful and intemperate ] greedy of sin , and impatient of reproof , desirous to seem holy , and negligent of being so , transported with interest , fool'd with presumption and false principles , disturb'd with anger , with a peevish and unmortified spirit , and disordered by a whole body of sin and death . Lord pardon all my sins for my sweetest Saviours sake ; thou who didst dye for me , Holy Jesus , save me and deliver me , reserve not my sins to be punished in the day of wrath and eternal vengeance ; but wash away my sins , and blot them out of thy remembrance , and purifie my soul with the waters of repentance and the bloud of the crosse , that for what is past thy wrath may not come out against me , and for the time to come I may never provoke thee to anger or to jealousie . O just and dear God be pitiful and gracious to thy servant . Amen . V. The prayer or petition . BLesse me gracious God in my calling to such purposes as thou shalt choose for me , or imploy me in : Relieve me in all my sadnesses , make my bed in my ficknesse , give me patience in my sorrows , confidence in thee and grace to call upon thee in all temptations . O be thou my Guide in all my actions , my protector in all dangers : give me a healthful body , and a clear understanding , a sanctified , and just , a charitable , and humble , a religious and a contented spirit ; let not my life be miserable and wretched , nor my name stained with sin and shame , nor my condition lifted up to a tempting and dangerous fortune ; but let my condition be blessed , my conversation useful to my Neighbours and pleasing to thee , that when my body shall lie down in its bed of darknesse , my soul may passe into the Regions of light , and live with thee for ever through Jesus Christ. Amen . VI. An act of intercession or prayer for others to be added to this , or any other office , as our devotion , or duty , or their needs shall determine us . O God of infinite mercy , who hast compassion on all men , and relievest the necessities of all that call to thee for helpe , hear the prayers of thy servant who is unworthy to ask any petition for himself , yet in humility and duty is bound to pray for others . * O let thy mercie descend upon the whole Church , preserve her in truth and peace , in unity and safety , in all stormes , and against all temptations and enemies , that she offering to thy glory the never ceasing sacrifice of prayer and thanksgiving may advance ●he honour of her Lord , and be filled with his Spirit , and partake of his glory . Amen . Remember them that minister about holy things , let them be clothed with righteousnesse , and sing with joyfulnesse . Amen . Blesse thy servant [ my Wife or Husband ] with health of body and of spirit . O let the hand of thy blessing be upon his [ or her ] head night and day , and support him in all necessities , strengthen him in all temptations , comfort him in all his sorrows , and let him be thy servant in all changes , and make us both to dwell with thee for ever in thy favour , in the light of thy countenance , and in thy glories . Amen . Blesse my children with healthful bodies , with good understandings , with the graces and gifts of thy Spirit , with sweet dispositions and holy habits , and sanctifie them throughout in their bodies and souls and spirits , and keep them unblameable to the coming of the Lord Jesus . Amen . Be pleased , O Lord , to remember my friends , all that have pray'd for me , and all that have done me good [ here name such whom you would specially recommend : ] Do thou good to them , & return all their kindnesse double into their own bosome , rewarding them with blessings , and sanctifying them with thy graces , and bringing them to glory . Let all my family and kinred , my neighbours and acquaintance [ here name what other relation you please ] receive the benefit of my prayers and the blessings of God ; the comforts and supports of thy providence , and the sanctification of thy Spirit . Relieve and comfort all the persecuted and afflicted : speak peace to troubled consciences : strengthen the weak : confirm the strong : instruct the ignorant : deliver the oppressed from him that spoileth him , and relieve the needy that hath no helper , and bring us all by the waters of comfort , and in the wayes of righteousnesse to the kingdom of rest and glory , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . To God the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ , To the eternal Son that was incarnate and born of a Virgin , To the Spirit of the Father and the Son , be all honour and glory , worship and thanksgiving now and for ever . Amen . Another form of prayer for the Morning . In the Name of the Father , and of the Son , and of the Holy Ghost . Our Father , &c. I. MOst glorious and eternal God , Father of mercy , and God of all comfort , I worship and adore thee with the lowest humility of my soul and body , and give thee all thanks and praise for thy infinite and essential glories and perfections , and for the continual demonstration of thy mercies upon me , upon all mine , and upon thy holy Catholick Church . II. I acknowledge dear God that I have deserved the greatest of thy wrath and indignation ; and that if thou hadst dealt with me according to my deserving , I had now at this instant been desperately bewailing my miseries in the sorrows and horrours of a sad eternity . But thy mercy triumphing over thy justice and my sins , thou hast still continued to me life and time of repentance ; thou hast opened to me the gates of grace and mercy , and perpetually callest upon me to enter in and to walk in the paths of a holy life , that I might glorifie thee and be glorified of thee eternally . III. BEhold , O God , for this thy great and unspeakable goodnesse ; for the preservation of me this night , and for all other thy graces and blessings I offer up my soul and body , all that I am , and all that I have as a Sacrifice to thee and thy service ; humbly begging of thee to pardon all my sins , to defend me from all evil , to lead me into all geod , and let my portion be amongst thy redeemed ones in the gathering together of the Saints , in the Kingdom of grace and glory . IV. GUide me , O Lord , in all the changes and varieties of the world , that in all things that shall happen , I may have an evennesse and tranquillity of spirit ; that my soul may be wholly resign'd to thy Divinest will and pleasure , never murmuring at thy gentle chastisements and fatherly correction , never waxing proud and insolent though I feel a torrent of comforts and prosperous successes . V. FIx my thoughts , my hopes and my desires upon Heaven and heavenly things ; teach me to despise the world , to repent me deeply for my sins ; give me holy purposes of amendment , and ghostly strength & assistances to perform faithfully whatsoever I shall intend piously . Enrich my understanding with an eternal treasure of Divine truths , that I may know thy will , and thou who workest in us to will and to do of thy good pleasure ; teach me to obey all thy Commandments , to believe all thy Revelations , and make me partaker of all thy gracious promises . VI. TEach me to watch over all my wayes , that I may never be surpriz'd by sudden temptations or a carelesse spirit , nor ever return to folly and vanity . Set a watch , O Lord , before my mouth , and keep the door of my lips , that I offend in my tongue neither against piety nor charity . Teach mee to think of nothing but thee and what is in order to thy glory and service ; to speak nothing but thee and thy glories ; and to do nothing but what becomes thy servant whom thy infinite mercy by the graces of thy holy Spirit hath sealed up to the day of Redemption . VII . LEt all my passions and affections be so mortified and brought under the dominion of grace , that I may never by deliberation and purpose , nor yet by levity , rashnesse , or inconsideration offend thy Divine Majesty . Make me such as thou wouldest have me to bee : strengthen my faith , confirm my hope , and give me a daily increase of charity , that this day and ever I may serve thee according to all my opportunities and capacities ; growing from grace to grace , till at last by thy mercies I shall receive : the consummation and perfection of grace , even the glories of thy Kingdom in the full fruition of the face and excellencies of God the Father , the Son and the holy Ghost : to whom be glory and praise , honour and adoration given by all Angels and all Men , and all Creatures , now and to all eternity . Amen . To this may be added the prayer of intercession for others whom we are bound to remember ; which is at the end of the foregoing prayer : or else you may take such special prayers which follow at the end of the fourth Chapter , [ for parents , for children , &c. ] After which conclude with this ejaculation . Now and in all tribulation and anguish of spirit , in all dangers of soul and body in prosperity and adversity , in the hour of death , and in the day of judgement holy , and most blessed Saviour Jesus , have mercy upon me , save me and deliver me and all faithful people . Amen . Between this and No●n usually are said the publick prayers appointed by Authority : to which all the Clergy are obliged ; and other devout persons that have leisure do accompany them . Afternoon , or at any time of the day , when a devout person retires into his closer for private prayer , or spiritual exercises , he may say the following devotions . An exercise to be used at any time of the day . In the name of the Father , and of the Son , &c. Our Father , &c. The hymn collected out of the Psalms , recounting the excellencies and greatnesse of God. O be joyful in God all ye lands : sing praises unto the honour of his Name , make his Name to be glorious . * O Come hither & behold the works of God , how wonderful he is in his doings toward the children of men . He ruleth with his power for ever : He is the Father of the fatherlesse , and defendeth the cause of the widow , even God in his holy habitation . He is the God that maketh men to be of one minde in a house , and bringeth the prisoners out of captivity : but letteth the runnagates continue in scarcenesse . It is the Lord that commandeth the warers ; it is the glorious God that maketh the thunder . * It is the Lord that ruleth the sea ; the voice of the Lord is mighty in operation , the voice of the Lord is a glorious voice . Let all the Earth fear the Lord , stand in awe of him all ye that dwell in the world : Thou shalt shew us wonderful things in thy righteousnesse , O God of our salvation , thou that art the hope of all the ends of the Earth , and of them that remaine in the broad Sea. Glory be to the Father , &c. Or this , O Lord , thou art my God , I will exalt thee : I will praise thy Name , for thou hast done wonderful things : thy counsels of old are faithfulnesse and truth , Isay 25.1 . Thou in thy strength ●etst fast the Mountains , and art girded about with power . Thou stillest the raging of the Sea , and the noise of his waves , and the madnesse of his people . They also that remain in the uttermost parts of the Earth shall be afraid at thy tokens : thou that makest the out-goings of the morning and evening to praise thee . O Lord God of Hosts who is like unto thee : thy truth most mighty Lord is on every side . Among the gods there is none like unto thee , O Lord , there is none that can do as thou doest . * For thou art great & doest wondrous things : thou art God alone . God is very greatly to be feared in the counsel of the Saints : and to be had in reverence of all them that are round about him . Righteousnesse and equity is in the habitation of thy seat : mercy and truth shall go before thy face . * Glory and worship are before him : power and honour are in his Sanctuary . Thou Lord art the thing that I long for : thou art my hope even from my youth : through thee have I been holden up ever since I was born : thou art he that took me out of my mothers womb : my praise shall be alwayes of thee . Glory be to the Father , &c. After this may be read some portion of holy Scripture out of the New Testament , or out of the sapiential bookes of the Old. viz. Proverbs , Ecclesiastes , &c. because these are of great use to piety and to civil conversation . Vpon which when you have a while meditated ; humbly composing your self upon your knees , say as followeth . Ejaculations . My help standeth in the Name of the Lord : who hath made Heaven and Earth . Shew the light of thy countenance upon thy servant : and I shall be safe . Do well , O Lord , to them that be true of heart : and evermore mightily defend them . Direct me in thy truth and teach me : for thou art my Saviour and my great Master . Keep me from sin and death eternal : and from my enemies visible and invisible . Give me grace to live a holy life : and thy favour that I may dye a godly and happy death . Lord hear the prayer of thy servant : and give me thy holy Spirit . The prayer . O Eternal God , mercifull and gracious , vouchsafe thy favour and thy blessing to thy servant : let the love of thy mercies , and the dread and fear of thy Majesty , make me careful and inquisitive to search thy will , and diligent to perform it , and to persevere in the practises of a holy life , even till the last of my dayes . II. KEep me , O Lord , for I am thine by creation ; guide me , for I am thine by purchase , thou hast redeemed me by the blood of thy Son : and love me with the love of a Father ; for I am thy childe by adoption and grace : let thy mercy pardon my sins , thy providence secure me from the punishments and evils I have deserved , and thy care watch over me ; that I may never any more offend thee : make me in malice to be a childe ; but in understanding , piety , and the fear of God , let me be a perfect man in Christ , innocent and prudent , readily furnished and instructed to every good work . III. KEep me , O Lord , from the destroying Angel , and from the wrath of God : let thy anger never rise against mee ; but thy rod gently correct my follies and guide me in thy ways , and thy staffe support me in all sufferings and changes . Preserve me from fracture of bones , from noisome , infections , and sharp sicknesses , from great violences of Fortune and sudden surprizes ; keep all my senses intire till the day of my death ; and let my death be neither sudden , untimely , nor unprovided : let it be after the common manner of men , having in it nothing extraordinary , but an extraordinary piety , and the manifestation of thy great and miraculous mercy . IV. LEt no riches ever make me forget my self ; no poverty ever make me to forget thee : Let no hope or fear , no pleasure or pain , no accident without , no weaknesse within , hinder or discompose my duty , or turn me from the wayes of thy Commandements . O let thy Spirit dwell with me for ever , and make my soul just and charitable , full of honesty , full of religion , resolute and constant in holy purposes , but inflexible to evil . Make me humble and obedient , peaceable and pious ; let me never envy any mans good , nor deserve to be despised my self ; and if I be , teach me to bear it with meeknesse and charity . V. GIve me a tender conscience ; a conversation discreet , and a●fable , modest and patient , liberal and obliging body ; a chaste and healthful , competency of living according to my condition , contentednesse in all estates , a resigned will and mortified affections , that I may be as thou wouldst have me , and my portion may be in the lot of the righteous , in the brightnesse of thy countenance , and the glories of eternity . Amen ▪ Holy is our God. * Holy is the Almighty . * Holy is the Immortal . Holy , holy , holy , Lord God of Sabbath , have mercy upon me . A form of Prayer for the evening , to be said by such who have not time , or opportunity to say the publick prayers appointed for this office . I. O Eternal God , Great Father of Men and Angels , who hast established the Heavens and the Earth in a wonderful order , making day and night to succeed each other : I make my humble addresse to thy Divine Majesty , begging of thee mercy & protection this night & ever . O Lord pardon all my sins , my light and rash words , the vanity and impiety of my thoughts , my unjust and uncharitable actions , and whatsoever I have transgressed against thee this day , or at any time before . Behold , O God , my soul is troubled in the remembrance of my sins , in the frailty and sinfulnesse of my flesh exposed to every temptation , and of it self not able to resist any : Lord God of mercy I earnestly beg of thee to give me a great portion of thy grace ; such as may be sufficient , and effectual for the mortification of all my sins and vanities and disorders ; that as I have formerly served my lust , and unworthy desires , so now I may give my self up wholly to thy service , and the studies of a holy life . II. BLessed Lord , teach me frequently and sadly to remember my sins ; and be thou pleased to remember them no more ; let me never forget thy mercies , and do thou still remember to do me good . Teach me to walk alwayes as in thy presence : Ennoble my soul with great degrees of love to thee , and configne my spirit with great fear , religion and veneration of thy holy Name and laws ; that it may become the great imployment of my whole life to serve thee , to advance thy glory , to root out all the accursed habits of sin , that in holinesse of life , in humility , in charity , in chastity , and all the ornaments of grace , I may by patience wait for the coming of our Lord Jesus . Amen . III. Teach me , O Lord to number my dayes that I may apply my heart unto wisdom ; ever to remember my last end , that I may not dare to sin against thee : Let thy holy Angels be ever present with me to keep me in all my wayes from the malice and violence of the spirits of darknesse ; from evil company , and the occasions and opportunities of evil , from perishing in popular judgements , from all the wayes of sinful shame , from the hands of all mine enemies ; from a sinful life , and from despair in the day of my death : Then , O brightest Jesu , shine gloriously upon me , let thy mercies and the light of thy Countenance sustain me in all my agonies , weaknesses and temptations . Give me opportunity of a prudent and spiritual Guide , and of receiving the holy Sacrament ; & let thy loving spirit so guide me in the wayes of peace and safety , that with the testimony of a good conscience , and the sense of thy mercies and refreshment , I may depart this life in the unity of the Church , in the love of God , and a certain hope of salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord and most blessed Saviour . Amen . Our Father , &c. Another form of Evening Prayer , which may also be used at bed-time . Our Father , &c. I Will lift up my eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help . My help cometh of the Lord which made heaven and earth . He will not suffer thy foot to be moved : he that keepeth thee will not slumber . Behold , he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep . The Lord is thy keeper , the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand . The sun shall not smite thee by day : neither the moon by night . The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil : he shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in : from this time forth for evermore . Glory be to the Father , &c. I. VIsit I beseech thee , O Lord , this habitation with thy mercy , and me with thy grace and salvation . Let thy holy Angels pitch their tents round about and dwell here , that no illusion of the night may abuse me , the spirits of darknesse may not come neer to hurt me , no evil or sad accident oppresse me : and let the eternal spirit of the Father dwell in my soul and body , filling every corner of my heart with light and grace . Let no deed of darknesse overtake me ; and thy blessing most blessed God be upon me for ever , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . II. INto thy hands most blessed Jesu , I commend my soul and body , for thou hast redeemed both with thy most precious blood . So blesse and sanctifie my sleep unto me , that it may be temperate , holy , and safe , a refreshment to my wearied body to enable it so to serve my soul , that both may serve thee with a never failing duty . O let me never sleep in sin or death eternal , but give me a watchful & a prudent spirit , that I may omit no oportunity of serving thee , that whether I sleep or wake , live or die , I may be thy servant and thy childe : that when the work of my life is done , I may rest in the bosom of my Lord , till by the voice of the Archangel , the trump of God , I shall be awakened and called to sit down and feast in the eternal supper of the Lamb. Grant this O Lamb of God , for the honour of thy mercies and the glory of thy name , O most merciful Saviour and Redeemer Jesus . Amen . III. BLessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus , who hath sent his Angels , and kept me this day from the destruction that walketh at noon , and the arrow that flyeth by day : and hath given me his Spirit to restrain me from those evils to which my own weaknesses , and my evil habits , and my unquiet enemies would easily betray me . Blessed and for ever hallowed be thy name for that never ceasing showre os blessing by which I live , and am content , and blessed , and provided for in all necessities , and set forward in my duty and way to heaven . * Blessing , honour , glory and power , be unto him that sitteth on the throne , and to the Lamb for ever and ever . Amen . Holy is our God , * Holy is the Almighty , Holy is the Immortal . Holy , holy , holy , Lord God of Sabaoth , have mercy upon me . Ejaculations and short meditations to be used in the Night when we wake . Stand in awe and sin not : commune with your own heart upon your bed , and be still . I will lay me down in peace and sleep : for thou Lord onely makest me dwell in safety . O Father of Spirits and the God of all flesh have mercy and pity upon all sick and dying Christians , and receive the souls which thou hast redeemed returning unto thee . Blessed are they that dwell in the heavenly Jerusalem : where there is no need of the Sun , neither of the Moon to shine in it : for the glorie of God does lighten it , and the Lamb is the light thereof . And there shal be no night there , & they need no candle , for the Lord God giveth them light , and they shall reign for ever and ever . Revel 21.23 . Meditate on Iacobs wrastling with the Angel all night : be thou also importunate with God for a blessing , and give not over till he hath blessed thee . Meditate on the Angel passing over the children of Israel , and destroying the Egyptians , for disobedience and oppression . Pray for the grace of obedience and charity and for the divine protection . Meditate on the Angel who destroyed in a night the whole army of the Assyrians for fornication . Call to minde the sins of thy youth , the sins of thy bed ; and say with David , My reins chasten me in the night season , and my soul refuseth comfort . Pray for pardon and the grace of chastity . Meditate on the agonies of Christ in the garden , his sadnesse and affliction all that night ; and thank and adore him for his love that made him suffer so much for thee : and hate thy sins which made it necessary for the Son of God to suffer so much . Meditate on the four last things . 1. The certainty of death . 2. The terrours of the day of judgement . 3. The joyes of Heaven . 4. The pains of Hell , and the eternity of both . Think upon all thy friends which are gone before thee , and pray that God would grant to thee to meet them in a joyful resurrection . The day of the Lord will come as a thiefe in the night , in the which the heavens shall passe away with a great noise , and the elements shall melt with fervent heat , the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up . Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved , what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godlinesse , looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God. 2 Pet. 3.10.11 . Lord in mercy remember thy servant in the day of Judgement . Thou shalt answer for me , O Lord my God. In thee , O Lord have I trusted : let me never be confounded . Amen . I desire the Christian Reader to observe that all these offices or forms of prayer ( if they should be used every day ) would not spend above an hour and a halfe : but because so●e of them are double ( and so but one of them to be used in one day ) it is much lesse : and by affording to God one hour in 24. thou mayest have the comforts and rewards of devotion . But he that thinks this is too much , either is very busie in the world , or very carelesse of heaven . However , I have parted the prayers into smaller portions that he may use which , and how many he please in any one of the forms . Ad Sect. 2. A prayer for holy Intention in the beginning and pursuit of any considerable action , as Study , Preaching , &c. O Eternal God , who hast made all things for man , and man for thy glory , sanctifie my body and soul , my thoughts and my intentions , my words and actions , that whatsoever I shall think or speak , or do , may he by me designed to the glorification of thy Name , and by thy blessing it may be effective and successeful in the work of God , according as it can be capable . Lord turn my necessities into vertue , the works of nature into the works of grace , by making them orderly , regular , temperate , subordinate and profitable to ends beyond their own proper efficacy : And let no pride or self-seeking , no covetousnesse or revenge , no impure mixture or unhandsome purposes , no little ends and low imaginations pollute my Spirit , and unhallow any of my words and actions : but let my body be a servant of my spirit , and both body and spirit servants of Jesus , that doing all things for thy glory here , I may be partaker of thy glory hereafter thorough Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . Ad Sect. 3. A prayer meditating and referring to the divine presence . This prayer is especially to be used in temptation to private sins . O Almighty God infinite and eternal , thou fillest all things with thy presence ; thou art every where by thy essence and by thy power , in heaven by Glory , in holy places by thy grace and favour , in the hearts of thy servants by thy Spirit , in the consciences of all men by thy testimony and observation of us : Teach me to walk alwayes as in thy presence , to fear thy Majesty , to reverence thy wisdom and omniscience , that I may never dare to commit any undecency in the eye of my Lord and my Judge , but that I may with so much care and reverence demean my self , that my Judge may not be my accuser , but my Advocate : that I expressing the belief of thy presence here by careful walking , may feel the effects of it in the participation of eternal glory thorough Jesus Christ. Amen . CHAP. II. Of Christian Sobriety . Sect. I. Of sobriety in the general sense . CHristian Religion in all its moral parts is nothing else but the Law of Nature and great Reason , complying with the great necessities of all the world , and promoting the great profit of all relations , and carrying us through all accidents of variety of chances to that end which God hath from eternal ages purposed for all that live according to it , and which he hath revealed in Jesus Christ : and according to the Apostles A●ithmetik hath but these three parts of it . 1. Sobriety . 2. Justice . 3. Religion . For the grace of God bringing salvation hath appeared to all men ; teaching us that denying ungodlinesse and worldly lusts , we should live 1. Soberly , 2. Righteously , and 3. Godly in this present world , looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of the grea● God and our Saviour Iesus Christ. The first contains all our deportment in our personal and private capacities , the f●ir treating of our bodies , and our spirits . The second e●larges our duty in all relations to our Neighbour . The third contains the offices of direct Religion , and entercourse with God. Christian sobriety is all that duty that concerns our selves in the matter of meat and drink and pleasures and thoughts , and it hath within it , the duties of 1. Temperance . 2. Chastity . 3. Humility . 4. Modesty . 5. Content , It is a using severity , denial , and frustration , of our appetite when it growes unreasonable in any of these instances : the necessity of which we shall to best purpose understand , by considering the evil consequences of sensuality , effeminacy or fondnesse after carnal pleasures . Evil consequents of voluptuousnesse or sensuality . 1. A longing after sensual pleasures is a dissolution of the spirit of a man , and makes it loose , soft , and wandring , unapt for noble , wise , or spiritual imployments ; because the principles upon which pleasure is chosen and pursued , are sottish , weak , and unlearned , such as prefer the body before the soul , the appetite before reason , sense before the Spirit , the pleasures of a short abode , before the pleasures of eternity . 2. The nature of sensual pleasure is vain , empty , and unsatisfying , biggest alwayes in expectation , and a meer vanity in the enjoying , and leaves a sting and thorn behinde it , when it goes off . Our laughing if it be loud and high commonly ends in a deep sigh , and all the înstances of pleasure have a sting in the tayl , though they carry beauty on the face and sweetnesse on the lip . 3. Sensual pleasure is a great abuse to the Spirit of a man ; being a kinde of fascination or witchcraft , blinding the understanding and enslaving the will. And he that knowes he is free-born or redeemed with the blood of the Sonne of God , will not easily suffer the freedom of his soul to be entangled and rifled . 4. It is most contrary to the state of a Christian , whose life is a perpetual exercise , a wrastling and a warfare , to which , sensual pleasure disables him , by yeilding to that enemy with whom he must strive if ever he will be crown'd . And this argument the Apostle intimated : He that striveth for masteries is temperate in all things : Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown ▪ but we an incorruptible . 5. It is by a certain consequence the greatest impediment in the world to martyrdom ; that being a fondnesse , this being a cruelty to the flesh : to which a Christian man arriving by degrees must first have crucified the les●er affections : for he that is overcome by little arguments of pain , will hardly consent to lose his life with torments . Degrees of sobriety . Against this voluptuousnesse , sobriety is opposed in three degrees . 1. A despite or disaffection to pleasures , or a resolving against all entertainment of the instances and temptations of sensuality , and it consists in the internal faculties of will and understanding , decreeing and declaring against them , disapproving and disliking them upon good reason , and strong resolution . 2. A fight and actual war against all the temptations and offers of sensual pleasure in all evil instances and degrees ; and it consists in prayer , in fasting , in cheap diet , and hard lodging , and laborious exercises , and avoiding occasions , and using all arts & industry of fortifying the Spirit , and making it ●evere , manly , and Christian. 3. Spiritual pleasure is the highest degree of Sobriety , and in the same degree in which we relish and are in love with spiritual delights , the hidden Manna , with the sweetnesses of devotion , with the joyes of thanksgiving , with rejoycings in the Lord , with the comsorts of hope , with the delitiousnesse of charity and almes-deeds , with the sweetnesse of a good conscience , with the peace of meeknesse , and the felicities of a contented spirit : in the same degree we disrelish and loath the husks of swinish lusts , and the parings of the apples of Sodom : and the taste of sinful pleasures is unsavoury as the Drunkards vomit . Rules for suppressing voluptuousnesse . The precepts and advices which are of best and of general use in the curing of sensuality are these . 1. Accustom thy self to cut off all superfluity in the provisions of thy life : for our desires will enlarge beyond the present possession so long as all the things of this world are unsatisfying : if therefore you suf●er them to extend beyond the measures of necessity or moderated conveniency , they will still swell : but you reduce them to a little compasse , when you make nature to be your limit . We must more take care that our desires should ceas● , then that they should be satisfied : and therefore reducing them to narrow scantlings and small proportions is the best instrument to redeem their trouble and prevent the dropsie , because that is next to an universal denying them : it is certainly a paring off from them all unreasonablenesse and irregularity . For whatsoever covets unseemly things , and is apt to swell to an inconvenient bulk , is to be chastened and tempered : and such are sensuality , and a Boy , said the Philosopher . 2. Suppresse your sensuall desires in their first approach : for then they are least , and thy faculties and election are stronger ; but if they in their weaknesse prevail upon thy strengths , there will be no resisting them when they are increased , and thy abilities lessened . you shall scarce obtain of them to end , if you suffer them to begin . 3. Divert them with some laudable imployment , and take off their edge by inadvertency , or a not attending to them . For since the faculties of a man cannot at the same time with any sharpnesse attend to two objects , if you imploy your spirit upon a book or a bodily labour , or any innocent and indifferent imployment , you have no room left for the present trouble of a sensual temptation . For to this sense it was that Alexander told the Queen of Caria , that his Tutor Leonidas had provided two Cooks for him [ Hard marches all night , and a small dinner the next day : ] these tam'd his youthful aptnesses to dissolution , so long as he eat of their provisions . 4. Look upon pleasures , not upon that side that is next the Sunne , or where they look beauteously , that is , as they come towards you to be enjoyed ; for then they paint , and smile , and dresse themselves up in tinsel & glasse , gems and counterfeit imagery : but when thou hast rifled and discomposed them with enjoying their false beauties , & that they begin to go of● , then behold them in their nakednesse and wearinesse : See what a sigh and sorrow , what naked unhandsome proportions and a filthy carkasse they discover ; and the next time they counterfeit , remember what you have already discovered , & be no more abused . And I have known some wise persons have advised to cure the passions and longings of their children by letting them taste of every thing they passionately fancied : for they should be sure to find lesse in it then they looked for , and the impatience of their being denied would be loosened and made slack ; and when our wishings are no bigger then the thing deserves , and our usages of them according to our needs ( which may be obtain'd by try●ng what they are , and wha● good they can do us ) we shall finde in all pleas●res so little entertainment , that the vanity of the possession will soon reprove the violence of the appetite . And if this permission be in innocent instances , it may be of good use : But Solomon tried it in all things , taking his fill of all pleasures : & soon grew weary of them all . The same thing we may do by reason which we do by experience , if either we will look upon pleasures as we are sure they will look when they go off , after their enjoyment , or if we will credit the experience of those men who have tasted them and loathed them . 5. Often consider , and contemplate the joyes of heaven , that when they have filled thy desires , which are the sails of the soul , thou mayest steer onely thither , and never more look back to Sodom . And when thy soul dwels above , and looks down upon the pleasures of the World , they seeme like things at distance , little and contemptible , and men running after the satisfaction of their sottish appetites seem foolish as fishes , thousands of them running after a rotten worme that covers a deadly hook ; or at the best but like children with great noise pursuing a bubble rising from a wallnut shell , which ends sooner then the noise . 6. To this , the example of Christ and his Apostles , of Moses and all the Wise men of all ages of the world will much help : who understanding how to distinguish good from evil , did choose a sad and melancholy way to feli●itie , rather then the broad , pleasant and easie path to folly and misery . But this is but the general . Its first particular is Temperance . SECT . II. Of Temperance in Eating and Drinking . SObriety is the bridle of the passions of desire , and Temperance is the bit and curb of that bridle , a restraint put into a mans mouth , a moderate use of meat and drink , so as may best consist with our health , and may not hinder but help the works of the soul by its necessary supporting us , and ministring cheerfulnesse and refreshment . Temperance consists in the actions of the soul principally : for it is a grace that chooses natural means in order to proper and natural and holy ends : It is exercised about eating & drinking , because they are necessary : but therefore it permits the use of them onely as they minister to lawful ends : It does not eate and drink for pleasure but for need , and for refreshment , which is a part or a degree of need . I deny not but eating and drinking may be , and in healthful bodies alwayes is with pleasure : because there is in nature no greater pleasure , than that all the appetites which God hath made should be satisfied : and a man may choose a morsel that is pleasant , the lesse pleasant being rejected as being lesse useful , lesse apt to nourish , or more agreeing with an infirm stomach , or when the day is festival , by order , or by a private joy . In all these cases it is permitted to receive a more free delight , and to designe it too , as the lesse principal : that is , that the chief reason why we choose the more delicious , be the serving that end for which such refreshments and choices are permitted . But when delight is the only end and rests in it self , and dwells there long , then , eating and drinking is not a serving of God , but an inordinate action ; because it is not in the way to that end whether God directed it . But the choosing of a delicate before a more ordinary dish is to be done as other humane actions are , in which there are no degrees and precise natural limits described , but a latitude is indulged : it must be done moderately , prudently , and according to the accounts of wise , religious , and sober men ; and then God who gave us such variety of creatures , and our choice to use which we will , may receive glorie from our temperate use , and thanksgiving , and we may use them indifferently without scruple , and a making them to become snares to us , either by too licentious and studied use of them , or too restrained and scrupulous fear of using them at all , but in such certain circumstances in which no man can be sure he is not mistaken . But temperance in meat and drink is to be estimated by the following measures . Measures of Temperance in eating . 1. Eat not before the time , unlesse necessity , or charity , or any intervening accident , which may make it reasonable and prudent , should happen . Remember it had almost cost Ionathan his life because he tasted a little hony be●ore the sun went down , contrary to the Kings commandment , and although a great need which he had , excused him from the sin of gluttony , yet it is inexcusable when thou eatest before the usual time , and thrustest thy hand into the dish unseasonably , out of greedinesse of the pleasure , and impatience of the delay . 2. Eat not hastily and impatiently , but with such decent and timely action , that your eating be a humane act , subject to deliberation and choice , and that you may consider in the eating : whereas he that eats hastily , cannot consider particularly of the circumstances , degrees , and little accidents and chances that happen in his meale ; but may contract many little undecencies , and be suddenly surprised . 3. Eat not delicately , or nicely , that is , be not troublesome to thy self or others in the choice of thy meats , or the delicacy of thy sauces . It was imputed as a sin to the sons of Israel , that they loathed Manna and longed for flesh : the quails stuck in their nostrills , and the wrath of God fell upon them . And for the manner of dressing , the sons of Eli were noted of indiscreet curiosity : they would not have the flesh boiled , but raw that they might rost it with fire . Not that it was a sin to eat it , or desire meat rosted ; but that when it was appointed to be boil'd , they refused it ; which declared an intemperate and a nice palate . It is lawful in all senses to comply with a weak and a nice stomach : but not with a nice and curious palate . When our health requires it , that ought to be provided for ; but not so , our sensuality and intemperate longings . Whatsoever is set before you , eat ; if it be provided for you , you may eat it be it never so delicate ; and be it plain and common , so it be wholsom and fit for you , it must not be refus'd upon curiosity ; for every degree of that is a degree of intemperance . Happy and innocent were the ages of our forefathers , who eat herbs and parched corne , and drank the pure stream , and broke their fast with nuts and roots ; and when they were permitted flesh , eat it onely dressed with hunger and fire ; and the first sauce they had was bitter herbs , and sometimes bread dipt in vinegar . But in this circumstance moderation is to be reckoned in proportion to the present customs , to the company , to education , and the judgement of honest and wise persons , and the necessities of nature . 4. Eat not too much : load neither thy stomach nor thy understanding . If thou sit at a bountiful table , be not greedy upon it , and say not there is much meat on it . Remember that a wicked Eye is an evil thing : and what is created more wicked then an eye ? Therefore it weepeth upon every occasion . Stretch not thy hand whithersoever it looketh , and thrust it not with him into the dish . A very little is sufficient for a man well nurtured , and he fetcheth not his winde short upon his bed . Signes and effects of Temperance . We shall best know that we have the grace of temperance by the following signes , which are as so many arguments to engage us also upon its study and practise . 1. A temperate man is modest ; greedinesse is unmannerly and rude . And this is intimated in the advice of the son of S●rach . When thou sittest amongst many reach not thy hand out first of all . Leave off first for manners sake , and be not unsatiable lest thou offend . * 2 Temperance is accompanied with gravity of deportment : greedinesse is gar●sh , and rejoyces loosely at the sight of dainties . * 3. Sound , but moderate sleep is its signe and its effect . Sound sleep cometh of moderate eating : he riseth early and his wits are with him . * 4 A spiritual joy & a devout prayer . 5. * A suppressed and seldom anger . * 6. A command of our thoughts and passions . * 7. A seldom returning and a never prevailing temptation . * 8. To which adde , that a temperate person is not curious of sauces and deliciousnesse . He thinks not much , and speaks not often of meat and drink ; hath a healthful body , and long life , unlesse it be hindered by some other accident ; whereas to gluttony , the pain watching and choler , the pangs of the belly are continual company : And therefore 〈◊〉 said handsomely concerning the luxury of the Rhodians , They built houses as if they were immortal , but they feasted as if they meant to live but a little while . And An●ipater by his reproach of the old glutton Demades well expressed the basenesse of this sin , saying , that Demades now old and alwayes a glutton , was like a spent sacrifice , nothing left of him but his belly and his tongue , all the man besides , is gone . Of Drunkennesse . But I desire that it be observed ; that because intemperance in eating is not so soone perceived by others as immoderate drinking , and the outward visible effects of it are not either so notorious or so ridiculous , therfore gluttony is not of so great disreputation amongst men as drunkennesse : yet according to its degree it puts on the greatnesse of the sin before God , and is most strickly to be attended to , least we be surprized by our security and want of diligence ; and the intemperance is alike criminal in both , according as the affections are either to the meat or drinke . Gluttony is more uncharitable to the body , and drunkennesse to the soule , or the understanding part of man ; and therefore in Scripture is more frequently forbidden and declaimed against , then the other : and sobriety hath by use obtained to signify Temperance in drinking . Drunkennesse is an immoderate affection , and use of drink . That I call immoderate , that is besides or beyond that order of good things , for which God hath given us the use of drink . The ends are ; digestion of our meat , cheerfulnesse and refreshment of our spirits , or any end of health ; besides which , if we go , or at any time beyond it , it is inordinate and criminal , it is the vice of drunkennesse . It is forbidden by our blessed Saviour in these words . [ Take heed to your selves lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfetting and drunkennesse ] Surfetting , ] that is the evil effects the sottishnesse and remaining stupidity of habitual , or of the last nights drunkennesse . For Christ forbids both the actual and the habitual intemperance ; not onely the effect of it , but also th● affection to it : for in both there is sinne . He that drinks but little , if that little makes him drunk , and if he know beforehand his own infirmity , is guilty of surfetting , not of dru●kennesse . But he that drinks much and is strong to bear it , and is not deprived of his reason violently , is guilty of the sin of drunkennes . It is a sin not to prevent such uncharitable effects upon the body and understanding : And therefore a man that loves not the drink is guilty of surfetting , if he does not watch to prevent the evil effect : and it is a sin , and the greater of the two , inordinately to love or to use the drink , though the surfetting , or violence do not follow . Good therefore is the counsel of the son of Syrach : Shew not thy valiantnesse in wine ; for wine hath destroyed many . Evil consequents to drunkennesse . The evils and sad consequents of drunkennesse ( the consideration of which are as so many arguments to avoyd the sin ) are to this sence reckoned by the writers of holy Scripture , and other wise personages of the world . 1. It causeth woes and mischiefe , wounds and sorrow , sin and shame * ; it maketh bitternesse of spirit , brawling and quarrelling , it increaseth rage and lesseneth strength , it maketh red eyes , and a loose and babling tongue . 2. It particularly ministers to lust , and yet disables the body ; so that in effect it makes man wanton as a Satyr , and impotent as age : And Solomon in enumerating the evils of this vice adds this to the account : Thine eyes shall behold strange women , and thy heart shall utter perverse things : as if the drunkard were onely desire , and then impatience , muttering and enjoying like an Eunuch imbracing a woman . 3. It besots and hinders the actions of the understanding , making a man brutish in his passions , and a fool in his reason ; and differs nothing from madnesse , but that it is voluntary , and so is an equal evil in nature , and a worse in manners . 4. It takes off all the guards , and le ts loose the reins of all those evils to which a man is by his nature , or by his evil customs inclined , and from which he is restrained by reason and severe principles . Drunkennesse calls off the Watch men from their towers , and then all the evils that can proceed from a loose heart , and an untied tongue , and a dissolute spirit , and an unguarded , unlimited will , all that we may put upon the accounts of drunkennesse . 5. It extinguisheth and quenches the Spirit of God : for no man can be filled with the Spirit of God and with wine at the same time ; And therefore Saint Paul makes them exclusive of each other . Be not drunk with wine wherein is excesse , but be filled with the Spirit : And since Iosephs cup was put into Benjamins sack , no man hath a divining gobler . 6. It opens all the Sanctuaries of Nature , and discovers the nakednesse of the soul , all its weaknesses and follies ; it multiplies sins and discovers them ; it makes a man uncapable of being a private friend , or a publick Counseller . 7. It taketh a mans soul into slavery and imprisonment more then any vice whatsoever , because it disarms a man of all his reason and his wisdom , wherby he might be cured , and therefore commonly grows it upon him with age : a drunkard being still more a fool and lesse a man. I need not adde any sad examples , since all story and all ages have too many of them . Amnon was slain by his brother Absalom , when he was warm and high with wine . Simon the High Priest and two of his sons were slain by their brother at a drunken feast . Holofernes was drunk when Iudith slew him : and all the great things that Daniel spake of Alexander were drowned with the surfet of one nights intemperance : and the drunkennesse of Noah and Lot are upon record to eternal ages , that in those early instances , and righteous persons and lesse criminal drunkennesse then is that of Christians in this period of the world , God might show that very great evils are prepared to punish this vice ; no lesse then shame , and slavery , and incest , the first upon Noah , the second upon one of his sons , and the third in the person of Lot. Signes of drunkennesse . But if it be enquired concerning the periods and distinct significations of this crime , and when a man is said to be drunk ? To this I answer , That drunkennesse is in the same manner to be judged as sicknesse . As every illnesse or violence done to health in every part of its continuance is a part or degree of sicknesse : so is every going off from our natural and common temper and our usual severity of behaviour , a degree of drunkennesse . He is not onely drunk that can drink no more ; for few are so ; but he hath sinned in a degree of drunkennesse who hath done any thing towards it beyond his proper measure . But its parts and periods are usually thus reckoned . 1. Apish gestures . 2. Much talking . 3. Immoderate laughing . 4. Dulnesse of sence . 5. Scurrility , that is , wanton , or jeering , or abusive language . 6. An uselesse understanding . 7. Stupid sleep . 8. Epilepsies , or fallings , and reelings and beastly vomitings . The least of these , even when the tongue begins to be untyed , is a degree of drunkennesse . But that we may avoyd the sin of intemperance in meats and drinks , besides the former rules of measures , these counsels also may be useful . Rules for obtaining Temperance . 1. Be not often present at feasts , nor at all in dissolute company , when it may be avoyded ; for variety of pleasing objects steals away the heart of man : and company is either violent or enticing ; and we are weak or complying , or perhaps desirous enough to be abused . But if you be unavoidably or indiscreetly ingaged , let not mistaken civilitie or good nature engage thee , either to the temptation of staying ( if thou understandest thy weaknesse ) or the sin of drinking inordinately . 2. Be severe in your judgement concerning your proportions , and let no occasion make you enlarge far beyond your ordinary . For a man is surprized by parts ; and while he thinks one glass more will not make him drunk , that one glasse hath disabled him from well discerning his present condition and neighbour danger : while men think themselves wise they become fools : they think they shall tast the aconite and not dye , or crown their heads with juice of poppy and not be drowsie ; and if they drink off the whole vintage , still they think they can swallow another gobler . But remember this , when ever you begin to consider whether you may safely take one draught more , it is then high time to give over : let that be accounted a signe late enough to break off : for every reason to doubt , is a sufficient reason to part the company . 3. Come not to table but when thy need invites thee : and if thou beest in health leave something of thy Appetite unfilled , something of thy natural heat unimployed , that it may secure thy digestion , and serve other needs of nature or the spirit . 4. Propound to thy self ( if thou beest in a capacity ) a constant rule of living , of eating and drinking ; which though it may not be fit to observe scrupulously , lest it become a snare to thy conscience , or indanger thy health upon every accidental violence : yet let not thy rule be broken often nor much , but upon great necessity and in small degrees . 5. Never urge any man to eat or drink beyond his own limits , and his own desires . He that does otherwise is drunke with his brothers surfet , and reeles and falls with his intemperance , that is , the sin of drunkennes is upon both their scores , they both lye wallowing in the guilt . 6. Use S. Pauls instruments of Sobriety . Let us who are of the day be sober , putting on the brestplate of faith and love , and for an helmet the hope of Saluation . Faith , Hope , and Charity are the best weapons in the world to fight against intemperance . The faith of the Mahometans forbids them to drink wine , and they abstain religiously , as the sons of Rechab : and the faith of Christ forbids drunkennesse to us ; and therefore is infinitely more powerful to suppresse this vice , when we remember that we are Christians , and to abstain from drunkennesse and gluttony is part of the Faith and Discipline of Jesus , and that with these vices , neither our love to God , nor our hopes of heaven can possibly consist ; and therefore when these enter the heart , the other goes out at the mouth : for this is the Devil that is cast out by fasting and prayer , which are the proper actions of these graces . 7. As a pursuance of this rule , it is a good advice , that as we begin and end all our times of eating with prayer and thanksgiving : so at the meal we remove and carry up our minde and Spirit to the Coelestiall table , often thinking of it , and often desiring it ; that by enkindling thy desire to heavenly banquets , thou mayest be indifferent and lesse passionate for the Earthlie . 8. Mingle discourses pious , or in some sence profitable , and in all sences charitable and innocent , with thy meal , as occasion is ministred . 9. Let your drink so serve your meat , as your meat doth your health ; that it be apt to convey and digest it , and re●resh the spirits ; but let it never go beyond such a refreshment as may a little lighten the present load of a sad or troubled spirit ; never to inconvenience , lightnesse , sottishnesse , vanity , or intemperance : and know that the loosing the bands of the tongue ; and the very first dissolution of its duty , is one degree of the intemperance . 10. In all cases be carefull that you bee not brought under the power of such things which otherwise are lawful enough in the use . All things are lawful for me , but I will not be brought under the power of any thing , said Saint Paul. And to be perpetually longing , and impatiently desirous of any thing , so that a man cannot abstaine from it , is to lose a mans liberty , and to become a servant of meat and drink , or smoke : And I wish this last instance were more considered by persons who little suspect themselves guilty of intemperance , though their desires are strong and impatient , and the use of it perpetual and unreasonable to all purposes , but that they have made it habitual , and necessary as intemperance it self is made to some men . 11. Use those advices which are prescribed as instruments to suppresse voluptuousnesse in the foregoing Section . Of Chastity . Reader stay , and reade not the advices of the following Section , unlesse thou hast a chaste spirit , or desirest to be chaste , or at least , art apt to consider whether you ought or no. For there are some spirits so Atheistical , and some so wholly possessed with a spirit of uncleannesse , that they turn the most prudent and chaste discourses into dirt and filthy apprehensions : like cholerick stomacks changing their very Cordials and medicines into bitternesse ; and in a literal sense turning the grace of God into wantonnesse : They study cases of conscience in the matter of carnal sins , not to avoid , but to learn wayes how to offend God and pollute their own spirits : and search their houses with a Sun-beam that they may be instructed in all the corners of nastinesse . I have used all the care I could , in the following periods , that I might neither be wanting to assist those that need it , nor yet minister any occasion of fancy or vainer thoughts to those that need them not . If any man will snatch the pure taper from my hand , and hold it to the Devil , he will onely burn his own fingers , but shall not rob me of the reward of my care and good intention , since I have taken heed how to expresse the following duties , and given him caution how to reade them . CHastity is that duty which was mystically intended by GOD in the Law of Circumcision . It is the circumcision of the heart , the cutting off all superfluity of naughtinesse , and a suppression of all irregular desires in the matter of sensual or carnal pleasure . I call all desires irregular and sinful that are not sanctified ; 1. By the holy institution or by being within the protection of marriage . 2. By being within the order of nature . 3. By being within the moderation of Christian modesty . Against the first are , fornication , adultery , and all voluntary pollutions of either sex . Against the second are all unnatural lusts , and incestuous mixtures . Against the third is all immoderate use of permitted beds ; concerning which , judgement is to be made as concerning meats and drinks ; there being no certain degree of frequency or intension prescribed to all persons , but it is to be ruled as the other actions of a man , by proportion to the end , by the dignity of the person in the honour and severity of being a Christian , and by other circumstances , of which I am to give account . Chastity is that grace which forbids and restrains all these , keeping the body and soul pure in that state in which it is placed by God , whether of the single or of the married life . Concerning which our duty is thus described by S. Paul. [ For this is the will of God , even your sanctification , that ye should abstain from fornication : that every one of you should know how to possesse his vessel in sanctification and honour : Not in the lust of concupiscence , even as the Gentiles which know not God. Chastity is either abstinence or continence . Abstinence is that of Virgins or Widows : Continence of married persons . Chaste marriages are honourable and pleasing to God : Widowhood is pitiable in its solitarinesse and losse , but amiable and comely when it is adorned with gravity and purity , and not sullied with remembrances of the passed license , nor with present desires of returning to a second bed . But Virginity is a life of Angels , the enamel of the soul , the huge advantage of religion , the great opportunity for the retirements of devotion : and being empty of cares , it is full of prayers : being unmingled with the World , it is apt to converse with God : and by not feeling the warmth of a too forward and indulgent nature , flames out with holy fires , till it be burning like the Cherubim and the most extasied order of holy and unpolluted Spirits . Natural virginity of it self is not a state more acceptable to God : but that which is chosen and voluntary in order to the conveniences of Religion and separation from worldly incombrances , is therefore better then the married life ; not that it is more holy , but that it is a freedom from cares , an opportunity to spend more time in spiritual imployments ; it is not allayed with businesses and attendances upon lower affairs : and if it be a chosen condition to these ends ; it containeth in it a victory over lusts , and greater desires of Religion , and self-denial , and therefore is more excellent then the married life , in that degree in which it hath greater religion , and a greater mortification , a lesse satisfaction of natural desires , & a greater fulnesse of the spiritual : and just so is to expect that little coronet or special reward which God hath prepared ( extraordinary and besides the great Crown of all faithful souls ) for those who have not defiled themselves with women , but follow the Virgin Lamb for ever . But some married persons even in their marriage do better please God then some Virgins in their state of virginity : They by giving great example of conjugal affection , by preserving their faith unbroken , by educating children in the fear of God , by patience and contentednesse , and holy thoughts and the exercise of vertues proper to that state , do not onely please God , but do it in a higher degree then those Virgins whose piety is not answerable to their great opportunities and advantages . However , married persons , and Widows , and Virgins are all servants of God and coheirs in the inheritance of Jesus , if they live within the restraints and laws of their particular estate , chastely , temperately , justly , and religiously . The evil consequents of Vncleannesse . The blessings and proper effects of chastity we shall best understand by reckoning the evils of uncleannesse and carnality . 1. Uncleannesse of all vices is the most shameful . The eye of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight , saying ; No eye shall see me : and disguiseth his face . In the dark they dig through houses which they had marked for themselves in the day time : they know not the light : for the morning is to them as the shadow of death . He is swift as the waters ; their portion is cursed in the earth , he beholdeth not the way of the vineyards . Shame is the eldest daughter of Uncleannesse . 2. The appetites of uncleannesse are full of cares and trouble , and its fruition is sorrow and repentance . The way of the adulterer is hedg'd with thorns : full of fears and jealousies , burning desires and impatient waitings , tediousnesse of delay , and sufferance of affronts , and amazements of discovery . 3. Most of its kindes are of that condition , that they involve the ruine of two souls : and he that is a fornicatour or adulterous , steals the soul as well as dishonours the body of his Neighbour : and so it becomes like the sin of falling Lucifer , who brought a part of the stars with his tail from Heaven . 4. Of all carnal sins it is that alone which the Devil takes delight to imitate & counterfeit ; communicating with Witches & impure persons in no corporal act , but in this onely . 5. Uncleannesse with all its kindes is a vice which hath a professed enmity against the body . Every sin which a man doth is without the body , but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body . 6. Uncleannesse is hugely contrary to the spirit of Government by embasing the spirit of a man , making it effeminate , sneaking , soft , and foolish , without courage , without confidence . David felt this after his folly with Bathsheba : he fell to unkingly arts and stratagems to hide the crime , and he did nothing but increase it ; and remaind timorous & poor spirited , till he prayed to God once more to establish him with a free and a Princely spirit . And no superiour dare strictly observe discipline upon his charge , if he hath let himself loose to the shame of incontinence . 7. The Gospel hath added two arguments against uncleannesse which were never before used , nor indeed could be , since GOD hath given the holy Spirit to them that are baptized , and rightly confirmed , and entered into covenant with him , our bodies are made temples of the holy Ghost in which he dwels : and therfore uncleanness is Sacriledge & defiles a Temple . It is S. Pauls argument [ Know ye not that your body is the temple of the holy Ghost ? ] & [ He that defiles a Temple , him will God destroy . Therfore Glorifie God in your bodies , that is , flee fornication . ] To which for the likeness of the argument adde , That our bodies are members of Christ , and therefore God forbid that we should take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot : So that uncleannesse dishonours Christ , and dishonours the holy Spirit : it is a sin against God , and in this sence a sin against the Holy Ghost . 8. The next special argument which the Gospel ministers especially against adultery , & for preservation of the purity of marriage , is that [ Marriage is by Christ hallowed into a mystery to signifie the Sacramental and mystical union of Christ and his Church . He therefore that breaks this knot , which the Church and their mutual faith hath tyed , and Christ hath knit up into a mystery , dishonours a great rite of Christianity , of high , spiritual and excellent signification . 9. S. Gregory reckons uncleannesse to be the parent of these monsters : Blindnesse of minde , inconsideration , precipitancy or giddinesse in actions self love , hatred of God , love of the present pleasures , a despite or despair of the joyes of religion here , and of Heaven hereafter . Whereas a pure minde in a chast body is the Mother of wisdom and deliberation , sober counsells , and ingenuous actions , open deportment , and sweet carriage , sincere principles , and unprejudicate understanding , love of God , and self-denyall , peace and confidence , holy prayers and spiritual comfort , and a pleasure of Spirit infinitely greater then the sottish and beastly pleasures of unchastity . For to overcome pleasure is the greatest pleasure , and no victory is greater then that which is gotten over our lusts and filthy inclinations . 10. Adde to all these , the publick dishonesty and disreputation that all the Nations of the world have cast upon adulterous and unhallowed embraces . Abimelech to the men of Gerar made it death to meddle with the wife of Isaac : and Iudah condemned Thamar to be burnt for her adulterous conception : and God , besides the Law made to put the adulterous person to death , did constitute a setled and constant miracle to discover the adultery of a suspected woman , that her bowels should burst with drinking the waters of Jealousie . The Egyptian Law was to cut off the nose of the adulteresse , and the offending part of the adulterer . The Locrians put out the adulterers both eyes . The Germanes ( as Tacitus reports ) placed the Adulteresse amidst her kinred naked , and shaved her head , and caused her husband to beat her with clubs thorough the city . The Gortinaeans crowned the man with wool to shame him for his effeminacy : and the Cumani caused the woman to ride upon an asse naked and hooted at : and for ever after called her by an appellative of scorn [ A rider upon the asse ] All nations barbaro●s and civil agreeing in their general designe of rooting so dishonest and shameful vice from under heaven . The middle † ages of the Church were not pleased that the Adulteresse should be put to death : but in the primitive ages the * civil Lawes by which Christians were then governed , gave leave to the wronged husband to kill his adulterous wife , if he took her in the fact : but because it was a priviledge indulg'd to men , rather than a direct detestation of the crime , a consideration of the injury rather then of the uncleannesse , therefore it was soon altered : but yet hath caused an inquiry , whether is worse , the Adultery of the man or the woman . The resolution of which case in order to our present affair , is thus , In respect of the person , the fault is greater in a man then in a woman , who is of a more plyant and easie spirit , and weaker understanding , and hath nothing to supply the unequal strengths of men , but the defensative of a passive nature and armour of modesty , which is the natural ornament of that sex . And it is unjust that the man should demand chastity and severity from his wife , which himself will not observe towards her , said the good Emperour Antoninus : It is as if the man should perswade his wife to fight against those enemies to which he had yielded himself a prisoner . 2. In respect of the effects and evil consequents , the adultery of the woman is worse , as bringing bastardy into a family , and disinherisons or great injuries to the Lawful children , and infinite violations of peace , and murders , and divorces , and all the effects of rage and madnesse . 3. But in respect of the crime , and as relating to God they are equal , intollerable , and damnable : And the Church anciently refused to admit such persons to the holy Communion , until they had done seven yeers penances in fasting , in sackcloth , in severe inflictions and instruments of chastity and sorrow , according to the discipline of those ages . Acts of chastity in general . The actions and proper offices of the grace of chastity in general are these . 1. To resist all unchast thoughts ; at no hand entertaining pleasure in the unfruitful fancies and remembrances of uncleannesse ; although no definite desire or resolution be entertained . 2. At no hand to entertain any desire , or any phantastick , imaginative loves , though by shame , or disability , or other circumstance they be restrained from act . 3. To have a chast eye and hand : for it is all one with what part of the body we commit adultery : and if a man lets his eye loose , and enjoyes the lust of that , he is an adulterer . Look not upon a woman to lust after her . And supposing all the other members restrained , yet if the eye be permitted to lust , the man can no otherwise be called chast , then he can be called severe and mortified , that sits all day seeing playes & revellings , and out of greedinesse to fill his eye , neglects his belly : There are some vessels which if you offer to lift by the belly or bottom you cannot stir them , but are soon removed if you take them by the ears . It matters not with which of your members you are taken and carried off from your dutie and severity . 4. To have a heart and minde chast and pure : that is , detesting all uncleannesse ; disliking all its motions , past actions , circumstances , likenesses , discourses : and this ought to be the chastity of Virgins and Widows , of old persons and Eunuchs especially , and generally of all men according to their several necessities . 6. To Discourse chastly and purely , with great care declining all undecencies of language , chastening the tongue , and restraining it with grace , as vapours of wine are restrained with a bunch of myrrhe . 6. To disapprove by an after act all involuntary and natural pollutions : for if a man delights in having suffered any natural pollution , and with pleasure remember it , he chooses that which was in it self involuntary : and that which being natural was innocent , becoming voluntary is made sinful . 7. They that have performed these duties and parts of Chastity , will certainly abstain from all exteriour actions of uncleannesse : those noon-day and mid-night Devils , those lawlesse and ungodly worshippings of shame and uncleannesse ; whose birth is in trouble , whose growth is in folly , and whose end is in shame . But besides these general acts of Chastity which are common to all states of men and women , there are some few things proper to the severals . Acts of virginal Chastity . 1. Virgins must remember that the virginitie of the body is onely excellent in order to the puritie of the soul : who therefore must consider that since they are in some measure in a condition like that of angels , it is their duty to spend much of their time in Angelical imployment : for in the same degree that Virgins live more spiritually then other persons , in the same degree is their virginity a more excellent state : But else it is no better then that of involuntary or constrained Eunuchs ; a misery and a trouble , or else a mere privation , as much without excellency as without mixture . 2. Virgins must contend for a singular modesty ; whose first part must be an ignorance in the distinction of sexes , or their proper instruments : or if they accidentally be instructed in that , it must be supplied with an inadvertency or neglect of all thoughts and remembrances of such difference : and the following parts of it , must be pious and chast thoughts , holy language , and modest carriage . 3. Virgins must be retired and unpublick : for all freedom and loosenesse of society is a violence done to virginity ; not in its natural , but in its moral capacity : that is , it looses part of its severity , strictnesse and opportunity of advantages by publishing that person , whose work is religion , whose company is Angels , whose thoughts must dwell in heaven , and separate from all mixtures of the world . 4. Virgins have a peculiar obligation to charity : for this is the virginity of the soul ; as puritie , integrity , and separation is of the body , which doctrine we are taught by Saint Peter . Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth thorough the spirit unto unfaigned love of the brethren : see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently . For a Virgin that consecrates her body to God , and pollutes her spirit with rage , or impatience , or inordinate anger , gives him what he most hates , a most foul and defiled soul. 5. These rules are necessary for Virgins that offer that state to God , and mean not to enter into the state of marriage : for they that onely wait the opportunity of a convenient change , are to steer themselves by the general rules of Chastity . Rules for Widows or vidual Chastity . For Widows , the fontinel of whose desires hath been opened by the former permissions of the marriage-bed , they must remember . 1. That God hath now restrain'd the former license , bound up their eyes , and shut up their heart into a narrower compasse , and hath given them sorrow to be a bridle to their desires . A Widow must be a mourner ; and she that is not , cannot so well secure the chastity of her proper state . 2. It is against publick honesty to marry another man so long as she is with childe by her former Husband : and of the same fame it is in a lesser proportion , to marry within the year of mourning : but anciently it was infamous for her to marry , till by common account the body was dissolved into its first principle of earth . 3. A Widow must restrain her memory and her fancy : not recalling or recounting her former permissions and freer licenses with any present delight : for then she opens that sluce which her Husbands death and her own sorrow have shut up . 4. A Widow that desires her widowhood should be a state pleasing to God , must spend her time as devoted Virgins should , in fastings and prayers , and charity . 5. A Widow must forbid her self to use those temporal solaces , which in her former estate were innocent , but now are dangerous . Rules sor married persons , or matrimonial chastity . Concerning married persons ; besides the keeping of their mutual faith * , and contract with each other , these particulars are useful to be observed . 1. Although their mutual endearments are safe within the protection of marriage , yet they that have Wives or Husbands must be as though they had them not ; that is , they must have an affection greater to each other then they have to any person in the world , but not greater then they have to God : but that they be ready to part with all interest in each others person rather then sin against God. 2. In their permissions and license they must be sure to observe the order of Nature , and the ends of God. He is an ill Husband that uses his Wife as a man treats a Harlot , having no other end but pleasure . Concerning which our best rule is , that although in this , as in eating and drinking there is an appetite to be satisfied , which cannot be done without pleasing that desire , yet since that desire and satisfaction was intended by Nature for other ends , they should never be separate from those ends , but alwayes be joyned with all or one of these ends ; with a desire of children , or to avoyd fornication , or to lighten and ease the cares and sadnesses of houshold affairs , or to endear each other : but never with a purpose either in act or desire to separate the sensuality from these ends which hallow it . Onan did separate his act from its proper end , and so ordered his embraces that his Wife should not conceive , and God punished him . 3. Married persons must keep such modesty and decency of treating each other , that they never force themselves into high and violent lusts , with arts and misbecoming devices : alwayes remembring that those mixtures are most innocent which are most simple , and most natural , most orderly and most safe . 4. It is a duty of matrimonial chastity to be restrained and temperate in the use of their lawful pleasures : concerning which although no universal Rule can antecedently be given to all persons , any more then to all bodies one proportion of meat and drink : yet married persons are to estimate the degree of their license according to the following proportions . * 1. That it be moderate so as to consist with health . * 2. That it be so order'd as not to be too expensive of time , that precious opportunity of working out our salvation . * 3. That when duty is demanded it be alwayes payed ( so far as is in our powers and election ) according to the foregoing measures . * That it be with a temperate affection , without violent transporting desires , or too sensuall applications . Concerning which a man is to make judgement by proportion to other actions , and the severities of his religion , and the sentences of sober and wise persons . For it is a sad truth , that many married persons thinking that the floodgates of liberty are set wide open without measures or restraints ( so they sail in that channel ) have felt the final rewards of intemperance and lust , by their unlawful using of lawful permissions . Onely let each of them be temperate , and both of them be modest . Socrates was wont to say , that those women to whom Nature had not been indulgent in good features and colours , should make it up themselves with excellent manners ; and those who were beautiful and comely , should be careful that so fair a body be not polluted with unhandsome usages . To which Plutarch addes ; that a wife if she be unhandsome , should consider , how extreamly ugly she should be , if she wanted modesty : but if she be handsome , let her think how gracious that beauty would be if she superads chastity . 5. Married persons by consent are to abstain from their mutual entertainments at solemn times of devotion : not as a duty of it self necessary , but as being the most proper act of purity which in their condition they can present to God : and being a good advantage for attending their preparation to the solemn duty , and their demeanour in it . It is S. Pauls counsel , that by consent for a time they should abstain , that they may give themselves to fasting and prayer . And though when Christians did receive the holy Communion every day , it is certain they did not abstain , but had children : yet when the Communion was more seldom , they did with religon abstain from the marriage-bed during the time of their solemn preparatory devotions , as anciently they did , from eating and drinking till the solemnity of the day was past . 6. It were well if married persons would in their penitential prayers , and in their general confessions suspect themselves , and accordingingly a●k a general pardon for all their undecencies and more passionate applications of themselves in the offices of marriage : that what is lawful and honourable in its kinde may not be sullied with imperfect circumstances ; or if it be , it may be made clean again by the interruption and recallings of such a repentance of which such uncertain parts of action are capable . But because of all the dangers of a Christian , none more pressing and troublesome then the temptations to lust , no enemy more dangerous then that of the ●lesh , no accounts greater then what we have to reckon for at the audit of Conc●piscence , therefore it concerns all that would be safe from this death to arme themselves by the following rules to prevent , or to cure all the wounds of our flesh made by the poysoned arrows of Lust. Remedies against uncleannesse . 1. When a temptation of Iust assaults thee , do not resist it by heaping up arguments against it , and disputing with it , considering its offers , and its danger , but ●●ie from it , that is , think not at all of it ; lay aside all consideration concerning it , and turn away from it , by any severe and laudable thought or businesse . S. Hierome very wittily reproves the Gentile superstition , who pictured the Virgin Deityes armed with a sheild and lance , as if chastity could not be defended without war and direct contention . No ; this enemy is to be treated otherwise . If you hear it speak , though but to dispute with it , it ruines you ; and the very arguments , you go about to answer , leave a relish upon the tongue . A man may be burned if he goes neer the fire , though but to quench his house ; and by handling pitch , though but to draw it from your cloths , you defile your ●ingers . 2 Avoid idlenesse , and fill up all the spaces of thy time with severe and usefull imployment : for lust usually creepes in at those emptinesses , where the soul is unimployed and the body is at ease . For no easy , healthfull , and idle person was ever chast , if he could be tempted . But of all imployments , bodily labour is most usefull and of greatest benefit for the driving away this Devill . 3 Give no entertainment to the beginnings , the first motions & secret whispers of the spirit of impurity . For if you totally suppress it , it dyes : if you permit the furnace to breath its smoke and flame out at any vent , it will rage to the consumption of the whole . This cockatrice is soonest crushed in the shell , but if it growes , it turns to a serpent , and a Dragon , and a Devill . 4 Corporal mortification and hard usages of our body hath by all ages of the Church bin an approv d remedy against the spirit of fornication . A spare diet , and a thin course table , seldome refreshment , frequent fasts , not violent and interrupted with returns to ordinary feeding , but constantly little , unpleasant , of wholesome but sparing nourishment : For by such cutting off the provisions of victual wee shall weaken the strengths of our Enemy . To which if we adde , lyings upon the ground , painfull postures in prayer , reciting our devotions with our armes extended at full length , like Moses praying against Amalek , o● our blessed SAVIOUR hanging upon his painful bed of sorrowes , the Crosse ; and ( if the lust be upon us and sharply tempting ) by inflicting any smart to overthrow the strongest passion by the most violent paine , we shall finde great ease for the present , and the resolution and apt sufferance against the future danger . And this was Saint Pauls remedy , I bring my body under ; he used some rudenesses towards it . But it was a great noblenesse of chastity which S. Hierome reports of a Son of the King of Nicomedia , who being tempted upon flowers and a perfum'd bed with a soft violence , but yet tyed down to the temptation ▪ and sollicited with circumstances of Asian Luxury by an impure Curresan ; least the easinesse of his posture should abuse him , spit out his tongue into her face : to represent that no vertue hath cost the Saints * so much , as this of Chastity . 5. Fly from all occasions , temptations , loosenesses of company , Balls and Revellings , undecent mixtures of wanton dancings , idle talke , private society with stranger women , starings upon a beauteous face , the company of women that are singers , amorous gestures , garish and wanton dressings , feasts and liberty , banquets and perfumes , which are made to persecute chastity ; some of these being the very Prologues to lust , and the most innocent of them being but like condited or pickled Mushroms , which if carefully corrected , and seldome tasted , may be harmelesse , but can never do good : Ever remembring that it is easier to dye for chastity , then to live with it ; and the Hangman could not extort a consent from some persons , from whom a Lover would have intreated it . For the glory of chastity will easily overcome the rudenesse of fear and violence ; but easinesse and softnesse , and smooth temptations creep in , and like the Sun make a mayden lay by her vail and robe , which persecution like the Northern winde , made her hold fast and clap close about her . 6. He that will secure his chastity , mus● first cure his pride and his rage . For oftentimes lust is the punishment of a proud man , to tame the vanity of his pride by the shame and affronts of unchastity : and the same intemperate heat that makes anger , does enkindle lust . 7. If thou beest assaulted with an unclean Spirit , trust not thy self alone , but runne forth into company , whose reverence and modesty may suppresse , or whose society may divert thy thoughts : and a perpetual witnesse of thy conversation is of especial use against this vice , which evaporates in the open air like Camphyre , being impatient of light and witnesses . 8. Use frequent and earnest prayer to the King of Purities , the first of Virgins , the eternal GOD , who is of an essential purity ▪ that hee would be pleased to reprove and cast out the unclean Spirit . For besides the blessings of prayer by way of reward , it hath a natural vertue to restrain this vice : because a prayer against it , is an unwillingnesse to act it ; and so long as we heartily pray against it , our desires are secured , and then th●● Devil hath no power . This was S. Pauls other remedy . [ For this cause I besought the Lord thrice . ] 9. Hither bring in succour from consideration of the Divine presence , and of his holy Angels , meditation of Death , and the passions of CHRIST upon the Crosse , imitation of his purities , and of the Virgin Mary his unspotted and holy Mother , and of such eminent Saints who in their generations were burning and shining lights , unmingled with such uncleannesses which defile the soul , and who now follow the Lambe whithersoever he goes . 10. These remedies are of universal e●ficacy in all cases extraordinary and violent : but in ordinary and common , the remedy which GOD hath provided , that is , Honourable marriage , hath a natural efficacy , besides a vertue by Divine blessing , to cure the inconveniences which otherwise might a●flict persons temperate and sober . Sect. 4. Of Humility . HUmility is the great Ornament and Jewel of Christian Religion ; that whereby it is distinguished from all the wisdome of the world ; it not having been taught by the wise men of the Gentiles ; but first put into a discipline , and made part of a religion by our Lord Jesus Christ , who propounded himselfe imitable by his Disciples so signally in nothing , as in the twinne sisters of Meeknesse and Humility . Learne of me for I am meek and humble , and ye shall finde rest unto your souls . For all the World , all that we are , and all that we have ; our bodies and our souls , our actions and our sufferings , our conditions at home , our accidents abroad , our many sinnes , and our seldome vertues are as so many arguments to make our souls dwell low in the deep valleys of Humility . Arguments against Pride by way of Consideration . 1. Our Body is weak and impure , sending out more uncleannesses from its several sinkes then could be endured if they were not necessary and natural : and we are forced to passe that through our mouthes , which as soon as we see upon the ground , we loathe like rottennesse and vomiting . 2. Our strength is inferiour to that of many Beasts , and our infirmities so many that we are forced to dresse and tend Horses and Asses , that they may help our needs , and relieve our wants . 3. Our beauty is in colour inferiour to many flowers , and in proportion of parts it is better then nothing . For even a Dog hath parts as well proportion'd and fitted to his purposes , and the designes of his nature , as we have : and when it is most florid and gay , three fits of an ague can change it into yellownesse and leanness , and the hollowness and wrinkles of deformity . 4. Our learning is then best when it teaches most humility : but to be proud of Learning is the greatest ignorance in the World. For our learning is so long in getting , and so very imperfect , that the greatest Clerke knowes not the thousand part of what hee is ignorant ; and knowes so uncertainly what he seemes to know , and knowes no otherwise then a Fool , or a Childe , even wha● is told him , or what he guesses at , that except those things which concerne his duty , and which God hath revealed to him , which also every Woman knowes so far as is necessary ; the most Learned Man hath nothing to bee proud of , unlesse this be a sufficient argument to exalt him , that he uncertainly guesses at some more unnecessary things then many others , who yet know all that concernes them , and minde other things more necessary for the needs of life and Common-wealths . 5. Hee that is proud of riches is a Foole. For if he be exalted above his Neighbours because hee hath more gold , how much inferiour is hee to a Gold Mine ? How much is he to give place to a chain of Pearl , or a knot of Diamonds ? For certainly that hath the greatest excellence from whence he derives all his gallantry and preheminence over his Neighbours . 6. If a man be exalted by reason of any excellence in his soul , he may please to remember , that all souls are equal ; and their differing operations are because their instrument is in better tune , their body is more healthful , or better tempered : which is no more praise to him , then it is that he was born in Italy . 7. He that is proud of his birth is proud of the blessings of others , not of himself : for if his parents were more eminent in any circumstance then their Neighbours , he is to thank God , and to rejoyce in them ; but still he may be a Fool , or unfortunate , or deform'd ; and when himself was born , it was indifferent to him whether his Father were a King or a Peasant ; for he knew not any thing , nor chose any thing : and most commonly it is true , that he that boasts of his Ancestors , who were the founders and raisers of a Noble Family , doth confesse that he hath in himself a lesse vertue and a lesse honour , and therefore that he is degenerated . 8. Whatever other difference there is between thee and thy Neighbour , if it be bad , it is thine own , but thou hast no reason to boast of thy misery and shame : if it be good , thou hast received it from God ; and then thou art more obliged to pay duty and tribute , use and principal to him : and it were a strange folly for a man to be proud of being more in debt ●hen another . 9. Remember what thou wert before thou wert begotten ? Nothing . What wert thou in the first regions of thy dwelling , before thy birth ? Uncleannesse . What wert thou for many years after ? Weaknesse . What in all thy life ? A great sinner . What in all thy excellencies ? A mere debter to God , to thy parents , to the earth , to all the creatures . But we may if we please use the method of the Platonists , who reduce all the causes and arguments for humility which we can take from our selves , to these seven heads . 1. The spirit of a man is light and troublesome . 2. His body is brutish and sickly . 3. He is constant in his folly and errou● , and inconstant in his manners and good purposes . 4. His labours are vain , intricate , and endlesse . 5. His fortune is changeable , but seldome pleasing , never perfect . 6. His wisdom comes not till he be ready to die , that is , till he be past using it . 7. His death is certain , alwayes ready at the door , but never far off * . Upon these or the like meditations if we dwell , or frequently retire to them , we shall see nothing more reasonable then to be humble ; and nothing more foolish then to be proud . Acts or offices of humility . The grace of humility is exercised by these following rules . 1. Think not thy self better for any thing that happens to thee from without . For although thou mayest by gifts bestowed upon thee be better then another , as one horse is better then another , that is , of more use to others ; yet as thou art a man , thou hast nothing to commend thee to thy self , but that onely by which thou art a man ; that is , by what thou choosest and refusest . 2. Humility consists not in railing against thy self , or wearing mean clothes , or going softly and submissely ; but in a hearty and real evil or mean opinion of thy self . Believe thy self an unworthy person , heartily , as thou believest thy self to be hungry , or poor , or sick , when thou art so . 3. Whatsoever evil thou sayest of thy self be content that others should think to be true : and if thou callest thy self fool , be not angry if another say so of thee : For if thou thinkest so truely , all men in the world desire other men to be of their opinion ; and he is an hypocrite that accuses himself before others , with an intent not to be believed . But he that calls himself intemperate , foolish , lustful , and is angry when his neighbours call him so , is both a false and a proud person ▪ 4. Love to be concealed , and little esteemed : be content to want praise , never being troubled when thou art slighted or undervalued : for thou canst not undervalue thy self , and if thou thinkest so meanly as there is reason , no contempt will seem unreasonable , and therefore it will be very tolerable . 5. Never be ashamed of thy birth , or thy parents , or thy trade * , or thy present imployment , for the meannesse or poverty of any of them : and when there is an occasion to speak of them , such an occasion as would invite you to speak of any thing that pleases you , omit it not ; but speak as readily and indifferently of thy meannesse , as of thy greatnesse . Primislaus the first King of Bohemia kept his countrey shooes alwayes by him , to remember from whence he was raised : and Agatho●les by the furniture of his Table confessed , that from a Potter he was raised to be the King of Sicily . 6. Never speak any thing directly tending to thy praise or glorie : that is , with a purpose to be commended , and for no other end . If other ends be mingled with thy honour , as if the glory of God , or charity , or necessity , or any thing of prudence be thy end , you are not tyed to omit your discourse , or your designe that you may avoid praise , but pursue your end , though praise come along in the Company . Onely let not praise be the designe . 7. When thou hast said or done any thing for which thou receivest praise or estimation , take it indifferently , and return it to God , reflecting upon him as the Giver of the gift , or the blesser of the action , or the aid of the designe : and give God thanks for making thee an instrument of his glory , or the benefit of others . 8. Secure a good name to thy self by living vertuously and humbly : but let this good name be nursed abroad , and never be brought home to look upon it : let others use it for their own advantage : let them speak of it if they please , but do not thou at all use it , but as an instrument to do God glory , and thy neighbour more advantage . Let thy face like Moses shine to others , but make no looking glasses for thy self . 9. Take no content in praise when it is offered thee : but let thy rejoycing in Gods gift be allayed with feare , lest this good bring thee to evill . Use the praise as you use your pleasure in eating and drinking : if it comes , make it do drudgery , let it serve other ends , and minister to necessities , and to caution , lest by pride you lose your just praise which you have deserved ; or else by being praised unjustly , you receive shame into your self , with God and wise men . 10. Use no stratagems and devices to get praise . Some use to enquire into the faults of their own actions or discourses on purpose to hear that it was well done or spoken , and without fault : others bring the matter into talk , or thrust themselves into company , and intimate and give occasion to be thought or spoke of . These men make a bait to perswade themselves to swallow the hook , till by drinking the waters of vanity they swell and burst . 11. Make no suppletories to thy self , when thou art disgraced or slighted , by pleasing thy self with supposing thou didst deserve praise , though they understood thee not , or enviously detracted from thee : neither do thou get to thy self a private theatre and flatterers , in whose vain noises , and phantastick praises thou mayest keep up thy own good opinion of thy self . 12. Entertain no fancies of vanity and private whispers of this Devil of pride : such as was that of Nebuchodonosor ; Is not this great Babylon which I have built for the honour of my name , and the might of my majesty , and the power of my kingdom ? Some phantastick spirits will walk alone , and dream waking , of greatnesses , of palaces , of excellent orations , full theatres , loud appl●uses , sudden advancement , great fortunes : and so will spend an hour with imaginative pleasure , all their imployment being nothing but fumes of pride , and secret , indefinite desires , and significations of what their heart wishes : In this , although there is nothing of its own nature directly vitious , yet it is either an ill mother , or an ill daughter , an ill signe or an ill effect ; and therefore at no hand consisting with the safety & interests of humility . 13. Suffer others to be pra●sed in thy presence : and entertain their good and glory with delight : but at no hand disparage them or lessen the report , or make an objection : and think not ▪ the advancement of thy brother is a lessening of thy worth . * But this act is also to extend further . 14. Be content that he should be imployed , and thou laid by as unprofitable ; his sentence approved , thine rejected ; he be preferred , and thou fixed in a low imployment . 15. Never compare thy self with others , unlesse it be to advance them and to depresse thy self . To which purpose we must be sure in some sence or other to think our selves the worst in every company where we come : one is more learned then I am ; another is more prudent ; a third , honourable ; a fourth more chast ; or he is more charitable , or lesse proud . For the humble man observes their good and reflects onely upon his own vilenesse ; or considers the many evils of himself certainly known to himself , and the ill of others but by uncertain report : or he considers that the evils done by another are out of much infirmity , or ignorance , but his own sins are against a clearer light ; and if the other had so great helps , he would have done more good and lesse evil ; or he remembers that his old sins before his conversion were greater in the nature of the thing , or in certain circumstances , then the sins of other men ( So S. Paul reckoned himself the chiefest of sinners , because formerly he had acted the chiefest sin of persecuting the Church of God. ) But this rule is to be used with this caution : That though it be good alwayes to think meanest of our selves , yet it is not ever safe to speak it , because those circumstances and considerations which determine thy thoughts , are not known to others as to thy self ; and it may concern others that they hear thee give God thanks for the graces he hath given thee . But if thou preservest thy thoughts and opinion of thy self truely humble , you may with more safety give God thanks in publick for that good which cannot , or ought not to be concealed . 16. Be not alwayes ready to excuse every oversight , or indiscretion , or ill action : but if thou beest guilty of it , confesse it plainly ; for vertue scorns a lye for its cover ; but hide to a sin with it , is like a crust of leprosie drawn upon an ulcer : if thou beest not guilty ( unlesse it be scandalous ) be not over earnest to remove it : but rather use it as an argument to chastise all greatnesse of fancy and opinion in thy self ; and accustome thy self to bear reproof patiently & contentedly , and the harsh words of thy enemies , as knowing that the anger of an enemy is a better Monitor , & represents our faults or admonishes us of our duty with more heartinesse , then the kindnes does , or precious balms of a friend . 17. Give God thanks for every weaknesse , deformity , and imperfection , and accept it as a favour and grace of God , and an instrument to resist pride and nurse humility ; ever remembring that when God by giving thee a crooked backe , hath also made thy spirit stoop or lesse vain , thou art more ready to enter the narrow gate of Heaven , then by being strait , and standing upright , and thinking highly . Thus the Apostles rejoyced in their infirmities , not moral , but natural , and accidental , in their being beaten and whipt like slaves , in their nakednesse and poverty . 18. Upbraid no mans weaknesse to him to discomfort him ; neither report it to disparage him ; neither delight to remember it to lessen him , or to set thy self above him . Be sure never to praise thy self , or to dispraise any man else , unlesse GODS glory , or some holy end doe hallow it . And it was noted to the praise of Cyrus , that amongst his equals in age he would never play at any sport , or use any exercise in which he knew himself more excellent then they : but in such in which he was unskilful he would make his challenges , lest hee should shame them by his victory , and that himself might learn something of their skill , and do them civilities . 19. Besides the foregoing parts and actions , humility teaches us to submit our selves and all our faculties to GOD : To believe all things , to do all things , to suffer all things which his will enjoynes us ; to bee content in every estate or change , knowing we have deserved worse then the worst we feel : And ( as Anytus said to Alcibiades ) he hath taken but half , when he might have taken all : to adore his goodnesse , to fear his Greatnesse , to worship his eternall and infinite excellencies , and to submit our selves to all our superiours in all things according to Godliness : and to be meek and gentle in our conversation towards others . Now although according to the Nature of every grace , this begins as a gift , and is increased like a habit , that is , best by its own acts , yet besides the former acts and offices of humility , there are certain other exercises and considerations , which are good helps and instruments for the procuring and increasing this grace , and the curing of pride . Meanes and exercises of obtaining and increasing the grace of Humility . 1. Make confession of thy sins often to God ; and consider what all that evil amounts to , which you then charge upon your self . Look not upon them as scattered in the course of a long life : now , an intemperate anger , then , too full a meal : now , idle talking , and another time impatience : but unite them into one continued representation , and remember , that he whose life seems fair , by reason that his faults are scattered at large distances , in the severall parts of his life , yet if all his errours and follies were articled against him ; the man would seem vitious and miserable : and possibly this exercise , really applyed upon thy Spirit , may be usefull . 2. Remember that we usually disparage others upon slight grounds , and little instances ; and towards them one fly is enough to spoil a whole box of ointment : and if a man be highly commended , we think him sufficiently lessened , if we clap one sin or folly , or infirmity into his account : Let us therefore be just to our selves , since we are so severe to others , and consider , that whatsoever good , any one can think or say of us , we can tell him of hundreds of base and unworthy , and foolish actions , any one of which were enough ( we hope ) to destroy anothers reputation : Therefore let so many be sufficient to destroy our over high thoughts of our selves . 3. When thy Neighbour is cryed up by publike fame , and popular noises ; that we may disparage and lessen him , we cry out that the people is a Heard of unlearned and ignorant persons , ill judges , loud trumpets , but which never give certain sound : let us use the same art to humble our selves , and never take delight and pleasure in publike reports , and acclamations of assemblies , and please our selves with their judgement , of whom in other the like cases we affirm that they are mad . 4. We change our opinion of others by their Kindnesse or unkindnesse towards us . If he be my Patron and bounteous , he is wise , he is noble , his faults are but warts , his vertues are mountainous : but if he proves unkinde or rejects our importunate suite , then he is ill natured , covetous , and his free meal is called gluttony ; that which before we called civility , is now very drunkennesse , and all he speakes is flat and dull , and ignorant as a swine : This indeed is unjust towards others , but a good instrument , if we turn the edge of it upon our selves : we use our selves ill , abusing our selves with false principles , cheating our selves with lies and pretences , stealing the choice and election from our wils , placing voluntary ignorance in our understandings , denying the desires of the Spirit , setting up a faction against every noble and just desire ; the least of which because we should resent up to reviling the injurious person , it is but reason we should at least not flatter our selves with fond and too kinde opinions . 5. Every day call to minde some one of thy foulest sinnes , or the most shameful of thy disgraces , or the indiscreetest of thy actions , or any thing that did then most trouble thee , and apply it to the present swelling of thy spirit and opinion , and it may help to allay it . 6. Pray often for this grace with all humility of gesture and passion of desire , and in thy devotion interpose many acts of humility by way of confession and addresse to God , and reflection upon thy self . 7. Avoid great Offices and imployments , and the noises of worldly honour . For in those states many times , so many ceremonies and circumstances will seeme necessary , as will destroy the sobriety of thy thoughts . If the number of thy servants be fewer , and their observances lesse , and their reverences lesse solemn , possibly they will seeme lesse then thy dignity : and if they bee so much and so many , it is likely they will be too big for thy spirit . And here bee thou very carefull , lest thou bee abused by a pretence that thou wouldest use thy great Dignity as an opportunity of doing great good . For supposing it might be good for others , yet it is not good for thee : they may have encouragement in noble things from thee , and by the same instrument thou mayest thy self be tempted to pride and vanity : And certaine it is , GOD is as much glorified by thy example of humility in a low or temperate condition , as by thy bounty in a great and dangerous . 8. Make no reflexe acts upon thy owne humility , nor upon any other grace with which GOD hath enriched thy soul. For since GOD oftentimes hides from his Saints and Servants the sight of those excellent things by which they shine to others ( though the darke side of the Lanterne be towards themselves ) that hee may secure the grace of humility ; it is good that thou doe so thy self : and if thou beholdest a grace of GOD in thee , remember to give him thanks for it , that you may not boast in that which is none of thy own : and consider how thou hast sullyed it , by handling it with dirty fingers , with thy own imperfections , and with mixture of unhandsome circumstances . Spiritual pride is very dangerous , not onely by reason , it spoiles so many graces by which wee drew nigh to the Kingdome of GOD , but also because it so frequently creeps upon the spirit of holy persons . For it is no wonder for a Beggar to call himself poor ; or a Drunkard to confesse that he is no sober person : But for a holy person to be humble ; for one whom all men esteeme a Saint , to fear lest himselfe become a Devil , and to observe his own danger , and to discern his own infirmities , and make discovery of his bad adherencies , is as hard as for a Prince to submit himself to be guided by Tutors , and make himself subject to discipline like the meanest of his servants . 9. Often meditate upon the effects of Pride on one side , and Humility on the other . 1. That Pride is like a Canker , and destroyes the beauty of the fairest flowers , the most excellent gifts and graces : but Humility crownes them all . Secondly , That Pride is a great hinderance to the perceiving the things of GOD , and Humility is an excellent preparative and instrument of spiritual wisdom . Thirdly , That Pride hinders the acceptation of our prayers , but Humility pierceth the clouds , and will not depart till the most High shall regard . Fourthly , That Humility is but a speaking truth , and all Pride is a lye . Fifthly , That Humility is the most certain way to reall honour , and pride is ever affronted or despised . Sixthly , That Pride turnd Lucifer into a Devil , and Humility exalted the Son of God above every Name , and placed him eternally at the right hand of his Father . Seventhly , That GOD resisteth the proud , professing open defiance and hostility against such persons , but giveth grace to the humble , * Grace and pardon , * remedy and relief against misery and oppression , * content in all conditions , * tranquillity of spirit , * patience in afflictions , * love abroad , * peace at home , * and utter freedom from contention and * the sin of censuring others , * and the trouble of being censured themselves . For the humble man will not judge his brother for the mote in his eye , being more troubled at the beam in his own eye ; and is patient and glad to be reproved , because himself hath cast the first stone at himself , and therefore wonders not that others are of his minde . 10. Remember that the blessed Saviour of the world hath done more to prescribe , and transmit , and secure this grace than any other : his whole life being a great continued example of humility : a vast descent from the glorious bosom of his Father to the womb of a poor mayden , to the form of a servant , to the miseries of a sinner , to a life of labour , to a state of poverty , to a death of malefactors , to the grave of death , and the intolerable calamities which we deserved : and it were a good designe and yet but reasonable , that we should be as humble in the midst of our greatest imperfections & basest sins as Christ was in the midst of his fulnesse of the spirit , great wisdom , perfect life and most admirable vertues . 11. Drive away all flatterers from thy company , and at no hand endure them ; for he that endures himself so to be abused by another is not onely a fool for entertaining the mockery , but loves to have his own opinion of himself to be heightned and cherished . 12. Never change thy imployment for the sudden coming of another to thee : But if modesty permits or discretion , appear to him that visits thee the same that thou wert to God and thy self in thy privacy . But if thou wer● walking or sleeping , or in any other innocent imploiment or retirement , snatch not up a book to seem studious , nor fall on thy knees to seem devout , nor alter any thing to make him believe thee better imployed then thou wert . 13 To the same purpose it is of great use that he who would preserve his humilitie , should choose some spiritual person to whom he shall oblige himself to discover his very thoughts , and fancies ; every act of his and all his entercourse with others in which there may be danger ; that by such an opennesse of spirit , he may expose every blast of vain glory , every idle thought to be chastened and lessened by the rod of spiritual discipline : and he that shall finde himself tyed to confesse every proud thought , every vanity of his spirit , will also perceive they must not dwell with him , nor finde any kindnesse from him : and besides this , the nature of pride is so shameful , and unhandsome , that the very discovery of it is a huge mortification and means of suppressing it . A man would be ashamed to be told that he enquires after the faults of his last Oration or action on purpose to be commended : & therefore when the man shall tell his spiritual Guide the same shameful story of himself , it is very likely he will be humbled , and heartily ashamed of it . 14. Let every man suppose what opinion he should have of one that should spend his time in playing with drumsticks and cockle-shells , and that should wrangle all day long with a little boy for pins , or should study hard and labour much to cozen a childe of his gauds , and who would run into a river deep and dangerous with a great burden upon his back , even then when he were told of the danger and earnestly importuned not to do it : and let him but change the Instances and the person , and he shall finde that he hath the same reason to think as bad of himself , who pursues trifles with earnestnesse , spending his time in vanity , and his labour for that which profits not ; who knowing the laws of God , the rewards of vertue , the cursed consequents of sin , that it is an evil spirit that tempts him to it , a Devil , one that hates him , that longs extreamly to ruine him , that it is his own destruction that he is then working , that the pleasures of his sin are base and bruitish , unsatisfying in the enjoyment , soon over , shameful in their story , bitter in the memory , painful in the effect here , and intolerable hereafter , and for ever : yet in despite of all this , he runs foolishly into his sin and his ruine , meerly because he is a fool , and winks hard , and rushes violently like a horse into the battel , or like a mad man to his death . He that can think great and good things of such a person , the next step may court the rack for an instrument of pleasure , and admire a swine for wisdom , and go for counsel to the prodigall and trifling grashopper . After the use of these and such like instruments and considerations , if you would try how your soul is grown ; you shall know that humility like the root of a goodly tree is thrust very farre into the ground by these goodly fruits which appeare above ground . Signes of Humility . 1. The humble man trusts not to his own discretion , but in matters of concernment relyes rather upon the judgement of his friends , counsellers , or spiritual guides . 2. He does not pertinaciously pursue the choice of his own will , but in all things lets God choose for him , and his Superiours in those things which concern them . 3. He does not murmur against commands . 4. He is not inquisitive into the reasonableness of indifferent and innocent commands , but believes their command to be reason enough in such cases to exact his obedience . 5. He lives according to a rule , and with compliance to publick customs , without any affectation or singularity . 6. He is meek and indifferent in all accidents and chances . 7. * He patiently bears injuries . 8. He is alwayes unsatisfied in his own conduct , resolutions , and counsels . 9. He is a great lover of good men , and a praiser of wise men , and a censurer of no man. 10. He is modest in his speech , and reserv'd in his laughter . 11. He fears when he hears himself commended , le●t God make another judgment concerning his actions than men do . 12. He gives no pert or saucy answers when he is reproved , whether justly or unjustly . 13. He loves to sit down in private , and if he may , he refuses the temptation of offices and new honours . 14. He is ingenuous , free and open in his actions and discourses . 15. He mends his fault and gives thanks when he is admonished . 16. He is ready to do good offices to the murderers of his fame , ●o his slanderers , backbiters and detractors , as Christ washed the feet of Iudas . 17. And is contented to be suspected of Indiscretion , so , before God he may be really innocent , and not offensive to his neghbour , nor wanting to his just and 〈◊〉 in terest SECT . V. Of Modesty . MOdesty is the appendage of Sobriety , and is to Chastity , ●o Temperance and to Humility as the fringes are to a Garment . It is a grace of God that moderates the over-activenesse and curiosity of the minde , and orders the passions of the body , and external actions , and is directly opposed to Curiosity , to Boldnesse , to Vndecency . The practise of Modesty consists in these following rules . Acts and duties of Modesty as it is opposed to Curiosity . 1. Inquire not into the secrets of God , but be content to learn thy duty according to the quality of thy person or imployment : that is plainly , if thou beest not concerned in the conduct of others : but if thou beest a teacher , learne it so as may best enable thee to discharge thy office . Gods commandments were proclaimed to all the world , but Gods counsels are to himself and to his secret ones , when they are admitted within the veil . 2. Inquire not into the things which are too hard for thee , but learn modestly to know thy infirmities and abilities , and raise not thy mind up to enquire into mysteries of State , or the secrets of Government , or difficulties Theological , if thy imployment really be , or thy understanding be judged to be of a lower rank . 3. Let us not enquire into the affairs of others that concerne us not , but be busied within our selves and our own spheres ; ever remembring that to pry into the actions or interests of other men not under our charge , may minister to pride , to tyranny , to uncharitablenesse , to trouble , but can never consist with modesty , unlesse where duty or the mere intentions of charity , and relation do warrant it . 4. Never listen at the doors or windows : for besides that it contains in it danger and a snare , it is also an invading my neighbours privacy , and a laying that open which he therfore inclosed , that it might not be open . Never ask what he carries covered so curiously ; for it is enough that it is covered curiously . Hither also is reducible that we never open letters without publick authority , or reasonably presumed leave , or great necessity , or charity . Every man hath in his own life sins enough , in his own minde trouble enough , in his own fortune evils enough , and in performance of his offices failings more then enough to entertain his own enquiry : so that curiositie after the affairs of others , cannot be without envy and an evil minde . What is it to me if my Neighbours Grandfather were a Syrian , or his Grandmother illegitimate , or that another is indebted five thousand pounds , or whether his wife be expensive ? But commonly curious persons , ( or as the Apostles phrase is ) busie-bodies are not sollicitous , or inquisitive into the beauty and order of a well governed family , or after the vertues of an excellent person ; but if there be any thing for which men keep locks and bars and porters , things that blush to see the light , and either are shameful in manners , or private in nature , these things are their care and their businesse . * But if great things will satisfie our enquiry , the course of the Sun and Moon , the spots in their faces , the Firmament of Heaven , and the supposed Orbs , the ebbing and flowing of the Sea , are work enough for us : or if this be not , let him tell me , whether the number of the stars be even or odde , and when they began to be so ? since some ages have discovered new stars which the former knew not , but might have seen , if they had bin where now they are fix'd . * If these be too troublesome , search lower , and tell me , why this turfe this year brings forth a Daisie , and the next year a Plantane : why the apple bears his seed in his heart , and wheat bears it in his head : let him tell , why a graft taking nourishment from a crab-stock shall have a fruit more noble then its nurse and parent : let him say , why the best of oyl is at the the top , the best of wine in the middle , and the best of hony at the bottom , otherwise then it is in some liquors that are thinner , and in some that are thicker ? But these things are not such as please busie bodies . They must feed upon Tragedies , and stories of misfortunes & crimes ; & yet tell them ancient stories of the ravishment of chast maidens , or the debauchment of nations , or the extream poverty of learned persons , or the persecutions of the old Saints , or the changes of government , and sad accidents hapning in Royal families amongst the Arsacidae , the Caesars , the Ptolomies , these were enough to scratch the itch of knowing sad stories . But unlesse you tell them something sad and new , something that is done within the bounds of their own knowledge or relation , it seems tedious and unsatisfying ; which showes plainly it is an evil spirit : envie and idlenesse married together , and begot curiosity . Therfore Plutarch rarely well compares , curious and inquisitive ears to the execrable gates of cities , out of which onely Malefactors , and hangmen and tragedies passe , nothing that is chast or holy . * If a Physitian should go from house to house unsent for and enquire what woman hath a Cancer in her bowels , or what man hath a fistula in his colick gut , though he could pretend to cure it , he would be almost as unwelcome as the disease it self : and therefore it is inhumane to enquire after crimes and disasters without pretence of amending them , but onely to discover them . We are not angry with Searchers and Publicans when they look onely on publick merchandise ; but when they break open trunks , and pierce vessels , and unrip packs , and open sealed letters . Curiosity is the direct incontinency of the spirit : and adultery it self in its principle is many times nothing but a curious inquisition after , and envying of another mans inclosed pleasures : and there have been many who refused fairer objects that they might ravish an inclosed woman , from her retirement and single possessour . But these inquisitions are seldom without danger , never without basenesse ; they are neither just nor honest , nor delightful , and very often ●selesse to the curious inquirer . For men stand upon their guards against them , as they secure their meat against Harpyes and Cats , laying all their counsels and secrets out of their way ; or as men clap their garments close about them when the searching and saucy winds would discover their nakednesse : as knowing that what men willingly hear , they do willingly speak of . Knock therefore at the door before you enter upon your neighbours privacy ; and remember that there is no difference between entring into his house , and looking into it . Acts of Modesty as it is opposed to boldnesse . 1. Let us alwayes bear about us such impressions of reverence and fear of God as to tremble at his voice , to expresse our apprehensions of his greatnesse in all great accidents , in popular judgements , loud thunders , tempests , earth quakes , not onely for fear of being smitten our selves , or that we are concerned in the accident , but also that we may humble our selves before his Almightinesse , and expresse that infinite distance between his infinitenesse and our weaknesses , at such times especially when he gives such visible arguments of it . He that is merry and ayry at shore when he sees a sad and a loud tempest on the sea , or dances briskly when God thunders from heaven , regards not when God speaks to all the world , but is possessed with a firm immodesty . 2. Be reverent , modest , and reserved in the presence of thy betters , giving to all according to their quality their titles of honour , keeping distance , speaking little , answering pertinently , not interposing without leave or reason , not answering to a question propounded to another ; and ever present to thy superiours the fairest ●ide of thy discourse , of thy temper , of thy ceremony , as being ashamed to serve excellent persons with unhandsome entercourse . 3. Never lye before a King , or a great person , nor stand in a lye when thou art accused , nor offer to justifie what is indeed a fault , but modestly be ashamed of it , ask pardon and make amends . 4. Never boast of thy sin , but at least lay a vail upon thy nakednesse and shame , and put thy hand before thine eyes , that thou mayest have this beginning of repentance , to believe thy sin to be thy shame . For he that blushes not at his crime , but addes shamelessenesse to his shame , hath no instrument left to restore him to the hopes of vertue . 5. Be not confident and affirmative in an uncertain matter , but report things modestly , and temperately according to the degree of that persuasion , which is , or ought to be begotten in thee by the efficacy of the authority , or the reason inducing thee . 6. Pretend not to more knowledge then thou hast , but be content to seem ignorant where thou art so , lest thou beest either brought to shame , or retirest into shamelessenesse . Acts of Modesty as it is oppos'd to undecency . 1. In your prayers , in churches , and places of religion use reverent postures , great attention , grave ceremony , the lowest gestures of humility ; remembring that we speak to God , in our reverence to whom we cannot possibly exceed ; but that the expression of this reverence be according to law or custom , and the example of the most prudent and pious persons : that is , let it be the best in its kinde to the best of essences . 2. In all publick meetings , private addresses , in discourses , in journeyes use those forms of salutation , reverence and decency , which the custom prescribes , and is usual amongst the most sober persons ; giving honour to whom honour belongeth , taking place of none of thy betters , and in all cases of question concerning civil precedency , giving it to any one that will take it , if it be onely thy own right that is in question . 3. Observe the proportion of affections in all meetings and to all persons : be not merry at a funeral , nor sad upon a festival , but rejoyce with them that rejoyce , and weep with them that weep . 4. Abstain from wanton and dissolute laughter , petulant and uncomely jests , loud talking , jeering , and all such actions which in civil account are called undecencies , and incivilities . 5. Towards your parents use all modesty of duty and humble carriage : towards them and all your kinred be severe in the modesties of chastity : ever fearing , lest the freedoms of natural kindenesse should enlarge into any neighbourhood of unhandsomenesse . For all incestuous mixtures , and all circumstances and degrees towards it , are the highest violations of modesty in the world : for therefore incest is grown to be so high a crime , especially in the last periods of the world , because it breaks that reverence which the consent of all nations and the severity of humane laws hath enjoyned towards our parents and neerest kinred , in imitation of that law which God gave to the Jewes in prosecution of Modestie in this instance . 6. Be a curious observer of all those things which are of good report , and are parts of publick honesty . For publick fame , and the sentence of prudent and publick persons , is the measure of good and evil in things indifferent : and charity requires us to comply with those fancies and affections which are agreable to nature , or the analogie of vertue , or publick laws , or old customs . It is against Modesty for a woman to marry a second husband as long as she bears a burden by the first , or to admit a second love while her funeral tears are not wiped from her cheeks . It is against publick honesty to do some lawful actions of privacy in publick theatres , and therefore in such cases retirement is a duty of modesty . 7. Be grave , decent and modest in thy clothing and ornament : never let it be above thy condition , not alwayes equal to it , never light or amarous , never discovering a nakednesse thorough a thin vail , which thou pretendest to hide : never to lay a snare for a soul , but remember what becomes a Christian professing holinesse , chastity , and the discipline of the holy Jesus . 8. Hither also is to be reduced singular and affected walking , proud , nice and ridiculous gestures of body , painting and lascivious dressings , all which together God reprooves by the Prophet : The Lord saith , because the daughters of Sion are haughty , and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes , walking and mincing as they go , and make a tinkling with their feet , therefore the Lord will smite her with a scab of the crown of the head , and will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments . And this duty of modesty in this instance is expresly enjoyned to all Christian women by Saint Paul , That women adorn themselves in modest apparel with shamefastnesse and sobriety , not with broidered hair , or gold or pearl , or costly array , but ( which becometh women professing godlinesse ) with good works . 9. As those meats are to be avoided which tempt our stomacks beyond our hunger , so also should prudent persons decline all such spectacles , relations , Theatres , loud noyses and out-cryes which concern us not , and are besides our natural or moral interest . Our senses should not like petulant and wanton Girle● wander into Markets and Theatres without just imployment ; but when they are sent abroad by reason , return quickly with their errand , and remain modestly at home under their guide , till they be sent again . 10. Let all persons be curious in observing modesty towards themselves in the handsome treating their own body , and such as are in their power , whether living or dead . Against this rule they offend who expose to others their own , or pry into others nakednesse beyond the limits of necessity , or where a leave is not made holy by a permission from God. It is also said that God was pleased to work a miracle about the body of Epiphanius to reprove the immodest curiosity of an unconcerned person who pryed too neer when charitable people were composing it to the grave . In all these cases and particulars , although they seem little , yet our duty and concernment is not little . Concerning which , I use the words of the Son of Sirach , He that despiseth little things , shall perish by little and little . SECT . VI. Of Contentednesse in all estates and accidents . VErtues and Discourses are like Friends , necessary in all fortunes ; but those are the best which are Friends in our sadnesses , and support us in our sorrows , and sad accidents : and in this sense , no man that is vertuous can be friendlesse ; nor hath any man reason to complain of the Divine Providence , or accuse the publick disorder of things , or his own infelicity , since God hath appointed one remedy for all the evils in the World , and that is , a contented spirit : For this alone makes a man passe through fire and not be scorch'd , through Seas and not be drown'd , through hunger and nakednesse and want nothing . For since all the evil in the World consists in the disagreeing between the object and the appetite , as when a man hath what he desires not , or desires what he hath not , or desires amisse ; he that composes his spirit to the present accident , hath variety of instances for his vertue , but none to trouble him , because his desires enlarge not beyond his present fortune : and a wise man is placed in the variety of chances like the Nave or Centre of a wheel , in the midst of all the circumvolutions and changes of posture , without violence or change , save that it turns gently in complyance with its changed parts , and is indifferent which part is up and which is down ; for there is some vertue or other to be exercised what ever happens , either patience or thanksgiving , love or fear , moderation or humility , charity or contentednesse , and they are every one of them equally in order to his great end , an immortal felicity : and beauty is not made by white or red , by black eyes & a round face , by a strait body and a smooth skin ; but by a proportion to the fancy : No rules can make amability , our mindes & apprehensions make that ; and ●o is our felicity ; and we may be reconcil'd to poverty and a low fortune , if we suffer contentednesse and the grace of God to make the proportions . For no man is poor that does not think himself so : But if in a full fortune , with impatience he desires more , he proclaims his wants and his beggerly condition . But because this grace of contentednesse was the sum of all the old moral Philosophy , and a great duty in Christianity , and of most universal use in the whole course of our lives , and the onely instrument to ease the burdens of the World and the enmities of sad chances , it will not be amisse to presse it by the proper arguments by which God hath bound it upon our spirits , it being fastned by Reason and Religion , by duty and interest , by necessity and conveniency , by example , and by the proposition of excellent rewards , no lesse then peace and felicity . 1. Contentednesse in all estates is a duty of Religion : it is the great reasonablenesse of complying with the Divine Providence which governes all the World , and hath so ordered us in the administration of his great Family . He were a strange fool that should be angry because Dogs and Sheep need no shoes , & yet himself is full of care to get some : God hath supplyed those needs to them ▪ by natural provisions , and to thee by an artificial : for he hath given thee reason to learn a trade , or some means to make or buy them , so that it onely differs in the manner of our provision ; and which had you rather want , shoes or reason ? And my Patron that hath given me a Farm is freer to me then if he gives a loafe ready bak'd . But however , all these gifts come from him , and therefore it is fit he should dispense them as he please ; and if we murmure here , we may at the next melancholy be troubled that God did not make us to be Angels , or Stars . For if that which we are or have , do not content us , we may be troubled for every thing in the World , which is besides our being , or our possessions . God is the Master of the Scenes , we must not choose which part we shall act ; it concerns us onely to be careful that we do it well , alwayes saying , If this please God let it be as it is : and we who pray that Gods will may be done in Earth as it is in Heaven must remember that the Angels do whatsoever is commanded them , and go where ever they are sent , and refuse no circumstances : and if their imployment be crossed by a higher decree , they sit down in peace and rejoyce in the event ; and when the Angel of Iudea could not prevail in behalf of the people committed to his charge , because the Angel of Persia opposed it , he onely told the story at the command of God , and was as content , and worshipped with as great an extasie in his proportion , as the prevailing Spirit . Do thou so likewise : keep the station where God hath placed you , and you shall never long for things without , but sit at home feasting upon the Divine Providence and thy own reason , by which we are taught that it is necessary and reasonable to submit to God. For , is not all the World Gods family ? Are not we his creatures ? Are we not as clay in the hand of the Potter ? Do we not live upon his meat , and move by his strength and do our work by his light ? Are we any thing but what we are from him ? And shall there be a mutiny among the flocks and herd● , because their Lord or their Shepherd chooses their pastures , and suffers them not to wander into Deserts and unknowne wayes ? If we choose , we do it so foolishly that we cannot like it long , and most commonly not at all : but God who can do what he please , is wise to choose safely for us , affectionate to comply with our needs , and powerful to execute all his wise decrees . Here therefore is the wisdome of the contented man , to let God choose for him : for when we have given up our wills to him , and stand in that station of the battel where our great General hath placed us , our spirits must needs rest while our conditions have for their security the power , the wisdom , and the charity of God. 2. Contentednesse in all accidents brings great peace of spirit , and is the great and onely instrument of temporal felicity . It removes the sting ▪ from the accident , and makes a man not to depend upon chance , and the uncertain dispositions of men for his well being , but onely on GOD and his own Spirit . Wee our selves make our fortunes good or bad , and when God le ts loose a Tyrant upon us , or a sicknesse , or scorne , or a lessened fortune , if we fear to dye , or know not to be patient , or are proud , or covetous , then the calamity sits heavy on us . But if we know how to manage a noble principle , and fear not Death so much as a dishonest action , and think impatience a worse evil then a Feaver , and Pride to be the biggest disgrace , and poverty to be infinitely desirable before the torments of covetousnesse ; then we who now think vice to be so easie , and make it so familiar , and think the cure so impossible , shall quickly be of another minde , and reckon these accidents amongst things elegible . But no man can be happy that hath great hopes and great fears of things without , and events depending upon other men , or upon the chances of Fortune . The rewards of Vertue are certain , and our provisions for our natural support are certain , or if we want meat till we dye , then we dye of that disease , and there are many worse then to dye with an atrophy or Consumption , or unapt and courser nourishment : But he that suffers a transporting passion concerning things within the power of others , is free from sorrow and amazement no longer then his enemy shall give him leave ; and it is ten to one but he shall be smitten then and there where it shall most trouble him : for so the Adder ●eaches us where to strike , by her curious and fearfull defending of her head . The old Stoicks when you told them of a sad story would still answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; What is that to me ? Yes ; for the Tyrant hath sentenced you also to prison . Well! what is that ? He will put a chain upon my leg , but he cannot binde my soul. No : but he will kill you . Then I 'le dye . If presently , let me go that I may presently be freer then himself : but if not till anon or to morrow , I will dine first , or sleep , or do what reason and nature calls for , as at other times . This in Gentile Philosophy is the same with the discourse of S. Paul , I have learnd in whatsover state I am therewith to be content . I know both how to be abased , and I know how to abound , every where and in all things I am instructed , both how to be full and to be hungry , both to abound and suffer need . We are in the world like men playing at Tables , the chance is not in our power , but to play it , is ; and when it is fallen we must manage it as we can , and let nothing trouble us , but when we do a base action , or speak like a fool , or think wickedly : these things God hath put into our powers : but concerning those things which are wholly in the choice of another , they cannot fall under our deliberation , and therefore neither are they fit for our passions . My fear may make me miserable , but it cannot prevent what another hath in his power and purpose : and prosperities can onely be enjoyed by them who fear not at all to lose them , since the amazement and passion concerning the future takes off all the pleasure of the present possession . Therefore if thou hast lost thy land , do not also lose thy constancy : and if thou must die a little sooner , yet do not die impatiently . For no chance is evil to him that is content , & to a man nothing is miserable , unlesse it be unreasonable . No man can make another man to be his slave , unles he hath first enslaved himself to life and death , to pleasure or pain , to hope or fear , command these passions , and you are ●reer then the Parthian kings . Instruments or exercises to procure contentednesse . Upon the strength of these premises we may reduce this vertue to practise by its proper instruments first , and then by some more special confiderations or arguments of content . 1. When any thing happens to our displeasure , let us endeavour to take off its trouble by turning it into spiritual or artificial advantage , and handle it on that side , in which it may be useful to the defignes of reason . For there is nothing but hath a double handle , or at least we have two hands to apprehend it . When an enemy reproaches us , let us look on him as an impartial relator of our faults , for he will tell thee truer then thy fondest friend will , and thou mayest call them precious balms , though they break thy head , and forgive his anger while thou makest use of the plainnesse of his declamation . The Ox when he is weary treads surest , and if there be nothing else in the disgrace but that it makes us to walk warily , and tread sure for fear of our enemies , that is better then to be flattered into pride and carelessenesse . This is the charity of Christian Philosophy , which expounds the sence of the divine providence fairly , and reconciles us to it by a charitable construction : and we may as well refuse all physick if we consider it onely as unpleasant in the tast , and we may finde fault with the rich valleys of Thasus , because they are circled with sharp mountains : but so also we may be in charity with every unpleasant accident , because though it tast bitter it is intended for health and medicine . If therefore thou fallest from thy imployment in publick , take sanctuary in an honest retirement , being indifferent to thy gain abroad , or thy safety at home : If thou art out of favour with thy Prince , secure the favour of the KING of Kings , and then there is no harm come to thee : and when Zeno Citiensis lost all his goods in a storm , he retired to the studies of Philosophy , to his short cloak , and a severe life , and gave thanks to fortune for his prosperous mischance . When the North-winde blows hard , and it rains sadly , none but fools sit down in it and cry , : wise people defend themselves against it with a warm garment , or a good fire , and a dry roof : when a storm of a sad mischance beats upon our spirits , turn it into some advantage by observing where it can serve another end , either of religion or prudence , of more safety or lesse envy : it will turn into something that is good , if we list to make it so : at least it may make us weary of the worlds vanity , and take off our confidence from uncertain riches , and make our spirits to dwell in those regions , where content dwells essentially : if it does any good to our souls , it hath made more then sufficient recompence for all the temporal affliction . He that threw a stone at a dog , and hit his cruel stepmother , said , that although he intended it otherwise , yet the stone was not quite lost : and if we fail in the first designe , if we bring it home to another equally to content us , or more to profit us , then we have put our conditions past the power of chance ; and this was called in the old Greek Comedy a being reveng'd on fortune by becoming Philosophers and turning the chance into reason or religion : for so a wise man shall overrule his stars , and have a greater influence upon his own content , then all the constellations and planets of the firmament . 2. Never compare thy condition with those above thee ; but to secure thy content look upon those thousands with whom thou wouldest not for any interest change thy fortune and condition . A souldier must not think himself unprosperous , if he be not successeful as the son of Philip , or cannot grasp a fortune as big as the Roman Empire : Be content that thou art not lessened as was Pyrrhus : or if thou beest , that thou art not routed like Crassus : and when that comes to thee , it is a great prosperity , that thou art not cag'd and made a spectale like Bajazet : or thy eyes were not pull'd out like Zedekiahs : or that thou wert not flead alive like Valentinian . If thou admirest the greatnesse of Xerxes , look also on those that digged the mountain Atho , or whose ears and noses were cut off , because the Hellespont carried away the bridge . It is a fine thing ( thou thinkest ) to be carried on mens shoulders : but give God thanks that thou art not forced to carry a rich fool upon thy shoulders : as those poor men do whom thou beholdest . There are but a few Kings in mankinde , but many thousands who are very miserable , if compared to thee . However it is a huge folly rather to grieve for the good of others , then to rejoyce for that good which God hath given us of our own . And yet there is no wise or good man that would change persons or conditions intirely with any man in the world . It may be he would have one mans wealth added to himself , or the power of a second , or the learning of a third , but still he would receive these into his own person , because he loves that best , and therefore esteems it best , and therefore overvalues all that which he is , before all that which any other man in the world can be . Would any man be Dives to have his wealth , or Iudas for his office , or Saul for his kingdom , or Absalom for his beauty , or Achitophel for his policy ? It is likely he would wish all these , and yet he would be the same person still . For every man hath desires of his own , and objects just fitted to them , without which he cannot be , unlesse he were not himself . And let every man that loves himself so well as to love himself before all the world , consider , if he have not something for which , in the whole he values himself far more then he can value any man else . There is therefore no reason to take the finest feathers from all the winged nation to deck that bird , that thinks already she is more valuable then any the inhabitants of the ayre . Either change all or none . Cease to love your self best , or be content with that portion of being and blessing for which you love your self so well . 3. It conduces much to our content , if we passe by those things which happen to our trouble , and consider that which is pleasing and prosperous , that by the representation of the better the worse may be blotted out : and at the worst you have enough to keep you alive , and to keep up , and to improve your hopes of Heaven . If I be overthrown in my suit at Law , yet my house is left me still and my land : or I have a vertuous wife , or hopeful children , or kinde friends , or good hopes : If I have lost one childe , It may be I have two or three still left me ; or else reckon the blessings which already you have received , and therefore be pleased in the change and variety of affairs to receive evil from the hand of God as well as good . Antipater of Tarsus used this art to support his sorrows on his death bed , and reckoned the good things of his past life , not forgetting to recount it as a blessing , and argument that God tooke care of him , that he had a prosperous journey from Cilicia to Athens . Or else please thy self * with hopes of the future : for we were not born with this sadnesse upon us ; and it was a change that brought us into it , and a change may bring us out again . † Harvest will come , and then every farmer is rich , at least for a moneth or two . It may be thou art entered into the cloud which will bring a gentle shower to refresh thy sorrows . Now suppose thy self in as great a sadnesse , as ever did load thy spirit , wouldest thou not beare it cheerfully and nobly , if thou wert sure that within a certain space some strange excellent fortune would relieve thee , and enrich thee , and recompence thee so as to overflow all thy hopes and thy desires , and capacities ? Now then , when a sadnesse lies heavy upon thee , remember that thou art a Christian designed to the inheritance of Jesus : and what dost thou think concerning thy great fortune , thy lot and portion of eternity ? Doest thou think thou shalt be saved or damned ? Indeed if thou thinkest thou shalt perish , I cannot blame thee to be sad , sad till thy heart-strings crack : but then why art thou troubled at the losse of thy money ? what should a damned man do with money , which in so great a sadnes it is impossible for him to enjoy ? Did ever any man upon the rack , afflict himself because he had received a crosse answer from his Mistresse ? or call for the particulars of a purchase upon the gallows ? If thou doest really believe thou shalt be damned , I do not say it will cure the sadnesse of thy poverty , but it will swallow it up . * But if thou believest thou shalt be saved , consider how great is that joy , how infinite is that change , how unspeakable is the glory , how excellent is the recompence for all the sufferings in the world , if they were all laden upon thy spirit ? So that let thy condition be what it will , if thou considerest thy own present condition , and compare it to thy future possibility , thou canst not feel the present smart of a crosse fortune to any great degree , either because thou hast a far bigger sorrow , or a far bigger joy . Here thou art but a stranger travelling to thy Countrey where the glories of a kingdom are prepared for thee , it is therefore a huge folly to be much afflicted because thou hast a lesse convenient Inne to lodge in by the way . But these arts of looking forwards and backwards are more then enough to support the spirit of a Christian : there is no man but hath blessings enough in present possession to outweigh the evils of a great affliction . Tell the joynts of thy body , and do not accuse the universal providence for a lame leg , or the want of a finger , when all the rest is perfect : and you have a noble soul , a particle of Divinity , the image of GOD himself : and by the want of a finger you may the better know how to estimate the remaining parts , and to account for every degree of the surviving blessings . Aristippus in a great suit at law lost a Farm , and to a Gentleman who in civility pitied and deplored his losse , He answered , I have two Farms left still , and that is more then I have lost , and more then you have by one . If you misse an Office for which you stood Candidate , then besides that you are quit of the cares and the envy of it , you still have all those excellencies which rendred you capable to receive it , and they are better then the best Office in the Common-wealth . If your estate be lessened , you need the lesse to care who governs the Province , whether he be rude or gentle . I am cross'd in my journey , and yet I scaped robbers ; and I consider , that if I had been se● upon by Villanes I would have redeem'd that evil by this which I now suffer , and have counted it a deliverance : or if I did fall into the hands of theeves , yet they did not steal my land : or I am fallen into the hands of Publicans and Sequestrators , and they have taken all from me , what now ? let me look about me . They have left me the Sun and the Moon , Fire and Water , a loving wife , and many friends to pity me , and some to relieve me , and I can still discourse , and unlesse I list they have not taken away my merry countenance , and my cheerful spirit , and a good conscience : they still have left me the providence of God , and all the promises of the Gospel , and my Religion , and my hopes of Heaven , and my charity to them too : and still I sleep , and digest , I eat and drink , I reade and meditate , I can walk in my Neighbours pleasant fields , and see the varieties of natural beauties , and delight in all that in which God delights , that is , in vertue and wisdom , in the whole creation , and in God himself : and he that hath so many causes of joy , and so great , is very much in love with sorrow and peevishness , who loses all these pleasures , and chooses to sit down upon his little handful of thorns : such a person were fit to bear N●ro company in his funeral sorrow for the losse of one of P●ppea s hairs , or help to mourn for Lesbia's sparrow : and because he loves it , he deserves to starve in the midst of plenty , and to want comfort while he is encircled with blessings . 4. Enjoy the present whatsoever it be , and be not sollicitous for the future : for if you take your foot from the present standing , and thrust it forward toward to morrows event , you are in a restlesse condition : it is like refusing to quench your present thirst by fearing you shall want drink the next day . If it be well to day , it is madnesse to make the present miserable by fearing it may be ill to morrow , when your belly is full of to dayes dinner to fear you shall want the next dayes supper : for it may be you shall not , and then to what purpose was this dayes affliction ? But if to morrow you shall want , your sorrow will come time enough , though you do not hasten it ; let your trouble tarry till its own day comes . But if it chance to be ill to day do not increase it by the care of to morrow . Enjoy the blessings of this day , if God sends them , and the evils of it bear patiently and sweetly : for this day is only ours , we are dead to yesterday , & we are not yet born to the morrow . He therefore that enjoyes the present , if it be good , enjoyes as much as is possible : and if onely that dayes trouble leans upon him , it is singular and finite . Sufficient to the day ( said Christ ) is the evil thereof . Sufficient , but not intolerable : but if we look abroad and bring into one dayes thoughts the evil of many , certain and uncertain , what will be , and what will never be , our load will be as intolerable as it is unreasonable . To reprove this instrument of discontent , the Ancients fained that in Hell stood a man twisting a rope of Hay , and still he twisted on suffering an Asse to eat up all that was finished : so miserable is he who thrusts his passions forward towards future events , and suffers all that he may enjoy to be lost and devour d by folly and inconsideration , thinking nothing fit to be enjoyed but that which is not , or cannot be had . Just so , many young persons are loath to dye , and therefore desire to live to old age , and when they are come thither , are troubled that they are come to that state of life to which before they were come , they were hugely afraid they should never come . 5. Let us prepare our mindes against changes , alwayes expecting them , that we be not surprized when they come : For nothing is so great an enemy to tranquillity and a contented spirit , as the amazement and confusions of unreadinesse and inconsideration : and when our fortunes are violently chang'd , our spirits are unchang'd , if they alwayes stood , in the Suburbs and expectation of sorrowes . O Death , how bitter art thou to a man that is at rest in his possessions : and to the Rich Man who had promised to himself ease and fulnesse for many years , it was a sad arrest that his soul was surprized the first night : but the Apostles who every day knockt at the gate of death , and looked upon it continually , went to their Martyrdom in peace and evennesse . 6. Let us often frame to our selves & represent to our considerations the images of those blessings we have , just as we usually understand them when we want them . Consider how desirable health is to a sick man , or liberty to a prisoner ; and if but a fit of the tooth-ach seizes us with violence , all those troubles which in our health afflicted us , disband instantly and seem inconsiderable . He that in his health is troubled that he is in debt , and spends sleeplesse nights , and refuses meat because of his infelicity , let him fall into a fit of the Stone or a high Feaver , despises the arrest of all his first troubles , and is as a man unconcerned . Remember then that God hath given thee a blessing , the want of which is infinitely more trouble then thy present debt , or poverty or losse ; and therefore is now more to be valued in the possession , and ought to out-weigh thy trouble . The very privative blessings , the blessings of immunity , safeguard , liberty and integrity which we commonly enjoy , deserve the thanksgiving of a whole life . If God should send a Cancer upon thy face , or a Wolfe into thy side , if he should spread a crust of Leprosie upon thy skin , what wouldst thou give to be but as now thou art ? Wouldest thou not on that condition be as poor as I am ? or as the meanest of thy brethren ? Would you not choose your present losse or affliction as a thing extremely eligible , and a redemption to thee if thou mightest exchange the other for this ? Thou art quit from a thousand calamities , every one of which if it were upon thee would make thee insensible of thy present sorrow : and therefore let thy joy ( which should be as great for thy freedom from them , as is thy sadnesse when thou feelest any of them ) do the same cure upon thy discontent . For if we be not extremely foolish or vain , thanklesse or sencelesse , a great joy is more apt to cure sorrow and discontent , then a great trouble is . I have known an affectionate wife when she hath been in fear of parting with her beloved Husband , heartily desire of God his life or society upon any conditions that were not sinful ; and choose to beg with him , rather then to feast without him : and the same person hath upon that consideration born poverty nobly , when God hath heard her prayer in the other matter : What wise man in the world is there who does not prefer a small fortune with peace before a great one with contention , and war and violence ? and then he is no longer wise if he alters his opinion when he hath his wish . 7. If you will secure a contented spirit , you must measure your desires by your fortune and condition , not your fortunes by your desires . That is , be governed by your needs not by your fancy ; by Nature , not by evil customes and ambitious principles . He that would shoot an arrow out of a Plow , or hunt a Hare with an Elephant , is not unfortunate for missing the mark or prey ; but he is foolish for choosing such unapt instruments : and so is he that runs after his content with appetites not springing from natural needs , but from artificial , phantastical and violent necessities : These are not to be satisfied ; or if they were , a man hath chosen an evill instrument towards his content : Nature did not intend rest to a Man by filling of such desires . Is that Beast better that hath two or three Mountains to graze on , then a little Bee that feeds on Dew or Manna , and lives upon what falls every morning from the Store-houses of Heaven Clouds and Providence : Can a Man quench his thirst better out of a River then a full Urn , or drink better from the Fountain when it is finely paved with Marble , then when it swels over the green Turfe ? Pride and artificial gluttonies do but adulterate Nature , making our diet healthlesse , our appetites impatient and unsatisfiable , and the taste mixt , phantastical , and meretricious . But that which we miscal poverty , is indeed Nature : and its proportions are the just measures of a Man , and the best instruments of content : But when we create needs that God or Nature never made , we have erected to our selves an infinite stock of trouble that can have no period . Sempronius complained of want of clothes , and was much troubled for a new suit , being ashamed to appear in the Theatre with his Gown a little thread-bare : but when he got it and gave his old clothes to Codrus , the poor man was ravisht with joy , and went and gave God thanks for his new purchase : and Codrus was made richly fine and cheerfully warm by that which Sempronius was asham'd to wear ; and yet their natural needs were both alike , the difference onely was , that Sempronius had some artificial and phantastical necessities superinduced , which Codrus had not ; and was harder to be reliev'd , and could not have joy at so cheap a rate ; because the one liv'd according to Nature , the other by Pride and ill customes , and measures taken by other mens eyes and tongues , and artificial needs . He that propounds to his fancy things greater then himself , or his needs , and is discontent and troubled when he fails of such purchases , ought not to accuse Providence , or blame his fortune but his folly . God and Nature made no more needs then they mean to satisfie : and he that will make more must look for satisfaction where he can . 8. In all troubles and sadder accidents , let us take sanctuary in Religion , & by innocence cast out anchors for our souls to keep them from shipwrack , though they be not kept from storm . For what Philosophy shall comfort a Villane that is haled to the rack for murdering his Prince ; or that is broken upon the wheele for Sacriledge : his cup is full of pure and unmingled sorrow : His body is rent with torment , his name with ignominy , his soul with shame and sorrow which are to last eternally : but when a man suffers in a good cause , or is afflicted and yet walks not perversly with his God , then , Anytus and Melitus may kill me , but they cannot hurt me ; then S. Pauls character is engraved in the forehead of our fortune : We are troubled on every side , bu● not distressed , perplexed , but not in despair , persecuted , but not forsaken , cast down , but not destroyed : and who is he that will harm you if ye be followers of that which is good ? For indeed every thing in the World is indifferent but sin : and all the scorchings of the Sun are very tolerable in respect of the burnings of a Feaver or a Calenture . The greatest evils are from within us : and from our selves also we must look for our greatest good ; for God is the Fountain of it , but reaches it to us by our own hands ; and when all things look sadly round about us , then only we shall finde how excellent a fortune it is to have God to friend ; and of all friendships that onely is created to support us in our needs . For it is sin that turns an Ague into a Feaver , and a Feaver to the Plague , fear into despair , anger into rage , and losse into madnesse , and sorrow to amazement and confusion : but if either we were innocent , or else by the sadnesse are made penitent , we are p●t to School , or into the Theatre , either to learn how , or else actually to combat for a Crown ; the accident may serve an end of mercy , but is not a Messenger of wrath . Let us not therefore be governed by external and present , and seeming things ; nor let us make us the same judgement of things , that common & weak understandings do ; nor make other men , & they not the wisest , to be judges of our felicity , so that we be happy or miserable as they please to think us ; but let reason and experience , and religion , and hope relying upon the Divine promises be the measure of our judgement . No wise man did ever describe felicity without vertue : and no good man did ever think vertue could depend upon the variety of a good or bad fortune . It is no evil to be poor , but to be vitious and impatient . Means to obtain content by way of consideration . To these exercises and spiritual instruments if we adde the following considerations concerning the nature and circumstances of humane chance , wee may better secure our peace . For as to children who are afraid of vain Images , we use to perswade confidence by making them to handle and look neerer such things , that when in such a familiarity they perceive them innocent , they may overcome their fears : so must timorous , phantastical , sad and discontented persons be treated ; they must be made to consider and on all sides to look upon the accident , and to take all its dimensions , and consider its consequences , & to behold the purpose of God , and the common mistakes of men , and their evil sentences they usually passe upon them ; For then we shall perceive that like Colts and unmanag'd Horses we start at dead bones and livelesse blocks , things that are unactive as they are innocent . But if we secure our hopes and our fears , and make them moderate and within government , we may the sooner overcome the evil of the accident : for nothing that we feel is so bad as what we fear . 1. Consider that the universal providence of God hath so ordered it , that the good things of Nature and Fortune are divided , that we may know how to bear our own and relieve each others wants and imperfections . It is not for a Man , but for a God to have all excellencies and all felicities . He supports my poverty with his wealth , I counsel and instruct him with my learning and experience . He hath many friends , I many children : He hath no Heir , I have no inheritance : and any one great blessing together with the common portions of Nature and necessity is a fair fortune , if it be but health or strength , or the swiftnesse of Ahimaaz . For it is an unreasonable discontent to be troubled that I have not so good Cocks , or Dogs , or Horses as my Neighbour , being more troubled that I want one thing that I need not , then thankfull for having received all that I need . Nero had this disease , that he was not content with the fortune of the whole Empire , but put the Fidlers to death for being more skilful in the trade then he was : and Dionysius the elder , was so angry at Philoxenus for singing , and with Plato for disputing better then he did , that he sold Plato a Slave into Aegina , and condemned the other to the Quarries . This consideration is to be enlarged by adding to it that there are some instances of fortune and a fair condition that cannot stand with some others , but if you desire this , you must lose that , and unlesse you be content with one , you lose the comfort of both . If you covet Learning , you must have leisure and a retired life : if to be a Polititian , you must go abroad and get experience and do all businesses , and keep all company , and have no leisure at all . If you will be rich , you must be frugal : If you will be popular , you must bee bountiful : If a Philosopher , you must despise riches . The Greek that design d to make the most exquisite picture that could be imagined fancyed the eye of Chion● , and the hair of Paegnium , and Tarsia's lip , and Philenium's chinne , and the forehead os Delphia , and set all these upon Milphidippas neck , and thought that he should out do both Art and Nature . But when he came to view the proportions he found that what was excellent in Tarsia did not agree with the other excellency of Philenium ; and although singly they were rare pieces , yet in the whole they made a most ugly face . The dispersed excellencies and blessings of many men , if given to one would not make a handsome , but a monstrous fortune . Use therefore that faculty which Nature hath given thee , and thy education hath made actual , and thy calling hath made a duty : but if thou desirest to be a Saint , refuse not his persecution : If thou wouldest be famous as Epaminondas or Fabricius , accept also of their poverty , for that added lustre to their persons and envy to their fortune , and their vertue without it could not have been so excellent . Let Euphorion sleep quietly with his old rich Wife : and let Medius drink on with Alexander : and remember , thou canst not have the riches of the first , unlesse you have the old Wife too ; nor the favour which the second had with his Prince , unlesse you buy it at his price * , that is , pay thy sobriety down at first , and thy health a little after ; and then their condition though it look d splendidly , yet when you handle it on all sides , it will prick your fingers . 2. Consider how many excellent personages in all Ages have suffered as great or greater calamities then this which now tempts thee to impatience . Agis was the most noble of the Greeks , and yet his Wife bore a Childe by Alcibiades : and Philip was Prince of I●urea , and yet his Wife run away with his Brother Herod into Galilee : and certainly in a great fortune that was a great calamity . But these are but single instances . Almost all the ages of the world have noted that their most eminent Scholers were most eminently poor , some by choice , but most by chance , and an inevitable decree of providence : And in the whole sex of women God hath decreed the sharpest pains of childebirth , to show that there is no state exempt from sorrow , and yet that the weakest , persons have strengths more then enough to bear the greatest evil : and the greatest Queens and the Mothers of Saints and Apostles , have no charter of exemption from this sad sentence . But the Lord of men and Angels was also the King of sufferings ; and if thy course robe trouble thee , remember the swadling clothes of Jesus : if thy bed be uneasy , yet it is not worse than his Manger ; and it is no sadnesse to have a thin table , if thou callest to minde that the King of heaven and earth was fed with a little breast milk ; and yet besides this he suffered all the sorrows which we deserved . We therefore have great reason to sit down upon our own hearths , and warme our selves at our own fires , and feed upon content at home : for it were a strange pride to expect to be more gently treated by the Divine providence then the best and wisest men , then Apostles and Saints , nay , then the son of the Eternal God , the heir of both the worlds . This Consideration may be enlarged by surveying all the states and families of the world : and he * that at once saw Aegina and Megara , Pyraeus and Corinth lye gasping in their ruines , and almost buried in their own heaps had reason to blame Cicero for mourning impatiently the death of one woman . In the most beauteous and splendid fortune there are many cares and proper interruptions and allayes ; In the fortune of a Prince there is not the course robe of beggery ; but there are infinite cares : and the Judge sits upon the Tribunal with great ceremony and ostentation of fortune , and yet at his house , or in his breast there is something that causes him to sigh deeply . Pittacus was a wise and valiant man , but his wife overthrew the Table when he had invited his friends : upon which the good man to excuse her incivility and his own misfortune said , that every man had one evil , and he was most happy that had but that alone ; And if nothing else happens , yet sicknesses so often do imbitter the fortune and content of a family , that a Physician in a few years , and with the practise upon a very few families , gets experience enough to minister to almost all diseases . 3. There are many accidents which are esteemed great calamities , and yet we have reason enough to bear them well and unconcernedly ; for they neither touch our bodies nor our souls : our health and our vertue remains intire , our life and our reputation . It may be I am slighted , or I have received ill language , but my head akes not for it , neither hath it broke my thigh , nor taken away my vertue , unlesse I lose my charity or my patience . Inquire therefore what you are the worse either in your soul or in your body , for what hath happened : for upon this very , stock many evils will disappeare , since the body and the soul make up the whole man : and when the daughter of Stilpo proved a wanton , he said it was none of his sin , and therefore there was no reason it should be his misery : And if an enemy hath taken all that from a Prince whereby he was a King ; he may refresh himself by considering all that is left him , whereby he is a man. 4. Consider that sad accidents and a state of affliction is a School of vertue : it reduces our spirits to sobernesse , and our counsels to moderation ; it corrects levity , and interrupts the confidence of sinning . It is good for me ( said David ) that I have been afflicted , for thereby I have learned thy Law. And I know ( O Lord ) that thou of very faithfulnesse hast caused me to be troubled . For God , who in mercy and wisdom governs the world , would never have suffered so many sadnesses , and have sent them especially to the most vertuous and the wisest men , but that he intends they should be the seminary of comfort , the nursery of vertue , the exercise of wisdom , the tryal of patience , the venturing for a crown , and the gate of glory . 5. Consider that afflictions are oftentimes the occasions of great temporal advantages : and we must not look upon them as they sit down heavily upon us , but as they serve some of Gods ends , and the purposes of universal Providence : And when a Prince fights justly , and yet unprosperously , if he could see all those reasons for which God hath so ordered it , he would think it the most reasonable thing in the world , and that it would be very ill to have it otherwise . If a man could have opened one of the pages of the Divine counsel , and could have seen the event of Iosephs being sold to the Merchants of Amalek , he might with much reason have dried up the young mans tears : and when Gods purposes are opened in the events of things , as it was in the case of Ioseph , when he sustained his Fathers family and became Lord of Egypt , then we see what ill judgement we made of things , and that we were passionate as children , and transported with sence and mistaken interest . The case of Themistocles was almost like that of Ioseph , for being banished into Egypt , he also grew in favour with the King , and told his wife , He had been undone , unlesse he had been undone . For God esteems it one of his glories that he brings good out of evil , and therfore it were but reason we should trust God to govern his own world as he pleases : and that we should patiently wait till the change cometh , or the reason be discovered . And this consideration is also of great use to them who envy at the prosperity of the wicked , and the successe of Persecutors , and the baits of fishes , and the bread of dogs . God fails not to sow blessings in the long furrows which the plowers plow upon the back of the Church : and this successe which troubles us will be a great glory to God , and a great benefit to his Saints and servants , and a great ruine to the Persecutors , who shall have but the fortune of Theramenes one of the thirty Tyrants of Athens , who scap'd when his house fell upon him , and was shortly after put to death with torments by his Collegues in the Tyranny . To which also may be added that the great evils which happen to the best and wisest men are one of the great arguments , upon the strength of which we can expect felicity to our souls , and the joyes of another world . And certainly they are then very tolerable and eligible , when with so great advantages they minister to the faith and hope of a Christian. But if we consider what unspeakable tortures are provided for the wicked to all eternity , we should not be troubled to see them prosperous here , but rather wonder that their portion in this life is not bigger , and that ever they should be sick , or crossed , or affronted , or troubled with the contradiction and disease of their own vices , since if they were fortunate beyond their own ambition it could not make them recompence for one houres torment in Hell , which yet they shall have for their eternall portion . After all these considerations deriving from sence and experience , grace and reason , there are two remedies still remaining , and they are Necessity and Time. 6. For it is but reasonable to bear that accident patiently which God sends , since impatience does but intangle us like the fluttering of a bird in a net , but cannot at all ease our trouble , or prevent the accident : it must be run thorough , and therefore it were better we compose our selves to a patient , then to a troubled and miserable suffering . 7. But however , if you will not otherwise be cured , time at last will do it alone ; and then consider , do you mean to mourne alwayes , or but for a time ? If alwayes ; you are miserable and foolish . If for a time ; then why will you not apply those reasons to your grief at first , with which you will cure it at last : or if you will not cure it with reason , see how little of a man there is in you , that you suffer time to do more with you then reason or religion : you suffer your selves to be cured just as a beast , or a tree is ; let it alone and the thing will heal it self ; but this is neither honourable to thy person , nor of reputation to thy religion . However be content to bear thy calamity , because thou art sure in a litle time it will sit down gentle and easy : For to a mortal man no evil is immortal : And here let the worst thing happen that can , it will end in death , and we commonly think that to be neer enough . 8. Lastly , of those things which are reckoned amonstg evils , some are better then their contraries ; and to a good man the very worst is tolerable . Poverty or a low For●une . 1. Poverty is better then riches , and a mean fortune to be chosen before a great and splendid one . It is indeed despised and makes men contemptible : it exposes a man to the insolence of evil persons , and leaves a man defencelesse : it is alwayes suspected : its stories are accounted lies , and all its counsells follyes : it puts a man from all imployment : it makes a mans discourses tedious , and his society troublesome . This is the worst of it : and yet all this and ●arre worse then this the Apostles suffered for being Christians ; and Christianitie it selfe may be esteemed an affliction as well as poverty , if this be all ●hat can be said against it ; for the Apostles and the most eminent Christians were really poor , and were used contemptuously : and yet , that poverty is despised may be an argument to commend it , if it be despised by none but persons vitious and ignorant . However , certain it is that a great fortune is a great vanity , and riches is nothing but danger , trouble , and temptation ; like a garment that is too long , and bears a train ; not so useful to one , but it is troublesome to two ; to him that bears the one part upon his shoulders ; and to him that bears the other part in his hands : But poverty is the sister of a good minde , the parent of sober counsels and the nurse of all vertue . For , what is it that you admire in the fortune of a great King ? Is it that hee alwayes goes in a great company ? You may thrust your self into the same croud , or goe often to Church , and then you have as great a company as he hath , and that may upon as good ground please you as him , that is , justly neither : for so impertinent and uselesse pomp , and the other circumstances of his distance , are not made for him , but for his Subjects , that they may learne to separate him from common usages , and be taught to be governed . But if you looke upon them as fine things in themselves , you may quickly alter your opinion when you shall consider that they cannot cure the toothach , nor make one wise , or fill the belly , or give one nights sleep , ( though they help to break many ) nor satisfying any appetite of Nature , or Reason , or Religion : but they are states of greatnesse which onely makes it possible for a Man to be made extremely miserable . And it was long agoe observed by the Greeke Tragedians , and from them by Arrianus , saying , That all our Tragedies are of Kings and Princes , and rich or ambitious personages , but you never see a poor man have a part , unlesse it be as a Chorus , or to fill up the Scenes , to dance or to be derided : but the Kings and the great Generals ; First ( sayes he ) they begin with joy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 crown the houses : but about the third or fourth Act , they cry out , O Citheron why didst thou spare my life to reserve me for this more sad calamity ? And this is really true in the great accidents of the World : for a great estate hath great crosses , and a mean fortune hath but small ones . It may be the poor man loses a Cow ( for if his Childe dyes he is quit of his biggest care ) but such an accident in a rich and splendid Family doubles upon the spirits of the parents : Or it may be the poor man is troubled to pay his rent , and that 's his biggest trouble : but it is a bigger care to secure a great fortune in a troubled estate , or with equal greatnesse , or with the circumstances of honour , and the nicenesse of reputation to defend a Law-suit : and that which will secure a common mans whole estate , is not enough to defend a great mans honour . And therefore it was not without mystery observ'd among the Ancients , that they who made gods of gold and silver , of hope and fear , peace and fortune , Garlick and Onions , Beasts and Serpents , and a quartan Ague , yet never deified money : meaning , that however wealth was admired by common or abused understandings ; yet from riches , that is , from that proportion of good things which is beyond the necessities of Nature , no moment could be added to a mans real content or happinesse . Corn from Sardinia , herds of Calabrian cattel , meadows through which pleasant Liris glides , silkes from Tyrus , and golden Chalices to drown my health in , are nothing but instruments of vanity or sinne , and suppose a disease in the soul of him that longs for them , or admires them : And this I * have otherwhere represented more largely ; to which I here adde , that riches have very great dangers to their souls , not onely who covet them , but to all that have them . For if a great personage undertakes an action passionately , and upon great interest , let him manage it indiscreetly , let the whole designe be unjust , let it be acted with all the malice and impotency in the World , he shall have enough to flatter him , but not enough to reprove him . He had need be a bold man that shall tell his Patron , he is going to Hell ; and that Prince had need be a good man that shall suffer such a Monitor : And though it bee a strange kinde of civility and an evil dutifulnesse in Friends and Relatives to suffer him to perish without reproofe or medicine , rather then to seem unmannerly to a great sinner , yet it is none of their least infelicities , that their wealth and greatnesse shall put them into sinne , and yet put them past reproof . I need not instance in the habitual intemperance of rich Tables , nor the evil accidents and effects of fulnesse ; pride and lust , wantonnesse and softnesse of disposition , huge talking , and an imperious spirit , despite of Religion , and contempt of poor persons : At the best , it is a great temptation for a man to have in his power whatsoever he can have in his sensual desires ; and therefore riches is a blessing like to a present made of a whole Vintage to a Man in a Hectick Feaver ; he will be much tempted to drink of it , and if he does he is inflam d , and may chance to dye with the kindnesse . Now besides what hath been already noted , in the state of poverty there is nothing to be accounted for , but the fear of wanting necessaries , of which if a man could be secured , that he might live free from care , all the other parts of it might be reckoned amongst the advantages of wise and sober persons , rather then objections against that state of fortune . But concerning this I consider , that there must needs be great security to all Christians , since CHRIST not onely made expresse promises that we should have sufficient for this life ; but also took great pains and used many arguments to create confidence in us : and such they were which by their own strength were sufficient , though you abate the authority of the Speaker . The Sonne of GOD told us , his Father takes care of us : Hee that knew all his Fathers counsels and his whole kindnesse towards mankinde , told us so . How great is that truth , how certain , how necessary , which CHRIST himself proved by arguments . The excellent words and most comfortable sentences which are our Bills of Exchange , upon the credit of which we lay our cares down , and receive provisions for our need , are these . Take no thought for your life what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink , nor yet for your body what ye shall put on . Is not the life more then meat , and the body then raiment ? Behold the fowls of the air , for they sow not neither do they reap , nor gather into barns , yet your heavenly Father feedeth them . Are ye not much better then they ? which of you by taking thought can adde one cubit to his stature ? And why take ye thought for raiment ? Consider the Lillies of the field , how they grow : They toil not , neither do they spin , and yet I say unto you , that even Solomon in all his glory , was not arayed like one of these . Therefore if God so clothe the grasse of the field which to day is , and to morrow is cast into the oven , shall he not much more clothe you , O ye of little faith ? Therefore take no thought , saying , what shall we eat , or what shall we drink , or wherewithall shall we be clothed ? ( for after all these things do the Gentiles seek ; ) For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things . But seek ye first the kingdom of God , and his righteousnesse , and all these things shall bee added unto you . Take therefore no thought for the morrow : for the morrow shall take thought for the things of it self : sufficient to the day is the evil thereof . The same discourse is repeated by S. Luke : and accordingly our duty is urged and our confidence abetted by the Disciples of our Lord , in divers places of holy Scripture . So S. Paul , Be careful for nothing , but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving , let your request be made known unto God : And againe , Charge them that are rich in this world that they bee not high minded , nor trust in uncertaine riches , but in the living GOD ▪ who giveth us richly all things to enjoy : and and yet again , Let your conversation be without covetousnesse , and be content with such things as ye have ; for he hath said , I will never leave thee nor forsake thee : So that we may boldly say , the Lord is my helper . And all this is by S. Peter summed up in our duty , thus : Cast all your care upon him , for he careth for you : Which words he seems to have borrowed out of the 55 Psalm , verse 23. where David saith the same thing almost in the same words ; To which I onely adde the observation made by him , and the argument of experience ; I have been young and now am old , and yet saw I never the righteous forsaken , nor his seed begging their bread . And now after all this , a fearlesse confidence in God and concerning a provision of necessaries is so reasonable that it is become a duty ; and he is scarce a Christian whose faith is so little as to be jealous in God and suspitious concerning meat and clothes : that man hath nothing in him of the noblenesse or confidence of Charity . Does not God provide for all the birds and beasts and fishes ? Do not the sparrows fly from their bush , & every morning finde meat where they laid it not ? Do not the young ravens call to God and he feeds them ? and were it reasonable that the sons of the family should fear the Father would give meat to the chickens and the servants , his sheep and his dogs , but give none to them ? He were a very ill Father that should do so : or he were a very foolish son that should think so of a good Father . * But besides the reasonablenesse of this faith and this hope ; we have infinite experience of it . How innocent , how carelesse , how secure is Infancy ? and yet how certainly provided for ! we have lived at Gods charges all the dayes of our life , and have ( as the Italian proverb sayes ) set down to meat at the sound of a bell ; and hitherto he hath not failed us : we have no reason to suspect him for the future ; we do not vse to serve men so ; and lesse time of tryal creates great confidences in us towards them who for twenty years together never broke their word with us : and God hath so ordered it that a man shall have had the experience of many years provision , before he shall understand how to doubt : th●t he may be provided for an answer against the temptation shall come , and the mercies felt in his childehood , may make him fear lesse when he is a man. * Adde to this that God hath given us his holy Spirit ; he hath promised heaven to us ; he hath given us his son ; and we are taught from Scripture to make this inference from hence , How should not he with him give us all things else ? The Charge of many Children . We have a title to be provided for as we are Gods creatures : another title as we are his Children : another because God hath promised : and every of our children hath the same title ; and therefore it is a huge folly and infidelity to be troubled and full of care because we have many children . Every childe we have to feed is a new revenue , a new title to Gods care and providence ; so that many children are a great wealth : and if it be said they are chargeable , it is no more then all wealth & great revenues are . For what difference is it ? Titius keeps ten ploughs , Cornelia hath ten children : He hath land enough to imploy , and to feed all his hindes ; ●he blessings , and promises , and the provisions & the truth of God to maintain all her children . His hindes and horses eat up all his corn , and her children are sufficiently maintained with her little . They bring in and eat up ; and she indeed eats up , but they also bring in from the store houses of heaven , and the granaries of God : and my children are not so much mine as they are Gods : he feeds them in the womb by wayes secret & insensible ; and would not work a perpetual miracle to bring them forth , and then to starve them . Violent necessities . But some men are highly tempted , and are brought to a strait , that without a miracle they cannot be relieved , what shall they do ? It may be their pride or vanity hath brought the necessity upon them , and it is not a need of Gods making ; and if it be not they must cure it themselves by lessening their desires , and moderating their appetites ; and yet if it be innocent though unnecessary , God does usually relieve such necessities ; and he does not onely upon our prayers grant us more then he promised of temporal things : but also he gives many times more then we ask . This is no object for our faith , but ground enough for a temporal and prudent hope : and if we fail in the particular , God will turn it to a bigger mercy , if we submit to his dispensation , and adore him in the denyal . But if it be a matter of necessity , let not any man by way of impatience cry out , that God will not work a miracle ; for God by miracle did give meat and drink to his people in the wilderness , of which he had made no particular promise in any Covenant : and if all natural means fail , it is certain that God will rather work a miracle then break his word : He can do that , He cannot do this . Onely we must remember that our portion of temporal things is but food and raiment : God hath not promised us coaches and horses , rich houses and jewels , Tyrian silks and Persian carpets ; neither hath he promised to minister to our needs in such circumstances as we shall appoint , but such as himself shall choose . God will enable either thee to pay thy debt ( if thou beggest it of him ) or else he will pay it for thee , that is , take thy desire as a discharge of thy duty , and pay it to thy Creditor in blessings , or in some secret of his providence . It may be he hath laid up the corn that shall feed thee , in the granary of thy Brother ; or will clothe thee with his wool ; he enabled Saint Peter to pay his Gabel , by the ministery of a fish ; and Elias to be waited on by a crow , who was both his minister , and his steward for provisions : and his Holy Son rode in triumph upon an asse that grazed in another mans pastures . And if God gives to him the dominion and reserves the use to thee , thou hast the better half of the two ; but the charitable man serves God and serves thy need ; and both joyn to provide for thee , and God blesses both . But if he takes away the flesh-pots from thee , he can also alter the appetite , and he hath given thee power and commandment to restrain it : and if he lessens the revenue , he will also shrink the necessity ; or if he gives but a very little , he will make it go a great way : or if he sends thee but course diet , he will blesse it and make it healthful , and can cure all the anguish of thy povertie by giving thee patience , and the grace of contentednesse . For the grace of God secures you of provisions , and yet the grace of God feeds and supports the spirit in the want of provisions : and if a thin table be apt to enfeeble the spirits of one used to feed better , yet the cheerfulnesse of a spirit that is blessed will make a thin table become a delicacy , if the man was as well taught as he was fed , and learned his duty when he received the blessing . Poverty therefore is in some sences eligible and to be preferred before riches , but in all sences it is very tolerable . Death of Children , or neerest Relatives and Friends . There are some persons who have been noted for excellent in their lives and passions , rarely innocent , and yet hugely penitent for indiscretions and harmlesse infirmities , such as was Paulina one of the ghostly children of S. Hierom , and yet when any of her children dyed she was arrested with a sorrow so great as brought her to the margent of her grave . And the more tender our spirits are made by Religion , the more easy we are to let in grief , if the cause be innocent , and be but in any sence twisted with piety and due affections . * To cure which we may consider that al the world must die , & therfore to be impatient at the death of a person concerning whom it was certain and known that he must die , is to mourn because thy friend or childe was not born an Angel , and when thou hast a while made thy self miserable by an importunate and uselesse grief , it may be thou shalt die thy self , and leave others to their choice whether they will mourn for thee or no : but by that time it will appear how impertinent that grief was which served no end of life , and ended in thy own funeral . But what great matter is it , if sparks fly upward , or a stone falls into a pit , if that which was combustible be burned , or that which was liquid be melted , or that which is mortal do die ? It is no more then a man does every day ; for every night death hath gotten possession of that day , and we shall never live that day over again ; and when the last day is come there are no more dayes left for us to die . And what is sleeping and waking , but living and dying ? what is Sping and Autumne , youth and old age , morning and evening , but real images of life and death , and really the same to many considerable effects and changes ? Vntimely death . But it is not mere dying that is pretended by some as the cause of their impatient mourning ; but that the childe died young , before he knew good and evil ; his right hand from his left , and so lost all his portion of this world , and they know not of what excellency his portion in the next shall be . * If he dyed young , he lost but little , for he understood but little , and had not capacities of great pleasures , or great cares : but yet he dyed innocent and before the sweetnesse of his soul was deflour d and ravished from him by the flames and follies of a forward age : he went out from the dining-rooms before he had fallen into errour by the intemperance of his meat or the deluge of drink : and he hath obtain'd this favour of God , that his soul hath suffered a lesse imprisonment , and her load was sooner taken o●f that he might with lesser delayes goe and converse with immortal spirits : and the babe is taken into Paradise before he knows good and evil , ( For that knowledge threw our great Father out ) and this ignorance returns the childe thithe . * But ( as concerning thy own particular ) remove thy thoughts back to those dayes in which thy childe was not born , and you are now but as then you was , and there is no difference but that you had a son born , and if you reckon that for evil , you are unthankful for the blessing ; if it be good , it is better that you had the blessing for a while then not at all , and yet if he had never been born , this sorrow had not been at all : but be no more displeased at God for giving you the blessing for a while , then you would have been if he had not given it at all ; and reckon that intervening blessing for a gain , but account it not an evil ; and if it be a good , turn it not into sorrow and sadnesse . * But if we have great reason to complain of the calamities and evils o● our life , then we have the lesse reason to grieve that those whom we loved , have so small a portion of evil assigned to them . And it is no small advantage , that our children dying young receive : for their condition of a blessed immortality is rendred to them secure by being snatcht from the dangers of an evil choice and carried to their little cells of felicity , where they can weep no more . And this the wisest of the Gentiles understood well , when they forbade any offerings or libations to be made for dead infants , as was usual for their other dead ; as believing they were entred into a secure possession , to which they went with no other condition , but that they passed into it thorough the way of mortality , and for a few moneths wore an uneasy garment . And let weeping parents say , if they do not think that the evils their little babes have suffered are suf●icient . If they be , why are they troubled that they were taken from those many and greater , which in succeeding years are great enough to try all the reason and religion which art and nature , and the grace of God hath produc'd in us , to enable us for such sad contentions . And possibly we may doubt concerning men and women , but we cannot suspect that to infants death can be such an evil , but that it brings to them much more good , then it takes them from in this life . Death unseasonable . But others can well bear the death of infants : but when they have spent some years of childehood or youth , and are entred into arts , and society , when they are hopeful and provided for , when the parents are to reap the comfort of all their fears and cares , then it breaks the spirit to loose them . This is true in many ; but this is not love to the dead , but to themselves : for they misse what they had flatterd themselves into by hope and opinion : and if it were kindnes●e to the dead , they may consider , that since we hope he is gone to God and to rest , it is an ill expression of our love to them , that we weep for their good fortune . For that life is not best which is longest : and when they are descended into the grave , it shall not be inquired how long they have lived , but how well . And yet this shortening of their dayes is an evil wholly depending upon opinion . For if men did naturally live but twenty years , then we should be satisfied if they dyed about sixteen , or eighteen : and yet eighteen years now are as long as eighteen years would be then ; and if a man were but of a dayes life , it is well if he lasts till even long , and then sayes his compline an hour before the time : and we are pleased and call not that death immature if he lives till seventy : and yet this age is as short of the old periods , before and since the flood , as this youths age ( for whom you mourn ) is of the present fulnesse . Suppose therefore a decree passed upon this person ( as there have been many upon all mankinde ) and God hath set him a shorter period ; and then we may as well bear the immature death of the young man , as the death of the oldest men : for they also are immature and unseasonable in respect of the old periods of many generations . * And why are we troubled that he had arts and sciences before he dyed ? or are we troubled that he does not live to make use of them ? the first is cause of joy , for they are excellent in order to certain ends : And the second cannot be cause of sorrow , because he hath no need to use them as the case now stands , being provided for with the provisions of an Angel , and the maner of Eternity . However , the sons and the parents , friends and relatives are in the world , like hours and minutes to a day . The hour comes and must passe ; and some stay but minutes , and they also passe , and shall never return again . But let it be considered , that from the time in which a man is conceived , from that time forward to Eternitie he shall never cease to be : and let him dye young or old , still he hath an immortal soul and hath laid down his body onely for a time as that which was the instrument of his trouble and sorrow , and the scene of sicknesses and disease . But he is in a more noble manner of being , after death , then he can be here ▪ and the childe may with more reason be allowed to cry for leaving his mothers womb for this world , then a man can for changing this world for another . Sudden deaths or violent . Others are yet troubled at the manner of their childes or friends death He was drowned , or lost his head , or dyed of the plague , and this is a new spring of sorrow : but no man can give a sensible account , how it shall be worse for a childe to dye with drowning in half an hour , then to endure a feaver of one and twenty dayes . And if my friend lost his head , so he did not lose his constancy , and his religion , he dyed with huge advantage . Being Childelesse . But by this means I am left without an Heir : Well , suppose that : Thou hast no Heir , and I have no inheritance ; and there are many Kings and Emperors that have died childlesse : many Royal lines are extinguished : And Augustus Caesar was forced to adopt his wives son to inherit all the Roman greatnesse . And there are many wise persons that never marryed ; and we read no where that any o● the children of the Apostles did survive their Fathers : and all that inherit any thing of Christs kingdom come to it by Adoption , not by natural inheritance : and to dye without an natural heir is no intolerable evil , since it was sanctified in ●he person of Jesus who dyed a Virgin. Evil or unfortunate Children . And by this means we are freed from the greater srorows of having a fool , a swine , or a goat to rule after us in our families : and yet even this condition admits of comfort . For all the wilde Americans are supposed to be the sons of Dodonai● ; and the sons of Iacob are now the most scattered and despised people in the whole world . The son of Solomon was but a silly weak man ; and the son of Hezekiah was wicked : and all the fools and barbarous people , all the thieves and pirates , all the slaves and miserable men and women of the world a●e the sons and daughters of Noah ; and we must not look to be exempted from that portion of sorrow which God gave to Noah , and Adam , to Abraham , to Isaack and to Iacob : I pray God send us into the lot of Abraham . But if any thing happens worse to us , it is enough for us that we bear it evenly . Our own death . And how if you were to die your self ? you know you must . Onely be ready for it , by the preparations of a good life ; and then it is the greatest good that ever happened to thee : else there is nothing that can comfort you . But if you have served God in a holy life , send away the women and the weepers , tell them it is as much intemperance to weep too much , as to laugh too much : and when thou art alone , or with fitting company , dye as thou shouldest ; but do not dye impatiently and like a fox catch'd in a trap . For if you fear death you shall never the more avoid it , but you make it miserable . Fannius that kild himself for fear of death , dyed as certainly , as Portia that eat burning coals , or Cato that cut his own throat . To dye is necessary and natural , and it may be honourable : but to dye poorly , and basely , and sinfully , that alone is it , that can make a man unfortunate . No man can be a slave , but he that fears pain , or fears to die . To such a man nothing but chance and peaceable times can secure his duty , and he depends upon things without , sor his felicity ; and so is well but during the pleasure of his enemy , or a Thief , or a Tyrant , or it may be , of a dog , or a wilde bull . Prayers for the several Graces and parts of Christian Sobriety . A Prayer against Sensuality . O Eternal Father , thou that sittest in Heaven invested with essential Glories and Divine perfections , fill my soul with so deep a sence of the excellencies of spiritual and heavenly things , that my affections being weaned from the pleasures of the world , and the false allurements of sin , I may with great severity and the prudence of a holy discipline and strict desires , with clear resolutions and a free spirit have my conversation in Heaven and heavenly imployments ; that being in affections as in my condition a Pilgrim and a stranger here , I may covet after and labour for an abiding city , and at last may enter into and for ever dwell in the Coelestial Jerusalem which is the mother of us all , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . For Temperance . O ALmighty God and gracious Father of Men , and Angels , who openest thy hand and fillest all things with plenty , and hast provided for thy servant sufficient to satisfie all my needs : teach me to use thy creatures soberly and temperately , that I may not with loads of meat or drink make the temptations of my enemy to prevail upon me , or my spirit unapt for the performance of my duty , or my body healthlesse , or my affections sensual and unholy . O my God , never suffer that the blessings which thou givest me may either minister to sin or sicknesse , but to health and holinesse , and thanksgiving , that in the strength of thy provisions I may cheerfully and actively and diligently serve thee : that I may worthily feast at thy table here , and be accounted worthy through thy grace to be admitted to thy table hereafter at the Eternal supper of the Lamb to sing an Allelujah to God the Father , the Son and the Holy Ghost for ever and ever . Amen . For Chastity : to be said especially by unmarried persons . ALmighty God , our most holy and eternal Father , who art of pure eyes , and canst behold no uncleannesse ; let thy gracious and holy Spirit descend upon thy servant , and reprove the spirit of Fornication and Uncleannesse , and cast him out , that my body may be a holy Temple , and my soul a Sanctuary to entertain the Prince of purities , the holy and eternal Spirit of God. O let no impure thoughts pollute that soul which God hath sanctified ; no unclean words pollute that tongue which God hath commanded to be an Organ of his praises ; no unholy and unchaste action rend the vail of that Temple where the holy JESUS hath been pleased to enter , and hath chosen for his habitation : but seal up all my senses from all vain objects , and let them be intirely possessed with Religion , and fortified with prudence , watchfulnesse and mortification : that I possessing my vessel in holiness , may lay it down with a holy hope , and receive it again in a joyful resurrection through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . A Prayer for the love of God , to be said by Virgins and Widows professed or resolved so to live : and may be used by any one . O Holy and purest Jesus who wert pleased to espouse every holy soul and joyn it to thee with a holy union , and mysterious instruments of religious society and communications , O fill my soul with Religion and desires , holy as the thoughts of Cherubim , passionate beyond the love of women , that I may love thee as much as ever any creature loved thee , even with all my soul , and all my faculties , and all the degrees of every faculty ; let me know no loves but those of duty and charity , obedience and devotion , that I may for ever run after thee who art the King of Virgins , and with whom whole kingdoms are in love ▪ & for whose sake Queens have dyed ; and at whose feet Kings with joy have laid their Crowns and Scepters : My soul is thine O dearest Jesu , thou art my Lord , and hast bound up my eyes and heart from all stranger affections ; give me for my dowry purity and humility , modes●y and devotion , charity and patience , & at last bring me into the Bride-chamber to partake of the felicities and to lye in the bosome of the Bride-groom to eternal ages , O holy and sweetest Saviour Jesus . Amen . A Prayer to be said by married persons in behalf of themselves and each other . O Eternal and gracious Father who hast consecrated the holy estate of marriage to become mysterious , and to represent the union of Christ and his Church , let thy holy Spirit so guide me in the doing the duties of this state , that it may not become a sin unto me ; nor that liberty which thou hast hallowed by the holy Jesus , become an occasion of licentiousnesse by my own weaknesse and sensuality : and do thou forgive all those irregularities and too sensual applications which may have in any degree discomposed my spirit and the severity of a Christian. Let me in all accidents and circumstances be severe in my duty towards thee , affectionate and dear to my wife [ or Husband ] a guide and good example to my family , and in all quietnesse , sobriety , prudence and peace a follower of those holy pairs who have served thee with godlinesse and a good testimony : and the blessings of the eternal God , blessings of the right hand , and of the left be upon the body and soul of thy servant my Wife [ or Husband ] and abide upon her [ or him ] till the end of a holy and happy life ; and grant that both of us may live together for ever in the embraces of the holy and eternal Jesus , our Lord and Saviour . Amen . A Prayer for the grace of Humility . O Holy and most gracious Master and Saviour Jesus , who by thy example and by thy precept , by the practise of a whole life and frequent discourses didst command us to be meek and humble in imitation of thy incomparable sweetnesse and great humility : be pleased to give me the grace as thou hast given me the commandment : enable me to do whatsoever thou commandest , and command whatsoever thou pleasest : O mortifie in me all proud thoughts , and vain opinions of my self : let me return to thee the acknowledgement and the sruits of all those good things thou hast given me , that by confessing I am wholly in debt to thee for them , I may not boast my self for what I have received and for what I am highly accountable : and for what is my own , teach me to be asham d and humbled , it being nothing but sin and misery , weaknesse & uncleannesse . Let me go before my brethren in nothing but in striving to do them honour and thee glory ; never to seek my own praise ; never to delight in it when it is offered ; that despising my self I may be accepted by thee in the honours with which thou shalt crown thy humble & despised servants for Jesus's sake in the kingdom of eternal glory . Amen . Acts of Humility and modesty by way of prayer and meditation . 1. Lord I know that my spirit is light and thorny , my body is bruitish and expos'd to sicknesse ; I am constant to folly , and inconstant in holy purposes : My labours are vain and fruitlesse ; my fortune full of change and trouble , seldome pleasing , never perfect : My wisdom is folly ; being ignorant even of the parts and passions of my own body : and what am I , O Lord , before thee , but a miserable person , hugely in debt , not able to pay ? 2. Lord I am nothing , and I have nothing of my self , I am lesse then the least of all thy mercies . 3. What was I before my birth ? First nothing , and then uncleannesse . What during my childehood ? weaknesse and folly . What in my youth ? folly still and passion , lust and wildenesse . What in my whole life ? a great sinner , a deceived and an abused person . Lord pity me , for it is thy goodnesse that I am kept from confusion and amazement when I consider the misery and shame of my person , and the defilements of my nature . 4. Lord what am I , and Lord what art thou ? What is man that thou art mindeful of him , and the son of Man that thou so regardest him ? 5. How can Man be justified with God ? or how can he be clean that is born of a Woman ? Behold even to the Moon and it shineth not , yea the Stars are not pure in his sight . How much lesse Man that is a Worm , and the son of Man which is a Worm ? Iob 25. A Prayer , for a contented spirit , and the grace of moderation and patience . O Almighty God , Father and Lord of all the Creatures , who hast disposed all things and all chances so as may best glorifie thy wisdom , and serve the ends of thy justice , and magnifie thy mercy , by secret and undiscernable wayes bringing good out of evil ; I most humbly b●seech thee to give me wisdom from above that I may adore thee and admire thy wayes , and footsteps which are in the great Deep and not to be searched out ; teach me to submit to thy providence in all things , to be content in all changes of person and condition , to be temperate in prosperity , and to reade my duty in the lines of thy mercy , and in adversity to be meek , patient and resign'd , and to look through the cloud , that I may wait for the consolation of the Lord , and the day of redemption ; in the mean time doing my duty with an unwearied diligence , and an undisturbed resolution , having no fondnesse for the vanities or possessions of this World , but laying up my hopes in Heaven and the rewards of holy living , and being strengthned with the Spirit in the inner man , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . CHAP. III. Of Christian Iustice. IUstice is by the Christian Religion enjoyn'd in all its parts by these two propositions in Scripture . [ Whatsoever yee would that men should do to you , even so do to them . ] This is the measure of communicative justice , or of that justice which supposes exchange of things profitable , for things profitable : that as I supply your need , you may supply mine , as I do a benefit to you , I may receive one by you : and because every man may be injur'd by another , therefore his security shall depend upon mine : if he will not let me be safe , he shall not be safe himself , ( onely the manner of his being punish'd , is upon great reason both by God and all the World taken from particulars , and committed to a publick dis-interested person , who will do justice without passion , both to him and to me . ) If he refuses to do me advantage , he shall receive none when his needs require it . And thus God gave necessities to men , that all men might need ; and several abilities to severall persons , that each Man might help to supply the publick needs , and by joyning to fill up all wants , they may be knit together by justice , as the parts of the world are by nature : and he hath made us all obnoxicus to injuries , and made every little thing s●r●ng enough to do us hurt by some instrument or other ; and hath given us all a sufficient stock of self love , and desire of self preservation , to be as the chain to tye together all the pars of society , and to restrain us from doing violence , lest we be violently dealt withall our selves . The other part of justice is commonly called distributive , and is commanded in this rule , [ Render to all their dues , tribute to whom tribute is due , custome to whom custome , fear to whom fear , honour to whom honour . Owe no man any thing , but to love one another ] This justice is distinguished frō the first , because the obligation depends not upon contract or express bargain , but passes upon us by vertue of some command of God , or of our Superiour , by nature or by grace , by piety or religion , by trust or by office , according to that Commandment [ As every man hath received the gift , so let him minister the same one to another , as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. And as the first considers an equality of persons in respect of the contract or particular necessity : this supposes a difference of persons , and no particular bargains , but such necessary entercourses , as by the Laws of God or man are introduced . But I shall reduce all the particulars of both kindes to these four heads . 1. Obedience . 2. Provision . 3. Negotiation . 4. Restitution . Sect. I. Of Obedience to our Superiours . OUr Superiours are set over us in affairs of the World , or the affairs of the Soul , and things pertaining to Religion , and are called accordingly , Ecclesiastical or Civil ▪ Towards whom our duty is thus generally described in the new Testament . For Temporall or Civill Governours the Commands are these . [ Render to Caesar the things that are Caesars ] and [ Let every soul be subject to the higher powers : For there is no power but of God : The powers that be are ordained of God : whosoever therefore resisteth the power , resisteth the ordinance of God ; and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation ] and [ Put them in minde to be subject to princip●lities and powers and to obey Magistrates ] and [ Submit your selves to every ordinance of man , for the Lords sake ; whether it be to the King as supreme , or unto Governours , as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers , and the praise of them that do well . For Spiritual or Ecclesiastical governours thus we are commanded . [ Obey them that have the rule over you , and submit your selves , for they watch for your souls , as they that must give an account ] and [ Hold such in reputation ] and [ to this end did I write that I might know the proof of you , whether ye be obedient in all things ] said S. Paul to the Church of Corinth . Our duty is reducible to practise by the following rules . Acts and duties of Obedience to all our Superiours . 1. We must obey all humane laws appointed and constituted by lawful Authority , that i● , of the supreme power , according to the constitution of the place in which we live : all laws I mean , which are not against the law of God. 2. In obedience to humane laws we must observe the letter of the Law where we can without doing violence to the reason of the Law , and the intention of the Law-giver : but where they crosse each other , the charity of the Law is to be preferred before its discipline , and the reason of it before the letter . 3. If the general reason of the Law ceases in our particular , and a contrary reason rises upon us , we are to procure dispensation , or leave to omit the observation of it in such circumstances ; if there be any persons or office appointed for granting it : but if there be none , or if it is not easily to be had , or not without an inconvenience greater then the good of the observation of the Law in our particular , we are dispensed withall in the nature of the thing , without further processe or trouble . 4. As long as the Law is obligatory , so long our obedience is due ; and he that begins a contrary c●stom without reason , sins : but he that breaks the law when the custom is entred and fixed , is excused , because it is supposed , the legislative power consents , when by not punishing , it suffers disobedience to grow up to a custome . 5. Obedience to humane laws must be for conscience sake : that is , because in such obedience publick order , and charity , and benefit is concerned : and because the Law of God commands us , therefore we must make a conscience in keeping the just Laws of Superiors : and although the matter before the making of the Law was indifferent , yet now the obedience is not indifferent , but next to the Laws of God , we are to obey the Laws of all our Superiours , who the more publick they are , the first they are to be in the order of obedience . 6. Submit to the punishment and censure of the Laws , and seek not to reverse their judgement by opposing , but by submitting , or flying , or silence to passe thorow it , or by it as we can : and although from inferiour Jugdes we may appeal where the Law permits us , yet we must sit down and rest in the judgement of the Supreme : and if we be wronged , let us complain to God of the injury , not of the persons , and he will deliver thy soul from unrighteous Judges . 7. Do not believe thou hast kept the Law , when thou hast suffered the punishment . For although patiently to submit to the power of the sword , be a part of obedience , yet this is such a part as supposes another lest undone : and the Law punishes , not because she is as well pleased in taking vengeance , as in being obeyed , but because she is displeased , she uses punishment as a means to secure obedience for the future , or in others . Therefore although in such cases the Law is satisfied , and the injury , and the injustice is paid for , yet the sins of irreligion , and scandal , and disobedience to God must still be so accounted sor , as to crave pardon , and be washed off by repentance . 8. Humane Laws are not to be broken with scandal , nor at all without reason ; for he that does it causelesly is a despiser of the Law , and undervalues the Authority . For humane Laws differ from divine Laws principally in this : 1. That the positive commands of a man may be broken upon smaller , and more reasons then the p●sitive com●ands of God : we may upon a smaller reason omit to keep any of the fasting dayes of the Church , then omit to give alms to the poor : onely this , the reason must bear weight according to the gravity and concernment of the Law ; a Law in a small matter may be omitted for a small reason , in a great matter not without a greater reason . And 2. The negative precepts of men may cease by many instruments , by contrary customs , by publick disrelish , by long omission : but the negative precepts of God never can cease , but when they are expressely abrogated by the same Authority . But what those reasons are that can dispence with the command of a man , a man may be his own Judge , and sometimes take his proportions from his own reason and necessity , sometimes from publick fame , and the practise of pious and severe persons , and from popular customs , in which a man shall walk most safely , when he does not walk alone , but a spiritual man takes him by the hand . 9. We must not be too forward in procuring dispensations : nor use them any longer then the reason continues for which we first procured them : for to be dispensed withall is an argument of natural infirmity , if it be necessary ; but if be not , it signifies an indisciplined and unmortified spirit . 10. We must not be too busie in examining the prudence and unreasonablenesse of humane Laws : for although we are not bound to believe them all to be the wisest , yet if by enquiring into the lawfulne●se of them , or by any other instrument we finde them to fail , of that wisdom with which some others are ordained , yet we must never make use of it to disparage the person of the Law-giver , or to counten●nce any mans disobedience , much lesse our own . 11. Pay that reverence to the person of thy Prince , of his Ministers , of thy Parents and spiritual Guides , which by the customs of the place thou livest in are usually paid to such persons in their several degrees : that is , that the highest reverence be paid to the highest person , and so still in proportion : and that this reverence be expressed in all the circumstances and manners of the city and nation . 12. Lift not up thy hand against thy Prince or Parent upon what pretence soever : but bear all personal affronts and inconveniences at their hands , and seek no remedy but by patience , and piety , yielding and praying , or absenting thy self . 13 Speak not evil of the Ruler of thy people , neither Curse thy Father or Mother , nor revile thy spiritual Guides , nor discover and lay naked their infirmities : but treat them with reverence and religion , and preserve their Authority sacred by esteeming their persons venerable . 14. Pay tribute and customes to Princes according to the Laws : and maintenance to thy Parents according to their necessity : and honourable support to the Clergy according to the dignity of the work , and the customs of the place . 15. Remember alwayes that duty to our Superiors is not an act of commutative justice , but of distributive : That is , although Kings and Parents and spiritual Guides are to pay a great duty to their Inferiours , the duty of their several charges and government : yet the good govovernment of a King and of Parents are actions of Religion as they relate to God , & of Piety as they relate to their people and families . And although we usually call them just Princes who administer their Laws exactly to the people , because the actions are in the matter of justice , yet in propriety of speech , they are rather to be called Pious , and Religious . For as he is not called a just Father that educates his children well , but pious ; so that Prince who defends and well rules his people , is Religious , and does that duty for which alone he is answerable to God. The consequence of which is this , so far as concerns our duty : If the Prince or Parent fail of their duty , we must not fail of ours : for we are answerable to them and to God too ; as being accountable to all our Superiours , and so are they to theirs : they are above us , and God is above them . Remedies against disobedience : and means to endear our obedience , by way of consideration . 1. Consider that all authority descends from God , and our Superiours bear the image of the Divine Power , which God imprints on them as on an image of clay , or a coin upon a lesse perfect mettal , which who so defaces , shall not be answerable for the losse or spoil of the materials , but the effacing the Kings Image , and in the same measure will God require it at our hands , if we despise his authority upon whomsoever he hath imprinted it . He that despiseth you , despiseth me . And Dathan and Abiram were said to be gathered together against the Lord. And this was S. Pauls argument for our obedience . [ The powers that be , are ordained of God. ] 2. There is very great peace and immunity from sin in resigning our wils up to the command of others : for provided that our duty to God be secured , their commands are warrants to us in all things else ; and the case of conscience is determined , if the command be evident and pressing : and it is certain , the action that is but indifferent , and without reward , if done onely upon our own choice , is an act of duty and of religion , and rewardable by the grace and favour of God , if done in obedience to the command of our Superiours . For since naturally we desire what is forbidden us , and ( sometimes there is no other evil in the thing , but that it is forbidden us ) God hath in grace enjoyned and proportionably accepts obedience as being directly opposed to the former irregularity , and it is acceptable , although there be no other good in the thing that is commanded us , but that it is commanded . 3. By obedience we are made a society and a republick , and distinguished from herds of Beasts , and heaps of Flyes , who do what they list , and are incapable of Laws , and obey none , and therefore are killed and destroyed , though never punished , and they never can have a reward . 4. By obedience we are rendred capable of all the blessings of government , signified by Saint Paul in these words [ He is the Minister of God to thee for good , ] and by Saint Peter in these [ Governours are sent by him for the punishment of evill doers , and for the praise of them that do well . ] And he that ever felt , or saw , or can understand the miseries of confusion in publick affaires , or amazement in a heap of sad , tumultuous , and indefinite thoughts , may from thence judge of the admirable effects of order , and the beauty of Government . What health is to the body , and peace is to the Spirit , that is Government to the societies of Men , the greatest blessing which they can receive in that temporal capacity . 5. No Man shall ever be fit to govern others that knows not first how to obey . For if the spirit of a Subject be rebellious , in a Prince it will be tyrannical and intolerable , and of so ill example , that as it will encourage the disobedience of others , so it will render it unreasonable for him to exact of others , what in the like case he refused to pay . 6. There is no sin in the World which God hath punisht with so great severity and high detestation as this of disobedience . For the crime of Idolatry God sent the Sword amongst his people , but it was never heard that the Earth opened and swallowed up any but Rebels against their Prince ▪ 7. Obedience is beter then the particular actions of Religion , and he serves GOD better that followes his Prince in lawful services , then he that refuses his command upon pretence hee must goe say his prayers ▪ But Rebellion is compar'd to that sin which of all sins seems the most unnatural and damned impiety . Rebellion is as the sin of Witchcraft . 8. Obedience is a complicated act of vertue , and many graces are exercised in one act of obedience . It is an act of Humility , of mortification and self-denial , of charity to God , of care of the publick , of order and charity to our selves and all our society , and a great instance of a victory over the most refractory and unruly passions . 9. To be a Subject is a greater temporal felicity then to be a King : for all eminent Governments according to their height have a great burden , huge care , infinite businesse , little rest , * innumerable ●ears , and all that he enjoyes above another is , that hee does enjoy the things of the World with other circumstances , and a bigger noise ; and if others go at his single command , it is also certain he must suffer inconvenience at the needs and disturbances of all his people : and the evils of one man , and of one family are not enough for him to bear , unlesse also he be almost crush'd with the evils of mankinde . He therefore is an ingrateful person that will presse the scales down with a voluntary load , and by disobedience put more thorns into the Crown or Mitre of his Superiour . Much better is the advice of S. Paul , Obey them that have the rule over you , as they that must give an account for your souls , that they may do it with joy and not with grief : for ( besides that it is unpleasant to them ) it is unprofitable for you . 10. The Angels are ministring spirits and perpetually execute the will and commandment of God : and all the wise men and all the good men of the world are obedient to their Governours : and the eternal Son of God esteemed it his Meat and drink to do the will of his Father , and for his obedience alone obtain'd the greatest glory : and no man ever came to perfection but by obedience : and thousands of Saints have chosen such institutions and maners of living , in which they might not choose their own work , nor follow their own will , nor please themselves , but be accountable to others , and subject to discipline , and obedient to command , as knowing this to bee the highway of the Crosse , the way that the King of sufferings and humility did choose , and so became the King of Glory . 11. No man ever perished who followed first the will of God , and then the will of his Superiours : but thousands have been damned meerly for following their own will , and relying upon their own judgements , and choosing their own work , and doing their own fancies : For if we begin with our selves , whatsoever seems good in our eyes , is most commonly displeasing in the eyes of God. 12. The sin of Rebellion , though it be a spiritual sin and imitable by Devils , yet it is of that disorder , unreasonablenesse and impossibility amongst intelligent spirits , that they never murmured or mutined in th●ir lower stations against their Superiours . Nay , the good Angels of an inferiour Order durst not revile a Devil of a higher Order . This consideration which I reckon to be most pressing in the discourses of reason and obliging next to the necessity of a Divine precept , we learn from S. Iude [ Likewise also these filthy dr●amers despise dominion and speak evil of dignities : And yet Michael the Archangel when contending with the Devil he disputed about the body of Moses durst not bring against him a railing accusation . But because our Superiours rule by their example , by their word or law , and by the rod , therefore in proportion there are several degrees and parts of obedience , of several excellencies and degrees towards perfection . Degrees of Obedience . 1. The first is the obedience of the outward work : and this is all that Humane Lawes of themselves regard ; for because Man cannot judge the heart , therefore it prescribes nothing to it : the publick end is served not by good wishes , but by real and actual performances ; and if a Man obeyes against his will he is not punishable by the Laws . 2 The obedience of the will , and this is also necessary in our obedience to Humane Lawes , not because man requires it for himself , but because God commands it towards Man ; and of it ( although Man cannot , yet ) God will demand account . For we are to do it as to the Lord and not to men ; and therefore we must do it willingly . But by this means our obedience in private is secur'd against secret arts and subterfuges ; and when we can avoid the punishment , yet we shall not decline our duty , but serve Man for Gods sake , that is , cheerfully , promptly , vigorously , for these are the proper parts of willingnesse and choice . 3. The understanding must yeeld obedience in general , though not in the particular instance ; that is , we must be firmly perswaded of the excellency of the obedience , though we be not bound in all cases to think the particular Law to be most prudent . But in this , our rule is plain enough . Our understanding ought to be inquisitive whether the civil constitution agree with our duty to God ; but we are bound to inquire no further ; And therefore beyond this , although he , who having no obligation to it ( as Counsellours have ) inquires not at all into the wisdome or reasonablenesse of the Law , be not alwayes the wisest Man , yet he is ever the best Subject . For when he hath given up his understanding to his Prince and Prelate , provided that his duty to God be secured by a precedent search , hath also with the best , and with all the instruments in the World secured his obedience to Man. Sect. 2. Of Provision , or that part of Iustice which is due from Superiours to Inferiours . AS God hath imprinted his authority in several parts upon several estates of Men , as Princes , Parents , Spiritual Guides , so he hath also delegated and committed parts of his care and providence unto them , that they may be instrumental in the conveying such blessings which God knowes we need , and which hee intends should be the effects of Government . For since GOD governes all the World as a King , provides for us as a Father , and is the great Guide and Conductor of our spirits as the Head of the Church , and the great Shepherd and Bishop of our souls , they who have portions of these dignities , have also their share of the administration : the sum of all which is usually signified in these two words [ Governing ] and [ Feeding ] and is particularly recited in the following rules . Duties of Kings and all the Supreme power , as , Lawgivers . 1. Princes of the people and all that have Legislative power must provide useful and good Lawes for the defence of propriety , for the encouragement of labour , for the safeguard of their persons , for determining controversies , for reward of noble actions , and excellent arts and rare inventions , for promoting trade , and enriching their people . 2. In the making Lawes Princes must have regard to the publick dispositions , to the affections and disaffections of the people ; and must not introduce a Law with publick scandal and displeasure : but consider the publick benefit , and the present capacity of affairs and general inclinations of mens mindes . For he that enforces a Law upon a people against their first and publick apprehensions tempts them to disobedience , and makes Lawes to become snares and hooks to catch the people , and to enrich the treasury with the spoil and tears and curses of the Communalty , and to multiply their mutiny and their sin . 3. Princes must provide that the Lawes be duely executed : for a good Law without execution is like an unperformed promise : and therefore they must be severe exactors of accounts from their Delegates and Ministers of Justice . 4. The severity of Lawes must be temper'd with dispensations , pardons , and remissions according as the case shall alter , and new necessities be introduced , or some singular accident shall happen , in which the Law would be unreasonable or intolerable as to that particular . And thus the people with their importunity prevailed against Saul in the case of Ionathan , and obtained his pardon for breaking the Law which his Father made , because his necessity forced him to taste honey , and his breaking the Law in that case did promote that service whose promotion was intended by the Law. 5. Princes must be Fathers of the people , and provide such instances of gentlenesse , ease , wealth , and advantages , as may make mutuall confidence betweene them ; and must fix their security under GOD in the love of the people , which therefore they must with all arts of sweetnesse , remission , popularity , noblenesse and sincerity endeavour to secure to themselves . 6. Princes must not multiply publick Oathes without great , eminent , and violent necessity , lest the security of the King become a snare to the people , and they become false when they see themselves suspected , or impatient when they are violently held fast : but the greater and more useful caution is upon things then upon persons ; and if security of Kings can be obtain'd otherwise , it is better that Oathes should be the last refuge , and when nothing else can be sufficient . 7. Let not the people be tempted with arguments to disobey , by the imposition of great and unnecessary taxes : for that lost to the son of Solomon the dominion of the ten Tribes of Israel . 8. Princes must in a special manner bee Guardians of Pupils and Widows , not suffering their persons to be oppressed , or their states imbecill'd , or in any sense be exposed to the rapine of covetous persons , but be provided for by just lawes , and provident Judges , and good Guardians , ever having an ear ready open to their just complaints , and a heart full of pity , and one hand to support them , and the other to avenge them . 9. Princes must provide that the Laws may be so administred , that they be truly and really an ease to the people , not an instrument of vexation : and therefore must be careful that the shortest and most equal wayes of trials be appointed , fees moderated , and intricacies and windings as much cut off as may bee , lest injured persons be forced to perish under the oppression , or under the Law , in the injury or in the suit . Laws are like Princes , the best and most beloved , who are most easie of accesse . 10. Places of judicature ought at no hand to be sold by pious Princes , who remember themselves to be Fathers of the people . For they that buy the Office will sell the act , and they that at any rate will be judges , will not at an easie rate do justice ; and their bribery is lesse punishable , when bribery opened the door by which they entred . 11. Ancient priviledges , favours , customes , and Acts of grace indulged by former Kings to their people , must not without high reason and great necessities be revoked by their successours ; nor forseitures be exacted violently , nor penal Laws urged rigorously , nor in light cases , nor Lawes be multiplied without great need , nor vitious persons which are publickly and deservedly hated , be kept in defiance of popular desires , nor any thing that may unnecessarily make the yoke heavie , and the affection light , that may increase murmures , and lessen charity ; alwayes remembring , that the interest of the Prince and the People is so infolded in a mutual imbrace , that they cannot be untwisted without pulling a limb off , or dissolving the bands and conjunction of the whole body . 12. All Princes must esteem themselves as much bound by their word , by their grants , & by their promises , as the meanest of their Subjects are by the restraint and penalty of Laws : and although they are superiour to the people , yet they are not superiour to their own voluntary concessions ; and ingagements , their promises and Oathes , when once they are passed from them . The Duty of Superiours as they are Iudges . 1. Princes in judgement , and their Delegate Judges must judge the causes of all persons uprightly and impartially , without any personal consideration of the power of the mighty , or the bribe of the rich , or the needs of the poor . For although the poor must fare no worse for his poverty , yet in justice he must fare no better for it : And although the rich must be no more regarded , yet he must not be lesse . And to this purpose the Tutor of Cyrus instructed him , when in a controversie where a great Boy would have taken a large coat from a little Boy because his own was too little for him , and the others was too big , hee adjudged the great coat to the great Boy : his Tutor answered , Sir , If you were made a Judge of decency or fitnesse , you had judged well in giving the biggest to the biggest : but when you were appointed Judge , not whom the coat did fit , but whose it was , you should have considered the title , and the possession , who did the violence , and who made it , or who bought it ? And so it must be in judgements between the rich and the poor : it is not to be considered what the poor Man needs , but what is his own . 2. A Prince may not , much lesse may inferiour Judges deny justice when it is legally and competently demanded : and if the Prince will use his Prerogative in pardoning an offender against whom justice is required , he must be carefull to give satisfaction to the injured person , or his Relatives by some other instrument ; and be watchful to take away the scandal , that is , lest such indulgence might make persons more bold to do injury : and if hee spares the life , let him change the punishment into that which may make the offender ( if not suffer justice , yet ) doe justice , and more real advantage to the injured person . These rules concern Princes and their Delegates in the making or administring Laws , in the appointing rules of justice and doing acts of judgement . The duty of Parents to their Children and Nephews is briefly described by S. Paul. The Duty of Parents to their Children . 1. Fathers provoke not your Children to wrath , that is , be tender boweld , pitiful and gentle , complying with all the infirmities of the Children ; and in their several ages proportioning to them several usages according to their needs and their capacities . 2. Bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord , that is , secure their religion , season their younger years with prudent and pious principles , make them in love with vertue , and make them habitually so , before they come to choose or to discern good from evil , that their choice may be with lesse difficulty and danger . For while they are under discipline , they suck in all that they are first taught , and believe it infinitely , provide for them , wise , learned and vertuous Tutors a , & good company and discipline * , seasonable baptism , catechism and confirmation . For it is a great folly to heap up much wealth for our Children , and not to take care concerning the Children for whom we get it . It is as if a man should take more care about his shooe then about his foot . 3. Parents must shew piety at home , that is , they must give good example and reverent deportment , in the face of their children ; and all those instances of charity , which usualy endear each other ; sweetnesse of conversation , af●ability , frequent admonition , all significations of love and tendernesse , care and watchfulnesse must be expressed towards Children , that they may look upon their Parents as their friends and patrons , their defence and sanctuary , their treasure and their Guide . Hither is to be reduced the nursing of Children , which is the first and most natural and necessary instance of piety , which Mothers can shew to their Babes ; a dutie from which nothing will excuse , but a disability , sicknesse , danger , or publick necessitie . 4. Parents must provide for their own according to their condition , education , and imployment ; called by S. Paul , a laying up for the Children , that is , an enabling them by competent portions , or good trades , arts or learning to defend themselves against the chances of the world , that they may not be exposed to temptation , to beggery , or unworthy arts : and although this must be done without covetousnesse , without impatient and greedy desires of making them rich , yet it must be done with much care , and great affection , with all reasonable provision , and according to our power : and if we can without sin improve our estates for them , that also is part of the duty we owe to God for them : and this rule is to extend to all that descend from us , although we have been overtaken in a fault , and have unlawfull issue ; they also become part of our care , yet so as not to injure the production of the lawful bed . 5. This duty is to extend to a provision of conditions and an estate of life . Parents must according to their power and reason provide Husbands or Wives for their children * . In which they must secure piety and † Religion , and the affection and love of the interested persons ; and after these , let them make what provisions they can for other conveniences or advantages : Ever remembring that they can do no injury more afflictive to the children then to joyn them with cords of a disagreeing affection : It is like tying a Wolf and a Lamb , or planting the Vine in a Garden of Coleworts . Let them be perswaded with reasonable inducements to make them willing and to choose according to the parents wish , but at no hand let them be forced . Better to sit up all night , then to go to bed with a Dragon . The duty of Husbands , &c. See Chapt. 2. Sect. 3. Rules for married persons . 1 Husbands must give to their wives , love , maintenance , duty , and the sweetnesses of conversation [ and wives * must pay to them all they have , or can with the interest of obedience and reverence ] and they must be complicated in affections and interest , that there be no distinction between them of Mine and Thine : And if the title be the mans , or the womans , yet the use must be common , onely the wisdom of the man is to regulate all extravagancies and indiscretions : in other things , no question is to be made ; and their goods should be as their children not to be divided , but of one possession and provision : whatsoever is otherwise is not marriage but merchandise . And upon this ground I suppose it was , that S. a Basil commended that woman , who took part of her Husbands goods to do good works withall : for supposing him to be unwilling , and that the work was his duty , or hers alone , or both theirs in conjunction , or of great advantage to either of their souls , and no violence to the support of their families , she hath right to all that : And Abigail of her own right made a costly present to David , when her husband Nabal had refused it . The Husband must b rule over his wife , as the soul does over the body , obnoxious to the same sufferings , and bound by the same affections , and doing or suffering by the permissions and interest of each other : that ( as the old Philosopher said ) as the humours o● the body are mingled with each other in their whole substances : so marriage may be a mixture of interests , of bodies , of mindes , of friends , a conjunction † of the whole life , and the noblest of friendships . But if after all the ●air deportments , and innocent chast complyances the Husband be morose and ungentle , let the ‖ Wife discourse thus : If while I do my duty my Husband neglects me , what will he do if I neglect him ? And if she thinks to be separated by reason of her husbands unchast life , let her consider , that then the man will be uncurably ruined , and her Rivals could wish nothing more then that they might possesse him alone The duty of Masters of Families . 1. The same care is to extend to all of our family in their proportions as to our Children● for as by S. Pauls oeconomie the Heir dif●ers nothing from a servant while he is in minority : so a servant should differ nothing from a childe in the substantial part of the care ; and the difference is onely in degrees : Servants and Masters are of the same kinred , of the same nature , and heirs of the same promises , and therefore * 1. must be provided of necessaries for their support and maintenance . 2. They must be used with mercy . 3. Their work must be tolerable and merciful . 4. Their restraints must be reasonable . 5. Their recreations fitting and healthful . 6. Their religion and the interest of souls taken care of . 7. And Masters must correct their servants with gentlenesse , prudence and mercy , not for every slight fault , not alwayes , not with upbraiding and disgraceful language , but with such onely as may expresse and reprove the fault , and amend the person . But in all these things measures are to be taken by the contract made , by the Laws and Customs of the place , by the sentence of prudent and merciful men , and by the cautions and remembrances given us by God , such as is that written by S. Paul , [ as knowing that we also have a Master in Heaven . ] The Master must not be a lyon in his house , lest his power be obeyed , and his person hated ; his eye be wayted on , and his businesse be neglected in secret . No servant will do his duty unlesse he make a conscience , or love his Master : if he does it not for Gods sake or his masters , he will not need to do it alwayes for his own . The Duty of Guardians , or Tutors . Tutors and Guardians are in the place of Parents , and what they are in fiction of Law ; they must remember as an argument to engage them to do in reality of duty . They must do all the duty of Parents , excepting those obligations which are merely natural . ●he duty of Ministers and Spiritual Guides to the people is of so great burden , so various rules , so intricate and busie caution , that it requires a distinct tractate by it self . SECT . III. Of Negotiation , or Civil Contracts . THis part of Justice is such as depends upon the Laws of Man directly , and upon the Laws of God onely by consequence and indirect reason : and from civil Laws or private agreements it is to take its estimate and measures : and although our duty is plain and easy , requiring of us honesty in contracts , sincerity in affirming , simplicity in bargaining , and faithfulnesse in performing , yet it may be helped by the addition of these following rules and considerations . Rules and measures of justice in bargaining . 1. In making contracts use not many words ▪ for all the businesse of a bargain is summed up in few sentences : and he that speaks least , means fairest , as having fewer opportunities to deceive . 2. Lye not at all , neither in a little thing nor in a great , neither in the substance nor in the circumstance , neither in word nor deed : that is , pretend not what is false , cover not what is true , and let the measure of your affirmation or denyal be the understanding of your contractor : for he that deceives the buyer or the seller by speaking what is true in a sense not intended or understood by the other , is a lyar and a thief . For in bargains you are to avoid not onely what is false , but that also which deceives . 3. In prices of bargaining concerning uncertain Merchandizes you may buy as cheap ordinarily as you can , and sell as dear as you can , so it be 1. without violence , and 2. when you contract on equal terms , with persons in all senses ( as to the matter and skill of bargaining ) equal to your self , that is , Merchants with Merchants , wise men with wise men , rich with rich : and 3. when there is no deceit , and no necessity , and no Monopoly : For in these cases , viz. when the Contractors are equal , and no advantage on either side , both parties are voluntary , and therefore there can be no injustice or wrong to either . But then adde also this consideration , that the publick bee not oppressed by unreasonable and unjust rates : for which the following rules are the best measure . 4. Let your prices be according to that measure of good and evil which is established in the fame and common accounts of the wisest and most merciful Men skill'd in that manufacture or commodity ; and the gain such which without scandal is allowed to persons in all the same circumstances . 5. Let no prices be heightned by the necessity or unskilfulnesse of the contractor ; for the first is direct uncharitablenesse to the person , and injustice in the thing ( because the Mans necessity could no● naturally enter into the consideration of the value of the commodity ) and the other is deceit and oppression : much lesse must any Man make necessities ; as by ingrossing a commodity , by monopoly , by detaining corn , or the like indirect arts : for such persons are unjust to all single persons with whom in such cases they contract , and oppressors of the publick . 6. In entercourse with others do not do all which you may lawfully do ; but keep something within thy power : and because there is a latitude of gain in buying and selling , take not thou the utmost peny that is lawfull , or which thou thinkest so ; for although it be lawful , yet it is not safe ; and he that gains all that he can gain lawfully this year , possibly next year will be tempted to gain something unlawfully . 7. He that sels dearer by reason he s●ls not for ready money , must increase his price no higher then to make himself recompence for the losse which according to the Rules of trade he sustained by his forbearance , according to common computation , reckoning in also the hazard , which he is prudently , warily , and charitably to estimate : But although this be the measure of his justice , yet because it happens either to their friends , or to necessitous and poor persons , they are in these cases to consider the rules of friendship and neighbourhood , and the obligations of charity , lest justice turn in●o unmercifulnesse . 8. No Man is to be raised in his price or rents in regard of any accident , advantage or disadvantage of his person . A Prince must be used conscionably as well as a common person , and a Beggar be treated justly as well as a Prince ; with this onely difference , that to poor persons the utmost measure and extent of justice is unmerciful , which to a rich person is innocent , because it is just , and he needs not thy mercy and remission . 9. Let no Man for his own poverty become more oppressing and cruel in his bargain , but quietly , modestly , diligently , and patiently recommend his estate to God , & follow its interest and leave the success to him : for such courses will more probably advance his trade , they will certainly procure him a blessing , and a recompence , and if they cure not his poverty , they will take away the evil of it : and there is nothing el●e in it that can trouble him . 10. Detain not the wages of the hireling : for every degree of detention of it beyond the time is injustice , and uncharitablenesse , and grindes his face till tears and blood come out : but pay him exactly according to Covenant , or according to his needs . 11. Religiously keep all promises and Covenants , though made to your disadvantage , though afterwards you perceive you might have been better : & let not any precedent act of yours be altered by any after-accident . Let nothing make you break your promise , unlesse it be unlawful or impossible , that is , either out of your natural , or out of your civil power , your self being under the power of another ; or that it be intolerably inconvenient to your self , and of no * advantage to another ; or that you have leave expressed , or reasonably presumed . 12. Let no Man take wages or fees for a work that he cannot do , or cannot with probability undertake , or in some sense profitably , and with ease , or with advantage manage : Physicians must not meddle with desperate diseases , and known to be incurable , without declaring their sense before hand ; that if the patient please he may entertain him at adventure , or to do him some little ease . Advocates must deal plainly with their Clients , and tell them the true state and danger of their case ; and must not pretend confidence in an evil cause : but when he hath so cleared his own innocence ; if the Client will have collateral and legal advantages obtained by his industry , he may engage his endeavour , provided he do no injury to the right cause , or any Mans person . 13. Let no Man appropriate to his own use what God by a special mercy , or the Republick hath made common ; for that is both against Justice and Charity too : and by miraculous accidents God hath declared his displeasure against such inclosures . When the Kings of Naples enclosed the Gardens of Oenotria , where the best Manna of Calabria descends , that no Man might gather it without paying tribute ; the Manna ceased , till the tribute was taken off ; and then it came again , and so till after the third trial , the Princes found they could not have that in proper which GOD made to be common , they left it as free as GOD gave it . The like hapned in Epire when Lysnnachus laid an impost upon the Tragasaean Salt , it vanished , till Lysimachus left it publick . And when the procurators of King Antigonus imposed a rate upon the sick people that came to Edepsum to drink the waters which were lately sprung and were very healthful , instantly the waters dried up , and the hope of gain perished . The summe of all is in these words of Saint Paul , [ Let no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter ; because the Lord is the avenger of all such ] and our blessed Saviour in the enumerating the duties of justice , besides the Commandement of [ Do not steal ] addes [ Defraud not ] forbidding ( as a distinct explication of the old Law ) the tacite and secret thest of abusing our Brother in Civil Contracts . And it needs no other arguments to enforce this caution , but only , that the Lord hath undertaken to avenge all such persons : And as he alwayes does it in the great day of recompences : so very often he does it here , by making the unclean portion of injustice to be as a Cankerworm eating up all the other increase : it procures beggery , and a declining estate , or a caytive , cursed spirit , an ill name , the curse of the injured and oppressed person , and a Fool or a Prodigal to be his Heir . SECT . IV. Of Restitution . REstitution is that part of Justice to which a man is obliged by a precedent contract or a soregoing ●ault , by his own act , or another mans , either with , or without his will. He that borrows is bound to pay , and much more he ●hat s●●als or cheats . For if he that borrows and payes not when he is able be an unjust person , and a robber , because he possesses another mans goods to the right owners prejudice● then , he that took them at first without leave is the same thing in every instant of his possession , which the Debter is after the time in which he should and could have made payment . For in all sins we are to distinguish the transient or passing act frō the remaining effect or evil . The act of stealing was soon over , and cannot be undone , and for it the sinner is onely answerable to God , or his Vicegerent , and he is in a particular manner appointed to expiate it , by suffering punishment , and repenting , and asking pardon , and judging and condemning himself , doing acts of justice and charity in opposition & contradiction to that evil action . But because in the case of stealing there is an injury done to our neighbour , and the evil still remains after the action is past , therfore for this we are accountable to our neighbour , and we are to take the evil off from him which we brought upon him , or else he is an injured person , a sufferer all the while : and that any man should be the worse for me and my direct act , and by my intention , is against the rule of equity , of justice and of charity ; I do not that to others which I would have done to my self , for I grow richer upon the ruines of his fortune . Upon this ground , it is a determined rule in Divinity , Our sin can never be pardoned till we have restored what we unjustly took , or wrongfully detain : restored it ( I mean ) actually , or in purpose and desire , which we must really perform when we can : and this doctrine , besides its evident and apparent reasonablenesse , is derived from the expresse words of Scripture , reckoning Restitution to be a part of Repentance , necessary in order to the remission of our sins . [ If the wicked restore the pledge , give again that he had robbed , &c. he shall surely live , he shall not dye . ] The practise of this part of justice is to be directed by the following Rules . Rules of making Restitution . 1. Whosoever is an effective , real cause of doing his Neighbour wrong , by what instrument soever he does it , ( whether by commanding or incouraging it , by counselling or commending a it , by acting it , or not b hindering it when he might and ought , by concealing it , or receiving it ) is bound to make restitution to his Neighbour ; if without him the injury had not been done , but by him , or his assistance it was . For by the same reason that every one of these is guilty of the sin , and is cause of the injury , by the same they are bound to make reparation ; because by him his Neighbour is made worse , and therefore is to be put into that state from whence he was forced . And suppose that thou hast perswaded an injury to be done to thy Neighbour , which others would have perswaded if thou hadst not , yet thou art still obliged , because thou really didst cause the injury ; just as they had been obliged if they had done it ; and thou art not at all the lesse bound by having persons as ill inclined as thou wert . 2. He that commanded the injury to be done , is first bound : then , he that did it ; and after these they also are obliged who did so assist , as without them the thing would not have been done . If satisfaction be made by any of the former , the latter is tyed to repentance , but no restitution : But if the injured person be not righted , every one o● them is who●ly guilty of the injustice , and therefore bound to restitution singlely and intirely . 3. Whosoever intends a little injury to his Neighbour , and acts it , and by it a greater evil accidentally comes , he is obliged to make an intire reparation of all the injurie , of that which he intended , and of that which he intended not , but yet acted by his own instrument , going further then he at first purposed it . He that set fire on a plane Tree to spite his Neighbour , and the plane Tree set fire upon his Neighbours House , is bound to pay for all the losse , because it did all arise from his own ill intention . It is like murder committed by a drunken person , involuntary in some of the effect , but voluntary in the other parts of it , and in all the cause , and therefore the guilty person is answerable for all of it . And when Ariarathes the Cappadocian King had but in wantonesse stop'd the mouth of the river Melanus , although he intended no evil , yet Euphrates being swell'd by that means , and bearing away some of the strand of Cappadocia did great spoil to the Phrygians and Galatians , and therefore by the Roman Senate was condemned in three hundred talents towards reparation of the damage . Much rather therefore when the lesser part of the evil was directly intended . 4. He that hinders a charitable person from giving alms to a poor man is tyed to restitution , if he hindred him by fraud or violence . Because it was a right which the poor man had when the good man had designed and resolved it ; and the fraud or violence hinders the effect , but not the purpose , and therefore he who used the deceit or the force is injurious , and did damage to the poor man. But if the alms were hindered onely by intreaty , the hinderer is not tyed to restitution , because intreaty took not liberty away from the giver , but left him still Master of his own act , and he had power to alter his purpose , and so long there was no injustice done . The same is the case of a Testator giving a legacy either by kindenesse , or by promise and common right . He that hinders the charitable Legacy by fraud or violence , or the due Legacy by intreaty is equally obliged to restitution . The reason of the latter part of this case is , because he that intreats or perswades to a sin is as guilty as he that acts it : and if without his perswasion the sin and the injury would not be acted , he is in his kinde the intire cause , and therefore obliged to repair the injury as much as the person that does the wrong immediately . 5. He that refuses to do any part of his duty ( to which he is otherwise obliged ) without a bribe , is bound to restore that money , because he took it in his Neighbours wrong , and not as a salary for his labour , or a reward of his wisdom ( for his stipend hath paid all that , or ) he hath obliged himself to do it by his voluntary undertaking . 6. He that takes any thing from his Neighbour which was justly forfeited , but yet takes it not as a Minister of justice , but to satisfie his own revenge or avarice , is tyed to repentance but not to restitution . For my Neighbour is not the worse for my act , for thither the Law and his own demerits bore him , but because I took the forfeiture indirectly I am answerable to God , for my unhandsome , unjust , or uncharitable circumstances . Thus Philip of Macedon was reproved by Aristides for destroying the Phocenses ; because although they deserved it , yet he did it not in prosecution of the law of Nations , but to enlarge his own dominions . 7. The heir of an oblig'd person is not bound to make restitution , if the obligation passed onely by a personal act : but if it passed from his person to his estate , then the estate passes with all its burden . If the Father by perswading his neighbour to do injustice ●e bound to restore , the action is extinguished by the death of the Father ; because it was onely the Fathers sin that bound him , which cannot directly binde the son ; therefore the son is free . And this is so in all personal actions , unlesse where the civil Law interposes and alters the case . These rules concern the persons that are obliged to make restitution : the other circumstances of it are thus described . 8. He that by fact , or word , or signe , either fraudulently , or violently does hurt to his Neighbours body , life , goods , good name , friends , or soul is bound to make restitution in the several instances , according as they are capable to be made . In all these instances we must separate intreaty and inticements from deceit or violence . If I perswade my Neighbour to commit adultery , I still leave him or her in their own power : and though I am answerable to God for my sin , yet not to my Neighbour . For I made her to be willing ; yet she was willing a , that is , the same at last as I was at first : but if I have used fraud , and made her to believe a lie b , upon which confidence she did the act , and without it she would not ( as if I tell a woman her Husband is dead , or intended to kill her , or is himself an adulterous man ) or if I use violence , that is , either force her or threaten her with death , or a grievous wound , or any thing that takes her from the liberty of her choice , I am bound to restitution , that is , to restore her to a right understanding of things and to a full liberty , by taking from her the deceit or the violence . 9. An Adulterous person is tyed to restitu - of the injury , so far as it is reparable , and can be made to the wronged person ; that is , to make provision for the children begotten in unlawful embraces , that they may do no injury to the legitimate by receiving a common portion : and if the injured person do account of it , he must satisfie him with money for the wrong done to his bed . He is not tyed to offer this , because it is no proper exchange , but he is bound to pay it , if it be reasonably demanded : for every man hath justice done him , when himself is satisfyed , though by a word , or an action , or a peny . 10. He that hath kild a man is bound to restitution by allowing such a maintenance to the children and neer relatives of the deceased as they have lost by his death , considering and allowing for all circumstances of the mans age , and health , and probability of living . And thus Hercules is said to have made expiation for the death of Iphitus whom he slew , by paying a mulct to his children . 11. He that hath really lessened the same of his neighbour by fraud or violence is bound to restore it by its proper instruments : such as are confession of his fault , giving testimony of his innocence or worth , doing him honour , or ( if that will do it , and both parties agree ) by money which answers all things . 12. He that hath wounded his neighbour is tyed to the expences of the Surgeon & other incidences , and to repair whatever loss he sustains by his disability to work or trade : & the same is in the case of false imprisonment ; in which cases onely the real e●fect and remaining detriment are to be mended and repaired : for the action it self is to be punished or repented of , and enters not into the question of restitution . But in these and all other cases the injured person is to be restor'd to that perfect and good condition from which he was removed by my fraud or violence , so far as is possible . Thus a ravisher must repair the temporal detriment of injury done to the maid , and give her a dowry , or marry her if she desire it . For this restores her into that capacity of being a good wife , which by the injury was lost , as far as it can be done . 13. He that robbeth his Neighbour of his goods , or detains any thing violently or fraudulently , is bound not onely to restore the principall , but all its fruits and emoluments which would have accrued to the right owner during the time of their being detained . * By proportion to these rules , we may judge of the obligation that lyes upon all sorts of injurious persons : that sacrilegious , the detainers of tithes , cheaters of mens inheritances , unjust Judges , false witnesses and accusers , those that do fraudulently or violently bring men to sin , that force men to drink , that laugh at and disgrace vertue , that perswade servants to run away , or commend such purposes , violent persecutors of religion in any instance ; and all of the same nature . 14. He that hath wronged so many , or in that manner ( as in the way of daily trade ) that he knows not in what measure he hath done it , or who they are ; must redeem his fault by alms , and largesses to the poor , according to the value of his wrongful dealing , as neer as he can proportion it . Better it is to go begging to Heaven , then to go to Hell laden with the spoils of rapine and injustice . 15. The order of paying the debts of contract , or restitution , are in some instances set down by the civil laws of a kingdom , in which cases their rule is to be observed : In destitution or want of such rules , we are 1. to observe the necessity of the Creditor . 2. Then the time of the delay : and 3. The special obligations , of friendship or kindenesse : and according to these in their several degrees , make our restitution , if we be not able to do all that we should : but if we be , the best rule is to do it as soon as we can , taking our accounts in this as in our humane actions , according to prudence , and civil or natural conveniences or possibilities ; onely securing these two things . 1. That the duty be not wholly omitted : and 2. That it be not deferred at all out of covetousnesse , or any other principle that is vitious . Remember , that the same day in which Zacheus made restitution to all whom he had injured , the same day Christ himself pronounced that salvation was come to his house . *** 16. But besides the obligation arising from contract or default , there is one of another sort which comes from kindenesse , and the acts of charity and friendship . * He that does me a favour hath bound me to make him a return of thankfulnesse . The obligation comes not by covenant , not by his own expresse intention , but by the nature of the thing ; and is a duty springing up within the spirit of the obliged person , to whom it is more natural to love his friend , and to do good for good , then to return evil for evil : because a man may forgive an injury , but he must never forget a good turne . For every thing that is excellent , and every thing that is profitable , whatsoever is good in it self or good to me , cannot but be beloved ; and what we love , we naturally cherish and do good to . He therefore that refuses to do good to them whom he is bound to love , or to love that which did him good , is unnatural and monstrous in his affections , and thinks all the world borne to minister to him , with a greedinesse worse then that of the sea , which although it receives all rivers into it self , yet it furnishes the clouds and springs with a return of all thy need . Our duty to benefactors is to esteem and love their persons : to make them proportionable returns of service or duty , or profit , according as we can , or as they need , or as opportunity presents it self , and according to the greatnesses of their kindnesses : and to pray to God to make them recompence for all the good they they have done to us ; which last office is also requisite to be done for our Creditors , who in charity have relieved our wants . Prayers to be said in relation to the several Obligations and Ofces of Iustice. A Prayer for the Grace of Obedience : to be said by all persons under Co●mand . O Eternal God , Great Ruler of Men and Angels , who hast constituted all things in ● wonderful order , making all the creatures subject to man , and one man to another , and all to thee , the last link of this admirable chain being fastned to the foot of thy throne : teach me to obey all those whom thou hast set over me , reverencing their persons , submitting indifferently to all their lawful commands , cheerfully undergoing those burdens which the publick wisdom and necessity shall impose upon me ; at no hand murmuring against government , lest the Spirit of pride and mutiny , of murmur and disorder enter into me , and consigne me to the portion of the disobedient and rebellious , of the Despisers of dominion , and revilers of dignity . Grant this O holy God for his sake , who for his obedience to the Father hath obtained the glorification of eternal ages , our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen . Prayers for Kings and all Magistrates , for our Parents spiritual and natural , are in the following Letanies at the end of the fourth Chapter . A Prayer to be said by Subjects , when their Land is invaded and over-run by barbarous or wicked people , enemies of the Religion , or the Government . I. O Eternal God , thou alone rulest in the Kingdoms of men , thou art the great God of battels and recompences , and by thy glorious wisdom , by thy Almighty power , & by thy secret providence , doest determine the events of war and the issues of humane counsels and the returns of peace and victory , now at least be pleased to let the light of thy countenance , and the effects of a glorious mercy , & a gracious pardon return to this Land. Thou seest how great evils we suffer under the power & tyranny of war , & although we submit to , & adore thy justice in our sufferings , yet be pleased to pity our misery , to hear our complaints , and to provide us of remedy against our present calamities : let not the defenders of a righteous cause go away ashamed , nor our counsels be for ever confounded , nor our parties defeated , nor religion suppressed , nor learning discountenanced , and we be spoiled of all the exteriour ornaments , instruments and advantages of piety , which thou hast been pleased formerly to minister to our infirmities , for the interests of learning and religion . Amen . II. WE confesse dear God , that we have deserved to be totally extinct and separate from the Communion of Saints , and the comforts of Religion , to be made servants to ignorant , unjust and inferiour persons , or to suffer any other calamitie which thou shalt allot us as the instrument of thy anger , whom we have so often provoked to wrath and jealousie . Lord we humbly lye down under the burden of thy rod , begging of thee to remember our infirmities , and no more to remember our sins , to support us with thy staff , to lift us up with thy hand , to refresh us with thy gracious eye ▪ and if a sad cloud of temporal infelicities must still encircle us , open unto us the window of Heaven , that with an eye of faith and hope we may see beyond the cloud , looking upon those mercies which in thy secret providence and admirable wisdom thou designest to all thy servants , from such unlikely and sad beginnings . Teach us diligently to do all our duty , and cheerfully to submit to all thy will ; and at last be gracious to thy people that call upon thee , that put their trust in thee , that have laid up all their hopes in the bosome of God , that besides thee have no helper . Amen . A Prayer to be said by Parents for their Children . O Almighty and most merciful Father , who hast promised children as a reward to the Righteous , and hast given them to me as a testimony of thy mercy , and an engagement of my duty ; be pleased to be a Father unto them , and give them healthful bodies , understanding souls , and sanctified spirits , that they may be thy servants , and thy children all their dayes . Let a great mercy and providence lead them through the dangers and temptations and ignorances of their youth , that they may never run into folly , and the evils of an unbridled appetite . So order the accidents of their lives , that by good education , careful Tutors , holy example , innocent company , prudent counsel , and thy restraining grace , their duty to thee may be secured in the midst of a crooked and untoward generation : and if it seem good in thy eyes , let me be enabled to provide conveniently for the support of their persons , that they may not be destitute and miserable in my death ; or if thou shalt call me off from this World by a more timely summons , let their portion be , thy care , mercy , and providence over their bodies and souls : and may they never live vitious lives , nor dye violent or untimely deaths ; but let them glorifie thee here with a free obedience , and the duties of a whole life , that when they have served thee in their generations , and have profited the Christian Common-wealth , they may be coheirs with Jesus in the glories of thy eternal Kingdom , through the same , our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen . A Prayer to be said by Masters of Families , Curats , Tutors , or other obliged persons for their charges . O Almighty God , merciful and gracious , have mercy upon my Family [ or Pupils , or Parishioners , &c. ] and all committed to my charge : sanctifie them with thy grace , preserve them with thy providence , guard them from all evil by the custody of Angels , direct them in the wayes of peace and holy Religion by my Ministery and the conduct of thy most holy Spirit , and consigne them all with the participation of thy blessings and graces in this World , with healthful bodies , with good understandings , and sanctified spirits to a full fruition of thy glories hereafter , through Jesus Christ our Lord. A Prayer to be said by Merchants , Tradesmen , and Handicrafts men . O Eternal God , thou Fountain of justice , mercy and benediction , who by my education and other effects of thy providence hast called me to this profession , that by my industry I may in my small proportion work together for the good of my self and others : I humbly beg thy grace to guide me in my intention , and in the transaction of my affairs that I may be diligent , just , and faithful : and give me thy favour , that this my labour may be accepted by thee as a part of my necessary duty , and give me thy blessing to assist and prosper me in my Calling , to such measures as thou shalt in mercy choose for me : and be pleased to let thy holy Spirit be for ever present with me , that I may never be given to covetousnesse and sordid appetites , to lying and falsehood , or any other base , indirect and beggerly arts , but give me prudence , honesty and Christian sincerity , that my trade may be sanctified by my Religion , my labour by my intention and thy blessing , that when I have done my portion of work thou hast allotted me , and improv'd the talent thou hast intrusted to me , and serv'd the Common-wealth in my capacity , I may receive the mighty price of my high calling , which I expect and beg , in the portion and inheritance of the ever blessed Saviour and Redeemer Jesus . Amen . A Prayer to be said by Debtors and all persons obliged whether by crime or contract . O Almighty God who art rich unto all , the treasure and Fountain of all good , of all justice , and all mercy , and all bounty , to whom we owe all that we are , and all that we have , being thy Debtors by reason of our sins , and by thy own gracious contract made with us in Jesus Christ : teach me in the first place to perform all my Obligations to thee , both of duty and thankfulnesse ; and next enable me to pay my duty to all my friends , and my debts to all my Creditors , that none bee made miserable , or lessened in his estate by his kindenesse to me , or traffick with me . Forgive me all those sins and irregular actions by which I entered into debt further then my necessity required , or by which such necessity was brought upon me : but let not them suffer by occasion of my sin . Lord reward all their kindnesse into their bosomes , and make them recompence where I cannot , and make me very willing in all that I can , and able for all that I am oblig'd to , or if it seem good in thine eyes to afflict me by the continuance of this condition , yet make it up by some means to them , that the prayer of thy servant may obtain of thee , at least to pay my debt in blessings . Amen . II. LOrd sanctifie and forgive all that I have tempted to evil by my discourse or my example : instruct them in the right way whom I have lead to errour , & let me never run further on the score of sinne ; but do thou blot out all the evils I have done , by the spunge of thy passion , and the blood of thy Crosse ; and give me a deep and an excellent repentance , and a free and a gracious pardon , that thou mayest answer for me , O Lord , and enable me to stand upright in judgement ; for in thee , O Lord , have I trusted , let me never be confounded . Pity me , and instruct me ; guide me and support me , pardon me and save me , for my sweet Saviour Jesus Christ his sake . Amen . A Prayer for Patron and Benefactours . O Almighty GOD thou Fountain of all good , of all excellency both to Men and Angels , extend thine abundant favour and loving kindnesse to my Patron , to all my friends and Benefactors : Reward them , and make them plentiful recompence for all the good which from thy merciful providence they have conveyed unto me : Let the light of thy countenance shine upon them , and let them never come into any affliction or sadnesse , but such as may be an instrument of thy glory and their eternal comfort . Forgive them all their sins ; let thy Divinest Spirit preserve them from all deeds of Darknesse . Let thy ministring Angels guard their persons from the violence of the spirits of Darknesse : And thou who knowest every degree of their necessity by thy infinite wisdom , give supply to all their needs by thy glorious mercy , preserving their persons , sanctifying their hearts , and leading them in the wayes of righteousnesse , by the waters of comfort , to the land of eternal rest and glory , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . CHAP. IV. Of Christian Religion . REligion in a large sense does signifie the whole duty of Man , comprehending in it Justice , Charity , and Sobriety : because all these being commanded by God they become a part of that honour and worship which we are bound to pay to him . And thus the word is used in S. Iames , Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this , To visit the fatherlesse and Widows in their affliction , and to keep himself unspotted from the world . But in a more restrained sense it is taken for that part of duty which particularly relates to God in our worshippings and adoration of him , in confessing his excellencies , loving his person , admiring his goodnesse , believing his Word , and doing all that which may in a proper and direct manner do him honour . It containes the duties of the first Table onely , and so it is called Godlinesse * , and is by Saint Paul , distinguished from Iustice and Sobriety . In this sense I am now to explicate the parts of it . Of the internal actions of Religion . Those I call the internal actions of Religion , in which the soul onely is imployed , and ministers to God in the special actions of Faith , Hope , and Charity . Faith believes the revelations of God : Hope expects his promises : and Charity loves his excellencies and mercies . Faith gives our understanding to God : Hope gives up all the passions and affections to Heaven and heavenly things : and Charity gives the will to the service of God. Faith is oppos'd to Infidelity : Hope to Despair : Charity to Enmity and Hostility ; and these three sanctifie the whole Man , and make our duty to God and obedience to his Commandments to be chosen , reasonable , and delightful , and therefore to be intire , persevering , and universal . SECT . I. Of Faith. The Acts and Offices of Faith , are 1. TO believe every thing which God hath revealed to us ; and when once we are convinced that God hath spoken it , to make no further enquiry , but humbly to submit , ever remembring that there are some things which our understanding cannot fathom nor search out their depth . 2. To believe nothing concerning God but what is honourable and excellent , as knowing that belief to be no honoring of God which entertains of him any dishonourable thoughts . Faith is the parent of Charity , and whatsoever Faith entertains must be apt to produce love to God : but he that believes God to be cruel or unmerciful , or a rejoycer in the unavoidable damnation of the greatest part of mankinde , or that he speaks one thing and privately means another ; thinks evil thoughts concerning God , and such , as for which we should hate a man , and therefore are great enemies of Faith , being apt to destroy charity . Our Faith concerning God must be as himself hath revealed and described his own excellencies : and in our discourses we must remove from him all imperfection , and attribute to him all excellency . 3. To give our selves wholly up to Christ in heart and desire to become Disciples of his doctrine with choice ( besides conviction ) being in the presence of God , but as Ideots , that is , without any principles of our own to hinder the truth of God ; but sucking in greedily all that God hath taught us , believing it infinitely , and loving to believe it . For this is an act of Love reflected upon Faith , or an act of Faith leaning upon Love. 4. To believe all Gods promises , and that whatsoever is promised in Scripture shall on Gods part be as surely performed as if we had it in possession . This act makes us to rely upon God with the same confidence as we did on our Parents when we were children , when we made no doubt , but whatsoever we needed we should have it if it were in their power . 5. To believe also the conditions of the promise , or that part of the revelation which concerns our duty . Many are apt to believe the Article of remission of sins , but they believe it without the condition of repentance , or the fruits of holy life : and that is to believe the Article otherwise then God intended it . For the Covenant of the Gospel is the great object of Faith , and that supposes our duty to answer his grace ; that God will be our God , so long , as we are his people ; The other is not Faith but Flattery . 6. To professe publickly the doctrine of Jesus Christ , openly owning whatsoever he hath revealed and commanded , not being ashamed of the word of God , or of any practises enjoyned by it ; and this , without complying with any mans interest , not regarding favor , nor being moved with good words , not fearing disgrace , or losse , or inconvenience , or death it self . 7. To pray without doubting , without wearinesse , without faintnesse , entertaining no jealousies , or suspitions of God , but being confident of Gods hearing us , and os his returns to us , whatsoever the manner or the instance be , that if we do our duty , it will be gracious and merciful . These acts of Faith are in several degrees in the servants of Jesus : some have it but as a grain of mustard-seed , some grow up to a plant , some have the fulnesse of faith : but the least faith that is must be a perswasion so strong as to make us undertake the doing of all that duty which Christ built upon the foundation of believing : but we shall best discern the truth of our faith by these following signes . S. Hierom reckons three . Signes of true Faith. 1. An earnest and vehement prayer : for it is impossible we should heartily believe the things of God and the glories of the Gospel , and not most importunately desire them . For every thing is desired according to our belief of its excellency and possibility . 2. To do nothing for vain glory , but wholly for the interests of religion , and these Articles we believe ; valuing not at all the r●mours of men , but the praise of God , to whom by faith , we have given up all our intellectual faculties . 3. To be content with God for our Judge , for our Patron , for our Lord , for our friend , desiring God to be all in all to us , as we are in our understanding and affections wholly his . Adde to these . 4. To be a stranger upon earth in our affections , and to have all our thoughts and principal desires fixed upon the matters of Faith , the things of Heaven . For if a man were adopted heir to Caesar , he would ( if he believed it real and effective ) despise the present , and wholly be at court in his Fathers eye ; and his desires would outrun his swiftest speed , and all his thoughts would spend themselves in creating Ideas , and little phantastick images of his future condition . Now God hath made us Heirs of his Kingdom , and Coheirs with Jesus : if we believed this , we would think and affect , and study accordingly . But he that rejoyces in gain , and his heart dwells in the world , and is espoused to a fair estate , and transported with a light momentany joy , and is afflicted with losses , and amazed with temporal persecutions , and esteems disgrace , or poverty in a good cause to be intolerable , this man either hath no inheritance in Heaven , or believes none ; and believes not that he is adopted to be the Son of God , the Heir of eternal Glory . 5. S. Iames's signe is the best : [ Shew me thy faith by thy works ] Faith makes the Merchant diligent and venturous , and that makes him rich . Ferdinando of Arragon believed the story told him by Columbus , and therefore he furnished him with ships , and got the west Indies by his Faith in the undertaker . But Henry the seventh of England believed him not , and therefore trusted him not with shipping , and lost all the purchase of that Faith. It is told us by Christ [ He that forgives shall be forgiven ] if we believe this , it is certain we shall forgive our enemies ; for none of us all but need and desire to be forgiven . No man can possibly despise or refuse to desire such excellent glories as are revealed to them that that are servants of Christ : and yet we do nothing that is commanded us as a condition to obtain them . No man could work a dayes labor without faith : but because he believes he shall have his wages at the dayes or weeks end , he does his duty . But he onely believes who does that thing which other men in the like cases do , when they do believe . He that believes , money gotten with danger is better then poverty with safety , will venture for it in unknown lands or seas : and so will he that believes it better to get Heaven with labour , then to go to Hell with pleasure . 6. He that believes does not make haste , but waits patiently till the times of refreshment come , and dares trust God for the morrow , and is no more sollicitous for next year , then he is for that which is past : and it is certain , that man wants faith who dares be more confident of being supplied when he hath money in his purse , then when he hath it onely in bills of exchange from God : or that relyes more upon his own industry then upon Gods providence , when his own industry fails him . If you dare trust to God when the case to humane reason seems impossible , and trust to God then also out of choice , not because you have nothing else to trust to , but because he is the onely support of a just confidence , then you give a good testimony of your faith . 7. True Faith is confident , and will venture all the world upon the strength of its persuasion . Will you lay your life on it , your estate , your reputation , that the doctrine of JESUS CHRIST is true in every Article ? Then you have true Faith. But he that fears men more then God , believes men more then he believes in God. 8. Faith , if it be true , living , and justifying cannot be separated from a good life : it works miracles , makes a Drunkard become sober , a lascivious person become chast , a covetous man become liberal : it overcomes the world , it works righteousnesse , and makes us diligently to do , and cheerfully to suffer whatsoever God hath placed in our way to Heaven . The Means and Instruments to obtain Faith , are 1. An humble , willing , and docible minde , or desire to be instructed in the way of God : For persuasion enters like a sun-beam , gently , and without violence : and open but the window , and draw the curtain and the Sun of righteousnesse will enlighten your darknesse . 2. Remove all prejudice and love to every thing which may be contradicted by Faith : How can ye believe ( said Christ ) that receive praise one of another ? An unchast man cannot easily be brought to believe that without purity he shall never see God. He that loves riches can hardly believe the doctrine of poverty and renuntiation of the world : and alms and Martyrdom , and the doctrine of the crosse is folly to him that loves his ease and pleasures . He that hath within him any principle contrary to the doctrines of Faith , cannot easily become a Disciple . 3. Prayer which is instrumental to every thing hath a particular promise in this thing . He that lacks wisdom let him ask it of God : and , if you give good things to your children , how much more shall your Heavenly Father give his Spirit to them that ask him . 4. The consideration of the Divine Omnipotence , and infinite wisdom , and our own ignorance , are great instruments of curing all doubting , and silencing the murmures of infidelity . 5. Avoid all curiosity of inquiry into particulars , and circumstances and mysteries : for true faith is full of ingenuity , and hearty simplicity , free from suspicion , wise and confident , trusting upon generals without watching and prying into unnecessary or undiscernable particulars . No Man carries his bed into his field to watch how his corn grows ; but believes upon the general order of Providence and Nature ; and at Harvest findes himself not deceived . 6. In time of temptation be not busie to dispute , but relye upon the conclusion , and throw your self upon God , and contend not with him , but in prayer , and in the presence , and with the help of a prudent untempted guide : and be sure to esteem all changes of belief which offer themselves in the time of your greatest weaknesse ( contrary to the perswasions of your best understanding ) to bee temptations , and reject them accordingly . 7. It is a prudent course that in our health and best advantages we lay up particular arguments and instruments of perswasion and confidence , to be brought forth and used in the great day of expence ; and that especially in such things in which we use to be most tempted , and in which we are least confident , and which are most necessary , and which commonly the Devil uses to assault us withal in the days of our visitation . 8. The wisdom of the Church of God is very remarkable in appointing Festivals or Holidayes , whose solemnity and Offices have no other special businesse but to record the Article of the day ; such as , Trinity Sunday , Ascension , Easter , Christmas day : and to those persons who can onely believe , not prove or dispute , there is no better instrument to cause the remembrance , and plain notion , and to endear the affection and hearty assent to the Article , then the proclaiming and recommending it by the festivity and joy of a Holy day . Sect. II. Of the Hope of a Christian. FAith differs from Hope in the extension of its object , and in the intension of degree . Saint Austin thus accounts their differences . Faith is of all things revealed , good and bad , rewards and punishments , of things past , present , and to come , of things that concern us , and of things that concern us not : But Hope hath for its Object things onely that are good and fit to be hoped for , future , and concerning our selves : and because these things are offered to us upon conditions of which we may so fail as we may change our will ; therefore our certainty is lesse then the adherences of faith ; which ( because Faith relyes onely upon one proposition , that is , the truth of the Word of God ) cannot be made uncertain in themselves , though the object of our Hope may become uncertain to us , and to our possession : for it is infallibly certain , that there is Heaven for all the godly , and for me amongst them all , if I do my duty . But that I shall enter into Heaven is the object of my Hope , not of my Faith , and is so sure , as it is certain I shall persevere in the wayes of God. The Acts of Hope , are 1. To relye upon God with a confident expectation of his promises ; ever esteeming that every promise of God is a magazine of all that grace and relief which we can need in that instance for which the promise is made . Every degree of hope is a degree of confidence . 2. To esteem all the danger of an action and the possibilities of miscarriage , and every crosse accident that can intervene , to be no defect on Gods part , but either a mercy on his part , or a fault on ours : for then we shall be sure to trust in God when we see him to be our confidence , and our selves the cause of all mischances . The hope of a Christian is prudent and religious . 3. To rejoyce in the midst of a misfortune or seeming sadnesse , knowing that this may work for good , and will , if we be not wanting to our souls . This is a direct act of Hope to look through the cloud , and look for a beam of light from God , and this is called in Scripture , Rejoycing in tribulation , when the God of hope fils us with all joy in believing . Every degree of hope brings a degree of joy . 4. To desire , to pray , and to long for the great object of our hope , the mighty price of our high calling ; and to desire the other things of this life , as they are promised , that is , so far as they are made necessary and useful to us in order to Gods glory , and the great end of fouls . Hope and Fasting are said to be the two wings of Prayer . Fasting is but as the wing of a Bird , but Hope is like the wing of an Angel soaring up to Heaven , and bears our prayers to the throne of Grace . Without Hope it is impossible to pray ; but Hope makes our prayers reasonable , passionate , and religious ; for it relyes upon Gods promise , or experience , or providence , and story . Prayer is alwayes in proportion to our Hope , zealous and affectionate . 5. Perseverance is the perfection of the duty of hope , and its last act : and so long as our hope continues , so long we go on in duty and diligence : but he that is to raise a Castle in an hour , sits down & does nothing towards it : and Herod the Sophister left off to teach his son , when he saw that 24 Pages appointed to wait on him , and called by the several Letters of the Alphabet could never make him to understand his letters perfectly . Rules to govern our Hope . 1. Let your Hope be moderate , proportioned to your state , person and condition , whether it be for gifts or graces , or temporal favours . It is an ambitious hope for a person whose diligence is like them that are least in the Kingdom of Heaven , to believe themselves endea●'d to God as the greatest Saints , or that they shall have a throne equal to S. Paul or the blessed Virgin Mary . A Stammerer cannot with moderation hope for the gift of Tongues , or a Peasant to become learned as Origen : or if a Beggar desires or hopes to become a King , or asks for a thousand pound a year , we call him impudent , not passionate , much lesse reasonable . Hope that God will crown your endeavours with equal measures of that reward which he indeed freely gives , but yet gives according to our proportions . Hope for good successe according to , or not much beyond the efficacy of the causes and the instrument , and let the Husbandman hope for a good Harvest , not for a rich Kingdom , or a victorious Army . 2. Let your hope be well founded , relying upon just confidences , that is , upon God according to his revelations and promises . For it is possible for a Man to have a vain hope upon God : and in matters of Religion it is presumption to hope that Gods mercies will be powred forth upon lazy persons that do nothing towards holy and strict walking , nothing ( I say ) but trust , and long for an event besides and against all disposition of the means . Every false principle in Religion is a Reed of Egypt , false and dangerous . * Relye not in temporal things upon uncertain prophecies , and Astrology , not upon our own wit or industry , not upon gold or friends , not upon Armies and Princes , expect not health from Physicians that cannot cure their own breath , much lesse their mortality : use all lawful instruments , but expect nothing from them above their natural or ordinary efficacy , and in the use of them from God expect a blessing . A hope that is easie and credulous is an arm of flesh , an ill supporter without a bone . 3. Let your hope be without vanity , or garishnesse of spirit , but sober , grave and silent , fixed in the heart , not born upon the lip , apt to support our spirits within , but not to provoke envy abroad . 4. Let your hope be of things possible , safe and useful . He that hopes for an opportunity of acting his revenge , or lust , or rapine , watches to do himself a mischief . All evils of our selves or Brethren are objects of our fear , not hope : and when it is truly understood , things uselesse and unsafe can no more be wish'd for , then things impossible can be obtain'd . 5. Let your hope be patient , without tediousnesse of spirit , or hastinesse of prefixing time . Make no limits or prescriptions to God , but let your prayers and endeavours go on still with a constant attendance on the periods of Gods providence . The Men of Bethulia resolved to wait upon God but five dayes longer . But deliverance stayed seven dayes , and yet came at last : and take not every accident for an argument of despair : but go on still in hoping , and begin again to work if any ill accident have interrupted you . Means of Hope , and remedies against Despair . The means to cure Despair , and to continue or increase Hope , are partly by consideration , partly by exercise . 1. Apply your minde to the cure of all the proper causes of Despair : and they are weaknesse of spirit , or violence of passion . He that greedily covets , is impatient of delay , and desperate in contrary accidents ; and he that is little of heart , is also little of hope , and apt to sorrow and suspition . 2. Despise the things of the World , and be indifferent to all changes and events of providence ; and for the things of God the promises are certain to be performed in kinde ; & where there is lesse variety of chance , there is lesse possibility of being mocked : but he that creates to himself thousands of little hopes , uncertain in the promise , fallible in the event , and depending upon ten thousand circumstances ( as are all the things of this World ) shall often fail in his expectations , and be used to arguments of distrust in such hopes . 3. So long as your hopes are regular and reasonable , though in temporal affairs , such as are deliverance from enemies , escaping a storm or shipwrack , recovery from a sicknesse , ability to pay your debts , &c. remember that there are some things ordinary , and some things extraordinary to prevent despair . In ordinary , Remember that the very hoping in God is an endearment of him , and a means to obtain the blessing [ I will deliv●r him because he hath put his trust in me . ] 2. There are in God all those glorious Attributes and excellencies which in the nature of things can possibly create or confirm Hope . God is 1. Strong , 2. Wise. 3. True. 4. Loving . There cannot be added another capacity to create a confidence ; for upon these premises we cannot fail of receiving what is fit for us . 3. God hath oblig'd himself by promise that we shall have the good of every thing we desire : for even losses and denials shall work for the good of them that fear God. And if we will trust the truth of God for performance of the general , we may well trust his wisdome to choose for us the particular . * But the extraordinaries of God are apt to supply the defect of all natural and humane possibilities . 1. God hath in many instances given extraordinary vertue to the active causes and instruments : to a jaw-bone to kill a multitude : to 300 Men to destroy a great Army , to Ionathan and his Armour-bearer to rout a whole Garrison . 2. He hath given excellent sufferance and vigorousnesse to the sufferers , arming them with strange courage , heroical fortitude , invincible resolution , and glorious patience : and thus , he layes no more upon us then we are able to bear : for when he increases our sufferings , he lessens them by increasing our patience . 3. His providence is extraregular and produces strange things beyond common rules : and he that lead Israel through a Sea , and made a Rock powre forth waters , and the Heavens to give them bread and flesh , and whole Armies to be destroyed with phantastick noises , and the fortune of all France to be recovered and intirely revolv'd by the arms and conduct of a Girle against the torrent of the English fortune and Chivalry ; can do what he please , and still retains the same affections to his people , and the same providence over mankinde as ever : and it is impossible for that Man to despair , who remembers that his Helper is Omnipotent , and can do what he please : let us rest there awhile ; he can if he please : And he is infinitely loving : willing enough ; and he is infinitely wise , choosing better for us then we can do for our selves . This in all ages and chances hath supported the afflicted people of God and carried them on dry ground through a red Sea. God invites and cherishes the hopes of Men by all the variety of his providence . 4. If your case be brought to the last extremity , and that you are at the pits brink , even the very Margent of the Grave , yet then despair not ; at least put it off a little longer : and remember that whatsoever final accident takes away all hope from you , if you stay a little longer , and in the mean while bear it sweetly , it will also take away all despair too . For when you enter into the Regions of death , you rest from all your labours and your fears . 5. Let them who are tempted to despair of their salvation , consider how much Christ suffered to redeem ▪ us from sin and its eternal punishment : and he that considers this , must needs believe , that the desires which God had to save us were not lesse then infinite , and therefore not easily to be satisfied without it . 6. Let no Man despair of Gods mercies to forgive him , unlesse he be sure that his sinnes are greater then Gods mercies . If they be not , we have much reason to hope that the stronger ingredient will prevail so long as we are in the time and state of repentance , and within the possibilities and latitude of the Covenant ; and as long as any promise can but reflect upon him with an oblique beam of comfort . Possibly the Man may erre in his judgement of circumstances , and therefore let him fear : but because it is not certain he is mistaken , let him not despair . 7. Consider that God who knows all the events of Men , and what their final condition shall be , who shall be saved , and who will perish , yet he treateth them as his own , calls them to be his own , offers fair conditions as to his own , gives them blessings , arguments of mercy , and instances of fear to call them off from death , and to call them home to life , and in all this shews no despair of happinesse to them , and therefore much lesse should any Man despair for himself , since he never was able to reade the Scrols of the eternal predestination . 8. Remember that despair belongs onely to passionate Fools or Villains , ( such as were Achitophel and Iudas ) or else to Devils and damned persons : and as the hope of salvation is a good disposition towards it ; so is despair a certain consignation to eternal ruine . A Man may be damned for despairing to be saved . Despair is the proper passion of damnation . God hath placed truth and felicity in Heaven : Curiosity and repentance upon Earth : but misery and despair are the portions of Hell. 9. Gather together into your spirit , and its ●reasure-house [ the Memory ] not onely all the promises of GOD , but also the remembrances of experience , and the former senses of the Divine favours , that from thence you may argue from times past to the present , and enlarge to the future , and to greater blessings . For although the conjectures and expectations of Hope are not like the conclusions of Faith , yet they are a Helmet against the scorchings of Despair in temporal things , and an anchor of the soul sure and stedfast against the fluctuations of the Spirit in matters of the soul. Saint Bernard reckons divers principles of Hope by enumerating the instances of the Divine Mercy ; and wee may by them reduce this rule to practise in the following manner . 1. GOD hath preserved mee from many sinnes ; his mercies are infinite , I hope he will still preserve me from more , and for ever * . 2. I have sinned and GOD smote me not : his mercies are still over the penitent , I hope he will deliver me from all the evils I have deserved He hath forgiven me many sins of malice , and therefore surely he will pity my infirmities . * 3. God visited my heart , and chang'd it : he loves the work of his own hands , and so my heart is now become : I hope he will love this too . * 4. When I repented he receiv'd me graciously ; and therefore I hope if I do my endeavour he will totally forgive me . 5. He help'd my slow and beginning endeavours , and therefore I hope he will lead me to perfection . * 6. When he had given me something first , then he gave me more . I hope therefore he will keep me from falling , and give me the grace of perseverance . * 7. He hath chosen me to be a Disciple of Christs institution ; he hath elected me to his Kingdom of grace , and therefore I hope also , to the Kingdom of his glory . * 8. He died for me when I was his enemy , and therefore I hope he will save me when he hath reconcil'd me to him , & is become my friend . * 9. God hath given us his Son , how should not he with him give us all things else ? All these S. Bernard reduces to these three Heads , as the instruments of all our hopes . 1. The charity of God adopting us . 2. The truth of his promises . 3. The power of his performance : which if any truly weighs , no infirmity or accident can break his hopes into undiscernable fragments , but some good planks will remain after the greatest storm and shipwrack . This was S. Pauls instrument : Experience begets hope , and hope maketh not ashamed . 10. Do thou take care onely of thy duty , of the means and proper instruments of thy purpose , and leave the end to God : lay that up with him , and he will take care of all that is intrusted to him : and this being an act of confidence in God , is also a means of security to thee . 11. By special arts of spiritual prudence and arguments secure the confident belief of the Resurrection , and thou canst not but hope for every thing else which you may reasonably expect , or lawfully desire upon the stock of the Divine mercies and promises . 12. If a despair seizes you in a particular temporal instance , let it not defile thy spirit with impure mixture , or mingle in spiritual considerations ; but rather let it make thee fortifie thy soul in matters of Religion , that by being thrown out of your Earthly dwelling and confidence , you may retire into the strengths of grace , and hope the more strongly in that , by how much you are the more defeated in this , that despair of a fortune or a successe , may become the necessity of all vertue . Sect. 3. Of Charity , or the love of God. LOve is the greatest thing that God can give us , for himself is love , and it is the greatest thing we can give to God , for it will also give our selves , and carry with it all that is ours . The Apostle cals it the band of perfection ; it is the Old , and it is the New , and it is the great Commandement , and it is all the Commandements , for it is the fulfilling of the Law. It does the work of all other graces without any instrument but its own immediate vertue . For as the love to sinne makes a Man sinne against all his own reason , and all the discourses of wisdom , and all the advices of his friends , and without temptation , and without opportunity : so does the love of God , it makes a man chast without the laborious arts of fasting and exteriour disciplines , temperate in the midst of feasts , and is active enough to choose it without any intermedial appetites , and reaches at Glory thorough the very heart of Grace , without any other arms but those of Love. It is a grace that loves God for himself , and our Neighbours for God. The consideration of Gods goodnesse and bounty , the experience of those profitable and excellent emanations from him , may be , and most commonly are the first motive of our love : but when we are once entred , and have tasted the goodnesse of God , we love the spring for its own excellency , passing from passion to reason , from thanking to adoring , from sence to spirit , from considering our selves , to an union with God : and this is the image and little representation of Heaven ; it is beatitude in picture , or rather the infancy and beginnings of glory . We need no incentives by way of special enumeration to move us to the love of God , for we cannot love any thing for any reason real or imaginary , but that excellency is infinitely more eminent in God. There can but two things create love , Perfection and Vsefulnesse : to which answer on our part , first admiration , and 2. Desire : and both these are centred in love . For the entertainment of the first , there is in God an infinite nature , immensity or vastnesse without extension or limit , Immutability , Eternity , Omnipotence , Omniscience , Holinesse , Dominion , Providence , Bounty , Mercy , Justice , Perfection in himself , and the end to which all things and all actions must be directed , and will at last arrive . The consideration of which may be heightened , if we consider our distance from all these glories : Our smallnesse and limited nature , our nothing , our inconstancy , our age like a span , our weaknesse and ignorance , our poverty , our inadvertency , and inconsideration , our disabilities and disaffections to do good , our harsh natures and unmerciful inclinations , our universal iniquitie , and our necessities dependencies , not onely on God originally , and essentially , but even our need of the meanest of Gods creatures , and our being obnoxious to the weakest and the most contemptible . But for the entertainment of the second we may consider that in him is a torrent of pleasure for the voluptuous , he is the fountain of honour for the ambitious , an inexhaustible treasure for the covetous : our vices are in love with phantastick pleasures and images of perfection , which are truely and really to be found no where but in God. And therefore our vertues have such proper objects , that it is but reasonable they should all turn into love : for certain it is that this love will turn all into vertue . For in the scrutinies for righteousnesse and judgement , when it is inquired whether such a person be a good man or no , the meaning is not , what does ●e believe , or what does he hope , but what he loves ? The acts of Love to God , are 1. Love does all things which may please the beloved person , it performs all his commandments : and this is one of the greatest instances and arguments of our love that God requires of us . [ This is love that we keep his commandments . Loue is obedient . 2. It does all the intimations and secret significations of his pleasure whom we love : and this is an argument of a great degree of it The first instance is it that makes the love accepted : but this gives a greatnesse and singularity to it . The first is the least , and lesse then it cannot do our duty ; but without this second , we cannot come to perfection . Great love is also plyant and inquisitive in the instances of its expression . 3. Love gives away all things that so he may advance the interest of the beloved person : it relieves all that he would have relieved , and spends it self in such real significations as it is enabled withall . He never loved God that will quit any thing of his Religion , to save his money . Love is alwayes liberal and communicative . 4. It suffers all things that are imposed by its beloved , or that can happen for his sake , or that intervenes in his service , cheerfully , sweetly , willingly , expecting that God should turn them into good , and instruments of ●elicity . Charity hopeth all things , endureth all things . Love is patient and content with any thing so it be together with its beloved . 5. Love is also impatient of any thing that may displease the beloved person , hating all ●in as the enemy of its friend ; for love contracts all the same relations and marries the same friendships , and the same hatreds ; and all affection to a sin is perfectly inconsistent with the love of God , love is not divided between God and Gods enemy : we must love God with all our heart , that is , give him a whole and undivided affection , having love for nothing els but such things which he allows , and which he commands , or loves himself . 6. Love endeavours for ever to be present , to converse with , to enjoy , to be united with its object , loves to be talking of him , reciting his praises , telling his stories , repeating his words , imitating his gestures , transcribing his copy in every thing ; and every degree of union and every degree of likenesse is a degree of love ; and it can endure any thing but the displeasure and the absence of its beloved . For we are not to use God and Religion , as men use perfumes , with which they are delighted when they have them , but can very well be without them . True chari●y is res●lesse till it enjoyes God in such instances in which it wants him : it is like hunger and thirst , it must be fed or it cannot be answered , and nothing can supply the presence , or make recompence for the absence of God , or of the effects of his favour , and the light of his countenance . 7. True love in all accidents locks upon the beloved person , and observes his countenance , and how he approves or disproves it , and accordingly looks sad or cheerful . He that loves God is not displeased at those accidents which God chooses , nor murmurs at those changes which he makes in his family , nor envies at those gifts he bestowes , but chooses as he likes , and is ruled by his judgement , and is perfectly of his persuasion , loving to learn where God is the Teacher , and being content to be ignorant or silent where he is not pleased to open himself . 8. Love is curious of little things : of circumstances and measures , and little accidents , not allowing to it self any infirmity , which it strives not to master : aiming at what it cannot yet reach at , desiring to be of an Angelical purity and of a perfect innocence , and a Seraphical fervour , and fears every image of offence , is as much afflicted at an idle word , as some at an act of adultery , and will not allow to it self so much anger as will disturb a childe ; nor endure the impurity of a dream ; and this is the curiosity and nicenesse of divine Love ; this is the fear of God , and is the daughter and production o● Love. The Measures and Rules of Divine Love. But because this passion is pure as the brightest and smoothest mirrour , and therefore is apt to be sullyed with every impurer breath , we must be careful that our love to God be governed by these measures . 1. That our love be sweet , even and full of tranquility , having in it no violences or transportations , but going on in a course of holy actions and duties which are proportionable to our condition , and present state ; not to satisfie all the desire , but all the probabilities and measures of our strength . A new beginner in religion hath passionate and violent desires , but they must not be the measure of his actions ▪ But he must consider his strength , his late sicknesse and state of death , the proper temptations of his condition , and stand at first upon his defence , not go to storm a strong Fort , or attaque a potent enemy , or do heroical actions and fitter for gyants in Religion . Indiscreet violences , and untimely forwardnesse are the rocks of religion against which tender spirits often suffer shipwrack . 2. Let our love be prudent and without illusion : that is , that it expresse it self in such instances which God hath chosen , or which we choose our selves by proportion to his rules and measures . Love turns into doting when religion turns into Superstition . No degree of love can be imprudent , but the expressions may : we cannot love God too much , but we may proclaim it in undecent manners . 3. Let our love be firm , constant and inseparable , not coming and returning like the tide , but descending like a never failing river , ever running into the Ocean of Divine excellency , passing on in the chanels of duty and a constant obedience , and never ceasing to be what it is , till it comes to be what it desires to be ; still being a river till it be turned into sea and vastnesse , even the immensitie of a blessed Eternity . Although the consideration of the Divine excellencies and mercies be infinitely sufficient to produce in us love to God ( who is invisible and yet not distant from us , but we feel him in his blessings , he dwells in our hearts by faith , we feed on him in the Sacrament , and are made all one with him in the incarnation and glorifications of Jesus ) yet that we may the better enkindle and encrease our love to God , the following advices are not uselesse . Helps to encrease our love to God ; by way of exercise . 1. Cut off all earthly and sensual loves , for they pollute and unhallow the pure & Spiritual love . Every degree of inordinate affection to the things of this world , and every act of love to a sin is a perfect enemy to the love of God : and it is a great shame to take any part of our affection from the eternal God to bestow it upon his creature in defiance of the Creator , or to give it to the Devil , our open enemy , in disparagement of him who is the fountain of all excellencies and Coelestial amities . 2. Lay fetters and restraints upon the imaginative and phantastick part : because our fancie being an imperfect and higher facultie is usually pleased with the entertainment of shadowes and gauds ; and because the things of the world fill it with such beauties and phantastick imagery , the fancy presents such objects as amiable to the affections , and elective powers . Persons of fancy , such as are women and children have alwayes the most violent loves ; but therefore if we be careful with what representments we fill our fancy , we may the sooner rectifie our loves . To this purpose , it is good that we transplant the instruments of fancy into religion : and sor this reason musick was brought into Churches , and ornaments , and persumes , and comely garments , and solemnities , and decent ceremonies , that the busie and lesse discerning fancy being bribed with its proper objects may be instrumental to a more coelestial and spiritual love . 3. Remove solicitude or worldly cares , and multitudes of secular businesses ; for if these take up the intention and actual application of our thoughts and our imployments , they will also possesse our passions ; which if they be filled with one object though ignoble , cannot attend another though more excellent . We alwayes contract a friendship and relation with those with whom we converse : our very Countrey is dear to us for our being in it : and the Neighbours of the same Village , and those that buy and sell with us have seized upon some portions of our love , and therefore if we dwell in the affairs of the World , we shall also grow in love with them ; and all our love , or all our hatred , all our hopes , or all our fears , which the eternal God would willingly secure to himself , and esteem amongst his treasures and precious things , shall be spent upon trifles and vanities . 4. Do not onely choose the things of God , but secure your inclinations and aptnesses for God and for Religion . For it will be a hard thing for a Man to do such a personal violence to his first desires , as to choose whatsoever he hath no minde to . A Man will many times satisfie the importunity and daily solicitations of his first longings : and therefore there is nothing can secure our loves to God , but stopping the natural Fountains , and making Religion to grow neer the first desires of the soul. 5. Converse with God by frequent prayer . In particular , desire that your desires may be right , and love to have your affections regular and holy : To which purpose make very frequent addresses to God by ejaculations and communions , and an assiduous daily devotion : Discover to him all your wants , complain to him of all your affronts , do as Hezekiah did , lay your misfortunes and your ill news before him , spread them before the Lord , call to him for health , run to him for counsel , beg of him for pardon ; and it is as natural to love him to whom we make such addresses , and of whom we have such dependancies , as it is for children to love their parents . 6. Consider the immensity and vastnesse of the Divine love to us , expressed in all the emanations of his providence . 1. In his Creation . 2. In his conservation of us . For it is not my Prince or my Patron , or my Friend that supports me , or relieves my needs , but God , who made the Corn that my friend sends me , who created the Grapes and supported him , who hath as many dependances , and as many natural necessities , and as perfect disabilities as my self . God indeed made him the instrument of his providence to me , as he hath made his own Land or his own Cattel to him : with this onely difference , that God by his ministration to me intends to do him a favour and a reward , which to natural instruments he does nor . 3. In giving his Son. 4. In forgiving our sins . 5. In adopting us to glory : and ten thousand times ten thousand little accidents and instances hapning in the doing every of these ; and it is not possible but for so great love we should give love again , for God we should give Man , for felicity we should part with our misery . Nay , so great is the love of the holy Jesus , God incarnate , that he would leave all his triumphant glories , and dye once more for Man , if it were necessary for procuring felicity to him . In the use of these instruments love will grow in several knots and steps like the Sugar-canes of India according to a thousand varieties in the person loving , and it will be great or lesse in several persons , and in the same , according to his growth in Christianity : but in general discoursing there are but two states of love , and those are Labour of love , and the zeal of love : the first is duty , the second is perfection . The two states of love to God. The least love that is , must be obedient , pure , simple , and communicative : that is , it must exclude all affection to sin , and all inordinate affection to the World ; and must be expressive according to our power , in the instances of duty , and must be love for loves sake ; and of this love Martyrdom is the highest instance ; that is , a readinesse of minde rather to suffer any evil then to do any . Of this our blessed Saviour affirmed , That no man had greater love then this : that is , this is the highest point of duty , the greatest love that God requires of Man. And yet he that is the most imperfect must have this love also in preparation of minde , and must differ from another in nothing , except in the degrees of promptnesse and alacrity . And in this sense , he that loves God truly ( though but with a beginning and tender love ) yet he loves God with all his heart , that is , with that degree of love which is the highest point of duty , and of Gods charge upon us ; and he that loves God with all his heart , may yet increase with the increase of God , just as there are degrees of love to God among the Saints , and yet each of them love him with all their powers and capacities . 2. But the greater state of love is the zeal of love , which runs out into excrescencies , and suckers like a fruitful and pleasant tree , or bursting into gums , and producing fruits , not of a monstrous , but of an extraordinary and heroical greatnesse . Concerning which , these cautions are to be observed . Cautions and rules concerning zeal . 1. If zeal be in the beginnings of our spiritual birth , or be short * , sudden and transient , or be a consequent of a mans natural temper , or come upon any cause , but after a long growth of a temperate and well regulated love , it is to be suspected for passion , and forwardnesse , rather then the vertical point of love . 2. That zeal onely is good which in a fervent love hath temperate expressions . For let the affection boyl as high as it can , yet if it boyl over into irregular and strange actions , it will have but few , but will need many excuses . Elijah was zealous for the Lord of Hosts , and yet he was so transported with it , that he could not receive answer from God , till by Musick he was recompos d and tam'd : and Moses broke both the Tables of the Law by being passionately zealous against them that brake the first . 3. Zeal must spend its greatest heat principally in those things that concern our selves ; but with great care and restraint in those that concern others . 4. Remember that zeal being an excrescence of Divine love , must in no sense contradict any action of love : Love to God includes love to our Neighbour , and therefore no pretence of zeal for Gods glory must make us uncharitable to our brother , for that is just so pleasing to God , as hatred is an act of love . 5. That zeal that concernes others , can spend it self in nothing but arts , and actions and charitable instruments for their good : and when it concernes the good of many that one should suffer , it must bee done by persons of a competent authority , and in great necessity , in seldom instances , according to the Law of God or Man ; but never by private right , or for trifling accidents , or in mistaken propositions . The Zealots in the Old Law had authority to transfix and stab some certain persons ; but GOD gave them warrant ; it was in the case of Idolatry , or such notorious huge crimes ; the danger of which was insuportable , and the cognizance of which was infallible : And yet that warrant expired with the Synagogue . 6. Zeal in the instances of our own duty , and personal deportment is more safe then in matters of counsel , and actions besides our just duty , and tending towards perfection . Though in these instances there is not a direct sin , even where the zeal is lesse wary , yet there is much trouble and some danger : ( as , if it be spent in the too forward vowes of Chastity , and restraints of natural and innocent liberties . ) 7. Zeal may be let loose in the instances of internal , personal , and spiritual actions , that are matters of direct duty : as in prayers , and acts of adoration , and thanksgiving , and frequent addresses : provided that no indirect act passe upon them to defile them ; such as complacency , and opinions of sanctity , censuring others , scruples and opinions of necessity , unnecessary fears , superstitious numbrings of times and houres ; but let the zeal be as forward as it will , as devout as it will , as Seraphicall as it will in the direct addresse and entercourse with God , there is no danger , no transgression . Do all the parts of your duty as earnestly as if the salvation of all the world , and the whole glory of God , and the confusion of all Devils , and all that you hope or desire did depend upon every one action . 8. Let zeal be seated in the will and choice , and regulated with prudence and a sober understanding , not in the fancies and affections ; for these will make it full of noise and empty of profit , but that will make it deep and smooth , material and devout . The summe is this : That , zeal is not a direct duty , no where commanded for it self , and is nothing but a forwardnesse and circumstance of another duty , and therfore is then onely acceptable when it advances the love of God and our Neighbours , whose circumstance it is : That zeal is onely safe , onely acceptable which increases charity directly ; and because love to our Neighbour , and obedience to God are the two great portions of charity , we must never account our zeal to be good , but as it advances both these , if it be in a matter that relates to both ; or severally , if it relates severally . S. Pauls zeal was expressed in preaching without any offerings or stipend , in travelling , in spending and being spent for his flock , in suffering , in being willing to be accursed for love of the people of God , and his Countreymen : Let our zeal be as great as his was , so it be in affections to others , but not at all in angers against them : In the first then is no danger ; in the second there is no safety . In brief ; let your zeal ( if it must be expressed in anger ) be alwayes more severe against thy * self , then against others . The other part of Love to God is Love to our Neighbour , for which I have reserved the Paragraph of Alms. Of the external actions of Religion . Religion teaches us to present to God our bodies as well as our souls ; for God is the Lord of both ; and if the body serves the soul in actions natural and civil , and intellectual , it must not be eased in the onely offices of Religion , unles●e the body shall expect no portion of the rewards of Religion , such as are resurrection , reunion , and glorification . Our bodies are to God a living sacrifice , and to present them to God is holy and acceptable . The actions of the body as it serves to religion , and as it is distinguished from Sobriety and Justice ; either relate to the word of God , or to prayer , or to repentance , and make these kindes of external actions of religion . 1. Reading and hearing the word of God. 2. Fasting and corporal austerities , called by S. Paul , bodily exercise . 3. Feasting or keeping dayes of publick joy and thanksgiving . SECT . IV. Of Reading , or Hearing the Word of God. REading and Hearing the word of God are but the several circumstances of the same duty ; instrumental especially to faith , but consequently to all other graces of the Spirit . It is all one to us whether by the eye or by the eare the Spirit conveyes his precepts to us . If we hear S. Paul saying to us , that [ Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge : ] or read it in one of his Epistles ; in either of them we are equally and sufficiently instructed . The Scriptures read are the same thing to us , which the same doctrine was , when it was preached by the Disciples of our blessed Lord ; and we are to learn of either with the same dispositions . There are many that cannot reade the word , and they must take it in by the ear ; and they that can reade , finde the same word of God by the eye . It is necessary that all men learn it some way or other , and it is sufficient in order to their practise that they learn it any way . The word of God is all those Commandments and Revelations , those promises and threatnings , the stories and sermons recorded in the Bible : nothing else is the word of God , that we know of , by any certain instrument . The good books and spiritual discourses , the sermons or homilies written or spoken by men are but the word of men , or rather explications of , and exhortations according to the Word of God : but of themselves ▪ they are not the Word of God. In a Sermon , the Text onely is in a proper sence to be called Gods Word : and yet good Sermons are of great use and convenience for the advantages of Religion . He that preaches an hour together against drunkennesse with the tongue of men or Angels , hath spoke no other word of God but this [ Be not drunk with wine wherein there is excesse : ] and he that writes that Sermon in a book , and publishes that book , hath preached to all that reade it , a louder Sermon then could be spoken in a Church . This I say to this purpose that we may separate truth from error , popular opinions from substantial Truths . For God preaches to us in the Scripture , and by his secret assistances and spiritual thoughts and holy motions : Good men preach to us when they by popular arguments , and humane arts and complyances expound and presse any of those doctrines which God hath preached unto us in his holy Word . But 1. The Holy Ghost is certainly the best Preacher in the world , and the words of Scripture the best sermons . 2. All the doctrine of salvation is plainly set down there , that the most unlearned person by hearing it read , may understand all his duty . What can be plainer spoken then this , [ Thou shalt not kill . Be not drunk with wine : Husbands love your wives : whatsoever ye would that men should do to you , do ye so to them ▪ ] The wit of man cannot more plainly tell us our duty , or more fully , then the Holy Ghost hath done already . 3. Good sermons , and good books are of excellent use : but yet they can serve no other end but that we practise the plain doctrines of Scripture . 4. What Abraham in the parable said concerning the brethren of the rich man , is here very proper : They have Moses and the Prophets le● them hear them : But if they refuse to hear these ▪ neither will they believe though one should arise from the dead to preach unto them . 5. Reading the holy Scriptures is a duty expressely * commanded us , and is called in Scripture [ * Preaching : ] all other preaching is the effect of humane skill and industry , and although of great benefit , yet it is but an Ecclesiastical ordinance ; the Law of God concerning Preaching , being expressed in the matter of reading the Scriptures , and hearing that word of God , which is , and as it is there described . But this duty is reduced to practise in the following Rules . Rules for hearing or reading the word of God. 1. Set apart some portion of thy time according to the opportunities of thy calling and necessary imployment , for the reading of holy Scripture ; and if it be possible , every day reade or hear some of it read : you are sure that book teaches all truth , commands all holinesse , and promises all happinesse . 2. When it is in your power to choose , accustome your self to such portions which are most plain and certain duty , and which contain the story of the Life and Death of our blessed Saviour . Read the Gospels , the Psalms of Da●id ; and especially those portions of Scripture which by the wisdom of the Church are appointed to be publikely read upon Sundayes and holy-dayes , viz. the Epistles and Gospels . In the choice of any other portions , you may advise with a Spiritual Guide , that you may spend your time with most profit . 3. Fail not , diligently to attend to the reading of holy Scriptures upon those dayes wherein it is most publickly and solemnly read in Churches : for at such times , besides the learning our duty , we obtain a blessing along with it , it becoming to us upon those dayes apart of the solemn Divine worship . 4. When the word of God is read or preached to you , be sure you be of a ready heart and minde , free from worldly cares and thoughts , diligent to hear , careful to mark , studious to remember , and desirous to practise all that is commanded , and to live according to it : Do not hear for any other end but to become better in your life , and to be instructed in every good work , and to increase in the love and service of God. 5. Beg of God by prayer that he would give you the spirit of obedience and profit , and that he would by his Spirit write the word in your heart , and that you describe it in your life . To which purpose serve your self of some affectionate ejaculations to that purpose , before and after this duty . Concerning spiritual books and ordinary Sermons take in these advices also . 6. Let not a prejudice to any mans person hinder thee from receiving good by his doctrine , if it be according to godlinesse : but ( if occasion offer it , or especially if duty present it to thee ; that is , if it be preached in that assembly where thou art bound to be present ) accept the word preached as a message from God , and the Minister as his Angel in that ministration . 7. Consider and remark the doctrine that is represented to thee in any discourse ; and if the Preacher addes any accidental advantages , any thing to comply with thy weaknesse , or to put thy spirit into action , or holy resolution , remember it , and make use of it ; but if the Preacher be a weak person , yet the text is the doctrine thou art to remember ; that contains all thy duty , it is worth thy attendance to hear that spoken often , ●nd renewed upon thy thoughts , and though thou beest a learned man , yet the same thing which thou knowest already , if spoken by another , may be made active by that application . I can better be comforted by my own considerations , if another hand applyes them , then if I do it my self ; because the word of God does not work as a natural agent , but as a Divine instrument : it does not prevail by the force of deduction , and artificial discoursings onely , but chie●ly by way of blessing in the ordinance , and in the ministery of an appointed person . At least obey the publick order , and reverence the constitution , and give good example of humility , charity and obedience . 8. When Scriptures are read , you are onely to enquire with diligence and modesty into the meaning of the Spirit : but if homilies or sermons be made upon the words of Scripture , you are to consider , whether all that be spoken be conformable to the Scriptures . For although you may practise for humane reasons , and humane arguments ministred from the Preacher● art , yet you must practise nothing but the command of God , nothing but the Doctrine of Scripture , that is , the text . 9. Use the advice of some spirituall or other prudent man for the choice of such spiritual books which may be of use and benefit for the edification of thy spirit in the wayes of holy living ; and esteem that time well accounted for , that is prudently and affectionately imployed , in hearing or reading good books and pious discourses : ever remembring that God by hearing us speak to him in prayer , obliges us to hear him speak to us in his word , by what instrument soever it be conveyed . SECT . V. Of Fasting . FAsting , if it be considered in it self without relation to Spiritual ends , is a duty no where enjoyned , or counselled . But Christianity hath to do with it , as it may be made an instrument of the Spirit by subduing the lusts of the flesh , or removing any hindrances of religion ; And it hath been practised by all ages of the Church , and advised in order to three ministeries . 1. To Prayer . 2. To Mortification of bodily lusts . 3. To Repentance : and is to be practised according to the following measures . Rules for Christian Fasting . 1. Fasting in order to prayer is to be measured by the proportions of the times of prayer : that is , it ought to be a total faft from all things during the solemnity ( unlesse a probable necessity intervene . ) Thus the Jews eate nothing upon the Sabbath-dayes till their great offices were performed , that is , about the sixth hour : and S. Peter used it as an argument , that the Apostles in Pente●ost were not drunk , because it was but the third hour of the day , of such a day , in which it was not lawful to eat or drink til the sixth hour : and the Jews were offended at the Disciples for plucking the ears of corn upon the Sabbath early in the morning , because it was before the time in which by their customs they esteemed it lawful to break their fast . In imitation of this custom , and in prosecution of the reason of it , the Christian Church hath religiously observed fasting before the Holy Communion : and the more devout persons ( though without any obligation at all ) refused to eat or drink till they had finished their morning devotions : and further yet upon dayes of publick humiliation , which are designed to be spent wholly in Devotion , and for the averting Gods judgements ( if they were imminent ) fasting is commanded together with prayer , commanded ( I say ) by the Church to this end , that the Spirit might be clearer and more Angelical when it is quitted in some proportions from the loads of flesh . 2. Fasting , when it is in order to Prayer , must be a total abstinence from all meat , or else an abatement of the quantity : for the help which fasting does to prayer cannot be served by changing flesh into fish , or milk-meats into dry diet , but by turning much into little , or little into none at all during the time of solemn and extraordinary prayer . 3. Fasting as it is instrumental to Prayer , must be attended with other aids of the like vertue and efficacy , such as are , removing for the time all worldly cares and secular businesses ; and therefore our blessed Saviour enfolds these parts within the same caution . [ Take heed lest your hearts be overcharged with surfetting and drunkennesse and the cares of this world , and that day overtake you unawares . ] To which adde alms ; for upon the wings of fasting and alms , holy prayer infallibly mounts up to Heaven . 4. When Fasting is intended to serve the duty of Repentance , it is then best chosen when it is short , sharp and afflictive ; that is , either a total abstinence from all nourishment ( according as we shall appoint , or be appointed ) during such a time as is separate for the solemnity and attendance upon the imployment : or if we shall extend our severity beyond the solemn dayes , and keep our anger against our sin , as we are to keep our sorrow , that is , alwayes in a readinesse , and often to be called upon ; then , to refuse a pleasant morsel , to abstaine from the bread of our desires , and onely to take wholsome and lesse pleasing nourishment , vexing our appetite by the refusing a lawful satisfaction , since in its petulancie and luxurie it preyed upon an unlawfull . 5. Fasting designed for repentance must be ever joyned with an extream care that we fast from sin : for there is no greater folly or undecency in the world , then to commit that for which I am now judging and condemning my self . This is the best fast : and the other may serve to promote the interest of this , by increasing the disaffection to it , and multiplying arguments against it . 6. He that fasts for repentance , must , during that solemnity , abstain from all bodily delights , and the sensuality of all his senses , and his appetites ; for a man must not when he mourns in his fast be merry in his sport ; weep at dinner , and laugh all day after ; have a silence in his kitchen , and musick in his chamber ; judge the stomack , and feast the other se●ses . I deny not but a man may in a single instance punish a particular sin with a proper instrument : If a man have offended in his palate , he may choose to fast onely ; if he have sinned in softnesse and in his touch , he may choose to lye hard , or work hard , and use sharp inflictions : but although this Discipline be proper and particular , yet because the sorrow is of the whole man , no sense must rejoyce , or be with any study or purpose feasted and entertained softly . This rule is intended to relate to the solemn dayes appointed for repentance publickly or privately : besides which in the whole course of our life , even in the midst of our most festival and freer joyes we may sprinkle some single instances , and acts of self condemning , or punishing : as to refuse a pleasant morsel , or a delicious draught with a t●cit remembrance of the sin that now returns to displease my spirit : and though these actions be single , there is no undecency in them , because a man may abate of his ordinary liberty & bold freedom w th great prudence , so he does ●t without singularity in himself , or trouble to others : but he may not abate of his solemn sorrow : that may be caution ; but this would be softnesse effoeminacy and undecency . 7· When fasting is an act of mortification , that is , is intended to subdue a bodily lust ; as the spirit of fornication , or the fondness of strong and impatient appetties , it must not be a sudden , sharp , and violent fast , but a state of fasting , a dyet of fasting , a daily lessening our portion of meat and drink , and a choosing such a course dyet which may make the least preparation for the lusts of the body . He that fasts 3 dayes without ●ood , will weaken other parts more then the ministers of fornication : and when the meals return as usually , they also will be serv'd assoon as any . In the mean time they will be supplyed and made active by the accidental heat that comes with such violent fastings : for this is a kinde of aerial Devil ; the Prince that rules in the air is the Devil of fornication ; and he will be as tempting with the windinesse of a violent fast , as with the flesh of an ordinary meal . But a daily substraction of the nourishment will introduce a lesse busy habit of body , and that will prove the more effectual remedy . 8. Fasting alone will not cure this Devil , though it helps much towards it ; but it must not therefore be neglected , but assisted by all the proper instruments of remedy against this unclean spirit ; and what it is unable to do alone , in company with other instruments , and Gods blessing upon them it may effect . 9. All fasting for whatsoever end it be undertaken , must de done without any opinion of the necessity of the thing it self , without censuring others , with all humility , in order to the proper end ; and just as a man takes physick of which no man hath reason to be proud , and no man thinks it necessary , but because he is in sicknesse , or in danger and disposition to it . 10. All fasts ordained by lawful authority are to be observed in order to the same purposes to which they are enjoyned ; and to be accompanied with actions of the same nature , just as it is in private fasts ; for there is no other difference , but that in publick our Superiours choose for us , what in private we do for our selves . 11. Fasts ordained by lawful authority are not to be neglected because alone they cannot do the thing in order to which they were enjoyn'd . It may be one day of Humiliation will not obtain the blessing , or alone kill the lust , yet it must not be despis'd , if it can do any thing towards it . An act of Fasting is an act of self-denial , and though it do not produce the habit , yet it is a good act . 12. When the principal end why a Fast is publickly prescribed , is obtained by some other instrument in a particular person ; as if the spirit of Fornication be cur'd by the rite of Marriage , or by a gift of chastity , yet that person so eased , is not freed from the Fasts of the Church by that alone , if those fasts can prudently serve any other end of Religion , as that of prayer , or repentance , or mortification of some other appetite : for when it is instrumental to any end of the Spirit , it is freed from superstition , and then we must have some other reason to quit us from the Obligation , or that alone will not do it . 13. When the Fast publickly commanded by reason of some indisposition in the particular person cannot operate to the end of the Commandment , yet the avoiding offence , and the complying with publick order is reason enough to make the obedience to be necessary . For he that is otherwise disoblig'd ( as when the reason of the Law ceases , as to his particular , yet ) remains still oblig'd is he cannot do otherwise without scandal : but this is an obligation of charity , not of justice . 14. All fasting is to be used with prudence and charity : for there is no end to which fasting serves , but may be obtain'd by other instruments , and therefore it must at no hand be made an instrument of scruple , or become an enemy to our health , or be impos'd upon persons that are sick or aged , or to whom it is in any sense uncharitable ; such as are wearied Travellers ; or to whom in the whole kinde of it , it is uselesse , such as are Women with childe , poor people , and little children . But in these cases the Church hath made provision , and inserted caution into her Laws , and they are to be r●duced to practise according to custome , and the sentence of prudent persons , with great latitude , and without ni●enesse and curiosity : having this in our first care , that we secure our vertue , and next that we secure our health , that we may the better exercise the labours of vertue , lest out of too much austerity we bring our selves to that condition , that it be necessary to be indulgent to softnesse , ease and extream tendernesse . 15. Let not intemperance be the Prologue or the Epilogue to your fast , lest the fast be so far from taking off any thing of the sin , that it bee an occasion to increase it ; and therefore when the fast is done , be careful that no supervening act of gluttony , or excessive drinking unhallow the religion of the passed day ; but eat temperately according to the proportion of other meals , lest gluttony keep either of the gates to abstinence . The benefits of Fasting . He that undertakes to enumerate the benefits of fasting , may in the next page also reckon all the benefits of physick : for fasting is not to be commended as a duty , but as an instrument ; and in that sense , no Man can reprove it , or undervalue it ; but he that knows neither spiritual arts , nor spiritual necessities : but by the Doctors of the Church it is called , the nourishment of prayer , the restraint of lust , the wings of the soul , the diet of Angels , the instrument of humility , and self-denial , the purification of the Spirit : and that palenesse and maigrenesse of visage which is consequent to the daily fast of great mortifiers , is by Saint Basil said to be the mark in the Forehead which the Angel observed , when he signed the Saints in the forehead to escape the wrath of God. [ The soul that is greatly vexed , which goeth stooping and feeble , and the eyes that fail , and the hungry soul shall give thee praise and righteousnesse , O Lord. Sect. VI. Of keeping Festivals and dayes holy to the Lord : particularly , the Lords day . TRue naturall Religion , that which was common to all Nations and Ages did principally relye upon four great propositions . 1. That there is one God. 2. That God is nothing of those things which wee see . 3. That God takes care of all things below and governs all the World. 4. That hee is the Great Creator of all things without himself : and according to these were fram'd the four first precepts of the Decalogue . In the first , the Unity of the Godhead is expresly affirmed . In the second , his invisibility and immateriality . In the third is affirmed Gods government and providence , by avenging them that swear falsly by his Name , by which also his Omniscience is declared . In the fourth Commandement , hee proclaims himself the Maker of Heaven and Earth : for in memory of Gods rest from the work of six dayes the seventh was hallowed into a Sabbath : and the keeping it was a confessing GOD to bee the great Maker of Heaven and Earth ; and consequently to this , it also was a confession of his goodnesse , his Omnipotence and his Wisdom , all which were written with a Sun beam in the great book of the Creature . So long as the Law of the Sabbath was bound upon Gods people , so long GOD would have that to be the folemn manner of confessing these attributes ; but when the Priesthood being changed there was a change also of the Law , the great duty remain'd unalterable in changed circumstances . We are eternally bound to confesse God Almighty to be the Maker of Heaven and Earth ; but the manner of confessing it , is chang'd from a rest or a doing nothing , to a speaking something , from a day to a symbol , from a ceremony to a substance , from a Jewish rite to a Christian duty : we professe it in our Creed , we confesse it in our lives , we describe it by every line of our life , by every action of duty , by faith , and trust , and obedience : and we do also upon great reason comply with the Jewish manner of confessing the Creation , so far as it is instrumental to a real duty . We keepe one day in seven , and so confesse the manner and circumstance of the Creation : and we rest also that we may tend holy duties : so imitating Gods rest better then the Jew in Synesius who lay upon his face from evening to evening , and could not by stripes or wounds be raised up to steer the ship in a great storm : Gods rest was not a natural cessation : hee who could not labour could not be said to rest ; but Gods rest is to be understood to be a beholding and a rejoycing in his work finished : and therefore we truly represent Gods rest , when we confesse and rejoyce in Gods works and Gods glory . This the Christian Church does upon every day , but especially upon the Lords day , which she hath set apart for this and all other Of●ices of Religion , being determined to this day , by the Resurrection of her dearest Lord , it being the first day of joy the Church ever had . And now , upon the Lords day we are not tyed to the rest of the Sabbath , but to all the work of the Sabbath : and we are to abstain from bodily labour , not because it is a direct duty to us as it was to the Jews , but because it is necessary in order to our duty , that we attend to the Offices of Religion . The observation of the Lords day differs nothing from the observation of the Sabbath in ●he matter of Religion , but in the manner . They differ in the ceremony and external rite . Rest with them was the principal : with us it is the accessory . They differ in the office or forms of worship : For they were then to worship God as a Creator and a gentle Father : we are to adde to that , Our Redeemer , and all his other excellencies and mercies : and though we have more natural and proper reason to keep the Lords day then the Sabbath , yet the Jews had a Divine Commandement for their day , which we have not for ours : but we have many Commandements to do all that honour to GOD which was intended in the fourth Commandement : and the Apostles appointed the first day of the week , for doing it in solemne Assemblies ; and the manner of worshipping God and doing him solemn honour and service upon this day we may best observe in the following measures . Rules for keeping the Lords day and other Christian Festivals . 1. When you go about to distinguish Festival dayes from common , do it not by lessening the devotions of ordinary dayes , that the common devotion may seem bigger upon Festivals , but on every day keep your ordinary devotions intire , and enlarge upon the Holy day . 2. Upon the Lords day wee must abstaine from all servile and laborious workes , except such which are matters of necessity , of common life , or of great charity : for these are permitted by that authority which hath separated the day for holy uses . The Sabbath of the Jewes though consisting principally in rest , and established by God , did yeeld to these . The labour of Love and the labours of Religion were not against the reason and the spirit of the Commandement , for which the Letter was decreed , and to which it ought to minister : And therefore much more is it so on the Lords day , where the Letter is wholly turned into Spirit , and there is no Commandement of God , but of spiritual and holy actions . The Priests might kill their beasts and dresse them for sacrifice ; and Christ though born under the law , might heal a sick man , and the sick man might carry h●s bed to witnesse his recovery , and confesse the mercy , and leap and dance to God for joy : and an Ox might be led to water , and an Asse be haled ou● of a ditch , and a man may take physick , and he may eat meat , and therefore there were of necessity some to prepare and minister it : and the performing these labours did not consist in minutes , and just determined stages , but they had , even then , a reasonable latitude : so onely as to exclude unnecessary labour , or such as did not minister to charity or religion . And therefore this is to be enlarged in the Gospel , whose Sabbath or rest is but a circumstance , and accessory to the principal and spiritual duties : Upon the Christian Sabbath , necessity is to be served first , then charity , and then religion ; for this is to give place to charity in great instances ; and the second to the first in all ; and in all cases God is to be worshipped in spirit and in truth . 3. The Lords day being the remembrance of a great blessing , must be a day of joy , festivity , spiritual rejoycing and thanksgiving , and therefore it is a proper work of the day to let your devotions spend themselves in singing or reading Psalms , in recounting the great works of God , in remembring his mercies , in worshipping his excellencies , in celebrating his attributes , in admiring his person , in sending portions of pleasant meat to them for whom nothing is provided , & in all the arts and instruments of advancing Gods glory , & the reputation of religion : in which it were a great decency that a memorial of the resurrection should be inserted , that the particular religion of the day be not swallowed up in the general : And of this we may the more easily serve our selves by rising seasonably in the morning to private devotion , and by retiring at the leisures and spaces of the day not imployed in publick offices . 4. Fail not to be present at the publick hours and places of prayer , entring early and cheerfully , attending reverently and devoutly , abiding patiently during the whole office , piously assisting at the prayers , and gladly also hearing the Sermon , and at no hand omitting to receive the Holy Communion when it is offered ( unlesse some great reason excuse it ) this being the great solemnity of thanksgiving , and a proper work of the day . 5. After the solemnities are past , and in the intervalls between the morning and evening devotion ( as you shall finde op portunity ) visit sick persons , reconcile differences , do offices of Neighbourhood , inquire into the needs of the poor , especially house-keepers , relieve them as they shall need , and as you are able : for then we truely rejoyce in God , when we make our neighbours , the poor members of Christ , rejoyce together with us . 6. Whatsoever you are to do your self as necessary , you are to take care that others also , who are under your charge , do in their station & manner . Let your servants be called to Church , and all your family that can be spared from necessary & great houshold ministeries : those that cannot , let them go by turns , and be supplyed otherwise as well as they may : and provide on these dayes especially that they be instructed in the articles of faith , and necessary parts of their duty . 7. Those who labour hard in the week , must be eased upon the Lords day ; such ease being a great charity and alms : but at no hand must they be permitted to use any unlawful games , any thing forbidden by the laws , any thing that is scandalous , or any thing that is dangerous , and apt to mingle sin with it ; no games prompting to wantonnesse , to drunkennesse , to quarrelling , to ridiculous and superstitious customs , but let their refreshments be innocent , and charitable , and of good report , and not exclusive of the duties of religion . 8. Beyond these bounds because neither God nor man hath passed any obligation upon us , we must preserve our Christian liberty and not suffer our selves to be intangled with a yoke of bondage : for even a good action may become a snare to us , if we make it an occasion of scruple by a pretence of necessity , binding loads upon the conscience not with the bands of God , but ●f men , and of fancy , or of opinion , or of tyranny . Whatsoever is laid upon us by the hands of man , must be acted and accounted of by the measures of a man ; but our best measure is this : He keeps the Lords day best that keeps it with most religion , and with most charity . 9. What the Church hath done in the article of the resurrection , she hath in some measure done in the other articles of the Nativity , of the Ascension , and of the Descent of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost : And so great blessings deserve an anniversary solemnity , since he is a very unthankful person that does not often record them in the whole year , and esteem them the ground of his hopes , the object of his faith , the comfort of his troubles , and the great effluxes of the divine mercy greater then all the victories over our temporal enemies , for which all glad persons usually give thanks . And if with great reason the memory of the resurrection does return solemnly every week , it is but reason the other should return once a year . * To which I adde , that the commemoration of the articles of our Creed in solemn dayes and offices is a very excellent instrument to convey and imprint the sense and memory of it upon the spirits of the most ignorant person . For as a picture may with more fancy convey a story to a man , then a plain narrative either in word or writing : so a real representment , and an office of remembrance , and a day to declare it , is f●r more impressive then a picture , or any other art of making and fixing imagery . 10. The memories of the Saints are precio●s to God , and therefore they ought also to be so to us ; and such persons who served God by holy living , industrious preaching , and religious dying , ought to have their names preserved in honour , and God be glorified in them , and their holy doctrines and lives published and imitated ; and we by so doing give testimony to the article of the communion of Saints . But in these cases as every Church is to be sparing in the number of dayes , so also should she be temperate in her injunctions , not imposing them but upon voluntary and unbusied persons , without snare or burden . But the Holy day is best kept by giving God thanks for the excellent persons , Apostles or Martyrs we then remember , and by imitating their lives : this all may do : and they that can also keep the solemnity , must do that too , when it is publickly enjoyned . The mixt actions of religion are , 1. Prayer . 2. Alms. 3. Repentance . 4. Receiving the blessed Sacrament . Sect. 7. Of Prayer . THere is no greater argument in the world of our spiri●ual danger and unwillingness to religion then the backwardnesse which most men have alwayes , and all men have sometimes to say their prayers : so weary of their length , so glad when they are done , so witty to excuse and frustrate an opportunity : and yet all is nothing but a desiring of God to give us the greatest and the best things we can need , and which can make us happy : it is a work so easy , so honourable , and to so great purpose , that in all the instances of religion and providence ( except onely the incarnation of his Son ) God hath not given us a greater argument of his willingnesse to have us saved , and of our unwillingnesse to accept it , his goodnesse and our gracelessenesse , his infinite condescension , and our carelessenesse and folly , then by rewarding so easy a duty with so great blessings . Motives to prayer . I cannot say any thing beyond this very consideration & its appendages to invite Christian people to pray often . But we may consider : That first it is a duty commanded by God and his holy Son : 2. It is an act of grace and highest honour that we dust and ashes are admitted to speak to the Eternal God , to run to him as to a Father , to lay open our wants to complain of our burdens , to explicate our scruples , to beg remedy and ease , support and counsel , health and safety , deliverance and salvation : and 3. God hath invited us to it by many gracious promises of hearing us . 4. He hath appointed his most glorious Son to be the president of prayer , and to make continual intercession for us to the throne of grace . 5. He hath appointed an Angel to present the prayers of his servants : and 6. Christ unites them to his own , and sanctifies them , and makes them effective and prevalent : and 7. Hath put it into the hands of men to rescind or alter all the decrees of God which are of one kinde , ( that is , conditional , and concerning our selves and our final estate , and many instances of our intermedial or temporal ) by the power of prayers . 8. And the prayers of men have saved cities and kingdoms from ruine ; prayer hath raised dead men to life , hath stopped the violence of fire , shut the mouths of wilde beasts , hath altered the course of nature , caused rain in Egypt , and drowth in the sea , it made the Sun to go from West to East , and the Moon to stand still , and rocks and mountains to walk , and it cures di●eases without physick , and makes physick to do the work of nature , and nature to do the work of grace , and grace to do the work of God ; and it does miracles of accident and event : and yet prayer that does all this , is of it self nothing but an ascent of the minde to God , a desiring things fit to be desired , and an expression of this desire to God as we can , and as becomes us : And our unwillingnesse to pray , is nothing else but a not desiring what we ought passionately to long for ; or if we do desire it , it is a choosing rather to misse our satisfaction and felicity , then to ask for it . There is no more to be said in this affair , but that we reduce it to practise according to the following Rules . Rules for the practise of Prayer . 1. We must be careful that we never ask any thing of God that is sinful , or that directly ministers to sin : for that is to ask of God to dishonour himself , and to undoe us : we had need consider what we pray ; for before it returns in blessing it must be joyn'd with Christs intercession , and presented to God : Let us principally ask of God power and assistances to do our duty , to glorifie God , to do good works ; to live a good life , to dye in the fear and favour of God , and eternal life : these things God delights to give , and commands that we shall ask , and we may with confidence expect to be answered graciously ; for these things are promised without any reservation of a secret condition : if we ask them , and do our duty towards the obtaining them , we are sure never to misse them . 2. We may lawfully pray to God for the gifts of the Spirit that minister to holy ends , such as are the gift of preaching , the spirit of prayer , good expression , a ready and unloosed tongue , good understanding , learning , opportunities to publish them , &c. with these onely restraints . 1. That we cannot be so confident of the event of those prayers , as of the former . 2. That we must be curious to secure our intention in these desires , that we may not ask them to serve our own ends , but only for Gods glory , and then we shall have them , or a blessing for desiring them : In order to such purposes our intentions in the first desires cannot be amisse ; because they are able to sanctifie other things , and therefore cannot be unhallowed themselves . 3. We must submit to Gods will , desiring him to choose our imployment , and to furnish out our persons as he shall see expedient . 3. Whatsoever we may lawfully desire of temporall things , wee may lawfully ask of God in prayer , and we may expect them as they are promised . 1. Whatsoever is necessary to our life and being is promised to us ; and therefore we may with certainty expect food and raiment ; food to keep us alive ; clothing to keepe us from nakednesse and shame ; so long as our life is permitted to us , so long all things necessary to our life shall be ministred : we may be secure of maintenance , but not secure of our life , for that is promised , not this : onely concerning food and raiment we are not to make accounts by the measure of our desires , but by the measure of our needs . 2. Whatsoever is convenient for us , pleasant , and modestly delectable , we may pray for ; so we do it 1. with submission to Gods will. 2. Without impatient desires . 3. That it be not a trifle and inconsiderable , but a matter so grave and concerning , as to be a fit matter to be treated on between God and our souls . 4. That we ask it not to spend upon our lusts , but for ends of justice , or charity , or religion , and that they be imployed with sobriety . 4. He that would pray with effect must live with care and piety . For although God gives to sinners and evil persons the common blessings of life and chance , yet either they want the comfort and blessing of those blessings , or they become occasions of sadder accidents to them , or serve to upbraid them in their ingratitude or irreligion : and in all cases , they are not the effects of prayer , or the fruits of promise , or instances of a fathers love ; for they cannot be expected with confidence , or received without danger , or used without a curse and mischief in their company . * But as all sin is an impediment to prayer , so some have a special indisposition towards acceptation ; such are uncharitablenesse and wrath , Hypocrisie in the present action , Pride and Lust : because these by defiling the body or the spirit , or by contradicting some necessary ingredient in prayer ( such as are Mercy , Humility , Purity , and Sincerity ) do defile the prayer and make it a direct sin in the circumstances or formality of the action . 5. All prayer must be made with Faith and Hope : that is , we must certainly believe wee shall receive the grace which GOD hath commanded us to ask : and wee must hope for such things which hee hath permitted us to ask ; and our H●pe shall not bee vain , though wee misse what is not absolutely promised , because we shall at least have an equal blessing in the denial , as in the grant . And therefore the former conditions must first be secured , that is , that we ask things necessary , or at least good and innocent and profitable ; and that our persons be gracious in the eyes of God ; or else what God hath promised to our natural needs , he may in many degrees deny to our personal incapacity ; but the thing being secur'd , and the person dispos'd , there can be no fault at all : for whatsoever else remains is on Gods part , and that cannot possibly fail . But because the things which are not commanded cannot possibly be secur'd ( for we are not sure they are good in all circumstances ) we can but hope for such things , even after we have secur'd our good intentions . Wee are sure of a blessing , but in what instance we are not yet assured . 6. Our prayers must be fervent , intense , earnest and importunate when we pray for things of high concernment and necessity . [ Continuing instant in prayer : striving in prayer : labouring fervently in prayer : night and day praying exceedingly : praying alwayes with all prayer ] so S. Paul calls it : watching unto prayer ] so Saint Peter [ praying earnestly ] so S. Iames : and this is not at all to be abated in matters spiritual and of duty : for according as our desires are , so are our prayers ; and as our prayers are , so shall be the grace ; and as that is , so shall be the measure of glory . But this admits of degrees according to the perfection or imperfection of our state of life : but it hath no other measures , but ought to be as great as it can ; the bigger the better ; we must make no positive restraints upon it our selves . In other things we are to use a bridle : and as we must limit our desires with submission to Gods will : so also we must limit the importunity of our prayers by the moderation and term of our desires . Pray for it as earnestly as you may desire it . 7. Our desires must be lasting , and our prayers frequent , assiduous , and continual : not asking for a blessing once and then leaving it ; but daily renewing our suits , and exercising our hope , and faith and patience , and long-suffering , and Religion , and resignation , and self-denyal in all the degrees we shall be put to . This circumstance of duty our blessed Saviour taught , saying , [ That men ought alwayes to pray and not to faint ] Alwayes to pray signifies the frequent doing of the duty in general : but because we cannot alwayes ask several things , and we also have frequent need of the same things , and those are such as concern our great interest , the precept comes home to this very circumstance ; & S. Paul cals it , [ praying wit●o●t ceasing ] and himself in his own case gave a precedent : [ For this cause I besought the Lord thrice ] and so did our blessed Lord , he went thrice to God on the same errand , with the same words in a short space , about half a night ; for his time to sollicite his suit was but short : and the Philippians were remembred by the Apostle , their spiritual Father alwayes in every prayer of his . And thus we must alwayes pray for the pardon of our sins , for the assistance of Gods grace , for charity , for life eternal , never giving over till we dye : and thus also we pray for supply of great temporal needs in their several proportions : in all cases being curious we do not give over out of wearinesse , or impatience : For God oftentimes defers to grant our suit , because he loves to hear us beg it , and hath a design to give us more then we ask , even a satisfaction of our desires , and a blessing for the very importunity . 8 Let the words of our prayers be pertinent , grave , material , not studiously many , but according to our need , sufficient to expresse our wants , and to signifie our importunity . God hears us not the sooner for our many words , but much the sooner for an earnest desire , to which , let apt and sufficient words minister , be they few , or many , according as it happens . A long prayer and a short , differ not in their capacities of being accepted ; for both of them take their value according to the fervency of spirit , and the charity of the prayer . That prayer which is short by reason of an impatient spirit , or dulnesse , or despite of holy things , or indifferency of desires , is very often criminall , alwayes imperfect : and that prayer which is long out of ostentation , or superstition , or a trifling spirit , is as criminal and imperfect as the other in their several instances . This rule relates to private prayer . In publick , our devotion is to be measured by the appointed office , and we are to support our spirit with spiritual arts , that our private spirit may be a part of the publick spirit , & be adopted into the society and blessings of the communion of Saints . 9. In all formes of prayer mingle petition with thanksgiving , that you may endear the present prayer , and the future blessing by returning praise and thanks for what we have already received . This is Saint Pauls advice , [ Be careful for nothing , but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. ] 10. Whatever we beg of God , let us also work for it ; if the thing be matter of duty , or a consequent to industry . For God loves to blesse labour and to reward it , but not to support idlenesse . And therefore our blessed Saviour in his Sermons joyns watchfulness with prayer : for Gods graces are but assistances , not new creations of the whole habit in every instant , or period of our life . Reade Scriptures , and then pray to GOD for understanding : Pray against temptation , but you must also resist the Devil , and then hee will flee from you . Ask of GOD competency of living , but you must also work with your hands , the things that are honest , that ye may have to supply in time of need : We can but do our endeavour , and pray for blessing , and then leave the success● with GOD : and beyond this we cannot deliberate , we cannot take care ; but so far we must . 11. In all our prayers we must be carefull to attend our present work , having a present minde , not wandring upon impertinent things , not distant from our words , much lesse contrary to them : and if our thoughts do at any time wander , and divert upon other objects , bring them back again with prudent and severe arts ; by all means striving to obtain a diligent , a sober , an untroubled and a composed spirit . 12. Let your posture and gesture of body in prayers bee reverent , grave , and humble ; according to publike order , or the best examples , if it be in publick ; if it be in private , either stand , or kneel , or lye flat upon the ground on your face , in your ordinary and more solemn prayers ; but in extraordinary , casual , and ejaculatory prayers , the reverence and devotion of the soul , and the lifting up the eyes and hands to God with any other posture not undecent , is usual and commendable ; for we may pray in bed , on horseback , every where , and at all times , and in all circumstances : and it is well if we do so ; and some servants have not opportunity to pray so often as they would , unlesse they supply the appeti●es of Religion by such accidental devotions . 13. [ Let prayers and supplications , and giving of thanks be made for all men : for Kings and all that are in authority : For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour . ] We who must love our Neighbours as our selves , must also pray for them as for our selves : with this onely dif●erence ; that we may enlarge in our temporal desires for Kings , and pray for secular prosperity to them with more importunity then for our selves ; because they need more to enable their duty and government , and for the interests of Religion and Justice . This part of prayer is by the Apostle called [ intercession ] in which with special care we are to remember our Relatives , our Family , our Charge , our Benefactours , our Creditours ; not forgetting to beg pardon and charity for our Enemies , and protection against them . 14. Relye not on a single prayer in matters of great concernment : but make it as publick as you can by obtaining of others to pray for you : this being the great blessing of the communion of Saints , that a prayer united is strong like a well ordered Army ; and God loves to be tyed fast with such cords of love , and constrain'd by a holy violence . 15. Every time that is not seiz'd upon by some other duty , is seasonable enough for prayer ; but let it be performed as a solemn duty morning and evening , that God may begin and end all our businesse , and the out goings of the morning and evening may praise him ; for so we blesse God , and God blesses us . And yet fail not to finde or make opportunities to worship God at some other times of the day ; at least by ejaculations and short addresses : more or lesse , longer or shorter , solemnly or without solemnity , privately or publickly , as you can , or are permitted : alwayes remembring , that as every sin is a degree of danger and unsafety : so every pious prayer and well imployed opportunity is a degree of return to hope and pardon . Cautions for making vowes . 16. A vow to God is an act of prayer , and a great degree and instance of opportunity , & an increase of duty by some new uncommanded instance , or some more eminent degree of duty , or frequency of action , or earnestnesse of spirit in the same . And because it hath pleased God in all Ages of the World to admit of entercourse with his servants in the matter of vows , it is not ill advice , that we make vows to God in such cases in which we have great need , or great danger . But let it be done according to these rules , and by these cautions . 1. That the matter of the vow be lawful . 2. That it be useful in order to Religion or charity . 3. That it be grave , not trifling and impertinent , but great in our proportion of duty towards the blessing . 4. That it be in an uncommanded instance , that is , that it be of something , or in some manner , or in some degree to which formerly wee were not obliged , or which wee might have omitted without sinne . 5. That it bee done with prudence , that is , that it be safe in all the circumstances of person , lest we beg a blessing and fall into a snare . 6. That every vow of a new action bee also accompanied with a new degree and enforcement of our essential and unalterable duty : such as was Iacobs vow ; that ( besides the payment of a tithe ) God should be his God : that so hee might strengthen his duty to him first in essentials and precepts ; and then in additionals and accidentals . For it is but an ill Tree that spends more in leaves and suckers and gummes , then in fruit : and that thankfulnesse and Religion is best , that first secures duty , and then enlarges in counsels . Therefore let every great prayer and great need , and great danger draw us to GOD , neerer by the approach of a pious purpose to live more strictly , and let every mercy of GOD answering that prayer produce a real performance of it . 7. Let not young beginners in Religion enlarge their hearts and streighten their liberty by vowes of long continuance : nor ( indeed ) any one else without a great experience of himself , and of all accidental dangers . Vowes of single actions are safest , and proportionable to those single blessings ever begg'd in such cases of sudden and transient importunities . 8. Let no action which is matter of question and dispute in Religion , ever become the matter of a vow . He vowes foolishly that promises to God to live and dye in such an opinion , in an article not necessary , not certain ; or that upon confidence of his present guide , bindes himself for ever to the profession of what he may afterwards more reasonably contradict , or may finde not to be useful , or not profitable ; but of some danger , or of no necessity . If we observe the former rules we shall pray piously and effectually ; but because even this duty hath in it some especial temptations , it is necessary that we be armed by special remedies against them . The dangers are . 1. Wandring thoughts . 2. Tediousnesse of spirit . Against the first these advices are profitable . Remedies against wandring thoughts in Prayer . If we feel our spirits apt to wander in our prayers , and to retire into the World , or to things unprofitable , or vain and impertinent . 1. Use prayer to bee assisted in prayer : pray for the spirit of supplication , for a sober , fixed , and recollected spirit : and when to this you adde a moral industry to be steady in your thoughts , whatsoever wandrings after this do return irremediably , are a misery of Nature , and an imperfection , but no sinne while it is not cherished and indulged too . 2. In private it is not amisse to attempt the cure by reducing your prayers into Collects , and short forms of prayer , making voluntary interruptions and beginning again , that the want of spirit and breath may be supplied by the short stages and periods . 3. When you have observed any considerable wandring of your thoughts , binde your self to repeat that prayer again with actual attention , or else revolve the full sense of it in your spirit , and repeat it in all the effect and desires of it : and possibly the tempter may be driven away with his own art , and may cease to interpose his trifles , when hee perceives they doe but vex the person into carefulnesse , and piety : and yet hee loses nothing of his devotion , but doubles the earnestnesse of his care . 4. If this bee not seasonable , or opportune , or apt to any Mans circumstances , yet be sure with actual attention to say a hearty Amen to the whole prayer , with one united desire , earnestly begging the graces mentioned in the prayer : for that desire does the great work of the prayer and secures the blessing , if the wandring thoughts were against our will , and disclaimed by contending against them . 5. Avoid multiplicity of businesses of the World ; and in those that are unavoidable , labour for an evennesse and tranquillity of spirit , that you may be untroubled and smooth in all tempests of fortune : for so we shall better tend Religion , when we are not torn in pieces with the cares of the World , and seiz'd upon with low affections , passions and interest . 6. It helps much to attention and actual advertisement in our prayers , if we say our prayers silently , without the voice , onely by the ●pirit . For in mental prayer , if our thoughts wander , we onely stand still ; when our minde returns , we go on again , there is none of the prayer lost , as it is , if our mouths speak and our hearts wander . 7. To incite you to the use of these or any other counsels you shall meet with , remember that it is a great undecency to desire of God to hear those prayers , a great part whereof we do not hear our selves . If they be not worthy of our attention , they are far more unworthy of Gods. Signes of tediousnesse of spirit in our prayers and all actions of religion . The second temptation in our prayer is a tediousnesse of spirit , or a wearinesse of the imployment : like that of the Jews , who complained that they were weary of the new moons , and their souls loathed the frequent return of their Sabbaths : so do very many Christians , who first pray without fervour and earnestnesse of spirit : and secondly meditate but seldom , and that without fruit , or sence or affection : or thirdly who seldom examine their consciences , and when they do it , they do it but sleepily , slightly , without compunction , or hearty purpose , or fruits of amendment . 4. They enlarge themselves in the thoughts and fruition of temporal things , running for comfort to them onely in any sadnesse and misfortune . 5. They love not to frequent the Sacraments , nor any the instruments of religion , as sermons , confessions , prayers in publick , fastings , but love ease , and a loose undisciplin'd life . 6. They obey not their superiours , but follow their own judgement , when their judgement follows their affections , and their affections follow sense and worldly pleasures . 7. They neglect , or dissemble , or defer , or do not attend to the motions and inclinations to vertue which the spirit of God puts into their soul. 8. They repent them of their vows and holy purposes , not because they discover any indiscretion in them , or intolerable inconvenience , but because they have within them labour , and ( as the case now stands to them ) displeasure . 9. They content themselves with the first degrees , and necessary parts of vertue , and when they are arrived thither , they sit down , as if they were come to the mountain of the Lord , and care not to proceed on toward perfection . 10. They enquire into all cases in which it may be lawful to omit a duty , and though they will not do lesse then they are bound to , yet they will do no more then needs must ; for they do out of fear , and self love , not out of the love of God , or the spirit of holinesse and zeal . The event of which will be this . He that will do no more then needs must , will soon be brought to omit something of his duty , and will be apt to believe lesse to be necessary then is . Remedies against tediousnesse of spirit . The Remedies against this temptation are these . 1. Order your private devotions so , that they become not arguments and causes of tediousnesse by their indiscreet length ; but reduce your words into a narrower compasse , still keeping all the matter , and what is cut off in the length of your prayers , supply in the earnestnes●e of your spirit ; for so nothing is lost while the words are changed into matter , and length of time into fervency of devotion . The forms are made not the lesse perfect , and the spirit is more , and the scruple is removed . 2. It is not imprudent if we provide variety of forms of Prayer to the same purposes ; that the change by consulting with the appetites of fancy , may better entertain the Spirit : and possibly we may be pleased to re●ite a hymn , when a collect seems flat to us and unpleasant , and we are willing to sing rather then to say , or to sing this rather then that : we are certain that variety is delightful , and whether that be natural to us , or an imperfection , yet if it be complyed with , it may remove some part of the temptation . 3. Break your office and devotion into fragments , and make frequent returnings by ejaculations and abrupt entercourses with God ; for so , no length can oppresse your tenderness and sicklinesse of spirit ; and by often praying in such manner and in all circumstances , we shall habituate our souls to prayer , by making it the businesse of many lesser portions of our time : and by thrusting in between all our other imployments , it will make every thing relish of religion , and by degrees turn all into its nature . 4. Learn to abstract your thoughts and desires from pleasures and things of the world . For nothing is a direct cure to this evill , but cutting off all other loves and adherences . Order your affairs so , that religion may be propounded to you as a reward , and prayer as your defence , and holy actions as your security , and charity and good works as your treasure : Consider that all things else are satisfactions but to the brutish part of a man , and that these are the refreshments and relishes of that noble part of us by which we are better then beasts : and whatsoever other instrument , exercise or consideration is of use to take our loves from the world , the same is apt to place them upon God. 5. Do not seek for deliciousnesse and sensible consolations in the actions of religion , but onely regard the duty and the conscience of it . For although in the beginning of religion most frequently , and at some other times irregularly , God complyes with our infirmity , and encourages our duty with little overflowings of spiritual joy , and sensible pleasure , and delicacies in prayer , so as we seem to feel some little beam of Heaven and great refreshments from the spirit of consolation ; yet this is not alwayes safe for us to have , neither safe for us to expect and look for : and when we do , it is apt to make us cool in our enquiries and waitings upon Christ when we want them : It is a running after him , not for the miracles , but for the loaves ; not for the wonderful things of God , and the desires of pleasing him , but for the pleasures of pleasing our selves . And as we must not judge our devotion to be barren or unfruitful when we want the overflowings of joy running over : so neither must we cease for want of them ; If our spirits can serve God choosingly and greedily out of pure conscience of our duty , it is better in it self , and more safe to us . 6. Let him use to soften his spirit with frequent meditation upon sad and dolorous objects , as of death , the terrours of the day of judgement ; fearful judgements upon sinners , strange horrid accidents , fear of Gods wrath , the pains of Hell , the unspeakable amazements of the damned , the intolerable load of a sad Eternity . For whatsoever creates fear , or makes the spirit to dwell in a religious sadnesse , is apt to entender the spirit , and make it devout and plyant to any part of duty . For a great fear , when it is ill managed , is the parent of superstition ; but a discreet and well guided fear produces religion . 7. Pray often and you shall pray oftner , and when you are accustomed to a frequent devotion , it will so insensibly unite to your nature and affections , that it will become trouble to omit your usual or appointed prayers : and what you obtain at first by doing violence to your inclinations , at last will not be left without as great unwillingnesse as that by which at first it entred . This rule relyes not onely upon reason derived from the nature of habits , which turn into a second nature , and make their actions easy , frequent & an delightful : but it relyes upon a reason depending upon the nature and constitution of grace , whose productions are of the same nature with the parent , and increases it self , naturally growing from granes to huge trees , from minutes to vast proportions , and from moments to Eternity . But be sure not to omit your usual prayers without great reason , though without sin it may be done ; because after you have omitted something , in a little while you will be passed the scruple of that , and begin to be tempted to leave out more : keep your self up to your usual forms ; you may enlarge when you will ; but do not contract or lessen them without a very probable reason . 8. Let a man frequently and seriously by imagination place himself upon his death-bed , and consider what great joyes he shall have for the remembrance of every day well spent ; and what then he would give that he had so spent all his dayes : He may guesse at it by proportions : for it is certain he shall have a joyful and prosperous night , who hath spent his day holily ; and he resignes his soul with peace into the hands of God , who hath lived in the peace of God , and the works of religion in his life time . This consideration is of a real event , it is of a thing that will certainly come to passe . It is appointed for all men once to die , and after death comes judgement ; the apprehension of which is dreadful , and the presence of it is intolerable , unlesse by religion and sanctity we are dispos'd for so venerable an appearance . 9. To this may be useful that we consider the easinesse of Christs yoke , the excellences and sweetnesses that are in religion , the peace of conscience , the joy of the Holy Ghost , the rejoycing in God , the simplicity and pleasure of vertue , the intricacy , trouble and businesse of sin ; the blessings and health and reward of that , the curses , the sicknesses and sad consequences of this ; and that , if we are weary of the labours of religion , we must eternally sit still and do nothing : for whatsoever we do , contrary to it , is infinitely more full of labour , care , difficulty , and vexation . 10. Consider this also , that tediousnesse of spirit , is the beginning of the most dangerous condition & estate in the whole World. For it is a great disposition to the sinne against the holy Ghost ; it is apt to bring a Man to backsliding , and the state of unregeneration , to make him return to his vomit and his sink , and either to make the Man impatient , or his condition scrupulous , unsatisfied , irksome and desperate : and it is better that he had never known the way of godlinesse , then after the knowledge of it , that he should fall away . There is not in the World a greater signe that the spirit of Reprobation is beginning upon a Man , then when hee is habitually and constantly , or very frequently , weary , and slights , or loaths holy Offices . 11. The last remedy that preserves the hope of such a Man , and can reduce him to the state of zeal and the love of God , is a pungent , sad , and a heavy affliction ; not desperate , but recreated with some intervals of kindenesse , and little comforts , or entertained with hopes of deliverance : which condition , if a Man shall fall into , by the grace of God he is likely to recover : but if this help him not , it is infinite oddes but he will quench the Spirit . Sect. 8. Of Almes . LOve is as communicative as fire , as busie , and as active , and it hath four twin Daughters , extreme like each other ; and but that the Doctors of the School have done as Thamars Midwife did , who bound a Scarlet threed , something to distinguish them , it would be very hard to call them asunder . Their names are : 1. Mercy . 2. Beneficence , or well-doing . 3. Liberality . And 4. Almes ; which by a special priviledge hath obtained to be called after the Mothers name , and is commonly called , Charity . The first or eldest is seated in the affection , and it is that , which all the other must attend . For Mercy without Almes is acceptable , when the person is disabled to expresse outwardly , what he heartily desires . But Almes without Mercy , are like prayers without devotion , or Religion without Humility . 2. Beneficence , or well doing , is a promptnesse and noblenesse of minde , making us to do offices of curtesie , and humanity to all sorts of persons in their need , or out of their need . 3. Liberality is a disposition of minde opposite to covetousnesse , and consists in the despite and neglect of money upon just occasions , and relates to our friends , children , kinred , servants and other relatives . 4. But Almes is a relieving the poor and needy . The first and the last onely are duties of Christianity . The second and third are circumstances and adjuncts of these duties : for Liberality increases the degree of Almes , making our gift greater ; and Beneficence extends it to more persons and orders of Men , spreading it wider . The former makes us sometimes to give more then we are able ; and the latter gives to more then need by the necessity of Beggars , and serves the needs and conveniencies of persons , and supplies circumstances : wheraes properly , Almes are doles and largesses to the necessitous and calamitous people ; supplying the necessities of Nature , and giving remedies to their miseries . Mercy and Almes are the body and soul of that charity which we must pay to our Neighbours need : and it is a precept which God therefore enjoyn'd to the World , that the great inequality which he was pleased to suffer in the possessions and accidents of Men , might be reduced to some temper and evennesse ; and the most miserable person might be reconciled to some sense and participation of felicity . Works of mercy , or the several kindes of corporal Almes . The workes of Mercy are so many as the affections of Mercy have objects , or as the World hath kindes of misery . Men want meat or drink , or clothes , or a house , or liberty , or attendance , or a grave . In proportion to these , seven works are usually assign'd to Mercy ; and there are seven kindes of corporal almes reckoned . 1. To feed the hungry . 2. To give drink to the thirsty . 3. Or clothes to the naked . 4. To redeem Captives . 5. To visit the sick . 6. To entertain strangers . 7. To bury the dead . * But many more may be added . Such as are . 8. To give physick to sick persons . 9. To bring cold and starv'd people to warmth and to the fire : for sometimes clothing will not do it ; or this may be done when we cannot do the other . 9. To lead the blinde in right wayes . 10. To lend money . 11. To forgive debts . 12. To remit forfeitures . 13. To mend high wayes and bridges . 14. To reduce or guide wandring travellers . 15. To ease their labours by accomodating their work with apt instruments ; or their journey with beasts of carriage . 16. To deliver the poor from their oppressors . 17. To dye for my brother . 18 To pay maydens dowries , and to procure for them honest and chast marriages . Works of spiritual Almes and mercy , are 1. To teach the ignorant . 2. To counsell doubting persons . 3. To admonish sinners diligently , prudently , seasonably , and charitably : To which also may be reduced , provoking and encouraging to good works . 4. To comfort the afflicted . 5. To pardon offenders . 6. To suffer and support the weak . 7. To pray for all estates of men , and for relief to all their necessities . To which may be added . 8 ▪ To punish or correct refractorinesse . 9. To be gentle and charitable in censuring the actions of others . 10. To establish the scrupulous , wavering , and inconstant spirits . 11. To confirm the strong . 12. Not to give scandal . 13. To quit a man of his fear . 14 * To redeem maydens from prostitution and publication of their bodies . To both these kindes , a third also may be added of a mixt nature , partly corporall , and partly spiritual : such are , 1. Reconciling enemies . 2. Erecting publick Schools of Learning . 3. Maintaining Lectures of Di●inity . 4. Erecting Colledges for Religion , and retirement from the noises and more frequent temptations of the World. 5. Finding imployment for unbusied persons , and putting children to honest Trades . For the particulars of Mercy or Almes cannot be narrower then Mens needs are : and the old method of Almes is too narrow to comprize them all ; and yet the kindes are too many to be discoursed of particularly : onely our blessed Saviour in the precept of Almes , uses the instances of relieving the poor , and forgivenesse of injuries ; and by proportion to these , the rest , whose duty is plain , simple , easie and necessary , may be determin'd . But Almes in general are to be disposed of according to the following Rules . Rules for giving Almes . 1. Let no Man do Almes of that which is none of his own ; for of that he is to make restitution ; that is due to the owners , not to the poor : for every Man hath need of his own , and that is first to be provided for ; and then you must think of the needs of the poor . He that gives the poor what is not his own , makes himself a thief , and the poor to be the receivers . This is not to be understood , as if it were unlawful for a Man that is not able to pay his debts , to give smaller Almes to the poor . He may not give such portions as can in any sence more disable him to do justice : but such , which if they were saved could not advance the other duty , may retire to this , and do here * what they may , since in the other d●ty they cannot do what they should . But generally Cheaters and Robbers cannot give almes of what they have cheated and robbed , unlesse they cannot tell the persons whom they have injured , or the proportions ; and in such cases they are to give those unknown portions to the poor by way of restitution , for it is no almes : onely God is the supreme Lord to whom those escheats devolve , and the poor are his Receivers . 2. Of money unjustly taken and yet voluntarily parted with , we may and are bound to give almes : such as is money given and taken for false witnesse , bribes , simoniacal contracts , because the Receiver hath no right to keep it , nor the Giver any right to recall it , it is unjust money , and yet payable to none but to the supreme Lord ( who is the person injur'd ) and to his Delegates , that is , the poor . To which I insert these cautions . 1. If the person injur'd by the unjust sentence of a brib'd Judge , or by false witnesse , be poor , he is the proper object and bosome to whom the restitution is to be made . 2. In case of Simony , the Church , to whom the Simony was injurious , is the lap into which the restitution is to be powred , and if it be poor and out of repair , the almes or restitution ( shall I call it ) are to be paid to it . 3. There is some sort of gain that hath in it no injustice properly so called ; but it is unlawful and filthy lucre : such as is money taken for worke done unlawfully upon the Lords day , hire taken for disfiguring ones self , and for being professed jesters , the wages of such as make unjust bargains , and of harlots : of this money there is some preparation to be made before it be given in Almes . The money is infected with the plague , and must passe thorough the fire or the water before it be fit for almes : the person must repent and leave the crime , and then minister to the poor . 4. He that gives almes must do it in mercy , that is , out of a true sence of the calamity of his brother , first feeling it in himself in some proportion , and then endeavouring to ease himself and the other of their common calamity . Against this rule they offend who give almes out of custome , or to upbraid the poverty of the other , or to make him mercenary and obliged , or with any unhandsome circumstances . 5. He that gives almes must do it with a single eye and heart ; that is , without designes to get the praise of men : and if he secures that , he may either give them publickly , or privately : for Christ intended only to provide against pride and hypocrisie , when he bade almes to be given in secret ; it being otherwise one of his Commandments , that our light should shine before men : this is more excellent , that is more safe . 6. To this also appertains , that he who hath done a good turne should so forget it as not to speak of it : but he that boasts it or upbraids it , hath paid himself , and lost the noblenesse of the charity . 7. Give alms with a cheerful heart and countenance , not grudgingly or of necessity , for God loveth a cheerful giver ; and therefore give quickly when the power is in thy hand , and the need is in thy Neighbor , and thy Neighbor at the door . He gives twice that relieves speedily . 8. According to thy ability give to all men that need ; and in equal needs give first to good men , rather then to bad men ; and if the needs be unequal , do so too ; provided that the need of the poorest be not violent or extream : but if an evil man be in extream necessity , he is to be relieved rather then a good man who can tarry longer , and may subsist without it ; and if he be a good man , he will desire it should be so : because himself is bound to save the life of his brother with doing some inconvenience to himself : and no difference of vertue or vice , can make the ease of one begger equal with the life of another . 9. Give no almes to vitious persons , if such almes will support their sin : as if they will continue in idlenes [ if they will not work , neither let them eat ] or if they will spend it in drunkenness , or wantonness : such persons when they are reduced to very great want , must be relieved in such proportions , as may not relieve their dying lust , but may refresh their faint or dying bodies . 10. The best objects of charity are poor house keepers that labour hard , and are burdened with many children ; or Gentlemen fallen into sad poverty , especially if by innocent misfortune ( and if their crimes brought them into it , yet they are to be relieved accordding to the former rule ) persecuted persons , widows , and fatherlesse children , putting them to honest trades or schools of learning : and search into the needs of numerous and meaner families ; for there are many persons that have nothing left them but misery and modesty : and towards such we must adde two circumstances of charity . 1. To enquire them out· 2. To convey our relief to them so as we do not make them ashamed . 11. Give , looking for nothing again , that is , without consideration of future advantages : give to children , to old men , to the unthankful , and the dying , and to those you shall never see again : for else your alms or curtesy is not charity , but traffick and merchandise : and be sure that you omit not to relieve the needs of your enemy and the injurious ; for so possibly you may win him to your self ; but do you intend the winning him to God. 12. Trust not your almes to intermedial , uncertain and under dispensers : by which rule is not onely intended the securing your almes in the right chanel ; but the humility of your person , and that which the Apostle calls the labour of love : and if you converse in Hospitals , and Alms-houses , and minister with your own hands what your heart hath first decreed , you will finde your hearts endeared and made familiar with the needs and with the persons of the poor , those excellent images of Christ. 13. Whatsoever is superfluous in thy estate is to be dispensed in alms . He that hath two coats must give to him that hath none ; that is , he that hath beyond his need must give that which is beyond it : Only among needs we are to reckon not onely what will support our life , but also what will maintain the decency of our estate and person ; not onely in present needs , but in all future necessities , and very probable contingencies , but no further : we are not obliged beyond this , unlesse we see very great , publick and calamitous necessities : but yet , if we do extend beyond our measures , and give more then we are able , we have the Philippians and many holy persons for our precedent , we have S. Paul for our encouragement , we have Christ for our Counseller , we have God for our rewarder , and a great treasure in Heaven for our recompence and restitution . But I propound it to the consideration of all Christian people , that they be not nice and curious , fond and indulgent to themselves in taking accounts of their personal conveniences , and that they make their proportions moderate and easy , according to the order and manner of Christianity ; and the consequent will be this , that the poor will more plentifully be relieved , themselves will be more able to do it , and the duty will be lesse chargeable , and the owners of estates charged with fewer accounts in the spending them . It cannot be denied , but in the expences of all liberal and great personages many things might be spared : some superfluous servants , some idle meetings , some unnecessary and imprudent feasts , some garments too costly , some unnecessary Law-suits , some vain journeyes : and when we are tempted to such needlesse expences , if we shall descend to moderation , and lay aside the surplusage , we shall finde it with more profit to be laid out upon the poor members of Christ , then upon our own with vanity . But this is onely intended to be an advice in the manner of doing almes : for I am not ignorant that great variety of clothes alwayes have been permitted to Princes and Nobility , and others in their proportion ; and they usually give those clothes as rewards to servants , and other persons needful enough , and then they may serve their own fancy and their duty too : but it is but reason and religion to be careful , that they be given to such onely where duty , or prudent liberality , or almes determine them : but in no sence let them do it so as to minister to vanity , to luxury , to prodigality . The like also is to be observed in other instances . And if we once give our mindes to the study and arts of almes , we shall finde wayes enough to make this duty easy , profitable and useful . 1. He that playes at any game must resolve before hand to be indifferent to win or lose : but if he gives to the poor all that he wins , it is better then to keep it to himself : but it were better yet , that he lay by so much as he is willing to lose , and let the game alone , and by giving so much almes , traffick for eternity . That is one way . 2. Another is , keeping the fasting dayes of the Church ; which if our condition be such as to be able to cast our accounts , and make abatements for our wanting so many meals in the whole year , ( which by the old appointment did amount to 153 , and since most of them are fallen into desuetude , we may make up as many of them as we please by voluntary fasts ) we may from hence finde a considerable reliefe for the poor . But if we be not willing sometimes to fast that our brother may ea● , we should ill dye for him . S. Martin had given all that he had in the world to the poor , save one coat , and that also he divided between two beggers . A Father in the mount of Nitria was reduced at last to the Inventary of one Testament , and that book also was tempted from him by the needs of one whom he thought poorer then himself . Greater yet . S. Paulinus sold himself to slavery to redeem a young man , for whose captivity his Mother wept sadly ; and it is said that S. Katherine suck't the envenomd wounds of a villain who had injured her most impudently : And I shall tell you of a greater charity then all these put together : Christ gave himself to shame and death to redeem his enemies from bondage , and death , and Hell. 3. Learn of the frugal man , and onely avoid sordid actions and turn good husband and change your arts of getting into providence for the poor , and we shall soon become rich in good works ; and why should we not do as much for charity , as for covetousnesse , for Heaven , as for the fading world , for God and the Holy Jesus , as for the needlesse supersluities of back and belly ? 14. In giving almes to beggers and persons of that low ranck , it is better to give little to each that we may give to the more , so extending our alms to many persons : but in charities of religion , as building Hospitals , Colledges , and houses for devotion , and in supplying the accidental wants of decayed persons , fallen from great plenty to great necessity , it is better to unite our almes then to disperse them , to make a noble relief or maintenance to one , and to restore him to comfort , then to support only his natural needs , and keep him alive only , unrescued from sad discomforts . 15. The Precept of almes or charity bindes not indefinitely to all the instances and kindes of charity : for he that delights to feed the poor , and spends all his proportion that way , is not bound to enter into prisons and redeem captives : but we are obliged by the presence of circumstances , and the special disposition of providence , and the pityablenesse of an obobject , to this or that particular act of charity . The eye is the sense of mercy , and the bowels are its organ , and that enkindles pity , and pity produces almes : when the eye sees what it never saw , the heart will think what it never thought : but when we have an object present to our eye , then we must pity , for there the providence of God hath fitted our charity with circumstances . He that is in thy sight or in thy Neighbourhood is fallen into the lot of thy charity . 16. If thou hast no money , yet thou must have mercy , and art bound to pity the poor , and pray for them , and throw thy holy desires and devotions into the treasure of the Church : and if thou doest what thou art able , be it little or great , corporal or spiritual , the charity of almes , or the charity of prayers , a cup of wine , or a cup of water , if it be but love to the brethren , or a desire to help all , or any of Christs poor , it shall be accepted according to what a man hath , not according to what he hath not . For Love is all this , and all the other Commandments ▪ and it will expresse it self where it can , and where it cannot , yet it is love still , and it is also sorrow that it cannot . Motives to Charity . The motives to this duty are such as holy Scripture hath propounded to us by way of consideration and proposition of its excellencies , and consequent reward . 1. There is no one duty which our blessed Saviour did recommend to his Disciples with so repeated an injunction as this of Charity and Almes . To which adde the words spoken by our Lord , It is better to give then to receive ; and when we consider how great a blessing it is that we beg not from door to door , it is a ready instance of our thankfulnes to God , for his sake to relieve them that do . 2. This duty is that alone wherby the future day of judgment shall be transacted . For nothing but charity & almes is that whereby Christ shall declare the justice and mercy of the eternal sentence . Martyrdom it self is not there expressed , and no otherwise involved , but as it is the greatest charity . 3. Christ made himself the greatest and daily example of almes or charity . He went up & down doing good , preaching the Gospel , & healing all diseases : and God the Father is imitable by us in nothing but in purity and mercy . 4. Almes given to the poor redound to the emolument of the Giver both temporal and eternal . 5. They are instrumental to the remission of sins , Our forgivenesse and mercy to others being made the very rule and proportion of our confidence and hope and our prayer to be forgiven our selves . 6. It is a treasure in Heaven , it procures friends when we dye . It is reckoned as done to Christ whatsoever we do to our poor brother ; and therefore when a poor man begs for Christ his sake , if he have reason to ask for Ch i st his sake , give it him if thou canst . Now every man hath title to ask for Ch ists sake , whose need is great , and himself unable to cure it , and if the man be a Christian. Whatsoever charity Christ will reward , all that is given for Christs sake , and therefore it may be asked in his name : but every man that uses that sacred name for an endearment , hath not a title to it , neither he nor his need . 7. It is one of the wings of prayer , by which it flyes to the throne of grace . 8. It crowns all the works of piety . 9. It causes thanksgiving to God on our behalf . 10. And the bowels of the poor blesse us , and they pray for us . 11. And that portion of our estate , out of which a tenth , or a fifth , or a twentieth , or some offering to God for religion and the poor goes forth , certainly returns with a greater blessing upon all the rest . It is like the effusion of oyl by the Sidonian woman ; as long as she poures into empty vessels , it could never cease running : or like the Widows barrel of meal , it consumes not as long as she fed the Prophet . 12. The summe of all is contained in the words of our blessed Saviour : Give almes of such things as you have , ●nd behold all things are clean unto you . 13. To which may be added , that charity or mercy is the peculiar character of Gods Elect , and a signe of predestination ; which advantage we are taught by S. Paul : [ Put on therefore as the elect of God , holy and beloved , bowels of mercy , kindnesse , &c. forbearing one another , and forgiving o●e another ; if any man have a quarrel against any . The result of all which we may reade in the words of S. Chrysostome : To know the art of almes , is greater then to be crowned with the Diadem of kings . And yet to convert one soul is greater then to poure out ten thousand talents into the baskets of the poor . But because giving Almes is an act of the vertue of mercifulnesse , our endeavour must be by proper arts to mortifie the parents of unmercifulnesse , which are 1. Envy . 2. Anger . 3. Covetousnesse , in which we may be helped by the following rules or instruments . Remedies against unmercifulnesse , and uncharitablenesse . 1. Against Envy : by way of consideration . Against Envy I shall use the same argument I would use to perswade a man from the Fever or the dropsie . 1. Because it is a disease , it is so far from having pleasure in it , or a temptation to it , that it is full of pain , a great instrument of vexation ; it eats the flesh , and dries up the marrow , and makes hollow eyes , and lean cheeks , and a pale face . 2. It is nothing but a direct resolution never to enter into Heaven by the way of noble pleasure taken in the good of others . 3. It is most contrary to God. 4. And a just contrary state to the felicities and actions of Heaven , where every star encreases the light of the other , and the multitude of guests at the supper of the Lamb makes the eternal meal more festival . 5. It is perfectly the state of Hell , and the passion of Devils : for they do nothing but despair in themselves , * and envy others quiet or safety , and yet cannot rejoyce either in their good , or in their evil , although they endeavour to hinder that , and procure this , with all the devices and arts of malice and of a great understanding . 6. Envy can serve no end in the world ; it cannot please any thing , nor do any thing , nor hinder any thing , but the content and felicity of him that hath it . 7. Envy can never pretend to justice , as hatred and uncharitableness sometimes may : for there may be causes of hatred , and I may have wrong done me , and then hatred hath some pretence , though no just argument : But no man is unjust or injurious for being prosperous or wise . 8. And therefore many men prosesse to hate another , but no man owns envy , as being an enmity and displeasure for no cause but goodnesse or felicity : Envious men being like Cantharides and Caterpillars , that delight most to devour ripe and most excellent fruits . 9. It is of all crimes the basest : for malice and anger are appeased with benefits , but envy is exasperated , as envying to fortunate persons both their power and their will to do good : and never leaves murmuring till the envied person be le velled , and then onely the Unltur leaves to eat the liver : for if his Neighbour be made miserable the envious man is apt to be troubled : like him that is so long unbuilding the turrets till all the roof is low or flat , or that the stones fall upon the lower buildings , and do a mischief that the man repents of . 2. Remedies against anger by way of exercise . The next enemy to mercifulnes and the grace of Almes is Anger , against which there are proper instruments both in prudence and religion . 1. Prayer is the great remedy against anger : for it must suppose it in some degree removed before we pray , and then it is the more likely it will be finished when the prayer is done : We must lay aside the act of anger , as a prepatory to prayer , and the curing the habit will be the effect and blessing of prayer : so that if a man to cure his anger , resolves to addresse himself to God by prayer , it is first necessary that by his own observation & diligence he lay the anger aside , before his prayer can be fit to be presented ; and when we so pray , and so endeavour , we have all the blessings of prayer which God hath promised to it , to be our security for successe . 2. If Anger arises in thy breast , instantly seal up thy lips , and let it not go forth : for like fire when it wants vent , it will suppresse it self . It is good in a fever to have a tender and a smooth tongue ; but it is better that it be so in anger ; for if it be rough and distempered , there it is an ill signe , but here it is an ill cause . Angry passion is a fire , and angry words are like breath to fan them ; together they are like steel and flint sending out fire by mutual collision : some men will discourse themselves into passion , and if their neighbour be enkindled too , together they flame with rage and violence . 3. Humility is the most excellent natural cure for anger in the world : for he that by daily considering his own infirmities and failings makes the errour of his neighbour or servant to be his own case , and remembers that he daily needs Gods pardon , and his brothers charity , will not be apt to rage at the levities or misfortunes , or indiscretions of another ; greater then which he considers that he is very frequently , and more inexcusably guilty of . 4. Consider the example of the ever blessed Jesus , who suffered all the contradictions of sinners , and received all affronts and reproaches of malicious , rash and foolish persons , and yet in all them was as dispassionate and gentle as the morning sun in Autumn : and in this also he propounded himself imitable by us . For if innocence it self did suffer so great injuries and disgraces , it is no great matter for us quietly to receive al the calamities of fortune & indiscretion of servants , and mistakes of friends , and unkindnesses of kinred , and rudenesses of enemies , since we have deserved these and worse , even Hell it self . 5. If we be tempted to anger in the actions of Government and Discipline to our inferiours ( in which case anger is permitted so far as it is prudently instrumental to Government , and onely is a sin when it is excessive and unreasonable , and apt to disturbe our own discourse , or to expresse it self in imprudent words or violent actions ) let us propound to our selves the example of God the Father , who at the same time , and with the same tranquillity decreed Heaven and Hell , the joyes of blessed Angels and souls , and the torments of Devils and accursed spirits : and at the day of judgement when all the World shall burn under his feet , God shall not be at all inflam'd , or shaken in his essential seat and centre of tranquillity and joy . And if at first the cause seems reasonable , yet defer to execute thy anger till thou mayest better judge . For as Phocion told the Athenians , who upon the first news of the death of Alexander were ready to revolt , stay awhile , for if the King be not dead , your haste will ruine you . But if he be dead , your stay cannot prejudice your affairs , for he will be dead to morrow as well as to day : so if thy servant or inferiour deserve punishment , staying till to morrow will not make him innocent , but it may possibly preserve thee so , by preventing thy striking a guiltlesse person , or being furious for a trifle . 6. Remove from thy self all provocations and incentives to anger ; especially 1. Games of chance , and great wagers , petty curiosities and worldly businesse and carefulnesse about it ; but manage thy self with indifferency , or contempt of those external things , and do not spend a passion upon them , for it is more then they are worth . But they that desire but few things can be crossed but in a few . 2. In not heaping up with an ambitious or curious prodigality , any very curious or choice Utensils , Seals , Jewels , Glasses , precious stones , because those very many accidents which happen in the spoiling or losse of these rarities , is in event , an irresistable cause of violent anger . 3. Do not entertain nor suffer talebearers : for they abuse our ears first , and then our credulity , and then steal our patience , and it may be for a lye ; and if it be true , the matter is not considerable ; or if it be , yet it is pardonable : and we may alwayes escape with patience at one of these out-lets : either 1 By not hearing slanders , or 2 By not believing them , or 3 By not regarding the thing , or 4 By forgiving the person . 4. To this purpose also it may serve well if we choose ( as much as we can ) to live with peaceable persons , for that prevents the occasions of confusion : and if we live with prudent persons they will not easily occasion our disturbance . But because these things are not in many Mens power , therefore I propound this rather as a felicity then a remedy or a duty ; and an art of prevention rather then of cure . 7. Be not inquisitive into the affairs of other Men , nor the faults of thy servants , nor the mistakes of thy friends ; but what is offered to you , use according to the former rules but do not thou go out to gather sticks to kindle a fire to burn thy own house . And adde this ; if my friend said or did well in that for which I am angry , I am in the fault , not he : But if he did amisse , he is in the misery , not I : for either he was deceiv'd , or he was malitious , and either of them both is all one with a miserable person ; and that is an object of pity , no● of anger . 8. Use all reasonable discourses to e●cuse the faults of others , considering that there are many circumstances of time , of person , of accident , of inadvertency , of infrequency , of aptnesse to amend , of sorrow for doing it ; and it is well that we take any good in exchange for the evil is done or suffered . 9. Upon the arising of anger instantly enter into a deep consideration of the joyes of Heaven , or the pains of Hell : for fear and joy are naturally apt to appease this violence . 10. In contentions be alwayes passive , never active ; upon the defensive , not the assaulting part , and then also give a gentle answer , receiving the furies and indiscretions of the other like a stone into a bed of Mosse and soft compliance ; and you shall finde it sit down quietly ; whereas anger and violence makes the contention loud , and long and injurious to both the parties . 11. In the actions of Religion be careful to temper all thy instances with meeknesse , and the proper instruments of it : and if thou beest apt to be angry , neither fast violently , nor entertain the too forward heats of zeal : but secure thy duty with constant and regular actions , and a good temper of body with convenient refreshments and recreations . 12. If anger rises suddenly and violently , first restrain it with consideration , and then let it end in a hearty prayer for him that did the real or seeming injury : The former of the two stops its growth , and the latter quite kils it , and makes amends for its monstrous and involuntary birth . Remedies against Anger by way of consideration . 1. Consider that Anger is a professed enemy to counsel , it is a direct storm , in which no Man can be heard to speak , or call from without : for if you counsel gently , you are despised , if you urge it and be vehement , you provoke it more : bee carefull therefore to l●y up before-hand a great stock of reason and prudent consideration , that like a besieg'd Town you may be provided for , and be defensible from within , since you are not likely to be reliev'd from without . Anger is not to be suppressed but by something that is as inward as it self , and more habitual : To which purpose adde , that 2. of all passions it endeavors most to make reason useless . 3. That it is an universal poyson , of an infinite object ; for no Man was ever so amorous as to love a Toad , none so envious as to repine at the condition of the miserable , no Man so timoro●s as to fear a dead Bee ; but anger is troubled at every thing , & every Man , and every accident , and therefore unlesse it be suppressed it will make a Mans condition restlesse . 4. If it proceeds from a great cause it turns to fury ; if from a small cause , it is peevishnesse , and so is alwayes either terrible or ridiculous . 5. It makes a Mans body monstrous , deformed , and contemptible , the voice horrid , the eyes cruel , the face pale or fiery , the gate fierce , the speech clamorous and loud . 6. It is neither manly nor ingenuous . 7. It proceeds from softnesse of spirit and pusillanimity ; which makes that Women are more angry then Men , fick persons more then the healthful , old Men more then yong , unprosperous and calamitous people then the blessed and fortunate . 8. It is a passion fitter for Flies and Insects then for persons professing noblenesse and bounty . 9. It is troublesome not onely to those that suffer it , but to them that behold it ; there being no greater incivility * of entertainment then for the Cooks fault , or the negligence of the servants , to be cruel , or outragious , or unpleasant in the presence of the guests . 10. It makes marriage to be a necessary and unavoidable trouble , friendships , and societies , and familiarities to be intolerable . 11. It multiplies the evils of drunkennesse , and makes the levities of Wine to run into madnesse . 12. It makes innocent jesting to bee the beginning of Tragedies . 13. It turns friendship into hatred , * it makes a Man lose himself , and his reason and his argument in disputation . * It turnes the desires of knowledge into an itch of wrangling . * It addes insolency to power . * It turnes justice into cruelty , and judgement into oppression . * It changes discipline into tediousnesse and hatred of liberal institution . * It makes a prosperous Man to be envyed and the unfortunate to be unpittied . * It is a confluence of all the irregular passions : there is in it envy and sorrow , fear and scorn , pride and prejudice , rashnesse and inconsideration , rejoycing in evil and a desire to inflict it , self love , impatience and curiosity . * And lastly , though it be very troublesome to others , yet it is most troublesome to him that hath it . In the use of these arguments and the former exercises be diligent to observe , left in your desires to suppresse anger you be passionate and angry at your self for being angry ; like Physicians who give a bitter potion when they intend to eject the bitternesse of choler ; for this will provoke the person and increase the passion : But placidly and quietly set upon the mortification of it ; and attempt it first for a day ; resolving that day not at all to be angry ; and to be watchful and observant , for a day is no great trouble : but then , after one dayes watchfulnesse it will be as easie to watch two dayes , as at first it was to watch one day ; and so you may increase till it becomes easie and habitual . Onely observe that such an anger alone is criminal which is against charity to my self or my neighbour ; but anger against sin is a holy zeal , and an effect of love to God and my brother , for whose interest I am passionate , like a concerned person : and if I take care that my anger makes no reflexion of scorn or cruelty upon the offender , or of pride and violence , or transportation to my self , anger becomes charity and duty : And when one commended Charilaus the King of Sparta , for a gentle , a good and a meek Prince , his collegue said said well , How can he be good who is not an enemy even to vitious persons . 3. Remedies against Covetousnesse , the third enemy of mercy . Covetousnesse is also an enemy to Almes , though not to all the effects of mercifulnesse : but this is to be cured by the proper motives to charity before mentioned , and by the proper rules of justice ; which being secured , the arts of getting money are not easily made criminal . To which also we may adde . 1. Covetousnesse makes a man miserable ; because riches are not means to make a man happy : and unless felicity were to be bought with money he is a vain person who admires heaps of gold and rich possessions ; for what Hippomachus said to some persons , who commended a tall man as fit to be a Champion in the Olympick games : it is true ( said he ) if the crown hang so high that the longest arm could reach it : The same we may say concerning riches , they were excellent things , if the richest man were certainly the wisest and the best : but as they are , they are nothing to be wondered at , because they contribute nothing towards felicity : which appears because some men choose to be miserable that they may be rich , rather then be happy with the expence of money and doing noble things . 2. Riches are uselesse and unprofitable ; for beyond our needs and conveniences nature knowes no use of riches ; and they say , that the Princes of Italy when they sup alone , eate out of a single dish , and drink in a plain glasse , and the wife eats without purple : for nothing is more frugal then the back and belly , if they be used as they should , but when they would entertain the eyes of strangers , when they are vain and would make a noyse , then riches come forth to set forth the spectacle , and furnish out the Comedie of wealth , of vanity . No man can with all the wealth in the world buy so much skill as to be a good Lutenist ; he must go the same way that poor people do , he must learn and take pains ; much lesse can he buy constancy , or chastity , or courage : nay not so much as the contempt of riches : and by possessing more then we need , we cannot obtain so much power over our souls , as not to require more : And certainly riches must deliver me from no evil , if the possession of them cannot take away the longing for them If any man be thirsty , drink cools him . If he be hungry , ea●ing meat satisfies him ; and when a man is cold and calls for a warme cloak , he is pleased if you give it him ; but you trouble him , if you load him with six or eight cloaks . Nature rests and sits still when she hath her portion ; but what which exceeds it , is a trouble and a burden : and therefore in true Philosophy , No man is rich but he that is poor according to the common account : for when God hath satisfied those needs which he made ; that is , all that is natural , whatsoever is beyond it , is thirst and a disease , and unlesse it be sent back again in charity or religion , can serve no end but vice or vanity , it can encrease the appetite to represent the man poorer , and full of a new and artificial , unnatural need ; but it never satisfies the need it makes , or makes the man richer . No wealth can satisfie the covetous desire of wealth . 2. Riches are troublesome : but the satisfaction of those appetites which God and nature ha●h made are cheap and easy : for who ever paid use-money for bread and onions and water to keep him alive : but when we cove● after houses of the frame and designe of Italy , or long for jewels , or for my next neighbours field , or horses from Barbary , or the richest perfumes of Arabia , or Galatian mules , or fat Eunuchs for our slaves from Tunis , or rich coaches from Naples , then we can never be satisfied till we have the best thing that is fancied , and all that can be had , and all that can be desired , and that we can lust no more : but before we come to the one half of our first wilde desires , we are the bondmen of Usurers , and of our worse tyrant appetites , and the tortures of envy and impatience . But I consider that those who drink on still when their thirst is quenched , or eat even after they well dined are sorced to vomit , not onely their superfluity , but even that which at first was necessary : so those that covet more then they can temperately use , are oftentimes forced to part even with that patrimony which would have supported their persons in freedom and honour , and have satisfied all their reasonable desires . 4. Contentednesse is therefore health because covetousnesse is a direct sicknesse : and it was well said of Aristippus ( as Plutarch reports him ) if any man after much eating and drinking be still unsatisfied , he hath no need of more meat or more drink , but of a Physician ; he more needs to be purged then to be filled ; and therefore since covetousnesse cannot be satisfied , it must be cured by emptinesse , and evacuation ; The man is without remedy , unlesse he be reduced to the scantling of nature , and the measures of his personal necessity . Give to a poor man a house , and a few cowes , pay his little debt , and set him on work , and he is provided for and quiet ; but when a man enlarges beyond a fair possession & desires another Lordship , you spite him if you let him have it ; for by that he is one degree the further off from rest in his desires and satisfaction : and now he sees himself in a bigger capacity to a larger fortune ; and he shall never finde his period , till you begin to take away something of what he hath : for then he wil begin to be glad to keep that which is left ; but reduce him to natures measures , & there he shall be sure to finde rest : for there no man can desire beyond his belly full , and when he wants that , any one friend or charitable man can cure his poverty ; but all the world cannot satisfy his covetousnes . 5. Covetousnesse is the most phantastical & contradictory disease in the whole world , and it must therefore be incurable , because it strives against its own cure . No man therefore abstains from meat because he is hungry , nor from wine because he loves it and needs it : but the covetous man does so : for he desires it passionately because he sayes he needs it , and when he hath it , he will need it still , because he dares not use it . He gets cloaths because he cannot be without them ; but when he hath them , then he can : as if he needed c●rn for his granary , & cloaths for his wardrope , more then for his back and belly . For covetousness pretends to heap much together for fear of want , and yet after all his pains and purchase , he suffers that really which at first he feared vainly ; and by not using what he gets , he makes that suffering to be actual , present , and necessary , which in his lowest condition was but future , contingent & possible . It stirs up the desire , and takes away the pleasure of being satisfied . It increases the appetite and will not content it , it swells the principal to no purpose , and lessens the use to all purposes ; disturbing the order of nature , and the designes of God ; making money not to be the instrument of exchange or charity , nor corn to feed himself or the poor , nor wool to cloath himself or his brother , nor wine to refresh the sadnesse of the afflicted , nor his oyl to make his own countenance cheerful : but all these to look upon , and to tell over , and to take accounts by and make himself considerable , and wondered at by fools , that while he lives he may be called Rich , and when he dyes may be accounted Miserable , and like the Dish-makers of China , may leave a greater heap of dirt for his Nephews , while he himself hath a new lot fallen to him in the portion of Dives : But thus the Asse carried wood and sweet herbs to the Baths , but was never washed or perfum'd himself : he heaped up sweets for others , while himself was filthy with smoak & ashes . And yet it is considerable ; If the man can be content to feed hardly , and labour extreamly , and watch carefully , and suffer affronts and disgrace that he may get money more then he uses in his temperate and just needs , with how much ease might this man be happy ? And with how great uneasinesse and trouble does he make himself miserable ? For he takes pains to get content , and when he might have it , he lets it go . He might better be content with a vertuous and quiet poverty then w th an artificial troublesom & vitious : The same diet & a less labor would at first make him happy , and for ever after rewardable . 6. The sum of all is that which the Apostle sayes ; Covetousnesse is Idolatry ; that is , it is an admiring money for itself , not for its use ; it relyes upon money , and loves it more then it loves God and religion : and it is the root of all evil : it teaches men to be cruel and crafty , industrious in evil , full of care and malice : it devours young heirs , and grindes the face of the poor , and undoes those who specially belong to Gods protection , helpless , craftlesse and innocent people ; it inquires into our parents age , and longs for the death of our friends : it makes friendship and art of rapine , and changes a partner into a Vultur , and a companion into a thief ; and after all this it is for no good to it self , for it dare not spend those heaps of treasure which it snatched : and men hate Serpents and Basilisks worse then Lyons and Be●rs ; for these kill because they need the prey , but they sting to death and eat not . * And if they pretend all this care and heap for their Heirs , ( like the Mice of Africa hiding the golden oare in their bowels , and refusing to give back the indigested gold till their guts be out ) they may remember , that what was unnecessary for themselves , is as unnecessary for their sons ; and why cannot they be without it as well as their Fathers who did not use it ? and it often happens , that to the sons it becomes an instrument to serve some lust or other ; that as the gold was uselesse to their Fathers , so may the sons be to the publick ; fools or prodigals , loads to their Countrey , and the curse and punishent of their Fathers avarice ; and yet all that wealth is short of one blessing ; but it is a load coming with a curse , and descending from the family of a long derived sin . However the Father transmits it to the son , and it may be the son to one more , till a Tyrant , or an Oppressour , or a War , or a change of government , or the Usurer , or folly , or an expensive vice makes holes in the bottom of the bag , and the wealth runs out like water , and flies away like a Bird from the hand of a childe . 7. Adde to these , the consideration of the advantages of poverty ; that it is a state freer from temptation , secure in dangers : but of one trouble ; safe under the Divine Providence : cared for in Heaven by a daily ministration , and for whose support God makes every day a new decree : a state of which Christ was pleased to make open profession , and many wise Men daily make vows : that a rich Man is but like a pool to whom the poor run , and first trouble it and then draw it dry : that he enjoyes no more of it then according to the few and limited needs of a Man ; he cannot eat like a Wolf or an Elephant : that variety of dainty fare ministers but to sin and sicknesses : that the poor Man feasts oftner then the rich ; because every little enlargement is a feast to the poor ; but he that feasts every day feasts no day , there being nothing left to which he may beyond his Ordinary extend his appetite : that the rich Man sleeps not so soundly as the poor labourer ; that his fears are more , and his needs are greater ( for who is poorer , he that needs 5 l. or he that needs 5000 ) the poor Man hath enough to fill his belly , and the rich hath not enough to fill his eye : that the poor Mans wants are easie to be relieved by a common charity , but the needs of rich Men cannot be supplyed but by Princes ; and they are left to the temptation of gr●at vices to make reparation of their needs : and the ambitious labours of Men to get great estates is but like the selling of a Fountain to buy a Fever , a parting with content to buy necessity , a purchase of an unhandsome condition at the price of infelicity : that Princes and they that enjoy most of the world , have most of it but in title and supreme rights , and reserved priviledges , pepper-corns , homages , trifling services & acknowledgements , the real use descending to others to more substantial purposes : These considerations may be useful to the curing of covetousnesse , that the grace of mercifulnesse enlarging the heart of a Man , his hand may not be contracted , but reached out to the poor in almes . Sect. 9. Of Repentance . REpentance , of all things in the World makes the greatest change : it changes things in Heaven and Earth ; for it changes the whole Man from sin to grace , from vitious habits to holy customes , from unchaste bodies to Angelical soules , from Swine to Philosophers , from drunkennesse to sober counsels ; and GOD himself , with whom is no variablenesse or shadow of change , is pleased by descending to our weak understandings , to say , that he changes also upon Mans repentance , that he alters his decrees , revokes his sentence , cancels the Bils of accusation , throws the Records of shame and sorrow from the Court of Heaven , and lifts up the sinner from the grave to life , from his prison to a throne , from Hell and the guilt of eternal torture , to Heaven and to a title to never ceasing felicities . If we be bound on earth ▪ we shall be bound in heaven ; if we be absolved here , we shall be loosed there ; if we repent , God will repent , and not send the evil upon us which we had deserved . But repentance is a conjugation and society of many duties ; and it containes in it all the parts of a holy life , from the time of return to the day of our death inclusively ; and it hath in it somethings specially relating to the sins of our former dayes which are now to be abolished by special arts , and have obliged us to special labours , and brought in many new necessities , and put us into a very great deal of danger ; and because it is a duty consisting of so many parts & so much imployment , it also requires much time , and leaves a Man in the same degree of hope of pardon , as is his restitution to the state of righteousness and holy living , for which we covenanted in Baptism . For wee must know that there is but one repentance in a Mans whole life , if repentance be taken in the proper , and strict Evangelicall Covenant-sense , and not after the ordinary understanding of the word : That is , wee are but once to change our whole state of life , from the power of the Devil and his intire possession , from the state of sin and death , from the body of corruption , to the life of grace , to the possession of Jesus , to the kingdom of the Gospel ; and this is done in the baptism of water , or in the baptism of the Spirit , when the first rite comes to be verified by Gods grace coming upon us , and by our obedience to the heavenly calling , we working together with God. After this change , if ever we fall into the contrary state , and be wholly estranged from God and Religion , and professe our selves servants of unrighteousnesse , God hath made no more covenant of restitution to us , there is no place left for any more repentance , or intire change of condition , or new birth : a Man can be regenerated but once : and such are voluntary , malicious Apostates , Witches , obstinate impenitent persons , and the like : But if we be overtaken by infirmity , or enter into the marches or borders of this estate , and commit a grievous sin , or ten , or twenty , so we be not in the intire possession of the Devil , we are for the present in a damnable condition if we dye ; but if we live we are in a recoverable condition ; for so we may repent often : we repent or rise from death but once , but from sicknesse many times ; and by the grace of God we shall be pardoned if so we repent . But our hopes of pardon are just as is the repentance , which if it be timely , hearty , industrious and effective , God accepts : not by weighing granes or scruples , but by estimating the great proportions of our life ; a hearty endeavour and an effectual ge●neral change shall get the pardon ; the unavoidable infirmities , and past evils , and present imperfections , and short interruptions , against which we watch , and pray , and strive , being put upon the accounts of the crosse , and payed for by the Holy Jesus . This is the state and condition of repentance ; its parts and actions must be valued according to the following rules . Acts and parts of Repentance . 1. He that repents truely is greatly sorrowful for his past sins ; not with a superficial sigh or tear , but a pungent afflictive sorrow ; such a sorrow as hates the sin so much , that the man would choose to dye rather then act it any more : This sorrow is called in Scripture [ a weeping sorely , a weeping with bitternesse of heart , a weeping day and night , a sorrow of heart , a breaking of the spirit , mourning like a dove , and chattering like a swallow : ] and we may read the degree and manner of it by the lamentations and sad accents of the Prophet Ieremy , when he wept for the sins of the nation ; by the heart breaking of David , when he mourned for his murder and adultery : and the bitter weeping of S. Peter , after the shameful denying of his Master . The expression of this sorrow differs according to the temper of the body , the sex , the age , and circumstance of action , and the motive of sorrow , and by many accidental tendernesses , or Masculine hardnesses ; and the repentance is not to be estimated by the tears , but by the grief ; and the grief is to be valued not by the sensitive trouble , but by the cordial hatred of the sin , and ready actual dereliction of it , and a resolution and reall resisting its consequent temptations . Some people can shed tears for nothing , some for any thing ; but the proper and true effects of a godly sorrow are ; fear of the divine judgements , apprehension of Gods displeasure , watchings and strivings against sin , patiently enduring the crosse of sorrow ( which God sends as their punishment ) in accusation of our selves , in perpetually begging pardon , in mean and base opinion of our selves , and in all the natural productions from these according to our temper and constitution : for if we be apt to weep in other accidents , it is ill if we weep not also in the sorrows of repentance : not , that weeping is of it self a duty , but that the sorrow , if it be as great , will be still expressed in as great a manner . 2. Our sorrow for sins must retain the proportion of our sins , though not the equality ; we have no particular measures of sins : we know not which is greater of Sacriledge or Superstion , Idolatry or Covetousnesse , Rebellion or Witchcraft ; and therefore God ties us not to nice measures of sorrow , but onely that we keep the general Rules of proportion ; that is , that a great sin have a great grief ; a smaller crime being to be washed off with a lesser shower . 3. Our sorrow for sins is then best accounted of for its degree , when it together with all the penal and afflictive duties of repentance , shall have equalled or exceeded the pleasure we had in commission of the sin . 4. True repentance is a punishing duty , and acts its sorrow , and judges and condemns the sin by voluntary submitting to such sadnesses as God sends on us , or ( to prevent the judgement of God ) by judging our selves , and punishing our bodies and our spirits by such instruments of piety as are troublesome to the body : such as are , fasting , watching , long prayers , troublesome postures in our prayers , expensive alms , and all outward acts of humiliation . For he that must judge himself , must condemn himself if he be guilty ; and if he be condemned he must be punished ; and if he be so judged , it will help to prevent the judgement of the Lord. S. Paul instructing us in this particular . But I before intimated that the punishing actions of repentance are onely actions of sorrow , and therefore are to make up the proportions of it . For our grief may be so full of trouble as to outweigh all the burdens of fasts and bodily afflictions , and then the other are the lesse necessary ; and when they are used , the benefit of them is to obtain of God a remission or a lessening of such temporal judgements which God hath decreed against the sins , as it was in the case of Ahab : but the sinner is not by any thing of this reconciled to the eternal favour of God ; for as yet , this is but the Introduction to Repentance . 5. Every true penitent is obliged to confesse his sins , and to humble himself before God for ever : Confession of sins hath a special promise . If we confesse our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins : meaning that God hath bound himself to forgive us if we duly confesse our sins , and do all that for which confession was appointed ; that is , be ashamed of them , & own them no more . For , confession of our sins to God can signifie nothing of it self in its direct nature : He sees us when we act them , and keeps a record of them ; & we forget them unlesse he reminds us of them by his grace : so that to confess them to God does not punish us , or make us asham'd , but confession to him , if it proceeds from shame and sorrow , and is an act of humility and self condemnation , & is a laying open our wounds for cure , then it is a duty God delights in : in all which circumstances , because we may very much be helped if we take in the assistance of a spiritual Guide ; therefore the Church of God in all ages hath commended , and in most ages enjoyn'd * that we confesse our sins , and discover the state and condition of our souls to such a person whom we or our superiours judge fit to help us in such needs . For so [ if we confesse our sins one to another ] as S. Iames advises , wee shall obtaine the prayers of the holy Man whom God and the Church hath appointed solemnly to pray for us : and when he knowes our needs he can best minister comfort , or reproof , oyl or Causticks , he can more opportunely recommend your particular state to GOD , he can determine your cases of conscience , and judge better for you then you do for your self ; and the shame of opening such Ulcers , may restrain your forwardnesse to contract them ; and all these circumstances of advantage will do very much towards the forgivenesse . And this course was taken by the new Converts in the dayes of the Apostles [ For many that believed , came and confessed and shewed their deeds . ] And it were well if this duty were practised prudently and innocently in order to publick Discipline , or private comfort and instruction : but that it be done to God , is a duty , not directly for it self , but for its adjuncts , and the duties that go with it , or before it , or after it : which duties because they are all to be helped and guided by our Pastors and Curates of souls , he is careful of his eternal interest that will not lose the advantage of using a private guide and judge . He that hideth his sins shall not prosper [ Non dirigetur , saith the Vulgar Latin ] he shall want a guide , but who confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy . And to this purpose Clima●us reports that divers holy persons in that age did use to carry Table-books with them , and in them describ'd an account of all their determinate thoughts , purposes , words and actions , in which they had suffered infirmity , that by communicating the estate of their souls they might be instructed and guided , and corrected , or incouraged . 6. True repentance must reduce to act all its holy purposes , and enter into and run through the state of holy * living , which is contrary to that state of darknesse in which in times past we walked . For to resolve to do it , and yet not to do it , is to break our resolution and our faith , to mock God , to falsifie and evacuate all the preceding acts of repentance , and to make our pardon hopelesse , and our hope fruitlesse . He that resolves to live well when a danger is upon him , or a violent fear , or when the appetites of Lust are newly satisfied , or newly served , and yet when the temptation comes again , sins again , and then is sorrowful , and resolves once more against it , and yet fals when the temptation returns , is a vain Man , but no true penitent , nor in the state of grace ; and if he chance to dye in one of these good moods is very far from salvation : for if it be necessary that we resolve to live well , it is necessary we should do so . For resolution is an imperfect act , a term of relation , and signifies nothing but in order to the action : it is as a faculty is to the act , as Spring is to the Harvest , as Egges are to Birds , as a Relative to its Correspondent , nothing without it . No Man therefore can be in the state of grace and actual favour by resolutions and holy purposes ; these are but the gate and portal towards pardon : a holy life is the onely perfection of Repentance , and the firme ground upon which we can cast the anchor of hope in the mercies of God through Jesus Christ. 7. No Man is to reckon his pardon immediately upon his returnes from sin to the beginnings of good life , but is to begin his hopes and degrees of confidence according as sin dyes in him , and grace lives ; as the habits of sin lessen , and righteousnesse growes , according as sin returnes but seldom in smaller instances and without choice , and by surprize without deliberation , and is highly disrelished and presently dash'd against the Rock Christ Jesus by a holy sorrow and renewed care , and more strict watchfulnesse . For a holy life being the condition of the Covenant on our part , as we return to God , so God returns to us , and our state returns to the probabilities of pardon . 8. Every Man is to work out his salvation with fear and trembling ; and after the commission of sinnes his feares must multiply , because every new sin , and every great declining from the wayes of God is still a degree of new danger , and hath increased Gods anger , and hath made him more uneasie to grant pardon : and when he does grant it , it is upon harder terms both for doing and suffering ; that is , we must do more for pardon , and it may be , suffer much more . For we must know that God pardons our sins by parts : as our duty increases , and our care is more prudent and active , so Gods anger decreases : and yet it may be the last sin you committed , made God unalterably resolv'd to send upon you some sad judgement . Of the particulars in all cases wee are uncertain ; and therefore wee have reason alwayes to mourn for our sinnes that have so provoked GOD , and made our condition so full of danger , that it may be , no prayers , or tears or duty can alter his sentence concerning some sad judgement upon us . Thus GOD irrevocably decreed to punish the Israelites for Idolatry , although Moses prayed for them , and God forgave them in some degree ; that is , so that he would not cut them of● from being a people ; yet he would not forgive them so , but he would visit that their sin upon them : and he did so . 9. A true penitent must all the dayes of his life pray for pardon , and never think the work completed till he dyes ; not by any act of his own , by no act of the Church , by no forgivenesse by the party injured , by no restitution : these are all instruments of great use and efficacy , and the means by which it is to be done at length : but still the sin lyes at the door ready to return upon us in judgement , and damnation , if we return to it in choice or action : and whether God hath forgiven us or no , we know not * , and how far we know not ; and all that we have done is not of sufficient worth to obtain pardon : therefore still pray , and still be sorrowful for ever having done it , and for ever watch against it ; and then those beginnings of pardon which are working all the way , will at last be perfected in the day of the Lord. 10. Defer not at all to repent ; much lesse mayest thou put it off to thy death-bed : It is not an easie thing to root out the habits * of sin , which a Mans whole life hath gathered and confirmed . We finde work enough to mortifie one beloved lust , in our very best advantage of strength and time , and before it is so deeply rooted as it must needs be supposed to be at the end of a wicked life : and therefore it will prove impossible when the work is so great , and the strength 's so little , when sinne is so strong and grace so weak : for they alwayes keep the same proportion of increase and decrease , and as sin growes , grace decayes : so that the more need wee have of grace , the lesse at that time wee shall have : because the greatnesse of our sinnes which makes the need , hath lessened the grace of GOD ( which should help us ) into nothing . To which adde this consideration ; that on a Mans death-bed , the day of repentance is past : for repentance being the renewing of a holy life , a living the life of Grace , it is a contradiction to say , that a Man can live a holy life upon his death-bed : especially , if we consider , that for a sinner to live a holy life must first suppose him to have overcome all his evil habits , and then to have made a purchase of the contrary graces , by the labours of great prudence , watchfulnesse , self denyal and severity . Nothing that is excellent can be wrought suddenly . 11. After the beginnings of thy recovery , be infinitely fearful of a relapse , and therefore upon the stock of thy sad experience , observe where thy failings were , and by especial arts fortifie that saculty , and arm against that temptation . For if all those arguments which God uses to us to preserve our innocence , and thy late danger , and thy fears , and the goodnesse of God making thee once to escape , and the shame of thy fall , and the sence of thy ●own weaknesses will not make thee watchful against a fall , especially knowing how much it costs a man to be restored , it will be infinitely more dangerous if ever thou fallest again , not onely for fear God should no more accept thee to pardon ; but even thy own hopes will be made more desperate and thy impatience greater ; and thy shame turn to impudence , and thy own will be more estranged , violent , and refractory , and thy latter end will be worse then thy beginning . To which adde this consideration : That thy sin which was formerly in a good way of being pardoned , will not onely return upon thee with all its own loads , but with the basenesse of unthankfulnesse , and thou wilt be set as far back from Heaven as ever ; and all thy former labours and fears , and watchings and agonies will be reckoned for nothing , but as arguments to upbraid thy folly , who when thou hadst set one foot in Heaven , didst pull that back and carry both to Hell. Motives to Repentance . I shall use no other arguments to move a sinner to repentance , but to tell him unlesse he does he shall certainly perish ; and if he does repent timely and intirely , that is , live a holy life , he shall be forgiven and be saved : But yet I desire that this consideration be enlarged with some great circumstances ; and let us remember . 1. That to admit mankinde to repentance and pardon was a favour greater then ever God gave to the angels & devils : for they were never admitted to the condition of second thoughts : Christ never groaned one groan for them ; he never suffered one stripe , nor one affront , nor shed one drop of blood to restore them to hopes of blessednesse after their first failings . But this he did for us , he paid the score of our sins , only that we might be admitted to repent , and that this repentance might be effectual to the great purposes of felicity and salvation . 2. Consider that as it cost Christ many millions of prayers and groans , and sighs , so he is now at this instant and hath been for these 1600 years night and day incessantly praying for grace to us that we may repent , and for pardon when we do , and for degrees of pardon beyond the capacities of our infirmities , and the merit of our sorrows and amendment : and this prayer he will continue till his second coming ; for he ever liveth to make intercession for us , and that we may know what it is in behalf of which he intercedes , S. Paul tells us his designe [ we are Embassadours for Christ , as though he did beseech you by us , we pray yo● in Christs stead to be reconciled to God ; and what Christ prayes us to do , he prayes to God that we may do ; that which he desires of us as his servants , he desires of God who is the fountain of the grace and powers unto us , and without whose assistance we can do nothing . 3. That ever we should repent , was so costly a purchase , and so great a concernment , and so high a favour , and the event is esteemed by God himself so great an excellency , that our blessed Saviour tells us , there shall be joy in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth : meaning that when Christ shall be glorified and at the right hand of his Father make intercession for us , praying for our repentance ; the conversion and repentance of every sinner is part of Christs glorification ; it is the answering of his prayers , it is a portion of his reward , in which he does essentially glory by the joyes of his glorified humanity . This is the joy of our Lord himself directly , not of the Angels , save onely by reflexion : The joy ( said our blessed Saviour ) shall be in the presence of the Angels ; they shall see the glory of the Lord , the answering of his prayers , the satisfaction of his desires , and the reward of his sufferings , in the repentance and consequent pardon of a sinner . For therefore he once suffered , and for that reason he rejoyces for ever : and therefore when a penitent sinner comes to receive the effect and full consummation of his pardon , it is called [ an entring into the joy of our Lord ] that is , a partaking of that joy which Christ received at our coversion and enjoyed ever since . 4. Adde to this , that the rewards of Heaven are so great and glorious , and Christs burden is so light , his yoke is so easy , that it is a shamelesse impudence to expect so great gloryes at a lesse rate then so little a service ; at a lower rate then a holy life . It cost the heart blood of the Son of God to obtain Heaven for us upon that condition ; and who shall dye again to get Heaven for us upon easier terms ? What would you do , if God should command you to kill your eldest son , or to work in the mines for a thousand years together , or to fast all thy life time with bread and water ? Were not Heaven a very great bargain even after all this ? And when God requires nothing of us , but to live soberly , justly and godly ( which things of themselves are to a man a very great felicity , and necessary to our present well being ) shall we think this to be an intolerable burden , and that Heaven is too little a purchase at that price ? and that God in meer justice will take a death-bed sigh or groan , and a few unprofitable tears and promises in exchange for all our duty ? If these motives joyned together with our own interest , even as much as felicity and the sight of God , and the avoyding the intolerable pains of Hell and many intermedial judgements comes to , will not move us to leave , 1. The filthinesse , and 2. The trouble , and 3. The uneasinesse , and 4. The unreasonablenesse of sinne , and turn to God , there is no more to be said , we must perish in our folly . SECT . X. Of preparation to , and the manner how to receive the holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper . THe celebration of the holy Sacrament is the great mysteriousnesse of the Christian religion , and succeeds to the most solemn rite of natural and Judaical religion , the Law of sacrificing . For God spared mankinde , and took the sacrifie of beasts together with our solemn prayers for an instrument of expiation . But these could not purifie the soul from sin , but were typical of the sacrifice of something that could . But nothing could do this , but either the offering of all that sinned , that every man should be the anathema or devo●ed thing , or else by some one of the same capacity , who by some superadded excellency might in his own personal sufferings have a value great enough to satisfie for all the whole kinde of sinning persons . This the Son of God JESUS CHRIST , God and Man undertook , and finished by a Sacrifice of himself upon the Altar of the Crosse. 2. This Sacrifice , because it was perfect , could be but one , and that once ; but because the needs of the world should last as long as the world self , it was neces●ary that there should be a perpe●ual ministery established , whereby this one sufficient sacrifice should be made eternally effectual to the several new a●i●ing needs of all the world who should desire it , or in any sence be capable of it . 3. To this end Christ was made a Priest for ever : he was initiated or consecrated on the crosse , and there began his Priesthood , which was to last till his coming to judgement . It began on earth , but was to last and be officiated in Heaven , where he sits perpetually , representing and exhibiting to the Father that great effective sacrifice ( which he of●ered on the crosse ) to eternal and never failing purposes . 4. As Christ is pleased to represent to his Father that great Sacrifice as a means of atonement and expiation for all mankinde , and with special purposes and intendment for all the elect , all that serve him in holinesse : so he hath appointed that the same ministery shall be done upon earth too , in our manner , and according to our proportion ; and therefore hath constituted and separated an order of men , who by shewing forth the Lords death by Sacramental representation may pray unto God after the same manner that our Lord and high ●riest does , that is , offer to God and repres●nt in this solemn prayer and Sacrament , Christ as already offered , so sending up a gracious instrument whereby our prayers may for his sake and in the same manner of intercession be offered up to God in our behalf , and for all them for whom we pray to all those purposes for which Christ dyed . 5. As the Ministers of the Sacrament do in a Sacramental manner present to God the sacrifice of the crosse , by being imitators of Christs intercession ; so the people are sacrificers too in their manner ; for besides that , by saying Amen , they joyn in the act of him that ministers , and make it also to be their own : so when they eat and drink the consecrated and blessed Elelements worthily , they receive Christ within them , and therefore may also offer him to God , while in their sacrifice of obedience & thanksgiving they present themselves to God with Christ whom they have spiritually received , that is , themselves with that which will make them gracious and acceptable . The offering their bodies and souls and services to God in him , and by him , and with him , who is his Fathers well-beloved , and in whom he is well pleased , cannot but be accepted to all the purposes of blessing , grace , and glory . 6. This is the sum of the greatest mystery of our Religion : it is the copy of the passion , and the ministration of the great mystery of our Redemption ; and therefore whatsoever intitles us to the general priviledges of Christs passion , all that is necessary by way of disposition to the celebration of the Sacrament of his passion : because this celebration is our manner of applying or using it . The particulars of which preparation are represented in the following rules . 1. No Man must dare to approach to the holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper if he be in a state of any one sin , that is , unlesse he have entred into the state of repentance , that is , of sorrow and amendment ▪ lest it be said concerning him , as it was concerning Iudas , the hand of him that betraieth me is with me on the Table : and he that receiveth Christ into an impure soul or body , first turns his most excellent nourishment into poyson , and then ●eeds upon it . 2. Every communicant must first have examined himself , that is , tried the condition and state of his soul , searched out the secret Ulcers , enquired out its weaknesses and indiscretions , and all those aptnesses where it is exposed to temptation , that by finding out its diseases he may finde a cure , and by discovering its aptnesses he may secure his present purposes of future amendment , and may be arm'd against dangers and temptations . 3. This examination must be a Man 's own act , and inquisition into his life ; but then also it should leade a Man on to run to those whom the Great Physician of our souls Christ Jesus hath appointed to minister physick to our diseases ; that in all dangers and great accidents we may be assisted for comfort and remedy , for medicine and caution . 4. In this affair let no Man deceive himself , and against such a time which publick Authority hath appointed for us to receive the Sacrament , weep for his sins by way of solemnity and ceremony , and still retain the affection : but he that comes to this feast must have on the Wedding garment ▪ that is , he must have put on Iesus Christ ▪ and he must have put off the old man with his affections and lusts , and he must be wholly conformed to Christ in the image of his minde : For then we have put on Christ , when our souls are clothed with his righteousnesse , when every faculty of our foul is proportioned and vested according to the patern of Christs life . And therefore a Man must not leape from his last nights Surfet , and Bath , and then communicate : but when he hath begun the work of God effectually , and made some progresse in repentance , and hath walked some stages and periods in the wayes of godlinesse , then let him come to him that is to minister it , and having made known the state of his soul , he is to be admitted : but to receive it into an unhallowed soul and body , is to receive the dust of the Tabernacle in the water● of jealousie ; it will make the belly to swell , and the thigh to rot : it will not convey Christ to us , but the Devil will enter and dwell there , till with it he returns to his dwelling of torment . Remember alwayes that after a great sin or after a habit of sins , a Man is not soon made clean ; and no unclean thing must come to this Feast . It is not th● preparation of two or three dayes that can render a person capable of this banque● : For in this seast , all Christ , and Christs passion , and all his graces , the blessings and effects of his sufferings are conveyed : nothing can fit us for this , but what can unite us to Christ , and obtain of him to present our needs to his heavenly Father : this Sacrament can no otherwise be celebrated but upon the same terms on which we may hope for pardon and Heaven it self . 5. When we have this general and indispensably necessary preparation , we are to make our souls more adorn'd and trimm'd up with circumstances of pious actions , and special devotions , setting apart some portion of our time immediately before the day of solemnity according as our great occasions will permit ▪ and this time is specially to be spent in actions of repentance , confession of our sins , renewing our purposes of holy living , praying for pardon of our failings , and for those graces which may prevent the like sadnesses for the time to come ; meditation upon the passion , upon the infinite love of God expressed in so great mysterious manners of redemption ; and indefinitely in all acts of vertue which may build our soules up into a Temple fit for the reception of Christ himself and the inhabitation of the holy Spirit . 6. The celebration of the holy Sacrament being the most solemne prayer , joyned with the most effectual instrument of its acceptance , must suppose us in the love of God , and in charity with all the World : and therefore we must before every Communion especially , remember what differences or jealousies are between us and any one else ; and recompose all disunions , and cause right understandings betweene each other ; offering to satisfie whom we have injur'd , and to forgive them who have injur'd us , without thoughts of resuming the quarrel when the solemnity is over ; for that is but to rake the embers in light and phantastick ashes : it must be quenched , and a holy flame enkindled : no fires must be at all , but the fires of love and zeal ; and the altar of incense will send up a sweet perfume , and make atonement for us . 7. When the day of the feast is come , lay aside all cares and impertinencies of the World , and remember that this is thy Souls day ; a day of traffique and entercourse with Heaven . Arise early in the morning . 1. Give God thanks for the approach of so great a blessing . 2. Confesse thy own unworthinesse to admit so Divine a Guest . 3. Then remember and deplore thy sinnes which have made thee so unworthy . 4. Then confesse Gods goodnesse and take sanctuary there , and upon him place thy hopes . 5. And invite him to thee with renewed acts of love , of holy desire , of hatred of his enemy , sin . 6. Make oblation of thy self wholly to be disposed by him , to the obedience of him , to his providence and possession , and pray him to enter , and dwell there for ever : And after this , with joy and holy fear , and the forwardness of love , addresse thy self to the receiving of him , to whom and by whom , and for whom , all faith , and all hope , and all love in the whole Catholick Church , both in Heaven & Earth is design'd ; him , whom Kings and Queens , and whole Kingdoms are in love with , and count it the greatest honour in the World , that their Crowns and Scepters are laid at his holy feet . 8. When the holy Man stands at the Table of blessing and ministers the rite of consecration , then do as the Angels do , who behold , & love , and wonder ; that the Son of God should become food to the souls of his servants ; that he who cannot suffer any change or lessening should be broken into pieces and enter into the body to support and nourish the spirit , and yet at the same time remain in Heaven while he descends to thee upon Earth ; that he who hath essential felicity should become miserable and dye sor thee , and then give himself to thee for ever to redeem thee from sin and misery ; that by his wounds he should procure health to thee , by his affronts he should intitle thee to glory , by his death he should bring thee to life , and by becoming a Man he should make thee partaker of the Divine nature . These are such glories that although they are made so obvious that each eye may behold them , yet they are also so deep , that no thought can fathome them : But so it hath pleased him to make these mysteries to be sensible , because the excellency and depth of the mercy is not intelligible ; that while wee are ravished and comprehended within the infinitenesse of so vast & mysterious a mercy , yet we may be as sure of it , as of that thing we see and feel , and smell and taste ; but yet is so great , that we cannot understand it . 9. These holy mysteries are offered to our senses , but not to bee placed under our feet ; they are sensible , but not common : and therefore as the weaknesse of the Elements addes wonder to the excellency of the Sacrament : so let our reverence and venerable usages of them adde honour to the Elements , and acknowledge the glory of the mystery , and the Divinity of the mercy . Let us receive the consecrated Elements with all devotion , and humility of body and spirit ; and do this honour to it , that it be the first food we eat , and the first beverage we drink that day , unlesse it he in case of sicknesse , or other great necessity : and that your body and soul both be prepared to its reception with abstinence from secular pleasures , that you may better have attended fastings and preparatory prayers . For if ever it be seasonable to observe the counsel of Saint Paul , that married persons by consent should abstain for a time that they may attend to solemne Religion , it is now . It was not by Saint Paul nor the after ages of the Church called a duty so to do , but it is most reasonable , that the more solemne actions of Religion should be attended to without the mixture of any thing that may discompose the minde , and make it more secular , or lesse religious . 10. In the act of receiving , exercise acts of Faith , with much confidence and resignation , believing it not to be common bread and wine , but holy in their use , holy in their signification , holy in their change , and holy in their effect , and believe if thou art a worthy Communicant thou doest as verily receive Christs body and blood to all effects and purposes of the spirit , as thou doest receive the blessed elements into thy mouth ; that thou puttest thy finger to his hand , and thy hand into his side , and thy lips to his fontinel of blood , sucking life from his heart : and yet if thou doest communicate unworthily ; thou eatest and drinkest Christ to thy danger , and death , and destruction . Dispute not concerning the secret of the mystery , and the nicety of the manner of Christs presence : it is sufficient to thee that Christ shall be present to thy soul , as an instrument of grace , as a pledge of the resurrection , as the earnest of glory and immortality , and a means of many intermedial blessings , even all such as are necessary for thee , and are in order to thy salvation : and to make all this good to thee , there is nothing necessary on thy part but a holy life , and a true belief of all the sayings of Christ , amongst which , indefinitely assent to the words of institution , and believe that Christ in the holy Sacrament gives thee his bodie and his blood . He that believes not this , is not a Christian ; He that believes so much , needs not to enquire further , nor to intangle his faith by disbelieving his sence . 11. Fail not this solemnity according to the custom of pious and devout people to make an offering to God for the uses of religion and the poor , according to thy ability . For when Christ feasts his body , let us also feast our fellow members who have right to the same promises , and are partakers of the same Sacrament , and partners of the same hope , and cared for under the same providence , and descended from the same common parents , and whose Father God is , and Christ is their Elder Brother . If thou chancest to communicate where this holy custom is not observed publickly , supply that want by thy private charity , but offer it to God at his holy Table , at least by thy private designing it there . 12. When you have received , pray and give thanks . Pray for all estates of men : for they also have an interest in the body of Christ whereof they are members : and you in conjunction with Christ ( whom then you have received ) are more fit to pray for them in that advantage , and in the celebration of that holy sacrifice which then is Sacramentally represented to GOD. * Give thanks for the passion of our Dearest Lord : remember all its parts , and all the instruments of your Redemption ; and beg of GOD that by a holy perseverance in well doing you may from shadowes passe on to substances , from eating his body to seeing his face , from the Typicall , Sacramentall , and Transient , to the Reall , and Eternall Supper of the Lambe . 13. After the solemnity is done , let Christ dwell in your hearts by faith , and love , and obedience , and conformity to his life and death ; as you have taken CHRIST into you , so put CHRIST on you , and conforme every faculty of your soul and body to his holy image and perfection . Remember that now Christ is all one with you ; and therefore when you are to do an action , consider how Christ did , or would do the like , and do you imitate his example , and transcribe his copy , and understand all his Commandments , and choose all that he propounded , and desire his promises and fear his threatnings , and marry his loves and hatreds , and contract all his friendships ; for then you do every day communicate ; especially when Christ thus dwells in you , and you in Christ , growing up towards a perfect man in Christ Iesus . 14. Do not instantly upon your return from Church , return also to the world , and secular thoughts and imployments ; but let the remaining parts of that day be like a post-Communion or an after-office , entertaining your blessed Lord with all the caresses and sweetnesse of love and colloquies , and entercourses of duty and affection , acquainting him with all your needs , and revealing to him all your secrets , and opening all your infirmities ; and as the a●fairs of your person or imployment call you off , so retire again with often ejaculations and acts of entertainment to your beloved Guest . The effects and benefits of worthy communicating . When I said that the sacrifice of the crosse which Christ offered for all the sins and all the needs of the world is represented to God by the Minister in the Sacrament , and offered up in prayer and Sacramental memory , after the manner that Christ himself intercedes for us in Heaven ( so far as his glorious Priesthood is imitable by his Ministers on earth ) I must of necessity also mean , that all the benefits of that sacrifice are then conveyed to all that communicate worthily : But if we descend to particulars ; Then and there the Church is nourished in her faith , strengthened in her hope , enlarged in her bowels with an increasing charity : there all the members of Christ are joyn'd with each other , and all to Christ their head ; and we again renew the Covenant with God in Jesus Christ , and God seals his part , and we promise for ours , and Christ unites both , and the holy Ghost signes both in the collation of those graces which we then pray for , and exercise and receive all at once : there our bodies are nourished with the signes , and our souls with the mystery : our bodies receive into them the seed of an immortal nature , and our souls are joyned with him , who is the first fruits of the resurrection and never can dye : and if we desire any thing else and need it , here it is to be prayed for , here to be hoped for , here to be received ; Long life and health , and recovery from sicknesse , and competent support and maintenance , and peace , and deliverance from our enemies , and content , and patience , and joy , and sanctified riches , or a cheerful poverty and liberty , and whatsoever else is a blessing , was purchased for us by Christ in his death and resurrection , and in his intercession in Heaven : and this Sacrament being that to our particulars , which the great mysteries are in themselves , and by designe to all the world , if we receive worthily we shall receive any of these blessings , according as God shall choose for us ; and he will not onely choose with more wisdom , but also with more affection then we can for our selves . After all this , it is advised by the Guides of souls , wise men and pious , that all persons should communicate very often , even as often as they can without excuses or delayes : Every thing that puts us from so holy an imployment when we are moved to it , being either a sin or an imperfection ; an Infirmity or indevotion , and an unactivenesse of Spirit . All Christian people must come : They indeed that are in the state of sin must not come so , but yet they must come : First they must quit their state of death , and then partake of the bread of life . They that are at enmity with their neighbours must come , that is no excuse for their not coming ; onely they must not bring their enmity along with them , but leave it , and then come . They that have variety of secular imployments must come ; onely they must leave their secular thoughts and affections behinde them , and then come and converse with God. If any man be well grown in grace he must needs come , because he is excellently disposed to so holy a feast : but he that is but in the infancy of piety had need to come that so he may grow in grace . The strong must come lest they become weak , & the weak that they may become strong . The sick must come to be cured ; the healthful to be preserved . They that have leisure must come because they have no excuse : They that have no leisure must come hither , that by so excellent religion they may sanctifie their businesse . The penitent sinners must come , that they may be justified : and they that are justified , that they may be justified still . They that have fears and great reverence to these mysteries , and think no preparation to be sufficient must receive , that they may learn how to receive the more worthily : and they that have a lesse degree of reverence , must come often to have it heightned : that as those Creatures that live amongst the snowes of the Mountains turne white with their food and conversation with such perpetual whitenesses : so our souls may be transformed into the similitude and union with Christ by our perpetual feeding on him , and conversation , not onely in his Courts , but in his very heart , and most secret affections , and incomparable purities . Prayers for all sorts of Men , and all necessities ; relating to the several parts of the vertue of Religion . A Prayer for the Graces of Faith , Hope Charity . O Lord God of infinite mercy , of infinite excellency , who hast sent thy holy Son into the world to redeem us from an intolerable misery , and to teach us a holy religion , and to forgive us an infinite debt : give me thy holy Spirit , that my understanding and all my faculties may be so resigned to the discipline and doctrine of my Lord , that I may be prepared in minde and will to dye for the testimony of Jesus , and to suffer any affliction or calamity that shall offer to hinder my duty , or tempt me to shame or sin , or apostacy : and let my faith be the parent of a good life , a strong shield to repell the fiery darts of the Devil , and the Author of a holy hope , of modest desires , of confidence in God , and of a never failing charity to thee my God , and to all the world , that I may never have my portion with the unbelievers , or uncharitable , and desperate persons ; but may be supported by the strengths of faith in all temptations , and may be refreshed with the comforts of a holy hope in all my sorrows , and may bear the burden of the Lord , and the infirmities of my neighbour by the support of charity , that the yoak of Jesus may become easy to me , and my love may do all the miracles of grace , till from grace it swell to glory , from earth to heaven , from duty to reward , from the imperfections of a beginning , and little growing love it may arrive to the consummation of an eternal and never ceasing charity , through Jesus Christ the Son of thy love , the Anchor of our hope , and the Author and finisher of our faith , to whom with thee , O Lord God , Father of Heaven and Earth , and with thy holy Spirit be all glory , and love , and obedience , and dominion now and for ever . Amen . Acts of love by way of prayer and ejaculation : to be used in private . O God thou art my God , early will I seek thee : my soul thirsteth for thee , my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is , to see thy power and thy glory so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary : because thy loving kindnes is better then life , my lips shall praise thee . Psal. 63. I am ready not only to be bound , but to dye for the name of the Lord Jesus . Acts 23. How amiable are thy Tabernacles thou Lord of Hosts : my soul longeth , yea even fainteth for the courts of the Lord : My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God : Blessed are they that dwell in thy house , they will still be praising thee . Psal. 84. O blessed Jesu thou art worthy of all adoration , and all honour , and all love : Thou art the Wonde●ful , the Counsellor , the mighty God , the Everlasting Father , the Prince of peace , of thy government and peace there shall be no end : thou art the brightnesse of thy Fathers glory , the expresse image of his person , the appointed Heir of all things : Thou upholdest all things by the word of thy power : Thou didst by thy self purge our sins : Thou art set on the right hand of the Majesty on high : Thou art made better then the Angels , thou hast by inheritance obtain'd a more excellent name then they . Thou , O dearest Jesus , art the head of the Church , the beginning and the first born from the dead : in all things thou hast the preheminence , and it pleased the Father that in thee should all fulnesse dwell . Kingdoms are in love with thee : Kings lay their crowns and scepters at thy feet , and Queens are thy handmaids , and wash the feet of thy servants . A Prayer to be said in any affliction , as death of children , of husband or wife , in great poverty , in imprisonment , in a sad and disconsolate spirit , & in temptations to despair . O Eternal God , Father of Mercyes and God of all comfort with much mercy look upon the sadnesses and sorrowes of thy servant . My sins lye heavy upon me , and presse me sore , and there is no health in my bones by reason of thy displeasure and my sin . The waters are gone over me , and I stick fast in the deep mire , and my miseries are without comfort , because they are punishments of my sin : and I am so evil and unworthy a person , that though I have great desires , yet I have no dispositions or worthiness towards receiving comfort . My sins have caused my sorrow , and my sorrow does not cure my sins : and unless for thy own sake , and merely because thou art good , thou shalt pity me & relieve me , I am as much without remedy , as now I am without comfort . Lord pity me ; Lord let thy grace refresh my Spirit . Let thy comforts support me , thy mercy pardon me , and never let my portion be amongst hopelesse and accursed spirits ; for thou art good and gracious ; and I throw my self upon thy mercy . Let me never let my hold go , & do thou with me what seems good in thy own eyes : I cannot suffer more then I have deserved : and yet I can need no relief so great as thy mercy is : for thou art infinitely more merciful then I can be miserable : and thy mercy which is above all thy own works , must needs be far above all my sin and all my misery . Dearest Jesus , let me trust in thee for ever , and let me never be confounded . Amen . Ejaculations and short meditations to be used in time of sickness and sorrow , or danger of Death . Hear my Prayer , O Lord , and let my crying come unto thee . * Hide not thy face from me in the time of my trouble , incline thine ear unto me when I call : O hear me and that right soon , * For my dayes are consumed like smoa● & my bones are burnt up as it were a firebrand . * My heart is smitten down & withered like grass ; so that I forget to eat my bread : & that because of thine indignation and wrath : for thou hast taken me up & cast me down . * Thine arrows stick fast in me and thy hand presseth me sore . There is no health in my flesh because of thy displeasure : neither is there any rest in my bones by reason of my sin . * My wickednes●es are gone over my head and are a sore burden too heavy for me to bear . * But I will confesse my wickednesse , and be sorry for my sin . * O Lord rebuke me not in thy indignation , neither chasten me in thy displeasure . * Lord be merciful unto me , heal my soul for I have sinned against thee . Have mercy upon me , O God , after thy great goodnesse , according to the multitude of thy mercies do away mine offences . * O remember not the sins and offences of my youth : but according to thy mercy think thou upon me , O Lord for thy goodnesse . * Wash me thoroughly from my wickednesse : and cleanse me from my sin . * Make me a clean heart , O God , and renew a right spirit within me . * Cast me not away from thy presence , from thy all-hallowing and life-giving presence : and take not thy holy Spirit , thy sanctifying , thy guiding , thy comforting , thy supporting , and confirming Spirit from me . O God , thou art my God for ever and ever : thou shalt be my guide unto death . * Lord comfort me now that I lye sick upon my bed : make thou my bed in all my sicknesse . * O deliver my soul from the place of Hell : and do thou receive me . * My heart is disquieted within me , and the fear of death is falen upon me . * Behold thou hast made my dayes as it were a span long , & mine age is even as nothing in respect of thee , and verily every man living is altogether vanity . * When thou with rebukes doest chasten man for sin , thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth fretting a garment : every man therefore is but vanity . And now Lord what is my hope , truly my hope is even in thee . * Hear my prayer , O Lord , and with thine ears consider my calling , hold not thy peace at my tears . * Take this plague away from me : I am consumed by the means of thy heavy hand . * I am a stranger with thee and a sojourner , as all my Fathers were . * O spare me a little that I may recover my strength before I go hence and be no more seen . * My soul cleaveth unto the dust : O quicken me according to thy word . * And when the snares of death compasse me round about : let not the pains of hell take hold upon me . An Act of Faith concerning resurrection and the day of judgment , to be said by sick persons or meditated . I know that my Redeemer liveth , and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth : and though after my skin worms destroy this body , yet in my flesh shall I see God : whom I shall see for my self , & mine eyes shal behold , though my reins be consumed within me . Iob 19. God shall come and shall not keep silence : there shall go before him a consuming fire , and a mighty tempest shall be stirred up round about him : he shall call the heaven from above , and the earth that he may judge his people . * O blessed Jesu , thou art my judge and thou art my Advocate : have mercy upon me in the hour of my death , and in the day of judgment . See Iohn 5.28 . & 1 Thessal . 4.15 . Short Prayers to be said by sick persons . O Holy Jesus , thou art a merciful High Priest and touched with the sense of our infirmities ; thou knowest the sharpnesse of my sicknesse , and the weaknesse of my person . The clouds are gathered about me , and thou hast covered me with thy storm : My understanding hath not such apprehension of things as formerly : Lord let thy mercy support me , thy spirit guide me , and lead me through the valley of this death safely ; that I may passe it patiently , holily , with perfect resignation , and let me rejoyce in the Lord , in the hopes of pardon , in the expectation of glory , in the sence of thy mercies , in the refreshments of thy spirit , in a victory over all temptations . Thou hast promised to be with us in tribulation . Lord , my soul is troubled , and my body is weak , and my hope is in thee , and my enemies are busy and mighty , now make good thy holy promise . Now O holy Jesus , now let thy hand of grace be upon me : restrain my ghostly enemies , and give me all sorts of spiritual assistances : Lord remember thy servant in the day when thou bindest up thy Jewels . O take from me all tediousnesse of Spirit , all impatience and unquietnesse : let me possesse my soul in patience , and resigne my soul and body into thy hands , as into the hands of a faithful Creator , and a blessed Redeemer . O holy Jesu , thou didst dye for us ; by thy sad , pungent & intolerable pains which thou enduredst for me , have pity on me , & ease my pain , or increase my patience . Lay on me no more then thou shalt enable me to bear . I have deserv'd it all & more , and infinitely more . Lord I am weak and ignorant , timerous and inconstant , and I fe●r lest something should happen that may discompose the state of my soul , that may displease thee : Do what thou wilt with me , so thou doest but preserve me in thy fear and favour . Thou knowest that it is my great ●ear , but let thy Spirit secure , that nothing may be able to separate me from the love of God in Jesus Christ ; & then smite me here , that thou mayest spare me for ever ; and yet O Lord smite me friendly : for thou knowest my infirmities . Into thy hands I commend my spirit , for thou hast redeemed me , O Lord , thou God of truth . * Come holy Spirit , help me in this conflict . Come Lord Jesus , come quickly . Let the sick person often meditate upon these following promises and gracious words of God. My help cometh of the Lord who preserveth them that are true of heart , Psal. 7.11 . And all they that know thy Name will put their trust in thee : for thou Lord hast never failed them that seek thee , Psal. 9.10 . O how plentiful is thy goodnesse which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee , and that thou hast prepared for them that put their trust in thee , even before the sons of men , Psal. 31. Behold the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him , & upon them that put their trust in his mercy , to deliver their souls from death , Ps. 33. The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a contrite heart : and will save such as are of an humble spirit . Psal. 34.17 . Thou Lord shalt save both man and beast : how excellent is thy mercy , O God : and the children of men shall put their trust under the shadow of thy wings , Psal. 36.7 . They shall be satisfied with the plenteousness of thy house : and thou shalt give them to drink of thy pleasures as out of the rivers , v. 8. For with thee is the well of life : and in thy light we shall see light , v. 9. Commit thy way unto the Lord , and put thy trust in him , & he shall bring it to passe , Ps. 37.5 . But the salvation of the righteous cometh of the Lord : who is also their strength in the time of trouble , v. 40. So that a Man shall say , verily there is a reward for the righteous : doubtlesse there is a God that judgeth the earth , Psal. 58.10 . Blessed is the man whom thou choosest and receivest unto thee : he shall dwell in thy court , and shall be satisfied with the pleasures of thy house , even of thy holy temple , Psal. 65.4 . They that sow in tears shall reap in joy , Psal. 126.6 . It is written , I will never leave thee nor forsake thee , Heb. 13.5 . The prayer of faith shall save the sick : and the Lord shall raise him up : and if he have committed sins they shal be forgiven , Iam. 5.15 . Come and let us return unto the Lord : for he hath torn and he will heal us , he hath smitten , and he will binde us up , Hos. 6.1 . If we sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous , and he is the propitiation for our sins , 1 Iohn 2.2 . If we confesse our sins he is faithful & righteous to forgive us our sins , and to cleanse us from all unrighteousnesse , 1 Iohn 1.9 . He that forgives shall be forgiven , Luke 6.37 . And this is the confidence that we have in him , that if we ask any thing according to his will he heareth us , 1 Iohn 5 14. And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins , 1 Iohn 3.5 . If ye being evil know to give good things to your children , how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give good things to them that ask him ? Matth. 7.11 . This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation , that Jesus Christ came into the World to save sinners . * He that hath given us his Son , how should not he with him give us all things else . Acts of hope to be used by sick persons , after a pious life . I am perswaded that neither death nor life , nor Angels , nor principalities , nor powers , nor things present , nor things to come , nor height , nor depth , nor any other creature shall be able to separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord , Rom. 8.38 . I have fought a good fight , I have finished my course , I have kept the faith . Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousnesse , which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day , and not to me onely , but unto all them also that love his appearing , 2 Tim. 4.7 . Blessed be the God , even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ , the Father of mercies and the God of all comforts who comforts us in all our tribulation , 2 Cor. 1.3 . A prayer to be said in behalf of a sick or dying person . O Lord God , there is no number of thy dayes , nor of thy mercies ; and the sins and sorrowes of thy servant also are multiplied . Lord look upon him with much mercy and pity , forgive him all his sinnes , comfort his sorrowes , ease his pain , satisfie his doubts , relieve his feares , instruct his ignorances , strengthen his understanding , take from him all disorders of spirit , weaknesse and abuse of fancy : Restraine the malice and power of the spirits of darknesse ; and suffer him to be injured neither by his ghostly enemies , nor his own infirmities , and let a holy and a just peace , the peace of God be within his conscience . Lord preserve his senses till the last of his time , strengthen his faith , confirm his hope , and give him a never ceasing charity to thee our God , and to all the world : stir up in him a great and proportionable contrition for all the evils he hath done , and give him a just measure of patience for all he suffers : give him prudence , memory , and consideration , rightly to state the accounts of his soul , and do thou remind him of all his duty , that when it shall please thee that his soul goes out from the prison of his body , it may be receiv'd by Angels , and preserved from the surprize of evil spirits , and from the horrors and amazements of new and stranger Regions ; and be laid up in the bosom of our Lord , till at the day of thy second coming it shall be reunited to the body , which is now to be laid down in weaknes and dishonour , but we humbly beg , may then be raised up with glory & power for ever to live and to behold the face of God in the glories of the Lord Jesus , who is our hope , our resurrection , and our life , the light of our eyes and the joy of our soules , our blessed and ever glorious Redeemer . Amen . Hither the sick person may draw in , and use the acts of several vertues respersed in the several parts of this book , the several Letanies , viz. of repentance , of the passion , and the single pray●rs , according to his present needs . A prayer to be said in a storm at Sea. O my God , thou didst create the earth and the Sea for thy glory and the use of Man , and doest daily shew wonders in the deep : look upon the danger and fear of thy servant : my sins have taken hold upon me , and without the supporting arm of thy mercy I cannot look up ; but my trust is in thee . Do thou , O Lord , rebuke the Sea , and make it calm ; for to thee the windes and the sea obey : let not the waters swallow me up , but let thy Spirit , the Spirit of gentlenesse and mercy move upon the waters : Be thou reconcil'd unto thy servants , and then the face of the waters will be smooth . I fear that my sinnes make me like Ionas the cause of the tempest . Cast out all my sins , and throw not thy servants away from thy presence , and from the land of the living into the depths where all things are forgotten : But if it be thy wil that we shall go down into the waters , Lord receive my soul into thy holy hands , and preserve it in mercy and safety till the day of restitution of all things : and be pleased to unite my death to the death of thy Son , and to accept of it so united as a punishment for all my sinnes , that thou mayest forget all thine anger , and blot my sinnes out of thy book , and write my soul there for Jesus Christ his sake , our dearest Lord and most mighty Redeemer . Amen . Then make an act of resignation , thus , To God pertain the issues of life and death . It is the Lord , let him do what seemeth good in his own eyes . Thy will be done in earth as it is in Heaven . Recite Psalm 107. and 130. A form of a vow to be made in this or the like danger . If the Lord will be gracious and hear the prayer of his servant , and bring me safe to shore , then I will praise him secretly and publickly , and pay unto the uses of charity [ or Religion ] [ then name the sum you designe for holy uses ] O my God my goods are nothing unto thee : I will also be thy servant all the dayes of my life , and remember this mercy and my present purposes , and live more to Gods glory , and with a stricter duty : And do thou please to accept this vow as an instance of my importunity , and the greatnesse of my needs , and be thou graciously moved to pity and deliver me . Amen . This form also may be used in praying for a blessing on an enterprize ; and may be instanced in actions of devotion as well as of charity . A prayer before a journey . O Almighty God who fillest all things with thy presence , and art a God afar off as well as neer at hand : thou didst send thy Angel to blesse Iacob in his journey , and didst leade the children of Israel through the Red Sea , making it a wall on the right hand and on the left : be pleased to let thy Angel go out before me and guide me in my journey , preseving me from dangers of robbers , from violence of enemies , and sudden and sad accidents , from falls and errours : and prosper my journey to thy glory , and to all my innocent purposes : and preserve me from all sin , that I may return in peace and holinesse , with thy favour and thy blessing , and may serve thee in thankfulnesse and obedience all the dayes of my pilgrimage , and at last bring me to thy countrey , to the coelestial Jerusalem , there to dwell in thy house and to sing praises to thee for ever . Amen . Ad Sect. 4 ] A prayer to be said before hearing or reading the word of God. O Holy and Eternal Jesus who hast begotten us by thy word , renewed us by thy Spirit , fed us by thy Sacraments , and by the dayly ministery of thy word : still go on to build us up to life eternal . Let thy most holy Spirit be present with me and rest upon me in the reading [ or hearing ] thy sacred word ; that I may do it humbly , reverently , without prejudice , with a minde ready and desirous to learn and to obey ; ●hat I may ●e readily furnished and instructed to every good work , and may practise all thy holy laws and commandments , to the glory of thy holy name , O holy and eternal Jesus . Amen . Ad Sect. 5 , 9 , 10. ] A form of confession of sins , and repentance to be used upon fasting dayes , or dayes of humiliation ; especially in Lent , and before the Holy Sacrament . Have mercy upon me , O God , after thy great goodnesse , according to the multitude of thy mercies do away mine offences . For I will con●esse my wickednesse and be sorry for my sin . * O my Dearest Lord , I am not worthy to be accounted amongst the meanest of thy servants : not worthy to be sustained by the least fragments of thy mercy , but to be shut out of thy presence for ever with dogs & unbelievers . But for thy names sake , O Lord , be merciful unto my sin , for it is great . I am the vilest of sinners , and the worst of men : proud and vain glorious , impatient of scorn or of just reproof : ●ot enduring to be slighted , and yet extreamly deserving it : I have been cosened by the colours of humility , and when I have truly called my self vitious , I could not endure any man else should say so or think so . I have been disobedient to my Superiours , churlish and ungentle in my behaviour , unchristian and unmanly . But for thy names sake , &c. O Just and Dear God , how can I expect pitty or pardon who am so angry and peevish , with and without cause , envious at good , rejoycing in the evil of my neighbours , negligent of my charge , idle and uselesse , timerous and base , jealous and impudent , ambitious and hard hearted , soft , unmortified and effeminate in my life , indevout in my prayers , without fancie or affection , without attendance to them or perseverance in them ; but passionate and curious in pleasing my appetite of meat and drink and pleasures , making matter both for sin and sicknesse ; and I have re●ped the cursed fruits of such improvidence , entertaining undecent and impure thoughts ; and I have brought them forth in undecent and impure actions , and the spirit of uncleanness hath entred in , and unhallowed the temple which thou didst consecrate for the habitation of thy Spirit of love and holinesse . But for thy names sake , O Lord , be merciful unto my sin , for it is great . Thou hast given me a whole life to serve thee in , and to advance my hopes of heaven : and this pretious time I have thrown away upon my sins and vanities , being improvident of my time and of my talent , and of thy grace and my own advantages ; resisting thy Spirit , and quenching him . I have been a great lover of my self , and yet used many wayes to destroy my self : I have pursued my temporal ends with greedinesse and indirect means : I am revengful and unthankful , forgetting benefits , but not so soon forgetting injuries : curious and murmuring : a great breaker of promises : I have not loved my neighbours good , nor advanced it in all things where I could : I have bin unlike thee in all things , I am unmerciful and unjust ; a sottish admirer of things below , and careless of heaven and the wayes that lead thither . But for thy names sake , O Lord , be merciful un●● my sin , for it is great . All my senses have been windows to let sin in , and death by sin ; Mine eyes have been adulterous and covetous : mine ears open to slander and detraction : my tongue and palate loose and wanton , intemperate , and of foul language , talkative & lying , rash and malicious , false and flattering , irreligious and irreverent , detracting and censorious : My hands have bin injurious and unclean : my passions violent and rebellious : my desires impatient and unreasonable : all my members and all my faculties have been servants of sin : and my very bes● actions have more matter of pity , then of confidence ; being imperfect in my best , and intolerable in most . But for thy names sake , O Lord , &c. Unto this and a far bigger heap of sin , I have added also the faults of others to my own score ▪ by neglecting to hinder them to sin in all that I could and ought : but I also have encouraged them in sin , have taken off their fears and hardened their consciences and tempted them directly , and prevailed in it to my own r●ine and theirs , unlesse thy glorious and unspeakable mercy hath prevented so intolerable a calamity . Lord I have abused thy mercy , despised thy judgements , turned thy grace into wantonnesse ; I have been unthankful for thy infinite loving kindnesse : I have sinned and repented , and then sinned again , and resolved against it , and presently broke it ; and then I tyed my self up with vows , & then was tempted , and then I yielded by little & little till I was willingly lost again , and my vows fell of● like cords of vanity . Miserable man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of sin ? And yet O Lord , I have another heap of sins to be unloaded . My secrets sins O Lord , are innumerable ; sins I noted not , sins that I willingly neglected , sins that I acted upon willfull ignorance and voluntary mispersuasion ; sins that I have forgot ; and sins which a diligent and a watchful spirit might have prevented , but I would not . Lord I am confounded with the multitude of them , and the horrour of their remembrance though I consider them nakedly in their direct appearances , without the deformity of their unhandsome and aggravating circumstances : but so dressed they are a sight too ugly : an instance of amazement , infinite in degrees , and insufferable in their load . And yet thou hast spared me all this while , and hast not thrown me into Hell , where I have deserved to have been long since , and even now to have been shut up to an eternity of torments with insupportable amazement , fearing the revelation of thy day . Miserable man that I am , who shall deliver me from this body of sin ? Thou shalt answer for me , O Lord my God ; Thou that Prayest for me shalt be my Iudge . The Prayer . Thou hast prepared for me a more healthful sorrow . O deny not thy servant when he begs sorrow of thee : Give me a deep contrition for my sins , a hearty detestation and loathing of them , hating them worse then death with torments . Give me grace intirely , presently , and for ever to forsake them ; to walk with care and prudence , with fear and watchfulnesse all my dayes ; to doe all my duty with diligence and charity , with zeal and a never fainting spirit : to redeem the time , to trust upon thy mercies , to make use of all the instruments of grace , to work out my salvation with fear and trembling , that thou mayest have the glory of pardoning all my sins , and I may reap the fruit of all thy mercies , and al thy graces , of thy patience and long-suffering , even to live a holy life here , and to reign with thee for ever , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . Ad Sect. 6. ] Special dev●tions to be used upon the Lords-day , and the great Festivalls Of Christians . In the Morning recite the following forme of Thanksgiving : upon the special Festivalls adding the commemoration of the special blessing according to the following prayers : adding such prayers as you shall choose out of the foreg●ing Devotions . 2. Besides the ordinary and publick duties of the day , if you retire into your closet to read and meditate ; after you have performed that duty , say the song of S. Ambrose commonly called the [ Te Deum ] or [ We praise thee , &c ] then add the prayers for particular graces which are at the end of the former Chapters , such and as many of them as shall fit your present needs and affections : ending with the Lords prayer . This form of devotion , may for variety , be indifferently used at other times . A forme of thanksgiving with a recital of publick and private blessings : To be used upon Easter-day , Whit-sunday , Ascension-day , and all Sundayes of the year : but the middle part of it may be reserved for the more solemn Festivals ; and the other used upon the ordinary ; as every mans affections or leisure shall determine . [ I. ] Ex Liturgiâ S. Basilii magnâ ex parte . O Eternal Essence , Lord God , Father Almighty , Maker of all things in Heaven and Earth , it is a good thing to give thanks to thee , O Lord , and to pay to thee all reverence , worship and devotion from a clean and prepared heart ; and with an humble spirit to present a living and reasonable sacrifice to thy holinesse and Majesty : for thou hast given unto us the knowledge of thy truth : and who is able to declare thy greatnesse , and to recount all thy marvellous works which thou hast done in all the generations of the world . O Great Lord and Governour of all things , Lord and Creator of all things visible and invisible , who sittest upon the throne of thy glory , and beholdest the secrets of the lowest abysse and darknesse , thou art without beginning , uncircumscribed , incomprehensible , unalterable , and seated for ever unmoveable in thy own essential happinesse and tranquillity : Thou art the Father of our Lord JESU SCHRIST : who is , Our Dearest and most Gracious Saviour , our hope , the wisdom of the Father , the image of thy goodnesse , the Word eternal and the brightnesse of thy person , the power of God from eternal ages , the true light that lightneth every Man that cometh into the World , the Redemption of Man , and the Sanctification of our Spirits . By whom the holy Ghost descended upon the Church ; the holy Spirit of truth , the seal of adoption , the earnest of the inheritance of the Saints , the first fruits of everlasting felicity , the life-giving power , the fountain of sanctification , the comfort of the Church , the ease of the afflicted , the support of the weak , the wealth of the poor , the teacher of the doubtful , scrupulous and ignorant , the anchor of the fearful , the infinite reward of all faithful souls , by whom all reasonable and understanding creatures serve thee , and send up a never-ceasing , and a never-rejected sacrifice of prayer , and praises , and adoration . All Angels and Archangels , all Thrones and Dominions , all Principalities and Powers , the Cherubins with many eyes , and the Seraphin● covered with wings from the terror and amazement of thy brightest glory : These and all the powers of Heaven do perpetually sing praises and never-ceasing Hymns , and eternal Anthems to the glory of the eternal God , the Almighty Father of Men and Angels . Holy is our God : Holy is the Almighty : Holy is the Immortal : Holy , Holy , Holy ▪ Lord God of Sabaoth , Heaven and Earth are full of the Majesty of thy glory . Amen . * With these holy and blessed Spirits I also thy servant , O thou great lover of souls , though I be unworthy to offer praise to such a Majesty , yet out of my bounden duty humbly offer up my heart and voice to joyn in this blessed quire , and confesse the glories of the Lord. * For thou art holy , and of thy greatnesse there is no end ; and in thy justice and goodnesse thou hast measured out to us all thy works . Thou madest man out of the earth and didst form him after thine own image : thou didst place him in a garden of pleasure , and gavest him laws of righteousnesse to be to him a seed of immortality . O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodnesse : and declare the wonders that he hath done for the children of men . For when man sinned and listned to the whispers of a tempting spirit , and refused to hear the voice of God , thou didst throw him out from Paradise , and sentest him to till the Earth ; but yet left nor his condition without remedy , but didst provide for him the salvation of a new birth , and by the blood of thy Son didst redeem and pay the price to thine own justice for thine own creature , lest the work of thine own hands should perish . O that men would therefore praise the Lord , &c. For thou , O Lord , in every age didst send testimonies from Heaven , blessings and Prophets , and fruitful seasons , and preachers of righteousness , and miracles of power , and mercy : thou spakest by thy Prophets and saidst , I will help by one that is mighty : and in the fulnesse of time spakest to us by thy Son , by whom thou didst make both the Worlds : who by the word of his power , sustains all things in Heaven and Earth : who thought it no robbery to be equal to the Father : who being before all time was pleased to be born in time , to converse with men , to be incarnate of a holy Virgin : he emptied himself of all his glories , took on him the form of a servant , in all things being made like unto us , in a soul of passions and discourse , in a body of humility and sorrow , but in all things innocent , and in all things afflicted : and suffered death for us , that we by him might live and be partakers of his nature and his glories , of his body and of his Spirit , of the blessings of earth , and of immortal felicities in Heaven . O that men would therefore praise the Lord &c. For thou O holy and immortal God , O sweetest Saviour Jesus , wert made under the Law to condemn sin in the flesh : thou who knewest no sin wert made sin for us : thou gavest to us righteous Commandements , and madest known to us all thy Fathers will : thou didst redeem us from our vain conversation , and from the vanity of Idols , false principles , and foolish confidences , and broughtest us to the knowledge of the true and onely God and our Father , and hast made us to thy self a peculiar people , of thy own purchase , a royal Priesthood , a holy Nation : Thou hast washed our soules in the Laver of Regeneration , the Sacrament of Baptisme : Thou hast reconciled us by thy death , justified us by thy Resurrection , sanctified us by thy Spirit [ sending him upon thy Church in visible formes , and giving him in powers , and miracles , and mighty signes , and continuing this incomparable favour in gi●ts and san●tifying graces , and promising that hee shall abide with us for ever ] thou hast fed us with thine own broken body , and given drink to our soules out of thine own heart : and hast ascended up on high , and hast overcome all the powers of Death and Hell , and redeemed us from the miseries of a sad eternity : and sittest at the right hand of God , making intercession for us with a never-ceasing charity . O that men would therefore praise the Lord , &c. The grave could not hold thee long , O holy & eternal Jesus , thy body could not see corruption , neither could thy soul be left in Hell ; thou wert free among the dead , and thou brakest the iron gates of Death , and the bars and chains of the lower prisons : Thou broughtest comfort to the souls of the Patriarchs who waited for thy coming , who long'd for the redemption of Man , and the revelation of thy day . Abraham , Isaac , and Iacob saw thy day , and rejoyced : and when thou didst arise from thy bed of darknesse , and leftest the grave-clothes behinde thee , and put on a robe of glory ( over which for 40 dayes thou didst wear a vail ) and then entred into a cloud , and then into glory , then the powers of Hell were confounded , then Death lost its power and was swallowed up into victory ; & though death is not quite destroyed , yet it is made harmlesse and without a sting , and the condition of Humane Nature is made an entrance to eternal glory ; & art become the Prince of life , the first fruits of the resurrection , the first-born from the dead , having made the way plain before our faces , that we may also rise again in the Resurrection of the last day , when thou shalt come again unto us to render to every Man according to his works . O that men would therefore praise the Lord , &c. O give thanks unto the Lord , for he is gracious : and his mercy endureth for ever . O all ye angels of the Lords , praise ye the Lord : praise him and magnifie him for ever . O ye spirits and souls of the Righteous , praise ye the Lord : praise him and magnifie him for ever . And now , O Lord God , what shall I render to thy Divine Majesty for all the benefits thou hast done unto thy servant in my personal capacity . Thou art my Creator and my Father , my Protector and my Guardian , thou hast brought me from my Mothers wombe , thou hast told all my joynts , and in thy book were all my members written : Thou hast given me a comely body , Christian and careful parents , holy education ; Thou hast been my guide and my teacher all my dayes : Thou hast given me ready faculties , and unloosed tongue , a cheerful spirit , strait limbs , a good reputation , and liberty of person , a quiet life , and a tender conscience [ a loving wife or husband , and hopeful children ] thou wert my hope from my youth , through thee have I been holden up ever since I was born : Thou hast clothed me and fed me , given me friends and blessed them ; given me many dayes of comfort and health , free from those sad infirmities , with which many of thy Saints and dearest servants are afflicted : Thou hast sent thy Angel to snatch me from the violence of fire and water , to prevent praecipices , fracture of bones , to rescue me from thunder and lightning , plague and pestilential diseases , murder and robbery , violence of chance and enemies , and all the spirits of darknesse : and in the dayes of sorrow thou hast refreshed me : in the destitution of provisions thou hast taken care of me , and thou hast said unto me , I will never leave thee nor forsake thee . I will give thanks unto the Lord with my whole heart , secretly among the faithful and in the congregation . Thou O my dearest Lord and Father hast taken care of my soul , hast pitied my miseries , sustained my infirmities , relieved and instructed my ignorances ; and though I have broken thy righteous Lawes and Commandements , run passionately after vanities and was in love with Death , and was dead in sin , and was exposed to thousands of temptations , and fell foully , and continued in it , and lov'd to have it so , and hated to be reformed ; yet thou didst call me with the checks of conscience , with daily Sermons and precepts of holinesse , with fear and shame , with benefits and the admonitions of thy most holy Spirit , by the counsel of my friends , by the example of good persons , with holy books and thousands of excellent arts , and wouldest not suffer me to perish in my folly , but didst force me to attend to thy gracious calling , and hast put me into a state of repentance , and possibilities of pardon , being infinitely desirous I should live , and recover , and make use of thy grace , and partake of thy glories . I will give thanks unto the Lord with my whole heart , secretly among the faithful , and in the congregation . * For salvation belongeth unto the Lord , and thy blessing is upon thy servant . But as for me , I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercies , and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple . * For of thee , and in thee , and through thee , and for thee are all things . Blessed be the name of God from generation to generation . Amen . A ●hort Form of thanksgiving to be said upon any special deliverance , as from Ch●ld-birth , from Sickness , from ba●●el , or imminent danger at sea , or Land , &c. O most merciful and gracious God , thou fountain of all mercy and blessing , thou hast opened the hand of thy mercy to fill me with blessings , and the sweet effects of thy loving kindnesse : thou feedest us like a Shepherd , thou governest us as a king , thou bearest us in thy arms like a nurse , thou doest cover us under the shadow of thy wings , and shelter us like a hen ; thou ( O Dearest Lord ) wakest for us as a Watchman , thou providest for us like a Husband , thou lovest us as a friend , and thinkest on us perpetually , as a careful mother on her helplesse babe , and art exceeding merciful to all that fear thee ; and now , O Lord , thou hast added this great blessing of deliverance from my late danger , ( here name the blessing ) it was thy hand and the help of thy mercy that relieved me , the waters of affliction had drowned me , and the stream had gone over my soul , if the spirit of the Lord had not moved upon these waters : Thou O Lord , didst revoke thy angry sentence which I had deserved , and which was gone out against me : Unto thee , O Lord , I ascribe the praise and honour of my redemption : I will be glad and rejoyce in thy mercy , for thou hast considered my trouble , and hast known my soul in adversity : As thou has● s●r●ad thy hand upon me for a covering , so also enlarge my heart with thankfulnesse , and fill my mouth with praises , that my duty and returns to the● may be great as my needs of mercie are ; and let thy gracious favours , and loving kindnes●e endure for ever and ever upon thy servant : and grant that what thou hast sown in mercy may spring up in duty : and let thy grace so strengthen my purposes that I may sin no more , lest thy threatning return upon me in anger , and thy anger break me into pieces : but let me walk in the light of thy favour , and in the paths of thy Commandments ; that I living here to the glory of thy name , may at last enter into the glory of my Lord , to spend a whole eternity in giving praise to thy exalted and ever glorious name . Amen . We praise thee O God : we knowledge thee to be the Lord , * All the earth doth worship thee the Father Everlasting . * To thee All Angels cry aloud , the Heavens and all the powers therein . * To thee Cherubim and Seraphim continually do cry . * Holy , Holy , Holy , Lord God of Sabaoth . * Heaven and Earth are full of the Majesty of thy glory . * The glorious company of the Apostles praise thee . * The goodly fellowship of the Prophets praise thee . * The noble army of Martyrs praise thee . * The holy Church throughout all the world doth knowledge thee . * The Father of an infinite Majesty . * Thy honourable , true and only Son. * Also the Holy Ghost the Comforter . * Thou art the King of glory O Christ. * Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father . * When thou tookest upon thee to deliver man , thou didst not abhor the Virgins womb . * When thou hadst overcome the sharpnesse of death , thou didst open the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers . * Thou sittest at the right hand of God in the glory of the Father . * We believe that thou shalt come to be our Judge . * We therefore pray thee help thy servants whom thou hast redeemed with thy precious blood . * Make them to be numbered with thy Saints in glory everlasting . * O Lord save thy people , and blesse thine heritage . * Govern them and lift them up for ever . * Day by day we magnifie thee . * And we worship thy name ever world without end . * Vouchsafe O Lord , to keep us this day without ●in . * O Lord have mercy upon us : have mercy upon us . * O Lord let thy mercy lighten upon us as our trust is in thee . O Lord in thee have I trusted : let me never be confounded . Amen . A Prayer of thanksgiving after the receiving some great blessing , as the birth of an Heir , the successe of an honest designe , a victory , a good harvest , &c. O Lord God , Father of mercies , the fountain of comfort and blessing , of life and peace , of plenty and pardon , who fillest Heaven with thy glory , and earth w th thy goodnes ; I give thee the most earnest , most humble , and most enlarged returnes of my glad and thankful heart , for thou hast refreshed me with thy comforts , and enlarged me with thy blessing , thou hast made my flesh and my bones to rejoyce : for besides the blessings of all mankinde , the blessings of nature , & the blessings of grace , the support of every minute , and the comforts of every day , thou hast opened thy bosom , and at this time hast powred out an excellent expression of thy loving kindnesse [ here name the blessing ] What am I O Lord , and what is my Fathers house , what is the life , and what are the capacities of thy servant that thou should'st do this unto me , * that the great God of men and Angels should make a special decree in Heaven for me , and send out an Angel of blessing , and instead of condemning and ruining me as I miserably have deserved , to distinguish me from many my equals and my betters , by this and many other special acts of grace and savour . Praised be the Lord daily , even the Lord that helpeth us and powreth his benefits upon us . He is our God , even the God of whom cometh salvation : God is the Lord by whom we escape death . Thou hast brought me to great honour , and comforted me on every side . Thou Lord hast made me glad through thy works , I will rejoyce in giving praise for the operation of thy hands . O give thanks unto the Lord , and call upon his name : tell the people what things he hath done . As for me , I will give great thanks unto the Lord : and praise him among the multitude . Blessed be the Lord God , even the Lord God of Israel : which only doth wondrous & gracious things . And blessed be the name of his Majesty for ever : and all the earth shall be filled with his Majesty . Amen . Amen . Glory be to the Father , &c. As it was in the beginning , &c. A Prayer to be said on the Feast of Christmas , or the birth of our ble●sed Saviour Iesus ; the same also may be said upon the Feast of the Annunciation , and Purification of the B. Virgin Mary . O Holy and Almighty God , Father of mercies , Father of our Lord Jesus Christ , the Son of thy love and Eternal mercies , I adore and praise , and glorifie thy infinite and unspeakable love , and wisdom , who hast sent thy Son from the bosom of felicities to take upon him our nature and our misery , and our guilt , and hast made the Son of God to become the Son of Man , that we might become the Sons of God , and partakers of the divine nature : since thou hast so exalted humane nature , be pleased also to sanctify my person , that by a conformity to the humility and laws , and sufferings of my dearest Saviour I may be united to his spirit , and be made all one with the most Holy ●esus . Amen O Holy and Eternal Jesus who didst pity mankinde lying in his blood , and sin and misery , and didst choose our sadnesses and sorrows that thou mightest make us to pertake of thy felicities : let thine eyes pity me , thy hands support me , thy holy feet tread down all the difficulties in my way to Heaven , let me dwell in thy heart , be instructed with thy wisdom , moved by thy affections , choose with thy will , and be clothed with thy righteousness , that in the day of judgement I may be found having on thy garments , sealed with thy impression ; and that bearing upon every faculty and member the character of my elder brother , I may not be cast out with strangers and unbelievers . Amen . To God the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ. * To the eternal Son that was incarnate and born of a virgin . * To the spirit of the Father and the Son be all honour and glory ▪ worship and adoration , now and for ever . Amen The same Form of Prayer may be used upon our own Birth-day , or day of our Baptisme : adding the following prayer . A Prayer to be said upon our Birth-day , or day of Baptisme . O Blessed and Eternal God , I give thee praise and glory for thy great mercy to me in causing me to be born of Chris●ian parents , and didst not allot to me a portion with Misbelievers and Heathen that have not known thee ; thou didst not suffer me to be strangled at the gate of the womb , but thy hand sustained and brought me to the light of the world , and the illumination of baptisme , with thy grace preventing my election , and by an artificial necessity , and holy prevention engaging me to the profession and practises of Christianity : Lord since that , I have broken the promises made in my behalf , and which I confirmed by my after act ; I went back from them by an evil life ; and yet thou hast still continued to me life and time of repentance ; and didst not cut me off in the beginning of my dayes , and the progresse of my sins : O Dearest God , pardon the errours and ignorances , the vices and vanities of my youth , and the faults of my more forward years , and let me never more stain the whiteness of my baptismal robe : and now that by thy grace , I still persist in the purposes of obedience , and do give up my name to Christ , and glory to be a Disciple of thy institution , and a servant of Jesus , let me never fail of thy grace ; let no root of bitterness spring up and disorder my purposes , and desile my spirit . O let my years be so many degrees of neerer approach to thee ; and forsake me not O God , in my old age , when I am gray-headed ; and when my strength faileth me be thou my strength and my guide unto death , that I may reckon my years and apply my heart unto wisdom , and at last after the spending a holy and a blessed life , I may be brought unto a glorious eternity , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Then adde the form of thanksgiving formerly described . A prayer to be said upon the dayes of the memory of Apostles , Martyrs , &c. O Eternal God to whom do live the spirits of them that depart hence in the Lord , and in whom the souls of them that be elected after they be delivered from the burden of the flesh be ●n peace and rest from their labours , and their works follow them , and their memory is blessed : I blesse and magnifie thy holy and ever glorious name , for the great grace and blessing manifested to thy Apostles and Martyrs , and other holy persons who have glorified thy name in the dayes of their flesh , and have served the interest of religion , and of thy service , and this day we have thy servant [ name the Apostle or Martyr , &c. ] in remembrance , whom thou hast lead thorough the troubles and temptations of this World , and now hast lodged in the bosome of a certain hope and great beatitude until the day of restitution of all things . Blessed be the mercy and eternal goodnesse of God ; and the memory of all thy Saints is blessed : Teach me to practise their doctrine , to imitate their lives following their example , and being united as a part of the same mystical body , by the band of the same ●aith , and a holy hope , and a never ceasing charity : and may it please thee of thy gracious goodnesse shortly to accomplish the number of thine elect , & to hasten thy Kingdom , that we with thy servant [ * ] and all others departed in the true faith & fear of thy holy Name , may have our perfect consummation and blisse in body and soul in thy eternal and everlasting kingdom . Amen . A form of prayer recording all the parts and mysteries of Christs passion ; being a short history of it : to be used especially in the week of the passion ; and before the receiving the blessed Sacrament . All praise , honour , and glory be to the holy and eternal Jesus . I adore thee O bles●ed Redeemer , eternal God , the light of the Gentiles and the glory of Israel ; for thou hast done and suffered for me more then I could wish , more ●hen I could think of , even all that a lost and a miserable perishing sinner could possibly need . Thou wert afflicted with thirst and hunger , with heat and cold , with labours and sorrowes , with hard journeys and restlesse nights ; and when thou wert contriving all the mysterious and admirable wayes of paying our scores , thou didst suffer thy self to be designed to slaughter by those for whom in love thou wert ready to dye . What is man that thou art mindful of him , and the Son of man that thou thus visit●st him ? Blessed be thy Name , O holy Jesus ; for thou wentest about doing good , working miracles of mercy , healing the sick , comforting the distressed , instructing the ignorant , raising the dead , inlightning the blinde , strengthning the ●ame , straitning the crooked , relieving the poor , preaching the Gospel , and reconciling sinners by the mightinesse of thy power , by the wisdom of thy Spirit , by the Word of God , and the merits of thy Passion , thy hea●thful and bitter passion . Lord what is man that thou art mindful of him , &c. Blessed be thy Name O holy Jesus who wert content to be conspired against by the Jews , to be sold by thy servant for a vile price , and to wash the feet of him that took mone● for thy life , and to give to him and to all thy Apostles thy most holy Body and Blood , to become a Sacrifice for their sins , even for their betraying and denying thee ; and for all my sins , even for my crucifying thee afresh , and for such sins which I am ashamed to think , but that the greatnesse of my sins magnifie the infinitenesse of thy mercies who didst so great things for so vile a person . Lord what is man , &c. Blessed be thy Name O holy Jesus , who being to depart the World didst comfort thy Apostles , powring out into their ears and hearts treasures of admirable discourses ; who didst recommend them ▪ to thy Father with a mighty charity , and then didst enter into the Garden set with nothing but Bryers and sorrowes , where thou didst suffer a most unspeakable agony , until the sweat strain'd through thy pure skin like drops of blood ; and there didst sigh and groan , and fall flat upon the earth , and pray and submit to the intolerable burden of thy Fathers wrath which I had deserved and thou sufferedst . Lord what is man , &c. Blessed be thy Name O holy Jesus , who hast sanctified to us all our natural infirmities and passions , by vouchsafing to be in fear and trembling , and sore amazement , by being bound and imprisoned , by being harrassed and drag d with cords of violence and rude hands ; by being drench d in the brook in the way , by being sought after like a thief , and us'd like a sinner , who wert the most holy and the most innocent , cleaner then an Angel and brighter then the Morning-Star . Lord what is man , &c. Blessed be thy Name O holy Jesus , and blessed be that loving kindnesse and pity , by which thou didst neglect thy own sorrows , and go to comfort the sadnesse of thy Disciples , quickning their dulnesse , incouraging their duty , arming their weaknesse with excellent precepts against the day of trial . Blessed be that humility and sorrow of thine , who being Lord of the Angels , yet wouldest need , and receive comfort from thy servant the Angel ; who didst offer thy self to thy persecutors , and madest them able to seiz thee , and didst receive the Traytors kisse , & sufferedst a veil to be thrown over thy holy face , that thy enemies might not presently be confounded by so bright a lus●re ; and wouldest do a miracle to cure a wound of one of thy spiteful enemies ; and didst reprove a zealous servant in behalf of a malicious adversary ; and then didst go like a Lamb to the slaughter without noise or violence , or resistance , when thou couldest have commanded millions of Angels for thy guard and rescue . Lord what is man , &c. Blessed be thy Name O holy Jesus , and blessed be that holy sorrow thou didst suffer when thy Disciples fled ; and thou wert left alone in the hands of cruel men , who like evening Wolves thirsted for a draught of thy best blood : and thou wert led to the house of Annas , and there asked insnaring questions , and smitten on the face by him whose ear thou hadst but lately healed : and from thence wert dragged to the house of Cajaphas , and there all night didst endure spittings , affronts , scorn , contumelies , blowes , and intolerable insolencies , and all this for man who was thy enemy and the cause of all thy sorrows . Lord what is man , &c. Blessed be thy Name , O holy Jesus , and blessed be thy mercy , who when thy servant Peter denied thee , and forsook thee , and forswore thee , didst look back upon him , and by that gracious and chiding look didst call him back to himself and thee : who wert accused before the High Priest , and rail'd upon , and examined to evil purposes , and with designes of blood : who wert declar'd guilty of death for speaking a most necessary and most profitable truth : who wert sent to Pilate and ●ound innocent , and sent to Herod and still found innocent , and wert arrayed in white both to declare thy innocence and yet to deride thy person , and wert sent back to Pilate and examined again , and yet nothing but innocence found in thee and malice round about thee to devour thy life , which yet thou wert more desirous to lay down for them , then they were to take it from thee . Lord what is man , &c. Blessed be thy Name , O holy Jesus , and blessed be that patience and charity by which for our sakes thou wert content to be smitten with canes , and have that holy face which Angels with joy and wonder do behold , be spit upon , and be despised when compar'd with Barabbas , and scourg'd most rudely with unhallowed hands , till the pavement was purpled with that holy blood ; and condemned to a sad and shameful , a publick and painful death , and arayed in Scarlet , and crown'd with thorns , and strip'd naked , and then cloth'd , and loaden with the crosse , and tormented with a tablet stuck with nails at the fringes of thy garment , and bound hard with cords & dragged most vilely and most piteously till the load was too great , and did sink thy tender and virginal body to the earth ; and yet didst comfort the weeping women , and didst more pity thy persecutors then thy self , and wert grieved for the miseries of Jerusalem to come forty years after more then for thy present passion . Lord what is man , &c. Blessed be thy Name , O holy Jesus , and blessed be that incomparable sweetnesse and holy sorrow which thou sufferedst , when thy holy hands and feet were nailed upon the crosse , and the crosse being set in a hollownesse of the earth did in the fall rend the wounds wider , and there naked and bleeding , sick & faint , wounded and despised , didst hang upon the weight of thy wounds three long hours , praying for thy persecutors , satisfying thy Fathers wrath , reconciling the penitent thief , providing for thy holy and afflicted mother , tasting vineger and gall , and when the fulnesse of thy suffering was accomplished , didst give thy soul into the hands of God , and didst descend to the regions of longing souls who waited for the revelation of this thy day in their prisons of hope : and then thy body was transfixed with a spear and issued forth two Sacraments , Water and blood , and thy body was compos'd to burial , and dwelt in darkness 3 dayes and 3 nights . Lord what is man that thou art mindful of him , and the Son of man that thou thus visitest him ? The prayer . Thus O blessed Jesu thou didst finish thy holy passion with pain and anguish so great , that nothing could be greater then it , except thy self and thy own infinite mercy , and all this for man , even for me , then whom nothing c●uld be more miserable , thy self onely excepted who becamest so by undertaking our guilt and our punishment . And now Lord who hast done so much for me , be pleased onely to make it effectual to me , that it may not be uselesse and lost as to my particular , lest I become eternally miserable , and lost to all hopes and possibilities of comfort . All this deserves more love then I have to give : but Lord do thou turn me all into love , and all my love into obedience , and let my obedience ●e without interruption , and then I hope thou wilt accept such a return as I can make : make me to be something that thou delightest in , & thou shalt have all that I am or have from thee , even whatsoever thou makest fit for thy self . Teach me to live wholly for my Saviour Jesus , and to be ready to dye for Jesus , and to be conformable to his life and sufferings , and to be united to him by inseparable unions , and to own no passions but what may be servants to Jesus , and Disciples of his institution . O sweetest Saviour clothe my soul with thy holy robe : hide my sins in thy wounds , and bury them in thy grave , and let me rise in the life of grace , and abide and grow in it till I arrive at the Kingdom of Glory . Amen Our Father , &c. Ad. Sect. 7 , 8 , 10. A ●orm of prayer or intercession for all estates of people in the Christian Church . The parts of which may be added to any other formes : and the whole office intirely as it lyes is proper to be said in our preparation to the holy Sacrament , or o● the day of celebration . 1. For our selves . O thou gracious Father of mercy , Father of our Lord Jesus Christ , have mercy upon thy servants who bow our heads , and our knees , and our hearts to thee : pardon and forgive us all our sins , give us the grace of holy repentance and a strict obedience to thy holy word ; strengthen us in the inner man with the power of the holy Ghost for all the parts and duties of our calling & holy living : preserve us for ever in the unity of the holy Catholick Church , & in the integrity of the Chr●stian faith , and in the love of God , and of our neighbours , and in hope of life Eternal . Amen . 2. For the whole Catholick Church . O holy Jesus King of the Saints , and Prince of the Catholick Church , preserve thy spouse whom tho● hast purchased with thy right hand , and redeemed and cleansed with thy blood ; the whole Catholick Church from one end of the Earth to the other ; she is founded upon a rock , but planted in the sea . O preserve her safe from schisme , heresy , and sacriledge . Unite all her members with the bands of Faith , Hope and Charity , and an external communion , when it shall seem good in thine eyes : let the daily sacrifice of prayer and Sacramental thanksgiving never cease , but be for ever presented to thee , and for ever united to the intercession of her dearest Lord , and for ever prevail for the obtaining for every of its members grace and blessing , pardon and salvation . Amen 3. For all Christian Kings , Princes and Governours . O King of Kings , and Prince of all the Rulers of the Earth , give thy grace and Spirit to all Christian Princes , the spirit of wisdom and counsel , the spirit of government and godly fear : Grant unto them to live in peace and honour , ●hat their people may love and feare them , and they may love and fear God : speak good unto their hearts concerning the Church , that they may be nursing Fathers to it , Fathers of the Fatherlesse , Judges and Avengers of the cause of Widowes , that they may be compassionate to the wants of the poor , and the groans of the oppressed , that they may not vex or kill the Lords people with unjust or ambitious wars , but may feed the ●lock of God , and may inquire after and do all things which may promote peace , publick honesty and holy religion , so administring things present , that they may not fail of the everlasting glories of the world to come , where all thy faithful people shall reign Kings for ever . Amen . 4. For al the orders of them that minister about H. things O thou great Shepherd and Bishop of our souls , Holy and Eternal Jesus , give unto thy servants the Ministers of the Mysteries of Christian religion the Spirit of prudence and sanctity , faith and charity , confidence and zeal , diligence and watchfulnesse , that they may declare thy will unto the people faithfully , and dispense the Sacraments rightly , and intercede with thee graciously and acceptably for thy servants . Grant O Lord , that by a holy life and a true beliefe , by well doing and patient suffering ( when thou shalt call them to it ) they may glorifie thee the great lover of souls , and after a plentiful conversion of sinners from the errour of their wayes they may shine like the stars in glory . Amen . Give unto thy servants the Bishops a discerning Spirit that they may lay hands suddenly on no man , but may depute such persons to the Ministeries of religion , who may adorn the Gospel of God , & whose lips may preserve knowledge , & such who by their good preaching , & holy living may advance the service of the Lord Jesus . Amen . 5. For our neerest relatives , as Husband , Wife , Children , Family , &c. O God of infinite mercy , let thy loving mercy and compassion descend upon the head of thy servants [ my wife , or hu●band ] children and family : be pleased to give them health of body and of spirit , a competent portion of temporals , so as may with comfort support them in their journey to Heaven : preserve them from all evil and ●ad accidents , defend them in all assaults of their enemies , direct their persons & their actions , sanctify their hearts and words , and purposes , that we all may by the bands of obedience and charity be united to our Lord Jesus , and alwayes feeling thee our merciful and gracious Father , may become a holy family , discharging our whole duty in all our relations , that we in this life being thy children by adoption and grace , may be admitted into thy holy family hereafter for ever to sing praises to thee in the Church of the first-born , in the family of thy redeemed ones . Amen . 6. For our Parents , our Kinred in the flesh , our Friends and Benefactors . O God merciful and gracious , who hast made [ my Parents , ] my Friends and my Benefactors ministers of thy mercy and instruments of providence to thy servant , I humbly beg a blessing to descend upon the heads of [ name the persons or th● relations ] Depute thy holy Angels to guard their persons , thy holy spirit to guide their souls , thy providence to minister to their necessities : and let thy grace and mercy preserve them from ●he bitter pains of eternal death , and bring them ●o everlasting life through Jesus Christ. Amen . 7. For all that lye under the rod of war , famine , pestilence : to be said in the time of plague , or war , &c. O Lord God Almighty , thou art our Father , we are thy children , thou art our Redeemer , we thy people purchased with the price of thy most precious blood , be pleased to moderate thy anger towards thy servants , let not thy whole displeasure arise , lest we be consumed and brought to nothing . Let health and peace be within our dwellings , let righteousness and holyness dwell for ever in our hearts , & be express'd in all our actions , and the light of thy countenance be upon us in all our sufferings , that we may delight in the service and in the mercies of God for ever . Amen . O gracious Father and merciful God , if it be thy wil , say unto the destroying Angel , it is enough , and though we are not better then our brethren who are smitten with the rod of God , but much worse , yet may it please thee , even because thou art good , and because we are timerous and sinful , not yet fitted for our appearance , to set thy mark upon our foreheads , that the Angel thy Minister of thy justice may passe over us , and hurt us not : let thy hand cover thy servants and hide us in the clefts of the rock , in the wounds of the holy Jesus , from the present anger that is gone out against us : that though we walk thorough the valley of the shadow of death we may fear no evil , and suf●er none : and those whom thou hast smitten with thy rod , support with thy staff , and visit them with thy mercies and salvation , through Jesus Christ. Amen . 8. For all women with childe and for unborn children . O Lord God who art the Father of them that trust in thee , and shewest mercy to a thousand generations of them that fear thee , have mercy upon all women great with childe [ * ] be pleased to give them a joyful & a safe deliverance ; & let thy grace preserve the fruit of their wombs , and conduct them to the holy Sacrament of Baptisme , that they being regenerated by thy Spirit , and adopted into thy family and the portion and duty of Sons , may live to the glory of God , to the comfort of their parents and friends , to the edification of the Christian Common-wealth , and the salvation of their own souls thorough Jesus Christ. Amen . 9. For all estates of Men and Women in the Christian Church . O Holy God , King Eternal , out of the infinite st●re-houses , of thy grace and mercy give unto all Virgins chastity , and a religious spirit ; to all persons dedicated to thee and to religion , continence and meekness , an active zeal , and an unwearied spirit : to all married paires faith and holinesse : to widows and fatherless , and all that are oppressed , ●hy pa●ronage , comfort and defence : to all Christian women simplicity and mod●s●y , humility and chastity , p●tience a●d charity ▪ give unto the poor , to all ●hat are robbed and spoiled of their goods , a competent suppor● , and a contented spirit , and a treasure in heaven hereafter : give unto prisoners and captives , to them that toil in the mines , and row in ●he gall●es strength of body and of spirit , liberty and redemption , comfort and restitution : to all that travel by land thy Angel for their guide , and a holy and prosperous return : to all that travel by sea freedom from Pirates and shipwrack , and bring them to the Haven where they would be : to distressed and scrupulous consciences , to melancholy and disconsolate persons , to all that are afflicted with evil and unclean spirits give a light from heaven , great grace and proportionable comforts , and ●imely deliverance ; give them patience and resignation ; let their sorrows be changed into grace and comfort , and let the s●orm waft them certainly to the regions of rest and glory . Lord God of Mercy give to thy Martyrs , Confessors and all thy persecuted , constancy and prudence , boldness and hope , a full faith and a never failing charity : To all who are condemned to death do thou minister comfort , a strong , a quiet , and a resigned spirit : take from them the fear of death , and all remaining affections to sin , and all imperfections of duty , and cause them to dye full of grace , full of hope : and give to all faithfull , and particularly to them who have recommended themselves to the prayers of thy unworthy servant , a supply of all their needs temporal and spiritual , and according to their several states and necessities , rest and peace , pardon and refreshment : and shew us all a mercy in the day of judgment . Amen . Give O Lord , to the Magistrates equity , sinceritie , courage and prudence , that they may protect the good , defend religion , and punish the wrong doers : Give to the Nobility wisdom , valour , and loyalty : To Merchants justice and faithfulnesse : to all Artificers and Labourers truth and honesty : to our enemies forgivenesse and brotherly kindnesse . Preserve to us the Heavens and the Ayre in healthful influence and disposition , the Earth in plenty , the kingdom in peace and good government , our marriages in peace , and sweetnesse and innocence of society , thy people from famine and pestilence , our houses from burning and robbery , our persons from being burnt alive , from banishment and prison from Widowhood & destitution , from violence of pains and passions , from tempests and earth-quakes , from inundation of waters , from rebellion and invasion , from impatience and inordinate cares , from tediousnes of spirit and despair , from murder , and all violent accursed and unusual deaths , from the surprize of sudden and violent accidents , from passionate and unreasonable fears , from all thy wrath , and from all our sins , good Lord deliver and preserve thy servants for ever . Amen . Represse the violence of all implacable warring and tyrant Nations : bring home unto thy fold all that are gone astray : call into the Church all strangers : increase the number and holinesse of thy own people : bring infants to ripenesse of age and reason ; confirm all baptized people with thy grace and with thy Spirit : instruct the Novices and new Christians : let a great grace and merciful providence bring youthful persons safely and holily through the indiscretions and passions and temptations of their younger years : & those whom thou hast or shalt permit to live to the age of a man , give competent strength and wisdom , take from them covetousnesse and churlishnesse , pride and impatience ▪ fill them full of devotion and charity , repentance and sobriety , holy thoughts and longing desires after Heaven and heavenly things : give them a holy and a blessed death , and to us all a joyful resurrection through Jesus Christ our Lord : Amen . Ad. Sect. 10. The manner of using these devotions by way of preparation to the receiving the blessed Sacrament of the Lords Supper . The just prepararion to this holy Feast consisting principally in a holy life , and consequently in the repetition of the acts of all vertues , and especially of Faith , Repentance , Charity and Thanksgiving , to the exercise of these four graces let the person that intends to communicate in the times set apart for his preparation and devotion ; for the exercise of his faith recite the prayer or Letany of the passion . For the exercise of Repentance , the form of confession of sins with the prayer annexed : And for the graces of thanksgiving and charity , let him use the special formes of prayer above described : or if a lesse time can be allotted for preparatory devotion , the two first will be the more proper as containing in them all the personal duty of the communicant . To which upon the morning of that holy solemnity , let him adde , A prayer of preparation or addresse to the holy Sacrament . An act of Love. O most gracious and eternal God , the helper of the helplesse , the comforter of the comfortlesse , the hope of the afflicted , the bread of the hungry , the drink of the thirsty , and the Saviour of all them that wait upon thee , I blesse and glorifie thy Name , and adore thy goodnesse , and delight in thy love , that thou hast once more give● me the opportunity of receiving the greatest favour which I can receive in this World ▪ even the body and blood of my dearest Saviour . O take from me all affection to sin or vanity : let not m● affections dwell below , but soar upwards to the element of love , to the seat of God , to ●he Regions of Glory , and the inheritance of ●esus , that I may hunger and thirst for the bread of life , and the wine of ●lect soules , and may know no loves but the love of God , and the most merciful Jesus . Amen . An act of Desire . O blessed Jesus , thou hast used many arts to save mee , thou hast given thy life to redeem me , thy holy Spirit to sanctifie me , thy self for my example , thy Word for my Rule , thy grace for my guide , the fruit of thy body hanging on the tree of the crosse , for the sin of my soul : and after all this thou hast sent thy Apostles and Ministers of salvation to call me , to importune me , to constraine me to holinesse and peace and felicity . O now come Lord ●esus , come quickly : my heart is desirous of thy presence , and thirsty of thy grace , and would fain entertain thee , not as a guest , but as an inhabitant , as the Lord of all my faculties . Enter in and take possession , and dwell with me for ever , that I also may dwell in the heart of my dearest Lord which was opened for me with a spear and love . An act of contrition . Lord thou shalt finde my heart full of cares and worldly desires , cheated with love of riches , and neglect of holy things , proud & unmortified , false and crafty to deceive it self , intricated and intangled with difficult cases of conscience , with knots which my own wildnesse and inconsideration and impatience have tied and shuffled together : O my dearest Lord , if thou canst behold such an impure seat , behold the place to which thou art invited is full of passion and prejudice , evil principles and evil habits , peevish and disobedient , lustful and intemperate , and full of sad remembrances that I have often provoked to jealousie and to anger thee my God , my dearest Saviour , him that dyed for me , him that suffered torments sor me , that is infinitely good to me , and infinitely good and perfect in himself . This O dearest Saviour is a sad tru●h , and I am heartily ashamed , and truly sorrowful for it , and do deeply hate all my fins , and am full of indignation against my self for so unworthy , so carelesse , so continued , so great a folly : and humbly beg of thee to increase my sorrow , and my care , and my hat●ed against sin ; and make my love to thee swell up to a great grace , and then to glory , and immensity . An act of Faith. This indeed is my condition : But I know O blessed Jesus that thou didst take upon thee my nature , that thou mightest suffer for my sins , and thou didst suffer to deliver me from them and from thy Fathers wrath : and I was delivered from this wrath that I might serve thee in holinesse and righteousnesse all my dayes ? Lord I am as sure thou didst the great work of Redemption for me and all mankinde , as that I am alive : This is my hope , the strength of my spirit , my joy & my confidence : and do thou never let the spirit of unbelief enter into me and take me from this Rock : Here I will dwell for I have a delight therein : Here I will live , and here I desire to dye . The Petition . Therefore O blessed Jesu , who art my Saviour and my God , whose body is my food , and thy righteousnesse is my robe , thou art the Priest and the Sacrifice , the Master of the feast , and the Feast it self , the Physician of my soul , the light of my eyes , the purifier of my stains : enter into my heart , and cast out from thence all impurities , all the remains of the Old man ; and grant I may partake of this holy Sacrament with much reverence and holy relish , and great effect , receiving hence the communication of thy holy body and blood , for the establishment of an unreproveable faith , of an unfained love , for the fulnesse of wisdom , for the healing my soul , for the blessing and preservation of my body , for the taking out the sting of temporal death , and for the assurance of a holy resurrection , for the ejection of all evil from within me , and the fulfilling all thy righteous Commandements , and to procure for me a mercy and a fair reception at the day of judgement , through thy mercies O holy and ever blessed Saviour Jesus . Amen . Here also may be added the prayer after receiving the cup. * Ejaculations to be said before or at the receiving the holy Sacrament Like as the Hart desireth the water-brooks : so longeth my soul after thee , O God. My soul is athirst for God , yea even for the living God , when shall I come before the presence of God ? O Lord my God great are thy wondrous works which thou hast done : like as be also thy thoughts which are to us-ward , and yet there is no man that ordereth them unto thee . O send out thy light and thy truth , that they may lead me , and bring me unto thy holy hill and to thy dwelling : And that I may go unto the Altar of God , even unto the God of my joy and gladnesse : and with my heart will I give thanks to thee O God my God. I will wash my hands in innocency , O Lord : & so will I go to thine altar : that I may shew the voice of thanksgiving , & tell of all thy wondrous works . Examine me , O Lord , and prove me , try out my reins and my heart : For thy loving kindnesse is now and ever before my eyes : and I will walk in thy truth . Thou shalt prepare a table before me against them that trouble me : thou hast anointed my head with oil , and my cup shall be full . But thy loving kindnesse and mercy shall follow me all the dayes of my life , and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever . This is the bread that cometh down from Heaven , that a man may eat thereof and not dye . Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood , dwelleth in me and I in him : and hath eternal life abiding in him , & I wil raise him up at the last day Lord whither shall we go but to thee : thou hast the words of eternal life ? If any man thirst let him come unto me & drink . The bread which we break , is it not the communication of the body of Christ ? and the cup which we drink , is it not the communication of the blood of Christ ? What are those wounds in thy hands ? They are those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends , Zech. 13.6 . Immediately before the receiving say Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof . But do thou speak the word onely and thy servant shall be healed . Lord open thou my lips , and my mouth shall shew thy praise . O God make speed to save me , O Lord make has●e to help me . Come Lord Iesus , come quickly . After receiving the consecrated and blessed bread , say , O taste and see how gracious the Lord is : blessed is the man that trusteth in him . * The beasts do lack and suffer hunger ; but they which seek the Lord shall want no manner of thing that is good . Lord what am I , that my Saviour should become my food , that the Son of God should be the meat of Wormes , of dust and ashes , of a sinner , of him that was his enemy ? But this thou hast done to me ▪ because thou art infinitely good and wonderfully gracious , and lovest to blesse every one of us , in turning us from the evil of our wayes . Enter into me blessed Jesus , let no root of bitternesse spring up in my heart ; but be thou Lord of all my faculties . O let me feed on thee by faith , and grow up by the increase of God to a perfect man in Christ Jesus . Amen . Lord I believe , help mine unbelief . Glory be to God the Father , Son , &c. After the receiving the cup of blessing . It is finished . Blessed be the mercies of God revealed to us in Jesus Christ. O blessed and eternal high Priest , let the sacrifice of the Crosse which thou didst once offer for the sinnes of the whole World , and which thou doest now and alwayes represent in Heaven to thy Father by thy never ceasing intercession , and which this day hath been exhibited on thy holy Table Sacramentally , obtain mercy and peace , faith and charity , safety , and establishment to thy holy Church which thou hast founded upon a Rock , the Rock of a holy Faith ; and let not the gates of Hell prevail against her , nor the enemy of mankinde take any soul out of thy hand , whom thou hast purchased with thy blood , and sanctified by thy Spirit . Preserve all thy people from Heresie , and division of spirit , from scandal and the spirit of delusion , from sacriledge and hurtful persecutions . Thou O blessed Jesus didst dye for us : keep me for ever in holy living , from sin and sinful shame , in the communion of thy Church , and thy Church in safety and grace , in truth and peace unto thy second coming . Amen . Dearest Jesu , since thou art pleased to enter into me , O be jealous of thy house and the place where thine honour dwelleth : suffer no unclean spirit , or unholy thought to come near thy dwelling , lest it defile the ground where thy holy feet have trod . O teach me so to walk , that I may never disrepute the honour of my Religion , nor stain the holy Robe which thou hast now put upon my soul , nor break my holy Vows , which I have made , and thou hast sealed , nor lose my right of inheritance , my priviledge of being coheir with Jesus , into the hope of which I have now further entred : but be thou pleased to love me with the love of a Father , and a Brother , and a Husband , and a Lord , and make me to serve thee in the communion of Saints , in receiving the Sacrament , in the practise of all holy vertues , in the imitation of thy life , and conformity to thy sufferings ; that I having now put on the Lord Jesus , may marry his loves and his enmities , may desire his glory , may obey his laws , and be united to his Spirit ; and in the day of the LORD I may be found having on the Wedding Garment , and bearing in my body and soul the marks of the LORD JESUS , that I may enter into the joy of my LORD , and partake of his glories for ever and ever . Amen . Ejaculations to be used any time that day , after the solemnity is ended . Lord , if I had lived innocently , I could not have deserved to receive the crumbs that fall from thy Table : How great is thy mercy who hast feasted me with the Bread of Virgins , with the Wine of Angels , with Manna from Heaven ! O when shall I passe from this dark glasse , from this vail of Sacraments , to the vision of thy eternal clarity , from eating thy Body , to beholding thy face in thy eternal Kingdom ! Let not my sins crucifie the Lord of life again : Let it never be said concerning me , the hand of him that betraieth me is with me on the Table . O that I might love thee , as well as ever any creature lov d thee ! Let me think nothing but thee , desire nothing but thee , enjoy nothing but thee ! O Jesus be a Jesus unto me . Thou art all things unto me . Let nothing ever please me but what favours of thee , and thy miraculous sweetnesse . Blessed be the mercies of our Lord , who of God is made unto me Wisdom , and Righteousnesse , and Sanctification , and Redemption . He that glorieth , let him glory in the Lord. Amen . The End. LONDON , Printed by R. Norton . MDCL . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A64109-e4600 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : Arrian . Epict. l. 1. c. 13. Ezekiel 16.49 . S●nec . * ●ee Chap. 4. ●●ct . 6. S. Bern. de tripli ci custodia . Laudatur Augustus Caesar apud Lucanum . — media inter praelia semper stella●um caelique plagi● superisque vacabat . Cas●●an . Coll●● 24 c. ●1 Jerem. 48.10 . Plutarch . ●e Curio●t . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ●rocop . 2. Vandal . 1 Cor. 7.5 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Pythag. Carm. 1 Cor. 1● 31. Seneca . ●ui furatur ut ●●●chetur , moechus est tragis quam fur Arist. Eth. See Sect. 1. of this Chapt. Rule 18. Seneca Ep. 113. S. Chrys. l. 2. de compan . cordis . S. Greg. moral . 8. cap. 25. S. ●ern . lib. de . praecept . Publius Mimu●●● Jer. 23.24 . Hebr. 4. ●3 . Acts. 17.28 . Lib 7. de Civit. ●●p . 3● . Mat. 18.20 . Heb. 10.25 . 1 King. 5 9. Psal. 138 ● . 2 . 1 Cor. 3 16. 2 Cor. 6 16. S. Aug. de verbis Don. c. 3 Ps●l . 13● 7. ● . 〈…〉 de con●ol . ●sa 26..12 . J●●em . ●1 . 15 . Sec●nd . 〈◊〉 . Edic . ●n vit●● S. 〈◊〉 Ezek. 9.9 . Psal. 10. ●● . Rev. 11. ●7 . ● 5.10.13 . Revel . ● . ● . 3 . For the Chu●ch . For the Glory . For wife or husband . For our children . For Friends & Benefa●tors . For our family . For al in misery . Evening prayer . Psal. 121 Psal. 4. 〈◊〉 . 2.11 , 12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Arrian . c. 2. l. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. Epist. c. 34 1 Cor. 9.25 . Apoc. 2.17 . 〈…〉 tum 〈…〉 desinant . 〈◊〉 ▪ L. 3 〈◊〉 ▪ c. 12. Fac●llus 〈…〉 , qua● 〈…〉 86. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . voluptate● ab●untes fe●la● & paenitentia plenas animis nostris nat●●a ●ubi●cit , quo minus c●pide repetantur . Senec. L●ta veni●e Ven●s , tris●is abire so ●et . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Fo●lix initium prior aetas contenta d●lcibus arvis Facileque se●a solebat jejunia solvere glande . ●oeth . l. 1. de consol . Arbuteos ●erus , montanaque frag●a lege● a●t . ●cc●us . 3.17 , 18 Cicero vocat temperan●ia● o●nat●m vi●● , in quo decorum ●●lud & hones●um situm est . Verse 2● ●bid . Plutarch . de cupid . divit . Luke 2● 34. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Schol. in Aristoph . Idem fe●e apud Plutarch . vinolentia animi quandam r●missionem & levit●tem , ●brietas sutilitatem significat . Plutarch . de garrul . Ecclus. 31.21 . Prov. 2● . 2● . Ecclu● . 31.27 . * Multa siciunt ●bri● 〈◊〉 postea sobrie● pudet . Sene● . Prov. 23.33 Insania● come● est i●a , contubu● 〈◊〉 obriet●s . Plutarch . — Corpus enustum Hestemis viciis 〈◊〉 q●nque 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est vuluntaria infania . Senec. Ephes. 5.18 . Prov. 31.4 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Philem. 〈…〉 bibendi & 〈…〉 S●hyphus p●●didit . Senec. 〈◊〉 . Chi hi● bev●●o turto il mare 〈◊〉 bere 〈…〉 Nil interest favea● s●eler● , an illud facia● . Sen●● . 1 Thes. 3.4 , 5. Virginitas e●t in 〈…〉 corruptionis perp●●ua ●●●●tatio . S. Aug. l. d● virg . c. 13. Apoc. 14 4. 〈◊〉 . 56.45 . Prov. ● . 23. Iob. 24. ●5 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 2 〈◊〉 6 Appetitu● fornicati●● is anxietas est : s●tietas vero peni●entia . S ▪ Hieron . 1 Cor. 6.18 : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Spiritu p●i●cipali 〈◊〉 consir●●● , P. 51. 1 Cor. ● . 6 . 1● . 1 Co● . 3. ● . 17 . E●hes . 5.32 . Mor. 1. ●● S. Cyprian de bono pucheitiae Numb . ● . 14 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 † Concil . Tribur . ● . 46. Concil . ●urel . 1. ●ub Clodavaen . * Cod. de adulteriis . ad leg●m 〈…〉 1. & Cod. Th end . de adulteriis C. placuit . — Casso saltem delect●mine , amare quod potiri non licet . Poeta . Patellas luxuriae oculos dixit Isidorus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , al us quidam . Time videre unde possis cadere , & noli fieri pe●ver●a simplicitate securus . S. Aug. Sp. Minucius Pontisex Posthumiu● monuit ▪ 〈◊〉 verbis vitae castimoniam non ●aeq●antibus ut●r● tur Plutarch . de cap c. a inim utilit . ● . Pet. 1.22 . * Nifi fundamenta stirpis iacta sint probe . Mis●ros ne●esse est esse 〈◊〉 posteros . Eu●● . Non d●b●mu● eode●●mico uti & ●dula●e ▪ ●ec eadem ut uxore & soorto . Plut. con●jug . pre●●pt , Non recte ●st ab H●rodeto dictum simul cum tunl●● mulie●em ●o●●cun●iam exue●e . Qu●● n. casta est posita veste , verecun●iam ●ju● loco induit , maximaque verecundia con●u●e●●essera maximi iuvicem amori● utuntur . Plut. conju● . precept . De conjug ●raec●pt , 1 Cor. 7.5 . Hoe etiam ex m●re C●ristia●orum . Ter●ul . Suadens fa●minis Chris●ianis ne 〈◊〉 nubant : ait ▪ Quis denique s●l●●ni●a● Paschae ab 〈◊〉 ●ecur●●●●●●nebit ▪ Tertul. ad 〈…〉 . 2 ● . Et ex m●re etiam ●ontilium . P●ut 〈…〉 . Nubis a●t●m si le●es civit●tit re●te colimus cavendum est , ne ad ●empla & sacri●ici● acce●samu● , 〈◊〉 ante 〈…〉 Itaque expedit 〈◊〉 et somno inter ecto , 〈◊〉 interva●●o adhibito , mundos ruisum quasi de inte●ro , et a● novum diem nova cogita●tes ( ut 〈◊〉 Demo●ritus ) surgere . Contra ●●bidini● i●pe●um apprehenda fugam fi vis obtine●● vict●●●iam . S. Aug. Nella quer●● d' amor chi fug● 〈◊〉 . In vira S : Pauls * ●enedictus i● spini● se volutavit . S. Martinianus faciem et manus us●it . S. Johannes cogno n●nto Bonus , calam●s acuto● inter ungue● et carnem digitoru● in●rusit . S. Theocti●●● in sylvis more ferarum vixit ne iuter 〈◊〉 . ●ollueretur . 〈◊〉 che non mi scalda non vogl●o ●hem Scotti . Da●●● 〈◊〉 opera ut m●trimunio devin . ciantur . quod est tutissimum ●●ventu●●● vinculu● ▪ Plut. 〈◊〉 educ . lib. A●ulel●● de Daemon . Socratis . 〈…〉 & pro nihilo repu●a●i . 〈…〉 . 〈◊〉 ●ill in ●obili●●do 〈◊〉 ●●gnosce parentado . * G●i del ar●e sua se 〈◊〉 sempre 〈…〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Arrian . Epict. cap. 21. lib. 1. A●ter alteri sat●● a●plum● theatrum si●inus . ●atis u●●as satis u●●s . ●eue● . Ama l' amico tuc● con 〈…〉 suo . In collo●●iis pucri invisi alus non fi●nt si non 〈◊〉 in ●isputarsnnibus vistoriam semper obtinere laborent . Non n. tantum egregium est scire vlneere , sed etiam posse vinci pulchrum est , ubi victoria est demnosa . P●ut . ●e educ . liber . Nihil ita dignum est ●dro ut enruin mores qui compellanti●us se difficiles praebent . Plutarch . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arrim 〈◊〉 ●abis ab●●●ne ● dixit Pythagoras . 〈…〉 Magistratus ●er suffragia fabis ●ata crea●antur . 〈◊〉 . Mat. 11.25 Iames 4.6 . Iohn 13.15 Assai ●omman●a chi 〈◊〉 di●ie ●●aggio . * 〈…〉 p●tientia o●●end t. S. Hier. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Eccl●● . 3.21 , 22 23. Qui 〈…〉 Maje●tati● 〈…〉 glo●i● . Prov. 25 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Arrian . lib. 1. c. 26. Et plus ●apere interdum vulgus quod quantum opus est sapiat . Lactant. Ecclus. 7.21 . Ne cechi in lettor● , ne mano in ●asca , ne orecchi in secreti al●ru● 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quem Deus tegit verecundi●e pallio hujus maculas hominibus non oftend 〈◊〉 Mai mon. Can Eth. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Meliss . A Ch●one saltem vel ab Helide disce pudorem A●sc●ndunt spurcas haec Monumenta lupas . Mart. l. 1. epist. 35. Ecclus 3.25 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philip 4.8 . ●t meret●ix abigittellem ve oque seraque●araque si memini for●●icaeri na patet . Mart. Isaiah 3.15 . Prov. 6.13 . 1 Tim. 2.9 . Oedipu●● curio . 〈◊〉 ●n extremas con●e , it ●alamit●l●●● Plu●● N●n fa●●a tibi est si 〈…〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Dan. 10.13 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Arrian . Ep. Philip 4.11 , 12. 1 Tim. 6.8 . Hebr. 13.5 . Chi ●en ● ma● non p●o soss●● a grand honor non puo . 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * I a speranza e il pan de pove●i Non si male nunc , & ol●m sic ▪ erit † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . quid sit suturum cra● fuge quaerere , & quem fo rs dierum cunque d●bit , lucro Appone . Hor. l. 1. Od 4. Prudens futuri temporis exitum . Caliginosa nocte premit Deus Ridetque , si mortalis ultra Fas trepidet : quod adelt memento Componere aequus . Hor l. 3. Od. 29. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ●ssai ba●ta per chi none in●ordo . Nume● aquae viridi si margin● claud●ret unda● Kerba , nec in●enuum violatent 〈…〉 〈…〉 pascunt oli●● 〈◊〉 , levesque malv● F●ui paratis & valid● mihi L●toc d●me● ▪ Horat. l. 1. Od. 31. Am●b● lev●m ●upi●ssam 〈…〉 pascui● Te●●● mihi ●atum es● p●●num Car●● interim ●olo●ibus . 〈◊〉 . ●●cate culpa in calamitati●us 〈…〉 . 2 Cor. 4.8 . 1 Pet. 3.13 . 1 Pet. 4.15 , 16. Beati●ud● pendet a ● n●●is con●●lm in affectionem animi constantem desinent●bu● . Plut. Non te al o●nia lera genuit O Agamemnon , Atreus . Opus ●st te gaudere & n●erere : Mortalis n. natus est , & ut haud velis Superi sic constitue●unc * Prandet Aristoteles quando Phillippo lubet . Di●gen●● quando Diogeni . * S●rviu● Suluitius . Hic in foro beatus esse creditur Cum fo●ibus-apertis sit suis miser●imus Imperat mulier , jubet omnia , semper litigat , Multa adferunt illi dolore● , nihil mihi . E●rre quam sortem patiuntur omnes Nemo recusat . Si natu● e● T●●phime solus omnium 〈◊〉 lege Ut sem ●r ●ant tibi re● arbit●io tuo Felicitatem hanc si qui● p●omisit ●eum Iras●e●eris jure , non mala is fide ●t improbe egi●●et . Menan . 119. Psalm . 10. part . v. 3. Nemo 〈…〉 quod 〈◊〉 est pati● . Alta ●ortuna alto trava●lio apporto : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bis se● dierum mensura cons●ro ego agr●s Ber●cynchia arv● Animusque meus sursum usq . evectus ad polum De●i●it h●mi , & me sic videtur all●qui . Disce haud nimis magni●acere m●rtalia . Tantal . in ●●agaed . ●fune●ta 〈◊〉 Templo Nondu● habitas , nullas ●●mmoruin ere●imus aras Ut colitur pax atque 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Horat. od● 3● . l●b . 1. * Chap. 4. Sect. ● . ●●tle of Covetousness 2 Iam. 5.6 , 7. Mat. 6.25 . Luke 12.22 . to the 〈◊〉 verse . Phil. 4.6 . 1 Tim. 6.17 . Juvenis relinquit vi●am que● 〈◊〉 dili●unt . Menan● . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Epict. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Ad fines cum perv●ne●is 〈…〉 P●th● ▪ ● ▪ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Rom. 13.7 . 1 Pet. 4.10 . Rom. 13.8 . Titus 3.1 . 1 Pet. 2.13 . Heb. 13.17 . Philip 2.29 . 2 Cor. 2.2 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Arist . eth . 5. cap. 7. Rom. 13.4 . 1 Pet. 2.14 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Homer . Il. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iud● 8.9 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Eth. 5. cap. 10. L'avaritia de Re●pe●●eds 〈◊〉 . C●i compr● il magistrato tarza ●pan● la●●giustitia . Ephes. 6.4 . a P●● or mihi ratio vive 〈◊〉 hon●ste quam ut ● time dicen●i vi eret●s . Quin●● . lib 1. c. 2 * H ●r 1● . 9 . 〈◊〉 ap●d Pluta●●● de ●ibor . educand . 1 Tim. 5.4 . 1 Tim. 5.8 . * Liberi sine consensu parentum contrabere non debent . Andromacha apud Euripidem cum petita fuit ad nuptias , respondit , patris sui esse sponsalium suorum curam habere : & Achilles apud Homerum Regis filiam sine patris sui consensu noluit ducere . Il. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Et. Iustinianus Imp. ait , naturali simul & civili ratione congruere , ne filii ducant uxores citra Parentum authoritatem . Simo Terentianus parat abdicationem quia Pamphilus clam ipso duxisset uxorem . Istiusmodi sponsalia fiunt irrita nis● velint parentes : At si subsequuta est copula , ne temere rescindantur connubia multae suadent cautiones & pericula . Liberi autem quamdiu secundum leges patrias sui juris non sunt , clandestin●s nuptias si ineant , peccant contra quintum praeceptum , & jus naturale . † Eosdem quos maritus nosse Deos & colere solos uxor debet : super vacaneis a. religionibus , & alienis superstitionibus fores occludere . Nulli enim Deum grata sunt sacra quae mulier clanculum & furtim facit . Plutarch . conjug . praecept . Gen. 24. Vocemus puellam & quaeramus os ejus . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Menand . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homer . a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . b Laetum esse deber & officiosum mariti imperium . Plut. Namque es ei Pater , & Frater , venerandaque Mater : nee minus facit ad dignitatem viri si mulier eum suum Praeceptorem , Philosophum , Magistrumque appellet . Plutarch . † Convictio est quasi quaedam intentio benevolentiae . ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Inferior Matrona suo sit Sexte Marito Non aliter f●unt foemina , virqque pares . Mart. 〈…〉 ne ami●i ne pa●e●● ▪ * ●urgam ad 〈…〉 ●●●misi quamvis n●n conco●e●●m : sed non si febri●●tavero ●ube●t n. t●c●ta e●●e●tio , si p●t●ro , si deb●bo . S●ne . ●f●ice ut idem ●●atus sit cum exigitur , qui ●●it ●um p●omitterem . ●estitu●●e lev●tas non erit si aliquid ●nte●venerit novi . ●ad●m 〈◊〉 omnia praesta et idem s●m ▪ L. 4. c. 39. de Benefic ▪ Brassa vol. in e●am . s●mpl . Caelius Rh d. l. 9. c. 1● . Athenae . ●e paos . l. 3. 1 Thes. 4.6 . Levit. 19 13. 1 Cor. 6.8 . Mark 10.19 . 〈…〉 da tum et cam●●m , 〈…〉 s●ti● faccie te 〈◊〉 . Ezek. 33.15 . a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Tatilas apud Procop. Goth. 3. Qui laudat servum fugitivum tenetur . Non n. oportet laudando augeri malum . Vlpian in lib. 1. cap. de servo corrupto . b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Nicet . Choniat . in Michael . Comnen . Sic Syri ab Amphyctionibus judicio damnati quia piraticam non prohibuerunt cum poterant . ●tiam●i ●●tem damni da. ●e nol●i●i , in c●tum qu●●i p●uden● descrit tenendu● 〈◊〉 . Ex t●to n. nol●i●e debet qui imp ●ade●tia ●efen●itur . Senec. Controv. Involuntarium orcum ex voluntario 〈◊〉 pro yvoluntario . Strabo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Eth. l. 5. c 4 a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Epict. b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Plato Non licet suffurari mentem vel Samaritani . R. Maimon . Can. Eth. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Mich. Ephes . ad 5. Eth. Sic Vivianus●elip●it de injusta accusatione 〈◊〉 Cas●iodor . 4.41 . Luke 19.9 . * Gratitude . Iames 1.27 . * Tit. 2.12 . D●mus D●um aliquid posse qu● 〈◊〉 f●t●a●ur investi●●ro non posse . S. August . l. 2. ca● . 7. de Civitat . Dial. adver . Lucif . 2 Cor. 13.5 . Rom. 8.10 . In ●ebus mirit summa ●reden●i ●itio es 〈…〉 S. Aug. Ier. 17.5 . Di cosi ●uori di c ede●●● Non voler far 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Heb. 2.18 . V. Bede . S Aug. lib. 2. confes . cap. 6. 1 Cor. 13. Amori● ut morsum qui vere 〈◊〉 ▪ Plutarchu● citan● ca●mo●●e suo Apolline , adj●●it ex Herodo●o quasi d● suo , de eo 〈◊〉 meum continens est● . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal. 4.18 . Phil. 3.6 . Rom. 10.2 . Titus 2.14 . Revel . 3.19 . * 2 Cor 7.11 . Rom. 12.1 . Luke 16.29 , 31. * Deut 31.13 . Luke 24.45 . Matth. 22.29 . Acts 15.21 . Revel . 1.3 . 2 Tim. 3.16 . * Deut 31.13 . Luke 24.45 . Matth. 22.29 . Acts 15.21 . Revel . 1.3 . 2 Tim. 3.16 . ●●●unium 〈◊〉 ●●●●mosyna 〈…〉 Augus● . Digi●na 〈…〉 man●i● . ●hi digiuna et altro ●●en no●●a sparag●● il Pane , etal inferno va . See Chap. 2. Sect. 2. & 3. S. ●asil●●onast . Constit. cap. 5. C●ss●●● co●t . 21. c. 2● . ne per causam necess●●atis 〈…〉 , u● voluptatibus servie●●● ▪ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Naz. B●ruch ● 18. 1 Joh. 3.2 . John ●●1 . Is●y 1.15 . 〈…〉 Mal. 3. ●● . 1 Tim. 2. ● P●al : 4 : 16 & 6● : 1● : Mark ●●●4 : Ja●es ● . 6.7 ▪ Rom. 12.12 . ●t 15 . 3● . Col. 4.12 1 Thes. 3.10 . ●phes . 6 . 1● . ●ames 5.16 . 1 Pet. 4.7 Luke 18.1.21.36 1 Thes. 5.17 . Phil. 1.4 . Phil. 9.6 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Arrian . l. 2. c. 36. Inter s● cra & v●●ta verbi●●tiamp●●fani● 〈…〉 Ta●it . 1 Tim. 2.8 . 1 Tim. 2.2 . A●gustum an●ulum non g●sta : Dixit Py●hag : id e●● , vitae genus liberum sectare , nec vinculo temetipsum obst●inge : P●ut●rch : Sic Novatus novitio● suo● compuli● ad iur●●dum . ne unquam ad Catholicos Episcopos ●●dirent : Euseb ▪ 〈…〉 ●cclihill : See the Great Exemplar , Part. 3. Disc. 14. of the easiness of Christian Religion . Mat. 25.35 * Matt 26. 2 Sam. 2. Nobilis haec ess●t pie●atis ●ixa duobus Quod Pro fratr● mori vellet uterque prior . Mart. 1 Thes 5.14 . Hebr. 10.24 * P●ella prosternit se ad pedes : miserere vi●ginitatis 〈◊〉 prostituas hoc corpus sub tam turpi titulo . ●●st . Apoll. Tyr. Laudi ductum apud Vert. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . S. Greg. 7. l. 〈◊〉 Epist. * Praebe at ut misericordia ut 〈◊〉 vetur ju f●●tia . S. Aug. Prov. 3.9 . De●ret ●p . tit●●e Si●uonia : D●num nudum 〈◊〉 ni●i consensa ves●iatur . l. ● C de pact● . Qui dedit be●●ficium 〈◊〉 narret q●i a●●●pit . ● Senec. 2 Cor. 9.7 . Luke 6.30 . Galat. 6.10 . 2 Thes. 3.10 . A Cavallo ●hi non Porta sella b●●da ●on si crevella . Beatus qui ●ntelligit ●uper 〈◊〉 & paupe●●● . Psa● . A donare ● ten●re ing●gno ●isogna h●ve●e . Luk. 21. ● . 〈◊〉 ● . 6 . 〈…〉 un 〈◊〉 non ti 〈◊〉 morta . 2 Cor. 8.12 . 1. P●t . 1.22 . Matth. 6.4 . ●● Matth. 13.12.33 . et 25 . 3● Luke . 11.41 . 1 Tim. 4. Philip 4.17 . Acts 10.4 . Hebr. 13.6 . Eccles 3.1 . Dan. 4.27 . Nun●uam me●●ni 〈…〉 qui libe●ter op●ra ch●●it●ti● exe●cu●● . S. Hieron . Epist. 〈◊〉 Ne●ot . Coloss. 3.12 . * Nemo alienae vi●tuti invid●t qui satis confidit 〈◊〉 Cic. contr . M. Anth. ●omera● Th●r●●tis malo● 〈◊〉 descri●●n , ●aliti●●ummam 〈…〉 . Pelid● mptimi● e●at , ●tque inimicus Uly s●i . 〈◊〉 cum rectus ra●ida ●●cupavit Futiles linguae jubeo cavere Vana latratus j●cula●tis ●ap●no ▪ Turbatus sum & n●n sum l●cutus . Psal. 76. ●ui pan●a ●●q●i●unt non multis ex●●unt . Plut. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Medea . * ●isce●● quid coen● po●e● in●●atiu● 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 ●●aro bilem pharmach● qui elurunt . Quid 〈…〉 〈◊〉 , quan●a ●●mo●um ve●te●u● in 〈◊〉 Jugera quot vic●na foroqua●●meri● a 〈◊〉 Nemo malus ●●lix . Juv. ●●● . 4. Plut. — sed olim Prodigio par est in nobilitate Senectus . Hortulus hic , puteusque brevis nec reste movendus In tenues plantas facili diffunditur haustu . Vive bidentis amans & culti villicus horti unde epulum possis centum dare Pythagoraeis . Est aliquid quocunque loco quocunque recessu , unius Dominum sese fecisse● lacertae . Juven . Sat. 3. Ier. 13 17. Ioel 2.13 . Ezek. 27.31 Iames 4.9 . Hugo de S. victor . 1 Cor. 11 . 3● 1 Iohn 1.9 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . S. Basil reg . brev . 228. Concil . Laod. c. 2. Concil . Quinisext . c. 102. Tertul de poenit . Acts 19.18 Prov ▪ 28.13 * Rom. 6.3.4.7 . verses 8.10.13.13.14.11.22.27 . Gal. 5.6.24.6.15 . 1 Cor. 7.19 . 2 Cor. 13 5. Colos. 1.21.22.23 . Heb. 12.1.14.16.10.16.22 . 1 Pet. 1.15 . 2 Pet. 1.4.9.10.3.11 . 1 Iohn 1.6.3.3.9.5.16 . 〈…〉 . Tacit. * I p●●c●ti & I de●iti Son se●p●e piu di 〈…〉 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Arria . Mortem v●niente● nemo hilaris excipit , nisi qui ad 〈◊〉 se di● composu●●at . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Arria . Hebr. 7.25 . 2 Cor. 5.20 . Luke 15.7 . Vasa pu●a ad 〈◊〉 Divinam , Pl●ut 〈◊〉 c●p . 〈…〉 . 〈…〉 vulne●a : fig imu● lin●uam . Cypri●● de Coen●●om . 
A64137	----	XXVIII sermons preached at Golden Grove being for the summer half-year, beginning on Whit-Sunday, and ending on the xxv Sunday after Trinity, together with A discourse of the divine institution, necessity, sacredness, and separation of the office ministeriall / by Jer. Taylor. Sermons. Selections Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. 1651 Approx. 1131 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 197 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-12 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A64137 Wing T405 ESTC R23463 12068995 ocm 12068995 53465 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A64137) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 53465) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 582:6) XXVIII sermons preached at Golden Grove being for the summer half-year, beginning on Whit-Sunday, and ending on the xxv Sunday after Trinity, together with A discourse of the divine institution, necessity, sacredness, and separation of the office ministeriall / by Jer. Taylor. Sermons. Selections Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. [16], 378, [2], 55, [1] p. Printed by R.N. for Richard Royston ..., London : 1651. First edition. This work also appears, on reel 828:3, as the second item in: Eniautos / Jer. Taylor (Wing T329). Imperfect: "Clerus Domini: or, A discourse ... of the office ministerial ... London, Printed by James Flesher, for R. Royston ... 1651" which has special t.p. and separate paging is lacking on filmed copy. 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Sermons, English -- 17th century. 2005-02 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-03 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-05 Mona Logarbo Sampled and proofread 2005-05 Mona Logarbo Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion XXVIII SERMONS PREACHED AT GOLDEN GROVE ; Being for the Summer half-year , BEGINNING ON WHIT-SVNDAY , And ending on the xxv . Sunday after TRINITY . TOGETHER WITH A Discourse of the Divine Institution , Necessity , Sacredness , and Separation of the Office Ministeriall . BY JER . TAYLOR , D. D. QVI SEQVITUR ME NON AMBULAT IN TENEBRIS printer's or publisher's device LONDON , Printed by R. N. for Richard Royston at the Angel in Ivie-Lane . 1651. a recorder , how prudent an observer , how sedulous a practiser of holy discourses she was , and that therefore it was , that what did slide thorow her ear , she was desirous to place before her eye , that by those windows they might enter in and dwell in her heart But because by this truth I shall do advantage to the following discourses , give me leave ( my Lord ) to fancy , that this Book is derived upon your Lordship almost in the nature of a legacy from her , whose every thing was dearer to your Lordship , then your own eyes , and that what she was pleased to beleeve apt to minister to her devotions , and the religions of her pious and discerning soul , may also be allowed a place in your closet , and a portion of your retirement , and a lodging in your thoughts , that they may incourage and instruct your practise and promote that interest , which is and ought to be dearer to you then all those blessings and separations with which God hath remarked your family and person . My Lord , I confesse the publication of these Sermons can so little serve the ends of my reputation , that I am therefore pleased the rather to do it , because I cannot at all be tempted , in so doing , to minister to any thing of vanity . Sermons may please when they first strike the ear , and yet appear flat and ignorant when they are offered to the eye , and to an understanding that can consider at leisure . I remember that a young Gentleman of Athens being to answer for his life , hired an Orator to make his defence , and it pleased him well , at his first reading ; but when the young man by often reading it that he might recite it publikely by heart , began to grow weary and dspleased with it , the Orator bade him consider that the Judges and the people were to hear it but once , and then it was likely , they at that first instant might be as well pleased as he . This hath often represented to my mind the condition and fortune of Sermons , and that I now part with the advantage they had in their delivery , but I have sufficiently answered my self in that , and am at rest perfectly in my thoughts as to that particular , if I can in any degree serve the interest of souls , and ( which is next to that ) obey the piety , and record the memory of that dear Saint , whose name and whose soul is blessed : for in both these ministeries , I doubt not but your Lordship will be pleased , and account as if I had done also some service to your self : your religion makes me sure of the first , and your piety puts the latter past my fears . However , I suppose in the whole account of this affair , this publication may be esteemed but like preaching to a numerous Auditory , which if I had done , it would have been called either duty , or charity , and therefore will not now so readily be censured for vanity , if I make use of all the wayes I can to minister to the good of souls : But because my intentions are fair in themselves , and I hope are acceptable to God , and will be fairly expounded by your Lordship , ( whom for so great reason I so much value ) I shall not trouble you or the world with an Apologie for this so free publishing my weaknesses ; I can better secure my reputation by telling men how they ought to entertain Sermons , for if they that read or hear , do their duty aright , the Preacher shall soon be secured of his fame , and untouched by censure . 1. For it were well , if men would not inquire after the learning of the sermon , or its deliciousnesse to the ear or fancy , but observe its usefulnesse , not what concerns the preacher , but what concerns themselves , not what may make a vain reflexion upon him , but what may substantially serve their own needs , that the attending to his discourses may not be spent in vain talk concerning him , or his disparagements but may be used as a duty and a part of religion , to minister to edification and instruction . When S. John reckoned the principles of evil actions , he told but of three , The lust of the flesh , the lust of the eyes , and the pride of life . But there was then also in the world ( and now it is grown into age , and strength , and faction ) another lust , the lust of the ear , and a fift also , the lust of the tongue . Some people have an insatiable appetite in hearing , and hear onely that they may hear , and talk and make a party : They enter into their neighbours house to kindle their candle , and espying there , a glaring fire , sit down upon the hearth and warm themselves all day , and forget their errand , and in the mean time , their own fires are not lighted , nor their families instructed , or provided for , nor any need served , but a lazie pleasure , which is uselesse and imprudent . Hearing or reading sermons is , or ought to be in order to practise , for so God intended it , that faith should come by hearing , and that charity should come by faith , and by both together we may be saved . For a mans ears ( as Plutarch cals them ) are virtutum ansae , by them we are to hold and apprehend vertue , and unlesse we use them as men do vessels of dishonour , filling them with things fit to be thrown away , with any thing that is not necessary , we are by them more neerly brought to God , then by all the senses beside . For although things placed before the eye affect the minde more readily then the things we usually hear , yet the reason of that is , because we hear carelesly , and we hear variety ; the same species dwels upon the eye , and represents the same object in union and single representment , but the objects of the ear are broken into fragments of periods , and words , and syllables , and must be attended with a carefull understanding ; and because every thing diverts the sound , and every thing cals off the understanding , and the spirit of a man is truantly , and trifling ; therefore it is that what men hear , does so little affect them , and so weakly work toward the purposes of vertue , & yet nothing does so affect the minde of man as those voices to which we cannot chuse but attend , and thunder and all loud voices from Heaven rend the most stony heart , and makes the most obstinate pay to God the homage of trembling , and fear , and the still voice of God usually takes the tribute of love , and choice , and obedience . Now since hearing is so effective an instrument of conveying impresses and images of things , and exciting purposes , and fixing resolutions , ( unlesse we hear weakly and imperfectly ) it will be of the greater concernment that we be curious to hear in order to such purposes , which are perfective of the soul , and of the spirit , and not to dwell in fancy and speculation , in pleasures and trifling arrests , which continue the soul in its infancy and childhood , never letting it go forth into the wisdom and vertues of a man. I have read concerning Dionysius of Sicily , that being delighted extremely with a Ministrel that sung well , and struck his Harp dexterously , he promised to give him a great reward , and that raised the fancy of the Man , and made him play better . But when the musick was done and the man waited for his great hope , the King dismissed him empty , telling him , that he should carry away as much of the promised reward , as himself did of the Musick , and that he had payed him sufficiently with the pleasure of the promise for the pleasure of his song : both their ears had been equally delighted and the profit just none at all : So it is in many mens hearing Sermons , they admire the Preacher , and he pleases their ears , and neither of them both bear along with them any good , and the hearer hath as little good by the sermon , as the Preacher by the ayr of the peoples breath , when they make a noise , and admire , and understand not . And that also is a second caution I desire all men would take . 2. That they may never trouble the affairs of preaching and hearing respectively , with admiring the person of any man. To admire a preacher is such a reward of his pains or worth , as if you should crown a Conqueror with a garland of roses , or a Bride with Laurell ; it is an undecency , it is no part of the reward which could be intended for him . For though it be a good natur'd folly , yet it hath in it much danger , for by that means , the Preacher may lead his hearers captive , and make them servants of a faction , or of a lust ; it makes them so much the lesse to be servants of Christ , by how much they call any man Master upon earth ; it weakens the heart and hands of others , it places themselves in a rank much below their proper station , changing from hearing the word of God , to admiration of the person and faces of men , and it being a fault that falls upon the more easie natures and softer understandings , does more easily abuse a man ; and though such a person may have the good fortune to admire a good man and a wise , yet it is an ill disposition , and makes him liable to every mans abuse : Stupidum hominem quâvis oratione percelli , said Heraclitus . An undiscerning person is apt to be cozened by every oration : And besides this , That Preacher whom some do admire , others will most certainly envy , and that also is to be provided against with diligence , and you must not admire too forwardly , for your own sake , lest you fall into the hands of a worse preacher , and for his sake , whom when you admire you also love , for others will be apt to envy him . 3. But that must by all men be avoided ; for envy is the worst counsellour in the world , and the worst hearer of a wise discourse . I pity those men who live upon flattery and wonder , and while they sit at the foot of the Doctors chair , stare in his face , and cry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , rarely spoken , admirably done , they are like callow and unfeathered birds , gaping perpetually to be fed from anothers mouth , and they never come to the knowledge of the truth , such a knowledge as is effective , and expressed in a prudent and holy life . But those men that envy the preacher ; besides that they are great enemies of the Holy Ghost , and are spitefully evil because God is good to him , they are also enemies to themselves . He that envies the honours , or the riches of another , envies for his own sake , and he would fain be rich with that wealth which sweats in his neighbours coffers , but he that envies him that makes good sermons , envies himself , and is angry because himself may receive the benefit , and be improved , or delighted or instructed by another . He that is apt fondly to admire any mans person must cure himself by considering , that the Preacher is Gods minister and servant , that he speaks Gods word and does it by the Divine assistance , that he hath nothing of his own but sin and imperfection , that he does but his duty and that also hardly enough , that he is highly answerable for his talent , and stands ▪ deeply charged with the cure of souls , and therefore that he is to be highly esteemed for the work sake , not for the person ; his industry and his charity is to be beloved , his ability is to be accounted upon another stock , and for it , the preacher and the hearer are both to give God thanks , but nothing is due to the man for that , save onely , that it is the rather to be imployed , because by it we may better be instructed , but if any other reflexion be made upon his person , it is next to the sin and danger of Herod and the people , when the ●sine Oration was made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , with huge fancy , the people were pleased , and Herod was admired , and God was angry , and an Angel was sent to strike him with death and with dishonour . But the envy against a preacher is to be cured by a contrary discourse , and we must remember that he is in the place of God , and hath received the gift of God , and the aids of the holy Ghost , that by his abilities God is glorified , and we are instructed , and the interests of vertue , and holy religion are promoted , that by this means God who deserves that all souls should serve him for ever , is likely to have a fairer harvest of glory and service , and therefore that envie is against him : that if we envie because we are not the instrument of this good to others , we must consider tha we desire the praise to our selves not to God. Admiration of a man supposes him to be inferiour to the person so admired , but then he is pleased so to be , but envie supposes him as low , and he is displeased at it , and the envious man is not onely lesse then the other mans vertue , but also contrary : the former is a vanity , but this is a vice , that wants wisdom , but this wants wisdom and charity too , that supposes an absence of some good , but this is a direct affliction and calamity . 4. And after all this , if the preacher be not despised , he may proceed cheerfully in doing his duty , and the hearer may have some advantages by every Sermon . I remember that Homer sayes the woers of Penelope laught at Vlisses , because at his return he called for a loaf , and did not , to shew his gallantry , call for swords and spears ; Vlysses was so wise as to call for that he needed , and had it , and it did him more good then a whole armory would in his case : so is the plainest part of an easie , and honest sermon , it is the sincere milk of the word , and nourishes a mans soul , though represented in its own naturall simplicity , and there is hardly any Orator , but you may finde occasion to praise something of him . When Plato misliked the order and disposition of the Oration of Lysias , yet he praised the good words , and the elocution of the man. Euripides was commended for his fulness , Parmenides for his composition . Phocilides for his easinesse , Archilochus for his argument , Sophocles for the unequalnesse of his stile : So may men praise their Preacher , he speaks pertinently , or he contrives wittily , or he speaks comely , or the man is pious , or charitable , or he hath a good text , or he speaks plainly , or he is not tedious or if he be he is at least industrious , or he is the messenger of God and that will not fail us , and let us love him for that ; and we know those that love can easily commend any thing , because they like every thing : and they say , fair men are like angels , and the black are manly , and the pale look like honey and the stars , and the cro●● nosed are like the sons of Kings , and if they be flat they are gentle and easie , and if they be deformed they are humble , and not to be despised because they have upon them the impresses of divinity , and they are the sons of God. He that despises his Preacher , is a hearer of arts and learning , not of the word of God , and though when the word of God is set off with advantages and entertainments of the better faculties of our humanity , it is more usefull and of more effect , yet when the word of God is spoken truly , though but read in plain language , it will become the disciple of Jesus to love that man whom God sends , and the publik order , and the laws have imployed , rather then to despise the weaknesse of him who delivers a mighty word . Thus it is fit that men should be affected and imployed when they hear and read sermons comming hither not as into a theatre , where men observe the gestures and noises of the people , the brow and eyes of the most busie censurers , and make parties , and go aside with them that dislike every thing , or else admire not the things , but the persons : But as to a sacrifice , and as unto a school , where vertue is taught and exercised , and none come but such as put themselves under discipline , and intend to grow wiser , and more vertuous , to appease their passion , from violent to become smooth and even , to have their faith established , and their hope confirmed & their charity enlarged . They that are otherwise affected do not do their duty but if they be so minded as they ought , I and all men of my imployment shall be secured against the tongues and faces of men who are ingeniosi in alieno libro , wittie to abuse and undervalue another mans book : And yet besides these spirituall arts already reckoned , I have one security more , for ( unlesse I deceive my self ) I intend the glory of God sincerely , and the service of Jesus in this publication , and therefore being I do not seek my self , or my own reputation , I shall not be troubled if they be lost in the voyces of busie people , so that I be accepted of God , and found of him in the day of the Lords visitation . My Lord , It was your charity and noblenesse that gave me opportunity to do this service ( little or great ) unto religion , and whoever shall find any advantage to their soul , by reading the following discourse , if they know how to blesse God , and to blesse all them that are Gods instruments in doing them benefit , will ( I hope ) help to procure blessings to your Person and Family , and say a holy prayer , and name your Lordship in their Letanies , and remember , that at your own charges you have digged a well , and placed cisterns in the high wayes , that they may drink and be refreshed , and their souls may blesse you . My Lord , I hope this , even because I very much desire it , and because you exceedingly deserve it , and above all , because God is good and gracious , and loves to reward such a charity , and such a religion as is yours , by which you have imployed me in the service of God , and in ministeries to your Family . My Lord , I am most heartily , and for very many Dear obligations Your Lordships most obliged , most humble , and most affectionate servant TAYLOR . Titles of the Sermons , their Order , Number , and Texts . SErmon 1. 2. Of the Spirit of Grace . Folio 1. 12. Rom. 8. ver . 9 , 10. But ye are not in the flesh , but in the Spirit , if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you . Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ , he is none of his . * And if Christ be in you , the body is dead because of sin , but the Spirit is life , because of righteousnesse . Sermon 3. 4. The descending and entailed curse cut off . fol. 27. 40. Exodus 20. part of the 5. verse . I the Lord thy God am a jealous God , visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children , unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me : 6. And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me , and keep my commandements . Sermon 5. 6. The invalidity of a late , or death-bed repentance . fol 52. 66. Jerem. 13. 16. Give glory to the Lord your God , before he cause darknesse , and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains : and while ye look for light , or , ( lest while ye look for light ) he shall turn it into the shadow of death , and make it grosse darknesse . Sermon 7. 8. The deceitfulnesse of the heart . fol. 80. 92. Jerem. 17. 9. The heart is deceitfull above all things , and desperately wicked ; who can know it ? Sermon 9. 10. 11. The faith and patience of the Saints : Or the righteous cause oppressed . fol. 104. 119. 133. 1 Pet. 4. 17. For the time is come that judgement must begin at the house of God : and if it first begin at us , what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel of God ? 18. And if the righteous scarcely be saved , where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear ? Sermon 12. 13. The mercy of the Divine judgements ; or Gods method in curing sinners . fol. 146. 159. Romans 2. 4. Despisest thou the riches of his goodnesse , and forbearance , and long-suffering , not knowing that the goodnesse of God leadeth thee to repentance ? Sermon 14. 15. Of groweth in grace , with its proper instruments and signes . fol. 172. 183 2 Pet. 3. 18. But grow in grace , and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ , to whom be glory both now and for ever . Amen . Sermon 16. 17. Of groweth in sin , or the severall states and degrees of sinners , with the manner how they are to be treated . fol. 197. 210. Jude Epist. ver . 22 , 23. And of some have compassion , making a difference : * And others save with fear , pulling them out of the fire . Sermon 18. 19. The foolish exchange . fol. 224. 237. Matth. 16. ver . 26. For what is a man profited , if he shall gain the whole world , and lose his own soul ? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul ? Sermon 20 21. 22. The Serpent and the Dove , or a discourse of Christian Prudence . fol. 251. 263. 274. Matth. 10. latter part of ver . 16. Be ye therefore wise as serpents , and harmlesse as doves . Sermon 23. 24. Of Christian simplicity . 289. 301. Matth. 10. latter part of ver . 16. And harmlesse as doves . Sermon 25. 26. 27. The miracles of the Divine Mercy . fol. 313. 327. 340. Psal. 86. 5. For thou Lord art good and ready to forgive , and plenteous in mercy to all them that call upon thee . A Funerall Sermon , preached at the Obsequies of the Right Honourable the Countesse of Carbery . fol. 357. 2 Sam. 14. 14. For we must needs die , and are as water spilt on the ground which cannot be gathered up again : neither doth God respect any person : yet doth he devise means that his banished be not expelled from him . A Discourse of the Divine Institution , necessity , sacrednesse , and separation of the Office Ministeriall . Sermon . I. VVHITSVNDAY OF THE SPIRIT OF GRACE . 8. Romans . v. 9. 10. But ye are not in the flesh , but in the Spirit , if so be that the Spirit of God , dwell in you . Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ , he is none of his . * And if Christ be in you , the body is dead because of sin , but the Spirit is life , because of righteousnesse . THe day in which the Church commemorates the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles was the first beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This was the first day that the Religion was professed : now the Apostles first open●d their commission , and read it to all the people . [ The Lord gave his Spirit ] or [ the Lord gave his word ] and great was the company of the Preachers . For so I make bold to render that prophesie of David . Christ was the word of God , verbum aeternum but the Spirit was the word of God , verbum Patefactum : Christ was the word manifested in the flesh ; the Spirit was the word manifested to flesh , and set in dominion over , and in hostility against the flesh . The Gospel and the Spirit are the same thing ; not in substance ; but the manifestation of the Spirit is the Gospel of Jesus Christ ; and because he was this day manifested , the Gospel was this day first preached , and it became a law to us , called * the law of the Spirit of life , that is , a law taught us by the Spirit , leading us to life eternal . But the Gospel is called the Spirit , 1. Because it contains in it such glorious mysteries which were revealed by the immediate inspirations of the Spirit , not onely in the matter it self , but also in the manner and powers to apprehend them . For what power of humane understanding could have found out , the incarnation of a God ; that two natures [ a finite , and an infinite ] could have been concentred into one hypostasis ( or person ) : that a virgin should be a Mother , that dead men should live again , that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the ashes of dissolved bones should become bright as the Sun , blessed as Angels , swift in motion as thought , clear as the purest Noone : that God should so love us , as to be willing to be reconcil'd to us , and yet that himself must dye that he might pardon us : that Gods most Holy Son should give us his body to eat , and his bloud to crown our chalices , and his Spirit to sanctifie our souls , to turn our bodies into temperance , our souls into mindes , our mindes into Spirit , our Spirit into glory : that he who can give us all things , who is Lord of Men and Angels , and King of all the Creatures should pray to God for us without intermission : that he who reigns over all the world , should at the day of judgement give up the Kingdom to God the Father , and yet after this resignation , himself and we with him , should for ever reign the more gloriously : that we should be justified by Faith in Christ ; and that charity should be a part of faith ; and that both should work as acts of duty , and as acts of relation : that God should Crown the imperfect endeavours of his Saints with glory , and that a humane act should be rewarded with an eternal inheritance : that the wicked for the transient pleasure of a few minutes should be tormented with an absolute eternity of pains : that the waters of baptisme when they are hallowed by the Spirit shall purge the soul from sin : and that the Spirit of a man shall be nourished with the consecrated and mysterious elements : and that any such nourishment should bring a man up to heaven : and after all this , that all Christian People , all that will be saved must be partakers of the Divine nature ; of the Nature , the infinite nature of God , and , must dwell in Christ and Christ must dwell in them , and they must be in the Spirit , and the Spirit must be for ever in them ; these are articles of so mysterious a Philosophy , that we could have inferred them from no premises , discours'd them upon the stock of no naturall , or scientificall principles ; nothing but God , and Gods spirit could have taught them to us : and therefore the Gospel is Spiritus patefactus , the manifestation of the Spirit ad aedificationem ( as the Apostle calls it ) for edification and building us up to be a Holy Temple to the Lord. 2. But when we had been taught all these mysterious articles , we could not by any humane power have understood them , unlesse the Spirit of God had given us a new light , and created in us a new capacity , and made us to be a new creature , of another definition . Animalis homo , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , as S. Jude expounds the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the animal , or the naturall man , the man that hath not the Spirit cannot discern the things of God , for they are spiritually discerned , that is , not to be understood but by the light proceeding from the Sun of righteousnesse , and by that eye whose bird is the Holy Dove , whose Candle is the Gospel ; Scio incapacem te sacramenti , Impie Non posse coecis mentibus mysterium Haurire nostrum : nil diurnum nox capit . He that shall discourse Euclids elements to a swine , or preach ( as Venerable Bede's story reports of him ) to a rock , or talk Metaphysicks to a Bore , will as much prevail upon his assembly as S. Peter , and S. Paul could do upon uncircumcised hearts and ears , upon the indisposed Greeks , and prejudicate Jews . An Ox will relish the tender flesh of Kids with as much gust and appetite , as an unspirituall , and unsanctified man , will do the discourses of Angels , or of an Apostle , if he should come to preach the secrets of the Gospel . And we finde it true by a sad experience . How many times doth God speak to us by his servants the Prophets , by his Son , by his Apostles , by sermons , by spirituall books , by thousands of homilies , and arts of counsell and insinuation ; and we sit as unconcerned as the pillars of a Church , and hear the sermons as the Athenians did a story , or as we read a gazet : and if ever it come to passe that we tremble as Felix did , when we hear a sad story of death , of righteousnesse , and judgement to come , then we put it off to another time , or we forget it , and think we had nothing to do but to give the good man a hearing , and ( as Anacharsis said of the Greeks , they used money for nothing but to cast account withall ; so ) our hearers make use of sermons and discourses Evangelical , but to fill up void spaces of our time ; to help to tell an hour with , or without tediousnesse : The reason of this is a sad condemnation to such persons ; they have not yet entertained the Spirit of God , they are in darknesse : they were washed in water , but never baptized with the Spirit ; for these things are spiritually discerned . They would think the Preacher rude , if he should say they are not Christians , they are not within the Covenant of the Gospel : but it is certain that the spirit of Manifestation is not yet upon them ; and that is the first effect of the Spirit , whereby we can be called sons of God , or relatives of Christ. If we do not apprehend , and greedily suck in the precepts of this holy Discipline as aptly as Merchants do discourse of gain , or Farmers of fair harvests , we have nothing but the Name of Christians ; but we are no more such really , then Mandrakes are men , or spunges are living creatures . 3. The Gospel is called Spirit , because it consists of Spiritual Promises , and Spiritual precepts , and makes all men that embrace it , truly to be Spiritual men : and therefore S. Paul addes an Epithete beyond this , calling it a quickening Spirit , that is , it puts life into our Spirits , which the law could not . The law bound us to punishment , but did not help us to obedience , because it gave not the promise of Eternal life to its Disciples . The Spirit , that is , the Gospel onely does this : and this alone is it which comforts afflicted mindes , which puts activenesse into wearyed Spirits , which inflames our cold desires , and does 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 blows up sparks into live coles , and coles up to flames , and flames to perpetual burnings : and it is impossible that any man who believes , and considers the great , the infinite , the unspeakable , the unimaginable , the never ceasing joyes , that are prepared for all the sons and daughters of the Gospel should not desire them ; and unlesse he be a fool , he cannot but use means to obtain them , effective , hearty pursuances . For it is not directly in the nature of a man to neglect so great a good ; there must be something in his manners , some obliquity in his will , or madnesse in his intellectuals , or incapacity in his naturals that must make him sleep such a reward away , or change it for the pleasure of a drunken feaver , or the vanity of a Mistresse , or the rage of a passion , or the unreasonablenesse of any sin . However ; this promise is the life of all our actions , and the Spirit that first taught it is the life of our soules . 4. But beyond this , is the reason which is the consummation of all the faithful . The Gospel is called the Spirit , because by , and in the Gospel , God hath given to us not onely the Spirit of manifestation , that is , of instruction and of Catechisme , of faith and confident assent ; but the Spirit of Confirmation or obsignation to all them that believe and obey the Gospel of Christ ; that is , the power of God is come upon our hearts , by which in an admirable manner we are made sure of a glorious inheritance ; made sure ( I say ) in the nature of the thing ; and our own persuasions also are confirmed with an excellent , a comfortable , a discerning and a reasonable hope : in the strength of which , and by whose ayde , as we do not doubt of the performance of the promise : so we vigorously pursue all the parts of the condition , and are inabled to work all the work of God , so as not to be affrighted with fear , or seduced by vanity , or oppressed by lust , or drawn off by evil example , or abused by riches , or imprison'd by ambition and secular designes : This the Spirit of God does work in all his Servants ; and is called the spirit of obsignation , or the confirming spirit , because it confirms our hope , and assures our title to life eternall ; and by means of it , and other its collateral assistances , it also confirms us in our duty , that we may not onely professe in word , but live lives according to the Gospel . And this is the sense of [ the Spirit ] mention●d in the Text : ye are not in the flesh , but in the Spirit , if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you : That is , if ye be made partakers of the Gospel , or of the spirit of manifestation , if ye be truly intitled to God , and have received the promise of the Father , then are ye not carnal men ; ye are spirituall , ye are in the Spirit : if ye have the Spirit in one sense to any purpose , ye have it also in another : if the Spirit be in you , you are in it : if it hath given you hope , it hath also inabled and ascertain●d your duty . For the Spirit of manifestation will but upbraid you in the shame and horrours of a sad eternity , if you have not the Spirit of obsignation : if the Holy Ghost be not come upon you to great purposes of holinesse , all other pretences are vain , ye are still in the flesh , which shall never inherit the kingdom of God. In the Spirit ] that is , in the power of the spirit ; so the Greeks call him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who is possessed by a spirit , whom God hath filled with a coelestial immission ; he is said to be in God , when God is in him : and it is a similitude taken from persons encompassed with guards ; they are in custodiâ , that is , in their power , under their command , moved at their dispose , they rest in their time , and receive laws from their authority , and admit visiters whom they appoint , and must be employed as they shall suffer ; so are men who are in the Spirit , that is , they beleeve as he teaches , they work as he inables , they choose what he calls good , they are friends of his friends , and they hate with his hatred ; with this onely difference , that persons in custody , are forced to do what their keepers please , and nothing is free but their wils ; but they that are under the command of the Spirit , do all things which the Spirit commands , but they do them cheerfully ; and their will is now the prisoner , but it is in liberâ custodiâ , the will is where it ought to be , and where it desires to be , and it cannot easily choose any thing else , because it is extreamly in love with this : as the Saints and Angels in their state of Beatific vision , cannot choose but love God : and yet the liberty of their choice is not lessen●d , because the object fils all the capacities of the will , and the understanding . Indifferency to an object is the lowest degree of liberty , and supposes unworthinesse , or defect in the object , or the apprehension ; but the will is then the freest and most perfect in its operation , when it intirely pursues a good with so certain determination , and clear election that the contrary evil cannot come into dispute or pretence : Such in our proportions is the liberty of the sons of God ; it is an holy and amiable captivity to the Spirit ; the will of man is in love with those chains , which draws to God , and loves the fetters that confine us to the pleasures and religion of the kingdom . And as no man will complain that his temples are restraind , and his head is prisoner when it is encircled with a crown : So when the Son of God had made us free , and hath onely subjected us to the service and dominion of the Spirit , we are free as Princes within the circles of their Diadem , and our chains are bracelets , and the law is a law of liberty , and his service is perfect freedom ; and the more we are subjects , the more we shall reign as Kings ; and the faster we run , the easier is our burden , and Christs yoke is like feathers to a bird , not loads , but helps to motion , without them the body fals : and we do not pity birds when in summer we wish them unfeathered and callow , or bald as egges , that they might be cooler and lighter : such is the load and captivity of the soul when we do the work of God and are his servants , and under the Government of the spirit : They that strive to be quit of this subjection , love the liberty of out-laws , and the licentiousness of anarchy , and the freedom of sad widows and distressed Orphans : For so Rebels and fools and children long to be rid of their Princes , and their Guardians , and their Tutors , that they may be accursed without law , and be undone without control and be ignorant and miserable without a teacher and without discipline . He that is in the Spirit is under Tutours and Governours , untill the time appointed of the Father , just as all great Heirs are ; onely , the first seizure the Spirit makes , is upon the will. He that loves the yoke of Christ , and the discipline of the Gospel , he is in the Spirit , that is , in the spirits power . Upon this foundation , the Apostle hath built these two propositions . 1. Whosoever hath not the Spirit of Christ , he is none of his , he does not belong to Christ at all : he is not partaker of his Spirit , and therefore shall never be partaker of his glory . 2. Whosoever is in Christ , is dead to sin , and lives to the Spirit of Christ , that is , lives a Spirituall , a holy and a sanctifyed life . These are to be considered distinctly . 1. All that belong to Christ have the Spirit of Christ , Immediately before the ascension , our blessed Saviour bid his Disciples tarry in Jerusalem till they should receive the promise of the Father , Whosoever stay at Jerusalem , and are in the actuall Communion of the Church of God shall certainly receive this promise . For it is made to you and to your children ( saith S. Peter ) and to as many as the Lord our God shall call , All shall receive the Spirit of Christ , the promise of the Father , because this was the great instrument of distinction between the Law and the Gospel , In the Law God gave his Spirit , 1. to some ; to them 2. extraregularly , 3. without solennity , 4. in small proportions , like the dew upon Gideons fleece ; a little portion was wet sometime with the dew of heaven , when all the earth besides was dry : And the Jewes calld it filia● voois , the daughter of a voice , still , and small , and seldom , and that by secret whispers , and sometimes inarticulate by way of enthusiasme , rather then of instruction , and God spake by the Prophets transmitting the sound , as thorough an Organ pipe , things which themselves oftentimes understood not . But in the Gospel , the spirit is given without measure ; first powred forth upon our head Christ Jesus ; then descending upon the beard of Aaron , the Fathers of the Church , and thence falling like the tears of the balsam of Judea upon the foot of the plant , upon the lowest of the people . And this is given regularly to all that ask it , to all that can receive it , and by a solemn ceremony and conveyed by a Sacrament : and is now , not the Daughter of a voice , but the Mother of many voices , of divided tongues , and united hearts , of the tongues of Prophets , and the duty of Saints , of the Sermons of Apostles , and the wisdom of Governours ; It is the Parent of boldness , and fortitude to Martyrs , the fountain of learning to Doctors , an Ocean of all things excellent to all who are within the ship , and bounds of the Catholike Church : so that Old men and young men , maidens and boyes , the scribe and the unlearned , the Judge and the Advocate , the Priest and the people are full of the Spirit , if they belong to God : Moses's wish is fulfilled , and all the Lords people are Prophets in some sense or other . In the wisdom of the Ancient it was observed , that there are four great cords which tye the heart of Man to inconvenience and a prison , making it a servant of vanity , and an heir of corruption 1. Pleasure and 2. Pain . 3. Fear , and 4. Desire . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . These are they that exercise all the wisdom and resolutions of man , and all the powers that God hath given him . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . said Agathon . These are those evil Spirits that possess the heart of man & mingle with al his actions ; so that either men are tempted to 1. lust by pleasure , or 2. to baser arts by covetousness , or 3. to impatience by sorrow , or 4. to dishonourable actions by fear : and this is the state of man by nature ; and under the law ; and for ever till the Spirit of God came , and by four special operations cur●d these four inconveniences and restrained , or sweetned these unwholesome waters . 1. God gave us his Spirit that we might be insensible of worldly pleasures , having our souls wholly fil●d with spiritual and heavenly relishes . For when Gods Spirit hath entred into us and possessed us as his Temple , or as his dwelling , instantly we begin to taste Manna , and to loath the diet of Egypt ; we begin to consider concerning heaven , and to prefer eternity before moments , and to love the pleasures of the soul , above the sottish and beastly pleasures of the body . Then we can consider that the pleasures of a drunken meeting cannot make recompence for the pains of a surfet , and that nights intemperance ; much lesse for the torments of eternity : Then we are quick to discern that the itch and scab of lustful appetites is not worth the charges of a Surgeon , much lesse can it pay for the disgrace , the danger , the sicknesse , the death , and the hell of lustfull persons ; Then we wonder that any man should venture his head to get a crown unjustly ; or that for the hazard of a victory , he should throw away all his hopes of heaven certainly . A man that hath tasted of Gods Spirit can instantly discern the madnesse that is in rage , the folly and the disease that is in envy , the anguish and tediousnesse that is in lust , the dishonor that is in breaking our faith , and telling a lie ; and understands things truly as they are ; that is , that charity is the greatest noblenesse in the world ; that religion hath in it the greatest pleasures ; that temperance is the best security of health ; that humility is the surest way to honour ; and all these relishes are nothing but antepasts of heaven , where the quintessence of all these pleasures shall be swallowed for ever ; where the chast shall follow the Lamb , and the virgins sing there where the Mother of God shall reign ; and the zealous converters of souls , and labourers in Gods vineyard shall worship eternally where S. Peter and S. Paul do wear their crown of righteousnesse ; and the patient persons shall be rewarded with Job , and the meek persons with Christ and Moses , and all with God ; the very expectation of which proceeding from a hope begotten in us by the spirit of manifestation , and bred up and strengthened by the spirit of obsignation is so delicious an entertainment of all our reasonable appetites , that a spirituall man can no more be removed , or intied from the love of God , and of religion , then the Moon from her Orb , or a Mother from loving the son of her joyes , and of her sorrows . This was observed by S. Peter , [ As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word , that ye may grow thereby ; if so be that ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious ] When once we have tasted the grace of God , the sweetnesses of his Spirit ; then , no food but the food of Angels , no cup but the cup of Salvation , the Divining cup , in which we drink Salvation to our God , and call upon the Name of the Lord with ravishment and thanksgiving ; and there is no greater externall testimony that we are in the spirit , and that the spirit dwels in us , then if we finde joy and delight , and spirituall pleasures in the greatest mysteries of our religion ; if we communicate often , and that with appetite and a forward choice , and an unwearied devotion , and a heart truly fixed upon God , and upon the offices of a holy worship . He that loaths good meat is sick at heart , or neer it ; and he that despises , or hath not a holy appetite to the foo● of Angels , the wine of elect souls , is fit to succeed the Prodigal at his banquet of sinne and husks , and to be partaker of the ta●le of Devis ; but all they who have Gods Spirit , love to feast at the supper of the Lamb , and have no appetites but what are of the spirit , or servants to the spirit . I have read of a spiritual person who saw heaven but in a dream , but such as made great impression upon him , and was represented with vigorous and pertinacious phantasmes , not easily disbanding , and when he awaked he knew not his cell , he remembred not him that slept in the same dorter , nor could tell how night and day were distinguished , nor could discern oyl from wine , but cal●d out for his vision again , Redde mihi campos meos floridos , columnam auream , comitem Hieronymum , assistentes Angelos ; Give me my fields again , my most delicious fields , my pillar of a glorious light , my companion S. Jerome , my assistant Angels ; and this lasted till he was told of his duty , and matter of obedience , and the fear of a sin had disincharmed him , and caused him to take care lest he lose the substance , out of greedinesse to possesse the shadow . And if it were given to any of us to see Paradise , or the third heaven ( as it was to S. Paul ) could it be that ever we should love any thing but Christ , or follow any Guide but the Spirit , or desire any thing but Heaven , or understand any thing to be pleasant but what shall lead thither ? Now what a vision can do , that the Spirit doth certainly to them that entertain him . They that have him really and not in pretence onely , are certainly great despisers of the things of the world . The Spirit doth not create , or enlarge our appetites of things below : Spirituall men are not designd to reign upon earth , but to reign over their lusts and sottish appetites . The Spirit doth not enflame our thirst of wealth , but extinguishes it , and makes us to esteem all things as l●sse , and as dung so that we may gain Christ ; No gain then is pleasant but goal●nesse , no ambition but longings after heaven , no revenge but against our selves for sinning ; nothing but God and Christ ; Deus meus & omnia ; and date nobis ammas , caetera vobis tollite ( as the king of Sodom said to Abraham ) Secure but the souls to us , and take our goods . Indeed this is a good signe that we have the Spirit . S. John spake a hard saying , but by the spirit of manifestation we are also taught to understand it . Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin , for his seed remaineth in him , and he cannot sin , because he is born of God. The seed of God ] is the spirit which hath a plastic power to efform us in similitudinem filiorum Dei , into the image of the sons of God ; and as long as this remains in us , while the Spirit dwels in us We cannot sin ; that is , it is against our natures , our reformed natures to sin : And as we say , we cannot endure such a potion , we cannot suffer such a pain ; that is , we cannot without great trouble , we cannot without doing violence to our nature : so all spirituall men , all that are born of God , and the seed of God remains in them , they cannot sin ; cannot without trouble , and doing against our natures , and their most passionate inclinations . A man , if you speak naturally , can masticate gums , and he can break his own legs , and he can sip up by little draughts , mixtures of Aloes and Rhubarb , of Henbane , or the deadly Nightshade : but he cannot do this naturally , or willingly , cheerfully or with delight . Every sin is against a good mans nature he is ill at case when he hath missed his usual prayers ; he is amazd if he have fallen into an errour ; he is infinitely ashamed of his imprudence ; he remembers a sin , as he thinks of an enemy , or the horrors of a midnight apparition : for all his capacities , his understanding , and his choosing faculties are filled up with the opinion and perswasions , with the love , and with the desires of God : and this I say , is the Great benefit of the Spirit , which God hath given to us as an antidote against worldly pleasures : And therefore S. Paul joynes them as consequent to each other [ For it is impossible for those who were once enlightned , and have tasted of the heavenly gift , and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost , and have tasted the good word of God , and the powers of the world to come , &c. ] First we are enlightned in Baptisme , and by the Spirit of manifestation , the revelations of the Gospel : then we relish and taste interiour excellencies , and we receive the Holy Ghost , the Spirit of confirmation , and he gives us a taste of the powers of the world to come ; that is , of the great efficacy that is in the Article of eternall life to perswade us to religion and holy living : then we feel that as the belief of that Article dwels upon our understanding and is incorporated into our wils and choice , so we grow powerfull to resist sin by the strengths of the Spirit , to desie all carnall pleasure , and to suppresse and mortifie it by the powers of this Article : [ those are the powers of the world to come . 2. The Spirit of God is given to all who truly belong to Christ as an anidote against sorrows , against impatience , against the evil accidents of the world , and against the oppression and sinking of our spirits under the crosse . There are in Scripture noted two births besides the naturall ; to which also by analogy we may adde a third . The first is to be born of water and the Spirit . It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one thing signified by a divided appellative , by two substantives , [ water and the Spirit ] that is , Spiritus aqueus , the Spirit moving upon the waters of Baptisme . The second is to be born of Spirit and fire , for so Christ was promised to baptize us with the Holy Ghost and with fire ; that is , cum spiritu igneo , with a fiery spirit , the Spirit as it descended in Pentecost in the shape of fiery tongues . And as the watry spirit washed away the sins of the Church , so the spirit of fire enkindles charity and the love of God , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( sayes Plutarch ) the Spirit is the same under both the titles , and it enables the Church with gifts and graces : And from these there is another operation of the new birth , but the same Spirit , the spirit of rejoycing , or spiritus exultans , spiritus laetitiae . Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in beleeving , that ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost . There is a certain joy and spirituall rejoycing , that accompanies them in whom the Holy Ghost doth dwell ; a joy in the midst of sorrow ; a joy given to allay the sorrows of saecular troubles , and to alleviate the burden of persecution . This S. Paul notes to this purpose . [ And ye became followers of us and of the Lord , having received the word in much af●liction with joy of the Holy Ghost . ] Worldly afflictions and spirituall joyes , may very well dwell together ; and if God did not supply us out of his storehouses , the sorrows of this world would be mere and unmixt , and the troubles of persecution would be too great for naturall considences . For who shall make him recompence that lost his life in a Duel , fought about a draught of wine , or a cheaper woman ? What arguments shall invite a man to suffer torments , in testimony of a proposition of naturall Philosophy ? And by what instruments shall we comfort a man who is sick , and poor , and disgrac●d and vitious , and lies cursing , and despairs of any thing hereafter ? That mans condition proclaims what it is to want the Spirit of God , the Spirit of comfort . Now this Spirit of comfort is the hope and confidence , the certain expectation of partaking in the inheritance of Jesus . This is the faith and patience of the Saints , this is the refreshment of all wearied travellers , the cordiall of all languishing sinners , the support of the scrupulous , the guide of the doubtfull , the anchor of timorous and fluctuating souls , the confidence and the staff of the penitent . He that is deprived of his whole estate for a good conscience , by the Spirit he meets this comfort , that he shall finde it again with advantage in the day of restitution : and this comfort was so manifest in the first dayes of Christianity , that it was no infrequent thing to see holy persons court a Martyrdom with a fondnesse as great as is our impatience , and timorousnesse in every persecution . Till the Spirit of God comes upon us we are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inopis nos , atque pusilli finxerunt animi ; we have little souls , little faith , and as little patience ; we fall at every stumbling block , and sink under every temptation ; and our hearts fail us , and we die for fear of death , and lose our souls to preserve our estates , or our persons , till the Spirit of God fills us with joy in beleeving : and a man that is in a great joy cares not for any trouble that is lesse then his joy ; and God hath taken so great care to secure this to us , that he hath turn'd it into a precept , Rejoyce evermore ; and Rejoyce in the Lord always , and again , I say rejoyce . But this rejoycing must be onely in the hope that is laid up for us , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; so the Apostle . Rejoycing in hope . For although God sometimes maks a cup of sensible comfort to overflow the spirit of a man , and thereby loves to refresh his sorrows ; yet that is from a secret principle , not regularly given not to be waitd for , not to be prayed for , and it may fail us if we think upon it : but the hope of life eternall can never fail us , and the joy of that is great enough to make us suffer any thing , or to do any thing — ibimus , ibimus utcunque praecedes , supremum Carpere iter comites parati To death , to bands , to poverty , to banishment , to tribunals , any whither in hope of life eternall : as long as this anchor holds , we may suffer a storm but cannot suffer shipwrack : And I desire you by the way to observe , how good a God we serve , and how excellent a Religion Christ taught , when one of his great precepts is , that we should rejoyce and be exceeding glad ? and God hath given as the spirit of rejoycing , not a sullen , melancholy spirit , not the spirit of bondage or of a slave , but the Spirit of his Son , consigning us by a holy conscience to joyes unspeakable and full of glory : And from hence you may also infer that those who sink under a persecution , or are impatient in a sad accident they put out their own fires , which the Spirit of the Lord hath kindled , and lose those glories which stand behinde the cloud . Part II. 3. THe Spirit of God is given us , as an antidote against evil concupiscences , and sinfull desires , and is then called the spirit of prayer and supplication . For ever since the affections of the outward man prevail●d upon the ruins of the soul , all our desires were sensuall , and therefore hurtfull : for ever after , our body grew to be our enemy . In the loosnesses of nature , and amongst the ignorance , or imperfection of Gentile Philosophy , men used to pray with their hands full of rapine , and their mouths of blood , and their hearts of malice ; and they prayed accordingly , for an opportunity to steal , for a fair body , for a prosperous revenge , for a prevailing malice , for the satisfaction of whatsoever they could be tempted to by any object , by any lust , by any Devil whatsoever . The Jews were better taught , for God was their teacher , and he gave the spirit to them in single rayes . But as the spirit of obsignation was given to them under a seal , and within a veile ; so the spirit of Manifestation or patefaction was like the gem of a vine , or the bud of a rose , plain indices and significations of life , and principles of juice and sweetnesse : but yet scarce out of the doors of their causes ; they had the infancy of knowledge ; and revelations to them were given as Catechisme is taught to our children ; which they read with the eye of a bird , and speak with the tongue of a bee , and understand with the heart of a childe , that is , weakly and imperfectly : and they understood so little ; that 1. They thought God heard them not unlesse they spake their prayers , at least efforming their words within their lips : and 2. Their forms of prayer were so few and seldome , that to teach a forme of prayer , or to compose a collect was thought a worke fit for a Prophet , or the founder of an institution . 3. Adde to this that as their promises were temporal , so were their hopes : as were their hopes so were their desires ; and according to their desires so were their prayers . And although the Psalms of David was their Great office , and the treasury of devotion to their Nation ( and very worthily ) yet it was full of wishes for temporals , invocations of GOD the Avenger , on GOD the Lord of Hosts , on God the Enemy of their Enemies ; and they desired their Nation to be prospered , and themselves blessed , and distinguished from all the world , by the effects of such desires . This was the state of prayer in their Synagogue ; save onely that it had also this allay . 4. That their addresses to GOD were crasse , material , typical and full of shadows , and imagery , paterns of things to come , and so in its very being and constitution was relative and imperfect . But that we may see how great things the Lord hath done for us , God hath powred his spirit into our hearts , the spirit of prayer and supplication , and now . 1. Christians pray in their spirit , with sighs and groans , and know that GOD who dwells within them , can as clearly distinguish those secret accents , and read their meaning in the Spirit as plainly as he knows the voice of his own thunder , or could discern the letter of the law written in the tables of stone by the finger of God. 2. likewise the spirit helpeth our infirmities , for we know not what we should pray for as we ought . That is , when God sends an affliction or persecution upon us , we are indeed extreme apt to lay our hand upon the wound and never take it off but when we lift it up in prayer to be delivered from that sadnesse ; and then we pray fervently to be cured of a sicknesse , to be delivered from a Tyrant , to be snatched from the grave , not to perish in the danger . But the spirit of God hath from all sad accidents drawn the veil of errour and the cloud of intolerablenesse , and hath taught us that our happinesse cannot consist in freedom , or deliverances from persecutions , but in patience , resignation , and noble sufferance ; and that we are not then so blessed when God hath turn'd our scourges into ease and delicacy , as when we convert our very scorpions into the exercise of vertues : so that now the spirit having helped our infirmities , that is , comforted our weaknesses and afflictions , our sorrows and impatience by this proposition , that [ All things work together for the good of them that fear God ] he hath taught us to pray for grace , for patience under the crosse , for Charity to our persecutors , for rejoycing in tribulations , for perseverance and boldnesse in the faith ; and for whatsoever will bring us safely to Heaven . 3. Whereas onely a Moses , or a Samuel , a David , or a Daniel , a John the Baptist , or the Messias himself could describe and indite formes of prayer and thanksgiving to the time and accent of Heaven , now every wise and good Man is instructed perfectly in the Scriptures ( which are the writings of the spirit ) what things he may , and what things he must ask for . 4. The Spirit of God hath made our services to be spiritual , intellectual , holy , and effects of choice and religion , the consequents of a spiritual sacrifice , and of a holy union with God : The prayer of a Christian is with the effects of the spirit of Sanctification ; and then we pray with the Spirit when we pray with Holinesse , which is the great fruit , the principal gift of the spirit . And this is by Saint James called [ the prayer of faith ] and is said to be certain that it shall prevail . Such a praying with the spirit , when our prayers are the voices of our spirits , and our spirits are first taught , then sanctified by Gods spirit , shall never fail of its effect ; because then it is , that the spirit himself maketh intercession for us : that is , hath enabled us to do it upon his strengths , we speak his sense , we live his life , we breath his accents , we desire in order to his purposes , and our persons are Gracious by his Holinesse , and are accepted by his interpellation and intercession in the act and offices of Christ. This is praying with the spirit . To which by way of explication I adde these two annexes of holy prayer , in respect of which also , every good man prayes with the spirit . 5. The spirit gives us great relish and appetite to our prayers and this Saint Paul calls [ serving of God in his spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is , with a willing minde ; not as Jonas did his errand , but as Christ did die for us , he was straitned till he had accomplished it . And they that say their prayers out of custome onely , or to comply with external circumstances , or collateral advantages , or pray with trouble and unwillingnesse , give a very great testimony that they have not the spirit of Christ within them , that spirit which maketh intercession for the Saints : but he that delighteth in his prayers , not by a sensible or phantastic pleasure , but whose choice dwells in his prayers , and whose conversation is with God in holy living , and praying accordingly , that man hath the spirit of Christ , and therfore belongs to Christ ; for by this spirit it is that Christ prayes in Heaven for us : and if we do not pray on earth in the same manner according to our measures ; we had as good hold our peace , our prayers are an abominable sacrifice , and send up to God no better a perfume , then if wee burned assa faetida , or the raw flesh of a murdered man upon the altar of incense . 6. The spirit of Christ and of prayer helps our infirmities , by giving us confidence and importunity . I put them together . For as our faith is , and our trust in God , so is our hope , and so is our prayer , weary or lasting , long or short , not in words , but in works , and in desires For the words of prayer are no part of the spirit of prayer : words may be the body of it , but the spirit of prayer alwayes consists in holinesse , that is in holy desires , and holy actions : words are not properly capable of being holy ; all words are in themselves se●vants of things , and the holinesse of a prayer is not at all concerned in the manner of its expression , but in the spirit of it , that is , in the violence of its desires , and the innocence of its ends , and the continuence of its imployment : this is the verification of that great Prophecie which Christ made ; that [ in all the world the true worshippers should worship in spirit and in truth ] that is , with a pure minde , with holy desires , for spiritual things according to the minde of the spirit in imitation of Christs intercession , with perseverance , with charity , or love . That is the spirit of God , and these are the spiritualities of the Gospel , and the formalities of prayer as they are Christian and Evangelicall . 7. Some men have thought of a seventh way , and explicate our praying in the spirit , by a mere volubilty of language : which indeed is a direct undervaluing the spirit of God and of Christ , the spirit of manifestation and intercession ; it is to return to the materiality and imperfection of the law , it is to worship God in outward forms , and to think that Gods service consists in shels and rinds , in lips and voices , in shadows and images of things : it is to retire from Christ to Moses , and at the best , it is a going from real graces to imaginary gifts : and when praying with the spirit hath in it so many excellencies , and consists of so many parts of holinesse , and sanctification and is an act of the inner man , we shall be infinitely mistaken , if we let go this substance , and catch at a shadow , and sit down and rest in the imagination of an improbable , unnecessary , uselesse gift of speaking to which the nature of many men , and the art of all learned men , and the very use and confidence of ignorant men is too abundantly sufficient . Let us not so despise the spirit of Christ as to make it no other then the breath of our lungs . * For though it might be possible that at the first , and when formes of prayer were few and seldome , the spirit of God might dictatethe very words to the Apostles , and first Christians ; yet it follows not that therfore he does so still to all that pretend praying with the spirit . For if he did not then , at the first , dictate words ( as we know not whether he did or no ) why shall he be suppos●d to do so now ? If he did then ; it follows that he does not now , ; because his doing it then , was sufficient for all men since : for so the formes taught by the spirit were paternes for others to imitate in all the descending ages of the Church . There was once an occasion so great that the spirit of God did think it a work ●it for him to teach a man to weave silke , or embroider gold , or woke in brasse , ( as it happened to Besaleel and Aholiab : ) But then every weaver or worker in brasse may by the same reason pretend that he works by the spirit , as that he prayes by the spirit , if by prayer he means forming the words . For although in the ease of working it was certain that the spirit did teach : in the ease of inditing or forming the words it is not certain whether he did or no ; yet because in both it was extraordinary ( if it was at all ) and ever since , in both it is infinitely needlesse ; to pretend the Spirit in forms of every mans making ( even though they be of contrary religions , and pray one against the other ) it may serve an end of a phantastic and hypochondriacal religion , or a secret ambition , but not the ends of God , or the honour of the Spirit . The Jews in their declensions to folly and idolatry did worship the stone of imagination , that is , certain smooth images in which by art magic pictures and little faces were represented , declaring hidden things and stoln goods ; and God severely forbad this basenesse : but we also have taken up this folly , and worship the stone of imagination : we beget imperfect phantasmes and speculative images in our phansy , and we fall down and worship them ; never considering that the spirit of God never appears through such spectres . Prayer is one of the noblest exercises of Christian religion ; or rather is it that duty in which all graces are concentred . Prayer is charity , it is faith , it is a conformity to Gods will , a desiring according to the desires of Heaven , an imitation of Christs intercession ; and prayer must suppose all holinesse , or else it is nothing : and therefore all that in which men need Gods Spirit , all that is in order to prayer . Baptisme is but a prayer , and the holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper is but a prayer ; a prayer of sacrifice representative , and a prayer of oblation , and a prayer of intercession , and a prayer of thanksgiving : and obedience is a prayer , and begs and procures blessings : and if the Holy Ghost hath sanctified the whole man , then he hath sanctified the prayer of the man , and not till then ; and if ever there was , or could be any other praying with the spirit , it was such a one as a wicked man might have , and therefore it cannot be a note of distinction between the good and bad , between the saints and men of the world . But this onely ( which I have described from the fountains of Scripture ) is that which a good man can have , and therefore this is it in which we ought to rejoyce ; that he that glories , may glory in the Lord. Thus I have ( as I could ) described the effluxes of the Holy Spirit upon us in his great chanels . But the great effect of them is this ; That as by the arts of the spirits of darknesse , and our own malice our souls are turned into flesh , ( not in the naturall sense , but in the morall , and Theologicall ) and animalis homo is the same with carnalis , that is , his soul is a servant of the passions and desires of the flesh , and is flesh in its operations and ends , in its principles and actions : So on the other side , by the Grace of God , and the promise of the Father , and the influences of the Holy Ghost , our souls are not onely recovered from the state of flesh , and reduced back to the intirenesse of animall operations , but they are heightned into spirit , and transform●d into a new nature : And this is a new Article , and now to be considered . S. Hierom tels of the Custome of the Empire ; When a Tyrant was overcome , they us●d to break the head of his Statues , and upon the same Trunk , to set the head of the Conquerour , and so it passed wholly for the new Prince : So it is in the kingdom of Grace : As soon as the Tyrant sin is overcome , and a new heart is put into us , or that we serve under a new head , instantly we have a new Name given us , and we are esteemed a new Creation ; and not onely changed in manners , but we have a new nature within us , even a third part of essentiall constitution . This may seem strange ; and indeed it is so : and it is one of the great mysteriousnesses of the Gospel . Every man naturally consists of soul and body : but every Christian man that belongs to Christ , hath more . For he hath body , and soul , and spirit . My Text is plain for it . If any man have not the Spirit of Christ , he is none of his : and by [ Spirit ] is not meant onely the graces of God , and his gifts enabling us to do holy things : there is more belongs to a good man then so . But as when God made man , he made him after his own image , and breath'd into him the spirit of life , and he was made in animam viventem , into a living soul ; then he was made a man : So in the new creation , Christ by whom God made both the worlds , intends to conform us to his image , and he hath given us the spirit of adoption , by which we are made sons of God ; and by the spirit of a new life we are made new creatures , capable of a new state , intitled to another manner of duration , enabled to do new and greater actions in order to higher ends ; we have new affections , new understandings , new wils : Vetera transierunt , & ecce omnia nova facta sunt ; All things are become new : And this is called the seed of God when it relates to the principle and cause of this production : but the thing that is produced is a spirit , and that is as much in nature beyond a soul , as a soul is beyond a body . This great Mystery I should not utter but upon the greatest authority in the world , and from an infallible Doctor , I mean S. Paul , who from Christ taught the Church more secrets , then all the whole Colledge besides : [ And the very God of peace sanctifie you wholly , and I pray God that your whole spirit , and soul , and body , be preserved blamelesse unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. ] We are not sanctified wholly , nor preserved in safety , unlesse besides our souls and bodies , our spirit also be kept blamelesse . This distinction nice , and infinitely above humane reason : but the word of God ( saith the same Apostle ) is sharper then a two-edged sword , piercing even to the dividing asunder the soul and the spirit : and that hath taught us to distinguish the principle of a new life , from the principle of the old , the celestiall from the naturall ; and thus it is . This spirit ( as I now discourse of it ) is a principle infused into us by God , when we become his children , whereby we live the life of Grace , and understand the secrets of the Kingdom , and have passions and desires of things beyond , and contrary to our naturall appetites , enabling us not onely to sobriety ( which is the duty of the body ) not onely to justice , which is the rectitude of the soul ; but to such a sanctity as makes us like to God. * For so saith the Spirit of God ; Be ye holy as I am ; be pure , be perfect , as your heavenly Father is pure , as he is perfect : which because it cannot be a perfection of degrees , it must be in similitudine naturae , in the likenesse of that nature which God hath given us in the new birth , that by it , we might resemble his excellency , and holinesse . And this I conceive to be the meaning of S. Peter [ According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain to life and godlinesse , ( that is , to this new life of godlinesse ) through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and vertue , whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises , that by these you might be partakers of the Divine nature ( so we read it ) But it is something mistaken ; it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , [ The Divine nature ] for Gods nature is indivisible , and incommunicable ; but it is spoken participativè , or per analogiant , [ partakers of a Divine nature ] that is , of this new and God-like nature , given to every person that serves God , whereby he is sanctified and made the childe of God , and framed into the likenesse of Christ. The Greeks generally call this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a gracious gift , an extraordinary superaddition to nature , not a single gift in order to single purposes ; but an universall principle , and it remains upon all good men during their lives , and after their death ; and is that white stone spoken of in the Revelation ; and in it a new name written , which no man knoweth but he that hath it : And by this , Gods sheep at the day of judgement shall be discerned from goats : If their spirits be presented to God pure and unblameable , this great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , this talent which God hath given to all Christians to improve , in the banks of grace and of Religion , if they bring this to God increased and grown up to the fulnesse of the measure of Christ ( for it is Christs Spirit , and as it is in us , it is called , the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ ) then we shall be acknowledged for sons , and our adoption shall passe into an eternall inheritance in the portion of our elder Brother . I need not to apply this Discourse : The very mystery it self is in the whole world the greatest engagement of our duty that is imaginable , by the way of instrument , and by the way of thankfulnesse . Quisquis magna dedit voluit sibi magna rependi ; He that gives great things to us , ought to have great acknowledgements ; and Seneca said concerning wise men ; That he that doth benefit to others , hides those benefits as a man layes up great treasures in the earth , which he must never see with his eyes , unlesse a great occasion forces him to dig the graves , and produce that which he buried ; but all the while , the man was hugely rich , and he had the wealth of a great relation : so it is with God and us : For this huge benefit of the Spirit , which God gives us , is for our good , deposited in our souls , not made for forms and ostentation , not to be looked upon , or serve little ends , but growing in the secret of our souls , and swelling up to a treasure , making us in this world rich by title and relation , but it shall be produced in the great necessities of doomesday . In the mean time , if the fire be quenched , the fire of Gods Spirit , God will kindle another in his anger , that shall never be quenched : but if we entertain Gods Spirit with our own purities , and imploy it diligently , and serve it willingly , ( for Gods Spirit is a loving Spirit ) then we shall really be turned into spirits . Irenaeus had a proverbiall saying , Perfecti sunt qui tria sine querelâ Deo exhibent ; They that present three things right to God , they are perfect ; that is , a chast body , a righteous soul , and a holy spirit ; and the event shall be this , which Maimonides expressed not amisse , ( though he did not at all understand the secret of this mystery : ) The soul of a man in this life , is in potentiâ ad esse spiritum , it is designed to be a spirit , but in the world to come , it shall be actually as very a spirit as an Angel is : and this state is expressed by the Apostle , calling it , [ the earnest of the spirit ] that is , here it is begun , and given us as an antepast of glory , and a principle of Grace ; but then we shall have it in plenitudine — regit idem spiritus artus Orbe alio — Here , and there , it is the same ; but here we have the earnest , there the riches and the inheritance . But then , if this be a new principle , and be given us in order to the actions of a holy life , we must take care that we receive not the Spirit of God in vain , but remember it is a new life ; and as no man can pretend , that a person is alive , that doth not alwayes do the works of life ; so it is certain , no man hath the Spirit of God , but he that lives the life of grace , and doth the works of the Spirit , that is , in all holinesse , and justice , and sobriety . Spiritus qui accedit animo , vel Dei est , vel Daemonis ( said Tertullian . ) Every man hath within him the Spirit of God , or the spirit of the devil . The spirit of fornication is an unclean devil , and extremely contrary to the Spirit of God ; and so is the spirit of malice or uncharitablenesse ; for the Spirit of God is the Spirit of love : for as purities Gods Spirit sanctifies the body , so by love he purifies the soul , and makes the soul grow into a spirit , into a Divine nature . But God knows , that even in Christian societies , we see the devils walk up and down every day , and every hour ; the devil of uncleannesse , and the devil of drunkennesse , the devil of malice , and the devil of rage , the spirit of filthy speaking , and the spirit of detraction , a proud spirit , and the spirit of rebellion ; and yet all call [ Christian. It is generally supposed , that unclean spirits walk in the night ; and so it used to be ; for they that are drunk , are drunk in the night , said the Apostle : but Suidas tels of certain Empusae , that used to appear at Noon , at such time as the Greeks did celebrate the Funerals of the Dead ; and at this day some of the Russians fear the Noon-day Devil , which appeareth like a mourning widow to reapers of hay and corn , and uses to break their arms and legs , unlesse they worship her . The Prophet David speaketh of both kindes : Thou shalt not be afraid for the terrour by night , and a ruinâ & daemonio meridiano , from the Devil at noon thou shalt be free . It were happy if we were so ; but besides the solemn followers of the works of darknesse , in the times and proper seasons of darknesse , there are very many who act their Scenes of darknesse in the face of the Sun , in open defiance of God , and all lawes , and all modesty . There is in such men the spirit of impudence , as well as of impiety . And yet I might have expressed it higher ; for every habituall sin doth not onely put us into the power of the devil , but turns us into his very nature : just as the Holy Ghost transforms us into the image of God. Here therefore I have a greater Argument to perswade you to holy living , then Moses had to the sons of Israel . Behold , I have set before you life and death , blessing and cursing : so said Moses ; but I adde , that I have upon the stock of this Scripture , set before you , the good Spirit and the bad , God , and the devil : choose unto whose nature you will be likened , and into whose inheritance you will be adopted , and into whose possession you will enter . If you commit sin , ye are of your father the Devil , ye are begot of his principles , and follow his pattern , and shall passe into his portion , when ye are led captive by him at his will ; and remember what a sad thing it is to go into the portion of evil and accursed spirits , the sad and eternall portion of Devils . But he that hath the Spirit of God , doth acknowledge God for his Father , and his Lord , he despises the world , and hath no violent appetites for secular pleasures , and is dead to the desires of this life , and his hopes are spirituall , and God is his joy , and Christ is his pattern and his support , and Religion is his imployment , and godlinesse is his gain , and this man understands the things of God , and is ready to die for Christ , and fears nothing but to sin against God , and his will is filled with love , and it springs out in obedience to God , and in charity to his brother : and of such a man we cannot make judgement by his fortune , or by his acquaintance , by his circumstances , or by his adherencies , for they are the appendages of a naturall man : but the spirituall is judged of no man : that is , the rare excellencies that make him happy , do not yet make him illustrious , unlesse we will reckon Vertue to be a great fortune , and holinesse to be great Wisedom , and God to be the best Friend , and Christ the best Relative , and the Spirit the hugest advantage , and Heaven the greatest Reward . He that knows how to value these things , may sit down and reckon the felicities of him that hath the Spirit of God. The purpose of this Discourse is this ; That since the Spirit of God is a new nature , and a new life put into us , we are thereby taught , and enabled to serve God by a constant course of holy living , without the frequent returns and intervening of such actions , which men are pleased to call sins of infirmity . Whosoever hath the Spirit of God , lives the life of grace ; The Spirit of God rules in him , and is strong according to its age and abode , and allows not of those often sins which we think unavoidable , because we call them , naturall infirmities . [ But if Christ be in you , the body is dead because of sin , but the spirit is life because of righteousnesse . ] The state of sin is a state of death ; the state of a man under the law , was a state of bondage , and infirmity , ( as S. Paul largely describes him in the seventh Chapter to the Romanes ) but he that hath the Spirit is made alive , and free , and strong , and a conquerour over all the powers , and violencies of sin ; such a man resists temptations , falls not under the assault of sin , returns not to the sin which he last repented of , acts no more that errour which brought him to shame and sorrow : but he that falls under a crime , to which he still hath a strong , and vigorous inclination , he that acts his sin , and then curses it , and then is tempted , and then sins again , and then weeps again , and calls himself miserable , but still the inchantment hath confined him to that circle , this man hath not the Spirit ; for where the Spirit of God is , there is liberty , there is no such bondage and a returning folly to the commands of sin . But because men deceive themselves with calling this bondage , a pitiable and excusable infirmity , it will not be uselesse to consider the state of this question more particularly , lest men from the state of a pretended infirmity , fall into a reall death . 1. No great sin is a sin of infirmity , or excusable upon that stock . But that I may be understood , we must know that every sin is in some sense or other , a sin of infirmity . When a man is in the state of spirituall sicknesse or death , he is in a state of infirmity , for he is a wounded man , a prisoner , a slave , a sick man , weak in his judgement , and weak in his reasoning , impotent in his passions , of childish resolutions , great inconstancy , and his purposes untwist , as easily as the rude conjuncture of uncombining cables , in the violence of a Northern tempest : and he that is thus in infirmity , cannot be excused ; for it is the aggravation of the state of his sin ; he is so infirm that he is in a state unable to do his duty . Such a man is a servant of sin , a slave of the Devil , an heir of corruption , absolutely under command ; and every man is so , who resolves for ever to avoid such a sin , and yet for ever falls under it : for what can he be but a servant of sin , who fain would avoid it but cannot ; that is , he hath not the Spirit of God within him ; Christ dwels not in his soul , for where the Son is , there is liberty : and all that are in the Spirit are sons of God , and servants of righteousnesse , and therefore freed from sin . But then there are also sins of infirmity , which are single actions , intervening seldom , in litle instances , unavoidable , or through a faultlesse ignorance . Such as these are alwayes the allays of the life of the best men ; and for these Christ hath payd , and they are never to be accounted to good men , save onely to make them more wary , and more humble . Now concerning these , it is , that I say ; No great sin is a sin of excusable , or unavoidable infirmity . Because whosoever hath received the Spirit of God , hath sufficient knowledge of his duty , and sufficient strengths of grace , and sufficient advertency of minde , to avoid such things as do great and apparent violence to piety , and religion . No man can justly say , that it is a sin of infirmity that he was drunk ; For there are but three causes of every sin ( a fourth is not imaginable . ) 1. If ignorance cause it , the sin is as full of excuse , as the ignorance was innocent . But no Christian can pretend this to drunkennesse , to murder , to rebellion , to uncleannesse . For what Christian is so uninstructed but that he knows Adultery is a sin ? 2. Want of observation , is the cause of many indiscreet and foolish actions . Now at this gap many irregularities do enter and escape , because in the whole , it is impossible for a man to be of so present a spirit , as to consider , and reflect upon every word , and every thought : but it is in this case in Gods laws otherwise then in mans : the great flies cannot passe thorow without observation , little ones do ; and a man cannot be drunk , and never take notice of it ; or tempt his neighbours wife before he be aware ; therefore the lesse the instance be , the more likely it is to be a sin of infirmity : and yet if it be never so little , if it be observed , then it ceases to be a sin of infirmity . 3. But because great crimes , cannot pretend to passe undiscernably , it follows that they must come in at the door of malice , that is , of want of Grace , in the absence of the Spirit ; they destroy where ever they come , and the man dies if they passe upon him . It is true , there is flesh and blood in every regenerate man , but they do not both rule : the flesh is left to tempt , but not to prevail . And it were a strange condition , if both the godly and the ungodly were captives to sin , and infallibly should fall into temptation , and death , without all difference , saue onely , that the godly sins unwillingly , and the ungodly sins willingly . But if the same things be done by both , and God in both be dishonoured , and their duty prevaricated , the pretended unwillingnesse is the signe of a greater , and a baser slavery , and of a condition lesse to be endured . For the servitude which is against me is intollerable , but if I choose the state of a servant , I am free in my minde , — Libertatis servaveris umbram Si quicquid jubeare velis — certain it is , that such a person who fain would , but cannot choose but commit adultery , or drunkennesse , is the veriest slave to sin that can be imagined , and not at all freed by the Spirit , and by the liberty of the sons of God ; * and there is no other difference , but that the mistaken good man feels his slavery , and sees his chains , and his fetters ; but therefore it is certain that he is , because he sees himself to be a slave . No man can be a servant of sin , and a servant of righteousnesse at the same time , but every man that hath the Spirit of God , is a servant of righteousnesse ; and therefore whosoever finde great sins to be unavoidable , are in a state of death and reprobation , ( as to the present ) because they willingly , or unwillingly ( it matters not much , whether of the two ) are servants of sin . 2. Sins of infirmity as they are small in their instance , so they put on their degree of excusablenesse , onely according to the weaknesse , or infirmity of a mans understanding : So far as men ( without their own fault ) understand not their duty , or are possessed with weaknesse of principles , or are destitute and void of discourse , or discerning powers , and acts , so far if a sin creeps upon them , it is as naturall , and as free from a law , as is the action of a childe ; But if any thing else be mingled with it , if it proceed from any other principle , it is criminall and not excused by our infirmity ; because it is chosen : and a mans will hath no infirmity , but when it wants the grace of God , or is mastered with pass●ons , and sinfull appetites : and that infirmity is the state of unregeneration . 3. The violence or strength of a temptation is not sufficient to excuse an action , or to make it accountable upon the stock of a pitiable and innocent infirmity ; if it leaves the understanding still able to judge ; because a temptation cannot have any proper strengths but from our selves , and because we have in us a principle of basenesse which this temptation meets , and onely perswades me to act , because I love it . Joseph met with a temptation as violent and as strong as any man : and it is certain there are not many Christians but would fall under it , and call it , a sin of infirmity , since they have been taught so to abuse themselves , by sowing fig-leaves before their nakednesse : but because Joseph had a strength of God within him , the strength of chastity , therefore it could not at all prevail upon him . Some men cannot by any art of hell be tempted to be drunk ; others can no more resist an invitation to such a meeting , then they can refuse to die if a dagger were drunk with their heart blood ; because their evil habits made them weak on that part : And some man that is fortified against revenge it may be will certainly fall under a temptation to uncleannesse : for every temptation is great or small , according as the man is ; and a good word will certainly lead some men to an action of folly , while another will not think ten thousand pound a considerable argument to make him tell one single lie , against his duty , or his conscience . 4. No habituall sin , ( that is ) no sin that returns constantly , or frequently , that is repented of , and committed again , and still repented of , and then again committed , no such sin is excusable with a pretence of infirmity : Because that sin is certainly noted , and certainly condemned , and therefore returns , not because of the weaknesse of nature , but the weaknesse of grace : the principle of this , is an evil spirit , an habituall aversation from God , a dominion and empire of sin : and as no man for his inclination , and aptnesse to the sins of the flesh , is to be called carnall , if he corrects his inclinations , and turns them into vertues : so no man can be called spirituall for his good wishes , and apt inclinations to goodnesse , if these inclinations passe not into acts , and these acts into habits , and holy customs , and walkings , and conversation with God. But as natural concupiscence corrected becomes the matter of vertue : so these good inclinations , and condemnings of our sin , if they be ineffective and end in sinfull actions , are the perfect signes of a reprobate , and unregenerate estate . The sum is this . An animal man , a man under the law , a carnall man ( for as to this , they are all one ) is sold under sin , he is a servant of corruption , he falls frequently into the same sin to which he is tempted , he commends the Law , he consents to it that it is good , he does not commend sin , he does some little things against it , but they are weak and imperfect , his lust is stronger , his passions violent , and unmortified , his habits vitious , his customs sinfull , and he lives in the regions of sin , and dies and enters into its portion ; But a spirituall man , a man that is in the state of grace , who is born anew of the Spirit , that is regenerate by the Spirit of Christ , he is led by the Spirit , he lives in the Spirit , he does the works of God cheerfully , habitually , vigorously : and although he sometimes slips , yet it is but seldom , it is in small instances : his life is such as he cannot pretend to be justified by works , and merit , but by mercy , and the faith of Jesus Christ ; yet he never sins great sins : If he does , he is for that present falne from Gods favour ; and though possibly he may recover , ( and the smaller , or seldomer the sin is , the sooner may be his restitution ) yet for the present ( I say ) he is out of Gods favour . But he that remains in the grace of God , sins not by any deliberate , consultive , knowing act ; he is incident to such a surprize as may consist with the weaknesse , and judgement of a good man : but whatsoever is , or must be considered , if it cannot passe without consideration , it cannot passe without sin ; and therefore cannot enter upon him , while he remains in that state . For he that is in Christ , in him , the body is dead by reason of sin ; and the Gospel did not differ from the Law , but that the Gospel gives grace and strength to do whatsoever it commands , which the Law did not ; and the greatnesse of the promise of eternall life is such an argument to them that consider it , that it must needs be of force sufficient , to perswade a man to use all his faculties , and all his strength , that he may obtain it : God exacted all upon this stock ; God knew this could do every thing : Nihil non in hoc praesumpsit Deus ( said one . ) This will make a satyr chast , and Silenus to be sober , and Dives to be charitable , and Simon Magus himself to despise reputation , and Saul to turn from a Persecutor to an Apostle . For since God hath given us reason to choose , and a promise to exchange , for our temperance , and faith , and charity , and justice , for these ( I say ) happinesse , exceeding great happinesse ; that we shall be Kings , that we shall reigne with God , with Christ , with all the holy Angels for ever , in felicities so great , that we have not now capacities to understand it , our heart is not big enough to think it ; there cannot in the world be a greater inducement to engage us , a greater argument to oblige us to do our duty . God hath not in heaven a bigger argument ; it is not possible any thing in the world should be bigger : which because the Spirit of God hath revealed to us , if by this strength of his we walk in his wayes , and be ingrafted into his stock , and bring forth his fruits , the fruits of the Spirit , then we are in Christ , and Christ in us , then we walk in the spirit , and the Spirit dwels in us , and our portion shall be there , where Christ by the Spirit maketh intercession for us , that is , at the right hand of his Father for ever , and ever . Amen . Sermon . III. THE DESCENDING AND ENTAILED CVRSE Cut off . Exodus 20. part of the 5. verse . I the Lord thy God am a jealous God , visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children , unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me : 6. And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me , and keep my Commandements . IT is not necessary that a Common-wealth should give pensions to Oratours , to disswade men from running into houses infected with the plague , or to intreat them to be out of love with violent torments , or to create in men evil opinions concerning famine , or painfull deaths : Every man hath a sufficient stock of self love , upon the strength of which he hath entertained principles strong enough to secure himself against voluntary mischiefs , and from running into states of death and violence . A man would think that this I have now said , were in all cases certainly true ; and I would to God it were . For that which is the greatest evil , that which makes all evils , that which turns good into evil , and every naturall evil into a greater sorrow , and makes that sorrow lasting and perpetual ; that which sharpens the edge of swords , and makes agues to be fevers , and fevers to turn into plagues ; that which puts stings into ev●ry fly , and uneasinesse to every trifling accident , and strings every whip with scorpions , ( you know I must needs mean sin ) that evil , men suffer patiently , and choose willingly , and run after it greedily , and will not suffer themselves to be divorced from it : and therefore God hath hired servants to fight a-against this evil ; he hath set Angels with fiery swords to drive us from it , he hath imployed Advocates to plead against it , he hath made Laws and Decrees against it , he hath dispatched Prophets to warn us of it , and hath established an Order of men , men of his own family , and who are fed at his own charges , ( I mean the whole Order of the Clergy ) whose office is like watchmen to give an alarum at every approach of sin , with as much affrightment as if an enemy were neer , or the sea broke in upon the flat Countrey ; and all this , onely to perswade men not to be extremely miserable , for nothing , for vanity , for a trouble , for a disease : for some sins naturally are diseases , and all others are naturall nothings , meer privations , or imperfections , contrary to goodnesse , to felicity , to God himself : And yet God hath hedged sin round about with thorns , and sin of it self too , brings thorns : and it abuses a man in all his capacities , and it places poison in all those seats and receptions where he could possibly entertain happinesse . For if sin pretend to please the sense , it doth first abuse it shamefully , and then humours it : it can onely feed an impostume ; no naturall , reasonable , and perfective appetite : and besides its own essentiall appendages , and proprieties ; things are so ordered that a fire is kindled round about us ; and every thing within us , above , below us , and on every side of us , is an argument against , and an enemy to sin ; and for its single pretence , that it comes to please one of the senses , one of those faculties which are in us the same they are in a Cow , it hath an evil so communicative , that it doth not onely work like poison , to the dissolution of soul and body ; but it is a sicknesse like the plague , it infects all our houses , and corrupts the air , and the very breath of heaven : for it moves God first to jealousie , ( and that takes off his friendship and kindnesse towards us ) and then to anger ; and that makes him a resolved enemy ; and it brings evil , not onely upon our selves , but upon all our relatives ; upon our selves , and our children , even the children of our Nephews , Ad natos natorum , & qui nascentur ab illis , to the third and fourth generation : and therefore if a man should despise the eye , or sword of man , if he sins he is to contest with the jealousie of a provoked God : If he doth not regard himself , let him pity his pretty children : If he be angry and hates all that he sees , and is not solicitous for his children , yet let him pitty the generations which are yet unborn ; let him not bring a curse upon his whole family , and suffer his name to rot in curses and dishonours ; let not his memory remain polluted with an eternal stain : if all this will not deter a man from sin , there is no instrument left for thats mans vertue , no hopes of his felicity , no recovery of his sorrows and sicknesses ; but he must sink under the stroaks of a jealous God into the dishonour of eternal ages , and the groanings of a never ceasing sorrow . God is a jealous God ] that is the first great stroke , he strikes against sin , he speakes after the manner of men , and in so speaking we know , he that is jealous is suspicious , he is inquisitive , he is implacable . 1. God is pleased to represent himself a person very suspicious , both in respect of persons and things . For our persons we give him cause enough : for we are sinners from our Mothers womb ; we make solemn vows and break them instantly ; we cry for pardon and still renew the sin ; we desire God to try us once more , and we provoke him ten times further : we use the means of grace to cure us , and we turn them into vices and opportunites of sin ; we curse our sins and yet long for them extremely ; we renounce them publickly , and yet send for them in private and shew them kindnesse : we leave little offiences , but our faith and our charity is not strong enough to Master great ones ; and sometimes we are sham'd out of great ones , but yet entertain little ones ; or if we disdain both , yet we love to remember them , and delight in their past actions , and bring them home to us , at least by fiction of imagination ; and we love to be betrayed into them ; we would fain have things so ordered by chance or power that it may seem necessary to sin , or that it may become excusable , and dressed fitly for our own circumstances ; and for ever we long after the flesh pots of Egypt the garlick and the Onions ; and we so little do esteeme Manna , the food of Angels , we so loath the bread of Heaven , that any temptation will make us return to our fetters and our bondage ; and if we do not tempt our selves , yet we do not resist a temptation , or if we pray against it , we desire not to be heard ; and if we be assisted , yet we will not work together with those assistances ; so that unlesse we be forced , nothing will be done ; we are so willing to perish , and so unwilling to be saved , that we minister to God reason enough to suspect us ; and therefore it is no wonder that God is jealous of us : We keep company with Harlots and polluted persons ; we are kind to all Gods Enemies , and love that which he hates ; how can it be otherwise but that we should be suspected ? Let us make our best of it , and see if we can recover the good opinion of God ; for as yet we are but suspected persons . 2. And therefore God is inquisitive ; he looks for that which he fain would never finde ; God sets spies upon us ; he looks upon us himself through the Curtains of a cloud ; and he sends Angels to espie us in all our wayes , and permits the Devil to winnow us and to accuse us , and erects a Tribunal and witnesses in our own consciences , and he cannot want information concerning our smalest irregularities . Sometimes the Devil accuses , but he also sometimes accuses us falsly , either maliciously , or ignorantly , and we stand upright in that particular by innocence ; and sometimes by penitence , and all this while our Conscinence is our friend : Sometimes our conscience does accuse us unto God ; and then we stand convict by our own judgement . Sometimes , if our conscience acquit us , yet we are not thereby justified : For , as Moses accused the Jews ; so do Christ and his Apostles accuse us , not in their personss , but by their works ; and by their words , by the thing it self , by confronting the laws of Christ , and our practises . Sometimes the Angels who are the observers of all our works carry up sad tidings to the Court of Heaven against us . Thus , two Angels were the informers against Sodom ; but yet these were the last ; for before that time the cry of their iniquity had sounded loud and sadly in Heaven ; and all this is the direct and proper effect of his jealousie ; which sets spies upon all the actions , and watches the circumstances , and tel●s the steps , and attends the businesses , the recreations , the publications , and retirements of every man , and will not suffer a thought to wander but he uses means to correct it's errour , and to reduce it to himself . For he that created us and daily feeds us , he that intreats us to be happy , with an opportunity so passionate as if ( not we , but ) himself were to receive the favour ; he that would part with his onely Son from his bosome , and the embraces of eternity , and give him over to a shameful and cursed death for us , Cannot but be supposed to love us with a great love , and to own us with an intire title , and therefore that he would fain secure us to himself with an undivided possession : and it cannot but be infinitely reasonable : for to whom else should any of us belong , but to God ? Did the world create us ? Or did lust ever do us any good : Did Sathan ever suffer one stripe for our advantage ? Does not he study all the wayes to ruine us ? Doe the Sun or the stars preserve us alive ? Or do we get understanding from the Angels ? Did ever any joynt of our body knit , or our heart ever keep one true minute of a pulse without God ? Had not we been either nothing , or worse , that is , infinitely eternally miserable , but that God made us capable , and then pursued us with arts and devices of great mercy to force us to be happy ? Great reason therefore there is , that God should be jealous , lest we take any of our duty from him ▪ who hath so strangely deserved it all , and give it to a creature , or to our enemy , who cannot be capable of any . But however , it will concern us with much caution to observe our own wayes , since we are made a spectacle to God , to Angels , and to Men : God hath set so many spies upon us , the blessed Angels and the accursed Devils , good men and bad men , the eye of Heaven , and eye of that eye , God himself , all watching lest we rob God of his Honour , and our selves of our hopes ; For by his prime intention he hath chosen so to get his own glory , as may best consist with our felicity : His great designe is to be glorified in our being saved . 3. Gods jealousie hath a sadder effect then all this . For all this is for mercy ; but if we provoke this jealousie if he findes us in our spiritual whoredoms , he is implacable , that is , he is angry with us to eternity unlesse we returne in time : and if we do , it may be he will not be appeased in all instances : and when he forgives us he will make some reserves of his wrath ; he will punish our persons , or our estate ; he will chastise us at home , or abroad , in our bodies , or in our children ; for he will visit our sins upon our children from generation to generation : and if they be made miserable for our sins , they are unhappy in such parents ; but we bear the curse and the anger of God , even while they bear his rod : God visits the sins of the Fathers upon the children ] That●s the second Great stroke he strikes against sin , and is now to be considered . That God doth so is certain ; because he saith he doth ; and that this is just in him so to do , is also as certain therefore because he doth it . For as his lawes are our measures , so his actions , and his own will are his own measures . He that hath right over all things , and all persons , cannot do wrong to any thing . He that is essentially just , ( and there could be no such thing as justice , or justice it self could not be good , if it did not derive from him ) it is impossible for him to be unjust . But since God is pleased to speak after the manner of men , it may well consist with our duty to enquire into those manners of consideration , whereby we may understand the equity of God in this proceeding , and to be instructed also in our own danger , if we persevere in sin . 1. No man is made a sinner by the fault of another man without his own consent . For to every one God gives his choice , and sets life and death before every of the sons of Adam : and therefore this death is not a consequent to any sin , but our own . In this sense it is true , that if the fathers eat sowre grapes , the childrens teeth shall not be set on edge : and therefore the sin of Adam which was derived to all the world ; did not bring the world to any other death but temporall , by the intermediall stages of sickness , and temporal infelicities : And it is not said that sin passed upon all men , but death , & that also no otherwise but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in as much as al men have sinned ; as they have followed the steps of their father , so they are partakers of this death . And therefore it is very remarkable ; that death brought in by sin , was nothing superinduced to man ; man onely was reduced to his own naturall condition , from which before Adams fall he stood exempted by supernaturall favour ; and therefore although the taking away that extraordinary grace , or priviledge was a punishment ; yet the suffering the naturall death , was directly none ; but a condition of his creation , naturall , and therefore not primarily evil ; but if not good , yet at least indifferent . And the truth and purpose of this observation will extend it self , if we observe that before any man died , Christ was promised , by whom death was to lose its sting , by whom death did cease to be an evil , and was , or might be , if we do belong to Christ , a state of advantage . So that we by occasion of Adams sin , being returned to our naturall certainty of dying , do still even in this very particular stand between the blessing and the cursing . If we follow Christ , death is our friend ; If we imitate the praevarication of Adam , then death becomes an evil ; the condition of our nature , becomes the punishment of our own sin ; not of Adams : for although his sin brought death in , yet it is onely our sin that makes death to be evil : And I desire this to be observed , because it is of great use in vindicating the Divine justice in the matter of this question . The materiall part of the evil came from our father upon us , but the formality of it , the sting and the curse is onely by our selves . 2. For the fault of others many may become miserable , even all or any of those , whose relation is such to the sinner , that he in any sense may by such inflictions be punished , execrable , or oppressed . Indeed it were strange , if when a plague were in Ethiopia , the Athenians should be infected : or if the house of Pericles were visited , and Thucydides should die for it . For although there are some evils which ( as Plutarch saith ) are ansis & propagationibus praedita incredibili celeritate in longinquum penetrantia , such which can dart evil influences , as Porcupines do their quils ; yet as at so great distances the knowledge of any confederate events must needs be uncertain : so it is also uselesse , because we neither can joyne their causes , nor their circumstances , nor their accidents into any neighbourhood of conjunction : Relations are seldome noted at such distances ; and if they were , it is certain , so many accidents will intervene , that will out-weigh the efficacy of such relations ; that by any so far distant events , we cannot be instructed in any duty , nor understand our selves reproved for any fault . But when the relation is neerer , and is joyned under such a head , and common cause , that the influence is perceived , and the parts of it do usually communicate in benefit , notices , or infelicity ( especially if they relate to each other , as superiour and inferiour ) then it is certain , the sin is infectious ( I mean ) not onely in example , but also in punishment . And of this I shall shew . 1. In what instances usually it is so . 2. For what reasons it is so , and justly so . 3. In what degree , and in what cases it is so . 4. What remedies there are for this evil . 1. It is so in kingdoms , in Churches , in families , in politicall , artificiall , and even in accidentall societies . When David numbred the people , God was angry with him ; but he punished the people for the crime ; seventy thousand men died of the plague : and when God gave to David the choice of three plagues , he chose that of the pestilence , in which the meanest of the people , and such which have the least society with the acts and crimes of Kings are most commonly devoured , whilest the powerfull and sinning persons by arts of physick , and flight , by provisions of nature , and accidents are more commonly secured . * But the story of the Kings of Israel hath furnished us with an example fitted with all the stranger circumstances in this question . Joshuah had sworn to the Gibeonites ( who had craftily secured their lives , by exchanging it for their liberties : ) Almost 500. yeers after , Saul in zeal to the men of Israel and Judah slew many of them . After this Saul dies , and no question was made of it . But in the dayes of David there was a famine in the land three yeers together ; and God being inquired of , said it was because of Saul his killing the Gibeonites . What had the people to do with their Kings fault ? or at least , the people of David with the fault of Saul ? That we shall see anon : But see the way that was appointed to expiate the crime , and the calamity . David took seven of Sauls sons and hanged them up against the Sun , and after that God was intreated for the land . The story observes one circumstance more : that for the kindnesse of Jonathan , David spared Mephibosheth . Now this story doth not onely instance in Kingdoms , but in families too . The fathers fault is punished upon the sons of the family ; and the Kings fault upon the people of his land , even after the death of the King , after the death of the father . Thus God visited the sin of Ahab , partly upon himself , partly upon his sons . I will not bring the evil in his dayes , but in his sons dayes will I bring the evil upon his house . Thus did God slay the childe of Bathsheba for the sin of his father David : and the whole family of Eli , all his kinred of the neerer lines were thrust from the priesthood , and a curse made to descend upon his children for many ages , that all the males should die young , and in the flower of their youth . The boldnesse and impiety of Cham made his posterity to be accursed , and brought slavery into the world . Because Amalek fought with the sons of Israel at Rephidim , God took up a quarrell against the nation for ever . And above all examples is that of the Jews , who put to death the Lord of life , and made their nation to be an anathema for ever , untill the day of restitution . His blood be upon us , and upon our children . If we shed innocent blood , If we provoke God to wrath , If we oppresse the poor , If we crucifie the Lord of life again and put him to an open shame , the wrath of God will be upon us and upon our children , to make us a cursed family , and who are the sinners , to be the stock and original of the curse ; the pedigree of the misery shall derive from us . This last instance went further then the other of families and kingdoms . For not onely the single families of the Jews were made miserable for their Fathers murdering the Lord of life , nor also was the Nation extinguished alone for the sins of their Rulers , but the religion was removed ; it ceased to be God peoples ; the synagogue was rejected , and her vail rent , and her privacies dismantled , and the Gentiles were made to be Gods people , when the Jews inclosure was dispark●d . I need not further to instance this proposition in the case of National Churches , though it is a sad calamity that is fallen upon the al seven Churches of Asia ( to whom the spirit of God wrote seven Epistles by Saint John ) and almost all the Churches of Africa , where Christ was worshipped , and now Mahomet is thrust in substitution , and the people are servants , and the religion is extinguished , or where it remains , it shines like the Moon in an Eclipse , or like the least spark of the pleiades , seen but seldom , And that rather shining like a gloworm , then a taper enkindled with a beam of the Sun of righteousnesse . I shall adde no more instances to verifie the truth of this , save onely I shall observe to you , that even there is danger in being in evil company , in suspected places , in the civil societies and fellowships of wicked men . — Vetabo , qui Cereris sacrum vulgarit arcanae , sub ijsdem sit trabibus , fragilemque mecum solvat phaselum , saepe Diespiter Neglectus , in cesto addidit in tegrum And it hapned to the Mariners who carried Jonah , to be in danger with a horrid storme , because Jonah was there who had sinned against the Lord. Many times the sin of one man is punished by the falling of a house or a wall upon him , and then al the family are like to be crushed with the same ruine ; so dangerous , so pestilential , so infectious a thing is sin , that it scatters the poison of its breath to all the neighbourhood , and makes that the man ought to be avoided like a person infected with the plague . Next I am to consider why this is so , and why it is justly so ? To this I answer . 1. Between Kings and their people , Parents and their children there is so great a necessitude , propriety and entercourse of nature , dominion , right and possession , that they are by God and the laws of Nations reckoned as their Goods , and their blessings . The honour of a King is in the multitude of his people ; and children are a gift that cometh of the Lord ; and happy is that man that hath his quiver full of them : and Lo thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord ; his wife shall be like the fruitful vine by the wals of his house , his children like olive branches round about his Table . Now if children be a blessing , then to take them away in anger is a curse : and if the losse of flocks and herds , the burning of houses , the blasting of fields be a curse ; how much greater is it to lose our children , and to see God slay them before our eyes , in hatred to our persons , and detestation and loathing of our basenesse . When Jobs Messengers told him the sad stories of fire from Heaven , the burning his sheep , and that the Sabeans had driven his Oxen away , and the Chaldeans had stolne his Camels ; these were sad arrests to his troubled spirit : but it was reserved as the last blow of that sad execution that the ruines of a house had crush'd his Sons and Daughters to their graves . Sons & daughters are greater blessings then sheep & Oxen : they are not servants of profit as sheep are , but they secure greater ends of blesssing ; they preserve your Names ; they are so many titles of provision & providence ; every new childe is a new title to Gods care of that family : They serve the ends of honour , of commonwealths , and Kingdoms ; they are images of our souls , and images of God , and therefore are great blessings ; and by consequence , they are great riches , though they are not to be sold for mony : and surely he that hath a cabinet of invaluable jewels will think himself rich though he never sells them . Does God take care for Oxen ? ( said our blessed Saviour ) much more for you : yea all and every one of your children are of more value then many Oxen : when therefore God for your sin strikes them with crookednesse , with deformity , with foolishnesse , with impertinent and caytive spirits , with hasty or sudden deaths , it is a greater curse to us , then to lose whole herds of cattel , of which ( it is certain ) most men would be very sensible They are our goods ; they are our blessings from God ; therefore we are striken , when for our sakes they dye : Therefore we may properly be punished by evils happening to our Relatives . 2. But as this is a punishment to us , so it is not un●ust as to them , though they be innocent . For all the calamities of this life are incident to the most Godly persons of the world ; and since the King of Heaven and earth was made a man of sorrows , it cannot be called unjust or intolerable that innocent persons should be pressed with temporal infelicities : onely in such cases we must distinguish the misery from the punishment ; for that all the world dyes is a punishment of Adams sin : but it is no evil to those single persons that die in the Lord ; for they are blessed in their death . Jonathan was killed the same day with his Father the King ; and this was a punishment to Saul indeed ; but to Jonathan it was a blessing : for since God had appointed the kingdom to his neighbour , it was more honourable for him to die fighting the Lords battel , then to live and see himself the lasting testimony of Gods curse upon his Father ; who lost the Kingdom from his family by his disobedience . That death is a blessing which ends an Honorable , and prevents an inglorious life . And our children ( it may be ) shall be sanctified by a sorrow , and purified by the fire of affliction , and they shall receive the blessing of it ; but it is to their Fathers a curse , who shall wound their own hearts with sorrow , and cover their heads with a robe of shame , for bringing so great evil upon their house . 3. God hath many ends of providence to serve in this dispensation of his judgements . * 1. He expresses the highest indignation against sin ; and makes his examples lasting , communicative , and of great effect ; it is a little image of hell ; and we shall the lesse wonder that God with the pains of eternity punishes the sins of time , when with our eyes we see him punish a transient action with a lasting judgement . * 2. It arrests the spirits of men , and surprises their loosenesses , and restrains their gaiety , when we observe that the judgements of God finde us out in all relations , and turns our comforts into sadnesse , and makes our families the scene of sorrows , and we can escape him no where ; and by sin are made obnoxious not alone to personall judgements ; but that we are made like the fountains of the dead sea , springs of the lake of Sodom ; in stead of refreshing our families with blessings , we leave them brimstone and drought , and poison , and an evil name , and the wrath of God , and a treasure of wrath ; and their Fathers sins for their portion and inheritance . * Naturalists say that when the leading goats in the Greek Islands have taken an Eryngus or sea holly into their mouths , all the herd will stand still , till the herds man comes and forces it out , as apprehending the evil that will come to them all , if any of them especially their Principals , tast an unwholesome plant : and indeed it is of a General concernment , that the Master of a family , or the Prince of a people , from whom as from a fountain many issues do derive upon their Relatives , should be springs of health and sanctity and blessing . It is a great right and propriety that a King hath in his people , or a Father in his children tha● even their sins can do these a mischiefe , not onely by a direct violence , but by the execution of Gods wrath : God hath made strange bands and vessels , or chanels of communication between them , when even the anger of God shal be conveied by the conduits of such relations . That would be considered . It binds them neerer then our new doctrine will endure : but it also binds us to pray for them and for their Holinesse , and good Government , as earnestly as we would be delivered from death , or sicknesse , or poverty , or war , or the wrath of God in any instance . 3. This also will satisfie the fearfulnesse of such persons who think the evil prosperous , and call the proud happy . No man can be called happy till he be dead ; nor then neither , if he lived vitiously : Look how God handles him in his children , in his family , in his grand-children ; and as it tells that generation which sees the judgement , that God was all the while angry with him ; so it supports the spirits of men in the intervall , and entertains them with the expectation of a certain hope ; for if I do not live to see his sin punished , yet his posterity may finde themselves accursed , and feel their fathers sins in their own calamity ; and the expectation , or belief of that , may relieve my oppression , and ease my sorrows , while I know that God will bear my injury in a lasting record , and when I have forgot it , will bring it forth to judgement . The Athenians were highly pleased when they saw honours done to the posterity of Cimon [ a good man , and a rare citizen , but murde●ed for being wise and vertuous ] and when at the same time they saw a decree of banishment passe against the children of Lacharis , and Aristo , they laid their hands upon their mouthes , and with silence did admire the justice of the Power above . The sum of this is ; That in sending evils upon the posterity of evil men , God serves many ends of providence , some of wisedome , some of mercy , some of justice , and contradicts none : For the evil of the innocent son is the fathers punishment upon the stock of his sin , and his relation ; but the sad accident happens to the son upon the score of nature , and many ends of providence , and mercy . To which I adde , that if any , even the greatest temporall evil may fall upon a man [ as blindnesse did upon the blinde man in the Gospel ] when neither he nor his parents have sinned ; much more may it do so , when his parents have , though he have not . For there is a neerer , or more visible commensuration of justice , between the parents sin , and the sons sicknesse , then between the evil of the son , and the innocence of father and son together . The dispensation therefore is righteous and severe . 3. I am now to consider in what degree , and in what cases , this is usuall , or to be expected . It is in the Text instanced in the matter of worshipping images . God is so jealous of his honour , that he will not suffer an image of himself to be made , lest the image dishonour the substance ; nor any image of a creature to be worshipped , though with a lesse honour , lest that lesse swell up into a greater : and he that is thus jealous of his honour , and therefore so instances it , is also very curious of it in all other particulars ; and though to punish the sins of fathers upon the children , be more solemnly threatned in this sin onely , yet we finde it inflicted indifferently in any other great sin , as appears in the former precedents . This one thing I desire to be strictly observed : That it is with much errour , and great indiligence usually taught in this question , that the wrath of God descends from fathers to children onely in case the children imitate , and write after their fathers copy ; supposing these words [ in them that hate me ] to relate to the children . But this is expressely against the words of the Text , and the examples of the thing : God afflicts good children of evil parents , for their fathers sins ; and the words are plain and determinate : God visits the sins of the fathers in tertiam & quartam generationem eorum qui oderunt me ; to the third generation of them , of those fathers that hate me : that is , upon the great-grand-children of such parents . So that if the great-grandfathers be haters of God , and lovers of iniquity , it may intail a curse upon so many generations , though the children be haters of their fathers hatred , and lovers of God. * And this hath been observed even by wise men among the Heathens whose stories tell , that Antigonus was punished for the tyranny of his father Demetrius ; Phyleus for his father Augeas ; pious and wise Nestor for his father Neleus : And it was so in the case of Jonathan , who lost the Kingdom and his life upon the stock of his fathers sins ; and the innocent childe of David was slain by the anger of God , not against the childe , who never had deserved it , but the fathers adultery . I need not here repeat what I said in vindication of the Divine justice ; but I observed this , to represent the danger of a sinning father , or mother , when it shall so infect the family with curses , that it shall ruine a wise and an innocent son ; and that vertue and innocence which shall by God be accepted as sufficient through the Divine mercy to bring the son to Heaven , yet it may be shall not be accepted to quit him from feeling the curse of his fathers crime , in a load of temporall infelicities : And who but a villain would ruine and undo a wise , a vertuous , and his own son ? But so it is in all the world . A traytor is condemned to suffer death himself , and his posterity are made beggers , and dishonourable , his Escutcheon is reversed , his arms of honour are extinguished , the noblesse of his Ancestours is forgotten , but his own sin is not , while men by the characters of infamy are taught to call that family accursed which had so base a father . Tiresias was esteemed unfortunate because he could not see his friends and children : the poor man was blinde with age : But Athamas and Agave were more miserable , who did see their children , but took them for Lions , and Stags ; The parents were miserably frantick : But of all , they deplored the misery of Hercules ; who when he saw his children , took them for enemies , and endeavoured to destroy them . And this is the case of all vitious parents . That a mans enemies were they of his own house , was accounted a great calamity : but it is worse , when we love them tenderly , and fondly , and yet do them all the despite we wish to enemies ; But so it is , that in many cases we do more mischief to our children , then if we should strangle them when they are newly taken from their mothers knees , or tear them in pieces as Medea did her brother Absyrtus ; For to leave them to inherit a curse , to leave them an intaild calamity , a misery , a disease , the wrath of God for an inheritance , that it may descend upon them , and remark the family like their coat of arms , is to be the parent of evil , the ruine of our family , the causes of mischief of them , who ought to be dearer to us then our own eyes . And let us remember this , when we are tempted to provoke the jealous God : let us consider that his anger hath a progeny , and a descending line , and it may break out in the dayes of our Nephews . A Greek woman was accused of adultery , because she brought forth a Black-moor ; and could not acquit her self till she had proved that she had descended in the fourth degree from an Ethiopian : Her great Grand-father was a Moor. And if Naturalists say true , that Nephews are very often liker to their Grandfathers then to their Fathers ; we see that the semblance of our souls , and the character of the person , is conveyed by secret and undiscernable conveyances . Naturall production conveyes originall sin ; and therefore , by the chanels of the body , it is not strange that men convey an hereditary sin : And lustfull sons are usually born to Satyrs ; and monsters of intemperance to the drunkards ; and there are also hereditary diseases : which if in the fathers they were effects of their sin , as it is in many cases , it is notorious that the fathers sin is punished , and the punishment conveyed by naturall instruments : so that it cannot be a wonder , but it ought to be a huge affrightment from a state of sin ; If a man can be capable of so much charity , as to love himself in his own person , or in the images of his nature , and heirs of his fortunes , and the supports of his family , in the children that God hath given him . Consider therefore that you do not onely act your own tragedies when you sin , but you represent and effect the fortune of your children ; you slay them with your own barbarous and inhumane hands . Onely be pleased to compare the variety of estates ; of your own and your children . If they on earth be miserable many times for their fathers sins , how great a state of misery is that in hell which they suffer for their own ? And how vile a person is that father , or mother , who for a little money , or to please a lust , will be a parricide , and imbrue his hands in the blood of his own children ? The Intail of Curses cut off . Part II. 4. I Am to consider what remedies there are for sons to cut off this intail of curses ; and whether , and by what means it is possible for sons to prevent the being punished for their fathers sins ? And since this thing is so perplext and intricate , hath so easie an objection , and so hard an answer , looks so like a cruelty , and so unlike a justice , ( though it be infinitely just , and very severe , and a huge enemy to sin ) it cannot be thought but that there are not onely wayes left to reconcile Gods proceeding to the strict rules of justice , but also the condition of man to the possibilities of Gods usuall mercies . One said of old , Ex tarditate si Dij sontes praetereant , & insontes plectant , justitiam suam non sic rectè resarciunt . If God be so slow to punish the guilty , that the punishment be deferred till the death of the guilty person ; and that God shall be forced to punish the innocent , or to let the sin quite escape unpunished ▪ it will be something hard to joyn that justice with mercy , or to joyn that action with justice . Indeed it will seem strange , but the reason of its justice , I have already discoursed : If now we can finde how to reconcile this to Gods mercy too , or can learn how it may be turned into a mercy , we need to take no other care , but that for our own particular we take heed we never tempt Gods anger upon our families , and that by competent and apt instruments , we indeavour to cancell the decree , if it be gone out against our families ; for then we make use of that severity which God intended ; and our selves shall be refreshed in the shades , and by the cooling brooks of the Divine mercy ; even then when we see the wrath of God breaking out upon the families round about us . 1. The first means to cut off the intail of wrath and cursings from a family , is for the sons to disavow those signall actions of impiety , in which their fathers were deeply guilty , and by which they stained great parts of their life , or have done something of very great unworthinesse and disreputation . Si quis paterni vitij nascitur haeres , nascitur & poenae : The heir of his fathers wickednesse , is the heir of his fathers curse ; and a son comes to inherite a wickednesse from his father three wayes . 1. By approving , or any wayes consenting to his fathers Sin : As by speaking of it without regret , or shame ; by pleasing himself in the story ; or by having an evil minde , apt to counsell or do the like , if the same circumstances should occur . For a son may contract a sin , not onely by derivation , and the contagion of example , but by approbation ; not onely by a corporall , but by a virtuall contact ; not onely by transcribing an evil copy , but by commending it : and a man may have animum leprosum in cute mundâ , a leprous and a polluted minde even for nothing , even for an empty and ineffective lust . An evil minde may contract the curse of an evil action ; and though the son of a covetous father prove a prodigall , yet if he loves his fathers vice for ministring to his vanity , he is disposed , not onely to a judgement for his own prodigality , but also to the curse of his fathers avarice . 2. The son may inherit his fathers wickednesse by imitation and direct practise , and then the curse is like to come to purpose ; a curse by accumulation , a treasure of wrath : and then the children as they arrive to the height of wickednesse by a speedy passage , as being t●rust forward by an active example , by countenance , by education , by a seldom restraint , by a remisse discipline ; so they ascertain a curse to the family , by being a perverse generation , a family set up in opposition against God , by continuing and increasing the provocation . 3. Sons inherit their fathers crimes , by receiving , and enjoying the purchases of their rapine , injustice , and oppression , by rising upon the ruine of their fathers souls , by sitting warme in the furres which their father stole , and walking in the grounds which are water'd with the tears of oppressed orphanes , and widows . Now in all these cases the rule holds . If the son inherits the sin , he cannot call it unjust , if he inherits also his fathers punishment . But to rescind the fatall chain and break in sunder the line of Gods anger , a son is tied in all these cases to disavow his fathers crime . But because the cases are severall , he must also in severall manners do it . 1. Every man is bound not to glory in , or speak honour of the powerfull and unjust actions of his Ancestors ▪ But as all the sons of Adam are bound to be ashamed of that originall stain which they derive from the loins of their abused Father , they must be humbled in it , they must deplore it as an evil Mother , and a troublesome daughter : so must children account it amongst the crosses of their family , and the stains of their honour , that they passed thorow so impure chanels , that in the sense of morality as well as nature , they can say to corruption , thou art my father , and to rottennesse , thou art my mother . I do not say that sons are bound to publish , or declaim against their father crimes , and to speak of their shame in Piazza's and before Tribunals ; that indeed were a sure way to bring their fathers sins upon their own heads , by their own faults . No : Like Sem , and Japhet they must go backward , and cast a vail upon their nakednesse and shame , lest they bring the curse of their fathers angry dishonour upon their own impious and unrelenting heads . Noahs drunkennesse fell upon Chams head , because he did not hide the opennesse of his fathers follies : he made his father ridiculous ; but did not endeavour either to amend the sin , or to wrap the dishonour in a pious covering He that goes to disavow his fathers sin by publishing his shame , hides an ill face with a more ugly vizor and endeavours by torches and phantastick lights , to quench the burning of that house which his father set on fire : These fires are to be smothered and so extinguished . I deny not but it may become the piety of a childe to tell a sad story , to mourn , and represent a reall grief for so great a misery , as is a wicked father or mother ; but this is to be done with a tendernesse , as nice as we would dresse an eye withall ; it must be onely with designes of charity , of counsell , of ease , and with much prudence , and a sad spirit : These things being secured , that which in this case remains is , that with all entercourses between God and our selves , we disavow the crime . Children are bound to pray to God , to sanctifie , to cure , to forgive their parents : and even concerning the sins of our forefathers , the Church hath taught us in her Letanies , to pray that God would be pleased to forgive them , so that neither we , nor they may sink under the wrath of God for them . [ Remember not Lord our offences , nor the offences of our forefathers , neither take thou vengeance of our sins : Ours ] in common and conjunction : And David confessed to God , and humbled himself for the sins of his Ancestors and Decessors : Our fathers have done amisse , and dealt wickedly , neither kept they thy great goodnesse in remembrance , but were disobedient at the sea , even at the red sea . So did good King Josiah , Great is the wrath of the Lord which is kindled against us , because our fathers have not hearkned unto the words of this book . But this is to be done between God and our selves : or if in publike , then to be done by generall accusation ; that God onely may read our particular sorrows in the single shame of our families registred in our hearts , and represented to him with humiliation , shame and a hearty prayer . 2. Those curses which descend from the Fathers to the children by imitation of the crimes of their progenitors , are to be cut off by special and personal repentance , and prayer , as being a state directly opposite to that which procured the curse : And if the sons be pious , or return to an early and a severe course of Holy living , they are to be remedied as other innocent and pious persons are , who are sufferers under the burdens of their Relatives , whom I shall consider by and by . Onely observe this ; that no publick or imaginative disavowings no ceremonial and pompous rescission of our Fathers crimes can be sufficient to interrupt the succession of the curse , if the children do secretly practise or approve what they in pretence or ceremony disavow : and this is clearly proved ( and it will help to explicate that difficult saying of our B. Saviour , ) Wo unto you ▪ for ye build the sepulchre of the Prophets and your Fathers killed them : truely ye beare witnesse that ye allow the deeds of your fathers : for they killed them and ye build their sepulchres : that is , the Pharisees were huge hypocrites , and adorned the monuments of the Martyr Prophets , and in words disclaim●d their Fathers sin , but in deeds and designe they approved it . 1. Because they secretly wish'd all such persons dead ; colebant mortuos quos nollent Superstites : In charity to themselves some men wish their enemies in Heaven , and would be at charges for a monument for them , that their malice and their power and their bones might rest in the same grave : and yet that wish , and that expence is no testimony of their Charity but of their anger . 2. These men were willing that the monuments of those Prophets should remain and be a visible affrightment to all such bold persons and severe reprehenders as they were ; and therefore they builded their Sepulchres to be as beacons , and publications of danger to al Honest Preachers . And this was the account Saint Chrysostome gave of the place . 3. To which also the circumstances of the place concur . For they onely said , if they had lived in their Fathers dayes they would not have done as they did ; but it is certain they approved it , because they pursued the same courses : and therefore our blessed Saviour calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Not onely the children of them that did kill the Prophets , but a Killing generation ; the sin also descends upon you , for ye have the same killing minde , and although you honour them that are dead , and cannot shame you ; yet you designe the same usages against them that are alive even against the Lord of the Prophets , against Christ himself , whom ye will kil : and as Dion said of Caracalla 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The man was troublesome to all good men when they were alive , but did them honour when they were dead : And when Herod had killed Aristobulus , yet he made him a most magnificent funeral ; & because the Pharisees were of the same humor , therefore our blessed Saviour bids them to fil up the measure of their Fathers iniquity ; for they still continued the malice , onely they painted it over with a pretence of piety , and of disavowing their Fathers sin ; which if they had done really , they being children of persecutors , and much lesse could the adorning of the Prophets sepulchres have been just cause of a wo from Christ ; this being an act of piety , and the other of nature , inevitable , and not chosen by them ; and therefore not chargable upon them . He therefore that will to reall purposes disavow his Fathers crimes ; must do it heartily and humbly , and charitably , and throw off all affections to the like actions . For he that findes fault with his Father for killing Isaiah , or Jeremy , and himself shall ki●l Aristobulus and John the Baptist ; he that is angry because the old Prophets were murdered , and shall imprison , and begger and destroy the new ones ; He that disavows the persecution in the primitive times , and honours the memory of the dead Martyrs , and yet every day makes new ones ; He that blames the oppression of the Country by any of his predecessors , and yet shall continue to oppresse his Tenants , and all that are within his gripe , that man cannot hope to be eased from the curse of his Fathers sins : He goes on to imitate them , and therefore to fill up their measure , and to reap a full treasure of wrath . 3. But concerning the third ; there is yet more difficulty . Those sons that inherit their Fathers sins by possessing the price of their Fathers souls , that is , by enjoying the goods gotten by their Fathers rapine , may certainly quit the inheritance of the curse , if they quit the purchase of the sin , that is , if they pay their Fathers debts ; his debts of contract , and his debts of justice ; his debts of entercourse , and his debts of oppression . I do not say that every man is bound to restore all the land which his Ancestors have unjustly snatched : for when by law the possession is established , though the Grandfather entred like a thief , yet the Grand-child is bonae fidei possessor , and may enjoy it justly : and the reasons of this are great , and necessary ; for the avoiding eternal suites , and perpetual diseases of rest and conscience : because there is no estate in the world that could be enjoyed by any man honestly , if posterity were bound to make restitution of all the wrongs done by their progenitors . But although the children of the far removed lines , are not obliged to restitution , yet others are ; and some for the same , some for other reasons . 1 ▪ Sons are tied to restore what their Fathers did usurpe , or to make agreement , and an acceptable recompence for it , if the case be visible , evident and notorious , and the oppressed party demands it ; because in this case the law hath not setled the possession in the new tenant : or if a judge hath , it is by injury ; and there is yet no collateral accidental title transferred by long possession , as it is in other cases : and therefore if the son continues to oppresse the same person , whom his Father first injured , he may well expect to be the heire of his Fathers curse , as well as of his cursed purchase . 2. Whether by law and justice , or not , the person be obliged , nay although by all the solemnities of law the unjust purchase be established , and that in conscience the Grand-children be not obliged to restitution in their own particulars , but may continue to enjoy it without a new sin ; yet if we see a curse descending upon the family for the old oppression done in the dayes of our Grandfathers ; or if we probably suspect that to be the cause ; then if we make restitution , we also most certainly remove the curse : because we take away the matter upon which the curse is grounded : I do not say , we sin , if we do not restore : but that , if we do not , we may still be punished ; The reason of this is clear and visible : For as without our faults , in many cases we may enjoy those lands which our forefathers got unjustly : so without our faults we may be punished for them . For as they have transmitted the benefit to us , it is but reasonable we should suffer the appendant calamity . If we receive good , we must also venture the evil that comes along with it : res transit cum suo onere . All lands and possessions passe with their proper burdens . And if any of my Ancestors was a Tenant , and a servant , and held his lands as a Villane to his Lord , his posterity also must do so , though accidentally they become noble . The case is the same If my Ancestors entred unjustly , there is a curse and a plague that is due to that oppression and injustice ; and that is the burden of the land , and it descends all along with it : And although I by the consent of laws am a just possessor , yet I am obliged to the burden that comes with the land : I am indeed another kinde of person then my Grand-father ; he was an usurper , but I am a just possessor ; but because in respect of the land this was but an accidentall change , therefore I still am liable to the burden , and the curse that descends with it : but the way to take off the curse is to quit the title ; and yet a man may choose . It may be to loose the land would be the bigger curse : but if it be not ; the way is certain how you may be rid of it . * There was a custome among the Greeks that the children of them that dyed of consumptions or dropsies , all the while their Fathers bodies were burning in their funeral piles did sit with their feet in cold water , hoping that such a lustration , and ceremony would take off the lineal and descending contagion from the children : I know not what cure they found by their superstition ; but we may be sure , that if we wash ( not our feet , but ) our hands of all the unjust purchases which our Fathers have transmitted to us , their hydropick thirst of wealth shall not transmit to us a consumption of estate , or any other curse . But this remedy is onely in the matter of injury , or oppression , not in the case of other sins : because other sins were transient ; and as the guilt did not passe upon the children , so neither did the exteriour and permanent effect : and therefore in other sins ( in case they do derive a curse ) it cannot be removed , as in the matter of unjust possession , it may be ; whose effect ( we may so order it ) shall no more stick to us then the guilt of our fathers personal actions . The summe is this . As Kingdoms use to expiate the faults of others by acts of justice : and as Churches use to remove the accursed thing from sticking to the communities of the faithful , and the sins of Christians from being required of the whole Congregation , by excommunicating and censuring the delinquent persons : so the Heires and sons of families , are to remove from their house the curse descending from their Fathers loins , by 1. Acts of disavowing the sins of their Ancestors , 2. By praying for pardon , 3. by being humbled for them , 4. By renouncing the example and , 5. Quitting the affection to the crimes , 6. By not imitaing the actions in Kinde , or in semblance and similitude ; and lastly , 7. By refusing to rejoyce in the ungodly purchases in which their Fathers did amisse and dealt wickedly . Secondly , But after all this , many cases do occur , in which we finde that innocent sons are punished : The remedies I have already discoursed of , are for such children who have in some manner or other contracted and derived the sin upon themselves . But if we inquire , how those sons who have no entercourse , or affinity with their fathers sins ; or whose fathers sins were so transient , that no benefit or effect did passe upon their posterity , how they may prevent , or take off the curse that lyes upon the family , for their Fathers faults ; this will have some distinct considerations . 1. The pious children of evil Parents are to stand firme upon the confidence of the Divine grace and mercy ; and upon that persuasion to begin to work upon a new stock . For it is as certain that he may derive a blessing upon his Posterity , as that his Parents could transmit a curse : and if any man by piety shall procure Gods favour to his Relatives and children , it is certain that he hath done more , then to escape the punishment of his Fathers follies . If sin doth abound , and evils by sin are derived from his Parents , much more shall grace super abound , and mercy by grace . If he was in danger from the crimes of others , much rather shall he be secured by his own piety : For if God punishes the sins of the fathers to four generations , yet he rewards the piety of fathers to ten , to hundreds , and to thousands . Many of the Ancestors of Abraham were persons not noted for religion ; but suffered in the publike impiety , and almost universal idolatry of their ages ; and yet all the evils that could thence descend upon the family , were wiped off ; and God began to reckon with Abraham upon a new stock of blessings and piety ; and he was under God , the Original of so great a blessing , that his family for 1500. years together had from him a title to many favours ; and what ever evils did chance to them in the descending ages , were but single evils , in respect of that treasure of mercies which the fathers piety had obtained to the whole nation . And it is remarkable to observe ; how blessings did stick to them for their fathers sakes , even whether they would or no. For first , his Grand-childe Esau proved a naughty man , and he lost the great blessing which was intailed upon the family ; but he got , not a curse , but a lesse blessing : and yet because he lost the greater blessing , God excluded him from being reckoned in the elder time ; for God foreseeing the event , so ordered it that he should first lose his birth-right , and then lose the blessing ; for it was to be certain , the family must be reckoned for prosperous in the proper line ; and yet God blessed Esau into a great Nation , and made him the Father of many Princes . Now the line of blessing being reckoned in Jacob , God blessed his family strangely , and by miracle , for almost five generations ; he brought them from Egypt by mighty signes and wonders ; and when for sin they all died in their way to Canaan , two onely excepted , God so ordered it , that they were all reckoned as single deaths , the Nation still descending like a river whose waters were drunk up for the beauvrage of an army , but still it keeps its name and current , and the waters are supplied by showers , and springs , and providence . After this , iniquity still increased , and then God struck deeper , and spread curses upon whole families : he translated the Priesthood from line to line , he removed the Kingome from one family to another ; and still they sinned worse ; and then we read that God smote almost a whole tribe ; the tribe of Benjmin was almost extinguished about the matter of the Levites Concubine : but still God remembred his promise which he made with their forefathers , and that breach was made up After this we finde a greater rupture made ▪ and ten tribes fell into idolatry , and ten tribes were carried captives into Assyria and never came again : But still God remembred his covenant with Abraham , and left two Tribes ; but they were restlesse in their provocation of the God of Abraham ; and they also were carried captive : But still God was the God of their fathers and brought them back , and placed them safe , and they grew again into a Kingdom and should have remained for ever but that they killed one that was greater then Abraham , even the Messias ; and then they were rooted out , and the old covenant cast off , and God delighted no more to be called the God of Abraham ; but the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. As long as God kept that relation , so long for the fathers sakes they had a title and an inheritance to a blessing : for so saith Saint Paul [ As touching the election they are beloved for the Fathers sakes . ] I did insist the longer upon this instance that I might remonstrate how great and how sure , and how persevering mercies , a pious Father of a family may derive upon his succeeding generations : And if we do but tread in the footsteps of our Father Abraham , we shall inherit as certain blessings . But then I pray , adde these considerations . 1. If a great impiety , and a clamorous wickednesse hath stained the honour of a family , and discomposed its title to the Divine mercies and protection , it is not an ordinary piety that can restore this family . An ordinary , even course of life , full of sweetnesse , and innocency will secure every single person in his own eternal interest : but that piety which must be a spring of blessings , and communicative to others , that must plead against the sins of their Ancestors , and begin a new bank of mercies for the Relatives ; that , must be a great , and excellent , a very religious state of life . A smal pension will maintain a single person : but he that hath a numerous family , and many to provide for , needs a greater providence of God , and a bigger provision for their maintenance : and a small revenue will not keep up the dignity of a great house ; especially , if it be charged with a great debt : And this is the very state of the present question . That piety that must be instrumental to take off the curse imminent upon a family ; to blesse a numerous posterity , to secure a fair condition to many ages , and to pay the debts of their Fathers sins , must be so large , as that all necessary expences , and dutyes for his own soul being first discharged , it may be remarkeable in great expressions it may be exemplar to all the family , it may be of universal efficacie , large in the extension of parts , deep in the intension of degrees : and then , as the root of a tree receives nourishment , not onely sufficient to preserve its own life , but to transmit a plastick juice to the trunk of the tree , and from thence to the utmost branch and smallest gem that knots in the most distant part : So shall the great and exemplar piety of the father of a family , not onely preserve to the interest of his own soul the life of grace , and hopes of glory , but shall be a quickning spirit , active and communicative of ablessing , not onely to the trunk of the tree to the body and rightly descending line , but even to the collateral branches , to the most distant relatives , and all that shall claim a kinred , shall have a title to a blessing . And this was the way that was prescribed to the family of Eli , upon whom a sad curse was intailed that there should not be an old man of the family for ever , and that they should be beggers , and lose the office of Priesthood : by the counsel of R. Johanan the son of Zacheus all the family betook themselves to a great , a strict and a severe religion ; and God was intreated to revoke his decree , to be reconciled to the family , to restore them to the common condition of men , from whence they stood separate by the displeasure of God against the crime of Eli , and his Sons Hophni and Phinehas . This course is sure either to take off the judgement , or to change it into a blessing ; to take a way the rod , or the smart and evil of it ; to convert the punishment into a meer naturall , or humane chance , and that chance to the opportunity of a vertue , and that vertue to the occasion of a crown . 2. It is of great use for the securing of families , that every Master of a family order his life so that his piety and vertue be as communicative as is posible ; that is , that he secure the religion of his whole family , by a severe supravision and animadversion , and by cutting off all those unprofitable and hurtful branches which load the tree and hinder the growth , and stock & disimprove the fruit , & revert evil juice to the very root it self . Calvisius Sabinus laid out vast sums of mony upon his servants , to stock his house with learned men ; and bought one that could recite all Homer by heart ; a second that was ready at Hesiod ; a third at Pindar ; and for every of the Lyricks one : having this fancy that all that learning was his own , & what soever his servants knew , made him so much the more skilful . It was noted in the man for a rich and a prodigal folly : but if he had chang'd his instance , & bought none but vertuous servants into his house , he might better have reckoned his wealth upon their stock , & the piety of his family might have helped to blesse him , and to have increased the treasure of the Masters vertue . Every man that would either cut off the title of an old curse , or secure a blessing upon a new stock , must make vertue as large in the fountain as he can that it may the sooner water all his Relatives with fruitfulnesse and blessings . And this was one of the things that God noted in Abraham , and blessed his family for it , and his posterity . I know that Abraham will teach his sons to fear me . When a man teaches his family to know and fear God , then he scatters a blessing round about his habitation . And this helps to illustrate the reason of the thing as well as to prove its certainty . We hear it spoken in our books of Religion , that the faith of the parents is imputed to their children to good purposes , & that a good husband sanctifies an ill wife , & a beleeving wife , an unbeleeving husband ; and either of them makes the children to be sanctified ▪ else they were unclean , and unholy ; that is , the very designing children to the service of God is a sanctification of them ; and therefore S. Hierom cals Christian children Candidatos fidei Christianae : and if this very designation of them makes them holy ; that is , acceptable to God , intitled to the promises , partakers of the Covenant , within the condition of sons ; much more shall it be effectual to greater blessings when the Parents take care that the children shall be actually pious , full of sobriety , full of religion , then it becomes a holy house , a chosen generation , an elect family ; and then there can no evil happen to them , but such which will bring them neerer to God ; that is , no crosse , but the crosse of Christ ; no misfortune , but that which shall lead them to felicity : and if any semblance of a curse happens in the generations it is but like the anathema of a sacrifice ; not an accursed , but a devoted thing : for so the sacrifice upon whose neck the Priests knife doth fall , is so far from being accursed , that it helps to get a blessing to all that joyn in the oblation : so every misfortune that shal discompose the ease of a pious and religious family shall but make them sit to be presented unto God ; and the rod of God shall be like the branches of fig-trees , bitter and sharp in themselves , but productive of most delicious fruit : no evil can curse the family whose stock is pious , and whose branches are Holinesse unto the Lord. If any leaf , or any boughs shall fall untimely , God shall gather it up , and place it in his Temple , or at the foot of his throne ; and that family must needs be blessed , whom infelicity it self cannot make accursed . 3. If a curse be feared to descend upon a family for the fault of their Ancestors ; pious sons have yet another way to secure themselves , & to withdraw the curse from the family , or themselves from the curse ; and that is , by doing some very great & illustrious act of piety , an action in gradu heroico ( as Aristotle cals it ) an heroicall action . If there should happen to be one Martyr in a family , it would reconcile the whole kinred to God , & make him who is more inclined to mercy then to severity , rather to be pleased with the Relatives of the Martyr , then continue to be angry with the Nephews of a deceased sinner . I cannot insist long upon this : But you may see it proved by one great instance in the case of Phinehas , who killed an unclean Prince , & turned the wrath of God from his people : he was zealous for God and for his countreymen , & did an heroicall action of zeal : Wherefore ( saith God ) Behold I give unto him my covenant of peace , and he shall have it , & his seed after him , even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood ; because he was zealous for his God , & made an atonement for the children of Israel . Thus the sons of Rechab obtain●d the blessing of an enduring and blessed family , because they were most strict & religious observers of their fathers precept , and kept it after his death , & abstained from wine for ever ; and no temptation could invite them to taste it ; for they had as great reverence to their fathers ashes , as being children they had to his rod , & to his eyes . Thus a man may turn the wrath of God from his family , & secure a blessing for posterity , by doing some great noble acts of charity , or a remarkable chastity , like that of Joseph ; or an expensive , an effectionate religion and love to Christ and his servants ( as Mary Magdalene did ) . Such things as these which are extraordinary egressions and transvolations beyond the ordinary course of an even piety , God loves to reward with an extraordinary favour ; and gives it testimony by an extraregular blessing . One thing more I have to adde by way of advice ; and that is , that all parents and fathers of families , from whose loyns a blessing or a curse usually does descend , be very carefull , not onely generally in all the actions of their lives ( for that I have already pressed ) but , particularly in the matter of repentance ; that they be curious that they finish it , & do it thorowly : for there are certain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , leavings of repentance , which makes that Gods anger is taken from us so imperfectly : and although God for his sake who died for us , will pardon a returning sinner , & bring him to heaven through tribulation & a fiery triall ; yet when a man is weary of his sorrow , & his fastings are a load to him , & his sins are not so perfectly renounced , or hated as they ought , the parts of repentance which are left unfinished do sometimes fall upon the heads , or upon the fortunes of the children . I do not say , this is regular and certain , but sometimes God deals thus . For this thing hath been so , and therefore it may be so again : we see it was done in the case of Ahab ; he humbled himself and went softly , and lay in sackcloth , and called for pardon and God took from him a judgement which was falling heavily upon him : but we all know his repentance was imperfect and lame : The same evil fell upon his sons ; for so said God ; I will bring the evil upon his house in his sons dayes . Leave no arreares for thy posterity to pay ; but repent with an integral , a holy and excellent repentance , that God being reconciled to thee thoroughly , for thy sake also he may blesse thy seed after thee . And after all this , adde a continual , a servent , a hearty , a never ceasing prayer for thy children , ever remembring when they beg a blessing , that God hath put much of their fortune into your hands ; and a transient formal [ God blesse thee ] will not out-weigh the load of a great vice ; and the curse that scatters from thee by virtual contact , and by the chanels of relation , if thou beest a vicious person : Nothing can issue from thy fountain but bitter waters . And as it were a great impudence for a condemned Traitor to beg of his injured Prince a province for his son , for his sake so it is an ineffective blessing we give our children , when we beg for them , what we have no title to for our selves , Nay , when we can convey to them nothing but a curse . The praier of a sinner , the unhallowed wish of a vit●ous Parent is but a poor donative to give to a childe who suck'd poison from his nurse , and derives cursing from his Parents . They are punished with a double torture in the shame and paines of the damned , who dying Enemies to God have left an inventary of sins and wrath to be divided amongst their children . But they that can truely give a blessing to their children , are such as live a blessed life , and pray holy prayers , and perform an integral repentance , and do separate from the sins of their Progenitors , and do illustrious actions , and begin the blessing of their family upon a new stock ; for as from the eyes of some persons , there shoots forth a visible influence ; and some have an evil eye , and are infectious ; some look healthfully as a friendly planet , and innocent as flowers : and as some fancies convey private effects to confederate and allayed bodyes ; and between the very vital spirits of friends and Relatives there is a cognation , and they refresh each other like social plants , and a good man is a * friend to every Good man ; and ( they say ) that an usuter knows an usurer , and one rich man another , there being by the very manners of men contracted a similitude of nature , and a communication of effects : so in parents and their children there is so great a society of nature and of manners , of blessing and of cursing , that an evil parent cannot perish in a single death ; and holy parents never eat their meal of blessing alone ; but they make the roome shine like the fire of a holy sacrifice : and a Fathers or a Mothers piety makes all the house festivall , and full of joy from generation to generation . Amen . Sermon . V. THE Invalidity of a late , or death-bed Repentance . 13. Jeremy 16. Give glory to the Lord your God , before he cause darknesse , and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains : and while ye look for light , or , ( left while ye look for light ) he shall turn it into the shadow of death , and make it grosse darknesse . GOd is the eternall fountain of honour , and the spring of glory ; in him it dwells essentially , from him it derives originally ; and when an action is glorious , or a man is honourable , it is because the action is pleasing to God , in the relation of obedience or imitation , and because the man is honoured by God , or by Gods Vicegerent ; and therefore God cannot be dishonoured , because all honour comes from himself ; he cannot but be glorified , because to be himself is to be infinitely glorious . And yet he is pleased to say , that our sins dishonour him , and our obedience does glorifie him . But as the Sun , the great eye of the world , prying into the recesses of rocks , and the hollownesse of valleys , receives species , or visible forms from these objects , but he beholds them onely by that light which proceeds from himself : So does God who is the light of that eye ; he receives reflexes and returns from us , and these he calls glorifications of himself , but they are such which are made so by his own gracious acceptation . For God cannot be glorified by any thing but by himself , and by his own instruments , which he makes as mirrours to reflect his own excellency , that by seeing the glory of such emanations , he may rejoyce in his own works , because they are images of his infinity . Thus when he made the beauteous frame of heaven and earth , he rejoyced in it , and glorified himself , because it was the glasse in which he beheld his wisedom , and Almighty power : And when God destroyed the old world , in that also he glorified himself ; for in those waters he saw the image of his justice ; they were the looking glasse for that Attribute ; and God is said to laugh at , and rejoyce in the destruction of a sinner , because he is pleased with the Oeconomy of his own lawes , and the excellent proportions he hath made of his judgements , consequent to our sins . But above all , God rejoyced in his Holy Son , for he was the image of the Divinity , the character and expresse image of his person , in him he beheld his own Essence , his wisedom , his power , his justice , and his person , and he was that excellent instrument , designed from eternall ages to represent as in a double mirrour , not onely the glories of God to himself , but also to all the world ; and he glorified God by the instrument of obedience , in which God beheld his own dominion , and the sanctity of his lawes clearly represented ; and he saw his justice glorified , when it was fully satisfied by the passion of his Son ; and so he hath transmitted to us a great manner of the Divine glorification , being become to us the Authour , and the Example of giving glory to God after the manner of men , that is , by well-doing , and patient suffering , by obeying his lawes , and submitting to his power , by imitating his holinesse , and confessing his goodnesse , by remaining innocent , or becoming penitent ; for this also is called in the Text [ GIVING GLORY TO THE LORD OUR GOD. ] For he that hath dishonoured God by sins , that is , hath denied , by a morall instrument of duty , and subordination , to confesse the glories of his power , and the goodnesse of his lawes , and hath dishonoured , and despised his mercy , which God intended as an instrument of our piety , hath no better way to glorifie God , then by returning to his duty , to advance the honour of the Divine Attributes in which he is pleased to communicate himself , and to have entercourse with man. He that repents , confesses his ownerrour , and the righteousnesse of Gods lawes , and by judging himself confesses that he deserves punishment , and therefore that God is righteous if he punishes him : and by returning , confesses God to be the fountain of felicity , and the foundation of true , solid , and permanent joyes , saying in the sense and passion of the Disciples , Whither shall we go ? for thou hast the words of eternall life : and by humbling himself , exalts God by making the proportions of distance more immense , and vast : and as repentance does contain in it all the parts of holy life which can be performed by a returning sinner ( all the acts , and habits of vertue , being but parts , or instances , or effects of repentance ) : so all the actions of a holy life do constitute the masse and body of all those instruments whereby God is pleased to glorifie himself . * For if God is glorified in the Sunne and Moon , in the rare fabrick of the honey-combs , in the discipline of Bees , in the oeconomy of Pismires , in the little houses of birds , in the curiosity of an eye , God being pleased to delight in those little images and reflexes of himself from those pretty mirrours , which like a crevice in a wall thorow a narrow perspective transmit the species of a vast excellency : much rather shall God be pleased to behold himself in the glasses of our obedience , in the emissions of our will and understanding ; these being rationall and apt instruments to expresse him , farre better then the naturall , as being neerer communications of himself . But I shall no longer discourse of the Philosophy of this expression ; certain it is , that in the stile of Scripture , repentance is the great glorification of God ; and the Prophet , by calling the people to give God glory , calls upon them to repent ; and so expresses both the duty and the event of it ; the event being [ Glory to God on high , and peace on earth , and good will towards men ] by the sole instrument of repentance . And this was it which Joshuah said to Achan , [ Give I pray thee glory to the Lord God of Israel , and make confession unto him : that one act of repentance is one act of glorifying God : and this , David acknowledged , Against the onely have I sinned , ut tu justificeris , that thou mightest be justified , or cleared , that is , that God may have the honour of being righteous , and we , the shame of receding from so excellent a perfection : or as S. Paul quotes and explicates the place . Let God be true , and every man a liar , as it is written , that thou mightest be justified in thy sayings , and mightest overcome when thou art judged . But to clear the sense of this expression of the Prophet , observe the words of S. John : and men were scorched with great heat , and blasphemed the name of God who hath power over those plagues , and they repented not to give him glory . So that having strength and reason from these so many authorities , I may be free to read the words of my Text thus , [ Repent of all your sins before God cause darknesse , and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains ] and then we have here the duty of repentance , and the time of its performance ; it must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a seasonable and timely repentance , a repentance which must begin before our darknesse begin , a repentance in the day time , ut dum dies est operemini , that ye may work while it is to day , lest if we stumble upon the dark mountains , that is , fall into the ruines of old age , which makes a broad way narrow , and a plain way to be a craggy mountain ; or if we stumble and fall into our last sicknesse , instead of health God send us to our grave , and instead of light and salvation which we then confidently look for , he make our state to be outer darknesse , that is , misery irremediable , misery eternall . This exhortation of the Prophet was alwayes full of caution and prudence , but now it is highly necessary ; since men who are so clamorously called to repentance that they cannot avoid the necessity of it , yet that they may reconcile an evil life with the hopes of heaven , have crowded this duty into so little room , that it is almost strangled and extinct ; and they have lopped off so many members , that they have reduced the whole body of it to the dimensions of a little finger , sacrificing their childhood to vanity , their youth to lust , and to intemperance , their manhood to ambition and rage , pride and revenge , secular desires , and unholy actions ; and yet still further , giving their old age to covetousnesse and oppression , to the world , and to the Devil ; and after all this what remains for God and for Religion ? Oh , for that , they wll do well enough ; upon their death-bed they will think a few godly thoughts , they will send for a Priest to minister comfort to them ; they will pray and ask God forgivenesse , and receive the holy Sacrament , and leave their goods behinde them , disposing them to their friends and relatives , and some Dole , and issues of the almes-basket to the poor ; and if after all this they die quietly , and like a lambe , and be ●anoniz'd by a brib'd flatterer in a funerall sermon , they make no doubt but they are children of the kingdom , and perceive not their folly , till without hope of remedy they roar in their expectations of a certain , but a horrid eternity of pains . * Certainly nothing hath made more ample harvests for the Devil , then the deferring of repentance upon vain confidences , and lessening it in the extension of parts , as well as intension of degrees , while we imagine that a few tears , and scatterings of devotion are enough to expiate the basenesse of a fifty or threescore yeers impiety . This I shall endeavour to cure , by shewing what it is to repent , and that repentance implies in it the duty of a life , or of many and great , of long and lasting parts of it ; and then by direct arguments , shewing that repentance put off to our death-bed is invalid and ineffectuall , sick , languid , and impotent , like our dying bodies and disabled faculties . 1. First therefore , Repentance implies a deep sorrow , as the beginning and introduction of this duty ; not a superficiall sigh , or tear , not a calling our selves sinners , and miserable persons ; this is far from that godly sorrow that worketh repentance ; and yet I wish there were none in the world , or none amongst us , who cannot remember that ever they have done this little towards the abolition of their multitudes of sins ; but yet if it were not a hearty , pungent sorrow , a sorrow that shall break the heart in pieces ; a sorrow that shall so irreconcile us to sin , as to make us rather choose to die then to sin , it is not so much as the beginning of repentance . But in Holy Scripture , when the people are called to repentance , and sorrow ( which is ever the prologue to it ) marches sadly , and first opens the seene , it is ever expressed to be great , clamorous and sad : it is called [ a weeping sorely ] in the verse next after my text , [ a weeping with the bitternesse of heart ; a turning to the Lord with weeping , fasting , and mourning ; a weeping day and night ; the sorrow of heart ; the breaking of the spirit ; the mourning like a dove , and chattering like a swallow ; ] and if we observe the threnes and sad accents of the Prophet Jeremy when he wept for the sins of his Nation , the heart-breakings of David when he mourned for his adultery and murder , and the bitter tears of Saint Peter when he washed off the guilt and basenesse of his fall , and the denying his Master ; we shall be sufficiently instructed in this praeludium or introduction to repentance ; and that it is not every breath of a sigh , or moisture of a tender eye , not every crying [ Lord have mercy upon me ] that is such a sorrow as begins our restitution to the state of grace and Divine favour : but such a sorrow that really condemnes our selves , and by an active , effectual sentence declares us worthy of stripes and death , of sorrow and eternall paines , and willingly endures the first to prevent the second ; and weeps and mourns , and fasts to obtain of God but to admit us to a possibility of restitution : and although all sorrow for sins hath not the same expression , nor the same degree of pungency and sensitive trouble ( which differs according to the temper of the body custome , the sexe , and accidental tendernesse ) yet it is not a Godly sorrow unlesse it really produce these effects ; that is , 1. That it makes us really to hate , & 2. actually to decline sin , and 3. produce in us a fear fo Gods anger , a sense of the guilt of his displeasure ; and 4. Then , such consequent trouble as can consist with such apprehension of the Divine displeasure : which if it expresse not in tears and hearty complaints , must be expressed in watchings and strivings against sin , in confessing the goodnesse and justice of God threatning or punishing us , in patiently bearing the rod of God , in confession of our sins , in accusation of our selves , in perpetual begging of pardon , and mean and base opinions of our selves , and in al the natural productions from these ; according to our temper and constitution ; it must be a sorrow of the reasonable faculty , the greatest in its kinde ; and if it be lesse in kinde ; or not productive of these effects , it is not a godly sorrow , not the exordium of repentance . But I desire that it be observed , that sorrow for sins , is not Repentance ; not that duty which gives glory to God , so as to obtain of him that he will glorifie us . Repentance is a great volume of duty ; and Godly sorrow is but the frontispiece or title page : it is the harbinger or first introduction to it ; or if you will consider it in the words of Saint Paul : [ Godly sorrow worketh repentance ] sorrow is the Parent , and repentance is the product ; and therefore it is a high piece of ignorance to suppose that , a crying out and roaring for our sins upon our deathbed can reconcile us to God ; our crying to God must be so early , and so lasting , as to be able to teeme , and produce such a daughter , which must live long , and grow from an Embryo to an infant , from infancy to childhood , from thence to the fulnesse of the stature of Christ , and then it is a holy and a happy sorrow : but if it be a sorrow onely of a death-bed , it is a fruitlesse shower , or like the rain of Sodom not the beginning of repentance , but the kindling of a flame , the comencement of an eternal sorrow . For Ahab had a great sorrow , but it wrought nothing upon his spirit , it did not reconcile his affections to his duty , and his duty to God. Judas had so great a sorrow for betraying the innocent blood of his Lord , that it was intolerable to his Spirit , and he burst in the middle : and if meer sorrow be repentance , then hell is full of penitents , for [ there is weeping and wailing , and gnashing of teeth for evermore . Let us therefore beg of God ( as Calebs daughter did of her Father ) dedisti mihi terram aridam , da etiam & irrig●am , thou hast given me a dry land , give me also a land of waters , a dwelling place in tears , rivers of tears , ut quoniam non sumus digni oculos orando ad coelum levare , at simus digni oculos plorando caecare , as Saint Austins expression is , that because we are not worthy to lift up our eyes to heaven in prayer , yet we may be worthy to weep our selves blinde for sin , the meaning is , that we beg sorrow of God , such a sorrow as may be sufficient to quench the flames of lust , and surmount the hills of our pride , and may extinguish our thirst of covetousnesse ; that is , a sorrow that shall be an effective principle of arming all our faculties against sin , and heartily setting upon the work of grace , and the persevering labours of a holy life . * I shall onely adde one word to this : That our sorrow for sin is not to be estimated by our tears , and our sensible expressions , but by our active hatred , and dereliction of sin : and is many times unperceived in outward demonstration . It is reported of the Mother of Peter Lombard , Gratian , and Comestor , that she having had three sons begotten in unhallowed embraces , upon her death-bed did omit the recitation of those crimes to her confessour ; adding this for Apology , that her three sons proved persons so eminent in the Church that their excellency was abundant recompence for her demerit : and therefore she could not grieve , because God had glorified himself so much by three instruments so excellent ; and that although her sin had abounded , yet Gods grace did superabound . Her Confessor replied , at dole Saltem quod dolere non possis , grieve that thou canst not grieve : and so must we , alwayes fear that our trouble for sin is nor great enough , that our sorrow is too remisse , that our affections are indifferent ; but we can onely be sure that our sorrow is a godly sorrow , when it worketh repentance ; that is , when it makes us hate and leave all our sin , and take up the crosse of patience or penance : that is , confesse our sin , accuse our selves , condemn the action by hearty sentence ; and then , if it hath no other emanation but fasting and prayer for its pardon , and hearty industry towards its abolition , our sorrow is not reproveable . For , sorrow alone will not do it ; there must follow a total dereliction of our sin ; and this is the first part of repentance . Concerning which , I consider , that it is a sad mistake amongst many that do some things towards repentance , that they mistake the first addresses , and instruments of this part of repentance for the whole duty it self . Confession of sins is in order to the dereliction of them ; but then confession must not be like the unlading of a ship to take in new stowage ; or the vomits of intemperance , which ease the stomack that they may continue the merry meeting : but such a confession is too frequent , in which men either comply with custome or seek to ease a present load , or gripe of conscience , or are willing to dresse up their souls against afestival , or hope for pardon upon so easie terms : these are but retirings back to leap the further into mischief ; or but approaches to God with the lips ; no confession can be of any use , but as it is an instrument of shame to the person , of humiliation of the man , and dereliction of the sin , and receives its recompence but as it ads to these purposes : all other , is like the bleating of the calves , and the lowing of the Oxen which Saul reserved after the spoil of Agag : they proclaim the sin , but do nothing towards its cure ; they serve Gods end to make us justly to be condemned out of our own mouthes , but nothing at all towards our absolution . * Nay , if we proceed further , to the greatest expressions of humiliation ( parts of which I reckon , fasting , praying for pardon , judging and condemning of our selves by instances of a present indignation against a crime ) yet unlesse this proceed so far as to a total deletion of the sin , to the extirpation of every vitious habit , God is not glorified by our repentance , nor we secured in our eternal interest . Our sin must be brought to judgement , and like Antinous in Homer , layed in the mids as the sacrifice and the cause of all the mischief . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is the murderer , this is the Achan , this is he that troubles I●rael ; let the sin be confessed and carried with the pomps and solennities of sorrow to its funeral , and so let the murderer be slain : But if after all the forms of confession and sorrow , fasting , and humiliation , and pretence of doing the will of God , we spare Agag and the fattest of the cattel , our delicious sins , and still leave an unlawful King , and a tyrant sin to reigne in our mortal bodies , we may pretend what we will towards repentance , but we are no better penitents then Ahab , no neerer to the obtaining of our hopes then Esau was to his birthright , for whose repentance there was no place left though he sought it carefully with tears . Well ? let us suppose our penitent advanced thus far , as that he decrees against all sin , and in his hearty purposes resolves to decline it , as in a severe sentence he hath condemned it as his betrayer and his murderer ; yet we must be curious for now onely the repentance properly begins ) that it be not onely like the springings of the thorny or the high way ground , soon up and soon down : For some men when a sadnesse or an unhandsome accident surprizes them , then they resolve against their sin , but like the goats in Aristotle they give their milk no longer then they are stung : as soon as the thorns are removed , these men return to their first hardnesse , and resolve then to act their first temptation . Others there are who never resolve against a sin , but either when they have no temptation to it , or when their appetites are newly satisfied with it , like those who immediately after a full dinner resolve to fast at supper , and they keep it till their appetite returnes ▪ and then their resolution unt●es like the cords of vanity or the gossamere against the violence of the Northen winde . Thus a lustfull person fills all the capacity of his lust , and when he is wearied , and the sin goes off with unquietnesse and regret , and the appetite falls down like a horseleech when it is ready to burst with putrifaction and an unwholsome plethory ; then he resolves to be a good man and could almost vow to be a Hermit , and hates his lust , as Amnon hated his sister Thamar , just when he had newly acted his unworthy rape ; but the next spring tide that comes , every wave of the temptation , makes an inrode upon the resolution and gets ground , and prevailes against it more then his resolution prevailed against his sin : How many drunken persons , how many Swearers resolve daily and hourely against their sin , and yet act them not once the lesse for all their insinite heape of shamefully retreating purposes * That resolution that begins upon just grounds of sorrow and severe judgement , upon fear and love , that is made in the midst of a temptation , that is inquisitive into all the means and instruments of the cure , that prayes perpetually against a sin ; that watches continually against a surprize , and never sinks into it by deliberation ; that fights earnestly and carries on the war prudently and prevailes by a never ceasing diligence against the temptation ; that onely is a pious and well begun repentance . They that have their fits of a quartan , well and ill for ever , and think themselves in perfect health , when the ague is retired till its period returnes , are dangerously mistaken . Those intervals of imperfect and fallacious resolution , are nothing but states of death : and if a man should depart this world in one of those godly fits ( as he thinks them ) he is no neerer to obtain his blessed hope , then a man in the stone collick is to health when his pain is eased for the present , his disease still remaining , and threatning an unwelcome return . That resolution onely is the beginning of a holy repentance which goes forth into act , and whose acts enlarge into habits , and whose habits are productive of the fruits of a holy life . From hence we are to take our estimate , whence our resolutions of piety must commence . He that resolves not to live well till the time comes that he must die , is ridiculous in his great designe , as he is impertinent in his intermedial purposes , and vain in his hope . Can a dying man to any real effect resolve to be chast ? ( for vertue must be an act of election , and chastity is the contesting against a proud and an imperious lust , active flesh , and insinuating temptation ) And what doth he resolve against who can no more be tempted to the sin of unchastity then he can returne back again to his youth and vigour . And it is considerable , that since all the purposes of a holy life which a dying man can make , cannot be reduced to act , by what law , or reason , or covenant , or revelation are we taught to distinguish the resolution of a dying man from the purposes of a living and vigorous person ? Suppose a man in his youth and health mooved by consideration of the irregularity and deformity , of sin , the danger of its productions , the wrath and displeasure of Almightie God , should resolve to leave the puddles of impurity , and walk in the paths of righteousnesse ; can this resolution alone put him into the state of grace ; is he admitted to pardon and the favour of God before he hath in some measure performed actually what he so reasonably hath resolved ? By no means . For , [ resolution and purpose ] is in its own nature and constitution an imperfect act , and therefore can signifie nothing without its performance and consummation . It is as a faculty is to the act , as spring is to the harvest , as feed time is to the Autumne , as Egges are to birds , or as a relative to its correspondent ; nothing without it . And can it be imagined that a resolution in our health and life shall be ineffectual without performance and shall a resolution barely such , do any Good upon our deathbed ? Can such purposes prevail against a long impiety rather then against a young and a newly begun state of sin ? Will God at an easier rate pardon the sins of fifty or sixty yeers , then the sins of our youth onely , or the iniquity of five yeers , or ten ? If a holy life be not necessary to be liv'd , why shall it be necessary to resolve to live it ? But if a holy life be necessary , then it cannot be sufficient meerly to resolve it , unlesse this resolution go forth in an actuall and reall service . Vain therefore is the hope of those persons who either go on in their sins ; before their last sicknesse , never thinking to return into the wayes of God , from whence they have wandred all their life , never renewing their resolutions and vows of holy living ; or if they have , yet their purposes are for ever blasted with the next violent temptation . More prudent was the prayer of David , [ Oh spare me a little , that I may recover my strength before I go hence and be no more seen : ] And something like it was the saying of the Emperour Charles the fifth , Inter vitae negotia & mortis diem oportet spacium intercedere : When ever our holy purposes are renewed , unlesse God gives us time to act them , to mortifie and subdue our lusts , to conquer and subdue the whole kingdom of sin , to rise from our grave and be clothed with nerves and flesh and a new skin , to overcome our deadly sicknesses , and by little and little to return to health and strength ; unlesse we have grace and time to do all this , our sins will lie down with us in our graves . * For when a man hath contracted a long habit of sin , and it hath been growing upon him ten or twenty , fourty or fifty yeers , whose acts he hath daily or hourly repeated , and they are grown to a second nature to him , and have so prevailed upon the ruines of his spirit , that the man is taken captive by the Devil at his will , he is fast bound as a slave tugging at the oar , that he is grown in love with his fetters , and longs to be doing the work of sin , is it likely that all this progresse and groweth in sin ( in the wayes of which he runs fast without any impediment ) is it ( I say ) likely , that a few dayes or weeks of sicknesse can recover him ? [ the especiall hindrances of that state I shall afterwards consider ] but , Can a man be supposed so prompt to piety and holy living , a man ( I mean ) that hath lived wickedly a long time together , can he be of so ready and active a vertue upon the sudden , as to recover in a moneth , or a week what he hath been undoing in 20 , or 30 yeers ? Is it so easie to build , that a weak and infirm person , bound hand and foot shall be able to build more in three dayes , then was a building above fourty yeers ? Christ did it in a figurative sence ; but in this , it is not in the power of any man so suddenly to be recovered from so long a sicknesse . Necessary therefore it is , that all these instruments of our conversion , [ Confession of sins , praying for their pardon , and resolutions to lead a new life ] should begin , [ before our feet stumble upon the dark mountains , ] lest we leave the work onely resolved upon to be begun , which , it is necessary we should in many degrees finish if ever we mean to escape the eternall darknesse : For that we should actually abolish the whole body of sin and death , that we should crucifie the old man with his lusts , that we should lay aside every weight , and the sin that doth so easily beset us , that we should cast away the works of darknesse , that we should awake from sleep , and arise from death , that we should redeem the time , that we should cleanse our hands and purifie our hearts , that we should have escaped the corruption , ( all the corruption ) that is in the whole world through lust , that nothing of the old leaven should remain in us , but that we be wholly a new lump , throughly transformed and changed in the image of our minde : these are the perpetuall precepts of the Spirit , and the certain duty of man ; and that , to have all these in purpose onely , is meerly to no purpose , without the actuall eradication of every vitious habit , and the certain abolition of every criminall adherence , is clearly and dogmatically decreed every where in the Scripture ; For ( they are the words of Saint Paul ) they that are Christs have crucified the flesh , with the affections and lusts : the work is actually done , and sin is dead , or wounded mortally , before they can in any sence belong to Christ , to be a portion of his inheritance : And He that is in Christ is a new creature . For in Christ Jesus nothing can avail but a new creature : nothing but a Keeping the Commandements of God : Not all our tears , though we should weep like David and his men at Ziklag , till they could weep no more , or the women of Ramah , or like the weeping in the valley of Hinnom , could suffice , if we retain the affection to any one sin , or have any unrepented of , or unmortified . It is true that a contrite and broken heart , God will not despise . No , he will not . For if it be a hearty and permanent sorrow , it is an excellent beginning of repentance ; and God will to a timely sorrow give the grace of repentance : He will not give pardon to sorrow alone ; but that which ought to be the proper effect of sorrow , that God shall give . He shall then open the gates of mercy , and admit you to a possibility of restitution ; so , that you may be within the covenant of repentance , which if you actually perform , you may expect Gods promise . And in this sense Confession will obtain our pardon ; and humiliation will be accepted ; and our holy purposes , and pious resolutions shall be accounted for ; that is , these being the first steps and addresses to that part of repentance , which consists in the abolition of sins , shall be accepted so far , as to procure so much of the pardon , to do so much of the work of restitution , that God will admit the returning man to a further degree of emendation , to a neerer possibility of working out his salvation : but then if this sorrow , and confession , and strong purposes begin then when our life is declined towards the West , and is now ready to set in darknesse and a dismall night ; because of themselves they could but procure an admission to repentance , not at all to pardon , and plenary absolution ; by shewing that on our death-bed these are too late and ineffectuall , they call upon us to begin betimes , when these imperfect acts may be consummate , and perfected in the actuall performing those parts of holy life , to which they were ordained , in the nature of the thing , and the purposes of God. Lastly , suppose all this be done , and that by a long course of strictnesse and severity , mortification and circumspection we have overcome all our vitious and baser habits contracted and grown upon us , like the ulcers and evils of a long surfet , and that we are clean and swept ; Suppose that he hath wept and fasted , prayed and vowed to excellent purposes ; yet all this is but the one half of repentance ; ( so infinitely mistaken is the world , to think any thing to be enough to make up repentance ; ) but to renew us , and restore us to the favour of God , there is required far more then what hath been yet accounted for . See it in the second of S. Peter , 1 Chap. 4 , 5. vers . Having escaped the corruption that is in the world thorough lust : And besides this , giving all diligence , adde to your faith vertue , to vertue knowledge , to knowledge temperance , to temperance patience , and so on , to godlinesse , to brotherly kindnesse , and to charity : These things must be in you and abound : This is the summe totall of repentance ; We must not onely have overcome sin , but we must after great diligence have acquired the habits of all those Christian graces which are necessary in the transaction of our affairs , in all relations to God , and our neighbour , and our own person . It is not enough to say , Lord , I thank thee I am no extortioner , no adulterer , not as this Publican ; all the reward of such a poenitent is , that when he hath escaped the corruption of the world , he hath also escaped those heavy judgements which threatned his ruine . Nec furtum feci , nec fugi , si mihi dicat Servus ; habes precium ; loris non ureris , aio . Non hominem occidi ; non pasces in cruce corvos . If a servant have not rob●d his Master , nor offered to fly from his bondage , he shall scape the Furea , his flesh shall not be exposed to birds or fishes ; but this is but the reward of innocent slaves ; it may be we have escaped the rod of the exterminating Angel , when our sins are crucifyed ; but we shall never enter into the joy of our Lord , unlesse after we have put off the old man with his affections and lusts , we also put on the new man in righteousnesse and holinesse of life . And this we are taught in most plain doctrine by S. Paul [ Let us lay aside the weight that doth so easily beset us ; ] that is the one half ; and [ then it follows ] Let us run with patience the race that is set before us . These are the fruits meet for repentance , spoken of by S. John Baptist ; that is , when we renew our first undertaking in baptisme , and return to our courses of innocence . Parcus Deorum cultor , & infrequens , Insanientis dum sapientiae consultus erro Nunc retrorsum vela dare , atque iterare cursus Cogor relictos — The sense of which words is well given us by S. John ; Remember whence thou art fallen , repent ; and do thy first works . For all our hopes of heaven rely upon that Covenant which God made with us in Baptisme ; which is , That being redeemed from our vain conversation , we should serve him in holinesse and righteousnesse all our dayes . Now when any of us hath prevaricated our part of the Covenant , we must return to that state , and redeem the intermedial time spent in sin by our doubled industry in the wayes of grace : we must be reduced to our first estate , and make some proportionable returns of duty , for our sad omissions , and great violations of our Baptismal vow . For God having made no covenant with us , but that which is consigned in Baptisme ; in the same proportion in which we retain , or return to that , in the same we are to expect the pardon of our sins , and all the other promises Evangelicall ; but no otherwise ; unlesse we can shew a new Gospel , or be baptized again by Gods appointment . He therefore that by a long habit , by a state and continued course of sin , hath gone so far from his baptismal purity , as that he hath nothing of the Christian left upon him but his name ; that man hath much to do to make his garments clean , to purifie his soul , to take off all the stains of sin , that his spirit may be presented pure to the eyes of God who beholds no impurity . It is not an easie thing to cure a long contracted habit of sin : Let any intemperate person but try in his own instance of drunkennesse ; or the swearer in the sweetning his unwholesome language : but then so to command his tongue that he never swear , but that his speech be prudent , pious and apt to edifie the hearer , or in some sense to glorifie God ; or to become temperate , to have got a habit of sobriety , or chastity , or humility , is the work of a life : And if we do but consider that he that lives well from his younger yeers , or takes up at the end of his youthfull heats , and enters into the courses of a sober life early , diligently , and vigorously , shall finde himself after the studies and labours of 20. or 30. yeers piety , but a very imperfect person : many degrees of pride left unrooted up , many inroads of intemperance , or beginnings of excesse , much indevotion and backwardnesse in religion , many temptations to contest against , and some infirmities which he shall never say he hath master'd ; we shall finde the work of a holy life is not to be deferred till our dayes are almost done , till our strengths are decayed , our spirits are weak , and our lust strong , our habits confirmed , and our longings after sin many and impotent : for what is very hard to be done , and is alwayes done imperfectly when there is length of time , and a lesse work to do , and more abilities to do it withall : when the time is short , and almost expired , and the work made difficult and vast , and the strengths weaker , and the faculties are disabled , will seem little lesse then absolutely impossible . * I shall end this generall consideration with the question of the Apostle . If the righteous scarcely be saved , ( if it be so difficult to overcome our sins , and obtain vertuous habits : difficult ( I say ) to a righteous , a sober , and well living person ) where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear ? What shall become of him who by his evil life hath not onely removed himself from the affections , but even from the possibilities of vertue ? He that hath lived in sin will die in sorrow . The Invalidity of a death-bed Repentance . Part II. BUt I shall pursue this , great and necessary truth , first ; by shewing what parts and ingredients of repentance are assigned , when it is described in holy Scripture . Secondly , by shewing the necessities , the absolute necessities of a holy life , and what it means in Scripture to [ live holily ] . Thirdly , by considering what directions or intimations we have concerning the last time of beginning to repent ; and what is the longest period that any man may venture with safety : And in the prosecution of these particulars , we shall remove the objections ; those aprons of fig-leaves which men use for their shelter to palliate their sin , and to hide themselves , from that , from which no rocks or mountains shall protect them , though they fall upon them ; that is , the wrath of God. First , That repentance is not onely an abolition , and extinction of the body of sin , a bringing it to the altar , and slaying it before God and all the people ; but that we must also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mingle gold and rich presents , the oblation of good works , and holy habits with the sacrifice , I have already proved : but now if we will see repentance in its stature and integrity of constitution described , we shall finde it to be the one half of all that which God requires of Christians . Faith and Repentance are the whole duty of a Christian. Faith is a sacrifice of the understanding to God : Repentance sacrifices the whole will : That , gives the knowing ; this , gives up all the desiring faculties : That , makes us Disciples ; this , makes us servants of the Holy Jesus . Nothing else was preached by the Apostles , nothing was enjoyned as the duty of man , nothing else did build up the body of Christian religion . So that , as faith contains all that knowledge which is necessary to salvation : So repentance comprehends in it , all the whole practise and working duty of a returning Christian : And this was the sum totall of all that Saint Paul preached to the Gentiles , when in his farewell Sermon to the Bishops and Priests of Ephesus , he professed that he kept back nothing that was profitable to them ; and yet it was all nothing but this ; [ Repentance towards God , and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ ] so that whosoever believes in Jesus Christ , and repents towards God must make his accounts according to this standard , that is , to believe all that Christ taught him ; and to do all that Christ commanded : and this is remarked in Saint Pauls * Catechisme where he gives a more particular Catalogue of fundamentals : he reckons nothing but Sacraments and faith ; of which he enumerates two principal articles [ resurrection of the dead , and eternal judgement ] whatsoever is practical , all the whole duty of man , the practise of all obedience is called [ repentance from dead works ] which , if we observe the singularity of the phrase , does not mean [ sorrow ] For sorrow from dead works , is not sense ; but it must mean mutationem status , a conversion from dead works , which ( as in all motions ) supposes two terms ; from dead works , to living works , from the death of sin to the life of righteousnesse . I will adde but two places more , out of each Testament one ; in which I suppose you may see every lineament of this great duty described , that you may no longer mistake a grashopper for an Eagle , Sorrow and holy purposes , for the intire duty of repentance . In the 18. of Ezek. 21. you shall finde it thus described . [ But if the wicked will turne from all his sins that he hath committed , and keep all my statutes , and do that which is lawful and right , he shall surely live , he shall not die . ] or as it is more fully described in Ezek. 33. 14 [ When I say unto the wicked , Thou shalt surely die ; If he turn from his sin , and do that which is lawful and right ; if the wicked restore the pledge , give again that he had robbed ; walk in the statutes of life without committing iniquity , he shall surely live , he shall not die . ] Here onely is the condition of pardon ; to leave all your sins , to keep all Gods statutes , to walk in them , to abide , to proceed , and make progresse in them ; and this , without the interruption by a deadly sin , [ without committing iniquity ] to make restitution of all the wrongs he hath done , all the unjust money he hath taken , all the oppressions he hath committed , all that must be satisfied for , and repayed according to our ability : we must make satisfaction for all injury to our Neighbours fame , all wrongs done to his soul ; he must be restored to that condition of good things thou didst in any sense remove him from : when this is done according to thy utmost power , then thou hast repented truely , then thou hast a title to the promise ; thou shalt surely live , thou shalt not die for thy old sins thou hast formerly committed . * Onely be pleased to observe this one thing ; that this place of Ezekiel is it which is so often mistaken for that common saying , At what time soever a sinner repents him of his sins from the bottom of his heart I will put all his wickednesse out of my remembrance , saith the Lord ] For although at what time soever a sinner does repent ( as repentance is now explained ) God will forgive him , and that , repentance as it is now stated cannot be done [ At what time soever ] not upon a mans deathbed ; yet there are no such words in the whole Bible , nor any neerer to the sense of them then the words I have now read to you , out of the Prophet Ezekiel . Let that therefore no more deceive you , or be made a colour to countenance a persevering sinner , or a deathbed penitent . Neither is the duty of Repentance to be bought at an easier rate in the New Testament . You may see it described in the 2 Cor. 7. 11. Godly sorrow worketh repentance . Well ? but what is that repentance which is so wrought ? This it is , Behold the self same thing that ye sorrowed after a godly sort , what carefulnesse it wrought in you , yea what clearing of your selves , yea what indignation , yea what fear , ye what vehement desire , yea what zeal , yea what revenge . These are the fruits of that sorrow that is effectual : these are the parts of repentance ; clearing our selves of all that is past , and great carefulnesse for the future , anger at our selves for our old sins , and fear lest we commit the like again , vehement desires of pleasing God , and zeal of holy actions , and a revenge upon our selves for our sins , called by Saint Paul in another place , a judging our selves lest we be judged of the Lord. And in pursuance of this truth , the primitive Church did not admit a sinning person to the publike communions with the faithfull , till besides their sorrow they had spent some years in an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in doing good works and holy living ; and especially in such actions which did contradict that wicked inclination which led them into those sins whereof they were now admitted to repent . And therefore we find that they stood in the station of penitents seven years , 13 years , and somtimes till their death , before they could be reconciled to the peace of God , and his Holy Church . Scelerum si bene poenitet eradenda cupidinis pravi sunt elementa & tenerae nimis mentes asperioribus Formandae studijs — Horat. Repentance is the institution of a philosophical and severe life , an utter extirpation of all unreasonablenesse and impiety , and an addresse to , and a finall passing through all the parts of holy living . Now Consider whether this be imaginable or possible to be done upon our deathbed , when a man is frighted into an involuntary , a sudden and unchosen piety ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith Hierocles . He that never repents till a violent fear be upon him , till he apprehend himself to be in the jawes of death , ready to give up his unready and unprepared accounts , till he sees the Judge sitting in all the addresses of dreadfulnesse and Majesty , just now ( as he beleeves ) ready to pronounce that fearfull and intolerable sentence of [ Go ye cursed into everlasting fire ] this man does nothing for the love of God , nothing for the love of vertue ; It is just as a condemned man repents that he was a Traytor , but repented not till he was arrested , and sure to die . Such a repentance as this may still consist with as great an affection to sin as ever he had ; and it is no thanks to him , if when the knife is at his throat , then he gives good words and flatters . But suppose this man in his health , and the middest of all his lust , it is evident that there are some circumstances of action in which the man would have refused to commit his most pleasing sin . Would not the son of Tarquin have refused to ravish Lucrece if Junius Brutus had been by him ? Would the impurest person in the world act his lust in the market place ? or drink off an intemperate goblet if a dagger were placed at his throat ? In these circumstances , their fear would make them declare against the present acting their impurities . But does this cure the intemperance of their affections ? Let the impure person retire to his closet , and Junius Brutus be ingaged in a far distant war , and the dagger be taken from the drunkards throat , and the fear of shame , or death , or judgement be taken from them all , and they shall no more resist their temptation , then they could before remove their fear ; and you may as well judge the other persons holy , and haters of their sin , as the man upon his death-bed to be penitent ; and rather they then he , by how much this mans fear , the fear of death , and of the infinite pains of hell , the fear of a provoked God , and an angry eternall Judge , are far greater then the apprehensions of publike shame , or an abused husband , or the poniard of an angry person . * These men then sin not because they dare not , they are frighted from the act , but not from the affection , which is not to be cured but by discourse , and reasonable acts , and humane considerations ; of which that man is not naturally capable who is possessed with the greatest fear , the fear of death and damnation . If there had been time to cure his sin , and to live the life of grace , I deny not but God might have begun his conversion with so great a fear , that he should never have wiped off its impression ; * but if the man dies then , dies when he onely declaims against and curses his sin , as being the authour of his present fear , and apprehended calamity ; It is very far from reconciling him to God , or hopes of pardon , because it proceeds from a violent , unnaturall , and intolerable cause , no act of choice , or vertue , but of sorrow , a deserved sorrow , and a miserable , unchosen , unavoidable fear , — moriensque recepit Quas nollet victurus aquas — He curses sin upon his deathbed and makes a Panegyrick of vertue which in his life time he accounted folly , and trouble , and a needlesse vexation . Quae mens est hodie , cur eadem non puero fuit ? vel cur his animis incolumes non redeunt genae ? I shall end this first Consideration , with a plain exhortation ; that since repentance is a duty of so great and giant-like bulk ; let no man croud it up into so narrow room , as that it be strangled in its birth for want of time and aire to breath in . Let it not be put off to that time when a man hath scarce time enough to reckon all those particular duties which make up the integrity of its constitution ▪ Will any man hunt the wild boare in his garden , or bait a bull in his closet , will a woman wrap her childe in her handkerchiefe , or a Father send his son to school when he is 50 yeers old ? These are undecencies of providence , and the instrument contradicts the end ; And this is our case . There is no roome for the repentance , no time to act all its essentiall parts ; and a childe who hath a great way to go before he be wise , may defer his studies , and hope to become very learned in his old age , and upon his deathbed , as well as a vitious person , may think to recover from all his ignorances and prejudicate opinions , from all his false principles and evil customs , from his wicked inclinations and ungodly habits , from his fondnesses of vice , and detestations of vertue , from his promptnesse to sin , and unwillingnesse to grace , from his spiritual deadnesse and strong sensuality ; upon his deathbed ( I say ) when he hath no naturall strength , and as little spirituall , when he is criminal and impotent , hardned in his vice , and soft in his fears , full of passion , and empty of wisdom , when he is sick and amazed , and timorous and confounded , and impatient , and extremely miserable . And now when any of you is tempted to commit a sin , remember , that sin will ruine you unlesse you repent of it . * But this ( you say ) is no news , and so far from affrighting you from sin , that God knows ) it makes men sin the rather . For therefore they venture to act the present temptation , because they know , if they repent , God will forgive them ; and therefore they resolve upon both , to sin now , and to repent hereafter . Against this folly I shall not oppose the consideration of their danger , and that they neither know how long they shall live , nor whether they shall die or no in this very act of sinne ; though this consideration is very materiall , and if they should die in it , or before it is washed off , they perish ; But I consider these things . 1 That he that resolves to sin upon a resolution to repent , by every act of sin , makes himself more uncapable of repenting , by growing more in love with sin , by remembring its pleasures , by serving it once more , and losing one degree more of the liberty of our spirit : and if you resolve to sin now , because it is pleasant , how do ye know that your appetite will alter ? will it not appear pleasant to you next week , and the next week after that , and so for ever ? And still you sin , and still you will repent ; that is , you will repent when the sin can please you no longer . For so long as it can please you , so long you are tempted not to repent , as well as now to act the sin . And the longer you lie in it , the more you will love it . So that it is in effect to say ; I love my sin now , but I will hereafter hate it ; onely I will act it a while longer , and grow more in love with it , and then I will repent , that is , then I will be sure to hate it , when I shal most love it . 2. To repent signifies to be sorrowful , to be ashamed , and to wish it had never been done . And then see the folly of this temptation . I would not sin , but that I hope to repent of it , that is , I would not do this thing but that I hope to be sorrowful for doing it , and I hope to come to shame for it , heartily to be ashamed of my doings , and I hope to be in that condition , that I would give all the world I had never done it ; that is , I hope to feel and apprehend an evil infinitely greater then the pleasures of my sin ; & are these arguments fit to move a man to sin ? what can affright a man from it , if these invite him to it ? it is as if a man should invite one to be a partner of his treason by telling him , if you will joyn with me , you shal have all these effects by it ; you shall be hang'd , drawn and quarter'd , and your blood shall be corrupted , and your estate forfeited , and you shall have many other reasons to wish you had never done it : He that should use this Rhetorick in earnest , might well be accounted a mad man : This is to scare a man , not to allure him , and so is the other when we understand it truely . 3. For I consider , He that repents , wishes he had never done that sin . Now I ask , does he wish so upon reason , or without reason ? Surely , if he may when he hath satisfied his lust , ask God pardon , and be admitted upon as easie termes for the time to come as if he had not done the sin , he hath no reason to be sorrowful , or wish he had not done it . For though he hath done it , and pleased himself by enjoying the pleasure of sin for that season , yet all is well again ; and let him onely be carefull now , and there is no hurt done , his pardon is certain . How can any man that understands the reason of his actions and passions wish , that he had never done that sin in which then he had pleasure , and now he feels no worse inconvenience . But he that truely repents , wishes , and would give all the world he had never done it . Surely then his present condition in respect of his past sin hath some very great evil in it , why else should he be so much troubled ? True , and this it is . He that hath committed sins after baptisme , is fallen out of the favour of God , is tied to hard duty for the time to come , to cry vehemently unto God , to call night and day for pardon , to be in great fear and tremblings of heart , lest God should never forgive him , lest God will never take off his sentence of eternal paines , and in this fear and in some degrees of it he will remain all the dayes of his life , and if he hopes to be quit of that , yet he knowes not how many degrees of Gods anger still hang over his head ; how many sad miseries shall afflict , and burne , and purifie him in this world with a sharpnesse so poinant as to divide the marrow from the bones ; and for these reasons , a considering man that knows what it is to repent , wishes with his soul , he had never sinned ; and therefore grieves in proportion to his former crimes , and present misery and future danger . And now , suppose that you can repent when you will , that is , that you can grieve when you will , ( though no man can do it , no man can grieve when he please ) though he could shed tears when he list , he cannot grieve without a real , or an apprehended infelicity , but , suppose it , and that he can fear when he please , and that he can love when he please , or what he please ; that is , suppose a man to be able to say to his palate , though I love sweet meats , yet to morrow I will hate and loath them , and believe them bitter and distastful things ; suppose ( I say ) all these impssibilities , yet since , repentance does suppose a man to be in a state of such real misery that he hath reason to curse the day in which he sinned , is this a fit argument to invite a man , that is in his wits , to sin ? to sin in hope of repentance ? as if dangers of falling into hell , and fear of the Divine anger , and many degrees of the Divine judgements , and a lasting sorrow , and a perpetual labour , and a never ceasing trembling , and a troubled conscience and a sorrowful spirit were fit things to be desired or hoped for . The sum is this . He that commits sins shall perish eternally if he never does repent . And if he does repent and yet untimely , he is not the better ; and if he does not repent with an intire , a perfect and complete repentance , he is not the better : But if he does , yet repentance is a duty full of fears and sorrow , and labour ; a vexation to the spirit , an afflictive , paenal , or punitive duty , a duty which suffers for sin , and labours for grace , which abides and suffers little images of hell in the way to heaven ; and though it be the onely way to felicity , yet it is beset with thorns and daggers of sufferance , and with rocks and mountains of duty . Let no man therefore dare to sin upon hopes of repentance : for he is a foole and a hypocrite , that now chooses and approves , what he knows hereafter he must condemn . 2. The second generall consideration is , The necessity , the absolute necessity of holy living , God hath made a Covenant with us , that we must give up our selves , bodies and souls , not a dying , but a living , and healthfull sacrifice . He hath forgiven all our old sins , and we have bargained to quit them , from the time that we first come to Christ , and give our names to him ; and to keep all his Commandements . We have taken the Sacramentall oath , like that of the old Romane Militia , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , we must beleeve , and obey , and do all that is commanded us , and keep our station , and fight against the flesh , the world , and the devil , not to throw away our mili●ary girdle , and we are to do what is bidden us , or to die for it , even all that is bidden us , according to our power . For , pretend not , that Gods Commandements are impossible . It is dishonourable to think God enjoyns us to do more then he enables us to do ; and it is a contradiction to say , we cannot do all that we can : and [ through Christ which strengthens me , I can do all things , saith S. Paul , ] however , we can do to the utmost of our strength , and beyond that we cannot take thought ; impossibilities enter not into deliberation , but according to our abilities , and naturall powers , assisted by Gods grace , so God hath covenanted with us to live a holy life . [ For in Christ Jesus nothing avayleth but a new creature , nothing but faith working by charity , nothing but keeping the Commandements of God. ] They are all the words of S. Paul before quoted ; to which he addes . [ and as many as walk according to this rule , peace be on them and mercy . ] This is the Covenant , [ they are the Israel of God ] upon those peace and mercy shall abide ; if they become a new creature , wholly transformed in the image of their minde ; if they have faith , and this faith be an operative working faith , a faith that produces a holy life , a faith that works by charity ; if they keep the Commandements of God , then they are within the Covenant of mercy , but not else ; for , in Christ Jesus nothing else avayleth . * To the same purpose are those words Hebr. 12. 14. Follow peace with all men , and holinesse , without which no man shall see the Lord. ] Peace with all men ] implies both justice and charity , without which it is impossible to preserve peace : Holinesse ] implies all our duty towards God. universall diligence ; and this must be followed , that is , pursued with diligence , in a lasting course of life and exercise , and without this , we shall never see the face of God. I need urge no more authorities to this purpose ; these two are as certain and convincing as two thousand , and since thus much is actually required , and is the condition of the Covenant ; it is certain that sorrow for not having done what is commanded to be done ; and a purpose to do what is necessary to be actually performed , will not acquit us before the righteous judgement of God. * [ For the grace of God hath appeared to all men , teaching us that denying ungodlinesse and worldly lusts , we should live godly , justly , and soberly in this present world . ] for upon these termes alone we must [ look for the blessed hope , the glorious appearing of the great God , and our Saviour Jesus Christ ] . * I shall no longer insist upon this particular , but onely propound it to your consideration , To what purpose are all those Commandements in Scripture , of every page almost in it , [ of living holily , and according to the Commandements of God , of adorning the Gospel of God , of walking as in the day , of walking in light , of pure and undefiled religion , of being holy as God is holy , of being humble and meek , as Christ is humble , of putting on the Lord Jesus , of living a spirituall life , ] but that it is the purpose of God , and the intention and designe of Christ dying for us , and the Covenant made with man , that we should expect heaven upon no other termes in the world , but of a holy life , in the faith and obedience of the Lord Jesus . Now if a vitious person , when he comes to the latter end of his dayes , one that hath lived a wicked , ungodly life , can for any thing he can do upon his death-bed , be said to live a holy life ; then his hopes are not desperate ; but he that hopes upon this onely , for which God hath made him no promise , I must say of him as Galen said of consumptive persons , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the more they hope , the worse they are ; and the relying upon such hopes is an approach to the grave , and a sad eternity . Peleos & Priami transit , vel Nestoris aet as & fuerat serum jam tibi desinere . Eja age , rumpe moras , quo te spectabimus usque Dum quid sis dubitas , jam potes esse nihil . And now it will be a vain question to ask , whether or no God cannot save a dying man that repents after a vitious life ? For it is true , God can do it if he please ; and he can raise children to Abraham out of the stones , and he can make ten thousand worlds if he sees good , and he can do what he list , and he can save an ill living man though he never repent at all , so much as upon his death-bed . All this he can do ; but Gods power is no ingredient into this question : we are never the better that God can do it , unlesse he also will ; and whether he will , or no , we are to learn from himself , and what he hath declared to be his will in holy Scripture . Nay since God hath said , that without actuall holinesse no man shall see God , God by his own will hath restrained his power , and though absolutely he can do all things , yet he cannot do against his own word . * And indeed the rewards of heaven are so great and glorious , and Christ burden is so light , his yoke is so easie , that it is a shamelesse impudence to expect so great glories at a lesse rate then so little a service , at a lower rate then a holy life . It cost the Eternall Son of God his life blood to obtain heaven for us upon that condition , and who then shall die again for us , to get heaven for us upon easier conditions . What would you do if God should command you to kill your eldest son ? or to work in the mines for a thousand yeers together ? or to fast all thy life time with bread and water ? were not heaven a great bargain even after all this ? and when God requires nothing of us but to live soberly , justly , and godly , ( which very things of themselves , to man are a very great felicity , and necessary to his present well-being ) shall we think this to be a load , and an unsufferable burden ? and that heaven is so little a purchase at that price , that God in meer justice will take a death-bed sigh or groan , and a few unprofitable tears and promises in exchange for all our duty ? Strange it should be so : but stranger that any man should rely upon such a vanity , when from Gods word he hath nothing to warrant such a confidence . But these men do like the Tyrant Dionysius , who stole from Apollo his golden cloak , and gave him a cloak of Arcadian home-spun , saying that this was lighter in summer , and warmer in winter . These men sacrilegiously rob God of the service of all their golden dayes , and serve him in their hoary head , in their furs and grave clothes ; and pretend that this late service is more agreeable to the Divine mercy on one side , and humane infirmity on the other , and so dispute themselves into an irrecoverable condition , having no other ground to rely upon a death-bed , or late-begun-repentance , but because they resolve to enjoy the pleasures of sin , and for heaven , they will put that to the venture of an after-game . These men sow in the flesh , and would reap in the spirit , live to the Devil , and die to God , and therefore it is but just in God that their hopes should be desperate , and their craft be folly , and their condition be , the unexpected , unfeared inheritance of an eternall sorrow . Lastly . Our last inquiry is into the time , the last or latest time of beginning our repentance . Must a man repent a yeer , or two , or seven yeers , or ten , or twenty before his death ? or what is the last period after which all repentance will be untimely and ineffectuall ? To this captious question I have many things to oppose . 1. We have entred into covenant with God , to serve him from the day of our Baptisme to the day of our death . He hath [ sworn this oath to us , that he would grant unto us , that we being delivered from fear of our enemies , might serve him without fear in holinesse and righteousnesse before him [ all the dayes of our life ] . Now although God will not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 forget our infirmities , but passe by the weaknesses of an honest a watchfull , & industrious person ; yet the Covenant he makes with us is from the day of our first voluntary profession , to our grave : and according as we by sins retire from our first undertaking ; so our condition is insecure : there is no other Covenant made with us , no new beginnings of another period ; but if we be returned , and sin be cancelled , and grace be actually obtained ; then we are in the first condition of pardon ; but because it is uncertain when a man can have masterd his vices , and obtain'd the graces , therefore no man can tell any set time when he must begin . 2. Scripture describing the duty of repenting sinners , names no other time but [ today . To day if ye will hear his voyce harden not your hearts . 3. The duty of a Christian is described in Scripture , to be such as requires length of time , and a continued industry . [ Let us run with patience the race that is set before us . ] and [ Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself , lest ye be wearied , and faint in your mindes . ] So great a preparation is not for the agony and contention of an hour , or a day , or a week , but for the whole life of a Christian , or for great parts of its abode . 4. There is a certain period and time set for our repentance , and beyond that all our industry is ineffectuall . There is a day of visitation , our own day , and there is a day of visitation , that is Gods day . This appeared in the case of Jerusalem . [ O Jerusalem , Jerusalem , if thou hadst known the time of thy visitation , at least in this thy day . ] Well! they neglected it , and then there was a time of Gods visitation which was his day ; called in Scripture , [ the day of the Lord ] and because they had neglected their own day , they fell into inevitable ruine : No repentance could have prevented their finall ruine . And this which was true in a Nation , is also clearly affirmed true in the case of single persons . [ Look diligently lest any fail of the grace of God , lest there be any person among you as Esau , who sold his birth-right , and afterwards when he would have inherited the blessing , he was rejected , for he found no place for his repentance though he sought it carefully with tears . ] Esau had time enough to repent his bargain as long as he lived ; he wept sorely for his folly , and carefulnesse sate heavy upon his soul , and yet he was not heard , nor his repentance accepted ; for the time was past : And [ take heed ] saith the Apostle , lest it come to passe to any of you to be in the same case . Now if ever there be a time in which repentance is too late , it must be the time of our death-bed , and the last time of our life : And after a man is fallen into the displeasure of Almighty God , the longer he lies in his sin without repentance and emendation , the greater is his danger , and the more of his allowed time is spent , and no man can antecedently , or before-hand , be sure that the time of his repentance is not past ; and those who neglect the call of God , and refuse to hear him call in the day of grace , God will laugh at them when their calamity comes ; they shall call , and the Lord shall not hear them . * And this was the case of the five foolish virgins when the arrest of death surprized them : they discovered their want of oil , they were troubled at it , they beg'd oil , they were refused , they did something towards the procuring of the oil of grace , ( for they went out to buy oil ) and after all this stir the bridegroom came before they had finished their journey , and they were shut out from the communion of the bridegrooms joyes . Therefore concerning the time of beginning to repent , no man is certain but he that hath done his work . Mortem venientem nemo hilaris excipit nisi qui se ad eam diù composuerat , said Seneca . He onely dies cheerfully who stood waiting for death in a ready dresse of a long preceding preparation . He that repents to day , repents late enough that he did not begin yesterday : But he that puts it off till to morrow is vain and miserable . — hodiè tam posthume vivere serum est Martial . l. 2. ep 90. Ille sapit quisquis posthume vixit heri . Well! but what will you have a man do that hath lived wickedly , and is now cast upon his death-bed ? shall this man despair , and neglect all the actions of piety , and the instruments of restitution in his sicknesse ? No. God forbid . Let him do what he can then ; It is certain it will be little enough : for all those short gleames of piety , and flashes of lightning will help towards the alleviating some degrees of misery ; and if the man recovers , they are good beginnings of a renewed piety : and Ahabs tears and humiliation , though it went no further , had a proportion of a reward , though nothing to the portions of eternity . So that he that sayes , it is every day necessary to repent , cannot be supposed to discourage the piety of any day : a death-bed piety , when things are come to that sad condition may have many good purposes : therefore even then neglect nothing that can be done . Well! But shall such persons despair of salvation ? To them I shall onely return this . That they are to consider the conditions which on one side God requires of us , and on the other side , whether they have done accordingly ? Let them consider upon what termes God hath promised salvation , and whether they have made themselves capable by performing their part of the obligation . If they have not , I must tell them , that , not to hope where God hath made no promise , is not the sin of despair , but the misery of despair . A man hath no ground to hope that ever he shall be made an Angel , and yet , that not hoping , is not to be called , despair : and no man can hope for heaven without repentance ; And for such a man to despair , is not the sin , but the misery . If such persons have a promise of heaven , let them shew it , and hope it , and enjoy it ; if they have no promise , they must thank themselves , for bringing themselves into a condition without the Covenant , without a promise , hopelesse and miserable . But will not trusting in the merits of Jesus Christ save such a man ? For that we must be tried by the word of God : In which there is no contract at all made with a dying person that hath lived in Name a Christian , in practise a Heathen : and we shall dishonour the sufferings and redemption of our blessed Saviour , if we make them to be a Umbrello to shelter our impious and ungodly living . But that no such person may after a wicked life repose himself in his deathbed upon Christs merits , observe but these two places of scripture [ Our Saviour Jesus Christ who gave himself for us ] what to do ? that we might lives as we list ? and hope to be saved by his merits ? No But [ that he might redeem us from all iniquity , and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works . These things speak and exhort , ] saith Saint Paul. But more plainly yet , in S. Peter [ Christ bare our sins in his own body on the tree . ] To what end ? [ that we being dead unto sin should live unto righteousnesse . ] since therefore our living a holy life is the end of Christs dying that sad and holy death for us , he that trusts on it to evil purposes , and to excuse his vicious life , does ( as much as lies in him ) make void the very purpose and designe of Christs passion , and dishonours the blood of the everlasting covenant : which covenant was confirmed by the blood of Christ : but as it brought peace from God , so it requires a holy life from us . But why may not we be saved as well as the thief upon the crosse ? even because our case is nothing alike . When Christ dies once more for us , we may look for such another instance ; not till then . But this thiefe did but then come to Christ ; he knew him not before ; and his case was as if a Turk or heathen should be converted to Christianity , and be baptized , and enter newly into the Covenant upon his deathbed . Then God pardons all his sins ; and so God does to Christians when they are baptized , or first give up their names to Christ by a voluntarie confirmation of their baptismal vow : but when they have once entred into the Covenant , they must performe what they promise , and to what they are obliged . The thief had made no contract with God in Jesus Christ , and therefore failed of none ; onely the defaillances of the state of ignorance Christ paid for at the thiefes admission . But we that have made a covenant with God in baptisme , and failed of it all our dayes , and then returne at night , when we cannot work ; have nothing to plead for our selves , because we have made all that to be uselesse to us which God with so much mercy and miraculous wisdom , gave us to secure our interest , and hopes of heaven . And therfore let no Christian man who hath covenanted with God to give him the service of his life , think that God will be answered with the sighs and prayers of a dying man ; for all that great obligation which lies upon us cannot be transacted in an instant , when we have loaded our souls with sin , and made them empty of vertue ; we cannot so soon grow up to a perfect man in Christ Jesus . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you cannot have an apple , or a cherry , but you must stay its proper periods , and let it blossom and knot , and grow and ripen , [ and in due season we shall reap if we faint not ] ( saith the Apostle ) far much lesse may we expect that the fruits of repentance , and the issues and degrees of holinesse shall be gathered in a few dayes or houres . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; you must not expect such fruits in a little time , nor with little labour . Suffer therefore not your selves to be deceived by false principles , and vain confidences ; for no man can in a moment root out the long contracted habits of vice , nor upon his deathbed make use of all that variety of preventing , accompanying and persevering grace , which God gave to man in mercy ; because man would need it all , because without it he could not be saved ; nor upon his death-bed can he exercise the duty of mortification ; nor cure his drunkennesse then , nor his lust , by any act of Christian discipline ; nor run with patience ; nor resist unto blood ; nor endure with long sufferance ; but he can pray , and groan , and call to God , and resolve to live well when he is dying ; but this is but just as the Nobles of Xerxes , when in a storm they were to lighten the ship to preserve their Kings life , they did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they did their obeysance , and leaped into the sea : so ( I fear ) doe these men , pray and mourn , and worship and so leap overboard into an ocean of eternal and intolerable calamity . From which God deliver us , and all faithful people . Hunc volo laudari qui sine morte potest . Mart. ep . l. 1. Vivere quod propero pauper , nec inutilis annis Da veniam , properat vivere nemo satis . Differat hoc , patrios optat qui vincere census Atriaque immodicis arctat imaginibus . Mart. l. 2. ep 90. Sermon . VII . THE DECEITFVLNESSE Of the HEART . 17. Jeremy 9. The heart is deceitful above all things , and desperatly wicked ; who can know it ? FOlly and subtiltie divide the greatest part of mankinde , and there is no other difference but this , that some are crafty enough to deceive ; Others foolish enough to be cozened and abused : And yet the scales also turn , for they that are the most craftie to cozen others , are the veriest Fools and most of all abused themselves . They rob their neighbour of his mony , and loose their own innocency ; they disturb his rest , and vex their own Conscience ; they throw him into prison , and themselves into Hell ; they make poverty to be their brothers portion , and damnation to be their own . Man entred into the world first alone ; but as soon as he met with one companion , he met with three to cozen him ; The Serpent , and Eve , and himself , all joyned ; first to make him a foole , and to deceive him , and then to make him miserable . But he first cozened himself , giving himself up to believe a lie , and being desirous to listen to the whispers of a tempting spirit , he sinned , before he fell , that is , he had within him a false understanding , and a depraved will , and these were the Parents of his disobedience , and this was the parent of his infelicity , and a great occasion of ours . And then it was that he entred for himself and his posterity into the condition of an ignorant , credulous , easie , wilful , passionate , and impotent person ; apt to be abused , and so loving to have it so , that if no body else will abuse him , he will be sure to abuse himself ; by ignorance and evil principles , being open to an enemy , and by wilfulnesse and Sensuality , doing to himself the most unpardonable injuries in the whole world . So that the condition of Man , in the rudenesses and first lines of its visage , seemes very miserable , deformed , and accursed . For a man is helplesse and vain ; of a condition so exposed to calamity , that a raisin is able to kill him ▪ any trooper out of the Egyptian army , a flie can do it , when it goes on Gods errand ; the most contemptible accident can destroy him , the smallest chance affright him , every future contingency , when but conside●ed as possible , can amaze him ; and he is incompass'd with potent and malicious enemies , subtle and implacable : what shall this poor helplesse thing do ? trust in God ? Him he hath offended , and he fear him as an enemy ; and God knows , if we look onely on our selves , and our own demerits , we have to much reason so to doe . Shall he rely upon Princes ? God help poor Kings : they rely upon ther Subjects , they fight with their swords , levy forces with the●● money , consult with their Counsels , hear with their ears , and are strong onely in their union , and many times they use all these things against them ; but however , they can do nothing without them while they live , and yet if ever they can die , they are not to be trusted to . Now Kings and Princes die so sadly and notoriously ; that it was used for a proverbe in holy scripture , ye shall die like men , and fall like one of the Princes . Who then shall we trust in ? in our Friend ? Poor man ! he may help thee in one thing , and need thee in ten ; he may pull thee out of the ditch ▪ and his foot may slip and fal into it himself ; he gives thee counsel to choose a wife , and himself is to seek how prudently to choose his religion ▪ he counsels thee to abstain from a duel , and yet slayes his own soul with drinking , like a person void of all understanding he is willing enough to preserve thy interest , and is very carelesse of his own : for he does highly despise to betray or to be false to thee , and in the mean time is not his own friend , and is false to God , and then his friendship may be useful to thee in some circumstances of fortune ; but no security to thy condition . But what then ? shall we relie upon our patron , like the Roman Clients , who waited hourly upon their persons , and daily upon their baskets , and nightly upon their lusts , and married their friendships , and contracted also their hatred and quarrels ; This is a confidence will deceive us . For they may lay us by , justly or unjustly , they may grow weary of doing benefits , or their fortunes may change , or they may be charitable in their gifts and burthensom in their offices ; able to feed you , but unable to counsel you ; or your need may be longer then their kindnesses , or such in which they can give you no assistance ; and indeed generally it is so in all the instances of men : we have a friend that is wise ; but I ●eed not his counsel , but his meat ; or my patron is bountiful in his largesses , but I am troubled with a sad spirit ; and money and presents do me no more ease , then perfumes do to a broken arme : we seek life of a Physician that dies , and go to him for health , who cannot cure his own breath , or gowt ; and so become vain in our imaginations , abused in our hopes , restlesse in our passions , impatient in our calamity , unsupported in our need , exposed to enemies , wandring and wilde , without counsel and without remedy . At last after the infatuating and deceiving all our confidences without , we have nothing left us , but to return home , and dwell within our selves : for we have a sufficient stock of self-love , that we may be confident of our own affections , we may trust our selves surely ; for what we want in skill , we shall make up in diligence , and our industry shall supply the want of other circumstances : and no man vnderstands my own case so well as I do my self , and no man will judge so faithfully as I shall do for my self ; for I am most concern'd not to abuse my self ; and if I do , I shall be the loser , and therefore may best rely upon my self Alas ! and God help us ! we shall finde it to be no such matter : For we neither love our selves well , nor understand our own case , we are partial in our own questions , deceived in our sentences , carelesse of our interests , and the most false , persidious creatures to our selves in the whole world : even the Heart of a man a mans own heart is deceitful above all things , and desperately wicked , who can know it ? And who can choose but know it ? And there is no greater argument of the deceitfulnesse of our Hearts , then this , that no man can know it all ; it cosens us in the very number of its cosenage : But yet we can reduce it all to two heads . We say concerning a false man , trust him not for he will deceive you , and we say concerning a weak and broken staffe , lean not upon it , for that will also deceive you . The man deceives because he is false , and the staffe because it is weak , and the heart because it is both . So that it is deceitful above all things , that is , failing and disabled to support us in many things ; but in other things where it can , it is false and desperately wicked . The first sort of deceitfulnesse is its calamitie , and the second is its iniquity , and that is the worst Calamitie of the two . 1. The heart is deceitfull in its strength ; and when we have the groweth of a Man , we have the weaknesses of a childe : nay more yet , and it is a sad consideration , the more we are in age , the weaker in our courage . It appears in the heats and forwardnesses of new converts , which are like to the great emissions of Lightning , or like huge fires , which flame and burn without measure , even all that they can ; till from flames they descend to still fires , from thence to smoak , from smoak to embers , from thence to ashes ; cold and pale , like ghosts , or the phantastick images of Death . And the primitive Church were zealous in their Religion up to the degree of Cherubins , and would run as greedily to the sword of the hangman , to die for the cause of God , as we do now to the greatest joy and entertainment of a Christian spirit , even to the receiving of the holy Sacrament . A man would think it reasonable that the first infancy of Christianity should , according to the nature of first beginnings , have been remisse , gentle , and unactive , and that according as the object or evidence of faith grew , which in every Age hath a great degree of Argument superadded to its confirmation ; so should the habit also and the grace , the longer it lasts & the more obiections it runs through , it still should shew a brighter and more certain light to discover the divinity of its principle ; and that after the more examples , and new accidents and strangenesses of providence , and daily experience , and the multitude of miracles , still the Christian should grow more certain in his faith , more refreshed in his hope , and warm in his charity ; the very nature of these graces increasing and swelling upon the very nourishment of experience , and the multiplication of their own acts . And yet because the heart of man is false , it suffers the fires of the Altar to go out , and the flames lessen by the multitude of fuel . But indeed it is because we put on strange fire , & put out the fire upon our hearths by letting in a glaring Sun beam , the fire of lust ; or the heates of an angry spirit , to quench the fires of God , and suppresse the sweet cloud of incense . The heart of man hath not strength enough to think one good thought of it self , it cannot command its own attention to a prayer often lines long : but before its end it shall wander after some thing , that is to no purpose : and no wonder then that it grows weary of a holy religion , which consists of so many parts as make the businesse of a whole life . And there is no greater argument in the world of our spiritual weaknesse and falsnesse of our hearts in the matters of religion , then the backwardnesse which most men have alwayes , and all men have somtimes to say their prayers : so weary of their length , so glad when they are done , so wi●●e to excuse and frustrate an opportunity ; and yet there is no manner of trouble in the duty , no wearinesse of bones , no violent labours ; nothing but begging a blessing , and receiving it ; nothing but doing our selves the greatest honour of speaking to the greatest person , and greatest king of the world ; and that we should be unwilling to do this , so unable to continue in it , so backward to return to it ; so without gust and relish in the doing it , can have no visible reason in the nature of the thing , but something within us , a strange sicknesse in the heart , a spiritual nauseating or loathing of Manna , something that hath no name ; but we are sure it comes from a weake , a faint , and false heart . And yet this weak heart is strong in passions , violent in desires , unresistable in its appetites , impatient in its lust , furious in anger ; here are strengths enough , one would think : But so have I seen a man in a feaver , sick and distempered , unable to walk , lesse able to speak sence , or to do an act of counsel ; and yet when his feaver hath boild up to a delirium , he was strong enough to beat his nurse keeper and his doctor too ; and to resist the loving violence of all his friends , who would faine binde him down to reason and his bed : And yet we still say he is weak and sick to death . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for these strengths of madnesse are not health , but furiousnesse and disease ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , It is weaknesse another way ; And so are the strengths of a mans heart ; they are fetters and manacles ; strong , but they are the cordage of imprisonment , so strong , that the heart is not able to stir . And yet it cannot but be a huge sadnesse , that the heart shall pursue a temporal interest with wit and diligence , and an unwearied industry , and shall not have strength enough in a matter that concerns its Eternal interest to answer one obiection , to resist one assault , to defeate one art of the divel ; but shall certainly and infallibly fall when ever it is tempted to a pleasure . This , if it be examined , will prove to be a deceit indeed , a pretence , rather then true upon a just cause , that is , it is not a natural , but a moral & a vicious weaknesse ; and we may try it in one or two familiar instances . One of the great strengths , shall I call it ? or weaknesses of the heart is , that it is strong , violent and passionate in its lusts , and weak and deceitful to resist any . Tell the tempted person , that if he act his lust , he dishonours his body , makes himself a servant to follie , and one flesh with a harlot , he defiles the Temple of God , and him that defiles a Temple will God destroy : Tell him that the Angels who love to be present in the nastinesse and filth of prisons , that they may comfort and assist chast souls , and holy persons there abiding ▪ yet they are impatient to behold or come neer the filthynesse of a lustful person : Tell him , that this sin is so ugly , that the divels , who are spirits , yet they delight to counterfeit the acting of this crime , and descend unto the daughters or sons of men , that they may rather lose their natures , then not help to set a lust forward : Tell them these and ten thousand things more ; you move them no more , then if you should read one of Tullies orations to a mule ; for the truth is , they have no power to resist it , much lesse to master it , their heart fails them when they meet their Mistresse ; and they are driven like a fool to the stocks , or a Bull to the slaughter-house : And yet their heart deceives them ; not because it cannot resist the temptation , but because it will not go about it : For it is certain , the heart can , if it list : For let a Boy enter into your chamber of pleasure , and discover you folly , either your lust disbands , or your shame hides it ; you will not , you dare not do it before a stranger Boy ; and yet that you dare do it before the eyes of the All-seeing God , is impudence and folly , and a great conviction of the vanity of your pretence , and the falsenesse of your heart . If thou beest a man given to thy appetite , and thou lovest a pleasant morsell as thy life , do not declame against the precepts of Temperance , as impossible : Try this once ; abstain from that draught , or that dish . I cannot . No ? Give this man a great blow on the face , or tempt him with twenty pound , and he shall fast from morning till night , and then feast himself with your money , and plain wholesome meat . And if Chastity and Temperance be so easie , that a man may be brought to either of them with so ready and easie instruments ; Let us not suffer our hearts to deceive us by the weaknesse of its pretences , and the strength of its desires : For we do more for a Boy , then for God ; and for 20. pound , then Heaven it self . But thus it is in every thing else ; take an Hereticke , a Rebel , a person that hath an ill cause to mannage ; what he wants in the strength of his reason , he shall make it up with diligence ; and a person that hath Right on his side is cold , indiligent , lazie , and unactive , trusting that the goodnesse of his Cause will do it alone ; But so , wrong prevails , while evil persons are zealous in a Bad matter , and others are remisse in a Good ; And the same person shall be very industrious alwayes when he hath least reason so to be . That 's the first particular . The heart is deceitfull in the mannaging of its naturall strengths ; it is Naturally and Physically strong , but Morally weak , and impotent . 2. The Heart of man is deceitfull in making judgement concerning its own Acts. It does not know when it is pleased or displeased , it is peevish and trifling , it would and it would not , and it is in many Cases impossible to know whether a mans heart desires such a thing or not . Saint Ambrose hath an odde saying , Facilius inveneris innocentem , quam qui poenitentiam ●●gne egerit . It is easier to finde a man that hath lived innocently , then one that hath truly repented him , with a grief and care great according to the merit of his sins . Now suppose a man that hath spent his younger yeers in vanity and folly , and is by the grace of God apprehensive of it , and thinks of returning to sober counsels , this man will finde his heart so false , so subtil and fugitive , so secret and undiscernable , that it will be very hard to discerne , whether he repents , or no. For if he considers that he hates sin , and therefore repents ; Alas ! he so hates it , that he dares not , if he be wise , tempt himself with an opportunity to act it : for in the midst of that which he calls hatred , he hath so much love left for it , that if the sin comes again and speaks him fair , he is lost again , he kisses the fire , and dies in its embraces . And why else should it be necessary for us to pray , that we be not lead into temptation ? but because we hate the sin , and yet love it too well ; we curse it , and yet follow it ; we are angry at our selves , and yet cannot be without it ; we know it undoes us , but we think it pleasant ; And when we are to execute the fierce anger of the Lord upon our sins , yet we are kinde-hearted , and spare the Agag , the reigning sin , the splendid temptation , we have some kindnesses left towards it . These are but ill signes How then shall I know by some infallible token , that I am a true Penitent ? What and if I weep for my sins ? will you not then give me leave to conclude my heart right with God , and at enmity with sin ? It may be so . But there are some friends that weep at parting ; and is not thy weeping a sorrow of affection ? It is a sad thing to part with our long companion ▪ Or it may be thou weepest , because thou wouldest have a signe to cozen thy self withall ; for some men are more desirous to have a signe , then the thing signified ; they would do something to shew their Repentance , that themselves may beleeve themselves to be Penitents , having no reason from within to beleeve so . And I have seen some persons weep heartily for the losse of six pence , or for the breaking of a glasse , or at some trifling accident ; and they that do so cannot pretend to have their tears valued at a bigger rate then they will confesse their passion to be when they weep , and are vexed for the durting of their linnen , or some such trifle , for which the least passion is too big an expence . So that a man cannot tell his own heart by his tears , or the truth of his repentance by those short gusts of sorrow . How then ? Shall we suppose a man to pray against his sin ? So did Saint Austin , when in his youth he was tempted to lust and uncleannesse , he prayed against it , and secretly desired that God would not hear him : for here the heart is cunning to deceive it self . For no man did ever heartily pray against his sin in the midst of a temptation to it , if he did in any sence or degree listen to the temptation : For to pray against a sin , is to have desires contrary to it , and that cannot consist with any love , or any kindnesse to it . We pray against it , and yet do it , and then pray again , and do it again ; and we desire it , and yet pray against the desires , and that 's almost a contradiction : Now because no man can be supposed to will against his own will , or choose against his own desires ; it is plain that we cannot know whether we mean what we say , when we pray against sin , but by the event ; If we never act it , never entertain it , alwayes resist it , ever fight against it ; and finally do prevail ; then at length we may judge our own heart to have meant honestly in that one particular . Nay our heart is so deceitfull in this matter of Repentance , that the Masters of spirituall life are fain to invent suppletory Arts and stratagems to secure the duty . And we are advised to mourn , because we do not mourn , to be sorrowfull because we are not sorrowfull . Now if we be sorrowfull in the first stage , how happens it that we know it not ? Is our heart so secret to our selves ? But if we be not sorrowfull in the first period , how shall we be so , or know it in the second period ? For we may as well doubt concerning the sincerity of the second or reflex act of sorrow , as of the first and direct action . And therefore we may also as well be sorrowfull the third time , for want of the just measure , or hearty meaning of the second sorrow , as be sorrowfull the second time for want of true sorrow at the first ; and so on to infinite . And we shall never be secure in this Artifice , if we be not certain of our naturall and hearty passion in our direct and first apprehensions . Thus many persons think themselves in a good estate , and make no question of their salvation , being confident onely because they are confident ; and they are so , because they are bidden to be so ; and yet they are not confident at all , but extreamly timerous and fearfull . How many persons are there in the world , that say they are sure of their salvation , and yet they dare not die ? And if any man pretends , that he is now sure he shall be saved , and that he cannot fall away from grace ; there is no better way to confute him , then by advising him to send for the Surgeon , and bleed to death . For what should hinder him ? not the sin : for it cannot take him from Gods favour : not the change of his condition : for he sayes he is sure to go to a Better : why does he not then say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , like the Romane gallants when they decreed to die . The reason is plainly this . They say they are confident , and yet are extreamly timerous ; they professe to beleeve that Doctrine , and yet dare not trust it : nay they think they beleeve , but they do not ; so false is a mans heart ; so deceived in its own Acts , so great a stranger to its own sentence and opinions . 3. The heart is deceitfull in its own resolutions and purposes : for many times men make their resolutions onely in their understanding , not in their wills ; they resolve it sitting to be done , not decree that they will do it ; And instead of beginning to be reconciled to God , by the renewed and hearty purposes of holy living , they are advanced so far onely , as to be convinced , and apt to be condemned by their own sentence . But suppose our resolutions advanced further , and that our Will and Choices also are determined ; see how our hearts deceive us . 1. We resolve against those sins that please us not , or where temptation is not present , and think by an over-acted zeal against some sins to get an indulgence for some others . There are some persons who will be Drunk ; The Company , or the discourse , or the pleasure of madnesse , or an easie nature , and a thirsty soul ; something is amisse , that cannot be helped ; But they will make amends , and the next day pray twice as much . Or it may be they must satisfie a beastly lust ; but they will not be drunk for all the world ; and hope by their Temperance to Commute for their want of Chastity : But they attend not the craft of their secret enemy , their Heart : for it is not love of the vertue ; if it were , they would love Vertue in all its Instances ; for Chastity is as much a vertue as Temperance , and God hates Lust as much as he hates Drunkennesse . * But this sin is against my health , or it may be it is against my lust , it makes me impotent , and yet impatient , full of desire , and empty of strength . Or else I do an act of Prayer , lest my conscience become unquiet , while it is not satisfied or cozened with some intervals of Religion : I shall think my self a damned wretch , if I do nothing for my soul ; but if I do , I shall call the one sin that remains nothing but my Infirmity ; and therefore it is my excuse : and my Prayer is not my Religion , but my Peace , and my Pretence , and my Fallacy . 2. We resolve against our sin , that is , we will not act it in those circumstances as formerly : I will not be drunk in the streets ; but I may sleep till I be recovered , and then come forth sober ; or if I be overtaken , it shall be in Civill and Gentile company ; Or it may be not so much ; I will leave my intemperance and my Lust too , but I will remember it with pleasure , I will revolve the past action in my mind , and entertain my fancy with a moros delectation in it , and by a fiction of imagination will represent it present , and so be satisfied with a little esseminacy , or phantastick pleasure , Beloved , suffer not your hearts so to cozen you , as if any man can be faithfull in much , that is faithlesse in a little . He certainly is very much in love with sin , and parts with it very unwillingly , that keeps its Picture , and wears its Favour , and delights in the fancy of it , even with the same desire , as a most passionate widow parts with her dearest husband , even when she can no longer enjoy him : But certainly her staring all day upon his picture , and weeping over his Robe , and wringing her hands over his children , are no great signes that she hated him : And just so do most men hate , and accordingly part with their sins . 3. We resolve against it when the opportunity is slipped , and lay it aside as long as the temptation please , even till it come again , and no longer . How many men are there in the world , that against every Communion renew their vowes of holy living ? Men , that for twenty , for thirty yeers together , have been perpetually resolving against what they daily Act ; and sure enough they did beleeve themselves : And yet if a man had daily promised us a curtesie , and failed us but ten times , when it was in his power to have done it , we should think , we had reason never to beleeve him more : And can we then reasonably beleeve the resolutions of our hearts , which they have falsified so many hundred times ? We resolve against a religious Time , because then it is the Custome of men , and the Guise of the Religion ; Or we resolve when we are in a great danger , and then we promise any thing , possible or impossible , likely or unlikely , all is one to us , we onely care to remove the present pressure , and when that is over , and our fear is gone , and no love remaining , our condition being returned to our first securities , our resolutions also revert to their first indifferencies : Or else we cannot look a temptation in the face , and we resolve against it , hoping never to be troubled with its arguments and importunity . Epictetus tells us of a Gentleman returning from banishment , in his journey towards home called at his house , told a sad story of an Imprudent life , the greatest part of which being now spent , he was resolved for the future to live Philosophically , and entertain no businesse , to be candidate for no employment , not to go to the Court , not to salute Caesar with ambitious attendancies , but to study , and worship the gods , and die willingly , when nature , or necessity called him . It may be this man beleeved himself , but Epictetus did not . And he had reason . For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Letters from Caesar met him at the doors , and invited him to Court , and he forgot all his promises , which were warm upon his lips , and grew pompous , secular , and ambitious , and gave the gods thanks for his preferment . Thus many men leave the world , when their fortune hath left them , and they are severe and philosophicall , and retired for ever , if for ever it be impossible to return : But let a prosperous Sunshine warm and refresh their sadnesses , and make it but possible to break their purposes , and there needs no more temptation ; Their own false heart is enough ; they are like Ephraim in the day of Battell , starting aside like a broken Bow. 4. The heart is false , deceiving and deceived in its intensions and designes . A man hears the precepts of God injoyning us to give Alms of all we possesse ; he readily obeys with much cheerfulnesse and alacrity ; And his charity , like a fair spreading tree , looks beauteously : But there is a Canker at the heart ; The man blowes a Trumpet to call the poor together , and hopes the neighbourhood will take notice of his Bounty . Nay he gives Alms privately , and charges no man to speak of it , and yet hopes by some Accident or other to be praised both for his Charity and Humility . And if by chance , the Fame of his Alms comes abroad it is but his duty to let his light so shine before men , that God may be glorified , and some of our neighbours be relieved , and others edified . But then to distinguish the intention of our heart in this Instance , and to seek Gods glory in a particular , which will also conduce much to our reputation , and to have no filthy adherence to stick to the heart ▪ no reflexion upon our selves , or no complacency and delight in popular noyses , is the nicity of abstraction , and requires an Angel to do it . Some men are so kind-hearted , so true to their friend , that they will watch his very dying groans , and receive his last breath , and close his eyes ; And if this be done with honest intention , it is well : But there are some that do so , and yet are vultures and harpyes , they watch for the Carcasse , and prey upon a Legacy . A man with a true story may be malicious to his enemy , and by doing himself right , may also do him wrong : And so false is the heart of man , so clancular and contradictory are its Actions and Intentions , that some men pursue vertue with great earnestnesse , and yet cannot with patience look upon it in another : It is Beauty in Themselves , and Deformity in the Other . Is it not plain , that not the Vertue , but its Reputation is the thing that is pursued ? And yet if you tell the man so , he thinks he hath reason to complain of your malice or detraction . Who is able to distinguish his fear of God from fear of punishment ? when from fear of punishment we are brought to fear God : And yet the difference must be distinguishable in new Converts & old Disciples ; And our fear of punishment must so often change its Circumstances , that it must be at last a fear to offend out of pure Love , and must have no formality left to distinguish it from Charity : It is easie to distinguish these things in Precepts , and to make the separation in the Schooles : The Head can do it easily , and the Tongue can do it : But when the Heart comes to separate Alms from Charity , Gods glory from Humane praise , fear from fear , and sincerity from Hypocrisie ; it does so intricate the questions and confound the ends , and blend and entangle circumstances , that a man hath reason to doubt , that his very best Actions are fullied with some unhandsom excrescencie something to mak them very often to be criminal , but alwayes to be imperfect . Here a man would think were enough to abate our confidence and the spirit of pride , and to make a man eternally to stand upon his guard , and to keep as strict watch upon his own heart , as upon his greatest enemy from without . Custodi , libera me de meipso , Deus . It was S. Augustines prayer , Lord keep me , Lord deliver me from my self . If God will keep a man , that he be not Felo de se , that he lay no violent hands upon himself , it is certain nothing else can do him mischief , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Agamemnon said , Neither Jupiter , nor Destinies , nor the Furies , but it is a mans self that does him the mischief . The Devil can but Tempt , and offer a dagger at the heart , unlesse our hands thrust it home , the Devil can do nothing , but what may turne to our advantage . And in this sence we are to understand the two seeming Contradictories in Scripture , Pray that ye enter not into Temptation , said our Blessed Saviour , and Count it all joy when you enter into divers Temptations , said one of Christs Disciples . The case is easie . When God suffers us to be tempted , he means it but as a trial of our faith , as the exercise of our vertues , as the opportunity of reward , and in such cases we have reason to count it all joy ; since the Trial of our faith worketh Patience and Patience experience , and experience causeth hope , and hope maketh not ashamed : But yet for all this , pray against temptations : for when we get them into our hands , we use them as blind men do their clubs , neither distinguish person nor part ; as soone they strike the face of their friends as the back of the Enemie ; our hearts betray us to the enemie , we fall in love with our mischief , we contrive how to let the lust in , and leave a port open on purpose , and use arts to forget our duty , and to give advantages to the Divel . He , that uses a temptation thus , hath reason to pray against it ; and yet our hearts does all this and a thousand times more : so that we may ingrave upon our hearts the epitaph which was digged into Thiestes grave-stone . Nolite , inquit , hospites adire adme , ilico istic ; Ne contagio mea umbrave obsit , Tanta vis sceleris in corpore haeret . There is so much falsenesse and iniquity in mans heart , that it defiles all the members ; it makes the eyes lustful , and the tongue slanderous ; it fills the head with mischief , and the feet with blood , and the hands with injury , and the present condition of man with folly , and makes his future state apt to inherit eternal miserie . But this is but the beginning of those throws , & damnable impieties , which proceed out of the heart of man and defile the whole constitution . I have yet told but the weaknesses of the heart ; I shall the next time tel you the iniquities , those inherent Divels which pollute and defile it to the ground , and make it desperately , wicked , that is , wicked beyond all expression . The deceitfulnesse of the Heart . Part II. 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : It is the beginning of wisdom , to know a mans own weaknesses , and failings in things of greatest necessitie ; and we have here so many objects to furnish out this knowledge , that we finde it with the longest and latest before it be obtained . A man does not begin to know him self till he be old , and then he is well stricken in death : A mans heart at first being like a plain table , unspotted indeed , but then there is nothing legible in it . As soon as ever we ripen towards the imperfect uses of our reason , we write upon this table such crooked characters , such imperfect configurations , so many fooleries ; and stain it with so many blots , and vitious inspersions , that there is nothing worth the reading in our hearts for a great while ; and when education and ripenesse , reason and experience , Christian philosophy and the grace of God hath made fair impressions and written the law in our hearts with the finger of Gods holy spirit , we blot out this handwriting of Gods ordinances , or mingle it with false principles , and interlinings of our our own ; we disorder the method of God , or deface the truth of God ; either we make the rule uneven we bribe or abuse our guide , that we may wander with an excuse . Or if nothing else will do it we turn head and professe to go against the laws of God. Our Hearts are blind ; or our hearts are hardned : for these are two great arguments of the wickednesse of our hearts : they do not see , or they will not see the wayes of God ; or if they do , they make use of their seeing , that they may avoid them . 1. Our hearts are blinde , wilfully blind . I need not instance in the ignorance and involuntary nescience of men , though if we speak of the necessary parts of religion , no man is ignorant of them without his own fault : such ignorance is alwayes a direct sin , or the direct punishment of a sin . A sin is either in its bosom , or in its retinue : But the ignorance , that I now intend , is a voluntary , chosen , delightful ignorance taken in upon designe ; even for no other end , but that we may perish quietly and infallibly . God hath opened all the windows of Heaven , and sent the Sun of Righteousnesse with glorious apparition , and hath discoverd the abysses of his own wisdom , made the second person in the Trinity , to be the doctor and preacher of his sentences and secrets , and the third person to be his Amanuensis or scribe , and our hearts to be the Book , in which the doctrine is written , and miracles and prophecies to be its arguments , and all the world to be the verification of it : and those leaves contain within their folds all that excellent morality , which right reason pickt up after the shipwrack of nature ; and all those wise sayings , which singly made so many men famous for preaching some one of them ; all them Christ gathered and added some more out of the immediate book of Revelation : So that now the wisdom of God hath made every mans heart to be the true Veronica , in which he hath imprinted his own lineaments so perfectly , that we may dresse our selves like God , and have the aire and features of Christ our Elder-Brother ; that we may be pure as God is , perfect as our Father , meek and humble as the Son , and may have the holy Ghost within us , in gifts and Graces , in wisdom and holinesse . This hath God done for us ; and see what we do for Him. We stand in our own light , and quench Gods : we love darknesse more then light , and entertain our s●lves accordingly . For how many of us are there , that understand nothing of the wayes of God ; that know no more of the law of Jesus Christ , then is remaining upon them since they learned the childrens Catechisme ? But amongst a thousand how many can explicate and unfold for his own practise the ten Commandments ; And how many sorts of sins are there forbidden ? which therefore passe into action , and never passe under the scrutinies of repentance ; because they know not that they are sinnes ? Are there not very many , who know not the particular duties of meeknesse , and never consider concerning Long suffering ? and if you talk to them of growth in Grace , or the spirit of obsignation , or the melancholy lectures of the Crosse and imitation of , and conformitie to Christs sufferings ; or adherences to God , or rejoycing in him , or not quenching the spirit ; you are too deep learned for them . And yet these are duties set down plainly for our practise , necessary to be acted in order to our Salvation . We brag of light , and reformation , and fulnesse of the spirit : in the mean time we understand not many parts of our dutie . We enquire into something that may make us talk , or be talked of , or that we may tro●ble a Church , or disturb the peace of mindes ; but in things that concern Holy living and that wisdom of God , whereby we are wise unto Salvation ; never was any age of Christendom more ignorant then we . For , if we did not wink hard we must needs see , that obedience to supre●● Powers , Denying of our selves , Humility , Peacefulnesse and Charity , are written in such Capital text letters , that it is impossible to be ignorant of them . And if the heart of man had not rare arts to abuse the understanding , it were not to be imagined that any man should bring the 13. Chapter to the Romans to prove the lawfulnesse of taking up Armes against our rulers : but so we may abuse our selves at noon and go to bed , if we please to call it midnight . And there have been a sort of wittie men that maintained that snow was hot : I wonder not at the probleme ; but that a man should beleeve his paradox , and should let eternity go away with the fallacie , and rather lose heaven then leave his foolish argument , is a signe that wilfulnesse and the deceiving heart is the Sophister , and the great ingredient into our Deception . But that I may be more particular ; the heart of man uses devices that it may be ignorant . 1. We are impatient of honest and severe reproofe ; and order the circumstances of our persons and address that we shall never come to the true knowledge of our condition . Who will endure to heare his curate tell him , that he is Covetous , or that he is proud ? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It is Calumny and Reviling if he speak it to his head , and relates to his person : and yet if he speak onely in general , every man neglects what is not recommended to his particular . But yet if our Physitian tell us ▪ you look well , Sir ; but a Feaver lurks in your spirits , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 drink Julips and abstain from flesh ; no than thinks it shame or calumny to be told so : but when we are told that our liver is inflamed with lust or anger ; that our heart is vexed with envie ; that our eyes rowl with wantonnesse ; And though we think all is well , yet we are sick , sick unto death , & neer to a sad and fatal sentence ▪ we shall think that man that tells us so is impudent , or uncharitable ; and yet he hath done him no more injury , then a deformed man receives daily from his looking-glasse ; which if he shall dash against the wall , because it showes him his face just as it is ; his face is not so ugly as his manners . And yet our heart is so impatient of seeing its own staines , that like the Elephant , it tramples in the pure streames , and first troubles them , then stoops and drinks , when he can least see his huge deformitie . 2. In order to this , we heap up teachers of our own , and they guide us , not whither , but which way they please : for we are curious to go our own way , and carelesse of our Hospitall or Inne at night . A faire way , and a merry company , and a pleasant easie guide will entice us into the Enemies quarters ; and such guides we cannot want . Improbitati occasio nunquam defuit . If we have a minde to be wicked , we shall want no prompters ; and false teachers at first creeping in unawares have now so filled the pavement of the Church , that you can scarce set your foot on the ground , but you tread upon a snake . Cicero l. 7. ad Atticum , undertakes to bargain with them that kept the Sybils books , that for a sum of money they shall expound to him what he please ; and to be sure , ut quidvis potius , quam Regem proferrent . They shall declare against the government of kings , & say , that the Gods will endure any thing rather then Monarchy in their beloved republick . And the same mischief God complains of to be among the Jews ; the Prophets prophecie lies and my people love to have it so ; and what will the end of these things be ? even the same that Cicero complain'd of , Ad opinionem imperitorum fictas esse Religiones . Men shall have what Religion they please , and God shall be intitled to all the quarrels of covetous and Ambitious persons , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Demosthenes wittily complained of the Oracle , An answer shall be drawn out of Scripture to countenance the designe , & God made to Rebel against his own Ordinances . And then we are zealous for the Lord God of Hosts , and will live and die in that quarrel . But is it not a strange cozenage , that our hearts shall be the main wheel in the engine , and shall set all the rest on working ? The heart shall first put his own candle out , then put out the eye of reason ; then remove the Land-mark , and dig down the causeywayes , and then either hire a blinde guide , or make him so ; and all these Arts to get ignorance , that they may secure impiety . At first , man lost his innocence onely in hope to get a little knowledge ; and ever since then left knowledge should discover his errour , and make him returne to innocence , we are content to part with that now , and to kow nothing that may discover or discountenance our sins , or discompose our secular designe . And as God made great revelations and furnished out a wise Religion , and sent his spirit to give the gift of Faith to his Church , that upon the foundation of Faith he might build a holy life ; now our hearts love to retire into Blindnesse , & sneak under the covert of False principles , and run to a cheape religion , and an unactive discipline , and make a faith of our own , that we may build upon it ease and ambition and a tall fortune , and the pleasures of revenge , and do what we have a minde to ; scarce once in seven years denying a strong and an unruly appetite upon the interest of a just conscience and holy religion . This is such a desperate method of impiety ; so certain arts and apt instruments for the Divel , that it does his work intirley , and produces an infallible damnation . 3. But the heart of man hath yet another stratagem to secure its iniquity by the means of ignorance ; and that is , Incogitancy or Inconsideration . For there is wrought upon the spirits of many men great impression by education , by a modest and temperate nature , by humane Laws , and the customes & severities of sober persons , and the fears of religion , and the awfulnesse of a reverend man , and the several arguments and endearments of vertue : And it is not in the nature of some men to do an act in despite of reason , and Religion , and arguments , and Reverence , and modesty , and fear ; But men are forced from their sin by the violence of the grace of God , when they heare it speak . But so a Roman Gentleman kept off a whole band of souldiers , who were sent to murther him ; and his eloquence was stronger then their anger and designe : But suddenly a rude trooper rushed upon him , who neither had , nor would heare him speak ; and he thrust his spear into that throat , whose musick had charmed all his fellows into peace and gentlenesse . So do we . The Grace of God is Armour and defence enough against the most violent incursion of the spirits , and the works of darknesse , but then we must hear its excellent charms , and consider its reasons , and remember its precepts , and dwell with its discourses . But this the heart of man loves not . If I be tempted to uncleannesse , or to an act of oppression , instantly the grace of God represents to me , that the pleasure of the sin is transient , and vain , unsatisfying and empty ; That I shall die , and then I shall wish too late , that I had never done it . It tells me that I displease God who made me , who feeds me , who blesses me , who fain would save me . It represents to me all the joyes of Heaven , and the horrours and amazements of a sad eternity And if I will stay and heare them , ten thousand excellent things besides , sit to be twisted about my understanding forever . But here the heart of man shuffles all these discourses into disorder , and will not be put to the trouble of answering the objections ; but by a meer wildenesse of purpose and rudnesse of resolution ventures super totam materiam , at all , and does the thing , not because it thinks it fit to do so , but because it will not consider whether it be or no : it is enough that it pleases a present appetite , and if such incogitancy comes to be habitual , as it is in very many men ; ( first by resisting the motions of the holy spirit , then by quenching him , ) we shall find the consequents to be , first an Indifferencie , then a dulnesse , then a Lethargie , then a direct Hating the wayes of God ; and it commonly ends in a wretchlessenesse of spirit to be manifested on our death-bed ; when the man shall passe hence not like the shadow , but like the dog , that departeth , without sence or interest , or apprehension , or real concernment in the considerations of eternity : and t is but just , when we will not heare our king speak and plead , not to save himself , but us , to speak for our peace , and innocency and Salvation , to prevent our ruine , and our intolerable calamity : certainly we are much in love with the wages of death , when we cannot endure to heare God cal us back ; and stop our ears against the voice of the charmer , charme he never so wisely . Nay further yet ; we suffer the Arguments of Religion to have so little impression upon our spirits , that they operate but like the discourses of childhood , or the Problems of uncertain Philosophy : A man talks of Religion but as of a dream , and from thence he awakens into the Businesses of the world , and acts them deliberately , with perfect Action and full Resolution , and contrives , and considers , and lives in them : But when he falls asleep again , or is taken from the Scene of his own employment and choice ; then he dreams again , and Religion makes such Impressions as is the conversation of a Dreamer , and he acts accordingly . Theocritus tells of a Fisherman that dreamed he had taken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a Fish of gold , upon which being over-joyed he made a vow , that he would never fish more : But when he waked , he soon declared his vow to be null , because he found his golden Fish was scaped away through the holes of his eyes , when he first opened them . Just so we do in the purposes of Religion ; sometimes in a good mood we seem to see Heaven opened , and all the streets of Heavenly Jerusalem paved with gold and precious stones , and we are ravished with spirituall apprehensions , and resolve never to return to the low affections of the world , and the impute adherencies of sin , but when this flash of lightning is gone , and we converse again with the Inclinations , and habituall desires of our false hearts , those other desires and fine considerations disband , and the Resolutions taken in that pious fit melt into Indifferency , and old Customes . He was prettily and fantastically troubled , who having used to put his trust in Dreams , one night dreamed , that all dreams were vain ; For he considered , If so , then This was vain , and then dreams might be true for all this : But if they might be true , then this dream might be so upon equall reason ; And then dreams were vain , because This dream , which told him so , was true , and so round again . In the same Circle runs the Heart of man ; All his cogitations are vain , and yet he makes especiall use of this , that , that Thought which thinks so , That is vain ; and if That be vain , then his other Thoughts , which are vainly declared so , may be Reall , and Relied upon ; And so we do . Those religious thoughts , which are sent into us , to condemne and disrepute the thoughts of sin and vanity , are esteemed the onely dreams ; And so all ●hose Instruments , which the grace of God hath invented for the destruction of Impiety , are rendred ineffectuall , either by our direct opposing them , or ( which happens most commonly ) by our want of considering them . The effect of all is this , That we are ignorant of the things of God ; we make Religion to be the work of a few hours in the whole yeer ; we are without fancy or affection to the severities of holy Living ; we reduce Religion to the Beleeving of a few Articles , and doing nothing that is considerable ; we Pray seldome , and then but very coldly and indifferently ; we Communicate not so often as the Sun salutes both the Tropicks ; we professe Christ , but dare not die for him ; we are factious for a Religion , and will not live according to its precepts ; we call our selves Christians , and love to be ignorant of many of the Lawes of Christ : lest our knowledge should force us into shame , or into the troubles of a holy Life . All the mischiefs that you can suppose to happen to a furious inconsiderate person , running after the wilde-fires of the night , over Rivers and Rocks , and Precipices without Sun or starre , or Angel or Man to guide him : All that , and ten thousand times worse may you suppose to be the certain Lot of him , who gives himself up to the conduct of a passionate blinde Heart , whom no fire can warm , and no Sun enlighten ; who hates light and loves to dwell in the Regions of darknesse . That 's the first generall mischief of the Heart ; It is possessed with Blindnesse , wilfull and voluntary . 2. But the Heart is Hard too . Not onely Folly , but Mischief also is bound up in the Heart of man. If God strives to soften it with sorrow and sad Accidents , it is like an Ox , it grows callow , and hard . Such a heart was Pharaohs . When God makes the clouds to gather round about us , we wrap our heads in the clouds , and like the male-contents in Galba●s time , Tristitiam simulamus Contumaciae propiores . We seem sad and troubled , but it is doggednesse and murmur . Or else if our fears be pregnant , and the heart yeelding , it sinks low into pusillanimity and superstition ; and our hearts are so childish , so timerous , or so impatient in a sadnesse , that God is weary of striking us , and we are glad of it . And yet when the Sun shines upon us ▪ our hearts are hardned with that too , and God seems to be at a losse , as if he knew not what to do to us . Warre undoes us and makes us violent : Peace undoes us and makes us wanton . Prosperity makes us Proud , Adversity renders us Impatient ; Plenty dissolves us and makes us Tyrants , Want makes us greedy , liars , and rapacious . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; No fortune can save that City to whom neither Peace nor Warre can do advantage . And what is there left for God to mollifie our hearts , whose temper is like both to wax and durt ; whom fire hardens , and cold hardens ; and contradictory Accidents produce no change , save that the heart growes worse and more obdurate for every change of Providence ? But here also I must descend to particulars . 1. The Heart of man is strangely Proud ; If men commend us we think we have reason to distinguish our selves from others , since the voice of discerning men hath already made the separation . If men do not commend us , we think they are stupid , and understand us not , or envious and hold their tongues in spite . If we are praised by many , then Vox populi , vox Dei. Fame is the voice of God. If we be praised but by few , then Satis unus , satis nullus . We cry , these are wise , and one wise man is worth a whole herd of the People . But if we be praised by none at all , we resolve to be even with all the world , and speak well of no body , and think well onely of our selves : And then we have such beggerly Arts , such tricks to cheat for praise ; we inquire after our faults and failings onely to be told we have none , but did excellently , and then we are pleased ; we rail upon our actions onely to be chidden for so doing ; and then he is our friend who chides us into a good opinion of our selves ; which however all the world cannot make us part with . Nay , Humility it self makes us proud ; so false , so base is the the Heart of man. For Humility is so noble a vertue , that even Pride it self puts on its upper Garment ; And we do like those , who cannot endure to look upon an ugly or a deformed person , and yet will give a great price for a picture extreamly like him . Humility is despised in substance , but courted and admired in effigie . And Aesops picture was sold for two talents , when himself was made a slave at the price of two Philippicks . And because Humility makes a man to be honoured ; Therefore we imitate all its garbs and postures , its civilities and silence , its modesties and condescensions . And to prove that we are extreamly proud in the midst of all this pagentry , we should be extreamly angry at any man , that should say , we are proud ; And that 's a sure signe we are so . And in the middest of all our Arts to seem Humble , we use devices to bring our selves into talk ; we thrust our selves into company ; we listen at doors ; and like the great Beards in Rome , that pretended Philosophy and strict life , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , We walk by the Obelisk , and meditate in Piazza's , that they that meet us may talk of us , and they that follow may cry out , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; Behold ! there goes an excellent man ! He is very prudent , or very learned , or a charitable person , or a good housekeeper , or at least very Humble . The Heart of man is deeply in love with wickednesse , and with nothing else : Against , not onely the Lawes of God , but against his own Reason , it s own Interest , and its own Securities . For is it imaginable , that a man who knows the Lawes of God , the rewards of Vertue , the cursed and horrid effects of sin ; that knows and considers , and deeply sighes at the thought of the intolerable pains of Hell ; that knowes the joyes of Heaven to be unspeakable , and that concerning them there is no temptation , but that they are too big for man to hope for ; And yet he certainly beleeves , that a holy life shall infallibly attain thither ; Is it I say imaginable , that this man should for a transient Action forfeit all this Hope , and certainly and knowing incur all that calamity ? Yea , but the sin is pleasant , and the man is clothed with flesh and blood , and their appetites are materiall , and importunate , and present ; And the discourses of Religion are concerning things spirituall , separate and apt for spirits , Angels and souls departed . To take off this also ; We will suppose the man to consider , and really to beleeve that the pleasure of the sin , is sudden , vain , empty and transient ; that it leaves bitternesse upon the tongue , before it is descended into the bowels ; that there it is poison , and makes the Belly to swell , and the Thigh to rot ; That he remembers and actually considers , that as soon as the moment of sin is past , he shall have an intolerable Conscience ; and does at the instant compare moments with Eternity , and with horrour remembers that the very next minute he is as miserable a man as is in the world ; Yet that this man should sin ? Nay , suppose the sin to have no pleasure at all ; such as is the sin of swearing ; Nay , suppose it really to have pain in it ; such as is the sin of Envy , which never can have pleasure in its actions , but much torment and consumption of the very heart ; What should make this man sin so for nothing , so against himself , so against all Reason and Religion and Interest , without pleasure for no reward ? Here the heart betrayes it self to be desperately wicked . What man can give a reasonable account of such a man , who to prosecute his revenge will do himself an injury , that he may do a lesse to him that troubles him . Such a man hath given me ill language ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; My head akes not for his language , nor hath he broken my thigh , nor carried away my land . But yet this man must be requited . Well , suppose that . But then let it be proportionable ; you are not undone , let not him be so . Oh yes ; for else my revenge triumphs not . Well , if you do , yet remember he will defend himself , or the Law will right him ; at least do not do wrong to your self by doing him wrong . This were but Prudence , and self-Interest . And yet we see , that the heart of some men hath betrayed them to such furiousnesse of Appetite , as to make them willing to die , that their enemie may be buried in the same Ruines . Jovius Pontanus tells of an Italian slave ( I think ) who being enraged against his Lord , watched his absence from home , and the employment and inadvertency of his fellow-servants : he locked the doors , and secured himself for a while , and Ravished his Lady ; then took her three sons up to the battlements of the house , and at the return of his Lord , threw one down to him upon the pavement , and then a second to rend the heart of their sad Father , seeing them weltring in their blood and brains . The Lord begd for his third , and now his onely Son , promising pardon and libertie , if he would spare his life . The slave seemed to bend a little , and on condition his Lord would cut off his own Nose , he would spare his Son. The sad Father did so , being willing to suffer any thing , rather then the losse of that Childe ; But as soon as he saw his Lord all bloody with his wound , he threw the third Son , and himself down together upon the Pavement . The story is sad enough , and needs no lustre and advantages of sorrow to represent it : But if a man sets himself down , and considers sadly , he cannot easily tell upon what sufficient inducement , or what principle the slave should so certainly , so horridly , so presently , and then so eternally ruine himself . What could he propound to himself as a recompence to his own so immediate Tragedy ? There is not in the pleasure of the revenge , nor in the nature of the thing , any thing to tempt him ; we must confesse our ignorance , and say , that The Heart of man is desperately wicked ; and that is the truth in generall , but we cannot fathom it by particular comprehension . For when the heart of man is bound up by the grace of God , and tied in golden bands , and watched by Angels , tended by those Nurse-keepers of the soul ; it is not easie for a man to wander ; And the evil of his heart is but like the ferity and wildnesse of Lyons-whelps : But when once we have broken the hedge , and got into the strengths of youth , and the licenciousnesse of an ungoverned age , it is wonderfull to observe , what a great inundation of mischief in a very short time will overflow all the banks of Reason and Religion . Vice first is pleasing , then it grows easie , then delightfull , then frequent , then habituall , then confirmed , then the man is impenitent , then he is obstinate , then he resolves never to Repent , and then he is Damned . And by that time he is come half way in this progresse , he confutes the Philosophy of the old Moralists ; For they , not knowing the vilenesse of mans Heart not considering its desperate amazing Impiety , knew no other degree of wickednesse but This , That men preferred Sense before Reason , and their understandings were abused in the choice of a temporall before an intellectuall and eternall good : But they alwayes concluded , that the Will of man must of necessity follow the last dictate of the understanding , declaring an object to be good in one sence or other . Happy men they were , that were so Innocent ; that knew no pure and perfect malice , and lived in an Age , in which it was not easie to confute them . But besides that , now the wells of a deeper iniquity are discovered , we see by too sad experience , that there are some sins proceeding from the heart of man , which have nothing but simple , and unmingled malice ; Actions of meer spite ; doing evil , because it is evil ; sinning without sensuall pleasures ; sinning with sensuall pain , with hazard of our lives ; with actuall torment , and sudden deaths , and certain and present damnation ; sins against the Holy Ghost ; open hostilities , and professed enmities against God and all vertue . I can go no further ; because there is not in the world , or in the nature of things , a greater Evil. And that is the Nature and Folly of the Devil ; he tempts men to ruine , and hates God , and onely hurts himself , and those he tempts ; and does himself no pleasure , and some say , he increases his own accidentall torment . Although I can say nothing greater ; yet I had many more things to say , if the time would have permitted me to represent the Falsenesse and Basenesse of the Heart . 1. We are false our selves , and dare not trust God. 2. We love to be deceived , and are angry , if we be told so . 3. We love to seem vertuous , and yet hate to be so . 4. We are melancholy and impatient , and we know not why . 5. We are troubled at little things , and are carelesse of greater . 6. We are overjoyed at a petty accident , and despise great and eternall pleasures . 7. We beleeve things , not for their Reasons and proper Arguments ; but as they serve our turns , be they true or false . 8. We long extreamly for things that are forbidden us ; And what we despise , when it is permitted us , we snatch at greedily , when it is taken from us . 9. We love our selves more then we love God ; and yet we eat poysons daily , and feed upon Toads and Vipers , and nourish our deadly enemies in our bosome , and will not be brought to quit them ; but brag of our shame , and are ashamed of nothing , but Vertue , which is most honourable . 10. We fear to die , and yet use all means we can to make Death terrible and dangerous . 11. We are busie in the faults of others , and negligent of our own . 12. We live the life of spies , striving to know others , and to be unknown our selves . 13. We worship and flatter some men , and some things , because we fear them , not because we love them . 14. We are ambitious of Greatnesse , and covetous of wealth , and all that we get by it , is , that we are more beautifully tempted ; and a troop of Clients run to us , as to a Pool , whom first they trouble , and then draw dry . 15. We make our selves unsafe by committing wickednesse , and then we adde more wickednesse to make us safe , and beyond punishment . 16. We are more servile for one curtesie , that we hope for , then for twenty that we have received . 17. We entertain slanderers , and without choice spread their calumnies ; and we hugg flatterers , and know they abuse us : And if I should gather the abuses , and impieties , and deceptions of the Heart , as Chrysippus did the oracular Lies of Apollo into a Table ; I fear they would seem Remedilesse , and beyond the cure of watchfulnesse and Religion . Indeed they are Great and Many : But the Grace of God is Greater ; and if Iniquity abounds , then doth Grace superabound , and that 's our Comfort and our Medicine , which we must thus use . 1. Let us watch our hearts at every turn . 2. Deny it all its Desires , that do not directly or by consequence end in godlinesse : At no hand be indulgent to its fondnesses , and peevish appetites . 3. Let us suspect it as an Enemy . 4. Trust not to it in any thing . 5. But beg the grace of God with perpetuall and importunate prayer , that he would be pleased to bring good out of these evils , and that he would throw the salutary wood of the Crosse , the merits of Christs death and passion , into these salt waters , and make them healthful and pleasant . And in order to the mannaging these advises , and acting the purposes of this prayer ; let us strictly follow a rule ; and choose a Prudent and faithful guide , who may attend our motions , and watch our counsels , and direct our steps , and prepare the way of the Lord , and make his paths streight , apt and imitable . For without great watchfulnesse , and earnest devotion , and a prudent Guide , we shall finde that true in a spiritual sense , which Plutarch affirmed of a mans body in the natural ; that of dead Buls arise Bees ; from the carcases of horses , hornets are produced ; But the body of man brings forth serpents . Our hearts wallowing in their own natural and acquired corruptions , will produce nothing but issues of Hell , and images of the old serpent the divel , for whom is provided the everlasting burning . Sermon . IX . THE FAITH and PATIENCE OF THE SAINTS : OR The righteous cause oppressed . 1 Peter . 4. 17. For the time is come that judgement must begin at the house of God : and if it first begin at us what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel of God ? 18. And if the righteous scarcely be saved , where shal the ungodly and the sinner appear ? SO long as the world lived by sense , and discourses of natural reason , as they were abated with humane infirmities , and not at all heighted by the spirit & divine revelations , So long men took their accounts of good and bad by their being prosperous or unfortunate : and amongst the basest and most ignorant of men , that onely was accounted honest which was profitable : and he onely wise that was rich ; and that man beloved of God , who received from him all that might satisfie their lust , their ambition , or their revenge : — Fatis accede deisque & colefelices , miseros fuge sidera terra ut distant & flamma mari , sic utile recto . But because God sent wise men into the world , and they were treated rudely by the world , and exercised with evil accidents , and this seemed so great a discouragement to vertue , that even these wise men were more troubled to reconcile vertue , and misery , then to reconcile their affections to the suffering ; God was pleased to enlighten their reason with a little beame of faith , or else heightned their reason by wiser principles then those of vulgar understandings ; and taught them in the clear glasse of faith , or the dim perspective of Philosophy , to look beyond the cloud , and there to spie that there stood glories behinde their curtain , to which they could not come but by passing through the cloud , and being wet with the dew of heaven and the waters of affliction . And accordding as the world grew more englightned by faith so it grew more dark with mourning & sorrowes : God sometimes sent a light of fire and pillar of a cloud and the brightnesse of an angel and the lustre of a star , and the sacrament of a rainbowe to guide his people thorough their portion of sorrows , and to lead them through troubles to rest : But as the Sun of righteousnesse approached towards the chambers of the East , and sent the harbingers of light peeping through the curtains of the night , and leading on the day of faith and brightest revelation ; so God sent degrees of trouble upon wise and good men , that now in the same degree in the which the world lives by faith and not by sense , in the same degree they might be able to live in vertue even while she lived in trouble , and not reject so great a beauty because she goes in mourning , and hath a black cloud of cypresse drawn before her face : literally thus ; God first entertained their services , and allured and prompted on the infirmities of the infant world by temporal prosperity ; but by degrees changed his method ; and as men grew stronger in the knowledge of God and the expectations of heaven , so they grew weaker in their fortunes , more afflicted in their bodies , more abated in their expectations , more subject to their enemies , and were to endure the contradiction of sinners and the immission of the sharpnesses of providence and divine Oeconomy . First Adam was placed in a Garden of health and pleasure , from which when he fell , he was onely tied to enter into the covenant of natural sorrows which he and all his posteritie till the flood run through : but in all that period they had the whole wealth of the earth before them , they need not fight for empires or places for their cattle to grase in ; they lived long and felt no want , no slavery , no tyrannie , no war : and the evils that happened were single , personal , and natural , and no violences were then done , but they were like those things which the law calls rare contingencies ; for which as the law can now take no care , and make no provisions , so then there was no law ; but men lived free and rich and long , and they exercised no vertues but natural , and knew no felicity but natural : and so long their prosperity was , just as was their vertue , because it was a natural instrument towards all that which they knew of happinesse , * But this publick easinesse and quiet , the world turned into sin ; and unlesse God did compel men to do themselves good they would undoe themselves : and then God broke in upon them with a flood and destroyed that generation , that he might begin the government of the world upon a new stock , and binde vertue upon mens spirits by new bands , endeared to them by new hopes and fears . Then God made new laws and gave to Princes the power of the sword , and men might be punshed to death in certain cases , and mans life was shortened , and slavery was brought into the world and the state of servants ; and then war began , and evils multiplied upon the face of the earth ; in which it is naturally certain , that they that are most violent and injurious prevailed upon the weaker and more innocent ; and every tyranny that began from Nimrod to this day , and every usurper was a peculiar argument to shew that God began to teach the world , vertue by suffering ; and that therefore he suffered Tyrannies and usurpations , to be in the world , and to be prosperous , and the rights of men to be snatched away from the owners , that the world might be established in potent and setled governments and the sufferers be taught al the passive vertues of the soul. For so God brings good out of evil , turning Tyranny into the benefits of Government , and violence into vertue , and sufferings into rewards : and this was the second change of the world : personal miseries were brought in upon Adam and his posterity , as a punishment of sin in the first period : and in the second , publick evils were brought in by tyrants and usurpers , and God suffered them as the first elements of vertue , men being just newly put to schoole to infant sufferings . But all this was not much . Christs line was not yet drawn forth : it began not to appear in what family the King of sufferings should descend till Abrahams time , and therefore till then there were no greater sufferings then what I have now reckoned . But when Abrahams family was chosen from among the many nations , and began to belong to God , by a special right , and he was designed to be the Father of the Messias , then God found out a new way to trie him , even with a sound affliction , commanding him to offer his beloved Isaac ; but this was accepted and being intended by Abraham was not intended by God : for this was a type of Christ , and therefore was also but a type of sufferings , excepting the sufferings of the old periods and the sufferings of nature and accident , we see no change made , for a long while after , but God having established a law in Abrahams family did build it upon promises , of health , and peace , and victory , and plenty , and riches : and so long as they did not prevaricate the law of their God , so long they were prosperous : but God kept a remnant of Cananites in the land like a rod held over them to vex or to chastise them into obedience , in which while they persevered , nothing could hurt them ; and that saying of David needs no other sence , but the letter of its own expression , I have been young and now am old , and yet saw I never the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging their bread : The godly generally were prosperous , and a good cause seldome had an ill end , and a good man never died an ill death , till the law had spent a great part of its time , and it descended towards its declension and period ; But that the great prince of sufferings might not appear upon his stage of tragedies without some forerunners of sorrow , God was pleased to choose out some good men , and honour them , by making them to become little images of suffering : Isaiah , Jeremy , and Zachary were martyrs of the law ; but these were single deaths ; Shadrac , Meshec , and Abednego were thrown into a burning furnace , and Daniel into a den of lions , and Susanna was accused for adultery ; but these were but little ar●ests of the prosperity of the Godly : as the time drew neerer that Christ should be manifest , so the sufferings grew bigger and more numerous : and Antiochus raised up a sharp persecution in the time of the Maccabees , in which many passed through the red sea of blood into the bosome of Abraham ; & then Christ came : and that was the third period in which the changed method of Gods providence was perfected : for Christ was to do his great work by sufferings , & by sufferings was to enter into blessednesse ; & by his passion he was made prince of the Catholickchurch , and as our Head was , so must the members be : God made the same covenant with us , that he did with his most holy Son ; & Christ obtaind no better conditions for us , then for himself ; that was not to be looked for ; the servant must not be above his master , it is well if he be as his Master : if the world persecuted him , they will also persecute us ; and from the dayes of John the Baptist , the kingdome of Heaven suffers violence , and the violent take it by force : not the violent doers , but the sufferers of violence for though the old law was established in the promises of temporal prosperity , yet the gospel is founded in temporal adversity . It is directly a covenant of sufferings and sorrows ; for now the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God : that 's the sence and designe of the text ; and I intend , it as a direct antinomy to the common perswasion of tyrannous , carnal , and vicious men , who reckon nothing good , out what is prosperous : for though that proposition had many degrees of truth in the beginning of the law , yet the case is now altered ; God hath established its contradictory : and now every good man must look for persecution , and every good cause must expect to thrive by the sufferings and patience of holy persons ; and as men do well , and suffer evil , so they are dear to God : and whom he loves most , he afflicts most , and does this with a designe of the greatest mercy in the world . 1. Then , the state of the Gospel is a state of sufferings , not of temporal prosperities , this was foretold by the prophets ; a fountain shall go out of the house of the Lord , & irrigahit torrentem spinarum ; ( so it is in the vulgar latin ) and it shall water the torrent of thorns ; that is , the state or time of the gospel . which like a torrent shall cary all the world before it , and like a torrent shall be fullest in ill weather ; and by its banks shall grow nothing but thorns and briers , sharp afflictions , temporal infelicities and persecution . This sense of the words is more fully explained in the book of the prophet Isa. upon the ground of my people shall thorns and briers come up , how much more in all the houses of the city of rejoycing ; which prophecy is the same in the stile of the prophets , that my text is in the stile of the Apostles : the house of God shall be watered with the dew of heaven , and there shall spring up briers in it : judgement must begin there : but how much more in the houses of the city of rejoycing how much more amongst them that are at ease in Sion ; that serve their desires , that satisfie their appetites , that are given over to their own hearts lust , that so serves themselves , that they never serve God , that dwell in the city of rejoycing ; they are like Dives whose portion was in this life , who went in fine linnen and fared deliciously every day ; they indeed trample upon their briers and thorns and suffer them not to grow in their houses ; but the roots are in the ground , and they are reserved for fuel of wrath in the day of everlasting burning . Thus you see it was prophesied , now see how it was performed : Christ was the captain of our sufferings and he began . He entred into the world with all the circumstances of poverty ; he had a star to illustrate his birth but a stable for his bed chamber , and a manger for his cradle : the angels sang hymnes when he was born , but he was cold and cried , uneasy and unprovided ; he lived long in the trade of a carpenter , he by whom God made the world had in his first years the businesse of a mean and an ignoble trade ; he did good where ever he went , and almost where ever he went was abused ; he deserved heaven for his obedience , but found a crosse in his way thither ; and if ever any man had reason to expect fair usages from God , and to be dandled in lap of ease , softnes and a prosperous fortune , he it was onely that could deserve that , or any thing that can be good . But after he had chosen to live a life of vertue , of poverty , and labour , he entred into a state of death ; whose shame and trouble was great enough to pay for the sins of the whole world : And I shall choose to expresse this mystery in the vvords of scripture ; he died not by a single , or a sudden death but he was the Lambe slain from the beginning of the world : For he was massacred in Abel , ( saith Saint Paulinus ) he was tossed upon the waves of the Sea , in the person of Noah ; It was he that went out of his Countrey , when Abraham was called from Charran , and wandred from his native soil : He was offered up in Isaac , persecuted in Jacob , betrayed in Joseph , blinded in Sampson , affronted in Moses , sawed in Esay , cast into the dungeon with Jeremy . For all these were types of Christ suffering ; and then his passion continued even after his resurrection ; for it is he that suffers in all his members ; it is he that endures the contradiction of all sinners ; it is he that is the Lord of life , and is crucified again , and put to open shame in all the sufferings of his servants , and sins of rebels , and defiances of Apostates , and renegados , and violence of Tyrants , and injustice of usurpers , and the persecutions of his Church . It is he that is stoned in Saint Stephen , flayed in the person of Saint Bartholomew , he was rosted upon Saint Laurence his Cridiron , exposed to lyons in Saint Ignatius , burned in Saint Polycarpe , frozen in the lake where stood fourty Martyrs of Cappadocia ; Vnigenitus enim Dei ad peragendum mortis suae sacramentum consummavit omne genus humanarum passionum said Saint Hilary . The Sacrament of Christs death is not to be accomplished , but by suffering all the sorrows of humanity . All that Christ came for , was , or was mingled with sufferings : For all those little joyes which God sent , either to recreate his person , or to illustrate his office , were abated , or attended with afflictions ; God being more carefull to establish in him the Covenant of sufferings , then to refresh his sorrows : Presently after the Angels had finished their Halleluiahs , he was forced to fly to save his life ; and the air became full of shrikes of the desolate mothers of Bethlehem for their dying Babes . God had no sooner made him illustrious with a voyce from heaven , and the descent of the Holy Ghost upon him in the waters of Baptisme . But he was delivered over to be tempted and assaulted by the Devil in the wildernesse : His transfiguration was a bright ray of glory , but then also he entred into a cloud , and was told a sad story what he was to suffer at Jerusalem : And upon Palme Sunday , when he rode triumphantly into Jerusalem , and was adorned with the acclamations of a King , and a God , he wet the Palmes with his tears , sweeter then the drops of Mannah , or the little pearls of heaven , that descended upon mount Hermon , weeping in the midst of this triumph over obstinate , perishing , and maliciour Jerusalem . For this Jesus was like the rain-bowe which God set in the clouds as a sacrament to confirm a promise , and establish a grace , he was half made of the glories of the light , and half of the moisture of a cloud ; in his best dayes he was but half triumph , and half sorrow ; he was sent to tell of his Fathers mercies , and that God intended to spare us ; but appeared not but in the company , or in the retinue of a shower , and of foul weather : But I need not tell that Jesus , beloved of God , was a suffering person : that which concerns this question most , is that he made for us a covenant of sufferings : His Doctrines were such as expressely and by consequent enjoyne and suppose sufferings , and a state of affliction ; His very promises were sufferings , his beatitudes were sufferings , his rewards , and his arguments to invite men to follow him , were onely taken from sufferings in this life , and the reward of sufferings hereafter . For if we summon up the Commandements of Christ , we shall finde humility , mortification , self-deniall , repentance , renouncing the world , mourning , taking up the crosse , dying for him , patience and poverty , to stand in the chiefest rank of Christian precepts , and in the direct order to heaven : He that will be my Disciple must deny himself , and take up his crosse and follow me . We must follow him that was crowned with thorns and sorrows , him that was drench●d in Cedron , nailed upon the Crosse , that deserved all good , and suffered all evil : That is the summe of Christian Religion , as it distinguishes from all the Religions of the world . To which we may adde the expresse Precept recorded by Saint James , [ Be afflicted and mourn , and weep , let your laughter be turned into mourning , and your joy into weeping . ] You see the Commandements : Will you also see the Promises ? These they are . In the world yee shall have tribulation ; in me ye shall have peace : and through many tribulations , ye shall enter into heaven : and he that loseth father and mother , wives , and children , houses , and lands for my Names sake and the Gospel , shall receive a hundred fold in this life , with persecution : that 's part of his reward . [ And he chastiseth every son that he receiveth ; and if you be exempt from sufferings , ye are bastards and not sons : These are some of Christs promises : will you see some of Christs blessings , that he gives his Church : Blessed are the poor : Blessed are the hungry and thirsty . Blessed are they that mourn . Blessed are the humble . Blessed are the persecuted : Of the eight Peatitudes , five of them have temporall misery and meannesse , or an afflicted condition for their subject . Will you at last see some of the reward , which Christ hath propounded to his servants , to invite them to follow him . When I am lifted up , I will draw all men after me : when Christ is lifted up , as Moses lift up the serpent in the wildernesse , that is lifted upon the Crosse , then he will draw us after him . To you it is given for Christ ( sai●h Saint Paul ) when he went to sweeten and to flatter the Philippians . Well , what is given to them ? Some great favours surely , true . It is not onely given that you beleeve in Christ , ( though that be a great matter ) but also that you suffer for him , that 's the highest of your honour . And therefore saith Saint James , My brethren , count it all joy when ye enter into divers temptations . And Saint Peter , Communicating with the sufferings of Christ rejoyce : And Saint James again , We count them blessed that have suffered : And Saint Paul when he gives his blessing to the Thessalonians , he uses this form of prayer : Our Lord direct our hearts in the charity of God , and in the patience and sufferings of Christ. So that if wee will serve the King of sufferings , whose crown was of thorns , whose scepter was a reed of scorne , whose imperiall robe was a scarlet of mockery , whose throne was the Crosse ; We must serve him in sufferings , in poverty of spirit , in humility , and mortification , and for our reward we shall have persecution , and all its blessed consequents : Atque hoc est esse Christianum . Since this was done in the green-tree , what might we expect should be done in the dry : Let us in the next place consider how God hath treated his Saints and servants , and the descending ages of the Gospel ; That if the best of Gods servants were followers of Jesus in this covenant of sufferings , we may not think it strange concerning the fiery tryall , as if some new thing had happened to us . For as the Gospel was founded in sufferings , we shall also see it grow in persecutions : and as Christs blood did cement the corner stones and the first foundations ; So the blood and sweat , the groans and sighings , the afflictions and mortifications of saints , and martyrs did make the superstructures , and must at last finish the building . If I begin with the Apostles , who were to perswade the world to become Christian , and to use proper Arguments of invitation , we shall finde that they never offered an Argument of temporall prosperity : they never promised Empires and thrones on earth , nor riches , nor temporall power , and it would have been soon confuted , if they who were whipt and imprisoned , banished and scattered , persecuted and tormented , should have promised Sun-shine dayes to others , which they could not to themselves : Of all the Apostles there was not one that died a naturall death but onely Saint John ; and did he escape ? Yes : But he was put into a Cauldron of scalding lead and oyl , before the Port Latin in Rome , and scaped death by miracle , though no miracle was wrought to make him scape the torture : And besides this , he lived long in banishment , and that was worse then Saint Peters chains : Sanctus Petrus in vinculis , & Johannes ante portam latinam , were both dayes of Martyrdom and Church Festivals : and after a long and laborious life , and the affliction of being detained from his crown , and his sorrows for the death of his fellow-disciples , he dyed full of dayes and sufferings : And when Saint Paul was taken into the Apostolate , his Commissions were signed in these words ; I will shew unto him how great things he must suffer for my Name : and his whole life was a continuall suffering : Quotidiè morior was his Motto , I die daily ; and his lesson that he daily learned was to know Christ Jesus and him crucified ; and all his joy was to rejoyce in the Crosse of Christ ; and the changes of his life were nothing but the changes , of his sufferings , and the variety of his labours . For though Christ hath finished his own sufferings for expiation of the world , yet there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , portions that are behinde of the sufferings of Christ which must be filled up by his body the Church ; and happy are they that put in the greatest symbol : for in the same measure you are partakers of the sufferings of Christ , in the same shall ye be also of the consolation . And therefore concerning S. Paul , as it was also concerning Christ , there is nothing or but very little in Scripture , relating to his person and chances of his private life , but his labours and persecutions , as if the holy Ghost did think nothing fit to stand upon record for Christ , but sufferings . And now began to work the greatest glory of the divine Providence : here was the case of Christianity at stake . The world was rich and prosperous , learned and full of wise men , the Gospel was preached with poverty and persecution , in simplicity of discourse , and in demonstration of the Spirit : God was on one side , and the Devil on the other ; they each of them dressed up their city ; Babylon upon Earth , Jerusalem from above ; the Devils city was full of pleasure , triumphs , victories and cruelty ; good news and great wealth , conquest over Kings , and making nations tributary ; They bound Kings in chains , and the Nobles with links of iron , and the inheritance of the Earth was theirs : the Romans were Lords over the greatest parts of the world ; and God permitted to the Devil the Firmament and increase , the wars and the successe of that people , giving to him an intire power of disposing the great changes of the world , so as might best increase their greatnesse and power : and he therefore did it , because all the power of the Romane greatnesse was a professed enemy to Christianity : and on the other side God was to build up Jerusalem , and the kingdom of the Gospel : and he chose to build it of hewen stone , cut and broken : the Apostles he chose for Preachers , and they had no learning ; women and mean people were the first Disciples , and they had no power : the Devil was to lose his kingdom , and he wanted no malice : and therefore he stirred up , and as well as he could , he made active all the power of Rome , and all the learning of the Greeks , and all the malice of Barbarous people , and all the prejudice and the obstinacy of the Jews , against this doctrine and institution ; which preached and promised , and brought persecution along with it . On the one side there was scandalum crucis , on the other patientia sanctorum , and what was the event ? They that had overcome the world , could not strangle Christianity . But so have I seen the Sun with a little ray of distant light challenge all the power of darknesse , and without violence and noise climbing up the hill , hath made night so to retire , that its memory was lost in the joyes and spritefulnesse of the morning ; and Christianity without violence or armies , without resistance and self-preservation , without strength or humane eloquence , without challenging of priviledges , or fighting against Tyranny , without alteration of government , and scandall of Princes , with its humility and meeknesse , with tolerations and patience , with obedience and charity , with praying , and dying , did insensibly turn the world into Christian , and persecution into victory . For Christ who began , and lived and died in sorrows , perceived his own sufferings to succeed so well , and that for suffering death , he was crowned with immortality , resolved to take all his Disciples and servants to the fellowship of the same suffering , that they might have a participation of his glory ; knowing , God had opened no gate of heaven but the narrow gate , to which the Crosse was the key : and since Christ now being our High Priest in heaven , intercedes for us by representing his passion , and the dolours of the Crosse , that even in glory he might still preserve the mercies of his past sufferings , for which the Father did so delight in him : he also designes to present us to God , dressed in the same robe , and treated in the same manner , and honoured with the marks of the Lord Jesus : He hath predestinated us to be conformable to the image of his Son : And if under a head crowned with thorns , we bring to God members circled with roses , and softnesse , and delicacy , triumphant members in the militant Church God will reject us ; he will not know us who are so unlike our elder brother : For we are members of the Lamb , not of the Lion , and of Christs suffering part , not of the triumphant part : and for three hundred yeers together , the Church lived upon blood , and was nourished with blood ; the blood of her own children : Thirty three Bishops of Rome in immediate succession , were put to violent and unnaturall deaths : and so were all the Churches of the East and West built ; the cause of Christ and of Religion was advanced by the sword , but it was the sword of the persecutours , not of resisters , or warriours : They were all baptized into the death of Christ , their very profession and institution is to live like him ; and when he requires it , to die for him ; that is the very formality , the life and essence of Christianity . This I say lasted for three hundred yeers , that the prayers and the backs , and the necks of Christians fought against the rods and axes of the persecuto●rs , and prevailed till the Countrey , and the Cities , and the Co●●t it self was filled with Christians : And by this time , the arm of Martyrs was vast and numerous , and the number of sufferers blunted the hangmans sword : For Christ first triumphed over the princes and powers of the world , before he would admit them to serve him ; he first felt their malice before he would make use of their defence , to shew that it was not his necessity that required it , but his grace that admitted Kings and Queens to be nurses of the Church . And now the Church was at ease , and she that sucked the blood of the Martyrs so long , began now to suck the milk of Queens : Indeed it was a great mercy in appearance , and was so intended , but it proved not so . But then the Holy Ghost in pursuance of the designe of Christ , who meant by sufferings to perfect his Church , as himself was by the same instrument , was pleased now that persecution did cease , to inspire the Church with the spirit of mortification and austerity ; and then they made Colleges of sufferers , persons who to secure their inheritance in the world to come , did cut off all their portion in this , excepting so much of it as was necessary to their present being ; and by instruments of humility , by patience under , and a voluntary undertaking of the Cro●●e , the burden of the Lord , by self deniall , by fastings and sackeloth , and pernoctations in prayer , they chose then to exercise the active part of the religion , mingling it as much as they could with the suffering . And indeed it is so glorious a thing to be like Christ , to be dressed like the prince of the Catholick church , who was so a man of sufferings , and to whom a prosperous and unafflicted person is very unlike , that in all ages the servants of God have put on the armour of righteousnesse , on the right hand , and on the left , that is , in the sufferings of persecution , or the labours of mortification , in patience under the rod of God , or by election of our own ; by toleration , or self denial , by actual martyrdom , or by aptnesse or disposition towards it , by dying for Christ or suffering for him ; by being willing to part with all when he calls for it , and by parting with what we can , for the relief of his poor members . For know this , there is no state in the Church , so serene , no days so prosperous , in which God does not give to his servants the powers and opportunities of suffering for him , not onely they that die for Christ , but they that live according to his laws , shall finde some lives to part with , and many wayes to suffer for Christ. To kill and crucifie the old man , and all his lusts , to mortifie a beloved sin , to fight against temptations , to do violence to our bodies , to live chastly , to suffer affronts patiently , to forgive injuries and debts , to renounce all prejudice and interest in religion , and to choose our side for truthes sake ( not because it is prosperous , but because it pleases God ) to be charitable beyond our power , to reprove our betters with modesty and opennesse , to displease men rather then God , to be at enmity with the world , that you may preserve friendship with God , to denie the importunity and troublesome kindnesse of a drinking friend , to own truth in despite of danger or scorn , to despise shame ; to refuse worldly pleasure when they tempt your soul , beyond duty or safety ; to take pains in the cause of religion , the labour of love and the crossing of your anger , peevishnesse and morosity ; these are the daily sufferings of a Christian ; and if we performe them well , wil have the same reward and an equal smart and greater labour then the plain suffering the hangmans sword . This I have discoursed , to represent unto you , that you cannot be exempted from the similitude of Christs sufferings ; that God will shut no age nor no man from his portion of the crosse ; that we cannot fail of the result of this predestination , nor without our own fault be excluded from the covenant of sufferings : judgement must begin at Gods house , and enters first upon the sons and heirs of the kingdom ; and if it be not by the direct persecution of Tyrants , it will be by the persecution of the devil , or infirmities of our own flesh : But because this was but the secondary meaning of the text , I return to make use of all the former discourse . 1. Let no Christian man make any judgement concerning his condition , or his cause by the external event of things : for although in the law of Moses , God made with his people a covenant of temporal prosperity , and his Saints did binde the kings of the Am●rites , and the Philistines in chains , and their nobles with links of iron , and then , that was the honour which all his Saints had ; yet in Christ Jesus he made a covenant of sufferings : most of the graces of Christianity are suffering graces , and God hath predestinated us to sufferings : and we are baptised into suffering , and our very communions are symbols of our duty , by being the sacrament of Christs death and passion ; and Christ foretold to us tribulation , and promised onely that he would be with us in tribulation , that he would give us his spirit to assist us at tribunals , and his grace to despise the world , and to contemn riches , and boldnesse to confesse every article of the Christian faith , in the face of armies and armed tyrants ; and he also promised that all things should work together for the best to his servants , that is , he would out of the eater bring meat , and out of the strong issue sweetnesse , and crowns and scepters should spring from crosses , and that the crosse it self should stand upon the globes and scepters of Princes ; but he nev●r promised to his servants , that they should pursue Kings and destroy armies , that they should reign over the nations , and promote the cause of Jesus Christ by breaking his commandments : The shield of faith and the sword of the spirit , the armour of righteousnesse , and the weapons of spiritual warfare , these are they by which christianity swelled from a small company , and a lesse reputation , to possesse the chaires of Doctors , and the thrones of princes , and the hearts of all men . But men in all ages will be tampering with shadows and toyes ▪ The Apostles at no hand could endure to hear that Christs kingdom was not of this world , and that their Master should die a sad and shameful death ; though that way he was to receive his crown , and enter into glory : and after Christs time , when his Disciples had taken up the crosse and were marching the Kings high way of sorrows , there were a very great many , even the generality of Christians , for two or three ages together , who fell on dreaming that Christ should come and reign upon earth again , for a thousand years , and then the Saints should reigne in all abundance of temporal power and fortunes : but these men were content to stay for it , till after the resurrection ; in the mean time took up their crosse and followed after their Lord , the King of sufferings : But now a dayes we finde a generation of men , who have changed the covenant of sufferings into victories , and triumphs , riches and prosperous chances , and reckon their Christianity by their good fortunes , as if Christ had promised to his servants no heaven hereafter , no spirit in the mean time to refresh their sorrows ; as if he had enjoyned them no passive graces ; but as if to be a Christian and to be a Turk were the same thing , Mahomet entered and possessed by the sword : Christ came by the crosse , entered by humility , and his saints possesse their souls by patience . God was fain to multiply miracles to make Christ capable of being a man of sorrows ▪ and shall we think he will work miracles to make us delicate ? He promised us a glorious portion hereafter , to which if all the sufferings of the world were put together , they are not worthy to be compared , and shall we with Dives choose our portion of good things in this life ? If Christ suffered so many things onely that he might give us glory , shall it be strange that we shall suffer who are to receive this glory ? It is in vain to think we shall obtain glories at an easier rate , then to drink of the brook in the way in which Christ was drenched . When the Devil appeared to Saint Martin in a bright splendid shape and said he was Christ , he answered , Christus non nisi in cruce apparet suis in hac vita . And when Saint Ignatius was newly tied in a chain to be led to his martyrdom , he cryed out , nunc incipio esse Christianus : And it was observed by Minutius Felix , and was indeed a great and excellent truth , omnes viri fortes quos Gentiles praedicabant , in exemplum , aerumnis suis inclytistoruerunt . The Gentiles in their whole religion never propounded any man imitable , unlesse the man were poor or persecuted : Brutus stood for his countries liberty , but lost his army and his life ; Socrates was put to death for speaking a religious truth : Cato chose to be on the right side , but happened to fall upon the oppressed and the injured ; he died together with his party . Victrix causa Deis placuit sed victa Catoni ; And if God thus dealt with the best of Heathens to whom he had made no cleare revelation of immortal recompences , how little is the faith and how much lesse is the patience of Christians if they shall think much to suffer sorrows since they so clearly see with the eye of faith the great things which are laid up for them that are faithful unto the death . Faith is uselesse , if now in the midst of so great pretended lights we shall not dare to trust God unlesse we have all in hand that we desire ; and suffer nothing , for all we can hope for . They that live by sense have no use of faith , yet our Lord Jesus concerning whose passions , the gospel speaks much , but little of his glorifications , whose shame was publick , whose pains were notorious , but his joyes and transfigurations were secret and kept private , he who would not suffer his holy mother , whom in great degrees he exempted from sin , to be exempted from many and great sorrows , certainly intends to admit none to his resurrection , but by the doors of his grave , none to glory but by the way of the crosse . If we be planted into the likenesse of his death , we shall be also of his resurrection , else on no termes ; Christ took away sin from us , but he left us our share of sufferings ; and the crosse which was first printed upon us in the waters of baptisme , must for ever be born by us in penance , in mortification , in self-denial and in martyrdom , and toleration according as God shall require of us by the changes of the world , and the condition of the Church . For Christ considers nothing , but souls , he values not their estate or bodies , supplying our want by his providence , and being secured that our bodies may be killed , but cannot perish so long as we preserve our duty and our consciences . Christ our Captain hangs naked upon the crosse , our fellow souldiers are cast into prison ; torne with Lions , rent in sunder with trees returning from their violent bendings , broken upon wheels , rosted upon gridirons , and have had the honour not onely to have a good cause , but also to suffer for it , and by faith not by armies , by patience not by fighting , have overcome the world ; & sit anima mea cum Christianis , I pray God my soul may be among the Christians ; and yet the Turks have prevailed upon a great part of the Christian world , and have made them slaves , and tributaries , and do them all spite , and are hugely prosperous ; but when Christians are so , then they are tempted and put in danger , and never have their duty and their interest so well secured , as when they lose all for Christ and are adorned with wounds , or poverty , change or scorn , affronts or revilings which are the obelisks and triumphs of a holy cause . Evil men and evil causes had need have good fortune and great successe to support their persons and their pretences ; for nothing but innocence and Christianity can flourish in a persecution . I summe up this first discourse in a word : in all the Scripture , and in all the Authentick stories of the Church we finde it often , that the Devil appeared in the shape of an Angell of light , but was never suffered so much as to conterfeit a persecuted sufferer ; say no more therefore as the murmuring Israelites said ; If the LORD be with us why have these evils apprehended us ? for if to be afflicted be a signe that God hath forsaken a man , and refuses to own his religion , or his question , then he that oppresses the widow , and murders the innocent , and puts the fatherlesse to death , and follows providence by doing all the evils that he can , that is , all that God suffers him , he I say is the onely Saint and servant of God : and upon the same ground the wolf and the fox may boast when they scatter and devour a flock of lambs and harmlesse sheep . Sermon . X. The Faith and Patience of the SAINTS : OR The righteous cause oppressed . Part II. IT follows now that we inquire concerning the reasons of the Divine Providence , in this administration of affairs , so far as he hath been pleased to draw aside the curtain , and to unfold the leaves of his counsels and predestination : and for such an inquiry we have the precedent of the Prophet Jeremy : Righteous art thou O Lord , when I plead with thee , yet let us talk to thee of thy judgements : wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper ? Wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously ? Thou hast planted them , yea they have taken root : they grow , yea they bring forth fruit Concerning which , in generall the Prophet Malachy gives this account after the same complaint made . And now we call the proud happy , and they that work wickednesse are set up , yea they that tempt God are even delivered . They that feared the Lord spake often one to another , and the Lord hearkened and heard , and a book of remembrance was written before time for them that feared the Lord , and thought upon his Name , and they shall be mine ( saith the Lord of Hosts ) in that day when I binde up my jewels , and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him : Then shall ye return and discern betwen the righteous , and the wicked , between him that serveth God , and him that serveth him not . In this interval which is a valley of tears , it is no wonder if they rejoyce , who shall weep for ever ; and they that sow in tears shall have no cause to complain , when God gathers all the mourners into his kingdom , they shall reape with joy . For innocence and joy were appointed to dwel together for ever . And joy went not first but when innocence went away , sorrow and sicknesse dispossessed joy of its habitation ; and now this world must be alwayes a scene of sorrows , and no joy can grow here but that which is imaginary and phantastick : there is no worldly joy , no joy proper for this world , but that which wicked persons fancy to themselves , in the hopes and designes of iniquity : He that covets his neighbours wife or land , dreams of fine things , and thinks it a fair condition to be rich and cursed , to be a beast and die , or to lie wallowing in his filthinesse : but those holy souls who are not in love with the leprosie & the Itch for the pleasure of scratching , they know no pleasure can grow from the thorns which Adam planted in the hedges of Paradise ; and that sorrow which was brought in by sin , must not go away till it hath returned us into the first condition of innocence : the same instant that quits us from sin , and the failings of mortality , the same instant wipes all tears from our eyes ; but that is not in this world ; In the mean time . God afflicts the godly that he might manifest many of his attributes , and his servants exercise many of their vertues . Nec fortuna probat causas sequiturque merentes , sed vaga percunctos nullo discrimine fertur : scilicet est aliud quod nos cogatque rogatque Majus , & in proprias ducat mortalia leges . For , without sufferings of Saints God should lose the glories of 1. Bringing good out of evil : 2. Of being with us in tribulation , 3. Of sustaining our infirmities , 4 Of triumphing over the malice of his enemies : 5. Without the suffering of Saints , where were the exaltation of the crosse , the conformity of the members to Christ their Head , the coronets of Martyrs ? 6. Where were the trial of our faith ? 7. Or the exercise of long suffering ? 8. Where were the opportunities , to give God the greatest love ? which cannot be but by dying and suffering for him ? 9. How should that which the world calls folly prove the greatest wisdom : 10. and God be glorified by events contrary to the probability and expectation of their causes : By the suffering of Saints , Christian religion is proved to be most excellent whilst the iniquity and cruelty of the adversaries proves the illecebra sectae as Tertullians phrase is , it invites men to consider the secret excellencies of that religion , for which and in which men are so willing to die : for that religion must needs be worth looking into , which so many wise and excellent men do so much value above their lives and fortunes ; 12. That a mans nature is passible , is its best advantage : for by it we are all redeemed : by the passivenesse and sufferings of our Lord and brother we were all rescued from the portion of Devils ; and by our suffering we have a capacity of serving God beyond that of Angels : who indeed can sing Gods praise with a sweeter note , and obey him with a more unabated will , and execute his commands with a swifter wing , and a greater power ; but they cannot die for God ; they can lose no lands for him ; and he that did so for all us , and commanded us to do so for him , is ascended farre above all Angels , and is Heir of a greater glory . 13. Do this , and live , was the covenant of the Law ; but in the Gospel it is , suffer this , and live : He that forsaketh house and land , friends and life , for my sake is my disciple . 14. By the sufferings of Saints God chastises their follies and levities , and suffers not their errours to climbe up into heresies , nor their infirmities into crimes . — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alteration makes a fool leave his folly . If David numbers the people of Judea , God punishes him sharply and loudly : But if Augustus Caesar numbers all the world he is let alone and prospers . Ille crucem pretium sceleris tulit , hic diadema . And in giving physick we alwayes call that just , and sitting that is usefull and profitable : no man complains of his Physitians Iniquity , if he burns one part to cure all the body , if the belly be punished to chastise the floods of humour , and the evils of a ●urfet : Punishments can no other way turn into a mercy , but when they are designed for medicine ; and God is then very carefull of thy soul , when he will suppresse every of its evils , when it first discomposes the order of things , and spirits . And what hurt is it to thee if a persecution draws thee from the vanities of a former prosperity , and forces thee into the sobrieties of a holy life ? What losse is it , what misery ? Is not the least sin a greater evil then the great est of sufferings ? God smites some at the beginning of their sin : Others not till a long while after it is done . The first cannot say , that God is slack in punishing ; and have no need to complain that the wicked are prosperous ; for they finde that God is apt enough to strike ; and therefore that he strikes them , and strikes not the other , is not de●●ct of justice , but because there is not mercy in store , for them that sin and suffer not : 15. For if God strikes the godly that they may repent , it is no wonder that God is so good to his servants ; but then we must not call that a misery , which God intends to make an instrument of saving them . And if God forbears to strike the wicked out of anger , and because he hath decreed death and hell against them , we have no reason to envy that they ride in a gilded chariot to the gallows : But if God forbears the wicked , that by his long sufferance they may be invited to repentance , then we may cease to wonder at the dispensation , and argue comforts to the afflicted Saints , thus ; 1. For if God be so gracious to the wicked , how much more is he to the godly ? And if sparing the wicked be a mercy , then smiting the godly being the expression of his greater kindnesse ; affliction is of it self the more eligible condition . If God hath some degrees of kindnesse for the persecutor , so much as to invite them by kindnesse , how much greater is his love to them that are persecuted ? and therefore his entercourse with them is also a greater favour : and indeed it is the surer way of securing the duty ; fair means may do it , but severity will fix and secure it : fair means are more apt to be abused then harsh physick ; that may be turned into wantonnesse , but none but the impudent and grown sinners , despise all Gods judgements ; and therefore God chooses this way to deal with his erring servants , that they may obtain an infallible and a great salvation : and yet if God spares not his children , how much lesse the reprobates ? and therefore as the sparing the latter , commonly is a sad curse , so the smiting the former is a very great mercy . 16 For by this Oeconomy God gives us a great argument to prove the resurrection , since to his saints and servants he assignes sorrow for their present portion . Sorrow cannot be the reward of vertue , it may be its instrument , and hand-maid , but not its reward ; and therefore it may be intermedial to some great purposes , but they must look for their portion in the other life : For if in this life onely we had hope , then we were of all men the most miserable . It is Sain Pauls argument to prove a beatificall resurrection : And we therefore may learn to estimate , the state of the afflicted godly to be a mercy great , in proportion to the greatnesse of that reward , which these afflictions come to secure and to prove . Nunc & damna juvant , sunt ipsa pericula tanti , Stantia non poterant tecta probare Deos. It is a great matter , an infinite blessing to escape the pains of hell ; and therefore that condition is also very blessed which God sends us to create and to confirm our hopes of that excellent mercy . 17. The sufferings of the saints are the sum of Christian Philosophy ; they are sent to wean us from the van●les and affections of this world , and to create in us strong desires of heaven , whiles God causes us to be here treated rudely , that we may long to be in our Countrey , where God shall be our portion , and Angels our companions , and Christ our perpetuall feast , and a never ceasing joy shall be our condition and entertainment . O death , how bitter art thou to a man that is at ease and rest in his possessions : but he that is uneasie in his body , and unquiet in his possessions , vexed in his person , discomposed in his designes , who findes no pleasure , no rest here , will be glad to fix his heart , where onely he shall have what he can desire , and what can make him happy . As long as the waters of persecutions are upon the earth , so long we dwell in the Ark ; but where the land is dry , the Dove it self will be tempted to a wandring course of life , and never to return to the house of her safety . What shall I say more ? 18 Christ nourisheth his Church by sufferings . 19 He hath given a single blessing to all other graces , but to them that are persecuted , he hath promised a double one . It being a double favour , first to be innocent like Christ , and then to be afflicted like him . 20. Without this , the miracles of patience , which God hath given to fortifie the spirits of the saints would signifie nothing . Nemo enim tolerare tanta velit sine causâ , nec potuit sine Deo , as no man would bear evils without a cause , so no man could bear so much without the supporting hand of God ; and we need not the Holy Ghost to so great purposes , if our lot were not sorrow and persecution ; and therefore without this condition of suffering , the Spirit of God should lose that glorious attribute of The Holy Ghost the Comforter . 21. Is there any thing more yet ? Yes They that have suffered or forsaken any lands for Christ , shall sit upon thrones and judge the twelve tribes of Israel , so said Christ to his Disciples . Nay the saints shall judge Angels , ( saith saint Paul ) well therefore might Saint Paul say , I rejoyce exceedingly in tribulation . It must be some great thing that must make an afflicted man to rejoyce exceedingly ; and so it was . For since patience is necessary that we receive the promise , and tribulation does work this : For a short time it worketh the consummation of our hope , even an exceeding weight of glory . We have no reason to think it strange concerning the fiery triall , as if it were a strange thing . It can be no hurt ; the Church is like Moses bush , when it is all on sire , it is not at all consumed , but made full of miracle , full of splendour , full of God : and unlesse we can finde something that God cannot turn into joy , we have reason not onely to be patient , but rejoyce , when we are persecuted in a righteous cause : For love is the soul of Christianity , and suffering is the soul of love . To be innocent , and to be persecuted , are the body and soul of Christianity . I John your brother , and partaker of tribulation , and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus , said Saint John : those were the titles and ornaments of his profession ; that is , I John your fellow Christian ; that 's the plain song of the former descant . He therefore that is troubled , when he is afflicted in his outward man , that his inward man may grow strong , like the birds upon the ruines of the shell , and wonders that a good man should be a begger , and a sinner be rich with oppression , that Lazarus should die at the gate of Dives , hungry and sick , unpitied , and unrelieved , may as well wonder , that carrion crowes should feed themselves fat upon a fair horse , farre better then himself ; or that his own excellent body should be devoured by wormes , and the most contemptible creatures , though it lies there to be converted into glory ; That man knows nothing of nature , or providence , or Christianity , or the rewards of vertue , or the nature of its constitution , or the infirmities of man , or the mercies of God , or the arts and prudence of his loving kindnesse , or the rewards of heaven , or the glorifications of Christs exalted humanity , or the precepts of the Gospel , who is offended at the sufferings of Gods deerest servants , or declines the honour and the mercy of sufferings in the cause of righteousnesse ; For the securing of a vertue , for the imitation of Christ , and for the love of God , or the glories of immortality . It cannot , it ought not , it never will be otherwise , the world may as well cease to be measured by time , as good men to suffer affliction . I end this point with the words of Saint Paul , Let as many as are perfect , be thus minded , and if any man be otherwise minded , God also will reveal this unto you , this , of the covenant of sufferings , concerning which the old Prophets , and holy men of the Temple had many thoughts of heart ; but in the full sufferings of the Gospel , there hath been a full revelation of the excellency of the sufferings . I have now given you an account of some of those reasons , why God hath so disposed it , that at this time , that is , under the period of the Gospel , judgement must begin at the house of God , and they are either , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or imitation of Christs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , chastisements , or trials , martyrdom , or a conformity to the sufferings of the Holy Jesus . But now besides all the premises , we have another account to make concerning the prosperity of the wicked : For if judgment first begin at us ? what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel of God ? that is the question of the Apostle , and is the great instrument of comfort to persons ill treated in the actions of the world . The first ages of the Church lived upon promises , and prophecies ; and because some of them are already fulfilled for ever , and the others are of a continuall and a successive nature , and are verified by the actions of every day : Therefore we and all the following Ages live upon promises and experience : and although the servants of God have suffered many calamities , from the tyranny and prevalency of evil men their enemies , yet still it is preserved as one of the fundamentall truths of Christianity ; That all the fair fortunes of the wicked are not enough to make them happy , nor the persecutions of the godly , able to make a good man miserable ; nor yet their sadnesses arguments of Gods displeasure against them . For when a godly man is afflicted and dies , it is his work and his businesse ; and if the wicked prevail , that is , if they persecute the godly , it is but that which was to be expected from them : For who are fit to be hangmen , and executioners of publike wrath but evil and ungodly persons ? And can it be a wonder that they whose cause wants reason , should betake themselves to the sword ? that what he cannot perswade he may wrest ? onely we must not judge of the things of God by the measures of men , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the things of men have this world for their stage , and their reward , but the things of God relate to the world to come : and for our own particulars we are to be guided by rule , and by the end of all , not by events intermedial , which are varied by a thousand irregular causes . For if all the evil men in the world were unprosperous ( as most certainly they are ) and if all good persons were temporally blessed ( as most certainly they are not ) yet this would not move us to become vertuous : If an angel should come from heaven , or one arise from the dead and preach repentance , or justice , and temperance , all this would be ineffectuall to those to whom the plain doctrines of God , delivered in the Law and the Prophets will not suffice . For why should God work a signe to make us to beleeve that we ought to do justice ; if we already beleeve , he hath commanded it , no man can need a miracle for the confirmation of that which he already beleeves to be the command of God : And when God hath expressely bidden us to obey every ordinance of man for the Lords sake , the King as supreme , and his deputies as sent by him : It is a strange infidelity to think , that a rebellion against the ordinance of God , can be sanctified by successe and prevalency , of them that destroy the authority , and the person , and the law , and the religion : The sin cannot grow to its height if it be crushed at the beginning ; unlesse it prosper in its progresse , a man cannot easily fill up the measure of his iniquity : but then that the sin swels to its fulnesse by prosperity , and grows too big to be suppressed without a miracle , it is so far from excusing , or lessening the sin , that nothing doth so nurse the sin as it : It is not vertue , because it is prosperous , but if it had not been prosperous , the sin could never be so great . — Facere omnia saevè Non impunè licet , nisi dum facis . A little crime is sure to smart , but when the sinner is grown rich , and prosperous , and powerfull , he gets impunity . Jusque datum sceleri — But that 's not innocence , and if prosperity were the voice of God to approve an action , then no man were vitious , but he that is punished , and nothing were rebellion , but that which cannot be easily suppressed , and no man were a Pirate but he that robs with a little vessell , and no man could be a Tyrant but he that is no prince , and no man an unjust invader of his neighbours rights , but he that is beaten and overthrown . Then the crime grows big and loud , then it calls to Heaven for vengeance , when it hath been long a growing , when it hath thrived under the Devils managing ; when God hath long suffered it , and with patience in vain expecting the repentance of a sinner : he that treasures up wrath against the day of wrath , that man hath been a prosperous that is an unpunished and a thriving sinner : but then it is the sin that thrives not the man : and that is the mistake upon this whole question : for the sin cannot thrive , unlesse the man goes on without apparent punishment , and restraint . And all that the man gets by it is , that by a continual course of sin , he is prepared for an intollerable ruine . The Spirit of God bids us look upon the end of these men ; not the way they walk or the instrument of that pompous death . When Epaminondas was asked , which of the three was happiest , himself , Chalrias , or Iphicrates , bid the man stay till they were all dead ; for till then that question could not be answered . He that had seen the Vandals besiege the city of Hippo , and have known the barbarousnesse of that unchristned people , and had observed that S. Augustine withall his prayers and vows could not obtain peace in his own dayes , not so much as a reprieve for the persecution , and then had observed S. Augustine die with grief that very night , would have perceived his calamity more visible then the reward of his piety and holy religion . When Lewis firnamed Pius went his voyage to Palestine upon a holy end , and for the glory of God to fight against the Saracens and Turks , and Mamalukes , the world did promise to themselves that a good cause should thrive in the hands of so holy a man : but the event was far otherwise ; his brother Robert was killed , and his army destroyed , and himself taken prisoner , and the money which by his Mother was sent for his redemption was cast away in a storm , and he was exchanged for the last town the Christians had in Egypt , and brought home the crosse of Christ upon his shoulder in a real pressure and participation of his Masters sufferings . When Charles the fifth went to Algier to suppresse pirates and unchristned villains , the cause was more confident then the event was prosperous : and when he was almost ruined in a prodigious storme , he told the minutes of the clock , expecting that at midnight , when religious persons rose to Mattins , he should be eased by the benefit of their prayers : but the providence of God trod upon those waters , and left no footstoops for discovery : his navie was beat in pieces , and his designe ended in dishonour , and his life almost lost by the bargain . Was ever cause more baffled then the Christian cause by the Turks , in all Asia and Africa , and some parts of Europe , if to be persecuted and afflicted be reckoned a calamity ? What prince was ever more unfortunate then Henry the sixt of England , and yet that age saw none more pious and devout , and the title of the house of Lancaster was advanced against the right of York , for three descents ; but then what was the end of these things ? the persecuted men were made Saints , and their memories are preserved in honour , and their souls shall reigne for ever ; and some good men were ingaged in a wrong cause , and the good cause was sometimes managed by evil men , till that the suppressed cause was lifted up by God in the hands of a young and prosperous prince , and at last , both interests were satisfied in the conjunction of two roses , which was brought to issue by a wonderful chain of causes managed by the divine providence : and there is no age , no history , no state , no great change in the world , but hath ministred an example of an afflicted truth , and a prevailing sin : For I will never more call that sinner prosperous , who after he hath been permitted to finish his businesse , shall die , and perish miserably : for at the same rate , we may envie the happinesse of a poor fisherman , who while his nets were drying , slept upon the rock and dreamt that he was made a King ; on a sudden starts up , and leaping for joy , fals down from the rock , and in the place of his imaginary felicities , loses his little portion of pleasure , and innocent solaces , he had from the sound sleep and little cares of his humble cottage . And what is the prosperity of the wicked ? to dwel in fine houses , or to command armies , or to be able to oppresse their brethren , or to have much wealth to look on , or many servants to feed , or much businesse to dispatch , and great cares to master ; these things are of themselves neither good nor bad ; but consider : would any man amongst us , looking and considering before hand , kill his lawful King to be heire of all that which I have named ? would any of you choose , to have God angry with you upon these terms ? would any of you be a perjured man for it all ? A wise man or a good , would not choose it : would any of you die an Atheist that you might live in plenty and power ? I bel●●ve you tremble to think of it . It cannot therefore be a happinesse to thrive upon the stock of a great sin : for if any man should cont●act with an impure spirit , to give his soul up at a certain day , it may be 2● years hence , upon the condition he might for 20. years have his vain desires , should we not think that person infinitely miserable ; every prosperous thriving sinner is in the same condition ; within these twenty years , he shall be thrown into the portion of Devils , but shall never come out thence in twenty millions of years . His wealth must needs sit uneasie upon him , that remembers that within a short space he shall be extreamely miserable ; and if he does not remember it , he does but secure it the more . And that God defers the punishment , and suffers evil men to thrive in the opportunities of their sin , it may and does serve many ends of providence , and mercy , but serves no end that any evil men can reasonably wish or propound to themselves eligible . ●ias said well to a vitious person , Non metuo ne non sis daturus paenas , sed metuo neid non sim visurus , He was sure the man should be punished , he was not sure he should live to see it : and though the messenians that were betrayed and slain by Aristocrates in the battle of Cyprus , were not made alive again , yet the justice of God was admired , and treason infinitly disgraced , when twenty years after , the treason was discovered , and the the traitor punished , with a horrid death . Lyciscus gave up the Orchomenians to their enemies , having first wished his feet , which he then dipt in water , might rot off , if he were not true to them ; and yet his feet did not rot till those men were destroyed , and of a long time after ; and yet at last they did ; slay them not O Lord lest my people forget it ( saith David ) if punishment were instantly and totally inflicted , it would be but a sudden and single document : but a slow and lingring judgement , and , a wrath breaking out in the next age , is like an universal proposion , teaching our posterity , that God was angry all the while , that he had a long indignation in his brest , that he would not forget to take veangeance : and it is a demonstration , that even the prosperous sins of the present age , will finde the same period in the Divine revenge when men see a judgement upon the Nephevvs for the sins of their Grand-fathers , though in other instances ▪ and for sinnes acted in the dayes of their Ancestors . We knovv that vvhen in Henry the eighth , or Edvvard the sixth dayes , some great men pulled dovvn Churches and built palaces , and robd religion of its just incouragements , and advantages ; the men that did it were sacrilegious ; and we finde also that God hath been punishing that great sin , ever since ; and hath displaied to so many generations of men , to three or four descents of children , that those men could not be esteemed happy in their great fortunes , against whom God was so angry , that he would show his displeasure for a hundred years together . When Herod had killed the babes of Bethlehem , it was seven years before God called him to an account . But he that looks upon the end of that man , would rather choose the fat of the oppressed babes , then of the prevailing and triumphing Tyrant : It was fourty years before God punished the Jews , for the execrable murder committed upon the person of their King , the holy Jesus ; and it was so long , that when it did happen , many men attributed it to their killing S. James their Bishop and seemed to forget the greater crime , but non eventu rerum sed fide verborum stamus : we are to stand to the truth of Gods word not to the event of things . Because God hath given us a rule but hath left the judgement to himself ; and we die so quickly , ( and God measures althings by his standard of eternity , and 1000 years to God is but as one day ) that we are not competent persons to measure the times of Gods account , and the returnes of judgement . We are dead before the arrow comes , but the man scapes not , unlesse his soul can die , or that God cannot punish him . Ducunt in bonis dies suos & in momento descendunt ad infernum , that 's their fate , they spend their dayes in plenty , and in a moment descend into hell : in the meane time they drink and forget their sorrow ; but they are condemned they have drunk their hemlock , but the poison does not work yet : the bait is in their mouths , and they are sportive ; but the hook hath strook their nostrils , and they shall never escape the ruine ; And let no man call the man fortunate , because his execution is deferd for a few dayes , when the very deferring shall increase , and ascertain the condemnation . But if we should look under the skirt of the prosperous and prevailing Tyrant , we should finde even in the dayes of his joyes , such allayes and abatements of his pleasure , as may serve to represent him presently miserable , besides his final infelicities . For I have seen a young and healthful person warm and ruddy under a poor and a thin garment , when at the same time , an old rich person hath been cold , and paralytick , under a load of sables and the skins of foxes ; it is the body that makes the clothes warm , not the clothes the body : and the spirit of a man makes felicity and content , not any spoils of a rich fortune wrapt about a sickly and an uneasie soul. Apollodorus was a Traitor , and a Tyrant , and the world wondered to see a bad man have so good a fortune ; But knew not that he nourished Scorpions in his brest , and that his liver and his heart were eaten up with Spectres and images of death ; his thoughts were full of interruptions , his dreams of illusions , his fancie was abused with real troubles , and phantastick images , imagining that he saw the Scythians flaying him alive , his daughters like pillars of fire dancing round about a cauldron in which himself was boyling , and that his heart accused it self to be the cause of all these evils : And although all tyrants have not imaginative and phantastick consciences , yet all tyrants shall die and come to judgement ; and such a man is not to be feared , nor at all to be envied : and in the mean time can he be said to escape , who hath an unquiet conscience , who is already designed for hell , he whom God hates and the people curse , and who hath an evil name , and against whom all good men pray , and many desire to fight , and all wish him destroyed , and some contrive to do it ? is this man a blessed man ? Is that man prosperous who hath stolen a rich robe , & is in fear to have his throat cut for it , and is fain to defend it with the greatest difficulty and the greatest danger ? Does not he drink more sweetly , that takes his beaverage in an earthen vessel , then he that looks and searches into his golden chalices for fear of poison , and looks pale , at every sudden noise , and sleeps in armour , and trusts no body and does not trust God for his safety , but does greater wickednesse onely to escape a while un punished for his former crimes ? A●robibitur venenum , No man goes about to poison a poor mans pitcher , nor layes plots to forrage his little garden made for the hospital of two bee hives , and the feasting of a few Pythagorean herbe eaters . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They that admire the happinesse of a prosperous , prevailing Tyrant , know not the felicities , that dwell in innocent hearts , and poor cottages and small fortunes . A Christian so long as he preserves his integrity to God and to religion is bold in all accidents , he dares die , and he dares be poor ; but if the persecutor dies , he is undone . Riches are beholding to our fancies for their value ; and yet the more we value the riches , the lesse good they are , and by an overvaluing affection , they become our danger and our sin : But on the other side , death and persecution loose all the ill , that they can have , if we do not set an edge upon them by our fears and by our vices . From our selves riches take their wealth , and death sharpens his arrows at our forges and we may set their prices as we please ; and if we judge by the spirit of God , we must account them happy that suffer ; And therefore that the prevailing oppressor , Tyrant , or persecutor is infinitly miserable , onely let God choose by what instruments he will govern the world , by what instances himself would be served , by what waies he will chastise the failings and exercise the duties , and reward the vertues of his servants . God sometimes punishes one sinne with another , pride with adultery , drunkennesse with murder , carelesnesse with irreligion , idlenesse with vanity , penury with oppression , irreligion with blasphemy , and that with Atheisme , and therefore it is no wonder if he punishes a sinner by a sinner And if David made use of villains and profligate persons to frame an armie ; and Timoleon destroy●d the Carthaginians by the help of souldiers , who themselves were sacrilegious ; and Physitians use the poison to expel poisons ; and all common-wealths take the basest of men to be their instruments of justice and executions ; we shall have no further cause to wonder , if God raises up the Assyrians to punish the Israelites , and the Egyptians to destroy the Assyrians , and the Ethiopians to scourge the Egyptians , and at last his own hand shall separate the good from the bad in the day of separation , in the day when he makes up his Iewels . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Soph. Elect. God hath many ends of providence to serue by the hands of violent and vitious men , by them he not onely checks the beginning errours , and approaching sins of his predestinate , but by them he changes governments and alters kingdoms , and is terrible among the sons of men : for since it is one of his glories , to convert evil into good , and that good into his own glory , and by little and little to open and to turn the leaves and various folds of providence ; it becomes us onely to dwell in duty , and to be silent in our thoughts , and wary in our discourses of God ; and let him choose the time when he will pr●●e his vine , and when he will burn his thorns : how long he will smite his servants , and when he will destroy his enemies . In the dayes of the primitive persecutions , what prayers , how many sighings , how deep groanes , how many bottles of tears did God gather into his repository , all praying for ease and deliverances , for Halcyon dayes and fine sunshine , for nursing fathers and nursing mothers , for publick assemblies , and open and solemn sacraments : And it was 3 hundred years before God would hear their prayers : and all that while the persecuted people were in a cloud , but they were safe and knew it not : and God kept for them the best wine untill the last ; they ventured for a crown and fought valiantly , they were faithful to the death , and they received a crown of life , and they are honored by God , by angels , and by men ; whereas in all the prosperous ages of the Church , we hear no stories of such multitudes of Saints no record of them , no honour to their memorial , to accident extraordinary ; scarce any made illustrious with a miracle , which in the dayes of suffering were frequent and popular . And after all our fears of sequestration and poverty , of death or banishment , our prayers against the persecution , and troubles under it , we may please to remember that twenty years hence ( it may be sooner , it wil not be much longer ) all our cares and our troubles shall be dead , and then it shall be enquired how we did bear our sorrows , and who inflicted them , and in what cause , and then he shall be happy that keeps company with the persecuted , and the persecutors shall be shut out amongst dogs and unbelievers . He that shrinks from the yoke of Christ , from the burden of the Lord , upon his death-bed will have cause to remember , that by that time all his persecutions would have been past , and that then there would remain nothing for him , but rest and crowns and scepters . When Lysimachus , impatient and overcome with thirst gave up his kingdom to the Getae , and being a captive and having drank a lusty draught of wine , and his thirst was now gone , he fetched a deep sigh and said , Miserable man that I am , who for so little pleasure , the pleasure of one draught lost so great a Kingdom such will be their case , who being impatient of suffering , change their persecution into wealth , and an easie fortune they shall finde themselves miserable , in the separations of eternity losing the glories of heaven for so little a pleasure , illiberali● & ingrate voluptatis causa as Plutarch calls it , for illiberal and ungratefull pleasure , in which when a man hath entred , he loses the rights and priviledges and honours of a good man , and gets nothing that is profitable and useful to holy purposes , or necessary to any ; but is already in a state so hateful and miserable , that he needs neither God nor man to be a revenger , having already under his splendid robe , miseries enough to punish and betray this hypocrisy of his condition : being troubled with the memory of what is past , distrustful of the present , suspicious of the future , vitious in their lives , and full of pageantry and out-sides , but in their death miserable with calamities , real , eternal and insupportable ; and if it could be other wise , vertue it self would be reproached with the calamity . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . I end with the advice of Saint Paul , In nothing be terrified of your 〈…〉 Sermon . XI . The Faith and Patience of the SAINTS : OR The righteous cause oppressed . Part III. 〈…〉 from dishonour . As long as they belong to God , it is necessary that they suffer persecution , or sorrow , no rules can teach them to avoid that ; but the evil of the suffering , and the danger , must be declined , and we must use such spirituall arts as are apt to turn them into health and medicine : For it were a hard thing , first to be scourged , and then to be crucified ; to suffer here , and to perish hereafter ; through the fiery triall , and purging fire of afflictions , to passe into hell : that , is intollerable ; and to be prevented with the following cautions , least a man suffers like a fool , and a malefactour , or inherits damnation for the reward of his imprudent suffering . 1. They that suffer any thing for Christ , and are ready to die for him , let them do nothing against him . For certainly they think too highly of martyrdom , who beleeve it able to excuse all the evils of a wicked life . A man may give his body to be burned , and yet have no charity ; and he that dies without ●harity , dies without God , for God is love : And when those who fought in the dayes of the Maccabees , for the defence of true Religion , and were killed in those holy warres , yet being dead , were found having about their necks , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or pendants , consecrated to idols of the Jamnenses , it much allayed the hope , which by their dying in so good a cause was entertained concerning their beatificall resurrection . He that overcomes his fear of death does well ; but if he hath not also overcome his lust , or his anger , his baptisme of blood will not wash him clean . Many things may make a man willing to die in a good cause : Publike reputation , hope of reward , gallantry of spirit , a confident resolution , and a masculine courage ; or a man may be vexed into a stubborn and unrelenting suffering : But nothing can make a man live well , but the grace and the love of God. But those persons are infinitely condemned by their last act , who professe their religion to be worth dying for , and yet are so unworthy , as not to live according to its institution . It were a rare felicity , if every good cause could be mannaged by good men onely ; but we have found that evil men have spoiled a good cause , but never that a good cause made those evil men good and holy . If the Governour of Samaria had crucified Simon Magus for receiving Christian Baptisme , he had no more died a martyr , then he lived a saint . For dying is not enough , and dying in a good cause is not enough , but then onely we receive the crown of martyrdom , when our death is the seal of our life , and our life is a continuall testimony of our duty , and both give testimony to the excellencies of the religion , and glorifie the grace of God. If a man be gold , the fire purges him , but it burns him if he be like stubble , cheap , light , and uselesse : For martyrdom is the consummation of love : But then it must be supposed , that this grace must have had its beginning , and its severall stages , and periods , and must have passed thorow labour to zeal , thorow all the regions of duty , to the perfections of sufferings ; and therefore it is a sad thing to observe , how some empty souls will please themselves with being of such a religion , or such a cause , and though they dishonour their religion , or weigh down the cause with the prejudice of sin , beleeve all is swallowed up by one honourable name , or the appellative of one vertue : If God had forbid nothing but heresie and treason , then to have been a loyall man , or of a good beleef , had been enogh ; but he that forbad rebellion , forbids also swearing , and covetousnesse , rapine , and oppression , lying , and cruelty : And it is a sad thing to see a man not onely to spend his time , and his wealth and his money , and his friends upon his lust , but to spend his sufferings too , to let the canker-worm of a deadly sin , devour his Martyrdom : He therefore that suffers in a good cause , let him be sure to walk worthy of that honour , to which God hath called him ; Let him first deny his sins , and then deny himself , and then he may take up his crosse and follow Christ ; ever remembring that no man pleases God in his death , who hath walked perversely in his life . 2. He that suffers in a cause of God , must be indifferent what the instance be , so that he may serve God. I say , he must be indifferent in the cause , so it be a cause of God , and indifferent in the suffering , so it be of Gods appointment . For some men have a naturall aversation to some vices , or vertues , and a naturall affection to others . One man will die for his friend , and another will die for his money : Some men hate to be a rebell and will die for their Prince ; but tempt them to suffer for the cause of the Church , in which they were baptized , and in whose communion they look for heaven , and then they are tempted , and fall away . Or if God hath chosen the cause for them , and they have accepted it , yet themselves will choose the suffering . Right or wrong , some men will not endure a prison ; and some that can , yet choose the heaviest part of the burden , the pollution and stain of a sin , rather then lose their money ; and some had rather die twice then lose their estates once . In this our rule is easie . Let us choose God , and let God choose all the rest for us , it being indifferent to us , whether by poverty or shame , by lingring or a sudden death , by the hands of a Tyrant Prince , or the despised hands of a base usurper , or a rebell , we receive the crown , and do honour to God and to Religion . 3. Whoever suffer in a cause of God , from the hands of cruell and unreasonable men , let them not be too forward to prognosticate evil and death to their enemies ; but let them solace themselves in the assurance of the divine justice , by generall consideration , and in particular , pray for them that are our persecutours . Nebuchadnezzar was the rod in the hand of God against the Tyrians , and because he destroyed that city , God rewarded him with the spoil of Egypt ; and it is not alwayes certain , that God will be angry with every man , by whose hand affliction comes upon us . And sometimes two armies have met and fought , and the wisest man amongst them could not say , that either of the Princes had prevaricated either the lawes of God , ●or of Nations , and yet it may be some superstitious , easie , and half witted people of either side , wonder that their enemies live so long ! And there are very many cases of warre concerning which God hath declared nothing : and although in such cases , he that yeelds and quits his title rather then his charity , and the care of so many lives , is the wisest and the best man ; yet if neither of them will do so , let us not decree judgements from heaven , in cases where we have no word from heaven , and thunder from our Tribunals , where no voice of God hath declared the sentence . But in such cases where there is an evident tyranny or injustice , let us do like the good Samaritan , who dressed the wounded man , but never pursued the thief ; let us do charity to the afflicted , and bear the crosse with noblenesse , and look up to Jesus , who endured the crosse , and despised the shame ; but let us not take upon us the office of God , who will judge the Nations righteously , and when he hath delivered up our bodies will rescue our souls from the hands of unrighteous judges . I remember in the story that Plutarch tels concerning the soul of Thespesius , that it met with a Prophetick Genius , who told him many things that should happen afterwards in the world , and the strangest of all was this , That there should be a King , Qui bonus cum sit , tyrannide vitam finiet : An excellent Prince , and a good man should be put to death by a rebell and usurping power ; and yet that Prophetick soul could not tell that those rebels should within three yeers die miserable and accursed deaths ; and in that great prophecy recorded by Saint Paul , That in the last dayes perillous times should come , and men should be traitours , and selvish , having forms of godlinesse , and creeping into houses , ] yet could not tell us when these men should come to finall shame and ruine ; onely by a generall signification he gave this signe of comfort to Gods persecuted servants , But they shall proceed no further , for their folly shall be manifest to all men : that is , at long running they shall shame themselves , and for the elects sake those dayes of evil shall be shortned . But you and I may be dead first : And therefore onely remember , that they that with a credulous heart , and a loose tongue are too decretory , and enunciative of speedy judgements to their enemies , turn their religion into revenge , and therefore do beleeve it will be so , because they vehemently desire it should be so , which all wise and good men ought to suspect , as lesse agreeing with that charity which overcomes all the sins , and all the evils of the world , and sits down and rests in glory . 4. Do not trouble your self by thinking how much you are afflicted , but consider how much you make of it : For reflex acts upon the suffering it self , can lead to nothing but to pride , or to impatience to temptation , or apostacy . He that measures the grains and scruples of his persecution , will soon sit down and call for ease , or for a reward ; will think the time long , or his burden great ; will be apt to complain of his condition , or set a greater value upon his person . Look not back upon him that strikes thee , but upward to God that supports thee , and forward to the crown that is set before thee ; and then consider , if the losse of thy estate hath taught thee to despise the world ? whether thy poor fortune hath made thee poor in spirit ? and if thy uneasie prison sets thy soul at liberty , and knocks off the fetters of a worse captivity . For then the rod of suffering turns into crowns and scepters , when every suffering is a precept , and every change of condition produces a holy resolution , and the state of sorrows makes the resolution actuall , and habituall , permanent , and persevering . For as the silk-worm eateth it self out of a seed to become a little worm , and there feeding on the leaves of mulberies , it grows till its coat be off , and then works it self into a house of silk , then casting its pearly seeds for the young to breed , it leaveth its silk for man , and dieth all white and winged in the shape of a flying creature : So is the progresse of souls : when they are regenerate by Baptisme , and have cast off their first stains and the skin of worldly vanities , by feeding on the leaves of Scriptures , and the fruits of the vine , and the joyes of the Sacrament , they incircle themselves in the rich garments of holy and vertuous habits ; then by leaving their blood , which is the Churches seed , to raise up a new generation to God , they leave a blessed memory , and fair example , and are themselves turned into Angels , whose felicity is to do the will of God , as their imployments was in this world to suffer it ; fiat voluntas tua is our daily prayer , and that is of a passive signification ; thy will be done upon us : and if from thence also we translate it into an active sence ; and by suffering evils increase in our aptnesses to do well , we have done the work of Christians , and shall receive the reward of Martyrs . 5. Let our suffering be entertained by a direct election , not by collateral ayds and phantastick assistances . It is a good refreshment to a weak spirit to suffer in good company : and so Phoeion encouraged a timerous Greek condemned to die ; and he bid him be confident because that he was to die with Phocion ; and when 40. Martyrs in Cappadocia suffered , and that 〈◊〉 souldier standing by came and supplyed the place of the one Apostate , who fell from his crown ▪ being overcome with pain , it added warmth to the frozen confessors , and turnd them into consummate Martyrs . But if martyrdom were but a phantastick thing , or relyed upon vain accidents and irregular chances , it were then very necessary to be assisted by images of things , and any thing , lesse then the proper instruments of religion : But since it is the greatest action of the religion , and relies upon the most excellent promises , and its formality is to be an action of love , and nothing is more firmely chosen , ( by an after election ( at least ) then ) an act of love ; to support Martyrdom , or the duty of sufferings , by false arches and exteriour circumstances , is to build a tower upon the beams of the Sun , or to set up a woodden ladder to climbe up to Heaven ; the soul cannot attain so huge and unimaginable felicities by chance and instruments of fancy : and let no man hope to glorifie God and go to Heaven by a life of sufferings , unlesse he first begin in the love of God , and from thence derive his choice , his patience , and considence in the causes of vertue and religion , like beams , and warmth , and influence , from the body of the Sun. Some there are that fall under the burden , when they are pressed hard , because they use not the proper instruments in fortifying the will in patience and resignation , but endeavour to lighten the burden in imagination ; and when these temporary supporters fail , the building that relies upon them , rushes into coldnesse , recidivation , and lukewarmnesse : and among all instances , that of the main question of the Text is of greatest power to abuse imprudent and lesse severe persons . Nullos esse Deos , inane coelum Affirmat Selius , probatque Quod se videt dum negat haec beatum . When men choose a good cause , upon confidence that an ill one cannot thrive , that is , not for the love of vertue , or duty to God , but for profit and secular interests , they are easily lost when they see the wickednesse of the enemy to swell up by impunity and successe to a great evil : for they have not learned to distinguish a great growing sin , from a thriving and prosperous fortune . Vlla si juris tibi pejerati Poena Barine noeuisset unquam : Dente si nigro fieret vel uno turpior ungui Crederem . They that beleeve and choose because of idle fears , and unreasonable fancies , or by mistaking the accounts of a man for the measures of God , or dare not commit treason , for fear of being blasted , may come to be tempted when they see a sinner thrive , and are scandalized all the way , if they die before him ; or they may come to receive some accidentall hardnesses , and every thing in the world may spoil such persons , and blast their resolutions . Take in all the aids you can , and if the fancy of the standers by ▪ or the hearing a cock crow , can adde any collaterall aids to thy weaknesse , refuse it not ; But let thy state of sufferings begin with choice , and be confirmed with knowledge , and rely upon love , and the aids of God , and the expectations of heaven , and the present sense of duty , and then the action will be as glorious in the event , as it is prudent in the enterprise , and religious in the prosecution . 6. Lastly , when God hath brought thee into Christs school , and entered thee into a state of sufferings , remember the advantages of that state : consider how unsavoury the things of the world appear to thee , when thou art under the arrest of death ; remember with what comforts the Spirit of God assists thy spirit ; set down in thy heart all those entercourses , which happen between God and thy own soul ; the sweetnesses of religion , the vanity of sins appearances , thy newly entertained resolutions ; thy longings after heaven , and all the things of God , and if God finishes thy persecution with death proceed in them ; if he restores thee to the light of the world , and a temporall refreshment , change but the scene of sufferings into an active life , and converse with God upon the same principles on which in thy state of sufferings thou dost build all the parts of duty . If God restores thee to thy estate , be not lesse in love with heaven , nor more in love with the world ; let thy spirit be now as humble as before it was broken , and to what soever degree of sobriety or austerity , thy suffering condition did enforce thee , if it may be turned into vertue , when God restores thee ( because then it was necessary thou shouldest entertain it by an after choice ) do now also by a pra●election : that thou mayest say with David , It is good for me that I have been afflicted , for thereby I have learned thy commandments : and Paphnutius did not do his soul more advantage when he lost his right eye , and suffered his left knee to be cut for Christianity , and the cause of God , then that in the dayes of Constantine and the Churches peace , he lived , ( not in the toleration , but ) in the active piety of a Martyrs condition ; not now a confessor of the faith onely , but of the charity of a Christian : we may every one live to have need of these rules ; and I do not at all think it safe to pray against it , but to be armed for it : and to whatsoever degree of sufferings God shal call us , we see what advantages God intends for us , and what advantages we our selves may make of it . I now proceed to make use of all the former ●●scourse , by removing it a little further even into its utmost spiritual sense ; which the Apostle does in the last words of the text [ If the righteous scarcely be saved , where shall the wicked and the sinner appear . ] These words are taken out of the proverbs * according to the translation of the 70. If the righteous scarcely ●s safe ▪ where the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implyes that he is safe ; but by intermed●● difficulties : and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] he is safe in the midst of his persecutions they may disturb his rest , and discompose his fancy , but they are like the firy charriot to Elias ; he is encircled with fire and rare circumstances , and strange usages , but is carried up to Heaven in a robe of flames : and so was Noah safe when the flood came ; and was the great type and instance too of the verification of this proposition , he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he was put into a strange condition , perpetually wandring , shut up in a prison of wood , living upon faith , having never had the experience of being safe in flouds . And so have I often seen young and unskilful persons sitting in a little boat , when every little wave sporting about the sides of the vessel , and every motion and dancing of the barge seemed a danger , and made them cling fast upon their fellows , and yet all the while they wereas safe as if they sat under a tree , while a gentle winde shaked the leaves into a refreshment , and a cooling shade : And the unskiful unexperienced Christian shrikes out when ever his vessel shakes , thinking it alwayes a danger , that the watry pavement is not stable and resident like a rock ; and yet all his danger is in himself , none at all from without : for he is indeed moving upon the waters , but fastned to a rock ; faith is his foundation , and hope is his anchor and deathis his harbour , and Christ is his pilot , and heaven is his countrey , and all the evils of poverty , or affronts of tribunals : and evil judges , of fears and sadder apprehensions are but like the loud wind blowing from the right point , they make a noise and drive faster to the harbour : and if we do not leave the ship and leap into the sea , quit the interests of religion and run to the securities of the world , cut our cables , and dissolve our hopes , grow impatient and hug a wave and die in its embraces , we are as safe at sea , safer in the storm which God sends us , then in a calm , when we are be friended with the world . 2. But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may also signifie raro : If the righteous is seldom safe ; which implyes that sometimes he is , even in a temporal sense : God sometimes sends Halcyon dayes to his Church , and when he promised Kings and Queens to be their nurses , he intended it for a blessing ; and yet this blessing does of te●imes so ill succeed that it is the greater blessing of the two , not to give us that blessing too freely : but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this is scarcly done , and yet sometimes it is , and God sometimes refreshes languishing piety with such arguments , as comply with our infirmities , and though it be a shame to us to need such allectives and infant gauds , such which the heathen world and the first rudiments of the Israelites did need , God who pitties us and will be wanting in nothing to us , as he corroborates our willing spirits , with proper entertainments , so also he supports our weak flesh , and not onely cheers an afflicted soul with beams of light , and antepasts and earnests of glory , but is kinde also to our man of flesh , and weaknesse ; and to this purpose he sends thunder-bolts from heaven upon evil men , dividing their tongues , infatuating their counsels , cursing their posterity , and ruining their families . — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Sometimes God destroyes their armies , or their strong holds , Sometimes breakes their ships , but this happens either for the weaknesse of some of his servants , and their too great aptnesse to be offended at a prosperous iniquity , or when he will not suffer the evil to grow too great , or for some end of his providence ; and yet if this should be very often , or last long , God knows the danger , and vve should feel the inconvenience . Of all the types of Christ onely Joshuah and Solomon vvere noted to be generally prosperous , and yet the fortune of the first was to be in perpetual vvar and danger , but the other vvas as himself could vvish it , rich and peaceful , and powerful , and healthful , and learned , and beloved , and strong and amorous , and voluptuous , and so he fell , and though his fall was , yet his recovery vvas not upon record . And yet the vvorst of evils that happen to the godly is better , temporally better , then the greatest eternal felicity of the wicked : that in all senses the question may be considerable and argumentative ; If the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the ungodly appear ? if it be hard with good men , with the evil it shall be far worse . But see the difference . The godly man is timorous and yet safe , tossed by the seas , and yet safe at anchor , impaired by evil accidents and righted by divine comforts : made sad with a black cloud , and refreshed with a more gentle influence , abused by the world , and yet an heir of heaven , hated by men , and beloved by God , loses one house and gets an hundred , he quits a convenient lodging room and purchases a glorious countrey , is forsaken by his friends , but never by a good conscience , he fares hardly and sleeps sweetly , he flies from his enemies , but hath no distracting fears , he is full of thought , but of no amazement ; It is his businesse to be troubled , and his portion to be comforted , he hath nothing to afflict him , but the losse of that which might be his danger , but can never be his good , and in the recompence of this , he hath God for his father , Christ for his captain , the holy Ghost for his supporter so that he shall have all the good which God can give him , and of all that good he hath the holy Trinity for an earnest and a gage , for his maintenance at the present , and his portion to all eternity . But though Paul and Silas sing psalms in prison and under the hang-mans whips and in an earth-quake , yet neither the Jaylor nor the persecuting Magistrates could do so : For the prosperitie of the wicked is like a winters sun , or the joy of a condemned drunkard , it is a forgetfulnesse of his present danger , and his future sorrows , nothing but imginary arts of inadvertency : he sits in the gates of the city and judges others , and is condemned himself ; he is honoured by the passers by , and is thought happy , but he sighs deeply ; he heapeth up riches and cannot tell who shall gather them ; he commands an army and is himself a slave to his passions ; he sleeps because he needs it , and starts from his uneasie pillows which his thoughtful head hath discomposed ; when he is waking he dreames of greatnesse , when he sleeps he dreams of spectars and illusions ; he spoils a poor man of his lamb , and himself of his innocence and peace , and in every unjust purchase himself is the greatest loser . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . For just upon his oppression or injustice , he is turned a Devil , and Gods enemy , a wolf to his brother a greedy admirer of the baits of fishes , and the bread of dogs , he is unsafe by reason of his sin : for he hath against him the displeasure of God , the justice of the laws , the shame of the sin , the revenge of the injured person ; and God and men , the laws of nations and private societies , stand upon their defence against this man ; he is unsafe in his rest , amazed in his danger , troubled in his labours , weary in his change , esteemed a base man , disgraced and scorned , feared and hated , flattered and derided , watched , and suspected , and it may be , dies in the middle of his purchase , and at the end is a fool and leaves a curse to his posterity . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . He leaves a generation of blacker children behinde him ; so the Poet describes the cursednesse of their posterity , and their memory sits down to eternal ages in dishonour , and by this time let them cast up their accounts , and see , if of all their violent purchases they carry any thing with them to the grave but sin ▪ and a guilty conscience and a polluted soul , the anger of God and the shame of men ; and what help shall all those persons give to thee in thy flames who divide and scatter that estate , for which thou diedst for ever . Andire est operae pretium procedere recte Qui maechis non vultis , ut omni parte laborent : vt que illis multo corrupta dolore voluptas Atque haec rara cadat dura inter saepe pericla . And let but a sober answer tel me if any thing in the world be more distant either from goodnesse or happinesse , then to scatter the plague of an accursed soul , as upon our dearest children ; to make an universal curse ; to be the fountain of a mischief , to be such a person , whom our children and nephews shall hate , and despise and curse , when they groan under the burden of that plague , which their fathers sins brought upon the familie . If there were no other account to be given , it were highly enough to verifie the intent of my text ; If the righteous scarcely be saved , or escape Gods angry stroke , the wicked must needs be infinitely more miserable ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — Neither I , nor my son ( said the oldest of the Greek poets ) would be vertuous , if to be a just person were all one as to be miserable . No , not onely in the end of affaires , and at sun set , but all the day long the Godly man is happy , and the ungodly and the sinner is very miserable . Pellitur a populo victus Cato , tristior ille est , Qui vicit , facesque pudet rapuisse Catoni Namque hoc dedecus est populi , morumque ruina Non homo pulsus erat : sed in uno victa potestas Romanumque decus . And there needs no other argument to be added , but this one great testimony ; that though the Godly are afflicted , and persecuted , yet even they are blessed and the persecutors are the most unsafe . They are essentially happy whom affliction cannot make miserable . Quis curam neget esse te Deoruni propter quem fuit innocens ruina ? But turns into their advantages , and that 's the state of the Godly : and they are most intolerably accursed , who have no portions in the blessings of eternity , and yet cannot have comfort in the present purchases of their sin , to whom even their sunshine brings a drought , and their fairest is their foulest weather ; and that 's the portion of the sinner and the ungodly . The godly are not made unhappy by their sorrows : and the wicked are such whom prosperity it self cannot make fortunate . 4 And yet after al this it is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he scapes but hardly here : it will be well enough with him hereafter Isaac digged three wells : the first was called contention , for he drank the waters of strife and digged the well with his sword : the second well was not altogether so hard a purchase , he got it with some trouble , but that being over , he had some room and his fortune swelled , and he called his well [ enlargement ] but his third he called [ abundance ] and then he dipt his foot in oyl and drank freely as out of a ●river ; every good man first sowes in tears , he first drinks of the bottle of his own tears , sorrow and trouble , labour and disquiet , strivings and temptations : But if they passe through a torrent , and that vertue becomes easie and habitual , they finde their hearts enlarged and made spritely by the visitations of God and refreshment of his spirit ; and then their hearts are enlarged , they know how to gather the down and softnesses from the sharpest thistles . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . At first we cannot serve God , but by passions and doing violence to all our wilder inclinations , and suffering the violence of tyrants and unjust persons . — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The second dayes of vertue are pleasant and easie in the midst of all the appendant labours ; but when the Christians last pit is diged ; when he is descended to his grave , and finished his state of sorrowes and suffering , then God opens the river of abundance , the rivers of life and never ceasing felicities . And this is that which God promised to his people . I hid my face from thee for a moment , but with everlasting kindnesse will I have mercy on thee saith the Lord thy redeemer ; so much as moments are exceeded by eternity and the sighing of a man by the joyes of an angel , and a salutary frown by the light of Gods countenance , a few groans by the infinite and eternal Halalujahs ; so much are the sorrows of the godly to be undervalued , in respect of what is deposited for them in the treasures of eternity . Their sorrows can die but so cannot their joyes : and if the blessed Martyrs and confessors were asked concerning their past sufferings , & their present rest , and the joyes of their certain expectation you should hear them glory in nothing , but in the mercies of God and in the crosse of the Lord Jesus . Every chaine is a raie of light , and every prison is a palace , and every losse is the purchase of a kingdom , and every affront in the cause of God is an eternal honour , and every day of sorrow is a thousand years of comfort , multiplied with a never ceasing numeration ; dayes without night , joyes without sorrow , sanctity without sin , charity without stain , possession without fear , society without envying , communication of joyes without lessening , and they shall dwell in ablessed countrey , wherean enemy never entred , and from whence a friend never went away . Well might David say , funes ceciderunt mihi in praeclaris , the cords of my tent , [ my ropes and the sorrow of my pilgrimage ] fell to me in a good ground , and I have a goodly heritage ; and when persecution hewes a man down from a high fortune , to an even one , or from thence to the face of the earth , or from thence to the grave , a good man is but preparing for a crown , and the Tyrant does but first knock off the fetters of the soul , the manacles of passion and desire , sensual loves and lower appetites : and if God suffers him to finish the persecution , then he can but dismantle the souls prison , and let the soul forth to flie to the mountains of rest : and all the intermedial evils are but like the Persian punishments ; the executioner tore off their haires and rent their silken mantles and discomposed their curious dressings , and lightly touched the skin , yet the offender cried out with most bitter exclamations , while his fault was expiated with a ceremony and without blood : so does God to his servants ; he rends their upper garments , and strips them of their unnecessary wealth , and tyes them to Physick , and salutary dicipline , and they cry out under usages which have nothing , but the outward sense , and opinion of evil , not the reall substance : But if we would take the measures of images , we must not take the height of the base , but the proportion of the members , nor yet measure the estates of men by their big looking supporter , or the circumstance of an exteriour advantage , but by its proper commensuration in its self , as it stands in its order to eternity : And then the godly man that suffers sorrow and persecution ought to be relieved by us , but needs not be pitied in the summe of affairs . But since the two estates of the world are measured by time , and by eternity , and divided by joy and sorrow , and no man shall have his portions of joyes in both the durations ; the state of those men is insupportably miserable , who are fatted for slaughter , and are crowned like beasts for sacrifice ; who are feared and fear , who cannot enjoy their purchases but by communications with others , and themselves have the least share , but themselves are alone in the misery , and the saddest dangers , and they possesse the whole portions of sorrows : to whom their prosperity gives but occasions to evil counsels , and strength to do mischief , or to nourish a serpent , or oppresse a neighbour , or to nurse a lust , to increase folly , and treasure up calamity : And did ever any man see , or story tell , that any tyrant Prince kissed his rods , and axes , his sword of justice , and his Imperiall ensignes of power ? They shine like a taper to all things but it self , but we read of many Martyrs who kissed their chains , and hugged their stakes , and saluted their hangman with great endearments , and yet abating the incursions of their seldom sins , these are their greatest evils ; and such they are , with which a wise and a good man may be in love : And till the sinners and ungodly men can be so with their deep groans , and broken sleeps , with the wrath of God , and their portions of eternity ; till they can rejoyce in death , and long for a resurrection , and with delight and a greedy hope can think of the day of judgement , we must conclude that their glasse gems , and finest pageantry , their splendid outsides , and great powers of evil , cannot make amends for that estate of misery which is their portion , with a certainty as great as is the truth of God , and all the Articles of the Christian Creed . Miserable men are they who cannot be blessed , unlesse there be no day of judgement ; who must perish unlesse the word of God should fail ; If that be all their hopes , then we may with a sad spirit and a soul of pity inquire into the Question of the Text , Where shall the ungodly and sinner appear ? Even there where Gods face shall never shine , where there shall be fire and no light , where there shall be no Angels , but what are many thousands yeers ago turned into Devils , whereno good man shall ever dwell , and from whence the evil and the accursed shall never be dismissed . O my God let my soul never come into their counsels , nor lie down in their sorrows . Sermon . XII . THE MERCY OF THE DIVINE IVDGMENTS ; OR Gods Method in curing Sinners . 2. Romanes . 4. Despisest thou the riches of his goodnesse , and forbearance , and long-suffering , not knowing that the goodnesse of God leadeth thee to repentance ? FRom the beginning of Time till now , all effluxes which have come from God , have been nothing but emanations of his goodnesse , clothed in variety of circumstances . He made man with no other designe , then that man should be happy , and by receiving derivations from his fountain of mercy , might reflect glory to him . And therefore God making man for his own glory , made also a paradise for mans use , and did him good to invite him to do himself a greater ; for God gave forth demonstrations of his power by instances of mercy : and he who might have made ten thousand worlds , of wonder and prodigy , and created man with faculties able onely to stare upon , and admire those miracles of mightinesse , did choose to instance his power in the effusions of mercy , that at the same instant he might represent himself desireable and adorable , in all the capacities of amability ; that is , as excellent in himself , and profitable to us . For as the Sun sends forth a benigne and gentle influence on the seed of Plants , that it may invite forth the active and plastick power from its recesse and secresie , that by rising into the tallnesse and dimensions of a tree , it may still receive a greater and more refreshing influence from its foster-father , the prince of all the bodies of light ; and in all these emanations , the Sun its self receives no advantage , but the honour of doing benefits ; so doth the Almighty Father of all the creatures : He at first sends forth his blessings upon us , that we by using them aright , should make our selves capable of greater ; while the giving glory to God , and doing homage to him are nothing for his advantage , but onely for ours : our duties towards him being like vapours ascending from the earth , not at all to refresh the region of the clouds , but to return back in a fruitfull and refreshing shower : And God created us , not that we can increase his felicity , but that he might have a subject receptive of felicity from him : thus he causes us to be born , that we may be capable of his blessings ; he causes us to be baptized , that we may have a title to the glorious promises Evangelicall ; he gives us his Son , that we may be rescued from hell : and when we constraine him to use harsh courses towards us , it is also in mercy : he smites us to cure a disease , he sends us sicknesse to procure our health ; and as if God were all mercy , he his mercifull in his first designe , in all his instruments , in the way , and in the end of the journey , and does not onely shew the riches of his goodnesse to them that do well , but to all men that they may do well : he is good to make us good ; he does us benefits to make us happy : and if we by despising such gracious rayes of light and heat , stop their progresse and interrupt their designe , the losse is not Gods but ours , ; we shall be the miserable and accursed people : This is the sense and paraphrase of my Text. Despisest thou the riches of his goodnesse , &c. Thou dost not know , that is , thou considerest not that it is for further benefit that God does thee this ; the goodnesse of God is not a designe to serve his own ends upon thee , but thine upon him : The goodnesse of God leadeth thee to repentance . Here then is Gods method of curing man-kind , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . First goodnesse , or inviting us to him by sugred words , by the placid arguments of temporall favour , and the propositions of excellent promises . Secondly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the same time , although God is provoked every day , yet he does 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he tolerates our stubbornnesse , he forbears to punish , and when he does begin to strike , takes his hand off , and gives us truce and respite . For so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies laxamentum , and inducias too . Thirdly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 still , a long putting off , and deferring his finall destroying anger , by using all meanes to force us to repentance ; and this especially , by the way of judgements ; these being the last reserves of the Divine mercy , and how ever we esteem it , is the greatest instance of the divine long sufferance that is in the world . After these instruments , we may consider the end , the strand upon which these land us , the purpose of this variety , of these laborious and admirable arts , with which God so studies and contrives the happinesse and salvation of man ; it is onely that man may be brought by these meanes unto repentance , and by repentance may be brought to eternall life : This is the treasure of the Divine goodnesse , the great and admirable efflux of the eternal beneficence ; the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the riches of his goodnesse , which whosoever despises , despises himself and the great interest of his own felicity ; he shall die in his impenitence , and perish in his folly . 1. The first great instrument , that God chooses to bring us to him is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , profit , or benefit , and this must needs be first , for those instruments whereby we have a being are so great mercies , that besides that they are such which give us the capacities of all other mercies , they are the advances of us in the greatest instances of promotion in the world : For from nothing to something is an infinite space , and a man must have a measure of infinite passed upon him , Before he can perceive himself to be either happy or miserable : he is not able to give God thanks for one blessing , untill he hath received many . But then God intends we should enter upon his service at the beginning of our dayes , because even then he is before-hand with us , and hath already given us great instances of his goodnesse : What a prodigy of favour is it to us , that he hath passed by , so many formes of his creatures , and hath not set us down in the rank of any of them , till we came to be paulò minores angelis , a little lower then the angels : and yet from the meanest of them God can perfect his own praise ; The deeps and the snows , the hail and the rain , the birds of the air , and the fishes of the sea , they can and do glorifie God , and give him praise in their capacity ; and yet he gave them no speech , no reason , no immortall spirit , or capacity of eternall blessednesse ; but he hath distinguished us from them by the absolute issues of his predestination , and hath given us a lasting and eternall spirit , excellent organs of perception , and wonderfull instruments of expression , that we may joyn in consort with the morning star , and bear a part in the Chorus with the Angels of light , to sing Alleluiah to the great Father of men and Angels . But was it not a huge chain of mercies that we were not strangled in the regions of our own naturall impurities , but were sustained by the breath of God , from perishing in the womb , where God formed us in secreto terrae , told our bones , and kept the order of nature , and the miracles of creation ; and we lived upon that which in the next minute after we were born would strangle us if it were not removed : but then God took care of us , and his hands of providence clothed us and fed us . But why do I reckon the mercies of production which in every minute of our being are alike and continued , and are miracles in all senses but that they are common and usuall ? I onely desire you to remember , that God made all the works of his hands to serve him ; and indeed this mercy of creating us such as we are , was not to lead us to repentance , but was a designe of innocence : he intended we should serve him as the Sun and the Moon do ; as fire and water do : never to prevaricate the laws he fixed to us , that we might have needed no repentance . But since we did degenerate , and being by God made better and more noble creatures then all the inhabitants of the air , the water and the earth besides , we made our selves baser and more ignoble then any : For no dog , crocodile , or swine was ever Gods enemy , as we made our selves : yet then from thence forward , God began his work of leading us to repentance , by the riches of his goodnesse . He causeth us to be born of Christian parents , under whom we were taught the mysteriousnesse of its goodnesse and designes , for the redemption of man : And by the designe of which religion repentance was taught to mankind , and an excellent law given for distinction of good and evil ; and this is a blessing which though possibly we do not often put into our eucharisticall Letanies to give God thanks for , yet if we sadly consider , what had become of us , if we had been born under the dominion of a Turkish Lord , or in America where no Christians do inhabite , where they worship the Devil , where witches are their priests , their prophets , their phisitians , and their Oracles , can we choose but apprehend a visible notorious necessity of perishing in those sins which we then should not have understood by the glasse of a divine law , to have declined , nor by a revelation have been taught to repent of ? But since the best of men does in the midst of all the great advantages of lawes , and examples , and promises , and threatnings do many things he ought to be ashamed of , and needs to repent of , we can understand the riches of the Divine goodnesse best , by considering that the very designe of our birth and education in the Christian religion is , that we may recover of , and cure our follies by the antidote of repentance , which is preached to us as a doctrine , and propounded as a favour , which was put into a law , and purchased for us by a great expence , which God does not more command to us as a duty , then he gives us a blessing ; For now that we shall not perish for our first follies , but be admitted to new conditions , to be repaired by second thoughts , to have our infirmities excused , and our sins forgiven , our habits lessened , and our malice cured after we were wounded , and sick , and dead , and buried , and in the possession of the Devil ; this was such a blessing , so great riches of the Divine goodnesse , that as it was taught to no religion but the Christian , revealed by no law-giver but Christ , so it was a favour greater then ever God gave to the Angels and Devils : for although God was rich in the effusion of his goodnesse towards them , yet they were not admitted to the condition of second thoughts ; Christ never shed one drop of blood for them , his goodnesse did not lead them to repentance : but to us it was that he made this largesse of his goodnesse ; to us , to whom he made himself a brother , and sucked the paps of our mother ; he paid the scores of our sin , and shame , and death , onely that we might be admitted to repent , and that this repentance might be effectuall to the great purposes of felicity and salvation : And if we would consider this sadly , it might make us better to understand our madnesse and folly in refusing to repent ; That is , to be sorrowfull , and to leave all our sins , and to make amends by a holy life . For that we might be admitted and suffered to do so , God was fain to pour forth all the riches of his goodnesse : It cost our deerest Lord the price of his deerest blood , many a thousand groans , millions of prayers and sighes , and at this instant , he is praying for our repentance : nay he hath prayed for our repentance these 1600. yeers incessantly , night and day , and shall do so till doomes-day , [ He sits at the right hand of God making intercession for us . ] And that we may know what he prayes for , he hath sent us Embassadours to declare the purpose of all his designe , for Saint Paul saith , [ We are Embassadours for Christ , as though he did beseech you by us , we pray you in Christs stead to be reconciled to God. ] The purpose of our Embassy and Ministery , is a prosecution of the mercies of God , and the work of Redemption , and the intercession and mediation of Christ : It is the work of atonement and reconciliation that God designed , and Christ died for , and still prayes for , and we preach for , and you all must labour for . And therefore here consider , if it be not infinite impiety to despise the riches of such a goodnesse , which at so great a charge , with such infinite labour , and deep mysterious arts , invites us to repentance ; that is , to such a thing which could not be granted to us unlesse Christ should die to purchase it ; such a glorious favour , that is the issue of Christs prayers in heaven , and of all his labours , his sorrows , and his sufferings on earth : if we refuse to repent now , we do not so much refuse to do our own duty as to accept of a reward ; it is the greatest and the dearest blessing that ever God gave to Men , that they may repent , and therefore to deny it , or to delay it , is to refuse health , brought us by the skill and industry of the Physitian ; it is to refuse liberty indulged to us by our gracious Lord ; and certainly we had reason to take it very ill if at a great expence we should purchase a pardon for a servant and he out of a peevish pride or negligence shall refuse it ; the scorne payes it self , the folly is its own scourge and sets down in an inglorious ruine . After the enumeration of these glories , these prodigies of mercies & loving kindnesses , of Christs dying for us , and interceding for us and merely that we may repent , and be saved ; I shall lesse need to instance those other particularities wherby God continues , as by so many arguments of kindnesse to sweeten our natures and make them malleable to the precepts of love and obedience , the twinne daughters of holy repentance ; but the poorest person amongst us , besides the blessing and graces already reckoned hath enough about him , and the accidents of every day to shame him into repentance . Does not God send his angels to keep thee in all thy wayes ? are not they ministring spirits sent forth to wait upon thee as thy guard ? art not thou kept from drowing , from fracture of bones , from madnesse , from deformities , by the riches of the divine goodnesse ? Tell the joynts of thy body , dost thou want a finger ? and if thou doest not understand how great a blessing that is , do but remember how ill thou canst spare the use of it when thou hast but a thorn in it ? The very privative blessings , the blessings of immunity , safeguard , and integrity , which we all enjoy deserve a thanksgiving of a whole life . If God should send a cancer upon thy face or a wolf into thy brest , he if should spread a crust of leprosie upon thy skin , what wouldest thou give to be but as now thou art ? wouldest thou not repent of thy sins upon that condition ? which is the greater blessing to be kept from them , or to be cured of them ? and why therfore shall not this greater blessing lead thee to repentance ? why do we not so aptly promise repentance when we are sick upon the condition to be made well , and yet perpetually forget it when we are well ? as if health never were a blessing , but when we have it not ; rather I fear the reason , is when we are sick we promised to repent , because then we cannot sin the sins of our former life ; but in health our appetites return to their capacity , and in all the way we despise the riches of the divine goodnesse which preserves us from such evils which would be full of horror and amazement if they should happen to us . Hath God made any of you all chapfallen ? are you affrighted with spectars and ●llusions of the spirits of darknesse ? how many earthquakes have you been in ? how many dayes have any of you wanted bread ? how many nights have you been without sleep ? are any of you distracted of your senses ? and if God gives you meat and drink , health and sleep , proper seasons of the year , intire senses and an useful understanding , what a great unworthynesse it is to be unthankful to so good a God so benigne a Father , so gracious a Lord ? All the evils and basenesse of the world can shew nothing baser and more unworthy then ingratitude : and therefore it was not unreasonably said of Aristottle , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prosperity makes a man love God , supposing men to have so much humanity left in them , as to love him from whom they have received so many favours . And Hippocrates said , that although poor men use to murmur against God , yet rich men will be offering sacrifice to their Diety whose beneficiaries they are . Now since the riches of the divine goodnesse are so poured out upon the meanest of us all , if we shal refuse to repent , which is a condition so reasonable , that God requiers it onely for our sake and that it may end in our felicity , we do our selves despite to be unthankful to God ; that is , we become miserable by making our selves basely criminal . And if any man with whom God hath used no other method but of his sweetnesse and the effusion of mercies , brings no other fruits but the apples of Sodom in return for all his culture and labours ; God wil cut off that unprofitable branch that with Sodom it may suffer the flames of everlasting burning . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; If here we have good things and a continual shower of blessings to soften our stony hearts , and we shall remain obdurat against those sermons of mercy which God makes us every day , there will come a time when this shall be upbraided to us that we had not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thankful minde , but made God to sowe his seed upon the sand or upon the stones , without increase or restitution . It was a sad alarum which God sent to David by Nathan to upbraid his ingratitude . I anointed thee king over Israel , I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul , I gave thee thy masters house and wives into thy bosom , and the house of Israel and Judah , and if this had been too little , I would have given thee such and such things , wherefore hast thou despised the name of the Lord ? but how infinitely more can God say to all of us then all this came to ? he hath anointed us kings and priests in the royal pri●sthood of Christianity ; he hath given us his holy spirit to be our guide , his angels to be our protectors , his creatures for our food and raiment ; he hath delivered us from the hands of Sathan , hath conquered death for us , hath taken the sting out and made it harmlesse and medicinal , and proclaimed us heires of heaven , coheires with the eternal Jesus , and if after all this , we despise the commandment of the Lord , and defer and neglect our repentance , what shame is great enough , what miseries are sharp enough , what hell painful enough for such horrid ingratitude ? Saint Lewis the King having sent ●vo Bishop of Chartres , on an embassy , the Bishop met a woman on the way , grave , sad , Phantastick & malancholy , with fire in one hand and water in the other , he asked what those symbols ment , she answered my purpose is with fire to burn Paradise , and with my water to quench the flames of hell , that men may serve God without the incentives of hope and fear , & purely for the love of God. But this woman began at the wrong end : the love of God is not produced in us after we have contracted evil habits , til God with his fan in his hand hath throughly purged the floore , till he hath cast out all the devils and swept the house with the instrument of hope and fear and with the atchieuments and efficacy of mercies and judgements . But then since God may truely say to us , as of old to his rebellious people . Am I a dry tree to the house of Israel ? that is , do I bring them no fruit , do they serve me for nought , and he expects not our duty till first we feel his goodnesse , we are now infinitely inexcusable to throw away so great riches , to despise such a goodnesse . However that we may see the greatnesse of this treasure , of goodnesse God seldom leaves us thus : for he sees [ be it spoken to the shame of our natures , and the dishonour of our manners ] he sees that his mercies do not allure us , do not make us thankful ; but ( as the Roman said ) , felicitate corrumpimur , we become worse for Gods mercy : and think it will be alwayes holiday , and are like the Christal of Arabia hardned not by cold , but made crusty and stubborn , by the warmth of the divine fire , by its refreshments and mercies ; therefore to demonstrate that God is good indeed , he continues his mercise still to us ; but in another instance ▪ he is merciful to us in punishing us , that by such instruments we may be led to repentance which will scare us from sin ; he delivers us up to the paedagogy of the divine judgements , and there begins the second part of Gods method intimated in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or forbearance ▪ God begins his cure by causticks , by incisions and instruments of vexation , to try if the disease that will not yeild to the allectives of cordials and perfumes , friction and baths , may be forced out by deleteries , scarifications , and more salutary but least pleasing Physicke . 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 forbearance , it is called in the text , which signifies laxamentum or inducias , that is , when the decrees of the divine judgements temporal are gone out , either wholly to suspend the executio● of them , which is induciae , or a reprieve ; or else when God hath struck once or twice , he takes off his hand , that is laxamentum , an ease of remission of his judgment , in both these , although in judgement God remembers mercy , yet we are under discipline , we are brought into the paenitential chamber ; at least we are shewed the rod of God ▪ and if like Moses rod it turnes us into serpents , and that we repent not but grow more Devils , yet , then it turnes into a rod again and finishes up the smiting or the first designed affliction . But I consider it first in general , the riches of the divine goodnesse is manifest in beginning this new method of curing us , by severity and by a rod. And that you may not wonder that I expound this forbearance to be an act of mercy punishing , I observe that besides that the word supposes the method changed , and it is a mercy about judgements , and their manner of execution ; it is also in the nature of the thing , in the conjunction of circumstances and the designes of God , a mercy when he threatens us or strike us into repentance . We think that the way of blessings and prosperous accidents is the finer way of securing our duty , and that when our heads are anointed , our cups crowned , and our tables full , the very caresses of our spirits will best of all dance before the Ark , and sing perpetual Anthemes to the honour of our Benefactor and Patron God ; and we are apt to dream that God will make his Saints raigne here as kings in a millenary kingdom , and give them the riches and fortunes of this world , that they may rule over men and sing psalms to God for ever . But I remember what Xenophanes saies of God. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . God is like to men neither in shape nor in counsel , he knowes that his mercies confirm some , and encourage , more but they convert but few ; alone they lead men to dissolution of manners and forgetfulnesse of God , rather then repentance : not but that mercies are competent and apt instruments of grace , if we would ; but because we are more dispersed in our spirits and by a prosperous accident are melted into joy and garishness , and drawn off from the sobriety of recollection . Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked . Many are not able to suffer and endure prosperity ; it is like the light of the sun to a weak eye , glorious indeed in it self , but not proportioned to such an instrument . Adam himself ( as the Rabbins say ) did not dwell one night in Paradise , but was poisoned with prosperity , with the beauty of his fair wife , and a beauteous tree : and Noah and Lot were both righteous and examplary , the one to Sodom the other to the old world , so long as they lived in a place in which they were obnoxious to the common suffering : but as soon as the one of them had scaped from drowing , and the other from burning and were put into security , they fell into crimes which have dishonoured their memories for above thirty generations together , the crimes of drunkennesse and incest , wealth and a full fortune make men licenciously vitious , tempting a man with power to act all that he can desire or designe vitiously . Inde irae faciles — Namque ut opes nimias mundo fortuna subacto Intulit , et rebus mores cessere secundis — Cultus gest are decoros vix nuribus rapuere mares : totoque accersitur orbe Quo gens quaeque perit . Lucan . And let me observe to you that though there are in the new Testament many promises and provisions made for the poor in that very capacity , they haveing a title , to some certain circumstances and additionals of grace and blessing , yet to rich men our blessed Saviour was pleased to make none at all , but to leave them involved in general comprehensions and to have a title to the special promises , onely by becomming poor in spirit , and in preparation of minde , though not in fortune and possession . How ever ; it is hard for God to perswade us to this , till we are taught it by a sad experience , that those prosperities which we think will make us serve God cheerfully , make us to serve the world and secular ends diligently and God not at all . Repentance is a duty that best complies with affliction , 〈◊〉 is a symbolical estate , of the same complexion and constitution ; half the work of repentance is done by a sad accident , our spirits are made sad , our gayeties mortified , our wildnesse corrected , the water springs are ready to run over : but if God should grant our desires , and give to most men prosperity , with a designe to lead them to repentance , all his pompe and all his employment , and all his affections and passions , and all his circumstances are so many degrees of distance from the conditions and natures of repentance . It was reported by Dio concerning Neros mother , that she often wished that her Son might be Emperour , and wished it with so great passion that upon that condition she cared not though her Son might kill her ; Her first wish and her second fear were both granted ; but when she began to fear that her Son did really designe to murder her , she used all the art and instruments of diversion that a witty and a powerfull a timerous person , and a woman could invent or apply . Just so it is with us , so we might have our wishes of prosperity we promise to undergo all the severities of repentance ; but when we are landed upon our desire , then every degree of satisfaction of those sensualities is a temptation against repentance : for a man must have his affections weaned from those possessions , before he can be reconciled to the possibilities of repentance . And because God knowes this well and loves us better then we do our selves , therefore he sends upon us the 1. scrolls of vengeance , the hand writing upon the wall to denounce judgement against us : for God is so highly resolved to bring us to repentance some way or other , that if by his goodnesse he cannot shame us into it , he will try if by his judgements he can scare us into it ▪ not that he strikes alwayes as soon as he hath sent his warrants out , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Philo . Thus God sent Jonas and denounced judgements against Niniveh ; but with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , with the forbearance of forty dayes for the time of their escape if they would repent . When Noah the great preacher of righteousnesse , denounced the flood to all the world , it was with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the forbearance of 120. years , and when the great extermination of the Jewish nation , and their total deletion from being Gods people , was foretold by Christ , and decreed by God , yet they had the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of forty years , in which they were perpetually called to repentance . These were reprieves and deferrings of the stroke . But sometimes God strikes once and then forbeares , and such are all those sadnesses which are lesse then death ; every sicknesse , every losse , every disgrace , the death of friends and neerest relatives , sudden discontents ; these are all of them the lowder calls of God to repentance ; but still , instances of forbearance . Indeed many times this forbearance makes men impudent , it was so in the case of Pharaoh when God smote him , and then forbore ; Pharaohs heart grew callous and insensible till God struck again ; and this was the meaning of these words of God , I will harden the heart of pharaoh , that is , I wil forbear him , smite him , and then take the blow off , Sic enim Deus induravit Pharaonis cor , said Saint Basil . For as water taken off from fire will sooner congeale and become icy , then if it had not been attenuated by the heate : so is the heart of some men , when smitten by God , it seemes soft and plyable , but taken off from the fire of affliction , it presently becomes horrid , then stiff and then hard as a rock of Adamant , or as the gates of death and hell . But this is besides the purpose and intention of the Divine mercy ; this is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a plain contradiction to the riches of Gods goodnesse ; this is to be evill because God is good ; to burn with flames , because we are coold with water ; this is to put out the lamps of heaven , or ( if we cannot do it ) to put our own eyes out , least we should behold the fair beauty of the Lord , and be enamoured of his goodnesse , and repent and live . O take heed of despising this goodnesse ; for this is one of Gods latest arts to save us ; he hath no way left beyond this , but to punish us with a lasting judgement and a poinant affliction . In the tomb of Terentia certain lamps burned under ground many ages together , but as soon as ever they were brought into the aire and saw a bigger light , they went out , never to be reenkindled : so long as we are in the retirements of sorrow , of want , of fear , of sicknesse or of any sad accident we are burning and shining lamps , but when God comes with his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , with his forbearance and lifts us up from the gates of death and carries us abroad into the open aire , that we converse with prosperity and temptation , we go out in darknesse : and we cannot be preserved in heat and light but by still dwelling in the regions of sorrow : And if such be our weaknesses , or our folly , it concerns us to pray against such deliverances , to be afraid of health , to beg of God to continue a persecution , and not to deny us the mercy of an affliction . And do not we finde all this to be a great truth in our selves ? are we so great strangers to our own weaknesses and unworthinesse as not to remember when God scared us with judgements in the neighbourhood , whence we lived in a great plague , or if were ever in a storm , or God had sent a sicknesse upon us ; then we may please to remember that repentance was our businesse , that we designed mountains of piety , renewed our holy purposes , made vows and solemn sacraments to God to become penitent , and obedient persons ; and we may also remember without much considering , that assoon as God began to forbear us , we would no longer forbear to sin , but adde flame to flame , a heap of sins to a treasure of wrath , already too big ; being like Pharaoh , or Herod , or like the oxe and mule , more hardy and callous for our stripes ; and melted in the fire , and frozen harder in the cold , worse for all our afflictions , and the worse for all Gods judgements ; not bettered by his goodnesse , nor mollified by his threatnings : and what is there more left for God to do unto us ? He that is not won by the sence of Gods mercy , can never finde any thing in God that shall convert him ; and he whom fear and sense of pain cannot mend , can never finde any argument from himself that shall make him wise ; This is sad , that nothing from without , and nothing from within shall move us ; nothing in Heaven and nothing in Hell , neither love nor fear ▪ gratitude to God , nor preservation of our selves shall make us to repent , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that shall be his final sentence : He shall never escape that ruine from which the greatest art of God could not entice , nor his terrour scare him : he loved cursing therefore shall it happen to him , he loved not blessing , therefore shall it be far from him . Let therefore every one of us take the account of our lives and read over the sermons that God hath made us ; besides th●● sweet language of his mercy , and his still voice from Heaven consider what voices of thunder you have heard , and presently that noise ceased and God was heard in the still voice agai● ; What dangers have any of you escaped , were you ever assa●●●ed by the rudenesse of an ill natur'd man ? have you never had a dangerous fall , and escaped it ? did none of you ever scape drowning , and in a great danger saw the forbearance of God ? have you never been sick ( as your feared ) unto death ? or suppose none of these things hath happened , hath not God threatned you all , and forborne to smite you ? or smitten you , and forborne to kill you ? that is evident . But if you had been a Privado , and of the Cabinet councel with your Angel Guardian , that from him you might have known how many dangers you have escaped , how often you have been neer a ruine , so neer , that if you had seen your danger with a sober spirit , the fear of it would have half killed you ; If he had but told you how often God had sent out his Warrants to the exterminating Angel , and our Blessed Saviour by his intercession hath obtained a reprieve , that he might have the content of rejoycing at thy conversion and repentance ; If you had known from him the secrets of that providence which governs us in secret , and how many thousand times the Devil would have done thee hurt , and how often himself as a ministring spirit of Gods goodnesse and forbearance , did interpose and abate , or divert a mischief , which was falling on thy head , it must needs cover thy head with a cloud of shame and blushing at that ingratitude , and that folly , that neither will give God thanks , nor secure thy own well being . Hadst thou never any dangerous fall in thy intemperance ? then God shewed thee thy danger , and that he was angry at thy sin , but yet did so pity thy person , that he would forbear thee a little longer , else that fall had been into thy grave . When thy gluttony gave thee a surfet , and God gave thee a remedy , his meaning then was , that thy gluttony rather should be cured then thy surfet ; that repentance should have been thy remedy , and abstinence and fasting should be thy cure : Did ever thy proud or revengefull spirit engage the upon a Duell , or a vexatious Law-suit , and God brought thee off with life or peace ? his purpose then was , that his mercy should teach thee charity : and he that cannot read the purposes of God written with the finger of judgement ( for as yet his whole hand is not laid on ) either is consigned to eternall ruine , because God will no more endeavour his cure , or if his mercy still continues and goes on in long-suffering , it shall be by such vexatious instruments , such causticks , and corrosives , such tormenting and desperate medicaments , such which in the very cure will soundly punish thy folly and ingratitude . For deceive not your selves , Gods mercy cannot be made a patron for any mans impiety : the purpose of it is to bring us to repentance , and God will do it by the mercies of his mercies , or by the mercies of his judgements : he will either break our hearts into a thousand fragments of contrition , or break our bones in the ruines of the grave and hell : And since God rejoyces in his mercy above all his works , he will be most impatient that we shall despise that , in which he most delights , and in which we have the greatest reason to delight , the riches of that goodnesse which is essentiall , and part of his glory , and is communicated to us , to bring us to repentance , that we may partake of that goodnesse , and behold that glory . Sermon . XIII . The mercies of the Divine Judgements . Part II. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] long-suffering ; in this one word are contained all the treasures of the Divine goodnesse : here is the length and extension of his mercy , pertrahit spiritum super nos Dominus , so the Syrian Interpreter reads , Luk. 18. 7. God holds his breath : He retains his anger within him , lest it should come forth and blast us : and here is also much of the Divine justice : For although God suffers long yet he does not let us alone : he forbears to destroy us , but not to punish us ; and in both , he by many accidents gives probation of his power ; according to the prayer of the Wise man , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; Thou art mercifull towards us all because thou canst do all things , and thou passedst by the sins of men that they may repent . And that , God shall support our spirit , and preserve our patience , and nourish our hope , and correct our stubbornnesse , and mortifie our pride , and bring us to him whether we will or no , by such gracious violences , and mercifull judgements which he uses towards us as his last remedies , is not onely the demonstration of a mighty mercy , but of an almighty power : So hard a thing it is to make us leave our follies and become wise , that were not the mercies of God an effective pity , and clothed in all the way of its progresse with mightinesse and power , every sinner should perish irrevocably . But this is the fiery triall , the last purgatory fire , which God uses to burn the thistles , and purifie the drosse : When the gentle influence of a Sun-beam will not wither them , nor the weeding hook of a short affliction cut them out ; then God comes with fire to burn us ; with the ax laid to the root of the tree : but then observe , that when we are under this state of cure , we are so neer destruction that the same instrument that God uses for remedy to us , is also prepared to destroy us ; the fire is as apt to burn us to ashes , as to cleansing , when we are so overgrown ; and the ax as instrumentall to cut us down for fewell , as to square us for building in Gods temple : and therefore when it comes thus far , it will be hard discerning what the purpose of the ax is ; and whether the fire means to burn , we shall know it by the change wrought upon our selves . For what Plato said concerning his dream of Purgatory is true here : Quicunque non purgatus migrat ad inferos , jacebit in luto : quicunque verò mitratus illuc accesserit , habitabit cum Deis : He that dies in his impurities shall lie in it for ever , but he that descends to his grave purged and mitred , that is , having quitted his vices , & superinduens justitiam , being clothed with righteousnesse , shall dwell in light and immortality . It is sad that we put God to such extremities , and as it happens in long diseases , those which Physitians use for the last remedies seldom prevail ; and when consumptive persons come to have their heads shaven , they do not often escape : So it is when we put God to his last remedies ; God indeed hath the glory of his patience , and his long-suffering , but we seldom have the benefit and the use of it . For if when our sin was young , and our strength more active , and our habits lesse , and vertue not so much a stranger to us , we suffered sin to prevail upon us , to grow stronger then the ruins of our spirit , and to lesson us into the state of sicknesse and disability , in the midst of all those remedies which God used to our beginning diseases : much more desperate is our recovery , when our disease is stronger and our faculties weaker , when our sins raigne in us , and our thoughts of vertue are not alive . However , although I say this , and it is highly considerable , to the purpose that we never suffered things to come to this extremity , yet if it be upon us , we must do as well as we can : But then we are to look upon it as a designe of Gods last mercy , beyond which , if we protract our repentance , our condition is desperately miserable . The whole state of which mercy we understand by the parable of the King reckoning with his servants that were in arrears to him : One was brought to him , which owed him ten thousand talents : but forasmuch as he had not to pay , his Lord commanded him to be sold , and his wife and children , and all that he had , and payment to be made : The man you see was under the arrest ; the sentence was passed upon him , he was a condemned man ; but before the execution of it , he fell down and worshipped and said , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Lord suffer me longer a while ; have patience with me and I will pay thee all . This tells its meaning : this is a long-sufferance , by being a forbearance onely of execution of the last sentence ; a putting off damnation upon a longer triall of our emendation ; but in the mean time it implies no other ease , but that together with his long-sufferance God may use all other severities and scourges to break our untamed spirits , and to soften them with hammers ; so death be put off , no matter else what hardship and loads of sufferance we have . Hic ure , hic seca , ut in aeternum parcas , so Saint Austin prayed , Here O Lord cut me , here burn me , spare me not now , that thou mayest spare me for ever : And it is just like the mercy used to a mad man , when he is kept in a dark room and tamed with whips , it is a cruel mercy , but such as his condition requires , he can receive no other mercy ; all things else were cruelly unmercifull . I remember what Bion observed wittily of the punishment inflicted upon the daughters of Danaeus , whom the old Poets fained to be condemned in hell to fill a bottomlesse tub with water , and to increase the pain ( as they fancied ) this water they were to carry in sieves , and never to leave work till the tub were full ; It is well ( sayes he ) since their labour must be eternall , that it is so gentle , for it were more pains to carry their water in whole vessels ▪ and a sad burden to go loaden to a leaking tub with unfruitfull labours : Just so is the condition of these persons upon whom a wrath is gone out ; it is a sad sentence , but acted with a gentle instrument ; and since they are condemned to pay the scores of their sins with the sufferance of a load of judgements , it is well they are such as will run quite thorough them , and not stick upon them to eternity . Omnes enim poenae non exterminantes sunt medici●ales : All punishments whatsoever which do not destroy us , are intended to save us ; they are lancets which make a wound but to let forth the venome of our ulcers ; when God slue twenty three thousand of the Assyrians for their fornication , that was a finall justice upon their persons , and consigned them to a sad eternity : for beyond such an infliction there was no remedy . But when God sent lions to the Assyrian inhabitants of Samaria , and the judgements drave them to inquire after the manner of the God of the land , and they sent for Priests from Jerusalem to teach them how to worship the God of Israel , that was a mercy and a judgement too : the long forbearance of God who destroyed not at all the inhabitants , lead the rest into repentance . 1. And I must make this observation to you ▪ That when things come to this passe that God is forced to the last remedies of judgements , this long-sufferance will little or nothing concern particular persons , but nations and communities of men : for those who are smitten with judgement if God takes his hands off again and so opens a way for their repentance by prolonging their time ; that comes under the second part of Gods method , the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or forbearance ; but if he smites single persons with a small judgement , that is , a long-suffering not of him , but towards others : and God hath destroyed my neighbour to make me repent , my neighbours time being expired and the date of his possibility determined . For a mans death-bed is but an ill station for a penitent , and a finall judgement is no good monitor to him , to whom it is a severe executioner . They that perished in the gain-saying of Corah were out of the conditions of repentance ; but the people that were affrighted with the neighbourhood of the judgement and the expresses of Gods anger manifested in such visible remonstrances , they were the men called unto repentance . But concerning whole nations ▪ or communities of men this long-sufferance is a Sermon of repentance ; loud , clamorous , and highly argumentative . When God suffered the mutinies , the affronts , the basenesse , and ingratitude , the follies , and relapses of the children of Israel , who murmured against God ten times in the wildernesse , God sent evil angels among them , and fiery serpents , and pestilence , and fire from heaven , and prodigies from the earth , and a prevailing sword of the enemies , and in all these accidents , although some innocent persons felt the contingencies and variety of mortality , yet those wicked persons who fell by the designe of Gods anger , were made examples unto others and instances of Gods forbearance to the Nation : and yet this forbearance was such that although God preserved the Nation in being and in title to the first promises , yet all the particular persons that came from Egypt died in the wildernesse , two onely excepted . 2. And I desire you to observe this , that you may truly estimate the arts of the Divine justice and mercy : For all the world being one continuall and intire argument of the Divine mercy , we are apt to abuse that mercy to vain confidences and presumption ; First , mistaking the end , as if Gods mercy would be indulgent to our sin , to which it is the greatest enemy in the world , for it is a certain truth that the mercy of God is as great an enemy to sin as his justice is , and as Gods justice is made the hand-maid of his mercy to cure sin , so it is the servant also and the instrument to avenge our despight and contempt of mercy ; and in all the way where a difference can be there , justice is the lesse principall . And it were a great signe of folly and a huge mistake to think our Lord and friends do us offices of kindnesse , to make themselves more capable of affronts ; and that our fathers care over us , and provisions for us can tempt us to disobey them : The very purpose of all those emanations is , that their love may return in duty , and their providence be the parent of our prudence , and their care be crowned with our piety , and then we shall all be crowned , and shall return like the yeer , the ends into its own circle ; and the fathers and the children , the benefactours and the beneficiary shall knit the wreath and binde each other in the eternall inclosures and circlings of immortality , * but besides the men who presume to sin because of Gods mercy , do mistake the very end and designe of Gods mercy , they also mistake the Oeconomy of it , and the manner of its ministration . 3 For if God suffers men to go on in sins and punishes them not , it is not a mercy , it is not a forbearance ; it is a hardning them , a consigning them to ruine , and reprobation ; and themselves give the best argument to prove it ; for they continue in their sin , they multiply their iniquity , and every day grow more enemy to God , and that is no mercy that increases their hostility and enmity with God. A prosperous iniquity , is the most unprosperous condition in the whole world ; when he slew them , that sought him , and turned them early and enquired after God : but as long as they prevailed upon their enemies then they forgat that God was their strength and the high God was their redeemer . It was well observed by the Persian Embassadour of old , when he was telling the King a sad story of the overthrow of all his army by the Athenians ; he addes this of his own ; that the day before the sight , the young Persian gallants being confident they should destroy their enemies , were drinking drunk , and railing at the timerousnesse and fears of religion , and against all their Gods , saying , there were no such things , and that all things came by chance , & industry , nothing by the providence of the supreme power . But the next day when they had fought unprosperously and flying from their enemies , who were eager in their pursuit , they came to the river strymon , which was so frozen , that their boats could not lanch , and yet it began to thaw , so that they feared the ice would not bear them . Then you should see the bold gallants that the day before said there was no God , most timorously and superstitiously fall upon their faces and begged of God that the river strymon might bear them over from their enemies . What wisdom and Philosophy and perpetual experience , and revelation and promises and blessings cannot do , a mighty fear can ; it can allay the confidences of a bold lust , and an imperious sin , and soften our spirit into the lownesse of a Childe , our revenge into the charity of prayers , our impudence into the blushings of a chidden girle ; and therefore God hath taken a course proportionable : for he is not so unmercifully merciful , as to give milk to an infirm lust , and hatch the egge to the bignesse of a cocatrice : and therefore observe how it is , that Gods mercy prevailes over all his works ; it is even then when nothing can be discerned , but his judgements . For as when a famin had been in Israel in the dayes of Ahab for three years and a half , when the angry prophet Elijah met the King and presently a great winde arose , and the dust blew into the eyes of them that walked abroad , and the face of the heavens was black and all tempest , yet then the prophet was the most gentle , and God began to forgive , and the heavens were more beautiful , then when the Sun puts on the brightest ornaments of a bridegrome going from his chambers of the east : so it is in the Oeconomy of the divine mercy ; when God makes our faces black and the windes blow so loud till the cordage cracks , and our gay fortunes split , and our houses are dressed with Cypresse and yew , and the mourners go about the streets , this is nothing but the pompa misericordiae , this is the funeral of oursins , dressed indeed with emblems of mourning , and proclaimed with sad accents of death , but the sight is refreshing , as the beauties of the field , which God hath blessed , and the sounds are healthful as the noise of a physitian . This is that riddle spoken of in the psalme , Calix in manu Dom , vini meri plenus misto ; the pure impure , the mingled unmingled cup ; for it is a cup in which God hath poured much of his severity and anger , and yet it is pure and unmingled ; for it is all mercy : and so the riddle is resolved , and our cup is full and made more wholsome lymphatum crescit , dulcescit , laedere nescit , it is some justice and yet it is all mercy ; the very justice of God being an act of mercy , a forbearance of the man , or the nation , and the punishing the sin . Thus it was in the case of the children of Israel , when they ran after the bleating of the idolatrous calves , Moses prayed passionately and God heard his prayer , and forgave their sin upon them . And this was Davids observation of the manner of Gods mercy to them ; Thou wast a God and forgavest them , though thou tookest veangeance of their inventions : for Gods mercy is given to us by parts ; and to certain purposes ; sometimes God onely so forgives us , that he does not cut us off in the sin , but yet layes on a heavy load of judgements : so he did to his people , when he sent them to schoole under the discipline of 70 years captivity ; somtimes he makes a judgement lesse and forgives in respect of the degree of the infliction ; he strikes more gently ; and whereas God had designed it may be the death of thy self or thy neerest relative , he is content to take the life of a childe , and so he did to David when he forbore him . the Lord hath taken away thy sin , thou shalt not die , neverthelesse the childe that is born unto thee that shall die : sometimes he puts the evil off to a further day , as he did in the case of Ahab , and Hezekiah : to the first he brought the evil upon his house , and to the second he brought the evil upon his kingdom , in his sons dayes ; God forgiving onely so as to respite the evil , that they should have peace in their own dayes . And thus when we have committed a sin , against God , which hath highly provoked him to anger , even upon our repentance we are not sure to be forgiven , so as we understand forgivenes ; that is , to hear no more of it , never to be called to an account ; but we are happy , if God so forgives us , as not to throw us into the insufferable flames of hell , though he smite us still we groan for our misery till we chatter like a swallow ( as Davids expression is ) and though David was an excellent penitent , yet after he had lost the childe begotten of Bathsheba , and God had told him he had forgiven him , yet he raised up his darling son against him , and forced him to an inglorious flight , and his son lay with his Fathers concubins in the face of all Israel : so that when we are forgiven , yet it is ten to one , but GOD will make us to smart and roar for our sinnes , for the very disquietnesse of our souls . For if we sin and ask God forgivenesse and then are quiet , we feele so little inconvenience in the trade that we may more easily be tempted to make a trade of it indeed . I wish to God that for every sin we have committed , we should heartily cry God mercy and leave it , and judge our selves for it to prevent Gods anger , but when we have done all that we commonly call repentance , and when possibly God hath forgiven us to some purposes , yet it may be he punishes our sin when we least think of it ; that sin which we have long since forgotten . It may be for the lust of thy youth thou hast a healthlesse old age ; an old religious person long agoe complained , it was his case . Quos nimis effraenes habui , nunc vapulo renes : Sic luitur juvenis culpa dolore senis . It may be thy sore eyes are the punishment of thy intemperance seven years ago , or God cuts thy dayes shorter and thou shalt die in a florid age , or he raises up afflictions to thee in thine own house , in thine own bowels , or hath sent a gangren into thy estate , or with any arrow out of his quiver he can wound thee , and the arrow shall stick fast in thy flesh , although God hath forgiven thy sin to many purposes . Our blessed Saviour was heard in all that he prayed for ( said the Apostle ) and he prayed for the Jews , that crucified him : Father forgive them for they know not what they do , and God did forgive that great sin , but how far ? whereas it was just in God to deprive them of all possibility of receiving benefit from the death of Christ , yet God admitted them to i● , he gave them time and possibilities , and helps , and great advantages to bring them to repentance ; he did not presently shut them up , in his final and eternal anger : and yet he had finally resolved to destroy their city and nation and did so , but forbore them forty years , & gave them al the helps of miracles and sermons apostolical to shame them , and force them into sorrow for their fault . And before any man can repent God hath forgiven the man in one degree of forgivenesse ; for he hath given him grace of repentance and taken from him that final anger of the spirit of reprobation : and when a man hath repented , no man can say that God hath forgiven him to all purposes , but he hath reserves of anger to punish the sin , to make the man affraid to sin any more , and to represent that when any man hath sinned what ever he does afterwards he shall be miserable as long as he lives , vexed with its adherencies and its neighbour-hood , and evil consequence . For as no man that hath sinned , can during his life ever returne to an integral and perfect innocence : so neither shall he be restored to a perfect peace , but must alwayes watch and strive against his sinne , and alwayes mourn and pray for its pardon , and alwayes finde cause to hate it by knowing himself to be for ever in danger of enduring some grievous calamity , even for those sinnes for which he hath truely repented him , for which God hath in many gracious degrees passed his pardon ; this is the manner of the dispensation of the divine mercy in respect of particular persons , and nations too . But sometimes we finde a severer judgement happening upon a people , and yet in that sad story , Gods mercy sings the triumph which although it be much to Gods glory , yet it is a sad story to sinning people ▪ 600000. sighting men besides women and children , and decrepit persons , came out of Egypt and God destroyed them all in the wildernesse except Caleb and Joshuah , and there it was that Gods mercy prevailed over his justice , that he did not destroy the nation ; but still preserved a succession to Jacob , to possesse the promise . God drowned all the world except eight persons his mercy there also prevailed over his justice , that he preserved a remnant to mankinde ; his justice devoured all the world , and his mercy which preserved but eight , had the honour of the prevailing attribute . God destroyed Sodom , and the five cities of the plain , and rescued but four from the flames of that sad burning , and of the four lost one in the flight and yet his mercy prevailed over his justice , because he did not destroy all . And in these senses we are to understand the excellency of the divine mercy even when he smites , when he rebukes us for sin , when he makes our beauty to fail and our flesh to consume away like a moth fretting a garment , yet then his mercy is the prevailing ingredient . If his judgements be but sines set upon our heads accord-to the mercy of our old lawes , Salvo contenemento , so as to preserve our estates , to continue our hopes and possibilities of heaven ; and all the other judgements can be nothing but mercies , excellent instruments of grace arts to make us sober and wise , to take off from our vanity to restrain our wildnesses , which if they were left unbridled would set all the world on fire , Gods judgements are like to censures of the Church in which a sinner is delivered over to Satan to be buffetted that the spirit may be saved ; the result of all this , is , that Gods mercies are not , ought not , cannot be , instruments of confidence to sin , because the very purpose of his mercy is to the contrary , and the very manner of his Oeconomy and dispensation is such that Gods mercy goes along in complection and conjunction with his judgements ; the riches of his forbearance is this , that he forbears to throw us into hell , and sends the mercies of his rod to chide us unto repentance , and the mercies of his rod to punish us for having sinned , and that when we have sinned we may never think our selves secured , nor ever be reconciled to such dangers and deadly poisons . This , this is the manner of the divine mercy . Go now fond man , and because God is merciful presume to sin , as heaving grounds to hope that thou mayest sin and be safe all the way . If this hope ( shall I call it ) or sordid flattery could be reasonable , then the mercies of God would not leade us to repentance ; so unworthy are we in the sense and largenesse of a wide fortune and pleasant accident . For impu●ity was never a good argument to make men to obey laws , quotusq●isque reperitur qui impunitate proposita abstinere possit injurijs ? Impunitas est maxima peccandi illecebra said Cicero , and therefore the wisdom of God hath so ordered the actions of the world that the most fruitful showres shall be wrapped up in a cover of black clouds , that health shall be conveyed by bitter and ill tasted drugs , that the temples of our bodies shall be purged by whips , and that the cords of the whip shall be the cords of love to draw us from the intanglings of vanity and folly . This is the long suffering of God , the last remedy to our diseased souls , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Phalaris , unlesse we be senselesse we shall be brought to sober courses , by all those sad accidents and wholsome , but ill tasting mercies , which we feele in all the course and the ●●ccession of the divine long sufferance . The use of all the premises is , that which Saint Paul expresses in the text , that we do not despise all this ▪ and he onely despises not , who serves the ends of God in all these designes of mercy , that is , he that repents him of his sins . But the●e are a great many despisers , all they that live in their sins , they that have more blessings then they can reckon houres in their lives , that are courted by the divine favour and woed to salvation , as if mankinde were to give , not to receive so great a blessing ▪ all they that answer not to so friendly summons , they are despisers of Gods mercies : and although God overflows with mercies and does not often leave us to the onely hopes of being cured by ●●●ctions and gentle cataplasmes , but proceeds further and gives us stibium or prepared steele , sharp arrows of his anger , and the sword , and the hand of sicknesse , yet we are not sure of so much favour as to be entertained longer in Gods hospital , but many be thrust forth among the incurabili , Plutarch reports concerning swine that their optick nervs are so disposed to turne their eyes downwards that they cannot look upwards nor behold the face of heaven unlesse they be thrown upon their backs . Such Swine are we , we seldom can look up to heaven til God by his judgements throws us upon our backs ; till he humbles us & softens us with showers of our own blood , and tears of sorrow : and yet God hath not promised that he will do so much for us ; but for ought we know as soon as ever the devil enters into our swinish and brutish hearts we shall run down the hill and perish in the floods and seas of intolerable miserie ; And therefore besides that it is a huge folly in us that we wil not be cured with pleasant medicines , but must be longing for colliquintida and for vomits , for knives and poniards instead of the gentle shoures of the divine refreshments , besides that this is an imprudence and sottishnesse , we do infinitely put it to the venture whether we shall be in a saverable condition or no , after the rejection of the first state of mercies . But however , then begins the first step of the judgement , and pungent misery , we are perishing people , or if not , yet at the last , not to be cured without the abscision of a member , without the cutting of a hand or leg ; or the putting out of an eye : we must be cut to take the stone out of our hearts , and that is a state of a very great infelicity : and if we scape the stone , we cannot escape the surgeons knife ; if we scape death , yet we have a sicknesse ; and though that be a great mercy in respect of death , yet it is as great a misery in respect of health : and that is the first punishment for the despite done to the first , and most sensible mercies : we are fallen into a sicknesse , that cannot be cured but by disease and hardship . But if this despite runs further , and when the mercies look on us with an angry countenance , and that God gives us onely the mercy of a punishment , if we despise this too , we increase but our misery as we increase our sin : the summe of which is this , that if Pharaoh will not be cured by one plague , he shall have ten , and if ten will not do it , the great and tenth wave , which is far bigger then all the rest , the severest and the last arrow of the quiver , then we shall perish in the red sea , the sea of flames and blood , in which the ungodly shall roule eternally . But some of these despisers are such as are unmooved when God smites others ; like Gallio when the Jews took Softhenes and beat him in the pleading place , he cared for none of these things ; he was not concerned in that interest ; and many Gallio's there are amongst us , that understand it not to be a part of the divine method , of Gods long sufferance to strike others to make us afraid . But however , we sleep in the midst of such alarums , yet know , that there is not one death in all the neighbour-hood , but is intended to thee ; every crowing of the cock is to awake thee to repentance : and if thou sleepest still , the next turn may be thine ; God will send his Angel as he did to Peter and smite thee on thy side , and wake thee from thy dead sleep of sin and sottishnesse . But beyond this , some are despisers still , and hope to drown the noises of mount Sinai , the sound of Canons , of thunders , and lightnings , with a counternoise of revelling and clamorous roarings , with merry meetings ; like the sacrifices to Moloch , they sound drums and trumpets , that they might not hear the sad shrikings of their children as they were dying in the cavety of the brazen idoll , and when their conscience shrikes out or murmurs in a sad melancholy ; or something that is dear to them is smitten , they attempt to drown it in a sea of drink , in the heathenish noises of idle and drunen company ; and that which God sends to lead them to repentance , leads them to a taverne , not to refresh their needs of nature , or for ends of a tolerable civility , or innocent purposes , but like the condemned persons among the Levantines , they tasted wine freely that they might die and be insensible . I could easily reprove such persons with an old Greek proverb mentioned by Plutarch , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . You shall ill be cured of the knotted Gout , if you have nothing else but a wide shoe : But this reproof is too gentle for so great a madnesse : it is not onely an incompetent cure , to apply the plaister of a sin or vanity to cure the smart of a divine judgement , but it is a great increaser of the misery , by swelling the cause to bigger , and monstrous proportions . It is just as if an impatient fool , feeling the smart of his medicine , shall tear his wounds open and throw away the instruments of his cure , because they bring him health at the charge of a little pain , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . He that is full of stripes and troubles , and decked round about with thorns , he is neer to God ; But he , that because he sits uneasily when he sits neer the King that was crowned with thorns , shall remove thence , or strew flowers , roses , and Jessamine , the downe of thistles , and the softest Gossamere , that he may die without pain , die quietly and like a lamb , sink to the bottom of hell without noise , this man is a fool , because he accepts death , if it arrest him in civil language , is content to die by the sentence of an eloquent Judge , and prefers a quiet passage to hell , before going to heaven in a storm . That Italian Gentleman was certainly a great lover of his sleep , who was angry with the lizard that wak't him , when a viper was creeping into his mouth : when the Devil is entring into us to poison our spirits , and steal our souls away while we are sleeping in the lethargy of sin , God sends his sharp messages to awaken us , and we call that the enemy , and use arts to cure the remedy , not to cure the disease . There are some persons that will never be cured , not because the sicknesse is incurable , but because they have ill stomacks and cannot keep the medicine : lust so is his case that so despises Gods method of curing him , by these instances of long-sufferance , that he uses all the arts he can to be quit of his Physitian , and to spill his physick , and to take cordials as soon as his vomit begins to work . There is no more to be said in this affair , but to read the poor wretches sentence , and to declare his condition . As at first , when he despised the first great mercies , God sent him sharpnesses and sad accidents to ensober his spirits : So now that he despises this mercy also , the mercy of the rod , God will take it away from him , and then I hope all is well ! Miserable man that thou art ! this is thy undoing ; if God ceases to strike thee because thou wilt not mend , thou art sealed up to ruine , and reprobation for ever : The Physitian hath given thee over , he hath no kindnesse for thee . This was the desperate estate of Judah . Ah sinfull nation , a people laden with iniquity , they have forsaken the Lord , they have provoked the Holy One of Israel ; why should ye be siricken any more ? This is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the most bitter curse , the greatest excommunication , when the delinquent is become a heathen and a publicane , without the covenant , out of the pale of the Church ; the Church hath nothing to do with them : for what have I to do with them that are without ? said Saint Paul : It was not lawfull for the Church any more to punish them ; and this court Christian is an imitation and paralell of the justice of the court of heaven : When a sinner is not mended by judgements at long running , God cuts him off from his inheritance and the lot of sons , he will chastise him no more , but let him take his course and spend his portion of prosperity , such as shall be allowed him in the great Oeconomy of the world . Thus God did to his Vineyard which he took such pains to fence , to plant , to manure , to dig , to cut , and to prune : and when after all , it brought forth wilde grapes , the last and worst of Gods anger was this , Auferam sepem ejus , God had fenced it with a hedge of thorns , and God would take away all that hedge , he would not leave a thorn standing , not one judgement to reprove or admonish them , but all the wilde beasts , and wilder and more beastly lusts , may come and devour it , and trample it down in scorn . And now what shall I say , but those words quoted by Saint Peter in his Sermon : Behold ye despisers , and wonder , and perish ; perish in your own folly by stubbornesse and ingratitude . For it is a huge contradiction to the nature and designes of God ; God calls us , we refuse to hear ; he invites us with fair promises , we hear and consider not ; he gives us blessings , we take them and understand not his meaning : we take out the token , but read not the letter : then he threatens us , and we regard not ; he strikes our neighbours , and we are not concerned ; then he strikes us gently , but we feel it not ; then he does like the Physitian in the Greek Epigram , who being to cure a man of a Lethargy , locked him into the same room with a mad-man , that he by dry beating him , might make him at least sensible of blows ; but this makes us instead of running to God , to trust in unskilfull Physitians , or like Saul to run to a Pythonisse , we run for cure to a crime , we take sanctuary in a pleasant sin ; just as if a man to cure his melancholy should desire to be stung with a Tarantula , that at least he may die merily ; what is there more to be done that God hath not yet done ? he is forced at last to break off with a Curavimus Babylonem & non est sanata , we dressed and tended Babylon , but she was incurable ; there is no help but such persons must die in their sins , and lie down in eternall sorrow . Sermon . XIV . Of Growth in Grace . 2 Pet. 3. 18. But grow in grace , and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ , to whom be glory both now and for ever . Amen . WHen Christianity like the day spring from the East , with a new light did not onely inlighten the world , but amazed the mindes of men , and entertained their curiosities , and seized upon their warmer and more pregnant affections , it was no wonder that whole Nations were converted at a Sermon , and multitudes were instantly professed , and their understandings followed their affections , and their wills followed their understandings , and they were convinced by miracle , and overcome by grace , and passionate with zeal , and wisely governed by their Guides , and ravished with the sanctity of the Doctrine , and the holinesse of their examples : And this was not onely their duty , but a great instance of providence , that by the great religion and piety of the first Professors , Christianity might be firmly planted , and unshaken by scandall , and hardened by persecution ; and that these first lights might be actuall Precedents for ever , and Copies for us to transcribe in all descending ages of Christianity , that thither we might run to fetch oil , to enkindle our extinguished lamps . But then piety was so universall , that it might well be enjoyned by Saint Paul , that if a brother walked disorderly , the Christians should avoid his company : He forbad them not , to accompany with the Heathens that walked disorderly ; for then a man must have gone out of the world . But they were not to endure so much as to eat with , or to salute a disorderly brother , an ill living Christian : But now if we should observe this canon of Saint Paul , and refuse to eat , or to converse with a fornicatour , or a drunkard , or a perjured person , or covetous , we must also go out of the world ; for a pious or a holy person is now as rare , as a disorderly Christian was at first : and as Christianity is multiplied every where in name and title , so it is destroyed in life , essence , and proper operation ; and we have very great reason to fear , that Christs name will serve us to no end but to upbraid our basenesse ; and his person onely to be our Judge , and his lawes as so many bills of accusation , and his graces and helps offered us , but as aggravations of our unworthinesse ; and our baptisme , but an occasion of vow-breach ; and the holy Communion , but an act of hypocrisie , formality , or sacrilege ; and all the promises of the Gospel but as pleasant dreams ; and the threatnings but as arts of affrightment ; for Christianity lasted pure and zealous , it kept its rules , and observed its own lawes for three hundred yeers , or thereabouts ; so long the Church remained a Virgin : For so long they were warmed with their first fires , and kept under discipline by the rod of persecution ; but it hath declined almost fourteen hundred yeers together ; prosperity and pride , wantonnesse and great fortunes , ambition and interest , false doctrine upon mistake , and upon designe , the malice of the Devil , and the arts of all his instruments , the want of zeal , and a wearinesse of spirit , filthy examples , and a disreputation of piety and a strict life ; seldome precedents , and infinite discouragements have caused so infinite a declension of piety and holy living , that what Papirius Massonius one of their own , said of the Popes of Rome ; In pontificibus nemo hodiè sanctitatem requirit , optimi putantur si vel levitèr mali sint , vel minus boni quam caeteri mortales esse solent . No man looks for holines in the Bishops of Rome ; those are the best Popes who are not extremly wicked : the same is too true of the greatest part of Christians : Men are excellent persons if they be not traytors , or adulterous , oppressors , or injurious , drun●ards , or scandalous , if they be not as this publican , as the vilest person with whom they converse : Nunc si depositum non inficiatur amicus Si reddat veterem cum totâ aerugine fllem Prodigiosa fides & Thuscis digna libellis Quaeque coronatâ lustrari debeat agnâ . He that is better then the dregs of his own age , whose religion is something above prophanesse , and whose sobriety is a step or two from down right intemperance whose discourse is not swearing , nor yet apt to edifie , whose charity is set out in pity , and a gentle yerning and saying , [ God help ] whose alms are contemptible , and his devotion infrequent , yet as things are now , he is unus è milibus , one of a thousand , and he stands eminent and conspicuous in the valleys and lower grounds of the present piety ; for a bank is a mountain upon a levell : but what is rare and eminent in the manners of men this day would have been scandalous , and have deserved the rod of an Apostle , if it had been confronted with the fervours and rare devotion and religion of our fathers in the Gospel . Men of old looked upon themselves as they stood by the examples and precedents of Martyrs , and compared their piety to the life of Saint Paul , and estimated their zeal by the flames of the Boanerges , Saint James and his brother : and the Bishops were thought reproveable as they fell short of the ordinary government of Saint Peter , and Saint John ; and the assemblies of Christians were so holy , that every meeting had religion enough to hallow a house and convert it to a Church ; and every day of feasting was a Communion , and every fasting day was a day of repentance and alms ; and every day of thanksgiving was a day of joy , and alms : and religion begun all their actions , and prayer consecrated them , and they ended in charity , and were not polluted with designe : they despised the world heartily , and pursued after heaven greedily ; they knew no ends but to serve God , and to be saved ; and had no designes upon their neighbours , but to lead them to God , and to felicity ; till Satan full of envy to see such excellent dayes , mingled covetousnesse , and ambition within the throngs and conventions of the Church , and a vice crept into an office , and then the mutuall confidence grew lesse , and so charity was lessened ; and heresies crept in , and then faith began to be sullied , and pride crept in ; and then men snatched at offices , not for the work , but for the dignity ; and then they served themselves more then God and the Church ; till at last it came to the passe where now it is , that the Clergy live lives no better then the Laity , and the Laity are stooped to imitate the evil customes of strangers and enemies of Christianity ; so that we should think Religion in a good condition , so that men did offer up to God but the actions of an ordinary , even , and just life , without the scandall and allayes of a great impiety : But because such is the nature of things , that either they grow towards perfection , or decline towards dissolution ; There is no proper way to secure it but by setting its growth forward : for religion hath no station , or naturall periods ; if it does not grow better , it grows much worse , not that it alwayes returns the man into scandalous sins , but that it establishes and fixes him in a state of indifferency and lukewarmnesse : and he is more averse to a state of improvement , and dies in an incurious , ignorant and unrelenting condition . But grow in grace ] That 's the remedy , and that would make us all wise and happy , blessed in this world , and sure of heaven : Concerning which , we are to consider first ; what the estate of grace is , into which every one of us must be entred , that we may grow in it ; secondly the proper parts , acts and offices of growing in grace , 3. The signes , consequences , and proper significations , by which if we cannot perceive the growing , yet afterwards we may perceive that we are grown , and so judge of the state of our duty , and concerning our finall condition of being saved . 1. Concerning the state of grace , I consider that no man can be said to be in the state of grace , who retaines an affection to any one sin . The state of pardon and the divine favour , begins at the first instance of anger against our crimes , when we leave our fondnesses and kinde opinions , when we excuse them not , and will not endure their shame ; when we feele the smarts of any of their evil consequents ; for he that is a perfect lover of sin , and is sealed up to a reprobate sense , endures all that sin brings along with it , and is reconciled to all its mischiefes , can suffer the sicknesse of his own drunkennesse , and yet call it pleasure , he can wait like a slave to serve his lust , and yet count it no disparagement ; he can suffer the dishonour of being accounted a base and dishonest person , and yet look confidently , and think himself no worse . But when the grace of God begins to work upon a mans spirit , it makes the conscience nice and tender and although the sin as yet does not displease the man , but he can endure the flattering and alluring part , yet he will not endure to be used so ill by his sin ; he will not be abused and dishonoured by it ; But because God hath so allayed the pleasures of his sin , that he that drinks the sweet should also strain the dregs through his throat , by degrees Gods grace doth irreconcile the convert , and discovers , first its base attendance , then its worse consequents , then the displeasure of God , that here commences the first resolutions of leaving the sin , and trying if in the service of God , his spirit and the whole appetite of man may be better entertained . He that is thus far entred shall quickly perceive the difference , and meet arguments enough to invite him further ; For then God treats the man as he treated the spies , that went to discover the land of promise ; he ordered the year in plenty and directed them to a pleasant and a fruitful place , and prepared bunches of grapes of a miraculous and prodigious greatnesse that they might report good things of Canaan , and invite the whole nation to attempt its conquest : so Gods grace represents to the new converts and the weak ones in faith the pleasures and first deliciousnesses of religion : and when they come to spie the good things of that way that leads to heaven , they presently perceive themselves eased of the load of an evil conscience , of their fears of death , of the confusion of their shame , and Gods spirit gives them a cup of sensible comfort , and makes them to rejoyce in their prayers , and weep with pleasures mingled with innocent passions , and religious changes ; and although God does not deal with all men in the same method , or in manners that can regularly be described , and all men do not feele , or do not observe , or cannot for want of skill discern such accidental sweetnesses , and pleasant grapes at his first entrance into religion : yet God to every man does minister excellent arguments of invitation , and such that if a man will attend to them , they will certainly move either his affections or his will , his fancy or his reason , and most commonly both : But while the spirit of God is doing this work of man , man must also be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fellow worker with God , he must entertain the spirit , attend his inspirations , receive his whispers , obey all his motions , invite him further , and utterly renounce all confederacy with his enemy , sin ; at no hand suffering any root of bitternesse to spring up , not allowing to himself any reserve of carnal pleasure , no clancular lust , no private oppressions , no secret covetousnesse , no love to this world that may discompose his duty ; for if a man prayes all day and at night is intemperate if he spends his time in reading , and his recreation be sinful ; if he studies religion , and practises self interest ; if he leaves his swearing and yet retaines his pride ; if he becomes chast and yet remains peevish and imperious ; this man is not changed from the state of sin , into the first stage of the state of grace : he does at no hand belong to God , he hath suffered himself to be scared from one sin , and tempted from another by interest , and hath left a third , by reason of his inclination , and a fourth for shame , or want of opportunity : But the spirit of God hath not yet planted one perfect plant there ; God may make use of the accidentally prepared advantages ▪ But as yet the spirit of God hath not begun the proper and direct work of grace in his heart , But when we leave every sin , when we resolve never to return to the chaines , when we have no love for the world , but such as may be a servant of God ; then I account that we are entred into a state of grace , from whence I am now to begin to reckon the commencement of this precept , grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2. And now the first part of this duty is to make religion to be the businesse of our lives ; for this is the great instrument , which will naturally produce our growth in grace , and the perfection of a Christian. For a man cannot after a state of sin be instantly a Saint : the work of heaven is not done by a flash of lightning , or a dash of affectionate raine , or a few tears of a relenting pity ; God and his Church have appointed holy intervals , and have taken portions of our time for religion , that we may be called off from the world , and remember the end of our creation , and do honour to God , and think of heaven with hearty purposes and peremptory designes to get thither . But as we must not neglect those times which God hath reserved for his service , or the Church hath prudently decreed , nor yet act religion upon such dayes with forms and outsides , or to comply with customs ; or to seem religious ; so we must take care that all the other portions of our time be hallowed with little retirements of all thoughts , and short conversations with God ; and all along be guided with a holy intention , that even our works of nature may passe into the relations of grace , and the actions of our calling may help towards the obtaining the price of our high calling ; while our eatings are actions of temperance , our labours are profitable our humiliations are acts of obedience , and our almes are charity : our marriages are cha●● , and whether we eat or drink , sleep or wake we may do all to the glory of God , by a direct intuition or by a reflex act , by designe or by supplment , by fore sight or by an after election : and to this purpose we must not look upon religion as our trouble , and our hind●rance ; nor think almes chargeable or expensive ; nor our fastings vexatious and burdensom ; nor our prayers a wearinesse of spirit ; But we must make these and all other the dutis of religion , our imployments , our care the work and end for which we came into the world ; and remember that we never do the work of men , nor serve the ends of God , nor are in the proper imployment and businesse of our life , but when we worship God or live like wise or sober persons , or do benefit to our brother . I will not turne this discourse into a reproofe , but leave it represented as a duty : Remember that God se●● you into the world for religion ; we are but to passe through our pleasant fields , or our hard labours ; but to lodge a little while in our faire palaces or our meaner cottages ; but to bait in the way at our full tables or with our spare diet ; but then onely , man does his proper imployment , when he prayes and does charity , and mortifies his unruly appetites , and restrains his violent passions , and becomes like to God , and imitates his holy Son , and writes after the coppies of Apostles , and Saints . Then he is dressing himself for eternity , where he must dwell or abide , either in an excellent beatifical country , or in a prison of amazment and eternal horrour : And after all this , you may if you please call to minde , how much time you allovv to God and to your souls every day , or every moneth , or in a year if you please ; for I fear the account of the time is soon made ; but the account for the neglect , vvill be harder . And it vvill not easily be ansvvered , that all our dayes and years are little enough to attend perishing things , and to be svvallowed up in avaritious and vain attendances , and we shall not attend to religion with a zeal so great as is our revenge , or as is the hunger of one meale . Without much time , and a wary life , and a diligent circumspection , we cannot mortify our sins , or do the first works of grace . I pray God we be not found to have grown like the sinnews of old age , from strength to remisnesse , from thence to dissolution , and infirmity and death ; Menedemus was wont to say that the young boyes that went to Athens the first year were wise men , the second year , Philosophers , the third , Orators , and the fourth were but Plebeians and understood nothing but their own ignorance . And just so it happens to some in the progresses of religion : at first they are violent and active ; and then they satiate all the appetites of religion ; and that which is left , is , that they were soon weary , and sat down in displeasure , and return to the world and dwell in the businesse of pride , or mony ; and by this time they understand that their religion is declined , and passed from the heats and follies of youth , to the coldnesse and infirmities of old age ; The remedies of which is onely a diligent spirit and a busie religion ▪ a great industry & a full portion of time in holy offices ; that as the Oracle said to the Cirrheans , noctes diesque belligerandum , they could not be happy unlesse they waged war night and day : that is , unlesse we perpetually fight against our own vices ; and repell our Ghostly enemies , and stand upon our guard , we must stand for ever in the state of babes , in Christ , or else return to the first imperfections of an unchristened soul , and an unsanctified spirit . That 's the first particular . 2. The second step of our growth in grace is , when vertues grow habitual , apt and easie in our manners , and dispositions . For although many new converts have a great zeal , and a busie spirit , apt enough as they think to contest against all the difficulties of a spiritual life , yet they meet with such powerful oppositions from without , and a false heart within , that their first heats are soon broken , and either they are for ever discouraged , or are forced to march more slowly and proceed more temperately for ever after . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It is an easie thing to commit a wickednesse , for temptation and infirmity are alwayes too neer us : But God hath made care and sweat , prudence and diligence , experience and watchfulnesse , wisdom and labour at home , and good guides abroad to be instruments and means to purchase vertue . The way is long and difficult at first ; but in the progresse and pursuit we finde all the knots made plain , and the rough wayes made smooth . — jam monte potius Now , the spirit of grace is like a new soul within him , and he hath new appetites and new pleasures , when the things of the world grow unsavory and the things of religion are delicious ; when his temptations to his old crimes return but seldom , and they prevail not at all , or in very inconsiderable instances , and stay not at all , but are reproached with a penitentiall sorrow , and speedy amendment ; when we do actions of vertue quickly , frequently , and with delight : then we have grown in grace in the same degree in which they can perceive these excellent dispositions . Some persons there are who dare not sin : they dare not omit their hours of prayer ; and they are restlesse in their spirits till they have done ; but they go to it as to execution ; they stay from it as long as they can , and they drive like Pharoahs charets with the wheels off , sadly and heavily : and besides that such persons have reserved to themselves , the best part of their sacrifice , and do not give their will to God , they do not love him with all their heart ; they are also soonest tempted to retire and fall off . Sextius Romanus resigned the honours and offices of the city , and betook himself to the severity of a Philosophical life . But when his unusual diet and hard labour began to pinch his flesh , and he felt his propositions smart , and that which was fine in discourse at a Symposiack , or an Academical dinner , began to sit uneasily upon him in the practise ; he so despaired that he had like to have cast himself into the sea , to appease the labours of his religion ; Because he never had gone further then to think it a fine thing to be a wise man : he would commend it , but he was loth to pay for it at the price that God and the Philosopher set upon it . But he that his grown 〈◊〉 grace and hath made religion habitual to his spirit , is not at ease but when he is doing the works of the new man , he rests in religion and comforts his sorrows with thinking of his prayers , and in all crosses of the world he is patient , because his joy is at hand to refresh him when he list , for he cares not so he may serve God : and if you make him poor here , he is rich there , and he counts that to be his proper service , his worke , his recreation , and reward . 3. But ●●cause in the course of holy living , although the duty be regular and constant , yet the sensible relishes and the flowrings of affections , the zeal and the visible expressions do not alwayes make the same emission ; but sometimes by designe , and sometimes by order , somtimes by affection we are more busie , more intire , and more intent upon the actions of religion ; in such cases we are to judge of our growth in grace , if after every interval of extraordinary piety , the next return be more devout and more affectionate , the labour be more cheerfull and more active ; and if religion returnes oftner and stayes longer in the same expressions , and leaves more satisfaction upon the spirit . Are your communions more frequent ? and when they are , do ye approach neerer to God ? have you made firmer resolutions and entertained more hearty purposes of amendment ? Do you love God more dutifully and your neighbour with a greater charity ? do you not so easily return to the world as formerly ? are not you glad when the thing is done ? do you go to your secular accounts with a more weaned affection then before ? if you communicate well , it is certain , that you will still do it better : if you do not communicate well , every opportunity of doing it is but a new trouble , easily excused , readily omitted , done because it is necessary , but not because we love it : and we shall finde that such persons in their old age do it worst of all ; And it was observed by a Spanish Confessor , who was also a famous preacher , that in persons not very religious , the confessions which they made upon their deathbed were the coldest , the most imperfect , and with lesse contrition then all that he had observed them to make in many years before . For so the Canes of Egypt when they newly arise from their bed of mud and slime of Nilus , start up into an equal and continual length , and are interrupted but with few knots , and are strong and beauteous with great distances , and intervals : but when they are grown to their full length they lessen into the point of a pyramis , and multiply their knots and joynts , interrupting the finenesse and smoothnesse of its body : so are the steps & declensions of him that does not grow in grace : at first when he springs up from his impurity , by the waters of baptisme and repentance , he grows straight and strong , and suffers but few interruptions of piety , and his constant courses of religion are but rarely intermitted ; till they ascend up to a full age or towards the ends of their life , then they are weak and their devotions often intermitted , and their breaches are frequent , and they seek excuses , and labour for dispensations , and love God and religion lesse and lesse , till their old age instead of a crown of their vertue and perseverance ends in levity and unprofitable courses ; light and uselesse as the tufted feathers upon the cane , every winde can play with it and abuse it , but no man can make it useful . When therefore our piety interrupts its greater and more solemn expressions , and upon the return of the great ● offices , and bigger solemnities we finde them to come upon ou● spirits like the wave of a tide , which retired onely because it was natural so to do and yet came further upon the strand at the next rolling ; When every new confession , every succeeding communion , every time of separation for more solemn and intense prayer is better spent and more affectionate , leaving a greater relish upon the spirit , and possessing greater portions of our affections , our reason , and our choice , then we may give God thanks , who hath given us more grace to use that grace , and a blessing to endeavour our duty , and a blessing upon our endeavour . 4. To discern our growth in grace , we must inquire concerning our passions , whether they be mortified and quiet , complying with our ends of vertue and under command . For since the passions are the matter of vertue and vice respectively , he that hath brought into his power all the strengths of the enemy , and the forts from whence he did infest him , he onely hath secured his holy walking with God. But because this thing is never perfectly done , and yet must alwayes be doing , grace grows according as we have finished our portions of this work . And in this we must not onely inquire concerning our passions , whether they be sinfull and habitually prevalent ; for if they be , we are not in the state of grace ; But whether they return upon us in violences and undecencies , in transportation and unreasonable , and imprudent expressions ; for although a good man may be incident to a violent passion , and that without sin , yet a perfect man is not ; a well-grown Christian hath seldom such sufferings ; to suffer such things sometimes may stand with the being of vertue , but not with its security : For if passions range up and down and transport us frequently and violently , we may keep in our forts , and in our dwellings , but our enemy is master of the field , and our vertues are restrained , and apt to be starved , and will not hold out long ; a good man may be spotted with a violence , but a wise man will not : and he that does not adde wisedom to his vertue , the knowledge of Jesus Christ to his vertuous habits , will be a good man but till a storm comes . But beyond this , inquire after the state of your passions , in actions of religion : Some men fast to mortifie their iust , and their fasting makes them peevish : some reprove a vice but they do it with much inpatience ; some charitably give excellent counsell , but they do that also with a pompous and proud spirit ; and passion being driven from open hostilities , is forced to march along in the retinue and troops of vertue : And although this be rather a deception and a cosenage then an imperfection ; and supposes a state of sin rather then an imperfect grace ; yet because it tacitly and secretly creeps along among the circumstances of pious actions , as it spoils a vertue in some , so it lessens it in others , and therefore is considerable also in this question . And although no man must take accounts of his being in , or out of the state of grace , by his being dispassionate , and free from all the assaults of passion , yet as to the securing his being in the state of grace , he must provide that he be not a slave of passion , so to declare his growth in grace , he must be sure to take the measures of his affections , and see that they be lessened ; more apt to be suppressed ; not breaking out to inconvenience and imprudencies , not rifling our spirit and drawing us from our usuall and more sober tempers . Try therefore if your fear be turned into caution , your lust into chast friendships , your imperious spirit into prudent government , your revenge into justice , your anger into charity , and your peevishnesse and rage , into silence and suppression of language . Is our ambition changed into vertuous and noble thoughts ? can we emulate without envy ? is our covetousnesse lessen'd into good husbandry , and mingled with alms , that we may certainly discern the love of money to be gone ? do we leave to despise our inferiours , and can we willingly endure to admit him that excels us in any gift or grace whatsoever , and to commend it without abatement , and mingling allayes with the commendation , and disparagements to the man ? If we be arrived but thus farre , it is well , and we must go further . But we use to think that all disaffections of the body are removed , if they be changed into the more tolerable , although we have not an athletick health , or the strength of porters or wrastlers : For although it be felicity to be quit of all passion , that may be sinfull or violent ; and part of the happinesse of heaven shall consist in that freedom ; yet our growth in grace consists in the remission and lessening of our passions : onely he that is incontinent in his lust , or in his anger , in his desires of money , or of honour , in his revenge , or in his fear , in his joyes , or in his sorrows , that man is not grown at all in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ : This onely ; in the seruting and consequent judgement concerning our passions , it will concern the curiosity of our care , to watch against passions in the reflex act ; against pride , or lust , complacency , and peevishnesse attending upon vertue . For he was noted for a vain person , who being overjoyed for the cure of his pride ( as he thought ) cried out to his wife , Cerne Dionysia deposui fastum , behold I have laid aside all my pride : and of that very dream the silly man thought he had reason to boast ; but considered not that it was an act of pride , and levity besides . If thou hast given a noble present to thy friend , if thou hast rejected the unjust desire of thy Prince ; if thou hast endured thirst and hunger for religion or continence ; if thou hast refused an offer like that which was made to Joseph , sit down and rest in thy good conscience , and do not please thy self in opinions , and phantastick noises abroad , and do not despise him that did not do so as thou hast done ; and reprove no man with an upbraiding circumstance : for it will give thee but an ill return , and a contemptible reward , if thou shalt over-lay thy infant-vertue , or drown it with a flood of breast-milk . Sermon . XV. Of Growth in Grace . Part II. 5. HE is well grown in , or towards the state of grace , who is more patient of a sharp reproof , then of a secret flattery . For a reprehension contains so much mortification to the pride and complacencies of a man ; is so great an affront to an easie and undisturbed person , is so empty of pleasure , and so full of profit , that he must needs love vertue in a great degree , who can take in that which onely serves her end , and is displeasant to himself , and all his gayeties . A severe reprehender of anothers vice , comes dressed like Jacob when he went to cozen his brother of the blessing : his outside is rough and hairy , but the voice is Jacobs voice ; rough hands , and a healthfull language get the blessing , even against the will of him that shall feel it ; but he that is patient , and even , not apt to excuse his fault , that is lesse apt to anger , or to scorn him that snatches him rudely from the flames of hell , he is vertues Confessor , and suffers these lesser stripes for that interest which will end in spirituall and eternall benedictions . They who are furious against their monitors are incorrigible : but it is one degree of meeknesse to suffer discipline : and a meek man cannot easily be an ill man , especially in the present instance : he appears , at least , to have a healthfull constitution ▪ he hath good flesh to heal ; his spirit is capable of medicine , and that man can never be despaired of , who hath a disposition so neer his health as to improve all physick , and whose nature is relieved by every good accident from without . But that which I observe is , That this is not onely a good disposition towards repentance , and restitution , but is a signe of growth in grace , according as it becomes naturall , easie , and habituall , Some men chide themselves for all their misdemeanours , because they would be represented to the censures and opinions of other men , with a fair Character , and such as need not to be reproved : others out of inconsideration sleep in their own dark rooms , and untill the charity of a Guide , or of a friend draws the curtain and lets in a beam of light , dream on untill the graves open , and hell devours them ; But if they be called upon by the grace of God , let down with a sheet of counsels and friendly precepts , they are presently inclined to be obedient to the heavenly monitions , but unlesse they be dressed with circumstances of honour and civility , with arts of entertainment , and insinuation they are rejected utterly , or received unwillingly : Therefore although upon any termes , to endure a sharp reproof be a good signe of amendment ; yet the growth of grace is not properly signified by every such sufferance : For when this disposition begins , amendment also begins , and goes on in proportion to the increment of this . To endure a reproof without adding a new sin is the first step to amendments , that is , to endure it without scorn , or hatred , or indignation . 2. The next is to suffer reproof without excusing our selves : For he that is apt to excuse himself is onely desirous in a civill manner to set the reproof aside , and to represent the charitable monitour to be too hasty in his judgement , and deceived in his information ; and the fault to dwell there , not with himself . 3. Then he that proceeds in this instance admits the reprovers sermon , or discourse , without a private regret : he hath no secret murmurs , or unwillingnesses to the humiliation , but is onely ashamed that he should deserve it : but for the reprehension it self , that troubles him not ; but he looks on it as his own medicine , and the others charity . 4. But if to this he addes , that he voluntary confesses his own fault , and of his own accord vomits out the loads of his own intemperance , and eases his spirit of the infection , then it is certain he is not onely a professed and hearty enemy against sin , but a zealous , and a prudent , and an active person against all its interest ; and never counts himself at ease but while he rests upon the banks of Sion , or at the gates of the temple ; never pleased but in vertue and religion : Then he knows the state of his soul , and the state of his danger , he reckons it no objection to be abased in the face of man , so he may be gracious in the eyes of God : And that 's a signe of a good grace , and a holy wisdom ; That man is grown in the grace of God , and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Justus in principio sermonis est accusator sui , said the Wise man , The righteous accuseth himself in the beginning : that is , quickly , lest he be prevented : And certain it is , he cannot be either wise or good that had rather have a reall sin within him , then that a good man should beleeve him to be a repenting sinner ; that had rather keep his crime , then lose his reputation ; that is , rather to be so , then to be thought so , rather be without the favour of God , then of his neighbour . Diogenes once spied a young man coming out of a Tavern , or place of entertainment ; who perceiving himself observed by the Philosopher , with some confusion stepped back again , that he might ( if possible ) preserve his fame with that severe person . But Diogenes told him , Quanto magis intraveris tanto magis eris in cauponâ : The more you go back , the longer you are in the place where you are ashamed to be seen ; and he that conceals his sin , still retains that which he counts his shame , and his burden . Hippocrates was noted for an ingenious person , that he published and confessed his errour concerning the futures of the head : and all ages since Saint Austin have called him pious , for writing his book of retractations , in which he published his former ignorances and mistakes , and so set his shame off to the world , invested with a garment of modesty , and above half changed before they were seen . I did the rather insist upon this particular , because it is a consideration of huge concernment , and yet much neglected in all its instances and degrees . We neither confesse our shame , nor endure it ; we are privately troubled , and publikely excuse it ; we turn charity into bitternesse , and our reproof into contumacy and scorne ; and who is there amongst us that can endure a personall charge ? or is not to be taught his personall duty , by generall discoursings , by parable and apologue , by acts of insinuation and wary distances ? but by this state of persons we know the estate of our own spirits . When God sent his Prophets to the people , and they stoned them with stones , and sawed them asunder , and cast them into dungeons , and made them beggers , the people fell into the condition of Babylon , Quam curavimus & non est sanata ; We healed her ( said the Prophets ) But she would not be cured : Derelinquamus eam , that 's her doom ; let her enjoy her sins and all the fruits of sin laid up in treasures of wrath against the day of vengeance and retribution . 6. He that is grown in grace , and the knowledge of Christ esteems no sin to be little or contemptible ; none fit to be cherished or indulged to . For it is not onely inconsistent with the love of God , to entertain any undecency or beginning of a crime , any thing that displeases him , but he alwayes remembers how much it cost him to arrive at the state of good things , whether the grace of God hath already brought him : He thinks of the prayers and tears , his restlesse nights , and his daily fears , his late escape , and his present danger , the ruines of his former state , and the difficult and imperfect reparations of this new ; his proclivity and aptnesse to vice , and naturall aversnesse and uneasie inclinations to the strictnesse of holy living ; and when these are considered truly , they naturally make a man unwilling to entertaine any beginnings of a state of life contrary to that which with so much danger and difficulty , through so many objections and enemies he hath attained . And the truth is , when a man hath escaped the dangers of his first state of sin , he cannot but be extreamly unwilling to return again thither , in which he can never hope for heaven : ( and so it must be ) for a man must not flatter himself in a small crime , and say as Lot did when he begged a reprieve for Zoar , Alas Lord , is it not a little one and my soul shall live ? And it is not therefore to be entertained because it is little ; for it is the more without excuse , if it be little ; the temptations to it are not great ; the allurements not mighty ; the promises not insnaring , the resistance easie ; and a wise man considers , it is a greater danger to be overcome by a little sin , then by a great one ; a greater danger ( I say ) not directly , but accidentally ; not in respect of the crime , but in relation to the person : for he that cannot overcome a small crime , is in the state of infirmity , so great , that he perishes infallibly , when he is arrested by the sins of a stronger temptation : But he that easily can , and yet will not ; he is in love with sin , and courts his danger , that he may at least kisse the apples of Paradise , or feast himself with the parings : since he is by some displeasing instrument affrighted from glutting himself with the forbidden fruit , in ruder and bigger instances : But the well-grown Christian is curious of his newly trimmed soul , and like a nice person with clean clothes , is carefull that no spot or stain fully the virgin whitenesse of his robe : whereas another whose albes of baptisme are sullied in many places with the smoak and filth of Sodom and uncleannesse , cares not in what paths he treads , and a shower of dirt changes not his state , who already lies wallowing in the puddles of impurity ; It makes men negligent and easie , when they have an opinion or certain knowledge that they are persons extraordinary in nothing ; that a little care will not mend them ; that another sin cannot make them much worse : But it is as a signe of a tender conscience , and a reformed spirit , when it is sensible of every alteration , when an idle word is troublesom , when a wandering thought puts the whole spirit upon its guard ; when too free a merriment is wiped off with a sigh and a sad thought , and a severe recollection , and a holy prayer : Polycletus was wont to say , That they had work enough to do , who were to make a curuious picture of clay and dirt , when they were to take accounts for the handling of mud and morter : A mans spirit is naturally carelesse of baser and uncostly materials ; but if a man be to work in gold , then he will save the filings , and his dust , and suffer not a grain to perish : And when a man hath laid his foundations in precious stones , he will not build vile matter , stubble and dirt upon it : So it is in the spirit of a man ; If he have built upon the rock Christ Jesus , and is grown up to a good stature in Christ , he will not easily dishonour his building nor lose his labours , by an incurious entertainment of vanities and little instances of sin ; which as they can never satisfie any lust or appetite to sin ; so they are like a flie in a box of ointment , or like little follies to a wise man , they are extreamly full of dishonour and disparagement , they disarray a mans soul of his vertue , and dishonour him for cockle-shels and baubles , and tempt to a greater folly : which every man , who is grown in the knowledge of Christ , therefore carefully avoids , because he fears a relapse , with a fear as great as his hopes of heaven are , and knowes that the entertainment of small sins do but entice a mans resolutions to disband , they unravel and untwist his holy purposes , and begin in infirmities and proceed in folly , and end in death . 7. He that is grown in grace pursues vertue for its own interest , purely and simply without the mixture and allay of collateral designes , and equally inclining purposes ; God in the beginning of our returns to him entertains us with promises and threatnings , the apprehensions of temporal advantages , with fear and shame , and with reverence of friends and secular respects , with reputation and coercion of humane laws and at first men snatch at the lesser and lower ends of vertue and such rewards are visible , and which God sometimes gives in hand to entertain our weak , and imperfect desires : The young Philosophers were very forward to get the precepts of their sect , and the rules of severity , that they might discourse with Kings , not that they might reform their own manners ; and some men study to get the ears and tongues of the people , rather then to gain their souls to God ; and they obey good laws , for fear of punishment , or to preserve their own peace and some are worse they do good deeds out of spite , and preach Christ out of envy , or to lessen the authority and fame of others : some of these lessen the excellency of the act , others spoil it quite : it is in some , imperfect , in others , criminal ; in some it is consistent with a beginning infant-grace , in others it is an argument of the state of sin and death : but in all cases , the well grown Christian , he that improoves or goes forward in his way to heaven , brings vertue forth , not into discourses and panegyrickes , but into his life and manners ; his vertue although it serves many good ends accidentally , yet by his intention it onely suppresses his inordinate passions , makes him temperate and chast , casts out his devils of drunkennesse and lust , pride and rage , malice and revenge ▪ it makes him useful to his brother and a servant of God ; and although these flowers cannot choose but please his eye , and delight his smell , yet he chooses to gather honey , and licks up the dew of heaven and feasts his spirit upon the Manna , and dwells not in the collateral usages and accidental sweetnesses which dwell at the gates of the other senses , but like a Bee loads his thighs with wax and his bag with honey ; that is , with the useful parts of vertue in order to holinesse and felicity . Of which the best signes and notices we can take will be if we as earnestly pursue vertues which are acted in private , as those whose scene lies in publick , If we pray in private , under the onely eye of God and his ministring angels as in Churches ; if we give our almes in secret rather then in publick ; if we take more pleasure in the just satisfaction of our consciences , and securing our reputation ; if we rather pursue innocence then seek an excuse ; if we desire to please God , though we lose our fame with men ; if we be just to the poorest servant as to the greatest prince , if we choose to be among the jewels of God though we be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the off-scouring of the world ; if when we are secure from witnesses and accusers and not obnoxious to the notices of the law , we think our selves obliged by conscience , and practise , and live accordingly ; then our services and intentions in vertue are right ▪ then we are past the twilights of conversion , and the umbrages of the world , and walk in the light of God , of his word , and of his spirit , of grace and reason , as becometh not babes , but men in christ Jesus . In this progresse of grace I have not yet expressed , that perfect persons should serve God out of mere love of God and the divine excellencies , without the considerations of either heaven or hell ; such a thing as that is talked of in mystical Theology . And I doubt not but many good persons come to that growth of Charity that the goodnesse and excellency of God are more incumbent and actually pressing upon their spirit then any considerations of reward : But then I shall adde this ; that when persons come to that hight of grace ( or contemplation rather ) and they love God for himself and do their duties in order to the fruition of him and his pleasure ; all that , is but heaven in another sense , and under another name ; just as the mystical Theologie is the highest duty and the choicest parts of obedience under a new method : but in order to the present , that which I call a signification of our growth in grace , is a pursuance of vertue upon such reasons as are propounded to us , as motives in Christianity ( such as are to glorifie God , and to enjoy his promises in the way , and in our country , to avoid the displeasure of God , and to be united to his glories ) and then to exercise vertue in such parts and to such purposes as are useful to good life , and profitable to our neighbours ; not to such onely where they serve reputation , or secular ends . For though the great Physitian of our souls hath mingled profits and pleasures with vertue to make its chalice sweet and apt to be drank off , yet he that takes out the sweet ingredient and feasts his palate with the lesse wholsome part , because it is delicious , serves a low end of sense or interest , but serves not God at all ; and as little does benefit to the soul : such a person is like Homers bird , deplumes himselfe to feather all the naked callows that he sees , and holds a taper that may light others to heaven , while he burns his own fingers : but a well grown person , out of habit and choice out of love of vertue and just intention goes on his journey in straight wayes to heaven , even when the bridle and coercion of laws or the spurs of interest or reputation are laid aside and desires witnesses of his actions , not that he may advance his fame , but for reverence and fear , and to make it still more necessary to do holy things . 8. Some men there are in the beginning of their holy walking with God , and while they are babes in Christ , who are presently busied in delights of prayers , and rejoyce in publick communion , and count all solemn assemblies , festival ; but as they are pleased with them , so they can easily be without them ; It is a signe of a common and vulgar love onely to be pleased with the company of a friend , and to be as well with out him , amoris at morsum qui verè senserit , he that ha's felt the stings of a sharp and very dear affection is impatient in the absence of his beloved object , the soul that is sick and swallowed up with holy fire loves nothing else ; all pleasures else seem unsavory , company is troublesome , visitors are tedious , homilies of comfort are flat and uselesse . The pleasures of vertue to a good and perfect man are not like the perfumes of Nard Pistick , which is very delightful when the box is newly broken , but the want of it is no trouble ; we are well enough without it ; but vertue is like hunger and thirst it must be satisfied or we die ; and when we feel great longings after religion and faintings for want of holy nutriment , when a famine of the word and sacraments is more intolerable ; and we think our selves really most miserable , when the Church doors are shut against us , or like the Christians in the persecution of the Vandals , who thought it worse then death , that there Bishops were taken from them ; If we understand excommunication , or Church censures ( abating the disreputation and secular appendages ) in the sense of the spirit to be a misery next to hell it self , then we have made a good progresse in the Charity and grace of God ; till then we are but pretenders , or infants , or imperfect , in the same degree in which our affections are cold , and our desires remisse ; For a constant and prudent zeal is the best testimony of our masculine and vigorous heats , and an houre of fervour is more pleasing to God then a moneth of luke-warmnesse , and indifferency . 9 But as some are active onely in the presence of a good object , but remisse and carelesse for the want of it , so on the other side an infant grace is safe in the absence of a temptation , but falls easily , when it is in presence : He therefore that would understand if he be grown in grace , may consider if his safety consists onely in peace , or in the strength of the spirit . It is good that we will not seek out opportunities to sin ; but are not we too apprehensive of it , when it is presented ? or do we not sink under when it presses us ? can we hold our tapers neer the flames and not suck it in greedily like Naphtha or prepared Nitre ? or can we like the children of the captivity walk in the midst of slames and not be scorched or consumed , ? Many men will ( not like Judah ) go into high wayes and untie the girdles of harlots ; But can you reject the importunity of a beautious and an imperious Lady , as Joseph did we had need pray that we be not led into temptation ; that is , not onely into the possession , but not into the allurements and neighbour-hood of it , least by little and little our strongest resolutions be untwist , and crack in sunder like an easie cord severed into single threds : but if we by the necessity of our lives , and manner of living , dwell where a temptation will assault us , then to resist , is the signe of a great grace ; but such a signe , that without it , the grace turns into wantonnesse , and the man into a beast , and an angel into a Devil . R. Moses will not allow a man to be a true penitent untill he hath left all his sin , and in all the like circumstances refuses those temptations under which formerly he sinned and died : and indeed it may happen that such a trial onely can secure our judgement concerning our selves : and although to be tried in all the same accidents be not safe , nor alwayes contingent , and in such cases it is sufficient to resist all the temptations we have , and avoid the rest and decree against all , yet if it please God we are tempted , as David was by his eyes , or the Martyrs by tortures , or Joseph by his wanton Mistris , then to stand sure and to ride upon the temptation like a ship upon a wave , or to stand like a rock in an impetuous storm , that 's the signe of a great grace and of a well-grown Christian . 10. No man is grown in grace but he that is ready for every work , that chooses not his employment , that refuses no imposition from God or his superiour ; a ready hand , an obedient heart , and a willing cheerful soul in all the work of God and in every office of religion is a great index of a good proficient in the wayes of Godlinesse . The heart of a man is like a wounded hand or arme , which if it be so cured that it can onely move one way and cannot turn to all postures and natural uses it is but imperfect , and still half in health , and half wounded : so is our spirit ; if it be apt for prayer and close fisted in almes , if it be sound in faith and dead in charity , if it be religious to God and unjust to our neighbour , there wants some integral part , or there is a lamenesse ; and the deficiency in any one duty implyes the guilt of all ( said Saint James ) and bonum ex integrâ causâ malum exquâlibet particulari , every fault spoils a grace . But one grace alone cannot make a good man. But as to be universal in our obedience is necessary to the being in the state of grace : so readily to change imployment from the better to the worse , from the honourable to the poor , from usefull to seemingly unprofitable , is a good Character of a well grown Christian , if he takes the worst part with indifferency and a spirit equally choosing all the events of the divine providence . Can you be content to descend from ruling of a province to the keeping of a herd : from the work of an Apostle to be confined into a prison , from disputing before Princes to a conversation with Shepherds ? can you be willing to all that God is willing , and suffer all that he chooses as willingly as if you had chosen your own fortune ? In the same degree , in which you can conform to God , in the same you have approached towards that perfection whether we must by degrees arrive in our journey towards heaven . This is not to be expected of beginners ; for they must be enticed with apt imployments ; and it may be , their office and work so fits their spirits , that it makes them first in love with it , and then with God for giving it ; and many a man goes to heaven in the dayes of peace , whose faith , and hopes , and patience would have been dashed in pieces , if he had fallen into a storm or persecution . Oppression will make a wise man mad ( saith Solomon ) : there are some usages that will put a sober person out of all patience , such which are besides the customes of this life , and contrary to all his hopes , and unworthy of a person of his quality : and when Nero durst not die , yet when his servants told him that the Senators had condemned him to be put to death more Majorum , that is , by scourging like a slave , he was forced into a preternatural confidence , and fel upon his own sword ; but when God so changes thy estate that thou art fallen into accidents to which thou art no otherwise disposed , but by grace and a holy spirit , and yet thou canst passe through them with quietnesse , and do the work of suffering as well as the works of a prosperous imployment ; this is an argument of a great grace and an extraordinary spirit . For many persons in a change of fortune perish , who if they had still been prosperous had gone to heaven ; being tempted in a persecution to perjuries and Apostacy and unhandsome complicances , and hypocricy , and irreligion : and many men are brought to vertue , and to God , and to felicity by being persecuted and made unprosperous : and these are effects of a more absolute and irrespective predestination ; but when the grace of God is great and prudent , and masculine , and well grown , it is unalter'd in all changes , save onely that every accident that is new and violent brings him neerer to God , and makes him with greater caution and severity to dwell in vertue . 11. Lastly , some there are who are firme in all great and foreseen changes and have laid up in the store-houses of the spirit ( reason and religion ) arguments and discourses enough to defend them against all violencies and stand at watch so much , that they are safe where they can consider , and deliberate ; but there may be something wanting yet ; and in the direct line , in the strait progresse to heaven , I call that an infallible signe of a great grace , and indeed the greatest degree of a great grace , when a man is prepared against sudden invasions of the spirit , surreptions and extemporary assaults : Many a valiant person dares sight a battle who yet will be timorous and surprised in a mid-night alarme ; or if he falls into a river ; And how many discreet persons are there , who , if you offer them a sin , and give them time to consider , and tell them of it before hand , will rather die then be perjured , or tell a deliberate lie , or break a promise ; who ( it may be tell many sudden lies , and excuse themselves , and break their promises , and yet think themselves safe enough ; and sleep without either affrightments , or any apprehension of dishonour done to their persons or their religion . Every man is not armed for all sudden arrests of passions : few men have cast such fetters upon their lusts and have their passions in so strict confinement , that they may not be over run with a midnight flood or an unlooked for inundation ; He that does not start when he is smitten suddenly , is a constant person : and that is it which I intend in this instance ; that he is a perfect man and well grown in grace , who hath so habitual a resolution and so unhasty and wary a spirit , as that he decrees upon no act before he hath considered maturely , and changed the sudden occasion into a sober counsel David by chance spied Pathsheba washing her self , and being surprised , gave his heart away before he could consider , and when it was once gone , it was hard to recover it ; and sometimes a man is betrayed by a sudden opportunity and all things fitted for his sin ready at the door ; the act stands in all its dresse , and will not stay for an answear ; and inconsideration is the defence and guard of the sin , and makes that his conscience can the more easily swallow it what shall the man do then ? unlesse he be strong by his old strengths , by a great grace , by an habitual vertue , and a sober unmoved spirit , he falls and dies in the death and hath no new strengths ; but such as are to be imployed for his recovery ; none for his present guard ; unlesse upon the old stock , and if he be a well grown Christian. These are the parts , acts , and offices of our growing in grace , and yet I have sometimes called them signes ; but they are signes , as eating and drinking are signes of life , they are signes so as also they are parts of life ; and these are parts of our growth in grace , so that a man can grow in grace to no other purpose but to these or the like improvements . Concerning which I have a caution or two to interpose . 1. The growth of grace is to be estimated as other morall things are , not according to the growth of things naturall : Grace does not grow by observation , and a continuall efflux , and a constant proportion ; and a man cannot call himself to the account for the growth of every day , or week , or moneth ; but in the greater portions of our life , in which we have had many occasions and instances to exercise and improve our vertues , we may call our selves to account ; but it is a snare to our consciences to be examined in the growth of grace in every short resolution of solemn duty , as against every Communion , or great Festivall . 2. Growth in grace is not alwayes to be discerned either in single instances , or in single graces . Not in single instances ; for every time we are to exercise a vertue , we are not in the same naturall dispositions , nor do we meet with the same circumstances , and it is not alwayes necessary that the next act should be more earnest and intence then the former ; all single acts are to be done after the manner of men , and therefore are not alwayes capable of increasing ; and they have their termes beyond which easily they cannot swell : and therefore if it be a good act and zealous , it may proceed from a well grown grace , and yet a younger and weaker person may do some acts as great and as religious as it ; But neither do single graces alwayes affoord a regular and certain judgement in this affair ; for some persons at the first , had rather die then be unchast , or perjured : and greater love then this no man hath , that he lay down his life for God : he cannot easily grow in the substance of that act ; and if other persons , or himself , in processe of time do it more cheerfully , or with fewer fears , it is not alwayes a signe of a greater grace , but sometimes of greater collaterall assistances , or a better habit of body , or more fortunate circumstances : for he that goes to the block tremblingly for Christ ; and yet endures his death certainly , and endures his trembling too , and runs through all his infirmities and the bigger temptations ; looks not so well many times in the eyes of men , but suffers more for God , then those confident Martyrs that courted death in the primitive Church ; and therefore may be much dearer in the eyes of God : But that which I say in this particular , is that a smallnesse in one , is not an argument of the imperfection of the whole estate : Because God does not alwayes give to every man occasions to exercise , and therefore not to improve every grace ; and the passive vertues of a Christian are not to be expected to grow so fast in prosperous , as in suffering Christians : but in this case we are to take accounts of our selves by the improvement of those graces which God makes to happen often in our lives ; such as are charity and temperance in young men , liberality and religion in aged persons , ingenuity and humility in schollers , justice in merchants and artificers , forgivenesse of injuries in great men , and persons tempted by law-suits ; for since vertues grow like other morall habits , by use , diligence , and assiduity , there where God hath appointed our work and in our instances , there we must consider concerning our growth in grace , in other things we are but beginners : But it is not likely that God will trie us concerning degrees hereafter , in such things of which in this world he was sparing to give us opportunities . 3. Be carefull to observe that these rules are not all to be understood negatively , but positively , and affirmatively , that is , that a man may conclude that he is grown in grace if he observes these characters in himself , which I have here discoursed of ; but he must not conclude negatively , that he is not grown in grace , if he cannot observe such signall testimonies : for sometimes God covers the graces of his servants , and hides the beauty of his tabernacle with goats hair , and the skins of beasts , that he may rather suffer them to want present comfort , then the grace of humility ; for it is not necessary to preserve the gayeties and their spirituall pleasures ; but if their humility fails , ( which may easily do under the sunshine of conspicuous and illustrious graces ) their vertues and themselves perish in a sad declension . But sometimes men have not skill to make a judgement ; and all this discourse seems too artificiall to be tried by , in the hearty purposes of religion . Sometimes they let passe much of their life , even of their better dayes , without observance of particulars ; sometimes their cases of conscience are intricate , or allayed with unavoydable infirmities ; sometimes they are so uninstructed in the more secret parts of religion , and there are so many illusions and accidentall miscariages , that if we shall conclude negatively in the present Question , we may produce scruples infinite , but understand nothing more of our estate , and do much lesse of our duty . 4. In considering concerning our growth in grace , let us take more care to consider matters that concern justice , and charity , then that concern the vertue of religion ; because in this there may be much , in the other there cannot easily be any illusion , and cosenage . That is a good religion that beleeves , and trusts , and hopes in God through Jesus Christ , and for his sake does all justice , and all charity , that he can ; and our Blessed Lord gives no other description of love to God , but obedience and keeping his commandement : Justice and charity are like the matter , religion is the form of Christianity ; but although the form be more noble and the principle of life , yet it is lesse discernable , lesse materiall , and lesse sensible ; and we judge concerning the form by the matter , and by materiall accidents , and by actions : and so we must of our religion , that is , of our love to God , and of the efficacy of our prayers , and the usefulnesse of our fastings ; we must make our judgements by the more materiall parts of our duty , that is , by sobriety , and by justice , and by charity . I am much prevented in my intention for the perfecting of this so very materiall consideration : I shall therefore onely tell you , that to these parts and actions of good life , or of our growth in grace , some have added some accidentall considerations , which are rather signes then parts of it : Such are . 1. To praise all good things , and to study to imitate what we praise , 2. To be impatient that any man should excell us ; not out of envy to the person , but of noble emulation to the excellency ; For so Themistocles could not sleep after the great victory at Marathon purchased by Miltiades ; till he had made himself illustrious by equall services to his countrey . 3. The bearing of sicknesse patiently , and ever with improvement , and the addition of some excellent principle , and the firm pursuing it . 4. Great devotion , and much delight in our prayers . 5. Frequent inspirations , and often whispers of the Spirit of God prompting us to devotion , and obedience , especially if we adde to this , a constant and ready obedience to all those holy invitations . 6. Offering peace to them that have injured me , and the abating of the circumstances of honour , or of right , when either justice , or charity , is concerned in it . 7. Love to the brethren . 8 To behold our companions , or our inferiours full of honour and fortune ; and if we sit still at home and murmur not , or if we can rejoyce both in their honour , and our own quiet , that 's a fair work of a good man ; And now 9. After all this , I will not trouble you with reckoning a freedom from being tempted , not onely from being overcome , but from being tried : for though that be a rare felicity , and hath in it much safety , yet it hath lesse honour and fewer instances of vertue , unlesse it proceed from a confirmed and heroicall grace ; which is indeed a little image of heaven , and of a celestiall charity ; and never happens signally to any , but to old and very eminent persons . 10. But some also adde an excellent habit of body and materiall passions , such as are chast and vertuous dreams , and suppose that as a disease abuses the fancy , and a vice does prejudice it ; so may an excellent vertue of the soul smooth and Calcine the body , and make it serve perfectly , and without rebellious indispositions . 11. Others are in love with Mary Magdalens tears , and fancy the hard knees of Saint James , and the fore eyes of Saint Peter , and the very recreations of Saint John. Proh ! quam virtute praeditos omnia decent ! thinking all things becomes a good man ; even his gestures and little incuriosities : And though this may proceed from a great love of vertue , yet because some men do thus much and no more , and this is to be attributed to the lustre of vertue , which shines a little thorow a mans eye-lids , though he perversely winks against the light ; yet as the former of these two is too Metaphysicall ; so is the later too Phantasticall : he that by the fore-going materiall parts and proper significations of a growing grace does not understand his own condition , must be content to work on still super totam materiam , without considerations of Particulars ; he must pray earnestly , and watch diligently , and consult with prudent Guides , and ask of God great measures of his Spirit , and hunger and thirst after righteousnesse : for he that does so , shall certainly be satisfied : and if he understands not his present good condition , yet if he be not wanting in the down right endeavours of piety , and in hearty purposes , he shall then finde that he is grown in grace when he springs up in the resurrection of the just , and shall be ingrafted upon a tree of Paradise , which beareth fruit for ever , Glory to God , rejoycing to Saints and Angels , and eternall felicity to his own pious , though undiscerning soul. Prima sequentem , honestum est in secundis aut tertijs consistere . Cicero . Sermon . XVI . Of Growth in Sinne , OR The severall states and degrees of Sinners , WITH The manner how they are to be treated . Jude Epist. Ver. 22 , 23. And of some have compassion , making a difference : * And others save with fear , pulling them out of the fire . MAn hath but one entrance into the world , but a thousand wayes to passe from thence ; and as it is in the natural , so it is in the spiritual ; nothing but the union of faith and obedience can secure our regeneration , and our new birth , and can bring us to see the light of heaven : but there are a thousand passages of turning into darknesse ; and it is not enough that our bodies are exposed to so many sad infirmities and dishonourable imperfections , unlesse our soul also be a subject capable of so many diseases , follies , irregular passions , false principles , accursed habits and degrees of perversnesse , that the very kindes of them are reducible to a method , and make up the part of a science : There are variety of stages and descents to death ; as there are diversity of torments , and of sad regions of misery in hell , which is the centre and kingdom of sorrows . But that we may a little refresh the sadnesses of this consideration ; for every one of these stages of sin . God hath measured out a proportion of mercy ; for if sin abounds , grace shall much more abound , and God hath concluded all under sin , not with purposes to destroy us , but , Vt omnium misereatur , that he might have mercy upon all ; that light may break forth from the deepest inclosures of darknesse , and mercy may rejoyce upon the recessions of justice , and grace may triumph upon the ruins of sin , and God may be glorified in the miracles of our conversion , and the wonders of our preservation , and glories of our being saved . There is no state of sin , but if we be persons capable ( according to Gods method of healing ) of receiving antidotes , we shall finde a sheet of mercy spread over our wounds and nakednesse . If our diseases be small , almost necessary , scarce avoidable , then God does , and so we are commanded to cure them , and cover them with a vail of pity , compassion , and gentle remedies : If our evils be violent , inveterate , gangrened and incorporated into our nature by evil customes , they must be pulled from the flames of hell with censures , and cauteries , and punishments , and sharp remedies , quickly and rudely ; their danger is present and sudden , its effect is quick and intolerable , and there is no soft counsels then to be entertained ; they are already in the fire ; but they may be saved for all that ; so great , so infinite , so miraculous is Gods mercy , that he will not give a sinner over , though the hairs of his head be singed with the flames of hell ; Gods desires of having us to be saved continue , even when we begin to be damned ; even till we will not be saved , and are gone beyond Gods method , and all the revelations of his kindnesse . And certainly that is a bold and a mighty sinner whose iniquity is sweld beyond all the bulk and heap of Gods revealed loving kindnesse : If sin hath sweld beyond grace and superabounds over it , that sin is gone beyond the measures of a man ; such a person is removed beyond all the malice of humane nature , into the evil and spite of Devils , and accursed spirits ; there is no greater sadnesse in the world then this . God hath not appointed a remedy in the vast treasures of grace for some men , and some sins ; they have sinned like the falling Angels ; and having over run the ordinary evil inclinations of their nature , they are without the protection of the divine mercy ; and the conditions of that grace which was designed to save all the world , was sufficient to have saved twenty . This is a condition to be avoyded with the care of God and his Angels , and all the whole industry of man. In order to which end my purpose now is to remonstrate to you the several states of sin , and death , together with those remedies which God had proportioned out to them , that we may observe the evils of the least , and so avoid the intolerable mischiefs of the greater , even of those sins which still are within the power and possibilities of recovery , lest insensibly we fall into those sins and into those circumstances of person for which Christ never died , which the Holy Ghost never means to cure , and which the eternal God never will pardon ; for there are of this kinde more then commonly men imagine , whilest they amuse their spirits with gaietyes and false principles , till they have run into horrible impieties , from whence they are not willing to withdraw their foot , and God is resolved never to snatch and force them thence . 1. [ Of some have compassion ] and these I shall reduce to four heads or orders of men and actions ; all which have their proper cure proportionable to their proper state , gentle remedies to the lesser irregularities of the soul. The first are those that sin without observation of their particular state ; either because they are uninstructed in the special cases of conscience , or because they do an evil against which there is no expresse commandment . It is a sad calamity , that there are so many milions of men and women that are entred into a state of sicknesse and danger , and yet are made to believe they are in perfect health ; and they do actions concerning which they never made a question whether they were just or no ; nor were ever taught by what names to call them . For while they observe that modesty is sometimes abused by a false name and called clownishnesse , & want of breeding ; and contentednesse and temperate living is suppressed to be want of courage and noble thoughts ; and severity of life is called imprudent and unsociable ; and simplicity and hearty honesty is counted foolish and unpolitick , they are easily tempted to honour prodigality and foolish dissolution of their estates with the title of liberal and noble usages , timorousnesse is called caution , rashnesse is called quicknesse of spirit , covetousnesse , is fragality , amorousnesse is society , and gentile ; peevishnesse and anger is courage , flattery is humane , and courteous ; and under these false vails vertue slips away ( like truth from under the hand of the● that fight for her ) and leave vices dressed up withthe same imag●●y , and the fraud not discovered , till the day of recompences , when men are distinguished by their rewards . But so men think they sleep freely when their spirits are loaden with a Lethargy and they call a hestick-feaver the vigour of a natural heat , tell nature changes those lesse discerned states into the notorious images of death . Very many men never consider whether they sin or no in 10000. of their actions , every one of which is very disputable ; and do not think they are bound to consider : these men are to be pitied and instructed , they are to be called upon to use religion like a daily diet ; their consciences must be made tender and their Catechisme enlarged ; teach them , and make them sensible and they are cured . But the other in this place are more considerable ; Men sin without observation because their actions have no restraint of an expresse Commandment , no letter of the law to condemn them by an expresse sentence . And this happens , when the crime is comprehended under a general notion without the instancing of particulars ; for if you search over all the Scripture you shall never finde incest named and marked with the black character of death ; and there are diveres sorts of uncleannesse , to which Scripture therefore gives no name , because she would have them have no being ; And it had been necessary that God should have described all particulars and all kindes , if he had not given reason to man. For so it is fit that a guide should point out every turning , if he be to teach a childe or a fool to return under his fathers roof : But he that bids us avoid intemperance for fear of a feaver , supposes you to be sufficiently instructed that you may avoid the plague ; and when to look upon a woman with lust is condemned , it will not be necessary to adde , you must not do more , when even the least is forbidden ; and when to uncover the nakednesse of Noah brought an universal plague upon the posterity of Cham , it was not necessary that the law-giver should say , you must not ascend to your fathers bed , or draw the curtains from your sisters retirements . When the Athenians forbad to transports figs from Athens , there was no need to name the gardens of Alcibiades , much lesse was it necessary to adde that Chabrias should send no plants to Sparta . What so ever is comprised under the general notion , and partakes of the common nature and the same iniquity , needs no special prohibition , unlesse we think we can mock God and elude his holy precepts with an absurd trick of mistaken Logick . I am sure that will not save us harmlesse from a thunderbolt . 2. Men sin without an expresse prohibition when they commit a thing that is like a forbidden evil . And when Saint Paul had reckoned many works of the flesh , he addes [ and such like . ] all that have the same unreasonablenesse & carna●●ty . For thus , poligamy is unlawful ; for if it be not lawful for a Christian to put away his wife and marry another ( unlesse for adultery ) much lesse may he keep a first and take a second , when the first is not put away ; If a Christian may not be drunk with wine , neither may he be drunk with passion ; if he may not kill his neighbour , neither then must he tempt him to sin ; for that destroyes him more : if he may not wound him , then he may not perswade him to intemperance , and a drunken feaver ; if it be not lawful to cozen a man , much lesse is it permitted that he make a man a fool , and a beast , and exposed to every mans abuse and to all ready evils . And yet men are taught to start at the one half of these , and make no conscience of the other half ; whereof some have a greater basenesse then the other that are named , and all have the same unreasonablenesse . 3. A man is guilty , even when no law names his action , if he does any thing that is a cause or an effect , a part or unhandsome adjunct of a forbidden instance ; he that forbad all intemperance , is as much displeased with the infinite of foolish talk that happens at such meetings , as he is at the spoiling of the drink and the destroying the health . If God cannot endure wantonnesse , how can he suffer lascivious dressings , tempting circumstances , wanton eyes , high diet ? if idlenesse be a sin , then al immoderate mispending of our time , all long and tedious games , all absurd contrivances how to throw away a precious hour and a day of salvation also , are against God and against religion . He that is commanded to be charitable it is also intended he should not spend his money vainely , but be a good husband and provident that he may be able to give to the poor , as he would be to purchase a Lordship , or pay his daughters portion : and upon this stock it is that Christian religion forbids jeering , and immoderate laughter and reckon jestings amongst the things that are unseemly . This also would be considered . 4. Besides the expresse laws of our religion , there is an universal line and limit to our passions and designes , which is called the anology of Christianity ; that is , the proportion of its sanctity and strictnesse of its holy precepts . This is not forbidden , but does this become you ? Is it decent to see a Christian live in plenty and ease and heap up mony and never to partake of Christs passions , there is no law against a Judge , his being a dresser of gardens or a gatherer of Sycamore fruits , but it becomes him not , and deserves a reproof . If I do exact justice to my neighbour and cause him to be punished legally for all the evils he makes me suffer , I have not broken a fragment from the stony tables of the law : but this is against the analogy of our religion ; It does not become a Disciple of so gentle a master to take all advantages that he can . Christ , that quitted all the glories that were essential to him , and that grew up in his nature when he lodged in his Fathers bosom , Christ that suffered all the evils due for the sins of mankinde , himself remaining most innocent , Christ , that promised persecution , injuries and affronts as part of our present portion , and gave them to his Disciples as a legacy , and gave us his spirit to enable us to suffer injuries ; and made that the parts of suffering evils should be the matter of three or four Christian graces , of patience of fortitude of longanimity and perseverance ; he that of eight beatitudes made that five of them should be instanced in the matter of humiliation and suffering temporal inconvenience , that blessed Master was certainly desirous that his Disciples should take their crowns from the crosse , not from the evennesse and felicities of the world ; He intended we should give something , and suffer more things , and forgive all things , all injuries whatsoever ; and though together with this may consist our securing a just interest ; yet in very many circumstances we shall be put to consider how far it becomes us , to quit something of that , to pursue peace ; and when we have secured the letter of the law , that we also look to its analogy ; when we do what we are striectly bound to , then also we must consider what becomes us , who are disciples of such a Master , who are instructed with such principles , charmed with so severe precepts and invited with the certainty of infinite rewards . Now although this discourse may seem new and strange , and very severe , yet it is infinitely reasonable , because Christianity is a law of love , and voluntary services ; it can in no sense be confined with laws and strict measures ; well may the Ocean receive its limits , and the whole capacity of fire be glutted , and the grave have his belly so full , that it shal cast up al its bowels and disgorge the continual meal of so many thousand years ; but love can never have a limit ; and it is indeed to be swallowed up but nothing can fill it but God , who hath no bound . Christianity is a law for sons , not for servants ; and God that gives his grace without measure , and rewards without end , and acts of favour beyond our askings , and provides for us beyond our needs , and gives us counsels beyond commandments , intends not to be limited out by the just evennesses and stricken measures of the words of a commandment . Give to God full measure , shaken together , pressed down , heaped up , and running over ; for God does so to us ; and when we have done so to him , we are infinitely short of the least measure of what God does for us ; we are still unprofitable servants . And therefore as the breaking any of the laws of Christianity provoks God to anger , so the prevaricating in the analogy of Christianity stirres him up to jealousie : He hath reason to suspect our hearts are not right with him , when we are so reserved in the matter and measures of our services : and if we will give God but just what he calls for by expresse mandate , it is just in him to require all of that at our hands without any abatement & then we are sure to miscarry . And let us remember that when God said he was a jealous God he expressed the meaning of it to be , he did punish to the third and fourth generation . Jelousie is like the rage of a man : but if it be also like the anger of God , it is insupportable and will crush us into the ruines of our grave . But because these things are not frequently considered , there are very many sins committed against religion , which because the commandment hath not marked men , refuse to mark , and think God requires no more . I am entred into a sea of matter , which I must not now prosecute ; but I shall onely note this to you that it is but reasonable , we should take accounts of our lives , by the proportions as well as by the expresse rules , of our religion ; because in humane and civil actions all the nations of the world use so to call their subjects to account . For that which in the accounts of men is called reputation and publick honesty , is the same which in religion we call analogy and proportion ; in both cases there being some things , which are besides the notices of laws , and yet are the most certain consignations of an excellent vertue . He is a base person that does any thing against publick honesty and yet no man can be punished if he marries a wife the next day after his first wives funeral : and so he that prevaricates the proportions and excellent reasons of Christianity , is a person without zeal , and without love : and unlesse care be taken of him he will quickly be without religion . But yet these I say are a sort of persons which are to be used with gentlenesse , and treated with compassion ; for no man must be handled roughly to force him to do a kindnesse : and coercion of laws and severity of Judges , serjeants and executioners are against offenders of commandments ; But the way to cure such persons is the easiest and gentellest remedy of all others . They are to be instructed in all the parts of duty , and invited forward by the consideration of the great rewards which are laid up for all the sons of God , who serve him without constraint , without measures and allayes , even as fire burns , and as the roses grow , even as much as they can , and to all the extent of their natural and artificial capacities For it is a thing fit for our compassion , to see men fettered in the iron bands of laws and yet to break the golden chains of love but all those instruments which are proper to enkindle the love of God and to turn fear into charity are the proper instances of that compassion which is to be used towards these men . 2. The next sort of those who are in the state of sin , and yet to be handled gently and with compassion are those who entertain themselves with the beginnings and little entrances of sin , which as they are to be more pitied because they often come by reason of inadvertancy , and an unavoidable weaknesse in many degrees , so they are more to be taken care of , because they are undervallued & undiscernably run into inconvenience ; when we see a childe strike a servant rudely , or jeere a silly person , or wittily cheat his play-fellow , or talk words light as the skirt of a summer garment , we laugh and are delighted with the wit and confidence of the boy ; and incourage such hopeful beginnings ; and in the mean time we consider not that from these beginnings he shall grow up till he become a Tyrant , an oppressor , a Goat and a Traytor . Nemo simul malus fit & malus esse cernitur ; sicut nec scorpijs tum innascuntur stimuli cum pungunt No man is discerned to be vitious so soon as he is so , and vices have their infancy and their childe-hood and it cannot be expected that in a childs age should be the vice of a man ; that were monstrous as if he wore a beard in his cradle ; and we do not believe that a serpents sting does just then grow when he stricks us in a vital part : The venome and the little spear was there , when it first began to creep from his little shell : And little boldnesses and looser words and wranglings for nuts , and lying for trifles , are of the same proportion to the malice of a childe , as impudence and duels and injurious law-suits , and false witnesse in judgement & perjuries are in men . And the case is the same when men enter upon a new stock of any sin ; the vice is at first apt to be put out of countenance and a little thing discourages it ; and it amuses the spirit with words , and phantastick images , and cheape instances of sin ; and men think themselves safe because they are as yet safe from laws , and the sin does not as yet out cry the healthful noise of Christs loud cryings and intercession with his Father , nor call for thunder or an amazing judgement ; but according to the old saying the thornes of Dauphine will never fetch blood if they do not scratch the first day : & we shal finde that the little undecencies and riflings of our souls , the first openings and disparkings of our vertue differ onely from the state of perdition , as infancy does from old age , as sicknesse from death ; It is the entrance into those regions whether whosoever passes finally , shall lie down and groan with an eternal sorrow . Now in this case it may happen that a compassion may ruine a man , if it be the pity of an indiscreet mother , and nurse the sin from its weaknesse to the strength of habit and impudence ; The compassion that is to be used to such persons is the compassion of a Phisitian or a severe Tutor ; chastise thy infant-sinne by discipline , and acts of vertue ; and never begin that way from whence you must return with some trouble , and much shame , or else if you proceed , you finish your eternal ruine . He that means to be temperate and avoid the crime and dishonour of being a drunkard must not love to partake of the songs or to bear a part in the foolish scenes of laughter which destract wisdome and fright her from the company ; And Lavina that was chaster then the elder Sabines , and severer then her Philosophical guardian , was wel instructed in the great lines of honour and cold justice to her husband ; but when she gave way to the wanton ointments & looser circumstances of the Baie and bathed often in Avernus , and from thence hurried to the companies and dressings of Lucrinus , she quenched her honour , and gave her vertue and her body as a spoil to the follies and intemperance of a young gentle-man . For so have I seen the little purles of a spring sweat thorow the bottom of a bank and intenerate the stubborn pavement till it hath made it fit for the impression of a childes foot , and it was despised like the descending pearls of a misty morning , till it had opened its way , and made a stream large enough to carry away the ruines of the undermined strand , and to invade the neighbouring gardens : but then the despised drops were grown into an artificial river and an intolerable mischief : so are the first entrances of sin , stop'd with the antidotes of a hearty prayer , and checked into sobriety , by the eye of a Reverend man , or the counsells of a single sermon : But when such beginnings are neglected and our religion hath not in it so much Philosophy as to think any thing evil as long as we can endure it , they grow up to ulcers and pestilential evils ; they destroy the soul by their aboad , who at their first entry might have been killed with the pressure of a little finger . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Those men are in a condition in which they may if they please pity themselves ; keep their green wounds from festering and uncleanlinesse and it will heal alone , non procul absunt , they are not far from the kingdom of Heaven , but they are not within its portion ; and let me say this , that although little sins have not yet made our condition desperate but left it easily recoverable , yet it is a condition that is quite out of Gods favour : although they are not far advanced in their progresse to ruine , yet they are not at all in the state of grace , and therefore though they are to be pitied and relieved accordingly , yet that supposes the incumbency of a present misery . 3. There are some very much to be pitied and assisted because they are going to hell and ( as matters stand with them ) they cannot , or they think they cannot avoid it . Quidam ad alienum dormiunt somnum ad alienum edunt appetitum : amare & odisse ( res omnium maximè liberas ) jubentur . There are some persons whose life is so wholly in dependance from others , that they sleep when others please ; they eat and drink according to their Masters appetite , or intemperance : they are commanded to love or hate , and are not left free in the very Charter and priviledges of nature : Miserum est servire sub Dominis parùm felicibus , for suppose the Prince or the Patron be vitious , suppose he calls his servants to bathe their souls in the goblets of intemperance : if he be also imperious ( for such persons love not to be contradicted in their vices ) it is the losse of that mans fortune , not to lose his soul : and it is the servants excuse and he esteems it also his glory , that he can tell a merry tale , how his Master and himself did swim in drink , till they both talked like fools , and then did lie down like beasts . — Facinus quos inquinat aequat . There is then no difference , but that the one is the fairest bull and the master of the heard . And how many Tenents and Relatives are known to have a servile conscience and to know no affirmation or negation but such as shall serve their Land-lords interest ? Alas the poor men live by it , and they must beg their bread if ever they turn recreant , or shall offer to be honest . There are some trades whose very foundations is laid in the vice of others ; and in many others if a threed of deceit do not quite run thorow all their negotiations , they decay into the sorrows of beggery ; and therefore they will support their neighbours vice , that he may support their trade : And what would you advise those men to do , to whom a false oath is offered to their lips , and a dagger at their heart : their reason is surprized , and their choice is seized upon , and all their consultation is arrested ; and if they did not prepare before hand , and stand armed with religion , and perfect resolutions , would not any man fall , and think that every good man will say his case is pitiable . Although no temptation is bigger then the grace of God , yet many temptations are greater then our strengths , and we do not live at the rate of a mighty and a victorious grace . Those persons which cause these vitious necessities upon their brethren will lie low in hell ; but the others will have but small comfort in feeling a lesser damnation . Of the same consideration it is , when ignorant people are Catechized into false doctrine , and know nothing but such principles which weaken the nerves , and enfeeble the joynts of holy living ; they never heard of any other ; those that follow great and evil examples ; the people that are ingaged in the publike sins of a kingdom wihch they understand not , and either must venture to be undone upon the strength of their own little reasonings , and weak discoursings , or else must go quâ itur , non quâ eundum est , there where the popular misery hath made the way plain before their eyes , though it be uneven and dangerous to their consciences . In these cases I am forced to reckon a Catalogue of mischiefs ; but it will be hard to cure any of them . Aristippus in his discourses was a great flatterer of Dionysius of Sicily , and did own doctrines which might give an easinesse to some vices , and knew not how to contradict the pleasures of his Prince ; but seemed like a person disposed to partake of them , that the example of a Philosopher , and the practise of a King might do countenance to a shamefull life . But when Dionysius sent him two women , slaves , fair , and young , he sent them back and shamed the easinesse of his doctrine by the severity of his manners , he daring to be vertuous when he was alone , though in the presence of him , whom he thought it necessary to flatter , he had no boldnesse to own the vertue : So it is with too many ; if they be left alone , and that they stand unshaken with the eye of their tempter , or the authority of their Lord , they go whither their education or their custome carries them : but it is not in some natures to deny the face of a man , and the boldnesse of a sinner ; and which is yet worse , it is not in most mens interest to do it ; these men are in a pitiable condition , and are to be helped by the following rules . 1. Let every man consider that he hath two relations to serve , and he stands between God and his Master , or his neerest relative : and in such cases it comes to be disputed whether interest be preferred ; which of the persons is to be displeased , God or my Master , God or my Prince , God or my Friend ? If we be servants of the man ; remember also that I am a servant of God ; adde to this , that if my present service to the man be a slavery in me , and a tyranny in him , yet Gods service is a noble freedom : And Apollonius said well . It was for slaves to lie , and for free men to speak the truth . If you be freed by the blood of the Son of God , then you are free indeed : and then consider how dishonourable it is to lie , to the displeasure of God , and onely to please your fellow-servant . The difference here is so great , that it might be sufficient onely to consider the antithesis . Did the man make you what you are ? Did he pay his blood for you , to save you from death ? Does he keep you from sicknesse ? True. You eat at his table ; but they are of Gods provisions that he and you feed of . Can your master free you from a fever , when you have drunk your self into it ? and restore your innocence when you have forsworn your self for his interest ? Is the change reasonable ? He gives you meat and drink for which you do him service . But is not he a Tyrant , and an usur●per , an oppressor , and an extortioner , if he will force thee to give thy soul for him ? to sell thy soul for old-shoes , and broken bread ? But when thou art to make thy accounts of eternity , will it be taken for an answer , My Patron , or my Governour , my Prince , or my Master , forced me to it ? or if it will not . Will he undertake a por●tion of thy flames ? or if that may not be , will it be in the midst of all thy torments , any ease to thy sorrows to remember all the rewards and clothes , all the money , and civilities , all the cheerfull looks , and familiarity , and fellowship of vices which in your life time made your spirit so gay and easie ? It will in the eternall loads of sorrow , adde a duplicate of groans and indignation , when it shall be remembred for how base and trifling interest , and upon what weak principles we fell sick and died eternally . 2. The next advise to persons thus tempted is , that they would learn to separate duty from mistaken interest ; and let them be both served in their just proportions , when we have learned to make a difference . A wife is bound to her husband in all his just designes , and in all noble usages and Christian comportments : But a wife is no more bound to pursue her husbands vitious hatreds , then to serve and promote his unlawfull and wandring loves : It is not alwayes a part of duty to think the same propositions , or to curse the same persons , or to wish him successe in unjust designes : And yet the sadnesse of it is , that a good woman is easily tempted to beleeve the cause to be just , and when her affection hath forced her judgement , her judgement for ever after shall carry the affection to all its erring and abused determinations . A friend is turned a flatterer if he does not know , that the limits of friendship extend no further then the pale and inclosures of reason and religion . No Master puts it into his covenant that his servant shall be drunk with him , or give in evidence in his Masters cause , according to his Masters scrolls : and therefore it is besides and against the duty of a servant to sin by that authority ; it is as if he should set Mules to keep his sheep , or make his Dogs to carry burdens ▪ it is besides their nature and designe ; and if any person falls under so tyrannicall relation , let him consider how hard a Master he serves ; where the Devil gives the imployment , and shame is his entertainment , and sin is his work , and hell is his wages . Take therefore the counsel of the son of Syrac . Accept no person against thy soul , and let not the reverence of any man cause thee to fall . 3. When passion mingles with duty , and is a necessary instrument of serving God , let not that passion run its own course and passe on to liberty , and thence to licence and dissolution : but let no more of it be entertained , then will just do the work . For no zeal of duty will warrant a violent passion to prevaricate a duty . I have seen some officers of Warre in passion and zeal of their duty , have made no scruple to command a souldier with the dialect of cursing and accents of swearing , and pretended they could not else speak words effective enough , and of sufficient authority ; and a man may easily be overtaken in the issues of his government ; while his authority serves it still with passion , if he be not curious in his measures , his passion will also serve it self upon the authority and over rule the Ruler . 4. Let every such tempted person remember , that all evil comes from our selves and not from others ; and therefore all pretences and prejudices , all commands and temptations , all opinions and necessities , are but instances of our weaknesse , and arguments of our folly : For unlesse we listed , no man can make us drink beyond our measures : And if I tell a lie for my Masters or my friends advantage , it is because I prefer a little end of money , or flattery before my honour and my innocence . They are huge follies which go up and down in the mouthes and heads of men . [ He that knows not how to dissemble , knows not how to reigne . [ He that will not do as his company does , must go out of the world , and quit all society of men : We create necessities of our own , and then think we have reason to serve their importunity . Non ego sum ambitiosus , sed nemo aliter Romae potest vivere , non ego sumptuosus , sed urbs ipsa magnas impensas exigit . Non est meum vitium quod iracundus sum , quod nondum constitui certum vitae genus adolescentia haec facit . The place we live in makes us expensive , the state of life I have chosen renders me ambitious , my age makes me angry or lustfull , proud or peevish . These are nothing else but resolutions never to mend as long as we can have excuse for our follies , and untill we can cozen our selves no more . There is no such thing as a necessity for a Prince to dissemble , or for a servant to lie , or for a friend to flatter , for a civil person and a sociable , to be drunk : we cozen our selves with thinking the fault is so much derivative from others , till the smart and the shame falls upon our selves , and covers our heads with sorrow . And unlesse this gap be stopped , and that we build our duty upon our own bottoms , as supported with the grace of God , there is no vice but may finde a Patron ; and no age or relation , or state of life , but will be an engagement to sin : And we shall think it necessary to be lustfull in our youth , and revengefull in our manhood , and covetous in our old age : and we shall perceive that every state of men , and every trade and profession , lives upon the vices of others , or upon their miseries ; and therefore they will think it necessary to promote , or to wish it . If men were temperate , Physitians would be poor : and unlesse some Princes were ambitious , or others injurious , there would be no imployment for souldiers . The Vintners retail supports the Merchants trade , and it is a vice that supports the Vintners retail ; and if all men were wise and sober persons , we should have fewer beggers , and fewer rich ; and if our Law-givers should imitate Demades of Athens , who condemned a man that lived by selling things belonging to funeralls , as supposing he could not choose but wish the death of men , by whose dying he got his living , we should finde most men accounted criminalls , because vice is so involved in the affairs of the world , that it is made the support of many trades and the businesse of great multitudes of men : Certainly from hence it is that iniquity does so much abound ; and unlesse we state our questions right , and perceive the evil to be designed onely from our selves , and that no such pretence shall keep off the punishment 〈◊〉 the shame from our selves , we shall fall into a state which is onely capable of compassion because it is irrecoverable : and then we shall be infinitely miserable , when we can onely receive an u●●lesse and ineffective pity . Whatsoever is necessary cannot be avoided : He therefore that shall say , he cannot avoid his sin , is out of the mercies of this Text : they who are appointed Guides , & Physitians of souls cannot to any purpose do their offices of pity . It is necessary that we serve God , and do our duty , and secure the interest of our souls , and be as carefull to preserve our relations to God , as to our friend , or Prince . But , if it can be necessary for any man , in any condition to sin , it is also necessary for that man to perish . Sermon . XVII . The severall states and degrees of Sinners , WITH The manner how they are to be treated . Part II. 4. THe last sort of them that sin , and yet are to be treated with compassion , is of them that interrupt the course of an honest life with single acts of sin , stepping aside and starting like a broken bowe ; whose resolution stands fair , and their hearts are towards God , and they sojourn in religion , or rather , dwell there ; but that like evil husbands they go abroad , and enter into places of dishonour and unthriftinesse . Such as these , all stories remember with a sad character ; and every narrative concerning David which would end in honour and fair report , is sullied with the remembrances of Bathsheba : and the Holy Ghost hath called him a man after Gods own heart , save in the matter of Vriah ; there indeed he was a man after his own heart ; even then when his reason was stolne from him by passion , and his religion was sullied by the beauties of a fair woman . I wish we lived in an age in which the people were to be treated with , concerning renouncing the single actions of sin , and the seldome interruptions of piety : Men are taught to say , that every man sins in every action he does ; and this is one of the doctrines , for the beleeving of which he shall be accounted a good man ; and upon this ground it is easie for men to allow themselves some sins , when in all cases , and in every action it is unavoidable . I shall say nothing of the Question , save that the Scripture reckons otherwise , * and in the accounts of Davids life reckon but one great sin , * and in Zachary and Elizabeth gave a testimony of an unblameable conversation ; * and Hezekiah did not make his confession when he prayed to God in his sicknesse and said he had walked uprightly before God , * and therefore Saint Paul after his conversion designed and laboured hard , & therefore certainly with hopes to accomplish it , that he might keep his conscience void of offence both towards God and towards man , * and one of Christs great purposes is to present his whole Church pure and spotlesse to the throne of grace , and * Saint John the Baptist offended none but Herod , * and no pious Christian brought a bill of accusation against the holy Virgin Mother ; * certain it is , that God hath given us precepts of such a holinesse and such a purity , such a meeknesse and such humility as hath no pattern but Christ , no precedent but the purities of God : and therefore it is intended we should live with a life whose actions are not checker'd with white and black , half sin and half vertue : Gods sheep are not like Jacobs flock streaked and spotted : it is an intire holinesse that God requires , and will not endure to have a holy course interrupted by the dishonour of a base and ignoble action . I do not mean that a mans life can be as pure as the Sun or the rayes of celestial Jerusalem ; but like the Moon in which there are spots ; but they are no deformity ; a lessening onely and an abatement of light , no cloud to hinder and draw a vail before its face ; but sometimes it is not so serene and bright as at other times . Every man hath his indiscretions and infirmities , his arrests and sudden incursions , his neighbourhoods and semblances of sin , his little vidences to reason and peevish melancholy ▪ and humorous Phantastick discourses ; unaptnesses to a d●●out prayer , his fondnesses to judge favourably in his own cases ▪ little deceptions , and voluntary and involuntary cousena●es , ignorances and inadvertencies , carelesse hours , and unwatchful ●easons , but no good man ever commits one act of adultery ; no godly man wil at any time be drunk or if he be , he ceases to be a godly man , and is run into the confines of death , and is sick at he●●t , and may die of the sicknesse , die eternally . This happens more frequently in persons of an infant piety , when the vertue is not corroborated by a long abode and a confirmed resolution , and an usual victory and a triumphant grace , and the longer we are accustomed to piety the more infrequent will be the little breaches of folly , and a returning sin . But as the needle of a compasse , when it is directed to its beloved star , at the first addresses waves on either side , and seems indifferent in his courtship of the rising or declining sun , and when it seems first determined to the North , stands a while trembling , as if it suffered inconvenience in the first fruition of its desires and stands not still in a full enjoyment till after , first , a great variety of motion , and then an undisturbed posture : so is the piety , and so is the conversion of a man ; wrought by degrees and several steps of imperfection ; and at first our choices are wavering , convinced by the grace of God and yet not perswaded , and then perswaded but not resolved , and then resolved but deferring to begin , and then beginning , but ( as all beginnings are ) in weaknesse and uncertainty , and we flie out often into huge indiscretions and look back to Sodom and long to return to Egypt ; and when the storm is quite over we finde little bublings and unevennesses upon the face of the waters , we often weaken our own purposes by the returns of sin , and we do not call our selves conquerours till by the long possession of vertues it is a strange and unusual , and therefore an uneasy and unpleasant thing to act a crime . When Polemon of Athens by chance coming into the schools of Xenocrates was reformed upon the hearing of that one lecture , some wise men gave this censure of him ; peregrinatus est hujus animus in nequitiâ , non habitavit , his minde wandred in wickednesse and travelled in it , but never dwelt there ; the same is the case of some men ; they make inroads into the enemies countrey , not like enemies to spoil , but like Dinah to be satisfied with the stranger beauties of the land , till their vertues are defloured and they enter into tragedies , and are possessed by death , and intolerable sorrows ; but because this is like the fate of Jacobs daughter and happens not by designe , but folly , not by malice , but surprise , not by the strength of will , but by the weaknesse of grace , and yet carries a man to the same place whether a great vice usually does , it is hugely pitiable , and the persons are to be treated with compassion and to be assisted by the following considerations and exercises . First let us consider , that for a good man to be overtake in a single crime is the greatest dishonour and unthriftinesse in the whole world . As a fly in a box of ointment , so is a little folly to him who is accounted wise , said the Son of Sirach : No man chides a fool for his weaknesses , or scorns a childe for playing with flies and preferring the present appetite , before all the possibilities of to morrows event : But men wondered when they saw Socrates ride upon a cane ; and when Solomon laid his wisdom at the foot of Pharaohs daughter , and changed his glory for the interest of wanton sleep , he became the discourse of heaven and earth : and men think themselves abused , and their expectation cousened when they see a wise man do the actions of a fool , and a good man seized upon by the dishonours of a crime . But the losse of his reputation is the least of his evil . It is the greatest improvidence in the world to let a healthful constitution be destroyed in the surfet of one night . For although , when a man by the grace of God and a long endeavour hath obtained the habit of Christian graces , every single sin does not spoil the habit of vertue , because that cannot be lost but as it was gotten , that is , by parts , and succession , yet every crime interrupts the acceptation of the grace , and makes the man to enter into the state of enmity , and displeasure with God. The habit is onely lessened naturally , but the value of it is wholly taken away : and in this sence is that of Josephus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Saint James well renders . He that keeps the whole law and offends in one point is guilty of all ; that is , if he prevaricates in any commandment , the transgression of which by the law was capital , shall as certainly die as if he broke the whole law ; and the same is the case of those single actions which the school calls deadly sins , that is , actions of choice in any sin that hath a name , and makes a Kinde & hath a distinct matter . And sins once pardoned return again to al the purposes of mischief . If we by a new sin forfeit Gods former loving kindnesse . When the righteous man turneth from his righteousnesse and commiteth iniquity , all his righteousnesse that he hath done shall not be remembred , in the trespasse that he hath trespassed , and in the sin that he hath sinned , in them shall he die . Now then consider how great a fool he is who when he hath with much labour & by suffering violence contradicted his first desires ; when his spirit hath been in agony and care , and with much uneasinesse hath denied to please the lower man , when with many prayers and groans and innumerable sighs and strong cryings to God with sharp sufferances and a long severity , he hath obtained of God to begin his pardon and restitution , and that he is in some hopes to return to Gods favour , and that he shall become an heire of heaven ▪ when some of his amazing fears and distracting cares begin to be taken off , when he begins to think , that now it is not certain he shall perish in a sad eternity , but he hopes to be saved and he considers how excellent a condition that is , he hopes when he dies to go to God , and that he shall never enter into the possession of Devils ; and this state , which is but the twilight of a glorious felicity , he hath obtained with great labour and much care , and infinite danger ; that this man should throw all this structure down , and then when he is ready to reap the fruits of his labours , by one indiscreet action , to set fire upon his corn fields , and destroy all his dearly earned hopes , for the madnesse and loose wandrings of an hour ; This man is an indiscreet gamester ; who doubles his stake as he thrives , and at one throw is dispossessed of all the prosperities of a luckie hand . They that are poor ( as Plutarch observes ) are carelesse of little things , because by saving them , they think no great moments can accrue to their estates , and they despairing to be rich , think such frugality impertinent : But they that feele their banks swell , and are within the possibilities of wealth , think it useful if they reserve the smaller minuts of expence , knowing that every thing will adde to their heap ; but then after long sparing , in one night to throw away the wealth of a long purchase , is an imprudence becoming none but such persons who are to be kept under Tutors and Guardians , and such as are to be chastised by their servants , and to be punished by them whom they clothe and feed . — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . These men sowe much , and gather little , stay long and return empty , and after a long voyage they are dashed in pieces when their vessels are laden with the spoils of provinces . Every deadly sin destroyes the rewards of a seven years piety ; I adde to this , that God is more impatient at a sin committed by his servants then at many by persons that are his enemies ; and an uncivil answer from a son to a Father , from an obliged person to a benefactor is a greater undecency , then if an enemy should storm his house or revile him to his head . Augustus Caesar taxed all the world and God took no publick notices of it ; but when David taxed and numbered a petty province it was not to be expiated without a plague ; because such persons , besides the direct sin , adde the circumstance of ingratitude to God , who hath redeemed them from their vain conversation and from death , and from hell , and consigned them to the inheritance of sons and given them his grace and his spirit , and many periods of comfort ▪ and a certain hope and visible earnests of immortality ; nothing is baser then that such a person against his reason , against his interest , against his God , against so many obligations , against his custome , against his very habits and acquired inclinations should do an action . Quam nisi Seductis nequeas committere Divis Which a man must for ever be ashamed of , and like Adam must run from God himself to do it , and depart from the state in which he had placed all his hopes , and to which he had designed all his labours . The consideration is effective enough , if we sum up the particulars ; for he that hath lived well and then falls into a deliberate sin , is infinitely dishonoured , is most imprudent , most unsafe , and most unthankful . 2. Let persons tempted to the single instances of sin in the midst of a laudable life , be very careful that they suffer not themselves to be drawn aside by the eminency of great examples . For some think drunkennesse hath a little honesty derived unto it by the examples of Noah , and Adultery is not so scandalous and intolerably dishonorable , since Bathsheba bathed , and David was defiled and men think a flight is no cowardise , if a General turns his head and runs . Pompeio fugiente timent Well might all the gowned Romans fear when Pompey fled , and who is there that can hope to be more righteous then David , or stronger then Samson , or have lesse hypocrisy then Saint Peter , or be more temperate then Noah ? These great examples bear men of weak discourses and weaker resolutions from the severity of vertues . But as Diagoras to them that shewed to him the votive garments of those that had escaped shipwrack upon their prayers and vows to Neptune answered , that they kept no account of those that prayed and vowed , and yet were drowned : So do these men keep catalogues of those few persons who broke the third of a fair life in sunder with the violence of a great crime , and by the grace of God recovered and repented and lived ; But they consider not concerning those infinite numbers of men , who died in their first fit of sicknesse , who after a fair voyage have thrown themselves over boord , and perished in a sudden wildnesse , One said well , Si quid Socrates , aut Aristippus contra morem et consuetudinem fecerunt , idem sibi ne arbitretur licere . Magnis enim illi & divinis bonis hanc licentiam assequebantur . If Socrates did any unusual thing , it is not for thee who art of an ordinary vertue to assume the same licence ; For he by a divine and excellent life hath obtained leave or pardon respectively , for what thou must never hope for , till thou hast arrived to the same glories . First be as devout as David , as good a Christian as Saint Peter , and then thou wilt not dare with designe to act that , which they fell into by surprize ; and if thou doest fall as they did , by that time thou hast also repented like them , it may be said concerning thee , that thou dist fall and break thy bones , but God did heal thee and pardon thee , Remember that all the damned soules shall bear an eternity of torments for the pleasures of a short sinfulnesse ; but for a single trasient action , to die for ever , is an intolerable exchange and the effect of so great a folly , that whosoever falls into and then considers it , it will make him mad and distracted for ever . 3. Remember , that since no man can please God or bE partakers of any promises , or reap the reward of any actions in the returnes of eternity , unlesse he performs to God an intir duty , according to the capacities of a man so taught , and so tempted , and so assisted , such a person must be curious that he be not cozened with the duties and performances of any one relation , 1. Some there are that think all our religion consists in prayers and publick or private offices of devotion , and not in moral actions or entercourses of justice and temperance , of kindnesse and friendships of sincerity and liberality , of chastity and humility , of repentance and obedience : indeed no humour is so easie to be counterfeited as devotion , and yet no hypocrisy is more common among men , nor any so uselesse as to God ; for it being an addresse to him alone who knows the heart and all the secret purposes , it can do no service in order to heaven , so long as it is without the power of Godlinesse , and the energy and vivacity of a holy life . God will not suffer us to commute a duty , because all is his due ; and religion shall not pay for the want of temperance : if the devoutest Hermit be proud , or he that fasts thrice in the week be uncharitable once ; or he that gives much to the poor , gives also too much liberty to himself , he hath planted a fair garden , and invited a wilde boar to refresh himself under the shade of the fruit trees , and his guest being something rude hath disordered his paradise , and made it become a wildernesse , 2. Others there are that judge themselves by the censures that Kings and Princes give concerning them , or as they are spoken of by their betters , and so make false judgements concerning their condition . For our betters to whom we show our best parts , to whom we speak with caution and consider what we represent , they see our arts and our dressings , but nothing of our nature and deformities ; Trust not their censures concerning thee , but to thy own opinion of thy self , whom thou knowest in thy retirements and natural peevishnesse and unhandsome inclinations , and secret basenesse , 3. Some men have been admired abroad , in whom the wife and the servant never saw any thing excellent : a rare judge and a good common-wealths man in the streets , and publick meetings , and a just man to his neighbour , and charitable to the poor ; for in all these places the man is observed and kept in awe by the Sun , by light and by voices ; But this man is a Tyrant at home , an unkinde husband & ill Father , an imperious Master , and such men are like prophets in their own countreys , not honoured at home and can never be honoured by God , who will not endure that many vertues should excuse a few vices , Or that any of his servants shall take pensions of the Devil , and in the profession of his service do his enemy single advantages . 4. He that hath past many stages of a good life to prevent his being tempted to a single sin must be very careful that he never entertain his spirit with the remembrances of his past sin , nor amuse it with the phantastick apprehensions of the present . When the Israelites fancied the sapidnesse and relish of the flesh pots they longed to tast and to return . So when a Libian Tiger drawn from his wilder forragings is shut up and taught to eat civil meat and suffer the authority of a man , he sits down tamely in his prison and payes to his keeper fear and reverence for his meat : But if he chance to come again and taste a draught of warm blood , he presently leaps into his naturall cruelty . Admonitae tument gustato sanguine fauces , Feruet & à trepido vix abstinet ira Magistro . He scarce abstains from eating those hands that brought him discipline and food : so is the nature of a man made tame and gentle by the grace of God , and reduced to reason , and kept in awe by religion and lawes and by an awfull vertue is taught to forget those alluring and sottish relishes of sin : but if he diverts from his path , and snatches handfuls from the wanton vineyards , and remembers the lasciviousnesse of his unwholesome food that pleased his childish palate , then he grows sick again , and hungry after unwholesome diet , and longs for the apples of Sodom . A man must walk thorow the world without eyes , or ears , fancy , or appetite , but such as are created and sanctified by the grace of God ; and being once made a new man , he must serve all the needs of nature by the appetites and faculties of grace : nature must be wholly a servant , and we must so look towards the deliciousnesse of our religion , and the rayishments of heaven , that our memory must be for ever uselesse to the affairs and perceptions of sin : we cannot stand , wee cannot live , unlesse we be curious and watchfull in this particular . By these and all other arts of the Spirit , if we stand upon our guard , never indulging to our selves one sin , because it is but o●e ; as knowing that one sin brought in death upon all the world , and one sin brought slavery upon the posterity of Cham : and alwa●es fearing lest death surprize us in that one sin ; we shall by the gr●●e of God , either not need , or else easily perceive the effects and blessings of that compassion which God reserves in the secrets of his mercy , for such persons whom his grace hath ordained and disposed with excellent dispositions unto life eternall . These are the sorts of men which are to be used with compassion ; concerning whom we are to make a difference , making a difference ] so sayes the Text , and it is of high concernment that we should do so , that we may relieve the infirmities of the men , and relieve their sicknesses , and transcribe the copy of the Di●●ne mercy , who loves not to quench the smoaking flax , nor break 〈◊〉 bruised reed . For although all sins are against Gods Commandements , directly , or by certain consequents , by line , or by analogy , yet they are not all of the same tincture and mortality . Nec vincit ratio tantundem ut peccet idemque , Qui teneros caules alieni fregerit horti Vt qui nocturnus Diuûm sacra legerit . He that robs a garden of Coleworts , and carries away an armfull of Spinage , does not deserve hell as he that steals the Chalice from the Church , or betrayes a Prince ; and therefore men are distinguished accordingly : Est inter Tanaim quiddam socerumque Viselli . The Poet that Sejanus condemned for dishonouring the memory of Agamemnon , was not an equall criminall with Cataline , or Gracchus : and Simon Magus and the Nicolaitans committed crimes which God hated , more then the complying of S. Barnabas , or the dissimulation of S. Peter ; and therefore God does treat these persons severally : Some of these are restrained with a fit of sicknesse , some with a great losse ; and in these there are degrees , and some arrive at death . And in this manner God scourged the Corinthians for their irreverent and disorderly receiving the Holy Sacrament . For although even the least of the sins that I have discoursed of , will lead to death eternall , if their course be not interrupted , and the disorder chastised , yet because we do not stop their progresse instantly , God many times does , and visits us with proportionable judgements , and so not onely checks the rivulet from swelling into rivers and a vastnesse , but plainly tells us , that although smaller crimes shall not be punished with equall severity as the greatest , yet even in hell there are eternal rods as well as eternal scorpions ; and the smallest crime that we act with an infant-malice , and manly deliberation , shall be revenged with the lesser stroaks of wrath ; but yet with the infliction of a sad eternity . But then that we also should make a difference , is a precept concerning Church discipline , and therefore not here proper to be considered , but onely as it may concern our own particulars in the actions of repentance ; and our brethren in internal correction : — assit Regula quae poenas peccatis irroget aequas , Nec seuticà dignum horribili sectere flagello . Let us be sure that we neglect no sin , but repent for every one , and judge our selves for every one , according to the proportion of the malice , or the scandall , or the danger . And although in this there is no fear that we would be excessive ; yet when we are to reprove a brother we are sharp enough , and either by pride , or by animosity , by the itch of government , or the indignation of an angry minde , we run beyond the gentlenesse of a Christian Monitor ; we must remember that by Christs law some are to be admonished privately , some to be shamed and corrected publikely , and beyond these , there is an abscission , or a cutting off from the communion of faithfull people , A delivering over to Sathan . And to this purpose is that old reading of the words of my Text , which is still in some Copies , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; Reprove them sharply , when they are convinced , or separate by sentence . But because this also is a designe of mercy , acted with an instance of discipline , it is a punishment of the flesh , that the soul may be saved in the day of the Lord , it means the same with the usuall reading , and with the last words of the Text , and teaches us our usage towards the worst of recoverable sinners . Others save with fear , pulling them out of the fire . ] Some sins there are , which in their own nature are damnable , and some are such as will certainly bring a man to damnation ; the first are curable , but with much danger ; the second are desperate and irrecoverable ; when a man is violently tempted , and allured with an object that is proportionable and pleasant to his vigorous appetite , and his unabated , unmortified nature , this man falls into death , but yet we pity him as we pity a thief that robs for his necessity : this man did not tempt himself , but his spirit suffers violence , and his reason is invaded , and his infirmities are mighty , and his aids not yet prevailing : But when this single temptation hath prevailed for a single instance , and leaves a relish upon the palate , and this produces another , and that also is fruitfull and swels into a family and kinred of sin , that is , it grows first into approbation then to a clear assent , and an untroubled conscience , thence into frequency , from thence unto a custome , and easinesse , and a habit , this man is fallen into the fire . There are also some single acts of so great a malice that they must suppose a man habitually sinfull before he could arrive at that height of wickednesse . No man begins his sinfull course with killing of his Father or his Prince ; and Simon Magus had preambulatory impieties ; he was covetous and ambitious , long before he offered to buy the Holy Ghost . Nemo repente fuit turpissimus — and although such actions may have in them the malice and the mischief , the disorder and the wrong , the principle and the permanent effect , of a habit and a long course of sin , yet because they never or very seldom go alone , but after the praedisposition of other h●●shering crimes , we shall not amisse comprise them under the name of habituall sins . For such they are , either formally or equivalently : and if any man hath fallen into a sinfull habit , into a course and order of sinning , his case is little lesser then desperate ; but that little hope that is remanent hath its degree according to the infancy or the growth of the habit . 1. For all sins lesse then habitual , it is certain , a pardon is ready to penitent persons : that is , to all that sin in ignorance , or in infirmity , by surprize , or inadvertency , in smaller instances , or infrequent returns , with involuntary actions , or imperfect resolutions , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Clemens in his Epistles : Lift up your hands to Almighty God , and pray him to be mercifull to you in all things when you sin unwillingly ; that is , in which you sin with an imperfect choice : for no man sins against his will directly , but when his understanding is abused by an inevitable , or an intolerable weaknesse , our wills follow their blind guide , and are not the perfect mistresses of their own actions , and therefore leave a way and easinesse to repent , and be ashamed of it ; and therefore a possibility and readinesse for pardon . And these are the sins that we are taught to pray to God that he would pardon , as he gives us our bread , that is , every day . For in many things we offend all , said Saint James , that is , in many smaller matters , in matters of surprize , or inevitable infirmity : And therefore Posidices said , that Saint Austin was used to say , That he would not have even good and holy Priests go from this world without the susception of equall and worthy penances : and the most innocent life in our account is not a competent instrument of a peremptory confidence , and of justifying our selves : I am guilty of nothing , ( said Saint Paul ) that is , of no ill intent , or negligence in preaching the Gospel , yet I am not hereby justified , for God it may bee knows many little irregularities , and insinuations of sin : In this case we are to make a difference ; but humility , and prayer , and watchfulnesse , are the direct instruments of the expiation of such sinnes . But then secondly , whosoever sins without these abating circumstances , that is , in great instances , in which a mans understanding cannot be cozened ; as in drunkennesse , murder , adultery , and in the frequent repetitions of any sort of sin whatsoever , in which a mans choice cannot be surprized , and in which it is certain there is a love of the sin , and a delight in it , and a power over a mans resolutions ; in these cases it is a miraculous grace , and an extraordinary change , that must turn the current and the stream of the iniquity : and when it is begun , the pardon is more uncertain , and the repentance more difficult , and the effect much abated , and the man must be made miserable that he may be accursed for ever . 1. I say his pardon is uncertain , because there are some sins which are unpardonable , ( as I shall shew ) and they are not all named in particular , and the degrees of malice being uncertain , the salvation of that man is to be wrought with infinite fear and trembling . It was the case of Simon Magus , Repent and ask pardon for thy sin , if peradventure the thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee . If peradventure ; ] it was a new crime , and concerning its possibility of pardon no revelation had been made , and by analogy to other crimes it was very like an unpardonable sin ; for it was a thinking a thought against the Holy Ghost , and that was next to speaking a word against him . Cains sin was of the same nature ; It is greater then it can be forgiven , his passion and his fear was too severe and decretory : it was pardonable , but truly we never finde that God did pardon it . 2. But besides this , it is uncertain in the pardon , because it may be the time of pardon is passed , and though God hath pardoned to other people the same sins , and to thee too sometimes before , yet it may be he will not now : he hath not promised pardon so often as we sin , and in all the returns of impudence , apostacy , and ingratitude ; and it may be thy day is past , as was Jerusalems in the day that they crucified the Saviour of the world . 3. Pardon of such habitual sins is uncertain , because life is uncertain ; and such sins require much time for their abolition and expiation . And therefore although these sins are not necessariò mortifera , that is , unpardonable , yet by consequence they become deadly , because our life may be cut off before we have finished or performed those necessary parts of repentance , which are the severe and yet the onely condition of getting pardon . So that you may perceive , that not onely every great single crime , but the habit of any sin is dangerous ; and therefore these persons are to be snatched from the fire , if you mean to rescue them , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if you stay a day , it may be you stay too long . 4. To which I adde this fourth consideration , that every delay of return is in the case of habitual sins an approach to desperation because the nature of habits is like that of Crocodiles they grow as long as they live ; and if they come to obstinacy , or confirmation , they are in hell already , and can never return back . For so the Pannonian Bears , when they have clasped a dart in the region of their Liver , wheel themselves upon the wound and with anger and malicious revenge strike the deadly barbe deeper , and cannot be quit from that fatal steel , but in flying bear along that which themselves make the instrument of a more hasty death : So is every vitious person struck with a deadly wound , and his own hands forced it into the entertainments of his heart . And because it is painfull to draw it forth by a sharp and salutary repentance he still rouls and turns upon his wound , and carries his death in his bowels , where it first entered by choice , and then dwelt by love , and at last shall finish the tragedy by divine judgements , and an unalterable decree . But as the pardon of these sins is uncertain , so the conditions of restitution are hard , even to them who shall be pardoned : their pardon and themselves too , must be fetched from the fire ; water will not do it , tears and ineffective sorrow cannot take off a habit , or a great crime . O nimium faciles , qui tristia crimina cadis , Tolli flumineâ posse putatis aquâ . Bion seeing a Prince weep and tearing his hair for sorrow , asked if baldnesse would cure his grief ? such pompous sorrows may bee good indices , but no perfect instruments of restitution . Saint James plainly declares the possibilities of pardon to great sins , in the cases of contention , adultery , lust , and envy , which are the four great indecencies that are most contrary to Christianity ; and in the 5. Chap. he implies also a possibility of pardon to an habitual sinner , whom he calls , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , one that erres from the truth , that is , from the life of a Christian , the life of the Spirit of truth : and he addes , that such a person may be reduced and so be pardoned , though he have sinned long ; he that converts such a one , shall hide a multitude of sins : But then the way that he appoints for the restitution of such persons is humilty , and humiliation , penances . and sharp penitentiall sorrows , and afflictions , resisting the Devil , returning to God , weeping and mourning , confessions and prayers , as you may read at large in the 4. and 5. Chapters ; and there it is , that you shall finde it a duty , that such persons should be afflicted , and should confesse to their brethren ; and these are harder conditions then God requires in the former cases ; these are a kinde of fiery tryall . I have now done with my Text , and should adde no more but that the nature of these sins is such that they may increase in their weight , and duration , and malice , and then they increase in mischief , and fatality , and so go beyond the Text. Cicero said well , Ipsa consuetudo assentiendi periculosa esse videtur & lubrica . l. 4. Acad. Qu. The very custome of consenting in the matters of civility is dangerous and slippery , and will quickly ingage us in errour , and then we think we are bound to defend them , or else we are made flatterers by it , and so become vitious ; and we love our own vices that we are used to , and keep them till they are incurable , that is , till we will never repent of them ; and some men resolve never to repent , that is , they resolve they will not be saved , they tread under foot the blood of the everlasting covenant ; those persons are in the fire too , but they will not be pulled out : concerning whom Gods Prophets must say as once concerning Babylon , Curavimus & non est sanata , derelinquamus eam , We would have healed them , but they would not be healed , let us leave them in their sins , and they shall have enough of it ; Onely this , those that put themselves out of the condition of mercy are not to be endured in Christian societies ; they deserve it not , and it is not safe that they should be suffered . But besides all this , I shall name one thing more unto you ; for — nunquam adeò foedis adeoquè pudendis , Vtimur exemplis , ut non pejora supersint . There are some single actions of sin of so great a malice , that in their own nature they are beyond the limit of Gospel pardon : they are not such things for the pardon of which God entered into covenant ; because they are such sins which put a man into perfect indispotisions , and incapacities of entring into , or being in the covenant . In the first ages of the world , Atheisme was of that nature ; it was against their whole religion ; and the sin is worse now , against the whole religion still , and against a brighter light . In the ages after the flood idolatry was also just such another : for as God was known first onely as the creator , then he began to manifest himself in special contracts with men , and he quickly was declared the God of Israel and idolatry perfectly destroyed all that religion , and therefore was never pardoned intirely ; but God did visit it upon them that sinned ; and when he pardoned it in some degrees yet he also punished it in some ; and yet rebellion against the supreme power of Moses and Aaron was worse ; for that also is a perfect destruction of the whole religion , because it refused to submit to those hands upon which God had placed all the religion , and all the government . And now if we would know in the Gospel what answers these precedent sins ? I answer , first the same sins acted by a resolute hand and heart are worse now then ever they were : and a third or fourth is also to be added ; and that is Apostacy or or a voluntary malicious renouncing the faith : The Church hath often declared that sin to be unpardonable : witchcraft or final impenitence , and obstinacy in any sin are infallibly desperate : and in general , and by a certain parity of reason , whatsoever does destroy charity or the good life of a Christian with the same general venom and deletery as Apostacy destroyes faith ; and he that is a Renegado from charity , is as unpardonable as he that returns to solemn Atheisme or infidelity : for all that , is directly the sin against the holy Ghost , that is a throwing that away wherby onely we can be Christians , wherby onely we can hope to be saved ; to speak a word against the holy Ghost in the Pharisees , was declared unpardonable , because it was such a word which if it had been true , or believed , would have destroyed the whole religion ; for they said that Christ wrought by Beelzebub , and by consequence did not come from God : He that destroyes al the whole order of Priesthood , destroyes one of the greatest parts of the religion , & one of the greatest effects of the holy Ghost : He that destroyes government destroyes another part ; but that we may come neerer to our selves ; to quench the spirit of God is worse then to speak some words against him ; to grieve the spirit of God is a part of the same impiety , to resist the holy Ghost is another part ; and if we consider , that every great sin does this in its proportion , it wo●●d concern us to be careful , lest we fal into presumptuous sins , lest they get the domini●● over us ; out of this that I have spoken you may easily gather what sort of men those are , who cannot be snatched from the fire ; for whom as S. John saies , we are not to pray , and how neer men come to it that continue in any known sin ; if I should descend to particulars , I might lay a snare to scrupulous and nice consciences . This onely every confirmed habitual sinner does manifest the divine justice in punishing the sins of a short life with a never dying worm , and a never quenched flame , because we have an affection to sin that no time will diminish , but such as would increase to eternal ages ; and accordingly as any man hath a degree of love , so he hath lodged in his soul a spark which unless it be speedily & effectively quenched will break forth into unquenchable fire . Sermon . XVIII . THE FOOLISH EXCHANGE . Matthew 16. Ver. 26. For what is a man profited , if he shall gain the whole world , and lose his own soul ? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul ? WHen the eternal mercy of God had decreed to res●ue mankinde from misery and infelicity , and so triumphed over his own justice , the excellent wisdom of God resolved to do it in wayes contradictory to the appetites and designes of man , that it also might triumph over our weaknesses and imperfect conceptions . So God decreeing to glorifie his mercy by curing our sins , and to exalt his wisdome by the reproof of our ignorance , and the representing upon what weak and false principals , we had built our hopes and expectations of felicity : Pleasure and profit , victory over our enemies , riches and pompous honours , power and revenge , desires according to sensual appetites , and prosecutions violent and passionate of those appetites , health and long life , free from trouble , without poverty or persecution . Hac sunt jucundissime Martialis vitam quae faciunt beatiorem . These are the measures of good and evil , the object of our hopes and fears , the securing our content and the portion of this world ; and for the other , let it be as it may . But the Blessed Jesus having made revelations of an immortal duration , of another world ; and of a strange restitution to it , even by the resurrection of the body , and a new investiture of the soul , with the same upper garment , clarified , and made pure so as no Fuller on earth can whiten it ; hath also preached a new Philosophy , hath cancelled all the old principles , reduced the appetites of sence to the discourses of reason and heightned reason to the sublimities of the spirit , teaching us abstractions , and immaterial conceptions , giving us new eyes , and new objects , and new proportions ; For now , sensual pleasures are not delightful , riches are drosse , honours are nothing but the appendages of vertue , and in relation to it are to receive their account ; but now if you would enjoy life you must die , if you would be at ease , you must take up Christs crosse , and conform to his sufferings ▪ if you would save your life , you must lose it , and if you would be rich you must abound in good works , you must be poor in spirit and despise the world , and be rich unto God ; for whatsoever is contrary to the purchases and affections of this world is an endearment of our hopes in the world to come ; and therefore he having stated the question so that either we must quit this world or the other , our affections I mean , and adherencies to this , or our interest and hopes of the other ; the choice is rendered very easie by the words of my text , because the distance is not lesse then infinite , and the comparison hath terms of a vast difference , heaven and hell , eternity and a moment , vanity and real felicity , life and death eternal , all that can be hoped for , and all that can be feared ; these are the terms of our choice ; and if a man have his wits about him and be not drunk with sensuality , and senslessenesse , he need not much to dispute before he passe the sentence . For nothing can be given to us to recompe●ce the losse of heaven , and if our soul● be lost , there is nothing remaining to us whereby we can be happy . What shall it profit a man ? or what shall a man give ? is there any exchange for a mans soul ? the question is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the negative . Nothing can be given for an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a price to satisfie for its losse . The blood of the son of God was given to recover it or as an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to God ; and when our souls were forfeit to him , nothing lesse then the life and passion of God and man could pay the price ( I say ) to God , who yet was not concerned in the losse save onely that such was his goodnesse , that it pitied him to see his creature lost . But to us what shall be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ? what can make us recompence when we have lost our own souls , and are lost in a miserable eternity ? what can then recompence us ? not all the world , not ten thousand worlds , and of this that miserable man , whose soul is lost is the best judge ; For the qustion is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and hath a potential signification , and means 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is suppose a man ready to die condemned to the sentence of a horrid death , heightned with all the circumstances of trembling and amazement , what would he give to save his life ? eye for eye , tooth for tooth , and all that a man hath will he give for his life : and this turned to a proverb among the Jews ; for so the last words of the text are , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; which proverb being usually meant concerning a temporal death , and was intended , to represent , the sadnesses of a condemned person , our blessed Saviour fits to his own purpose , and translates to the signification of death eternal , which he first revealed clearly to the world ; and because no interest of the world can make a man recompence for his life , because to lose that , makes him incapable of enjoying the exchange ( and he were a strange fool who having no designe upon immortality or vertue , should be willing to be hanged for a thousand pound per annum ) this argument increases infinitely in the purpose of our Blessed Saviour ; and to gain the world , and to lose our souls in the Christian sence is infinitely more madnesse and a worse exchange then when our souls , signifie nothing but a temporal life ; and because possibly the indefinite hopes of ●lysium or an honorable name , might tempt some hardy persons to leave this world hoping for a better condition ever among the heathens ; yet no excuse will acquit a Christian from madnesse , If for the purchase of this world he lose his eternitie . Here then first we will consider the propositions of the exchange the world and a mans soul , by way of supposition , supposing all that is propounded were obtained ; the whole world . Secondly we will consider what is likely to be obtained really , and indeed of the world , and what are really the miseries of a lost soul ? For it is propounded in the text by way of supposition : If a man should gain the world which no man ever did , nor ever can ; and he that gets most , gets too little to be exchanged for a temporal life . And thirdly I shall apply it to your practise and make material considerations . 1. First , then suppose a man gets all the world , what is it that he gets ? It is a bubble , and a Phantasme , and hath no reality beyond a present transient use ; a thing that is impossible to be enjoyed , because its fruits and usages are transmitted to us , by parts and by succession ; ( He that hath all the world , ( if we can suppose such a man ) cannot have a dish of fresh summer fruits in the midst of winter , not so much as a green fig : and very much of its possessions is so hid , so fugacious and of so uncertain purchase , that it is like the riches of the sea to the Lord of the shore , all the fish and wealth within all its hollownesses are his , but he is never the better , for what he cannot get . All the shell fishes that produce pearl , produce them not for him ; and the bowels of the earth shall hide her treasures in undiscovered retirements ; so that it will signifie as much to this great purchaser , to be intitled to an inheritance in the upper region of the aire ; he is so far from possessing all its riches , that he does not so much as know of them , nor understand the Philosophy of her minerals . 2. I consider that he that is the greatest possessor in the world enjoyes its best and most noble parts and those which are of most excellent perfection but in common with the inferiour persons , and the most despicable of his kingdom . Can the greatest Prince inclose the Sun , and set one little star in his cabinet for his own use ? or secure to himself the gentle and benigne influence of any one constellation ? Are not his subjects fields bedewed with the same showers that water his gardens of pleasure ? Nay those things which he esteems his ornament and his singularity of his possessions , are they not of more use to others then to himself . For suppose his garments splendid and shining like the robe of a cherub or the clothing of the fields , all that he that wears them enjoyes , is that they keep him warm , and clean and modest ; and all this is done by clean and lesse pompous vestmer●s ; & the beauty of them which distinguishes him from others , is made to please the eyes of the beholders ; and he is like a fair bird or the meretricious painting of a wanton woman made wholly to be looked on , that is to be enjoyed by every one but himself and the fairest face and the sparkling eye cannot perceive or enjoy their own beauties but by reflection . It is I that am pleased with beholding his gayety , and the gay man in his greates● bravery is onely pleased because I am pleased with the sight : so borrowing his little and imaginary complacency , from the delight that I have , not from any inherency of his own possession . The poorest Artizan of Rome walking in Caesars gardens , had the same pleasures which they ministred to their Lord : and although it may be he was put to gather fruits to eat , from another place , yet his other senses were delighted equally with Caesars : the birds made him as good musick , the flowers gave him as sweet smells , he there sucked as good aire , and delighted in the beauty and order of the place , for the same reason and upon the same perception , as the prince himself : save onely that Caesar paid for all that pleasure vast summes of money , the blood and treasure of a province , which the poor man had for nothing . 3. Suppose a man Lord of all the world , ( for still we are but in supposition ) yet since every thing is received , not according to its own gteatnesse and worth , but according to the capacity of the receiver , it signifies very little as to our content ; or to the riches of our possession . If any man should give to a Lion a fair meadow full of hay , or a thousand quince trees , or should give to the goodly Bull , the master and the fairest of the whole heard , a thousand fair Stags ; If a man should present to a childe a ship laden with Persian carpets , and the ingredients of the rich scarlet , all these being either disproportionate to the appetite or to the understanding , could adde nothing of content , and might declare the freenesse of the presenter , but they upbraid the incapacity of the receiver : and so it does if God should give the whole world to any man ; He knows not what to do with it ; he can use no more but according to the capacities of a man. He can use nothing but meat and drink and cloths ; and infinite riches that can give him changes of raiment every day , and a full table , do but give him a clean trencher every bit he eats , it signifies no more but wantonnesse , and variety to the same , not to any new purposes ; He to whom the world can be given to any purpose greater then a private estate can minister , must have new capacities created in him ; He needs the understanding of an Angel to take the accounts of his estate ; He had need have a stomach like fire or the grave : for else he can eat no more then one of his healthful subjects , and unlesse he hath an eye like the Sun , and a motion like that of a thought , and a bulk as big as one of the orbs of heaven ; the pleasures of his eye can be no greater then to behold the beauty of a little prospect from a hill , or to look upon the heap of gold packt up in a little room , or to dote upon a cabinet of Jewels better then which there is no man that sees at all but sees every day ; For not to name the beauties and sparkling diamonds of heaven , a mans or a womans or a haukes eye is more beauteous and excellent , then al the Jewels of his crown . And when we remember , that a beast who hath quicker senses then a man , yet hath not so great delight in the fruition of any object , because he wants understanding and the power to make reflex acts upon his perception , it will follow , that understanding and knowledge is the greatest instrument of pleasure , and he that is most knowing hath a capacity to become happy , which a lesse knowing prince or a rich person hath not : and in this onely a mans capacity is capable of enlargement : but then although they onely have power to relish any pleasure rightly , who rightly understand the nature and degrees and essences , and ends of things , yet they that do so , understand also the vanity and the unsatisfyingnesse of the things of this world so that the relish which could not be great , but in a great understanding appears contemptible , because its vanity appears at the same time ; the understanding sees all , and sees thorow it . 4. The greatest vanity of this world is remarkable in this , that all its joyes summed up together are not big enough to counterpoise the evil of one sharp disease , or to allay a sorrow . For imagine a man great in his dominion as Cyrus , rich as Solomon , victorious as David , beloved like Titus , learned as Trismegist , powerful as all the Roman greatnesse , all this , and the results of all this , give him no more pleasure in the midst of a feaver , or the tortures of the stone , then if he were only lord of a little dish , and a dishfull of fountain water . Indeed the excellency of a holy conscience is a comfort and a magazine of joy , so great , that it sweetens the most bitter potion of the world , and makes tortures and death not only tolerable , but amiable ; and therefore to part with this whose excellency is so great , for the world that is of so inconsiderable a worth as not to have in it recompence enough , for the sorrows of a sharp disease , is a bargain fit to be made by none but fools and mad men . Antiochus , Epiphanes & Herod the great & his grand child Agrippa , were sad instances of this great truth ; to every of which it happened that the grandeur of their fortune , the greatnesse of their possessions , and the encrease of their estate disappeared , and expired like Camphire at their arrest , by those several sharp diseases , which covered their head with Cypresse and hid their crowns in an inglorious grave . For what can all the world minister to a sick person ? If it represents all the spoils of nature and the choicest delicacies of land and sea . Alas his appetite is lost , and to see a pibble stone is more pleasing to him : For he can look upon that without loathing , but not so upon the most delicious fare that ever made famous the Roman luxury . Perfumes make his head ake ; if you load him with jewels , you presse him with a burden as troublesome as his grave-stone : and what pleasure is in all those possessions , that cannot make his pillow easie , nor tame the rebellion of a tumultuous humour , nor restore the use of a withered hand , or straighten a crooked finger : vain is the hope of that man whose soul rests upon vanity , and such unprofitable possessions . 5. Suppose a man lord of all this world , an universal Monarch , as some princes have lately designed , all that cannot minister content to him ; not that content which a poor contemplative man by the strength of Christian Philosophy , and the support of a very small fortune daily does enjoy . All his power and greatnesse cannot command the sea to overflow his shores or to stay from the retiring to the opposit strand . It cannot make his children dutiful or wise & though the world admired at the greatness of Philip the second 's fortune in the accession of Portugal and the East Indies to his principalities , yet this could not allay the infelicitie of his family , and the unhandsomenesse of his condition in having a proud and indiscreet and a vitious young prince likely to inherit all his greatnesse . And if nothing appears in the face of such a fortune , to tell all the world that it is spotted and imperfect ; yet there is in all conditions of the world , such wearinesse and tediousnesse of the spirits , that a man is evermore pleased with hopes of going off for the present , then in dwelling upon that condition which it may be others admire , and think beauteous , but none knoweth the smart of it , but he that drank off the little pleasure , and felt the ill relish of the appendage . How many Kings have groaned under the burden of their crowns , and have sunk down and died ? How many have quitted their pompous cares , and retired into private lives , there to enjoy the pleasures of Philosophy and religion , which their thrones denied ? And if we consider the supposition of the Text , the thing will demonstrate it self . For he who can be supposed the owner and purchaser of the whole world , must either be a King or a private person . A private person can hardly be supposed to be the man. For if he be subject to another , how can he be Lord of the whole world ? But if he be a King , it is certain , that his cares are greater then any mans , his fears are bigger , his evils mountainous , the accidents that discompose him are more frequent , and sometimes intolerable : and of all his great possessions he hath not the greatest use and benefit . But they are like a great harvest which more labourers must bring in ▪ and more must eat of ; onely he is the centre of all the cares , and they fix upon him ; but the profits run out to all the lines of the circle : to all that are about him ; whose good is therefore greater then the good of the Prince : Because what they enjoy is the purchase of the Princes care ; and so they feed upon his cost . Privatusque magis vivam te Rege beatus . Servants live the best lives ; for their care is single , onely how to please their Lord ; but all the burden of a troublesome providence , and ministration , makes the outside pompous and more full of ceremony ; but they intricate the condition and disturb the quiet of the great possessor . And imagine a person as blest as can be supposed upon the stock of worldly interest ; when all his accounts are cast up , he differs nothing from his subjects , or his servants , but in meer circumstance , nothing of reality or substance . He hath more to wait at his Table , or persons of higher rank to do the meanest offices ; more ceremonies of addresse , a fairer Escutcheon , louder titles ; But can his multitude of dishes make him have a good stomack , or does not satiety cloy it : when his high diet is such , that he is not capable of being feasted , and knows not the frequent delights , and oftener possibilities , a poor man hath of being refreshed , while not onely his labour makes hunger , and so makes his meat delicate ; ( and then it cannot be ill fare , let it be what it will ) but also his provision is such , that every little addition is a direct feast to him , while the great owner of the world giving to himself the utmost of his desires , hath nothing left beyond his ordinary , to become the entertainment of his festival dayes , but more loads of the same meat . And then let him consider how much of felicity can this condition contribute to him . In which he is not further gone beyond a person of a little fortune , in the greatnesse of his possession , then he is fallen short in the pleasures and possibility of their enjoyment . And that is a sad condition when like Midas all that the man touches shall turn to gold : and his is no better to whom a perpetual full table not recreated with fasting , not made pleasant with intervening scarcity ministers no more good then a heap of gold does , that is , he hath no benefit of it , save the beholding of it with his eyes . Cannot a man quench his thirst as well out of an Urn or Chalice , as out of a whole River ? It is an ambitious thirst , and a pride of draught that had rather lay his mouth to Euphrates then to a petty goblet ; but if he had rather , it addes not so much to his content , as to his danger , and his vanity . — eo fit Plenior ut si quos delectet copia justo , Cum ripâ simul vulsos ferat Aufidus acer . For so I have heard of persons whom the river hath swept away , together with the Turf they pressed when they stopped to drown their pride rather then their thirst . 6. But this supposition hath a lessening tearm . If a man could be born heir of all the world , it were something : But no man ever was so ; except him onely who enjoyed the least of it , the Son of man , that had not where to lay his head : but in the supposition it is ; [ If a man could [ gain ] the whole world , ] which supposes labour and sorrow , trouble and expence , venture and hazard , and so much time expired in its acquist and purchase , that besides the possession is not secured to us for tearm of life , yet our lives are almost expired , before we become estated in our purchases . And indeed it is a sad thing to see an ambitious , or a covetous person , make his life unpleasant , troublesome , and vexatious , to grasp a power bigger then himself ; To fight for it with infinite hazards of his life , so that it is a thousand to one but he perishes in the attempt , and gets nothing at all , but an untimely grave , a reproachfull memory , and an early damnation . But suppose he gets a victory , and that the unhappy party is but to begin a new game , then to see the fears , the watchfulnesse , the diligence , the laborious arts to secure a possession , lest the desperate party should recover a desperate game : And suppose this with a new stock of labours , danger and expence , be seconded by a new successe ; then to look upon the new emergencies , and troubles , and discontents among his friends , about parting the spoil , the envies , the jealousies , the slanders , the underminings , and the perpetuall insecurity of his condition ; all this I say , is to see a man take infinite pains to make himself miserable ; but if he will be so unlearned , as to call this gallantry , or a splendid fortune , yet by this time when he remembers , he hath certainly spent much of his time in trouble ; and how long he shall enjoy this he is still uncertain ; he is not certain of a moneth , and suppose it be seven yeers , yet when he comes to die , and cast up his accounts , and shall finde nothing remaining , but a sad remembrance of evils , and troubles past , and expectations of worse , infinitely worse , he must acknowledge himself convinced , that to gain all this world is a fortune not worth the labour and the dangers , the fears , and transportations of passions , though the souls losse be not considered in the bargain . But I told you all this while , that this is but a supposition still , the putting of a case , or like a fiction of love , nothing reall : for if we consider in the second place , how much every man is likely to get really , and how much it is possible for any man to get , we shall finde the account far shorter yet , and the purchase most trifling and inconsiderable . For 1. the world is at the same time enjoyed by all its inhabitants , and the same portion of it by severall persons in their several capacities . A Prince enjoyes his whole kingdom , not as all his people enjoyes it , but in the manner of a Prince ; the subjects in the manner of subjects . The Prince hath certain Regalia beyond the rest ; But the feudall right of subjects does them more emolument , and the Regalia does the Prince more honour ; and these that hold the fees in subordinate right , transmit it also to their Tenants , and beneficiaries , and dependants to publike uses , to charity , and hospitality ; all which is a lessening of the lords possessions and a cutting his river into little streams , not that himself alone , but that all his relatives may drink and be refreshed . Thus the Well where the woman of Samaria sate was Jacobs Well , and he drank of it , but so did his wives , and his children , and his cattel ; so that what we call ours , is really ours , but for our portion of expence and use ; we have so little of it , that our servants have far more , and that which is ours is nothing but the title , and the care , and the trouble of securing and dispensing ; save onely that God whose stewards we all are , will call such owners ( as they are pleased to call themselves ) to strict accounts for their disbursments . And by this account the possession or dominion is but a word , and serves a fancy or a passion , or a vice , but no reall end of nature ; it is the use and spending it that makes a man , to all reall purposes of nature to be the owner of it , and in this the lord and master have but a share . But secondly , consider how far short of the whole world the greatest Prince that ever reigned did come . Alexander that wept because he had no more worlds to conquer , was in his knowledge deceived , and bruitish , as in his passion ; he over-run much of Asia , but he could never passe the Ganges , and never thrust his sword in the bowels of Europe , and knew nothing of America . And the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or the whole world began to have an appropriate sence , and was rather put to the Romane Greatnesse as an honourable Appellative then did signifie that they were lords of the world , who never went beyond Persia , Egypt , nor Britain . But why do I talk of great things in this Question of the exchange of the soul for the world ? Because it is a reall bargain , which many men ( too many God knows ) do make , we must consider it as applicable to practice . Every man that loses his soul for the purchase of the world , must not looke to have the portion of a King. How few men are Princes , and of those that are not born so , how seldom instances are found in story , of persons ●●at by their industry became so ? But we must come far lower yet . Thousands there are that damne themselves , and yet their purchase at long-running , and after a base and weary life spent , is but five hundred pounds a yeer ; nay it may be they onely cozen an easie person out of a good estate , and pay for it at an easie rate , which they obtain by lying , by drinking , by flattery , by force ; and the gain is nothing but a thousand pound in the whole , or it may bee nothing but a convenience . Nay how many men hazard their salvation for an acre of ground , for twenty pound , to please a master , to get a smile and a kinde usage from a Superiour ? These men get but little , though they did not give so much for it . So little , that Epictetus thought the purchase deer enough , though you paid nothing for it but flattery , and observance , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Observance was the price of his meal , and he paid too de●r for one that gave his birth-right for it : but he that exchanges his soul for it , knowes not the vanity of his purchase , nor the value of his losse . He that gains the purchase and spoil of a kingdom hath got that which to all that are placed in heaven or to a man , that were seated in the paths of the Sun seem but like a spot in an eye , or a Mathematical point , so without vastnesse that it seems to be without dimensions . But he whose purchase is but his neighbours field , or a few unjust acres , hath got that which is inconsiderable , below the notice and description of the Map ; for by such Hieroglyphicall representments , Socrates chid the vanity of a proud Athenian . 3. Although these premises may suffice to shew that the supposed purchase is but vain , and that all which men use really to obtain , is lesse then trifles , yet even the possession of it whatsoever it be is not meer and unmixt , but allaid with sorrow and uneasinesse : the gain hath but enlarged our appetite , and like a draught to an hydropick person , hath enraged his thirst ; and still that which he hath not is infinitely bigger then what he hath , since the first enlargement of his purchase was not to satisfie necessity , but his passion , his lust or his avarice , his pride or his revenge , these things cease not by their fewell but their flames grow bigger , and the capacities are stretched , and they want more then they did at first . For who wants most , he that wants five pound , or he that wants five thousand : And supposing a man naturally supported , and provided for in the dispensations of nature there is no difference , but that the poor hath enough to fill his belly , and the rich man can never have enough to fill his eye . The poor mans wants are no greater then what may be supplied by charity ; and the rich mans wants are so big , that none but Princes can relieve them , and they are left to all the temptations of great vices , and huge cares to make their reparations . Dives eget gemmis , Cereali munere pauper , Sed cum egeant ambo pauper egens minus est . If the greatnesse of the worlds possessions produce such fruits , vexation , and care , and want , the ambitious requiring of great estates , is but like the selling of a fountain , to buy a fever , a parting with content , to buy necessity , and the purchase of an unhandsome condition , at the price of infelicity . 4. He that enjoyes a great portion of this world hath most commonly the allay of some great crosse , which although sometimes God designes in mercy , to wean his affections from the world , and for the abstracting them from sordid adherencies and cohabitation , to make his eyes like stars , to fix them in the orbs of heaven , and the regions of felicity , yet they were an inseparable appendant and condition of humanity . Solomon observed the vanity of some persons , that heaped up great riches for their heirs , and yet knew not whether a wise man or a fool should possesse them , this is a great evil under the Sun. And if we observe the great crosses many times God permits in great families , as discontent in marriages , artificiall or naturall bastardies , a society of man and wife like the conjunction of two politicks , full of state , and ceremony , and designe , but empty of those sweet caresses , and naturall hearty complications , and endearments , usuall in meaner and innocent persons , the perpetuall sicknesse , fulnesse of diet , fear of dying , the abuse of flatterers , the trouble and noise of company ; the tedious officiousnesse , of impertinent and ceremonious visits , the declension of estate , the sadnesse of spirit , the notoriousnesse of those dishonours which the meannesse of lower persons conceals , but their eminency makes us visible , as the spots in the moons face , we shall finde him to be most happy , that hath most of wisdom , and least of the world , because he onely hath the least danger , and the most security . 5. And lastly , his soul so gets nothing that wins all this world , if he loses his soul , that it is ten to one but he that gets the one , therefore shall lose the other ; For to a great and opulent fortune sin is so adherent and insinuating , that it comes to him in the nature of civility ; It is a sad sight to see a great personage undertake an action passionately and upon great interest ; and let him manage it as indiscreetly , let the whole designe be unjust , let it be acted with all the malice and impotency in the world , he shall have enough to tell him that he proceeds wisely enough , to be servants of his interest , and promoters of his sin , instruments of his malice and actors of revenge . But which of all his relatives shall dare to tell him of his indiscretion , of his rage and of his folly ? he had need be a bold man and a severe person , that shall tell him of his danger ; and that he is in a direct progresse towards ●ell ; and indeed such personages have been so long nourished up in softnes flattery and effeminancy , that too often themselves are impatient of a monitor , and think the charity and duty of a modest reprehension to be a rudenesse and incivility ▪ that Prince is a wise man that loves to have it otherwise ; and certainly it is a strange civility and dutifulnesse in friends and relatives , to suffer him to go to hell uncontrolled ; rather then to seem unmannerly towards a great sinner . But certainly this is none of the least infelicities of them who are Lords of the world and masters of great possessions . I omit to speak of the habitual intemperance , which is too commonly annexed to Festival and delicious tables , where there is no other measure or restraint upon the appetite , but its fulnesse and satiety , and when it cannot or dare not eat more . Oftentimes it happens , that the intemperance of a poor table is more temperate and hath lesse of luxury in it , then the temperance of a rich . To this are consequent all the evil accidents and effects of fulnesse ; pride , lust , wantonnesse , softnesses of disposition and dissolution of manners , huge talking , imperiousnesse , despite and contempt of poor persons , and at the best it is a great temptation for a man to have in his power , whatsoever he can have in his sensual desires : who then shall check his voracity or calm his revenge or allay his pride or mortify his lust or humble his spirit ? it is like as when a lustful young and tempted person lives perpetually with his amorous and delicious mistris , if he soapes burning , that is inflamed from within and set on fire from without it is a greater miracle then the escaping from the flames of the furnace , by the three children of the captivity . And just such a thing is the possession of the world , it furnishes us with abilities to sin and opportunities of ruine , and it makes us to dwell with poisons and dangers , and enemies . And although the grace of God is sufficient to great personages , and masters of the world , and that it is possible for a young man to be tyed upon a bed of flowers and fastned by the arms and band of a curtesan and tempted wantonly and yet to escape the danger and the crime , and to triumph gloriously : ( for so Saint Hierome reports of a son of the king of Nicomedia ) and riches and a free fortune are designed by God to be a mercy and an opportunity of doing noble things , and excellent charity , and exact justice , and to protect innocence , and to defend oppressed people ; yet it is a mercy mixt with much danger ; yet it is like the present of a whole vintage to a man in a hectick feaver , he will be shrewdly tempted to drink of it , and if he does , he is inflamed and may chance to die with the kindnesse . Happy are those persons who use the world and abuse it not , who possesse a part of it and love it for no other ends , but for necessities of nature , and conveniencies of person and discharge of all their duty and the offices of religion , and in charity to Christ and all Christs members ; but since he that hath all the world cannot command nature to do him one office extraordinary , and enjoyes the best parts but in common with the poorest man in the world , and can use no more of it but according to a limited and a very narrow capacity , and whatsoever he can use or possesse cannot out-weigh the present pressure of a sharp disease , nor can it at all give him content without which there can be nothing of felicity ; since a prince in the matter of usiing the world , differs nothing from his subjects , but in mere accedents and circumstances , and yet these very many trifling differences are not to be obtained but by so much labour and care , so great expence of time and trouble , that the possession will not pay thus much of the price , and after all this , the man may die two hours after he hath made his troublesome and expensive purchase and is certain not to enjoy it long . Adde to this last , that most men get so little of the world that it is all together of a trifling and inconsiderable interest , that they who have the most of this world , have the most of that but in title and in supreme rights , and reserved priviledges , the real use descending upon others to more substantial purposes ; that the possession of this trifle is mixt with sorrow upon other accidents , and is allayed with fear , and that the greatnesse of mens possessions increase their thirst , and enlarge their wants , by swelling their capacitie , and above all , is of so great danger to a mans vertue that a great fortune and a very great vertue are not alwayes observed to grow together ; He that observes all this , and much more he may observe , will see that he that gains the whole world hath made no such great bargain of it although he had it for nothing , but the necessary unavoidable troubles in getting it ; but how great a folly is it to buy so great a trouble , so great a vanity , with the losse of our pretious soules remains to be considered in the folowing parts of the text . Sermon . XIX . The foolish exchange . Part II. ANd lose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul ] And now the question is finally stated , and the dispute is concerning the sum of affaires . De morte hominis nulla est cunctatio longa . And therefore when the soul is at stake , not for its temporal , but for its eternal interest , it is not good to be hasty in determining , without taking just measures of the exchange . Solomon had the good things of the world actually in possession , and he tried the touch-stone of prudence and natural value and found them allayed with vanitie and imperfection , and wee that see them wayed in the ballance of the sanctuary , and tryed by the touch-stone of the spirit , finde them not onely light and unprofitable but pungent and dolorous , but now we are to consider what it is that men part with , and lose when with passion and impotency they get the world and that will present the bargain to be a huge infelicity . And this I observe to be intimated in the word , [ lose ] for he gives gold for cloth or pretious stones for bread serves his needs of nature , and loses nothing by it , and the merchant that found a pearle of great price , and sold al that he had to make the purchase of it made a good venture he was no loser , but here the case is otherwise , when a man gains the whole world , and his soul goes in the exchange , he hath not done like a merchant , but like a childe , or a prodigal , he hath given himself away , he hath lost all that can distinguish him from a slave , or a miserable person , he loses his soul in the exchange , for the soul of a man , all the world cannot be a just price , a man may lose it or throw it away , but he can never make good exchange , when he parts with this Jewel , and therefore our blessed Saviour rarely well expresses it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is fully opposed to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gain , it is such an ill market a man makes as if he should proclaim his riches , goods , vendible for a garland of thistles decked and trimmed up with the stinking poppy . But we shall better understand the nature of this bargain if we consider the soul that is exchanged , what it is in it self , in order not of nature but to felicity and the capacities of joy , secondly what price the Son of God payed for it , and thirdly what it is to lose it , that is , what miseries and tortures are signified by losing a mans soul. First if we consider what the soul is in its own capacity to happinesse , we shall finde it to be an excellency greater then the sun ; of an angelicall substance , sister to a cherubin , an image of the divinity , and the great argument of that mercy , whereby God did distinguish us from the lower form of beasts and trees and minerals . For so it was the scripture affirmes , that God made man after his own , image , that is , secundum illam imaginem & ideam quam concepit ipse , not according to the likenesse of any of those creatures which were prexistent to mans production ; not according to any of those images or ideas whereby God created the heavens , and the earth ; but by a new form ; to distinguish him , from all other substances ; he made him by a new idea of his own , by an uncreated exemplar ; and besides that this was a donation of intelligent faculties , such as we understand to be perfect , and essential ▪ or rather the essence of God , it was also a designation of him to a glorious immortality and a communication of the rayes and reflections of his own essential felicities . But the soul is al that whereby we may be , and without which we cannot be happy . It is not the eye that sees the beauties of the heaven , nor the ear that hears the sweetnesses of musick , or the glad-tidings of a prosperous accident , but the soul that perceives all the relishes of sensual and intellectual perfections and the more noble and excellent the soul is the greater and more savory are its perceptions ; and if a childe beholds the rich Ermine , or the Diamonds of a starry night , or the order of the world , or hears the discourses of an Apostle , because he makes no reflex acts upon himself , and sees not that he sees ; he can have but the pleasure of a fool or the deliciousnesse of a mule . But although the reflection of its own acts be a rare instrument of pleasure or pain respectively , yet the souls excellency is upon the same reason not perceived by us , by which the sapidnesse of pleasant things of nature , are not understood by a childe ; even because the soul cannot reflect far enough . For as the Sun which is the fountain of light and heat , makes violent and direct emission of his rayes from himself but reflects them no further then to the bottom of a cloud , or the lowest imaginary circle of the middle region , and therefore receives a duplicate of his own heat ; so is the soul of man , it reflects upon its own inferiour actions of particular sense or general understanding ; but because it knows little of its own nature , the manners of volition the immediate instruments of understanding , the way how it comes to meditate , and cannot discern how a sudden thought arrives , or the solution of a doubt , not depending upon preceding premises , therefore above halfe its pleasures are abated , and its own worth lesse understood ; and possibly it is the better , it is so . If the Elephant knew his strength , or the horse the vigorousnesse of his own spirit , they would be as rebellious against their rulers , as unreasonable men against government : nay the Angels themselves , because their light reflected home to their orbs , and they understood all the secrets of their own perfection , they grew vertiginous and fell from the battlements of heaven . But the excellency of a humane soul shall then be truly understood , when the reflection will make no distraction of our faculties , nor enkindle any irregular fires ; when we may understand our selves without danger . In the mean this consideration is gone high enough when we understand the soul of a man to be so excellently perfect , that we cannot understand how excellently perfect it is : that being the best way of expressing our conceptions of God himself ; and therefore I shall not need by distinct discourses to represent that the will of man is the last resort and sanctuary of true pleasure , which in its formality can be nothing else but a conformity of possession or of being to the will ; that the understanding being the ch●nel and conveyance of the noblest perceptions feeds upon pleasure● in all its proportionate acts , and unlesse it be disturbed by intervening sins and remembrances , derived hence , keeps a perpetual festival ; that the passions are every of them fitted with an object , in which they rest as in their centre ; that they have such delight in these their proper objects , that too often they venture a damnation , rather then quit their interest and possession ; but yet from these considerations it would follow that to lose a soul , which is designed to be an immense sea of pleasures , even in its natural capacities is to lose all that whereby a man can possibly be , or be supposed happy ; and so much the rather is this understood to be an insupportable calamity , because losing a soul in this sense , is not a meer privation of those felicities of which a soul is naturally designed to be a partaker , but it is an investing it with contrary objects , and crosse effects , and dolorous perceptions : For the will if it misses its desires , is afflicted , and the understanding when it ceases to be ennobled with excellent things is made ignorant as a swine , dull as the foot of a rock , and the afflictions are in the destitution of their perfective actions , made tumultuous , vexed and discomposed , to the height of rage and violence . But this is but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the beginning of those throes which end not but in eternal infelicity . Secondly if we consider the price that the Son of God payed for the redemption of a soul , we shall better estimate of it , then from the weak discourses of our imperfect and unlearned Philosophy : not the spoil of rich provinces , not the aestimate of kingdoms , not the price of Cleopatra's draught , not any thing that was corruptible or perishing ; for that , which could not one minute retard the tearm of its own natural dissolution , could not be a price for the redemption of one perishing soul. And if we list but to remember and then consider that a miserable , lost , and accursed soul does so infinitely undervalue , and disrelish all the goods and riches that this world dotes on ; that he hath no more gust in them , or pleasure , then the fox hath in eating a turfe ; that if he could be imagined to be the Lord of ten thousand worlds , he would give them all for any shaddow of a hope of a possibility of returning to life again ; that Dives in hell would have willingly gone on embassy to his fathers house that he might have been quit a little from his flames , and on that condition would have given Lazarus the fee-simple of all his temporal possessions , though he had once denied to relieve him with the superfluities of his table , will soon confesse that a moment of time is no good exchange for an eternity of duration ; and a light unprofitable possession is not to be put in the ballance against a soul , which is the glory of the creation ; a soul , with whom God had made a contract , and contracted excellent relations , it being one of Gods appellatives , that he is [ the lover of souls . ] When God made a soul , it was onely , faciamus hominem ad imaginem nostram ; He spake the word and it was done ; but when man had lost this soul which the spirit of God breathed in him , it was not so soon recovered . It is like the resurrection which hath troubled the faith of many who are more apt to believe , that God made a man from nothing , then that he can return a man from dust & corruption ; but for this resurrection of the soul , for the reimplacing the divine image , for the rescuing it from the devils power , for the reintitling it to the kingdoms of grace and glory , God did a work greater then the creation ; He was fain to contract Divinity , to a span , to send a person to die for us who of himself could not die , and was constrained to use rare and mysterious arts , to make him capable of dying , he prepared a person instrumental to his purpose , by sending his Son from his own bosom , a person both God and man , an aenigma to all nations , and to all sciences ; one that ruled over all the Angels , that walked upon the pavements of heaven , whose feet were clothed with stars , whose eyes were brighter then the Sun , whose voice is louder then thunder , whose understanding is larger then that infinite space which we imagine in the uncircumscribed distance , beyond the first orbe of heaven , a person to whom felicity was as essential as life to God , this was the onely person that was designed in the eternal decrees of the divine predestination to pay the price of a soul , to ransom us from death ; lesse then this person could not do it ; for although a soul in its essence is finite , yet there were many infinites which were incident and annexed to the condition of lost souls ; For all which because provision was to be made , nothing lesse then an infinite excellence could satisfie for a soul who was lost to infinite and eternal ages , who was to be afflicted with insupportable and indetermined that is next to infinite paines , who was to bear the load of an infinite anger from the provocation of an eternal God : and yet if it be possible that infinite can receive degrees , this is but one half of the abysse , and I think the lesser : for that this person who was God eternal , should be lessened in all his appearances , to a span , to the little dimensions of a man , and that he should really become very contemptibly little , although at the same time he was infinitely and unalterably great , that is essential , natural and necessary felicity should turn into an intolerable , violent and immense calamity to his person , that this great God should not be admitted to pay the price of our redemption unlesse he would suffer that horrid misery , which that lost soul should suffer , as it represents the glories of his goodnesse , who used such rare and admirable instruments in actuating the designes of his mercy : so it shewes our condition to have been very desperate , and our losse invaluable . A soul in Gods account is valued at the price of the blood , and shame , and tortures , of the Son of God , and yet we throw it ●way for the exchange of sins , that a man naturally is ashamed to own ; we lose it for the pleasure , the sottish beastly pleasure of a night : I need not say , we lose our soul to save our lives ; for though that was our blessed Saviours instance of the great unreasonablenesse of men , who by saving their lives lose them , that is , in the great account of Dooms-day , though this ( I say ) be extreamly unreasonable , yet there is something to be pretended in the bargain , nothing to excuse him with God , but something in the accounts of timerous men ; but to lose our souls with swearing , that unprofitable , dishonourable , and unpleasant vice , to lose our souls with disobedience , or rebellion , a vice that brings a curse , and danger all the way in this life : To lose our souls with drunkennesse , a vice which is painfull , and sickly in the very acting it , which hastens our damnation , by shortning our lives ; are instances fit to be put in the stories of fools and mad-men ; and all vice is a degree of the same unreasonablenesse , the most splendid temptation , being nothing but a prety well weaved fallacy , a meer trick , a sophisme , and a cheating , and abusing the understanding ; but that which I consider here is , that it is an affront and contradiction to the wisdom of God , that we should so slight and undervalue a soul , in which our interest is so concerned ; a soul which he who made it , and who delighted not to see it lost , did account a fit purchase to be made , by the exchange of his Son , the eternal Son of God. To which also I adde this additionall account , that a soul is so greatly valued by God , that we are not to venture the losse of it , to save all the world For therefore whosoever should commit a sin to save kingdoms from perishing , or if the case could be put that all the good men , and good causes , and good things in this world , were to be destroyed by Tyranny , and it were in our power by perjury to save all these , that doing this sin would be so farre from hallowing the crime , that it were to offer to God a sacrifice of what he most hates , and to serve him with swines blood : and the rescuing all these from a Tyrant , or a hangman , could not be pleasing to God upon those termes , because a soul is lost by it , which is in it self a greater losse and misery , then all the evils in the world put together can out-ballance ; and a losse of that thing for which Christ gave his blood a price : Persecutions and temporal death in holy men , and in a just cause , are but seeming evils , and therefore not to be bought off with the losse of a soul , which is a real but an intolerable calamity : And if God for his own sake would not have all the world saved by sin , that is by the hazarding of a soul , we should do well for our own sakes not to lose a soul for trifles , for things that make us here to be miserable , and even here also to be ashamed . 3. But it may be some natures , or some understandings care not for all this , therefore I proceed to the third and most material consideration , as to us ; and I consider what it is to lose a soul ? which Hierocles thus explicates , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . An immortall substance can die , not by ceasing to be , but by losing all being well , by becomming miserable . And it is remarkable , when our blessed Saviour gave us caution , that we should not fear them that can kill the body onely , but fear him ( he sayes not that can kill the soul ) But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , him that is able to destroy the body , and soul in hell ; which word signifieth not death but tortures . For some have chosen death for sanctuary , and fled to it to avoid intolerable shame , to give a period to the sence of a sharp grief , or to cure the earthquakes of fear ; and the damned perishing souls shall wish for death , with a desire impatient as their calamity ; But this shall be denied them , because death were a deliverance , a mercy , and a pleasure , of which these miserable persons must despair of for ever . I shall not need to represent to your considerations those expressions of Scripture , which the Holy Ghost hath set down to represent to our capacities the greatnesse of this perishing ; choosing such circumstances of character as were then usuall in the world , and which are dreadful to our understanding as any thing : Hell fire ] is the common expression ; for the Eastern nations accounted burnings the greatest of their miserable punishments : and burning malefactours was frequent , [ brimstone and fire ] to Saint John Revel . 14. 10. calls the state of punishment , prepared for the Devil and all his servants , he adding the circumstance of brimstone , for by this time the Devil had taught the world more ingenious pains , and himself was new escaped out of boiling oil and brimstone , and such bituminous matter ; and the Spirit of God knew right well the worst expression was not bad enough , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so our blessed Saviour calls it , the outer darknesse , that is , not onely an abjection from the beatifick regions , where God , and his Angels , and his Saints dwell for ever , but then there is a positive state of misery expressed by darknesses , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as two Apostles , Saint Peter and Saint Jude call it , The blacknesse of darknesse for ever . In which although it is certain , that God whose Justice there rules , will inflict but just so much as our sins deserve , and not superadde degrees of undeserved misery , as he does to the Saints of glory ( for God gives to blessed souls in heaven more , infinitely more then all their good works could possibly deserve , and therefore their glory is infinitely bigger glory then the pains of hell are great pains ) yet because Gods Justice in hell rules alone , without the allayes and sweeter abatements of mercy , they shall have pure and unmingled misery ; no pleasant thought to refresh their wearinesse , no comfort in an other accident to alleviate their pressures , no waters to cool their flames ; but because when there is a great calamity upon a man , every such man thinks himself the most miserable ; and though there are great degrees of pain in hell , yet there are none perceived by him that thinks he suffers the greatest ; It follows that every man that loses his soul in this darknesse is miserable beyond all those expressions which the tortures of this world could furnish to the Writers of holy Scripture . But I shall choose to represent this consideration in that expression of our blessed Saviour , Mark the 9. the 44. verse ; which himself took out of the Prophet Esay , the 66. verse the 24. Where the worm dieth not , and the fire is not quenched ; this is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , spoken of by Daniel the Prophet ; for although this expression was a prediction of that horrid calamity and abscision of the Jewish Nation , when God poured out a full vial of his wrath upon the crucifiers of his Son , and that this which was the greatest calamity which ever did or ever shall happen to a Nation , Christ with great reason took to describe the calamity of accursed souls , as being the greatest instance to signifie the greatest torment : yet we must observe that the difference of each state makes the same words in the several cases to be of infinite distinction : The worm stuck close to the Jewish Nation , and the fire of Gods wrath flamed out till they were consumed with a great and unheard of destruction ; till many millions did die accursedly , and the small remnant became vagabonds , and were reserved , like broken pieces , after a storm , to shew the greatnesse of the storm , and misery of the shipwrack ; but then this being translated to signifie the state of accursed souls , whose dying is a continual perishing , who cannot cease to be , it must mean an eternity of duration , in proper and naturall significations . And that we may understand it fully , observe the places . In the 34. Esa. 8. The Prophet prophecies of the great destruction of Jerusalem for all her great iniquities . It is the day of the Lords vengeance , and the yeer of recompences , for the controversie of Sion , and the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch , and the dust thereof into brimstone , and the land thereof shall become burning pitch . It shall not be quenched night nor day , the smoak thereof shall go up for ever , from generation to generation . It shall lie wast , none shall passe thorow it for ever and ever . This is the final destruction of the Nation ; but this destruction shall have an end , because the Nation shall end , and the anger also shall end in its own period , even then when God shall call the Jews into the common inheritance with the Gentiles , and all the sons of God. And this also was the period of their worme , as it is of their fire , The fire of the Divine vengeance upon the Nation ; which was not to be extinguished till they were destroyed , as we see it come to passe . And thus also in Saint Jude , the Angels who kept not their first state , are said to be reserved by God in everlasting chains under darknesse : which word [ everlasting ] signifies not absolutely to eternity , but to the utmost end of that period , for so it follows [ unto the judgement of the great day ] that [ everlasting ] lasts no longer ; and in verse the seventh , the word [ eternal ] is just so used : The men of Sodom and Gomorrha are set forth for an example suffering the vengeance of [ eternal fire , ] that is , of a fire , which burned till they were quite destroyed , and the cities and the countrey with an irreparable ruine never to be rebuilt , and reinhabited as long as this world continues . The effect of which observations is this ; That these words [ for ever , everlasting , eternal , the never-dying worme , the fire unquenchable , ] being words borrowed by our blessed Saviour and his Apostles from the stile of the old Testament , must have a signification just proportionable to the state in which they signifie ; so that as this worme when it signifies a temporal infliction meanes a worme that never ceases , giving torment , till the body is consumed : So when it is translated to an immortall state , it must signifie as much in that proportion : that [ eternal , ] that everlasting , hath no end at all : because the soul cannot be killed in the natural sense , but is made miserable and perishing for ever ; that is , the worme shall not die so long as the soul shall be unconsumed : the fire shall not be quenched , till the period of an immortall nature comes , and that this shall be absolutely for ever without any restriction , appears unanswerably in this , because the same ( for ever ) that is , for the blessed souls , the same for ever , is for the accursed souls ; but the blessed souls that die in the Lord , henceforth shall die no more ; death hath no power over them ; for death is destroyed , it is swallowed up in victory ( saith Saint Paul ) and there shall be no more death , saith Saint John , Revel . 21. 4. So that because for ever hath no end , till the thing or the duration it self have end , in the same sense in which the Saints and Angels give glory to God for ever , in the same sense the lost souls shall suffer the evils of their sad inheritance ; and since after this death of nature , which is a separation of soul and body , there remains no more death , but this second death , this eternal perishing of miserable accursed souls , whose duration must be eternall ; It follows that the worm of conscience , and the unquenchable fire of hell have no period at all ; but shall last as long as God lasts , or the measures of a proper eternity ; that they who provoke God to wrath , by their base , unreasonable , and sottish practises , may know what their portion shall be in the everlasting habitations : and yet suppose that Origens opinion had been true ; and that accursed souls should have ease and a period to their tortures after a thousand years ; I pray let it be considered , whether it be not a great madnesse to choose the pleasures , or the wealth of a few years here , with trouble , with danger , with uncertainty , with labour , with intervalls of sicknesse , and for this to endure the flames of hell for a thousand yeers together ? The pleasures of the world no mar●●an have for a hundred yeers , and no man hath pleasure a hundred dayes together , but he hath some trouble intervening : or at least a wearinesse and a loathing of the pleasure ; and therefore to endure insufferable calamities ( suppose it be ) for a hundred yeers , without any interruption , without so much comfort as the light of a small candle , or a drop of water amounts to in a fever , is a bargain to be made by no man that loves himself , or is not in love with infinite affliction . If a man were condemned but to lie still , or to lie a bed in one posture without turning , for seven yeers together , would he not buy it off with the losse of all his estate ? If a man were to be put upon the rack , for every day , three moneths together , ( suppose him able to live so long ) what would he do to be quit of his torture ? Wouldany man curse the King to his face , if he were sure to have both his hands burnt off , and to be tormented with torments three yeers together ? Would any man in his wits accept of a hundred pound a yeer for fourty yeers , if he were sure to be tormented in the fire for the next hundred yeers together without intermission ? Think then what a thousand yeers signifie : Ten ages , the age of two Empires ; but this account I must tell you is infinitely short , though I thus discourse to you , how great fools wicked men are , though this opinion should be true : A goodly comfort surely ! that for two or three yeers sottish pleasure , a man shall be infinitely tormented but for a thousand yeers . But then when we cast up the minutes , and yeers , and ages of eternity , the consideration it self is a great hell to those persons who by their evil lives are consigned to such sad and miserable portions . A thousand yeers is a long while to be in torment ; we finde a fever of 21. dayes to be like an age in length : but when the duration of an intolerable misery is for ever in the height , and for ever beginning , and ten thousand yeers hath spent no part of its terme , but it makes a perpetual efflux , and is like the centre of a circle , which ever transmits lines to the circumference ; this is a consideration so sad that the horrour of it and the reflexion upon its abode and duration , make a great part of the hell ; for hell could not be hell without the despair of accursed souls ; for any hope were a refreshment , and a drop of water , which would help to allay those flames , which as they burn intolerably , so they must burn for ever . And I desire you to consider that although the Scripture uses the word [ fire ] to expresse the torments of accursed souls , yet fire can no more equal the pangs of hell then it can torment a material substance ; the pains of perishing souls being as much more afflictive then the smart of fire , as the smart of fire is troublesome beyond the softnesse of Persian carpets , or the sensuality of the Asian Luxury : for the pains of hell ; and the perishing or losing of the soul is to suffer the wrath of God , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , our God is a consuming fire : that is the fire of hell , when God takes away all comfort from us , nothing to support our spirit is left us , when sorrow is our food and tears our drink ; when it is eternal night without Sun or star , or lamp , or sleep ; when we burn with fire without light , that is , are loaden with sadnesse , without remedy or hope or ease , and that this wrath is to be expressed , and to fall upon us , in spiritual , immateriall , but most accursed , most pungent and dolorous emanations , then we feel what it is to lose a soul. We may guesse at it by the terrours of a guilty conscience , those verbera & laeniatus , those secret lashings and whips of the exterminating Angel , those thorns in the soul , when a man is haunted by an evil spirit ; those butcheries which the soul of a Tyrant , or a violent , or a vitious person , when he falls in to fear or any calamity does feel , are the infinite arguments , that Hell which is the consummation of the torment of conscience , just as man-hood is the consummation of infancy or as glory is the perfection of grace , is an affliction greater then the bulk of heaven and ea●th ; for there it is that God powrs out the treasures of his wrath and empties the whole magazin of thunder bolts , and all the ●rmory of God is imployed , not in the chastising , but in the t●●menting of a perishing soul. Lucian brings in Radamanthus tel●ing the poor wandring souls upon the banks of Elysium , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for every wickednesse that any man commits in his life when he comes to hell he hath stamped upon his soul an invisible brand and mark of torment ; and this begins here , and is not canc●●led by death● but there is enlarged by the greatnesse of infinite and ●he aboads of eternity . How great these tormens of conscience are here , let any man imagine that can but understand what despair means : despair upon just reason : let it be what it will , no misery can be greater then despair : and because I hope none here have felt those horrors of an evil conscience , which are consignations to eternity , you may please to learn it by your own reason , or els by the sad instances of story . It is reported of Petrus Ilosuanus . A Polonian School-master that having read some ill managed discourses of absolute decrees and divine reprobation , began to be Phantastick and melancholy and apprehensive that he might be one of those many whom God had decreed for hell from all eternity ; from possible to probable , from probable , to certain , the temptation soon carried him , and when he once began to believe himself to be a person inevitably perishing , it is not possible to understand perfectly , what infinite fears , and agonies and despairs , what tremblings , what horrors , what confusion and amazement the poor man felt within him , to consider that he was to be tormented extremely without remedy even to eternal ages ; This in a short continuance grew insufferable , and prevailed upon him so far that he hanged himself , and left this account of it or to this purpose in writing in his study ; I am gone from hence to the flames of hell , & have forced my way thither being impatient to try what those great torments are which here I have heard with an insupportable amazement : this instance may suffice to show what it is to lose a soul. But I will take off from this sad discourse ; onely I shall crave your attention , to a word of exhortation . That you take care , lest for the purchase of a little , trifling , inconsiderable portion of the world you come into this place and state of torment . Although Homer was pleased to complement the beauty of Helena to such a height as to say it was a sufficient price for all the evils which the Greeks and Trojans suffered in ten years . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Yet it was a more reasonable conjecture of Herodotus , that during the ten years siege of Troy Helena for whom the Greeks fought was in Egypt , not in the city , because it was unimaginable but that the Trojans would have thrown her over the walls rather then for the sake of such a trifle , have endured so great calamities , we are more sottish then the Trojans , if we retain our Helena , any one beloved lust , any painted Devil , any sugar'd temptation with , ( not the hazard but ) the certainty of having such horrid miseries , such in valuable losses . And certainly its a strange stupidity of spirit that can sleep in the midst of such thunder , when God speaks from heaven with his lowdest voice , and draws aside his curtain , and shows his arsenal and his armory , full of arrows steeled with wrath , headed and pointed , and hardned with vengeance , still to snatch at those arrows , if they came but in the retinue of a rich fortune or a vain Mistris , if they wait but upon pleasure or profit or in the reare of an ambitious designe . But let not us have such a hardinesse against the threats and representments of the divine vengeance as to take the little imposts and revenues of the world , and stand in defiance against God and the fears of hell unlesse we have a charm that we can be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 invisible to the judge of heaven and earth and are impregnable against , or are sure we shall be insensible of the miseries of a perishing soul. There is a sort of men who because they will be vitious and Atheistical in their lives , have no way to go on with any plaisance and without huge disturbances , but by being also Atheistical in their opinions and to believe that the story of hell is but a bug-bear to affright children and fools , easy believing people to make them soft and apt for government and designes of princes ; and this is an opinion that befriends none but impure and vicious persons ; others there are that believe God to be all mercy , that he forgets his justice , believing that none shall perish with so sad a ruine , if they do but at their death-bed ask God forgivenesse and say they are sorry ; but yet continue their impiety till their house be ready to fall ; being like the Circassians whose Gentlemen enter not into the Church till they be threescore years old , that is , in effect till by their age they cannot any longer use rapine : till then they hear service at their windows : dividing unequally their life between sin and devotition , dedicateing their youth to robbery , and their old age to a repentance without restitution . Our youth , and our man-hood and old age are all of them due to God , and justice and mercy are to him equally essential , and as this life is a time of the possibilities of mercy so to them that neglect it , the next world shall be a state of pure and unmingled justice . Remember the fatal and decretory sentence which God hath passed upon all man-kinde [ it is appointed to all men once to die and after death comes judgement ] and if any of us were certain to die next morning , with what earnestnesse should we pray , with what hatred should we remember our sins , with what scorn should we look upon the licentious pleasures of the world ; then nothing could be welcome unto us but a prayer book , no company but a Comforter and a Guide of souls , no imployment but repentance , no passions but in order to religion , no kindnesse for a lust that hath undone us ; and if any of you have been arrested with alarmes of death , or been in hearty fear of its approach , remember what thoughts and designes then possessed you , how precious a soul was then in your account and what then you would give that you had despised the world , and done your duty to God and man , and lived a holy life . It will come to that again and we shall be in that condition in which we shall perfectly understand , that all the things and pleasures of the world are vain and unprofitable , and irkesome , and that he onely is a wise man who secures the interest of his soul though it be with the losse of all this world and his own life into the bargain . When we are to depart this life to go to strange company and stranger places , and to an unknown condition , then a holy conscience will be the best security , the best possession , it wil be a horror that every friend we meet shall with triumph upbraid to us the sottishnesse of our folly . Lo this is the goodly change you have made , you had your good things in your life time , and how like you the portion that is reserved to you for ever ? The old Rabbins those Poets of religion report of Moses that when the courtiers of Pharaoh were sporting with the childe Moses in the chamber of Pharaohs daughter , they presented to his choice an ingot of gold in one h●●d , and a cole of fire in the other ; and that the childe snatched at t●e coal , thrust it into his mouth , and so singed and parched his tongue , that he stammered ever after : and certainly it is infinitely more childish in us for the glittering of the small gloworms and the charcoal of worldly possessions , to swallow the flames of hell greedily , in our choice : such a bit will produce a worse stammering then Moses had : for so the a●ccursed and lost souls have their ugly and horrid dialect , they roare and blaspheme , blaspheme and roare for ever . And suppose God should now at this instant send the great Archangel with his trumpet to summon all the world to judgement , would not all this seem a notorious visible truth , a truth , which you will then wonder that every man did not lay to his heart and preserve therein actual , pious and effective consideration ? let the trumpet of God perpetually sound in your ears , surgite mortui , & venite ad judicium , place your selves by meditation every day upon your death-bed , and remember what thoughts shall then possesse you ; and let such thoughts dwell in your understanding for ever , and be the parent of all your resolutions and actions . The Doctors of the Jews report , that when Absalom hanged among the oakes , by the haire of the head , he seemed to see under him hell gaping wide , ready to receive him , and he durst not cut off the hair that intangled him , for fear he should fall into the horrid lake whose portion is flames and torment ; but chose to protract his miserable life a few minuts in that pain of posture , and to abide the stroke of his pursuing enemies : His condition was sad when his arts of remedy were so vain . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Soph. A condemned man hath but small comfort to stay the singing of a long psalm , it is the case of every vitious person . Hell is wide open to every impenitent persevering sinner , to every unpurged person . Noctes atque dies patet atri Janua Ditis . And although God hath lighted his candle and the lantern of his word and clearest revelations is held out to us , that we can see hell in its worst colours , and most horrid representments yet we run greedily after bables into that praecipice which swallows up the greatest part of man-kinde ; and then onely we begin to consider , when all consideration is fruitlesse . He therefore is a huge fool that heaps up riches , that greedily pursues the world , and at the same time , ( for so it must be heaps of wrath to himself against the day of wrath ; when sicknesse & death arrests him , then they appear unprofitable & himself extreamly miserable : & if you would know how great that misery is you may take account of it by those fearful words and killing Rhetorick of Scripture , It is a fearful things to fall into the hands of the living God and who can dwell with the everlasting burning ? That is , No patience can abide there one houre where they must dwell for ever . Sermon . XX. OF CHRISTIAN PRVDENCE . Matthew 10. latter part of Ver. 16. Be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmlesse as doves . WHen our B. Saviour entailed a law & a condition of sufferings , & promised a state of persecution to his servants , and withall had charmed them with the bands & unactive chains of so many passive graces , that they should not be able to stir against the violence of Tyrants , or abate the edge of axes , by any instrument , but their own blood ; being sent forth as sheep among wolves , innocent and silent , harmlesse , and defencelesse , certainly exposed to sorrow , and uncertainly guarded in their persons ; their condition seemed nothing else , but a designation to slaughter : and when they were drawn into the folds of the church , they were betrayed into the hands of evil men , infinitely and unavoidably ; and when an Apostle invited a proselyte to come to Christ , it was in effect a snare laid for his life , and he could neither conceal his religion , nor hide his person , nor avoid a captious question , nor deny his accusation , nor elude the bloody arts of Orators and informers nor break prisons , nor any thing but die . If the case stood just thus , it was well eternity stood at the outer doors of our life , ready to receive such harmlesse people ; but surely there could be no art in the designe , no pitying of humane weaknesses , no complying with the condition of man , no allowances made for customs and prejudices of the world , no inviting men by the things of men , no turning nature into religion ; but it was all the way a direct violence , and an open prostitution of our lives ; and a throwing away our fortune into a sea of rashnesse and credulity . But therefore God ordered the affaires and necessities of religion in other wayes and to other purposes . Although God bound our hands behinde us , yet he did not tie our understandings up : although we might not use our swords , yet we might use our reason : we were not suffered to be violent , but we might avoid violence by all the arts of prudence and innocence ; if we did take heed of sin , we might also take heed of men : & because in al contentions between wit and violence , prudence & rudenesse , learning and the sword , the strong hand took it first , and the strong head possessed it last : the strong man first governed , and the witty man succeeded him , and lasted longer ; it came to passe that the wisdom of the Father hath so ordered it , that all his Disciples should overcome the power of the Roman legions by a wise religion ; and prudence and innocence should become the mightiest guards ; and the Christian although exposed to persecution , yet is so secured that he shall never need to die But when the circumstances are so ordered that his reason is convinced that then it is fit he should ; fit ( I say ) in order to Gods purposes and his own . For he that is innocent is safe against all the rods and the axes of all the Consuls of the world , if they rule by justice ; and he that is prudent will also escape from many rudenesses and irregular violences , that can come by injustice : and no wit of man , no government , no armies can do more ; for Caesar perished in the midst of all his legions and all his honours , and against chance and irregularities there is no provision lesse then infinite , that can give security ; and although prudence alone cannot do this ; yet innocence gives the greatest title to that providence which onely can if he pleases , and will if it be fitting . Here then are the two armes defensive of a Christian : Prudence against the evils of men , Innocence against the evils of Devils and all that relates to his kingdom . Prudence fences against persecution , and the evil snares , against the opportunities and occasions of sin , it prevents surprizes , it fortifies all its proper weaknesses , it improves our talents , it does advantage to the kingdom of Christ and the interests of the Gospel , it secures our condition , and instructs our choice in all the wayes and just passages to felicity , it makes us to live profitably , and die wisely ; and without it , simplicity would turn to sillinesse , zeal into passion , passion into fury , religion into scandal , conversation into a snare , civilities into temptation , curtesies into danger , and an imprudent person falls into a condition of harmelesse , rich and unwary fools , or rather of birds , sheep , and bevers , who are hunted and persecuted for the spoils of their fleece , or their flesh , their skins , or their entrails , and have not the foresight to avoid a snare , but by their fear and undefending follies are driven thither where they die infallibly . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Every good man is incircled with many enemies , and dangers : and his vertue shall be rifled , and the decency of his soul and spirit shall he discomposed and turned into a heap of inarticulate and disorderly fancies , unlesse by the methods and guards of prudence it be mannaged and secured . But in order to the following discourse and its method , we are first to consider whether this be , or indeed can be a commandement , or what is it ? For can all men that give up their names in baptisme , be enjoyned to be wise and prudent ? It is as if God would command us to be eloquent , or witty men , fine speakers , or strait bodied , or excellent schollers , or rich men : If he please to make us so , we are so ; and prudence is a gift of God , a blessing of an excellent nature , and of great leisure , and a wise opportunity , and a severe education , and a great experience , and a strict observation , and good company ; all which being either whol●y , or in part out of our power , may be expected as free gifts , but cannot be imposed as commandments . To this I answer , That Christian prudence is in very many instances a direct duty ; in some an instance and advice , in order to degrees and advantages : where it is a duty , it is put into every mans power ; where it is an advice it is onely expected according to what a man hath , and not according to what he hath not : and even here , although the events of prudence are out of our power , yet the endeavours and the observation , the diligence and caution , the moral part of it , and the plain conduct of our necessary duty ( which are portions of this grace ) are such things which God will demand in proportion to the talent which he hath intrusted into our Banks . There are in indeed some Christians very unwary and unwise in the conduct of their religion , and they cannot all help it , at least not in all degrees ; but yet they may be taught to do prudent things , though not to be prudent persons ; if they have not the prudence of advice , and conduct , yet they may have the prudence of obedience , and of disciples : and the event is this ; without prudence their vertue is unsafe , and their persons defenselesse , and their interest is unguarded ; for prudence is a hand-maid waiting at the production , and birth of vertue : It is a nurse to it in its infancy , its patron in assaults , its guide in temptations , its security in all portions of chance and contingency : And he that is imprudent , if he have many accidents and varieties , is in great danger of being none at all , or if he be , at the best he is but a weak and an unprofitable servant , uselesse to his neighbour , vain in himself , and as to God , the least in the kingdom : his vertue is contingent , and by chance , not proportioned to the reward of wisdom , and the election of a wise religion . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . No purchase , no wealth , no advantage is great enough to be compared to a wise soul , and a prudent spirit ; and he that wants it , hath a lesse vertue , and a defenselesse minde , and will suffer a mighty hazard in the interest of eternity . Its parts and proper acts consist in the following particulars . 1. It is the duty of Christian prudence to choose the end of a Christian , that which is perfective of a man , satisfactory to reason , the rest of a Christian , and the beatification of his spirit ; and that is , to choose and desire , and propound to himself heaven , and the fruition of God , as the end of all his acts and arts , his designes and purposes . For in the nature of things that is most eligible , and most to be pursued , which is most perfective of our nature , and is the acquiescence , the satisfaction , and proper rest of our most reasonable appetites . Now the things of this world are difficult and uneasie , full of thornes , and empty of pleasures , they fill a diseased faculty , or an abused sense , but are an infinite dissatisfaction to reason , and the appetites of the soul : they are short , and transient , and they never abide , unlesse sorrow like a chain be bound about their leg , and then they never stir , till the grace of God and religion breaks it , or else that the rust of time eats the chain in pieces : they are dangerous and doubtfull , few and difficult , fordid and particular , not onely not communicable to a multitude , but not diffusive upon the whole man ; there being no one pleasure or object in this world , that delights all the parts of man : and after all this , they are originally from earth , and from the creatures , onely that they oftentimes contract alliances with hell and the grave , with shame and sorrow ; and all these put together make no great amability , or proportion to a wise mans choice : But on the other side , the things of God are the noblest satisfactions to those desires , which ought to be cherished and swelled up to infinite ; their deliciousnesse is vast and full of relish , and their very appendant thorns are to be chosen , for they are gilded , they are safe and medicinall , they heal the wound they make , and bring forth fruit of a blessed and a holy life : The things of God and of religion are easie and sweet , they bear entertainments in their hand , and reward at their back , their good is certain and perpetual , and they make us cheerfull to day , and pleasant to morrow ; and spiritual songs end not in a sigh and a groan ; neither like unwholesome physick do they let loose a present humour , and introduce an habitual indisposition : But they bring us to the felicity of God , the same yesterday , and to day and for ever ; they do not give a private and particular delight , but their benefit is publike , like the incense of the altar , it sends up a sweet smell to heaven , and makes atonement for the religious man that kindled it , and delights all the standers by , and makes the very air wholesome ; there is no blessed soul goes to heaven , but he makes a generall joy in all the mansions where the Saints do dwell , and in all the chappels where the Angels sing : and the joyes of religion are not univocal , but productive of rare and accidental , and praeternatural pleasures ; for the musick of holy hymnes delights the ear , and refreshes the spirit , and makes the very bones of the Saint to rejoyce : and charity , or the giving alms to the poor , does not onely ease the poverty of the receiver , but makes the giver rich , and heals his sicknesse , and delivers from death ; and temperance though it be in the matter of meat , and drink , and pleasures , yet hath an effect upon the understanding , and makes the reason sober , and his will orderly , and his ●ffections regular , and does things beside , and beyond their natural and proper efficacy ; for all the parts of our duty are watered with the showers of blessing , and bring forth fruit according to the influence of heaven , and beyond the capacities of nature . And now let the voluptuous person go and try whether putting his wanton hand to the bosome of his Mis●●s will get half such honour as Scaevola put upon his head , when he put his hand into the fire . Let him see whether a drunken meeting will cure a fever , or make him wise ? A hearty and a persevering prayer will. Let him tell me , if spending great summes of money upon his lusts will make him sleep soundly , or be rich ? Charity will ; Alms will increase his fortune , and a good conscience shall charme all his cares and sorrows into a most delicious slumber ; well may a full goblet wet the drunkards tongue , and then the heat rising from the stomack will dry the spunge , and heat it into the scorchings and little images of hell : and the follies of a wanton bed will turn the itch into a smart , and empty the reins of all their lustfull powers ; but can they do honour , or satisfaction in any thing that must last , and that ought to be provided for ? No : All the things of this world are little , and trifling , and limited , and particular , and sometimes necessary because we are miserable , wanting and imperfect , but they never do any thing toward perfection , but their pleasure dies like the time in which it danced a while , and when the minute is gone , so is the pleasure too , and leaves no footstep but the impression of a sigh , and dwells no where , but in the same house where you shall finde yesterday , that is in forgetfulnesse , and annihilation , unlesse its onely childe , sorrow , shall marry , and breed more of its kinde , and so continue its memory and name to eternall ages . It is therefore the most necessary part of prudence to choose well in the main stake ; and the dispute is not much ; for if eternall things be better then temporall , the soul more noble then the body , vertue more honourable then the basest vices , a lasting joy to be chosen before an eternall sorrow , much to be preferred before little , certainty before danger , publike good things , before private evils , eternity before moments , then let us set down in religion , and make heaven to be our end , God to be our Father , Christ our elder Brother , the Holy Ghost the earnest of our inheritance , vertue to be our imployment , and then we shall never enter into the portion of fools and accursed ill-choosing spirits . Nazianzen said well , Malim prudentiae guttam quàm foecundioris fortunae pelagus : One drop of prudence is more usefull , then an ocean of a smooth fortune ; for prudence is a rare instrument towards heaven ; and a great fortune is made oftentimes the high-way to hell and destruction . However , thus farre , prudence is our duty ; every man can be so wise ; and is bound to it , to choose heaven and a cohabitation with God , before the possessions and transient vanities of the world . 2. It is a duty of Christian prudence to pursue this great end , with apt means and instruments in proportion to that end . No wise man will sail to Ormus in a cock-boat , or use a childe for his interpreter ; and that Generall is a Cyclops without an eye , who chooses the sickest men to man his Towns , and the weakest to fight his battels . It cannot be a vigorous prosecution unlesse the means have an efficacy or worth commensurate to all the difficulty , and something of the excellency of that end which is designed . And indeed men use not to be so weak in acquiring the possessions of their temporals ; But in matters of religion they think any thing effective enough to secure the greatest interest ; as if all the fields of heaven , and the regions of the Kingdom were waste ground , and wanted a Colony of planters ; and that God invited men to heaven upon any terms , that he might rejoyce in the multitude of subjects . For certain it is , men do more to get a little money , then for all the glories of heaven : Men rise up early , and sit up late , and eat the bread of carefulnesse , to become richer then their neighbours ; and are amazed at every losse , and impatient of an evil accident , and feel a direct strom of passion , if they suffer in their interest : But in order to heaven they are cold in their religion , indevout in their prayers , incurious in their walking , unwatchfull in their circumstances , indifferent in the use of their opportunities , infrequent in their discoursings of it , not inquisitive of the way , and yet think they shall surely go to heaven : But a prudent man knows that by the greatnesse of the purchase , he is to make an estimate of the value and the price : When we ask of God any great thing ; As wisdom , delivery from sicknesse , his holy Spirit , the forgivenesse of sins , the grace of chastity , restitution to his favour , or the like , do we hope to obtain them without a high opinion of the things we ask ? and if we value them highly , must we not desire them earnestly ? and if we desire them earnestly , must we not pray for them fervently ? and whatsoever we ask for fervently , must not we beg for frequently ? and then because prayer is but one hand toward the reaching a blessing , and God requires our cooperation and endeavour ; and we must work with both hands : are we not convinced that our prayers are either faint , or a designe of lazinesse , when we either ask coldly , or else pray loudly , hoping to receive the graces we need without labour ? A prudent person that knows to value the best object of his desires , will also know that he must observe the degrees of labour , according to the excellency of the reward : Prayer must be effectuall , fervent , frequent , continuall , holy , passionate , that must get a grace , or secure a blessing : The love that we must have to God must be such as to keep his commandements , and to make us willing to part with all our estate , and all our honour , and our life for the testimony of a holy conscience . Our charity to our neighbours must be expressive in a language of a reall friendship , aptnesse to forgive , readinesse to forbear , in pitying infirmities , in relieving necessities , in giving our goods and our lives , and quitting our privileges to save his soul , to secure and support his vertue . Our repentance must be full of sorrows and care , of diligence and hatred against sin , it must drive out all , and leave no affections towards it ; it must be constant and persevering , fearfull of relapse , and watchfull of all accidents : Our temperance must sometimes turn into abstinence , and most commonly be severe , and ever without reproof : He that striveth for masteries is temperate ( saith Saint Paul ) in all things ; he that does all this , may with some pretence and reason say , he intends to go to heaven : But they that will not deny a lust , nor refrain an appetite , they that will be drunk when their friends do merrily constrain them , or love a cheap religion , and a gentle and lame prayer , short and soft , quickly said , and soon passed over , seldome returning , and but little observed , How is it possible that they should think themselves persons disposed to receive such glorious crowns and scepters , such excellent conditions , which they have not faith enough to believe , nor attention enough to consider , and no man can have wit enough to understand . But so might an Ar●adian shepherd look from the rocks , or thorow the clefts of the valley where his sheep graze , and wonder that the messenger stayes so long from comming to him to be crowned King of all the Greek Ilands , or to be adopted heir to the Macedonian Monarchy . It is an infinite love of God , that we have heaven upon conditions , which we can perform with greatest diligence ; But truely the lives of men are generally such , that they do things in order to heaven , things ( I say ) so few , so trifling , so unworthy , that they are not proportionable to the reward of a crown of oak , or a yellow riband , the slender reward with which the Romans payed their souldiers for their extraordinary valour . True it is , that heaven is not in a just sense of a commutation , a reward , but a gift , and an infinite favour : but yet it is not reached forth but to persons disposed by the conditions of God ; which conditions when we pursue in kinde , let us be very carefull we do not fail of the mighty price of our high calling , for want of degrees , and just measures , the measures of zeal and a mighty love . 3. It is an office of prudence so to serve God that we may at the same time preserve our lives and our estates , our interest and reputation for our selves , and our relatives , so farre as they can consist together . Saint Paul in the beginning of Christianity was careful to instruct the forwardnesse and zeal of the new Christians into good husbandry , and to catechize the men into good trades , and the women into useful imployments , that they might not be unprofitable . For Christian religion carrying us to heaven , does it by the way of a man , and by the body it serves the soul , as by the soul it serves God ; and therefore it endeavours to secure the body and its interest , that it may continue the opportunities of a crown , and prolong the stage in which we are to run for the mighty price of our salvation : and this is that part of prudence , which is the defensative and guards of a Christian in the time of persecution ; and it hath in it much of duty . He that through an indiscreet zeal casts himself into a needlesse danger , hath betrayed his life to tyranny and tempts the sin of an enemy , he loses to God the service of many yeers , and cuts off himself from a fair opportunity of working his salvation ( in the main parts of which we shall finde a long life , and very many yeers of reason to be little enough ) he betrayes the interest of his relatives , ( which he is bound to preserve ) he disables himself of making provision for them of his own house , and he that fails in this duty by his own fault , is worse then an infidel , and denies the faith , by such unseasonably dying , or being undone , which by that testimony he did intend gloriously to confesse ; he serves the end of ambition and popular services , but not the sober ends of religion , he discourages the weak , and weakens the hands of the strong , and by upbraiding their warinesse , tempts them to turn it into rashnesse or despair ; he affrights strangers from entring into religion , while by such imprudence , he shall represent it to be impossible at the same time to be wise and to be religious ; it turns all the whole religion into a forwardnesse of dying or beggery , leaving no space for the parts and offices of a holy life , which in times of persecution are infinitely necessary , for the advantages of the institution . But God hath provided better things for his servants : Quem fata cogunt , ille cum veniâ est miser , He whom God by an inevitable necessity calls to sufferance , he hath leave to be undone , and that ruine of his estate or losse of his life shall secure first a providence , then a crown . At si quis ultro se malis offert volens . seque ipse torquet , perdere est dignus bona Queis nescit uti . But he that invites the cruelty of a Tyrant by his own follyes or the indiscretions of an unsignificant and impertinent zeal , suffers as a wilful person , and enters into the portion and reward of fools . And this is the precept of our Blessed Saviour , next after my text : Beware of men : use your prudence to the purposes of avoiding their snare . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Man is the most harmful of all the wilde beasts : ye are sent as sheep among wolves , be therefore wise as serpents ; when you can avoid it suffer not men to ride over your heads , or trample you under foot ; that 's the wisdom of Serpents ; and so must we ; that is by all just complyances , and toleration of all indifferent changes in which a duty is not destroyed and in which we were not active , so to preserve our selves that we might be permitted to live , and serve God , and to do advantages to religion ; so purchasing time to do good in , by bending in all those flexures of fortune , and condition , which we cannot help , and which we do not set forward , and which we never did procure ; and this is the direct meaning of Saint Paul ; see then that ye walk circumspectly , not as fools but as wise , Redeeming the time because the dayes are evil ; that is , we are fallen into times that are troublesome , dangerous , persecuting and afflictive , purchase as much respite as you can : Buy or redeem the time by all honest arts , by humility , by fair carriage and sweetnesses of society , by civility , and a peaceful conversation , by good words , and all honest offices , by praying for your persecutors , by patient sufferance of what is unavoidable : And when the Tyrant draws you forth from all these guards and retirements , and offers violence to your duty or tempts you to do a dishonest act , or to omit an act of obligation , then come forth into the Theater and lay your necks down to the hangmans axe , and fear not to die the most shamful death of the crosse or the gallows ; for so have I known angels ascending and descending upon those ladders ; and the Lord of glory suffered shame and purchased honour upon the crosse . Thus we are to walk in wisdom towards them that are without redeeming the time : for so Saint Paul renewes that permission , or commandment : Give them no just cause of offence ; with all humility and as occasion is offered represent their duty , and invite them sweetly to felicities and vertue , but do not in ruder language upbraid and reproach their basenesse : and when they are in corrigible , let them alone , lest like cats they run mad with the smell of delicious ointments ; And therefore Pothinus Bishop of Lyons being asked by the unbaptized President , who was the God of the Christians ? answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; If you be disposed with real and hearty desires of learning , what you ask you shall quickly know ; But if your purposes be in direct , I shall not preach to you , to my hurt and your no advantage . Thus the wisdom of the primitive Christians was careful not to prophane the temples of the heathen , not to revile their false Gods , and when they were in duty to represent the follies of their religion they chose to do it , from their own writings and as relators of their own records they fled from the fury of a persecution , they hid themselves in caves , and wandred about in disguises , and preached in private , and celebrated their synaxes , and communions in grots and retirements , and made it appear to all the world , they were peaceable , and obedient , charitable , and patient , and at this price bought their time . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As knowing that even in this sense , time was very pretious and the opportunitie of giving glory to God by the offices of an excellent religion , was not too deare a purchase at that rate . But then when the wolves had entred into the folds and seized upon a lamb the rest fled , and used all the innocent arts of concealment . Saint Athanasius being overtaken by his persecutors , but not known , and asked whether he saw Athanasius passing that way ; pointed out forward with his finger , non longè abest Athanasius ; the man is not far off ; a swift foot-man will easily overtake him . And Saint Paul divided the councell of his Judges , and made the Pharisees his parties by a witty insinuation of his own belief of the resurrection , which was not the main question , but an incident to the matter of his accusation . And when Plinius secundus in the face of a Tyrant court was pressed so invidiously to give his opinion concerning a good man in banishment and under the disadvantage of an unjust sentence he diverted the snare of Marcus Regulus by referring his answer to a competent judicatory according to the laws ; being prefled again , by offering a direct answer upon a just condition , which he knew , they would not accept ; and the third time , by turning the envy upon the impertinent and malicious Orator , that he won great honour , the honour of a severe honesty , and a witty man , and a prudent person . The thing I have noted , because it is a good pattern to represent the arts of honest evasion , and religious , prudent honesty : which any good man may transcribe and turn into his own instances if an equal case should occur . For in this case the rule is easy ; If we are commanded to be wise and redeeme our time , that we serve God and religion , we must not use unlawful arts which set us back in the accounts of our time , no lying Subterfuges , no betraying of a truth , no treachery to a good man , no insnaring of a brother , no secret renouncing of any part or proposition of our religion , no denying to confesse the article when we are called to it . For when the primitive Christians had got a trick to give money for certificates , that they had sacrificed to idols , though indeed they did not do it , but had corrupted the officers and ministers of state , they dishonoured their religion and were marked with the appellative of libellatici , Libellers ; and were excommunicate and cast off from the society of Christians and the hopes of Heaven , till they had returned to God by a severe repentance ; optanduum est ut quod libenter facis diu facere possis . It is good to have time long to doe that which wee ought to doe ; but to pretend that , which we dare not doe , and to say we have , when we have not , if we know we ought not , is to dishonour the cause and the person too ; it is expressly against confession of Christ , of which Saint Paul saith , by the mouth confession is made unto salvation . And our Blessed Saviour , he that confesseth me before men . I will confesse him before my Heavenly Father ; and if here he refuseth to own me , I will not own him hereafter : it is also expressly against Christian fortitude and noblenesse ; and against the simplicity and sincerity of our religion , and it turnes prudence into craft , and brings the Devil to wait in the temple , and to minister to God ; and it is a lesser Kinde of apostacy : and it is well that the man is tempted no further ; for if the persecutors could not be corrupted with money , it is ods but the complying man would , and though he would with the money hide his shame , yet he will not with the losse of all his estate redeeme his religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : some men will lose their lives rather then a faire estate : and doe not almost all the armies of the world ( I mean ) those that fight in the justest causes , pretend to fight and die for their lands and liberties : and there are too many also that will die twice rather then be beggers once : although we all know that the second death is intolerable . Christian prudence forbids us to provoke a danger ; and they were fond persons that run to persecution , and when the Proconsul sate on the life and death , and made strict inquisition after Christians , went and offered themselves to die ; and he was a fool that being in Portugal run to the Priest as he elevated the host ; and overthrew the mysteries and openly defied the rites of that religion : God when he sends a persecution will pick out such persons whom he will have to die , and whom he will consigne to banishment , and whom to poverty : In the mean time let us do our duty when we can , and as long as we can , and with as much strictnesse as we can ; walking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( as the Apostles Phrase is ) not prevaricating in the least tittle ; and then if we can be safe with the arts of civil , innocent , inoffensive , compliance , let us blesse God for his permissions made to us , and his assistances in the using them . But if either we turne our zeal into the ambition of death , and the follies of an unnecessary beggery ; or on the other side turn our prudence into craft and covetousnesse ; to the first , ( I say ) that God hath no pleasure in fooles , to the latter , If you gain the whole world and lose your own soul : your losse is infinite and intolerable . Sermon . XXI . Of Christian Prudence . Part II. 4. IT is the office of Christian prudence so to order the affaires of our life as that in all the offices of our souls and conversation , we do honour and reputation , to the religion we professe . For the follies and vices of the Professors give great advantages to the adversary to speak reproachfully , and does aliene the hearts and hinder the complyance of those undetermined persons , who are apt to be perswaded , if their understandings be not prejudiced . But as our necessary duty is bound upon us by one ligament more in order to the honour of the cause of God : so it particularly bindes us to many circumstances adjuncts and parts of duty which have no other commandment , but the law of prudence . There are some sects of Christians which have some one constant indisposition , which as a character divides them from all others , and makes them reproved on all hands : some are so suspitious and ill natured , that if a person of a facile nature and gentle disposition fall into their hands he is presently sowred and made morose , unpleasant , and uneasy in his conversation : Others there are that do things so like to what themselves condemn that they are forced to take sanctuary and labour in the mine of unsignificant distinctions , to make themselves believe they are innocent : and in the mean time they offend all men else , and open the mouths of their adversaries to speak reproachful things ; true , or false ; ( as it happens ) And it requires a great wit to understand all the distinctions and devices thought of , for legitimating the worshipping of images : And those people that are liberal in their excommunications make men think they have reason to say their Judges are proud , or self willed , or covetous , or ill natured people . These that are the faults of Governours , and continued , are quickly derived upon the sect and cause a disreputation to the whole society and institution . And who can think that congregation to be a true branch of the Christian , who makes it their profession to kill men to save their souls against their will , and against their understanding ? who calling themselves disciples of so meek a Master , do live like bears upon prey , and spoil and blood ? It is a huge dishonour to the sincerity of a mans purposes to be too busie in fingring money in the matters of religion : and they that are zealous for their rights and tame in their devotion , furious against sacrilege , and a companion of drunkards ; implacable against breakers of a Canon , and carelesse and patient enough with them that break the fifth or sixth Commandments of the Decalogue , tell all the world their private sense is to preserve their own interest with scruple and curiosity , and leave God to take care for his . Thus Christ reproved the Pharisees , for straining at a gnat and swallowing a Camel ; the very representation of the manner and matter of fact discovers the vice by reproving the folly of it . They that are factious to get a rich proselyte and think the poor not worth saving dishonour their zeal and teach men to call it covetousnesse , and though there may be a reason of prudence to desire one more then the other , because of a bigger efficacy , the example of the one may have more then the other ; yet it will quickly be discovered if it be done by secular designe : and the Scripture that did not allow the preferring of a gay man before a poor Saint in the matter of place , will not be pleased that in the matter of souls , which are all equal , there should be a faction and designe , and an acceptation of persons . Never let us pollute our religion with arts of the world , nor offer to support the arke with unhallowed hands ; nor mingle false propositions with true , nor make religion a pretence to profit or preferment , nor do things which are like a vice ; neither ever speak things dishonorable of God , nor abuse thy brother for Gods sake , nor be solicitous and over busie to recover thy own little things ▪ neither alwayes think it fit to lose thy charity by forcing thy brother to do justice ; and all those things which are the outsides and faces , the garments and most discerned parts of religion , be sure that they be dressed according to all the circumstances of men and by all the rules of common honesty , and publick reputation . Is it not a sad thing that the Jew should say , the Christians worship images ? or that it should become a proverb , that the Jew spends all in his passeover , the Moore in his marriage , and the Christian in his law suits ? that , what the first sacrifice to religion , and the second to publick joy , we should spend in malice , covetousnesse , and revenge ? Pudet haec opprobria nobis & dici potuisse , & non potuisse refelli . But among our selves also , we serve the Devils ends , and minister to an eternal dis-union , by saying and doing things which look unhandsomely . One sort of men is superstitious , phantastical , greedy of honour , and tenacious of propositions to fill the purse , and his religion is thought nothing but policy , and opinion . Another sayes he hath a good religion , but he is the most indifferent and cold person in the world , either to maintain it , or to live according to it ; the one dresses the images of Saints with fine clothes , the other lets the poor go naked , and disrobes the priests that minister in the religion . A third uses God worse then all this , and sayes of him such things that are scandalous even to an honest man , and such which would undo a good mans reputation : And a fourth , yet endures no governour but himself , and pretends to set up Christ and make himself his lieutenant . And a fifth hates all government , and from all this it comes to passe that it is hard for a man to choose his side , and he that chooses wisest takes that , which hath in it least hurt ; but some he must endure , or live without communion : and every Church of one denomination is , or hath been too incurious of preventing infamy or disreputation to their confessions . One thing I desire should be observed , that here the Question being concerning prudence , and the matter of doing reputation to our religion , it is not enough to say , we can with learning justifie all that we do , and make all whole with 3. or 4. distinctions ; for possibly the man that went to visit the Corinthian Lais , if he had been asked why he dishonoured himself with so unhandsome an entrance , might finde an excuse to legitimate his act , or ●t least to make himself beleeve well of his own person ; but he that intends to do himself honour , must take care that he be not suspected , that he give no ocasion of reproachful language ; for fame and honour is a nice thing , tender as a womans chastity , or like the face of the purest mirrour , which a foul breath , or an unwholesome air , or a watry eye can fully , and the beauty is lost although it be not dashed in pieces . When a man or a sect is put to answer for themselves in the matter of reputation , they with their distinctions wipe the glasse , and at last can do nothing but make 〈◊〉 appear it was not broken ; but their very abstersion and laborious excuses confesse it was foul and faulty : We must know that all sorts of men , and all sects of Christians , have not onely the mistakes of men and their prejudices to contest withall , but the calumnies and aggravation of Devils : and therefore it will much ease our accounts of dooms-day , if we are now so prudent that men will not be offended here , nor the Devils furnished with a libell in the day of our great account . To this rule appertains that we be curious in observing the circumstances of men , and satisfie all their reasonable expectations , and do things at that rate of charity and religion which they are taught to be prescribed in the institution . There are some things which are undecencies rather then sins , such which may become a just Heathen , but not a holy Christian ; a man of the world , but not a man professing godlinesse . Because when the greatnesse of the man , or the excellency of the Law , engage us upon great severity , or an exemplar vertue , whatsoever is lesse then it renders the man unworthy of the religion , or the religion unworthy of its fame : Men think themselves abused , and therefore return shame for payment . We never read of an Apostle that went to law ; and it is but reasonable to expect that of all men in the world Christians should not be such fighting people , and Clergy men should not command Armies , and Kings should not be drunk , and subjects should not strike Princes for justice , and an old man should not be youthfull in talk , or in his habit ; and women should not swear , and great men should not lie , and a poor man should not oppresse ; for besides the sin of some of them , there is an undecency in all of them ; and by being contrary to the end of an office , or the reputation of a state , or the sobrieties of a graver or sublimed person , they asperse the religion as insufficient to keepe the persons within the bounds of fame and common reputation . But above all things those sects of Christians whose professed doctrine brings destruction and diminution to government , give the most intolerable scandal , and dishonour to the institution ; and it had been impossible that Christianity should have prevailed over the wisdom and power of the Greeks and Romans , if it had not been humble to superiours , patient of injuries , charitable to the needy , a great exactour of obedience to Kings , even to heathens , that they might be won , and convinced ; and to persecutours that they might be sweetned in their anger , or upbraided for their cruel injustice : for so doth the humble vine creep at the foot of an oak , and leans upon its lowest base , and begs shade and protection , and leave to grow under its branches , and to give and take mutuall refreshment , and pay a friendly influence for a mighty patronage , and they grow and dwell together , and are the most remarkable of friends and married pairs of all the leavie nation . Religion of it self is soft , easie and defenselesse , and God hath made it grow up with empire , and to leane upon the arms of Kings , and it cannot well grow alone ; and if it shall like the Ivy suck the heart of the oak upon whose body it grew and was supported , it will be pulled down from its usurped eminency , and fire and shame shall be its portion . We cannot complain if Princes arm against those Christians , who if they are suffered to preach will disarm the Princes ; and it will be hard to perswade that Kings are bound to protect and nourish those that will prove ministers of their own exauctoration : And no Prince can have juster reason to forbid , nor any man have greater reason to deny communion to a family , then if they go about to destroy the power of the one , or corrupt the duty of the other . The particulars of this rule are very many ; I shall onely instance in one more , because it is of great concernment to the publike interest of Christendome . There are some persons whose religion is hugely disgraced , because they change their propositions according as their temporall necessities or advantages do return . They that in their weaknesse and beginning cry out against all violence as against persecution : and from being suffered , swell up till they be prosperous , and from thence to power , and at last to Tyranny ; and then suffer none but themselves , and trip up those feet , which they humbly kissed , that themselves should not be trampled upon ; these men tell all the world that at first they were pusillanimous , or at last outragious ▪ that their doctrine at first served their fear , and at last served their rage , and that they did not at all intend to serve God : and then who shall believe them in any thing else ? Thus some men declaim against the faults of Governours , that themselves may governe ; and when the power was in their hands , what was a fault in others , is in them necessity ; as if a sin could be hallowed for comming into their hands . Some Greeks at Florence subscribed the Article of Purgatory , and condemned it in their own Diocesses : And the Kings supremacy in causes Ecclesiastical , was earnestly defended against the pretences of the Bishop of Rome , and yet when he was thrust out , some men were , and are v●olent to submit the King to their Consistories , as if he were Supreme in defiance of the Pope , and yet not Supreme over his own Clergy . These Articles are mannaged too suspitiously . Omnia si perdas famam servare memento . You lose all the advantages to your cause , if you lose your reputation . 5 It is a duty also of Christian prudence that the teachers of others by authority , or reprovers of their vices by charity , should also make their persons apt to do it without objection . Lori pedem rectus derideat , Aethiopem albus . No man can endure the Gracchi preaching against sedition , nor Verres prating against theevery , or Milo against homicide : and if Herod had made an oration of humility , or Antiochus of mercy , men would have thought , it had been a designe to evil purposes . He that means to gain a soul , must not make his Sermon an ostentation of his Eloquence , but the law of his own life . If a Gramarian should speak solaecismes , or a Musician sing like a bittern , he becomes ridiculous for offending in the faculty he professes : So it is in them who minister to the conversion of souls : If they fail in their own life , when they professe to instruct another , they are defective in their proper part , and are unskilfull to all their purposes ; and the Cardinal of Crema did with ill successe tempt the English priests to quit their chaste marriages , when himself was deprehended in unchaste embraces . For good counsel seems to be unhallowed , when it is reached forth by an impure hand , and he can ill be beleeved by another , whose life so confutes his rules , that it is plain he does not beleeve himself . Those Churches that are zealous for souls , must send into their ministeries men so innocent , that evil persons may have no excuse to be any longer vitious . When Gorgias went about to perswade the Greeks to be at peace , he had eloquence enough to do advantage to his cause , and reason enough to presse it : But Melanthius was glad to put him off , by telling him that he was not fit to perswade peace , who could not agree at home with his wife , nor make his wife agree with her maid ; and he that could not make peace between three single persons , was unapt to prevail for the reuniting fourteen or fifteen Common-wealths : And this thing Saint Paul remarks by enjoyning that a Bishop should be chosen such a one as knew well to rule his own house , or else he is not fit to rule the Church of God. And when thou perswadest thy brother to be chaste , let not him deride thee for thy intemperance ; and it will ill become thee to be severe against an idle servant , if thou thy self beest uselesse to the publike ; and every notorious vice is infinitely against the spirit of government , and depresses the man to an evennesse with common persons , — Facinus quos inquinat , aequat , to reprove , belongs to a Superiour ; and as innocence gives a man advantage over his brother , giving him an artificiall and adventitious authority ; so the follies and scandals of a publike and Governing man destroyes the efficacy of that authority that is just and naturall . Now this is directly an office of Christian prudence , that good offices and great authority , become not ineffective by ill conduct . Hither also it appertains that in publike or private reproofs , we observe circumstances of time , of place , of person , of disposition . The vices of a King are not to be opened publikely ; and Princes must not be reprehended as a man reproves his servant ; but by Categoricall propositions , by abstracted declamations , by reprehensions of a crime in its single nature , in private , with humility , and arts of insinuation : And it is against Christian prudence not onely to use a Prince or great Personage with common language , but it is as great an imprudence to pretend for such a rudenesse , the examples of the Prophets in the old Testament . For their case was extraordinary , their calling peculiar , their commission special , their spirit miraculous , their authority great , as to that single mission , they were like thunder or the trump of God , sent to do that office plainly , for the doing of which in that manner , God had given no commission to any ordinary minister : And therefore we never finde that the Priests did use that freedom , which the Prophets were commanded to use , whose very words being put into their mouthes , it was not to be esteemed an humane act , or a lawfull manner of doing an ordinary office ; neither could it become a precedent to them whose authority is precarious and without coërcion whose spirit is allayed with Christian graces and duties of humility , whose words are not prescribed , but left to the conduct of prudence , as it is to be advised by publike necessities , and private circumstances , in ages where all things are so ordered , that what was fit and pious amongst the old Jews , would be incivil and intolerable to the latter Christians . He also that reproves a vice should also treat the persons with honour , and civilities , and by fair opinions , and sweet addresses place the man in the regions of modesty , and the confines of grace , and the fringes of repentance . For some men are more restrained by an imperfect , feared shame , so long as they think there is a reserve of reputation which they may secure , then they can be with all the furious declamations of the world , when themselves are represented ugly and odious , full of shame , and actually punished with the worst of tempor●●● evils , beyond which he fears not here to suffer , and from whence because he knows it will be hard for him to be redeemed by an after●game of reputation , it makes him desperate and incorrigible b● fraternall correption . A zealous man hath not done his duty , when he calls his brother drunkard and beast , and he may better do it , by telling him he is a man , and sealed with Gods Spirit , and honoured with the title of a Christian , and is , or ought to be reputed as a discreet person by his friends ; and a governour of a family , or a guide in his countrey , or an example to many , and that it is huge pity so many excellent things should be sullied , and allayed with what is so much below all this : Then a reprover does his duty , when he is severe against the vice , and charitable to the man , and carefull of his reputation , and sorry for his reall dishonour , and observant of his circumstances , and watchfull to surprize his affections and resolutions , there where they are most tender , and most tenable ; and men will not be in love with vertue whither they are forced with rudenesse and incivilities ; but they love to dwell there whither they are invited friendly , and where they are treated civilly , and feasted liberally , and lead by the hand and the eye to honour and felicity . 6. It is a duty of Christian prudence not to suffer our souls to walk alone , unguarded , unguided , and more single then in other actions and interests of our lives , which are of lesse concernment . Vae soli & singulari , said the Wise man , Wo to him that is alone : and if we consider how much God hath done to secure our souls , and after all that , how many wayes there are for a mans soul to miscarry , we should think it very necessary to call to a spirituall man to take us by the hand , to walk in the wayes of God , and to lead us in all the regions of duty , and thorow the labyrinths of danger . For God who best loves , and best knows how to value our souls , set a price no lesse upon it then the life-blood of his Holy Son ; he hath treated it with variety of usages according as the world had new guises , and new necessities ; he abates it with punishment to make us avoid greater ; he shortned our life that we might live for ever ; he turns sicknesse into vertue ; he brings good out of evil ; he turns enmities to advantages , our very sins into repentances , and stricter walking ; he defeats all the follies of men , and all the arts of the Devil , and layes snares , and uses violence to secure our obedience ; he sends Prophets and Priests to invite us , and to threaten us to felicities ; he restrains us with lawes , and he bridles us with honour and shame , reputation , and society , friends , and foes ; he layes hold on us by the instruments of all the passions ; he is enough to fill our love , he satisfies our hope , he affrights us with fear , he gives us part of our reward in hand , and entertains all our faculties with the promises of an infinite and glorious portion ; he curbs our affections : he directs our wills , he instructs our understandings with Scriptures , with perpetuall Sermons , with good books , with frequent discourses , with particular observations , and great experience , with accidents and judgements , with rare events of providence , and miracles ; he sends his Angels to be our guard , and to place us in opportunities of vertue , and to take us off from ill company and places of danger , to set us neer to good example ; he gives us his holy Spirit , and he becomes to us a principle of a mighty grace , descending upon us in great variety , and undiscerned events , besides all those parts of it which men have reduced to a method and an art ; and after all this he forgives us infinite irregularities , and spares us every day , and still expects , and passes by , and waits all our dayes , still watching to do us good , and to save that soul which he knowes is so precious , one of the chiefest of the works of God , and an image of divinity . Now from all these arts and mercies of God , besides that we have infinite reason to adore his goodnesse , we have also a demonstration , that we ought to do all that possibly we can , and extend all our faculties , and watch all our opportunities , and take in all assistances to secure the interest of our soul , for which God is pleased to take such care , and use so many arts for its security . If it were not highly worth it , God would not do it . If it were not all of it necessary , God would not do it . But if it be worth it , and all of it be necessary , why should we not labour in order to this great end ? If it be worth so much to God it is so much more to us : for if we perish , his felicity is undisturbed , but we are undone , infinitely undone . It is therefore worth taking in a spirituall guide , so far we are gone . But because we are in the question of prudence , we must consider whether it be necessary to do so : For every man thinks himself wise enough as to the conduct of his soul , and managing of his eternal interest ; and divinity is every mans trade , and the Scriptures speak our own language , and the commandments are few and plain , and the laws are the measure of justice , and if I say my prayers , and pay my debts , my duty is soon summed up , and thus we usually make our accounts for eternity , and at this rate onely take care for heaven ; but let a man be questioned for a portion of his estate or have his life shaken with diseases , then it will not be enough to employ one agent , or to send for a good woman to minister a potion of the juices of her country garden , but the ablest Lawyers and the skilfullest Physitians & the advice of friends and huge caution , and diligent attendances and a curious watching concerning all the accidents and little passages of our disease , and truly a mans life , and health is worth all that , and much more , and in many cases it needs it all . But then is the soul the onely safe and the onely trifling thing about us ? Are not there a thousand dangers , and ten thousand difficulties , and innumerable possibilities of a misadventure ? Are not all the congregations in the world divided in their doctrines , and all of them call their own way necessary and most of them call all the rest damnable ? we had need of a wise instructor and a prudent choice at our first entrance , and election of our side : and when we are well in the matter of Faith for its object , and jnstitution ; all the evils of my self and all the evils of the Church and all the good that happens to evil men , every day of danger , the periods of sicknesse and the day of death are dayes of tempest and storm , and our faith wil suffer shipwrack unlesse it be strong and supported and directed . But who shall guide the vessel when a stormy passion or a violent imagination transports the man ? who shall awaken his reason and charm his passion into slumber & instruction ? How shal a man make his fears confident , and allay his confidence with fear , and make the allay with just proportions , and steere evenly , between the extremes , or call upon his sleeping purposes or actuate his choices , or binde him to reason in all the wandrings and ignorances , in his passion and mistakes ? For suppose the man of great skil and great learning in the wayes of religion , yet if he be abused by accident , or by his own will , who shall then judge his cases of conscience , and awaken his duty and renew his holy principle , and actuate his spiritual powers ? For Physitians that prescribe to others , do not minister to themselves in cases of danger , and violent sicknesses ; and in matter of distemperature we shall not finde that books alone will do all the work of a spiritual Physitian more then of a natural , I will not go about to increase the dangers and difficulties of the soul , to represent the assistance of a spiritual man to be necessary . But of this I am sure ; our not understanding , and our not considering our soul make us first to neglect , and then many times to lose it . But is not every man an unequal judge in his own case ? and therefore the wisdom of God and the laws hath appointed tribunals and Judges and arbitrators and that men are partial in the matter of souls , it is infinitely certain , because amongst those milions of souls that perish , not one in ten thousand but believes himself in a good condition ; and all sects of Christians think they are in the right , and few are patient to enquire whether they be or no : then adde to this , that the Questions of souls , being clothed with circumstances of matter and particular contingency , are or may be infinite , and most men are so infortunate , that they have so intangled their cases of conscience , that there where they have done something good , it may be , they have mingled half a dozen evils ; and when interests are confounded and governments altered , and power strives with right , and insensibly passes into right , and duty to God would fain be reconciled with duty to our relatives , will it not be more then necessary that we should have some one that we may enquire of , after the way to heaven , which is now made intricate by our follies and inevitable accidents ? But by what instrument shall men alone and in their own cases be able to discern the spirit of truth from the spirit of illusion , just confidence from presumption , fear from pusillanimity ; are not all the things and assistances in the world little enough to defend us against pleasure and pain , the two great fountains of temptation ? is it not harder to cure a lust then to cure a feaver ? and are not the deceptions and follies of men , and the arts of the Devil and inticements of the world & the deceptions of a mans own heart , and the evils of sin more evil and more numerous then the sicknesses and diseases of any one man ? and if a man perishes in his soul , is it not infinitely more sad then if he could rise from his grave and die a thousand deaths over ? Thus we are advanced a second step in this prudential motive ; God used many arts to secure our souls interest ; and there is infinite dangers , and infinite wayes of miscarriage in the souls interest ; and therefore there is great necessity God should do all those mercies of security , and that we should do all the under-ministeries we can in this great work . But what advantage shall we receive by a spiritual Guide ? much every way . For this is the way that God hath appointed who in every age hath sent a succession of spiritual persons , whose office is to minister in holy things , and to be stewards of Gods houshold , shepherds of the flock , dispensers of the mysteries , under mediators , and ministers of prayer , preachers of the law , expounders of questions , monitors of duty , conveiances of blessings , and that which is a good discourse in the mouth of another man is from them an ordinance of God ; and besides its natural efficacy and perswasion , it prevails by the way of blessing , by the reverence of his person , by divine institution , by the excellency of order , by the advantages of opinion and assistances of reputation , by the influence of the spirit who is the president of such ministeries , and who is appointed to all Christians according to the despensation ▪ that is appointed to them ; to the people in their obedience , and frequenting of the ordinance , to the Priest in his ministery and publick and privat offices ; To which also I adde this consideration , that as the Holy Sacraments are hugely effective to spiritual purposes , not onely because they convey a blessing to the worthy suscipients , but because men cannot be worthy suscipients unlesse they do many excellent acts of vertue in order to a previous disposition ; so that in the whole conjunction , and transaction of affaires there is good done by way of proper efficacy and divine blessing ; so it is in following the conduct of a spiritual man , and consulting with him in the matter of our souls ; we cannot do it unless we consider our souls and make religion our businesse and examine our present state , and consider concerning our danger , and watch and designe for our advantages , which things of themselves wil set a man much forwarder in the way of Godlinesse ; besides thath naturally every man will lesse dare to act a sin for which he knows he shall feel a present shame in his discoveries made to the spiritual Guide , the man that is made the witnesse of his conversation . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Holy men ought to know all things from God , and that relate to God , in order to the conduct of souls : and there is nothing to be said against this , if we do not suffer the devil in this affaire to abuse us , as he does many people in their opinions , teaching men to suspect there is a designe and a snake under the plantain ? But so may they suspect Kings when they command obedience , or the Levites when they read the law of tithes , or Parents when they teach their children temperance or Tutors when they watch their charge . However , it is better to venture the worst of the designe , then to lose the best of the assistance ; and he that guides himself hath much work , and much danger ; but he that is under the conduct of another , his work is easy , little and secure ; it is nothing but diligence and obedience , and though it be a hard thing to rule well , yet nothing is easier then to follow and to be obedient . Sermon . XXII . Of Christian Prudence . Part III. 7. AS it is a part of Christian prudence to take into the conduct of our soules a spiritual man for a guide , so it is also of great concernment that we be prudent in the choice of him whom we are to trust in so great an interest . Concerning which it will be impossible to give characters and significations particular enough to enable a choice without the interval assistances of prayer , experience and the Grace of God ; He that describes a man can tell you the colour of his hair , his stature and proportions , and describe some general lines , enough to distingush him from a Cyclops or a Saracen , but when you chance to see the man you will discover figures or little features of which the description had produced in you no Phantasme , or expectation . And in the exteriour significations of a sect there are more semblances then in mens faces and greater uncertainty in the signes : & what is faulty strives so craftily to act the true and proper images of things , and the more they are defective in circumstances , the more curious they are in forms ; and they also use such arts of gaining Proselytes which are of most advantage towards an effect , and therefore such which the true Christian ought to pursue , and the Apostles actually did , and they strive to follow their patterns in arts of perswasion , not onely because they would seem like them , but because they can have none so good , so effective to their purposes ; that it follows that it is not more a duty to take care , that we be not corrupted with false teachers , then that we be not abused with false signes ; for we as well finde a good man teaching a false proposition , as a good cause managed by ill men , and a holy cause is not alwayes dressed with healthful symptomes ▪ nor is there a crosse alwayes set upon the doores of those congregations , who are infected with the plague of heresy . When Saint John was to separate false teachers from true , he took no other course but to remark the doctrine which was of God , and that should be the mark of cognisance to distinguish right shepheards from robbers and invaders : every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh , is of God : He that denieth it is not of God By this he bids his schollers to avoid the present sects of Ebion , Cerinthus , Simon Magus and such other persons that denied that Christ was at all before he came , or that he came really in the flesh and a proper humanity . This is a clear note and they that conversed with Saint John or believed his doctrine were sufficiently instructed in the present Questions . But this note will signify nothing to us ; for all sects of Christians confesse Jesus Christ come in the flesh , and the following sects did avoid that rock over which a great Apostle had hung out so plain a lantern . In the following ages of the Church men have been so curious to signifie misbelievers , that they have invented and observed some signes , which indeed in some cases were true , real appendages of false believers ; but yet such which were also , or might be common to them with good men , and members of the Catholick Church ; some few I shall remark and give a short account of them that by removing the uncertain , we may fix our inquiries and direct them by certain significations ; lest this art of prudence turn into folly and faction , errour and secular designe . 1. Some men distinguish errour from truth by calling their adversaries doctrine , new , and of yesterday ; and certainly this is a good signe if it be rightly applyed ; for since all Christian doctrine is that which Christ taught his Church , and the spirit enlarged , or expounded , and the Apostles delivered , we are to begin the Christian aera for our faith and parts of religion by the period of their preaching : our account begins then , and whatsoever is contrary to what they taught is new and false , and whatsoever is besides , what they taught , is no part of our religion ( and then no man can be prejudiced for believing it or not ) and if it be adopted into the confessions of the Church , the proposition is alwayes so uncertain , that it s not to be admitted into the faith ; and therefore if it be old in respect of our dayes , it is not therefore necessary to be believed : if it be new it may be received into opinion according to its probabilitie , and no sects or interest are to be divided upon such accounts . This onely I desire to be observed , that when a truth returns from banishment by a postliminium , if it was from the first ▪ though the Holy fire hath been buried , or the river ran under ground , yet that we do not call that new ; since newnesse is not to be accounted of by a proportion to our short lived memories , or to the broken records and fragments of story left after the inundation of barbarisme and war , and change of Kingdoms and corruption of Authors ; but by its relation to the fountain of our truths and the birth of our religion under our Fathers in Christ , the holy Apostles , and Disciples : a Camel was a new thing to them that saw it in the fable ; But yet it was created as soon as a cow or the domestick creatures , and some people are apt to call every thing new , which they never heard of before , as if all religion were to be measured by the standards of their observation , or country customs . Whatsoever was not taught by Christ , or his Apostles though it came in by Papias , or Dionysius , by Arius or Liberius , is certainly new as to our account ; and whatsoever is taught to us by the Doctors of the present age if it can shew its test from the beginning of our period for revelation , is not to be called new though it be pressed with a new zeal and discoursed of by unheard of arguments ; that is , though men be ignorant and need to learn it , yet it is not therefore new or unnecessary . 2. Some would have false teachers sufficiently signified by a name or the owning of a private Appellative as of Papist , Lutheran , Calvenists Zuinglian , Socinian ; & think it is enough to denominat them not , of Christ if they are called by the name of a man. And indeed the thing is in it self ill : but then if by this mark we shall esteem false teachers sufficiently signified we must follow no man , no Church , nor no communion : for all are by their adversaries marked with an appellative of separation and singularity , and yet themselves are tenacious of a good name , such as they choose or such as is permitted to them by fame , and the people , and a natural necessity of making a distinction . Thus the Donatist called themselves the flock of God , and the Novatians called the Catholicks traditors , and the Eustathians called themselves Catholikes and the worshippers of images made Iconoclast to be a name of scorn , and men made names as they listed , or as the fate of the market went. And if a Doctor preaches a doctrine which another man likes not , but preaches the contradictory , he that consents and he that refuses have each of them a teacher by whose name , if they please to wrangle , they may be signified . It was so in the Corinthian Church with this onely difference that they divided themselves by names which signified the same religion . I am of Paul , and I of Apollo and I am of Peter , and I of Christ ; these Apostles were ministers of Christ ; and so does every teacher new or old among the Christians pretend himself to be ; Let that therefore be examined ; if he ministers to the truth of Christ and the religion of his master , let him be entertained as a servant of his Lord ; but if an appellative be taken from his name , there is a faction commenced in it ; and there is a fault in the men if there be none in the doctrine ; but that the doctrine be true or false , to be received , or to be rejected because of the name is accidental and extrinsecall ; and therefore not to be determined by this signe . 3. Amongst some men a sect is sufficiently thought to be reproved , if it subdivides and breaks into little fractions , or changes its own opinions : indeed if it declines its own doctrine , no man hath reason to beleeve them upon their word , or to take them upon the stock of reputation , which ( themselves being judges ) they have forfeited and renounced in the changing that which at first they obtruded passionately . And therefore in this case there is nothing to be done , but to beleeve the men so farre as they have reason to beleeve themselves : that is , to consider when they prove what they say : and they that are able to do so , are not persons in danger to be seduced by a bare authority , unlesse they list themselves : for others that sink under an unavoidable prejudice , God will take care for them if they be good people ; and their case shall be considered by and by . But for the other part of the signe ; when men fall out among themselves for other interests or opinions , it is no argument , that they are in an errour concerning that doctrine , which they all unitedly teach or condemn respectively ; but it hath in it some probability that their union is a testimony of truth , as certainly as that their fractions are a testimony of their zeal , or honesty , or weaknesse ( as it happens ) : and if we Christians be too decretory in this instance , it will be hard for any of us to keep a Jew from making use of it against the whole religion which from the dayes of the Apostles hath been rent into innumerable sects , and under-sects , springing from mistake or interest , from the arts of the Devil , or the weaknesse of man. But from hence we may make an advantage in the way of prudence , and become sure that all that doctrine is certainly true , in which the generality of Christians ( who are divided in many things , yet ) do constantly agree : and that that doctrine is also sufficient since it is certain that because in all Communions and Churches there are some very good men , that do all their duty to the getting of truth , God will not fail in any thing that is necessary to them that honestly and heartily desire to obtain it : and therefore if they rest in the heartinesse of that , and live accordingly , and superinduce nothing to the destruction of that , they have nothing to do but to rely upon Gods goodnesse : and if they perish , it is certain they cannot help it , and that is demonstration enough that they cannot perish , considering the justice and goodnesse of our Lord and Judge . 4. Whoever break the bands of a Society , or Communion , and go out from that Congregation is whose Confession they are baptized , do an intolerable scandal to their doctrine and persons , and give suspicious men reason to decline their Assemblies , and not to choose them at all for any thing of their authority , or outward circumstances : and Saint Paul bids the Romans to mark them that cause divisions and offences . But the following words make their caution prudent and practicable , [ contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them ] they that recede from the doctrine which they have learned , they cause the offence , and if they also obtrude this upon their congregations , they also make the division . For it is certain , if we receive any doctrine contrary to what Christ gave , and the Apostles taught , for the authority of any man , then we call men Masters , and leave our Master which is in heaven ; and in that case we must separate from the Congregation and adhere to Christ ; but this is not to be done , unlesse the case be evident and notorious . But as it is hard , that the publike doctrine of a Chruch should be rifled , and misunderstood , and reproved , and rejected , by any of her wilful or ignorant sons and daughters : so it is also as hard that they should be bound , not to see when the case is plain and evident . There may be mischiefs on both sides ; but the former sort of evils men may avoid if they will ; for they may be humble and modest , and entertain better opinions of their Superiours then of themselves , and in doubtful things give them the honour of a just opinion : and if they do not do so , that evil will be their own private : for that it become not publike , the King and the Bishop are to take care : but for the latter sort of evil it will certainly become universal ; If ( I say ) an authoritative false doctrine be imposed , and is to be accepted accordingly ; for then all men shall be bound to professe against their conscience , that is , with their mouthes not to confesse unto salvation , what with their hearts they believe unto righteousnesse . The best way of remedying both the evils is , that Governours lay no burden of doctrines or lawes but what are necessary , or very profitable : and that Inferiours do not contend for things unnecessary , nor call any thing necessary that is not : till then there will be evils on both sides ; and although the Governours are to carry the Question in the point of law , reputation , and publike government , yet as to Gods Judicature they will bear the bigger load , who in his right do him an injury , and by the impresses of his authority destroy his truth . But in this case also , although separating be a suspicious thing and intolerable , unlesse it be when a sin is imposed , yet to separate is also accidentall to truth : for some men separate with reason , some men against reason ; therefore here all the certainty that is in the thing , is when the truth is secured , and all the security to the men will be in the humility of their persons , and the heartinesse and simplicity of their intention , and diligence of inquiry . The Church of England had reason to separate from the Confession and practises of Rome in many particulars , and yet if her children separate from her they may be unreasonable and impious . 5. The wayes of direction which we have from holy Scripture to distinguish false Apostles from true , are taken from their doctrine or their lives . That of the doctrine is the most sure way if we can hit upon it ; but that also is the thing signified , and needs to have other signes . Saint John and Saint Paul took this way , for they were able to do it infallibly . All that confesse Jesus incarnate are of God said Saint John ; those men that deny it are hereticks ; avoid them : and Saint Paul bids to observe them that cause divisions and offences against the doctrine delivered . Them also avoid , that do so . And we might do so as easily as they , if the world would onely take their depositum , that doctrine which they delivered to all men , that is , the Creed , and superinduce nothing else , but suffer Christian faith to rest in its own perfect simplicity , unmingled with arts , and opinions , and interests . This course is plain and easie , and I will not intricate it with more words , but leave it directly in its own truth and certainty , with this onely direction . That when we are to choose our doctrine , or our side , we take that which is in the plain unexpounded words of Scripture ; for in that onely our religion can consist . Secondly choose that which is most advantageous to a holy life , to the proper graces of a Christian , to humility , to charity , to forgivenesse and alms , to obedience ▪ and complying with governments , to the honour of God and the exaltation of his attributes , and to the conservation and advantages of the publike societies of men ; and this last , Saint Paul directs , Let our be carefull to maintain good works for necessary uses , for he that heartily pursues these proportions cannot be an ill man , though he were accidentally and in the particular applications deceived . 6. But because this is an act of wisdom , rather then prudence , and supposes science or knowledge rather then experience , therefore it concerns the prudence of a Christian to observe the practise , and the rules of practise , their lives , and pretences , the designes , and colours , the arts of conduct , and gaining proselytes , which their Doctors and Catechists do use in order to their purposes , and in their ministery about souls . For although many signes are uncertain , yet some are infallible and some are highly probable . 7. Therefore those teachers that pretend to be guided by a private spirit are certainly false Doctors . I remember what Simmias in Plutarch tels concerning Socrates , that if he heard any man say he saw a divine vision , he presently esteemed him vain and proud ▪ but if he pretended onely to have heard a voice or the word of God , he listened to that religiously , and would enquire of him with curiosity . There was some reason in his fancy ; for God does not communicate himself by the eye to men but by the ear : ye saw no figure , but ye heard a voice , said Moses to the people concerning God : and therefore if any man pretends to speak the word of God , we will enquire concerning it ; the man may the better be heard , because he may be certainly reproved if he speaks amisse : but if he pretends to visions and revelations , to a private spirit and a mission extraordinary , the man is proud and unlerned , vicious and impudent . No Scripture is of private interpretation ( saith S. Peter ) that is , of private emission or declaration . Gods words were delivered indeed by single men , but such as were publikely designed Prophets , remarked with a known character , approved of by the high Priest , and Sanhedrim , indued with a publike spirit , and his doctrines were alwayes agreeable to the other Scriptures . But if any man pretends now to the spirit , either it must be a private or publike ; if it be private , it can but be usefull to himself alone , and it may cozen him too , if it be not assisted by the spirit of a publike man. But if it be a publike spirit , it must enter in at the publike door of ministeries , and divine ordinances , of Gods grace , and mans endeavour , it must be subject to the Prophets , it is discernable and judicable by them , and therefore may be rejected , and then it must pretend no longer . For he that will pretend to an extraordinary spirit , and refuses to be tried by the ordinary wayes , must either prophecy , or work miracles , or must have a voice from heaven to give him testimony . The Prophets in the old Testament , and the Apostles in the New , and Christ between both had no other way of extraordinary probation : and they that pretend to any thing extraordinary , cannot , ought not to be beleeved , unlesse they have something more then their own word . If I bear witnesse of my self , my witnesse is not true , said Truth it self , our Blessed Lord. But secondly , they that intend to teach by an extraordinary spirit , if they pretend to teach according to Scripture must be examined by the measures of Scripture , and then their extraordinary must be judged by the ordinary spirit , and stands or falls by the rules of every good mans religion , and publike government ; and then we are well enough . But if they speak any thing against Scripture it is the spirit of Antichrist , and the spirit of the Devil ; For if an Angel from heaven ( he certainly is a spirit ) preach any other doctrine , let him be accursed . But this pretence of a single and extraordinary spirit is nothing else but the spirit of pride , errour , and delusion , a snare to catch easie and credulous souls , which are willing to die for a gay word and a distorted face ; it is the parent of folly , and giddy doctrine , impossible to be proved , and therefore uselesse to all purposes of religion , reason , or sober counsels ; it is like an invisible colour , or musick without a sound , it is , and indeed is so intended to be , a direct overthrow of order , and government , and publike ministeries ; It is bold to say any thing , and resolved to prove nothing ; it imposes upon willing people after the same manner that Oracles and the lying Daemons did of old time , abusing men not by proper efficacy of its own , but because the men love to be abused ; it is a great disparagement to the sufficiency of Scripture , and asperses the Divine providence for giving to so many ages of the Church an imperfect religion , expressely against the truth of their words who said , they had declared the whole truth of God , and told all the will of God : and it is an affront to the Spirit of God , the Spirit of wisdom , and knowledge , of order and publike ministeries . But the will furnishes out malice , and the understanding sends out levity , and they marry , and produce a phantastick dream , and the daughter sucking winde instead of the milk of the word , growes up to madnesse and the spirit of reprobation . Besides all this , an extraordinary spirit is extremely unnecessary , and God does not give immissions and miracles from heaven to no purpose , and to no necessities of his Church ; for the supplying of which he hath given Apostles and Evangelists , Prophets and Pastors , Bishops and Priests , the spirit of Ordination , and the spirit of instruction , Catechists , and Teachers , Arts and Sciences , Scriptures and a constant succession of Expositors , the testimony of Churches , and a constant line of tradition , or delivery of Apostolical Doctrine in all things necessary to salvation . And after all this , to have a fungus arise from the belly of mud and darknesse , and nourish a gloworm , that shall challenge to out-shine the lantern of Gods word , and all the candles which God set upon a hill , and all that the Spirit hath set upon the candlesticks ; and all the starres in Christs right hand , is to annull all the excellent , established , orderly , and certain effects of the Spirit of God , and to worship the false fires of the night . He therefore that will follow a Guide that leads him by an extraordinary spirit , shall go an extraordinary way , and have a strange fortune , and a singular religion , and a portion by himself , a great way off from the common inheritance of the Saints , who are all led by the Spirit of God , and have one heart , and one minde , one faith , and one hope , the same baptisme , and the helps of the Ministery , leading them to the common countrey , which is the por●ion of all that are the sons of adoption , consigned by the Spirit of God , the earnest of their inheritance . Concerning the pretence of a private spirit , for interpretation of the confessed doctrine of God ( the holy Scriptures ) it will not so easily come into this Question of choosing our spirituall Guides ; Because every person that can be Candidate in this office , that can be chosen to guide others , must be a publike man , that is , of a holy calling , sanctified or separate publikely to the office ; and then to interpret is part of his calling , and imployment , ●nd to do so is the work of a publike spirit ; he is ordained and designed , he is commanded and inabled to do it : and in this there is no other caution to be interposed , but that the more publike the man is , of the more authority his interpretation is ; and he comes neerest to a law of order , and in the matter of government is to be observed : but the more holy and the more learned the man is , his interpretation in matter of Question is more likely to be true : and though lesse to be pressed as to the publick confession yet it may be more effective to a private perswasion , provided it be done without scandal , or lessening the authority , or disparagement to the more publick person . 8. Those are to be suspected for evil guides , who to get authority among the people pretend a great zeal , and use a bold liberty in reproving Princes and Governours , nobility and Prelates ; for such homilies cannot be the effects of a holy religion , which lay a snare for authority , and undermine power , and discontent the people and make them bold against Kings , and immodest in their own stations , and trouble the government . Such men may speak a truth or teach a true doctrine ; for every such designe does not unhallow the truth of God ; but they take some truthes and force them to minister to an evil end ; but therefore , mingle not in the communities of such men , for they will make it a part of your religion to prosecute that end openly which they by arts of the Tempter have insinuated privately . But if ever you enter into the seats of those Doctors that speak reproachfully of their Superiours , or detract from government , or love to curse the King in their heart , or slander him with their mouths , or disgrace their persons , blesse your self and retire quickly ; for there dwells the plague , but the spirit of God is not president of the assembly ; and therefore you shall observe in all the characters which the B. Apostles of our Lord made for describing and avoiding societies of hereticks , false guides and bringers in of strange doctrines , still they reckon treason and rebellion ; so S. Paul , In the last dayes perillous times shall come , the men shall have the form of Godlinesse , and denie the power of it ; they shall be Traitors , heady , high minded : that 's their characteristic note . So Saint Peter ▪ the Lord knoweth how to deliver the Godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgement to be punished . But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleannesse and despise government ; presumptuous are they , self willed they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities . The same also is recorded and observed by Saint Jude , likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh , despise dominion and speak evil of dignities . These three testimonies are but the declaration of one great contingency ; they are the same prophesy declared by three Apostolical men , that had the gift of prophecy : and by this character the Holy Ghost in all ages hath given us caution to avoid such assemblies , where the speaking and ruling man shall be the canker of government , and a preacher of sedition , who shall either ungirt the Princes sword , or unloose the button of their mantle . 9. But the Apostles in all these prophecies have remarked lust to be the inseparable companion of these rebel prophets : they are filthy dreamers , they defile the flesh ; so Saint Jude : they walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleannesse , so Saint Peter they are lovers of pleasure more then lovers of God , incontinent and sensual . So Saint Paul and by this part of the character , as the Apostles remarked the Nicolatians , and Gnosticks , the Carpocratians and all their impure branches which began in their dayes and multiplied after their deaths , so they prophetically did foresignifie al such sects to be avoided who to catch silly women laden with sins preach doctrines of ease and licenciousnesse , apt to countenance and encourage vile things , and not apt to restrain a passion , or mortifie a sin . Such as those ; that [ God sees no sin in his children : that no sin will take us from Gods favour ; that all of such a party are elect people : that God requires of us nothing but faith : and that faith which justifies is nothing but a meere believing , that we are Gods chosen : that we are not tied to the law of commandments : that the law of grace is a law of liberty : and that liberty is to do what we list ; that divorces are to be granted upon many and slight causes : that simple fornication is no sin : these are such doctrines , that upon the belief of them men may doe any thing , and will do that which shall satisfie their own desires and promote their interests and seduce their shee disciples : and indeed it was not without great reason that these three Apostles joyned lust and treason together ; because the former is so shameful a crime and renders a mans spirit naturally averse to government that if it falls upon the person of a Ruler , it takes from him the spirit of government , and render , him diffident , pusillanimous , private , and ashamed ; if it happen in the person of a subject , it makes him hate the man that shall shame him and punish him : it hates the light and the Sun , because that opens him , and therefore is much more against government because that publishes and punishes too . One thing I desire to be observed , that though the primitive heresies now named and all those others their successors practised and taught horrid impurities , yet they did not invade government at all , and therefore those sects that these Apostles did signifie by prophecy , and in whom both these are concentred , were to appear in some latter times ; and the dayes of the prophecy were not then to be fulfill'd ; what they are since , every age must judge , by its own experience , & for its own interest . But Christian religion is so pure and holy that chastity is sometimes used for the whole religion , and to do an action chastly signifies purity of intention , abstraction from the world and separation from low and secular ends , the virginity of the soul , and its union with God ; and all deviations and estrangements from God and adhesion to forbidden objects is called fornication and adultery . Those sects therefore that teach , incourage , or practise impious or unhallowed mixtures and shameful lusts are issues of the impure spirit and most contrary to God who can behold no unclean thing . 10. Those prophets and Pastors that pretend severity and live loosely , or are severe in small things and give liberty in greater , or forbid some sins with extreme rigour , and yet practise or teach those that serve their interest or constitute their sect , are to be suspected and avoided accordingly . Nihil est hominum ineptâ persuasione falsius , nec fictâ severitate ineptius . All ages of the Church were extremely curious to observe when any new teachers did arise , what kinde of lives they lived : and if they pretended severely and to a strict life , then they knew their danger doubled : for it is certain all that teach doctrines contrary to the established religion , delivered by the Apostles , all they are evil men . God will not suffer a good man to be seduced damnably , much lesse can he be a seducer of others : and therefore you shall still observe the false Apostles to be furious and vehement in their reproofs and severe in their animadversions of others ; but then if you watch their private , or stay till their numbers are full , or observe their spiritual habits , you shall finde them indulgent to themselves , or to return from their disguises , or so spiritually wicked , that their pride , or their revenge , their envie or their detraction , their scorn or their complacency in themselves , their desire of preheminence and their impatience of arrival , shall place them far enough in distance from a poor carnal sinner , whom they shall load with censures and an upbraiding scorn ; but themselves are like Devils , the spirits of darknesse the spiritual wickednesses in high places . Some sects of men are very angry against servants for recreating and easing their labours with a lesse prudent and an unsevere refreshment ; but the patron of their sect shall oppresse a wicked man and an unbelieving person ; they shall chastise a drunkard and entertain murmurrers ; they shall not abide an oath and yet shal force men to break three or four . This sect is to be avoided , because although it is good to be severe against carnal or bodily sins , yet it is not good to mingle with them who chastise a bodily sin to make way for a spiritual , or reprove a servant , that his Lord may sin alone , or punish a stranger and a begger that will not approve their sins , but will have sins of his own . Concering such persons Saint Paul hath told us that they shall not proceed far , but their folly shall be manifest . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Lysias . Cito ad naturam ficta reciderunt sua . They that dissemble their sin and their manners , or make severity to serve loosnesse , and an imaginary vertue to minister to a real vice ; they that abhor Idols and would commit sacrilege : chastise a drunkard and promote sedition , declaime against the vanity of great persons , and then spoil them of their goods , reform manners and engrosse estates , talk godly and do impiously , these are teachers , which the Holy spirit of God hath by three Apostles bid us to beware of and decline as we would run from the hollownesse of a grave or the despaires and sorrows of the damned . 11. The substance of al is this , that we must not chose our doctrine by our guide ; but our guide by the doctrine , & if we doubt concerning the doctrine we may judge of that by the lives and designes of the Teachers : By their fruits you shall know them , and by the plain words of the scripture , by the Apostles Creed , and by the commandments , and by the certain known and established forms of government ; These are the great indices , and so plain , apt and easy ; that he that is deceived is so because he will be so ; he is betrayed into it by his own lust and a voluntary chosen folly . 12 Besides these premises there are other little candles , that can help to make the judgement clearer but they are such as do not signifie alone , but in conjunction with some of the precedent characters which are drawn by the great lines of scripture . Such as are 1. when the teachers of sects stir up unprofitable and uselesse Questions , 2. when they causelesly retire from the universal customs of Christendom , 3. And cancel all the memorials of the greatest mysteries of our redemption , 4. When their confessions and Catechismes and their whole religion consist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in speculations and ineffective notions , in discourses of Angels and spirits ▪ in abstractions and raptures , in things they understand not and of which they have no revelation 5. Or else if their religion spends it self in ceremonies , outward guises and material solemnities and imperfect formes drawing the heart of the vine forth into leaves and irregular fruitless suckers , turning the substance into circumstances , and the love of God into gestures , and the effect of the spirit into the impertinent offices of a burdensom ceremonial : For by these two particulars the Apostles reproved the Jews and the Gnostics , or those that from the school of Pythagoras pretended conversation with Angels and great knowledge of the secrets of the spirit ; chosing tutelar Angels and assigning them offices and charges , as in the Church of Rome to this day they do to Saints : to these adde , 6. that we observe whether the guides of souls avoid to suffer for their religion , for then the matter is foul , or the man not fit to lead , that dares not die in cold blood for his religion : will the man lay his life and his soul upon the proposition ? If so , then you may consider him upon his proper grounds , but if he refuses that , refuse his conduct sure enough , 7. You may also watch whether they do not chose their proselyts amongst the rich and vitious ; that they m●y serve themselves upon his wealth , and their disciple upon his vice , 8. If their doctrines evidently and greatly serve the interest o● wealth or honour , and are ineffective to piety , 9. If they strive to gain any one to their confession , and are negligent to gain them to good life , 10. If by pretences they lessen the severity of Christs precepts , and are easy in dispensations and licencious glosses : 11. If they invent suppletories to excuse an evil man and yet to reconcile his bad life with the hopes of heaven , you have reason to suspect the whole and to reject these parts of errour and designe which in themselves are so unhandsom alwayes , and somtimes criminal . He that shal observe the Church of Rome so implacably fierce for purgatory and the Popes supremacy , from clerical immunities , and the Superiority of the Ecclesiastical persons to secular , for indulgencies and precious and costly pardons , and then so full of devises to reconcile an evil life with heaven , requiring onely contrition , even at the last for the abolition of eternal guilt ; and having a thousand wayes to commute and take off the temporal ; will see he hath reason to be jealous that interest is in these bigger then the religion , and yet that the danger of the soul is greater then that interest ; and therefore the man is to do accordingly . Here indeed is the great necessity that we should have the prudence and discretion , the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of serpents , — ut cernamus acutum Quam aut aquila aut serpens Epidaurius . For so serpents as they are curious to preserve their heads from contrition or a bruise , so also to safeguard themselves that they be not charmed with sweet and enticing words of false prophets ; who charm not wisely , but cunningly , leading aside unstable souls ; against these we must stop our ears or lend our attention according to the foregoing measures and significations ; but here also I am to insert two or three cautions . 1. We cannot expect that by these or any other signes we shall be inabled to discover concerning all men whether they teach an errour or no. Neither can a man by these reprove a Lutheran , or a Zuinglian , a Dominican or a Franciscan , a Russian or a Greek , a Muscovite or a Georgian , because those which are certain signes of false teachers , do signifie such men , who destroy an article of faith or a commandment ; God was careful to secure us from death by removing the Lepers from the camp , and giving certain notices of distinction , and putting a term between the living and the dead : but he was not pleased to secure every man from innocent and harmlesse errors , from the mistakes of men , and the failings of mortality . The signes which can distinguish a living man from a dead , will not also distinguish a black man from a brown , or a pale from a white : It is enough that we decline those guides that lead us to hell , but not to think that we are inticed to death by the weaknesses of every disagreeing brother . 2. In all discerning of sects , we must be careful to distinguish the faults of men from the evils of their doctrine ; for some there are that say very well , and do very ill , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Multos Thyrsigeros , paucos est cernere Bacchos : Many men of holy calling and holy religion that are of unholy lives ; homines ignavâ operâ Philosophâ sententiâ : But these must be separated from the institution : and the evil of the men is onely to be noted , as that such persons be not taken to our single conduct , and personal ministery ; I will be of the mans religion if it be good , though he be not ; but I will not make him my confessor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . If he be not wise for himself , I will not sit down at his feet lest we mingle filthinesse instead of being cleansed and instructed . 3. Let us make one separation more & then we may consider and act according to the premises : If we espie a designe or an evil mark upon one doctrine let us divide it from the other that are not so spotted , for indeed the publick communions of men are at this day so ordered , that they are as fond of their errours as of their truthes , and somtimes moct zealous for what they have least reason to be so : and if we can by any arts of prudence separate from an evil proposition and communicate in all the good , then we may love colleges of religious persons , though we do not worship images , and we may obey our Prelates , though we do no injury to princes , and we may be zealous against a crime , though we be not imperious over mens persons , and we may be diligent in the conduct of souls though we be not rapacious of estates , and we may be moderate exactors of Obedience to human laws though we do not dispense with the breach of the divine ; and the Clergy may represent their calling necessary though their persons be full of modesty and humility , and we may preserve our rights and not lose our charity . For this is the meaning of the Apostle , Try all things and retain that which is good : from every sect and communitie of Christians take any thing that is good , that advances holy religion , and the Divine honour ; For one hath a better government , a second a better confession , a third hath excellent spiritual arts for the conduct of souls , a fourth hath fewer errours , and by what instrument soever a holy life is advantaged use that though thou grindest thy spears and arrows at the forges of the Philistines ; knowing thou hast no Master but Christ , no religion but the Christian , no rule but the Scriptures , and the laws and right reason , other things that are helps , are to be used accordingly . These are the general rules of Christian prudence which I have chosen to insist upon ; there are many others more particular indeed , but yet worth not onely the enumerating , but observing also , and that they be reduced to practise . For the prudence of a Christian does oblige and direct respectively all the children of the institution ; * that we be careful to decline a danger , * watchful against a temptation , * alwayes choosing that that is safe , and fitted to all circumstances , * that we be wise in choosing our company * reserved and wary in our friendships , * and communicative in our charity , * that we be silent and retentive of what we hear and what we think , * not credulous , * not unconstant , * that we be deliberate in our election * and vigorous in our prosecutions , that we suffer not good nature to discompose our duty but that we separate images from substances , and the pleasing of a present company from our religion to God , and our eternal interest : for sometimes that which is counselled to us by Christian prudence is accounted folly by humane prudence , and so it is ever accounted when our duty leads us into a persecution . * Hither also appertain ; that we never do a thing that we know we must repent of , * that we do not admire too many things , nor anything too much , * that we be even in prosperity * and patient in adversity ; but transported with neither into the regions of despair or levity , pusillanimity or Tyranny , dejection or Garishnesse , * alwayes to look upon the sear we have impressed upon our flesh , and no more to handle dangers and knives , to abstain from ambitious and vexatious suits , not to contend with a mighty man , * ever to listen to him ( who according to the proverb ) hath four ears , Reason Religion , wisdom and experience , * rather to lose a benefit then to suffer a detriment and an evil , * to stop the beginnings of evil , * to pardon and not to observe all the faults of friends or enemies ; * of evils to choose the least , * and of goods to choose the greatest , if it be also safest ; * not to be insolent in successe , but to proceed according to the probability of humane causes and contingencies , * ever to be thankful for benefits , * and profitable to others and useful in all that we can , * to watch the seasons and circumstances of actions , * to do that willingly which cannot be avoided , lest the necessity serve anothers appetite , and it be lost to all our purposes , Insignis enim est prudentiae , ut quod non facere non possis , id facere ut libenter fecisse videaris , * not to pursue difficult uncertain and obscure things with violence and passion . These if we observe we shall do advantage to our selves and to the religion , and avoid those evils which fools and unwary people suffer for nothing , dying or bleeding without cause and without pity . I end this with the saying of Socrates . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vertue is but a shadow and a servile imployment unlesse it be adorned and instructed with prudence which gives motion and conduct , spirits and vigourousnesse to religion , making it not onely humane and reasonable but Divine and caelestial . Sermon . XXIII . OF CHRISTIAN SIMPLICITY . Matthew 10. latter part of Ver. 16. And harmlesse as doves . ] OUR Blessed Saviour having prefac'd concerning Prudence , addes to the integrity of the precept , and for the conduct of our religion , that we be simple as well as prudent , innocent as well as wary : harmlesse and safe to gether do well ; for without this blessed union , prudence turns into craft , and simplicity degenerates into folly . Prudens simplicitas , is Martial's character of a good man : a wary and cautious innocence , a harmlesse providence , and provision : Verâ simplicitate bonus , a true simplicity , is that which leaves to a man arms defensive ; his castles and strong forts , but takes away his swords , and spears , or else his anger and his malice , his peevishnesse and spite . But such is the misery , and such is the iniquity of mankinde , that craft hath invaded all the contracts and entercourses of men , and made simplicity so weak a thing , that it is grown into contempt , sometimes with , and sometimes without reason ; Et homines simplices , minimè malos , the Romans called parum cautos , saepè stolidos , unwary fools , and defenselesse people were called simple : and when the innocency of the old simple Romans in Junius Brutus time , in Fabritius , and Camillus began to degenerate , and to need the Aquilian law to force men to deal honestly , quickly the mischief increased , till the Aquilian law grew as much out of power , as honesty was out of countenance . And there , and every where else men thought they got a purchase , when they met with an honest man , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristotle calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . A fool is a profitable person , and he that is simple is little better then mad : And so it is , when simplicity wants prudence . He that because he means honestly himself , thinks every man else does so , and therefore is unwary in all , or any of his entercourses , is a simple man in an evil sence , and therefore Saint Gregory Nazianzen remarks Constantius with a note of folly , for suffering his easie nature to be abused by Georgius , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The Princes simplicity , so he calls it for reverence , but indeed it was folly , for it was zeal without knowledge : But it was a better temper , which he observed in his own father , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , such a simplicity which onely wanted craft , or deceit , but wanted no prudence or caution , and that is truly Christian simplicity , or the sincerity of an honest ; and ingenious , and a fearlesse person ; and it is a rare band , not onely of societies , and contracts , but also of friendships , and advantages of mankinde . We do not live in an age in which there is so much need to bid men be wary , as to take care that they be innocent : Indeed in religion we are usually too loose , and ungirt , exposing our selves to temptation , and others to offence , and our name to dishonour , and the cause it self to reproach , and we are open and ready to every evil but persecution : from that we are close enough , and that alone we call prudence ; but in the matter of interest we are wary as serpents , subtil as foxes vigilant as the birds of the night , rapacious as Kites , tenacious as grapling hooks and the weightiest anchors , and above all , false and hypocritical as a thin crust of ice , spread upon the face of a deep , smooth , and dissembling pit ; if you set your foot , your foot slips , or the ice breaks , and you sink into death , and are wound in a sheet of water , descending into mischief or your grave ; suffering a great fall , or a sudden death by your confidence and unsuspecting foot . There is an universal crust of hypocrisie , that covers the face of the greatest part of mankinde . Their religion consists in forms and outsides , and serves reputation or a designe , but does not serve God : Their promises are but fair language , and the civilities of the Piazzas or Exchanges , and disband and unty like the air that beat upon their teeth , when they spake the delicious and hopefull words . Their oaths are snares to catch men , and make them confident : Their contracts are arts and stratagems to deceive , measured by profit and possibility ; and every thing is lawfull that is gainfull ; and their friendships are trades of getting ; and their kindnesse of watching a dying friend , is but the office of a vulture , the gaping for a legacy , the spoil of the carcasse ; and their sicknesses are many times policies of state , sometimes a designe to shew the riches of our bed-chamber ; and their funeral tears are but the paranymphs and pious solicitors of a second Bride ; and every thing that is ugly must be hid , and every thing that is handsome must be seen , and that will make a fair cover for a huge deformity ; and therefore it is ( as they think ) necessary that men should alwayes have some pretences and forms , some faces of religion , or sweetnesse of language , confident affirmatives , or bold oaths , protracted treaties , or multitude of words , affected silence , or grave deportment , a good name , or a good cause , a fair relation , or a worthy calling , great power , or a pleasant wit ; any thing that can be fair , or that can be usefull , any thing that can do good , or be thought good , we use it to abuse our brother , or promote our interests . Leporina resolved to die , being troubled for her husbands danger , and he resolved to die with her that had so great a kindnesse for him as not to out-live the best of her husbands fortune . It was agreed and she temperd the poyson , and drank the face of the unwholesome goblet , but the weighty poyson sunke to the bottome , and the easie man drank it all off , and died , and the woman carried him forth to funeral , and after a little illnesse which she soon recovered , she enterd upon the inheritance and a second marriage . Tuta frequensque via est — This is an usual and a safe way to cozen , upon colour of friendship or religion , but that is hugely criminal ; to tell a lie to abuse a mans belief , and by it to enter upon any thing of his possession , or his injury is a perfect destruction of all humane society , the most ignoble of all humane follies , perfectly contrary to God , who is Truth it self , the greatest argument of a timorous and a base , a cowardly and a private minde , not at all honest , or confident to see the Sun , a vice fit for slaves ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Dio Chrysostomus calls it ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; for the most timorous and the basest of beasts use craft , and lie in wait , and take their prey , and save their lives by deceit , and it is the greatest injury to the abused person in the world ; for besides that it abuses his interest , it also makes him for ever insecure , and uneasie in his confidence , which is the period of cares , the rest of a mans spirit ; it makes it necessary for a man to be jealous and suspicious , that is , to be troublesome to himself and every man else ; and above all , lying , or craftinesse , and unfaithful usages , robs a man of the honour of his soul , making his understanding uselesse and in the condition of a fool ; spoiled , and dishonoured , and despised : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : Said Plato , Every soul loses truth very unwillingly : Every man is so great a lover of truth , that if he hath it not he loves to beleeve he hath , and would fain have all the world to beleeve as he does ; either presuming that he hath truth , or else hating to be deceived , or to be esteemed a cheated and an abused person . Non licet suffurari mentem hominis etiam Samaritani , said R. Moses , sed veritatem loquere atque age ingenuè , If a man be a Samaritan , that is , a hated person , a person from whom you differ in matter of religion , yet steal not his minde away , but speak truth to him honestly and ingenuously . A mans soul loves to dwell in truth , it is his resting place ; and if you take him from thence , you take him into strange regions , a place of banishment and dishonour . Qui ignotos laedit , latro appellatur , qui amicos , paulò minus quam parricida . He that hurts strangers is a thief , but he that hurts his friends is little better then a parricide : That 's the brand and stigma of hypocrisie and lying : it hurts our friends , mendacium in damnum potens , and makes the man that owns it guilty of a crime , that is , to be punished by the sorrows usually suffered in the most execrable places of the cities ; But I must reduce the duty to particulars , and discover the contrary vice , by the several parts of its proportion . 1. The first office of Christian simplicity consists in our religion and manners : that they be open and honest , publike and justifiable , the same at home and abroad ; for besides the ingenuity and honesty of this , there is an indispensable , and infinite necessity it should be so , because whoever is a hypocrite in his religion , mocks God , presenting to him the outside , and reserving the inward for his enemy : which is either a denying God to be the searcher of our hearts , or else an open defiance of his omniscience , and of his justice : To provoke God that we may deceive men , to defie his Almightinesse , that we may abuse our brother , is to destroy all that is Sacred , all that is prudent , it is an open hostility to all things humane and divine , a breaking from all the bands of all relations , and uses God so cheaply as if he were to be treated , or could be cozened like a weak man , and an undiscerning and easie merchant : But so is the life of many men : Vita fallax , abditos sensus gerens , Nimisque pulchram turpibus faciem induens . It is a crafty life that men live , carrying designes , and living upon secret purposes ; Pudor impudentem celat , audacem quies , pietas nefandum , vera fallaces probant ; simulantque molles dura . Men pretend modesty , and under that red vail are bold against Superiours , saucy to their betters upon pretences of religion , invaders of others rights by false propositions in Theology , pretending humility they challenge superiority above all orders of men , and for being thought more holy , think that they have title to govern the world ; they bear upon their face great religion , and are impious in their relations , false to their trust , unfaithful to their friend , unkinde to their dependants ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , turning up the white of their eye , and seeking for reputation in the streets ; so did some of the old hypocrites , the Gentile Pharisees , Asperum cultum , & intonsum caput & negligentiorem barbam & nitidum argento odium , & cubile humi positum & quicquid aliud ambitionem viâ perversâ sequitur : being the softest persons under an austere habit , the loosest livers under a contracted brow ; under a pale face , having the reddest and most spritely livers ; these kinde of men have abused all ages of the world , and all religions , it being so easie in nature , so prepared and ready for mischiefs , that men should creep into opportunities of devouring the flock upon pretence of defending them , and to raise their estates upon colour of saving their souls . Introrsum turpes speciosi pelle decorâ . Men that are like painted sepulchres , entertainment for the eye , but images of death , chambers of rottennesse , and repositories of dead mens bones . It may sometimes concern a man to seem religious ; Gods glory may be shewed by fair appearances , or the edification of our brother , or the reputation of a cause ; but this is but sometimes ; but it alwayes concerns us that we be religious , and we may reasonably think , that if the colours of religion so well do advantage to us , the substance and reality would do it much more . For no man can have a good by seeming religious , and another by not being so ; the power of godlinesse never destroys any well built fabrick that was raised upon the reputation of religion , and its pretences : Nunquam est peccare utile qu●● semper est turpe , said Cicero . It is never profitable to sin because it is always base and dishonest : and if the face of religion could do a good turn , which the heart and substance does destroy , then re●igion it self were the greatest hypocrite in the world , and promises a blessing which it never can perform , but must be beholding to its enemy to verifie its promises . No. We shall be sure to feel the blessings of both the worlds if we serve in the offices of religion devoutly and charitably , before men and before God : if we ask of God things honest in the sight of men , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( as Pythagoras gave in precept ) praying to God with a free heart and a publike prayer , and doing before men things that are truly pleasing to God , turning our heart outward and our face inwards , that is , conversing with men as in the presence of God , and in our private towards God , being as holy and devout , as if we prayed in publike , and in the corners of the streets . Pliny praising of Ariston , gave him the title of an honest and hearty religion . Ornat hunc magnitudo animi quae nihil ad ostentationem , omnia ad conscientiam refert : rectèque facti , non ex populi sermone mercedem , sed ex facto petit . And this does well state the question of a sincere religion , and an ingenuous goodnesse ; It requires that we do nothing for ostentation , but every thing for conscience ; and we may be obliged in conscience to publish our manner of lives , but then it must be , not that we may have a popular noise for a reward , but that God may be glorified by our publike worshippings , and others edified by our good examples . Neither doth the sincerity of our religion require that we should not conceal our sins , for he that sins and dares to own them publikely may become impudent : and so long as in modesty we desire our shame should be hid , and men to think better of us then we deserve , I say for no other reason , but either because we would not derive the ill examples to others , or the shame to our selves , we are within the protection of one of vertues sisters , and we are not far from the gates of the kingdom of heaven ; easie and apt to be invited in , and not very unworthy to enter . But if any other principle draws the vail , if we conceal our vices because we would be honoured for sanctity , or because we would not be hindered in our designes , we serve the interest of pride and ambition , covetousnesse , or vanity ; if an innocent purpose hides the ulcer , it does half heal it ; but if it retires into the secrecy of sin and darknesse , it turns into a plague , and infects the heart , and it dies infallibly of a double exulceration . The Macedonian boy that kept the coal in his flesh , and would not shake his arm , lest he should disturbe the sacrifice , or discompose the ministery before Alexander the Great , concealed his pain to the honour of patience and religion . But the Spartan boy who suffered the little fox to eat his bowels rather then confesse his theft when he was in danger of discovery , payed the price of a bold hypocrisie ; that is , the dissimulation reproveable in matter of manners , which conceals one sin to make way for another ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; Lucian notes it of his Philosophical hypocrites , dissemblers in matter of deportment and religion , they seem severe abroad , but they enter into the vaults of harlots , and are not ashamed to see a naked sin in the midst of its uglinesse , and undressed circumstances . A mighty wrastler , that had won a crown at Olympus , for contending prosperously , was observed to turn his head and go forward , with his face upon his shoulder , to behold a fair woman that was present ; and he lost the glory of his strength , when he became so weak , that a woman could turn his head about , which his adversary could not . These are the follies and weaknesses of man and dishonours to religion , when a man shall contend nobly and do handsomly and then be taken in a base or a dishonorable action ; and mingle venome with his delicious ointment . Quid quod olet gravius mistum dia pasmate virus . Atque duplex animae longius exit odor . When Fescenia perfumed her breath that she might not smell of wine , she condemned the crime of drunkennesse : but grew ridiculous when the wine broke thorow the cloud of a tender perfume and the breath of a Lozenge ; and that indeed is the reward of an hypocrite ; his laborious arts of concealment furnish all the world with declamation and severity against the crime which himself condemnes with his caution : But when his own sentence too is prepared against the day of his discovery . Notas ergo nimis fraudes , deprensaque furta Jam tollas , & sis ebria simpliciter . A simple drunkard hath but one fault , But they that avoid discovery , that they may drink on without shame or restraint adde hypocrisy to their vitious fulnesse : and for all the amazements of their consequent discovery have no other recompence , but that they pleased themselves in the security of their crime , and their undeserved reputation : Sic quae nigrior est cadente moro ; Cerussata sibi placet Lycoris : for so the most easy and deformed woman , whose girdle no foolish young man will unloose , because shee is blacker then the falling mulbery ; may please her self under a skin of Cerusse , and call her self fairer then Pharaohs daughter , or the hinds living upon the snowy mountaines . One thing more there is to be added as an instance to the simplicity of religion , and that is that we never deny our religion , or lie concerning our faith , nor tell our propositions , and articles deceitfully , nor instruct Novices or catechumens with fraud , but that when we teach them , we do it honestly , justly , and severely , not alwayes to speak all , but never to speak otherwise then it is , nor to hide a truth from them , whose soules are concerned in it , that it be known , nequè enim id est celare cum quid reticias , sed cum quod tuscias ▪ ●d ignorare emolumenti tui causâ velis eos , quorum inter est id scire : So Cicero determins the case of prudence and simplicity . The discovery of pious frauds , and the disclaiming of false but profitable and rich propositions ; the quitting honours , fraudulently gotten , and unjustly detained ; the reducing every man to the perfect understanding of his own religion so far as can concern his duty , the disallowing false miracles , legends and fabulous stories , of cosening the people into awfulnesse , fear and superstition , these are parts of Christian simplicity which do integrate this duty : for religion hath strengths enough of its own to support it self ; it needs not a devil for its advocate ; it is the breath of God , and as it is purer then the beams of the morning , so it is stronger then a tempest , or the combination of all the windes though united by the prince that ruleth in the aire : And we finde that the Nicene faith prevailed upon all the world though some Arian Bishops went from Ariminum to Nice , and there decreed their own articles , and called it , the faith read at Nice , and used all arts and all violence , and all lying , and all diligence to discountenance it , yet it could not be , it was the truth of God and therefore it was stronger then all the gates of hell , then all the powers of darknesse : and he that tells a lie for his religion or goes about by fraud and imposture to gain proselytes , either dares not trust his cause or dare not trust God. True religion is open in its articles , honest in its prosecutions , just in its conduct , innocent when it is accused , ignorant of falsehood , sure in its truth , simple in its sayings : and ( as Julius Capitolinus said of the Emperour Verus ) it is morum simplicium & quae adumbrare nihil possit : it covers indeed a multitude of sins by curing them , and obtaining pardon for them , but it can dissemble nothing of it self , it cannot tell or do a lie : but it can become a sacrifice ; a good man can quit his life but never his integrity . That 's the first duty ; the sum of which is that which Aquilius said concerning fraud and craft , bona fides the honesty of a mans faith and religion is destroyed cum aliud simulatum aliud actum sit , when either we conceale what we ought to publish , or do not act what we pretend . 2. Christian simplicity or the innocence of prudence relates to laws both in their sanction and execution ; that they be decreed with equity and proportioned to the capacity and profit of the subjects and that they be applied to practise with remissions and reasonable interpretations agreeable to the sence of the words and the minde of the lawgiver ; but laws are not to be cosened and abused by contradictory glosses , and phantastick elusions as knowing that if the majesty and sacrednesse of them be once abused and subjected to contempt and unreasonable and easy resolutions , their girdle is unloosed and they suffer the shame of prostitution and contempt When Saul made a law , that he that eat before night should die , the people perswaded him directly to rescind it , in the case of Jonathan , because it was unequal and unjust that he who had wrought their deliverance , and in that working it , was absent from the promulgation of the law should suffer for breaking it , in a case of violent necessity and of which he heard nothing upon so faire and probable a cause : and it had been well that the Persian had been so rescued who against the laws of his country killed a Lion to save the life of his Prince ; in such cases it is fit the law be rescinded and dispensed with all , as to certain particulars , so it be done ingenuously with competent authority , in great necessity , and without partiality : But that which I intend here is , that in the rescission or dispensation of the law the processe be open and free , and such as shall preserve the law and its sacrednesse as well as the person and his interest . The laws of Sparta forbad any man to be twice Admiral , but when their affaires required it , they made Araeus titular and Lysander supravisor of him , and Admiral to all real and effective purposes ; this wanted ingenuity and laid a way open for them to despise the law which was made patient of such a weak evasion ; The Lacedemonian Embassador perswaded Pericles to turn the tables of the law , which were forbidden to be removed , and an other ordained in a certain case that the laws should sleep 24. hours ; A third decreed that June should be called May , because the time of an election appointed by the law was elapsed ; these arts are against the ingenuity and simplicitie of laws , and lawgivers ; and teach the people to cheat in their obedience , when their Judges are so fraudulent in the administration of their laws . Every law should be made plain , open , honest , & significant , and he that makes a decree and intricates it on purpose , or by inconsideration , layes a snare or leaves one there , and is either an imprudent person , and therefore unfit to govern , or else he is a Tyrant and a vul●ur . It is too much that a man can make a law by an arbitrary power . But when he shall also leave the law so that every of the ministers of Justice and the Judges shall have power to rule by a loose , by an arbitrary , by a contradictory interpretation , it is intolerable . They that rule by prudence , should above all things see that the patrons and Advocates of innocence should be harmlesse and without an evil sting . 3. Christian simplicity relates to promises and acts of grace and favour ; and its caution is , that all promises be simple , ingenuous , agreeable to the intention of the promiser , truly and effectually expressed and never going lesse in the performance , then in the promise , and words of the expression : concerning which the cases are several . 1. First all promises in which a third or a second person hath no interest , that is the promises of kindnesse and civilities , are tied to passe into performance , secundum aequum & bonum : and though they may oblige to some small inconvenience , yet never to a great one : and I will visit you to morrow morning , because I promised you , and therefore . I will come etiamsi non concoxero , although I have not slept my full sleep , but Si febricitavcro if I be in a feaver or have reason to fear one , I am disobliged . For the nature of such promises bears upon them no bigger burthen , then can be expounded by reasonable civilities and the common expectation of kinde , and the ordinary performances of just men , who do excuse and are excused respectively , by all rules of reason proportionably to such small entercourses : and therefore although such conditions be not expressed in making promises , yet to perform or rescind them by such laws is not against Christian simplicity . 2. Promises in matters of justice or in matters of grace as from a superiour to an inferiour must be so singly and ingenuously expressed , intended and performed accordingly , that no condition is to be reserved or supposed in them to warrant their non-performance , but impossibility , or that which is next to it , an intolerable inconvenience ; in which cases we have a natural liberty to commute our promises , but so that we pay to the interested person a good , at least equal to that which we first promised . And to this purpose it may be added that it is not against Christian simplicity to expresse our promises in such words which we know the interested man will understand to other purposes then I intend so it be not lesse that I mean , then that he hopes for . When our Blessed Saviour told his disciples , that they should sit upon twelve thrones , they presently thought they had his bond for a kingdom , and dreamt of wealth , and honour , power and a splendid court : and Christ knew they did , but did not disintangle his promise from the enfolded and intricate sence of which his words were naturally capable ; but he performed his promise , to better purposes , then they hoped for ; they were presidents in the conduct of souls , Princes of Gods people , the chief in sufferings stood neerest to the crosse , had an elder brothers portion in the Kingdom of grace , were the founders of Churches , and dispensers of the mysteries of the kingdom and ministers of the spirit of God and chanels of mighty blessings , under mediators in the Priesthood of their Lord and their names were written in heaven ; and this was infinitely better , then to groan and wake under a head pressed with a golden crown and pungent cares , and to eat alone , and to walk in a croud and to be vexed with all the publick and many of the private evils of the people , which is the sum Total of an earthly Kingdom . When God promised to the obedient that they should live long in the land , which he would give them , he meant it of the land of Canaan , but yet reserved to himself the liberty of taking them quickly from that land and carrying them to a better . He that promises to lend me a staffe to walk withal , and instead of that gives me a horse to carry me , hath not broken his promise , nor dealt deceitfully . And this is Gods dealing with mankinde ; he promises more then we could hope for ; and when he hath done that , he gives us more then he hath promised . God hath promised to give to them that fear him all that they need , food and raiment ; but he addes out of the treasures of his mercy ; variety of food and changes of raiment ; some to get strength and some to refresh , something for them that are in health and some for the sick . And though that skins of buls and stagges and foxes and bears could have drawn a vail thick enough to hide the apertures of sin and natural shame and to defend us from heat and cold , yet when he addeth the fleeces of sheep and beavers , and the spoiles of silk worms , he hath proclaimed that although his promises are the bounds of our certain expectation , yet they are not the limits of his loving kindnesse ; and if he does more then he hath promised , no man can complain that he did otherwise , and did greater things then he said : thus God does , but therefore so also must we ; imitating that example , and transcribing that copy of divine truth , alwayes remembring that his promises are yea and Amen And although God often goes more , yet he never goes lesse ; and therefore we must never go from ur promises , unlesse we be thrust from thence by disability , or let go by leave , or called up higher by a greater intendment and increase of kindnesse : And therefore when Solyman had sworn to Ibrahim-Bassa that he would never kill him so long as he were alive , he quitted himself but ill , when he sent an Eunuch to cut his throat when he slept , because the Priest told him that sleep was death . His act was false and deceitful as his great prophet . But in this part of simplicity we Christians have a most especiall obligation , for our religion being ennobled by the most and the greatest promises , and our faith made confident by the veracity of our Lord , and his word made certain by miracles and prophecies , and voices from heaven , and all the testimony of God himself , and that truth it self is bound upon us by the efficacy of great endearments and so many precepts ; if we shall suffer the faith of a Christian to be an instrument to deceive our brother , and that he must either be incredulous or deceived , uncharitable or deluded like a fool , we dishonour the sacrednesse of the institution and become strangers to the spirit of truth , and to the eternall word of God. Our Blessed Lord would not have his disciples to swear at all ( no not in publick Judicature ) if the necessities of the world would permit him to be obeyed : If Christians will live according to the religion , the word of a Christian were sufficient instrument to give testimony and to make promises , to secure a faith , and upon that supposition oathes were uselesse , and therefore forbidden , because there could be no necessity to invoke Gods name in promises or affirmations if men were indeed Christians : and therefore in that case would be a taking it in vain ; but because many are not and they that are in name oftentimes are so in nothing else , it became necessary that man should swear in judgment and in publick courts ; but consider who it was that invented and made the necessitie of oaths , of bonds , of securities , of statutes , extents , judgements and all the artifices of humane diffidence and dishonesty ; These things were indeed found out by men ; but the necessity of these was from him that is the father of lies , from him that hath made many faire promises but never kept any , or if he did , it was to do a bigger mischief , to cozen the more : for so does the Devil : He promises rich harvests and blasts the corn in the spring , he tells his servants they shall be rich , and fills them with beggerly qualities , makes them base and indigent , greedy and penurious , and they that serve him intirely , as witches and such miserable persons never can be rich : if he promises health , then men grow confident and intemperate and do such things whereby they shall die the sooner , and die longer they shall die eternally . He deceives men in their trust , and frustrates their hopes , and eludes their expectations ; and his promises have a period set , beyond which they cannot be true ; For wicked men shall enjoy a faire fortune but till their appointed time , and then it ends imperfect and most accomplished misery : and therefore even in this performance he deceives them most of all , promising and performing coloured stones , and glasse-gems that he may cozen them of their glorious inheritance . All fraudulent breakers of promises dresse themselves by his glasse whose best imagery , is deformity and lies . Sermon . XXIV . Of Christian Simplicity . Part II. 4. CHristian simplicity teaches opennesse , and ingenuity in Contracts , and matters of buying and selling , covenants , associations , and all such entercourses , which suppose an equality of persons as to the matter of right and justice in the stipulation , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was the old Attick law : and nothing is more contrary to Christian religion , then that the entercourses of justice be direct snares , and that we should deal with men , as men deal with foxes , and wolves , and vermin ; do all violence , and when that cannot be , use all craft and every thing whereby they can be made miserable . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . There are men in the world who love to smile , but that smile is more dangerous then the furrows of a contracted brow , or a storm in Adria ; for their purpose is onely to deceive ; they easily speak what they never mean , they heap up many arguments to perswade that to others , which themselves beleeve not ; they praise that vehemently which they deride in their hearts , they declaim against a thing which themselves covet , they beg passionately for that which they value not , and run from an object which they would fain have to follow and overtake them , they excuse a person dexterously , where the man is beloved , and watch to surprize him where he is unguarded ; they praise that they may sell , and disgrace that they may keep . And these hypocrisies are so interwoven and imbroidered with their whole designe ; that some nations refuse to contract till their arts are taken off by the society of banquets , and the good natured kindnesses of festivall chalices , for so Tacitus observes concerning the old Germans , [ De asciscendis principibus de pace & bello in conviviis consultant , tanquam nullo magis tempore ad simplices cogitationes pateat animus , aut ad magnas incalescat : as if then they were more simple when they were most valiant , and were least deceitfull , when they were least themselves . But it is an evil condition that a mans honesty shall be owing to his wine , and vertue must live at the charge and will of a vice . The proper band of societies and contracts is , justice and necessities , religion and the laws ; the measures of it are equitie and our selves and our own desires in the dayes of our need , natural or forced ; But the instruments of the exchange and conveyance of the whole entercourse is , words and actions , as they are expounded by custome , consent , or the understanding of the interested person ; in which if simplicitie be not severely preserved , it is impossible that humane society can subsist , but men shall be forced to snatch at what they have bought , and take securities that men swear truly , and exact an oath , that such is the meaning of the word , and no man shall think himself secure , but shall fear he is robbed if he has not possession first ; and it shall be disputed who shall trust the other , and neither of them shall have cause to be confident upon bands or oaths , or witnesses , or promises , or all the honour of men , or all the ingagements of religion , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Cyrus in Xenophon . A man though he desires it , yet cannot be confident of the man that pretends truth yet tells a lye and is deprehended to have made use of the sacred name of friendship or religion , honesty or reputation to deceive his brother . But because a man may be deceived by deeds and open actions as well as words ; therefore it concerns their duty , that no man by an action on purpose done to make his brother believe a lie abuse his persuasion and his interest , When Pythius the Sicilian had a minde to sell his garden to Cannius he invited him thither , and caused fisherman ( as if by custom ) to fish in the chanell by which the gardens stood , and they threw a great store of fish into their arbours , and made Cannius believe it was so every day , and the man grew greedy of that place of pleasure , and gave Pythius a double price , and the next day perceived himself abused . Actions of pretence and simulation are like snares laid , into which the beasts fall though you pursue them not , but walk in the inquiry for their necessary provisions ; and if a man fall into a snare that you have laid , it is no excuse to say you did not tempt him thither : to lay a snare is against the ingenuity of a good man and a Christian , and from thence he ought to be drawn , and therefore it is not fit we should place a danger which our selves are therefore bound to hinder , because from thence we are obliged to rescue him . Vir bonus est , qui prodest quibus potest , nocet nemini , when we do all the good we can , and do an evil to no man , then onely we are accounted good men . But this pretence of an action signifying otherwise then it looks for , is onely forbidden in matter of contract , and the material interest of a second person . But when actions are of a double signification , or when a man is not abused or defeated of his right by an uncertain signe , it is lawfull to do a thing to other purposes then is commonly understood . Flight is a signe of fear ; but it is lawfull to fly when a man fears not . Circumcision was the seal of the Jewish religion , and yet Saint Paul circumcised Timothy though he intended he should live like the Gentile Christians , and not as do the Jews . But because that rite did signifie more things beside that one , he onely did it to represent that he was no enemy of Moses law , but would use it when there was just reason , which was one part of the things which the using of circumcision could signifie : So our blessed Saviour pretended that he would passe forth beyond Emaus , but if he intended not to do it , yet he did no injury to the two disciples , for whose good it was that he intended to make this offer : and neither did he prevaricate the strictnesse of simplicity and sincerity , because they were persons with whom he had made no contracts , to whom he had passed no obligation , and in the nature of the thing it is proper and natural , by an offer to give an occasion to another to do a good action ; and in case it succeeds not , then to do what we intended not , and so the offer was conditional . But in all cases of bargaining , although the actions of themselves may receive naturally another sense , yet I am bound to follow that signification which may not abuse my brother , or pollute my own honesty , or snatch , or rifle his interest : Because it can be no ingredient into the commutation , if I exchange a thing which he understands not , and is by errour lead into this mistake , and I hold forth the fire , and delude him , and amuse his eye : for by me he is made worse . But secondly , as our actions must be of a sincere and determinate signification in contracts , so must our words : in which the rule of the old Roman honesty was this : Vterque si adeloquendum venerit non plus quam semel eloquetur ; Every one that speaks is to speak but once ; that is , but one thing ; because commonly that is truth ; truth being but one ; but errour and falsehood infinitely various and changeable ; and we shall seldom see a man so s●iffned with impiety , as to speak little and seldome , and pertinaciously adhere to a single sense , and yet that at first , and all the way after shall be a lie . Men use to go about , when they tell a lie , and devise circumstances , and stand off at distance , and cast a cloud of words , and intricate the whole affair , and cozen themselves first , and then cozen their brother , while they have minced the case of conscience into little particles , and swallowed the lie by crumbs , so that no one passage of it should rush against the conscience , nor do hurt , until it is all got into the belly , and unites in the effect ; for by that time , two men are abused , the Merchant in his soul , and the Contractor in his interest ; and this is the certain effect of much talking and little honesty : but he that means honestly , must speak but once , that is , one truth , and hath leave to vary within the degrees of just prices , and fair conditions , which because they have a latitude may be enlarged , or restrained according as the Merchant please , save onely he must never prevaricate the measures of equity , and the proportions of reputation , and the publike . But in all the parts of this traffick let our words be the significations of our thoughts , and our thoughts designe nothing , but the advantages of a permitted exchange . In this case , the severity is so great , so exact , and so without variety of case , that it is not lawfull for a man to tell a truth , with a collateral designe to cozen and abuse ; and therefore at no hand can it be permitted to lie or equivocate , to speak craftily , or to deceive by smoothnesse , or intricacy , or long discourses . But this precept of simplicity in matter of contract hath one step of severity beyond this : In matter of contract it is not lawfull so much as to conceal the secret and undiscernable faults of the merchandize ; but we must acknowledge them , or else affix prices made diminute and lessened to such proportions and abatements as that fault should make . Caveat emptor is a good caution for him that buyes , and it secures the seller in publike Judicature , but not in court of conscience ; and the old lawes of the Romans were as nice in this affair , as the conscience of a Christian. Titus Claudius Centimalus was commanded by the Augures to pull down his house in the Coelian mountain , because it hindred their observation of the flight of birds ; he exposes his house to sale , Publius Calpurnius buyes it , and is forced to pluck it down ; But complaining to the Judges had remedy , because Claudius did not tell him the true state of the inconvenience . He that sels a house infected with the plague , or haunted with evil spirits , sels that which is not worth such a price which it might be put to if it were in health and peace : and therefore cannot demand it but openly and upon publication of the evil . To which also this is to be added , that in some great faults and such as have danger , ( as in the cases now specified ) no diminution of the price is sufficient to make the Merchant just and sincere , unlesse he tels the appendant mischief ; because to some persons in many cases , and to all persons in some cases , it is not at all valuable , and they would not possesse it if they might for nothing . Marcus Gratidianus bought a house of Sergius Orata , which himself had sold before ; But because Sergius did not declare the appendant vassalage and service , he was recompenced by the Judges ; for although it was certain that Gratidianus knew it , because it had been his own , yet Oportuit ex bonâ fide denunciari said the law ; it concerned the ingenuity of a good man to have spoken it openly . In all cases it must be confessed in the price , or in the words ; But when the evil may be personal , and more then matter of interest and money , it ought to be confessed , and then the goods prescribed , lest by my act I do my neighbour injury , and I receive profit by his dammage . Certain it is , that ingenuity is the sweetest and easiest way , there is no difficulty or cases of conscience in that , and it can have no objection in it but that possibly sometimes we lose a little advantage , which it may be we may lawfully acquire , but still we secure a quiet conscience : and if the merchandise be not worth so much to me , then neither is it to him ; if it be to him , it is also to me ; and therefore I have no losse , no hurt to keep it if it be refused : but he that secures his own profit , and regards not the interest of another , is more greedy of a full purse then of a holy conscience , and prefers gain before justice , and the wealth of his private , before the necessity of publike society and commerce , being a son of earth whose centre is it self , without relation to heaven that moves upon anothers point , and produces flowers , for others , and sends influence upon all the world , and receives nothing in return , but a cloud of perfume , or the smell of a fat sacrifice . God sent justice into the world , that all conditions in their several proportions should be equall ; and he that receives a good , should pay one , and he whom I serve is obliged to feed and to defend me in the same proportions as I serve ; and justice is a relative terme , and supposes two persons obliged , and though fortunes are unequal , and estates are in majority and subordination , and men are wise or foolish , honoured or despised ; yet in the entercourses of justice God hath made that there is no difference , and therefore it was esteemed ignoble to dismisse a servant when corn was dear , in dangers of shipwrack to throw out an unprofitable boy and keep a fair horse ; or for a wise man to snatch a plank from a drowning fool , or if the Master of the ship should challenge the board upon which his passenger swims for his life , or to obtrude false moneys upon others , which we first took for true , but at last discovered to be false ; or not to discover the gold which the merchant sold for alchimy : The reason of all these is , because the collateral advantages are not at all to be considered in matter of rights ; and though I am dearest to my self , as my neighbour is to himself , yet it is necessary that I permit him to his own advantages , as I desire to be permitted to mine . Now therefore simplicity and ingenuity in all contracts is perfectly and exactly necessary , because its contrary destroys that equality which justice hath placed in the affaires of men , and makes all things private , and makes a man dearer to himself , and to be preferred before Kings , and republicks , and Churches ; it destroyes society , and it makes multitudes of men to be but like heards of beasts , without proper instruments of exchange , and securities of possession , without faith and without propriety , concerning all which there is no other account to be given , but that the rewards of craft are but a little money and a great deal of dishonour and much suspicion : and proportionable scorn ; watches and guards , spies and jealousies are his portion ; But the crown of justice is a fair life and a clear reputation , & an inheritance there where justice dwells since she left the earth , even in the kingdome of the just , who shall call us to judgement for every word , and render to every man according to his works : and what is the hope of the hypocrite though he hath gained , when the Lord taketh away his soul , Tollendum esse ex rebus contrahendis omne mendacium . That 's the sum of this rule : no falshod or deceit is to be endured in any contract . 5. Christian simplicity hath also its necessity and passes obligation upon us towards enemies in questions of law or war. Plutarch commends Lysander and Philopaemen for their craft and subtilty in war ; but commends it not as an ornament to their manners , but that which had influence into prosperous events ; just as Ammianus affirms , nullo discrimine virtutis ac doli prosperos omnes laudari debere bellorum eventus : whatsoever in war is prosperous , men use to commend : But he that is a good souldier is not alwayes a good man. Callicratidas was a good man and followed the old way of downright hostility , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : But Lysander was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a crafty man , full of plots but not noble in the conduct of his armes . I remember Euripides brings in Achilles commending the ingenuity of his breeding and the simplicity and noblenesse of his own heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The good old man Chiron was my Tutor , and he taught me to use simplicity and honesty in all my manners . It was well and noble ; But yet some wise men do not condemn all souldiers that use to get victories by deceit : Saint Austin allows it to be lawful ; and Saint Chrysostome commends it . These Good men supposed that a crafty victory was better then a bloody war ; and certainly so it is , if the power gotten by craft be not exercised in blood : But this businesse ( as to the case of conscience ) will quickly be determined . Enemies are no persons bound by contract and society , and therefore are not obliged to open hostilities and ingenuous prosecutions of the war ; and if it be lawful to take by violence , it is not unjust to take the same thing by craft . But this is so to be understood , that where there is an obligation either by the law of nations or by special contracts , No man dare to violate his faith or honour , but in these things deal with an ingenuity equal to the truth of peaecfull promises , and acts of favour and endearment to our relatives . Josephus tells of the sons of Herod , that in their enmities with their Vncle Pherora and Salome they had disagreeing manners of prosecution , as they had disagreeing hearts ; some railed openly , and thought their enmity the more honest , because it was not concealed , but by their ignorance and rude , untutor'd malice lay open to the close designes of the elder brood of foxes . In this because it was a particular and private quarrel , there is no rule of conscience but that it be wholly laid aside , and appeased with charity ; for the opennesse of the quarrel was but the rage and indiscretion of the malice : and the close designe was but the craft and advantage of the malice : But in just wars on that side where a competent authority and a just cause warrants the arms and turns the active opposition into the excuse and licence of defence , there is no restraint upon the actions and words of men in the matter of sincerity , but that the laws of nations be strictly pursued and all parties ; promises , andcontracts observed religiously & by the proportion of a private & Christian ingenuity . We finde it by wise and good men mentioned with honour , that the Romans threw bread from the besieged Capitol into the stations of the Gauls , that they might think them full of corn : and that Agesilaus discouraged the enemies by causing his own men to wear crowns in token of a Navall victory gotten by Pisander who yet was at that time destroyed by Conon , and that Flaccus said the city was taken by Emilius , or that Joshua dissembled a flight at Ai , and the Consul Quinctius told aloud that the left wing of the enemies was fled , and that made the right wing fly ; or that Valerius Levinus bragged prudently that he had killed Pyrrhus , and that others use the ensigns of enemies colours and garments , concerning which sort of actions and words Agesilaus , in Plutarch said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It is just and pleasant , profitable and glorious , but to call a parley and fall in upon the men that treat ; to swear a peace and watch advantage ; to entertain Heralds and then to torment them , to get from them notices of their party ; these are such which are dishonorable and unjust , condemned by the laws of nations and essential justice , & by all the world and the Hungarian army was destroyed by a divine judgement at the prayer & appeal of the Mahumet an enemy for their violating their faith and honour and prophaning the name of Christ by using it in a solemn oath to deceive their enemies , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : that is to dispise God when men first sware by him , and then violate their oathes or leagues , their treaties or promises . In other cases liberty hath been taken by all men and it is reproved by no man , since the first simplicity of fighting & down right blows did cease by the better instructed people of the world : which was as is usually computed , about the end of the second Carthaginian war ; since that time , some few persons have been found so noble as to scorn to steal a victory , but had rather have the glory of a sharp sword , then of a sharp wit ; But their fighting gallantry is extrinsecal to the Question of lawful or unlawful 6. Thus we see how far the laws of ingenuity and Christian simplicity have put fetters upon our words and actions and directed them in the paths of truth and noblenesse , and the first degrees of permission of simulation is in the arts of war , and the cases of just hostility . But here it is usually inquired whether it be lawful to tell a lie , or dissemble to save a good mans life , or to do him a great benefit ? a Question which Saint Austine was much troubled withal , affirming it to be of the greatest difficulty : for he saw generally all the Doctors before his time allowed it ; and of all the fathers no man is noted to have reproved it but Saint Austin alone , and he also ( as his manner is ) with some variety : those which followed him are to be accounted upon his score : and it relies upon such precedents which are not lightly to be disallowed ; for so Abraham and Isaac told a lie in the case of their own danger to Abimelech ; so did the Israelitish midwives to Pharaoh and Rachab concering the spies , and David to the King of Gath , and the prophet that anointed Saul , and Elisha to Hazael , and Solomon in the sentence of the stolen childe ; concerning which Irenaeus hath given us a rule that those whose actions the Scripture hath remarked , & yet not chastised or censured , we are not without great reason and certain rule to condemn : but whether his rule can extend to this case is now to be enquired . 1. It is certain that children may be cozned into goodnesse , and sick men to health , and passengers in a storm into fafety ; and the reason of these is , because not onely the end is fair and charitable and just , but the means are such which do no injury to the persons which are to receive benefit : Because these are persons who are either naturally or accidentally ignorant and incompetent judges of affaires : and if they be also wilful as such persons most commonly are , there is in art and nature left no wayes to deal with them but with innocent , charitable , and artificial deceptions ; they are not capable of reason and solid discourses , and therefore either must be exposed to all harms like Lions whelps when their nurse and sire are taken in a toile , or else be provided for in wages proportionable to their capacitie . 2. Sinners may not be treated with the liberty we take to children and sick persons , because they must serve God with choice and election ; and therefore although a sick man may be cozened into his health , yet a man must not be cozened into his duty , which is no duty at all or pleasing to God , unlesse it be voluntary and chosen : and therefore they are to be treated with arguments proper to move their wills by the instrument of understanding specially , being persons of perfect faculties and apt to be moved by the wayes of health and of a man. It is an argument of infirmity that in some cases it is necessary to make pretences ; but those pretences are not made legitimate , unlesse it be the infirmity of the interested man with whom we do comply . My infirmity can not make it lawful to make colours and images of things : But the infirmity of him with whom I deal , may be such , that he can be defended or instructed no other way : But sinners that offend God by choice must have their choice corrected , and their understandings instructed or else their evill is not cured nor their state amended . 2. For it is here very observable , that in entercourses of this nature we are to regard a double duty ; the matter of justice , and the rights of charity : that is , that good be done by lawful instruments ; for it is certain it is not lawful to abuse a mans understanding , with a purpose to gain him 6. d. it is not fit to do evil for a good end , or to abuse one man to preserve or do advantage to another : and therefore it is not sufficient that I intend to do good to my neighbour ; for I may not therefore tell a lie and abuse his credulity ; because his understanding hath a right as certain as his will hath , or as his money ; and his right to truth is no more to be cozened and defrauded , then his right unto his money ; and therefore such artificial entercourses are no wayes to be permitted , but to such persons over whose understandings we have power and authority . Plato said it was lawful for Kings and Governours to dissemble , because there is great necessity for them so to do : but it was but crudely said , so nakedly to deliver the doctrine for in such things which the people cannot understand and yet ought to obey , there is a liberty to use them as we use children , who are of no other condition or capacities then children ; but in all things where they can and ought to choose , because their understanding is onely a servant to God , no man hath power to abuse their credulity and reason , to preserve their estates , and peace . But because Children and mad people and diseased , are such whose underdandings are in minority and under Tuition , they are to be governed by their proper instruments and proportions ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Proclus , a good turn is to be preferred before a true saying , it is onely true to such persons who cannot value truth , and prefer an intellectual before a material interest . It is better for children to have warm clothes then a true proposition , and therefore in all senses they and their like may be so treated : But other persons who have distinct capacities have an injury done them by being abused into advantages ; and although those advantages make them recompence , yet he that is tied to make a man recompence , hath done him injury and committed a sin , by which he was obliged to restitution ; & therefore the man ought not to be cozened for his own good 4. And now upon the grounds of this discourse , we may more easily determine concerning saving the life of a man by telling a lie in judgement 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Pericles of Athens when his friend desired him to swear on his side ; I will assist my friend so far as I may not dishonour God , and to lie in judgment is directly against the being of government , the honour of Tribunals and the commandement of God , and therefore by no accident can be hallowed ; it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle said of a lie , it is a thing evil in it self , that is , it is evil in the whole kinde , ever since it came to be forbidden by God : and therefore all those instances of crafty and delusive answers which are recorded in scripture were extra judicial and had not this load upon them to be a deceiving of authority in those things where they had right to command or inquire , & either were before or besides the commandment , not at all against it : and since the law of Moses forbad lying in judgement onely , by that law we are to judge of those actions in the old testament which were committed after its publication : and because in the sermons of the prophets and especially in the new testament Christ hath superadded or enlarged the law of ingenuity & hearty simplicity , we are to leave the old scripture precedents upon the ground of their own permissions , and finish our duty by the rules of our religion : which hath so restrained our words , that they must alwayes be just and alwayes charitable , and there is no leave given to prevaricate , but to such persons where there can be no obligation , persons that have no right , such with whom no contract can be made ; such as children and fools and infirm persons , whose faculties are hindred or depraved . I remember that Secundus extremely commends Arria for deluding her husbands fears concerning the death of his beloved boy , and wiped her eyes and came in confidently and sate by her husbands bed-side , and when she could no longer forbear to weep , her husbands sicknesse was excuse enough to legitimate that sorrow , or else she could retire ; but so long she forbore to confess the boy's death til Caecinna Paetus had so far recovered that he could go forth to see the boy and need not fear with sorrow to returne to his disease . It was indeed a great kindnesse and a rare prudence as their affaires and laws were ordered ; but we have better means to cure our sick ; our religion can charme the passion and enable the spirit to entertain and master a sorrow ; and when we have such rare supplies out of the store-houses of reason and religion we have lesse reason to use these arts and little deviees , which are arguments of an infirmity as great as is the charity : and therefore we are to keep our selves strictly to the foregoing measures ; Let every man speak the truth to his neighbour , putting away lying , for we are members one of another : and be as harmlesse as doves saith our blessed Saviour in my text : which contain the whole duty concerning the matter of truth and sincerity ; in both which places truth and simplicity are founded upon justice and charity : and therefore wherever a lie is in any sense against justice , and wrongs any thing of a man , his judgement and his reason , his right or his liberty , it is expresly forbidden in the Christian religion : what cases we can truly suppose to be besides these , the law forbids not and therefore it is lawful to say that to my self which I believe not , for what innocent purpose I please and to all those over whose understanding I have or ought to have right . These cases are intricate enough , and therefore I shall return plainly to presse the doctrine of simplicity which ought to be so sacred that a man ought to do nothing indirectly which it is not lawful to own ; to receive no advantage by the sin of another , which I should account dishonest if the action were my own ; for whatsoever disputes may be concerning the lawfulnesse of pretending craftily in some rare and contingent cases , yet it is on all hands condemned that my craft should do injury to my brother . I remember that when some greedy and indigent people forged a will of Lucius Minutius Basilius and joyned M. Crassus , and Q. Hortensius in the inheritance that their power for their own interest might secure the others share , they suspecting the thing to be a forgery , yet being not principals and actors in the contrivance alieni facinoris munus culum non repudiaverunt , refused not to receive a present made them by anothers crime ; but so they entred upon a moiety of the estate and the biggest share of the dishonour : we must not be crafty to anothers injury so much as by giving countenance to the wrong ; for Tortoises and the Estrich hatch their egges with their looks onely ; and some have designes which a dissembling face or an acted gesture can produce ; but as a man may commit adultery with his eye so with his eye also he may tell a lie , and steal with one finger and do injury collaterally and yet designe it with a direct intuition upon which he looks with his face over his shoulder : and by whatsoever instrument my neighbour may be abused , by the same instrument I sin if I do designe it antecedently , or fal upon it together with something else , or rejoyce in it when it is done . 7. One thing more I am to adde , that it is not lawful to tell a lie in jest . It was a vertue noted in Aristides and Epaminondes that they would not lie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not in sport : and as Christian simplicity forbids all lying in matter of interest and serious rights : so there is an appendix to this precept forbidding to lie in mirth : for of every idle word a man shall speak he shall give account in the day of judgment : and such are the jestings which S. Paul reckons amongst things uncomly ; But amongst these ; fables , apologues , parables or figures of Rhetorick , and any artificial instrument of instruction , or innocent pleasure are not to be reckoned ; But he that without any end of charity or institution shall tell lies onely to become ridiculous in himself or mock another , hath set some thing upon his doomsday book which must be taken off , by water or by fire , that is , by repentance or a judgement . Nothing is easier then simplicity and ingenuity , it is open and ready without trouble and artificial cares , fit for communities and the proper vertue of men , the necessary appendage of useful speech , without which language were given to men as nails and teeth to Lions , for nothing but to do mischief ; it is a rare instrument of institution , and a certain token of courage , the companion of goodnesse and a noble minde , the preserver of friendship , the band of society , the security of merchants , and the blessing of trade ; it prevents infinite of quarrels and appeals to Judges , and suffers none of the evils of Jealousie : men by simplicity converse as do the Angels , they do their own work and secure their proper interest , and serve the publick and do glory to God : But hypocrites and liars and dissemblers spread darknesse over the face of affaires and make men like the blinde to walk softly and timorously : and crafty men like the close aire suck that which is open , and devour its portion and destroy its liberty ; and it is the guise of devils , and the dishonour of the soul , and the canker of society , and the enemy of justice , and truth and peace , of wealth and honour , of courage and merchandise , He is a good man with whom a blind man may safely converse dignus quicum in tenebris mices to whom in respect of his fair treatings , the darknesse and light are both alike : But he that bears light upon the face and a dark heart , is like him that transforms himself into an Angel of light . when he means to do most mischief . Remember this onely ; that false colours laid upon the face besmear the skin and durty it , but they neither make a beauty nor mend it . Apocal : 22. 15. For without shall be dogs and sorcerers , and whoremongers and Murderers and idolaters , and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie . Sermon . XXV . THE MIRACLES OF THE DIVINE MERCY . Psalm . 86. 5 For thou Lord art good and ready to forgive , and plenteous in mercy to all them that call upon thee . MAN having destroyed that which God delighted in , that is , the beauty of his soul , fell into an evil portion , and being seized upon by the divine justice , grew miserable , and condemned to an incurable sorrow . Poor Adam being banished and undone , went and lived a sad life in the mountains of India , and turned his face and his prayers towards Paradise ; thither he sent his sighes , to that place he directed his devotions ; there was his heart now , and his felicity sometimes had been ; but he knew not how to return thither , for God was his enemy , and by many of his attributes opposed himself against him . Gods power was armed against him ; and poor man , whom a fly , or a fish could kill , was assaulted and beaten with a sword of fire in the hand of a Cherubim . Gods eye watched him , his omniscience was mans accuser , his severity was the Judge , his justice the executioner . It was a mighty calamity that man was to undergo , when he that made him , armed himself against his creature , which would have died or turned to nothing , if he had but withdrawn the miracles and the Almightinesse of his power . If God had taken his arm from under him , man had perished ; but it was therefore a greater evil when God laid his arm upon him and against him , and seemed to support him that he might be longer killing him . In the midst of these sadnesses God remembered his own creature , and pitied it , and by his mercy rescued him from the hand of his power , and the sword of his justice , and the guilt of his punishment , and the disorder of his sin , and placed him in that order of good things where he ought to have stood : It was mercy that preserved the noblest of Gods creatures here below ; he who stood condemned and undone under all the other attributes of God , was onely saved and rescued by his mercy : that it may be evident that Gods mercy is above all his works , and above all ours , greater then the creation , and greater then our sins ; as is his Majesty , so is his mercy , that is , without measures , and without rules , sitting in heaven and filling all the world , calling for a duty that he may give a blessing , making man that he may save him , punishing him that he may preserve him : and Gods justice bowed down to his mercy , and all his power passed into mercy , and his omniscience converted into care and watchfulnesse , into providence , and observation for mans avail , and Heaven gave its influence for man , and rained showers for our food and drink , and the Attributes and Acts of God sat at the foot of mercy , and all that mercy descended upon the head of man : For so the light of the world in the morning of the creation was spread abroad like a curtain , and dwelt no where , but filled the expansum with a dissemination great as the unfoldings of the airs looser garment , or the wilder fringes of the fire , without knots , or order or combination ; but God gathered the beams in his hand , and united them into a globe of fire , and all the light of the world became the body of the Sun , and he lent some to his weaker sister that walks in the night , and guides a traveller and teaches him to distinguish a house from a river , or a rock from a plain field ; so is the mercy of God ; a vast expansum and a huge Ocean , from eternall ages it dwelt round about the throne of God , and it filled all that infinite distance and space , that hath no measures but the will of God ; untill God desiring to communicate that excellency and make it relative , created Angels , that he might have persons capable of huge gifts , and man , who he knew would need forgivenesse ; for so the Angels our elder Brothers dwelt for ever in the house of their Father , and never brake his commandements ; but we the younger like prodigals , forsook our fathers house , and went into a strange countrey , and followed stranger courses , and spent the portion of our nature , and forfeited all our title to the family , and came to need another portion : for ever since the fall of Adam , who like an unfortunate man spent all that a wretched man could need , or a happy man could have , our life is repentance , and forgivenesse is all our portion : and though Angels were objects of Gods bounty , yet man onely is ( in proper speaking ) the object of his mercy . And the mercy which dwelt in an infinite circle , became confin'd to a little ring , and dwelt here below , and here shall dwell below , till it hath carried all Gods portion up to heaven , where it shall reigne and glory upon our crowned heads for ever and ever . But for him that considers Gods mercies , and dwels a while in that depth , it is hard not to talk wildly and without art , and order of discoursings : Saint Peter talked he knew not what , when he entered into a cloud with Jesus upon mount Tabor , though it passed over him like the little curtains that ride upon the North-winde , and passe between the Sun and us : And when we converse with a light greater then the Sun , and tast a sweetnesse more delicious then the dew of heaven , and in our thoughts entertain the ravishments and harmony of that atonement which reconciles God to man , and man to felicity , it will be more easily pardoned , if we should be like persons that admire much , and say but little : and indeed we can best confesse the glories of the Lord by dazeled eyes and a stammering tongue , and a heart overcharged with the miracles of this infinity ; For so those little drops that run over , though they be not much in themselves , yet they tell that the vessell was full , and could expresse the greatnesse of the shower no otherwise , but by spilling , and inartificiall expressions and runnings over . But because I have undertaken to tell the drops of the Ocean , and to span the measures of eternity , I must do it by the great lines of revelation , and experience , and tell concerning Gods mercy as we do concerning God himself , that he is that great fountain of which we all drink , and the great rock of which we all eat , and on which we all dwell , and under whose shadow we all are refreshed . Gods mercy is all this , and we can onely draw great lines of it , and reckon the constellations of our hemisphere instead of telling the number of the stars : we onely can reckon what we feel , and what we live by ; And though there be in every one of these lines of life enough to ingage us for ever to do God service , and to give him praises , yet it is certain there are very many mercies of God upon us , and toward us , and concerning us , which we neither feel , nor see , nor understand as yet ; but yet we are blessed by them , and are preserved and secured ; and we shall then know them , when we come to give God thanks in the festivities of an eternall sabbath . But that I may confine my discourse into order , since the subject of it cannot , I consider ; 1. That mercy being an emanation of the Divine goodnesse upon us , and supposes us , and found us miserable ; In this account concerning the mercies of God , I must not reckon the miracles and graces of the creation , or any thing of the nature of man ; nor tell how great an endearment God passed upon us that he made us men , capable of felicity , apted with rare instruments of discourse , and reason , passions , and desires , notices of sense , and reflections upon that sense , that we have not the deformity of a Crocodile , nor the motion of a Worm , nor the hunger of a Wolf , nor the wildenesse of a Tigre , nor the birth of Vipers , nor the life of flies , nor the death of serpents . Our excellent bodies , and usefull faculties , the upright motion , and the tenacious hand , the fair appetites , and proportioned satisfactions , our speech and our perceptions , our acts of life , the rare invention of letters , and the use of writing , and speaking at distance , the intervals of rest and labour , ( either of which if they were perpetual would be intolerable ) the needs of nature , and the provisions of providence , sleep , and businesse , refreshments of the body , and entertainment of the soul ; these are to be reckoned as acts of bounty rather then mercy ; God gave us these when he made us , and before we needed mercy ; these were portions of our nature , or provided to supply our consequent necessities ; but when we forfeited all Gods favour by our sins , then that they were continued , or restored to us , became a mercy , and therefore ought to be reckoned upon this new account ; for it was a rare mercy that we were suffered to live at all , or that the Anger of God did permit to us one blessing ; that he did punish us so gently : But when the rack is changed into an ax , and the ax into an imprisonment , and the imprisonment changed into an enlargement , and the enlargement into an entertainment in the family , and this entertainment passes on to an adoption , these are steps of a mighty favour , and perfect redemption from our sin : and the returning back our own goods is a gift , and a perfect donative , sweetned by the apprehensions of the calamity , from whence every lesser punishment began to free us ; and thus it was , that God punished us and visited the sin of Adam upon his posterity . He threatned we should die , and so we did , but not so as we deserved ; we waited for death and stood sentenced , and are daily summoned by sicknesses and uneasinesse ; and every day is a new reprieve , and brings a new favour , certain as the revolution of the Sun upon that day , and at last when we must die by the irreversible decree , that death , is changed into a sleep , and that sleep is in the bosom of Christ , and there dwels all peace and security , and it shall passe forth into glories and felicities . We looked for a Judge , and behold a Saviour ; we feared an accuser , and behold an Advocate ; we sate down in sorrow , and rise in joy ; we leaned upon Rhubarb and Aloes , and our aprons were made of the sharp leaves of Indian fig-trees , and so we fed , and so were clothed : But the Rhubarb proved medicinal , and the rough leaf of the tree brought its fruit wrapped up in its foldings ; and round about our dwellings was planted a hedge of thornes , and bundles of thistles , the Aconite , and the Briony , the Night-shade , and the Poppy , and at the root of these grew the healing Plantain , which rising up into a talnesse , by the friendly invitation of a heavenly influence , turn'd about the tree of the crosse ; and cured the wounds of the thorns , and the curse of the thistles , and the malediction of man , and the wrath of God. Si sio irascitur , quomodo convivatur ? If God be thus kinde when he is Angry , what is he when he feasts us with caresses of his more tender Kindnesse ? All that God restored to us after the forfeiture of Adam grew to be a double Kindnesse ; for it became the expression of a bounty which knew not how to repent , a graciousnesse that was not to be altered , though we were , and that was it which we needed . That 's the first generall : all the bounties of the creation became mercies to us , when God continued them to us and restored them after they were forfeit . 2. But as a circle begins every where , and ends no where , so do the mercies of God : after all this huge progresse , now it began anew : God is good and gracious , and God is ready to forgive . Now that he had once more made us capable of mercies God had what he desired , and what he could rejoyce in , something upon which he might pour forth his mercies ; and by the way , this I shall observe , ( for I cannot but speak without art , when I speak of that which hath no measure ) God made us capable of one sort of his mercies , and we made our selves capable of another : God is good and gracious , that is , desirous to give great gifts ; and of this , God made us receptive , first by giving us naturall possibilities , that is , by giving those gifts he made us capable of more ; and next , by restoring us to his favour , that he might not by our provocations be hindered from raining down his mercies . But God is also ready to forgive ] and of this kinde of mercy we made our selves capable , even by not deserving it ; Our sin made way for his grace , and our infirmities called upon his pity ; and because we sinned , we became miserable , and because we were miserable , we became pitiable , and this opened the other treasure of his mercy ; that because our sin abounds , his grace may superabound . In this method we must confine our thoughts ; 1. Giving , 2. Forgiving , Thou Lord art good . and ready to forgive , plenteous in mercy to all them that call upon thee . 3. Gods mercies , or the mercies of his giving , came first upon us by mending of our nature : For the ignorance we fell into is instructed and better learned in spirituall notices then Adams morning knowledge in Paradise , our appetites are made subordinate to the spirit , and the liberty of our wills is improved , having the liberty of the sons of God , and Christ hath done us more grace and advantage then we lost in Adam ; and as man lost Paradise and got Heaven , so he lost the integrity of the first , and got the perfection of the second Adam : his living soul is changed into a quickning spirit ; our discerning faculties are filled with the spirit of faith , and our passions and desires are entertained with hope , and our election is sanctified with charity ; and his first life of a temporall possession is passed into a better , a life of spirituall expectations ; and though our first parent was forbidden it , yet we live of the fruits of the tree of life . But I instance in two great things in which humane nature is greatly advanced , and passed on to greater perfections ; The first is , that besides body and soul , which was the summe totall of Adams constitution , God hath superadded to us a third principle , the beginner of a better life ; I mean , the Spirit ; so that now , man hath a spiritual and celestial nature breathed into him , and the old man , that is , the old constitution is the least part and in its proper operations is dead , or dying , but the new man is that which gives denomination , life , motion , and proper actions to a Christian , and that is renewed in us day by day . But secondly , Humane nature is so highly exalted , and mended by that mercy which God sent immediately upon the fall of Adam , the promise of Christ , that when he did come , and actuate the purposes of this mission , and ascended up into heaven , he carried humane nature above the seats of Angels ; to the place whither Lucifer the son of the morning aspir'd to ascend , but in his attempt fell into hell . For ( so said the Prophet ) the son of the morning said , I will ascend into heaven , and sit in the sides of the North , that is , the throne of Jesus seated in the East , called the sides , or obliquity of the North : and as the seating of his humane nature in that glorious seat brought to him all adoration , and the Majesty of God , and the greatest of his exaltation : So it was so great an advancement to us , that all the Angels of heaven take notice of it , and feel a change in the appendage of their condition : not that they are lessened , but that we , who in nature are lesse then Angels , have a relative dignity greater , and an equall honour of being fellow-servants . This mystery is plain in Scripture , and the reall effect of it we read in both the Testaments . When Manoah the father of Sampson saw an Angel , he worshipped him ; and in the old Testament it was esteemed lawfull ; for they were the lieutenants of God , sent with the impresses of his Majesty , and took in his Name the homage from us , who then were so much their inferiours . But when the man Christ Jesus was exalted , and made the Lord of all the Angels , then they became our fellow servants , and might not receive worship from any of the servants of Jesus , especially from Prophets and Martyrs and those that are ministers of the testimony of Jesus . And therefore when an Angel appeared to Saint John , and he according to the Custom of the Jews fell down and worshipped him , as not yet knowing or not considering any thing to the contrary , the Angell reproved him , saying , see thou do it not , I am thy fellow servant and of thy brethren the prophets and of them which keep the sayings of this book : worship God ; or as Saint Cyprian reads it , worship Jesus . God and man are now onely capable of worship : but no Angel ; God essentially ; Man in the person of Christ and in the exaltation of our great Redeemer ; but Angels not so high , and therefore not capable of any religious worship : and this dignity of man Saint Gregory explicates fully . Quid est quod ante Redemptoris adventum adorantur ab hominibus [ Angeli ] & tacent , postmodum vero adorarirefugiunt : why did the Angels of old receive worshippings and were silent , but in the new testament decline it and fear to accept it ? Nisi quod naturam nostram quam prius despexerant , postquam hanc super se assumptam aspiciunt prostratam sibi videre pertimescunt , nec jam sub se velut infirmam contemnere ausi sunt , quam super se viz. in caeli Rege venerantur : the reason is , because they seeing our nature which they did so lightly value raised up above them they fear to see humbled under them , neither do they any more despise the weaknesse which themselves worship in the King of heaven . The same also is the sense of the Glosse , of Saint Ambrose , Ansbertus , Haymo , Rupertus and others of old ; and Ribera , Salmeron , and Lewis of Granada of late ; which being so plainly consonant to the words of the Angel and consigned by the testimony of such men , I the rather note , that those who worship Angels and make religious addresses to them , may see what priviledge themselves lose and how they part with the honour of Christ who in his nature relative to us , is exalted far above all thrones and principalities and dominions . I need not adde lustre to this ; It is like the Sun the biggest body of light and nothing can describe it so well as its own beams : and there is not in nature or the advantages of honour any thing greater then that we have the issues of that mercy which makes us fellow servants with Angels ; too much honoured to pay them a religious worship , whose Lord is a man , and he that is their King is our Brother . 4. To this for the likenesse of the matter I adde , that the divine mercy hath so prosecuted us with the enlargement of his favours , that we are not onely fellow ministers and servants with the Angels and in our nature in the person of Christ exalted above them , but we also shall be their Judges ; and if this be not an honour above that of Joseph or Mordecai , an honour beyond all the measures of a man , then there is in honour no degrees no priority or distances , or characters of fame and noblenesse . Christ is the great Judge of all the world , his humane nature shall then triumph over evil men and evil spirits , then shall the Devils , those Angels that fel from their first originals be brought in their chains from their dark prisons and once be allowed to see the light , that light that shall confound them ; while all that follow the lamb , and that are accounted worthy of that resurrection shall be assessors in the judgment . Know ye not , ( saith , S. Paul ) that ye shall judge Angels ? And Tertullian speaking concerning Devils and accursed spirits [ de cultu foeminarum ] saith , Hi sunt Angeli quos judicaturi sumus , Hi sunt Angeli quibus in lavacro renunciavimus . Those Angels which we renounced in baptisme those we shall judge in the day of the Lords Glory , in the great day of recompences : And that the honour may be yet greater the same day of sentence that condemns the evil Angels shal also reward the good , and increase their glory : which because they derive from their Lord and ours , from their King and our elder Brother , the King of glories , whose glorious hands shall put the crown upon all our heads , we who shall be servants of that judgement and some way or other assist in it , have a part of that honour , to be judges of all Angels , and of all the world . The effect of these things ought to be this , that we do not by base actions dishonour that nature that sits upon the throne of God , that reigns over Angels , that shall sit in judgement upon all the world . It is a great undecency that the son of a King should bear water upon his head , and dresse vineyards among the slaves ; or to see a wise man and the guide of his country drink-drunk among the meanest of his servants ; but when members of Christ shall be made members of an harlot , and that which rides above a rain-bow stoopes to an imperious whorish woman , when the soul that is sister to the Lord of Angels , shall degenerate into the foolishnesse or rage of a beast , being drowned with the blood of the grape , or made mad with passion , or ridiculous with weaker follies , we shall but strip our selves of that robe of honour with which Christ hath invested , and adorned our nature , and carry that portion of humanity which is our own , and which God had honoured in some capacities above Angels , into a portion of an eternal shame , and became lesse in all senses , and equally disgraced with Devils . The shame and sting of this change shall be , that we turned the glories of the Divine mercy into the basenesse of ingratitude and the amazement of suffering the Divine vengeance . But I passe on . 5. The next order of Divine mercies that I shall remark is also an improvement of our nature or an appendage to it : for whereas our constitution is weak , our souls apt to diminution and impedite faculties , our bodies to mutilation and imperfection , to blindnesse and crookednesse , to stammering and sorrows , to baldnesse and deformity to evil conditions and accidents of body , and to passions and sadnesse of spirit , God hath in his infinite mercy provided for every condition rare suppletories of comfort and usefulnesse to make recompence and sometimes with an overrunning proportion for those natural defects which were apt to make our persons otherwise contemptible and our conditions intolerable ; God gives to blinde men better memories . For upon this account it is , that Rufinus makes mention of Didymus of Alexandria , who being blinde , was blessed with a rare attention and singular memory , and by prayer , and hearing , and meditating , and discoursing , came to be one of the most excellent Divines of that whole age . And it was more remarkable in Nicasius Machliniensis , who being blockish at his book in his first childhood fell into accidental blindnesse , and from thence continually grew to so quick an apprehension and so tenacious a memory , that he became the wonder of his contemporaries , and was chosen Rector of the College at Mechlin , and was made licentiate of Theology at Lovaine , and Doctor of both the laws , at Colein , living and dying in great reputation for his rare parts and excellent learning . At the same rate also God deals with men in other instances ; want of children he recompences with freedom from care , and whatsoever evil happens to the body is therefore most commonly single and unaccompanied , because God accepts that evil as the punishment of the sin of the man , or the instrument of his vertue , or his security , and is reckoned as a sufficient cure , or a sufficient Antidote . God hath laid laid a severe law upon all women th●● in sorrow they shall bring forth children , yet God hath so attempe●ed that sorrow , that they think themselves more accursed if they want that sorrow , and they have reason to rejoyce in that state , the trouble of which is alleviated by a promise , that they shall be saved in bearing children . He that wants one eye hath the force and vigorousnesse of both united in that which is left him ; and when ever any man is afflicted with sorrow his reason and his religion , himself and all his friends , persons that are civil , and persons that are obliged , run into comfort him , and he may , if he will observe wisely , finde so many circumstances of ease and remission , so many designes of providence and studied favours , such contrivances of collateral advantage and certain reserves of substantial and proper comfor● , that in the whole sum of affaires , it often happens that a single crosse is a double blessing , & that even in a temporal sense it is better to go to the house of mourning , then of joyes and festival egressions . Is not the affliction of ●overty better then the prosperity of a great and tempting fortune ? does not wisdom dwell in a mean estate and a low spirit ▪ retired thoughts and under a sad roof ? and is it not generally true that sicknesse it self is appayed with religion and holy thoughts with pious resolutions and penitential prayers , with returns to God and to sober councels ? and if this be true , that God sends sorrow to cure sin , and affliction be the hand-maid to grace , it is also certain that every sad contingency in nature is doubly recompenced with the advantages of religion , besides those intervening refreshments which support the spirit , and refresh its instruments . I shall need to instance but once more in this particular . God hath sent no greater evil into the world , then that in the sweat of our brows we shall eat our bread , and in the difficulty and agony , in the sorrows and contention of our souls we shall work out our salvation . But see how in the first of these God hath out done his own anger and defeated the purposes of his wrath by the inundation of his mercy ; for this labour and sweat of our brows is so far from being a curse that without it our very bread would not be so great a blessing . It is not labour that makes the Garlick and the pulse , the Sycamore and the Cresses , the cheese of the Goats and the butter of the sheep to be savoury and pleasant , as the flesh of the Roe-buck or the milk of the Kine , the marrow of Oxen or the thighs of birds ? If it were not for labour , men neither could eat so much , nor relish so pleasantly , nor sleep so soundly nor be so healthful , nor so useful , so strong nor so patient , so noble , or so untempted , and as God hath made us beholding to labour for the purchase of many good things , so the thing it self ows to labour , many degrees of its worth and value : and therefore I need not reckon that besides these advantages , the mercies of God have found out proper and natural remedies for labour ; Nights to cure the sweat of the day , sleep to ease our watchfulnesse , rest to alleviate our burdens , and dayes of religion to procure our rest : and things are so ordered that labour is become a duty , and an act of many vertues , and is not so apt to turne into a sin as is its contrary , and is therefore necessary , not onely because we need it , for making provisions of our life , but even to ease the labour of our rest ; there being no greater tediousnesse of spirit in the world then want of imployment , and an unactive life : and the lasie man is not onely unprofitable , but also accursed , and he groans under the load of his time , which yet passes over the active man light , as a dreame or the feathers of a bird , while the disimployed , is a desease , and like a long sleeplesse night to himself , and a load unto his country : And therefore although in this particular God hath been so merciful in this infliction that from the sharpnesse of the curse a very great part of mankinde are freed , and there are myriads of people , good and bad , who do not eat their bread in the sweat of their brows , yet this is but an overrunning and an excesse of the divine mercy ; God did more for us then we did absolutely need ; for he hath disposed of the circumstances of this curse , that mans affections are so reconciled to it , that they desire it , and are delighted in it ; and so the Anger of God is ended in loving Kindnesse , and the drop of water is lost in the full chalice of the wine , and the curse is gone out into a multiplied blessing . But then for the other part of the severe law and laborious imposition , that we must work out our spiritual interest with the labours of our spirit , seems to most men to be so intolerable , that rather then passe under it they quit their hopes of heaven , and passe into the portion of Devils ; and what can there be to alleviate this sorrow , that a man shall be perpetually sollicited with an impure tempter , and shall carry a flame within him , and all the world is on fire round about him , and every thing brings fuel to the flame , and full tables are a snare , and empty tables are collateral servants to a lust , and help to blow the fire and kindle the heap of prepared temptations , and yet a man must not at all tast of the forbidden fruit , and he must not desire what he cannot choose but desire , and he must not enjoy whatsoever he does violently covet , and must never satisfy his appetite in the most violent importunities , but must therefore deny himself , because to do so is extremely troublesome ; this seems to be an art of torture and a devise to punish man with the spirit of agony , and a restlesse vexation . But this also hath in it a great ingredient of mercy , or rather is nothing else but a heap of mercy in its intire constitution : For if it were not for this we had nothing of our own to present to God , nothing proportionable to the great rewards of heaven , but either all men or no man must go thither ; for nothing can distinguish man from man in order to beatitude but choice and election , and nothing can enoble the choice but love , and nothing can exercise love but difficulty , and nothing can make that difficulty but the contradiction of our appetite and the crossing of our natural affections ; and therefore whenever any of you is tempted violently or grow weary in your spirits with resisting the petulancy of temptation , you may be cured if you will please but to remember and rejoyce , that now you have something of your own to give to God ; something that he will be pleased to accept , something that he hath given thee that thou mayest give it him : for our mony and our time , our dayes of feasting and our dayes of sorrow , our discourse and our acts of praise , our prayers and our songs , our vows and our offerings , our worshippings and prostrations , and whatsoever else can be accounted in the sum of our religion , are onely accepted according as they bear along with them portions of our wil and choice of love and appendant difficulty . Laetius est quoties magno tibi constat honestum . So that whoever can complain that he serves God with pains and mortifications , he is troubled because there is a distinction of things such as we call vertue and vice , reward and punishment , and if he will not suffer God to distinguish the first he will certainly confound the latter ; and his portion shall be blacknesse without variety and punishment shall be his reward . 6. As an appendage to this instance of divine mercy , we are to account that not onely in nature ; but in contingency and emergent events of providence , God makes compensation to us , for all the evils of chance , and hostilities of accident & brings good out of evil , which is that solemn triumph which mercy makes over justice , when it rides upon a cloud and crowns its darknesse with a robe of glorious light . God indeed suffered Joseph to be sold a bondslave into Egypt , but then it was that God intended to crown and reward his chastity ; for by that means he brought him to a fair condition of dwelling and there gave him a noble trial ; he had a brave contention and he was a conqueror : Then God sent him to prison , but still that was mercy , it was to make way to bring him to Pharaohs court ; and God brought famine upon Canaan , and troubled all the souls of Jacobs family , and there was a plot laid for another mercy ; this was to bring them to see and partake of Josephs glory : and then God brought a great evil upon their posterity and they groaned under task-masters , but this God changed into the miracles of his mercy , and suffered them to be afflicted that he might do ten miracles for their sakes , and proclaim to all the world how dear they were to God. And was not the greatest good to mankinde brought forth from the greatest treason that ever was committed ; the redemption of the world from the fact of Judas , God loving to defeat the malice of man and the arts of the Devil by rare emergencies and stratagems of mercy ? It is a sad calamity to see a kingdom spoiled , and a church afflicted , the Priests slain with the sword , and the blood of Nobles mingled with cheaper sand , religion made a cause of trouble , and the best men most cruelly persecuted , Government confounded , and laws ashamed , Judges decreeing causes in fear and covetousnesse , and the ministers of holy things setting themselves against all that is sacred , and setting fire upon the fields , and turning in little foxes on purpose to destroy the vineyards ; and what shall make recompence for this heap of sorrows , when ever God shall send such swords of fire ? even the mercies of God which then will be made publick , when we shall hear such afflicted people sing Inconvertendo captivitatem Sion with the voice of joy and festival eucharist , among such as keep holy day ; and when peace shall become sweeter and dwell the longer ; and in the mean time it serves religion , and the affliction shall try the children of God , and God shall crown them , and men shall grow wiser , and more holy , and leave their petty interstes , and take sanctuary in holy living and be taught temperance by their want , and patience by their suffering , and charity by their persecution , and shall better understand the duty of their relations , and at last the secret worm that lay at the root of the plant , shall be drawn forth and quite extinguished . For so have I known a luxuriant Vine swell into irregular twigs , and bold excrescencies , and spend it self in leaves and little rings , and affoord but trifling clusters to the wine-presse , and a faint return to his heart which longed to be refreshed with a full vintage : But when the Lord of the vine had caused the dressers to cut the wilder plant and made it bleed , it grew temperate in its vain expense of uselesse leaves , and knotted into fair and juicy bunches , and made accounts of that losse of blood by the return of fruit : So is an afflicted Province , cured of its surfets , and punished for its sins , and bleeds for its long riot , and is left ungoverned for its disobedience , and chastised for its wantonnesse , and when the sword hath let forth the corrupted blood , and the fire hath purged the rest , then it enters into the double joyes of restitution , and gives God thanks for his rod , and confesses the mercies of the Lord in making the smoke be changed into fire , and the cloud into a perfume , the sword into a staffe , and his anger into mercy . Had not David suffered more if he had suffered lesse , and had he not been miserable unlesse he had been afflicted ? he understood it well when he said . It is good for me that I have been afflicted . He that was rival to Crassus , when he stood candidate to command the Legions in the Parthians warre was much troubled that he missed the dignity , but he saw himself blessed that he scaped the death , and the dishonour of the overthrow , by that time the sad news arrived at Rome . The Gentleman at Marseilles cursed his starres that he was absent when the ship set sail to sea , having long waited for a winde , and missed it ; but he gave thanks to the providence that blest him with the crosse , when he knew that the ship perished in the voyage , and all the men were drowned : And even those virgins and barren women in Jerusalem , that longed to become glad mothers , and for want of children would not be comforted , yet when Titus sacked the City , found the words of Jesus true Blessed is the womb that never bare , and the paps that never gave suck . And the world being governed with a rare variety , and changes of accidents , and providence ; that which is a misfortune in the particular , in the whole order of things becomes a blessing bigger then we hoped for , then when we were angry with God for hindring us , to perish in pleasant wayes , or when he was contriving to pour upon thy head a mighty blessing . Do not think the Judge condemns you when he chides you , nor think to read thy own finall sentence by the first half of his words ; Stand still and see how it will be in the whole event of things ; let God speak his minde out ; for it may be , this sad beginning is but an art to bring in , or to make thee to esteem , and entertain , and understand the blessing . They that love to talk of the mercies of the Lord , and to recount his good things , cannot but have observed that God delights to be called by such Appellatives which relate to miserable and afflicted persons : He is the Father of the fatherlesse , and an avenger of the widowes cause , he standeth at the right hand of the poor to save his soul from unrighteous Judges , and he is with us in tribulation : And upon this ground , let us account whether mercy be not the greater ingredient in that death and deprivation , when I lose a man and get God to be my Father ; and when my weak arm of flesh is cut from my shoulder , and God makes me to lean upon him , and becomes my Patron and my Guide , my Advocate and Defender : and if in our greatest misery Gods mercy is so conspicuous , what can we suppose him to be in the endearment of his loving Kindnesse ? If his vail be so transparent , well may we know that upon his face dwels glory , and from his eyes light , and perpetuall comforts run in channels , larger then the returns of the Sea , when it is driven and forced faster into its naturall course , by the violence of a tempest from the North. The summe is this , God intends every accident should minister to vertue , and every vertue is the mother and the nurse of joy , and both of them daughters of the Divine goodnesse , and therefore , if our sorrows do not passe into comforts , it is besides Gods intention ; it is because we will not comply with the act of that mercy which would save us by all means , and all varieties , by health and by sicknesse , by the life and by the death of our dearest friends , by what we choose and by what we fear ; that as Gods providence rules over all chances of things , and all designes of men , so his mercy may rule over all his providence . Sermon . XXVI . The Miracles of the Divine Mercy . Part II. 7. GOD having by these means secured us from the evils of nature and contingencies , he represents himself to be our Father , which is the great endearment , and tye , and expression , of a naturall , unalterable , and essentiall kindnesse , he next makes provisions for us to supply all those necessities which himself hath made . For even to make necessities , was a great circumstance of the mercy , and all the relishes of wine , and the savourinesse of meat , the sweet and the fat , the pleasure and the satisfaction , the restitution of spirits , and the strengthening of the heart , are not owing to the liver of the vine , or the kidneys of wheat , to the blood of the grape , or the strength of the corne , but to the appetite , or the necessity ; and therefore it is , that he that sits at a full table and does not recreate his stomack with fasting , and let his digestion rest , and place himself in the advantages of natures intervals , he loses the blessing of his daily bread , and leans upon his table as a sick man upon his bed , or the lion in the grasse , which he cannot feed on ; but he that wants it , and sits down when nature gives the signe , rejoyces in the health of his hunger , and the taste of his meat , and the strengthening of his spirit , and gives God thanks while his bones and his flesh rejoyce in the provisions of nature , and the blessing of God. Are not the imperfections of infancy , and the decayes of old age , the evils of our nature , because respectively they want desire , and they want gust and relish , and reflections upon their acts of sense ? and when desire failes , presently the mourners go about the streets . But then , that these desires are so provided for by nature and art , by ordinary and extraordinary , by foresight and contingency , according to necessity , and up unto conveniency , until we arrive at abundance , is a chain of mercies larger then the Bowe in the clouds , and richer then the trees of Eden , which were permitted to feed our miserable father : Is not all the earth our orchard , and our granary , our vineyard , and our garden of pleasure ? and the face of the Sea is our traffique , and the bowels of the Sea is our vivarium , a place for fish to feed us , and to serve some other collaterall appendant needs ; and all the face of heaven is a repository for influences and breath , fruitfull showers and fair refreshments ; and when God made provisions for his other creatures , he gave it of one kinde , and with variety no greater , then the changes of day and night , one devouring the other , or sitting down with his draught of blood , or walking upon his portion of grasse : But man hath all the food of beasts , and all the beasts themselves that are fi● for food ; and the food of Angels , and the dew of heaven , and the fatnesse of the earth ; and every part of his body hath a provision made for it , and the smoothnesse of the olive , and the juice of the vine refresh the heart and make the face cheerfull , and serve the ends of joy , and the festivity of man , and are not onely to cure hunger or to allay thirst , but to appease a passion , and allay a sorrow . It is an infinite variety of meat with which God furnishes out the table of mankinde ; and in the covering our sin , and clothing our nakednesse , God passed from sig-leaves to the skins of beasts , from aprons to long-robes , from leather to wool , and from thence to the warmth of furres , and the coolnesse of silks , he hath dressed not onely our needs , but hath fitted the severall portions of the yeer , and made us to go dressed like our mother ; leaving off the winter sables when the florid spring appears , and assoon as the Tulip fades we put on the robe of Summer , and then shear our sheep for Winter ; and God uses us as Joseph did his brother Benjamin , we have many changes of raiment , and our messe is five times bigger then the provision made for our brothers of the Creation . But the providence and mercies of God are to be estimated also according as these provisions are dispensed to every single person . For that I may not remark the bounties of God , running over the tables of the rich , God hath also made provisions for the poorest person : so that if they can but rule their desires they shall have their tables furnished ; and this is secured and provided for by one promise and two duties , by our Own labour , and our Brothers charity ; and our faith in this affair is confirmed by all our own , and by all the experience of other men . Are not all the men and the women of the world provided for , and fed and clothed till they die ? and was it not alwayes so from the first morning of the creatures ? and that a man is starved to death , is a violence and a rare contingency , happening almost as seldom as for a man to have but one eye : and if our being provided for be as certain as for a man to have two eyes , we have reason to adore the wisdom , and admire the mercies of our Almighty Father . But these things are evident . Is it not a great thing that God hath made such strange provisions for our health ? such infinite differences of Plants , and hath discovered the secrets of their nature by meer chance , or by inspiration ? either of which is the miracle of providence , secret to us , but ordered by certain and regular decrees of heaven . It was a huge diligence and care of the divine mercy that discovered to man , the secrets of Spagyrick medicines , of stones , of spirits , and the results of 7. or 8. decoctions , and the strange effects of accidental mixtures , which the art of man could not suspect , being bound up in the secret sanctuary of hidden causes , and secret natures , and being laid open by the concourse of 20 , or 30. little accidents , all which were ordered by God , as certainly as are the first principles of nature , or the descent of sons from fathers in the most noble families . But that which I shall observe in this whole affair is , that there are both for the provision of our tables , and the relief of our sicknesses , so many miracles of providence that they give plain demonstration what relation we bear to heaven : and the poor man need not be troubled that he is to expect his daily portion after the Sun is up : for he hath found to this day he was not deceived , and then he may rejoyce because he sees by an effective probation that in heaven a decree was made , every day to send him provisions of meat and drink ; and that is a mighty mercy , when the circles of heaven are bowed down to wrap us in a bosome of care , and nourishment , and the wisdom of God is daily busied to serve his mercy , as his mercy serves our necessities . Does not God plant remedies there where the diseases are most popular , and every Countrey is best provided against its own evils ? Is not the Rhubarb found where the Sun most corrupts the liver , and the Scabious by the shore of the Sea , that God might cure as soon as he wounds , and the inhabitants may see their remedy against the leprosie , and the scurvy , before they feel their sicknesse ? And then to this we may adde , Natures commons and open fields , the shores of rivers , and the strand of the Sea , the unconfined air , the wildernesse that hath no hedge , and that in these every man may hunt , and fowl and ●●sh respectively ; and that God sends some miracles and extraordinary blessings so for the publike good , that he will not endure they should be inclosed and made severall : Thus he is pleased ●o dispense the Manna of Calabria , the medicinall waters of Germany , the Musles at Sluce at this day , and the Egyptian beans in the marishes of Albania , and the salt at Troas of old ; which God to defeat the covetousnesse of man , and to spread his mercy over th● face of the indigent , as the Sun scatters his beams over the bosome of the whole earth , did so order that as long as every man was permitted to partake , the bosome of heaven was open ; but when man gathered them into single handfulls , and made them ▪ impropriate , God gathered his hand into his bosome , and bound the heavens with ribs of brasse , and the earth with decrees of iron , and the blessing reverted to him that gave it , since they might not receive it , to whom it was sent . And in general , this is the excellency of this mercy , that all our needs are certainly supplied , and secured by a promise which God cannot break , but he that cannot breake the lawes of his own promises , can break the lawes of nature , that he may perform his promise , and he will do a miracle rather then forsake thee in thy needs : So that our security and the relative mercy , is bound upon us by all the power and the truth of God. 8. But because such is the bounty of God , that he hath provided a better life for the inheritance of man , if God is so mercifull in making fair provisions for our lesse noble part , in order to the transition toward our Countrey , we may expect that the mercies of God hath rare arts to secure to us his designed bounty , in order to our inheritance , to that which ought to be our portion for ever . And here I consider , that it is an infinite mercy of the Almighty Father of mercies that he hath appointed to us such a religion that leads us to a huge felicity , through pleasant wayes . For the felicity that is designed to us is so above our present capacities and conceptions , that while we are so ignorant as not to understand it , we are also so foolish as not to desire it with passions great enough to perform the little conditions of its purchase ; God therefore knowing how great an interest it is , and how apt we would be to neglect it , hath found out such conditions of acquiring it which are eases and satisfaction to our present appetites . God hath bound our salvation upon us by the endearment of temporall prosperities ; and because we love this world so well , God hath so ordered it , that even this world may secure the other . And of this , God in old time made open profession , for when he had secretly designed to bring his people to a glorious immortality in another world , he told them nothing of that , it being a thing bigger then the capacity of their thoughts , or of their Theology , but told them that which would tempt them most , and endear obedience : If you will obey , ye shall eat the good things of the land : Ye shall possesse a rich countrey , ye shall triumph over your enemies , ye shall have numerous families , blessed children , rich granaries , over-running wine-presses ; for God knew the cognation of most of them was so dear , between their affections and the good things of this world , that if they did not obey in hope of that they did need , and fancy , and love , and see , and feel , it was not to be expected they should quit their affections for a secret in another world , whither before they come they must die , and lose all desire and all capacities of enjoyment . But this designe of God which was bare-faced in the dayes of the law , is now in the Gospel interwoven secretly ( but yet plain enough to be discovered by an eye of faith and reason ) into every vertue , and temporal advantage is a great ingredient in the constitution of every Christian grace for so the richest tissue dazles the beholders eye when the Sun reflects upon the mettal , the silver and the gold weaved into phantasti● imagery , or a wealthy plainnesse , but the rich wire and shining filaments are wrought upon cheaper silk , the spoil of worms and flies : so is the imbroidery of our vertue ; the glories of the spirit dwell upon the face and vestment , upon the fringes and the borders ; and there we see the Beril and the Onyx , the Jasper and the sardyx , order and perfection , love and peace and joy , mortification of the passions and ravishment of the will , adherencies to God and imitation of Christ , reception and entertainment of the Holy Ghost and longings after heaven , humility , and chastity , temperance , and sobriety ; these make the frame of the garment , the cloaths of the soul that it may not be found naked in the day of the Lords visitation ; but through these rich materials a thrid of silk is drawn , some compliance with worms and weaker creatures , something that shall please our bowels , and make the lower man t● rejoyce : they are wrought upon secular content , and material satisfactions , and now we cannot be happy unlesse we be ●ious , and the religion of a Christian is the greatest security and the most certain instrument of making a man rich , and pleased , and healthful and wise and beloved in the whole world . I shall now remark onely two or three instances ; for the main body of this truth I have other where represented . 1. The whole religion of a Christian as it relates to others is nothing but justice and mercy , certain parents of peace and benefit : and upon this supposition what evil can come to a just and a merciful , to a necessary and useful person ? For the first permission of evil was upon the stock of injustice : He that kills may be killed , and he that does injury may be mischieved ; he that invades another mans right , must venture the losse of his own ; and when I put my Brother to his defence he may chance drive the evil so far from himself , that it may reach me ; Laws and ●udges , private & publick judicatures , wars and tribunals , axes and wheels were made , not for the righteous , but for the unjust ; and all that whole order of things and persons would be uselesse , if men did do as they would willingly suffer . 2. And because there is no evil that can befal a just man unlesse it comes by injury and violence , our religion hath also made as good provisions against that too , as the nature of the thing will suffer ; for by patience we are reconciled to the sufferance , and by hope and faith we see a certain consequent reward ; and by praying for the persecuting man we are oured of all the evil of the minde , the envy and the fretfulnesse that uses to gall the troubled and resisting man ; and when we turn all the passion into charity , and God turns all the suffering into reward , there remains nothing that is very formidable . So that our religion obliges us to such duties which prevent all evils that happen justly to men , ( and in our religion no man can suffer as a malefactor , if he follows the religion truely ) and for the evils that are unavoidable and come by violence , the graces of this discipline turne them into vertues and rewards , and make them that in their event they are desirable and in the suffering they are very tolerable . 3. But then when we consider that the religion of a Christian consists in doing good to all men , that it is made up of mercies and friendships , of friendly conventions and assemblies of Saints , that all are to do good works for necessary uses , that is to be able to be beneficial to the publick and not to be burthensome to any , where it can be avoided , what can be wished to man in relation to others , and what can be more beneficial to themselves then that they be such whom other men will value for their interest , such whom the publick does need , such whom Princes and Nobles ought to esteem , and all men can make use of according to their several conditions ; that they are so well provided for that unlesse a persecution disables them they cannot onely maintain themselves , but oblige others to their charity . This is a temporal good which all wise men reckon as part of that felicity which recompences all the labours of their day , and sweetens the sleep of their night , and places them in that circle of neighbour-hood and amity where men are most valued and most secure . 4. To this we may adde this material consideration . That al those graces which oblige us to do good to others are nothing else but certain instruments of doing advantage to our selves . It is a huge noblenesse of charity to give alms not onely to our Brother , but for him , It is the Christian sacrifice , like that of Job who made oblations for his sons when they feasted each other , fearing lest they had sinned against God ; and if I give almes and fast and pray in behalf of my prince , or my Patron , my friend or my children , I do a combination of holy actions , which are of all things that I can do , the most effectual intercession for him , whom I so recommend ; but then observe the art of this , and what a plot is laid by the divine mercy to secure blessing to to our selves . That I am a person fit to intercede and pray for him must suppose me a gracious person , one whom God rather will accept ; so that before I be fit to pray and interpose for him ; I must first become dear to God , and my charity can do him no good , for whose interest I gave it , but by making me first acceptable to God , that so he may the rather hear me ; and when I fast , it is first an act of repentance for my self before it can be an instrument of impetration for him . And thus I do my Brother a single benefit , by doing my self a double one , and it is also so ordered that when I pray for a person for whom God will not hear me , yet then he will hear me for my self though I say nothing in my own behalf , and our prayers are like Jonathans arrows , if they fall short , yet they return my friend or my friendship to me ; or if they go home , they secure him whom they pray for , and I have not onely the comfort of rejoycing with him but the honour and the reward of procuring him a joy ; and certain it is that a charitable prayer for another , can never want what it asks , or instead of it , a greater blessing . The good man that saw his poor brother troubled because he had nothing to present for an offering at the Holy communion ( when all knew themselves obliged to do kindnesse for Christs poor members with which themselves were incorporated with so mysterious union ) and gave him mony that he might present for the good of his soul as other Christians did , had not onely the reward of almes but of religion too ; and that offering was well husbanded , for it did benefit to two souls ; for as I sin when I make another sin : so if I help him to do a good , I am a sharer in the gains of his talent , and he shall not have the lesse but I shall be rewarded upon his stock . And this was it which David rejoyced in , Partic●ps sum omnium timentium te ; I am a partner , a companion of all them that fear thee , I share in their profits . If I do but rejoyce at every grace of God which I see in my Brother , I shall be rewarded ●or that grace ; and we need not envy the excellency of another ; It becomes mine as well as his : and if I do rejoyce , I shall have ●ause to rejoyce ; so excellent , so full , so artificial is the mercy of God in making and seeking and finding all occasions to do us good . 5. The very charity and love and mercy that is commanded in our religion is in it self a great excellency , not onely in order to heaven , but to the comforts of the earth too , & such without which a man is not capable of a blessing or a comfort ; & he that sent charity and friendships into the world , intended charity to be as relative as justice , & to do its effect both upon the loving and the beloved person . It is a reward and a blessing to a kinde Father , when his children do well , and every degree of prudent love which 〈◊〉 bears to them is an endearment of his joy ; and he that loves them not , but looks upon them as burdens of necessity , and ●oads to his fortune , loses those many rejoycings , and the pleas●●es of kindnesse , which they feast withal who love to divide their fortunes , amongst them , because they have already divided out large and equal portions of their heart . I have instanced in this relation ; but it is true in all the excellency of friendship ; and every man rejoyces twice when he hath a partner of his joy ; A friend shares my sorrow and makes it but a moi●ty ; but he swells my joy and makes it double . For so two chanels divide the river and lessen it into rivulets , and make it foordable and apt to be drunk up at the first revels of the Sirian star ; but two torches do not divide but increase the flame ; and though my tears are the sooner dryed up , when they run upon my friends cheeks in the furrows of compassion , yet when my flame hath kindled his lamp , we unite the glories and make them radiant like the golden Candle-sticks that burn before the throne of God , because they shine by numbers , by unions , and confederations of light and joy . And now upon this account which is already so great I need not reckon concerning the collateral issues , and little streams of comfort which God hath made to issue from that religion to which God hath obliged us ; such as are mutual comforts , visiting sick people , instructing the ignorant and so becoming better instructed and fortified and comforted our selves by the instruments of our Brothers ease and advantages ; the glories of converting souls , of rescuing a sinner from hell , of a miserable man from the grave the honour and noblenesse of being a good man , the noble confidence , and the bravery of innocence , the ease of patience , the quiet of contentednesse , the rest of peacefulnesse , the worthinesse of forgiving others , the greatnesse of spirit that is in despising riches , and the sweetnesse of spirit that is in meeknesse and humility ; these are Christian graces in every sense ; favours of God and issues of his bounty & his mercy ; but al that Ishal now observe further concerning them , is this , that God hath made these necessary ; he hath obliged us to have them under pain of damnation , he hath made it so sure to us to become happy even in this world , that if we will not , he hath threatened to destroy us , which is , not a desire or aptnesse to do us an evil , but an art to make it impossible that we should For God hath so ordered it that we cannot perish unlesse we desire it our selves , and unlesse we will do our selves a mischief on purpose to get hell , we are secured of heaven , and there is not in the nature of things , any way that can more infallibly do the work of felicity upon creatures that can choose , then to make that which they should naturally choose , be spiritually their duty , and that he will make them happy hereafter , if they will suffer him to make them happy here ; But hardly stand another throng of mercies that must be considered by us , and God must be glorified in them , for they are such as are intended to preserve to us all this felicity . 9. God that he might secure our duty and our present and consequent felicity hath tied us with golden chaines and bound us not onely with the bracelets of love , and the deliciousnesse of hope , but with the ruder cords of fear and reverence , even with all the innumerable parts of a restraining grace . For it is a huge aggravation of humane calamity to consider that after a man hath been instructed in the love and advantages of his Religion , and knows it to be the way of honour and felicity , and that to prevaricate his holy sanctions is certain death and disgrace to eternal ages , yet that some men shall despise their religion , others shall be very weary of its laws , and cal the commandments a burden , and too many , with a perfect choice shall delight in death , and the wayes that lead thither , and they choose mony infinitely , and to rule over their Brother by al means , & to be revenged extremely , and to prevail by wrong and to do all that they can , and please themselves in all that they desire , and love it fondly , and be restlesse in all things but where they perish ; if God should not interpose by the arts of a miraculous and merciful grace , and put a bridle in the mouth of our lusts , and chastise the sea of our follies by some heaps of sand or the walls of a rock , we should perish in the deluge of sin universally as the old world did in that storm of the divine anger , the flood of water . But thus God suffers but few adulteries in the world in respect of what would be if all men that desire to be a dulterers had power & opportunity ; and yet some men and very many women are by modesty and natural shamefacednesse chastised in their too forward appetites : or the laws of man or publick reputation or the undecency and unhandsome circumstances of sin check the desire and make it that it cannot arrive at act : for so have I seen a busie flame sitting upon a sullen cole turn its point to all the angles and portions of its neighbour-hood and reach at a heap of prepared straw , which like a bold temptation called it to a restlesse motion and activity , but either it was at too big a distance or a gentle breath from heaven diverted the speare and the ray of the fire to the other side , and so prevented the violence of the burning , till the flame expired in a weak consumption , and dyed turning into smoak and the coolnesse of death and the harmlesnesse of a Cinder : and when a mans desires are winged with sailes and a lusty wind of passion and passe on in a smooth chanel of opportunity , God often times hinders the lust and the impatient desire from passing on to its port , and entring into action , by a suddain thought , by a little remembrance of a word , by a fancy , by a sudden disability , by unreasonable and unlikely fears , by the suddain intervening of company , by the very wearinesse of the passion , by curiosity , by want of health , by the too great violence of the desire , bursting it self with its fulnesse into dissolution & a remisse easinesse , by a sentence of scripture , by the reverence of a good man , or else by the proper interventions of the spirit of grace chastising the crime and representing its appendant mischiefs and its constituent disorder and irregularity ; and after all this , the very anguish and trouble of being defeated in the purpose hath rolled it self into so much uneasinesse and unquiet reflections , that the man is grown ashamed and vexed into more sober counsels . And the mercy of God is not lesse then infinite in separating men from the occasions of their sin , from the neighbour-hood and temptation ; for if the Hyaena and a dog should be thrust into the same Kennel , one of them would soon finde a grave , and it may be both of them their death ; so infallible is the ruine of most men , if they be shewed a temptation : Nitre and resin , Naphtha and Bitumen , sulphur and pitch are their constitution , and the fire passes upon them infinitely , and there is none to rescue them . But God by removing our sins far from us , as far as the East is from the West not onely putting away the guilt , but setting the occasion far from us , extremely far ; so far that sometimes we cannot sin and many times , not easily , hath magnified his mercy , by giving us safety in all those measures in which we are untempted , It would be the matter of new discourses , if I should consider concerning the variety of Gods grace , his preventing and accompanying , his inviting and corroborating grace ; his assisting us to will , his enabling us to do , his sending Angels to watch us , to remove us from evil company , to drive us with swords of fire from forbidden instances , to carry us by unobserved opportunities into holy company , to minister occasions of holy discourses , to make it by some means or other necessary to do a holy action , to make us in love with vertue , because they have mingled that vertue with a just and a fair interest , to some men by making religion that thing they live upon , to others , the means of their reputation , and the securities of their honour , and thousands of wayes more , which every prudent man that watches the wayes of God cannot but have observed . But I must also observe other great conjugations of mercy , for he that is to passe through an infinite must not dwell upon everie little line of life . 10. The next order of mercies is such , which is of so pure , and unmingled constitution , that it hath at first no regard to the capacities and disposition of the receivers , and afterwards when it hath , it relates onely to such conditions , which it self creates and produces in the suscipient , I mean the mercies of the divine predestination . For was it not an infinite mercy that God should predestinate all mankinde to salvation by Jesus Christ , even when he had no other reason to move him to do it but because man was miserable and needed his pity ? But I shall instance onely in the intermediall part of this mysterious mercy . Why should God cause us to be born of Christian parents , and not to be circumcised by the impure hands of a Turkish Priest ? What distinguished me from another , that my Father was severe in his discipline and carefull to bring me up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord , and I was not exposed to the carelesnesse of an irreligious guardian , and taught to steal , and lie , and to make sport with my infant vices , and beginnings of iniquity ? Who was it that discerned our persons from the lot of dying Chrysomes , whose portion must be among those who never glorified God with a free obedience ? What had you done of good , or towards it , that you was not condemned to the stupid ignorance which makes the souls of most men but a little higher then beasts , and who understand nothing of religion and noble principles , of parables and wise sayings of old men . And not onely in our cradles , but in our schools , and in our colledges , in our friendships , and in our marriages , in our enmities , and in all our conversation , in our vertues and in our vices , where all things in us were equal , or else we were the inferiour , there is none of us but have felt the mercies of many differencies . Or it may be my brother and I were intemperate , and drunk , and quarelsome , and he kill'd a man , but God did not suffer me to do so : He fell down and died with a little disorder , I was a beast and yet was permitted to live , and not yet to die in my sins : He did amisse once and was surprized in that disadvantage : I sin daily and am still invited to repentance ; he would fain have lived and amended ; I neglect the grace , but am allowed the time . And when God sends the Angel of his wrath to execute his anger upon a sinfull people we are encompassed with funerals , and yet the Angel hath not smitten us : what or who makes the difference ? We shall then see , when in the separations of eternity , we sitting in glory , shall see some of the partners of our sins carried into despair and the portions of the left hand , and roaring in the seats of the reprobate ; we shall then perceive that it is even that mercy which hath no cause but it self , no measure of its emanation but our misery , no natural limit but eternity , no beginning but God , no object but man , no reason but an essential and an unalterable goodnesse , no variety but our necessity and capacity , no change but new instances of its own nature , no ending or repentance , but our absolute and obstinate refusall to entertain it . 11. Lastly , All the mercies of God are concentred in that which is all the felicity of man ; and God is so great a lover of souls that he provides securities and fair conditions for them , even against all our reason and hopes , our expectations , and weak discoursings . The particulars I shall remark are these . 1. Gods mercy prevails over the malice and ignorances , the weaknesse● and follies of men , so that in the convention and assemblies of hereticks ( as the word is usually understood for erring and mistaken people ) although their doctrines are such that if men should live according to their proper and naturall consequences , they would live impiously , yet in every one of these there are persons so innocently and invincibly mistaken , and who mean nothing but truth , while in the simplicity of their heart they talk nothing but error , that in the defiance and contradiction of their own doctrines , they ●●ve according to its contradictory . He that beleeves contrition alone with confession to a Priest , is enough to expiate ten thousand sins , is furnished with an excuse easie enough to quit himself from the troubles of a holy life ; and he that hath a great many cheap wayes of buying off his penances for a little money , even for the greatest sins , is taught a way not to fear the doing of an act , for which he must repent ; since repentance is a duty so soon , so certainly , and so easily performed : But these are not●●ious doctrines in the Roman Church , and yet God so loves the souls of his creatures that many men who trust to these doctrines in their discourses , dare not rely upon them in their lives . But while they talk as if they did not need to live strictly , many of them live so strictly as if they did not beleeve so foolishly . He that tels , that antecedently God hath to all humane choice decreed man to heaven or to hell , takes away from man all care of the way , because they beleeve that he that infallibly decreed that end , hath unalterably appointed the means , and some men that talk thus wildly live soberly , and are over-wrought in their understanding by some secret art of God , that man may not perish in his ignorance , but be assisted in his choice , and saved by the Divine mercies . And there is no sect of men but are furnished with antidotes and little excuses to cure the venom of their doctrine ; and therefore although the adherent and constituent poison is notorious and therefore to be declined , yet because it is collaterally cured and over-poured by the torrent and wisdom of Gods mercies , the men are to be taken into the Quire that we may all joyn in giving of God praise for the operation of his hands . 2. I said formerly that there are many secret and undiscerned mercies by which men live , and of which men can give no account till they come to give God thanks at their publication ; and of this sort , is that mercy which God reserves for the souls of many millions of men and women concerning whom we have no hopes , if we account concerning them by the usuall proportions of revelation and Christian commandements , and yet we are taught to hope some strange good things concerning them by the analogy and generall rules of the Divine mercy . For what shall become of ignorant Christians , people that live in wildnesses and places more desert then a primitive hermitage , people that are baptized , and taught to go to Church , it may be once a yeer , people that can get no more knowledge , they know not where to have it , nor how to desire it ; and yet that an eternity of pains shall be consequent to such an ignorance is unlike the mercy of God , and yet that they should be in any dispositions towards an eternity of intellectuall joyes is no where set down in the leaves of revelation ; and when the Jews grew rebellious , or a silly woman of the daughters of Abraham was tempted , and sinned , and punished with death , we usually talk as if that death passed on to a worse ; but yet we may arrest our thoughts upon the Divine mercies , and consider that it is reasonable to expect from the Divine goodnesse , that no greater forfeiture be taken upon a law , then was expressed in its sanction and publication . He that makes a law and bindes it with the penalty of stripes , we say he intends not to afflict the disobedient with scorpions and axes ; and it had been hugely necessary that God had scar'd the Jews from their sins by threatning the pains of hell to them that disobeyed , if he intended to inflict it ; for although many men would have ventured the future , since they are not affrighted with the present and visible evil , yet some persons would have had more Philosophical and spiritual apprehensions then others , and have been infallibly cured in all their temptations with the fear of an eternall pain ; and however , whether they had or no , yet since it cannot be understood how it consists with the Divine justice to exact a pain bigger then he threatned , greater then he gave warning of ; so we are sure it is a great way off from Gods mercy to do so . He that usually imposes lesse , and is loth to inflict any and very often forgives it all , is hugely distant from exacting an eternall punishment , when the most that he threatned and gave notice of , was but a temporall . The effect of this consideration I would have to be this , that we may publikely worship this mercy of God which is kept in secret and that we be not too forward in sentencing all Heathens , and prevaricating Jews to the eternall pains of hell , but hope that they have a portion in the secrets of the Divine mercy , where also unlesse many of us have some little portions deposited , our condition will be very uncertain , and sometimes most miserable . God knows best how intolerably accursed a thing it is to perish in the eternall flames of hell , and therefore he is not easie to inflict it : and if the ●oyes of heaven be too great to be expected upon too easie termes , certainly the pains of the damned are infinitely too big to passe lightly upon persons who cannot help themselves , and who i● they were helped with clearer revelations would have avoided it ▪ But as in these things we must not pry into the secrets of the Divine Oeconomy , being sure whether it be so or no , it is most just , even as it is ; so we may expect to see the glories of the Divine mercy made publike in unexpected instances at the great day of manifestation : And indeed our dead many times go forth from our hands very strangely and carelesly , without prayers , without Sacraments , without consideration , without counsel , and without comfort ; and to dresse the souls of our dear people to so sa● a parting is an imployment , we therefore omit , not alwayes because we are negligent , but because the work is sad and allay the affections of the world , with those melancholy circumstances ; but i● God did not in his mercies make secret and equivalent provisions for them , and take care of his redeemed ones we might unhappily meet them in a sad eternity , and without remedy weep together and groan for ever . But God hath provided better things for them , that they without us , that is , without our assistances , shall be made perfect . Sermon . XXVII . The Miracles of the Divine Mercy . Part III. THere are very many more orders and conjugations of mercies , but because the numbers of them naturally tend to their own greatnesse , that is , to have no measure , I must reckon but a few more , and them also without order ; for that they do descend upon us , we see and feel , but by what order of things , or causes , is as undiscerned as the head of Nilus , or a sudden remembrance of a long neglected and forgotten proposition . 1. But upon this account it is , that good men have observed , that the providence of God is so great a provider for holy living , and does so certainly minister to religion , that nature and chance , the order of the world , and the influences of heaven are taught to serve the ends of the Spirit of God , and the spirit of a man. I do not speak of the miracles that God hath in the severall periods of the world wrought for the establishing his lawes , and confirming his promises , and securing our obedience ; though that was all the way the overflowing and miracles of mercy as well as power : but that which I consider is , that besides the extraordinary emanations of the Divine power upon the first and most solemn occasions of an institution and the first beginnings of a religion , such as were , the wonders God did in Egypt and in the wildernesse , preparatory to the sanction of that law , and the first covenant ; and the miracles wrought by Christ and his Apostles , for the founding and the building up the religion of the Gospel , and the new covenant : God does also do things wonderfull and miraculous , for the promoting the ordinary and lesse solemn actions of our piety , and to assist and accompany them in a constant and regular succession . It was a strange variety of naturall efficacies , that Manna should s●nk in 24. hours if gathered upon Wednesday and Thursday , and that it should last till 48. hours if gathered upon the Even of the Sabbath ; and that it should last many hundreds of yeers when placed in the Sanctuary by the ministery of the high Priest ; but so it was in the Jews religion ; and Manna pleased every palate , and it filled all appetites , and the same measure was a different proportion ; it was much and it was little ; as if nature , that it might serve religion ▪ had been taught some measures of infinity , which is every where and no where , filling all things , and circumscribed with nothing , measured by one Omer , and doing the work of two ; like the crowns of Kings , fitting the browes of Nimrod and the most mighty Warriour , and yet not too large for the temples of an infant Prince . And not onely is it thus in nature , but in contingencies and acts depending upon the choice of men ; for God having commanded the sons of Israel to go up to Jerusalem to worship thrice every yeer , and to leave their borders to be guarded by women , and children , and sick persons , in the neighbourhood of diligent and spitefull enemies , yet God so disposed of their hearts and opportunities , that they never entered the land when the people were at their solemnity ; untill they desecrated their rites , by doing at their Passeover the greatest sin and treason in the world ; till at Easter they crucified the Lord of life and glory , they were secure in Jerusalem and in their borders ; but when they had destroyed religion by this act , God took away their security , and Titus besieged the City at the feast of Easter , that the more might perish in the deluge of the Divine indignation . To this observation the Jews adde , that in Jerusalem no man ever had a fall that came thither to worship ; that at their solemn festivals there was reception in the Town for all the inhabitants of the land ; concerning which although I cannot affirm any thing , yet this is certain , that no godly person among all the tribes of Israel was ever a begger , but all the variety of humane chances , were over-ruled to the purposes of providence , and providence was measured by the ends of the religion , and the religion which promised them plenty , performed the promise till the Nation and the religion too began to decline , that it might give place to a better ministery , and a more excellent dispensation of the things of the world . But when Christian religion was planted and had taken root , and had filled all lands , then all the nature of things , the whole creation became servant to the kingdom of grace , and the Head of the religion is also the Head of the creatures , and ministers all the things of the world in order to the Spirit of grace : and now Angels are ministring spirits , sent forth to minister for the good of them that fear the Lord , and all the violences of men , and things of nature ▪ and choice , are forced into subjection and lowest ministeries , and to cooperate as with an united designe to verifie all the promises of the Gospel , and to secure and advantage all the children of the kingdom , and now he that is made poor by chance , or persecution , is made rich by religion , and he that hath nothing , yet possesses all things , and sorrow it self is the greatest comfort , not only because it ministers to vertue , but because it self is one , as in the case of repentance ; and death ministers to life , and bondage is freedom , and losse is gain , and our enemies are our friends , and every thing turns into religion , and religion turns into felicity , and all manner of advantages . But that I may not need to enumerate any more particulars in this observation certain it is that Angels of light and darknesse , all the influences of heaven , and the fruits and productions of the earth , the stars , and the elements , the secret things that lie in the bowels of the Sea , and the entrails of the earth , the single effects of all efficients , and the conjunction of all causes , all events foreseen , and all rare contingencies , every thing of chance , and every thing of choice , is so much a servant to him whos 's greatest desire , and great interest , is by all means to save our souls , that we are thereby made sure , that all the whole creation shall be made to bend in all the flexures of its nature and accidents , that it may minister to religion , to the good of the Catholike Church , and every person within its bosom , who are the body of him that rules over all the world , and commands them as he chooses . 2. But that which is next to this , and not much unlike the designe of this wonderfull mercy , is , that all the actions of religion , though mingled with circumstances of differing and sometimes of contradictory relations are so concentred in God their proper centre , and conducted in such certain and pure channels of reason and rule , that no one duty does contradict another ; and it can never be necessary for any man in any case to sin . They that bound themselves by an oath to kill Paul were not environed with the sad necessities of murder on one side and vow-breach on the other , so that if they did murder him they were man-slayers , if they did not they were perjured ; for God had made provision for this case , that no unlawful oath should passe an obligation . He that hath given his faith in unlawfull confederation against his Prince , is not girded with a fatall necessity of breach of trust on one side , or breach of allegeance on the other ; for in this also God hath secured the case of conscience , by forbidding any man to make an unlawfull promise , and upon a stronger degree of the same reason , by forbidding him to keep it in case he hath made it . He that doubts whether it be lawfull to keep the Sunday holy , must not do it during that doubt , because whatsoever is not of faith is sin ; But yet Gods mercy hath taken care to break this snare in sunder , so that he may neither sin against the commandement , nor against his conscience ; for he is bound to lay aside his errour and be better instructed ; till when , the scene of his sin lies in something that hath influence upon his understanding , not in the omission of the fact ; No man can serve two Masters , but therefore he must hate the one and cleave to the other . But then if we consider what infinite contradiction there is in sin , and that the great long suffering of God is expressed in this , that God suffered the contradiction of sinners , we shall feel the mercy of God in the peace of our consciences and the unity of religion , so long as we do the work of God. It is a huge affront to a covetous man that he is the further off from fulnesse by having great heaps & vast revenues ; and that his thirst increases by having that which should quench it ; and that the more he shall need to be satisfied , the lesse he shall dare to do it ; and that he shall refuse to drink because he is dry ; that he dyes if he tasts , and languishes if he does not ; and at the same time he is full and empty , bursting with a plethory , and consumed with hunger , drowned with rivers of oyle and wine and yet dry as the Arabian sands ; but then the contradiction is multiplyed and the labyrinths more amazed , when prodigality waits , upon another curse , and covetousnesse heaps up , that prodigality may scatter abroad ; then distractions are infinite , and a man hath two Devils to serve of contradictory designes and both of them exact●●g obedience more unreasonably then the Egyptian task-masters then there is no rest , no end of labours , no satisfaction of purposes , no method of things , but they begin where they should end , and begin again , and never passe forth to content or reason , or quietnesse , or possession . But the duty of a Christian is easie in a persecution , it is clear under a Tyranny , it is evident in despite of heresy , it is one in the midst of schisme , it is determined amongst infinite disputes , being like a rock in the sea which is beaten with the tide and washed with retiring waters , and encompassed with mists , and appears in several figures , but it alwayes dips its foot in the same bottom and remaines the same in calms and storms , and survives the revolution of ten thousand tides , and there shall dwell till time and tides shall be no more : so is our duty , uniform and constant , open and notorious , variously represented , but in the same manner exacted ; and in the interest of our souls God hath not exposed us to uncertainty or the variety of any thing that can change , and it is by the grace and mercy of God put into the power of every Christian to do that which God through Jesus Christ will accept to salvation ; and neither men nor Devils shall hinder it unlesse we list our selves . 3. After all this we may sit down and reckon by great sums and conjugations of his gracious gifts , and tell the minuts of eternity by the number of the Divine mercies : God hath given his laws to rule us , his word to instruct us , his spirit to guide us , his Angels to protect us , his ministers to exhort us ; he revealed all our duty and he hath concealed whatsoever can hinder us , he hath affrighted our follies with feare of death and engaged our watchfulnesse by its secret coming ; he hath exercised our faith by keeping private the state of souls departed , and yet hath confirmed our faith by a promise of a resurrection and entertained our hope by some general significations of the state of interval : His mercies make contemptible means instrumental to great purposes , and a small herb the remedy of the greatest diseases ; he impedes the Devils rage and infatuates , his counsels , he diverts his malice , and defeats his purposes , he bindes him in the chaine of darknesse and gives him no power over the children of light ; he suffers him to walk in solitary places and yet fetters him that he cannot disturb the sleep of a childe ; he hath given him mighty power & yet a young maiden that resists him shall make him flee away ; he hath given him a vast knowledge and yet an ignorant man can confute him with the twelve articles of his creed , he gave him power over the winds and made him Prince of the air and yet the breath of a holy prayer can drive him as far as the utmost sea ; and he hath so restrained him , that ( except it be by faith ) we know not whether there be any Devils yea , or no : for we never heard his noises , nor have seen his affrighting shapes . ] This is that great Principle of all the felicity we hope for , and of all the means thither , and of all the skill and all the strengths we haue to use those means he hath made great variety of conditions and yet hath made all necessary , and all mutual helpers , and by some instruments and in some respects they are all equal in order to felicity , to content and final and intermedial satisfactions : He gave us part of our reward in hand that he might enable us to work for more ; he taught the world arts for use , arts for entertainment of all our faculties , and all our dispositions ; he gives eternal gifts for temporal services and gives us whatsoever we want , for asking , and commands us to ask , and theatens us if we will not ask , and punishes us for refusing to be happy . This is that glorious attribute that hath made order , and health , and harmony and hope , restitutions and variety , the joyes of direct possession , and the joyes , the artificial joyes of contrariety and comparison ; he comforts the poor , and he brings down the rich , that they may be safe in their humility and sorrow , from the transportations of an unhappy and uninstructed prosperity ; he gives necessaries to all , and scatters the extraordinary provisions so , that every nation may traffick in charity , and commute for pleasures ; He was the Lord of hosts , and he is stil what he was , but he loves to be called the God of peace , because he was terrible in that , but he is delighted in this . His mercy is his glory , and his glory is the light of heaven ; his mercy is the life of the creation , and it fills all the earth , and his mercy is a sea too ; and it fills all the abysses of the deep ; it hath given us promises for supply of whatsoever we need and relieves us in all our fears , and in all the evils that we suffer ; his mercies are more then we can tell , and they are more then we can feel ; for all the world in the abysse of the Divine mercies is like a man diving into the bottom of the sea , over whose head the waters run insensibly , and unperceived , and yet the weight is vast and the sum of them is unmeasurable , and the man is not pressed with the burden , nor confounded with numbers ; and no observation is able to recount , no sense sufficient to perceive , no memory large enough to retain , no understanding great enough to apprehend this infinity , but we must admire and love and worship , and magnify this mercy for ever and ever ; that we we may dwell in what we feel , and be comprehended by that which is equal to God , and the parent of all felicity . And yet this is but the one half . The mercies of giving I have now told of , but those of forgiving are greater , though not more . [ He is ready to forgive ] and upon this stock thrives the interest of our great hope , the hopes of a blessed immortality ; for if the mercies of giving have not made our expectations big enough to entertain the confidences of heaven ; yet when we think of the graciousnesse and readinesse of forgiving , we may with more readinesse hope to escape hell , and then we cannot but be blessed by an eternal consequence : we have but small opinion of the Divine mercy , if we dare not believe concerning it , that it is desirous and able and watchful and passionate to keep us or rescue us respectively from such a condemnation the pain of which is insupportable , and the duration is eternal , and the extension is misery upon all our faculties , and the intension is great beyond patience or natural or supernatural abilities , and the state is a state of darknesse , and despair , of confusion and amazement , of cursing and roaring , anguish of spirit , and gnashing of teeth , misery universal , perfect and irremediable . From this it is which Gods mercies would so fain preserve us : This is a state that God provides for his enemies , not for them that love him , that endeavour to obey though they do it but in weaknesse , that weep truely for their sins though but with a shower no bigger then the drops of pitty , that wait for his coming with a holy and pure flame , though their lamps are no brighter then a poor mans candle , though their strengths are no greater then a contrite reed or a strained arme , and their fires have no more warmth then the smok of kindling flax ; if our faith be pure and our love unfained , if the degree of it be great God will accept it into glory : if it be little he will accept it into grace , and make it bigger . For that is the first instance of Gods readinesse to forgive : he will upon any termes , that are not unreasonable and that do not suppose a remanent affection to sin keep us from the intolerable paines of hell . And indeed if we consider the constitution of the conditions which God requires , we shall soon perceive God intends heaven to us as a meer gift , and that the duties on our part are but little entertainments and exercises of our affections and our love that the Devil might not seize upon that portion which to eternal ages shall be the instrument of our happinesse . For in all the parts of our duty it may be there is but one instance in which we are to do violence to our natural and first desires . For those men have very ill natures to whom vertue is so contrary that they are inclined naturally to lust , to drunkennesse and anger , and pride and covetousnesse , and unthankefulnesse and disobedience : Most men that are tempted with lust , could easily enough entertain the sobrieties of other counsels , as of temperance , and justice , or religion , if it would indulge to them but that one passion of lust , & persons that are greedy of mony are not fond of amorous vanities nor care they to sit long at the wine and one vice destroyes another , and when one vice is consequent to another , it is by way of punishment and dereliction of the man , unlesse where vices have cognation , and seem but like several degrees of one another ; and it is evil custome and superinduced habits that make artificiall appetites in most men to most sins ; But many times their naturall temper vexes them into uneasie dispositions and aptnesses onely to some one unhandsome sort of action ; that one thing therefore is it in which God demands of thee mortification and self deniall . Certain it is ; There are very many men in the world that would fain commute their severity in al other instances for a licence in their one appetite ; they would not refuse long prayers after a drunken meeting , or great almes to gether with one great lust ; but then consider how easie it is for them to go to heaven ; God demands of them for his sake & their own to crucifie but one natural lust , or one evil habit , ( for all the rest they are easie enough to do themselves ) & God will give them heaven , where the joy is more then one , and I said it is but one mortification God requires of most men ; for if those persons would extirp but that one thing in which they are principally tempted it is not easily imaginable that any lesse evill to which the temptation is trifling should interpose between them and their great interest . If Saul had not spared Agag , the people could not have expected mercy ; and our little and inferiour appetites that rather come to us by intimation and consequent adherences , then by direct violence , must not dwell with him who hath crossed the violence of his distempered nature in a beloved instance ; since therefore this is the state of most men and God in effect demands of them but one thing , and in exchange for that will give them all good things , it gives demonstration of his huge easinesse to redeem us from that intolerable evil that is equally consequent to the indulging to one or to twenty sinful habits . 2. Gods readinesse to pardon appears in this , that he pardons before we ask , for he that bids us alk for pardon hath in designe and purpose done the thing already : for what is wanting on his part in whose onely power it is to give pardon , and in whose desire it is that we should be pardoned , and who commands us to lay hold upon the offer ; he hath done all that belongs to God ; that is all that concerns the pardon : there it lies ready , it is recorded in the book of life , it wants nothing , but being exemplified and taken forth , and the Holy spirit stands ready to consigne and passe the privy signet , that we may exhibit it to devils and evil men when they tempt us to despair or sin . 3. Nay God is so ready in his mercy that he did pardon us even before he redeemed us : for what is the secret of the mysterie , that the eternal Son of God should take upon him our nature , and die our death and suffer for our sins and do our work , and enable us to do our own ? he that did this is God : he who thought it no robbery to be equal with God : he came to satisfie himself , to pay to himself the price for his own creature : and when he did this for us that he might pardon us , was he at that instant angry with us ? was this an effect of his anger or of his love that God sent his Son to work our pardon and salvation ? Indeed we were angry with God , at enmity with the the Prince of life : but he was reconciled to us so far , as that he then did the greatest thing in the world for us : for nothing could be greater then that God , the Son of God , should die for us : here was reconciliation before pardon : and God that came to die for us did love us first before he came this was hasty love . But it went further yet . 4. God pardoned us before we sinned ; and when he foresaw our sin , even mine and yours , he sent his son to die for us ; ou● pardon was wrought and effected by Christs death above 1600 years ago ; and for the sins of to morrow , and the infirmities of the next day Christ is already dead , already risen from the dead , and does now make intercession and atonement . And this is not onely a favour to us who were born in the due time of the Gospel , but to all mankinde since Adam ; For God who is infinitely patient in his justice , was not at all patient in his mercy ; he forbears to strike and punish us , but he would not forbear to provide cure for us and remedy ; for as if God could not stay from redeeming us , he ●romised the Redeemer to Adam , in the beginning of the worlds sin ; & Christ was the lamb slain from the begining of the world ; and the covenant of the Gospel though it was not made with man yet it was from the beginning performed by God as to his part , as to the ministration of pardon ; The seed of the woman was set up against the dragon as soon as ever the Tempter had won his first battle ; and though God laid his hand , and drew a vail of types and secresy before the manifestation of his mercies , yet he did the work of redemption , and saved us by the covenant of faith , and the righteousnesse of believing , and the mercies of repentance , the graces of pardon , and the blood of the slain lamb , even from the fall of Adam to this very day , and will do , till Christs second coming . Adam fell by his folly and did not perform the covenant of one little work , a work of a single abstinence ; but he was restored by faith in the seed of the woman ; and of this righteousnesse Noah was a preacher ; and by faith Enoch was traslated , and by faith a remnant was saved at the flood : and to Abraham this was imputed for righteousnesse and to all the Patriarks , and to all the righteous judges , and holy Prophets , and Saints of the old Testament , even while they were obliged ( so far as the words of their covenant were expressed ) to the law of works , their pardon was sealed & kept with in the vail within the curtains of the sanctuary , and they saw it not then , but they feel it ever since ; and this was a great excellency of the Divine mercy unto them : God had mercy on all mankinde before Christs manifestation , even beyond the mercies of their covenant : & they were saved as we are , by the seed of the woman by God incarnate by the lamb slain from the beginning of the world ; not by works , for we all failed of them ; that is , not by an exact obedience , but by faith working by love , by sincere , hearty endeavours & believing God and relying upon his infinite mercy , revealed in part , and now fully manifest by the great instrument and means of that mercy Jesus Christ. So that here is pardon before we asked it ; pardon before Christs coming , pardon before redemption , and pardon before we sinned : what greater readinesse to forgive us can be imagined ? yes : there is one degree more yet ; and that will prevent a mistake in this . 5. For God so pardoned us once , that we should need no more pardon ; he pardons us by turning every one of us away from our iniquities ; that 's the purpose of Christ , that he might safely pardon us before we sinned ; and we might not sin upon the confidence of pardon , he pardoned us not onely upon condition we would sin no more , but he took away our sin , cured our cursed inclinations , instructed our understanding , rectified our will , fortified us against temptations , and now every man whom he pardons he also sanctifies , and he is born of God , and he must not , will not , cannot sin , so long as the seed of God remains within him , so long as his pardon continues . This is the consummation of pardon . For if God had so pardoned us , as onely to take away our evils which are past , we should have needed a second Saviour , and a redeemer for every month , and new pardons perpetually . But our blessed Redeemer hath taken away our sin not onely the guilt of our old , but our inclinations to new sins : he makes us like himself and commands us to live so , that we shall not need a second pardon , that is , a second state of pardon : for we are but once baptized into Christs death , and that death was one , and our redemption but one , and our covenant the same , and as long as we continue within the covenant , we are still within the power and comprehensions of the first pardon . 6. And yet there is a necessity of having one degree of pardon more beyond all this . For although we do not abjure our covenant and renounce Christ and extinguish the spirit , yet we resist him , and we grieve him : and we go off from the holinesse of the covenant , and return again , and very often step aside , and need this great pardon to be perpetually applyed and renewed : and to this purpose : that we may not have a possible need without a certain remedy , the Holy Jesus , the Author , and finisher of our faith and pardon , sits in heaven in a perpetual advocation for us , that this pardon once wrought may be for ever applyed to every emergent need , and every tumor of pride , and every broken heart , and every disturbed conscience , and upon every true and sincere return of a hearty repentance : And now upon this title no more degrees can be added : it is already greater , and was before all our needs , and was greater then the old covenaut , and beyond the revelations , and did in Adams youth antidate the Gospel , turning the publike miseries by secret grace , into eternall glories . But now upon other circumstances it is remarkable and excellent , and swels like an hydropick cloud when it is fed with the breath of the morning tide , till it fills the bosome of heaven , and descends in dews and gentle showers , to water and refresh the earth . 7. God is so ready to forgive that himself works our dispositions towards it , and either must in some degree pardon us before we are capable of pardon , by his grace making way for his mercy , or else we can never hope for pardon . For unlesse God by his preventing grace should first work the first part of our pardon , even without any dispositions of our own to receive it , we could not desire a pardon , nor hope for it , nor work towards it , nor ask it , nor receive it ; This giving of preventing grace , is a mercy of forgivenesse contrary to that severity by which some desperate persons are given over to a reprobate sense ; that is , a leaving of men to themselves , so that they cannot pray effectually , nor desire holily , nor repent truly , nor receive any of those mercies which God designed so plenteously , and the Son of God purchased so dearly for us . When God sends a plague of warre upon a land , in all the accounts of religion , and expectations of reason , the way to obtain our peace is to leave our sins , for which the warre was sent upon us , as the messenger of wrath : and without this , we are like to perish in the judgement . But then consider what a sad condition we are in , warre mends but few , but spoils multitudes ; it legitimates rapine , and authorizes murder , and these crimes must be ministred to by their lesser relatives , by covetousnesse , and anger , and pride , and revenge , and heats of blood , and wilder liberty , and all the evil that can be supposed to come from , or run to , such cursed causes of mischief . But then if the punishment increases the sin , by what instrument can the punishment be removed ? How shall we be pardoned and eased , when our remedies are converted into causes of the sicknesse , and our antidotes are poison ? Here there is a plain necessity of Gods preventing grace ; and if there be but a necessity of it , that is enough to ascertain us we shall have it : But unlesse God should begin to pardon us first , for nothing , and against our own dispositions , we see there is no help in us , nor for us . If we be not smitten we are undone , if we are smitten we perish : and as young Damarchus said of his Love , when he was made master of his wish ; Salvus sum quia pereo , si non peream plane inteream , we may say of some of Gods judgements : We perish when we are safe , because our sins are not smitten , and if they be , then we are worse undone ; because we grow worse for being miserable ; but we can be relieved onely by a free mercy ; for pardon is the way to pardon : and when God gives us our peny , then we can work for another , and a gift is the way to a grace , and all that we can do towards it , is but to take it in Gods method ; and this must needs be a great forwardnesse of forgivenesse , when Gods mercy gives the pardon , and the way to finde it , and the hand to receive it , and the eye to search it , and the heart to desire it ; being busie and effective as Elijah's fire , which intending to convert the sacrifice into its own more spirituall nature of flames and purified substances ; stood in the neighbourhood of the fuell , and called forth all its enemies , and licked up the hindering moisture , and the water of the trenches , and made the Altar send forth a phantastick smoke before the sacrifice was enkindled : So is the preventing grace of God , it does all the work of our souls , and makes its own way , and invites it self , and prepares its own lodging , and makes its own entertainment , it gives us precepts and makes us able to keep them ; it enables our faculties and excites our desires , it provokes us to pray , and sanctifies our heart in prayer , and makes our prayer go forth to act , and the act does make the desire valid , and the desire does make the act certain , and persevering ; and both of them are the works of God : for more is received into the soul from without the soul , then does proceed from within the soul : It is more for the soul to be moved and disposed , then to work when that is done : as the passage from death to life is greater then from life to action , especially since the action is owing to that cause that put in the first principle of life . These are the great degrees of Gods forwardnesse and readinesse to forgive , for the expression of which no language is sufficient but Gods own words describing mercy in all those dimensions which can signifie to us its greatnesse and infinity . His mercy is great , his mercies are many , his mercy reacheth unto the heavens , it fils heaven and earth , it is above all his works , it endureth for ever , God pitieth as a Father doth his children ; nay he is our Father , and the same also is the Father of mercy , and the God of all comfort : So that mercy and we have the same relation ; and well it may be so , for we live and die together ; for as to man onely , God shews the mercy of forgivenesse , so if God takes away his mercy , man shall be no more , no more capable of felicity , or of any thing that is perfective of his condition , or his person . But as God preserves man by his mercy , so his mercy hath all its operations upon man , and returns to its own centre and incircumscription , and infinity , unlesse it issues forth upon us . And therefore besides the former great lines of the mercy of forgivenesse , there is another chain , which but to produce and tell its links , is to open a cabinet of Jewels , where every stone is as bright as a star , and every star is great as the Sun , and shines for ever , unlesse we shut our eyes , or draw the vail of obstinate and finall sins . 1. God is long-suffering , that is , long before he be angry , and yet God is provoked every day , by the obstinacy of the Jews , and the folly of the Heathens , and the rudenesse and infidelity of the Mahumetans , and the negligence and vices of Christians ; and he that can behold no impurity is received in all places with perfumes of mushromes , and garments spotted with the flesh , and stained souls , and the actions and issues of misbelief , and an evil conscience , and with accursed sins that he hates , upon pretence of religion which he loves ; and he is made a party against himself by our voluntary mistakes , and men continue ten yeers , and 20. and 30. and 50. in a course of sinning , and they grow old with the vices of their youth ; and yet God forbears to kill them , and to consigne them over to an eternity of horrid pains , still expecting that they should repent and be saved . 2. Besides this long-sufferance and for-bearing with an unwearied patience , God also excuses a sinner oftentimes and takes a little thing for an excuse , so far as to move him to intermediall favours first ; and from thence to a finall pardon . He passes by the sins of our youth with a huge easinesse to pardon , if he be intreated and reconciled by the effective repentance of a vigorous manhood ; he takes ignorance for an excuse , and in every degree of its being inevitable , or innocent in its proper cause , it is also inculpable and innocent in its proper effects , though in their own natures criminal . But I found mercy of the Lord because I did it in ignorance , saith S. Paul ; he pities our infirmities and strikes off much of the account upon that stock ; the violence of a temptation and restlesnesse of its motion , the perpetuity of its sollicitation , the wearinesse of a mans spirit , the state of sicknesse , the necessity of secular affairs , the publike customs of a people have all of them a power of pleading and prevailing towards some degrees of pardon and diminution before the throne of God. 3. When God perceives himself forced to strike , yet then he takes off his hand and repents him of the evil ; It is as if it were against him , that any of his creatures should fall under the strokes of an exterminating fury . 4. When he is forced to proceed , he yet makes an end before he hath half done ; and is as glad of a pretence to pardon us , or to strike lesse , as if he himself had the deliverance and not we ▪ When Ahab had but humbled himself at the word of the Lord , God was glad of it and went with the message to the Prophet himself , saying , Seest thou not how Ahab humbles himself ? What was the event of it ? I will not bring the evil in his dayes , but in his sons dayes the evil shall come upon his house . 5 God forgets our sin and puts it out of his remembrance , that is , he makes it as though it had never been ; he makes penitence to be as pure as innocence to all the effects of pardon and glory : the memory of the sins shall not be upon record , to be used to any after act of disadvantage , and never shall return unlesse we force them out of their secret places by ingratitude and a new state of sinning . 6. God sometimes gives pardon beyond all his revelations and declared will , and provides suppletories of repentance , even then when he cuts a man off from the time of repentance , accepting a temporal death instead of an eternal : that although the Divine anger might interrupt the growing of the fruits , yet in some cases , and to some persons , the death and the very cutting off shall go no further , but be instead of explicite and long repentances . Thus it happened to Uzzah , who was smitten for his zeal , and died in severity for prevaricating the letter , by earnestnesse of spirit to serve the whole religion . Thus it was also in the case of the Corinthians that died a temporal death for their undecent circumstances in receiving the holy Sacrament . Saint Paul who used it for an argument to threaten them into reverence , went no further , nor pressed the argument to a sadder issue then to die temporally . But these suppletories are but seldom , and they are also great troubles , and ever without comfort , and dispensed irregularly , and that not in the case of habituall sins that we know of , or very great sins , but in single actions , or instances of a lesse malignity ; and they are not to be relied upon , because there is no rule concerning them ; but when they do happen they magnifie the infinitenesse of Gods mercy which is commensurate to all our needs , and is not to be circumscribed by the limits of his own revelations . 7. God pardons the greatest sinners , and hath left them upon record : and there is no instance in Scripture of the Divine forgivenesse , but in such instances , the misery of which was a fit instrument to speak aloud the glories of Gods mercies , and gentlenesse , and readinesse to forgive : Such were S. Paul a persecutor , and S. Peter that forswore his Master , Mary Magdalene , with seven Devils , the thief upon the crosse , Manasses an Idolater , David a murderer and adulterer , the Corinthian for incest , the children of Israel for ten times rebelling against the Lord in the wildernesse , with murmuring , and infidelity , and rebellion , and schisme , and a golden calf , and open disobedience ; and above all , I shall instance in the Pharisees among the Jews , who had sinned against the Holy Ghost , as our Blessed Saviour intimates , and tels the particular , viz ▪ in saying that the Spirit of God by which Christ did work was an evil spirit ; and afterward they crucified Christ , so that two of the Persons of the most Holy Trinity were openly and solemnly defied , and God had sent out a decree that they should be cut off ; yet 40. yeers time ( after all this ) was left for their repentance , and they were called upon by arguments more perswasive and more excel lent in that 40. yeers , then all the Nation had heard from their Prophets , even from Samuel to Zecharias : And Jonas thought he had reason on his side , to refuse to go to threaten Nineveh ; he knew Gods tendernesse in destroying his creatures , and he should be thought to be but a false Prophet ; and so it came to passe according to his belief . Jonah prayed unto the Lord and said , I pra● thee Lord was not this my saying when I was yet in my countrey ; therefore I fled for I knew thou wert a gracious God and mercifull , s●ew to anger , and of great kindnesse and repentest thee of the evil : He told before hand what the event would be ; and he had reason to know it ; God proclaimed it in a cloud before the face of all Israel , and made it to be his Name , Miscrator & misericors Deus . The Lord , the Lord God , mercifull and gracious , &c. You see the largenesse of this treasure ; but we can see no end , for we have not yet looked upon the rare arts of conversion● nor that God leaves the naturall habit of vertues , even after the acceptation is interrupted ; nor his working extraregular miracles besides the sufficiencie of Moses and the Prophets , and the New Testament , and thousands more which we cannot consider now . But this we can , when God sent an Angel to pour plagues upon the earth , there were in their hands Phialae aureae , golden phials : for the death of men is precious and costly , and it is an expence that God delights not in ; but they were Phials , that is , such vessels as out of them no great evil could come at once ; but it comes out with difficulty , sobbing and troubled as it passes forth ; it comes thorow a narrow neck , and the parts of it croud at the port to get forth , and are stifled by each others neighbourhood ; and all strive to get out , but few can passe , as if God did nothing but threaten , and draw his judgements to the mouth of the Phial with a full body , and there made it stop it self . The result of this consideration is , that as we fear the Divine judgements , so that we adore and love his goodnesse , and let the golden chains of the Divine mercy tie us to a noble prosecution of our duty and the interests of religion ; For he is the worst of men whom Kindnesse cannot soften , nor endearments oblige , whom gratitude cannot tie faster then the bands of life and death : He is an ill natur'd sinner if he will not comply with the sweetnesses of heaven , and be civill to his Angel guardian , or observant of his Patron God , who made him , and feeds him , and keeps all his faculties , and takes care of him , and endures his follies , and waits on him more tenderly then a Nurse , more diligently then a Client , who hath greater care of him then his father , and whose bowels yern over him with more compassion then a mother ; who is bountifull beyond our needs , and mercifull beyond our hopes , and makes capacities in us to receive more . Fear is stronger then death , and Love is more prevalent then Fear , and kindnesse is the greatest endearment of Love ; and yet to an ingenuous person gratitude is greater then all these , and obliges to a solemn duty when love fails , and fear is dull and unactive , and death it self is despised : but the man who is hardened against kindnesse , and whose duty is not made alive with gratitude , must be used like a slave , and driven like an ox , and inticed with goads and whips , but must never enter into the inheritance of sons : Let us take heed : for Mercy is like a rainbowe , which God set in the clouds to remember mankinde ; it shines here as long as it is not hindered ; but we must never look for it after it is night , and it shines not in the other world ; if we refuse mercy here , we shall have justice to eternity . Sermon . XXVIII . A FVNERAL SERMON , Preached at the Obsequies of the Right Honorable and most vertuous Lady , The Lady FRANCES Countesse of CARBERY Who deceased October the 9 th . 1650. at her House Golden-Grove in CARMARTHEN-SHIRE . To the right Honorable , and truly Noble , RICHARD Lord VAVGHAN , Earl of Carbery , Baron of Emlim and Molinger , Knight of the Honorable Order of the Bath . My Lord , I Am not ashamed to professe that I pay this part of service to your Lordship most unwillingly : for it is a sad office to be the chief Minister in the house of mourning , and to present an interested person with a branch of Cypresse and a bottle of tears . And indeed , my Lord , it were more proportionable to your needs to bring something that might alleviate your sorrow , th●● to dresse the hearse of your Dear Lady , and to furnish it with such circumstances , that it may dwell with you , and lie in your closet , and make your prayers and your retirements more sad and full of weepings . But because the Divine providence hath taken from you a person so excellent , a woman fit to converse with Angels , and Apostles , with Saints and Martyrs , give me leave to present you with her picture ; drawn in little and in water-colours , sullied indeed with tears and the abrupt accents of a real and consonant sorrow ; but drawn with a faithful hand , and taken from the life : and indeed it were too great a losse , to be deprived of her example and of her rule , of the original and the copy too . The age is very evil and deserved her not ; but because it is so evil , it hath the more need to have such lives preserved in memory to instruct our piety , or upbraid our wickednesse . For now that God hath cut this tree of Paradise down from its seat of earth , yet so the dead trunk may support a part of the declining Temple , or at least serve to kindle the fire on the altar . My Lord , I pray God this heap of sorrow may swell your piety till it breaks into the greatest joyes of God and of religion : and remember , when you pay a tear upon the grave , or to the memory of your Lady ( that dear and most excellent soul ) that you pay two more : one of repentance for those things that may have caused this breach ; and another of joy for the mercies of God to your Dear departed Saint , that he hath taken her into a place where she can weep no more . My Lord , I think I shall , so long as I live , that is so long as I am Your Lordships most humble Servant TAYLOR . 2 Samuel 14. 14. For we must needs die , and are as water spilt on the ground which cannot be gathered up again : neither doth God respect any person : yet doth he devise means that his banished be not expelled from him . WHen our blessed Saviour and his Disciples viewed the Temple , some one amongst them cryed out , Magister aspice , quales lapides ! Master behold what fair , what great stones are here ! Christ made no other reply but foretold their dissolution and a world of sadnesse and sorrow which should bury that whole Nation when the teeming cloud of Gods displeasure should produce a storm which was the daughter of the biggest anger , and the mother of the greatest calamitie which ever crushed any of the sons of Adam [ the time shall come , that there shall not be left one stone upon another . ] The whole Temple and the Religion , the ceremonies ordained by God , and the Nation beloved by God and the fabrick erected for the service of God , shall run to their own period and lie down in their several graves . Whatsoever had a beginning can also have am ending , and it shall die , unlesse it be daily watered with the pu●●s flowing from the fountain of life and refreshed with the dew of Heaven and the wells of God. And therefore God had provided a tree in Paradise to have supported Adam in his artificial immortality : Immortality was not in his nature , but in the hands , and arts , in the favour and superadditions of God. Man was alwaies the same mixture of heat and cold , of drynesse and moisture ; ever the same weak thing , apt to feel rebellion in the humors , and to suffer the evils of a civil war in his body natural : and therefore health and life was to descend upon him from Heaven , and he was to su●k life from a tree on earth ; himself being but ingraffed into a tree of life , and ad●pted into the condition of an immortal nature : But he that in the best of his dayes was but a Cien of this tree of life , by his sin was cut off from thence quickly , and planted upon thorns , and his portion was for ever after among the flowers , which to day spring and look like health and beauty , and in the evening , they are sick , and at night are dead , and the oven is their grave . And as before , even from our first spring from the dust of the earth , we might have died if we had not been preserved by the continual flux of a rare providence : so now that we are reduced to the laws of our own nature , we must needs die . It is natural , and therefore necessary ; It is become a punishment to us , and therefore it is unavoidable , and God hath bound the evill upon us by bands of naturall and inseparable propriety , and by a supervening unalterable decree of Heaven : and we are fallen from our privilege , and are returned to the condition , of beast , and buildings , and common things : And we see Temples defiled unto the ground , and they die by Sacrilege : and great Empires die by their own plenty and ease , full humors , and factious Subjects : and huge buildings fall by their own weight , and the violence of many winters eating and consuming the cement which is the marrow of their bones : and Princes die like the meanest of their Servants : and every thing findes a grave and a tomb ; and the very tomb it self dies by the bignesse of its pompousnesse and luxury . — Phario nutantia pondera saxo Quae cineri vanus dat ruitura labor , and becomes as friable and uncombined dust as the ashes of the Sinner or the Saint that lay under it , and is now forgotten in his bed of darknesse : And to this Catalogue of mortality Man is inrolled with a [ Statutum est ] It is appointed for all men once to die , and after death comes judgement ; and if a man can be stronger then nature , or can wrestle with a degree of Heaven , or can escape from a Divine punishment by his own arts , so that neither the power nor the providence of God , nor the laws of nature , nor the bands of eternal predestination can hold him , then he may live beyond the fate and period of flesh , and last longer then a flower : But if all these can hold us and tie us to conditions , then we must lay our heads down upon a turfe and entertain creeping things in the cells and little chambers of our eyes , and dwell with worms till time and death shall be no more . We must needs die ] That 's our sentence . But that 's not all . We are as water spilt on the ground , which cannot be gathered up again ] Stay. 1. We are as water , weak and of no consistence , alwaies descending , abiding in no certain place , unlesse where we are detained with violence : and every little breath of winde makes us rough and tempestuous , and troubles our faces : every trifling accident discomposes us ; and as the face of the waters wafting in a storm so wrinkles it self that it makes upon its fore-head furrows deep and hollow like a grave : so do our great and little cares and trifles , first make the wrinkles of old age , and then they dig a grave for us : And there is in nature nothing so contemptible , but it may meet with us in such circumstances , that it may be too hard for us in our weaknesses : and the sting of a Bee is a weapon sharp enough to pierce the finger of a childe , or the lip of a man : and those creatures which nature hath left without weapons , yet they are armed sufficiently to vex those parts of men which are left defenselesse and obnoxious to a sun beam , to the roughnesse of a sower grape , to the unevennesse of a gravel-stone , to the dust of a wheel , or the unwholesome breath of a star looking awry upon a sinner . 2. But besides the weaknesses and natural decayings of our bodies , if chances and contingencies be innumerable , then no man can reckon our dangers , and the praeternatural causes of our deaths . So that he is a vain person whose hopes of life are too confidently increased by reason of his health : and he is too unreasonably timorous , who thinks his hopes at an end when he dwels in sickness . For men die without rule ; and with , and without occasions ; and no man suspecting or foreseeing any of deaths addresses , and no man in his whole condition is weaker then another . A man in a long Consumption is fallen under one of the solemnities and preparations to death : but at the same instant the most healthful person is as neer death , upon a more fatal , and a more sudden , but a lesse discerned cause . There are but few persons upon whose foreheads every man can read the sentence of death written in the lines of a lingring sicknesse , but they ( sometimes ) hear the passing bell ring for stronger men , even long before their own knell calls at the house of their mother to open her womb and make a bed for them . No man is surer of to morrow then the weakest of his brethren : and when Lepidus and Ausidius stumbled at the threshold of the Senate and fell down and died , the blow came from heaven in a cloud but it struck more suddenly then upon the poor slave that made sport upon the Theatre with a praemeditated and foredescribed death : Quod quisque vitet , nunquam homini satis cautum est in horas . There are sicknesses that walk in darknesse , and there are exterminating Angels that fly wrapt up in the curtains of immateriality and an uncommunicating nature ; whom we cannot see , but we feel their force and sink under their sword , and from heaven the vail descends that wraps our heads in the fatal sentence . There is no age of man but it hath proper to it self some posterns and outlets for death , besides those infinite and open ports out of which myriads of men and women every day passe into the dark and the land of forgetfulnesse . Infancie hath life but in effigie , or like a spark dwelling in a pile of wood : the candle is so newly lighted , that every little shaking of the taper , and every ruder breath of air , puts it out , and it dies . Childhood is so tender , and yet so unwary ; so soft to all the impressions of chance , and yet so forward to run into them , that God knew there could be no security without the care and vigilance of an Angel-keeper : and the eyes of Parents and the arms of Nurses , the provisions of art , and all the effects of Humane love and Providence are not sufficient to keep one childe from horrid mischiefs , from strange and early calamities and deaths , unlesse a messenger be sent from heaven to stand sentinel , and watch the very playings and the sleepings , the eatings and the drinkings of the children ; and it is a long time before nature makes them capable of help : for there are many deaths , and very many diseases to which poor babes are exposed ; but they have but very few capacities of physick ; to shew , that infancy is as liable to death as old age , and equally exposed to danger , and equally uncapable of a remedy : with this onely difference , that old age hath diseases incurable by nature , and the diseases of child-hood are incurable by art ; and both the states are the next heirs of death . 3. But all the middle way the case is altered . Nature is strong , and art is apt to give ease and remedy : but still , there is no security ; and there , the case is not altered . 1 For there are so many diseases in men that are not understood . 2 So many new ones every year . 3 The old ones are so changed in circumstance , and intermingled with so many collateral complications . 4 The Symptoms are oftentimes so alike . 5 Sometimes so hidden and fallacious . 6 Somtimes none at all ( as in the most sudden and the most dangerous imposthumations . ) 7 And then , the diseases in the inward parts of the body , are oftentimes such , to which no application can be made . 8 They are so far off , that the effects of all medicines can no otherwise come to them , then the effect and juices of all meats , that is , not till after two or three alterations , and decoctions , which change the very species of the medicament . 9 And after all this , very many principles in the art of Physick are so uncertain , that after they have been believed seven or eight ages , and that upon them much of the practise hath been established ; they come to be considered by a witty man , and others established in their stead ; by which , men must practise , and by which three or four generations of men more ( as happens ) must live or die . 10. And all this while the men are sick , and they take things that certainly make them sicker for the present , and very uncertainly restore health for the future : that it may appear of what a large extent is humane calamity ; when Gods providence hath not onely made it weak and miserable upon the certain stock of a various nature , and upon the accidents of an infinite contingency ; but even from the remedies which are appointed , our dangers and our troubles are certainly increased : so that we may well be likened to water ; our nature is no stronger , our aboad no more certain ; If the sluces be opened , it falls away and runneth apace ; if its current be stopped , it swells and grows troublesome , and spils over with a greater diffusion ; If it be made to stand still it putrefies : and all this we do . For , 4. In all the processe of our health we are running to our grave : we open our own sluces by vitiousnesse , and unworthy actions ; we pour in drink , and let out life ; we increase diseases and know not how to bear them ; we strangle our selves with our own intemperance ; we suffer the feavers and the inflammations of lust , and we quench our souls with drunkennesse ; we bury our understandings in loads of meat and surfets : and then we lie down upon our beds and roar with pain and disquietnesse of our souls : Nay , we kill one anothers souls and bodies with violence and folly , with the effects of pride and uncharitablenesse ; we live and die like fools , and bring a new mortality upon our selves ; wars and vexatious cares , and private duels , and publike disorders , and every thing that is unreasonable , and every thing that is violent : so that now we may adde this fourth gate to the grave : Besides Nature and Chance , and the mistakes of art , men die with their own sins , and then enter into the grave in haste and passion , and pull the heavy stone of the monument upon their own heads . And thus we make our selves like water spilt on the ground : we throw away our lives as if they were unprofitable , ( and indeed most men make them so ) we let our years slip through our fingers like water ; and nothing is to be seen , but like a showr of tears upon a spot of ground ; there is a grave digged , and a solemn mourning , and a great talk in the neighbourhood , and when the dayes are finished , they shall be , and they shall be remembred no more : And that 's like water too , when it is spilt , it cannot be gathered up again . There is no redemption from the grave . — inter se mortales mutua vivunt Et quasi cursores vitäi lampada tradunt . Men live in their course and by turns : their light burns a while , and then it burns blew and faint , and men go to converse with Spirits , and then they reach the taper to another ; and as the hours of yesterday can never return again , so neither can the man whose hours they were , and who lived them over once , he shall never come to live them again , and live them better . When Lazarus , and the widows son of Naim , and Tabitha , and the Saints that appeared in Jerusalem at the resurrection of our blessed Lord , arose ; they came into this world , some as strangers onely to make a visit , and all of them to manifest a glory : but none came upon the stock of a new life , or entred upon the stage as at first , or to perform the course of a new nature : and therefore it is observable that we never read of any wicked person that was raised from the dead : Dives would fain have returned to his brothers house ; but neither he , nor any from him could be sent : but all the rest in the New Testament ( one onely excepted ) were expressed to have been holy persons , or else by their age were declared innocent . Lazarus was beloved of Christ : those souls that appeared at the resurrection were the souls of Saints : Tabitha raised by Saint Peter was a charitable and a holy Christian : and the maiden of twelve years old , raised by our blessed Saviour , had not entred into the regions of choice and sinfulnesse : and the onely exception of the widows son , is indeed none at all ; for in it the Scripture is wholly silent ; and therefore it is very probable that the same processe was used , God in all other instances having chosen to exemplifie his miracles of nature to purposes of the Spirit , and in spirituall capacities . So that although the Lord of nature did break the bands of nature in some instances , to manifest his glory to succeeding , great and never failing purposes ; yet ( besides that this shall be no more ) it was also instanced in such persons who were holy and innocent , and within the verge and comprehensions of the eternall mercy . We never read that a wicked person felt such a miracle , or was raised from the grave to try the second time for a Crown ; but where he fell there he lay down dead , and saw the light no more . This consideration I intend to you as a severe Monitor , and an advice of carefulnesse , that you order your affairs so that you may be partakers of the first resurrection , that is , from sin to grace , from the death of vitious habits , to the vigour , life and efficacy of an habituall righteousnesse : For ( as it hapned to those persons in the New Testament now mentioned , to them ( I say ) in the literall sense ) Blessed are they that have part in the first resurrection , upon them the second death shall have no power : meaning that they who by the power of Christ and his holy Spirit were raised to life again , were holy and blessed souls , and such who were written in the book of God ; and that this grace happened to no wicked and vitious person : so it is most true in the spirituall and intended sense : You onely that serve God in a holy life ; you who are not dead in trespasses and sins ; you who serve God with an early diligence and an unwearied industry , and a holy religion , you , and you onely shall come to life eternall , you onely shall be called from death to life ; the rest of mankind shall never live again but passe from death to death ; from one death to another , to a worse ; from the death of the body , to the eternall death of body and soul : and therefore in the Apostles Creed there is no mention made of the resurrection of wicked persons : but of the resurrection of the body to everlasting life . The wicked indeed shall be haled forth from their graves , from their everlasting prisons , where in chains of darknesse they are kept unto the judgement of the great day : But this therefore cannot be called in sensu favoris , a resurrection , but the solennities of the eternall death ; It is nothing but a new capacity of dying again ; such a dying as cannot signifie rest ; but where death means nothing but an intolerable and never ceasing calamity : and therefore these words of my Text are otherwise to be understood of the wicked , otherwise of the godly : The wicked are spilt like water and shall never be gathered up again ; no not in the gatherings of eternity ; They shall be put into vessels of wrath and set upon the flames of hell ; but that is not a gathering , but a scattering from the face and presence of God. But the godly also come under the sense of these words . They descend into their graves , and shall no more be reckoned among the living ; they have no concernment in all that is done under the Sun. Agamemnon hath no more to do with the Turks armies invading and possessing that part of Greece where he reigned , then had the Hippocentaur , who never had a beeing : and Cicero hath no more interest in the present evils of Christendome , then we have to do with his boasted discovery of Catilines conspiracie . What is it to me that Rome was taken by the Gauls ? and what is it now to Camillus if different religions be tolerated amongst us ? These things that now happen concern the living , and they are made the scenes of our duty or danger respectively : and when our wives are dead and sleep in charnel houses , they are not troubled when we laugh loudly at the songs sung at the next marriage feast ; nor do they envy when another snatches away the gleanings of their husbands passion . It is true they envy not , and they lie in a bosome where there can be no murmure , and they that are consigned to Kingdoms , and to the feast of the marriage-supper of the Lamb , the glorious and eternall Bride-groom of holy souls , they cannot think our marriages here , our lighter laughings , and vain rejoycings considerable as to them . And yet there is a relation continued still . Aristotle said , that to affirm the dead take no thought for the good of the living is a disparagement to the laws of that friendship which in their state of separation they cannot be tempted to rescind . And the Church hath taught in generall that they pray for us , they recommend to God the state of all their Relatives , in the union of the intercession that our blessed Lord makes for them and us : and Saint Ambrose gave some things in charge to his dying brother Satyrus , that he should do for him in the other world : he gave it him ( I say ) when he was dying , not when he was dead . And certain it is that though our dead friends affection to us is not to be estimated according to our low conceptions , yet it is not lesse , but much more then ever it was ; it is greater in degree , and of another kind . But then we should do well also to remember , that in this world we are something besides flesh and blood ; that we may not without violent necessities run into new relations , but preserve the affections we bear to our dead when they were alive : We must not so live as if they were perished , but so as pressing forward to the most intimate participation of the communion of Saints . And we also have some wayes to expresse this relation , and to bear a part in this communion , by actions of intercourse with them , and yet proper to our state : such as are strictly performing the will of the dead , providing for , and tenderly and wisely educating their children , paying their debts , imitating their good example , preserving their memories privately , and publikely keeping their memorials , and desiring of God with hearty and constant prayer that God would give them a joyfull resurrection , and a mercifull judgement , ( for so S. Paul prayed in behalf of Onesiphorus ) that God would shew them a mercy in that day , that fearfull , and yet much to be desired day , in which the most righteous person hath need of much mercy and pity , and shall find it . Now these instances of duty shew that the relation remains still ; and though the Relict of a man or woman hath liberty to contract new relations ; yet I do not finde they have liberty to cast off the old ; as if there were no such thing as immortality of souls . Remember that we shall converse together again : let us therefore never do any thing of reference to them which we shall be ashamed of in the day when all secrets shall be discovered , and that we shall meet again in the presence of God : In the mean time , God watcheth concerning all their interest , and he will in his time both discover and recompense . For though , as to us , they are like water spilt yet to God , they are as water fallen into the sea , safe and united in his comprehension , and inclosures . But we are not yet passed the consideration of the sentence : This descending to the grave is the lot of all men . [ neither doth God respect the person of any man ] The rich is not protected for favour , nor the poor for pity , the old man is not reverenced for his age , nor the infant regarded for his tendernesse ; youth and beauty , learning and prudence , wit and strength lie down equally in the dishonours of the grave . All men , and all natures , and all persons resist the addresses and solennities of death , and strive to preserve a miserable and an unpleasant life ; and yet they all sink down and die . For so have I seen the pillars of a building assisted with artificiall props bending under the pressure of a roof , and pertinaciously resisting the infallible and prepared ruine , Donec certa dies omni compage solutâ Ipsum cum rebus subruat auxilium , till the determined day comes , and then the burden sunk upon the pillars , and disordered the aids and auxiliary rafters into a common ruine and a ruder grave : so are the desires and weak arts of man , with little aids and assistances of care and physick we strive to support our decaying bodies , and to put off the evil day ; but quickly that day will come , and then neither Angels nor men can rescue us from our grave ; but the roof sinks down upon the walls , and the walls descend to the foundation ; and the beauty of the face , and the dishonours of the belly , the discerning head and the servile feet , the thinking heart , and the working hand , the eyes and the guts together shall be crush'd into the confusion of a heap , and dwell with creatures of an equivocall production , with worms and serpents , the sons and daughters of our own bones , in a house of durt and darknesse . Let not us think to be excepted or deferred . If beauty , or wit , or youth , or Noblenesse , or wealth , or vertue could have been a defence , and an excuse from the grave , we had not met here to day to mourn upon the hearse of an excellent Lady ; and God onely knows for which of us next the mourners shall go about the streets , or weep in houses . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . We have lived so many years ; and every day and every minute we make an escape from those thousands of dangers and deaths that encompasse us round about : and such escapings we must reckon to be an extraordinary fortune , and therefore that it cannot last long . Vain are the thoughts of Man , who when he is young or healthfull , thinks he hath a long threed of life to run over , and that it is violent and strange for young persons to die ; and naturall and proper onely for the aged . It is as naturall for a man to die by drowning as by a fever : And what greater violence or more unnaturall thing is it , that the horse threw his Rider into the river , then that a drunken meeting cast him into a fever ; and the strengths of youth are as soon broken by the strong sicknesses of youth , and the stronger intemperance , as the weaknesse of old age by a cough , or an asthma , or a continuall rheume : Nay , it is more naturall for young Men and Women to die , then for old ; because that is more naturall which hath more naturall causes ; and that is more naturall which is most common : but to die with age is an extreme rare thing ; and there are more persons carried forth to buriall before the five and thirtieth year of their age , then after it . And therefore let no vain confidence make you hope for long life . If you have lived but little , and are still in youth , remember that now you are in your biggest throng of dangers both of body and soul ; and the proper sins of youth to which they rush infinitely and without consideration , are also the proper and immediate instruments of death . But if you be old you have escaped long and wonderfully , and the time of your escaping is out : you must not for ever think to live upon wonders , or that God will work miracles to satisfie your longing follies , and unreasonable desires of living longer to sin and to the world . Go home and think to die , and what you would choose to be doing when you die , that do daily : for you will all come to that passe , to rejoyce that you did so , or wish that you had : that will be the condition of every one of us ; for God regardeth no mans person . Well! but all this you will think is but a sad story . What ? we must die , and go to darknesse and dishonour ; and we must die quickly , and we must quit all our delights , and all our sins , or do worse , infinitely worse ; and this is the condition of us all from which none can be excepted ; every man shall be spilt and fall into the ground , and be gathered no more . Is there no comfort after all this ? shall we go from hence , and be no more seen , and have no recompense . Miser , ô miser , aiunt , omnia ademit Vna die infausta mihi tot praemia vitae . Shall we exchange our fair dwellings for a coffine , our softer beds for the moistned and weeping turf , and our pretty children for worms , and is there no allay to this huge calamity ? Yes , there is There is a [ yet ] in the Text : [ For all this , yet doth God devise means that his banished be not expelled from him . ] All this sorrow and trouble is but a phantasme , and receives its account and degrees from our present conceptions and the proportion to our relishes and gust . When Pompey saw the Ghost of his first Lady Julia , who vexed his rest and his conscience for superinducing Cornelia upon her bed within the ten moneths of mourning , he presently fancied it , either to be an illusion , or else that death could be no very great evil . Aut nihil est sensus animis in morte relictum , Aut mors ipsa nihil — Either my dead wife knows not of my unhandsome marriage , and forgetfulnesse of her ; or if she does , then the dead live . — longae , canitis si cognita , vitae Mors media est — Death is nothing but the middle point between two lives between this and another : concerning which comfortable mystery the holy Scripture instructs our faith , and entertains our hope in these words . God is still the God of Abraham , Isaak , and Jacob ; for all do live to him : and the souls of Saints are with Christ : I desire to be dissolved ( saith S. Paul ) and to be with Christ , for that is much better : and , Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord ; they rest from their labours , and their works follow them : For we know , that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved , we have a building of God , a house not made with hands , eternall in the heavens : and this state of separation S. Paul calls , a being absent from the body , and being present with the Lord : This is one of Gods means which he hath devised , that although our Dead are like persons banished from this world , yet they are not expelled from God : They are in the hands of Christ ; they are in his presence ; they are , or shall be clothed with a house of Gods making ; they rest from all their labours ; all tears are wiped from their eyes , and all discontents from their spirits ; and in the state of separation before the soul be reinvested with her new house the spirits of al persons are with God , so secured and so blessed , and so sealed up for glory , that this state of interval and imperfection is in respect of its certain event and end , infinitely more desirable then all the riches and all the pleasures , and all the vanities , and all the Kingdoms of this world . I will not venture to determine what are the circumstances of the aboad of Holy Souls in their separate dwellings ; and yet possibly that might be easier then to tell what or how the soul is and works in this world , where it is in the body tanquam in alienâ domo , as in a prison , in fetters and restraints : for here the soul is discomposed and hindered , it is not as it shall be , as it ought to be , as it was intended to be ; it is not permitted to its own freedom , and proper operation ; so that all that we can understand of it here , is that it is so incommodated with a troubled and abated instrument , that the object we are to consider cannot be offered to us in a right line , in just and equal propositions or if it could , yet because we are to understand the soul by the soul , it becomes not onely a troubled and abused object , but a crooked instrument ; and we here can consider it , just as a weak eye can behold a staf●e thrust into the waters of a troubled river ; the very water makes a refraction , and the storm doubles the refraction , and the water of the eye doubles the species , and there is nothing right in the thing , the object is out of its just place , and the medium is troubled , and the organ is impotent : At cum exierit & in liberum coelum quasi in domum suam venerit , when the soul is entred into her own house , into the free regions of the rest and the neighbourhood of heavenly joyes , then its operations are more spiritual , proper , and proportioned to its being ; and though we cannot see at such a distance , yet the objects is more fitted if we had a capable understanding ; it is in it self in a more excellent and free condition . Certain it is , that the body does hinder many actions of the soul : it is an imperfect body , and a diseased brain , or a violent passion that makes fools : no man hath a foolish soul ; and the reasonings of men have infinite difference and degrees by reason of the bodies constitution . Among beasts which have no reason , there is a greater likenesse then between men , who have : & as by faces it is easier to know a man from a man , then a sparrow from a sparrow , or a squirrel from a squirrel : so the difference is very great in our souls ; which difference because it is not originally in the soul ( and indeed cannot be in simple and spiritual substances of the same species or kind ) it must needs drive wholly from the body , from its accidents and circumstances : from whence it follows , that because the body casts fetters and restraints , hindrances and impediments upon the soul , that the soul is much freer in the state of separation ; and if it hath any any act of life , it is much more noble and expedite . That the soul is alive after our death , S. Paul affirms [ Christ died for us , that whether we wake or sleep , we should live together with him . ] Now it were strange that we should be alive , and live with Christ , and yet do no act of life : the body when it is asleep does many : and if the soul does none , the principle is lesse active then the instrument ; but if it does any act at all in separation , it must necessarily be an act or effect of understanding ; there is nothing else it can do . But this it can . For it is but a weak and an unlearned proposition to say , That the Soul can do nothing of it self , nothing without the phantasmes and provisions of the body . For 1. In this life the soul hath one principle clearly separate , abstracted & immaterial , I mean , the Spirit of grace , which is a principle of life and action and in many instances does not all at communicate with matter , as in the infusion , superinduction and the creation of spiritual graces . 2. As nutrition , generation , eating and drinking are actions proper to the body and its state : so , extasies , visions , raptures , intuitive knowledge , and consideration of its self , acts of volition , and reflex acts of understanding are proper to the soul. 3. And therefore it is observable that S. Paul said that he knew not whether his visions and raptures were in or out of the body : for by that we see his judgement of the thing , that one was as likely as the other , neither of them impossible or unreasonable ; and therefore that the soul is as capable of action alone as in conjunction . 4. If in the state of blessednesse there are some actions of the soul which doe not passe through the body , such as contemplation of God , and conversing with spirits , and receiving those influences and rare immissions which coming from the Holy and mysterious Trinity make up the crown of glory ; it follows that the necessity of the bodies ministery is but during the state of this life , and as long as it converses with fire and water , and lives with corn and flesh , and is fed by the satisfaction of material appetits ; which necessity and manner of conversation when it ceases , it can be no longer necessary for the soul to be served by phantasmes and material representations . 5. And therefore when the body shall be re-united , it shall be so ordered that then the body shall confesse it gives not any thing , but receives all its being and operation , its manner and abode from the soul , and that then it comes not to serve a necessity , but to partake a glory . For as the operations of the soul in this life , begin in the body , and by it the object is transmitted to the soul : so then they shall begin in the soul and pass to the body ; and as the operations of the soul by reason of its dependence on the body are animal , natural and material : so in the resurrection , the body shall be spiritual by reason of the preeminence , influence , and prime operation of the soul. Now between these two states , stands the state of separation , in which the operations of the soul are of a middle nature , that is , not so spirituall as in the resurrection , and not so animal and natural as in the state of conjunction . To all which I adde this consideration . That our souls have the same condition that Christs soul had in the state of separation ; because he took on him all our nature , and all our condition ; and it is certain , Christs soul in the three dayes of his separation did exercise acts of life , of joy and triumph , and did not sleep , but visited the souls of the Fathers , trampled upon the pride of Devils , and satisfied those longing souls which were Prisoners of hope ; and from all this we may conclude that the souls of all the servants of Christ are alive , and therfore do the actions of life , and proper to their state ; and therefore it is highly probable that the soul works clearer , and understands brighter , and discourses wiser , and rejoyces louder , and loves noblier , and desires purer , and hopes stronger then it can do here . But if these arguments should fail , yet the felicity of Gods Saints cannot fail . For suppose , the body to be a necessary instrument but out of tune , and discomposed by sin and anger , by accident and chance , by defect and imperfections , yet , that it is better then none at all ; and that if the soul works imperfectly with an imperfect body , that then she works not at all when she hath none ; and suppose also that the soul should be as much without sense or perception in death , as it is in a deep sleep which is the image and shadow of death , yet then God devises other means that his banished be not expelled from him . For , 2. God will restore the soul to the body , and raise the body to such a perfection , that it shall be an Organ fitt to praise him upon ; it shall be made spiritual to minister to the soul , when the soul is turned into a Spirit , then the soul shall be brought forth by Angels from her incomparable and easie bed , from her rest in Christs Holy Bosome , and be made perfect in her being , and in all her operations ; And this shall first appear by that perfection which the soul shall receive as instrumental to the last judgement : for then she shall see clearly all the Records of this world , all the Register of her own memory . For all that we did in this life , is laid up in our memories : and though dust and forgetfulnesse be drawn upon them , yet when God shall lift us from our dust , then shall appear clearly all that we have done , written in the Tables of our conscience , which is the souls memory . We see many times ▪ and in many instances , that a great memory is hindered and put out , and we thirty years after come to think of something that lay so long under a curtain ; we think of it suddenly and without a line of deduction , or proper consequence : And all those famous memories , of Simonides and Theodectes , of Hortensins and Seneca , of Sceptius Metrodorus and Carneades , of Cyneas the Embassadour of Pyrrhus , are onely the Records better kept , and lesse disturbed by accident and desease . For even the memory of Herods son of Athens , of Bathyllus and the dullest person now alive is so great , and by God made so sure a record of all that ever he did , that assoon as ever God shall but tune our instrument , and draw the curtains , and but light up the candle of immortality , there we shal finde it all , there we shall see all , and all the world shall see all ; then we shall be made fit to converse with God after the manner of Spirits , we shall be like to Angels . In the mean time , although upon the perswasion of the former discourse it be highly probable that the souls of Gods servants do live in a state of present blessednesse ; and in the exceeding joyes of a certain expectation of the revelation of the day of the Lord , and the coming of Jesus yet it will concern us onely to secure our state by holy living , and leave the event to God ; that ( as S. Paul said ) whether present or absent , whether sleeping or waking , whether perceiving or perceiving not , we may be accepted of him : that when we are banished this world , and from the light of the sun , we may not be expelled from God , and from the light of his countenance , but that from our beds of sorrows , our souls may passe into the bosome of Christ , and from thence to his right hand in the day of sentence : For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ , & then if we have done wel in the body , we shal never be expelled from the beatifical presence of God , but be domesticks of his family , and heires of his Kingdom , and partakers of his glory . Amen I Have now done with my Text , but yet am to make you another Sermon . I have told you the necessity and the state of death ; it may be too largely for such a sad story ; I shal therefore now with a better compendium teach you how to live by telling you a plain narrative of a life , which if you imitate and write after the copy , it will make , that death shall not be an evil , but a thing to be desired , and to be reckoned amongst the purchases and advantages of your fortune . When Martha and Mary went to weep over the grave of their brother , Christ met them there and preached a Funeral Sermon , discoursing of the resurrection , and applying to the purposes of faith , and confession of Christ , and glorification of God : We have no other , we can have no better precedent to follow : and now that we are come to weep over the grave of our Dear Sister , this rare personage , we cannot chuse but have many vertues to learn , many to imitate , and some to exercise . I chose , not to declare her extraction and genealogy . It was indeed fair and Honorable ; but having the blessing to be descended from worthy and Honoured Ancestors , and her self to be adopted and ingraffed into a more Noble family , yet she felt such outward appendages to be none of hers , because not of her choice , but the purchase of the vertues of others , which although they did ingage her to do noble things , yet they would upbraid all degenerate and lesse honourable lives then were those which began and increased the honour of the families . She did not love her fortune for making her noble ; but thought it would be a dishonour to her if she did not continue her Noblenesse and excellency of vertue fit to be owned by persons relating to such Ancestors . It is fit for all us to honour the Noblenesse of a family : but it is also fit for them that are Noble to despise it and to establish their honour upon the foundation of doing excellent things , and suffering in good causes , and despising dishonourable actions , and in communicating good things to others . For this is the rule in Nature : Those creatures are most Honourable which have the greatest power and do the greatest good : And accordingly my self have been a witnesse of it , how this excellent Lady would by an act of humility , and Christian abstraction strip her self of all that fair appendage of exteriour honour which decked her person and her fortune ; and desired to be owned by nothing but what was her own , that she might onely be esteemed Honourable according to that which is the honour of a Christian , and a wise person . 2. She had a strict and severe education , and it was one of Gods graces and favours to her . For being the Heiresse of a great fortune , and living amongst the throng of persons in the sight of vanities and empty temptations , that is , in that part of the Kingdom where greatnesse is too often expressed in great follies , and great vices , God had provided a severe and angry education to chastise the forwardnesses of a young spirit , and a fair fortune ; that she might for ever be so far distant from a vice , that she might onely see it and loath it , but never tast of it , so much as to be put to her choice whether she would be vertuous or no. God intending to secure this soul to himself , would not suffer the follies of the world to seize upon her by way of too neer a trial , or busie temptation . 3. She was married young ; and besides her businesses of religion seemed to be ordained in the providence of God to bring to this Honourable family a part of a fair fortune , and to leave behinde her a fairer issue worth ten thousand times her portion : and as if this had been all the publick businesse of her life ; when she had so far served Gods ends , God in mercy would also serve hers , and take her to an early blessednesse . 4. In passing through which line of providence , she had the art to secure her eternal interest , by turning her condition into duty & expressing her duty in the greatest eminency of a vertuous , prud●nt and rare affection , that hath been known in any example . I will not give her so low a testimony , as to say onely that she was chast ; She was a person of that severity , modesty , and close religion ( as to that particular ) that she was not capable of uncivil temptation ; and you might as well have suspected the sun to smell of the poppy that he looks on , as that she could have been a person apt to be sullyed by the breath of a foul question . 5. But that which I shall note in her , is that which I would have exemplar to all Ladies , and to all women . She had a love so great for her Lord , so intirely given up to a dear affection , that she thought the same things and loved the same loves , and hated according to the same enmities , and breathed in his soul , and lived in his presence , and languished in his absence : and all that she was or did , was onely for and to her Dearest Lord , Si gaudet , si flet , si tacit , hunc loquitur . Coenat , propinat , poscit , negat , innuit , unus Naevius est : — and although this was a great enamel to the beauty of her soul , yet it might in some degrees be also a reward to the vertue of her Lord : For she would often discourse it to them that conversed with her ; that he would improve that interest which he had in her affection to the advantages of God , and of religion : and she would delight to say , that he called her to her devotions , he encouraged her good inclinations he directed her piety , he invited her with good books : and then she loved religion , which she saw was not onely pleasing to God , and an act or state of duty , but pleasing to her Lord , and an act also of affection and conjugal obedience ; and what at first she loved the more forwardly for his sake ; in the using of religion left such relishes upon her spirit , that she found in it amability enough , to make her love it for its own . So God usually brings us to him by instruments of nature and affections , and then incorporates us into his inheritance , by the more immediate relishes of Heaven , and the secret things of the Spirit . He only was ( under God ) the light of her eyes , and the cordiall of her spirits , and the guide of her actions , and the measure of her affections , till her affections swelled up into a religion , and then it could go no higher , but was confederate with those other duties which made her dear to God. Which rare combination of duty and religion , I choose to expresse in the words of Solomon : She forsook not the guide of her youth , nor brake the Covenant of her God. 6. As she was a rare wife : so she was an excellent Mother . For in so tender a constitution of spirit as hers was , and in so great a kindnesse towards her children , there hath seldom been seen a stricter and more curious care of their persons , their deportment , their nature , their disposition , their learning and their customs : And if ever kindnesse and care did contest , and make parties in her , yet her care and her severity was ever victorious ; and she knew not how to do an ill turn to their severer part , by her more tender and forward kindnesse . And as her custome was , she turned this also into love to her Lord. For she was not onely diligent to have them bred nobly and religiously , but also was carefull and solicitous , that they should be taught to observe all the circumstances & inclinations , the desires and wishes of their Father ; as thinking , that vertue to have no good circumstances which was not dressed by his copy , and ruled by his lines , and his affections : And her prudence in the managing her children was so singular and rare , that when ever you mean to blesse this family , and pray a hearty and a profitable prayer for it , beg of God , that the children may have those excellent things which she designed to them , and provided for them in her heart and wishes , that they may live by her purposes , and may grow thither , whither she would fain have brought them . All these were great parts of an excellent religion as they concerned her greatest temporal relations . 7. But if we examine how she demeaned her self towards God , there also you will finde her , not of a common , but of an exemplar piety . She was a great reader of Scripture , confining her self to great portions every day ; which she read , not to the purposes of vanity , and impertinent curiosities , not to seem knowing , or to become talking , not to expound and Rule , but to teach her all her duty , to instruct her in the knowledge and love of God and of her Neighbours ; to make her more humble , and to teach her to despise the world , and all its gilded vanities ; and that she might entertain passions wholly in designe and order to heaven . I have seen a female religion that wholly dwelt upon the face and tongue ; that like a wanton and an undressed tree spends all its juice in suckers and irregular branches , in leafs and gumme , and after all such goodly outsides you should never eat an apple , or be delighted with the beauties , or the perfumes of a hopefull blossome . But the religion of this excellent Lady was of another constitution ; It took root downward in humility , and brought forth fruit upward in the substantiall graces of a Christian , in charity and justice , in chastity and modesty , in fair friendships and sweetnesse of society ▪ She had not very much of the forms and outsides of godlinesse ; but she was hugely carefull for the power of it , for the morall , essentiall , and usefull parts ; such which would make her be , not seem to be religious . 8. She was a very constant person at her prayers , and spent all her time which Nature did permit to her choice , in her devotions , and reading and meditating and the necessary offices of houshold government , every one of which is an action of religion , some by nature , some by adoption . To these also God gave her a very great love to hear the word of God preached ; in which because I had sometimes the honour to minister to her , I can give this certain testimony , that she was a diligent , watchfull and attentive hearer : and to this had so excellent a judgement , that if ever I saw a woman whose judgement was to be revered , it was hers alone : and I have sometimes thought that the eminency of her discerning faculties did reward a pious discourse , and placed it in the regions of honour and usefulnesse , and gathered it up from the ground , where commonly such homilies are spilt , or scattered in neglect and inconsideration . But her appetite was not soon satisfied with what was usefull to her soul : she was also a constant Reader of Sermons , and seldome missed to read one every day ; and that she might be full of instruction and holy principles , she had lately designed to have a large Book in which she purposed to have a stock of Religion transcrib●d in such assistances as she would chuse , that she might be readily furnished and instructed to every good work , But God prevented that , and hath filled her desires not out of cisterns and little aquaeducts , but hath carried her to the fountain , where she drinks of the pleasures of the river , and is full of God. 9. She alwayes lived a life of much Innocence , free from the violences of great sins : her person , her breeding , her modesty , her honour , her religion , her early marriage , the Guide of her soul , and the Guide of her youth , were as so many fountains of restraining grace to her , to keep her from the dishonours of a crime . Bonum est portare jugum ab adolescentî : it is good to bear the yoak of the Lord from our youth ; and though she did so , being guarded by a mighty providence , and a great favour and grace of God from staining her fair soul with the spots of hell , yet she had strange fears and early cares upon her ; but these were not onely for her self , but in order to others , to her neerest Relatives . For she was so great a lover of this Honourable family of which now she was a Mother , that she desired to become a chanel of great blessings to it unto future ages , and was extremely jealous lest any thing should be done , or lest any thing had been done , though an age or two since , which should intail a curse upon the innocent posterity ; and therefore ( although I do not know that ever she was tempted with an offer of the crime ) yet she did infinitely remove all sacrilege from her thoughts , and delighted to see her estate of a clear and disintangled interest : she would have no mingled rights with it ; she would not receive any thing from the Church , but religion and a blessing : and she never thought a curse and a sin far enough off , but would desire it to be infinitely distant ; and that as to this family God had given much honour and a wise head to govern it , so he would also for ever give many more blessings : And because she knew that the sins of Parents descend upon Children , she endeavoured by justice and religion , by charity and honour to secure that her chanel should convey nothing but health , and a fair example , and a blessing . 10. And though her accounts to God was made up of nothing but small parcels , little passions , and angry words , and trifling discontents , which are the allayes of the piety of the most holy persons , yet she was early at her repentance ; and toward the latter end of her dayes , grew so fast in religion as if she had had a revelation of her approaching end ; and therefore that she must go a great way in a little time : her discourses more full of religion , her prayers more frequent , her charity increasing , her forgiveness more forward , her friendships more communicative , her passion more under discipline , and so she trimm'd her lamp , not thinking her night was so neer , but that it might shine also in the day time , in the Temple , and before the Altar of incense . But in this course of hers there were some circumstances , and some appendages of substance , which were highly remarkable . 1. In all her Religion , and in all her actions of relation towards God , she had a strange evennesse and untroubled passage , sliding toward her Ocean of God and of infinity with a certain and silent motion . So have I seen a river deep and smooth passing with a still foot and a sober face , and paying to the Fiscus , the great Exchequer of the Sea , the Prince of all the watry bodies , a tribute large and full : and hard by it a little brook skipping and making a noise upon its unequall and neighbour bottom ; and after all its talking and bragged motion , it payed to its common Audit no more then the revenues of a little cloud , or a contemptible vessel : So have I sometimes compar'd the issues of her religion to the solemnities and fam'd outsides of anothers piety . It dwelt upon her spirit , and was incorporated with the periodicall work of every day : she did not beleeve that religion was intended to minister to fame and reputation , but to pardon of sins , to the pleasure of God , and the salvation of souls . For religion is like the breath of Heaven ; if it goes abroad into the open air , it scatters and dissolves like camphyre : but if it enters into a secret hollownesse , into a close conveyance , it is strong and mighty , and comes forth with vigour and great effect at the other end , at the other side of this life , in the dayes of death and judgement . 2. The other appendage of her religion , which also was a great ornament to all the parts of her life , was a rare modesty and humility of spirit , a confident despising and undervaluing of her self . For though she had the greatest judgement , and the greatest experience of things and persons that I ever yet knew in a person of her youth , and sex , and circumstances ; yet as if she knew nothing of it she had the meanest opinion of her self ; and like a fair taper when she shined to all the room , yet round about her own station she had cast a shadow and a cloud , and she shined to every body but her self . But the perfectnesse of her prudence and excellent parts could not be hid ; and all her humility , and arts of concealment , made the vertues more amiable and illustrious . For as pride sullies the beauty of the fairest vertues , and makes our understanding but like the craft and learning of a Devil : so humility is the greatest eminency , and art of publication in the whole world ; and she in all her arts of secrecy and hiding her worthy things , was but like one that hideth the winde , and covers the oyntment of her right hand . I know not by what instrument it hapned ; but when death drew neer , befor it made any shew upon her body , or revealed it self by a naturall signification , it was conveyed to her spirit : she had a strange secret perswasion that the bringing this Childe should be her last scene of life : and we have known , that the soul when she is about to disrobe her self of her upper garment , sometimes speaks rarely Magnifica verba : mors propè admota excutit ; sometimes it is prophetical ; sometimes God by a superinduced perswasion wrought by instruments , or accidents of his own , serves the ends of his own providence and the salvation of the soul : But so it was , that the thought of death dwelt long with her , and grew from the first steps of fancy and fear , to a consent , from thence to a strange credulity , and expectation of it ; and without the violence of sicknesse she died , as if she had done it voluntarily , and by designe , and for fear her expectation should have been deceived , or that she should seem to have had an unreasonable fear , or apprehension ; or rather ( as one said of Cato ) sic abiit è vitâ ut causam moriendi nactam se esse gauderet , she died , as if she had been glad of the opportunity . And in this I cannot but adore the providence and admire the wisdom and infinite mercies of God. For having a tender and soft , a delicate and fine constitution and breeding , she was tender to pain and apprehensive of it as a childs shoulder is of a load and burden : Grave est tenerae cervici jugum ; and in her often discourses of death , which she would renew willingly and frequently , she would tell , that she feared not death , but she feared the sharp pains of death : Emori nolo , me esse mortuam non curo : The being dead , and being freed from the troubles and dangers of this world , she hoped would be for her advantage ; and therefore that was no part of her fear : But she believing the pangs of death were great , and the use and aids of reason little , had reason to fear lest they should do violence to her spirit and the decency of her resolution . But God that knew her fears , and her jealousie concerning her self , fitted her with a death so easie , so harmlesse , so painlesse , that it did not put her patience to a severe trial . It was not ( in all appearance ) of so much trouble , as two fits of a common ague ; so carefull was God to remonstrate to all that stood in that sad attendance , that this soul was dear to him : and that since she had done so much of her duty towards it , he that began would also finish her redemption , by an act of a rare providence , and a singular mercy . Blessed he that goodnesse of God , who does so careful actions of mercy for the ease and security of his servants . But this one instance was a great demonstration that the apprehension of death is worse then the pains of death : and that God loves to reprove the unreasonablenesse of our fears , by the mightiness , and by the arts of his mercy . She had in her sickness ( if I may so cal it , or rather in the solemnities , and graver preparations towards death ) some curious and well-becoming fears , concerning the final state of her soul. But from thence she passed into a deliquium , or a kinde of trance , and as soon as she came forth of it , as if it had been a vision , or that she had conversed with an Angel , and from his hand had received a label or scroll of the book of life , and there seen her name enrolled , she cried out aloud , [ Glory be to God on high : Now I am sure I shall be saved . ] Concerning which manner of discoursing we are wholy ignorant , what judgement can be made : but certainly there are strange things in the other world ; and so there are in all the immediate preparation to it ; and a little glimps of heaven , a minutes conversing with an Angel , any ray of God , any communication extraordinary from the spirit of comfort which God gives to his servants in strange and unknown manners , are infinitely far from illusions ; and they shall then be understood by us , when we feel them , and when our new and strange needs shall be refreshed by such unusual visitation . But I must be forced to use summaries and arts of abbreviature in the enumerating those things in which this rare Personage was dear to God and to all her Relatives . If we consider her Person , she was in the flower of her age , Jucundum cum aetas florida ver ageret ; of a temperate , plain and natural diet , without curiosity or an intemperate palate ; she spent lesse time in dressing , then many servants ; her recreations were little and seldom , her prayers often , her reading much : she was of a most noble and charitable soul ; a great lover of honourable actions and as great a despiser of base things ; hugely loving to oblige others , and very unwilling to be in arrear to any upon the stock of courtesies and liberality ; so free in all acts of favour , that she would not stay to hear her self thanked , as being unwilling that what good went from her to a needful or an obliged person should ever return to her again ; she was an excellent friend , and hugely dear to very many , especially to the best and most discerning persons , to all that conversed with her , and could understand her great worth and sweetnesse : she was of an Honourable , a nice and tender reputation ; and of the pleasures of this world which were laid before her in heaps she took a very small and inconsiderable share , as not loving to glut her self with vanity , or to take her portion of good things here below . If we look on her as a Wife , she was chast and loving , fruitful and discreet humble and pleasant , witty and complyant , rich and fair , & wanted nothing to the making her a principal and a precedent to the best Wives of the world , but a long life , and a full age . If we remember her as a Mother , she was kinde and severe , careful and prudent , very tender , & not at al fond , a greater lover of her childrens souls , then of their bodies , and one that would value them more by the strict rules of honour and proper worth , then by their relation to her self . Her servants found her prudent , and fit to Govern , and yet open-handed and apt to reward ; a just Exactor of their duty and a great Rewarder of their diligence . She was in her house a comfort to her dearest Lord , a guide to her children , a Rule to her Servants an example to all . But as she related to God in the offices of Religion , she was even and constant , silent and devout , prudent and material : she loved what she now enjoyes , and she feared what she never felt , and God did for her what she never did expect . Her fears went beyond all her evil ; and yet the good which she hath received was , and is , and ever shall be beyond all her hopes . She lived as we al should live , and she died as I fain would die — Et cum supremos Lachesis perneverit annos , Non aliter cineres mando jacere meos . I pray God I may feel those mercies on my death-bed that she felt , and that I may feel the same effect of my repentance which she feels of the many degrees of her innocence . Such was her death that she did not die too soon ; and her life was so useful and so excellent that she could not have lived too long . Nemo parum diu vixit qui virtutis perfectae perfecto functus est munere : and as now in the grave it shall not be enquired concerning her , how long she lived , but how well ? so to us who live after her to suffer a longer calamity , it may be some ease to our sorrows , and some guide to our lives , and some securitie to our conditions , to consider that God hath brought the piety of a yong Lady to the early rewards of a never ceasing , and never dying eternity of glory . And we also if we live as she did , shall partake of the same glories ; not onely having the honour of a good name and a dear and honoured memory , but the glories of these glories , the end of all excellent labours , and all prudent counsels , and all holy religion , even the salvation of our souls in that day , when all the Saints , and amongst them this excellent Woman shall be shown to all the world to have done more , and more excellent things then we know of or can describe . Mors illos consecrat , quorum exitum & qui timent , laudant : Death consecrates and makes sacred that person whose excellency was such , that they that are not displeased at the death , cannot dispraise the life ; but they that mourn sadly , think they can never commend sufficiently . The end . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A64137-e1610 SERM. I. * Rom. 8. 2. 1 Cor. 12. 7. 1 Cor. 2. 14. Prudent . 2 Cor. 3. 6. 1 Ep. 2. chap. ver . 5. 1 Ep. 3. 9. Hebr. 6. 4. Rom. 15. 13. 1 Thess. 1. 6. 1 Thess. 5. 16. SERM. II. Rom. 12. 12. Notes for div A64137-e4070 Rom. 1. 9. Levit. 26. 1. 1 Thess. 5. 23. Hebr. ● . 12. 2 Epist. 1. 4. Apoc. 2. 17. Philip. 1. 19. Psal. 91. * — Tot rebus iniquis Parüimus victi : veniaest haec sola pudoris , Degenerisque metus , nil jam potuisse negari . Lucan . Notes for div A64137-e6690 SERM. III. 2 Sam. 21. 14. 1 King. 21. 29. Hor. l. 3. od . 2. Notes for div A64137-e8360 SERM. IV. 2 King 32. 13. Luke . 11. 47. Mat. 23. 31. Rom. 11. 28. Numb . 25. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Aris●ot . Notes for div A64137-e9980 SERM. V. Joshuah 7. 19. Psal. 51. 4. Rom. 3. 4. Revel . 16. 9. Ezek. 27. 31. Joel : 2. 13. see Rule of II. living . D. of repentance . p. 335. 2 Cor 7. Gal. 5. 24. Gal. 6. 15. Gal. 5. c. 1 Cor. 7. 9. Heb. 12. 1. Revel . 2. Notes for div A64137-e11880 SERM. VI. Acts. 20. 21. * Hebr. 6. 1. 1 Cor. 11. 31. Hierocles . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . See life of H. Jesus part . 2. disc . of Repentance . * Cogimur à suetis animum suspendere Atque Atque ut vivamus , vivere desinimus . Co●●●l . Gal. * Nec ad rem ●●●tinet ubi in ●●●pevet , quod 〈…〉 ut s●cret . Hor. l. 4. od . 10. Rom. 12. 1. Tit. 2. 12. Mart. l. 2. ep . 64. Luke 1. 74. Hebr. 12. 1. Ver. 3. Heb. 12. 16. Epist. 30. Titus . 2. 14. 1 Pet. 2 24. See life of Jesus . Disc. of Repentance . part . 2. Arrian . Epictet l. 1. c. 15. Notes for div A64137-e14360 SERM. VII . Arrian . * Virtutem unam si amiseris etsi●an●ui non potest virtus , sed si unam consessus fueris te non habere , nullam te esse ha●i●urum ●an nes●is ? Cicer. Notes for div A64137-e15510 SER. VIII . Epict. Arrian . De Divinat . l. 2 Aristoph : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : Act. 5. Scen. 4. Notes for div A64137-e17030 SERM. IX . Joel . 3. Isaiah . 23. 3. James 4. 10. Matth. 5. Phil. 1. 28. James 5. 10. 1 Pet. 4. 13. 2 Thess. 1. Heb. 2. 10. 1 Pet. 4. 12. Tertul. S. Hieron . Acts 9. 15. Notes for div A64137-e20110 SER. X. Jerem. 12. 1 , 2. Mala. 3. 14. Ecclus. 40. 1. Matth. 5. 1● , &c. Phil. 3. 15. Job . 21. Phil. 〈…〉 Notes for div A64137-e22600 SER. XI . 2 Tim. 3. 1. 2 Tim. 3. 9. 11. cha●● 31. Hesiod Hesiod . Esay . 54. 8. Notes for div A64137-e24790 SER. XII . Notes for div A64137-e26960 SER. XIII . Wisd. 11. 24. Psal. 74. 9. Psal. 98. 8. Ossic. 3. Isai. 1. 4 , 5. Isai. 5. 5. Acts 13. 14. Notes for div A64137-e28480 SER. XIV . Juven . Sat. 13. Notes for div A64137-e29940 SER. XV. Notes for div A64137-e31440 SER. XVI . Seneca . Ecclus. 4. 22. Notes for div A64137-e33120 SER. XVII . 2 Chap. 11. Ezek. 18. 24. Hom. Ili . ● Hic ubi dissuetae sylvis in carcere clausae Mansue vere serae , & vultus posuêre minaces Atque hominem didicere pati si torrida parvus Venit in ora cruor , redeunt rabiesque , furorque . Acts 7. 22. Chap. 4. 1 , 3. Cha. 4. ver . ult . Notes for div A64137-e35960 SER. XVIII Her. l 1. sat . 3. Rare volte h● fame chista sempre à tavola Notes for div A64137-e37330 SER. XIX Matth. 10. 27. Notes for div A64137-e39170 SER. XX. Eph. 5. 16. Col. 4. 5. Notes for div A64137-e40980 SER. XXI . Sophocl . Notes for div A64137-e42070 SER. XXII . 2 Tim. 3. 4. 5. 2 Pet. 2. 10. vers . 8. ep . Jude . Eloquia Domini casta eloquia Colos. 2 Plat. Phaedon Notes for div A64137-e44620 SERMON XXIII . Orat. 21. Dissett . ● . de regno . Can. Eth. So Cicero . lib. 3. offic . Notes for div A64137-e46020 SERMON XXIV . Lib. 8. instit . Cicero . Quae. 10. super Joshuam lib. 1. de sacerdotio . Hist l. 16. cap. 6 Ephes. 4. 25. Notes for div A64137-e47590 SERMON . XXV . Vide Serm. II. Judges 13. John Revel . 22. 9. de bono patientiae Homil. 8. in Evange . 1 Cor. 6. 3. Notes for div A64137-e50070 SERMON XXVI . Eccles. 12. Life of H. Jesus . part 3 Disc. 14. Notes for div A64137-e51400 SERMON XXVII . Jonah 4. 2. Exod. 34. 6. Notes for div A64137-e54040 SERMON XXVIII . a 2 Tim. 1. 18. Il. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Vide 1 Cor. 15. 18. 1 Thess. 4. 16. Revel . 14. 13. John 5. 24. 2 Cor. 5. 8. & 6. 1 Thes. 5. 10. Prov. 2. ●7 . 
A46699	----	A second part of The mixture of scholasticall divinity, with practical, in several tractates: wherein some of the most difficult knots in divinity are untyed, many dark places of Scripture cleared, sundry heresies and errors refuted ... Whereunto are annexed, several letters of the same author, and Dr. Jeremy Taylor, concerning Original Sin. Together with a reply unto Dr. Hammonds vindication of his grounds of uniformity from 1 Cor. 14.40. By Henry Jeanes, minister of Gods Word at Chedzoy in Somersetshire. Jeanes, Henry, 1611-1662. 1660 Approx. 1510 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 268 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2009-03 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A46699 Wing J508 ESTC R202621 99862848 99862848 115026 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A46699) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 115026) Images scanned from microfilm: (Thomason Tracts ; 151:E1018[1]) A second part of The mixture of scholasticall divinity, with practical, in several tractates: wherein some of the most difficult knots in divinity are untyed, many dark places of Scripture cleared, sundry heresies and errors refuted ... Whereunto are annexed, several letters of the same author, and Dr. Jeremy Taylor, concerning Original Sin. Together with a reply unto Dr. Hammonds vindication of his grounds of uniformity from 1 Cor. 14.40. By Henry Jeanes, minister of Gods Word at Chedzoy in Somersetshire. Jeanes, Henry, 1611-1662. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. [20], 276, *277-*278, [4], *279-*280, 277-360, [4], 23, 32-48; 76, *77-*78, 77-88, [8] p. printed by H. Hall [and A. Lichfield], printer to the University, for Thomas Robinson, Oxford : 1660. Contents (each with separate title page dated 1660, pagination and register continuous unless otherwise noted): (1) "A treatise concerning the indifferencie of humane actions" (title page dated 1659); (2) "A treatise concerning abstinence from all appearance of evill"; (3) "Three sermons (enlarged into a treatise) concerning the last and general judgement", (4) "A briefe and scholasticall discourse, touching the nature of thanksgiving"; (5) "Of originall righteounesse, and it's contrary, concupiscence"; (6) "Certaine letters of Henry Ieanes minister of Gods word at Chedzoy. and Dr Ieremy Taylor" (separate pagination), a reply to a section in "Unum necessarium" by Jeremy Taylor; (7) "Uniformity in humane doctrinall ceremonies .. printed by A. Lichfield .." 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Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Hammond, Henry, 1605-1660. -- Euschēmonōs kai kata taxin. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. -- Unum necessarium. Theology, Doctrinal -- Early works to 1800. 2000-00 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2001-07 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-03 Rachel Losh Sampled and proofread 2005-03 Rachel Losh Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-04 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A SECOND PART OF THE MIXTURE OF Scholasticall Divinity , WITH PRACTICAL , IN SEVERAL TRACTATES : Wherein some of the most difficult Knots in Divinity are untyed , many dark places of Scripture cleared , Sundry Heresies and Errors refuted . By Henry Jeanes , Minister of Gods Word at Chedzoy in Somersetshire . Whereunto are annexed , Several Letters of the same Author , and Dr. Jeremy Taylor , concerning ORIGINAL SIN . Together with A REPLY UNTO Dr. Hammonds VINDICATION of his Grounds of Uniformity from 1 Cor. 14. 40. Oxford , Printed by H. Hall , Printer to the University , for Thomas Robinson . 1660. To the young Student in Divinity , SOme may be offended at the very Title of this , and my former Bock ; for Scholastical Divinity hath , 〈◊〉 since the Reformation , been so generally declaimed against , as that most have been deterred from so much as booking into it . How much this excess hath prejudiced the Protestant Cause , I could easily , and at large demonstrate from our Controversal Writers : for of them , none have been so considerable , and formidable unto the Adversary , as those that have been well versed in the School-men : Others , that are utter strangers unto them , though otherwise of great note and learning , being 〈◊〉 and anon in the dark and at a loss . But I would not be mistaken ; when I plead for a sober , moderate , and 〈◊〉 use of School-men , I make no Apology for their errors and fopperies ; their vain and 〈◊〉 impious curiosities , no more then the Israelites approved of the Tyranny and 〈◊〉 of the Philistines , when they went down unto them , to sharpen at their forges every man his share , and his coulter , and his ax , and his mattock , 1 Sam. 13. 20 I cannot but confess , that he who studieth them must take a great deal of pains , to search for a little gold in a great heap of dross , to dig for a few Jewels in a vast dung-hill : But these 〈◊〉 are so precious , as that they will abundantly 〈◊〉 thy greatest diligence ; 〈◊〉 thy greatest diligence will be vain , and to little purpose , if thou rush 〈◊〉 the study of them unpreparedly , and if thou read them 〈◊〉 . And 〈◊〉 for the study of them , I reckon , First , all 〈◊〉 that have not made a severe progress in Philosophical Learning ; for without this they will be unintelligible , and serve rather to 〈◊〉 and amaze , then to give any light and direction : Secondly , Those that are not well 〈◊〉 in those points that are controverted 〈◊〉 Protestants and Papists , for without a competent insight into these , what 〈◊〉 can 〈◊〉 had against their Heterodoxies ? as they must be come unto with 〈◊〉 , so must they he read with abundance of caution : Prove all things , and hold 〈◊〉 that onely which is good , 1 〈◊〉 . 5. 21. Thou must pass a very 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 , and impartial examination of , and judgement upon the several Sects and Factions of them , Thomists and Scotists ; Nominals , and Reals , and not resign up thy reason unto any one party of them : for this will 〈◊〉 the study of School-men , a meer vassalage of thy understanding . 〈◊〉 not therefore every spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : But try the spirits , whether they be of God , 1 John 4. 1. For 〈◊〉 so pertinaciously and obstinately 〈◊〉 unto their respective Ring-leaders , in all their 〈◊〉 and expr 〈◊〉 whatsoever ; as the Dominicans to Thomas , the Franciscans to Scotus , the Nominals to Ocham ; as that without such tryal , they will more frequently mis-guid , then inform 〈◊〉 . Unto this prudent liberty , thou must adde , in the next place , a Christian humility , captivating thy reason unto the 〈◊〉 of faith , and submitting all subtilties unto the perfect and infallible rule of Scripture . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 findest the School-men to swerve from this , presuming to be wise , 〈◊〉 that which is written , thou mayst without scruple 〈◊〉 them . These rules being observed , School-men will not be found to be so 〈◊〉 and dangerous Authors , as they have been represented ; nor Scholastical Divinity to have such a repugnancy with Practical , as hath been imagined . To manifest this , hath been 〈◊〉 end of these my undertakings ; and if my 〈◊〉 herein meet with success , and a 〈◊〉 reception , it may incourage me to attempt a 〈◊〉 of a higher nature , The purging of the School-men from their dross , and the selecting out of them their rarities and choicest notions . I cannot expect to live so long , as to proceed far herein : But a beginning may invite some of both our Universities to pursue and carry on the design , who have better accommodations for such a work , then a Countrey 〈◊〉 can have : That God would stir up the hearts of some of them hereunto , is the hope , and will be the 〈◊〉 of him , that is Thine in the work of the Lord , HENRY JEANES . A TABLE of the Contents of the Treatises in this BOOK . A TREATISE concerning the indifferency of humane actions . Pag. NOn-Conformists unjustly charged with denyal of things indifferent . 1 , 2. Some distinctions premised concerning the actions of man ; they are either indeliberate , or deliberate . ib. 〈◊〉 again are to be considered two manner of ways . 1. In the general , actu signato . 2 2. In the singulars and individuals , actu exercito . ib. In a second place 't is inquired what is meant by the indifferency of actions . 2 , 3 For clearing the nature of 〈◊〉 , two Queries propounded . 1. What medium indifferent things are betwixt things morally good and evil ; whether medium 〈◊〉 , or participationis ? 3 , 4 , 5. 2. Whether all indifferent actions be equally indifferent ; where a passage in Dr. Sanderson is at large 〈◊〉 . 5 , 6 , 7 , 8. Having 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things , three conclusions are laid down concerning the 〈◊〉 of the actions of man. Concl. 1. The indeliberate actions of man , &c. are indifferent , not onely in the general , but in their individuals and singulars ; because such actions , to speak 〈◊〉 , are not moral and humane . 8 , 9 , 10 , 11. Pag. Conclus . 2. There be divers deliberate actions , &c. which if they be considered in actu signato , in the general , secundum speciem , according to the sort or kinde , are indifferent , neither morally good , nor evil . 11 This confirmed 1. By Scripture . 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16. 2. 〈◊〉 reason , where we have 1. The Arguments of the Protestants . 16 2. The Arguments of the School-men . 16 , 17 , 18 , 19. An Objection against the indifferency of some 〈◊〉 actions considered , in the 〈◊〉 propounded and answered . 19 , 20. Against this Doctrine of indifferency there be two sailings , One in the defect . 20 , 21. Another in the excess . 21 , 22. 2. We may be 〈◊〉 unto thankfulness ; because God hath indulg'd us Christians a greater 〈◊〉 of our liberty about things indifferent , then he ever 〈◊〉 unto the 〈◊〉 Synagogue . 22 , 23. There be two ways of expressing our 〈◊〉 for the 〈◊〉 of this our liberty . 1. A slout 〈◊〉 of it . 23 , 24. 2. A due and 〈◊〉 use of it . 24 , 25. To inform us more fully and particularly what is to be done herein , such 〈◊〉 are 〈◊〉 , as we are by the rule of Scripture , to put on the use and exercise of our Christian liberty in things indifferent . 25 It is to be restrained . 1. By prudence . 25 , 26 2. By temperance and sobriety . 26 , 27 3. By conscience , and that both condemning and doubting . 27 , 28 , 29 4. By religion , by the religion of a vow , and of an oath . 29 , 30 , 31 5. By authority . 31 , 32 , 33 6. By charity , and that 1. To our selves . 33 , 34 2. Unto others , in the case of scandal . 34 , &c. usque ad 46. Conclus . 3. No deliberate actions of men , &c. if they be considered in actu exercito , in the singular , or particular , as cloathed with circumstances , are indifferent ; but all of them are morally either good or evil . Two limitations of this conclusion . 46 , 47 The Conclusion being limited , is made apparent from the end and rule of deliberate actions . 1. From their end : and what ought to be the end of all deliberate actions of man , may be evidenced , 1. From their relation unto their original , the 〈◊〉 soul. 47 , 48 2. From a consideration of them absolutely , as they are in themselves . 48 , 49 For the further enforcement of this reason , some few Scriptures alledged and opened . 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54. Vnto these two Arguments , a third is added , drawn from the relation betwixt morall goodness , and idleness . 54 An Objection of Vasquez propounded , and answered . 55 , 56 The 〈◊〉 of our indifferent actions unto sin , affords , 1. Matter of Humiliation for the time past . 57 , 58 2. Matter of Caution for the future . 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 A Treatise concerning abstinence from all appearance of evil , on 1 Thess. 5. 22. THe Coherence and scope of the words . 67 , 68 , 69 , 70. Several interpretations of the words examined . 1. Of those that take 〈◊〉 , species , Logically for sort or kinde . 68 , 69 2. Of those who restrain the place to matters of Doctrine . 69 , 70 The point deduced from the words , is , that we are to abstain not onely from things intrinsecally sinful ; but from all shews and appearances of sin . 71 For limitation of this point , appearance of evil is either in positions or actions . 1. 'T is questioned whether or no we are to abstain from all positions , which have an appearance of evil or falshood . For resolution , divers distinctions premised . 71 These distinctions premised , it is inquired , 1. How far we are to abstain from assenting to the matter and substance of Doctrines that carry an appearance of evil unto our selves . 71 , 72 , 73 2. How far we are to abstain from assenting to the matter and substance of Doctrines that carry an appearance of evil generally unto others . 73 , 74 , 75 3. How far we are to abstain from publishing of the matter and substance of Doctrines , that carry generally an appearance of evil unto others . 75 , 76 , 77 3. We are to abstain from that appearance of evil in Doctrines , which is in the expressions used in their proposal . 77 , 78 , 79 , 80 , 81 Practical appearance of evil in manners or matter of practice , is either real or imaginary . 82 1. No actions that have this real appearance of evil , are upon any pretext whatsoever to be adventured upon . 82 , 83 , 84 , 85 2. Imaginary appearance of evil is ascribed thereunto from our own or others misconceits . 1. From our own , and here if a man be in his own conscience stedfastly , fully , and firmly perswaded , that such an action is evil and unlawful , which yet in truth is not so , but lawful , what ought he to do ? Here the question concerning the obligation of an erronious conscience , is at large stated . 85 &c. 〈◊〉 ; adque 93 2. An imaginary appearance of evil issues from the supposals of others ; and that either wilfull or weak ones . 92 , 93 1. Wilfull , proud , and wicked ones , and here , whether the censures and scandals of wilfull , &c. and pharisaical spirits , are to be regarded , and how far , is at large resolved . 93 , &c. 〈◊〉 , ad 104 2. If this imaginary appearance of evil flow from the supposal of a weak one , it must be 〈◊〉 , so it may be without sin , 103 , 104 The action in which this appearance of evil is imagined to be , is either necessary , or indifferent . ibid. 1. If it be necessary , and commanded , it must not be omitted . 104 , 105 Here , in a digression , is given the summe of what Thomas , and his Interpreters , say upon this question : An 〈◊〉 spiritualia sint propter scandalum dimittenda . 105 , usque ad 109 2. If the action in which this appearance of evil , is , be but indifferent , why then it appeareth from what the Apostle Paul writeth unto the Romans , cap. 14. and unto the Corinthians , 1 Cor. 8. and cap. 10. That such an action is to be 〈◊〉 , though the scandal arising thereby be onely per accidens . 109 , 110 Of this determination there are laid down divers exceptions , or limitations , that are sound and Orthodox ; and others , that are 〈◊〉 rejected . 110 , &c. usque ad 146 The point of abstinence from all appearance of evil , &c. being 〈◊〉 limitted , is in the next 〈◊〉 confirmed . 1. By Precepts . 146 , 147 , 148 2. By Examples . 148 , &c. usque ad 154 3. By Reasons which are drawn , 1. From God. 2. From Satan . 3. 〈◊〉 our selves . 4. From our brethren . 1. From God. 1. From our relations unto him . 154 , 155 2. From our danger in 〈◊〉 of him . 155 2. From Satan , from the consideration , 1. Of his cruelty and malice against us . ibid. 2. Of his temptations of us . ibid. 1. Of his temptations of us to sin . ibid. For in them they are , 1. The baits by which he allures us . 156 2. An argument by which he 〈◊〉 us . 156 , 157 3. An incouragement whereby he is heartned to persist in tempting of us . 157 , 158 2. Of his temptations of us to dispair , or at least , discomfort for sin . 158 3. Abstinence from all appearance of evil , is needful , in regard of our selves , for by them we may incur a double danger . 1. A danger of being infected with sinne . 158 , 159 , 160 2. A danger of being punished for sin , &c. 161 4. Abstinence from all appearance of evil , is expedient , in regard of our brethren , to avoid scandal unto them . 1. As 't is taken by Thomas and the Schoolmen . 161 , 162 2. As 't is used vulgarly and commonly . 162 An Objection against abstinence from things indifferent , that carry an appearance of evil , is examined . 162 , 163 , 164 A general application of the precedent Doctrine , touching abstinence from all apperance of evil . 164 Where , 1. Are propounded three inducements pressing hereunto : It will be a course , 1. Safe and secure . 164 2. Comfortable . ibid. 3. Honorable . 165 2. Two Cautions prescribed , directing how we are to abstain from the appearance of evil ; we are to abstain neither onely , nor chiefly there-from . ibid. A more particular Application of the precedent Doctrine : Wherein , 1. All men are called upon for abstinence from the appearance , especially of some evils , of their Master , of their bosome evills . 166 2. Some men , above others , are especially called upon to decline the appearance of all evils , viz. all publick men , especially Ministers . 166 , 167 Of the last and general Judgement , on Rom. 2. 16. THe difference amongst Expositors about the coherence of the words , decided . 173 , 174 , 175 From the words , occasion taken to handle the common place of the last and generall Iudgement , which is explained , confirmed , and applyed . For explication of it , 〈◊〉 in the Text set forth by its causes , object , and adjunct . 1. By its causes , principal , and instrumentall . 1. Principal , God shall judge , where inquired , in what sense the Father judgeth no man. 175 , 176 2. Instrumental , by Ies s Christ ; where , whether he shal judge according to his manhood , controverted betwixt the Thomists and the 〈◊〉 . 176 , 177 , 178 2. Next sollows the object of this judgement , and that is two-sold ; personal , and reall . 1. Personal , the persons to be judged , men ; where a conceit of Gorrans , that by the naming of men , evil angels are excluded , is examined 2. Real , the secrets of men , their secret , 1. state , 2. actions . 179 3. Lastly , We have an adjunct , the circumstance of time , when this judgement shall be , in the day ; where 〈◊〉 , in what sense day is taken . 179 , 180 In the next place we have the confirmation , or proof of the prediction of a future judgement , from the testimony of the Gospel , according to my Gospel , where three things are inquired . 1. What is meant by Pauls Gospel . 180 2. How Paul termeth it his Gospell . 180 , 181 3. In what sense God will judge , &c. according to the Gospel . 181 , 182 , 183 Unto the proof of the Text are added congiuences out of the School-men , for the last and general judgement . 183 , &c. usque ad 191 The Point being confirmed , is next applyed And 1. Here is a Vse of Terror unto all the wicked . 191 , 192 , 193 2. Here is a Vse of Consolation unto all true Believers . 193 , 194 Particularly against their sins , 〈◊〉 , and death . 1. Against their sins . 1. The guilt . 194 , 195 2. The being and pollution of them . 195 2. Against their afflictions , of what nature soever . 195 , 196 3. Against their death . 196 , 197 3. We may hence be exhorted to an expectation of , and preparation for this day . 1. Expectation of it . 197 , 198 , 199 , 200 2. Preparation for it . 200 , 201 Out of those many duties in which this preparation stands , some few selected , unto which the Scripture propounds the day of Judgement as a motive : and they regard either God , our selves , or others . Those which regard God , are 1. Faith in him . 201 , 202 , 203 2. Repentance of our sins against him . 203 , &c. usque ad 212 3. Love of him . 212 , 213 , 214 4. Fear of him . 214 , 215 , 216 5. Prayer to him . 216 , 217 A second sort of duties , unto which the day of Judgement excites , regard our selves . 1. Watchfulness . 217 , 218 2. Sobriety 218 , 219 3. Diligence in our particular callings . 219 , 220 4. A due and diligent use , and imployment of our talents . 221 , &c. usque ad 229 A third sort of duties , to which the day of Judgement is a provokement , regard others . And they may again be subdivided , they respect either all men , or bad men , or good men . 1. All men , and they are two . 1. Humility towards them . 229 , 230 2. Charity in our censures of them . 230 231 , 232 , 233 2. Bad men , and they again are two . 1. Estrangement from them . 233 , 234 2. Patience towards them . 234 , usq , 〈◊〉 241 3. Good men , both ordinary Christians , and Ministers ; and they are two , 1. The real expressions of a cordial love of them in general . 241 , 242 , 243 2. All actions of Christian communion with them in particular . 243 , 244 , 245 , 246 The day of Judgement an inducement unto a due and requisite manner in the persormance of the fore-mentioned duties , which stands in . 1. Fervency . 246 2. Frequency . ibid. 3. Sincerity . 246 , 247 , 248 4. Constancy and Perseverance , and that , 1. In faith , and the profession thereof . 248 , 249 , 250 2. In obedience . 251 , 252 A brief and Scholastical Discourse touching the nature of Thanksgiving . Eph. 5. 20. Giving thanks always for all things , unto God , and the Father , in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. FIve Generals considerable in the words , 1. An act or duty , giving thanks . The disficulty and comprehensiveness of the duty . 257 , 258 By way of Connotation , it takes in all duties that concern God or man. 258 Formally in it self , it hath five 〈◊〉 , or degrees . 1. Observation . 258 , 259 , 260 2. Confession . 260 , 261 3. Remembrance . 261 4. Valuation . 261 , 262 , 263 5. Retribution , not of justice , but of favorable acceptance . 263 , 264 , 265 2. The second General in the words , is the time when this duty is to be persormed , always . How understood of the effects of thanksgiving , and how of thanksgiving it self . 266 1. Habitual . ibid. 2. Actual , in reference to that , it is to be taken , not in a Mathematical , but Morall Latitude ; and so imports nothing but frequency and constancy . 266. 267. 268. 3. The third thing considerable , &c. is the matter for what , all things : And we are to give thanks for all things . 1. Collectively . 268 2. Distributively . 1. Pro generibus singulorum . 268 2. Pro singulis Generum . ibid. Two Questions propounded and resolved . 1. The first , Whether or no Gods greatness , absolute goodness , his goodness in himself , with other absolute perfections of his , &c. be matter of thanksgiving , & c ? 263 269 2. The second , Whether or no we are to be thankfull for afflictions ? 269 , 270 , 271 , 272 3. The third General , is the object unto whom , God , and the Father . The words may be taken , either in regard of us , or of Christ. 1. In regard of us . 272 2. In regard of Christ ; and so they contain a description of the Father , from two relations unto Christ , he is , 1. The God of Christ , as man , viz. by special Covenant , and confederation . 272 2. The Father of Christ. 1. As God , by eternal generation . 273 2. As man , not at all by adoption , but by collation of the grace of union . 273 , 274 Having spoken of both titles , God , and Father considered absolutely ; they are next treated of , as they relate unto our thanksgiving ; and so they distinguish our thanks from Heathenish and Jewish Doxologies . 274 And here 't is observed , that the addition of Father is not exclusive of the Son and holy Ghost : Notwithstanding then the appropriation of it unto God , as limited unto the Person of the Father , we may justly infer the dueness of it unto God indefinitely , and that unshar'd with any Creature , either in whole or in part . 274 , 275 , 276 , 277 The last Particular , is the Mediator , in whose name our thanks are to be tendred , In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is , 1. Necessity of a Mediator , whether we regard our selves , or our thanks . 277 2. Congruity that Christ should be he . 277 , 278 Of Original Righteousness , and its Contrary , Concupiscence . ALL that is said concerning Originall righteousness , is reduced unto two heads . 1. An Sit ? 2. Quid sit ? 1. Inquiry is made concerning its an sit ? Where proved against the Socinians , and Dr. Taylor , That Original righteousness was in Adam . 279 , 280 , 277 b 278 b 279 b 2. A double quid sit of original righteousness is inquired into . 1. Quid nominis ? Why the righteousness of the first man is called original righteousness . 280b 281 2. Quid rei ? What is meant by the thing it self : And for the clearing of this , seven particulars explicated : It s 1. Materiale , matter or foundation . 282 , 283 2. Formale , or formality . 283 3. Subject in which seated . 283 , 284 4. Causation , or production . 284 5. Effects . 285 , 286 6. Difference from sanctifying grace . 286 , 287 7. The relation unto the first man , Whether it were natural or supernatural to him ? Which disficult and important question is at large handled against Papists , Arminians , Socinians , and Dr. Taylor . 288 , usque ad 318 The malignant influence , or causality of Concupiscence . Jam. 1. 14 , 15. But every man is tempted , when he is drawn away of his own lust , and enticed . Then when lust hath conceived , it bringeth forth sin : and sin , when it is finished , bringeth forth death . LUst is not here taken for the act of lust , nor for contracted , acquired , habitual lust : But for original lust . 318 Concerning it , we have remarkable , 1. The propriety of its inherence , 〈◊〉 own lust . 319 2. The force of its influence , it tempteth , draweth , enticeth to sin , &c. ibid. Here we have of this influence , 1. The extent . 320 2. The branches . ibid. 3. The degrees . 320 , 321 , 322 , 323 , 324 , 325 The words being analized , and expounded , are in the next place cleared 〈◊〉 two 〈◊〉 inferences of Papists . The first , That Concupiscence is not sin . 325 , 326 The second , That there are venial sins . 326 , 327 One observation pitched upon : That every mans lust or 〈◊〉 , is the principal cause of his temptations unto sin . 327 The point deduced from the Text , is briefly explained , confirmed , and applyed . 1. For Explication , two distinctions 〈◊〉 , The first , Of an immediate , and medi ate cause of temptation . 327 The second , Of an universal , and particular cause of temptation . 327 , 328 2. The Confirmation hath two parts . 1. That our own lust is a cause . 328 , 329 2. That 't is a principal cause of temptation unto sin , because it tempts , 1. Internally . 2. Esfectively . 3. Perpetually . 329 3. The uses that are to be made of this Point , are Of Information . Of Reprehension . Of Exhortation . 1. Of Information , and they are three . 1. We may hence learn what a great difference there is betwixt the temptations of lapsed man unto sin , and the temptations of our first Parents unto the first sin . 329 , 330 2. We may hence be instructed , what a wide 〈◊〉 there is betwixt our temptations unto sin , and the temptations of Christ. 330 , 331 3. We may from the causality , or influence of lust , infer its obliquity against Papists , Socinians , and Dr. Taylor . 331 , 332 From this , there may be refuted three other Points of Popery . 1. The absolute perfection of the good works of the regenerate . 332 2. Their Justification by them . ibid. 3. Their possibility of fulsilling the Law. 332 , 333 From speculative , practical uses are proceeded to . 2. The next Use , is of reprehension of all such as excuse , or extenuate their sins , by discharging them upon the importunity & violence of outward temptations , &c. 333 , 334 3. Lastly , Divers Exhortations may be inferred srom the causality and influence of our Concupiscence . We may hence be 〈◊〉 unto , 1. Humiliation for it . 334 , 335 2. Mortification of it . 336 , 337 , 338 , 339 , 340 , 341 3. Watchfulness against it . 341 , 342 4. Thankfulness for deliverance from it . 342 , 343 , 344 There be also some duties , regarding our brethren , 〈◊〉 which we may from this 〈◊〉 efficacy of 〈◊〉 ; be pressed . 1. We may hence be exhorted to be careful in our watch over them , diligent in our admonition of them , frequent in our prayers for them . 344 , 345 2. We may hence be perswaded to sugar and sweeten our reproofs of brethren , with meekness and moderation . The created and lapsed condition of man. Eccles. 7. 29. Loe , this onely have I found , that God hath made man upright , but they have sought out many inventions . THe Coherence of the words , wherein inquired in what sense Solomon saith , That he found not one woman amongst a thousand . 346 In the words , two Conclusions , unto which is premised a Preface , 〈◊〉 , this onely have I found : Wherein three things remarkable . 1. The weight and importance of these two Conclusions , implyed in the Particle , Loe. 347 2. The means by which Solomon came to the knowledge of these two Points , diligent search , and study into the word and will of God ; This have I found . 347 , 348 3. We have a comparison of these Conclusions , with other points of Doctrine hinted in the Particle onely : This onely have I found ; this , and nothing else . 348 Against which an Objection , and unto it three Answers . 348 , 349 , 350 Having 〈◊〉 over the praecognita , the Conclusions themselves are next proceeded to . Conclus . 1. Concerns Original righteousness , God made man upright . 350 Conclus . 2. Concerns Original Sin , peccatum originale originans , the fall of our first Parents ; They have sought out many inventions . These words describe the fall of our first Parents , not as 't is considered formally in it self ; but Metonymically , by its motives or effects . 1. By its motives , if we understand them onely of our first Parents . 350 Against this interpretation , two doubts propounded and resolved . 350 , 351 2. By its effects , if we extend them unto their posterity also , they have all sought out many inventions . 1. For the committing 351 , 352 , usque ad 355 of sin . 2. For the defending 355 3. For the 〈◊〉 355 , 356 4 For the concealing 356 , 357 The words , as hitherto expounded , run of sin considered indefinitely . There be also , that restrain them unto one particular sin , Mens erroneous inventions concerning their supream end and happinesse , and the ways and means leading thereunto . 357 , 358 Divers other rendrings of the words considered . 358 , 359 , 360. By this Table the Reader may correct the mistakes in the running Title . A TABLE of the Scriptures explicated in this Book . Genesis . Cap. ver . pag. 1. 2. 275.   12. 29. 281.   26. 27. 279. 280.   26. 28. 278. b.   26. 27. 280. b.   31. 280. 293. 313. 2. 19. 20. 274. b. 3. 6. 329. 330. 351.   12. 13. 355. 17. 1. 58. 20. 6. 321. 322. 39. 10. 12. 159. 341. Exodus . 20. 25. 275. Leviticus . 6. 13. 267. 19. 17. 97.   28. 146. 147. 21. 11. 166.   25. 146. 147. Numbers . 6. 3. 146.   6. 166. Deuteronomy . 14. 1. 146. 147. 22. 12. 18. 27. 5. 275. Judges . 7. 2. 275.   20. 274. 1 Samuel . 15. 3. 353. 1 Kings . 10. 18. 239. 2 Kings . 16. 10. 11. 144. 17. 15. 146. 18. 4. 138. 139. 140. &c. Cap. ver . pag.   5. 141. 142. 23. 13. 139. 140. 141. 142. 1 Chronicles . 21. 7. 60. Ezra . 8. 22. 98. 9. 13. 272. Esther . 4 14. 227. Job . 1 4. 5. 57. 58. 29. 16. 232. 233. 31. 33. 356. Psalms . 4. 6. 358. 19. 12. 58. 179. 32. 5. 206. 49. 14. 240. 50. 21. 207.   22. 208. 51. 5. 319. 334. 57. 7. 266.   19. 258. 63. 3. 259. 68. 13. 196. 73. 2. 3. 17. 240. 89. 2. 267. 96. 11. 12. 13. 193. 194. 97. 11. 195. 98. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 193. 194. 101. 3. 159. 340. 103. 2. 161. 106. 1. 2. 3. 264. 265.   43. 353. 118. 27. 267. 119. 113. 154. 143. 2. 202. Proverbs . 5. 8. 146. Cap. ver . pag. 16. 4. 278. b. 17. 7. 265. 27. 19. 319. Ecclesiastes . 3. 16. 17. 238. 239. 240. 7. 29. 281. 282.   29. 280. 11. 9. 210. Canticles . 1. 7. 148. 5. 2. 218. Isaiah . 1. 22. 23. 239. 3. 16. usq . ad 25. 60. 39.   60. 61. 53. 1. 181. 57. 10. 354. Jeremiah . 2. 13. 357.   23. 534. Lamentations . 3. 22. 271.   23. 267. Ezekiel . 43. 8. 114. 44. 20. 147. Hosea . 2. 16. 147. 10. 2. 307. Amos. 5. 7. 211. 6. 3. 12. 211. Habakkuk . 1. 16. 275. Zachariah . 14. 20. 21. 59. Malachi . Cap. ver . pag. 3. 17. 195. 4. 1. 191.   2. 215. 216.   3. 216. 240. Matthew . 4. 3. 5. 6. 8. 9. 330. 331. 5. 28. 322.   29. 30. 33. 34. 39. 40. 41. 136. 7. 6. 96. 97.   17. 18. 331. 306.   22. 23. 209. 9. 29. 182. 10. 27. 232. 12. 8. 1. 50.   20. 40.   24. 31. 32. 35. 36. 49. 50. 51.   15. 12. 13. 14. 99.   19. 328. 16. 18. 40. 17. from 24. usque ad sinem , p. 149. 150. 151.   27. 98. 18. 7. 96. 120. 19. 28. 196. 197. 20. 8. 179. 22. 12. 202. 24. 45. 46. 47. 220. 25. 1. usque ad 13. 247. 248.   6. 179.   5. 217. 218.   10. 11. 12. 200.   14. 18. 21. 26. 30. 222. 223   14. 227.   20. 21. 22. 23. 228.   32. 33. 233.   41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 241. Mark. 2. 28. 150. 7. 21. 22. 342. 12. 41. 42. 43. 44. 228. 13. 34. 35. 36. 37. 219. 220. Luke . 12. 1 , 2 , 3. 246. 247. Cap. ver . pag.   3. 232.   35. 201.   47. 201.   48. 228. 229. 16. 19. 27.   19. 23. 61. 17. 1. 2. 127.   27. 28. 29. 61. 19. 12. 13. 226.   16. 17. 18. 19. 246.   17. 19. 222. 21. 1. 2. 3. 4. 228.   34. 35. 218.   35. 36. 217. John. 3. 18. 203. 5. 22. 176. 27. 177. 178. 6. 29. 40. 7. 24. 21. 14. 30. 330. 15. 15. 194. 16. 8. 9. 10. 207. 17. 20. 181. 20. 17. 273. Acts. 3. 19. 195. 196. 10. 42. 180. 15. 20. 29. 14. 151. 17. 30. 31. 203. 204. 205. 24. 25. 191. Romans . 1. 30. 352. 2. 5. 191. 206. 6. 12. 336. 337.   13. 336. 337.   14. 336. 337. 7. 8. 328. 335.   13. 335.   22. 311.   23. 311.   24. 334.   25. 343. 8. 7. 311.   19. 196.   23. 197. 198.   26. 200. Cap. ver . pag. 13. 4. 32. 120.   5. 117. 118. 14. 1. 21. 24.   2. 18.   3. 23. 28. 29.   4. 29.   5. 28.   9. 178.   10. 231. 244. 245.   11. 12. 231. 244. 245.   13. 35. 231. 244. 245.   14. 21. 27. 28. 36.   15. 39. 41. 99. 123. 127 278. 279   16. 40. 41.   17. 38.   20. 39. 40. 123. 127.   21. 35.   22. 28. 36. 42.   23. 28. 15. 2. 132. 16. 16. 59.   23. 87. 1. Cor. 1. 5. 230.   7. 230. 4. 3. 237.   4. 231. 232.   5. 190. 231. 232.   7. 344. 5. 10. 233. 6. 6. 98.   7. 98.   12. 11. 12. 13. 14. 26. 27. 102 7. 17. 227. 229. 8. per. tot . 95. 110.   1. 34.   8. 15. 16. 120.   9. 120.   11. 39.   12. 38.   13. 43. 44. 120. 121. 128. 133. 135. 136. 9. 19. 101.   20. 101.   21. 101.   22. 101.   24. 190. Cap. ver . pag.   27. 319. 339. 10. 20. usque ad 〈◊〉 . 95. 110 36. 37   23. 14. 15. 34.   24. 34.   25. 15. 16. 21. 37.   27. 15. 16. 21.   28. 37. 38. 111. 112.   29. 37. 40.   30. 40.   31. 41. 52. 53.   32. 41. 96. 117. 120. 131. 132.   33. 42. 15. 58. 246. 16. 22. 212. 213. 2. Cor. 4. 10. 221.   11. 220. 221. 5. 10. 185. Galat. 2. 11. 144.   12. 144.   13. 144.   14. 144. 3. 10. 205. 4. 15. 33. 5. 1. 23.   5. 198.   13. 24. 25. 34.   17. 312. 332.   20. 304.   24. 338. 6. 1. 345. Ephes. 2. 3. 289. 292. 4. 13. 249.   24. 279. b.   28. 224.   30. 197. Philip. 3. 19. 198. 199. Cap. ver . pag.   20. 198. 199. 4. 5. 219.   6. 219. Coloss. 2. 〈◊〉 . 303. 3. 3. 195.   4. 195.   10. 277. 278. b.   17. 54.   25. 230. 1 Thess. 1. 9. 199.   10. 199. 2. 9. 151. 152. 3. 12. 241.   13. 241. 5. 2. 218.   6. 218. 2 Thess. 1. 10. 195 2. 1. 248. 249   2. 248. 249 2 Tim. 4. 8. 197 Titus . 1. 15. 58 2. 12. 199   13. 199 Hebrews . 2. 3. 193 3. 15. 344 4. 1. 148 5. 1. 278 9. 28. 194. 197 10. 36 , 37 , 38 , 39. 250. 251 252 12. 1. 2. 337. 338.   15. 334   23. 230 , 244 James . 1. 4. 234. Cap. ver . pag.   13. 347   17. 274 5. 1 , 2 , 3. 223 , 224   7 , 8 , 9 , 234. usque ad 241   8. 250.   9. 245. 246 1 Peter . 1. 13. 200   13. 14. 15. 201.   17. 214 2. 5. 59   13. 14. 16. 31. 32   16. 24. 25. 163 4. 4. 5. 209. 210   7. 216. 218.   10. 229.   11. 54. 2 Peter . 1. 4. 328. 344 3. 3. 4. 209   11. 12. 199.   12. 201   12. 13. 14. 208.   14. 202 1 Iohn . 2. 1. 2. 194   28. 202 3. 20. 203 4. 17. 212 Jude .   14. 15. 207. 213. 214.   23. 147. 148. Revelations . 1. 7. 206. 207. 177. 3. 12. 249. 6. 15. 16. 17. 191. 192 8. 3. 278 14. 7. 215. 20. 12. 247. 22. 17. 199. 200. Note , That Pages 277. 278. 279. 280. are , by a mistake of the Printer , twice figured , and therefore the latter Pages are in the Tables distinguished from the former , by the Letter b. Addenda & Corrigenda . EPistle , r. of the ablest Pens , p. 4. l. x 5. before actus homicidii r. lapis non est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Habes ibi medium negationis , sed cum 〈◊〉 ad 〈◊〉 extremum , p. 7. l. 33. r. it is , p. 15. l. 9. dele the first and , p. 10. Marg. l. 16. r. prosecutio , p. 〈◊〉 . l. 27. r. 〈◊〉 scandalls , p. 24. l. 21. r. given , p. 30. l. 14. for Calvinists r. 〈◊〉 , p. 56. Marg. l. 26. r. 〈◊〉 , p. 74. l. 2. 3. r. razed , p. 82. Marg. r. ex accidenti , p. 83. l. 22. r. as well as the performance , p. 85. l. 25. r. into consideration , p. 88. Marg. l. 37. r. sub ratione . p. 89. l. 8. r. princes , p. 94. l. 19. r. assertion , p. 102. 〈◊〉 : two last lines , r. 〈◊〉 , p. 〈◊〉 . l. antepenult . dele all , p. 107. l. 7. r. but also , p. 112. l. 31. r. or else determined , p. 119. Marg. l. 5. r. 〈◊〉 , vel partim justae , & partim injustae , p. 140. Marg. l. 〈◊〉 , r. sapienter , p. 142. 〈◊〉 . l. 4. r. morem , p. 148. Marg. l. 6. r. covered , p. 150. l. 23. r. a badge of the bondage , p. 157. l. 12. r. to , and l. 19. 20. r. appearances , p. 165. l. 27. r. detestation , p. 167. l. 21. r. circumspection , p. 174. l. 22. 23. r. Archangel , p. 186. l. 24. r. there was , p. 187. l. 1. 〈◊〉 . accrued , 〈◊〉 99. l. 6. r. so much despised , and a person they have so much contemned , p. 201. l. 35. r. and they are , 1. Faith , p. 202. l. 13. r. a David , p. 203. l. 5. r. for it , p. 204. l. 1. r. commands , and l. 20. r. so much improved , and l. 26. r. to repent by a more , p. 214. l. 〈◊〉 , for a , r. as , p 226. l. 〈◊〉 . r. Sermons , that we have heard the many good Books , &c. p. 231. l. 5. r. as sons , p. 233. l. 19. r. a tendency , p. 235. l. 20. dele second of , p. 237. l. 1. r. false , l. 27. r. implyed , p. 244. l. 2. r. of petition , p. 247. 〈◊〉 . 20. r. closest , p. 249. l. 28. r. fear of death , p. 251. Mar. l. 12 , 13. r. fatigat & , p. 260. l. 12. r. such as is , p. 261. l. 31. r. ipso dono , p. 262. l. 1. r. fail we , p. 266. l. 32. 33. r. we are then always bound to give thanks actually , yet we are not bound to give thanks actually always , p. 268. l. 33. r. privative , p. 269. l. 7. r. 〈◊〉 , p. 270. l. 8. r. formally , p. 〈◊〉 . l. 21. r. on unto the , p. 276. l. 5. r. proprio , p. 280. l. 35. r. 〈◊〉 , p. 281. l. 7. r. simultaneous , p. 292. l. 20. r. concreated therewith , p. 293. l. 1. r. summed up , p. 299. l. 7. r. necessarily , l. 32. r. it will , p. 300. l. 15. r. an p. 309. l. 6. r. excepted . p. 310. Marg : l. 4 , 5. r. 〈◊〉 , p. 311. l. 29. r. effect , l. 37. r. it fighteth , p. 314. l. 14. r. donum , p. 315. l. 21. r. and p. 319. l. 30. r. mens p. 320. l. 13. r. an aversion , p. 321. l. 12 , 13. r. sub-divisions , p. 322. l. 20. r. by the bringing forth of sin , is meant the bringing of it forth , p. 327. l. 9. r. owe unto , l. 27. r. cause , l. 〈◊〉 . r. as of , l. 31. r. and much , p. 328. l 5 , 6 , 7. dele as their 〈◊〉 varieth not onely in several men , but in the same men , l. 29. r. the greatest . p. 331. l. 〈◊〉 . r. lay down briesly , p. 334. l. 2. r. as the 〈◊〉 , p. 337. l. 2. r. an obedience , l. 〈◊〉 . r. souls , p. 339. l. 31. r. this hast , p. 344. l. 13. r. efficacy of lust , p. 355. l. 20. r. by translation . Slighter escapes are left unto the pardon and correction of the candid and intelligent Reader . A TREATISE Concerning the INDIFFERENCIE OF HVMANE ACTIONS . 1 Corinth . 6. 10. All things are lawfull for me , but all things are not expedient . All things are lawfull for me , but I will not be brought under the power of any . 1 Cor. 10. 23. All things are lawfull for me , but all things edifie not : OXFORD , Printed by Hen : Hall , Printer to the UNIVERSITY , for Tho : Robinson , 1659. To the Right Worshipfull Sir WILLIAM WYNDHAM , of Orchard Wyndham , in the County of Somerset , BARONET . SIR , THose that know the depth of my obligations to you , have long since expected my publique acknowledgment thereof ; and having now an opportunity to make it : My own Conscience would condemne me of a most disingenuous ingratitude , if I should any longer deferre it . But not only my private , and personall engagements , but your own merit will justify this Dedication : for 't is so well , and generally known , as that it may , with a great deale of justice , entitle you unto the exactest peices of the able pens of the age , therefore much more unto the poore , and meane endeavours of Your Unworthy , though most gratefull Servant HENRY JEANRS . A TREATISE Concerning the INDIFFERENCIE OF HVMANE ACTIONS . I Have often wondred at some Prelatists , charging the poore non-conformists with denyall of things indifferent ; from which their Writings do sufficiently acquit them : Dr John Burgess ( in his Rejoinder , Pag. 188 , 189. ) tells 〈◊〉 , that M r Bradshaw against all Learning , and sense , resolves , that there is nothing indifferent . But from this accusation , we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Vindication ( in his fresh suite against 〈◊〉 , pag. 161 , 〈◊〉 . ) 〈◊〉 Hammond ( in his grounds of Vniformity ) accuseth Amesius himselfe for this opinion ; but with how little truth , the Reader may , soone see ; if he please to peruse these following places in him , Med. Theolog. lib. 2. cap. 3. sect . 13 , 14 , 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . lib. 3. cap. 18. Gregory de 〈◊〉 informes me , that one of the Articles of John Husse , ( anathematized in the Councill of Constance . ) was , that 〈◊〉 sunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . That which Papists of old charged upon him , these men impute to those , whom they have been pleased to nickname 〈◊〉 . But for the untruth , and injustice of this crimination , we dare appeale to the more moderate , and Learned of their own party . The Reverend , and Learned Dr Sanderson disputeth against them , for making the restraint of the outward man in matters indifferent , an impeachment to Christian liberty ; on Rom : 14. 3. Pag. 24. 25. And this presupposeth that they held somethings to be in their nature indifferent . I shall therefore spend no more time , or paper , to wipe off an aspersion so manifestly untrue , and unjust : But yet however this hath occasioned me to resolve upon the briefe stating of the truth touching things , or actions indifferent : and in order hereunto I shall 1. Premise some Distinctions concerning the actions of man ; and 2. Explaine what is meant by indifferency . 1. First , The actions of man are either indeliberate or deliberate . 1. Indeliberate , which proceed , either from the disposition of naturall qualities ( as hungering , thirsting , the easing and disburdening of nature ) or else from the force of Imagination , ( as rubbing of the beard , or hand , scratching of the head , lifting up of a straw from the ground , and such like things , when a man thinks not of them . ) 2. Deliberate , which proceed from deliberate reason and are properly humane , and rationall actions , all voluntary actions . These may be considered two manner of waies . 1. In the generall , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 2. 〈◊〉 the singulars , and individual's , actu 〈◊〉 . The former consideration is meerly in regard of the object ; The latter taketh in all circumstances whatsoever : The former is a consideration of actions , secundum speciem , according to their sort or 〈◊〉 ; The latter is a consideration of them in regard of their actuall existence . In a second place we are to enquire , what is meant by the 〈◊〉 of actions : It apparently carrieth in its notlon , a negation of morall goodnesse , and illnesse : I say , signanter , of morall goodnesse , and illnesse ; because the most indifferent actions are 〈◊〉 , and may be naturally good . 〈◊〉 indifferent action then 〈◊〉 that , which is neither 〈◊〉 good , 〈◊〉 evill : The nature 〈◊〉 things 〈◊〉 , ( saith the great Hpoker in his 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 , Pag. 59. ) is neither to be commanded , nor forbidden , but left free , and arbitrary : With which I would desire Dr Hammond to reconcile what he hath in his Treatise of Will-worship ; that the best of morall actions , the highest degrees of vertue , and of worship , the most superlative love of God are uncommanded : and he , I hope , will give me leave to adde , that they are not forbidden , and hereupon I shall conclude , that ( by Mr Hooker his definition ) they are indifferent ; which is as unsober a conceit allmost , as can be uttered , and unworthy of any serious resutation . I shall here onely make use of part of his expressions against Ames ( in his grounds of Uniformity , Pag. 14. ) He that thinks the highest degree of vertue is indifferent , doth certainly use other Dictionaries then we doe . But to leave him , I shall for clearing the nature of indifferency propound , and satisfie two Queries . 1. What medium indifferent things are betwixt things morally good , and evill ? whether medium abnegationis , or participationis ? The Author of Altare Damascenum affirmeth it to be medium 〈◊〉 a middle between them by way of abnegation , Adiaphora non sunt media per participationem , ut 〈◊〉 inter album , & nigrum ; sed per negationem utriúsque extremi , conformitatis & difformitatis ad rectam 〈◊〉 , seu 〈◊〉 , pag. 496. But for the disproofe of this , I shall desire you to observe out of (a) Capreolus , that a thing may be said to be a medium , or middle betwixt that which is morally good , and morally evill ; either by way of abstràction from them ( as a generall nature is abstracted from it's differences , a subject from it's accidents ; ) or else by way of repugnancy unto them , because it is uncapable of them , and thus a stone is of a middle nature betwixt that which seeth , and is blind , because it is uncapable of both sight , and blindnesse . Now it is this latter way , that a thing is said to be a medium by the abnegation of each extreame , as is evident by the instances usually brought for the exemplification hereof ; For they are of such things as are uncapable of , and repugnant unto both extreames . And the most indifferent actions , that proceed from deliberate reason , are capable of becoming either good , or evill , by circumstances , and carry no 〈◊〉 thereunto : so much is confessed by Didoclave himselfe in the place above mentioned . Tertium quod constituit hujus medii formale est non repugnantia ad utrunque extremum . Actus 〈◊〉 in bove cornu-peta nullam habet conformitatem , aut dissormitatem ad rectam rationem , non tamen dicitur actus indifferens , quia ibi est repugnantia ad utrunque extremum , nam bos est animal irratimale . Adiaphora igitur sunt dubia , indistincta , & UTRÓQUE vergentia , sed non magis vergentia in unum quam alterum extremum . Others therefore conclude , that indifferent actions are a medium , or middle betwixt good , and bad , in a way of participation ; and that either potentiall , or actuall . 1. Potentiall , There is in them a non-repugnancy unto either of the extreames , unto morall goodnesse or badnesse , so that they may be either good , or bad by circumstances . 2. Actuall , and this agreeth onely to such indifferent acts , as become good by circumstances , for they being but imperfectly good , are in part good , and in part evill , and so partake actually of both extreames . By this you may see , though indifferent actions , which proceed from deliberate reason may in some sense be said to be a medium of participation betwixt that which is morally good , or evill ; yet they are not said to be a middle of participation in such a strict sense , as lukewarmnesse is betwixt cold , and heat ; for that alwaies partaketh actually of both extreames ( cold , and heat , ) whereas indifferent actions doe not alwaies actually partake of the two extreames , ( morall goodnesse or badnesse , ) but onely when they are good ; for many of them may be , and too often are by circumstances totally and altogether evill , and in no respect good . Amesius qualifies the matter , and affirmeth that as it is not medium merae abnegationis , so it is medium alicujus participationis , a middle not of meere abnegation , but of some participation . Absolutely , and simply , in strictnesse of speech , it is neither medium negationis , nor participationis : 1. Not 〈◊〉 ; because it hath no repugnancy unto it's extreames : 2. Not participationis ; because it doth not allwaies actually partake of both extreames ; But yet , 〈◊〉 quid , after a sort , and in some respect , it may be reduced unto both medium abnegationis , and participationis : It resembleth medium 〈◊〉 , because as such it is neither of the extreames ; and it resembleth medium participationis , because sometimes it actually participates of both extreames : And thus you see how these different opinions may be reconciled ; But yet ( because denominatio fit à potiori ) we shall rather reduce it unto medium participationis ; because unto that it hath the greatest resemblance . A second question is ; Whether all indifferent actions be equally indifferent ? no more bending unto evill , then unto good ? Didoclave holds the affirmative , Nec solum ( saith he ) requiritur negatio conformitatis , seu difformitatis ad legem ceu rectam rationem , sed etiam majoris propensionis in unam quam in aliam partem . And againe afterwards : Adiaphora non sunt magis vergentia in unum quam alterum extremum . The incomparably Learned Dr Sanderson is of a contrary opinion , that some things are unequally indifferent , Indifferentia ad unum ( as he is pleased to call them ) I shall transcribe his words , and with all due reverence of his person briefely examine them . Dr Sanderson on Rom : 3. 8. pag. 58. 59. Things unequally indifferent are such , as though they be neither universally good , not absolutely evill , yet even barely considered , sway more , or lesse rather the one way , then the other : And that either unto good , or unto evill . Of the former sort are such outward actions , as being in morall precepts 〈◊〉 commanded , are yet sometimes sinfully and ill done : as , giving an almes , hearing a 〈◊〉 , repreoving an offender ; and the like , which are in themselves good , and so to be accounted , rather then evill ; though some unhappy Circumstance or other may make them ill . Of the latter sort are such outward actions , as being in morall precepts indefinitely prohibited , are yet in some cases lawfull , and may be well done : as , swearing an oath , travelling on the Sabbath day , playing for money , and the like : which are in themselves rather evill , then good , because they are ever 〈◊〉 , unlesse all circumstances concurre to make them good . Now of these actions , though the former sort carry the face of good , the latter of evill ; yet in very truth both sorts are indifferent . Understand me aright : I do not meane indifferent , indifferentiâ contradictionis , such as may be indifferently 〈◊〉 done , or not done ; but indifferent onely indifferentiâ contrarietatis , such as ( suppose the doing ) may be indifferently either good , or evill : because so they may be done , as to be good , and so they may be done also , as to be evill ; but yet with this difference , that 〈◊〉 former , though indifferent , and in some cases evill , are yet of themselves notably and eminently inclined unto good rather then evill ; and these latter proportionably unto evill , rather then good . For answere : The first sort of actions , such as being in morall precepts indefinitely commanded , are yet sometimes sinfully and ill done , ( as , giving an almes , hearing a sermon , reproving an offender , and the like , ) are not in the language of the Schoolmen , indifferent actions : This I shall make good by an argument out of Suarez ( brought by him unto another purpose ; ) He disputing against some , that held all humane actions to be indifferent , proves the contrary ; First in inward , then in outward actions ; and his argument 〈◊〉 outward actions stands thus . If externall acts be considered according to an objective goodnesse , or illnesse , this cannot be true , because there are many actions in their own nature objectively evill , and prohibited , and there are other also objectively good , and honest ; because this goodnesse , and illnesse is not taken by extrinsick Denomination , from the inward act , but from it's 〈◊〉 call agreement with , or repugnancy unto right reason . Those actions which have a materiall , and objective goodnesse , are not indifferent actions in the language of the Schooles . But the actions , that the Doctor speaks of , have an objective , and materiall goodnesse , because they are commanded , and therefore they are not indifferent . But , saith the Doctor , they are indifferent at least indifferentiâ Contrarietatis , such as ( suppose the doing ) may be indifferently either good or evill : because so they may be done , as to be good , and so they may be done also , as to be evill . For answer : By this account all outward ordinances of God , all externall acts of worship , and indeed all outward good works whatsoever should be actions indifferent , because they may be done well , or ill : But to say that all these are indifferent would be very strange language : for although they may have evill cast upon them externally by the agent , yet this is no hinderance but that they may be in themselves objectively and materially good , as being matter of precept . But perhaps there may be some mystery in this clause , indefinitely commanded : They are commanded , but not to be performed alwaies , but only loco , & tempore debitis ; according to the known rule , Affirmativa praecepta obligant semper , non ad semper . For answer : This will nothing alter the case ; for hereby it will follow , that the matter of all affirmative precepts should be indifferent ; And whosoever shall say so takes indifferency in a different notion from the usuall acception thereof by both Papists , and Protestants ; who jointly make it to be a middle thing betwixt that morall goodnesse , and badnesse , which is called 〈◊〉 or materiall . As for the second sort of Actions , I readily confesse that in some sense they may be said to be unequally indifferent , inclining and swaying more to evill , then to good . To cleare which I shall distinguish of a twofold consideration of such actions : They may be considered meerly in regard of their object , or else also in regard of the circumstances , which usually are annexed with them : In regard of their object they are equally indifferent ; But yet in regard of Circumstances may be said to be more notably and eminently inclined unto evill then unto good ; because the circumstances , which generally , and commonly are connexed with them , are evill . But as for the reason , which the Doctor bringeth to prove them to be unequally indifferent , rather evill , then good , is to me very unsatisfying . His words are , which are in themselves rather evill , then good , because they are over 〈◊〉 , unlesse all circumstances concurre to make them good . The ground of my exception against this reason is ; because as much may be said of all outward good works , religious duties , and services whatsoever : They are all ever evill , unlesse all circumstances concurre to make them good , according to that of Dionysius , Bonum fit ex causâ integrâ : malum ex quovis defectu . I shall conclude my answer unto this second 〈◊〉 , with rehearsall of Dr Ames his proposall , and decision of it . An actiones indifferentes nihil inter se differant , sed aequè omnes à bono , & malo distent ? Resp. In suâ intrinsecâ naturâ nihil omnino 〈◊〉 ; sed tamen 〈◊〉 sunt , quae ut plurimum habent circumstantias malas annexas , atque adeò dicuntur vergere in malum , aut in malum sonare , ut accusatoris aut carnificis munere fungi : quaedam etiam , quae ut plurimum habent circumstantias bonas annexas , atque adeò dicuntur 〈◊〉 in bonum , aut in bonum sonare , ut colere agros , diligentiam in studiis adhibere , &c. In their own intrinsecall nature they differ nothing at all : but yet there are some which for the most part have evill circumstances annexed to them , and so bend more toward evill , and have an evill name : as to do the worke of an accuser , the osfice of an hangman , &c. some there be also which for the most part have good circumstances , and so bend toward good , and have a good name , as to till the ground , to 〈◊〉 our study diligently &c. Having premised these things , I shall in the next place , proceed to lay downe some conclusions concerning the indifferency of the actions of man : and they shall be three . 1. Conclusion . The Indeliberate actions of man which proceed from the disposition of naturall qualities , or onely from the Imagination , as to rub the beard , or hands , to scratch the head , to move the head , feet , or a staffe ( The mind being not intent upon them , ) may be , and are indifferent , not onely in the generall , but in their individuals , and singulars : The reason which b Aquinas giveth for this is very solid ; Because such actions to speake properly are not morall , and humane , for they do not proceed from the soule as reasonable : Those actions , which are not morall , or of morall consideration , are uncapable of morall goodnesse or badnesse : for morall goodnesse , or badnesse implieth a morall beeing : But now those actions which proceed from the disposition of naturall qualities , or from the force of the Imagination onely are not morall , are not of morall consideration , they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 moris : And the reason is because actions have their morality 〈◊〉 this , that they are some way or other immediately , or mediately derived from reason . Against this reason of Aquinas , ( c ) Durand propounds this following objection : that if the acts of the imagination be uncapable of a morall being , and so not of a morall consideration , that then they are uncapable of sinne : for every 〈◊〉 action is a morall action : But now they are not uncapable of sinne : for it is most evident , that in sensualitate potest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that sin may be in the indeliberate acts of the sensitive appetite , and in the acts of the imagination ; and the reason is , because the sensuall powers or faculties are said to belong or appertaine unto reason , though not essentialiter , yet participativè , as being under the conduct and guidance of right reason , obliged to hearken unto it's voyce , and to obey all it's just Commands , and dictates . The answere here-unto in the same Author is , that the indeliberate acts of the sensitive powers , and faculties are of two sorts . 1. Some have for their matter , sinne , and such are morall : for they are voluntary , though not directly , as being produced or commanded by the will , yet indirectly , as being that , which the will is able , and obliged to hinder : and therefore reason ought to be watchfull to prevent the rising of them . But now there are some indeliberate acts of the sensitive faculties , which have not for their obiects the matter of sinne , such as are above instanced in , and of them we may say indefinitely , and in the generall , that they are not morall ; because they are not voluntary , either directly , or indirectly ; Reason is not bound to keepe any watch over them , nor is the will bound to restraine , and represse them ; nisi in casu , rationo alicujus adiuncti , as Durand limits it . As when they are a hinderance to Duties , or against that decency which is required in the worship , and service of God ; As for example if a man should be rubbing of his beard , scratching of his head , moving of his feete , or any other part of his body in an undecent way in the act of receiving the elements in the Lords supper : That which I have said touching this Conclusion is for the substance of it in Ames de Conscientiâ . lib. 3. cap. 18. His words I shall transcribe . Actiones quaedam ita sunt hominis , ut non sint proprie humanae , illae scilicet , quae procedunt ab imaginatione nudâ , & non a ratione deliberatâ , ut fricare manus , aut barbam , scalpere caput , levare festucam , &c. dum aliud aliquid cogitamus . Hujusmodi actiones non sunt moraliter 〈◊〉 aut malae : quia non sunt in genere moris constitutae , dum omni consilio destituuntur . Quamvis enim istis etiam 〈◊〉 quis peccare , ut si tempore precum vagari sineret imaginationem suam , et huiusmodi nugis indulgere , ipsae tamen actiones per se 〈◊〉 malae sunt , 〈◊〉 bonae . Subijciuntur quidem istiusmodi motus imperio arbitrii humani ; sed ita subijciuntur , 〈◊〉 possint exerceri nullo rationis actu 〈◊〉 nequè vlterius illas ratione praevenire tenemur , quam ut officis non obsint . Sicut in oculorum 〈◊〉 movendis moderandi potestatem habet ratio , et voluntas : sed non 〈◊〉 operae pretium observare quoties connivemus , si modo caveatur , ne praeter decorum , aut officium aliquid in 〈◊〉 admittatur . 1. There be some actions , which though they be actions of man , yet they are not humane actions , such are those which proceed from imagination only , and not from deliberate reason , as the rubbings of mens hands , to scratch the head or beard , to take up a straw , &c. while we are thinking of something else : these actions are not morally good or evill , they want that which is required to make them so , namely counsell and deliberation : for although a man may sin by those actions , as if in time of prayer he suffer his imagination to wander , and do give way to such toyings as those . Yet these actions considered in themselves are neither good nor evill . It is true these motions are subject to the Command of mans will , but yet they are so subject , that they may be exercised without any precedent act of reason ; neither are we 〈◊〉 any farther by reason to prevent them , but only so 〈◊〉 that they hinder not the duties we are about . So 〈◊〉 moving of the eye-lids , reason and the will have power to moderate them , but it is not worth the while to take notice how often we winke , if so be we take heed , that in such things nothing be done , which is undecent , or against our duty . A second Conclusion : There be divers deliberate actions , that proceed from deliberate reason , which if they be considered in actu signato , in the generall , secundum speciem , according to their sort , or Kind , as abstracted from all singularizing circumstances . are indifferent , neither morally good , nor evill : This I shall confirme by scripture , and by reason . 1. By scripture : And here we have a most signall place . 1. Cor. 6. 12. All things are lawfull unto me . Here all things are to be taken not absolutely , but limitedly , for all indifferent things : for as for things Commanded , they are not onely lawfull , but also necessary , and therefore must be done 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : And as for things prohibited , they are unlawfull and sinfull . The words then are an undeniable proofe of the indifferency of some actions , and withall an explication of such indifferency : Indifferent actions are meerly lawfull , neither necessary , nor unlawfull ; They may lawfully be done , and lawfully be abstained from . In this text then 〈◊〉 have the extent of our Christian liberty 〈◊〉 , and limited . 1. We have the extent of it unto all indifferent things asserted ; And the Apostle contents not himselfe to affirme it once , but doubleth the affirmation : The reason of which may be , because he thought it an important point , or because he would put it out of all doubt , and controversy . 2. We have also a twofold limitation , or restraint put upon the use or exercising of our Christian liberty as touching things indifferent ; But all things are not expedient ; But I will not be brought under the power of any . Many think , that Paul speaks these words per mimesin , a figure called imitation ; that he speakes not in his own person , but rehearseth the words of the Corinthians : so that here is , first Corinthiorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the objection of the Corinthians , All things are lawfull for me : secondly , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the reply of Paul , But all things are not expedient : But I will not be brought under the power of any . But whether the Apostle uttered his own words , or the Corinthians is not materiall : because , suppose they be the words of the Corinthians , he grants them with due limitations : The sentence of Paul , saith Aegidius Hunnius , consist's of a concession and correction . 1. A Concession of the lawfulnesse of all indifferent things . All things are lawfull for me . 2. A Correction or restriction of this large grant : wherein he sheweth : that though all indifferent things be in their generall nature lawfull ; yet they are in some cases to be abstained from , when they are inexpedient : when they enthrall us unto either persons , or things : But all things are not 〈◊〉 : But I will not be brought under the power of any . A great difference there is amongst expositors about the coherence of these words : Some thinke , that the Apostle makes way for that Argument which he handles at large chap : 9. All things are lawfull for me ; therefore to receive a salary for preaching of the Gospell is lawfull : But I will not make use of this my liberty : Because it will not be expedient unto the promoting of the Gospell amongst you , but an hinderance rather : And because I will retaine my full liberty of reproving you , which I shall in great part lose , if I should receive my whole livelyhood from you : As it fares with the false prophets among you , that are no better then Trencher chaplaines , that dare not touch your sores , medle with either your sinnes , or errours , for feare that hereupon you should shorten your benevolence : I will not be brought under the power of any . But the coherence is too 〈◊〉 fetcht , and we may say the same of others , who would make these words to cohere with chap. 8. v. 9. Others with more probability derive the connexion of the words onely from the present chapter : and they are again subdivided : some fetch it from the words foregoing : Others from the words following . 1. From the words foregoing . The Apostles discourse about going to law with Brethren before the unjust , and unbelievers : The Corinthians might be ready to object in behalfe of this their practise , that it was a thing in it's own nature indifferent , not prohibited by the word of God , and therefore lawfull ; for all things are lawfull , that is all indifferent things . True , saith the Apostle , but. 1. all things are not expedient : And in particular for Christians to sue Christians before Paganish Tribunals is so far from being expedient , as that it is an impediment unto Christians own glorifying of God in his immediate worship and service , as also unto their quiet , peaceable , and comfortable communion with Brethren . 2. I will not be brought under the power of any , either persons , or things . And if you goe in this manner to law with your Brethren you will put your selves under the power of many both persons , and things . 1. Persons : Perhaps you will lie at the mercy of an unjust judg : a false witnesse may undoe you ; A corrupt lawyer betray you ; your own witnesses will command your table , and purse , though for attesting the truth ; And though your Advocates be never so faithfull , you must give them your most diligent attendance ; As the proverb is , you must not only pay , but pray them too . 2. Things : The many matters , the things of the world , which you sue for , will have you so farre under their power , as that they will be a great hinderance to your free , and full service of God ; for if they doe not wholly withdraw you from it , they will wonderfully distract you in it ; Because law suits will take up the greatest part of your time , and the best of your thoughts . (d) Adde unto this , that for Christians , especially in those primitive times , to pursue their Brethren unto the judgment-seats of heathens , in matters capable of an amicable compromise by the mediation of Brethren , was a plaine evidence , that they were under the power of the world , and the things thereof ; for who but a muckworme , a vassall to his wealth , would doe a thing so much unto the discredit of the Gospell , and reproach of Christianity ; especially seeing they might with greater probability expect justice from the umpirage of saints , then the sentences of professed unbelievers ? Others in the next place look for the cohaesion of these words forwards , upon the Apostles ensuing discours , touching fornication : not only the Corinthians , but the Gentiles in generall held simple fornicatiō to be a thing indifferent . The old man in the Comedian , spake the sense of the generality of them : Crede mihi non est slagitium adolescentulum scortari . And you will the less wonder at this , if you cōsider , that Durand , a Popish Schoolman , held it to be unlawfull , not by the law of nature , but only by the positive law of God : Quod autem dicunt quidam , quod simplex fornicatio est peccatum mortale de se , exclusâ omni lege positivâ , divinâ & humanâ , non benè intelligo , lib. 4. dist . 33. quaest . 2. And upon the Consideration of this opinion of the Gentiles touching the indifferency of fornication it was , ( think interpreters , ) that fornication is Acts. 15. by the first Council ranged amongst indifferent things , bloud , and things strangled ; The use of which was forbidden onely for a time . Unto this erroneous supposition the Apostle answereth per limitationem , & per inficiationem : He limits the generall rule touching things indifferent , and then he denieth the instance in question . And this his denyall he illustrateth , and confirmeth from vers . 13. unto the end of the chapter . Unto this his deniall he premiseth limitations of the generall rule . All indifferent things are lawfull : He puts a double restraint upon it . The first ; But all things are not expedient , or profitable : Many indifferent things sometimes prove an impediment unto our Christian race , and then they are to be forborne . A second restraint is in these words : But I will not be brought under the power of any : My affection unto indifferent things shall be so temperate , as that it shall be in my power to forbeare 〈◊〉 upon reasonable and important Considerations . There should be an indifferencie in our desires towards things indifferent , so that they should not have the command of us ; but we should be able to use , or not to use them , as the concurrence of particular circumstances guide us : To give yet further light unto these words , I shall briefly consider their coherence as they lie in 1 Cor. 10. 23. with little variation . The Apostle there states a case of Conscience touching the eating of Idolothytes , things offered unto Idoles . First , he resolves , that to eat them publiquely in the temple of Idoles , at the idolatrous feasts of these Idoles , was to have communion in the worship of these idols to have fellowship with Divels ; to be partakers of the table of Divels : He that did thus eat them , did eat them considered formally , as 〈◊〉 and consecrated to idoles ; He did eat them in the honour of the idols , unto which they were offered ; He did tacitly acknowledg their Deity , and 〈◊〉 approve of the Idolatrous worship and service of them ; But now the Apostle alloweth a private use of things offered to idols , If they were not eaten under a religious notion , but considered onely and materially as meat , matter of food , and as the good creatures of God. Two cases he instanceth in , wherein they might be thus eaten ; First , they might buy them in the shambles , and eat them in their own houses , vers . 25. And secondly , they might eat them at the tables of their unbelieving neighbours , that invited them : This latter part of the Determination of the question he confirmes , and limiteth , by putting in an exception in the case of scandall : And unto all this he prefixeth the extension of our Christian liberty , unto all indifferent things in the generall , together with two restrictions , that we are to put upon it in the use and exercise : Even indifferent things are to be forborne , when they are not profitable , and conducing unto the ends , which a Christian should propound : when they are destructive and scandalous unto our Brethren : (*) All things are lawfull for me , but all things are not 〈◊〉 : All things are lawfull for me , but all things edifie not . Unto these two places ( 1 Cor. 6. 12. 1 Cor. 10. 23. ) I shall adde one more ( 1 Cor. 8. 8. ) But meat 〈◊〉 us not to God : for neither , if we eat are we the better : neither if we eat 〈◊〉 , are we the 〈◊〉 : Meat ( that is ) the use and eating of meat ( 〈◊〉 considered , and in the generall ) commendeth us not to God : for the kingdome of God is not meat and drink : for 〈◊〉 if we eat , are we the 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , have we the more , ( that is ) the more vertue in our selves , the more grace and favour with God : Neither if we eat not , are we the worse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , have we the lesse , the lesse vertue in our selves , the lesse acceptation with God : Eating then of any sort or kind of meat ( considered , as abstracted from all singularizing circumstances ) is a thing indifferent that hath neither vertue , nor vice in it , neither pleaseth nor displeaseth God : And what the Apostle speaketh of eating of meat , is applyable by way of analogy and proportion unto a world of things of the like nature , as shall be manifested by the reasons for the Conclusion , unto which in the next place I hasten . The Protestants generally thus argue : The nature of things indifferent ( as the Learned Hooker determineth ) is neither to be commanded nor forbidden , but left free and arbitrary : But now there are divers humane and voluntary actions , that are in the generall neither commanded , nor forbidden ( as to eat , drink , goe a journey , walke into the field : ) Therefore there are diverse humane and voluntary actions , that are in the generall , and for the kind indifferent . This argument the Papists dislike because they think , that there are matters of Counsell , which containe the highest degree of morall goodnesse , and perfection : And yet thinke they are uncommanded , and no man will say that they are forbidden . The Argument of the Schoolmen therefore generally runs thus : Actions , that are neither agreeable , nor disagreeable unto right reason are indifferent : But there are divers humane and voluntary actions , that in their generall nature , and consideration carry , neither conformity , nor repugnancy unto right reason : And therefore there are divers humane and voluntary actions , that are indifferent . This argument is thus managed by (f) Durand : That act is neither good nor evill , but indifferent , Concerning which there is in the reason of man no more rectitude , or irrectitude and obliquity in the affirmation , then in the negation in it's dictating either the practice , or in its dictating the forbearance thereof . For the pursuit and eschewall of the will are in regard of morall goodnesse , or badnesse correspondent unto the dictates of the practicall understanding , and therefore where there is an indifferencie in point of truth in the understandings dictates concerning the doing , or not doing of a thing , there is an indifferency in regard of morall goodnesse or badnesse in the wills imbracing , or eschewing of that thing . If the understanding erre not , whether it prescribe the performance , or forbearance of an action , then the will sinneth not , whether it performe or forbeare it : But there are divers acts concerning which there is in the reason of man no more rectitude , or irrectitude and obliquity in the affirmation , then in the negation of them , in its dictating the practise , or in its dictating the forbearance of them : This he proveth because the rectitude of reason consists in conformity unto some naturall law , or some divine law , or some law derived from these : But there are divers humane actions concerning which , there occurreth no such law , either forbidding , or commanding : and therefore there is no rectitude or obliquity in the reasons or understandings affirming or denying of them . It is indifferent , which way the understanding takes , whether it dictates the doing or not doing of them : and consequently it is indifferent , whether the will 〈◊〉 , or nilleth them . Here by the way I cannot but take notice , how Durand unawares crosseth their doctrine of Evangelicall Counsels : for Suarez ( de leg . lib. cap. 14. ) will tell him , that Counsell is not properly a Law : By this doctrine of Durand then in matters of Counsell there should be no rectitude of reason , because no conformity unto any law : But this by the by . This argument is yet further improved by (g) 〈◊〉 de Valentia . The Morall goodnesse ( saith he ) which we speake of , is such a congruence unto reason , as carrieth praise with it according unto the usuall estimate of men , and appertaineth unto mans everlasting happinesse , his chiefe , and soveraigne end ; and answerably the morall ilnesse or badnesse of an action stands in such a repugnancie unto right reason , as that according to the usuall estimation of men , it is worthy of dispraise , and is an impediment unto his attaining his supreame end , the eternall blisse of his soule ; But now there are severall humane actions that considered in themselves have neither praise nor dispraise ; neither prejudice , nor advantage the salvation of our soules ; are neither helps , nor lets unto the obtaining of our highest end and happinesse , and therefore there are actions morally indifferent . Unto what hath been said , I shall adde two arguments more out of a late Philosopher . Irenaeus , A Carmelite or white Frier (h) First , upon actions morally good , or bad , we may lawfully passe our Censures , that they are such ; But we should passe rash judgment , if we should censure Divers actions of our Bretheren to be determinately virtuous , or determinately vitious , moraly good or bad : Let not him that eateth not judge him which eateth . Rom. 14. 2. There are therefore some actions , which for their kind are neither good , nor bad , but indifferent . Secondly , Many acts are evill , onely by the prohibition of some positive law ; As unto the Jewes it was unlawfull to eate Swines flesh , to weare a garment of divers colours , as of woollen and linnen together , Deut. 22. 11. These actions therefore , and many the like , were of themselves , and in their owne nature , indifferent , and became unlawfull onely by the ceremoniall law given unto the Jewes , which law being abrogated , it is now a thing indifferent and lawfull for Christians to eate swines flesh , or not to eate it , to weare a garment of linsey-woolsey , or not . Unto these scriptures and reasons I shall adde the testimony of Hierome , frequently quoted for this purpose . Bonum , inquit , est continentia , malum est luxuria . Inter utrumque indifferens ambulare , capitis , naribus purgamenta projicere , sputis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Hoc nec bonum , nec malum est : sivè enim feceris , sivè non feceris , nec 〈◊〉 habebis , nec injustitiam . Aristotle , and Sextus Empyricus give in their verdict for the truth of this assertion , whose sayings the reader may peruse at large in Raynaudus moral . disciplin . distinct . 4. quaest . 1. Art. 3. num . 39. pag. 550. There is but one Considerable 〈◊〉 , which I shall briefly propound and answere . Whatsoever agreeth unto the species , the sort or kind of a thinge , agreeth unto all individuals contained under it , And therefore if there be humane actions , that be indifferent , secundum speciem , according to their kind , the Individuals of such actions are indifferent too , which will be opposed in a third Conclusion : That which doth agree unto a thing 〈◊〉 se , the opposite thereof cannot agree unto it , either per se , or per Accidens : And therefore if some actions are per se of themselves indifferent , it is impossible for the Individuals of such : actions to be morally good , or evill . Unto this obiection Durand answereth , by 〈◊〉 of a twofold sense of this expression . An act is indifferent secundum speciem , according to it's kind . The sirst is , that indifferency is of the specifick nature of such an act . And this sense , which is the sense of the objection , is false , for then it 〈◊〉 be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any individuals of such an act not to be indifferent : But now there is a second sense of the expression , that the specifick nature of such an action doth not involve , or imply in it's notion morall either goodnesse or ilnesse , But is equally and indifferently abstracted from both : And this sense is true : It is not of the specificke nature of many actions to be determinately good , or determinately evill ; though they may be either by circumstances . As for the confirmation which is added ; * The answer unto it is usually as followeth ; A thing may be said to agree unto another per se , either positively , 〈◊〉 negatively . 1. 〈◊〉 , when it is predicated in primo , or secundo modo 〈◊〉 per se , when it is either an essentiall predicate , or proper passion : And thus it agreeth unto man to be a sensitive creature , to be indued with the powers of understanding , willing , laughing , &c : And in this sense indifferency doth not agree per se , unto any humane voluntary actions , for then it would agree unto them alwaies , and in all places , so that it would be utterly impossible for the individuals of such actions to be morally either good , or bad . 2. Negatively , When a thing of it selfe is not such , although by accident it may be such : And thus we may say of a man , that per se he is not white , he is not blacke , he is not tawny , he is not of an olive colour , or the like , because each of these colours considered separately , are accidentall unto the nature of man , considered in the generall , and in it selfe : And yet the individuals of the nature of man may some of them be white , some blacke , some tawny , some of an olive colour , or the like : Even so we may say of divers voluntary rationall actions of man ; that per se , ( considered , as devested from all circumstances ) they are indifferent , morally neither good , nor bad : because morall goodnesse and badnesse is accidentall unto the nature of such actions considered in themselves , and yet the individuals of such actions are all of them either good , or evil , 〈◊〉 shall be cleared by the next conclusion , unto which before we proceed , let us make some application of this second conclusion . Against this doctrine of Indifferency there are two failings ; one in the 〈◊〉 , Another in the excesse : There are , First , some , that faile in the defect , who know not the full extent of indifferency : and so either impose , as necessary , or condemne , as sinsull , things that are in their owne nature indifferent . Thus in the primitive Romish Church there were some new converts , who abstained from swines flesh , and other meats prohibited by the ceremoniall law , as unlawfull , The use of which yet was indifferent and lawfull under the Gospell : I know , and am perswaded ( saith Paul , ) by the Lord Jesus , that there is nothing uncleane of it selfe . Rom. 14. 14. Thus also amongst the Corinthians there were some weake Christians , that branded for Communion , and fellowship with Idolaters all eating of things offered unto idols , Though bought in the market , or eaten at private meetings ; In both which yet Paul pronounceth in generall there was no unlawfulnesse , 1. Cor. 10. 25 , 27. Amongst us there are divers persons , that are doubtlesse well affected in matters of Religion , and yet are too rigid in censuring as sinnes divers innocent and harmlesse recreations : This is an errour in , and consequently a blemish unto the understanding : Paul calls it a weaknesse in the faith , Rom. 14. 1. that is an imperfection in point of knowledge , and that privative , or blameable : For the faith and conscience of indifferent things is never indifferent , we are never to judg a thing indifferent , to be either sinfull or necessary . Our Saviours command , John 7. 24. Judge righteous judgment may be extended unto things and actions as well as persons : Therefore as we are not to call good , evill , or evill , good ; so neither are we to call things indifferent , either evill , or necessary . This is injuriously to straiten the grand Charter of our Christian liberty , and presumptuously to make the narrow way to heaven narrower then ever God made it . Besides , it openeth a gappe unto many mischiefes , it filleth the Church of God with needlesse , and endlesse disputes , it perplexeth the minds of many conscientious people with unnecessary and unprofitably scruples ; it causeth many bitter and uncharitable censures , and occasioneth many dangers : In the believing Jewes that lived in the Church of Rome , in Pauls time , there was but a little mistake touching things indifferent , meats and daies ; but how pernicious was the sequele hereof ? Hereupon the strong despised the weake , and the weak judged the strong , Rom. 14. And this was a great disturbance unto the peace of the Church , and a great hinderance unto the comfortable communion of the Saints . 2. Against this doctrine of indifferency there are some , secondly , that faile in the excesse , who make things necessary or sinfull , to be but indifferent . There be some , that hold observation of the Lords day , preaching of the word , in distinction from meer reading of it to be no ordinances of God , but things meerly indifferent ; Erastians affirme that Church Government , and Ecclesiasticall censures are onely matters of indifferency : The Heathens in the Apostles times generally ranked fornication amongst things indifferent : The like estimate some of the Corinthians had of eating things offered to Idols , in the midst of an Idols temple , at a religious feast of that Idol , which was a palpable communicating with Devils , and therefore a fact in it's own nature unlawfull : And some Travailers , that professe themselves Protestants , have as large and loose Consciences , as these Corinthians had ; for they have the same opinion of being present at an idolatrous masse , and bowing to popish Idols . Dr Peter Heylin ( as himselfe informeth us ) made no scruple of kissing a Crucifix , when it was desired of him , to discriminate him from a Hugenot : No lesse loose were the Principles of the Adiaphorists , and Flaccians in Charles the 5th his time , who pressed the Interim , which gave allowance to divers errours , and superstitions of the Church of Rome , as matters that were indifferent : Our Prelatists ever and anon in the controversy of Symbolicall ceremonies alleadge their indifferencie as a thing without dispute , which is never granted by us ; however it may sometimes for disputation sake be supposed . But what talke we of Ceremonies , whil'st some of greatest note among'st them have so eagerly pleaded for such sports , and pastimes upon the Lords day as indifferent , which a devout Papist would reckon a grosse profanation thereof ? Now this latter 〈◊〉 against the Doctrine of indifferent actions , in a way of excesse , is as much against the Purity of the Church , as the former sayling , in a way of defect , was against the peace of the Church : It opens as wide a dore to all licentiousnesse and profanenesse to call good and evill indifferent , as it doth to call good evill , or evill good , and therefore a woe equally belongs unto it with this latter . Secondly , we may be exhorted unto thankfulnesse , Because God hath indulged us Christians a greater extent of our liberty about things indifferent , then he ever 〈◊〉 unto the Jewish Synagogue . Many things , in their own nature indifferent , were prohibited them by positive precepts , and so made unlawfull unto them ; This was a yoak ( said Peter , ) which they were unable to beare , Acts 15. 10. Blessed therefore be God , who hath freed us from this yoake by our Lord Jesus Christ , who hath abolished in his flesh the law of Commandments contained in Ordinances , Eph. 2. 15. So that now all ( indifferent ) things are lawfull unto us ; There 〈◊〉 nothing uncleane of it selfe , Rom. 14. 14. all things indeed are pure , Rom. 14. 20. Unto the pure all things are pure , Tit. 1. 15. Every creature of God is good , and nothing to be refused , 1 Timoth. 4. 4. There be two waies , unto which I shall direct for expressing our thankfulnesse for the inlargement of this our liberty . 1. A stout asserting of it . 2. A due and 〈◊〉 use of it . 1. A stout asserting of it against Judaisme , Popery , or any other sect or party , that shall be so presumptuous towards God , and injurious towards us , as to abridg us thereof in any part . Stand fast therefore in the liberty , wherewith Christ hath made us free , and be not intangled 〈◊〉 with the yoake of bondage , Gal. 5. 1. The Apostle would have us not to be intangled againe with the Jewish yoake of bondage ; And there is the same reason , why in indifferent things we should decline any other yoake of bondage , which any man whatsoever should make , and attempt to put upon our necks : for liberty towards things indifferent is one branch of that liberty , wherewith Christ hath made us free : and therefore we should stand 〈◊〉 against all opposers . But now in this our asserting of our Christian liberty we should use a great deale of moderation towards weake dissenting brethren : 'T is the Advice which the Apostle Paul gives in the like case , Rom. 14. 3. Let not him that eateth , despise him , that eateth not : The eating of meats prohibited by the Mosaicall Law was after Christ's death indifferent ; But yet there were among the Romans some weaklings in the faith , who thought the ceremoniall law still in force , and consequently judged , the eating of all meats therein forbidden , to be sinfull ; Now the Apostle would not have those that were strong in the faith , that is , more knowing , better principled , and more fully instructed in the extent of their Christian liberty to despise , to disdaine , and contemne those poore soules for their ignorance , and weaknesse in judgment ; But to reach out the right hand of fellowship unto them , to receive them into an 〈◊〉 communion , 〈◊〉 deale gently , and tenderly with them , restoring them in the spirit of meeknesse , with all possible prudence , and caution : Him , that is weak in the faith , receive you , but not to doubtfull disputations , Rom. 14. 1. The Apostle doth not prohibite alltogether all disputations for the future touching the point in controversy : for he himselfe elsewhere very zealously disputes the matter , only he interdicts such disputes as were unseasonable for the present : because these Jewish converts were so extreamly wedded unto the Law of Moses , as that to have prest upon them in their first conversion an abolition thereof , was the ready way to have utterly prejudiced them against and alienated them from Christianity : He would have them first to be taught the first principles of the Oracles of God , the first Principles of the Doctrine of Christ , Heb. 5. 12. and chap. 6 vers . 1. And when they were well principled , and setled in the Christian faith , then they might proceed to a calme , and peaceable debate of this subject : for then their mind would be more capable of instruction , and the forementioned prejudice would be more easily removed : Indeed , after a while , there would be no place for such a prejudice : for when once there was a plenary promulgation of the Gospell , to observe them afterwards would be a virtuall abrenunciation of the Christian Religion , a denyall , that Christ is come in the flesh : When once the Apostles had gived the Jewish Synagogue and Ceremonies an honourable funerall , and respective buriall , for any man afterwards to revive the observation of them , would be to rake in their dust , and sacrilegiously to violate their grave : Proindè nunc quisquis Christianorum , quamvis sit ex judaeis ; similitèr ea celebrare voluerit , tanquam sopitos cineres eruens , non erit pius deductor vel baiulus corporis , sed impius sepulturae violator , August : Epist. 19. A second way of expressing our thankfulnesse for the extension of our Christian liberty in things indifferent is a due and discreet use of it , such an use of it as may st , and with Gods glory , and may 〈◊〉 no waies inconsistent with our own or others edification . Touching this use of our liberty Paul gives us a generall caution , Gal. 5. 13. only use not liberty for an occasion unto the flesh ; that is , to live according unto the flesh . Suitable unto which also is the advice of St Peter , 1 Pet. 2. 16. not using your liberty for a 〈◊〉 of maliciousnesse , But as the servants of God : In which advice there are two parts : On enegative : not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousnesse : that is , for a colour or pretence unto any sinne for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is ( as Dr 〈◊〉 well observeth ) taken here more largly for all manner of evill and naughtinesse , according unto the adequate signification of the Greek and Latine Adjectives , from whence the substantive used in the text is derived . Another part of the advice is affirmative , using your liberty as the servants of God : that is in the use of this liberty admit of nothing , that may be prejudiciall unto the service , unto the honour and glory of God : for this would be a most unthankfull abuse , and not a true use of it . To informe us more fully , and particularly what we are to doe in this weighty point , I shall briefly propound such restraints , as we are by the rule of Scripture to put on the use , and exercise of our Christian liberty in things indifferent , for without such restraints we can never use this our liberty aright , and as we ought : There be some loose people , that are impatient of all these restraints : If they judg a thing lawfull in it selfe , they never consider , or consult farther , but without more a doe adventure on it : But these men ever and anon abuse their libertie unto Gods dishonour , their own danger , and the scandall of both brethren , and aliens : They use their liberty as an 〈◊〉 to the flesh , for a 〈◊〉 of maliciousnesse : He that gives himselfe the full swing in things indifferent , He that will doe whatsoever is lawfull , will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into things unlawfull , and ere he is aware indulge himselfe in the practice of them 〈◊〉 So Clemens , Alexandrinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 1. Qui faciunt quicquid 〈◊〉 , huc cito 〈◊〉 , ut faciant quod non 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 prevention of this licentiousnesse , I shall out of Gods word recommend unto you 〈◊〉 restraints to be put upon this part of your 〈◊〉 liberty in the use and exercise of it , 〈◊〉 . By Prudence . 2. By Temperance and 〈◊〉 . 3. By Conscience . 4. By Religion . 5. By Authority . 6. By Charity , 1. By Prudence : which in indifferent things is , first , to compare them with those ends which every Christian should ayme at . 2. To consider whether there concurre not an obligation to some duty , or other . First then , It is the worke of Christian prudence to compare indifferent actions with those ends , which every Christian should propound unto himselfe : the glorifying of God , the salvation of his own soule , and the edifying of Brethren : And to examine whether they be expedient , or inexpedient , profitable and conducing , or unprofitable and impedient unto these ends : And if upon due consideration it finds them inexpedient , an hinderance unto these ends , it then forthwith dictates a forbearance of them : Because whatsoever is 〈◊〉 impediment unto these ends is opposite unto them , and in that regard sinfull : This restraint our Apostle layeth downe in way of Doctrine for the instruction of all . All things are lawfull for me , But all things are not expedient , 1 Cor. 6. 12. and Chapt 9. we have him putting it upon himselfe in his own practise : It was lawfull for him to have received of the Corinthians a competent , and honourable maintenance , for his labour in the Word and Doctrine , as being a matter of due debt from them : But he did not exact it , but wrought with his hands for his livelyhood , because he found it would have obstructed , and hindered the end of his preaching , which was the spreading of the Gospell , that the word of the Lord might have free course , and be glorified in the conversion of soules . A second act of Prudence about indifferent things is to consider , whether in that nicke of time we are about an indifferent action there concurre not an obligation unto some duty or other ; And if there doe , then prudence dictates , that pro hic & nunc , we should abstaine from that indifferent action ; because otherwise we should preferre it above a necessary and commanded duty , And though it be simply in it selfe lawfull , it would become accidentally sinfull , to wit , by comparison ; Thus it would be sinfull for a man to walke in the fields , if there lay upon him at the same time an obligation to heare such a sermon : Thus also it would be sinfull for a man to follow recreations in themselves lawfull , when the necessities of his family call upon him to follow his occupation , the workes of his ordinary calling . A second Restraint ( that we are to put upon the use of our liberty about things indifferent ) is by temperance and sobriety , and this restraint also we have laid downe by the Apostle in the place but now quoted . 1. Cor. 6. 12. All things are lawfull for me , But I will not be brought under the power of any : Now what is it that brings a man under the power of meates , and drinkes , apparell , recreations . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but an over-vehement affection unto them . This makes man a vassall unto those things , over which God hath given him a full Lordship , and dominion : Qui nimis 〈◊〉 aliquam amat ( saith Aquinas ) quodam modo servus istius efficitur , He that loves a thing overmuch , renders himselfe thereby the servant thereof : Know yee not that to whome yee yield your selves servants to obey , his servants yee are , to whom yee obey , Rom. 6. 16. He that immoderately affects those things , that are in themselves indifferent , cannot disobey , or resist the least temptation unto sinne drawn from them , and therefore is no better then a slave unto them , nay an Idolater of them : You may see how Paul censures the false Prophets for such an excesse , Rom. 16. 18. They that are such serve not our Lord 〈◊〉 Christ , but their owne 〈◊〉 , Their God is their belly Phil. 3. 19. We may say the like of those , that like the rich glutton , Luke . 16. 19. fare sumptuously or deliciously every day , and will have a splendid retinue , when the lownesse of their state requires a meaner table and smaller attendance of those that are wedded unto such gaiety and bravery of apparell as is above their purses , or unsuitable unto their age , and ranke , As also of those that are so mad upon their recreations , sports and pastimes , as that in the pursuite of them they forgoe their meales , and sleepe , they neglect the worship of God , and their particular callings , unto their great impoverishment , if not finall and totall beggery . A third limitation upon the exercise of our Christian liberty in things indifferent is to be by conscience : for though a mans conscience cannot legitimate sinnes , either of Commission , or Omission ; yet it is of force sufficient to make that sinfull , which is in it selfe indifferent , & lawfull : for this we have the Apostles determination , and that touching both a condemning and doubting conscience . 1. A Condemning Conscience . Rom. 14. 14. I know and am perswaded by the Lord Iesus , that their is nothing uncleane of it selfe ; But unto him that esteemeth any thing to be uncleane , to him it is unclean . Unto the authority of Pauls Testimony I shall adde two reasons . 1. Every man takes the voyce of his conscience to be the voyce of God ; And therefore he that doth a thing in it selfe indifferent against the judgement of his Conscience , he disobeyeth and slighteth the voyce of God , as for the manner of his action , and is a fighter against God. A second reason I shall give you in the words of Willet upon the place , Because the goodnesse or badnesse of an action is esteemed by the will and affection of the doer ; Now when he thinketh a thing to be 〈◊〉 , and yet doth it , It shewes that such an one hath , deliberatam 〈◊〉 voluntatem , a 〈◊〉 mind and purpose to sinne . The Apostle , secondly , gives us the same resolution touching a Doubting 〈◊〉 , Rom. 14. 23. He that doubteth , is damned if he eate , because he eateth not of faith ; for whatsoever is not of faith , is sinne : that is ; he that performeth an indifferent action , and yet doubteth of the lawfulnesse thereof , deserveth damnation , because he doth not act out of faith ; for whatsoever we performe , though , it be ( intrinsecally , in it selfe ) matter of indifferency ; nay though it be matter of duty , yet if it proceed not from a beliefe of it's lawfulnesse it becomes ( accidentally and extrinsecally ) sinfull ; It bewrayes a wicked and a wretched heart , that is not afraid of sinne , but in a great readinesse to commit it ; who , almost would doe any thing that he doubteth would anger and grieve a deare friend ? God then is not so deare as he should be unto such men , as dare adventure upon the practise of that , which they are doubtfull is displeasing unto him : Let us therefore hearken unto that exhortation , which the Apostle gave unto the Romans concerning thinges indifferent , Rom. 14. 5. Let every man be fully perswaded in his owne 〈◊〉 : And this exhortation he backes with a very good reason . ver . 22. Happy is he which condemneth not himselfe in that thing which he alloweth : that is , he that doth not condemne as sinnefull , that which he chooseth and embraceth in his practise ; such a man is in that respect , and so farre forth happy , as being free from those 〈◊〉 , which torment those , who do what their consciences condemne . Thus you see , that not only condemnation , but doubtfulnesse of Conscience is a sufficient warrant to forbeare things that are in themselves indifferent : But yet it is no ground for us to assume a liberty of condemning the same things in others , who are sufficiently satisfied touching their indifferency and lawfulnesse : Let not him that eateth not judge him that eateth . 〈◊〉 14. 3. Let not him that is weake in the faith , that out of ignorance censureth , 〈◊〉 suspecteth divers actions 〈◊〉 be sinnefull , 〈◊〉 he cannot prove to be so by any convincing argument ; Let not such an one condemne for such actions the strong in the faith , those who are as godly and more knowing , then themselves : This exhortation the Apostle enforceth by divers reasons in the following words ; for God hath received him ; who art thou , that judgest another mans servant ? To his owne 〈◊〉 he standeth or 〈◊〉 , yea , he shall be holden up ; for God is able to make him stand , ver . 3. 4. The first argument is taken from the relation of the strong unto God , or Gods acceptation of them ; for God hath received him ; to wit , into his favour , into an intimate union , and communion , into his family , as a servant , as a sonne , as a member of his onely begotten sonne : To condemne him then is to throw a dishonour upon God himselfe . A second reason is , Because for the weake to condemne the indifferent actions of the strong for sinne , of which they cannot prove them guilty , is a grosse and presumptuous vsurpation of Gods prerogative , for which we have no Authority : who art thou that judgest another mans servant ? Thou art but a fellow servant at the most : And God only is the master of the family , the Church : and therefore the unlawfulnesse of what is done in it is to be determined by Gods precepts , and not by thy humour , or fancy , thy ungrounded surmises : If God hath permitted a thing , how darest thou interdict it ? To his own master he standeth , or falleth . The words are to be understood in a law-sense , and their meaning is that God alone acquits or condemnes the actions of his servants , and none else : They are to be tryed by his word and will , and not by thy jealousies , and suspicions . Others expound the words thus : If a man eat and drink temperately with outward prayer and thanksgiving , who but God can discerne , whether he eat or drink unto the glory of God , or no ? It followeth he shall be holden up : that is , he shall be justified . This fact of his , his eating of meats forbidden by the Leviticall Law , shall be abetted and maintained : For God is able to make him stand : though thou load him with censures , God is able to acquit , and cleare him . 4thly . Our Christian liberty towards things indifferent must admit of a restraint in the outward practise of it By Religion , by the Religion of a vow , of an oath , Deut. 23. vers . 21 , 22 , 23. When thou shalt vow a vow unto the Lord thy God , thou shalt not slack to pay it : for the Lord thy God will surely require it of thee , and it would be sinne in thee . But if thou shalt forbeare to vow , it shall be no sinne in thee . That which is gone out of thy lips , thou shalt keep , and performe : even a free-will 〈◊〉 , according as thou hast vowed unto the Lord thy God , which thou hast promised with thy mouth . It was indifferent for Ananias to have sold , or held his possession : But when once by solemne vow he had devoted it unto God , to keep back any part of the price in his own hand , was no lesse then sacriledge : Suppose Lusory lots be in themselves lawfull , yet if a man swear , that he will never play more at Cardes , or Tables , &c. By this Oath a man hath bound himselfe from such games for the future : and if he play at them , he shall incurre the guilt of perjury : Numb . 30. v. 2. If a man vow a vow unto the Lord , or sweare an Oath to bind his soule with a bond , he shall not breake his word , he shall doe according unto all that proceedeth out of his mouth . Calvinist's about oath's concerning things indifferent have this case : Whether they be obligatory in trifles ? As if a man should sweare to lift up a straw , to rub his beard , to give an apple , to lend a pinne unto a Child : This case k Dr Sanderson thus answereth . 1. He premiseth that such oath 's are unlawfull , Because in them Gods most Holy Name is taken in vaine , The Great God of Heaven and Earth is appealed unto , and called upon to witnesse unto toyes : But yet notwithstanding his resolution is , that such oath 's binde ; and for it he giveth foure reasons . 1. Truth and falsehood have place in a light , as well as in a serious matter . 2. Because in an assertory Oath , He that saith otherwise then the thing is , though it be in a most triviall matter , is forsworne : therefore by the like reason , he is perjured in a promissory oath , that doth otherwise , then he hath sworne . 3. Because Otherwise , he that hath taken such an oath , should make God as much as in him lieth the witnesse of a falsehood . 4. Because every one that sweareth , is bound to doe all that he hath sworn , so farre forth as he is able , and so farre forth as the thing is lawfull to be done : But the matters here spoken of are possible and lawfull , v. gr . it is possible and lawfull to give a child an apple , &c. therefore such oath's are to be performed : Indeed such vaine oath 's should not be taken , but being once taken they ought to be fulfilled . A fift restraint upon the exercise of our Christian liberty in things indifferent is by the just commands of authority , unto which we must be subject for conscience sake , Rom. 13. v. 5. The Apostle Peter having , 1 Pet. 2. 13. 14. exhorted us to submit our selves unto every ordinance of man for the Lords sake ; In vers . 16. ( by the generall consent of interpreters ) he prevents an obiection , that might be made against this submission , from our Christian liberty , As free , and not using your liberty for a Cloake of maliciousnesse , but as the servants of God : Upon which words it is well observed by Estius ( out of Oecumenius and Chrysostome ) that , As 〈◊〉 is to be construed with 〈◊〉 , submit your selves : And not ( as Bede would have it ) with well doing . And from this connexion we may learne two things . First , That in submission unto every ordinance of man , wee must not infringe our Christian liberty : We must not enslave our selves to sinne , Sathan , and the World. Secondly , That submission unto every Ordinance of man , and our Christian freedome may very well stand together : We may submit our selves as free : we may be obedient subiects , and yet free Christians : This may also be further gathered from what the Apostle hath in the following words touching the abuse , and use of our Christian liberty ; Not using your liberty as a cloake for maliciousnesse , but as servants of God : Here we have . 1. A dehortation from the abuse of our Christian liberty , not using your liberty as a cloake of maliciousnesse : now to alleadge it as a plea for exemption of us from the yoake of temporall dominion , is to use it as a cloake of maliciousnesse ; for not onely scripture , but even nature it selfe condemneth disobedience unto , and rebellion against magistrates , as a very High point of maliciousnesse , that is naughtinesse , and wickednesse . 2. We have here a Direction unto a right use of our liberty , using it as the servants of God : Now the service of God is so farre from being a barre , as that it is rather a spurre unto this subjection ; for First ; it is for the Lords sake , that Peter would have us to submit our selves unto every ordinance of man , vers . 13. Secondly , How can he cordially serve God , that contemnes and disobeyes his deputy , and ministers ? so the Apostle stiles the magistrate , Rom. 13. 4 , 6. And Thirdly , The servants of God are obliged to yeild obedience unto all his commands , and one of them is to be subject unto the higher powers , Rom. 13. 1. They then that resist the higher powers doe not use their liberty as the 〈◊〉 of God. But now , ( that we may not runne into another extreame , and with the flatterers of 〈◊〉 , and Princes , extoll the power of the magistrate beyond all bounds of moderation ; ) I shall desire you to take notice , that the power of the magistrate in things indifferent is not arbitrary , but is to be limited by the end of all 〈◊〉 , the publick good , Rom. 13. 4. He is the Minister of God unto thee for good . Unto this publick good some indifferent things carry a tendency , and such the magistrate may command ; unto it others may be prejudiciall , and such he may forbid : But now he should abuse his power , and play the tyrant , If he should injoyne things unprofitable ; As if he should command men to throw stones into the water , to pick strawes , to scatter feathers into the aire , or the like . By this you may see , that the legislative power of the temporall magistrate in things indifferent is not unlimited : But now as for Ecclesiasticall superiours , They have no commission for to make any lawes properly so called . To make this good Ames quotes Junius against Bellarmine , [ cont . 3. lib. 4. cap. 16. n. 86 , 87. and chap. 17. n. 9 , 10 , 12 , 13. ] where he sheweth , that Christ is the onely law-giver , that appointeth things in his Church ; and that he hath appointed all that are requisite , and that the Church maketh no lawes ( properly so called ) to appoint any new things to be used , but onely canons , orders , directions , ordering in seemly manner these things which Christ hath appointed : and that if she adde any thing of her own , she doth decline : And the reason is , Because unto her is committed no authority of appointing new things , but a ministry to observe , and 〈◊〉 such things which Christ hath appointed . [ This argument is prosecuted at large By Ames in his Reply unto Morton chap. 1. Sect. 16. and vindicated in his fresh suit against Ceremonies , pag. 64 , 65 , 66. usque ad 71. from the rejoynder of Dr John Burgesse . ] The sixth and last restraint , which I shall mention , that is to be put upon the outward exercise of our Christian liberty in things indifferent is by Charity : and that . 1. Unto our selves . 2. Unto others . 1. Unto our selves : He that truly loves himselfe , will deny himselfe the use of things indifferent , if he think it will hazard the health of his better part , his spirituall and immortall soule ; He will 〈◊〉 those sports , and Pastimes he most delights in , if he find that they usually tempt him to Choler , or covetousnesse : He will not so much as step into a Taverne , Inne , or Alehouse , if he find himselfe prone unto excesse : According unto the advice , that Solomon gives in the like case , Prov. 23. 2. Put a 〈◊〉 unto thy throat , if thou be a man given unto appetite : Our Saviour exhorts us to pluck out our right eye , and to cut off our right hand , when they offend us , Matth. 5. 29 , 30. And Maldonate supposeth that he speaks literally of a true eye and hand indeed : neither ( saith he ) is there any absurdity in such a sense : because the plucking out of the right eye , and the cutting off the right hand is mentioned only in a way of hyperbolicall exaggeration . In which there is understood such an exception , as is usuall in the like cases , if it might be , if it were lawfull : He parallels it with a hyperbole of the same nature in Gal. 4. 15. I beare you record , that if it had been 〈◊〉 , yet would have pluckt out your own eyes , and have given them unto me ; If it had been possible : that is , as Estius 〈◊〉 it , si natura 〈◊〉 , If nature would give way unto such a mutilation : Our Saviour therefore signifieth , that we must incurre the greatest losse , rather then expose our selves unto the danger of sinne : And from this we may conclude that we must cast away our most beloved indifferences ; when once they scandalize us , that is , when they prove occasions of , and incentives unto sinne . 2. Charity towards others should put a restraint upon the use of our Christian liberty in things indifferent , and make us to forbeare all indifferent things whatsoever , that may destroy the soules , weaken , or wound the 〈◊〉 of others , 1 Cor. 8. 12. Use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh , but by love serve one another , Gal. 5. 13. Where the Antithesis implied in the particle , but , plainly sheweth , that we use our liberty for an occasion unto the flesh , if we do not by love serve one another , in the exercise thereof . Knowledg 〈◊〉 up , but charity edifieth . 1 Cor. 8. 1. that is , a firme and full knowledg of our liberty in things indifferent , ifit be separated from Charity , is apt to swell the mind with pride , and make men to despise , or set at naught weak , doubting , and scrupulous Brethren ; But Charity edifieth , that is it is carefull to build up others , as living stones in the spirituall house of God , the Church ; It inclineth to promote their graces , and gracious practises , and to avoide whatsoever is of a destroying nature unto their soules , that is , every thing that may occasion their fall into sin : Now that indifferent things may sometimes be of an unedifying and destroying nature , the Apostlè affirmeth 1 Cor. 10. 23. All things are lawfull for me , but all things edisie not , do not build up our brethren in truth , faith , and holinesse , do not farther them in their Religion , charity , and justice : for that the Apostle speaks of the edification of others is plaine by what followeth in the next verse , Let no man seek his own ( that is , only ) but every man anothers wealth , that is , spirituall , the edification and salvation of anothers soule . And therefore indifferent things are to be forborne in case of scandall , when they prove to be of a destructive nature unto the soules of men , when they weaken their graces , hinder their duties , and lead them into sin . This course the Apostle prescribes unto the Romanes in the case of things legally uncleane before the coming of Christ. Those that were strong in the faith among them , well instructed in the doctrine of Christian liberty , knew very well , that the legall uncleanesse of meates and drinkes , all Jewish festivalls and fasts were removed by Christs death , and that nothing was now of it selfe uncleane , but all things indifferent and lawfull : yet the Apostle would have them in the use of this point of Christian liberty not to scandalize those , that are weak in the faith , that is , such as ( being newly wonne from Judaisme to Christianity ) were as yet uninstructed about the cessation of Ceremonialls , Rom. 14. 13. Judge this rather , that no man put a stumbling block , or occasion , to fall in his brothers way ; that is in the use of meats and drinkes , that were before the Gospell Levitically uncleane , and neglect of Jewish Festivalls and fasts , the observation of which was for a while indifferent , untill the interrement of the Ceremoniall law : 〈◊〉 however the words run generally , yet if we look to the coherence backwards , the foregoing part of the chapter speaks onely of such things , meates , drinkes , and daies : and if we look to the coherence forwards , it speaks onely of such things , meats and drinks , vers . 15. Destroy not him with thy meate , for whom Christ died , ver . 17. for the kingdome of God is not meat and drinke . v. 20. for meate destroyes not the worke of God : it is evill for that man who eateth with offence : It is 〈◊〉 not simply in it selfe , but accidentally by scandall . And therefore I shall conclude , that the place is in a speciall manner appliable against scandalizing by abuse of liberty in things indifferent . Interpreters ghesse at three things , wherein the practise of the strong amongst the Romanes might scandalize the weake . 1. It might unsettle them in , and distast them against the Christian Religion : for they might hereupon think it to be contrary unto the Law of Moses , which they so highly reverenced , and so at last it might occasion their relapse unto Judaisme . 2. It might embolden them to sinne against their consciences , by eating that which they thought to be uncleane . And 3dly , it might grievously exassperate them , and provoke them to powre out many a bitter , uncharitable ; and sinfull censure upon the actions , and state of those that were strong in the faith . In vers . 21. The Apostle proceedeth to inlarge his doctrine touching this particular , beyond the controversy , that occasioned this his discourse : for ( as Estius well noteth ) He teacheth , that to avoid the scandall and offence of our Brethren we are to abstaine , not onely from things prohibited by the law , but also from things not prohibited , from flesh , wine , and any indifferent thing whatsoever : It is good neither to eat flesh , nor to drinke wine , nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth , or is offended , or is made weake . It is good , that is , it is morally good . 1. Good in regard of God , a thing very acceptable , and pleasing unto him . 2. Good in regard of our Brethren , profitable and conducing unto their edification . 3. Good in regard of our selves , a duty that God requireth of us : And from this we may inferre that the contrary hereof is ( by the rule of contraries ) morally evill : it is displeasing unto God , hurtfull unto the soule of thy Brother , and sinfull in thy selfe . In vers . 22. The Apostle prevents an objection of the strong : Hast thou faith , have it to thy selfe before God : He speaks not of a faith ( saith Chrysostome ) that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of doctrines and tenets , to wit , such as are fundamentall , and necessary unto salvation : but of a faith , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , concerning the subject matter here handled , meats , and dayes , things indifferent , a beliefe touching their lawfulnesse : the strong amongst the Romans might be ready to obiect , that their knowledg and perswasion of their Christian liberty in the matter controverted amounted unto a Divine faith : for it was built upon a divine Revelation : Each of them might say as Paul did above vers . 14. I know , and am perswaded by the Lord Jesus , that nothing is uncleane of it selfe . The Lord Jesus hath taught me this liberty now is it not fit , that my practise should be agreeable unto my beliefe ; that I should exercise my knowledg , and act according unto my judgment : seeing it is so well grounded , why should I forbeare the doing of that , which I know to be lawfull ? Unto this the Apostles answer is , that they should not make a vaine ostentation , or unseasonable discovery of their faith : that is , knowledg , and perswasion , unto the offence of their Brother , the hazard of his soule : but rather in such a case conceale it , and content themselves with Gods knowledg , and approbation of it , who seeth in secret , and will reward openly , Matth. 6. Hast thou faith , have it to thy selfe before God : This prudent and charitable management of Christian liberty , the Apostle exhorts the Corinthians unto , in their carriage towards their Brethren touching things offered unto Idols . 1 Cor. 8. 9. take heed lest , by any meanes this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to them that are weake . In Chapt. 10. he determineth , that it was lawfull to eat things consecrated to the Idols , and he instanceth in two cases . 1. When they were sold in open markets . vers . 25. 2ly , When they were made use of at private feasts : But unto this his determination he subjoyneth the exception of scandall , vers . 28. 29. If any man say unto you this is offered in sacrifice unto idols , eat not , for his sake that shewed it , and for conscience sake ; The earth is the Lords and the fulnesse thereof . Conscience ; I say , 〈◊〉 thine own , but of the others : for why is my liberty judged of another mans conscience ? This some understand of the unbelieving Idolater , others of a weake brother : And indeed this practise gives an wound unto both their consciences . 1. The Idolater triumphes , because he thinks it an honour unto his Idol , and so he is confirmed , and hardned in his Idolatry : And then , 2ly , As for the weake Brother , he supposeth , that the meat is so polluted by Consecration and sacrifice 〈◊〉 Idols , as that to eat thereof is a compliance with Idolatry ; and therefore altogether sinfull ; and hereupon the eating of these meats by the strong may occasion in the weak two scandalls . 1. The example of the strong may intice them unto imitation ; and so they will sinne against their consciences . 2ly , The practise of the strong may provoke them unto rash and uncharitable judgment : both scandals give a great blow unto the Conscience of the weake : But , that the Apostle speaks of the latter scandall , I am induced to think by the words following : Why is my liberty judged of another mans Conscience ? that is , why doe I needlessely , indiscreetly , and unseasonably expose my Christian liberty unto the rash censures of a weake Brother , who may be ready to traduce it , as a prophane licentiousnesse ? why shall I drive him upon a sin , which I may prevent by a prudent and charitable forbearance of the exercise of my liberty ? Liberty is a thing , which men out of an excessive selfe love so much overvalue , as that they are very impatient of any restraint to be put upon it at all : But the Restraint , that Charity prompts us unto , is of all others most disregarded ; because there is nothing almost , that is so much undervalued , as the precious soules of our poore Brethren , and therefore we make but little conscience how thick we throw scandals in their way : I shall therefore briefly propound such weighty , and pressing arguments , as the Apostle useth to perswade the Romans , and Corinthians to abstaine from a scandalous use of their liberty in things otherwise indifferent , and lawfull : and they are drawn , either , from the nature of things indifferent , or from the nature of scandall . 1. From the nature of things indifferent : and here , the first argument is Rom. 14. 17. the kingdome of God is not meate and drinke : It doth not stand in indifferent things ; for they are neither the way to the kingdome of Glory , nor our duty under the kingdome of grace : They are no part of Gods worship , and service , no matter of Religion : the weale and safety of Gods people is in no wise wrapt up in them ; nay , many times a rigid pressing , and unseasonable practice of them is a great disturbance unto the peace , and a great hinderance unto the edification of the Church , the kingdome of Christ. A second Argument from the nature of things indifferent , is the great latitude of 〈◊〉 : Though some of them be scandalous yet there will still remaine an ample field of them besides , 1 Cor. 10. 28. If any man say unto you , this is offered in sacrifice unto idols , eat not for his sake , that shewed it , &c. the earth is the Lords , and the fulnesse thereof : It is as much as if he had said ; though ye abstaine from things offered unto idols , yet there is no doubt of want , no feare of pinching your bellies : for you have the earth , and the fulnesse thereof for your supply : And from the scandall by meats , we may argue in like manner touching the scandall by recreation : If cards , dyce , tables offend thy brother , there is plenty enough of other sports , bowling , chesse , draughts , &c. A second sort of arguments , that the Apostle insists on , are taken from the nature of scandall : It is a sinne against that tender love , which we owe unto our brethren : And when ye sinne so against the brethren , 1 Cor. 8. 12. ( And that 't is no small , but a very hainous sinne , the next words evince ) And wound their weake conscience , The words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , where ( as Beza well observeth , ) the Antecedent is put for the consequent , beating , striking , or smiting for the effect thereof , wounding : As weapons or whips wound the body ; so scandalls the conscience . Unjustly to wound the body , the face , the eye of our Brother is a cruell and inhumane part ; but to wound so tender a piece as his conscience , to wound a weake , a sicklie , a diseased conscience is the very height of inhumanity . To wound the soule of a Brother with sorrow , is a breach of charity ; If thy Brother be grieved with thy meat , now walkest thou not charitably , Rom. 14. 15. And hence we may reason in a way of comparison à minori ad majus , that to wound the soule of a Brother with sinne , violates Christian love in a farre higher measure ; for the wound of the least sinne is in its own nature mortall ; and therefore scandall is not onely of a wounding , but of a killing and destroying nature ; it is a soule murder , Destroy not him with thy meat , Rom. 14. 15. Indeed the weak , that were scandalized , might by Gods mercy , and Christ's merit , escape an actuall destroying and damning : But the Apostles meaning is , that the strongs scandalizing of them carried in it's nature a tendency towards their destruction : for it drew them into sinne , and sinne without repentance will destroy the soule : This malignant and destructive efficacy of scandall the Apostle urgeth also unto the Corinthians Epistle 1. chapt . 8. v. 11. And through thy knowledg shall thy weake brother perish : that is ; through thy scandalous abuse of thy knowledg of thy liberty in eating things offered unto idols , thou shalt doe , what lieth in thee , to farther the perishing of thy weake Brother : This cruelty that is in scandall towards the soules of our Brethren , is aggravated from Christs Redemption , Gods Creation of their soules . 1. From Christs Redemption of their soules : Destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ died , Rom. 14. 15. And through thy knowledg shall the weake brother perish , for whom Christ died ? But when ye sin so against the Brethren , and wound their weak conscience , ye sinne against Christ : 1 Cor. 8. 11 , 12. In the judgment of charity thou art to rank thy weake Brother in the number of those , for whom Christ dyed : Christ died for his salvation , and how darest thou oppose his worke by doing that , which tends unto his damnation ? Christ parted with his life to save him , and wilt not thou for that end abridg thy selfe of thy liberty in a few indifferent things . 2. From Gods creation of their soules : for meat destroy not the worke of God , Rom. 14. 20. that is the soule of thy brother : for that is stiled Gods worke in a way of 〈◊〉 : because it was one of the choycest , chiefest , and most eminent workes of the Creation , made as it were with the consultation of the whole Trinity , and had in it engraven the very Image of God himselfe : Therefore not only the defacing , but the very attempting to deface this would redound very much unto the dishonour of the worker God ; And he will doubtlesse accordingly resent the despising of his workmanship : Some interpreters expound the place of the work of Gods grace in the sanctification , or regeneration of the soule , wherein faith is begotten , and that faith in a peculiar manner is the worke of God , we have Christs own testimony , John 6. 29. Jesus answered , and said unto them , this is the worke of God , that ye believe on him , whom he hath sent : But even so the words display the horrid malignancy of scandall : for they shew that he who scandalizeth his brother , fighteth against God ; that he goeth about to demolish that , which hath God alone for the builder . It was a part of Christs character not to breake a bruised reed , nor quench the smoaking flax , Mat. 12. 20. How unsuitable unto this , is the disposition of those by whom offences come ? For they doe what lieth in them to quench the very beginnings of grace , and goodnesse . Indeed the worke of Gods grace is so all-powerfull , as that it will finally prevaile against all resistance : If God have begunne a good worke , he will performe it untill the day of Jesus Christ , Phil. 1. 6. And the gates of hell shall never be able to prevaile against it , Matth. 16. 18. But yet the gates of hell will be ever hindering of it : and in especiall by the spreadth of scandals : And this very opposition is a warre against heaven , ( in the language of the Scripture ) a destroying of the worke of God. There is one sequele more of active scandals of this nature , that our Apostle mentioneth , Rom. 14. and 1 Cor. 10. which deserveth also our consideration : and it is the blot of infamy , which they will contract unto our names , and the very Christian liberty , which we abuse : A scandall in this case , tending unto sinne , is usually accompanied with a scandall tending unto disgrace , or defamation : And how carefull we should be to decline scandall , even in this English sense of the word , the vehemency of the Apostles interrogations will sufficiently informe us , 1 Cor. 10. 29 , 30. Conscience , I say , not thine own , but of the others : for why is my liberty judged 〈◊〉 mans conscience ? for , if I by grace be a partaker , why am I evill spoken of , for that for which I give thanks ? Unto these interrogations adde we the Apostles precept also , Rom. 14. 16. Let not then your good be evill spoken of : that is , give none occasion for this great priviledg of your Christian liberty to be traduced . Before I take my leave of this restraint of our liberty by Charity in the case of scandall , I shall examine the restraints , that some have put upon it , without any warrant from scripture : Those in which they most confide , are two . 1. They limit it unto the scandall of the weake , and , 2. Unto matters that are undetermined by Authority . 1. 〈◊〉 limit it unto the scandall of the weake : for the scandall of the malicious , and presumptuous persons , The scandall of Pharises ( say they ) may be neglected , Mat. 15. 12 , 14. whether in our Ceremonies there was an active scandall , a scandall given will be largely disputed in the next treatise , for the present therefore we shall only prove that we are to avoid such an active scandall in the malicious , as well as the weake . For First , Such a scandall is of soule destroying nature : Destroy net him with thy meate , Rom. 14. 15. And who so wicked , and malicious upon the face of the earth , whose soule a true Christian charity will exclude from it's care , mercy , and compassion . 〈◊〉 , The Apostles motive reacheth unto the wicked and malicious : Destroy not him with thy meat , for whom Christ died , Rom. 14. 15. for they may be in the number of those , for whom Christ died , who for their present state and condition may be most wicked , and malicious ; such as oppose themselves , such as are in the snare of the Devill , taken captive by him at his will. 3. The Apostles prohibition , 1 Cor. 10. 32. extendeth unto the malicious , as well as the weake , Give none offence neither to the 〈◊〉 , nor to the Gentiles , nor to the Church of God : where Jewes and Gentiles are distinguished from the Church of God ; and therefore by them are meant such as were unconverted , and as yet enemies unto the faith of Christ , and Church of God. And the things wherein the 〈◊〉 would have their offence to be avoided were matters of indifferency ; Whether ye cat or drinke , 〈◊〉 . 31. But now , lest some should be ready to object unto Paul that which our Saviour said of the Scribes and Pharisees , Matth. 23. 4. that he did bind a heavy burden and grievous to be 〈◊〉 , and lay it upon mens shoulders : but he himselfe would not move it with one of his fingers : the Apostle in the next verse sheweth , how that his practice was conformable unto his precept , Even as I please all men ( good and bad ) in all things ( that is , in all indifferent things ) not seeking mine own profit , but the profit of many that they may be saved , 1 Cor. 10. 33. In a second place , the Fautors of our Ceremonies limit this restraint of our liberty in things indifferent by charity , in the case of scandall , onely unto things undetermined by Authority . Where Authority hath determined our choice , we must ( say they ) hold to their determination , any scandall to the Contrary notwithstanding . It seems then in case the magistrate command it , we may wound the weake consciences of our Brother , Destroy with our indifferencies , the worke of God , him for whom Christ died . It is good ( saith Paul ) neither to eat flesh , nor to drink wine , nor any thing whereby thy Brother stumbleth , or is offended , or is made 〈◊〉 , Rom. 14. 22. But our 〈◊〉 determine quite otherwise , if authority enjoyne it , it is good ( say they ) to eat bread , drink wine , we are a surpliee , use the signe of the 〈◊〉 in Baptisme , though thereby never so many Brethren stumble , or are offended , or made weake . The unreasonablenesse of this assertion Ames in his reply to Morton hath proved by many arguments , That are as yet unanswered , which I shall here transcribe . A scandall in the nature of it is spirituall murder : Now suppose a superiour should command a thing in it selfe indifferent , whereupon murder were like to follow , as to runne a horse , or a cart , in a certaine way , at a certaine time , when it may be unwitting to the commander , little children were playing in the way , would any mans conscience serve him to doe it ? Avoiding of scandall is a maine duty of Charity : May Superiours at their pleasure appoint how farre I shall shew my Charity towards my brothers soule ? Then surely an inferiour earthly court may crosse the determinations of the high court of heaven . The superiours have no power given them for destruction , but onely for 〈◊〉 : If therefore they command scandals , they goe beyond their Commission : neither are we tied therein to doe as they bid , but as they should bid . If determination by superiours were sufficient to take away the sinne of a scandall . Then they doe very ill that they do not ( so farrè as is possible ) determine all things indifferent , that so no danger may be left in giving of offence by the use of them . Then the Church of Rome is to be praised , in that she hath determined of so many indifferents : then Paul with the other Apostles might have spared a great deale of labour in admonishing the Churches how they should 〈◊〉 offences about some indifferent things : A farre shorter way had been either to determine the matter fully : or else to have given order , that the Churches should among themselves determine it at home . But say that 〈◊〉 Archbishop of Corinth ( for now I suppose such a one ) had called his convocation , and with consent of his Clergie had 〈◊〉 , that men might , and for 〈◊〉 of liberty should , at a certaine time eat of such and such meats , which men formerly doubted of : would not yet the Apostle have given the same 〈◊〉 he did ? Would not good Christians still have had care of their brothers consciences ? Can the determination of a superiour be a sufficient plea at the barre of Gods judgment seat , for a man that by virtue or 〈◊〉 thereof alone , hath done any 〈◊〉 , that his 〈◊〉 telleth him , will scandalize his brother . Lastly , I would 〈◊〉 know whether those superiours do not give a great scandall , which take upon them determinately to impose unnecessary rites , which they know many good men will be scandalized by ? Thus farre Ames . But this opinion of Ames , is I confesse to be understood cum gravo salis , with many limitations , which I shall lay downe fully in the Tractate that next followeth . If the Prelates would have seriously laid to heart that golden saying of Paul ( 1 Cor. 8. 13. If meate make my brother to offend , I will eat no flesh , while the world 〈◊〉 , lest I make my brother to offend ) This would supersede all further dispute of this argument : for thence it is easie to evict , that it is unlawfull for Church governours to command the observation of things indifferent , when in all probability they will scandalize : how dare they make that the matter of a Church Canon , which Paul durst not adventure upon in his own personall practice ? He thought it unlawfull to do a thing otherwise indifferent , to eat flesh in the care 〈◊〉 scandall ; and therefore doubtlesse he judged it unlawfull in such a case to impose any such matter upon others : Greater was the importance of the flesh for borne by Paul unto his health , and the comfort of his life ; then the profit of the controverted ceremonies can be unto the worship and service of God : And besides , the indifferency of eating flesh was a thing cleare , and evident unto all , that were well instructed in the Doctrine of Christian liberty ; whereas the indifferency of our ceremonies will at least be judged a very doubtfull matter , and that by very indifferent men , who shall thoroughly ponder the Arguments of Didoclave , Parker , Ames and others against them , which to this day remaine unanswered . The Prelates will not pretend unto such an ample authority in the Church of God , as Paul had : But though they be farre inferiour unto him in point of Authority , they are not yet so humble , as to imitate him in the condescention of his charity . Pauls peremptorie resolve was to forbeare a thing indifferent , whē it scandalized . If 〈◊〉 makae my brother to offend , I will ( saith he ) eat no flesh , while the world standeth , least I make my brother to offend , 1 Cor. 8. 13. But what a wide difference , nay contrariety was there betwixt this charitable resolution of Paul , and the rigid practise of the Prelates . For they were obstinately bent to presse the Ceremonies , with all severity , without any care , or Conscience of the scandals ensuing : nay their endeavour was daily to adde unto the heape of former ceremonies , though they knew that thereby the scandals would be increased : They spake a language quite contrary to that of Paul : we will enjoyne ( say they ) the surplice , crosse , kneeling in the sacrament of the Lords supper , while the world standeth , as long as we have any power , and authority in the Church of God , Let who will be offended : This their rigour brings unto my mind a cruel command of (l) Vedius Pollio , that was countermanded by Augustus Caesar supping with him : A poore boy his slave had casually broken a Chrystall glasse , and for this Pollio most inhumanely condemned him to be throwne into a great pond of Lampreys , there to be devoured . The boy escaping from those appointed for his execution , prostrated himselfe at the feet of Caesar , who then sup't with his master , and desired not pardon , but onely commutation of so horrid and unnaturall a death : Augustus was extreamly transported with the strangenesse and novelty of so inhumane a cruelty , and hereupon to prevent the like for the future he forthwith commanded all the Christall glasses of Pollio , though his friend , to be broken , and the fishpond to be filled up : for the breaking of a sorry glasse he thought it a disproportioned and too severe a punishment , to have a mans bowels pluck't in pieces , and torne asunder . This spirit of Vedius Pollio breathed in many of our late Prelates ; The Ceremonies in comparison of mens soules were but as paltry trifles , as glasses , and feathers : and yet , by the maintenance of them , they hazarded the soules of thousands ( In as much as in them lay ) they destroyed the worke of God , they destroyed those for whom Christ died ; they scandalize Papists , and separatists : people and Pastours : conformists , and non-conformists , as Mr Parker at large demonstrates : Dr John Burgesse ( as I have often heard ) urged this story in a Sermon before King James to perswade him unto the abolition of the Ceremonies : And King James had doubtlesse expressed a Christian , and royall care of his people , if he had broken these glasses in pieces : if he had cashered these toyes out of the Church , which had broken so many in their estates , wounded so many in their consciences , and endangered the salvation of so many soules : and hereby have prevented those unspeakable griefes , feares , and scandalls , which they formerly occasioned . I proceed unto the third and last conclusion , which is , that 〈◊〉 actions of men , which proceeds from deliberate reason , if they be considered in actu exercito , in the singular or particular , as cloathed with circumstances , are indifferent , but all of them are morally either good , or evill . For the better understanding of this Conclusion , I shall out of (m) Ames adde two limitations of it . 1. Then ; this conclusion is to be understood only of an adequate consideration of the circumstances of singular actions , for not onely one , but more circumstances of a humane action in the individuall may be indifferent : In a conference of schollers it is many times indifferent , whether they discourse in latine , or English , whether in the morning , or afternoone : But yet their whole conference considered adequately with all circumstances is either good , or evill ; And the reason is because the determination of an action doth not depend upon one circumstance apart , but upon all joyntly . A second limitation of the conclusion is that it is not to be extended unto every comparative consideration of humane actions and their circumstances : I know , that not onely actions indifferent , but also those that are commanded become sometime to be sinfull by comparison ; when they are preferred to better actions . God dislikes those recreations , that otherwise he alloweth , when they justle out duties : nay he abhorreth sacrifice , when it is inconsistent with mercy : but notwithstanding this , when there is an equality , if not of actions themselves , yet of their morall motives as to hic , and nunc this present time and place , Then curiously to compare and ballance such actions , were needlesse : for in such a case , the prelation of one before the other , would be a thing meerly arbitrary ; neither good nor bad : Reading , prayer , meditation are things commanded : but many times that I set apart such an houre for reading principally may be a thing indifferent : that I make choice of one Recreation before another , of bowling before Chesse , draughts , &c. that I choose to walke in the forenoon , rather then in the afternoon , may be of no morall consideration , and so neither good , nor evill , but a matter of indifferency . Looke as an Image carver may have no peculiar reason to make this Image , rather then that ; yet if he make any Image at all ; either he followeth the rules of his art , and then he makes a good Image ; or he swarves from those rules , and then he makes a bad image , and doth not worke like an Artist : So many times it may be to a Christian , a matter meerly indifferent to performe this or that action , he may have no obligation to doe either , or at least to doe one rather then the other , but may be left unto his own mind , and pleasure : but yet he is as a Christian obliged to regard such circumstances in all his actions , and therefore whatsoever he doth , he doth it either well , or ill ; for either he observeth these circumstances , and then his action is good , or he neglects them , and then it is bad . The conclusion being thus explained may be made apparent from the end , and rule of deliberate actions . 1. From their end , and what ought to be the end of all deliberate actions of man may be evidenced from their relation unto their Originall , from a consideration of them absolutely as they are in themselves . 1. From their relation unto their Originall , the rationall soule , or the soule , as rationall , they flow from man , as man , they proceed from his deliberate reason , and therefore , should have the same end , which man as rationall should propound , the glorisying of his maker ; If they have not this end , they are evill : and if they have this end , why then ( if there be no fayling otherwise ) they are good . This argument is by (m) Raynaudus thus urged : man is related unto his operations , as a tree unto it's fruits and branches : and therefore there is the same end of the humane operations , and the humane nature , and the reason is , because that nature is the first act , and it's operation the second act which is a tendencie of the first act towards it's object , and end ; and therefore it seemes necessary , that there should be the same uttermost end of the nature , and the operation ; Even as there is the same end of the tree , it 's stock , branches , and fruits : But now the uttermost end of the humane nature is God : and therefore God should be the uttermost end of every humane action ; and consequently no humane action can be indifferent : for if it have not God for it's end , it is sinfull : because it wants that relation unto the uttermost end of the humane nature , which it ought to have : and if it have God for it's end , then it is morally good , if it want not any other essentiall requisite . 2. From a consideration of them n absolutely as they are in themselves : Every humane rationall action is referred unto some chiefe end or other , and that must be , either the creature , or the creatour : If it be the creature , then the creature is most sinfully injoyed , as mans supreme end , and highest happinesse : whereas it should be only used , as a means : and hereby it is at least virtually , and interpretatively idolized , deified , and placed in the roome of God : If it be the Creator then the action is good , unlesse it be in some other regard defective . And so you see that unto whatsoever end it be referred , either created , or uncreated , it cannot be indifferent . For the further enforcement of this reason , I shall alleadge , and open some few scriptures . The first is Matth. 12. 36. But I say unto you , that 〈◊〉 idle word that men shall 〈◊〉 , they shall give account 〈◊〉 in the day of judgment . Three things here merit our consideration . 1. What is meant by an idle word . 2. What by giving account 〈◊〉 : and 3 dly , How this makes against the indifferency of humane actions , considered in their singulars , and actuall existence . 1. What is meant by an idle 〈◊〉 : that which hath no obliquity in it but this , that it wants a good and honest end : That it is unprofitable , and unfruitfull , both unto speaker , and hearer : quod aut utilitate rectitudinis aut ratione justae necessitatis 〈◊〉 , as 〈◊〉 , Homily . 6. As for those , who think , that an idle word is extended unto every word , 〈◊〉 wicked , false , lying , blasphemous , the very context will disprove them : The occasion of our Saviours discourse was that blasphemy 〈◊〉 the Pharisees , vers . 24. But 〈◊〉 the Pharisees heard it , they said , this fellow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cast out Devils , but by Beelzebub , the prince of the Devils : Now our Saviours 〈◊〉 is to discover the 〈◊〉 ; and danger of this blasphemous speech of theirs : And this he doth , as by severall arguments , so particularly , in this verse , by arguing a minori ad majus , from the lesse to the greater : As if he should have said : If in the day of judgment ye shall give an account for every idle word , then much more for such a blasphemous vomit as this of yours , That I cast 〈◊〉 Devils by the assistance of 〈◊〉 : That our Saviours Argument here stands thus Maldonate tels us , all are of that opinion that he ever read . And for this coherence take these two Reasons . 1. Our Saviour proceeds in a way of aggravating the now mentioned Blasphemy : But if by every idle word you understand every grossely wicked , and blasphemous word , there will be little aggravation hereof : for to say that every wicked lying , blasphemous word , that men shall speake , they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment , falls very short of what was spoken allready of this blasphemy vers . 31. 32. That it was a blasphemy against the Holy Ghost , and not to be forgiven , either in this world , or in the world to come . 2. Compare we these words with those immediately foregoing vers . 35. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart , bringeth forth good things : and an evill man out of the 〈◊〉 treasure , bringeth forth evill things : In the latter part of these words , by evill things are understood such evill words as were notoriously such , such as even the Pharisees acknowledged to be so ; The Idle words then in vers . 36. are distinguished from them , as may very probably be gathered from the Antithesis insinuated in the particle [ but ] But I say unto you every idle word , that men shall 〈◊〉 , they shall give account thereof in the day of Judgment : It is apparent , that our Saviour spake of such words , whose sinfulnesse seemed strange , and new unto such loose commentators on the Law , as the Pharisees were : And it is very observable , that he ushereth in this his commination against every idle word with the very same forme of speech , that he useth ( chapt . 5. vers . 12 , 28 , 31 , 34 , 39 , 44. ) In his correction of their corrupt glosses upon the law of God. So then our Saviour speakes of that , which sounded as very harsh and rigid doctrine in the eares of the Pharisees : But I say unto you that every idle word , that men shall speak 〈◊〉 shall give an account thereof in the day of Judgment : Notwithstanding your slighting thoughts of your vaine , and unprofitable discourse , I , who am the truth , and know fully the mind of God , as being alwaies in his bosome , doe assure you , that every idle word , which men shall speak , every word , which is not referred unto a good end , they shall give an account thereof in the day of Judgment . 2. Enquire we , what it is to give an account of every idle word in the day of Judgment . The phrase sometimes signifies onely triall , and examination , Luk. 16. 2. Heb. 13. 17. But that here it importeth condemnation , and punishment , (n) Suarez proveth from the scope of the words which was to terrifie the Pharisees for their blasphemy , and to deterre others from the like , by displaying , and amplifying the severity of Gods judgment against it : And unto this the threatning of punishment and condemnation for every idle word is more conducing , then a proposall of a bare tryall and examination of every idle word , which is agreeable unto the best words and works of men : 〈◊〉 for them 〈◊〉 may give an account with joy , Heb. 13. 17. In the words then , there is plainly a Metalepsis , the Antecedent , to give an account in the day of Judgment is put for the consequent to be punished in hell-fire , Every idle word that men shall speak , they shall give an account thereof in the day of Judgment : that is they without repentance shall be condemned , and everlastingly punished for it : And this acception of the phrase we find elsewhere , as 1 Pet. 4. 5. I passe on unto the third particular how this makes against the indifferency of humane actions considered in their singular and actuall existence : I answere : because it concludes against the indifferency of any words of men ; for those words , which in the generall , and in their own nature are indifferent : yet as drawn into exercise , and putting on circumstances they are idle , if they have no goodnesse adjoyned unto them , by reference unto their due , and requisite ends : And if they be idle they are sinsull , and consequently 〈◊〉 indifferent : And what is said of idle words of men is applyable unto the idle thoughts , and workes of men : for the thought of man is a more rationall act then his speech , more an act of reason : And his rationall works proceed from his thoughts , and are of farre greater moment and importance then his words : and so in the upshot we may inferre that if mens idle words are not indifferent , then neither mens idle thoughts , and works : And the justnesse of this inference , I shall confirme by two arguments . 1. Idle words are therefore sinfull , because ( being the birth and product of reason , and the free will of man ) there is not in 〈◊〉 propounded an end suitable unto the reasonable nature of man : Now all the vaine thoughts , and idle works of men are the issue of reason , and freedome of will : and therefore , ( because they are not 〈◊〉 unto such an honest end , as becomes the dignity of such a rationall creature , as man , ) they are faultie and vitious . 2. Idle words are therefore morally evill : because in them , that precious treasure , time , is wasted , in which a man may be more lavish , then in the most prodigall mispence of money : But now out time is vainly consumed to no good end , and purpose , in our idle thoughts , and works : and therefore they are sinfull , as well as our idle words : and consequently not indifferent . A second place is , 1 Cor. 10. 31. Whether therefore ye eat , or drink , or whatsoever ye doe , do all unto the Glory of God : To eat , and to drinke abstractively considered , are indifferent actions , and yet such actions are here commanded to be referred unto the glory of God : and therefore if they be not thus referred , they are sinfull : And we may say the same of all other actions , that are in spccie , in their own nature indifferent . Capreolus ( lib. 2. dist . 40. quaest 1. pag. 562. ) noteth , that these words of the Apostle [ Let all things be done unto the Glory of God ] may be understood two manner of waies negatively or affirmatively . 1. Negatively , and then the sense is , do nothing against 〈◊〉 glory , nothing that may dishonour him : Things offered unto idols were in themselves the good creatures of God , and to eate them an action in it selfe indifferent , but to eate them in the Idols Temple was to countenance Idolatry , and so a high dishonouring of God , To eat them also with the scandall of a weake brother , was to prejudice , and obstruct the glorifying of Gods name . 2dly , The words may be understood affirmatively , and so there is ( as Capreolus observeth ) a threefold reference unto the glory of God. 1. Habituall . 2. Actuall . 3. Virtuall . 1. An habituall reference there is unto the glory of God , wheresoever there is the habit , the grace , or vertue of the love of God , the principle of actually referring all things unto the glory of God. But now this is not sufficient : for the habit of love may ( for a long time ) lie idle , and un-active , and be consistent with very grosse sins : as we see in David , Peter , and others . 2. An action is actually referred unto Gods glory , when there is an actuall cogitation of God , and his glory : And this , ( though it ought frequently to be done ) is not yet required in every action : well it may be our happinesse in the next life ; But it can not be our duty in this ; because it would leave no roome , or place for other duties : Thus for an Artist to be alwaies thinking upon the rules of his Art , would be a disturbance unto his worke : for a traveller to have perpetually in his thoughts , the end of his journey would retard his progresse therein . In a third place therefore , the reference of all our actions unto Gods glory , that is here exhorted to , is onely virtuall . And that an action may virtually be referred unto Gods glory three things are required . 1. The above mentioned habituall reference unto Gods glory must be presupposed , as also . 2dly , A foregoing actuall reference of a mans selfe , and all that belongs unto him unto the glory of God , and the more frequent this is , the better , and 3ly , The Action it selfe . 1. Must not be reserred unto any end opposite unto Gods glory . 2. It must be reserred unto some end subordinate unto Gods glory , that carrieth a tendency unto it , and is naturally referrible thereunto . Now such an action is said to be virtually referred unto Gods glory , because it is done in the virtue , and sorce of some preceding actuall , and explicite proposall of Gods glory as a supreame end : for the virtue , and force of the chiefe , and utmost end abideth in all inferiour ends subordinated unto it ; so that he , who propounds unto himselfe those inferiour ends , may be said to propound implicitly , and mediately Gods glory for his uttermost end . Thus those godly persons who have first actually made Gods honour and glory , the maine ayme of their desires , endeavours , and undertakings , may be said afterwards to referre even their eating , and drinking , their recreations unto Gods glory virtually , if they ayme at no dishonest end , though their explicit and immediate intendment be onely the refreshment of their bodies , by which they are the better fitted , and prepared for the glorisying of God in both their generall , and particular callings . Thus every step in a mans journey , ( so he goe not out of the way ) may be said to be virtually designed unto the end of his journey , and yet it is neither necessary , nor expedient , that in every step a man should have actuall thoughts of the end of his journey . Unto this sentence of the Apostle here , Eslius makes Parallel two other places . The first , Col. 3. 17. Whatsoever ye doe in word or deed , doe all in the name of the Lord Jesus , that is ; for his glory and honour , for his names sake . The second is , 1 Pet. 4. 11. If any man speake , let him speake as the Oracles of God : If any man minister , let him 〈◊〉 it as of the ability , which God giveth , that God in all things may be glorisied through Jesus Christ ; Not onely in publick ordinances , not onely in acts of worship , not onely in necessary duties , but even in indifferencies , in all the common actions of this life . But as for any further exposition of these two places in themselves , or application unto the matter in hand , I shall referre the reader unto what I but now spake on the 1 Cor. 10. 31. which with due change will serve here . I shall therefore passe on unto a second argument taken from the rule of humane actions , right reason : Unto this rule all rationall actions , proceeding from deliberate reason , are either agreeable , or disagreeable : If agreeable , then they are morally good ; for right reason is a part of Scripture materially considered : If disagreeable , then they are vitious and sinfull ; For the will of man is bound to loòke to it's rule , and conforme all it's actions thereunto : and therefore if in any thing it neglect , or thwart it , if it swarve therefrom in the least particulars , it thereby commits a sinne . Unto these two arguments I shall adde a third , drawn from the relation betwixt 〈◊〉 goodnesse and 〈◊〉 : They are privatively opposite ; and inter privative opposita non datur medium in proprio subjecto susceptivo ; betwixt things privatively opposite there is no middle , either of abnegation , or participation in capable subjects : Thus every sensitive creature either seeth , or is blind : but we cannot say of a stone , that it is blind , although it seeth not ; because it is not capable of sight : Now morall goodnesse and illnesse are privatively opposed , ( the formality of sinne being nothing else , but a privation of that morall goodnesse , which is required unto every rationall action ; ) Now every rationall action , Every action , that proceeds from deliberate reason , and freedome of will , considered in its singulars , and as drawn into exercise is capable of morall goodnesse ; because it is referrible unto a good end : and therefore it is either good , or evill , and so not indifferent . Against this there are divers objections : unto those of Scotus the reader may supply himselfe with answers out of what hath been said already : As for the arguments of Vasquez , there is but (o) one of them merit 's any examination , and yet that hath been also answered out of Durand . ( b ) In briefe , it run's thus . As no Genus , no generall nature can be without one species , so no species , no speciall without one singular . No specificall nature but hath at least one individuall : and therefore , if there be some humane actions , that be in their species , in their specificall nature indifferent , there must needs be an individuall of such an action , that must be indifferent : and consequently all humane actions considered in the individuall are not morally good , or evill . This hath been sufficiently answered allready ; but now I shall , ex abundanti , adde two things more . The first is out of (p) Raynaudus : An humane action that considered specifically is indifferent , in regard of object or 〈◊〉 may in it's individuals and singulars be lookt upon two manner of waies . 1. Inadequately only as touching matter , or object . 2. Adequately in regard of all circumstances . 1. If an humane action be considered specifically indifferent as touching matter or object , then all the individuals or singulars of that action are indifferent too , not simply and absolutely , but secundum quid ; that is only as touching their object , and matter : But notwithstanding this , if we consider them adequately in respect of all circumstances , they are either good , or evill : for either they are cloathed with all circumstances required in a rationall action , and then they are good : or else they want some , or one of these circumstances , and then they are evill and sinfull , for malum fit ex 〈◊〉 defectu . The second is out of a moderne Thomist ; (q) Irenaeus . A thing may be said to be indifferent two manner of 〈◊〉 . 1. When indifferency is essentiall unto it . 2. When indifferency agreeth unto it onely by accident , and extrinsecally , from something that is extra-essentiall unto it : If indifferency were essentiall unto an humane action , considered specifically , then every singular , or individuall thereof must be indifferent too ; because the essentials of every thing superiour in point of predication are imparted , and attributed unto every thing , that is under them in point of predication ; as every individuall of the humane nature is a sensitive creature , a living body , &c. But now indifferency is ascribed unto some humane actions ( considered specifically ) onely by accident , and extrinsecally , from the operation of our understandings , abstracting , and devesting them from those circumstances good , or bad , wherewith in their individualls they are apparel'd : and therefore agreeth not unto their individuals look't upon without such an abstraction . By what hath been said , you see that our most indifferent actions are liable unto sinne ; and therefore afford matter of humiliation for the time past , matter of Caution for the future . 1. Matter of humiliation for the time past : In their singular , and actuall existence they were morally either good or evill , sanctified or sinnefull ; and good they could not be , unlesse there did concurre all requisites : And ( alas , ) how seldome hath there occurred in them such a concurrence ? sometimes they have risen from a wrong principle ; other times they have been directed unto bad ends ; most times they have been faulty in regard of either measure , or manner : It is very seldome , but there hath been wanting in them some circumstance , or other , that the word of God , or law of nature requireth : And the totall want of one of the least of such circumstances will so vitiate indifferent actions , as that it will not onely render them sinfull , but make them sinnes , meritorious of all the flames , and torments in hell : and that which deserves so severe a punishment , calls for a very eminent sorrow and contrition : God hath set bounds unto the use of our liberty in things indifferent , ( as unto the waves of the sea , ) saying , thus sarre shall ye goe , and no farther : He hath commanded , that it should be restrained by prudence , 〈◊〉 , conscience , Religion , Authority , and charity , But we have transgressed these limits , and have exceeded all bounds of moderation : We have used this part of our Christian liberty very imprudently , and intemperately in regard of our selves ; irreligiously , and profanely in respect of God : against the dictates of our conscience , a deputy under him ; against the obligations of our oathes , and vowes unto him : disobediently against the lawfull commands of our superiours : uncharitably with the scandall of many poore brethren . And thus have we most shamefully , and unthankfully abused this great priviledg of Christianity , by using it as an occasion unto the 〈◊〉 , as a 〈◊〉 of maliciousnesse ; and so have prostituted it unto the very service of Satan 〈◊〉 : 〈◊〉 Job's Sons and Daughters had feasted together , Job offered burnt offerings according unto the number of them all : for he said , it may be that my sonnes have sinned , Job . 14. 5. Their feasting was a thing indifferent , and very lawfull in it selfe : but , because it was obnoxious unto sinne , therefore Jobe sacrificed in the behalfe of them all : It may be ( saith he ) that my sonnes have sinned : The possibility of sinne in the indifferent things of others ( especially such as are neerely related : ) stirs up in the godly a feare , and a holy jealousy of them , and rowseth unto prayers for them : and therefore much more should the 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 assurance of the adhesion of sinne unto our own indifferent actions provoke us , with contrite hearts to deprecate the wrath of God against us : All the indifferencies of unregenerate men are sinnes : Unto them that are defiled and 〈◊〉 nothing is pure , Tit. 1. 15. the plowing of the wicked is sinne , Prov. 21. 4. And however unto the pure all things are pure . Tit. 1. 15. that is , all indifferent things in themselves are lawfull , yet they may and doe accidentally become sinne , when they are not in all particulars rightly circumstanced : And then they present us with fresh occasion for the renewall of our repentance and faith in Christ Jesus : And how often this happeneth , is a matter , that the most wakefull and quicksighted conscience can hardly discerne : so that the best of us may apply unto our indifferencies that of David , Psalm . 19. 12. Who can understand his errours : cleanse thou me from secret faults . Secondly , The liablenesse of our indifferent actions unto sinne should be a motive unto all possible caution and warinesse for the future in them : There is no humane action so indifferent , but it is capable of sinne , nay ( if it be not in all particulars rightly circumstantiated , ) it becomes actually 〈◊〉 ; and therefore our hearts should be very watchfull against sinne in the use of all indifferencies , in our meales , in our feastings , and merry meetings , in our journey's , in our ordinary talke , and discourse , in our walkes , in the actions of our ordinary vocations : Indeed the rule of Gods word doth not at all either command , or forbid the matter of such actions : but the manner of performing them commeth under the rule : They are all to be done to the glory of God , in the name of Christ : every good creature is to be sanctified by the word , and prayer : That Command , which God gave Abraham ( to walk before him ) is not to be straitned unto the ordinances of God , but to be extended unto all deliberate acts of a mans life , and conversation , Gen. 17. 1. Zechariah ( in his prophecy of the generall call or conversion of Jewes , and Gentiles ) gives this for one character of such , as shall be converted , that they shall have a sacred and sanctified use of things common and indifferent : In that day shall there be upon the bells of their horses , holinesse unto the Lord , yea , every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be 〈◊〉 unto the Lord of Hosts , Zech. 14. 20 , 21. Not onely acts of immediate worship , but all rationall actions , whatsoever , should be offered up as spirituall sacrifices acceptable unto God by Jesus Christ , 1 Pet. 2. 5. The Apostle exhorts the Romans to salute one another with an holy kisse , Rom. 16. 16. this kisse was no religious rite in Gods worship , but a ceremony of civility ; and therefore in it selfe a thing indifferent : And yet the Apostle requires holinesse for the qualification of it : All our civill actions ought to be such , as becommeth saints ; that is , so farre forth holy for manner , that they be free from sinne , and unto the glory of God : Indeed this is a strictnesse impossible unto lapsed man : But though we cannot exactly and perfectly observe it , yet we may sincerely and cordially endeavour it : And this sincere and hearty endeavour is that , which God , for Christ's sake , will accept , reward , and crowne ; and therefore it concernes us very much to use our utmost diligence herein : and the rather , because we are ( by farre ) more prone and ready to slide-into sinne in things indifferent ere we are aware , then in such things , as are for their nature , and matter sinfull ; for in such things the danger is more apparent , and therefore the more feared , and watcht against ; Whereas , if once we know , and are perswaded , that actions are indifferent , and lawfull , then we are apt to think that all is safe , and that we need not trouble our selves with any farther considerations touching their expediency , and edification ; and that there is no reason to perplex our hearts and consciences with an anxious care of referring them to Gods glory , of walking before God in them , and of putting holynesse unto the Lord upon them . Now when once such thoughts as these creepe into mens heads , it cannot be imagined , unto what excesses , and failings it exposeth them : Adde unto this : that looke as the consideration of the lawfulnesse , and indifferency of actions occasioneth a surprizall many times with hainous sinnes : so also it proves ( by accident ) an obstacle unto repentance for such sinnes : When the Godly fall into grosse , and acknowledged sinnes , either of omission , or commission ; why , the checks of their own consciences , the publick ministery , the reproaches of enemies , and the admonition of Christian friends will soone awaken them , and informe them of their guilt : But as for the sinnes , that adhere unto their indifferencies , how quickly are they hardened in them ? For it is very seldome , that , either their consciences , or their ministers , or their Brethren take notice of them ; or if they doe , they are apt presently to hold forth the indifferencie , and lawfulnesse of such actions in themselves , as a buckler to ward off all accusations of Conscience , all upbraidings of enemies , all reprehensions , of either ministers , or private friends : Those , that are most lavish of their time , and purses , in gaming , will plead ; that they follow none , but lawfull sports : A Gentleman , that murders the greatest part of his time in hunting , hawking , and the like exercises , and redeems but an inconsiderable portion of it to do God , and his Countrey service , thinks , that he hath enough to stopp the mouth of all reproofe , to say , that the recreations , which he pursueth are things indifferent : such riotous persons , as wast their pretious houres in joviallity , and goodfellowship , usually make this Apology for themselves : that it is not unlawfull to drinke with a friend in a Taverne or alehouse . To awaken from this licentiousnesse , and to quicken in us a carefull watchfulnesse over our hearts in the use of things indifferent , I shall , for conclusion of this discourse , propound some examples of the severity of Gods judgments against the sinnes of mens indifferencies : Davids numbering of the people was a thing not evill in it selfe ; but his curiosity , pride , and carnall confidence in an arme of flesh made it so ; And God was displeased with this thing , therefore he smote Israel , 1 Chron. 21. 7. with a pestilence , that devoured 70000. Doubtlesse most of those feminine ornaments ( mentioned , Esay 3. ) were in themselves lawfull ; but the haughtinesse , and wantonnesse of the daughters of Zion abused them unto sinne ; And how severely this sinfull abuse of them was threatned , you may read at large from verse the 16 usque ad 25 : for Hezekiah to shew unto the Babylonian Ambassadours the house of his pretious things , the silver , and the gold and the spices , and the pretious oyntment , and all the house of his armour , and all that was found in his treasures , all that was remarkable in his house , and dominion was in it selfe , but a civill entertainment , and not unlawfull : but because he did it out of vaine ostentation , this turned it into sinne , and this was one of the sins , which God chastised with the captivity of the whole nation , Esay 39 2 Chron. 32. 2 Kings 30. To be 〈◊〉 in Purple , and fine linnen , and to fare sumptuously were things in themselves indifferent ; but the excesse of the rich glutton made it sinfull unto him : and this sinne , not being repented of , was unto him a forerunner of hell torments , Luke 16. 19 , 23. They were the sinnes of things indifferent that had a great hand in , and influence upon the drowning of the old world , and the burning of Sodome , Luke 17. vers . 27 , 28 , 29. In the daies of Noah , they did eat , they dranke , they married wives , they were given in marriage , untill the day that Noah entred into the arke ; and the slood came and destroyed them all . Likewise also as it was in the daies of Lot , they did eat , they dranke , they bought , they sold , they planted , they builded : But the same day that Lot went out of 〈◊〉 , it rained fire and brimstone from Heaven , and destroyed them all . FINIS . A TREATISE Concerning ABSTINENCE From all appearance of EVILL , In Doctrine and in matters of practise , and that both unto our selves and unto others . WHEREIN Diverse Questions and Cases of Conscience belonging unto the difficult matter of scandall are briefly resolved . By HENRY JEANES Minister of Gods word at Chedzoy in Somerset . Bernard : ad Eugenium de Consideratione . Lib. 3. cap. 4. Sanè interest tuae perfectionis , & malas res , & malas pariter species devitare . In altero Conscientiae , in altero famae Consulis . Put a tibi non licere ( et si alias fortasse liceat ) quicquid malè fuerit coloratum . OXFORD , Printed by Hen : Hall Printer to the UNIVERSITY for Tho : Robinson , 1660. TO THOMAS MOORE of Hauck-Church in Dorset-shire . Esquires . ROBERT HUNT of Compton Paines-Ford in Somerset-sh . Esquires . IT is unto your Mediation that I owe in great part that leisure , and liberty , which I had for the compiling of this Booke , and this hath given you such an interest both in it , and in me , as that it would be a high piece of injustice , if no part of it should weare your Livery . This account that I have given , touching the reason of my prefixing your names unto this worke , may induce such Readers , who shall reape any Benefit thereby , to Concurre in their hearty prayers , for the powring downe of Gods Blessings , Spirituall and Temporall , Upon your Persons and Families with the poore Author , who shall ever rest Your most truly devoted Servant HENRY JEANES . 1 Thes : 5. 22. Abstaine from all appearance of evill . Our Apostle directs us , in the verse immediately preceding this Text , concerning Good ; in this Text concerning Evill . Towards Good he exacts a prudent warinesse ; towards Evill a scrupulous fearfulnesse . Towards good , a prudent warinesse , Prove all things , and then , hold fast that which is good . Nothing , how colourable soever , is to be received hand over head , before triall and examination by the ballance of the Sanctuary : for , Vitia virtutes mentiuntur ( saith Gregory ) vice is maskt under the skin of virtue ; falshood , disguised under the face of truth : so that one is often mistaken for the other . The grossest enormities have been glast and coloured over with the name , and face of virtues : the most poisonous heresies have often gained the esteeme and applause of Orthodox Tenents , and therefore as we must stedfastly retaine that which is truely true and good ; so must we prudently discerne , and carefully distinguish between that which is so indeed , and in truth and that which is so only in shew , and colour ; this we must reject , that keep , and hold fast : Prove all things , hold fast that which is good . But he requires now towards evill a farre different carriage : there he looks for a scrupulous fearfulnesse . Though we must not hold fast any thing that hath but the appearance of good , yet we must abstaine from but the appearance of evill . Abstaine from all appearance of evill : or from every evill appearance the Words may be rendred indifferently , either way , both rendring being equally consonant to the truth , and Originall . In the words our Apostle meets with a cavill , rise among the Libertines of our , and former times , who when their scandalous courses are charged upon thē , baffle of all with this plea : that they are not intrinsecally sinfull . Could I ( will the prosanest Libertine say ) once see such and such things proved to be unlawfull : why I would make no more words of the matter , but soone forbeare them . I , but have they the blush , the appearance of evill ? that should be motive enough to shun them . Abstaine from all &c. But are we sure this is the Apostles meaning ? are not the words capable of another interpretation ? First , some mislike our translation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , species , by appearance , and rather think it should be meant logically , for sort , or kind . That it may be so , Mat. Flac. Illyricus and Beza determine , That it is so the Syriack Interpreter , and after him Faber , and after them our own great and learned (r) Doctor Hammond resolve . But I would faine know upon what ground they are thus singular against the Current both of Ancient and Moderne Expositors . Setting aside this place the word occurres ( as I thinke ) in the whole new Testament but foure times , In Luke 3. 22. and 9. 29. John 5. 37. 2 Cor. 5. 7. And in none of these places is it , can it be taken in a Logicall notion . If not elsewhere , why here ? especially seeing such an acception is not inforced by the scope , coherence , any other circumstance of the Text , or any absurdity otherwise unavoidable . But some dreame of a soule absurdity , that would ensue upon translating 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 species , appearance . If every appearance of evill should be abstained from , then should good things , the best things be eschewed , for they commonly appeare to be evill unto sense , and carnall reason , that discerne not the things of the spirit of God. How easily may an acute wit set false faces upon them and worke a bad conceite of them into either weake or ill apprehensions . Unto this we may adde that of Dr Hammond in his treatise of 〈◊〉 . pag 9. 10. Appearance of evill ( saith he ) is so uncertaine and unconstant a thing , that to abstaine from it , universim , cannot be the matter of any 〈◊〉 Command . This feare will quickly vanish and be discovered to be idle , and vaine , when anon we shall explaine that distinction of appearance of evill , into 〈◊〉 , and imaginary : for the present therefore , leaving these men , proceed we , secondly , to others , who agree with us in interpreting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in a vulgar , familiar , and common sense , for appearance : but then their exposition is not so generall , as ours : for they restraine the place to matters of Doctrine , and will not allow it to be extended to matters of practise : and countenance , they think , the context gives their glosse : for the Apostle having at the 19 〈◊〉 exhorted not to quench the spirit , in verse 20. prescribes a meanes for cherishing the spirit , viz : a reverent demean our towards the word of God. If ye will not quench the spirit , despise not prophesying . And next , lest that some should except : are we thus reverently to receive promiscuously all prophesyings , and doctrines preached unto us , and not to beware of some , of false prophesyings and doctrines ? the Apostle , ( say they ) more distinctly directs , how we should demeane our selves . First , towards all prophesyings in generall : how , secondly , towards true : how , 3 dly , towards false . First , all prophesyings , and doctrines whatsoever must be 〈◊〉 examined , Prove all things . Secondly , all true prophesyings , sound , and orthodox doctrines are to be imbraced , with a firme , and unremoveable assent , Hold fast that which is good . Lastly , as for false prophesyings and doctrines even their very appearance is to be shunned . Thus they &c. But first , I propose unto the consideration of the learned , whether or no an exact and acurate coherence be to be looked for in most of those precepts , delivered by the Apostle , from vers . 13 : 〈◊〉 ad vers . 23. The loose and abrupt manner of heaping them together perswade ( me thinks ) that there is as little dependance of many of them upon either the foregoing , or sollowing precepts , as is to be expected between Solomons Proverbs , or Bede's Axiomes . Hence is it that (s) Estius holds it not necessary to interprete the place so , as that it should have connexion with those duties that immediately precede : rather ( thinks he ) the Apostle 〈◊〉 to rubbe up the memory of what he commanded in the former chapter , at verse the 12. That ye may walke honestly towards them that are without . Secondly , Suppose a coherence of the words with the former , must it needs be that which they obtrude ? The words may sit under our interpretation , and yet the Analysis of the Context run smoothly , as thus : The Apostle having at verse 19. dehorted from quenching the spirit , next adviseth use of meanes tending to the preservation of its gracious and glorious residence in the soule : which meanes are either negative or positive : he assignes but one negative means , viz : a removall of a maine barre and powerfull obstacle unto the presence of the spirit , contempt of preaching , Despise not prophecying , vers . 20. of the positive means , two concerne good , one evill : the two concerning good , are boni diligens examinatio , constans electio : Prove all things , hold fast that which is good . This respecting evill , est universalissima ejus rejectio , an abstinence not onely from all kinds , but even from all appearance of evill . Lastly , suppose the primary scope and intention of the Apostle be limited unto matters of doctrine : yet because the maine reason , for which they themselves conceive appearances of evill , even in matters of doctrine to be interdicted , is avoidance of scandall , the precept of which is juris naturalis , and not only doctrines but also actions are scandalous : justly therefore unto these , as well as those , 〈◊〉 the text appliable , and applied too , by all Schoolmen , or others that ever I met with purposely treating on the point of scandall . Should we then against the more generally received opinion of either former or later times , admit of their narrow and 〈◊〉 interpretation for the cleare , and indubitate sense of the Apostle ? Yet to make the words more instructive , their use more generall , we might warrantably put an enlargment upon them , and extend them ad mores , 〈◊〉 well as ad dogmata : ad agenda , as well as ad credenda : to the decalogue , as well as creed ; not onely to doctrinall truthes , but morall duties also . Use of a division here is none , but to bewray Logick : and therefore without more adoe we will 〈◊〉 betake our selves to Limitation , Consirmation , and Application of the plaine point 〈◊〉 commended to us : we are to abstaine not onely from things intrinsecally 〈◊〉 , but from all shewes and appearances of sinne . For Limitation , appearance of evill is either in 〈◊〉 or actions . First then ? t is questioned whether or no wee are to abstaine from all positions , which have an appearance of evill : of falshood . For resolution we must distinguish , 1. Concerning appearance of evill in positions . 2. Concerning abstinence from such an appearance . Appearance of evill in Positions is twofold : 1. Either in regard of their 〈◊〉 and substance . 2. Or else in the termes , and expressions used in their proposall . That 〈◊〉 is in regard of their matter and substance , is , either to our selves or others . Secondly , to distinguish concerning abstinence from the appearance 〈◊〉 evill , or falshood in Positions : we may be said to abstaine from doctrines false in appearance , two manner of waies : either 1. When we abstaine from assenting to them . 2. Or when we abstaine from publishing of them . We abstaine from assenting to them either positively , or negatively . Positively , when by a positive , or reall act of the understanding we dissent from , we reject them . Now dissent from them is twofold , 1 Either absolute and peremptory , 2. Or else but conditionall , and cautionary . Negatively , when we do not dissent from them , but onely not assent unto them : when we suspend our assent . To apply these distinctions . Note first , that though the substance or matter of Doctrines appeare to be false unto our selves , our own judgments , yet are we not bound to abstaine positively from assenting to them . to dissent from them , to reject them ; for this appearance may not be true and reall , grounded upon the doctrines themselves , which perhaps may not send forth the least colour or shadow for suspicion , but only put and fastned upon them by means of the errour , ignorance , and darknesse of our understandings , that perhaps not with due care and circumspection , but rather with much precipitancy have given their censure of them : and therefore however at first blush they seeme false , yet when once the light of our reason is cleared from mists , and clouds , they may upon due examination prove true : and to dissent from , and reject a truth would be a soule errour of , and blemish to our understanding . Obliged we are then , to abstaine , not positively but negatively from assenting to them : that is , not to 〈◊〉 from them , but only not to assent unto them , to stay our assent , to demurre a while , before we give in our judgment , lest we receive any thing with a doubtfull , entangled , and perplexed Conscience . Of this Calvin gives us an hint in his exposition on this place , Speciem mali interpretor , cùm nondum it a comperta est doctrinae falsitas , ut 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 queat , sed tamen aliqua haeret 〈◊〉 suspicio , & timetur , ne quid veneni 〈◊〉 : ergò ab 〈◊〉 genere doctrinae , quod malum , etiamsi non sit , apparet , 〈◊〉 praecipit , non quod in totum rejici 〈◊〉 , sed quia recipi , aut fidem obtinere non debet . Cur 〈◊〉 priùs quod bonum est teneri jussit , nunc abstinere vult , 〈◊〉 simpliciter à malo , sed à mali specie ? quia ubi dijudicatione in lucem product a fuerit veritas , tunc demum ei sidem haberi decet : ubi autem subest falsi metus , aut mens dubitatione 〈◊〉 implicita , 〈◊〉 referre , vel gradum suspendere 〈◊〉 , nè quid dubiâ perplex áque censcientiâ amplectamur . By the appearance of evill I understand ( saith he ) when as the falshood of a doctrine is not yet so throughly detected , that it may be deservedly rejected , but yet there sticks some bad suspicion of it , and 't is feared , lest poison lurke under it : therefore he commands us to abstaine from that kind of doctrine , which though it be not evill , yet appeares so : not as though it ought altogether to be rejected , but because it ought not to be received , to be believed . For why doth he before command us to hold fast onely that which is good , and here he wills us to abstaine not barely from evill , but from its 〈◊〉 ? Because when after a thorough sifting a truth is cleared , `t is fitting it should forthwith be believed : but when as the falshood of it is feared , or the mind with doubting is intangled , we must for a while withdraw our assent , lest we 〈◊〉 any thing with a doubting , and 〈◊〉 conscience . But suppose I for mine own part am firmely perswaded of the truth of such , or such a Tenet , or at least unconvinced , unperswaded of it's falshood , and yet it appeare generally unto others to be false unto the judgments of the godly learned , of most of the ancient 〈◊〉 , unto either generall or provinciall Councils : in such a case , what course must I take , because it hath appearance of falshood unto others understandings , must I therefore dissent from it , or stop mine assent unto it ? For answer , take these foure following rules . First , we owe so reverend and humble an esteeme of , and submission unto the Spirits of the Prophets , to the judgment of learned , sober , and pious Divines , unto the writings of the ancient godly Fathers , unto the Canons , and decrees of Oecumenicall , and Provinciall Councils , as that whatsoever Tenents the whole Church representative , to wit , a generall Councill , or the greatest and chiefest part of the Church most of the Fathers and Divines too , of later and present times , have rejected and condemned for false , and erroneous , we should abstaine negatively from assenting to , that is , though not change , yet suspend our beliefe of them , and not fully passe over our full and absolute assent unto them , untill by diligent inquisition , 〈◊〉 prayer , imploring the guidance of Gods holy spirit , and use of all other good means , either their consonancy with , or dissonancy from the truth , be cleerly discerned , fully confirmed , and manifested unto our Consciences . But Christian modesty stayeth not here , but goeth one step further , and in a second exacts of us a conditionall , probable , and t cautionary dissent from all doctrines thus generally suspected , and censured : for upon generall dislike of a doctrine , as upon a 〈◊〉 motive , we may ground a strong presumption , an high and probable conjecture of the falshood of it : so that hereupon wee may reject it , though not in an absolute and irrevocable way , yet with this limitation and caution : so the apparent verity therein of it selfe do not force us to embrace it . So sottish I am not , as to measure truth by multitude of voices : for errours I know that have grated upon the foundation , nay heresies , that have raised the foundation , have had their cloud of witnesses : yet I should so farre honour a publick testimony , as to suspect mine own , and others private bare opinions , not back't by plain scripture , with evident sense , or a 〈◊〉 demonstrative argument , rather than a generall suffrage : for , nemo omnes , neminem omnes , 〈◊〉 , * improbable as for one to deceive all , so for all to deceive one , Rivet (u) makes no doubt , but caeteris paribus , that is , if parts , prayer , diligence of study after the truth , be equall , that then a greater and fuller measure of the gist of expounding the Scripture , and deciding controversies thereabouts , is comn unicated . to the publick ministers of the Church , ( whether they execute their function severally , and apart in some one particular Church , or else jointly conferre and discourse among themselves concernîng the true and genuine sense of the Scriptures in some assemblies call'd lawfully , and in the name of Christ ) than unto severall private men , who are neither endowed with so many gifts , nor see with so many eyes , nor by their private and single meditation can equall the united consultations and enquiries after truth of many . And thus you see how farre Christian modesty requireth us to abstaine from assenting to doctrines upon the appearance of evill , or falshood , which they carry unto those , who in interpeting scripture , and deciding controversies , have committed to them the publick office of direction and instruction of others : but yet it taketh not 〈◊〉 us the judgment of private discretion ; for Christian liberty alloweth us such a freedome of dissenting from , or assenting unto , what the Church , and her ministers say , as is to be specified in the next two following rules . In a third place therefore , although the Church , or the greatest and cheifest part of her , charge errour and falshood upon such a doctrine ; yet this bare and single testimony , not seconded by any scripture or reason , is not to gaine so farre upon our beliefe , as that thereupon we should presently reject , and dissent from the doctrine thus generally censured with an absolute and peremptory dissent . This were to give unto the Churches decisions as high and over-ruling a suffrage in our hearts , as is onely due to divine revelations to receive them , not as they are indeed the word of men , but as if they were the word of God : to yeild unto them an absolute divine faith , and credence . This were a meere Vassallage of our soules , understandings , faiths , unto the authority of an humane testimony : a thing utterly unworthy the generosity and freedome of Christian Spirits . If God hath indulged to any the exercise of such dominion over mens faiths , and consciences : alas ! then to what purpose hath he placed that glorious lamp of reason in our bosomes ? of what use are our intellectualls ? What place is there left for St Pauls proving of all things ? St John's tryall of the Spirits ? but the truth is , that God is so farre from enslaving our understandings , or captivating our beliefe unto the judgment of any mortall , as that he approves not onely of a forbearance from a flat , and absolute 〈◊〉 from doubtfull doctrines thus publickly , and generally disliked , but also of a full and peremptory assent unto doctrines manifestly true , though condemned in a generall Councill , as is apparent from the fourth and last rule , which is : If a doctrine be , as true in it selfe , so also clearly , and evidently by me 〈◊〉 to be so , and yet appeare generally to be false unto others , of what degree , order , or condition soever ; neverthelesse it Commands absolute subscription , and assent of the mind without contradiction , without hesitancy , nay without so much as suspense of judgment . If the verity then of a doctrine be apparent , it must over-rule the assent of the understanding against the testimony of the whole world . For the testimony of men , of the wisest , holiest men , considered either apart , or assembled in a councill , admits , as allwaies of examination , and tryall by the ballance of the Sanctuary , and rules of right reason , so likewise of contradiction and denyall , when in it there is an expresse , and evident variation from either reason , or divine authority . In such a cause we may lawfully , and safely dissent from it ; allwaies provided , that it be not in an insolent manner , but with a reverend , child-like , and respectfull bashfulnesse . But to goe on , if I am not to abstaine from assenting to a doctrine manifestly true , because it appeares generally to others to be false , must I not yet abstaine from publishing , from spreading of it , either by writing or preaching ? For answer , thou must consider the generall nature and qualitie of the doctrine , thus wrongly either 〈◊〉 , or suspected of falshood , and also of what use , and importance it is in regard of the present times , and places , wherein thou livest , and if it prove to be a doctrine either fundamentall , or at least of such weight and moment that from the publishing of it , will spring a greater good , more glory to God , and benefits to the Church then the trouble and disquiet it brings can be an evill , thou art then at no hand to conceale it , so should'st thou be unfaithfull both to God and his Church , and become accessary to the betraying , nay murther of the truth . Si de veritate scandalum sumatur ( saith Gregory ) melius est ut scandalum oriatur , quàm ut veritas relinquatur . If scandall or offence be taken at a truth which the estate and exigence of those soules committed to a mans charge requireth him to publish , better suffer the whole world to be scandalized , than such a truth disadvantaged , either by deniall , or but a cowardly smothering , and dissembling , thereof . Quemadmodum enim ( saith Calvin ) Charitati subjicienda est nostra libertas , ita sub fidei puritate subsidere 〈◊〉 charitas ipsa debet : As our liberty is to be subjected to charity , 〈◊〉 also our Charity it selfe to faith's puritie . But now if it be a doctrine , either not fundamentall , but of a lower rank and quality , wherein both orthodox writers , and preachers may vary and abound in their owne sense , without prejudice to the foundation : or if it be of so small use , that upon its divulgement , it is not probable there will arise so much honour to God , and edification of the Church , as may preponderate those mischiefes , that hurly-burly , those tumults , and contentions in the Church , which in all likelyhood will ensue thereby , thou must then forbeare to vent it , either from presse , or pulpit ; so shalt thou best consult for thine own private quiet , and publick peace . And we must follow after things that make for peace . and edification : Rom. 14. 19. About such matters to be contentious , we have no custome , nor the Churches of God : and indeed about them to be contentious were the right pranke of a Schismatick : for not only he is a Schismatick ( saith (r) Cameron ) who maintaines a perverse Tenet : a man may hold a very true opinion , and yet play the Schismatick , and give scandall unto the people of God by delivering it in a rash , unpeaceable , and unseasonable manner , neither in fit place , nor due time , no necessity urging thereunto . for seeing in determining of his opinion the glory of God , and weale of the Church lye not at the stake , he plainly shewes , that he hath troubled the Church , lead with desire of not Christ's glory , but his own Credit . I confesse indeed , that a controverted , and suspected truth even of this low quality may be peaceably , and modesty professed , and debated too in private , but a publick promulgation thereof is at any hand to be forborne , non sub intuitu mali , sed minoris 〈◊〉 , not under the apprehension of any evill in the truth , but only as a lesser good , which will not consist with a greater , the tranquility of the Church ; or if you will , the publick promulgation of such a truth is to be forborne , sub intuitu mali , etsi non simpliciter , tamen per accidens talis : under the apprehension of evill , not in the controverted truth , but in the promulgation thereof , which though it be not simply evill , yet becomes accidentally so , to wit , by comparison , in respect of a greater good then required , preservation of the generall quiet ; with which for the present it cannot stand , unto the care of which it is opposed , though not primo & per se , yet ex consequenti connexione virtutum , as Suarez upon another occasion phraseth it . But I digresse . To goe on to that appearance of evill in doctrines , which is in the expressions used in their proposall , a thing I could wish it were not to rife amongst many , who like no truth , unlesse delivered in hereticall terms ; men wonderfully taken with the language of Ashdod , the Romish dialect . But let it be our care to refraine all words , and phrases , which carry an appearance of either heresie or schisme ; for though they may , and are by us meant in an orthodox sense , yet carry they a shrewd shew of evill , make others jealous , and suspicious of our soundnesse , and therefore (x) Canus although he will by no meanes assent , absolutely to that usuall saying ; ex verbis inordinatè prolatis fit haeresis : yet he is content to approve of it , if it be moderated with this caution , secundum praesumptionem audientium , & judicum , qui per exteriora signa debent judicare de haeresi : if it be understood according to the supposall of hearers , and judges , who ought and indeed can judge of heresie onely by outward signes . Between a minister and Popery let there be a great Chasma , a distance as wide as between heaven , and earth , nay heaven , and hell : yet if his phrase do but smell of Popery , if his words , though not his meaning , trench neer upon it , men will presently exclaime that he hath a Pope in his belly , at least that he sounds for a Parley , and thinks upon conditions of peace with the Romish harlot . And besides as this suspicious complying in phrase , and language with the known errours of Popelings , or other novellers , and corrupt teachers grieves the setled and judicious , so farther it staggers weaklings , confirmes and hardens aliens , and Apostates : rather opens than stops the mouthes of gain-saying carpers , and sooner disadvantageth the truth , than converts an adversary . So farre is it from effecting the usually pretended end , reconciliation ; as that to use the similitude of our Saviour , Mat. ch . 9. v. 16. like the putting of a new peece of cloth unto an old garment , it maketh the rent worse , and wider . There goeth a manuscript from hand to hand , said to be penned by a learned (y) Doctor of this Church , wherein ( that amidst notwithstanding all the variety of opinions there may be yet preserved in the Church the unity both of faith , and charity ) private men are advised in their own writings to observe formam , sanorum verborum , and to abstaine not onely from suspected opinions , but as much as may be also from phrases and speeches obnexious to misconstruction and exception . For first , it is not enough , much lesse a thing to be gloried in , for a man to be able by subtilty of wit , to find loop-holes , how to 〈◊〉 , and by colourable pretences , to make that , which through heat of passion , or violence of opposition hath falne from him unadvisedly , to seeme howsoever défensible . But he should have a care to suffer nothing to passe from him , whereat an ingenious and dispassionate adversary ( though dissenting from him in opinion , ) might yet have cause to take distast , or exception . And besides , it were a thing of dangerous consequence in the Church , if every man should be suffered to publish freely whatsoever might by some straine of wit be made capable of a good construction , if of it selfe it sounded ill , or suspiciously . For so many 〈◊〉 , unhappy notions implicitly and virtually serving to the patronage and protection of Schisme or heresie , might be cunningly conveighed into the minds of men , and impressions thereof insensibly wrought in their hearts , to the great damage and distraction of the Church . This last reason for the substance you may meet with in Aquinas 2. 2 dae . q. 11. a. 2. where ( having told us out of Hierome , ex verbis inordinatè prolatis fit haeresis : that by unwary irregular expressions , by words disorderly spoken , the most dangerous heresies have often taken their first rise , and originall ) he afterwards gives us the reason hereof : Similiter enim per verba quae quis loquitur , suam fidem prositetur : est enim consessio actus fidei : & ideo si sit inordinata locutio circa ea quae sunt fid . i , sequi potest ex hoc corruptio fidei : Unde Leo Papa quâdam Epistolâ ad Proterium Episcopum Alexandrinum dicit , quod inimici crucis Christi , omnibus & verbis nostris insidiantur & syllabis , si ullam illis vel tenuem occasionem demus , quâ Nestoriano sensui nos congruere mentiantur . Likewise a man professeth his faith by words , which he speaketh ; for confession is an outward act of faith , and therefore , if there be but an inordinate speech about matters of faith , the corruption of faith may hereupon ensue . Whence Leo the Pope , in a certaine Epistle unto Proterius Bishop of Alexandria saith , that the enemies of Christ's Crosse lye in waite for all our words , and syllables , if in them we give any the least occasion , upon which they may saine that we comply with Nestorianisme . Hence is it that Aquinas himselfe having proposed this question , whether or no this proposition be true , Christ is a creature in his answer thereunto tells us , first in generall , cum haereticis nec nomina debemus habere communia , ne 〈◊〉 errori favere videamur , then more particularly , unto the question ; that the Arrian hereticks have said that Christ is a creature , and lesse than the Father , in regard not onely of the humane nature , but also divine person , and therefore resolves , that lest we should seeme to countenance their errour , we must not say absolutely that Christ is a Creature , and lesse than his Father ; but onely with this limitation , according to the humane nature . Ariani autem heretici Christum dixerunt esse creaturam , & minorem Patre , non solùm ratione humanae naturae , sedetiam ratione 〈◊〉 personae , & ideò non est absolutè dicendum , quod Christus sit 〈◊〉 , vel minor Patre , sed cum determinatione , scilicet secundum humanam naturam . Nay not only Aquinas , but generally all the Schoolmen , and Civilians too , are so precise in this particular , as that among the degrees of damnable propositions are ranked by them not only propositions down rightly hereticall , or 〈◊〉 , but also (z) propositio sapiens haeresin , propositio male sonans , every proposition , that doth but smell , that hath but a smack of heresie , that sounds but ill or suspiciously ; and such are all propositions , that in the first signification , which their words at first blush seeme to import , have an hereticall sense ; all propositions , that of themselves , that is , uttered absolutely without any explanation , or qualification , seeme to favour or countenance hereticall propositions , allthough they be capable of a good construction , and with many cautions , limitations , and restrictions might passe for currant . And therefore was it , that the Councill of Basil condemned this proposition , Christ sins daily , because taken properly t is false and against the faith , although perhaps it may be freed from errour , if expounded in a unproper sense , thus ; Christ sinneth daily , not in himself , but his members . (a) Suarez saith , that if an equivocall proposition having two proper senses , one Cathelick , another hereticall be delivered absolutely without any distinction , or declaration , in which sense 't is meant , it is then deservedly said to be propositio malè sonans . The same author goeth on and tels us , that a proposition is said to be malè sonans , not onely ab 〈◊〉 , but also ab extrinseco when the suspicion or ill sound thereof ariseth not from the proposition taken nakedly , as it is in it selfe , but considered jointly with the circumstances either of the person delivering , or of the time and place , in which it is delivered . Omitting his instance , I will give you others more true , and savory . The word Sacrament with the ancients sounded no other , than an holy significant rite ; in those times then to have called matrimony , orders , &c. Sacraments , had been ( it may be ) without all manner of offence . But now , since the Church of Rome hath peremptorily determined , that therebe Seaven Sacraments properly and strictly so called , seaven outward and sensible signes , which by divine institution , have annexed unto them the promise of justifying grace . He that shall now terme any thing a Sacrament , besides Baptisme , and the Lords Supper , renders himselfe thereby justly suspected . In the writings of the Fathers , the words of satisfaction , and merit have been of large use . Satisfaction signified every bitter afflictive acknowledgment , or penitentiall mortification of our sins , whereby we prevent , and turne away God's hand , and punishments for them . Merit , denoted onely obtaining , procurement , impetration , and according to this acception of the words , a man might safely have heretosore affirmed , that our prayers , almes , and other good works are satisfactory and meritorious . But now since some of the Romanists have wrested these sayings of the Fathers unto a worse sense , than they were uttered in : and hereupon taught that works are properly satisfactory , just compensations for our sins , wherein we make recompence unto Gods wronged justice , and redeeme our selves at least from temporall punishments ; that works are strictly and properly meritorious of eternall life , deserving and earning it ex condigno , in the way of condigne wages ; as if there were an equality or due proportion between it and them , without all regard unto Gods gracious acceptance of them ; he that shall now averre these propositions , may without breach of charity be justly thought to embrace them in that false , and erroneous sense , which our adversaries the Papists take them in . Hitherto concerning doctrinall appearance of evill , in Doctrines . Practicall appearance of evill in manners or matters of practise next followes ; (b) and that may againe be divided into 〈◊〉 or Imaginary . The distinction is the same with that of others . Aliquid 〈◊〉 speciem mali , vel per se ex conditione operis , vel per accidens ex aliorum 〈◊〉 . The difference between these must be well weighed , else we may as fouly be mistaken , as once the Pentickes were , who , as Florus tells us , fighting in a night with the Romans , per errorem longius cadentes umbras suas quasi hostium corpora petebant : mistaking their own shadowes projected long as at the going downe of the Moone , laid at them as at the very bodies of their enemies : or as the Romans themselves , were , unto whom when Tiberius Gracchus touched his head with his hand to exhort the people , as by a signe , to stand upon their guard for their lives , it seemed as if he demanded a diademe . Cùm 〈◊〉 ad defensionem salutis suae manu caput tangens , praebuit speciem regni sibi , & diadema poscentis , Flor. lib. 3. cap. 14. To distinguish them then , a reall appearance of evill flowes per se ex natura operis , from the nature , and condition of the fact it selfe : when that of it selfe , and in it's own nature , is a very probable signe of evill : and so it is , when it is ordinarily done for an evill end , when it is per se an occasion of Sin in our selves , and of scandall unto others : it must be occasio data , non accepta . First , when naturally , and not onely casually , it may prove , and ordinarily doth prove an occasion of an incentive to sinne in our selves . Secondly , when it becomes an occasion of scandall or offence , of scandall tending unto sinne in the weake , of scandall tending unto sorrow and vexation in the strong and discreet : Such an appearance is there of adultery , in a mans lying in bed with another mans wife , though he hath no carnall knowledg of her . * Such an appearance of Judaisme , ( than which few greater evills ) is there in the ( c ) circumcision of those Aethiopian Christians , that live under Prester John. Such was the appearance of evill in Christians fitting at meat in the Temples of Paganish Idols , in Naamans bowing himselfe in the house of Rimmon , however Cajet an excuse him with a pretty distinction , inter genu 〈◊〉 imitativam , & genu flexionem obsequii . And such also is that appearance of evill in a good mans intimate fellowship with bad ones , in a true and formall compliancy with aliens in the signes of profession . As in a Protestants presence at the superstitious , and Idolatrous worship of Papists , or in any other complementings with them in the expression of that worship . Now no actions that have this reall appearance of evill are upon any pretext whatsoever to be ventured upon , and for this I shall give two Reasons . First , because in them there is allwaies a scandall given , an active scandall , as is plaine from Aquinas his definition of scandall , 2. 2 dae . qu. 43. art . 1. Scandalum ( saith he ) understand it of an active seandall ) est dictum vel factum minùs rectum praebens alteri occasionem ruinae . For a word or fact is (d) minus rectum some way or other irregular , not onely when t is a sin in it selfe , but also when it hath a manifest shew of sin ; for the bare and naked shew of sin may ( praebere alteri occasionem ruinae ) morally lead another to sin , may be the morall cause of anothers sin , as well as sin it selfe ; the actions , in which there is onely an appearance of sinne , may yet provoke another unto the practise of sin , as the performance of the sinfull action it selfe : To see a Christian sitting at meat in an Idols Temple , at an Idols feast , may tempt a raw convert unto Idolatry , as well as to behold him knceling before an Idoll . For this I could muster up the suffrages of all the schoolmen , a generation yet of divines , that are none of the precisest either in positions , or practise . But I will not trouble my Reader with the testimonies of above two of them . Opus malum ( saith Suarez ) vel 〈◊〉 speciem mali , quod de fe inductivum est ad pecc andum , vitandum est ; nam illud est verè scandalum activum , ut patet ex desinitione ejus , moraliter enim inducit hominem ad malum . Quod 〈◊〉 non operteat esse verè malum , sed satis sit apparere , patet , 2 Thes. 5. 22. 1 Cor. 12. Ratio est , quia tenemur rectè operari , non selum coram Dco sed ctiam coram hominibus . Secundo , quia cum opus habet speciem mali , inducitur proximus ad malum opus , non selum suâ malitiâ , sed etiam ex vi mei operis , & ex quadam fragilitate . 〈◊〉 , op . de triplici virtute tract . 2 disp 10. sect . 3. Quotiescunque datur occasio scandali ( saith Vasquez ) malo opere , aut habente speciem mali , semper imputatur scandalum tribuenti occasionem , sive scandalum 〈◊〉 ex malitiâ , sive infirmitate , aut ignorantià . Tunc enim qui 〈◊〉 occasionem scandali , peccat peccato scandali activi , quod nullâ ratione licet . Ratio vero est , quia nullâ justâ aut rationabili causâ excusari potest aliquis â peccato , qui coram alio peccat , vel exercet opus habens speciem mali : & ideo jure optimo dicitur tribuere occasionem peccandi , quia tale opus ex se occasio est peccandi . Vasquez opusculis Moralibus . tract . de scandalo . But now ( to proceed unto a second reason ) besides the evill of scandall in actions , that carry a reall appearance of evill , there is also reductivè the guilt of that evill of which they have an 〈◊〉 ; for that command , which forbids such a sin , forbids all the shewes and occasions of it , all the preparatives unto it ; as is usually observed by Commentators upon the Decalogue . Thus the prohibition of adultery takes in all the causes , and signes thereof : by this rule to sit at meat in the Idols Temple , at the Idols feast , was not onely a sin of scandall , as being a provocation unto , and so a participation of the sin of Idolatry in weake and ignorant spectators ; but also a sin of Idolatry by way of reduction , a sinne against religion , a transgression against that worship , which God requireth . Suarez expresseth this , though somewhat obscurely , yet more fully : first he layeth down this conclusion ; Quando aliquis indirectè inducit alium ad peccandum per actionem malam , vel habentem speciem mali , etiam incurrit specialem malitiam scandali : against this conclusion he propounds amongst others this objection ; Sequitur eum &c. per actionem non malam , sed habentem speciem mali contrahere duas malitias . Vnam scandali contra charitatem : aliam illius speciei peccati , ad quam proximus inducitur . Consequens est contra divum Thomam hic , et sumitur ex Paulo primo ad Corinth . 8 & 12. Vbi manducantem scandalosè sacrificata Idolis , non reprehend reprehendit , ut Idolatram , sed ut scandalosum . Sequela autem patet , quia ille est 〈◊〉 talis malitiae , ergo incurrit illam . Unto this his answer is : that an action onely evill in appearance may have a double obliquity in it , to wit , that of scandall , and that of which it is an appearance , unto which it induceth Concedo , inquit , ibi esse duas malitias . Est tamen advertendum , 〈◊〉 contra aliquam virtutem peccari . Vno modo per se primo , quia 〈◊〉 agitur contra objectum ejus , vel circumstantias illi ex se debitas , & hoc modo actio solum mala in apparentia , nullam virtutem 〈◊〉 . Alio modo peccari potest tantum ex consequenti connexione virtutum . Nam ut dictum est 1. 2 quia actus virtutum sunt undique boni , quando hic , & nunc actus alicujus virtutis 〈◊〉 esse contrarius alteri virtuti , ( quamvis in suo objecto , vel circumstantiis quasi intrinsecis 〈◊〉 habeat defectum ) non potest prudenter sicri , atque adeo neque est actus virtutis simpliciter , & ideo participat malitiam contrariam utrique virtuti , sed alteram per se , alteram quasi per accidens , & consequenter . Sic etiam propria malitia scandali ferè semper fundatur in alia malitiâ , tamen ex consequenti , & per accidens , sempèr habet aliquo-modoillam conjunctam ex defectu circumstantiae debitae , saltem propter aliam virtutem , propter quam non 〈◊〉 prudenter cessandum 〈◊〉 ab opere hic , & nunc , habente speciem mali , quamvis ex se esset alias honestum . Suar : de triplici virtute Theolog. tract . de charitat : disp . 10. 〈◊〉 . 2. 'T is of this reall appearance 〈◊〉 believe that the Apostle is here onely to be understood . But yet to make this our discourse compleate I shall also take in consideration that appearance of evill in an action which is but imaginary ; and this is ascribed thereunto from our own , or others 〈◊〉 and censures thereupon . First , from our own . And here , if a man be in his own Conscience stedfastly , fully and firmely perswaded , that such an action is evill and unlawfull , which yet in truth is not so , but lawfull : what ought he to doe ? These times afford many instances by which we may exemplisy this case : There are many Sectaries that professe they thinke it unlawfull to frequent the publique Ordinances , to pay tithes unto the Minister , Contribution unto the Magistrate ; and there be some , that thinke it unlawfull to sweare in any cause , though called thereunto by a Magistrate ; and yet all these particulars are not onely things lawfull , but bounden duties . For 〈◊〉 we must premise two things . First , we must take into our consideration , the nature of the action , and the condition of the person that harbours this misperswasion of the action : the action in its nature may be either necessary , or indifferent and arbitrary : and the person misjudging it may be , in respect thereof , either sui juris , or determined therein by the lawfull command of some superiour power . Secondly , we must with Durand distinguish betwixt 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 , to bind , and to bind unto . Sciendum ( saith he ) lib. 2. dist . 39. qu. 5. quod aliud est ligari , aliud obligari , qui. n. obligatur debet , vel tenetur , id facere ad quod 〈◊〉 , nec quantum est exparte suâ aliter absolvitur ab obligatione . Ligari autem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , qui 〈◊〉 dispositus est circa aliquod agibile , quod non potest licitè procedere , prout exigit natura illius agibilis , ad modum illius qui ligatur corporalitèr , nec potest procedere etiam in rectâ & planâ via . Conscience is said obligare to bind unto , when 't is a bounden duty to doe or not doe what it dictates , when t is not onely a sin to do any thing against it , but also not to doe according to it : Conscience is said ligare meerly to bind , when t is a sin as to act against it , so also to act according to it . Capreolus and others that follow him quarrell with this distinction that Durand puts between ligare and obligare : But Capreolus himselfe 〈◊〉 down a distinction of obligation , that will come unto all one : Obligatio ( inquit ) potest referri ad duo . Primo ad conformandum se tali conscientiae , & ad nullo modo discordandum illi , & ad non deponendum eam , secundò ad non discordandum ei , sednon ad conformandum , nec ad non deponendum . Primò strictissimè sumitur , & illo modo Conscientia crronea non obligat . Secundò sumitur largè , & illo modo intelligitur conclusio nostra , quod conscientia 〈◊〉 obligat , quia habens eam tenetur non discordare illi , ita quod illa stante faciat oppositum , quod illa dictat . Nec 〈◊〉 tonetur so conformare illi , nec tenetur eam conservare , immo potest , & tenetur eam deponere . Here his obligation largely so called differs nothing from Durand's ligation ; The Controversy then is but a strife of words ; and therefore not worthy the heeding . These things thus premised I shall lay downe foure Conclusions . First , if the action in its nature be not necessary , but indifferent , and arbitrary , and the person mis udging it , be in respect thereof suijuris , not determined therein by the command of any superiour power . Why then he is bound in Conscience during this his opinion , to abstaine from the action . ( For we suppose it 〈◊〉 rent ; and a man may lawsully forbeare action where there is no necessity of doing , à licitis po 〈◊〉 absque 〈◊〉 abstineri . ) We suppose it , although indifferent , yet against 〈◊〉 : and 〈◊〉 is done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , with a setled reluctancy of a mans own judgment , and consciencè against it , cannot be of faith , and whatsoever is not of faith is sinne (e) Rom. 14. 23. That is 〈◊〉 action is done without a firme perswasion of the lawfulnesse thereof , let it be quoad rem , and essentially , in it selse lawfull , nay necessary , yet it becomes quoad hominem and accidentally evill , unto him it is sin . Now that action may lawfully , must necessarily be forborne , that can be omitted , but cannot be committed without sinne . But now on the contrary ( to come to a second Conclusion ) if either the action be in its nature necessary , or the person entertaining this misprision thereof be justly enjoined persormance of it by some superiour power , that can herein lawfully challenge obedience from him by a law , not 〈◊〉 p nall ; and so the action too , though indifferent for its nature , be yet in its use , and unto him become 〈◊〉 . Why then this misperswasion of its unlawfullnesse cannot bind to abstaine from it ; for so it should oblige unto either omission of a necessary duty , or else disobedience unto lawfull authority , both great sinnes . And nulla est obligatio ad illicita . There is no obligation unto things unlawfull can lye upon us . For , first , obligation is onely to that which is a morall good ; now nothing unlawfull can be a morall good ; and therefore an erroneous Conscience cannot oblige unto it . Secondly , no command of an inferiour power can oblige , if it be contrary to the command of a superiour power ; But if an erroneous Conscience should bind unto things unlawfull , it should oblige against the commandement of God , whose 〈◊〉 Conscience is , Indeed Conscience is the next rule of voluntary actions : But First , it is a well - informed censcience that ought to be this rule , the will is not bound to follow a blind guide : for then being of it selfe 〈◊〉 potentia , it must needs fall into the ditch . And secondly , conscience is but a subordinate rule unto the Law , and Word of God ; and therefore its power to oblige is derived there from : it obligeth not therefore , but by vertue of some command of Gods Law , or word ; and Gods Law cannot command things unlawfull , for then it should clash with it selfe . (f) Capreolus , Becanus , Raynaudus with many others resolve that however a right and well informed Conscience onely binds unto a thing per se formaliter & in omnem eventum ; yet an erroneous conscience , denominated such from an invincible and involuntary errour , may oblige unto a thing materially , per accidens , sub conditione , and secundum quid . It obligeth per accidens as it is apprehended and believed to be right , and well informed ; so that an erroneous Conscience is adhered unto , for the rectitude supposed to be in it . It obligeth sub conditione upon condition that such errour of Conscience lasteth : for it may be removed without sin : and when it is removed the obligation ceaseth ; & then , that which obligeth conditionally , obligeth onely secundum quid , and not absolutely . Unto this I have three exceptions . First , they limit themselves to errour invincible and involuntary , which is not imputable or blameworthy . This errour may be conceived to be ; either in matter of fact , or in matter of rule . Errour in matter of fact , as when Jacob mistooke Leah for Rachell ; as when a poore subject , that cannot judge of the titles of primes , thinks a usurper to be his lawfull Soveraigne , or as when a man takes goods left unto him by his Parents to be truly his own , though perhaps a great part of them were gotten by sraud or oppression , without any knowledg of his : These and the like particulars are all impertinent unto our present purpose ; and therefore I shall not stay upon the consideration of them . Errour in matter of Law , right , or rule is againe twofold , either in regard of law naturall , or law positive . Now unto all that have actuall use of reason , The errour of the law of nature is vincible , and voluntary ; because the law of nature is sufficiently promulgated unto them , it is written in their hearts , Rom : 2. 15. And we may say the same of Christians , that enjoy the plenary promulgation of the Gospell , and are capable of understanding it : for the Gospell sufficiently reveales all divine positives ; so that a rationall man may know them , and is bound to know them ; and Aquinas states it rightly . 1. 2 ae . q. 19. art 6. voluntas 〈◊〉 rationi erranti circaca , quae quis scire tenetur , 〈◊〉 est mala : If a man erre concerning such things , as he may know , and is bound to know , such an errour is ( at least indirectè ) voluntary , and sinsull , and cannot oblige . A Second exception : Conscience hath no power to oblige , but what it deriveth from God : and therefore what it obligeth unto ; God also obligeth unto : and God is the morall cause , and consequently the Authour of whatsoever he obligeth to : but he cannot be the morall cause , and authour of that which is sinne , and unlawfull , either per se , or per accidens and therefore neither he , nor his deputy Conscience can oblige so much as per accidens unto that which is unlawfull . A Third exception shall be the objection of Durand in the place above quoted : Sola vera notitia de re 〈◊〉 non 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 magis confirmat : sed vera notitia de eo quod 〈◊〉 conscientia dictat , tollit 〈◊〉 , ergo obligatio nulla suit . To be well informed , and to have a true knowledg of a thing cannot take away any obligation to it ; But to be well informed , and to have a true knowledg concerning that , which an erroneous Conscience dictates , takes away all obligation to it ; Therefore there was never any such thing as an obligation to it . The most considerable objection is that of 〈◊〉 [ Sum : Theol. 2. part . p. 1. tom . 2. tract . 1. cap. 4. ] Durandus còncedit illum p 〈◊〉 , qui operatur contra hanc conscientiam : Ergo debet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , hanc conscientiam obligare . Nam ubi non est 〈◊〉 , ibi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Durand grants , that he sinneth who acts against an erroneous Conscience : therefore he ought also to grant , that an erroneous conscience obligeth : for where there is no obligation there can be no sin . But the answer hereunto is very easy by distinguishing concerning obligation , which is twofold either as touching the 〈◊〉 , or manner of actions . Though there be no obligation , as touching the matter of such actions , concerning which an erroneous Conscience dictates : yet there is a generall obligation as 〈◊〉 the manner of all actions , that they be done without the Contempt of conscience : and therefore in every action where conscience is contemned , sin is committed : Quaevis voluntas ( saith Aquinas , 2 dae . q. 19. art . 5. ) à ratione sive 〈◊〉 sive errante discordans semper est mala . Which brings me unto my third conclusion . Allthough this erroneous conceit of the unlawfullnesse of this action , 〈◊〉 to be necessary either in its nature , or at least in its use , because lawfully commanded by authority , doth not obligare , that is , so bind , as that I must follow it ; yet it doth ligare , so intangle and perplex , as that I cannot without sin oppose it , and for this I shall alledge these following reasons . First , because whosoever goeth against his Conscience , ( whether ill or well informed it matters not ) goes against the will of God , although not for the thing he doth , yet for the manner of doing it , although not 〈◊〉 , yet formally , and interpretatively : because whatsoever the Conscience 〈◊〉 , a man takes for the will of God : each mans Conscience being 〈◊〉 Deputy God to informe , and direct him . Looke as he who reviles , wounds , kills a private man , mistaking him for the King , is guilty of high treason against the King himselfe : so , he that ' thwarts the judgment of even an erroneous Conscience , fights against God , warres against Heaven : because what his conscience saies , he thinks to be the voice of Heaven . Thus you see , that he , who acts against an erroneous Conscience in such an action , 〈◊〉 himselfe as disaffected towards God : for he knowingly adventureth upon that , which he thinketh will infinitely displease him . And in a second place : such an action is an argument of disaffection towards that rule of our morall actions , which God hath appointed : he that hath an erroneous Conscience , supposeth it to be right and well informed : and therefore , if he act against it , he slights that , which he takes to be the rule of his working : and therefore his action is , for the 〈◊〉 of it , lawlesse , and irregular . (g) Thirdly , in such an action there is a depraved , affection towards sin : and that in Morals is the fountaine of all ilnesse : If a mans conscience be right , and well informed , and he act against it , every one will grant , that such an action proceeds from the love of that which is sinne : and there is the same reason to say as much , of that action , which is against the dictate of an erring Conscience . Besides these reasons I shall alledge Scriptures ( to omit Rom : 〈◊〉 . 23. allready spoken of ) 〈◊〉 quotes also Rom. 14. 14. To him that esteemeth any thing to be uncleane , to him it is uncleane . The learned Dr Hammond alledgeth for the same purpose the 1 Cor. 8. 7. For some with (h) Conscience of the Idoll , i e. 〈◊〉 resolved in mind that it is not lawfull to eat or taste of any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , part or portion of the Idol-feast , ( whether 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , at the idol table , or having bought it at the shambles ( as it seems was the fashion of those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to be sold there at second hand , chap. 10. 25. ) 〈◊〉 it unlawfull to eat any meat consecrated to that use , do yet eat that which is of this nature , and by so doing , their weake i. e. uninstructed Conscience , is polluted , i. e. they sin against their Conscience , do that which they are perswaded they may not doe , which although it be never so innocent and harmlesse thing in it selfe ( an Idoll being simply nothing ) yet to them which do it , when they thinke it unlawfull ( and all have not knowledge , saith he in the beginning of the verse , i. e. are not sufficiently instructed in their duty ) it is pollution or sin . I shall proceed unto the fourth , and last conclusion . The only way then for a man to rescue himselfe out of these difficulties is to rectify his Conscience , to depose , and correct the errour thereof , so he shall escape contempt of the judgment of his own Conscience on the one hand , and breach of either Gods or mans lawes on the other . This Rayunaudus ( from whom I know none do dissent ) expresseth as followeth [ Moral . disc . dist . 4. q. 3. art . 1. n. 247. ] Unum igitur illud subsidium superest , ut judicium de malitiâ vincibilitèr errans , abjiciatur : Si enim neque adhaerere ei licet , ut primo loco monstravimus : neque illi obsistere , ut nunc diximus ; non aliud superesse potest , quàm ut homo errorem depellat , quod posse supponitur , 〈◊〉 de malitiâ sensum induat : alioqui quocunque se vertat , in culpâ erit . An imaginary appearance of evill issues , Secondly , from the supposals of , not only ourselves , but others that censure it , whose judgments are either misled by ignorance , and weaknesse , or else blinded through pride and prejudice : such was that in the moving of Hannah's lips , not afforded by her fact , but only fastned on it by old Eli his hasty censoriousnesse : no other appearance of evill was there in our Saviours healing the diseased , his Disciples plucking and eating of the eares of corne on the Sabbath day ; 't was not grounded on their actions ; but onely 〈◊〉 by the Pharisees swelling uncharitablenesse . What other was that appearance of evill , with which the Gentiles charged the primitive Christians , lifting up of their hands in prayer , when they accused them for adoration of the Clouds ? as appeareth by Tertullian , and by a Poet of their own , qui puras nubes & coeli numen adorant . (i) This imaginary appearance of evill proceeds , from either supposals of willfull , or weake ones : The censures and supposals of wilfull , proud , and wicked ones , and the scandals thence arising , scandala Pharisaeorum , I determined ( in my first Edition of this 〈◊〉 ) that we might slight : our warrant ( said I ) is our 〈◊〉 president . When his Disciples told him , that the Pharisees tooke offence at his speech , he made no reckoning thereof , but answered , let them alone , Matth. 12. 13 , 14. and we , warranted by his example , may then be secure and regardlesse of many calumnies , and groundlesse exceptions against the government , discipline , and ceremonies of our Church : for 〈◊〉 hath been so much spoken and written concerning these subjects , as that the pretence of weaknesse is quite taken away from those that are capable of information . First , here my censure of the non-conformists to be wilfull , proud , and Pharisaicall was very rash , and uncharitable : all that I can say in excuse for my selfe is : that when I wrote this , I was a very young man , and conformity vnto the Ceremonies established by Law was then generally embraced , without any of the least contradiction , for ought I knew ; nay stoutly and zealously pleaded for by men , whom I admired for the generall report that went of their sanctity , and 〈◊〉 v. g. Dr John 〈◊〉 , Dr Sclater , Dr Sanderson and others : And then I had read but one side , being an utter stranger unto what the Inconformitants could say for themselves : and their adversaries represented their objections , and answer , to be so weaks : and ridiculous : as that 't is no great wonder , that I was prejudiced against them : But , about the beginning of the long Parliament , being awakened with the generall complaint of the Godly against the Ceremonies , I began to thinke a new of the controversy , and out of my former prejudice intended a full vindication of the discipline , and Ceremonies of the then Church of England : and in order hereunto I read all such books of the non-conformist's as I could procure : for I knew well by experience , that a controversy can never be well handled , unlesse all dissenting opinions thereabouts be weighed : but upon perusall of the non-conformists I soone found : that their adversaries most disingeniously misrepresented all that they said : that they refused to joine issue with them in the state of the Question : that they came not up to an orderly grapple with their arguments : and that they seldome regularly replyed unto the solutions , which were given unto their objections : and this quickly produced an alteration in my judgment , and I believe it will do so too in all , that will make such an impartiall search into the matter ; as I have done . But Secondly , to come unto the examination of that aspersion : that the scandals of the malitious , of Pharisaicall , and willfull spirits are not to be regarded , so as to sorbear that , by which they are scandalized . Gregory de Valentia : though he lay downe the affirmative in the generall , yet afterwards he delivers it to be his opinion : that we are to doe what lyeth in us to prevent the scandals of even Pharisees , so it may be done without any great losse , or notable damage unto our selves . Existimo etiam , si quis cum nullo suo , vel pene nullo detrimento posset impedire scandalum proximi Pharisaicum , aliquid faciendo vel omittendo , debere ipsum facere . Nam ut tradidimus suprà in quaest . de correctione fraternâ , etiam is qui ex malitiâ peccaturus alioqui est , est in aliquali necessitate spirituali , ac proinde ut ( illic vidimus ) debet ex charitate corrigi , vel aliter à peccati scandalo impediri , quando id sine detrimento proprio fieri potest . tom . 3. disp . 3. q. 18. punct . 4. For the better stating of this Question , I shall premise some distinctions of scandall : a scandall is either active or passive . An active scandall is in all such words , or deeds , as culpably occasion the fall of another into sin : and this is againe by Gregory de Valentia [ tom . 3. disp . 3. q. 18. punct . 1. ] rightly subdivided into that which is per se , and into that which is per accidens . An active scandall per se is in such publique acts , as either by the expresse intent of the agent , or from their nature , and in themselves , are inductive unto sinne : and they are againe twofold : First , all publick sinnes , or sinnes committed before another : Secondly , all such publick actions , as carry a reall and manifest appearance of sin . An active scandall per accidens is in such things , as are not in themselves , and in their own nature occasions of sin unto another : and this is , either in an unseasonable performance of positive duties , commanded by affirmative precepts , which are not necessary hic & nunc : or else by an unseasonable use of our liberty in things 〈◊〉 . A Passive scandall is the fall of another into sinne : and this ( by the author but now mentioned ) is subdivided into given , and taken . Scandalum datum , a passive scandall given , is that which ariseth truly from the active scandall of another , as from its morall cause . Scandalum acceptum , a passive scandall that is onely taken , is that which is onely the fault of the party scandalized , and cannot be imputed to any other , as a morall cause : the words or deeds of another may be an occasion of it , but not a culpable occasion . I desire that these distinctions of scandall may be well heeded : for the want of Consideration of them hath occasioned a great deale of confusion in mens discourses about scandall . First , many exclude from active scandall all things that scandalize per accidens : and then , what will become of those scandals Paul speaks against ? Rom. 14. 1 Cor. ch . 8. ch . 10. Secondly , most confound a passive scandall with scandalum acceptum , a scandall that is onely taken , and make them to be of an equall extent : whereas a passive scandall may de distributed into both given , and taken : if it be culpably both given , and taken : then it is scandalum datum : if it be culpably taken , and not culpably given , then it is scandalum acceptum . Well , these distinctions being thus premised : I suppose it will be agreed upon by all sides : that the question is to be understood : First of active scandals , our scandalizing of the wicked : or Secondly , ( which comes all to one ) of such passive scandals of them , as are given by us , as well as taken by them : Not , thirdly , of such passive scandals , as are onely taken by them , not given by us : for from the guilt of these we may wash our hands , so that there is no obligation upon us to forbeare those things , by which they are in this manner scandalized . My Conclusion shall be : that we are to eschew the active scandals , and consequently scandala passiva data , of the wicked , and malitious , those that are Pharisaicall and willfull spirits : this is apparent : First from 〈◊〉 prohibition of scandall , 1 Cor. 10. 32. Give none offence neither to the Jewes , nor to the Gentiles , &c. he spake of unconverted Jewes , and Gentiles , such as were enemies unto the Christian faith : and the Jewes were of all men the most malitious enemies thereof . Secondly , from our Saviours denunciation of a woe unto the world by meanes of scandall , Matth. 18. 7. 〈◊〉 unto the world because of offences ; which undeniably is to be extended unto all sorts of men . Unto these two arguments we may adde foure other , taken from , First , the distribution ; 〈◊〉 , relation ; Thirdly , effect ; Fourthly , opposite of an active scandall . First , from the distribution of an active scandall , and perusall of the members thereof : An active scandall ( as I shewed but now ) is distributed into scandalum per se , and per accidens : now there is no doubt , but that we are carefully to avoid such things as scandalize the wicked , and malicious per se , of themselves , and in their own nature , publick sins , or such words , and deeds as have a reall appearance of sin : all the question will be concerning such things as scandalize them onely per accidens , our duties , and our indifferencies : and by these they are frequently scandalized , and that out of an erroneous opinion concerning their unlawfulnesse : in which regard the resolution will be pertinent unto the matter in hand . First then : duties , that are commanded by affirmative precepts , may be forborne , hic & nunc , sometimes , and in some places , to avoide the scandall of the wicked , and malitious . The usuall instances are in reproofe , admonition , punishment of sin , and the like : and this is warranted First , by the precept of our Saviour , Matth. 7. 6. Give not that which is holy unto the dogs : neither cast ye your pearles before swine : lest they trample them under their 〈◊〉 , and turne againe and 〈◊〉 you . Secondly , by the example of David , Psal. 39. 1 , 2. I will keep my tongue with a bridle , while the wicked is before me : I was dumb with silence , I held my peace even from good . Thirdly , by that rule in Divinity ; affirmativa praecepta obligant semper , non ad semper ; they alwaies bind , but not to alwayes : they do not oblige to doe the things required at all times , but only , when they are expedient for the glory of God , and the good of others : To reprove , and admonish sinners is a duty commanded by God , Lev. 19. 17. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart : thou shalt in anywise rebuke thy neighbour , and not suffer sin upon him . But now this duty is not to be performed unseasonably , when t is likely to bring no glory to God , nor good unto others , but rather likely to scandalize them . Thus every private man is not bound to runne into an ale-house , or taverne , there to reprehend a company of desperate drunkards , who would looke upon his reprehension as an act of pragmaticalnesse , and insolency , and for it be ready to quoite him downe the Staires , or run him through with their swords : and as imprudent an act would it be , in Spaine , to run into their Churches , and there to cry against the Idolatry of the Masse ; and in the Streets of Constantinople to declame against the impostures of Mahomet ; for hereby we should scandalize them indiscreetly , and foolishly occasion them , as to blaspheme our religion , so to cut us in peices . Unto the 〈◊〉 rule in Divinity I shall adde another out of Logick ; finis dat mediis amabilitatem : 't is the 〈◊〉 onely makes the meanes desireable : Now reproofe , admonition , punishment , and the like duties are enjoined as meanes , in order to the reformation , and bettering of others : when therefore they are not likely to conduce unto this end , but rather to oppose and hinder it , prudence in such a case dictates an abstinence from them . But let us take two exemplifications of this out of Aquinas 2. 2 dae . 9. 43. art . 7. The first is concerning the punishment of sin : 〈◊〉 , quòd poenarum inflictio non est propter se expentenda : sed poenae infliguntur , ut medicinae quaedam ad cohibenda peccata , & ideò in tantum 〈◊〉 rationem justitiae , in quantum per eas peccata cohibentur . Si autem per inflictionem poenarum 〈◊〉 sit plura & 〈◊〉 peccata sequi , tunc poenarum inflictio non continebitur sub justitia . Et in hoc casu loquitur (k) August quando 〈◊〉 ex excommunicatione aliquorum imminet periculum schismatis : 〈◊〉 enim excommunicationem ferre non pertinet ad veritatem justitiae . The second is concerning brotherly reproofe : 〈◊〉 quod correptio fraterna ordinatur ad emendationem fratris : & ideò in tantum computanda est inter spiritualia bona , in quantum hoc consequi potest . Quod 〈◊〉 contingit si ex correptione 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 si propter scandalum correptio dimittatur , non dimittitur spirituale bonum . But to proceed next to the scandall of the wicked by our indifferencies : That we are to forbear things indifferent when they scandalize the wicked , and malitious . Parker [ in his treatise of the Crosse part . 2. pag. 57. ] proves by many instances : when the thing was indifferent , doth not our Saviour foregoe his liberty , to please the malicious ? as when he paid tribute lest he should offend them ? Matth. 17. 27. They were malicious at Corinth , and seekers of occasion against Paul , that were likely to be offended by his taking of wages there : yet the thing , being no necessary duty , he thinketh it his duty to forbeare his power therein , 1 Cor. 9. The Heathens are malicious to take offence , when Christians go to Law for their own : yet , because going to law is not a duty necessary , it must be forborne , and Christians rather must loose their own , then give occasion of scandall to them , 1 Cor. 6. v. 6 , 7. Unto these examples let me adde another ( quoted by the same authour elsewhere ) out of Ezra 8. 22. I was ashamed ( saith Ezra ) to require of the King a band of Souldiers and horsemen , to help us against the enemies in the way : because we had spoken unto the King , saying , the hand of our God is upon all them for good , that seeke him , but his power and his wrath is against all them that forsake him Here for Ezra to have asked of the King of Persia , a Heathen , a band of souldiers , and horsemen for his safe conduct , was a thing lawfull : and yet he forbore it , lest he should scandalize him by begetting in him a suspicion , that that was false , which he had told him concerning Gods power , and justice . A second argument is drawn from the relation of an active scandall : it is the morall cause of a passive scandall ; so that he who scandalizeth another , partaketh of , and is accessary unto the sin of the party scandalized , and we are not to partake of , or be accessary unto the sins of any , 1 Tim. 5. 22. We must have no fellowship with unfruitfull works of darknesse in any whomsoever , 〈◊〉 . 5. 11. A third argument is fetcht from the effect of an active scandall : 't is of a soule destroying nature , & so a kind of spirituall murther : destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ died , Rom. 14. 15. for 〈◊〉 destroy not the 〈◊〉 of God , vers . 20. and who should not tremble at the guilt of the murther of any soul whatsoever ? for there is no soule so wicked , but may ( for ought thou knowest ) be one of those , for whom Christ shed his most divine , and precious blood . The last argument is taken from the Opposite of scandall , Charity , and its act beneficence : We are to love all , even our most malitious , and persecuting enemies , Matth. 5. 44. We are to do good unto all , though especially to the houshold of saith , Gal. 6. 10. We are to exercise patience , and meeknesse , towards even those that oppose themselves , 2 Tim. 2. 14 , 15. And from this it will inevitably follow , that we are to scandalize none . Here we have usually objected the example of our Saviour , who slighted the scandall of the Pharisees , Matth. 15. 12 , 13 , 14. Then came his Disciples and said unto him : knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended after they heard this saying ? but he answered and said &c. let them alone they be blind leaders of the blind &c. The objection concernes onely the scandalizing of them in things indifferent ; and unto it I shall give an answer in the words of Parker part . 2. part . 57. If this be all the warrant we have , not to forbeare in a thing indifferent for the malicious , then have we no warrant at all , because the scandall ( there ) not cared for , is when the Pharisees are 〈◊〉 , at his abstaining from their washings , and his preaching of a true doctrine : both of which were necessary duties for him to doe . And when he defendeth his healing on sabbaths , and his Disciples plucking eares , upon this reason they are duties of necessity and charity , he plainly insinuateth , there is no defence for deeds unnecessary , when the malitious are scandalized . In a second place I shall alleadge the Objection of the Schoolemen which by Gregory de Valentia is thus urged [ Tom. 3. disp . 3. q. 18. punct . 4. ] 〈◊〉 qui non ex ignorantiâ , aut infirmitate , sed ex malitiâ 〈◊〉 , non laborat tali aliquâ necessitate spirituali , cui non possit ipse sine ope alterius proximi facile prospicere mutando pravam suam voluntatem . Ergo alter non tenetur tunc cum ali quo suo detrimento prospicere . Pharisees , the wicked , that are scandalized out of meere malice , and not out of ignorance , or weaknesse are not in any such spirituall necessity , or danger , but that they can casily provide for the safety , and indemnity of their soules , without the help or assistance of others , by changing their depraved will : and therefore others are not bound to 〈◊〉 any detriment for the prevention of their scandall . The answer unto this may easily be foreseen , for here is nothing but Jesuiticall dictates , that are alltogether proofelesse . First , Pharisees , the wicked , that are scandalized out of malice , are in a greater spirituall necessity , and danger , then those , that are scandalized out of ignorance , or weaknesse : for , they are in the snare of the divill , taken captive by him at his will. 2 Tim. 2. 16. And therefore , Secondly , they are more unable to help themselves , and prevent their own falling into sin ; for their hearts are altogether destitute of any gracious habits : there is not in them the spirit , a renewed principle , to make head , or resistance against the flesh , the sinfull corruption of their natures : there is need then of all help possible to keepe them from falling : and all will be uneffectuall , unlesse God also put in his helping hand . Whereas he talkes : that 't is an easy matter for a wicked , and malitious man to provide against all danger , and need of his soule , by changing his perverse , and naughty will : this is a very grosse Pelagian conceite : for it ascribes that , unto the power of mans corrupt will , which can be wrought only by the omnipotent grace of God. By this time ( I hope ) the Reader is sufficiently satisfyed that the active scandals of the most wicked , and malitious are not to be contemned . But yet there remaineth a great difficulty in the point to be cleared ; and that is , when an active-scandall is committed towards them , in our duties , and indifferencies ? First , we actively scandalize them by our duties , when they are not rightly circumstanced , seasonably performed , in due time , and place : when they are not expedient unto those ends , for which God enjoyned them : now when this is , cannot be determined by any generall rule , but every one must be left to be guided by his spirituall prudence , and wisdome . [ But for this hereafter I shall allot a peculiar digression by it selfe . ] Secondly , we actively scandalize them by our indifferencies , when 't is probable they will occasion their passive scandall , their falling into sin ; But now this generall rule is to be limited , and I shall give you three limitations of it . The first limitation : this rule is to be understood , when the use of our indifferencies is likely to prejudice , and obstruct the propagation of the Gospell , and the forbearance of them will in all probability conduce unto the advancement of the Credit of the Gospell , and not otherwise , ordinarily : upon this account , it would have been scandalous in Paul to have received maintenance from the Corinthians : but t is now unscandalous in Ministers , to accept , and challenge that maintenance , which is due unto them by the lawes of the land ; for a generall forbearance thereof now would soone be followed with the utter ruine of the Gospell . A second limitation : the sorementioned rule is to be understood , when the forbearance of our indifferencies is likely to win upon the wicked , and malitious , so as to further their conversion , and not otherwise , when it onely exposeth unto their contempt , scorne , and derision , 1 Cor. 9. 19 , 20 , 21 , 22. Though I be free from all men ( saith Paul ) 〈◊〉 have I made my selfe servant unto all , that I might gain the more . And unto the Jews I became as a few , that I might gain the Jewes : to them that are under the law , as under the law , that I might gaine them that are under the Law. To them that are without Law , as without Law ( being not without Law to God , but under the Law to Christ ) that I might gaine them , that are without Law. To the weake became I as weake , that I might gaine the weake : I am made all things to all men , that I might by all meanes save some . Here t is very remarkable , that Paul was made , in things indifferent , all things unto all men , only in order to their salvation , to gaine their soules unto Christ ; and why should we abridge our selves in the use of our liberty , in things that are of great expediency and conveniency unto us , when such a restraint of our liberty , is not a probable means of reaching the said end ? what reason can be given , why we should incommodate our selves , by forbearing all such indifferencies , that wicked men are scandalized at , when such forbearance is unprofitable unto their spirituall good , and unlikely to bring them any jot the nearer unto God and Heaven ? A third limitation : the forementioned rule hath not place , when by the sorbearance of our indifferencies , at which some wicked men are scandalized , there is incurred as great , if not a greater scandall , then that by their use : as when they are hereby confirmed , and hardned in their errour , and sinne ; and others are hereby drawn into the like : prudenter advertendum est ( saith Bernard ) scandalum scandalo non emendari , qualis emendatio 〈◊〉 , si ut aliis scandalum tollas , alios scandalizas . Thus you see how the rule is to be limited ; and without such , or the like limitations , rigidly to presse it , would make against both the liberty , and peace of conscience . First , against the liberty of Conscience : for it would in great part evacuate , and annull the grand charter of our Christian liberty in things indifferent , it would ( as Peter saith in another case ) put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples , which neither our Fathers were , nor we are able to beare , Acts 15. 10. All things are lawfull for me ( saith Paul ) But I will not be brought under the power of any , 1 Cor. 6. 12. But now if we must forbeare all our lawfull conveniences , at which wicked men perhaps will be purposely scandalized , we should be brought under the power of them , we should be little better then their slaves ; and what an unspeakeable , and intollerable vassalage would that bee ? (l) Secondly it would make against the peace of Conscience ; for it would so perplex mens consciences with doubts , and uncertainties ; as that they would hardly know when , and how to act in the use of things indifferent , for wicked men are very prone to be scandalized at the lawfull conveniencies of the Godly : and there is no doubt , but many are so wicked , as that they would of set purpose nourish , and cherish such scandals in themselves , if they thought that the Godly would hereupon forbeare such their conveniencies : there be some people of such malevolent spirits against Ministers , as that they are scandalized at the decent apparell of them , & their wives , at their competent fare , and moderate house-keeping : and , if they must make the humor , and opinion of such men the rule of their walking in all things indifferent , it will be a very difficult matter for them to know how herein to carry themselves . But this doctrine , that we are to 〈◊〉 all indifferencies , at which wicked men are scandalized , if it be unlimited would create perplexities , not only unto Ministers , but unto all sorts of men , especially such as have any thing due unto them from others : for grant this , and how often will a Landlord be at a losse to demand his rent ? a Creditor his debts ? and the magistrate his tribute or contribution ? Adde unto this , thirdly , that this doctrine , without limitation , will tend unto the overthrow of publick peace , and 〈◊〉 , and brings in nothing but anarchy and confusion : for publique peace and order depends much upon the preservation of propriety : and upon what a ticklish point would propriety stand , if we must forbeare to exact , or receive all such temporals , at which wicked men are scandalized , that can be forborne without sin ? unto what wrongs , and injuries would this expose such , as are well affected ? for there be some men so wicked and malitious , as that they would be scandalized at their temporals for the nonce to deprive them of them . I shall conclude this particular with the resolution of Aquinas 2. 2 dae . q. 43. art . 8. Propter cos , qui sic scandala concitant , non sunt temporalia dimittenda : quia hoc & noceret bono communi : daretur 〈◊〉 malis 〈◊〉 occasio , & noceret ipsis rapientibus , qui retinendo aliena , in peccato remanerent . Unde Greg. dicit in Moral . Quidam dum temporalia à nobis rapiunt , solummodo sunt tolerandi : quidam verò aequitate servata prohibendi : non 〈◊〉 cura , nè nostra subtrahantur , sed ne 〈◊〉 non sua , semet ipsos perdant . But what if this imaginary appearance of evill slow from the supposall of a weak one , yet an holy one . Why then it must be omitted , but with this caution , so it may be without sin , or as the ordinary glosse upon that 15 of Matth. v. 12 , 13 , 14. resolves it , Salvâ triplici veritate , vitae , Justitiae , Dectrinae , so the threesold verity of life , justice , and doctrine be preserved safe : Nam per hanc triplicem veritatem ( saith Gregory de Valentia ) , intelligitur omnis rectitudo , & immunitas à 〈◊〉 in actionibus humanis . Veritas namque vitae continetur in actionibus rectis , quas quis in seipso exercet convenienter rectae rationi , & appetitui recto , atque 〈◊〉 verè veritate quadam practicâ : Veritas 〈◊〉 justitiae rectis actionibus quae 〈◊〉 erga 〈◊〉 similiter , convenienter rectae rationi , prout verè & absque 〈◊〉 oportet : veritas denique 〈◊〉 continetur 〈◊〉 verâ , & minimè 〈◊〉 : By this triple verity is understood all the rectitude and freedome from sinne , that is in humane actions , for the verity of life is contained in those regular actions , which any one 〈◊〉 in , and towards himselfe agreeably to right reason , and a well governed appetite , &c. The verity of justice consists in those regular actions , which are performed towards another , likewise sutably to right reason , as it behoveth , truely and without sinne . And to conclude , the verity of doctrine consists in a true , regular , and unerring faith : if these three verities be kept inviolate , every thing must be abstained from , upon which followes scandalum pusillorum , a scandall springing from either the ignorance , or weaknesse of our brother : but , because this resolution may be thought both too generall , and obscure ( the Schoole-men themselves sumbling much about its explication , ) we will therefore goe to worke more distinctly , and particularly . Consider whether or no the action , in which this appearance of evill is imagined to be , is necessary , or indifferent . If it be necessary , and commanded by God , it must not be omitted , though all the world be offended : For evill must not be done , that good may come thereof . Calvin , telling us , regard ought to be had of charity , limits how farre , usque ad aras , that is , so for our brothers sake we offend not 〈◊〉 . I may adde , so for our brothers sake we endanger not our own soules . To prevent scandall and sin in our 〈◊〉 , we may not runne upon sin our selves : for a well ordered charity , as Aquinas gives the reason 2. 2dae . q. 43. a. 7. beginneth ever at home , making a man cheifly desire and endeavour the salvation of his ownsoule , and consequently more sollicitous to avoid sinne in himselfe then to prevent it in other : I may not then omit or neglect necessary duties , because to some they seem but needlesse niceties ; I must not fly true holinesse , and the power of 〈◊〉 , because unto the world it appeares but braine sick peevishnesse , and an irrationall precisenesse : others errour should not be seconded , and countenanced with mine impiety , and disobedience . Scandalum , nisi fallor , non bonae rei , sed 〈◊〉 exemplum est , aedificans ad delictum , Bonae res neminem scandalizant , nisi malam mentem . Si 〈◊〉 est modestia , verecundia , 〈◊〉 gloriae , soli Deo captans placere ; agnoscant malum suum , qui de tali bono scandalizantur . Quod 〈◊〉 si & incontinentes dicant se à continentibus scandalizari , continentia revocanda est ? Tertullian . Here it will not be an unprofitable , nor much impertinent digression , to give you the summe of what Thomas and his Interprerers say upon this Question , An bona spiritualia sint propter scandalum dimittenda ? Not to mention their rotten distinction between matters of counsell , and matters of precept , we will only out of them take notice , that there is a difference between 〈◊〉 of a precept , and a temporary , partiall , or occasionall 〈◊〉 of the matter commanded by a precept . No precept whatsoever , whether of the Law of Nature , or else but positive , is , for eschewing the scandall of any whether weake , or malitious , to be 〈◊〉 broken or transgressed . And a precept is transgressed whensoever what is enjoyned in it is omitted at such a time , and in such a case , when all the particular circumstances , which we ought to regard , being considered , we are tyed to all performance of it . But yet however upon emergency of scandall , that which is commanded by some precepts (p) may pro hic & nunc , in some times , and at some places , be omitted , may for a while be forborne , untill the scandall taken thereby can be removed by information , or instruction , or untill the circumstances of the scandals be some way or other changed . Promulgation of a truth , and Christian reproofe , are duties commanded by God , and yet are to be sometimes abstained from , for scandals taken by , not onely the weake , but all malitious . Reprove not a scorner lest he hate thee , Prov. 9. 8. Speake not in the eares of a foole , for he will despise the wisdome of thy words , Prov. 23. 9. 〈◊〉 not that which is holy unto the dogges , neither cast ye your pearles before swine , lest they trample them under their feet , and turne againe and rent you , Matth. 7. 6. To explaine this farther , recourse must be had unto that old and golden rule . 〈◊〉 praecepta semper obligant 〈◊〉 ad semper . Affirmative precepts do alwaies bind , but not to alwaies : so 〈◊〉 we are not bound to performe alwaies what they enjoine , but only loco & tempore debitis , when we have due time and place . Now as by the intercurrency of other circumstances , so especially by occurrence of the scandall of weake brethren there may not be opportunity , and seasonablenesse of doing what we are urged unto by some affirmative precepts ; and so those precepts may pro his & nunc cease to be obligatory : For when the obligations of two precepts seeme to meete together at the very same time , that which is of greater obligation tieth us , and so consequently we are for the present freed from the obligation of the other . Now the negative precept of eschewing the scandall of the weake is more obligatory than many affirmative precepts ; and therefore ( to use the words of Malderus , ) contingit aliquando 〈◊〉 naturale affirmativum , hic & nunc non obligare , propter concursum negativi 〈◊〉 naturalis de vitando scandalo pusillorum : For example , vindicative justice binds a magistrate to execute wrath upon him that doth evill : Charity on the other side obligeth him to hinder , as much as he can , the scandall of the weake : now Charity is a virtue , of an higher note and nature , than vindicative justice : the precept belonging unto charity ( hinder as much as you can the scandall of the weake ) doth more strictly tie us , than that pertaining unto vindicative justice , ( punish the guilty ) . And therefore , if it be probable , that a great and spreading scandall will be taken at the punishing of delinquents : a Magistrate may not transgresse against justice , and yet deferre the execution thereof . But so manifold and different are the degrees of obligation in affirmative precepts : such is the variety of circumstances appertaining unto the matters commanded by those precepts , and constancy of alterations about those circūstances , as that I do not see , how any unvariable rules , or constant directions can be given for Christian carriage in this case . For particulars then , every man is to be left unto the guidance of his spirituall prudence and wisdome , which is to direct him in a right apprehension , and discretion of circumstances : to define the opportunity , and seasonablenesse of practising what is commanded by affirmative precepts : and to compare them and the precept of eschewing the scandall of the weake together : and thereupon to determine , which is hic & nunc , most obligatory , or doth most strictly tye us to the obedience of it , as being of greater moment . Only in the generall wee may safely say thus much : that whereas wee have said , that for shunning the scandall of the weake , we may forbeare the practise of things commanded by affirmative precepts , Hic & nunc , in some places , and at some times , it must allwayes be taken with this proviso , that there be not incurred a greater , and more perilous scandall , by forbearance , then would probably be occasioned by practise of the thing 〈◊〉 ; which is done , when either first , more are scandalized by the forbearance , than in all likely-hood would be at the practise : or else , secondly , when the body in generall , the Church and Common wealth , or the greatest , and 〈◊〉 part of either is scandalized at the sorbeareance , and onely some few particular private persons stumble at the practise : or else , thirdly , when others take 〈◊〉 by this partiall and temporary forbearance of what is commanded by affirmative precepts , to contemne the precepts 〈◊〉 , as being by this our carriage induced to beleive that we verily despise them , and do not so much , for a while forbeare , as utterly disclaime the practise of what they command . Thus you see , that , according to the common opinion of the schoolemen , things commanded may in case of scandall for a while be omitted or forborne ; but Vasquez and 〈◊〉 dissent from them in this particular : the explication and confirmation of their opinion I will propound , and then breifely passe my censure thereon . * Becanus , to make way for his opinion premiseth , that there is a difference between naturall precepts , for some saith he bind simply , and alwaies whatsoever circumstances intervene , and their obligation never ceaseth , such like are those that forbid lying , perjury , hatred of God , Idolatry &c : for these facts are so intrinsecally sinfull , as that they cannot by any circumstances be made lawfull : others now bind not simply , and absolutely , but with certaine circumstances , and therefore they bind as long as those circumstances remaine , they cease to bind when those circumstances are changed : Such is the precept forbidding to kill : for that 〈◊〉 with these circumstances , that we kill not by our private authority , except in case of necessary defence . Take away these circumstances , and it binds not , for it is lawfull to kill upon the command of authority , or in our necessary defence : such also is the precept of eschewing scandall : for , however it be dictated by the law of nature , yet it obligeth not absolutè & quomodocunque : but with certaine circumstances : and one circumstance necessarily requisite to make it bind us is , that there occurre not any other precept , either naturall , or positive . The reason is , because every one is bound to have a greater care of his own , than others salvation , and consequently , rather to avoid sin in himselfe , than to prevent it in his brethren . And therefore that precept which is given us for the prevention of sin in others , is but of a secondary obligation . Now the precept of eschewing scandall is imposed , onely for the hindring of sin in others , and therefore doth not tie us , when there occurreth any other precept , which is given for the avoiding of sinne in our selves . But it may be objected , that the precept of shunning scandall is of the Law of nature , and therefore is more obligatory than those precepts that are but positive . Unto this 〈◊〉 answereth , that a naturall precept is more obligatory , than that which is 〈◊〉 , caeteris paribus , that is , if each precept , both that which is naturall , and that which is positive , be primarily referred unto the furthering of our own salvation , unto the preventing of sin in our selves : But now if on the other side the primary scope of the naturall precept be to hinder sin in others , as it is in the precept of scandall ; and the principall end of the positive precept be to shun sin in our selves , then that precept which is positive doth more deeply bind us , than that which is naturall . Againe , secondly , it may be objected : that if the obligation of the naturall precept of eschewing scandall ceaseth upon occurrence of but a positive precept ; why , then it seems , this positive precept detracts or derogates from the naturall precept of avoiding scandall : as being of greater force , and validity ? In no wise , onely it takes away a circumstance requisite to make the precept of avoiding scandall obligatory , quare cum dicimus ( saith Vasquez ) non esse omittendum praeceptum positivum 〈◊〉 vitandum scandalum proximi , non dicimus praeceptum naturale derogari 〈◊〉 positivo tanquam fortiori ; sed dicimus occursu praecepti positivi 〈◊〉 quandam circumstantiam necessariam , ut 〈◊〉 praeceptum de vitando scandalo etiamsi naturale sit . But all this labour would have been saved , if the question had been rightly stated : for , whereas it is said , that one circumstance necessarily requisite to make the precept of eschewing scandall bind us , is , that there occurre not any other precept either naturall or positive : this is to be understood cum grano salis , with this limitation , in case such precepts bind ( all circumstances considered to the performance of what they enjoyne ) 〈◊〉 & nunc , at such a particular time and place ; for then omission of what they enjoine would be sinfull , and we are not sinfully to omit any thing , for prevention of scandall in our brother : Unto the proofe of which the reason of Vasquez and 〈◊〉 may be applyed . But , the obligation of affirmative precepts is not universall ad 〈◊〉 , but only loco & tempore debitis : and therefore what they enjoyne may sometimes , in the case of scandall , be prudéntly omitted ; but perhaps this which I say is all that Vasquez and 〈◊〉 aime at ; and then they have no adversary that I know of ; Every one will grant unto them , that one circumstance necessarily requisite to make the precept of 〈◊〉 scandall bind us , hic & nunc , in such a time and place , is , that there occurre not any other precept binding us to what it enjoyneth at that very instant time , and place : for it is evident unto all , that upon occurrencie of such obligations , though scandall ensue , it would not be on our parts a culpable scandall , an active scandall . But it may be thought that I have staied too long upon this digression : to returne therefore where we left . Secondly , if the action in which this appearance of evill is supposed to be , be but indifferent : why then , the best direction that we can have will be from what the Apostle Paul writes unto the Romans chap. 14. and unto the 〈◊〉 , 1 Cor. 8. and chap. 10. of converts amongst the Romans there were some strong , and knowing ones , that were well principled , and so knew very well their deliverance from the yoake of the mosaicall Law : and hereupon , without any scruple , did eat such meats as were prohibited thereby , perhaps Swines flesh , or the like : Now at this their practise , severall weak Christians , who were as yet ignorant and uninstructed touching the latitude of their Christian liberty , were in severall regards scandalized , as I have shewen in a foregoing treatise : But yet here the practise of the strong was a thing indifferent in it selfe vers . 14. 20. and the appearance of evill ( to wit , a prophane , and irreligious contempt of the Law of Moses ) was only imaginary , arising from the ignorance , and errour of the weak , who thought that Law of Moses to be still in sorce , and unabrogated ; and the scandall consequent hereupon was only 〈◊〉 accidens , flowing not from the nature of the action in it selfe , but from the misapprehension of the weake : and yet the Apostle blames the strong for scandalizing the weake : and therefore in this their action , though indifferent in it selfe , there was an active scandall , a scandall culpably given , as well as taken . The Apostle gives the same resolution unto the Corinthians concerning things offered unto Idols ; to eat them at the Pagan religious feast , and in the temple of an Idoll , carrieth a reall appearance of communion with , and approbation of an Idolatrous worship of the Idoll , and so is scandalous per se , of it selfe , and in its own nature , 1 〈◊〉 . 8. 10. cap. 10. vers . 20 , 21. But now to eat these same meats when sold , and bought in the shambles , or set before them in private meetings , the Apostle resolves to be a thing lawfull , and indifferent , 1 Cor. 10. v. 25 , 26 , 27. And indeed it could not carry a reall , but only an imaginary appearance of evill ; for they were the good creatures of God , and so uncapable of any 〈◊〉 pollution , and they had no religious use , and so did not reflect any glance 〈◊〉 the least honour , credit or countenance to the Idoll . The scandall then , accrewing by them , was only per accidens ; and yet they were by the Apostles advise to be forborne , if such scandall were likely to ensue upon the use of them . But if any man say unto thee , this is offered in sacrifice unto Idols , eat not for his sake that shewed it , and for conscience 〈◊〉 , 1 Cor. 10. 28. Here we have a generall rule , together with three limitations thereof . First , a generall rule : if any man imagine evill , and sin to be in an indifferent action , and 〈◊〉 be scandalized , that action is to be abstained from ; if any man say unto thee , this is offered in sacrifice unto Idols , 〈◊〉 not , for his sak that shewed it . But now here are couched three exceptions . First , we are not bound to abstaine from things indifferent , unlesse the scandall consequent be probable ; if any man say unto you , this is offered in sacrifice unto Idols &c. if he say nothing , but 〈◊〉 , ther his opinion , and dislike in his owne brest , we may be guiltlesse and blamelesse . And indeed , if we are to forbeare all indifferent things , in which there is only a meer possibility of scandall , we should be at an utter losse , and uncertainty in our actings in things indifferent , and never know what to doe , we are obliged then to abstain from things indifferent , only in the case of (q) scandall probable , and not in the case of scandall 〈◊〉 possible , and so much is observed by Calvin upon the 1 〈◊〉 : 8. 13. Deinde 〈◊〉 jubet nos Paulus divinare 〈◊〉 offendiculo futurum sit quod facimus , nisi cum est praesens periculum . A second exception is ; that we are not required to abstaine from things indifferent , in which our weake brethren imagine that there is evill and sin , and thereupon are scandalized , unlesse they have some probable ground for their imagination : for though the eating of the Idolothytes at a private feast was not an action in it selfe scandalous , or nductive unto sin ; as being free from both sin , and all reall appearance of it , yet the Corinthians scandalized hereat had a probable ground why they conceived it to be unlawfull and sinfull , the late morall or religious 〈◊〉 n that the Idolothytes had unto an Idoll : this is off red in sacrifice unto Idols ; Mr Rutherford [ in his treatise of scandall pag. 53 , 54. ] expresseth this limitation as followeth ; we read not of scandals culpable in Gods word , but there be some morall reasons in them ; and 〈◊〉 applyeth it unto the offence , that is taken , at tolling of bells , at a ministers gowne , when he preacheth : there is no apparent morall reason why the tolling of a Bell , or a ministers gowne should scandalize ; for they are of meere civill use , and have no morall influence in the worship ; for the same tolling of bells is , and may be used to convocate the people to a Baron Court to heare a declamation , to convocate souldiers . This exception , that I have laied downe , is , I conceive , grounded , as upon what the Apostle saith ; so also upon the reality , and truth of our Christian liberty in things indifferent , which otherwise would signifie nothing ; for if we are to abstaine from all indifferent things , in which another without probable ground imagineth that there is sin ; the servitude of Christians under the Gospell would be farre greater , and more intolerable , then that of the 〈◊〉 under the mosaicall administration . A third exception ; which we may gather hence , is , in great part , coincident with the first , and 't is ; that the abstinence unto which we are obliged , in things indifferent , in the case of scandall , is not universall , and totall , but limited ad hic & nunc , those times , and places in which there is danger , or likelyhood of scandall : the Corinthians were , in their private feasts , to forbeare eating Idolothytes , only in the presence of persons apt to be scandalized , and might elsewhere use 〈◊〉 liberty without regret of Conscience . Unto these exceptions insinuated here by the Apostle we may adde divers others ; of which , some may be collected from what we above said touching the scandall of the wicked in things indifferent mutatis mutandis , and by and by I shall adde others ; but first I shall examine some restrictions , which I gave in a former edition of this booke . Former Edition . But now , if the action in which this appcarance of evill is supposed to be , be but indifferent , then these two following things must be 〈◊〉 . First , whether , or no it be annexed with a necessary duty , or not ? Secondly , whether or no it be undertermined , left to our owne liberty and choice , or else by authority either Oeconomicall , Politicall , or Ecclesiasticall ? If it be annexed to a necessary duty , we must not omit this , to abstain from that : So to fly the shadow of sin , we should 〈◊〉 the body of sin , a sinne really so , a sinne of omission ; for what is not good , if to omit a duty be not bad ? Good must not be left undone , though evill per accidens come from it , much 〈◊〉 , when only an appearance of evill is joined to it . We must not then shun the Lords table , because some weaker judgments have imagined in the act of kneeling , a shew of Idolatry . So to avoid but an imaginary appearance of evill unto men , we shall 〈◊〉 indeed unto God to be evill . A Minister must not neglect the discharge of his duty , because some have supposed a shew of superstition in some harmelesse ceremonies annexed to its performance . So , to avoid mens unjust censures , he should incurre a just woe and curse from God : woe be to me ( saith the Apostle ) if I preach not the Gospell . Answer . This first limitation I borrowed from Dr 〈◊〉 upon the text : for the examination of it we must distinguish of humane Ceremonies ; they are of two sorts , Circumstantiall , or Doctrinall . First , circumstantiall , such are the Circumstances of time or place , matters of order , decency , and the like . Now these are necessary in the generall , and the particulars may be determined by the Magistrate , or Church-officers v. g. that the publique assemblies be at such a convenient time of the day , in such a place , and that they be convocated by tolling of bells ; that the Minister officiate in a grave habit , gowne , cloake , or coate , &c. Now though some of these may be by some causelesly imagined to be evill ; yet they are not therefore to be forborne , if they be by lawfull command of the Magistrate , or Church , to be annexed with necessary duties ; for necessary duties are not to be omitted for meere circumstances connexed with their performance . Thus we are not to forsake , or refraine our publick assemblies , because some think there is some superstition in the places of them , our Churches , and the Convocation of them by bells , upon this ground , that both our Churches and bells have been abused by Papists . Dr Heylin [ in a former edition of his Geography ] relates this following story of Peter Du Moulin ; that hearing how diverse English Ministers scrupled to officiate in a Surplice , he said , that he would willingly preach at Paris in a fooles coate , if leave could not be gotten of the King , upon any other condition . If this great light of France ever dropped such words , he had in them doubtlesse a very good , devout , and zealous meaning ; but yet ( under correction ) I cannot see how his resolution can be accorded with that rule of the Apostle ; Let all things be done decently ; for it cannot as yet sink into my foolish head , how that a fooles coat is a decent garment to preach in . But this on the bie . To proceed unto a second sort of Ceremonies , which we may call , for distinction sake , humane , Doctrinall , 〈◊〉 ; such as men institute , by their morall signification , to teach , v. g. the Crosse , Surplice &c : if these might lawfully , by any humane authority whatsoever , be unavoidably annexed with necessary duties , we should then soon resolve , that we are not then to abstaine from them ; but the non-conformists ever held that no mortall wight whatsoever could lawfully urge , or presse the unavoidable connexion of such Ceremonies with necessary duties ; and indeed they have very good reason against the Command of such a connexion ; because it would have been against religion , and against charity . First , against religion : they never granted them ( as is still supposed ) to be indifferent , but alwaies arraigned them as guilty of superstition , and will-worship ; and so , manifest 〈◊〉 against the second commandement , presumptuous additions unto the word , and ordinances of our Lord Jesus Christ , a setting of mans threshold by Gods threshold , and their posts by Gods posts , Ezek. 43. 8. and the justice of their accusation will be soon confessed by all learned , and unprejudiced men , that will with patience , and impartiality reade the reenforcement of their arguments by Parker , Didoclave , and Ames against all answers and replies whatsoever . The Prelates connexing of humane symbolicall ceremonies with duties and ordinances that are necessary , and commanded by the word of God , brings into my mind an artifice of Julian the Apostate : in the market places of Cities , he set up his own image , with the Essigies of the gods of the Heathen pictured round about , to the end , that whosoever should do civill reverence to the Emperours Image , might also seem to worship the gods of the Gentiles : and by the contrary , they who would not bow to the Gods of the Gentiles , might seeme also to refuse all due 〈◊〉 to the Emperour . Thus the Prelates , of their own heads , most presumptuously have set up in Gods worship , and service , their own inventions , and have commanded them to be joined with the ordinances of Christ : so that hereby they drave many conscientious Ministers into a great strait , if , out of a lothnesse to loose the exercise of their Ministry , they conformed unto their Ceremonies , this they interpreted to be an approbation os them ; and , if to avoid their Ceremonies , they did forbeare to baptize , to administer the Lords supper &c. then they accused them for neglect , and contempt of Gods Ordinances . Secondly , it was against charity for the Prelates , so rigidly , and peremptorily to presse their paultry Ceremonies , as that unlesse men observed them they would not suffer them , by their good wills , to enjoy the precious Ordinances of Christ Jesus ; and this can reasonably be denied by none , who think , that the soules of men may be damnified by the want of such ordinances : But to proceed unto a second restriction in the former edition . Former Edition . If we are not , secondly , nostri juris , but restrained ; and determined by authority , we must 〈◊〉 disobey that to 〈◊〉 Brother ; transgresse duty , to expresse charity : So to please men , we should displease God. So we should doe evill , that good might come thereof . When the Obligation of two precepts 〈◊〉 lyeth upon us at the same time , and impossible for both to be at once obeyed , in such a case , because there is no clashing between Gods 〈◊〉 , neither doth God by them impose upon his creatures any necessity of sinning , therefore one of 〈◊〉 precepts must give place unto the other ; to wit , that which 〈◊〉 a lesse duty , unto that which prescribes a more weighty and pressing one . Now the 〈◊〉 of Justice ( as a learned Inconformitant , even Amesius himselfe , med : 〈◊〉 . lib. 2. cap. 16. § . 62 , 63 , will tell us ) are of stricter obligation 〈◊〉 those of charity . We are more bound to pay our debts then to distribute Almes . He that hath trespassed against another , is more strictly 〈◊〉 to sue for reconciliation , then the party who hath received the injury . Now to hinder the scandall of the weake , is a duty of Charity ; to obey the lawfull commands of authority , a duty of justice ; and therefore of the greater obligation and 〈◊〉 , unto it then the other must give place . I would have travelled farther in this argument , but that I am anticipated by the learned , and 〈◊〉 Professors of 〈◊〉 in their Duplies to the second answers of the Covenanting ministers , who from pag. 65. unto 75. have 〈◊〉 discussed this very question , whether the precept of obedience to Superiors , or the precept of eschewing scandall be more obligatory , and have there proved by many unanswerable arguments , that the former precept , that of obedience to Superiours is of the twaine more Obligatory . Those then that desire larger satisfaction concerning this matter , I shall 〈◊〉 unto the perusall of them . How ever in the meane while 〈◊〉 it not be thought troublesome , if I insert , what I judge in them , if not most , yet very remarkeable . 'T is this , Debitum obedientiae , the debt of obedience , which we owe unto superiours , is ( say they pa : 74 ) not only debitum morale , a debt or duty unto which we are tyed by morall honesty , and Gods Commandment : but also debitum legale , or debitum justitiae , ( quod viz : fundatur in proprio jure alterius ) a a debt grounded upon the true and proper right which our Superiours have to exact this duty of us , so that they may accuse us of injury , and censure us , if we performe it not . There is a great difference betwixt these two sorts of debts , & the last is farr more obligatory than the first ; as for example : A man oweth 〈◊〉 to the poore by a morall debt , but to his Creditour he oweth them by legall debt , or debt of justice : and therefore he is more strictly obliged to pay his creditor , than to give almes . So by morall honesty , and Gods precepts also , a man oweth to his neighbour a pious car fulnesse to hinder sinne in him , by admonition , instruction , good example , and by omission , even of things lawfull , when he foreseeth that his neighbour , in respect of his weaknesse will be scandalized by them . But his neighbour hath not such a right to exact these things of him , neither can he have action against him for not performing of them , as our lawfull superiours have , for our due obedience . Thus they . Hence then may we shape an answer unto that same frequent clamour of some tumultuous spirits , that our 〈◊〉 for sooth , is wondrous offensive to many of our weake brethren . First , suppose it be so , better they without thy fault be offended , scandalized at thee , than that the Magistrate be with thy fault disobeyed by thee . It is no safe course to provide for the peace of thy brothers conscience , by wounding thine own with the sinne of disobedience against authority , to which for conscience sake thou 〈◊〉 to yeild subjection : we must not , to comply with mens humours , resist the ordinance of God , despise the voice of the Church , rather than a weake brother should be offended , scandalized : we may , and sometimes must part with our own right ; but we ought not to rob the 〈◊〉 of hers , by 〈◊〉 her of her power , by denying her our obedience . Nay farther , I confesse that rather than a weake brother should be scandalized , we may pro hic & nunc in some particular times and places , pretermit what superiours prescribe , provided they take no distast thereat , and others by our example be not encouraged to contemn their persons , callings , commands : for so a greater and more pernicious scandall will be incurred , than was declined . But we are not upon occurrence of any scandall whatsoever , taken by whomsoever , either absolutely to deny , and utterly refuse obedience to the lawfull injunctions of our publique governours , whether temporall , or ecclesiasticall : or so much as contemptuously and scandalously for a while omit the practise of what they enjoine . And omission of what they require , is than contemptuous , when they 〈◊〉 urge the practise of it , then scandalous when it heartens others to a contempt of their authority . To grant any of these lawfull , what were it , alasse ! but to licence confusion both in Church and 〈◊〉 ? Secondly , I demand whether or no the offence given to , or taken by a Magistrate , who is a brother , and withall a magistrate , be not greater than that which is given to , or taken by one , who is only a brother ? An impartiall Judg will soone determine , that the double relation of brother and magistrate , weigheth down the single and naked relation of a brother . Howsoever I am sure , that the whole exceeds the parts severally considered : the relation of mother exacts more at our hands than that of brother , and therefore , in warding a blow from my brother , I am to take care , that thereby the same stroake light not upon the head of my mother the Church . Whereupon , as Paul exhorts to give none offence , neither to Jew , nor Gentile , so he (r) adds in a further specialty nor to the Church of God , 1 Cor. 10. 37. The Jewes and Gentiles were but parts , the Church of God the whole , they but brethren , she the mother . (s) If then it were better to be thrown into the bottome of the sea , with a mill-stone about ones neck than to offend a little one , a poore and illiterate artizan , what expression shall we then find answerable to the hainousnesse of a scandall given to a pious Magistrate , to a religious Prince , to a Parliament , and Convocation , to a whole Church and Common-wealth ? Examination . First , it cannot be denied , but that divers indifferent things may be hic & nunc of such weight , and moment , of such necessity , or at least expediency , and conveniency , as that the just commands of our lawfull superiours may render them our duty , and omission of them would be sinfull : of subjection unto such commands the Apostle speaks , Rom. 13. 5. Wherefore ye must needs be subject , not only for wrath , but also for conscience sake . Where by wrath is understood Metonymically punishment : we are therefore to obey the Commands of the Magistrate , not onely for feare of punishment , but also for feare of sin : lest we wound the Conscience with transgression of the fifth Commandement . To assert the contrary , ( that 't is not a sinfull disobedience to violate the Commands of Superiours concerning some things indifferent in their generall nature , ) tends apertly to the dissolving of all government , and stocks up the authority of Magistrates , and masters of families by the very roots . Secondly , 't is as unquestionable , that all omissions of what is commanded by humane lawes are not sins , unlesse they be out of contempt of authority : for First ; otherwise ( as (t) Ames rightly saies ) as many lawes as there were , so many snares for soules there were , and they that live under lawes , should be subject to many more sins , then they who live among barbarous people , either quite without lawes , or with but a few . Secondly , there be divers lawes , that be (u) purely penall , and the intent of such lawes is satisfied , when one patiently submits unto the punishment inflicted for the breach of them ; such are severall lawes of our Land putting restraints upon some men in fouling , fishing , hunting , and the like : as also that statute , which prohibited the eating of flesh , at such times upon politick respects , for the breed , and increase of cattle , as also for the encouragement of fishing , Now no man can reasonably hold , that every breach of such lawes is a sin , especially when t is not contemptuous , and scandalous : I put in that limitation , because contempt of authority , and scandall unto others will make a very small , and otherwise inconsiderable violation of a meer penall law , to be a very heinous sinne . Thirdly , the omission of what is commanded by humane lawes is in many cases (w) agreeable unto the presumptive will of a just magistrate . It is to be presumed , that if he knew the cases , he would tolerate the omission , and therefore such a bare omission would not be a sin : Of this Ames speakes very well : the obligation , saith he , of a Law , must not be stretched beyond the just intention , and mind of the lawgiver , but it is to be presumed , that no man would oblige his Subjects to a mortall guilt , and utter damnation , for every neglect of his will and pleasure . Nay if in some case , the Law cannot possibly be observed , but some great damage , scandall , or inconvenience , must needs follow , it is to be presumed , that the Law-giver never intended that the Law in such a case should be observed . We would reckon him a very cruell Magistrate that should be implacably angry at a sicke man for eating flesh in a time of Lent , and can we thinke then , that there was any such thing as Christian pity and commiseration in the breasts of those men whom nothing could attone for the omission of the Crosse , Surplice , & c ? while they scandalized , that is destroyed , the immortall soules of many for whome Christ dyed . Suppose the greatest Monarch upon the face of the earth should command the meanest , and lowest of his slaves upon some important affaire to ride post through such a City , without any of the least stay or diversion , and then it should happen , that a company of litle children should be playing in the streets ; can this slave think , that he is obliged to ride over them ? Nay , unlesse we imagine his Master to be a most bloudy Tyrant , we must needs think , that he will be highly displeased at so horrid a cruelty ; and can any man then make any tolerable apology for the tyranny of our late Prelates , who commanded all to drive on with a furious career in the course of conformity , without any the least stop , though hereby were hazarded a world of soules , purchased at no lower a rate than the divine bloud of our blessed Saviour ? It is the will and pleasure of the King of Kings , and Lord of Lords , that matters commanded by his affirmative precepts should be , for a while , forborne , in case of the likelihood of scandall consequent ; but these men ( in imitation of him that exalted himselfe above all that is called God 2 Thes. 2. 4. ) could not be perswaded to dispense with a temporary forbearance of any ceremonies they enjoined : though they well foresaw , that the sequele of them was likely to be a very great , and spreading scandall . But now the non-conformists might spare all this discourse touching the obligation of humane lawes in generall : because they hold that humane , religious , Doctrinall Ceremonies the matter in question , cannot be lawfully determined by the authority of either Politicall , or Ecclesiasticall superiours : and for this they have two , as I take it , very convincing arguments . First , because all such Ceremonies are Sawcy additions unto the word , and ordinances of God , Deut. 4. 2. and cap. 12. 32. strange fire which the Lord commanded not , Lev. 10. 8. Secondly , because suppose they be indifferent ( which was a thing never granted ) yet they are unnecessary toyes , and trifles : and therefore it is not lawfull for our superiours to command them , when , from the practise of them , it is very probable , that scandall will arise . For First , every power is the Minister of God to thee for good , Rom. 13. 4 the power of the Magistrate is like that of the Minister , only for edification , and not destruction , 2 Cor. 10. 8. and cap. 13. 10. but now if he should have power to command humane symbolicall Ceremonies ( that may be well spared in Gods worship and service ) whenthere is likelihood of the consecution of Scandall : then he should have power to do mischiefe , to enjoine things hurtfull , and destructive unto the soules of men . Secondly , our Saviours commination against scandall , Matth. 18. 7. ( Woe to that man by whom the offence cometh , ) reacheth Magistrates , as well as private persons : and we may say the same of the Apostolicall prohibitions of scandall both to the Romans , and the Corinthians , Rom. 14. 13 , 15 , 20 , 21. 1 Cor. 8. 9. and chap. 10. 32. Unto these prohibitions adde we Pauls resolution to avoid scandall arising from the use of things indifferent : if meat make my brother to offend ( saith he ) I will eat no flesh while the world standeth , lest I make my brother to offend , 1 Cor. 8. 13. For From this resolution the unlawfulnesse of the injunction of such ceremonies as ours will undeniably follow . To cleare this I shall presuppose that , which cannot ( with any colour of reason ) be denied : to wit , that , that , which Paul held unlawfull for himselfe to practise in his own person upon a generall account belonging to all Christians , could not by him be lawfully imposed upon others by an Ecclesiasticall Canon ; but now Paul held it unlawfull to eat flesh in case of scandall probably consequent , and this was upon a generall reason belonging to all Christians : and therefore he thought it utterly unlawsull to impose any such matter upon others when scandall was likely to follow . From this thus premised , I shall hence thus argue Syllogistically , against our Prelates imposition of our Ceremonies . If it were unlawfull for Paul to impose upon the Corinthians such ceremonies as ours , then it was unlawfull for our Prelates to impose such upon us . But it was unlawfull for Paul to impose such Ceremonies as ours upon the Corinthians . Therefore it was unlawfull for the Prelates to impose such Ceremonies upon us . The sequele of the major is evident : because the Prelates could not pretend unto so much authority in matters Ecclesiasticall as Paul had : for in each of the Apostles there was a greater 〈◊〉 of jurisdiction then in any that succeeded them . As for the Minor that may be confirmed by this following Syllogisme . If it were unlawfull for Paul to impose upon the Corinthians the eating of flesh when scandall was likely to ensue , then it was unlawfull for him to impose upon them the use of such Ceremonies as ours . But the former appeareth to be unlawfull by the 1 Cor. 8. 13. Therefore the latter was unlawfull also . There is nothing here can be questioned but the Major , and that is easily confirmed from a just comparison of flesh with such Ceremonies as ours . First , the eating of flesh was undoubtedly a thing more cleerly indifferent , then the practise of such Ceremonies of ours . Secondly , flesh was necessary unto the maintenance of the life of man by disjunction : that is , flesh , or some other meat : but now such Ceremonies as ours are not necessary unto the worship and service of God by disjunction : for God may be worshipped without them , or any others in their stead : a surplice ( saith Rutherford ) is not necessary by way of disjunction , for neither is surplice necessary , nor any other white or red habit , that hath some mysticall signification , like unto Surplice : So kneeling to the elements is neither necessary , nor any the like religious honouring of them by prostration before them , or kissing them . But against this accusation of our Ceremonies for scandall there are objected two Comparisons . First , of the duties of justice and Charity together : the duties of justice are more obligatory then the duties of charity , as being not only a morall , but a legall debt : Now to hinder the scandall of the weak is a duty of charity , only a morall debt , to obey the lawfull command of authority in things indifferent a duty of justice , a legall debt ; and therefore of the greater obligation , and moment : I shall the rather insist on this argument , because it is of late so much stood on by Dr Sanderson [ in his last Sermons printed 1656. pag. 249. ] where we are not ( saith he ) able to discharge both : debts of justice are to be paid ( saith he ) before bebts of charity . Now the duty of obedience is debitum justitiae , and a matter of right : my superiour may challenge it at my hands as his due ; and I doe him wrong , if I withhold it from him . But the care of not giving offence is but debitum charitatis , and a matter of but courtesie . I am to performe it to my brother in love , when I see cause : but he cannot challenge it from me as his right , nor can justly say I do him wrong , if I neglect it . It is therefore no more lawfull for me to disobey the lawfull command of a superiour , to prevent thereby the offence of one or a few brethren , then it is lawfull for me to do one man wrong , to do another man a courtesie withall , or then it is lawfull for me to rob the Exchequer to relieve an Hospitall . (x) For answer : First , if this argument be applied unto our Ceremonies there will be in such application a meer begging of the question ; for that our Ceremonies were things indifferent , the command of them lawfull , the practise of them a duty of justice , a legall debt , is the maine thing in controversy betwixt the conformists , and non-conformists ; and therefore all this should be proved , and not barely presupposed as it is . But Secondly , the fore mentioned rule is to be understood with this limitation , caeteris paribus , if the termes of the comparison be equall : and equall they are not , when the minims of justice are put into the ballance with the weightiest duties of charity : and so 't is in the present comparison , though we suppose our Ceremonies to be indifferent , and the practise of them a dutie of justice : for of what importance is such practise in comparison of the not scandalizing of our Brother ? Who , that is not extreamly transported with prejudice , will think , that the commands of the Prelates to weare the surplice , to signe children with the signe of the Crosse in Baptisme &c. carry any tolerable proportion with those precepts of the Apostle , destroy not him with thy meat , thy indifferencies , for whom Christ died ; for such things destroy not the worke of God ? Rom. 14. 15 , 20. What lawes , of any earthly wight whatsoever , concerning ceremonies , can be more obligatory , than the Commands of God touching the externalls of his worship and service ? and yet it is his will , and pleasure , that these externals of his worship should be laid aside for the performance of outward works of mercy ? I will have mercy and not sacrifice , Matth. 12. 7. Thus are we to leave our prayers , both publique , and private , to forsake a Sermon , for to save the life 〈◊〉 our neighbours , to quench the firing of his house , to helpe his cattle out of the ditch : now , if the sacred Ordinances of God are to give way unto works of mercy unto the bodies of men , surely then much more is the trash of humane inventions to yeild unto a worke of mercy towards the soules of men : This answer which I now give was made by 〈◊〉 in his dispute of scandall unto the Duplies of the Doctors of Aberdeen pa. 50 , 51 , 52 , 53. his discourse there is so satisfactory , as that I have thought fit to transcribe what he saies ; and I hope the reading of it will not be irksome unto the Reader . It is true these duties which we owe to others by way of justice , are more obligatory then those , which we owe only by way of charity , caeteris paribus : 〈◊〉 duties of the Law of nature , and morall Law , are compared together , then indeed the duties , which we owe both by the tye of justice and charity , are more obligatory then the duties that 〈◊〉 owe onely by the tye of charity . As for example , My Father is in danger before mine eyes to be drowned , in one 〈◊〉 water , and before my 〈◊〉 also my neighbour or friend is in danger of the like kind : the two 〈◊〉 and bands of justice and charity , both by the fifth and sixt Commandements , are more obligatory , hic & nunc , and do more strictly oblige , that I run to succour and preserve the life of my Father , than the life of my neighbour : for the obligation to my neighbour , is only Charity , by the obligation of the sixth Commandement , which obligation ceaseth , hic & nunc , at this time , when my fathers life is in hazard : and thus farre the Doctors argument goeth for strong , as School-men , Casuists , and Divines teach . But it is not to a purpose for the Doctors : for all offices and duties generally , and universally , of what ever kind , which we owe by way of Justice , are not more obligatory , than duties which we owe only by way of charity : as when duties of a positive commandement of God , 〈◊〉 by our superiours , and duties which we owe by charity only , are compared together , then the Doctors Major proposition is not cleare of it selfe , as they dreame , neither do Casuists , or Amesius , or Divines say with them ; but truth , and all our Divines say against them . Let us suppose that the King , and Convocation , and Assembly of Priests and Prophets of Israel make a Canon according to Gods word . That no manner of man presume to eat shew-bread , save the Priests only . All men owe obedience to this , both because it is Gods expresse Law , and by the band of Justice the 〈◊〉 and assembly of the Ancients have forbidden it . But if our Doctors argument st and strong , David at the point and hazard of famishing for hunger , sinned in eating shew-bread , yet Christ acquitteth him of all sinne , and saith Matth. 12. 5. he and his followers are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , blamelesse . Now David was under a duty by mercy , and love to his own life , and the lives of his followers , to eat shew bread , and he was under the band of Justice , by the Law of the Ancients of Israel , and Gods law , not to eat . Therefore in some cases when our superiours commandements are only positive Lawes , they are not more obligatory , than duties of Charity , only commanded in the Law of nature . I cleare it further thus , I see my neighbour in danger before my eyes of drowning , and my father commandeth me to goe and labour , or sow his farme in that time , while I am to preserve the life of my neighbour , in present danger , to loose his life in a great water . By the Doctors maxime , I am under the higher obligatory tie of Justice , to obey my father , who commandeth a thing both lawfull and necessary , by vertue of the higher commandement , to wit the first of the second Table , than I am obliged by the sixth Commandement , and of charity only , to give present succour and helpe to my dying neighbour , so I must let my neighbour dye in the waters , to give a duty of Justice to my father of farre lesse necessity . I would not commit my Conscience to such Casuists , as are the Doctors of Aberdeen . But if the Doctors would see with some new light of reason ; it is cleare that not only , the tye of justice maketh the precept more obligatory , but also the 〈◊〉 of the thing commanded ; yea , and if the positive Commandements of the Lord our God , who of Justice , and Kingly soveraignty hath right to aske obedience of us above all earthly Superiours , do yeild and cede as lesse obligatory , then commandements of love only , that are commanded in the Law of nature . What do our Doctors clatter and fable to us of a right of Justice , that mortall Rulers have to command in things indifferent , from which the destruction of soules doth arise ? for these commandements of Rulers , ( Kneele religiously before bread , the 〈◊〉 image of Christ crucified ) ( keepe humane holy dayes ) ( Crosse the ayre with your thumb above a baptized infants face ) at best , are but positive Commandements , not warranted by Gods word . But shall they be more obligatory by a supposed band of Justice that Prelates have over us to command such toyes , than this divine Law of God , and Nature , Rom. 14. For indifferent dayes , meates , surpsice , 〈◊〉 not him for whom Christ dyed ? All the Casuists and Schoolemen , Navarra , Sylvester , Sanchez , Raphael dela Torre , Meratius , Duvallius , Thomas , Scotus , Bonaventura , Suarez , Uasquez , Greg : de valentia , Albertus , Richardus , Biel , Corduba , Angelus , Adrianus , Alphonsus , Becanus , Yea , and all the host of our Divines cry with Scripture , that mercy and the precepts of love , and of the Law of nature are more obligatory , than sacrifice , burnt offerings , and Gods owne positive Lawes , yea , and that positive Lawes loose their obligatory power , and cease to be lawes , when the lawes of nature and necessary dutyes of mercy , and love ( as not to murther our brother ) ( not to scandalize ) standeth in their way . I might weary the Reader here with citations , and be wilder my selfe also , but it is a point of Divinity denyed by none at all . 3. What we owe of Justice to our Superiours , is indeed both a morall debt of obedience , and a debt of Justice and law , which Rulers may seeke by their place , and exjure , as Aristotle saith , but this right is limited : Rulers have no right to seeke absolute obedience , but onely in the Lord , not against charity . And though the place of Rulers be authoritative , yet their commanding power , as touching the matter of what they injoyne is only 〈◊〉 , and they cannot but in Gods place exact , that which is Gods due , and seing God himselfe , if he should immediatly in his owne person Command , he would not urge a positive commandement , sarrè lesse the commandement of light and vaine Ceremonies , against and beyond the precept of love , not to destroy a soule for whom Christ dyed . Ergò , Superiours under God , who borrow all their light from God , cannot have a higher right , than God hath . 4. The comparison of a man who oweth 〈◊〉 to a Creditor , and oweth moneyes to the poore , is close off the way , sor he is obliged to pay the Creditour first ; but the case 〈◊〉 is farre otherwise ; the debt of practising indifferent seathers , and straws , such as 〈◊〉 , crossing , wearing Surplice , is neither like the dept owen to the poore , nor to the Creditor ; For natures Law , and Gods word , 1. Cor. 10. 18. 19. maketh the Non-practise , non-murthering obedience to God , when the practise of indifferent things is a soule stumbling to the weake , and the practising is but at ' its best obedience to a positive Law , and ought to stoope , and goe off the way , and disappeare , when natures Law ( murther not ) doth come in ' its way . When the Doctors put Loyalty above Charity , they suppose obedience to Commandements commanding scandalizing of soulès to be loyalty to Superiours ; which is questioned , it being treason to the soveraigne of Heaven , and Earth , to destroy his Image , it is taken as loyaltie by our Doctors , but not proven to be loyaltie , and so a vaine question here , whether Loyalty be above Charity or not . This dispute of scandall is annexed unto his divine right of Church Goverment , which was published 1646. since that Dr. Sanderson 1656 ( as I shewed you but now ) propounds the argument a new , with a great deale of triumph , but without any considerable reinforcement ; and withall he takes no notice of Rutherford , his answer , from whence I gather that he never read it : and indeed it is a thing very incident unto the greatest Schollars of that party to censure , but never to reade their adversaries . Thirdly , to say something unto Dr. Sanderson as well as unto the Duplyers , I must needs confesse , that I am transported with a just admiration , that so great a schollar should so extenuate , as he doth , the guilt of an active scandall ; for he makes the care of not giving offence to a brother to be a matter but of courtesy ; he cannot , ( saith he ) justly say I do him wrong , if I neglect it : But first , the Apostle Paul speakes another language , in his account to make brethren to offend is to sin against them , to wound their weake consciences , and so to sin against Christ. 1 Cor. 8. 12. Compared with ver . 11. 13. and Rom. 14. 15. 20. he resolves , that 't is a destroying of a brother for whom Christ died , a destroying of the worke of God in him : whereupon Divines generally determine , that 't is soule-murther : Now , in wounding the weake conscience of our brother , in murthering his immortall soule , there is doubtlesse some wrong committed against him : not to destroy him for whom Christ dyed &c. is more than a matter of meer courtesy unto him . Secondly , suppose the care of not giving offence be , in respect of our brother , but debitum charitatis ; yet in regard of God 't is 〈◊〉 justitiae , a legall debt : he may , and doth challenge it as due , and we do him wrong if we disobey him . Our Saviour thundereth a woe against such disobedience ; Woe to him through whom offences come , Luk. 17. 1. and in the second verse this woe is aggravated by comparison with a very grievous punishment , it were better for him that a Mill-stone were hanged about his neck , and he cast into the sea , then that he should offend one of these little ones . But to proceed'unto the second comparison on which I insisted out of Bishop Morton and Dr Sanderson : a Comparison betwixt a scandall given to a Magistrate , and a scandall given to one , who is only a brother : I demand whether or no the offence given to , or taken by a Magistrate , who is a brother , and withall a Magistrate be not greater , than that which is given to , or taken by one , who is only a brother ? an impartiall Judge will soone determine that the double relation of brother , and Magistrate weigheth down the single , and naked relation of a brother &c. ut suprà . For answer unto this , distinguish we of a twofold acception of scandall , Primary , and Secundary . First , Primary , and so t is an occasioning culpably the fall of another into sin . Secondly , Secundary , and so 't is only the angring , vexing , displeasing of another . This distinction premised ; the comparison may be understood ; either of the scandall of a Magistrate in a secundary acception , with a scandall of one , who is onely a brother in a secundary acception of the word too ; or else of the scandall of a Magistrate in a secundary acception with the scandall of a brother in a primary acception ; or 3. of the scandall of a Magistrate in a primary acception with the scandall of a brother in a primary acception also . First ; if the Comparison be on both sides to be understood of scandall taken in a secondary sense , there is no doubt , but the scandall of the Magistrate is more dangerous , than that of one , who is only a brother : for the wrath of the supreame Magistrate is as the Messengers of death , Prov. 16. 14. as the roaring of a Lyon , Prov. 19. 12. In indifferent things then it will be our safest course to anger a brother , rather then to displease the Magistrate . But this acception of scandall is impertinent unto our purpose , and so much is consessed by Dr Hammond in his treatise of scandall pag : 23. To be angry , grieved , troubled , at any action of another , is not ( to be offended ) in the scripture sense , nor consequently doth it follow , that I have done a misse in doing that which another man is angry at , unlesse my action be in it selfe evill . The scandall we speak of is culpable ; but to displease a magistrate is not alwaies a sin : the mistake of scandall for the angring of one is taken notice of by Calvin also upon 1 Cor. 8. 13. having affirmed , that some corrupted the doctrine of scandall with foolish glosses , and others with their impious calumnies , he sheweth the originall of both their mistakes touching the meaning of offence in the Apostle . Utrique errant in verbo offendendi . Nam offendere accipiunt , pro incurrere in odium , vel effensionem hominum , aut quod idem ferè est , 〈◊〉 quodipsis displiceat , vel minus arrideat . Atqui clarissimè patet ex contextu , nihil esse aliud quam mulo exemplo tanquam obice fratrem impedire à recto cursu , aut illi praebere causam lapsus . Non ergo hic disput at Paulus de retinendâ hominum gratiâ , sed de sublevandis infirmis , nè 〈◊〉 , & prudentèr regendis , nè à rectâ viâ deflectant . Secondly , if the comparison proceed of the scandall of the Magistrate in a secondary sense with the scandall of a brother in a primary sense , doubtlesse the scandall of a brother is more to be declined : it is farre better to anger , and displease a pious Magistrate , a religious Prince , a Parliament , a whole Church , & Commonwealth , then culpably to occasion the fall of the meanest , poorest , and most illiterate artizan into sin : and this will be denyed by none who know , that 't is more dangerous to displease God , than man. Thirdly , if the comparison be to be understood of the scandall of the Magistrate in a primary acception with a scandall of a brother in a primary acception too : then I should thinke , that the scandall of the Magistrate is the greater , and more to be eschewed , it is a greater sin culpably to occasion the fall of the Magistrate into sin , then the fall of a meere brother : because the falls of Magistrates are of a more pernicious example , giving greater countenance , and encouragement unto sin . But this will no wayes advantage our Sticklers for Ceremonies : for the non-conformists deny , that their forbearance of Ceremonies did culpably occasion the fall of the Magistrate into sinne : and the contrary they expect to have proved and not barely dictated . One thing let me observe on the bie , before I passe on : and 't is : that , if those who make this comparison of the scandall of a Magistrate with the scandall of a brother , take scandall on both sides in the primary acception thereof : then they seeme to intimate , that there may be a case wherein a man may be necessitated culpably to occasion the fall , either of a Magistrate , or of a brother into sinne : Of a Magistrate if he forbeare what he commands , of a brother if he practise it : But this is not casus dabilis , for God by his providence , can never necessitate a man unto sin : of this Rutherford speaks very solidly in his resutation of the Dupliers pag. 41 , 42. You shall ( saith he unto them ) be 〈◊〉 to give a case , wherein we are necessitated by Gods providence , and that by way of contradiction , whether we forbeare , or forbeare not to murther either the soules of some weake ones , or the soules of superiours , by our 〈◊〉 of the practise of things judged expedient by superiours : You make us to murther the soules of Superiours , by the non-forbearance , or you will have us to murther the soules of weake brethren , if we practise . This is a wronging of providence , and a Manichean tenent , that we can be under such a necessity of sinning . Yea , there must be two contrary revealed Wills in God , Commanding , by forbearing the Ceremonies , not to murther Superiours , and commanding by not forbearing , not to murther weake brethren : and so God commandeth both to forbeare and also not to forbeare . Mr Tombes [ in his treatise of scandalizing p. 266 , 267 , 268. ] quarrels with Ames , for affirming , that there can be no such perplexity , that it should be necessary for a Godly man , whether he do this or that , or not do it , to scandalize some one : But Dr Ames is to be understood of a scandall in the primary sense , a culpable occasioning the fall of another into sin : and the objections of Mr Tombes proceed only concerning scandall in a secundary acception thereof , as will be apparent unto any one , that will be pleased to peruse them . There be two things more I shall take notice of in my forementioned discourse . First , I suppose all along that the Convocation was our Mother , and the Church of England : but surely she was a step mother unto divers of the Godly , using towards them farre more rigour , then unto such whom profanesse rendered obnoxious unto their Courts : if any indifferent man looke upon their Canons he must needs confesse , that one of their chiefe designes was to crush , and persecute such religious persons , whom they nicknamed Puritans , to 〈◊〉 with their Ceremonies such among them for whom Christ died . But I wonder upon what account , I , or any man else , could think it to be the Church of England . If in any sense it can be called the Church of England , it was because it represented the Ministry of England , and that it did not ; because the farre major part of it were Cathedrall men , Bishops , Deanes , Arch-Deacons , and such as were chosen by the respective Chapters of each Cathedrall : it might then be a representation of the Cathedrall Ministers , but not of the ministry of England : and that I shall make good by two parallels . The first shall be , betwixt our Convocations , and the Councill of Trent : many sober , and moderate Papists accused this to be a pack'd assembly , a representation , of , not the Catholike Church , but the Court of Rome ; because the greatest part of it were of the Popes faction , and depended wholy upon him : So the Major part of our Convocations were of the Bishops faction , and minded chiefly the interests of Cathedrals : and therefore were not a representative of all the Ministers in England . I shall exemplifie this by instancing in the Diocesse of Bathe , and Wells , wherein I lived : In this there were members of the lower house of Convocation , one Deane , three Archdeacons , and one chosen by the Chapter of Wells : and to ballance these there were but two Clarkes chosen by the Ministry of the whole Diocesse : Now what impartiall man , but will determine that these seaven could be no due representation of the Ministers of the Diocesse of Bathe and Wells , as long as five of them were members of the Cathedrall , in whose election the Ministers of the Diocesse had no hand at all . A second paralell shall be betwixt our convocation , and a civill assembly : wherein we will suppose , that the Prince chooseth three hundred , who are his Courtiers , or else such as have their dependance , either wholy , or in great part upon him : and the nation choose only a hundred : you may call this assembly a Parliament , or what you will ; but surely no rationall man can thinke it to be a representation of the nation : and as irrationall were it to call the Convocation a representation of the Ministers , of England , seeing those chosen by the Ministers were an inconsiderable part of the Convocation . And unto this we may adde ; that there was seldome a due , and regular choice made of the Clerks of the Convocation : I was present at the last election , that was at Wells : and then Bishop 〈◊〉 told us , that it was an unquestionable priviledge due unto his See for him to propound unto us the Clerkes that we should chuse , unto which he expected our conformity , tacitly menacing all that dissented . And when yet , by all this violence , he was unlikely to carry it for such as he had nominated ; why then , he had another shift , that was ( I believe ) never heard of before : he enabled the Pluralists , of whom either all , or most were his favorites , to voice it in severall capacities : to give as many double voices , as they had dignities , and benefices : his Son gave at that time eight single voices , two as he was Archdeacon of Bath , two as he was Prebend of Cudworth , two as he was Parson of Bucklan-Mary , two as he was Vicar of Kingsbury : Now , to say that such an election was regular , and lawfull is as ridiculous , and senselesse , as if a man should say , that in the Choice of Knights of the Shire for Parliament , men may give as many double voices , as they have Farmes and Livings . A second thing I shall take notice of , in the now mentioned discourse , is my misinterpretation of the 1 Cor. 10. 32. Upon which I thus descanted : as Paul exhorts to give none offence 〈◊〉 to Jew nor Gentile , so he addes in a further 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Church of God : The Jewes and Gentiles were but parts , the Church of God the whole , they but brethren , she the mother . Here was a grosse mistake , in thinking , that the Jewes and Gentiles here spoken of were members of the Church : whereas , by the Apostles distinction of them from the Church of God , it is plaine , that they were not as yet converted unto the Christian faith , but were as yet enemies thereunto , and consequently strangers unto the Church : And thus having finished my examination of the two limitations that I gave in a former edition of this treatise . I shall goe on to that which followeth . But suppose the action in which this appearance of evill is imagined to be as indifferent in it felfe , so also not annexed unto a necessary duty , and we also left to the use of our liberty , what then ? Two things are here especially to be considered : first , the quality of the action expected at ; secondly , the difference of times , and places . To beginne with the first , the action ( at which thy brother is scandalized , by his groundlesse imagination , that 't is evill , or carrieth a reall appearance of evill ) is either of none , or great importance to thee . If it be of none importance , but weightlesse , as affording thee either none , or but small benefit : offend not thy brother by an unseasonable exercise of thy liberty . Know that as authority , so charity should also restraine it : consider that by this undue use of thy liberty thou sinnest against thy brother , and by sinning against him thou sinnest against Christ. 1 Cor. 8. 12. But now if it be of some weight , and moment , as yeelding thee some great profit , why thou must a while forbeare it , untill thy brother may be better informed ; and to informe him that the action is lawfull which offends him , thou must take care too , otherwise thou wilt prejudice the truth , through thy regardlesse silence , and also continue his weaknesse , and foment in him a negative superstition . Let every one of us , ( saith the Apostle , Rom. 15. 2. ) please his neighbour for his good unto edification , And for a man to humour his neighbour in an erroneous and superstitious opinion , however it may please him , yet not for his good unto edification : Upon which ground I take it , that the Apostle Paul , as he refused maintenance at Corinth , to avoid appearance of a coveteous intention , and mercenary affection in preaching : so also his just title , and unquestionable right thereunto he at large both professeth , and proveth . But now if thy brother refuse , and contemne information : Tunc desinit esse scandalum pusilli ex 〈◊〉 , aut simplici ignorantiâ , et incipit esse scandalum Pharisaei ex purâ malitiâ , aut ignorantiâ affectatâ , & crassâ . The shelter of weakenesse is thereby taken from him , his judgment being now overshadowed no longer with a meere weakenesse arising out of simple ignorance , but with a proud , and wayward , if not envious and malitious perversnesse , that is accompanied with a grosse , willfull , & affected ignorance , He is no longer then to be accounted a weak one , but a proud and wilfull one , and for his peevishnesse thou mayest choose , whether thou wilt forgoe thy liberty . Calvin upon the 1 Cor. 8. 13. tells us os some foollish interpreters , that leave unto Christians almost noe use at all of thinges indifferent , upon pretext to avoide the offence of superstitious persons inepti sunt , inquit , qui nullum prope usum rerum indifferentium 〈◊〉 faciunt Christianis , nè superstitiosos offendant , And he discovers the ground of their mistake to be ; because they do not consider , that Paul here inveigheth against those , who unseasonably abuse their knowledg before such weake ones , whom they neglect to informe , or instruct concerning the matter , at which they are scandalized : therefore there will be no place for reprehension if such information preceed , In hoc hallucinantur inquit , quod non 〈◊〉 Paulum hic invehi adversus 〈◊〉 , qui scientiâ suâ intempestivè abutuntur coram infirmis , quos docere negligunt . Ergò 〈◊〉 amplius locus non erit , si praecedat doctrina . Mr Tombes [ in his treatise of scandalizing , pag. 233 , 234. ] quotes Peter Martyr , and Bucane for the same purpose , and this what they say is 〈◊〉 , ordinarily , or for the most part true ; for if we are to forbeare all our conveniences , and matters of expediency , when men are scandalized at them , after we have given them , or offered to give them full information ; our Christian liberty in things indifferent would in these our times come to be just nothing : nay our servitude would be greater , and more unsupportable , than that of the Jewes under the Leviticall Ceremonies . However yet information doth not alwaies alter the nature of scandall ; for the scandall of the weake may sometimes last , Postquam reddita est ratio facti , after a reason of the fact , whereat they are scandalized , is rendred to them . For , by reason of their extreame ignorance , and slownesse of understanding , they may be utterly incapable of information , and instruction ; or else some opinion , or practise , whereunto they have been long accustomed , may cast such a mist before their weak judgments , as that they may not be able presently to apprehend the reason that is given of the action , at which they stumble . And we should so farre pitty the simplicity of such poore soules , as to abstaine from that which scandalizeth them , if by such abstinence there accrue not to us any great losse , or inconvenience . This is observed by Cajetan upon Aquinas 2. 2 dae . q. 43. art . 7. Ubi dicitur , inquit , articulo 7 mo . de scandalo pusillorum , si autem 〈◊〉 redditam rationem hujusmodi scandalum duret , jam videtur ex malitiâ esse ; adverto , quod author non assertivo verbo utitur , sed opinativo , dicendo , jam videtur ex malitiâ esse ; potest siquidem contingere , quod pusilli non sint capaces rationis redditae , vel propter pristinam consuetudinem , quae facit apparere dissonum , quod veritati consonat , vel propter rationem apud eos magis apparentem , vel aliquod hujusmodi : & tunc quia malitia non facit scandalum , sed ignorantia vel infirmitas , quamvis reddita sit ratio , cessandum est ab hujusmodi spiritualibus non necessariis . Cajetan . in 2. 2. 0. 43. &c. Whereas it is said in the 7th article , touching the scandall of the weak , if after a reason given , the scandall do still remain , it seemeth to be of malice ; you must note the Author doth not use ( verbo assertivo , sed opinativo ) saying , it seemeth to be of malice . For it may fall out that the weake are not capable of the reason that is rendred , either by reason of his former Custome , which maketh that to appeare discordant with the truth , or for some reason which in his eyes is more apparent , or by reason of some such like cause , and then it is not out of malice that he is offended , but out of ignorance and infirmity . After Cajetan , Petrus de Lorica doth roundly and fully expresse the matter . Verum est ( saith he ) quod Cajetanus advertit , scandalum pusillorum perseverare posse adhuc , postquam reddita est ratio facti , vel quia rationem non capiunt ob mentis tarditatem , vel ob consuetudinem diu firmatam : in quo casu docet Cajetanus 〈◊〉 esse actionem , ex quâ scandalum accipiunt ; vel differendam , donec ad saniorem mentem venerint . Quòd solùm verum , si actio omitti potest 〈◊〉 jacturâ nostrae utilitatis . Si enim magna utilitas temporalis vel spiritualis interveniat , contemni potest scandalum pusillorum , postquam sufficienter admoniti sint . In the next place I will recite a limitation of Gregory de Valentia , that comes under this head , and is very remarkable . Having laid downe a rule , that for avoiding the scandall of our neighbour , which springeth , either from his ignorance , or weaknesse , it behooveth us by the obligation of Charity , to do , or omit , that which may be done , or left undone without sin : he afterwards puts this exception . Est autem animadvertendum hanc regulam intelligi debere de omni eo , quod sine peccato fieri , aut omitti possit , non quom : docunque , sed moralitèr , attentâ suavitate , quae est in jugo legum divinarum : idest , quod sine peccato fieri , aut omitti possit , sine maxima etiam aliqua , & penè intolerabili 〈◊〉 , spectata quoque in hac conditione 〈◊〉 &c , And indeed ( me thinks ) he speaks reasonably . For improbable seems it , that the sweet moderation , which is in the yoake of divine lawes , should consist with so great a rigour , as in all matters whatsoever , not simply unlawfull , to exact , not only a brotherly , but also a servile compliancy with every supposed weak one , whose weaknesse may be but pretended by those , that are willing to speake favourably of them . For the humouring and contenting of every supposed weakling in all matters at which he takes offence , I conceive not my selfe bound to endanger my life , to hazard my estate , and fortunes , or to incurre any other great , or notable inconvenience : for that would truly be durus sermo , an hard saying : who were able to beare it ? But now against this may be objected the resolution of the Apostle , 1 Cor. 8. 13. if meat make my brother to offend , I will eat no flesh while the world standeth , lest I make my brother to offend : flesh is of great expediency for the nourishment of mans life , and yet Paul resolves upon a perpetuall abstinence therefrom in case of scandall Consequent ; and this example of Paul is obligatory unto all Christians . For answer , first , this flesh may be understood only of such as was sacrificed unto Idols ; for words in scripture usually are to be restrained unto the subject matter spoken of , and the meat , and flesh , here spoken of in the Context , was such as had been offered unto an Idoll . Secondly , Calvin resolveth that 't is an Hyperbole : est , inquit , hyperbolica locutio , quia vix possibile est , ut quis à carnibus totâ vitâ abstineat , siremaneat in communi vitâ : significat tamen se 〈◊〉 usurum potius suâ libertate , quam ut fit insirmis offendiculo . Nunquam 〈◊〉 licitus est usus , nisi moderatus ad charitatis regulam . This Hyperbole of Pauls you may Parallel with that of our Saviour , 〈◊〉 . 5. 39 , 40 , 41. whosoever shall smite thee on thy right 〈◊〉 , turne to him the other also . And if any man will sue 〈◊〉 at the Law , and take away thy coate , let him have thy cloake also . And 〈◊〉 shall compell thee to goe a mile , goe with him twaine . Thirdly , Paul is to be understood , only upon supposition that the Gospell should not be fully promulgated , and brethren should remain uninstructed concerning the nature of Christian Liberty ; for usually 't is in this case only , that to eat flesh involves in the guilt of an active scandall , makes a brother to offend : hence the Apostle exhorts the strong amongst the Romans to abstaine from meats forbiden by the Law of Moses , for prevention of the scandall of the weake : but amongst the Galathians ; and Colossians he dislikes such an abstinence , and dehorts from it : & the reason , of this his 〈◊〉 carriage , was : because the weak amonst the Romans were not fully taught the doctrine of Christian liberty , & the Galathians & Colossians were Julian , mistaking the Apostles doctrine of scâdall , thought to make use of it for the starving of the Christias , and therefore , in Antiochia , and in the region round about , he dedicated all the sountaines to the Goddesses of the Gentiles , and caused all the victuall , that was to be sold in market places , to be sprinkled with Ethnick , holy waters , thinking that some would be scandalized at the drinking of the water of such fountaines , and at the eating of such victuall , and that the Apostles doctrine obliged all to forbeare any thing in the 〈◊〉 of scandall : never-thelesse Christians , without scruple of conscience , dranke of the water , that was in the Wels , and ate of the meat , which they bought in the market ; beeing , since the full publication of the Gospell , fully perswaded , that to the cleane all things are cleane . Rutherford determines ; that , since the plenary promulgation of the Gospell , wee are not obliged to forbeare the good Creatures of God , things good , fit , and usefull for the life of man , or of physicall use in the worship of God , though men be scandalized at such things , and the reason of their scandall be , because they have been abused unto Idolatry , and superstition : he instanceth in Churches , 〈◊〉 unto the saying of Masse , and unto the Idolatrous worship of Saints , and in bells that have been abused by Papists by being consecrated , baptized & used to chase away divels : & for this his determination you may gather out of him [ p. 69 , 70 , 71 , 72 , 75 , &c. ] these two reasōs . First , because abstinence from such things , ( upon a religious account , for avoidance of scandall , because abused to Idolatry , and superstitiō , ) would be , ( after a 〈◊〉 publicatiō of the Gospell ) a Judaizing , an externall Cōformity with the Jew , a betraying of our Christian liberty , a cōfirming & hardning the Jewes in their Apostacy : it would make , as Paul saies , Jesus Christ of no effect , it would make us debters to Circumcisiō , & to all the Ceremonies of Moses , Ga. 5. 3 , 4. Secondly , the practise of such things , since we are 〈◊〉 possessed in that liberty , wherewith Christ hath made us free , is morally and Theologically necessary , for the asserting of our Christian liberty : to shew , that every Creature of God is good , and nothing to be refused , 〈◊〉 Tim. 4. 4. That unto the pure all things are pure , 〈◊〉 1. 15. that we dare not call that uncleane which God hath cleansed , Act. 10. 15. But there is one passage in this authour concerning scandall , which I cannot in any waies approve of : it is pag. 58 , 59. where he averreth , that things of meere civill use , that are necessary with a necessity of conveniency are to be forborne , if scandall follow , if they be not convenient in the highest degree . And that no man may think I misreport him , take his own words . There be some things of 〈◊〉 civill use , as Bells , gownes , Pulpits , preaching on Tuesday or Thursday . These be considered two 〈◊〉 . 1. As necessary with 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 simply . 2. With 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 secundum 〈◊〉 gradum , as convenient in the highest degree of necessity , or that morall maximum quod sic . In the first degree , what scandalizeth , is to be rejected : in the last respect they oblige , and 〈◊〉 any be scandalized thereat , it is taken and not given . But sure this doctrine if embraced will put and hold mens Consciences upon a perpetuall rack : For it will be a matter of great difficulty especially for some men allwaies to determine what in their indifferencies is convenient in the highest degree . Secondly , we must put a difference between times , and places : for however they be but circumstances of actions , and therefore extrinsecall to them , so that they cannot cause any such essentiall variation in them , as to make those actions materially good , or sinfull , which are of themselves in their own nature indifferent : yet notwithstanding the publick and ordinary abuse of an action at such a time , or in such a place , may make it then and there , in that place and for that time appeare to be evill ; although the same action at another time , and in the same place ; or in another place , at the same time , may not be obnoxious to any such censure . First then , time may alter this imaginary appearance of evill in an action . Reservation of the brazen serpent , as for other ends and purposes , so for commemoration of that miraculous deliverance of the Israelites thereby , from the stings of fiery Serpents , was for a while free from all suspicion , either of Idolatry or superstition : but when once it became the generall , ordinary , nay daily occasion , and object of Idolatry that can be , when incense was offered to it : then if the publique Magistrate had not demolished it , he might justly have been thought to favour that Idolatry wherewith it was polluted . And therefore commednable was Hezekiah his zeale in breaking it in peices , 2 King 18.4 . In the former Edition it was observed out of Morton that the same Hezekiah did not destroy the high places , which Solomon had built for Astoreth , the abomination of the Sidonians : and for Chemosh , the abomination of the Moabites ; and for Milchom , the abomination of the Children of Ammon , and yet was never taxed for countenancing of Idolatry . For in his daies the Idols there erected , were disregarded no man worshipping them , and therefore might safely be suffered to stand : but when afterwards they were generally and usually adored , then the good King Josiah justly demolished them : and indeed should he have permitted them then when the Idolatry wherewith they were defiled , was flagrant at the height , he might justly be suspected to be a favourer of that Idolatry . But unto this observation of Mortons ; Ames thus replyeth . He propoundeth , as very observable , that Hezekiah did not abolish the Idols , which Solomon suffered to be set up , because they were neglected . But. 1. it may well be thought that those idols were destroyed by Hezekiah , and set up again before the time of Josiah , as many other superstitions were . 2. It cannot be doubted but they should have been destroyed , even though they were for the time neglected : because either Hezekiah had as good cause to destroy them as Josiah , or else he might have prevented that cause which Josiah had : and to prevent evill , we are as well bound , as to correct it . Unto this Reply of Ames , Dr. Burges rejoineth , whose Rejoinder and Ames his Triplication I shall rather transcribe them then Epitomize . Dr Burges his Rejoinder unto the first part of the Reply . Say you so ? then belike it may be well thought that the holy Ghost knew not so well as you what was done , for the text saith , that Josiah destroyed those high places , which Solomon King of Israel had set up : and then describes by the very place , where , and by name those same Idols , which Solomon had set up for his outlandish wives , 1 King. 11.5,7 . I hope you will repent this rashnesse , I am sure you should . Because the Defender did make this one ground of denying our consequence from Hezekiahs zeale against the monuments of Idolatry , that he did not abolish the Idols which Solomon suffered to be set up in favour of his strange Wives : because they were ( at that time ) neglected Idols . It was replyed , that it may be well thought , they were destroyed by Hezekiah , and set up againe before the time of Josiah . This the Rejoinder calleth rashnesse to be repented of : because it is said ( 2. Reg. 23.13 . ) that Josiah destroyed those high places , which Solomon had set up . And was it such a rashnesse , to say that it may be thought so ? the phrase is more mod●st then theirs , who peremptorily affirme those Idols to have been neglected , untill after Hezekias time : when the Scripture testifieth plainly , that Ahaz Hezekiahs his father worshipped Molech ( which was one of those Idols ) by making his son to passe thorow teh fire : and was so madly given to superstition , that he sacrificed under every green tree . 2. Reg. 16. Nay lesse was said , then some learned have with great probability affirmed : z Namely that those Idols with their appurtenances were first defaced by Solomon himselfe , after his repentance ; and being restored after by Idolaters , were againe defaced . Salianus ( in his Annals ad an . 3309. ) saith thus : we thinke also that while Solomon lived , that whole shop of Divels was broken up and ruined . And withall the statues , the groves , and altars , as also the rest of Idolatrous monuments . 2. King. 23. 13. to have reference to Manasses , and Ammon ( who had set them up in the same place , and upon the same foundation ) and not to Solomon , who áyed 250 yeares Before . It is incredible to speake , that when Asa , Josaphat , and Jehoiada did farre and neare 〈◊〉 idolatery , they notwithstanding suffered a scandall so apparent . And to the yeare 3406. It were very strange if those idols after 350 yeares should yet remaine , the which Solomon after his repentance , and other good Kings had abolished . So that it is probable that such like temples , and Idols were repaired , and built up againe by other succeeding ungodly Kings , which Solomon in former time had made : that that which Solomon builded should be all one with such like as he had builded . Where he sheweth by divers instances , both out of scripture , and out of common speech , how that word which , doth not alwayes note the same singular substance ; therein confuting all the ground that the Rej. had for censuring the Repl. of rashnes to be repented of . This sentence is the more also to be favoured ; because according to the other , which our Def. and Rej. maintaine , it will be very hard to answer that objection against Solomons repentance , which (a) Rabanus on 2 Reg : 23. groundeth on that supposition : Solomon never truly repented of his Idolatry : for if he had manifested fruits worthy repentance , he would have taken order with those Idols , which he had set up by removing them , and ( being so wise a man ) never have left them to stand for stumbling blockes to fooles , as if what he had erroneously devised , had been well and wisely done . Beside all this , it is not credible , that the same individuall Temples stood by Jerusalem from Solomons time to Josias ; if it were but for this , that the Assyrians came even to the gates of Jerusalem , spoiling and breaking downe all costly buildings , ( Such as Solomons Temples were ) not sparing , but deriding the Gods of nations . 2. Reg. 8. Unto the second branch of the Reply Dr. Burges thus rejoineth Burges his Rejoinder , This prooves not that they were , nor is it likely that God himselfe would have vouchsased such thorow praises to Hezekiah , as he doth , 1. Kings . 18. 5. If Hezekiah had been bound to destroy those neglected Idols , as well as others 〈◊〉 taken in the manner , and did not say , why he was bound to do that which he did not . Because either Hezekiah had as good cause to destroy them as Josiah ; or else he might have prevented that cause which Josiah had ; and to prevent evill , we are as well bound , as to correct it . If Hezekiah had as good cause to destroy those high places , which stood neglected , ( and had done perhaps about three hundred yeares , even since the death of Solomons wives , whose Chappels they were ) as Josiah had , when Manasses , or Ammon had , after Hezekiah his time , revived that Idolatry ; the holy Ghost would have taxed Hezekiah for not doing that , for doing whereof he commendeth Josiah ; or at least , not have left his integrity crowned with like praises , as he doth , 2 Kings , 18. 5. nor was Hezekiah bound to 〈◊〉 the cause which Josiah had , unlesse he had suspected it . For though we are bound to prevent evill which we for see , so farre as we well can , yet are we not bound to foresee all that may happen . Neither are the same meanes alwayes requisite for prevention , which must be vsed for recovery . If you thinke otherwise , burne all your popish bookes , 〈◊〉 they fall into the hands of popelings , and do mischeife ; for you are bound to prevent evill , as well as to correct it . Ames his Triplication . It was added by the Repl. that those Idols should have been destroyed , ( though they had been for the time neglected ) because that evill for which Josiah destroyed them , ought as well to have 〈◊〉 prevented as corrected . To this the 〈◊〉 answereth , that this is not true , except Hezekiah had suspected that evill . And who will say , that there is no cause to suspect evill of an Idoll , though it be for a time neglected ? or can any man thinke , that if the Israelites had neglected them , no Sydonian , Moabite , or Ammonite gave occasion of any evill to be 〈◊〉 by those Idols ? The Spanish and French Papists ( to say nothing of English ) when they in passing by the Crosse in Cheape-side , do 〈◊〉 unto it , give they not cause to suspect 〈◊〉 evill to 〈◊〉 unto it ? The same meanes . ( saith 〈◊〉 Rejoinder ) are not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 requisite for prevention , which must be used for recovery . Yes truly , about Idols ( if we judge out of the Scripture ) the very same meanes . Burne then ( saith the Rejoinder ) all your Popish books , 〈◊〉 they fall into the hands of Popelings to abuse them . So will I certainly , if you can shew me , that they must be burned , when Popelings have had them in their hands , and abused them , which here you grant concerning these Idols . Here is nothing of the Rejoinder left unexamined , but his quotation of the 2 Kings 18. 5. and how impertinent y that is alledged will appeare by comparison of it with 1 King. 15. 5. David did that , which was righ in the eyes of the Lord , and turned not aside from any thing , that he commanded him all the daies of his life , save onely in the matter of Uriah the Hittite . For 〈◊〉 this commendation of David we may as well conclude , that his numbering of the people , and his purpose and attempt to revenge himselfe of Nabal by destroying him and all his , were lawfull ; as we may inferre from the praises of Hezekiah , that his omission in not demolishing Solomons outlandish Idols , must be unlawful : See Rutherford pag. 90. Secondly , wee must distinguish of places . That which in some places carries a shew of evill , elsewhere perhaps is not suspected thereof . According to places therefore , in indifferent matters wee may vary our practise . It was the advice of Ambrose unto Austin , and Monica , respected by Austin , as if it had been the answer of an heavenly oracle ; (b) unto whatsoever Church ye shall come , observe the manner or custome thereof , if ye will neither give nor take scandall . Which advice if restrained unto things indifferent is very good : and besides we have Pauls precept , and president for it : his precept , 1 Cor. c. 10. v. 32. Give none offence , neither to 〈◊〉 , nor Gentile , which could not be done , but by complying with them in indifferencies . His president also answereth his precept ; To the Jewes he became a Jew , to them that were under the Law , as under the Law ; to them that were without the law , as without the Law ; to the weake , as weake , 1 Cor. 9. 20 , 21 , 22. Amongst the Jewes he shaved his head , made a vow , Acts 18. 18. and (c) circumcised Timothy , Acts 16. 3. and yet amongst the Gentiles , where these actions bore an appearance of Judaisme , he withstood Peter for them even to his face , Gal. 2. 11. There be three other instances in the former edition , which because they are questionable I shall wholy wave , and passe on unto the examination of my vaine triumph over the non-consormists , wherein , as the Proverb is , I reckoned without mine host . Former Edition . After these limitations of the duty of abstinence from all appearance of evill ; I cannot but wonder at our irregulars misapplication of it . They hence eagerly cry down the laudable discipline , and lawfull Ceremonies of our Church . What fearefull outcries do they make concerning their appearance of Idolatry , superstition , will-worship and Popery ? 〈◊〉 you see by the exceptions put to this precept , as much too bi for our innocent , and 〈◊〉 Ceremonies , as Hercules shoe , for a childs foot . Indeed our Ceremonies , for example , the Surplice , Crosse in Baptisme , kneeling at the Lords Supper , may have a materiall semblance with those that in Popery have been abused to Idolatry , and superstition , and so consequently taken materially , in respect of their materialls , may have an outward shew of Popish Idolatry , or superstition ; but consider them as imposed by our Church , and generally used by her members , so they are formally differenced from those which Papists have applyed to Idolatrous ends and purposes . For our Church publickly professeth a quite contrary use or application , end , or intention of them . And externall actions have their specification , and consequently distinction from their end , and intention , from it they take their species , or kind , and accordingly are distinguished . Now since all Popish , whether superstitious , or idolatrous abuses of our Ceremonies , are publickly disclaimed , and their right use explained ; who can justly imagine any shew of Popery in them ? An Israelite was not to be smitten for an Egyptian , because for a while he once sojourned in Egypt , if afterward he had his constant abode in Canaan . The garment spotted with the flesh was no longer to be hated , than spotted : being once washed , it might againe be used . Our Ceremonies were defiled in Egypt , in Popery , with superstitiom , and Idolatrie ; but our Church ( God be praised ) hath washed them from both in her publique , and professed use of them . And therefore now they stand above either calumnie or suspicion . Examination . First , our non-conformists will tell us , that there was betwixt our Ceremonies , and those of the Papists , even a formall conformity , 〈◊〉 , and in part , though not totall and adequate . For though our Prelates disavowed many , nay most of those superstitious and idolatrous ends , unto which the Papists applyed our Ceremonies , yet they still prosessed one end and intention of the Papists in the use of them , to wit , mysticall signification ; and this to be a Popish and superstitious end , the non-conformists prove at large in their books . Secondly , a materiall conformity in Ceremonies , carrieth many times a reall appearance of evill , and scandalizeth actively . It doth not appeare that the Altar which Uriah erected , was formally the same with that Ahaz saw at Damascus , that it had the same use and intention , the worship of a false God. The text mentioneth only a materiall conformity unto it , and for this reason 't is condemned , 2 King. 16. 10 , 11. Peters conformity with the Jewes Gal. 2. was only materiall , not formall , for a Jewish end and purpose , and yet t is blamed by Paul as guilty of an active scandall , vers . 11 , 12 , 13 , 14. Suppose a timerous Protestant in Spaine or Italy go to Masse , and there bow before their breaden God , not out of any intent to honour the Idol , but only for preservation of his life ; his presence and bowing will only be materially the same with that of Papists ; but will any man think that this can acquit him from the sin of Idolatry ? Indeed Aelian var. Histor. lib. 1. cap. 21. excuseth Ismenias a Thobane from adoring the King of Persia , because though he stooped downe before him , yet it was not to worship him , but to take up a ring that he had for the nonce let fall at his feet : but no rationall man will admit of this his apology , because this stooping in common use was the adoration of the King , and interpreted to be such by the King himselfe , and by the spectators . Some thinke that though a different end and intention from Pagans , Iewes , and Hereticks in the use of their Ceremonies , cannot legitimate them and free them from scandall ; yet that profession of such a different end and intention , is sufficient for such a purpose . But First , the primative Church was of a different opinion . (d) The story of Origen is well knowen , how he delivered Palme to those that offered it to the image of Serapis , with this expression of his intention : come and receive the boughes , not of the image , but of Christ. Yet was he therefore censured as a worshipper of that Idoll . Secondly , if this were true , then we might lawfully use circumcision and the passeover , so we disclaime the Jewish end of them , to signifie Christ to come ; and professe that our intention , was by them only to signify , that Christ was allready come in the flesh . Thirdly , a materiall conformity with Papists in their Ceremonies , hath nourished in them a hope of our coming up to them , but not inclined them in any degree unto us : for they have still protested that they would not step so much as one foot to meere with us : and if my memory faile me not , there is some such thing in Franciscus Sancta Clara. Indeed experience hath alwayes shewed , how uneffectuall a meanes such a complyance hath been for the conversion of Papists . Whom of them hath it ever wonne over unto the Protestant party , but Spalato , and others of the like temper , who ( as Mr Fuller speaks of some Italians that pretended unto true conversion ) were neither good dough , nor good bread , but like Ephraim a Cake not turned ? There was a greater materiall conformity with Popish Ceremonies in Cathedrals , then in other Churches ; but how thin a harvest of converts can they produce ? Nay 't is observed by some , that neare them , Popery thrived more then in other places . I heard a Knight of the royall party once affirme , in the presence of many persons of worth , that he thought there were more Papists in Wells then in all the County of Somerset besides : and yet of late yeares that Cathedrall outstripped most in England for Ceremoniousnesse . In the times immediately preceding the late troubles , not only the former Ceremonies of the Common-prayer booke were urged with more violence than before , but divers others quite antiquated were revived . But though Popish Ceremonies were encreased , we do not find that the number of Papists was hereby any thing diminished . I shall conclude this with that of Didoclave pag. 540 , 541. Formalistae se retinere quosdam ritus Pontificiorum , ut eos lucrifacere possent , & reducere in rectam viam . Deus in dirigendis suis prudentissimus aliam praescripsit rationem , longè diversam , ut nempe ab omni gentium superstitione & idolatria essent , quantum sieri posset , remotissimi . Nam species conformitatis , an t reservatae reliquiae superstitionis & idolatriae illaqueant pios , & confirmant idolatras in suâ superstitione & idolatria . Gloriarentur Judaei , ut suprà dixit Constantinus , si viderint religionem nostram non p sse subsistere absque illarum ritibus . Et Hieronymus alt , Judaicas Ceremonias in Ecclesiâ Christianâ retentas non essicere Judaeos Christianos , sid Christianos Judaeos . Augustinus secundum regulam illam à legislatore prudentissimo datam populo suo sic consulit . Si quaeritis , unde vincantur Pagani , undè illuminentur , unde ad salutem 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 omnes solemnitates ipsorum . Deserite nugas 〈◊〉 . Etsi non consentiant veritati nostrae , saltem pudeat 〈◊〉 suae . But I passe on to the second thing I proposed , the confirmation of the point ; where my proofes shall be applied some to reall , some to imaginary appearances of evill . First , See it backt by consonant places of Scripture . Solomon adviseth his young man to walke cautè , as well as 〈◊〉 , not to come nigh the docre of the strange womans house , Prov. 5. 8. This had not evilnesse reall , but only the appearance of evill , as being in a corrupt mind an incentive to uncleanesse , and in beholders an occasion of jealousies and suspicions . Now from Solomons interdicting this appearance of evill in speciall , we may by way of Analogy and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fitnesse of forbearing all in generall . Unto this is anagogically applyed the Nazarites precise abstinence from wine , Num. 6. 3 , 4. The Nazarite , as you may see there , was to abstaine from wine , from vin gar of wine , from any liquour of grapes , from the materialls of wine , grapes , from moist grapes , from dryed grapes , from all that is made of the vine tree , from not only the kernell , but even the husk of the grape . The Jewes have added , they were not to come nigh a vineyard . With a semblable strictnesse are we to separate from sinne , from all sinne , not only from the kernell of sinne , from a sinne really so , but also from the husk , the appearance of sinne . The Children of Israell were charged not to doe like the Heathen that were round about them , 2 King. 17. 15. where they are interdicted not 〈◊〉 samenesse with , but also likenesse unto their fashions : they were forbidden the fashion of rounding their heads , and cutting their flesh , of marring the corners of their beards , of making any baldnesse upon their heads , or between their eyes , Lev. 19. 28. and chap. 21. ver . 25. Deut. 14. 1. Not because so to doe was simply in its own nature a sin , but for that it gave shew of a sin , of inordinate sorrow for the departed ; of which 't was then an expression much in use amongst the heathen . Hugo Cardinalis upon the text alledgeth Hosea 2. 16. Thou shalt call me Ishi , and shalt call me no more Baali . The Gentiles gave the title of Baal , so also of Baalim unto their great and common Idol-God , supposed to be the Sun , and to all the severall images , and representations thereof . And therefore God prohibited application of that title unto himselfe , in worship and invocation : Thou shalt no more call me , ô my Baal : for though there be no harme in the word ( it signifying in Common use husband , as well as Ishi ) yet by reason of the ordinary application thereof unto Idols , there would have been in invocation of God by that name , a grosse and palpable appearance of Idolatry . (e) In 〈◊〉 44. 20. the Priests of the Jewes were prohibited the shaving of their heads , not because it was a thing evill in it selfe , but only that they might not seeme to be like unto the Priests of the bordering Gentiles , who were usually shaven , as appeareth by Baruch cap. 6. v. 31. But because it may be excepted , that most of these rigid , and severe prohibitions , were given unto the Jewes under their pedagogie of ceremonies , and time of bondage , and therefore farther then in a morall admonition lay no restraint upon us Christians . See therefore all this seconded in the New Testament by (f) St Jude ver . 23. Where in reference to that legall pollution , which came by touching the garment of one that was Levitically uncleane , he exhorts Christians to hate the garment spotted by the flesh , that is , saith Gualter , quicquid ingenium carnis sapit , whatsoever hath but a smack or relish of the flesh , all preparations and accessaries of evill , any thing that is neere of kin unto , or but bordering upon vice , thinks Calvin . Observe here the emphaticall gradation of the Apostle , hate not only the flesh , but the garment spotted by the flesh , not onely the garment overspread , quite covered , but the garment that was but here and there a little spotted by the flesh . Out of Christs garment there issued vertue , which cured the woman that had the bloody fluxe ; but contrarywise out of this garment , but spotted with the flesh , exit vis quaedam maligna , there goeth a poisonous kind of infection , which soone will staine a soule with the leprosy of sinne . Unto this place of Jude I shall adde another out of the Apostle Paul , Heb. 4. 1. Let us therefore feare , lest a promise being left us , of entring into his rest , any of you should seeme to come short of it . Hence 〈◊〉 collects , that we must not only feare , by misbelieving to come short ; but to seeme , or give any appearance of coming short . Pareus also hath the like note upon the place , verbo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , videatur , sollicitudine tanta hic opus esse innuit , ut non modo quae revera nos frustrent , sedetiam quae videatur frustratura provide caveamus . But because ( as the old saying runs ) praxis sanctorum est interpres praeceptorum , I shall intreate you next to take notice , how this precept hath been exemplified , The Church . (g) Cant. 1. 7. professeth against , even all shew of communion with false Churches that pretend unto fellowship with Christ , Why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flockes of thy companions ? But to come unto particular examples , and here in the times before Christ , is very remarkeable the couragious and undaunted resolution of Eleazar , against but the appearance of an evill . 2 Mac. c. 6. v. 18. usque ad sinem : When he was besought to bring flesh of his owne provision , such as was lawfull for him to use , and but make as if he did 〈◊〉 of the flesh , taken from the sacrifice commanded by the King. v. 21. Why ? even this evill appearance , this seeming , this making as if he did eat of the flesh taken from the sacrifice commanded by the King , so deepely disrelished him , as that he chose death before it . For it becommeth not our age ( saith he ) in any wise to dissemble , whereby many young persons might think that 〈◊〉 being four score years old and ten , was now gone to a strang religion ; & so they through mine hypocrisy , and desire to live a little time , and a moment longer , should be deceived by me , and I get a stain to my old age , and make it abominable . v. 24 25. But why mention I 〈◊〉 ? behold the example of one greater then Eleazar , the example of the rule and patterne of holines unto the Church , Christ Iesus God blessed for ever ! whose example , in Morals and matters of ordinary obedience , amounts ever unto the authority of a command . How exemplarie he was in this particular you may reade Matth. c. 17. from v. 24 , unto the end of the Chapter . There you have him performing an action , not for that omission of it would have been evill , but because in opinion of the Jewes , it would have given shew of evill . For if first , you understand the words , as most Interpreters do , of the tribute to be paid unto the secular Magistrate , then sinfull it had not been in our Saviour to have refused paiment of tribute unto Caesar. For how could the Son to the living God ( who was King of Kinges , and Lord of Lords , King of heaven , and earth , whose the earth and all the 〈◊〉 thereof was , ) be justly tributary unto any mortall ? The Kinges of the earth take tribute , or custome , not of their owne children , ( however they expect obedience from them ) but of strangers ; because paying of tribute denoteth some degree , or kinde of Servitude . The children then are free , vers . 25 , 26. Therefore from all taxes and impositions , justly was to be exempted Christ , the Son of David ; there was no reason he should pay tribute unto Caesar : nay more reason ( he being of the blood royall ) should receive tribute from the Jewes , than Caesar , a forrainer , having no title to the Crowne , but that which the sword gave him . Not paiment , constant denyall of paiment , had not been ( you see ) morally evill in our Saviour ; and yet because it would have borne appearance of an evill , of disloyaltie , and disobedience , and so have drawn prejudices against , and scandall upon his unspotted person , holy and heavenly office , and doctrine : because seemingly it would have crossed a doctrine he afterwards delivered , Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesars : therefore he stands not to pleade his priviledge , but voluntarily parted with his right , payed the tribute , and to pay it wrought a miracle : notwithstanding , Peter , lest we should offend them , goe thou to the 〈◊〉 , and cast an hook , and take up the fish that first cometh up , and when thou hast opened his mouth , thou shalt find a peice of money , that take , and give unto them for me and thee , vers . 27. Or if secondly , with the learned Cameron , you rather conceive to be here meant the halfe shekell , which by prescript of the Ceremoniall Law , Exod. 30. was by the Jewes to be paid for the use of the Sanctuary . Why yet so also sinfull it had not been in our Saviour to have refused paying of it : for first , it was a Ceremonie , and the Ceremoniall Law Christ was above , Lord he was of the Sabbath , Matth. c. 12. ver . 8. Mar. c. 2. v. 28. where it is manifest ( thinks Cameron ) the Sabbath should 〈◊〉 signify the whole Ceremomall Law. Then secondly , this Ceremony , together with Sacrifices and all other Legall , typicall Ceremonies , presupposed sin in the party , to whom they were commanded , and were a note , or badge contracted by sinne ; and therefore reach not unto Christ , a man without sin . Thirdly , as our Saviour well argues , even as Kings of the earth take not tribute of their owne Children , so neither the King of Heaven of his Sonne , therefore seing this halfe shekel is a tribute to be paid to the King of Heaven , for the Tabernacle of witnesse . 2 Chro. 24. 6. Christ was certainely free , and so might lawfully have refused to pay it : Yet because the Iewes would have taken offence , and umbrages at such his resusall , and charg'd it with appearance of a profane contempt of the Law of Moses , and the Sanctuary , therefore he voluntarily paid it , and so became a Jew to the Jewes , as under the Law to them that were under the Law : Notwithstanding lest we should offend , &c. And if this be the sense of the place , what is said of this one Ceremonie , may be applyed unto all ; for one of the reasons , and ends , why Christ observed the whole Ceremoniall Law was , to prevent scandall , to abstaine from all appearance of evill . In nature ( saith Cameron ) there is , appetitus quidem unionis , which causeth things to be moved , and to rest often , besides the proper condition of their particular nature , whence sometimes light things are moved downewards , heavie things upwards . Unto this appetite of union in nature , there is answerable in grace , the desire to promote Gods glory , which often inclineth and carrieth the Godly beyond and besides the ordinary obligations , arising out of their particular and personall conditions and relations . And unto the measure of grace is proportionable the degree of the desire of Gods glory , so that the holier any one is , the more vehemently he desireth the promotion thereof : and if it require any thing to be done of him , why he will do it , although otherwise by vertue of his particular , and personall condition , he be not bound thereunto . Therefore although Christ , secundum 〈◊〉 rationem personae suae , if we eye the speciall consideration , and dignity of his person , was not tyed to keepe the Ceremoniall Law , yet he kept it , in as much as the Glory of God required him so to doe . If you demand how the glory of God exacted this at Christs hands , why Christ himselfe tells us , Nè simus illis scandalo , lest we should offend them ; for if Christ had not observed the Ceremoniall law , he had doubtlesse wonderfully estranged the Jewes from him . In observing it then he did but as Kings often doe in stooping to many things , unto which they are no waies obliged , for to win the hearts and affections of their humorous subjects . This example of our Saviour , was followed by the Ap●stles , and elders in the first generall Councill at Jerusalem , where they imp●sed upon the Gentiles abstinence from meat offered to Idols , from things strangled , and from blood , Acts 15. 29. Not for that these meats were in themselves uncleane , and abominable , but because they appeared to be so to the froward and peevish Jewes , who were kept off from Christ , because these meats , in which they supposed to be such abomination and uncleanesse , were usually eaten by the Christians . But this was but a temporary injunction they gave to others . Let us view their own practice . Maintenance for preaching was due unto Paul , from both the Corinthians and Thessalonians , and yet he did forbeare exacting it , 1 Cor. 9. 1 Thes. 2. that so he might take away all colour for suspicion of any mercenary or greedy appetite after gaine , to be in his preaching , and quice cut off all scandalls thereby , which in that dawning of Christianity upon them , would haue put a rub to the progresse of the Gospell , and have made his ministry to be evill spoken off . And of St Paul , the Saints in succeeding ages were sollowers , as he of Christ. Those 〈◊〉 , so often , and sharply censured by St Cyprian Epist. 15. 31. 52. lib. de lapsis . lib. de exhortatione Martyrum , Though they did not sacrifice , or directly deny Christ , were yet by the Church put to their penance , for seeming to deny him , because they either by themselves , or others , at least accepted from the Magistrate bills , or scroules testimoniall of their abnegation . Secundus ( as Parker relates out of * Baronius ) was commanded to deliver his bibles , he maketh answer , Christianus sum & non Traditor . Hereupon he is commanded to deliver aliqua Ecvola , that is certaine stuffe which was cast aside for that it had no use . Will be not deliver this to save his life ? no not this . It was lawfull , but it had a shew of their sin whome the Church called Traditores for their delivering the holy bookes to be burnt by the officers of the Tyrant Dioclesian . (h) Auxentius being commanded by Licinius to set a branch of a Vine-tree loaden with Clusters at the feete of Bacchus his image , presently shaped him this round , and resolute answer , God forbid , O Emperour , that I should do it , for I am a Christian. The matter was not great in it selfe , yet because it would have favoured 〈◊〉 , or given manifest appearance of it , rather than do it , he chose banishment from the Court , and losse of the Emperours service . As (i) Valentinian , afterwards Emperour , went before Julian the Apostate into a Temple of the Goddesse 〈◊〉 , one of the Priests besprincled Julian with a kinde of purging , or holy water , a drop of which by chance fell upon Valentinian , at which he was so extreamely incensed , as that he stroake the Priest , tore , and rent in peices that part of his garment on which it fell with a great disdaine , and holy indignation , throwing it away from him , that so he might avoid the least tincture of their superstitious , and idolatrous religion . But above all , very remarkeable is the zeale of the k boyes of Samosatene , who because a tennis-ball , with which they played , had but touched the foote of the asse whereon Lucius rode , their Hereticall Bishop , they presently cryed out that it was defiled , ( although indeed it was not capable of any morall pollution ) and therefore to purge or expiate it , threw it into the fire in the mid'st of the Market place . This may be thought , but a Childish pranke , and therefore not imitable , however yet it aptly serves to demonstrate that their education , framed them unto a hatred of whatsoever had any remote reference , unto either evill actions , or persons . St Ambrose forbad Monica the bringing of wine and cakes to the Celebrities of the Martyrs , nè ulla occasio se ingurgitandi daretur ebriesis , & quia illa quasi parentalia superstitioni Gentilium essent simillima , as St Austin lib. 6. Confess . c. 2. lest occasion of excessive quaffing should be given to drunkards , and because those parentalia , funerall feasts , were very like to heathenist superstition , the offerings of the Pagans which were made at the Tombs of their parents , and to their ghosts . Bishop Morton assignes another reason , because this custome , had some resemblance of those superstitious , and idolatrous Colorydians , mentioned by Epiphanius , who offered cakes to the Virgin Mary , in imitation of that heathenish custome condemned by the prophet Jeremy chap. 7. ver . 18. of such as did offer cakes to the Moone , as unto the Queene of heaven . Now when Monica understood that Saint Ambrose had forbidden this , tam piè , atque obedientèr 〈◊〉 est , ut ipse mirarer , saith St Austin in that forecited place , quod tam facilè accusatrix potius consuetudinis 〈◊〉 , quam disceptatrix illius prohibitionis effecta sit : she so piously , and obediently embraced this prohibition , as that I my selfe , saith Austin , wondered to see her so easily rather accuse her own custome , than dispute his command . When once the custome of thrice dipping or sprinkling in Baptisme was used by Hereticks , to signisy a trinity not of persons , but natures in the Godhead , then Saint 〈◊〉 thought fitting that it should be left off , not because it was evill , but for that it might seeme to countenance their 〈◊〉 heresie : his words are these , De trina verò 〈◊〉 baptismatis nihil responderi verius potest , quam quod ipsi sensitis , quod in una side nihil officit sanctae Ecclesiae consuetudo diversa , &c. sed quia nunc hucusque ab haereticis infans in baptismate 〈◊〉 mergebatur , faciendum apud vos esse non censeo , ne dum mersiones numerant divinitatem dividant , dumque quod faciebant faciunt , se morem nostrum vicisse glorientur . lib. 1. Epist. 41. Gabriel Biel lectione 38 : saith , that the Church of Rome thought it meet to use common leavened bread in the administration of the Eucharist , lest in using unleavened bread , they should be deemed to imitate Ebion the heretick . Nay Rellarmine in his recognition of his book de verbo 〈◊〉 , admonisheth the Reader , that in the title of the third Chapter of the first book , Divi Pauli is put for Beati Pauli , for in making mention of the Saints , I never approved ( saith he ) the use of the word divus , or diva , and one of his reasons , is ; because amongst the Heathens , 't was usually ascribed to their false , or fained Gods. To heape up other , either testimonies , or instances , were to prejudice , if not the authority of those before mentioned , yet your esteeme of them , as if you were not by them sufficiently perswaded and convinced . My labour ( I suppose ) will be better spent in demonstrating unto you the expediency of that , which may seeme rigour in this Doctrine , in discovering unto you what good reasons Saint Paul had to exact so great a measure , and so high a pitch of abstinence from sinne . Those that I will specifie shall be drawn from God , from Satan , from our selves , from our brethren , First , from God , we have these two , our relations unto him , our danger in offending of him . First , our Relations unto him , he is our Father , our Soveraigne , Christ Jesus is our spirituall husband . Now a dutifull child declines not only disobedience , but whatsoever hath the colour of it ; an obedient , and loyall subject startles at not only treason , but also whatsoever may occasion suspicion thereof : a faithfull and chast wife abhorres not only adultery , but whatsoever may make her husband justly jealous , others but suspicious of her chastity . And shall not every child of God , every one that professeth subjection unto heaven , be fearfull of the appearance of disobedience , and undutifulnesse to so indulgent a father as God , of the appearance of Treason and Rebellion against so Almighty a King as God ? Doth it not befit the Spouse the Church , every member of Christ to dread all shewes , and signes of disloyaltie , and unfaithfulnesse to so loving a Spouse as Christ Jesus ? Did Julius Caesar , but an earthly potentate , thinke it not enough that his wife was without a fault , unlesse withall she was without so much as the suspicion of a fault ? And will not Christ ( thinke you ? ) who is King of Kings , and Lord of Lords , expect as great unblameablenesse in his Spouse ? (l) 〈◊〉 Lesbiai to disswade Pompey from flying into Parthia , tels him , that his wife would be lyable to a great deale of danger amongst those barbarous people ; and though ( said he ) they proffer no villany unto her , yet it is an undecent thing to thinke that the wife of Pompey might have been dishonoured : To disswade us from the appearances and occasions of sin it should , ( me thinks ) be an effectuall argument , that our soules , which are married unto Christ in righteousnesse , judgment , and holinesse , will hereby be obnoxious unto danger of pollution . What though they be not actually defiled ? Yet it is an undecent thing to think , that the Spouse a member of Christ might have been dishonoured , might have been foild with a lust , ravished , varquished by Satan , defiled with sinne . If from these appearances of evill , our relations to God cannot draw us , yet ( me thinks ) in the second place , our danger in offending of him , should drive us : for he is a consuming fire unto , as the Works , so also the workers of impiety : and how can we then but be afraid to venture on not onely that we know doth , but what we feare others suspect may , deserve the wrath of so sinne revenging a God ? That we should abstaine from all appearances of evill , may , secondly , be gathered from Satan , from the consideration , First , of his cruelty and malice against us , Secondly , of his temptations of us ? First , from the consideration of his cruelty and malice against us , which the Scripture shadoweth out by terming him , the enemy by way of excellency , the envious man , the accuser , the tempter , the destroyer , the devourer , a murtherer from the beginning : as also by comparing him unto a roaring Lyon , unto a great red Dragon , and an old 〈◊〉 . Now me thinks we should feare to come , not only under the power , but also into the sight of such an adversary : and yet by rushing upon the shew's , the occasions of evill , what do we but hazard the surprizall of our soules by him ? This will be more apparent from the consideration , 2. Of Satans temptations of us : of his temptations of us to sinne , of his temptations of us to despaire , or at least discomfort , for sinne : because in both sorts of temptations he goes about by these appearances of evill , to wreak his malice upon us . For first , in his temptations of us to sinne , they are , first , the baite by which he allures : Secondly , an argument by which he perswades us thereunto . Thirdly , an encouragement , whereby he is heartned to persist in tempting of us . First then , the appearances of sinne , are a baite whereby Satan allures us unto sin , which if we bite at , our consciences will soone be enlarged to swallow sinne it selfe . Satan well knowing that Gods Children would even 〈◊〉 at your grosse , and more hideous sinnes , such as are , Idolatry , Adultery , Drunkennesse , and the like , therefore cheifly plyeth them with enticements to the signes , shewes , and occasions of them ; for these will smooth the passage unto the sins themselves . Of this we have a remarkeable instance in Alipius , who ( as St Austin relates Confess . lib. 6. cap. 8 ) being drawn by his friends importunity to accompany him unto the Roman Gladiatorie Games , yet resolveth though he were present with his body , to be absent in his heart , and for that purpose to keep his eyes shut , that he might not defile them with so barbarous a sight : yet at last upon a great shout , that the people gave at the fall of one of the Combatants , his curiosity made him behold the occasion , and thereupon he presently became an applausive spectator of that bloudy and inhumane spectacle . An Italian , as Holerius writes , by his often smelling to the hearb Basile , had a scorpion ingendred in his head : even so wee by our often dallying , and tampering with things that carry a shew of unlawfulnesse , may have Satan , as I may so speak , even formed in us , for as St Hierome saith upon Ecclesiastes the ninth , Diabolus serpens est lubricus , cujus si capiti , id est , primae suggestioni non resistitur , totus 〈◊〉 , dum non sentitur , illabitur , that is , the Divell is a slippery serpent , and if we do not keep out his head , that is , his first suggestions , it is not to be doubted but that he will stealingly slide into the most secret corners of the heart : and so we actuated by him , shall at last proceed from things onely appearing 〈◊〉 , unto the practise of most horrid and gastly crimes . Secondly , the appearance of evill is an argument by which he perswades us unto what is in its owne nature evill , for if a man have but slipt into such actions as the best minded judge to have a reall appearance of evill , Satan forthwith will suggest unto him , that he hath by this quite crackt his credit amongst those that are accounted religious : by them ( will he say ) thou art as much suspected , and as deeply censured for thy seeming evill , as for thy being so : wert thou not better therefore , be as thou seemest , for they cannot think worse of thee then they doe , thy shame , and disgrace , their jealousies , suspicious and censures cannot be greater for sinne it selfe , than it is allready for the shew of it . Now this temptation of Satan , receives great advantage from our nature , for we naturally are addicted to society , and therefore if we finde that upon the signes and shewes of such and such sinnes in our practise , good men condemne us as guilty of the sinnes themselves , and therefore beginne two reserve and estránge themselves from us , refusing any longer to reach out unto us the right hand of fellowship , why , then we will presently have fellowship with the unfruitfull workes of darkness , and couple in with loose , carnall and formall men , whose conversation will quickly infect us , so that it will not be long e're we runne with them to the same excesse of riot . And thus you see how Satan takes occasion from the appearance of sinne , to draw us on unto sinne it selfe , which me thinks should be sufficient to disswade us from them . For is Satan so backward in tempting , or is his invention grown so barren , as that our lives and practise must put arguments into his mouth ? is the purchase of hell and damnation so difficult , as that we must needs furnish the Divell with baits to allure us , with reasons to perswade us unto our everlasting perdition , this were folly and madnesse that would want a name . But in the third place , the signes and appearances of sinne are not only a baite , by which he enticeth us , an argument by which he perswades unto sinne , but withall an encouragement , by which he is heart'ned to goe on in tempting of us , for they make him gather heart , and hope that we are coming on to sinne it selfe ; and this hope will breed diligence , make him a more importunate solliciter , make him to double and strengthen his assaults , to plie us even thick and threefold with temptations : A dog will not runne from a man as long as he throwes bread unto him , and can any man suppose the Divell will flie , so long as he gives place unto him , as long as he throwes himselfe upon temptations , by practising such things as have a manisest shew of evill ? for though in themselves they be never so small , yet will they serve to usher in farther and greater matters : being then preparatives unto sinne , they cannot be ( as some have imagined ) good sences against sinne : seeming to be evill is not , cannot be a meanes to sheild us from being so , no more then the opening the Gates of a City can be the way to raise the seige of it , or letting go the sluces of a river can be the course to stop its current . You have seen arguments from Satans temptations of us to sin : take next one from his temptations of us to despaire , or at least discomfort for sin , a temptation of so hideous a nature , as that , me thinks , our actions should not 〈◊〉 it the least advantage . His First labour is by the appearance of sin to make us offend God , but when he cannot proceed so farre , his Second endeavour will be , to make us disquiet our selves : when he cannot wound us by them , he will vex us for them ; for he will wrest and misconstrue all that we have done unto the worst sense , he will swell motes into beames , mole-hils into mountaines , appearances of evill into realities , and thunder unto us that there is not a pinne to choose betwixt those and these ; unto which our soules beeing distracted by the violent importunity of this temptation , will be over apt to give credence . And for a man to be thus tossed between Satans powerfull suggestions , and his own feares and suspicions cannot but even crush his spirits , and quite eclipse the peace and joy of his heart . Abstinence from all appearances of evill is , thirdly , needfull in regard of our selves , for by them we may incurre a double danger , a danger of beeing infected with , a danger of being punished for sinne . First , a danger of being infected with sinne : what (m) Bernard spake of Eves beholding the forbidden fruit , is true concerning every appearance of evill : Et si culpa non est , culpae 〈◊〉 indicium est , & si culpa non est , culpae tamen occasio est , indicium commissae , & causa est committendae . Although it be not in it selfe a sinne , yet it is a token , yet it is an occasion of sinne , a token that sinne hath been committed , a cause of committing it for the future . Now our natures are strongly bent to evill , when this ( then ) our naturall inclination , is furthered by outward occasions , we may soone be led to the realities of sinne , though the occasions of themselves are weake , they working but as objects , and the objective causality being of all most imperfect , yet Satan is strong , our lusts are strong , these occasions are sutable to our lusts : our soules therefore , by a little helpe from Satan will quickly catch infection from them . For this reason were the Israelites , in the time of the passeover prohibited not onely the eating , but the very having of leavened bread in their houses . For this reason too were the Nazarites forbidden to eat so much as the huskes of the grapes , for if that had been permitted , they would perhaps have soone proceeded to the eating of the grapes , and thence to drinking of the wine it selfe : hence also grew that precise resolution of David , Psal. 101. 3. I will 〈◊〉 no wicked thing before mine 〈◊〉 : well may the world , and Divell set wicked things before mine eyes , but for mine own part I will not invite temptations , I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes , as much as I can I will decline the objects , examples , and shewes of wickednesse : do but put fire unto flax , and it will presently be on flame : so present wee unto our loose and corrupt natures the shewes , ( which ( as you have seen ) are also the occasions of evill ) and how suddenly will they take fire ? This Joseph knew , and therefore when his Mistris sollicited him to that foule act of uncleannesse , he harkned not unto her to lie by her , or so much as to be with her , Gen. 39. 10. but fled , and got himselfe out of her presence , ver . 12. doubting lest the very sight of her might kindle lust . Nay to the shame of many secure and venturous Christians , of this even Scipio an Heathen , and Souldier too , was apprehensive and fearesull , and therefore would not suffer certaine captive Virgins , though of an exquisite beauty , to be brought so much as into his presence Nè quid ( faith Florus ) de virginitatis integritate delibâsse , saltem vel oculis vid rotur . That he might not seeme to have sipt , or skimmed the honour of their chastity , so much as with beholding them . As Apelles then by drawing the picture of Campaspe fell in love with the patterne of his worke Campaspe her selse , so we from retaining , from affecting the shew of sin , will soone proceed to a delight in sin it selfe . Some indeed are so strangely confident of their abhorrencie from sinne , as they doubt not infection from appearance of it : they can venture into the loosest company , yet so bridle their appetite , as that they feare no excesse ; be present at an Idolatrous Masse , and yet be in no danger of being affected with it , unlesse it be with dislike of it . Surely these men are dropt from Heaven , never borne in sinne , or conceived in iniquity : for they , whose originall is from men , may possibly be drawn away by sinfull objects , and shewes : but these men ( forsooth ) are above gun-shot , beyond the reach of temptation ; Their professed hatred of sinne brings me in mind of Pigmalions aversenesse from women ; he was a profest , almost a sworne enemie to woman kind , yet drawing but the picture of a woman , he fell in love with it , and he hug'd , and kist it so long , till at last by the power of Venus ( as the Poët fables it ) it became a woman : Their case is like ; they professe detestation of sinne , and yet delight in some things , that have the appearance , the resemblance thereof : let them take heed they dote not so long upon these , as that at length by the power of Satan , and the strength of their own lusts , they be transformed into reall sins . I will end this reason with that of Chrysostome , in his fifteenth Homily unto the people of Antioch . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It will be to 〈◊〉 the occasion , or ground of greatest security . if we do not only flee sins , but such indifferent things also , which are meanes whereby they doe supplant us : for as he who goeth upon the edge of a steepe , and craggy rock , though he falleth not , yet with feare trembleth , and so fals through his trembling , so he who leaveth not sinne a loofe , and a farre off , but approacheth close to the brink of it , hath just cause to live in feare , seeing he hath just cause to feare to fall into it . Secondly , danger of being punished for sinne , not by God , for he is an Omniscient Judge , and therefore cannot mistake the appearance of evill for evill it selfe : he is a just Judge , and therefore will not punish the appearance of evill , for evill it selfe : but by man , by the 〈◊〉 Magistrate with temporall punishments , by the governours of the Church , with Ecclesiasticall censures , and by all men generally with shame and obloquie . 〈◊〉 you know in the apparell of Ahab , was like to have been kild for Ahab . (n) 〈◊〉 having on the Cloake , and armour of Pyrrhus , was slaine for Pyrrhus : even so many times some men , for the bare appearance of some crimes , are as hardly thought of , and as severely handled , as if they had committed the crimes themselves . (o) Tiberius Gracchus was butchered by the Romans , because it seemed unto them , that by touching his head with his hand , he had demanded a Diadem , when he thereby as a signe only exhorted them to stand upon their defence . Because the Island of Creete seemed to have favoured Mithridates , for this seemings sake , the people of Rome tooke revenge by the sword , Favisse Mithridati videbatur , hoc placuit armis vindicare . Indeed the Lord seeth not as man seeth , he looketh on the heart , and thereunto squareth his judgment , but man looketh on the outward appearance , 1 Sam. 16. 7. and according to it censureth , and so he may doe , and yet often times judge righteous judgment . For if when there is wanting sufficient evidence of fact , Judges , and Juries should not sometimes proceed upon pregnant signes , and strong presumptions , howmany villanies would passe unpunished ? And if Ecclesiasticall Governours , should not take the same course too , how could they possibly stop the spreading mischeifs of scandall . This abstinence from appearance of evill , is lastly expedient in regard of our brethren , to avoid scandall unto them . First , as it is taken by Thomas , and the School-men , for that which occasionally leads unto sin , which puts a stumbling block , or an occasion to fall in the way of others , Rom. 14. 13. for so doe all evill shewes , and that both in the way of the weak , and in the way of the wicked . First , in the way of the weake , for they are misguided , and drawn unto the practise of that evill , the appearance whereof they see in us , Secondly , in the way of the wicked , for first , hereby the obdurate are heartened , confirmed , and comforted : secondly , hereupon adversaries take occasion to speake reproachfully of that holy name , and profession which we beare , to blaspbeme the Crosse , Truth , and Gospell of Christ. Secondly , as 't is used vulgarly , and commonly for sorrow , greife , dislike , or displeasure at an action , for it matters not much whether our facts be evill , or beare shew of evill , they equally would wound the hearts , and vexe the righteous spirits of the Godly , and therefore are both violations of Saint Pauls precepts , Rom. 15. 2. Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification . Valerius Publicola ( saith Florus ) nè specie arcis offenderet , eminentes aedes suas in planâ submisit : he levelled with the ground his high and losty building , lest he should offend the people with the appearance of a Cittadell : and wilt not thou throw aside a vanity , an excrement , some idle if not monstrous fashion , rather than offend thy brother ( for whom Christ died ) with the appearance of an evil ? A 〈◊〉 shame were it , that popularity should prevaile more with a Roman , than Charity with thee , who art a Christian. But some will be ready to object , that this doctrine is prejudiciall to our Christian liberty . For that reacheth to the use of all things that are of an indifferent nature , and such are these actions charged with the appearance of evill , and therefore if you streighten us in the use of them , you injuriously deprive us of that liberty which we have in Christ Jesus unto the use of all indifferent things . For answer , First , those actions , in which there is a reall appearance of evill , are not indifferent in their nature , but evill , and sinfull , forbidden , first , by the generall prohibition of scandall , they are per se scandalous of themselves and in their own nature , and therefore 〈◊〉 , for à per se ad de omni valet argumentum : prohibited , secondly , by those precepts which are against those evils of which they have a reall appearance , because they are a step unto , and occasion of them , whereas 't is usually said that they are evill only in appearance , this is not to be understood so as to exclude evill from them , but to restraine the evill of them unto this particular : that they have a reall appearance of evill , the meaning is , they are evill in no regard but this , and this regard , for the reasons abovesaid , is sufficient to denominate them evill : they are allwaies temptations unto evill , so that there is allwaies committed in them an active scandall . This was the opinion of the vulgar translater , who translates , 1 〈◊〉 . v. 22. ab omni specie 〈◊〉 abstinete vos , abstaine from every evill appearance , this reading Cornelius à Lapide and other Popish Expositors think equivalent with 〈◊〉 translation abstaine from all appearance of 〈◊〉 , according to it then every appearance of evill is evill , if it be reall and not meerly imaginary . Unto this let me adde that of Suarez allready quoted , an action , saith he , onely evill in appearance transgresseth some virtue , though not per se primo , yet 〈◊〉 consequenti connexione virtutum , by reason of the mutuall connexion and commerce of one virtue with , and dependance upon another . But to come to , secondly , those indifferent actions in which there is only an imaginary appearance of evill , two things are here to be answered . First , however they be in thesi in their generall nature indifferent , yet they do in casu and in hypothesi become to be accidentally evill , because done against Conscience , when they appeare to be evill to our selves ; against charity , when they appeare to be evill unto others : and then we are bound to abstaine from them , though notlege communi , yet lege particulari , by reason of particular circumstances . Secondly , Although our Christian liberty extendeth to the use of all things indifferent , yet ought we in godly wisdome , and discretion to abridge our selves of the outward exercise of this our liberty , whensoever 't is very probable that it will become dangerous to our selves , or scandalous to others . Ye have been called 〈◊〉 liberty , only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh , but by love serve one another , Gal. 5. 13. As free , and not using your liberty for a cloake of malitiousnesse , the 1 Pet. 2. 16. Now we use or rather abuse our liberty for an occasion to the flesh , for a cloake to malitiousnesse , by practising such indifferencies , as have shew of evill ; for they , ( as I have shewen at large ) are likely to prove , as occasions of sinne unto our selves , so also active scandalls to misguide our brethren , and therefore , though they be not absolutely , and simply in their nature unlawfull to be done , yet they are by accident unlawfull for me to doe , as long as they carry shew of evill . All things ( indeed ) are pure ( saith the Apostle ) but it is evill for that man , who eateth with offence : It is good neither to 〈◊〉 flesh , nor drinke wine , nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth , or is offended , or is made weake , Rom. 14. 20 , 21. (p) What remaineth then but that all be admonished in the Lord Jesus to take to heart a matter so deeply concerning them , both in conscience as a duty expresly enjoined by God , practised by Christ , his Apostles , and Saints ; and in consequence , as befitting us as the Sonnes , subjects of God , as the spouse , members of 〈◊〉 , as being needfull to defeate Satans malice , to cut off his temptations unto sinne , and unto discomfort for sin , to avoid sinne , &c. in our selves , scandals unto others , unto the weak , obstinate , and strong . If therefore there be in you any love of God , any care to walke worthy of those high relations you carry to him , any regard to the safety of your own soules , any feare of Satan , sinne , or punishment , any compassion over the Consciences of your poore brethren , keepe a loofe from whatsoever neighbours , and borders upon sinne , whatsoever hath the blush and shew thereof : hate , as (q) Ambrose exhorts , not only sinne , but the coate of sinne , the garment spotted by the flesh . Even an heathen will advise , you hereunto . (r) Carendum 〈◊〉 solum crimine turpitudinis , verum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Want we inducements , take we these three . It will be a course , First , Safe , and Secure : Secondly , Comfortable : Thirdly , Honourable . First , Safe , and Secure , by it sinne and Satan shall be stav'd off , kept out at daggers end , your own soules secured , kept out of gun shot either of infection or punishment , so that they shall not come nigh , scarce so much as the confines either of Sinne , or Hell. Secondly , Comfortable : For what an unspeakable comfort will it be unto thy drooping soule in the houre of death , or in the time of spirituall desertion , when thy Conscience can truly suggest , that thou hast been so abhorrent from sinne , as that thou hast shunn'd whatsoever hath been homogeneall thereunto , whatsoever hath look't but like unto it , it must needs stop Satans mouth , and make thine own triumph in the calmnesse of a cleare , and good conscience . Thirdly , Honourable , for 't will gaine thee esteeme amongst both good , and badones , with those 't will make thy name precious , t will muzzle the mouthes of these , when they behold such uprightnesse in thy life , as that thou shunnest not only down-right irreligiousnesse to God , injustice to men , but even their very picture and resemblance , this cannot but extort from them , though never so malicious , an ingenious acknowledgment , that thou art a true Israelite , a sincere Nathaniel , in whom there is sound no guile . Now though our maine and first endeavour must be to keep a good Conscience , yet is not the jewell or precious ointment of a good name , to be in the meane while neglected ; our care should be to preserve that likewise unspotted , St Paul , ( Acts 24. 16. ) professeth that he exercised himselfe to have alwaies a conscience void of offence , as towards God : so towards 〈◊〉 ; and he adviseth us to provide things honest in the sight of all men , Rom. 12. 17. To walke honestly towards them that are without . 1 〈◊〉 . 4. 12. To strive for a good report of them that are without , 1 Tim. 3. 7. I will but prescribe two cautions directing how we are to abstaine from the appearance of evill , and then I shall have done with the generall application of the words . We are to abstaine neither only nor chiefly from the appearance of evill . First , not only , that were foule Hypocrisy of which yet there are even a generation guilty , who only combate with the shadow of sinne , and in the meane while embrace the body of sinne reall sinnes : who abstaine from the shew of every evill worke ' and yet remaine reprobate to every good worke , who professedestation of gaine by gaiming , because they conceive it to be an appearance of theft , and yet make no conscience of fraud , deceit , and cousenage in their dealings , who stand at 〈◊〉 with all shewes of uncleanesse , and yet make no scruple of the grossest acts thereof . Secondly , not 〈◊〉 , that were a great incongruity , for so care of the meanes should be greater than that of the end , because abstinence from the appearance of evill , is enjoyned as a preservative against the evill it selfe . The evils themselves therefore should cheifely be avoided , the body of sin should be opposed more than the shadow , than the shewes of sin . The flesh should be abhorred in a higher degree , than the garment spotted therewith . You have seene the point prest generally as it concernes all mens abstinence from the appearance of all evils . I will only crave your pardon to call more particularly . First , upon all 〈◊〉 for abstinence from the appearance especially of some evills . Secondly , upon some men especially for abstinence from the appearance of all evills , and then I will put a period to my meditations upon these words . First , We must decline the shewes of some evils above others , of our Master , our bosome evils . For from them is most danger to be feared , they having commonly most 〈◊〉 from our natures : and Satan besides knowes but too well how our tide stands , he quickly acquaints himselfe with our predominant lusts , and most raging corruptions , and unto them especially fits and accords his temptations : as (s) Agrippina , when she poisoned her husband Claudius , mixed the poison in the meat which he most loved . Secondly , some men above others are especially to decline the appearance of all evils . All publick men should do so , but especially we of the Ministry . The high Priests and Nazarites , under the Law were not to come nigh a dead body , Lev. 21. 11. Numb . 6. 6. And in imitation of them among the Romans , the Priest might not touch the dead , nay they might not see the dead : for if a Priest pronounced a Funerall Oration , 't was not without a veile drawn betwixt him and the Corps . Nay a Flaminian Priest might not heare the sound of pipes used at Funerals nor come into a place where there was a grave . Was theere such rituall purity under the Law ? such Ceremoniall strictnesse in heathenish Priests ? and shall there not be found an answerable degree of morall precisenesse in the 〈◊〉 of the Gospell ? shall they be willingly within sight , sent , and hearing of impiety , except to reprove it ? (t) As a woman big with Child , for fear , and danger of miscarrying for beareth Physick , violent exercise , and many meats and drinks , which otherwise she might freely use : even so those who travell in birth with the Children of Christ , are put to deny and abridg themselves of many indifferencies . I will eat no flesh , saith St Paul while the world standeth , rather then make my brother to offend , 1 Cor , 8. 13. Reasons enforcing their abstinence after an especiall manner from the appearance of evill are two : Because in them they 〈◊〉 : First , greater loosenesse in bad ones : Secondly , more heavinesse to good ones . First , Greater loosenesse in bad ones . 〈◊〉 it is how the lower , and more ignorant ranke of men will be hereby strengthned in their downright sinfull courses ; Nay if a Minister do but wisely , and lawfully use his Christian liberty the rude vulgar will thereupon open themselves a gappe unto all licentiousnesse . If he be but innocently pleasant , think they we may be mad . If he but sip , we may carouse . If he spend but some few houres , in his honest , and harmelesse recreations , the common gamester presently concludes his mispense of both time , and patrimony in gaming to be thence 〈◊〉 . Secondly , more heavinesse to good ones : it grieves the spirits of the righteous to see them in any , it wounds their soules , it makes their bloods , their hearts 〈◊〉 to behold them in a man of God. It becomes not my weaknesse to advise , only in mine own and others behalfe , I unfainedly wish , and pray , that this were seriously thought upon , and practised by us all , that all of us in a tender regard to the reputation , and honour of our high calling would walke with great surcumspection , make strait steps unto our feet , tread every step as nicely , as gingerly , as if we went among snares , walked upon ropes , or pinnacles . I will conclude with that of Bernard to 〈◊〉 , lib. 3. de consideratione , cap. 4. which though written particularly unto him , may yet fittingly enough be applied to every Minister , nay every Christian. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 malas res , & malas paritèr species 〈◊〉 , in altero conscientiae , in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It becomes your holinesse to decline as evill things , so also evill appearances , in that thou consult'st for thy Conscience , in this for thy fame , nay ( indeed ) if it be not presumption to adde unto the Father , in this thou providest both for Conscience , and Fame : for 〈◊〉 first ; for the purity , for the peace of thy Consci nce ; for the purity of thy Conscience , to keep it void of offence both towards God , and towards men ; for the 〈◊〉 of thy Conscience , to preserve it from the violence of Satans temptations , from the vexations of thine own feares , and jealousies , Secondly , for fame , so to hedg it in from scandall , as that it shall be above the reach of suspicion . Therefore to goe on in the words of the Father . Puta tibi non licere , etsi alias fortasse liccat , quicquid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , coloratum , non sit in sama naevus malae 〈◊〉 . Think not for the lawfull , though perhaps otherwise lawfull , whatsoever shall be evill coloured : In thy fame let there not be so much as a spot of evill appearance , so shalt thou follow things , that are of good report , Phil. 4. 8. and thereby quite take off all private prejudices , all open calumnies against either thy person , or profession . However thou shalt procure the testimony and approbation of God , and thine own Conscience , and be presented unblameable , cleare from offensivenesse before men , from saultinesse before God , at the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ : To whom with the Father , and Holy Ghost , be ascribed by us , and the whole Church , the Kingdome , the Power , and Glory , from this time forth for evermore . AMEN . FINIS . THREE SERMONS ( Enlarged into a TREATISE ) Concerning The last and general Judgement , BEFORE The Iudges of Assise For the Country of Somerset : WHERE OF One Preached at Chard , Mar. 22. 1657. AND Two at Taunton , Aug. 15 , 16. 1658. AT THE Request of WILLIAM HILLIARD Esq lately deceased , and then High Sheriff of that County . By Henry Jeanes , Minister of 〈◊〉 Word at CHEDZOY . OXFORD : Printed by H. Hall , Printer to the University , for Tho : Robinson . 1660. The Stationer to the Reader . THe Theme here handled is very usual and common : But our Author , as I am assured from very good hands , hath done his best for the removal of this prejudice ; for first , his method is such , as , I am confident , will prevent all nauseating : and then , he hath inserted ever and anon out of the School-men , such Notions , as thou shalt hardly meet with in any other Books upon this subject : Besides , many obscure and difficult places of Scripture are here fully explicated and cleared . This alone is enough to render this piece as acceptable , as any other Works of the Author . Romans 2. 16. In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my Gospell . THere is some difference amongst Expositors about the Coherence of these words : Beza fetcheth it from the 11th verse , making the 12 , 13 , 14 , 15th verses to come in by way of Parenthesis ; there is no respect of persons with God , in the day when God shall judg the 〈◊〉 of men by Jesus Christ according to my Gospell . Pareus amongst Protestants , and Estius amongst Papists drawe it from the 12th and 13th verses , and they enclose verse the 14th and the 15th in a Parenthesis : for as many as have sinned without the Law , shall also perish without the law : and as many as have sinned in the Law , shall be judged by the law : for 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 of the Law are just before God , but the doers of 〈◊〉 law shall be justified , in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ &c. But against both these waies the objection of 〈◊〉 against . Beza will serve : This verse cannot be well joined unto words so sarre off , without great divulsion of the sentence , and suspending of the sense : and therefore , with him , I shall looke no further , for the 〈◊〉 of the words , then the foregoing verse , Which shew the 〈◊〉 of the Law written in their hearts , their Conscience also bearing witnesse , and their thoughts the meane while accusing , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one another in the day , when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my Gospell . What the Apostle here speaks of the Gentiles is applyable unto all men : the Consciences of all men shall beare witnesse , and their thoughts either accuse , or excuse them in the day , when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ &c. there will then be a speciall . 1. 〈◊〉 . 2. Influence . 3. Evidence in the testimony of Conscience , more then there is in this life . First , A speciall Eminence ; it 's testimony will then be louder : that evill Conscience , which doth but now whisper , will then roare , and thunder : the peace of a good Conscience here , in this life , passeth all understanding : and that joy , which is the result of it , is unspeakeable , and full of Glory : but compared with those ravishing sweets , and Comforts with which the Conscience shall be filled in the day of judgment , it beares not unto them halfe that proportion , which a Cluster of grapes , cut downe at the brook 〈◊〉 , had unto the whole vintage of Canaan , Numb . 13. Secondly , The influence of Conscience will then be greater , and 〈◊〉 , more irresistable , and unobstructed then now ; for now it may be silenced , or out-noised by our louder pleasures ; but then , nothing will be able , either to stoppe or drowne its voice ; it will speake in as loude , and shrill an accent , as the voice of the Arkeangel , and the trump of God : as these shall awaken the dead out of their Coffins ; so shall that raise in the memory of Reprobates those sins , which their impenitency had buried in a grave of forgetfulnesse , and put fresh life , and vigour into them , to torment , and terrifie unto all eternity . Thirdly , In the day of judgment , there will be a clearer evidence in the testimony of Conscience , then now : for now it is many times undiscerned by any , but our selves : for what man knoweth the things of a man , save the spirit of man which is in him ? 1 Cor. 2. 11. but then it will be made as legible , as if it were written with the glorious beames of the Sunne upon a wall of the purest Chrystall : in conformity hereunto 't is , that some think , that there is an Elipsis in the words , which they thus supply : their Conscience also bearing witnesse , and their thoughts in the meane while accusing or else excusing one another , as shall be manifested in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ. Estius quotes Stapulensis for another interpretation , to wit ; that in the day is as much as against the day : and why may not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be translated here against the day , as well as verse the 5 th 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against the day of wrath ? and thus the coherence will be fluent , and 〈◊〉 , and afford us this note : That Conscience will bind over against the grand assises of Jesus , that day wherein God will Judg the secrets of men by Jesus Christ &c. the tribunall of Conscience is a prognostick , and representation of Christ's throne : it 's verdict a presage , and preoccupation of Christ's sentence , futuri judicii praejudicium , as Tertullian phraseth it : what are the terrors of a bad Conscience , but slashes of Hell fire ? what are the triumphs , and Consolations of a good Conscience , but a glimpse , and dawning of Heaven-happinesse ? But I dwell too long upon the Coherence . In the words themselves wee have three things considerable . First , A prediction . 2ly , A Description . 3. A Confirmation of the last , and generall Judgment . First , A prediction of it : shall Judg. Secondly , A description of it : and that . 1. By its causes . 1. Principall , God shall judg . 2. Instrumentall : by Jesus Christ. Secondly , By its object , and that both personall , and reall . 1. Personall : men . 2. Reall : secrets of men . Thirdly : By an adjunct , the Circumstance of time when : in the day . Lastly , we have the Confirmation of this prediction from a testimony of undenyable authority , the testimony of the Gospel : according to my Gospel . From the words I shall take occasion to handle the Common place of the last , and generall judgment , and it is a point that I shall briefly explaine , confirme , and apply . 〈◊〉 , In the explication of it , I shall confine my selfe to the opening of the text : the act of judgment is an aggregate action , containing many distinct , and particular acts : some formally , and others by way of concomitancy : a description of which you may see at large . Matth. 25. vers . 31 , 32 , &c. usque ad finem , 2 Thesal . 1 vers . 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10. Jude 14. 15. Rev. 20. 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15. here in the text 't is set forth by its causes , object , and adjunct . 1. By its causes , principall , and instrumentall . 1. Principall , God shall Judge : God is taken in Scripture , either 〈◊〉 , or personally . 1. Essentially : for the three persons in the Trinity : and so it may be taken here ; because the act of judicature is an outward worke , and therefore common unto them all . 2. Personally : for the first person , the Father : and the act of judging may , in a speciall manner , be ascribed unto the Father , by that manner of speaking , which the Schoolemen call appropriation : for hereby the Son , and holy Ghost are not excluded , but only the order of the Fathers concurrency shewn : to wit , that being the fountaine of the Trinity , he judgeth of himselfe , by the Son , and Holy Ghost . But against this , that saying of our Saviour , may be objected John 5. 22. The Father Judgeth no man : but hath committed all judgment unto the Son. Unto this there are usually given two answers . 1. The Father Judgeth no man separately , without the Son , but hath communicated all Judgment unto the Son non largiendo , sed generando , saith Ambrose , not by temporary donati n , but by eternall generation : but , if any think , that to say , that Judgment is given , or committed unto the Son by eternall generation is too harsh a Catachresis . 2. In a second place therefore , 〈◊〉 answer may be returned , to wit : that the Father Judgeth no man in that manner , that he hath committed all Judgment unto the Son : to wit , as 〈◊〉 , as God man , as subsisting in the 〈◊〉 : he Judgeth no man in a visible , and externall manner : for thus judgment is ascribed unto the Son , not per appropriationem , but per proprietatem . 2. Instrumentall , by Jesus Christ , to wit , as man and Mediator ; for , as God , he is a principall cause : but , the judiciary power conferred upon Christs manhood : though , in comparison of other creatures , it be a power singularis 〈◊〉 of singular , and transcendent excellencie , unto which no creature can have an equall power : yet , in respect of the judiciary power of his Godhead , 't is but a secundary , subordinate , and ministeriall power , which he hath by delegation , and Comission : so that , as man , he is but a deputy Judg ; the Father hath committed all Judgment unto the Son , John 5. 22. that Christ shall Judg , in the humane nature , the Scripture is expresse : the Son of man shall come in his Glory &c. Matth. 25. 31. chap. 24. v. 30. He hath appointed a day in which he will Judg the world &c , by that man whom he hath ordained &c. Acts 17. 31. Every eye shall see him , and they also which 〈◊〉 him , Rev. 1. 7. Even Reprobates shall see him : but they cannot behold his Godhead ; for the sight of that would make them happy , and banish all sadnesse in his manhood ; then it is , that he shall be visible , and conspicuous unto them : but , though the Scripture be thus cleare , that Christ shall judge in his manhood : yet whether he shall judg according to his manhood ? is made a controversie betwixt the 〈◊〉 and the Scotists . Not so much for the state of the question it selfe , as for Aquinas his proofes of it ; the validity of which Scotus , according unto his usuall wont , questioneth and disputes against : the place of Scripture , that is chiefly quoted for the affirmative , is John 5. 27. And hath given him authority to execute judgment also , because he is the Son of man. Here Beza noteth , that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because , is put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as . 〈◊〉 saies that the Authours of this interpretation , Hereticks , render it infamous : and he quotes in the margent Calvine and Beza upon the place : but their great , and subtile Suarez [ in tertiam partem Thom : quaest . 59. artic . 2. ] cites Tertullian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 22. for the very same thing : and he takes notice of it , as a thing very remarkable illud observatione dignum non legere quia sed qua : but now ( as ) is here to be taken not reduplicativè ; for then authority to execute judgment would be essentiall to , and reciprocall with man : but specisicativè , so that it only determines the subject in which this derived authority is seated : unto this purpose speaks (u) Suarez in the place but now quoted : according to this exposition ( saith he ) in those words ( because he is the son of man ) is not rendered the adequate cause , whence this power of Judging ariseth , but that nature is designed , which was necessary unto Christ , that he might be capable of the gift of this power ; for , as God , he could not receive this power anew ; but , because he was the Son of man , he was capable of it : but we may well stick unto our own translation , and render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because , for the humane nature hath not only a concomitancy with , but also a causality in respect of the act of execution of judgment . But then we must not abstract , and sever the humane nature from the grace of Head-ship , and the grace of personall union ; but Consider them 〈◊〉 jointly . This Aquinas hints , when he saith [ par . 3. quaest . 59. art . 2. ] that the Father hath given authority unto the Son to execute Judgment , because he is the Son of man : 〈◊〉 propter conditionem naturae ; not meerly because of the condition of his nature ; for then , as Chrysostome objects , all men should have this authority : sed hoc pertinet ad gratiam capitis , quam Christus in humanâ naturâ accepit : but this appertaineth to the grace of head-ship , which he received in the humane nature : the words then may be thus glossed ; he hath given him authority to execute judgment also , because he is the Son of man , because , as he is Mediator , King , and head of his Church , so also he is qualified for discharge of this his office , by being not only God , but man in one person , God-man : and it we take this way , the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated also , will not be redundant , but emphatick : and Maldonate makes the Emphasis to stand thus : the Father hath not alone the power of judging , but he hath transferred it also upon the Son , because he is the Son of man , and so fitted for the audible , and visible administration of judgment . Aquinas his reasons are by * Capreolus thus summed up : judgment agreeth unto Christ , according unto that nature , in regard of which , he hath , as Mediator , Redeemer , and head of his Church , a Lord-ship over men ; but this Lord-ship agreeth unto him , not only according to his God-head , but also according to his man-hood : for to this 〈◊〉 Christ , both dyed , and rose , and revived , that he might be Lord both of the d ad , and living , Rom. 14. 9. and therefore he shall judge according to his man-hood . Next followes the object of this judgment , and that is twosold , personall , and reall . 1. Personall , the persons to be judged , men ; although men be here expressed indefinitely : yet we may , by warrant of the Scriptures , adde the universall signe , and say ; God will judge the secrets of all men , of all sorts , ranks , and degrees of men ; of all individuals of men : we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ , Rom. 14. 10. we must all appeare before the judgment seat of Christ , 2 Cor. 5. 10. Gorran hath a Conceit , that , by the naming of men , the evill angels are excluded , he shall judge the 〈◊〉 of men , not divels , saith he ; but , that the wicked angels shall come unto judgment also at the last day , the scripture is very plaine , know yee not that we shall judge the Angells , 1 Cor. 6. 3. For if God spared not the Angels that sinned , but cast them down to 〈◊〉 , and delivered them into chaines of darknesse to be reserved unto judgment . 2 Pet. 2. 4. And the Angels which kept not their first estate , but left their own habitation he hath reserved in everlasting chaines under darknesse unto the judgment of the great day , Jude 6. 2. Reall , the secrets of men : their secret state , election , and reprobation ; their most secrets actions , their chamber , their midnight , and closet sins , that have no witnesses , but such whose partnership , in guilt will render silent , Eccles. 12. 14 : 1 Cor. 4. 5. the most hidden , and darkest musings of the mind : those purposes , desires , nay wouldings , and wishings of the will , unto which no vent was given , either by language , or action : those passions of the heart , which have been smothered from outward notice with the greatest care , and cunning : nay those first motions , and inclinations unto sinne , that were never consented unto , which arise so thick in the soule , as that 't is impossible , for the most watchfull Conscience , to take an exact survey of the most of them : and therefore , may be deservedly ranked , ámongst those errors , and secret faults of which David speakes , Psal. 19. 12. Who can understand his errors ? cleanse 〈◊〉 me from secret faults . Lastly , we have an adjunct , the circumstance of time , when this judgment shall be , in the day ; which is so called ( saith Gorran ) propter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , because then shall be a manifestation of all secret things : sometimes 't is cald midnight , Matth. 25. 6. propter improvisionem , because of the suddennesse , and unexpectednesse of it : it is cald the even , Matth. 20. 8. propter sinem temporis , because then shall be the finall period of time ; and t is stiled the morning ( as he inferreth ) from a mistranslation of the Latine Interpreter , Zeph. 3. 5. propter initium aeternitatis , because 't will be the beginning , and as it were dawning of eternity : but these are but curious niceties , that have no footing in the text ; for , doubtlesse the day is here taken for time indesinitely , as 't is usually in many other places of Scripture Esa. 49. 8. 2 Cor. 6. 7. Luk. 19. 42. Joh. 8. 56. So that there is no need to make any inquiry touching that opinion of some Millenaries ; that the day of judgment shall last a thousand yeares ; because t is the day of God , 2 Pet. 3. 12. and with him a thousand yeares is as one day , vers . 8. and as little cause have we to stay upon the examination of that in Aquinas [ Suppl . ad tertiam partem quaest . 88. artis . 2. ] where , because he thinks it impossible , that the discussion , and sentencing of all the thoughts , words , and workes of men should be dispatched in the space of a day ; therefore he concludes , that all things shall then be transacted , not by vocall locution , but mentally in the minds , and Consciences of men . In the next place we have the Confirmation , or proofe of this prediction of a future judgment , from the testimony of the Gospel ; according to my Gospell ; that is according to that doctrine which I have taught you in preaching the Gospel : and this is a proofe of unquestionable credit , not to be contradicted by any , either humane , or Angelicall testimony : if any man , 〈◊〉 Angell from Heaven , preach any other Gospell unto you , then that you have received , 〈◊〉 him be accursed , Gal. 1. 8 , 9. Here inquire we three things . 1. What is meant by Pauls Gospell ? 2. How Paul termeth it his Gospel ? 3. In what sense God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according unto the Gospell of Paul ? First , What is meant by this Gospell of Paul ? not any History of the birth , life , and sufferings of our Saviour written by Paul , as by Matthew , Marke , Luke , and John : but the doctrine of the Gospel , concerning Jesus Christ , delivered unto them by Paul , either in writing , or else by word of mouth . And hence we may note : that the last judgment is a branch of Evangelicall doctrine : it was one of the chiefe points , that the Apostles had in their Commission to publish : God commanded us ( saith Peter ) to preach unto the people , and to testifie , that it is he , which was ordained of God to be the Judge , both of quick , and dead , Acts 10. 42. Rolloc . (w) thinks , that it belongs unto the Gospell only by way of subserviency , and preparation : but I shall make no scruple to affirme , that it appertaineth properly unto the Gospell , for it is a consummate act of Christs regall function , and that , not only in the perfect subduing of enemies , but also in the full rewarding of his faithfull subjects , unto whom therefore it will be good , and acceptable tidings : neither is this impeached by its terrour unto the wicked : for this is only by accident , and so the sweetest , and most comfortable points of the Gospell are unto them a savour of death unto death , 2 Cor. 2. 16 , A second inquiry is why the Gospell is stiled Pauls Gospell ? according unto my Gospell , the same expression we find also , Rom. 16. 25. 2 Tim. 6. 8. For answer we must distinguish betwixt the authority : and the Ministry , or dispensation of the Gospell . The Gospell is Gods and Christs in regard of authority : for it oweth all its divine worth , and authority unto them : and therefore is stiled the Gospell of God , Rom. 1. 1. the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ , 2 Thes. 1. 8. the Gospel , which was preached by me ( saith Paul ) is not after man ; for I neither received it of man , neither was I taught it , but by the revelation of Iesus Christ , Gal. 1. 1 , 1 2. The Gospell then is termed Pauls , only in regard of Ministry and dispensation : because Paul was a Minister , a dispensor , a Steward ( amongst 〈◊〉 ) of the misteries it 〈◊〉 . 1 Cor. 4. 1 a dispensation of the Gospel ( saith he ) is committed to me , 1 Cor. 9 , 17. 〈◊〉 pray I ( saith Christ ) for these alone , but for them also , which believe on me through their word , Joh. 17. 20. where Christ termeth his own word , the word of his Disciples ; because they were the Ministers , and dispensers thereof . And for the same reason , the Gospelis termed the report of the Prophets , and Apostles : who hath believed our report , Esa. 53. 1. Thus the Gospell you see is Gods , 〈◊〉 , and Pauls : 't is the Gospel of God , and Christ , tanquam Authoris : 't is the Gospel of Paul , tanquam Praedicatoris . The third and last inquiry is how , and in what sence , God shall judge the secrets of men , according unto Pauls Gospel ? according unto my Gospell . This clause [ according to my Gospell , ] may be referrred , either unto [ Jesus Christ ] or else unto [ Judge ] . If it (x) be referred unto Jesus Christ ; then the Apostle , in referring them for evidence unto his Gospell , doth not teach them , so much , according unto what rule God will judge : as by whom to wit , the Mediator : which is a point taught and revealed , not in the law , but in the Gospel . If we place this clause according unto my Gospel in order of sense and construction after judge : then it may import one of these two things concerning Gods future judgment of the world : either a conformity of it unto the Gospel : or else the revelation of it by the Gospell . 1. A Conformity of it unto the Gospell : and so it signifies , that the sentence , then to be denounced , is allready set forth , and proclaimed in the Gospell , from which the Judge shall not then varie : he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life , and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life , but the wrath of God abideth on him , Joh. 3. 36. He that believeth and is baptized , shall be saved : but he that believeth not , shall be damned , Mark 16. 16. This is the voice of the Gospell : and according to the tenor of this Evangelicall decree , as I may say , shall God pronounce sentence at the last day : to wit a sentence of absolution and benediction upon believers , and of condemnation upon unbelievers . But now , though all that have not believed in Christ Jesus shall that day be condemned : yet those Pagans , unto whom Christ was never revealed , shall not be condemned for their not believing in Christ : but for transgression of the Law written in their heart : and the reason is , because the Obligation of any Law necessarily presupposeth promulgation thereof ; and therefore those , unto whom Christ is not preached , cannot be bound to believe in him . How can they be condemned , for refusall of the Gospell , unto whom it was never offered ? the rule then , by which God will judge such , will be , not the Gospell , but the Law of Nature . And therefore in a second place I rather believe that [ according to the Gospell ] signifies , the revelation of the judgment to come by the Gospell . (y) God shall judge the secrets of men , by Jesus Christ according unto my Gospell : that is , as verily and certainly , as I have foretold you of it in my Gospel : in which sence the particle according is taken by our Saviour ; Matth. 9. 29. according unto your faith be it unto you , that is , let it be unto you , as ye believe : Paul ( least any one should think this his discourse of judgment to come to be a fable or fiction ) backs it with the authority of the Gospel : God shall judge &c. according unto my Gospel , that is , as I have taught you in my Gospell , in the preaching of which I was guided by a full , and infallible spirit . As for other scripturall proofes , besides the text , it is needlesse to urge them unto those , that have read the Bible , for , there is hardly any argument , wherein it is more plentifull : supposing therefore the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the point to be cleare out of Scripture , I shall only point at some few Congruences , out of the Schoolmen , why it should be so . (z) Scotus lib. 4. dist . 47. assigneth foure Congruences why there should be a generall judgment . The first Congruence is : because it is meete , that all the bad , and wicked ones should be finally , and everlastingly seperated from all the good : for one purpose , whereto their outward Conjunction and Communion serveth , is for the exercise , and triall of the Godly . Now there shall come a time , wherein the godly shall be no longer exercised , tried , or vexed with the unrighteous Conversation of the ungodly : therefore there must be a finall seperation between them ; and Consequently a generall judgment , that so the generall seperation may appeare to be just , wherein the wheat shall be no longer cumbred with the grouth of tares amongst them . A second Congruence ; because the justice of Gods secret judgements of particular persons is not manifest unto all : therefore it is reasonable , that there should be a generall judgment : wherein the justice of Gods sentence in particular judgments shall be made manifest , and open to all the world . A third Congruence is ; because as things are from God , as their first efficient , and author ; so they are to be reduced , and as it were , brought back , or returned againe , unto God , as their last end . But now , besides the speciall 〈◊〉 , or outgoings of things from God by that operation , of which our Saviour speaketh ; My Father worketh hitherto and I also worke ; there was one generall 〈◊〉 , or outgoing of all things from God , in the first Creation of things : therefore ( by an argument drawn a simili , ) besides the singular and severall reductions of things unto God , it is Congruors that , of such as belong unto God , there should be one finall reduction unto God , as unto their end : and by consequent there should be one finall sentence distinguishing those , who belong unto God by election , from the wicked , who shall never be reduced unto , but for ever severed from Gods glorious presence . The fourth and ( saith Scotus ) the best Congruence is , because it is meet , that , besides the private and severall admittances of particular believers into possession of the Kingdome of Heaven , there should be a publique , joint , and generall admittance of all believers into inheritance of the Kingdome , which was prepared for them before the foundation of the world . And , besides the private , particular , and severall condemnations of unbelievers unto the prison of Hell , there should be one publique and generall condemnation of all unbelievers unto perpetuall abode in the said prison : that so there may be a sequestration , as it were , of two families , or Cities , the houshold of God and of faith , and the family , or brood of Satan . Unto these Congruences of Scotus , I shall adde this one thing more ; that , before the last judgment , Gods judgment of man is not compleat , and consummate ; and this shall be cleared : First , from the two essentiall parts of man , soule and body , Secondly , from a twofold Consideration of the actions of men , as they are in themselves , and as they are in regard of their effects , and mens opinions of them . Thirdly , from a twofold Consideration of man himselfe as he is a particular private porson and as he is a part of the universe . First , from the Consideration of the (a) two essentiall parts of man , soule , and body , for , in the particular judgment , there is but one of these parts judged , the soule ; therefore there is another judgment to be looked for , which shall be a totall judgment , a judgment of the whole man , soule , and body : we must all appeare before the judgment seat of Christ , that every one may receive the thing done in his body , according to that he hath done , whether it be good or bad . 2 Cor. 5. 10. the body and soule of the wicked have here in this life a joint and mutuall Concurrence unto the worke of sin ; and therefore Congruent , that in the next life , they be associated in the punishment of sin , and be reciprocall tormentors one to another . The members of their bodies are here instruments , or weapons of unrighteousnesse ; and therfore equitable , that hereafter they be subjects of misery , and unhappinesse : Meet is it , that those eyes should then be full of anguish , which now are full of adultery ; that that tongue should be then full of deadly torments , which now is full of deadly poison : so on the other side fit , that as the bodyes of the Saints are instrumentall unto their soules in Wel-doing ; so they should share with them in the reward of wel-being , and have as much of their glory , and lustre derived unto them , as they are capable of . As here the members of their bodyes are instrumentes of righteousnesse unto God ; so it is Congruent , that they should then be receptacles of glory , and happinsse from God. Secondly , from a twofold Consideration of mens actions : they may be considered , 〈◊〉 , as they are in themselves ; or (b) secondly , in regard of their fruits and effects , unto which we may annex another consideration ; in respect of the same , that goeth of them , of the judgment , opinion , and estimate , that men passe upon them . First , we may looke upon mens actions as they are in themselves : and so God judgeth the actions of every man at his death , Heb. 9. 27. Secondly we may Consider mens actions according to their effects , fruits , issue or event , good , or bad : and so , however they are Physically transient , and therefore can have no Physicall operation after the death of their agents : yet their morall influence , ( to wit by way of motive , ) may reach unto many after ages : for unto that there is requisite only an objective existence in the minds , and memoryes of men . Thus good bookes edifie , and Erroneous and hereticall bookes pervert , and poyson many thousands of yeares after the Authours are dead , and rotten : the Preaching of the Prophets , and Apostles will be fruitfull , and effectuall in the hearts and lives of men , as long as the sunne , and moone endure . How many are there , even to this day , wonderfully affected with the Exampels , of Abrahams faith , Moses his meeknesse , Jobs patience , Samuels justice , and uprghtnesse , Davids repentance , and the like ? and so againe , on the other side , the scandall of a lewd example may be propogated unto many generations : Jeroboam made Israell to sin a long time after his interrement as long as their was a face of a Church , or Common-wealth in Israell : how long doth a place groane under the effects of the ministry of precedent Pastors , that have been , either lazy , & negligent , or ignorant , or prophane , or superstitious , or Erroneous ? there must therfore be a time wherin Christ shall passe publique , and universall judgment upon , not only mens actions considered in themselves ; but also of all the fruits , and effects , which have from their actions redounded unto others ; and that , both in their life , and after their death ; that so the wicked may have a full measure of wrath , according unto the full measure of their sins , considered in themselves ; and according to the full measure of their harmfull , scandalous , and mischivous effects ; and that the Godly may have a full and ample reward , as for their faith , and good workes in themselves , so for the happy fruits of them ; for the glory , that by them hath accured unto God , and for the benefit , and edification , that from them hath arisen unto the Church . (c) Suarez [ in tertiam partem . Tho. To : 2 dis . 53. 〈◊〉 . 1. ] assigneth two reasons , or causes , why the effects of actions , after the death of their agents , should conduce unto the universall judgment of them . First , they contribute , if not unto the essentiall , yet unto the accidentall and accessory reward of the Godly , as also accidentall and accessory punishment of the wicked . First , unto the accidentall and accessory reward of the Godly ; for , unto them , it cannot but afford matter of unspeakable joy , and triumph , to behold the blessed fruits of their exemplary faith , profession , obedience , patience , labours for the publique &c. in that by them they have ( perhaps ) won many a soule unto God , Confirmed weaklings , Confounded adversaries , furthered any in the way of salvation , in the building up of their soules , in either knowledge , or holinesse . Secondly , they conferre unto the accidentall and accessory punishment of the wicked ; in that , they cannot but be amazed , and confounded , at the view of the many dismall effects of their accursed sins as in others ; so particularly , in the wives of their bosomes , fruits of their loines , their dearest intimates : O! what a cutting consideration will it be unto them , at the day of judgment , that by their sins , as they have damned themselves , so also they have been the guilty occasion of sin , and consequently of damnation unto others , who have been seduced , and perverted by their Frrors , and heresies , or misguided , and misled by their evil counsell , corrupt discourse , and advice , and scandalized by their sinfull example ? A second reason ( assigned by Suarez ) is : because effects show the naughtinesse , or goodnesse of the works , whence they spring , that therefore all those things , being both propounded , and examined the equity of Gods judgment , may more evidently be manifested , it is very meet , that , after all the actions , and all the effects of the actions of all mankind in this life are once quite consummated , there should be a universall judgment , in which all things may be most exactly weighed . Before (i) I leave this argument , I shall intreat you totake notice of Suarez his limitation of it : who understands it , not of such effects , as are meerly accidentall which cannot probably be foreseen , nor have any naturall connexion with the actions themselves but of such effects , which are , or may be some way or other foreseen , and are in some regard conjoyned with the actions : so that they are contained in them , as in a seed , or root . With this Consideration of mens actions , in regard of their effects , wee may connex another , in regard of the fame that goeth of them , of the iudgment , opinion , and estimate that men passe upon them : here mens actions are (e) misjudged , misinterpreted , misconstrued ; grosse villanies are many times so coloured , and made so specious , as that they carry away a generall applause : and the most laudable actions meete with most disgracefull , and reproachfull aspersions . And as mens actions , so consequently mens persons are misjudged two . The rankest , and grossest Hypocrites passe many a times for glorious saints ; and the best of Saints are reproached as the worst of men . Hannah was censured for a drunkard ; David for a traitor , 〈◊〉 for the troubler of Israel ; Paul a pestilent fellow and a mover of sedition amongst the Jewes through out all the world : there must there fore be a second , and universall judgment , wherein all actions , and persons , that have been misjudged shall have righteous judgment passe upon them ; so that mens now shining sins shall their be unmasked , and displaied in their proper colours ; and on the Contrary , the prosession of the power of Christianity , all pious aactions , which are now so discountenanced , and despised shall then receive a publique , not only approbation , but reward , and that from God himselfe ; and then for mens persons God will put a difference between the wheat , and the chaffe ; the Corne , and the tares ; the empty formalist , that hath only a forme , a powerles shew of Godlinesse and the sincere Christian , that hath the power of Godlinesse , the vitals of religion , flaming in his heart , and life : then the Lord will ( to allude unto the words of Moses in another case ) Numb . 16. 5. shew who are his , and who is holy , and will cause him to Come neare unto him , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whome he hath chosen , will he cause to Come neare unto him . Lastly , that Gods judgment of man is not compleate , before the last judgment , is to be manifested 〈◊〉 a (e) 〈◊〉 Consideration of man ; to wit , as he is a private , and particular person ; and as he is a part of the Universe , that is whole mankind : this , by Suarez , (f) is thus cleared up ; it is , not only necessary unto the manifestation of Gods justice to Consider the sins of particular men secundum se , as they are in themselves : but also in reference unto others , in order unto the government of the whole world : in reference to that universall , and speciall providence , which God hath , both in respect of the whole Universe , and in respect of particular men : and therefore God will not only judge privately particular men , but he will also publiquely judge the whole Universe , to wit of mankind , by way of one entire politicke body : all whose good , and evill actions shall be brought unto a most severe triall : and that Considered according to all their respects , and references whatsoever . Hereupon it followeth : that , although on Gods part this generall gathering , or assemblie of all be not necessarie unto him to passe judgment on every particular person : yet in regard of men themselves 't is after a sort necessary , both for the publique manifestation of Gods justice , as also that a certaine speciall kind of retribution , proceeding , either from publique praise , and honour , or else publique shame , and confusion may have place : for this kind of retribution necessarily results from such a manner of publique , and universall judgment , not from the private judgments of particular persons : judge nothing before the time untill the Lord Come , who will bring to light the hidden things of darknes , and will make manifest the Counsels of the heart : and then shall every man have praise of God ; to wit publique praise , and honour : and this also is imported by the resemblance of the reward of the Godly at the last day unto a prize , 1 Cor. 9. 24. unto a Crowne , a Crowne of righteousnesse , a Crowne of life , and a Crowne of glory : for , however a prize , or a crowne may be designed , or allotted privately ; yet it is usually bestowed publiquely , in some great assembly or concourse of people , seldome or never in a corner : and thus have you seene , that , before the last judgment , Gods judgment is not consummate ; for , it is but a judgment of the soule : it is but a judgment of mens actions , considered in themselves : it is but a judgment of men taken as private , and particular persons : therefore there is another judgment , which shall he compleat , and perfect : a judgment both of bodies , and soules : a judgment , as of mens actions in themselves , so of their fruits , and effects , and of mens judgments , and opinions , that they passe upon them &c. a judgment of men , not 〈◊〉 as private particular persons , but as they are parts of the universe of mankind . 1. Here is a use of Terror unto all the wicked : for this day will be unto them , if they die in this Condition , a day of wrath , Rom. 2. 5. the fulnesse of Gods vindicative wrath will then be poured upon them : the wrath of a mortall King is ( saith Solomon ) as the roaring of a Lion , Prov. 19. 12. and as a messenger of death , Prov. 16. 14. it is the second and eternall death , of which the vengeance of the immortall King of Kings , and Lord of Lords is a forerunner : and , in Comparison of this , the most tormentfull death of the body is but a flea-biting : for the hatred of an infinite God , cannot but make a creature infinitely miserable : behold ( saith Malachie ) the day cometh that shall burne as an Oven , and all the proud , yea , and all that doe wickedly shall be stubble : and the day that cometh shall burne them up , saith the Lord of Hosts , that it shall leave them neither 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 branch , Mal. 4. 1. Suppose the place be chiefly meant of the destruction of Jerusalem , shortly upon the first coming of Christ ; yet there is no doubt , but it may be applied unto the execution of Christs wrath upon the ungodly in the very day of judgment : here , in this life they may be proud , ( like the mettals of iron , and brasse ) stubborne , and inflexible ; but , in that day , they shall be like stubble before fire , before the fire of an Oven , where it burnes more fiercely , and furiously then in the open aire : the consuming fire of Gods wrath shall then utterly , and irrecoverably destroy all their comforts , and happinesse : the day that cometh shall burne 〈◊〉 up , it shall 〈◊〉 them neither root nor branch . The Doctrine of judgment to come made Felix , a corrupt Iudge to tremble upon the 〈◊〉 though the Pulpit was the barre , and the preacher but a poore prisoner , Paul in his bonds , Acts 24. 25. if the bare commination of this iudgment be so terrifying : what will the sense , and experience of it doe ? In Rev. 6. 15 , 16 , 17. you shall find , that it will put the Kings of the earth , the great men and the rich men , and the chiefe Captaines , and the mighty men into such a desperate affrightment , as that , they shall be so foolish , as to hide themselves in the dens , and the rocks of the mountaines : as if it were possible for them to run from omniscience , and withall they shall bewray so impotent a passion , as to invocate the rocks and mountaines to fall 〈◊〉 them : indeed to be crushed in pieces by them will be a more tolerable ruine , then the frowne , and wrath of the Lamb that 〈◊〉 the Throne : it is strange there should be such Lion like terror in a Lamb ; but , though he be a Lamb in regard of mildnesse unto his own , he will be the Lion of the Tribe of Judah unto his adversaries ; and he will be unto them so dreadfull a Lion , as that they shall be even forced to acknowledg the 〈◊〉 of his wrath , and the unresistablenesse of his power : they shall say the great day of his wrath is come , and who shall be able to stand : indeed the greatnesse of their terror will be such , as that it is undecipherable by the tongues of men , and Angels : but a guesse wee may give at it ( though ( alasse ! ) very narrow and defective ) by the terrors of some condemned Malefactors . Before the Assises , how full are their minds of boding feares , and when it cometh , how are these their feares heightned ? every circumstance , the grave , and severe aspect of the Judge , the aufulnesse of the Bench , and the Judgment seat , the Sheriffs Halberts , the great throng of spectators , and auditors , the ratling of their own irons will even distract and amaze them ; the trumpets , that are musicall unto others , sound unto them a dolefull note ; and are , as it were , a passing bell ; but the dreadfull sentence of death strikes them dead , and kils them before their execution : as you may see by their pale and bloudlesse cheeks , shaking hands , and trembling knees : but when once they are dragged from the prison to the place of execution , without hopes , either of pardon , or reprieve , then despaire , the most terrible of all passions possesseth the place of feare , and sorrow , and the expressions of it are so dolefull , as that they 〈◊〉 the pity of any humane brest : But now , what is any terrene Judg compared with the Son , that hath all judgment committed to him , all power given to him in Heaven and in earth ? how poore and meane is the retinue of the most magnificent sheriffe , in comparison of those millions of Angels , that shall waite on Christ ? how inglorious is any bench , in respect of these Assessors , that shall sit with Christ in judgment , the myriads of Saints each of which shall shine forth as the Sun , Matth. 13. 43 ? how dreadlesse , and contemptible is any tribunall , in comparison of Christ's Throne ? which Daniel 7. 16. is described to be like a fiery flame ? what are your trumpets , in comparison of that shout , the voice of the Ark-Angell , and the trump of God ? with which the Lord himselfe shall 〈◊〉 : from Heaven , 1 Thes. 4. 16. which shall shake Heaven and earth ? these , all these particulars together , with the thunder of that condemnatory sentence , and the sight of the horrid executioners there of , the Divel , and his Angels , will beget such an earthquake in their bosomes ; that will be followed with such unspeakable yellings , roarings , and howlings , as will expresse the greatest perturbation , that an humane soule is capable of . The day of judgment ( you see ) will be a black , and dismall day unto all the ungodly , a day of darknesse , and not light , Amos 5. 18. The horror of it will receive no allay , or mitigation by the least degree , or drop of comfort . But , there are two particulars in the text , that will aggravate the sadnesse , and discomfort of the day unto unbelievers in the Church : and that farre more then unto meere Pagans , though professed worshippers of Divels : to wit , consideration of . 1. The person by whom . 2. The rule by which they shall be judged . First , God will judge them by Jesus Christ : to accept of whom they have been daily woed , and courted ; and yet they have , with unspeakable contempt , refused him : whereas there be Pagans , that never so much as heard of the name of Christ , and therefore , it will be more tolerable for these in the day of judgment then for those . 2. God will judg them according to the Gospell , which they have so vilified , and despised : the Gospell cannot oblige those , unto whom it was never published ; and consequently they cannot be judged by the rule of the Gospel , but now it hath been daily sounded in the eares of loose , and prophane Christians : how shall they then escape ( according to the Law of the Gospell ) damnation at that day ? if they continue with a scornfull obstinacy to neglect , and reject that great Salvation , which is tendered them in the Gospel ? and that , with the greatest and most condescending importunity , that can be imagined , Heb. 2. 3 ? Secondly , Here is a use of Consolation unto all true believers : for the great day Jude 6. will be unto them a good day : as good as it will be great . The Psalmist , in a most Elegant Apostrophie , exhorts the inanimate , dumb , and senselesse creatures to beare a part with them in their exultations and doxologies for the Lords coming to judgment : and , as it were , to congratulate the blisse , and glory , which they shall then enjoy : Let the Heavens rejoice , and let the earth be glad : let the sea roare and the fulnesse thereof . Let the field be joyfull , and all that is therein , 〈◊〉 shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord , for he cometh , for he cometh to Judg the earth : he shall Judg the world with righteousnesse , and the people with his truth , Psal. 96. 11 , 12 , 13. Make a joysull noise unto the Lord , all the earth : make a loud 〈◊〉 , and reioyce , and 〈◊〉 praise : Sing unto the Lord with the harpe : with 〈◊〉 harpe and the voice of a Psalme : with trumpets and sound of 〈◊〉 : make a joy full noise before the Lord , the King. Let the sea roare and the fulnesse thereof : the world and they that dwell therein . Let the slouds clap their hands : let the hils be ioyfull together before the Lord , for he 〈◊〉 to Judg the earth : with righteousnesse shall he judg the world , and 〈◊〉 people with equity , Psal. 98 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9. But to instance in some particulars , against which the expectation of the day of judgment may comfort the members of Christ : and they shall be their sinnes , their afflictions , and their death . First , It may comfort them against their sins : against . 1. The guilt . 2. The being and pollution of them . 1. Against the guilt of their sins : for God will Judge them by Jesus Christ , their Saviour , their Redeemer , their Head , their Husband , their elder Brother , who will spare them , as a man spareth his Son , that serveth him , Mal. 3. 17. Christ calleth his Disciples his Friends , Ioh. 15. 15. and therefore he cannot be unto them a rigid , and inexorable Iudg ; for exuit personam judicis ( saith the Orator ) quisquis amici induit , he that assumes the person of a friend , puts off the person of a Iudge . He that shall then judge of their sins , is now an Advocate against their sins : and his Advocation is in the right of his satisfaction : he intercedes for the pardon of those sins , that he hath satisfyed Gods Iustice for unto the uttermost farthing : if any man sinn ? we have an Advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the righteous , and he is the propitiation for our sins , 1 Ioh. 2. 1. 2. Christ will appeare the second time without sin unto them that looke for him , Heb. 9. 28. And they are only such as believe in him : his appearing the second time will be the consummation of his discharge , from all the sins of believers imputed , to him at his first appearing : and if he , their surety , be discharged from them , impossible that they should be condemned for them : and therefore Peter promiseth unto them , that at that time their sins shall be blotted out , Acts 3. 19 that is at least declaratively : the pardon of all their sins shall then be proclaimed in the hearing of all the world : and they shall then also receive the full fruit of their pardon , a consummate deliverance from all the consequents of sin , in their bodies , as well as their soules . Secondly , against the being and pollution of their sinnes , for then Christ will appeare without sin considered mystically , as well as personally : he will present his Church to himselfe glorious , not having spot or wrinkle , or any such thing , but it shall be holy and without blemish , Eph. 5. 27. Here is comfort , secondly , unto believers against all their afflictions , of what nature soever : reioyce , in as much as yee are made partakers of Christ's sufferings : that when his glory shall be revealed , ye may be be glad also with exceeding ioy , 1 Pet. 4. 13. here the Saints life of glory is hid with Christ in God ; hidden with great heaps of externall misery : but when Christ who is their life shall appeare , then shall 〈◊〉 also appeare with him in glory , Colos. 3. 3 , 4. God will then be glorified in his Saints , and admired in all them that believe , 2 Thes. 1. 10. Their glory shall be such , as that it shall strike their scornfull slighters with stupor , and astonishment : and shall infinitely over-ballance their greatest pressures , and lowest abasures : here is but the seeds time of glory . Light is but sowne for the righteous , and gladnesse for the upright in heart , Psal. 97. 11. and commonly they have a wet seeds time too : they sow in teares Psal. 126. 5. but in this day , they shall reape a plentifull harvest of a most intense ioy , in which there shall be no allay , by the mixture of the least griefe , for God shall wipe away all teares from their eyes , Rev. 21. 4. here their light is frequently interrupted , and eclipsed : a child of light may walke in darknesse and see no light , Esai . 50. 10. not so much as a glimpse of comfort : but then they shall enioy a cleare , and a perpetuall noone , that shall not be overcast , so much as with one cloud : Gods Jewels may now lye in the dirt , and upon the dunghill , but that will be the day when God will make up his 〈◊〉 Mal. 3. 17. and then they shall shine oriently with unimaginable lustre : those that are , as David , men after Gods own heart , may have their good names buried in a deeper and filthier grave then any in 〈◊〉 valley , Ezek. 37. ( a throat of calumny deservedly entituled by the Psalmist an open sepulchre , Psal. 5. 9. ) but God will give their reputations , as well as their bodies , a resurrection : he will bring their innocency to light , and make their righteousnesse clearer then the 〈◊〉 - day , Psal. 37. 6. Though Gods people have lien amongst the Pots , Psal. 68. 13. though they be so vile and miserable , as that , in this world , they are in no better a condition , then poore scullion boyes , that stinke with grease , and are blacked all over with smoake , and soote ; yet in the resurrection they shal be as the wings of a dove covered with silver , and her feathers with yellow gold , that is , they shall glister , as the beautifull wings of a Dove ; that are of a silver and golden colour : the day of Iudgment is termed by Peter , times of refreshing , tempor a refrigerii , times of cooling , and the hope of this may support against even a siery tryall , 1 〈◊〉 . 4. 12. In ver . 21. of the same chapter it is entituled the day of restitution of all things : and this may digest the highest outward losses ; for there is nothing , that iniustice , and tyranny can bereave us of , but the glory of that day will make ample recompense for it , Matth. 19. 29. In Rom. 8. 19. it is stiled the manifestation of the Sons of God : here Gods sons are under a cloud , the world treates them like the worst of slaves : but then their Son-ship shall be manifested unto all , by Christ's publique invitation of them unto a full possession of their glorious inheritance , the Kingdome prepared for them before the foundations of the world : here the silthy conversation of the wicked will be , unto the iust , a perpetuall corrosive , and vexation : but the day of Judgment will , for ever , deliver them from their company : so that afterwards they shall never heare so much as an idle word , never see so much as a sinfull act , or a scandalous obiect : the Son of man shall send forth his Angels , and they shall gather out of his Kingdome all things that offend , and them which do iniquity , Matth. 13. 41. Thirdly , and lastly , the day of Judgment may cheare against even the terrors of death it selfe ; and , in pursuite of this branch of the use , I shall only mind you of two appellations given unto the day of Judgment in Scripture . First , In Matth. 19. 28. as some point the words , it is termed by our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the regeneration ; it will then be , as it were , a new birth day unto the bodies of the Saints ; the earth will then prove a teeming mother , and bring them forth in a new , and glorious state . Secondly , The Apostle Paul calls it the day of redemption , Eph. 4. 30. to wit from death , and all its consequents , that debase the body , all the corruption , and dishonour of the grave : unto all them , that belong truly unto Christ we may apply those his words . Luke 21. 28. Looke up and lift up your heads , for the day of your redemption draweth nigh . Thirdly , we may hence be exhorted unto an expectation of , and preparation for this day . 1. Expectation of it : for this is that , which will infallibly seale up unto our soules all the ineffable comforts of this day : unto 〈◊〉 that looke for Christ shall he appeare the second time without sinne unto salvation , Heb. 9. 28. Here we have a double 〈◊〉 of Christs second appearing ; 〈◊〉 cujus , and 〈◊〉 cui . 1. Finis Cujus , the end for which he shall appeare the second 〈◊〉 : [ unto salvation . ] 2. Finis Cui , the end unto whom ; unto them that looke for him : The (g) word is a double Compound of two prepositions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and a verbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : the word then implieth a desirous , and hopefull expectation of that , which is apprehended as good ; so that , from the words , we may gather , that Christ will bring salvation unto all those , that looke , and long for his second appearing , as a desirable thing : there is laid up a crowne of righteousnesse , which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give unto them that love his appearing , 2 Tim. 4. 8. That love it with a love of desire : now if those prisoners , whom their own heinous misdeeds , and the law have marked out for condemnation , cannot desire the approach of the Assises , and the coming of the judg ; how is it possible , that the revelation of the Lord Jesus from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire should be desired by those , that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God , and obey 〈◊〉 the Gospell of the Lord Jesus Christ , seeing then he will take vengeance on them , and they shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord , and from the glory of his power , 2 Thes. 1. 7 , 8 , 9. the Apostle , ( in his description of those , that waite for 〈◊〉 Adoption , to wit , the redemption of their bodies , 〈◊〉 . 8. 23 ) gives two characters of them . 1. They have in generall all sanctifying and saving graces ; they have the first fruits of the spirit , and these are a pawne unto them of their future fulnesse of both grace , and glory . 2. In particular , they have the grace of repentance , or humiliation ; they groane under the burthen of sin within themselves : that is ( as 〈◊〉 glosseth it ) ex imo corde from the bottome of their hearts : our selves also , which have the first fruits of the spirit , even we our selves groane withim our selves waiting for the adoption , to wit , the redemption of our bodies . By this description then , there are excluded from being waiters for the sull manifestation , and effect of Adoption 1. In generall , all unsanctified persons , that are destitute of even the first degree of regeneration : and so their soules are part of the suburbs of Hell , as being replenished with the initials thereof , reigning , and unmortified sins . 2. Particularly , all unrepentant , and unhumbled sinners , that do not groane to be disburthened of sin , as feeling it no load unto their spirits . In Gal. 5. 5. Paul professeth , in the name of all believers of the Jewes , that their waiting for the hope of righteousnesse had two causes , the spirit , and faith : we through the spirit waite for the hope of righteousnesse by faith : and what he saith of believers of the Circumcision is appliable unto those of the uncircumcision also ; therefore unspirituall , and carnall persons , that are not governed by the spirit , that do not walke in the spirit : and unbelievers , that are destitute of a justifying faith , that uniteth with Christ , and transformeth the heart , can never , whilst such , attaine a due expectancy of that day , wherein there will be a full revelation , and fruition of the hope of righteousnesse , that is eternall life , which now is only an object of hope : In Phil. 3. 20. you shall find , that those , who looke from Heaven for the Lord Jesus Christ , as a Saviour , are such , whose conversation is allready in Heaven ; the thoughts of their minds , and the affections of their hearts are in Heaven ; their aimes , and desires are Heaven-ward ; their actions savour of Heaven : whereas , on the contrary , they , that mind earthly things , vers . 19. who have their hearts , as it were , nailed , and glued unto the earth , would not have so much as a thought of Heaven , if they could be secure from Hell ; but would be very well contented to have their perpetuall abode on the face of the earth , and would be very loath to be disturbed by Christ's coming from Heaven : for their utter aversation from things heavenly sufficiently instructs them , that thence they have no reason to looke for Christ to come , as a mercifull Saviour : for what good , what salvation may they expect , from a place , they have so much contemned ? The Thessalonians waiting for the Son of God srom Heaven , 1 Thes. 1. 10 hath , for its antecedents a true Conversion from Idolatry , unto the worship and service of God , vers . 9. as also an inchoation of rescue from Hell : they turned to God from Idols , to serve the living , and true God , they were delivered from the wrath to come : and indeed it was an act altogether unperformable by them , as long as they were unconverted : as long as they were , either Idolaters , or Atheists , as long as they were children of wrath , in whose soules deliverance from wrath to come was not so much as begun ; the Kingdome of sin , and Satan remaining in them still , as entire , powerfull , and unbroken as ever . Compare 12 , 13. of Titus 2. together , and you may easily collect , that those , who looke for that blessed hope , and the glorious appearing of the great God , are such as deny ungodlinesse , and wordly lusts : such as live soberly , righteously , and godly in this present world , St 〈◊〉 joyneth looking for , and hastening unto the coming of the day of God with a most intense , zealous , and transcendent diligence in all holy conversation and Godlinesse , 2 〈◊〉 . 3. 11 , 12. in the Lords prayer the petition , for the coming of Gods Kingdome , is placed betwixt the two petitions Hollowed be thy name . Thy will be done in 〈◊〉 as it is in Heaven ; and from this method we may observe , that none can pray cordially for the coming of Gods Kingdome of Glory , when Christ shall deliver up the Kingdome to God , even the Father , that are carelesse of the glory of Gods name , and regardlesse of obedience unto his will. I shall conclude this particular with Rev. 22. 17. where desire of , and prayer for the coming ofChrist to judgment , for a perfect vindication of all his from all the sequels ofsin , is appropriated unto : he Bride , unto the Church mysticall , and unto every true , and genuine member thereof , every sincere believer , that is betrothed unto Christ in righteousnesse , in judgment , in loving-kindnesse , and in mercies , Hos. 2. 19. And the spirit and the Bride say , Come . In the words 〈◊〉 thinks there may be an Hendiadys : so that , the spirit , and the bride may be put for the spirituall Bride , the bride sanctified by the Spirit : or , if you rather thinke , that the Spirit is taken properly for the Holy Ghost ; why then , saith he , the spirit saith come , in the same sense , that it maketh intercession for us , Rom. 8. 26. to wit , 〈◊〉 ; it enableth , and maketh the bride to say come ; the Spirit and the Bride say come : that is , the Spirit in the Bride , or the Bride by the assistance , influence , and actuation of the Spirit , saith come : Come Lord Jesus , come quickly : those , that are espoused unto Christ , long for the Consummation of their Nuptials , and their marriage with the Lamb is this great and last day , Rev. 19. 7. 9. Whereas now , on the Contrary , such as have gone a whoring after the creature , and have been wedded unto the mortall adversaries of Christ Jesus their lusts , and corruptions : their desire is to build Tabernacles on earth ; and they stand in as great a terror of Christs coming , as the disloyall Adulteresse doth of the coming home of her abused Husband ; for their guilty consciences cannot but assure them , that , without repentance , this day will not be their wedding day , but a day of eternall divorce : their outward , and visible be trothment unto Christ , by receiving of his Sacraments , and profession of his name , will then be proclaimed to be a meere nullity , and they shall be everlastingly separated from all communion with him : this day then will be unto them , as ( Job saith ) the morning is unto murtherers , Theeves , and Adulterers , as the shadow of death : they will be in the terrors of the shaof death , Job . 24. 17. Secondly , preparation for it : In the Parable , only the wise Virgines were ready for the coming of the Bridegroome : and hereupon they went with him into the marriage , and the 〈◊〉 ( to wit of grace and mercy ) was shut against the 〈◊〉 unprepared virgins , and could not be opened by their greatest importunity , Matth. 25. 10 , 11 , 12. the Apostle Peter connexeth this preparation for the coming of Christ in both his Epistles with expectancy of it . 〈◊〉 , in his first Epistle chap. 1. v. 13. Wherefore gird up the loines of your minds , be sober , and hope to the end , for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ : where girding up the loines of the mind is a 〈◊〉 expression of that preparation , which is requisite in all those , that hope to the end , for the grace , that is to be brought unto them , at the revelation of Iesus Christ , in allusion unto an ancient custome , of those Easterne Countries , where , not only women , but men , wearing long garments , were wont to tuck them up , when they addressed themselves unto a journey , unto worke , unto battell , or unto service : our Saviour useth the very same similitude unto the same purpose ; and joyneth another of the like nature with it , Luk. 12. 35. Let your 〈◊〉 be girded about , and your lights burning , the whole verse is a borrowed speech from the guise of good Servants , that prepare for the coming of their Masters , by girding , and trussing up their garments , to waite and attend on them , and by lighting candles in a readinesse for them . 2. In his second Epistle chap. 3. v. 12. he makes the like connexion : looking for , and hasting unto the Coming of the day of God : Indeed we cannot accelerare diem , but yet we may accelerare ad diem : though we cannot hasten it , yet we may hasten unto it : to wit , by fitting our selves for it , by going forth , as it were , to meet the Lord with burning lamps : that is with saiths , that not only blaze before men , but also shine before God in their sruits , good works . This preparation is of a vast extent , and taketh in all duties , whether regarding the first , or second table : so much may be gathered from the , 1 Pet. 1. 13 , 14 , 15. Wherefore gird up the loines of your minds &c. as obedient Children , and not fashioning your selves according to the former lusts , in your ignorance , but as he which hath called you , is holy , so be ye holy in all manner of conversation . Here wee have a Concomitant of this preparing of our selves , a generall obedience , and Universall holinesse : and hence also is it , that unpreparednesse is described by disobedience , Luk. 12. 47. that Servant &c. which prepared not himselfe , neither did according to his Masters will &c. But now , out of those many duties , in which preparation for the day of Iudgment stands , I shall select some few : unto the performance of which the Scripture propounds the day of judgment as a motive : and they regard , either God , or our selves , or others . 1. God and his Son Christ Jesus and saith in him . 2. Repentance of our sins against him . 3. Love. 4. Feare of him . 5. Prayer to him . First , faith in him and his Son Christ Iesus : and unto the exercise of this faith there are two pressing arguments in the text . 1. God shall Judge by 〈◊〉 Christ : now of all graces , faith is that , which primarily and principally ingratiates with Jesus Christ ; for it unites us with him , and renders us his beloved spouse , and members : and therefore , though it cannot purchase or merit , yet it will infallibly procure his favour : so that , unto every believing soule , he will , when he sits upon his Throne of glory , ( as 〈◊〉 unto 〈◊〉 ) at it were hold out his golden Scepter . 2. God shall 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 Christ according to the Gospel , according to the Covenant of grace ; and the condition thereof is faith : a believer then , hath the fidelity , the promises , the oath , the Sacraments of God engaged for his absolution ; but now , on the contrary , unbelievers shall be judged according to a Covenant of works , and the severity of such a triall , even as David deprecates : Enter not into judgment with thy servant ; for in thy sight shall no man living be justified , Psal. 14. 3. 2. That is , do not try me by thy law , for so wide is the perfection thereof , as that I fall infinitely short of it ; and therefore can expect therefrom nothing but condemnation : sordet in conspectu judicis , quod 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 operantis : those performances , which most glitter in my own , and other mens eyes , will be found filthy , if the pure eyes of the Iudge measure them by the rigour of the Law. But to passe on unto other Scriptures , 2 Pet. 3. 14. 〈◊〉 beloved , seeing that you looke for such things , be diligent , that you may be found of him in peace ( to wit ) with God : and this peace is an inseparable consequent of faith ; being justified by faith , we have peace with God &c. Rom. 5. 1. 1 Ioh 2. 28. And now , little children abide in him , that when he shall appeare , we may have 〈◊〉 , and not be ashamed before him at his coming . Now it is by faith , that we have our abode in Christ : and therefore faith gives an undaunted boldnesse to stand in judgment before Christ : Whereas , on the contrary , those , that die in finall unbeliefe , will hang downe their heads , and be even confounded , as not being able to looke the Iudge in the face with any confidence , whose tenders of life , and mercy they obstinately and contemptuously refused unto the very last gaspe : The Guest , that is without a wedding garment , will in the day of judgment be speechles Matt. 22. 12. This wedding garment is the robes of Christs righteousnesse : and what puts these on but saith ? without faith then our guilt will strike us dumb Ioh. 3. 18. He that believeth not is condemned allready , as by the Law , and Gospel , so by the verdict of his guilty , and accusing Conscience , when ever it awakens ; now if our unbeliefe be so grosse , as that our own Consciences cannot but condemne us for is , how can we expect , that our Omniscient Iudge should acquit us ? if 〈◊〉 hearts condemne us , God is 〈◊〉 then our hearts , and knoweth all things , 1 Ioh. 3. 20. Secondly , we may hence be exhorted to repentance of our sins against him ; The times of this ignorance God winked at , but now 〈◊〉 all men every where to repent , because he hath 〈◊〉 a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousnesse , by that man whom he hath ordained &c. Acts 17. 30 , 31. This place hath some obscurity , and therefore I shall stay a while upon the opening of it ; the particle , but ; plainly sheweth , that here is an Antithesis , or opposition betwixt two 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 and Gods dispensation in them . 1. Here are times of Ignorance at which God wincked ; times before the generall publication of the Gospell . 2. The present times of the Gospell , But he commands all men every where to repent ; from this Antithesis or opposition it naturally followeth , that in the times before the generall promulgation of the Gospel , times of ignorance , God did not Command all men every where to repent ; he winked at them , he suffered the Gentiles to lie in their Idolatries without so much as any admonition . Against this , it may easily be foreseen , that it may be Objected ; that all men , even before the times of the Gospel , had the law of nature written in their hearts , and that Commands repentance , by that then God , even before the times of the Gospell , commanded all men every where to repent . Unto this I find those following Answers . 1. Though all men , since the fall of Adam , were obliged by the naturall law unto repentance ; yet not by any positive command , and revelation superadded unto the law of nature [ and this Answer I have in the Authour of that learned Manuscript , unto which Mr Iohn Goodwin pretends to give a replie in his Pagans 〈◊〉 and dowry ] the generality of the Gentiles , before the resurrection of Christ , had no other preachers of Repentance , but the light of nature , and the booke of the creature ; but now God , by the Ministers of the Gospell , command , all men every where ( that is where the Gospell is revealed ) to repent . A 〈◊〉 Answer is ; that the deniall of the generality of the Command to repent , in the times of ignorance , before the Gospell , is to be understood only in a comparative sense ; so that the import of the Antithesis is : God now commands all men every where to repent more clearly , fully , distinctly , and expresly , then in those times of ignorance before Christ : and this way Mounsieur (b) Dallie , and others of that party take : The Command then , to repent , was given unto all men allwaies , for the substance and matter of it : and is new only 〈◊〉 the manner of it . Unto which I may adde for a third answer : that it is also new in regard of the inforcement of it by a new motive , the last , and generall judgment of men , by Jesus Christ : which was not revealed , generally unto the Heathens , before the Gospel times : indeed the light of nature might dictate unto them the congruence , and probability of a second , and universall judgment : and this might be ground enough for the Poets fictions , touching the three Judges of Hell-Minos , Aeacus , and Rhadamanthus : but though the light of nature , and reason be never so improoved , yet as Scotus well observeth [ lib. 4. dist . 47. quaest . 1. n. 5. ] it can never make any demonstration of the certainty thereof : and he gives this reason : because it is a matter lesse known unto reason , then the resurrection , and this is a thing we can only proove by the revelation of Scripture . God then now commandeth all men in all nations , unto which the Gospel is published , to expect by a more pregnant , and 〈◊〉 motive , then ever the Gentiles in their times of ignorance heard of ; to wit ; because he hath appointed a day , in the which he will judge the world in 〈◊〉 , by that man , whom he hath ordained , &c. Unto these answers I shall adde one of mine owne , which I hope will be satisfactory : Repentance may be considered under a twofold notion : sub ratione officii , and sub ratione medii : as a dutie , and as a means or way unto salvation . 1. Sub ratione officii , as a duty : and so the law of nature commanded it alwaies , unto all , that had the actuall use of reason : for what is Repentance , but a returning from sin unto God ? Now this the law of nature enjoyneth : for it obligeth to love God with all your soule , heart , might , and strength : and impossible , that this should be done by those , that do not turne from their sins , and returne unto God. 2. Repentance may be considered sub 〈◊〉 medii , as a meanes , or way unto Salvation : and so the Gospel only declares , that all men , unto whom it is preached , should repent ; for the Law is so rigorous , and inexorable , as that it admits not of Repentance in order to life , and salvation : Cursed is every 〈◊〉 , that continueth not in all things , which are written in the 〈◊〉 of the Law to doe them , Gal. 3. 10. Indeed the Law may presse our obligation unto repentance , and discover its opposite to be a damnable sinne : but it is only the Gospel , the Covenant of grace , that propounds it as an anteccdent condition of salvation , and promiseth the reward of eternall life , and happinesse unto it . And thus I have done my best to explaine this darke assertion : that God 〈◊〉 Commandeth all men every where to repent , which before he did not . But the Confirmation of it ( 〈◊〉 he hath appointed a day 〈◊〉 the which he will judge the world in righteousnesse by that man , whom he hath ordained &c. ) is as obscure as the assertion it selfe : for this decree , or appointment of judging the world by Christ , was from all eternity ; and therefore no Congruent proofe , that God in , and since the fulnes of time propoundes it unto all men , every where , as of avayle unto everlasting Salvation , For the clearing of this we must take a rule , that is vsuall in the interpretation of Scripture : Many things are said in scripture to be done , when they are only manifested to be done : And so here the appointment of the day in which God will judge the world is put for the manifestation 〈◊〉 . The words then may be thus Paraphrased : God , by the preaching of the Gospell , hath revealed and manifested , that there shall be a day , in which he will judge the world in righteousnes ; by that man , whome he hath ordained &c. And that this is a competent argument , to provoke men unto Repentance , is evident from the manner of Gods procedure ; in this day he will judg men according to their repentance , or unrepentance , he will acquit all true penitents , and Condemne all 〈◊〉 impenitents : 〈◊〉 ye therefore and be converted ( saith Peter ) that your sins may be blotted out , when the times of refreshing shall come , from the 〈◊〉 of the Lord , Acts 3. 19. without Repentance all our sins , our sins of baro , and naked omission , Matth. 25. 42. 43. Our idle words Matth. 12. 32. that have no obliquity in them , but 〈◊〉 ( and what is said of idle words is appliable unto idle thoughts and works ) shall all be fully charged upon our soules : those , who are not , by the 〈◊〉 of God , led unto repentance , after their 〈◊〉 , and impenitent 〈◊〉 , treasure up unto themselves wrath against the day of wrath , and revelation of the righteous judgment of God , Rom. 2. 5. they pile up plagues , Curses , and Torments : the day of judgment is termed the day 〈◊〉 wrath , in opposition unto 〈◊〉 time of this life , which alone is the 〈◊〉 of grace , and mercy : Behold 〈◊〉 is the accepted time , behold now is the day of salvation , 2 Cor. 6. 2. and therefore repent , now if ever , for in the day of wrath there will be no place , or time for , no acceptation of repentance , though sought with never so many , and bitter teares . Repentance implieth . 1. Examination , Consession of , and sorrow for past sins . 2. Caution and resolution against future sins . And unto all these the day of judgment perswades . First , Unto Examination , 〈◊〉 of , and sorrow for past sins : a voluntary selfe-inspection will avoid the severe scrutinie of that day : to Confesse unto an earthly Judge is a speedy and an assured way unto Condemnation ; but , with our Heavenly Judge , it secures our pardon ; I acknowledged my sin unto thee , and mine iniquity have I not hid : I said , I will 〈◊〉 my transgressions unto the Lord , and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin . Psal. 32. 5. qui 〈◊〉 vult peccata , detegat . is 〈◊〉 rule ; the way to have our sins covered in this , and the next life , is to uncover them in this before God in an humble , and 〈◊〉 Confession ; and without this God will discover them to the knowledg of all the world unto our Confusion in the day when he will judge the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 by Jesus Christ &c. if now we would accuse our selves , it would then stop all the accusations of the Law , Satan , and our owne Consciences ; if we would now judge our selves we should not then be judged , if we would now privately , in our owne bosomes , arraigne and Condemne our selves for our sins , and lie prostrate at the feet of Christ for mercy , we may be certaine , that we shall publiquely be acquitted by proclamation in the great Assises of the whole world , wh n Christ shall Come with Clouds , it is said that all kindreds of the earth shall waile because of him . Rev. 1. 7. Many thinke , that this is meant of the obstinate , and incorrigible enemies of Christ Jesus , and that the wailing here spoken of is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a wailing of hellish desperation , to prevent which no such way as Planctus 〈◊〉 , the wayling of Evangelicall repentance and contrition : and is it not infinitely better to mourne , weep , sigh , and sob for sin here , then hereafter to roare , houle and yell for it unto all eternity ? Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his Saints to execute judgment upon all , and convince all that are ungodly among them , of all their ungodly deeds , which they have ungodly committed , and of all their hard speeches , which ungodly sinners have spoken against him , Jude 14. 15. The conviction here spoken of hath , for its end , the unrepealeable condemnation , and irremediles confusion of the parties convicted : The Lord will execute judgment upon all the ungodly whom he convinceth of ungodly deeds , and hard speeches against him : but yet now even the most ungodly may escape this conviction by a timely , internall , penitentiall conviction of conscience in this life , which , as an Eccho , answereth the spirits convincing the world of sin , Joh. 16. 8 , 9. Now those , whom the spirit convinceth of sin , it convinceth also of righteousnesse , vers . 10. this Conviction then hath a tendency towards the conversion and salvation of the soule : for it is inseparably followed with the judging , executing , and crucifying of our sins : that our spirits may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus : Gods threatning of the wicked , Psal. 50. 21. to reproove them , and to set their sins in order before their eyes , is by many applyed unto the day of judgment : And (i) Austine upon the words adviseth us to doe unto our selves here , that which God threatneth to doe unto us hereafter : to put our sins before us , that now we have forgotten , and cast behind our backs , to ascend the tribunall of our own Consciences , and there to act the part of judges against our selves : to arraigne , condemne our selves , and by the exercise , of a filial feare , Godly sorrow , and penitent confession to doe as it were execution upon our selves : to say , as the Psalmist in the following Psalme v. 3. I acknowledge my transgression , and my sin is ever 〈◊〉 me : Conformably hereunto I find , that Mellerus , and other Interpreters thinke , that the next verse is an exhortation to repentance : Consider this ye that forget God , least I 〈◊〉 you in 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 be none to 〈◊〉 : Words of Knowledge ( in Scripture ) imply affection , and action : Consider this , to wit , that God will in the day of judgment reproove you , and set your sins in order before your eyes : Consider it affectionately , Consider it 〈◊〉 : Consider it so as to endeavour to prevent it , and for that there is no such way , as to imitate the Processe , that God here threatneth , to reproove our selves , to set our sins in order before our own eyes , to tear our hearts in peices , to rend our hearts by Evangelicall Contrition , and , if we doe thus our Judge that otherwise would condemne us , will deliver us from every evill worke . 2 Tim : 4. 18. from the condemning guilt of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and consequently from the wrath to come . 1 Thes. 1. 10. Wherefore ( 〈◊〉 ) 〈◊〉 you looke for such things ( as shall be in the coming of the day of God , the dissolution of the Heavens by fire , the melting of the Elements with fervent heat , the Creation of a new Heaven , and a new earth , wherin dwelleth righteousnesse ) be diligent , that you may be found of him without spot and 〈◊〉 . 2 Pet. 3. 12 , 13 , 14. Now the unspottednesse , and blamelesnesse of sanctification stands in a totall exemption from the soveraigne dominion of sin , and this is utterly inconsistent with impenitency , for sin we daily contract new spots and staines , and they have a throne in those soules , where they are not washed and rinsed with penitent teares ; though Christs blood only cleanseth from the guilt of sin with the cleansing of Justification ; yet , repentance cleanseth too from the spot , and pollution of sin with the cleansing of Mortification , and , if we are not here cleansed with this latter cleansing from the filthinesse of sin , Christ will not in the day of his comming openly discharge from the guiltinesse of sin . Secondly , We may , from the day of judgment , be exhorted unto Caution and resolution against all sin for the future ; against acknowledged sins , and against suspected sins . First , against such sins as are acknowledged to be such : the very possibility of obnoxiousnesse unto Judges here on earth makes men afraid to displease them : how dare we then , day after day by our multiplied sins , to grieve , and incense the Judge of all mankind , out of whose mouth must proceed a sentence that will everlastingly either save , or condemne us ? I have often heard of purses cut , even at the Assises , in the place of justice ; but sure no cut-purse can be so audacious , as to play such a pranck , when he seeth the judge looke upon him : Is it not then very strange , that we should make no scruple of committing sins of a very high , and heinous nature , when as yet we know , that all the sins we can commit are naked , and open unto the Omniscient Judge of quick , and dead ? can we expect to be associated with Saints , and Angels in the Traine of Christ , and in the meane while live like incarnate Divels ? can we hope for the honour of Saints to be attendents unto the Iudge , and abhorre holinesse , that denominates us to be Saints ? If we be like goates here , in this life unruly , and uncleane : why should we thinke to have the honourable place of sheepe , at the last day , upon the right hand of Christ ? Christ will then reject , and banish from his presence , not only forward Professors , but even able and diligent Preachers , Prophets , nay such as have been renowned for miracles , if they be such as do not endeavour abstinence from sin ; but are so addicted unto iniquity , as that they make it their trade , and businesse to commit it : Many will say unto me in that day , Lord , Lord , have we not prophesied in thy name ? and in thy name have cast out Divels ? and in thy name done many wonderfull works ? And then I will 〈◊〉 unto them , I 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you , depart from me ye that worke iniquity , Matth. 7. 22 , 23. The Apostle Peter , prophecying 〈◊〉 such , as ( in the last dayes ) should scoffe at all the predictions of Gods word concerning the last judgment , saying 〈◊〉 is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his coming , layeth downe this description of them : that they shall be men walking after their own lusts ; knowing this that there shall come , in the last daies , Scoffers walking after their own lusts , saying ; where is the promise of his coming , 2 Pet. 3. 3 , 4. Those that walke after their owne lusts , that are acted , in the constant course , and way of their lives , by their 〈◊〉 lusts , are ( in the interpretation of God ) Mockers at the Doctrine of the day of judgment , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , such as shall make childrens play of it : [ for the simple verbe , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth properly to play as a child , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] the same Apostle , having ( in his first Epistle Ch : 4. v. 4. ) spoken of the Gentiles running into an excesse of riot , and of their wondring at , and complaining of the Convert Jewes dispersed among them , for not complying with them , presently . v. 5. he mentioneth the Account , that they shall passe at the last day : The Gentiles thinke it strange , that 〈◊〉 run 〈◊〉 with them to the same excess of riot , speaking evill of you , who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead . From these words , it appeares plainly , that a due , and serious consideration of the account , that we must give unto him , that is ready to judge the quick , and the dead , is a strong bridle to restraine from the sins of the Gentiles here taxed , 〈◊〉 . 3. 4. as also from all other sins whatsoever . Solomon makes use of it , to retrench the Exorbitancies of a youthfull voluptuary , Eccl. 11. 9. here we have an Ironicall Concession , and a dreadfull 〈◊〉 . 1. An Ironicall 〈◊〉 Rejoice , O , young man , in thy youth , and let thy heart cheare 〈◊〉 in the daies of thy youth , and walke in the waies of thy heart , and in the sight of 〈◊〉 eyes : as if he should have said ; pursue thy 〈◊〉 pleasures without check , or stop ; and abridge not thy selfe of any thing , that thy heart desireth or delighteth in ; but to shew , that this is but a Sarcasme , he presently brings in a dreadsull commination of judgment , as a cooling card to 〈◊〉 the the rage , and fury of his lusts : But know that for all these things God will bring thee to judgment . For all these things : that is , for all thy excesses , for all thy intemperate courses , for all thy Epicurisme and Sensuality ; God will bring thee unto Judgment : thou mayest perhaps be unwilling to come to a triall ; but God will compell thee , and the Ministers of his justice will dragge thee unto his Tribunall . This , in its owne nature , is an apt and forcible dissuasive as unto all men from all sin , so especially unto those , that are in the Magistrary , or in any office apperteining to justice , from those sins ; that are opposed unto the duties of ther respective places : k Asterion in Tenedos is memorable , for an old custom observed amongst them , which was , that at the backe of the Judge there alwaies stood a man with an axe advanced , as well to terrisie the witnesse from giving false evidence to the Judge , as the Judge from pronouncing a false sentence upon the evidence : ( whence the Proverb 〈◊〉 securis . ) But this axe was but a 〈◊〉 - crow , in comparison of a deep imprestion of the last judgment , one would thinke , that it should deterre even a Judge , that is not very zealous for justice , from the perverting of judgment , and resusall to doe iustice ; and make him returne this , or the like answer unto all temptations unto unjustice , How shall I commit this great wickednesse and sin against the Judge of all Judges ? What then shall I do , when God 〈◊〉 up ? and when he visiteth , what shall I answer him ? Iob : 31. 14. And why should not this meditation have the like influence upon all organs of Justice , from the highest unto the lowest , from the Sheriffe unto his Bailiffs ? why should it not affright all Plantiffs , from unjust contentious , and frivolous actions ? all Accusers , and Informers from suggesting ? all Witnesses from deposing any untruth ? all Jurors from 〈◊〉 , and partiality in their verdicts , and presentments ? all Lawyers from colouring , and palliating bad causes , and persons ? from betraying or delaying the causes of their poore Clients ? Would all these but sadly Consider , that a day will come when all their actions , and proceedings at this time shall be revewed and reexamined ; how 〈◊〉 might it make them against all failings , and practises , that turne judgment into 〈◊〉 , into gall , and the fruite of 〈◊〉 into 〈◊〉 ? Amos. 5. 7 , and. 6. 12. that is , that turne publique Judicatories into places of bitter , banefull , and deadly injustice unto the oppressed : for of all these their Judge hath a more perfect cognizance , then their own Consciences . The Prophet Amos tels the great ones of Samaria , that they did put farre away the evill day , and caused 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 to come neare , Amos 6. 3. Although the evill day be there meant primarily of the 〈◊〉 of some particular judgment upon Israel : yet it may be extended unto the day of generall judgment , which will be unto the wicked , in a way of eminency , the evill day , a day of sad , and 〈◊〉 tidings : Now if those , that have any imployments in publique dispensation , or distribution of Justice , put farre away from them all thoughts of this day , they cause the seat of violence to come neare : the 〈◊〉 of justice should be a sanctuary unto the distressed : but they , who dread not a day of accounts , turne it into a seat of unjust and Tyranicall violence : and they are very hot , and eager in the pursuit of their oppressive courses : they cause the seat of violence to come neare . Secondly , The day of judgment should be a disswasive from even suspected sins ; from all things that have an appearance of evill : When Tunstall Byshop of Durham told Mr Gilpin that he should have a dispensation for non-residence during his travell beyond the 〈◊〉 ; Mr Gilpin answered , that he feared 〈◊〉 he came to stand before Christs Tribunall it would not serve his turne : and indeed , whosoever will seriously weigh the matter , must needs confesse ; that , in the generall , we all have very good reason to stick , and scruple at those things , which we doubt will be disallowed by the supreame , and Soveraigne Judge of all rationall Creatures in this sublunary world : Me thinks then men should be afraid to adventure upon those recreations , fashions , or the like , concerning the lawfulnesse of which , they have not cleare , full , and evident satisfaction . A third duty , regarding God unto which we may be exhorted from the day of judgment , is love of God and Christ Jesus : for the sincere and upright love of them will give admirable erection , and embolden against the terrors of that day , 1 Joh. 4. 17. Herein is our love made p rfect , that we may have boldnesse in the day of judgment , because as he is , so are we in this world : Wheras , on the Contrary , how can they have boldnesse in the day of judgment , whose hearts are here 〈◊〉 with enmity against Jesus Christ , by whome God will in that day judge the secrets of men ? and God reckons all those , to be mortall enimies unto him , who are cordial friends unto any sin : against such what a thundering curse doth Paul denounce . 1 Cor. 16. 22. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ , let him be Anathema Maranatha : there be many learned Expositors , that take the word to be an advise unto the third , and highest degree of Excommunication , that answered unto the Jewish Shammata , an accursing of a man , unto the coming of Christ , without hope of mercy , which cannot be done without a Propheticall spirit . But against this it may be objected : That the mere not loving of Christ is a sin of the heart , and therefore comes not under Ecclesiastical Cognizance , and censure . Unto this Objection I find two answers . The first , Of the learned and Reverend Doctor Hammond : that the not loving of Christ is the denying of him in time of trouble , and signifyeth here him that was taynted with the Error of the Gnosticks , and so would not confesse Christ in time of persecution . A second Is , that the not loving of Christ is the sin against the holy Ghost , an opposition of Christ , and his Gospel , out of mere malice and desperate hatred . But to make either of these interpretations good we must fly unto a Meiosis ( whereby lesse is spoken , and more implyed ) and what need we run unto a figure , as long as the words are capable of a faire interpretation in their proper sense : I shall therefore conclude ( with Cornelius Alapide , Dickson and others ) that the words containe only a simple denunciation of an eternall curse , and damnation to be inflicted at the coming of the Lord to judgment , upon all that love not the Lord Jesus : for Anathema is a Greek word , and signifieth cursing or banning ; Maran-atha is a Syriack or Caldee word , importing that the Lord cometh : for Maran signifies Lord , or our Lord , and Atha cometh : the words then may be thus glossed ; all impenitent haters of the Lord Jesus , all , in whom there shall be found a finall want of the love of the Lord Jesus , shall be accursed by him when he cometh to judgment : Now Christ will then interprete all those to hate him , who , in their love of him , admit of any corrivalty : who love any thing , any creature , any lust , either above him , or but in an equality , and coordination with him : It is the generall opinion of Expositors , that the Apostle alludes unto the Prophesie of Enoch , mentioned by 〈◊〉 vers . 14. 15. And Enoch also , the seaventh from Adam prophesied of these , saying , behold the Lord cometh with tenne thousands of his Saints , to execute judgment upon all , and to convinee all that are ungodly among 〈◊〉 , of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed , and of all their hard speeches , which ungodly sinners have spoken against him : And , if this conjecture be true , then from the collation of these two places , 1 Cor. 16. 22. Jud. 14. 15. we may gather this observation : That they love not the Lord Jesus Christ who are ungodly , irreligious , and prophane ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , without worship ) who neglect , and omit Gods both naturall , and instituted worship ; and such shall be Anathema ; when the Lord cometh he will convince them , and execute judgment upon them : of these ungodly persons there are two Characters in the text . 1. Ungodly 〈◊〉 ( that is sinfull actions against the first Table ) which 〈◊〉 have ungodly committed ; and ungodly deeds are committed after an ungodly manner , when they proceed from soules , in which there is no renewed principle , no gracious habit , no seed of God , no divine nature to oppose , and resist them , or to incline unto repentance for them . A second part of their character is the hard speeches which they have spoken against Christ ; and those , whose tongues runne riot against his Ordinances , Ministers , Members , he accounts to utter hard speeches against himselfe ; though their thoughts , and expressions of his person , nature , and offices be all orthodox . Fourthly , this point may provoke unto a feare of God , and of Christ ; not a distrustfull , but an awfull feare ; that is opposed unto carnall presumption , and security , and not unto the assurance of faith . How do men dread those judges , whose severest doome reacheth only unto ( that which they themselves cannot avoid ) death of the body ? and shall not we feare that Judge : whose bare sentence is so operative , and efficacious , as that it is able to destroy body and soule in Hell ? If ye call on the Father ( saith Peter ) who without respect of persons judgeth according to every mans worke , passe the time of your sojourning here in feare , 1 Pet. 1. 17. If ye call on the Father , that is , if ye make profession , that God is your Father , nay if by the spirit of Adoption ye be assured that he is your Father , yet feare him ; for he that is your Father now will be your Judge hereafter , and he will be an impartiall judge , he will judge without respect of persons ; there will be no deceiving of this Judge by bare words , naked professions , and pretensions : he will judge according to every mans worke : and besides we have but a short time unto this generall Assises , it is but a time of sojourning , and , for all these reasons , let us feare God : This feare , unto which the day of judgment should be a forcible incentive , is of so large a compasse , as that virtually it takes in all duties whatsoever . For first , in the Old Testament , the Preacher explicates it by universall obedience , as its effect , Eccles. 12. 13 , 14. Feare God , and keepe his Commandements , for this is the whole duty of man , for God shall bring every worke into judgment , with every secret thing , whether it be good , or whether it be evill : Here the last judgment is used , as an argument , for the keeping of Gods Commandements , a well as for his feare ; and for this it is very home , and pressing , for what can we expect , but that God should then be deafe , and inexorable unto our prayers and cries for mercy , if we now stop our eares , and hearts unto his cals , and exhortations of us unto obedience ? the equitablenesse of such a course God himselfe demonstrates , Prov. 1. 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28. Because I have called , and ye refused , I have stretched out my hand , and no man regarded : But ye have set at nought all my counsell , and would none of my reproofe : I also will laugh at your calamity , I will mock when your feare cometh ; when your feare cometh as desolation , and your distruction cometh as a whirlewind ; when distresse , and anguish cometh upon you : 〈◊〉 shall they call upon me , but I will not answer ; they shall seeke me early , but they shall not find me . Secondly , in the New Testament , it hath subjoined unto it an effect , of as vast an extent , the glorisying of God ; for unto that all other actions of religion , together with those of justice , and Charity are related , as meanes , Rev. 14. 7. The Angell that preached the everlasting Gospell &c. said with a loud voice , feare God , and give glory to him , for the houre of his judgment is come . And unto the glorisying of God the coming of the houre of his Judgment is a very apt and stirring motive , for we then looke for glorisication by God : and unto such an expectation , what can be more sutable , then a cordiall endeavour to promote the glorisying of God ? what reason have wee to hope then for the fruition of his glory , if we be now regardlesse of the advancement of his glory ? If wee do not here live unto God , Gal. 2. 〈◊〉 . it will be but presumption to thinke that hereafter we shall live with God. I shall conclude this use with Mal. 4. 2. which together with the first verse may be applied unto the day of iudgment : the particle [ But ] denoteth the opposition betwixt the terror of that day unto the wicked , and the comfort , and happinesse of it unto those that feare God : But unto you that feare my name , shall the Sunne of righteousnesse arise with healing in his wings , and yee shall goe forth , and grow up , as Calves of the Stall . Unto you that feare my name ; that feare ( not only my justice and judgments , but ) my name , ( every thing by which I reveale my selfe , my pardoning mercy , Psal. 130. v. 4 : my goodnesse , Hos. 3. 5 : those that tremble at my word , Isa. 66 , 2 : unto all such ) shall the Sonne of righteousnesse arise ( here they may have a darke and a gloomy time , but then Christ as a Sunne shall arise upon them , and scatter the darknesse as of sinne error , and ignorance , so also of misery and discomfort , he shall arise as a Son of righteousnesse their righteousnesse shall be as visible unto all the world , as the rising of the Sun is , he shall arise with healing in his wings ( then shall there be a perfect cure of all spirituall diseases whatsoever ) and ye shall go sorth ( to wit , in the resurrection , out of the 〈◊〉 of your graves ) and grow up as Calves of the stall ( your glorified bodies shall be endued with vigor , and agility ; they shall leape and skip for joy like fatted Calves ; and besides ye shall have a full both conquest and triumph over all your adversaries , v. 3. ) And ye shall tread downe the wicked : for they shall be as ashes under the soles of your feet , in the day that I shall doe this , saith the Lord of Hosts . Lastly , we may hence be exhorted unto zealous , and frequent praiers unto God , Luk. 21. 36. The end of all things is at hand , therefore watch unto prayer , 1 Pet. 4. 7 : not only pray , but be watchfull in prayer ; men dare not supplicate , in a sleepy posture , for their lives , that are forfeited unto the justice of the Law ; for dull , and drousy supplications bespeake a repulse rather than an answer : shall not we then rouze up our selves , and stirre up all our abilities , when we are suiters for the unmerited salvation of our soules in the day of the Lord Jesus ? If petitions could prevaile with Judges on earth , how would they be even overwhelmed with them ? now God hath alway an eare , and a heart open unto prayers rightly qualified ; and impossible he should be ever cloyed with it ; to be an Hearer of Prayer is one of his Titles , ô thou that hearest prayer ! saith David , Psal. 65. 2. And shall not this quicken us unto a diligent frequency , and most raised fervency in prayer for prevention of the Condemnatory sentence of the last day ? He , that then shall be our Judge , is in the meane while to be God's great and sole master of requests ; and God will be favourable unto every one , whome he intercedes for ; and he will deny his intercession unto none , that Cordially , and sincerely crave it : but yet how seldome are our requests made knowne to God by him for favour ? and how saint , and unzealous are those requests ? He , that the last day shall sit upon a Tribunall of justice , now sitteth upon a Throne of grace and a mercy seat ; and yet how desolate and unfrequented is this Throne of grace , this mercy Seat ( how few , and cold are the petitioners that resort unto it ? it is very strange ; that we should be so backward and remisse in our prayers here in this life , seeing in the next , after death , & in the day of judgment , all prayers will be as as bootlesse , as the vaine cries of condemned prisoners for mercy unto the Judge : though Christ be now an Advocate , that offers to plead for any Client who will sue unto him in a due manner ; yet then his Commission for Advocate expires , and he is to enter upon the execution of the Commission of a Judge , and he is to give righteous judgment without the least partiality . Secondly , there be another sort of duties unto which the day of judgment excites , that concerne our selves , and they are foure . 1 Watchfulnesse . 2. Sobriety . 3. Diligence and faithsulnesse in our particular callings . 4. A Diligent use , and faithfull imployment of all our Taleuts , &c. First watchfulnesse ; and that , over all our duties , and actions , against the temptations of all our spirituall adversaries , Satan , the world , and our own deceitfull hearts : unto this watchfulnesse our Saviour and the Apostle presse from the 〈◊〉 and uncertainty of the day of judgment ; the certainty that it shall be ; the uncertainty when it shall be , Matth. 24. 42 , 43 , 44. Marke , 13 , 32. 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37. Thes. 5 , 2 , 3 , 6. Luk. 21. v. 35. 36. That day shall come , as a snare on all them , that dwell on the face of the whole 〈◊〉 : Watch ye therefore , &c. that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things , that shall come to passe , and to stand before the Son of man. The worthinesse that our Saviour speakes of is a worthinesse of fitnesse , not desert , and may be expounded by that of the Apostle , Col. 1. 12. Made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light : unwatchsull soules are unprepared for judgment , and consequently unqualified for Heaven : When Epaminondas sound a 〈◊〉 sleeping he ran him through ; The Lord hath appointed every one to be a spirituall watchman , What I say unto you , I say unto all , watch , Mark. 13. 37 : and when the Captaine of our Salvation shall be walking his great round in the day of judgment , if he find any securely sleeping , and snorting in sinne , having their soules ungarded , and the Gates of their hearts lying wide open unto the enemy , what can such expect but the extremity of martiall Law ? indeed the wise Virgins may slumber and sleep , Matth. 25. 5 : but it is only a slumber of insirmity ; each of them may say as the Church , Cant. 5 , 2. I sleep but my heart waketh ; that is my regenerate part , the spirit striveth , and struggleth with the flesh to shake of all drouzinesse ; so that in regard of the constant bent of my heart I am alwayes vigilant . A Second duty , regarding our selves , unto which by the Consideration of the day of Judgment we may be stirred up , is sobriety : The Apostles Paul and Peter joyne vigilancy , and sobriety together ; because sobriety is a great help , and furtherance unto vigilancy ; and they propound the day of judgment to enforce the practice of both , 1 Thes. 5. 2 , 6. For your selves know perfectly , the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night : Therefore let us not sleep , as doe others ; but let us watch and be sober , 1 Pet. 4. 7. But the 〈◊〉 of all things is at hand : be ye therefore sober and watch , &c. (L) Aquinas points at two acceptions of the word sobriety : one more strict , and restrained ; and thus taken it moderates the appetite in the use of drinkes ; the other more large , and generall ; and according unto this it puts due bounds , and limits unto our desires of , and endeavours after all things temporall ; it keeps in all things , that measure , which is requisite : the opposites of sobriety , in each sense , are a virtuall denyall of the day of judgment : not only , they that are drunke with wine , and strong drinke ; but they that are intoxicated with coveteousnesse , or any kind of Epicurisme , carry themselves , as if they thought there were no day of generall account : and hereupon our Saviour , dehorting from things , that expose unto the hazard of a suddaine , and unexpected surprizall by that day , coupleth in his said exhortation the cares of this life , with 〈◊〉 and drunkennesse ; And take heed to your selves , lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfetting and drunkennesse , and cares of this life , and so that day come upon you unawares : for as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth , Luk. 21. 34 , 35. First , grosse drunkennesse extinguisheth , for the present , all thoughts of a judgment to come ; for a prisoner to reele drunk unto the barre , where he is to be tryed for his life , would argue a belluine contempt of his life , and throw a strange and high scorne upon justice : though men habitually feare , and love God above all , and prize their pretious soules more than millions of worlds ; yet their act of drunkennesse is a reall , and interpretative slighting of the all-powerfull Judge , of men and Angels , and a disvaluing of the pricelesse soule . Secondly metaphoricall drunkennesse , drunkennesse with prosperity , and riches , with delights , disports and recreations , &c : argueth an inadvertency , and inconsideration of the last judgment : they , that are in this sense drunke , and intemperate , shew themselves to be carelesse of that , which merits the cheifty of their care , and extreamely sollicitous about that , which deserves the very height of contempt : whatsoever their professions be , yet , the truth is , such men make but little reckoning of their immortall soules ; and the feare of the great Judge of all the earth is not before their eyes : see how the Apostle Paul backes his exhortation unto moderation with the neare approach of the Lord to judgment , Phil : 4. 5. Let your moderation be knowne unto all men , the Lord is at hand : the moderation , that the Apostle cals for , extends unto all our actions , and passions ; and , that it concernes us very much to labour for such moderation , he prooveth ; because the Lord is at hand , to call all to a most severe account , for all exorbitancies , all intemperatenesse , either of the inward mind , or outward behaviour : By the same reason he dehortes ( in the following words , vers . 6. ) from an opposite of moderation , inordinate , or immoderate care ; The Lord is at hand , therefore be carefull for nothing . This clause , the Lord is at hand , stands in the middle betwixt the exhortation and dehortation , and therefore may aptly be related as a motive unto both . A Third duty , regarding our selves , is diligence and faithfulnesse in our particular callings : our Saviour himselfe , Mar. 13. 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 : backes his 〈◊〉 , of all Christians in generall , and Ministers in particular , unto vigilancy in their respective Callings , with proposall of the uncertainty of the day of Doome . 1. He sheweth how he hath allotted every one their worke , vers . 34. For the Son of man is as a man taking a sarre journey , who left his house , and gave authority to his Servants , and to every man his worke , and Commanded the Porter to watch . Hereupon he giveth a charge unto his Disciples , and Apostles to be watchfull in their places : watch ye therefore , v. 35. And hereunto he urgeth them ; because the time of both particular , and generall judgment is uncertaine , for ye know 〈◊〉 when the master of the house 〈◊〉 , at even , or at midnight , or at the cock-crowing , or in the morning , ibid. Now this is a motive , that concernes , not only the then Disciples of Christ , but all Christians in generall , and accordingly , our Saviour presseth the duty upon all , v. 37. And what I say unto you , I say unto all , watch ; that is , in your callings ; and be carefull conscionably to discharge them : for , that the watchfulnesse here spoken of includeth this particular , if it be not restrained there unto is evident ; because the first inference of our Saviour's Command of watchfulnesse , is drawne , from his appointing unto all the Servants of his family , and in particular the Porters of his house , that is , the Pastors of his Church , their severall workes , and imployments , he gave to every man his worke , and commanded the Porter to watch : Watch ye therefore , v. 34. 35. Unto this exhortation of our Saviour's let us adde the gracious promise , that he makes , Matth : 24. 45 , 46 , 47 : of a glorious reward unto Ministers , for diligence in their callings , and the like promise may be , in some sort , extended unto all others , that shall be found faithfull in their stations . Here we have . 1 : the duty of the ministeriall function described , v. 45. Who then is a saithsull and wise servant , whome the Lord hath made ruler over his household , to give them meat in due season ? Next we have the reward of it propounded and that , 1 : in proper termes , vers . 46 : blessed is that servant , whome his Lord when he cometh shall find so doeing : next in metaphoricall termes , in allusion unto the Custome of great men in preferring their diligent , and faithfull Servants , vers . 47. Verily I say unto you , that he shall make him Ruler over all his goods . Here you see , that the faithfull and laborious Minister , who gives his Lord's houshold their meat in due season , shall be happy at the last day : and from this we may , by the rule of Contraries , inferre , that those Ministers shall then be most miserable , and accursed , without repentance , who are here idle , or active only in doing mischiefe , in sowing tares , and distributing poison , damnable Heresies destructive of the very foundation of faith : the beliefe of the terriblenesse of the last judgment had an influence upon Paul's diligence in the worke of the ministry , 2 Cor. 4. 10 , 11. We must all appeare before the judgment seate of Christ ; knowing therefore the terrour of the Lord , we perswade men : here we have the worke of the ministery expressed Synecdochally by it's principall part , we perswade men , to wit , unto faith , repentance , obedience , &c , and then we have the inducement that stirred him up hereunto , 〈◊〉 therefore the terrour of the Lord , to wit , in the day of judgment : Now , that Paul herein was acted by a servile and and legal spirit , I belive none will presume to assert . Those Ministers , have no practicall knowledge of the terrour of the day of judgment , that are remisse or unfaithfull in their Callings , and doe not resemble Paul , in his unwearied endeavours , to perswade men to fly from the wrath to come : but the terriblenesse of the last judgment should be , not only a spurre unto Ministers to be diligent in their studies and Pulpits , but also an incentive unto activity in all others : it should make the Husbandman laborious at the Plow , the Artificer industrious in his shop , the Judge upright and impartiall upon the tribunall , the Lawyer consciencious in his practice , and that both in his chamber and at the barre , and the Souldier valiant , and resolute in the field : knowing the terrour of the Lord ( should the husbandman and artificer say ) we labour working with our hands that which is good , that we may have to give to him that needeth , Ephes. 4. 28 : knowing the terrour of the Lord ( should the Judge say with Job ) I put on righteousnesse , and it 〈◊〉 me , my judgment was as a robe and a 〈◊〉 : I was eyes to the blind , and 〈◊〉 was I to the lame , I was a father to the poore : and the cause which I knew not I searched out : and I brake the jawes of the wicked , and 〈◊〉 the spoile out of his 〈◊〉 , knowing the 〈◊〉 of the Lord ( should the Lawyer say ) my advice and pleadings shall be all guided by Conscience , and squared by law and justice , knowing the terrour of the Lord ( the Souldier should say ) I will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to no man , neither accuse any falsly ; and be content with my wages , Luk. 3. 14. I will be of good courage and play the man for my people , and for the cities of my God , and the Lord 〈◊〉 that which 〈◊〉 him good , 2 Sam. 10. 12. A fourth duty of this sort , under which the last mentioned may be comprehended , ( as the particular under the generall ) is a diligent use and faithfull imployment of all the talents we have received from God : whether bona animi , corporis , or fortunae , whether they be goods and 〈◊〉 , of the mind , or of the body , or of fortune ( as they are usually called ; ) the least ability , or opportunity , that we have for the doing of any good ; for they are all our maste'rs goods , Matth. 25. 14 : our Lord's 〈◊〉 , vers . 18 : and we enjoy them , but as stewards , factors , or trustees ; and so stand accountable how we have used them , and in the universall Audit God will punish , not only the misimployment , and abuse , but also the non-imployment of our talents : the world applaudes the politique retirednesse of those , that napkin 〈◊〉 talents , or hide them in the 〈◊〉 ; that bury their parts , and gifts in an obscure privacy , though they have , from both God , and man , many a 〈◊〉 call unto publique imploiment ; but the sharp check , and terrible censure of these men by Christ , at the last day , will discover them to be the arrantest fooles that ever were upon the face of the earth : every slothfull , and unprofitable servant shall then be pronounced to be a wicked servant , Matth. 25. 26 : and he shall be condemned to be cast into utter 〈◊〉 , vers . 30 : that is , into Hell ; which is so termed ; because it is infinitely remooved from the light , that is joy , comfort and happinesse of Heaven : but he shall suffer , not only a privative punishment , a punishment of losse ; but also a positive punishment , a punishment of sense : there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth , ibid : but now cast we our eye one the other side , and see with what approbation and reward Christ will reward him , that duely useth and imploieth his talents ? vers . 21 : his Lord said unto him well done thou good and faithfull Servant , thou hast been faithfull over a 〈◊〉 things , I will make thee ruler over many things : enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. Carnall men looke upon him , as a busy , and forward foole ; but Christ will proclaime him , in the hearing of all the world , to be a good and faithfull Servant : and how should this cheare , and encourage against all the miscensures and reproaches of men ? but his reward will be not only verball , but reall , and this is expressed , 1 : in metaphoricall , 2 : in proper termes . 1. In metaphoricall termes : thou hast been faithfull over a few things , I will make thee ruler over many things : or as it is in Luk. 19 : because thou hast been faithful in a very little , have thou authority ouer tenne Cities . vers . 17 : and over five 〈◊〉 , vers : 19 : Our Saviour here alludes unto the custome of great Princes , that reward those , who 〈◊〉 their trust , and serve them faithfully in inferiour places , by preferring them unto profitable , and honourable Commanderies . 2. In proper termes , enter thou into the joy of the Lord , that is , the joy which thy Lord enjoyeth , doe thou share , and communicate in it . O! how could men be slothsull , and unprofitable , if they had but respect unto this recompense of 〈◊〉 , fellowship with Christ in all his glory ? The account that we must one day give for all our talents , is a very serious , and sad Theme ; for it cal's upon all for mourning , and reformation ; because there is none , that can plead totally not guilty ; as would soone appeare , if men would but ballance their receipts of Talents , and the imployments of them ; thou hast good , and great parts , both naturall , and acquired ; but of what good have they been productive ? what is the service , that thou hast done with them ? how few are there of thine intimates , that have learned any considerable thing from thee ? Nay doth not thine own family remaine uninstructed , and unchatechized , ignorant of the first principles of the Oracles of God ? thou hast a strong memory ; but it hath been only a storehouse for vanities , and not a treasure for good things , out of which thou bringest forth things new and 〈◊〉 , Matth 13. 52. Thou hast a large portion of temporals ; but alas how narrow , and short is the Catalogue of thy good works that thou canst produce ? how backward hast thou alwaies been to contribute toward any good cause ? the wants , and necessities of thy poore brethren have loudely cryed unto thee for reliefe and supply , when their modesty hath made them silent ; but thou hast shut the bowels of thy compassion from them , 1 Joh. 3. 17. How sharply doth James reprehend the wicked rich , merely for their sordid sparing , and hording ? Jam : 5. 23. 〈◊〉 to now ye rich men , &c : your riches are corrupted , and your garments moth-eaten : your gold and silver is cankred , and 〈◊〉 rust of 〈◊〉 shall be a witnesse against you , and shall eat your flesh as it 〈◊〉 fire : ye have heaped treasure together for the last daies . Here we have a description of their sinne , and a 〈◊〉 of the punishment of it . 1. A description of the sin of the Covetous rich ; that they chose rather to have their goods corrupted & spoiled , than imployed to good uses : their victuals might have refreshed the bowels of the hungry ; but they rather suffered them to putrify and stinke : the garments ; that lay uselesse in their Wardrobes , might have clothed the backes of their naked brethren ; but they rather let them be 〈◊〉 : their gold , and silver might have been laid out for many a good use ; but they had rather it should be cankred , and rust in their chests . 2. 〈◊〉 is a denuntiation of the punishment of their sinne , 〈◊〉 rust of their gold and silver ( and we may say the same of the corruption and spoiling of their other goods for want of use ) shall witnesse against them ( by reflection of their Consciences it shall convince them of base avarice , but it shall be not only a witnesse , but an executioner ) it shall eate your 〈◊〉 as it were fire ( the memory and review of it shall gnaw their Conscience , and this corroding of their Conscience shall have an impression upon their bodies , it shall 〈◊〉 their 〈◊〉 , not for consumption , but for 〈◊〉 , and it shall be a sore and great torment like that of fire ; ) it shall eate your flesh as it were sire : ( their designe may be to amasse up a great heap of treasure , to make provision against a rainy day ; but instead of treasuring up wealth , they treasure up unto themselves wrath against the day of wrath , Rom. 2. 5 : they only adde to the heap of their vengeance ) Ye have heaped treasure together for the last daies . The poore now may thinke thence themselves unconcerned in all this discourse ; but there may be some poore men , laborers , that get their living by their handy work , who yet may be obliged to give an almes unto those , that are poorer than themselves ; and so much may be gathered from Eph. 4. 28. Let him that 〈◊〉 , steale no more ; but rather let him labour working with his hands the thing which is good , that he may have to give to him that needeth : but those that are poorest , may yet have other talents , wherewith they may be as usefull in their place , as the rich , and yet in such use they extreamly faile : they have wit , and judgment , and yet how shie are they of giving counsel , and advice unto their poore brethren ? how backward in speaking for them , when they themselves are either ashamed out of modesty , or disabled by sicknesse to goe to speake for themselves ? they have health and strength ; and yet they neglect to visit them , they refuse to watch with them , or to travell unto a Physitian for them : nay there are some poore , who , though they are of very able bodies , are yet so extreamly lazy , as that their own wants , and the cries of their wives , and children for bread , cannot awaken them unto any industry : but perhaps thou art , not only a begger , but a Cripple also ; why yet thou maiest have a richer and more pretious talent , than many of vast wealth have , thou mayest have the spirit of grace , and supplication poured upon thee , and hast thou improved this as thou oughtedst to have done ? must thou not needs confesse , that thy prayers for thy sick , and poore brethren have been both unfrequent , and unfervent ? but to proceed unto those , whom God hath intrusted with the talent of power , and authority : and here , I shall not my selfe accuse them , but desire them to examine their own Consciences , and they will soone informe them ; whether they have exercised it so farre as they might , for the suppressing of sin , for the encouragement of virtue , and religion , for the reforming of their Country ? for helping the distressed ? for crushing , or restraining potent oppressors ? and delivering the oppressed from their violence ? whether they can as clearly make such a protestation as Job did Concerning the administration of his Magistracy 〈◊〉 . 29. 11 , 12 , 13. When the care heard me , then it 〈◊〉 me : and when the eye saw me it gave witnesse to me : because I delivered the poore that cryed , and the fatherlesse , and him that had none to helpe him : the blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me : and I caused the widowes heart to sing 〈◊〉 joy . From the talent of the Magistracy goe we on to that of the Ministry ; the Ministeriall office , and the Ministeriall gifts : and here who is there among us , but hath cause to bewaile his unfaithfulnesse in part ? and his supine negligence in discharging that trust , and duty , which the measure of his gifts , and the condition of his calling exact from him ? for the perfecting of the Saints , for the worke of the Ministery for the 〈◊〉 of the body of Christ , Eph. 4. 12. if our enemies should be silent , the unreformednesse of our congregations will witnesse against us : for they are most of them , and that in great part by our default , like the sluggards field in Solomon , Prov. 24. 31. Which was all overgrown with thornes , and 〈◊〉 had covered the face thereof , and the stone wall thereof was broken down : so they are overspred with ignorance , error or prophanesse , and the wall of discipline is broken downe , or rather never erected . I might almost be infinite in the exemplification of this point , by instancing in all outward helps , all relations , interests , any thing whatsoever , that gives us any advantage of bringing any glory unto God , any benefit unto others , any true good unto our selves ; for , which of these things have any of us husbanded as we might ; and in such a measure as our Lord and Master hath appointed ? what a sorry and pittifull improvement have we made , of the many good sermons , that we have read ; the good company that we have conversed with ; the remarkeable experiences , that we have met with ? what unfaithfull stewards have the most of men been of that large , and rich talent of time , which God hath trusted them with ? omne tempus nobis 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 qualiter sit expensum ; all the time , that God hath indulged us , must be accounted for , how it is spent : non peribit capillus de capite , 〈◊〉 momentum de tempore : as not a haire shall fall from our heads unnoticed by God : so neither shall there passe a minute , or moment of our lives unexamined by God : and then , how sad will the reckoning of those be , that have redeemed but an inconsiderable portion of their daiés for communion with God , and Christian fellowship ? but have wasted the greatest part of them in eating , drinking , gaming and other pleasures , and recreations , if not in rioting and drunkennesse , in chambering , and wantonnesse ? thus you see , that all of us have been more or lesse faulty not in the abusing , yet in the not using of our talents : as for the future , let the command of our great Lord and Master , that hath received for himselfe the kingdome , prevaile with us , Luke 19. 12 , 13. he saith occupy till I come , that is , negotiate , and traffique with your gifts , for my use , untill I come , either by particular or generall judgment : and that indeed will only be a time of reckoning , and no further place for trading : and therefore now , whilst we have time before us , let us up , and be doing : let us not receive our talents , our gifts , and graces in vaine : and they are received in vaine , when they are not used , for the glorifying of Gods name , the promoting of Christs Kingdome , the edifying of our brethren , the advancement of the publique good , both of Church , and Common-wealth , 1 Cor. 12. 7. and 15. 10. 2 Cor. 6. 1. 1 Pet 4. 10. To quicken unto all possible diligence herein I shall propound three motives , and that out of the parable of the talents . 1. The Universality of the accomptants . 2. A specialty remarkable under this universality . And 3ly , The proportion , that shall be observed in the passing of their accounts . 1. The universality of the accomptants : those that have the fewest , and meanest talents must come to an audit for them : he that hath but one talent must reckon for that : to whom God giveth any thing of them he will require something : now God giveth to all men liberally , Jam. 1. 5. and therefore God expects from all men a gratefull , and plentifull returne : as God hath distributed to every one , so let him walke , 1 Cor. 7. 17. Now God hath distributed to every man some gift , and therefore he hath really called every man unto some worke and imployment : omne beneficium propter officium : you know what Mordecai said to Hester concerning her preferment , Esth. 4. 14. Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdome for such a time as this ? and we may apply the saying ( mutatis mutandis with due change ) unto all ranks , and conditions of men : we may say to the Judge : who knoweth whether thou art come unto the tribunall for such a time as this ? to rescue such a poore innocent from oppression , to deliver such a wronged party from injury ? to curb such a mighty oppressour ? to check such a litigious , and vexatious plantiffe ? to represse , and moderate the overbold vociferations of such , and such Lawers , who otherwise would bassle an unconfident witnesse , and puzzle an ignorant Jury ? nay we may goe farre lower , and apply it unto those , that move in inferiour orbs : we may say unto a Constable , Tythingman , or Church-warden , who knoweth whether thou art come to thy office for such a time as this ? to suppresse such a disorder ? to convict such a grandee of swearing , drunkennesse , uncleanesse , profanation of the Sabbath &c. who thinks that his birth , allyance , riches , power , and reputation will shelter , and secure him from all pursuits of Justice ? we may say unto a juror ; who knoweth whether God hath called thee to serve for such a time , and cause as this ? to prevent that partiality , and injustice , which is intended by some crafty , and false companions , who are for the nonce packed into the Iury ? 2. Under this Universality there is aspecialty , some whom God will reckon with in a more speciall manner then with the rest of mankind : and they ( as you may see in the parable ) are Christs own Servants , Matth. 25. 14. the members of his Church visible , those that professe service to him : for their receipts are farre greater then those of Pagans , and infidels : and therefore they shall undergoe a more severe account . 3. Come we to the proportion , that God will observe in this account : he will proportion his reward , not unto the nature , or number of mens talents , but unto their diligence , and fidelity in the use and imployment of them : well done thou good and faithfull Servant , Matth. 25. 21 : not well done thou wise , learned , rich , powerfull , valiant servant . Now a man may be as faithfull over few things as another over many : he that hath but few and meane talents , talents of silver , may be as faithfull a steward of those , as he that hath more , and richer talents , talents of gold : in the parable he that had but two talents , had the same reward with him , that had five talents : and Interpreters give this reason ; because there was no unequality in their labour : he that had two talents laboured as much in the imployment of his two , as the other in the imployment of his five ; and therefore he , as well as the other , was to be ruler over many things , to enter into the joy of his Lord , Matth. 25. 20 , 21 , 22 , 23. Inferiour persons may , in their place , glorifie God , and serve their Country , as faithfully , and diligenly , as the justice of peace upon the bench , the Judge upon the Tribunall , the Prince upon the Throne , and therefore may shine out all as gloriously in Heaven : a plaine Country man , that hath but a little knowlege , and meane gifts , may doe his utmost in the communicating of them , and then his happinesse may not come short of that of the greatest Schollar : the Widdow , that cast into the treasury but her two mites , was more accepted with , and shall more bountifully be rewarded by God , than those that threw in farre larger summes , Luk 21. v 1. 2 , 3 , 4. Mark. 12. 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 : for though her talent was smaller , yet her fidelity was superiour , and that , by the testimony of our Saviour himselfe : he , that praiseth God only upon a 〈◊〉 instrument , ( his authority extending but to his family , and his example but unto his neighbour-hood ) may have as thankfull a heart here , and as high a place in the celestiall Quire hereafter ; as the greatest Monarch , that praiseth God upon a ten thousand (m) string'd instrument , upon the loud sounding Organs ; having so many millions of pipes , as there be men , to whom his authority or example reacheth . But , though God will not proportion mens rewards unto their talents ; yet he may be said to observe aproportion betwixt their talents , and accounts ; because he expects that mens use , and imployment of their talents should be answerable unto the nature , and number of them : unto whomsoever much is given , of him shall be much required : and to whom men have committed much , of him they will 〈◊〉 the more , Luk. 12. 48 : and is it not as equitable for God to doe so too ? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , crescunt rationes donorum , faith Gregory ; as God hath distributed to every man , as the Lord hath called every 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 him walke , 1 Cor. 7. 17 : where we may observe ; that God's call , and man's duty in walking hold proportion with the gifts that God hath distributed ; and therefore those , unto whom God hath distributed more , and greater gifts , for them he hath cut out more , and greater worke : men then should make their gifts , and talents a rule unto themselves in working ; for it will be a rule , unto which God will have an eye in judging : we should therefore conclude ; that we have never done our full duty , as long as we have not done all that we can , as long as we have not laboured with all our 〈◊〉 , with all our soule , might , and strength : as every man ( saith Peter ) * hath received the gift , even sominister the same one to 〈◊〉 , as good Stewards of the manyfold grace of God : here you see , that our layings out in ministring unto others must answer our Intrado ; our harvest must be suitable unto our seed : where God hath sowne bountifully , he will expect to reap bountifully : woe therefore be it unto you , if the accounts you bring in , be not in some reasonable fort proportionable unto your receipts : if thou hast a greater income , a more plentifull estate than others , more raised intellectualls than others ; if thou enjoyest more spare time than others ; if thou hast a vaster power , and authority than others if thou sittest under a better ministry , conversest with more able , and knowing company than others , and if withall thou doest not doe thy master more service than others ; thy stripes will be the more , and thy Condemnation the greater . A third sort of duties , unto which the day of judgment is a provokement regards others : and they may againe be subdivided ; they respect either all men , or bad men , or 〈◊〉 . 1. All men : and they are two ; humility towards them , charity in our censures of them . 1. Humility towards them : the day of judgment diswades , 1 : from all pride in temporals ; because then there will be an utter abolition of them , 2. from all pride in spirituals ; because 〈◊〉 then , there will not be a perfect consummation of them . 1. From all pride in 〈◊〉 ; because then there will be an an utter abolition of them ; at least as to the use of putting a difference betwixt men in point of degrees , for before Christ's tribunall there will be no respect of persons , Colos. 3. 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is ; there will be no respect of the face , or outward appearance , no regard had unto externals : God will then sentence all men according to their workes ; and he will put no distinction betwixt the free and the bond ; the most redoubted Emperour , and his lowest vassal ; betwixt a Craesus and an Irus ; the rich glutton , and beggar Lazarus ; betwixt the spruce and complementall Courtier , and the plaine and blunt Peasant ; betwixt the learned Criticke , and the illiterate Swaine ; the gallant Lady , and the homely milk-maide , her that grindeth at the mill . It would be little better than madnesse for a stage-player , that personates a King , to be proud over his fellowes who act inferiour parts , when he knoweth , that the tiring house and the Conclusion of the play will end all this disparity : and is it not as ridiculous a folly , to pride it over others , in regard of those transitory things , in which the Charnell house , and the day of Judgment will take away all inequality ? 2. Our spirituals are unapt fuell for pride ; because their full consummation will not be untill the day of judgment : for here , in this life , they will still be defective ; and so present a continuall argument for our teares , and humiliation : the Corinthians were enriched by Christ Jesus in every thing in all utterance , and all knowledge , so that they came behind in no gift : but yet , they waited for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ , 1 Cor. 1. 5 , 7. (r) as knowing , that then alone they should be made perfect in all that which was yet wanting to them : indeed , presently upon separation from the body , the spirits of just men are made perfect : Heb. 12. 23. intensively their graces then arrive unto their highest , and utmost degree : but this intensive perfection of their graces doth not extend it's operation , and influence unto their bodies , untill the comming of of our Lord Jesus . 2. Charity in our censures of them ( especially if they be professors with us of the same true religion ) in our censures of their state , and of their actions : it will be one great torment of reprobates that day to review their miscensures of the Godly : how will it vex them to behold them their Judges , whome by their rash judgment they branded as scelestique hypocrites ? how will they be confounded to heare all their black jealousies of them pronounced to be groundlesse , and injurious ? nay the Godly themselves ( though their glorifi'd Condition be uncapable of shame and blushing ) will have cause to retract their over censoriousnesse : God will then own many Sons , unto whome they would not vouchsase the respect of brethren ; they shall meet those , intermix'd wth the Angels in the glorious traine of Christ , whome their uncharitable rigour alwayes condemned unto the pit of Hell , as gracelesse ; & shall heare their actions cleared from those crimes with which their bitter , and unjust censures charged them . There be two places , in the Apostle Paul , wherein the day of judgment is used as a reason to dehort from rash , and nncharitable judging . The first is , Rom. 14. 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 : Why doest thou judge thy brother ? or why doest thou set at nought thy brother ? we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ : for it is 〈◊〉 , as I live saith the Lord , every knee shall bow to me , and every tongue shall 〈◊〉 to God : 〈◊〉 us not therfore judge one another any more . The things , for which the Apostle would not have the weake to judge the strong , as irreligious , and profane , or the strong to despise the weake , ( and despising is a kind of judging ) as ignorant , and unnecessarily scrupulous in the use of their Christian liberty , were matters of an indifferent nature : and here ( to passe ab Hypothesi ad Thesin ) we may hence inferre , that in indifferencies , wherein there is no outward and visible failings , we are not to judge or condemne one another , because Christ hath reserved the judicature of such matters unto himselfe , for he alone knows how they are in all particulars circumstanced , and therefore , for us here to be peremptory in censuring is a presumptious usurpation , and invasion upon the royall prerogative of Christ. A second place is the 1 Cor. 4. 4 , 5. He that judgeth me is the Lord , therefore judge nothing before the time , untill the Lord come , who both will bring to light the hidden things of darknesse , and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts : and 〈◊〉 shall every man have praise of God. The Corinthians it seemes had passed a very hasty , and headlong censure upon Paul in comparison of others , and that unto his injury , and disparagement ; from them therefore he appealeth unto the unerring tribunall of Heaven : he that judgeth me is the Lord , he alone is my supreame , and infallible Judge , others may take upon them to judge me , and to call in question the uprightnesse , and the fidelity of my heart in the worke of the Ministry : but , alasse ! they have no commission for such an act , and besides , they are utterly unqualified for it , for how little can they peirce into that privy closet of man's soule , the heart , and conscience ? hereupon the Apostle dehortes them from the like rashnesse , and precipitancy for the suture , therefore judge nothing , ( to wit , that is hidden and unknowne ) before the time untill the Lord come , wherein alone there will be a perfect discovery of all secrets : this the Apostle affirmeth : first , in the generall he will bring to light the hidden things of darknesse : some understand the passage only concerning evill actions , because darknesse in scripture is usually taken in an evill sense : but ( as Estius well observeth ) it else where signifies only privacy , and 〈◊〉 , and is applyable to both good and evill actions : for it , he cites two places , Matth. 10. 27 : what I 〈◊〉 you in darknesse that 〈◊〉 ye in light , Luk. 12. 3 : whatsoever you have 〈◊〉 in darknesse shall be heard in the light : that darknesse is here taken in this latter sense he confirmteth from the context , which agreeth in cómon unto both sorts of actions : he will then bring to light both , he will then manifest the good , as well as the bad 〈◊〉 of the hearts : in these latter words he exemplifieth by a particular what he had said only in generall in the former : and he instanceth in , what is inwardest , and secretest in man , the counsels of the heart : mens outward actions lye open unto our view ; but the counsels of mens hearts , the purposes , intentions , ends , aimes , and motives whence their actions spring are of themselves invisible , and no created understanding can have of them an immediate , and infallible intuition , and therefore , we must referre them unto the judgment of the last day : then indeed 〈◊〉 man ( to wit , that hath done well ) shall have praise , and his praise shall be proportioned unto the degree of his well doing : They , that will adventure to anticipate the divine retribution , will be very lyable to mistakes , they may , ere they are aware , detract from the most praise-worthy , and crowne those with praises that are of all others most undeserving : that which Paul here speakes to the Corinthians ( and in them unto all private Christians ) may be pressed , in a more speciall manner , upon publique judicatories , they should judge nothing secret before the time , untill the Lord come : indeed , that which Job professeth of himselfe , Job . 29. 16 : the cause which I knew not I searched out , is the duty of every magistrate : a Judge should doe his best for the bolting out of the most hidden truth , and to search into the bottome of the darkest cause ; but , if when in this search he hath proceeded with his most diligent care , and greatest caution , he yet hath no convictive prooses , but only meere 〈◊〉 presumptions , and probabilities to guide him , which can beget only a conjecturall knowledge , and that is full of uncertainty , here he may guesse , but cannot properly judge : he , that in this case will peremptorily judge either way , may soon wrong the generation of the upright , & condemne as frequently the innocent as the guilty : the hidden things of darknesse are to be put over unto the final , & infallible judgment of the great day , which will bring them all into the open light . Proceed we next unto those duties that regard wicked men ; and they are two , 〈◊〉 from them , patience towards them . First , we may hence be exhorted unto an estrangement from all unnecessary , delightfull , intimate fellowship with them , not that we may not at all converse with such ; for then ( as the Apostle saith , 1 Cor. 5. 10. ) we must 〈◊〉 goe out of the world : such a doctrine hath attendancy to the putting of the world into a mutiny , and the dissolving of all humane societies , our callings , relations : and necessities will many times enforce us to have commerce with the worst of men ; but to enter into any league of familiarity , amity , and inwardnesse with persons notoriously ; or professedly impious , and prophane is a thing disagreeable unto that finall separation , which Christ shall make the last day , of the sheep from the goates , the godly from the ungodly , Matth. 25. 32 , 33 : shall they only be our intimates , and confidents here in this life from whom in the next life we are like to be everlasting separatists ? shall they now alone have our hearts , and bosomes , unto whose curse , and condemnation we shall ( without God give them repentance ) give our vote , and suffrage ? shall they have our most intimate , and friendliest conversation , that are as yet the professed enemies of Christ , and his Church ? seeing , if they continue so still , we shall in the last day rejoyce , and triumph in their eternall ruine , and damnation . Unlesse God worke a change in their hearts , after death we shall never come into their company againe ; and after the day of judgment never so much as see them againe , and therefore why shall they now ingrosse , if not all , yet the greatest part of our intimate , and familiar society ? betwixt us then there will be an impassable gulph , and that unto all eternity , and therefore why now is there such a nearnesse betwixt us ? the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment , nor sinners in the Congregation of the righteous , Psal. 1. 5 : the goates shall not so much as come nigh the sheep , and therefore now the righteous should not stand in the way of 〈◊〉 , Psal. 1. 1 : they should ( as 〈◊〉 exhorts ) not enter into the path of the wicked , nor goe in the way of evill men , 〈◊〉 should avoid it , &c. turne from it , and passe away , Prov : 4. 14 , 15. 〈◊〉 , we may hence be exhorted to patience under their injuries , and at their 〈◊〉 , Jam : 5. vers . 7. 8 , 9. Be patient therefore , brethren , unto the coming of the Lord : behold the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth , and hath long patience for it , untill he receive the early and latter raine : be ye also patient , stablish your hearts : for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh . Grudge not one against another , 〈◊〉 , lest ye be condemned ; behold the Jugde standeth 〈◊〉 the doore . Here we have an 〈◊〉 unto patience , vers . 7. 8 : and a 〈◊〉 from the effects of impatience , vers . 9. 1. An 〈◊〉 to patience ; and this is addressed unto the poore Christians oppressed , and persecuted by the wicked rich , and so much may be collected from comparison of vers . 7 : with 〈◊〉 . 6 : unto which , the illative particle [ therefore ] carrieth us : ye have condemned and killed the just , and he doth not resist you , be patient therefore brethren ; your unjust and unavoidable sufferings are , not only the matter , or object of , but a motive unto patience ; ye are just , and innocent , and yet condemned , and killed , and you can make no resistance ; therefore be patient , therefore you have need of the buckler of patience , and indeed without it the persecutions , that you are to suffer , will , not only ruine your states , and bodies ; but even sinke your soules : the word is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; and ( in the margent ) it is render'd be long patient , or suffer with long patience ; let patience have her perfect worke , ( Jam. 1. 4. ) let it be parallel unto your sufferings , be as lasting , and as durable as they can be ; and with them you must expect no truce here in this life , be patient therefore unto the coming of the Lord , that is , to judgment , untill that time you will dayly meet with matter for the exercise of your patience . In the words there may be both the extension , and the limitation , or restriction of our patience : be patient unto the coming of the Lord , and when he comes there will be no further need of your patience : indeed , the habit of patience will still remaine , but there will be no objects wherewith to exercise it : the Apostle exhorts , as to patience it selfe , so also to the cause of it , stablish your 〈◊〉 ( be firme , and unshakeable in the faith : ) and be rooted and grounded in love : ( Eph. 3. 17. ) & in all other practical graces : unsetlednesse in the faith , temporary graces , that have no firme , or deep rooting in the soule , will soone betray a man unto impatience , and unto it's usuall sequele Apostacy : some thinke , that the Apostle urgeth the fortification of our hearts with courage , and resolution , against the most bloody , and violent persecutions , that are one of the strongest temptations unto impatience : Christian fortitude will even steele , and ( as it were ) harden the soft spirits of women with an all-conquering patience , and enable them quietly , and composedly to encounter such dangers , as a stout Souldier would tremble to thinke of , whereas , on the other side , from the want of spirituall valour , you may expect nothing , but such impotent whining , and puleing language , and behaviour , as expresseth a lower impatience , then a man shall meet with in poore children . Hitherto we have a 〈◊〉 of the patience exhorted to , 1 : From it's 〈◊〉 of the bloudy persecutions of the ungodly rich , 〈◊〉 . 6. 7. 2. By it's 〈◊〉 , and limitation unto the coming of the Lord , be patient untill then , and afterwards there will be no further tryall of your patience , 3. By it's cause establish your hearts . In the next 〈◊〉 consider we the arguments , by which the Apostle enforceth this his exhortation unto patience , and they 〈◊〉 two , 1 : A 〈◊〉 of it : 2. A promise of reward unto it . 1. A 〈◊〉 of it , behold the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth , and hath long patience for it untill he receive the early , and latter raine , 〈◊〉 ye also patient : With a comparison in point of quality , similitude , there is joyned another in point of quantity , a comparison of unequals : so that the argument proceeds , à minori ad majus , from the lesse unto the greater : if husbandmen wait , with such long patience for the precious fruits of the earth , how much more should Christians wait , with all possible patience , for the farre more precious objects of their faith and hope ? But the second argument is more to our purpose , and that is the promise of reward unto this patience in the day of judgment : for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh , and he when he cometh will recompense your patience with such a glorious crowne , as shall make a whole age of affliction , and misery spent in expectation of it to seeme but a few dayes ; as Jac. b's time of service seemed unto him for the love of Rachell , Gen. 29. 20. The very same motive is used in the next verse to 〈◊〉 from the effects of in patience : Grudge not one against 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 , lest ye be condemned , behold the Judge standeth before the 〈◊〉 : the latter words are a 〈◊〉 expression of the neernes of a thing ; so likewise ye , when you shall see all these things , know that it is neare , even at the doores . Matth. 24. 33 : the words , read in our translation , grudge not one against another , are in the originall , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and in the margent it is thus varied , groane , or grieve not ; to wit , either out of 〈◊〉 , or envy . Unto both sortes of groanes , I shall shew how , the neare approach of the Judge is suited , as a disswasive . 1. Groane not against others out of a desire of revenge for injuries received from them ; for behold the Judge standeth at the doore : Vengeance is one of God's royall prerogatives , Rom. 12. 19. Deut. 32. 35 : and the day of judgement is the time , which he hath set apart in a more speciall manner , for the compleat inflicting of it ; God will recompense , when he judgeth his people , Heb. 10. 30. It is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you ; and to you , who are troubled rest with us , when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire , 2 Thes. 1. vers . 6. 7 , 8 : avenge not your selves therefore , but rather give place unto wrath , Rom. 12. 19 : and commit your cause unto him , whose insinitenesse will have a more tender resentment of your wrongs , then your owne narrow hearts arecapable of . No injuries cut deeper in mens spirits , than those of tribunals ; for what greater aggravation almost can there be of a man's wrongs , than to have them to be authorized by the abused Law , and cloaked with a pretence of Justice ? and yet this is a mischiefe , that sometimes Judges , of the greatest , both ability , and integrity , may be unable to prevent ; for unto the administration of Justice there be very many , that have a concurrence ; and therefore it may be hindred by the default of the least , and lowest instrument : even as the motion of a clocke will prove irregular , if the least wheele , or but pin be out of order : alse witnesses may misguide both Jury , and Judge , nay suppose the witnesses give a true , and full testimony , and the Judge be ( as the woman of Tekoah said of David , 2 Sam. 14. 20. ) wise according to the wisdome of an Angell of God , and discharge his part exactly , in directing the evidence , in recapitulating , selecting , and collating the materiall points of that which hath been said ; yet one crafty , and willfull knave in a tame Jury may pervert , or disturbe Justice : but now , against the perjury of witnesses , the unjustice of Judges , Jurers , Counsellers , Attourneys , Clarkes , there is not the poorest wretch , but may enter his appeale unto a Judge , that can neither deceive , nor be deceived , and this should make him in patience to 〈◊〉 his soule , and take up such an estimate of the unrighteous , both verdict , and sentence of men , as Paul had of humane unjust judgments in the generall , private , as well as publique ; with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you , or of man's judgment , 1 Cor. 4. 3 : in the Greek it is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , of man's day , or a humane day ; man's day ( by a metonymy of the Adjunct ) is put for man's judgment ; and it is a phrase taken from ordinary Courts , in which set dayes are appointed for judgment : Hierome thinketh , that it is a forme of speech proper unto the Cilicians , among'st whom Paul first learn'd his Greek , as being borne at Tarsus a City in Cilicia : others take it for a Hebraisme , for with the Hebrewes ( say they ) the day of the Lord signifies the judgment of the Lord , and so man's day may , in like manner , signifie man's judgment : the like also is in use among'st the Latines , with whom diem dicere , is in jus 〈◊〉 : here is an opposition imployed betwixt man's day , and the Lord's day . Paul knew that in the Lord's day he should be acquitted , and so long it was a matter of light moment with him to be condemned in man's day , if a man can say as Job ; 〈◊〉 hold my witnesse is in Heaven , and my record is on high , why then he is beyond the reach of a slavish feare , or a distempered sorrow ; that may arise from the falsenesse of testimonies , from a pack't jury , a Corrupt Judge , an unfaithfull Lawyer , God knoweth thine innocency , and he both can , and will cleare it , if thy cause be just , and yet miscary here , 〈◊〉 it unto the Lord , and he will ( in his day ) bring forth thy 〈◊〉 as the light , and thy judgment as the noone-day , Ps. 37. v. 5. 6 〈◊〉 having shewn how prone men are to abuse authority unto oppression , he comforteth , and encourageth those that are oppressed , with a consideration of Gods future judgment , Eccles. 3 16 , 17. And moreover I saw under the Sun the place of Judgment , that wickednesse was 〈◊〉 , and the place of 〈◊〉 , that iniquity was there , I said in mine heart , God shall judge the righteous and the 〈◊〉 : for there is a time there for every purpose and for every worke . That worldly power , and authority is no branch of true happinesse , but a meere vanity , the Preacher proves from its being subject to be abused unto wrong , and injustice ; for let men have what opinion they will of it , yet , because it is liable to so great a mischiefe , the utmost it can render ( if severed from the feare of God ) is a glorious infelicity : Now the Preacher observeth , that this abuse of Magistracy was a thing very rife , and usuall ; and in all likelyhood he speaks , not only of forraigne nations , but of the Kingdome of Israel , the only Church of God at that time , wherein righteousnesse should , if in any place , reigne , and flourish : not only of the former times under David , Saul , Samuel , and the Judges , but even of the very daies wherein he himselfe lived : he was a very prudent prince , and his peace gave him leasure to looke after the execution of his Lawes ; and withall , we may well presume , that his utmost vigilancy , and circumspection were not wanting ; but notwithstanding all this injustice too too frequently crept into his very courts of Justice : Moreover I saw under the Sunne the place of Judgment , that wickednesse was there : and the place of righteousnesse , that iniquity 〈◊〉 there . The offence is aggravated from the circumstance of place , wherein it was committed ; the place of righteousnesse , the place of Judgment : to violate justice any where is naught , but to do it in the Courts of Justice is extremely odious and abominable : for they , by their institution , should be Altars of refuge unto the wronged , and distressed : and therefore , when they prove unto them a rock , against which they split , and ship - 〈◊〉 all their hopes , and fortunes , the disappointment of their just expectation , cannot but adde exceedingly to their injury , and vexation : as the Temple was consecrated wholy unto Gods worship , so that no vessell , but what was holy , was to be brought therein : even so places of judgment are to be sacred unto justice , and nothing unjust should dare appeare there : and if it do the frown of the Judge should soone scatter it . Solomons great Throne ( and it was a throne whereon he executed judgment , 1 King. 7. 7. was made of Ivory , and overlaid with the best gold , 1 Kings 10. 18. and this (n) ( thinke some ) was to signifie , that from it nothing was to proceed , but what was white , 〈◊〉 Ivery , sound , and uncorrupt , 〈◊〉 precious as the best gold : the morall may be applyed unto the tribunals of subordinate Judges ; for , let them consist of whatsoever matter , yet their use , and end is not only innocent , white , like ivory , but also 〈◊〉 , and glorious , like 〈◊〉 gold : and from a throne of ivory overlaid with the best gold , no drosse should be heard , no lead , no sentence of ignorance , no iron , no sentence of violence : hereupon is it ( as Mr Cartwright observeth ) that the Prophet Esaiah thus describeth the corruption of publique Iustice in Judah , Esai : 1. 22. thy silver is become drosse , thy wine mixt with water ( and how he explaineth this Allegorie you may see in the next verse ) thy princes are rebellious , and companions of thieves : every one loveth gifts , and followeth after 〈◊〉 : they judge not the fatherlesse , neither doth the cause of the widdow come unto them . But the Preacher ( having shewn the disease of his times , publique unjustice ) in the next place points unto the remedy of the wronged against it vers . 17. and that sometimes is only a patient waiting for Gods last judgment , that will review , correct , and redresse all the miscarriages of humane judicatories : I said in my heart God will judge the righteous ( to wit , by a sentence of absolution ) and the wicked ( to wit , by a judgment of condemnation ) for there is a time there ( that is , with God , in the judgment to come ) for every purpose , and for every 〈◊〉 : if men be overthrown in one court , and there lie an appeale unto another , where there sits a Iudg of known , and unquestionable uprightnesse and incorruption , they will hopefully , and cheerfully fly unto that other , though the prosecution of their appeale be very chargeable : The lowest vassall , that is upon the 〈◊〉 of the earth , hath liberty to appeale , from the highest court upon earth , unto one that is far higher , that which the Lord will hold in the day of judgment ; the pursuit of thy appeale thither will cost thee nothing , but thy teares , & prayers ; & there , God will Iudg over thy cause again , & do thee all the right , that thou canst desire , & assurance of this should ( one would thinke ) exclude , all excesse of sorrow , faintnesse of courage , and despondency of spirit for the misiudgings of the highest of men : If thou seest the oppression of the poore , and violent , perverting of Iudgment , and Iustice in a Province , 〈◊〉 not at the matter : for he that is higher then the 〈◊〉 regardeth , and there be higher then they , Eccl : 5. 8. 2. Groane not against the wicked , out of envy at their prosperity in this life ; for , 〈◊〉 the Iudge standeth at the doore , and when he cometh , men will diseerne , 〈◊〉 the righteous and the wicked , between him that 〈◊〉 God , and him that serveth him not , Mal. 3. 18. The Lord knoweth how to reserve the unjust unto the day of iudgment to be punished , 2 Pet. 2. 9. and their punishment then shall be such , as shall throw them below all envy : it will then be plainly seen , that innocent Paul , at the barre , had no reason to looke with an envious eye at his uniust Iudge , Felix , upon the tribunall : that Lazarus the beggar , in his rags , 〈◊〉 of sores , and wants , had no ground to repine at the pompous attire , and sumptuous fare of the rich glutton : that the poore Martyrs , in their deepest , and darkest dungeons , loaden with irons , and chaines , upon the rack , in their greatest tortures , at the stake , amidst their flames were in a farre happier condition , than their cruell persecutors in the height of all their power , pomp , and glory : the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning ( to wit , in the resurrection ) Psal. 49. 14. here the wicked flaunt it , domineer , and tyrannize it over the godly : but these , in the last day shall enjoy a full victory , and triumph over them : Ye that feare my name shall tread down the wicked ( saith God , in the Prophet Malachie ) for they shall be 〈◊〉 under the soles of your seet , in the day that I shall do this , saith the Lord of Hosts , Mal. 4. 3. Now they trample , upon the godly and make up the upper end of the world : but then , they shall be the vilest , and most contemptible of men : they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet to tread upon : the present selicity of the wicked was a great stumbling block even unto a David , untill he went into the Sanctuary , then he understood their end , Psal. 73. 2. 3. 17. when he understood their end , their novissima , what happened unto them after death , and judgment , this calmed , and composed his spirit : for then he saw , that they were not to be envied in their highest glories . To goe unto the last sort of duties : to wit , those which regard good men , both ordinary Christians , and Ministers , and they are two . 1. The reall expressions of a cordiall love of them in 〈◊〉 . 2. All actions of Christian Communion with them in particular . First , the day of judgment should provoke unto reall expressions of a Cordiall love of them in generall : In the prayer of the Apostle for the Thessalonians ( in the 1 Thes. 3. 12 , 13. ) you may observe : that growth in this love will be attended with such an unblameable holinesse , as will stand before God at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ : the Lord make you to increase , and abound in love one towards another , and towards all men , even as we do towards you : to the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holinesse , before God , even our Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his Saints . Now love , is not sincere , unlesse it be fruitfull and expressive ; and the very omissions of the expressions of charity will be , by Christ himselfe , put into the bill of endictment against reprobates in the day of Judgment , Matth. 25. 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45. and therefore , much more , their injurious , and cruell acts of persecution , and oppression of them : men dare not affront , and wrong those , that are neare in place , and favour unto a Judge , before whom they are to be tryed for their lives : the generall tryall , at the last day , will concerne mens eternall life , and happinesse , and unto the Iudge Christ Iesus none are so nearly related , as the Godly ; for they are his servants , favourites , intimates , members , spouse , and 〈◊〉 : and yet , there are none among the sons of men , that have so much contempt , so many , and so great injuries , and abuses heaped upon them , as they : nothing so much distasteth carnall men , as strictnesse in the service of Christ ; nothing amongst them exposeth unto so much scorne , and obloquie , as to be a faithfull Embassadour unto Christ : and is not this an evident argument of disesteeme of , and disaffection unto his person , and office ? the guilt hereof may sufficiently instruct such malignant enemies , that they are not to expect any good , or favour from him , when he shall sit upon the throne of his glory in judgment . John Damascene relates this following story of a certaine great and powerfull king , o riding in a chariot overlaid with gold , and waited on by his Royall guard , he met with two Ministers well known unto him , who were very meanly habited and in a poore plight of body : He no sooner saw them but he forthwith leapt down from his chariot and in reverence of them prostrated himselfe upon the ground , and afterwards arising he embraced them , and affectionately kissed them . The nobles that attended him , deeply resented this his carriage as unbecoming the glory and majesty of a king . Hereupon they addressed themselves unto his brother , and he by their instigation tartly admonished him , that in this strange veneration of two such contemptible wretches he had forgotten his dignity , and dishonoured his Crown . The king for the present said little unto him , but the next evening he returned him a reall and sharpe answere . It was the custome of that Country ( where the kings power was , it seemes , 〈◊〉 ) for the king to denounce the sentence of death without farther processe , by a trumpet sounded by an officer appointed for that purpose , so that all the neighbourhood lookt upon him , before whose gate this trumpet was sounded , as a condemned man : when the night came , the king commanded this trumpeter to sound before the gates of his brothers house , who no sooner heard it , but he look't upon it as the messenger of his unavoydable death . And this despaire made the Remainder of the night 〈◊〉 unto him , and all his family . As soone as it was day he went in 〈◊〉 apparrell with his Wife and Children unto the Court-gates , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 expecting every minute the Executioner . The King hearing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 elently commanded him to be brought unto his presence ; and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this mournfull posture , thus he 〈◊〉 him : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tremble at the trumpet of thy naturall Brother , though thine 〈◊〉 be not privy unto any signall offence against him , what a 〈◊〉 part then was it in thee to reprehend me for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and reverentiall salutation of the trumpets of my great God , which 〈◊〉 me unto his tribunall , that is insinitely more 〈◊〉 , than mine , seeing mine heart is conscious of great and in numerable transgressions against him . There was doubtlesse an imprudent excesse in this action , which I may excuse ; but shall not undertake to justify , much lesse shall I presse to the practise of the same . God forbid , that any Protestant minister should accept so profound a respect from the people of his Congregation : But yet however the example may make those blush , ( if their cheekes were capable of such a colour , ) who have the ministers of Jesus Christ , by whom God will judge the secrets of men in such an horrible contempt , as that to use the expression of Job in another case ; They disdaine to set them with the doggs of their slocke , Job . 30. 3. Secondly , we may from the day of judgment be pressed unto all obliged acts of communion with them , let us consider 〈◊〉 another , to prevoke unto love , and to good workes : not for saking the assembling of our selves together , as the manner of some is ; but exhorting one another , and so much the more as ye 〈◊〉 the day approaching , Heb. 10. 24 , 25 : here the Apostle call's upon the Hebrewes for both private , and publique acts of Christian Communion ; and he makes the neare approach of the day of judgment a speciall incentive unto both . 1. It is an incentive unto private acts of Christian communion ; let us consider one another to provoke unto love , and to good workes ; 〈◊〉 one another , and so much the more , as ye see the day approaching ; for , when that day cometh , it will be to no purpose to exhort one another ; and therefore as the 〈◊〉 , chap. 3. vers . 13 : Exhort 〈◊〉 another dayly , whil'st it is called to day : what the 〈◊〉 speakes of exhortation , I may say of private prayer for one another pray for one another , and so much the more as you see the day approaching ; for , when that day cometh , prayers for one another will be in vaine , the efficacy of the prayer or petition is proper unto the time of this life , now the effectuall 〈◊〉 prayer of one righteous man 〈◊〉 much , and that for others , 〈◊〉 5. 16 : but 〈◊〉 the prayers of millions will be of no availe . 2. Vnto publique acts of Christian communion ; not forsaking the assembling of our selves together , as the manner of 〈◊〉 is : and so much the more as you see the day approaching . At that day all the Saints will concurre unto the making up of the generall assembly and Church of the first borne , Heb. 12. 23 : and therefore , why should any of them , that live here together , forsake the assembling of themselves together ? then they shall for ever associate in the praises of God ; and why then shall they not in the interim joyne in all other parts of God's worship ? and walke hand in hand together , friendly , and fruitfully in all the ordinances of Christ ? then shall there be a perpetuall , and uninterrupted union , and communion betwixt them ; and is it not a thousand pities , that there should be in the meane time betwixt them a separation ? then they shall all stand together in one 〈◊〉 at the right hand of Christ ; and why now should there be such distances , and divisions betwixt them ? nothing shall then breake off that happy fellowship , in which they shall everlastingly embrace one another ; and what is there now then , that should make them to refuse to reach out to one another the right hand of fellowship ? O beloved ! the animosities , sidings , factions , schismes , and bandings , that are among st Protestants ( betwixt Lutherans , and Calvinists ; Presbyterians and Independents ; and betwixt both , and some moderate persons for Prelacy ) are unmeet qualifications for that blessed unity , agreement , and harmony , which shall be betwixt all the Godly at the day of judgment , and from that unto all 〈◊〉 : there is nothing almost more opposed unto this communion of Saints , then their condemning , and 〈◊〉 one another : and from both those the Apostle dehortes upon the account of the generall judgment , Rom. 14. 10 , 11 , 12 , 13. But why doest thou judge thy brother ? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother ? we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ : for it is written . As I live , saith the Lord , every knee shall 〈◊〉 to me , and every tongue shall confesse to God. So then , every one of us shall give account of himselfe to God ; let us not therefore 〈◊〉 one another , any more . Why doe Christians judge one another , seeing they shall all be associated with Christ , as assessors in judgment ? why doe they set at nought one another , seeing they shall all stand upon the same levell before the judgment seat of Christ ? and at this generall appearance ; the weake must give an account , for judging of the strong , and the strong for their despising the weake ; and both for their rending the Church of God , and disturbing the peace thereof : however their persons may be acquitted , yet their actions shall be condemned , and discovered to be nought . Contests between brethren are very unsutable unto their worke in the day of judgment ; for then they shall all joyne in the worship of God : as I live saith the Lord , every knee shall bow to me , and every tongue shall confesse to God , vers . 11 : and unto this sacred conjunction how unfortable is it for them here to be snarling one at another , to be judging and despising one another ? There is another opposite of Christian fellowship mentioned by James ; and his dissuasive from it is , the nearnesse of the great Judges coming , grudge not one against another , brethren , behold the Judge standeth before the doore , Jam. 5. 9 : in the Greeke it is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , groane not one against another , brethren : it is very probable , that he speakes of the dissenting Christians of those times , that went under the names of the circumcision , and uncircumcision : in the two next foregoing verses he exhortes them to patience towards persecuting enemies , and in this he dissuades them from the effects , and fruits of impatience one towards another ; to wit , contentious groanes , groane not one against another ( out of contention ) for behold the Judge standeth at the doore ; and he disalloweth all such groanes , and will put an utter period unto them : as he will wipe away all teares from the eyes of brethren , Rev. 21. 4 : so he will suppresse all their groanes : we shall all be perfect friends at our journeyes end ; and therefore , why doe we fall out by the way ? God will reconcile all the brethren at the last day ; and therefore it is folly for any of them to jangle in the meane while ? they shall not then so much as harbour an ill thought one of another ; and therefore why should they now thinke so uncharitably of , and speake , and write so bitterly one against another ? that persecuters should condemne , and kill the just is no wonder , vers . 6 : but that brethren should thus sigh , groane , and pray one against another , especially seeing the Judge standeth at the doore , is very strange . Thus , having seen how the day of judgment is an inducement unto the matter of the forementioned duties ; I shall only crave thy patience , Reader , to shew , how it hath the same use , as touching the manner requisite in the performance of them ; which standeth especially in foure things ; fervency , frequency , sincerity , and constancy . The two 〈◊〉 I shall joyne together : the day of judgment is an apt motive unto fervency and frequency in the foregoing duties , 1 Cor. 15. 58. Be ye alwayes 〈◊〉 in the worke of the Lord ; estote eminentes in opere 〈◊〉 , as Beza reades it , be ye alwayes eminent , or excelling in the worke of the Lord ; for as much as you know that your labour will not be in vaine in the Lord : for , in the day of retribution , he will render unto every man according unto his 〈◊〉 , according unto the degree , and measure , and according to the number of his workes : the harvest of our glory will be proportioned unto our seed of grace , and good workes : he which soweth spareingly , shall , reape spareingly , and he which soweth bountifully , shall reape bountifully , 2 Cor. 9. 6 : those that out-shine their brethren here in holinesse , shall hereafter out-shine them in 〈◊〉 : and this our Saviour expresseth metaphorically , in conformity unto the guise of prudent Princes ; who preferre their Servants proportionably unto the degree of their service : he that gained ten pounds , had authority 〈◊〉 him over ten Cities ; and he that 〈◊〉 but five pounds , was placed but over five Cities , Luk. 19. 16 , 17 , 18 , 19. Thirdly , the day of judgment is an apt motive unto sincerity , because then there will be a perfect , and full disclosure of all hypocrisy , and dissimulation ; God will then judge the secrets of 〈◊〉 ; God will then bring every secret thing unto judgment , Eccles. 12. 14 : he will bring to light the hidden things of darknesse , the bidden things of 〈◊〉 ; he will make manifest the counsels of the hearts , 1 Cor. 4. 5 : unto this some apply that of our Saviour , Luk. 12. 1 , 2 , 3. Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees , which is , hypocrisy ; for there is nothing covered , that shall not be revealed , 〈◊〉 hid ; that shall not be knowne : therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darknesse , shall be heard in the light , and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets , shall be proclaimed upon the house tops : the 2. and 3. verses are ( by Cajetane and others ) understood of the life to come , to wit , in the day of judgment . The designe of Pharisaicall hypocrites is to cloake , and conceale their vices , and sinnes with shewes , and professions of religion : but this will be a vaine , and fruitlesse designe ; for , in the day of judgment , the craftiest hypocrite shall be unmasqued ; his most concealed , covered , and hidden actings shall be displaied , revealed , and made knowne ; darknesse shall be no shelter to him , and the greatest privacy cannot prevent detection : what he hath done in darknesse shall be made visible to all the world : his most private whispers , and that in the closet , shall become audible to all the world , shall be as it were proclaimed upon the house tops : he respecteth the manner of the Jewish buildings , which were slat rooft , whence they might speake to multitudes in the streets : the bookes of mens consciences , that were here perhaps clasped , and tyed , shall then be open'd , Rev : 20. 12 : and the contents of them shall be plainly legible by men , and Angeis . Ottocar (P) King of Bohemia , refused to doe homage to Rodulphus the first Emperour , till at last chastised with war , he was content to doe him homage privately in a tent , which tent was so contrived by the Emperours servants , that by drawing one Cord it was all taken away , and so Ottacar presented on his knees doing his homage to the view of three armies in presence . Thus God at last shall uncase the closet dissembler to the sight of men , Angels , and 〈◊〉 , having removed all vailes and pretences of piety , no goat in a 〈◊〉 's skin shall steale on his right hand at the last day of judgment . 〈◊〉 relates a story of a counterseit , who pretended that he was 〈◊〉 the Son of Herode he was saith he , so like unto Alexander , that they who had seen Alexander , and knew him well would have sworne he had been Alexander himselfe ; but he could not deceive Augustus , who by the hardnesse of his hands and roughnesse of his skinne soone found out the Imposture : it is no difficult matter for hypocrites to cheate men with Semblances of piety ; but let them not be deceived for God will not ( in their day of tryall ) be mocked ; but will clearly evidence their hypocrisy unto all , by the hardnesse of their hearts , and brawninesse of their consciences : the most discerning eye can hardly peirce into the hypocrisie of some Professors : they may be Virgins incorrupt , and sound in point of doctrine , and opinion , they may be Virgins true , and faithfull unto Christ , by dedication in Baptisme , as also by their voluntary Covenant , nay they may be 〈◊〉 - like in respect of their externall conversation , and untainted with the grosser pollutions of the world , they may have lamps of outward , and visible profession , and they may trimme these their lampes , they may pretend to wait for the coming of the Bride groome , and be reputed to doe so by even the wise Virgins themselves : but the coming of the Bridegroome will make an evident , and through discovery , that they were but foolish Virgins , that they had no oile in their vessels , no saving grace , no sound faith , no unfeigned repentance in their hearts , they had not received an unction from the 〈◊〉 one , 1 〈◊〉 . 2. 20 : and hereupon , they will be excluded the celestial Bride-chamber , and be disowned by the Bridegroome . Q Cajetane observeth that they had oile in their lamps , but not in their vessells : they could produce , as a testimony of their goodnesse , and sincerity , the blaze of outward good workes : But , alas ! this will never passe with God in the day of judgement , as long as there is wanting ; in their hearts , and consciences the inward testimony of uprightnesse , and that is wanting in them , they have no oyle in their vessells ; for God is not the formalis Ratio , the ground , and principall inducement of their good workes , and duties : they are not performed for his sake , from a love of him , in obedience to his command , and out of respect unto his glory . Lastly , the day of judgment is a strong and powerfull incentive unto Constancy , and perseverance , and that both in faith and obedience . 1. In faith and the profession thereof : Now we beseech you brethren , by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ , and by our gath ring together unto him , that ye be not soone shaken in mind , or judgment [ or from your mind & judgment , ] 2 Thes. 2. 1 , 2. The Apostle speakes of a particular errour concerning the day of judgment : but , we may inlarge what he saith unto instability of judgment in all matters of faith whatsoever , & shall glosse the words by these following Scriptures , Eph. 4. 14. Be not children tossed to and fro , and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of 〈◊〉 , and cunning crastinesse whereby they lye in waite to 〈◊〉 , Heb. 10. 23 : Let us hold fast the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 faith without wavering , Heb. 13. 9. Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines , for it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace . But you will demaund why he adjures them hereunto , by the comming of our Lord Jesus Christ , and by our gathering together unto him ? The reason is , because , when the Lord Jesus Christ commeth , when we shall be gathered together unto him , we shall all then come in the unity of the faith , and knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man , Eph. 4. 13 : then we shall all attaine a firme immobility in the truth , and for this , not only a revolt or dissent from , but even a doubting or unsetlednesse in any part of the doctrine of faith meritoriously unqualifieth : Christ promiseth when he cometh to make him that overcometh a pillar in the 〈◊〉 of his God , Rev. 3. 12 : and for such a place in the Heavenly structure how unfit are those , that by every blast of false doctrine are transported from the truth of the Gospel ? for every storme of persecution slip anchor and 〈◊〉 cable ? he that denyeth any parcell of Evangelicall doctrine doth in part deny Christ , and how can such expect , but to be disowned by Christ , when he cometh to judgment ? how esfectually this meditation wrought with à Persian Eunuch ( one Usthazanes that had been Governour unto Sapores King of Persia in his minority ) you may reade in Sozomene , lib. 2. cap. 8 : this man for feare denyed the Christian faith , and worshipped the Sun , but was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a strange providence : Simcon Arch-Bishop of Seleucia and 〈◊〉 was for his constany in the faith drag'd unto 〈◊〉 by the Court-gates where Usthazanes then sate , who , though he durst not make any profession of Christianity , yet he could 〈◊〉 but arise and expresse his reverence unto the aged Arch-Bishop iu a respective and an honourable salutation , but the zealous good-man frowned upon him , and turned away his face from him , as thinking him for his Apostacy , unworthy of his notice , and acquaintance : this forthwith stroke Usthazanes unto the heart , and 〈◊〉 from him store of teares , and groanes : and thus he 〈◊〉 with himselfe , Simeon will not owne me , and can I expect any other but that God should disclaime me when I appeare before his tribunal ? Simeon will not speake unto me , will not so much as 〈◊〉 upon me , and can I 〈◊〉 for so much as a good word or a good look from Christ , whome I have so shamefully betraied , and denyed ? hereupon he threw off his rich , and courtly garments , and put on mourning apparrell , and profissed himselfe a Christian , & so , of a Cowardly 〈◊〉 , he became a resolute , aud glorious Martyr . 2. The day of judgment is a congruent inducement unto Constancy in obedience : stablish your hearts ( saith James ) for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh , Jam. 5. 8 : not only stablish your heads in 〈◊〉 , but also stablish your hearts in all morall virtues , graces , and duties ; stablish your hearts 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 , 1 Thes. 3. 13 : for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh ; and he when he cometh will give a crowne of life unto all those , and only those , that are faithfull unto death , Rev. 2. 10. I shall conclude with Heb. 10. 36 , 37 , 38 , 39. For ye have need of patience , that after ye have done the will of God , ye 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the promise yet a little while , and he that shall come will come , and will not tarry : Now the just shall live by faith : but if any man draw backe my soule shall have no pleasure in him . But we are not of them who draw backe unto 〈◊〉 ; but of them that believe to the saveing of the soule . The patience here spoken of differs but little from constancy , and perseverance ; and it regardes in duties those difficulties , impediments , troubles , and molestations , that deterre from them , and tempt unto a desertion of them : these are so many , and great ; that patience is necessary unto every Christian to keep him from backsliding : and this patience must be an active , and diligent patience ; ye must doe the will of God ; and without this patience there is no receiving of the promis'd reward ; ye have need of patience that after ye have done the will of God , ye might receive the promise : for the promise runs conditionally , upon condition we patiently persevere : God will render to them , who by patient continuance in well doing , seeke for glory , and honour , and immortality , eternall life , Rom. 2. 7. But now they may be ready to object , that the promise would not be fully accomplished untill the day of judgment , and that was a great wayes off , unto this Paul answers , that Christ's coming was neare at hand , if (R) the distance were measured . 1. By God's eternity . 2. By Christ's vehement , and most intense desire to deliver , and reward all his people in the due , and appointed time : and this now he expresseth affirmatively , and 〈◊〉 . 1. Affirmatively , and that , by a double Hebraisme . 1. By a double diminutive , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is a very little while : and the same thing is intimated by another gemination in the like imutation of the Hebrew , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (S) He that cometh will come , he will come as certainely as if he were come already , but , because flesh and blood , out of impatience , is apt to thinke , that the time is very long , he contents not himselfe with a vehement and earnest affirmation , that Christ will come shortly , and speedily , but goes yet further to put the matter out of all doubt by denyall of the contrary , and will not (T) tarry , that is ( as Diodati upon the place ) beyond the time , which God hath prefixed , and beyond the tune as shall be necessary for the Church . But , though Christ's coming be neare at hand in the above mentioned respects , yet in it selfe it is a long time off : and what shall poore and persecuted Christians doe in the meane while ? why the Apostle tel's us ( out of the Prophet Habakkuk ) that untill that time the just shall live by faith , faith in the promise of Christ's coming will sustaine , and support the soule , and make to walke cheerfully and comfortably , But , one the contrary , the condition of the Apostate is very sad , and uncomfortable . For. 1 : he incurreth the hatred of God. if any man draw backe my soule shall have no pleasure in him , in the words there is a Litotes , so that more is understood , then is expressed : by the denyall of God's complacency , is signified his hatred of , 〈◊〉 : so that it is , as if he had said ; I infinitely detest , and abhorre all back-sliders : a slavish feare of the wrath of man , is that which makes many Apostates ; but such shall find in the day of judgment ; that the hatred of their Judge will be more dreadfull , than that of their most potent persecuters ; who without repentance , will , as their fellow-prisoners , be arraigned with them at the same barre : men thinke , by their sinfull compliances with the times , to procure the favour , and approbation of great men ; but , alasse 〈◊〉 this is but a sorry designe , for withall they pull upon themselves the dislike of Jesus Christ : the foolish Virgins , whose lampes goe out , shall be rejected by the Bridegroome , Matth. 25. v. 10 , 11 , 12 : and what good will the countenance of Princes doe a man , if he be rejected , and condemned by the Judge of all the earth . Thou mayest by thine unconstancy preserve thy state , and the life of thy body ; but then thou runnest upon the assured ruine , and destruction of thy soule : we are not of them , who draw backe unto perdition ; all that draw backe , draw backe unto perdition : so that we may say of all Apostates , that are finally impenitent , what the Apostle speakes above , v. 26. 27 : of the highest ranke of them , such as sinne against the holy Ghost , there remaineth no more sacrifice for their sins , but a 〈◊〉 fearfull looking for of judgment , and fiery indignation , which shall devoure the adversaries . A BRIEFE AND Scholasticall Discourse , TOVCHING The NATURE of THANKSGIVING . BY HENRY JEANES , Minister of God's Word , at Chedzoy . Nullum officium referendâ gratiâ magis necessarium est . Cic. 1. de Offic. OXFORD , Printed by HEN : HALL for THO : ROBINSON , 1660. Unto the Worshipfull , The MAIOR , The ALDERMEN , WITH All other the well affected Inhabitants of the City of CHICHESTER , HENRY IEANES Dedicateth this ensuing discourse of Thanksgiving ; AS A Publique , and perpetuall Testimoniall of his Cordiall gratitude , for their hospitable reception of him , and his , during the late Civill Warres of this Nation . To the READER . I Formerly published a Treatise touching the Excellencie of Thanksgiving , & the favourable acceptation of that hath incouraged me to send after it This , Concerning the nature of Thanksgiving ; The Subject was my first Theologicall Essay , which some twenty yeares since , or upwards , I revised , and contracted , and now I present it unto thee without any considerable either alteration , or addition : Many Authors I might perhaps then make use of , which now I have forgotten : But all that 〈◊〉 can remember I have either quoted in the discourse it selfe , or placed in the Margent : Thine in the Service of Christ , HENRY JEANES . Ephes : 5. 20. Giving thanks allwaies for all things unto God , and the Father , in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. THe words without surther discourse , containe 5 Generals . 1. An act , or duty — Giving thanks . 2. Next the time when to be performed , — allwaies . 3. The matter , for what — all things . 4. And 4ly , the object unto whom — God , and the Father . 5. Lastly , the Meane , or Mediator , through whose mediation , In the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ. I beginne with the act , or duty it selfe — Giving thanks . A thing not so soone done , as said , but an harder taske then most conceive , unto which must concurre the whole man , the inward , the outward man , but the inward , first , and chiefly . The Summons David gave his soule , Psal. 103. we must ours , Praise the Lord , ô my soule , and all that is within me blesse his Holy Name . And indeed in these Eucharisticall offerings with the fat , and inwards God is most delighted-He is the searcher of hearts , — Father of spirits , the thanks therefore of the heart , and spirit , he will especially eye , and reward . That sacrifice of thanks then , which is like that last of Caesars without an heart , will prove but a sacrifice of fooles , unacceptable to Heaven . Above all therefore have a care , that the instrument thine heart be as David's was , Psal. 57. 7. prepar'd , and the strings the faculties thereof well-tuned , else the melody of thy Verball thankfulnesse will be quite marred , even as the gracefullnesse of a sweetly sung song is lost by jarring upon a distun'd instrument . But now , however this sacrifice must be first kindled at the Altar of the heart ; yet it will not long stay there , but spread further , and breake out into the Temple of the outward man. And first 't will awaken our glory , Psal. 57. 19. that is our tongue , so stiled , because the chiefest instrument of glorifying God , wherein stands man's highest glory . And next it will quicken the hands to act , every member , some way or other , to expresse the thankfulnesse of our hearts , that so our thanks may absolutely be full , compleate , and entire . Gratitude , as blood in the body , runn's through the whole practise of Christianity , and so hath generall use in , and influence upon , all the duties we performe . Because as speciall Precepts oblige unto the severals of them , so also the freenesse , and fulnesse of God's favours ingage generally to all of them . And answerably the School-men make ingratitude a generall circumstance of sinne , not as though it were of the Notion , and Definition of sinne in generall , but only because it adheres , and cleaves unto every sinne , gradually aggravating the guilt , and demerit thereof . For in all sinnes we commit , there is , as a deviation from the speciall Lawes against them , so also a virtuall disregard of God's mercy , a powerfull disswasive from them : and therefore , although ingratitude be formally only when there is an expresse and actuall contempt of Benefits ; yet there is ( saith (u) Aquinas ) a materiall kind of ingratitude in every sinne . Thankfulnesse unto God then , by way of Connotation , takes in both tables , all duties that concerne God , or man ; and suitably unthankfulnesse too is by way of Concomitancy a bundle , or fardle of all other vices . — Ingratum si dicas , omnia dixeris . Nay thankfulnesse formally in it selfe is also of a wondrous wide extent , made up of many parcels , containing many integrals , all which (w) Aquinas reduceth unto three . 1. To Recognize a 〈◊〉 . 2. Duely to prize it &c. And 3ly , To requite it . Wee will adde two more , and so reckon up in all five degrees of thankfulnesse , and so of thanksgiving . Observation , Confession , Remembrance , Valuation , Retribution , — — matters not so quickly runne over , so soone dispatch'd , as we ordinarily dreame , as will appeare if we weigh them severally . 1. First then , we must punctually , or particularly and heedfully , or fixedly observe blessings ; their receipt , injoyment , use , continuance , increase ; and this indeed is the foundation of all the rest : for unlesse favours be known , or taken notice of , they can never be acknowledg'd , remembred , duely valued , and then small likelihood any thing should be rendred for them : hopes then of our gratitude are even desperate , for notwithstanding the overflowings of mercies , the showers of blessings upon us ( to phrase it with Ezekiel 24. v. 26. ) how dull and heavy are we in the apprehension of them ? Strange , that as Moses face shone to all except himselfe ; so the lustre , and splendor of our growing happinesse should even dazle neighbouring-nations , and we our selves scarce perceive so much as a glimse thereof . Whom will it not possesse with a degree of just amazement to consider , that we , though incompassed with Gods favour , as with a sheild , hedg'd about with blessings so many , so eminent , as that , unlesse we hoodwinke our selves , impossible they should escape our observation , can yet discerne none of all this , though sharp-sighted enough in espiall of miseries and losses ? But to returne . Our observation will be too short , if it reach no further then Blessings in themselves . Our thoughts therefore must not be fixed , and stay upon them , but be raised upward to a view of that bounty , which gave them ; unto a sight of God in them : unto an apprehension , not only of his generall providence , ( for that makes the Sun to rise on the evill , as well as the good , and sendeth raine on the unjust , as well as just : ) but of his speciall love , benevolence , the light of his Countenance shining through them on us in his Son Christ Jesus . This David preferres before a very great blessing in it selfe considered , and for it is chiefly thankfull , Because thy loving kindnesse is 〈◊〉 then life , my lips shall praise thee , Psal. 63. 3. And indeed to observe God's kindnesse will give a sweet rellish to the meanest favours , to but a cup of cold water , whereas want of such notice will imbitter your oyle , corne , wine , your richest variety and greatest plenty of outward things . Nay a thorough-sense , and feeling of Gods speciall favour in the benefits we receive , will , as sweeten all of them , so elevate the nature of some of them , spiritualize , as it were , your temporall ones , and so make them , though in themselves 〈◊〉 of vanity , and vexation of spirit , suitable un to the nature , and desires of the soule . (x) For the object of the lower part of the soule is then proportionable to the higher part , unto the soule as reasonable , as spirituall ; when link'd with the object thereof , God. And therefore temporall blessings are then proportionable unto the soule as spirituall , when we behold Gods name written upon them , as tokens of his love , when God comes along with them to the soule . For then , though they be still temporall in regard of their nature , and beeing ; yet are they in a sense spirituall , as joined with God , the adequate spirituall good of the soule , as directed by a supernaturall providence to worke unto a spirituall end for the increase , exercise , and triall of our graces , for the bringing us to true happinesse ; such as spirituall , and supernaturall union and communion with God. We have gone over the first step of our thanks — Observation , unto which the second , Confession , must be as it were the Eccho , and reflexion , resounding the same notes . What we have observed in blessings , wee must confesse too ; as , That we have them , Whence and How. 1. That we have them . This to deny , or smother , or but sparingly to discourse of , what bewrayes it , but a loathnesse to acknowledg our selves engaged to the Almighty ? and yet in the acknowledgment of this wee may be ample enough , and all the while but vent our pride , and stroke our selves . Nebuchadnezar will acknowledg a great Babilon , but withall adde that 't is built by the might of his own power ; and so we confesse , ( and perhaps beyond truth ) the having of such or such benefits ; but then wee 〈◊〉 them to our selves , as either the Authours , or deservers of them . This indeed ( to speake properly ) is not Confession , but boasting , and bragging of mercies . We must therefore , in the second place 2. Acknowledg that they come downe from above , from the Father of lights there , and that 3ly , By way of 〈◊〉 , freely — 〈◊〉 gratis ( saith Bernard ) 〈◊〉 merito , 〈◊〉 labore nostro , without our desert , without our endeavour : without our endeavour , allwaies as the 〈◊〉 cause , sometimes as the meanes . We reape often , ( as he in the parable ) where we have not sown , and gather where we have not strawed . More freely yet ; not only without , but against our deservings ; for what are our 〈◊〉 except such as Augustine speaks of , merita mala ? without our prayers , against our hopes , beyond our desires . But should I insist longer on this point , I should but anticipate what I am to deliver at large upon the fourth generall . Dismissing it therefore , I passe on unto the third branch of our thankfullnesse , Remembrance of blessings , which is almost nothing else but a multiplied , and reiterated observation , and confession of them . And therefore all three , Observation , 〈◊〉 , Remembrance , are wrap'd up by Aquinas under one head , Recognition . That which is forgotten is not actually known for the present ; nothing unknown works upon the will. A danger unknown moveth not ; A Benefit unknown affecteth not . As the sacrifice of thanks then is kindled by observation , blazeth in Confession ; so memory of benefits keepeth in the flame , fetcheth life into it , though almost extinguished even as the fainting light of a lamp is restored by a fresh supply of oyle . That charge then that David gave his soule , Psalm . 103. 2. we must ours . Blesse the Lord , ô my soule , and forget not all his Benefits : that is , by an ordinary Hebraisme , forget not any of all his benefits . But now in divine dialect , words of knowledg do ever imply the affections : Our memory then of blessings must be not only Historicall , and speculative , ( for that by it selfe is dull , and lumpish , and will beget but a cold , and heartlesse thanksgiving ) but also practique , and affectionate , accompanied with such effusion of the spirit 's , dilating of the heart , such enlarg'd and enravish'd affections , such stupor , and admiration , raptures of joy , melting into kindnesse , as are in some measure proportioned , as unto the goodnesse , and quality of the blessings themselves , so also unto the love , and bounty of God rellished in them ; as 't was said of her in the Comedy — Laeta 〈◊〉 non tam ipso dona , quam abs 〈◊〉 datum esse ; id serio triumphat . Besides a diligent Recognizing of benefits , which , as you have heard , is made up of Observation , Confession , Memory , there is required unto thanksgiving . A due valuation . 1. Of the worth , and greatnesse of God's gists in themselves . Thankfull then we can never be , if we either prize them not at all , or underprize them : and yet herein how extreamly faile me : Some there are amongst us , that are very loud in their complaints against the greatest outward mercies we can enjoy ; They exclaime against the blessed worke of reformation , as an unsufferable innovation ; against the plenty of preaching as an intollerable burden : as the Israelites , Num. 11. 6. repined at their manna , saying there is nothing but this manna before our eyes , so these men at the bread of life , saying , there is nothing but preaching Sermons &c. As they , loathing manna , lusted after the Cucumbers , melons , leeks , onions , and garlick which they had in Egypt ; so these people , even fursetting on the good word of God , hanker after those husks , I meane Superstitions , and Egyptian Ceremonies , with which they were formerly fed . There are others that , as 't was said of Israel , Psal. 106. 24. despise , or as some read it , thinke scorne of this pleasant land , professing a liking rather to live in any barbarous , remote nooke of the world , with cleannesse of teeth , and scarcity of bread , then here , where Gods mercies swarme about us . But some of us have more , though not grace , yet shame , then downrightly to complaine of God's mercies : yet all the best of us doe much lessen their worth . We aggravate our pettiest pressures beyond an Hyperbole ; but then on the other side , how do we extenuate , and diminish the worth of our greatest blessings ? ( y ) as the Cities Solamon gave Hiram pleased him not , and he said to Solamon , What Cities are these thou hast given me ? and he call'd them , the Land of Cabul , that is , as you may see by the margin , displeasing , or dirty , 1 Kings 9. 12 , 13. so Gods richest favours 〈◊〉 us not , but ever we have some quarrell or other at them , some flawes in them . How faulty we are in this particular , St Basil illustrates , by a similitude taken from the eye : looke , as that seeth not objects , which are apply'd close unto it , and even lie on it ; but taken away some pretty distance doth clearly discerne them ; so we have no sense or feeling of the worth of benefits we enjoy , untill God by removall of them , teach us to set better price on them . But now our estimation is not to be bounded and terminated in the mercies of God considered in themselves , according to their owne worth , and goodnesse , without reference to their ground , and Author ; for so are we apt sometimes to over-rate them , as the Epicure his pleasure , the covetous man his mucke , the 〈◊〉 his victory . Therefore wee must in the second place rightly prize the love , and 〈◊〉 of God the giver : for as (z) Aquinas tells us : A Benefit taken morally as laudable , worthy of 〈◊〉 , however materially it stands in 〈◊〉 in the thing given : yet formally and principally it consists in voluntate & affectu in the will and affection of the Donor . (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 accepted , largely requited a cup of water , which a poore man gave him . Why ? because he had an eye , not to the value of the present , but to the good will of the giver : In like manner , would wee but looke on the meanest blessings wee enjoy , as tokens of Gods love , and goodnesse , how thankfully would we accept them , at how high a rate prize them , how be even ravish'd with the rellishing of Gods favour in them ? I proceed on to the last Degree of our thanks — Retribution , not of Justice , but of favourable Acceptance , that is , not such as God may expect ; but such as he in his Justice may , and in his mercy will accept . How canst thou recompense ( saith (b) Jesus the sonne of Sirach ) thy Parents the things that they have done for thee ? more justly may we demand . How shall wee recompense our God the things he hath done for us ? which infinitely surpasse those of the most indulgent Father , the tender'st Mother : for these , though great , yet but finite . A mans tongue may reach them , at least his conceite may fathome them ; but those are above all expression , nay all thoughts . 〈◊〉 then , such as God in rigour of Justice may exact , is below Gods Majesty to receive , above mens ability to give ; Even the light of nature dictates ( as 〈◊〉 , grants ) that man cannot , paria reddere 〈◊〉 . And yet there are certaine expressions of a gratefull minde , which God is pleasd to interpret after a sort , as rendrings and retributions made to his bounty . Else , what shall wee thinke of Davids 〈◊〉 ? Psalm . 116. 12. of Hezekiah's not rendring againe according to the benefit done to him ? 2 Chron. 32. 24. Now of those allmost infinite duties , which though they be , to speake properly and strictly , nothing lesse , yet it pleaseth God for Christ his sake , to accept as a requitall . I le specifie but these few following . 1. Proposall of Gods honour , and Glory as our highest , and utmost aime in all our Actions , all our suffrings . A virtuall Intention of this end is ever requisite : and that the Schoolmen tell us may very well be without an actuall Advertency , and Consideration of it : even as in going a journy ( saith Aquinas ) it is not necessary that every step we tread , we should actually thinke , and ponder upon the end of our journy . 2ly , A placid , and well temperd contentednesse upon a finall warning to part with Gods blessings , either one after an other , or all at a clap , when either Gods Providence takes them from us , or else his cause require them of us . 3ly , Consecration , and dedication of our blessings unto God , imployment of them for promoting of his glory , maintenance of his Cause , comfort of his children , whom he hath pleased to appoint receivers of his tribute . All the Benefits we enjoy are , as Samuels , obtained of God : and therefore fit we should make them , as Lemuels , dedicated unto God. If we have learning , we must write , preach , dispute for his cause ; if riches , spend them for his cause . Be we never so meane , so poore , runne , ride , and pray for his cause . Lastly , A Resignation of our selves , lives , unto him , to be governed by him , sacrific'd for him , sanctify'd unto him : sacrific'd for him in Martyrdome : sanctified unto him in mortification . Unto the , former , a sacrificing of our lives , we may never be called : the latter , a sacrifice of the corruptions of our lives , must daily , hourely continually be offered . And in that consists the life of our thankfulnesse . By this time then you see that our thanks must not stay in words and complements , but proceed on to a returne of affections , and actions . It must be Actio gratiarum , a doing , a working of thanks . David having Psal. 106. 1. calld for praise , and thanks unto God , makes a stop and begins to correct himselfe , vers . 2. as if he had cald for an impossibility — Who can utter ( saith he ) the mighty acts of the Lord ? who can shew forth all his praise ? He maketh the answere vers . 3. Blessed are they that keep Judgment , and he that doth righteousnesse at all times : as if he should have said : Indeed none can as they should render what praise , and thanks are due unto God , but he that comes neerest to it , is the keeper of judgment , and doer of righteousnesse . He answeres not the question , as you may observe , directly , but only by 〈◊〉 . He doth not expresly tell us , who can performe the duty , but who injoyes the reward , Blessed are &c. as if he should say . None indeed can performe this duty of thanksgiving as they ought , none can sufficiently declare the marvelous and mercifull works of God : none can , shall I say , render , nay expresse what prayse , and thanks the Lord deserves . However if the performance of this duty be reall , and active , if we keep judgment , and doe righteousnesse , this our performance of it , though weak , and imperfect , shall find acceptance with , and the reward of happinesse from God. Blessed are they &c. We may then say of gratitude as James of saith - shew it me by thy works , by thy works of piety , and devotion unto God , of charitie and Justice unto men . If these be wanting , no matter for thy honouring of him in thy words : Thou really dishonourest him in thy works , and (c) that which an evill , and harsh-sounding Instrument is to a good voice , that is an unthankfull life to a thankfull mouth . Tacitus speaking of certaine words of Tiberius , saith , they were Praeclara verba , sed non pro Tiberio , very excellent words , but not suiting with Tiberius . The like may wee say of formes of thanksgiving utterd by ungodly men , they are very good and excellent in themselves , but very much unbefitting them . (d) For prayse is not comely in the mouth of a sinner . (e) Prov. 17. 7. Excellent speech , or the lip of 〈◊〉 ( saith Solomon ) 〈◊〉 not a foole , a sinner . And the reason of it is that which Tacitus gave of his dislike of other words of Tiberius , nec enim ad hanc formam caetera sunt . His other actions are not of the same stamp , but of a farre differing straine ; sounding forth Gods dispraise and dishonour in a lowder accent , then his lips his praise . No matter then for thy formes of thanksgiving , if thou want the power : for thy singing a new song , if thou dost not lead a new life . Canticum novum & 〈◊〉 homo malè concordant , saith Austin . A new song sounds very illfavordly , looseth much of its grace and rellish from the old mans mouth . And thus have I opened the nature of thanksgiving , about which if any thinke I have stood overlong , let them weigh how vast the duty is , how many and large it's parts are , each of which had I not severally , though briefly , saluted , my discourse would have been lame and imperfect . Hasten we next to the second Generall — the Time , when the duty is to be performed — Allwayes . Giving thanks allwayes . This seemes to be morally impossible . And therefore we must distinguish betwixt thanksgiving , and the effects of it . The effects and expressions of it may be perpetuall , as lasting as our lives . A principall one , Obedience unto God , stil'd a reall thanksgiving , the thanksgiving of the life may , must be so , Luk. 1. 75 : nay sometimes signes of our thankfullnesse should outlive us : we should leave behind us some pawne of our thanks unto God , some permanent expression or other , that may even eternize them , transmit and convey them to succeeding ages . But for this perpetuity of the fruites and effects of thanksgiving the Apostle cals not here upon us . He is expresse for the duty of thanksgiving it selfe — Giving thanks allwayes , &c. How can that , you will say , be done ? Why thanksgiving , you must know , is either Habituall , or Actuall . 1. Habituall 〈◊〉 : the Habit of thankfullnesse , a thankfull heart , and disposition must allwayes be had , never layd aside , quoad 〈◊〉 & dispositionem animi ; wee must continually be thankfull , our hearts should ever be kept in so sacred à tune and temper , as that they may alwayes be apt , disposed , prepar'd for this worke , so was David's . My heart is prepar'd , O God , my heart is prepar'd , I will sing and give prayse , Psal. 57. 7. 2. Actuall thanksgiving : The act of thankfullnesse whether inward , or outward cannot be perpetuall . We cannot , indeed we are not bound to be allwayes actually thankfull ; for other duties are also required , and therefore must have their turne as well as thanksgiving . Recourse therefore must be had to that old golden Rule , Affirmativa 〈◊〉 obligant semper , non ad semper . Affirmative precepts doe alwayes bind , but not to allwayes , so that we are not bound to performe allwayes what they injoyne , but only loco & tempore 〈◊〉 , where we have due time and place . We are then allwayes bound to give thanks actually allwayes ; but then only when there is opportunity and seasonablenesse of doing it . The word Allwayes , then is to be taken , not in a Mathematicall , but a Morall latitude , and so it imports nothing but Frequency , and Constancy . And this acception of the word is usuall in Scripture . The Disciples of Christ are sayd , Luk. 24. 53 : to be continually in the Temple prayseing and blessing God , that is , frequently . 〈◊〉 . th thy masters Sonne shall 〈◊〉 bread allwayes at my Table , 2 Sam. 9. 10. 2 King. 25. 29. Giving thanks allwayes then , with our Apostle , sounds no other than giving thanks frequently , and constantly . First , then we are to doe it 〈◊〉 , not for fits , and upon brunts only . Gods hand is ever opened to blesse us with an operative blessing ; our mouth should therefore be if not ever yet often open to blesse him with a declarative blessing . He dayly loades us with benefits , saith David , Psal. 68. 19. He 〈◊〉 . wes his mercy every morning , saith 〈◊〉 . Lament , 3. 23 : we may adde , every hower , every minute , every moment . No day , morning , hower , minute , moment comes over our heads , but we have a fresh supply of them . We heve them continued , increased , inlarged , old mercies renew'd , new ones added . Is it not Justice then , that we desire and strive to send him back as often a fresh returne of our praises : at least that we ingrosse up as much of our time as we can for this businesse : that for it wee thinke all our spare howers too sew ? David herein was exemplary , with him no time amisse , no season unseasonable for this worke . We have him at it as in the day . All the day , Psal. 71. 8 : seaven times a day , Psal. 119 , 164 : all the day long , Psal. 35. 28 : so at night , in the deepest of night . At midnight will I rise , and give thanks unto 〈◊〉 , Psal. 119. 62. 2 : Our thanksgiving must be , not only frequent , but constant , durable : not as a flash , or blaze suddainely extinguish'd , but rather as the Vest all fire among the Romans ever kept in . This permanency of our thanks was figur'd ( thinkes Philo the 〈◊〉 ) by the fire upon the Altar ; which , as you read , Levit. 6. 13 : was ever to be burning , never to goe out . Intimated ( say some ) by the binding of the sacrifice with cords unto the horns of the Altar , mention'd , Psal. 118. 27 : for it is not only , lay the sacrifice , viz : of prayse on the horns of the Altar , but bind it , bind it with cords : and what so fast and surely bound likely to hold . Now for this we can assigne no better reason then the constancy of God s mercies , 't was Davids , Psal. 89. 2. I will sing of thy mercy , saith he , for ever . Why ? for I have sayd mercy shall be built up for ever : built up , built up for ever ; each terme denotes a fixed and permanent state . His compassions faile not , Lam. 3. 22. Neither should our thanks therefore faile , but be as lasting as our lives ; while I live , saith David , I will praise the Lord , I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being , Psal. 104. 33. His compassions are new every morning , Lam. 3. 23 : and if so , then not fadeing : semblably therefore let our thanks be still new and fresh , never dying , nay not so much as languishing , decaying . You have seene one extent of thanksgiving in respect of Continuance , allwayes . Another followes in regard of it's matter , for all things . Howsoever thankfullnesse askes a sound Judgment to estimate duely of the value of blessings , yet not any Invention to find them out , to doe that a barren and meane one will serve the turne . So we have a thankfull heart we cannot be to seeke of matter : for with it all things will supply us giving thanks : for all things , &c. And we may give thanks for all things , either collectively , or distributively . 1. Collectively , joyntly for all things together , when we heape the whole matter of our thanksgiving into one lump , some such generall forme as : God be praysed for all his mercies . This we may , must doe ; but at this we must not stop . We must goe farther and give thanks for all things — Distributively , severally and apart : desire and indeavour we must to doe it not only distributively , pro generibus singulorum , for all sorts , ranks , kinds of blessings ; but also distributively , pro singulis generum , for all blessings of all sorts and kinds whatsoever . Labour we should to keep an exact bill and register of particular favours , and for them to allot particular and severall thanksgivings . When we come to count our crosses , we reckon them distinctly , one by one , as how we have been afflicted this way ; how that ; how crossed in such an action , disappointed in such an enterprize , and shall we not be as punctuall in our recognition of favours , and distinctly blazon out the specialties of them too ? You see what a sea of matter even without bottome I have before me : All things . Should I curiously runne over but the heads of blessings , blessings positive , blessings private ; blessings temporall , blessings spirituall ; blessings in 〈◊〉 , blessings in reversion , and expectation , this discourse would be enlarged farre beyond my intention . I will only then propound , and resolve two scruples , that hang by this point , and soe dispatch it . The first of them is , Whether or no God's greatnesse , absolute goodnesse , his goodesse in himselfe , with other absolute perfections of his , as Truth and power manifested in his workes , be matter of thanksgiving , whether or no we must be thankfull for them ? For 〈◊〉 , we must presuppose there is a difference betwixt praise and thanks ( though we ordinarily use the words promiscuously . ) We may you know praise Strangers that never did us good tune , nay enemies who have done us many bad ; but we thanke only benefactors . Any worth or excellency may be matter of our praise , only benefits of thanksgiving . God then absolutely 〈◊〉 , without the relation of 〈◊〉 is invested with such attractive 〈◊〉 , and ravishing beauties , as that he is , saith David , worthy to be praised , Psal. 18. 3. Secondly , we must observe that a thing may be said to be matter of our thanksgiving , either properly and directly , or else improperly , and by way of reduction : properly and directly only God's relative goodnesse , his goodnesse to us , the goodt hings we receive from him can be matter of our thanksgiving : yet by way of reduction , and improperly God's absolute persections may be also , as they have respect to those good things we enjoy : either as the fountaine from whence they flow , or as arguments illustrating 〈◊〉 , confirming their communication , increase , Continuance to us . (c) And this of the first . The second , whether or no we are to be thankfull for afflictions ? For resolution . 〈◊〉 are , we must note , either curses , or crosses . Curses are the sad effects of divine malediction , and vengeance , punishments properly so called , sor satisfaction of God's justice , and manifestation os his wrath ; and so but the prologue to the Tragedy of damnation , the very earnest , and pawne of Hell , therefore matter of trembling and humiliation , not of joy and thanksgiving . As for Crosses , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , not 〈◊〉 , which proceed from not God's 〈◊〉 , but corrective wrath , or rather , tendernesse , and compassion : As for them God's Children must , say some , indefinitely be thankfull for them . Why ? because they worke for their good . Nothing doth , or can betyde them , but God turnes it to their benefit . Afflictions are Physicke for the soule , as to cure it of present diseases , so to preserve it from future . Now ( saith Chrysostome upon the 147. Psalme , ) We observe our Physitian not only indulging , but restraining us of liberty in diet , exercise ; not only anointing , but burning , cutting us ; not only when he gives cordialls , but when he administers the most bitter pills , and potions . And shall God have no thanks for our afflictions , whereby our corruptions are prun'd , our diseases cured , our holinesse and happinesse increased , our soules weaned from the world , pollish'd for the temple , prepar'd for Heaven ? Thus many of the (f) learned state the question 〈◊〉 as for mine owne part I dare not be so generall , but will distinguish betwixt crosses considered formerly in themselves , as oppressions , and distresses of nature , and according to their fruite , issue , and mitigation . If we consider them formally in themselves , as crosses , as evills of paine , tending either to the destruction , or trouble of nature , I see no reason , why we should be thankfull for them . For first , the matter of petition , and thanksgiving is of the same latitude . Now we have no ground , no precept , no president to pray for afflictions , as they oppresse , and disquiet nature ; nay we have examples , and those unquestionable of declining them , withstanding them , praying against them and therefore as little warrant to give thanks for them . Secondly , whatsoever is matter of thanks , must be matter of joy too ; for joy is not only a companion , but a cause of thanksgiving , both producing , and conserving . Now crosses , afflictions , simply considered as such , are not , cannot be matter of joy ; for so considered they are of a destructive , malignant nature ; therefore neither of thanksgiving ; for crosses we must ( I confesse ) be joyfull , thankfull , but not as they fall under the consideration of evills , as they oppresse and burden nature , for them so considered impossible we should ; Because evils as evills are undesirable , from them our natures and wills cannot but be abhorrent , and that cannot be matter of our joy , which is undesirable , and if not of our joy , then neither of our thanksgiving . The reason alleadged in the beginning to the contrary , viz : that crosses and afflictions worke together for the best to them that love God , is , methinke , of no force . For all this they do not naturally , but by accident , by meanes of God's wise , powerfull disposing , and ordering of them : they are in their own nature wholly destructive : 't is the grace , power , mercy and providence of God that makes them otherwise . He workes good out of evill , light out of darknesse , beauty out of ashes . Now as things in themselves good , cease not therefore to be the object of our prayers , and praises for that they are accidentally evill ; so neither , doe things in themselves evill become to be just matter of thanks , because they prove accidentally good . For the good that by accident flowes from crosses , we ought , I confesse , to be thankfull ; not so for the crosses themselves . Moreover . 1. This reason holds as well for sins , as afflictions ; because they also are so ordered by God's over-ruling power , as that by accident they worke the good of his chosen . 2. The miseries and calamities of the Church by accident also turne to the advancement of God's glory , to the bettering , humbling of his Church . But yet , I thinke , we would count him a monster , a prodigy , and curse , who should still rejoyce , and give thanks simply for this , that Zion is afflicted , that the stones of Jerusalem lye still in the dust ; that her members are wallowing and tumbling in their own blood . But we are 2ly , to give thanks , though not for crosses themselves , yet for their fruite , issue , and mitigation . 1. For their fruite and issue , that our soules are better'd , humbled by them , drayn'd from their humours , sinnes , purg'd from their drosse , winnowed from their chasse . So we thanke the Chy. rurgeon , not for that he cuts , burnes , and lances us , but because by these he heales us : the Physitian not for the bitternesse of his pills and potions , but for the health they procure us . The 2 d : thing that in our crosses we must be thankfull for , is their mitigation , that they are mitigated in themselves , or in reference to us : First that they are mitigated in themselves in regard either of their degree , or continuance . 1. Degree : that they are not extreame , unsupportable , but tempred with mercy , that though God hath thresht'd us with his slayle , beaten us with his staffe or rod , yet he hath not broken us with his wheele , (g) Jeremiah in behalse of the Jewish Church acknowlegeth mercy , and therefore matter of prayse amid'st sore desolations . When their young and old lay slaine in every corner of the street ; yet saith Jerimy here is mercy . It is thy mercy Lord that we are not consumed (b) that a remnant of us are left , all are not gone , that some of us , though but an handfull in comparison of the rest , are spar'd , not consumed . 2. Continuance , that as Job speakes of his comforts , they are swifter than a Weavers shuttle , that heavinesse is our guest but for a night , and then joy commeth in the morning . But suppose our crosses in themselves extreame , most bitter , stinging , as lasting as our lives , yet to us , in reference to us : there may be moderation in them , & so cause of thankfulnesse for that they exceed not our comforts we have to sweeten and allay them , our stocke of grace , abilities of faith , patience to undergoe them , our deservings of them . Let our 〈◊〉 be what they will , we may still say with Ezra . 9. 13 : they are lesse than our iniquities 〈◊〉 : were we in hell we might say so : the torments there would come short of our sinnes ; were we there beaten with nere so many stripes , yet still it would be with fewer than we have deserv'd : for still in what place , case , state soever we be , it will be true , Deus praemiat ultra , punit citrà , God allwayes rewards beyond , but he punisheth on this side of our deserts , beneath our iniquitics , as 't is in the marginall note upon that forecited place of Ezra ; He deales not with us after our sinnes , nor rewardeth us according to our Iniquities : for we in sinning have dealt with him as Traytors , and he in afflicting hath spar'd us as sonnes . And so much for this Question and the third Generall . From the object 〈◊〉 the matter for which , passe we on the object personall , the person unto whom we are to give thanks ; unto God and the father . Here are not meant two persons , whereof one God , the other father , but the same essence or person is called both God and father : For usuall is it with the holy Ghost , as to expresse one and the same thing by divers appellations , so to couple those severall appellations by the copulative particle 〈◊〉 in which case the particle doth either redound , or signifie nothing else but even : unto God and the father then is all one with God even the father , or else God who is the father : and the words may be taken in regard of us , or Christ. In respect of us ( as Zanchy and 〈◊〉 à Lapide expounds them ) they import a generall and speciall mercy of the Almighty , God the generall , father the speciall . For as God he blesseth us only as Creatures , hath created , doth preserve and governe us ; as Father he blesseth 〈◊〉 as Sonnes , adopt's us in Christ Jesus to an Inheritance in the heavens , which is saith Peter , 1 Pet : 1. 4 : incorruptible , undefiled , unfading . Now if you understand the words in reference unto Christ , the word God is taken not essentially , but personally for the first person in the Trinitie , and the word Father is added by way of explanation . So that this clause , God and the Father , containes a description of the first person from two relations unto Christ. One of God , the other of Father . He is the God of Christ as man , the Father of Christ both as God and as man. First , the God of Christ as man. How a God ? for a God in a sense we know he may be said to be , and is to all things whatsoever . To the Devils as they are his vassals : (i) To the wicked of the world as they are his prisoners : To the faithfull more especially as they are his subjects and followers : To Christ most especially . I ascend saith Christ , 〈◊〉 . 20. 17. to my God and your God : not our God in common , but mine and yours by way of severance , to imply that he is otherwise 〈◊〉 , and otherwise his , Ours by right of Dominion , as we are his creatures ; His ( understand me still in reference to his humane nature ) not only by right of Creation , though so too ; but also by speciall coven ant and confederation , by predestination of his manhood unto the grace of personall union , by Designation of him unto the glorious office of Mediator , by all the relations of intimatenesse that can be named . Secondly , the Father of Christ whether considered as God , or as man. The Father of him as God , by eternall generation , begetting him in the equalitie , nay numericall Identity of the same nature with himselfe . The Father of him as man , not only in the largest and most improper sense , as he is the Father of every creature , the Father of raine , and of the drops of 〈◊〉 , in 〈◊〉 . 38. 28. not at all by Adoption , for that is allwaies ( say Civilians ) personae extrancae , and the manhood of Christ is taken into personall union with God the Sonne . So that Christ , even as man , is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 personale God , and therefore uncapable of Adoption . Whereupon the Counsell of Frankford condemned Foelix , and Elipandus Arch-Bishop of Toledo , for calling Christ in his humanitie the Adoptive Sonne of God ; not at all then by Adoption , but by collation of the grace of Union . For unto Christs humane nature , by virtue of the Hypostaticall union , the Primogeniture and Inheritance of all things is due , and as it were connaturall . A congruence is there , that the man in whom all the fulnesse of the Godhead dwelleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , bodily , that is personally , should be the first borne among many brethren , the first borne of every creature , the heyre of all things . Hitherto of both titles ( God and Father ) considered absolutely . A word of them as they relate to our Thanks giving , giving thanks unto God , and the Father . And so they distinguish our thanks , and praises from heathnish , and 〈◊〉 Doxologyes : The Heathen and Turke will give thanks unto God Almighty maker of Heaven and Earth ; this to give thanks but as creatures . The Jew will give thanks unto the God of Abraham , Isaac , and Jacob , but the Christian alone to God the Father of Christ. This then the Christians Thanks giving . But here observe , that the addition of Father is not exclusive of the Sonne , and Holy-Ghost , but inclusive rather ; for they have all the same essence , and therefore our blessings proceed from all three equally , undividedly , as from one intire , indivisible , and coessentiall agent according unto that known Maxime , Opera Trinitatis ad extrà sunt Indivisa . Our thanksgiving by consequent must be directed to each . Notwithstanding then the appropriation of it unto God , as limitted unto the person of the Father , we may justly inferre the Duenesse of it unto God indefinitely , and that unshar'd with any creature , either in whole or in part . Indeed we may give unto the Instrument , that which is the Instruments , provided withall that we give unto God that which is Gods. The sword of the Lord , and the sword of Gideon , Judges 7. 20. but the sword of the Lord had the upper hand ; first the sword of the Lord , and then the Sword of Gideon . We may then give thanks unto second causes , as unto the conveighers , carryers , and messengers of Gods favours : But only unto God , as their Donor and sender : for he alone the principall Author of them , and in him his mercy the sole motive to conferre them . First , He their principall Author , the Father of lights , Iames 1. 17. from whom not only every perfect , but every good gift cometh down . The Apostle alludes ( think Interpreters ) unto the sunne in the firmament , that great fountaine of light , whence the Moone and lesser stars borrow all their splendor . Now if God be the Alpha of our Blessings , if they come originally , and primarily from him , just then is it that he be the Omega of our thanks : that they be terminated in him , not directed unto secundary causes , either only unto them and not him , or chiefly unto them above him , or unto them equally and joyntly with him , as farre forth as unto him . Thanksgiving is an act of Religion , whereby in an immediate , direct , and especiall manner we honour God , though not ad intrà by an inward increase of his honour , yet ad extrà by an outward manifestation thereof : And in acts of religion God could never away with corrivalty , and partnership , still he would have all or none at all : Hope not then that a party , and shared thankfulnesse should now content him , who was alwaies so jealous of his glory . In the beginning he created the earth naked , void , and without forme , Gen. 1. 2. lest we ( thinks Chrysostome ) should ascribe that beauty , and glory wherewith afterwards it was apparreld vers . 12. unto its own nature , and not his omnipotency , that made it out of nothing . In the ceremoniall law he commanded the Israelites not to lift up any toole of iron upon any altar of stone they should erect , but to build it all of unhewen and unpolish'd stones , Exod. 20 25. Deut. 27. 5. to intimate ( saith Rabbi Isaac ) that what ever blessings they obtained at the Altar , they should attribute them not to humane indeavours , but meerly to the good will , and pleasure of that free spirit , which bloweth when , and where , and how he listeth . But farther : as we are not to detract , or defalk any thing from the intirenesse , absolutenesse , and plenarinesse of Gods praises , by rendring them unto others : So neither Secondly , by giving them to our selves , either wholy , or in part . Wee give the commendation of a wise speech and saying unto , not the tongue that utters , but mind that conceiv'd it . For the fairenesse of a Character , not the pen , but the hand , that guides it , is praise worthy : so the glory of benefits belong not unto us , who possesse them , but unto God that gave them : ( The Illustrations are not mine , but Bernards ) for them no sacrifice to be offered to our own nets , either of nature , or indeavour : as some , I remember , descant upon that place of Habakkuk . The people that are with thee , saith God to Gideon , Judg. 7. 2. are too many for to give the Midianites into their hands , Why ? lest Israel vaunt themselves against me , saying , mine own hand hath saved me . Should then Israel have said mine own hand hath saved me , they had vaunted themselves against God. T is Salvians note . Now 〈◊〉 we make default two manner of waies : by attribution of our blessings unto our selves , either as the physicall and reall causes , the procurers ; or morall causes , the deservers of them . First , as to the physicall , and reall causes , and procurers of them . We perswade our selves that we have wonne them propria Marte , by our hand , or head , something in us ; and therefore deserve to weare them . Aristotle tels us of some , who had their eyes so depress'd , and darkned , that they imagined themselves to see in the ayre neere unto them , as in a glasse , their own proper , and bodily figures . We , I am sure , have the eyes of our understandings so blinded , and darkened , that we can see nothing in all the good we have , all the good we doe , but our own abilities and indeavours . But if it be plaine that nothing in us hath gotten our blessings , that God is the sole Author of them , then next we flatter our selves with a presumptuous conceite that we are the morall causes , the deservers of them . That something from us , our desert , holinesse , hath moved God to bestow them . Against this no so soveraine remedy , as meditation upon the second thing above propos'd . As God the principall Author of blessings , so in him his mercy the sole motive to conferre them . And therefore those abilities and perfections , which the Philosopher called Habits ; St James stild gifts , James 1. St Paul 1 Cor. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , grace gifts , or gifts not of Justice , but of grace : as they are à Deo for the (k) Author , so they are ex Dono for the manner ; from God , and by way of most free and Liberall Donation ; although in the procurement of benefits there be a concurrence of our abilities , our hand and head , power and wisdome ; yet , if we digge to the roote , we shall find these abilities to be the free gifts of God. For what hast thou that thou hast not received ? 1 Corinth . 4. 7 , Could we deserve , as we cannot , favours at the hand of the allmighty , yet in the last resolution that desert would be of grace . For , whence but from God should come power to deserve ? But what talke we of desert ! can God be 〈◊〉 to any man ? or hath any man given to him first , that it might be recompensed him againe ? Rom. 11. 35. As for our parts wee are not onely 〈◊〉 , but male merentes , not only undeserving , but ill deserving , & so every way lesser then the least of Gods mercies . Not therefore unto us Lord , not unto us , not to our abilities , indeavours , merit , but unto thee , and in thee to thy free grace and goodnesse , be the honour and glory of all our blessings . Well we have done with the party , to whom our thanks are to be directed , and in whom terminated . I will but touch upon the last particular , the Mediator , in whose name our thanks are to be tendred : In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is , first , neoessity of a 〈◊〉 , or meane to preferre our thanks unto God : then congruity that Christ should be he . First , need we have of a Mediator , whether we regard our selves , or our thanks . First , our selves , who as Creatures are infinitely beneath God ; as sinners at odds , and 〈◊〉 with God , enimies unto him , and therefore should not dare , in our own persons , approach the pure eyes , and dreadfull presence of so consuming a fire , to present our selves or our thanks unto him . Especially considering , In a second place . The blemishes of our thanks ; Our thanks , alas , are seldome , faint dull heartlesse , livelesse , like the sacrifice of Prometheus to Jupiter , nothing but skinne and bones , outside and formality , and therefore , of themselves , unlikely to winne acceptance . A Mediator therefore necessary to take away the guilt of sinne , from our persons , by his merits , to hide the failings of our thanks by his intercession , and so to winne our persons accesse , our thanks acceptation to God. This office not more needfull for us , and our thanks , then Christ meet for it . In the name , through the Mediation of none so congruously as of Christ , can our thanks be given to God. For , first , Decursus gratiarum , the streams of Gods bounty flow unto us , from God , by Christ ; (l) from God , as the fountaine : by Christ as the channell : and , therefore , Recursus gratiarum , the returne of our thanks , should be unto God , by Christ : unto God as the object : by Christ , as the Mediator , or meanes in which presented . If for his sake , by his meanes , merito Passionis , beneficio Intercessionis , efficaciâ Operationis , for the merit of his passion , by the virtue of his intercession , through the efficacy of his Operation God showreth down his blessings on us , therefore in his name , through his mediation , should wee powre out our Benedictions unto God. Secondly , Thanks cannot be given but Adjutorio Christi , by helpe and 〈◊〉 from Christ , by assistance of his spirit , working in us , both the will , and the deed : the will , the habit of thankfulnesse : the deed , the act of thanksgiving : and therefore should not be given but Nomine Christi , in the name of Christ. And there is a third reason too , on Christ's behalfe , our Lord. He is ordained to be a Priest for men in things pertaining to God , Heb. 5. 1. to offer sacrifices for them , not only 〈◊〉 , and expiatory , but also 〈◊〉 and gratulatory sacrifices of thanksgiving : And as he is a priest to offer them , so he hath a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and much 〈◊〉 to sweeten , and purifie them from all sinne adhering to them , and this seemes to be laid downe , Rev. 8. 3. for the place by some of good note (m) is expounded of Christs Mediation and Intercession for his members at the right hand of his Father , his bearing the Iniquity of their holy things , as Aaron his Type was appointed to doe ( Exod. 28. 38. ) his covering all the imperfections of their services , and procuring of them favour and acceptance . Secondly , he hath a golden altar whereupon to consecrate them , that is besprinkled with the blood of that great sacrifice , which hath more virtue , merit , and welpleasingnesse in it , then there can possibly be demerit , and malignity in all the corruptions and failings of our thanks . Meet therefore that we bring , as all our sacrifices , so the sacrifice of prayse and thanks in particular unto this our high priest ; soe however of it selfe offensive in Gods nostrils , yet , being 〈◊〉 with his Incense , 〈◊〉 by his altar , it shall ascend up in an holy smoke unto Heaven ; and as the Apostle spake of Almes , Phil. 4. 18. shall be an odour of a sweet smell , a sacrifice acceptable , and well-pleasing unto God. FINIS . OF Originall Righteousnesse , And it 's CONTRARY , CONCVPISCENCE , BY HENRY JEANES , Minister of God's Word at Chedzoy . Ecclesiastes 7. 29. Loe , this onely have I found , that God hath made man upright : But they have sought out many inventions . James 1. 14 , 15. But every man is tempted , when he is drawn away of his own lust , and enticed . Then when lust hath conceived , it bringeth forth sinne : and sinne , when it is finished , bringeth forth death . OXFORD , Printed by Hen : Hall for Tho : Robinson , 1660. To his Honoured Friends , The RIGHT WORSHIPFULL Sr WILLIAM WYNDHAM Of Orchard VVyndham Baronet . THE WORSHIPFULL Esquires . FRANCIS LuTTRELL of Dunstar Castle . GEORGE TREVELYAN of Nettlecomb . CHARLES STEYNINGS of Holnicote . Gentlemen , I Have joined you together in this Dedication , to publish your Conjunction in a very laudable , and Charitable action , The giving of a plentifull Exhibition for the maintenance of a poore youth , Student in the University of Oxon ; A rare Example in these daies in Gentlemen , of whom how few can the greatest importunity winne to spare any thing from their superfluities for so good an use ? But your Liberality was so forward , as that it needed no spurre , nor Excitation , only it called for direction unto a meet object . That this should be published in Print , was a thing , I believe , you never desired , nor expected : But though you doe not expect the praises of men , as being acted by a higher principle ; yet you may lawfully accept them ; provided , as Theseus dedicated unto Hercules the Temples that were built in his own honour , so you doe not suffer these praises to be terminated in your selves ; but carry them further , and higher unto that God , who hath given you hearts and estates for such a worke . There remaines yet one thing to be done , and that is , that we all , you , and I , joine in sincere and unfeigned prayers unto God for his blessing upon the studies of him , unto whom you have shewn such Munificence ; for though you water this plant , 't is God alone can give the increase ; Unto this God I commend you and yours , and rest Yours to be Commanded in the things of Christ HENRY JEANES . That Originall Righteousnesse was in Adam Proved against Dr TAYLOR . ALl that I have to say concerning Originall Righteousnesse shall be reduced unto two heads . 1. An sit . 2. Quid sit . First , Inquire we concerning its An sit ; for the Socinians deny , that there was any such thing , as you may see by what Socinus himselfe saith , in his Prelections , Chap. 3. and with him Dr Jeremy Taylor fully accords , in diverse places of his bookes ; [ Further explication of Originall sinne , pag. 461. ] The matter of Originall Righteousnesse is a thing framed in the Schoole forges ; but not at all spoken of in Scripture , &c. [ An answer to a letter touching Originall sinne , pag. 5. ] When the Luth●ran , and the Roman dispute , whether justice , and Originall righteousnesse in Adam was naturall , or by grace , it is de non ente . [ Unum necessarium , pag. 380. ] Innocency of Actuall sin seemes to be that which Divines call Originall Righteousnesse , there being no other either taught or reasonable : who these Divines are , that he speaks of , I cannot guesse , unlesse it be his reverend friends , the Socinians , and some 〈◊〉 , that tread in their steps ; for , excepting them , the generality of both Protestants , and Papists dissent from this conceit of his , touching Originall Righteousnesse ; but the censure of Socinianisme is that which Dr Taylor despiseth , and smileth at , as a trifling noise , a boyes trick , a womans argument , &c : and therefore we shall oppugne his , and the Socinians opinion by arguments , and they shall be taken from Scripture , and Reason . First , From Scripture . The first place is , Gen. 1. 26 , 27. God said , let us make man in our Image , after our likenesse &c. and the principall part of this Image stood in Originall Righteousnesse , as is apparent by Pauls exposition thereof , Ephes. 4. 24. Col. 3. 10. A second place is , Gen. 1. 31. And God saw every thing that he had made , and behold it was very good ; man therefore was in his kind created very good : and the goodnesse proper unto a 〈◊〉 creature is a morall 〈◊〉 , the righteousnesse which we here speake of : so that , 't is impossible for man to be very good , unlesse his understanding be full of saving light , truth , and knowledg , and his will , affections , and whole man of holinesse . Socinus [ praelect . cap. 3. ] hath here a very sorry shift : 〈◊〉 , ( 〈◊〉 , ) ibi non de animi 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 de justitia sermonem esse , sed de aptitudine & 〈◊〉 ad id , quod Deus 〈◊〉 sibi 〈◊〉 . I Answer ( saith he ) that by goodnesse is meant the fitnesse , and conveniency of every thing for that end , which God hath appointed : but , this is so far from infirming our argument , as that it rather makes unto the confirmation thereof : because , as I shall shew anon , man cannot be fitted , and qualified for the end , unto which God hath designed him without a positive righteousnesse . A third place is Eccles. 7. 29. 〈◊〉 this onely have I found , that God hath made man upright : the word translated upright , is jaschar : and that usually denoteth one , that is upright , not onely with a negative uprightnesse , an uprightnesse of innocency , an exemption from sinne ; but also with a positive uprightnesse , an uprightnesse of vertue , purity , and holinesse . Johannes Junius ( in his refutation of Socinus his Prelections ) observeth , that the 〈◊〉 render it here by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that signifieth strait , or right , [ Matth. 3. 3. Mark. 1. 3. Luk. 3. 4 , 5 : Acts 8. 21 , 13 , 10. 2 Pet. 2. 15. ] elsewhere by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , righteous , or just , [ Prov. 17. 26. Numb . 23. 10. ] by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good [ Deut. 12. 28. ] by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good , or faire ; by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pure or cleane [ Job . 3 3. 3. ] and doth not this amount to more , then a meere innocency , a bare absence of vice ? he noteth as much also concerning the Latine word rectus ; 〈◊〉 in line â non negat tantum , sed & ponit aliquid . [ Cicer. 1. Offic. ] 〈◊〉 autem officium , rectum opinor vocemus , quod graeci 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . [ Idem 2. de finibus . ] quae autem 〈◊〉 aut recta , aut 〈◊〉 , facta dicimus , si placet , illi autem vocant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , omnes numeros virtutis continent , valet ergo idem quodjustum , ut cum Virgil. 1. Aeneid . dicit , & mens sibi conscia recti . But to passe on unto the New Testament ; and there ( by the Apostle Paul ) we have the particulars of that uprightnesse , and the image of God , in which the first man was created clearly expressed : to instance first in that , which was the leading grace unto all others , a true saving and sanctifying knowledge : and that , man was endued with such a knowledge , when he was created , may be easily concluded from , Col. 3. 10. And have put on the now man , which is renewed in knowledge , after the image of him , that created him : here , that knowledge , which is restored to man in his regeneration , hath for it's exemplar the image of God stamp'd upon man in his creation ; and therefore Beza (n) renders , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in agnitionem 〈◊〉 imagini ejus , renewed in knowledge suitable , and agreable unto the image of God ; the knowledge therefore of the regenerate man represents , at least inpart , the image of God in the first man when created , & consequently knowledge was a branch of that image of God , in which the first man was created . Dr. Taylor speakes detractingly of the knowledge of Adam in his state of integrity [ Unum necessarium , pag : 373. ] neither can we guesse ( saith he ) at what degree of knowledge Adam had before his fall : certainly , if he had so great a knowledge 't is not likely he would so cheaply have sold himsefe , and all his hopes 〈◊〉 of a greedy appetite to get some knowledge . But we may goe further than guesses , and that with good warrant from scripture ; for . First , God created man in his image : and , wheresoever the image of God is , there is an assimilation unto God in understanding , wisedome , and knowledge , though with great inequality . Secondly , that this knowledge was , notitia 〈◊〉 , an affectionate practicall knowledge , that drew after it suitable affections , and actions , appeareth by these foure arguments . First , because words of knowledge , in Scripture doe imply answerable affections , and practises . Secondly , the word [ Coll. 3. 10. ] is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 't is rendred , by latine Interpreters , rather agnitio , than cognitio ; not a bare knowledge , but knowledge with an acknowledgement . Thirdly , it could not be inferiour to that knowledge , which is a part of the new man ; for it was the patterne , and samplar thereof : the new man is renewed in knowledge after the image of God. Fourthly , in the now quoted place [ Coll. 3. 10. ] knowledge is ( by a synecdoche of the part for the whole ) put for the whole new man ; and the image of God in the first man is , ( by a synecdoche of the whole for the part ) put for his knowledge : now , for these Synecdoches , what better , and more probable reason can be assigned , thanthe connexion of knowledge with the principall parts of God's image , as in the new , so in the first man. Thirdly , the scripture ascribes divers things unto man , in his state of innocency , unto which a very great measure of 〈◊〉 was requisite : he was made head of all mankind , Lord of the universe ; he gave names unto all the cattle , unto the sowles of the aire , and to every beast of the field , Gen. 2. 20 : and doubtlesse , they were apt names , significant of their natures ; because given by appointment , and approbation of God himselfe : God brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them , and whatsoever Adam called every living creature , that was the name thereof , Gen. 2. 19 : besides , God created man for his service ; the Lord hath made all things for himselfe ( saith the wise man ) Prov. 16 4 : to wit , to serve him , according to the capacity of their severall natures : now man's nature was rationall ; and therefore his end was a reasonable service ; and , to guide him in the way hereunto , he had the law of nature written in his heart : now all these particulars joined together required , even a fullnesse of knowledge . Politique Princes on earth will choose none but wise , and prudent persons for their deputies ; and can we then imagine , that an omniscient God made choice of an ignorant , and unknowing Viceroy ? God gave him dominion over the fishes of the sea , and over the fowle of the aire , and over the cattle , and over all the earth , and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth : and why should not his intellectualls hold proportion with his dominion , and be as vast , and extensive ? it is altogether improbable , that God should give him so great , and large a scepter , and not qualify him for the weilding of it : he was nomenclator unto the creation , and for such an office he was altogether unmeet , if he were ignorant of the essences , and qualities of creatures : doubtlesse , he knew the end , for which he was created ; the duties , that were injoined him ; the light , and law of nature shone not more dimly in his breast , when he was in his integrity , than it doth in his laps'd posterity ; and in the worst of them , the law is written in their hearts , Rom. 2. 15. We can doe more than ghesse at the dictates of right reason , or else we should be at a losse touching all first principles , both speculative , and practicall ; and there is no question to be made , but that Adam , before his fall , knew all the dictates of right reason , and assented unto them , and therefore we are not , in such an utter uncertainty , touching the knowledge Adam had before his sall , as Dr. 〈◊〉 would beare us in hand . But let us weigh the Doctor 's argument . Certainly if he had so great a knowledge , 't is not likely he would so cheaply have sold himselfe , and all his hopes out of a greedy appetite to get some knowledge . The answer is very easy , and obvious : This greedy appetite to get that knowledge promised by the Serpent , was undenyably a great sinne , and therefore to say it could be in him before his fall , were a very grosse contradiction : for this were to affirme , that sin was in him in a state of innocency , when he was without sinne ; that he sinned , before he sinned : and , if it were not in him before his fall , I would know of the Dr. and all his admirers , how it can be an argument against the greatnesse of his knowledge before the fall ? It is a common opinion among'st both (o) Papists , and Protestants , that this greedy appetite proceeded , not from error , or ignorance , but from incogitancy , inconsideration , or inadvertency . But I proceed on unto the last place . Ephes. 4. 24. And that ye put on the new man , which after God is created in righteousnesse , and true holinesse , here , ( by the consent of most Interpreters ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , after God , is as much as , after or according to the image of God and , by this interpretation , it will follow , that the image of God consisted principally in righteousnesse and true holinesse , and these are so comprehensive , as that they take in all graces , and vertues whatsoever : Junius [ in his conference with Arminius ] speakes of some , who understand that clause [ after God ] concerning the power , and vertue of God , working this righteousnesse , and true holinesse : 〈◊〉 contendam ( inquit ) quod multi interpretantur [ secundum Deum ] ac si 〈◊〉 Apostolus virtute Dei agentis in nobis : But Dr. 〈◊〉 [ in his animadversions upon the said conference ] tel's Junius : first , that this interpretation is opposite unto his own interpretation of the words , and then , he confesseth his ignorance os any , that are the authors of such an exposition : 〈◊〉 contenderes , 〈◊〉 ipsi contradiceres , ut qui ad Gen. 1. 26 : hac ipsa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , de imagine Dei in homine interpreteris . Qui vero illi sint , qui contra instituunt mihi nondum 〈◊〉 est [ pag. 39. cap. 1. ] But , I shall further , unto this sense of the place , oppose an argument from the signification of the particle [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] which here , in all probability , rather denoteth the relation of righteousnesse , and true holinesse unto it's 〈◊〉 , than unto it's cause , physically procreant . By what hath been said , the reader may be informed , how remote from truth an other passage of Dr. Taylors is [ in his Unum necessarium , p362 . ] What gifts and graces , or supernaturall endowments God gave to Adam in his state of innocency , we know not , God hath no where told ; and of things 〈◊〉 we commonly make wild conjectures . God , you see , hath told us , that he created man after his image , in knowledge , righteousnesse , and true holinesse ; that he made him very good , that he made him upright : now , whether the Dr. hath the forehead to affirme , that all this signifieth noe gifts , graces , or supernaturall endowments , which God gave to Adam in his state of innocency ? and what proofes he will bring , for so strange an assertion , we will leave unto the issue ? Unto the above mentioned scriptures there are usually added two reasons : the first , drawne from the end of the first man ; the second , from the laws prescribed unto him ; for without a positive righteousnesse it was impossible for him to reach this end ; to obey these laws : but , of these two arguments , I shall hereafter speake more fully , and therefore , for the present , I shall passe on , from the Quod sit , unto the Quid sit of this originall righteousnesse , and here , we have a double Quid sit of it , to be inquired into : Quid nominis , and Quid rei . To begin with Quid nominis ; why the righteousnesse of the first man is called originall righteousnesse . Foure reasons may be given for it . First , because 't was seated in the originall , and parent of all mankind . Secondly , because 't was the first righteousnesse of mankind that ever was in the world , it was before any other , either habituall , or actuall . Thirdly , because Adam received it from his very originall ; and beginning ; as soone as he was created , God created him in his image , after his likenesse , Gen. 1. 26 , 27. God's image was stamp'd upon him the very first moment of his creation , and his righteousnesse was the principall part of this image ; God made man upright , Eccl. 7. 29 : he made him , and made him upright at the same time , the essence of his soule was , in order of nature , before it's uprightnesse , as being the subject thereof , and accordingly it was created before it in order of nature , but yet this is no hindrance , but that the creation of the essence of his soule , and the superinfusion of righte . ousnesse thereinto , might be simultaneos , in regard of time ; unto these scriptures , I shall only adde a congruence out of the school-men . All the other creatures were created in a perfect state , with abilities for operations , suitable unto their respective ends , the hearbs were created yeelding seed , and the trees bearing fruit , Gen : 1. 12 , 29 : congruent therefore was it , that man the noblest of sublunary creatures , should be created in such a state too ; but , if he had been created without originall righteousnesse , he had been in a worse condition , than the meanest of the creatures ; for , he would have been unfurnished for the ends of his creation , the glorification of , & communion with God , and destitute of the seeds of his glory , and happinesse . Fourthly , it is called originall righteousnesse in respect of Adam's posterity , because , if he had stood , it would have been coevall with the very beginnings of their beings , & so they would have received it together with their very natures : for , it was not given unto Adam only as a personal endowment , but as a gift unto the whole humane nature , he had it as the head , and representative of all mankind , and therefore his posterity were to receive it , ( in regard of the habits , that were the foundation of it ) when they had their humane nature derived from him : this the School-men further confirme , from ( the opposite of originall righteousnesse ) originall sin : originall sin is privatively opposed unto originall righteousnesse , but because of the sin of Adam all his posterity are borne in originall sin , therefore if he had never sinned all of them had been borne in originall righteousnesse . But to passe on from it's Quid nominis unto it's Quid rei , what is meant by the thing it selfe ; and for the clearing of this we shall explicate these seven following particulars . First , the materiale , secondly , the formale of it , which are ( as it were ) the essentiall parts of which is consisteth : Thirdly , the subject in which 't is seated : Fourthly , the causation , or production : Fifthly , the effects of it : Sixthly , the difference of it from sanctifying grace , seventhly , the manner of it's relation unto the first man ; whether it were naturall , or supernaturall to him . First the materiale , the matter , or foundation of it ; and that was all the moral perfections , all the graces , and virtues of the whole man ; it was not one single habit , but an aggregate of all those habits , by which man was rendred right , and perfect , according to all his parts , and powers : Solomon saith , that God made man upright , Eccl. 7. 29 : but upright he had not been , unlesse he had been sanctifi'd wholy , in spirit , soule , and body : the least deformity , or defect had been inconsistent with his uprightnesse : the integrity , and universality of the righteousnesse of the first man is by Arnd ( as Gerard insormeth us , 〈◊〉 : Th. ol : l. 2. p. 179. ) resembled unto the beauty of Absalom , 2 Sam. 14. 25. But in all Israel there was none to be so much praysed as Absalom , for his beauty from the sole of his foot , even to the crowne of his head , there was no blemish in him : so in all mankind there was never any so much to be praysed ( Christ Jesus alone excepted ) as Adam in Paradise ; for his beauty of holinesse , from the sole of his feet , even to the crowne of his head ; from his lowest ( to wit , ) his sensual faculties , unto his highest , his intellectuall faculties there was no blemish in him . The School-men generally affirme , that there were , in the first man in his innocency , the habits of those virtues , whose acts did include an imperfection repugnant unto that state , and they instance in repentance , patience , mercy , &c. Suarez goeth further , and affirmeth ; that some , though not the chiefe acts of repentance , and mercy , were consistent with the state of innocency . Licet verum sit , non 〈◊〉 has virtutes exercere in statu innocentiae potissimos actus suos , nihilominus sēper aliquos actus exercere potuisset : Primo , actus 〈◊〉 conditionatos , ut in poenitentiâ esset hic actus , si 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in misericordiâ , si proximus indigeret illi 〈◊〉 : Nam licet aliqui putent , 〈◊〉 actus esse potius intellectus , quam voluntatis , tamen esse possunt in actuali 〈◊〉 voluntatis de conditionato objecto . Imò illi conditionales non essent 〈◊〉 verè in homine , nisi fundarentur in actuali proposito voluntatis ejus . Secundo , posset exerceri actus complacentiae circa 〈◊〉 objectivam talium virtutum . Tertiò , specialitèr virtus poenitentiae , quamvis non posset 〈◊〉 malum commissum posset odio habere peccatum , quod offertur ut committendum , & habere voluntatem non 〈◊〉 Deo injuriam . Misericordia etiam 〈◊〉 semper , aut per se requirit dolorem in miserente , nam voluntas sublevandi 〈◊〉 , si absque dolore haberi p sset , revera 〈◊〉 actus misericordiae . Hoc autem 〈◊〉 , si status innocentiae duraret , posset unus 〈◊〉 cadere , & alter innocens habere voluntatem 〈◊〉 illi , 〈◊〉 displicentiâ de malo ejus , quae posset haberi sine tristitiâ , 〈◊〉 dolore . Et fortasse inter ipsos 〈◊〉 non 〈◊〉 occasiones habendi 〈◊〉 actus . Nam licet in illis non esset propria miseria poenalis , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aliqua indigentia naturalis , ut parvuli 〈◊〉 auxilio majorum ad educationem , & ad vitanda pericula , & ignorantes , 〈◊〉 insipientes indigerent doctrinâ . Ad 〈◊〉 ergò modum non 〈◊〉 ibi aliqua materia misericordiae , & sic 〈◊〉 de aliis similibus virtutibus facilè 〈◊〉 . De hom : creat : ac stat : 〈◊〉 : lib. 3. cap. 11. Secondly , the Formale ; the formality of this righteousnesse was ( as Estius noteth in lib. 2. sent : dist : 25. sect . 5. ) not so much the aggregation , and collection of those habits , that rendred man perfect , as the relation of 〈◊〉 resulting from them : originall righteousnesse then was the rectitude of the whole man , and all his powers in reference unto one another , and ( in regard of their acts it was ) a relation of conformity of all in man unto the rule , the revealed will of God : but heare Estius himselfe largely and clearly explicating himselfe in this particular . 〈◊〉 et si non sit dubitandum , quin 〈◊〉 originalis 〈◊〉 bona vel omnia , vel 〈◊〉 in primo homine habuerit conjuncta , quod & futurum erat in posteris ex eo nascituris statu innocentiae durante ; non tamen justitiae nomine 〈◊〉 propriè tale aliquod aggregatum , seu complexum significari , sed potiùs rectitudo quaedam quae in toto homine ex partium ac potentiarum ejus ordine atque optima dispositione consurgebat . Quare justitia originalis ad omnes 〈◊〉 habitus , seu dispositiones , ac perfectiones potentiarum , videtur 〈◊〉 habuisse tanquam relatio 〈◊〉 ad rationes fundandi ; ut non sit 〈◊〉 is necesse , vel unum aliquem habitum , vel plures quaerere , qui propriè sint , 〈◊〉 constituant justitiam originalem , sed sufficiat intelligere quò d homo secundùm partes , & potentias suas it a fuerit ordinatus , ut absolutè rectus , ac justus 〈◊〉 , ut pote nihil habens in se inordinatum , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vitiosum . Thirdly , what was the subject of originall righteousnesse in which it was seated ? Scotus placeth it only in the will : because upon that depends the rectitude of humane actions : Durand restraines it unto the 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 faculties of the soule : because they only are regulated , and made subject unto reason : But (p) Estius , in the place but now quoted , with better reason maketh the subject of it to be all the parts or powers of the soule ; for rectitude ( saith he ) whether we understand it to be in corporals , or spirituals , existeth in the parts , having that order betwixt themselves , whence the whole that consists of them is denominated to be right , or strait : that was the subject of this originall 〈◊〉 , which was the subject of those habits , that were the foundation thereof : now those habits were placed in all the powers of the soule , some ( as temperance , fortitude , and the like ) were seated even in the sensitive appetites : for these lower , and sensitive powers are capable of habits in man ; because in him rationall , though not formally , yet by participation , as obedient unto reason . As for the body , this righteousnesse was not in it , as a subject , but only reached it as an instrument : its members were weapons of righteousnesse : To make the sensitive powers obedient unto the rationall , habits were requisite to be in them for determination of them hereunto : t is true , habits were requisite to be in the sensitive powers , to make them obedient unto the rationall ; and , without inherence of such habits , they could not be determined hereunto ; but now , there 's no necessity for assigning any such habits in the body , to render that readily subordinate unto reason ; because , 't is sufficiently determined hereunto by those habits , that are in the faculties of the soule , directing , and commanding its actions . A fourth thing is the causation , or production of this originall righteousnesse : seeing it is a relation it cannot be created , or produced per se , but ratione fundamenti , in its foundation , for neque datur motus neque mutatio ad relationem per se spectatam ; relations are all produced by the same action , that their foundations are ; and not by any new , proper , superadded , predicamentall action : Thus , the likenesse betwixt two white wals is produced by no other action , then the whitening of them ; and thus God made the first man upright , or righteous only by the infusion of those habits , gifts , graces , vertues , that were the foundation of this uprightnesse , or righteousnesse ; for man was denominated fundamentally upright , or righteous by them ; though formally by the relation of righteousnesse . A fist thing is the effects of originall righteousnesse : and these the Schoolmen generally make to be three . First , A subordination of the upper faculties of the soule , the understanding , and will unto God : In his understanding there was no privative , or blameable ignorance , but a cleare , and full knowledg of God , and his law : his will was cloathed with grace , and holinesse ; it was created holy though mutable ; so that , though there was in him a possibility of sin , yet not the least tendency , or inclination unto sinne ; as long as he stood , he adhered allwaies unto God , and said , as the Psalmist , It is good for to draw neare unto the Lord , Psal. 73. last . A second is a subjection of the inferiour faculties of the soule unto the superiour ; of the phantasy unto the understanding , of the sensitive appetite unto the will : so that , in those inferiour powers . there was no motion unsuitable unto , either the dignity , or duty of man : The Centurion , Matth. 8. 9. tels our Saviour of the forward obsequiousnesse of his souldiers and servants : for I am a man under authority , having souldiers under me : and I say to this man goe , and he goeth , and to another come , and he cometh : and to my servant , do this , and he doth it . Such was the ready and cheerfull obedience of Adams lower faculties unto his superiour : His 〈◊〉 were most likely to be unruly , and yet they all , went , and came ; were let out , and chained up ; intended , and heightned ; slackned , or remitted ; lengthned , or broken off according to the directions of his understanding , and commands of his will. A third effect of Originall righteousnesse in Adam , was a regular subjection of his body unto his soule : in regard whereof , it was an helpefull , and serviceable instrument thereunto , as in all , so especially in its gracious operations , those of piety towards God , and those of charity and justice towards man : all the members of his body were weapons , armes , or instruments of righteousnesse unto God , Rom. 6. 13. servants to righteousnesse unto 〈◊〉 , vers . 19. His eyes were as windows to let in good , and profitable observations , from the creation of the world , concerning the invisible things of the Creator his eternall power and 〈◊〉 , Rom. 1. 20. 21. His eares were as the gate of life , which , if he would , might have been shut , and lockt against all evill , and open unto all good : his tongue was as the pen of a ready writer , Psal. 45. 1. ready to utter those things which a good heart had indited : his hands on every occasion were apt to be lifted up to God in prayer , and devotion , and stretched out to man in actions of charity , and compassion : his 〈◊〉 were ready to be imployed in any good errand , swift to run the waies of Gods commandments . The sixth thing I propounded concerning Originall righteousnesse , was , the difference of it from sanctifying grace : This is to be understood concerning the Materiale , or foundation of Originall righteousnesse : Some distinguish it wholy , and altogether from the sanctifying grace of Adam : But such are by (q) Becanus thus refuted : Originall righteousnesse rendred our first Parents righteous , and holy : But they , having no forreigne righteousnesse to be iustified by , could not be righteous and holy without sanctifying grace ; Originall righteousnesse therefore in them didinclude sanctifying grace : But , though it did include Habituall Holinesse , or sanctifying grace , yet Becanus with others thinke , that it superadded something thereunto , and was not that alone : so that it was distinguish't therefrom distinctione includentis ab incluso . It included sanctifying grace , and signified further such Habits in the inferior faculties , as made them obedient unto the superior , and repressed and prevented in them all Rebellion , and disorder , all irregular and disorderly Motions . Becanus loc : praedict . for this produceth an Argument , which stands thus : Originall righteousnesse had three effects , by the common 〈◊〉 of the Schoolmen , upon the soules of our first Parents . 1. Subjection of the superior part of the soule , the understanding , and will 〈◊〉 God. 2. Subjection of the inferior and sensitive part of the soule unto the higher , and rationall part . 3. The Ready Subjection of the Body unto the Soule ; But now grace alone , single , by it selfe had not these three effects , and therefore Originall righteousnesse was not only grace : but implied something else : The Minor he goeth about thus to prove ; 〈◊〉 sanctifying grace , in the state of innocency , was of the same nature , and kind with our grace : But our grace hath not these three effects , but only the 〈◊〉 , and this he exemplifieth by Paul's complaint of a law in his Members warring against the law of his mind , Rom. 7. 23. that is ; of Rebellion in his body , and sensitive faculties against the higher , and rationall faculties of his soule : Paul's grace was 〈◊〉 to represse this rebellion ; therefore we may conclude the same of Adam's too ; and therefore ( Besides sanctifying grace , ) there were ( to this purpose , and intent , ) further requisite some gifts , or habits distinct from it . For Answer : These two last effects of Originall righteousnesse may be produced two manner of waies , 〈◊〉 , or 〈◊〉 . The grace of Paul , ( and we may say the same of all regenerate Persons , ) did produce these two 〈◊〉 , but not in the same degree that Originall righteousnesse did in Adam ; for it was imperfect , defiled by the coexistence of sinfull corruptions : and hereupon , it could beget in his materiall part , and powers only an imperfect obedience unto his immateriall and spiritua'l powers ; But this obedience , though imperfect , is yet true and sincere . Grace wheresoever it is can lay commands , and impose lawes upon the senses , and sensitive passions , as also upon all the members of the body : and can make these lawes , and commands to be obeyed in some measure . Job could make a Covenant with his eyes . David could put a bridle into his lips : All the regenerate 〈◊〉 their Members instruments of righteousnesse unto God , servants to righteousnesse , unto 〈◊〉 , Rom. 6. 13 , 19. Therefore their inherent righteousnesse , and holinesse hath some domination , and rule over their members ; All rebellions and mutinies ( such is its weaknesse and imperfection 〈◊〉 in this life , ) it cannot possibly prevent ; yet , when these flames breake out , it doth what it can to allay , and compose them ; it quencheth them with the waters of repentance , and so farre prevaileth over them , as that it never suffers them to enjoy a totall , and 〈◊〉 victory . Indeed the grace of Adam preserved in the soule a full , and undisturbed tranquillity , and gave reason , and the rationall Appetite such a perfect regiment over the body , and the inferior faculties , as that there was not in them the least disobedience , or so much as reluctancy unto the dictates of the understanding , and motions of the will ; and the Reason hereof was , because in the grace of Adam , there was all requisite perfection 〈◊〉 And , whereas Becanus objecteth , that grace in the state of innocency was of the same nature , and kind with that of ours : this is nothing unto the purpose : for , allthough it be the same in point of 〈◊〉 , yet it falls farre short of it in degree and measure : and therefore is unable for the perfect causation of that , for which , in the full , and persect grace of Adam , there was an ample sufficiency . The seaventh and last thing I proposed , concerning Originall Righteousnesse , was a question concerning the manner of its 〈◊〉 unto the first man : whether it were naturall or supernaturall to him in his state of innocency ? some may looke upon it as an unnecessary nicety : but the Papists make it the foundation of many dangerous opinions : for grant that originall righteousnesse was supernaturall before the fall , they will hence inserre , that its contrary concupiscence was naturall : and from this againe , they will conclude , that in the regenerate 't is not properly a sinne , and consequently , that 't is no barre unto the absolute persection of their good works , and their justification by them : and divers other the like unsound , and 〈◊〉 tenents : By a right stating then of this question these errours will be forestalled : and yet 't is strange , what confusion , and mistakes there are in the stating of it , amongst both Protestants , and Papists : Amesius ( I confesse ) hath , in a very short passage , given me herein greater satisfaction , then I could find in the larger discourses of others : His words are these Neque dicimus nos justitiam fuisse , vel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 naturae physicè , aut physico modo ex 〈◊〉 principiis 〈◊〉 , sed conditionem esse moralem , naturae illi debitam , quae ad justè operandum fuit creata . But this may be looked upon , rather as a generall , and an obscure hint , than a just determination of the question : and theresore I shall addresse my selfe unto a more full handling of it : and in order hereunto shall premise an Explication of these two terms in it , naturall and supernaturall . The first terme to be explained is naturall : and this hath many acceptions : a thing may be said to be naturall to man five waies ; in regard ; first , of its 〈◊〉 of his nature : 〈◊〉 , consecution , or emanation from it : or thirdly , 〈◊〉 unto it : or fourthly , connexion with it : or fiftly , duenesse unto it . First , a thing may be said to be naturall unto man in regard of the constitution of his nature : to wit : that which is a principle , or essentiall part of his nature : his soule , and body , and all integrall parts of one of his essentiall parts his body . Secondly , a thing may be said to be naturall to man in regard of consecution , or emanation from his nature , that physically results , and flowes from the principles of his nature : and thus the properties of his nature are said to be naturall unto him , v. g. the faculties of the understanding , and will. Thirdly , a thing may be said to be naturall to man in regard 〈◊〉 suitablenesse unto his nature : and thus every ornament , or 〈◊〉 suitable , and agreeable to his nature : every thing that heales , perfects , adornes , or advanceth his nature : all gracious and glorious endowments may be said to be naturall : for naturall , in this sense , is opposed unto , not supernaturall , but that which is against nature , which is hurtfull unto , or destructive of nature . Fourthly , a thing may be said to be naturall to man in regard of 〈◊〉 with his nature : to wit : that which he hath derived unto him together with his nature , in the same instance of time , though not of nature : and thus originall sin is said to be naturall unto lapsed man , that is , connaturall , connexed with his nature , from the very first receipt thereof : we were ( saith Paul ) by nature the children of wrath , Eph. 2. 7. that is , we were obnoxious unto wrath , as soone as we received our nature . Fiftly , a thing may be said to be naturall to man in regard of duenesse to his nature : without which his nature could not be created : and thus things due unto man , are said to be naturall unto man : because they doe ( in some way ) resemble naturall properties in point of necessity : and are ( in some sort ) necessary unto man : This acception of the word is found in some of the most learned amongst the Papists , when they speake of other subjects : It is usually said , that habituall grace was connaturall unto Christs soule , as a property consequent unto the personall union , though it did not result theresrom by any physicall dimanation , or reall efficiency , but was immediately given thereunto by Gods power and will : and this (r) 〈◊〉 justisieth srom the present acception of the word naturall : accidents ( saith he ) may be said to be connaturall : not only , when they flow , and result actively from an intrinsick principle : but also , when by an extrinsick agent they are conferred juxta naturae debitum : so we say , that grace was cald a connaturall property of Christ God-man : because , from the worthinesse of his person , it was due , debito quodam proportionis connaturalis , by a debt or duenesse of connaturall proportion , so that , it would have been a strange , preternaturall , and prodigious thing , to have created the humane nature of Christ , and to have joined it unto the person of the word , and not to have replenished it with all the ornaments of divine grace . This duenesse of a thing , unto the nature of man , is againe twofold ; either of condecency , or of obligation . First , A duenesse of condecency ; and according unto that a thing is only fit , congruent , convenient . Secondly , A duenesse of obligation : and that againe may be conceived to arise , either from the merit of man , or else from some acts of God preceding , or concomitant : for , though Gods will be most free , yet by one act he may necessitate , and oblige himselfe unto another , either following it , or connexed with it : Deus promittendo se feclt debitorem , is a proverb in Divinity : God by his promises freely obligeth himselfe : and we may say the same of other acts : this is fully declared ( upon another occasion ) by Mr Hord , whom I take yet to be our antagonist in this question : I grant ( saith he ) [ in his treatise entituled Gods love unto mankind ] that God is simply and absolutely bound unto no man , he is agens liberrimum , a most free dispenser of his own favours , both what he will , and to whom he will ; but yet he is conditionally : determinavit seipsum : he hath bound himselfe to give supernaturall abilities to men by three things . First , Decernendo , the Almighty is eternally subject to his own decree , or else he would be mutable , and therefore what gifts soever he hath decreed to men , he is bound to give them by virtue of his decree . Secondly , Promittendo , we use to say promise is debt , it is iustice to performe , what it was free to promise : if therefore God hath made a premise of any gift or grace to men , this promise binds him to performance . Thirdly , Legem ferendo ; by giving men a law to keep , which , without supernaturall power , they cannot keepe any more then they can eat a rock : by such a law the Allmighty Law-giver binds himselfe to his creatures , to give them such power as may enable them to keepe that law , or else he becomes the true , and proper cause of the transgression of it . From the first terme , naturall , passe we on to the second , supernaturall : A thing may be said to be supernaturall to the first man , either in regard of its originall , or else in respect of the manner of its inhesion in , or agreement unto its nature . First , in regard of its originall and efficient which is produced immediately by God , without the concurrence of any creature . Secondly , in regard of the manner of its inhesion in , and agreement unto the nature of man : and so , that is said to be supernaturall , which resembled such supernaturals , as were unnecessary unto mans nature , without which his nature might well be created . Having thus explained the termes , the question may be divided into two parts , according unto the two parts of the predicate . First , whether or no originall righteousnesse were naturall unto the first man in his state of innocency ? Secondly , whether it were supernaturall ? First , whether it were naturall ? and here I shall lay downe First what is uncontroverted on both sides : Then secondly , what is controverted . First , what is uncontroverted on both sides : 'T is granted by Protestants First , that originall righteousnesse was not naturall unto man constitutivè , it was no principle constituting his nature . Secondly , that it was not naturall unto man consecutivè , in regard of emanation , or consecution from his nature . It was no property physically resulting from the principles of his nature . Now , for both these concessions there is usually alledged this one reason , because that , which is naturall in either of these senses , is inseparable : things thus naturall remained even in the Divells , and so also in lapsed man , his fall did not take away , either the principles or properties of his nature : but originall righteousnesse remaineth not in lapsed man , and therefore it was not naturall , as either a principle or property of nature ; Bellarmine therefore [ De gra : prim : hom . cap. 5. ] doth but calumniate , when he makes this acception of naturall to be that , of which the question is to be understood Quarto naturale vocatur , quod aut est pars naturae , aut fluit à 〈◊〉 naturae . Quâ significatione 〈◊〉 , & animus facultates quoque , tum sentiendi , tum intelligendi , & operationes quae ab iisdem facultatibus exercentur , naturalia esse dicuntur . Atque haec est signisicatio , de quâ hoc loco propriè disputamus . And yet here , it cannot be denyed , but that some Protestants have herein expressed themselves very unwarily , rectitudo quam primus homo in 〈◊〉 accepit , was , ( saith Maccovius ) Naturalis hec significato quo facultas sentiendi , videndi , cap. 44. loc : com : and there is a passage in Tilenus [ Syntag : lib. 1. cap. 33. sect . 17 ] that sounds very harshly this way . Tam natur . lis primo parenti haec justitiae originalis qualitas fuit , quam ipsa natura , & forma substantialis , per creationem accepta : unto these I may joyne also our own Willet , for he makes naturall in the question , to be that , which was either a part of man's nature , or did arise , or spring out of some naturall beginning , as we say the soule in the body , and the understanding in the soule are naturall . From the grants of Protestants proceed we unto those of Papists , here First , they grant , that originall righteousnesse was naturall to man in regard of connexion with his nature , it was concreated with : and this is confessed by Bellarmine , Primum naturale dicitur id omne , quod habetur â nativitate , quâ signisicatione dicimur filii irae , Ephes. 2 : & hoc modo justitiam originalem fatemur dici posse naturalem . Sed haec significatio ad quaestionem praesentem non pertinet , 〈◊〉 quod naturale hoc modo acceptum non opponitur supernaturali , cum tam naturalia , quàm supernaturalia dona possint haberi à nativitate , ut notum est . De gra : prim : hom : cap : 5. 〈◊〉 , they grant , that it was naturall unto man in regard of suitablenesse unto his nature , it was a perfection very agreeable unto a reasonable creature . Nay thirdly they goe further , and seeme ( as I thinke ) to affirme , that it was naturall in respect of duenesse unto nature , if we speake only of a duenesse of condecency : thus much may be gathered from these following words of Bellarmine [ De gra : prim : hom : cap 7. ] Respondeo , aequum omnino fuisse , ut Deus homini ad finem tàm sublimem ordinato media necessaria non negârit : For he cannot deny , but that originall righteousnesse was a necessary meanes unto man's chiefe end . Now all these three concessions of the Papists are by Greg : de valentia [ tom . 2. disp . 6. 15. punct . 1. ] thus briefly summed , Donum originalis justitiae naturale ab extrinseco dici potucrit , quatcnus & naturae hominis ab initio ingenitum erat , & ei congruebat , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , atque roborabat ad recte exequendas operationes omnes bonas natura humanae à bitas : Or ( as he expresseth it in a second assertion ) Ad exequendum sine disicultate , &c : 〈◊〉 naturale virtutum earum , quarum actiones lege naturae praecipiuntur , & praescribuntur . There is another grant that I shall premise , which ( I believe ) is agreed on , both by Papists , and Protestants , and that is ; that originall righteousnesse was not due unto man's nature in a way of merit , there was nothing in man's nature , that merited it . The Question then proceeds only concerning a 〈◊〉 of obligation arising from some acts of God , and may be thus propounded : whether or no originall righteousnesse were not naturall , that is , necessary unto the first man , in the state of innocency , necessary though not absolutely , yet , ex hypothesi , upon supposall of some acts of God ? or whether God did not by some acts oblige , and necessitate himselfe unto the enduing of the first man with originall righteousnesse ? Where the assirmative , which is our conclusion shall be made good , by instancing in three decrees of God , by which he had bound himselfe to give the first man , in the state of innocency , originall righteousnesse . First , his decree 〈◊〉 the goodnesse with which hee intended to invest him . Secondly , his decree concerning the end unto which he designed him . Thirdly , his decree concerning the Laws unto which he intended to oblige him . First , his decree concerning the goodnesse with which hee invested him : man , as the rest of the creatures , was created very good , Gen. c. 1. v. 31 : and consequently , God decreed to create him very good ; for he worketh all things after the counsell of his own will , Ephes. 1. 11. But now he could not be made good , much lesse very good , unlesse he had been created with originall righteousnesse ; for morall goodnesse is that , which is proper and agreeable unto a reasonable creature , and therefore , without this righteousnesse , man could not be morally good : presupposing therefore God's decree to make man very good , it was impossible to create him without originall righteousnesse . Secondly , his decree concerning the end which he prescribed , and designed unto him : for the utmost end , unto which man was appointed , was the glory of God , Prov. 16. 4 : and his owne eternall happinesse , consisting in the beatificall vision of God's essence , and the eternall fruition of his glory , even the light of reason dictated this only to be the supreme end of man and all other ends to be unsatisfactory , below the nature of his spirituall , and immortall soule : God's giving man a capacity of this end was a sufficient intimation that it was to be the chief end , which he was to aime at ; hereupon also was it , that there was naturally in man a desire of this end and no other end could give satisfaction unto his infinite , and boundlesse desires ; so that Bellarmine himselfe sticks not to affirme that it was naturall unto man , Quoad appetitum , though not , Quoad consecutionem . Now God by thus designing man unto this end , and placing in him a naturall appetite thereunto , engag'd himselfe to furnish him with all necessary meanes , abilities , and qualifications for the compassing of it ; for , qui destinat ad sinem , destinat ad media ; and originall righteousnesse was ( undoubtedly ) a qualification absolutely necessary for such a purpose ; and , if he bad been created without it , he had been made , not only , a little lower than the Angels , but beneath the very beasts that perish ; below the most contemptible wormes , that crawle upon the face of the earth , for there is none of them destitute of such furniture , as is requisite , for the reaching of their respective ends . Thirdly , his decree concerning the Lawes unto which he intended to oblige him : he intended to write the Law of nature in his heart assoone as he was created ; and accordingly it was written ; so that , from his creation , he was obliged unto severall duties , but it was impossible for man to performe acceptably these duties without originall righteousnesse , and therefore , God by his purpose to impose these duties upon man , determined himselfe to enable him for them , by making him habitually upright , and holy : for if he should have enjoined , impossible commandements where there was no ability for obedience , he had been a very unjust Law-giver , like Pharoah , that exacted bricke , and would not allow straw : God's purpose to create such a creature as man , with the rational faculties of understanding , and will , imply'd a purpose , to oblige him to serve , obey , and glorify him as his Creator ; and this againe imply'd a purpose to enable , and qualify him for such service , and obedience : and was not originall righteousnesse a necessary qualification : for this . Man no sooner knew , that he was a poore creature , dependant upon the All-mighty maker of Heaven , and Earth ; but he forthwith understood , that he was , by the Law of creation , without any positive superadded Law bound , to love this his Maker above all things with all his soule , heart , might , and strength ; to love himselfe , and all other things in reference unto him , to 〈◊〉 all his voluntary , and rationall actions unto his Glory , at least virtually : but now all these duties were unfeasible without the virtue , or grace of the love of God , and therefore , from God's purpose to to oblige man unto these duties , we may conclude , his purpose to 〈◊〉 into him the habit of love : and what we say of the acts , and habits of love may be applied unto the acts , and habits of other graces . (s) This Medium the Arminians generally make use of to prove , the 〈◊〉 of universall grace : Because God hath commanded all men to believe , and obey , therefore he hath bound himselfe to give every man power to believe , and obey : Their abuse of this argument it is not now pertinent to examine , only , I cannot but observe , the inconsistency of it with their opinion in the now controverted question : for Arminius , and his followers generally hold , that originall righteousnesse was not naturall , that is , due , and necessary unto man in his innocency : But for resutation of this their deniall wee need no other medium , but that now mentioned , which they bring for universall grace : for that with due change will sufficiently serve our turne : God commanded man in the state of innocency actuall righteousnesse , therefore he had bound himselfe to furnish him with originall righteousnesse , therefore originall righteousnesse was necessary and due unto man in that state , and that is all we meane by the word naturall . There be diverse other arguments , usually alleadged by Protestants , which I shall for the present wholy wave ; only , I cannot but take notice of one , ( that is urged by Macovius , and others ) from the remainders of this original righteousnesse in man since the fall : these are now naturall unto man ; therefore originall righteousnesse it selfe was naturall to man before the fall ; but this argument hath a tang of Pelagianisme : there be reliques of Gods image in man in his corrupt , and unregenerate condition ; but none of originall righteousnesse ; for this was wholy lost , and extinct ; supernaturalia erepta , naturalia corrupta : however then , there be left some shadowes , and resemblances of it , yet not any true remnants of it : even Arminius himselfe in his conference with Junius confesseth , that there be not left in us so much as any principles , or seed of spiritual virtues . Dico agnition millam quae est 〈◊〉 pietatem , justitiam illam , & 〈◊〉 , de quâ Apostolus non corruptas sed sublatas esse , null áque earundem in nobis post lapsum manere principia . Fateor principia & semina virtutum moralium , quae anologiam quandam & similitudinem habent ad istas spirituales virtutes in nobis manere post lapsum , quin & ipsas morales virtutes ; licet per 〈◊〉 corruptas . Haec similitudo fallere potest non accuratè inter hasce & illas spirituales virtutes discriminantem . In hâc sententiâ mea , qua statuo illa bona esse ablata , habeo praeeuntem 〈◊〉 nostrum questione . 9 : his verbis : Homo se & omnem posteritatem divinis illis 〈◊〉 orbavit : Quae autem sint illa divina 〈◊〉 , explicatum est quaestione sexta praecedente , nempe , 〈◊〉 & sanctitas . But what congruence this hath with other principles of Arminius I leave to be determined by his disciples . Before I take my leave of this part of the question I shall desire the Reader to take notice that , besides Henricus de Gandavo , there have been many learned Papists of the opinion , that originall righteousnesse was naturall to man in his state of integrity : so much you may see at large in Estius : [ in l. 2. sent : dist . 26. sect . 6. ] who reckons up distinctly seventeene of their arguments : indeed they take originall righteousnesse ( in a stricter sense than we ) only for the subjection of the inferiour faculties unto reason ; but yet even herein , they are opposite unto the generality of Papists , as well , as we . But proceed we unto the second part of the question : whether or no originall righteousnesse were 〈◊〉 unto man in his state of innocency ? And here we readily grant , that it was supernaturall to man , in regard of originall or 〈◊〉 , for God immediately produced it , and it did not , could not flow from any principle of nature : this concession is made by Dr. Twisse in his animadversions upon the conference of Arminius with 〈◊〉 , pag. 36. 37 , &c : and there justified by him at large against Junius , but though this be a very plaine , and evident truth , yet Arminius doth very weakly confirme it , as appeares by Dr. Twisse his examination of all his arguments . But there is one argument of (t) his , which he urgeth , not only in the place cited , but also in his Examen of Perkins , pag. 587 : that merits in a speciall manner to be remarked , not so much for the strength , and solidity of it , as for the facetiousnesse of Dr. Twisse his answer to it : Arminius his argument stands thus : that which is restored unto man by the supernaturall action of regeneration , was at first supernaturall , and bestowed upon man by a supernaturall action ; but holinesse , and righteousnesse is restored unto man by a supernaturall act , to wit , regeneration , therefore it was at first supernaturall in it selfe , and bestowed upon man by a supernaturall action . We shall passe over the greatest part of (v) Dr. Twisse his answer , and only pitch upon what he saith unto the major , which he invalidates by two instances . Christ restored unto many health of body , by a supernaturall action , it doth not therefore follow , that health of body was not naturall unto Adam before his fall : it was by a supernaturall action , that he restored unto Malchus that eare , which Peter with his sword had cut off , but it doth not therefore follow that this eare was at first supernaturall unto Malchus . But leaving Arminius his argument , we confesse that originall righteousnesse was supernaturall unto Adam , if you respect the principle of it , and thus it was supernaturall unto Adam , not only per accidens , but also per se , it neither did , nor could flow from the principles of nature . That then , which alone is w controverted , is , whither or no originall righteousnesse was supernaturall unto Adam in his state of innocency in respect of the manner of it's inhaesion in , and agreement unto the nature of man ? whether the nature of man , could have been created without it ? Here the Papists generally averre that man might have been created in his pure naturals without originall righteousnesse , nay that the contrary of originall righteousnesse , concupiscense would naturally have flowne , and resulted from the codition , and very constitution , or composition of his nature , and such resultancy was prevented , and stayed by the supernaturall gift , or grace of originall righteousnesse : to illustrate this their opinion , they use diverse 〈◊〉 , they compare originall righteousnesse unto a rich robe , or garment , which God threw upon man , to cover his naturall nakednesse ; so that the state of man , after the fall of Adam , differeth no more from the state of Adam , in his pure naturals , than a man that is spoiled differeth from a naked man ; they farther resemble it unto a garland , set on the head of a Virgin ; as also unto Sampsons locks ; for looke as a garland is not necessary required unto virginity , nor the strength that lay in Sampsons locks unto humanity , so originall righteousnesse ( say they ) was no necessary requisite unto the integrity of man's nature : a Virgin may be a Virgin , though no garland be put upon her head , and when the garand is taken away her virginity remaines untouched , and unblemished ; 〈◊〉 had been a man , though no supernaturall strength had layne in his locks , and he remained a man still , when that strength was departed from him : thus ( say they ) man might have been created in his pure naturals , without the addition of originall righteousnesse , because it was not required nececessarily sor the perfecting of his natures integrity ; and therefore , when this originall righteousnesse was taken from him he was only reduced unto the condition of pure , and sole nature , and his naturals were no wayes vitiated : originall righteousnesse was ( say they ) as a soveraigne antedote against concupiscence , which would have been a naturall disease unto man ; as a golden bridle to restraine , and keep in that feircenesse , rebellion , and unrulinesse of the inferiour faculties , which otherwise would naturally have been unavoidable ; it was ( say they ) as a precious 〈◊〉 , that made bright the nature of man , and kept it from that rust , which necessarily would have growne upon a nature , so framed , and compounded , as ours was : 〈◊〉 [ in lib. 2. sent . 32. 〈◊〉 . 1. ] out of Anselme likneth originall righteousnesse unto the 〈◊〉 of a ship , when the rudder of a ship is wanting , or broken , how can the Pilot guide it ? will be in perpetuall perill of being dashed , or split upon rockes , and quicksands : thus , if man had been created in his pure naturals without originall righteousnesse , he had been as a ship without a rudder ; so that he could never have steered the vessell of his soule unto it's wished end , the haven of heaven ; for it would have been , in continuall danger of shipwracke , by the wind of every sensuall passion , and desire : thus you see how dishonourably they speake of the nature of man , which yet was the master-peice of the creation , and made ( as it were ) by the consultation of the whole Trinity ; God said , let us make man in our image after our likenesse , Gen. 1. 26. In opposition unto this doctrine of the Papists , I shall lay down 〈◊〉 conclusions ; wherein I shall wholy lay aside the terme supernaturall , and speake only to the thing and matter : and indeed it were heartily to be wished , that the termes naturall and supernaturall had never been used in this controversy : for they have brought no light unto it , but occasioned only a strife of words . The first 〈◊〉 shall be : It was hypothetically impossible for man in the state of innocency to be created with the contradictory of Originall righteousnesse , to wit , the negation and absence of it . The second conclusion : It was 〈◊〉 impossible for man to be created with the contrary of originall righteousnesse , concupiscence and inclination 〈◊〉 sin . To begin with the first conclusion : It was hypothetically impossible for man in the state of innocency to be created with the contradictory of originall righteousnesse , to wit , the negation , and absence of it : of more briefly : It was hypothetically impossible for man to be created without originall righteousnesse ; I say hypothetically , in respect of Gods ordinate power , presupposing those decrees of God mentioned in the first part of the question : First , his decree to make man very good : Secondly , his decree to prescribe him so high and glorious an end , as the glorifying , and enjoyment of himselfe , an infinite good : Thirdly , his decree to impose upon him severall lawes , obedience to which might bring him unto the said end . for , without originall righteousnesse , it was impossible for any of these decrees to be put in execution : without it impossible , that he should be made 〈◊〉 good : for what goodnesse is correspondent unto a rationall creature , but a morall goodnesse , righteousnesse and true holinesse ? without it impossible , that man should obtaine the end prescribed unto him . that he should performe the duties injoined him : and it was against the justice and goodnesse of God , and so a grosse contradiction to appoint unto man an impossible end , to impose upon man impossible commandments : Gods chalking out such an end for man to seek , implieth , that he supplyed him with meanes for assecution hereof : his injunction of lawes argueth , that he gave power and ability to yeeld obedience unto them : but of this allready more fully , and distinctly in the first part of the question . Unto what is there said , 〈◊〉 me adde what Dr Feild [ in his learned booke of the Church pag. 251 , 252 , 253. ] hath , in resutation of this fiction of the Papists , that man might have been created in his pure naturals , in a state of neutrality and 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 grace or sin ; his argument may briefly be thus summ'd up . It was impossible for the nature of man , without grace , to performe its principall actions , about its principall objects , the sirst truth , and the chiefest good ; without grace 't was impossible for man to know God as he ought , to love him as he should , amore amicitiae , with a love of friendship , for himselfe , and his own sake , and without such a love all a mans actions would have bin sins ; for they could not have been done unto the glory of God ; because t is such a love only , that referreth mans actions unto Gods glory ; and that state cannot , but be a sinfull state , wherein all that a man doth is sin : breifly thus , without the grace of God 't is impossible to love God ; and without the love of God all our actions will be evill and sin , and therefore à primo ad ultimum without grace all our actions will be sin ; and hereupon 't will follow , that there can be no state of nature sinlesse without grace ; and consequently that there can be noe state of pure or meere nature . For the surther clearing of this I shall lay downe two 〈◊〉 which cannot reasonably be denied . First , that God decreed , that man should act rationally , that he should performe rationall actions . Secondly , that all his rationall actions were under the law of nature ; some for their substance , as to love , seare , prayse and glorify God ; and others for their 〈◊〉 , and other the like 〈◊〉 : whether a man did eate or drinke , whatsoever he did , he was to doe all unto the glory of God : to deny this were to uncreature man , take away his dependance upon , and relation unto God : and from this grant , ( it undeniably followes that ) all a man's rationall , or voluntary actions were capable of morall goodnesse , or badnesse , and consequently , that , how ever some of them might be indifferent in their generall , and abstract 〈◊〉 , yet considered actu exercito , as singularized , and cloathed with circumstances , they were all either morally good , or evill ; for morall goodnesse and badnesse are privatively opposite , and 't is an unquestioned rule in Logick , inter privativè opposita non datur medium in subjecto capaci ; Between privative opposites there can be no middle , either of abnegatien , or participation in a capable subject ; every subject capable of privative opposites must necessarily have one , or the other : thus a sensitive creature must be either seeing , or blind ; the aire must be either lightsome , or darke : now if there could be no indifferency , or neutrality in the rationall actions of man , but that they must all necessarily be , either good , or bad ; then it was impossible there could be any such state of indifferency , and neutrality in the rationall faculties of man ; they must also be morally either good , or bad , holy , or sinfull ; and therefore the possibility of man's existence in a state of pure naturals , without grace , or sinne , hath no foundation in sound reason . The second conclusion : It was absolutely impossible for man to be created with the contrary of originall righteousnesse , concupiscence , a pronenesse , or inclination of all the faculties of man unto sin . This conclusion is thus confirmed : if man had been created with this concupiscence , God had been the author of it ; but 't was impossible for God to be the author of it ; the Apostle John saith , it is not from the Father , but is of the world , 1 John 2. 16 : we may goe farther and say , it could not bee from the Father , and therefore it was 〈◊〉 for man to be created with it . The Minor is thus prov'd it was impossible for God to be the author of sin , but concupiscence is sin , and therefore God could not be the author of it . Unto this argument we find in Bellarmine two answers . First , that God would not have been the author of this concupiscence , though man had been created with it . Secondly , that this concupiscence is not sinne , and therefore , though God had been the cause of it , yet it would not have therefore followed , that hee had been the cause of sinne . First , that God would not have been the author of concupiscence , though man had been created with it , but it would have been besides his purpose and intention : for it would ( saith he ) have flowne naturally from the condition of the matter of man , and so it would have been naturall unto man , not as a good , gift , or ornament , of nature , but as a defect , disease , or infirmity of nature : he endeavoureth to illustrate this by the similitude of a Smith : though a Smith frame a sword of Iron , and the sword grow rusty , yet the rust is not caused by the Smith , but proceedeth , as a sequele , from the nature , or quality of the Iron , that is the matter of the sword . But this answer is , first , dissonant from the truth : secondly , repugnant unto Bellarmines owne principles . First , dissonant from the truth , and that I shall cleare by three arguments . The first argument : Causa causae est causa causati in 〈◊〉 subordinatis , the cause of a cause is the cause of its effects in things essentially subordinate , but God is the cause of the nature , and matter of a man , and ( by the opinion of Bellarmine ) concupiscence is essentiall to the nature , and matter of man 〈◊〉 , and a 〈◊〉 , for it would naturally , and necessarily ( thinks he ) have resulted from the nature , and matter of man , but that it was supernaturally prevented by the gift of originall righteousnesse , and consequently God must needs be the cause , and author of it . A second argument is : because , this concupiscence is not only in the sensitive , and inferiour , but also in the rationall , and superiour faculties , in the understanding and will : St. Paul Coll. 2. 15 : speakes of a fleshly mind , vainly puft up by his fleshly mind , so then there is flesh in the very mind of man : the carnall mind ( or the minding of the flesh ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , is enmity against God , Rom. 8. 7 : remarkable is that saying of Augustine , voluntas sine charitate est tota vitiosa cupiditas , without love , the will is as it were wholy turned into lust , that is , wholly depraved and defiled with lust : he thinkes then , that lust might be seated in the will , nay (x) 〈◊〉 himselfe though he thinke that concupiscence hath it's chiefe residence in the flesh , ( by which he meanes the body , and the sensuall powers of man ) yet he withall 〈◊〉 , that there is something like unto it in the superiour part of the soule ; for even that is prone immoderately to desire honours , vaine glory , and the like vanities ; and therefore Paul Gal. 5 : having said ; that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lusteth against 〈◊〉 spirit ; he nameth , not only fornication , drunkennesse , and the like carnall sinnes ; but also idolatry , heresies , envyings , &c : which were spirituall sinnes , sinnes of the upper region of the soule : thus you see , that a great part of concupiscence is placed in the supreme , the rationall faculties of man ; and extended unto spirituall , and immateriall objects : and hereupon it will follow , that ( at least ) this part of concupiscence cannot 〈◊〉 from the condition 〈◊〉 the matter . A third argument is , because this assertion ( that the resultancy of this concupiscence from the nature , and matter of man would have been besides the intention of God ) strikes against , either the omniscience , or omnipotency of God : for , either God foresaw this resultancy , or not ? to say , that he did not foresee it , takes away the infinitenesse of his knowledge ; if he foresaw it , then I demand whether he could not ? or would not prevent it ? to say , that he could not prevent it , denieth the infinitenesse of his power ; if he could , but would not prevent or stay it , then it followeth , that this resultancy was not besides , but agreeable unto his purpose , and intention . Secondly , this answer is repugnant unto Bellarmine his own principles : I shall instance in two . First , it is apparent ; that he maketh this concupiscence , to be chiefly , the naturall , and necessary propension of the sensitive faculties , unto their proper , and naturall object : and from this I thus argue . Naturall , (y) and necessary propensions of the naturall faculties of any thing , unto their naturall , and proper object , cannot be besides the intention of God , the creatour ; for such propensions must needs be positive qualities ; and of every positive being , God is the cause , and author . But now concupiscence is ( by Bellarmines discourse ) the naturall , and necessary propension of the sensitive faculties of man unto their proper , and naturall objects : And consequently , t is not besides the intention of the Creatour , flowing as a naturall defect , or disease , only from the condition of the mould , or matter of man. A second thing in Bellarmine , with which this his answer clasheth , is his confession ; that concupiscence is contrary to the nature of man [ de gratiâ primi hominis cap. 7. ] From hence I thus argue . (z) Nothing , that is against the nature of man can 〈◊〉 naturally , and necessarily from the principles of his nature . But Bellarmine confesseth that this concupiscence is against the nature of man ; And therefore he contradicts himselfe , when he affirmeth , that it results from the principles of man's nature , the condition of his matter . As for the similitude ( of the Smith , and the Iron sword ) that will be nothing unto the purpose : for First , no Smith whatsoever can make Iron , that is the matter of a sword , but God alone is the author of the matter of man , and consequently is the cause of all the naturall sequels thereof . Secondly , a Smith , if he could , would frame such a sword as might not be subject or inclined unto rust , but it is not a thing in his power , for he cannot alter the nature of Iron , so that , if he will produce an Iron sword , it will be lyable unto rust : The Papists seeme to ascribe such an impotency unto God himselfe ; for they suppose all along , that God cannot make man to be compounded of a reasonable soule , and sensible matter , but that , ( besides the intention of God ) the naturall , and necessary result of such a composition will , ( without supernaturall prevention , ) be a headlong inclination unto sensible objects , against the dictates of right reason : but the falshood of this supposition I shall anon at large detect . A second answer of Bellarmin's ( which we frequently sind also in Dr. Taylor , ) is , that this concupiscence is not a sinne , but only a disease , languer , infirmity , or 〈◊〉 of nature , and therefore , though God had been the cause of it , it would not yet have followed , that God was the author of sinne . Unto this I shall oppose the cleare testimony of Paul , who ( in 6 , 7 , 8. chapters of his Epistle unto the Roman's ) cal's it sinne fourteene times , as Bishop Davenant , and Dr. Francis White ( after Bishop of Ely ) calculate the places . But unto all these places Bellarmine replyeth , ( in which reply he is seconded by Dr. Taylor ) that concupiscence is called sinne , by the Apostle , not properly and formally , but 〈◊〉 , because it is the effect , and cause of sinne , the effect of Adam's first sinne , and the cause of our sinne . But , that concupiscence is properly and formally a sinne , I shall prove against both Bellarmine , ( and his confident second Dr. Taylor ) from it's influence , subject , adjuncts , opposites . First , from it's influence , mediate , and immediate . First , from it's mediate influence : it is the cause of all actuall sin whatsoever , whensoever we are tempted to any sinne , we are enticed , and drawne away by our own lust , this is the mother that conceiveth and bringeth forth all sinne , Jam. 1. 14 , 15 : and doubtlesse the daughter resembleth the mother , the cause and the effect have the same nature : that which as a habit or quality is the cause of sinne , must needs be sinne too ; but concupiscence , or the originall pronesse of our natures unto sinne is the roote of all sinne ; and therefore ( to use the Apostles expression ) 't is exceeding sinfull , Rom. 7. 13 : for , nil dat , quod non habet vel formalitèr vel eminenter : But , for confirmation of this argument , we have the testimony of him , who is the truth it selfe , Mat. 7. 17 , 18. A corrupt tree bringeth forth evill fruit , a good tree cannot bring forth evill fruit ; now concupiscence , or an inclination unto sinne , bringeth no fruit , but that which is morally evill , and corrupt ; and therefore 't is a tree morally evill , and corrupt : but this argument I shall insist on more fully hereafter in opening , Jam. 1. 14 , 15. Secondly , from it's immediate influence : it naturally , and directly produceth , as it 's immediate effects , those first motions unto sinne , which are without consent ; and therefore , if we can prove these first motions unto sinne to be sinne , our adversaries will confesse , that concupiscence is sinne also : now , that they are sinne , may be concluded from the Apostles description of sinne , 1 〈◊〉 3. 4. Sinne is the transgression of the law ; for the first motions unto sinne trespasse against that , which our Saviour cal's the first , and great commandement , thou shalt love the Lord with all thy soule , might , mind and strength ; for if sinne , God's greatest enemy , hath , any motions , or inclinations of the soule , any thoughts of the mind , God is not loved with all our soule , and mind ; and the soule is faulty , when 't is divided betwixt God , and sinne : their heart is divided ( saith the Prophet ) now shall they be found faulty , Hosea 10. 2. This argument Dr. Abbot Bishop of Salisbary ( brings in his defence of Mr. Perkins his reformed Catholique against Dr. Bishop , pag. 187. 188. ) He erreth ( saith he ) in that be maketh Originall 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 only in the integrity of the will , and the forme of sin to stand only in the aversion of the will from God , by the 〈◊〉 of the same originall justice , whereas originall justice was in truth the integrity of all the parts of 〈◊〉 , not subjecting the 〈◊〉 to the mind , and the mind to God , but 〈◊〉 whole man to God , the image whereof is set forth unto us in the commandment , (a) Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart , with all thy mind , with all thy soule , with all thy thoughts and strength . The forme of sinne therefore , is not only in the aversion of the will , but in the aversion of any part , or power , or faculty of the soule : if in any of these there be a declining from the law of God , it is the sinne of man. Now (b) 〈◊〉 so long as there is any matter of concupiscence to be yet 〈◊〉 and restrained , God cannot be loved with all the soule ( for how can 〈◊〉 have all the soule , so long as concupiscence hath any part ? ) therefore in the 〈◊〉 of any matter of concupiscence , there is sinne ; because it is sinne , when either there is not love at all , or it is lesse than it should be , when it is not with all the soule . But further ; as these first motions , and agitations of concupiscence are virtually , and implyedly contrary unto our Saviour's summary , of all the commandements , of the first table : so they are particularly and , expressely forbidden by the last commandement of the second table , the tenth commandement that God here dealeth with the first motions , and thoughts of the heart is the sense of Bishop Andrewes upon the commandements : and Dr. Taylor cannot say , that he was a Calvinist , or Presbyterian . But this his exposition hath for it very good 〈◊〉 ; because those motions unto sinne , which are consented to , are forbidden in the severall commandments , as appeareth by our Saviour's glosse upon the seventh commandment , Matth. 5. 28. Now , if they be forbidden in the severall commandments , 't is unlikely , that there should be alloted , for the prohibition of them , a distinct commandment , considering how short a breviary of man's duty the 〈◊〉 is : Indeed Ames rightly holdeth , that the first motions unto unjustice are here only expressely forbidden ; but , from the forbidding of them , we may conclude , by way of proportion , the prohibition also of the first motions , which are against the duties of religion , and 〈◊〉 commanded in the first table . But , though the first motions of concupiscence had not been forbidden by any written law , yet 't is sufficient to make them sinne , that they are repugnant unto the light of right reason , for this is truly , properly , and univocally the law of God , the law of nature written in the hearts of all men , and , as for the repugnancy of the first motions of concupiscence unto right reason , it cannot be denyed , if we instance in those , which are in the sensitive powers of man against the dominion of his mind : and so much may be gathered from what Aquinas acknowledgeth concerning concupiscence it selfe [ part . 3. quaest . 15. art . 2. ] Ad rationem fomitis , inquit , pertinet inclinatio sensualis appetitus , in id 〈◊〉 est contra rationem , and againe afterwards [ ad 1 m ] ratio somitis consistit in resistentiâ sensualis appetitus ad rationem ; and [ ad 2 m ] fomes peccati importat concupiscentiam delectabilium praeter ordinem rationis . This reason is urged by Augustine , to prove concupiscence to be , not only a punishment and cause of sinne , but also sinne it selfe : the concupiscence of the flesh , against which the good spirit striveth , is a sin ( saith he ) quia inest illi inobedientia contra dominatum mentis , by reason ther 's in it disobedience against the dominion of the mind . A second argument , to prove that concupiscence is a sinne , and not a sinlesse infirmity , is taken from the subject of it : It is only found in sinfull men , such as are descended from Adam in an ordinary way of naturall generation : Hence now I thus reason . All sinlesse infirmities , so they were generall unto our nature , and not personall , were found in the humanity of Christ , for he was made like unto us in all things , sinne alone accepted . But concupiscence was not in the humanity of Christ , ( as is confessed by the generality of Papists . ) And therefore 't is not a sinlesse , and naturall , but a morall , and sinfull infirmity . Unto the Major the Papists give an answer ( I confesse ) which I have upon another occasion , replyed unto in my treatise of the incarnation , pag. 103. 104. The Minor Dr. Taylor seemes to deny [ in his further explication of originall sinne , pag. 494. ] his words I shall transcribe , and then give what reason I have for my suspicion : If concupiscence , which is in every man's nature , be a sinne , it is certaine Christ had no concupiscence or naturall desires , for he had no sinne . But if he had no concupiscence , or naturall desires how he should be a man , or how capable of law , or how he should serve God with choice , where there could be no potentia ad oppositum , I thinke will be very hrd to 〈◊〉 understood : Christ felt all our infirmities , yet without sinne : All our infirmities are the effects of the sinne of Adam , and part of that which we call originall sinne , therefore all these our infirmities which Christ felt , as in him they were for ever without sinne , so long as they are only naturall , and unconsented to , must be in us without sinne : for whatsoever is naturally in us is naturally in him ; but a man is not a man without naturall desires , therefore these were in him , in him without sinne : and therefore so in us , without sinne I meane , properly , really , and formally . Here , I expect to be cold , that the Dr hath explicated concupiscence by naturall desires : But now I demand , whether , by naturall desires , he understand the desires of the sensitive appetite after meat , drinke , and and the like ? if he doth , then , he speakes nothing to the purpose , but fights with his own shadow ; for those whom he opposeth , 〈◊〉 and Calvinists hold such desires to be lawfull , and indifferent , and never affirme , that they were in themselves sinne , unlesse vitiated by circumstances : but , to prevent his shifting , and to sift out his meaning , I shall propound unto him this following Dilemma : either he speakes of concupiscence in that sense it is understood by Protestants and Papists in this controversy , or not . If not ; then he playeth the egregious 〈◊〉 , and runnes away 〈◊〉 the question ; and whither such a trifler be meet to reforme the Divinity of Christendome , let any man judge . If he say , that he takes concupiscence in such a sense as Papists and Protestants understand it in the controversy , then I shall assume the boldnesse to tell him , that to say , that it was in Christ , is an assertion guilty of 〈◊〉 falshood , and palpable blasphemy ; for both sides take this concupiscence to be a pronenesse , or inclination unto sinne , ( as will be confessed by every one that knowes any thing in the controversy : ) and that a pronenesse , or inclination unto sinne was in Christ's humanity is a proposition apparently , not only false , but also blasphemous against the purity , and persection of that holy one of God : this I shall evince by two arguments . First , an inclination unto sinne could not be where there was not so much as a possibility of sinning . But , in Christ's humanity , there was not so much as a possibility of sinning . Therefore much lesse an inclination unto sinne . This is one of the arguments reckoned up by Estius , (c) which those dissenters from the usuall , and generall opinion , of Papists , and School-men , which he speakes of , doe alleadge . A second argument , an inclination unto sinne in any degree could not be in that wherein there was a totall and utter aversen sse from sinne in the highest degree , ( for of contraries , if one be in the highest and most intense degree , it is not consistent in the same subject with it's fellow contrary , so much as in a remisse degree : ) But , in Christ's humanity , there was an utter and totall aversenesse from sinne in the highest degree , for there dwelled in him an all-fullnesse of grace , Col. 1. 19. Joh. 1. 14. And therefore there could not be in Christ's humanity an inclnatination unto sinne in any the least degree , much lesse such an impetuous inclination unto sinne , as Papists affirme concupiscence to be . A third principall argument is taken from the adjuncts of concupiscence , ab adjunctis occupatis : it is to be crucified , destroyed , and mortified , Gal. 5. 24. Rom. 6. 6. to be hated , as being hatefull , not only unto good men , butunto God himselfe . But , nothing is to be thus dealt with , but sinne , Concupiscence therefore is sinne . The fourth principall argument is drawne from the opposites of concupiscence : First , the Law of God : Secondly , the grace of God in generall : Thirdly , the love of God in particular . First , the Law of God : it warreth against the law of the mind , Rom. 7. 23 : that is , ( as Estius upon the place ) adversus legem Dei , against the Law of God in which Paul 〈◊〉 after the inward man , vers . 22. Est enim ( inquit ) eadem lex Dei & lex mentis , sicut è diverso eadem est lex peccati & membrorum . Ex his verbis rectè colligitur concupiscentiam etiam quae in 〈◊〉 est , repugnare & contrariam esse legi Dei , quia ad instar legis ad ea quae legi divinae contraria sunt , impellit : the law of God , and the law of the mind are one , and the same thing : as one the other side the law of sinne , and the law of the members : from these words then it may rightly be gathered , that even that concupiscence , which is in the regenerate , is repugnant , and contrary to the law of God , because , as a law , it impelleth unto those things , which are contrary unto the divine law . Unto this place let me adde also Ro : 8. 7 : the carnal mind , or the minding of the flesh , or the wisdome of the flesh , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , is enmity against God , for it is not subject to the law of God , neither indeed can be : the putting of the abstract for the concrete , enmity for enemy signifieth , that 't is a very grand enemy unto God ; and 't is an enemy unto God only , because it is opposed unto his law , and revealed will : suppose , it be not a branch of concupiscence , or the flesh , but only an affect or fruit thereof , an actuall sinne ( as Bellarmine determineth ) yet ; first no probable reason can be given , why 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the minding of the flesh should be so restrained as to exclude the first motions of the flesh , or concupiscence ; and if they be enmity against God , then so also is 〈◊〉 originall , the flesh or 〈◊〉 too . Secondly , whatsoever is meant by this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it proceedeth from the flesh , & it deriveth from the flesh , as it 's being , so it 's enmity against God , ti fighteth against God under the colours of the flesh , which ( in this war against God ) heads all actuall sins whatsoever as their General : now from the enmity of the flesh ( or concupiscence ) unto God , we may inferre it's opposition unto the law of God , and the law of God is holy , just , and good . Rom. 7. 12 : and therefore , that which is opposed unto it , must needs be naught , bad , and sinfull . Unto this Gregory de Valentia [ comment . theol : disp . 6. quaest . 12. punct . 1. ] answereth , by distinguishing concerning a twofold repugnancy unto the law of God , one effective , and another formal concupiscence ( saith he ) is repugnant unto , the divine law effectively , as it inclineth unto sinne , not 〈◊〉 , as if that perfection of which it is a privation , were commanded in the law of God. But , this is refuted by the tenth commandement , wherein , the first motions unto sinne are prohibited , and consequently concupiscence , the roote of them : unto this I might adde in the next place , that , this answer may be retorted in an argument , thus : that , which is repugnant unto God's law effectively , is also repugnant thereunto formally , that , which inclineth to disobey the law of God , is formally opposite thereunto ( as I shall hereafter at large manifest : ) But thus doth concupiscence ( by even the confession of our adversaries , ) and therefore 't is opposed thereunto formally , as a deviation therefrom , and a transgression thereof . A second opposite of it is the grace of God in generall : the flesh and the spirit ( saith the Apostle ) are contrary the one unto the 〈◊〉 , Gal : 5. 17 : where , by spirit , is understood the inherent and habituall grace , and by flesh , the concupiscence of a regenerate man , the corruption of his nature : the contrariety , of these two principles , is especially manifested by their actings one against another in the regenerate , for in them , and in them only , the flesh lusteth against the spirit , . and the spirit against the flesh , Gal. 5. 17 : now nothing can be contrary to the spirit , and grace , but that which is properly , really , and formally a sinne . Lastly , 't is contrary unto the grace , or virtue of the love of God in particular . That , which inclineth the soule unto inordinate , and immoderate love of the creature , is contrary unto the love of God : ( for where the creature is loved inordinately , God is not loved with all the soule , heart , mind , and strength . ) But now , concupiscence inclineth , and disposeth the soule unto an (d) inordinate , and immoderate love of the creature , to wit , as it 's soveraigne end : ( for what is it , but an habituall conversion of the soule from the injoyment of an immutable God , unto the fruition of mutable goods ? what is it , but an unbridled lust of committing fornication with the creature ? which is done , when the creature is idolized , and placed in God's roome , as it is , whensoever it is loved , either above God , or in an equality with him . ) By this then it undeniably followeth , that concupiscence is contrary unto the grace , and virtue of the love of God ; and abateth , and diminisheth of it's strength , and vigour ; and consequently is sinne . That , which hath hither-to been said against the Popish opinion , concerning the possibility of man's creation with concupiscence , will serve à fortiori , for resutation of the Socinians , and Dr Taylor , who , outstripping the generality of the Papists , maintaine ; that concupiscence was actually in Adam before his fall by the creation , and as naturall unto him , as the 〈◊〉 of hunger and thirst : concupiscence , you have heard , is sinne ; and therefore this is a downeright blasphemy , making God to be the author of sinne ; and besides , it apertly contradicts what Moses speaketh of God's complacnecy in all the workes of his creation , Gen 1. 31 : and God saw every thing , that he had made , and behold it was very good , for , if man was created with concupiscence , he was made very defective , imperfect , and miserable ; indeed the most miserable of all creatures , unable to reach his naturall end ; to discharge acceptably any part of that duty , which even the law of nature exacted of him ; and to answer ( in any measure ) chose great , and high relations , which God had put upon him : he had a law in his members warring against the law of his mind ; so that he might with a great deal of justice , powre out the pitifull complaint of Paul , Rom. 7. 24 : oh wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me from the body of this death ? If Dr Taylor shall , in the behalfe of himselfe , stoop so low , as to make any reply unto what I have said , I shall not decline him , and doe assure him that he shall have very faire play from me , as 〈◊〉 words , and as hard arguments as I can possibly give him ; only one thing I shall intreat of him , that he would dispute , and not declare against my opinion ; and this request will not be thought unreasonable , if it be considered , that , in his controversiall writings , his florid , and Rhetoricall language doth disguise , and hide , the seeblenesse of his argumentation , with his ordinary readers . But to returne unto Bellarmine : the most considerable argument that he hath , to prove that concupiscence was naturall , and would have been in man , 〈◊〉 he had been created in his pure naturals , is taken from the composition of man's nature ; for hence ( he thinks ) it 〈◊〉 loweth , that naturally there would have been a rebellion , and a repugnancy of the sensitive faculties against the rationall : but let us heare his own words . Naturale est corpori animali sensu , & appetitu praedito concupiscere bonum sensibile : naturale est spiritui rationali , concupiscere bonum spirituale , quare si siat una natura ex spiritu rationali , & corpore animali conflata , naturale erit illi habere diveras , & inter se pugnantes propensiones . Quod igitur primi parentes nostri ante peccatum pugnâ ist â diversarum appetitionum carerent , domum erat supernaturale , non conditio naturalis . [ de grat : prim : hom : cap 6. ] it is naturall unto a sensible body endued with sense , and a sensitive appetite to covet a sensuall good ; and 't is as naturall unto a rationall spirit to desire a spirituall good ; therefore if one nature be compounded of a reasonable soule , a spirit , and a sensitive body , it will be naturall unto it to have different , and repugnant propensions , the sensuall appetite naturally would have rebelled against the rationall . The usuall answer to this objection is very solid , and rationall , unto which I shall 〈◊〉 this one thing , that the sensitive faculties in man are rationall , though not formally yet by participation , as being capable of the conduct , and government of reason . This being premised , the answer is , that , before the fall , all the motions of the sensitive faculties were subordinate , obedient , and agreeable unto reason . there might then be a diversity , but there could be no contrariety , or repugnancy betwixt the rationall and sensitive appetites , for , all desires against reason are unnaturall , against the very law of nature . Whereupon (c) Aquinas [ 12 ae . q. 82 a. 3 ad 〈◊〉 . ] confesseth , that concupiscence is against the nature of man , so far as t is against the reason of man , such a concupiscence therefore cannot be the sequele of man's nature , as it came first out of God's hands . Suarez in his Metaphysicks [ disp . 44. sect . 1. n. 13. ] hath a dictinction concerning the sensitive appetite , that will be a full and formall answer unto the present objection , Appetitus sensitivus hominis ex vi sui generis naturaliter inclinatur ad sensibilia , & delictabilia , tamen ex vj conjunctionis & emanationis ex animâ rationali habet inclinationem ad obediendum rationi , & 〈◊〉 appetendum ipsamet bona sensibilia , non tantum quatenus 〈◊〉 aut 〈◊〉 commoda , sed maximè quatonus simpliciter bona homini existimantur : to make application of this unto our present purpose ; the sensitive appetite in man might be considered ex vi gen ris , or ex vi conjunctionis & emanationis ex animâ rationali ; in regard of it's kind ; or in regard of it's conjunction with , or emanation from the reasonable soule : wee are here to speake of the sensitive appetite , in the first man , not as it is considered only in regard of it's kind , or 〈◊〉 nature ; for so it was common unto beasts , as well as man , and so inclined unto a most intense desire of things sensuall ; because as Scotus [ lib. 2. sent . dist . 29. q. 1. ) naturale est unicuique appetitui 〈◊〉 in suum appetibile , & si est appetitus non liber , naturale est 〈◊〉 summe ferri quantum potest : quia sicut talis appetitus secundum Damas. 24. ducitur & non est in potestate suaejus actus , quin 〈◊〉 quantum potest ; as it is naturall unto every appetite to be carried unto it's object ; so 't is , unto that appetite , which is not free , to be carried as highly , and intensely as it is possible ; so that , as it's act , an lusting is not in it's power , so neither is the intension thereof . But we are to consider it in regard of it's conjunction with and 〈◊〉 from the reasonable soule ; and 't was rationall , and free ( as is noted before ) though not formally , yet participative , as being under the guidance of reason ; and so , in the first man before his fall , it was inclined only regularly , and orderly unto the desire of things sensuall with subordination unto the dictates of right reason , and such motions of the will , as were suitable unto right reason : now this I shall not magisterially dictate , but make good by two reasons . The first reason I have 〈◊〉 of Ames ( Bellarm. enerv . l. 4. pag. 8. Cum unio inquit naturae , ex spiritu rationali & corpore naturali , facta sit modo perfecto subordinationem infert unius propensionis ad alteram , quae pugnam omnem excludit . The union , betwixt the body , and the soule of man , was perfect ; and therefore inferred a subordination of the propensions , and operations of the body unto the soule ; and subordinatorum nulla est pugna , subordination excludes all opposition : this argument strikes chiefly against such as make the body to be the proper subject of the sensitive powers . But there be some ( as you may see 〈◊〉 Metaphys . lib. 2. cap. 5. tit . 6. art . 1. ] who in man make all sensitive powers to be seated in the soule ; and unto them too this argument may be applied ; the conjunction betwixt the sensitive , and rationall faculties in the same soule ? supposing them to be both there ( which now it is not pertinent to dispute ) was a most perfect , and orderly conjunction , made by God , the author of all good order , who abhorreth all ataxy , and confusion ; and order still requireth a subjection of those things , or persons , that are inferiour unto those , which are their superiours , the sensitive faculties therefore being the more ignoble , were , by God , who made man , subjected unto the rationall ; and they never had rebelled , if man by his fall had not perturbed this order : indeed we may now apply , unto the powers of lapsed man , that of Solomon , Eccles. 10. 7. I have 〈◊〉 servants upon horses , and Princes walking as servants upon the earth : those powers , which by the law of creation were servants , made to serve , and obey , have the throne , and supremacy in the soule ; and those , unto which God gave the regency , are dethroned , and become servile ; but it was impossible for any such disorder or confusion to be in the soule of man by creation ; there could not then but bee a most perfect . sweet , and blessed harmony betwixt all man's parts , and powers ; without any the least clashing , or disagreement ; for othewise how could man be made , as Solomon saith he was , straite , or upright , Eccles. 7. 29. A second reason I have borrowed of Tilenus (f) [ syntag . pag. 1. cap. 33. s. 40. ] the specificall forme of man , his reasonable soule , doth so limit , determine , and restraine his generall formes , vegetative , and sensitive , as that it makes their operations , not only agreeable , but proper unto man ; it maketh the operations of the vegetative soule , which of themselves are common unto men with plants , and beasts so proper unto man , as that they are in man after a sort only humane ; and therefore man groweth , and encreaseth , not as a tree or beast , but after a humane way ; even so also it maketh the operations of the sensitive soule , which are common unto men with beasts , proper and peculiar unto man ; so that , whilst man's nature was uncorrupted , he naturally coveted sensuall , and corporeall things , not after a bruitish , but humane manner ; that is conformably unto right reason : his nature then , as 't was created by God , ( for so you must still understand me ) was without any repugnancy between his sensuall ; and rationall appetites . As for the other objections of Bellarmine I shall wholy passe them over ; because , some of them come not nigh the question as stated by me ; others of them are triviall , and receive an easy solution , and unto all of them the Reader may find sufficient answers in Ames , Rivet , Gerard , Maccovius , and other writers upon popish controversies . It may now be expected , that I should make some application of this point , and in particular , that I should shew how far we are to be humbled for Originall sin , whose formale is the privation or want of originall Righteousnesse ; and I had prepared a great deale of matter upon this subject , but shall now wholy lay it aside ; because I am happily prevented by the learned , and elaborate work of Mr. Anthony Burgesse concerning originall sinne , whither I shall referre the Reader , and all that I shall doe more , shall be to annexe a briefe exposition , and application of some few scriptures , that conduce to this purpose . Jam. 1. 14 , 15. But every man is tempted , when he is drawne away of his own lust , and enticed . Then when lust hath conceived , it bringeth forth sinne : and sinne when it is finished , bringeth 〈◊〉 death . IN the foregoing verse the Apostle James denyeth God to be the authour of temptation unto sinne , in verse ( the 15. ) he opposeth unto this deniall an affirmation , that man himselfe is the cause thereof ; and this Antithesis is denoted by the particle ( but. ) There is no doubt can be made , but that lust is here taken in an ill sense ; but even so it hath a twofold acception , it signifieth either the habit , or the act . Habituall lust againe is twofold , either originall , or acquired and contracted . 1. Lust is not here taken for the act of lust ; because actions are here ascribed unto it [ to draw , entice , conceive , bring forth , ] it draweth 〈◊〉 to sinne , eonceiveth , bringeth forth sinne ; and , actionis non est actio , actions are better and more fitly ascribed to an habit , than to an act . 2. Lust is not here 〈◊〉 for contracted , and acquired habituall lust ; because the lust here spoken of , is the cause of all temptations into sinne whatsoever : Every man , whensoever he is tempted into sin , he is drawne away of his own lust , and enticed , and men may be tempted , sometimes into some sins , not by any contracted and acquired habits of lust , as is plaine , in the temptation of Noah into drunkennesse ; of Lot into both drunkennesse , and incest ; 〈◊〉 Peter into a cowardly deniall of his Master , and Saviour . The lust then , which is the Theme that the Apostle James here treates of , is that , which is called originall sinne . Aquinas 1 a. 2ae . q. 82. a. 3. Well observeth that there be two things considerable in originall sin , the formale , and the materiale of it . 1. The formale , and that is nothing else but the privation and want of originall righteousnesse . 2. The materiale , is an inordinate conversion , or inclination of man's faculties , especially of his two appetites rationall and sensuall unto the creature , and so it is called lust , or concupiscence which saith Cornelius Jansenius [ in his Augustinus , Tom. 2. lib. 2. cap. 7. ] is , nihil aliud quàm pondus habituale quo animus inclinatur ad sruendum , creaturis , 〈◊〉 , ut Augustinus loquitur , rebus , 〈◊〉 , it is as it were an habituall weight whereby the soule is inclined and carried downewards unto the fruition of the creatures as it 's supreame end . Concerning this originall lust we have here remarkeable . 1. The propriety of it's inherence , his own lust . 2. The force of it's influence , it tempteth every man unto 〈◊〉 , &c. 1. The propriety of it's inherence [ by his own lust , ] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : ] indeed , originall lust is one and the same specifically for sort or kind in all men ; unto which some apply that of Solomon , Prov. 27. 19. As in water face answereth to face ; so the heart of man to man ; but yet every man hath his own particular , severall , origiginall lust numerically different from that of others : even as the reasonable soule , though it be the same for kind in all men , yet every man hath his own soule , a soule individually distinct from that of others ; ( it is Laurentius his illustration upon the place . ) Thus Paul appropriates unto himselfe the body of sinne , which is the same with this lust . I keep under my body , 1 Cor. 9. 27. This appropriation of originall lust , or the corruption of man's nature unto our own selves will more affect , and humble us ; than to 〈◊〉 upon a generall , and abstract consideration thereof : and hence is it that David singleth out in his confession the iniquity , and sinne of his own conception , Psal. 51. 5. Behold ( saith he ) I was 〈◊〉 in iniquity , and in sinne did my mother conceive me . He doth confesse , not only that there was such a sinne , but also that he himselfe was defiled therewith : besides this Epithet [ own , or proper ] may be added to prevent men , excusing of their sins by charging them upon the temptations of other mens lust , who have drawne or enticed them . This is a thing very usuall , and therefore the Apostle adviseth to resolve , all temptations into sin into our own lust , the lust in our own bosoms : Satan and the world may tempt 〈◊〉 sin ; but whensoever any man is tempted into sin , he is drawne away , and inticed of his own lust . 2. We have here the force of it's influence [ it tempteth , draweth , 〈◊〉 unto sin , conceiveth , bringeth forth sin , &c. ] Here we have 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 , secondly , the branches , and thirdly , the degrees of this influence . 1. The extent of it in regard of it's subject . Every man is tempted by his own lust : every man , except he that was God-man ; who had God for his Father , and a Virgin for his mother ; that holy thing which was borne of the blessed Virgin Mary , and was called the Sonne of God , Luk. 1. 35. 2. Here are the branches of this influence , it [ draweth and enticeth unto sin : ] these words may be understood either in regard of the parts in sin unto which it tempteth , or of the wayes by which it tempteth . 1. Of the parts which are in sin unto which it tempteth : There are two parts as it were in every sinne , and aversion from good , and a conversion unto evill : Now unto both these lust tempt's ; it draweth from that which is good , and enticeth unto that which is evill ; it draweth , ab incommutabili bono , and enticeth , ad commutabile bonum , it draweth from God , man's chiefe end , and enticeth to the sinfull love and adulterous embraces of the creature , it inclineth the soule to forsake the fountaine of living waters , to hew out unto it selfe Cisternes , broken 〈◊〉 , that will 〈◊〉 no water , Jer. 2. 13. 2. The words may signify the severall wayes , or meanes by which every man 's own lust tempteth him unto sinne : it draweth by the importunity and impetuosity of it's inclination unto unlawfull objects ; it enticeth , and allureth by 〈◊〉 plausibility of such objects ; it draweth as a tyrant , and enticeth as a harlot . There are in the temptations of lust ( as Bishop Andrewes observeth on the tenth Commandement ) uncus , and esca , a hooke , and a bait , it draweth as a hook , and enticeth as a bait : The Metaphor (g) is taken from fisher-men , who make use of both ; they draw the fishes by the hook , and entice them by the bait . Concupiscence deales with us , as Joseph's Mistris with him , she enticed him to lye with her , she spake to him day by day ; and then she attempted to draw him to her , and she caught him by his garment , saying , lye with me , Gen. 39. v. 7 , 10 , 12. 3. We have the degrees of this influence of lust : and they may be reduced unto three heads ; it had an influence upon , first , the production , secondly , the consummation , and thirdly , the punishment of sinne . 1. Upon the production of sinne ; and that is , either inward , or outward : first inward , and that is twofold ; first , the first motions unto sinne , it draweth and 〈◊〉 , secondly , consent unto such motions , lust when it hath conceived . 2. It hath an influence ; secondly as upon the inward conception , so also upon the outward birth or production of sin , Lust bringeth forth sinne . Next it hath an influence upon . 2. The Consummation of sinne ; Lust when it is finished . 3. And lastly upon the punishment of sinne . Sinne 〈◊〉 it is sinished bringeth forth death . But , to lay aside the curiosity of division , we shall goe over these gradations in the influence of lust , in order as they lye in the words , without taking notice of any subversions . First , it draweth and enticeth unto sinne : by which may be meant the first motions , suggestions , agitations , and ( as it were ) titillations of lust before consented to . Secondly , lust when it conceiveth ; Conception ( say Physitians ) is never but with some kind of consent of both parties ; by the conception of lust therfore , is understood a consent unto it's motions , either consensus in 〈◊〉 , or consensus in actum , as Aquinas distinguisheth , 1 a. 2ae . q. 74. a. 7. 8 : a consent of delight , or a consent of resolution . 1. A Consent of delight ; when a man takes 〈◊〉 in the very thoughts , and apprehensions of the committing such a sin ; and accordingly desireth conditionally to commit it , provided , that all obstacles were removed ; thus many a ranke lecher neighes after his neigbours wife , though he dare not outwardly attempt her chastity . Omnia si claudas intus adulter erit . His delights and desires , unto which he dares give no vent , will render him an adulterer in the sight of heaven . 2. A consent of 〈◊〉 ; an effectuall purpose to commit sin , which yet may prove abortive , or miscarry , and be hindred from execution : the Children may come to the birth , and there may not be strenth to bring forth , Esay . 37. 3. Psal. 21. 11. 3. A third degree in the influence of lust is , that it bringeth forth sinne : that is , sinne eminently , visibly , and manifestly such ; the outward act of sinne : thus sinne is also taken , Gen. 20. vers . 6. I withheld thee , saith God to Abimelech , from sinning against 〈◊〉 ; to wit , by the grosse and outward act of adultery ; for there is no question , but that he sinned inwardly 〈◊〉 his desire , and purpose to 〈◊〉 Sarah : that here [ by the bringing forth of sin ] is meant the externall perpetration of sin , either by word , or deed , I shall evince by two reasons . 1. Because in the inward conception of sinne , by sinfull delights , desires , and purposes , sin is brought forth in the eyes of God , Matth. 5. 28. I say unto you , ( saith our Savlour , ) that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after 〈◊〉 , hath committed adultery with her already in his heart . In conformity unto this it is , that the School-men make the outward act of sin to adde nothing per se , and properly unto the intensive badnesse of the inward , perfect , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 commit it : In good workes God accepts the will for the deed 2 Cor. 8. 12. Heb. 11. 17 : and therefore , ( by the rule of contraries ) he hates in evill works a full purpose to commit it , as much as he doth the outward commission of it : now the bringing forth of sin is here distinguished from the conception of it , & therefore ( seeing in the very conception of sin , sin is brought forth before the eyes of God , ) therefore by the bringing of sin is meant the bringing forth of it forth into externall act , as it were before the eyes of men ; and our most secret words and deeds may be said to be brought forth before men ; because , the former are audible , though there be actually no auditors , and the latter visible though there be actually no spectators : even as a child may be 〈◊〉 to be brought forth , that hath no witnesse of it's birth besides the mother . 2. Secondly , this sense would be most agreeable unto the Metaphor that is here used , for lust is here compared unto a teeming mother , now a mother conceiveth inwardly in her wombe , and bringeth forth the fruit ; of her wombe out of her body into the world semblably , the conception of sin is inward by delights , desires , and purposes of the 〈◊〉 , the birth of it is outward by words and deeds . The two last steps in the progresse of sins influence , is the consummation of sinne , and it's production of death : sin when 't is finished brings forth death : upon the exposition of which words , before I enter , I shall premise the severall acceptions of each terme . First , sinne may be said to be finished either 〈◊〉 in it selfe , or else 〈◊〉 by extrinsecall denomination . 1. Intrinsecally in it selfe : and that is , either in regard of the commission of it , when 't is outwardly committed ; or else in respect of impenitency for it , when 't is continued in without repentance . 2. Extrinsecally , by extrinsecall denomination , from God's decree of permitting it , when one hath sinned so farre , and so much , as God hath decree'd to suffer him . 2. Death is taken , either for the inchoation of the spirituall death 〈◊〉 the soule , here in this life , or for the consummation of it , eternall damnation . 3. Sin finished may be said to bring forth death ; either in regard of merit , and desert ; or else in respect of issue , or event . The equivocation that is in the words being thus open'd , proceed wee next unto the interpretation of them ; and 1. Enquire we how sin finished bringeth forth death ; it cannot be understood of a meritorious production thereof ; and my reason is , because this bringing forth of death is appropriated unto the finishing of sin , sin when 't is finished , ( and not before ) bringeth forth death ; but now before sin is finished , before 't is brought forth , when it is but an embrio , when it is but conceived in the heart by consent unto it , and approbation of it , then it deserveth death , Hell , and damnadation ( for this consent unto it is truely and properly sin , and the wages of every sin is death corporall and eternall ) the bringing forth of sin then , is to be understood not in regard of the merit and desert but of the issue and event ; it actually brings forth death , it actually throwes into Hell. 2. By the finishing of sin cannot be understood barely the outward commission of it , for First , then the finishing of sin would be the same with the bringing of it forth ; whereas ( in all probability ) they are distinguished as well , as the other degrees in sins influence . 2ly . Sin when 't is 〈◊〉 , assoon as 't is finished bringes forth death actually , in regard of the event ; but as soone as sin is actually committed , it doth not bring forth death actually , in regard of the event ; for God many times grants a long reprieve after the externallcommission of the foulest enormities . 3ly . If by the finishing of sin you understand 〈◊〉 for it ; yet even so there will occurre difficulties , to cleare which , we must distinguish betwixt present impeniteny , and 〈◊〉 impenitency ; and present impenitency is againe twofold , actuall , or habituall ; which we may call the state of impenitency ; and that is , when there is no renewed principle , no grace in the soule to dispose , and incline it unto repentance : these distinctions thus premised , I shall lay downe foure propositions , which will shew the sense of this clause . The first proposition : Actuall impenitency doth not alwayes bring forth death actually ; for it may be consistent with the seeds of spirituall life , gracious habits : and of this we have an example in David , who lay in his sin a long time impenitent , untill awakened and rowsed by the ministry of Nathan . A second proposition : Neither doth present habituall impenitency , the present state of impenitency , allwayes actually bring forth death ; if ye take death for eternall death , hell and damnation : for unto those , that are , for the present , most impenitent , God may , in his due time , give repentance unto the acknowledgement of the truth , 2 Tim. 2. 25 : and so rescue them out of the snare of the Divell . A third proposition : when sinne is finish : d by a present habituall impenitency , by a state of impenitency , it doth actually bring forth death ; that is , the inchoation of spirituall death , standing in a separation from God , and Christ , ( who are the life of the soule , ) and in an utter , and totall privation of grace : a state of impenitency is a state of death : that soule which is habitually impenitent for sin , is totally dead in sin , for sin is there 〈◊〉 , and raignes as a prince , or Lord ; because there is no contrary principle of grace to oppose it , no spirit to 〈◊〉 against it , Nam in quo peccatum consummatur spiritus sanctus non commoratur , ( as Tuke upon the place ) sin finished brings forth death , that is , spirituall death is the formall effect of habituall unrepentance for sinne . The fourth proposition : when sinne is finished by finall impenitency , by perseverance in a state of impenitency , then it actually bring 's forth death : to wit , hell and Damnation : those of growne yeares , that dye without repentance drop into the eternall flames , and torments of hell . What I have hitherto said may be applyed , not only to the whole course of sin , but also unto every actuall sin : but Calvin restraines the words to the whole course of sin in a man's life , Perfectum peccatum ( saith he ) non intelligo unum aliquod opus perpetratum , sed cursum peccandi completum : with Calvin , Cartwright accords also ( in his answer unto the Rhemists annotations upon the place ) James ( saith he ) by the consummation of sinne , doth not meane every actuall sin , but sin 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 up to such a height , as that 〈◊〉 calleth for an utter uncurable , and unresistable destruction from the just 〈◊〉 hand of God ; as when a man doth not only walke in the counsell of the wicked . stand in the way of sinners , but even sit him down in the seate of the scornefull , Psal. 1. 1 : which are of such desperate hope , as Solomon will not have them once 〈◊〉 , the only remedy of recovering them , if they were recoverable , Prov. 9. 7 , 8. If sin be here taken , as these worthies determine , only for the whole course of sin : then it is said to be finished , not only 〈◊〉 in it selfe , but also extrinsecally by extrinsecall denomination from God's decree of permitting it , and 't is when men are come unto that fullnesse of sin , that extent , number , and measure of sin , which God hath purposed to suffer them to runne into , when men arrive unto the utmost bounds , and limits , that God by his decree hath prefixed unto their sins , then sin being thus finished bringeth forth death , both temporall , and eternall . The words , thus analyzed , and expounded , we shall in the next place cleare them from two false inferences of the Papists : first , that concupiscence is not sinne : Secondly , that there are veniall sinnes : we have here set 〈◊〉 ( saith Bellarmine ) [ Tom. 4. de amiss . grat . & statu pecc . lib. 1. cap. 9. lib. 5. cap. 7. ] foure things ; lust , and three of it's 〈◊〉 , one involuntary , two other voluntary , one involuntary without all consent of the mind , and that is 〈◊〉 , [ lust draweth , and 〈◊〉 unto sinne ; ] the two other are voluntary ; one imperfectly , and the other perfectly ; one imperfectly voluntary , and that is such a delectation wherein there is but an imperfect consent , [ lust when it conceiveth , it bringeth forth sinne , ] the other perfectly voluntary , when there is a full , and perfect consent [ sinne when 't is finished bringeth sorth death . ] These things thus presupposed : first he concludes , that 〈◊〉 is not sinne ; because the Apostle doth not call it sin , but only affirmeth that 't is the cause of sinne : lust 〈◊〉 it conceiveth , it bringeth forth sinne . But this argument is very weake , for First , though it be not expresly here called sinne , yet 't is expresly called sinne by the Apostle Paul , and that fourteen times , ( as Commentators generally reckon ) in three chapters of his Epistle to the Romans ( viz : chap. 6. 7. and 8. ) Secondly , though it be not here called sinne expresly , yet 't is imply'dly , for 't is made the cause of sinne : and such as the fruit is , such is the tree . Adde unto this thirdly , that , if the place prove concupisence not to be sinne , it proves it not to be so in those that are unbaptized , unjustified , and unregenerate , as well , as in the baptized , justified , and regenerate , for it speakes universally , of all men , every man when he is tempted , &c : and therefore 't is fallaciously done to beare his Readers in hand , as if he limitted his conclusion , only to those , that are baptized , justified , and regenerate . In a second place , he endeavoureth from the words to prove , that there are veniall sinnes : there are ( saith he ) two birthes of lust , one imperfect [ lust when it conceiveth bringeth forth sinne , ] but 't is a veniall sinne , for 't is distinguished from the consummate birth , of lust , sinne finished , unto which it is appropriated to bring forth death , to be mortall , to deserve hell and damnation : the argument may thus be reduced into forme : every mortall sinne bringeth forth death , deserveth hell , and damnation , but the sinne , that lust ingendreth or bringeth forth , when it hath conceived , doth not bring forth death , doth not deserve hell and damnation , therefore 't is not a mortall , but a veniall sinne . The minor is confirmed , because 't is appropriated to sinne finished to bring forth death , and sinne brought forth , is distinguished from sin-finished . The Answer shall be unto the Minor , and it's confirmation : and it standeth in two particulars . First , to bring forth death in regard of issue or event is appropriate unto sinne consumate or finished , but to bring forth death in point of merit agreeth unto the least sinne , for every sinne merits the curse of the law , Galat. 3. 10. Mat. 5. 19. Secondly , the sinne , which lust , when it hath conceived , bringeth forth : and sinne finished are not distinguished , as diverse sorts , and kinds of sinnes , but only in regard (b) of severall considerations : the very same sins , that lust bringeth forth , may be said to be finished , when they are unmortified , unsubdued : lust bringeth them forth as they are externally committed or accomplished , and they are 〈◊〉 to be finished , when they are 〈◊〉 , and unsubdued , and so raigne in the soule without repentance . The words afford many observations , But I shall pitch upon one , for which I made choice of them , and 't is : that , every man's originall lust or concupiscence , is the principall cause of temptation unto sin , and hereupon 't is called originall sinne , because actuall sinnes are unto it their rise , and orignall : est peccatum actuosum , seu agens , licet non sit actuale ( saith Tuke , pag : 50 : ) indeed Satan , and the world tempt unto sinne , but James here makes no mention of them , and what better reason can be assigned for this omission , than this , that they have not so great a stroke upon our temptations , as our own lust ? This point being thus deduced from the Text , I shall briefly First , Explaine : Secondly , Confirme : & Thirdly , Apply it . First , for explication : we must distinguish of an 〈◊〉 , and a mediate cause of temptation : secondly of a universall and particular cause of temptation . First , of an immediate and mediate cause of temptation : originall lust is not alwayes the immediate cause of prevailing temptations unto sinne , for we are many times tempted immediately by our contracted , and acquired lusts , but yet of such temptations our native concupiscence is the mediate and remote cause . Secondly , we must distinguish of a universall and particular case of temptation : originall concupisence is an universall , not a particular cause of our temptation unto sinne : now the influence , or causality of universall second causes as if the heavens , and starres is determined , much diversified by diverse particulars in the subjects upon whom it is , and thus the influence , of originall lust upon mens temptations unto sinne , is much differenced according to the variety , that is in the complexions , dispositions , conditions , and relations , &c : of men : it tempt's a chollericke man unto wrath , and hatred , a man of a sanguine constitution unto good fellowship , riot , and luxury , a phlegmaticke man unto idlenesse , a melancholy man unto envy , unto darke mischeivous plots , a rich man unto pride , and covetousnesse , a poore man unto impatience , discontent , and murmuring , subjects unto disobedience , sedition , and rebellion , Princes unto Tyranny , and oppression : but this influence of concupiscence varieth not only in severall men , but in the same men , as their 〈◊〉 varieth , not only in severall men , but in the same men , as their conditions , and relations alter : when 〈◊〉 came to the scepter of Syria , it quickly tempted him unto that belluine rage , towards the people of Israell , which , when he was a servant of Benhadads , he thought he had abhorred , his 〈◊〉 heart misinformed him , that he was scarcely capable of so great a guilt , 2 King. 8. 12 , 13 : it made Caius Caesar Caligula , when he was a subject , to be a base and servile flatterer of Tiberius , and when he himselfe came to the empire , it rendred him intollerable , for all kind of Tyranny : hence also it is ordinary for men , whilst they are in a low condition , to declaime most bitterly against the arbitrary , and unjust government of magistrates , but , when they themselves get into places of authority , they prove so injurious , and oppressive unto all under them , as that one may justly thinke , that power is hardly capable of being abused unto greater wrong , and unjustice , then they have practised . The Consirmation shall have two parts : first , that our own lust is a cause , secondly , that 't is a principall cause of temptation unto sin . First , that 't is a cause of temptation unto sin , and that , these following scriptures evince , Matth. 15. 19. Out of the heart , that is , out of that bottomelesse evill treasure of the heart , Matth. 12. 35. Concupiscence , proceed , the smallest sinnes , evill thoughts , and greatest murders , adulteries , fornications , thefts , falsewitnesse , blasphemies , Rom. 7. 8. sin , ( that is originall sin ) taking occasion by the commandement , wrought in mee all manner of concupiscence , to wit , actuall concupiscence , those passions , or motions of sin , spoken of in verse the fifth : the commandement is only a cause per accidens (i) of them , not properly a cause , but only an occasion : an occasion , not given , but taken , 't is the imbred corruption of our nature , originall sinne alone , that is , the causa per se of it , 2 Pet. 1. 4. All the corruption and naughtinesse , that is in the world is throw lust : flesh in scripture is the same with lust , and what abominations the flesh produceth , you may see , Gal. 5. 19 , 20 , 21. Now the workes of the flesh are manifest , which are 〈◊〉 , adulterie , fornication , uncleannesse , lasciviousnesse , Idolatry , witchcraft , haired , variance , 〈◊〉 , wrath , strife , seditions , 〈◊〉 , envyings , murders , 〈◊〉 , revellings , and such like . Secondly , that 't is a principall cause of temptation unto sinne : and that is evident by three reasons , because it tempts first , internally ; secondly , effectively ; thirdly , perpetually . First , it tempts internally ; whereas Satan , and the world are but external tempters ; this is domesticus hostis , a traitour and tempter in our own bosomes . Secondly , Satan and the world tempt only objectively , by their proposall of objects ; but our concupiscence tempts effectively , and physically , by way of reall efficiency ; really inclining , and disposing unto sin : I meane ( so far forth , as sinne is capable of reall efficiency ) quoad materiale . Thirdly , concupiscence is the principall cause of temptation , because it tempts perpetually : resist the divell , and he will flee from you , Jam. 4. 7 : but make never so great resistance against this lust , it will never flee from you ; nor can yee ever flee or runne from it : it is as restlesse an adversary as ( Hanibal (k) said ) Marcellus was ; who would never be quiet , whether he was a conquerour , or whether he was conquered : men may retire themselves from most of the vanities , and temptations of the world ; but 't is impossible , whilst here in this mortall body , to withdraw our selves from the temptations of our own lusts ; of these Hermites have complayned in a wildernesse , and Anchorites in their cels . The uses that may be made of this point , are of information , 〈◊〉 , and exhortation . First , of information ; and they are three . First , we may hence learne , what a great difference there is , betwixt the temptations of lapsed man unto sinne , and the temptation of our first parents unto their first sinne : every man , that hath sinned since their fall , is tempted by his own lust , wheras Adam , and Eve had only an outward tempter ; & it was only by the abuse of their free will , that they consented unto his temptations : it is said of Eve Gen. 3. 6 : when she saw , that tke tree was good for food , and that it was pleasant to the eyes , and a tree to be desired to make one wise , shee tooke of the fruit thereof , and did eat : here indeed shee was tempted by her own lust ; by those three sorts of lusts , that John speakes of , 1 Joh. 2. 16 : First , the lust of the flesh ( when the woman saw that the tree was good for food ) secondly , the lust of the eyes ( and that it was pleasant to the eyes ) thirdly , the pride of life ( and a tree to bee desired to make one wise : ) but this was not before her fall , but a degree , and part thereof . Dr. Taylor I know teacheth another doctrine [ in his unum necessarium , pag. 374. ] concupiscence ( saith he ) was actuall before the fall ; it was in Adam , and tempted him ; [ and in his further explication of originall sinne , pag. 462. ] by rebellion , and prevailing of concupiscence it was , that Adam fell : but the answer unto this might easily be foreseen ; to wit ; that the rebellion , and prevailing of his concupiscence was a cause of a part of his fall , viz : of his outward eating the forbidden fruit , wherein his fall was compleated ; as also of his resolution to eate thereof : but yet notwithstanding it was not the cause of the first act of his fall , his first sin , for concupiscence ( as I have proved ) is sin , and by this , man should sin before he had sinned . Secondly , we may hence be instructed what a wide difference there is , betwixt our temptations unto sinne , and the temptations of Christ : every one of us is tempted by his own lust , but lust is so filthy a thing , as that it was utterly repugnant unto the perfect , full , and unspotted purity , and holinesse of the Lambe of God ? the prince of this world commeth , and hath nothing in 〈◊〉 ( saith Christ ) Joh. 14. 38 : nothing in mee to side , and comply with his temptations : hence was it , that that sygnall temptation of him by Satan , Matth. 4 : did not , could not make so much impression upon him , as the waves of the sea upon a rocke : the divell tempted him unto all those branches of lust mentioned by John , [ in the now quoted place , 1 Joh. 2. 16. ] first unto the lust of the flesh , Matth. 4. 3 : when the tempter came to him , he said , if thou be the Son of God , command that these stones be made bread : secondly , unto the lust of the eyes , vers . 8. 9. Againe the Divell taketh him up into an exceeding high mountaine , and sheweth him all the kingdomes of 〈◊〉 world , and the glory of them : and saith un-unto him , All these things will I give thee , if thou wilt fall down and worship me . Thirdly , unto the pride of life ; to purchase unto himselfe renowne by his miraculous preservation in his fall from the temple , vers . 5. 6 : then the Divell taketh him up into the holy city , and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple , and saith unto him , if thou be the Son of God , cast thy selfe down ; for it is written , He shall give his Angels charge concerning thee , and in their hands they shall beare thee up , least at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone : none of these temptations could fasten on him ; for , the Hypostaticall union , the all-fullnesse of his grace , and the beatificall vision secured him from the danger of all temptations ; and rendred the prevaling of them a thing utterly impossible . Thirdly , wee may from the causality and influence of lust infer it's obliquity : aganist Papists , Socinians , and Dr. Taylor : that 't is not only a naturall but a morall disease of the soule ; not only vitium , but peccatum : that which as a quality , or habit tempts , drawes , and entices unto sinne , conceiveth and bringeth forth sin , must needs be sinne ; but lust doth all this ; and therefore 't is sinne : to wit ; properly , and formally : The Minor is affirmed in terminis by the Apostle in the text ; and , for confirmation of the Major , I shall lay openly three things . First , the testimony of our Saviour Matth. 7. vers . 17. 18 : a corrupt tree bringeth forth evill fruit , a good tree cannot bring sorth evill fruit ; but the fruit of lust is morally evill , it bringeth forth sinne ; therefore 't is a tree morally corrupt . A second thing is that knowne Maxime in Logick : Nihil dat quod non habet vel formaliter vel eminenter ; that which is the principall cause of the obliquity and deformity of sinne , must needs have in it selfe that deformity or obliquity , 〈◊〉 formally , or 〈◊〉 ; it must either have the same deformity , or obliquity ; or else some deformity , or obliquity , which is more eminent than that ; but no deformity or obliquity can transcend that of sinne ; and concupiscence is the principall cause of sinne , ( whether efficient , or deficient it comes all to one ) therefore concupiscence containeth the obliquity or deformity of sinne formally ; and consequently is formally a 〈◊〉 . A Third particular , which I shall alleadge for confirmation of the Major is , the manner of lusts causality of , and influence upon sinne : it tempts , drawes , and enticeth unto sinne ; not outwardly , as an object ; but inwardly , as a quality , or habit , it inc●lineth unto sinne , as habits dispose unto their acts ; now habits impart both their name , and nature unto their most accomplished , and compleat acts , concupiscence therfore communicates unto it's most consummate acts their nature , and name , and therefore hath ( as they ) both the name , and nature of sinne : Ames thus urgeth this argument against Bellarmine , Concupiscentia dicitur parere peccatum , eo modo quo interna animi rectitudo ( quae est justitia ) parit justitiam , id est , completum actum , de quo nomen , & natura totius motus ; & principii ejus usitate & proprie maxime praedicatur , [ Bell. enerv . tom . 4. pag. 36. ] From this there may be refuted three other points of popery : First , the absolute perfection of the good workes of the regenerate : Secondly , their justification by them : And thirdly , their possibility of fulfilling the law . First , the absolute perfection of the good workes of the regenerate , for concupiscence worketh in all the actions of man , and therefore ( seeing 't is a sinne ) it distilleth sinfullnesse into the best of them , and rendreth them peccaminosa , though not peccata , sinfull , though not sinnes : the flesh lusteth against the spirit , so that yee cannot doe the things that yee would , Gal. 5. 17 : the good things that yee would so exactly or perfectly as yee desire . Secondly , we may hence conclude against justification by goood workes , at least in a meritorious way , for it so distaineth them , as that it disableth them to satisfy for the least sin against God , to merit the least good from God : and this may discover the necessity of a Christ for our justification , who was God as well as man , and in his man-hood had such an all-fullnesse of grace , as was utterly exclusive of , and inconsistent with the least degrree of concupiscence : lust therefore did not , could not mingle with any of his actions , and sufferings , to impede the all-fullnesse of their satisfaction , and merit . Thirdly , we may hence inferre the impossibility of fullfilling the law in a legall way , for though we may keep it evangellically , in such a measure , as God , for Christs sake , will accept , yet concupiscence doth so immixe it selfe with all our actions , the very best of them , as that they must needs prove gradually defective , and come far short of that exactnesse and perfection which the law requireth : and so consequently every man is a sinner , a transgressour of the law . But to passe from speculative unto practicall uses : The next use is of reprehension of all such as excuse , or extenuate their sins by discharging them upon the importunity , and violence of outward temptations , the text in hand teacheth us , that the principall cause , into which we are to resolve all the prevailing temptations unto sin , is our own lust : so that God may say to those that perish in their sinnes , as the Prophet unto Israel , Hosea 13. 9 : thou hast destroyed thy selfe ; it is thy owne concupiscence hath undone thee , hath damn'd thee : oh Beloved ! 't is our own lust , that hath conceived , and brought forth all our sinnes 't is this internall tempter in our hearts , that hath betrayed us unto all forreigne , and externall suggestions unto sinne , by opening the gate of our consent unto them , and therefore it would be injustice to lay our sins at any others doores : externall tempters are never totall , but only partiall causes of sinne , they doe never more than cooperate with that sinfull lust within us : the goodly Babylonish garment , the two hundred shekels of silver , and the wedge of gold of fifty shekels , had never enticed Achan unto sacriledge if he had not been also tempted by his own lust , the lust of the eyes , coveteousnesse : David had never by the beauty of Bathsheba been allured unto adultery with her , but that he was tempted by his own lust , the lust of the flesh : though Satan provoked him to number Israel , 1 Chron. 21. 1 : yet he could never have drawne him thereunto , but that he was tempted by his own lust , the pride of life , ambition , and haughtinesse : and hence was it , that he did not throw the blame upon Satan , but charged himselfe alone , 2 Sam. 24. 10. Davids heart smote him , after that he had numbred the people : and David said unto the Lord I have sinned greatly in that I have done : when Scipio's invasion of Africa drew Hannibal out of Italy ( it is said that ) Hannibal brake out into this expression ; it is not Scipio , but mine own country men Hanno , and his faction in the Senate of Carthage , that hath thwarted , and contradicted all my designes , and hindred my recruits , and supplies ; 't is he only that hath driven mee out of Italy : So every regenerate man may say , when he is drawn , or driven from his communion , and fellowship with the Allmighty ; it is not so much Satan , the world , evill company , the badnesle of times , or places in which I live , outward provocations , and allurements , the infelicity of my condition , relations , and the like it is not so much these , the traitour in my heart ; the flesh lusting against my better part , the spirit , hath tempted , and seduced me , hath drawne me from my God , and Saviour , and hath enticed me unto sinne . Lastly , diverse exhortations may be infer'd from the causality and influence of our concupiscence : we may hence be exhorted unto ; First , 〈◊〉 for it : Secondly , mortification of it : Thirdly , watchfulln sse against it : Fourthly , thankfullnesse for deliverance from it . First , unto humiliation for it . There will be a great deale of justice in our teares , for the fountaine of all temptations , the mother of all sinnes : for that which tempteth , draweth , enticeth unto sinne , which conceiveth , and bringeth forth all sorts of sins : David therefore ( in his penitentiall Psalme , for murder , and adultery ) had very good reason to spread before God this his birth sinne , because 't was a seminall sinne , it contaiued the seeds of his adultery , and murder , Psal : 51. 5 : hence also 't is no wonder , that Paul , having mentioned the malignant operation of this law in his members , forthwith subjoineth a most bitter complaint touching his infelicity and misery thereby , and most passionately wisheth for a 〈◊〉 deliverance therefrom : oh wretched man that I am ( saith he ) who shall deliver me from the body of this death ? Rom : 7. 24 : concupiscence is the root of bitternesse ; Heb. 12. 15 : the root of all the bitternesse , that is in our evill deeds ; and therefore every one , upon whom God hath powred a spirit of grace , will , or should be in bitternesse for it , as one that is in bitternesse for his first borne : every gracious heart greives at the sad , dolefull , and banefull effects of 〈◊〉 , and shall we have no resentment of the badnesse of the cause : oh Beloved ! did we but afford unto the accursed , or pernicious issue , or progenie of lust a due , and thorow contemplation , we would thinke , that we could never weep enough for that , which is productive of so much , and great mischiefe , though our head were waters , and our eyes a fountaine of teares , Jer : 9. 1 : even the most wicked are troubled in their minds , when enormous sinnes break out into their lives , and thereby terrify their consciences , blot their reputations , prejudice their estates , or any other wayes incommodate them ; but this is but a worldly sorrow : the damned in hell howle , when sin being consummate bringeth forth death ; but this is but a hellish sorrow : a true , heavenly , and godly sorrow riseth higher , and goeth further ; it begins with the very inchoations of sin , the first suggestions unto sin , with concupiscence , that makes these suggestions ; for this would be a likely meanes to retard , and in some measure 〈◊〉 any further progresse of lusts influence ; and so anticipate , or prevent the worldly , and hellish sorrow now spoken 〈◊〉 [ when Elisha healed the waters of Jericho , he went forth unto the spring of the waters , and cast in salt there , 2 King. 2. 21. If we would heale the streames of actuall sinnes , we should goe unto the spring , originall sinne , and powre out our salt , our brinish teares upon it . ] To surther , and increase our humiliation , for this malignant influence of concupiscence , I shall propound only one , but that shall be a very stirring motive : and it is , that this influence is exceedingly heightned , and intended , viz : 〈◊〉 by the good , holy , and just law , and commandment of God : even as ( by an antiperistasis ) heat is many times intended by the opposition of the adjacent cold , Rom. 7. 8 , 13 : sinne taking occasion by the 〈◊〉 wrought in me all manner of concupiscence ; sin by the commandment became exceeding sinfull : the prohibitions of the law 〈◊〉 accid ns provoke , exasperate , and enrage concupiscence ; and render it's workings more vigorous , outragious , and violent , then otherwise they would be ; for Nitimur in vetitum semper , cupimusque negàta . We long most after forbidden fruit ; we are most addicted unto interdicted actions : 〈◊〉 waters , saith 〈◊〉 wise man , are sweet , Prov. 9. 17 : and hence is it , that those carnall and unregenerate men , who sit under a powerfull ministry , usually run into a greater excesse of riot , than such , whose lusts are not at all awakened by the home , and searching preaching of the law : oh ! what an unfathomable pravity is there in this , that makes a most equitable disswasive from sin , to be a powerfull incentive unto it ? that makes that a spurre to excite unto sin , which in it's naturall tendency is a bridle to restraine therefrom ? and so turnes a most wholesome 〈◊〉 , into a most pernicious poyson ? makes that to bring forth fruit unto death , which was ordained to life ? Rom. 7. 10. Secondly , unto mortification of it : sinne when 't is si nished brings forth death ; and 't is finished , when 't is unmortified : now lust is a part of sin consummate ( as Ames (l) markes in his answer unto Bellarmine ; ) and therefore , when our own lust is finally unmortified , it bringeth forth death , it cast's into the fire of Hell : if we do not therefore mortify lust , it will kill , and damne us ; without the mortification of originall sinne , the mortification of actuall sinne will be impossible ; unlesse we mortify the body of sin , we can never mortify the deeds of the body , it will be a vain endeavour to dry up the streames , when the fountaine is as full as ever . Stephen Gardiner , used ( in the time of Queen Mary ) to say , that 't was in vaine to strike at the branches , whilst the root of all heretiques did remaine ; meaning the Lady Elizabeth , that was afterwards Queen : thus may we say ; it will be to little purpose to lop the branches of the tree of corruption , unlesse we lay the axe unto the root of the tree , that root of bitternesse , our own lust ; which unlesse mortified will abundantly fructify , in sinfull wishes , desires , delights , resolves , and outward workes ; it will alwayes be conceiving , and bringing forth sinne : the King of Meth in Ireland , sometimes asked one Turgehesie , how certaine noisome birds , that came flying into the realme , and did much harme , might be destroyed ; he answered him , nidos 〈◊〉 ubique destruendos , the way to be rid of them was to destroy their nests : the way to destroy actuall lust is to mortify , and pull down originall lust ; that is , fomes 〈◊〉 , the nest and the wombe of all actuall sinnes whatsoever : unto this the Apostle : Paul exhorts , Rom. 6. 12. Let not sinne raigne in your mortall bodies , here [ by sinne ] many learned interpreters ( both Protestant , and popish ) understand originall sinne ; unto which all actuall sin are but as Vice-royes ; and the mortification of this is nothing but the dethronization thereof ; when originall sinne is mortified , then 't is uncrown'd , and dethroned ; and 't is unmortified , and raignes , when there is no spirituall resistance made against it , by a spirituall principle , upon spirituall , and scripture grounds ; because 't is displeasing unto God , and contrary unto his law ; when ther 's no grace to impaire , and weaken it , no spirit to lust against the flesh : The raigne of originall sinne ( which is nothing else but the unmortification thereof ) is here vers . 13 : described by it's 〈◊〉 and opposite . First , by it's correlate : and that is a twofold subjection . First , and obedience unto it's lawes , edicts , and commands , not obeying it in the lust thereof , that is , not yeelding a full , and totall consent unto it's motions , suggestions , and desires . The second , is a 〈◊〉 to fight it's battels , to take up armes in it's defence , to imploy all the parts of our body , and consequently , all the powers of our soule , by which these parts are acted , in it's service : 〈◊〉 yeeld yee your members as instruments [ or as it is in the greek armes or (m) weapons ] of unrighteousnesse , [ actuall unrighteousnesse , unrighteous actions ] unto sinne , [ that is , unto originall sinne . ] Secondly , the raigne or unmortification of originall sinne is here described by it's opposite , subjection , and obedience unto the kingdome of God , and the righteousnesse thereof : but yeeld your selves unto God , &c : and your members , [ and conseqnently the faculties of your roules ] as instruments of righteousnesse unto God. Unto the mortification , that is , opposition of the raigne of originall sin , we have here two arguments : First , the shortnesse of the combate ; (n) it will be only whilest you have these mortall bodies : Secondly the assurance and certainty of victory : First , sinne shall not have 〈◊〉 over you , vers . 14 : so you will doe your devoyre , and make head and resistance against it ; and this promise of victory , he confirmes , from the state of regeneration ; for yee are not under the law but under grace ; ibid : yee are not under the law , as 't is the strength of sinne , 1 Cor. 15. 56 : as it irritates , stir 's up , and provokes unto sinne , Rom. 7. 8 : but ye are under grace , the grace of sanctification ; it will enable , and assist you to resist , and overcome sinne , and that originall , as well as actuall : unto this place let me adde another of the same author in his Epistle unto the Hebrewes , 〈◊〉 , 12. 1 , 2 : let us lay aside the 〈◊〉 which doth so easily beset us : originall sinne cannot here in this life be laid aside , as touching the existence of it ; but let us lay aside the dominion of it , let us shake of the rule of this sinne , which ( of it selfe ) doth so easily beset us , beleaguer all our faculties ; it tempts us without a tempter , it's motions will arise without any outward provocation : Erasmus renders the clause ; abjecto tenaciter inhaerente nobis peccato , sinne , that cleaves so fast unto us : so fast , that it cannot be loosed from us , ( à conceptione ad funus ) though we be working on it , and weeding out of it from the beginning to the end of our life , so Bishop Lake , on Psal. 51. v. 5 : notes upon the words : and ( according to this translation ) 〈◊〉 tel's us of some , who thinke , that the Apostle alludes unto Ezekiel 24. 26 : where some wicked men are compared to a pot , whose scumme is therein , and whose scumme is not 〈◊〉 out of it : the scumme of concupiscence will never wholly be gone out of our natures here , but however we should alwayes be rubbing , and scouring it away so much as we can : let us endeavour our utmost , to lay aside the sinne which doth so easily beset us , that so we may with patience run the race , that is set before us ; for if it be not in some measure lay'd aside , abated , and weaken'd , it will burden , hinder , and entangle us in our spirituall race : hence , in the Italian translation , the former words are thus read , the sinne which doth so easily hinder us : the similitude ( saith 〈◊〉 ) seemes to be taken from such long , and large garments , as were wont to be laid of in such races , to be so much the more active : the laying aside , that is , the mortification of this sinne is a very difficult taske , and therefore in it we should look off from our selves , upon our head , and Saviour Christ Jesus , and this will incourage us , for he is the authour , and finisher of our faith , and faith will purify our hearts from originall , and actuall sinne : he hath broken this head of the serpent for us , by his death and passion , in which he gave for it ample satisfaction 〈◊〉 the justice of God , and he hath also broken this head of the serpent in us by the remission and mortification of it : and this worke , that he hath begun he will perfect , and accomplish in our glorification ; in which he will present us to himselfe glorious , not having the least spot of lust , any the least pronenesse unto sin . This mortification of concupiscence is of such necessity , and importance ; as that our Apostle , Gal. 5. 24. makes it the character of our christianity , our relation unto Christ ; they that are Christs [ the true , and genuine members of Christ ] have crucified the flesh , [ that is , our originall , and native lust ] with the affections and lusts [ the affections : that is , the sudden passions , and lusts , that is setled desires which it worketh , ] those that doe not endeavour to mortify , to crucify the flesh , the corruption of their natures , are not true , and reall ; but only nominall christians . The mortification of the flesh is here compared unto a crucifixion ; not only , because in part it resembleth it ; but also , because 't is from the virtue , and merit of Christ's Crosse , and by meditation thereon : for a 〈◊〉 thus reasoneth with himselfe ; my inbred lust had a hand in the crucifying of my Saviour ; shall I then suffer it to live , and reigne in mee ? For it he hung upon a crosse ; and shall it then have a 〈◊〉 in my heart ? shall I spare , and indulge that , which put him to so painfull , and shamefull a death ? No I will ( as it were ) naile it unto a crosse too , disable it for motion , so that it shall not have such liberty to revell it up and down in my heart , and life as formerly . The Apostle , not only recommendeth the subduing of the flesh unto others ; but also exemplifieth it by his own practise , 1 Cor. 9. 27. I keep under my body , and bring it into subjection ; where [ by body ] protestant writers generally understand , that body whose deeds by the spirit are to be mortified , Rom. 8 , 13 : that which is called , Rom 6. 6 : the body of sinne , Rom. 7. 24 : the body of death : and even Estius (o) a 〈◊〉 expositor , though he interpret it of the body , yet 't is with regard unto the flesh in it , the carnall concupiscence ; of which Paul speaks , Gal. 5. 17 : the flesh lusteth against the spirit : the greeke words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 &c : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , are very emphaticall ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( as the Criticks observe ) is to strike about the face , or under the eyes , to give black , or blew wounds in the places there abouts ; as Champions did unto their antagonists with their fists , or clubs ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , is to bring under , as masters did their slaves , when they were unruly , wanton , or insolent , or , as wrestlers did their fellow combatants , when they overcame them . But you may now perhaps expect some directions for the mortification of concupiscence ; I shall in this last , point at three : First , lust is mortified by sorrow for it , and hatred of it ; it dyes , when it dyes in the affections , it is crucified , when 't is bewailed , and loathed . Secondly , lust is mortified by the growth and 〈◊〉 of grace , for , intenso altero contrariorum 〈◊〉 reliquum ; when one contrary is height'ned , and intended , the other is thereby remitted , depressed , and abated ; the strengthenning of grace then , will weaken the corruption of our nature : and therefore ( whith Paul , Ephes. 3. 14 , 16. let us bow our knees unto the father of our Lord Jesus Christ , that he would grant us according to the riches of his glory to be strengthned with might in the inner man by his spirit , giving efficacy unto a diligent use of God's ordinances ; for this will decay and impayre the old man. A third way to mortify concupiscence is , to stop it's influence ; for this must needs enfeeble it , and ( as it were ) dishearten and discourage it ; now this is done , when it's motions , and desires are resisted , it's conceptions are strangled in the wombe , it's births ( like brats of Babylon ) Psal. 137. 9 : dasht in peices against the 〈◊〉 , i : e : destroyeyd by a timely repentance , and never suffered to arrive unto any growth , or maturity . For this hinderance of lusts operation , I shall prescribed two meanes one inward , another outward . First inward , and that will be to exert , and act all our 〈◊〉 , as much as possibly we can , for contrary actions , as well as contrary qualities , will weaken , and wound each other : the way then , to quench the lustings of the flesh against the spirit , will be , to foment the lustings of the spirit against the flesh , to entertaine , and cherish all holy motions , thoughts , and desires . Secondly outward , and that is , abstinence from the occasions , that are likely to excite , and stirre up concupiscence , that bring ( as it were ) 〈◊〉 unto the fire , and throw oyle upon the flame thereof , for what were this ? but to make provision for the flesh to fullfill the lusts thereof ? Rom. 13. 14 : we should therefore take up David's resolution , Psal 101. 3. I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes ; if we set wicked things before our eyes , they will soon steale into our hearts , and there kindle a fire , that may never end , but in the flames of hell , Prov. 23. v. 2 , 31 : put a knife to thy throat , if thou be a man given to appetite . Look not thou upon the wine when it is red , when it giveth it's colour in the cup , when it moveth it's selfe aright . Forbear gaming , if thy experience informe thee , that it tempts thee unto either rash anger , or covetousnesse , if thou findest , that thou art prone unto wantonesse , doe not so much as looke upon an amorous romance ; hearken unto the advice of Solomon , Prov. 5. 8 : remove thy way far from the strange woman , and come not 〈◊〉 the doore of her house , imitate the prudence of Joseph , who , not only refused the imbraces of his mistrisse , but sled from her very sight , and presence . Gen. 39. verse . 10 , 12 : he was more affraid of the temptation of his own lust , then of all the charmes in her beauty , and the importunity of her solicitations . Thirdly , we may from the influence of lust be exhorted unto watchfullnesse against it , and that in all the faculties of our soules , and members of our bodies : we should trust none of them without Job's covenant , Job . 31. 1 : or David's bridle , Ps. 39. 1 : Peter exhorts unto vigilancy , because our adversary the Divell as a roaring Lyon walketh about seeking whome 〈◊〉 may 〈◊〉 : 1 Pet. 5. 8 : But if it were not for the compliance , and correspondence of our own lust , this roaring lyon could doe us no more hurt , than the Lyons did Daniell in the denne : 't is this that opens the doore of our soules unto him , and so betrayeth us unto his temptations : nay this would be an importunate , and restlesse tempter , though Satan , and the world should surcease their temptations ; for it can conceive sin without a father , bring it forth without a midwife , and breed it up without a nurse : concupiscence is a dangerous adversary , not only , when as a King it commands all in the soule , but also , when it is deposed from it's rule , and is in a subdued , nay in a crucified condition , and therefore the most sanctified should keep on still their watch against it , and be jealous of all it's motions , though they seeme to be never so weake and remisse : Mr. Knowles in his Turkish history relates a very strange story concerning a wounded souldier , which I shall insert , and apply unto our present purpose . After Amurath , the third King of the Turks , had overcome Lazarus , the 〈◊〉 of Servia , he ( with some of his cheif captaines ) taking view of the dead bodyes , a Christian 〈◊〉 sore wounded , and all 〈◊〉 , seeing him , in staggering manner arose out of an 〈◊〉 of stayne men , and making towards him , for want of strength fell oftentimes by the way , at length drawing nigh unto him ( when they that guarded the King's person would have stayed him ) he was by Amurath himsele commanded to come neare , 〈◊〉 sing , that he would have craved his life of him : thus this halfe dead Christian , pressing neere unto him , as if he would for honours sake have kissed his feet , suddenly stabbed him in the bottome of his belly with a short dagger , which he had under his souldiers 〈◊〉 , of which wound , that great King and conquerour presently dyed : unto this souldier every regenerate man may compare his own lust , though it be in a wounded , nay dying , and mortified state , ready ( as it were ) to expire , and give up the Ghost , yet , if we suffer it to arise from the dead , if we doe not hinder it's motions though they seeme to be faint , and feeble , if we doe not continue a constant watch , and guard against it , but suffer it's approaches , and give way unto a conference , and parley with it , it will soon smite us ( as it were ) under the fist rib , give such a fatall blow , and stab unto the conscience , as would soon make a totall , and finall dispatch , an utter riddance of all the remainders of spirituall life in us , but that we are under the hands of a Physitian , unto whom belong the issues of death , who hath a plaister of divine , and infinite virtue , and value , his own heart blood , the blood of God-man ; and a soveraigne balsome of infinite power , and efficacy , his spirit which can cure the deepest , and most dangerous wounds of the soule , that otherwise would be deadly . Fourthly , from the influence of lust we may be exhorted unto thankefulnesse for deliverance from it ; and this exhortation may be addressed unto both the unregenerate , and regenerate . First , unto the unregenerate , who are delivered from it only in a way of restraint ; when they see malefactors imprisoned , stock'd , whip'd , dragged to shamefull executions , let them consider , that , if God did not withhold their concupiscence from it's naturall energie , it would have brought them into the like case , made them as publique spectacles of shame , as any ; if it were not for the bridle of God's 〈◊〉 grace upon them , originall sin would worke in them all manner of concupiscence , Rom. 7. 8 : out of the concupiscence , that is in their hearts , would proceed ( as waters streame from a fountaine ) not only evill thoughts , but the most scandaloussinnes , Adulteries , fornications , murthers , 〈◊〉 , coveteousnesse , wickednesse , deceit , lasciviousnesse , an evill eye , blasphemy , pride , foolishnesse , Mar. 7. 21 , 22 : their lives would soon be repleate with those odious , and abominable workes of the flesh , which Paul mentioneth , Gal. 5. 19 , 20 , 21 : adultery , fornication , uncleannesse , lasciviousnesse , Idolatry , witchcraft , hatred , variance , emulations , wrath , strife , seditions , heresies , envyings , murders , drunknnesse , revellings , and such like . But , in a second place the regenerate have the greatest reason to be thankfull for their deliverance from concupiscence : because 't is in a way of remission from it's condemning power , in a way of mortisication from it's raigning power : and hence is it that the Apostle , Paul after along discourse touching the tyranny of it , concludes all with a doxologie for his freedome from it , I thanke God through Jesus Christ our Lord , Rom. 7. 25 : in the next words he layeth downe the ground of this his thanksgiving : First , deliverance from the dominion of the 〈◊〉 , by a contrary principle inclining unto contrary , and better actions , with the 〈◊〉 I my selfe serve the law of God : Secondly , deliverance from the 〈◊〉 of it , for the sake of his relation unto Christ , there is noe condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus , chap. 8. 1 : concupiscence is in them damnable , but yet it shall not actually condemne them , and every Believer , every member of Christ hath the same inducements to blesse God , that Paul here speaketh of . First , he hath ground to prayse him for the remission of concupiscence : if the fault , that is in his concupiscence were not remitted , it would rise up in judgment against him , and the desert of it is sufficient for the condemnation of millions of worlds , and that single by it selfe , abstracted from all it 's blacke traine , it's workes , and fruites . Secondly , he hath ground to praise God for the mortification of his concupiscence , as would soone be consessed , if he would but compare himselfe , with himselfe , and others . First , with himselfe : if he would compare his present with his past state : Oh! reflect upon the temptations , conceptions , and births of lust in the dayes of thy unregenerancy , which thou now blushest to owne , consider how thy own lust made thy heart , as it were , another hell , full of such blacke wishes , desires , delights , and purposes , as thou now tremblest to thinke of , and then how canst thou but acknowledge thy deep obligation for that happy change , which God hath made in thy soule ? that is , now become a temple of the holy Ghost , replenished with all those gracious , and glorious fruites of the spirit , reckoned up by Paul , Gal. 5. 22. 23. Secondly , compare thy selfe with others , with the worst of men , and 〈◊〉 of sinners , and then weigh , that , if the power of 〈◊〉 to tempt , to draw from God , and entice unto sinne were not in some measure in thee broken , and abated , it might have rendred thee , as criminall , and scelestique , as any of them , as those that are the greatest monsters of irreligion , and unjustice in the world : Oh! seriously , and sadly propound unto thy selfe Pauls query , 1 Cor. 4. 7 : who 〈◊〉 thee to differ from another ? Alas ! it was not , it could not be nature , for thy nature is originally as corrupt and depraved as that of others : it is grace then , that hath made the distinction , and therefore say with Paul , and say it with a gratefull heart , by the grace of God I am what I am , 1 Cor. 15. 10 : by the grace of God , a participation of the divine nature , it is , that I have escaped the coruption , that is in the world through lust , 2 Pet. 1. 4. There be also some duties regarding our 〈◊〉 , unto which we may , from this malignant efficacy of sinne , be pressed ; at which I shall only lightly touch , and so conclude . First , we may hence be exhorted , to be carefull in our watch 〈◊〉 them , diligent in our admonition of 〈◊〉 , frequent and 〈◊〉 in our prayers for them : exhort one another dayly ( saith the Apostle ) 〈◊〉 't is called to day , 〈◊〉 any of you be hard ned thorow the deceitfullnesse of sinne , Heb. 3. 15 : not only actuall , but originall sinne is very deceitfull , Rom. 7. 11 : seducing the understanding with the meere shewes of truth , the will with the bare appearances of good , it is so deceitfull (p) that it soon tempts , not only into sinne , but into obduration in sinne : whilest by it s temptations it softens , and even melts the heart in the delights of sin , it hardens it towards the commands of God : now from this wee may inferre our obligation , unto an assiduous diligence , in admonishing of one another , in order , unto the discovery , and prevention of all it's deceites , wiles , and policies : exhort one another dayly , whilest 't is called to day , we may extend , what the Apostle saith , further unto all other acts of Christian communion : watch over one another , warne , and advise one another , pray for one another dayly , whilst 't is called to day ; whilst yee have time , and oppoertunity , lest any of you be hardned , through the deceitfulnesse of this sinne ; which without the preventing grace of God is able to harden any of us , the very best of us : unto this place , let me adde another of the same Apostle in the same Epistle ( at least by way of allusion unto the words ) Heb. 12. 15 : Looking diligently , lest any man faile of the grace of God , lest any root of bitternesse springing up trouble you , and thereby many be defiled : there is a root of bitternesse in every one of our hearts : this radicall sinne , and this root is of it selfe very apt to spring up , and to bring forth a venemous , and mischeivous fruit ; to trouble the peace , and quiet of the Church ; and to diffuse a spreading , and infectious scandall to defile many : now from this we may learne , that there is a necessity , that wee should be overseers , and superintendents one towards another ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , looking diligently , that is , one towards another , and with all exciting , stirring up , and quickning one anothers graces ; for 't is from the languor and decay of God's grace , that the corruption of our natures growes fruitfull : when wee faile of the grace of God , then the root of bitternesse springeth up , and fructifieth , but of all those , that come under our care , and inspection , we are to have a more especiall regard unto our own families ; and in them unto our little children ; for their age , and innocency doth not exempt them from the temptations , and operations of their own lust : they are 〈◊〉 from the wombe , the imagination of man's heart is evill from his youth , Gen. 8. 21 : man is borne like a wild Asses colt , Job . 11. 12 : foolishnesse is bound in the heart of a child , Prov. 22. 15 : this root of bitternesse begins to operate in little children , as soone as they come unto actuall use of reason , and therefore we should be very 〈◊〉 ( to doe what we can ) to represse it's workings , by early instructions , and seasonable corrections . Secondly , we may hence be perswaded to sugar , and sweeten our 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 with meeknesse & moderation , Gal. 6. 1 : if a man be overtaken in a fault , 〈◊〉 which are spirituall , restore such a 〈◊〉 , in the spirit of 〈◊〉 , considering thy selfe , 〈◊〉 thou also be tempted : here spirituall is taken in opposition , not unto the unregenerate , as 't is used , 1 Cor. 2. 15 : but unto weake Christians , babes in Christ , and so 't is understood chap. 3. vers . 1 : by spirituall persons then are understood , those that are strong in the faith , of full age , who by reason of use have their senses 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 both good and evill , Heb. 5. 14 : now the Apostle , to induce these spirituall persons unto 〈◊〉 , and gentlenesse in their reproofes , propounds unto them the consideration of their own frailty , and obnoxiousnesse unto surprisall by sinne ; considering thy selfe lest thou also be 〈◊〉 ; as if he should have said ; suppose thou art spirituall , an eminent Christian , one extraordinarily gifted , with the gifts of both edification , and sanctification ; yet if thou wilt duely consider the depravation of thy nature , thou must needs be sensible that it is no impossible thing for thee , to be tempted , drawne , and inticed by thy own lust , into the very same faults , with which thy weaker brethren are overtaken ; and for which they are now under the lash of thy censures , thy lust may conceive , and bring forth the same sins ; meditation upon this , would take of much from the rigor , severity , and unclemency , that usually is in our reprehensions ; which makes them to be mistaken , for railings ; and deemed to proceed from an hostile , and not fraternall affection ; it would incline us to reprehend our falling , and failing brethren , with such tendernesse , as a Chirurgion handles his patients ; and so much , may be imported by the word here translated , restore , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , signifieth to set a bone , that is broken , or out of joint ; and this is , or should be done with a tender hand , and 〈◊〉 heart . Ecclesiastes , 7. 29. Lo , this only have I found , that God hath made man upright , but they have sought out many inventions . IN the verse foregoing , Solomon complaines of the generall depravation of mankind : one man among a thousand have I found , but a woman among all those have I not found : in the words there is an 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , sive 〈◊〉 ; so that the words [ one ] and [ none ] are here taken for few , and fewer , as 't is observed in the Dutch Annotations : if ye take the words properly , the last clause is to be limited unto his outlandish wives , and concubines , that seduced him unto Idolatry ; who are said to be a thousand , 1 Kin , 11. 3 : seven hundred wives three hundred concubines : amongst all these , there was not so much as one prudent , and good woman ; now lest any , should hereupon throw the blame of this upon God , for giving man so depraved a nature , he cleareth God , by laying downe two conclusions . The First , concerning the state of man by creation , God made man upright . The second , concerning the state of man by his apostacy , and defection from God ; but they have sought out many inventions . Unto these two Conclusions he premiseth a preface ; Lo this only have I found ; wherein we have three things remarkable : First , the importance of these two conclusions ; implyed in the note of attention [ Loe ! ] Secondly , the meanes , by which he came to the knowledge of them , diligent search , and study into the word , and will of God , [ this have I found . ] Thirdly , a comparison of them with other points , he found them [ only . ] First , here 's the weight and importance of these two conclusions , implyed in the note of attention [ Loe : ] and the weight , and concernment of them may be gather'd . First , from the influence of them upon practise ; being well studyed , they will make us thankfull unto God ; humble in , and watchfull over our selves ; charitable unto others , in admonishing of them , and praying for them . Secondly , from the pronenesse that is in men to justify themselves , and accuse God for the corruption of their natures : let no man ( saith James ) say , when he is tempted , I am tempted of God , James 1. 13 : this prohibition implyeth , that men are apt to say , that they are tempted by God. Secondly , we have the meanes by which Solomon came to the knowledge of these two points ; diligent search , and study into the word , and will of God : this have I found ; to wit , by inquiring after divine revelations , the light of nature , and reason can never discover , that Adam was made upright . as the representative of all mankind ; and that , his fall from this uprightnesse was imputable , and derivable to all mankind : indeed the Lord of Plessie Marlie in his worke intituled the truenesse of Christian religion , chap 26 , proveth , by naturall reasons ; that man's nature is corrupted , that man is falne from his first originall , and for it also chap. 27 : he alleadgeth the testimonyes of diverse antient Philosophers : indeed , by the woefull effects , they had a confused knowledge of the 〈◊〉 , that there was a great confusion , and disorder in the soule of man ; but first , however they knew it to be vitium , a blemish , or infirmity of nature ; yet doubtlesse the generality of them was ignorant that it was peccatum , a fault , or sinne . Secondly , reason , though never so much improved , could never attaine unto so much as a glimmering of it's 〈◊〉 , the cause whence it came : it fared with them , as with Rebecca , Gen. 25. 22 : two children strugled together within her wombe , and 〈◊〉 said , if it be so , why am I thus ? so they , by dayly experience , find contrary appetices strugling within them ; but they cannot ghesse at the cause of this unnaturall war ; and therefore they say , as shee , if it be so , why are we thus ? and unto this demand 't is impossible to have any satisfying answer , unlesse they doe , as shee did in the close of the verse , shee went to inquire of the Lord. This then may discover the true reason , why Papists , Socinians , and Arminians , have been at such a losse , touching originall righteousnesse , and originall sinne : they have not taken such a course , as Rebecca here ; they have not gone to inquire of the Lord , they have consulted reason only , and not scripture , they have followed Aristotle , not Paul , for their guide . Thirdly , we have a comparison of these conclusions , with other pointes of doctrine ; shinted in the particle [ only : ] this only have I found ; this , and nothing else . But sounds not this very strangely ? was Solomon such a truant , such a sorry proficient in the study of divinity , as to know only two heads thereof , originall righteousnesse , and originall sinne ? sure then he was not gifted , or qualified for the office of Ecclesiastes , the Preacher , for he had been unable to declare all the counsell of God. For Answer unto this First , this particle [ only ] is to be taken , not simply , but secundum quid , (q) in relation unto that depravation of man-kind , spoken of in the foregoing verse : this only have I found ; to wit , as touching the cause of it ; first , negatively ; that God is not the cause of it ; for he made man upright : secondly , affirmatively ; that man himselfe is the cause of it ; But they have sought out many inventions . If it be objected , that the Divell was also a cause of the corruption of man's nature , and therefore the Preachers resolution of it into man alone is defective ; he might have found , that Satan propounded unto our first parents many inventions , as well , as that they sought out many inventions . For answer ; Satan was the cause of our first parents fall , or sin , only per modum suadentis , not per modum 〈◊〉 determinantis , he was only a counselling , and perswading cause , and that 's only an imperfect cause , only a morall cause , he was not of sufficient efficacy to make them sinne , for , nothing can be the sufficient cause of sinne unto man , besides his own will , as Aquinas (r) rightly 2 a. 2ae . q : 43. Ar. 1. ad 3 m ; nothing can compell , or determine him thereunto : so then , notwithstanding Satans temptations , the Preacher saith truely touching the causation of that pollution , which is in our nature ; that 't is only to be attributed to the fall of our first parents , because they of their own accord have freely sought out many inventions . There 's a second 〈◊〉 of the word translated [ only ] that makes it to amount to no more than chiefly ; and indeed , some Logicians say , that exclusive particles sometimes exclude not , à 〈◊〉 à 〈◊〉 , but only à summitate 〈◊〉 , and , if the particle may be thus interpreted , then Solomon by the addition thereof signifies ; that the principall thing , that is to be remarked , touching the sinfullnesse of men is ; that God was not the cause of it , by his creation of man's nature ; but that our first parents were authors thereof , by their fall from that rectitude , in which God created them , God hath made man upright , but they have sought out many inventions : now the preheminence of this above all other doctrines , touching the sinfulnesse of man , is very evident unto those , that looke upon sinne , as the scripture describes it ; for 't is the foundation of all true sincere sorrow for sinne , and mortification of it : the knowledge of an effect is ever confused , untill we understand it's cause ; so our sight of sinne is never distinct , and accurate , untill we come to a veiw of the originall of all sinne ; and when this fountaine of sinne is found out , originall sinne , both imputed , and inherent , it will be then a farre more easy worke , than formerly , to discover the streames of actuall sins . There 's a third interpretation of the particle yet behind , which renders it , seorsim , (s) apart , or severally ; and , by this exposition , Solomon professeth , that he hath separated , in his consideration , God's worke , from man's worke ; God's work in the creating of man's nature upright ; and mans worke in the defiling of his nature by his fall ; wherein he sought out many inventions : and 〈◊〉 separation , of God's act , and man's act , being 〈◊〉 made , may sufficiently instruct concerning the cause of 〈◊〉 irrectitude in men , and women , of which he complaines in the verse preceding , that 't is not God , but man himselfe . Having thus briefly run over the praecognita , proceed we next unto the conclusions themselves . The first conclusion , concernes originall righteousnesse , the second concernes originall sinne . The first conclusion concernes originall righteousnesse ; God made man upright ; not only with an uprightnesse of innocency , but also with an uprightnesse of sanctity : but of this before at large . The second conclusion concernes originall sinne ; peccatum originale originans ; the fall of our first parents ; they have sought out many inventions : these words describe the fall of our first parents , not as 't is considered formally , in it selfe ; but metonymically , by it's motives , or effects : by it's motives , if we understand them only of our first parents ; by it's effects , if we extend them unto their posterity also . First , by it's motives , if we understand them of our first parents only ; they sought out many 〈◊〉 : that is , plurima 〈◊〉 , many reasonings , as Junius , and Tremelius render the word , they found out many reasons , arguments , or motives to eate of the forbidden fruit ; and what they did , in this their first sinne , is reckoned to be done by us their off-spring , because we were represented by them , and contained in them ; even as Levi is said to pay tithes in Abraham , because , he was in the loines of his Father Abraham , when Melchisedech 〈◊〉 him , Heb. 7. 9 , 10. Against this interpretation there are two doubts . (t) The first , these reasons or motives were first propounded by Satan , and therefore not sought out by them ; they were his temptations , and not so properly their own inventions . Answer ; They are said to be sought out by them , as their inventions ; because they so greedily , and speedily embraced them ; their acceptation of them answer'd Satan's temptations , as an eccho ; and there is such resemblance betwixt a voyce , and an eccho ; as that standers by sometimes can hardly discerne betwixt them . A second doubt is , concerning the multitude of these inventions , or reasons ; they have found out many inventions : now Moses , in his history , mentioneth but a few motives , or arguments , that induced them to this fact , Gen. 3. 6 : and when the woman saw , that the tree was good for food , and that it was pleasant to the eyes , and a tree to be desired to make one wise ; shee took of the fruit thereof , and did eat , and gave also unto her husband with her , and he did eat : improbable therefore that the Preacher speakes of these reasons , or motives . Answer . These motives were very comprehensive ; though they were formally , and expressly few , yet they were implyedly many : that one designe to be wise , to have their eyes opened , knowing good & evill , virtually comprehended many other plots , dependent upon it : or concomitant with it : they hoped , that their knowledge , and wisdome would be backed , or accompanied with an equall power , and so able to effect whatsoever they desired : they projected then , not only to be as knowing ; but also as powerfull , and in every thing as happy , and glorious as Gods. But some may thinke , that this exposition is somewhat strayned , and far fetched ; and therefore I shall propound a second , which extends the clause , not only unto them , but to all their posterity also , that descend from them in an ordinary way of generation : and so the fall of our first parents is here set forth by it's mediate effects , the inventions of them , and their progeny : touching their actuall sins , which issue from originall corruption inherent in both , as streames from a fountaine , and branches from a tree ; they have all sought out many inventions . First , for the committing of sinne . Secondly , for the defending of sinne . Thirdly , for the extenuating of sinne . Fourthly , for the concealing of sinne . First , for the committing of sin : & so the clause may be verified either of the same , or of several men , & both again of the same , or several sins . First , of the same sinnes ; and that in regard , either of the motives for , meanes unto , or manners of committing them : First , they have found out many inventions ; that is , many motives and reasons to incite themselves unto the same sins : thus an Harlot , is allured unto her libidinous course of life , by pleasure , and by profit , by a desire to maintaine her selfe in idlenesse , and gaiety of apparrel , by a vaine , and proud delight that shee takes in the courtings , & adorations of her beauty : thus in an unworthy , and sinfull compliance with the vices of the times , there may be a concurrence of many impulses , servile feare , covetousnesse , vaine-glory , and ambition ; but now , though men may by variety of arguments tempt themselves unto the same sinnes ; yet there 's no solidity in any of these arguments ; they are but inventions , have no more reality in them , than poeticall fictions . Secondly , they have found out many inventions ; that is , many meanes and wayes for the practising of the same 〈◊〉 : how many are the wiles by which an adultresse deviseth to defile her husbands bed ? who can reckon up all those unlawful practises , tricks , deceits , cheats , and fetches , by which misers scrape , and hoard up wealth in an inordinate way ? and it is not as impossible to trace all the by-pathes , and crooked wayes , by which the ambitious ascend their undeserved honours , and preferments . Thirdly , they have 〈◊〉 out many inventions ; that is , many wayes and manners of acting the same sinnes . Tiberius instituted ( saith 〈◊〉 ) a new office forsooth , à 〈◊〉 , for the devising of new , and various pleasures ; he had also ( as the same Author ) monstrosi concubitus repertores , such as invented monstrous kinds of libidinous filthinesse ; indeed not only he , but diverse others of the Romanes ( as their Historians and Satyrists informe us ) used such unnaturall wayes of lust , and uncleannesse , as modesty prohibits the recitall of them ; and the devisers of them may be those inventors of evill things , of which the Apostle speaks , Rom. 1. 30 : But to speake of our own times ; the drammatique poetry of our age hath been very inventive ; and 〈◊〉 was never able to keep pace with the various , and quaint frauds of cheaters ; with the severall modes , and methodes of drinking unmeasurable healthes ; with those horrid oathes , and blasphemies , that some men ( shall I say rather incarnate Divels ) dayly coyne , and boast of such coynage , as a rare invention ; with those monstrous , and ridiculous fashions in apparrell , and otherwise , by which the gallants of both sexes expresse their pride , and vanity . Secondly , this clause may be understood of severall sinnes they have found out : many inventions ; that is , they have invented many forts , and kinds of sinnes ; First , many sinnes against the first table ; much prophanesse , and neglect of duties ; many 〈◊〉 , and hereticall inventions against the truth of God ; many superstitious , and idolatrous inventions against the worship of God. Secondly , many sinnes against the second table ; many vile , unjust , and uncharitable practises in the way of converse with , and carriage towards men . If this be the sense of the clause , there be three things observable in it : First , the nature and originall of men's sins , they are their [ inventions ; ] Secondly , their numerousnesse [ many ] Thirdly , their voluntarinesse [ sought out . ] First , their nature and originall : they proceeded from their own invention , and therefore cal'd their inventions : the ground of all sinne is , that men lay aside the unerring rule of God's word , and will , and invent rules of their own to walke by : our first parents had never falne , but that they first suspected , and then disrelished the supposed rigour of God's precept ; and hereupon chalked out unto themselves a way unto happinesse , that in truth , and reality lead downe unto the chambers of Death : what made Saul run upon a worser sinne , than that of witchcraft , rebellion against his maker . ? a sinne that rooted out him , and all his posterity ? but that he undervallued God's command , and followed his own judgment , his own invention ? God commanded him to smite 〈◊〉 , and utterly to destroy all that they had , and to spare them not ; but to 〈◊〉 , both man , and woman , infant , and suckling , oxe , and sheep , Camel , and Asse , 1 Sam. 15. 3 : but he devised ( as he thought ) a more prudent , and politique course ; he reserved their King for triumph or ransom ; and the best of their cattle , for spoile , and plunder ; though he pretended it was for sacrifice , in Psal. 106. vers 43 : that which the Psalmist cals , the counsel of the Israelites , in the former part of the verse ; he termes their iniquity in the latter part : they provoked him with their 〈◊〉 , and were brought low for their iniquity : now , from this collation , the inference is 〈◊〉 ; that mens own counsel is their iniquity : men sinne , when they are guided by their own counsels , and inventions ; the best way then , for prevention of sinne , is not to bee directed by our own counsels , and inventions , but to keep exactly unto the perfect rule of righteousnesse , the law , and testimony of God : I hate vaine thoughts , but thy law doe I love ( saith the Psalmist , Psal : 119. 113. ) the cause of his hatred of vaine thoughts , was his love of the law of God : so , on the contrary , distast at the lawes of God is the principle of all vaine thoughts , and sinfull inventions : because men doe not love God's law , therefore they love vaine thoughts , they seek out many inventions . This note , as it may be averred of all sinne in generall ; so in a more speciall manner of will worship , and 〈◊〉 ; for what is it other , than humane invention , the offering of strange fire to the Lord , which he commanded not ? Levit. 10. 1 : the setting of our posts by God's posts , our thresheld by his threshold ? Ezek. 43. 8 : what was the cause of the Israelites Idolatry against the second commandement , the same thing with superstition , but their desertions of God's ceremoniall Law , ( that was to be the adequate rule of instituted worship , ) and their seeking , and following of many inventions ? and with what severity did God both threaten , and punish this Idolatry of the Israelites , you may read at large in the old Testament . Secondly , we have the numerousnesse of mans sinnes ; many inventions : the 〈◊〉 inventions , which the deceitfull hearts of men have sought out , are so various , and numerous : as that they are unsearchable by any , but the Lord himselfe , who 〈◊〉 the heart , and tryeth the 〈◊〉 , Jer. 17. 9 , 10 : Unto this , at least by way of allusion , we may apply that of the Prophet Isay , 57. 10 : thou art 〈◊〉 in the 〈◊〉 of thy way : the way to hell is so great , and broad , the pathes in it so many , the sinfull inventions which wicked men seeke , and pursue are so infinite as that 't is no wonder , that they are quite tyred out in their journey : they are in this respect as a swift Dromedary traversing her wayes , Jer. 2. 23 : (v) that is ; severall wayes running , when she is proud , or hot with lust , to and fro after severall males , one while after one of them , and another while after another . Thirdly , we have the voluntarinesse of man's sinnes , they are of their own seeking ; they are their own inventions : they not only greedily embraced , what 〈◊〉 counsels were propounded by others ; but of themselves , of their own accord sought out many inventions ; they sinned not only by others temptatinos , but by their own inventions , Hosea . 4. 8. Eccles. 8. 11. Secondly , men have found out many inventions , as for the committing , so for the defending of sinne : how many inventions have the Papists sought out for the supporting of Papal monarchy , and usurpations ? for the patronage of their idolatries , in their invocation of Saints , worshipping of images , 〈◊〉 of masse , and for the defence of all other execrable tenets , and practises in their religion ? But , what talke we of Papists ? some among us , who professe a great distance from Antichrists , have ( to the reproach of our nation ) made shamelesse apologies for libertinisme , prophanation of the Sabboth , polygamie , sacriledge , disobedience unto magistrates , neglect , and contempt of all God's ordinances . Thirdly , they have found out many inventions , for the extenuating , excusing , palliating of sinne ; of which see Dyke at large in the deceitfullnesse of the heart : I shall instance only , in the excuse of sinne , translation of it upon another cause , because herein our first parents were precedentiall unto all their posterity : Adam transferred the blame of his fall unto the Woman , nay he father'd it implyedly upon God himselfe , Gen. 3. vers . 12 : the man said , the woman , whom thou gavest to be with me , shee gave me of the tree , and I did eat : tis , as if he should have said , if thou had'st suffer'd me to have been alone , I had still been innocent ; it is this companion , whom thou hast given me , that hath inticed , and undone me : and Eve for her part , translates all the fault upon the Serpent , vers . 13 : and the woman said , the serpent beguiled me , and I did eat , this example , of our first parents , is imitated but , too too well by their sinsull progeny : there are that in their heares , though not in their words , impute their sinnes unto God's decrees , and providences , and others ( which comes all to one ) blame , the malignant influence of their stars , the good creatures of God ; they were borne ( they will say ) under an unlucky planet ; others complaine of Satan , and the world : the Divell is a wily serpent , the world a cunning strumpet ; and how is it possible for such imprudent , and ignorant creatures as wee , either to discover or evade their artifices , and stratagems ? the Divell ( say some ) owed me a spight ; others discharge their sinnes upon the infortunity of their condition , and relations : it was poverty ( saith the 〈◊〉 ) that made me steale ; it is the greatnesse of my charge , and family ( saith the worldling ) that makes me osten passe by family duties , that makes me seeme a covetous niggard ; it was provocation ( saith the swearer ) that made me take God's name in vaine ; it was ill language ( saith the man-slayer ) made me strike ; it was bad company ( saith the intemperate person ) hath seduced me unto this excesse of ryot : I should never thus have frequented tavernes , and ale-houses ( saith another drunkard ) but that my calling ingageth me there to meet , and conferre with chapmen : I had plyed my vocation , and kept my house ( saith a third ) but that the the tempest of my wives tongue ever and anon drave me out of doores ; I had never been disloyall , and unchast ( saith the adultresse ) but that my husband was unkind , and jealous . Lastly , men have found out many inventions for the concealing of their sinnes : very observable unto this purpose is that place in Job . 31. 33 : If I covered my transgressions , as Adam : by hiding mine iniquity in my 〈◊〉 : here the word [ Adam ] may be taken , either as the proper name of the first man ; or as the common name of all men : first , as the proper name of the first man ; he did what he could to hide his sinne , Gen. 3. 8 : and as the common name of all men ; and so 't is as much as , after the manner of men , as 't is varied in the margin ; and so , we may note from the words ; that 't is the guise and manner of men to cover their transgressions , to hide their iniquity in their bosome : in this regard , what Solomon saith of the way of an adulterous woman , Prov. 30. 20 : is incident unto other sinners ; they cate , and wipe their mouthes , and say wee have done no 〈◊〉 : the way of most sinners ( save those impudent ones , that declare their sinnes as Sodom ) may be compared ( for secrecy , and concealement ) to the way of a man with a maide , to the way of an Eagle in the aire , the way of a serpent upon the rocke , the way of the ship in the midst of the sea , which leave no track , or foot-step behind them : David was a man after God's own heart , and yet , what sad inventions did hee seeke out to hide the shame of his adultery with Bathsheba ? first , he made Uriah drunke , that in that distemper he might goe home to ly with his wife ; and so father that bastard , which he had begotten on her ; and when this would not doe , gave directions unto 〈◊〉 , for the contrivance of his death , which could not be effected , but by the fall also of diverse other innocent subjects of David's , 2 Sam. 11. The words , as hitherto expounded , run of sinne considered indefinitely ; there be also that restraine them unto one particular sinne , mens erroneous inventions concerning their supreme 〈◊〉 , and happinesse , and the wayes , and meanes leading thereunto : indeed this may be cal'd a 〈◊〉 sinne ; because 't is 〈◊〉 with every sinne ; in every sinne , there is an aversion from the right end God , and a conversion unto some wrong end in our selves , or the creatures : severall men propound unto themselves severall cheife ends ; some pleasure , some profit , some honour , some knowledge , and learning ; nay , the very same men doe so succestively : in the morning of their dayes men usually aime at sensuall pleasures ; and in their riper years their aimes are as vaine , dirt , aire and smoke , riches , and honours , &c : childrens ends are toyes , and trifles ; and , when the dayes of childish vanity are past over , men dreame to be happy in the embraces of some rich , beautifull , and loving wife ; but they are soon cloyed with the sweets of marriage , which are quickly imbitter'd , and over ballanced by it's greater cares , & troubles ; & then men comomnly promise to themselves a great deale of comfort , and happinesse in their little children , and they when they grow up to maturity , prove many times the greatest crosses of their lives ; and so bring downe their gray haires with sorrow to the grave : now , the reason of this variety , and vagrancy , that is in wicked mens desires about their chiefe ends , is the unsatisfactorinesse , which is in all sinite , and inseriour ends ; unto which men divert from God , who alone is an infinite ; and therefore all satisfying good : in the wayes of sinne , and lust , in the fruition of the creatures ther 's nothing but vanity , and vexation of spirit ; no rest for the sole of the soules foot , Gen. 8. 9 : and therefore no wonder , that men , in a naturall condition , make their end to be , one while to satisfy this lust , and another while to satisfy that ; one while to enjoy this creature , another while to enjoy that : when men for sake the fountaine of living waters ; they then hew , and dig out unto themselves ( many cisternes ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that will hold no water , Jer. 2. 13 : when they neglect the unum necessarium , the one thing that 's needfull , they are soon ( with Martha ) carefull , and troubled about many things , Luk. 10. 41. Carnal mens desires of happinesse are consused , and unsettled ; for , they are the many ( of whom the Psalmist speakes , Psal. 4. 6. ) that say , who will shew us any good ? they doe not pitch upon the true , and only good ; yet they desire , in a generall way , to be happy ; but they know not where this happinesse lyeth ; and therefore is it , that ( in the prosecution of it ) they post , and run from creature to creature , from lust to lust , from sinne to sinne ; they seek out many inventions , and doe not fix ( as David ) upon the lifting up of the light of God's countenance upon them : and thus have I given you the sense of the words , according unto our translation ; I shall briefly acquaint you with other rendrings of them , and so conclude my meditations upon them . First , the Septuagint render the word we translate inventions , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Junius renders it ratiocinia , reasonings , or disputings ; Luther , artes : Some translate it deliberations ; others ( of which Diodati is one ) expound it so largely as to take in all thoughts , imaginations , and counsels , that are vaine , false , sinfull , and exalt themselves against the knowledge of God ; Symmachus turnes the whole clause thus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , operati sunt curiositatem 〈◊〉 variam negotiationem ; they were become polypragmatists , they toyled , and busied themselves with many curious , and 〈◊〉 affaires , that were utterly unrelated unto their cheife end , the glory of God , and salvation of their soules ; Bernard renders it thus , ipse autem se implicuit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he inwrapped himselfe in many griefes , troubles , difficulties , perplexities , and miseries , (w) Adam's fall was , as it were , a Pandora's box , out of which flew all the evils , and calamities , with which the world is replenished ; in the vulgar latine 't is ipse 〈◊〉 infinitis miscuit quaestion bus , he hath mingled himselfe , or ( as the Divines of Doway expresse it ) he hath intangled himselfe with infinite or numberlesse questions ; 〈◊〉 Alapide (x) thinks , that questions here signify lusts and sinnes in generall , by a metalepsis ; because all lusts , and sinnes have in some sort their originall from questions ; the first sinne of our first parents had it's rise from the question of the serpent , Gen. 3. 1 : He said unto the woman , yea , hath God said yee shall not eat of every tree of the Garden ? and 〈◊〉 by list'ning unto this question ruined herselfe , her husband , and all her posterity ; and in ensuing sins the sinner hath ever some questions : First , interpretatively he questions , and disputes the authority of God's commands ; and next , commonly , he hath some question concerning some creature , or other , to sind out what is good , and evill in it ; and thirdly , some question concerning the sinne committed , a curious itch to experience what sweetnesse and delight there is therein . But the generality of Popish interpreters understand the clause more particularly of the ignorance , 〈◊〉 , and contentiousnesse of lapsed man , First , of his ignorance : for questions presuppose ignorance , and doubts ; to say that man hath mingled himselfe with infinite questions , is as much as to say , man is ignorant , sull of queries , in search of which he languisheth away his dayes : this the endlesse disputes of Philosophers , de summo 〈◊〉 , concerning man's chiefe good , and end , doe plainly witnesse ; for these imply that man is naturally 〈◊〉 of it , and at some losse about it . Secondly , of his 〈◊〉 ; he hath mingled himselfe with insinite questions ; to wit , curious , nice , and unpresitable questions , that have no tendency to edification ; such as the Apostle speakes of , 1 Tim. 1. 4 : & 6. 4 : of this curiosity the school-men are a sad example ; many of whose questions are , like spiders webs , curiously spun but 〈◊〉 to catch flies , than soules . Thirdly , of his contentiousnesse , he hath mingled himselfe with infinite questions ; that is , brawles , disputes , and quarrels ; and that both with himselfe , and others . First , with himselfe ; how frequent , and warme are the contests in his own bosome , betwixt his rationall , and sensuall powers ? ever and anon his sensitive appetite disputes the most rationall dictates of his understanding , and the most regular commands of his will. Secondly , with others ; with strangers , and neerest neighbours , with foes , and most intimate , and dearest friends , with his most faithfull servants , with the wife of his bosome , the children of his bowels . Pineda observeth ; that there is an Auxesis in the word [ mingled ; ] so that it signifies man is ingulfed in , and ( as it were ) swallowed up of questions : they are ( as it were ) incorporated into him , and he ( as it were ) compounded , and made up of them ; he is wholly , and altogether a questionist . But the Reader may perhaps thinke , that I stay too long upon these severall versions , seeing the word [ Chishbonoth ] hath but one signification in the whole scripture : it signifies inventions ( as 't is rendered by our Translatours ) and nothing else . FINIS . Certaine Letters OF HENRY IEANES Minister of Gods word AT CHEDZOY . AND D r IEREMY TAYLOR Concerning A passage of his , in his further Explication of Originall sin . OXFORD , Printed by HEN : HALL for THO : ROBINSON , 1660. Dr Taylor in his further explication of the doctrine of originall sin , pag. 496. THat every man is inclined to evill , some more , some lesse , but all in some instances ; is very true : and it is an effect , or condition of nature , but no sinne properly ; 1 : because that which is unavoidable is not a sinne ; 2 : because it is accidentall to nature , not intrinsecall , and essentiall ; 3 : It is superinduc'd to nature , and is after it , &c. To the unprejudiced Reader . I shall only give thee a briefe narrative of the occasion of the ensuing letters : one M r T. C. of Bridgwater being at my house , brake out into extraordinary , ( that I say not excessive , and Hyperbolicall ) prayses of D r Ieremy Taylor ; I expressed my concurrence with him in great part ; nay I came nothing behind him in the just cōmendations of his admirable wit , great parts , quick and elegant pen , his abilites in Criticall learning , and his profound skil in antiquity : but notwithstanding all this I professed my dissent from some of his opinions which I judged to be erroneous ; and I instanced in his doctrine of originall sin ; now his further explication of this lay then causually in the window ( as I take it ) which hereupon I took up , and turned unto the passage now under debate , and shewed unto M r T. C. that therein was grosse nonsense , and blasphemy ; he for his own part , with a great deale of modesty , forthwith declined all further dispute of the businesse , but withal he told me , that he would , If I so pleased , give D r Taylor notice of what I said ; whereunto I agreed , and in a short time he brought me from the D r a faire , and civill invitation to send him my exceptions , and with it a promise of a candid reception of them ; whereupon I drew them up in a letter unto Mr T. C. the Copy whereof followeth . Letters of the Authour And D r IEREMY TAYLOR To M r T. C. Sir , I have here , according unto your desire sent you my 〈◊〉 against that rassage in Dr Taylor , concerning which you 〈◊〉 at my house ; It is in his further explication of the Doctrine of originall sinne , pag : 496 : and it is the second argument , which he brings to prove ; that inclination to evill is no sinne properly ; because it is accidentall to nature , not intrinsecall and essentiall . The argument put into sorme may be reduced into two syllogismes . The first . Sinne properly is not accidentall to the nature of man. An inclination to evill is accidentall to the nature of man : therefore An inclination to evill is no sinne 〈◊〉 . A second Syllogisme is . Sinne properly so called is intrinsecall , and essentiall to the nature of man. An inclination to evill is not intrinsecall , and essentiall to the nature of man : therefore , An inclination to evill is not sinne properly so called . Unto the first of those syllogismes ; I answer that the major is false ; and that according to Porphyry his so celebrated desinition of an accident . Accidens est quod adest , & abest sine 〈◊〉 interitu : that is , as the best Commentators upon Porphyry expound the words . An accident is that , which may be affirmed , or denied of it's subject , without any repugnancy , or contradiction to the essence , and desinition thereof ; now to deny sinne of man , gives no overthrow to his essence and definition , for a man that is no sinner may bee animal 〈◊〉 ; sinne therefore is accidentall to the nature of man. The major of the second syllogisme is 〈◊〉 lesse salse , than that of the first , as for the terme , intrinsecall , I shall not stay upon it ; because the 〈◊〉 useth it as equivalent to essentiall , as is apparent by the 〈◊〉 , he puts between 〈◊〉 and accidentall ; but shall wholy insist upon the word 〈◊〉 : To say , as the Dr doth hy consequence , that sinne is essentiall to the nature of man , is an assertion , guilty of nonsense , Blusphemy , and libertinisme . 1. Nonsence . A thing may be said to be essentiall unto an other , either a priori , and then it is 〈◊〉 of it , in primo modo dicendi perse ; or else 〈◊〉 posteriori , and then it is predicated of it , in secundo modo dicendi per se. And to say that finne is either of these wayes essentiall to the nature of man , is such pittifull , and prodigious nonsence , as that I cannot thinke it 〈◊〉 of any serious refutation . In a second place I charge it with Blasphemy : it blasphemes three actions , three acts of God. 1. The creation of man. 2. The incarnation of Christ. 3. The full 〈◊〉 of the Saints at the resurrection . 1. The creation of man : God was the Authour of whatsoever was essentiall unto man ; And if sinne be essentiall unto the nature of man , then God was the Author of sinne . 2. The 〈◊〉 of Christ : in which God made Christ like unto man in essentialls ; If sinne then be 〈◊〉 unto the nature of man , God made Christ sinsull ; a blasphemy that I tremble to mention . 3. This opinion blasphemes God's full glorification of the Saints in the resurrection ; for it affirmes by just consequence , that they shall be raised with sinne ; because doublesse they shall be raised with whatsoever is essentiall to the nature of man. In the third , and last place this Tenet is chargeable with 〈◊〉 : 'T is a licentious doctrine , and opens a gap to the greatest 〈◊〉 ; for it takes away all conscience of sinne , all repentance of it for the time past , all caution against it for the suture : If sinne be essentiall to the nature of man , what reason hath he to be humbled for it ? to aske God pardon for it ? to make any scruple of the committing of it ? And thus having briesly performed my promise , and satisfied your request , I shall rest Your affectionate freind , and humble servant HENRY JEANES . Before the receipt of this , Mr T. C. gave an account unto Dr Taylor of what he remembred in our discourse , and received from him an answer , which he concealed from me untill the delivery of my paper , and then he produced it . This answer together with my reply thereunto I shall next offer unto thy Consideration . To his respected Freind Mr. T. C. these , &c. Mr. C. I thanke you for your letter , and friendly information os Mr Jeanes his exception ; but is he had been as carefull to understand as he was forward to object , and mistake , he had cased you , and me of this little trouble . He objects that I say , that inclination to sinne is no sinne , because it is accidentall , not intrinsecall , and essentiall : and he gives reasons why such a reason is absurd . To all which I returne this sost answer , that he sayes true , but nothing to the purpose . For the thing that I was to prove then , was the precedent word : [ that every man is inclined to evill , some more , some lesse : ] that is , that this inclination to evill is not regular and 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 not naturall , sor as sor the other clause ] it is an effect or condition of nature , but no sinne properly ] that was the lesse principall part of the proposition , and to it only the first reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , viz : [ that which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not a sin . ) But if he had considered the 〈◊〉 I was then 〈◊〉 , he 〈◊〉 needs have seene that I was explicating that clause of the Church Article [ and is inclined to evill ] which I was to say , was an inclination not naturall , not 〈◊〉 , not 〈◊〉 ; but accidentall : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this thing I pursue , and to this all the other 〈◊〉 relate to the end of that section , and none of 〈◊〉 , the first only excepted , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 part of the proposition , which is I had lest out , and the reasons 〈◊〉 to it , the sense had been as compleat , and my argument not the worse , and my 〈◊〉 no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And 〈◊〉 be 〈◊〉 the 4 last reasons , that is , all 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 to that 〈◊〉 of the variety of our inclination to 〈◊〉 , he will not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reason , but all the 〈◊〉 . Besides this if Mr Jeanes had so much 〈◊〉 as he pretends to have Logicke , he would have perceived that sor me to 〈◊〉 , what he sayes I 〈◊〉 , had been the perfect destruction of all my 〈◊〉 , and all my 〈◊〉 , sor if I had sayd , that nothing could be a sinne , but what is 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 I had 〈◊〉 that not only some sinne , but all sinne had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Now my Thesis being , that no sin , properly such , is naturall ; it cannot be imagined that I should meane what 〈◊〉 dreames of : it had not been to my purpose , either there or in 〈◊〉 question . But all the following reasons do so explicate , and sully manisest the meaning of the second ; that I wonder hon Mr Jeanes is he be that person which he would be thought , could mistake , it , unlesse he be also that person he would not be thought : I could say many more things , but this being the truth of the businesse , and the reall 〈◊〉 of my discourse , I need adde no more ; but one thing I cannot but adde to Mr Jeanes , that is , since he instances in our B. Saviour , he must needs allow that 〈◊〉 , taking it for those 〈◊〉 , which are purely naturall , and concreated with us , cannot possibly bee a sinne : Because as Mr Jeanes rightly observes , whatsoever is naturall to man , was in Christ , because he 〈◊〉 all our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but he had , not our 〈◊〉 ; 〈◊〉 our 〈◊〉 nature hath no sinne : sor Christ was in all things 〈◊〉 to us , sinne only excepted , but he took 〈◊〉 him our nature , and nothing of that was excepted ; 〈◊〉 our nature of it selfe is not properly 〈◊〉 : nothing os our constitution is 〈◊〉 . Sir , I have given you a saire and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . I pray let Mr Jeanes have 〈◊〉 much conveyed to him , as 〈◊〉 that part to which he 〈◊〉 : and if he writes 〈◊〉 thing against me , let him take notice os this my answer , or else all the World shall take notice of his impertinent , and uningenious dealing : I pray let not this letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of your hand , because I have no copy os it , if Mr Jeanes should be troublesome : But if he be , it will be 〈◊〉 to acquaint his neighbourhood with my 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 what he sayes shall goe no 〈◊〉 . Sir , I hope you will 〈◊〉 this trouble I put you to in reading a long letter to my readinesse to doe you service , and as a returne os those great kindnesses by which you have obliged . London July 4th . 1657. Sir , Your very affectionate friend to love and serve you 〈◊〉 : TAYLOR . Postscript . I hope I have spoken clearly enough in the explicating , and untying this knot in the bulrush ; but if it be not extreamly plaine , for your own satisfaction make but the second part of the proposition to be a Parenthesis ; thus , beginning at ( and it is an effect , &c : unto 2. ) and then the thing is extreamely plaine , ( or there the designe was only to say and prove that although man be ( more or lesse , as it happens ) inclined to sinne , yet his nature is never the more criminall for that : for it is besides his nature , it is accidentall to it , not but that it is naturall to be inclined to such objects ; but that this should be sinfull is but in some cases , and it is accidentall , and it is because those objects were forbidden after our nature was given to us . Man is naturally inclined to some things , which are not naturally , but accidentally sinfull . To his Loving freind Mr T. C. these &c. Sir , I have received Dr Taylor his letter sent unto you , bearing date July 4th . What designe you had in concealing of it so long from me I cannot guesse . But if you had delivered it before I had sent you my objections , you would have eased me , and Dr Taylor of some trouble : for I should then have let alone these objections , and have only proved , that I did him no wrong , in charging him with the conclusions , against which these objections were directed ; to wit , that no sinne is accidentall ; that all sinne is essentiall , and intrinsicall . Two things he layeth to my charge , want of care to understand him , and disingenuity . 1. Want of care to understand him . [ If he had been ( he sayth ) as carefull to understand as he was forward to object , and mistake , he had eas●d you , and me of this little trouble . ] But if the Dr had been a man of that ingenuity , which you fame him for , he would have confessed his carelesnesse in expressing of himselfe , and not have charged me with want of care to understand , that to bee his meaning which I could not understand to bee his meaning without offering violence to his words : he propounds two propositions ( without any thing , but a copulative conjunction interposed betweene them ) And unto the last of these propositions he subjoyneth 6 reasons . Now what rule of Logicke obliged me to cary the 5 last of these reasons backwards , and to place them between the above mentioned propositions , I readily confesse my selfe to be utterly ignorant , and shall be very ready to sit downe at the Doctor 's feet , and to learne any such rule of him . If the Dr must have such liberty allowed him to make such unexampled transpositions , he is a very formidable adversary , not to be coped with by mortall wights , who cannot guesse , how he will in an after game sever these reasons , that he hath first joyned together . Logicke informeth me that secondly signifies a relation of order betwixt it selfe and firstly . But now if two reasons be related unto not one , but several conclusions , I would faine know why one should be the first , and the other the second reason . Besides here is a first reason , that hath no second reason following it , relating unto the same conclusion . There goeth a story of an Alderman in Oxford , that upon the reading of some records touching something controverted betwixt the Town , and University , he brake out into this expression ; unlesse we can prove King Henry the 8th to be before King Henry the seventh the University will have the better of us : But if we can make it good , that King Henry the 8th was before King Henry the 7th , then there is no doubt , but that we shall in this 〈◊〉 have a full Conquest over the Schollars . I take this to be a fable : 〈◊〉 however give me leave to make application of it unto my present purpose . All the wrong , that the Dr can pretend , that I have done him , is because I did not place secondly before firstly , and if he can make it good , that I ought to have placed secondly before firstly , then I must needs confesse I have done him a great deale of Injury , and shall be ready to aske his pardon ; and unlesse such proofe can be made , he must lay the blame upon the Confusion , and disorder of his own discourse : But to goe on . The Dr tels us , that this clause [ it is an effect , or condition of nature , but no sinne properly , is the lesse principall part of the proposition : ] both clauses then , according unto him , make but one proposition ; and this is a great failing against that Logicke , which the learned have 〈◊〉 used ; for by that , 〈◊〉 two clauses are not parts of one proposition , 〈◊〉 severall , intire , distinct propositions . But perhaps he may say , that they make one compounded proposition . Unto this I shall reply , 1. That a compounded 〈◊〉 consists ever of simple propositions . Now the last of these 〈◊〉 ( to say nothing of the first ) is a compounded proposition it selfe , for it is an 〈◊〉 proposition ; and therefore , though these two clauses may make an 〈◊〉 of severall propositions , yet they can never concurre to the Composition of one . 2. If both clauses make one 〈◊〉 proposition , then it is a 〈◊〉 proposition ; because they are knit together by a copulative conjunction ; Now a copulative proposition is not true , unlesse all parts be true ; and 〈◊〉 it is not proved to be true , unlesse all parts be proved to be true : Now the Doctor for the proofe of this pretended copulative proposition jumbleth together 6 reasons without any note of distinction to direct the 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 which part of the proposition ( as he cals 〈◊〉 ) he should apply the 〈◊〉 all reasons : and whether this proofe of a copulative 〈◊〉 be not illog call , I 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any man , that knowes any thing in Logicke . He informes you , that the first reason is to be 〈◊〉 unto the latter part of the proposition ( as he cals it ) and the 5 other reasons unto the first part of the proposition . But what precept of 〈◊〉 , or Grammar I have transgressed in 〈◊〉 making such a distribution , or application of his reasons , he doth not 〈◊〉 you . But the Doctor directs you unto two wayes sor the 〈◊〉 out of his meaning . The First to leave out the second clause , and the reason relating unto it . Is I had ( 〈◊〉 he ) 〈◊〉 out the latter part of the proposition , and the reasons 〈◊〉 to it , my sense had been as compleat , and my argument not the 〈◊〉 , and my discourse no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . But the second clause being lest in , perturbeth , and confoundeth the sense , and occasioneth the mistake : and who ( I pray ) is to be blamed , the Dr for putting it into the 〈◊〉 , or I for still keeping it in the Analysis of his words ? 〈◊〉 would be a strange , and unheard of way of analysing , that a Reader should loppe off two lines at a time of an authour : But it should seeme wee are to make such 〈◊〉 to make your great Dr speake sense , only I would know by what warrant , and obligation . A second way , which will make it extreamly plaine ( as he tels you in the 〈◊〉 ) is to make the second part of the proposition ( as he termes it ) and the reason relating unto it to be a 〈◊〉 . But , 1. that this was not brought in by way of Parenthesis , who is in the fault ? Againe , 2. The Dr hath told us , that it is the second part of the same proposition with the foregoing clause , and if so , then it cannot be inserted as a 〈◊〉 betwixt it , and the following proposition . And besides , 3. If he bring in the words only by way of Parenthesis , I would 〈◊〉 know what is to be done with 2ly , in this case he must new figure , and number his reasons . That which he figureth to be the second reason , must be the first , and his six reasons will prove to be but five . The second thing that he chargeth me with is disingenuity . Besides this ( saith he ) if Mr Jeanes had so much ingenuity , as he pretends to have 〈◊〉 , he would have perceived , &c. 1. As what he speakes of my pretending unto Logicke , I thinke unworthy of any answer , and shall leave it unto the Reader to judge of the wit , and ingenuity thereof . 2. It is no disingenuous part in me to charge the Dr with a conclusion , that I prove his words to be guilty of : For as for his meaning , I cannot guesse at it , but by his words , but I believe the unpartiall Reader , will judge it a very high point of 〈◊〉 in the Dr , not to acknowledge the incommodious structure of his words . But let us heare wherein my disingenuity consists . Is Mr Jeanes ( saith he ) had so much 〈◊〉 as he pretends to have Logicke , he would have perceived that for me to meane , what he sayes I meane , had been the persect destruction of all my discourse , and all my intention . If this be all ; The Dr hath no reason to charge me with want of ingenuity in this particular ; for I doe very weil perceive , that for him to meane , what I say , his words hold forth ( for as for any secret , and reserved meaning , I have nothing to doe with ) had been the perfect destruction of all his 〈◊〉 , &c. But I believe the 〈◊〉 meaning is , that it is an ingenuous part in me to 〈◊〉 it possible ; or probable for him to assert any thing , that is the perfect destruction of all his discourse , and all his intention . Now this I utterly deny . I have no such apprehension of the Doctor 's 〈◊〉 ; but take him to be a man as likely to 〈◊〉 himselfe , as other mortals . There is one thing more , that the Dr add's concerning our blessed Saviour , that concupiscence taking it for those desires , which are purely naturall , and concreated is no sinne , because it was in Christ. Unto which I answer that this is nothing unto the purpose ; for the concupiscence in controversy is 〈◊〉 , and never created , or concreated by God. It is an inclination unto evill ; and therefore irregular , and disorderly : it is that which the Apostle termeth , the sin , that dwelleth in him , Rom. 7. 17 : which 〈◊〉 him doe that evill , which he would not , vers : 19 : which he hated , vers : 15. The law of his members warring against the law of his mind , vers : 23 : the body of this death , from which he desired to be delivered , vers : 24 : And ( methinks ) he should be affraid to ascribe this concupiscence unto Jesus Christ , who was the Lambe of God without blemish , and without spot , 1 Pet. 1. 19 : holy , harmelesse , undefiled , separate from sinners , Heb. 7. 26 : And thus I have according unto the Doctor 's desire , taken notice of his answer , and shall not be so hasly as to write any thing against him , but that I shall stay a convenient time to heare the uttermost , that he can say ; and when our Paper shall be made publicke unto all the World , I doe not doubt but there will be more that will accuse him of incogitancy , than me of impertinency . Many ingenious and learned men , and some , that otherwise admire the Dr , have made the same construction of his words , that I have , and thought that , he here forgat himselfe . I am informed that the Dr in a letter unto you , tels you , that he desires not to bee 〈◊〉 with my 〈◊〉 Logicke , I hope he reviles not Logicke as trisling , for 〈◊〉 I know in what herd of writers to ranke him , and should decline him as an 〈◊〉 adversary , who is an enemy to the very art of reason . But it is not Logicke it selfe I believe , but my Logicke , that he thus bespatters : and if it be so , I shall returne nothing unto this his censure , but leave you , and others his admirers to judge of the humility , and 〈◊〉 thereof . I have heard that the Dr hath printed a very good Grammar , if he will also publish a Logicke , for the better information of such triflers as my selfe , I doe assure you , that I will very diligently peruse it , and if it be more solid , weighty , and 〈◊〉 , than those which I have hitherto read , give him many thankes for it . As for his last letter , I have not yet had the leasure fully to peruse it , but by that 〈◊〉 view which I have taken of it , I find it to be as empty of reason , ( though fuller of passion ) as the former : you have given it out that it is unanswerable ; but I shall desire you to have a little patience , and if I doe not give it a satisfying answer , I shall submit unto what penance you will injoyne me . In great hast I rest . Your affectionate 〈◊〉 , and servant , HENRY JEANES . Chedzoy August 31. 1657. Mr C. thought , that the Doctor 's letter would supersede all 〈◊〉 sputation ; but perceiving that I was unsatisfied , and that I intended a replication , he conveyed my objections unto the Doctor , which begat a very angry letter from him ; unto which he would not vouchsafe so much as a superscription ; but I saw the Contents concerned me , and therefore unto thee I shall present it , together with my answer thereunto , submitting both unto thy censure , and so shall rest Devoted to thy spirituall service HENRY JEANES Sir , I understand by my very good friend Mr T. C that you are very much troubled at a passage in my [ further explication of originall sin ] pag : 496 : The words are these [ that every man is inclined to 〈◊〉 some more , some lesse , but all in some instances , is very true , and it is an effect , or condition of nature ; but no sinne properly . ] The 〈◊〉 you conceive is because , one of the 〈◊〉 I bring to prove it is , because it is accidentall to nature , not intrinsecall and essentiall . ] 〈◊〉 this you 〈◊〉 that I 〈◊〉 that all sinne is intrinsecall and essentiall to nature : which indeed is I had said , I had been as very a fool as you conceive me , and worse ; 〈◊〉 besides the reasons you are pleas'd to object , which I am no way by this 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 , I had destroyed my maine intention , nay , that which I was proving in that 〈◊〉 place ; for my worke there was to prove that no sinne is , or can be naturall . Now 〈◊〉 although I 〈◊〉 you could easily have understood what I did and must meane there ; yet because you are pleased not to doe it ; I will point in out to you . To 〈◊〉 to evill is an effect or condition of nature ; but no sinne properly , 〈◊〉 : of 〈◊〉 ; for that is the subject of the Question : whether inclination to evill be an 〈◊〉 os nature , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 principle of evill ; a sinne naturall and necessary . Now that it is not this ; I doc suppose that reason , which you so misconstrued competent : 〈◊〉 : It is not a naturall or necessary sinne , not a sinne of our nature , because it is 〈◊〉 to nature , not intrins . call , not essentiall ; If it be in our nature , it must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it 〈◊〉 be at first , it must be in all persons , that have our 〈◊〉 . And this is my meaning ; and that you may not be troubled at the word essential ; I 〈◊〉 it not in the 〈◊〉 physicall , but in the morall sense ; that which is not after our nature , but together with it in reall being : and I explicate it , by intrinsecall ; I oppose it to accidentall ; ( in this 〈◊〉 ) 〈◊〉 to [ superinduc'd ] in the next , Sir I did give an account to Mr C. in a letter to him , which I know was sufficient , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; for cujus est loqui , ejus est 〈◊〉 ; I told you perfectly what is my meaning , it is very plaine by the whole 〈◊〉 of that , that it must be my meaning ; it is also 〈◊〉 enough and very easy in the expression , and therefore I now appeale to your 〈◊〉 , whether you ought to have made such tragedios with that which common 〈◊〉 would have made plaine to you , unlesse you had received a prejudice . And now 〈◊〉 , to your two 〈◊〉 , be pleased to the subject of the two majors , to adde but this qualification ; [ naturall ] and try if those horrid consequents will follow which you assixed to your own 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . But I shall for this once consider the particulars . 1. You charge it with nonsense ; but with your favour you prove it most pitifully , your 〈◊〉 is , that to say [ essentiall ] is predicated of ( sin ) in either os the two wayes , dicendi per se , is such pitifull and prodigious nonsense , that you 〈◊〉 it not worthy of any serious resutation : so that this is your argument [ to say that sin is essentiall is prodigious and pitifull nonsense ; g. it is prodigious and pitiful nonsense ] surely a good argument ; or thus , that which is such nonsense that you think ' not worthy of resutation , is certainly nonsense : but to say that sinne is essentiall is such nonsense that you thinke not worthy of resute : therefore it is 〈◊〉 . I doe not say your argument is 〈◊〉 , but I am sure it is no argument , 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 affirmative be a sufficient proofe in your Logicke . But to the thing that 〈◊〉 is essentiall , is 〈◊〉 false to say , but to say so , is not 〈◊〉 . And whereas you will suppose me to say so , you are uncharitable , and something unreasonable in it : for I was to prove that inclination to sinne , was not a sinne of our nature ( as was pretended , ) because what was 〈◊〉 , is 〈◊〉 and essentiall , as docibility to man ; which because to be 〈◊〉 to sinne is not , g. it is not a sin , viz : of nature . In the next place you charge this with blasphemy . If I had 〈◊〉 or meant what you pretend ; you had reason . But then pray consider how your charge will returne really upon your selfe . For is it be blasphemy to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be the Authour of sinne ; then what I deriv'd from 〈◊〉 is no sinne , for that 〈◊〉 sinne should descend upon me , I demand , who was the Author of that ? If you please you may take time to consider it ; but in the interim , if you be pleased to read a little 〈◊〉 of mine called Deus justificatus , you shall find my Question not to be answered by you , if you have any regard to the authority , or to the reason of Mr Calvin , Dr Twisse , and some other Bigots of your party . Your second charge of Blespemy , is that my reason does by implication involve Christ in the guilt of sinne ; because whatsoever is essentiall he had . But then if you remember , that I say not , that sinne is essentiall ; and that I bring the reverse of this very argument against your party and 〈◊〉 in some of my late discourses , you have reason to 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 out of your owne bosome , not to tell me , that I 〈◊〉 . For if inclination to sinne be a sinne naturally , and derived from our Parents , I demand whether or no had not Christ all naturall 〈◊〉 ? If he had not , he was not a 〈◊〉 man. If he had then all naturall desire : are not natural sins , for if you say they be you are the blasphemer by the consequence of your affirmative ; not I : But God sorbid that either of us should . Your 〈◊〉 reason also is as pretty . For first ; I demand whether a possibility to sinne be not of the nature of man ( for that is all I mean by essentiall . ) If it be not ; how came Adam to sinne his first sine ? if it be ; I ask : whether shall the 〈◊〉 in the resurrection be raised up with it or no ? If yea , then you 〈◊〉 God's full glorification of the Saints in the resurrection , for 〈◊〉 is certainly a part of their full glorification ; If nay , then it is no blasphemy to say that in the resurrect on the Saints shall be raised up will out something that is essentiall to them , or of their nature . But Sir , what 〈◊〉 you of mortality ? is that 〈◊〉 , or os the nature of man ? I suppose you will not 〈◊〉 it . But yet I also believe you will confesse that though we are 〈◊〉 a corruptible 〈◊〉 , yet we shall be 〈◊〉 an incorruptible ; and the 〈◊〉 shall put on immortality . Once more , is it naturall to be naturall ? that will not be denyed ; but then remember that although to be naturall is essentiall , that is , of the essence of the body , yet the natural body shall 〈◊〉 without it's 〈◊〉 , it is sowne a naurall body , it is raised a spirituall . So that you see if I had said this which you charge upon me , which is so contrary to my thoughts , and so against my purpose , yet your arguments could not have overthrowns it . It is good advice , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . If you had been pleased to have learn'd my meaning , before you had published your dislike , I should have 〈◊〉 my selfe oblig'd to you in a great acknowledgment : now you have said very much evill of me , though I deserv'd it not . For suppose I had not prosperously enough express'd my meaning ; yet you who are a man of wit and parts could easily have 〈◊〉 my purpose and my designe , you could not but know and consider too , that my great 〈◊〉 was to say , that sinne could not be natural ; that it is so sar from being 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not so much as subjected in our common nature , but in our persons only . 〈◊〉 beside 〈◊〉 Sir , I am a little to complaine of you , that when you had two 〈◊〉 at your choice to explicate each other , ( intrinsecall and 〈◊〉 ) you would take the 〈◊〉 and the worst sease , not the easiest and most ready : for you cannot but know that ( 〈◊〉 ) is not alwayes to be taken in the 〈◊〉 sense os Philosophy 〈◊〉 that which is 〈◊〉 os a nature ; but largely and for all sorts of proprieties , and the universall accidents of 〈◊〉 ; as it is essentiall to man to laugh , to be capable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to be mortall , to 〈◊〉 a body of contrary qualities , and consequently by nature corruptible ; and in a morall 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 metaphysicall significations , and not to be content with 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from an 〈◊〉 to quarrel , but not from that ingenuity which will be your and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Although I have not much to doe with it , yet because you are so 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 , and so great an admirer of that , which everyone of your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 desinition of an accident : I care not if I tell you , that the 〈◊〉 on is imperfect and 〈◊〉 it is not convertible with the 〈◊〉 . For even 〈◊〉 things 〈◊〉 be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , sine interitu subjecti . I instance : to be 〈◊〉 , is essentiall 〈◊〉 a ledy , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have successio● of duration ; but yet in the resurrection , when bodies shall be spiritual and eternal , those other which are now Essential predicates shall be taken away , and yet the subject remain , and be improv'd to higher and more noble predicates . This I have here set down , not that I at all value the probleme whether it be so or no ; but that you may not think me a Socinian particularly in this Article , or that I think the bodies in the resurrection shal be specifically distinct from what they are : I believe them the same bodies , but enobled in their very beings : For to a specifical and substantial change , is required that there be an introduction of new forms ; but yet the improving of Essential predicates , is no specification of subjects , but melioration of the first : But the consequent is , that abesse , & adesse , &c is not an excellent definition of an accident . And yet further , it follows , That if sin were as essential to a man , as mortality is , or to be quantitative , yet there is no more need that a man should rise with sin , then with mortality : But Aristotles , Philosophy , and Porphyri●s Commentary , are but all measures in Theology ; and you should do well to scoure bright the armor in which you trust , which unless it be prudently conducted , it will 〈◊〉 a man a Sophister , rather then a Theologue ; but you are wiser . I have onely this one thing to adde , That the common discourses of Original sin , make sin to be natural , necessary and unavoidable ; and then may not I use your own words ? This Tenet is chargeable with Libertinism : It is a licentious Doctrine , and opens a gap to the greatest prophaneness : For it takes away all conscience of sin , all repentance of it for the time past . If sin be natural , necessary , and unavoidable , as it is to us , if we derive it from Adam , &c. What reason hath he to be humbled for it , and to ask God pardon for it ? So that you have done well against your own Opinion ; and if I had not used the argument before , I should have had reason to thank you for it : Now as it is , you are further to consider it , not I. Sir , Though I have reason to give you the priority to every thing else , yet in civility I have far out-done you : You were offended at a passage , which you might easily , but wou'd not understand : You have urged arguments against me , which return upon your own head : The Proposition you charge me withal , I own not in any of your senses , nor ( as you set it down ) in any at all ; and yet your Arguments do not substantially or rationally confute it , if I had said so : Besides all this , you have used your pleasure upon me , you have revil'd me , slighted me , scorn'd me , untempted , unprovoked : you never seat to me civilly to give you satisfaction in your objections but t●k'd it in my absence , and to my prejudice ; yet I have sent you an answer , I hope satisfactory , and together with it a long Letter , which in the midst of my many affairs , and straitned condition , is more then I can again afford : And after all this , I assure you that I will pray for you , and speak such good things of you , as I can ●●●de , or hear to be in you , and profess myself , and really be , Sir , Your affectionate Friend and Servant in our blessed Lord and Saviour Iesus . Jer 〈…〉 Taylor . August 15. 1657. Postscript . Sir , I received yours late last night , and I have returned you this , early this 〈◊〉 . that I might in 〈◊〉 thing be respective of you ; but I desire not to be troubled with 〈◊〉 thing that is not very 〈◊〉 , for I have business of much greater concernment ; 〈◊〉 ther can I draw the saw of contention with any man about things less 〈◊〉 . I 〈◊〉 no 〈◊〉 , I need none , I desire none ; 〈◊〉 expect that you will imploy 〈◊〉 good parts in any thing rather , then in being 〈◊〉 in alieno libro : Your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( if you 〈◊〉 ) serve God , then by 〈◊〉 with , or without reason . To the Reverend and Learned , Dr. 〈◊〉 Taylor . SIR . WHat you mean , by my being very much troubled at a passage in your further Explication of Original Sin , I know not ; Indeed I expressed unto Mr. T. C. my dislike of it , and charged it with nonsense and Blasphemy : And this charge I have proved ; and now shall briefly vindicate the proof of it , from your Reply in this my Rejoynder . You tell me , that your work in that very place , is to prove , That no sin is , or can be natural : Now I cannot finde any thing sounding that way within forty lines of these words ; and that it was my duty to look further for the Coherence of them , I confess , I knew not . Another great mistake also , it seems I have committed ; in that I have not so high thoughts of you , as to think it impossible , or very unlikely , that you should be so uncautelous as to drop any contradiction unto your main intention : And this is an error that I can hardly shake off as yet ; but I do assure you , that I shall endeavour to have as reverend an opinion of you as I possibly can ; onely , I shall never exempt you from a 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 : never think that you sit upon a Chair made of Irish Timber , that cannot endure a venomous Spider to hang his web thereon . I shall , for that which followeth , insert the words of your Letter verbatim , that the Reader may the better compare them and my answer together . Dr. Taylor . Now although I know you could easily have understood what I did , and must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; yet , because you are pleased not to do it , I shall point it to you . 〈◊〉 . I wonder why you should think it so easie a matter to understand your meaning , seeing you , who are the Author , 〈◊〉 from your self in 〈◊〉 what it is ; for in your Letter unto Mr. C. you apportion'd this second Reason soley unto the 〈◊〉 Clause ; That every man is inclined to evil , some more , some less , but all , 〈◊〉 some 〈◊〉 stances is very true : And here in your Letter to me , you apply it unto the second Clause : It is an effect or condition of nature , but no sin 〈◊〉 . Suppose I were at a loss , yet you have no reason to blame me , until you agree with your 〈◊〉 : I have no Spectacles to look into your meaning , but your words , and that they 〈◊〉 related onely unto one Proposition , as a reason thereof ; and yet related to two Propositions , as a proof of each , was a thing that I could never 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 cannot yet understand ; and herein , I am afraid , you are as unable to teach me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 can be , as I am uncapable of learning ; but if you can teach any such thing unto me , you shall finde me , though perhaps not an apt , yet a willing and thankful Scholar : But to deal plainly with you , I am very confident that your words in themselves hold forth neither of those senses that you propound ; and if by 〈◊〉 of argument you can prove either of them from your words , you shall have my most 〈◊〉 and subm ssive 〈◊〉 of my mistake , and shall have full leave to prescribe me as publick and shameful a satisfaction , as you can think on ; unto which , I do 〈◊〉 to conform my 〈◊〉 . But let us hear how you point out your meaning to me . Dr. Taylor . Yet because you are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to understand what I did , and must mean 〈◊〉 , I will point it out to you : To be 〈◊〉 to evil , is an effect or 〈◊〉 of nature , but no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , viz. of nature ; 〈◊〉 that is the subject of the 〈◊〉 , whether 〈◊〉 unto evil be an effect of nature , or an 〈◊〉 principle of evil ; a 〈◊〉 natural and 〈◊〉 ? Now that it is not this , I do suppose that reason , which you so 〈◊〉 , competent , 〈◊〉 . it is not a natural , or necessary 〈◊〉 , not a sin of our nature , because it is 〈◊〉 to nature , not 〈◊〉 , not essential . Jeanes . To rescue your second reason from that which I charge it with , you are 〈◊〉 to make an additional supply unto the Proposition ; unto which , you 〈◊〉 your second reason is competent . To be 〈◊〉 to evil , &c. is no sin properly , no natural and necessary sin , no inherent Principle of evil . Now unto this addition I shall apply your words that you have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 in the like case ; whether it may be allowed you by 〈◊〉 cense , less then 〈◊〉 , let 〈◊〉 iudge : Surely , Sir , if the most of your Writings be thus 〈◊〉 , they will be 〈◊〉 unto me without a Commentary , and if you must be indulged the liberty of making such 〈◊〉 , all the 〈◊〉 in Christendom are no match to dispute with you . But to insist a little upon the 〈◊〉 of this Interpolation . 1. You seem to make equivalent these two 〈◊〉 ; 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 , is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 principle of evil , 〈◊〉 to evil , is a sin 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 : But I am utterly unsatisfied touching this their 〈◊〉 , and shall desire you to clear it up unto me . Nay further , I very much question the truth of the first Proposition ; this 〈◊〉 to evil , is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 principle of evil ; and shall intreat you to inform me , whether you deny it to be a 〈◊〉 of evil , or an 〈◊〉 principle , and think it onely adherent , 〈◊〉 , or the 〈◊〉 : but I believe you will tell me of some 〈◊〉 in your words , that I ought to understand , and supply something to make out your 〈◊〉 : What it is , I will not adventure to guess at , but leave it to you to express it your self . Secondly , The conclusion that is confirmed by your second Reason , is the same with that which is proved by your first Reason ; and that was , that inclination to evil was no sin , without the additional Epithets of natural and 〈◊〉 It is no sin , say you , properly ; because , that which is 〈◊〉 , is no sin : and indeed , the unavoidableness of our 〈◊〉 to evil , may be a probable argument that it is no sin , and require an answer ; but no competent reason at all to prove it not to be natural and necessary : But seeing you say , it must be your meaning that these 〈◊〉 should be interposed , we will for once 〈◊〉 it , for Disputation sake , and see whether we can understand by any means what you would have . 1. You say , your meaning in your conclusion is , that 〈◊〉 to evil is no sin , 〈◊〉 . of nature , which I shall consider 〈◊〉 , when I shall come to examine that 〈◊〉 of yours , That sin is not so much as 〈◊〉 in our common nature . 2. Let us inquire what you mean by 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 . 1. What you mean by natural : There be divers significations of the word natural , which are impertinent to our present Discourse , and therefore I shall omit them . I suppose that you take natural , either for that , which is so termed , in regard of 〈◊〉 with our nature ; or else in respect of Physical , and necessary 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 nature . If you take it for that , which is so termed , in regard of 〈◊〉 with our nature , which is 〈◊〉 with our nature , derived unto us in the Nativity and Concept on of our nature , then your second Reason is Tautological , a most pitifull and 〈◊〉 begging of the question ; for you tell us afterward , that by essential , you mean that which is not after our nature , but together with it in real being ; and then , there will be no more difference betwixt essential and natural , in this acception of it , then there is betwixt 〈◊〉 and gladius , and so your Argument explained will stand thus . 〈◊〉 to evil is not connexed with our nature ; because it is not connexed with our nature : it is not coeval with our nature , derived unto us in the Conception and Nativity of our nature ; because it is after our nature , and not together with it in real being . 2. If you take natural , in regard of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from our 〈◊〉 ; then your Argument is impertinent , and concerns not those whom you oppose ; for they deny , as well as you , that 〈◊〉 unto evil is natural in such a 〈◊〉 : Let two speak for all . First , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his 〈◊〉 , where his determination of the sixteenth Question , is , 〈◊〉 ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ex 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The second is Dr. Baro in his Metaphysicks , pag. 256. Theologi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But perhaps you may pitch upon some other acception of natural ; if you 〈◊〉 , I 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you not to chide me , but to certifie my mistake by 〈◊〉 of your meaning ; for I have done my 〈◊〉 to bolt it out , and must needs 〈◊〉 , that I cannot 〈◊〉 at any other signification of natural , which you can here in 〈◊〉 place with any 〈◊〉 pretend unto : But if you can 〈◊〉 me with any other , when I know it , I shall be ready to examine it . But to proceed unto the next 〈◊〉 necessary : When you said , that an inclination to evil was not properly a sin , your meaning was ( you say ) that it was not a necessary sin . But then I desire to know how your first Reason will be suited unto this conclusion , for your first Reason stands thus , because that which is 〈◊〉 , is not sin ; and I would intreat you also to inform us , what is the difference here 〈◊〉 necessary and unavoidable ; for if there be no difference , I shall 〈◊〉 suspect your arguments sick of that infirmity , called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . But perhaps we must here make the 〈◊〉 supply , and understand you thus , because that which is unavoidable is not a necessary sin ; if so , your Argument reduced unto form , will run thus . Nothing that is unavoidable can be a necessary sin : But an inclination to evil is unavoidable : Therefore it is not a necessary sin . Vnto your 〈◊〉 I say , that though unavoidableness , in one sense , may carry a 〈◊〉 unto sin , yet not to necessary ; it may prove a thing not to be a sin , but it makes 〈◊〉 against its being necessary ; for that which is 〈◊〉 , may be , and is necessary ; it is probable therefore , that necessary was never in your 〈◊〉 thoughts , but put in , to secure your second Reason from 〈◊〉 Objections against it . However , yet I shall here propound and apply a 〈◊〉 of necessary , usuall among your Antagonists : * A thing , say they , may be said to be necessary , in regard of either 〈◊〉 and created , or 〈◊〉 and contracted 〈◊〉 . If you speak of that , which is necessary with that necessity , which is primitive and created , then indeed I grant your conclusion true , and your second reason competent unto it : Inclination unto evil is not a necessary sin , in regard of a Primitive and Created necessity . But now this were utterly besides the main of your intention , for here you would sight with nothing but your own shadow , because your adversaries do not avouch such a necessity in our inclination to evil , but desie and abhor it more then your self ; and you cannot 〈◊〉 any such thing unto them , unless you 〈◊〉 calumniate them . If you speak of that which is necessary , with a consequent and contracted necessity ; then your conclusion is false , and your second reason no confirmation thereof ; if it be put into form , it will make up two Syllogisms . The first Syllogism . Nothing that is accidental , can be a sin necessary , with a consequent and contracted necessity . But our inclination to evil is accidental . Therefore it is not a necessary sin in respect of a consequent and contracted necessity . The second Syllogism . Every thing that is necessary in respect of a consequent and contracted necessity , is intrinsecal and essential . But 〈◊〉 to evil is not intrinsecal and essential . Therefore it is not necessary , in regard of a consequent and contracted necessity . The major in both Syllogisms is evidently false , as will appear , when you attempt the proof of them : and I am very 〈◊〉 , you never will own them , if you can any other way shift off my objections . In the next place , we have a strange Paradox of yours , which I understand not , I shall propound it , and briefly consider it . Dr. Taylor . Is it 〈◊〉 in our nature , it must be naturally inseparable , it must be at first , it must be is all 〈◊〉 that have our nature . Jeanes . I shall not 〈◊〉 charge this Proposition with falshood , until I know how you 〈◊〉 it , and yet I will tell you what reason I have to suspect it to be very false ; divers accidents are in our nature , properly and strictly inherent in our nature , which yet are naturally separable from our nature , which were not at 〈◊〉 , which are not now in all persons that have our nature : I might instance in several acquired habits , and 〈◊〉 acts of the rational soul , which are neither adequate unto , nor coeval with , nor naturally inseparable from it . But I look for some strange Ellipsis ; a Rhetorical Scheme it seems you are much delighted with ; but if you use it 〈◊〉 often , it will prove rather a Weed , then a Flower in your Rhetorick ; you expect , it seems , I should pay such reverence unto your Writings , as great Criticks do unto the Ancients , in whose words , when they cannot make sense , they suppose some Chasma to 〈◊〉 up , with which they torture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; but I have something else to do , then to trouble my self with Divinations at your meaning : when you vouchsafe to acquaint us what it is , I shall then examine it . But having seen how ill you have sped in new shaping your conclusion , let us 〈◊〉 next whether your success be better in the qualification of your second reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Dr. Taylor . And this is my meaning , and that you may not be troubled at the word Essential ; I mean it not in the strict Physical , but 〈◊〉 the moral sense , that which is not after our nature , but together with it in real being , and explicate it by 〈◊〉 ; and I oppose it to accidental in this reason , and to 〈◊〉 in the next . Jeanes . But first , pray who could tell that you thus meant it , until you now tell me : Is this a usual and received sense of the word ? and if it be , direct me unto those moral Philosophers and Divines , that thus take it ; if it be not , my ignorance of it is 〈◊〉 negationis , not 〈◊〉 dispositionis , not privative and blameable : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 se positum slat pro 〈◊〉 Analogato ; and therefore I appeal unto your own ingenuity , whether I have injured you , by supposing that you took Essential in the accustomed accept on thereof . 2. I shall beseech you to set down the difference that you make betwixt natural in your conclusion , and essential in your second reason for it ; and when you have done this , I am very confident to make it appear , that your Argument is either a meer tautology , or an utter impertinency ; but of this before . Next you refer me unto your former Letter unto Mr. C. Dr. Taylor . Sir , I did give an account unto Mr. C. in a Letter to him , which I know was sufficient , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Jeanes . The vanity of this brag you will soon acknowledge , when you shall compare that Letter with this unto me ; for in this you apply the second reason unto the latter as a congruent proof ; it it is an effect , or condition of nature , but no sin 〈◊〉 : And this you point out to be your meaning , and say , That I could easily have understood it : But in your Letter to Mr. C. you aver , that this second reason is appliable onely unto the first clause ; That every man is 〈◊〉 to evil , some more , some less , &c. and not at all unto the second ; nay , that it is not appliable unto it , without a mistake of not onely the second , but the four other reasons also ; and of this too , you say that it must be your meaning , and that 't is clear enough , and easie in the 〈◊〉 ; and you wonder that Mr Jeanes , if he be the man , that he would be thought could mistake it : Here you propound inconsistent and contrary meanings , and it seems you intend to tie me unto such hard meat , as that I must finde out each to be your 〈◊〉 ; but this is a task , that my understanding cannot perform , and therefore I 〈◊〉 beg assistance from the 〈◊〉 and learning of yours : and until you afford this , I shall offer unto your consideration this common rule in 〈◊〉 , That contrary 〈◊〉 cannot be both true , 〈◊〉 one of them must needs be false : But these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , this second 〈◊〉 is referred unto the second clause , as a competent proof , and this second reason is not referred unto the second clause , are contrary propositions ; the opposition betwixt singular propositions , being , as 〈◊〉 well sheweth , de prop : cap. 11. num . 18. most aptly reducible unto contrariety ; an i yet both these propositions are yours , the first in this letter , the latter in your former letter , and therefore one of them must needs be false ; you are not then so much 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , extra 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , out of Gun-shot , but that my poor 〈◊〉 Logick is able to reach you : if you should deny the matter of Fact , that both these propositions are yours , your letters will convince you of untruth , and I shall need no more then to transcribe your own words : The first Proposition you have in these words of this Letter , To be inclined to evil , is an effect , or condition of nature , but no sin properly , viz. of nature , &c. a sin natural and necessary ; now that it is not this , I do suppose that reason , which you so misconstrued , is competent , &c. The second , in several passages of your former Letter ; as for the other clause , it is an effect , or condition of nature , but no sin properly , that was the less principal part of the Proposition , and to it onely the first reason was apportioned ; and again afterward , none of the other reasons , the first onely excepted , relate to the latter part of the Proposition : But let us hear your reason for the sufficiency of your Letter unto Mr. C. Dr. Taylor . For cujus est loqui , ejus est interpretari . Jeanes . I shall willingly grant you all fair liberty of interpreting your self , so you do it logically and rationally ; but that which you expect , is rather a licentiousness , then a true liberty of interpretation . First , You would have a license of 〈◊〉 , to carry your words where you please ; you would have the second reason placed betwixt the two Propositions , and before the first Reason ; thus in your Letter to Mr. C. 〈◊〉 , You usurp the license of interposition , to put in what you please ; as when in this Letter you adde the Epithets of natural and necessary to sin . And thirdly , You take up a strange license in exposition of your Terms ; for if you cannot justifie what you say , if such a term in your words be taken in the common and usual sense : Then you impose upon me an unusual , that I say not a new and unheard of signification thereof . Thus you deal with the word Essential . And lastly , You assume a license of contradiction , to contradict your self , to say and unsay ; one while to make this your meaning , and another time to make that which is contrary your meaning ; and you think that I am obliged to take these contrary meanings to be both your meanings . Surely Sir , if you can get a Patent for these four Licenses , you will , for matter of Disputation , be shot-free and invulnerable ; your Opponents may 〈◊〉 their caps at you , but not an Argument of theirs can touch you . Dr. Taylor . I told you perfectly what is my meaning , it is very 〈◊〉 by the whole design of that , that it must be my meaning , it is also clear enough , and very plain , and very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the expression ; and therefore I now appeal to your 〈◊〉 , whether you ought to have made such Tragedies with that , which common sense would have made plain unto you , unless you had received a prejudice . Jeanes . As for this triumphant appeal which you make in the close here to my ingenuity , I need say nothing , but refer unto the premises ; onely I cannot but 〈◊〉 one Advertisement unto your Disciples , that you sometimes triumph when you have not conquered . Dr. Taylor . And now Sir , to your two Syllogisins , be pleased to the subject of the two Majors , adde but this qualification [ natural ] and try if 〈◊〉 horrid 〈◊〉 will follow , which you affixed to your own 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Jeanes . I have already considered with how little sobriety you have added this Qualification of natural , and , I believe , the impartial Reader will conclude with me , that you have foisted it in upon second thoughts , onely to avoid those horrid 〈◊〉 , unto which your words in themselves are liable . Dr. Taylor . But I shall for this once consider the particulars . 1. You charge it with 〈◊〉 sease ; but with your 〈◊〉 you prove it most pitisully : Your reason is , that to say [ 〈◊〉 ] is predicated of [ sin ] in either of the two ways dicendi per se , is such 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 non-sense , that you think it not worthy of any serious 〈◊〉 : So that this is your Argument , To say that sin is Essential , is prodigious and pitiful non-sense , therefore it is prodigious and pitiful non-sense . Surely a good 〈◊〉 ; or thus , that which is such non-sense that you think not worthy of refutation , is certainly non-sense : But to say that sin is Essential , is such non-sense , that you think not worthy of refutation , therefore it is non-sense . I do not say your Argument is non-sense , but I am sure it is no Argument , unless a bold 〈◊〉 be a 〈◊〉 proof in your Logick . But to the 〈◊〉 , That sin is Essential , is indeed 〈◊〉 to say , but to say so is not non-sense . And whereas you will suppose me to say so , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 uncharitable , and something unreasonable in it ; for I was to prove , That inclination to sin was not a sin of our nature ( as was pretended ) because what was natural is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 essential , as 〈◊〉 to a man : which because to be 〈◊〉 to sin is not , 〈◊〉 it is not a sin , viz , of nature . Jeanes . First , Here is a gross and 〈◊〉 falsification of my 〈◊〉 , and that without any advantage to your cause : Your reason is , say you , That to say Essential is predicated of sin in either of the two ways , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 se , is such pitiful and prodigious nonsense , that 〈◊〉 think it not worthy of any serious refutation : Whether these words be justifiable , or no , I need not inquire ; for there are no such words in my Paper , neither can you , with all your wit and learning , infer any such matter therefrom . Secondly , To make 〈◊〉 for your followers , you 〈◊〉 - 〈◊〉 my Argument ; and first , clap it into a single Enthymeme , and then into one 〈◊〉 , both of your own 〈◊〉 ; in both which you leave out two mediums , that are in my Argument , which reduced unto form , will make up two 〈◊〉 : To convince you of 〈◊〉 unfair , injurious , and 〈◊〉 - ingenuous dealing , I shall insert my words at large . To say ( as the Doctor doth by consequence ) that sin is essential to the nature of man , is an assertion guilty of nonsense ; a thing may be said to be essential to another , à priori , and then it is predicated of it in primo modo dicendi per se ; 〈◊〉 else à 〈◊〉 , and then it is predicated of it in secundo modo dicendi per se. And to say that sin is either of these ways essential to 〈◊〉 nature of man , is 〈◊〉 pitisul and prodigious non-sense , as that I cannot think 〈◊〉 worthy of 〈◊〉 serious resutation . The learned Reader will soon perceive how 〈◊〉 alliance your Enthymeme and Syllog 〈◊〉 have with my Argument ; and to him I appeal , to judge of 〈◊〉 unworthy and unscholarly injury that you have herein done me ; but yet , for the 〈◊〉 stopping of your mouth , I shall Analyze this my Argument . My conclusion 〈◊〉 , that to say ( as you do by consequence ) that sin is essential unto the nature of man , is an assertion guilty of nonsense ; this I prove from a distribution of essential ; whatsoever is essential is such , either à priori , or à 〈◊〉 . But to say that sinne is essential , either à priori , or à posteriori , is non-sense . Therefore to say that sin is essential to man , is nonsense . 〈◊〉 Syllogism is grounded upon a known and received Maxime [ Negatis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 subjectis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de aliquo subjecto 〈◊〉 ipsum 〈◊〉 universale , 〈◊〉 cunctis membris 〈◊〉 , negatur ipsum divisum ] The major I presumed none would deny , and as for the minor , that I proved from a description of both ways of being essential . That which is essential to a thing , à priori , is predicated of it in primo modo dicendi per se ; that which is essential to a thing , à posteriori , is predicated of it in secundo modo dicendi per se. Now to say that sin is predicated of man , in either primo , or 〈◊〉 modo dicendi 〈◊〉 se , is nonsense : Therefore to say that sin is essential to man , either à priori , or à posteriori , is nonsense . The major I thought undenyable , and as for the minor , here indeed I stopped too in the proof thereof , as thinking all further proof of it needless ; because I took it , and still do take it to be , propositio per se nota , which needs no proof , but a bare explication of its terms ; propositio per se nota dicitur ; quae non est nota per 〈◊〉 , as Lychetus ; quae suis tantum terminis cognoscibilis , as Collegium 〈◊〉 gather out of Aristotle ; quae tales terminos habet , 〈◊〉 ii 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 notitiam totius propositionis fine addito ; omnis propositio 〈◊〉 est per se 〈◊〉 , ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non 〈◊〉 aliquod medium , sed solum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contentus est , so Scheibl r. Now , for the terms of the minor 〈◊〉 : I presumed , that all explication of them was needless unto a Scholar of so great a repute as Dr. Taylor : And therefore , without more adoe , I inferred , that to say that sin is 〈◊〉 of these ways essential , either à priori , or à posteriori , is such 〈◊〉 and prodigious nonsense , as that I could not think it worthy of any serious refutation . And now Sir , I shall entreat you to review my Argument , being thus truly Analyzed , and I shall appeal unto 〈◊〉 conscience , when you are next upon your knees before God , whether you have not deeply wronged me , to represent my Argument thus defectively ( that I say not 〈◊〉 ) on purpose , I am afraid , to 〈◊〉 it and me ridiculous . Suppose any 〈◊〉 should be so absurd , as to say , That a Stone is animal ; and I to refute 〈◊〉 should thus argue , Omne animal est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , who is endued with reason , as well as sense ; or Brutum , which is endued with sense , but not with reason ; but to say that a stone is either homo , or brutum , is such 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as that I cannot think it 〈◊〉 of any serious refutation . Now he that shall say 〈◊〉 is no Argument , but onely a bold affirmative , will goe a degree beyond 〈◊〉 ; for 〈◊〉 plain , that here are couched and implyed two 〈◊〉 . First , a distribution of animal in hominem & brutum : Next , a description of each member of the 〈◊〉 , and my Argument is exactly paralell'd unto 〈◊〉 . But Sir , though I thought , that , before you , I might have spared my labor to prove that 〈◊〉 nonsense , to say that sin is essential unto man , either à priori , or à posteriori ; that it s predicated of man , either in primo , or secundo modo dicendi per se ; yet , because you 〈◊〉 to blame mine omission of such proof , I shall now give you herein , I hope , sufficient 〈◊〉 . First , To say that that which is 〈◊〉 , is positive , is nonsense : Put to say that 〈◊〉 is essential unto man , either à priori , or à 〈◊〉 , is to say , that 〈◊〉 which is privative is positive ( for the essentials of man are positive , and the sormality of sin is a privation . ) Therefore to say that sin is 〈◊〉 unto man , either à 〈◊〉 , or à posteriori , 〈◊〉 nonsense . Secondly , To say that that which is predicated of man 〈◊〉 ac 〈◊〉 , is 〈◊〉 of man in primo , or secundo modo dicendi per se , is 〈◊〉 ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per se & per accidens , are opposite ways of predication . ) But to say that sin is predicated of man in primo , or secundo modo 〈◊〉 per se , is to say , That that which is predicated of man per accidens , is predicated of man per se ( sor that sin is predicated of man , per 〈◊〉 , will be questioned by none , who know what primus modus dicendi per accidens is ) Therefore to say that sin is predicated of man in primo , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per se , is nonsense . Thirdly , To say that that which is predicated contingently of man , is predicated 〈◊〉 of him , is nonsense . But to say that sin is predicated of man in primo , or secundo modo 〈◊〉 per se , is to say , That that which is predicated of man 〈◊〉 , is predicated of 〈◊〉 necessarily , ( for sin is predicated of man contingently , because man and sin cohere 〈◊〉 ; man might not have been a sinner , and when he shall not be a sinner , he will still be a man ; and then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , per se est gradus necessitatis . Therefore to say that sinne is predicated of man in 〈◊〉 , or secundo modo dicendi per 〈◊〉 , is nonsense . If these arguments satisfy you not , you may command more of me when you please , as also any further enlargement of these . Yea but you say , that sinne is essentiall is 〈◊〉 to say , but to say so is not non-sense . To this I answer , that however it may be 〈◊〉 in Grammar , yet 't is nonsense in Logick ; because 't is a 〈◊〉 ; for in 〈◊〉 every contradiction not only expresse , but that also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and implyed is nonsense , a 〈◊〉 , as we usually speake : thus 't is nonsense to say that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; that a spirit is corporeall ; that a body is 〈◊〉 , without quantity or extension ; that an 〈◊〉 subsists ; or that a substance properly inhereth . Now my three arguments above irrefragably prove that , to say that sinne is 〈◊〉 to man is a contradiction ; for 't is in effect as much as to say , that that which is privative is positive ; that that which is predicated of man per accidens , is predicated of him per se ; that that which is predicated of man 〈◊〉 , is predicated of man necessarily ; and these are grosse and palpable contradictions ; and therefore not only false , but most pitifull and 〈◊〉 nonsense . You accuse me of uncharitablenesse , and unreasonablenesse , in supposing that you say that sinne is essentiall unto man ; but from this accusation I have 〈◊〉 vindicated my selfe by beating you from all your miserable shifts ; And unto what I have said herein , I shall referre both your selfe and the Reader . Dr Taylor . In the next place you charge me this with blasphemy : if I 〈◊〉 said or meant what you 〈◊〉 , you had reason ; but then I pray consider how your charge will 〈◊〉 really 〈◊〉 your selfe ; for if it be 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 God to be the Author of sinne , 〈◊〉 what I derived from Adam is no sinne ; for that Adam's sinne should 〈◊〉 upon me , I demand who was the Author of that ? If you please you may take time to consider it ; but in the interim if you be pleased to 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 discourse of 〈◊〉 ; called Deus justificatus , you shall find my question not to be answered by you ; if you 〈◊〉 any regard to the authority or to the reason of Mr Calvin , Dr Twisse , and some other of the 〈◊〉 of your party . Jeanes . 1. Here you tempt me to a digression ; and you may with as good reason call upon me to answer all the reproaches that Bellarmine in this particular , 〈◊〉 upon the Protestant Churches , and some of the most eminent members thereof , as propound this question unto me . 2. However yet I briefly answer to it , that Adam was the author of the descent of his sinne upon me , not God ; for to be the Author of sinne is to be a desicient , culpable cause thereof ; and it is impossible that God should be defective in a culpable manner ; and that our doctrine of originall sinne maketh him to be such , you may boldly affirme , but can never prove . 3. Bishop 〈◊〉 in the doctrine of 〈◊〉 sinne is one of our party ; and he speaks that which will abundantly 〈◊〉 your demands , in his animadversions upon Hord pag. 323. 224. It was not ( sayes he ) God's absolute decree of 〈◊〉 , but Adam's voluntary act of rebellion , which brought sinne , and the guilt of sinne upon himselfe , and all his posterity , God having justly 〈◊〉 that Adam's children should participate with him 〈◊〉 his state of 〈◊〉 , did as justly 〈◊〉 that they should also participate in the state of sinne . If this Author deny the propagation of 〈◊〉 from Adam , he must acknowledge 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 , &c. His whole discourse concerning originall sinne and the propagating 〈◊〉 unto all mankind is 〈◊〉 , in that he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that the divine 〈◊〉 must needs be 〈◊〉 or causative of all the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; whereas if the events be actions sinfull , God's decrees are 〈◊〉 , and ordinative , not 〈◊〉 of causing , much , esse necessitating such evill 〈◊〉 , as hath been often told him . 4. I have seene your little 〈◊〉 called 〈◊〉 justisicatus ; and must say of it as Florus did of the Ligurians : lib. 2. cap. 3. Major 〈◊〉 labor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vincere ; The Rhetorick of it is so rank , as that it will be a very hard matter to find out the Logick and reason that is in it . If you please to put your arguments into forme , you then may command me to consider them ; but otherwise , I shall be very loath to adventure upon any thing of yours ; for I find by this present debate about two or three lines , that I shall not without great difficulty search out what is your meaning . 5. I wonder why you say , that by this discourse I shall find your question not to be answered by me ; why ( pray Sr ) could I answer it before you propounded it ? but your meaning is , I suppose , that I shall find , that your question cannot be answr'd by me : but the event will 〈◊〉 that . 6. That which you meane in Mr Calvin , and Dr Twisse , are I 〈◊〉 those places which you quote , pag. 32 : of that your 〈◊〉 ; and then unto the place in Calvin you have an answer in Dr Twisse ( 〈◊〉 : gra : lib. 2. dig : 2. cap. 3. pag. 42. ) where he cleares it from the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 : And then for the place in Dr Twisse you may gather an answer from that he saith unto Mr Hord , ( 〈◊〉 . 149. 150. ) who makes the like objections against him from another place . 7. You are the unmeerest man in the world to 〈◊〉 me with the 〈◊〉 of my party ; sor the rigid Zelots of your party , in your doctrine of originall sin , are such whom you may be ashamed to name . Indeed in 〈◊〉 point there are very few of your party , save the Pelagians of old , and now the worthy 〈◊〉 of the Racovian denne , and their followers ; unto whom the best and the most learned of Protestants will hardly vouchsafe the name of Christians . The Arch-Bishop of Armagh 〈◊〉 them , in a sermon of 〈◊〉 ( that I heard ) a company of 〈◊〉 Turkes ; and indeed Turkes , and 〈◊〉 can hardly be greater enemies unto the divine person , and nature of Christ , unto his offices , and unto his great and glorious worke of redemption , and satisfaction , than these wretched miscreants are . Dr Taylor . Your second charge of blaspemy is , that my reason does by implication involve Christ in the guilt of sinne ; because whatsoever is essentiall he had ; but 〈◊〉 , If you remember that I say not , that sinne is 〈◊〉 ; and that I bring the reverse of this very argument against your party and opinion in some of my late discourses , you have reason to shake the fire out of your own 〈◊〉 , not to tell me , that I burne ; for is inclination to 〈◊〉 be a 〈◊〉 naturally and derived from our Parents ; I 〈◊〉 whether or no 〈◊〉 not Christ all naturall desires ? if he had not , he was not a 〈◊〉 man ; If he had 〈◊〉 all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are not naturall 〈◊〉 ; sor is you say they be , you are the 〈◊〉 by the consequence of your 〈◊〉 , not I ; but God sorbid that 〈◊〉 of us should . 〈◊〉 . First , here is no 〈◊〉 of my argument ; for none of my party or opinion hold , that inclination unto 〈◊〉 is essentiall unto man : Flaccius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that 〈◊〉 sinne was the 〈◊〉 , or substance of the soule ; but I never heard that 〈◊〉 sollowers were considerable ; he hath ( I am sure ) both Papists and Protestants ; 〈◊〉 , and Lutherans for 〈◊〉 opponents : but , perhaps you confound naturall with 〈◊〉 , and make them all one ; if you doe , your reason will be 〈◊〉 , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 2. I believe , you here play with the 〈◊〉 of the word naturall , a thing ( though it may be tollerated in a Sophister , ) altogether unworthy of a 〈◊〉 . Inclination to 〈◊〉 may be said to be naturall , either 〈◊〉 , or 〈◊〉 . That inclination to 〈◊〉 is naturall 〈◊〉 ( that it flowes , and 〈◊〉 Physically , and necessarily from our nature , ) I slatly deny : and if you can direct me unto any place in your bookes , where you prove it to be naturall in this sense , I shall take it into 〈◊〉 . Indeed to say , that it is in this sense naturall , is to throw a reproach upon God the Author of nature . But it is naturall 〈◊〉 ; together with our nature derived unto us from our first Parents ; and yet not in Christ , who had not his nature from Adam in an ordinary way of Generation , but was miraculously conceived by the holy Ghost , and 〈◊〉 in the wombe of the 〈◊〉 Mary . This inclination unto evill is a 〈◊〉 blemish of 〈◊〉 nature ; because it is a cause of sinne , & qualis causa 〈◊〉 est effectus . A good tree , saith our Saviour , cannot bring forth evill fruit , Matth. 7. 18. This inclination to evill bringeth forth much 〈◊〉 fruit , and therefore it cannot be good ; and consequently it is bad , and sinfull ; and therefore could not be in Christ ; ( who even as man ) was the most holy one of God. Indeed if Christ had wanted any propriety of man's nature , he had not then been a perfect man , but , that inclination to evill is a propriety of our nature , sc : proprium 4 to modo you are never able to make good . But , Sir , in good earnest , doe you thinke that Christ was inclined unto evill ? if you doe not , your 〈◊〉 of Christ is impertinent ; if you doe , I shall conclude your opinion to be blasphemous ; and unto it shall oppose this following argument . He in whom dwelled an all-fullnesse of the Godhead bodily ; he in whom dwelled an all-fullnesse of habituall grace ; he who enjoyed the 〈◊〉 vision , was not , could not be inclined unto evill . But , in Christ dwelled an all - 〈◊〉 of the Godhead 〈◊〉 ; in him also dwelled an all - 〈◊〉 of habituall , and sanctifying grace ; he enjoyed the 〈◊〉 vision Therefore he was not , could not be inclined unto evill . The Minor will not be denied by any Orthodox Divine , and we may say the same of the Major , for , he that shall thinke that the grace of personall union , the 〈◊〉 of habituall grace , and the beatificall vision are not sufficient to exclude from Christ all inclination untoevil wil render both 〈◊〉 learning & religion too suspected . But , to put the matter out of doubt , take this following argument for confirmation of the Major : there could not be the least inclination unto evill in that person , in whom there was an utter aversenesse from evil in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; ( for of contraries , that which is in a 〈◊〉 degree is not consistent with the other in the highest and most intense degree ) but , in that person , in whom there was an 〈◊〉 of the Godhead , on all-fullnesse of habituall grace , and the beatificall vision , there was an utter aversnesse from evill , and that in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; and therefore impossible that there should be in him an inclination to evill in the least degree . The Papists extenuate the malignancy of concupiscence as much as may be , affirming that in the regenerate it is no sinne , and that it had been 〈◊〉 Adam if he had been created in his pure naturalls ; yet , they thinke not so well of it , as to ascribe it unto Christ. Indeed 〈◊〉 is accused for speaking somewhat suspiciously this way ; but he is contradicted by the generality of the Schoolemen ; * who hold that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , concupiscence was neither 〈◊〉 primo , nor 〈◊〉 in Christ. 1. Not in actu primo , and for this they alledge three reasons . 1. The absolute perfection of his virtues , and all-fullnesse of grace . 2. The perpetuall vigilancy , and advertency of 〈◊〉 reason . 3. The government of his humane nature , and actions , by his divine and infinite person . 2. Not in actu secundo , because in him , the very first motions unto sinne would have been voluntary , and consequently sinfull . Unto this purpose 〈◊〉 , ( 〈◊〉 : 〈◊〉 : Scholast : Tom : 5. cap. 12. 〈◊〉 : 5. pag : 200. ) observeth ; that the first motions of concupiscence may be said to be voluntary two manner of wayes . 1. Antecedently ; when one willingly admits them when he may avoid them . 2. Consequently ; when one yeelds consent unto them after they are crept in , in the former way or manner they had been voluntary in Christ ; because Christ could have avoided them , by reason of the government of the person of the word ; if he had not therefore avoided them , but willingly admitted them , they had in him been blameworthy . Dr Taylor . 〈◊〉 third reason also is as pretty ; for , first ; I demand whether a possibility to sinne be not of the nature of man ; ( sor that is all I meane by essentiall ) if it be not ; how came Adam to sinne his first sinne ? if it be , I aske whether shall the Saints in the resurrection be raised up with it or no ? If yea ; then you blaspheme God's full glorification of the Saints in the resurrection ; for impeccability is certainly a part of their full glorisication . If nay ; then it is no blasphemy to say that in the resurrection the Saints shall be raised up without something that is essentiall to them , or to their nature . Jeanes . That possibility to sinne is essentiall unto every rationall creature I grant ; and hereupon 〈◊〉 , that 't is not separated from the Saints in 〈◊〉 full 〈◊〉 ; 〈◊〉 shall I 〈◊〉 your charge of blasphemy herein , having the 〈◊〉 of Schoolemen , ( both Thomists , and Scotists ) and reason too on my side . Indeed , the Saints of Heaven do constantly , and interruptedly shun , and decline sinne ; yet , 't is an 〈◊〉 possible unto their nature , considered in it selfe ; 〈◊〉 they are 〈◊〉 therefrom by their glorisied state and 〈◊〉 : for though sinne , and a fullnesse of glory 〈◊〉 inconsistent ; yet ' 〈◊〉 no 〈◊〉 , or repugnancy , that their natures abstractly considered , secluding the consideration of their glory , should be sinfull . Yea , but you say , 〈◊〉 is certainely a part of the full glorification of the Saints ; and what is impeccability but an impossibility of sinning ; if God then make the Saints impeccable , he 〈◊〉 away from them all 〈◊〉 of sinning . For answer . 1. There is a twosold impeccability . 1. By nature . 2. By the grace and 〈◊〉 of God. 〈◊〉 by nature takes away all possibility of sinning ; but it is received generally as a rule among the School-men , that a creature cannot be made 〈◊〉 per 〈◊〉 , ( that is ) such a one , as cannot by nature sinne . And , if you please , you may view the proofes thereof in 〈◊〉 lib : 2. Dist : 22. quaest . 1. 〈◊〉 by the gift and grace of God doth not eradicate the remote power of sinning ; but only keeps it from being actuated ; and 't is this impeccability only , that is part of the Saints glorification . 2. A thing may be said to be impossible , sensu diviso , or sensu 〈◊〉 . In sensu diviso 't is not impossible , but possible , for the Saints in Heaven to sin ; for that ( considered in themselves without the custodient grace of God alwayes underpropping them ) they are liable unto sin , the lamentable fall of the Angels of darkenesse is an evident proofe . But now , 〈◊〉 composito , 't is indeed impossible for glorified Saints to sinne ; that is ; 't is impossible for them to sinne considered under this reduplication , as fully glorified ; because fullnesse of glory and sinne cannot stand together . This answer is in Scotus ( lib. 4. dist : 49. quaest : 6. ) whose words I shall insert for the sake of some Readers who may not have him in their 〈◊〉 : ) 〈◊〉 ; patet , quod beatus est impeccabilis in sensu compositionis , hoc est , non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beatus , & peccare : sed in sensu divisionis , quod manens beatus 〈◊〉 habeat potentiam & possibilitatem ad peccandum potest 〈◊〉 duplicitèr : vel per aliquid sibi 〈◊〉 , quod excludit potentian talem ; vel per causam 〈◊〉 , quod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 propinquam ab illo , &c : 〈◊〉 est causa intrinseca in 〈◊〉 Michaelis 〈◊〉 beati , per quam 〈◊〉 potentia ad peccandum pro alias , in sensu divisionis , non est autem causa intrinseca 〈◊〉 istam 〈◊〉 omnino reduci ad actam : sed per causam 〈◊〉 est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 illa propinqua ad peccandum , 〈◊〉 per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 semper 〈◊〉 actum fruendi , & it a 〈◊〉 possit 〈◊〉 suam remolam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 ad actum : siquidem 〈◊〉 causa secunda praeventa à causâ superiori agente ad 〈◊〉 oppositum potest 〈◊〉 propinqua exire in aliud oppositum . Concedo ergo , quod infert , quod 〈◊〉 beatus , & sit peccabilis in sensu divisionis loquendo de 〈◊〉 remotâ . Dr. Taylor . But Sir , 〈◊〉 think you of Mortality ? is that essential , or of the nature of man ? I suppose you will not deny it . But yet I also believe you will 〈◊〉 , that 〈◊〉 we are sown a corruptible body , yet we shall be raised an incorruptible , and the mortal shall 〈◊〉 on immortality . Ieanes . For answer , I shall propound a distinction of mortality , that is very obvious and ordinary . A thing may be said to be mortal , either respectu 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 propinquae . 1. In respect of a remote power of dying , which hath in it the remote cause of dissolution , an elementary matter . 2. In regard of a near power of dying , arising from the actual conflict , and 〈◊〉 influence of the Elements , and their contrary qualities . The latter Mortality is separable , but then it is not essential . As for the former Mortality , which alone is essential , I think very few doubt , but that 't is also inseparable from the nature of a man , body : for , the 〈◊〉 and incorruption of the bodies of the Saints in the resurrection , will not be by taking away out of their bodies the remote causes of corruption , the Elements , and their contrary qualities . ( for , then their bodies would not be mixt ; and so not for substance the same that they were ) but by an hinderance or prevention of the corruptive influence of the Elements , and their contrary qualities . That I am not singular in this , I shall manifest , by transcribing the Testimonies of some few School-men , who though they differ one from another in assigning the cause and reason of the impassibility and 〈◊〉 of glorified Bodies ; yet they all agree with Durand in this , That glorified Bodies are not impassible , per privationem 〈◊〉 passivae , sed per aliquod 〈◊〉 impedimentum actualis 〈◊〉 nè siat . The first shall be of Scotus , ( lib 4. dist . 49. quaest . 13. ) Dico ergo quod causa impassibilitatis est voluntas divina non 〈◊〉 causae secundae corruptivae , & per hoc , est illud impassibile , 〈◊〉 potentia remota , sed propinqua , non à causâ 〈◊〉 , sed 〈◊〉 impediente , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est de 〈◊〉 supra , &c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de 〈◊〉 in camino , qui non 〈◊〉 ad 〈◊〉 trium puerorum , non 〈◊〉 per aliquam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pueris , 〈◊〉 ex carentiâ potentiae 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 ex contrario 〈◊〉 impediente , sed quia Deus ex voluntate suâ non 〈◊〉 ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The second is of Durand ( lib. 4. dist . 44. quaest . 4. ) Restat ergò quod 〈◊〉 gloriosa non 〈◊〉 impassibilia simplicitèr , & absolutè per privationem principii 〈◊〉 , cùm natura corporum gloriosorum , sit 〈◊〉 eadem quae prius , sed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aliquid praestans impedimentum actualis passionis nè siat . Quid autem sit illud , utrum sit aliqua forma 〈◊〉 , an solum virtus divina 〈◊〉 , duplex 〈◊〉 opinio : 〈◊〉 enim quidam quod talis impassibilitas 〈◊〉 per aliquam forman inexistentem , &c. Alius modus est , quod impassibilitas corporum gloriosorum non crit per aliquam 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 , sed solum per virtutem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beatis ad 〈◊〉 & prohibentem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 extriaseci inserentis passionem . This latter way Darand takes himself , and endeavoreth to confirm it by three Reasons . The third shall be of Suarez , ( in tertiam part : Thom : 〈◊〉 : 48. p. 531. ) nam licet in corpore glorioso maneat eadem 〈◊〉 , idemque temperamentum ex 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , inde solum sit , corpus illud in nudâ naturá suá consideratum , esse corruptibile , & in beatitudine 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , seu naturalem radicem 〈◊〉 : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intrinsecam esse 〈◊〉 & impassibile : quia 〈◊〉 est aliâ quadam persectione quae ex se potest impedire , nè illa maturalis 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 reducalur . Dr. Taylor . Once more , Is it natural to be a natural ? that will not be denyed : But then remember , that although to be natural is essential , that is , of the essence of the body , yet the natural shall arise without its naturality ; it is sown a natural body , it is raised a spiritual . Jeanes . 1. That that which is natural , is natural , will not be denyed , as you say ; but 't is propositio identica 〈◊〉 , a most 〈◊〉 Tautology : and unto what purpose you propound a question concerning it , I know not . 2. Of things natural unto man , some are natural powers , some are naturall acts : Natural ( 〈◊〉 ) powers may be and are essential unto the body ; and so they are inseparable too ; our Bodies , when they shall be raised , shall not want so much as one such natural power : But natural acts are accidental , and in the resurrection there may be no place for the exercise of , at least , some of them , viz : Generation , Nutrition , and the like ; as touching such things , we shall be like the angels in Heaven , as it were spiritual . 3. In the Apostle , 1 Cor. 15. 44. it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a natural body , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , an animal or souly body , that is , actuated and animated by the soul after a natural way and manner , by the intervention of bodily helps , such as eating , drinking , sleeping , and the like . And in all congruence of opposition hereunto , a glorious body is said to be a spiritual , in regard of an immediate supportance by the spirit , without any corporeal means , and without any use of the generative and 〈◊〉 faculties . Dr. Taylor . So that you see , is I had said this which you charge upon me , which is contrary to my thoughts , and so against my purpose , yet your Arguments could not have 〈◊〉 it . Jeanes . Whether you do not here boast , and triumph without a victory , I am very well contented to refer it unto the learned Reader . Since my penning of my exceptions , sent unto Mr. C. I have read the Metaphysicks of Dr. Robert Baro , that learned Scot ; and in them I finde the like of these three last Arguments of mine , urged against the error of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; that Original Sin is of the substance of man , and essential to him after the 〈◊〉 , a 〈◊〉 subalternate unto that which I charge you with ; 〈◊〉 words are as followeth , Prima opinio demnanda & à postris 〈◊〉 & a 〈◊〉 de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est absurdissima haeresis 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 peccatum originale 〈◊〉 de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 esse quid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , contra quam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 disputans ; varias assert rationes : 〈◊〉 hae 〈◊〉 , Primò , si 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pars 〈◊〉 humanae , 〈◊〉 Deus 〈◊〉 author 〈◊〉 , quippe qui 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 si 〈◊〉 neget 〈◊〉 substantiam 〈◊〉 à 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 esse à 〈◊〉 , qui est author peccati ; necessarium 〈◊〉 est , 〈◊〉 habeat aliquam causam ; at 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 absurdum , ergò & 〈◊〉 : 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 Christus non assumpsit naturam 〈◊〉 integram , 〈◊〉 peccato non 〈◊〉 , quorum 〈◊〉 est absurdum : 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 diem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 resurget , & aeternam vitam possidebit , saltem quoad 〈◊〉 : Peccatum verò tum 〈◊〉 erit in glorificatis , ergò peccatum non est quid 〈◊〉 , sed quid separabile est ab 〈◊〉 natura , pag. 248 , 249. These reasons differ so little from mine , as that you may think perhaps that I have 〈◊〉 mine from either Bellarmine or 〈◊〉 , which yet I assure you I did not : The reason why now I recite these Reasons , is to shew , that my arguments are not such 〈◊〉 and pitifull things , but that very Learned Men have made use of the like , to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proposition subordinate unto that which I goe about to refute . Dr. Taylor . It is good advice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , if you had 〈◊〉 pleased to have learned my meaning before you had published your 〈◊〉 , I should have esteemed myself 〈◊〉 to you in a great acknowledgement . Jeanes . Your advice out of Aristophanes , I like very well ; I am not conscious unto my self that I have towards you transgressed against it : for before I uttered a syllable of dislike , I used my best endeavor to finde out what was your meaning , and to that purpose , made use of that little Logick and Reason which I had ; and as for that meaning which I affix unto your words , let the Reader determine , whether I have violated any rule of Logick or Reason , in imputing it unto you : What I took to be your sense , together with my Objections against it , I sent unto Mr. C. to be transmitted speedily unto you , exposing all unto the utmost severity of your 〈◊〉 ; and wherein I have here trespassed against charity or justice , I would fain know . Besides , my dislike I expressed onely in a private place , before very few , in private discourse , and I have not hitherto published it , from either Press or Pulpit . Dr. Taylor . Now you have said very much evil of me , though I deserve it not . 〈◊〉 . This I deny , and slatly challenge you to prove what you aver . Dr. Taylor . For suppose I had not prosperously enough expressed my meaning , yet you , who are a man of wit and parts , could easily have discerned my purpose and my design : You could not but know , and consider too , that my great design was to say , That sin could not be natural , that it is so sar from being essential , that it is not so much as subjected in our common natures , but in our persons onely . Ieanes . 1. Whether what you say of my wit and parts , be not a 〈◊〉 , I shall not trouble my self to inquire , but leave it unto your conscience : However , I suppose , you think your self far superior unto my poor self in wit and parts , and I also readily acknowledge as much : Now I wonder why you should think that I should so easily finde out what is your meaning , seeing you ( whose abilities so far transcend mine ) be so unprosperous , not onely in the expression , but in the after interpretation of your meaning , as that you dissent in a latter Letter , from your self in a former Letter : How can you reasonably expect that I , who am not ( as one of your Proselites lately said ) worthy to be named the same day with you , ( I shall not deny the truth of the 〈◊〉 , nor envy you the honor thereof ) should ( as the Proverb is ) see further into a Mill-stone then you , who are so Eagle and quick sighted . Secondly , Whereas you say , That sia is not so much as subjected in our common nature , but in our persons onely ; I doubt that I understand you not , for to me it seems very evident , that sin , ( so far as a privation can be inherent ) is truly inherent in our natures ; for it hath all the Requisites of inherence , that Aristotle layeth down ( Categor : cap. 2. ) 1. It is in our nature . 2. 〈◊〉 as a part of our nature . 3. Neither can it exist sever'd and apart from our natures : Sin is seated in all individuals of our nature , whilest living here upon earth , Christ his humanity alone excepted ; and therefore why may not we say , that 't is subjected in our common nature ? Seeing those accidents are seated secundarily , and mediately in second substances , which are primarily and 〈◊〉 placed in their respective first substances ; 〈◊〉 secundae substant accidentibus gratiâ primarum . Yea , but you will ( perhaps ) say , it is subjected in our persons onely , therefore not in our nature : But this is a very sorry Objection : For who knows not the distinction of subjectum , in subjectum quo , & quod ; our persons onely are subjectum quod of sin , our natures notwithstanding may be subjectum quo of it ; and we may say the same of other accidents . I finde you ( pag. 494. ) quoting that usual Axiome , actiones 〈◊〉 suppositorum ; but , if you had considered the limitations that are usually given thereof , you would have spared the urging of it : actio est suppositi ( saith Scotus ) ultimate denominati ab actione , sed non ut solius denominati ab ipsa : But you may have some deep meaning , which I fathome not ; fair leave may you take to explain your self . Dr. Taylor . But besides this , Sir , I am a little to complain of you , that when you had two words at your choice to explicate each other ( intrinsecal , and essential ) you would take the hardest and the worst sense , not the 〈◊〉 and most ready . Ieanes . I have here given you , not onely no cause , but not so much as any shadow or colour for complaint . 1. I gave a reason why I insisted on the word essential onely , and passed by the term intrinsecal ; because you use intrinsecal as equivalent unto essential , as is apparent , by your opposing it unto accidental : And have you said , can you say any thing to the contrary . 2. I would fain know why you should say that essential is a harder word then intrinsecal ; there is , I am sure , that equivocation in the word intrinsecal , which is not in the word essential ; for , that which is accidental , may be intrinsecal ; there being intrinsecal , as well as extrinsecal accidents ; interaum & externum ( say Philosophers ) sumuntur , vel ratione essentiae , vel ratione loci , & subjecti . Dr. Taylor . For you cannot but know , that essential is not always to be taken in the strictest sense of Philosophy , for that which is constitutive of a nature ; but largely , and for all sorts of properties , and the universal accidents of nature . Ieanes . The distinction of essential , into that which is such constitutivè , as constituting the essence , or that which is such , 〈◊〉 , as necessarily resulting from the essence , I very well know : and I grant the proprieties which are such , quarto modo , which agree omni , 〈◊〉 , semper , are in this latter sense said to be essential ; but that essential is ever taken , as you say , for all sorts of proprieties , those which are such , 〈◊〉 , secundo , or tertio modo , is notoriously false , for then essential would be taken for that which is most accidental ; but let us examine your instances . Dr. Taylor . As it is essential to a man to laugh , to be capable of learning , to be mortal , to have a body of contrary qualities , and consequently by nature corruptible . Ieanes . If you should affirm in the publick Schools of either of the Universities , that to laugh is essential to man , you would not onely be laughed , but 〈◊〉 , and houted at : the gross and palpable absurdity of this your Assertion , I thus prove . Nothing that is accidental to man , can be said to be essential to him . But to laugh is accidental to man. Therefore it is not essentiall . The Major is apparent from the opposition , that you your selfe make 〈◊〉 essentiall , and accidentall . The 〈◊〉 is thus confirmed . That which is predicated of man contingently , is accidentall to man. But to laugh is predicated of man contingently . Therefore it is accidental to man. The Major is plain , because contingency of predication is one of the chief things which distinguisheth 〈◊〉 praedicabile , from all other predicables , and it is a 〈◊〉 character thereof . And for the 〈◊〉 , that is no lesse evident : indeed risibile is essential unto man , and predicated of him in 〈◊〉 modo dicendi per se ; but ridere to laugh is accidental ; because it is predicated of man contingently ; for a man and actuall laughter cohere contingently : the lowest degree of necessity in assirmative and essential predications , is de omni ; and de omni 〈◊〉 , requireth universitatem 〈◊〉 as well as subjecti ; that is , propositio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 debet esse semper vera ; now all men do not alwayes laugh , and therefore laughter is predicated of man contingently , and consequently accidental to him . You see , Sir , I am bold to trouble you , ever and anon , with my 〈◊〉 Logick , and you can expect no other , as long as you thus trespasse against what is most trivial and obvious in Logick , the very A. B. C. thereof . 2. As for the second instance , you bring capacity of learning : that is taken for potentia prima , or secunda . 1. If it be taken for potentia prima , then it immediately flowes from the soule , and is essential to man , consequutivè , as à proprium 4 to modo of man , and so 't is inseparable from him ; but , if taken for potentia secunda , so it ariseth from the disposition of the temper and organs of the body , and is not essential , but accidental , and separable from man. As for the third , to be mortal , I have already spoken of that sufficiently . As for the 4th instance ; to have a body of contrary qualities is essential consequutivè . and à posteriori unto an essential predicate of man ; viz : a mixt body ; and so is essential unto man , and predicated of him in secundo modo dicendi per se , as a mixt body is predicated of him primo modo dicendi per se. For , as Scheibler [ de prop : cap : 4. n : 41. ] sheweth , ad praedicationes per se secundi modi pertinent non solum praedicationes illae , in quibus proprium praedicatur de subjecto suo primo , veluti corpus est quantum , sed etiam ille praedicationes in quibus proprium praedicatur de speciebus sui primi 〈◊〉 , veluti homo est 〈◊〉 : but this hath no alliance with laughing , for it agreeth alwayes unto all men . Dr. Taylor . And in a morall discourse to call for Metaphysicall significations , and not to be content with morall and generall , may proceed from an itch to quarrell , but not srom that ingenuity , which will be your and my best ornament . Ieanes . It hath hitherto been a receiv'd 〈◊〉 amongst all Logicians ; that in mixt questions , the termes of which belong unto severall disciplines , we must for the explication of each terme , have recourse unto the discipline , unto which it 〈◊〉 ; and you can say nothing to disprove this rule : whether inclination to 〈◊〉 be essentiall to man ? is a mixt question ; for inclination to evill or 〈◊〉 , is a 〈◊〉 terme , and essentiall , is a 〈◊〉 terme , and therefore , in taking it in a Metaphysicall sense , I have done nothing , but what Logick , and reason have prescribed me ; and therefore I shall not feare your passionate , and irrationall 〈◊〉 of me for it . To cleare this yet further by instancing in mixt 〈◊〉 of the like nature ; an formale 〈◊〉 in genere sit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ali creaturae ? an formale 〈◊〉 originalis sit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 originalis 〈◊〉 ? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad malum 〈◊〉 ex principiis naturae integrae ? an Sacramentum sit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ? an 〈◊〉 sint 〈◊〉 Physicae gratiae ? Now if here you should be pleased to say , that in these questions to call for Metaphysicall significations , of privatio , 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 respectivum , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , may proceed from an itch to quarrell , but not from that ingenuity , which 〈◊〉 be our best ornament , you will bewray but little judgment , and lesse 〈◊〉 . 2. If that , which you call essentiall in a morall , and large 〈◊〉 , doe not either constitute the essence , or necessarily flow therefrom , it will in the upshot prove to be but accidentall ; and how then comes it that you oppose it unto accidentall ? But you will , perhaps , , tell me , that I must take accidentall in a morall , and large sense , as well as essentiall ; But , Sir , what is there in your words to guide me unto this sense of accidentall ? I took accidentall for the concrete of accidens 〈◊〉 , and so I believe have most Schollars that have read you ; and why it should not be thus understood I thinke you can alledge no reason , but that , you know not otherwise to make any tolerable sense of your words : your discourse is Polemicall , and if therein you use Philosophicall termes , and I call for a Philosophicall signification of the termes , with what forehead can you accuse me for being 〈◊〉 some , and disingenuous ? if when you cannot defend what you say , according unto the proper , and usuall signification of the words you use , you must have liberty to 〈◊〉 unto large and 〈◊〉 senses of them , you may say even what you please ; for no man will be able to understand what you say , unlesse he hath a peculiar key unto your writings , But let us inquire what can be here meant by accidentall in a morall and large sense : essentiall , you say , in a morall sense , is that which is not after our nature , but together with it ; and , in conformity hereunto , accidentall in a morall sense must be that which is after our nature , and not together with it , and then I shall desire you to awake , and consider , whether your second reason be not coincident with your third ; for your second reason , as you expound it , stands thus ; 〈◊〉 to evill is after our nature , and not together with it in reall being : And your third 〈◊〉 is this , inclination to evill is superinduc'd unto nature , and is after it , &c. Dr Taylor . Although I have not much to doe with it , yet because you are so great a Logician , and so great an admirer of that which every one of your Pupils knowes , I mean Porphyrics 〈◊〉 of an accident , I care not if I tell you that the definition is imperfect and false . Jeanes . 1. You have ever and 〈◊〉 an uncivil fling at my poor Logick ; But , Sir , let me be so bold as to tell you , that as my Logick is the object of your contempt , so that my Pupils cannot find in that 〈◊〉 , which you manifest in these your papers , matter for either their envy or emulation . 2. Why , pray Sir , doe you say , that I am so great an admirer of Porphyrics definition of an accident ? indeed I say , that 't is a celebrated definition of an accident ; but thereby I signify only that 't is frequently and much used , commonly known , and in every man's mouth ; and this acception of the word is usuall in Cicero , as these instances following evidence : Celebratur omnium sermone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : hoc delatum est tum ad vos pontifices , post omnium sermone celebratum , quemadmodum iste 〈◊〉 fecit : quod it a esse constanti fama atque omnium sermone celebratum est : quid porro in graeco sermone tum tritum atque celebratum est quam , &c. 3. Though you care not to tell me , that Porphyries definition of an accident is false , and imperfect ; yet you should have been carefull to have brought stronger objections against it , than those you have urged , for they containe such grosse , and absurd untruths , as that every one that understands them , will think you a very incompetent judge of the definitions of Porphyrie and Aristotle . Indeed how farre you are to seek in the nature of accidents , appeares by your talking of accidents constitutive of a substance , in your discourse of the Real-presence , &c : ( Sect : 11. num : 12 : pag : 209. ) but let us heare your objections . Dr Taylor . It is not convertible with the defiaitum ; for even , essential things may be taken away sine interit u subjecti . Jeanes . For an answer unto this , I shall referre you to your selfe , in your book , but now mentioned of the Real-presence of Christ in the holy Sacrament . ( Sect. 11. num . 30. p. 244. & 245. ) God can doe what he pleaseth , and he can reverse the lawes of his whole creation , because he can change or annihilate every creature , or alter the manners and essences ; but the question now is , what lawes God hath already established , and whether or no essentials can be changed , the things remaining the same ? that is , whether they can be the same , when they are not the same ? he that sayes God can give to a body all the essentiall properties of a spirit , saies true , and confesses God's Omnipotency ; but he sayes also that God can change a body , from being a body to become a spirit ; but if he saves , that remaining a body it can receive , the essentials of a spirit , he does not confesse God's 〈◊〉 , but makes the Article dissicult to be believed , by making it not to work wisely and possibly : God can doe althings , but are they undone , when they are done ? that is , are the things changed in their essentials and yet remaine the same ? then how are they chang'd , and then what hath God done to them ? But to come unto your instances . Dr. Taylor . I instance to be quant tative is essential to a body , and to have succession of duration ; but yet in the resurrection when bodyes shall be spiritual , and eternal , those other which are now essential predicates shall be taken away , & yet the subject remain , & be improved to higher , and more noble predicates . Jeanes . 1. As for the 1. of these instances it is without doubt , that to be quantitative is essentiall unto a body à posteriori , and consecutive as a probrium thereof 4 to modo . but. 1. That quantity is separable from a body was never affirmed by any besides the Patrons of either transubstantiation or consubstantiation . 2. If a body were without quantity , it would be without extension , and so would exist in an undivisible point without distinction of parts , and so it would be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a bodilesse body , which is a flat contradiction . But for refutation of this , I shall referre you to your own selfe in your discourse of the Real-presence , &c. ( Sect. 11. 13 pag. 211. ) But I demand , when we 〈◊〉 of a body what we mean by it ? for in all discourses and entercourses of 〈◊〉 by words , we must agree concerning each others meaning : when we speak of a body , of a substance , of an accident , what does man-kind agree to mean by these words ? all the 〈◊〉 and all the wise men in the world , when they speak os a body , and separate it from a spirit , they mean , that a spirit is that which hath no material divisible parts Physically that which hath nothing of that which makes a body that is extension & 〈◊〉 by sines and superficies . And , ( Pag. 212. ) when we speak os a body all the world meanes that , which hath a finite quantity . Pag. 219. 220 : that which I now insist upon is , that in a body there cannot be indistinction of parts , but each must possesse his own portion , or place , and if it does not , a body cannot be a body . Sect. 11. num . 18. Again , ( Pag 221. num . 20 : ejusd : Sect : ) If Christ's body be in the Sacrament according to the manner of a substance not of a body ; I demand according to the nature of what substance whether of a material or an immaterial ? if according to the nature of a material substance , then it is commensurate by the dimensions of quantity , which he is now endeavouring to avoid . If according to the nature of an immateriall substance , 〈◊〉 it is not a body , but a spirit , or else the body may have the being of a spirit , whil'st it remains a body , that is , be a body , and not a body at the same time . Here every material substance , by your opinion is commensurate by the division of quantity , and therefore no material substance can be without the dimensions of of quantity ; afterwards in ( pag. 241. & . 242. num : 29. ejusd : Sect : ) you bring in a shift of Bellarmines unto which you returne a very good answer , both which I shall transcribe . 〈◊〉 sayes that to be coextended to a place is separable from a magnitude or body , because it is a thing that is extrinsecal and consequent to the intrinsecal extension of parts , and being later than it , is by divine power separable : but this is as very a sophism as all the rest ; for if whatever in nature is later than the substance , be 〈◊〉 from it , than fire may be without heat , or water without moisture ; a man can be without time , for that also is in nature after his essence , and he may be without a faculty of will , or understanding , or of affections , or of growing to his state , or being nourished , and then he will be a strange man , who will neither have the power of will , or understanding , of desiring , or avoiding , of nourishment or growth , or any thing , that can distinguish him from a beast , or a tree , or a stone ; for these are all later than the essence , for they are all essential 〈◊〉 from it , thus also quantity can be separated from a substantial body if every thing that is later than the forme can be separated from it . When you wrote this , you thought it a grosse absurdity to averre that quantity could be separated from a substantial body ; when you have answered your selfe , I shall then take up the Cudgels , and reply unto your answer in the mean while , I shall consider your argument by which you endeavour to prove quantity separable from a body . It stands thus ; in the resurrection bodies shall be spiritual ; therefore to be quantitative , which is now an essential predicate , shall be then taken away . For answer . 1. If the bodies of the Saints shall be raised without quantity , then without extension , without integral parts , without heads , eyes , armes , legs , feet , and this would be a very pretty , and proper resurrection ; it would indeed be an invisible resurrection ; this is a very strange , and false assertion , contrary as to the constant tenet of both ancient , and moderne Divinity , so also unto expresse scripture ; In my flesh , saies Job , shall I see God , whom I shall see for my-selfe , and my eyes shall behold , and not another , Job . 19. 26 , 27 : the bodies of the Saints shall in the resurrection be conformed unto Christ's glorious body in his : Philip. 3. 21 : and that was a visible and palpable body , it might be seen and selt , it had flesh and bones , and hands , feet and sides , Luk. 24. 39 , 40 : John. 20. 27 : see Aquin : sup : ad 3 am part . sum : &c : quaest . 80. Art. 1. Tertullian upon these words of the Apostles [ this corruptible shall put on incorruption ] hath this glosse , quantitativam & eandem numero essentiam digito demonstrat , magis enim expressè loqui non poterat , 〈◊〉 cutem suam manibus 〈◊〉 . 2. As for the spirituality of our bodies in the resurrection , that shall not be destructive of their quantity ; for they shall be spiritual , not in regard of substance ; but in respect of either immediate supportance by the spirit , or else resemblance unto a spirit . 1. In respect of immediate supportance by the spirit without the help of bodily meanes , meates , drinks , sleep , medicaments , &c : he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his 〈◊〉 that dwelleth in you , Rom. 8. 11 : or else 2. ( As others conjecture ) in regard of resemblance unto a spirit as touching some particulars in the resurrection ; they neither marry , nor are given in marriage ; but are as the Angels of God in Heaven , Matth. 22. 30. But that spirituality of the body in ` Paul's sense of the word is no impeachment unto the quantity of it is evident enough from what you say in your treatise of the Real-presence , &c : for therein you rightly averre , that Christ's body is now a spiritual body , and yet maintain against the Papists that 't is endued with quantity , and hath partem extra partem , one part without the other answering to the parts of his place . Your second instance is , to have succession of duration , this is essential to a body think you ; yet in the resurrection , when our bodies shall be eternal , it shall be taken away . But here Sir , my poor Pupils , because you are so great a Metaphysitian , care not much if they tell you , That succession in duration is so far from being essential to a body , as that it doth not at all agree thereunto ; and they have learnt it out of Scheibler , Metap . lib. 1. cap. 16. n. 48. 53. 91 , 92 , 93 , 94 , 95 , 96 , 97 , 98 , 99 , cap. 19. n. 9 , 10 , 11 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35. And 〈◊〉 , disp : 50. Sect. 5. and 7. Metaphysitians no 〈◊〉 inferior unto your great self . Out of them they thus argue , whatsoever hath a successive duration , hath also a successive essence or being ; but now no body hath a successive essence or being , therefore no body hath a successive duration . The Major is evident , because as Suarez and Scheibler well prove , the duration of a thing is not distinguished from the actual existence thereof , really , but onely ratione ratiocinata . And then for the Minor , it may be thus confirmed , Whatsoever hath a successive essence or being , hath the parts of its essence in fluxu , so that 't is partly past , partly present , and in part to come ; but no such thing can be affirm'd of any body , and therefore no body hath a successive essence or being . Or thus , No permanent being hath a successive being or essence ; but every body is a permanent being , therefore no body hath a successive being or essence . The Minor , that alone askes proof , may be thus confirmed : Whatsoever hath all the parts of its essence or being together ( so that in no moment of time there is wanting unto it any thing requisite unto its essential integrity ) that is a permanent being ; but every body hath all the parts of its essence or being together ( so 〈◊〉 in no moment of time there is wanting unto it any thing requisite unto its essential integrity . ) Therefore every body is a permanent being . If you should say , That God onely hath permanency of being , according to that of the Psalmist , Psal. 102. 26 , 27. The Heavens shall perish , but thou sha't endure ; yea all of them shall wax old , like a garment ; as a vesture shalt thou change them , and they shall be changed , but thou art the same . Unto this they will answer , That you do but triste with the equivocation of the word permanency , it is ( they will say ) opposed unto either mutability or succession ; if it be opposed unto mutability and defectibility of being , then God alone hath permanency of being ; but if it be opposed unto succession of being , then every created being , besides motion , hath permanency of being ; and this Scheibler hath taught them , Met : lib. 1. cap. 19. n. 35. Nullae rei ( inquit ) convenit fluxus vel successio partium essentialium praeterquam motui ( 〈◊〉 loquendo ) unde non est tempus successivum , nisi tempus quo durat ipse motus : nempe sicut essentia motus consistit in successione partium : ita etiam duratio motûs consistit in successione partium , & proinde utrumque est ens successivum , si tamen a parte rei loquamur , tum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eas est successivum , nempe motus , duratio enim motus à parte rei cadem est cum essentià ipsà . If you should say with Bonaventure , and others , That succession of duration distinguisheth the creature from the Creator , and therefore every creature hath succession of duration : They will again ( out of the forementioned Authors ) distinguish of a two-fold succession , privative and positive . 1. A privative or negative succession , and that is , either betwixt not being , and being , or betwixt being , and not being ; thus when a man is begotten , his being succeeds his not being , and when he dies , his not being succeeds his being ; and this privative succession doth distinguish the creature from the Creator , and therefore doth or may agree to every creature : for even the Angels had a beginning , and so there was a succession of their being unto their not being ; and they might have an end , by Gods omnipotency , if he had not decreed otherwise : nay , God could 〈◊〉 them meerly by the withdrawing of his preservative influence , and so there might have been a succession of their not being unto their being : this succession is opposed unto an intrinsecal necessity of existence , or unto an immutable permanency , seu stabilitati permanentiae , as Suarez phraseth it , Disp : 50 Sect. 5. n. 26. and not unto 〈◊〉 of being as such : This succession , if we speak of the power and capacity of it , is essential to our bodies , and withal , 't is inseparable from them ; for even after the resurrection , God could ( if he had not determined the contrary ) reduce them unto their first nothing . A positive succession hath for both its extreams a positive being , and this is again ( they will say ) either discrete , or continuous . 1. Discrete between beings totally perfect ; as the knowledge of one Plant succeeds the knowledge of another Plant : But this succession doth not constitute a successive being There is another succession , which they call continuous , and that is not betwixt total beings , but betwixt parts of the same being ; when they do not exist together , but one after another , in 〈◊〉 ( as they say ) and this succession is proper and peculiar unto motion , though not unto every motion . Thus far my Pupils . Dr. Taylor . This I have here set down , not that I at all value the problem whether it be so or no , but that you may not think me a Socinian particularly in this Article , or that I think the bodies in the resurrection shall be specifically distinct from what they are here ; I believe them the same bodies , but enobled in their very beings , for to a specifical and substantial change , is required , that there be introduction of new forms . 〈◊〉 . 1. You will not be throughly and sufficiently distinguished from the Socinians in this Article , if you think the bodies in the resurrection shall be numerically distinct from what they are here ; and therefore I shall intreat you to tell us in your next , how far you accord with or dissent from them in this particular . 2. You here say , that to be quantitative , shall be taken away from our bodies in the resurrection ; and the sequel of this is , that bodies in the resurrection shall be specifically distinct from what they are here ; for a quantitative substance , and a substance without quantity , are specifically distinct ; because the one is material , a body , and the other immaterial , a spirit , and not a body at all , unlesse nomine tenns . Dr. Taylor . But yet the improving of essential predicates , is no specification of subjects , but a 〈◊〉 of the first . Jeanes . The ordinary Reader may perhaps think , that there is some great mystery wrapt up under these hard words ; but the plain meaning of them , is ( as I suppose ) that the improving of essential predicates , doth not make a specifical change of subjects , but onely advance a subject unto a better being . Essential predicates may be said to be improved three manner of ways . 1. By abolition of them . 2. By 〈◊〉 of them . 3. By addition unto them . The two latter are impertinent to this business in hand ; for suppose ( though not grant ) that the essential predicates of substances might be improved by 〈◊〉 of them , or by addition unto them ; yet what will this make to the separability of essentials from a subject : The improving of essential predicates , that belongs unto our present purpose , is by abolition of them , and by substituting new and more noble essentials in their room ; and that essentials may be abolished , and new essentials substituted in their rooms ( the things remaining the same ) is a thing you may magisterially and imperiously dictate , but can never Scholastically prove . But ( perhaps ) you will say , that you take essential in a Moral and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : But Sir , you must remember , that you are not to take essential here , in such a latitude , as to include accidental and contingent predicates ; for if you should , Porphyry's definition of Accidens will remain unshaken by what you say : Would not this be a ridiculous Argument ? accidental and contingent predicates may be taken away , sine subjecti interitu , therefore adesse & abesse sine subjecti 〈◊〉 , is no excellent definition of an accident ; and yet this will be your very argument , if by essential predicates you mean any thing besides the four first predicables , unto which all essential predicates are reducible . Dr. Taylor . But the consequent is , that abesse & adesse sine subjecti interitu , is not an excellent definition of an accident . Jeanes . The arguments from which you infer this consequent , are overthrown , and therefore this consequent falleth to the ground of it self , without you support it by some fresh arguments . Dr. Taylor . And 〈◊〉 further , it follows ; That if 〈◊〉 were 〈◊〉 essential to a man , as mortality is , or to be 〈◊〉 , yet there is no more need that man should rise with sin , then with mortality . Ieanes . And , pray Sir , why do not you adde , and with quantity ? Do you begin to startle at this Proposition ? that men shall rise without quantity : But as 〈◊〉 the separability of both mortality and quantity from bodies in the resurrection , I have spoken already so fully , as that I may spare to say any thing anew of it . Dr. Taylor . But Aristotles Philosophy , and Porphyry's Commentary , are but ill measures in 〈◊〉 , and you should do well to scour bright that armor in which you trust , which 〈◊〉 it be prudently conducted , will make a man a Sophister rather than a 〈◊〉 : but 〈◊〉 are wiser . Ieanes . Aristotle and Porphiry are no contemptible Authors in Philosophy ; but who ever thought them 〈◊〉 in Philosophy , or their Books measures in Theology ? Philosophy is a very usefull Hand-maid unto Divinity , and none will decry it , but such whose sayings and writings cannot endure the test thereof ; nothing that is true in Philosophy , can be false in Divinity ; for verum vero non opponitur , one truth doth not , cannot clash with another : As for my Philosophy , I hope God will preserve me from trusting in it , or in any other arm of flesh : If you can detect any error therein , I shall be ready to retract it , and be very thankful to you for your pains ; as for the dirt you have hitherto thrown thereon , it will not stick , but recoileth on your own face . Dr Taylor . I have onely this one thing to adde , That the common Discourses of Original Sin , makes sin to be natural , necessary , and unavoidable , and then may I not use your own words , this Tenet is chargeable with Libeatinism , it is a liceatious Doctrine , and opens a gap to the greatest prophaneness , for it takes away all conscience of sin , all 〈◊〉 of it for the time past ; if sin be natural , necessary , and unavoidable , as it is to us , if we derive it from Adam , &c. what reason hath he to be humbled for it , and to ask God pardon for it ? so that you have done well against your own opinion ; and if I had not used the argument before , I should have had reason to thank you for it : now as it is , you are further to consider of it , not I. Jeanes . If you understand by natural , that which naturally results from nature , and by necessary and unavoidable , that which is denominated such from a primitive and created necessity , that which you say is a foul slander against the common discourses of Protestants against Original sin : But if you mean by natural that which is connexed with , and cocval unto our nature , and by necessary and unavoidable , that which is such in regard of a consequent and contracted necessity , it will be nothing to the purpose : for you ( and you may take in to boot your good friends of Racovia ) are never able to prove , that the assertion of such a naturality and necessity of Original sin , is any bar to humiliation or repentance for it , unto Prayer for the pardon of it . Dr Taylor . Sir , Though I have reason to give you the priority in every thing else , yet in civility I have far out-done you . Ieanes . First , You have written a Letter to me without a Superscription , and I have returned one unto you with a Superscription ; and this I take , to be of the two , the greater civility . If I may believe the eccho of the neighborhood , you have written several Letters unto Mr. T. C. concerning me , that cannot pretend to any great civility , for they are said to be stuffed with insulting reproaches : unto which I shall return nothing , but my Prayers for the increase of your charity and humility . Dr. Taylor . You were offended at a passage , which you might easily , but would not understand ; you have urg'd arguments against me , which return upon your own head : The Proposition you charge me withall , I own not in any of your 〈◊〉 , nor ( as you set it down ) in any at all , and yet your arguments do not substantially , or rationally confute it , if I had said so . Ieanes . Here you sum up your Conquests , but whether you do not reckon without your Host , let the Reader judge . Dr. Taylor . 〈◊〉 all this , you have used your pleasure upon me ; you have reviled me , slighted me , scorned me , untempted , unprovoked ; you never sent to me civilly to give you satisfaction in your Objections , but talked it my absence , and to my prejudice . Ieanes . Unto all this , a general negative is a sufficient answer , until I know the Particulars that your Delator hath informed you with ; but perhaps , you may think that for such an obscure person as my self , to dare to except against what you write , is to revile , slight , and scorn you ; if you be so impatient of contradiction , I shall leave it unto your own bosom to judge from what spirit it proceeds : When you published your Book , you exposed it to every mans censure that would read it ; and will you accuse every man of uncivility that passeth his censure upon any passage in it , in a private discourse with friends ? But Sir , upon Mr. C. his entreaty , I sent him in writing the reasons that I had for my censure , and these reasons were by my consent to be conveyed to you , and therefore I sent unto you mediately by another to give satisfaction to my objections : If you shall say that 't was uncivil for me not to make my address immediately unto your self , it is a charge will easily be wiped off ; I was , as I thought , an utter stranger unto you , and Mr. C. professed a greet acquaintance with , and interest in you , and assured me that my Exceptions should be received with all possible candor , and promised his diligence and 〈◊〉 in conveying of them unto 〈◊〉 my objections therefore were sent civilly unto you , though sent by him ; but however you are thus 〈◊〉 , the Reader , I hope , will have a more charitable opinion of my procedure herein , and think , that you have no reason to make such 〈◊〉 Out-crys against me for abusive uncivilities towards you . Dr. Taylor . Yet I have sent you an answer , I hope , satisfactory , and together with it a long Letter , which in the midst of my many affairs and straitned condition , is more then I can again afford . Jeanes . Unto your long Letter I have returned a longer answer ; and whether yours or mine be satisfactory , I am contented to refer it unto the indifferent Reader : 〈◊〉 your condition be straitned , I wish it were more plentiful : But my affairs are , I 〈◊〉 , neither for number nor importance inferior unto yours ; and from them I have borrowed so much time , as to answer you , and shall be ready to do so again to perform unto you the like office . Dr Taylor . And after all this , I assure you that I will pray for you , and speak such good things of you , as I can finde , or hear to be in you ; and prosess my self , and really be , Sir , Your affectionate friend and servant , in our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus . Jer : Taylor . Ieanes . For this your promise I give you hearty thanks , and shall endeavor to make you as grateful a return as I can , in the like Christian offices of love , and so shall rest , In Christ Jesus your humble servant , Henry Jeanes . POSTSCRIPT . Dr Taylor . Sir , I received yours late last night ; and I have returned you this early in the morning , that I might in every thing be respective of you . Jeanes . This I easily believe , and am confident , that upon review of your Letter you will acknowledge , that according to the proverb , you have made more haste then good speed . Dr. Taylor . But I desire not to be troubled with any thing that is not very material , for I have business of much greater concernment ; neither can I draw the saw of contention with any man about things less pertinent . I expect no answer , I need none , I desire none , but expect that you will imploy your good parts in any thing , rather 〈◊〉 in being ingeniosus in alieno libro . Your talents can better ( if you please ) serve God , then by cavilling with or without reason . Ieanes . Whether or no the controversie between us be not material , but less pertinent ; whether your Letter be so satisfactory , as that it needs no answer ? as also , whether I cavill without reason ( to cavil with reason , is a Catachresis as harsh as ratione 〈◊〉 , and as hardly justifiable , but by a licentiâ pocticâ ) are things in which I refuse you for my Judge , and appeal unto the learned and unprejudic'd Reader . Secondly , That you neither expect nor desire an answer from me may be very probable , but that I was obliged to return you one , I have 3 Reasons that convince me . First , By my silence , the truth which you have wronged would suffer . Secondly , your Papers have been with a great deal of diligence published , and if I should not give them an answer , I should be accessary to the Funeral of my own good name . And Thirdly , A friend of yours , when he gave me this your Letter , told me , That I could not answer it , and that you were , as he thought , infallible : now I thought it my duty to undeceive him , who having your person in too great an admiration , greedily swalloweth whatsoever falls from your pen , though never so 〈◊〉 and erroneous . UNIFORMITY IN Humane Doctrinall Ceremonies Ungrounded on 1 Cor. 14. 40. OR , A REPLY UNTO D r. HAMMONDS VINDICATION OF HIS Grounds of Uniformity from the 1 Cor. 14. 40. BY HENRY JEANES , Minister of Gods Word at CHEDZOY . OXFORD , Printed by A. Lichfield Printer to the Universitie , for Tho. Robinson , 1660. Uniformity in Humane Doctrinall Ceremonies ungrounded on 1 Cor. 14. 40. Dr. HAMMOND . 1 Cor. 14. 40. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Decently , and according to appointment . 1. SInce the publishing that Answer to Mr. J. concerning the degrees of ardency in Christs Prayer , I am advertised of another passage in that volume , in which I am concerned , relating to some words of mine in the view of the Directory , pag. 19. on the head of Uniformity in Gods Service , and particularly respecting my rendring of the Apostle , 1 Cor. 14 40. Let all things be done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 2. These indeed I thus rendred [ decently and according to order or appointment ] and affirmed the importance of that place to be , that all be done in the Church according to Custome and appointment , rendring this reason of the former , because it was implyed in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , decently ( custome being the onely rule of decency , &c. ) and of the latter , because the words do literally import this , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , i. e. according to order or appointment . 3. To the former of these he makes his first exception , thus , [ he dares not affirme that this is the immediate sense of the place , but onely that it is implyed ; it cannot be denyed , but that decency doth imply such customes , the omission of which doth necessarily infer indecency ; but that the omission of such ceremonies as ours , doth infer indecency , the Doctor and all his party can never make good : What undecencie can the Doctor prove to be in the administration of Baptism without the Crosse ; as also in publique Prayers and Preaching without a Surplice ? But of this see farther in 〈◊〉 in the places but new quoted : The Doctor may perhaps look upon him as an inconsiderable adversary . But we shall think his Arguments considerable , untill the Doctor , or some other of his party give a satisfactory answer unto them . In the mean while let us examine the proof that 〈◊〉 Doctor brings for this sense : and it is because custome is the onely rule of decency . This Proposition , though very strange , is 〈◊〉 ; and therefore we might as well reject it , as the Doctor dictates it . But I shall adde a consutation of it , from these follow : ing arguments . 1. If custome be the only rule of decency , then nothing else can be a rule thereof besides custome ; but this is false ; for the light and law of Nature , is also a rule thereof , and that 〈◊〉 . 2. Nothing can be undecent , that is agreeable unto the onely rule of 〈◊〉 but divers things are undecent , which yet can plead custome ; and this is so evident , as that I will not so much undervalue the Doctors judgement , as to endeavour any 〈◊〉 thereof It is 〈◊〉 that the onely rule of decency should be undecent ; but yet 〈◊〉 is very possible that many customes should be 〈◊〉 , and therefore I shall conclude , that custome is not the 〈◊〉 rule of 〈◊〉 . 3. Lastly , unto custome , as you may see in both Aristotle and Aquinas , the frequent usage of a thing is required . But new there may be decency or handsomnesse in the 〈◊〉 usage of a thing ; and of this decency custome is not the rule , and therefore it is not the only rule of decency . 4. The 〈◊〉 thing here charged on me , is 〈◊〉 , that I 〈◊〉 not say what I said not , and this attended with a concession ( in a limited sense ) of the truth of what I did say ; the 〈◊〉 is the 〈◊〉 unsufficiency of that , in that limited sense , to prove what he 〈◊〉 I would have from it , viz. that the omission of our ceremonies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indecency : And the proof of this charge 〈◊〉 , 1. by way of question , founded in two 〈◊〉 , the Crosse in Baptism , and the 〈◊〉 in publique Prayer , and 〈◊〉 : 2. By reference to Ames , and resolving to think his arguments considerable , till a satisfactory answer be given them . And his third charge , is my using an unsufficient proof to prove my interpretation , viz. this , [ because custome is the onely rule of decency ] which he confutes by three arguments . These three charges I shall now very 〈◊〉 examine , and , if I mistake not , clearly evacuate . The first by assuring him , 1. that I did dare to say , and indeed said ( as I then thought perspicuously ) the full of what I meant ; but that it was no way incumbent on me , to say either what I did not mean , or what Mr. J. or any other should be justly able to charge of want of truth in the least degree . And 2. if what I said cannot , as he confesses , be denied , to have truth in it in one sense , I demand why must it be a not daring ( which is wont to signifie timidity or cowardise ) 〈◊〉 I 〈◊〉 it not in another sense , wherein 〈◊〉 doth not consent to it . Jeanes . The not daring of a thing proceeds from , not only timidity , but also from conscience and shame : When we say of men in controversal writings , that they dare not affirm such and such errours , we do not reproach them with cowardise , unlesse he be a coward that is afraid , or ashamed to deliver an untruth . That according unto custome is the immediate sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , is a very gross & evident falshood ; & when I said that you dared not to 〈◊〉 it , my meaning plainly was , that your conscience or shame kept you from such an affirmation , and what wrong I have herein done you I am yet to 〈◊〉 . If you demand why I say that , you dare not say what you said not ? I answer , I have two reasons for it : 1. In entrance into this dispute , I did , as is usall in Controversies , premise what I took for uncontroverted on both sides . 1. for your part , I thought you would not deny , but that the immediate sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was not according unto custome ; and then , I propounded for my owne part what I granted . 2. Though in Charity I judge , that you dare not say , that according unto custome is the immediate sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , yet I must needs tell you , that by your opinion it is incumbent upon you to say as much , and that I thus prove : You 〈◊〉 that according to 〈◊〉 is the importance of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , the adequate and full importance of it , for that you should so 〈◊〉 , as to say , that you meant , it is onely the partiall , and inadequate importance of it , I will not so much as imagine : But now , if it be not the expresse , and immediate sense of the word , but onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as drawn there-from , as a sequele or 〈◊〉 ; by way of deduction or consequence , it may onely be a part or peice of the importance therof : to prove then , that 't is the full and adequate importance of the word , you must make good , that it is the immediate sense of it . Dr. Hammond . sect . 6. To make short , and prevent all 〈◊〉 of his , or any mans farther mistaking my words , I shall 〈◊〉 to tell him the full of my meaning in that 〈◊〉 , that ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 decently ) implies ( according to custome ) viz. that in such things as these , of which then I spake , gestures , habits , and the like circumstances of Gods 〈◊〉 service , wherein the 〈◊〉 prescribes care of decency , 't is necessary to observe the custom , of the place wherein we live . Jeanes . 1. The customes of some places in gestures , habits , and the like circumstances of Gods worship are very undecent , and it is not necessary to observe such customes : But you will perhaps 〈◊〉 that you except undecent customs , and then you are to be understood onely of decent customes ; for every custome is decent or undecent : because decency and undecency are privatively opposed , and inter 〈◊〉 opposita non datur 〈◊〉 in subjecto 〈◊〉 , between privative opposites there is no middle either of 〈◊〉 or participation 〈◊〉 a capable subject : The 〈◊〉 and upshot then of your meaning is , that , decently implyes , according unto decent customes ; and then 1. The full of your meaning is but a 〈◊〉 speech , that proves nothing in the Controversie , unlesse you also prove the Ceremonies controverted , to 〈◊〉 so decent , as that the 〈◊〉 of them will be undecent in the service of God. 2. I would 〈◊〉 know , how you will suit unto it the proof of it : Custome is the onely rule of decency , for there too , by custome you understand that which is decent , so that your argument runs thus : decent custome is the onely rule of decency ; therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 decently , implyeth decent customs . And this argument most of your learned Readers will ( to borrow your words concerning a saying of mine ) despise under the appearance of a 〈◊〉 . 2. If the full of your meaning in that passage , that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 decently , implyes according to custome , be , that in such things as these , of which then you spake , gestures , habits and the 〈◊〉 circumstances of Gods publique service , &c. it is necessary to observe the customes of the place wherein wee live , why then I must be bold to tel you , that the full of your : meaning is very short of the meaning of the Apostle ; for these words of the Apostle , let all things be done decently 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , prohibits all undecency not only that undecency against the custom of the place wherin we live , but also that undecency which is against the dictates of the Law of Nature . By this the Reader may see , how defective your exposition is : the Apostle saith , let all things be done decently , and your glosse is , let some things in Gods worship be done according unto some customes , to 〈◊〉 , such as are decent . 3. I suppose that by gestures , habits , and the like circumstances in the service of God , you mean such of them as are Symbolical ceremonies ; for otherwise your full meaning is nothing unto the purpose , because it will be no ground for that uniformity you plead for . Now that the Apostles words , let all things be done decently implyeth , that in humane Symbolical ceremonies it is necessary that we observe the customes of the place wherein we live , is a thing which I utterly deny , and shall be constant in such denyal , untill you drive me from it by some convincing argument ; and that I do not do this out of stomack , will appear by the reason that I shall alledge : The words of the Apostle , let all things be done decently , 〈◊〉 not disobeyed , unlesse there be some undecency committed in the worship and service of God ; for decency and undecency are privatively opposite , and therefore there is decency in those actions where there is no undecency ; but now by the omission of Symbolical ceremonies of humane institution , such as the Crosse in Baptism , Surplice in Prayer and Preaching , which can plead custome of the present place we live in , there is committed no undecency in the worship and service of God , viz. in Baptism , in Preaching and Praying , as will be apparent unto any man that will attempt to prove syllogistically the contrary ; therefore the Apostles precept is not disobeyed by the omission of such Symbolical ceremonies , and consequently the Apostles precept doth not in any way imply such Ceremonies . Dr. Hammond . sect . 6. This I then thought sufficiently explicated by exemplifying in mens wearing long hair , which the Apostle proved indecent by its being against 〈◊〉 , i. e. saith 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a custome of some continuance in that place ( which yet in women there , and men in other places , where that custome prevailed not , had nothing indecent in it . ) Jeanes . 1. This conceit that you have out of 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 de 〈◊〉 disputes against ; but his argument satisfyeth me not , and therefore I shall wave all that he saies , and confine my self unto the very words of the Apostle for disproof of your sense of them , and my reason is taken from the joyning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; for suppose that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Nature , may sometimes signifie custome , yet that ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , nature it self should signifie custome , is very improper . 2. Womens wearing of long hair is no religious 〈◊〉 ceremony , but used out of Gods worship and service , as well as in , and therefore a most impertinent exemplification of that which you plead for , 〈◊〉 in religious mystical Ceremonies , that are proper and peculiar unto the special and solemn worship of God. I readily grant , that in some places , custome hath made the long hair of women one badge of distinction between them and men ; but being by custome made such a badge , nature it self dictates the observation of it ; and if a man wear such long hair as women , he sins against the law of nature . if not immediately and 〈◊〉 , yet mediately ex interventu 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . As 〈◊〉 is your second exemplification , if Chrysostomes and others exposition may have place ; for they refer [ we have no such custome ] unto the words immediately foregoing ( and why we should goe 〈◊〉 for a coherence , I can see no reason ) if any man seem to be contentious : So that the meaning of the Apostle is , we have no custome to be contentious : Now to be contentious , is a sin against the Moral Law , the Law of Nature , and therefore belongs not 〈◊〉 to your discourse of Ceremonies . Dr. Hammond . sect 7. But this exemplification of my meaning he thought 〈◊〉 to conceale from the Reader , and supply that vacuity onely with an &c. yet reciting at length , to a word , what was immediately before , and after it . His design in so doing , I judge not , but shall endeavour to undeceive the Reader for the future , by farther enlarging on it . Jeanes . 1. Womens wearing of long hair is no Symbolical ceremony , and therefore what you said of it was an 〈◊〉 , and no exemplification of your 〈◊〉 , and therefore I had no reason to take notice of it . But 2. suppose it were an exemplification , yet unlesse it were also for 〈◊〉 of your 〈◊〉 ; that 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 onely rule of 〈◊〉 , I was no wise obliged to 〈◊〉 what you said herein ; for I 〈◊〉 told the Reader , I would transcribe what was 〈◊〉 in your words ; now what I 〈◊〉 out was not argumentative ; 〈◊〉 from it , neither you , nor any man else can ever infer your now mentioned conclusion . Dr. Hammond sect . 8. All people , I think , in the world , have some outward significations , and expressions of Reverence ; but all have not the same , but according to Topical customes , some different , some contrary to others : We of this and all our 〈◊〉 nations expresse reverence by uncovering the 〈◊〉 , the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the contrary . Again , among Christians , 't is customary for men so to expresse their reverence , but for women , saith the Apostle , it is not , but the contrary ; and so it is still among us . Nay it was once among some Heathens ( that worshipt Mercury ) an act of the highest reverence , even of adoration , to throw stones at their God ; among others , to cut themselves with Lances , when they were a praying to him . And it can be no news to Mr. 〈◊〉 . that these customes were not observed by other Countries ; the Jews that 〈◊〉 stones at Christ , and the 〈◊〉 that cut himself with them , were neither of them 〈◊〉 to worship him . Jeanes . 1 , Unlesse you can prove , that there cannot be outward significations and expressions of reverence in Gods service , without humane Symbolical ceremonies , all this your enlargement about the expressions of reverence will be to no purpose . We require reverence in all parts of Gods worship as well as you ; but then we hold , that Gods worship may be performed reverently , and in a seemly manner , without mystical ceremonies of humane invention . 2. Kneeling in Prayer is an expression of the highest degree of Reverence , Adoration ; and it hath a higher rule than Custome , viz. Scripture and the light of Nature : No Custome can render this Kneeling undecent ; unlesse you will say those words of the Psalmist , Psal. 95. 6 , doe not oblige Christians : O come , let us worship and bow down , let us kneel before the Lord our maker . 3. There be some customary expressions of reverence , that are undeniably unjustifiable , and you cannot say that they are implyed in the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Thus 〈◊〉 expression of reverence , 't is a 〈◊〉 with Papists not to touch the bread with their hands , but to have it put into their 〈◊〉 ; and upon the like pretence of reverence , it is customary amongst them , for Lay men to abstain from the Cup altogether . Lastly , why you bring in the Heathens throwing of stones at Mercury in a way of worship , I cannot divine ; for I cannot imagine , that you 〈◊〉 it to be a decent way of worship , and if it be undecent , then 〈◊〉 serveth nothing unto the exemplification of your meaning . Dr. Hammond . sect . 9. This therefore was no dark , but visible foundation of what I said ; In assigning any rite or ceremony for the service of God , 〈◊〉 , saith the 〈◊〉 , was to 〈◊〉 observed , the onely rule to judge of that , is , say I , to consider the Customes of that particular place , of which we consult . Where bowing the knee , or 〈◊〉 on the ground is customarily used as a token of reverence , where putting off , or keeping off the hat , there the choice of Ceremonies must be made with 〈◊〉 to those particular 〈◊〉 : Here 't is evident , that I mean not the frequent usage of that ceremony , in opposition to a first usage of it , as Mr. 〈◊〉 . is willing to mistake me , and found one of his arguments upon that mistake , but the standing custome of the place , by which , as by an argument or evidence , such a ceremony is demonstrated to be a reverential respect , and so ( for the service of God , to whom all reverence is due ) decent in that place , though in nature or in the estimation of all other men , it be not so . Jeanes . 1. If the Apostle had said , as you say , he saith , there ought to be no farther controversie about the lawfulnesse of humane ceremonies ; but that clause in assigning any rite or ceremony for the service of God , &c. ] is an Apocryphal addition of yours , without any colour from the Text it self , or from the coherence ; and therefore all you build upon it is but fancy and fiction : That the Apostles decency cannot be observed without assigning such Rites and Ceremonies as you dispute for , you may dictate and boldly affirm , but can never with all your learning 〈◊〉 prove ; and unlesse you can make proof hereof , you and your party have just reason to be ashamed of urging this place for ceremonies , with such an unshaken confidence as you do . 2. Whereas you tell us , 't is evident that you mean not the frequent usage of that ceremony in opposition to the first usage of it : This evidence of your meaning you have not so much as attempted to prove ; and if you shall for the future make such an attempt , it would , I am afraid , prove 〈◊〉 . The custome of a thing ( unlesse you can fasten upon it a sense or meaning never yet heard of ) is opposed unto the first usage of that thing ; for custome implyeth the frequent usage of a thing , and to say that the frequent usage of a thing is the first usage of it , is an evident repugnancy and an apparent contradiction , contradictio in adjecto 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 , as they say . I am therefore much to seek for the sense and reason of that Antithesis you make in these words , I mean , not the frequent usage of that ceremony in opposition to a first usage of it , but the standing custome of the place , &c. for 't is impossible that the standing custome of the place in a ceremony , should be the first usage of that ceremony ; where the mistake is let the Reader judge . 3. In that which followeth , there is nothing of argument , unlesse you can prove every ceremony , which can plead the standing custome of a place , to be a fitting and decent expression of that reverential respect , which is due unto God. Bishop Morton in his Book of the Institution of the Sacrament of the blessed 〈◊〉 and Blood of Christ , p. 80 , 81. sheweth that the opinion of reverence , hath been the 〈◊〉 and nurse of 〈◊〉 superstitions ; and after such demonstration he quotes a saying of 〈◊〉 upon Joh. 13. 8. Let us therefore learne 〈◊〉 honour and reverence Christ as he would , and not as we think sit . Dr. Hammond . sect . 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14. 10. Certainly this is so evident in it self , and so undeniably the importance of my words , that there can be no need farther to inlarge on it , much lesse to examine the weight , or meaning of his concession , 〈◊〉 it cannot be 〈◊〉 but that 〈◊〉 doth imply such customes , the omission of which 〈◊〉 inferres indecency ] 11. This saying of his some Readers may look on with Reverence , as not readily comprehending the importance of it , others may 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 it under the appearance of a tautologie . But upon pondering , it will appear that the Author had a 〈◊〉 in it ; which be designed should bring in some advantage to his cause , and without which he was not likely to advance far , 〈◊〉 succeed in it . 12. Some customes we know there are , which are so highly decent , as that the omission of then necessarily infers indecency : But what are they ? why such as the law of ( at least 〈◊〉 ) nature prescribes , covering of nakednesse , and the like ; of which 't is evident among all that have not learnt of Carneades industriously to rase out all naturall measures of honest and dishonest , that the omission of them 〈◊〉 indecency , yea and necessarily infers it , this sort of decency being naturall to all men that ever were , or shall be in the world , born and educated in what uation , or inured to what custome seever , and this the very first hour after our first Parents fall , before any custome had been contracted which might recommend it to them . 13 And as of these his rule is true , that the omission of these necessarily inferrs undecency , so it is in a manner proper to these , and belongs not to any other sort of things , whose decencie flowes but from some positive command though it be of God , or custome , or command of men . To such things whose decency flowes from any 〈◊〉 either of God or man , this rule cannot be fully applyed ; for that command might have been not given , or there might be a space before it was given , or a people to whom it was not given , and then in any of those cases the omission would not be indecent , to whom the law was not given ; and so it doth not necessarily and absolutely , but onely dependently on the 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; so in like manner the 〈◊〉 holds not in those things , whose 〈◊〉 is introduced onely by custome , for that Mr. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 saith , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 frequency of actions , it must againe bee granted , 〈◊〉 there was a time when that which now is 〈◊〉 , was new , and so not custome ; and againe , there are , or may bee Nations , with whom that custome ( whatsoever can be instanced in ) hath not 〈◊〉 , which prejudges still the 〈◊〉 spoken of , that such omission should inferre indecencie . And so we see the summe of Mr. J. his liberal concession , viz. that decency 〈◊〉 naturall decency , or such customes , which are naturally decent , and so the omission of them naturally indecent ; and if the Doctor or his party do not prove , or make 〈◊〉 , that the administration of Baptism without the Crosse is against the law of nature , that the Preaching without the Surplice beares 〈◊〉 to the 〈◊〉 of nakednesse , he is utterly refuted by Mr. J. in his interpretation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or notion of decency . Jeanes . 1. That I had no design in putting in the word necessarily , is evident by my leaving it out in the next words ; but that the omission of such ceremonies as ours doth inserre 〈◊〉 , the Doctor and all his party can never make good . You shall have my good leave instead of necessarily to place truly , or convincingly . Voeiferations I have heard many against the undecency of Gods worship and service amongst 〈◊〉 , and when I have called for proof , 〈◊〉 have been told , amongst other things , that they Baptised without the 〈◊〉 , that they put up prayers unto God 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 ; but that 〈◊〉 is undecently 〈◊〉 , where such toyes as these are omitted , you may stoutly affirme , but can never prove , by so much as one convictive 〈◊〉 : the word necessarily may 〈◊〉 very well be inserted , in opposition to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the ignorant , and prooflesse dictates of some learned men . Ignorant men may 〈◊〉 , and learned men may 〈◊〉 , that the omission of our ceremonies 〈◊〉 infer indecency , but this surmise and dictate can never be made good by argument . 2. In Logick , a necessary inference is opposed unto that 〈◊〉 is follacious , as also that which is but probable and contingent ; and therefore I wonder why you should quarrell at the word necessarily ? for doe you think in earnest , that decency implyes such customes , the omission of which doth sophistically , or at the best , onely probably inserre undecency , you cannot , I know , harbour so 〈◊〉 and irrational a thought , and therefore you must say as I doe , that decency here implyeth onely such customes , the omission of which , necessarily inferre undecency . 3. When you say that my rule is in a manner proper to those customs , which the Law , of at least , laps'd Nature prescribes , that limitation in a manner is a back-door , out of which how farre you may run , I know not , and therefore untill you somewhere make a stand , I shall not run after you . 4. Whereas you fasten upon me this assertion , that decency here implyeth onely such customes which are naturally decent , viz. prescribed immediately by the Law of Nature , and so 〈◊〉 omission of them naturally indecent , you have for this no colour , but that which you take from the word necessarily , and how weak a ground this is for such an imputation , you must needs 〈◊〉 , when you remember what I now told you , that accessarily here is opposed unto fall : ciously and probably . Dr. 〈◊〉 himself in the dispute about humane ceremonies , pag. 58. confesseth , that comelinesse , in the very place of the Apostle , containeth all naturall and civill handsomness ; and in his Reply to Mortons general Defence , &c. cap. 3. sect . 28. he acknowledgeth the womens vailes , 1 Cor. 11. to be an instance of this decency ; for by the example of it , he concludes that other Churches may be directed so farre , just as the Apostles rule stretcheth , 1 Cor 14. 40. Let all things be done 〈◊〉 : when Bishop Morton desired to know whether this matter were not a thing indifferent ? his answer is , it is indifferent in the general nature of it ; yet at that time , and in that place , they sinned that did otherwise , 〈◊〉 before Paul , or any of their overseers gave them charge about it . By this his answer it is apparent , that he did not think it dictated by Nature unto the Corinthians , before any custome had recommended it unto them . As for my own part you shall have here my frank concession , that decency here implyeth even that decency which is introduced by civill custome , provided , 1. That it be , consuetudo rationabilis ; for no other custome can have the force and 〈◊〉 of a law , and if you , or any other can bring any arguments , that it was consuetudo rationabilis which introduced our ceremonies , they shall have , God willing , an answer . 2. That the omission of it renders Gods worship undecent : the equity of this limitation appeareth from this reason , because the Apostles command of decency is not violated but by undecency : This is at large set down in Ames his dispute about humane ceremonies , pag. 77 , 78. Lastly , your , and my learned friend Mr Barlow , resolveth and proveth , Exercit . Metaph. p. 29. every morall evill , every evill of sin , to be against the law of Nature , if not proximè and immediatè , yet mediatè ex interventu legis positivae , now the undecency here prohibited by the Apostle is a morall evill , a sin , malum culpae , therefore 't is at least mediately against the Law of Nature . Your great and learned 〈◊〉 , pag. 95. of his Ecclesiastical Politie saith , that this rule of the 〈◊〉 is an edict of Nature , a Canon of that Law which is written in all mens hearts ; the Church had for ever , no lesse then now , stood bound 〈◊〉 observe it , whether the Apostle had mentioned it or no. And hereupon I shall infer , that if you or your party doe not prove or make good , that the administration of Baptisme without the Crosse , that Preaching , Praying , without the Surplice , is against the Law of nature , in some sense at least , mediately , he is utterly 〈◊〉 by Mr. Hooker his interpretation of ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or notion of decency ; and I doe not desire to live so long , as to see such a proof as this made . Dr. Hammond . sect . 15. This is indeed his meaning , which ( though somewhat darkned in that his expression ) will appear but consequent to the two things which he hath premised in this matter from Amesius his notion of decency . p. 64. in marg . 1. that 〈◊〉 requires not that any sacred things be instituted de 〈◊〉 , but onely that those things which are instituted by God , be used in that 〈◊〉 which is agreeable to the dignity of them . 2. That as order , so decency belongs to civil offices , as well as sacred things , in which indecorum est vitium oppositum debito illi modo , qui 〈◊〉 ad corum justum finem , & usum consequendum , 〈◊〉 is a vice opposed to that due manner which is 〈◊〉 to the obtaining the just end , and use of those things . Now if in the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 , the mode he speaks of , as agreeable to the dignity of those things which are 〈◊〉 , be it self-supposed by him to be 〈◊〉 by men , then must he acknowledge humane 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 ceremonies , which being so contrary to his design , I must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by him ; but rather , 〈◊〉 as the sacred things 〈◊〉 instituted by 〈◊〉 , so the mode which is consentaneous to their dignity is instituted 〈◊〉 God also , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is decent in sacris , which is not so instituted . And so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on the second 〈◊〉 , that of civill 〈◊〉 . For that indecency , which is a vice or sin , must be 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 Law of Gods , and so also that which is 〈◊〉 to the 〈◊〉 manner which is 〈◊〉 ; 〈◊〉 so is necessary either necessitate medii , or praecepti also to obtaining a just end , this sure is more than the omission of an indifferent 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 may , or may not be continued without any offence against nature , even the omission of strict universal duty , either natural decency , or somewhat that bears proportion with it . Jeanes . Both Ames and my poor self 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 God hath by the Canon of the Apostle , and by the light of Nature , appointed and commanded , that 〈◊〉 in his worship and service , the neglect 〈◊〉 would be undecent ; but that hee holds that there is need of a special divine institution to render a thing decent , is disclaimed by Ames in several places of his writings : Medul . Theol. lib. 2. c. 14. sect . 24 , 25 , 26. Hujusmodi igitur 〈◊〉 , quae 〈◊〉 naturâ sunt civiles , aut communes . nen sunt particulariter in 〈◊〉 praeceptae , partim , quia in 〈◊〉 hominum sensum incurrunt ; & 〈◊〉 , quia infra dignitatem & 〈◊〉 legis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ut talia 〈◊〉 in illa praescribantur , hâc 〈◊〉 ratione 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fuissent singulari lege cavenda : Exempli gratiâ , ne in ecclesiastico , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 sinu sese colocaret , in alterius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , out ne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in sacris actionibus . Habendae 〈◊〉 sunt 〈◊〉 ex 〈◊〉 Dei 〈◊〉 . 1. Quta in genere 〈◊〉 , sub lege ordinis , decori , & 〈◊〉 . 2 Quia pleraeque 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sequuntur ex 〈◊〉 quae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sunt 〈◊〉 constituta . 〈◊〉 enim 〈◊〉 constituit , 〈◊〉 fideles omnis generis convenirent , ad 〈◊〉 nomen & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 etiam 〈◊〉 , ut 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 locum habeant , in quo possint convenire , & 〈◊〉 etiam assignatam , qua 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; 〈◊〉 etiam minister à Des sit constitutus ad alios 〈◊〉 instituendos , fimul etiam constituitur , ut 〈◊〉 & fitum corporis illum habeat , qui tali 〈◊〉 congruit . 25. Illa igitur quae pertinent ad ordinem & decorum , non ita relinquuntur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; ut 〈◊〉 , quod 〈◊〉 libet , sub illo nomine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; 〈◊〉 partim determinantur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 natura ipsarum rerum , & partim circumstantiis illis , quae ex occasione sese 〈◊〉 . 26. Variae enim 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 circumstantiae tales sunt , ut nulla institutione publica accedente , debeant tamen à singulis observari , neque 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hominibus prohiberi sine 〈◊〉 . 24. Such like circumstances therefore , which of their own nature are civil or common , are not particularly commanded in the Scriptures , partly because they come into mens common sense , and partly because it would not stand with the dignity and majesty of the Law of God , that such things should be severally prescribed in it . For by this 〈◊〉 many ridiculous 〈◊〉 should have been provided for by a special Law ; as for example , that in the Church assenibly one should not place himself in anothers 〈◊〉 , spit in anothers face , or should not make monthes in holy actions : Yet they are to be accounted as commanded from God : 1. Because they are 〈◊〉 in generall under the Law of 〈◊〉 , Decency , and 〈◊〉 . 2. Because most of them doe necessarily follow from those things which are 〈◊〉 appointed by God. For when God appointed that the faithfull of all sorts should meet together to celebrate his name , and worship , he did consequently 〈◊〉 that they should have a sit and conventent place , wherein they may meet together , and an hour also assigned at which they may be 〈◊〉 together : when also there is a Minister appointed by God to teach others publiquely , it is withall appointed that he have a seat which is meet for such an action . 25. Those things therefore which pertain to order and decency , are not so 〈◊〉 to mens wills , that they may under the name of that , 〈◊〉 what they please upon the 〈◊〉 : but they are partly determined by the general precepts of God , partly by the nature of the things themselves , and partly by those circumstances which doe offer themselves upon occasion . 26. For divers circumstances of order and decency are such , as though there be no publique institution of them , yet they 〈◊〉 to be observed of every one , neither can men forbid them without sin . Unto this adde another place in his 〈◊〉 soit against Ceremonies , disput . pag. 29. We never said , or thought , that all particular rites pertaining to order and decency are punctually determined in the Scripture . We never dreamed , that all such 〈◊〉 being beside the particular determination of the Scripture , are against it , we speak of double , or treble rites as the Rejoinder 〈◊〉 them , 〈◊〉 no meer order and decency doth 〈◊〉 require , but onely the meer will of man 〈◊〉 . That which is instituted by God in his worship , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 well to be a part of Gods worship ; but that decency 〈◊〉 no part of Gods worship , Ames in his disput . pag. 176. proves by a Reason quoted out of 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 , Def of Mr. 〈◊〉 . pag 844 Order and comeliness ( saith the Popish Bishop ) is some part of 〈◊〉 worship . But ( saith Dr. Abbot ) who taught him this deep point of Philosophy , that an accident is a part of the subject , that the beauty or comelinesse of the body is a part of the body , order and 〈◊〉 properly and immediately respect men , and therefore can be no parts of the worship of God. To be instituted by God , if we speake 〈◊〉 & properly , is to be injoyned by a divine positive Law superadded unto the law of 〈◊〉 ; and in conformity hereunto it is that our Author Ames divides Gods worship , Med. lib. 2. cap. 5. into natural and instituted : Now if this be your meaning , when you impute unto Ames and me , that our opinion is , that nothing is decent in 〈◊〉 , which is not instituted by God , as the charge is false in it self , so it proveth not that which you bring it for , viz. that in our sense decency in the Apostle , is only that decency which the law of nature prescribes ; but 〈◊〉 the clean contrary , because that which is instituted by a positive law superadded to the law of nature , is not prescribed 〈◊〉 and immediatè by the law of nature . You are by this time , I hope , conscious of the great injury you have done unto poor Dr. Ames , in 〈◊〉 unto him so irrational an opinion , and hereupon I shall be bold to give you this advertisement , that however you may despise him as a mean Author , unworthy of your perusal , yet , if you undertake to 〈◊〉 and refute him , you must read him , or else you will be very lyable unto the breach of the ninth Commandement , Thou shalt not bear false witnesse against thy neighbour . But you will perhaps say in defence of your self , that if it were not the opinion of Ames , it is the sequele of his words ; and for this you have two reasons . The 1. because the mode or manner agreeable unto the dignity of sacred things is instituted by God , as the sacred things are instituted by God : But this proposition , if it be particular , 〈◊〉 nothing , and if it be universal , is false , as you might have seen in the next reason of Ames , but that you cannot see wood for trees , as the Proverb is ; There is a mode or manner in the use of sacred things agreeable unto their dignitie , that is not adequate , proper , and peculiar to them , but common unto civill matters of a grave nature together with them ; and this is a matter inculcated by Dr. Ames in many places , which if you had weighed , you would never have troubled the Reader with this objection , Medul . Theol. lib. cap. 14. th : 23. 〈◊〉 igitur hujusmodi circumstantiae vocari soleant à nonnullis ritus & ceremoniae religiosae , 〈◊〉 ecclesiasticae , nihil tamen habent in sua natura , quod proprium est religionis , atque adeo in iis non propriè consistit cultus 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 ex corum neglectu , & contemptu violatur aliquo modo 〈◊〉 cultus religiosi ; quia communis illa ratio ordinis & decori quae aequè convenit religiosis actibus , 〈◊〉 que civilibus , à religioso cultu non potest separart , quin oliquo modo 〈◊〉 ipsius dignitas & majestas . Although these circumstances of time , place , and other like , are wont by some to be called rites , or religious Ecclesiastical ceremonies , yet in their nature they have nothing that is proper to Religion , and therefore religious worship 〈◊〉 not properly consist in them , however by neglect and contempt of such circumstances , the sanctity of such religious worship is in some sort violated , because the common respect of order and decency , which do equally agree to religious and civil actions cannot bee severed from religious worship , without diminishing of the sanctity and dignity of it . Thus also largely in his Manuduction to the dispute about humane Ceremonies , pag. 55 , 56. If men and 〈◊〉 come purposely in their best apparel to Church , if they compose themselves to a grave posture , give the upper place to the chiefest persons , and take such to themselves as they may hear the 〈◊〉 in , and yet have no exception taken against them for it , if all the places and seats be made cleanly , and fit for a meeting , to be held in a 〈◊〉 fashion , all these are Ceremonies according to the Rejoinder his definition , yet no man but out of contention will affirm , they are meerly religious or ecclesiasticall : For all these in the same manner , and to the same immediate end , the same persons would doe , if the meeting were to hear the Magistrate propound unto them a grave civil businesse , concerning the Commonwealth affairs . And surely that which remaining the same may be civil , is not meerly and properly ecclesiastical , but common to both uses , and rather meerly civil , than meerly ecclesiastical ; because civility is supposed and included in ecclesiastical affairs , but ecclesiastical proceedings are not supposed and included in civil . Dr. Jackson in his original of unbelief , pag. 337. doth well observe , that decent behaviour doth change the subject onely , not alter its own nature and form , whilst it is used in matters sacred , nor is the habit of civil complement , or good manners , such an unhallowed weed , as must be layd aside when wee come into the Sanctuary . And indeed there is no more reason to shut civility out of the Church or sacred businesse , than to shut Religion out of the Town house , or civil affairs . Dr. Hammond . sect . 15. And so likewise on the second head that of civill offices , for that indecency which is a vice or sin must be contrary to some law of God , &c. Jeanes . Indecency in things civil , however it may be a vice in Ethicks against civility and good manners , yet it is not alwaies a sin in divinity contrary to some law of Gods but undecency in things sacred in the worship and service of God , if it be voluntary and avoydable , is against the command of the Apostle , which is a rule of the law of nature , saith Hooker ; and this I beleeve you will not deny in cold blood : and indeed you have no reason to deny it ; for it will not hereupon follow that the Apostle injoyneth onely that decency which is immediately prescribed by the Law of Nature , and my reason is , because as the Apostle , so the light of Nature injoyneth as that decency the neglect whereof would be undecent by the light of nature ; so also that , the omission whereof would be uncomely by 〈◊〉 custome , and therefore as undecency by the light of nature is against the light and Law of Nature immediately , so also undecency by civill custome is against the law of nature mediately . The long hair of women is one note by which custome hath distinguished them 〈◊〉 men ; and therefore 't is undecent for men to wear such long hair as women , and this supposed , mens wearing of such long hair is a mediate 〈◊〉 of the Law of nature ; whereupon the Apostle propounds this smart interrogation unto the Corinthians , 1 Cor. 11. 14 Doth not even nature it self teach you , that 〈◊〉 a man have long hair , 't is a shame to him ? We may say the same of the long garments of women : doth not even nature teach you 〈◊〉 if a man wear such garments it is a shame unto him , and very undecent , and yet the undecency thereof ariseth immediately from civil custome , and not 〈◊〉 any immediate Law of Nature . Dr. Hammond . For that indecency , which is a vice , or sin must be contrary to some Law of Gods , and so also that which is opposed to the due manner which is 〈◊〉 , and so is 〈◊〉 either incessitate 〈◊〉 , or 〈◊〉 also , to obtain in a just end , this sure is more then the 〈◊〉 of an indifferent custome , which may , or may not be continued without any offence against nature , even the omission of strict universal duty , either naturall decency , or somewhat that bears proportion with it . Jeanes . That decency in Gods worship and service , the neglect of which would be undecent , is necessary both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and praecepti . 1. Medii is required as a means unto the acceptable celebration of Gods worship , but then it is not a means proper and peculiar thereunto , for it hath the same immediate end both in civil and religious matters , and therefore is common unto both . 2 That it is necessary necessitate praecepti you cannot question , unlesse you will deny the title and obligation unto the Apostles injunction , for that it binds as an edict of nature we have the testimony of your own Hooker : if this twofold necessity of decency be chargeable with any absurdities , you are as deeply concerned to answer them as my self : indeed that decency . from the omission whereof we cannot inferre indecency is necessary , neither necessitate praecepti , nor medii . But with such a decency we have nothing to doe ; for it comes not within the compasse of the Apostolical command , and such is the decency of your ceremonies altogether unnecessary ; neither commanded by any Law of God , nor necessary as a means for the better service of God. But perhaps you may attempt to prove , that God is better served with your Ceremonies , than without them ; when I shall have such proof from you , I shall return it an answer . In the mean while let us consider the absurdity with which you charge the assertion of the , but now mentioned , double necessity of decency in Gods worship : If that be necessary , necessitate praecepti , or medii , then undecency , say you , which is opposed thereunto , is more than the omission of an indifferent custome , which may , or may not be continued without any offence against nature . For answer , the undecency here prohibeted by the Apostle , is either by the light of nature , or by civil custome . The former is more than the omission of an indifferent custome , and is an immediate transgression against nature . As for the latter , we must distinguish of a twofold consideration of such customes , they may be considered either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the generall , as abstracted from all singularizing circumstances , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 , as clothed with such and such circumstances , and so they are not indifferent but necessary necessitate both praecepti and medii . I might exemplifie this by instancing in the long hair , proper apparel , viz. long garments of women , and the like . There is a passage in Ames , already 〈◊〉 , that will be here very apposite ; Bishop Morton had demanded of him whether the womens vailes , 1 Cor. 11. were not a thing indifferent , and his answer is , it is indifferent in the generall nature of it , yet at that time , and in that place , they finned that did otherwise , even before Paul , or any of their Overseers gave them charge about it . Dr. Hammond . sect . 16. Now this being thus far explained , it is time to close with Mr : J. and mind him , what he cannot but know , that the decency which I said , implyed custome , is certainly another thing from natural decency , and hath place onely in those things , the omitting of which doth not necessarily inferre indecency . That omission which necessarily infers indecency , infers it in all that ever did it , or shall omit it : We know in Logick that no proposition is necessary , which is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , true in the whole species of all , and every one , and I leave it to his judgement , whether he think the Dr. and his party ( i. e. Prelatists , I suppose ) doe conceive , that Adam , ( whether in , or out of Paradise ) Noah in , or out of the Ark , &c. were obliged to pray in Surplices under pain of indecency ? And so ( in his other instance ) that John Baptist , that Christ , or ( because the Text saith that he baptised not , but his Disciples ) that those Disciples , euen before the death of Christ , might not baptise any without the sign of the Crosse , but under the same penalty ? Jeanes . Natural decency is a branch , nay the principal branch of that decency commanded by the Apostle , and therefore I could not think it excluded by you ; but withal , I must conclude your interpretation of the Apostle , to be very 〈◊〉 and defective , when you said the clear importance of the Apostles words was , Let all things be done according to custome ; I was so foolish to suppose that you meant this clear importance of the Apostles words , was also the full importance of them , neither can you assign any reason , why I should think otherwise . But that , I see , which so much stumbleth you , is the word necessarily , concerning which I hope you are satisfied by what I have already said , and therefore I shall only adde this one thing , that necessarily hath two acceptions . 1. In regard of an absolute necessity . 2. In respect of an Hypothetical necessity arising from some extrinsecal circumstance or condition . Now , I 〈◊〉 not restrain it unto either of these senses , but take it abstractively in such a latitude , as that 't is appliable unto either of the significations according unto the nature of the things spoken of : the omission of natural 〈◊〉 infers undecency necessarily , in regard of an absolute necessity ; the omission of civil undecency , insers undecency necessarily onely ex Hypothesi : and that inference of indecency which is only necessary ex Hypothesi , is more than an inference thereof , which is fallacious , or at the most but probable ; and if we speak of this necessity , it is very false which you say , that that omission which thus necessarily inferres undecency , inferres it in all that ever did , or shall omit it . But you say that , we know in Logick , that no 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 , which is not de omni true in the whole species of all and every one . Unto which I answer , that he who hath any tolerable knowledge in 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 that what you say is to be limited onely unto that necessity which is scientifical and demonstrative ; for to say nothing of such propositions as are necessary onely hypothetically , there are divers propositions absolutely in themselves 〈◊〉 , setting aside all outward circumstances and conditions , which are not 〈◊〉 de omni . 1. I shall instance in divers particular propositions , as , Quaedam 〈◊〉 est 〈◊〉 : 〈◊〉 corpus est mixtum . 2. In several negative propositions , as , nullus spiritus est corpus : nullus lapis est 〈◊〉 . Now these are necessary propositions , because of an immutable truth , and they are not de omni : For , 1. A particular proposition is not de omni , but de aliquo : And then 2. a negative proposition is not de omni ; for de omni is opposed unto that which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de nullo . Dr. Hammond . sect . 17. Nay , 't is already past question , that Mr. J. in his first argument against my dictate ( as he calls it ) saith , that the light and law of nature is also a rule of 〈◊〉 , and so not onely custome : And if so , then custome is a rule of decency also , and not only the law and light of nature , and where 〈◊〉 , and not the light of nature is the rule , there the omission of that doth not necessarily inferre indecency . And of such decency alone it is evident that I spake , on the head of Uniformity ( and could not speak sense , if I spake , either of any other , or of the generall notion of decency , which is competible to any other ) and 〈◊〉 thence it follows demonstratively that of that decency of which I spake ( though not of that , of which it is certain I spake not ) still custome is the onely rule of decency . This therefore I hope may serve in answer to his first charge , that of my timidity , that I dared not say what I said not ; together with a view of his concession of the truth of what I did say , and the wary limitation of that concession . Jeanes . 1. I called your assertion , viz. Custome is the onely rule of decencie , a dictate , and shall call it so still , untill you can prove it , and when you bring any solid proof of it , abstracted from your 〈◊〉 , for limitations I cannot call them , I shall be contented to be your vassal . 2 You seem to 〈◊〉 , that in the things you speak of , custome , and not the light of nature is the role , but this is very false ; for custome is mensura passiva , as well as activa : When it is a rule of decency , it is first measured and regulated by the light of nature , and without such regulation it is no rule of decency in any matter whatsoever ; for custome hath not the force of a law 〈◊〉 sit rationabilis , that is agreeable unto the dictate of right reason and the law of Nature ; the law of Nature then is still the principal rule of decency , speake of what decency you will or can , and custome is but a rule subordinate thereunto , and to be examined thereby . 3. If you speak of such decency alone , the omission whereof doth not necessarily inferre undecency , in respect either of an absolute , or 〈◊〉 necessity , you doe not speak of that decency which the Apostle commandeth ; for that the Apostle should command such a decency , in the omission of which , men onely boldly affirm , or meerly opine there is 〈◊〉 , and cannot make good such an affirmation or opinion , by any other than sophistical , or at the best , but probable arguments , me thinks should not sink into the head of any rational man. Yea , but you say , that you could not speak sense , if you spake either of any other , or of the generall notion of decency which is competible to any other . Suppose I grant this , what then ? this argument is of little prevalency with me , who am in this particular your Antagonist ; for though I acknowledge and admire your great parts and learning , yet I think it not onely possible , but probable for you , or any other , though never so great a scholar , to speake nonsence in opposition of the truth . 2. It is evident and certain that the Apostle spake of the general notion of decency , which is competible unto natural decency , and from thence it follows demonstratively , that if it be so certain , that you speak not of this decency , it is as certaine that your glosse of the Apostles ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 and maimed ; for it leaves out what is chiefly meant by it , but of this before . Dr. Hammond . sect . 18. Secondly , then to his second charge , the unsufficiency of that limited truth ( which is the utmost he will yeild my 〈◊〉 ) to prove what I would have from it ] It will soon appear of how little force it is , when 〈◊〉 . my meaning was quite another thing from what he affixt to my words , or yeilded me in his limited concession , as hath already been largely manifested ; and 2. my conclusion is regularly consequent to that which 〈◊〉 alone my meaning . This latter the addition of a few words will clear also . Jeanes . For answer unto this I shall referre unto what hath been said already . Dr. Hammond . sect . 19. My conclusion designed in that Section was the justifying of Uniformity of Ceremonies in the service of God , and one of the grounds to support that , the decency of those ceremonies , wherein all should joyn , and that decency ruled , and judged of by the custom of the place in which such and such a ceremony was an usual indication , and expression of that reverence , which being due from all inferiours to their superiours is much more due from all Christians to God. Jeanes . 1. 〈◊〉 ceremonies have two acceptions . 1. They are taken largely for all circumstances of order , decency ; as also for all meere indicant signs of reverence , and these for distinction sake may be called circumstantial ceremonies : but these are not the ceremonies in question ; for the Non-conformists acknowledge these law full , and so also Uniformity in them ; but yet of these ceremonies , custome is neither the onely or principal rule , as shall be manifested when I come unto the examination of your Answer unto my Objections against this your dictate . In 〈◊〉 second place , humane ceremonies are taken strictly , onely for such as are 〈◊〉 , symbolical , and sacramental , and unto such neither 〈◊〉 nor reverence 〈◊〉 us . Not , first , the Apostles decency ; because in the omission of them there is no undecency . Not , secondly , that reverence which is due unto God in his worship , 〈◊〉 in the omission of them there is no irreverence committed ; you may think my notion of reverence to be too narrow ; but 't is the utmost I can grant you ; and indeed 't is all that Scripture and Reason call for : reverence and irreverence are 〈◊〉 opposed , and between privative opposites , in a capable subject , there is no medium , either of abnegation or participation , and therefore when there is no irreverence in the external worship of God , that worship is reverently administred : now that 〈◊〉 is unreverently administred when the Crosse is omitted , or that 〈◊〉 Prayers and Preaching are unreverent , when the Surplice is left off , may perhaps be very affectionately averred by you and others , but I do not hope to live so long as to receive from you , or any man living , for it , so much as the shadow of an argument . In the first place then you see that reverence bindeth not to humane , religious , mystical ceremonies . 〈◊〉 , in a second place , it bindeth to lay them quite aside , because Gods Ordinances are treated very irreverently , when mens inventions are joyned with them , when men set their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thresholds , and their posts by his posts , Ezek. 43. 8. that is , when humane inventions are added unto Gods precepts . Yea , but you may perhaps say our Ceremonies are joyned with Gods Ordinances onely as adjuncts , or annexaries , not as parts of Gods worship . But unto this I reply in the words of Ames unto Morton , all external ceremonies , whose proper use is the honouring of God , are external worship , as all divinity sheweth . Reply unto gen . Def. pag 19. Thirdly , the pretence of reverence in Gods worship , hath 〈◊〉 been an inlet unto many superstitious practises ; this Ames sheweth in his Reply unto 〈◊〉 particular Defence , &c pag. 69. Out of such 〈◊〉 as this , saith he , all superstition hath crept into the Sacrament . For expression of reverence , some would not touch the bread with their hands , or the cup either , but have both bread and wine put into their mouthes . 〈◊〉 more agreeably to 〈◊〉 fashion ( urged by the 〈◊〉 ) where meat is taken with silver forks , 〈◊〉 of hands , devised a silver 〈◊〉 to suck up the wine through . Some would not have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . men 〈◊〉 of the wine 〈◊〉 all : And many for meere reverence ( as they say ) will neither touch wine nor 〈◊〉 , abstaining altogether from the 〈◊〉 . All these usages might have been , and may be 〈◊〉 , and yet custome cannot legitimate them and make them decent . I shall conclude all that I have to say unto 〈◊〉 two last Sections with a remarkable passage in Parker his Treatise of the 〈◊〉 , part . 1. pag. 112. The second office of the Crosse is to procure reverence to 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 esse communis ablutio : Which is the office of the Salt , the Taper , and the rest of Popish signs , which how cut we 〈◊〉 , but with this Ax that beheadeth the 〈◊〉 as wel . Non 〈◊〉 , &c. We must not think but that the Baptism of Christ , and of the Apostles was performed with reverence enough , when these 〈◊〉 were wanting ; neither must we take upon us to be wiser than they . To procure right reverence to the Sacrament , is to lay open the institution by the Preaching of the Word , and then to deliver it in that simplicity in wh ch we have received it . To adde signs over and above is 〈◊〉 to honour it , but to 〈◊〉 it . Indeed the 〈◊〉 had been more honourably 〈◊〉 , if 〈◊〉 had been sent home again as it came into the land and hand of the 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 thought they could not honour it sufficiently , unlesse they set a budget by it of certain new devised signs to wait upon it , which did defile it . David 〈◊〉 this budget , and did wel : Howbeit , 〈◊〉 Cart he thinketh cannot well be spared , for which the Lord made a breach in Israel , untill he drave him to confess that he was not sought in due order , as long as one Ceremony of the Philistines did remain . The Lord shew mercy to our Church , otherwise he will shew , that our 〈◊〉 of the Popish budget , in banishing the salt , the oyl , the 〈◊〉 , with the rest , will not be judged sufficient , unless we cease also with a 〈◊〉 of theirs to cart Baptisme , which should be born up to reverence no other way than by the shoulders of the Levites , I mean the labours of those Preachers which now ( 〈◊〉 ) lye in the dust , because they wil not defile their hands by touching of this Philistim 〈◊〉 for to uphold it . Dr. Hammond . sect . 20 , 21. In these it is certain , custome is the rule and the onely rule of 〈◊〉 : Neither nature nor Gods Law obliges all mankind to this , or that expression 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 nations have their several manners of doing 〈◊〉 ; onely nature tels us , that the most reverent manner of treating is best becomming God , and that it cannot be decent , to treat 〈◊〉 in that manner as we would not doe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beside , and Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 about the offering of polluted bread 〈◊〉 his 〈◊〉 , and of sacrificing the lame and the sick , Mal. 1. 8. is a confirmation of that ; Offer it now , saith God , unto thy 〈◊〉 , will he be pleased with thee ? 21. Apply this to a particular case , to a Nation , where 't is customary to address to Kings kneeling , and 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 will 〈◊〉 exactly ( but not where that is not custome ) Among such I may say , Did ever any man that had his limbs and health offer a 〈◊〉 to his Prince in the gesture of sitting , or lying along upon a table ? and if he did not , then I 〈◊〉 , I suppose , regularly conclude from custome , the only rule of 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 matters , that according to Gods arguing it cannot be decently done in his service , 〈◊〉 is the tendring our petitions or requests to that infinite Majesty . And so 〈◊〉 in other things . Jeanes . Your 〈◊〉 of the indications and expressions of that reverence of which custome is the only rule , by instancing in kneeling in prayer , when wee tender our petitions or requests to the infinite majesty of God , is very impertinent ; for it is very evident , that 〈◊〉 is not the only 〈◊〉 of it , because it is sufficiently warranted both by Scripture and the light of Nature . Unto all this I shall adde a distinction of reverence ; it may be taken sometimes largely , and so it comprehends 〈◊〉 : sometimes strictly , & so it is distinguished 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; for reverence , is due unto the Ordinances of God , 〈◊〉 , and worship onely unto God : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be a 〈◊〉 and subordinate rule of the signs of reverence , taken strictly , whereupon by custome , uncovering of the 〈◊〉 is a general or common gesture of reverence , to be used with discretion in all 〈◊〉 exercises ; but now as for the indications and expressions of adoration , I do think the Scripture a 〈◊〉 rule of them , where , I do not exclude the law and light of nature , for materially considered , it is a part of Scripture . Dr. Hammond . sect . 22. This I did not apply to the Crosse in Baptism ; and the Ministers using of the 〈◊〉 , as being not 〈◊〉 to that place . Another 〈◊〉 was set 〈◊〉 for those , and proceeded to sect . 18. the Crosse expresly named , and the 〈◊〉 implyed under the title of other Ceremonies , of which it may there be seen , what my 〈◊〉 was , not what is here deem'd incambent on me to prove , that the 〈◊〉 of them infers 〈◊〉 , but that standing on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , whereon they are known to stand , Conscience duly instructed , cannot think it 〈◊〉 , or tending to 〈◊〉 to cast them 〈◊〉 out of this Church , or the whole Liturgie for their sakes . Jeanes . What you said , was applyable unto the Crosse in Baptisme , and the Ministers using of the Surplice for your conclusion was , the more then lawfulnesse of prescription of ceremonies in a Church , and of Uniformity therein ; and here sect . 19 you acknowledge that your cnclusion , designed in that Section , was the justifying of Uniformity of Ceremonies in the service of God : now I had reason to think that you speak of humane , religious , mystical ceremonies , because such onely were opposed by the Non-conformists , and such the Crosse and Surplice were , 〈◊〉 , though not exclusively . 2. If your design be to justifie doctrinal ceremonies from the Apostles command of decency , then 't is incumbent on you to prove that the omission of such ceremonies doth 〈◊〉 undecency ; for if it doth not infer undecency , then therin there is no transgression of the Apostles precept , and if the Apostles precept be not transgressed by the omission of them , the Assembly had no cause , upon that account , to repent of their casting such ceremonies out of the Church of God. Dr. Hammond . sect . 23 , 24. And yet if Mr. J. shall now desire to know what the grounds of these two Ecclesiastical rites are , which alone he is pleased to name , on perswasion , I suppose , that they were as fit , if not fitter than any others for the disproving my position , of ( custome being the onely rule of decency ) I shall now render him a brief account of them , such as may in some degree confirm the truth of it . 24. And 〈◊〉 for the Crosse in Baptism . 1. 'T is known to all , that our Christian course is a spirituall Warfare under Christ our great Generall : Now it is , and alwaies hath been customary over the world , that in a militia there should be some Banner , or Ensign , to which every one should resort , and fight under it . This hath custome made decent among all ; and supposing that custome , the omission of it in an Army is indecent , yet not so , as things dishonest , or breaches of the Law of Nature are indecent . Jeanes . 1. As our Christian course is a spiritual warfare , so unto this the Ordinances of Christ Jesus are a more suitable Banner or Ensign , than any humane invention whatsoever : But you think that the Banner requisite in our spiritual warfare must be of humane invention , not divine institution ; for otherwise you speak nothing to the purpose ; and if the omission of such a Banner or Ensign be undecent , you may arraign Christ and his Apostles as guilty of undency . 2. The signe of the Crosse hath been a long time used by Antichrist , as an Ensign or Banner , and is it undecent to lay aside the Ensign or Banner of an enemy ? 3. How little weight there is in the customary use of a Banner for the decency of the sign of the Crosse in Baptisme , will be apparent by these following considerations . 1. It is a custome in Armies for different companies or troupes to have Banners or Ensigns ; but it was never the custome of any Armies for every severall souldier to carry a Banner or Ensign : from the custome of a Banner or Ensign then , how you can conclude for the signing of every singular Christian with the sign of the Crosse passeth my imagination . 2. The customary use of a Banner is in the whole war , and not onely at the first enrolement of Souldiers , and therefore if it prove any thing for the Sign of the Crosse , it will conclude for the frequent and constant use of it all the time of our warfare ; and this I hope you will not plead for . 3. A permanent Crosse hath more proportion unto the Banners and Ensigns of Armies than the transient and aërial Crosse ; and yet there be some of your party , who allow of the transient Crosse in Baptisme , that dislike permanent Crosses in Gods worship ; because they think there is more danger of superstition in them : Now these men , in all probability , lay no great stresse upon this your resemblance of the sign of the Crosse to a Banner or Ensign , and my reason for this my conjecture ( for I urge it onely as a conjecture ) is , because they reject all permanent Crosses in Gods service , which doe more resemble a Banner or Ensign than a transient Cross. 4. I have done my best to sound the depth and strength of your argument , and if I be not deceived , thus it stands : The omission of a Banner or Ensign , in our spiritual warfare , that was used by the Primitive Christians , is undecent ; but the sign of the Crosse in Baptism was thus used by the Primitive Christians , therefore omission of it is undecent . By Primitive Christians , I suppose you doe not mean the Apostles , or such Apostolical persons as were guided by an infallible spirit , and then I deny your Major , and for this my denial I shall give you two reasons . 1. In Christ our great Generall , the Captain of our salvation , were hidden all the treasures of wisdome and knowledge , and therefore he knew better what was decent in his worship , than all Primitive Christians , han all the Fathers and Councils that ever were in the world ; and therefore seeing there is such a deep silence of the Crosse in his word , I shall never think it so highly decent as you 〈◊〉 , so decent , that the omission of it is undecent . 2. It is , and alwaies hath been 〈◊〉 over the world , at least in civil and wel-governed Nations , that in a Militia all should be done by Commission derived from the General . Manlius put his own Son to death for fighting with an enemy , though he had the Conquest , because it was 〈◊〉 order , and L. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had , for the same reason , executed Q. Fabius 〈◊〉 , though he had 〈◊〉 a great Victory over the Samnites , but that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the people of Rome 〈◊〉 him . But now our 〈◊〉 can produce no Commission from our great General , to use any Banner or Ensign in his worship , but such as he hath already 〈◊〉 , his Word , Sacraments , Discipline , and 〈◊〉 I shall condemn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of any such Banner or Ensign , as a transgression against his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 of this , I found this your objection both propounded and answered by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Scharp . 〈◊〉 . theol . 〈◊〉 . 2 pag 39 , 40. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 militare , quo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 distinguantur : At Christiani omnes sunt 〈◊〉 , Eph 6 11. ergo & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 debent , & per consequens signum 〈◊〉 . Resp. 〈◊〉 illud conseq 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alia 〈◊〉 , nempe internum signum fidei , externam 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 verbi & 〈◊〉 , &c. What he speaks of external 〈◊〉 and participation of the Word and Sacraments , wil satisfie what you say . I cannot here passe by a passage in 〈◊〉 against Duraeus , pag 191 , 192 in the Edition of his Works in Fol. Daraeus having cited many Fathers for the Ceremonies added unto Baptisme , Whitaker thus replyeth unto him : 〈◊〉 vero non interest quid Clemens , quid Leo , quid Damasus , quid quisquam alius Pontifex ad Baptismi Sacramentum 〈◊〉 . Christus ecclesiae 〈◊〉 de 〈◊〉 ceremoniarum nugis mandavit , 〈◊〉 in illis 〈◊〉 , quos in scriptura legimus , baptismis , ulla harum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reperitur . 〈◊〉 vero putemus 〈◊〉 ecclesiam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , quibus in Baptismo ceremoniis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , quam Christum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ? Before I proceed further , I shall take notice of the limitation that you have in the close of sect : 24. of your assertion of undecency in the omission of a Banner in an Army : It is not so 〈◊〉 , say you , as things dishonest , or breaches of the Law of Nature ; Now if you apply this unto the omission of a Banner in our spiritual Militia , I thus object against it : The publique worship of God is a chief part of our spiritual warfa e , and the command of decency in that is , saith your Hocker , an edict or Law of Nature , and whatsoever is therein undecent transgresseth against this Law : If the omission then there in of a Banner or Ensign of humane invention ( for of such only you speak ) be undecent , 't is so undecent as things dishonest , or breaches of the Law of Nature are undecent . Dr. Hammond . sect . 25 , 26 , 27 , 28. And the Crosse on which 〈◊〉 was crucified , the Embleme also of that 〈◊〉 that every Christian enters into , a constant , courageous patience for all afflictions , was by the Primitive Christians thus used , as their Symbol or Ensigne , and every man that is inrolled in the Christian Militia , is by him that inrolles him , signed with it ; and this practise being thus founded , and revived in the Church , Saint Augustines words are worth remembring , and cannot be denyed to have truth in them : Signum crucis nifi adhibeatur , sive 〈◊〉 credentium , sive ipsi 〈◊〉 quâ regenera 〈◊〉 &c. nihil ritè perficitur : Unlesse the sign of the Grosse be used either to the foreheads of the beleevers ( who are baptised ) or to the water it self by which we are regenerate , it is not duly performed . i. e. with such ceremonies as by custome of the Church , the rule of decency , belong to it ; and , crucis signo in fronte 〈◊〉 tanquam in poste 〈◊〉 es , omnesque Christiani signantur ( de Catechiz . rud . cap. 20. rom . 4. p. 915. ) thou must be signed now in the forehead with the sign of the 〈◊〉 , as the Israelites on their door-posts , and so must all Christians . In the forehead particularly c in fronte figat , ubi sedes 〈◊〉 , because the seat of shame is there , which we render , in token that the baptized shall not be ashamed . 26. The usage of this ceremony of signing with the Crosse , was , we 〈◊〉 know , frequent in the Church ( while the gifts of healing continued ) in (d) curing 〈◊〉 , and casting out Devils , to that Athanasius frequently affirms of it , (e) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; by the sign of the Crosse all Magick , and Witchcraft is brought to nought , all the Idol Temples laid waste and empty . 27. And then Baptisme being the 〈◊〉 of Devils ( the ancient Catechists wee know were called Exorcists ) the rescuing of a person from the power of Satan into Gods Sonship and Family , what can be more proper , or agreeable , or exactly symbolical , than the use of this in Baptisme , according to that of 〈◊〉 . de Resurr Carn . Caro sig . natur , ut anima muniatur , the flesh or body is signed , that the soul may be defended or fortified ? 28. And if instead of the (f) frequent use of it among the ancients , even (g) before the cumbersome weight of Ceremonies came in , ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith the Author of the Quest. and Resp. ascribed to Justin 〈◊〉 , Qu. 〈◊〉 . pag. 364. in time of prayer we sign those that are any way ill affected ) we in our Church retain it onely in our solemne entrance into Christs ' camp , in token that we mean 〈◊〉 to fight under his banner , and in confidence that he that thus signed to Constantine victory from Heaven ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in this overcome ) will thus give grace , and seal 〈◊〉 us victory over our 〈◊〉 enemies : what question can there ever be of the perfect decency of this usage among us ? Jeanes . Here you heap up many Testimonies of the Fathers for the Sign of the 〈◊〉 , unto which it is no difficult 〈◊〉 to adde more , but you 〈◊〉 very wel have spared all this labour ; for first , it is not unknown unto you , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hold , that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 the Crosse , are no waies justifiable ; hear what Bishop 〈◊〉 quotes out of the 〈◊〉 , and Mr. Hy , pag. 〈◊〉 , 238. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 put 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sign of 〈◊〉 Crosse , and wrote of it very superstitiously . Some telling us that it was a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , attributed a power thereunto of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; What shall we 〈◊〉 ? 〈◊〉 that the 〈◊〉 hath been as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Fathers , as by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 that the 〈◊〉 have 〈◊〉 it with divine worship , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ever the Fathers did 〈◊〉 it . Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to give an Answer hereunto , but Dr 〈◊〉 hath so replyed unto him , as that hee hath sate down , and neither he , or his Second , have in this rejoyned any thing unto Amesius . Unto this of the Abridgement , and Mr. Hy , let me adde what hath observed in the Fathers speeches concerning the Crosse , Treat . part . 1. pag. 90. Chew a little upon these speech s , it may be they taste how unsavoury the Fathers are , in the matter of the Crosse : o With the sign of the Crosse it is that the Body of our Lord is 〈◊〉 , and the 〈◊〉 of Baptism sanctified . With p the Sign of the Crosse is the wave of Baptisme consecrated . q By the Sign of the Crosse is the Lords Body consecrated . The Font of Baptisme sanctified , and all things whatsoever are made holy , they are made holy with the sign of the Lords 〈◊〉 . r we glory in the Crosse of the Lord , whose 〈◊〉 worketh throughout all Sacraments : without which sign nothing else is holy , nor any other consecration that commeth to 〈◊〉 . s With the sign of the Crosse is the Fonte of Regeneration made holy ; and to speak fully , all Sacraments are perfected by his virtue . t Unlesse the sign of the Crosse be applyed to the 〈◊〉 of the Beleevers , or to the water whereby they are 〈◊〉 , or to the sacrifice whereby they are fed , none of these are rightly performed . u The water of salvation is not the water of salvation , unlesse being consecrated in Christs name , it be signed with his Crosse. Again w The water is good for no use of future health , without the Preaching of the Lords Crosse. But when it is consecrated with the 〈◊〉 of the saving Crosse , then it is 〈◊〉 to the use of a spiritual washing , and of a saving Cup. As therefore Moses threw the wood 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 , and made them sweet , so the Priest sends the Preaching of the Lords Crosse into this 〈◊〉 , and the water thereof is made sweet unto grace . By this you may see that 〈◊〉 allegations out of the Fathers are in vaine , unlesse you had added a proof of their infallibility , or that they are to be a rule of our faith in matters of this nature . 2. One Papist is found ( saith Parker , part 1. pag. 〈◊〉 ) who 〈◊〉 , the Fathers meant 〈◊〉 of the outward sign , but of the thing 〈◊〉 , which is Christs death : It is well , that we 〈◊〉 this 〈◊〉 from him , that the Fathers cannot be justified , in case they mean the outward sign , which they mean undoubtedly , or else our opposites doe us great wrong , who object the Fathers against us in the Outward ceremony of the Crosse , &c. 3. Those that are but tolerably versed in the Fathers , cannot but confesse , that they ascribe very strange things unto the sign of the Crosse ; as that it is a necessary requisite of Baptisme , that it was an 〈◊〉 against the Devil , and an instrument of Miracles , a fence or fortification of the soul against all spirituall adversaries ; but these 〈◊〉 , however you may excuse them , yet they are so grosse , as that they are utterly 〈◊〉 of any just Apology to be made for them ; and this without more adoe might 〈◊〉 for answer unto sect . 25 , 26 , 27 , 28. But I shall farther give you some general exceptions against those testimonies of the Fathers you alledge , and next , say something unto them taken severally and apart . My general exceptions shall be six . The first , the not using of the Crosse by Christ and his Apostles , is a greater prejudice against it , than all the 〈◊〉 can be given unto it by the Fathers of after ages ; 〈◊〉 what are Augustine , 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 , &c. whom you 〈◊〉 , in comparison of our blessed Saviour : unto them the Spirit was given but in measure , unto him without measure , Joh. 3. 34. And , it was a 〈◊〉 of wisdome and understanding , a spirit of counsel and knowledge , Isa. 11. 12. and so was able to make 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 provision for any religious Ceremonies in his Church that he thought requisite : Why should 〈◊〉 we 〈◊〉 our selves with those few that he hath ordained ? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no mortal men can produce a patent from him for the 〈◊〉 of any other : and why should we think the omission of the Cross in Baptism undecent ? seeing it was omitted by Christ himself and his Apostles ; for that it was 〈◊〉 by them , is confessed by a learned Conformist , Dr. Fulk , in answer unto the 〈◊〉 , pag 252. Neither was the sign of the Crosse , saith he , in any estimation with the Apostles , or the faithful in their time . 〈◊〉 indeed , 〈◊〉 signing with the Crosse to be an old Tradition , which yet is no more certain to have been used by the Apostles , than other like Ceremonies which he there 〈◊〉 , as the 〈◊〉 of Milk and Honey by them that were baptised , and the abstinence from washing for a week after baptism , 〈◊〉 for birth dayes , and such other , 〈◊〉 since abolished , which they should not have been , if they had been ordained by the Apostles as necessary for Christian Religion . As a man runneth to the Fountain , saith Cyprian , when the channels are defiled , so must we repair to the practise of the 〈◊〉 Church , which is the Fountain of all piety : non est attendendum ( saith he ) quid aliquis ante nos 〈◊〉 putaverit , sed quid , qui ante omnes est , Christus fecerit , & faciendum praeceperit . Agreeable hereunto is that which Mr. Parker part . 1. pag. 100. quotes out of Sadeel against the Monks of Burdeaux . When the Monks of Burdeaux affirm the signs which are added to Baptisme , are an ornament to it , we thus reply : Are they wiser than Christ Jesus , who hath ordained his Sacrament in so great purity and simplicity , and who knoweth better than all the men in the world , what ornament was fittest for it ? If it be but the covenant of a man , when it is confirmed , no man abrogateth it , or addeth any thing to it : What arrogancy is it then to adde to the institution of Christ ? A second exception of the Non-conformists against the Testimonies of the Fathers for the sign of the Crosse , is , that they doe not contribute so much honour thereunto , as the suspected infamous birth and original of it doth discredit : In all probabilities , say they , that Devillish Heretick , Valentinus , was the first Author and Father of it , the first that advanced it unto any religious use ; and this they prove out of 〈◊〉 . Parker part . 1. pag. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that it 〈◊〉 by the Text of 〈◊〉 , that 〈◊〉 did use the figure of the 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 expresse one of his 〈◊〉 by ; and as 〈◊〉 was the Father of it , so 〈◊〉 , say they , was the Nurse of it . 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 , as I told you , was a Conformitant 〈◊〉 , and no enemy unto the sign of the Crosse , so he prosesseth of himself in his confutation of the 〈◊〉 pag. 87. As 〈◊〉 the sign of the Crosse , so it be 〈◊〉 superstition , we can abide well 〈◊〉 . And yet this man pag. 252. tels us , that Valentinus the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that made any great account of it ; and 〈◊〉 for it too 〈◊〉 , as well as the Non-conformists . A third exception against the pretended antiquity of the Crosse , and the Testimonies of the Fathers in that behalf , is , that divers Ceremonies 〈◊〉 wi h the Crosse are not urged , but abolished , and yet they were 〈◊〉 prostituted 〈◊〉 such superstitions and 〈◊〉 abuses as the Crosse hath been : And therefore why should the Crosse be such a 〈◊〉 , as to be 〈◊〉 ? This exception you may see thus managed by 〈◊〉 , part . 1. pag. 39. If our Opposites must needs drink of this Cistern of 〈◊〉 , then lot the q Oyle it self of Baptisme , be 〈◊〉 : Yea , r Baptizing by Lay-men ; for these be as ancient as the Crosse , and sprang about the same time with it . Sure with farre better reason may they take out of their graves , the ceremony s of Kissing the Infant Baptised ; the ceremony of the t Ring given in Baptism , for an obsignation of Faith and Profession ; the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 u Milk and Hony into 〈◊〉 mouth ; And lastly 〈◊〉 Ceremony of the w White Garment , wherewith the 〈◊〉 was wont to be clothed . These being equal to the Crosse , both for Antiquity , and for profitablenesse of signification , and 〈◊〉 it in other respects , as that they were never so much abused as the Crosse hath been , nor now import so much perill as the Crosse bring eth with it , may give wise men cause to wonder , why 〈◊〉 should 〈◊〉 buried in a tomb sealed up , while the Crosse not onely 〈◊〉 , but also 〈◊〉 . A fourth exception against the ancient use of the Crosse by the Fathers , is that it is over-ballanced by the Papists abuse of it unto 〈◊〉 : The Brazen Serpent was ordained by God , and yet when it was abused unto Idolatry , 〈◊〉 did well to break it in pieces , 2 King. 18. 4. And therefore the Crosse being a humane invention altogether unnecessary in Gods worship , is for the 〈◊〉 abuse of it rightly abolished . The force of this consequence may be gathered from what two English Bishops say . 1. From what Bishop 〈◊〉 hath from a translation of a passage out of the Canon Law , Def : of Mr. Perkins part . 1. pag. 168. 〈◊〉 our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 done some things , which at that time might be without 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 be 〈◊〉 to errour , and superstition , we are 〈◊〉 ( saith the Law ) by 〈◊〉 breaking the Brazen Serpent , that the Posterity may abolish the same 〈◊〉 any delay , and with great authority . The very same 〈◊〉 are 〈◊〉 in the like manner by Dr. John 〈◊〉 in his 〈◊〉 with 〈◊〉 , page 510. As also by 〈◊〉 in his Ecclesiastical 〈◊〉 , pag. 347. 2. From what Jewel 〈◊〉 for the abolition of 〈◊〉 , because of their Adoration , 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 14. pag 383. The best remedy in this behalf , and most 〈◊〉 with Gods Word , is utterly to abolish the cause of the ill . So the godly King 〈◊〉 took down , and 〈◊〉 in pe ces the Brazen Serpent ; notwithstanding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 commandment had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; notwithstanding it were an 〈◊〉 figure of Christ hanging upon the Crosse ; notwithstanding it had 〈◊〉 so many years ; notwithstanding God by it had wrought so many 〈◊〉 . So the 〈◊〉 Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in sunder the Image of Christ painted in a cloth ; and said , It was against Gods commandment 〈◊〉 thing 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 for the Church , and people of God ; notwithstanding it were the 〈◊〉 of Christ. So the godly Emperour 〈◊〉 made his 〈◊〉 over all his Dominions in this sort ; Signum Servatoris 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reperietur , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : We 〈◊〉 command , that the 〈◊〉 of our Saviour be taken down , in what place soever it shal be found : notwithstanding it were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Saviour . So it is decreed in the late Council of 〈◊〉 that , when Images happen to be 〈◊〉 by the people , they be either notably 〈◊〉 , or 〈◊〉 abolished . Unto these two I shall adde the testimony of 〈◊〉 , De Civitate Dei 〈◊〉 10. 〈◊〉 . 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Serpentem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idolum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , cum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Suppose then , though not grant , that the Ancients lawfully and laudably used the sign of the 〈◊〉 , as a 〈◊〉 sign of Christs death , and a monitory sign of their duty , yet seeing it hath been made by the Papists such an 〈◊〉 Idol , there is very good reason for the utter 〈◊〉 it out of Gods worship . A fifth exception is , that our Crosse is not the Fathers Crosse , who never annexed any word unto it , and therefore ours is the more Sacramental ; for this see Ames in his Reply to 〈◊〉 particular Def page 27 , As also Mr. Parker part . 1. pag. 114. My sixth exception I shall give you in the words of Mr. Parker , part . 1. page 133. What though the custome of the Fathers , who used the Crosse for a sign of Christ , were on all sides good , the times doe differ . They lived in an age when it was despised ; wee in a time when it is adored . 〈◊〉 in a time when it professed the Faith ; we in a time when it is common to Papists . They in a time when it was used over all the Church for the sign of Christianity ; we in an age , when out of our own Church it is no where used but for a 〈◊〉 of Antichristianity . In regard whereof we may wel appeal to the old Canons , Regulae Patrum 〈◊〉 sunt ( 〈◊〉 Gregory ) prout res 〈◊〉 videbatur , 〈◊〉 , loci personarum , reique 〈◊〉 habitâ 〈◊〉 . And Leo , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sunt , quae nulla possunt ratione convelli , 〈◊〉 multa sunt , quae pro 〈◊〉 temporum , ac confideratione 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . But I shall proceed to the examination of your testimonies apart . Dr. Hammond . Saint Augustines words are worth remembring , and cannot be denied to have 〈◊〉 in them b Signum crucis 〈◊〉 adhibeatur , sive frontibus credentium , sive ipsi aquae qua 〈◊〉 , &c. nihil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; 〈◊〉 the sign of the Crosse be used either to the foreheads of the 〈◊〉 ( who are 〈◊〉 ) or to the water it self by which we are regenerate , it is not duly performed , i. e. with such ceremonies as by custome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Church , the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 , belong to it . Jeanes . Saint Augustins words at large are as followeth , Quod signum nisi 〈◊〉 , five 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 ipsi aquae qua 〈◊〉 , sive 〈◊〉 quo Chrismate unguntur , sive sacrificio 〈◊〉 aluntur , 〈◊〉 eorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Saint 〈◊〉 here you see approves of the Chrism , and os the crossing of the Oyle therein , and sets it check by 〈◊〉 wi h the water in 〈◊〉 and the Sacrament of the Lords Supper ; now your 〈◊〉 doe hope that you doe not concurre with him herein ; and if you doe not , why doe you urge us with the authority of his Testimony ? 2. If you apply Saint Augustines words to our times , and aver , that they cannot be denyed to have 〈◊〉 in them , 〈◊〉 your opinion is , that unlesse the 〈◊〉 of the Crosse be used to the water in Baptism , and to the Elements in the Lords Supper , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are not duly performed with such ceremonies , as by custome of the Church , the rule of decency , belong unto them ; and then what Apology can you make for the Church of 〈◊〉 , that never since the Resormation used any of these Crossings . 3. Suppose 〈◊〉 in Augustines time had been administred without Crossing of either the forehead of the Baptised , or the water wherewith they were baptised , it had then indeed been performed not with such 〈◊〉 as by the Custome of the then Church belonged 〈◊〉 it : and so Fulk , in his 〈◊〉 of the Rhemists , expoundeth Augustines 〈◊〉 , page 693 , but this 〈◊〉 nothing against us ; for we hold that such Baptisme hath been 〈◊〉 , that is , duly , lawfully , and laudably administred , because it would have been agreeable unto Christs institution , which alone , and not the custome of the Church , is the rule of its administration , 4. These words of Augustine are at best , but propositio malè sonans ; for they 〈◊〉 a palpable appearance of evill , because they plainly seem to assert the necessity of the Sign of the Crosse unto Baptisme and the Lords Supper . Bellarmine bringeth them to prove , that nothing can be consecrated without the sign of the Crosse , de Sacra 〈◊〉 . lib. 2. c. 13 as also to justifie their Crossings , 〈◊〉 they use in the 〈◊〉 , de Missa , lib. 3. c. 13. And there 's a Popish Ballad mentioned by the Abridgement , and transcribed in Parker , wherein I beleeve this is one of the places in Augustine , related unto , part . 1 p. 92. Without the Crosse Saint Augustinesaith , ( Read him and 〈◊〉 may see ) 1. No man is stedfast in the Faith , Nor Christened well may 〈◊〉 . No Sacrifice , no holy Oyle , No washing in the Font , 2. Nor any thing can thee 〈◊〉 , If thou the Cross do want . Children by it have Christendome , The water 's blest also : 3. The Holy Ghost appears to some , 〈◊〉 gifts of Grace bestow , When that this Cross is made 〈◊〉 , Of them 〈◊〉 hallowed be : 4. Where it is not , there wanteth might , For ought that I can see . But the very Canons of the Convocation doc disclaime all necessity of the sign of the Crosse in Baptisme , The Church of England , since the abolishing of Popery , hath ever held and taught , and teacheth stil , that the sign of the Cross used in Baptisme is no part of the substance of that Sacrament ; for when the Minister , dipping the Infant in water , or laying water upon the face of it ( as the manner also is ) hath pronounced these words ( I baptize thee in the name of the Father , and of the Son , and of the Holy Ghost ) the Infant is fully baptized ; so as the sign of the Crosse being afterwards used , doth neither adde any thing to the virtue , or 〈◊〉 of Baptism ; nor being omitted , doth detract any thing from the effect and substance of it . Dr. Hammond . And , Crucis signo in fronte hodie tanquam in poste signandus es , omnesque Christiani signantur ( de Catechiz . rud . c. 20. tom . 4. pag. 915. ) thou must be signed now in the forehead with the sign of the Crosse , as the Israelites on their door posts , and so must all Christians . Jeanes . Whereas you say above , that Augustines words cannot be denyed to have truth in them , you mean these last quoted , as well as the former ; and if this bee so , then it will be an easie matter for you to clear up by argument this undeniable truth that is in them . God commanded the Israelites to strike the lintel and the two side posts of the door with the blood of the Passeover ; therefore all Christians are obliged to be signed in the forehead with the sign of the Crosse , sounds with me as a very wild and loose inference ; and therefore I shall intreat you to confirm it , or else relinquish this place of Augustine , as containing nothing of an argument in it . Bellarmine alledgeth this place of Augustine to prove that the blood of the Lamb sprinkled upon the posts of the doors was a figure of the sign of the Cross : Tom. 2. 〈◊〉 Eccles : triumph : lib. 2. c. 29. And unto him Chamier thus answereth ; Tom. 2. pag 8 : 8 , 879. Nego crucem significatam in 〈◊〉 Testamento ; nisi per accidens : hoc est , quatenus Christus significatus est crucifigendus . Sed crucem directe ac per se significatam ullis figuris , nego . Nec ignoro tamen produci posse in contrarium testimonia quaedam ex Patribus . Sed ego quicquid Patribus in buccam venit , non censco amplect endum , ut verbum Dei. Potest , inquiebat Augustinus in Psalmum trigesimum sextum , nihil aliquid videri , alteri aliud : sed neque ego , quod dixero , praescribo alteri ad meliorem intellectum , nec ille mihi . Idem de reliquis dicendum . Itaque liceat in earum sententias inquirere . Certe illud de sanguine agni 〈◊〉 super utroque poste , 〈◊〉 est à Cruce . 〈◊〉 solum tenuissimum vestigium ; positio in poste , nonnihil alludit ad positionem in fronte ; quae in corpore supremum locum 〈◊〉 , sicut in ostio 〈◊〉 . Sed sanguis , quanto aptiùs sanguinem Christi significaret ? ut apud Gregorium homilia vigesima secunda in Evangelia . Quid sit sanguis 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 audiendo , sed bibendo didicistis . Quisanguis super 〈◊〉 postem ponitur , quando non solum ore corporis ; sed etiam ore cordis hauritur . Gretserus excipit ; posse 〈◊〉 idemque plura significare . Ita sane , inquam ; sed primo variis rationibus . Itaque eadem ratione qua significat sanguinem , non potest 〈◊〉 crucem ; At unius loci unica est ratio . Quare si hoc uno loco significat sanguinem Christi , non significat 〈◊〉 . Deinde unum 〈◊〉 potest varia 〈◊〉 , at non quelibet : sed ea tantum , ad quae habet analogiam . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sanguinis agni ad crucem ? nam agno significari Christum nemo inficias eat . 〈◊〉 ergo sanguis ex 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , significabit crucem non eductam ex Christo ? sanguis , inquam , essusus , crucem compactam ? Dr. Hammond . In the forehead particularly c in fronte sigat ubi sedes pudoris ) because the seate of shame is there , which wee render , in token that the baptised shall not bee ashamed . Jeanes . This weighs little or nothing , unlesse withall you can prove , that the Apostles command of decency enjoyneth , that the seate of shame in the baptized should be marked with the sign of the Crosse , in token that he should not bee ashamed . Doubtlesse Saint Pauls practise was suitable unto his precept , and you doe not , you cannot pretend , that ever hee was signed in the 〈◊〉 with the sign of the Crosse , either by himself or any other : he 〈◊〉 his example for imitation , and gives this for a reason , that his pattern was that of our blessed Saviour , 1 Cor. 11. 1. Be ye even followers of me , as I also am of Christ. We shall not then think that so requisite unto Baptisme which hee never used ; so so long as wee follow so great a 〈◊〉 , wee shall not bee much 〈◊〉 , though we swarve from the advice of Augustine , that hath no warrant from the Word of God. Paul makes large professions , that he was not ashamed of the Gospel , which held forth a crucified Christ , Rom. 1. 16. Phil. 1. 20. 〈◊〉 Tim 1. 12. But no man can say that he ever expressed this his profession by the sign of the Crosse ; and therefore we shall make no other account of the Signe of the Crosse , than as of a supernumerarie in Gods service ; and those Beleevers that want it , may have confidence when Christ shall appear , and not be ashamed before him at his comming , 1 Joh. 2. 28. But perhaps you think we must stoop unto the bare words of Augustine , though not seconded with any reason ; and this is more then Augustine himselfe would have expected from us : for after this manner the holy Scriptures alone are to be entertained , as Bishop Jewel proveth against Harding , Def. Apol. Chur. Englpart . 1. p. 55. out of several places of Sr. August . Therfore St. Aug. saith , Alios Scriptores ita lego , ut quanta libet sanctitate doctrinâque praepolleant , non ideo verum putem , quod ipsi ita senserint , sed quod id mihi , vel per alios Authores Canonicos , vel probabili ratione persuadere potuerint . Other Writers or Fathers ( besides the holy Scriptures ) I read in this sort , that be their learning and holynesse never so great , I will not think it true , because they have thought so , but because they are 〈◊〉 to perswade me so , either by other Canonical Writers , or else by some likely reason . Likewise again he saith , Hoc genus literarum non cum credendi necessitate sed cum judicandi libertate , legendum est : This kinde of Writings ( of the holy Doctors and Fathers ) must bee read , not with necessity to beleeve each thing , but with liberty to judge each thing . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Augustine disputing against the Arians , 〈◊〉 , as I have said before , both Councils and Fathers , and appealeth onely to the Scriptures : Nec ego 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tibi , nec tu mihi Ariminensem debes objicere : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , res cum re , causa cum 〈◊〉 , ratio cum ratione concerter . Neither will I alledge the Council of Nice against you , nor shall you alledge the Council of Ariminum against me . By the authority of the Scriptures let us weigh matter with matter , cause with cause , reason with reason . I shall conclude all that I have to say unto the foregoing Testimonies of 〈◊〉 ( and you may apply it also unto those which 〈◊〉 ) 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 of Whitaker , Tom. 1. pag. 293. unto a place 〈◊〉 out of the 118 〈◊〉 . of Aug , ad Januar. Respondeo , Magnum esse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 Dei , & 〈◊〉 quidem : Sed 〈◊〉 debemus , hominem fuisse , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Et licet hoc loco quidem videatur favere Traditionibus , tamen in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , scripturae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 defendit , ut postea melius patebit . Sensit enim apertissimè , nullum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 esse , quod non scripturis nitatur . 〈◊〉 de 〈◊〉 non 〈◊〉 loquitur , aut fibi 〈◊〉 non consentit . Dr. Hammond . sect . 26. Secondly , the usage of this Ceremony of signing with the Crosse , 〈◊〉 , wee also know , frequent in the Church ( while the gifts of healing continued ) in d curing diseases , and casting out Devils , so that Athanafius frequently 〈◊〉 , (e) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; by the fign of the 〈◊〉 all Magick and 〈◊〉 is brought 〈◊〉 naught , all the Idol Temples layd waste and empty . Jeanes . Bishop Morton in his particular Defence of the Ceremony of the Crosse , pag. 231 , 232. tels us , That our Church doth not ascribe unto it any 〈◊〉 power of driving out devils , or of curing diseases , &c. And what he saith of our Church he speaks by just consequence of the Primitive Church ; For our Church ( 〈◊〉 he , ibid. ) professeth , that she useth it onely as primitively it was used ; that is , onely as a token whereby there is protestation made of a future constancy in the profession of Christianity : If it were used onely thus , then it was not used for the miraculous cure of diseases , and chasing away of Devils ; and this will be denyed by none , that knows the force of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 onely ; but you have a higher opinion of the efficacy of the signe of the Crosse , than ever 〈◊〉 Morton had , or the 〈◊〉 of England , as he thought ; and therefore I shall addresse my self to give 〈◊〉 answer unto your miracles of the Crosse. 1. I shall in general say unto them three things . 1. If 〈◊〉 were any such Miracles , as are pretended , they were wrought onely at the sign of the Crosse , and not by the 〈◊〉 of the Crosse ( as you bring in 〈◊〉 affirming ) so much as by a Moral instrument they were done for the sike onely of the 〈◊〉 and prayers of those that used the sign of the Cross , and were consequent unto the signe of the 〈◊〉 , onely 〈◊〉 accidens ; and for this that I say , Bishop Morton alledgeth a saying out of Pe kins : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( 〈◊〉 hee ) that miracles were done of God at the sign of the Crosse , that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto it a manifest , or at least a secret 〈◊〉 of the name of 〈◊〉 crucified : so that the virtue was not to be imputed unto the sign of the Cross , but unto the 〈◊〉 of the 〈◊〉 , and invocation of Christ. 2. Many Miracles were 〈◊〉 by the Brazen Serpent ; 〈◊〉 it came to pass , that if a Serpent had bitten any man , when he beheld the Serpent of Brosse , he lived , Numb . 21. 9. Yet Ilezechias brake it in pieces , 2 King. 18. 4. and the reason is assigned why he did so ; for unto those dayes the children of Israel did 〈◊〉 incense to it . This fact of Hezechias is praise worthy ; and therefore it was no evill act to throw aside the sign of the Crosse : for suppose , though not grant , 〈◊〉 Miracles were wrought by it , yet the Papists have burnt incense unto it : sor 〈◊〉 Dr. Rainolds in his Conference with Hart , page 509 , 510. It is written in 〈◊〉 Masse-book , that in solemn Masses , the 〈◊〉 having made obeysance to 〈◊〉 Crosse , doth incense it thrice : The Jews gave u the honour of God to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in that they 〈◊〉 incense to it . And therefore 〈◊〉 did 〈◊〉 it brazen stuff ; as if you should call your Roode 〈◊〉 stuff ; your Agnus 〈◊〉 Dei's 〈◊〉 stuff , your Crucisixes and Crosses 〈◊〉 of Copper , Copper-stuff , because you impart the honour of God to them , by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hope in them . And if x the 〈◊〉 man be called an Idolater , 〈◊〉 he maketh 〈◊〉 his God , not as though he thought the 〈◊〉 be God , but because hee 〈◊〉 to live and prosper by it , y which 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 he should 〈◊〉 in God onely : then worship you the sign of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Idol , 〈◊〉 you trust to be saved by it , as in your z Church 〈◊〉 you 〈◊〉 notoriously , and a so your selves 〈◊〉 , you worship it as God ; wherefore it b 〈◊〉 be praised by God for breaking in pieces the 〈◊〉 of brasse , because the children of 〈◊〉 did burn 〈◊〉 to it , we who have re moved the sign of the Crosse , because you put the hope of 〈◊〉 in it , 〈◊〉 content 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be dispraised by men . But if you say 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 we be against the 〈◊〉 Fathers in Religion , because we pluck down that 〈◊〉 they did set up , 〈◊〉 heed 〈◊〉 your speech 〈◊〉 not touch the Holy 〈◊〉 , who saith that 〈◊〉 c did keep Gods commandements which he 〈◊〉 Moses ; and yet with 〈◊〉 saith , that d he brake in 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 of brass which Moses had made . 3. A third answer shall bee that which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the 〈◊〉 alledge were done by the use of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the sign of the 〈◊〉 : In all which , and the 〈◊〉 Miracles ( 〈◊〉 he , page 〈◊〉 ) not to overthrow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; we yet 〈◊〉 answer , that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 success that 〈◊〉 means had , prove no more the lawfulness os them , than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of living men amongst the Gentiles unto their Idols , accompanied with some desired issue out of their troubles wherein they were , prove the lawfulnesse of that horrible and most detestable worship of their God. 4. That the former use of the sign of the Crosse in Miracles , obligeth not to a use of it ( now all miraculous use thereof is by the generall 〈◊〉 of Protestants ceased ) may be 〈◊〉 , in a way of Analogie and proportion from what the above mentioned Bishop 〈◊〉 speaks , pag. 58. of 〈◊〉 and Oyle : We confess that spittle was used by our Saviour Christ , in healing of the cumb ; and cyle by the Apostles , in curing of many other diseases ; yet both 〈◊〉 : but to imitate the work of a Miracle without the miraculous power , is but an opish 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for to hold such a miraculous ceremony , after the virtue be gone , is but to preserve a carkass , because it had been once possessed of a soul. From this general Answer proceed we to some particulars of the Crosses efficacie . 1. You say that the usage of this Ceremony of signing with the Crosse , was we also know , frequent in the Church ( while the gifts of healing continued ) in curing diseases . But now for this 〈◊〉 you onely quote in the Margin Aug. de Civ . Dei , lib. 22. cap. 8. And in that place there is but one instance of any cure wrought upon the usage of the sign of the Crosse , and that in Innocentia , a Carthaginian Matron , and the story hereof I shall give unto the Reader , as it lyeth in the Book and Chapter quoted . In eadem Carthagine , Innocentia religiosissima faemina de primariis ipsius civitatis , in 〈◊〉 cancrum habebat , rem , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dicunt , nullis medicamentis 〈◊〉 . Aut ergo praescidi solet , & à corpore separari membrum ubi nascitur , aut , ut aliquanto homo quietius vivat fomentis est pestis 〈◊〉 frequentibus . Nam ut inde mortem quantumlibet tardius 〈◊〉 confidamus , secundum Hippocratis , ut fertur , sententiam , omnis est omittenda curatio . 〈◊〉 illa à perito medico , & suae domui familiarissimo acceperat , & ad 〈◊〉 Deum se orando converterat . Admonetur in somnis appropinquante pascha , ut in parte faeminarum 〈◊〉 ad baptisterium , 〈◊〉 illi 〈◊〉 primitus occurrisset , signaret ei locum signo crucis Christi , fecit , & confestim sanitas secuta est . In the same Town one Innocentia a most religious woman , and one of the principal in the City , had a Canker on her breast , a kind of sore which the Physitians told her is utterly uncurable : wherefore they use either to cut the infected part away , or for the prolonging of the life a little while in some ease , the malady is to be asswaged and mitigated with frequent plaisters ; for the opinion of Hippocrates will induce us to beleeve , that death wil thence insue , though somewhat slowly : 〈◊〉 hee , as they say , doth advise to omit all attempt of curing it ; this a 〈◊〉 Physitian her familiar friend told her ; so that now she sought help of none but the Lord , who told her in a dreame , that 〈◊〉 next , which then drew near , she should mark on the 〈◊〉 side by the Font , what woman she was , that , being then 〈◊〉 , should first meet her , and that she should 〈◊〉 her to signe her sore with the signe of the Crosse of Christ : She did it , and was cured . But the Miracles related in this Chapter are of a 〈◊〉 credit , it 〈◊〉 unto Ludovicus Viues to bee a matter without doubt , that many things in this Chapter were added , &c. by those , who with their filthy hands have defiled all the Writings of great and famous Authors : In hoc capite non dubium , quin multa sint addita , 〈◊〉 declarandi gratia , ab iis , qui omnia magnorum autorum scripta spurcis suis 〈◊〉 contaminabant , &c. Of this annotation of Ludovieus Vives Rivet speaks thus , Critic . sacr . pag. 453. Lud. Viv ad cap. 8. lib. 22. In 〈◊〉 miracula multa narrantur , quae omnia non 〈◊〉 exactam judicii 〈◊〉 , quam in aliis August , operibus lectores sagaces observant , annotat , in hoc capite non dubium , 〈◊〉 multa sint addita , velut declarandi gratia , ab iis , qui omnia magnorum autorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suis manibus 〈◊〉 : Huic 〈◊〉 non 〈◊〉 censores Belgici in indice 〈◊〉 : neque Hispani inquisitores in suo : quod ideo notandum lectori , ne semper quae ex genuin is autorum libris asseruntur , genuina esse putet , quod per Monachorum corruptelas non licet . 〈◊〉 igitur 〈◊〉 opus est sagacitate , & judicii libra . Chamier in reference to another passage in the Notes of Lud : Viv. passeth this censure upon other miracles , alledged by Papists from that place of Augustine to justifie their Invocation of Saints , de Vigesim : Octav. lib. de Civit. Dei : Possum ex Vive dicere , 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 Iusisse sciolorum lasciviam , aut potius 〈◊〉 audaciam : the Divines of Rhemes in their Annotations on 〈◊〉 14. 12. charge Protestants , that they discredit , as other Miracles , so in particular , those testified by St. Augustine in this place ; and unto this charge neither Fulk nor Cartwright entred any dissent , and therefore it is probable that they acknowledged it : whereas Fisher in his Answer to the Questions propounded by King James , goes about to justifie the Oblations made to Saints by some of the Miracles here recorded , said to be done at their Tombs and Shrines , Dr. Francis White seems to think that a doubt of the truth of some of these Miracles is defensible , because , saith he , these things were extraordinary ; and the credit of divers of them dependeth upon fame ( which is many times uncertain ) b and Saint Augustine himself saith , they are not commended unto us by such weighty authority , as that without all doubt they must needs be credited c they cannot be sufficient 〈◊〉 or foundations of Catholike Doctrine or Practise . 2. You say that by the sign of the Crosse all Magick and Witchcrast is brought to nought . 1. Surely , Sir , if ever the sign of the Crosse had such an influence , it is questionable , whether there was ever any word or promise of the Lord for it , and without such word or promise , to use the sign of the Crosse for such a purpose , was virtual and interpretative Witchcraft . Besides 2. if it were so efficacious against Magick and Witchcraft in the Primitive times , yet , that since it hath been abused unto Magick and Witchcraft , is confessed by 〈◊〉 Abbot , a man of great 〈◊〉 and learning , part . 1. pag. 169. But 〈◊〉 the Harpie of Rome hath had the handling of it , and made it a matter of Magical Inchantment , and through the current of 〈◊〉 prophanations , it hath 〈◊〉 into the hands of Conjurers , Charmers , Witches , to be 〈◊〉 with their 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 practises , we have had a religious care to clear the first Church in the using of it ; but no further to use it our selves than it may be washed from the soyl and filth of these abominations . 3. By what you say in the Margin out of Athanasius and Augustine , you 〈◊〉 a great efficacy of the sign of the Crosse in the routing and chasing away of Devils : unto this I answer : 1. That the whole Armour of God , the compleat harnesse of the Spirit , deterres not Satan from assailing the best and most perfect of Christians : Christs unspotted innocency , and his absolute all-sulnesse of Grace , was temptation proof , and yet the Devil adventured upon the 〈◊〉 of him , and therefore it is very strange that he should be so perillously , and terribly afraid of so weake a shield as the sign of the Crosse in the forehead : No , no , saith Fulk , in answer to the Rhemists , pag , 69. 4. the Devil is too craf y and strong to yeeld to so weak a weapon , but when he is disposed to play with men , that they may more easily be seduced by him . 2. It is but a sorry Sophisme , to conclude the Devils terrour at the signe of the Crosse , from his running away upon 〈◊〉 se thereof ; for this might be done out of design to get ground upon men , to return upon them with the more advantage : It might be like the flight of an Enemy to draw into an Ambuscado , 〈◊〉 the superstition of the Crosse , that hath since so 〈◊〉 . It is to be feared therefore , that that which the Pharisees blasphemously spake of Christ , may truly be objected unto the sign of the Crosse , that it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out Devils by Beelzebub the Prince of the Devils . Hear what 〈◊〉 saies of the Devils feare 〈◊〉 the sign of the Crosse , Tom. 1. pag 〈◊〉 . Hoc omnium interim memoriis infixum esse debet , Daemonem esse callidum , versutum , versipellem , fallacem , mendacem , 〈◊〉 . Fingit igitur se timere signum crucis , ut 〈◊〉 nos externo magis signo confidere , quam Christo ipsi crucifixo 3. Some excuse the Fathers , as if they held , that the sign of the Crosse drived away Devils ex opere operantis , only by the saith and prayers of those that used it ; but others think , that they held it to be done ex opere operato , by the Ordinance of God ; and they give this reason , because they held it to bee done by aliens and unbeleevers , by Pagans and Jews , who had not the Christian Faith. Nazianzene relates , how that Julian the Apostate being about some feats of Necromancy , the Devils that he had conjured ranne all away , when he by chance had made the sign of the Crosse , without any purpose or thought of a Miracle ; for he marvelled at the matter , as that which was more than he expected : And 〈◊〉 reports that a Jew , as yet 〈◊〉 unto the Faith of Christ , being benighted , and taking up his lodging in a Temple of 〈◊〉 , routed a great multitude , or Troup of Devils that were there assembled , by signing his 〈◊〉 with the sign of the Crosse : Unto these examples Bellarmine , Eccles. Triumph . lib. 2. 〈◊〉 . 30. addes the testimony of Augustine : Quare S. Augustinus lib. 83. 〈◊〉 , qu. 79. dicit indictum 〈◊〉 Deo 〈◊〉 ut cedant cruci , 〈◊〉 sceptro 〈◊〉 Regis , 〈◊〉 populi militibus cedunt , cum ab illis profertur signum Imperatoris : Nec mirum est . inquit . quod 〈◊〉 signa valent , cum à bonis Christianis adhibentur , quando etiam cum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 extraneis , qui omnino suum nemen ad istam militiam non dederunt , 〈◊〉 honorem tamen 〈◊〉 Imperatoris valent . Cum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his signis hujusmodi potestates , Deus ipse prohibet 〈◊〉 modis , cum id justum 〈◊〉 utile iudicat ; nam nullo modo ulli spiritus audent haec signa contemnere : 〈◊〉 hec , 〈◊〉 illa 〈◊〉 . By this you may see , how farre the Fathers 〈◊〉 in their opinion touching the efficacy of the Crosse , and I am so charitable as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you doe not come up unto them herein , and if you do not , you have no reason to presse me with their sayings . 3. You say out of Athanafius , that by the signe of the Crosse , all the Idoll Temples were layd waste and empty : I could wish that you had exemplified this by some instances , that we might have considered of what weight they had been : The Papists of the Seminary of Rhemes have referred us unto a famous story in Theodoret , which saith Fulk , pag 694. is a Miracle wrought by Marcellus Bishop of 〈◊〉 in setting the Temple of Jupiter a fire , with sprinkling of water , after he had signed it with the 〈◊〉 , and prayed , when it would not burn with fire : This is a pretty story , if true , and will serve aptly for your purpose : But , Sir , wee shall hope for so much charity from you , that you will 〈◊〉 brand for Infidels , all , that have not faith strong enough to swallow these Miracles of the Crosse. Theodoret might have this at the second hand , and hee himself might be deceived , though he were unwilling to deceive , and in all ages devout and wel meaning persons have been over-credulous in entertaining 〈◊〉 it and fained Miracles . As for the places quoted out of Augustine , I cannot find them in Frobenius his Edition of Augustine , and I have no other , and therefore I think you follow some other Edition ; but the thing is not material ; for I hope , that what I have said already will be a satisfactory answer unto them . Dr. Hammond . sect . 27. And then Baptisme being the exorcising of Devils ( the ancient Catechists wee know were called Exorcists ) the rescuing of a person from the power of 〈◊〉 into Gods Sonship and family , what can 〈◊〉 more proper , or agreeable , or exactly symbolical , than the use of this in 〈◊〉 , according to that of Tertullian , de Resurr . Carn . Caro signatur , ut anima muniatur , the flesh or body is signed , that the soul may be desended or 〈◊〉 . Jeanes . Your ordinary Readers will thinke you Conjure , when they hear you term Baptisme an exorcising of Devils ; for they never heard of any Exorcisne in Baptisme , save of the Papists , which our Divines brand for Magical ; and whether this expression might not have been forborn to avoyd all appearance of evill , in complyance with Papists in their use of 〈◊〉 , I shall 〈◊〉 determine , but leave it unto your own prudence to think of . Whereas you say , that the ancient 〈◊〉 were called Exorcists , the reason of this may probably be , because the Catechumeni were exorcised before Baptisme , Aquin. Sum. part . 3. quaest . 71. artic . 2. But I shall not contend about this with you , for fear I should bee thought as very a fool as the Philosopher , who read a Lecture of Warre before Hannihal . There is a passage in Augustine that seemes to 〈◊〉 somewhat what you 〈◊〉 . Tom 7 pag. 〈◊〉 . Ab hac igitur 〈◊〉 tenebrarum , quarum est Diabolus princeps , id est , à 〈◊〉 Diaboli , & angelorum ejus quisquis erui , cum baptizantur , negaverit parvulos , ipsorum ecclefiae sacramentorum veritate convincitur , &c. In veritate itaque non in salsitate potestas diabolica exorcizatur in parvulis , eique renunciant , quia 〈◊〉 sua non possunt , per 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 gestantium , ut eruti à potestate 〈◊〉 in regnum sui Domini transferantur . Unto this testimony I beleeve it is easie for you to adde many more . But yet notwithstanding all this , it is very well known , by all that know the difference 〈◊〉 the Predicaments , that the Sacrament of Baptisme cannot be said to be the Exorcising of Devils , the rescuing of a person from the power of Satan , the delivery of him from the 〈◊〉 , otherwise than in an improper , tropicall , and metonymicall praedication , viz. as it is a sign and seal , and if you will , a moral instrument of the conditionall promise thereof . But what advantage reap you unto your cause by this ? why unto this Exorcising of Devils , the rescuing a person from the power of Satan into Gods family , the use of the Crosse in Baptisme is exactly symbolical ? Your argument ( if there be any argument in your words ) as I conceive , stands thus : That which is so exactly symbolical unto any thing signed , sealed , conveighed , and exhibited in Baptisme , is so decent , as that the omission thereof would be undecent : but the use of the Crosse in Baptisme is exactly symbolical unto that which is signed , sealed , and conveighed , or exhibited in Baptisme , viz. the Exorcising of Devils , the rescuing a person from the power of 〈◊〉 into Gods Sonship and Family , therefore the use of it is so decent , as that the omission thereof would be undecent ; you cannot but expect that the Major will be denled , and 't is very strange that you leave it destitute of all proof ; for you cannot be ignorant if you have read the Non-conformists , whom you oppose , that their great quarrell against our Ceremonies , was their symbolicalnesse and mystical signification ; their arguments against which you may read at large in the Abridgement , page 41 , 42 , &c. usque 〈◊〉 49. Ames his Reply to Mortons Generall Def. page 33 , 34 , &c. usque ad 58. As also in his Triplication to Dr. Burges Disp. about humane Ceremon . page 209 , 210. usque ad 336. Parker . Treat . of the Crosse , part 1. page 97 , 98 , &c. usque ad 112. Didoclave , page 522 , 523 , &c. usque ad 536. But , Sir , you may thinke to blow off all the Arguments with a silent scorne and contempt , and this indeed many doe with those arguments which they cannot answer ; but if you will not vouchsafe to read these Authors , if you please to accept of my service , I will abridge the substance of their arguments , and attend your answer unto them . Then , for the Minor , I have four things to say unto it . 1. Baptisme it self is more proper , agreeable , or exactly Symbolical , unto the rescuing of a person from the power of Satan into Gods Sonship and Family , than the signe of the Crosse ; and therefore the sign of the Crosse in Baptisme is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , like the dimme and smoakie light of a candle in the presence of the clear and glorious light of the Sun at noon-day . 2. The Popish Exorcisme and 〈◊〉 are as , if not more , proper , agreeable , and exactly symbolical , unto the Exorcising of Devils as the use of the Crosse in Baptisme , and they have not been so much abused as it , and may as 〈◊〉 be purged from all Superstition and Idolatry , and therefore you may as well conclude concerning them as the Cross , that they are so decent as that the omission of them would be undecent . 3. I much question whether or no two crosse motions of a finger or a thumb 〈◊〉 so proper , agreeable , and exactly symbolical , unto so high , dreadfull and profound a mystery , as the delivery of us from the power of Satan and darknesse , and the translation of us into the kingdome of the dear Son of God , as you affirm ; and I shall hardly beleeve you , unlesse you bring other proofs , besides the Hyperbolies of the Fathers . As for that which in confirmation of the Minor , you quote out of Tertullian : 1. It is urged by some , not onely for the signification , but also for the operation and efficacy of the Crosse , and whether you will go so far I cannot tell . 2. Unto it Mr. Whitaker , when urged by Papists for Traditions , gives this answer , Tom. 1. pag. 390. At anima fide contra Satanam munienda est , non cruce . Veteres quidem se 〈◊〉 signo adversus Daemonas munitos esse putârunt , sed hoc ex haeresi 〈◊〉 fluxit . And 〈◊〉 him Mr. Fuller in his History of the University of Cambridge pag. 125 , gives this 〈◊〉 character ; He was one so exactly qualified , that the Professors Chair may seem made for him , and he for it , they mutually so fitted each other . 3. I would 〈◊〉 to know , how you like the companion of the Crosse in Tertullian , the holy oile ? caro ungitur , saith he , in the words immediately foregoing , ut anima 〈◊〉 : but perhaps you are for the reviving of that , as well as for the using of the Crosse ; and some 〈◊〉 not to say , that 't is as ancient as the Crosse. One thing more I cannot but remember you of , before I leave this Section , and it is a distinction of mystical signification by the learned and reverend 〈◊〉 , the word mystical signification hath two acceptions , saith he , General Def. pag. 52. The one Sacramental , by signification of grace 〈◊〉 by God ; the other is onely Moral , by signification of mans duty and obedience towards God. The ceremonies which we defend ( saith he ) are onely mystical Moral , not Sacramental ; and for his disclaiming these , he gives this reason , page 53 , 54. A sacramental sign ( being , as sacramental , so likewise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a seal of Gods promises , as the Apostle 〈◊〉 Circumcision ) is alwaies founded upon the expresse Covenant of God , therefore none but the Author of the Covenant may institute or appoint any such sign . For whosoever shall undertake to adde a seal unto the Will and Covenant of any Testator amongst men , is farthwith held Falsarius , and thereby made obnoxious to the Law , and lyable to the grievous judgements of man : How much more 〈◊〉 an Act were it for any to offix any sign , properly Sacramental , unto the Testament of our Lord Jesus ? which whosoever shall attempt to do , becommeth guilty of sacrilegious depravation of the blessed Mysteries of Salvation . Now you make the sign of the Crosse to be that which Morton calls a Sacramental signe ; for he describes a Sacramental signe to be that which signifieth Grace conferred by God : & is not the rescuing of a person from the power of Satan into Gods Sonship and Family ( as for your other expression : Baptisme is the Exorcising of Devils , I am not much delighted with the repetition of it ) a grace conferred by God ? and unto this you say the sign of the Crosse is exactly Symbolicall , and therefore a Sacramental sign . Dr. Hammond . sect . 28. And if instead of the f frequent use of it among the Ancients , even g before the cumbersome weight of Ceremonies came in ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith the Author of the Quest. and Resp. ascribed to Justin Martyr , Qu. 〈◊〉 pag. 364. in time of Prayer we sign those that have any need of it , those that are any way ill affected ) wee in this our Church retain it onely in our solemne entrance into Christs Camp , in token that we mean valiantly to 〈◊〉 under his Banner , and in confidence that 〈◊〉 that thus signed to Constantine Victory from heaven ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in this overcome ) will thus give grace , and seal to us victory over our 〈◊〉 enemies . What question can there ever be of the perfect decency of this usage among us ? Jeanes . Here the argument to prove the perfect decency of the usage of the signe of the Crosse in Baptism , is the frequent religious use of it amongst the ancients ; I say the religious use , because we oppose not the civil use of it in Coins and Banners . But 1. You know , it is generally denyed by the Non-consormists , that the 〈◊〉 use of the Crosse amongst the Ancients was lawfull and justifiable , and untill this bee cleared , your argument will bec little better than 〈◊〉 principii . 2. Bellarmine useth the like argument , de Missa lib. 2. cap. 15. for their crossings in the Masse , having quoted divers Fathers for the antiquity of the sign of the Crosse , who teach that it is to be used in every businesse : he propounds hereupon an interrogation , very like unto that of yours : Quod 〈◊〉 in omni negotio signum crucis adhibendum , cur non in actione tremendi sacrificii ? But this perhaps startles you not . 3. I demand whether the use of the Crosse amongst the Ancients was decent or undecent ? If it was decent , then why was it abrogated ? If it was undecent , then how can you infer therefrom , the perfect decency of the use of the Crosse in Baptism ? But though I doe not deny the frequent use of the Crosse among the Ancients , yet I have something to observe concerning the witnesses which you alledge therefore . The first is Tertullian de Cor. Milit. cap. 3. But this Book was written by him when a Montanist , this is confessed on all hands , but I shall content my selfe with the naming onely of two Witnesses . The first is a moderate Conformist , Doctor Whitaker , Tom. 1. pag. 392. Respondeo , Tertullianum fuisse Montanistam , quando hunc librum scripsit . Facit enim 〈◊〉 novarum prophetiarum , quarum Montanum inventorem fuisse , dubium non est . Fuit vero Montanus 〈◊〉 Traditionum author , quae postea extirpari non poterant . Dixit , se habere illum paracletum , quem promisit Christus ; & fretus 〈◊〉 paracleti authoritate , multa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Ecclesiam invexit . Impius 〈◊〉 Montanus Tertullianum ipsum fefellit , cujus viri jacturam casumque merito lugere possumus . Illo enim tempore nullus doctior , nullus sanctior , nullus 〈◊〉 fidei Christianae defensione vehementior fuit Tertulliano . Sed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Montani omnem Tertulliano fidem detraxit . Sic enim Hilarius ait , in Comment . in Matth. Canon . 5. Quanquam & Tertullianus ( inquit ) hac de re aptissima volumina scripserit , consequens error 〈◊〉 detraxit scriptis probahilibus authoritatem . Hieronymus verò , in lib. 〈◊〉 Helvidium 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 Ecclesiae hominem non fuisse . Et in Catal. de 〈◊〉 idem ait , eum 〈◊〉 contra Ecclesiam scripsisse ; & reverâ scripsit . Quae cum ita sint , quàm absurdum est , Montanicas Traditiones Tertulliani 〈◊〉 nobis obtruderc . The other is a zealous and rigid pleader for humane religious Ceremonies , Mr. Hooker in his 〈◊〉 Politie , pag. 65. when Tertullian disputed against the Christian souldiers wearing a Crown or Garland on their heads , when they receive their 〈◊〉 ; He was a Montanist , and an enemy unto the Church , for condemning that prophetical spirit , which Montanus and his followers did boast they had received , as if in them Christ had performed his last promise ; as if to then he had sent the Spirit , that should be their perfecter and final instructer in the mysteries of Christian truth . Which exulceratian of mind made them apt to take all occasions of contradiction . Wherefore in honour of that action , and to gall their minds , who did not so much commend it , he wrote his book De Corona Militis , not dissembling the stomack wherewith he wrote it . 2. The Crossings which Tertullian speaks of , would be a weight cumbersome enough without any other Ceremony , and this cannot be denyed by such indifferent persons as will read his words at large ; for thus they are , Ad omnem progressum , atque promotum , ad omnem additum , & exitum , ad vestitum , ad calceatum , ad 〈◊〉 , ad mensas , ad lumina , ad cubicula , ad sedilia , quandocunque nos conversatio 〈◊〉 , frontem 〈◊〉 signaculo terimus . Here you see , that the Crossing in Tertullians time was at every step , at every coming to and going out , at the apparrelling themselves , at washing , at cating , at lighting candles , and at sitting &c. 3. The frequent use of the Crosse , mentioned by Tertullian at every step , and in every action that we do , was not , could not be decent , because it could not but be a great hinderance , disturbance , and distraction unto the more necessary , and important actions of mens lives , especially seeing you will say , it was to be accompanied with inward action of the soul suitable thereunto : now how can that , which is not decent in it self , derive that , which it hath not , unto another : this perpetual Crossing , was so farre from being decent , as that it was ridiculous ; and should we now see a man after this manner crossing of himself , we would think either that he was out of his wits , or else that he was transported with such delusions of Satan , as the Quakers are now , or the Montanists were in Tertullians time . A second witnesse is Palladius de Historia 〈◊〉 . This Author I suspected to be fabulous by the two tales related out of him by Bellarmine , de Reliq . & Imaginib . Sanctorum , cap. 29. and I cannot but wonder that you should alledge him , considering the character that Hierome and Epiphanius give of him ; but not having the Book in my own Study , I sent unto a friend in Oxford , to make some search after the place , and in a short time this answer was returned unto me . What authority is to be given to that quotation out of 〈◊〉 concerning Hippolytus , whom he would have to be Apostolorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ? None at all , or very little : For 1. Palladius , hee lived in the end of the forth Century , anno 389 , saies (a) Laurentius de la Barre , Bellarmine ( descript . Eccles. pag 156. in Palladio , puts him ad annum 390 ) saith he was coetaneous with Hierom and 〈◊〉 , and a man of no great repute . 〈◊〉 ( saith (b) 〈◊〉 ) 〈◊〉 Origenista 〈◊〉 ( 〈◊〉 (c) Hierome ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , eandem 〈◊〉 instaurare 〈◊〉 est , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , nunc quoque 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And 〈◊〉 the same time 〈◊〉 , (d) Palladium , qui quondom nobis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 misericordiâ Dei indiget , cave , quia nunc Originis baeresim praedidicat , &c. And though he seemed afterwards to have 〈◊〉 his Haeresies , yet ( if we may beleeve (e) Possevine ) Mutavit 〈◊〉 non animum . 2. This Historia Lausiaca , was called so , not by Palladius himself , who inseribes it thus (f) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : Paliadii 〈◊〉 Historia vitas 〈◊〉 Patrum 〈◊〉 . But because he dedicated that History , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Lauso Praeposito , to an eminenr man then in authority ; so it was that from this Lausus it was called 〈◊〉 . 3. This 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 here cited , occurs in the (g) Latine Edition of Palladius by 〈◊〉 Hervetus , thus , Quae cum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & se 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 crucis 〈◊〉 , egressa est , &c. He speaks of a 〈◊〉 Virgin , a Christian , damned by the Judge to the Stews , out of which place she escaped ( a 〈◊〉 young man giving her the cloaths ) in mans apparel , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( that is , 〈◊〉 on mans apparel ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and signing her self all over with the Mystery of the Crosse , shee escaped safe , So the story is , in the 〈◊〉 Edition by 〈◊〉 pag. 154. what other Greek copy the Doctor made use of , I know not ; he cites pag 〈◊〉 . whereas in Meursius his Edition there are but 212. pages in all . 3. He tells us where he had this Fable , or History ( 〈◊〉 Palladius does not affirm it to be true ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( i. e. ) in alio libello , qui inscribebatur ( 〈◊〉 ipsis 〈◊〉 cogniti , seu 〈◊〉 coaetanei ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inveni : And then he tels this story of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 4. So that the Summe is : He found a Pamphlet ( for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies ) which was inscribed to Hippolytus , who was known to the Apostles , but that it was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a false and spurious inscription , he tels us not , onely he found a Pamphlet so inscribed . 2. It is very likely he had no great opinion of that Pamphlet , for then he would have told us so , to give reputation to the story . For in the very next (h) story before this , which is concerning a Virgin called Juliana , he tels us , he had it out of a most ancient book of Hymns , writ by Origens own hand , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; whereas he hath nothing of this , but that he saw a Pamphlet so inscribed . 3. And this is more probable , because I find not any Ecclesiastical Historian ( or other Author ) mention any such Hippolytus , who was Apostolorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 4. 〈◊〉 is there any foundation in Antiquity , in the testimony of any good Author , that any such Crossing was used in the Apostles time , though I know in 〈◊〉 time , and afterwards , it grew much in fashion , especially in the fourth Century in the time of (i) 〈◊〉 (k) Augustine , and this Palladius , who was Bishop of Helenopolis , and this is consessed by (l) 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 against Hart ( where you have much about Crossing ) who denies ( and justly too ) that any such use of the Crosse was used in the Apostles times , nor do I finde any affirm it , but they of Rome , who ( against all reason and antiquity ) would 〈◊〉 all their ridiculous and superstitious Ceremonies to be Apostolical : It is observable further , that the Latin Translation by Gentianus , differs very much from the Greek put out by Joh. 〈◊〉 ( as he (m) himself tels us ) and both of them very much seven in this present story we now speak of ) from an ancient Greek Manuscript copy of 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 Library . So that 't is evident the book hath been much 〈◊〉 ; so that he had need of a spirit of Prophecy , who would 〈◊〉 tell us which is genuine , which spurious . For instance , in Meursius his Edition Lugd. Batav . 16 16. pag. 152. The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the 93 Narration or Chapter is thus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And then the narration begins thus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. And then the next Narration ( Narratio 94. pag. 154. hath this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Now in the Manuscript ancient Copy in Bodlyes Library those two Chapters are but one , and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one , thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And then the Narration begins thus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. 〈◊〉 enough , and therefore negligence or knavery enough in the Transcribers . Besides this University friend , I consulted another in the Country , who had , I knew , a well furnished study , and from him I received this following Answer . Sir , Palladius his Historia Lausiaca I find in the seventh Tom. of 〈◊〉 Sanct. Patrum , put forth by Margarinus de la Bigne at Paris , Anno 1589. of which Author 〈◊〉 himself in his Book de Scriptoribus 〈◊〉 ad 〈◊〉 390. confesseth ( after he had first 〈◊〉 this History , as not a little profitable to the Reader of it ) that this Palladius is reproved by Saint Hierome , in an Epistle of his to 〈◊〉 , for an Origenist , and so accounted also by 〈◊〉 in an Epistle of his to John of Jerusalem , which Epistle is to be seen ( as he 〈◊〉 ) in the second Tom. of Hieroms Works . This History of 〈◊〉 hath the name 〈◊〉 , from one Lausus , to whom it is dedicated both by Palladius and 〈◊〉 , a Bishop of 〈◊〉 ; both which Epistles dedicated to 〈◊〉 , are prefixed to this History . The History hath more Miracles in it than are in the New Testament , and as strange ones as are in any Legend , and it seemeth the 〈◊〉 , ( as he faith at the 56. Sect. of this History ) could have reported stranger , but that they did 〈◊〉 miraculi modum ; not that they were false though , but because men wanted faith to believe them . In the first Sect one Dorotheus , cum prius signaculo crucis se munivisset , draweth , and drinketh the water of a Well , wherein there were Asps : Abbot Copres , sect . 49. went 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 of a great 〈◊〉 , and staid there half an hour , and had no hurt , but as he 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 he was in nomine Christi signatus . One 〈◊〉 Be , at the entreary of some Husbandmen of that Country , commanded a Sea horse ( 〈◊〉 ) who wasted that Country to be packing , and not to spoil the Country any more . And so forthwith this Sea horse , as if he had been driven away by an Angell , anished , omnino 〈◊〉 . Sect. 17. An Hyaena brings her whelpe unto Abbot Macarius and layeth it down at the Abbots feet , this whelp was blind , the Abbot 〈◊〉 upon the eyes of this blind whelp , prayeth , and the whelp recovereth its sight ; the Hyaena taketh up the whelp , and deparreth : But then the next day the same Hyaena bringeth a great sheep . skin unto the Abbot , ostereth it unto him ( belike as a token of her thankfulness for the cure ) the Abbot refuseth the present , ratleth the Hyaena for killing the sheep , adviseth her to kill no more sheep , the Hyaena , capite suo annuit , ut quae sancto Macario assentiretur , Saith my Authour : up on the report of St. Paphnutius in another Place , the Divell in the habit of a Presbyter offereth the Sacrament to one , but the good P esbyter discovereth the Divell , and defies him , and his Sacrament . In another place one 〈◊〉 many yeares , and had no other sustenance , but the Sacrament once every Sabbath day . By this time the Reader is , I hope , sufficiently satisfied , that your Author Palladius is a Legendary writer , the Gentlemen who have made this search for me , desire for the present , to have their names concealed , but however they will be responsible for what they have written , when ever you shall be pleased to call them to an account . A third witnes is the Author of the Quest. and Resp. ascribed to Justin Martyr , but this Author is unknown , and the book a forgery , unworthy of Justin Martyr , and as short of his former writings as Lead is of Gold , this you know a great deal better then my self , but others may see as much demonstrated by Rivet . Critic . sacr . lib. a. cap. 5. Out of Possevinus , Sylburgius and 〈◊〉 . But you have perhaps another argument , hinted towards the conclusion of this section , and it is the apparition of the signe of the Crosse unto Constantine , of which you speak in those words ; he that thus signed to Constantine victory from Heaven ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this overcome &c. But it is much questioned , whether or no that which you call the signe of the Crosse , was that which appeared unto Constontine . Bishop Abbot in his answer unto Dr. Bishop his Epistle unto King James pag. 167. saith , that the signe of the Crosse , unto which Constantine was so much affectioned ( and that which he was so affectionate unto , was that which appeared unto him ) was indeed i the signe of the name of our Saviour , consisting of the two Greek letters χ and ρ , and in the form of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which are the two first letters of the name of Christ , and did import the same whole name , by the fight whereof in the skie Conflantine was advertised , that k by Christ he must conquer and 〈◊〉 . To which name of Christ , represented to Constantine , his most excellent majesty giveth the same honour that Constantine did , reposing therein the whole trust of his Victory , and safety , both spirituall and corporall , and knowing that no l other name is given under heaven , by which we must be saved , but only the name of Jesus Christ. This opinion 〈◊〉 embraced by many ; but Dr. John Rainolds of all others , I beleeve , speakes most fully of it in his conference with Hart , pag. 507 , 508. The sign that appeared to Constantine in the Element was a signe of the name of Christ , not his Crosse : howsoever the Coiners and m Crosse-maintainers of your Church doe falsly paint it out . For as n Eusebius writeth , ( unto whom Constantine did report the thing , and shewed him that ensign , which he had caused to be made in the likeness thereof ) it was the forme of a ( 1 ) Spear standing strait upright , with a ( 2 ) Crown on the top of it , and as it were ( 3 ) a horn , which ( 4 ) did crosse the midest of the Spear aslope . So that it represented two of the Greek letters , χ and ρ : which being the two first letters of the name of Christ , the name of Christ was signified by that sign to Constantine . Thus be describeth it who saw it . Vnto this Hart thus replyeth , but out of doubt he calleth it the signe or the monument of the Crosse also . And unto this Dr. Rainolds thus rejoyneth . But 5 himself sheweth , that he calleth it so , because it resembled o the signe of a Crosse For neither was it like the Crosse fully , which had p another figure : and where he describeth it , he saith in plain termes that it was 6 a signe of the name of Christ. Neither were these words that you rehearsed written by it , In this signe overcome , as your q Doctor saith : ( 〈◊〉 because he read it coined in the Cruseado so , or in the Portigue ) bu r by this overcome : as if God shewing him the name of Christ. should have said unto him that s there is no other name given under Heaven whereby we must be saved . In the which meaning it seemeth that Constantine did understand it also : because t he used afterward to carry in his Helmet , not the signe of the Crosse , but those two letters by which the name of Christ was represented to him . But suppose it was the very signe of the Crosse , which you imagine appeared unto Constantine , yet this will make nothing for the perfect 〈◊〉 of the usage of the signe of the Crosse in Baptisme amongst us : and my reason is , because apparitions in the aire , though they be not illusions of Satan , the Prince of the aire , but true & reall miracles , doe not oblige us unto 〈◊〉 of the like in Gods ordinances : strong and powerfull motives they are unto the worship of Christ , but were never designed to be a rule of it , and he that useth it to such a purpose perverts it from its right end . Dr. Hammond . And then for the Surplice : It is no newes , I hope , for severall sorts of men to have solemne Garments , for solemne actions which they doe not use at other times . The Judges upon the Bench , or the Lords at their coming to Parliament , are a sufficient evidence of this , who weare not those Robes in common occasions , which there they do , as betokening their quality . and the imployments they are about . And then what is thus customary in civill matters ( viz. to difference persons and imployments , yea and dayes , by distinction of garments ) and is allowed to be decent therein , this by analogy undeniable , is as fitly and decently from thence derived to solemne sacred actions also , such are the publick offices of the Priest : and the commands of our Superiours being added to this decency of the matter , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it is , I am sure , more than undecent for inferiors to be obstinate , and deny obedience to them . In the choice of the garment , there bath been also , as near as may be , a resemblance observed of those garments , which in Scripture are mentioned for the like solemnities , long , shining , i. e. white robes or garments . And if the constant usage of other Churches besides this of ours , Eastern as well as Western , for so many Centuries together , be considered , it will be competently able to 〈◊〉 stablish an Ecclesiastical custome also , which , in things of this nature , externall ornaments and formalities , is a more 〈◊〉 onal ground , and rule or measure of decency , than any Mr. J. ( or Amesius to boot ) will readily he able to produce for the rejecting of them , or breaking and casting away those bands which tyed no harder a 〈◊〉 than this upon their shoulders . Jeanes . The Surplice was used not onely as a note of distinction , but also for its mystical signification , to betoken sanctity of life , and untill this latter use of them be proved lawfull , your four arguments will be but a begging of the Question , as you will soon perceive , when you attempt the reducing of them into forme . This may suffice for answer unto all your arguments ; but I shall also give unto each of them a several answer . The first argument is taken from the Analogy betwixt civill and sacred persons and actions : Civil persons wear solemn garments for solemn actions , which they doe not use at other times ; therefore it is decent for Ministers to weare solemne garments in their solemne sacred actions , which they doe not use in common occasions , as whilst they are walking in the streets , or the like . To answer this , I need not trouble my 〈◊〉 , but only referre the Reader unto what Ames answereth unto the like objection of Bishop Mortons in his Reply to his particular Def. &c pag. 4. To which I answer . 1. That if all this be granted , yet it maketh not for the Surplice ; which is not a Civil 〈◊〉 an Ecclesiastical , Religious habit ; there is great difference betwixt a grave , civil habit , and a mystical garment . 2. The consequence doth not follow ; because in the exercising of the Ministerial duty , nothing is requisite which the Lord himselfe doth not impose upon his Ministers . A Minister then hath another person , than when he walkoth in the street . 3. There is a great disparity betwixt Judges and Ministers , in regard of their Functions ; for Judges Functions are civill , and therefore subject unto mans Institutions : but Ministers in their Functions are onely to observe what he , whose service they are to perform hath appointed . This answer fits your argument , as if it had been purposely made for it , and by this the 〈◊〉 may see , that it was baffled long agoe , and 〈◊〉 you should not have propounded it anew without some reinforcement . But your second argument will strike the matter dead ; The Command of our Superiours added unto the decency of the matter . But this mends the matter nothing at all ; for our Superiours , as well as others , are prohibited to make any additionals unto the Worship instituted by the supream Law-giver , who had infinite Wisdome , and so could sufficiently provide whatsoever was fitting in his own Worship and Service : All additions unto the Ceremonial Law under the Old Testament 〈◊〉 unlawfull , Deur . 12. 32. And why then should it be lawfull to adde unto the Ceremonial Law in the New Testament ? Christ was faithfull in the House of God , as Moses , Heb. 3. 2. and therefore his provision for 〈◊〉 was as perfect and exact , though not as numerous . Your third Argument , The resemblance of the Surplice unto those Garments which in Scripture are mentioned for the like solemnities , long , shining , white Robes or Garments , I suppose you mean some of the holy Garments of Aaron , that were appointed for glory and for beauty , Levit. 16. 4. and then this reason may involve the Surplice in the guilt of Judaisme , rather than prove its decency . Hath God , think you , abrogated those mystical Garments that were of his owne 〈◊〉 , to make way for such as shall bee of mens invention : If we must needs have mystical apparel , what can be more sitting than that which God himself ordained ? The Word and Sacraments doe sufficiently minde a Minister of his duty , and the light of them is so full and clear , like that of the Sun , as that it needs not the candle of a Surplice . This instruction of the Church by humane Ceremonies , is to teach her with a Fescue , to hide the light of the Gospel under a bushel , and it is a 〈◊〉 and shadowing of its brightnesse . Some have concluded the Surplice to be decent , because the Angels appeared in shining garments , Luk. 24. 4. in raiment white as snow , Mat. 28. 3. because the glorious Saints in heaven are 〈◊〉 with white robes , Revel . 7. 9. and the Lambs Wife shall be arraied with fine linnen , clean , white , Revel . 19. 8. But these inferences are , as they say , 〈◊〉 ad angulum , and you are wiser than to own them , and yet the strength of your argument is little , if at all , superiour to them . Your fourth argument is , the constant usage of other Churches , besides this of ours , Eastern as well as Western , for many Centuries together . But first , the not using the Surplice by Christ and his Apostles , and some Centures immediately following their times , is a saser prosident to imitate , than the usage of it in succeeding Centuries , which were not so pure and incorrupt as the Primitive time . 2. Those which are utterly unskilled in the Ancients , may collect from the confession of your great and learned Hooker , Ecclesiastical Politie , rag . 245. That the true and Primitive antiquity of the Surplice , is a matter very doubtful , notwithstanding , saith he , I am not bent to stand stiffly upon these probabilities , that in Hieromes and Chrysostomes times any such 〈◊〉 , as a white garment , was made several unto this purpose , to wit , for Ministers to execute their Ministery in , and it is without doubt that in the next age , the cumbersome weight of Ceremonies , as you call it , burdened the Church ; for Augustine who lived in the times of Hierome complained hereof , Epist. 119. ad Januar. Quamvis enim neque hoc inveniti possit , quomodo contra fidem sint , 〈◊〉 tamen religionem , quam paucissimis & manifestissimis celebrationum Sacramentis misericordia Dei esse liberam voluit , servilibus oneribus premunt , ut tolerabilior sit conditio Judaeorum , qui etiam si tempus libertatis non agnoverint , legalibus tamen sarcinis , non humanis praesumptionibus subjieiuntur . Sed ecclesia Dei inter multam paleam multaque , zizanta constituta multa tolerat . In the next place you averre , that Ecclesiastical custome in things of this nature , is a more rational ground and rule of decency 〈◊〉 any Mr. J. or Amesius to boote , will readily be able to produce , for the rejecting of them , &c. But untill Amesius his argument against things of this nature , humane mystical ceremonies , be answered , this comparison with impartial Readers will passe for nothing but vapouring . In the end of the Section , you give a hint of the tolerablenesse of the Ceremonies , they were bands which tyed no harder 〈◊〉 than this , upon your shoulders . But first , God hath broken the yoke of his own Ceremonies , and our Pre lates cannot shew us any commission for their pretended authority to make a new yoke of their own , and with it to gall the necks and consciences of Christs Members and Ministers . Paul , though he thought all indifferent things to be lawfull , yet he professeth that he would not be brought under the power of any , 1 Cor. 6. 12. Now we were brought under the power of the Crosse and Surplice ; for as Aquinas 〈◊〉 , qui utitur eo , quod non expedit , sive licitum sive illicitum , redigitur 〈◊〉 sub rei illius potestate , and we were enthralled unto the use of them , when they were not expedient , when they did not edify , but destroy and scandalize . 2. If we may judge of the late Bishops zeal by their punishments , they shewed more zeal against the neglect of their Ceremonies , than against the omission of the weightiest matter of both the Law and Gospel ; the most scandalous and ignorant Ministers found more favour at their Tribunals , than such of the Nonconformists as were renowned for parts and learning , and exemplary for personal piety and diligence in their Ministerial function . 3. Their rigour in imposing these bands was unexcusable and unsupportable ; for it was upon no lesse penalties than silencing and deprivation , and these were upon the most peaceable and conscientious Dissenters : and when these arguments satisfied them not ( and they were the best arguments their Consistories yeelded ) the poor men were judged obstinate and contumacious , and then the Secular power was called upon for their 〈◊〉 imprisonment , they must not breath in English 〈◊〉 , unlesse in the close , and perhaps infected one , of a 〈◊〉 prison ; and there they must 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 , except they conform against their consciences : But I hope the Prelares sufferings have awakened them unto a sight of , and sorrow for this their over 〈◊〉 , if not , I shall pray unto God to open 〈◊〉 ears , that they may hear the voice of his rod. Dr. Hammond . sect . 30. In this case I beleeve ( though not in the garments themselves ) there is place for that decency , the omission of which necessarily inferres indecency , and for such order the breaking of which must soon end in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( which Mr. J. saith St. Paul opposes to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) viz. down right confusion . Jeanes . Here we have a great deale of confidence in your conclusion , but upon a diligent and most impartial search , I cannot find any premises of a proportionable strength to 〈◊〉 it up ; indeed you are like to meet with some partial Readers , who will think your proofs irrefragable , because you have 〈◊〉 out so many quotations out of the Fathers , whereas all the while there is nothing in all this your discourse that looks like an Argument : If you think my censure injurious , you may right your self , by reducing your Arguments unto form , and then , 〈◊〉 they be found convincing , the shame will be mine , and until this be done , I shall 〈◊〉 my self with that which Aines speakes concerning the pretence of 〈◊〉 , In his reply to Mortons particular def . &c. pag. 3. As for the rule of decency , which is here made the ground-of all this affirmation ; it were to be wished that the 〈◊〉 would have brought 〈◊〉 into a 〈◊〉 , that we might have seen the force of it ; for now I 〈◊〉 devise what Logick will conclude different Ministerial Garments , from decency ; 〈◊〉 decency was , and is without them , in a multitude of Christian Churches and Ministers ; but as some blundering Logicians , make their rule de omni & de nullo , serve to prove everything so this Defendant would make us beleive that his rule of decency will 〈◊〉 any thing that it pleaseth 〈◊〉 spirituall Lords to impose upon us . Dr. Hammond . sect . 31 , 32 , 33. Having said thus much ex abundanti above what was incumbent on me , I shall 〈◊〉 my self , 〈◊〉 I 〈◊〉 not spare any 〈◊〉 paines , in survey of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which Mr. J. is , resolved to think considerable , and to speak very 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 , as proving that 〈◊〉 text 1 Cor. 14. 40. rightly 〈◊〉 , doth not only not authorize any humane institution of ceremonies , but on the contrary plainly condemnes them , and this , saith he , was so well managed by him , that he hath quite beaten out of the field Bishop Morton and his second , Dr. J. Burges , 32. Here is triumph indeed . And I suppose the Reader already discernes , what are the grounds of it , viz. that Amesius acknowledges nothing decent , but that , the omission of which necessarily inferres indecency , i. e. as hath been shewed , nothing but naturall decency , the 〈◊〉 of which is a vice contrary to that , by consequence , that there is no such thing , as an indifferent gesture or garment , which either 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 custome , or obedience to our lawfull Superiours may render decent ; that whatsoever some 〈◊〉 law of nature commands not the doing of that , if it be but wearing such a garment , which the Canons of any Church 〈◊〉 , nay , by parity of reason a Cloak or a but 〈◊〉 Doublet , is absolutely unlawfull by 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 Cor. 14. 40. 33. This being the bottome of those arguments of Amesius , I may safely tell Mr. J. that they could no otherwise beat either Bishop Morton or Dr. J. 〈◊〉 out of the field , 〈◊〉 that they thought them utterly 〈◊〉 their making reply's 〈◊〉 ; He that thinks 〈◊〉 is nothing 〈◊〉 , nothing lawfull , the omission of which is not sinne , doth 〈◊〉 use other Dictionaries then we do , discernes no difference 〈◊〉 lawfull and necessary 〈◊〉 , as the 〈◊〉 of Fa all production of all things , will not allow a cause to be sufficient to produce any effect , which it doth not produce , and so produce , that it cannot 〈◊〉 produce it , which is to tell me that I sit , and walk at the very i me , when I stand still , it being certain that I am equally able to doe both those , when yet I really doe the third 〈◊〉 , so he will not allow any thing morally possible , which is not morally necessary which is certainly the eiving new lawes to 〈◊〉 ( making the word lawfull or possible which was wont to be interpreted that which may or may not be done , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only that which must be done , and may not be on 〈◊〉 ) and not new reasons to 〈◊〉 old paradoxes . Jeanes . In these three Sections I shall stay upon nothing but your charge of 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 who almost that hath heard of your great parts , learning 〈◊〉 ingenuity ( 〈◊〉 who is there such a stranger in our Israel unto whose eares the same thereof hath not arrived ) but wil upon this conclude us both guilty ? whereas we are both free & innocent , and most untruly aspersed by you , 〈◊〉 which I expect & challenge satisfaction . Sir , herein I desire no favour at your hands , 〈◊〉 shall 〈◊〉 you to put any of our words upon the 〈◊〉 , and if by all your 〈◊〉 you can 〈◊〉 any such inference from them , I shall confesse my 〈◊〉 worthy of all that disgrace which your pen can powre upon me To 〈◊〉 my self from this your 〈◊〉 I have joyned herewith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning the 〈◊〉 actions of man ; And as for Ames , his own writings will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 him in his 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . lib. 2. cap. 3. thes . 13 he expresly affirmeth that many acts , in the 〈◊〉 are in their own nature indifference , and in his Cases of Conscience he hath a whole chapter de 〈◊〉 and there 〈◊〉 his 〈◊〉 is , that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ac nuda natura antequam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aut 〈◊〉 . Tales sunt 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 are &c. lib 3. cap. 18 There he divers actions which in their common and bare nature , before they be as it were 〈◊〉 with circumstances , doe in lude in themselves no goodness or badness ; as to eat , to 〈◊〉 , to take a journey , to walk &c. Dr. J Burges impureth unto Bradshaw this opinion , which you father upon Ames , and Ames his defence of Mr. 〈◊〉 will serve for his own apology . Dr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mr. Bradshaw 〈◊〉 good reason to reverse his opinion f things indifferent , for 〈◊〉 all learning and 〈◊〉 , be resolves that there is nothing indifferent , and unto this Ames thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . cap. 2 〈◊〉 8. 9 If this were so as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , reason would persw 〈◊〉 some 〈◊〉 , but 〈◊〉 only the Rejoinder his telling again without any shew or proof The 〈◊〉 raiseth up a report , without 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 he received it , which 〈◊〉 it be some other way confirmed , then by an 〈◊〉 bare telling and that in a humour of 〈◊〉 his person , it must he accounted a meet 〈◊〉 . I for my 〈◊〉 , can find 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 words in Mr. 〈◊〉 shaw his 〈◊〉 , neither any thing from whence such a raw 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be reasonably collected . He concludeth 〈◊〉 cap. 3 that there is no 〈◊〉 indifferent 〈◊〉 i. e. every way , a well in 〈◊〉 of nature . as of moralitie . He 〈◊〉 also cap. 7 there is nothing actually indifferent , which is not potentially good or evill , and cap. 8 there is no action of mans will so indifferent , but the doing 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 be evil . There is no action that a man can 〈◊〉 , by the power of his will , 〈◊〉 is meerly and absolutely indifferent . These passages come the nearest to 〈◊〉 which is here fathered upon the treatise : 〈◊〉 all which this 〈◊〉 appeareth not : there is nothing indifferent . Nay the ha shest of these 〈◊〉 may be found not only in little Pamphlets made by 〈◊〉 Boyes , against learning and sense , but in great volumes , written by those that goe for very learned , and sensible in 〈◊〉 matters as this is . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aquinas , in the great book called his 〈◊〉 , prima 〈◊〉 . q 〈◊〉 or . 9. hath this 〈◊〉 : it must needs be that every individuall act of man ( 〈◊〉 from deliberate reason ) is either good or bad . And all 〈◊〉 almost all ) 〈◊〉 which have written upon that place , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and defend the same . who yet wore men , that in questions of such a nature , did not usually write against all learning and sense . Dr. Hammond . sect . 34. This argument of Amesius against things indifferent , that learned Bishop was well 〈◊〉 with , by his familiar conferences with Mr. 〈◊〉 , a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against Ceremenies , and whom the Bishop thought fitter to 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 instances , of 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 his 〈◊〉 , than by more serious attempts of 〈◊〉 . i. e. in plain 〈◊〉 to despise and smile at , than to dread ; and if Mr. J. have really read Mr. Hooker , 〈◊〉 he somewhere entitles our Patron of Ceremonies , 〈◊〉 may in him remember a discourse of Laws , which will supersede all necessity or 〈◊〉 of my farther inlarging on it . Jeanes . Here we have a grosse mistake , and a bitter jeer . 1. A grosse mistake , to 〈◊〉 no worse , for Ames hath no where any Argument against things indifferent ; it is a Conclusion which he never dreame of , and therefore you most injuriously fasten it upon him , and hereof , I hope , you will repent , and give some publique testimonial thereof . Next we have a bitter jeere at Non conformists , 〈◊〉 if their opinion concerning humane , religious Ceremonies , were so silly and ridiculous , that Bishop 〈◊〉 despised it , and smiled at it , and could 〈◊〉 it easily , by 〈◊〉 instances by unbuttoning and buttoning his Cassock : There may be truth in this your relation concerning Mr Hynde and Glapthorne , but your false accusation of Ames will render your bare word questionable , if it be not backed with farther proofs ; but suppose your relation true , yet all that you can gather hence is , that they were weak Respondents , and knew not the state of the Question ; and unto that you seem as great a stranger as they , for you dare not say that Bishop 〈◊〉 buttoning and unbuttoning his Cassock , was a religious Ceremony , and if it were not , was it not a proper medium to prove the lawfulnesse of humane religious Ceremonies ? The Non conformists layd downe four qualifications in the Ceremonies which they oppose : 1. Humane Institution . 2. Ordained signification . 3. Mysticall signification . 4. Appropriation unto Gods solemne Worship and Service . 1. Humane Institution , they are humane inventions , now Kneeling , Bowing . Prostrating , lifting up of the eyes and of the hands , shouting and dancing for joy , they absolutely deny to be humane inventions , as you may see in Ames his dispute about Ceremonies , pag. 495. 2. A second thing is ordained signification , though they have an aptnesse to signify , yet they doe not actually signifie , 〈◊〉 special institution of man : those signes then that signifie without institution by 〈◊〉 or by civil custome 〈◊〉 shut out of this controversie . 1. By nature , naturall Ceremonies as they are called , such as to looke up to Heaven , to 〈◊〉 up our heads , to 〈◊〉 our knees in 〈◊〉 ; for these Nature it self , saith Ames , doth teach all nations to observe without any institution though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some government of counsel , nor without such 〈◊〉 , as Nature it self is subject unto . 〈◊〉 unto disp . about humane Ceremon . pag. 27. 2. By civil custome , and of this nature was 〈◊〉 womans 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 Cor. 11. By received use and ancient custome , it shewed the subjection of a woman unto the husband , and so was an indicant signe thereof without any new institution of man. 3. They are of mystical signification , they signifie either some grace or duty , they teach some spiritual and religious thing by their instituted signification , and therefore are termed by some , 〈◊〉 Ceremonies . 4. They are appropriated unto the acts of Religion in Gods service , and so are religious in state , and have , as Parker phraseth it , a kinde of immobility in Gods worship , and hereupon they are 〈◊〉 rel gious Ceremenies , and by this all circumstances , or if you will call them circumstantial Ceremonies , all Ceremonies of meere order and decency are excluded out of the controversie , because they are common to things civil as well as sacred , and 〈◊〉 as well out of Gods worship , as in it . Whereas Doctor Morton objecteth , that a 〈◊〉 , Communion cup , the Church and place of Gods service it self , may be appropriated and assigned onely unto Gods Worship : Ames for answer distinguisheth betwixt appropriation of this or that individual , and of the kinde ; Individuals ( saith he ) may be extrinsecally and accidentally appropriated , the kind remaining 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 common and indifferent , and the individuals that are thus 〈◊〉 appropriated , are of the same use out of Gods service that they are in it ; this , saith Ames , is occasion of admiration unto Dr. Burges the 〈◊〉 , but hee might have considered , that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a Cloath , is to cover ; of a Cup , to drink out of ; of Meeting places to meet in ; and then where is the strangenesse of this 〈◊〉 ? Is there not the same immediate use of a mans eyes , in reading one booke , as another , of a mans ears , in hearing one voice , as another , however the subject seen , or heard , may differ in nature or kind ? This is a true state of the Question , made , not by me , but by Parker , Ames , Didoclave , and other learned Non - 〈◊〉 long agoe : And now I hope you are sensible that Bishop Morton his buttoning and unbuttoning his Cassock , came not within many leagues of it ; there is no doubt , but that either you have , or may 〈◊〉 procure a 〈◊〉 of the like 〈◊〉 and fashion , as that of the Bishops ; and why should not this feat be as seasible 〈◊〉 you as unto him ? P ay , Sir , try the 〈◊〉 of your skill , and let all the Bishops in the Land 〈◊〉 your 〈◊〉 ; nay , take in what help you can 〈◊〉 Mr. Hooker his discourse of Lawes that you referre mee unto , and if from the buttoning and unbuttoning of your Cassock , you can with all your united forces , prove the lawfulnesse of humane religious Ceremonies , symbolical signes ; that is , those which teach some things spiritual by their 〈◊〉 instituted signification , and are appropriated unto Gods worship , I will then confesse that there is as miraculous a virtue in your Cassock , as you 〈◊〉 unto the sign of the Crosse in the Primitive times , and shall be ready publiquely to 〈◊〉 whatsoever I have written , or spoken against these Ceremonies ; but untill such proof be made , it will bee no act of imprudence in you to 〈◊〉 for the future , such unsavoury girds ; for however they bewray a passionate , high , and 〈◊〉 contempt of your poore 〈◊〉 , yet upon examination they will be sound to be saplesse and irrational , to have in them nothing of truth , and as little of charity and humility . Dr. Hammond . sect . 35. Mean while , to the reproach of my great stupidity , I willingly acknowledge , that it cannot enter into my understanding , what sense that text is capable of , which with the 〈◊〉 ( 〈◊〉 ) 〈◊〉 can be taught plainly to condemne 〈◊〉 of Ceremonies in the Church , i. e. by what 〈◊〉 or supplies , or advantages of art this Enthymeme shall be rendered 〈◊〉 . The Apostle commands that all things be 〈◊〉 decently , and in order : ergo , he condemnt all institution of Ceremonies for Gods worship . He that can maintain this consequence not onely to be true but ( as Mr 〈◊〉 it ) plain and evident , will be a formidable adversary indeed , much better deserving that 〈◊〉 , than one whom he knows not , and therefore honours with it . Jeanes . Nothing hath more betrayed men to shamefull overthrows than contempt of Adversaries : what opened the King of Sweden so speedy a way unto his Victories , as the Emperours 〈◊〉 of him ? And I am confident that your despising of Ames , will adde nothing unto your conquests ; it appears by your mistake of him , that as yet , you never read him , and yet you have undertaken to censure and 〈◊〉 him , and in order 〈◊〉 have adventured upon 〈◊〉 conjectures or 〈◊〉 that have proved groundlesse and to have no 〈◊〉 in his Writings ; and now as for his Argument from the 1 Cor. 14. you 〈◊〉 and deride it , before you know what it is , and thus you 〈◊〉 over an enemy that you never yet looked in the face ; but for your conviction , and the Readers satisfaction , I have prevailed with the 〈◊〉 for the Printing of the passages quoted in Ames , and unto them shall onely prefix this Preface ; Let not him that girdeth on his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 himself , as hee that 〈◊〉 it off , 1 King. 20. 11. Concerning an Argument against our Ceremonies , 1 Cor. 14. which is acknowledged to be the onely place in all the New Testament , that can be alledged for their imposing . In Ames his Repl. to Mortons generall Def. &c. pag. 9 , 10 , 11 , 12. This Scripture , 1 Cor. 14. 26. 40. being rightly understood , doth not onely not justifie such Ceremenies as ours , but plainly condemneth them . For the manifesting of which assertion , because it may seem strange to those 〈◊〉 that are accustomed to other sounds , I will here distinctly ser down an Argument drawn 〈◊〉 of these words , against such Ceremonies as ours are . All that is left unto the Churches liberty in 〈◊〉 pertaining unto Gods Worship , is to order them in 〈◊〉 manner . This is manifestly collected out of that place in question . So the Defendant seemeth to grant , so P. Martyr understandeth it , as is to be seen in his 〈◊〉 upon 1 Sam. 14. which judgement of his is cited and approved by Dr 〈◊〉 de Pont , pag. 841. & 844. confirmed also by Junius against Bellarmine . 〈◊〉 . 3. l. 4. c 16 n 86 87. &c , 17. n. 9 , 10 , 12 , 13. where 〈◊〉 that Christ is the 〈◊〉 Law giver , that appointeth things 〈◊〉 his Church ; and that he hath appointed all that are requisite ; and that the Church maketh no Laws ( properly so called ) to appoint any new things to be used , but onely Canons , Orders , Directions , ordering in seemly manner those things which Christ hath appointed ; and that if she addeth any thing of her own , shee doth decline . The reason is because unto her is committed no authority of appointing new things , but a 〈◊〉 to observe and doe such things which Christ 〈◊〉 appointed . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jun. de 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . lib. 1. cap. 2. n. 26 , 27. 31. This is also confirmed by sound reason , both in respect of the wisdome required , 〈◊〉 in all Law-makers , and perfectly found in Christ , and also in regard of the nature of such Institutions . For the former reason teacheth ( as 〈◊〉 sheweth Rhet : 1. 3. ) that all , which possibly may , should be appointed in the law by the giver of it , and nothing left unto the ministeriall judges , but that which must needs be lest , as matters of fact , &c. Now in the worship of God , all but particular circumstances of order , may easily be appointed ( as in very deed they were ) by our Law-giver Christ. As for the nature of such institutions , that doth also require so much : for 〈◊〉 is above civility therein , if it be not a circumstance of order , it is worship , and therefore invented by man , unlawfull will worship . For whatsoever 〈◊〉 used . or acted by him that 〈◊〉 God , in that act , it must needs be either grounded on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 considerations , and therefore civility : or an act and meanes of worship , and therefore worship : or the ordering and manner of disposing those acts and meanes , and therefore lawfull , if lawfully and 〈◊〉 applyed : or else at the least , idle and vain , and therefore to be avoided , according to that of Basil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A 〈◊〉 cannot be given . By all this it may appear , that the authority of the Church is not to appoint what she will , no not of things in their own nature indifferent , and say they be in order , or for order : But only to 〈◊〉 those things which God hath appointed . Thus farre the proposition , or first part of my Syllogisme : the assumption followeth . But to appoint and use the Ceremonies as we do , is not to order in comely manner any thing pertaining to Gods worship . The reason is , because order requireth not the institution or usage of any new thing , but only the right placing and disposing of things which are formerly instituted . This 〈◊〉 1. By the 〈◊〉 , which is given of the word it self , which both in Greek and Latine is 〈◊〉 from the ranking of Souldiers in certain bounds and limits of time and place . Dicebant enim 〈◊〉 tribuni , 〈◊〉 tibi licet , hic 〈◊〉 , eô progrediêre , hac revertere , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inde ordo , Scalig and 2. By the definitions which are given thereof by Philosophers and Divines Tull. Off. lib 1. Eadem vis videtur ordinis & collocationis . 〈◊〉 definiunt compositionem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is & a commodatis locis . Locum autem actionis , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 esse temporis . Aug. de civit . lib. 15. cap. 13. Order is the disposition which fit places to things equall and unequall , id est , when things are 〈◊〉 ranked , some to goe before , and some to follow , as P. Martyr expoundeth it , loc . com . cl . 4. cap. 5. 3. The same also is confirmed by our Divines , who usually giving instances of order , doe insist in time , place , and such-like circumstances , making a difference betwixt 〈◊〉 ceremonies and order , many times condemning the one , and allowing the other : as the Divines of France and the Low Countries in their observations on the Harmonie of Confession Sect. 17. Beza Ep. 8. Jun. in Bell. Append. tract de 〈◊〉 imaginum . c 7. n. 12 , 13 , 14. 4. By the Context of the Chap. viz. 1 Cor. 14. it plainly appeareth , that order is opposed unto that confusion spoken of vers . 33. and therefore in porteth thing but that peaceable proceeding , whereby they should speak one by one , 〈◊〉 & the rest attend , &c. v. 30 , 31. So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it , shewing order to consist in sorting of Persons , some to this , and some to that , according to their office , and in determining of time and place , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 459. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and p. 520. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Lastly neither Luk. 1. 8. neither in any place of Scripture doth the word order import any more then hath been said . As for 〈◊〉 that is nothing but the 〈◊〉 of order . For as P. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 1 Cor. 11 it is such a 〈◊〉 of actions as whereby they may more 〈◊〉 attaine their end . Otherwhere it may containe that naturall , or 〈◊〉 handsomenesse , which is spoken of chap. 11. 13. as it doth chap. 12. 23 and so includeth all that wh ch is 〈◊〉 on civility , as a fair cloath and Cup for the Communion , a fair and 〈◊〉 vessell for 〈◊〉 ; but not the appointing of new mystical 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ceremonies were here commanded to all Churches , which the 〈◊〉 I 〈◊〉 will not say : and then the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shouldhave worth 〈◊〉 God uncomelily . Thus we have both proposition and assumption of our argument , against the ceremonies , 〈◊〉 out of this place , which the Defendant choose as the only 〈◊〉 that could be brought for them . Now I hope we may adde the conclusion . Therefore to appoint and use the ceremonies as we doe , is not left to the liberty of the Church , i. e. it is unlawfull . Concerning an argument against our Ceremonies , out of 1 Cor. 14. 〈◊〉 is acknowledged to be the only place in all 〈◊〉 new Testament that can be alledged for their imposing . Ames in his dispute about humane Ceremonies pag. 57 usque pag. 81. 1. The Replyer , seeing that all the-cause ( on the 〈◊〉 ) dependeth on this 〈◊〉 of Scripture , and finding nothing by any 〈◊〉 could be drawn from it for our 〈◊〉 , thought 〈◊〉 to try if there may not , 〈◊〉 the same 〈◊〉 be 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 argument against them . This the 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a new 〈◊〉 , and loosing the way , as if all the Def. his 〈◊〉 and all the 〈◊〉 his 〈◊〉 which he maketh after the 〈◊〉 . when he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to fly , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 away , were new Hares and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . I know 〈◊〉 what 〈◊〉 he hath , to use a 〈◊〉 , and a weight , one for the 〈◊〉 . with 〈◊〉 , and another for the 〈◊〉 . 2. The argument 〈◊〉 thus put together by the Rej pag. 77 All that is left unto the 〈◊〉 liberty , in things 〈◊〉 to Gods worship , is to order them in 〈◊〉 manner : But to appoint and use the 〈◊〉 , as we doe , is not to 〈◊〉 in comely manner any things pertaining to Gods worship : Therefore , to appoint and use the Ceremonies , as we doe , is not left to the 〈◊〉 of the Church , i e it is unlawfull The 〈◊〉 answereth first to the 〈◊〉 , and then to the assumption , but so as he 〈◊〉 both together , in many words : Yet I will follow his order . 3. First of all the denyeth the proposition to be 〈◊〉 in the 〈◊〉 his meaning . But I can see no reason of his 〈◊〉 . 1 He 〈◊〉 , that the order , and ordering is taken sometimes largely , for all discipline , or policie ; 〈◊〉 strictly , for 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 , and actions handsomely , one before , and another 〈◊〉 , and so is opposed only to 〈◊〉 , as in this place , 1 Cor. 14. 40. Now this is farre from overthrowing the proposition , in the Repl. his meaning : for the 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 order in the strict 〈◊〉 , which maketh also for his purpose : And this the Rej. granteth to be the 〈◊〉 of the Apostle in this place , 1 Cor. 14 40. Which place the same 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 57. confesseth to be the only place ( in the New Test. ) by which power is given to the Church to constitute Ceremonies : from both which 〈◊〉 together , it necessarily 〈◊〉 , that all which is 〈◊〉 to the Churches power under the title of order is ordaining in the strict sense , i. e. ranking of Persons and Actions 〈◊〉 . as the Rejoind . expoundeth it . Yet immediately after he accuse 〈◊〉 the Repl. for saying order to be the right 〈◊〉 and disposing of things , 〈◊〉 for time , place , &c , not 〈◊〉 why he 〈◊〉 keth him , or wherein 〈◊〉 from his own expectation . Only he saith that &c osten by the 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 to time and place , is a blind . Which is not so , for by &c. is meant all 〈◊〉 of like nature with time and place , as Number , Measure , vicissitude &c. How many Psalmes shall be sung , or Chapters read what and how much Scripture shall be at this or that 〈◊〉 expounded , how one part of worship shall succeed 〈◊〉 &c. without a blind . 4 In the next place , the Rejoynd . findeth a wrong meaning in the Repl. his use of the phrase ( in comely manner ) because afterward , in the end of he Assumption , he saith that , Comeliness is the Seemliness of order . For ( saith the Rej. ) beside that Comeliness of order , there is other 〈◊〉 . Now this the Repher p 〈◊〉 immediately after the words quoted , otherwhere Comeliness 〈◊〉 ay contain all natural and civil hand 〈◊〉 &c. Neither will I contend about this , but it implyeth so much in this very place ; 〈◊〉 that the Rejoynd . hath not given any reason , why the Proposition or first part of the argument should not be admitted . Yet after that he hath 〈◊〉 it upon Mr. Jac b , and made the Repl his disciple , he commeth to examine the proofes of 〈◊〉 , though he himself ( as is now shewed ) hath given sufficient assent unto all contained 〈◊〉 . The First proofe is , that it is manisestly collected out of the place in question , 1 Cor 14 and the 〈◊〉 . seemeth to grant as much . To which the Rejoynd . answer th . 1. That in that place three distinct things are propounded , Edification , Decency , Order : And these three cannot be one . But Edification being the end , Decency and Order the meanes , they may well be contained in one : decent order tending to Edification , or ( which is as much to our purpose ) in two ; 〈◊〉 and Order for Edification . A holy Sacrament decently , and orderly 〈◊〉 istred , for Edification , is not four distinct things , but one . His Second is , that these words are the 〈◊〉 of the whole Tract : beginning at 〈◊〉 Eleventh Chapt. wherein are handled some things only concerning decency , some 〈◊〉 properly pertaining to Edification . and some which 〈◊〉 more 〈◊〉 to Order , Ergo more is commanded in 〈◊〉 words , 〈◊〉 the comely placing of one thing after another . Let this be granted , yet 〈◊〉 solloweth 〈◊〉 that more is left unto the Churches 〈◊〉 than order and 〈◊〉 unto 〈◊〉 ; sor all things that are 〈◊〉 , are not 〈◊〉 unto the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But hat speaking in unknown tongues , which the Rejoynd . doth referre to 〈◊〉 , is distinct from order and decency is by good Divines accounted 〈◊〉 offend against the order , and decency , spoken of chap. 〈◊〉 . and 40. So Dr. 〈◊〉 , de Script . q. 2. c. 18. disputeth against the use of an unknown tongue in Gods service , out of the very place : pugnat hoc vero cum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quam 〈◊〉 , 1 Cor. 14. 40. i. e. this mightily 〈◊〉 ; that good order which 〈◊〉 so much stands for . His 3. is , the Desend . 〈◊〉 no way seem to 〈◊〉 the proposition ; because the Repl. undertaketh by argument 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this place out of the 〈◊〉 . his hands , 〈◊〉 this nothing at all argueth , that the 〈◊〉 . and the Repl. doe not agree 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 , thought ey 〈◊〉 about the place , as it is 〈◊〉 in the assumption . The Papists grant us this Proposition : No Ph 〈◊〉 is used 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in these words , This is my body , but a 〈◊〉 one : Yet 〈◊〉 they deny the assumption ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are not a 〈◊〉 phrase , wee undertake by 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 this place 〈◊〉 of their hands . So the Des 〈◊〉 no more , than order and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Edification , to be 〈◊〉 unto the Churches 〈◊〉 , for the 〈◊〉 of our Ceremonies , doth seem at 〈◊〉 to grant , that all which is 〈◊〉 to the 〈◊〉 liberty is order and 〈◊〉 unto Edification , though hee 〈◊〉 these to contain no more then meere circumstances , which is the assumption : Of Edification there is not mention made in the proposition , because 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 an end , is out of question , and alwayes included . 6. Peter Martyr is cited out of D. Whitaker De Pontis . pag. 841. 844. As agreeing with that which the Repl. would have , Here the 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 himself much for the sake ( as he saith ) of those that are unlatined . He telleth us P. M. doth distinguish , though not divide , comelinesse from order , which we do also , for take the Repl. his words in the most 〈◊〉 sense you can , yet comelinesse of order , doth distinguish comelinesse from order , no lesse than comelynesse of a man doth distinguish it from a man. 2. He addeth , that P. Mart. doth there instance in the Ceremony of thrice dipping , and in the observation or institution of Feasts . But let the Reader know , 〈◊〉 those words . Ceremony , Observation , Institution of Feasts , which the Rej. hath set down in a 〈◊〉 letter , to be noted as P. M his words , are not to be found in the place of P. M. but are added by the Rej. for advantage . P. M. expoundeth the meaning he had in all his 〈◊〉 , by what place , what time , what manner . If therefore the Repl. did not look upon that place , but took it on trust , from the trusty hand of D. 〈◊〉 ( as the Rej objected to him ) yet it proveth good and 〈◊〉 . So that the Rej 〈◊〉 himself much , when upon 〈◊〉 uncertain , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he compareth the Repl. to a hungry creature ( or dog ) that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a bare bone D Morton once ( at the least ) alledged some 〈◊〉 on trust ; and therefore , being challenged for them , hee 〈◊〉 , that 〈◊〉 had them from Mr. Stock Yet the Popish 〈◊〉 ( 〈◊〉 of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) did not 〈◊〉 him to a dogge , but onely said , 〈◊〉 hee sent to 〈◊〉 and stones for satisfaction about them . Which I doe not alledge to the 〈◊〉 of either D. M or M St. but onely to shew by comparison how the 〈◊〉 . doth sometime ove 〈◊〉 in his terms . 3 For D 〈◊〉 , he telleth us , that hee onely saith , that 〈◊〉 . Laws belong onely to order , or ordering , but not as it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 come linosse . As if any of us did so . The Repl his words ; ordering in comely manner , doe not ( I hope ) referre all to order , considered apart from all comelinesse . This is the full summe of all that the Rejoind . had to except against the first allegation . And yet here upon this nothing , it pleaseth him to accuse , not onely the Repl. but these men , of haughtie and magistral 〈◊〉 , gulling , and deceiving , great and 〈◊〉 sinne , and the poor . Repl. at the least , for a man 〈◊〉 of common 〈◊〉 . It seemeth he was very angry at something . Let the understanding Reader 〈◊〉 , at what ? 6. For more manifestation of the Repl. his 〈◊〉 of common 〈◊〉 , the Rej. referreth us to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of 〈◊〉 against Bell. Cont. 3. l. 4. c. 16. n. 86 , 87. and cap. 17. n. 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13. Omitting therefore unnecessary repetition , let us 〈◊〉 the reasons of extraordinary 〈◊〉 . 1 Junius cap 16 n. 86 , 87. saith onely 〈◊〉 , that those humane Laws are only 〈◊〉 in the Church , which tend to this , that all things may be done decently , and in order , 1 Cor. 14. 40. 2. That 〈◊〉 are improperly called Laws in the Church , being more properly Constitutions , or Canons . Now out of the 〈◊〉 saying , the Repl. concluded , that Junius did judge the Apostle 〈◊〉 no more to the Churches liberty , than to order Gods Ordinances in decent manner : And out of 〈◊〉 second he 〈◊〉 the same conclusion ; because any constitution , above ordering in decent manner that which before was 〈◊〉 , is properly a Law. What extraordinary 〈◊〉 is here ? 2. Junius c. 17. 〈◊〉 . 9. saith onely , that to make new Laws in divine things , is to decline , i. e. in points of Faith , or 〈◊〉 rules of 〈◊〉 . But Iunius 〈◊〉 no 〈◊〉 at all , either of Faith or Sanctimony , or Necessity , nor Bell. himself in that place . Neither is the question there handled of points of Faith , or things absolutely necessary to Sanctimony . All double , treble Ceremonies reductively Sacramentall , and Worship , are by the Rej. his owne dictates double sacred ; and 〈◊〉 is it which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by divine . 3. 〈◊〉 . saith that the addition forbidden 〈◊〉 . 4. is of 〈◊〉 contrary to the Law of God : Whereunto 〈◊〉 , n. 10. answereth , that any Laws at all , added to Gods Laws , are contrary to the Law of God , 〈◊〉 of proper Laws , without any backing of Gods Law , binding the 〈◊〉 , as he sheweth , cap. 16. n. 86. 8. Here 1. the Rejoind . 〈◊〉 out those words of 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 contrary 〈◊〉 beside the word ; which if he had 〈◊〉 , then the Readers 〈◊〉 might have recalled , how this place cited before for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that phrase , was 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 by the Rejoind . pag 42. 2. It is to be marked that the Def. and Rej. their answer unto Deut 4. is the same with 〈◊〉 . pag. 134. 3. That exposition of Laws 〈◊〉 backing , is of the 〈◊〉 . his own 〈◊〉 . No such thing is sound in the places 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 to defend any such thing . Of binding the conscience , enough hath been said in the head of difference 〈◊〉 our Ceremonies and Popish . 4. 〈◊〉 n. 12 answering to 〈◊〉 his saying , that God ( in the N. T ) gave onely the common Laws of Faith and Sacram. leaving the specials to the Church , &c. 〈◊〉 Gods Laws to be perfect 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 , and those of the Church to be but Canons and disposings of conveniency , for better observing of divine Laws . Where note 1. an example of an &c. for a blind , or blinding , which the Rejoynd . formerly told of , for in that &c. is 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : 〈◊〉 non possunt diversissimi 〈◊〉 convenire in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & ritibus . i. e. for this cause , speciall lawes of rituall things , are lest to the Churches liberty , because of variety , which falleth out now by occasion of 〈◊〉 and places , which is the very thing , that the Rejoynd . pawned his credit , Bell. never said , pag. 15 , 16. Note also , Secondly , that Junius doth not in this place mention Canons , 〈◊〉 the Rejoynd . pleaseth to alter his words in reciting 〈◊〉 them ; But cautions and dispositions . Now a caution about the 〈◊〉 of any thing , is not an institution of a new thing . 3. 〈◊〉 . is sound to say as much as he was alledged 〈◊〉 , and to the contrary we have from the 〈◊〉 . a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 5. Junius n. 13. saith only that Christ is the only Law giver , that is , to give lawes , that in themselves and by the very authority of the law maker , do bind the conscience . As if 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 of Bell. did only say the very same thing with him , that he goeth about to 〈◊〉 ; 〈◊〉 Bellarmine , in that very place saith : Christ is the 〈◊〉 law giver , who by his own authority can judge and make lawes . Now out of all these allegations , the Rejoynd . maketh his 〈◊〉 . 1. Where he these words , all that is requisite as spoken of Rites and 〈◊〉 ? Answer , the sense of these words , as spoken 〈◊〉 all Ceremonies above meer order and decency , is cap. 16. 28. 2. Where 〈◊〉 you in 〈◊〉 that the Church may constitute no new thing ? Ans. cap. 17. n. 9. this in things divine is to turne aside : for the Rejoynd . his interpretation of those words , that they mean points of saith , and necessary rules of Sanctimony , is 〈◊〉 by conference of Bellarmines words there opposed , who in that place 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 and Judiciall lawes , and speaketh not at all of saith and necessary Sanctimony ? 3. Where are these words , Ordering in seemly manner . Ans. cap. 16. n. 86. those only humane lawes are necessary in the Church , which make that all things be done decently and in order , 1 Cor. 14. 40. 4. If the Church may appoint no new things , but only see to decency and order , then saith the Rejoynd . what Patent hath she to make particular 〈◊〉 for time and place ? unlesse they be no new things . I ans . 1. Time and place considered as meer occasional circumstances , are no 〈◊〉 new things in Gods service , then concreated time and place , were 〈◊〉 things in creation , distinct from the created world . And Calvin 〈◊〉 . l. 4. cap. 10. Sect. 22. severely 〈◊〉 these , that call such times of 〈◊〉 new lawes : Quis nisi 〈◊〉 , sic 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ab iis legem dicat , quos constant duntaxat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , quae sunt a domino satis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ? if 〈◊〉 that scandals be avoided , be no new thing , then neither is procuring that disorder , and undecency , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , place , &c. be avoided , any 〈◊〉 thing . As for a Patent to appoint double , 〈◊〉 , sacred 〈◊〉 , it is a 〈◊〉 thing for them to 〈◊〉 it , that cannot shew it 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 Seal . I do 〈◊〉 think that any 〈◊〉 King would have his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it themselves to that power , which is fetched out of a patent , invisible and only avouched by 〈◊〉 . 7. A 〈◊〉 was given of the foresaid proposition , out of 〈◊〉 . de 〈◊〉 . Imp. l. 1. c 2. n. 26 , 27. 31. 〈◊〉 . that the Church hath only 〈◊〉 ministry , to observe such things as Christ hath appointed , not authority of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things . Here the Rej 1. observeth , that those words ( new things ) have no footsteps in Junius ; As if new things could be appointed lawfully without authority of appointing ; and leaveth only ministeriall performance of things appointed , he denieth appointing of new things . 2 He cryeth thus , if the Church have a ministery to appoint and doe such things as Christ hath commanded , then must she needs have a commission legative , to appoint and use tites , serving to order and decency . Adde to this only , and then it is not only that , but all that which we require . 3. He cryeth out of 〈◊〉 perversion , eithe : by grosse negligence , or mistaking And why so I pray ? because forsooth all that 〈◊〉 saith is good to prove , that no Ecclesiasticall all person hath any power by his calling over temporall Princes . But this is nothing against their delegated dependant power , by commission : But First , these are very strange distinctions : they have not any power by their calling , but some by commission . They have not any power over temporall Princes ( though they be members of the Church ) but over the Church they have . 2. The Rejoynd . maketh Junius only to deny that , which Bellarmine never affirmed , viz. absolute independent power of Ecclesiasticall 〈◊〉 persons as supreme Lords . Nay Bellarmine answereth to Calvin in the very same manner that the Rejoynd . 〈◊〉 : The Pope is not the cheif law giver but the Vicar of Christ , and by Christs authority maketh lawes . 3. He addeth , that Junius 〈◊〉 . de trad . distinguisheth betwixt decency , and the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 alone . As if this were the main question , or any part of the Proposition , or denyed by the Repl. at all . The rejoynd . having little to say that was to purpose , catcheth hold of one word in the end of the Assumption used by the Repl. seem 〈◊〉 of order ( which yet is immediately there differenced from other decency , as well commanded as 〈◊〉 ) and that he maketh the main matter of the proposition : whereas the meaning is , that nothing is left unto liberty in Gods worship , above decency and order , for which 〈◊〉 testimonies are brought , and not for the other . 8. For more full support of the foresaid proposition , a reason is added , from the fullnes of a perfect law , which leaveth no more unto ministerial judges , then needs must . For answer , the Rejoynd . 1. Observeth that some cases are of necessity variable , and so left . So the occasions of different rites , and Ceremonies are so various , that if our Lord had fixed any one certain fashion , he should have made rather snares then lawes for his Church As if he had appointed 〈◊〉 at the table in a communion : or kneeling in prayer . This-is strange stuffe . 1. So much is granted , as is 〈◊〉 . viz. that God hath left nothing ( about his worship ) undetermined in his 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 uncommanded , and unforbidden particulary save only that which he could not 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 forbid : Now let any man think , and judge , whether it had not been possible for God in his word , either to have commanded , or forbidden the signing of those that are baptized with the signe of the Crosse as well , as baptizing of them with water ? 〈◊〉 . How can that too too bold and inconsiderate assertion be excused : if our Lord had sixed ( or Commanded ) any one certain fashion of Ceremonies , he had made rather snares then lawes for his Church . If it had pleased God to command , or forbid the signe of the Crosse in particular , what snare had it been ? When God appointed all the Ceremonies of the Old Testament , he did not I hope make snares for his Church , though he did lay a burden upon it , 3. Whereas the Rejoynd . maketh sitting at a table , in the Lords Supper , and kneeling at Prayer , to be such things as the Lord could not command , but as snares , because sometime a Table may bee wanting , or something to sit on , or ability to sit ; and so of Kneeling : this is as poor a 〈◊〉 to catch any man of understanding in , as one shall lightly see made . For 1. many affirmative Commandements of God there are , which in 〈◊〉 cases cannot bee fulfilled , and 〈◊〉 to bind , as praying unto , and praising of God with our voice ; which is no snare to him that cannot speak . The appointing of Wine for the Supper , is no snare , though some Countries have it not , and some men cannot well drink it . See 〈◊〉 Ep. 2. 〈◊〉 and Symb. 〈◊〉 . lib. 1. 〈◊〉 . 9 2 I would know , whether it had been a snare if God 〈◊〉 appointed sitting at the Table with exception of such extraordinary cases ? if 〈◊〉 , then much more when men appoint kneeling , surplicing , and crossing ; if no , 〈◊〉 our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proceed . Kneeling in publique prayer might have been appointed without snaring , as 〈◊〉 before the Lord thrice in the year , was appointed to every Male in Israel , 〈◊〉 . 16. 16. For ( without doubt ) many men in Israel , were , by accident more unable to travel up to Ierusalem , then any Christian that hath knees , is to kneel . After this observation , of which the 〈◊〉 saith it may he as wee will , he answereth , that our Lord hath left nothing absolute to the will of his Officers ; but hath left even 〈◊〉 Rites , under generall rules , which will tye them as perfectly , as if every one had been named and with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 1. But this is 〈◊〉 to the purpose ; because so the in perfect est Law that is in any Nation upon 〈◊〉 earth , if it be worthy the name of Law , leaveth nothing so absolute to the will of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as that it should be without the general rules of Justice , common good , &c. 〈◊〉 not without the rules of order and decency . 2. Concerning the 〈◊〉 of perfection , betwixt 〈◊〉 and particular rules , though enough 〈◊〉 been said before , upon like occasion , yet this I will adde . If he meaneth , that a general rule , if it be perfectly understood and applyed , doth as perfectly tye as 〈◊〉 . I grant it to be a truth . And so was the Old Testament as perfect a rule of 〈◊〉 Faith as the New , 〈◊〉 shalt love thy Neighbour , as 〈◊〉 as the six of the second Table . But if hee meane , that a generall rule is as sit and full for the 〈◊〉 of us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as 〈◊〉 are , then I think no man conscious of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , wil beleeve him . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I beleeve , 〈◊〉 he himself is so fully 〈◊〉 in crossing the baptized , by any rule which he hath out of Gods word for that , as hee is for 〈◊〉 by the rule of 〈◊〉 The 〈◊〉 having ( as he thought ) 〈◊〉 grounded the generall , that a 〈◊〉 Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 needs must unto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , goeth on to assume , that in the worship of God , all , but particular 〈◊〉 of order , might easily be ( 〈◊〉 indeed 〈◊〉 were ) 〈◊〉 by Christ , and therefore need not be 〈◊〉 to the Churches wisdom . Upon this it pleaseth the Rej. to say little to the purpose , in many words . 1. He saith , that circumstances of order were not harder to determine than those of decency . Now it is plaine enough that the 〈◊〉 . here , naming order , did also understand decency , though he named order only . 2. He asketh , what School of Divinity hath taught the Repl. to say , that our Lord forbore the determining of such circumstances , because all else was easie ? I answer , no rule of Divinity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 teach the Repl. to say so , nor yet the Rejoinder to impute unto him , what he never said . But if he meaneth ( as it seemeth 〈◊〉 doth ) because it was not so easie to determine circumstances of time and place , as real worship . I then answer , that this ( as I think ) the Replyer learned out of that Divinity School , out of which the Def and Rejoinder learned . That which they cite out of Calvin , pag. 15 , 16 Janius is cited to the contrary out of Cont. 3. l. 4. cap. 17. n. 12. ( which place the Rejoinder looked upon by occasion of the Replyer his former citation of it ) But he in that very place , distinguisheth betwixt Laws , properly so called , and 〈◊〉 , leaving onely cautions to the Churches liberty , which is the very same that the Repl. meaneth . The plaine truth is , that supposing Gods will to be , we should worship him in any place , and at any time fitting , it was necessary , that the particular choice of fitting time & place , should be left 〈◊〉 to any particular time , or place , exclusively . Calvin also is cited , as more comely , expressing the cause to be , that 〈◊〉 would not , than that he could not 〈◊〉 such matters . Now though Calvin , being so excellent in his expressions may easily be granted to have expressed the same meaning in more comely manner than the Repl. Yet here was no cause of noting disparity : For the Repl in saying , all things but particular order and decency may bee easily appointed , did not say what Christ could doe , but what might be easily for us appointed , or with our case , or with the ease which we doe conceive of in Law giving , or of an ordinary Law-giver , having such authority as Christ had . And who doth not see , that it is not so easie , to appoint every 〈◊〉 place , and time , wherein God shall be worshipped , throughout all the world , as with that worship he shall bee served ? For that particular description , a thousand books , so great as our own Bible , would not have sufficed . The world ( as Iohn saith ) would 〈◊〉 bee capable of the volumes that must have been written . The Rej. himself , pag 89. telleth us of cumber , and much ado , that would have been , in naming every 〈◊〉 , and is not this as much as lesse easie ? yet it pleased him to seek matter of 〈◊〉 about this 〈◊〉 , and that ( which 〈◊〉 not ) 〈◊〉 after he had , without reason , accused the Repl. of picking quarrels . 〈◊〉 . 88. 10. A second reason of the Repl. his proposition , was , that whatsoever in worship is above order and decency , is worship : Because whatsoever is acted by him that worshippeth , in that act , beside 〈◊〉 civility , must either 〈◊〉 an act or means of worship , or an orderly decent disposing of those acts , or else at the least idle , and so unlawfull . The 〈◊〉 answereth 1. that a significant Ceremony for Edification is lawful ; yet cometh not under any of those heads . But he himself 〈◊〉 a significant Ceremony instituted of God , to be essential worship , and instituted of man to bee worship , though nor in it selfe : of which distinction enough 〈◊〉 been said in the head of Worship : Yet this by the way : A significant ceremony for 〈◊〉 is the same in it selfe , by whomsoever it be instituted , because institution is extrinsecal to the thing instituted , and alters it not in it self , internally . If therefore it be essentiall lawfull worship , in it 〈◊〉 , when it is instituted by God , it is also 〈◊〉 ( though not lawfull ) worship , in it self , when it is instituted by man. Beside that Ceremony whose proper sole end is 〈◊〉 toward God , is properly done to the honour of God , and so properly divine worship 2. 〈◊〉 answer is , that comeliness grounded on civil humane considerations , is not meere 〈◊〉 in sacred actions and use , but sacred by application . Which is very true , if civil application be meant by 〈◊〉 civil ; but then it is nothing to the purpose . For sacred by application is seemly clothing 〈◊〉 on for to goe to Church in , and yet is in it self 〈◊〉 civil . The Question is not of application , but of internal 〈◊〉 . Sacred things 〈◊〉 to civill busines , doe not therefore become civill ; for who will say , that prayer , at the beginning of a 〈◊〉 , is a civil act , though it were used in the upper and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and applied to that civil meeting , as it ought to be ? And why 〈◊〉 shall 〈◊〉 application of civil decency unto sacred busines , make it alter the nature or name of it ? 3. His answer is that all meanes of worship are not worship . But he knew well enough , that this was meant of proper 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 . His fourth is , that ordering and manner of disposing is ill divided from comeliness . Neither did the Repl. intend so to divide , but rather to 〈◊〉 them , understanding by that manner of 〈◊〉 , comeliness . But if the 〈◊〉 not catched up some shew of confounding comeliness with order , which was not intended by the Repl. he had been in this argument wholly at a 〈◊〉 . His 〈◊〉 and last answer is , that by 〈◊〉 leave somethings in 〈◊〉 , may , and sometimes must be tolerated . But he should have 〈◊〉 bred , that the question here is not of tolerating , but of appointing and 〈◊〉 . Now if it be lawfull , to 〈◊〉 and use empty and 〈◊〉 Ceremonie ; in Gods worship , let those worshipers judge , that 〈◊〉 at the majesty of God , and are afraid in any manner to appear empty , and unprofitably before 〈◊〉 . Nay ( to 〈◊〉 by our 〈◊〉 ) let the Papists themselves judge . 〈◊〉 . de Pontif. l. 4. c. 〈◊〉 . ad 4. 〈◊〉 those Ceremonies to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 are unprofitable altogether , and vain precepts , 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 Ceremonies , only by humane spirit invented . And de 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . l. 2. c. 32. empty and good for nothing , more then needs , and not a jot 〈◊〉 to any 〈◊〉 . and who not ? 11. Thus 〈◊〉 concerning the 〈◊〉 of our argument : the assun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which is this : To appoint and 〈◊〉 the Ceremonies as we do , is not to order in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any thing pertaining to Gods worship . The reason is , because order 〈◊〉 not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of any 〈◊〉 , but only the right placing and 〈◊〉 of things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The Rejoynd . answers 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 time , place and measure : which is a 〈◊〉 in the 〈◊〉 before 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 . 2 His second is , that ordering in 〈◊〉 manner , or 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 the institution of such 〈◊〉 , as shall be 〈◊〉 to the 〈◊〉 , and variety of divine actions . Where the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not so formall , that a man may spie in it the difference it 〈◊〉 from other things : the Rejoynder in his 〈◊〉 . pag. 36. 〈◊〉 it to 〈◊〉 Rochets , &c. 〈◊〉 as they are distinct from Surplices : the Bishops went 〈◊〉 the hearse in their 〈◊〉 , the Clarkes in their Surplices . So that it 〈◊〉 to meane some 〈◊〉 of State , and dignity : of which kind neither 〈◊〉 , not surplice is any . Howsoever the ordering of one thing , doth not require another new thing , but only disposing of that one . For if it did , then that new thing ( because that also must be ordered ) would require another new thing , and that also for order sake another , so that no one thing could be ordered without an infinite 〈◊〉 of new things . As 〈◊〉 the dignity of divine actions , that is best suited with mans reverent and humble simplicity , not with outward shewes of dignity , 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 . The womans 〈◊〉 vail was more sutable to the dignity of Gods worship , then if she had adorned her self with Gold , and 〈◊〉 us 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 plain Cloak was more suitable , then the 〈◊〉 Cope in all Rome . If 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 outward shewes of dignity , then Rome , which is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , may be to all Churches a mirable example of religious order ; for the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 Sess. 22. professeth their Masse Ceremonies to be invented , that the 〈◊〉 of such a Sacrifice might be set out . 12. To shew further that order requireth not such Ceremonies as ours , the notation of the word was brought in , signifying no such thing . Now the Rejoynd . granteth , that originally the word doth nor containe within the compasse of it , 〈◊〉 kind of Ceremonies , though by usage it may . Which is very true , but helpeth not , Except the Def. or Rejoynd , whose princi all argument is taken from this place , and only retorted by us , can prove , that in this place the word order is extended beyond his originall signification . He will not therefore stand with us , about the signification of the word in this place : let order saith he , in this place signify no more then placing . But he maketh his retreat to the word Comelinesse ; asking if comelinesse be nothing ? I answer yes , it is something ; but the 〈◊〉 . did not insist on that word , because he took the 〈◊〉 of the Def. his argument from this place , principally to lie upon order . But seeing the Rejoynder hath given up Order , I will adde a word or two concerning Comeliness . I take this for granted , that seing the Rejoynder 〈◊〉 order here to be taken in strict signification , as opposed only to 〈◊〉 , pag. 78. he will also consent with us , that decency , in 〈◊〉 same 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 , is to be taken in strict signification , as opposed only to the vice 〈◊〉 undecency . Now hence it followeth that decency requireth nothing , but that which is necessary to the avoiding of undecency . I ask therefore if 〈◊〉 in Gods worship cannot be avoided , without double , 〈◊〉 , sacred , significant Ceremonies , of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ? If not , then the Apostles did much 〈◊〉 themselves , in their publick worshiping of 〈◊〉 , before men had 〈◊〉 such Ceremonies ; for that is no answer which the Rejoynd , after 〈◊〉 ; all Churches are not bound to this or that particular way of comelinesse . All Churches are bound to avoid undecency , 〈◊〉 to doe 〈◊〉 which decency 〈◊〉 , or bindeth them unto . If yea , then 〈◊〉 doth not require such kind of Ceremonies . Neither 〈◊〉 it indeed , any more 〈◊〉 order . So Mr. 〈◊〉 , lat . to . 2. p. 888. 〈◊〉 is when the service of God is 〈◊〉 with 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of time , place , person , and gesture : and hereof the Apostle speaketh 1 〈◊〉 . 14. 40. The plain simple 〈◊〉 , without 〈◊〉 affectation , is , that decency is ( in this place ) nothing but good civil 〈◊〉 , agreeable not only to worship , but 〈◊〉 to any grave assembly . Decency ( saith 〈◊〉 upon the place ) is opposed to vanity , sports , riot : it stands not in hoods , 〈◊〉 , or vizards of fond Ceremonies . &c. I dare appeal to D. B. his conscience , if Baptisme be not as decently administred without the 〈◊〉 , as with it , ? and publick prayers made 〈◊〉 decently without a Surplice , as with it ? Let conscience here speak , and the Rejoynde harkening unto it , will ( without all doubt ) confesse , that decency in this 〈◊〉 doth no more require either Crosse or Surplice , then 〈◊〉 , and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 them together doth no more require those Ceremonies , then a hundred other , which in England ( though not at Rome ) are denyed unto them . To this purpose Mr. Attersall , in his second book of the 〈◊〉 , chap 5. saith well : if they referre all this trash and trumpery ( of humane Ceremonies in Baptisme ) to order and comeliness , as Hosius doth , do they not thereby 〈◊〉 phemously accuse the 〈◊〉 of John , and of the Apostles of uncomelinesse and disorder ? whereas the 〈◊〉 and dignity of the Sacraments is to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the word of God , by the institution of Christ , by the 〈◊〉 of the Gospell , and by the practice of the Apostles : Nothing is more comely , decent , and orderly , then that which Christ commandeth and 〈◊〉 : nothing is more uncomely and unseemly then that which man inventeth in the 〈◊〉 of God , and in the celebration of the Sacraments ; thereby inverting and perverting the holy Ordinances of God. 12. The received definitions of order , are brought in to the same purpose , by the Replier . And the Re joynder 〈◊〉 so much as they import , viz. that order in strict signification doth not imply such Ceremonies as ours . He must therefore either prove , that in this place , 1 Cor. 14. 40. that 〈◊〉 is not taken strictly , which he himself formerly granted , or give up the place , which is ( by his own confession ) the only place of all the New Testament , for 〈◊〉 of such Ceremonies , or 〈◊〉 to decency , upon which he cannot any more fasten then upon order , as 〈◊〉 been shewed . Nothing materiall is added in the rest of the Rejoynd . his answer unto this argument ( where our divines are observed , to distinguish order and decency , from mysticall Ceremonies , 〈◊〉 context of the Chapter , 1 Cor. . 14. is declared to respect 〈◊〉 mysticall Ceremonies , the 〈◊〉 of Scripture is shewed to consent ) nothing ( I say , and the Reader may see ) is added ; but only the same things are repeated about order , and decency which are now sufficiently discussed . So the Rejoynder hath nothing to say to the contrary , but that we 〈◊〉 safely conclude , Ergo. to appoint and 〈◊〉 the Ceremonies as we doe , is not 〈◊〉 to the liberty of the Church , i. e. it is unlawfull . If there were nothing else against them , in all the Scripture , then this place , 〈◊〉 which the Defend . and Rejoynd . can find none in all the New Testament for them , any indifferent man would say they are not allowed . Those that are devoted to the Ceremonies may shuffle up and down , first to 〈◊〉 , and when they are beaten thence , to Decency , and from decency , when they can defend that no longer , to Edification , as the 〈◊〉 . doth : But all will not help . Let them pitch or insist upon one of these grounds , without starting , I will pawn my Head , their 〈◊〉 will come home to them again , as finding noe fast ground either in Order , Decency , or Edification , for double significant Ceremonies ( such as ours ) to 〈◊〉 at . The Defend . could frame no consequence out of any of these words , the Rejoynd , saith there is one , but he cannot shew it . To the contrary consequence , nothing is answered of any moment , And is not this a miserable cause , which hath no place in all the N. 〈◊〉 which the best Advocates can alledge for it , but only that , out of which it is utterly confounded ? To the Defend . and Rejoynders maintaining such a cause , this 〈◊〉 may be given that they would willingly , so farre as they can , favour things which the times favour , and therefore strive to make something of that which maketh nothing for them . In the former 〈◊〉 , when Order , Decency , and Edification , should have been handled as rules , according to the title of the digression , the Rejoynder suddainly breaketh off , referring them to a sitter place . Now here in this place , he was constrained to touch upon them , but so softly , and sparingly , that it 〈◊〉 he found this no fitter place then the former , for those reserved Considerations . When shall we come to the 〈◊〉 place ? By this I hope the Reader is satisfied , that there is more in Ames his Argument than you imagined , and thinks that 〈◊〉 had no reason to slight it before you had seen it . I will readily acknowledge that you are farre his superiour 〈◊〉 your incomparable skill in Critical learning and Antiquity , and all the world would account me a fool to 〈◊〉 or think otherwise ; but I hope it is no 〈◊〉 to say , that hee was not much your inferiour for Logick , Philosophy , and Scholastical Divinity ; in which latter , hee was more versed than most of our Protestant Writers : Comparisons I know are odious , but I Apologize for a dead man , and therefore I hope I shall be held 〈◊〉 : Indeed his memory 〈◊〉 to be 〈◊〉 with mee ; for though I dissent from him 〈◊〉 some things , yet I must needs 〈◊〉 , that in my first study of Divinity , I most profited by him : I have often found in a few words of his that satisfaction , which I in vaine searched for in more voluminous discourses . I know that hee hath been contemned by many , but it hath been by Learned men that never read him , or by ignorant Readers that never understood him ; and indeed unto those that have not made some tolerable progresse in Philosophy , he will be in many places unintelligible ; for he studied 〈◊〉 , and for that purpose , frequently made choice of scholastical expressions : He lived and dyed an exile for his dislike , and opposition of our Ceremonies ; and the 〈◊〉 were not contented to have hunted him from his Native soyl , but pursued him beyond the Seas ; for they engaged King James to command the then English Ambassadour at the Hague to sollicite against his employment in the Netherland Universities , and he prevailed with the States Generall to exclude him from Leyden , where otherwise hee had been received as a Professor ; but making the like attempt at 〈◊〉 , the motion was rejected as unchristian and uncharitable , with some tart reflexions upon the Bishops malice . This I have received from a very good hand , one of his Scholars , that heard it from his own mouth : But I returne from this digression . Upon the review of this Section I find , what you say of Ames his Argument for condemning of the Ceremonies from 1 Cor. 14. may with better reason bee applyed unto Bishop Mortons medium for justifying of them , and with your leave , Mutatis mutandis , I shall apply it thereunto : To the reproach of my great stupidity , I willingly : acknowledg , that it cannot enter into my 〈◊〉 what sense his buttoning and 〈◊〉 of his 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 of which with the best possible managery 〈◊〉 be taught plainly to justifie humane institution of religious mystical Ceremonies in the Church appropriated unto Gods worship , i. e. by what Prosyllogismes or supplies , or advantages of art , this Enthymeme shall be rendered concludent . Bishop Morton 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 his Cassock , therefore it is lawfull for Church governours to invent and devise Symbolical Ceremonies , that is , those which teach things spiritual by their mystical signification , and appropriate them unto Gods worship . He that can maintain this consequence to be not onely true , but plain and evident , will be a formidable adversary indeed , as formidable an adversary as ever put pen to paper ; and if you cannot maintain this Consequence , the terror of your name wil with me in greatpart vanish , as touching argumentation : When the Spaniards came first into America , the inhabitants 〈◊〉 them to be immortall , but when they had once taken some of them , they put their heads under water , and there kept them untill they had drowned them , and this soon altered their opinion : knowing your vast abilities , I looked upon you as a very formidable adversary , and expected from you very terrible arguments ; but your arguments for the Ceremonies I have taken , and I thinke 〈◊〉 them with satisfying answers , and therefore you are not in this controversy so formidable an adversary as at first I thought you ; but I 〈◊〉 this to the badnesse of your cause , and not to any defect in your abilities . Dr. Hammond . sect . 36. His third and last impression now remaines , wherein he undertakes to prove by three arguments , that custome is not the only rule of decency ; and his first argument is , because the light and law of nature is also a rule of decency . To this I answer , that 〈◊〉 those things , whereof alone he knowes I there 〈◊〉 in the Sect : concerning uniformity , i. e. in things indifferent , gestures , and other Ceremonies in Gods service , the law of nature is no rule at all : and I suppose he cannot think , I am sure he pretends not to prove , or so much as affirme it is , and therefore though not 〈◊〉 in all 〈◊〉 of things , of which I speak not , nor can by any rules of discourse be supposed to have 〈◊〉 , yet as to the matters then before me , wherein Ecclesiastick conformity consisted , custome , and only custome was the rule of 〈◊〉 . Jeanes . 1. I had no reason to imagine that your words were to be restrained unto things indifferent , gestures and other Ceremonies in Gods service , for you undertook to give us the importance of the Apostles words : Let all things be done decently , and the Apostles words reach unto even naturall decency , now of that the light of nature is a rule . 2. There be , as Bellarmine rightly lib. 2. de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . cap. 20. some Ceremonies , which receive their institution as it were from nature it self , which may be called naturall Ceremonies , as to looke up 〈◊〉 Heaven , to 〈◊〉 up our hands , to bow our knees , and knock our breasts when we pray unto God : Quaedam 〈◊〉 sunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 natura 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , quae naturales 〈◊〉 possunt , qual . est respicere in 〈◊〉 , tollere manus , flectere genua , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , cum Deum 〈◊〉 : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 natura ipsa docet , unde ettam communes sunt Gentilibus & 〈◊〉 sectis . 3. Those Ceremonies which we oppose , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , such as the Crosse and Surplice , are not things indifferent , because they are imposed and used as parts of Gods worship , and no worship of God is 〈◊〉 . 4. Suppose that I concurred with you in holding the questioned Ceremonie : to be lawfull , yet I should deny Custome to be the onely rule of their Decency , and that because the light and Law of Nature , right Reason is a rule thereof too . My argument I shall thus re-enforce ; If Custome be in the Ceremonies of Gods service , the only rule of 〈◊〉 , then nothing else can be a rule thereof besides Custome ; but this is false ; for the light and law of Nature is also a rule thereof : therefore in the Ceremonies of Gods service Custome is not the onely rule of Decency . The 〈◊〉 of the Major is evident from what Logicians say concerning , first , the exposition , secondly , conversion , and thirdly , consecution of exclusive propositions . 1. Concerning the exposition of them , Propositio 〈◊〉 subjecti 〈◊〉 exponitur per duas exponentes , quarum prima est affirmata , & appellatur praejacens , estque nihil 〈◊〉 quam propositio exclusiva , 〈◊〉 signo exclusivo : & secunda est negativa de subjecto exclusivè in 〈◊〉 , vel 〈◊〉 . This exclusive proposition then in the Ceremonies of Gods service , Custome is the only rule of Decency , must be expounded by these two . 1. By an Affirmative : in the Ceremonies of Gods service , Custome is a rule of Decency : And then 2. Negative : whatsoever is not Custome , that is not in the Ceremonies of God : service a rule of Decency . 2. Concerning the conversion of them , Propositio exclusiva subjecti affirmativa convertitur in universalem affirmativam de transpositis terminis . The Doctors proposition then , Custome in the Ceremonies of Gods service , is the onely rule of Decency , is converted into this Universall Affirmative , every rule of Decency is Custome . Well , upon this premised concerning the 〈◊〉 and conversion of exclusive propositions , Logicians lay down concerning the consecution of them this rule : Ab exclusiva ad exponentes propositiones itemque ad universalem conversam bona est consequentia : By this rule then it will follow , that if Custome in the Ceremonies of Gods service be the only rule of Decency , that then in them nothing but Custome is the rule of Decency , and that every rule of Decency is Custome . The Major then is fortified beyond all exception . The Minor I shall confirme by instancing in the light or law of Nature , right reason , this to joyn issue with you , would bee in the controverted Ceremonies of Gods service , if they were lawfull , a rule of Decency . For first , what is the end of a rule but to regulate and direct ? now the light and law of Nature regulates all gestures and Ceremonies in Gods worship , as touching their Decency . 2. It is in these particulars not only a rule , but a principall rule of Decency , by which all Customes are to be tryed , examined , and regulated . For the confirmation of this I shall adde three reasons . 1. Gestures , Ceremonies agreeable 〈◊〉 Custome may be found to be dissonant unto the light and law of Nature , and to be rejected as undecent . 2. Custome is not the rule of decency unlesse it have the force of a Law , and that it cannot have , say the School-men , rightly , unlesse it be rationabilis , and such it cannot be , unlesse it be agreeable unto right reason , which is all I meane by the light and law of nature ; though the light of nature doe not dictate the necessity of it , yet it must give allowance and approbation of it ; without its warrant it is not to be received as Decent . A 3. Argument shall be ad hominem : by nature you say , out of 〈◊〉 , is meant 1 Cor. 11. 14. Custome of some continuance in that place , and what more probable reason can be assigned for terming of a Custom Nature , then its conformity unto its allowance and approbation by the Law of Nature ? It being thus proved , that even in the Vestures , Gestures , and Ceremonies of Gods service , upon supposition of their lawfulnesse , the law and light of nature is a principall rule , it will follow that wee may with farre better reason say of it , than of custome , that 't is , in the matters spoken of , the onely rule of Decency : For 1. We may truly say of the law and light of Nature , that it is in Ceremonies the only rule of Decency , though Custome be a rule thereof also ; because the exclusive particle onely doth not exclude things subordinate : Now Custome is a rule of Decency subordinate unto the light of Nature , and therefore is not excluded ; when I say , the light and law of nature is the onely rule of Decency . 2. We cannot say of Custome , with any truth at all , that it is the onely rule of Decency in the matters before you , wherein Ecclesiastical conformity 〈◊〉 , because the onely things excepted from being excluded by the particle onely , are things subordinate , and things necessarily 〈◊〉 ; but now the light and law of Nature as it is not subordinate unto custome , so neither is it necessarily concomitant therewith ; for divers customes in Ceremonies may be , and have been irrational against the light and law of Nature : The law and light of Nature then is excluded from being a rule of Decency , by saying Custome is the onely rule of Decency . Adde hereunto , that the particle 〈◊〉 , onely , doth not alwaies exclude à totâ 〈◊〉 , but sometimes onely à summitate speciei , as may bee seen in Scheibl . topic . c. 2. n. 29. Now Custome is a lesse principall rule , that must undergoe tryal and examination by the light and law of Nature , as a superiour rule . Dr. Hammond . sect . 37 , 38. His second argument is wholly deceitfull , and must be discovered to be so , by reducing it to rules of art . 'T is by him variously formed in two several 〈◊〉 . The 〈◊〉 is this . Nothing can be undecent which is agreeable to the onely rule of Decency . But divers things are undecent , which yet can plead 〈◊〉 . The conclusion now must be , Therefore Custome is not the onely rule of Decency . 38. But this is no regular Syllogisme , 't is in no mood or figure , not readily reducible to any ; and therefore 't was his onely way to presume it evident , and never to endeavour 〈◊〉 proof thereof . Jeanes . I never said that it was an exact and regular Syllogisme . But first , here is matter for a Categorical Syllogisme , and it is easily reducible 1. Unto a Hypothetical Syllogisme . 2. Ad Syllogismum ducentem ad impossibile . 1. Here is matter for a Categoric al Syllogisme : The only rule of Decency hath not any thing undecent agreeable unto it : Custome hath many undecent things agreeable unto it : Therefore Custome is not the onely rule of Decency . 2. 'T is easily reducible , 1. Unto a Hypotheticall Syllogisme . 2. Ad Syllogismum ducentem ad impossibile . 1. It may be reduced unto an Hypotheticall Syllogisme thus : If Custome be the onely rule of Decency , then nothing can be undecent , that is agreeable unto Custome : But divers things are undecent which are agreeable unto Custome ; Therefore Custome is not the onely rule of Decency . The sequele of the Major is evident , because nothing can be undecent that is agreeable to the onely rule of Decency . And the Minor cannot bee denyed : In the Syllogisme then there is only a Crypsis , the Major is concealed , and the proof thereof placed in its roome , and Cryptical Syllogismes are in all discourses justifiable , when they may be reduced : If you call upon me to reduce the hypothetical Syllogisme , unto which it is reduced , unto a Categorical , you will herein be unreasonable ; for those hypothetical Syllogismes that have four terms in the Major , are hardly capable of reduction unto a Categorical Syllogisme ; So Scheibler hath instructed me , de Propos. &c. cap. 12. n. 24. 2. It is reduced unto that Syllogisme which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which doth ducere ad impossibile , as it is taken largly for that argumentation which doth reduce an adversary unto an 〈◊〉 upon his own principles ; for from this your principle , that Custome is the onely rule of Decency , this Syllogisme will inevitably follow , Nothing that is agreeable to the onely rule of decency can be undecent . All things customary are agreeable to the onely rule of decency : Therefore nothing customary can be undecent . But now this conclusion is apparently false , therefore one of the premises is also false ; for ex vero nil nifi verum sequitur : It is not the Major , for the only rule of decency makes and denominates every thing conformable unto it to be decent , therefore it is the Minor , which is , that all things customary are agreeable unto the only rule of decency ; and if this proposition be salse , then your position is false too , that custome is the only rule of decency , because all things customary are agreeable unto custome . Dr. Hammond . sect . 39 , 40. But he hath thought fit to vary this Syllogisme , and give it in other terms , and then one might hope it would be exactly formed . 'T is thus , It is impossible that the onely rule of decency should be undecent . But yet it is very possible that many customes should be indecent . Therefore he shall conclude , that custome 〈◊〉 not the onely rule of decency . 40. But this is no Syllogisme neither , being far removed from the measure that Logicians exact , and such as by which I will prove any thing 〈◊〉 , that is the most distant from it . For example , it is granted truth , that Law is the onely rule of Iustice , yet this I shall disprove by a Syllogisme exactly formed by Mr. J. his model . Thus , It is impossible , that the onely rule of Iustice should be unjust . But yet it is very possible that many Laws should be unjust . Therefore I shall conclude that Law is not the onely rule of Justice , Jeanes . This is a modall Syllogisme , framed exactly according to the rules of Logick touching modall Syllogismes ; as for that Syllogisme which you parallel unto it , it hath no alliance with it ; for both the premises of mine are true , and the Minor of yours is grosly and palpably false ; for unjust lawes are not , in propriety of speech , lawes , but are so termed only equivocally , as a painted , a dead man , is said to be a man : turpe praeceptum non est lex , sed 〈◊〉 , for obligation is essentiall unto a law ; now every law obligeth in the name of God , by authority derived from him , and the glorious name of God cannot oblige unto any thing that is unjust : the Fathers , Schoolmen and ancient Philosophers are all so unanimous in 〈◊〉 of this , and have for this their assertion such pregnant and convincing reasons , as that I cannot but wonder , that a man of your learning should be of an other opinion ; but in your next we shall hear what arguments you have for your distent : In the mean while , I shall desire the Reader to take notice of the witnesses , and reasons produced , amongst many others , by Suarez , and Gregory de Valentia , for what I affirme , 1. Suarez de legib . lib 1. cap. 9. De ratione , & essentia legis , est , inquit , ut praecipiat justa : Assertio est non solum certa secundum fidem , sed 〈◊〉 clara secundum naturalem rationem . Et ita 〈◊〉 tradunt non solum Theologi , & Patres inserius allegandi , sedetiam passim Philosophi &c. Verum 〈◊〉 haec ipsa conditio dupliciter explicari potest , scilicet vel negative , ut scilicet quod 〈◊〉 , nec injustum , nec turpe sit ; vel positive , ut sit justum & 〈◊〉 . Conditio ergo haec praecipue intelligitur 〈◊〉 modo , & sic est evidens , alia vero ratione invenitur in legibus divinis , & aliter in humanis . In divinis 〈◊〉 ratio est rectitudo per essentiam divinae voluntatis . Est enim Deus summe bonus , & ideo non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aliquid pravum praecitere . &c. De legibus autem humanis , hoc fundatur in alio principio . Nam legislator humanus non habet voluntatem 〈◊〉 , sicut Deus , & ideo quantum est ex se , & quoad 〈◊〉 , potest interdum iniqua praecipere , ut constat : non 〈◊〉 habet potestatem ad obligandum per iniquas leges , & ideo licet iniqua praecipiat , tale praeceptum non est lex , quia vim , cut valorem ad obligandum non habet . &c. Et ita est clara ratio assertionis , tum quia illa potestas , 〈◊〉 obligandi , est a Deo , quae tem a Deo sunt , ordinata sunt : Ergo est data in bonum , & in 〈◊〉 , non in malum , 〈◊〉 in destructionem : Tum etiam quia nullus inserior potest obligare contra 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 superioris ; sed lex praecipiens pravum actum est contra legem Dei prohibentis illum : Ergo non potest obligare , quia impossibile est , homines simul obligari ad agendum , & non agendum aliquid : si autem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est prohibitum lege divina , non totest lex inferioris tollere illam superioris obligationem : Ergo nee potest inducere 〈◊〉 : Ergo ejus lex tali opere non potest esse valida . Et de hac justitia legis lequebatur August . lib. 1. de libero arbit . cap. 5. cum dixit , mihi lex esse non videtur , quae justa non fuerit . Et de eadem intelligi potest , quod dicit lib. de vera relig . cap. 31. 〈◊〉 segum temporalium , si vir bonus est & sapiens , legem consulit aeternam , ut secundum ejus incommutabiles regulas , quid sit pro tempore vitandum , jubendumque discernat . Vnde sicut lex aeterna solum just a praecipit , quia est ipsa justitia per essentiam , 〈◊〉 a vero lex humana esse debet paerticipatio ejus , & ideo non potest valide praecipere , nisi 〈◊〉 , & honesta , 〈◊〉 illud Prov. 8. Per me Reges regnant , & legum conditores justa decernunt . Atque hinc ulterius concluditur , hanc conditionem , etiam positive intellectam esse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 legis ; 〈◊〉 non 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 modo singulis applicanda sit , &c. Ex hac assertione sic declarata duo inferre possumus . Vnum est ad illam maxime 〈◊〉 primam conditionem positam ab Isidoro , 〈◊〉 , ut lex 〈◊〉 honesta , quod ex ipsa vocis proprietate satis patet . &c. 〈◊〉 infertur ex 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 non habentem hanc justitiam , seu honestatem , non esse legem , neque obligare , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nec servari posse &c. Unto this of Suarez I shall 〈◊〉 what Gregory de Valentia hath to the same purpose , tom . 2. disp . 7. quaest . 1. punct . 1. Nomen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 significat rectam aliquam regulam praescribentem communitati alicui perfectae modum necessarium ad bonum ejusdem communitatis &c. Atque 〈◊〉 modo 〈◊〉 D. Thomas 〈◊〉 , cum infra quaest . 96. art . 4 , inquit leges 〈◊〉 magis esse violentias , quam leges . Item quaest . 90. art . 2 & 3. Vbi definit , 〈◊〉 ad 〈◊〉 commune ordinari , & ab eo , qui curam gerit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 etiam D. Augustinus lib. 1. de libero arbitrio cap. 5. 〈◊〉 accepit , cum dixit , legem non videri , quae justa non sit . In quam sententiam lib. 19. de 〈◊〉 Dei , cap. 21. inquit etiam , non esse jura dicenda , vel 〈◊〉 , iniqua 〈◊〉 constituta . Atque etiam legem esse regulam aliquam rectam censuit Clemens Alexandrinus , lib. 1. Stromatum , cum dixit : legem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & regulam 〈◊〉 . & injustorum . 〈◊〉 Plato in Dialogo 〈◊〉 de legibus , & in Epineme , ubi asseruit , finem legis esse Deum & 〈◊〉 ejus . Item Philosophus lib. 5. Ethitor . cap. 1. inquiens , legalia justa esse factiva & conservativa faelicitatis , 〈◊〉 ; 〈◊〉 Cicero lib. 2. de legitus : Constat , inquit , profecto ad salutem civium 〈◊〉 ; incolumitatem , 〈◊〉 quietam . & beatam , conditas esse leges . Et post , cum dixisset eos , qui 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 populis jara descripsissent , quidvis aliud potius tulisse , quam leges , concludit , perspicuum esse in ipso nomine leges interpretando , inesse vim , atque sententiam justi , & juris colendi . By this you may see , that in your Syllogisme there are four termes , for lawes in the Minor are taken improperly and equivocally , in the conclusion properly and univocally ; But custome in my Syllogisme , both in Minor and Conclusion , is taken properly and univocally , for custome is predicated univocally of the most undecent customes . For farther justification of my Syllogisme I shall reduce it in like manner that Logicians reduce Syllogismes made in Baroco and Bocardo , to wit , with that reduction which is ad impossibile or per deductionem ad absurdum : I suppose , that you will grant my premises , for the minor you confesse in terminis in the next Section ; And the Major cannot be denyed with any colour of reason ; for the rule of 〈◊〉 is , in some sort , an 〈◊〉 cause of decency , and it is impossible for the exemplary cause of decency to be undecent . Well then , I suppose , that you grant the premises , and only deny , that the inference of the conclusion from these premises is legitimate ; if you grant the premises to be true , then you grant the Propositions , that are contradictory unto them , to be false , and hereupon it will follow , that if I take the contradictory of my Conclusion , and can thence , 〈◊〉 with one of my premises conclude , that one of the premises which I suppose , you grant , is false , hereby I shall convince you , that the principall conclusion , which is contradictory unto this , was true : The contradictory of my conclusion is , custome is the only rule of decency ( I take contradictory largely , as some opposite propositions are said by Logicians , to be contradictory de lege ) Now this I take and subjoyn unto my Major , and here hence I inferre the contradictory of my Minor , 〈◊〉 which will make up this following Syllogisme . It is impossible for the only rule of Decency to be 〈◊〉 . But Custome is the only rule of Decency . Therefore it is impossible that any custome should be undecent . But the conclusion is false , and , I suppose , that you grant the 〈◊〉 thereof . Now if the conclusion be false , one of the premises must needs be false ; for , ex vero nil 〈◊〉 verum sequitur . Now 't is not the Major , for I suppose , and that with very good reason , that it is granted by you , therefore 〈◊〉 the Minor : now the Minor is contradictory unto the conclusion which you deny , and therefore the conclusion , which you denyed , is true , viz. that Custome is not the only rule of decency : for of contradictory propositions both cannot be true , Contradictio semper dividit verum 〈◊〉 falso . Thus you see my 〈◊〉 is demonstrated to be true , 〈◊〉 ducente ad 〈◊〉 vel 〈◊〉 . But for the fuller 〈◊〉 of it , I shall propound and answer two objections , that I foresee may be made against it , by such as are not well 〈◊〉 in Modal Syllogismes . The first is , that the duo modi impossibile and possibile are repeated but once a peece in my Syllogisme , and in a good Syllogisme every term is to be put twice . The answer unto this in breif is , that in a Modal Syllogisme , the modus is none of the terms , but onely a Syncategoremati cal word , so Vallius Introduct . Log. par . 3. cap. 12. In terminis , inquit , non 〈◊〉 modus sicut ; enim in conversione propositionum modus non numeratur inter praedicata vel subjecta , sed est quid additum illis , sic in Syllogismis modalibus , modus non numeratur inter terminos , unde etiam saepe in Syllogismo modali non potest inferri conclusio cum modo , sed sine illo . The very same thing is taken notice of by 〈◊〉 . concerning such Modal Syllogisms as consist of Modal compounded propositions , 〈◊〉 enim inquit , quod modalis particula non habeat vel rationem 〈◊〉 , vel rationem praedicati ; sed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 se ex parte copulae : inde clarum est , quod in istis modalibus Syllogismis , particula modalis 〈◊〉 poni potest , nempe in singulis 〈◊〉 Syllogismorum partibus , veluti : Necesse est hominem esse animal . Necesse est Petrum esse hominem . Ergo necesse est Petrum esse animal . Hîc aio , particulam necesse , nec habere rationem praedicati , nec subjecti , sed esse ex parte copulae , quia in propositione , assumptione , & conclusione reperitur . At nullus terminus in Syllogismo ter poni potest . A second objection is , that in the 〈◊〉 Syllogismes mentioned by Aristotle , this mixture or combination of impossibile and possibile is not at all mentioned . For answer , Aristotle instanceth in Modal Syllogismes , wherein there is a mixture of necesse and contingens , and Logicians generally hold that impossibile is reduced unto necessarium and possibile unto contingens . Let two speak for all . 〈◊〉 . The but now quoted Vallius in lib. 1. prior pag. 38. Impossibile ( inquit Philoponus ) comprehenditur sub necessario , quia quod est necessarium , est impossibile ut non sit , 〈◊〉 quia homo est necessario animal , impossibile est ut non sit animal : & 〈◊〉 ratione quod est impossibile , est necessarium ut non sit . Similiter possibile comprehenditur sub contingenti , quod enim contingit esse , 〈◊〉 fieri potest , 〈◊〉 est possibile , & quod 〈◊〉 non esse , contingit non esse : adeoque id , quod proprie vocatur possibile , concurrit cum contingenti . He quotes also for it , if my memory fail not , Burana affirming as much ex Alexandro . The second Author is a late one read by every Fresh-man , 〈◊〉 institut . Log. lib. 2 c 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 modi 〈◊〉 annumerantur propositionibus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; & propositiones modi possibile , iis quae sunt modi contingit . Dr. 〈◊〉 . sect . 41. To discover this deceit then , the Syllogisme , which is now no Syllogisme , must bee somewhat better formed , according to the rules of Logick , and reduced , as 〈◊〉 as it can , into a true Syllogisme . Thus , Whatsoever is it self undecent , cannot be the onely rule of Decency . But custome is it self undecent . Therefore Custome cannot be the onely rule of 〈◊〉 . Here before it can be defined , whether this be a regular Syllogisme , or no ? It must bee demanded , quanta est minor , is the assumption universal or particular ? If it be particular , then either the conclusion must be particular also , or else 't is a false Syllogisme . And if the 〈◊〉 be particular , then it inferres no more , than that some undecent custome cannot be the onely rule of decency , which is 〈◊〉 granted by me , who doe not at all affirm it of undecent 〈◊〉 . But if the Minor be universal , then 't is a false proposition ; for certainly all cust mes are not indecent . The short is , Nature may bee the rule of one sort of decency , and Custome 〈◊〉 onely rule of another ; 〈◊〉 if the custome be in it self indecent , then of such indecent custome it is not pretended , that it is either onely , or at all the rule of decency . And so still my proposition may stand good , which as it belonged not to natural decency , so much lesse to what is by nature , or in it selfe undecent , never imagining it reasonable , that what gestures were against those Laws of Nature , or Scripture , or any other Law of decency , or rather of naturall 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 by pretense of any custome whatever , be 〈◊〉 into Gods 〈◊〉 : 'T is sufficient that some customes , may bee decent , or in themselves not indecent , and that all decency in the service of God , is to be regulated and 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with them : For I said not , that all customes were the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 that some were , and that there was no other rule , but custome . This , I hope , hath discovered the invalidity of his second Argument . Jeanes . My Syllogisme is , as I have demonstrated , a true Syllogisme ; you might then very well have spared the paines you have taken to reduce it , as neare as you could , to a true Syllogisme ; for there was no need of it : You deserve then no 〈◊〉 for your labour , but I have reason to expect reparation from you for 〈◊〉 of my Syllogisme : This Section therefore I might wholly passe over , but yet I shall stay a while upon the examination of a second restriction that you put upon your dictate : you have already told us , that it is not to be understood of all decency . Now you give us to understand , that 't is not meant of all custome , but onely of some such as are not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; when you say custome is the onely rule of decency , your meaning is some customes are the only rule of some kind of decency in the Ceremonies of Gods worship . But whether this liberty which you assume in thus limiting your position bee justifiable , is very questionable ; for after this rate , what 〈◊〉 absurdities 〈◊〉 any man maintain ? If I should say , that solum brutum est animal : that a spirit only is substance : that number onely is quantity : that Baptisme is the only Sacrament of the New Testament : would not every one cry out against these propositions as untrue , as well they might ? and doe you thinke they would passe for 〈◊〉 ? though I should come with an after game , and goe about to limit them , in such a manner as you have done , by your assertion , and say , my 〈◊〉 was , that solum brutum est animal irrationale : that a spirit onely is an 〈◊〉 substance : that number onely is 〈◊〉 quantity : that 〈◊〉 is the onely Sacrament of the New Testament of initiation ; and yet these restrictions are altogether as fair and allowable as yours . 2. I did not think your proposition capable of having an universal sign affixed unto it ; and my reason was , because as Aquinas p. 1. q. 31. art . 3. observeth out of the Summularii , dictio 〈◊〉 immobilitat terminum cut adjungitur , ut non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sub eo descensus pro 〈◊〉 suppositorum , non enim sequitur , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is animal rationale mortale : Ergo solus Socrates . But yet notwithstanding this , I thought your proposition might be 〈◊〉 de 〈◊〉 , as they say ; and so , though it were not formally , it would be 〈◊〉 universal . But now I shall 〈◊〉 aside this conjecture , because you inform us , that your indefinite proposition , was intended by you for a particular proposition , only I shall propound some objections against your making it a particular proposition . 1. When you 〈◊〉 Custome is the only rule of Decency , you speak of Custome either formally or materially ; if you speak of Custome formally and 〈◊〉 as Custome , why then every Custome is a rule of Decency , because à quatenus 〈◊〉 de omni valet consequentia , that which doth agree to a thing as such , doth agree to every singular contained under it : but if you speak of Custome only 〈◊〉 , and your meaning be , that Custome sub tali formali under such a consideration or qualification , is the only rule of Decency , why then this formale , this consideration or qualification of Custome , may , with farre better reason , be said to bee the importance of the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , then according unto Custome , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will be but the materiale in the rule of Decency . 2. Untill you expresse how those some 〈◊〉 may be qualified , that you make to be the onely rule of Decency , your interpretation of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Let all things be done decently , will be very obscure , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , if not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ignotum , and your proof that you bring for your Exposition will be as dark and doubtsome : Thus both will runne , Let all things be done according to some customes , because some customes are the only rule in some things of some decency , whether that which you call the clear importance of the place , do 〈◊〉 leave the Reader in an uncertainty , be you your self judge . 3. The quantity of indefinite propositions may be gathered from their 〈◊〉 ; in a necessary matter they are universal , in a contingent , particular : Now I demand whether to be the rule of decency be predicated of custome necessarily or contingently ? if necessarily , then custome cannot but be the rule of decency , and then all custome is a rule of decency : A necessary proposition that is affirmative , direct , natural , where superius praedicatur de 〈◊〉 , or 〈◊〉 de in 〈◊〉 , is also de omni : if it be predicated of it contingently , then custome may bee , and may not be a rule of decency , and then I desire you to evidence unto us how 〈◊〉 being thus a rule of decency , viz. contingently , will be a solid proof , that the clear importance of the Apostles words , Let all things bee done decently , is , let all things be done according unto custome ? and your best and 〈◊〉 way to clear this unto us , will bee by reducing your argument into a Syllogisme . 4. If to be a rule of decencie be predicated contingently of 〈◊〉 , then custome is onely a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 , and therefore it needs regulation by a higher rule ; and if there be in the Ceremonies of Gods 〈◊〉 a higher rule then custome , it will hereupon inevitably follow , that custome is not in them the onely rule of decency . 5. You implyedly give us the Character of those Customes which you affirm to be the only rule of decency , when you say , that of such undecent customs it is not pretended , that 't is either only , or at all the rule of decency : Now all customs , in the Ceremonies of Gods service , are either decent or undecent : the Custome that is undecent is not at all a rule of decency , and therefore your position is to be understood of that Custome which is decent : for betwixt decent and undecent customes in the Ceremonies of Gods service there is no medium , as I have shewed already : the upshot of your meaning then is , that some Customes , viz. such as are decent , are the onely rule of decency , &c. What sobrietie is in this limitation will appeare , if we will consider that herein we have a twofold decency : one in the rule , decent customes ; another in the thing , regulated decency : The former is different from , and antecedent unto the latter : now of the former decency , in the rule , in custome it self , I demand , What is the rule of that decency , whether custome it self , or some other thing ? I presume you will not say Custome it self ; for then it would be an underived , unsubordinate , and independent rule , a role of it selfe : and if you should say that some other thing besides custome is the rule of the decency which is in custome , thon by conformity unto this , we must judge of the decency of Customes in the Ceremonies of Gods worship , whether they be decent or undecent ? and from this it is obvious to inferre , that in Ceremonies there is a rule of decency antecedent unto Custome , by which Custome it self is to be regulated and measured ; and therefore Custome is not the onely rule of Decency . Your limitation then is so farre from being any support unto your position , as that it giveth unto it a plain overthrow . Dr. Hammond . sect . 42. His last argument [ because there is decency in the first usage of some things ] falls upon that mistake of my words which I discoursed of , and cleared at the beginning ; for I never said that a thing must be customary , before it is decent in any kind : 〈◊〉 knowing unquestionably that there is a naturall decency ) but that the decency of any Ceremony in Gods service , wherein God and Nature have prescribed nothing particularly , must be regulated according to those measures , which the customes of any place doe allow to be reverentiall among them ; or , in yet plainer words , the civil customes of any nation , by which this or that sort of gesture is rendered a token of reverence , are the onely rule , by which the decency of indifferent gestures , &c. is to be judged of , in order to Gods service . And so much for the last argument also , and consequently for the first part of his exception , that against my interpretation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 decently . Jeanes . You talke indeed , Section the ninth , of such a mistake of your words , but prove it not . Now to prevent all mistakes . I shall come up unto your limitation : Custome is not the onely rule of all decency in the Ceremonies of Gods service , wherein God and Nature have prescribed nothing particularly : Verbi gratid , in the Surplice and Crosse : For your Principles I suppose will lead you to assert the decency of the first usage of the Crosse in Baptisme , and of the Surplice in Preaching and Praying ; and indeed if the first usage of these Ceremonies was undecent , it was sinfull : and besides , this decency was not a natural decency , dictated by the Law of Nature , as you your self will confesse ; but now if there were a decency in the first usage of these Ceremonies , Custome was not , could not be rule thereof , because , as I declared out of Aristotle and Aquinas , the frequent usage of a thing is required unto Custome . For conclusion of this first part of mine exception , I shall intreat the Reader to take notice of the definition of Custome , usually quoted out of 〈◊〉 : Consuetudo est jus quoddam moribus institutum quod pro lege suscipitur cum lex deficit . By this definition , Custome hath not the force of a Law , but where the Law is defective , and the Word , the Law of God is not defective in appointing religious mystical Ceremonies , for 't is so sufficiently profitable for doctrine , for reproof , for correction , and for instruction in righteousnesse , as that the man of God may thereby be perfected , throughly furnished unto all good works , 2 Tim. 3. 16 , 17. I shall therefore conclude that Custome doth not , cannot oblige unto any religious , mystical Ceremonies , besides those which God hath instituted in his Word . Dr. Hammond . sect . 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48. But there is yet a second charge behind against my rendering 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , according to appointment ] which he hath managed in these words . 44. As for the other part of the words , Let all things be done in order ; Ames in the place forementioned sheweth , that order requireth not such Ceremonies as ours , and he giveth this reason , because order requireth not the institution of any new thing , but onely the right placing , and disposing of things , which are formerly instituted : and this he makes good from the notation of the word , from the definitions of order , which are given by Philosophers and Divines , &c. from the context of the Chapter , and from the usage of the word elswhere . But the Doctor , that the words , may give some countenance unto our Ceremonies , adventureth upon a new interpretation of them . The words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( saith he ) literally import , according unto appointment , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes signifies to appoint , as Matth. 28. 16. Acts 22. 10. and 28. 23. And wee may hereupon argue à conjugatis , that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may bee sometimes rendered appointment . But because it may sometimes be rendered appointment , will it therefore follow that it must be so rendred in this place ? We may say as well as the Doctor , that the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 literally import according unto order , as order is taken 〈◊〉 for the right placing , and ordering of things one before , another after , and this we have confessed even by Doctor John Burgesse in his Rejoinder unto Ames , pag. 78. a booke published by the speciall command of the late King. Moreover this sense is favoured by the coherence ; for v. 31 , we have a particular instance of order in this acception of the word , ye may all 〈◊〉 one by one &c. and not all or many speak at once . 2. We have the opposite of order taken in this sense . 1. v. 33. confusion . Let all things be done in order , then , is as much , as , let all things be done without consusion . And I hope confusion may be avoided in the worship of God without such Ceremonies as ours . But we will for once suppose , though not grant , that the clear importance of the words , is that all be done in the Church according to custome and appointment . Yet the D. 〈◊〉 a hard taske to performe , before he can come nigh his conclusion , that the words of Paul , are a proof of the more than lawfulnes of prescription of such Ceremonies as ours , in a Church . For he must prove that 〈◊〉 and order here , are taken in such a latitude , as that they include not onely the customes and appointments of the Apostolical Churches , but also of all the Churches of God in succeeding ages : and the performance of this he will find not to be so easy , as he may imagine . I am sensible that I have by this discourse provoked a very learned and formidable adversary , but it is onely love of the truth that ingaged me in so unequal an incounter , and therefore I hope the D. will pardon and excuse my boldnes . If he can by dint of argument prove the truth to be on his side , I shall not be sorry or ashamed to be overcome by him . 45. To this , my answer will be very brief , 1. By giving the reason of my rendring , 2. By evidencing , that if the vulgar were acknowledged the righter rendring , yet my conclusion would very regularly follow thence , and that therefore I have no need to contend with any gainsayer , about my rendring . 46. For the first it is manifest to any that knowes but the elements of Greek , that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 literaly and properly signifies ( according to ordination or appointment ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies [ according to ] not ( in ) and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 [ an ordinance or constitution ] millions of times in authors , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 [ 〈◊〉 , or in order ] lying more 〈◊〉 with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 reason can be rendred , why if that had been the designed meaning , that word should not have been used there . 47. That it may so signify M. J. acknowledges , and so I have obtained all I seek in my first proposal , which was not that it must necessarily thus signify , but that this being the literal regular rendring of it , I had sufficient reason to tender it thus . 48. I proceed then to the second thing , that if what be pretends to be possible also , were indeed the onely possible , or ( by way of supposition , but not 〈◊〉 ) if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did really inport no more than [ in order ] as that is opposed to disorder or confusion , yet I say , it will soon appear , that that Apostles commanding such order or orderliness , and forbidling all confusion in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , must by consequence he interpreted to command the instituting and observing uniformity of Ceremonies in a Church . Jeanes . 1. Our last translators of the Bible surely knew something more then the Elements of Greek , or else King James was ill advised to make such a choice of them , and yet they thought fit to translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in order . 2. Few mortals perhaps , besides your self , have read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 millions of times in Authors ; but to know the meaning of that word , there is no need of such great reading , one that knowes but the Elements of Greek may by the help of a Greek Concordance and Stephanus his Thesaurus Linguae Graecae , make it manifest , that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth literally & properly order in opposition to confusion . But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you say signifieth according to , not in . But , Stephonus in the book , but now mentioned , will furnish the Reader with store of instances , wherein , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies [ in ] and a school boy may be able to do as much , for the Latine word , Secundum , out of Cicero and Suetonius . But suppose that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were translated here , according , yet this will no waies disadvantage our sense , for , according , applied to actions . signifieth , usually , the manner of such actions ; so that both it , and the 〈◊〉 unto which it is joined , may be paraphrased , by an adverb , and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be as much as , orderly . Adde unto all this , that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies many times , with , and so it is translated in the Dutch Bible ; and let all things be done with order is equivalent unto , let all things be done in order . Dr. Hammond sect . 47. That it may so signify Mr. J acknowledges , and so , I have obtained all I seek in my first proposal , which was not , that it must necessarily thus signify , but that this being the literal regular rendring of it , I had sufficient reason to render it thus . Jeanes . Indeed I acknowledged that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may sometimes be rendred appointment ; but I added , that it doth not therefore follow that it must be so rendred in this place , & unlesse you can prove that it must be so rendred in this very place , I am to seek , what sufficient reason you had to render it thus : for if a word hath several acceptions , that is to be imbraced that hath most countenance from the context , now I gave you for the vulgar sense a reason from the Coherence , unto which you say nothing , and you say as little from the coherence for the justification of your own reading , and therefore I am not to be blamed for adhering unto the vulgar reading , especially seing 'tis favoured by the generall consent of both Translators , and Commentators , though , as you observe in the foregoing section , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lye more consonant in sound with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for I doe not think that the Apostle was bound alwayes to observe Paronomasies . Dr. Hammond . sect . 48 , 49. I proceed then to the second thing , that if what he pretends to be possible also , were indeed the only possible , or ( by way of supposition , but not concession ) if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did really import no more than in Order , as that is opposed to disorder or confusion , yet , I say , it will soon appear , that the Apostles commanding such order , or orderlinesse , and forbidding all confusion in Ecclestasticall 〈◊〉 , must by consequence 〈◊〉 interpreted to command the instituting and observing 〈◊〉 of Ceremonies in a Church . This I thus deduce . First there is no possibilitie of worshiping God externally and publickly , without use of some Ceremonies , 〈◊〉 of time , place , and gesture , &c. 2. There is no possibility of order in a multitude , without uniformity in the same circumstances . 3. There is as little possibility of uniformity among many , without either agreement one with another , or direction of some superior to them all , what shall by all be uniformely performed . 4. The agreement one with another , if it 〈◊〉 only voluntary , and such , as by which 〈◊〉 are obliged , no way secures the end ; but if it be such an agreement , that every single person is obliged to observe , then still is that a law of that body , as of a councel , &c. and as truely so , as the constitution of a single Prelate can be thought to be . And so the conclusion regularly followes , that to the preserving but of order , or orderlinesse in a 〈◊〉 , it is necessary , there be appointment , what shall by all be 〈◊〉 performed ; confusion anavoidably coming in , where no certain rules are prescribed 〈◊〉 uniformity . What can be denyed in this processe I foresee not . Here it shall suffice to note , that time , place , and such like circumstances , are so manifestly necessary in their kind , that the 〈◊〉 may be deduced from them , by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , without any institution ; but no man can deduce our 〈◊〉 from those kinds named . Mans will is the only reason , of them , as Gods will is the only reason of Ceremonies truly divine by institution . No man can conclude thus : we must every where have some garment , and therefore in England a Surplice . We must alwaies in Baptisme , have some admonition to professe the faith , and 〈◊〉 in England , a Crosse. We must use reverent gestures in receiving the holy `` 〈◊〉 ; and therefore in England we must kneel in the act of receiving . But we may conclude thus ; we must have a fit place to meet in , and this place is generally fittest for our Congregation , therefore we must have this . We must have a convenient time to meet in , and this hour is generally most convenient for our Congregation : therefore this . The Monks may as well conclude : we must have some garments ; therefore we must in one order have black ; in another white ; in a third , black over white , or white over black ; in a fourth , gray ; a fifth , 〈◊〉 coloured ; in some , all woollen ; in some , all linnen ; &c. ad insinitum , as well ( I say ) every 〈◊〉 , as the Rejoynder can conclude from a garment , to a 〈◊〉 ; from 〈◊〉 , to the sign of the Crosse , or from reverence in a table-gesture ; 〈◊〉 kneeling . Jeanes . Though you cannot see what can be denied in this process , yet he that 〈◊〉 may read what is constantly denied by the Non-conformists , if he ever read their books : they deny over and over , over and over &c. Your two first conclusions if applied unto the Ceremonies in question : Indeed they grant , that circumstances of time , place , order and decency , and the like , are necessary genere in their kind , but these , I will tell you , are not the Ceremonies in controversy ; the Ceremonies which they oppose are not circumstantial , but doctrinal , of moral signification , and the mere divises of men , such as the surplice , 〈◊〉 , &c. And you may affirm , but can never prove , that there is no possibility of worshipping God externally , and publickly without such ceremonies , for it is 〈◊〉 , that such Ceremonies are not necessary in their kind . In hoc vertitur cardo 〈◊〉 , therefore if you can prove this , we shall yield you the cause , and ly 〈◊〉 at your feet to be trampled upon and triumphed 〈◊〉 : and until this proof be made , you can never regularly inferre , that to the preserving but of order or orderlyness in a Church , it is necessary there be appointment , what 〈◊〉 religious Ceremonies shall by all be uniformely performed . If you shall say that by Ceremonies you understand onely circumstances 〈◊〉 time , place , decency , order , and the like , I shall confesse my selfe to be mistaken , but must withall for my own discharge 〈◊〉 , that you alone ere guilty of this my mistake , for who could reasonablely imagine that in a controversy with the opposers of Ceremonies , you should exclude from the Ceremonies mentioned by you , all such Ceremonies as they oppose . Your 〈◊〉 conclusion call's for confirmation , and until you shall bethink your selfe of some reason to confirme it , I shall offer against it these following instances , unto which it is no difficult matter to adde many more ; suppose the 〈◊〉 of Churches in a City meet at nine of the clock for Gods 〈◊〉 , and in the Country Parishes adjoining , where many people live at a great distance from their Churches , they meet at tenne or halfe an houre after nine , nay in the same Church at one and the same time , whilst the word of God is read or preached , those that sit in seats may have their heads uncovered , and those that stand in allies may keep on their hats the whole Sermon 〈◊〉 , because the crowd or throng may render it in convenient to keep them off . Now in both these instances there is not uniformity in the same circumstances , and yet there may be order observed , and confusion may very well , notwithstanding , be avoided in all the parts of Gods worship and service . But to give an instance ad hominem out of Parker , some of our Churches in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Organs , some not ; some discant and broken singing , some 〈◊〉 ; here was no uniformity , but you will not , I beleeve , 〈◊〉 , that there was confusion . This point of uniformity in rites and Ceremonies , the Reader may find at large debated in the now mentioned Mr. Parker 〈◊〉 . of the Cross part 2. pag. 91. usque ad 〈◊〉 . These two conclusions being thus 〈◊〉 , I need not stay upon the following , which will be uselesse and 〈◊〉 , without the two former be presupposed as true . Dr. Hammond . sect . 50. 51 , 52 , 53 , 54. What can be denied in this processe , I foresee not , yet when 't is granted , one reserve Mr. J. hath still left him . For saith he , 〈◊〉 it were granted that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies appointment or ordination , yet still it will be incumbent on the Dr. to prove that this extends not onely to the customes and appointments of the Apostolicke Churches , but also to the Churches of the succeeding ages . And my answer to this will conclude this whole debate . 51. First then I acknowledge , that it is not here necessarily ordained by the 〈◊〉 , that all the Churches of succeeding ages should institute Ceremonies in worship , for , provided those Ceremonies were once instituted , all that this text inforces , is uniforme obedience to them . 52. But then Secondly , When for many circumstances of Gods worship , there is no order particularly 〈◊〉 by Christ and his Apostles , as in what gesture publicke supplication shall be addrest , in what , lauds and hymnes , and confession of the faith , &c. And yet the rule is given by them , that all shall be done according to appointment , and more over in other places , that obedience be paid to those superiors , which watch over our 〈◊〉 ; and when those rules are not given onely to the persons that then lived in the Church of Corinth , &c. But to all that should ever live in that , and in all other Churches , it can not then be deemed , either that there were no superiors designed to succeed Christ , and his Apostles in the ordering of his Church , or that they should not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , set in order the things that were wanting , such as the 〈◊〉 had left undisposed of , or that inseriors should not be bound to obey them 〈◊〉 , when they thus gave order to them . 53. When we are commanded to obey our parents , civil as well as natural , by a Law given by God to Moses , or by Christ to his Disciples , can it be strange , that we that lived not in either of those ages should thereby be obliged , when God in his providence hath given Fathers of both kinds ( as well as them ) regularly presiding over us , and making use of that 〈◊〉 that is presumed in all parents , viz. to give Commands , and expect obedience from their children ? Certainely it cannot : and as little can it be doubted , either whether our ecclesiastical parents have power to institute in things omitted , & thereby remitted to their care by the Apostles , or whether we their obedient children , that are commanded to act 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to appointment , should from time to time be disobliged , and free to disobey them in 〈◊〉 they appoint us . 54 'T is granted him , if he please , that what Christ , and his Apostles have already prescribed , should not be repealed by 〈◊〉 , that thus succeed them ; should they 〈◊〉 assume that power , they would not in so doing act 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , whether regularly , or according to appointment ; but for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in which they have made no rules , but left order to Titus , &c. ( i e. by parity of reason , to the Bishop in every Island ) to make them , here what power is left them , may certainely with perfect safety be exercised by them , and that necessarily inferres our obligation to yeild obedience to their exercises of them . Jeanes . Here you explicate your meaning by first a concession . 2. By instances , and then you produce pretended arguments for the proof of the proposition which I say is incumbent on you to confirme . 1. You lay down a concession , I acknowledge , that it is not here necessarily ordained by the Apostle , that all the Churches of God in succeeding ages should institute Ceremonies in worship &c , 1. I cannot imagine to what purpose you lay down the grant , for notwithstanding it , you still hold , that uniforme obedience is to be yeilded by the members of each respective Church unto such Ceremonies in Gods worship as have been , are , or shall be appointed or commanded by any Churches in the ages succeeding the Apostles , and so still it will be incumbent upon you to prove , that custome and order are here taken in such a latitude , as that they include the customes and appointments of all the Churches of God in succeeding ages . 2. There is a difference betwixt institution and commandment or appointment of Ceremonies , for though every institution be a commandmentor appointment , yet every commandment or appointment is not an institution , and hence a Church in a place may command and appoint the uniforme observance of Ceremonies instituted unto its hand by the Church in a former age . This pre supposed , I demand , whether you hold it here necessarily ordained by the Apostle , that all the Churche of God in succeeding Ages , should 〈◊〉 institute Ceremonies in God , worship , or else appoint and command such as have been already instituted ? If you thinke them all free , and disobliged from both institution and appointment of Ceremonies in worship , why then all 〈◊〉 might lawfully have abstained from such both 〈◊〉 and commandment , and if such abstinence were lawfull , I may , I beleeve , presume that it will be a very hard matter to prove such an abstinence to be inexpedient and against edification . If you should say , that some , though not all , the Churches of God are obliged either to institute Ceremonies in Gods worship , or to appoint 〈◊〉 command such as are already instituted , by precedent Churches succeeding the Apostles time , why then we shall justly expect that you should specifie or nominate such 〈◊〉 , and give some reason for the appropriation of such an obligation unto such Churches , rather than unto others . 3. In your view of the Directory , page 19. you affirm that in the command of St. Paul , there is a proof of the more than lawfulnesse of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , prescription of Ceremonies in a Church , and of 〈◊〉 therein : Now I thought that you were to be understood of all Churches , and then by more than lawfulnesse , I suppose , you had meant necessity : You say that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the prescription of Ceremonies in a Church is more than lawfull , and hereupon I imagined that you affirmed it to be necessary ; but it seems I was mistaken in your meaning : I shall therefore wait for a further explication of it , and therein I shall desire to know what you understand by the more than lawfulness of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or prescription of Ceremonies in a Church ? As also to be informed , whether you extend what you say of the prescription of Ceremonies in a Church unto all Churches ? and if not , what reason you have for the restriction of it unto some Churches ? and what these Churches are ? In the beginning of the 52 Sect. you perplex the state of the Question , by instancing in the circumstances of Gods worship , which are by the Non-conformists expresly excluded from the Question , for they limit it onely unto humane religious Ceremonies . Now betwixt these and the circumstances of Gods worship , there is a great , and very wide difference . 1. Circumstances of time , place , order , and decency , &c. are necessary , and appointed in generall ; but humane religious Ceremonies are not 〈◊〉 in generall , as will soon appear when you goe about to prove such a necessity of them . It is impossible for Gods worship to be performed without some circumstances , but it is very possible for Gods worship to bee celebrated without any humane religious Ceremonies . 2. Circumstances of Gods worship , viz. a sitting time and place , a decent Pew and Pulpit , a fair and handsome cloath for the Communion Table , are not Worship ; but humane religious Ceremonies are in their nature Worship , as being instituted to lift up Gods honour immediately in their use and end . 3. Things of 〈◊〉 order require no ordering : Time and place require not other time and place to circumstance them aright ; but now humane sacred Ceremonies are capable of time and place , and of being ordered . 4. Circumstances of time , place , order , and decency are common to religious , with civil actions ; but religious Ceremonies are appropriated unto Gods worship and service . But to come unto your own instances . Your first instance is in the gesture , in which publick prayer is to be 〈◊〉 . But this instance is very impertinent : for 1. This is in the general necessary , so that it is utterly impossible for Prayer to be put up , but in some gesture or other ; but the Ceremonies which Non-conformists oppose , are meere humane inventions , and so unnecessary in the generall . 2. We have , for the particular gesture in Prayer , sufficient warrant and direction from the light of Nature and Scripture , without any humane institution : But we have no direction in Scripture for particular humane Ceremonies : This is very well set down in Ames disp . about Ceremon . pag. 139. pag. 151. No 〈◊〉 thing can with any colour be averred of Surplice , Crosse and the like . I doe not quote Ames , as if I thought you any thing valued what he said , but that the Reader might know the true state of the question , and that in the laying of it down you have not so much as consulted your adversaries . But now to prevent as much as may bee the multiplying of needlesse Controversies betwixt us , I shall acknowledge that a Church may 〈◊〉 the usage of any reverent , lowly , submissive gesture in publique supplications , when there is conveniencie for the usage thereof . But yet it will not hereupon follow , that all things are to be done in the gestures of publique Prayer according unto the Churches appointment ; for suppose the Church should prohibit in publique Prayers the gestures of kneeling , lifting up the eyes and the hands to heaven , I should conclude such an appointment of any Church whatsoever to be unlawfull , because contrary unto the expresse direction of Scripture . Your second instance is impertinent too , for the gestures of Lauds , Hymnes and Confessions of the Faith , &c. is a matter of meer decency , and how 〈◊〉 matters of meere decency are from the Ceremonies in question , I have declared a little before , I shall therefore now onely adde these three things . 1. That a rational man may by meer light of Nature , without any institution , easily gather , what gesture is fitting , decent and agreeable unto these actions . 2. That notwithstanding this , the Governours or Officers of a Church may appoint in these actions any decent gesture or posture of the body , provided that by speciall institution they doe not put upon it any mysticall signification , and thereby make it a Worship . 3. That from this grant it can never be inferred , that in those gestures which are to bee 〈◊〉 in Lauds , Hymns , Confessions of the Faith , all things are to bee 〈◊〉 according to the appointment of Church Governours : and my reason is , because it is possible , that Church Governours may bee so irrational , as to appoint here undecent gestures , as that the people should lye along on their faces in singing of Psalmes of Praise , and in Confession of the Faith. Now an undecent gesture would be finfull , because against the Apostles prescription , Let all things be done decently . In the last place proceed we unto those arguments , if I may so call them , which you have for confirmation of the proposition , which I say is incumbent on you to prove : If you have for this any arguments in this your discourse , they are , as I conceive , these three . 1. Because obedience must be paid to those Superiours , which watch over our souls , 2. Because the Apostle left order to Thus 〈◊〉 set in order the things that were wanting . 3. Because we are commanded to obey our Ecclesiastical as well as naturall and civil parents : Now let the Reader apply unto each of these arguments the proposition that is to be proved , therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the 1 Cor. 14. 40. is taken in such a latitude , as that it includes the appointments of all the Churches of God in succeeding ages , and the consequence will bee of an imperceptible validity . The Reader may farther , if hee please , make another experiment touching these arguments , hee may try what they will conduce unto the principal conclusion , that the words of 〈◊〉 are a proof of the more than lawfulnesse of prescription of such Ceremonies as ours in a Church ; if by the help of them he can come nigh this conclusion of the Doctors , I will 〈◊〉 that I have been grosly mistaken . And this might 〈◊〉 for answer unto these three arguments ; but yet I shall for the further satisfaction of the Reader say something unto each of them apart . The first is , because obedience must be paid to those Superiours which watch over our souls ; the place is Heb. 13. 17. but this place will prove nothing for the humane institution of religions Ceremonies , because our Guides may rule over us without institution of such Ceremonies , and consequently wee may pay obedience to them without practise of such Ceremonies : The place is urged by Bellarmine for the Popes Coactive power to make Laws binding the conscience , and in Whitakers Answer thereunto , Tom. 2. page . 722. you may take notice of this passage ; Non constituit 〈◊〉 Jententia regnum Episcopis extra , aut supra Evangelium : non debent Episcopi suas traditiones aut leges , aut contra , aut extra , aut praeter Evangelium obtrudere . Obediendum ergo est , sed cum cautione , si praeeant illi in Domino , & nil suum tradunt : nam si hoc fecerit omittendi sunt , juxta illud , ctiamsi nes , aut Angelus e Coelo , evangelizet vobis praeter id quod vobis evangelizavimus , anathemae esto . Gal. 1. 8. Let the Reader consider whether our Ceremonies were not 〈◊〉 , praeter Evangelium , besides the Gospel : A second argument which you prosecute , Sect. 53 , 54. is because Paul left order to Titus , to set in order the things that were wanting ; such as the Apostle had left undisposed of , in which they have made no rules , and the same power you think is left , by parity of reason , to the Bishops in every Island : For answer , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the things that were wanting were wanting in Crete , left undone , as it is in the Margin of our English Bible , and not in the 〈◊〉 or rules which Paul gave to Titus : for that Titus was to keep unto the instructions that he had received from Paul , you might have seen , if you had had the patience to have read unto the end of the verse ; 〈◊〉 there the 〈◊〉 points to him the rule he should walk by , hee was to 〈◊〉 in order the things that were wanting in Crete , not of his own head , but according to the appointment of 〈◊〉 ; as I had appointed thee . I might farther alledge , that Bishops ( by whom you mean our Prelates ) have not the same power delegated unto them , which Paul committed unto Titus : But I shall for the p 〈◊〉 wave this , because it may occasion a long digression , and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is abundantly satisfactory , and from it we may conclude ; that suppose Bishops had power left them to set in order things that are 〈◊〉 , yet we may not thence collect , that they have power for institution of new doctrinal Ceremonies , besides those instituted by Christ and his Apostles , because however there may be many things wanting in their Churches , which may need reformation , yet there is nothing wanting in the Scriptures , which needs to be supplied by humane additions . Your third Argument is drawn from the power of our Ecclesiastical parents and the obedience we owe unto them . It cannot be doubted , say you , either whether our Ecclesiastical parents have power to institute in things omitted , and thereby remitted to their care by the Apostles , or whether we their obedient Children , that are commanded to act 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to appointment , should from time to time , be 〈◊〉 and free to disobey them in whatsoever they appoint us ? Here we have no argument , but only a begging of the thing in question : It is not denied but that Ecclesiastical parents have power to appoint and dispose of such Circumstances of time , place , order , decency &c. 〈◊〉 in their kind are necessary , but in particular determination do vary : But that they have any power to institute new 〈◊〉 Ceremonies , of mystical signification , is a thing which you cannot but know to be constantly denied by your Antagonists , and therefore why you should 〈◊〉 the contrary evident , and never attempt the proof of it , I cannot sufficiently wonder . But perhaps you have an argument couched in these words , it cannot be doubted &c. whether our Ecclestastical parents have power to institute in things 〈◊〉 , and thereby remitted to their 〈◊〉 by the Apostles . But pray , Sir , do you in earnest think , that if things be omitted by the Apostles , they are by them hereby remitted unto the care of Ecclesiastical parents in succeeding ages ? Every one will confesse that it sounds like a very strange proposition : however , you cannot expect that I should swallow it , until you bring 〈◊〉 confirmation of it . By this the Reader is , I hope , satisfied , that though your reading of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , according unto appointment , were to take place , yet you have brought nothing to prove that , which you were justly called upon for proof of , viz. that appointment , was to be taken here in this place of the Apostle in such a latitude , as to comprehend humane , as well as divine appointment . But though you faile in your proofes , your adversaries the non-conformists are before hand with you , for they have proved that mens institution of religious Ceremonies omitted by Christ and his Apostles is a most plaine detraction and palpable derogation , from 1. The all-sufficiency of the Scripture . 2. Perfection of Gods ordinances . 3. Fidelity of Christ in his prophetical office . And lastly from the all-fulnes of his Kingly office . I foresee that it will be alledged , that all these arguments are long ago answered , and unto this I shall at present onely give this short Reply , that they have been vindicated from all answers , as by others , so especially by Ames , and that this vindication of them remains unto this day unanswered . However , I shall stay a while upon two places in Deuteronomy , which the Non - 〈◊〉 usually urge against our Ceremonies , and examine an answer which the conformists gives thereunto , because this examination will conduce very much unto the learning of the truth in the controversy of Ceremonies : the places are Deut. 4. 2. Ye shall not adde unto the word which I command you , neither shall you diminish ought from it , that ye may keep the Commandements of the Lord 〈◊〉 God which I command you . And cap. 12. 32. What thing soever I command you , observe to do it : Thou shalt not adde thereto , nor diminish from it . Unto these two places , the conformists answer by distinguishing of the parts , and the Ceremonies of Gods worship ; it is unlawful , say they , to adde unto the parts of Gods worship instituted by God , but 't is lawful to adde unto 〈◊〉 Ceremonies of worship that are instituted by God. Unto this answer I thus reply . 1. Moses sealed up with this prohibition not onely the moral , but also the Ceremonial Law ; it was unlawful then , to adde 〈◊〉 the Ceremonial Law of Moses ; and why should it not be as unlawful now , to adde unto the Ceremonial Law of 〈◊〉 ? vis hujus consequentiae , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 ex 〈◊〉 , quod non minus nunc quam tunc rationem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 certis septis : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cancellis circumscribi opus sit , ne in rebus 〈◊〉 lasciviat , aut in 〈◊〉 delabatur . 2. The Scripture is a rule of even Ceremonies in Gods worship , for it gives prescriptions and directions in the new Testament concerning the Sacraments of Baptisme and the Lords Supper ; now if it doth not prescribe all Ceremonies requisite and convenient , then 't is onely a partial and imperfect rule of Ceremonies in Gods worship ; but we , for our part , think so honourably of Scripture , as that we cannot but hold it to be a perfect 〈◊〉 and total rule of Ceremonial as well as moral worship , it is able to perfect the man of God , & throughly to furnish him unto all good works , and so unto all Ceremonies , that are good workes . A third reply is , that the members of this distinction are not opposite , 〈◊〉 the members of every good distinction should be , for Ceremonies of worship though they be not parts of that worship of which they are Ceremonies , yet they are parts of worship in general , for 1. Worship is divided into moral and Ceremonial , so that Ceremonial worship is a subjective part of worship , a sort and kind of worship . 2. Mosaical Ceremonies under the Law were , and the Sacraments under the Gospel are parts of worship : the distinction then betwixt the parts , and religious Ceremonies of 〈◊〉 , is an artless and false distinction . To make this yet more evident , I shall propound some arguments , by which the Non-conformists prove our Ceremonies to be external worship , for then it will follow , that they are parts of Gods worship . 1. Those external Ceremonies whose proper use is the honouring of God , are external worship : But our Ceremonies are such , and therefore they are external worship . 2. All external Ceremonies in their nature , formally elicited from religion , are external worship : But our Ceremonies are such , and therefore they are external worship . This argument I find thus varied in a nameless author that hath collected twelve arguments against our Ceremonies . All mere and immediate actions of religion are parts of divine worship . But all religious Ceremonies , such as ours , are mere and immediate actions of religion . Therefore they are parts of divine worship . And these arguments might serve to evidence , that our Ceremonies , the surplice . Crosse &c. Are imposed and used as parts of Gods worship , though for want of a due and right author or efficient , they are false and unacceptable 〈◊〉 : But to return unto the Doctor , from whom I may seem to have digressed . Dr. Hammond . This is all the observance M. J. seemes to expect of me at this time , unless his intimation to all admirers of M. Hooker , that they should vindicate their great patrone , of Ceremonies , may passe for an admonition to me , who acknowledge my selfe a thankful adoter of Gods graces in that godly learned man , and so exact a few lines more above the regular account . 56. This will detaine me no longer , then whilst I mind the Reader , that in a discourse of the benefits which we receive from Christ in the Sacrament , & otherwise , M. Hooker undertakes to set downe how Christ in his humane nature is communicated to us , and so present with 〈◊〉 ; To this end three things he shewes at large . 1. That as nothing created can be unlimited , or receive any such accident from any as may really make it infinite , so neither the soul nor body of Christ , nor Christ as man , nor according to his humane nature , can possibly be every where present , no nor the substance of the body of Christ , which netther hath or can have any presence but onely local . 2. That this cannot be rendred possible , either by the grace of union with the Diely , nor by any other possible meanes , as he at large excellently deduceth it , pag. 300 , 301 , 302 , 3. That it may peradventure be well enough granted in some sense , and after a sort , that Christ is every where present , as man , viz. 1. In respect of the conjunction of the humane nature with the Deity , which conjunction is extended as farre as the Deity , the actual position being restrained , and tied to a certain place , and 2. By cooperation with the Deity , and that in all things . 57. Now on this third head , ( without reflecting on the two former , which assure us of the authors meaning in it ) two passages M. J. takes hold of , which if he know any thing in either Philosophy , or scholastical divinity , are both 〈◊〉 of a grosse mistake , and cannot be sufficiently wondred at by him , that they should fall from so a learned a pen. 58. But I suppose there is no great skill in either of those learned faculties required , to distinguish betwixt that which truly and properly is , and that which may in some sense , and after a sort , and in two respects onely ( 〈◊〉 of which belong to the propriety of being ) be well enough granted , and that with a ( peradventure ) also to have influence on all these . 59. And what severity is this , to require of every learned man , that hath most largely refuted an adversary , to be so averse from all thoughts of peace , and reconciliation with him , that he may not allow him to speak truth , or but perhaps to speak truth in a sort , and in some sense , and in two onely respects ? All which are still more than intimations , that he thinks him to be absolutely , and in simplicity and propriety of speaking , in a gross errour , impossible even to the power of God to have truth in it . 60. If any should chance to say of an eloquent man , that you might hear an Angel speak in him , and I should reply , that it might per adventure be well enough granted in a sort , or in some sense , that when he spoke you might hear an Angel , assuring you at large of my opinion , that no 〈◊〉 man can truly be an Angel , nay that it was impossible for God himself to bring to pass , that at the same time he should be an Angel , and not an Angel , a man , and not a man , or which is all one , a bare man , and yet an Angel , or ( in fewer words ) when Christ saith he is a door , and a vine , if I should say that in a sort , and in some sense , and that in two respects , each of these had truth in them , would M. J. think fit to leave 〈◊〉 subject , and let loose for three leaves together , and pawne all his philosophy , and 〈◊〉 ( not confidering what the consequence also may be to his practical ) divinity , to 〈◊〉 and wonder at , and 〈◊〉 to give over wondering , and withal solemnely to refute this or that improper figurative 〈◊〉 , so perfectly acknowledged by the Speakers to be such ? 61. If he have that great 〈◊〉 , and any prevalent temptation thus to lay it out , I shall onely assure him , that I have not so much of either , as to attend these 〈◊〉 motions , nor any other lover or admirer of Mr. Hooker , that I know of , and theresore bescech him contentedly to rest in this general return to his charge of that 〈◊〉 man , without expecting any more explicite , or particular survey of it : And so much for Mr. Hooker also . Jeanes . I beleeve that most ordinary Readers wil think me guilty of this disingenuous carriage towards Mr. Hooker , which the Doctor 〈◊〉 me of ; but if they would have but the patience to read me in the passage related unto , they would soon acquit me , and find the Doctor guilty of a great deal of injury towards me . Indeed Mr. Hooker sayes , that it may well enough be granted in some sense , and after a sort , that Christ is every where present as man , viz. in two respects ; but whether this were lyable to exception , I meddle not , 't is the 〈◊〉 of the respects which he mentioneth , that I question , and the words that I challenge , the Reader may find page 141. of my 〈◊〉 . of the 〈◊〉 of Christ thus sun med up . Then for the great Hooker , whereas he saith , That the conjunction of the Manhood with Deity , is extended as farre as Deity , that the Body of Christ is joyned unto Deity , wheresoever Deity is , that his Bodily substance hath every where a presence of true conjunction with Deity This also is easily refuted , &c. Now this he affirmeth absolutely and simply without any limitation , and not in a sort , or in some sense , and in two respects ; and this any man that hath his eyes in his head may see , that will compare Mr. Hooker and me together ; and if any learned and impartial Reader will but make this comparison , I shall be very well contented that hee shall judge betwixt us , who of us hath most trespassed against practical Divinity , I in my charge of Mr. Hooker , or the learned Doctor in his grosse and undeniable falsification of my said charge ? But I shall in charity hope , that this falsification was but a mistake , proceeding from his hasty and 〈◊〉 zeal towards the memory of Mr. Hooker : Wheras he is pleased to talk his pleasure of my pawning all my Philosophy and fcholastical Divinity , I shall only humbly assume the boldnesse to intimate thus much unto the Reader , that though I have no great store of either , yet I hope I have enough to attend ( that I may borrow the Doctors phrase ) the motions of him , and all other admirers of Mr. Hooker in the Defence of the matter questioned : but if he shall decline all future further debate of it , I shall with a great deal of probability conclude , that what Mr. Hooker saith is uncapable of any tolerable vindication : for if he were defensible , Dr. 〈◊〉 is so able as that he could , and withall so zealous a lover and admirer of him , as that he would continue the justification of him : Now from the undefensiblenesse of Mr. Hooker in this one point , I shall onely take occasion to admonish his followers , that seeing he hath erred in so weighty a point , therefore he might erre in matters of a farre inferiour nature , especially seeing the times were such , as that they transported with prejudice many men , that were unquestionably otherwise very learned and godly . Dr. Hammond . sect . 62. I have thus without any other obligation , than what my desire to undeceive the Author and his Readers 〈◊〉 upon me , paid him now this my second observance : And may be allowed to think it time , that he who hath been so liberal of his uses of publickrefutation of others words , should find some vacancy for one use of more private ( if not 〈◊〉 , yet ) examination of his own actions : And then I shall offer to his consideration , how much more agreeable to the Laws of brotherly kindnesse or 〈◊〉 it hath been , to have proposed his exceptions in such a manner , or friendly addresse , as might have brought him home the same satisfaction , and saved others the 〈◊〉 of these uselesse , because personal debates : When he hath sincerely observed in himself the motive of his other distant choice , I have obtained the end of my charity in mentioning it to him , and have no more to return to him at this time . Jeanes . We poor ignorant men , that use the trite , but not illogical Method of Doctrine and Use in Preaching , 〈◊〉 usually first confirme our Doctrine , before we inferre any Uses therefrom . Now Sir , if you will be pleased first to prove , that it is much more agreeable to the Laws of Brotherly kindnesse or candour , to propose a mans exceptions against a printed Book in a way of private Letter ( for that I conceive is the manner of friendly addresse that you speake of ) than in a publique way from the Presse , especially when the said exceptions are propounded , not for any personal satisfaction , but for the undeceiving of others , unto which end the private way is no apportionare means ; I shall then proceed unto the use of , not only examination , but also reprehension of this mine action ; but in the mean while I shall 〈◊〉 upon my justification , and maintaine that I am guiltlesse of any unbrotherly , uncandid , and disrespective carriage towards you in the proposall of my objections , which was in as civil and friendly a manner , I am confident , as ever you received any from any Antagonist whatsoever . The most considerable Escapes of the Printer in the Letters , &c. And in the Reply to Dr. Hammond . First in the Letters . PAg. 2. l. 13. r. in all . p. 7. l. 6. r. papers . p. 8. l. 20. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. 18. l. 30. r. essential to the nature of man. l. 34. r. subjectivis . p. 29. l. 13. r. much lesse . p. 23. l. ult . r. or of their nature . l. 42. r. continuet . p. 34. l. 12. dele 〈◊〉 a. l. 14. r. naturall body shall . l. 30. r. a spiritual body . p. 36. l. 6. r. scomme . p. 37. l. 19 consecutivè . p. 42. l. penult . r. yet you think p. 47. l. 10. r. in my absence . l. 34 r. indifferent and rational Reader . Secondly in the Reply unto Dr. Hammonds Vindication , &c. p. 5. l. 41. r prohibit , p. 6 l 33 r. improbable , p. 8 l. 42. r. 〈◊〉 . p. 9. l. 〈◊〉 . r. à place . p. 15. l. 26. r. it is . p. 22. l. penult . r. then all . p. 25. Marg. two last lines r. initiantur . p. 26. l. 17. r. alas . p. 28. l. 41. r. temberari . p. 39. l. 22. r. had been . P. 38. l 2. r. from his . p. 39. l 4. r. demones . p. 41. l. 13. r. aditum . p. 42. l. 36. r. ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. 47. l. ult . r. arguments . p. 50. l. 12. r. variae . p. 54. l. 48. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. 55. l. 16. r. those . p , 56. l. 〈◊〉 . r. as distinct . p. 59. l 37. r. such kind of . p. 61. l. 21 , 23. r. try . l. 35. r. six Commandements p. 62. l 27 , r. as with what . p. 71. l. 32. r. 〈◊〉 . p. 72. l. 24. r. legis . p. 78. l. 15. r. uniformly . ibid from l. 18. usque ad l. 36. there is made a part of Dr Hammonds Vindication , which is a quoration out of Ames his Disp. about Hum. Ceremon . p. 481 , 482 , and should be placed in the Marg. against l. 39. ] l. 41. r. they will. p. 80. l. ult . r. Churches . p. 83. l. 28. r. fecerint . Some Advertisements to the Reader . I shall in a word acquaint thee with the relation & pertinency of these two foregoing Debates unto the rest of the Book . The Letters have an apt connexion with the Tract of Original Righteousnesse . And the Reply unto Dr. Hammond may be referred unto the Treatile concerning the 〈◊〉 of humane actions ; and indeed it was the Doctors unjust charge of me , and Ames , with the denyal of things Indifferent , that occasioned that Treatise , These two pieces have layne a long time by me ( as can be attested by divers Gentlemen , and Ministers , unto whom they have long since been communicated ) But I was perswaded by the Book-seller to deferre the publication of them , untill a Second Part of the Mixture of Scholastical and Practical Divinity was ready : And that had been long since 〈◊〉 , if Sicknesse , with other private crosses , together with the publique troubles and distractions of the times , had not hundred : He hath also prevailed with me , to reserve for a 〈◊〉 Part , all my future Replyes , unto all such as have , or shall write against me . Onely I shall in part alter this resolution touching the Namelesse Author of the Defence of 〈◊〉 Hammonds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , not that I think it meritorious of any serious consideration ; for 't is fraught , all along , with such reviling , boasting , and insulting language , as is every way unsuitable unto the gravity of a Divine , the ingenuity of a Scholar , the charity , meeknesse , and humility of a Christian : nay the morality of a man. An ingenuous and good natur'd Pagan , would highly scorne to treat an Adversary with such incivilities , as he doth me . But because some , who are of the same perswasion with the Author in other particulars , have triumphed , and insulted in this his doughty work , as unanswerable ; I shall therefore , as soon as that which is now under my hands ( viz. An Exposition upon the 7th . of the Romans ) is finished , addresse my self unto the examination thereof . I am so charitable as to think , that Dr. Hammond hath so much of Christianity , so much of a Minister , of a Scholar , of a Gentleman in him , as not to accept , or approve of this Thrasouical and Vain-glorious Second . And if the Doctor disowne him , I might passe him by with silence , and a just neglect . But if the Doctor shall judge , that 't is but justice , to chastise with 〈◊〉 , calumnies , and reproaches , so contemptible a person , as my self , for daring to diffent from him , and to represent the reasons of my said dissent , though in a calme and modest way : I shall then appeale unto all the world how unagreeable this is unto that humility and moderation , for which the Doctor is generally famed . To irritate the Doctor against me , this Libeller tels him , that I have publiquely bragged , that I have made him a Dunce . But I professe , that this is a grosse , and most unworthy untruth ; and he can bring no witnesses for it , but Knights of the Post. With the like falshood , disingenuity , and malice , he pretends , page 96. &c. that I contumeliously undervalue the Doctors Critical Learning , and make him to be but a petty Grammaticaster , &c. And hereupon he spends near five pages , in an Apology for 〈◊〉 in general , and the Doctor in particular . And what I pray is the ground of this terrible accusation ? Why ( 〈◊〉 ) I said , I am very loath to enter into a contest with so great a Critick , about the meaning of a word . Hereupon he inferres , that I make the Doctor to be but a 〈◊〉 Grammarian ; that I account a Critick but a 〈◊〉 , and a Grammarian , but an empty Poedagogue : But that for these odious inferences there is no colour , or shadow in 〈◊〉 words , will be quickly discern'd by every Freshman . But such loose sequels as 〈◊〉 , are very rife , and thick in his Book . And of this , I doe not doubt , but I shall shortly , make so perfect a discovery , as shall give full satisfaction , touching the vast abilities of this our Mr. Thraso , unto all impartial Readers , save such whose understandings reach no further than Romances and Playes . His numerous Quotations out of the School-men , have induced some to admire him for his deep insight into Scholastical Divinity . But 〈◊〉 such his Admirers consider , 〈◊〉 hee be likely to be such a 〈◊〉 . School-man , as they suppose him , who talkes of the Author of Collegium Complutense , as of a single person , pag. 30. and questions whether 〈◊〉 quote Aquinas only to refute him , as the latter School men 〈◊〉 the former , pag. 341. whereas Capreolus was the professed Champion of Aquinas : And his Book on the Sentences consisteth chiefly of collections out of 〈◊〉 ; and hereupon he is termed , Thomistarum princeps . Notwithstanding then this Gentleman makes such frequent Musters of the Names of the School-men , as if he were Nomenclator to them , it is unto me very probable , that this is his first considerable voyage that he ever made into them ; and that now too he hath travelled in them but by the Index . Three great advantages this our Libeller 〈◊〉 against me : First , his Billings-gate Rhetorick , by which , 't is 〈◊〉 improbable , he hoped to tempt me into such an outrageous fury , as his zeal for Doctor Hammond hath transported him with . But unto this I shal return nothing , but my pitty and prayers , that God would pardon , and heal this his distemper . The second is , the concealment of his Name , for by this he hazards no 〈◊〉 ; his pretence for it is , that I might not run into personal 〈◊〉 . How lyable he is to personal 〈◊〉 , I know not : But let him be never so obnoxious , he may be secure , and need not fear any such usage from me : For 't is that which I shall studiously decline in all contests whatsoever , though my Antagouist should be a Papist , a Turk , a Pelagian , or a Socinian ; for I know that personal invectives will betray the best cause unto jealousies and suspicions . And besides , a man cannot throw 〈◊〉 and dung in anothers mans face , but some of it will slick to his own fingers . A third artifice that he hath , is the swelling of his Book into so large a volume , as that may either wholly prevent , or much delay all Replication . My Refutation was printed about three years since in 40. pages , and his Defence is now come forth in 644. pages . Unto this tediousnesse I shall apply what Bishop Hall speaks of his Popish Opponent ; Should I follow him in this proportion , He might expect an Answer in Tostatus hides , whose first words should be , Quis legit haec ? Or if my patience would delay my Reply to the just paces of his Answer , this Volume of his would perhaps be vanished into Grocers 〈◊〉 , for waste paper , in 〈◊〉 piperisve 〈◊〉 , and would no more need 〈◊〉 , than now it deserveth one . Against this his voluminousnesse I shall make use of this expedient ; I shall consult some learned and judicious friends , and desire them faithfully and impartially to select such passages as they think material , and them onely I shall examine . But I shall detaine thee , Reader , no longer . All that I have to desire further of thee , is thy patience , that thou wilt suspend a while thy censure , untill thou canst hear what I can say for my selfe . An Explication of a passage in the Treatise of Things 〈◊〉 , &c. WHereas in the Treatise concerning the Indifferency of humane actions , pag. 54. as also in my Reply to Dr. 〈◊〉 Vindication , &c. page 5. I layd down this for a Rule out of some School-men , viz. That 〈◊〉 things privatively opposite there 's no medium , no middle , either of abnegation , or of participation , in capable subjects ; I finde some to make a 〈◊〉 concerning the latter , the middle of participation ; for such a medium ( say they ) is the dawning and twi-light betwixt light and darknesse ; to have one eye betwixt sight and blindnesse ; such a medium is a disposition unto a disease , betwixt health and that disease . But this doubt would soon vanish , if men would heed the limitations that are usually given of it . The first is , that there is not such a medium of participation betwixt privative opposites , as there is in 〈◊〉 , in contrary qualities ; for here , each of the extreams is positive and 〈◊〉 , verè ens , whereas in 〈◊〉 opposites , 〈◊〉 of them is more non ens than ens . A second you have in Scheibler in his Topicks , c. 20. n. 72. having quoted a saying out of Plutarch , that non datur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he referreth , for limitation , unto what hee had said concerning the intension and remission of privation , n. 43 , 44 , 45. There he layeth down this Canon , privatio 〈◊〉 suscipit magis & minus . Privations have no degrees , are not intended nor remitted . But this he tels us is to be understood of not partial privations , such as those now instanc'd in : for such are privations onely secundum 〈◊〉 ; but of total privations , such as blindnesse , dumbnesse , deafnesse , death . These are uncapable of degrees , and so likewise there can be no mixture , or cohesion of them . The same for substance we have in Aquinas , 1. 2ae q. 18. a. 8. ad 〈◊〉 . Duplex est privatio , quaedam quae consistit in privatum esse : & haec nihil 〈◊〉 , sed totum aufert : ut caecitas totaliter aufert 〈◊〉 , & tenebrae lucem , & mors vitam ; & inter hanc privationem , & habitum oppositum non potest esse aliquod medium circa proprium susceptibile , Est autem alia 〈◊〉 , quae 〈◊〉 in privari , sicut aegritudo est privatio sanitatis , non quod tota sanitas sit sublata , sed quod est quasi quaedam via ad totalem 〈◊〉 sanitatis , quae 〈◊〉 mortem . Et ideo talis privatio , cùm a 〈◊〉 relinquat , non semper est immediata cum opposite habitu . The summe and sense of this is , that privations and their habits are immediately opposite , if we speak of privations in facto esse , not in fieri . Now that Aquinas here speaks of medium participationis , is the Comment of Gregory de Valentia , Tom. 2 dis . 2. q. 13. punct 5. This advertisement I thought fit to insert , for the prevention of unnecessary cavils : But yet I must confesse , that medium participationis was put into the rule ex abundanti , and contributes nothing to the matter in hand : So that the Reader , if hee please may leave it out ; for the stresse of the proof lyes only upon this , viz. that betwixt things privatively opposite , there 's no medium of abnegation in capable subjects . And this is affirmed so unanimously by all , as that I know not so much as one Dissentient . FINIS . A Catalogue of Books Printed for , and Sold by THO : ROBINSON . CHronicon Historiam Catholicam complectens ab exordio Mundi ad Nativitatem D. N. Jesu Christi , & exinde ad annum à Christo nato LXXI . Authore Ed. Simson , S. T. D. in Folio . An Answer to Mr. Hoard's Book , entitled Gods Love to Mankind , by W. Twisse , D. D. in Fol. Books written by Dr. Prideaux . XXII Lectiones , Tredecim Orationes , & Sex Conciones . in Fol. Fasciculus Controversiarum Theol. 4o. Theologiae Scholasticae Syntagma Mnemonicum , & Conciliorum Synopsis . 4o. Manuductio ad Theol. Polemicam . 8o. An Easie and Compendious Introduction for reading all sorts of History ; contrived in a more facile way than heretofore hath been publisht . 4o. Books written by Dr. Owen . The Doctrine of the Saints Perseverance examined & confirmed . in 〈◊〉 . Socinianism examined , in the confutation of Biddle's , and the Racovian Catechism . 4o. A Review of the Annotations of H. Grotius , in reference to the Doctrine of the Deity , and Satisfaction of Christ , in Answer to Dr. Hammond . 4o. Of the Mortification of Sin in Pelievers , with a resolution of sundry cases of 〈◊〉 thereunto belonging . 8o. Of Temptation , the nature and power of it , the danger of entering into it , and the means preventing the danger ; with a Resolution of sundry Cases thereunto belonging . 8o. Providentiall Alterations in their subserviency to Christs Exaltation , open'd in a Sermon on Ezech , 17. ver . 24. 4o. A Sermon concerning the Kingdom of Christ and Power of the Civil Magistrate about things of the Worship of God , on Dan. 7. 16. 4o. Gods work in 〈◊〉 Zion , and his peoples duty thereupon , on Isaiah 14. 32. 4o. Of Schism , in reference to the present differences in Religion . 8o. A Review of the true Nature of Schism , in Answer to Mr. Cawdrey . 8o. A Defence of Mr. Jo. Cotton , and a Reply to Mr. Cawdrey about the Nature of Schism . 8o. Diatriba de Justitia divina . 8o. Of Communion with God the Father , Son , and Holy Ghost , each person distinctly in Love , Grace , and Consolation . 4o. Of the Divine 〈◊〉 , Authority , self-evidencing Light , and power of the Scriptures . Also a Vindication of the Purity and Integrity of the Hebrew and Greek Texts , in some considerations on the Prolegomena , and Appendix to the late Biblia Polyglotta . 8o. Pro Sacris Scripturis adversus hujus temporis Fanaticos , Exercitationes Apologeticae quatuor . 8o. Books written by Mr. Hodges . A Treatise of Prayer , or an Apology for the use of the Lords Prayer . 12o. A Scripture Catechisme , towards the Confutation of sundry Errors ; some of them of the present times . 8o. The 〈◊〉 Head Crowned , a Funeral Sermon on Proverbs 16. 31. 4o. A Cordial against the fear of death , a Sermon on Heb. 2. 15. 4o. Books written by Dr. Wallis . Mathesis Universalis , sive Arithmeticum opus integrum . 4o. Adversus Meibomii , de proportionibus . 4o. De Angulo Contactus & Semicirculis . 4o. De Sectionibus Conicis 〈◊〉 . 4o. Arithmetica 〈◊〉 . 4o. Eclipseos Solaris observatio . 4o. Commercium Epistolitum de quaestionibus quibusdam Mathematicis nuper habitum . 4o. Mens sobria serio commendata : Concio lat : & Expositio Epistolae ad Titum . 8o. Grammatica Linguae Anglicanae . 8o. Due Correction for Mr. Hobbs . 8o. Hobbiani Puncti dispunctio . 8o. Books written by Dr. Zouch . Cases and Questions resolved in the Civil Law. 8o. Juris & Judicii Fecialis , sive Juris inter Gentes . 4o. Specimen 〈◊〉 Juris 〈◊〉 cum designatione Authorum 〈◊〉 quibus in 〈◊〉 partem disseruntur . 4o. De Legati delinquentis Judice competente dissertatio . 12o. Eruditionis Ingenuae specimina , scil . Artium Logicae , Dialect . Rhetor. & Moralis Philosoph . 12o. Quaestionum Juris Civilis Centuria . Non minus ad Legum Generalium 〈◊〉 , quam ad studiosorum Exercitationem , accommoda . 12o. newly publisht . Conciones Octo ad Academicos Oxon. Latinè habitae . Epistolarum Decas , Auth. Hen. Wilkinson , S. Th. D. 8o. Rob. 〈◊〉 , Philos. Theologiae Ancillans . 12o. Rob. Baronii , Metaphysica Generalis & Special : omnia ad usum Theologiae accomodata . 12o. Latium & Lyceū , Graeca cum latinis , sive Gram. Artis in utraque lingua lucidissima , Auth. Rob. Wickens . 8o. Exercitatio Theolog. de Insipientiâ rationis humanae , Gratiā Christi destitutae , in rebus fidei . Aut. R. Crosse , Col. Linc. 4o. Fur pro Tribunali , Examen Dialeg . cui inscribitur Fur Praedestinatus . Auth. Geo. Kendal . S. Th. D. 8o. Miscellanea , sive Meditat : & Orationes , &c. Auth. Ed. Ellis . 12o. Homerus 〈◊〉 : sive Comparatio Homeri cum Scriptoribus Sacris quoad normam loquendi . Auth. Zach. Bogan . 8o. Exercitationes aliquot Metaphysicae . Aut. Tho. Barlow . Col. Regin . 4o. Juelli Apologia Ecclesiae Anglicanae , graec . lat . 8o. Tract . de Demonstratione . Aut. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 8o. Dionysius Longinus de Grandi-loquentiae graec . lat . cum Notis . 8o. Stratagemata Satanae . Aut. Jacob , Acontium . 8o. Jul. Lu. Florus de Rebus à Romanis gestis , cum Annot. 〈◊〉 . Stadii & Claud. Salmasii . 12o. Eryci Puteani Suada Attica , sive Orationum select : Syntagma . 8o. Eryci Puteani Historia Insubrica , 12o. Jo. Bambrigii , Astronom . Profes . Saviliani in Acad. Ox. Canicularia . Quibus accesserunt , Insigniorum aliquot Stellarum Longitudines & latitud . ex Astron. obser . Vlugbeigi . 8o. Adagialia sacra Novi 〈◊〉 . selecta & exposita ab And. Schotto , 12o. Musica Incantans , sive Poema exprimens Musicae vires . Aut. R. South . 4o. A Guide to the holy City , or Directions and Helps to an holy Life , by Jo. Reading B. D. 〈◊〉 . The Royal Slave , a Tragi-Comedy , by W. Cartwright . 4o. Pliny's Panegyrike , A speech in Senate to the Emperour Trajan . Translated into 〈◊〉 by Sir R. Stapleton . 40. 〈◊〉 Counsel for the Peace of the Church , by Bishop Davenant . 4o. The Doctrine of Christian Liberty , by Bishop Downame . 8o. A Defence of Tithes , by Jo. Ley. 4o. A Buckler for the Church of England , in Answer to Mr. Pendarvi's Queries , by Will : Ley. 4o. Vindiciae Academiarum , in Answ. to Websters Exam. Acad. by S. Ward , D. D. 4o. The private Christians Non ultra , or a Plea for the Lay-mans Interpreting of Scriptures . 4o. The onely way to preserve life . A Sermon on Amos 5. 6. by Gr. Williams . D. D. 4o. King Davids Sanctuary . A Sermon preached before the King at Oxford on Psal. 73. 25. by Rich. Herwood . 4o. The Vanity of Self-boasters . A Funeral Sermon on Psal. 52. 1. by Ed. Hinton . D. D. 40. The quiet Soul , or the peace and 〈◊〉 of a Christians estate ; in two Sermons on Mat. 11. 29. by Ed. Ellis . 4o. Concio Oxoniae habita postridie Comitiorum Jul. 13. 1658. pro Gradu Doct. à Guliel . Burt. Col. Wint. Custod . 12o. A Practical Discourse concerning Gods Decrees ; by Ed. Bagshaw , Stud. of Ch. ch . 4o. De Monarchia Absoluta , & Mixta Dissertatio Politica . Aut. Ed. Bagshaw . 4o. Susannas Apology against the Elders , or a Vindication of Susanna Parr , one of those two women lately Excommunicated by Mr. Stuckley and his Church in Exeter . 〈◊〉 . The young Divines Apology for his continuance in the University , with his serious Meditation on the sacred Calling of the Ministry . 80. Tears shed in behalf of the Church of England , and her sad Distractions , by D. Getsius . 80. The Abuse of Gods Grace discovered in the Kinds , Causes , Punishments , Symptomes , Cures , Differences , Cautions , and other Practicall Improvements thereof . Proposed as a seasonable check to the wanton Libertinism of the present Age. By Nich. Claget . 40. A Treatise of Fruit-Trees , shewing the manner of Grafting , Setting , Pruning , and ordering them in all respects , by Ra : Austin . 40. The Spiritual Use of an Orchard or Garden of Fruit-Trees , set forth in divers similitudes , according to Scripture and Experience , by 〈◊〉 Austin . 40. Observations on some part of Sir Francis Bacons Natural History , as it concerns Fruit-trees , Fruits and Flowers , by Ra : Austin . 40. The History of the Propagation of Vegetables by the concurrence of Art and Nature : Shewing the severall wayes for the Propagation of Plants usually cultivated in England , as likewise the Method for Improvement and best Culture of Field , Orchard , and Garden Plants , written according to Observation made from Experience , and Practise , by R. Sharrock , 〈◊〉 of New col . 80. Hypothesis de Officiis secundum humanae rationis dictata seu Naturae Jus , unde Casus omnes Conscientiae quatenus notiones à Natura suppetunt 〈◊〉 possint . Ethnicorum simul & Jureperitorum consensus ostenditur , Principia & Rationes Hobbesii Malmes : ad Ethicam & Politicam spectantes in examen veniunt . Aut. R. Sharrock . 80. A compleat Concordance of the 〈◊〉 Bible , by Rob. Wickens . 80. Immortality of Humane Souls asserted , in Answer to a Tract entituled , Mans Mortality . 40. The Entrance of Mazzarini : or some Memorials of the State of France , between the Death of the Cardinal of Richelieu and the beginning of the late Regency . 12o. Books written by Mr. Hen. Jeanes . The want of Church Government , no warrant for a total omission of the Lords Supper . 80. A Treatise of the Excellency of Praise and Thanksgiving . 4o. A Mixture of Scholastical and Practicall Divinity ; in two Parts . 40. Doctor Hammonds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or a greater Ardency in Christs love of God at one time than another , proved to bee Irreconcileable with his Fulnesse of Habitual Grace , the perpetuall Happinesse , and the Impeccability of his soul. 40. Saintship no ground of Soveraignty , or a Treatise tending to prove , that the Saints , barely considered as such , ought not to govern . By Edw. Bagshaw , M. A. Stud. of Ch. Ch. 80. Three Decads of Sermons preach'd to the University at St. Maries Church in Oxon : By Henry Wilkinson , D. D. Principal of Magdalen Hall , Oxon. 4o. Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A46699-e27170 (a) Esse 〈◊〉 ad bonum , & malum contingit dupliciter , aut per modum abstractionis , secundum quod universale 〈◊〉 significat ut abstractum à differentiis , & concontrariis dividentibus ipsum , unde in 〈◊〉 communitate significatum significatur ut 〈◊〉 se habens 〈◊〉 differentiam . Sicut animal réque significatur ut rationale 〈◊〉 ut irrationale , & tamen 〈◊〉 omne 〈◊〉 animal esse 〈◊〉 vel 〈◊〉 . Et 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 actus in 〈◊〉 quod est agere , 〈◊〉 quidem bonitatem in quantum est ens , sed 〈◊〉 se 〈◊〉 bonitatem , vel malitiam moralem . Et 〈◊〉 bonum ex 〈◊〉 indifferenter le habet ad bonum & malum ex cucumstantiâ & 〈◊〉 , quamvis non inveniatur aliquod bonum in genere particulari , quod non sit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vestitum , & ad aliquem finem ordinatum , unde oportet , quod bonitatem , vel malitiam 〈◊〉 . Et secundum hane considerationem quidam dixerunt omnes actus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 esse in eo quod sunt actus , & quidam 〈◊〉 , quod non omnes , sed aliqui , accipientes magis in speciali nomina 〈◊〉 , quae non 〈◊〉 aliquid , unde actus , ad malitiam vel 〈◊〉 determinetur , vel 〈◊〉 vel finem vel circumstantiam , 〈◊〉 comedere , coire , et hujusmodi . Alio modo contingit 〈◊〉 secundum , quod aliquod particulare significatum delicit a susceptibilitate 〈◊〉 perfectionis , sicut lapis à susceptibilitate visus , & 〈◊〉 modo aliqui actus , qui deficiunt a susceptibilitate bonitatis moralis dicuntur indifferenter . lib. 2. senten . 〈◊〉 40. quaest . 〈◊〉 . b 1. 2a qu. 18. art . 9. 〈◊〉 contra hoc 〈◊〉 , quia ubi 〈◊〉 dominium rationis , vel voluntatis , ibi 〈◊〉 genus 〈◊〉 , led 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vel 〈◊〉 invenitur non solum in actibus qui sequuntur rationem 〈◊〉 , sed etiam qui praecedunt , in quantum à ratione praeveniri potuerunt , ut dictum suit , supra , dist . 24. q. 5. ( 〈◊〉 in sensualitate nullum posset esse 〈◊〉 ) ergo actus procedentes à solâ imaginatione pertinent ad genus moris , 〈◊〉 subsunt imperio rationis , in quantum ab ea pollunt 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 sic per 〈◊〉 sunt susceptivi bonitatis , & 〈◊〉 moralis , cujus 〈◊〉 assumebatur pro fundamento . Et ad hoc potest dici , quod aliqui actus procedentes ab imaginatione , et praevenientes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sunt tales , circa quos ratio debet esse pervigil , ne insurgant , et tales sunt 〈◊〉 appetitus sensitivi circa materiam 〈◊〉 &c. & 〈◊〉 talium actuum 〈◊〉 cunque deliberationem praeveniant , potest 〈◊〉 negligens ratio in reprimendo , & 〈◊〉 &c , 〈◊〉 de his procedit ratio , 〈◊〉 quod sunt aliquo modo in genere moris , rec sunt indifferentes . 〈◊〉 autem sunt , circa quos ratio nullo modo 〈◊〉 esse pervigil , nisi in casu ratione 〈◊〉 adjuncti , quia objecta talium 〈◊〉 se non sunt materia alicujus 〈◊〉 &c. ut 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , vel 〈◊〉 barbam : Et 〈◊〉 actus ut sic pervenientes , quos non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , nisi in casu sunt purè extra 〈◊〉 moris , & indifferentes ad bonum , & malum , de quibus intelligenda 〈◊〉 praedicta opinio . (d) Quidem hanc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 explicant : 〈◊〉 nullius 〈◊〉 potestate , i. e. Non patiar me propter res pecuniarias , ac temporales , velut 〈◊〉 sub earum potestate , vel abstrahi vel distrahi , quo minùs liberè , & absque impedimento serviam Deo , quod non potero , si tempus & cogitationes 〈◊〉 litibus . Esthius in loc . Ubi nota , Hactenus egit Paulus de idolothytis , qua talibus , sicque veruit ea comedere . Unde v. 14. Fugite , ait , ab idolorum cultu , 〈◊〉 , ne sitis mensae , & calicis daemoniorum participes , ut explicat v. 20. 〈◊〉 , comedendo 〈◊〉 bos idolis oblates , eo modo & iis 〈◊〉 , quibus censeamini eos , quasi sacros , seu quasi idolothytum in honorem idoli velle comedere : hoc vero versu transit ad 〈◊〉 calum , 〈◊〉 , quo idolothytum non 〈◊〉 qua 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 materialiter , qua cibus vel caro 〈◊〉 , comeditur , & de hoc ait : 〈◊〉 mihilicent , sed non 〈◊〉 expediunt , quia , ut sequitur , non omnia aedificant . 〈◊〉 dicat , 〈◊〉 licet vesci 〈◊〉 per se , per accidens tamen non licet , si sequatur scandalum , pater ex v. 27. 28 33. Cornel. 〈◊〉 in loc . (*) Omniamihi 〈◊〉 , omnia scilicet adiaphora , quale est comedere idolothyta , non quasi sacra , aut quasi idolothyta sed tanquam communes cibos . (f) Ubi autem ratio non debet esse 〈◊〉 affirmando quā 〈◊〉 , ibi voluntas non debet magiscon formari rationi affirmativae quam negativae : unde potest sic argui . Ille actus nec est bonus , nec est malus , circa quem ratio non potest esse magis 〈◊〉 in affirmando quam in negando , sed levare festucam , quantum est praecisè ex ratione , quam sortitur actus ex objecto , est hujusmodi , quia ratio neque affirmando quod levanda est , neque negando levandam esse magis 〈◊〉 est , ergo actus de se neque bonus est , neque malus . Major 〈◊〉 , quia persecutio & fuga actus voluntatis quoad bonitatem vel malitiam correspondent affirmationi , & negationi rationis practicae quoad veritatem & falsitatem , & ideò ubi est ratio aeque indifferens quoad veritatem , & salsitatem in affirmando & negando , ibi 〈◊〉 actus indisterens quoad malitiam & bonitatem in prosequendo , & fugiendo . Minor probatur , quia 〈◊〉 rationis consistit in conformitate ad aliquam legem naturalem vel divinam vel ex his 〈◊〉 , circa autem tales actus , ut levare festucam , vel buiusmodi , nulla lex aliquid determinat , nec divina , nec naturalis nec ex his derivata , ergo circa eos sic acceptos ratio non potest habere aliquam rectitudinem , vel obliquitatem magis in affirmando quam in negando , & haec suit minor . Sequitur ergo conclusio . lib. 2. dist . 40. q. 1. (g) Sunt 〈◊〉 complures actus , quos dum praecisè consideramus , ut versantur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , vel illud objectum ; nec laudamus , nec vituperamus tanquam 〈◊〉 vel malos , sed censemus esse indifferentes . Loquimur enim in proposito debonitate , & 〈◊〉 morali propriè , ut 〈◊〉 bonitas non est qualis cunque congruentia cum ratione ; & voluntate hominis , sed congruentia ejusmodi , ut habeat laudem secundùm aestimationem hominum ; tanquam aliquid , nempe quod quadret in rationem hominis , etiam ut recta est , & ut is habet sibi à Deo propositam beatitudinem , ut ultimum sinem . Quemadmodum 〈◊〉 contra , malitia moralis , cui opponitur moralis bonitas , consistit in repugnantiâ quadam erga 〈◊〉 rectam hominis , quae secundum humanam aestimationem habeat vituperium , tanquam aliquid repugnans , & nocens homini , ut is habeat beatitudinem propositam sicut ultimum sinem omnium actionum . Sic itaque loquendo proprie de bonitate , vel malitiâ morali affirmamus quosdam esse actus , qui ex objecto 〈◊〉 nec 〈◊〉 , nec mali sunt , sed indifferentes . Tom : 2. Com. Theol : qu. 13. punct : 2. (h) Si omnis actus esset bonus aut malus ex suo objecto , seu suâ specie , liceret nobis judicare de quolibet 〈◊〉 opere , & tale ipsum 〈◊〉 , quale habet objectū , sicuti actus ex objecto determinatos pronuntiamus bonos , aut malos 〈◊〉 : sed non licet ita de singulis 〈◊〉 , ex Matth : 7. cujus ratio est apud patres , & Interpretes quod 〈◊〉 actus sint medii , scilicet de se indifferentes , ut sint boni , aut mali : ergo , &c. Multi actus sunt mali praecise ratione prohibitionis , V. G. portare arma de nocte : ergo ii sunt ex specie suâ indifferentes . Ethic : cap : 3. Sect : 2. ( i ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 secundum 〈◊〉 negatio 〈◊〉 per hoc quod est indifferens potest duplicitet ordinari ad copulam verbalem : uno 〈◊〉 nim modo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . & sic est sensus qd de ratione specificâ actus est , quod sit indifferens et si isto modo aliquis actus 〈◊〉 speciem esset indifferens , non solùm esset impossibile dare sub 〈◊〉 specie actum individualem indifferentem , immo impossibile esset sub tali specie dari actum , nisi 〈◊〉 , quia ea quae sunt de ratione 〈◊〉 conveniunt omni individuo sub tali specie , sed si nullus est actus 〈◊〉 secundum speciem suam ; sub quo tamen sensu argumentum procedit . 〈◊〉 modo 〈◊〉 negatio importata per hoc , quod est indifferens , praepuni copulae verbali sub hoc sensu , quod de ratione specifica actus non est , quod sit indifferenter , vel determinate bonus 〈◊〉 malus , sed tamen utrunque 〈◊〉 ipfi per aliud convenire , sicut homo ex suâ specie non habet quod sit determinate albus , vel determinate niger : et tamen per aliud ei utrunque istorum convenit . 〈◊〉 hoc 〈◊〉 sunt multi actus qui sunt indifferentes secundum suam speciem , nullus tamen secundum individuum , quia individuum multa includit quoad existentiam suam quae ad rationem speciei non pertinent . Lib. 2. dift. 40. q. 1. * Morisan 〈◊〉 . Murc : Physic. k Casus posterior est , cum res aut ob sui levitatemindigna est viri prudentis deliberatione , nec cassà nuce interest 〈◊〉 an non feceris , ut levare festucam de 〈◊〉 , fricare barbam &c. aut ob parvitatem 〈◊〉 non estmultum estimabilis ; ut dare pomum puero , aciculam 〈◊〉 &c. Juramentum de re isto 〈◊〉 adiaphora omnino est illicitum . Arguit enim sancti nominis Dei aut nimiam irreverentiam , si ( ut 〈◊〉 fit ) ex quodam 〈◊〉 jurandi longo usu contracto 〈◊〉 fortè exciderit ; aut apertum contemptum , siquis id 〈◊〉 prudensque admiserit , scilicet non est Deus advocandus testis , nisi ubi dignus vindice nodus inciderit : ubi causa exigit non justa modo sed & gravis . Et in hoc omnes consentiunt , caeterum de obligatione quid 〈◊〉 ? Video quidem plerosque casuistas pontificios in 〈◊〉 esse 〈◊〉 juramentum de re 〈◊〉 et parvi momenti esse 〈◊〉 naturâ nullum , & non 〈◊〉 quia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 levis non est idonea materia juramenti , & lex non curat de miminis . Sed miror potuisse eos , qui aliàs videri volunt esse tam Lyncei , inretam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : nisi quod putidae illi distinctioni 〈◊〉 mortalis & venialis , quo velut fermento totam Theologiae moralis massam faedè corruperunt , locum relictum cupiant . Sed obligare juramentum in re vel levissimi momenti constat ; primò , quia in re gravi & levi eadem est veritatis & falsitatis ratio . Secundò , quià in assertorio juramento , qui 〈◊〉 dicit quam res est , etsi in re levissimâ , pejerat , ergo à simili & in promissorio , qui 〈◊〉 facit , quam juravit . Tertio , quià 〈◊〉 , quantum in se esset , Deum 〈◊〉 rei testem faceret . 〈◊〉 , quià omnis jurans tenetur facere totum quod promisit , 〈◊〉 potest , & licet : sed dare puero pomum , & 〈◊〉 est , & licitum , ergò tenetur praestare , non debuit ergò sie 〈◊〉 : sed ubi iuratum est , debet impleri . De Jurament : Obligat : praelect : 3. Sect. 15. (l) Cum Augustus coenaret apud Vedium Pollionem . Fregerat unus ex servis ejus crystallinum : rapi eum Vedius jussit , nec vulgari quidem periturum 〈◊〉 muraenis objici jubebatur , quas ingens piscina continebat . 〈◊〉 non 〈◊〉 illum putaret luxuriae causa facere ? saevitia erat : evasit è manibus puer , & confugit ad Caesaris pedes : nihil aliud petiturus , quam ut aliter 〈◊〉 , nec esca fieret . Motus est novitate crudelitatis Caesar , & illum quidem mitti , crystallina autem omnia coram se frangi jussit , complerique 〈◊〉 . Fuit Caesari sic castigandus amicus : bene usus est viribus suis. E convivio rapi homines imperas , & novi generis paenis lancinari ? si calix tuus fractus est , viscera hominis distrahentur ? tantum tibi placebis &c. Seneca de ira . Lib. 3. (m) Circumstantia una aut altera actionis alicujus humanae potest esse indifferens , ut si studiosus unus cum aliosermonem conferat , indifferens est , saepenumero , utrum vernaculo utatursermone , an Latino : sed sermo ipse , cum omnibus suis circumstantiis , vel bonus est , vel malus . Ratio eft , quia determinatio actionisnon pendet ab una circumstantia seorsim , sed ab omnibus conjunctim . Datur actio aliqua singularis , in qua nulla bonitatis ratio reperitur , quae inalia non possit 〈◊〉 atque adeo quod hoc tempore , hoc vel illud potius agimus quam aliud , in eo saepe nihil boni aut mali occurrit . Opportunitas , aut animi suggestio , sine ullo respectu bonitatis moralis , satis habet ponderis ad singularem istam determinationem . Quamvis igitur nulla singularis actio humana sit , quae neque est bona neque mala , fiunt tamen variae , quae singulariter & in comparatione ad alias , neque sunt necessariae , neque illicitae . Sicut enim statuarius certam rationem saepe non 〈◊〉 , cur istam potius quam aliam statuam facit , si ta men aliquam faciat , necesse est , ut vel regulas artis sequendo bonam saciat , aut aberrando malam , sic est in multis action ibus hominum singularibus , quae quoad exercitium nullam habent rationem propriam , praeter inclinationem animi , sed cum exercentur vel bonae sunt , vel malae . De cas . cons. Lib. 3. cap. 18. (m) Quaerenda 〈◊〉 lunt firmiora praesidia , lententiae humanos actus indisserentes 〈◊〉 . Unum duco ex operatione humana prout est germen naturae 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 enim ad suas operationes habet se veluti arbor ad fructus , ut optimè advertit Antonius l. 9 de vita sua , num . 8. & pulch è Guliel . Par lib. dev ircut . ca. 12. initio : cum ca tamen 〈◊〉 , ut scitè notavit Antonius l. 11. num . 1. quod atborum & quarumvis plantarumfruct us , alii percipiunt : 〈◊〉 homo fructus sui percipit , nec alii , sed sibi ipsi laborat . Cum lgitur operatio humana se habeat ad naturam rationalem , sicut fructus & germen ejus , necesse est , ut idem sit finis operationis ab humana natura prodeuntis , & ipsius naturae rationalis . Sic enim videmus , servata proportione , 〈◊〉 in omnibus aliis naturis . Et ratio est , quia cùm natura sit actus quidam primus , actio verò sit actus ejus secundus , qui est ipsamet tendentia actus primi in objectum & finem suum ; 〈◊〉 profecto vid etur , ut idemmet sit finis ultimus actionis & naturae actionem 〈◊〉 : sicut trunci & germinum & totius arboris , ac fructuum , idem est sinis . Debet ergo humanae naturae & actionis humar 〈◊〉 esse idem finis . Atqui finis ultimus humanae naturae est Deus ; Etgo finis quoque ultimus actionis nostrae debet esse Deus . Constat autem , actum indisserentem , si daretur , non habiturum pro fine Deum : nam sic non esset indifferens , led revera bonus . Ergo careret aliquo , quod habere deberet , nempe relatione illa ad sinem ultimum naturae humanae ; ac proinde esset malus moraliter , non autem indifferens . Moral . 〈◊〉 dist 4. q. 1. 〈◊〉 . 2. n. 37 n Alterum sententiae 〈◊〉 firmamentum profero ex actu humano per seipsum considerato . Hoc est non quatenus 〈◊〉 germen naturae , & quatenus 〈◊〉 cum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Habere debet , sed solitariè , 〈◊〉 ac si non esset fructus illius naturae . Sic 〈◊〉 argumentor . Actio humana vel ultimo refertur ad Deum , sive 〈◊〉 , sive 〈◊〉 , & suapie natura , quatenus est 〈◊〉 conformis , & sic est bona : vel nullo modo in Deum tendit : & sic eo ipso deflectit 〈◊〉 eo fine , 〈◊〉 mala 〈◊〉 . Nam eo ipso quod non fit ob finem increatum , nec in eum tendit saltem virtualiter , sicut faciunt omnes boni actus , sistit omnino in bono creato , est que ejus fruitio . Perversum autem est , frui utendis , ut latè tradit D. Augustinus 1. de Doct. Christ. a cap. 3. &c. 21. & 22. ostendens omnia bona creata debere tantum cadere sub usum nostrum , sub fruitionem autem non nisi Deum . Ergo Actus humani carentes bono fine , vel 〈◊〉 , vel extrinseco , sunt 〈◊〉 ipso 〈◊〉 , carentque aliquo quod 〈◊〉 deberent . Est enim in omni actione 〈◊〉 , debitum ut sit fruitio 〈◊〉 : id est , ut ultimò ad Deum 〈◊〉 aliquo modo . Nam si non haberet hoc 〈◊〉 debito , posset esse fruitio utendorum , nihilque idcirco haberet indebitum . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 actus humanus , qui dicitur fore prorsus 〈◊〉 , esset 〈◊〉 puri boni creati , quod utendum 〈◊〉 non fruenduoo ; merito convincitur non fuisse indifferens , sed oblitus coeno turpitudinis 〈◊〉 , ob defectum volitionis ad finem 〈◊〉 . n. 38. loc . praedict . (n) Illa verba dixit ad incutiendum hominibus timorem , & ex aggerandam 〈◊〉 divini judicii : ergo sensus illorum verborum est ita 〈◊〉 reddituros 〈◊〉 otiosi verbi , ut si nullam aliam excusationem , vel rationabilem causam 〈◊〉 , pro illo 〈◊〉 sunt alioquin verba Christi nullum 〈◊〉 pondus 〈◊〉 energiam haberent , neque aliquem metum inferent , cum tamen illo singulari exemplo voluerit Christus ostendere , quam sint 〈◊〉 puniendi homines : pro verbis pravioribus . De bonitate & malit , humanorum act : disp . 9. Sect. 3. (o) Prima ratio est 〈◊〉 ex eo , quod Doctores prioris opinionis concedunt , esse nimirum actionem indifferentem ex suâ specie , & objecto , tametsi in individuo nulla 〈◊〉 indifferens . Ratio vero est 〈◊〉 . Nulla est natura in specie , quae non habeat aliquod individuum in quo ratio ejus maneat , & non destruatur per 〈◊〉 : cum igitur sit actio humana indifferens secundum suam naturam & speciem , 〈◊〉 debet aliquod individuum , ac proinde esse 〈◊〉 aliqua actio individua , & singularis , quae maneat indifferens . In 12 〈◊〉 tom . disp . 52. cap. 4. pag. 378. (p) Hunc loquendi modum , fateor esse cavillo obnoxium ; impugnaturque ab Argentina in 2. d. 40. qu. unica . art . 2. in 2. particuli : quia nulla 〈◊〉 esse species cujus non possit esse aliquid individuum . Ergo si dantur actus secundum speciem 〈◊〉 , debent quoque dari indisferentes secundum individuum . Quod argumentum agendo de specie , & individuo in sensu quotidiano , & vulgari , rectè concludit , sed non 〈◊〉 eos , qui admittunt actus secundum speciem indifferentes , negant autem dari indifferentes in individuo . Nam 〈◊〉 Autores fatentur illos ipsos actus , quos admittunt , esse secundum speciem indifferentes , habere quc que indifferentiam quoad gradum illorum specificum restrictum per individuationem . Tantum itaque negant , eos actus , si spectentur cum omnibus sibi debit is accidentibus , esse moraliter indisferentes . Et 〈◊〉 appellant , actus non esse indifferentes secundum individuum : nempe quia individuum , secluso rigore illo Metaphysico , in quo tantùm importat restrictionem gradus specifiei , 〈◊〉 congeriem omnium horum accidentium , aut ut passim loquimur , conditionum individuantium , secundum quam congeriem actus humanus non est indifferens , quatenus vel inter illa 〈◊〉 est debitus finis extrinsecus , & sic actus est bonus , vel non est debitus finis , & sic est malus , Mor. disc . distin . 4. qu. 1. art . 2. Num. 31. (q) 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 aliquid esse indifferens dupliciter . 1. Quod indifferentia sit de ejus 〈◊〉 , 2. Quod ipsi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 accidens , & ab 〈◊〉 . Si sit indifferens priori modo , necesse in inferioribus salvari istam indifferentiam , quia tota essentia superioris 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 , siquidem essentia consist it in indivisibili : si sit indifferens posterio i modo , non est necesse salvari indifferentiam in inferiori : nam quae per accidens superiori conveniunt , sunt ab ipso separabilia : ergo sine illis potest 〈◊〉 inferiori . Si 〈◊〉 accidentia 〈◊〉 inferiori . V , C. posse praedicari de multis numerd differentibus , convenit naturae humanae secundum speciem consideratae , sed per accidens , & ab 〈◊〉 , scilicet per operationem mentis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à singularibus , & cum illis ipsam conferentis ; talis autem operatio est merè contingens tall naturae . Ex opposito , esse animal rationale convenit eidem humanae naturae tanquam illius essentia . Ex quo fit , 〈◊〉 humana natura nequeat communicari inferioribus , quin ipsis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rationale , sed non ipsis communicat posse de multis numero praedicari , alioqui quodlibet individuum esset species . Jam ut ad propositum veniam , Indifferentia actui secundum speciem concessa non est ipsi essentialis , sed accidentalis per abstractionem ab individuis : imo non est indifferentia moralis positiva : quasi actus ille sit moralis , & indifferens : sed est moralis negativa , quatenus actus ille non est moralis , sed caret ordine ad rationem morum regulam , ideoque 〈◊〉 bonus est , nec malus moraliter . Unde patet non debere in ullo individuo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indifferentiam , nisi 〈◊〉 in actibus indeliberatis , qui similiter non sint moraless sed ipsi absunt à nostrâ quaestione . Ethic. cap. 3. Sect. 2. Application . Notes for div A46699-e38150 (r) See his Annotations . (s) Neque necesse est hanc partem 〈◊〉 ( ut quidam faciunt ) ut connexionem 〈◊〉 cum iis , quae proximè praecedunt : nam potius videtur Apostolus refricare memoriam 〈◊〉 , quod praecipit 〈◊〉 superiori : ut honesti ambulent , ad 〈◊〉 , qui 〈◊〉 sunt , &c. Estius . t Dr Jackson . * Pliny . (u) 〈◊〉 dubitamus caeteris quidem paribus , majorem & pleniorem mensuram 〈◊〉 publicis Ecclesiae administris sive in una aliqua paticulari 〈◊〉 munus suum obeant , 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 aliquo legitimè & in Christinomine congregati de vero scriptutae sensu inter se 〈◊〉 quam sin gulis & privatis qui ne que 〈◊〉 donis instructi iunt , neque tot oculis vident , neque privatâ & simplici meditatione aequare 〈◊〉 multorum collationem & disquisitionem . Isag. ad Scrip : Sac. 〈◊〉 . 19. Pag : 272. 1 Joh. 4. 1. Cal. lib. 3. Just. c. 12. Sect. 13. (r) Non enim Schismaticus eò 〈◊〉 , quod fover perversum dogma , 〈◊〉 comingit aliquando , ut sententia schismatici 〈◊〉 verissima sit , tamen quia eam neque loco neque tempore debitis , 〈◊〉 necessitate 〈◊〉 , Schismaticus est , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dei 〈◊〉 enim non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ecclesiae , ostendit se non adductum studio gloriae Christi , sed suae potius existimationis Ecclesia turbâsle . Cameron in 〈◊〉 quaedam N. T. loca . Tom. 2. in Mat. c. 18. v. 7. (x) In rebus 〈◊〉 verba debent esse casta , & 〈◊〉 . & quae rem ipsam 〈◊〉 exprimant , & haereticis non praestent occasionem calumniandi . 〈◊〉 . Martinez ; lib. 12. de locis cap. 9. ad 〈◊〉 . (y) Dr Sanderson . (z) Propositio 〈◊〉 , quae etiam malè 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , aurium offensiva , 〈◊〉 , quae praebet occasionem ruinae auditoribus , hoc est facilitatem cadendi in haeresin , ut sunt multae propositiones , quae licet cum modificatione adjuncta , sunt verae , per se tamen & absolutè sine modificatione prolatae videntur favere propositionibus haereticalibus . Ut si quis assereret simpliciter Patrem majorem Filio , & Deum in incarnatione factum creaturam , & similes , quae mag is sunt exponendae , 〈◊〉 extendendae . Arnoldus Albertinus de agnoscendis assertionibus Catholicis & hereticis . quaest . 60. Propositio haeresin sapiens , aut malè circa ea , quae ad fidem pertinent , sonans , est illa quae in prima significatione , quam verba prima facie ostendunt , sensum 〈◊〉 haereticum , quamvis 〈◊〉 intellecta sensum aliquem habet verum . Alphonsus à Castro de justa haereticorum punitione : cap. 3. (a) Explicatur optimè , modo suprâ tacto de propositione aequivocá , quae in proprio aliquo sensu , potest esse haeretica , & in also etiam propriè Catholica , nam illa absolutè , & sine distinctione , vel declaratione prolata merito dicitur male sonans , in quo distinctio alia 〈◊〉 potest . Nam quaedam propositio dicitur ab extrinseco malè sonans , alia ab intrinseco . Ab extrinseco vocatur , quando suspicio , vel malus sonus , non 〈◊〉 propositione nude sumpta , sed cum circumstantiis personae , loci , aut temporis oritur . Suarez . de triplici virture Theologica tract . de fide disp . 19. Sect. 7. Dicendum igitur est , quod propositio sapiens haeresin illa est , quae quamvis non appareat haeresis manifesta , quin potius aliquando poterit habere aliquem bonum sensum , tamen ex qulbusdam 〈◊〉 , vel ex parte asserentis , vel ex temporum calamitate , saporem quendam 〈◊〉 haeresis , & suspicionis judicio prudentum & sapientum , id est , suspicionem quandam majorem vel minorem pro qualitate circumstantiarum . Bannes . (b) Dr Sclater in locum . * Talis sc. materialis usus circumcisionis semper habet speciem mali , non ex accidentia tantum sed quasi per se supposito Eccesiae stau . Suarez . de legibus lib. 9. cap. 14. (d) Dicitur autem minùs rectum , & non absolutè malum , aut non rectum , ad denot and umposse etiam scandali rationem esse in actu , qui non sit undequaque pravus , sed tantum habeat speciem mali ; aut qui duntaxat ratione 〈◊〉 sc. ruinae alterius , malus sit , licet 〈◊〉 per se omnino sit bonus . Itaque quamvis per illam particulam , minus rectum significetur in praedicta 〈◊〉 actus , qui ex aliquo capite careat debità 〈◊〉 , atque adeo simpliciter sit non rectus , seu pravus , tamen propter dictam rationem meritò hoc ipsum significatur illo modo dicendi , scil : minus rectum . Non enim id duntaxat minus rectum appellari solet , quod simpliciter rectum est , licet non adeò , comparatione alterius ; sed etiam id ; quod propter aliquem defectum est minus rectum , quam simpliciter debet , & quod ideo est absolutè , & simpliciter malum . Juxta illud D. Dionysil cap. 4 de divinis nominibus : Bonum consurgit ex integra causa , malum autem ex quocunque 〈◊〉 . Greg : de Valentia Comment : Theol. Tom : 3. Quest. 18. Punct . 1. First Conclusion . (e) See Dr 〈◊〉 in lecum . Second 〈◊〉 . (f) Diversimodè tamen ligat Conscientia 〈◊〉 & erronea , recta simpliciter ligat & 〈◊〉 se , erronea autem secundum quid & peraccidens . Dico autem rectam ligare simpliciter , quia ligat absolutè & in omnem eventum . Sienim aliquis conscientiam habet de vitando adulterio istam conscientiam 〈◊〉 peccato non potest deponere , quia in hoc ipso quòd eam deponeret errando graviter peccaret . Ea autem manente non potest 〈◊〉 in actu sine peccato . Unde absolute ligat & in omnem eventum : sed conscientia erronea non ligat 〈◊〉 secundum 〈◊〉 , & sub conditione . Ille enim cui dictat conscientia , quod tenetur fornicari , non est obligatus ut fornicationem sine peccato dimittere non possit , nisi sub hac conditione , si talis conscientia duret . Haec autem conscientia removeri potest absque peccato , undè talis conscientia non obligat in omnem eventum . Potest enim aliquid contingere , scilicet Depositio conscientiae , quo contingente aliquis ulteriùs non ligatur . Quod autem sub conditione tantum est , secundum quid esse dicitur . Dico 〈◊〉 quod conscientia recta per se ligats erronea vero per accidens . Quod ex hoc patet , qui enim vult velamat unum propter alterum , illud quidem propter quod amat , reliquum per se amat , quod verò propter aliud , quasi per accidens , sicut qui vinum amat propter dulce , amat dulce per se , vinum autem per accidens . Ille autem qui conscientiam erroneam 〈◊〉 credens esse rectam , aliàs non etraret nisi inhaereret conscientiae etroneae propter rectitudinem , quam in ea credit esse , inhaeret quidem per se loquendo rectae conscientiae , sed erroneae quasi per accidens , in quantum 〈◊〉 conscientiam quam credit esse rectam , contingit , esse erroneam . 〈◊〉 exinde est quod per se loquendo ligatur à 〈◊〉 rectâ , per accidens vero ab erroneâ . 〈◊〉 : Ex Aquinate Lib. 2. sent . Dist. 39. Quest. 1. Ar. 1. Nemo potest obligati ad malum sub rationem mali , sed benè ad malum , quod 〈◊〉 judicatur esse bonum , & quod proponitur sub ratione boni . Nec conscientia obligat contra legem Dei per se formaliter , sed solum per accidens , & materialiter , Becanus Sum : Theol : Scholast : T. 2. Tract . 1. chap. 4 , Q. 7. Third Conclusion . (g) Velle aliquid contrà Synt 〈◊〉 naturalem 〈◊〉 , id est , contra primum aliquod principium 〈◊〉 à 〈◊〉 dictatum , omnino est malum & peccatum . Sed qui vult id , quod ratio judicat esse malum & fugiendum , sive id verè , five 〈◊〉 judicet , vult aliquid contra synteresin : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 peccat . Major est evidens , Adversatur namque id imprimis legi naturali , quae 〈◊〉 tissimum 〈◊〉 in principlis primis moralibus . Minor probatur . Nam principium illud primum , 〈◊〉 , malum non est prosequendum , sed vitandum : inprimis vetat , ne quis , quantum in 〈◊〉 est malum consectetur . Ut enim praecepta naturalla affirmativa jubent inprimis 〈◊〉 homo , quantum in ipso est , bonum prosequatur ; 〈◊〉 etiam praecepta negativa 〈◊〉 imprimis , nè 〈◊〉 quantum in ipso situm est , 〈◊〉 malum . Qui autem 〈◊〉 verè 〈◊〉 falsè judicat aliquid esse malum , & nihilominus illud prosequi 〈◊〉 , is hoc ipso , quantum in se est , sectatur malum . Nam quod objectum ipsum per se sit revera bonum aut malum , hoc quidem non est in hominis voluntate situm , sed illud solùm , ut quod ipse malum judicat vel bonum , id vitare , aut pro equi velit . 〈◊〉 qui judicans aliquid esse malum sive verè , sive falsè . 〈◊〉 nihilominus vult , is quantum in ipso situm est , vult malum , & proindè 〈◊〉 violat legem illam naturalem 〈◊〉 , quae id 〈◊〉 inprimis vetat . Greg. de 〈◊〉 tom . 2. disp . 2. q. 14 〈◊〉 . 4. (h) 〈◊〉 Idoli 〈◊〉 Apostolus , non 〈◊〉 qua quis rectè de simulacris 〈◊〉 : 〈◊〉 malè interpretatur & malè probat Cajecanus , eain re singularis : sed 〈◊〉 quo quis existimet Idolum esse aliquid , id est 〈◊〉 virtutis : ac proinde cibos 〈◊〉 ab idolo pati mutationem aliquam , sicque 〈◊〉 & co . 〈◊〉 posse edentes . Quod quidem judicium erroneum est : atque ex 〈◊〉 sequitur ut talem habens conscien : iam , si edat idolothytum , edat illud quasi idolothycum : id est quali immutatum aliquo mo ' o per 〈◊〉 quod idolis sacrificatum sit ut eius opinione tam idolum quà idolothytum sit aliquid . Et conscientia ipsorum , cum sit infirma , polluitur . Illativè pars haec exponenda est : ut 〈◊〉 sit : atque ita animus 〈◊〉 erronea hujusmodi conscientia imbutus , cum 〈◊〉 infirmus , 〈◊〉 quod 〈◊〉 : 〈◊〉 , qua 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dei quam habe , tapplicet ad particulares conclusiones , ut suprâ dictum est , polluitur peccato : dum videlicet contra conscientiam quam idolothyto habent , existimantes edentes contaminari , de illo edunt . 〈◊〉 in locum . (i) 〈◊〉 part . 2. pag 63. (k) August . in libro contra epistolam Parmenlani docet , quod ubi 〈◊〉 periculum timetur , a punitione peccatorum cessandum est . (l) Quoties scandalum passivum alterius futurum est , ex malitia nullus debet 〈◊〉 opus , quod nec est malum , nec 〈◊〉 speciem mali propter malitiam alterius , quando opus illud utile est temporaliter , vel spiritualiter operanti , quia non postulat ratio , ut 〈◊〉 alterius cum damno nostro succurramus , 〈◊〉 quilibet malitia sua possit nobis vocere , ut 〈◊〉 opus nobis 〈◊〉 autem alterias nobis vocere non debet Lucssius Turrianus . 〈◊〉 . l. 3. Inst. c. 19. Sect. 13. Scandalum quod oritur ex rebus perse bonis , & necessariis non licet evitare : quia non est faciendum malum , ut eveniat bonum . Bonum enim est expetendum , 〈◊〉 bonum est , non expetitur autem quatenus bonum est , si malum simul 〈◊〉 . Nam qui 〈◊〉 bonum , abhorret à malo : qui autem abhorret a malo , 〈◊〉 malum est , is nullo malo quod cunque sit , non potest allici . Jam vero nullae sunt res planè necessariae praeter eas quae sunt in se bonae , atque eiusmodi , ut nisi voluntàs illas expetat , à suo vero , & proprio obiecto abhorret : it a que ut maximè tumultuetur mundus , tamen omnia , etiam extrema quaeque 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ut fiet illibata Deigloria . Cameron , in electiora quaedam N. Test. 〈◊〉 , Tom. 2. in 〈◊〉 18. 7. A Digression . (p) Opera 〈◊〉 praecepti 〈◊〉 , quod non pro semper obligat , debent aliquando deserri pro aliquo tempore , quando causarent pusillis scandalum , 〈◊〉 illi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 instructi , sed circumstantiae illius scandali sint mutatae , ita ut contingat praeceptum affirmativum etiam iuris quasi naturalis , aliquando hic & nunc non obligare 〈◊〉 concursum negativi praecepti de non ponendo 〈◊〉 pusillis . 〈◊〉 Wiggers . * Sum. Theol. 〈◊〉 . 3. 〈◊〉 . 27. q. 5. (q) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 circumstantiis ctus inordinatus unius non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 occasio 〈◊〉 , non 〈◊〉 peccatum scandali , nec 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non 〈◊〉 , ut 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bannes hic art 4. in fine . Nam 〈◊〉 nonpotest quis censeri 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ruinae alterius . Gregor . de 〈◊〉 tem . 3. q. 18. punct . 2. (r) Bishop 〈◊〉 . (s) Si 〈◊〉 sit vel pusillum quempiam scādalizare , & praestiterit alligata collo mola 〈◊〉 demergi quempiam in profundum , Taris quamscan dalizare unum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : 〈◊〉 est horrendum 〈◊〉 & quam atroci supplicio vindicandum scandalizare eos , quorum unius offensio magis 〈◊〉 quā aliorom multorum , &c. Forbesius 〈◊〉 . pag 405. (t) Aliae leges humanae , quia possunt esse vel justae vel injustae , idque ratione efficientis , materiae , formae , finis , & hujus aut illius subjecti , vel adjuncti ; idcirco non ità simpli citèr alligant , ut earum quaelibet violatio culpam lethalem inducat . Si enim sic esset , tum quot sunt leges , tot essent laquei anima . rum , & qui sub legibus vivunt , pluribus multo peccatis essent obnoxii , quam qui in barbaris gentibus , vel absque legibus , vel cum paucissimis transigunt vitam . Ames . de Consc. cas . lib. 5. cap. 24. Num. 22. (u) Multae leges sunt purè 〈◊〉 , ita ut ipsis plane satis fiat , si 〈◊〉 solvatur . Rat. 1. Quia legis 〈◊〉 est deterrere homines à communi & frequenti usu hujus áut illius rei , ad quem finem sufficit constitutio poenae . 2. In talibus etiam legibus est tacita conventio & pactum , de poena ferenda si contra fiat : Contra leges autem conventionales , aut sub conditione latas , venire quis potest absque peccato . 3. De talibus legibus , intelligentes homines nunquam faciunt scrupulum conscientiae , si absit contemptus , scandalum , & notabile damhum . Tales sunt leges de non 〈◊〉 , de non piscando , de volucribus aut feris non capiendis , de non utendo hoc aut illo genere vestium , ciborum &c. num . 28. (w) Obligatio legis non potest extendi ultra intentionem , & mentem 〈◊〉 , eamque justam . Praesumend umautem est nullum hominem velle su . os subditos ad 〈◊〉 teatum & damnationem obligate , propter quemlibet suae voluntatis neglectum . Into si in aliquo casu magnum damnum , scandalum , aut 〈◊〉 modum ex observatione quarundam legum sequuturum esset , praesumitur non intēdisse legislatorem , ut in illo casu observaretur . Ames . de Con. lib. 5. cap. 24. 〈◊〉 . 22. (x) Quis est , qui dicat , ut habeamus quod demus pauperibus , faciamus furta divitibus ? August . 〈◊〉 . Mendac . cap. 7. z Existimamus etiam , vlvo Salomone , omnem illam daemonum officinam disruptam fui●le , dilaceratam , atque disperditam . Videnturque referendae illae statuae , & luci , & ●rae & reliqua Idolatriae monumenta ( 2. Reg. 23.13 . ) ad Manastem , & Ammonem ( qui exc●taverant illa ●ncodem loco & ●upra eadem fundāenta ) non ad Salomonem , ante annos 250. extinctum . Incredibile dictu est , tantum scandalum ab Asa , Josaphato , Joiada , cum late idolatriam disperderent , in oeulis ipsis positum , non vidisse , aut non ausoattingere , & ad annum 3405. Mirum profe●● si Idola illa post tercentos 50. annos subsisterent , quae Salomon ipse poenitens , & caeteri reges boni su●tuliessent , Utique dicendum videtur , ab impiis regibus extructa fuisse ejusdem generis fana , & Idola , quae olim Salomon in lisdem locis extruxerat : ut illud quae aedificaverat Salomon , sit idem ac si dixisset , qualia aedisicaverar . (a) Solomon de 〈◊〉 Idolatriae scelere , nunquam perfectè paenituit . Nam si fractus paenitentiae dignos faceret , satageret ante omnia , ut idola quae aedificaverat , tollerentur , & non in scandalum stultotum , quae ipse cum fuisset sapientissimus , erronea fecerat quasi sapientè ac rectè facta relinqueret . (b) Ad quamcunque Ecclesiá 〈◊〉 , inquit , ejus monē servate , si pati scandalum non 〈◊〉 , aut facere . Aug. Ep. 86. (c) 〈◊〉 was then indifferent , but after the full promulgation of the Gospel it became to be not only mortua but mortifera , not only dead but deadly , as being an interpretative deny all of Christs coming in the flesh . Hooker . (d) Ames dispute about humane Ceremonies pag. 127. (e) Dico 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suisse prehibitam 〈◊〉 Ezek. 44. non quod in 〈◊〉 mala sit , sed nè viderentur similes Sacerdotibus Gentilium , in quorum vicinia habitabant , qui toto capite raso idolis sacrificabant . Ut ex Epist. Hieremiae , apparet . Quod ex se non esset malum pater , quia Ezechiel , qui Sacerdos erat , jubetur a Deo 〈◊〉 . Ezech. 5. & 〈◊〉 Numb . 6. Nazaraeus completo tempore consecrationis suae , 〈◊〉 radi , Unde Paulo dicit Jocobus Actor . 21. sunt nobis 〈◊〉 quatuor habentes votum super se , his ergo assumptis sanctificato te cum illis , & radant capita sua . Sulum ergo propter viciniam Idolatrarum prohibebantur Sacerdotes Judaeorum radi quae 〈◊〉 causa erat , cur Optati , Hieronymi , & Ambrosii , tempote Christiani sacerdotes non raderentur , sed tonderentur . Nam ad huc 〈◊〉 tempore erant 〈◊〉 Isidis qui caput radebant . Ut Ambrosius Epist. 36. & Hietonymus in c. 44. Ezechielis testantur . Bellar : de Monachis lib. 2. cap. 40. (f) Locus hic , qui obscurus alioqui videtur , nihil 〈◊〉 difficultatis , metaphor â benè explicatâ , vult fideles , non tantùm cavere à vitiorum contactu , sed nè qua ad eos contagio pertingat : quicquid affine est ac vicinum fugiendum esse admonet , quemadmodum 〈◊〉 de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 habetur , dicemus tollenda esse omnia libidinum irritamenta , id 〈◊〉 clarius 〈◊〉 , si amplietur oratio , nempe ut oderimus non carnem modo , sed tunicam , quae ejus contactu infecta sit . Nam particulaxi ad ampliationem valet , ergo adeo non permittit iudulgentia fovere , uti omnes praeparationes , omniaque accessiora ( ut vocant ) potius resecari , 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 : in locum . (g) Those words Cant. 1. 7. as one that turneth 〈◊〉 side , may be rendred , as one that is recovered or 〈◊〉 . This sense the Greeke 〈◊〉 giveth , according to the usuall signification of the Hebrew word : and this covering either is asigne of sorrow and shame : as 〈◊〉 used to cover their faces , Ezek. 24. 17. or of lightnesse and dishonesty , as Thamar was thought to be an 〈◊〉 because she had covered her face Gen. 38. 14. 15. So here the spouse desireth to know where Christ 〈◊〉 , lest she should wander about and 〈◊〉 him with sorrow , and be by others reputed an 〈◊〉 , for she would 〈◊〉 all appearance of evill . Ainsworth in locum . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Secundus & ad scipsum 〈◊〉 à Curarore & ordine 〈◊〉 & Beneficiarium , qui peterent divinos codices exurendos , eisquerespondisse , Christianus sum & Episcopus , non traditor : Et cum ab co vellent aliqua ecvola sper ecvola intelligit res ejectas , nempe quarum nullus est usus , ab , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , quodest 〈◊〉 , seu 〈◊〉 ) 〈◊〉 quodeunque accipere , 〈◊〉 hoc eis dedisse , exemplo Eleazari 〈◊〉 qui nec fingere voluit suillam carnem se manducare , ne 〈◊〉 praeberet praevarication is ex emplum . Vid. (h) 〈◊〉 out of Suidas . (i) Theodoret l. 3. 6. 15. 〈◊〉 . l. 〈◊〉 . 6. 〈◊〉 . S. 〈◊〉 . 6. c. 6. Aug. in 〈◊〉 . Collat. die . 3 cap. 13. Damasc. Hist. pag 578. k Th od . l. 4. c. 15 〈◊〉 . l. 11. c. 〈◊〉 . (l) Plutarch . (m) Bern : tract . de grad . 〈◊〉 . (n) Plutarch . (o) Florus l. 3. c. 14. (p) Infirmitas nominat promptitudinem ad scandalum , offensio autem nominat indignationem , &c. scandalum autem importat ipsam impactionem ad ruinam , Aquin. 2. 2 dae . q. 44 art . 1. Application . (q) Ambr. 1. 6. Hexaem . (r) Quint. 1. 2. cap. 3. (s) 〈◊〉 Suetonius . (t) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal. 110. Notes for div A46699-e60040 (u) Er juxta 〈◊〉 expositionem , illis verbis quia filius hominis est , non 〈◊〉 causa adaequata , ex qua oriatur potestas judicandi sic enim , ut argumentatur 〈◊〉 : 〈◊〉 homines haberent illam 〈◊〉 sed 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 natura , quae necessaria fuit in Christo , ut esset capax hujus donationis , & potestatis . Si enim tantum fuisset Deus non 〈◊〉 hanc potestatem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : 〈◊〉 quia filius 〈◊〉 est , fuit capax ejus 〈◊〉 . in 〈◊〉 pattem Thom. quaest . 59. att . 2. * Lib. 4. dist . 46 quaest . 1. (w) Evangelium vocat praedicationem illam judicii futuri , non quòd ea sit propriè annunciatio gratiae , sed quod ei inserviat , eique necessar . ò permittenda sit , ut agnoscant bomines miseriam suam , qui est primus ad salutem 〈◊〉 . loc : (x) 〈◊〉 referti ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Provocat e im ad suum Evangellum non at doceat secundom quid Deus sit judicaturus , sed per quem nempe media torem : id quod non in lege , sed in Evangelio 〈◊〉 . Pareus in loc . (y) Dominus judicabit occulta hominum secundum Evangelium me um . Quomodo dicat Apostolus Deum Judicaturum lecundum Evangelium : cum prius dixerit , reddicurum unicuique secundum opera sua ; Evangelium verò non est doctrina operum , sed fidei ? Respons : In Explicatione ostendimus , particulam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non significare normam judicii , ut prius , sed certitudinem : q. d. judicabit de occultis hominum , prout docui vos in Evangelio . Quod si 〈◊〉 de normâ accipiatur , sententia non erit incommoda , nam infideles quidem Condemnabit Deus ex operibus secundum ; legem : maledictus omnis qui non manserit in omnibus : sideles verò 〈◊〉 . olvet secundum Evangelium : qui credit in silium Dei , habet vitam aeternam . Et tamen his & illis reddet secundum opers , prout vel ex side , vel ex insidelitate sluxerunt bona vel mala . Parcus dub . in loc . (z) 〈◊〉 ad iudicium generale quatuor congruentiae . Prima talis , quia 〈◊〉 est finalilèr separati omnes malos ab omnibus bonis . Non enim malus communicat cum bono ; nisi vel ad hoc ut malus corrigatur , vel ut bonus per eam exerceatur , secundum illud Aug. super . Psal. nunc autem veniet finalls determinatio , ubi nec ultra boni exerceantur , nec mall corrigantur . Ergo 〈◊〉 est 〈◊〉 generalem sententiam : Ergo & generale judicium ut separatio illa generalis appareat iusta . Secunda Congruentia , quia in secretis iudiciis quae fiunt circa singulas personas , licet sit iustitia , non tamen omnibus manifesta : rationabile est ergo quod Deus habeat aliquod iudicium generale , in quo manifestetur sententia , vel iustitia , quam exercuit in iudiciis particularibus . Tertia Congruentia , sicut tes sunt à primo efficiente ita reducuntur in primum , ut in sinem : sed praetet speciales exitus rerum à Deo per illam operationem , de quâ dicit Salvator Jòh. 5. Pater mens usque modo operatur , & ego operor . Fuit unus exitus Unversalis in primâ terum creatione : ergo â simili praeter singulares reductiones congruit 〈◊〉 unam finalem reductionem in finem suum , & per Consequens ad hoc , unam finalem sententiam discretivam , quia mali non reducuntur . Quarta & est melior , quia praeter hoc , quod unusquisque ascribatur regno vel carceri tota multitudo praevisa ad regnum debet aliquando determinari ad possidendum 〈◊〉 , & tota alia multitudo relinqui Carceri , ut sic sequestratio duarum familiarum , seu duarum civitatum , sicut tractat August . per totam de civi : Dei. licat ergo 〈◊〉 nunc iste , nunc ille , ascribatur regno , nunc iste nunc ille 〈◊〉 : tamen 〈◊〉 est aliquod iudicium generale per quod tota multitudo praevisa ad regnum , mittatur in possessionem regni , & tota alia , relinquatur 〈◊〉 . (a) Cum non sola anima , sod homo integer peccer , 〈◊〉 bene operetur , homo etiam integer judicari debet , & convenientem paenam aut praemium in animo & corpore debita proportione recipere . Suar. in 3 am partem Tho. 2. disp . 53 Sect. 1. p. 629. (b) Sciendum , quod licet per mortem vita hominis temporalis terminetor secundum se , remanet tamen ex futuris , secundum quid dependens . Uno quidem modo , secundum quod adhuc vivit in memoriis hominum , in quibus quandoque contra veritatem remanei bonae famae vel malae &c. Alio modo quantum ad effectum Suorum operum sicut ex deceptlone 〈◊〉 & aliorum seductorum , postulat infidelitas usque ad finem mundi , & usque tune proficit sides ex praedicatione Apostolorum &c. Omnia autem baec sub 〈◊〉 existimationi judicii divini . Et ideo de his omnibus perfectum & manifestum judicium 〈◊〉 non potest , quamdiu hujus 〈◊〉 cursus durat . Et propter hoc oportet esse finale judicium in novissimo die , inquo perfectè id qd ad unumquēque hominem pertinet , quocunque modo , perfectè & manifestè judicetur , Aqu. 3 â par . 〈◊〉 . qu. 59 , Art. 5 Quia opera hominum alio modo manent post mottem eorum , vel in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & . sama , vel in effectibus suis qui varii , & multiplices esse solent : Ergo licèt Deus judicet actiones unius cuiusque hominis in morte ejus , considerando illas secundum 〈◊〉 , id est , secundum id , quod vera sunt , oportet nihilominus , ut de eis faciat publicum & universale iudicium in quo conster tam de ipsis actionibus , quam de omnibus effectibus earum , & nocumentis , ac fructibus qui ad alios ex eis redundarunt tum re ipsâ , 〈◊〉 etiam secundum aliorum existimationem . Suarcz in 3 am partem Thom. Tom. 2. disp , 53. Sect. 1. (c) Quamvis &c. estentiale praemium , vel poena conferatur in fine vitae , &c. nihilominus tamen effectus postea subsequuti duabus ex causis conserre possunt ad iudicium . Primo ad accidentarium praemium , vel poenam , ut iniqui omnium actionum suarum structus intuentes magis consundantur : boni vero ècontrario de bonis 〈◊〉 gaudeant . Secundo & maximè quia essectus sleudunt malitiam , vel bonitatem operum , unde orti sunt , ut 〈◊〉 illis omnibus propositis & ponderatis evidentibus omnibus pateat aequitas divini iudicii , valdè congruum suit post consummaras et sinitas omnes actiones humanas hujus vitae , omnesque effectus earum , sleri universale iudicium in quo omnia 〈◊〉 perpendantur . (i) Quanquam effectus 〈◊〉 accidentarii , qui nec praevisi sunt nec connexionem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cum actione 〈◊〉 , non augeant &c. praemium vel paenam apud Deum : 〈◊〉 illi 〈◊〉 qui aliqua ratione sunt praevisi , vel quovis modo coniuncti cum actionibus hominis , ita ut in eis tanquam in semine contenti suerint augent praemium ac paenam &c. lapraed . (e) Ad 〈◊〉 etiam consert illa ratio sumpta 〈◊〉 existimatione . Facile enim decipitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vel maliciâ vel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Quia ex iis , quae exterius apparent , 〈◊〉 unde fit , ut & bonorum sama saepe laedatur , & iniquorum malitia adeò occultetur , ut boni & insti existimentur . Oportuit ergo ut in divino iudicio , quod non est secundum carnem Joan. 8. nec secundum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , aut auditum 〈◊〉 , Isa. 11. sed 〈◊〉 omnium 〈◊〉 . 1. Reg. 16. 〈◊〉 , inquam in hoc 〈◊〉 singulorum iniurias 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 quadam 〈◊〉 , divinaque lance pensari , & iustis 〈◊〉 restitui , iniquotum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & versutiam detegi . Quare de illis dicitur Sapient . 5. Stabunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 magna 〈◊〉 &c. De iis 〈◊〉 Videntes turbabuntur timore horribili , & infra . Dicentes , hi sont , quos 〈◊〉 aliquando in derisum , &c. Huc 〈◊〉 spectant 〈◊〉 illae , quibus Christus utitur in Evangelio , quibus explicat bonos & malos in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 permixtos ità , ut vix discerni possint , sicut virgines fatuae , & 〈◊〉 : oportuit ergo 〈◊〉 discerni , & seperari , sicut 〈◊〉 à zizaniis , & granum à pallea , &c. Suarez in tertiam 〈◊〉 Thom. Tom. 2. disp . 53. sect . 1. p. 629. (e) Dicendum quod quilibet homo , & est singularis quaedam 〈◊〉 , & est pars totius generis 〈◊〉 unde & duplex ei judicium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de eo fiet post mortem , quando recipiet 〈◊〉 ea quae in corpore gessit , quamvis non 〈◊〉 , quià non quoad 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tantum . Aliud iudicium debet esse de eo , secundum quod est pars totius humani generis ; sicut aliquis 〈◊〉 dicitur secundum humanam iustitiam , 〈◊〉 quando iudicium 〈◊〉 de com nunitate cuius 〈◊〉 est par . Unde & tunc quando fiet universale iudicium totius humani genetis per universalem separationem bonorum à malis : etiam quilibet per coniequens iudicabitur , Aquin. suppl . quaest . 8 8. artic . 1. primo . (f) Accedit , quod ad 〈◊〉 hoius divinae iustitiae non solum necessarium fuit , considerare singulorum hominum peccata secundum se : sed etiam in ordine ad 〈◊〉 , & in ordine ad gubernationem totius universi & ad 〈◊〉 , & specialem providemiam , quam Deus 〈◊〉 , & respectu totius universi , et respectu singulorum hominum , atque ideo voluit , non tantum quasi privatim iudicare singulos homines : sed etiam publicè totum 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 unius integri corporis 〈◊〉 , cuius bona omnia , & mala , secundum omnes respectus , & habitudines suas in severum examen adducantur . 〈◊〉 fit , ut licet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad ferendum iudicium singulorum , non sit necessaria haec generalis congregatio omnium : tamen ex parte ipsorum hominum sit quodammodo necessaria , tum al publicam 〈◊〉 divinae 〈◊〉 , tum 〈◊〉 , ut quaedam specialis retributio proveniens ex publicâ laude , & honore , vel confusione , locum 〈◊〉 . Haec enim necessario resultat 〈◊〉 modo iudicii publici , et 〈◊〉 , non autem ex privatis . Undè 〈◊〉 Paulus 1. ad 〈◊〉 . 4. Nolite aute tempus iudicare quoad usque veniat Dominus , qui illuminabit abscondita 〈◊〉 , & tunc laus crit 〈◊〉 à Dco . Hinc intelligitur hunc modum iudicii esse valdè conformem distributivae 〈◊〉 . Nam ( ut 〈◊〉 ait 1. ad Cor. 9. ) quamdiù in hâc vita vivimus , veluti in publico stadio versamur laborantes , ut bravium & coronam propositam consequamur ; quando autem publicum praemium certantibus proponitur , ratio communis 〈◊〉 et 〈◊〉 distributivae postulat , ut in publico 〈◊〉 omnium congredientium debitus honor et praemium tribuatur singulis &c. Deus autem , qui 〈◊〉 ac suavitèr omnia disponit homines gubernare statuit , ac iudicare modo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nè accommodato , atque adeo ratione distributivae perfectissimè servata . 〈◊〉 Paulus 〈◊〉 . 2. ad Corinth . 5. & ad Rom. 14. Omnes nos manifestari oportet , ante tribunal Christi , ut unusquisque reserat propria corporis prout 〈◊〉 ob eandem rationem praemium beatorum 〈◊〉 in Sacra Scripeura Corona iustitiae , vitae , ac gloriae . 2. ad Tim. 4. Apocal. 2. Jacob. 1. Illa enim propriè dicitur corona , quae victoribus publicè , et cum celebritate donatur , in . loc . praedict . 〈◊〉 . 1 Use. Of Terror . 2 Use , Of Consolation . 〈◊〉 Uses of Exhottation 〈◊〉 , an expectation of , and preparation for the day of Judgment . 1. Unto an expectation of it . (g) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A second Exhortation unto preparation for the day of judgment . Out of those many duties in which this preparation stands , some , 〈◊〉 regarding either God , or ourselves or others . Those which regard God are . 1. Faith in him . 2. 〈◊〉 of our sins against him . (b) 〈◊〉 praeterita 〈◊〉 ignorantiae tem pora vocat 〈◊〉 ad praesenth : non quod Deus gentes nullo planèsuae vel irae , vel bonitatis documento , ad resipiscentia minvitasset , sed quod 〈◊〉 , quam nunc , obscurius atque 〈◊〉 vocasset ; quod scilicet ad gentes , quos nunc 〈◊〉 verbi praecones , nullos antehac misisset . 〈◊〉 Apol. par . 3. p. 384. 1. (i) Modo ergo tu fac quisquis 〈◊〉 , quod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deus , 〈◊〉 à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bi te videre non vis dissimulans à fact is tuis , & constitue te ante te ascende tribunal mentis tuae , esto tibi judex , torqueat te timor , erumpat à te confessio , & dic 〈◊〉 tuo , Quoniam 〈◊〉 meam ego cognosco , & delictum 〈◊〉 ante me est 〈◊〉 . Quod erat post te , fiat ante te , ne tu ipse postea à Deo judice 〈◊〉 ante te , et non sit quo fugias à te . k Dr Heyling Geog. 3. Love of him . 4. Feare of him . 5. Prayer to him . A second sort of duties unto which the day of judgment excites that regard ourselves . 1. Watchfullnesse . 2. Sobriety . (L) Nomen sobrietatis sumitur à 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 enim aliquis sobrius , quasi briam , i. e. mensuram servans , & ideo illam materiam specialiter sibi sobrietas ascribit , in qua maxime laudabile est mensuram servare . Hujusmodi autem est potus inebriare valens , quia 〈◊〉 usus mensuratus multum confert , & modicus excessus multum laedit , quia impedit usum rationis , magis etiam quam excessus cibi , &c. Et ideo specialiter sobrietas attenditur circa potum , non quemcunque , sed eum , qui sua fumositate natus est caput conturbare . sicut vinum , & omne quod in ebriare potest . Communiter autem sumendo nomen sobrietatis , potest in quâcunque materiâ dicl . 22 〈◊〉 . quast . 149. artic . 1. cap. 3 Diligence in our particurar callings . Job . 29. 14 , 15 , 16 , 17. 4. A due and dilignt use 〈◊〉 imployment of our talents . (m) Mr. SamuelWard of Ipswich in his Epistle dedicatory to his Peace offering . * 1 Pet. 〈◊〉 . 10. The third sort of dutis unto which the day of judgment 〈◊〉 regards others 1 : all men & they are 〈◊〉 1 : 〈◊〉 the. (r) Dutch Annotations . 2 Charity in our censures of them . Secondly , the duties unto which the day of judgment perswades regarding wicked men are two . 1. Estrangement from them . 2. Patience towards the. (n) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Solomon 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 justitiae ex 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 purissimo ab ducto , in altum 〈◊〉 gradibus 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 huic inde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 magnificentià quid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , quàm pretium quo Deus jus , & justitiam 〈◊〉 voluit , quàm purgatissima , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 oportere judicia quae indè feuntur , & 〈◊〉 , indignum 〈◊〉 ut 〈◊〉 , aut plubeae sententiae ex tam augusto loco prodeant , 〈◊〉 ū ut ex 〈◊〉 suggesto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. 〈◊〉 . A third sort of duties unto which the day of judgment perwades , regards good men : and are two . 1. Reall expressions of a cordioll love of them in generall . o Quidam Rex 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & gloriosus : & 〈◊〉 est procedente illo in curru deaurato cum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , obviasse illi duos viros , 〈◊〉 & sor did is indutos 〈◊〉 , attenuatos 〈◊〉 , & pallidas facies habentes . Rex aute millico cognovit eos 〈◊〉 , & exercitii sudoribus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Ut ergo vidit illos , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 decurru , & in terram procidens , adoravit & surgens 〈◊〉 est eos , & 〈◊〉 osculatus . Magnates vero illius , ac proceres de hoc valdè 〈◊〉 sunt , 〈◊〉 cum fecisse indigna 〈◊〉 gloriâ , non tamen ausi illum in 〈◊〉 reprehendere , 〈◊〉 fratriejus suggesserunt , ut 〈◊〉 loqueretur , ne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tantam inferret contumeliam . Qui cum 〈◊〉 ista dicerer , & regis inutilem , ( ut sibi videbatur ) humiliationem 〈◊〉 , ei 〈◊〉 responsum dedit , Quod tamen 〈◊〉 non intellexit . Consuetudo autem erat illi Regi , quando 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contra aliquem 〈◊〉 , praeconem ante januam illius cum tuba 〈◊〉 officio deputatâ mittere , cujus voce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mortis reum illum existere . Vespere 〈◊〉 veniente , misit Rex buccinam 〈◊〉 tubicinare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 domus 〈◊〉 sui . Ut ergo audivit ille tubam mortis , de suâ salute 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 nocte sua disposuit . Summo vero dilutulo nigtis , ac 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vestibus , cum uxore , & filiis pergit ad fores 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 , & lugens . Quem Rex ad se ingredi fecit , & videns eum ità lugentem , ait illi , O stulte , & insipiens , si 〈◊〉 sic 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 germani 〈◊〉 tui ad versus quem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deliquisse cognoscis : quomodo mihi reprehensionem intulisti , qui in humilitate 〈◊〉 , & osculatus sum praecones Dei mei , sonorabiliùs tubâ mortem mihi significantes , & terribilem Domini occursum cui multa & magna 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ? 〈◊〉 denique tuam arguens insipientiam , isto usus sum modo . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 qui te ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reprehensionem stultitiam omnibus mod is aperte arguere curabo . Et ita 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suum domum remisit . In Historia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 pag. 280. 2. All actions of Christian communion with them in particular . Day of judgment an inducement unto a due and requisite māner in the performance of the forementioned duties which stands first in fervency . 2. Frequency 3. In sincerity . (P) M. Thomas Fuller . Q Sed quinque fatuae acceptis lampadibus , non sumserunt oleum secum : hoc est , sumserunt oleum in lampadibus tantum , & non sumserunt oleum secum : hoc est , in 〈◊〉 suis ultra illud quod erat in lampadibus : prudentes autem ultra oleum in 〈◊〉 , acciperunt in vasis suis. Istae enim cogitaverunt id , quod evenit , scilicet quod oleum lampadum non sufficeret . Illae autem 〈◊〉 sunt in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tanquam sufficiente . Et significatur per oleum testimonium bonitatis , seu charitatis . In hoc differunt operantes bona opera , quod aliqui habent testimonium suae bonitatis foris tantum in ipsis operibus bonis , intus enim non sentiunt se diligere Deum in toto corde , se poenitere peccatorum , quia sunt offensae Dei , se diligere proximum propter Deum . Alii autemoperantur sic bona , ut & ipsa opera 〈◊〉 testimonium foris reddant boni animi , & intus in conscientiâ propriâ iplespiritus sanctus testificetur spiritui eorum quòd 〈◊〉 Dei sunt . Sentiunt enim in corde toto se diligere Deum , poenitere propter Deum , diligere proximum & seipsum 〈◊〉 Deum , & breviter Deum 〈◊〉 sibi rationem amandi , sperandi , timendi , gaudendi , tristandi , & breviter operandi intus & extra , hoc est enim oleum in vasis propriis . 4. In constancy and perseverance . (R) Cornelius Alapide . (S) Adhucenim modicum aliquantulum ; qui venturus est , veniet , & non tardabit . Occupatio est in his verbis . Nam dicere 〈◊〉 : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad 〈◊〉 nobis 〈◊〉 in longum dilata promissio . Quibus obviat Apost . adducto Prophetae 〈◊〉 quo doceat revera non longum esse tempus promissionis dilatae , sed brevae & modicum 〈◊〉 quidem verba Apost . sunt ; Adhuc enim modicum , aliquantulum . Pro quibus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , i. e. Adhuc enim modicum quantum quantum . In hâc geminatione quaedam 〈◊〉 est 〈◊〉 . Nam Hebraei , 〈◊〉 de quà sermo est , intendere volentes , gem . nant vocabulum , ut Psal. 86. Homo , & homo natus est in eâ , i. e. multi 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 post alios , in 〈◊〉 nati sunt , & Gen : 17. secundum LXX . multiplicabo te valde , valde , & 30. Crevit vir valde , valde . Pro quo Hieronymus priori loco , 〈◊〉 nimis : & posteriori , 〈◊〉 modum . Tale etiam est illud Salvatoris , Amen , Amen , dico vobis , i. e. certissi 〈◊〉 vobis 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 nunc Apostolus dicendo , modicum quantum quantum . Significare voluit tempus valde modicum : & , ut noster bene 〈◊〉 , aliquantulum : ut Erasmus , temporis perpusillum : ut Anselmus legit & exponit , quantulum . Hieronymus autem dixit , Adhuc enim paululum modicúmque &c. 〈◊〉 verba posteriora , qui 〈◊〉 est veniet , & 〈◊〉 , usque ad illud , Non autem , 〈◊〉 sunt ex Habacuc 〈◊〉 , cap. 2. juxta versionem , LXX . sed ordine sententiarum mutato . Nec 〈◊〉 his , quod ad sensum attinet , discrepant Hebraea licet in verbis nonnulla sit diversitas , quam nos 〈◊〉 . At primum pro 〈◊〉 quod hic secundum , LXX , legitur , qui venturus est , veniet , in Hebraeo est , veniens veniet : vel , veniendo veniet . Quâ phrasi constat Hebraeis significari , 〈◊〉 rei 〈◊〉 , vel certitudinem , vel 〈◊〉 , vel imperium , vel vehementiam , vel quid simile . Est enim phrasis cognata ei , de quâ paulò ante locuti sumus . Exempla passim obvia sunt , ut visitans visitavi vos . Exod. 〈◊〉 . Expectans expectavi Dominum , Psal. 37. Gaudens gaudebo in Domino , Isa. 61. &c. Usus est & Lucianus Graecus in dial : 〈◊〉 Videns equidem vidi . Hoc 〈◊〉 loco apud 〈◊〉 certitudo significatur : ut sensus sit , Omnino , & procul dubio 〈◊〉 . Sciendum est autem in Graeco legi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cui Apostolus articulum praefixit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Qua periphrasi Mesias designari solet . Ille nimirum qui venturus expectabatur , ut Matth. 11. Tu es qui venturus es ? (T) Quod sequitur , & non tardabit , hunc sensum habet : Non differet adventum suum ultra tempus constitutum . Tardat enim , non qui 〈◊〉 non veniet : fed qui procrastinat ultra condictum . 〈◊〉 dictum est à B. Petro secundo Epist. tertia . Non tardat Dominus promissionem suam , &c. 〈◊〉 . 22. Decimas tuas , & primitias non tardabis 〈◊〉 id est , reddes eas suo tempore . Aliud igitur est , tardare , aliud moram faccre : Nam 〈◊〉 non tardet Christus , moram interim facit . Hoc enim praecedit apud eundem 〈◊〉 Simoram secerit , 〈◊〉 eum . Estius in loc . Notes for div A46699-e79340 (u) 21 , 〈◊〉 . q. 107. art . 2. ad 〈◊〉 . (w) 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . q. 107. art . 2. (x) Dr Edward 〈◊〉 . Dr Sanderson . (z) 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . q. 106 ar . 5. ad 〈◊〉 . (a) 〈◊〉 : Var. Hist. lib. 1. cap. 〈◊〉 . (b) Ecclesiasticus 7. 28. (c) Ward . (d) 〈◊〉 . (e) Prov. 17. 7. (c) 〈◊〉 tamen ad gratiarum actionem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 iaudum 〈◊〉 , quae versatur 〈◊〉 illas 〈◊〉 quae in Deo ipso 〈◊〉 , & in operibus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , sed cum respect 〈◊〉 quodam ad illa , quae accepimus , quatenus nempe persectiones illae sunt 〈◊〉 , vel 〈◊〉 qued accepimus 〈◊〉 , vel 〈◊〉 nem ejus 〈◊〉 . Apoc 4. 8 , 9. Ames 〈◊〉 : The 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 2. 〈◊〉 . 9 §. 8. (f) See Doctor Sclater on 1 Thes. 5. 18. (g) Is. 28. 27 , 28. (b) Lament . 3. 22. (i) Dr Edw : Reynolds . (k) Dr Sanderson . (l) Bishop Andrewes . (m) 〈◊〉 Edw : Reynolds . Notes for div A46699-e85450 (n) Est 〈◊〉 articuius , ut sit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quam ob causam sic malui interpretari , quam ad verbum . secundum 〈◊〉 . (o) Bellarm : tom : 4 〈◊〉 . grat : & stat : 〈◊〉 : lib. 3. cap. 5. versus finem . (p) Illud 〈◊〉 ex dictis colligi potest , quod 〈◊〉 solet de subjecto 〈◊〉 originalis , de quo quidem , varie docti 〈◊〉 putant . Sed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & per se 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , id est , relationem quandam , ut dixi , mus , consequitur subject um originalis 〈◊〉 esse 〈◊〉 seu potentias inter se coordinatas . 〈◊〉 enim sive in corporalibus , sive in spiritualibusintelligatur ; existit in partibus eum inter se ordinem habentibus , à quo totum quod ex illis constat , rectum dicatur . (q) Sum. The. 〈◊〉 . Tom. 1. Tract . 5. de homine in 〈◊〉 Innocentiae Cap. 3. Qu. 2. (r) 〈◊〉 cur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 haec 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & proprietas consequens unionem , sinon result at ab illa , sed 〈◊〉 est nova Dei actio libera ab actione incarnationis 〈◊〉 , per quam haec gratia conferatur . Et 〈◊〉 nam operatio consequitur esse . Sed per unionem communicarur 〈◊〉 divinum 〈◊〉 . Ergo , Ex illo resultat in humanitate d vina operatio : Ergo & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , quae est talis 〈◊〉 principium . Respondetur etiam in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , aliqua esse 〈◊〉 connaturalia ab 〈◊〉 agente juxta naturae debitum collata , & non ab intrinseco principio activè manantia . Sic multi 〈◊〉 de quantitate respectu 〈◊〉 primae , de motu circulari respectu 〈◊〉 , & de 〈◊〉 : bus infusis angelorum . Sic ergo in praesenti dicimus vocari gratiam connaturalem proprietatem Christi Dei hominis , quia 〈◊〉 dignitate talis personae dcbita est , 〈◊〉 quodam proportionis connaturalis , ratione cuius praeternaturale ac prodigiosum 〈◊〉 , unam actionem ab alterâ separari , & naturam humanam sine ornamentis gratiae verbo coniungere . Quomodo dici etiam potest , corporis 〈◊〉 , optimamque dispositionem suisse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & connaturalem ratione unionis , ita ut miraculum 〈◊〉 carere corporis immortalitate , & 〈◊〉 , quamvis hae corporis proprietates non manant ab unione per physicam resultantiam , sed debeantur solum debito proportionis . (s) Si quis per debitam intelligat 〈◊〉 ex hypothesi 〈◊〉 & voluntatis divinae , de 〈◊〉 creatura , à qua 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 obedientiam persectam , negare non possunt adversarii , tali sensu , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 primaevae naturae , qui gratiam universalem eamque sufficientem , debitam 〈◊〉 homini in statu lapsus constituto , ex hypothesi , non verentur 〈◊〉 . Certè legem quandam naturalen : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inditam ab initio , fatentur nobiscum adversarii . Si data 〈◊〉 homini 〈◊〉 naturae , cur 〈◊〉 non dicendum erit , debitam fuisse homini creando 〈◊〉 qua ad legem unplendam 〈◊〉 erat ? debita ergo fuit , per intentionem , & voluntatem divinam , quia voluntas sinis , necessariam , & quasi debitam facit voluntatem mediorum ad 〈◊〉 . Rivet . in Genes . 〈◊〉 . 7. pag. 34. 35. (t) Videris mihi non recte imaginem Dei confistentem in justitia , & 〈◊〉 à supernaturali gratiâ excludere . Licet enim illud donum homini collatum sit in creatione , & simul cum ipsa natura , ita enim 〈◊〉 pono , tamen supernaturale est , & 〈◊〉 hominis naturam excedens : quod probo ab actu regenerationis , qui est gratiae supernaturalis . Quum enim regeneratione opus sit ad illam 〈◊〉 & sanctitatem recuperandam , quae 〈◊〉 est actio supernaturalis : 〈◊〉 est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 homini initio collatam fuisse 〈◊〉 supernaturali . Armin : (v) Sin Perkinsius 〈◊〉 non modo hac ratione naturalem esse , sed & alla , nempè tanquam ex 〈◊〉 naturae profluentem , prorsus nihil obfuisset haec ratio 〈◊〉 à regeneratione sumpta . Neque enim sequitur , quia qualitas aliqua producitur actione supernaturali in statu naturae corruptae , 〈◊〉 fuisse etiam supernaturalem in statu naturae integrae . Etenim non paucis restituit Christus sanitatem corporis actione supernaturali , nec tamen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , sanitatem corporis non fuisse Adamo naturalem ; Actione supernaturali restituebat aurem 〈◊〉 , quam Petrus praeciderat , 〈◊〉 tamen 〈◊〉 aurem illam sive dextram , sive sinistram , non fuisse Malcho naturalem . w Id tamen monemus nostros non negare absolutè , 〈◊〉 fuisse justitiam originalem ; non solum , comparatè ad 〈◊〉 praesentis naturae , sed etiam ratione prioris status , quia etsi natutalis 〈◊〉 quomodo diximus , supernaturalls etiam sult ratione objecti . Tendebat enim 〈◊〉 illa ad 〈◊〉 supernaturalem , quâ ratione si eam supernaturalem diceret Bellarm : non contenderemus . Sed id quod in controverliam vocatur , melius ex contrario 〈◊〉 potest ; quia I l'e cum suis , hoc molitur , ut obtineat , 〈◊〉 in natura primum creata , fuisse vitlosum & inordinatum , quod per aliam rem , quae supra naturam data 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 in ordinem cogi , & quasi fraeno coerceri . Hic est praesertim controversiae 〈◊〉 , quia alioquin in multis aliis , in verbis potius quam in rebus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & controversias multiplicat . Rivet . in Genes . exerc . 7. p. 35. Wee say that this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 essentially required to the 〈◊〉 of nature . So that there is no state of sole and pure nature , without addition of sin or grace , as the 〈◊〉 fondly imagine , for that the nature or man is such , as must 〈◊〉 be lified above it selfe by grace , or 〈◊〉 below it selfe and be in a state of sinne . Field of the Church pag. 137. We say that originall righteousnesse is said to be a supernaturall quality , because it groweth not out of nature , and because it raiseth nature above it selfe , but that it is naturall , that is , required to the integrity of nature . Neither should it seeme strange to any man , 〈◊〉 a quality not 〈◊〉 out of nature , should be required necessarily for the perfecting of natures integrity , seeing the end and object of 〈◊〉 desires , knowledge , and action , is an 〈◊〉 thing and without the compasse and bouuds of nature , ibid. (x) Caeterum negandum non est , etiam in parte superiore simile vitium 〈◊〉 . Nam ea quoque animi 〈◊〉 prona est ad concupiscendos 〈◊〉 , inanem 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 vanitates , & , 〈◊〉 nolimus , interdum parit ejusmodi desidetia . 〈◊〉 B. 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 . ad 〈◊〉 . cap. 5. cum 〈◊〉 carnem concupiscere adversus spiritum , 〈◊〉 enumerans opera 〈◊〉 , non solum nominavit fornicationem , 〈◊〉 & alia id 〈◊〉 sed etiam 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 , &c : quod diligenter notavit S. Augustinus lib. 14. 〈◊〉 civ . cap. 2. 3. & 4 : ubid . 〈◊〉 carnem interdum accipi pro toto homine , qualis est , 〈◊〉 Dei , post lapsum Adami , & 〈◊〉 dici carnalem , qui secundum seipsum , non lecundum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 quo in explicatione Psal. 79 : dicit , omne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ex cupiditate malè inflammante , vel ex 〈◊〉 malè humiliante . Itaque concupiscentiae vitium licet praecipuè in 〈◊〉 , tamen etiam in mente sedem habet . de amiss . grat . & stat . pecc . l. 5. cap. 15. (y) Concupiscentia vocatur à Bellarm. cap. 5. 〈◊〉 carnis ad bonum corporale , & sensibile , in quod fertur per sensum & appetitum , propensio autem rei ad suum 〈◊〉 naturale , est 〈◊〉 naturae , non desectus , non morbus , nec ex materia pendens , sed ex illa causa , quae singulis facultatibus 〈◊〉 indidit propensiones . 2. Praeter intentionem Dei non factus est 〈◊〉 mo animal vivens , cum omnibus illis propensionibus quae animalis naturae conveniunt . Ames . Bell. 〈◊〉 . tom . 4. pag. 11. (z) Adversarius expressis verbis cogitur 〈◊〉 concupi . 〈◊〉 illam 〈◊〉 naturae contrariam . Ex quo sequitur , id quod est purae naturae contrarium , idem simul secundum puram naturam naturale esse non posse , nisi quis velit , lucem & tenebras simul in 〈◊〉 ponere , & aliquid esse , & non esse contra 〈◊〉 notiones asserere . Qui ergo concessit , cum natura pura concupiscentiam carnis & sensuum 〈◊〉 , necessario 〈◊〉 debet , si sibi 〈◊〉 velit , concupiscentiam naturalem esse , seu ex puris naturae principiis emanantem , & contra concedere , 〈◊〉 illam naturae congruam , quae rebellionem tollendo , naturam perfecit , naturalem 〈◊〉 , quod nos asserimus . Est ergo in verbis Bellarmini foeda contradictio , dum unam & eandem concupiscentiam , ratione unius & ejusdem naturae , naturalem simul & naturae contrariam dicit . Omne enim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , vel quod 〈◊〉 ex naturae principiis , naturae non contrarium , sed consentaneum est ; vicissim autem , quod contrarium , hoc naturale non est . Rivet . in Genes . Exerc. 7. pag. 35. (a) Mar. 〈◊〉 . 30. Luk. 10. 27. (b) Cum est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concupiscentiae carnalis quod vel continendo 〈◊〉 non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tota anima diligitur Deus . August . de perfect . justit . Rat. 17. (c) Christus potuit assumere naturam humanam in 〈◊〉 naturalibus ; non potuit autem assumere concupiscentiam , rebellionem 〈◊〉 contra spiritum , pronitatem peccandi , difficultatem bonae voluntatis . Sic enim sequeretur eum peccare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pronitas 〈◊〉 suppoint posse peccare , in lib. 2. sent . dist . 25. (d) Inordinatio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 virium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mordinatio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 potest dici 〈◊〉 . Aquinas . 1 2 ae . q. 8 2. a. 3. (c) Quia inquit in homine concupiscibilis naturaliter regitur ratione , in tantum concupiscere est homi ni naturale , in quantum est secundum rationis ordinem : concupiscentia autem quae transcendit 〈◊〉 rationis , inest homini 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . (f) Atqui cogitari debebant , formae specificae , cujusmodi est anima rationalis in homine , duplices esse operationes , 〈◊〉 tum proprias , ipsa habet , & exerit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , quas non habet 〈◊〉 generalis , cujusmodi in 〈◊〉 mine est 〈◊〉 vegitans , & sentiens : tum etiam coarctat , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 modum revocat , & restring it operationes formae generalis , suaeque 〈◊〉 non modo congruentes , sed edam propias 〈◊〉 . Sicut igitur anima vegetans , quae 〈◊〉 , & bestiis & hominibus est communis , 〈◊〉 coarctatur in homine , ut ejus operatio non nisi humana sit , ac propterea homo non instar 〈◊〉 vel pecudiscreseat , 〈◊〉 , gignat : sed humano 〈◊〉 agat . Ita & 〈◊〉 , quae 〈◊〉 & hominibus est 〈◊〉 , per rationalem , quae specifica est in homine , ita coarctatur & 〈◊〉 , ut . ex natura humana , quamdiu illa incorrupta , non 〈◊〉 secundum rationem , qui 〈◊〉 humanus est modus , appetat & concupiscat . (g) Metaphorà 〈◊〉 à piscibus qui escâ ex hamo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 oblectantes 〈◊〉 capiuntur . Ad eundem modum inescantur homines illecebris quibusdam à concupiscentiâ suâ , quae 〈◊〉 in magna & multiplicia 〈◊〉 rapit dum oblatam sibi voluptatem , bonúmque solum 〈◊〉 persequuntur . Dia bolus piscator est , ho no piscis , mundus piscina , peccatum hamus , bona 〈◊〉 escae , & illecebrae illae sunt , quibus 〈◊〉 capitur . Tuk . in 〈◊〉 . (b) Non distinguit ut varia 〈◊〉 , sed ut peccatum 〈◊〉 admissum , distingui 〈◊〉 à peccato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â 〈◊〉 . Amefius Bell : enerv . 1. 4. p. 36. (i) Rolloc . (k) Cum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( inquit 〈◊〉 Hoste res est , qui nec bonam , nec malam 〈◊〉 fortunam potest , seu vicit ferociter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : seu 〈◊〉 est , instaurat cum victoribus certamen . Livius lib. 27. (l) 〈◊〉 peccatum non distinguit 〈◊〉 à peccato consummato & mortem generante , 〈◊〉 speciem a specie , sed tanquam partem à toto . Ames . Bell. enerv . tom . 4. pag. 15 (m) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . (n) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Chrysostomus in locum . (o) Significat 〈◊〉 in hâc pugnâ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 corpus suum , utique ratione carnis , id est , 〈◊〉 concupiscentiae , de 〈◊〉 dicit , Gal. 5. Caro 〈◊〉 adversus spiritum : 〈◊〉 autem adversus carnem , Haec enim sibi invicem 〈◊〉 ideoque 〈◊〉 perpetua pugna debet este contra carnem , 〈◊〉 adeo contra corpus nostrum , quatenus per carnem adversatur 〈◊〉 . (p) Familiare scripturis est , ut peccatum , seu concupiscentia dicatur homines seducere , decipere , 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 , ut Rom. 7. 〈◊〉 . 12 〈◊〉 . 1. Idautem 〈◊〉 per quandam 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 homo tentatione 〈◊〉 , velut suasione sollicitatus & inductus est , 〈◊〉 consentit , quasi ab ipso 〈◊〉 persuasus ; fit autem 〈◊〉 modo , 〈◊〉 , dum cor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , paulatim 〈◊〉 adversus praecepta 〈◊〉 . Estius in locum . (q) Solummodo hoc inveni : Hic notatur concupiscentiae 〈◊〉 litas , quae quidem non 〈◊〉 à Deo , sed à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 solummodo hoc inveni , quod fecit Deus hominem 〈◊〉 . Bonavent . (r) Nil 〈◊〉 potest este homini 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , quod est spiritualis 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 propria voluntas , & ideo dicta , vel fact a alterius hominis 〈◊〉 else solum causa imperfecte 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad ruinam . (s) The originall word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most directly signisicth 〈◊〉 , apart . so that it sccmeth to me , that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be that 〈◊〉 in the consideration of man the workes of God , and the 〈◊〉 of man be found the workes of God to be right all and that it was man himselfe who had made himselfe and his works to a perverse and 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . (t) Quod autem quaesivisse dicuntur ratiocinia , quae tamen illis non 〈◊〉 à serpente antiquo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sunt : eo docere voluit , illas fraudes 〈◊〉 avide 〈◊〉 arreptas fuisse . Quod vero dicit plurima 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , cum tamen 〈◊〉 testetur duplici tantum ratione pellectos fuisse , nempe quod corpori simul & animae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 verito fructu comedere , sciendum est in his multas rationes comprehendi . Nam quod aperiendi illis essent oculi , & ipsi Deo assimulandi , multiplicem rationem continet : fore ut Deo felicitate per omnia similes sorent ; non minus quam ille sapientes , potentes , 〈◊〉 , omnique virtute consummati : Ad corpus quod attinet sibi in animum 〈◊〉 fructum illum esu jucundum , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Cartwright in locum . (v) The late annotations . (w) Titil 〈◊〉 vult quaestionum nomine contineri omnem 〈◊〉 , perplexitatem , miseriam , in quis homines post primum parentem , qui naturam ipsam involvit , se quoque ipsi involvunt . (x) Quaestiones significant cupiditates , quibus scatet homo , per 〈◊〉 : quaestiones enim notant cupiditatum originem , & fontem , 〈◊〉 quod prodeant ex 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & sciendi , puta ex 〈◊〉 sentiendi , & experiendi , quid in qualibet re sit bonum , 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 ad primam quaestionem serpenus , quam movit Evae , dicens ; cur praecepit Deus vobis , ut non comederetis de ligno 〈◊〉 boni & mali ? Gen 〈◊〉 ad quam quaestionem in curlositatem gustandi pomi exarsit Eva , illúdque 〈◊〉 , ac eodem maritum nósque omnes perdidit , arque suam curiositatem & concupiscentiam in posteros omnes 〈◊〉 . Notes for div A46699-e108620 * Dr. 〈◊〉 : Reynolds 3 Treatises , pag : 209. * 〈◊〉 in 3 am 〈◊〉 Thom : disp . 34. 〈◊〉 . 2. 〈◊〉 . Valentia . Tom. 4. dist . 1 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 3. Notes for div A46699-e121720 Suarez 〈◊〉 legib . c Tom. 10. p. 289. B. (d) See Aug. de Civit Dei. l. 2. c. 8. (e) De Incarnat . Tom. 1. pag. 84. So pag. 101. D. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And pag. 102. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And contr . Arian . Or. 1. pag. 285. A. ` O 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And Praesente signo crucis 〈◊〉 it Paganitas . Aug. T. 4. 229. B. And 832. B. Daemonia nominatâ cruce Christi 〈◊〉 , si 〈◊〉 fiat , fugantur . Dii Paganorum 〈◊〉 crucis responsa dare non possunt . (f) Ad omnem progressum 〈◊〉 crucis signaculo . Tertul . de Cor. Mil. c. 3. (g) Vide Narrat . Hippolyti Apostolorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , apud Pallad . Hist. 〈◊〉 . pag. 1049. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Mr. 〈◊〉 of the 〈◊〉 , will tell thy o August . de 〈◊〉 . 181. p Idem Cont. 〈◊〉 . lib. 6 c. 8. q 〈◊〉 . in Mat. 16 , 〈◊〉 . 55. r Cypr. lib. de 〈◊〉 . s Aug. de Sanct. Serm. 19. t Aug. in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 18. u Aug. de utilitat . 〈◊〉 . w 〈◊〉 . de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . cap. 3 , q Beat. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . r 〈◊〉 . ex 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 3. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . s 〈◊〉 lib. 3 Epis. 8. t 〈◊〉 . de pudicit . u Tertul. lib. de coron . 〈◊〉 . w Idem de Bapt. & Beat. 〈◊〉 . in lib. de coron . 〈◊〉 . b In 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . c Tom. 10. p. 289. B. d See Aug. de civ . Dei , lib. 22. cap. 8. (e) De Incarnat . Tom. 1. pag. 84. So pag. 101. D. T 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And pag. 102. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And contr . Arian . Or. 1. pag. 285. A. ` O 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And , Praesente signo crucis 〈◊〉 Pagauitas . Aug. T. 4. 229. B. And , 832. B. Daemonia 〈◊〉 cruce Christi terrentur , si impensius fiat , fugantur . Dii Paganorum metu crucis responsa dare non possunt . u Exod. 30. 8. x 〈◊〉 . 5 5. y Jer. 17 〈◊〉 . z 〈◊〉 . Roman : 〈◊〉 . qua to . 〈◊〉 a Thom. 〈◊〉 . Sum. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 3. 〈◊〉 . 25. 〈◊〉 . 4. Andrad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Explicat . 〈◊〉 9. b 2 Kings 18 3. 5. c ver . 6. d ver . 4. b Tertul. Apol. 〈◊〉 . 7. cur malum sama ? Quia velox , an quia plurimum mendax ? quae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quidem cum veri aliquid adfert sine mendacii vitio est 〈◊〉 , adjiciens , 〈◊〉 de veritate . c Aug. de civit . Dei lib. 22. cap. 8. non tanta ea commendat authoritas , ut sine difficultate vel dubitatione credantur . Rom. 4. f Ad omnem progressum frontem crucis signaculo 〈◊〉 . Tertul. 〈◊〉 Cor. Mil. c. 3. g Vide Narrat . 〈◊〉 Apostolorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , apud Pallad . Hist. Laus . pag. 1049. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Quest. Answ. (a) In Chronolog . Authorum praefixa Hist. vet . Patrum Paris . 1583. (b) De Scriptor . Eccles in Palladio pag. 156. (c) Preaemio adversus Pelagianos ad 〈◊〉 utem . (d) Epist. 60. 〈◊〉 Hieron . (e) In Apparatu 〈◊〉 . pag. 60. 〈◊〉 pag. 〈◊〉 . (f) Vide Palladium 〈◊〉 editum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 pag. 1. (g) In Hist. Vet. Patrum per Laurentium de la Barre , cap. 〈◊〉 . pag. 88. who puts these words in the Margin , Crucis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . MS. in 〈◊〉 . Bodlianâ . Palladius graecè per 〈◊〉 . Meurs . Lug. 〈◊〉 . 1616. 〈◊〉 . (h) Palladius ex Edit . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , pag. 152. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . (i) August in Evang. Joh. Tract . 118. (k) Chrysost. demonstrat 〈◊〉 Christus 〈◊〉 Deus . (l) In his 〈◊〉 with Hart , page 504. Edit . (m) 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 in Praefat . Lectori 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 London , Anno 1598. i Euseb. de vit . Const. lib. 1 c. 25. k Ib. c. 22. l Acts 4. 7. m Martials treatise of the Crosse art . 2. Harpesfeildes Cope-dialog . 4. n De vit . Constant. lib. 1. cap. 15 , which words translated amisse by Interpreters ( erat litero ρ inserta in 〈◊〉 literae χ ) have occasioned some to make the signe otherwise then Eusebius describeth it . 5 cap. 25. o 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p The figure of the letter T. Tertull. advers . Marcion . lib. 3. Hieron : lib. 3. Comment . in Ezec. c. 9. 6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . q Harpsfeild in his Cope-Dialog . 4. c. 3. r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Euseb. de vit . Constant. l. c. 22. s Acts 4. 12. t Euseb. de vit . Const. lib. c. 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 individuo consideratum ex 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ratione procedentem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 esse , vel ma 〈◊〉 necesse est . 
A63888	----	Eniautos a course of sermons for all the Sundaies of the year : fitted to the great necessities, and for the supplying the wants of preaching in many parts of this nation : together with a discourse of the divine institution, necessity, sacredness and separation of the office ministeriall / by Jer. Taylor ... Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. 1653 Approx. 2286 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 402 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-12 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A63888 Wing T329 ESTC R1252 11875825 ocm 11875825 50231 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A63888) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 50231) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 828:3) Eniautos a course of sermons for all the Sundaies of the year : fitted to the great necessities, and for the supplying the wants of preaching in many parts of this nation : together with a discourse of the divine institution, necessity, sacredness and separation of the office ministeriall / by Jer. Taylor ... Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. [12], 334, [18], 378, [4], 55, [7] p. Printed for Richard Royston ..., London : 1653. First word of title transliterated from Greek. Each part issued and catalogued separately. Index: p. [3]-[6] at end. Errata: p. [1] at end of XXV sermons. Reproduction of original in the Huntington Library. XXV sermons preached at Golden-Grove : being for the winter half-year -- XXVIII sermons preached at Golden Grove : being for the summer half-year -- Clerus Domini, or, A discourse of the divine institution, necessity, sacrednesse, and separation of the office ministerial. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). 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Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Church of England -- Clergy. Sermons, English -- 17th century. 2005-02 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-04 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-05 Mona Logarbo Sampled and proofread 2005-05 Mona Logarbo Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion ΕΝΙΑΥΤΟΣ A COVRSE OF SERMONS FOR All the Sundaies Of the Year ; Fitted to the great Necessities , and for the supplying the Wants of Preaching in many parts of this NATION . Together with A Discourse of the Divine Institution , Necessity , Sacredness , and Separation of the Office Ministeriall . By JER . TAYLOR D. D. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pindar : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . — Commune periclum Omnibus , Una salus . — LONDON . Printed for Richard Royston at the Angel in Ivie-lane , 1653. XXV SERMONS PREACHED AT GOLDEN-GROVE : Being for the VVinter half-year , BEGINNING ON ADVENT-SUNDAY , UNTILL WHIT-SUNDAY . By JEREMY TAYLOR , D. D. Vae mihi si non Evangelizavero . LONDON , Printed by E. Cotes , for Richard Royston at the Angel in Ivie-Lane . M. D C. LIII . To the right Honourable and truely Noble , RICHARD Lord VAUHAN , Earle of Carbery , &c. MY LORD , I Have now by the assistance of God , and the advantages of your many favours , finished a Year of Sermons ; which if , like the first year of our Saviours preaching , it may be annus acceptabilis , an acceptable year to God , and his afflicted hand-maid the Church of England , a reliefe to some of her new necessities , and an institution or assistance to any soule ; I shall esteem it among those honors and blessings , with which God uses to reward those good intentions which himselfe first puts into our hearts , and then recompenses upon our heads . My Lord , They were first presented to God in the ministeries of your family : For this is a blessing for which your Lordship is to blesse God , that your Family is like Gideons Fleece , irriguous with a dew from heaven , when much of the voicinage is dry ; for we have cause to remember that Isaac complain'd of the Philistims , who fill'd up his wells with stones , and rubbish , and left no beauvrage for the Flocks ; and therefore they could give no milke to them that waited upon the Flocks , and the flocks could not be gathered , nor fed , nor defended . It was a designe of ruine , and had in it the greatest hostility ; and so it hath been lately ; — undique totis Vsque adeo turbatur agris . En ! ipse capellas Protenus aeger ago ; hanc etiam vix Tityre ( duco ▪ But , My Lord , this is not all : I would faine also complaine that men feele not their greatest evill , and are not sensible of their danger , nor covetous of what they want , nor strive for that which is forbidden them ; but that this complaint would suppose an unnaturall evill to rule in the hearts of men ; For who would have in him so little of a Man , as not to be greedy of the Word of God , and of holy Ordinances , even therefore because they are so hard to have ? and this evill , although it can have no excuse , yet it hath a great and a certain cause ; for the Word of God still creates new appetites , as it satisfies the old ; and enlarges the capacity , as it fils the first propensities of the Spirit . For all Spirituall blessings are seeds of Immortality , and of infinite felicities , they swell up to the comprehensions of Eternity ; and the desires of the soule can never be wearied , but when they are decayed ; as the stomach will be craving every day , unlesse it be sick and abused . But every mans experience tels him now , that because men have not Preaching , they lesse desire it ; their long fasting makes them not to love their meat ; and so wee have cause to feare , the people will fall to an Atrophy , then to a loathing of holy food , and then Gods anger will follow the method of our sinne , and send a famine of the Word and Sacraments . This we have the greatest reason to feare , and this feare can be relieved by nothing but by notices and experience of the greatnesse of the Divine mercies and goodnesse . Against this danger in future , and evill in present , as you and all good men interpose their prayers , so have I added this little instance of my care and services ; being willing to minister in all offices and varieties of imployment ; that so I may by all meanes save some , and confirme others ; or at least , that my selfe may be accepted of God in my desiring it . And I thinke I have some reasons to expect a speciall mercy in this , because I finde by the constitution of the Divine providence , and Ecclesiasticall affaires , that all the great necessities of the Church have been served by the zeale of preaching in publick , and other holy ministeries in publick or private , as they could be had . By this the Apostles planted the Church , and the primitive Bishops supported the faith of Martyrs , and the hardinesse of Confessors , and the austerity of the Retired . By this they confounded Hereticks , and evill livers , and taught them the wayes of the Spirit , and left them without pertinacy , or without excuse . It was Preaching that restored the splendour of the Church , when Barbarisme , and Warres , and Ignorance either sate in , or broke the Doctors Chaire in pieces : For then it was that divers Orders of religious , and especially of Preachers were erected ; God inspiring into whole companies of men a zeal of Preaching : And by the same instrument God restored the beauty of the Church , when it was necessary shee should be reformed ; it was the assiduous and learned preaching of those whom God chose for his Ministers in that work , that wrought the Advantages and persuaded those Truths , which are the enamel and beautie of our Churches . And because by the same meanes all things are preserved , by which they are produc'd , it cannot but be certaine , that the present state of the Church requires a greater care and prudence in this Ministerie then ever ; especially since by Preaching some endevour to supplant Preaching , and by intercepting the fruits of the flocks to dishearten the Shepheards from their attendances . My Lord , your great noblenesse and religious charitie hath taken from mee some portions of that glory which I designed to my selfe in imitation of St. Paul towards the Corinthian Church ; who esteemed it his honour to preach to them without a revenue ; and though also like him I have a trade , by which as I can be more usefull to others , and lesse burthensome to you , yet to you also under God , I owe the quiet and the opportunities and circumstances of that , as if God had so interweaved the support of my affaires with your charitie , that he would have no advantages passe upon mee , but by your interest ; and that I should expect no reward of the issues of my Calling , unlesse your Lordship have a share in the blessing . My Lord , I give God thanks that my lot is fallen so fairely , and that I can serve your Lordship in that ministerie , by which I am bound to serve God , and that my gratitude and my duty are bound up in the same bundle ; but now , that which was yours by a right of propriety , I have made publick , that it may still be more yours , and you derive to your selfe a comfort , if you shall see the necessitie of others serv'd by that which you heard so diligently , and accepted with so much pietie , and I am persuaded have entertain'd with that religion and obedience , which is the dutie of all those who know , that Sermons are arguments against us , unlesse they make us better ; and that no Sermon is received as it ought , unlesse it makes us quit a vice , or bee in love with vertue ; unlesse we suffer it in some instance or degree to doe the work of God upon our soules . My Lord , in these Sermons I have medled with no mans interest , that onely excepted , which is Eternall ; but if any mans vice was to be reproved , I have done it with as much severitie as I ought ; some cases of Conscience I have here determined ; but the speciall designe of the whole , is to describe the greater lines of Dutie , by speciall arguments : and if any witty Censurer shall say , that I tell him nothing but what he knew before ; I shall be contented with it , and rejoyce that he was so well instructed , and wish also that he needed not a Remembrancer : but if either in the first , or in the second ; in the institution of some , or the reminding of others , I can doe God any service ; no man ought to be offended , that Sermons are not like curious inquiries after New-nothings , but pursuances of Old truths . However , I have already many faire earnests that your Lordship will bee pleased with this tender of my service , and expression of my great and dearest obligations , which you daily renew or continue upon , My noblest Lord , Your Lordships most affectionate and most obliged Servant JEREMY TAYLOR . Titles of the Sermons , their Order , Number , and Texts . SErmon 1. 2. 3. Dooms-day Book ; or , Christs Advent to Judgement . Folio 1. 15. 30. 2 Cor. 5. 10. For we must all appear before the Judgement seat of Christ , that every one may receive the things done in his body , according to that he hath done , whether it be good or bad . Sermon 4. 5. 6. The Return of Prayers ; or , The conditions of a Prevailing Prayer . fol. 44. 57. 69. Joh. 9. 31. Now we know that God heareth not sinners , but if any man be a worshipper of God and doth his will , him he heareth . Sermon 7. 8. 9. Of Godly Fear , & c. fol. 83. 95. 114. Heb. 12. part of the 28th . & 29th . vers . Let us have grace whereby we may serve God with reverence and godly fear . For our God is a consuming Fire . Sermon 10. 11. The Flesh and the Spirit . fol. 125. 139. Matt. 26. 41. latter part . The Spirit indeed is willing , but the Flesh is weak . Sermon 12. 13. 14. Of Lukewarmnesse and Zeal ; or , Spiritual Terrour . fol. 152. 164. 179. Jer. 48. 10. first part . Cursed be he that doth the work of the Lord deceitfully . Sermon 15. 16. The House of Feasting ; or , The Epicures Measures . fol. 191. 204. 1 Cor. 15. 32. last part . Let us eat and drink , for to morrow we die . Sermon 17. 18. The Marriage Ring ; or , The Mysteriousnesse and Duties of Marriage . fol. 219. 232. Ephes. 5. 32 , 33. This is a great mysterie ; But I speak concerning Christ and the Church . Neverthelesse , let every one of you in particular so love his Wife even as himselfe , and the Wife see that she reverence her Husband . Sermon 19. 20. 21. Apples of Sodome ; or , The Fruits of Sin. fol. 245. 260. 273. Rom. 6. 21. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed ? For the end of those things is death . Sermon 22. 23. 24. 25. The good and evill Tongue . Of Slander and Flattery . The Duties of the Tongue . fol. 286. 298. 311. 323. Ephes. 4. 29. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth , but that which is good to the use of edifying , that it may minister grace unto the hearers . Sermon , I. ADVENT SUNDAY . DOOMS-DAY BOOK : OR , CHRIST'S Advent to Judgement . 2 Cor. 5. 10. For we must all appear before the Judgment seat of CHRIST , that every one may receive the things done in his body , according to that he hath done , whether it be good or bad . VErtue and Vice are so essentially distinguished , and the distinction is so necessary to be observed in order to the well being of men , in private , and in societies , that to divide them in themselves , and to separate them by sufficient notices , and to distinguish them by rewards , hath been designed by all Laws , by the sayings of wise men , by the order of things , by their proportions to good or evill ; and the expectations of men have been fram'd accordingly ; that Vertue may have a proper seat in the will and in the affections , and may become amiable by its own excellency and its appendant blessing ; and that Vice may be as naturall an enemy to a man as a Wolf to the Lamb , and as darknesse to light ; destructive of its being , and a contradiction of its nature . But it is not enough that all the world hath armed it self against Vice , and by all that is wise and sober amongst men , hath taken the part of Vertue , adorning it with glorious appellatives , encouraging it by rewards , entertaining it with sweetnesses , and commanding it by edicts , fortifying it with defensatives , and twining with it in all artificiall compliances ; all this is short of mans necessity ; for this will in all modest men secure their actions in Theatres , and High-wayes , in Markets , and Churches , before the eye of Judges , and in the society of Witnesses . But the actions of closets and chambers , the designs and thoughts of men , their discourses in dark places , and the actions of retirements and of the night , are left indifferent to Vertue or to Vice ; and of these , as man can take no cognisance , so he can make no coercitive ; and therefore above one half of humane actions is by the Laws of man left unregarded , and unprovided for : and besides this , there are some men who are bigger then Lawes , and some are bigger then Judges , and some Judges have lessened themselves by fear and cowardize , by bribery and flattery , by iniquity and complyance ; and where they have not , yet they have notices but of few causes ; and there are some sins so popular and universall , that to punish them is either impossible or intolerable ; and to question such , would betray the weaknesse of the publick rods and axes , and represent the sinner to be stronger then the power that is appointed to be his bridle ; and after all this , we finde sinners so prosperous , that they escape , so potent , that they fear not , and sin is made safe when it growes great , — Facere omnia saevè Non impunè licet , nisi dum facis — and innocence is oppressed , and the poor cry , and he hath no helper ; and he is oppressed , and he wants a Patron : and for these and many other concurrent causes , if you reckon all the causes that come before all the Judicatories of the world , though the litigious are too many , and the matters of instance are intricate and numerous , yet the personall and criminall are so few , that of 20000 sins that cry aloud to God for vengeance , scarce two are noted by the publick eye and chastis'd by the hand of Justice ; it must follow from hence , that it is but reasonable for the interest of vertue and the necessities of the world , that the private should be judg'd , and vertue should be tyed upon the spirit , and the poor should be relieved , and the oppressed should appeal , and the noise of Widows should be heard , and the Saints should stand upright , and the Cause that was ill judged should be judged over again , and Tyrants should be call'd to account , and our thoughts should be examined , and our secret actions view'd on all sides , and the infinite number of sins which escape here should not escape finally ; and therefore God hath so ordained it , that there shall be a day of doom wherein all that are let alone by men shall be question'd by God , and every word and every action shall receive its just recompence of reward . For we must all appear before the Judgement seat of Christ , that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done , whether it be good or bad . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so it is in the best copies , not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The things done in the body , so we commonly read it ; the things proper or due to the body ; so the expression is more apt and proper ; for not only what is done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the body , but even the acts of abstracted understanding and volition , the acts of reflexion and choice , acts of self-love and admiration , and what ever else can be supposed the proper and peculiar act of the soul or of the spirit , is to be accounted for at the day of Judgement : and even these may be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , because these are the acts of the man in the state of conjunction with the body . The words have in them no other difficulty or variety , but contain a great truth of the biggest interest , and one of the most materiall constitutive Articles of the whole Religion , and the greatest endearment of our duty in the whole world . Things are so ordered by the great Lord of all the creatures , that whatsoever we do or suffer shall be call'd to account , and this account shall be exact , and the sentence shall be just , and the reward shall be great ; all the evils of the world shall be amended , and the injustices shall be repaid , and the divine Providence shall be vindicated , and Vertue and Vice shall for ever be remark'd by their separate dwellings and rewards . This is that which the Apostle in the next verse cals the terror of the Lord ; it is his terror , because himself shall appear in his dresse of Majesty and robes of Justice , and it is his terror , because it is of all the things in the World the most formidable in it self , and it is most fearfull to us : where shall be acted the interest and finall sentence of eternity ; and because it is so intended , I shall all the way represent it as the Lords terror , that we may be afraid of sin , for the destruction of which this terror is intended . 1. Therefore we will consider the persons that are to be judged , with the circumstances of our advantages or our sorrowes : [ We must all appear . ] 2. The Judge and his Judgement seat : [ before the Judgment seat of Christ. ] 3. The sentence that they are to receive ; the things due to the body , good or bad ; according as we now please , but then cannot alter . Every one of these are dressed with circumstances of affliction and afrightment to those to whom such terrors shall appertain as a portion of their inheritance . 1. The persons who are to be judged : even you , and I , and all the world : Kings and Priests , Nobles and Learned , the Crafty and the Easie , the Wise and the Foolish , the Rich and the Poor , the prevailing Tyrant and the oppressed Party shall all appear to receive ther Symbol ; and this is so farre from abating any thing of its terror and our dear concernment , that it much increases it : for although concerning Precepts and Discourses we are apt to neglect in particular what is recommended in generall , and in incidencies of Mortality and sad events the singularity of the chance heightens the apprehension of the evill ; yet it is so by accident and only in regard of our imperfection ; it being an effect of self-love or some little creeping envie which adheres too often to the infortunate and miserable ; or else because the sorrow is apt to increase by being apprehended to be a rare case and a singular unworthinesse in him who is afflicted , otherwise then is common to the sons of men , companions of his sin , and brethren of his nature , and partners of his usuall accidents ; yet in finall and extreme events the multitude of sufferers does not lessen but increase the sufferings ; and when the first day of Judgement happen'd , that ( I mean ) of the universall deluge of waters upon the old World , the calamity swell'd like the floud , and every man saw his friend perish , and the neighbours of his dwelling , and the relatives of his house , and the sharers of his joyes , and yesterdaies bride , and the new born heir , the Priest of the Family , and the honour of the Kindred , all dying or dead , drench'd in water and the divine vengeance ; and then they had no place to flee unto , no man cared for their souls ; they had none to goe unto for counsell , no sanctuary high enough to keep them from the vengeance that rain'd down from heaven : and so it shall be at the day of Judgement , when that world and this and all that shall be born hereafter , shall passe through the same Red sea , and be all baptized with the same fire , and be involv'd in the same cloud , in which shall be thundrings and terrors infinite ; every Mans fear shall be increased by his neighbours shriekes , and the amazement that all the world shall be in , shall unite as the sparks of a raging furnace into a globe of fire , and roul upon its own principle , and increase by direct appearances , and intolerable reflexions . He that stands in a Church-yard in the time of a great plague , and hears the Passing-bell perpetually telling the sad stories of death , and sees crowds of infected bodies pressing to their Graves , and others sick and tremulous , and Death dress'd up in all the images of sorrow round about him , is not supported in his spirit by the variety of his sorrow : and at Dooms-day , when the terrors are universall , besides that it is in it self so much greater because it can affright the whole world , it is also made greater by communication and a sorrowfull influence ; Grief being then strongly infectious : when there is no variety of state but an intire Kingdome of fear ; and amazement is the King of all our passions , and all the world its subjects : and that shricke must needs be terrible , when millions of Men and Women at the same instant shall fearfully cry out , and the noise shall mingle with the Trumpet of the Archangell , with the thunders of the dying and groaning heavens , and the crack of the dissolving world , when the whole fabrick of nature shall shake into dissolution and eternall ashes . But this generall consideration may be hightned with four or five circumstances . 1. Consider what an infinite multitude of Angels and Men and Women shall then appear ; it is a huge assembly when the Men of one Kingdome , the Men of one Age in a single Province are gathered togother into heaps and confusion of disorder ; But then all Kingdomes of all ages , all the Armies that ever mustered , all that World that Augustus Caesar taxed , all those hundreds of Millions that were slain in all the Roman Wars from Numa's time till Italy was broken into Principalities and small Exarchats , all these , and all that can come into numbers , and that did descend from the loins of Adam , shall at once be represented ; to which account if we adde the Armies of Heaven , the nine orders of blessed Spirits , and the infinite numbers in every order , we may suppose the numbers fit to expresse the Majesty of that God , and the terror of that Judge , who is the Lord and Father of all that unimaginable multitude . Eritterror ingens tot simul tantorúmque populorum . 2. In this great multitude we shall meet all those who by their example and their holy precepts have like tapers enkindled with a beam of the Sun of righteousnesse enlightned us , and taught us to walk in the paths of justice . There we shall see all those good men whom God sent to preach to us , and recall us from humane follies and inhumane practises : and when we espie the good man that chid us for our last drunkennesse or adulteries , it shall then also be remembred how we mocked at counsell , and were civilly modest at the reproof , but laugh'd when the man was gone , and accepted it for a religious complement , and took our leaves and went and did the same again . But then things shall put on another face , and what we smil'd at here , and slighted fondly , shall then be the greatest terror in the world ; Men shall feel that they once laugh'd at their own destruction , and rejected health when it was offered by a man of God upon no other condition , but that they would be wise , and not be in love with death . Then they shall perceive , that if they had obeyed an easie and a sober counsell , they had been partners of the same felicity which they see so illustrious upon the heads of those Preachers whose work is with the Lord , and who by their life and Doctrine endeavoured to snatch the Soul of their friend or relatives from an intolerable misery . But he that sees a crown put upon their heads that give good counsell , and preach holy and severe Sermons with designs of charity and piety , will also then perceive that God did not send Preachers for nothing , on trifling errands and without regard : but that work which he crowns in them he purposed should be effective to us , perswasive to the understanding , and active upon our consciences . Good Preachers by their Doctrine , and all good men by their lives are the accusers of the disobedient , and they shall rise up from their seats , and judge and condemn the follies of those who thought their piety to be want of courage , and their discourses pedanticall , and their reproofs the Priests trade , but of no signification , because they prefer'd moments before eternity . 3. There in that great assembly shall be seen all those Converts who upon easier terms , and fewer miracles , and a lesse experience , and a younger grace , and a seldomer Preaching , and more unlikely circumstances have suffered the work of God to prosper upon their spirits , and have been obedient to the heavenly calling . There shall stand the men of Nineveh , and they shall stand upright in Judgement , for they at the preaching of one man in a lesse space then forty dayes returned unto the Lord their God ; but we have heard him call all our lives , and like the deaf Adder stopt our ears against the voice of Gods servants , charme they never so wisely . There shall appear the men of Capernaum , and the Queen of the South , and the Men of Berea , and the first fruits of the Christian Church , and the holy Martyrs , and shall proclaim to all the world that it was not impossible to do the work of Grace in the midst of all our weaknesses , and accidentall disadvantages : and that the obedience of Faith , and the labour of Love , and the contentions of chastity , and the severities of temperance and self-deniall , are not such insuperable mountains , but that an honest and a sober person may perform them in acceptable degrees , if he have but a ready ear , and a willing minde , and an honest heart : and this seen of honest persons shall make the Divine Judgement upon sinners more reasonable and apparently just , in passing upon them the horrible sentence ; for why cannot we as well serve God in peace as others served him in war ? why cannot we love him as well when he treats us sweetly and gives us health and plenty , honours or fair fortunes , reputation or contentednesse , quietnesse and peace , as others did upon gibbets and under axes , in the hands of tormentors , and in hard wildernesses , in nakednesse and poverty , in the midst of all evill things and all sad discomforts ? Concerning this no answer can be made . 4. But there is a worse sight then this yet , which in that great assembly shall distract our sight and amaze our spirits . There men shall meet the partners of their sins , and them that drank the round when they crown'd their heads with folly and forgetfulnesse , and their cups with wine and noises . There shall ye see that poor perishing soul whom thou didst tempt to adultery and wantonnesse , to drunkennesse or perjury , to rebellion or an evill interest , by power or craft , by witty discourses or deep dissembling , by scandall or a snare , by evill example or pernicious counsell , by malice or unwarinesse ; and when all this is summ'd up , and from the variety of its particulars is drawn into an uneasie load and a formidable summe , possibly we may finde sights enough to scare all our confidences , and arguments enough to presse our evill souls into the sorrowes of a most intolerable death . For however we make now but light accounts and evill proportions concerning it , yet it will be a fearfull circumstance of appearing , to see one , or two , or ten , or twenty accursed souls despairing , miserable , infinitely miserable , roaring and blaspheming , and fearfully cursing thee as the cause of its eternall sorrowes . Thy lust betray'd and rifled her weak unguarded innocence ; thy example made thy servant confident to lye , or to be perjur'd ; thy society brought a third into intemperance and the disguises of a beast ; and when thou seest that soul with whom thou didst sin drag'd into hell , well maist thou fear to drink the dregs of thy intolerable potion ; And most certainly it is the greatest of evils to destroy a soul for whom the Lord Jesus dyed , and to undoe that grace which our Lord purchased with so much sweat and bloud , pains and a mighty charity . And because very many sins , are sins of society and confederation ; such are fornication , drunkennesse , bribery , simony , rebellion , schisme , and many others ; it is a hard and a weighty consideration what shall become of any one of us who have tempted our Brother or Sister to sin and death : for though God hath spar'd our life , and they are dead and their debt-books are sealed up till the day of account , yet the mischief of our sin is gone before us , and it is like a murther , but more execrable , the soul is dead in trespasses and sins , and sealed up to an eternall sorrow , and thou shalt see at Dooms-day what damnable uncharitablenesse thou hast done . That soul that cryes to those rocks to cover her , if it had not been for thy perpetuall temptations , might have followed the Lamb in a white robe ; and that poor man that is cloathed with shame and flames of fire , would have shin'd in glory , but that thou didst force him to be partner of thy basenesse . And who shall pay for this losse ? a soul is lost by thy means ; thou hast defeated the holy purposes of the Lord 's bitter passion by thy impurities ; and what shall happen to thee by whom thy Brother dies eternally ? Of all the considerations that concern this part of the horrors of Dooms-day nothing can be more formidable then this , to such whom it does concern : and truly it concerns so many , and amongst so many , perhaps some persons are so tender , that it might affright their hopes and discompose their industries and spritefull labours of repentance ; but that our most mercifull Lord hath in the midst of all the fearfull circumstances of his second coming interwoven this one comfort relating to this , which to my sense seems the most fearfull and killing circumstance : Two shall be grinding at one mill ; the one shall be taken , and the other left . Two shall be in a bed ; the one shall be taken , and the other left ; that is , those who are confederate in the same fortunes , and interests , and actions , may yet have a different sentence : for an early and an active repentance will wash off this account , and put it upon the tables of the Crosse ; and though it ought to make us diligent and carefull , charitable and penitent , hugely penitent , even so long as we live , yet when we shall appear together , there is a mercy that shall there separate us , who sometimes had blended each other in a common crime . Blessed be the mercies of of God , who hath so carefully provided a fruitfull shower of grace to refresh the miseries and dangers of the greatest part of mankind . Thomas Aquinas was used to beg of God that he might never be tempted from his low fortune to Prelacies and dignities Ecclesiasticall ; and that his minde might never be discomposed or polluted with the love of any creature ; and that he might by some instrument or other understand the state of his deceased Brother ; and the story sayes , that he was heard in all : In him it was a great curiosity , or the passion and impertinencies of a uselesse charity to search after him , unlesse he had some other personall concernment , then his relation of kindred . But truly , it would concern very many to be solicitous concerning the event of those souls with whom we have mingled death and sin ; for many of those sentences which have passed and decreed concerning our departed relatives , will concern us dearly , and we are bound in the same bundles , and shall be thrown into the same fires , unlesse we repent for our own sins , and double our sorrows for their damnation . 5. We may consider that this infinite multitude of men and women , Angels and Devils , is not ineffective as a number in Pythagoras Tables , but must needs have influence upon every spirit that shall there appear . For the transactions of that court are not like Orations spoken by a Grecian Orator in the circles of his people , heard by them that croud nearest him , or that sound limited by the circles of aire , or the inclosure of a wall ; but every thing is represented to every person , and then let it be considered , when thy shame and secret turpitude , thy midnight revels and secret hypocrisies , thy lustfull thoughts , and treacherous designes , thy falshood to God and startings from thy holy promises , thy follies and impieties shall be laid open before all the world , and that then shall be spoken by the trumpet of an Archangell upon the house top , the highest battlements of Heaven , all those filthy words and lewd circumstances which thou didst act secretly , thou wilt find that thou wilt have reason strangely to be ashamed . All the wise men in the world shall know how vile thou hast been : and then consider ; with what confusion of face wouldst thou stand in the presence of a good man and a severe , if peradventure he should suddenly draw thy curtain , and finde thee in the sins of shame and lust ; it must be infinitely more , when God and all the Angels of heaven and earth , all his holy myriads , and all his redeemed Saints shall stare and wonder at thy impurities and follies . I have read a story that a young Gentleman being passionately by his mother disswaded from entring into the severe courses of a religious and single life , broke from her importunity by saying , Volo servare animam meam , I am resolved by all means to save my soul. But when he had undertaken a rule with passion , he performed it carelesly and remifly , and was but lukewarm in his Religion , and quickly proceeded to a melancholy and wearied spirit , and from thence to a sicknesse and the neighbourhood of death ; but falling into an agony and a phantastick vision , dream'd that he saw himself summon'd before Gods angry throne , and from thence hurryed into a place of torments , where espying his Mother , full of scorn she upbraided him with his former answer , and asked him , Why he did not save his soul , by all means , according as he undertook . But when the sick man awaked and recovered , he made his words good indeed , and prayed frequently , and fasted severely , and laboured humbly , and conversed charitably , and mortified himself severely , and refused such secular solaces which other good men received to refresh and sustain their infirmities , and gave no other account to them that asked him but this : If I could not in my extasie or dream endure my Mothers upbraiding my follies and weak Religion , how shall I be able to suffer , that God should redargue me at Dooms-day , and the Angels reproach my lukewarmnesse , and the Devils aggravate my sins , and all the Saints of God deride my follies and hypocrisies ? The effect of that mans consideration may serve to actuate a meditation in every one of us : for we shall all be at that passe , that unlesse our shame and sorrowes be cleansed by a timely repentance , and cover'd by the Robe of Christ , we shall suffer the anger of God , the scorn of Saints and Angels , and our own shame in the generall assembly of all mankind . This argument is most considerable to them who are tender of their precious name and sensible of honour ; if they rather would chuse death then a disgrace , poverty rather then shame , let them remember that a sinfull life will bring them to an intolerable shame at that day , when all that is excellent in heaven and earth shall be summon'd as witnesses and parties in a fearfull scrutiny . The summe is this ; All that are born of Adam shall appear before God and his Christ , and all the innumerable companies of Angels and Devils shall be there : and the wicked shall be afrighted with every thing they see ; and there they shall see those good men that taught them the waies of life , and all those evill persons whom themselves have tempted into the waies of death , and those who were converted upon easier termes , and some of these shall shame the wicked , and some shall curse them , and some shall upbraid them , and all shall amaze them , and yet this is but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the beginning of those evils which shall never end till eternity hath a period ; but concerning this they must first be judged ; and that 's the second generall consideration , We must appear before the Judgement seat of Christ , and that 's a new state of terrors and afrightments . Christ who is our Saviour , and is our Advocate , shall then be our Judge , and that will strangely change our confidences and all the face of things . 2. That 's then the place and state of our appearance , Before the Judgement seat of Christ : ] For Christ shall rise from the right hand of his Father , he shall descend towards us and ride upon a cloud , and shall make himself illustrious by a glorious Majesty , and an innumerable retinue and circumstances of terror and a mighty power : and this is that which Origen affirms to be the sign of the Son of Man. Remalcus de Vaux in Harpocrate divino affirms that all the Greek and Latine Fathers consentientibus animis asseverant , hoc signo Crucem Christi significari , do unanimously affirm that the representment of the Crosse , is the sign of the Son of Man spoken of Mat. 24. 30. And indeed they affirm it very generally , but Origen after his manner is singular , hoc signum Crucis erit , cum Dominus ad judicandum venerit , so the Church used to sing , and so it is in the Sibyls verses ; O lignum felix in quo Deus ipse pependit , Nec te terra capit , sed coeli tecta videbis Cum renovata Dei facies ignita micabit . The sign of the Crosse is that sign of the Son of Man , when the Lord shall come to Judgement : and from those words of Scripture [ They shall look on him whom they have pierced ] it hath been freely entertain'd at the day of Judgement , Christ shall signifie his person by something that related to his passion , his crosse , or his wounds , or both . I list not to spin this curious cobweb ; but Origen's opinion seems to me more reasonable ; and it is more agreeable to the Majesty and Power of Christ to signifie himself with proportions of his glory rather then of his humility , with effects of his being exalted into Heaven , rather then of his poverty and sorrowes upon Earth ; and this is countenanced better by some Greek copies ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so it is commonly read , the sign of the Son of man in Heaven , that is ( say they ) the signe of the Son of man imprinted upon a cloud ; but it is in others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the signe of the Son of man who is in the heavens ; not that the signe shall bee imprinted on a cloud , or in any part of the heavens , but that hee who is now in the heavens , shall when he comes down , have a signe and signification of his own , that is , proper to him , who is there glorified , and shall return in glory ; and he disparages the beauty of the Sun , who inquires for a Rule to know when the Sun shines , or the light breaks forth from its chambers of the East ; and the Son of man shall need no other signification , but his infinite retinue , and all the Angels of God worshipping him , and sitting upon a cloud , and leading the heavenly Host , and bringing his Elect with him , and being clothed with the robes of Majesty , and trampling upon Devils , and confounding the wicked , and destroying Death : but all these great things shall be invested with such strange circumstances , and annexes of Mightynesse , and Divinity , that all the world shall confesse the glories of the Lord ; and this is sufficiently signified by St. Paul , We shall all be set before the throne or place of Christ's judicature ; For it is written , As I live , saith the Lord , every knee shall bow to me , and every tongue shall confesse to God : that is , at the day of Judgment , when wee are placed ready to receive our Sentence , all knees shall bow to the holy Jesus , and confesse him to be God the Lord ; meaning , that our Lords presence shall be such , as to force obeysance from Angels , and Men , and Devils ; and his addresse to Judgement shall sufficiently declare his Person , and his Office , and his proper glories . This is the greatest Scene of Majesty that shall be in that day , till the Sentence bee pronounced ; But there goes much before this which prepares all the world to the expectation and consequent reception of this mighty Judge of Men and Angels . The Majesty of the Judge , and the terrors of the Judgement shall bee spoken aloud by the immediate forerunning accidents , which shall bee so great violences to the old constitutions of Nature , that it shall break her very bones , and disorder her till shee be destroyed . St. Hierom relates out of the Jews books , that their Doctors use to account 15 days of prodigie immediately before Christ's coming , and to every day assigne a wonder , any one of which , if wee should chance to see in the days of our flesh , it would affright us into the like thoughts , which the old world had when they saw the countreys round about them cover'd with water , and the Divine vengeance ; or as those poor people neer Adria , and the Mediterranean sea , when their houses and Cities are entring into graves , and the bowells of the earth rent with convulsions and horrid tremblings . The sea ( say they ) shall rise 15 cubits above the highest Mountaines , and thence descend into hollownesse , and a prodigious drought , and when they are reduc'd again to their usuall proportions , then all the beasts and creeping things , the monsters , and the usuall inhabitants of the sea shall be gathered together , and make fearfull noyses to distract Mankind : The birds shall mourne and change their song into threnes and sad accents , rivers of fire shall rise from East to West , and the stars shall be rent into threds of light , and scatter like the beards of comets ; Then shall bee fearfull earthquakes , and the rocks shall rend in pieces , the trees shall distill bloud , and the mountains and fairest structures shall returne unto their primitive dust ; the wild beasts shall leave their dens and come into the companies of men , so that you shall hardly tell how to call them , herds of Men or congregations of Beasts ; Then shall the Graves open , and give up their dead , and those which are alive in nature , and dead in fear , shall be forc'd from the rocks , whither they went to hide them , and from caverns of the earth , where they would fain have been concealed ; because their retirements are dismantled , and their rocks are broken into wider ruptures , and admit a strange light into their secret bowels ; and the men being forc'd abroad into the theatre of mighty horrors shall run up and downe distracted and at their wits end ; and then some shall die , and some shall bee changed , and by this time the Elect shall bee gathered together from the foure quarters of the world , and Christ shall come along with them to judgment . These signes , although the Jewish Doctors reckon them by order and a method , concerning which they had no revelation ( that appeares ) nor sufficiently credible tradition , yet for the main parts of the things themselves , the holy Scripture records Christs own words , and concerning the most terrible of them ; the summe of which , as Christ related them , and his Apostles recorded and explicated , is this : The earth shall tremble , and the powers of the heavens shall bee shaken , the sun shall bee turned into darknesse , and the moon into bloud ; that is , there shall bee strange eclipses of the Sun , and fearfull aspects in the Moon , who when she is troubled looks red like bloud ; The rocks shall rend , and the elements shall melt with fervent heat . The heavens shall bee rolled up like a parchment , the earth shall bee burned with fire , the hils shall be like wax , for there shall goe a fire before him , and a mighty tempest shall be stirred round about him : Dies irae , Dies illa Solvet sêclum in favillâ , Teste David cum Sibyllâ . The Trumpet of God shall sound , and the voice of the Archangell , that is , of him who is the Prince of all that great army of Spirits , which shall then attend their Lord , and wait upon and illustrate his glory ; and this also is part of that which is called the signe of the Son of Man ; for the fulfilling of all these praedictions , and the preaching the Gospel to all Nations , and the Conversion of the Jews , and these prodigies , and the Addresse of Majesty make up that signe . The notice of which things some way or other came to the very Heathen themselves , who were alarum'd into caution and sobriety by these dreadfull remembrances : — Sic cum compage solutâ Saecula tot mundt suprema coëgerit hora Antiquum repetens , iterum chaos , omnia mistis Sidera sideribus concurrent : ignea pontum Astra petent , tellus extendere littora nolet , Excutietque fretum ; fratri contraria Phoebe Ibit — Totaque discors Machina divulsi turbabit foedera Mundi . Which things when they are come to passe , it will be no wonder if mens hearts shall faile them for feare , and their wits bee lost with guilt , and their fond hopes destroyed by prodigie and amazement ; but it will bee an extreme wonder , if the consideration and certain expectation of these things shall not awake our sleeping spirits , and raise us from the death of Sin , and the basenesse of vice and dishonorable actions , to live soberly and temperately , chastly and justly , humbly and obediently , that is , like persons that believe all this , and such who are not mad men or fools , but will order their actions according to these notices . For if they doe not believe these things , where is their Faith ? If they doe believe them , and sin on , and doe as if there were no such thing to come to passe , where is their Prudence , and what is their hopes , and where their Charity ? how doe they differ from beasts , save that they are more foolish ? for beasts goe on and consider not , because they cannot ; but we can consider , and will not ; we know that strange terrors shall affright us all , and strange deaths and torments shall seise upon the wicked , and that we cannot escape , and the rocks themselves will not bee able to hide us from the fears of those prodigies which shall come before the day of Judgement ; and that the mountains ( though when they are broken in pieces we call upon them to fall upon us ) shall not be able to secure us one minute from the present vengeance ; and yet we proceed with confidence or carelesnesse , and consider not that there is no greater folly in the world , then for a man to neglect his greatest interest , and to die for trifles and little regards , and to become miserable for such interests which are not excusable in a Childe . He that is youngest hath not long to live : Hee that is thirty , forty , or fifty yeares old , hath spent most of his life , and his dream is almost done , and in a very few moneths hee must be cast into his eternall portion ; that is , hee must be in an unalterable condition , his finall Sentence shall passe according as hee shall then bee found : and that will be an intolerable condition , when he shall have reason to cry out in the bitternesse of his soule , Eternall woe is to mee , who refus'd to consider when I might have been saved and secured from this intolerable calamity . But I must descend to consider the particulars and circumstances of the great consideration , Christ shall be our Judge at Doomes-day . SERMON , II. Part II. 1. IF we consider the person of the Judge , we first perceive that he is interested in the injury of the crimes he is to sentence . Videbunt quem crucifixerunt , and they shal look on him whom they have pierced . It was for thy sins that the Judge did suffer such unspeakable pains as were enough to reconcile all the world to God : The summe and spirit of which pains could not be better understood then by the consequence of his own words , My God , my God , why hast thou forsaken me ? meaning , that he felt such horrible , pure , unmingled sorrowes , that although his humane nature was personally united to the Godhead , yet at that instant he felt no comfortable emanations by sensible perception from the Divinity , but he was so drenched in sorrow , that the Godhead seemed to have forsaken him . Beyond this , nothing can be added : but then , that thou hast for thy own particular made all this in vain and ineffective , that Christ thy Lord and Judge should be tormented for nothing , that thou wouldst not accept felicity and pardon when he purchased them at so dear a price , must needs be an infinite condemnation to such persons . How shalt thou look upon him that fainted and dyed for love of thee , and thou didst scorn his miraculous mercies ? How shall we dare to behold that holy face that brought salvation to us , and we turned away and fell in love with death , and kissed deformity and sins ? and yet in the beholding that face consists much of the glories of eternity . All the pains and passions , the sorrowes and the groans , the humility and poverty , the labours and the watchings , the Prayers and the Sermons , the miracles and the prophecies , the whip and the nails , the death and the buriall , the shame and the smart , the Crosse and the grave of Jesus shall be laid upon thy score , if thou hast refused the mercies and design of all their holy ends and purposes . And if we remember what a calamity that was which broke the Jewish Nation in pieces , when Christ came to judge them for their murdering him who was their King and the Prince of life , and consider that this was but a dark image of the terrors of the day of Judgement , we may then apprehend that there is some strange unspeakable evill that attends them that are guilty of this death , and of so much evill to their Lord. Now it is certain if thou wilt not be saved by his death , you are guilty of his death ; if thou wilt not suffer him to save thee , thou art guilty of destroying him ; and then let it be considered what is to be expected from that Judge before whom you stand as his murtherer and betrayer . * But this is but half of this consideration . 2. Christ may be crucified again , and upon a new account put to an open shame . For after that Christ had done all this by the direct actions of his Priestly Office , of sacrificing himself for us , he hath also done very many things for us which are also the fruits of his first love and prosecutions of our redemption . I will not instance in the strange arts of mercy that our Lord uses to bring us to live holy lives ; But I consider , that things are so ordered , and so great a value set upon our souls since they are the images of God , and redeemed by the Bloud of the holy Lamb , that the salvation of our souls is reckoned as a part of Christs reward , a part of the glorification of his humanity . Every sinner that repents causes joy to Christ , and the joy is so great that it runs over and wets the fair brows and beauteous locks of Cherubims and Seraphims , and all the Angels have a part of that banquet ; Then it is that our blessed Lord feels the fruits of his holy death , the acceptation of his holy sacrifice , the graciousnesse of his person , the return of his prayers . For all that Christ did or suffer'd , and all that he now does as a Priest in heaven , is to glorifie his Father by bringing souls to God : For this it was that he was born and dyed , that he descended from heaven to earth , from life to death , from the crosse to the grave ; this was the purpose of his resurrection and ascension , of the end and design of all the miracles and graces of God manifested to all the world by him ; and now what man is so vile , such a malicious fool , that will refuse to bring joy to his Lord by doing himself the greatest good in the world ? They who refuse to do this , are said to crucifie the Lord of life again , and put him to an open shame : that is , they , as much as in them lies , bring Christ from his glorious joyes to the labours of his life , and the shame of his death ; they advance his enemies , and refuse to advance the Kingdome of their Lord ; they put themselves in that state in which they were when Christ came to dye for them ; and now that he is in a state that he may rejoyce over them , ( for he hath done all his share towards it ) every wicked man takes his head from the blessing , and rather chuses that the Devill should rejoyce in his destruction , then that his Lord should triumph in his felicity . And now upon the supposition of these premises , we may imagine that it will be an infinite amazement to meet that Lord to be our Judge whose person we have murdered , whose honour we have disparaged , whose purposes we have destroyed , whose joyes we have lessened , whose passion we have made ineffectuall , and whose love we have trampled under our profane and impious feet . 3. But there is yet a third part of this consideration . As it will be inquir'd at the day of Judgement concerning the dishonours to the person of Christ , so also concerning the profession and institution of Christ , and concerning his poor Members ; for by these also we make sad reflexions upon our Lord. Every man that lives wickedly disgraces the religion and institution of Jesus , he discourages strangers from entring into it , he weakens the hands of them that are in already , and makes that the adversaries speak reproachfully of the Name of Christ ; but although it is certain our Lord and Judge will deeply resent all these things , yet there is one thing which he takes more tenderly , and that is , the uncharitablenesse of men towards his poor : It shall then be upbraided to them by the Judge , that himself was hungry and they refused to give meat to him that gave them his body and heart-bloud , to feed them and quench their thirst ; that they denyed a robe to cover his nakednesse , and yet he would have cloathed their souls with the robe of his righteousnesse , lest their souls should be found naked in the day of the Lords visitation ; and all this unkindnesse is nothing but that evill men were uncharitable to their Brethren , they would not feed the hungry , nor give drink to the thirsty , nor cloath the naked , nor relieve their Brothers needs , nor forgive his follies , nor cover their shame , nor turn their eyes from delighting in their affronts and evill accidents ; this is it which our Lord will take so tenderly , that his Brethren for whom he died , who suck'd the paps of his Mother , that fed on his Body and are nourished with his Bloud , whom he hath lodg'd in his heart and entertains in his bosome , the partners of his Spirit and co-heirs of his inheritance , that these should be deny'd relief and suffered to go away ashamed , and unpitied ; this our blessed Lord will take so ill , that all those who are guilty of this unkindnesse , have no reason to expect the favour of the Court. 4. To this if we adde the almightinesse of the Judge , his infinite wisdome and knowledge of all causes , and all persons , and all circumstances , that he is infinitely just , inflexibly angry , and impartiall in his sentence , there can be nothing added either to the greatness or the requisites of a terrible and an Almighty Judge . For who can resist him who is Almighty ? Who can evade his scrutiny that knows all things ? Who can hope for pity of him that is inflexible ? Who can think to be exempted when the Judge is righteous and impartial ? But in all these annexes of the great Judge , that which I shal now remark , is that indeed which hath terror in it , and that is , the severity of our Lord. For then is the day of vengeance and recompenses , and no mercy at all shall be shewed , but to them that are the sons of mercy ; for the other , their portion is such as can be expected from these premises . 1. If we remember the instances of Gods severity in this life , in the daies of mercy and repentance , in those dayes when Judgement waits upon Mercy , and receives lawes by the rules and measures of pardon , and that for all the rare streams of loving kindnesse issuing out of Paradise and refreshing all our fields with a moisture more fruitfull then the flouds of Nilus , still there are mingled some stormes and violences , some fearfull instances of the Divine Justice , we may more readily expect it will be worse , infinitely worse at that day , when Judgement shall ride in triumph , and Mercy shall be the accuser of the wicked . But so we read , and are commanded to remember , because they are written for our example , that God destroyed at once five cities of the plain , and all the country , and Sodome and her sisters are set forth for an example , suffering the vengeance of eternall fire . Fearfull it was when God destroyed at once 23000 for fornication , and an exterminating Angell in one night killed 185000 of the Assyrians , and the first born of all the families of Egypt , and for the sin of David in numbring the people threescore and ten thousand of the people dyed , and God sent ten tribes into captivity and eternall oblivion and indistinction from a common people for their idolatry . Did not God strike Corah and his company with fire from Heaven ? and the earth open'd and swallowed up the congregation of Abiram ? And is not evill come upon all the world for one sin of Adam ? Did not the anger of God break the nation of the Jewes all in pieces with judgements so great , that no nation ever suffered the like , because none ever sin'd so ? And at once it was done , that God in anger destroyed all the world , and eight persons only escaped the angry Baptisme of water , and yet this world is the time of mercy ; God hath open'd here his Magazines , and sent his holy Son as the great channell and fountain of it too : here he delights in mercy , and in judgement loves to remember it , and it triumphs over all his works , and God contrives instruments and accidents , chances and designs , occasions and opportunities for mercy : if therefore now the anger of God makes such terrible eruptions upon the wicked people that delight in sin , how great may we suppose that anger to be , how severe that Judgement , how terrible that vengeance , how intolerable those inflictions which God reserves for the full effusion of indignation on the great day of vengeance ? 2. We may also guesse at it by this ; if God upon all single instances , and in the midst of our sins , before they are come to the full , and sometimes in the beginning of an evill habit be so fierce in his anger , what can we imagine it to be , in that day when the wicked are to drink the dregs of that horrid potion , and count over all the particulars of their whole treasure of wrath ? This is the day of wrath , and God shall reveal , or , bring forth his righteous Judgements . The expression is taken from Deut. 32. 34. Is not this laid up in store with me , and sealed up among my treasures ? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , I will restore it in the day of vengeance , for the Lord shall judge his people , and repent himself for his servants . For so did the Lybian Lion that was brought up under discipline , and taught to endure blowes , and eat the meat of order and regular provision , and to suffer gentle usages , and the familiarities of societies ; but once he brake out into his own wildnesse , Dedidicit pacem subitò feritate reversâ , and kil'd two Roman boyes ; but those that forrage in the Lybian mountains tread down and devour all that they meet or master ; and when they have fasted two dayes , lay up an anger great as is their appetite , and bring certain death to all that can be overcome : God is pleased to compare himself to a Lion ; and though in this life he hath confin'd himself with promises and gracious emanations of an infinite goodnesse , and limits himself by conditions and covenants , and suffers himself to be overcome by prayers , and himself hath invented wayes of atonement and expiation , yet when he is provoked by our unhandsome and unworthy actions , he makes sudden breaches , and tears some of us in pieces , and of others he breaks their bones or affrights their hopes and secular gayeties , and fils their house with mourning and Cypresse , and groans and death : But when this Lion of the tribe of Judah shall appear upon his own mountain , the mountain of the Lord , in his naturall dresse of Majesty , and that Justice shall have her chain and golden fetters taken off , then Justice shall strike , and Mercy shall not hold her hands ; she shall strike sore strokes , and pity shall not break the blow ; and God shall account with us by minutes , and for words , and for thoughts , and then he shall be severe to mark what is done amisse ; and that Justice may reign intirely , God shall open the wicked mans treasure , and tell the sums , and weigh grains and scruples : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Philo upon the place of Deuteronomy before quoted : As there are treasures of good things ; and God hath Crowns and Scepters in store for his Saints and servants , and Coronets for Martyrs , and Rosaries for Virgins , and Phials full of Prayers , and bottles full of tears , and a register of sighs and penitentiall groans : so God hath a treasure of wrath and fury , of scourges and scorpions , and then shall be produced the shame of lust , and the malice of envie , and the groans of the oppressed , and the persecutions of the Saints , and the cares of covetousnesse , and the troubles of ambition , and the insolencies of traitors , and the violences of rebels , and the rage of anger , and the uneasinesse of impatience , and the restlesnesse of unlawfull desires ; and by this time the monsters and diseases will be numerous , and intolerable , when Gods heavie hand shall presse the sanies and the intolerablenesse , the obliquity and the unreasonablenesse , the amazement and the disorder , the smart and the sorrow , the guilt and the punishment out from all our sins , and pour them into one chalice , and mingle them with an infinite wrath , and make the wicked drink off all the vengeance , and force it down their unwilling throats with the violence of Devils and accursed Spirits . 3. We may guesse at the severity of the Judge by the lesser strokes of that Judgement which he is pleased to send upon sinners in this world , to make them afraid of the horrible pains of Dooms-day : I mean the torments of an unquiet conscience , the amazement and confusions of some sins and some persons . For I have sometimes seen persons surpriz'd in a base action , and taken in the circumstances of crafty theft , and secret unjustices before their excuse was ready ; They have changed their colour , their speech hath faltered , their tongue stammer'd , their eyes did wander and fix no where , till shame made them sink into their hollow eye-pits to retreat from the images and circumstances of discovery ; their wits are lost , their reason uselesse , the whole order of their soul is discomposed , and they neither see , nor feel , nor think as they use to do , but they are broken into disorder by a stroke of damnation and a lesser stripe of hell ; but then if you come to observe a guilty and a base murtherer , a condemned traytor , and see him harrassed first by an evill conscience , and then pull'd in pieces by the hangmans hooks , or broken upon sorrows and the wheel , we may then guesse ( as well as we can in this life ) what the pains of that day shall be to accursed souls : But those we shall consider afterwards in their proper scene ; now only we are to estimate the severity of our Judge by the intolerablenesse of an evill conscience ; if guilt will make a man despair , and despair will make a man mad , confounded and dissolved in all the regions of his senses and more noble faculties , that he shall neither feel , nor hear , nor see any thing but spectres and illusions , devils and frightfull dreams , and hear noises , and shriek fearfully , and look pale and distracted like a hopelesse man from the horrors and confusions of a lost battell upon which all his hopes did stand , then the wicked must at the day of Judgement expect strange things and fearfull , and such which now no language can expresse , and then no patience can endure . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Then only it can truly be said that he is inflexible and inexorable . No prayers then can move him , no groans can cause him to pity thee : therefore pity thy self in time , that when the Judge comes thou mayest be one of the sons of everlasting mercy , to whom pity belongs as part of thine inheritance ; for all else shall without any remorse ( except his own ) be condemned by the horrible sentence . 4. That all may think themselves concerned in this consideration , let us remember that even the righteous and most innocent shall passe through a severe triall . Many of the Ancients explicated this severity by the fire of conflagration , which say they shall purifie those souls at the day of Judgement , which in this life have built upon the foundation hay and stubble , works of folly and false opinions , and states of imperfection . So S. Austins Doctrine was , Hoc aget caminus , alios in sinistrâ separabit , alios in dextrâ quodam modo eliquabit , The great fire at Dooms-day shall throw some into the portion of the left hand , and others shall be purified and represented on the right : and the same is affirmed by Origen * and Lactantius ; and S. Hilary thus expostulates , Since we are to give account for every idle word , shall we long for the day of Judgement , in quo est nobis indefessus ille ignis obeundus in quo subeunda sunt gravia illa expiandae à peccatis animae supplicia , Wherein we must every one of us passe that unwearied fire in which those grievous punishments for expiating the soul from sins must be endured ; for to such as have been baptized with the Holy Ghost it remaineth that they be consummated with the fire of Judgement . And S. Ambrose addes , That if any be as Peter or as John , they are baptiz'd with this fire , and he that it purged here had need to be purged there again : Illic quoque nos purificet quando dicat dominus , Intrate in requiem mean , Let him also purifie us , that every one of us being burned with that flaming sword , not burned up or consumed , we may enter into Paradise and give thanks unto the Lord who hath brought us into a place of refreshment . This opinion of theirs is , in the main of it , very uncertain , relying upon the sense of some obscure places of Scripture , is only apt to represent the great severity of the Judge at that day , and it hath in it this only certainty , that even the most innocent person hath great need of mercy , and he that hath the greatest cause of confidence , although he runs to no rocks to hide him , yet he runs to the protection of the Crosse , and hides himself under the shadow of the Divine mercies : and he that shall receive the absolution of the blessed sentence , shall also suffer the terrors of the day , and the fearfull circumstances of Christs coming . The effect of this consideration is this : That if the righteous scarcely be saved , where shall the wicked and the sinner appear ? Quid faciet virgula deserti , ubi concutretur cedrus Paradisi ? Quid faciet agnus , cumtremit aries ? Si coelum fugiat , ubi manebit terra ? said S. Gregory . And if S. Paul whose conscience accus'd him not , yet durst not be too confident , because he was not hereby justified , but might be found faulty by the severer Judgement of his Lord ; how shall we appear with all our crimes and evill habits round about us ? If there be need of much mercy to the servants and friends of the Judge , then his enemies shall not be able to stand up right in Judgement . 5. But the matter is still of more concernment . The Pharisees beleeved that they were innocent if they abstained from criminall actions , such as were punishable by the Judge ; and many Christians think all is well with them , if they abstain from such sins as have a name in the Tables of their Lawes : But because some sins are secret and not discernible by man ; others are publick , but not punished , because they are frequent and perpetuall , and without externall mischiefs in some instances , and only provocations against God ; men think that in their concernments they have no place : and such are jeering and many instances of wantonnesse , and revelling , doing petty spites , and doggednesse , and churlishnesse , lying and pride : and beyond this , some are very like vertues ; as too much gentlenesse and slacknesse in government , or too great severity and rigor of animadversions , bitternesse in reproof of sinners , uncivill circumstances , imprudent handlings of some criminals , and zeal ; Nay there are some vile things , which through the evill discoursings and worse manners of men are passed into an artificiall and false reputation , and men are accounted wits for talking Atheistically , and valiant for being murderers , and wise for deceiving and circumventing our Brothers ; and many irregularities more , for all which we are safe enough here . But when the day of Judgement comes , these shall be called to a severe account , for the Judge is omniscient and knows all things , and his tribunall takes cognisance of all causes , and hath a coërcitive for all , all things are naked and open to his eyes ( saith S. Paul ) therefore nothing shall escape for being secret : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And all prejudices being laid aside it shall be considered concerning our evill rules , and false principles ; Cum cepero tempus , ego justitias judicabo ; when I shall receive the people , I shall judge according unto right : so we read ; [ When we shall receive time , I will judge justices and judgements ] so the vulgar Latin reads it ; that is , in the day of the Lord , when time is put into his hand and time shall be no more , he shall judge concerning those judgements when men here make of things below ; and the fighting man shall perceive the noises of drunkards and fools that cryed him up for daring to kill his Brother , to have been evill principles ; and then it will be declared by strange effects , that wealth is not the greatest fortune ; and ambition was not but an ill counsellor ; and to lye for a good cause was no piety ; and to do evill for the glory of God was but an ill worshipping him ; and that good nature was not well imploy'd when it spent it self in vicious company , and evill compliances ; and that piety was not softnesse and want of courage ; and that poverty ought not to have been contemptible ; and that cause that is unsuccessefull , is not therefore evill ; and what is folly here , shall be wisdome there ; then shall men curse their evill guides and their accursed superinduced necessities , and the evill guises of the world ; and then when silence shall be found innocence , and eloquence in many instances condemned as criminall ; when the poor shall reign , and Generals and Tyrants shall lye low in horrible regions ; when he that lost all shall finde a treasure , and he that spoil'd him shall be found naked and spoil'd by the destroyer , then we shall finde it true , that we ought here to have done what our Judge , our blessed Lord shall do there , that is , take our measures of good and evill by the severities of the word of God , by the Sermons of Christ , and the four Gospels , and by the Epistles of S. Paul , by Justice and charity , by the Lawes of God and the lawes of wise Princes and Republicks , by the rules of Nature and the just proportions of Reason , by the examples of good men and the proverbs of wise men , by severity and the rules of Discipline : for then it shall be , that truth shall ride in triumph , and the holinesse of Christs Sermons shall be manifest to all the world ; that the Word of God shall be advanced over all the discourses of men , and Wisdome shall be justified by all her children . Then shall be heard those words of an evill and tardy repentance , and the just rewards of folly ; [ We fools thought their life madnesse ; but behold they are justified before the throne of God , and we are miserable for ever . ] Here men think it strange if others will not run into the same excesse of riot ; but there they will wonder how themselves should be so mad and infinitely unsafe by being strangely and inexcusably unreasonable . The summe is this ; The Judge shall appear cloathed with wisdome , and power , and justice , and knowledge , and an impartiall Spirit , making no separations by the proportions of this world , but by the measures of God , not giving sentence by the principles of our folly and evill customes , but by the severity of his own Laws and measures of the Spirit . Non est judicium Dei sicut hominum , God does not judge as Man judges . 6. Now that the Judge is come thus arrayed , thus prepared , so instructed , let us next consider the circumstances of our appearing and his sentence ; and first I consider that men at the day of Judgement that belong not to the portion of life , shall have three sorts of accusers , 1. Christ himself , who is their Judge . 2. Their own conscience , whom they have injured and blotted with characters of death and foul dishonour . 3. The Devill , their enemy , whom they served . 1. Christ shall be their accuser , not only upon the stock of those direct injuries ( which I before reckoned ) of crucifying the Lord of life , once and again , &c. But upon the titles of contempt and unworthinesse , of unkindnesse and ingratitude ; and the accusation will be nothing else but a plain representation of those artifices and assistances , those bonds and invitations , those constrainings and importunities which our dear Lord used to us to make it almost impossible to lye in sin , and necessary to be sav'd . For it will , it must needs be a fearfull exprobration of our unworthinesse , when the Judge himself shall bear witnesse against us , that the wisdome of God himself was strangely imployed in bringing us safely to felicity . I shall draw a short Scheme , which although it must needs be infinitely short of what God hath done for us , yet it will be enough to shame us . * God did not only give his Son for an example , and the Son gave himself for a price for us , but both gave the holy Spirit to assist us in mighty graces , for the verifications of Faith , and the entertainments of Hope , and the increase and perseverance of Charity . * God gave to us a new nature , he put another principle into us , a third part of a perfective constitution : we have the Spirit put into us , to be a part of us , as properly to produce actions of a holy life , as the soul of man in the body does produce the naturall . * God hath exalted humane nature , and made it in the person of Jesus Christ , to sit above the highest seat of Angels , and the Angels are made ministring spirits , ever since their Lord became our Brother . * Christ hath by a miraculous Sacrament given us his body to eat , and his bloud to drink , he made waies that we may become all one with him . * He hath given us an easie religion , and hath established our future felicity upon naturall and pleasant conditions , and we are to be happy hereafter if we suffer God to make us happy here ; and things are so ordered , that a man must take more pains to perish , then to be happy . * God hath found out rare wayes to make our prayers acceptable , our weak petitions , the desires of our imperfect souls to prevail mightily with God ; and to lay a holy violence , and an undeniable necessity upon himself ; and God will deny us nothing but when we aske of him to do us ill offices , to give us poisons and dangers , and evill nourishment , and temptations ; and he that hath given such mighty power to the prayers of his servants , yet will not be moved by those potent and mighty prayers to do any good man an evill turn , or to grant him one mischief ; in that only God can deny us . * But in all things else God hath made all the excellent things in heaven and earth to joyn towards holy and fortunate effects ; for he hath appointed an Angell to present the prayers of Saints , and Christ makes intercession for us , and the holy Spirit makes intercession for us with groans unutterable ; and all the holy men in the world pray for all and for every one ; and God hath instructed us with Scriptures , and precedents , and collaterall and direct assistances to pray ; and he incouraged us with divers excellent promises , and parables , and examples , and teaches us what to pray and how , and gives one promise to publique prayer , and another to private prayer , and to both the blessing of being heard . * Adde to this account that God did heap blessings upon us without order , infinitely , perpetually and in all instances , when we needed , and when we needed not . * He heard us when we pray'd , giving us all and giving us more then we desired ; * He desired that we should aske , and yet he hath also prevented our desires ; * He watch'd for us , and at his own charge sent a whole order of men whose imployment is to minister to our souls : and if all this had not been enough , he had given us more also . * He promised heaven to our obedience , a Province for a dish of water , a Kingdome for a prayer , satisfaction for desiring it , grace for receiving , and more grace for accepting and using the first . * He invited us with gracious words and perfect entertainments ; * He threatned horrible things to us if we would not be happy ; * He hath made strange necessities for us , making our very repentance to be a conjugation of holy actions , and holy times , and a long succession ; * He hath taken away all excuses from us , he hath called us off from temptation , he bears our charges , he is alwaies before-hand with us in every act of favour , and perpetually slow in striking , and his arrowes are unfeathered , and he is so long , first in drawing his sword , and another long while in whetting it , and yet longer in lifting his hand to strike , that before the blow comes the man hath repented long , unlesse he be a fool and impudent ; and then God is so glad of an excuse to lay his anger aside , that certainly if after all this we refuse life and glory , there is no more to be said ; this plain story will condemn us : but the story is very much longer , and as our conscience will represent all our sins to us , so the Judge will represent all his Fathers kindnesses , as Nathan did to David , when he was to make the justice of the Divine Sentence appear against him . * Then it shall be remembred that the joyes of every daies piety would have been a greater pleasure every night , then the remembrance of every nights sin could have been in the morning ; * That every night , the trouble and labour of the daies vertue would have been as much passed and turned to as very a nothing , as the pleasure of that daies sin ; but that they would be infinitely distinguished by the remanent effects . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , So Musonius expressed the sense of this inducement ; and that this argument would have grown so great by that time we come to dye , that the certain pleasures , and rare confidences , and holy hopes of a death-bed would be a strange felicity to the man when he remembers he did obey , if they were compared to the fearfull expectations of a dying sinner , who feels by a formidable and afrighting remembrance that of all his sins nothing remains but the gains of a miserable eternity . * The offering our selves to God every morning , and the thanksgiving to God every night , hope and fear , shame and desire , the honour of leaving a fair name behinde us , and the shame of dying like a fool , every thing indeed in the world is made to be an argument and an inducement to us to invite us to come to God and be sav'd ; and therefore when this , and infinitely more shall by the Judge be exhibited in sad remembrances , there needs no other sentence , we shall condemn our selves with a hasty shame , and a fearfull confusion , to see how good God hath been to us , and how base we have been to our selves . Thus Moses is said to accuse the Jewes ; and thus also he that does accuse , is said to condemn , as Verres was by Cicero , and Claudia by Domitius her accuser , and the world of impenitent persons by the men of Nineveh , and all , by Christ their Judge . I represent the horror of this circumstance to consist in this , besides the reasonablenesse of the Judgement , and the certainty of the condemnation , it cannot but be an argument of an intolerable despair to perishing souls , when he that was our Advocate all our life , shall in the day of that appearing be our Accuser and our Judge , a party against us , an injur'd person in the day of his power , and of his wrath , doing execution upon all his own foolish and malicious enemies . * 2. Our conscience shall be our accuser , ] but this signifies but these two things ; 1. that we shall be condemned for the evils that we have done , and shall then remember ; God by his power wiping away the dust from the tables of our memory , and taking off the consideration and the voluntary neglect and rude shufflings of our cases of conscience . For then we shall see things as they are , the evill circumstances and the crooked intentions , the adherent unhandsomenesse and the direct crimes : for all things are laid up safely , and though we draw a curtain of cobweb over them , and few figleaves before our shame , yet God shall draw away the curtain , and forgetfulnesse shall be no more , because with a taper in the hand of God all the corners of our nastinesse shall be discovered . And secondly it signifies this also , that not only the Justice of God shall be confessed by us in our own shame and condemnation , but the evill of the sentence shall be received into us , to melt our bowels and to break our heart in pieces within us , because we are the authors of our own death , and our own inhumane hands have torn our souls in pieces . Thus farre the horrors are great , and when evill men consider it , it is certain they must be afraid to dye . Even they that have liv'd well , have some sad considerations , and the tremblings of humility , and suspicion of themselves . I remember S. Cyprian tels of a good man who in his agony of death saw a phantasme of a noble and angelicall shape , who frowning and angry said to him , Pati timetis , exire non vultis , Quid faciam vobis ? Ye cannot endure sicknesse , ye are troubled at the evils of the world , and yet you are loth to dye and to be quit of them , what shall I do to you ? Although this is apt to represent every mans condition more or lesse , yet concerning persons of wicked lives , it hath in it too many sad degrees of truth ; they are impatient of sorrow , and justly fearfull of death , because they know not how to comfort themselves in the evill accidents of their lives ; and their conscience is too polluted to take death for sanctuary , and to hope to have amends made to their condition by the sentence of the day of Judgement . Evill and sad is their condition who cannot be contented here , nor blessed hereafter ; whose life is their misery , and their conscience is their enemy , whose grave is their prison , and death their undoing , and the sentence of Dooms-day , the beginning of an intolerable condition . 3. The third sort of accusers , are the Devils ; and they will do it with malicious and evill purposes ; The Prince of the Devils hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for one of his chiefest appellatives : The accuser of the Brethren he is by his professed malice , and imployment ; and therefore God who delights that his mercy should triumph , and his goodnesse prevail over all the malice of men and Devils , hath appointed one whose office is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to reprove the accuser , and to resist the enemy , and to be a defender of their cause who belong to God. The holy Spirit is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a defender , the evill spirit is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the accuser , and they that in this life belong to one or the other , shall in the same proportion be treated at the day of Judgement . The Devill shall accuse the Brethren , that is , the Saints and servants of God , and shall tell concerning their follies and infirmities , the sins of their youth , and the weaknesse of their age , the imperfect grace , and the long schedule of omissions of duty , their scruples and their fears , their diffidences and pusillanimity , and all those things which themselves by strict examination finde themselves guilty of , and have confessed , all their shame and the matter of their sorrowes , their evill intentions and their little plots , their carnall confidences , and too fond adherences to the things of this world , their indulgence and easinesse of government , their wilder joyes and freer meals , their losse of time and their too forward and apt compliances , their trifling arrests and little peevishnesses , the mixtures of the world with the things of the Spirit , and all the incidences of humanity he will bring forth and aggravate them by the circumstance of ingratitude , and the breach of promise , and the evacuating all their holy purposes , and breaking their resolutions , and rifling their vowes ; and all these things being drawn into an intire representment , and the bils clog'd by numbers , will make the best man in the world seem foul and unhandsome , and stained with the characters of death and evill dishonour . But for these there is appointed a defender ; The holy Spirit that maketh intercession for us , shall then also interpose , and against all these things shall oppose the passion of our blessed Lord , and upon all their defects shall cast the robe of his righteousnesse ; and the sins of their youth shall not prevail so much as the repentance of their age ; and their omissions be excused by probable intervening causes , and their little escapes shall appear single , and in disunion , because they were alwaies kept asunder by penitentiall prayers and sighings , and their seldome returns of sin by their daily watchfulnesse , and their often infirmities by the sincerity of their souls , and their scruples by their zeal , and their passions by their love , and all by the mercies of God and the sacrifice which their Judge offer'd , and the holy Spirit made effective by daily graces and assistances . These therefore infallibly go to the portion of the right hand , because the Lord our God shall answer for them . But as for the wicked , it is not so with them ; for although the plain story of their life be to them a sad condemnation , yet what will be answered when it shall be told concerning them , that they despised Gods mercies , and feared not his angry judgements ; that they regarded not his word , and loved not his excellencies ; that they were not perswaded by the promises , nor afrighted by his threatnings ; that they neither would accept his government , nor his blessings ; that all the sad stories that ever hapned in both the worlds , ( in all which himself did escape till the day of his death , and was not concerned in them save only that he was called upon by every one of them , which he ever heard or saw or was told of , to repentance , that all these ) were sent to him in vain ? But cannot the Accuser truly say to the Judge concerning such persons , They were thine by creation , but mine by their own choice : Thou didst redeem them indeed , but they sold themselves to me for a trifle , or for an unsatisfying interest : Thou diedst for them , but they obeyed my commandements : I gave them nothing , I promised them nothing but the filthy pleasures of a night , or the joyes of madnesse , or the delights of a disease : I never hanged upon the Crosse three long hours for them , nor endured the labours of a poor life 33 years together for their interest ; only when they were thine by the merit of thy death , they quickly became mine by the demerit of their ingratitude , and when thou hadst cloathed their soul with thy robe , and adorned them by thy graces , we strip'd them naked as their shame , and only put on a robe of darknesse , and they thought themselves secure and went dancing to their grave like a drunkard to a fight , or a flie unto a candle ; and therefore they that did partake with us in our faults , must divide with us in our portion and fearfull interest ? This is a sad story because it ends in death , and there is nothing to abate or lessen the calamity . It concerns us therefore to consider in time , that he that tempts us will accuse us , and what he cals pleasant now he shall then say was nothing , and all the gains that now invite earthly souls and mean persons to vanity , was nothing but the seeds of folly , and the harvest is pain and sorrow , and shame eternall . * But then since this horror proceeds upon the account of so many accusers , God hath put it into our power by a timely accusation of our selves in the tribunall of the court Christian to prevent all the arts of aggravation which at Dooms-day shall load foolish and undiscerning souls . He that accuses himself of his crimes here , means to forsake them , and looks upon them on all sides , and spies out his deformity , and is taught to hate them , he is instructed and prayed for , he prevents the anger of God and defeats the Devils malice , and by making shame the instrument of repentance , he takes away the sting , and makes that to be his medicine which otherwise would be his death : and concerning this exercise , I shall only adde what the Patriarch of Alexandria told an old religious person in his hermitage ; having asked him what he found in that desert ; he was answered , only this , Indesinenter culpare & judicare meipsum ; to judge and condemn my self perpetually , that is the imployment of my solitude . The Patriarch answered , Non est alia via , There is no other way . By accusing our selves we shall make the Devils malice uselesse , and our own consciences dear , and be reconciled to the Judge by the severities of an early repentance , and then we need to fear no accusers . SERMON , III. Part , III. 3. IT remaines that we consider the Sentence it self , We must receive according to what we have done in the body , whether it be good or bad . Judicaturo Domino lugubre mundus immugiet , & tribus ad tribum pectora ferient . Potentissimi quondam reges nudo latere palpitabunt : so St. Hierom meditates concerning the terror of this consideration . The whole world shall groan when the Judge comes to give his Sentence , tribe and tribe shall knock their sides together ; and through the naked breasts of the most mighty Kings you shall see their hearts beat with fearfull tremblings . Tunc Aristotelis argumenta parum proderunt , cum venerit filius pauperculae quaestuariae judicare orbem terra . Nothing shall then be worth owning , or the means of obtaining mercy , but a holy conscience ; all the humane craft and trifling subtilties shall be uselesse , when the Son of a poor Maid shall sit Judge over all the world . When the Prophet Joel was describing the formidable accidents in the day of the Lords Judgement , and the fearfull Sentence of an angry Judge , he was not able to expresse it , but flammered like a Childe , or an amazed imperfect person , A. A. A. diei , quia propè est Dies Domini ; it is not sense at first ; he was so amazed , he knew not what to say , and the Spirit of God was pleased to let that signe remain like Agamemnon's sorrow for the death of Iphigenia , nothing could describe it but a vail ; it must be hidden and supposed ; and the stammering tongue that is full of fear , can best speak that terror which will make all the world to cry , and shriek , and speak fearfull accents , and significations of an infinite sorrow and amazement . But so it is , there are two great days in which the fate of all the world is transacted . This life is mans day , in which man does what he please , and God holds his peace . Man destroys his Brother , and destroyes himselfe , and confounds Governments , and raises Armies , and tempts to sin , and delights in it , and drinks drunk , and forgets his sorrow , and heaps up great estates , and raises a family and a name in the Annals , and makes others fear him , and introduces new Religions , and confounds the old , and changeth Articles as his interest requires , and all this while God is silent , save that he is loud and clamorous with his holy precepts , and over-rules the event ; but leaves the desires of men to their owne choice , and their course of life such as they generally choose . But then , God shall have his day too ; the day of the Lord shall come , in which he shall speak , and no man shall answer , he shall speak in the voyce of thunder and fearfull noyses , and man shall doe no more as he please , but must suffer as he hath deserved . When Zedekiah reigned in Jerusalem , and persecuted the Prophets , and destroyed the interests of Religion , and put Jeremy into the Dungeon , God held his peace ; save onely that he warned him of the danger , and told him of the disorder ; but it was Zedekiah's day , and he was permitted to his pleasure . But when he was led in chains to Babylon , and his eyes were put out with burning Basons and horrible circles of reflected fires , then was Gods day , and his voyce was the accent of a fearfull anger , that broke him all in pieces . It will be all our ca●es , unlesse we hear God speak now , and doe his work , and serve his interest , and bear our selves in our just proportions , that is , as such , the very end of whose being , and all our faculties is to serve God , and doe justice , and charities to our Brother . For if we doe the work of God in our own day , wee shall receive an infinite mercy in the day of the Lord. But what that is , is now to be inquired . What wee have done in the body ] But certainly this is the greatest terror of all . The thunders and the fires , the earthquakes and the trumpets , the brightnesse of holy Angels , and the horror of accursed Spirits , the voyce of the Archangel ( who is the Prince of the heavenly host ) and the Majesty of the Judge , in whose service all that Army stands girt with holinesse and obedience , all those strange circumstances which have been already reckoned , and all those others which wee cannot understand , are but little praeparatories and umbrages of this fearfull circumstance . All this amazing Majesty and formidable praeparatories are for the passing of an eternall Sentence upon us according to what we have done in the body . Woe and alas ! and God help us all . All mankind is an enemy to God , his nature is accursed , and his manners are depraved . It is with the nature of man , and with all his manners , as Philemon said of the nature of foxes . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Every fox is crafty and mischievous , and if you gather a whole herd of them there is not a good natur'd beast amongst them all ; so it is with man ; by nature he is the child of wrath , and by his manners he is the child of the Devill ; wee call Christian , and wee dishonour our Lord , and we are Brethren , but we oppresse and murther one another ; it is a great degree of sanctity now a-days not to be so wicked as the worst of men ; and wee live at the rate as if the best of men did design to themselves an easier condemnation ; and as if the generality of men consider'd not concerning the degrees of death , but did beleeve that in hell no man shall perceive any ease or refreshment in being tormented with a slower fire . For consider what we doe in the body ; 12 or 14 years passe before we choose good or bad ; and of that which remaines above halfe is spent in sleep and the needs of Nature ; for the other halfe it is divided as the Stag was when the beasts went a hunting , the Lyon hath five parts of sixe : The businesse of the world takes so much of our remaining portion , that Religion and the service of God have not much time left that can be spar'd ; and of that which can , if we consider how much is allowed to crafty arts of cousenage , to oppression and ambition , to greedy desires , and avaritious prosecutions , to the vanities of our youth , and the proper sins of every age , to the meer idlenesse of man and doing nothing , to his fantastick imaginations of greatnesse , and pleasures , of great and little devices , of impertinent law-suites and uncharitable treatings of our Brother ; it will be intolerable when we consider that we are to stand or fall eternally , according to what we have done in the body . Gather it all together , and set it before thy eyes ; Almes and Prayers are the summe of all thy good . Were thy prayers made in feare and holinesse , with passion and desire ? Were they not made unwillingly , weakly , and wandringly , and abated with sins in the greatest part of thy life ? Didst thou pray with the same affection and labour as thou didst purchase thy estate ? Have thy alms been more then thy oppressions , and according to thy power ? and by what means didst thou judge concerning it ? How much of our time was spent in that ? and how much of our estate was spent in this ? But let us goe one step further : How many of us love our enemies ? or pray for , and doc good to them that persecute and affront us ? or overcome evill with good , or turn the face again to them that strike us , rather then be reveng'd ? or suffer our selves to be spoil'd or robbed without contention and uncharitable courses ? or lose our interest rather then lose our charity ? And yet by these precepts we shall be judged . I instance but once more . Our blessed Saviour spake a hard saying : Every idle word that men shall speak , they shall give account thereof at the day of Judgement . For by thy words thou shalt be justified , and by thy words thou shalt be condemned ; and upon this account may every one weeping and trembling say with Job , Quid faciam cum resurrexerit ad judicandum Deus ? What shall I doe when the Lord shall come to judgement ? Of every idle word ] O blessed God! what shall become of them who love to prate continually , to tell tales , to detract , to slander , to back-bite , to praise themselves , to undervalue others , to compare , to raise divisions , to boast ? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; Who shall be able to stand upright , not bowing the knee with the intolerable load of the sins of his tongue ? If of every idle word we must give account , what shall we doe for those malicious words that dishonor God , or doe despite to our Brother ? Remember how often we have tempted our Brother , or a silly woman to sin and death ? How often we have pleaded for unjust interests , or by our wit have cousened an easie , and a beleeving person , or given evill sentences , or disputed others into false perswasions ? Did we never call good evill , or evill good ? Did we never say to others , thy cause is right , when nothing made it right , but favour and money , a false advocate or a covetous Judge ? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so said Christ , every idle word that is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so St. Paul uses it , every false word , every lie shall be called to judgement ; or as some Copies read it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , every wicked word shall be called to judgment . For by [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] idle words , are not meant words that are unprofitable or unwise , for fooles and silly persons speak most of those , and have the least accounts to make ; but by vaine the Jewes usually understood false ; and to give their mind to vanity , or to speak vanity , is all one as to mind or speak falshoods with malicious and evill purposes . But if every idle word , that is every vain and lying word shall be called to judgment , what shall become of men that blaspheme God , or their Rulers , or Princes of the people , or their Parents ? that dishonour the Religion , and disgrace the Ministers ? that corrupt Justice and pervert Judgment ? that preach evill doctrines , or declare perverse sentences ? that take Gods holy Name in vain , or dishonour the Name of God by trifling and frequent swearings ; that holy Name by which wee hope to bee saved , and which all the Angels of God fall down and worship ? These things are to be considered , for by our own words we stand or fall , that is , as in humane Judgements the confession of the party , and the contradiction of himselfe , or the failing in the circumstances of his story , are the confidences or presumptions of law , by which Judges give sentence ; so shall our words be , not onely the means of declaring a secret sentence , but a certain instrument of being absolved or condemned . But upon these premises , we see what reason we have to fear the sentence of that day , who have sinned with our tongues so often , so continually , that if there were no other actions to be accounted for , we have enough in this account to make us die , and yet have committed so many evill actions that if our words were wholly forgotten , wee have infinite reason to feare concerning the event of that horrible sentence . The effect of which consideration is this , that we set a guard before our lips , and watch over our actions with a care , equall to that fear which shall be at Doomes-day , when we are to passe our sad accounts . But I have some considerations to interpose . 1. But ( that the sadnesse of this may a little be relieved , and our endevours be encouraged to a timely care and repentance ) consider , that this great sentence , although it shall passe concerning little things , yet it shall not passe by little portions , but by generall measures ; not by the little errors of one day , but by the great proportions of our life ; for God takes not notice of the infirmities of honest persons that alwayes endevour to avoid every sin , but in little intervening instances are surprized ; but he judges us by single actions , if they are great , and of evill effect ; and by little small instances , if they be habituall . No man can take care concerning every minute ; and therefore concerning it Christ will not passe sentence but by the discernible portions of our time , by humane actions , by things of choice and deliberation , and by generall precepts of care and watchfulnesse , this sentence shall be exacted . 2ly . The sentence of that day shall be passed , not by the proportions of an Angell , but by the measures of a Man ; the first follies are not unpardonable , but may bee recovered ; and the second are dangerous , and the third are more fatall ; but nothing is unpardonable but perseverance in evill courses . 3ly . The last Judgement shall bee transacted by the same Principles by which we are guided here : not by strange and secret propositions , or by the fancies of men , or by the subtilties of uselesse distinctions , or evill perswasions ; not by the scruples of the credulous , or the interest of sects , nor the proverbs of prejudice , nor the uncertain definitions of them that give laws to subjects by expounding the decrees of Princes ; but by the plain rules of Justice , by the ten Commandements , by the first apprehensions of conscience , by the plain rules of Scripture , and the rules of an honest mind , and a certain Justice . So that by this restraint and limit of the finall sentence , we are secur'd we shall not fall by scruple or by ignorance , by interest or by faction , by false perswasions of others , or invincible prejudice of our own , but we shall stand or fall by plain and easie propositions , by chastity or uncleannesse , by justice or unjustice , by robbery or restitution : and of this wee have a great testimony by our Judge and Lord himselfe ; Whatsoever yee shall bind in earth shall be bound in heaven , and whatsoever yee loose shall be loosed there ; that is , you shall stand or fall according to the Sermons of the Gospel , as the Ministers of the Word are commanded to preach , so yee must live here , and so yee must be judged hereafter ; yee must not look for that sentence by secret decrees or obscure doctrines , but by plain precepts and certain rules . But there are yet some more degrees of mercy . 4. That sentence shall passe upon us not after the measures of Nature , and possibilities , and utmost extents , but by the mercies of the Covenant ; we shall be judged as Christians rather then as men , that is , as persons to whom much is pardoned , and much is pityed , and many things are ( not accidentally , but consequently ) indulged , and great helps are ministred , and many remedies supplyed , and some mercies extraregularly conveyed , and their hopes enlarged upon the stock of an infinite mercy , that hath no bounds but our needs , our capacities , and our proportions to glory . 5. The sentence is to be given by him that once dyed for us , and does now pray for us , and perpetually intercedes ; and upon soules that he loves , and in the salvation of which himself hath a great interest , and increase of joy . And now upon these premises we may dare to consider what the sentence it self shall be , that shall never be reversed , but shall last for ever and ever . Whether it be good or bad . ] I cannot discourse now the greatnesse of the good or bad , so farre ( I mean ) as is revealed to us ; the considerations are too long to be crouded into the end of a Sermon ; onely in generall : 1. If it be good , it is greater then all the good of this world , and every mans share then , in every instant of his blessed eternity is greater then all the pleasures of Mankind in one heap . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . man can never wish for any thing greater then this immortality , said Posidippus . 2. To which I adde this one consideration , that the portion of the good at the day of sentence shall be so great , that after all the labours of our life , and suffering persecutions , and enduring affronts , and the labour of love , and the continuall feares and cares of the whole duration and abode , it rewards it all , and gives infinitely more ; Non sunt condignae passiones hujus saeculi ; all the torments and evills of this world are not to be estimated with the joyes of the Blessed : It is the gift of God ; a donative beyond the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the military stipend , it is beyond our work , and beyond our wages , and beyond the promise , and beyond our thoughts , and above our understandings , and above the highest heavens , it is a participation of the joyes of God , and of the inheritance of the Judge himselfe . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It is a day of recompenses , in which all our sorrowes shall be turn'd into joyes , our persecutions into a crown , the Crosse into a Throne , poverty to the riches of God , losse , and affronts , and inconveniences , and death , into scepters , and hymnes , and rejoycings , and Hallellujahs , and such great things which are fit for us to hope , but too great for us to discourse of , while we see as in a glasse darkly and imperfectly . And he that chooses to do an evill , rather then suffer one , shall finde it but an ill exchange , that he deferred his little to change for a great one . I remember that a servant in the old Comedy did chuse to venture the lash rather then to feel a present inconvenience , Quia illud aderat malum , istud aberat longiùs : illud erat praesens , huic erant dieculae : but this will be but an ill account , when the rods shall for the delay be turned into Scorpions , and from easie shall become intolerable . Better it is to suffer here , and to stay till the day of restitution for the good and the holy portion ; for it will recompense both for the suffering and the stay . But how if the portion be bad ? It shall be bad to the greatest part of mankinde ; that 's a fearfull consideration ; the greatest part of men and women shall dwell in the portion of Devils to eternall ages . So that these portions are like the Prophets figs in the vision ; the good are the best that ever were , and the worst are so bad that worse cannot be imagined . For though in hell the accursed souls shall have no worse then they have deserved , and there are not there overrunning measures as there are in heaven , and therefore that the joyes of heaven are infinitely greater joyes then the pains of hell are great pains , yet even these are a full measure to a full iniquity , pain above patience , sorrowes without ease , amazement without consideration , despair without the intervals of a little hope , indignation without the possession of any good , there dwels envie and confusion , disorder and sad remembrances , perpetuall woes and continuall shriekings , uneasinesse and all the evils of the soul. But if we will represent it in some orderly circumstances , we may consider , 1. That here , all the troubles of our spirits are little participations of a disorderly passion ; A man desires earnestly , but he hath not , or he envies because another hath something besides him , and he is troubled at the want of one , when at the same time he hath a hundred good things ; and yet ambition and envie , impatience and confusion , covetousnesse and lust are all of them very great torments ; but there these shall be in essence and abstracted beings ; the spirit of envie , and the spirit of sorrow ; Devils , that shall inflict all the whole nature of the evill and pour it into the minds of accursed men ; where it shall sit without abatement : for he that envies there , envies not for the eminence of another that sits a little above him , and excels him in some one good ; but he shall envie for all ; because the Saints have all , and they have none ; therefore all their passions are integral , abstracted , perfect passions ; and all the sorrow in the world at this time , is but a portion of sorrow ; every man hath his share , and yet besides that which all sad men have , there is a great deal of sorrow which they have not , and all the Devils portion besides that ; but in hell , they shall have the whole passion of sorrow in every one , just as the whole body of the Sun is seen by every one in the same Horizon ; and he that is in darknesse enjoyes it not by parts , but the whole darknesse is the portion of one as well as of another . If this consideration be not too Metaphysicall , I am sure it is very sad , and it relies upon this ; that as in heaven there are some holy Spirits whose crown is all love ; and some in which the brightest jewell is understanding ; some are purity , and some are holinesse to the Lord : so in the regions of sorrow , evill and sorrow have an essence and proper being , and are set there to be suffer'd intirely by every undone man that dies there for ever . 2. The evils of this world are materiall and bodily ; the pressing of a shoulder , or the straining of a joynt ; the dislocation of a bone , or the extending of an artery ; a bruise in the flesh , or the pinching of the skin ; a hot liver , or a sickly stomach ; and then the minde is troubled because its instrument is ill at ease ; but all the proper troubles of this life are nothing but the effects of an uneasie body , or an abused fancy , and therefore can be no bigger then a blow or a cousenage , then a wound or a dream ; only the trouble increases as the soul works it ; and if it makes reflex acts and begins the evill upon its own account , then it multiplies and doubles , because the proper scene of grief is open'd , and sorrow peeps through the corners of the soul. But in those regions and daies of sorrow when the soul shall be no more depending upon the body , but the perfect principle of all its actions , the actions are quick , and the perceptions brisk , the passions are extreme and the motions are spirituall ; the pains are like the horrors of a Devill , and the groans of an evill spirit ; not slow like the motions of a heavie foot , or a loaden arme , but quick as an Angels wing , active as lightning ; and a grief then , is nothing like a grief now , and the words of mans tongue which are fitted to the uses of this world , are as unfit to signifie the evils of the next , as person , and nature , and hand , and motion , and passion are to represent the effects of the Divine attributes , actions and subsistence . 3. The evill portions of the next world is so great , that God did not create or design it in the first intention of things , and production of essences ; he made the Kingdome of Heaven , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , from the foundation of the world ; for so it is observable , that Christ shall say to the Sheep at his right hand , Receive the Kingdome prepared for you from the beginning of the world ; but to the Goats and accursed spirits , he speaks of no such primitive and originall design ; it was accidentall and a consequent to horrid crimes , that God was forced to invent and to after create that place of torments . 4. And when God did create and prepare that place , he did not at all intend it for man , it was prepared for the Divill and his Angels , so saith the Judge himself , Go ye cursed into everlasting fire , prepared for the Devill and his Angels , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which my Father prepared for the Devill , so some copies read it : God intended it not for man , but man would imitate the Devils pride , and listen to the whispers of an evill spirit , and follow his temptations , and rebell against his Maker ; and then God also against his first design resolved to throw such persons into that place that was prepared for the Devill : for so great was the love of God to mankind , that he prepared joyes infinite and never ceasing for man before he had created him ; but he did not predetermine him to any evill ; but when he was forced to it by mans malice , he doing what God forbad him , God cast him thither where he never intended him ; but it was not mans portion : he designed it not at first , and at last also he invited him to repentance , and when nothing could do it , he threw man into anothers portion , because he would not accept of what was designed to be his own . 5. The evill portion shall be continuall without intermission of evill ; no dayes of rest , no nights of sleep , no ease from labour , no periods of the stroke , nor taking off the hand , no intervals between blow and blow ; but a continued stroke , which neither shortens the life , nor introduces a brawny patience , or the toleration of an oxe , but it is the same in every instant , and great as the first stroke of lightning ; the smart is great for ever as at the first change , from the rest of the grave to the flames of that horrible burning . The Church of Rome amongst some other strange opinions hath inserted this one into her publick Offices ; that the perishing souls in hell may have sometimes remission and refreshment like the fits of an intermitting feaver : for so it is in the Roman Missal printed at Paris , 1626. in the Masse for the dead ; Ut quia de ejus vitae qualitate diffidimus , & si plenam veniam anima ipsius obtinere non potest , saltem vel inter ipsa tormenta quae forsan patitur , refrigerium de abundantia miserationum tuarum sentiat : and something like this is that of Prudentius , Sunt & spiritibus saepè nocentibus , Poenarum celebres sub Styge feriae , &c. The evill spirits have ease of their pain , and he names their holiday , then when the Resurrection of our Lord from the grave is celebrated : Marcent suppliciis Tartara mitibus , Exultátque sui carceris otio Umbrarum populus liber ab ignibus : Nec fervent solito flumina sulphure . They then thought that when the Paschall taper burn'd , the flames of hell could not burn , till the holy wax was spent : but because this is a fancy without ground or revelation , and is against the Analogie of all those expressions of our Lord , Where the worm dyeth not , and the fire is never quenched , and divers others , it is sufficient to have noted it without further consideration ; the pains of hell have no rest , no drop of water is allowed to cool the tongue , there is no advocate to plead for them , no mercy belongs to their portion , but fearfull wrath and continuall burnings . 6. And yet this is not the worst of it ; for as it is continuall during its abode ; so its abode is for ever , it is continuall and eternall . Tertullian speaks something otherwise , Pro magnitudine cruciatus non diuturni , verùm sempiterni ; not continuall , or the pains of every day , but such which shall last for ever . But Lactantius is more plain in this affair ; The same divine fire by the same power and force shall burn the wicked , and shall repair instantly whatsoever of the body it does consume : Ac sibi ipsi aeternum ●pabulum subministrabit , and shall make for it self an eternall fuell . " Vermibus & flammis & discruciatibus aevum " Immortale dedit , senio ne poena periret " Non pereunte animâ — So Prudentius eternall wormes , and unextinguished flames , and immortall punishment is prepared for the ever-never dying souls of wicked men . Origen is charged by the ancient Churches for saying that after a long time the Devils and the accursed souls shall be restored to the Kingdome of God ; and that after a long time again they shall be restored to their state ; and so it was from their fall and shall be forever ; and it may be that might be the meaning of Tertullians expression , of cruciatus non diuturni sed sempiterni . Epiphanius charges not the opinion upon Origen , and yet he was free enough in his animadversion and reproof of him ; but S. Austin did , and confuted the opinion in his books De civitate Dei. However , Origen was not the first that said the pains of the damned should cease ; Justin Martyr in his Dialogue with Tryphon expresses it thus . Neither do I say that all the souls do dye , for that indeed would be to the wicked a gain unlooked for : What then ? the souls of the godly in a better place , of the wicked in a worse , do tarry the time of Judgement ; then they that are worthy shall never dye again ; but those that are designed to punishment shall abide so long as God please to have them to live and to be punished : But I observe , that the primitive Doctors were very willing to believe that the mercy of God would finde out a period to the torment of accursed souls ; but such a period , which should be nothing but eternall destruction , called by the Scripture the second death : only Origen ( as I observed ) is charg'd by S. Austin to have said they shall return into joyes ; and back again to hell by an eternall revolution . But concerning the death of wicked souls , and its being broke into pieces with fearfull torments and consumed with the wrath of God , they had entertain'd some different fancies very early in the Church , as their sentences are collected by S. Hierome at the end of his Commentaries upon Isay ; and Ireneus disputes it largely , that they that are unthankfull to God in this short life and obey him not , shall never have an eternall duration of life in the ages to come , sed ipse se privat in saeculum saeculi perseverantiâ , he deprives his soul of living to eternall ages ; for he supposes an immortall duration not to be naturall to the soul , but a gift of God , which he can take away , and did take away from Adam , and restored it again in Christ to them that beleeve in him and obey him : for the other , they shall be raised again to suffer shame , and fearfull torments , and according to the degree of their sins , so shall be continued in their sorrowes , and some shall dye and some shall not dye ; the Devill and the Beast , and and they that worshipped the Beast , and they that were marked with his Character , these S. John saith shall be tormented for ever and ever ; he does not say so of all ; but of some certain great criminals ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , all , so long as God please , some for ever and ever , and some not so severely ; And whereas the generall sentence is given to all wicked persons , to all on the left hand , to go into everlasting fire : it is answered , that the fire indeed is everlasting , but not all that enters into it is everlasting ; but only the Devils for whom it was prepared and others more mighty criminals ( according as S. John intimates ) though also everlasting signifies only to the end of its proper period . Concerning this Doctrine of theirs so severe , and yet so moderated , there is lesse to be objected then against the supposed fancy of Origen : for it is a strange consideration to suppose an eternall torment to those to whom it was never threatned ; to those who never heard of Christ ; to those that liv'd probably well , to heathens of good lives ; to ignorants and untaught people ; to people surprised in a single crime ; to men that dye young in their naturall follies and foolish lusts ; to them that fall in a sudden gaiety and excessive joy ; to all alike ; to all infinite and eternall , even to unwarned people ; and that this should be inflicted by God who infinitely loves his creature , who dyed for them , who pardons easily , and pities readily , and excuses much , and delights in our being saved , and would not have us dye , and takes little things in exchange for great : it is certain that Gods mercies are infinite , and it is also certain that the matter of eternall torments cannot truly be understood ; and when the School-men go about to reconcile the Divine justice to that severity , and consider why God punishes eternally a temporall sin or a state of evill , they speak variously , and uncertainly , and unsatisfyingly . But that in this question we may separate the certain from the uncertain ; 1. It is certain that the torments of hell shall certainly last as long as the soul lasts ; for eternall and everlasting can signifie no lesse but to the end of that duration , to the perfect end of the period in which it signifies . So Sodom and Gomorrah , when God rained down hell from heaven upon the earth ( as Salvian's expression is ) they are said to suffer the vengeance of eternall fire : that is , of a fire that consumed them finally , and they never were restored : and so the accursed souls shall suffer torments till they be consumed ; who because they are immortall either naturally or by gift , shall be tormented for ever , or till God shall take from them the life that he restored to them on purpose to give them a capacity of being miserable ; and the best that they can expect is to despair of all good , to suffer the wrath of God , never to come to any minute of felicity , or of a tolerable state , and to be held in pain till God be weary of striking . This is the gentlest sentence of some of the old Doctors . But 2. the generality of Christians have been taught to beleeve worse things yet concerning them ; and the words of our blessed Lord , are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , eternall affliction or smiting ; Nec mortis poenas mors altera finiet hujus , Horaque ; erit tantis ultima nulla malis . And S. John , who well knew the minde of his Lord , saith ; The smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever , and they have no rest day nor night : that is , their torment is continuall , and it is eternall . Their second death shall be but a dying to all felicity , for so death is taken in Scripture ; Adam dyed when he eat the forbidden fruit ; that is , he was lyable to sicknesse and sorrowes , and pain and dissolution of soul and body : and to be miserable , is the worse death of the two ; they shall see the eternall felicity of the Saints , but they shall never taste of the holy Chalice . Those joyes shall indeed be for ever and ever ; for immortality is part of their reward , and on them the second death shall have no power ; but the wicked shall be tormented horridly and insufferably till death and hell be thrown into the lake of fire , and shall be no more , which is the second death . But that they may not imagine that this second death shall be the end of their pains , S. Iohn speaks expresly what that is ; Rev. 21. 8. The fearfull and unbeleeving , the abominable and the murderers , the whoremongers and sorcerers , the idolaters and all lyars shall have their part in the lake wich burneth with fire and brimstone , which is the second death ; no dying there , but a being tormented , burning in a lake of fire , that is the second death . For if life be reckoned a blessing , then to be destitute of all blessing is to have no life , and therefore to be intolerably miserable is this second death , that is , death eternall . 3. And yet if God should deal with man hereafter more mercifully and proportionably to his weak nature , then he does to Angels , and as he admits him to repentance here , so in hell also to a period of his smart , even when he keeps the Angels in pain for ever ; yet he will never admit him to favour , he shall be tormented beyond all the measure of humane ages , and be destroyed for ever and ever . It concerns us all who hear and beleeve these things , to do as our blessed Lord will do before the day of his coming ; he will call and convert the Jews and strangers : Conversion to God is the best preparatory to Dooms-day : and it concerns all them who are in the neighbourhood and fringes of the flames of hell , that is , in the state of sin , quickly to arise from the danger , and shake the burning coals off our flesh , lest it consume the marrow and the bones : Exuenda est velociter de incendio sarcina , priusquam flammis supervenientibus concremetur . Nemo diu tutus est periculo proximus , saith S. Cyprian , No man is safe long , that is so neer to danger ; for suddenly the change will come , in which the Judge shall be called to Judgement , and no man to plead for him , unlesse a good conscience be his Advocate ; and the rich shall be naked as a condemned criminall to execution ; and there shall be no regard of Princes or of Nobles , and the differences of mens account shall be forgotten , and no distinction remaining but of good or bad , sheep and goats , blessed and accursed souls . Among the wonders of the day of Judgement our blessed Saviour reckons it , that men shall be marrying and giving in marriage , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 marrying and crosse marrying , that is , raising families and lasting greatnesse and huge estates ; when the world is to end so quickly ; and the gains of a rich purchase so very a trifle , but no trifling danger ; a thing that can give no security to our souls , but much hazards and a great charge . More reasonable it is , that we despise the world and lay up for heaven , that we heap up treasures by giving almes , and make friends of unrighteous Mammon ; but at no hand to enter into a state of life , that is all the way a hazard to the main interest , and at the best , an increase of the particular charge . Every degree of riches , every degree of greatnesse , every ambitious imployment , every great fortune , every eminency above our brother , is a charge to the accounts of the last day . He that lives temperately and charitably , whose imployment is religion , whose affections are fear and love , whose desires are after heaven and do not dwell below ; that man can long and pray for the hastning of the coming of the day of the Lord. He that does not really desire and long for that day , either is in a very ill condition , or does not understand that he is in a good . * I will not be so severe in this meditation as to forbid any man to laugh , that beleeves himself shall be called to so severe a Judgement ; yet S. Hierom said it , Coram coelo & terrâ rationem reddemus totius nostrae vitae ; & tu rides ? Heaven and earth shall see all the follies and basenesse of thy life ; and doest thou laugh ? That we may , but we have not reason to laugh loudly and frequently , if we consider things wisely , and as we are concerned : but if we do , yet praesentis temporis ita est agenda laetitia , ut sequentis judicii amaritudo nunquam recedat à memoriâ : so laugh here that you may not forget your danger , lest you weep for ever . He that thinks most seriously and most frequently of this fearfull appearance , will finde that it is better staying for his joyes till this sentence be past ; for then he shall perceive whether he hath reason or no. In the mean time wonder not that God who loves mankinde so well , should punish him so severely : for therefore the evill fall into an accursed portion , because they despised that which God most loves , his Son and his mercies , his graces and his holy Spirit ; and they that do all this , have cause to complain of nothing but their own follies ; and they shall feel the accursed consequents then when they shall see the Judge sit above them angry and severe , inexorable and terrible ; under them an intolerable hell ; within them , their consciences clamorous and diseased ; without them , all the world on fire ; on the right hand , those men glorified whom they persecuted or despised ; on the left hand , the Devils accusing ; for this is the day of the Lords terror , and who is able to abideat ? Seu vigilo intentus studiis , seu dormio , semper Iudicis extremi nostras tuba personet aures . SERMON , IV. The Returne of PRAYERS . Or , The Conditions of a PREVAILING PRAYER . John 9. 31. Now wee know that God heareth not sinners , but if any man be a worshippar of God and doth his will , him be heareth . IKnow not which is the greater wonder , either that prayer , which is a duty so easie and facile , so ready and apted to the powers , and skill , and opportunities of every man , should have so great effects , and be productive of such mighty blessings ; or that we should be so unwilling to use so easie an instrument of procuring so much good . The first declares Gods goodnesse , but this publishes mans folly and weaknesse , who finds in himself so much difficulty to perform a condition so easie and full of advantage . But the order of this infelicity is knotted like the foldings of a Serpent , all those parts of easinesse which invite us to doe the duty , are become like the joynes of a bulrush , not bendings , but consolidations and stiffenings ; the very facility becomes its objection , and in every of its stages , wee make or finde a huge uneasinesse . At first wee doe not know what we ask , and when we doe , then we finde difficulty to bring our wils to desire it ; and when that is instructed and kept in awe , it mingles interest , and confounds the purposes ; and when it is forc'd to ask honestly and severely , then it wills so coldly , that God hates the prayer ; and if it desires fervently , it sometimes turns that into passion , and that passion breaks into murmurs or unquietnesse ; or if that be avoyded , the indifferency cooles into death , or the fire burns violently , and is quickly spent ; our desires are dull as a rock , or fugitive as lightening ; either wee aske ill things earnestly , or good things remissely ; we either court our owne danger , or are not zealous for our reall safety ; or if we be right in our matter , or earnest in our affections , and lasting in our abode , yet we misse in the manner ; and either we aske for evill ends , or without religion and awefull apprehensions ; or we rest in the words and signification of the prayer ; and never take care to passe on to action ; or else we sacrifice in the company of Corah being partners of a schisme , or a rebellion in religion ; or we bring unhallowed censers ; our hearts send up to God an unholy smoak , a cloud from the fires of lust , and either the flames of lust or rage , of wine or revenge kindle the beast that is laid upon the altar ; or we bring swines flesh , or a dogs neck ; whereas God never accepts , or delights in a prayer , unlesse it be for a holy thing , to a lawfull end , presented unto him upon the wings of Zeal and love , of religious sorrow or religious joy ; by sanctified lips , and pure bands , and a sincere heart . It must be the prayer of a gracious man ; and he is onely gracious before God , and acceptable , and effective in his prayer , whose life is holy , and whose prayer is holy ; For both these are necessary ingredients to the constitution of a prevailing prayer ; there is a holinesse peculiar to the man , and a holinesse peculiar to the prayer , that must adorn the prayer before it can be united to the intercession of the Holy Jesus , in which union alone our prayers can be prevailing . God heareth not sinners : ] so the blind man in the text , and confidently [ this we know : ] he had reason indeed for his confidence ; it was a proverbiall saying , and every where recorded in their Scriptures , which were read in the synagogues every Sabbath day . For what is the hope of the hypocrite ? ( saith Job ) will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him ? No , he will not . For if I regard iniquity in my heart , the Lord will not hear mee , said David ; and so said the Spirit of the Lord by the Son of David . When distresse and anguish cometh upon you , Then shall they call upon mee , but I will not answer ; they shall seek mee early , but they shall not find mee ; and Isaiah , When you spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you , yea when you make many prayers I will not hear ; your hands are full of bloud : and again , When they fast I will not hear their cry , and when they will offer burnt offerings and oblations , I will not accept them . For they have loved to wander , they have not refrained their feet , therefore the Lord will not accept them ; hee will now remember their iniquity , and visit their sins : Upon these and many other authorities it grew into a proverb ; Deus non exaudit peccatores : it was a known case and an established rule in the religion ; Wicked persons are neither fit to pray for themselves , nor for others . Which proposition let us first consider in the sense of that purpose which the blind man spoke it in , and then in the utmost extent of it , as its analogie and equall reason goes forth upon us and our necessities . The man was cured of his blindnesse , and being examined concerning him that did it , named and gloryed in his Physitian : but the spitefull Pharisees bid him give glory to God , and defie the Minister ; for God indeed was good , but he wrought that cure by a wicked hand . No ( says he ) this is impossible . If this man were a sinner and a false Prophet ( for in that instance the accusation was intended ) God would not hear his prayers , and work miracles by him in verification of a lye . A false Prophet could not work true miracles ; this hath received its diminution when the case was changed ; for at that time when Christ preached , Miracles was the onely , or the great verification of any new revelation ; and therefore it proceeding from an Almighty God , must needs be the testimony of a Divine truth ; and if it could have been brought for a lye , there could not then have been sufficient instruction given to mankind , to prevent their beleef of false Prophets , and lying doctrines . But when Christ proved his doctrine by miracles , that no enemy of his did ever doe so great before or after him ; then he also told , that after him his friends should doe greater ; and his enemies should do some , ( but they were fewer , and very inconsiderable ) and therefore could have in them no unavoydable cause of deception ; because they were discovered by a Prophesie ; and caution was given against them by him that did greaten miracles ; and yet ought to have been beleeved if he had done but one ; because against him there had been no caution , but many prophesies creating such expectations concerning him , which he verified by his great works . So that in this sense of working miracles , though it was infinitely true that the blind man said , then when he said it , yet after that the case was alter'd : and Sinners , Magicians , Astrologers , Witches , Hereticks , Simoniacks and wicked persons of other instances , have done miracles , and God hath heard sinners , and wrought his own works by their hands , or suffered the Devill to doe his works under their pretences ; and many at the day of Judgment shall plead that they have done miracles in Christs name , and yet they shall be rejected ; Christ knows them not , and their portion shall bee with dogs , and goats , and unbeleevers . There is in this case onely this difference , that they who doe miracles in opposition to Christ , doe them by the power of the Devill , to whom it is permitted to doe such things which wee think miracles ; and that is all one as though they were : but the danger of them is none at all , but to them that will not beleeve him that did greater miracles , and prophesied of these lesse , and gave warning of their attending danger , and was confirmed to be a true teacher by voices from heaven , and by the resurrection of his body after a three days buriall : So that to these the proposition still remains true , God hears not sinners , God does not work those miracles ; but concerning sinning Christians , God in this sense and towards the purposes of miracles does hear them , and hath wrought miracles by them , for they doe them in the name of Christ , and therefore Christ said , cannot easily speak ill of him ; and although they either prevaricate in their lives , or in superinduced doctrines , yet because the miracles are a verification of the Religion , not of the opinion , of the power or truth of Christ , not of the veracity of the man , God hath heard such persons many times whom men have long since , and to this day call Hereticks , such were the Novatians and Arrians ; For to the Heathens they could onely prove their Religion by which they stood distinguished from them ; but we find not that they wrought miracles among the Christians , or to verifie their superstructures and private opinions . But besides this yet , we may also by such means arrest the forwardnesse of our judgments and condemnations of persons disagreeing in their opinions from us ; for those persons whose faith God confirmed by miracles was an intire faith , and although they might have false opinions , or mistaken explications of true opinions , either inartificiall or misunderstood , yet we have reason to beleeve their faith to be intire ; for that which God would have the Heathen to beleeve , and to that purpose prov'd it by a miracle , himselfe intended to accept first to a holy life , and then to glory . The false opinion should burn , and themselves escape . One thing more is here very considerable , that in this very instance of working miracles , God was so very carefull not to hear sinners or permit sinners , till he had prevented all dangers to good and innocent persons , that the case of Christ and his Apostles working miracles was so clearly separated and remarked by the finger of God , and distinguished from the impostures and pretences of all the many Antichrists that appeared in Palestine , Cyprus , Cr●te , Syria , and the voicinage , that there were but very few Christians that with hearty perswasions fell away from Christ , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Galen , It is not easie to teach anew him that hath been taught by Christ : And St. Austin tels a story of an unbeleeving man , that being troubled that his wife was a Christian , went to the Oracle to aske by what means hee should alter her perswasion ; but he was answered , it could never be done , he might as well imprint characters upon the face of a torrent or a rapid river , or himself fly in the air , as alter the perswasion of a hearty and an honest Christian ; I would to God it were so now in all instances , and that it were so hard to draw men from the severities of a holy life , as of old they could be cousened , disputed , or forced out of their faith . Some men are vexed with hypocrisie , and then their hypocrisie was punished with infidelity and a wretchlesse spirit . Demas , and Simon Magus , and Ecebolius , and the lapsed Confessors are instances of humane craft or humane weaknesse ; but they are scarce a number that are remarked in Ancient story to have fallen from Christianity by direct persuasions , or the efficacy of abusing arguments and discourses . The reason of it is the truth in the text ; God did so avoyd hearing sinners in this affair , that he never permitted them to doe any miracles so as to doe any mischief to the souls of good men ; and therefore it is said , the enemies of Christ came in the power of signes and wonders able to deceive ( if it were possible ) even the very elect ; but that was not possible ; without their faults it could not be ; the elect were sufficiently strengthened , and the evidence of Christs being heard of God , and that none of his enemies were heard of God to any dangerous effect , was so great , that if any Christian had apostatized or fallen away by direct perswasion , it was like the sin of a falling Angell , of so direct a malice that he never could repent , and God never would pardon him , as St. Paul twice remarks in his Epistle to the Hebrews . The result of this discourse is the first sense and explication of the words , God heareth not sinners , viz. in that in which they are sinners : a sinner in his manners may be heard in his prayer in order to the confirmation of his faith , but if he be a sinner in his faith God hears him not at all in that wherein he sins ; for God is truth and cannot confirm a lye , and when ever he permitted the Devill to doe it , he secur'd the interest of his Elect , that is , of all that beleeve in him and love him , lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting . 2. That which yet concerns us more neerly is , that God heareth not sinners , that is , if wee be not good men , our prayers will doe us no good : wee shall be in the condition of them that never pray at all . The prayers of a wicked man are like the breath of corrupted lungs , God turns away from such unwholsome breathings . But that I may reduce this necessary doctrine to a method ; I shall consider that there are some persons whose prayers are sins ; and some others whose prayers are ineffectuall : some are such who doe not pray lawfully ; they sin when they pray while they remain in that state and evill condition ; others are such who doe not obtain what they pray for , and yet their prayer is not a direct sin : the prayer of the first is a direct abomination , the prayer of the second is hindred ; the first is corrupted by a direct state of sin , the latter by some intervening imperfection and unhandsome circumstance of action ; and in proportion to these , it is required , 1. that he be in a state and possibility of acceptation ; and 2. that the prayer it selfe be in a proper disposition . 1. Therefore wee shall consider what are those conditions which are required in every person that prays , the want of which makes the prayer to be a sin ? 2ly . What are the conditions of a good mans prayer , the absence of which makes that even his prayer returns empty ? 3ly ; What degrees and circumstances of piety are required to make a man fit to be an intercessor for others , both with holinesse in himself and effect to them he prays for ? And 4ly . as an appendix to those considerations , I shall adde the proper indices and significations by which we may make a judgment whether God hath heard our prayers or no. 1. Whosoever prays to God while he is in a state , or in the affection to sin , his prayer is an abomination to God. This was a truth so beleeved by all Nations of the world , that in all Religions they ever appointed baptismes and ceremoniall expiations to cleanse the persons before they presented themselves in their holy offices . Deorum Templa cum adire disponitis ab , omni vos labe puros , lautos , castissimósque praestatis , said Arnobius to the Gentiles : When you addresse your selves to the Temples of your Gods , you keep your selves chast , and clean , and spotlesse . They washed their hands , and wore white garments , they refused to touch a dead body , they avoyded a spot upon their clothes as they avoyded a wound upon their head , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . That was the religious ground they went upon ; an impure thing ought not to touch that which is holy , much lesse to approach the Prince of purities ; and this was the sense of the old world in their lustrations , and of the Jews in their preparatory baptismes ; they wash'd their hands to signifie that they should cleanse them from all iniquity , and keep them pure from bloud and rapine ; they washed their garments , but that intended they should not be spotted with the flesh ; and their follies consisted in this , that they did not looke to the bottome of their lavatories ; they did not see through the vail of their ceremonies . Flagitiis omnibus inquinati veniunt ad precandum , & se piè sacrificasse opinantur , si cutem laverint , tanquam libidines intra pectus inclusas ulla amnis abluat , aut ulla Maria purificent , said Lactantius ; they come to their prayers dressed round about with wickednesse , ut quercus hederâ , and think God will accept their offering if their skin be wash'd ; as if a river could purifie their lustfull souls , or a sea take off their guilt . But David reconciles the ceremony with the mysterie , I will wash my hands , I will wash them in innocency , and so will I goe to thine altar . Hae sunt verae munditiae ( saies Tertullian ) non quas plerique superstitione curant ad omnem orationem , etiam cum lavacro totius corporis aquam sumentes . This is the true purification , not that which most men doe , superstitiously cleansing their hands and washing when they go to prayers , but cleansing the soul from all impiety , and leaving every affection to sin ; then they come pure to God : And this is it which the Apostle also signifies , having translated the Gentile and Jewish ceremony into the spirituality of the Gospell , I will therefore that men pray every where , levantes puras manus , lifting up cleane hands , so it is in the Vulgar Latine , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so it is in the Greek , holy hands : That 's the purity that God looks for upon them that lift up their hands to him in prayer : and this very thing is founded upon the Naturall constitution of things , and their essentiall proportion to each other . 1. It is an act of profanation for any unholy person to handle holy things , and holy offices . For if God was ever carefull to put all holy things into cancels , and immure them with acts and laws and cautions of separation ; and the very sanctification of them was nothing else but the solemn separating them from common usages , that himself might bee distinguished from men by actions of propriety ; it is naturally certain , he that would be differenc'd from common things , would be infinitely divided from things that are wicked : If things that are lawfull may yet be unholy in this sense ; much more are unlawfull things most unholy in all senses . If God will not admit of that which is beside Religion , he will lesse endure that which is against Religion . And therefore if a common man must not serve at the altar , how shall he abide a wicked man to stand there ? No : he will not indure him , but he will cast him and his prayer into the separation of an infinite and eternall distance . Sic profanatis sacris peritura Troja perdidit primùm Deos , So Troy entred into ruine when their prayers became unholy , and they profan'd the rites of their Religion . 2. A wicked person while he remains in that condition is not the naturall object of pity : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Zeno ; Mercy is a sorrow or a trouble at that misery which falls upon a person which deserv'd it not . And so Aristotle defines it , it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , When we see the person deserves a better fortune , or is dispos'd to a fairer intreaty , then wee naturally pity him , and Sinon pleaded for pity to the Trojans , saying , — Miserere animi non digna serentis . For who pityeth the tears of a base man who hath treacherously murthered his friend ? or who will lend a friendly sigh when he sees a traitor to his country passe forth through the execrable gates of cities ? and when any circumstance of basenesse , that is , any thing that takes off the excuse of infirmity , does accompany a sin ( such as are ingratitude , perjury , perseverance , delight , malice , treachery ) then every man scorns the criminall , and God delights and rejoyces in , and laughs at the calamity of such a person . When Vitellius with his hands bound behind him , his Imperiall robe rent , and with a dejected countenance and an ill name was led to execution , every man cursed him , but no man wept . Deformitas exitus misericordiam abstulerat , saith Tacitus , The filthinesse of his life and death took away pity . So it is with us in our prayers ; while we love our sin we must nurse all its children ; and when we roare in our lustfull beds , and groane with the whips of an exterminating Angell , chastising those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( as Aretas calls them ) the lusts of the lower belly , wantonnesse , and its mother intemperance , we feel the price of our sin , that which God foretold to be their issues , that which he threatned us withall , and that which is the naturall consequent , and its certaine expectation , that which we delighted in , and chose , even then when we refused God , and threw away felicity , and hated vertue . For punishment is but the latter part of sin ; it is not a new thing and distinct from it : or if we will kisse the Hyaena , or clip the Lamia about the neck , we have as certainly chosen the taile , and its venemous embraces , as the face and lip . Every man that sins against God , and loves it , or , which is all one , continues in it , for by interpretation that is love , hath all the circumstances of unworthinesse towards God ; hee is unthankfull , and a breaker of his vowes , and a despiser of his mercies , and impudent against his judgments , he is false to his profession , false to his faith , hee is an unfriendly person , and useth him barbarously who hath treated him with an affection not lesse then infinite ; and if any man does half so much evill , and so unhandsomely to a man , we stone him with stones and curses , with reproach , and an unrelenting scorn . And how then shall such a person hope that God should pity him ? for God better understands , and deeper resents , and more essentially hates , and more severely exacts the circumstances and degrees of basenesse then we can doe ; and therefore proportionably scorns the person and derides the calamity . Is not unthankfulnesse to God a greater basenesse and unworthinesse then unthanfulnesse to our Patron ? And is not hee as sensible of it and more then wee ? These things are more then words ; and therefore if no man pities a base person , let us remember that no man is so base in any thing as in his unhandsome demeanour towards God. Doe wee not professe our selves his servants , and yet serve the Devill ? Doe we not live upon Gods provision , and yet stand or work at the command of lust , or avarice , humane regards and little interests of the world ? We call him Father when we desire our portion , and yet spend it in the society of all his enemies . In short : Let our actions to God and their circumstances be supposed to be done towards men , and we should scorn our selves ; and how then can we expect God should not scorne us , and reject our prayer when we have done all the dishonour to him , and with all the unhandsomnesse in the world ? Take heed lest we fall into a condition of evill , in which it shall be said , You may thank your selves ; and be infinitely afraid lest at the same time we be in a condition of person in which God will upbraid our unworthinesse , and scorne our persons , and rejoyce in our calamity . The first is intolerable , the second is irremediadle ; the first proclaims our folly , and the second declares Gods finall justice ; in the first there is no comfort , in the latter there is no remedy ; that therefore makes us miserable , and this renders us desperate . 3. This great truth is further manifested by the necessary and convenient appendages of prayer requir'd , or advis'd , or recommended in holy Scripture . For why is Fasting prescribed together with prayer ? For neither if we eat are we the better , neither if we eat not are we the worse ; and God does not delight in that service , the first , second , and third part of which is nothing but pain and self-affliction . But therefore fasting is usefull with prayer , because it is a penall duty , and an action of repentance ; for then onely God hears sinners , when they enter first into the gates of repentance , and proceed in all the regions of sorrow , and carefulnesse ; and therefore we are commanded to fast , that we may pray with more spirituality , and with repentance , that is , without the loads of meat , and without the loads of sin . Of the same consideration it is that almes are prescribed , together with prayer , because it is a part of that charity without which our soules are enemies to all that which ought to be equally valued with our owne lives . But besides this , we may easily observe what speciall undecencies there are , which besides the generall malignity and demerit , are speciall deleteries and hinderances to our prayers , by irreconciling the person of him that prays . 1. The first is unmercyfulnesse . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said one in Stobaeus , and they were well joyned together . He that takes Mercy from a Man is like him that takes an Altar from the Temple ; the Temple is of no use without an Altar , and the Man cannot pray without mercy ; and there are infinite of prayers sent forth by men which God never attends to , but as to so many sins ; because the men live in a course of rapine , or tyranny , or oppression , or uncharitablenesse , or something that is most contrary to God , because it is unmercifull . Remember , that God sometimes puts thee into some images of his own relation . We beg of God for mercy , and our Brother begs of us for pity : and therefore let us deal equally with God and all the world . I see my selfe fall by a too frequent infirmity , and still I beg for pardon , and hope for pity ; thy brother that offends thee , he hopes so too , and would fain have the same measure , and would be as glad thou wouldst pardon him , as thou wouldest rejoyce in thy own forgivenesse . I am troubled when God rejects my prayer , or in stead of hearing my petition , sends a judgement : Is not thy Tenant , or thy Servant , or thy Client so to thee ? does not he tremble at thy frown , and is of an uncertaine soule till thou speakest kindly unto him , and observes thy lookes as hee watches the colour of the bean coming from thy box of Sentence , life or death depending on it ? when he begs of thee for mercy , his passion is greater , his necessities more pungent , his apprehension more brisk , and sensitive , his case dressed with the circumstances of pity , and thou thy selfe canst better feel his condition then thou doest usually perceive the earnestnesse of thy own prayers to God ; and if thou regardest not thy brother whom thou seest , whose case thou feelest , whose circumstances can afflict thee , whose passion is dressed to thy fancy , and proportioned to thy capacity , how shall God regard thy distant prayer , or be melted with thy cold desire , or softned with thy dry story , or moved by thy unrepenting soul ? If I be sad , I seek for comfort , and goe to God and to the ministry of his creatures for it ; and is it not just in God to stop his own fountaines , and seal the cisterns and little emanations of the creatures from thee , who shuttest thy hand , and shuttest thy eye , and twistest thy bowells against thy brother , who would as fain be comforted as thou ? It is a strange Iliacall passion that so hardens a mans bowells , that nothing proceeds from him but the name of his own disease , a Miserere mei Deus , a prayer to God for pity upon him that will not shew pity to others . We are troubled when God through severity breaks our bones , and hardens his face against us ; but we think our poor brother is made of iron , and not of flesh and bloud , as we are . God hath bound mercy upon us by the iron bands of necessity , and though Gods mercy is the measure of his justice , yet justice is the measure of our mercy , and as we doe to others it shall be done to us , even in the matter of pardon and of bounty , of gentlenesse and remission , of bearing each others burdens , and faire interpretation ; Forgive us our trespasses as wee forgive them that trespasse against us , so we pray . The finall sentence in this affair is recorded by St. James , Hee that shews no mercy shall have justice with out mercy : as thy poor brother hath groan'd under thy cruelty and ungentle nature without remedy , so shalt thou before the throne of God ; thou shalt pray , and plead , and call , and cry , and beg again , and in the midst of thy despairing noyses be carryed in the regions of sorrow , which never did , and never shall feel a mercy . God never can heare the prayers of an unmercifull man. 2. Lust and uncleannesse is a direct enemy to the Praying man , and an obstruction to his prayers ; for this is not onely a prophanation , but a direct sacriledge ; it defiles a Temple to the ground ; it takes from a man all affection to spirituall things , and mingles his very soul with the things of the world ; it makes his understanding low , and his reasonings cheap and foolish , and it destroys his confidence , and all his manly hopes ; it makes his spirit light , effeminate , and fantastick , and dissolves his attention , and makes his mind so to disaffect all the objects of his desires , that when he prays he is as uneasy as an impaled person , or a condemned criminall upon the hook or wheel ; and it hath in it this evill quality , that a lustfull person cannot pray heartily against his sin ; he cannot desire his cure , for his will is contradictory to his Collect , and he would not that God should hear the words of his prayer , which he poor man never intended . For no crime so seises upon the will as that ; some sins steale an affection , or obey a temptation , or secure an interest , or work by the way of understanding , but lust seises directly upon the will , for the Devil knows well that the lusts of the body are soon cured ; the uneasynesse that dwels there is a disease very tolerable , and every degree of patience can passe under it . But therefore the Devill seises upon the will , and that 's it that makes adulteries and all the species of uncleannesse ; and lust growes so hard a cure , because the formality of it is , that it will not be cured ; the will loves it , and so long as it does , God cannot love the Man ; for God is the Prince of purities , and the Son of God is the King of Virgins , and the holy Spirit is all love , and that is all purity and all spirituality : And therefore the prayer of an Adulterer , or an uncleane person , is like the sacrifices to Moloch , or the rites of Flora , ubi Cato spectator esse non potuit , a good man will not endure them , much lesse will God entertaine such reekings of the Dead sea and clouds of Sodome . For so an impure vapor begotten of the slime of the earth , by the feavers and adulterous heats of an intemperate Summer sun , striving by the ladder of a mountaine to climbe up to heaven , and rolling into various figures by an uneasy , unfixed revolution , and stop'd at the middle region of the aire , being thrown from his pride and attempt of passing towards the seat of the stars , turnes into an unwholsome flame , and like the breath of hell is confin'd into a prison of darknesse , and a cloud , till it breaks into diseases , plagues and mildews , stink and blastings : so is the prayer of an unchast person , it strives to climbe the battlements of heaven , but because it is a flame of sulphur , salt and bitumen , and was kindled in the dishonorable regions below , deriv'd from hell , and contrary to God , it cannot passe forth to the element of love , but ends in barrennesse and murmur , fantastick expectations , and trifling imaginative confidences , and they at last end in sorrows and despaire . * Every state of sin is against the possibility of a mans being accepted ; but these have a proper venome against the graciousnesse of the person , and the power of the prayer . God can never accept an unholy prayer , and a wicked man can never send forth any other ; the waters passe thorough impure aquaeducts and channels of brimstone , and therefore may end in brimstone and fire , but never in forgivenesse , and the blessings of an eternall charity . Henceforth therefore , never any more wonder that men pray so seldome ; there are few that feel the relish , and are enticed with the deliciousnesse , and refreshed with the comforts , and instructed with the sanctity , and acquainted with the secrets of a holy prayer : But cease also to wonder , that of those few that say many prayers , so few find any return of any at all . To make up a good and a lawfull prayer there must be charity , with all its daughters , almes , forgivenesse , not judging uncharitably ; there must be purity of spirit , that is , purity of intention ; and there must be purity of the body and soule , that is , the cleannesse of chastity ; and there must be no vice remaining , no affection to sin : for he that brings his body to God , and hath left his will in the power of any sin , offers to God the calves of his lips , but not a whole burnt-offering ; a lame oblation , but not a reasonable sacrifice ; and therefore their portion shall be amongst them whose prayers were never recorded in the book of life , whose tears God never put into his bottle , whose desires shall remaine ineffectuall to eternall ages . Take heed you doe not lose your prayers ; for by them you hope to have eternall life ; and let any of you whose conscience is most religious and tender , consider what condition that man is in , that hath not said his prayers in thirty or forty years together ; and that is the true state of him who hath lived so long in the course of an unsanctified life ; in all that while he never said one prayer that did him any good ; but they ought to be reckoned to him upon the account of his sins . Hee that is in the affection , or in the habit , or in the state of any one sin whatsoever , is at such distance from and contrariety to God , that he provokes God to anger in every prayer hee makes : And then adde but this consideration ; that prayer is the great summe of our Religion , it is the effect , and the exercise , and the beginning , and the promoter of all graces , and the consummation and perfection of many ; and all those persons who pretend towards heaven , and yet are not experienced in the secrets of Religion , they reckon their piety , and account their hopes , onely upon the stock of a few prayers ; it may be they pray twice every day , it may be thrice , and blessed be God for it ; so farre is very well ; but if it shall be remembred and considered , that this course of piety is so farre from warranting any one course of sin , that any one habituall and cherished sin destroyes the effect of all that piety , wee shall see there is reason to account this to be one of those great arguments with which God hath so bound the duty of holy living upon us , that without a holy life we cannot in any sense be happy , or have the effect of one prayer . But if we be returning and repenting sinners , God delights to hear , because he delights to save us : — Si precibus , dixerunt , numina justis Victa remollescunt — When a man is holy , then God is gracious , and a holy life is the best , and it is a continuall prayer ; and repentance is the best argument to move God to mercy , because it is the instrument to unite our prayers to the intercession of the Holy Jesus . SERMON , V. Part II. AFter these evidences of Scripture , and reason deriv'd from its analogy , there will be lesse necessity to take any particular notices of those little objections which are usually made from the experience of the successe and prosperities of evill persons . For true it is , there is in the world a generation of men that pray long and loud , and aske for vile things , such which they ought to fear , and pray against , and yet they are heard ; The fat upon earth eat and worship : But if these men aske things hurtfull and sinfull , it is certain God hears them not in mercy : They pray to God as despairing Saul did to his Armour-bearer , Sta super me & interfice me , stand upon me and kill me ; and he that obey'd his voice did him dishonour and sinn'd against the head of his King , and his own life . And the vicious persons of old pray'd to Laverna , — Pulchra Laverna , Da mihi fallere , da justum sanctúmque videri , Noctem peccatis & fraudibus objice nubem . Give me a prosperous robbery , a rich prey , and secret escape , let me become rich with theeving and still be accounted holy . For every sort of man hath some religion or other , by the measures of which they proportion their lives and their prayers ; Now as the holy Spirit of God teaching us to pray , makes us like himself in order to a holy and an effective prayer ; and no man prayes well , but he that prays by the Spirit of God , the Spirit of holinesse , and he that prayes with the Spirit must be made like to the Spirit , he is first sanctified and made holy , and then made fervent , and then his prayer ascends beyond the cloud ; first he is renewed in the spirit of his minde , and then he is inflamed with holy fires , and guided by a bright starre ; first purified and then lightned , then burning and shining : so is every man in every of his prayers . He is alwayes like the spirit by which he prayes : If he be a lustfull person , he prayes with a lustfull spirit ; if he does not pray for it , he cannot heartily pray against it . If he be a Tyrant or an usurper , a robber or a murtherer , he hath his Laverna too , by which all his desires are guided , and his prayers directed , and his petitions furnished . He cannot pray against that spirit that possesses him , and hath seised upon his will and affections : If he be fill'd with a lying spirit , and be conformed to it in the image of his minde , he will be so also in the expressions of his prayer , and the sense of his soul. Since therefore no prayer can be good but that which is taught by the Spirit of grace , none holy but the man whom Gods Spirit hath sanctified , and therefore none heard to any purposes of blessing which the holy Ghost does not make for us ( for he makes intercession for the Saints , the Spirit of Christ is the praecentor or the rector chori the Master of the Quire ) it followes that all other prayers being made with an evill Spirit must have an evill portion ; and though the Devils by their Oracles have given some answers , and by their significations have foretold some future contingencies , and in their government and subordinate rule have assisted some armies , and discovered some treasures , and prevented some snares of chance , and accidents of men , yet no man that reckons by the measures of reason or religion , reckons witches and conjurors amongst blessed and prosperous persons : these and all other evill persons have an evill spirit , by the measures of which their desires begin and proceed on to issue ; but this successe of theirs neither comes from God , nor brings felicity : but if it comes from God , it is anger , if it descends upon good men , it is a curse , if upon evill men , it is a sin , and then it is a present curse , and leads on to an eternall infelicity . Plutarch reports that the Tyrians tyed their gods with chains , because certain persons did dream that Apollo said he would leave their City , and go to the party of Alexander , who then besieged the town : and Apollodorus tels of some that tied the image of Saturne with bands of wooll upon his feet . So are some Christians ; they think God is tyed to their sect , and bound to be of their side and the interest of their opinion ; and they think he can never go to the enemies party so long as they charme him with certain formes of words or disguises of their own ; and then all the successe they have , and all the evils that are prosperous , all the mischiefs they do , and all the ambitious designs that do succeed , they reckon upon the account of their prayers ; and well they may ; for their prayers are sins , and their desires are evill , they wish mischief , and they act iniquity , and they enjoy their sin : and if this be a blessing or a cursing , themselves shall then judge , and all the world shall perceive , when the accounts of all the world are truly stated ; then when prosperity shall be called to accounts , and adversity shall receive its comforts , when vertue shall have a crown , and the satisfaction of all sinfull desires shall be recompensed with an intolerable sorrow , and the despair of a perishing soul. Nero's Mother prayed passionately that her son might be Emperor ; and many persons of whom S. Iames speaks , pray to spend upon their lusts , and they are heard too : some were not ; and very many are : and some that fight against a just possessor of a country pray that their wars may be prosperous , and sometimes they have been heard too : and Julian the Apostate prayed , and sacrificed , and inquired of Daemons , and burned mans flesh , and operated with secret rites , and all that he might craftily and powerfully oppose the religion of Christ , and he was heard too , and did mischief beyond the malice and effect of his predecessors , that did swim in Christian bloud : but when we sum up the accounts at the foot of their lives , or so soon as the thing was understood , and finde that the effect of Agrippina's prayer was , that her son murdered her ; and of those lustfull petitioners , in St. Iames , that they were given over to the tyranny and possession of their passions , and baser appetites ; and the effect of Iulian the Apostate's prayer was , that he liv'd and died a professed enemy of Christ ; and the effect of the prayers of usurpers is , that they do mischief , and reap curses , and undoe mankinde , and provoke God , and live hated , and die miserable , and shall possesse the fruit of their sin to eternall ages ; these will be no objections to the truth of the former discourse , but greater instances , that if by hearing our prayers we mean , or intend a blessing , we must also by making prayers mean , that the man first be holy and his desires just and charitable , before he can be admitted to the throne of grace , or converse with God by the entercourses of a prosperous prayer . That 's the first generall . 2. Many times good men pray , and their prayer is not a sin , but yet it returns empty ; because although the man be , yet the prayer is not in proper disposition ; and here I am to account to you concerning the collaterall and accidentall hinderances of the prayer of a good man. The first thing that hinders the prayers of a good man from obtaining its effect is a violent anger , a violent storm in the spirit of him that prayes . For anger sets the house on fire , and all the spirits are busie upon trouble , and intend propulsion , defence , displeasure or revenge ; it is a short madnesse , and an eternall enemy to to discourse , and sober counsels , and fair conversation ; it intends its own object with all the earnestnesse of perception , or activity of designe , and a quicker motion of a too warm and distempered bloud ; it is a feaver in the heart , and a calenture in the head , and a fire in the face , and a sword in the hand , and a fury all over ; and therefore can never suffer a man to be in a disposition to pray . For prayer is an action and a state of entercourse , and desire , exactly contrary to this character of anger . Prayer is an action of likenesse to the holy Ghost , the Spirit of gentlenesse and dove-like simplicity ; an imitation of the holy Jesus , whose Spirit is meek up to the greatnesse of the biggest example , and a conformity to God whose anger is alwaies just , and marches slowly , and is without transportation , and often hindred , and never hasty , and is full of mercy ; prayer is the peace of our spirit , the stilnesse of our thoughts , the evennesse of recollection , the seat of meditation , the rest of our cares , and the calme of our tempest ; prayer is the issue of a quiet minde , of untroubled thoughts , it is the daughter of charity , and the sister of meeknesse ; and he that prayes to God with an angry , that is , with a troubled and discomposed spirit , is like him that retires into a battle to meditate , and sets up his closet in the out quarters of an army , and chooses a frontier garrison to be wise in . Anger is a perfect alienation of the minde from prayer , and therefore is contrary to that attention which presents our prayers in a right line to God. For so have I seen a lark rising from his bed of grasse and soaring upwards singing as he rises , and hopes to get to heaven , and climbe above the clouds ; but the poor bird was beaten back with the loud sighings of an eastern winde , and his motion made irregular and unconstant , descending more at every breath of the tempest , then it could recover by the libration and frequent weighing of his wings ; till the little creature was forc'd to sit down and pant , and stay till the storm was over , and then it made a prosperous flight , and did rise and sing as if it had learned musick and motion from an Angell as he passed sometimes through the aire about his ministeries here below : so is the prayers of a good man ; when his affairs have required businesse , and his businesse was matter of discipline , and his discipline was to passe upon a sinning person , or had a design of charity , his duty met with the infirmities of a man , and anger was its instrument , and the instrument became stronger then the prime agent , and raised a tempest , and overrul'd the man ; and then his prayer was broken , and his thoughts were troubled , and his words went up towards a cloud , and his thoughts pull'd them back again , and made them without intention ; and the good man sighs for his infirmity , but must be content to lose that prayer , and he must recover it when his anger is removed and his spirit is becalmed , made even as the brow of Jesus , and smooth like the heart of God ; and then it ascends to heaven upon the wings of the holy dove , and dwels with God till it returnes like the usefull Bee , loaden with a blessing and the dew of heaven . But besides this ; anger is a combination of many other things every one of which is an enemy to prayer ; it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so it is in the severall definitions of it , and in its naturall constitution . It hath in it the trouble of sorrow , and the heats of lust , and the disease of revenge , and the boylings of a feaver , and the rashnesse of praecipitancy , and the disturbance of persecution ; and therefore is a certain effective enemy against prayer which ought to be a spirituall joy , and an act of mortification ; and to have in it no heats but of charity and zeal ; and they are to be guided by prudence and consideration , and allayed with the deliciousnesse of mercy , and the serenity of a meek and a quiet spirit ; and therefore S. Paul gave caution , that the sun should not go down upon our anger , meaning , that it should not stay upon us till evening prayer ; for it would hinder our evening sacrifice ; but the stopping of the first egressions of anger , is a certain artifice of the Spirit of God to prevent unmercifulnesse , which turns not only our desires into vanity , but our prayers into sin ; and remember that Elijah's anger , though it was also zeal , had so discomposed his spirit when the two Kings came to inquire of the Lord , that though he was a good man and a Prophet , yet he could not pray , he could not inquire of the Lord , till by rest and musick he had gathered himself into the evennesse of a dispassionate and recollected minde ; therefore let your prayers be without wrath . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for God by many significations hath taught us , that when men go to the altars to pray , or to give thanks , they must bring no sin , or violent passion along with them to the sacrifice , said Philo. 2. Indifferency and easinesse of desire is a great enemy to the successe of a good mans prayer ; When Plato gave Diogenes a great vessell of Wine who ask'd but a little , and a few Carrawaies , the Cynic thank'd him with his rude expression ; Cum interrogaris quot sint duo & duo , respondes viginti ; ita non secundum ea quae rogaris das , nec ad ea quae interrogaris respondes : Thou neither answerest to the question thou art asked , nor givest according as thou art desired ; but being inquired of , how many are two and two , thou answerest twenty . So it is with God and us in the intercourse of our prayers : we pray for health , and he gives it us , it may be , a sicknesse that carries us to eternall life ; we pray for necessary support for our persons and families , and he gives us more then we need ; we beg for a removall of a present sadnesse , and he gives us that which makes us able to bear twenty sadnesses , a cheerfull spirit , a peacefull conscience , and a joy in God , as an antepast of eternall rejoycings in the Kingdome of God ; But then although God doth very frequently give us beyond the matter of our desires , yet he does not so often give us great things beyond the spirit of our desires , beyond the quicknesse , vivacity , and fervor of our minds ; for there is but one thing in the world that God hates besides sin , that is , indifferency and lukewarmnesse ; which although it hath not in it the direct nature of sin , yet it hath this testimony from God , that it is loathsome and abominable , and excepting this thing alone , God never said so of any thing in the New Testament , but what was a direct breach of a commandement . The reason of it is , because lukewarmnesse or an indifferent spirit is an undervaluing of God and of Religion , it is a separation of reason from affections , and a perfect conviction of the understanding to the goodnesse of a duty , but a refusing to follow what we understand . For he that is lukewarm alwaies understands the better way , and seldome pursues it ; he hath so much reason as is sufficient , but he will not obey it ; his will does not follow the dictate of his understanding , and therefore it is unnaturall . It is like the phantastick fires of the night , where there is light and no heat , and therefore may passe on to the reall fires of hell , where there is heat and no light ; and therefore although an act of lukewarmnesse is only an undecency , and no sin ; yet a state of lukewarmnesse is criminall , and sinfull state of imperfection and undecency ; an act of indifferency hinders a single prayer from being accepted ; but a state of it makes the person ungracious and despised in the Court of heaven : and therefore S. Iames in his accounts concerning an effective prayer , not only requires that he be a just man who prayes , but his prayer must be fervent ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , an effectuall fervent prayer , so our English reads it ; it must be an intent , zealous , busie , operative prayer ; for consider what a huge undeceney it is , that a man should speak to God for a thing that he values not ; or that he should not value a thing , without which he cannot be happy ; or that he should spend his religion upon a trifle ; and if it be not a trifle , that he should not spend his affections upon it . If our prayers be for temporall things , I shall not need to stirre up your affections to be passionate for their purchase ; we desire them greedily , we run after them intemperately , we are kept from them with huge impatience , we are delayed with infinite regret , we preferre them before our duty , we aske them unseasonably , we receive them with our own prejudice , and we care not , we choose them to our hurt and hinderance , and yet delightin the purchase ; and when we do pray for them , we can hardly bring our selves to it , to submit to Gods will , but will have them ( if we can ) whether he be pleased or no ; like the Parasite in the Comedy , Qui comedit quod fuit & quod non fuit , he eat all and more then all , what was set before him , and what was kept from him . But then for spirituall things , for the interest of our souls , and the affairs of the Kingdome , we pray to God with just such a zeal as a man begs of the Chirurgeon to cut him of the stone ; or a condemned man desires his executioner quickly to put him out of his pain , by taking away his life ; when things are come to that passe , it must be done , but God knows with what little complacency and desire , the man makes his request : And yet the things of religion and the spirit , are the only things that ought to be desired vehemently , and pursued passionately , because God hath set such a value upon them that they are the effects of his greatest loving kindnesse ; they are the purchases of Christs bloud , and the effect of his continuall intercession , the fruits of his bloudy sacrifice , and the gifts of his healing and saving mercy , the graces of Gods Spirit , and the only instruments of felicity ; and if we can have fondnesses for things indifferent , or dangerous , our prayers upbraid our spirits when we beg coldly and tamely for those things for which we ought to dye , which are more precious then the globes of Kings , and weightier then Imperiall Scepters , richer then the spoils of the Sea , or the treasures of the Indian hils . He that is cold and tame in his prayers , hath not tasted of the deliciousnesse of Religion , and the goodnesse of God ; he is a stranger to the secrets of the Kingdome , and therefore he does not know what it is either to have hunger or satiety ; and therefore neither are they hungry for God , nor satisfied with the world , but remain stupid and inapprehensive , without resolution and determination , never choosing clearly , nor pursuing earnestly ; and therefore never enter into possession , but alwaies stand at the gate of wearinesse , unnecessary caution , and perpetuall irresolution . But so it is too often in our prayers ; we come to God because it is civill so to do , and a generall custome , but neither drawn thither by love , nor pinch'd by spirituall necessities , and pungent apprehensions ; we say so many prayers because we are resolved so to do , and we passe through them sometimes with a little attention , sometimes with none at all , and can we think that the grace of Chastity can be obtain'd at such a purchase , that grace that hath cost more labours then all the persecutions of faith , and all the disputes of hope , and all the expence of charity besides , amounts to ? Can we expect that our sinnes should be wa●hed by a lazie prayer ? Can an indifferent prayer quench the flatnes of hell , or rescue us from an eternall sorrow ? Is lust so soon overcome , that the very naming it can master it ? Is the Devill so slight and easie an enemy , that he will fly away from us at the first word , spoken without power , and without vehemence ? Read and attend to the accents of the prayers of Saints . I cryed day and night before thee , O Lord ; my soul refused comfort ; my throat is dry with calling upon my God , my knees are weak through fasting ; and , Let me alone , sayes God to Moses ; and , I will not let thee go till thou hast blessed me , said Jacob to the Angell . And I shall tell you a short character of a fervent prayer out of the practise of S. Hierome , in his Epistle to Eustochium de custodiâ virginitatis . Being destitute of all help I threw my self down at the feet of Jesus ; I water'd his feet with tears , and wiped them with my hair , and mortified the lust of my flesh with the abstinence and hungry diet of many weeks ; I remember that in my crying to God , I did frequently joyn the night and the day , and never did intermit to call , nor cease from beating my brest , till the mercy of the Lord brought to me peace and freedome from temptation . After many tears , and my eyes fixed in heaven , I thought my self sometimes encircled with troops of Angels , and then at last I sang to God , We will run after thee into the smell and deliciousnesse of thy precious ointments ; such a prayer as this will never return without its errand . But though your person be as gracious as David or Job , and your desire as holy as the love of Angels , and your necessities great as a new penitent , yet it pie●ces not the clouds , unlesse it be also as loud as thunder , passionate as the cries of women , and clamorous as necessity . And we may guesse at the degrees of importunity by the insinuation of the Apostle : Let the marryed abstain for a time , ut vacent orationi & jejunio , that they may attend to Prayer ; it is a great attendance , and a long diligence that is promoted by such a separation ; and supposes a devotion that spends more then many hours ; for ordinary prayers , and many hours of every day might well enough consist with an ordinary cohabitation ; but that which requires such a separation cals for a longer time and a greater attendance then we usually consider . For every prayer we make is considered by God , and recorded in heaven ; but cold prayers are not put into the account in order to effect and acceptation ; but are laid aside like the buds of roses which a cold wind hath nip'd into death , and the discoloured tawny face of an Indian slave : and when in order to your hopes of obtaining a great blessing , you reckon up your prayers with which you have solicited your suit in the court of heaven , you must reckon , not by the number of the collects , but by your sighs and passions , by the vehemence of your desires , and the fervour of your spirit , the apprehension of your need , and the consequent prosecution of your supply . Christ pray'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with loud cryings , and S. Paul made mention of his scholars in his prayers night and day . Fall upon your knees and grow there , and let not your desires cool , nor your zeal remit , but renew it again and again , and let not your offices and the custome of praying put thee in mind of thy need , but let thy need draw thee to thy holy offices ; and remember how great a God , how glorious a Majesty you speak to , therefore let not your devotions and addresses be little . Remember how great a need thou hast ; let not your desires be lesse . Remember how great the thing is you pray for ; do not undervalue it with thy indifferency . Remember that prayer is an act of Religion ; let it therefore be made thy businesse : and lastly , Remember that God hates a cold prayer , and therefore will never blesse it , but it shall be alwaies ineffectuall . 3. Under this title of lukewarmnesse and tepidity may be comprised also these Cautions : that a good mans prayers are sometimes hindred by inadvertency , sometimes by want of perseverance . For inadvertency or want of attendance to the sense and intention of our prayers , it is certainly an effect of lukewarmnesse , and a certain companion and appendage to humane infirmity ; and is only so remedyed as our prayers are made zealous , and our infirmities passe into the strengths of the Spirit . But if we were quick in our perceptions , either concerning our danger , or our need , or the excellency of the object , or the glories of God , or the niceties and perfections of Religion , we should not dare to throw away our prayers so like fools , or come to God and say a prayer with our minde standing at distance , trifling like untaught boyes at their books , with a truantly spirit . I shall say no more to this , but that in reason we can never hope that God in heaven will hear our prayers , which we our selves speak and yet hear not at the same time when we our selves speak them with instruments joyned to our ears ; even with those organs which are parts of our hearing faculties . If they be not worth our own attending to , they are not worth Gods hearing ; If they are worth Gods attending to , we must make them so by our own zeal , and passion , and industry , and observation , and a present and a holy spirit . But concerning perseverance , the consideration is something distinct . For when our prayer is for a great matter , and a great necessity , strictly attended to , yet we pursue it only by chance or humour , by the strengths of fancy , and naturall disposition ; or else our choice is cool as soon as hot , like the emissions of lightning , or like a sun-beam often interrupted with a cloud , or cool'd with intervening showers : and our prayer is without fruit because the desire lasts not , and the prayer lives like the repentance of Simon Magus , or the trembling of Felix , or the Jewes devotion for seven dayes of unleavened bread , during the Passeover or the feast of Tabernacles ; but if we would secure the blessing of our prayers , and the effect of our prayers , we must never leave till we have obtain'd what we need . There are many that pray against a temptation for a moneth together , and so long as the prayer is fervent , so long the man hath a nolition , and a direct enmity against the lust ; he consents not all that while ; but when the moneth is gone , and the prayer is removed , or becomes lesse active , then the temptation returnes , and sorrages , and prevails , and seises upon all our unguarded strengths . There are some desires which have a period , and Gods visitations expire in mercy at the revolution of a certain number of dayes ; and our prayer must dwell so long as Gods anger abides ; and in all the storm we must out cry the noyse of the tempest , and the voices of that thunder . But if we become hardned , and by custome and cohabitation with the danger lose our fears , and abate of our desires and devotions , many times we shall finde , that God by a sudden breach upon us will chastise us for letting our hands go down . Israel prevailed no longer then Moses held up his hands in prayer ; and he was forced to continue his prayer , till the going down of the Sun ; that is , till the danger was over , till the battell was done . But when our desires , and prayers are in the matter of spirituall danger , they must never be remitted , because our danger continues for ever , and therefore so must our watchfulnesse , and our guards . Vult n. Deus rogari , vult cogi , vult quâdam importunitate vinci ( sayes S. Gregory ) God loves to be invited , intreated , importun'd with an unquiet , restlesse desire and a persevering prayer . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Proclus . That 's a holy and a religious prayer , that never gives over , but renewes the prayer , and dwels upon the desire ; for this only is effectuall . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , God hears the persevering man , and the unwearied prayer . For it is very considerable , that we be very curious to observe ; that many times a lust is sopita , non mortua , it is asleep ; the enemy is at truce , and at quiet for a while , but not conquered , not dead ; and if we put off our armour too soon , we lose all the benefit of our former war , and are surprised by indiligence and a carelesse guard . For God sometimes binds the Devill in a short chain , and gives his servants respite , that they may feel the short pleasures of a peace , and the rest of innocence , and perceive what are the eternall felicities of heaven , where it shall be so for ever ; But then we must return to our warfare again ; and every second affault is more troublesome , because it finds our spirits at ease , and without watchfulnesse , and delighted with a spirituall rest , and keeping holiday . But let us take heed ; for whatsoever temptation we can be troubled withall by our naturall temper , or by the condition of our life , or the evill circumstances of our condition , so long as we have capacity to feel it , so long we are in danger , and must watch thereunto with prayer and continuall diligence . And when your temptations let you alone , let not you God alone ; but lay up prayers and the blessings of a constant devotion against the day of tryall . Well may your temptation sleep , but if your prayers do so , you may chance to be awakened with an affault that may ruine you . However , the rule is easie : Whatsoever you need , aske it of God so long as you want it , even till you have it . For God therefore many times defers to grant , that thou mayst persevere to aske ; and because every holy prayer is a glorification of God by the confessing many of his attributes , a lasting and a persevering prayer is a little image of the Allellujahs and services of eternity ; it is a continuation to do that according to our measures which we shall be doing to eternall ages : therefore think not that five or six hearty prayers can secure to thee a great blessing , and a supply of a mighty necessity . He that prays so , and then leaves off , hath said some prayers , and done the ordinary offices of his Religion , but hath not secured the blessing , nor used means reasonably proportionable to a mighty interest . 4. The prayers of a good man are oftentimes hindered , and destitute of their effect for want of praying in good company ; for sometimes an evill or an obnoxious person hath so secured and ascertained a mischief to himself , that he that stayes in his company or his traffick must also share in his punishment : and the Tyrian sailers with all their vows and prayers could not obtain a prosperous voyage so long as Jonas was within the Bark ; for in this case the interest is divided , and the publick sin prevails above the private piety . When the Philosopher asked a penny of Antigonus , he told him it was too little for a King to give ; when he asked a talent , he told him it was too much for a Philosopher to receive ; for he did purpose to cousen his own charity , and clude the others necessity , upon pretence of a double inequality . So it is in the case of a good man mingled in evill company : if a curse be too severe for a good man , a mercy is not to be expected by evill company ; and his prayer , when it is made in common , must partake of that event of things which is appropriate to that society . The purpose of this caution is , that every good man be carefull that he do not mingle his devotion in the communions of hereticall persons , and in schismaticall conventicles ; for although he be like them that follow Absalom in the simplicity of their heart , yet his intermediall fortune , and the event of his present affairs may be the same with Absaloms ; and it is not a light thing , that we curiously choose the parties of our Communion . I do not say it is necessary to avoid all the society of evill persons ; for then we must go out of the world ; and when we have thrown out a drunkard , possibly we have entertain'd an hypocrite ; or when a swearer is gone , an oppressor may stay still ; or if that be remedied , yet pride is soon discernible , but not easily judicable : but that which is of caution in this question is , that we never mingle with those , whose very combination is a sin ; such as were Corah and his company that rebelled against Moses their Prince ; and Dathan and Abiram that made a schisme in Religion against Aaron the Priest : for so said the Spirit of the Lord , Come out from the congregation of these men , lest ye perish in their company ; and all those that were abused in their communion , did perish in the gain-saying of Corah . It is a sad thing to see a good man cousened by fair pretences , and allured into an evill snare ; for besides , that he dwels in danger , and cohabits with a dragon , and his vertue may change by evill perswasion , into an evill disposition , from sweetnesse to bitternesse , from thence to evill speaking , from thence to beleeve a lye , and from beleeving to practise it ; besides this , it is a very great sadnesse , that such a man should lose all his prayers to very many purposes : God will not respect the offering of those men who assemble by a peevish spirit ; and therefore although God in pity regards the desires of a good man if innocently abused , yet as it unites in that assembly , God will not hear it to any purposes of blessing , and holinesse ; unlesse we keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace , we cannot have the blessing of the Spirit in the returns of a holy prayer ; and all those assemblies which meet together against God or Gods Ordinances , may pray and call , and cry loudly , and frequently , and still they provoke God to anger ; and many times he will not have so much mercy for them as to deny them ; but le ts them prosper in their sin , till it swels to intolerable and impardonable . * But when good men pray with one heart , and in a holy assembly , that is , holy in their desires , lawfull in their authority , though the persons be of different complexion , then the prayer flies up to God like the hymns of a Quire of Angels ; for God that made body and soul to be one man , and God and man to be one Christ , and three persons are one God , and his praises are sung to him by Quires , and the persons are joyned in orders , and the orders into hierarchies , and all , that God may be served by unions and communities , loves that his Church should imitate the Concords of heaven , and the unions of God , and that every good man should promote the interests of his prayers by joyning in the communion of Saints in the unions of obedience and charity , with the powers that God and the Lawes have ordained . The sum is this , If the man that makes the prayer be an unholy person , his prayer is not the instrument of a blessing , but a curse ; but when the sinner begins to repent truly , then his desires begin to be holy . But if they be holy , and just , and good , yet they are without profit and effect , if the prayer be made in schisme , or an evill communion , or if it be made without attention , or if the man soon gives over , or if the prayer be not zealous , or if the man be angry . There are very many waies for a good man to become unblessed and unthriving in his prayers , and he cannot be secure unlesse he be in the state of grace , and his spirit be quiet , and his minde be attentive , and his society be lawfull , and his desires earnest , and passionate , and his devotions persevering , lasting till his needs be served , or exchanged for another blessing : so that , what Laelius ( apud Cicer. de senectute ) said concerning old age , neque in summâ inopiâ levis esse senectus potest , ne sapienti quidem , nec insipienti etiam in summâ copiâ non gravis ; that a wise man could not bear old age if it were extremely poor ; and yet if it were very rich , it were intolerable to a fool ; we may say concerning our prayers ; they are sins and unholy , if a wicked man makes them , and yet if they be made by a good man they are ineffective , unlesse they be improved by their proper dispositions . A good man cannot prevail in his prayers , if his desires be cold , and his affections trifling , and his industry soon weary , and his society criminall ; and if all these appendages of prayer be observed , yet they will do no good to an evill man , for his prayer that begins in sin , shall end in sorrow . SERMON , VI. Part , III. 3. NExt I am to inquire and consider , what degrees and circumstances of piety are requir'd to make us fit to be intercessors for others , and to pray for them with probable effect ? I say with probable effect ; for when the event principally depends upon that which is not within our own election , such as are the lives and actions of others , all that we can consider in this affair is , whether wee be persons fit to pray in the behalf of others that hinder not , but are persons within the limit and possibilities of the present mercy . When the Emperour Maximinus was smitten with the wrath of God , and a sore disease for his cruell persecuting the Christian cause , and putting so many thousand innocent and holy persons to death , and he understood the voice of God and the accents of thunder , and discerned that cruelty was the cause , he revoked their decrees made against the Christians , recall'd them from their caves and deserts , their sanctuaries , and retirements , and enjoyned them to pray for the life and health of their Prince . They did so , and they who could command mountaines to remove , and were obeyed , they who could doe miracles , they who with the key of prayer could open Gods four closets , of the wombe and the grave , of providence and rain , could not obtain for their bloudy Emperour one drop of mercy , but he must die miserable for ever . God would not be intreated for him , and though he loved the prayer because he loved the Advocates , yet Maximinus was not worthy to receive the blessing . And it was threatned to the rebellious people of Israel , and by them to all people that should sin grievously against the Lord , God would break their staffe of bread , and even the righteous should not be prevailing intercessors ; Though Noah , Job , or Daniel were there , they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousnesse , saith the Lord God : and when Abraham prevailed very far with God in the behalf of Sodome , and the five Cities of the Plain ; it had its period ; If there had been ten righteous in Sodom it should have been spared for their sakes , but four onely were found , and they onely delivered their own souls too ; but neither their righteousnesse , nor Abrahams prayer prevailed any further ; and we have this case also mentioned in the New Testament : If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death , he shall aske and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death . At his prayer the sinner shall receive pardon ; God shall give him life for them , to him that prays in their behalf that sin ; provided it be not a sin unto death . For there is a sin unto death , but I doe not say that he shall pray for it . There his Commission expires , and his power is confin'd . For there are some sins of that state and greatnesse that God will not pardon . S. Austin in his books de sermone Domini in monte affirms it , concerning some one single sin of a perfect malice . It was also the opinion of Origen and Athanasius , and is followed by venerable Bede ; and whether the Apostle means a peculiar state of sin , or some one single great crime which also supposes a precedent and a present state of criminall condition ; it is such a thing as will hinder our prayers from prevailing in their behalf ; we are therefore not encouraged to pray , because they cannot receive the benefit of Christs intercession , and therefore much lesse of our Advocation , which onely can prevail by vertue and participation of his mediation . For whomsoever Christ prays , for them wee pray , that is , for all them that are within the covenant of repentance , for all whose actions have not destroyed the very being of Religion , who have not renounc'd their faith , nor voluntarily quit their hopes , nor openly opposed the Spirit of grace , nor grown by a long progresse to a resolute and finall impiety , nor done injustices greater then sorrow , or restitution , or recompense , or acknowledgment . However , though it may be uncertain and disputed concerning the number of sins unto death , and therefore to pray , or not to pray , is not matter of duty ; yet it is all one , as to the effect , whether we know them or no ; for though we intend charity when we pray for the worst of men , yet concerning the event God will take care , and will certainly return thy prayer upon thy own head , though thou didst desire it should water and refresh thy neighbors drynesse ; and St. John so expresses it as if he had left the matter of duty undetermin'd ; because the instances are uncertain ; yet the event is certainly none at all , therefore because we are not encouraged to pray , and because it is a sin unto death , that is , such a sin that hath no portion in the promises of life , and the state of repentance . But now , suppose the man for whom wee pray to be capable of mercy , within the covenant of repentance , and not farre from the Kingdome of heaven ; yet , 2ly . No prayers of others can further prevail then to remove this person to the next stage in order to felicity . When S. Monica prayed for her son , she did not pray to God to save him , but to cōvert him ; and when God intended to reward the prayers and almes of Cornelius , he did not do it by giving him a Crown , but by sending an Apostle to him to make him a Christian ; the meaning of which observation is , that we may understand , that as in the person prayed for , there ought to be the great disposition of being in a saveable condition ; so there ought also to be all the intermediall aptnesses : for just as he is disposed , so can we prevail , and the prayers of a good man first prevail in behalf of a sinner , that he shall be invited , that he shall be reproved , and then that he shall attend to it , then that he shall have his heart open'd , and then that he shall repent : And still a good mans prayers follow him thorough the severall stages of pardon , of sanctification , of restraining graces , of a mighty providence , of great assistance , of perseverance , and a holy death . No prayers can prevaile upon an undisposed person . For the Sun himself cannot enlighten a blind eye , nor the soule move a body whose silver cord is loosed , and whose joints are untyed by the rudenesse and dissolutions of a pertinacious sicknesse . But then , suppose an eye quick , and healthfull , or apt to be refreshed with light and a friendly prospect , yet a glow-worm or a diamond , the shels of pearl , or a dead mans candle , are not enough to make him discern the beauties of the world , and to admire the glories of creation . Therefore , 2. As the persons must be capable for whom we pray , so they that pray for others must be persons extraordinary in something : 1. If persons be of an extraordinary piety , they are apt to be intercessors for others . This appeares in the case of Job : When the wrath of God was kindled against Eliphaz , and his two friends , God commanded them to offer a sacrifice , but my servant Job shall prey for you , for him will I accept : and it was so in the case of the prevaricating Israelites ; God was full of indignation against them , and smote them , Then stood up Phinehas and prayed , and the plague ceased . For this man was a good man , and the spirit of an extraordinary zeal filled him , and he did glory to God in the execution upon Zimri and his fair Madianite . And it was a huge blessing that was intail'd upon the posterity of Abraham , Isaac , and Jacob ; because they had a great Religion , a great power with God , and their extraordinary did consist especially in the matter of prayers and devotion ; for that was eminent in them besides their obedience : for so Maimonides tells concerning them , that Abraham first instituted Morning prayer . The affairs of Religion had not the same constitution then as now . They worshipped God never but at their Memorials , and in places , and seldome times of separation . The bowed their head when they came to a hallowed stone , and upon the top of their staffe , and worshipped when they came to a consecrated pillar , but this was seldome ; and they knew not the secrets and the priviledges of a frequent prayer , of intercourses with God by ejaculations , and the advantages of importunity : and the Doctors of the Jews that record the prayer of Noah , who in all reason knew the secret best , because he was to teach it to all the world , yet have transmitted to us but a short prayer of some seaven lines long ; and this he onely said within the Ark , in that great danger , once on a day , provoked by his fear , and stirred up by a Religion then made actuall , in those days of sorrow and penance . But in the descending ages , when God began to reckon a Church in Abraham's family , there began to be a new institution of offices , and Abraham appointed that God should be prayed to every morning . Isaac being taught by Abraham , made a law , or at least commended the practise , and adopted it into the Religion , that God should be worshipped by decimation or tithing of our goods ; and he added an order of prayer to be said in the afternoon ; and Jacob to make up the office compleat added evening prayer ; and God was their God , and they became fit persons to blesse , that is , of procuring blessings to their relatives ; as appears in the instances of their own families ; of the King of Egypt , and the Cities of the Plain . For a man of an ordinary piety is like Gideons fleece , wet in its own locks ; but it could not water a poor mans Garden . But so does a thirsty land drink all the dew of heaven that wets its face , and a great shower makes no torrent , nor digs so much as a little furrow that the drils of the water might passe into rivers , or refresh their neighbours wearinesse ; but when the earth is full , and hath no strange consumptive needs , then at the next time when God blesses it with a gracious shower , it divides into portions , and sends it abroad in free and equall communications , that all that stand round about may feel the shower . So is a good mans prayer ; his own cup is full , it is crowned with health , and overflowes with blessings , and all that drink of his cup , and eat at his table are refreshed with his joys , and divide with him in his holy portions . And indeed he hath need of a great stock of piety , who is first to provide for his own necessities , and then to give portions to a numerous relation . It is a great matter that every man needs for himself ; the daily expences of his own infirmities , the unthriving state of his omission of duties , and recessions from perfection , and sometimes the great losses and shipwracks , the plundrings and burning of his house by a fall into a deadly sin ; and most good men are in this condition , that they have enough to doe to live , and keep themselves above water ; but how few men are able to pay their own debts , and lend great portions to others ? The number of those who can effectually intercede for others to great purposes of grace and pardon , are as soon told as the number of wise men , as the gates of a City , or the entries of the river Nilus . But then doe but consider what a great ingagement this is to a very strict and holy life . If we chance to live in times of an extraordinary trouble , or if our relatives can be capable of great dangers , or great sorrows , or if we our selves would doe the noblest friendship in the world , and oblige others by acts of greatest benefit ; if we would assist their souls , and work towards their salvation ; if we would be publick ministers of the greatest usefulness to our countrey ; if we would support Kings , and relieve the great necessities of Kingdoms ; if we would be effective in the stopping of a plague , or in the successe of armies ; a great and an exemplar piety , and a zealous and holy prayer can do all this . Semper tu hoc facito ut cogites , Id optimum esse , tute ut sis optimus ; si id nequeas , saltem ut optimis sis proximus . He that is the best man towards God , is certainely the best Minister to his Prince or Countrey , and therefore doe thou endevour to be so ; and if thou canst not be so , be at least next to the best . For in that degree in which our Religion is great , and our piety exemplar , in the same we can contribute towards the fortune of a Kingdome : and when Elijah was taken into heaven , Elisha mourn'd for him because it was a losse to Israel : My Father , my father , the chariots of Israel and horsemen thereof : But consider how uselesse thou art , when thou canst not by thy prayers obtain so much mercy as to prevaile for the life of a single Trooper , or in a plague beg of God for the life of a poor Maid-servant ; but the ordinary emanations of providence shall proceed to issue without any arrest , and the sword of the Angel shall not be turn'd aside in one single infliction . Remember , although he is a great and excellent person that can prevaile of God for the interest of others , yet thou that hast no stock of grace and favour , no interest in the Court of heaven , art but a mean person ; extraordinary in nothing ; thou art unregarded by God , cheap in the fight of Angels , uselesse to thy Prince or Countrey ; thou maist hold thy peace in a time of publick danger . For , Kings never pardon Murtherers at the intercession of Theeves ; and if a mean Mechanick should beg a Reprieve for a condemned Traitor , he is ridiculous and impudent ; so is a vicious Advocate or an ordinary person with God. It is well if God will hear him begging for his owne pardon ; hee is not yet disposed to plead for others . And yet every man that is in the state of grace , every man that can pray without a sinfull prayer , may also intercede for others ; and it is a duty for all men to doe it ; all men I say who can pray at all acceptably ; I will therefore that prayers , and supplications , and intercessions , and giving of thanks be made for all men ; and this is a duty that is prescrib'd to all them that are concern'd in the duty and in the blessings of Prayer ; but this is it which I say ; if their piety be but ordinary , their prayer can be effectuall but in easy purposes , and to smaller degrees ; but he that would work effectively towards a great deliverance , or in great degrees towards the benefit or ea●e of any of his relatives , can be confident of his successe but in the same degree in which his person is gracious . There are strange things in heaven ; judgments there are made of things and persons by the measures of Religion ; and a plain promise produces effects of wonder and miracle ; and the changes that are there made are not effected by passions , and interests , and corporall changes , and the love that is there is not the same thing that it is here , it is more beneficiall , more reasonable , more holy , of other designes , and strange productions ; and upon that stock it is that a holy poor man that possesses no more ( it may be ) then an Ewe-lambe , that eats of his bread , and drinks of his cup , and is a daughter to him , and is all his temporall portion , this poor man is ministred to by Angels , and attended to by God , and the Holy Spirit makes intercession for him , and Christ joyns the mans prayer to his own advocation , and the man by prayer shall save the City , and destroy the fortune of a Tyrant army , even then when God sees it good it should be so ; for he will no longer deny him any thing , but when it is no blessing ; and when it is otherwise , his prayer is most heard when it is most denyed . 2ly . That we should prevaile in intercessions for others , we are to regard and to take care , that as our piety , so also must our offices be extraordinary . He that prays to recover a family from an hereditary curse , or to reverse a Sentence of God , to cancell a Decree of heaven gone out against his friend , hee that would heale the sick with his prayer , or with his devotion prevaile against an army , must not expect such great effects upon a Morning or Evening Collect , or an honest wish put into the recollections of a prayer , or a period put in on purpose . Mamercus Bishop of Vienna , seeing his City and all the Diocese in great danger of perishing by an earthquake , instituted great Letanies , and solemn supplications , besides the ordinary devotions of his usuall hours of prayer ; and the Church from his example took up the practise , and translated it into an anniversary solemnity , and upon St. Mark 's day did solemnly intercede with God to divert or prevent his judgments falling upon the people , majoribus Litani is , so they are called ; with the more solemn supplications they did pray unto God in behalf of their people . And this hath in it the same consideration that is in every great necessity ; for it is a great thing for a man to be so gracious with God , as to be able to prevaile for himself and his friend , for himself and his relatives ; and therefore in these cases , as in all great needs , it is the way of prudence and security , that we use all those greater offices which God hath appointed as instruments of importunity , and arguments of hope , and acts of prevailing , and means of great effect and advocation : such as are , separating days for solemn prayer , all the degrees of violence , and earnest addresse , fasting and prayer , almes and prayer , acts of repentance and prayer , praying together in publick with united hearts , and above all , praying in the susception and communication of the holy Sacrament ; the effects and admirable issues of which we know not , and perceive not ; we lo●e because we desire not , and choose to lose many great blessings rather then purchase them with the frequent commemoration of that sacrifice which was offered up for all the needs of Mankind , and for obtaining all favours and graces to the Catholick Church . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , God never refuses to hear a holy prayer , and our prayers can never be so holy , as when they are offered up in the union of Christs sacrifice : For Christ by that sacrifice reconcil'd God and the world . And because our needs continue , therefore we are commanded to continue the memory , and to represent to God that which was done to satisfie all our needs : Then we receive Christ ; we are after a secret and mysterious , but most reall and admirable manner made all one with Christ ; and if God giving us his Son could not but with him give us all things else , how shall he refuse our persons when we are united to his person , when our souls are joined to his soul , our body nourished by his body , and our souls sanctified by his bloud , and cloth'd with his robes , and marked with his character , and sealed with his Spirit , and renewed with holy vows , and consign'd to all his glories , and adopted to his inheritance ? when we represent his death , and pray in vertue of his passion , and imitate his intercession , and doe that which God commands , and offer him in our manner that which he essentially loves ? can it be that either any thing should be more prevalent , or that God can possibly deny such addresses , and such importunities ? Try it often , and let all things else be answerable , and you cannot have greater reason for your confidence . Doe not all the Christians in the world that understand Religion , desire to have the holy Sacrament when they die ; when they are to make their great appearance before God , and to receive their great consignation to their eternall sentence , good or bad ? And if then be their greatest needs , that is their greatest advantage , and instrument of acceptation . Therefore if you have a great need to be serv'd , or a great charity to serve , and a great pity to minister , and a dear friend in a sorrow , take Christ along in thy prayers , in all thy ways thou canst take him ; take him in affection , and take him in a solemnity , take him by obedience and receive him in the Sacrament ; and if thou then offerest up thy prayers and makest thy needs known ; if thou nor thy friend be not relieved , if thy party be not prevalent , and the war be not appeased , or the plague be not cured , or the enemy taken off , there is something else in it ; but thy prayer is good and pleasing to God , and dressed with circumstances of advantage , and thy person is apt to be an intercessor , and thou hast done all that thou canst ; the event must be left to God ; and the secret reasons of the deniall either thou shalt find in time , or thou maist trust with God , who certainly does it with the greatest wisdome , and the greatest charity . I have in this thing onely one caution to insert , viz. That in our importunity and extraordinary offices for others , we must not make our accounts by multitude of words , and long prayers , but by the measures of the Spirit , by the holynesse of the soul , and the justnesse of the desire , and the usefulnesse of the request , and its order to Gods glory , and its place in the order of providence , and the sincerity of our heart , and the charity of our wishes , and the perseverance of our advocation . There are some ( as Tertullian observes ) qui loquacitatem facundiam existimant , at impudentiam constantiam deputant ; They are praters , and they are impudent , and they call that constancy and importunity : concerning which the advice is easy : Many words or few are extrinsecall to the nature , and not at all considered in the effects of prayer ; but much desire and much holinesse , are essentiall to its constitution ; but we must be very curious that our importunity do not degenerate into impudence and a rude boldnesse . Capitolinus said of Antonius the Emperour and Philosopher , sanè quamvis esset constans , erat etiam verecundus ; he was modest even when he was most pertinacious in his desires . So must wee ; though wee must not be ashamed to aske for whatsoever we need , Rebus semper pudor absit in arctis , and in this sense it is true that Stasimus in the Comedy said concerning Meat , Verecundari neminem apud mensam decet , Nam ibi de divinis & humanis cernitur : Men must not be bashfull so as to lose their meat ; for that is a necessity that cannot bee dispensed withall : so it is in our prayers , whatsoever our necessity calls to us for , we must call to God for ; and he is not pleased with that rusticity or fond modesty of being ashamed to ask of God any thing that is honest and necessary ; yet our importunity hath also bounds of modesty , but such as are to be expressed with other significations , and he is rightly modest towards God , who without confidence in himself , but not without confidence in Gods mercy , nor without great humility of person , and reverence of addresse , presents his prayers to God as earnestly as he can ; Provided alwayes , that in the greatest of our desires , and holy violence , we submit to Gods will , and desire him to choose for us . Our modesty to God in prayers hath no other measures but these : 1. Distrust of our selves : 2. Confidence in God : 3. Humility of person : 4. Reverence of addresse : and 5. Submission to Gods will : These are all , unlesse also you will adde that of Solomon : Be not rash with thy mouth , and let not thy heart be hasty to utter a thing before God , for God is in heaven , and thou upon earth , therefore let thy words be few . These things being observed , let your importunity be as great as it can , it is still the more likely to prevaile , by how much it is the more earnest and signified and represented by the most offices extraordinary . 3ly . The last great advantage towards a prevailing intercession for others , is , that the person that prayes for his relatives , be a person of an extraordinary dignity , imployment or designation . For God hath appointed some persons and callings of men to pray for others , such are Fathers for their Children , Bishops for their Dioceses , Kings for their Subjects , and the whole Order Ecclesiast call for all the men and women in the Christian Church . And it is well it is so ; for as things are now , and have been too long , how few are there that understand it to be their duty , or part of their necessary imployment , that some of their time , and much of their prayers , and an equall portion of their desires be spent upon the necessities of others ? All men doe not think it necessary , and fewer practise it frequently ; and they but coldly , without interest , and deep resentment : it is like the compassion we have in other mens miseries , we are not concerned in it , and it is not our case , and our hearts ake not when another mans children are made fatherlesse , or his wife a sad widow : and just so are our prayers for their relief : If we thought their evils to be ours , if wee and they as members of the same body had sensible and reall communications of good and evill ; if we understood what is really meant by being members one of another , or if we did not think it a spirituall word of art , instrumentall onely to a science , but no part of duty , or reall relation , sure we should pray more earnestly one for another then we usually doe . How few of us are troubled when he sees his brother wicked , or dishonorably vicious ? Who is sad and melancholy when his neighbour is almost in hell ? when he sees him grow old in iniquity ? How many days have we set apart for the publick relief and interests of the Kingdome ? How earnestly have we fasted , if our Prince be sick or afflicted ? What almes have we given for our brothers conversion ? or if this be great , how importunate and passionate have we been with God by prayer in his behalf , by prayer and secret petition ? But however , though it were well , very well , that all of us would think of this duty a little more ; because besides the excellency of the duty it self , it would have this blessed consequent , that for whose necessities we pray , if we doe desire earnestly they should be relieved , we would , when ever we can , and in all we can , set our hands to it ; and if we pity the Orphan children , and pray for them heartily , we would also , when we could , relieve them charitably : but though it were therefore very well that things were thus with all men , yet God who takes care for us all , makes provision for us in speciall manner ; and the whole Order of the Clergy are appointed by God to pray for others , to be Ministers of Christs Priesthood , to be followers of his Advocation , to stand between God and the people , and present to God all their needs , and all their desires . That this God hath ordained and appointed , and that this rather he will blesse and accept , appears by the testimony of God himself , for he onely can be witnesse in this particular ; for it depends wholly upon his gracious favour and acceptation . It was the case of Abraham and Abimelech : Now therefore restore the man his wife , for he is a Prophet , and he will pray for thee , and thou shalt live ; and this caused confidence in Micah : Now know I that the Lord will doe me good , seeing I have a Levite to my Priest : meaning , that in his Ministery , in the Ministery of Priests , God hath established the alternate returns of blessing and prayers , the entercouses between God and his people ; And thorough the descending ages of the synagogue it came to be transmitted also to the Christian Church , that the Ministers of Religion are advocates for us under Christ , by the Ministery of Reconciliation , by their dispensing the holy Sacraments , by the Keyes of the Kingdome of heaven , by Baptisme , and the Lords Supper , by binding and loosing , by the Word of God and Prayer ; and therefore saith St. James , If any man be sick among you , let him send for the Elders of the Church , and let them pray over him : meaning that God hath appointed them especially , and will accept them in ordinary , and extraordinary ; and this is that which is meant by blessing . A Father blesses his childe , and Solomon blessed his people , and Melchisedec the Priest blessed Abraham , and Moses blessed the Sons of Israel , and God appointed the Leviticall Priests to blesse the congregation ; and this is more then can be done by the people ; for though they can say the same prayer , and the People pray for their Kings , and Children for their Parents , and the Flock for the Pastor , yet they cannot blesse him as he blesses them ; for the lesse is blessed of the greater , and not the greater of the lesse ; and this is without all contradiction , said S. Paul : the meaning of the mysterie is this , That God hath appointed the Priest to pray for the People , and because he hath made it to be his ordinary office and imployment , he also intends to be seen in that way which he hath appointed , and chalked out for us ; his prayer , if it be found in the way of righteousnesse , is the surer way to prevaile in his intercessions for the people . But upon this stock comes in the greatest difficulty of the text : for if God heareth not sinners , there is an infinite necessity that the Ministers of Religion should be very holy : For all their ministeries consist in preaching and praying ; to these two are reducible , all the ministeries Ecclesiasticall which are of divine institution : so the Apostles summ'd up their imployment ; But we will give our selves continually to prayer , and to the ministery of the Word ; to exhort , to reprove , to comfort , to cast down , to determine cases of conscience , and to rule in the Church by the word of their proper Ministery ; and the very making lawes Ecclesiasticall , is the ministery of the word ; for so their dictates passe into lawes by being duties injoyn'd by God , or the acts , or exercises , or instruments of some injoyn'd graces . To prayer is reduced administration of the Sacraments : but binding and loosing , and visitation of the sick are mixt offices , partly relating to one , partly to the other . Now although the Word of God preached , will have a great effect , even though it be preached by an evill Minister , a vicious person , yet it is not so well there , as from a pious man ; because by prayer also his preaching is made effectuall , and by his good example his Homilies and Sermons are made active ; and therefore it is very necessary in respect of this half of the Ministers office , [ The preaching of Word ] he be a good man ; unlesse he be , much perishes to the people , most of the advantages are lost . But then for the other half ; all those ministeries which are by way of prayer are rendred extremely invalid , and ineffectuall , if they be ministred by an evill person . For upon this very stock it was that St. Cyprian affirmed that none were to be chosen to the Ministery but immaculati & integri antistites , holy and upright men , who offering their sacrifices worthily to God , and holily , may be heard in their prayers which they make for the safety of the Lords people . But he presses this caution to a further issue : that it is not only necessary to choose holy persons to these holy Ministeries for fear of losing the advantages of a sanctified Ministery ; but also that the people may not be guilty of an evill communion , and a criminall state of society . Nec enim sibi plebs blandiatur quasi immunis à contagione delicti esse possit cum sacerdote peccatore communicans , the people cannot be innocent if they communicate with a vitious priest : for so said the Lord by the Prophet Hosea , Sacrificia eorum panis luctus ; their sacrifices are like bread of sorrow , whosoever eat thereof shall be defiled . The same also he sayes often and more vehemently , ibid. & lib. 4. ep . 2. But there is yet a further degree of this evill . It is not only a losse , and also criminall to the people to communicate with a Minister of a notorious evill life and scandalous , but it is affirmed by the Doctors of the Church to be wholly without effect : their prayers are sins , their Sacraments are null and ineffective , their communions are without consecration , their hand is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a dead hand , the blessings vain , their sacrifices rejected , their ordinations imperfect , their order is vanished , their character is extinguished , and the holy Ghost will not descend upon the mysteries when he is invocated by unholy hands and unsanctified lips . This is a sad story , but it is expresly affirmed by Dionysius , by St. Hierom upon the 2. chapter of Zephaniah , affirming that they do wickedly who affirm eucharistiam imprecantis facere verba , non vitam , & necessariam esse tantum solennem orationem & non sacerdotum merita : that the Eucharist is consecrated by the Word and solemn prayer , and not by the life and holinesse of the Priest ; and by St. Gelasius a by the Author of the imperfect work attributed to St. Chrysostome a who quotes the 8th . book of the Apostolicall Constitutions for the same Doctrine ; the words of which in the first chapter are so plain that Bovius b and Sixtus Senensis c accuse both the Author of the Apostolicall Constitutions , and St. Hierom and the Author of these Homilies to be guilty of the Doctrine of Iohn Hus , who for the crude delivery of this truth was sentenced by the councell of Constance . To the same sense and signification of Doctrine is that which is generally agreed upon by almost all persons ; that he that enters into his Ministery by Simony receives nothing but a curse , which is expresly affirmed by Petrus Damiani d and Tarasius e the Patriarch of Constantinople , by St. Gregory f , and St. Ambrose . g . For if the holy Ghost leaves polluted Temples and unchast bodies , if he takes away his grace from them that abuse it , if the holy Ghost would not have descended upon Simon Magus at the prayer of St. Peter , if St. Peter had taken money for him : it is but reasonable to beleeve the holy Ghost will not descend upon the simoniacall , unchast Concubinaries , Schismaticks and scandalous Priests , and excommunicate . And beside the reasonablenesse of the Doctrine , it is also further affirmed by the councell of Neocaesarea , by St. h Chrysostome , i Innocentius , k Nicolaus the first , and by the Master of the Sentences upon the saying of God by the Prophet Malachic . 1. Maledicam benedictionibus vestris , I will curse your blessings ; upon the stock of these Scriptures , reasons , and authorities , we may see how we are to understand this advantage of intercession . The prayer and offices of holy Ministers are of great advantages for the interest of the people ; but if they be ministred to by evill men , by vicious , and scandalous Ministers , this extraordinary advantage is lost , they are left to stand alone , or to fall by their own crimes ; so much as is the action of God , and so much as is the piety of the man that attends and prayes in the holy place with the Priest , so far he shall prevail , but no further ; and therefore the Church hath taught her Ministers to pray thus in her preparatory prayer to consecration , Quoniam me peccatorem inter te & eundem populum Medium esse voluisti , licet in me boni operis testimonium non agnoscas , officium dispensationiis creditae non recuses , nec per me indignum famulum tuum eorum salutis pereat pretium , pro quibus victima factus salutaris , dignatus es fieri redemptio . For we must know that God hath not put the salvation of any man into the power of another . And although the Church of Rome by calling the Priests actuall intention simply necessary , and the Sacraments also indispensably necessary , hath left it in the power of every Curate to damn very many of his Parish ; yet it is otherwise with the accounts of truth , and the Divine mercy ; and therefore he will never exact the Sacraments of us by the measures and proportions of an evill Priest , but by the piety of the communicant , by the prayers of Christ , and the mercies of God. But although the greatest interest of salvation depends not upon this Ministery , yet as by this we receive many advantages , if the Minister be holy : so if he be vicious , we lose all that which could be conveyed to us by his part of the holy Ministration ; every man and woman in the assembly prays and joynes in the effect , and for the obtaining the blessing ; but the more vain persons are assembled , the lesse benefits are received even by good men there present : and therefore much is the losse , if a wicked Priest ministers , though the summe of affairs is not intirely turned upon his office or default ; yet many advantages are . For we must not think that the effect of the Sacraments is indivisibly done , at once , or by one ministery ; but they operate by parts , and by morall operation , by the length of time , and a whole order of piety , and holy ministeries ; every man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a fellow-worker with God in the work of his salvation ; and as in our devotion , no one prayer of our own alone prevails upon God for grace and salvation , but all the devotions of our life are upon Gods account for them ; so is the blessing of God brought upon the people by all the parts of their religion , and by all assistances of holy people , and by the ministeries not of one , but of all Gods Ministers , and relies finally upon our own faith , and obedience , and the mercies of God in Jesus Christ ; but yet for want of holy persons to minister , much diminution of blessing , and a losse of advantages is unavoidable ; therefore if they have great necessities , they can best hope that God will be moved to mercy on their behalf , if their necessities be recommended to God by persons of a great piety , of a holy calling , and by the most solemn offices . Lastly , I promised to consider concerning the signs of having our prayers heard ; concerning which , there is not much of particular observation ; but if our prayers be according to the warrant of Gods Word , if we aske according to Gods will , things honest and profitable , we are to relye upon the promises , and we are sure that they are heard ; and besides this , we can have no sign but the thing signified ; when we feel the effect , then we are sure God hath heard us ; but till then we are to leave it with God , and not to aske a sign of that , for which he hath made us a promise . And yet Cassian hath named one sign , which if you give me leave I will name unto you . It is a sign we shall prevail in our prayers , when the Spirit of God moves us to pray , cum fiduciâ & quasi securitate impetrandi , with a confidence and a holy security of receiving what we aske . But this is no otherwise a sign , but because it is a part of the duty ; and trusting in God is an endearing him , and doubting is a dishonour to him ; and he that doubts hath no faith ; for all good prayers relye upon Gods Word ; and we must judge of the effect by prudence : for he that askes what is not lawfull , hath made an unholy prayer ; if it be lawfull and not profitable , we are then heard when God denies us ; and if both these be in the prayer , he that doubts is a sinner , and then God will not hear him ; but beyond this I know no confidence is warrantable ; and if this be a signe of prevailing , then all the prudent prayers of all holy men shall certainely be heard , and because that is certain , we need no further inquiry into signes . I summe up all in the words of God by the Prophet : Run to and fro thorow the streets of Jerusalem , and see , and know , and seek in the broad places thereof , if you can finde a man , if there be any that executeth judgment , that seeketh truth , virum quaerentem fidem , a man that seeketh for faith , & propitius ero ei , and I will pardon it . God would pardon all Jerusalem for one good mans sake ; there are such dayes and opportunities of mercy when God at the prayer of one holy person will save a people ; and Ruffinus spake a great thing , but it was hugely true : Quis dubitet mundum stare precibus sanctorum ? the world it self is established and kept from dissolution by the prayers of Saints ; and the prayers of Saints shall hasten the day of Judgement ; and we cannot easily find two effects greater . But there are many other very great ones ; for the prayers of holy men appease Gods wrath , drive away temptations , resist and overcome the Devill : Holy prayer procures the ministery and service of Angels , it rescinds the Decrees of God , it cures sicknesses , and obtains pardon , it arrests the Sun in its course , and staies the wheels of the Charet of the Moon ; it rules over all Gods creatures , and opens and shuts the storehouses of rain ; it unlocks the cabinet of the womb , and quenches the violence of fire , it stops the mouthes of Lions , and reconciles our sufferance and weak faculties , with the violence of torment , and sharpnesse of persecution ; it pleases God and supplies all our needs . But Prayer that can do thus much for us , can do nothing at all without holinesse ; for God heareth not sinners , but if any man be a worshipper of God and doth his will , him he heareth . Sermon , VII . Of godly Fear , &c. Part I. Heb. 12. part of the 28th . and the 29th . verses . Let us have Grace whereby we may serve God with reverence and godly fear . For our God is a consuming fire . E 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so our Testaments usually read it from the authority of Theophylact ; Let us have grace : But some copies read it in the indicative mood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , we have grace , by which we do serve ; and it is something better consonant to the discourse of the Apostle . For having enumerated the great advantages which the Gospell hath above those of the Law , he makes an argument à majori ; and answers a tacite objection . The Law was delivered by Angels , but the Gospell by the Son of God : The Law was delivered from Mount Sinai , the Gospell from Mount Sion , from the heavenly Jerusalem : The Law was given with terrors and noises , with amazements of the standers by , and Moses himself the Minister did exceedingly quake and fear , and gave demonstration how infinitely dangerous it was by breaking that Law to provoke so mighty a God , who with his voice did shake the earth ; but the Gospell was given by a meek Prince , a gentle Saviour , with a still voice , scarce heard in the streets . But that this may be no objection , he proceeds and declares the terror of the Lord ; Deceive not your selves , our Law-giver appeared so upon earth , and was so truly , but now he is ascended into heaven , and from thence he speaks to us . See that ye refuse not him that speaketh , for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth , much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven : for as God once shaked the earth , and that was full of terror , so our Lawgiver shall do , and much more , and be farre more terrible , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said the Prophet Haggai , which the Apostle quotes here , he once shook the earth . But , once more I shake , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it is in the Prophesie ; I will shake not the earth only , but also heaven with a greater terror then was upon Mount Sinai , with the voice of an Archangell , with the trump of God , with a concussion so great , that heaven and earth shall be shaken in pieces , and new ones come in their room . This is an unspeakable and an unimaginable terror : Mount Sinai was shaken , but it stands to this day , but when that shaking shall be , the things that are shaken shall be no more ; that those things that cannot be shaken may remain , that is , not only that the clestiall Jerusalem may remain for ever , but that you who do not turn away from the faith and obedience of the Lord Jesus , you who cannot be shaken nor removed from your duty , you may remain for ever ; that when the rocks rend , and the mountains flie in pieces like the drops of a broken cloud , and the heavens shall melt , and the Sun shall be a globe of consuming fire , and the Moon shall be dark like an extinguish'd candle , then you poor men who could be made to tremble with an ague , or shake by the violence of a Northern winde , or be remov'd from your dwellings by the unjust decree of a persecutor , or be thrown from your estates by the violence of an unjust man , yet could not be removed from your duty , and though you went trembling , yet would go to death for the testimony of a holy cause , and you that would dye for your faith would also live according to it ; you shall be established by the power of God , and supported by the arme of your Lord , and shall in all this great shaking be unmovable as the corner stone of the gates of the new Jerusalem , you shall remain and abide for ever . This is your case . And to summe up the whole force of the argument , the Apostle addes the words of Moses : as it was then , so it is true now , Our God is a consuming fire : He was so to them that brake the Law , but he will be much more to them that disobey his Son , he made great changes then , but those which remain are farre greater , and his terrors are infinitely more intolerable ; and therefore although he came not in the spirit of Elias , but with meeknesse and gentle insinuations , soft as the breath of heaven , not willing to disturb the softest stalk of a violet , yet his second coming shall be with terrors , such as shall amaze all the world , and dissolve it into ruine , and a Chaos . This truth is of so great efficacy to make us do our duty , that now we are sufficiently enabled with this consideration . This is the grace which we have to enable us , this terror will produce fear , and fear will produce obedience , and we therefore have grace , that is , we have such a motive to make us reverence God and fear to offend him , that he that dares continue in sin and refuses to hear him that speaks to us from heaven , and from thence shall come with terrors , this man despises the grace of God , he is a gracelesse , fearlesse , impudent man , and he shall finde that true in hypothesi , and in his own ruine , which the Apostle declares in thesi , and by way of caution , and provisior ary terror , Our God is a consuming fire ; this is the sense and design of the text . Reverence and godly fear , they are the effects of this consideration , they are the duties of every Christian , they are the grace of God. I shall not presse them only to purposes of awfulnesse and modesty of opinion , and prayers against those strange doctrines which some have introduc'd into Religion , to the destruction of all manners and prudent apprehensions of the distances of God and man ; such as are the Doctrine of necessity of familiarity with God , and a civill friendship , and a parity of estate , and an unevennesse of adoption ; from whence proceed rudenesse in prayers , flat and undecent expressions , affected rudenesse , superstitious sitting at the holy Sacrament , making it to be a part of Religion to be without fear and reverence ; the stating of the Question is a sufficient reproof of this folly ; whatsoever actions are brought into Religion without reverence and godly fear , are therefore to be avoided because they are condemned in this advice of the Apostle , and are destructive of those effects which are to be imprinted upon our spirits by the terrors of the day of Judgement . But this fear and reverence the Apostle intends should be a deletery to all sin whatsoever : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , sayes the Etymologicum , whatsoever is terrible is destructive of that thing for which it is so ; and if we fear the evill effects of sin , let us flie from it , we ought to fear its alluring face too ; let us be so afraid , that we may not dare to refuse to hear him whose Throne is heaven , whose Voice is thunder , whose Tribunall is clouds , whose Seat is the right hand of God , whose Word is with power , whose Law is given with mighty demonstration of the Spirit , who shall reward with heaven and joyes eternall , and who punishes his rebels that will not have him to reign over them , with brimstone and fire , with a worm that never dies , and a fire that never is quenched ; let us fear him who is terrible in his Judgements , just in his his dispensation , secret in his providence , severe in his demands , gracious in his assistances , bountifull in his gifts , and is never wanting to us in what we need ; and if all this be not argument strong enough to produce fear , and that fear great enough to secure obedience , all arguments are uselesse , all discourses are vain , the grace of God is ineffective , and we are dull as the Dead sea , unactive as a rock , and we shall never dwell with God in any sense , but as he is a consuming fire , that is , dwell in the everlasting burnings . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Reverence and caution , modesty and fear , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so it is in some copies , with caution and fear ; or if we render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be fear of punishment , as it is generally understood by interpreters of this place , and is in Hesychius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , then the expression is the same in both words , and it is all one with the other places of Scripture , Work out your salvation with fear and trembling , degrees of the same duty , and they signifie all those actions and graces which are the proper effluxes of fear ; such as are reverence , prudence , caution , and diligence , chastity and a sober spirit : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so also say the Grammarians ; and it means plainly this ; since our God will appear so terrible at his second comming , let us passe the time of our sojourning here in fear , that is , modestly without too great confidence of our selves ; soberly without bold crimes , which when a man acts he must put on shamelesnesse ; reverently towards God , as fearing to offend him ; diligently observing his commandements , inquiring after his will , trembling at his voice , attending to his Word , revering his judgements , fearing to provoke him to anger , for it is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Thus far it is a duty . Concerning which , that I may proceed orderly , I shall first consider how far fear is a duty of Christian Religion . 2. Who and what states of men ought to fear , and upon what reasons . 3. What is the excesse of fear , or the obliquity and irregularity whereby it becomes dangerous , penall , and criminall , a state of evill and not a state of duty . 1. Fear is taken sometimes in holy Scripture for the whole duty of man , for his whole Religion towards God. And now Israel what doth the Lord thy God require of thee , but to fear the Lord thy God , &c. fear is obedience , and fear is love , and fear is humility , because it is the parent of all these , and is taken for the whole duty to which it is an introduction . The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdome , a good understanding have all they that do thereafter , the praise of it endureth for ever ; and , Fear God and keep his Commandements , for this is the whole duty of man : and thus it is also used in the New Testament : Let us cleanse our selves from all filthinesse of the flesh and spirit , perfecting holinesse in the fear of God. 2. Fear is sometimes taken for worship : for so our blessed Saviour expounds the words of Moses in Mat. 4. 10. taken from Deut. 10. 20. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God , so Moses ; Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God , and him only shalt thou serve , said our blessed Saviour : and so it was used by the Prophet Jonah , I am an Hebrew , and I fear the Lord the God of Heaven , that is , I worship him ; he is the Deity that I adore , that is my worship and my Religion ; and because the new Colony of Assyrians did not do so , at the beginning of their dwelling there , they feared not the Lord , that is , they worshipped other Gods , and not the God of Israel , therefore God sent Lions among them which slew many of them . Thus far fear is not a distinct duty , but a word signifying something besides it self ; and therefore cannot come into the consideration of this text . Therefore 3. Fear as it is a religious passion is divided as the two Testaments are ; and relates to the old and new Covenant , and accordingly hath its distinction . In the Law , God used his people like servants ; in the Gospell , he hath made us to be sons . In the Law he enjoyn'd many things , hard , intricate , various , painfull , and expensive ; in the Gospell he gave commandements , not hard , but full of pleasure , necessary and profitable to our life , and well being of single persons and communities of men . In the Law , he hath exacted those many precepts by the covenant of exact measures , grains and scruples ; in the Gospel , he makes abatement for humane infirmities , temptations , morall necessities , mistakes , errors , for every thing that is pitiable , for every thing that is not malicious , and voluntary . In the Law , there are many threatnings , and but few promises , the promise of temporal prosperities branch'd into single instances ; in the Gospell , there are but few threatnings , and many promises : And when God by Moses gave the 10 Commandements , only one of them was sent out with a promise , the precept of obedience to all our parents and superiors ; but when Christ in his first Sermon recommended 8 duties , Christian duties to the College of Disciples , every one of them begins with a blessing and ends with a promise , and therefore grace is opposed to the Law. So that upon these differing interests , the world put on the affections of Servants , and Sons : They of old feared God as a severe Lord , much in his commands , abundant in threatnings , angry in his executions , terrible in his name , in his Majesty , and appearance , dreadfull unto death ; and this the Apostle cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The spirit of bondage , or of a servant . But we have not received that Spirit , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , unto fear , not a servile fear , but the Spirit of adoption and a filiall fear we must have ; God treats us like sons , he keeps us under discipline , but designs us to the inheritance : and his government is paternall , his disciplines are mercifull , his conduct gentle , his Son is our Brother , and our Brother is our Lord , and our Judge is our Advocate , and our Priest hath felt our infirmities , and therefore knows to pity them , and he is our Lord , and therefore he can relieve them : and from hence we have affections of sons ; so that a fear we must not have , and yet a fear we must have ; and by these proportions we understand the difference . Malo vereri quàm timeri me à meis , said one in the Comedy , I had rather be reverend then fear'd by my children . The English doth not well expresse the difference , but the Apostle doth it rarely well . For that which he cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Rom. 8. 15. he cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 2 Tim. 1. 7. The spirit of bondage is the spirit rather of timorousnesse , of fearfulnesse rather then fear ; when we are fearfull that God will use us harshly ; or when we think of the accidents that happen , worse then the things are , when they are proportion'd by measures of eternity : and from this opinion conceive forc'd resolutions and unwilling obedience . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Aristotle , Good men are guided by reverence , not by fear , and they avoid not that which is afflictive , but that which is dishonest : they are not so good whose rule is otherwise . But that we may take more exact measures , I shall describe the proportions of Christian or godly fear by the following propositions . 1. Godly fear is ever without despair ; because Christian fear is an instrument of duty , and that duty without hope can never go forward . For what should that man do who like Nausiclides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; hath neither spring nor harvest , friends nor children , rewards nor hopes ? A man will very hardly be brought to deny his own pleasing appetite , when for so doing he cannot hope to have a recompense ; when the mind of a man is between hope and fear , it is intent upon its work ; at post quam adempta spes est , lassus , curâ confectus stupet , if you take away the hope the minde is weary , spent with care , hindred by amazements ; aut aliquem sumpserimus temerariâ in Deos desperatione , saith Arnobius ; a despair of mercy makes men to despise God ; and the damned in hell when they shall for ever be without hope , are also without fear ; their hope is turned into despair , and their fear into blasphemy , and they curse the fountain of blessing , and revile God to eternall ages . When Dionysius the Tyrant imposed intolerable tributes upon his Sicilian subjects , it amazed them , and they petitioned and cryed for help , and flatter'd him , and fear'd and obey'd him carefully , but he impos'd still new ones , and greater , and at last left them poor as the valleys of Vesuvius , or the top of Aetna ; but then all being gone , the people grew idle , and carelesse , and walked in the markets , and publick places , cursing the Tyrant , and bitterly scoffing his person and vices ; which when Dionysius heard , he caused his Publicans and Committees to withdraw their impost ; for now , sayes he , they are dangerous , because they are desperate , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . when men have nothing left they will despise their Rulers : and so it is in Religion ; audaces cogimur essemetu . If our fears be unreasonable , our diligence is none at all , and from whom we hope for nothing , neither benefit nor indemnity , we despise his command and break his yoke , and trample it under our most miserable feet . And therefore Aeschylus cals these people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , hot , mad , and furious , carelesse of what they do , and he opposes them to pious and holy people . Let your confidence be allayed with fear , and your fear be sharpned with the intertextures of a holy hope , and the active powers of our souls are furnished with feet and wings , with eyes and hands , with consideration and diligence , with reason and incouragements . But despair is part of the punishment that is in hell , and the Devils still do evill things because they never hope to receive a good , nor finde a pardon . 2. Godly fear must alwaies be with honourable opinion of God , without disparagements of his mercies , without quarrellings at the intrigues of his providence , or the rough wayes of his Justice , and therefore it must be ever relative to our selves and our own failings and imperfections . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , God never walks perversely towards us , unlesse we walk crookedly towards him . And therefore persons that only consider the greatnesse and power of God , and dwell for ever in the meditations of those severe executions which are transmitted to us by story , or we observe by accident , and conversation , are apt to be jealous concerning God , and fear him as an enemy , or as children fear fire , or women thunder , only because it can hurt them ; Saepius illud cogitant quid possit is cujus in ditione sunt , quàm quid debeat facere ( Cicero pro Quinctio ) they remember oftner what God can do then what he will ; being more afrighted at his Judgements , then delighted with his mercy . Such as were the Lacedaemonians , when ever they saw a man grow popu●ar , or wise , or beloved , and by consequence powerfull , they turned him out of the countrey : and because they were afraid of the power of Ismenias , and knew that Pelopidas and Pherenicus and Androclydes could hurt them , if they listed , they banished them from Sparta , but they let Epaminondas alone , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as being studious and therefore unactive , and poor and therefore harmlesse ; It is harder when men use God thus , and fear him as the great Justiciar of the world , who sits in heaven , and observes all we do , and cannot want excuse to punish all mankinde . But this caution I have now inserted for their sakes whose Schooles and Pulpits raise doctrinall fears concerning God , which if they were true , the greatest part of mankinde would be tempted to think they have reason not to love God , and all the other part that have not apprehended a reason to hate him , would have very much reason to suspect his severitie , and their own condition . Such are they which say that God hath decreed the greatest part of mankinde to eternall damnation , and that only to declare his severity and to manifest his glory by a triumph in our torments , and rejoycings in the gnashing of our teeth . And they also fear God unreasonably , and speak no good things concerning his Name , who say that God commands us to observe Lawes which are impossible ; that think he will condemn innocent persons for errors of Judgement which they cannot avoid , that condemn whole Nations for different opinions , which they are pleased to call Heresie ; that think God will exact the duties of a man by the measures of an Angell , or will not make abatement for all our pitiable infirmities . The precepts of this caution are , that we remember Gods mercy to be over all his works , that is , that he shewes mercy to all his creatures that need it ; that God delights to have his mercy magnified in all things , and by all persons , and at all times , and will not suffer his greatest honour to be most of all undervalued ; and therefore as he that would accuse God of injustice were a blasphemer , so he that suspects his mercy , dishonours God as much , and produces in himself that fear which is the parent of trouble , but no instrument of duty . 3ly . Godly fear is operative , diligent , and instrumentall to caution and strict walking : for so fear is the mother of holy living ; and the Apostle urges it by way of upbraiding : What! doe wee provoke God to anger ? are we stronger then he ? meaning , that if we be not strong enough to struggle with a feaver , if our voyces cannot out-roar thunder , if we cannot check the ebbing and flowing of the sea , if we cannot adde one cubit to our stature , how shall we escape the mighty hand of God ? And here heighten your apprehensions of the Divine power , of his justice , and severity , of the fiercenesse of his anger , and the sharpnesse of his sword , the heavynesse of his hand , and the swiftnesse of his arrows , as much as ever you can ; provided the effect passe on no further , but to make us reverent and obedient : but that fear is unreasonable , servile , and unchristian , that ends in bondage and servile affections , scruple and trouble , vanity and incredulity , superstition and desperation : It s proper bounds are humble and devout prayers , and a strict and a holy piety , ( according to his laws ) and glorifications of God , or speaking good things of his holy Name ; and then it cannot be amisse : wee must be full of confidence towards God , we must with cheerfulnesse relye upon Gods goodnesse for the issue of our souls , and our finall interest , but this expectation of the Divine mercy must be in the ways of piety . Commit your selves to God in well-doing as unto a faithfull Creator . Alcibiades was too timorous , who being called from banishment refused to return , and being asked if he durst not trust his country , answered , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : In every thing else , but in the question of his life he would not trust his Mother , lest ignorantly she should mistake the black bean for the white , and intending a favour should doe him a mischief . We must , we may most safely trust God with our souls ; the stake is great , but the venture is none at all . For he is our Creator , and he is faithfull ; he is our Redeemer , and he bought them at a dear rate ; he is our Lord , and they are his own ; he prays for them to his heavenly Father , and therefore he is an interested person . So that he is a Party , and an Advocate , and a Judge too ; and therefore there can be no greater security in the world on Gods part : and this is our hope , and our confidence : but because we are but earthen vessels , under a law , and assaulted by enemies , and endangered by temptations , therefore it concerns us to fear , lest we make God our enemy , and a party against us : And this brings me to the next part of the consideration ; Who and what states of men ought to feare , and for what reasons ? for as the former cautions did limit , so this will encourage ; those did direct , but this will exercise our godly Feare . 1. I shall not here insist upon the generall reasons of feare , which concern every man , though it be most certain , that every one hath cause to fear , even the most confident , and holy , because his way is dangerous and narrow , troublesome and uneven , full of ambushes and pitfalls ; and I remember what Polynices said in the Tragedy when he was unjustly throwne from his Fathers Kingdome , and refused to treat of peace but with a sword in his hand , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every step is a danger for a valiant man when he walkes in his enemies countrey ; and so it is with us ; we are espyed by God , and observed by Angels , we are betrayed within , and assaulted without , the Devill is our enemy , and we are fond of his mischiefs ; he is crafty , and we love to be abused ; hee is malicious , and wee are credulous ; hee is powerfull , and wee are weak ; hee is too ready of himself , and yet wee desire to be tempted ; the world is alluring , and wee consider not its vanity ; sin puts on all pleasures , and yet wee take it though it puts us to pain : In short , wee are vain , and credulous , and sensuall , and trifling ; wee are tempted , and tempt our selves , and we sin frequently , and contract evill habits , and they become second natures , and bring in a second death miserable and eternall : Every man hath need to feare , because every man hath weaknesses , and enemies , and temptations , and dangers , and causes of his own . But I shall onely instance in some peculiar sorts of men , who it may be , least think of it , and therefore have most cause to fear . 1t. Are those of whom the Apostle speaks , Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) said the Greek proverb ; In ordinary fish we shall never meet with thornes , and spiny prickles : and in persons of an ordinary even course of life we finde it too often , that they have no checks of conscience , or sharp reflexions upon their conditions ; they fall into no horrid crimes , and they think all is peace round about them : But you must know , that as Grace is the improvement and bettering of Nature , and Christian graces are the perfections of Morall habits , and are but new circumstances , formalities , and degrees ; so it grows in naturall measures by supernaturall aides , and it hath its degrees , its strengths and weaknesses , its promotions and arrests , its stations and declensions , its direct sicknesses and indispositions ; and there is a state of grace that is next to sin ; it inclines to evill and dwels with a temptation , its acts are imperfect , and the man is within the Kingdome , but he lives in its borders , and is dubiae jurisdictionis . These men have cause to fear ; These men seem to stand , but they reel indeed , and decline toward danger and death . Let these men ( saith the Apostle ) take heed lest they fall , for they shake already ; such are persons whom the Scriptures call weak in faith . I doe not mean new beginners in Religion , but such who have dwelt long in its confines , and yet never enter into the heart of the countrey ; such whose faith is tempted , whose piety does not grow , such who yeeld a little , people that doe all that they can lawfully doe , and study how much is lawfull , that they may lose nothing of a temporall interest : people that will not be Martyrs in any degree , and yet have good affections , and love the cause of Religion , and yet will suffer nothing for it : these are such which the Apostle speaks , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , They think they stand , and so they doe , upon one leg , that is , so long as they are untempted ; but when the Tempter comes , then they fall and bemoan themselves , that by losing peace they lost their inheritance . There are a great many sorts of such persons : some when they are full , are content , and rejoyce in Gods providence , but murmur and are amazed when they fall into poverty . They are chaste so long as they are within the protection of marriage , but when they return to liberty they fall into bondage , and complain they cannot help it ; They are temperate and sober , if you let them alone at home , but call them abroad and they will lose their sober thoughts , as Dinah did her honour , by going into new company . These men in these estates think they stand , but God knows they are soon weary , and stand stiffe as a Cane , which the heat of the Sirian star or the flames of the Sun cannot bend ; but one sigh of a Northern wind shakes them into the tremblings of a palsey : In this the best advice is , that such persons should watch their own infirmities , and see on which side they are most open , and by what enemies they use to fall , and to fly from such parties as they would avoid death . But certainly they have great cause to fear , who are sure to be sick when the weather changes ; or can no longer retain their possession but till an enemy please to take it away , or will preserve their honour but till some smiling temptation aske them to forgoe it . 2ly . They also have great reason to fear whose repentance is broken into fragments , and is never a whole or entire change of life : I mean those that resolve against a sin , and pray against it , and hate it in all the resolutions of their understanding , till that unlucky period comes in which they use to act it , but then they sin as certainly as they will infallibly repent it , when they have done : these are a very great many Christians who are esteemed of the better sort of penitents , yet feel this feaverish repentance to be their best state of health ; they fall certainly in the returns of the same circumstances , or at a certain distance of time , but God knows they doe not get the victory over their sin , but are within its power . For this is certain , they who sin and repent , and sin again in the same or the like circumstances , are in some degree under the power and dominion of sin ; when their actions can be reduc'd to an order or a method , to a rule or a certainty , that oftner hits then fails , that sin is habituall ; though it be the least habit , yet a habit it is ; every course , or order , or method of sin , every constant or periodicall return , every return that can be regularly observed , or which a man can foresee , or probably foretell , even then when he does not intend it , but prays against it , every such sin is to be reckoned not for a single action , or upon the accounts of a pardonable infirmity , but it is a combination , an evill state , such a thing as the man ought to feare concerning himselfe , lest he be surpriz'd and call'd from this world before this evill state be altered : for if he be , his securities are but slender , and his hopes will deceive him . It was a severe doctrine that was maintain'd by some great Clerks and holy men in the Primitive Church , That Repentance was to be but once after Baptism : One Faith , one Lord , one Baptisme ; one Repentance ; * all these the Scripture saith ; and it is true , if by repentance we mean the entire change of our condition ; for he that returns willingly to the state of an unbeleeving , or a heathen profane person , intirely , and choosingly , in defiance of , and apostasie from his Religion , cannot be renew'd againe ( as the Apostle twice affirms in his Epistle to the Hebrews ) . But then , concerning this state of Apostasie , when it hapned in the case , not of Faith , but of Charity and obedience , there were many fears and jealousies : they were therefore very severe in their doctrines , lest men should fall into so evill a condition , they enlarged their fear that they might be stricter in their duty ; and generally this they did beleeve , that every second repentance was worse then the first , and the third worse then the second , and still as the sin returned , the Spirit of God did the lesse love to inhabit ; and if he were provoked too often , would so withdraw his aides and comfortable cohabitation , that the Church had little comfort in such children ; so said Clemens Alexandr . stromat . 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Those frequent and alternate repentances , that is , repentances and sinnings interchangeably , differ not from the conditions of men that are not within the covenant of grace , from them that are not beleevers , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , save onely ( says he ) that these men perceive that they sin , they doe it more against their conscience then infidels and unbeleevers ; and therefore they doe it with lesse honesty and excuse , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , I know not which is worse , either to sin knowingly or wilfully , or to repent of our sin , and sin it over again . And the same severe doctrine is delivered by Theodoret in his 12 book against the Greeks , and is hugely agreeable to the discipline of the Primitive Church : And it is a truth of so great severity , that it ought to quicken the repentance and sowre the gayeties of easy people , and make them fear , whose repentance is therefore ineffectuall , because it is not integrall or united , but broken in pieces by the intervention of new crimes ; so that the repentance is every time to begin anew ; and then let it be considered what growth that repentance can make that is never above a week old , that is for ever in its infancy , that is still in its birth , that never gets the dominion over sin . These men , I say , ought to fear , lest God reject their persons , and deride the folly of their new begun repentances , and at last be weary of giving them more opportunities , since they approve all , and make use of none , their understanding is right and their will a slave , their reason is for God and their affections for sin ; these men ( as the Apostles expression is ) walk not as wise but as fools : for we deride the folly of those men that resolve upon the same thing a thousand times , and never keep one of those resolutions . These men are vaine and light , easy and effeminate , childish and abused ; these are they of whom our blessed Saviour said those sad decretory words , Many shall strive to enter in , and shall not be able . SERMON , VIII . Part II. 3. THey have great reason to feare , whose sins are not yet remitted ; for they are within the dominion of sin , within the Kingdome of darknesse , and the regions of feare : Light makes us confident , and Sin checks the spirit of a man into the pusillanimity and cowardize of a girle or a conscious boy : and they doe their work in the days of peace and a wealthy fortune , and come to pay their symbole in a warre or in a plague ; then they spend of their treasure of wrath , which they laid up in their vessels of dishonour ! And indeed , want of feare brought them to it ; for if they had known how to have accounted concerning the changes of mortality , if they could have reckoned right concerning Gods judgements falling upon sinners , and remembred that themselves are no more to God then that Brother of theirs that died in a drunken surfeit , or was kill'd in a Rebell warre , or was before his grave corrupted by the shames of lust ; if they could have told the minutes of their life , and passed on towards their grave at least in religious and sober thoughts , and consider'd that there must come a time for them to die , and after death comes judgement , a fearfull and an intolerable judgement , it would not have come to this passe , in which their present condition of affairs doe amaze them , and their sin hath made them lyable unto death , and that death is the beginning of an eternall evill . In this case it is naturall to fear ; and if men consider their condition , and know that all the felicity , and all the security they can have , depends upon Gods mercy pardoning their sins , they cannot choose but fear infinitely , if they have not reason to hope that their sins are pardoned . * Now concerning this , men indeed have generally taken a course to put this affair to a very speedy issue . God is mercifull , and God forgive mee , and all is done : or it may be a few sighs , like the deep sobbings of a man that is almost dead with laughter , that is , a trifling sorrow returning upon a man after he is full of sin , and hath pleased himselfe with violence , and revolving onely by a naturall change from sin to sorrow , from laughter to a groan , from sunshine to a cloudy day ; or it may be the good man hath left some one sin quite , or some degrees of all sin , and then the conclusion is firm , he is rectus in Cur●â , his sins are pardoned , he was indeed in an evill condition , but now he is purged , he is sanctified and clean . These things are very bad , but it is much worse that men should continue in their sin , and grow old in it , and arrive at consirmation , and the strength of habituall wickednesse , and grow fond of it , and yet think if they die , their account stands as fair in the eyes of Gods mercy , as St. Peter's after his tears and sorrow . Our sins are not pardoned easily and quickly ; and the longer and the greater hath been the iniquity , the harder and more difficult and uncertain is the pardon ; it is a great progresse to return from all the degrees of death to life , to motion , to quicknesse , to purity , to acceptation , to grace , to contention , and growth in grace , to perseverance , and so to pardon . For pardon stands no where but at the gates of heaven . It is a great mercy that signifies a finall and universall acquittance . God sends it out in little scroles , and excuses you from falling by the sword of the enemy , or the secret stroke of an Angell in the days of the plague ; but these are but little entertainments and inticings of our hopes to work on towards the great pardon which is registred in the leaves of the Book of Life . And it is a mighty folly to think , that every little line of mercy signifies glory and absolution from the eternall wrath of God ; and therefore it is not to be wondred at , that wicked men are unwilling to dye ; it is a greater wonder that many of them dye with so little resentment of their danger and their evill . There is reason for them to tremble when the Judge summons them to appear . When his messenger is clothed with horror , and speaks in thunder ; when their conscience is their accuser , and their accusation is great , and their bills uncancell'd , and they have no title to the crosse of Christ , no advocate , no excuse ; when God is their enemy , and Christ is the injur'd person , and the Spirit is grieved , and sicknesse and death come to plead Gods cause against the man ; then there is reason that the naturall fears of death should be high and pungent , and those naturall fears encreased by the reasonable and certain expectations of that anger which God hath laid up in heaven for ever , to consume and destroy his enemies . And indeed if we consider upon how trifling and inconsiderable grounds most men hope for pardon ( if at least that may be call'd hope , which is nothing but a carelesse boldnesse , and an unreasonable wilfull confidence ) we shall see much cause to pity very many who are going merrily to a sad and intolerable death . Pardon of sins is a mercy which Christ purchased with his dearest blood , which he ministers to us upon conditions of an infinite kindnesse , but yet of great holinesse and obedience , and an active living faith ; it is a grace , that the most holy persons beg of God with mighty passion , and labour for with a great diligence , and expect with trembling fears , and concerning it many times suffer sadnesses with uncertain soules , and receive it by degrees , and it enters upon them by little portions , and it is broken as their sighs and sleeps . But so have I seen the returning sea enter upon the strand , and the waters rolling towards the shore , throw up little portions of the tide , and retire as if nature meant to play , and not to change the abode of waters ; but still the floud crept by little steppings , and invaded more by his progressions then he lost by his retreat , and having told the number of its steps , it possesses its new portion till the Angell calls it back , that it may leave its unfaithfull dwelling of the sand : so is the pardon of our sins , it comes by slow motions , and first quits a present death , and turnes , it may be , into a sharp sicknesse ; and if that sicknesse prove not health to the soul , it washes off , and it may be will dash against the rock again , and proceed to take off the severall instances of anger , and the periods of wrath ; but all this while it is uncertain concerning our finall interest , whether it be ebbe or floud ; and every hearty prayer , and every bountifull almes still enlarges the pardon , or addes a degree of probability and hope ; and then a drunken meeting , or a covetous desire , or an act of lust , or looser swearing , idle talk , or neglect of Religion , makes the pardon retire ; and while it is disputed between Christ and Christs enemy who shall be Lord , the pardon fluctuates like the wave , striving to climbe the rock , and is wash'd off like its own retinue , and it gets possession by time and uncertainty , by difficulty , and the degrees of a hard progression . When David had sinned but in one instance , interrupting the course of a holy life by one sad calamity , it pleased God to pardon him ; but see upon what hard terms : He prayed long , and violently , he wept sorely , he was humbled in sackcloth and ashes , he eat the bread of affliction , and drank of his bottle of tears ; he lost his Princely spirit , and had an amazing conscience ; he suffer'd the wrath of God , and the sword never did depart from his house , his Son rebell'd , and his Kingdome revolted ; he fled on foot , and maintained Spies against his childe , hee was forc'd to send an army against him that was dearer then his owne eyes , and to fight against him whom he would not hurt for all the riches of Syria and Egypt ; his concubines were desir'd by an incestuous mixture , in the face of the sun before all Israel , and his childe that was the fruit of his sin , after a 7 days feaver dyed , and left him nothing of his sin to show , but sorrow , and the scourges of the Divine vengeance ; and after all this , God pardoned him finally , because he was for ever sorrowfull , and never did the sin againe . He that hath sinned a thousand times for David's once , is too confident , if he thinks that all his shall be pardoned at a lesse rate then was used to expiate that one mischief of the religious King : The son of David died for his father David , as well as he did for us ; he was the Lambe slain from the beginning of the world ; and yet that death , and that relation , and all the heap of the Divine favours which crown'd David with a circle richer then the royall diadem , could not exempt him from the portion of sinners , when he descended into their pollutions . I pray God we may find the sure mercies of David , and may have our portion in the redemption wrought by the Son of David ; but we are to expect it upon such terms as are revealed , such which include time , and labour , and uncertainty , and watchfulnesse , and fear , and holy living . But it is a sad observation that the case of pardon of sins is so administred , that they that are most sure of it have the greatest fears concerning it , and they to whom it doth not belong at all are as confident as children and fooles , who believe every thing they have a mind to , not because they have reason so to doe , but because without it they are presently miserable . The godly and holy persons of the Church , work out their salvation with fear and trembling ; and the wicked goe to destruction with gayety and confidence : these men think all is well , while they are in the gall of bitternesse , and good men are tossed in a tempest , crying and praying for a safe conduct , and the sighs of their feares , and the wind of their prayers waft them safely to their port . Pardon of sins is not easily obtain'd ; because they who onely certainly can receive it , find difficulty , and danger , and fears in the obtaining it ; and therefore their case is pityable and deplorable , who when they have least reason to expect pardon , yet are most confident and carelesse . But because there are sorrows on one side and dangers on the other , and temptations on both sides , it will concern all sorts of men to know when their sins are pardoned . For then when they can perceive their signes certain and evident , they may rest in their expectations of the Divine mercies ; when they cannot see the signes , they may leave their confidence , and change it into repentance , and watchfulnesse , and stricter observation ; and in order to this , I shall tell you that which shall never faile you ; a certaine signe that you may know whether or no , and when , and in what degree your persons are pardoned . 1. I shall not consider the evils of sin by any Metaphysicall and abstracted effects , but by sensible , reall , and materiall . Hee that revenges himself of another , does something that will make his enemy grieve , something that shall displease the offender as much as sin did the offended ; and therefore all the evills of sin are such as relate to us , and are to bee estimated by our apprehensions . Sin makes God angry , and Gods anger if it be turned aside will make us miserable and accursed , and therefore in proportion to this we are to reckon the proportions of Gods mercy in forgivenesse , or his anger in retaining . 2. Sin hath obliged us to suffer many evills , even whatsoever the anger of God is pleased to inflict ; sicknesse and dishonour , poverty and shame , a caytive spirit , and a guilty conscience , famine and war , plague and pestilence , sudden death and a short life , temporall death or death eternall , according as God in the severall covenants of the Law and Gospel hath expressed . 3. For in the law of Moses sin bound them to nothing but temporall evills , but they were sore , and heavy , and many ; but these only there were threatned ; in the Gospel Christ added the menaces of evills , spirituall and eternall . 4. The great evill of the Jews was their abscission and cutting off from being Gods people , to which eternall damnation answers amongst us ; and as sicknesse , and war , and other intermediall evills were lesser strokes in order to the finall anger of God against their Nation , so are these and spirituall evills intermediall , in order to the Eternall destruction of sinning and unrepenting Christians . 5. When God had visited any of the sinners of Israel with a grievous sicknesse , then they lay under the evill of their sin , and were not pardoned till God took away the sicknesse ; but the taking the evill away , the evill of the punishment , was the pardon of the sin ; to pardon the sin is to spare the sinner : and this appears ; For when Christ had said to the man sick of the palsey , Son thy sins are forgiven thee , the Pharisees accused him of blasphemy , because none had power to forgive sins but God onely ; Christ to vindicate himselfe gives them an ocular demonstration , and proves his words : that yee may know the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins , he saith to the man sick of the palsey , Arise and walk ; then he pardoned the sin , when he took away the sicknesse , and proved the power by reducing it to act : for if pardon of sins be any thing else , it must be easier or harder : if it be easier , then sin hath not so much evill in it as a sicknesse , which no Religion as yet ever taught . If it be harder , then Christs power to doe that which was harder , could not be proved by doing that which was easier . It remaines therefore , that it is the same thing to take the punishment away , as to procure or give the pardon ; because as the retaining the sin was an obligation to the evill of punishment , so the remitting the sin is the disobliging to its penalty . So farre then the case is manifest . 6. The next step is this , that although in the Gospel God punishes sinners with temporall judgements , and sicknesses , and deaths , with sad accidents , and evill Angels , and messengers of wrath ; yet besides these lesser strokes , he hath scorpions to chastise , and loads of worse evils to oppresse the disobedient : he punishes one sin with another , vile acts with evill habits , these with a hard heart , and this with obstinacy , and obstinacy with impenitence , and impenitence with damnation . Now because the worst of evills which are threatned to us are such which consign to hell by persevering in sin , as God takes off our love and our affections , our relations and bondage under sin , just in the same degree he pardons us ; because the punishment of sin being taken off and pardoned , there can remaine no guilt . Guiltinesse is an unsignificant word , if there be no obligation to punishment . Since therefore spirituall evils , and progressions in sin , and the spirit of reprobation , and impenitence , and accursed habits , and perseverance in iniquity are the worst of evils , when these are taken off , the sin hath lost its venome , and appendant curse ; for sin passes on to eternall death onely by the line of impenitence , and it can never carry us to hell , if we repent timely and effectually ; in the same degree therefore that any man leaves his sin , just in the same degree he is pardoned , and he is sure of it . For although curing the temporall evill was the pardon of sins among the Jews , yet wee must reckon our pardon by curing the spirituall . If I have sinned against God in the shamefull crime of Lust , then God hath pardoned my sins , when upon my repentance and prayers he hath given me the grace of Chastity . My Drunkennesse is forgiven , when I have acquir'd the grace of Temperance , and a sober spirit . My Covetousnesse shall no more be a damning sin , when I have a loving and charitable spirit ; loving to do good , and despising the world : for every further degree of sin being a neerer step to hell , and by consequence the worst punishment of sin , it follows inevitably , that according as we are put into a contrary state , so are our degrees of pardon , and the worst punishment is already taken off . And therefore we shall find that the great blessing , and pardon , and redemption which Christ wrought for us , is called sanctification , holinesse , and turning us away from our sins : So St. Peter , Yee know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things , as silver and gold , from your vain conversation ; that 's your redemption , that 's your deliverance : you were taken from your sinfull state , that was the state of death , this of life and pardon ; and therefore they are made Synonyma by the same Apostle , According as his divine power hath given us all things that pertain to life and godlinesse : to live and to be godly , is all one ; to remain in sin and abide in death , is all one ; to redeem us from sin , is to snatch us from hell ; he that gives us godlinesse , gives us life , and that supposes pardon , or the abolition of the rites of eternall death : and this was the conclusion of St. Peter's Sermon , and the summe totall of our redemption and of our pardon ; God having raised up his Son , sent him to blesse us in turning away every one of you from your iniquity ; this is the end of Christs passion and bitter death , the purpose of all his and all our preaching , the effect of baptisme , purging , washing , sanctifying ; the work of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper , the same body that was broken , and the same blood that was shed for our redemption , is to conform us into his image and likenesse of living and dying , of doing and suffering ; The case is plain , just as we leave our sins , so Gods wrath shall be taken from us ; as we get the graces contrary to our former vices , so infallibly we are consign'd to pardon . If therefore you are in contestation against sin ; while you dwell in difficulty , and sometimes yeeld to sin , and sometimes overcome it , your pardon is uncertain , and is not discernible in its progresse ; but when sin is mortified and your lusts are dead , and under the power of grace , and you are led by the Spirit , all your fears concerning your state of pardon are causelesse , and afflictive without reason ; but so long as you live at the old rate of lust or intemperance , of covetousnesse or vanity , of tyranny or oppression , of carelesnesse or irreligion , flatter not your selves , you have no more reason to hope for pardon then a begger for a Crown , or a condemned criminall to be made Heir apparent to that Prince whom he would traiterously have slain . 4. They have great reason to fear concerning their condition , who having been in the state of grace , who having begun to lead a good life , and give their names to God by solemne deliberate acts of will and understanding , and made some progresse in the way of Godlinesse , if they shall retire to folly , and unravell all their holy vows , and commit those evils from which they formerly run as from a fire or inundation , their case hath in it so many evills that they have great reason to fear the anger of God , and concerning the finall issue of their souls . For return to folly hath in it many evils beyond the common state of sin and death ; and such evils which are most contrary to the hopes of pardon . 1. He that falls back into those sins he hath repented of , does grieve the holy Spirit of God by which he was sealed to the day of redemption . For so the Antithesis is plain and obvious ; If at the conversion of a sinner there is joy before the beatified Spirits , the Angels of God , and that is the consummation of our pardon and our consignation to felicity , then we may imagine how great an evill it is to grieve the Spirit of God , who is greater then the Angels . The Children of Israel were carefully warned that they should not offend the Angel : Behold , I send an Angel before thee , beware of him , and obey his voyce , provoke him not , for he will not pardon your transgressions , that is , he will not spare to punish you if you grieve him : Much greater is the evill if we grieve him who sits upon the throne of God , who is the Prince of all the Spirits : and besides , grieving the Spirit of God is an affection that is as contrary to his felicity , as lust is to his holinesse ; both which are essentiall to him . Tristitia enim omnium spirituum nequissima est , & pessima servis Dei , & omnium spiritus exterminat , & cruciat Spiritum sanctum , said Hennas : Sadnesse is the greatest enemy to Gods servants ; if you grieve Gods Spirit , you cast him out ; for he cannot dwell with sorrow and grieving ; unlesse it be such a sorrow which by the way of vertue passes on to joy and never ceasing felicity . Now by grieving the holy Spirit , is meant , those things which displease him , doing unkindnesse to him , and then the grief which cannot in proper sense seise upon him will in certain effects return upon us : Ita enim dica ( said Seneca ) sacer intra nos Spiritus sedet , bonorum , malorúmque nostrorum observator & custos , hic prout à nobis tractatus est , ita nos ipse tractat . There is a holy spirit dwels in every good man , who is the observer and guardian of all our actions , and as we treat him , so will he treat us . Now we ought to treat him sweetly and tenderly , thankfully and with observation . Deus praecepit Spiritum sanctum , utpote pro naturae suae bono tenerum & delicatum , tranquillitate , & lenitate , & quiete , & pace tractare , said Tertullian de Spectaculis . The Spirit of God is a loving and a kind Spirit , gentle and easy , chast and pure , righteous and peaceable , and when he hath done so much for us as to wash us from our impurities , and to cleanse us from our stains , and streighten our obliquities , and to instruct our ignorances , and to snatch us from an intolerable death , and to consign us to the day of redemption , that is , to the resurrection of our bodies from death , corruption , and the dishonors of the grave , and to appease all the storms and uneasynesse , and to make us free as the Sons of God , and furnished with the riches of the Kingdome , and all this with innumerable arts , with difficulty , and in despite of our lusts and reluctancies , with parts and interrupted steps , with waitings and expectations , with watchfulnesse and stratagems , with inspirations and collaterall assistances , after all this grace , and bounty , and diligence , that we should despite this grace , and trample upon the blessings , and scorn to receive life at so great an expence , and love of God , this is so great a basenesse and unworthynesse , that by troubling the tenderest passions , it turns into the most bitter hostilities ; by abusing Gods love it turns into jealousie , and rage , and indignation . Goe and sin no more , lest a worse thing happen to thee . 2. Falling away after we have begun to live well is a great cause of fear , because there is added to it the circumstance of inexcuseablenesse . The man hath been taught the secrets of the Kingdome , and therefore his understanding hath been instructed ; he hath tasted the pleasures of the Kingdome , and therefore his will hath been sufficiently entertain'd . He was entred into the state of life , and renounced the ways of death , his sin began to be pardoned , and his lusts to be crucified , he felt the pleasures of victory , and the blessings of peace , and therefore fell away , not onely against his reason , but also against his interest ; and to such a person the Questions of his soul have been so perfectly stated , and his prejudices and inevitable abuses so cleerly taken off , and he was so made to view the paths of life and death , that if he chooses the way of sin again , it must be , not by weaknesse or the infelicity of his breeding , or the weaknesse of his understanding , but a direct preference or prelation , a preferring sin before grace , the spirit of lust before the purities of the soul , the madnesse of drunkennesse before the fulnesse of the Spirit , money before our friend , and above our Religion , and Heaven , and God himself . This man is not to be pityed upon pretence , that he is betrayed , or to be relieved because he is oppressed with potent enemies , or to be pardoned because he could not help it , for he once did help it , he did overcome his temptation , and choose God , and delight in vertue , and was an heir of heaven , and was a conqueror over sin and delivered from death ; and he may do so still , and Gods grace is upon him more plentifully , and the lust does not tempt so strongly : and if it did , he hath more power to resist it ; and therefore if this man fals , it is because he wilfully chooses death , it is the portion that he loves , and descends into with willing and unpityed steps . Quàm vilis facta es nimis iterans vias tuas ! said God to Judah . 3. He that returns from vertue to his old vices , is forced to doe violence to his own reason , to make his conscience quiet : he does it so unreasonably , so against all his fair inducements , so against his reputation , and the principles of his society , so against his honour , and his promises , and his former discourses and his doctrines , his censuring of men for the same crimes , and the bitter invectives and reproofs which in the dayes of his health and reason he used against his erring Brethren , that he is now constrained to answer his own arguments , he is intangled in his own discourses , he is shamed with his former conversation ; and it will be remembred against him , how severely he reproved , and how reasonably he chastised the lust which now he runs to in despite of himself and all his friends . And because this is his condition , he hath no way left him , but either to be impudent , which is hard for him at first ; it being too big a naturall change to passe suddenly from grace to immodest circumstances and hardnesses of face and heart : or else , therefore he must entertain new principles and apply his minde to beleeve a lye ; and then begins to argue , There is no necessity of being so severe in my life ; greater sinners then I have been saved ; Gods mercies are greater then all the sins of man ; Christ dyed for us , and if I may not be allowed to sin this sin , what ease have I by his death ? or , this sin is necessary , and I cannot avoid it ; or , it is questionable , whether this sin is of so deep a die as is pretended ; or , flesh and bloud is alwaies with me , and I cannot shake it off ; or , there are some Sects of Christians that do allow it , or if they do not , yet they declare it easily pardonable , upon no hard terms , and very reconcileable with the hopes of heaven ; or , the Scriptures are not rightly understood in their pretended condemnations ; or else , other men do as bad as this , and there is not one in ten thousand but hath his private retirements from vertue ; or else , when I am old , this sin will leave me , and God is very pityfull to mankinde . But while the man like an intangled bird flutters in the net , and wildly discomposes that which should support him , and that which holds him , the net and his own wings , that is , the Lawes of God and his own conscience and perswasion , he is resolved to do the thing , and seeks excuses afterwards ; and when he hath found out a fig-leav'd apron that he could put on , or a cover for his eyes , that he may not see his own deformity , then he fortifies his error with irresolution and inconsideration ; and he beleeves it , because he will ; and he will , because it serves his turn : then he is entred upon his state of fear ; and if he does not fear concerning himself , yet his condition is fearfull , and the man haih 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a reprobate minde , that is , a judgement corrupted by lust : vice hath abused his reasoning , and if God proceeds in the mans method , and lets him alone in his course , and gives him over to beleeve a lye , so that he shall call good evill , and evill good , and come to be heartily perswaded that his excuses are reasonable and his pretences fair , then the man is desperately undone through the ignorance that is in him , as St. Paul describes his condition ; his heart is blinde , he is past feeling , his understanding is darkned , then he may walk in the vanity of his minde , and give himself over to lasciviousnesse , and shall work all uncleannesse with greedinesse ; then he needs no greater misery : this is the state of evill which his fear ought to have prevented , but now it is past fear , and is to be recovered with sorrow , or else to be run through till death and hell are become his portion ; fiunt novissima illus pejora pejoribus , his latter end is worse then his begining . 4. Besides all this it might easily be added , that he that fals from vertue to vice again , addes the circumstance of ingratitude to his load of sins ; he sins against Gods mercy , and puts out his own eyes ; he strives to unlearn , what with labour he hath purchased , and despises the trabell of his holy daies , and throws away the reward of vertue for an interest which himself despised the first day in which he began to take sober counsels ; he throws himself back in the accounts of eternity , and slides to the bottome of the hill , from whence with sweat and labour of his hands and knees he had long been creeping ; he descends from the spirit to the flesh , from honour to dishonour , from wise principles to unthrifty practises , like one of the vainer fellowes , who grows a fool , and a prodigall , and a begger , because he delights in inconsideration , in the madnesse of drunkennesse , and the quiet of a lazy and unprofitable life . So that this man hath great cause to fear , and if he does , his fear is as the fear of enemies and not sons ; I do not say that it is a fear that is displeasing to God , but it is such a one as may arrive at goodnesse , and the fear of sons , if it be rightly manag'd . For we must know that no fear is displeasing to God ; no fear of it self , whether it be fear of punishment , or fear to offend ; the fear of servants , or the fear of sons : But the effects of fear doe distinguish the man , and are to be entertain'd or rejected accordingly . If a servile fear makes us to remove our sins , and so passes us towards our pardon and the receiving such graces which may endear our duty and oblige our affection ; that fear is imperfect , but not criminall , it is the beginning of wisdome , and the first introduction to it ; but if that fear sits still or rests in a servile minde , or a hatred of God , or speaking evill things concerning him , or unwillingnesse to do our duty , that which at first was indifferent , or at the worst imperfect , proves miserable and malicious ; so we do our duty , it is no matter upon what principles we do it ; it is no matter where we begin , so from that beginning we passe on to duties and perfection . If we fear God as an enemy , an enemy of our sins and of our persons for their sakes , as yet this fear is but a servile fear , it cannot be a filiall fear since we our selves are not sons ; but if this servile fear makes us to desire to be reconcil'd to God , that he may no longer stay at enmity with us , from this fear we shall soon passe to carefulnesse , from carefulnesse to love , from love to diligence , from diligence to perfection ; and the enemies shall become servants , and the servants shall become adopted sons , and passe into the society and the participation of the inheritance of Jesus : for this fear is also reverence , and then our God in stead of being a consuming fire , shall become to us the circle of a glorious crown , and a globe of an eternall light . SERMON , IX . Part III. I Am now to give account concerning the excesse of fear , not directly and abstractedly as it is a passion , but as it is subjected in Religion , and degenerates into superstition : For so among the Greeks , fear is the ingredient and half of the constitution of that folly ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Hesychius , it is a fear of God , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that 's more ; it is a timorousnesse : the superstitious man is afraid of the gods ( said the Etymologist ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , fearing of God as if he were a tyrant , and an unreasonable exacter of duty upon unequall terms , and disproportionable , impossible degrees , and unreasonable , and great and little instances . 1. But this fear some of the old Philosophers thought unreasonable in all cases , even towards God himself ; and it was a branch of the Epicurean Doctrine , that God medled not any thing below , and was to be loved and admired , but not feared at all ; and therefore they taught men neither to fear death , nor to fear punishment after death , nor any displeasure of God : His terroribus ab Epicuro soluti non metuimus Deos , said Cicero ; and thence came this acceptation of the word , that superstition should signifie an unreasonable fear of God : It is true , he and all his scholars extended the case beyond the measure , and made all fear unreasonable ; but then , if we upon grounds of reason and divine revelation shall better discern the measure , of the fear of God ; whatsoever fear we find to be unreasonable , we may by the same reason call it superstition , and reckon it criminall , as they did all fear ; that it may be call'd superstition , their authority is sufficient warrant for the grammar of the appellative ; and that it is criminall , we shall derive from better principles . But besides this , there was another part of its definition , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the superstitious man is also an Idolater , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , one that is afraid of something besides God. The Latines according to their custome , imitating the Greeks in all their learned notices of things , had also the same conception of this , and by their word [ Superstitio ] understood the worship of Daemons or separate spirits ; by which they meant , either their minores Deos , or else their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their braver personages whose souls were supposed to live after death ; the fault of this was the object of their Religion ; they gave a worship or a fear to whom it was not due ; for when ever they worship'd the great God of heaven and earth , they never cal'd that superstition in an evill sense , except the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they that beleeved there was no God at all . Hence came the etymology of superstition : it was a worshipping or fearing the spirits of their dead Heroes , quos superstites credebant , whom they thought to be alive after their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Deification ; or , quos superstantes credebant , standing in places and thrones above us ; and it alludes to that admirable description of old age which Solomon made beyond all the Rhetorick of the Greeks and Romans [ Also they shall be afraid of that which is high , and fears shall be in the way ] intimating the weaknesse of old persons , who if ever they have been religious , are apt to be abused into superstition ; They are afraid of that which is high , that is , of spirits and separate souls , of those excellent beings which dwell in the regions above ; meaning , that then they are superstitious . However , fear is most commonly its principle , alwaies its ingredient . For if it enter first by credulity and a weak perswasion , yet it becomes incorporated into the spirit of the man , and thought necessary , and the action it perswades to dares not be omitted , for fear of an evill themselves dream of : upon this account the sin is reducible to two heads : the 1. is , Superstition of an undue object . 2. Superstition of an undue expression to a right object . 1. Superstition of an undue object , is that which the Etymologist cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the worshipping of idols ; the Scripture addes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sacrificing to Daemons * in St. Paul and in * Baruch ; where although we usually read it sacrificing to Devils , yet it was but accidentall that they were such ; for those indeed were evill spirits who had seduced them , and tempted them to such ungodly rites ; ( and yet they who were of the Pythagorean sect , pretended a more holy worship , and did their devotion to Angels : ) But whosoever shall worship Angels do the same thing ; they worship them because they are good and powerfull , as the Gentiles did the Devils whom they thought so ; and the error which the Apostle reproves , was not in matter of Judgement , in mistaking bad angels for good , but in matter of manners and choice ; they mistook the creature for the Creator ; and therefore it is more fully expressed by St. Paul in a generall signification , they worshipped the creature , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 besides the Creator , so it should be read ; if we worship any creature besides God , worshipping so as the worship of him becomes a part of Religion , it is also a direct superstition ; but concerning this part of superstition , I shall not trouble this discourse , because I know no Christians blamable in this particular but the Church of Rome , and they that communicate with her in the worshipping of Images , of Angels , and Saints , burning lights and perfumes to them , making offerings , confidences , advocations and vowes to them , and direct and solemn divine worshipping the Symbols of bread and wine , when they are consecrated in the holy Sacrament . These are direct superstition , as the word is used by all Authors profane and sacred , and are of such evill report , that where ever the word Superstition does signifie any thing criminall , these instances must come under the definition of it . They are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a cultus superstitum , a cultus Daemonum , and therefore besides that they have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a proper reproof in Christian Religion , are condemned by all wise men , which call superstition criminall . But as it is superstition to worship any thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 besides the Creator , so it is superstition to worship God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , otherwise then is decent , proportionable or described . Every inordination of Religion that is not in defect , is properly called superstition : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Maximus Tyrius , The true worshipper is a lover of God , the superstitious man loves him not , but flatters : To which if we adde , that fear , unreasonable fear is also superstition , and an ingredient in its definition ; we are taught by this word to signifie all irregularity and inordination in actions of Religion . The summe is this ; the Atheist cal'd all worship of God superstition ; the Epicurean cal'd all fear of God superstition , but did not condemn his worship ; the other part of wise men cal'd all unreasonable fear , and inordinate worship superstition , but did not condemn all fear : But the Christian , besides this , cals every error in worship in the manner , or excesse , by this name , and condemns it . Now because the three great actions of Religion are , to worship God , to fear God , and to trust in him , by the inordination of these three actions , we may reckon three sorts of this crime ; the excesse of fear , and the obliquity in trust , and the errors in worship , are the three sorts of superstition : the first of which is only pertinent to our present consideration . 1. Fear is the duty we owe to God as being the God of power and Justice , the great Judge of heaven and earth , the avenger of the cause of Widows , the Patron of the poor , and the Advocate of the oppressed , a mighty God and terrible , and so essentiall an enemy to sin , that he spared not his own Son , but gave him over to death , and to become a sacrifice , when he took upon him our Nature , and became a person obliged for our guilt . Fear is the great bridle of intemperance , the modesty of the spirit , and the restraint of gaieties and dissolutions ; it is the girdle to the soul , and the handmaid to repentance , the arrest of sin , and the cure or antidote to the spirit of reprobation ; it preserves our apprehensions of the divine Majesty , and hinders our single actions from combining to sinfull habits ; it is the mother of consideration , and the nurse of sober counsels , and it puts the soul to fermentation and activity , making it to passe from trembling to caution , from caution to carefulnesse , from carefulnesse to watchfulnesse , from thence to prudence , and by the gates and progresses of repentance , it leads the soul on to love , and to felicity , and to joyes in God that shall never cease again . Fear is the guard of a man in the dayes of prosperity , and it stands upon the watch-towers and spies the approaching danger , and gives warning to them that laugh loud , and feast in the chambers of rejoycing , where a man cannot consider by reason of the noises of wine , and jest , and musick : and if prudence takes it by the hand , and leads it on to duty , it is a state of grace , and an universall instrument to infant Religion , and the only security of the lesse perfect persons ; and in all senses is that homage we owe to God who sends often to demand it , even then when he speaks in thunder , or smites by a plague , or awakens us by threatning , or discomposes our easinesse by sad thoughts , and tender eyes , and fearfull hearts , and trembling considerations . But this so excellent grace is soon abused in the best and most tender spirits ; in those who are softned by Nature and by Religion , by infelicities or cares , by sudden accidents or a sad soul ; and the Devill observing , that fear like spare diet starves the feavers of lust , and quenches the flames of hell , endevours to highten this abstinence so much as to starve the man , and break the spirit into timorousnesse and scruple , sadnesse and unreasonable tremblings , credulity and trifling observation , suspicion and false accusations of God ; and then vice being turned out at the gate , returns in at the postern , and does the work of hell and death by running too inconsiderately in the paths which seem to lead to heaven . But so have I seen a harmlesse dove made dark with an artificiall night , and her eyes ceel'd and lock'd up with a little quill , soaring upward and flying with amazement , fear and an undiscerning wing , she made toward heaven , but knew not that she was made a train and an instrument , to teach her enemy to prevail upon her and all her defencelesse kindred : so is a superstitious man , zealous and blinde , forward and mistaken , he runs towards heaven as he thinks , but he chooses foolish paths ; and out of fear takes any thing that he is told or fancios ; and guesses concerning God by measures taken from his own diseases and imperfections . But fear when it is inordinate , is never a good counsellor , nor makes a good friend ; and he that fears God as his enemy is the most compleatly miserable person in the world . For if he with reason beleeves God to be his enemy , then the man needs no other argument to prove that he is undone then this , that the fountain of blessing ( in this state in which the man is ) will never issue any thing upon him but cursings . But if he fears this without reason , he makes his fears true by the very suspicion of God , doing him dishonour , and then doing those fond and trifling acts of jealousie which will make God to be what the man feared he already was ; We do not know God , if we can think any hard thing concerning him . If God be mercifull , let us only fear to offend him ; but then let us never be fearfull , that he will destroy us when we are carefull not to displease him . There are some persons so miserable and scrupulous , such perpetuall tormentors of themselves with unnecessary fears , that their meat and drink is a snare to their consciences ; if they eat , they fear they are gluttons , if they fast , they fear they are hypocrites , and if they would watch , they complain of sleep as of a deadly sin ; and every temptation though resisted , makes them cry for pardon ; and every return of such an accident , makes them think God is angry ; and every anger of God will break them in pieces . These persons do not beleeve noble things concerning God , they do not think that he is as ready to pardon them , as they are to pardon a sinning servant ; they do not beleeve how much God delights in mercy , nor how wise he is to consider and to make abatement for our unavoidable infirmities ; they make judgement of themselves by the measures of an Angell , and take the accounts of God by the proportions of a Tyrant . The best that can be said concerning such persons is , that they are hugely tempted , or hugely ignorant . For although ignorance is by some persons named the mother of devotion ; yet if it fals in a hard ground , it is the mother of Atheisme , if in a soft ground , it is the parent of superstition : but if it proceeds from evill or mean opinions of God , ( as such scruples and unreasonable fears do many times ) it is an evill of a great impiety , and in some sense , and if it were in equall degrees , is as bad as Atheisme ; for he that sayes there was no such man as Julius Caesar , does him lesse displeasure , then he that sayes there was , but that he was a Tyrant , and a bloudy parricide . And the Cimmerians were not esteemed impious for saying that there was no sun in the heavens ; But Anaxagoras was esteemed irreligious for saying the sun was a very stone : And though to deny there is a God is a high impiety and intolerable , yet he sayes worse , who beleeving there is a God sayes , he delights in humane sacrifices , in miseries and death , in tormenting his servants , and punishing their very infelicities and unavoidable mischances . To be God , and to be essentially and infinitely good , is the same thing , and therefore to deny either is to be reckoned among the greatest crimes in the world . Adde to this , that he that is afraid of God , cannot in that disposition love him at all ; for what delight is there in that religion which drawes me to the Altar as if I were going to be sacrificed , or to the Temples as to the Dens of Bears ? Oderant quos metuunt , sea colunt tamen : whom men fear they hate certainly , and flatter readily , and worship timorously ; and he that saw Hermolaus converse with Alexander ; and Pausanias follow Philip the Macedonian ; or Chaeteas kissing the feet of Cajus Caligula would have observed how fordid men are made with fear , and how unhappy and how hated Tyrants are in the midst of those acclamations , which are loud , and forc'd , and unnaturall , and without love or fair opinion . And therefore although the Atheist sayes there is no God , the scrupulous , fearfull , and superstitious man does heartily with what the other does beleeve . But that the evill may be proportionable to the folly , and the punishment to the crime , there is no man more miserable in the world , then the man who fears God as his enemy , and Religion as a snare , and duty as intolerable , and the Commandements as impossible , and his Judge as implacable , and his anger as certain , unsufferable , and unavoidable : whither shall this man goe ? where shall he lay his burden ? where shall he take sanctuary ? for he fears the Altars as the places where his soul bleeds and dies ; and God who is his Saviour he looks upon as his enemy ; and because he is Lord of all , the miserable man cannot change his service unlesse it be apparently for a worse . And therefore of all the evils of the minde , fear is certainly the worst and the most intolerable ; levity and rashnesse have in it some spritefulnesse , and greatnesse of action ; anger is valiant ; desire is busie and apt to hope ; credulity is oftentimes entertain'd and pleased with images and appearances : But fear is dull , and sluggish , and treacherous , and flattering , and dissembling , and miserable , and foolish . Every false opinion concerning God is pernicious and dangerous ; but if it be joyned with trouble of spirit , as fear , scruple or superstition are , it is like a wound with an inflamation , or a strain of a sinew with a contusion , or contrition of the part , painfull and unsafe ; it puts on to actions when it self is driven ; it urges reason , and circumscribes it , and makes it pityable , and ridiculous in its consequent follies ; which if we consider it , will sufficiently reprove the folly , and declare the danger . Almost all ages of the world have observed many instances of fond perswasions and foolish practises proceeding from violent fears and scruples in matter of Religion . Diomedon and many other Captains were condemned to dye , because after a great Naval victory they pursued the flying enemies , and did not first bury their dead . But Chabrias in the same case first buryed the dead , and by that time the enemy rallyed , and returned and beat his Navy , and made his masters pay the price of their importune superstition ; they fear'd where they should not , and where they did not , they should . From hence proceeds observation of signs , and unlucky dayes ; and the people did so when the Gregorian account began , continuing to call those unlucky dayes which were so signed in their tradition or Erra pater , although the day upon this account fell 10 dayes sooner ; and men were transported with many other trifling contingencies and little accidents ; which when they are one entertain'd by weaknesse , prevail upon their own strength , and in sad natures and weak spirits have produced effects of great danger and sorrow . Aristodemas King of the Messenians in his warre against the Spartans , prevented the sword of the enemies by a violence done upon himself , only because his dogs howl'd like wolves , and the Soothsayers were afraid because the Briony grew up by the wals of his Fathers house : and Nicias Generall of the Athenian forces sate with his armes in his bosome , and suffered himself and 40000 men tamely to fall by the insolent enemy , only because he was afraid of the labouring and eclipsed Moon . When the Marble statues in Rome did sweat ( as naturally they did against all rainy weather ) the Augures gave an alarum to the City ; but if lightning struck the spire of the Capitoll , they thought the summe of affairs , and the Commonwealth it self was indanger'd . And this Heathen folly hath stuck so close to the Christian , that all the Sermons of the Church for 1600 years have not cured them all : But the practises of weaker people and the artifice of ruling Priests have superinduced many new ones . When Pope Eugenius sang Masse at Rhemes , and some few drops from the Chalice were spilt upon the pavement , it was thought to foretell mischief , warres , and bloud , to all Christendome , though it was nothing but carelesnesse and mischance of the Priest : and because Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury sang the Masse of Requiem upon the day he was reconcil'd to his Prince , it was thought to foretell his own death by that religious office : and if men can listen to such whispers , and have not reason and observation enough to confute such trifles , they shall still be afrighted with the noise of birds , and every night-raven shall foretell evill as Micaiah to the King of Israel , and every old woman shall be a Prophetesse , and the events of humane affairs which should be managed by the conduct of counsell , of reason , and religion , shall succeed by chance , by the flight of birds , and the meeting with an evill eye , by the falling of the salt , or the decay of reason , of wisdome , and the just religion of a man. To this may be reduc'd the observation of dreams , and fears commenced from the fancies of the night . For the superstitious man does not rest , even when he sleeps , neither is he safe because dreams usually are false , but he is afflicted for fear they should tell true . Living and waking men have one world in common , they use the same air and fire , and discourse by the same principles of Logick and reason ; but men that are asleep have every one a world to himself , and strange perceptions ; and the superstitious hath none at all ; his reason sleeps , and his fears are waking , and all his rest , and his very securities to the fearfull man turn into afrights and insecure expectation of evils , that never shall happen ; they make their rest uneasie and chargeable , and they still vex their weary soul , not considering there is no other sleep , for sleep to rest in : and therefore if the sleep be troublesome , the mans cares be without remedy till they be quite destroyed . Dreams follow the temper of the body , and commonly proceed from trouble or disease , businesse or care , an active head and a restlesse minde , from fear or hope , from wine or passion , from fulnesse or emptinesse , from phantastick remembrances or from som Daemon good or bad : they are without rule and without reason , they are as contingent as if a man should study to make a Prophesie , and by saying 10000 things may hit upon one true , which was therefore not foreknown though it was forespoken : and they have no certainty because they have no naturall causality nor proportion to those effects which many times they are said to foresignifie . The dream of the yolk of an egge importeth gold ( saith Artemidorus ) and they that use to remember such phantastick idols are afraid to lose a friend when they dream their teeth shake , when naturally it will rather signifie a scurvy ; for a naturall indisposition and an imperfect sense of the beginning of a disease , may vex the fancy into a symbolicall representation ; for so the man that dreamt he swam against a stream of bloud , had a Plurisie beginning in his side : and he that dreamt he dipt his foot in water , and that it was turn'd to a Marble , was intic'd into the fancie by a beginning dropsie : and if the events do answer in one instance , we become credulous in twenty ; for want of reason we discourse our selves into folly and weak observation , and give the Devill power over us in those circumstances in which we can least resist him . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , A theef is confident in the twilight ; if you suffer impressions to be made upon you by dreams , the Devill hath the reins in his own hands , and can tempt you by that which will abuse you when you can make no resistance . Dominica the wife of Valens the Emperor dreamt that God threatned to take away her only son for her despitefull usage of St. Basil : the fear proceeding from this instance was safe and fortunate ; but if she had dreamt in the behalf of a Heretick , she might have been cousened into a false proposition upon a ground weaker then the discourse of a waking childe . Let the grounds of our actions be noble , beginning upon reason , proceeding with prudence , measured by the common lines of men , and confident upon the expectation of an usuall providence . Let us proceed from causes to effects , from naturall means to ordinary events , and believe felicity not to be a chance but a choice , and evill to be the daughter of sin and the Divine anger , not of fortune and fancy ; let us fear God when we have made him angry ; and not be afraid of him when we heartily and laboriously do our duty ; our fears are to be measured by open revelation and certain experience , by the threatnings of God and the sayings of wise men , and their limit is reverence , and godlinesse is their end ; and then fear shall be a duty , and a rare instrument of many : in all other cases it is superstition or folly , it is sin or punishment , the Ivy of Religion , and the misery of an honest and a weak heart , and is to be cured only by reason and good company , a wise guide and a plain rule , a cheerfull spirit and a contented minde , by joy in God according to the commandements , that is , a rejoycing evermore . 2. But besides this superstitious fear , there is another fear directly criminall , and it is cald , worldly fear , of which the Spirit of God hath said , But the fearfull and incredulous shall have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone , which is the second death ; that is , such fears which make men to fall in the time of persecution , those that dare not own their faith in the face of a Tyrant , or in despite of an accursed Law. For though it be lawfull to be afraid in a storm , yet it is not lawfull to leap into the sea ; though we may be more carefull for our fears , yet we must be faithfull too ; and we may flie from the persecution till it overtakes us , but when it does , we must not change our Religion for our safety , or leave the robe of Baptisme in the hand of the tempter , and run away by all means . St. Athanasius for 46 years did run and fight , he disputed with the Arrians and fled from their Officers ; and that flies , may be a man worth preserving , if he bears his faith along with him , and leaves nothing of his duty behinde ; but when duty and life cannot stand together , he that then flies a persecution by delivering up his soul , is one that hath no charity , no love to God , no trust in promises , no just estimation of the rewards of a noble contention , Perfect love casts out fear ( faith the Apostle ) that is , he that loves God will not fear to dye for him , or for his sake to be poor . In this sense no man can fear man and love God at the same time ; and when St. Laurence triumph'd over Valerianus , St. Sebastian over Diocletian , St. Vincentius over Dacianus , and the armies of Martyrs over the Proconsuls , accusers , and executioners , they shew'd their love to God by triumphing over fear , and leading captivity captive by the strength of their Captain , whose garments were red from Bozrah . 3. But this fear is also tremulous and criminall , if it be a trouble from the apprehension of the mountains and difficulties of duty , and is called pusillanimity . For some see themselves encompassed with temptations , they observe their frequent fals , their perpetuall returns from good purposes to weak performances , the daily mortifications that are necessary , the resisting naturall appetites , and the laying violent hands upon the desires of flesh and bloud , the uneasinesse of their spirits , and their hard labours , and therefore this makes them afraid ; and because they despair to run through the whole duty in all its parts and periods , they think as good not begin at all , as after labour and expence to lose the Jewell and the charges of their venture . St. Austin compares such men to children and phantastick persons afrighted with phantasmes and specters ; Terribiles visu formae , the sight seems full of horror , but touch them and they are very nothing , the meer daughters of a sick brain , and a weak heart , an infant experience and a trifling judgement : so are the illusions of a weak piety , or an unskilfull unconfident soul ; they fancy to see mountains of difficulty , but touch them and they seem like clouds riding upon the wings of the winde , and put on shapes as we please to dream . He that denies to give almes for fear of being poor , or to entertain a Disciple for fear of being suspected of the party , or to own a duty for fear of being put to venture for a crown , he that takes part of the intemperance because he dares not displease the company , or in any sense fears the fears of the world , and not the fear of God , this man enters into his portion of fear betimes , but it will not be finished to eternall ages . To fear the censures of men when God is your Judge , to fear their evill when God is your defence , to fear death when he is the entrance to life and felicity , is unreasonable and pernicious ; but if you will turn your passion into duty , and joy , and security , fear to offend God , to enter voluntarily into temptation , fear the alluring face of lust , and the smooth entertainments of intemperance , fear the anger of God when you have deserved it , and when you have recover'd from the snare , then infinitely fear to return into that condition , in which whosoever dwels is the heir of fear and eternall sorrow . Thus farre I have discoursed concerning good fear and bad , that is , filiall and servile : they are both good , if by servile we intend initiall or the new beginning fear of penitents ; a fear to offend God upon lesse perfect considerations : But servile fear is vitious when it still retains the affection of slaves , and when its effects are hatred , wearinesse , displeasure , and want of charity : and of the same cogrations are those fears which are superstitious , and worldly . But to the former sort of vertuous fear , some also adde another which they call Angelicall , that is , such a fear as the blessed Angels have , who before God hide their faces , and tremble at his presence , and fall down before his footstool , and are ministers of his anger and messengers of his mercy , and night and day worship him with the profoundest adoration . This is the same that is spoken of in the Text : Let us serve God with reverence and godly fear ; all holy fear partakes of the nature of this which Divines call Angelicall , and it is expressed in acts of adoration , of vowes , and holy prayers , in hymnes , and psalmes , in the eucharist and reverentiall addresses ; and while it proceeds in the usuall measures of common duty , it is but humane ; but as it arises to great degrees , and to perfection , it is Angelicall and Divine ; and then it appertains to mystick Theologie , and therefore is to be considered in another place ; but for the present , that which will regularly concern all our duty , is this , that when the fear of God is the instrument of our duty , or Gods worship , the greater it is , it is so much the better . It was an old proverbiall saying among the Romans , Religentem esse oportet , religiosum , nefas ; Every excesse in the actions of religion is criminall ; they supposing that in the services of their gods , there might be too much . True it is , there may be too much of their undecent expressions , and in things indifferent , the very multitude is too much , and becomes an undecency : and if it be in its own nature undecent or disproportionable to the end , or the rules , or the analogy of the Religion , it will not stay for numbers to make it intolerable ; but in the direct actions of glorifying God , in doing any thing of his Commandements , or any thing which he commands , or counsels , or promises to reward , there can never be excesse or superfluity : and therefore in these cases , do as much as you can ; take care that your expressions be prudent , and safe , consisting with thy other duties ; and for the passions or vertues themselves , let them passe from beginning to great progresses , from man to Angel , from the imperfection of man to the perfections of the sons of God ; and when ever we go beyond the bounds of Nature , and grow up with all the extention , and in the very commensuration of a full grace , we shall never go beyond the excellencies of God : For ornament may be too much , and turn to curiosity ; cleanlinesse may be changed into nicenesse ; and civill compliance may become flattery ; and mobility of tongue may rise into garrulity ; and fame and honour may be great unto envie ; and health it self , if it be athletick , may by its very excesse become dangerous : but wisdome , and duty , and comelinesse , and discipline , a good minde , and eloquence , and the fear of God , and doing honour to his holy Name , can never exceed : but if they swell to great proportions , they passe through the measures of grace , and are united to felicity in the comprehensions of God , in the joyes of an eternall glory . Sermon , X. The Flesh and the Spirit : Part I. Matt. 26. 41. latter part . The Spirit indeed is willing , but the Flesh is weake . FRom the beginning of days Man hath been so crosse to the Divine commandements , that in many cases there can be no reason given why a man should choose some ways , or doe some actions , but onely because they are forbidden ; When God bade the Isaaelites rise and goe up against the Canaanites , and possesse the Land , they would not stirre ; the men were Anakims , and the Cities were impregnable , and there was a Lyon in the way ; but presently after , when God forbad them to goe , they would and did goe , though they died for it . I shall not need to instance in particulars , when the whole life of man is a perpetuall contradiction ; and the state of Disobedience is called the contradiction of Sinners ; even the man in the Gospell that had two sons , they both crossed him , even he that obeyed him , and he that obeyed him not : for the one said , he would , and did not ; the other said , he would not , and did : and so doe we ; we promise faire , and doe nothing ; and they that doe best are such as come out of darknesse into light , such as said they would not , and at last have better bethought themselves ; And who can guesse at any other reason why men should refuse to be temperate ? for he that refuses the commandement , first does violence to the commandement , and puts on a praeternaturall appetite , he spoils his health , and he spoils his understanding ; he brings to himself a world of diseases , and a healthlesse constitution , smart and sickly nights , a loathing stomach , and a staring eye , a giddy brain , and a swell'd belly , gouts and dropsies , catarrhes and oppilations . If God should enjoyne man to suffer all this , heaven and earth should have heard our complaints against unjust laws , and impossible commandements : for we complain already , even when God commands us to drink so long as it is good for us ; this is one of his impossible laws : it is impossible for us to know when we are dry , or when we need drink ; for if we doe know , I am sure it is possible enough , not to lift up the wine to our heads . And when our blessed Saviour hath commanded us to love our enemies , we think we have so much reason against it , that God will easily excuse our disobedience in this case , and yet there are some enemies whom God hath commanded us not to love , and those we dote on , we cherish and feast them , and as S. Paul in another case , upon our uncomely parts we bestow more abundant comelinesse . For whereas our body it self is a servant to our soule , we make it the heir of all things , and treat it here already , as if it were in Majority ; and make that which at the best was but a weak friend , to become a strong enemy ; and hence proceed the vices of the worst , and the follies and imperfections of the best ; the spirit is either in slavery , or in weaknesse , and when the flesh is not strong to mischief , it is weak to goodnesse ; and even to the Apostles our blessed Lord said , the spirit is willing , but the flesh is weak . The spirit ] that is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the inward man , or the reasonable part of man , especially as helped by the Spirit of Grace , that is willing : for it is the principle of all good actions , the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the power of working is from the spirit ; but the flesh is but a dull instrument , and a broken arme , in which there is a principle of life , but it moves uneasily ; and the flesh is so weak , that in Scripture to be in the flesh signifies a state of weaknesse , and infirmity ; so the humiliation of Christ is expressed by being in the flesh , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , God manifested in the flesh ; and what S. Peter calls [ put to death in the flesh ] St. Paul calls [ crucified through weaknesse ; ] and , yee know that through the infirmity of the flesh I preached unto you , said S. Paul : but here , flesh is not opposed to the spirit as a direct enemy , but as a weak servant : for if the flesh be powerfull and opposite , the spirit stays not there : — veniunt ad candida tecta columbae : The old man and the new cannot dwell together ; and therefore here , where the spirit inclining to good , well disposed , and apt to holy counsels , does inhabit in society with the flesh , it means onely a weak and unapt nature , or a state of infant-grace , for in both these , and in these onely the text is verified . 1. Therefore we are to consider the infirmities of the flesh naturally . 2. It s weaknesse in the first beginnings of the state of grace , its daily pretensions and temptations , its excuses and lessenings of duty . 3. What remedies there are in the spirit to cure the evils of nature . 4. How far the weaknesses of the flesh can consist with the Spirit of grace in well grown Christians : This is the summe of what I intend upon these words . 1. Our nature is too weak in order to our duty and finall interest , that at first it cannot move one step towards God , unlesse God by his preventing grace puts into it a new possibility . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . There is nothing that creeps upon the earth , nothing that ever God made , weaker then Man ; for God fitted Horses and Mules with strength , Bees and Pismires with sagacity , Harts and Hares with swiftnesse , Birds with feathers and a light a\l = e " \ry body ; and they all know their times , and are fitted for their work , and regularly acquire the proper end of their creation ; but man that was designed to an immortall duration , and the fruition of God for ever , knows not how to obtain it ; he is made upright to look up to heaven , but he knows no more how to purchase it then to climbe it . Once , man went to make an ambitious tower to outreach the clouds , or the praeternaturall risings of the water , but could not do it ; he cannot promise himself the daily bread of his necessity upon the stock of his own wit or industry ; and for going to heaven , he was so far from doing that naturally , that as soon as ever he was made he became the son of death , and he knew not how to get a pardon for eating of an apple against the Divine commandement : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said the Apostle , By nature we were the sons of wrath , that is , we were born heirs of death , which death came upon us from Gods anger for the sin of our first Parents ; or by nature , that is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , really , not by the help of fancy , and fiction of law , for so Oecumenius and Theophylact expound it ; but because it does not relate to the sin of Adam in its first intention , but to the evill state of sin , in which the Ephesians walked before their conversion ; it signifies that our nature of it self is a state of opposition to the spirit of grace ; it is privatively opposed , that is , that there is nothing in it that can bring us to felicity ; nothing but an obedientiall capacity ; our flesh can become sanctified , as the stones can become children unto Abraham , or as dead seed can become living corn ; and so it is with us , that it is necessary God should make us a new creation , if he means to save us ; he must take our hearts of stone away , and give us heart of flesh ; he must purge the old leaven , and make us a new conspersion ; he must destroy the flesh , and must breath into us Spiritum vita , the celestiall breath of life , without which we can neither live , nor move , nor have our being . No man can come unto mee ( said Christ ) unlesse my Father draw him , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The Divine love must come upon us and snatch us from our imperfection , enlighten our understanding , move and stirre our affections , open the gates of heaven , turn our nature into grace , entirely forgive our former prevarications ; take us by the hand , and lead us all along , and we onely contribute our assent unto it ; just as a childe when he is tempted to learne to goe , and called upon , and guided , and upheld , and constrain'd to put his feet to the ground , lest he feel the danger by the smart of a fall ; just so is our nature and our state of flesh . God teaches us , and invites us , he makes us willing and then makes us able , he lends us helps , and guides our hands , and feet ; and all the way constrains us , but yet so as a reasonable creature can be constrained ; that is , made willing with arguments , and new inducements , by a state of circumstances , and conditionall necessities : and as this is a great glorification of the free grace of God , and declares our manner of cooperation , so it represents our nature to be weak as a childe , ignorant as infancy , helplesse as an orphan , averse as an uninstructed person , in so geat degrees that God is forced to bring us to a holy life by arts great and many as the power and principles of the Creation ; with this onely difference , that the subject matter and object of this new creation is a free agent ; in the first it was purely obedientiall and passive ; and as the passion of the first was an effect of the same power that reduced it to act ; so the freedome of the second is given us in our nature by him that onely can reduce it to act ; for it is a freedome that cannot therefore choose , because it does not understand , nor taste , nor perceive the things of God ; and therefore must by Gods grace be reduced to action , as at first the whole matter of the world was by Gods Almightynesse ; for so God worketh in us to will and to doe of his owne good pleasure . 2. But that I may instance in particulars , our naturall weaknesse appears best in two things , even in the two great instances of temptation , pleasure and pain ; in both which the flesh is destroyed if it be not helped by a mighty grace , as certainly as the Canes doe bow their heads before the breath of a mighty wind . 1. In pleasure we see it by the publick miseries and follies of the world . An old Greek said well , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , There is amongst men nothing perfect , because men carry themselves as persons that are lesse then money , servants of gain and interest ; we are like the foolish Poet that Horace tells of : Gestit enim nummum in loculos dimittere , posthac Securus , cadat , an recto stet fabula talo . Let him but have money for rehearsing his Comedy , he cares not whether you like it or no ; and if a temptation of money comes strong and violent , you may as well tye a wilde dog to quietnesse with the guts of a tender Kid , as suppose that most men can doe vertuously when they may sin at a great price . Men avoyd poverty , not onely because it hath some inconveniences ; for they are few and little ; but because it is the nurse of vertue ; they run from it as Children from strict Parents and Tutors , from those that would confine them to reason , and sober counsels , that would make them labour , that they may become pale and lean , that they may become wise : but because Riches is attended by pride and lust , tyranny and oppression , and hath in its hand all that it hath in its heart ; and Sin waits upon Wealth ready dress'd and fit for action , therefore in some temptations they confesse how little their souls are , they cannot stand that assault ; but because this passion is the daughter of Voluptuousnesse , and very often is but a servant sin , ministring to sensuall pleasures , the great weaknesse of the flesh is more seen in the matter of carnall crimes , Lust and Drunkennesse . Nemo enim se adsuefacit ad vitandum & ex animo evellendum ea quae molesta ei non sunt . Men are so in love with pleasure , that they cannot think of mortifying or crucifying their lust ; we doe violence to what we hate , not to what we love . But the weaknesse of the flesh , and the empire of lust is visible in nothing so much , as in the captivity and folly of wise men . For you shall see some men fit to governe a Province , sober in their counsells , wise in the conduct of their affaires , men of discourse and reason , fit to sit with Princes , or to treat concerning peace and warre , the fate of Empires , and the changes of the world , yet these men shall fall at the beauty of a woman as a man dies at the blow of an Angell , or gives up his breath at the sentence and decree of God. Was not Solomon glorious in all things but when he bowed to Pharaoh's daughter , and then to Devils ? and is it not published by the sentence and observation of all the world , that the bravest men have been softned into effeminacy by the lisping charms , and childish noyses of Women and imperfect persons ? A faire slave bowed the neck of stout Polydamas , which was stiffe and inflexible to the contentions of an enemy : and suppose a man set like the brave boy of the King of Nicomedia in the midst of temptation by a witty beauty , tyed upon a bed with silk and pretty violences , courted with musick and perfumes , with promises and easie postures , invited by opportunity and importunity , by rewards and impunity , by privacy and a guard ; what would his nature doe in this throng of evils and vile circumstances ? The grace of God secur'd the young Gentleman , and the Spirit rode in triumph ; but what can flesh do in such a day of danger ? Is it not necessary that we take in auxiliaries from Reason and Religion , from heaven and earth , from observation and experience , from hope and fear , and cease to be what we are , left we become what we ought not ? It is certain that in the cases of temptations to voluptuousnesse , a man is naturally , as the Prophet said of Ephraim , like a Pigeon that hath no heart , no courage , no conduct , no resolution , no discourse , but falls as the water of Nilus when it comes to its cataracts , it falls infinitely and without restraint ; And if we consider how many drunken meetings the Sunne sees every day , how many Markets and Faires and Clubs , that is , so many solemnities of drunkennesse , are at this instant under the eye of heaven ; that many Nations are marked for intemperance , and that it is lesse noted because it is so popular , and universall , and that even in the midst of the glories of Christianity there are so many persons drunk , or too full with meat , or greedy of lust , even now that the Spirit of God is given to us to make us sober , and temperate , and chaste , we may well imagine , since all men have flesh , and all men have nor the spirit , the flesh is the parent of sin , and death , and it can be nothing else . And it is no otherwise when we are tempted with pain . We are so impatient of pain , that nothing can reconcile us to it ; not the laws of God , not the necessities of nature , not the society of all our kindred , and of all the world , not the interest of vertue , not the hopes of heaven ; we will submit to pain upon no terms , but the basest and most dishonorable ; for if sin bring us to pain , or affront , or sicknesse , we choose that , so it be in the retinue of a lust , and a base desire ; but we accuse Nature , and blaspheme God , we murmur and are impatient when pain is sent to us from him that ought to send it , and intends it as a mercy when it comes . But in the matter of afflictions and bodily sicknesse we are so weak and broken , so uneasie and unapt to sufferance , that this alone is beyond the cure of the old Philosophy . Many can endure poverty , and many can retire from shame and laugh at home , and very many can endure to be slaves ; but when pain and sharpnesse are to be endured for the interests of vertue , we finde but few Martyrs ; and they that are , suffer more within themselves by their fears and their temptations , by their uncertain purposes and violences to Nature , then by the Hang-mans sword ; the Martyrdome is within ; and then he hath won his Crown , not when he hath suffered the blow , but when he hath overcome his fears , and made his spirit conqueror . It was a sad instance of our infirmity , when of the 40 Martyrs of Cappadocia set in a freezing lake , almost consummate , and an Angell was reaching the Crowne , and placing it upon their brows , the flesh fail'd one of them , and drew the spirit after it ; and the man was called off from his Scene of noble contention , and dyed in warm water : — Odi artus , fragilémque hunc corporis usum Desertorem animi — We carry about us the body of death , and we bring evils upon our selves by our follies , and then know not how to bear them ; and the flesh forsakes the spirit . And indeed in sicknesse the infirmity is so very great , that God in a manner at that time hath reduced all Religion into one vertue , Patience with its appendages is the summe totall of almost all our duty that is proper to the days of sorrow : and we shall find it enough to entertain all our powers , and to imploy all our aids ; the counsels of wise men , and the comforts of our friends , the advices of Scripture , and the results of experience , the graces of God , and the strength of our own resolutions are all then full of imployments , and find it work enough to secure that one grace . For then it is that a could is wrapped about our heads , and our reason stoops under sorrow , the soul is sad , and its instrument is out of tune , the auxiliaries are disorder'd , and every thought sits heavily ; then a comfort cannot make the body feel it , and the soule is not so abstracted to rejoyce much without its partner ; so that the proper joyes of the soul , such as are hope , and wise discourses , and satisfactions of reason , and the offices of Religion , are felt , just as we now perceive the joyes of heaven , with so little relish , that it comes as news of a victory to a man upon the Rack , or the birth of an heir to one condemned to dye ; he hears a story which was made to delight him , but it came when he was dead to joy and all its capacities ; and therefore sicknesse , though it be a good Monitor , yet it is an ill stage to act some vertues in ; and a good man cannot then doe much , and therefore he that is in the state of flesh and blood , can doe nothing at all . 4. But in these considerations we find our nature in disadvantages ; and a strong man may be overcome when a stronger comes to disarme him ; and pleasure and pain are the violences of choice and chance ; but it is no better in any thing else : for nature is weak in all its strengths , and in its fights , at home , and abroad , in its actions and passions ; we love some things violently , and hate others unreasonably ; any thing can fright us when we should be confident , and nothing can scare us when we ought to feare ; the breaking of a glasse puts us into a supreme anger , and we are dull and indifferent as a Stoick when we see God dishonour'd ; we passionately desire our preservation , and yet we violently destroy our selves , and will not be hindred ; we cannot deny a friend when he tempts us to sin and death , and yet we daily deny God when he passionately invites us to life and health ; we are greedy after money , and yet spend it vainly upon our lusts ; we hate to see any man flatter'd but our selves ; and we can endure folly if it be on our side , and a sin for our interest ; we desire health , and yet we exchange it for wine and madnesse ; we sink when a persecution comes , and yet cease not daily to persecute our selves , doing mischiefs worse then the sword of Tyrants , and great as the malice of a Devill . 5. But to summe up all the evills that can be spoken of the infirmities of the flesh ; the proper nature and habitudes of men are so foolish and impotent , so averse and peevish to all good , that a mans will is of it self onely free to choose evils . Neither is it a contradiction to say liberty , and yet suppose it determin'd to one object onely ; because that one object is the thing we choose . For although God hath set life and death before us , fire and water , good and evill , and hath primarily put man into the hands of his owne counsell , that he might have chosen good as well as evill , yet because he did not , but fell into an evill condition and corrupted manners , and grew in love with it , and infected all his children with vicious examples ; and all nations of the world have contracted some universall stains , and the thoughts of mans hearts are onely evill , and that continually , and there is not one that doth good , no not one that sinneth not : since ( I say ) all the world have sinned , we cannot suppose a liberty of indifferency to good and bad ; it is impossible in such a liberty that there should be no variety , that all should choose the same thing ; but a liberty of complacency or delight we may suppose ; that is so , that though naturally he might choose good , yet morally he is so determin'd with his love to evill , that good seldome comes into dispute ; and a man runs to evill as he runs to meat or sleep ; for why else should it be , that every one can teach a childe to be proud , or to swear , to lie , or to doe little spites to his play-fellow , and can traine him up to infant follies ? But the severity of Tutors and the care of Parents , discipline and watchfulnesse , arts and diligence , all is too little to make him love but to say his prayers , or to doe that which becomes persons design'd for honest purposes , and his malice shall out-run his years ; he shall be a man in villany before he is by law capable of choice or inheritance ; and this indisposition lasts upon us for ever , even as long as we live , just in the same degrees as flesh and blood does rule us : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Art of Physicians can cure the evills of the body , but this strange propensity to evill nothing can cure but death ; the grace of God eases the malignity here , but it cannot be cured but by glory : that is , this freedome of delight or perfect unabated election of evill , which is consequent to the evill manners of the world , although it be lessened by the intermediall state of grace , yet it is not cured untill it be changed into its quite contrary ; but as it is in heaven , all that is happy , and glorious , and free , yet can choose nothing but the love of God , and excellent things , because God fills all the capacities of Saints , and there is nothing without him that hath any degrees of amability : so in the state of nature , of flesh and blood , there is so much ignorance of spirituall excellencies , and so much proportion to sensuall objects , which in most instances and in many degrees are prohibited , that as men naturally know no good , but to please a wilde , indetermin'd , infinite appetite ; so they will nothing else but what is good in their limit and proportion ; and it is with us as it was with the shee-goat that suckled the wolves whelp ; he grew up by his nurses milke , and at last having forgot his foster mothers kindnesse , eat that udder which gave him drink and nourishment ; Improbit as nullo flectitur obsequio ; for no kindnesse will cure an ill nature and a base disposition : so are we in the first constitution of our nature ; so perfectly given to naturall vices , that by degrees we degenerate into unnaturall , and no education or power of art can make us choose wisely or honestly : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Phalaris , There is no good nature but onely vertue ; till we are new created , we are wolves and serpents , free and delighted in the choice of evill , but stones and iron to all excellent things and purposes . 2. Next I am to consider the weaknesse of the flesh , even when the state is changed , in the beginning of the state of grace : For many persons , as soon as the grace of God rises in their hearts , are all on fire , and inflamed ; it is with them as Homer said of the Syrian starre , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It shines finely , and brings feavers ; splendor and Zeal are the effects of the first grace , and sometimes the first turnes into pride , and the second unto uncharitablenesse ; and either by too dull and slow motions , or by too violent and unequall , the flesh will make pretences , and too often prevail upon the spirit , even after the grace of God hath set up its banners in our hearts . 1. In some dispositions that are forward and apt , busie and unquiet , when the grace of God hath taken possessions , and begins to give laws , it seems so pleasant and gay to their undiscerning spirits , to be delivered from the sottishnesse of lust , and the follies of drunkennesse , that reflecting upon the change , they begin to love themselves too well , and take delight in the wisdome of the change , and the reasonablenesse of the new life ; and then they by hating their own follies , begin to despise them that dwell below ; It was the tricke of the old Philosophers whom Aristophanes thus describes , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; pale , and barefoot , and proud ; that is , persons singular in their habit , eminent in their institution , proud and pleased in their persons , and despisers of them that are lesse glorious in their vertue then themselves ; and for this very thing our blessed Saviour remarks the Pharisees ; they were severe and phantasticall advancers of themselves , and Judgers of their neighbors ; and here , when they have mortified corporall vices , such which are scandalous and punishable by men , they keep the spirituall , and those that are onely discernible by God : these men doe but change their sin from scandall to danger , and that they may sin more safely they sin more spiritually . 2. Sometimes the passions of the flesh spoyle the changes of the Spirit , by naturall excesses , and disproportion of degrees ; it mingles violence with industry , and fury with zeale , and uncharitablenesse with reproofe , and censuring with discipline , and violence with desires , and immortifications in all the appetites and prosecutions of the soule . Some think it is enough in all instances , if they pray hugely and fervently ; and that it is religion , impatiently to desire a victory over our enemies , or the life of a childe , or an heir to be born ; they call it holy , so they desire it in prayer ; that if they reprove a vicious person , they may say what they list , and be as angry as they please ; that when they demand but reason , they may enforce it by all means ; that when they exact duty of their children , they may be imperious and without limit ; that if they designe a good end , they may prosecute it by all instruments ; that when they give God thanks for blessings , they may value the thing as high as they list , though their persons come into a share of the honour ; here the spirit is willing and holy , but the flesh creeps too busily , and insinuates into the substance of good actions , and spoyles them by unhandsome circumstances ; and then the prayer is spoil'd for want of prudence or conformity to Gods will , and discipline and government is imbittered by an angry spirit ; and the Fathers authority turns into an uneasie load , by being thrust like an unequall burden to one side , without allowing equall measures to the other : And if we consider it wisely , we shall find that in many good actions the flesh is the bigger ingredient , and we betray our weak constitutions even when we do Justice or Charity ; and many men pray in the flesh , when they pretend they pray by the spirit . 3. In the first changes and weak progresses of our spirituall life , we find a long weaknesse upon us , because we are long before we begin , and the flesh was powerfull and its habits strong , and it will mingle indirect pretences with all the actions of the spirit ; If we mean to pray , the flesh thrusts in thoughts of the world ; and our tongue speaks one thing and our heart means another ; and we are hardly brought to say our prayers , or to undertake a fasting day , or to celebrate a Communion : and if we remember that all these are holy actions , and that we have many opportunities of doing them all , and yet doe them very seldome , and then very coldly , it will be found at the foot of the account , that our flesh and our naturall weaknesse prevailes oftner then our spirituall strengths : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they that are bound long in chains feel such a lamenesse in the first restitutions of their liberty , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by reason of the long accustomed chain and pressure , that they must stay till Nature hath set them free , and the disease be taken off as well as the chain ; and when the soul is got free from her actuall pressure of sins , still the wound remaines , and a long habitude , and longing after it , a looking back , and upon the presenting the old object , the same company , or the remembrance of the delight , the fancy strikes , and the heart fails , and the temptations returne and stand dressed in form and circumstances , and ten to one but the man dies again . 4. Some men are wise and know their weaknesses , and to prevent their startings back , will make fierce and strong resolutions , and bind up their gaps with thornes , and make a new hedge about their spirits ; and what then ? this shews indeed that the spirit is willing ; but the storm arises , and windes blow , and rain descends , and presently the earth trembles , and the whole fabrick falls into ruine and disorder . A resolution ( such as we usually make ) is nothing but a little trench which every childe can step over ; and there is no civill man that commits a willing sin , but he does it against his resolution ; and what Christian lives , that will not say , and think , that he hath repented in some degree ; and yet still they commit sin , that is , they break all their holy purposes as readily as they lose a dream ; and so great is our weaknesse , that to most men the strength of a resolution is just such a restraint as he suffers who is imprisoned in a curtain , and secured with dores and bars of the finest linnen : for though the spirit be strong to resolve , the flesh is weak to keep it . 5. But when they have felt their follies , and see the linnen vail ●ent , some that are desirous to please God , back their resolutions with vows , and then the spirit is fortified , and the flesh may tempt and call , but the soul cannot come forth , and therefore it triumphs and acts its interest easily and certainly ; and then the flesh is mortified ; It may be so . But doe not many of us inquire after a vow ? And we consider it may be it was rash , or it was an impossible matter , or without just consideration , and weighing of circumstances , or the case is alter'd , and there is a new emergent necessity , or a vow is no more then a resolution made in matter of duty ; both are made for God , and in his eye and witnesse ; or if nothing will doe it , men grow sad and weary , and despaire , and are impatient , and bite the knot in pieces , with their teeth , which they cannot by disputing , and the arts of the tongue . A vow will not secure our duty , because it is not stronger then our appetite ; and the spirit of man is weaker then the habits and superinduced nature of the flesh ; but by little and little it falls off , like the finest thread twisted upon the traces of a chariot ; it cannot hold long . 6. Beyond all this , some choose excellent guides , and stand within the restraints of modesty , and a severe Monitor ; and the Spirit of God hath put a veile upon our spirits , and by modesty in women and young persons , by reputation in the more aged , and by honour in the more noble , and by conscience in all , have fortified the spirit of Man , that men dare not prevaricate their duty though they be tempted strongly , and invited perpetually ; and this is a partition wall that separates the spirit from the flesh , and keeps it in its proper strengths and retirements . But here the spirit of man , for all that it is assisted , strongly breaks from the inclosure , and runnes into societies of flesh , and sometimes despises reputation , and sometimes supplies it with little arts of flattery , and self-love , and is modest as long as it can be secret , and when it is discovered , it growes impudent ; and a man shelters himselfe in crouds and heaps of sinners , and beleeves that it is no worse with him then with other mighty criminals , and publick persons , who bring sin into credit amongst fooles and vicious persons ; or else men take false measures of fame or publick honesty , and the world being broken into so many parts of disunion , and agreeing in nothing but in confederate vices , and grown so remisse in governments , and severe accounts , every thing is left so loose , that honour and publick fame , modesty , and shame , are now so slender guards to the spirit , that the flesh breaks in and makes most men more bold against God then against men , and against the laws of Religion , then of the Common-wealth . 7. When the spirit is made willing by the grace of God , the flesh interposes in deceptions and false principles . If you tempt some man to a notorious sin , as to rebellion , to deceive his trust , or to be drunk , he will answer , he had rather die then doe it : But put the sin civilly to him , and let it be disguised with little excuses , such things which indeed are trifles , but yet they are colours fair enough to make a weak pretence , and the spirit yeelds instantly . Most men choose the sin , if it be once disputable whether it be a sin or no ? If they can but make an excuse , or a colour , so that it shall not rudely dash against the conscience with an open professed name of Sin , they suffer the temptation to doe its worst . If you tempt a man , you must tell him 't is no sin , or it is excusable : this is not rebellion , but necessity , and selfe-defence ; it is not against my allegiance , but is a performing of my trust ; I doe it for my friend , not against my Superiour ; I doe it for a good end , and for his advantage ; this is not drunkennesse , but free mirth , and fair society ; it is refreshment , and entertainment of some supernumerary hours ; but it is not a throwing away my time , or neglecting a day of salvation ; and if there be any thing more to say for it , though it be no more then Adams fig-leaves , or the excuses of children and truants , it shall be enough to make the flesh prevail , and the spirit not to be troubled ; for so great is our folly , that the flesh always carries the cause , if the spirit can be cousen'd . 8. The flesh is so mingled with the spirit , that we are forced to make distinctions in our appetite , to reconcile our affections to God and Religion , lest it be impossible to doe our duty ; we weep for our sins , but we weep more for the death of our dearest friends , or other temporall sadnesses ; we say we had rather die then lose our saith , and yet we doe not live according to it ; we lose our estates and are impatient , we lose our vertue and bear it well enough ; and what vertue is so great , as more to be troubled for having sin'd , then for being asham'd , and begger'd , and condemn'd to die ? Here we are forced to a distinction : there is a valuation of price , and a valuation of sense : or the spirit hath one rate of things , and the flesh hath another ; and what we beleeve the greatest evill , does not alwayes cause to us the greatest trouble ; which shews plainly , that we are imperfect carnall persons , and the flesh will in some measure prevaile over the spirit ; because we will suffer it in too many instances , and cannot help it in all . 9. The spirit is abated and interrupted by the flesh , because the flesh pretends it is not able to doe those ministeries which are appointed in order to Religion ; we are not able to fast , or if we watch , it breeds gouts and catarrhes ; or charity is a grace too expensive , our necessities are too big to do it ; or we cannot suffer pain ; and sorrow breeds death , and therefore our repentances must be more gentle , and we must support our selves in all our calamities : for we cannot beare our crosses without a freer refreshment , and this freedome passes on to licence , and many melancholy persons drowne their sorrows in sin and forgetfulnesse , as if sin were more tolerable then sorrow , and the anger of God an easier load then a temporall care : here the flesh betrayes its weaknesse and its follies : For the flesh complains too soon , and the spirit of some men like Adam being too fond of his Eve , attends to all its murmurs and temptations ; and yet the flesh is able to bear farre more then is required of it in usuall duties . Custome of suffering will make us endure much , and feare will make us suffer more , and necessity makes us suffer any thing ; and lust and desire makes us to endure more then God is willing we should ; and yet we are nice , and tender , and indulgent to our weaknesses , till our weaknesses grow too strong for us . And what shall we doe to secure our duty , and to be delivered of our selves , that the body of death which we bear about us may not destroy the life of the spirit ? I have all this while complain'd , and you see not without cause ; I shall afterwards tell you the remedies for all this evill . In the mean time , let us have but mean opinions of our selves ; let us watch every thing of our selves as of suspected persons , and magnifie the grace of God , and be humbled for our stock and spring of follies , and let us look up to him who is the fountaine of grace and spirituall strengths . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And pray that God would give us what we ask , and what we ask not ; for we want more helps then we understand , and we are neerer to evill then we perceive , and we bear sin and death about us , and are in love with it ; and nothing comes from us but false principles , and silly propositions , and weak discourses , and startings from our holy purposes , and care of our bodies , and of our palates , and the lust of the lower belly ; these are the imployment of our lives ; but if wee design to live happily and in a better place , it must be otherwise with us ; we must become new creatures , and have another definition , and have new strengths , which we can onely derive from God , whose grace is sufficient for us , and strong enough to prevail over all our follies and infirmities . SERMON , XI . Part II. IF it be possible to cure an evill nature , we must inquire after remedies for all this mischief . In order to which I shall consider ; 1. That since it is our flesh and bloud that is the principle of mischief , we must not think to have it cured by washings and light medicaments ; the Physitian that went to cure the Hectick with quick-silver and fasting spittle , did his Patient no good , but himself became a proverb ; and he that by easie prayers and a seldome fast , by the scattering of a little almes , and the issues of some more naturall vertue thinks to cure his evill nature , does fortifie his indisposition , as a stick is hardened by a little fire , which by a great one is devoured . Quanto satius est mentem potius eluere quae malis cupiditatibus sordidatur , & uno virtutis ac fidei lavacro universa vitia depellere ? Better it is by an intire body of vertue , by a living and active faith to cleanse the minde from every vice , and to take off all superinduced habits of sin ; Quod qui fecerit , quamlibet inquinatum ac sordidum corpus gerat , satis purus est . If we take this course , although our body is foul , and our affections unquiet , and our rest discomposed , yet we shall be masters of our resolution , and clean from habituall sins , and so cure our evill nature . For our nature was not made evill but by our selves ; but yet we are naturally evill , that is , by a superinduced nature ; just as drunkards and intemperate persons have made it necessary to drink extremely , and their nature requires it , and it is health to them ; they dye without it , because they have made to themselves a new constitution , and another nature , but much worse then that which God made ; their sin made this new nature ; and this new nature makes sin necessary and unavoidable : so it is in all other instances ; Our nature is evill , because we have spoil'd it ; and therefore the removing the sin which we have brought in , is the way to cure our nature : for this evill nature is not a thing which we cannot avoid ; we made it , and therefore we must help it ; but as in the superinducing this evill nature , we were thrust forward by the world and the Devill , by all objects from without , and weaknesse from within ; so in the curing it we are to be helped by God and his most holy Spirit . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . We must have a new nature put into us , which must be the principle of new counsels , and better purposes , of holy actions and great devotion ; and this nature is deriv'd from God , and is a grace and a favour of heaven . The same Spirit that caused the holy Jesus to be born after a new and strange manner , must also descend upon us and cause us to be born again , and to begin a new life upon the stock of a new nature . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Origen , From him it first began that a divine and humane nature were weaved together , that the humane nature by communication with the celestiall may also become divine , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Not only in Jesus , but in all that first beleeve in him , and then obey him , living such a life as Jesus taught : and this is the summe totall of the whole design ; As we have liv'd to the flesh , so we must hereafter live to the spirit : as our nature hath been flesh , not only in its originall , but in habits and affection ; so our nature must be spirit in habit and choice , in design and effectuall prosecutions ; for nothing can cure our old death , but this new birth ; and this is the recovery of our nature , and the restitution of our hopes , and therefore the greatest joy of mankinde . — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It is a fine thing to see the light of this sun , and it is pleasant to see the storm allayed and turned into a smooth sea and a fresh gale ; our eyes are pleased to see the earth begin to live , and to produce her little issues with particolour'd coats : — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Nothing is so beauteous as to see a new birth in a childlesse family ; And it is excellent to hear a man discourse the hidden things of Nature , and unriddle the perplexities of humane notices and mistakes ; it is comely to see a wise man sit in the gates of the City , and give right judgement in difficult causes : But all this is nothing to the excellencies of a new birth ; to see the old man carryed forth to funerall with the solemn tears of repentance , and buryed in the grave of Jesus , and in his place a new creation to arise , a new heart , and a new understanding , and new affections , and excellent appetites : for nothing lesse then this can cure all the old distempers . 2. Our life , and all our discourses , and every observation , and a state of reason , and a union of sober counsels , are too little to cure a peevish spirit , and a weak reasoning , and silly principles , and accursed habits , and evill examples , and perverse affections , and a whole body of sin and death . It was well said in the Comedy . Nunquam it a quisquam bene subductâ ratione ad vitam fuit , Quin aetas , usus semper aliquid apportet novi , Aliquid moneat ; ut illa quae scire credas , nescias , Et quae tibi putas prima , in experiundo repudies . Men at first think themselves wise , and are alwaies most confident when they have the least reason ; and to morrow they begin to perceive yesterdayes folly , and yet they are not wise ; But as the little Embryo in the naturall sheet and lap of its mother , first distinguishes into a little knot , and that in time will be the heart , and then into a bigger bundle , which after some dayes abode grows into two little spots , and they if cherished by nature will become eyes , and each part by order commences into weak principles , and is preserved with natures greatest curiosity ; that it may assist first to distinction , then to order , next to usefulnesse , and from thence to strength , till it arrive at beauty , and a perfect creature : so are the necessities , and so are the discourses of men ; we first learn the principles of reason , which breaks obscurely through a clond , and brings a little light , and then we discern a folly , and by little and little leave it , till that enlightens the next corner of the soul ; and then there is a new discovery ; but the soul is still in infancy and childish follies ; and every day does but the work of one day ; but therefore art , and use , experience , and reason , although they do something , yet they cannot do enough ; there must be something else : But this is to be wrought by a new principle , that is , by the Spirit of grace : Nature and reason alone cannot do it , and therefore the proper cure is to be wrought by those generall means of inviting and cherishing , of getting and entertaining Gods Spirit , which when we have observed , we may account our selves sufficiently instructed toward the repair of our breaches , and the reformation of our evill nature . 1. The first great instrument of changing our whole nature into the state of grace , flesh into the spirit , is a firm belief , and a perfect assent to , and hearty entertainment of the promises of the Gospell ; for holy Scripture speaks great words concerning faith . It quenches the fiery darts of the Devill , saith St. Paul , it overcomes the world , saith St. John , it is the fruit of the Spirit , and the parent of love , it is obedience , and it is humility , and it is a shield , and it is a brestplate , and a work , and a mysterie , it is a fight and it is a victory , it is a pleasing God , and it is that whereby the just do live ; by faith we are purified , and by faith we are sanctified , and by faith we are justified , and by faith we are saved : by this we have accesse to the throne of grace , and by it our prayers shall prevail for the sick , by it we stand , and by it we walk , and by this Christ dwels in our hearts , and by it all the miracles of the Church have been done ; it gives great patience to suffer , and great confidence to hope , and great strength to do , and infallible certainty to enjoy the end of all our faith , and satisfaction of all our hopes , and the reward of all our labours , even the most mighty price of our high calling : and if faith be such a magazine of spirituall excellencies , of such universall efficacy , nothing can be a greater antidote against the venome of a corrupted nature . But then this is not a grace seated finally in the understanding , but the principle that is designed to , and actually productive of a holy life ; It is not only a beleeving the propositions of Scripture as we beleeve a proposition in the Metaphysicks , concerning which a man is never the honester whether it be true of false ; but it is a beleef of things that concern us infinitely , things so great that if they be so true as great , no man that hath his reason and can discourse , that can think and choose , that can desire and work towards an end , can possibly neglect . The great object of our faith , to which all other articles do minister , is , resurrection of our bodies and souls to eternall life , and glories infinite . Now is it possible that a man that beleeves this , and that he may obtain it for himself , and that it was prepared for him , and that God desires to give it him , that he can neglect and despise it , and not work for it , and perform such easie conditions upon which it may be obtained ? Are not most men of the world made miserable at a lesse price then a thousand pound a year ? Do not all the usurers and merchants , all tradesmen and labourers under the Sun toil and care , labour and contrive , venture and plot for a little money , and no man gets , and scarce any man desires so much of it as he can lay upon three acres of ground ; not so much of will fill a great house ; and is this sum , that is such a trifle , such a poor limited heap of dirt , the reward of all the labour , and the end of all the care , and the design of all the malice , and the recomponce of all the wars of the world ; and can it be imaginable , that life it self , and a long life , an eternall and a happy life , a kingdome , a perfect kingdome , and glorious , that shall never have ending , nor ever shall be abated with rebellion , or fears , or sorrow , or care , that such a kingdome should not be worth the praying for , and quitting of an idle company , and a foolish humour , or a little drink , or a vicious silly woman for it ? surely men beleeve no such thing . They do not relye upon those fine stories that are read in books , and published by Preachers , and allow'd by the lawes of all the world . If they did , why do they choose intemperance and a feaver , lust and shame , rebellion and danger , pride and a fall , sacriledge and a curse , gain and passion , before humility and safety , religion and a constant joy , devotion and peace of conscience , justice and a quiet dwelling , charity and a blessing , and at the end of all this , a Kingdome more glorious then all the beauties the Sun did ever see . Fides est velut quoddam aeternitatis exemplar , praeterita simul & praesentia & futura sinu quodans vastissimo comprehendit , ut nihil ei praetereat , nil pereat , praeeat nihil ; Now , Faith is a certain image of eternity , all things are present to it , things past and things to come , are all so before the eyes of faith , that he in whose eye that candle is enkindled , beholds heaven as present , and sees how blessed thing it is to dye in Gods favour , and to be chim'd to our grave with the Musick of a good conscience . Faith converses with the Angels , and antedates the hymnes of glory ; every man that hath this grace is as certain that there are glories for him , if he perseveres in duty , as if he had heard and sung the thanksgiving Song for the blessed sentence of Dooms-day . And therefore it is no matter if these things are separate and distant objects ; none but children and fools are taken with the present trifle , and neglect a distant blessing , of which they have credible and beleeved notices . Did the merchant see the pearls and the wealth he designs to get in the trade of 20 years ? And is it possible that a childe should , when he learns the first rudiments of Grammar , know what excellent things there are in learning , whither he designs his labour , and his hopes ? We labour for that which is uncertain , and distant , and beleeved , and hoped for with many allaies , and seen with diminution , and a troubled ray ; and what excuse can there be that we do not labour for that which is told us by God , and preach'd by his holy Son , and confirmed by miracles , and which Christ himself dyed to purchase , and millions of Martyrs dyed to witnesse , and which we see good men , and wise beleeve with an assent stronger then their evidence , and which they do beleeve because they do love , and love because they do beleeve ? There is nothing to be said ; but that faith which did enlighten the blind , and cleanse the Lepers , and wash'd the soul of the Aethiopian ; that faith that cures the sick , and strengthens the Paralytick , and baptizes the Catechumens , and justifies the faithfull , and repairs the penitent , and confirms the just , and crowns the Martyrs ; that faith if it be true and proper , Christian and alive , active and effective in us , is sufficient to appease the storm of our passions , and to instruct all our ignorances , and to make us wise unto salvation ; it will , if we let it do its first intention , chastise our errors , and discover our follies , it will make us ashamed of trifling interests , and violent prosecutions , of false principles , and the evill disguises of the world ; and then our nature will return to the innocence and excellency in which God first estated it ; that is , our flesh will be a servant of the soul , and the soul a servant to the spirit ; and then , because faith makes heaven to be the end of our desires , and God the object of our love and worshippings , and the Scripture the rule of our actions , and Christ our Lord and Master , and the holy Spirit our mighty assistance and our Counsellour , all the little uglinesses of the world , and the follies of the flesh will be uneasie , and unsavory , unreasonable , and a load ; and then that grace , the grace of faith , that layes hold upon the holy Trinity , although it cannot understand it , and beholds heaven before it can possesse it , shall also correct our weaknesses , and master all our aversations ; and though we cannot in this world be perfect masters , and triumphant persons , yet we be conquerors and more ; that is , conquerors of the direct hostility , & sure of a crown to be revealed in its due time . 2. The second great remedy of our evill Nature and of the loads of the flesh , is devotion , or a state of prayer , and entercourse with God. For the gift of the Spirit of God , which is the great antidote of our evill natures , is properly and expresly promised to prayer ; If you who are evill give good things to your children that aske you , how much more shall your Father from heaven give his holy Spirit to them that aske it ? That which in S. Luke is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the holy Spirit , is called in St. Matthew , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , good things ; that is , the holy Spirit is all that good that we shall need towards our pardon , and our sanctification , and our glory , and this is promised to Prayer ; to this purpose Christ taught us the Lords Prayer , by which we are sufficiently instructed in obtaining this Magazine of holy and usefull things . But Prayer is but one part of devotion ; and though of admirable efficacy towards the obtaining this excellent promise , yet it is to be assisted by the other parts of devotion , to make it a perfect remedy to our great evill . He that would secure his evill Nature , must be a devout person , and he that is devout , besides , that he prayes frequently , he delights in it as it is a conversation with God ; he rejoyces in God , and esteems him the light of his eyes , and the support of his confidence , the object of his love , and the desires of his heart ; the man is uneasie but when he does God service ; and his soul is at peace and rest when he does what may be accepted : and this is that which the Apostle counsels , and gives in precept ; Rejoyce in the Lord alwaies , and again I say rejoyce ; that is , as the Levites were appointed to rejoyce , because God was their portion in tithes and offerings , so now that in the spirituall sense God is our portion , we should rejoyce in him , and make him our inheritance , and his service our imployment , and the peace of conscience to be our rest , and then it is impossible we should be any longer slaves to sin , and afflicted by the baser imployments of the flesh , or carry burdens for the Devill ; and therefore the Scholiast upon Juvenal observed well , Nullum malum gaudium est , No true joy can be evill ; and therefore it was improperly said of Virgil , Mala gaudia mentis , calling lust and wilde desires , the evill joyes of the minde ; Gaudium enim nisi sapienti non contingere , said Seneca , none but a wise and a good man can truly rejoyce ; The evill laugh loud , and sigh deeply , they drink drunk , and forget their sorrowes , and all the joyes of an evill man is only arts of forgetfulnesse , devices to cover their sorrow , and make them not see their death , and its affrighting circumstances ; but the heart never can rejoyce , and be secure , be pleased and be at rest , but when it dwels with holinesse : the joyes that come from thence are safe and great , unchangeable and unabated , healthfull and holy ; and this is true joy : and this is that which can cure all the little images of pleasure , and temptation which debauch our nature , and make it dwell with hospitals , in the region of diseases and evill sorrowes . St. Gregory well observed the difference : saying , that Corporall pleasures when we have them not , inkindle a flame and a burning desire in the heart , and make a man very miserable , before he tasts them ; the appetite to them is like thirst and the desires of a feaver , the pleasure of drinking will not pay for the pain of the desire ; and when they are enjoyed , they instantly breed satiety and a loathing . But spirituall rejoycings , and delights are loathed by them that have them not , and despised by them that never felt them ; but when they are once tasted they increase the appetite and swell it to bigger capacities ; and the more they are eaten , the more they are desired , and cannot become a wearinesse because they satisfie all the way , and only increase the desire , because themselves grow bigger and more amiable . And therefore when this new and stranger appetite , and consequent joy arises in the heart of man , it so fils all the faculties , that there is no gust , no desire left for toads and vipers , for hemlock and the deadly night-shade . Sirenas , hilarem navigantium poenam , Blandásque mortes , gaudiúmque crudele , Quas nemo quondam deserebat auditas , Prudens Ulysses dicitur reliquisse . Then a man can hear the musick of songs and dances , and think them to be heathenish noises ; and if he be engaged in the society of a woman singer , he can be as unconcerned as a marble statue ; he can be at a feast and not be defil'd , he can passe through theatres as through a street ; then he can look on money as his servant , nec distant aera lupinis , he can use it as the Greeks did their sharp coins , to cast accounts withall , and not from thence take the accounts of his wealth or his felicity . If you can once obtain but to delight in prayer , and to long for the day of a Communion , and to be pleased with holy meditation , and to desire Gods grace with great passion , and an appetite keen as a Wolf upon the cold plains of the North ; If you can delight in Gods love , and consider concerning his providence , and busie your selves in the pursuit of the affairs of his Kingdome , then you have the grace of devotion , and your evill nature shall be cured . 3. Because this great cure is to be wrought by the Spirit of God , which is a new nature in us , we must endevour to abstain from those things which by a speciall malignity are directly opposite to the spirit of reason , and the spirit of grace ; and those are drunkennesse and lust . He that is full of wine cannot be full of the spirit of God ; St. Paul noteth the hostility . Be not drunk with wine , but be filled with the Spirit ; a man that is a drunkard does perire cito , he perishes quickly , his temptations that come to him make but short work with him ; a drunkard is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : our English well expresses it , it is a sottishnesse , and the man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , an uselesse , senselesse person , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; of all the evils of the world nothing is worse to a mans self , nothing is more harmfull then this ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Crobylus , it deprives a wise man of his counsell and his understanding : now , because it is the greatest good that nature hath , that which takes it away must needs be our greatest enemy . Nature is weak enough of it self , but drunkennesse takes from it all the little strengths that are left to it , and destroyes the spirit ; and the man can neither have the strengths of nature , nor the strengths of grace ; and how then can the man do wisely or vertuously ? Spiritus sanctus amat sicca corda , the Spirit of Godloves dry hearts , said the Christian Proverb ; and Josephus said of Samson , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it appears he was a Prophet , or a man full of the Spirit , by the temperance of his diet ; and now that all the people are holy unto the Lord , they must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Plutarch said of their consecrated persons ; they must have dry and sober purities : for by this means their reason is usefull , and their passions not violent , and their discourse united , and the precious things of their memory at hand , and they can pray , and read , and they can meditate and practise , and then they can learn where their naturall weaknesses are most urgent , and how they can be tempted , and can secure their aides accordingly ; but how is it possible that such a man should cure all the evils of his Nature , and repair the breaches of Adams sin , and stop all the effect which is upon him from all the evils of the world , if he delights in seas of drink , and is pleased with the follies of distemper'd persons , and laughs loud at the childish humours and weak discourses of the man that can do nothing but that for which Dionysius slew Antiphon , and Timagenes did fall from Caesars friendship ; that is , play the fool and abuse his friend ; He cannot give good counsell or spend an hour in wise sayings ; but half a day they can talk ut foret unde corona cachinnum tollere possit , to make the crowd laugh and consider not . And the same is the case of lust ; because it is exactly contrary to Christ the King of Virgins , and his holy Spirit , who is the Prince of purities and holy thoughts ; it is a captivity of the reason , and an inraging of the passions , it wakons every night , and rages every day , in desires passionately and prosecutes violently , it hinders businesse and distracts counsell , it brings jealousies and enkindles wars , it sins against the body , and weakens the foul , it defiles a Temple , and drives the holy Spirit forth , and it is so intire a prosecmion of the follies and weaknesses of nature , such a snare and a bait to weak and easie fools , that it prevails infinitely , and rages horribly , and rules tyrannically ; it is a very feaver in the reason , and a calenture in the passions ; and therefore either it must be quenched , or it will be impossible to cure our evill natures : The curing of this is not the remedy of a single evill , but it is a doing violence to our whole nature ; and therefore hath in it the greatest courage and an equall conduct , and supposes spirituall strengths great enough to contest against every enemy . 4. Hither is to be reduced , that we avoid all flatterers and evill company ; for it was impossible that Alexander should be wise and cure his pride and his drunkennesse , so long as he entertain'd Agesius and Agnon , Bagoas and Demetrius , and slew Parmenio and Philotas , and murder'd wise Calisthenes for he that loves to be flartered , loves not to change his pleasur● ; but had rather to hear himself cal'd wise , then to be so . Flattery does bribe an evill nature , and corrupt a good one ; and make it love to give wrong judgement , and evill sentences ; he that loves to be flatter'd can never want some to abuse him , but he shall alwaies want one to counsell him , and then he can never be wise . 5. But I must put these advices into a heap ; he therefore that will cure his evill nature , must for himself against his chiefest lust , which when he hath overcome , the lesser enemies will come in of themselves . He must endevour to reduce his affections to an indifferency ; for all violence is an enemy to reason and counsell , and is that state of disease for which he is to enquire remedies . 8. It is necessary that in all actions of choice he deliberate and consider , that he may never do that for which he must aske a pardon , and he must suffer shame and smart : and therefore Cato did well reprove Aulus Albinus for writing the Roman story in the Greek tongue , of which he had but imperfect knowledge ; and himself was put to make his Apologie for so doing ; Cato told him that he was mightily in love with a fault , that he had rather beg a pardon then be innocent ; Who forc'd him to need the pardon ? And when beforehand we know we must change from what we are or do worse , it is a better compendium not to enter in from whence we must uneasily retire . 9. In all the contingencies of chance and variety of action , remember that thou art the maker of thy own fortune , and of thy own sin ; charge not God with it either before or after ; The violence of thy own passion is no superinduced necessity from him , and the events of providence in all its strange variety can give no authority or patronage to a foul forbidden action , though the next chance of war or fortune be prosperous and rich . An Egyptian robber sleeping under a rotten wall was awaken'd by Serapis , and sent away from the ruine ; but being quit from the danger , and seeing the wall to slide , thought that the Daemon lov'd his crime , because he had so strangely preserved him from a sudden and a violent death . But Serapis told him , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , I saved you from the wall to reserve you for the wheel ; from a short and a private death , to a painfull and disgracefull ; and so it is very frequently in the event of humane affairs : men are saved from one death , and reserved for another ; or are preserved here to be destroyed hereafter ; and they that would judge of actions by events , must stay till all events are passed ; that is , till all their posterity be dead , and the sentence is given at Dooms-day ; in the mean time , the evils of our nature are to be look'd upon without all accidentall appendages ; as they are in themselves , as they have an irregularity and disorder , an unreasonablenesse and a sting ; and be sure to relye upon nothing , but the truth of lawes and promises ; and take severe accounts by those lines which God gave us on purpose to reprove our evill habits and filthy inclinations . Men that are not willing to be cured are glad of any thing to cousen them ; but the body of death cannot be taken off from us , unlesse we be honest in our purposes and severe in our counsels , and take just measures , and glorifie God , and set our selves against our selves , that we may be changed into the likenesse of the sons of God. 9. Avoid all delay in the counsels of Religion . Because the aversation and perversnesse of a childes nature may be corrected easily ; but every day of indulgence and excuse increases the evill , and makes it still more naturall , and still more necessary . 10. Learn to despise the world ; or , which is a better compendium in the duty , learn but truly to understand it ; for it is a cousenage all the way ; the head of it is a rainbow , and the face of it is flattery ; its words are charmes , and all its stories are false ; its body is a shadow , and its hands do knit spiders webs ; it is an image and a noise , with a Hyaena's lip and a Serpents tail ; it was given to serve the needs of our nature , and in stead of doing it , it creates strange appetites , and nourishes thirsts and feavers ; it brings care and debauches our nature , and brings shame and death as the reward of all our cares . Our nature is a disease , and the world does nourish it ; but if you leave to feed upon such unwholesome diet , your nature reverts to its first purities , and to the entertainments of the grace of God. 4. I am now to consider , how farre the infirmities of the flesh can be innocent , and consist with the spirit of grace . For all these counsels are to be entertain'd into a willing spirit , and not only so , but into an active : and so long as the spirit is only willing , the weaknesse of the flesh will in many instances become stronger then the strengths of the spirit . For he that hath a good will , and does not do good actions which are required of him , is hindred , but not by God that requires them , and therefore by himself , or his worst enemy . But the measures of this question are these . 1. If the flesh hinders us of our duty , it is our enemy ; and then our misery is not , that the flesh is weak , but that it is too strong ; But 2. when it abates the degrees of duty and stops its growth , or its passing on to action and effect , then it is weak , but not directly , nor alwaies criminall . But to speak particularly . If our flesh hinders us of any thing that is a direct duty , and prevails upon the spirit to make it do an evill action , or contract an evill habit , the man is in a state of bondage and sin : his flesh is the mother of corruption , and an enemy to God. It is not enough to say , I desire to serve God , and cannot as I would : I would fain love God above all the things in the world , but the flesh hath appetites of its own that must be served : I pray to be forgiven as I forgive others ; but flesh and bloud cannot put up such an injury : for know that no infirmity , no unavoidable accident , no necessity , no poverty , no businesse can hinder us from the love of God , or forgiving injuries , or being of a religious and a devout spirit ; Poverty and the intrigues of the world are things that can no more hinder the spirit in these duties , then a strong enemy can hinder the sun to shine , or the clouds to drop rain . These things which God requires of us , and exacts from us with mighty penalties , these he hath made us able to perform ; for he knows that we have no strength but what he gives us ; and therefore as he binds burdens upon our shoulders , so he gives us strength to bear them ; and therefore he that sayes he cannot forgive , sayes only that his lust is stronger then his religion ; his flesh prevails upon his spirit . For what necessity can a man have to curse him whom he cals enemy ? or to sue him , or kill him , or do him any spite ? A man may serve all his needs of nature , though he does nothing of all this ; and if he be willing , what hinders him to love , to pardon to wish well , to desire ? The willing is the doing in this case ; and he that sayes he is willing to do his duty , but he cannot , does not understand what he sayes . For all the duty of the inner man consists in the actions of the will , and there they are seated , and to it all the inferiour faculties obey in those things which are direct emanations , and effects of will. He that desires to love God , does love him ; indeed men are often cousened with pretences , and in some good mood are warm'd with a holy passion , but it signifies nothing ; because they will not quit the love of Gods enemies ; and therefore they do not desire , what they say they doe : but if the will and heart be right , and not false and dissembling , this duty is , or will be done infallibly . 2. If the spirit and the heart be willing , it will passe on to outward actions in all things where it ought , or can . He that hath a charitable soul will have a charitable hand ; and will give his money to the poor , as he hath given his heart to God : For these things which are in our hand are under the power of our will , and therefore are to be commanded by it . He that sayes to the naked , be warm and cloathed , and gives him not the garment that lies by him , or money to buy one , mocks God , and the poor , and himself . Nequam illud verbum est , bene vult , nisi qui bene facit , said the Comedy ; It is an evill saying , he wishes well , unlesse he do well . 3. Those things which are not in our power , that is , such things in which the flesh is inculpably weak , or naturally , or politically disabled , the will does the work of the outward and of the inward man ; we cannot cloath Christs body , he needs it not ; and we cannot approach so sacred and separate a presence ; but if we desire to do it , it is accounted as if we had . The ignorant man cannot discourse wisely and promote the interest of souls , but he can love souls , and desire their felicity ; though I cannot build Hospitals and Colledges , or pour great summes of money into the lap of the poor , yet if I incourage others and exhort them , if I commend and promote the work , I have done the work of a holy Religion . For in these and the like cases , the outward work is not alwaies set in our power ; and therefore without our fault is omitted , and can be supplied by that which is in our power . 4. For that is the last caution , concerning this question . No man is to be esteemed of a willing spirit , but he that endevours to doe the outward work , or to make all the supplies that he can ; not only by the forwardnesse of his spirit , but by the compensation of some other charities , or devotion , or religion . Silver and gold have I none , and therefore I can give you none : But I wish you well ; How will that appear ? why thus , Such as I have I will give you : Rise up and walk . I cannot give you gold , but I can give you counsell ; I cannot relieve your need , but I can relieve your sadnesse ; I cannot cure you , but I can comfort you ; I cannot take away your poverty , but I can ease your spirit ; and God accepts us ( saith the Apostle ) according to what a man hath , and not according to what he hath not . Only as our desires are great , and our spirits are willing , so we shall finde wayes to make supply of our want of ability and expressed liberality . Et labor ingenium misero dedit , & sua quemque Advigilare sibi jussit fortuna premendo . What the poor mans need will make him do , that also the good mans charity will ; it will finde out wayes and artifices of relief , in kinde , or in value ; in comfort , or in prayers ; in doing it himself , or procuring others : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The necessity of our fortune , and the willingnesse of our spirits will do all this ; all that it can , and something that it cannot ; You have relieved the Saints ( saith St. Paul ) according to your power , yea and beyond your power ; Only let us be carefull in all instances , that we yeeld not to the weaknesse of the flesh , nor listen to its fair pretences ; for the flesh can do more then it sayes , we can do more then we think we can ; and if we doe some violence to the flesh , to our affairs , and to the circumstances of our fortune , for the interest of our spirit , we shall make our flesh usefull , and the spirit strong , the flesh and its weaknesse shall no more be an objection , but shall comply , and co-operate , and serve all the necessities of the spirit . Sermon , XII . Of Lukewarmnesse , and Zeal : OR SPIRITVALL TERROVR . Part I. Jer. 48. 10. vers . first part . Cursed be he that doth the work of the Lord deceitfully . CHrists Kingdome being in order to the Kingdome of his Father , which shall be manifest at the day of Judgement , must therefore be spirituall , because then it is , that all things must become spirituall , not only by way of eminency , but by intire constitution and perfect change of natures . Men shall be like Angels , and Angels shall be comprehended in the lap of spirituall and eternall felicities ; the soul shall not understand by materiall phantasmes , neither be served by the provisions of the body , but the body it self shall become spirituall , and the eye shall see intellectuall objects , and the mouth shall feed upon hymns and glorifications of God ; the belly shall be then satisfied by the fulnesse of righteousnesse , and the tongue shall speak nothing but praises , and the propositions of a celestiall wisdome ; the motion shall be the swiftnesse of an Angell ; and it shall be cloathed with white as with a garment : Holinesse is the Sun , and righteousnesse is the Moon in that region ; our society shall be Quires of singers , and our conversation wonder ; contemplation shall be our food , and love shall be the wine of elect souls ; and as to every naturall appetite there is now proportion'd an object , crasse , materiall , unsatisfying , and allayed with sorrow and uneasinesse : so there be new capacities and equall objects , the desires shall be fruition , and the appetite shall not suppose want , but a faculty of delight , and an unmeasureable complacency : the will and the understanding , love and wonder , joyes every day and the same forever ; this shall be their state who shall be accounted worthy of the resurrection to this life ; where the body shall be a partner , but no servant ; where it shall have no work of its own , but it shall rejoyce with the soul ; where the soul shall rule without resistance , or an enemy , and we shall be fitted to enjoy God who is the Lord and Father of spirits . In this world we see it is quite contrary : we long for perishing meat , and fill our stomachs with corruption ; we look after white and red , and the weaker beauties of the night ; we are passionate after rings and seals , and inraged at the breaking of a Crystall ; we delight in the society of fools and weak persons ; we laugh at sin , and contrive mischiefs ; and the body rebels against the soul , and carries the cause against all its just pretences ; and our soul it self is above half of it earth , and stone in its affections , and distempers ; our hearts are hard , and inflexible to the softer whispers of mercy and compassion , having no loves for any thing but strange flesh , and heaps of money , and popular noises , for misery and folly ; and therefore we are a huge way off from the Kingdome of God , whose excellencies , whose designs , whose ends , whose constitution is spirituall and holy , and separate , and sublime , and perfect . Now between these two states of naturall flesh , and heavenly spirit , that is , the powers of darknesse , and the regions of light , the miseries of man , and the perfections of God ; the imperfection of nature where we stand by our creation , and supervening follies , and that state of felicities whither we are designed by the mercies of God , there is a middle state ; the Kingdome of grace wrought for us by our Mediator , the man Christ Jesus , who came to perfect the vertue of Religion , and the designs of God , and to reforme our Nature , and to make it possible for us to come to that spirituall state where all felicity does dwell . The Religion that Christ taught is a spirituall Religion , it designs ( so far as this state can permit ) to make us spirituall ; that is ; so as the spirit be the prevailing ingredient . God must now be worshipped in spirit , and not only so , but with a fervent spirit ; and though God in all religions did seise upon the spirit , and even under Moses Law did by the shadow of the ceremony , require the substantiall worship , by cutting off the flesh intended the circumcision of the heart ; yet because they were to minde the outward action , it took off much from the intention , and activity of the spirit ; Man could not doe both busily : And then they fail'd also in the other part of a spirituall Religion ; for the nature of a spirituall Religion is , that in it we serve God with our hearts and affections ; and because while the spirit prevails , we do not to evill purposes of abatement converse with flesh and bloud , this service is also fervent , intense , active , wise , and busie , according to the nature of things spirituall . Now because God alwayes perfectly intended it , yet because he lesse perfectly required it in the Law of Moses , I say they fell short in both . For , 1. They so rested in the outward action , that they thought themselves chast , if they were no adulterers , though their eyes were wanton as Kids , and their thoughts polluted as the springs of the wildernesse when a Panther and a Lionesse descend to drink and lust ; and if they did not rob the Temple , they accounted it no sin if they murmur'd at the riches of Religion ; and Josephus reproves Polybius for saying that Antiochus was punished for having a design of sacriledge ; and therefore Tertullian sayes of them , they were nec plenae , nec adeò timendae disciplinae ad innocentiae veritatem ; this was their righteousnesse which Christ said unlesse we will exceed , we shall not enter into the Kingdome of heaven , where all spirituall perfections are in state and excellency . 2. The other part of a spirituall worship is a fervour and a holy Zeal of Gods glory , greatnesse of desire , and quicknesse of action ; of all this the Jewes were not carefull at all , excepting the zealots amongst them , and they were not only fervent but inflamed ; and they had the earnestnesse of passion for the holy warmth of Religion ; and in stead of an earnest charity they had a cruell discipline , and for fraternall correction they did destroy a sinning Israelite : and by both these evill states of Religion they did the work of the Lord deceitfully ; they either gave him the action without the heart , or zeal without charity , or religion without zeal , or ceremony without religion , or indifferency without desires ; and then God is served by the outward man and not the inward ; or by part of the inward and not all ; by the understanding and not by the will ; or by the will when the affections are cold and the body unapt , and the lower faculties in rebellion , and the superior in disorder , and the work of God is left imperfect , and our persons ungracious , and our ends unacquired , and the state of a spirituall kingdome not at all set forward towards any hope or possibility of being obtained . All this Christ came to mend , and by his Lawes did make provision that God should be served intirely , according as God alwaies designed , and accordingly required by his Prophets , and particularly in my Text , that his work be done sincerely , and our duty with great affection ; and by these two provisions , both the intension and the extension are secured ; our duty shall be intire , and it shall be perfect , we shall be neither lame nor cold , without a limb , nor without naturall heat , and then the work of the Lord will prosper in our hands : but if we fail in either , we do the Lords work deceitfully , and then we are accursed . For so saith the Spirit of God ; Cursed be he that doth the work of the Lord deceitfully . 1. Here then is the duty of us all : 1. God requires of us to serve him with an integrall , intire , or a whole worship and religion . 2. God requires of us to serve him with earnest and intense affections ; The intire purpose of both which , I shall represent in its severall parts by so many propositions . 3. I shall consider concerning the measures of zeal , and its inordinations . 1. He that serves God with the body without the soul , serves God deceitfully . My son give me thy heart ; and though I cannot think that Nature was so sacramentall , as to point out the holy and mysterious Trinity by the triangle of the heart , yet it is certain that the heart of man is Gods speciall portion , and every angle ought to point out towards him directly ; that is , the soul of man ought to be presented to God , and given to him as an oblation to the interest of his service . 1. For , to worship God with our souls consesses one of his glorious ateributes ; it declares him to be the searcher of hearts , and that he reads the secret purposes , and beholds the smallest arrests of fancy , and bends in all the flexures and intriques of crafty people , and searches out every plot and trifling conspiracy against him , and against our selves , and against our brethren . 2. It advances the powers and concernments of his providence , and confesses all the affairs of men , all their cabinets and their nightly counsels , their snares and two-edged mischiefs to be over-rul'd by him ; for what he sees he judges , and what he judges he rules , and what he rules must turn to his glory ; and of this glory he reflects rayes and influences upon his servants , and it shall also turn to their good . 3. This service distinguishes our duty towards God from all our conversation with man , and separates the divine commandements from the imperfect decrees of Princes and Republiques ; for these are satisfied by the outward work , and cannot take any other cognisance of the heart , and the will of man , but as himself is pleased to signifie . He that wishes the fiscus empty , and that all the revenues of the Crown were in his counting-house , cannot be punished by the Lawes , unlesse himself become his own traytor and accuser ; and therefore what man cannot discern , he must not judge , and must not require ? but God sees it and judges it , and requires it , and therefore reserves this as his own portion and the chiefest feudall right of his Crown . 4. He that secures the heart , secures all the rest ; because this is the principle of all the moral actions of the whole man , & the hand obeys this , and the feet walk by its prescriptions ; we eat and drink by measures which the soul desires and limits ; and though the naturall actions of man are not subject to choice & rule , yet the animal actions are under discipline ; and although it cannot be helped but we shall desire , yet our desires can receive measures , and the lawes of circumstances , and be reduced to order , and nature be changed into grace , and the actions animall ( such as are , eating , drinking , laughing , weeping , &c. ) shall become actions of Religion ; and those that are simply naturall ( such as , being hungry and thirsty ) shall be adopted into the retinue of religion , and become religious by being order'd , or chastis'd , or suffered , or directed ; and therefore God requires the heart , because he requires all ; and all cannot be secured without the principle be inclosed . But he that seals up a fountain , may drink up all the waters alone , and may best appoint the channels where it shall run , and what grounds it shall refresh . 5. That I may summe up many reasons in one ; God by requiring the heart secures the perpetuity and perseverance of our duty , and its sincerity , and its integrity , and its perfection : for so also God takes account of little things ; it being all one in the heart of man , whether maliciously it omits a duty in a small instance or in a great ; for although the expression hath variety and degrees in it in relation to those purposes of usefulnesse and charity whither God designs it , yet the obedience and disobedience is all one , and shall be equally accounted for ; and therefore the Jew Tryphon disputed against Justin , that the precepts of the Gospell were impossible to be kept , because it also requiring the heart of man did stop every egression of disorders : for making the root holy and healthfull , as the Balsame of Judaea , or the drops of Manna in the evening of the sabbath ; it also causes that nothing spring thence but gummes sit for incense , and oblations for the Altar of proposition , and a cloud of perfume fit to make atonement for our sins , and being united to the great sacrifice of the world to reconcile God and man together . Upon these reasons you see it is highly fit that God should require it , and that we should pay the sacrifice of our hearts ; and not at all think that God is satisfied with the work of the hands , when the affections of the heart are absent . He that prayes because he would be quiet , and would fain be quit of it , and communicates for fear of the lawes , and comes to Church to avoid shame , and gives almes to be eased of an importunate begger , or relieves his old parents because they will not dye in their time , and provides for his children lest he be compeld by Lawes and shame , but yet complains of the charge of Gods blessings , this man is a servant of the eyes of men , and offers parchment or a white skin in sacrifice , but the flesh and the inwards he leaves to be consumed by a stranger fire . And therefore this is a deceit that robs God of the best , and leaves that for religion which men pare off : It is sacriledge , and brings a double curse . 2. He that serves God with the soule without the body , when both can be conjoyned , doth the work of the Lord deceitfully . Paphnutius , whose knees were cut for the testimony of Jesus , was not obliged to worship with the humble flexures of the bending penitents : and blinde Bartimeus could not read the holy lines of the Law , and therefore that part of the work was not his duty ; and God shall not call Lazarus to account for not giving almes , nor St. Peter and St. John for not giving silver and gold to the lame man , nor Epaphroditus for not keeping his fasting dayes when he had his sicknesse . But when God hath made the body an apt minister to the soul , and hath given money for almes , and power to protect the oppressed , and knees to serve in prayer and hands to serve our needs , then the soul alone is not to work ; but as Rachel gave her maid to Jacob and she bore children to her Lord upon her Mistresse knees , and the children were reckoned to them both , because the one had fruitfull desires and the other a fruitfull wombe : so must the body serve the needs of the spirit ; that what the one desires the other may effect , and the conceptions of the soul may be the productions of the body ; and the body must bow when the soul worships , and the hand must help when the soul pities , and both together do the work of a holy Religion ; the body alone can never serve God without the conjunction and preceding act of the soul ; and sometimes the soul without the body is imperfect and vain ; for in some actions there is a body and a spirit , a materiall and a spirituall part : and when the action hath the same constitution that a man hath , without the act of both it is as imperfect as a dead man ; the soul cannot produce the body of some actions any more then the body can put life into it ; and therefore an ineffective pity and a lazie counsell , an empty blessing , and gay words , are but deceitfull charity . Quod peto , da , Caï , non peto consiliam . He that gave his friend counsell to study the Law , when he desired to borrow 20 l. was not so friendly in his counsell as he was uselesse in his charity ; spirituall acts can cure a spirituall malady , but if my body needs relief , because you cannot feed me with Diagrams , or cloath me with Euclids elements , you must minister a reall supply by a corporall charity to my corporall necessity . This proposition is not only usefull in the doctrine of charity , and the vertue of religion , but in the professions of faith , and requires that it be publick , open , and ingenuous . In matters of necessary duty it is not sufficient to have it to our selves , but we must also have it to God , and all the world ; and as in the heart we beleeve , so by the mouth we confesse unto salvation : he is an ill man that is only a Christian in his heart , and is not so in his professions and publications ; and as your heart must not be wanting in any good profession and pretences , so neither must publick profession be wanting in every good and necessary perswasion . The faith and the cause of God must be owned publiquely ; for if it be the cause of God , it will never bring us to shame . I do not say , what ever we think , we must tell it to all the world , much lesse at all times , and in all circumstances ; but we must never deny that which we beleeve to be the cause of God in such circumstances in which we can and ought to glorifie him . But this extends also to other instances . He that swears a false oath with his lips , and unswears it with his heart , hath deceived one more then he thinks for ; himself is the most abused person : and when my action is contrary to men they will reprove me , but when it is against my own perswasion , I cannot but reprove my self ; and am witnesse , and accuser , and party , and guilty , and then God is the Judge , and his anger will be a fierce executioner , because we do the Lords work deceitfully . 3. They are deceitfull in the Lords work that reserve one faculty for sin , or one sin for themselves , or one action to please their appetite , and many for Religion . Rabbt Kimchi taught his Scholars , Cogitationem pravam Deus non habet vice facti , nisi concepta fuerit in Dei sidem & Religionem ; that God is never angry with an evill thought , unlesse it be a thought of Apostasie from the Jewes religion ; and therefore , provided that men be severe and close in their sect and party , they might roll in lustfull thoughts ; and the torches they light up in the Temple might smoke with anger at one end , and lust at the other , so they did not flame out in egressions of violence and injustice , in adulteries and fouler complications : nay they would give leave to some degrees of evill actions ; for R. Moses and Selomoh taught , that if the most part of a mans actions were holy and just , though in one he sinned often , yet the greater ingredient should prevail , and the number of good works should outweigh the lesser account of evill things ; and this Pharisaicall righteousnesse is too frequent even amongst Christians . For who almost is there that does not count fairly concerning himself , if he reckons many vertues upon the stock of his Religion , and but one vice upon the stock of his infirmity ; half a dozen to God , and one for his company , or his friend ; his education , or his appetite ? and if he hath parted from his folly , yet he will remember the fleshpots , and please himself with a phantastick sin , and call it home through the gates of his memory , and place it at the door of fancy , that there he may behold it and consider concerning what he hath parted withall , out of the fears and terrors of religion , and a necessary unavoidable conscience . Do not many men go from sin to sin even in their repentance ? they go backward from sin to sin , and change their crime as a man changes his uneasie load , and shakes it off from one shoulder to support it with the other . How many severe persons , virgins and widows are so pleased with their chastity , and their abstinence even from lawfull mixtures , that by this means they fall into a worse pride ? insomuch that I remember St. Austin said , Audco dicere superbis continentibus expedit cadere , they that are chaste and proud , it is sometimes a remedy for them to fall into sin , and by the shame of lust to cure the devill of pride , and by the sin of the body to cure the worser evils of the spirit ; and therefore he addes , that he did beleeve , God in a severe mercy did permit the barbarous nations , breaking in upon the Roman Empire , to violate many virgins professed in Cloisters and religious Families to be as a mortification of their pride , lest the accidentall advantages of a continent life should bring them into the certain miseries of a spirituall death , by taking away their humility , which was more necessary then their virgin state ; It is not a cure that men may use , but God permits it sometimes with greater safety through his wise conduct and over-ruling providence ; St. Peter was safer by his fall ( as it fell out in the event of things ) then by his former confidence . Man must never cure a sin by a sin ; but he that brings good out of our evill , he can when he please . But I speak it , to represent how deceitfully many times we do the work of the Lord. We reprove a sinning Brother , but do it with a pompous spirit ; we separate from scandall , and do it with glory , and a gaudy heart ; we are charitable to the poor , but will not forgive our unkinde enemies ; or we powre relief into their bags , but we please our selves and drink drunk , and hope to commute with God , giving the fruit of our labours or effluxes of money for the sin of our souls : And upon this account it is that two of the noblest graces of a Christian are to very many persons made a savour of death , though they were intended for the beginning and the promotion of an eternal life ; and those are faith and charity ; some men think if they have faith , it is enough to answer all the accusations of sin which our consciences or the Devils make against us : If I be a wanton person , yet my faith shall hide it , and faith shall cover the follies of drunkennesse , and I may all my life relye upon faith , at last to quit my scores . For he that is most carefull is not innocent , but must be saved by faith , and he that is least carefull may have faith , and that will save him . But because these men mistake concerning faith , and consider not that charity or a good life is a part of that faith that saves us , they hope to be saved by the Word , they fill their bellies with the story of Frimalcions banquet , and drink drunk with the newes of wine , they eat shadows , and when they are drowning , catch at the image of the trees which hang over the water , and are reflected from the bottome . But thus many men do with charity , [ Give almes and all things shall be clean unto you , said our Blessed Saviour : ] and therefore , many keep a sin alive , and make account to pay for it , and God shall be put to relieve his own poor at the price of the sin of another of his servants ; charity shall take lust or intemperance into protection , and men will not be kinde to their brethren , unlesse they will be also at the same time unkinde to God. I have understood concerning divers vicious persons , that none have been so free in their donatives and offerings to Religion and the Priest as they : and the Hospitals that have been built , and the High-wayes mended at the price of souls , are too many for Christendome to boast of in behalf of charity . But as others mistake concerning faith , so these do concerning its twin sister . The first had faith without charity , and these have charity without hope ; for every one that hath this hope , that is , the hope of receiving the glorious things of God promised in the Gospell , purifies himself even as God is pure ; faith and charity too , must both suppose repentance ; and repentance is the abolition of the whole body of sin , the purification of the whole man. But the summe of the Doctrine and case of conscience in this particular is this . 1. Charity is a certain cure of sins that are past , not that are present . He that repents and leaves his sin , and then relieves the poor and payes for his folly by a diminution of his own estate , and the supplies of the poor , and his ministring to Christs poor members , turns all his former crimes into holinesse ; he purges the stains and makes amends for his folly , and commutes for the baser pleasure with a more noble usage : so said Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar [ Break off thy sins by righteousnesse , and thine iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor : ] first be just , and then be charitable ; for it is pity almes , which is one of the noblest services of God , and the greatest mercy to thy Brother , should be spent upon sin , and thrown away upon folly . 2. Faith is the remedy of all our evils , but then it is never of force , but when we either have endevoured or undertaken to do all good ; this in baptisme , that after : faith and repentance at first ; and faith and charity at last ; and because we fail often by infirmity , and sometimes by inadvertency , sometimes by a surprize , and often by omission ; and all this even in the midst of a sincere endevour to live justly , and perfectly ; therefore the passion of our Lord payes for this , and faith layes hold upon that . But without a hearty and sincere intent , and vigorous prosecution of all the parts of our duty , faith is but a word , not so much as a cover to a naked bosome , nor a pretence big enough to deceive persons that are not willing to be cousened . 3. The bigger ingredient of vertue and evill actions will prevail , but it is only when vertue is habituall , and sins are single , interrupted , casuall and seldome , without choice and without affection ; that is , when our repentance is so timely that it can work for God , more then we served under the tyranny of sin ; so that if you will account the whole life of man , the rule is good , and the greater ingredient shal prevail , and he shall certainly be pardoned and accepted whose life is so reformed , whose repentance is so active , whose return is so early , that he hath given bigger portions to God then to Gods enemy . But if we account so , as to divide the measures in present possession , the bigge● part cannot prevail ; a small or a seldome sin spoils not the sea of piety ; but when the affection is divided , a little ill destroyes the whole body of good ; the cup in a mans right hand must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it must be pure although it be mingled ; that is , the whole affection must be for God , that must be pure and unmingled ; if sin mingles in seldome and unapproved instances , the drops of water are swallowed up with a whole vintage of piety , and the bigger ingredient is the prevailing ; in all other cases it is not so : for one sin that we choose and love and delight in , will not be excused by 20 vertues : and as one broken link dissolves the union of the whole chain , and one jarring and untuned string spoils the whole musick ; so is every sin that seises upon a portion of our affections ; if we love one , that one destroyes the acceptation of all the rest ; And as it is in faith , so it is in charity . He that is a Heretick in one article , hath no saving faith in the whole ; and so does every vicious habit , or unreformed sin destroy the excellency of the grace of charity ; a wilfull error in one article is Heresie , and every vice in one instance is Malice , and they are perfectly contrary , and a direct darknesse to the two eyes of the soul , faith and charity . 4. There is one deceit more yet , in the matter of the extension of our duty , destroying the integrity of its constitution : for they do the work of God deceitfully , who think God sufficiently served with abstinence from evill , and converse not in the acquisition and pursuit of holy charity and religion . This Clemens Alexandrinus affirmes of the Pharisees , they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they hoped to be justified by abstinence from things forbidden ; but if we will be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sons of the kingdome , we must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Besides this , and supposing a proportionable perfection in such an innocence , we must love our brother and do good to him , and glorifie God by a holy Religion , in the communion of Saints , in faith and Sacraments , in almes and counsell , in forgivenesses and assistances . Flee from evill , and do the thing that is good , and dwell for evermore , said the Spirit of God in the Psalmes : and St. Peter [ Having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust , give all diligence to adde to your faith vertue , to vertue patience , to patience godlinesse , and brotherly kindnesse and charity . Many persons think themselves fairly assoiled , because they are no adulterers , no rebels , no drunkards , not of scandalous lives ; In the mean time like the Laodiceans , they are naked and poor ; they have no catalogue of good things registred in heaven , no treasures in the repositories of the poor , neither have the poor often prayed concerning them , Lord remember thy servants for this thing at the day of Judgement . A negative Religion is in many things the effects of lawes and the appendage of sexes , the product of education , the issues of company and of the publick , or the daughter of fear and naturall modesty , or their temper and constitution , and civill relations , common fame , or necessary interest . Few women swear and do the debaucheries of drunkards ; and they are guarded from adulterous complications by spies and shame , by fear and jealousie , by the concernment of families , and the reputation of their kindred , and therefore they are to account with God beyond this civill and necessary innocence , for humility and patience , for religious fancies and tender consciences , for tending the sick and dressing the poor , for governing their house and nursing their children ; and so it is in every state of life . When a Prince or a Prelate , a noble and a rich person hath reckon'd all his immunities and degrees of innocence from those evils that are incident to inferiour persons , or the worser sort of their own order , they do the work of the Lord , and their own too , very deceitfully , unlesse they account correspondencies of piety to all their powers and possibilities : they are to reckon and consider concerning what oppressions they have relieved , what causes and what fatherlesse they have defended , how the work of God and of Religion , of justice and charity hath thriv'd in their hands . If they have made peace , and encouraged Religion by their example and by their lawes , by rewards and collaterall incouragements , if they have been zealous for God and for Religion , if they have imployed ten talents to the improvement of Gods bank , then they have done Gods work faithfully ; if they account otherwise , and account only by ciphers , and negatives , they can expect only the rewards of innocent slaves ; they shall escape the furca and the wheel , the torments of lustfull persons , and the crown of flames , that is reserved for the ambitious ; or they shall not be gnawn with the vipers of the envious , or the shame of the ingratefull ; but they can never upon this account hope for the crowns of Martyrs , or the honorary rewards of Saints , the Coronets of virgins , and Chaplets of Doctors and Confessors : And though murderers and lustfull persons , the proud and the covetous , the Heretick and Schismatick are to expect flames and scorpions , pains and smart , ( poenam sensus , the Schooles call it ) yet the lazie and the imperfect , the harmlesse sleeper and the idle worker shall have poenam damni , the losse of all his hopes , and the dishonours of the losse ; and in the summe of affairs it will be no great difference whether we have losse or pain , because there can be no greater pain imaginable then to lose the sight of God to eternall ages . 5. Hither are to be reduced as deceitfull workers , those that promise to God , but mean not to pay what they once intended ; * people that are confident in the day of case , and fail in the danger ; * they that pray passionately for a grace , and if it be not obtained at that price go no further , and never contend in action for what they seem to contend in prayer ; * such as delight in forms and outsides , and regard not the substance and design of every institution ; * that think it a great sin to tast bread before the receiving the holy Sacrament , and yet come to communicate with an ambitious and revengefull soul ; * that make a conscience of eating flesh , but not of drunkennesse ; * that keep old customes and old sins together ; * that pretend one duty to excuse another ; religion against charity , or piety to parents against duty to God , private promises against publick duty , the keeping of an oath against breaking of a Commandement , honour against modesty , reputation against piety , the love of the world in civill instances to countenance enmity against God ; these are the deceitfull workers of Gods work , they make a schisme in the duties of Religion , and a warre in heaven worse then that between Michael and the Dragon ; for they divide the Spirit of God , and distinguish his commandements into parties and factions ; by seeking an excuse , sometimes they destroy the integrity and perfect constitution of duty , or they do something whereby the effect and usefulnesse of the duty is hindred : concerning all which this only can be said , they who serve God with a lame sacrifice and an imperfect duty , a duty defective in its constituent parts , can never enjoy God ; because he can never be divided : and though it be better to enter into heaven with one foot , and one eye , then that both should be cast into hell , because heaven can make recompence for this losse ; yet nothing can repair his losse who for being lame in his duty shall enter into hell , where nothing is perfect , but the measures and duration of torment , and they both are next to infinite . SERMON , XIII . Part II. 2. THe next enquiry , is into the intention of our duty : and here it will not be amisse to change the word fraudulentèr , or dolosè , into that which some of the Latin Copies doe use , Maledictus qui facit opus Dei [ negligentèr , ] Cursed is he that doth the work of the Lord negligently , or remissely : and it implyes , that as our duty must be whole , so it must be fervent ; for a languishing body may have all its parts , and yet be uselesse to many purposes of nature : and you may reckon all the joynts of a dead man , but the heart is cold , and the joynts are stiffe and fit for nothing but for the little people that creep in graves : and so are very many men ; if you summe up the accounts of their religion , they can reckon dayes and months of Religion , various offices , charity and prayers , reading and meditation , faith and knowledge , catechisme and sacraments , duty to God and duty to Princes , paying debts and provision for children , confessions and tears , discipline in families , and love of good people ; and it may be , you shall not reprove their numbers , or find any lines unfill'd in their tables of accounts ; but when you have handled all this and consider'd , you will find at last you have taken a dead man by the hand , there is not a finger wanting , but they are stiffe as Isicles , and without flexure as the legs of Elephants ; such are they whom S. Bernard describes , whose spirituall joy is allayed with tediousnesse , whose compunction for sins is short and seldome , whose thoughts are animall , and their designes secular , whose Religion is lukewarm ; their obedience is without devotion , their discourse without profit , their prayer without intention of heart , their reading without instruction , their meditation is without spirituall advantages , and is not the commencement and strengthning of holy purposes ; and they are such whom modesty will not restrain , nor reason bridle , nor discipline correct , nor the fear of death and hell can keep from yeelding to the imperiousnesse of a foolish lust that dishonors a mans understanding , and makes his reason , in which he most glories , to be weaker then the discourse of a girle , and the dreams of the night . In every action of Religion God expects such a warmth , and a holy fire to goe along , that it may be able to enkindle the wood upon the altar , and consume the sacrifice ; but God hates an indifferent spirit . Earnestnesse and vivacity , quicknesse and delight , perfect choyce of the service , and a delight in the prosecution , is all that the spirit of a man can yeeld towards his Religion : the outward work is the effect of the body ; but if a man does it heartily and with all his mind , then religion hath wings and moves upon wheels of fire ; and therefore when our blessed Saviour made those capitulars and canons of Religion , to love God , and to love our neighbors ; besides , that the materiall part of the duty [ love ] is founded in the spirit , as its naturall seat , he also gives three words to involve the spirit in the action , and but one for the body : Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart , and with all thy soule , and with all thy mind ; and lastly , with all thy strength ; this brings in the body too ; because it hath some strengths , and some significations of its own ; but heart and soule and mind mean all the same thing in a stronger and more earnest expression ; that is , that we doe it hugely , as much as we can , with a cleer choice , with a resolute understanding , with strong affections , with great diligence : Enerves animos odisse virtus solet , Vertue hates weak and ineffective minds , and tame easie prosecutions ; Loripedes , people whose arme is all flesh , whose foot is all leather , and an unsupporting skin ; they creep like snakes , and pursue the noblest mysteries of Religion , as Naaman did the mysteries of Rimmon , onely in a complement , or for secular regards ; but without the mind , and therefore without Zeal ; I would thou wert either hot or cold , said the Spirit of God to the Angell or Bishop of Laodicea . In feasts or sacrifices the Ancients did use apponere frigidam or calidam ; sometimes they drank hot drink , sometimes they poured cold upon their graves , or in their wines , but no services of Tables or Altars were ever with lukewarm . God hates it worse then stark cold ; which expression is the more considerable , because in naturall and superinduc'd progressions , from extreme to extreme , we must necessarily passe through the midst ; and therefore it is certain , a lukewarm Religion is better then none at all , as being the doing some parts of the work designed , and neerer to perfection then the utmost distance could be ; and yet that God hates it more , must mean that there is some appendant evill in this state which is not in the other , and that accidentally it is much worse : and so it is , if we rightly understand it ; that is , if we consider it , not as a being in , or passing through the middle way , but as a state and a period of Religion . If it be in motion , a lukewarm Religion is pleasing to God ; for God hates it not for its imperfection , and its naturall measures of proceeding ; but if it stands still and rests there , it is a state against the designes , and against the perfection of God , and it hath in it these evills . 1. It is a state of the greatest imprudence in the world ; for it makes a man to spend his labour for that which profits not , and to deny his appetite for an unsatisfying interest ; he puts his moneys in a napkin ; and he that does so , puts them into a broken bag ; he loses the principall for not encreasing the interest . He that dwells in a state of life that is unacceptable , loses the money of his almes , and the rewards of his charity , his hours of prayer , and his parts of justice ; he confesses his sins and is not pardoned , he is patient , but hath no hope , and he that is gone so far towards his countrey , and stands in the middle way , hath gone so far out of his way ; he had better have stay'd under a dry roof , in the house of banishment , then to have left his Gyarus , the Island of his sorrow , and to dwell upon the Adriatick : So is he that begins a state of Religion , and does not finish it ; he abides in the high-way , and though he be neerer the place , yet is as far from the rest of his countrey as ever ; and therefore all that beginning of labour was in the prejudice of his rest , but nothing to the advantages of his hopes . He that hath never begun , hath lost no labour ; Jactura praeteritorum , the losse of all that he hath done , is the first evill of the negligent and luke-warm Christian ; according to the saying of Solomon : He that is remisse or idle in his labour , is the brother of him that scattereth his goods . 2. The second appendant evill is , that lukewarmnesse is the occasion of greater evill ; because the remisse easie Christian shuts the gate against the heavenly breathings of Gods holy Spirit ; he thinks every breath that is fan'd by the wings of the holy Dove , is not intended to encourage his fires , which burn , and smoke , and peep through the cloud already ; it tempts him to security ; and if an evill life be a certain inlet to a second death , despaire on one side , and security on the other are the bars and locks to that dore , he can never passe forth again while that state remains ; who ever slips in his spirituall walking does not presently fall ; but if that slip does not awaken his diligence , and his caution , then his ruine begins , vel pravae institutionis deceptus exordio , aut per longam mentis incuriam , & virtute animi decidente , as St. Austin observes ; either upon the pursuit of his first error , or by a carelesse spirit , or a decaying slackned resolution ; all which are the direct effects of lukewarmnesse . But so have I seen a fair structure begun with art and care , and raised to halfe its stature , and then it stood still by the misfortune or negligence of the owner , and the rain descended , and dwelt in its joynts , and supplanted the contexture of its pillars , and having stood a while like the antiquated Temple of a deceased Oracle , it fell into a hasty age , and sunk upon its owne knees , and so descended into ruine : So is the imperfect , unfinished spirit of a man ; it layes the foundation of a holy resolution , and strengthens it with vows and arts of prosecution , it raises up the Sacraments , and Prayers , Reading , and holy Ordinances ; and holy actions begin with a slow motion , and the building stays , and the spirit is weary , and the soul is naked , and exposed to temptation , and in the days of storm take in every thing that can doe it mischief ; and it is faint and sick , listlesse and tired , and it stands till its owne weight wearies the foundation , and then declines to death and sad disorder , being so much the worse , because it hath not onely returned to its first follies , but hath superadded unthankfulnesse and carelesnesse , a positive neglect , and a despite of holy things , a setting a low price to the things of God , lazinesse and wretchlesnesse ; all which are evills superadded to the first state of coldnesse , whither he is with all these loads and circumstances of death easily revolv'd . 3. A state of lukewarmnesse is more incorrigible then a state of coldnesse ; while men flatter themselves that their state is good , that they are rich and need nothing , that their lamps are dressed , and full of ornament . There are many that think they are in their countrey as soon as ever they are weary , and measure not the end of their hopes by the possession of them , but by their precedent labour , which they overvalue , because they have easie and effeminate souls . S. Bernard complains of some that say , Sufficit nobis , nolumus esse meliores quàm Patres nostri : It is enough for us to be as our forefathers , who were honest and usefull in their generations , but be not over-righteous : These men are such as think they have knowledge enough to need no teacher , devotion enough to need no new fires , perfection enough to need no new progresse , justice enough to need no repentance ; and then because the spirit of a man and all the things of this world are in perpetuall variety and change , these men decline when they have gone their period ; they stand still , and then revert ; like a stone returning from the bosome of a cloud , where it rested as long as the thought of a childe , and fell to its naturall bed of earth , and dwelt below for ever . He that says he will take care he be no worse , and that he desires to be no better , stops his journey into heaven , but cannot be secure against his descending into hell : and Cassian spake a hard saying , Frequentèr vidimus de frigidis & carnalibus ad spiritualem venisse fervorem , de tepidis & animalibus omninò non vidimus : Many persons from vic●●us , and dead , and cold , have passed into life and an excellent grace , and a spirituall warmth , and holy fires ; but from lukewarm and indifferent never any body came to an excellent condition , and state of holynesse : rarissimè S. Bernard sayes , very extremely seldome ; and our blessed Saviour said something of this , The Publicans and the Harlots goe before you into the Kingdome of heaven ; they are moved by shame , and punished by disgrace , and remarked by punishments , and frighted by the circumstances and notices of all the world , and separated from sober persons by laws and an intolerable character ; and the sense of honour , and the care of their persons , and their love of civill societie , and every thing in the world can invite them towards vertues . But the man that is accounted honest , and does justice , and some things of Religion , unlesse he finds himselfe but upon his way , and feels his wants , and groans under the sense of his infirmities , and sighs under his imperfections , and accounts himself not to have comprehended , but still presses towards the mark of his calling , unlesse ( I say ) he still increases in his appetites of Religion as he does in his progression , he will think he needs no counsellor , and the spirit of God whispers to an ear that is already fill'd with noyses , and cannot attend to the heavenly calling . The stomach that is already full , is next to loathing , and that 's the prologue to sicknesse , and a rejecting the first wholesome nutriment which was entertained to relieve the first naturall necessities : Qui non proficit vult deficere , said S. Bernard : He that goes not forward in the love of God , and of Religion , does not stand still , but goes for all that , but whither such a motion will lead him , himself without a timely care shall feel by an intolerable experiment . In this sense and for these reasons it is that although a lukewarm Christian hath gone forward some steps towards a state of holynesse , and is advanced beyond him that is cold , and dead , and unconcerned , and therefore speaking absolutely and naturally , is neerer the Kingdome of God then he , that is not yet set out ; yet accidentally , and by reason of these ill appendages , he is worse , in greater danger , in a state equally unacceptable , and therefore must either goe forward , and still doe the work of God carefully , and diligently , with a Fervent spirit , and an Active hand , with a willing heart , and a chearefull eye , or it had been better he had never begun . 2. It concerns us next to enquire concerning the duty in its proper instances , that we may perceive to what parts and degrees of duty it amounts ; we shall find it especially in the duties of faith , of prayer , and of charity . 1. Our faith must be strong , vigorous , active , confident , and patient , reasonable , and unalterable , without doubting , and feare , and partiality . For the faith of very many men , seems a duty so weak and indifferent , is so often untwisted by violence , or ravel'd and intangled in weak discourses , or so false and fallacious by its mixture of interest , that though men usually put most confidences in the pretences of faith , yet no pretences are more unreasonable . 1. Our faith and perswasions in Religion is most commonly imprinted in us by our country , and we are Christians at the same rate as we are English or Spaniards , or of such a family ; our reason is first stained and spotted with the dye of our kindred , and country , and our education puts it in grain , and whatsoever is against this we are taught to call a temptaiton : in the mean time we call these accidentall and artificiall perswasions by the name of faith , which is onely the aire of the countrey , or an heireloome of the family , or the daughter of a present interest . Whatever it was that brought us in , we are to take care that when we are in , our faith be noble , and stand upon its most proper and most reasonable foundation ; it concerns us better to understand that Religion which we call Faith , and that faith whereby we hope to be saved . 2. The faith and the whole Religion of many men is the production of fear . Men are threatned into their perswasions , and the iron rod of a Tyrant converts whole nations to his principles , when the wise discourses of the Religion seems dull as sleep , and unprevailing as the talk of childhood . That 's but a deceitfull faith which our timorousnesse begot , and our weaknesse nurses , and brings up . The Religion of a Christian is immortall , and certaine , and perswasive , and infallible , and unalterable , and therefore needs not be received by humane and weake convoyes , like worldly and mortall Religions : that faith is lukewarm , and easie , and trifling , which is onely a beleef of that which a man wants courage to disbeleeve . 3. The faith of many men is such , that they dare not trust it : they will talk of it , and serve vanity , or their lust , or their company , or their interest by it , but when the matter comes to a pinch , they dare not trust it . When Antisthenes was initiated into the mysteries of Orpheus , the Priest told him , that all that were of that Religion , immediately after death should be perfectly happy ; the Philosopher asked him , why he did not dye if he beleeved what he said ? such a faith as that , was fine to talk of at table , or eating the sacrifices of the Religion , when the mystick man was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 full of wine and flesh , of confidence and religion ; but to dye , is a more material consideration , and to be chosen upon no grounds , but such a faith which really comes from God , and can secure our reason , and our choyce , and perfect our interest and designes . And it hath been long observed concerning those bold people that use their reason against God that gave it , they have one perswasion in their health , and another in their sicknesse , and fears ; when they are well , they blaspheme , when they die , they are superstitious ; It was Bias his case when he was poyson'd by the Atheismes of Theodorus , no man died more like a coward and a fool ; as if the gods were to come and goe as Bias pleased to think and talk : so one said of his folly . If God be to be feared when we die , he is also to be feared in all our life , for he can for ever make us die ; he that will doe it once , and that when he please , can alwayes . And therefore all those perswasions against God , and against Religion , are onely the production of vicious passions , of drink or fancy , of confidence and ignorance , of boldnesse or vile appetites , of vanity or fiercenesse , of pride or flatteries ; and Atheisine is a proportion so unnaturall and monstrous , that it can never dwell in a mans heart as faith does , in health and sicknesse , in peace and warre , in company and alone , at the beginning and at the end of a designe ; but comes from weake principles , and leaves shallow and superficiall impressions ; but when men endevour to strengthen and confirme it , they onely strive to make themselves worse then they can . Naturally a man cannot be an Atheist : for he that is so , must have something within him that is worse either then man or devill . 4. Some measure their faith by shews and apparencies , by ceremonies and names , by professions and little institutions . Diogenes was angry at the silly Priest that thought he should be immortall because he was a Priest , and would not promise so concerning Agesilaus , and Epaminondas , two noble Greeks that had preserved their country , and lived vertuously . The faith of a Christian hath no signification at all but obedience and charity ; if men be just , and charitable , and good , and live according to their faith , then onely they are Christians ; whatsoever else is pretended is but a shadow and the image of a grace ; for since in all the sects and institutions of the world , the professors did in some reasonable sort conform to the rules of the profession ( as appears in all the Schooles of Philosophers , and Religions of the world , and the practises of the Jews , and the usages and the countrey customes of the Turks ) it is a strange dishonour to Christianity , that in it alone men should pretend to the faith of it , and doe nothing of what it perswades , and commands upon the account of those promises , which it makes us to beleeve . * He that means to please God by his faith , must have his faith begotten in him by the Spirit of God , and proper arguments of Religion ; he must professe it without feare , he must dare to die for it , and resolve to live according to its institution ; he must grow more confident , and more holy , have fewer doubtings and more vertues , he must be resolute and constant , far from indifferency , and above secular regards ; he must by it regulate his life , and value it above his life ; he must contend earnestly for the faith , by the most prevailing arguments , by the arguments of holy living , and ready dying , by zeale and patience , by conformity and humility , by reducing words to actions , fair discourses to perfect perswasions , by loving the article , and encreasing in the knowledge and love of God and his Son Jesus Christ ; and then his faith is not negligent , deceitfull , artificiall and improper , but true , and holy , and reasonable , and usefull , zealous and sufficient , and therefore can never be reproved . 2. Our prayers and devotions must be fervent and zealous , not cold , patient , easie , and soon rejected ; but supported by a patient spirit , set forwards by importunity , continued by perseverance , waited on by attention , and a present mind , carryed along with holy but strong desires , and ballasted with resignation , and conformity to the divine will ; and then it is , as God likes it , and does the work to Gods glory and our interest effectively . He that asks with a doubting mind , and a lazy desire , begs for nothing but to be denyed ; we must in our prayers be earnest , and fervent , or else we shall have but a cold answer ; for God gives his grace according as we can receive it ; and whatsoever evill returnes we meet in our prayers , when we ask for good things , is wholly by reason of our wandring spirits , and cold desires ; we have reason to complain that our minds wander in our prayers , and our diversions are more prevailing then all our arts of application , and detention ; and we wander sometimes even when we pray against wandring : and it is in some degrees naturall , and unevitable : but although the evill is not wholly to be cured , yet the symptomes are to be eased ; and if our desires were strong , and fervent , our minds would in the same proportion be present ; we see it by a certain and regular experience ; what we love passionately , we perpetually think on , and it returnes upon us whether we will or no ; and in a great fear the apprehension cannot be shaken off ; and therefore if our desires of holy things were strong and earnest , we should most certainly attend our prayers : it is a more violent affection to other things that carries us off from this ; and therefore if we lov'd passionately what we aske for daily , we should aske with hearty desires , and an earnest appetite , and a present spirit ; and however it be very easie to have our thoughts wander , yet it is our indifferency and luke warmnesse that makes it so naturall : and you may observe it , that so long as the light shines bright , and the fires of devotion , and desires flame out , so long the mind of a man stands close to the altar , and waits upon the sacrifice ; but as the fires die and desires decay , so the mind steals away and walks abroad to see the little images of beauty and pleasure , which it beholds in the falling stars and little glow-wormes of the world . The river that runs slow and creeps by the banks , and begs leave of every turfe to let it passe , is drawn into little hollownesses , and spends it selfe in smaller portions , and dies with diversion ; but when it runs with vigorousnesse and a ful stream , and breaks down every obstacle , making it even as its own brow , it stays not to be tempted by little avocations , and to creep into holes , but runs into the sea through full and usefull channels : So is a mans prayer , if it moves upon the feet of an abated appetite , it wanders into the society of every trifling accident , and stays at the corners of the fancy , and talks with every object it meets , and cannot arrive at heaven ; but when it is carryed upon the wings of passion and strong desires , a swift motion and a hungry appetite , it passes on through all the intermediall regions of clouds , and stays not till it dwells at the foot of the Throne , where mercy sits , and thence sends holy showers of refreshment . I deny not but some little drops will turn aside , and fall from the full channell by the weaknesse of the banks , and hollownesse of the passage ; but the main course is still continued : and although the most earnest and devout persons feel and complain of some loosenesse of spirit , and unfixed attentions , yet their love and their desire secure the maine portions , and make the prayer to be strong , fervent , and effectuall . Any thing can be done by him that earnestly desires what he ought ; secure but your affections and passions , and then no temptation will be too strong ; A wise man , and a full resolution , and an earnest spirit can doe any thing of duty ; but every temptation prevailes when we are willing to die ; and we usually lend nothing to devotion but the offices that flatter our passions ; we can desire and pray for any thing that may serve our lust , or promote those ends which we covet , but ought to fear and fly from : but the same earnestnesse , if it were transplanted into Religion and our prayers , would serve all the needs of the spirit , but for want of it we do the Lords work deceitfully . 3. Our Charity also must be fervent : Malus est miles qui ducem suum gemens sequitur , He that follows his Generall with a heavy march and a heavy heart is but an ill souldier ; but our duty to God should be hugely pleasing , and we should rejoyce in it : it must passe on to action , and doe the action vigorously ; it is called in Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the labour and travail of love ; A friend at a sneese and an almes-basket full of prayers , a love that is lazy , and a service that is uselesse , and a pity without support , are the images and colours of that grace , whose very constitution and designe is , beneficence and well-doing . He that loves passionately will not onely doe all that his friend needs , but all that himself can ; for although the law of charity is fulfilled by acts of profit , and bounty , and obedience , and labour ; yet it hath no other measures but the proportions and abundance of a good mind ; and according to this God requires that we be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , abounding , and that alwayes , in the work of the Lord ; if we love passionately , we shall doe all this , for love endures labour , and calls it pleasure , it spends all and counts it a gain , it suffers inconveniencies , and is quickly reconciled to them ; if dishonours and affronts be to be endured , love smiles and calls them favours , and wears them willingly . — alii jacuere ligati Turpitèr , atque aliquis de Diis non tristibus optat Sic fieri turpis , — It is the Lord , said David , and I will be yet more vile , and it shall be honour unto me ; thus did the Disciples of our Lord goe from tribunals rejoycing that they were accounted worthy to suffer stripes for that beloved name ; and we are commanded to rejoyce in persecutions , to resist unto bloud , to strive to enter in at the strait gate , not to be weary of well doing ; doe it hugely , and doe it alwayes . Non enim votis neque suppliciis muliebribus auxilia Deorum parantur ; sed vigilando , agendo , benè consulendo omnia prosperè cedunt . No man can obtain the favour of God by words and imperfect resolutions , by lazie actions , and a remisse piety , but by severe counsells , and sober actions , by watchfulnesse and prudence , by doing excellent things with holy intentions , and vigorous prosecutions . Ubi socordiae & ignaviae te tradideris nequidquam Deos implorabis : If your vertues be lazy , your vices will be bold and active : and therefore Democritus said well , that the painfull and the soft-handed people in Religion differ just as good men and bad ; nimirùm spe bonâ , the labouring charity hath a good hope , but a coole Religion hath none at all , and the distinction will have a sad effect to eternall ages . These are the great Scenes of duty in which we are to be fervent and zealous ; but because earnestnesse and zeal are circumstances of a great latitude ; and the zeale of the present age is starke cold , if compar'd to the fervors of the Apostles , and other holy primitives ; and in every age a good mans care may turne into scruple , if he sees that he is not the best man , because he may reckon his owne estate to stand in the confines of darknesse , because his spark is not so great as his neighbors fires , therefore it is sit that we consider concerning the degrees of the intention and forward heats ; for when we have found out the lowest degrees of zeale , and a holy fervour , we know that duty dwels there , and whatsoever is above it is a degree of excellence ; but all that is lesse then it , is lukewarmnesse , and the state of an ungracious and an unaccepted person . 1. No man is fervent and zealous as he ought , but he that preferres Religion before businesse , charity before his own ease , the reliefe of his brother before money , heaven before secular regards , and God before his friend or interest . Which rule is not to be understood absolutely , and in particular instances , but alwayes generally ; and when it descends to particulars , it must be in proportion to circumstances , and by their proper measures : for , 1. In the whole course of life it is necessary that we prefer Religion before any state that is either contrary to it , or a lessening of at s duties . He that hath a state of life in which he cannot at all in fair proportions tend to Religion , must quit great proportions of that , that he may enjoy more of this , this is that which our blessed Saviour calls pulling out the right eye if it offend thee . 2. In particular actions , when the necessity is equall , he that does not preferre Religion is not at all Zealous ; for although all naturall necessities are to be served before the circumstances and order of Religion , yet our belly and our back , our liberty and our life , our health , and a friend are to be neglected rather then a Duty when it stands in its proper place , and is requir'd . 3. Although the things of God are by a necessary Zeale to be preferred before the things of the world ; yet we must take heed that we doe not reckon Religion , and orders of worshipping , onely to be the things of God , and all other duties to be the things of the world ; for it was a Pharisaicall device to cry Corban , and to refuse to relieve their aged Parents ; it is good to give to a Church , but it is better to give to the Poor ; and though they must be both provided for , yet in cases of dispute Mercy carries the cause against Religion and the Temple . And although Mary was commended for choosing the better part , yet Mary had done worse if she had been at the foot of her Master when she should have relieved a perishing brother . Martha was troubled with much serving ; that was more then need , and therefore she was to blame ; and sometimes hearing in some circumstances may be more then needs ; and some women are troubled with over-much hearing , and then they had better have been serving the necessities of their house . 4. This rule is not to be extended to the relatives of Religion ; for although the things of the Spirit are better then the things of the World , yet a spirituall man is not in humane regards to be preferred before Princes and noble personages . Because a man is called spirituall in severall regards , and for various measures and manners of partaking of the Spirit of grace , or co-operating toward the works of the Spirit . * A King and a Bishop both , have callings in order to godlinesse , and honesty , and spirituall effects , towards the advancement of Christs Kingdome , whose representatives severally they are . * But whether of these two works more immediately , or more effectively , cannot at all times be known ; and therefore from hence no argument can be drawn concerning doing them civill regards ; * and possibly , the partaking the Spirit is a neerer relation to him , then doing his ministeries , and serving his ends upon others ; * and if relations to God and Gods Spirit could bring an obligation of giving proportionable civill honour , every holy man might put in some pretence for dignities above some Kings and some Bishops . * But as the things of the Spirit are in order to the affairs of another world , so they naturally can inferre onely such a relative dignity , as can be expressed in spirituall manners . But because such relations are subjected in men of this life , and we now converse especially in materiall and secular significations , therefore we are to expresse our regards to men of such relations by proportionable expressions : but because civill excellencies are the proper ground of receiving and exacting civill honors , and spirituall excellencies doe onely claim them accidentally , and indirectly , therefore in titles of honour and humane regards the civill praeeminence is the appendix of the greatest civill power and imployment , and is to descend in proper measures ; and for a spirituall relation to challenge a temporall dignity , is as if the best Musick should challenge the best cloathes , or a Lute-string should contend with a Rose for the honour of the greatest sweetnesse . * Adde to this , that although temporall things are in order to spirituall , and therefore are lesse perfect , yet this is not so naturally ; for temporall things are properly in order to the felicity of man in his proper and present constitution ; and it is by a supernaturall grace that now they are thrust forward to a higher end of grace and glory ; and therefore temporall things , and persons , and callings have properly the chiefest temporall regard ; and Christ took nothing of this away from them , but put them higher , by sanctifying and ennobling them . * But then the higher calling can no more suppose the higher man , then the richest trade can suppose the richest man. From callings to men , the argument is fallacious ; and a Smith is a more usefull man then he that teaches Logick ; but not always to be more esteemed , and called to stand at the chairs of Princes and Nobles . * Holy persons and holy things and all great relations are to be valued by generall proportions to their correlatives , but if wee descend to make minute and exact proportions , and proportion an inch of temporall to a minute of spirituall , we must needs be hugely deceived , unlesse we could measure the motion of an Angell by a string , or the progressions of the Spirit by weight and measure of the staple . * And yet if these measures were taken , it would be unreasonable that the lower of the higher kind should be preferr'd before the most perfect and excellent in a lower order of things . A man generally is to be esteemed above a woman , but not the meanest of her subjects before the most excellent Queen ; not alwayes this man before this woman . Now Kings and Princes are the best in all temporall dignities , and therefore if they had in them no spirituall relations and consequent excellencies ( as they have very many ) yet are not to be undervalu'd to spirituall relations , which in this world are very imperfect , weak , partiall ; and must stay till the next world before they are in a state of excellency , propriety and perfection ; and then also all shall have them , according to the worth of their persons , not of their calling . * But lastly , what men may not challenge is not their just and proper due ; but spirituall persons and the neerest relatives to God stand by him but so long at they dwell low and safe in humility , and rise high in nothing but in labours , and zeal of soules , and devotion . * In proportion to this rule , a Church may be pull'd down to save a Town , and the Vessels of the Church may be sold to redeem Captives when there is a great calamity imminent , and prepared for reliefe and no other way to succour it . But in the whole , the duty of zeale requires that we neglect an ordinary visit rather then an ordinary prayer , and a great profit rather then omit a required duty . No excuse can legitimate a sin ; and he that goes about to distinguish between his duty and his profit , and if he cannot reconcile them , will yet tie them together like a Hyaena and a Dog , this man pretends to Religion , but secures the world , and is indifferent and lukewarme towards that , so he may be warme and safe in the possession of this . 2. To that fervour and zeal that is necessary and a duty , it is required that we be constant and persevering . Esto fidelis ad mortem , said the Spirit of God to the Angel of the Church of Smyrna , Be faithfull unto death , and I will give thee a crown of life : For he that is warm to day , and cold to morrow , zealous in his resolution and weary in his practises , fierce in the beginning , and slack and easie in his progresse , hath not yet well chosen what side he will be of ; he sees not reason enough for Religion , and he hath not confidence enough for its contrary ; and therefore he is duplicis animi , as St. James calls him , of a doubtfull mind . For Religion is worth as much to day as it was yesterday , and that cannot change though we doe ; and if we doe , we have left God , and whither he can goe that goes from God , his owne sorrowes will soon enough instruct him . This fire must never goe out , but it must be like the fire of heaven , it must shine like the starres , though sometimes cover'd with a cloud , or obscur'd by a greater light ; yet they dwell for ever in their orbs , and walk in their circles , and observe their circumstances , but goe not out by day nor night , and set not when Kings die , nor are extinguish'd when Nations change their Government : So must the zeal of a Christian be , a constant incentive of his duty , and though sometimes his hand is drawne back by violence or need , and his prayers shortned by the importunity of businesse , and some parts omitted by necessities , and just complyances , yet still the fire is kept alive , it burns within when the light breaks not forth , and is eternall as the orb of fire , or the embers of the Altar of Incense . 3. No man is zealous as he ought , but he that delights in the service of God : without this no man can persevere , but must faint under the continuall pressure of an uneasie load . If a man goes to his prayers as children goe to schoole , or give alms as those that pay contribution , and meditate with the same willingnesse with which young men die , this man does personam sustinere , he acts a part which he cannot long personate , but will find so many excuses and silly devices to omit his duty , such tricks to run from that which will make him happy , he will so watch the eyes of men , and be so sure to doe nothing in private ; he will so often distinguish and mince the duty into minutes and little particles , he will so tie himself to the letter of the Law , and be so carelesse of the intention and spirituall designe , he will be punctuall in the ceremony , and trifling in the secret , and he will be so well pleased when he is hindred by an accident not of his own procuring , and will have so many devices to defeat his duty , and to cosuen himselfe , that he will certainly manifest that he is afraid of Religion , and secretly hates it ; he counts it a burthen , and an objection , and then the man is sure to leave it , when his circumstances are so fitted . But if we delight in it , we enter into a portion of the reward as soon as we begin the worke , and the very grace shall be stronger then the temptation in its very pretence of pleasure ; and therefore it must needs be pleasing to God , because it confesses God to be the best Master , Religion the best work , and it serves God with choice , and will , and reconciles our nature to it , and entertaines our appetite , and then there is no ansa or handle left whereby we can easily be drawne from duty , when all parties are pleased with the imployment . But this delight is not to be understood as if it were alwayes required that we should feele an actuall cheerfulnesse , and sensible joy ; such as was that of Jonathan when he had newly tasted honey , and the light came into his eyes , and he was refreshed and pleasant . This happens sometimes when God please to intice , or reward a mans spirit , with little Antepasts of heaven ; but such a delight onely is necessary , and a duty , that we alwayes choose our duty regularly , and undervalue the pleasures of temptation , and proceed in the work of grace with a firme choice and unabated election ; our joy must be a joy of hope , a joy at least of confident sufferers , the joys of faith and expectation ; rejoycing in hope , so the Apostle calls it ; that is , a going forward upon such a perswasion as sees the joyes of God laid up for the Children of men : and so the sun may shine under a cloud ; and a man may rejoyce in persecution , and delight in losses ; that is , though his outward man groanes , and faints , and dies , yet his spirit , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the inner man is confident and industrious , and hath a hope by which it lives and works unto the end : It was the case of our blessed Saviour in his agony ; his soule was exceeding sorrowfull unto death , and the load of his Fathers anger crushed his shoulder , and bowed his knees to the ground ; and yet he chose it , and still went forward , and resolved to die , and did so ; and what wee choose wee delight in ; and wee thinke it to be eligible , and therefore amiable , and fit by its proper excellencies and appendages to be delighted in ; it is not pleasant to the flesh at all times , for its dignity is spirituall and heavenly ; but therefore it is proportioned to the spirit , which is as heavenly as the reward , and therefore can feel the joys of it , when the body hangs the head , and is uneasie and troubled . These are the necessary parts of zeale ; of which if any man failes , he is in a state of lukewarmnesse , and that is a spirituall death . As a banished man or a condemned person is dead civilly ; he is diminutus capite , he is not reckoned in the census , nor partakes of the priviledges , nor goes for a person , but is reckoned among things in the possession of others : so is a lukewarm person ; he is corde diminutus , he is spiritually dead , his heart is estranged from God , his affections are lessened , his hope diminished , and his title cancell'd , and he remains so , unlesse , 1. he prefers Religion before the world , and 2. spiritually rejoyces in doing his duty , and 3. doe it constantly , and with perseverance . These are the heats and warmth of life ; whatsoever is lesse then this , is a disease , and leads to the coldnesse and dishonors of the grave . SERMON , XIV . Part III. 3. SO long as our zeal and forwardnesse in Religion hath only these constituent parts , it hath no more then can keep the duty alive : but beyond this , there are many degrees of earnestnesse and vehemence which are progressions towards the state of perfection , which every man ought to design and desire to be added to his portion : of this sort I reckon frequency in prayer , and almes above our estate . Concerning which two instances I have these two cautions to insert . 1. Concerning frequency in prayer , it is an act of zeal so ready and prepared for the spirit of a man , so easie and usefull , so without objection , and so fitted for every mans affairs , his necessities and possibilities , that he that prayes but seldome , cannot in any sense pretend to be a religious person . For in Scripture there is no other rule for the frequency of prayer given us , but by such words which signifie we should do it alwaies , Pray continually : and , Men ought alwayes to pray and not to faint . And then , men have so many necessities , that if we should esteem our needs to be the circumstances and positive determination of our times of prayer , we should be very far from admitting limitation of the former words , but they must mean that we ought to pray frequently every day . For in danger and trouble , naturall Religion teaches us to pray : In a festivall fortune our prudence , and our needs inforce us equally . For though we feel not a present smart , yet we are certain then is our biggest danger : and if we observe how the world treats her darlings , men of riches and honour , of prosperity and great successe , we cannot but confesse them to be the most miserable of all men , as being in the greatest danger of losing their biggest interest . For they are bigger then the iron hand of Law , and they cannot be restrain'd with fear : the hand grasps a power of doing all that which their evill heart can desire , and they cannot be restrained with disability to sin ; they are flatter'd by all mean , and base , and indiligent persons , which are the greatest part of mankinde ; but few men dare reprove a potent sinner ; he shall every day be flattered and seldome counselled : and his great reflexions and opinions of his condition makes him impatient of reproof , and so he cannot be restrain'd with modesty : and therefore as the needs of the poor man , his rent day , and the cryes of his children , and the oppression he groans under , and his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , his uneasie , ill sleeping care will make him run to his prayers , that in heaven a new decree may be passed every day for the provisions of his daily bread : so the greater needs of the rich , their temptations , and their dangers , the flattery and the vanity , the power and the pride , their businesse and evill estate of the whole world upon them , cals upon them to be zealous in this instance that they pray often , that they pray without ceasing ; For there is great reason they should do so , and great security and advantage , if they do ; For , he that prayes well and prayes often , must needs be a good and a blessed man ; and truly he that does not , deserves no pity for his misery . For when all the troubles and dangers of his condition may turn into his good , if he will but desire they should ; when upon such easie terms he may be happy , for there is no more trouble in it then this , Aske and ye shall receive ; that 's all that is required ; no more turnings and variety in their road ; when ( I say ) at so cheap a rate , a poor man may be provided for , and a rich man may escape damnation , they that refuse to apply themselves to this remedy , quickly , earnestly , zealously , and constantly , deserves the smart of his poverty and the care of it , and the scorne if he be poor , and if he be rich it is fit he should ( because he desires it ) dye by the evils of his proper danger . * It was observed by Cassian ; orationibus maximè infidiantur Daemones , the Devill is more busie to disturb our prayers , then to hinder any thing else . For else it cannot be imagined why we should be brought to pray so seldome , and to be so listlesse to them , and so trifling to them . No , The Devill knowes upon what hard terms he stands with the praying man ; he also knows that it is a mighty cmanation of Gods infinite goodnesse and a strange desire of saving mankinde , that he hath to so easie a duty promised such mighty blessings . For God knowing that upon hard terms we would not accept of heaven it self , and yet hell was so intolerable a state , that God who loved us would affixe heaven to a state of prayer and devotion ; this , because the Devill knowes to be one of the greatest arts of the Divine mercy , he labours infinitely to supplant ; and if he can but make men unwilling to pray , or to pray coldly , or to pray seldome , he secures his interest , and destroys the mans ; and it is infinitely strange , that he can and doth prevail so much in this so unreasonable temptation . Opposuisti nubem ne transirot oratio , the mourning Prophet complained there was a cloud passed between heaven and the prayer of Judah ; a little thing God knowes ; it was a wall which might have been blown down with a few hearty sighs , and a few penitentiall tears ; or if the prayers had ascended in a full and numerous body , themselves would have broken through that little partition ; but so the Devill prevails often ; opponit nubem : he claps a cloud between ; some little objection ; a stranger is come ; or my head akes ; or the Church is too cold ; or I have letters to write ; or I am not disposed ; or it is not yet time , or the time is past : these , and such as these are the clouds , the Devill claps between heaven and us ; but these are such impotent objections , that they were as soon confuted as pretended , by all men that are not fools , or professed enemies of Religion , but that they are clouds : which sometimes look like Lions and Bears , Castles , and wals of fire , armies and horses ; and indeed are any thing that a man will fancy ; and the smallest article of objection managed and conducted by the Devils arts , and meeting with a wretchlesse , carelesse , indevout spirit , is a Lion in the way , and a deep river ; it is impassable , and it is impregnable . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; as the Sophister said in the Greek Comedy , Clouds become any thing as they are represented ; Wolves to Simon , Harts to Cleonymus ; For the Devill fits us with clouds according as we can be abused ; and if we love affairs of the world , he can contrive its circumstances so , that they shall crosse our prayers ; and so it is in every instance : and the best way to cure this evill is prayer ; pray often , and pray zealously , and the sun of righteousnesse will scatter these clouds , and warm our hearts with his holy fires : But it is in this , as in all acquired habits ; the habit makes the actions easie and pleasant ; but this habit cannot be gotten without frequent actions : habits are the daughters of action , but then they nurse their mother , and produce daughters after her image , but far more beautifull and prosperous . For in frequent prayer there is so much rest and pleasure , that as soon as ever it is perceived , the contrary temptation appears unreasonable ; none are so unwilling to pray as they that pray seldome ; for they that do pray often , and with zeal , and passion and desire , feel no trouble so great as when they are forced to omit their holy offices and hours of prayer . It concerns the Devils interest to keep us from all the experience of the rewards of a frequent and holy prayer ; and so long as you will not try and taste how good and gracious the Lord is to the praying man , so long you cannot see the evill of your coldnesse and lukewarm state ; but if you would but try , though it be but for curiosity sake , and informe your selves in the vanity of things , and the truth of pretences , and the certainty of Theologicall propositions , you should finde your selves taken in a golden snare , which will tye you to nothing but felicity , and safety , and holinesse , and pleasures . But then the caution which I intended to insert is this ; that frequency in prayers , and that part of zeal which relates to it , is to be upon no account but of an holy spirit , a wise heart , and reasonable perswasion ; for if it begins upon passion or fear , in imitation of others , or desires of reputation , honour or phantastick principles , it will be unblessed and weary , unprosperous and without return or satisfaction : therefore if it happen to begin upon a weak principle , be very curious to change the motive , and with all speed let it be turned into religion and the love of holy things , then let it be as frequent as it can prudently , it cannot be amisse . 2. When you are entred into a state of zealous prayer , and a regular devotion , what ever interruption you can meet with , observe their causes and be sure to make them irregular , seldome , and contingent , that your omissions may be seldome and casuall , as a bare accident ; for which no provisions can be made ; for if ever it come , that you take any thing habitually and constantly from your prayers , or that you distract from them very frequently , it cannot be but you will become troublesome to your self ; your prayers will be uneasie , they will seem hinderances to your more necessary affairs of passion and interest , and the things of the world : and it will not stand still , till it comes to Apostasie , and a direct despite and contempt of holy things . For it was an old rule , and of a sad experience , Tepiditas si callum obduxerit fiet apostasia , if your lukewarmnesse be habituall and a state of life , if it once be hardned by the usages of many daies , it changes the whole state of the man , it makes him an apostate to devotion . Therefore be infinitely carefull in this particular ; alwayes remembring the saying of St. Chrysostome , Docendi , praedicandi officia & alia cessant suo tempore , precandi autem nunquam ; there are seasons for teaching , and preaching , and other outward offices ; but prayer is the duty of all times , and of all persons , and in all contingences : From other things in many cases we can be excused , but from prayer never . In this therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it is good to be zealous . 2. Concerning the second instance I named , viz. To give almes above our estate , it is an excellent act of zeal , and needs no other caution to make it secure from illusion and danger , but that our egressions of charity do not prejudice justice . See that your almes do not other men wrong , and let them do what they can to thy self , they will never prejudice thee by their abundance ; but then be also carefull that the pretences of justice do not cousen thy self of thy charity , and the poor of thine almes , and thy soul of the reward . He that is in debt is not excused from giving almes till his debts are paid ; but only from giving away such portions which should and would pay them , and such which he intended should do it : There are lacernae divitiarum , and crums from the table , and the gleanings of the harvest , and the scatterings of the vintage , which in all estates are the portions of the poor , which being collected by the hand of providence , and united wisely may become considerable to the poor , and are the necessary duties of charity ; but beyond this also , every considerable relief to the poor is not a considerable diminution to the estate , and yet if it be , it is not alwaies considerable in the accounts of Justice ; for nothing ought to be pretended against the zeal of almes , but the certain omissions or the very probable retarding the doing that , to which we are otherwise obliged . He that is going to pay a debt and in the way meets an indigent person that needs it all , may not give it to him unlesse he knowes by other means to pay the debt ; but if he can do both , he hath his liberty to lay out his money for a Crown . But then in the case of provision for children our restraint is not so easie , or discernible ; 1. Because we are not bound to provide for them in a certain portion , but may do it by the analogies and measures of prudence , in which there is a great latitude . 2. Because our zeal of charity is a good portion for them , and layes up a blessing for inheritance . 3. Because the fairest portions of charity are usually short of such sums which can be considerable in the duty of provision for our children . 4. If we for them could be content to take any measure lesse then all , any thing under every thing that we can , we should finde the portions of the poor made ready to our hands sufficiently to minister to zeal , and yet not to intrench upon this case of conscience ; But the truth is ; we are so carelesse , so unskil'd , so unstudied in religion , that we are only glad to make an an excuse , and to defeat our souls of the reward of the noblest grace : we are contented if we can but make a pretence ; for we are highly pleased if our conscience be quiet , and care not so much that our duty be performed ; much lesse that our eternall interest be advanced in bigger portions . We care not , we strive not , we think not of getting the greater rewards of Heaven ; and he whose desires are so indifferent for the greater , will not take pains to secure the smallest portion ; and it is observable , that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the least in the Kingdome of heaven , is as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as good as none ; if a man will be content with his hopes of the lowest place there , and will not labour for something beyond it , he does not value it at all , and it is ten to one , but will lose that for which he takes so little pains , and is content with so easie a security . He that does his almes , and resolves that in no case he will suffer inconvenience for his brother whose case it may be is into erable , should do well to remember that God in some cases requires a greater charity ; and it may be we shall be called to dye for the good of our brother : and that although it alwaies supposes a zeal , and a holy fervour , yet sometimes it is also a duty , and we lose our lives if we go to save them ; and so we do with our estates ; when we are such good husbands in our Religion , that we will serve all our own conveniences before the great needs of a hungry and afflicted brother , God oftentimes takes from us that which with so much curiosity we would preserve , and then we lose our money , and our reward too . 3. Hither is to be reduced * the accepting and choosing the counsels Evangelicall : * the virgin or widow estate in order to Religion : * selling all and giving it to the poor : * making our selves Eunuchs for the Kingdome of Heaven : * offering our selves to death voluntary , in exchange or redemption of the life of a most usefull person , as Aquila and Priscilla , who ventur'd their lives for St. Paul : * the zeal of souls : * St. Paul's preaching to the Corinthian Church without wages : remitting of rights and forgiving of debts , when the obliged person could pay , but not without much trouble : * protection of calamitous persons with hazard of our own interest and a certain trouble ; concerning which and all other acts of zeal , we are to observe the following measures , by which our zeal will become safe and holy , and by them also we shall perceive the excesses of Zeal , and its inordinations , which is the next thing I am to consider . 1. The first measure , by which our zeal may comply with our duty , and its actions become laudable , is charity to our neighbour . For since God receives all that glorification of himself whereby we can serve and minister to his glory , reflected upon the foundation of his own goodnesse , and bounty , and mercy , and all the Allellujahs that are or ever shall be sung in heaven are praises and thank givings , and that God himself does not receive glory from the acts of his Justice , but then when his creatures will not rejoyce in his goodnesse and mercy , it followes that we imitate this originall excellency and pursue Gods own method , that is , glorifie him in via misericordiae , in the way of mercy , and bounty , charity , and forgivenesse , love , and fair compliances ; There is no greater charity in the world then to save a soul , nothing that pleases God better , nothing that can be in our hands greater or more noble , nothing that can be a more lasting and delightfull honour , then that a perishing soul , snatched from the flames of an intolerable Hell , and born to Heaven upon the wings of piety and mercy , by the Ministery of Angels , and the graces of the holy Spirit , shall to eternall ages blesse God and blesse thee , Him , for the Author and finisher of salvation , and thee for the Minister and charitable instrument ; that bright starre must needs look pleasantly upon thy face for ever , which was by thy hand plac'd there , and had it not been by thy Ministery might have been a ●ooty coal , in the regions of sorrow , Now in order to this , God hath given us all some powers , and ministeries , by which we may by our charity promote this Religion , and the great interest of souls : Counsels , and prayers , preaching , and writing , passionate desires , and fair examples , going before others , in the way of godlinesse , and bearing the torch before them that they may see the way and walk in it . This is a charity that is prepared more or lesse for every one ; and by the way we should do well to consider what we have done towards it . For as it will be a strange arrest at the day of Judgement to Dives , that he fed high and sufferred Lazarus to starve , and every garment that lies by thee and perishes while thy naked brother does so too for want of it , shall be a bill of Inditement against thy unmercifull soul ; so it will be in every instance : in what thou couldst profit thy brother and didst not , thou art accountable ; and then tell over the times , in which thou hast prayed for the conversion of thy sinning brother ; and compare the times together , and observe whether thou hast not tempted him or betrayed him to a sin , or encourag'd him in it , or didst not hinder him when thou mightest , more frequently then thou hast humbly , and passionately , and charitably , and zealously bowed thy head , and thy heart , and knees to God to redeem that poor soul from hell whither thou seest him descending with as much indifferency as a stone into the bottome of a well . In this thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it is a good thing to be zealous , and put forth all your strength , for you can never go too far . But then be carefull that this zeal of thy neighbours amendment be only expressed in waies of charity , not of cruelty or importune justice . He that strikes the Prince for justice , as Solomons expression is , is a companion of murderers ; and he that out of zeal of Religion shall go to convert Nations to his opinion by destroying Christians whose faith is intire and summ'd up by the Apostles ; this man breaks the ground , with a sword , and sowes tares , and waters the ground with bloud , and ministers to envie and cruelty , to errors and mistake , and there comes up nothing but poppies to please the eye and fancy , disputes and hypocrisie , new summaries of Religion estimated by measures of anger , and accursed principles ; and so much of the religion as is necessary to salvation is laid aside , and that brought forth that serves an interest , not holinesse ; that fils the Schooles of a proud man , but not that which will fill Heaven . Any zeal is proper for Religion , but the zeal of the sword , and the zeal of anger ; this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the bitternesse of zeal ; and it is a certain temptation to every man against his duty ; for if the sword turns preacher and dictates propositions by empire in stead of arguments , and ingraves them in mens hearts with a ponyard , that it shall be death to beleeve what I innocently and ignorantly am perswaded of , it must needs be unsafe to try the spirits , to try all things , to make inquiry ; and yet without this liberty , no man can justifie himself before God or man , nor confidently say , that his Religion is best ; since he cannot without a finall danger make himself able to give a right sentence , and to follow that which he findes to be the best ; this may ruine souls by making Hypocrites , or carelesse and complyant against conscience or without it ; but it does not save souls , though peradventure it should force them to a good opinion : This is inordination of zeal ; for Christ by reproving St. Peter drawing his sword , even in the cause of Christ , for his sacred and yet injured person , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( saith Theophylact ) teaches us not to use the sword though in the cause of God , or for God himself ; because he will secure his own interest , only let him be served as himself is pleased to command : and it is like Moses passion , it throwes the tables of the Law out of our hands , and breaks them in pieces out of indignation to see them broken . This is the zeal that is now in fashion , and hath almost spoyl'd Religion ; men like the Zelots of the Jewes cry up their Sect and in it their interest , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; they affect Disciples and fight against the opponents ; and we shall finde in Scripture , that when the Apostles began to preach the meeknesse of the Christian institution , salvations , and promises , charity and humility , there was a zeal set up against them ; the Apostles were zealous for the Gospell , the Jewes were zealous for the Law : and see what different effects these two zeals did produce ; the zeal of the Law came to this , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; they stirred up the City , they made tumults , they persecuted this way unto the death , they got letters from the high Priest , they kept Damascus with a Garrison , they sent parties of souldiers to silence and to imprison the Preachers , and thought they did God service , when they put the Apostles to death , and they swore neither to eat nor to drink till they had killed Paul. It was an old trick of the Jewish zeal , Non monstrare vias eadem nisi sacra colenti , Quaesitum ad fontem solos deducere verpos . They would not shew the way to a Samaritan , nor give a cup of cold water but to a circumcised brother . That was their Zeal ; But the zeal of the Apostles was this ; they preached publickly and privately , they prayed for all men , they wept to God for the hardnesse of mens hearts , they became all things to all men that they might gain some , they travel'd through deeps and deserts , they indured the heat of the Syrian Starre , and the violence of Euroclydon , winds and tempests , seas and prisons , mockings and scourgings , fastings and poverty , labour and watching , they endured every man and wronged no man , they would do any good thing and suffer any evill if they had but hopes to prevail upon a soul ; they perswaded men meekly , they intreated them humbly , they convinced them powerfully , the watched for their good but medled not with their interest , and this is the Christian Zeal , the Zeal of meeknesse , the Zeal of charity , the Zeal of patience , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in these it is good to be zealous , for you can never goe farre enough . 2. The next measure of zeal is prudence . For , as charity is the matter of Zeal , so is discretion the manner . It must alwaies be for good to our neighbour , and there needs no rules for the conducting of that , provided the end be consonant to the design , that is , that charity be intended , and charity done . But there is a Zeal also of Religion or worshipping , and this hath more need of measures and proper cautions . For Religion can turn into a snare , it may be abused into superstition , it may become wearinesse in the spirit , and tempt to tediousnesse , to hatred , and despair : and many persons through their indiscreet conduct and furious marches , and great loads taken upon tender shoulders and unexperienced , have come to be perfect haters of their joy , and despisers of all their hopes , being like dark Lanthorns , in which a candle burnes bright , but the body is incompassed with a crust and a dark cloud of iron ; and these men keep the fires and light of holy propositions within them , but the darknesse of hell , the hardnesse of a vexed he art hath shaded all the light , and makes it neither apt to warm nor to enlighten others , but it turnes to fire within , a feaver and a distemper dwels there , and Religion is become their torment . 1. Therefore our Zeal must never carry us beyond that which is profitable . There are many institutions , customes , and usages introduced into Religion upon very fair motives , and apted to great necessities ; but to imitate those things when they are disrobed of their proper ends is an importune zeal , and signifies nothing but a forward minde , and an easie heart , and an imprudent head ; unlesse these actions can be invested with other ends and usefull purposes . The primitive Church were strangely inspired with a zeal of virginity , in order to the necessities of preaching and travelling , and easing the troubles and temptations of persecution ; but when the necessity went on , and drove the holy men into deserts , that made Colleges of Religious , and their manner of life was such , so united , so poor , so dressed , that they must live more non saculari , after the manner of men divorc'd from the usuall entercourses of the world , still their desire of single life increased ; because the old necessity lasted , and a new one did supervene . Afterwards the case was altered , and then the single life was not to be chosen for it self , nor yet in imitation of the first precedents ; for it could not be taken out from their circumstances and be used alone . He therefore that thinks he is a more holy person for being a virgin or a widower , or that he is bound to be so because they were so , or that he cannot be a religious person because he is not so , hath zeal indeed , but not according to knowledge . But now if the single state can be taken out and put to new appendages , and fitted to the end of another grace or essentiall duty of Religion , it will well become a Christian zeal to choose it so long as it can serve the end with advantage and security . Thus also a zealous person is to chuse his fastings ; while they are necessary to him , and are acts of proper mortification , while he is tempted , or while he is under discipline , while he repents , or while he obeys ; but some persons fast in zeal , but for nothing else ; fast when they have no need , when there is need they should not ; but call it religion to be miserable or sick ; here their zeal is folly , for it is neither an act of Religion nor of prudence , to fast when fasting probably serves no end of the spirit ; and therefore in the fasting dayes of the Church , although it is warrant enough to us to fast if we had no end to serve in it but the meer obedience , yet it is necessary that the superiors should not think the Law obeyed , unlesse the end of the first institution be observed ; a fasting day is a day of humiliation , and prayer ; and fasting being nothing it self , but wholly the handmaid of a further grace , ought not to be devested of its holinesse and sanctification , and left like the wals of a ruinous Church , where there is no duty performed to God , but there remains something of that which us'd to minister to Religion . The want of this consideration hath caus'd so much scandall and dispute , so many snares and schismes concerning Ecclesiasticall fasts . For when it was undressed and stripp'd of all the ornaments and usefull appendages , when from a solemn day it grew to be common ; from thence to be lesse devout by being lesse seldome and lesse usefull ; and then it passed from a day of Religion to be a day of order , and from fasting till night , to fasting till evening-song , and evening-song to be sung about twelve a clock ; and from fasting it was changed to a choice of food , from eating nothing to eating fish , and that the letter began to be stood upon , and no usefulnesse remain'd but what every of his own piety should put into it , but nothing was enjoyn'd by the Law , nothing of that exacted by the superiours , then the Law fell into disgrace , and the design became suspected , and men were first insnared , and then scandalized , and then began to complain without remedy , and at last took remedy themselves without authority ; the whole affair fell into a disorder and a mischief ; and zeal was busie on both sides , and on both sides was mistaken , because they fell not upon the proper remedy , which was to reduce the Law to the usefulnesse and advantages of its first intention . But this I intended not to have spoken . 2. Our Zeal must never carry us beyond that which is safe . Some there are who in their first attempts and entries upon Religion while the passion that brought them in remains , undertake things as great as their highest thoughts ; no repentance is sharp enough , no charities expensive enough , no fastings afflictive enough , then totis Quinquatribus orant ; and finding some deliciousnesse at the first contest , and in that activity of their passion , they make vowes to binde themselves for ever to this state of delicacies . The onset is fair : but the event is this . The age of a passion , is not long , and the flatulent spirit being breathed out , the man begins to abate of his first heats , and is ashamed : but then he considers that all that was not necessary , and therefore he will abate something more and from something to something , at last it will come to just nothing , and the proper effect of this is , indignation and hatred of holy things , an impudent spirit , carelessenesse or despair . Zeal sometimes carries a man into temptation : and he that never thinks he loves God dutifully or acceptably , because he is not imprison'd for him , or undone , or design'd to Martyrdome , may desire a triall that will undoe him . It is like fighting of a Duell to shew our valour . Stay till the King commands you to fight and die , and then let zeal do its noblest offices . This irregularity and mistake was too frequent in the primitive Church , when men and women would strive for death , and be ambitious to feel the hangmans sword ; some miscarryed in the attempt , and became sad examples of the unequall yoking a frail spirit with a zealous driver . 3. Let Zeal never transport us to attempt anything but what is possible . M. Teresa made a vow that she would do alwaies that which was absolutely the best . But neither could her understanding alwaies tell her which was so , nor her will alwayes have the same fervours : and it must often breed scruples , and sometimes tediousnesse , and wishes that the vow were unmade . He that vowes never to have an ill thought , never to commit an error , hath taken a course that his little infirmities shall become crimes , and certainly be imputed by changing his unavoidable infirmity into vow-breach . Zeal is a violence to a mans spirit , and unlesse the spirit be secur'd by the proper nature of the duty , and the circumstances of the action , and the possibilities of the man ; it is like a great fortune in the meanest person , it bears him beyond his limit , and breaks him into dangers and passions , transportations and all the furies of disorder that can happen to an abused person . 4. Zeal is not safe unlesse it be in re probabili too , it must be in a likely matter . For we that finde so many excuses to untie all our just obligations , and distinguish our duty into so much finenesse , that it becomes like leaf-gold apt to be gone at every breath ; it can not be prudent that we zealously undertake what is not probable to be effected . If we do , the event can be nothing but portions of the former evill , scruple and snares , shamefull retreats and new fantastick principles ; In all our undertakings we must consider what is our state of life , what our naturall inclinations , what is our society , and what are our dependencies ; by what necessities we are born down , by what hopes we are biassed ; and by these let us measure our heats and their proper businesse . A zealous man runs up a sandy hill ; the violence of motion is his greatest hinderance , and a passion in Religion destroys as much of our evennesse of spirit , as it sets forward any outward work : and therefore although it be a good circumstance and degree of a spirituall duty , so long as it is within , and relative to God and our selves ; so long it is a holy flame ; but if it be in an outward duty , or relative to our neighbours , or in an instance not necessary , it sometimes spoils the action , and alwaies endangers it . But I must remember we live in an age in which men have more need of new fires to be kindled within them and round about them , then of any thing to allay their forwardnesse : there is little or no zeal now but the zeal of envie , and killing as many as they can , and damning more then they can ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , smoke and lurking fires do corrode and secretly consume : therefore this discourse is lesse necessary . A Physitian would have but small imployment near the Riph●an Mountains , if he could cure nothing but Calentures ; Catarrhes , and dead palsies , Colds and Consumptions are their evils , and so is lukewarmnesse and deadnesse of spirit , the proper maladies of our age : for though some are hot when they are mistaken , yet men are cold in a righteous cause ; and the nature of this evill is to be insensible , and the men are farther from a cure because they neither feel their evill , nor perceive their danger . But of this I have already given account : and to it , I shall only adde what an old spirituall person told a novice in religion , asking him the cause why he so frequently suffered tediousnesse in his religious offices ; Nondum vidisti requiem quam speramus , nec tormenta quae timemus ; young man , thou hast not seen the glories which are laid up for the zealous and devout , nor yet beheld the flames which are prepared for the lukewarm , and the haters of strict devotion . But the Jewes tell that Adam having seen the beauties , and tasted the delicacies of Paradise , repented and mourned upon the Indian Mountains for three hundred years together : and we who have a great share in the cause of his sorrowes , can by nothing be invited to a persevering , a great , a passionate religion , more then by remembring what he lost , and what is laid up for them whose hearts are burning lamps , and are all on fire with Divine love , whose flames are fann'd with the wings of the holy Dove , and whose spirits shine and burn with that fire which the holy Jesus came to enkindle upon the earth . Sermon , XV. The House of Feasting : OR THE EPICVRES MEASVRES . Part I. 1 Cor. 15. 32. last part . Let us eat and drink , for to morrow we dye . THis is the Epicures Proverb , begun upon a weak mistake ; started by chance , from the discourses of drink , and thought witty by the undiscerning company , and prevail'd infinitely , because it struck their fancy luckily , and maintained the merry meeting ; but as it happens commonly to such discourses , so this also , when it comes to be examined by the consultations of the morning , and the sober hours of the day , it seems the most witlesse , and the most unreasonable in the world . When Seneca describes the spare diet of Epicurus and Metrodorus , he uses this expression ; Liberaliora sunt alimenta carceris : sepositos ad capitale supplicium , non tam angustè , qui occisurus est , pascit . The prison keeps a better table , and he that is to kill the criminall to morrow morning , gives him a better supper over night . By this he intended to represent his meal to be very short : for as dying persons have but little stomach to feast high ; so they that mean to cut the throat will think it a vain expence to please it with delicacies , which after the first alteration must be poured upon the ground , and looked upon as the worst part of the accursed thing . And there is also the same proportion of unreasonablenesse , that because men shall die to morrow , and by the sentence and unalterable decree of God , they are now descending to their graves , that therefore they should first destroy their reason , and then force dull time to run faster , that they may dye sottish as beasts , and speedily as a slie : But they thought there was no life after this ; or if there were , it was without pleasure , and every soul thrust into a hole , and a dorter of a spans length allowed for his rest , and for his walk ; and in the shades below no numbring of healths by the numerall letters of Philenium's name , no fat Mullets , no Oysters of Luerinus , no Lesbian or Chian Wines , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Therefore now enjoy the delicacies of Nature , and feel the descending wines distilled through the limbecks of thy tongue , and larynx , and suck the delicious juice of fishes , the marrow of the laborious Oxe , and the tender lard of Apulian Swine , and the condited bellies of the scarus ; but lose no time ; for the Sun drives hard , and the shadow is long , and the dayes of mourning are at hand , but the number of the dayes of darknesse and the grave cannot be told . Thus they thought they discoursed wisely , and their wisdome was turned into folly ; for all their arts of providence , and witty securities of pleasure were nothing but unmanly prologues to death , fear and folly , sensuality and beastly pleasures . But they are to be excused rather then we . They placed themselves in the order of beasts and birds , and esteemed their bodies nothing but receptacles of flesh and wine , larders and pantries ; and their soul the fine instrument of pleasure and brisk perception , of relishes and gusts , reflexions and duplications of delight ; and therefore they trea ed themselves accordingly . But then why we should do the same things , who are led by other principles , and a more severe institution , and better notices of immortality , who understand what shall happen to a soul hereafter , and know that this time is but a passage to eternity , this body but a servant to the soul , this soul a minister to the Spirit , and the whole man in order to God and to felicity ; this I say is more unreasonable , then to eat aconite to preserve our health , and to enter into the floud that we may die a dry death ; this is a perfect contradiction to the state of good things , whither we are designed , and to all the principles of a wise Philophy , whereby we are instructed that we may become wise unto salvation . That I may therefore do some assistances towards the curing the miseries of mankinde , and reprove the follies and improper motions towards felicity , I shall endevour to represent to you , 1. That plenty and the pleasures of the world are no proper instruments of felicity . 2. That intemperance is a certain enemy to it ; making life unpleasant , and death troublesome and intolerable . 3. I shall adde the rules and measures of temperance in eating and drinking , that nature and grace may joyne to the constitution of mans felicity . 1. Plenty and the pleasures of the world are no proper instrument of felicity . It is necessary that a man have some violence done to himself before he can receive them : for natures bounds are , non esurire , non sitire , non algere , to be quit from hunger , and thirst , and cold , that is , to have nothing upon us that puts us to pain ; against which she hath made provisions by the fleece of the sheep , and the skins of beasts , by the waters of the fountain , and the hearbs of the field , and of these no good man is destitute , for that share that he can need to fill those appetites and necessities he cannot otherwise avoid : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . For it is unimaginable that Nature should be a mother naturall and indulgent to the beasts of the forrest , and the spawn of fishes , to every plant and fungus , to cats and owles , to moles and bats , making her store-houses alwaies to stand open to them , and that for the Lord of all these , even to the noblest of her productions she should have made no provisions , and only produc'd in us appetites sharp as the stomach of Wolves , troublesome as the Tigres hunger , and then run away , leaving art and chance , violence and study , to feed us and to cloath us . This is so far from truth , that we are certainly more provided for by nature then all the world besides ; for every thing can minister to us ; and we can passe into none of Natures cabinets , but we can finde our table spread : so that what David said to God , Whither shall I go from thy presence ? If I go to heaven , thou art there , if I descend to the deep , thou art there also ; if I take the wings of the morning and flie into the uttermost parts of the wildernesse , even there thou wilt finde me out , and thy right band shall uphold me : we may say it concerning our table , and our wardrobe ; If we go into the fields , we finde them till'd by the mercies of heaven , and water'd with showers from God to feed us and to cloath us ; if we go down into the deep , there God hath multiplyed our stores , and fill'd a magazine which no hunger can exhaust ; the aire drops down delicacies , and the wildernesse can sustain us , and all that is in nature , that which feeds Lions , and that which the Oxe eats , that which the fishes live upon , and that which is the provision for the birds , all that can keep us alive ; and if we consider , that of the beasts and birds for whom nature hath provided but one dish , it may be flesh or fish , or herbes or flies , and these also we secure with guards from them , and drive away birds and beasts from that provision which Nature made for them , yet seldome can we finde that any of these perish with hunger : much rather shall we finde that we are secured by the securities proper for the more noble creatures , by that providence that disposes all things , by that mercy that gives us all things , which to other creatures are ministred singly ; by that labour that can procure what we need , by that wisdome that can consider concerning future necessities , by that power that can force it from inferiour creatures , and by that temperance which can fit our meat to our necessities . For if we go beyond what is needfull , as we finde sometimes more then was promised , and very often more then we need , so we disorder the certainty of our felicity , by putting that to a hazard which nature hath secur'd . For it is not certain that if we desire to have the wealth of Susa , or garments stain'd with the bloud of the Tyrian fish , that if we desire to feed like Philoxenus , or to have tables loaden like the boards of Vitellius , that we shall never want . It is not Nature that desires these things , but lust and violence ; and by a disease we enter'd into the passion and the necessity , and in that state of trouble it is likely we may dwell for ever , unlesse we reduce our appetites to natures measure . Si ventri benè , si lateri est , pedibūsque tuis , nil Divitiae poterunt Regales addere majus . And therefore it is that plenty and pleasures are not the proper instruments of felicity . Because felicity is not a jewell that can be lock'd in one mans cabinet . God intended that all men should be made happy , and he that gave to all men the same naturall desires , and to all men provision of satisfactions by the same mears and drinks , intended that it should not go beyond that measure of good things which corresponds to those desires which all men naturally have . He that cannot be satisfied with common provisions , hath a bigger need then he that can ; it is harder , and more contingent , and more difficult , and more troublesome , for him to be satisfied ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Epicurus , I feed sweetly upon bread and water , those sweet and easie provisions of the body , and I defie the pleasures of costly provisions ; And the man was so confident that he had the advantage over wealthy tables , that he thought himself happy as the immortall Gods , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : For these provisions are easie , they are to be gotten without amazing cares ; no man needs to flatter , if he can live as Nature did intend : Magna pars libertatis est benè moratus venter : he need not swell his accounts , and intricate his spirit with arts of subtlety and contrivance , he can be free from fears ; and the chances of the world cannot concern him . And this is true , not only in those severe and Anachoreticall and Philosophicall persons , who lived meanly as a sheep , and without variety as the Baptist , but in the same proportion it is also true in every man that can be contented with that which is honestly sufficient . Maximus Tyrius considers concerning the felicity of Diogenes , a poor Synopean , having not so much nobility as to be born in the better parts of Greece ; but he saw that he was compel'd by no Tyrant to speak or do ignobly ; he had no fields to till , and therefore took no care to buy cattell , and to hire servants ; he was not distracted when a rent-day came , and fear'd not when the wise Greeks play'd the fool and fought who should be Lord of that field that lay between Thebes and Athens ; he laugh'd to see men scramble for dirty silver , and spend 10000. Attick talents for the getting the revenues of 200 Philippios ; he went with his staffe and bag into the camp of the Phoconses , and the souldiers reverene'd his person and despised his poverty , and it was truce with him whosoever had wars ; and the Diadem of Kings , and the Purple of the Emperors , the Mitre of high Priests , and the divining staffe of Soothsayers were things of envie and ambition , the purchase of danger , and the rewards of a mighty passion : and men enter'd into them by trouble and extreme difficulty , and dwelt under them as a man under a falling roof , or as Damocles under the Tyrants sword , Nunc lateri incumbens — mox deinde supinus , Nunc cubat in faciem , nunc recta pectore surgens , Sleeping like a condemned man ; and let there be what pleasure men can dream of in such broken slumbers , yet the fear of waking from this illusion and parting from this phantastick pleasure , is a pain and torment which the imaginary felicity cannot pay for . Cui cum paupertate benè convenit , di●es est ; non qui parum habet , sed qui plus cupit , pauper est . All our trouble is from within us ; and if a dish of lettice and a clear fountain can cool all my heats , so that I shall have neither thirst nor pride , lust nor revenge , envie nor ambition , I am lodg'd in the bosome of felicity ; and indeed no men sleep so soundly , as they that lay their head upon Natures lap . For a single dish and clean chalice lifted from the springs , can cure my hunger and thirst : but the meat of Ahasuerus feast cannot satisfie my ambition and my pride . Nullâ re egere , Dei proprium ; quàm paucissimis autem , Deo proximum , said Socrates . He therefore that hath the fewest desires and the most quiet passions , whose wants are soon provided for , and whose possessions cannot be disturbed with violent fears , he that dwels next door to satisfaction , and can carry his needs and lay them down where he please , this man is the happy man , and this is not to be done in great designs , and swelling fortunes . Dives jam factus desiit gaudere lentè , Cariùs edit & bibit , & laetatur dives , quàm pauper , qui in quolibet , in parato , in inempto gaudet , & facilè epulari potest , dives nunquam . For as it is in plants which nature thrusts forth from her navell , she makes regular provisions , and dresses them with strength and ornament , with easinesse and a full stature , but if you thrust a Jessamine there where she would have had a Daisie grow , or bring the tall firre from dwelling in his own countrey , and transport the orange or the almond-tree neer the fringes of the North starre , Nature is displeased , and becomes unnaturall , and starves her sucklings , and renders you a return lesse then your charge and expectation : so it is in all our appetites ; when they are naturall and proper , nature feeds them and makes them healthfull and lusty , as the course issue of the Scythian clown ; she feeds them and makes them easie without cares and costly passion ; but if you thrust and appetite into her which she intended not , she gives you sickly and uneasie banquets , you must struggle with her for every drop of milk she gives beyond her own needs ; you may get gold from her entrails , and at a great charge provide ornamants for your Queens and Princely women : but our lives are spent in the purchase ; and when you have got them , you must have more ; for these cannot content you , nor nourish the spirit . Ad supervacua sudatur . A man must labour infinitely to get more then he needs ; but to drive away thirst and hunger , a man needs not sit in the fields of the oppressed poor , nor lead armies , nor break his sleep , & contumeliosam humanitatem pati , and to suffer shame and danger , and envie and affront , and all the retinue of infelicity . — Quis non Epicurum Suspicit , exigui laetum plantaribus horti ? If men did but know what felicity dwels in the cottage of a vertuous poor man , how sound his sleeps , how quiet his breast , how composed his minde , how free from care , how easie his provision , how healthfull his morning , how sober his night , how moist his mouth , how joyfull his heart , they would never admire the noises and the diseases , the throng of passions , and the violence of unnaturall appetites , that fill the houses of the luxurious , and the heart of the ambitious : Nam neque divitibus contingunt gaudia solis . These which you call pleasures are but the imagery and phantastick appearances , and such appearances even poor men may have . It is like felicity that the King of Persia should come to Babylon in the winter , and to Susa in the summer ; and be attended with all the servants of 127 Provinces , and with all the Princes of Asia . It is like this , that Diogenes went to Corinth in the time of vintage , and to Athens when winter came , and in stead of Courts visited the Temples and the Schooles , and was pleased in the society of Scholars and learned men , and conversed with the Students of all Asia and Europe . If a man loves privacy , the poor fortune can have that when Princes cannot ; if he loves noises , he can go to Markets and to Courts , and may glut himself with strange faces , and strange voices , and stranger manners , and the wilde designs of all the world : and when that day comes in which we shall dye , nothing of the eating and drinking remains , nothing of the pomp and luxury , but the sorrow to part with it , and shame to have dwelt there where wisdome and vertue seldome comes , unlesse it be to call men to sober counsels , to a plain and a severe and more naturall way of living ; and when Lucian derides the dead Princes and Generals , and sayes that in hell they go up and down selling salt meats and crying Mussels , or begging ; and he brings in Philip of Macedon , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , mending of shooes in a little stall ; he intended to represent , that in the shades below and in the state of the grave , the Princes and voluptuous have a being different from their present plenty , but that their condition is made contemptible and miserable by its disproportion to their lost and perishing voluptuousnesse . The result is this , that Tiresias told the Ghost of Menippus enquiring what state of life was nearest to felicity , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The private life , that which is freest from tumult and vanity , noise and luxury , businesse and ambition , nearest to nature and a just entertainment to our necessities ; that life is nearest to felicity . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Therefore despise the swellings and the diseases of a disordered life , and a proud vanity ; be troubled for no outward thing beyond its merit ; enjoy the present temperately , and you cannot choose but be pleased to see that you have so little share in the follies and miscries of the intemperate world . 2. Intemperance in eating and drinking is the most contrary course to the Epicures design in the world ; and the voluptuous man hath the least of pleasure ; and upon this proposition , the consideration is more materiall and more immediately reducible to practise , because in eating and drinking men please themselves so much , and have the necessities of Nature to usher in the inordination of gluttony and drunkennesse , and our need leads in vice by the hand , that we know not how to distinguish our friend from our enemy ; and St. Austin is sad upon this point ; Thou O Lord hast taught me that I should take my meat as I take my Physick , but while I passe from the trouble of hunger to the quietnesse of satisfaction , in the very passage I am insnared by the cords of my own concupiscence ; Necessity bids me passe , but I have no way to passe from hunger to fulnesse , but over the bridge of pleasure ; and although health and life be the cause of eating and drinking , yet pleasure , a dangerous pleasure thrusts her self into attendance , and sometimes endeavours to be the principall , and I do that for pleasures sake which I would only do for health ; and yet they have distinct measures whereby they can be separated , and that which is enough for health is too little for delight , and that which is for my delight destroyes my health , and still it is uncertain for what end I doe indeed desire ; and the worst of the evill is this , that the soul is glad because it is uncertain , and that an excuse is ready , that under the pretence of health , Obumbret negotium voluptatis , the design of pleasure may be advanced and protected . How farre the ends of naturall pleasure may lawfully be enjoyed , I shall afterwards consider ; In the mean time , if we remember that the Epicures design is pleasure principally , we may the better reprove his folly by considering that intemperance is a a plain destruction to all that which can give reall and true pleasure . 1. It is an enemy to health , without which it is impossible to feel anything of corporall pleasure . 2. A constant full table hath in it lesse pleasure then the temperate provisions of the Hermite , or the Labourer , or the Philosophicall table of Scholars , and the just pleasures of the vertuous . 3. Intemperance is an impure fountain of vice , and a direct nurse of uncleannesse . 4. It is a destruction of wisdome . 5. It is a dishonour and disreputation to the person and the nature of the man. It is an enemy to health : which is as one cals it , ansa voluptatum & condimentum vitae ; it is that handle by which we can apprehend , and perceive pleasures , and that sauce that only makes life delicate ; for what content can a full table administer to a man in a feaver ? and he that hath a sickly stomach admires at his happinesse that can feast with cheese and garlick , unctious breuuages and the low tasted spinage : Health is the opportunity of wisdome , the fairest scene of Religion , the advantages of the glorifications of God , the charitable ministeries to men ; it is a state of joy and thanksgiving , and in every of its period feels a pleasure from the blessed emanations of a mercifull providence . The world does not minister , does not feel a greater pleasure , then to be newly delivered from the racks or the gratings of the stone , and the torments and convulsions of a sharp colick : and no Organs , no Harp , no Lute can sound out the praises of the Almighty Father so spritefully , as the man that rises from his bed of sorrowes , and considers what an excellent difference he feels from the groans and intolerable accents of yesterday . Health carries us to Church and makes us rejoyce in the communion of Saints , and an intemperate table makes us to lose all this . For this is one of those sins which S. Paul affirms to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , manifest , leading before unto judgement . It bears part of its punishment in this life , and hath this appendage like the sin against the holy Ghost , that it is not remitted in this world , nor in the world to come ; that is , if it be not repented of , it is punished here and hereafter , which the Scripture does not affirm concerning all sins , and all cases . But in this the sinner gives sentence with his mouth and brings it to execution with his own hands ; Paena tamen praesens , cum tu deponis amictum Turgidus , et crudum pavonem in balneaportas . The old gluttons among the Romans , Heliogabalus , Tigellius , Crispus , Montanus , notaeque per oppida buccae , famous Epicures , mingled their meats with vomitings ; so did Vitellius , and enter'd into their baths to digest their Phesants , that they might speedily return to the Mullet and the Eeles of Syene , and then they went home and drew their breath short till the morning , and it may be not at all before night , Hinc subitae mortes , atque intestata senectus . Their age is surprised at a feast , and gives them not time to make their will , but either they are choked with a large morsell , and there is no room for the breath of the lungs , and the motions of the heart ; or a feaver burns their eyes out , or a quinzie punishes that intemperate throat that had no religion , but the eating of the fat sacrifices , the portions of the poor and of the Priest ; or else they are condemned to a Lethargie if their constitutions be dull , and if active , it may be they are wilde with watching . Plurimus hinc aeger moritur vigilando : sed illum Languorem peperit cibus imperfectus , & haerens Ardenti stomacho — So that the Epicures geniall proverb may be a little alter'd , and say , Let us eat and drink , for by this means to morrow we shall die ; but that 's not all , for these men live a healthlesse life , that is , are long , are every day dying , and at last dye with torment . Menander was too soft in his expression , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; that it is indeed a death , but gluttony is a pleasant death , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . For this is the gluttons pleasure , to breath short and difficultly , scarce to be able to speak , and when he does , he cries out , I dye and not with pleasure . But the folly is as much to be derided as the men to be pityed , that we daily see men afraid of death with a most intolerable apprehension , and yet increase the evill of it , the pain , and the trouble , and the suddennesse of its coming , and the appendage of an unsufferable eternity . Rem struere exoptant caeso bove , Mercuriúmqque Arcessunt fibrâ — They pray for herds of cattell , and spend the breeders upon feasts and sacrifices . For why do men go to Temples and Churches , and make vowes to God and daily prayers , that God would give them a healthfull body , and take away their gout and their palfies , their feavers and apoplexies , the pains of the head and the gripings of the belly , and arise from their prayers and powre in loads of flesh and seas of wine , lest there should not be matter enough for a lusty disease ? Poscis opem'nervis , corpúsqque fidele senectae . Esto age , sed grandes patinae tucetáqque crassa Annuere his superos vetuere , Jov émqque morantur . But it is enough that the rich glutton shall have his dead body condited and embalmed ; he may be allowed to stink and suffer corruption while he is alive ; These men are for the present living sinners and walking rottennesse , and hereafter will be dying penitents and perfumed carcasses , and their whole felicity is lost in the confusions of their unnaturall disorder . When Cyrus had espyed Astyages and his fellowes coming drunk from a banquet loaden with variety of follies and filthinesse , their legs failing them , their eyes red and staring , cousened , with a moist cloud , and abused by a doubled object , their tongues full as spunges , and their heads no wiser , he thought they were poysoned , and he had reason ; for what malignant quality can be more venomous and hurtfull to a man then the effect of an intemperate goblet , and a full stomach ? it poysons both the soul and body . All poysons do not kill presently , and this will in processe of time , and hath formidable effects at present . But therefore me thinks the temptations which men meet withall from without , are in themselves most unreasonable and soonest confuted by us . He that tempts me to drink beyond my measure , civilly invites me to a feaver ; and to lay aside my reason , as the Persian women did their garments and their modesty at the end of feasts : and all the question then will be , which is the worse evill , to resuse your uncivill kindnesse , or to suffer a violent headach , or to lay up heaps big enough for an English Surfeit . Creon in the Tragedy said well , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , grieve thee O stranger , or to he affronted by thee , then to be tormented by thy kindnesse the next day and the morrow after ; and the freed man of Domitius the Father of Nero suffered himself to be kild by his Lord ; and the sonne of Praxaspes by Cambyses , rather then they would exceed their own measures up to a full intemperance , and a certain sicknesse , and dishonour . For , ( as Plutarch said well ) to avoid the opinion of an uncivill man , or being clownish , to run into a pain of thy sides or belly , into madnesse or a head-ach , is the part of a fool and a coward , and of one that knowes not how to converse with men citra pocula & nidorem , in any thing but in the famelick smels of meat and vertiginous drinkings : Ebrius & petulans , qui nullum forte cecîdit , Dat poenas , noctem patitur lugentis amicum Pelidae — A drunkard and a glutton feels the torments of a restlesse night , although he hath not kil'd a man ; that is , just like murtherers and persons of an afrighting conscience ; so wake the glutton , so broken and sick , and disorderly are the slumbers of the drunkard . Now let the Epicure boast his pleasures , and tell how he hath swallowed the price of Provinces , and gobbets of delicious flesh purchased with the rewards of souls ; let him brag furorem illum conviviorum & foedissimum patrimoniorum exitium culinam , of the madnesse of delicious feasts , and that his kitchin hath destroyed his Patrimony ; let him tell that he takes in every day , — Quantum Lauseia bibebat , As much wine as would refresh the sorrowes of 40 languishing prisoners ; or let him set up his vain-glorious triumph , Ut quod multi Damalis meri Bassum Threiciâ vicit amystide , That he hath knock'd down Damalis with the 25th . bottle , and hath outfeasted Anthony or Cleopatra's luxury ; it is a goodly pleasure and himself shall bear the honour . — Rarum & memorabile magni Gutturis exemplum , conducendúsqque magister . But for the honour of his banquet he hath some ministers attending that he did not dream of , and in the midst of his loud laughter , the gripes of the belly and the feavers of the brain , Pallor & genae pendulae , oculorum ulcera , tremulae manus , furiales somm , inquies nocturna , as Pliny reckons them , palenesse and hanging cheeks , ulcers of the eyes and trembling hands , dead or distracted sleeps , these speak aloud , that to day you eat and drink , that to morrow you may dye , and dye for ever . It is reported concerning Socrates , that when Athens was destroyed by the plague , he in the midst of all the danger escaped untouched by sicknesse , because by a spare and severe diet , he had within him no tumult of disorderly humours , no factions in his bloud , no loads of moisture prepared for charnell houses , or the sickly hospitals ; but a vigorous heat , and a well proportioned radicall moysture ; he had enough for health and study , Philosophy and Religion , for the temples and the Academy , but no superfluities to be spent in groans and sickly nights : And all the world of gluttons is hugely convinced of the excellency of temperance in order to our temporall felicity and health , because when themselves have left vertue , and sober dyet , and counsels , and first lost their temperance , and then lost their health , they were forc'd to run to temperance and abstinence for their cure , Vilis enim tenuisque mensa ( ut loquuntur pueri ) sanitatis mater est , Then , a thin diet and a humbled body , fasting and emptinesse , and arts of scattering their sin and sicknesse , is in season ; but by the same means they might preserve their health , by which they do restore it ; but when they are well , if they return to their full tables and oppressing meals , their sicknesse was but like Vitellius vomiting , that they might eat again ; but so they may entail a fit of sicknesse upon every full moon , till both their virtue and themselves decrease into the corruptions and rottennesse of the grave . But if they delight in sharp feavers and horrid potions , in sowre palats and heaps of that which must be carryed forth , they may reckon their wealthy pleasures to be very great and many , if they will but tell them one by one with their sicknesses and the multitude of those evils they shall certainly feel before they have thrown their sorrowes forth . These men ( as St. Paul's expression is ) heap up wrath against the day of wrath , and the revelation of the day of Gods most righteous judgements . Strange therefore it is that for the stomach which is scarce a span long , there should be provided so many furnaces and ovens , huge fires and an army of cooks , cellars swimming with wine , and granaries sweating with corn ; and that into one belly should enter the vintage of many Nations , the spoils of distant Provinces , and the shell-fishes of severall seas . When the Heathens feasted their Gods , they gave nothing but a fat oxe , a ram , or a kid , they powred a little wine upon the Altar , and burned a handfull of gum ; but when they feasted themselves , they had many vessels fill'd with Campanian wine , turtles of Liguria , Sicilian beeves , and wheat from Egypt , wilde boars from Illyrium , and Grecian sheep , variety , and load , and cost , and curiosity : and so do we . It is so little we spend in Religion , and so very much upon our selves , so little to the poor , and so without measure to make our selves sick , that we seem to be in love with our own mischief , and so passionate for necessity and want , that we strive all the wayes we can to make our selves need more then nature intended . I end this consideration with the saying of the Cynic ; It is to be wondred at , that men eat so much for pleasures sake ; and yet for the same pleasure should not give over eating , and betake themselves to the delights of temperance , since to be healthfull and holy is so great a pleasure . However , certain it is that no man ever repented that he arose from the table sober , healthfull , and with his wits about him ; but very many have repented that they sate so long , till their bellies swelled , and their health , and their vertue , and their God is departed from them . SERMON , XVI . Part II. 2. A Constant full Table is lesse pleasant then the temperate provisions of the vertuous , or the naturall banquets of the poore . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Epicurus , Thanks be to the God of Nature , that he hath made that which is necessary to be ready at hand , and easie to be had , and that which cannot easily be obtained , is not necessary it should be at all ; which in effect is to say , it cannot be constantly pleasant ; for necessity and want makes the appetite , and the appetite makes the pleasure ; and men are infinitely mistaken when they despise the poor mans Table , and wonder how he can endure that life that is maintain'd without the excise of pleasure , and that he can suffer his days labour , and recompense it with unsavory herbs , and potent garleek , with water-cresses , and bread colour'd like the ashes that gave it hardnesse ; he hath a hunger that gives it deliciousnesse ; and we may as well wonder that a Lyon eats raw flesh , or that a Wolfe feeds upon the turfe , they have an appetite proportionable to this meat , and their necessity , and their hunger , and their use , and their nature are the Cooks ▪ that dresse their provisions , and make them delicate : And yet if water and pulse , naturall provisions , and the simple diet were not pleasant , as indeed they are not to them who have been nursed up and accustomed to the more delicious , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , yet it is a very great pleasure to reduce our appetites to Nature , and to make our reason rule our stomach , and our desires comply with our fortunes , and our fortunes be proportionable to our persons . Non est voluptas aqua & polenta , ( said a Philosopher ) sed summa voluptas est ●posse ex his capere voluptatem , It is an excellent pleasure to be able to take pleasure in worts and water , in bread and onions ; for then a man can never want pleasure when it is so ready for him , that nature hath spread it over all its provisions . Fortune and Art gives delicacies ; Nature gives meat and drink ; and what nature gives , fortune cannot take away , but every change can take away what onely is given by the bounty of a full fortune ; and if in satisfaction and freedome from care , and security and proportions to our own naturall appetite , there can be pleasure , then we may know to value the sober and naturall Tables of the vertuous and wise , before that state of feastings which a War can lessen , and a Tyrant can take away , or the Pirates may intercept , or a Blast may spoyle , and is alwayes contingent , and is so far from satisfying , that either it destroys the appetite , and capacity of pleasure , or increases it beyond all the measures of good things . He that feasts every day , feasts no day , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and however you treat your selves , sometimes you will need to be refreshed beyond it ; but what will you have for a Festivall , if you wear crowns every day ? even a perpetuall fulnesse will make you glad to beg pleasure from emptynesse , and variety from poverty or a humble Table . Plerumque gratae principibus vices , Mundaeque parvo sub lare pauperum Coenae sine aulaeis , & ostro , Sollicitam explicuere frontem . But however , of all the things in the world a man may best and most easily want pleasure , which if you have enjoyed , it passes away at the present , and leaves nothing at all behinde it , but sorrow and sowre remembrances . No man felt a greater pleasure in a goblet of wine , then Lysimachus when he fought against the Getae ; and himselfe and his whole Army were compell'd by thirst to yeeld themselves to bondage ; but when the wine was sunk as farre as his navel , the pleasure was gone , and so was his Kingdome and his liberty ; for though the sorrow dwells with a man pertinaciously , yet the pleasure is swift as lightning , and more pernicious ; but the pleasures of a sober and a temperate Table are pleasures till the next day , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Timotheus said of Plato's Scholars , they converse sweetly , and are of perfect temper and delicacy of spirit even the next morning ; whereas the intemperate man is forced to lye long in bed , and forget that there is a Sun in the skie ; he must not be call'd till he hath concocted , and slept his surfeit into a trace and a quiet respite ; but whatsoever this man hath suffer'd , certain it is that the poore mans head did not ake , neither did he need the juice of poppies , or costly cordials , Physitians or Nurses , to bring him to his right shape again ; like Apuleius's Asse with eating roses : and let him turne his hour-glasse , he will finde his head akes longer then his throat was pleased ; and which is worst , his glasse runs out with joggings and violence , and every such concussion with a surfeit makes his life look neerer its end , and ten to one but it will before its naturall period be broken in pieces . If these be the pleasures of an Epicures Table , I shall pray that my friends may never feele them ; but he that sinneth against his Maker shall fall into the calamities of intemperance . 3. Intemperance is the Nurse of vice ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Venus milk so Aristophanes calls wine , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Mother of all grievous things : so Pontianus . For by the experience of all the world , it is the baud to lust : and no man must ever dare to pray to God for a pure soul in a chaste body , if himself does not live temperately , if himselfe make provisions for the flesh , to fulfill the lusts of it ; for in this case he shall find that which enters into him shall defile him more then he can be cleansed by those vain prayers that come from his tongue , and not from his heart . Intemperance makes rage and choler , pride and fantastick principles ; it makes the body a sea of humours , and those humours the seat of violence : by faring deliciously every day men become senselesse of the evills of mankind , inapprehensive of the troubles of their Brethren , unconcerned in the changes of the world , and the cryes of the poor , the hunger of the fatherlesse , and the thirst of widows : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Diogenes , Tyrants never come from the cottages of them that eat pulse and course fare , but from the delicious beds and banquets of the effeminate and rich feeders . For to maintain plenty and luxury sometimes wars are necessary , and oppressions and violence : but no Land-lord did ever grinde the face of his Tenants , no Prince ever suck'd bloud from his subjects for the maintenance of a sober and a moderate proportion of good things . And this was intimated by S. James , Doe not rich men oppresse you , and draw you before the Judgment seat ? For all men are passionate to live according to that state in which they were born , or to which they are devolved , or which they have framed to themselves ; Those therefore that love to live high and deliciously , Et quibus in solo vivendi causa palato , who live not to God , but to their belly , not to sober counsels , but to an intemperate table , have framed to themselves a manner of living which oftentimes cannot be maintain'd , but by injustice and violence , which coming from a man whose passions are made big with sensuality and an habituall folly , by pride and forgetfulnesse of the condition and miseries of mankind , are alwayes unreasonable , and sometimes intolerable . — regustatum digito terebrare salinum Contentus perages , si vivere cum Jove tendis . Formidable is the state of an intemperate man , whose sin begins with sensuality , and grows up in folly and weak discourses , and is fed by violence and applauded by fooles and parasites , full bellies , and empty heads , servants and flatterers , whose hands are full of flesh and blood , and their hearts empty of pity and naturall compassion ; where religion cannot inhabit , and the love of God must needs be a stranger ; whose talk is loud , and trifling , injurious and impertinent ; and whose imployment is the same with the work of the sheep or the calfe , alwayes to eat ; their loves are the lusts of the lower belly , and their portion is in the lower regions to eternall ages , where their thirst , and their hunger , and their torment shall be infinite . 4. Intemperance is a perfect destruction of Wisdome . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a full gorg'd belly never produc'd a sprightly mind : and therefore these kind of men are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , slow bellies , so S. Paul concerning the intemperate Cretans out of their owne Poet : they are like the Tigres of Brasil , which when they are empty are bold , and swift , and full of sagacity , but being full , sneak away from the barking of a village dog . So are these men , wise in the morning , quick and fit for businesse ; but when the sun gives the signe to spread the tables , and intemperance brings in the messes , and drunkennesse fills the bouls , then the man fals away , and leaves a beast in his room ; nay worse , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they are dead all but their throat and belly , so Aristophanes hath fitted them with a character , carkasses above halfe way ; Plotinus descends one step lower yet ; affirming such persons , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they are made trees , whose whole imployment and life is nothing but to feed and suck juices from the bowels of their Nurse and Mother ; and indeed commonly they talke as trees in a wind and tempest , the noise is great and querulous , but it signifies nothing but trouble and disturbance . A full meal is like Sisera's banquet ; at the end of which there is a nail struck into a mans head : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so Porphyrie ; it knocks a man down , and nayls his soul to the sensuall mixtures of the body . For what wisdome can be expected from them , whose soul dwels in clouds of meat , and floats up and down in wine , like the spilled cups which fell from their hands , when they could lift them to their heads no longer ? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : It is a perfect shipwrack of a Man , the Pilot is drunk and the helm dash'd in pieces , and the ship first reels , and by swallowing too much is it self swallowed up at last . And therefore the Navis Agrigentina , the madnesse of the young fellows of Agrigentum , who being drunk , fancyed themselves in a storm , and the house the ship ; was more then the wilde fancy of their cups , it was really so , they were all cast away , they were broken in pieces by the foul disorder of the storm . Hinc vini atque somni degener discordia , Libido sordens , inverecundus lepos , Variaeque pestes languidorum sensuum . Hinc frequenti marcida oblectamine Scintilla mentis intorpescit nobilis , Animúsque pigris stertit in praecordiis . The senses languish , the spark of Divinity that dwels within is quenched , and the mind snorts , dead with sleep and fulnesse in the fouler regions of the belly . So have I seen the eye of the world looking upon a fenny bottome , and drinking up too free draughts of moysture gather'd them into a cloud , and that cloud crept about his face , and made him first look red , and then cover'd him with darknesse and an artificiall night : so is our reason at a feast . Putrem resudans crapulam Obstrangulatae mentis ingenium premit . The clouds gather about the head , and according to the method and period of the children , and productions of darkness , it first grows red , and that rednesse turns into an obscurity , and a thick mist , and reason is lost to all use and profitablenesse of wise and sober discourses ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a cloud of folly and distraction darkens the soul , and makes it crasse and materiall , polluted and heavy , clogg'd and loaden like the body : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , And there cannot be any thing said worse , reason turnes into folly , wine and flesh into a knot of clouds , the soul it self into a body , and the spirit into corrupted meat ; there is nothing left but the rewards and portions of a fool to be reaped and enjoyed there , where flesh and corruption shall dwell to eternall ages ; and therefore in Scripture such men are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Hesternis vitiis animum quoque praegravant : Their heads are grosse , their soules are immerged in matter , and drowned in the moystures of an unwholsome cloud ; they are dull of hearing , slow in apprehension , and to action they are as unable as the hands of a childe , who too hastily hath broken the inclosures of his first dwelling . But temperance is reasons girdle , and passions bridle , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so Homer in Stobaeus , that 's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , prudence is safe , while the man is temperate , and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is opposed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a temperate man is no fool , for temperance is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , such as Plato appointed to night-walkers , a prison to restraine their inordinations ; it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Pythagoras calls it ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so Socrates ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so Plato ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so Iämblicus , It is the strength of the soule , the foundation of vertue , the ornament of all good things , and the corroborative of all excellent habits . 5. After all this , I shall the lesse need to add , that intemperance is a dishonor and disreputation to the nature , and the person , and the manners of a Man. But naturally men are ashamed of it , and the needs of nature shal be the vail for their gluttony , and the night shall cover their drunkennesse . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which the Apostle rightly renders , They that are drunk are drunk in the night ; but the Priests of Heliopolis never did sacrifice to the Sun with wine ; meaning , that this is so great a dishonor , that the Sun ought not to see it ; and they that think there is no other eye but the Sun that sees them , may cover their shame by choosing their time ; just as children doe their danger by winking hard , and not looking on . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , To drink sweet drinks and hot , to quaffe great draughts , and to eat greedily ; Theophrastus makes them characters of a Clown . And now that I have told you the foulnesse of the Epicures feasts and principles , it will be fit that I describe the measures of our eating and drinking , that the needs of nature may neither become the cover to an intemperate dish , nor the freer refreshment of our persons be changed into scruples , that neither our vertue nor our conscience fall into an evill snare . 1. The first measure of our eating and drinking is our natural needs , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; these are the measures of nature , that the body be free from pain , and the soul from violence . Hunger , and thirst , and cold are the naturall diseases of the body ; and food , and rayment , are their remedies , and therefore are the measures . In quantum sitis atque fames , & frigora poscunt , Quantum Epicure tibi parvis suffecit in hortis . But in this there are two cautions . 1. Hunger and thirst are onely to be extinguished while they are violent and troublesome , and are not to be provided for to the utmost extent and possibilities of nature ; a man is not hungry so long , till he can eat no more , but till its sharpnesse and trouble is over , and he that does not leave some reserves for temperance , gives all that he can to nature , and nothing at all to grace ; For God hath given a latitude in desires and degrees of appetite ; and when he hath done , he laid restraint upon it in some whole instances , and of some parts in every instance ; that man might have something to serve God of his own , and something to distinguish him from a beast in the use of their common faculties . Beasts cannot refrain but fill all the capacity , when they can ; and if a man does so , he does what becomes a beast , and not a man. And therefore there are some little symptomes of this inordination , by which a man may perceive himself to have transgressed his measures ; Ructation , uneasie loads , singing , looser pratings , importune drowsinesse , provocation of others to equall and full chalices ; and though in every accident of this signification , it is hard for another to pronounce that the man hath sinned , yet by these he may suspect himself , and learn the next time to hold the bridle harder . 2. This hunger must be naturall , not artificiall and provoked : For many men make necessities to themselves , and then think they are bound to provide for them . It is necessary to some men to have garments made of the Calabrian fleece stain'd with the blood of the murex , and to get money to buy pearls round and orient ; scelerata hoc fecit pulpa ; but it is the mans luxury that made it so ; and by the same principle it is , that in-meats , what is abundant to nature is defective and beggerly to art ; and when nature willingly rises from Table , when the first course of flesh , plain and naturall , is done , then art , and sophistry , and adulterate dishes invite him to taste and die , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; well may a sober man wonder that men should be so much in love with earth and corruption , the parent of rottennesse , and a disease , that even then when by all laws witches and inchanters , murderers and manstealers are chastised and restrain'd with the iron hands of death , yet that men should at great charges give pensions to an order of men , whose trade it is to rob them of their temperance , and wittily to destroy their health ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Greek Fathers call such persons ; — curvae in terris animae & coelestium inanes , people bowed downe to the earth ; lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God : * Aretinas mentes , so Antidamus calls them , men framed in the furnaces of Etruria , Aretine spirits , beginning and ending in flesh and filthynesse ; dirt and clay all over . But goe to the Crib thou glutton , and there it will be found that when the charger is clean , yet natures rules were not prevaricated ; the beast eats up all his provisions because they are naturall and simple ; or if he leaves any , it is because he desires no more then till his needs be served ; and neither can a man ( unlesse he be diseased in body or in spirit , in affection or in habit ) eat more of naturall and simple food then to the satisfactions of his naturall necessities . He that drinks a draught or two of water , and cooles his thirst , drinks no more till his thirst returnes ; but he that drinks wine , drinks it again , longer then it is needfull , even so long as it is pleasant . Nature best provides for her self when she spreads her own Table ; but when men have gotten superinduced habits , and new necessities , art that brought them in must maintain them , but wantonnesse and folly wait at the table , and sickness and death take away . 2. Reason is the second measure ; or rather the rule whereby we judge of intemperance ; For whatsoever loads of meat or drink make the reason uselesse , or troubled , are effects of this deformity ; not that reason is the adequate measure , for a man may be intemperate upon other causes , though he doe not force his understanding , and trouble his head . Some are strong to drink , and can eat like a wolfe , and love to doe so , as fire to destroy the stubble ; such were those Harlots in the Comedy , Quae cum amatore suo cum coenant liguriunt : These persons are to take their accounts from the measures of Religion , and the Spirit ; though they can talk still or transact the affaires of the world , yet if they be not fitted for the things of the Spirit , they are too full of flesh or wine , and cannot or care not to attend to the things of God. But reason is the limit beyond which temperance never wanders ; and in every degree in which our discourse is troubled , and our soul is lifted from its wheels , in the same degree the sin prevails . Dum sumus in quâdam delinquendi libidine , nebulis quibusdam insipientiae mens obducitur , saith St. Ambrose , when the flesh-pots reek , and the uncovered dishes send forth a nidor and hungry smels , that cloud hides the face , and puts out the eye of reason , and then tell them mors in ollâ , that death is in the pot , and folly in the chalice , that those smels are fumes of brimstone , and vapours of Egypt ; that they will make their heart easie , and their head sottish , and their colour pale , and their hands trembling , and their feet tormented : ( Mullorum leporúmque & suminis exitus hic est , Sulphureúsque color carnificésque pedes . For that is the end of delicacies , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Dio Chrysostom . palenesse and effeminacy , and lazinesse , and folly : ) yet under the dominion of the pleasures of sensuality , men are so stript of the use of reason , that they are not onely uselesse in wise counsels and assistances , but they have not reason enough to avoid the evils of their own throat and belly : when once their reason fails , we must know , that their temperance and their religion went before . 3. Though reason be so strictly to be preserved at our tables as well as at our prayers , and we can never have leave to doe any violence to it ; yet the measures of Nature may be enlarged beyond the bounds of prime and common necessity . For besides hunger and thirst , there are some labours of the body , and others of the mind , and there are sorrows and loads upon the spirit by its communications with the indispositions of the body ; and as the labouring man may be supplyed with bigger quantities , so the student and contemplative man with more delicious and spritefull nutriment : for as the tender and more delicate easily-digested meats will not help to carry burthers upon the neck , and hold the plough in society and yokes of the laborious oxen ; so neither will the pulse and the leeks , Lavinian sausages , and the Cisalpine tucets or gobbets of condited buls ●esh minister such delicate spirits to the thinking man ; but his notion will be flat as the noyse of the Arcadian porter , and thick as the first juice of his countrey lard , unlesse he makes his body a fit servant to the soul , and both fitted for the imployment . But in these cases necessity , and prndence , and experience are to make the measures and the rule ; and so long as the just end is fairly designed , and aptly ministred to , there ought to be no scruple concerning the quantity or quality of the provision : and he that would stint a Swain by the commons of a Student , and give Philot as the Candian , the leavings of Pluto , does but ill serve the ends of temperance , but worse of prudence and necessity . 4. Sorrow and a wounded spirit may as well be provided for in the quantity and quality of meat and drink , as any other disease ; and this disease by this remedy as well as by any other . For great sorrow and importune melancholy may be as great a sin as a great anger ; and if it be a sin in its nature , it is more malignant and dangerous in its quality ; as naturally tending to murmur and despair , wear inesse of Religion , and hatred of God , timorousnesse and jealousies , fantastick images of things and superstition ; and therefore as it is necessary to restrain the feavers of anger , so also to warm the freezings and dulnesse of melancholy by prudent and temperate , but proper and apportion'd diets ; and if some meats and drinks make men lustfull , or sleepy , or dull , or lazy , or spritely , or merry , so far as meats and drinks can minister to the passion , and the passion minister to vertue , so far by this means they may be provided for . Give strong drink to him that is ready to perish , and wine to those that be of heavy hearts , let him drink and forget his poverty , and remember his misery no more , said King Lemuel's Mother . But this is not intended to be an habituall cure , but single and occasionall ; for he that hath a pertinacious sorrow is beyond the cure of meat and drink , and if this become every days physick , it will quickly become every days sin . 2. It must alwayes keep within the bounds of reason , and never seise upon any portions of affection : The Germans use to mingle musick with their bowls , and drink by the measures of the six Notes of Musick : Ut relevet miserum fatum , solitósque labores : but they sing so long that they forget not their sorrow onely , but their vertue also , and their Religion ; and there are some men that fall into drunkennesse because they would forget a lighter calamity , running into the fire to cure a calenture , and beating their brains out to be quit of the aking of their heads . A mans heavynesse is refreshed long before he comes to drunkennesse ; for when he arrives thither , he hath but chang'd his heavynesse , and taken a crime to boot . 5. Even when a man hath no necessity upon him , no pungent sorrow , or naturall or artificiall necessity , it is lawfull in some cases of eating and drinking to receive pleasure and intend it . For whatsoever is naturall and necessary , is therefore not criminall , because it is of Gods procuring ; and since we eate for need , and the satisfaction of our need is a removing of a pain , and that in nature is the greatest pleasure , it is impossible that in its own nature it should be a sin . But in this case of Conscience , these cautions are to be observed : 1. So long as nature ministers the pleasure and not art , it is materially innocent . Si tuo veniat jure , luxuria est : But it is safe while it enters upon natures stock ; for it is impossible that the proper effect of health , and temperance , and prudent abstinence should be vicious ; and yet these are the parents of the greatest pleasure , in eating and drinking . Malum panem expecta , bonus siet ; etiam illum tenerum tibi & siligineum fames reddet : If you abstaine and be hungry , you shall turne the meanest provision into delicate , and desireable . 2. Let all the pleasure of meat and drink be such as can minister to health , and be within the former bounds . For since pleasure in eating and drinking is its naturall appendage , and like a shadow follows the substance , as the meat is to be accounted , so is the pleasure : and if these be observed , there is no difference whether nature or art be the Cook. For some constitutions , and some mens customes , and some mens educations , and necessities , and weaknesses are such , that their appetite is to be invited , and their digestion helped , but all this while we are within the bounds of nature and need . 3. It is lawfull when a man needs meat to choose the pleasanter , even meerly for their pleasures ; that is , because they are pleasant , besides that they are usefull ; this is as lawfull as to smell of a rose , or to lye in feathers , or change the posture of our body in bed for ease , or to hear musick , or to walk in gardens rather then the high-wayes ; and God hath given us leave to be delighted in those things which he made to that purpose , that we may also be delighted in him that gives them . For so as the more pleasant may better serve for health , and directly to refreshment , so collaterally to Religion : Alwayes provided , that it be in its degree moderate , and we temperate in our desires , without transportation and violence , without unhandsome usages of our selves , or taking from God and from Religion any minutes and portions of our affections . When Eicadastes the Epicure saw a goodly dish of hot meat serv'd up , he sung the verse of Homer , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and swallowed some of it greedily , till by its hands of fire it curled his stomach , like parchment in the flame , and he was carryed from his banquet to his grave . Non poterat letho nobiliore mori : It was fit he should dye such a death ; but that death bids us beware of that folly . 4. Let the pleasure as it came with the meat , so also passe away with it . Philoxenus was a beast , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he wisht his throat as long as a Cranes , that he might be long in swallowing his pleasant morsels : Moeret quòd magna pars felicitat is exclusa esset corporis angustiis ; he mourned because the pleasure of eating was not spread over all his body , that he might have been an Epicure in his hands : and indeed , if we consider it rightly , great eating and drinking is not the greatest pleasure of the taste , but of the touch ; and Philoxenus might feel the unctious juyce slide softly down his throat , but he could not taste it in the middle of the long neck ; and we see that they who mean to feast exactly , or delight the palate , do libare or pitissare , take up little proportions and spread them upon the tongue or palate ; but full morsells and great draughts are easie and soft to the touch ; but so is the feeling of silke , or handling of a melon , or a moles skin , and as delicious too as eating when it goes beyond the appetites of nature , and the proper pleasures of taste , which cannot be perceived but by a temperate man. And therefore let not the pleasure be intended beyond the taste ; that is , beyond those little naturall measures in which God intended that pleasure should accompany your tables . Doe not run to it beforehand , nor chew the chud when the meal is done ; delight not in the fancies , and expectations , and remembrances of a pleasant meal ; but let it descend in latrinam , together with the meals whose attendant pleasure is . 5. Let pleasure be the lesse principall , and used as a servant ; it may be modest and prudent to strew the dish with Sugar , or to dip thy bread in vinegar , but to make thy meal of sauces , and to make the accessory become the principall , and pleasure to rule the table , and all the regions of thy soule , is to make a man lesse and lower then an Oglio , of a cheaper value then a Turbat ; a servant and a worshipper of sauces , and cookes , and pleasure , and folly . 6. Let pleasure as it is used in the regions and limits of nature and prudence , so also be changed into religion and thankfulnesse . Turtures cum bibunt non resupinant colla , say Naturalists , Turtles when they drink lift not up their bills ; and if we swallow our pleasures without returning the honour and the acknowledegment to God that gave them , we may largè bibere jumentorum modo , drink draughts as large as an Oxe , but we shall die like an Oxe , and change our meats and drinks into eternall rottennesse . In all Religions it hath been permitted to enlarge our Tables in the days of sacrifices and religious festivity . Qui Veientarum festis potare diebus , Campanâ solitus trullâ , vappámque profestis . For then the body may rejoyce in fellowship with the soule , and then a pleasant meal is religious , if it be not inordinate . But if our festivall dayes like the Gentile sacrifices end in drunkennesse [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] and our joyes in Religion passe into sensuality and beastly crimes , we change the Holy-day into a day of Death , and our selves become a Sacrifice as in the day of Slaughter . To summe up this particular , there are , as you perceive , many cautions to make our pleasure safe , but any thing can make it inordinate , and then scarce any thing can keep it from becoming dangerous . Habet omnis hoc voluptas , Stimulis agit furentes , Apiúmque par volantum , Ubi grata mella fudit , Fugit & nimis tenaci Ferit icta corda mersu . And the pleasure of the honey will not pay for the smart of the sting . Amores enim & delicia ' maturè & celeritèr destorescunt , & in omnibus rebus voluptatibus maximis fastidium finitimum est . Nothing is so soon ripe and rotten as pleasure , and upon all possessions and states of things , loathing looks , as being not far off ; but it sits upon the skirts of pleasure . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . He that greedily puts his hand to a delicious table , shall weep bitterly when he suffers the convulsions and violence by the divided interests of such contrary juices : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . For this is the law of our nature and fatall necessity ; life is alwayes poured forth from two goblets . And now after all this , I pray consider , what a strange madness and prodigious folly possesses many men , that they love to swallow death , and diseases , and dishonor , with an appetite which no reason can restrain . We expect our servants should not dare to touch what we have forbidden to them ; we are watchfull that our children should not swallow poysons , and filthinesse , and unwholesome nourishment ; we take care that they should be well manner'd and civil and of fair demeanour ; and we our selves desire to be , or at least to be accounted wise ; and would infinitely scorne to be call'd fooles ; and we are so great lovers of health , that we will buy it at any rate of money or observance ; and then for honour , it is that which the children of men pursue with passion , it is one of the noblest rewards of vertue , and the proper ornament of the wise and valiant , and yet all these things are not valued or considered , when a merry meeting , or a looser feast calls upon the man to act a scene of folly and madnesse , and healthlesnesse and dishonour . We doe to God what we severely punish in our servants ; we correct our children for their medling with dangers , which themselves preferre before immortality ; and though no man think himselfe fit to be despised , yet he is willing to make himselfe a beast , a sot , and a ridiculous monkey , with the follies and vapors of wine ; and when he is high in drinke or fancy , proud as a Grecian Orator in the midst of his popular noyses , at the same time he shall talk such dirty language , such mean low things , as may well become a changeling and a foole , for whom the stocks are prepared by the laws , and the just scorne of men . Every drunkard clothes his head with a mighty scorne , and makes himselfe lower at that time then the meanest of his servants ; the boyes can laugh at him when he is led like a cripple , directed like a blinde man , and speakes like an infant , imperfect noyses , lisping with a full and spungy tongue , and an empty head , and a vaine and foolish heart : so cheaply does he part with his honour for drink or loads of meat ; for which honour he is ready to die , rather then hear it to be disparaged by another ; when himselfe destroyes it , as bubbles perish with the breath of children . Doe not the laws of all wise Nations marke the drunkard for a foole , with the meanest and most scornfull punishment ? and is there any thing in the world so foolish as a man that is drunk ? But good God! what an intolerable sorrow hath seifed upon great portions of Mankind , that this folly and madnesse should possesse the greatest spirits , and the wittyest men , the best company , the most sensible of the word honour , and the most jealous of loosing the shadow , and the most carelesse of the thing ? Is it not a horrid thing , that a wise , or a crafty , a learned , or a noble person should dishonour himselfe as a foole , destroy his body as a murtherer , lessen his estate as a prodigall , disgrace every good cause that he can pretend to by his relation , and become an appellative of scorne , a scene of laughter or derision , and all , for the reward of forgetfulnesse and madnesse ? for there are in immoderate drinking no other pleasures . Why doe valiant men and brave personages fight and die rather then break the laws of men , or start from their duty to their Prince , and will suffer themselves to be cut in pieces rather then deserve the name of a Traitor or perjur'd ? and yet these very men to avoyd the hated name of Glutton or Drunkard , and to preserve their Temperance , shall not deny themselves one luscious morsell , or poure a cup of wine on the ground , when they are invited to drink by the laws of the circle or wilder company . Me thinks it were but reason , that if to give life to uphold a cause be not too much , they should not think too much to be hungry and suffer thirst for the reputation of that cause ; and therefore much rather that they would thinke it but duty to be temperate for its honour , and eat and drink in civill and faire measures , that themselves might not lose the reward of so much suffering , and of so good a relation , nor that which they value most be destroyed by drink . There are in the world a generation of men that are ingag'd in a cause , which they glory in , and pride themselves in its relation and appellative : but yet for that cause they will doe nothing but talk and drink ; they are valiant in wine , and witty in healths , and full of stratagem to promote debauchery ; but such persons are not considerable in wise accounts ; that which I deplore is , that some men preferre a cause before their life , and yet preferre wine before that cause , and by one drunken meeting set it more backward in its hopes and blessings , then it can be set forward by the counsels and armes of a whole yeer . God hath ways enough to reward a truth without crowning it with successe in the hands of such men . In the mean time they dishonour Religion , and make truth be evill spoken of , and innocent persons to suffer by their very relation , and the cause of God to be reproached in the sentences of erring and abused people ; and themselves lose their health and their reason , their honour and their peace , the rewards of sober counsels , and the wholesome effects of wisdome . Arcanum neque tu scrutaber is ullius unquam , Commissúmque teges , & vino tortus & irâ . Wine discovers more then the rack , and he that will be drunk is not a person fit to be trusted : and though it cannot be expected men should be kinder to their friend , or their Prince , or their honour , then to God , and to their own souls , and to their own bodies ; yet when men are not moved by what is sensible and materiall , by that which smarts and shames presently , they are beyond the cure of Religion , and the hopes of Reason ; and therefore they must lie in hell like sheep , death gnawing upon them , and the righteous shall have domination over them in the morning of the resurrection . Seras tutior ibis ad lucernas , Haec hora non est tua , cam furit Lyaeus Cùm regnant rosae , cùm madent capilli . Much safer it is to go to the severities of a watchfull and a sober life ; for all that time of life is lost , when wine , and rage , and pleasure , and folly steale away the heart of a man , and make him goe singing to his grave . I end with the saying of a wise man ; He is fit to sit at the table of the Lord , and to feast with Saints , who moderately uses the creatures which God hath given him : But he that despises even lawfull pleasures , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , shall not onely sit and feast with God , but reign together with him , and partake of his glorious Kingdome . Sermon , XVII . THE MARRIAGE RING : OR THE Mysteriousnesse and Duties of Marriage . Part I. Ephes. 5. 32 , 33. This is a great mysterie , But I speak concerning Christ and the Church . Neverthelesse let every one of you in particular so love his Wife even as himself , and the Wife see that shee reverence her Husband . THe first blessing God gave to man was society , and that society was a Marriage , and that Marriage was confederate by God himself , and hallowed by a blessing : and at the same time , and for very many descending ages , not only by the instinct of Nature , but by a superadded forwardnesse ( God himself inspiring the desire ) * the world was most desirous of children , impatient of barrennesse , accounting single life a curse , and a childlesse person hated by God. The world was rich and empty , and able to provide for a more numerous posterity then it it had . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . You that are rich Numenius , you may multiply your family , poor men are not so fond of children ; but when a family could drive their heards , and set their children upon camels , and lead them till they saw a fat soil watered with rivers , and there sit down without paying rent , they thought of nothing but to have great families , that their own relations might swell up to a Patriarchat , and their children be enough to possesse all the regions that they saw , and their grand-children become Princes , and themselves build cities and call them by the name of a childe , and become the fountain of a Nation . This was the consequent of the first blessing , Increase and multiply . The next blessing was the promise of the Messias , and that also increased in men and women a wonderfull desire of marriage : for as soon as God had chosen the family of Abraham to be the blessed line , from whence the worlds Redeemer should descend according to the flesh , every of his daughters hoped to have the honour to be his Mother , or his Grand-mother or something of his kindred : and to be childelesse in Israel was a sorrow to the Hebrew women great as the slavery of Egypt , or their dishonours in the land of their captivity . But when the Messias was come , and his doctrine was published , and his Ministers but few , and the Disciples were to suffer persecution , and to be of an unsetled dwelling , and the Nation of the Jews , in the bosome and society of which the Church especially did dwell , were to be scattered and broken all in pieces with fierce calamities , and the world was apt to calumniate and to suspect and dishonour Christians upon pretences , and unreasonable jealousies , and that to all these purposes the state of marriage brought many inconveniences ; it pleased God in this new creation to inspire into the hearts of his servants a disposition and strong desires to live a single life , left the state of marriage should in that conjunction of things become an accidentall impediment to the dissemination of the Gospell , which cal'd men from a confinement in their domestick charges to travell , and flight , and poverty , and difficulty , and Martyrdome : upon this necessity the Apostles and Apostolicall men published Doctrines , declaring the advantages of single life , not by any commandement of the Lord , but by the spirit of prudence , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for the present and then incumbent necessities , and in order to the advantages which did accrew to the publick ministeries and private piety . There are some ( said our blessed Lord ) who make themselves Eunuchs for the Kingdome of Heaven , that is , for the advantages and the ministery of the Gospell , non ad vitae bonae meritum ( as St. Austin in the like case ) not that it is a better service of God in it self , but that it is usefull to the first circumstances of the Gospell and the infancy of the Kingdome , because the unmarryed person does 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , is apt to spirituall and Ecclesiasticall imployments : first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , holy in his own person , and then sanctified to publick ministeries ; and it was also of ease to the Christians themselves , because as then it was , when they were to flie , and to flie for ought they knew , in winter , and they were persecuted to the four winds of heaven ; and the nurses and the women with childe were to suffer a heavier load of sorrow because of the imminent persecutions ; and above all , because of the great fatality of ruine upon the whole nation of the Jewes , well it might be said by St. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Such shall have trouble in the flesh , that is , they that are marryed shall , and so at that time they had : and therefore it was an act of charity to the Christians to give that counsell , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I do this to spare you , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : for when the case was alter'd and that storm was over , and the first necessities of the Gospel served , and the sound was gone out into all nations ; in very many persons it was wholly changed , and not the marryed but the unmarryed had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 trouble in the flesh ; and the state of marriage returned to its first blessing , & non non erat bonum homini esse solitarium , and it was not good for man to be alone . But in this first intervall , the publick necessity and the private zeal mingling together did sometimes over-act their love of single life , even to the disparagement of marriage , and to the scandall of Religion ; which was increased by the occasion of some pious persons renouncing their contract of marriage , not consummate , with unbeleevers . For when Flavia Domitilla being converted by Nereus and Achilleus the Eunuchs , refused to marry Aurelianus to whom she was contracted ; if there were not some little envie and too sharp hostility in the Eunuchs , to a marryed state , yet Aurelianus thought himself an injur'd person , and caus'd St. Clemens who vail'd her , and his spouse both , to dye in the quarrell . St. Thecla being converted by St. Paul grew so in love with virginity , that she leap'd back from the marriage of Tamyris where she was lately ingaged . St. Iphigenia denyed to marry King Hirtacus , and it is said to be done by the advice of St. Matthew . And Susanna the Niece of Diocletian refus'd the love of Maximianus the Emperour ; and these all had been betrothed ; and so did St. Agnes and St. Felicula , and divers others then and afterwards ; insomuch , that it was reported among the Gentiles , that the Christians did not only hate all that were not of their perswasion , but were enemies of the chast lawes of marriage ; And indeed some that were called Christians were so ; forbidding to marry , and commanding to abstain from meats . Upon this occasion it grew necessary for the Apostle to state the question right , and to do honour to the holy rite of marriage , and to snatch the mystery from the hands of zeal and folly , and to place it in Christs right hand , that all its beauties might appear , and a present convenience might not bring in a false Doctrine , and a perpetuall sin , and an intolerable mischief . The Apostle therefore who himself * had been a marryed man , but was now a widower , does explicate the mysteriousnesse of it , and describes it's honours , and adornes it with rules and provisions of Religion , that as it begins with honour , so it may proceed with piety , and end with glory . For although single life hath in it privacy and simplicity of affaires , such solitarinesse and sorrow , such leasure and unactive circumstances of living , that there are more spaces for religion if men would use them to these purposes ; and because it may have in it much religion and prayers , and must have in it a perfect mortification of our strongest appetites , is therefore a state of great excellency ; yet concerning the state of marriage we are taught from Scripture and the sayings of wise men , great things and honourable . Marriage is honourable in all men , so is not single life ; for in some it is a snare and a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a trouble in the flesh , a prison of unruly desires which is attempted daily to be broken . Celibate or single life is never commanded ; but in some cases marriage is ; and he that burns , sins often if he marries not , he that cannot contain must marry , and he that can contain is not tyed to a single life , but may marry and not sin . Marriage was ordained by God , instituted in Paradise , was the relief of a naturall necessity , and the first blessing from the Lord ; he gave to Man not a friend , but a wife , that is , a friend and a wife too : ( for a good woman is in her soul the same that a man is , and she is a woman only in her body ; that she may have the excellency of the one , and the usefulnesse of the other , and become amiable in both : ) it is the seminary of the Church , and daily brings forth sons and daughters unto God ; it was ministred to by Angels , and Raphael waited upon a young man that he might have a blessed marriage , and that that marriage might repair two fad families , and blesse all their relatives . Our blessed Lord , though he was born of a maiden , yet she was vail'd under the cover of marriage , and she was marryed to a widower ; for Joseph the supposed Father of our Lord had children by a former wife . The first Miracle that ever Jesus did , was to doe honour to a wedding ; marriage was in the world before sin , and is in all ages of the world the greatest and most effective antidote against sin , in which all the world had perished if God had not made a remedy ; and although sin hath sour'd marriage , and stuck the mans head with cares , and the womans bed with sorrowes in the production of children , yet these are but throws of life and glory ; and she shall be saved in child-bearing , if she be found in faith and righteousnesse . Marriage is a Schoole and exercise of vertue ; and though Marriage hath cares , yet the single life hath desires which are more troublesome and more dangerous , and often end in sin , while the cares are but instances of duty and exercises of piety ; and therefore if single life hath more privacy of devotion , yet marriage hath more necessities and more variety of it , and is an exercise of more graces . In two vertues celibate or single life may have the advantage of degrees ordinarily and commonly , that is , in chastity and devotion : but as in some persons this may fail , and it does in very many , and a marryed man may spend as much time in devotion as any virgins or widowes do , yet as in marriage even those vertues of chastity and devotion are exercised : so in other instances , this state hath proper exercises and trials for those graces , for which single life can never be crown'd ; Here is the proper scene of piety and patience , of the duty of Parents and the charity of relatives ; here kindnesse is spread abroad , and love is united and made firm as a centre . Marriage is the nursery of heaven ; the virgin sends prayers to God , but she carries but one soul to him ; but the state of marriage fils up the numbers of the elect , and hath in it the labour of love , and the delicacies of friendship , the blessing of society , and the union of hands and hearts ; it hath in it lesse of beauty , but more of safety then the single life ; it hath more care , but lesse danger ; it is more merry , and more sad ; is fuller of sorrowes , and fuller of joyes ; it lies under more burdens , but it is supported by all the strengths of love and charity , and those burdens are delightfull . Marriage is the mother of the world , and preserves Kingdomes , and fils Cities , and Churches , and Heaven it self : Celibate , like the flie in the heart of an apple , dwels in a perpetuall sweetnesse , but sits alone , and is confin'd and dies in singularity ; but marriage , like the usefull Bee , builds a house and gathers sweetnesse from every flower , and labours and unites into societies and republicks , and sends out colonies , and feeds the world with delicacies , and obeys their king , and keeps order , and exercises many vertues , and promotes the interest of mankinde , and is that state of good things to which God hath designed the present constitution of the world . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Single life makes men in one instance to be like Angels , but marriage in very many things makes the chast pair to be like to Christ. This is a great mystery , but it is the symbolicall and sacramentall representment of the greatest mysteries of our Religion . Christ descended from his Fathers bosome , and contracted his divinity with flesh and bloud , and marryed our Nature , and we became a Church , the spouse of the bridegroom , which he cleansed with his bloud , and gave her his holy Spirit for a dowry , and heaven for a joynture ; begetting children unto God by the Gospel ; this spouse he hath joyn'd to himself by an excellent charity , he feeds her at his own table , and lodges her nigh his own heart , provides for all her necessities , relieves her sorrowes , determines her doubts , guides her wandrings , he is become her head , and she as a signet upon his right hand ; he first indeed was betrothed to the Synagogue and had many children by her , but she forsook his love , and then he marryed the Church of the Gentiles , and by her as by a second venter had a more numerous issue , atque una domus est omnium filiorum ejus , all the children dwell in the same house , and are heirs of the same promises , intituled to the same inheritance . Here is the eternall conjunction , the indissoluble knot , the exceeding love of Christ , the obedience of the Spouse , the communicating of goods , the uniting of interests , the fruit of marriage , a celestiall generation , a new creature ; Sacramentum hoc magnum est ; this is the sacramentall mystery represented by the holy rite of marriage ; so that marriage is divine in its institution , sacred in its union , holy in the mystery , sacramentall in its signification , honourable in its appellative , religious in its imployments : It is advantage to the societies of men , and it is holinesse to the Lord. Di●o autem in Christo & Ecclesiâ , ] It must be in Christ and the Church . If this be not observed , marriage loses its mysteriousnesse : but because it is to effect much of that which it signifies , it concerns all that enter into those golden fetters to see that Christ and his Church be in at every of its periods , and that it be intirely conducted and over-rul'd by Religion ; for so the Apostle passes from the sacramentall rite to the reall duty ; Neverthelesse , that is , although the former discourse were wholly to explicate the conjunction of Christ and his Church by this similitude , yet it hath in it this reall duty , that the man love his wife , and the wife reverence her husband ; and this is the use we shall now make of it , the particulars of which precept I shall thus dispose . 1. I shall propound the duty as it generally relates to Man and Wife in conjunction . 2. The duty and power of the Man. 3. The rights and priviledges and the duty of the Wife . 1. In Christo & Ecclesia ] that begins all , and there is great need it should be so , for they that enter into the state of marriage cast a dye of the greatest contingency , and yet of the greatest interest in the world , next to the last throw for eternity . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . life or death , felicity or a lasting sorrow are in the power of marriage . A woman indeed ventures most , for she hath no sanctuary to retire to , from an evill husband ; she must dwell upon her sorrow , and hatch the egges which her own folly or infelicity hath produced ; and she is more under it , because her tormentor hath a warrant of prerogative , and the woman may complain to God as subjects do of tyrant Princes , but otherwise she hath no appeal in the causes of unkindenesse . And though the man can run from many hours of his sadnesse , yet he must return to it again , and when he sits among his neighbours he remembers the objection that lies in his bosome , and he sighes deeply . Ah tum te miserum , malique fati Quem attract is pedibus patente portâ Percurrent mugilésque raphanique The boyes , and the pedlers , and the fruiterers shall tell of this man , when he is carryed to his grave , that he lived and dyed a poor wretched person . The Stags in the Greek Epigram , whose knees were clog'd with frozen snow upon the mountains , came down to the brooks of the vallies , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , hoping to thaw their joynts with the waters of the stream ; but there the frost overtook them , and bound them fast in ice , till the young heardsmen took them in their stranger snare . It is the unhappy chance of many men , finding many inconveniences upon the mountains of single life , they descend into the vallies of a marriage to refresh their troubles , and there they enter into fetters , and are bound to sorrow by the cords of a mans or womans peevishnesse : and the worst of the evill is , they are to thank their own follies ; for they fell into the snare by entring an improper way : Christ and the Church were no ingredients in their choice : but as the Indian women , enter into folly for the price of an Elephant , and think their crime warrantable ; so do men and women change their liberty for a rich fortune ( like Eriphyle the Argive , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , she prefer'd gold before a good man ) and shew themselves to be lesse then money by overvaluing that to all the content and wise felicity of their lives : and when they have counted the money and their sorrowes together , how willingly would they b buy with the losse of all that money , modesty , or sweet nature to their relative ! the odde thousand pound would gladly be allowed in good nature and fair manners . As very a fool is he that chooses for c beauty principally ; cui sum eruditi oculi & stulta mens ( as one said ) whose eyes are witty , and their soul sensuall ; It is an ill band of affections to tye two hearts together by a little thread of red and white . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And they can love no longer but untill the next ague comes , and they are fond of each other but at the chance of fancy , or the small pox , or childebearing , or care , or time , or any thing that can destroy a pretty flower . But it is the basest of all when lust is the Paranymph and solicits the suit , and makes the contract , and joyn'd the hands ; for this is commonly the effect of the former , according to the Greek proverb , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . At first for his fair cheeks and comely beard , the beast is taken for a Lion , but at last he is turn'd to a Dragon or a Leopard , or a Swine . That which is at first beauty on the face may prove lust in the manners . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , So Eubulus wittily reprehended such impure contracts ; they offer in their maritall sacrifices nothing but the thigh and that which the Priests cut from the goats when they were laid to bleed upon the Altars . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said St. Clement . He or she that looks too curiously upon the beauty of the body , looks too low , and hath flesh and corruption in his heart , and is judg'd sensuall and earthly in his affections and desires . Begin therefore with God , Christ is the president of marriage and the holy Ghost is the fountain of purities and chast loves , and he joynes the hearts ; and therefore let our first suit be in the court of heaven , and with designs of piety , or safety , or charity ; let no impure spirit defile the virgin purities and castifications of the soul , ( as St. Peters phrase is ) let all such contracts begin with religious affections . Conjugium petimus , partúmque uxoris , at illi Notum qui pueri , qualisve futura sit uxor . We sometimes beg of God for a wife or a childe , and he alone knows what the wife shall prove , and by what dispositions and manners and into what fortune that childe shall enter : but we shall not need to fear concerning the event of it , if religion , and fair intentions , and prudence manage , and conduct it all the way . The preservation of a family , the production of children , the avoiding fornication , the refreshment of our sorrowes by the comforts of society , all these are fair ends of marriage and hallow the entrance ; but in these there is a speciall order ; society was the first designed , It is not good for man to be alone ; Children was the next , Increase and multiply ; but the avoiding fornication came in by the superfetation of the evill accidents of the world . The first makes marriage delectable , the second necessary to the publick , the third necessary to the particular ; This is for safety , for life and heaven it self ; Nam simulac venas inflavit dira cupido , Huc juvenes aequum est descendere ; — The other have in them joy and a portion of immortality : the first makes the mans heart glad , the second is the friend of Kingdomes , and cities , and families , and the third is the enemy to hell , and an antidote of the chiefest inlet to damnation : but of all these the noblest end is the multiplying children , Mundus cum patet , Deorum tristium atque inferûm quasi patet janua ; propterea uxorem liberorum quaerendorum causâ ducere religiosum est , said Varro , It is religion to marry for children ; and Quintilian puts it into the definition of a wife , est enim uxor quam jungit , quam diducit utilitas ; cujus haec reverentia est , quòd videtur inventa in causa liberorum , and therefore St. Ignatius when he had spoken of Elias , and Titus , and Clement , with an honourable mention of their virgin state , lest he might seem to have lessened the marryed Apostles , at whose feet in Christs Kingdome he thought himself unworthy to sit , he gives this testimony , they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that they might not be disparaged in their great names of holinesse and severity , they were secured by not marrying to satisfie their lower appetites , but out of desire of children . Other considerations , if they be incident and by way of appendage , are also considerable in the accounts of prudence ; but when they become principles , they defile the mystery and make the blessing doubtfull : Amabit sapiens , cupient caeteri , said Afranius , love is a fair inducement , but d●sire and appetite are rude , and the characterismes of a sensuall person : Amare justi & boni est , cupere impotemis ; to love , belongs to a just and a good man ; but to lust , or furiously and passionately to desire , is the sign of impotency and an unruly minde . 2. Man and wife are equally concerned to avoid all offences of each other in the beginning of their conversation : every little thing can blast an infant blossome ; and the breath of the south can shake the little rings of the Vine , when first they begin to curle like the locks of a new weaned boy ; but when by age and consolidation they stiffen into the hardnesse of a stem , and have by the warm embraces of the sun and the kisses of heaven brought forth their clusters , they can endure the storms of the North , and the loud noises of a tempest , and yet never be broken : so are the early unions of an unfixed marriage ; watchfull and observant , jealous and busie , inquisitive and carefull , and apt to take alarum at every unkind word . For infirmities do not manifest themselves in the first scenes , but in the succession of a long society ; and it is not chance or weaknesse when it appears at first , but it is want of love or prudence , or it will be so expounded ; and that which appears ill at first usually affrights the unexperienced man or woman , who makes unequall conjectures , and fancies mighty sorrowes by the proportions of the new and early unkindnesse . It is a very great passion , or a huge folly , or a certain want of love , that cannot preserve the colours and beauties of kindnesse , so long as publick honesty requires man to wear their sorrows for the death of a friend . Plutarch compares a new marriage to a vessell before the hoops are on , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , every thing dissolves their tender compaginations , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , when the joynts are stiffned and are tyed by a firm compliance and proportion'd bending , scarcely can it be dissolved without fire or the violence of iron . After the hearts of the man and the wife are endeared and hardned by a mutuall confidence , and an experience longer then an artifice and pretence can last , there are a great many remembrances and some things present that dash all little unkindnesses in pieces . The little boy in the Greek Epigram , that was creeping down a precipice was invited to his safety by the sight of his mothers pap , when nothing else could entice him to return : and the band of common children , and the sight of her that nurses what is most dear to him , and the endearments of each other in the course of a long society , and the same relation is an excellent security to redintegrate and to call that love back which folly and trifling accidents would disturb . — Tormentum ingens nubentibus haeret Quae nequeunt parere , & partu retinere maritos . When it is come thus farre , it is hard untwisting the knot ; but be carefull in its first coalition , that there be no rudenesse done ; for if there be , it will for ever after be apt to start and to be diseased . 3. Let man and wife be carefull to stifle little * things , that as fast as they spring , they be cut down and trod upon ; for if they be suffered to grow by numbers , they make the spirit peevish , and the society troublesome , and the affections loose and easie by an habituall aversation . Some men are more vexed with a flie then with a wound ; and when the gnats disturbe our sleep , and the reason is disquieted but not perfectly awakened ; it is often seen that he is fuller of trouble then if in the day light of his reason he were to contest with a potent enemy . In the frequent little accidents of a family , a mans reason cannot alwaies be awake ; and when his discourses are imperfect , and a trifling trouble makes him yet more restlesse , he is soon betrayed to the violence of passion . It is certain that the man or woman are in a state of weaknesse and folly then , when they can be troubled with a trifling accident ; and therefore it is not good to tempt their affections when they are in that state of danger . In this case the caution is , to subtract fuell from the sudden flame ; for stubble though it be quickly kindled , yet it is as soon extinguished , if it be not blown by a pertinacious breath , or fed with new materials ; adde no new provocations to the accident , and do not inflame this , and peace will soon return , and the discontent will passe away soon , as the sparks from the collision of a flint : ever remembring that discontents proceeding from daily little things , do breed a secret undiscernible disease , which is more dangerous then a feaver proceeding from a discerned notorious surfeit . 4. Let them be sure to abstain from all those things which by experience and observation they finde to be contrary to each other . They that govern Elephants never appear before them in white , and the masters of buls keep from them all garments of bloud and scarlet , as knowing that they will be impatient of civill usages and discipline when their natures are provoked by their proper antipathies . The ancients in their maritall Hieroglyphicks us'd to depict Mercury str●ding by Venus , to signifie , that by fair language and sweet intreaties , the mindes of each other should be united ; and hard by them Suadam & Gratias descripserunt , they would have all deliciousnesse of manners , compliance and mutuall observance to abide . 5. Let the husband and wife infinitely avoid a curious distinction of mine and thine ; for this hath caused all the lawes , and all the suits , and all the wars in the world ; let them who have but one person , have also but one interest . The husband and wife are heirs to each other ( as Dionysius Halicarnasseus relates from Romulus ) if they dye without children , but if there be children , the wife is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a partner in the inheritance ; But during their life the use and imployment is common to both their necessities , and in this there is no other difference of right , but that the man hath the dispensation of all , and may keep it from his wife just as the governour of a Town may keep it from the right owner ; he hath the power , but no right to do so . And when either of them begins to impropriate , it is like a tumor in the flesh , it drawes more then its share , but what it feeds on turns to a bile : and therefore the Romans forbad any donations to be made between man and wife , because neither of them could transfer a new right of those things which already they had in common ; but this is to be understood only concerning the uses of necessity and personall conveniences ; for so all may be the womans , and all may be the mans in severall regards . Corvinus dwels in a farm and receives all its profits , and reaps and sowes as he please , and eats of the corn and drinks of the wine , it is his own : but all that also is his Lords , and for it , Corvinus payes acknowledgement ; and his patron hath such powers and uses of it as are proper to the Lords ; and yet for all this , it may be the Kings too , to all the purposes that he can need , and is all to be accounted in the census and for certain services , and times of danger : So are che riches of a family , they are a womans as well as a mans ; they are hers for need , and hers for ornament , and hers for modest delight , and for the uses of Religion and prudent charity ; but the disposing them into portions of inheritance , the assignation of charges and governments , stipends and rewards , annulties and greater donatives are the reserves of the superior right , and not to be invaded by the under-possessors . But in those things where they ought to be common , if the spleen or the belly swels and drawes into its capacity much of that which should be spent upon those parts which have an equall right to be maintain'd , it is a dropsie or a consumption of the whole , something that is evill because it is unnaturall and monstrous . Macarius in is 32 Homily speaks fully in this particular , a woman betrothed to a man bears all her portion , and with a mighty love pours it into the hands of her husband , and sayes , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , I have nothing of my own , my goods , my portion , my body and my minde is yours . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , all that a woman hath is reckoned to the right of her husband ; not her wealth and her person only , but her reputation and her praise ; So Lucian . But as the earth , the mother of all creatures here below , sends up all its vapours and proper emissions at the command of the Sun , and yet requires them again to refresh her own needs , and they are deposited between them both in the bosome of a cloud as a common receptacle , that they may cool his flames , and yet descend to make her fruitfull : so are the proprieties of a wife to be dispos'd of by her Lord ; and yet all are for her provisions , it being a part of his need to refresh and supply hers , and it serves the interest of both while it serves the necessities of either . These are the duties of them both , which have common regards and equall necessities , and obligations ; and indeed there is scarce any matter of duty , but it concerns them both alike , and is only distinguished by names , and hath its variety by circumstances and little accidents : and what in one is call'd love , in the other is called reverence ; and what in the wife is obedience , the same in the man is duty . He provides , and she dispenses ; he gives commandements , and she rules by them ; he rules her by authority , and she rules him by love ; she ought by all means to please him , and he must by no means displease her . For as the heart is set in the midst of the body , and though it strikes to one side by the prerogative of Nature , yet those throbs and constant motions are felt on the other side also , and the influence is equall to both : so it is in conjugall duties ; some motions are to the one side more then to the other , but the interest is on both , and the duty is equall in the severall instances . If it be otherwise , the man injoyes a wife as Periander did his dead Melissa , by an unnaturall union , neither pleasing , nor holy , uselesse to all the purposes of society , and dead to content . SERMON , XVIII . Part II. THe next inquiry is more particular , and considers the power and duty of the man ; Let every one of you so love his wife even as himself ; she is as himself , the man hath power over her as over himself , and must love her equally . A husbands power over his wife is paternall and friendly , not magisteriall and despotick . The wife is in perpetuâ tutelâ , under conduct and counsell ; for the power a man hath is founded in the understanding , not in the will or force ; it is not a power of coercion , but a power of advice , and that government that wise men have over those who are fit to be conducted by them : Et vos in manu & in tutelâ non in servitio debetis habere eas , & malle patres vos , & viros , quàm dominos dici , said Valerius in Livie ; Husbands should rather be Fathers then Lords . Homer addes more soft appellatives to the character of a husbands duty , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Thou art to be a father and a mother to her , and a brother : and great reason , unlesse the state of marriage should be no better then the condition of an Orphan . For she that is bound to leave father and mother , and brother for thee , either is miserable like a poor fatherlesse childe , or else ought to finde all these and more in thee . Medea in Euripides had cause to complain when she found it otherwise . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Which St. Ambrose well translates : It is sad ] when virgins are with their own money sold to slavery ; and that services are in better state then marriages ; for they receive wages , but these buy their setters and pay dear for their losse of liberty : and therefore the Romans expressed the mans power over his wife but by a gentle word , Nec verò mulieribus praefectus reponatur , qui apud Graecos creari solet , sed sit censor qui viros doceat moderari uxoribus ; said Cicero , let there be no governour of the women appointed but a censor of manners , one to teach the men to moderate their wives , that is , fairly to induce them to the measures of their own proportions . It was rarely observed of Philo , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when Adam made that fond excuse for his folly in eating the forbidden fruit , he said [ The woman thou gavest to be with me she gave me ] He saies not [ the woman which thou gavest to me ] no such thing ; she is none of his goods , none of his possessions , not to be reckoned among his servants ; God did not give her to him so ; but [ the woman thou gavest to be with me ] that is , to be my partner , the companion of my joyes and sorrowes , thou gavest her for use , not for dominion . The dominion of a man over his wife is no other then as the soul rules the body ; for which it takes a mighty care , and uses it with a delicate tendernesse , and cares for it in all contingencies , and watches to keep it from all evils , and studies to make for it fair provisions , and very often is led by its inclinations and desires , and does never contradict its appetites , but when they are evill , and then also not without some trouble and sorrow ; and its government comes only to this , it furnishes the body with light and understanding , and the body furnishes the soul with hands and feet ; the soul governs , because the body cannot else be happy , but the government is no other then provision ; as a nurse governs a childe when she causes him to eat and to be warm , and dry and quiet ; and yet even the very government it self is divided ; for man and wife in the family are as the Sun and Moon in the sirmament of heaven ; He rules by day , and she by night , that is , in the lesser and more proper circles of her affairs ; in the conduct of domestick provisions and necessary offices , and shines only by his light and rules by his authority : and as the Moon in opposition to the Sun shines brightest , that is , then , when she is in her own circles and separate regions ; so is the authority of the wife then most conspicuous when she is separate and in her proper sphere , in Gynaeceo in the nursery and offices of domestick employment ; but when she is in conjunction with the Sun her Brother , that is , in that place and employment in which his care and proper offices are imployed , her light is not seen , her authority hath no proper businesse ; but else there is no difference : for they were barbarous people , among whom wives were in stead of servants , said Spartianus in Caracalla ; and it is a sign of impotency and weaknesse to force the camels to kneel for their load , beccuse thou hast not spirit and strength enough to climbe : to make the affections and evennesse of a wife bend by the flexures of a servant , is a sign the man is not wise enough to govern , when another stands by . So many differences as can be in the appellatives of Dominus and Domina , Governour and Governesse , Lord and Lady , Master and Mistresse , the same difference there is in the authority of man and woman , and no more ; Si tu Caius ego Caia , was publickly proclaimed upon the threshold of the young mans house , when the bride enter'd into his hands and power ; and the title of Domina in the sense of the civill Law was among the Romans given to wives . Hi Dominam Ditis thalamo diducere adorti , said Virgil : where though Servius saies it was spoken after the manner of the Greeks who call'd the wife 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lady or Mistresse , yet it was so amongst both the Nations , Ac domûs Dominam voca , saies Catullus ; Haerebit Dominae vir comes ipse suae , so Martial ; and therefore although there is a just measure of subjection and obedience due from the wise to the husband ( as I shall after explain ) yet nothing of this is expressed in the mans character , or in his duty ; he is not commanded to rule , nor instructed how , nor bidden to exact obedience , or to defend his priviledge ; all his duty is signified by love , by nourishing and cherishing , by being joyned to her in all the unions of charity , by not being bitter to her , by dwelling with her according to knowledge , giving honour to her : so that it seems to be with husbands , as it is with Bishops and Priests , to whom much honour is due , but yet so that if they stand upon it , and challenge it , they become lesse honourable ; and as amongst men and women humility is the way to be prefer'd ; so it is in husbands , they shall prevail by cession , by sweetnesse and counsell , and charity and compliance . So that we cannot discourse of the mans right , without describing the measures of his duty ; that therefore followes next . Let him love his wife even as himself : ] that 's his duty , and the measure of it too ; which is so plain , that if he understands how he treats himself , there needs nothing be added concerning his demeanour towards her , save only that we adde the particulars , in which holy Scripture instances this generall commandement . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . That 's the first . Be not bitter against her ; and this is the least Index and signification of love ; a civill man is never bitter against a friend or a stranger , much lesse to him that enters under his roof , and is secured by the lawes of hospitality . But a wife does all that , and more ; she quits all her interest for his love , she gives him all that she can give , she is as much the same person as another can be the same , who is conjoyned by love , and mystery , and religion , and all that is sacred and profane . Non equidem hoc dubites amborum foedere certo Consentire dies , & ab uno sidere duci ; They have the same fortune , the same family , the same children , the same religion , the same interest , the same flesh [ erunt duo in carnem unam ] and therefore this the Apostle urges for his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , no man hateth his own flesh , but nourisheth and cherisheth it ; and he certainly is strangely sacrilegious and a violator of the rights of hospitality and sanctuary , who uses her rudely , who is fled for protection , not only to his house , but also to his heart , and bosome . A wise man will not wrangle with any one , much lesse with his dearest relative ; and if it be accounted undecent to embrace in publick , it is extremely shamefull to brawle in publick , for the other is in it self lawfull , but this never , though it were assisted with the best circumstances of which it is capable . Marcus Aurelius said , that a wise man ought often to admonish his wife , to reprove her seldome , but never to lay his hands * upon her : neque verberibus neque maledictis exasperandam uxorem , said the Doctors of the Jewes ; and Homer brings in Jupiter sometimes speaking sharply to Juno ( according to the Greek liberty and Empire ) but made a pause at striking her , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And the Ancients use to sacrifice to Juno 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the president of Marriage without gall , and St. Basil observes and urges it , by way of upbraiding quarrelling husbands ; etiam vipera virus ob nuptiarum venerationem evomit , the Viper casts all his poison when he marries his female , Tu duritiam animi , tu feritatem , tu crudelitatem ob unionis reverentiam non deponis ? He is worse then a viper who for the reverence of this sacred union will not abstain from such a poisonous bitternesse ; and how shall he embrace that person whom he hath smitten reproachfully ? for those kindnesses are undecent which the fighting man payes unto his wife . St. Chrysostome preaching earnestly against this barbarous inhumanity of striking the wife , or reviling her with evill language , saies it is as if a King should beat his Viceroy and use him like a dog ; from whom most of that reverence and majesty must needs depart which he first put upon him , and the subjects shall pay him lesse duty , by how much his Prince hath treated him with lesse civility ; but the losse redounds to himself ; and the government of the whole family shall be disordered , if blowes be laid upon that shoulder which together with the other ought to bear nothing but the cares and the issues of a prudent government . And it is observable that no man ever did this rudenesse for a vertuous end ; it is an incompetent instrument , and may proceed from wrath and folly , but can never end in vertue and the unions of a prudent and fair society . Quòd si verberaveris exasperabis morbum , ( saith St. Chrysostome ) asperitas enim mansuetudine non aliâ asperitate dissolvitur ; if you strike you exasperate the wound , and ( like Cato at Utica in his despair ) tear the wounds in pieces ; and yet he that did so ill to himself whom he lov'd well , he lov'd not women tenderly , and yet would never strike ; And if the man cannot endure her talking , how can she endure his striking ? But this caution contains a duty in it which none prevaricates but the meanest of the people , fools and bedlams , whose kindnesse is a curse , whose government is by chance and violence , and their families are herds of talking cattell . Sic alternos reficit cursus Alternus amor , sic astrigeris Bellum discors exulat or is . Haec concordia temperat aquis Elementa modis , ut pugnantia Vicibus cedant humida siccis , Jungántque fidem frigora flammis . The maritall love is infinitely removed from all possibility of such rudenesses : it is a thing pure as light , sacred as a Temple , lasting as the world ; Aamicitia quae desinere potuit nunquam vera fuit , said one ; that love that can cease was never true : it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so Moses call'd it ; it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so St. Paul ; it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so Homer ; it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so Plutarch ; that is , it contains in it all sweetnesse , and all society , and all felicity , and all prudence , and all wisdome . For there is nothing can please a man without love , and if a man be weary of the wise discourses of the Apostles , and of the innocency of an even and a private fortune , or hates peace or a fruitfull year , he hath reaped thorns and thistles from the choicest flowers of Paradise ; For nothing can sweeten felicity it self , but love ; but when a man dwels in love , then the brests of his wife are pleasant as the droppings upon the hill of Hermon , her eyes are fair as the light of heaven , she is a fountain sealed , and he can quench his thirst , and ease his cares , and lay his sorrowes down upon her lap , and can retire home as to his sanctuary and refectory , and his gardens of sweetnesse and chast refreshments . * No man can tell but he that loves his children , how many delicious accents make a mans heart dance in the pretty conversation of those dear pledges ; their childishnesse , their stammering , their little angers , their innocence , their imperfections , their necessities are so many little emanations of joy and comfort to him that delights in their persons and society ; but he that loves not his wife and children , feeds a Lionesse at home , and broods a nest of sorrowes ; and blessing it self cannot make him happy ; so that all the commandements of God injoyning a man to love his wife , are nothing but so many necessities and capacities of joy . She that is lov'd is safe , and he that loves is joyfull . Love is a union of all things excellent ; it contains in it proportion and satisfaction , and rest , and confidence ; and I wish that this were so much proceeded in , that the Heathens themselves could not go beyond us in this vertue , and its proper , and its appendant happinesse . Tiberius Gracchus chose to die for the safety of his wife ; and yet me thinks to a Christian to do so , should be no hard thing ; for many servants will dye for their masters , and many Gentlemen will die for their friend ; but the examples are not so many of those that are ready to do it for their dearest relatives , and yet some there have been . Baptista Fregosa tels of Neapolitan that gave himself a slave to the Moores , that he might follow his wife ; and Dominicus Catalusius the Prince of Lesbos kept company with his Lady when she was a Leper ; and these are greater things then to die . But the cases in which this can be required are so rare and contingent , that holy Scripture instances not the duty in this particular ; but it contains in it that the husband should nourish and cherish her , that he should refresh her sorrowes and intice her fears into confidence and pretty arts of rest ; for even the fig-trees that grew in Paradise had sharp pointed leaves , and harshnesses fit to mortifie the too forward lusting after the sweetnesse of the fruit . But it will concern the prudence of the husbands love to make the cares and evils as simple and easie as he can , by doubling the joyes and acts of a carefull friendship , by tolerating her infirmities , ( because by so doing , he either cures her , or makes himself better ) by fairly expounding all the little traverses of society and communication , by taking every thing by the right handle , ( as Plutarchs expression is ) for there is nothing but may be misinterpreted , and yet if it be capable of a fair construction , it is the office of love to make it . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Love will account that to be well said , which it may be was not so intended ; and then it may cause it to be so another time . 3. Hither also is to be referred that he secure the interest of her vertue and felicity by a fair example ; for a wife to a husband , is like a line or superficies , it hath dimensions of its own , but no motion or proper affections ; but commonly put on such images of vertues or vices as are presented to them by their husbands Idea : and if thou beest vicious , complain not that she is infected that lies in the bosome ; the interest of whose love ties her to transcribe thy copy and write after the characters of thy manners . Paris was a man of pleasure , and Helena was an adulteresse , and she added covetousnesse upon her own account . But Ulysses was a prudent man , and a wary counsellor , sober and severe , and he efformed his wife into such imagery as he desir'd , and she was chast as the snows upon the mountains , diligent as the fatall sisters , alwaies busie , and alwaies faithfull : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , she had a lazie tongue and a busie hand . 4. Above all the instances of love , let him preserve towards her an inviolable faith , and an unspotted chastity , for this is the marriage Ring , it tyes two hearts by an eternall band ; it is like the Cherubims flaming sword set for the guard of Paradise ; he that passes into that garden , now that is immur'd by Christ and the Church , enters into the shades of death . No man must touch the forbidden Tree , that in the midst of the garden , which is the tree of knowledge and life . Chastity is the security of love , and preserves all the mysteriousnesse like the secrets of a Temple . Under this lock is deposited security of families , the union of affections , the repairer of accidentall breaches . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . This is a grace that is shut up and secur'd by all arts of heaven , and the defence of lawes , the locks and bars of modesty , by honour and reputation , by fear and shame , by interest and high regards ; and that contract that is intended to be for ever , is yet dissolv'd and broken by the violation of this ; nothing but death can do so much evill to the holy ties of marriage , as unchastity and breach of faith can . The shepherd Cratis falling in love with a she goat , had his brains beaten out with a buck as he lay asleep ; and by the lawes of the Romans , a man might kill his daughter or his wife if he surprised her in the breach of her holy vowes , which are as sacred as the threads of life , secret as the privacies of the sanctuary , and holy as the society of Angels . Nullae sunt inimicitiae nisi amoris acerbae , and God that commanded us to forgive our enemies left it in our choice , and hath not commanded us to forgive an adulterous husband or a wife ; but the offended parties displeasure may passe into an eternall separation of society and friendship . Now in this grace it is fit that the wisdome and severity of the man should hold forth a pure taper , that his wife may by seeing the beauties and transparency of that Crystall dresse her minde and her body by the light of so pure reflexions ; It is certain he will expect it from the modesty and retirement , from the passive nature and colder temper , from the humility and fear , from the honour and love of his wife , that she be pure as the eye of heaven : and therefore it is but reason that the wisdome and noblenesse , the love and confidence , the strength and severity of the man should be as holy and certain in this grace , as he is a severe exactor of it at her hands , who can more easily be tempted by another , and lesse by her self . These are the little lines of a mans duty , which like threds of light from the body of the Sun do clearly describe all the regions of his proper obligations . Now concerning the womans duty , although it consists in doing whatsoever her husband commands , and so receives measures from the rules of his government , yet there are also some lines of life depicted upon her hands , by which she may read and know how to proportion out her duty to her husband . 1. The first is obedience ; which because it is no where enjoyned that the man should exact of her , but often commanded to her to pay , gives demonstration that it is a voluntary cession that is required , such a cession as must be without coercion and violence on his part , but upon fair inducements , and reasonablenesse in the thing , and out of love , and honour on her part . When God commands us to love him , he means we should obey him ; This is love that ye keep my Commandements , and , if ye love me ( said our Lord ) keep my Commandements : Now as Christ is to the Church , so is man to the wife : and therefore obedience is the best instance of her love ; for it proclaims her submission , her humility , her opinion of his wisdome , his preeminence in the family , the right of his priviledge , and the injunction imposed by God upon her sexe , that although in sorrow she brings forth children , yet with love and choice she should obey . The mans authority is love , and the womans love is obedience ; and it was not rightly observed of him that said , when woman fell God made her timorous that she might be rul'd , apt and easie to obey , for this obedience is no way founded in fear , but in love and reverence . Receptae reverentiae est si mulier viro subsit , said the Law ; unlesse also that we will adde , that it is an effect of that modesty which like rubies adorn the necks and cheeks of women . Pudicitia est , pater , eos magnificare qui nos socias sumpserunt sibi ; said the maiden in the comedy : It is modesty to advance and highly to honour them who have honoured us by making us to be the companions of their dearest excellencies ; for the woman that went before the man in the way of death , is commanded to follow him in the way of love : and that makes the society to be perfect , and the union profitable , and the harmony compleat . Inferior Matrona suo sit , Sexte , marito ; Non aliter fiunt foemina virque pares . For then the soul and body make a perfect man when the soul commands wisely , or rules lovingly , and cares profitably , and provides plentifully , and conducts charitably , that body which is its partner and yet the inferiour . But if the body shall give lawes , and by the violence of the appetite , first abuse the understanding , and then possesse the superior portion of the will and choice , the body and the soul are not apt company , and the man is a fool and miserable . If the soul rules not , it cannot be a companion ; either it must govern , or be a slave ; Never was King deposed and suffered to live in the state of peerage and equall honour , but made a prisoner , or put to death ; and those women that had rather lead the blinde then follow prudent guides , rule fools and easie men , then obey the powerfull and the wise , never made a good society in a house ; a wife never can become equall but by obeying ; but so her power while it is in minority , makes up the authority of the man integrall , and becomes one government , as themselves are one man. Male and Female created he them , and called their name Adam , saith the holy Scripture ; they are but one : and therefore the severall parts of this one man must stand in the place where God appointed , that the lower parts may do their offices in their own station , and promote the common interest of the whole . A ruling woman is intolerable , — Faciunt graviora coacta Imperio sexus — But that 's not all ; for she is miserable too : for , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It is a sad calamity for a woman to be joyned to a fool or a weak person ; it is like a guard of geese to keep the Capitoll , or as if a flock of sheep should read grave lectures to their shepherd , and give him orders where he shall conduct them to pasture . O verè Phyrgiae , neque enim Phryges , It is a curse that God threatned sinning persons , Devoratum est robur eorum , facti sunt quasi mulieres . Effeminati dominabuntur eis . To be ruled by weaker people , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . to have a fool to ones master is the fate of miserable and unblessed people : and the wife can be no waies happy , unlesse she be governed by a prudent Lord , whose commands are sober counsels , whose authority is paternall , whose orders are provisions , and whose sentences are charity . But now concerning the measures and limits of this obedience , we can best take accounts from Scripture : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith the Apostle , in all things ; ut Domino , as unto the Lord ; and that 's large enough ; as unto a Lord ut Ancilla Domino , so St. Hierom understand it , who neither was a friend to the sexe nor to marriage ; But his mistake is soon confuted by the text ; It is not ut Dominis , be subject to your husbands as unto Lords , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , in all religion , in reverence and in love , in duty and zeal , in faith and knowledge ; or else 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signifie , wives be so subject to your husbands , but yet so , that at the same time ye be subject to the Lord. For that 's the measure of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all things ; and it is more plain in the parallell place , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is fit in the Lord : Religion must be the measure of your obedience and subjection : intra limites disciplinae , so Tertullian expresses it . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so Clemens Alex. In all things let the wise be subject to the husband , so as to do nothing against his will , those only things excepted in which he is impious or refractary in things pertaining to wisdome and piety . But in this also there is some peculiar caution . For although in those things which are of the necessary parts of faith and holy life , the woman is only subject to Christ , who only is and can be Lord of consciences , and commands alone where the conscience is instructed and convinced ; yet as it is part of the mans office to be a teacher , and a prophet , and a guide , and a Master ; so also it will relate very much to the demonstration of their affections to obey his counsels , to imitate his vertues , to be directed by his wisdome , to have her perswasion measured by the lines of his excellent religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , It were hugely decent ( saith Plutarch ) that the wife should acknowledge her husband for her teacher and her guide ; for then when she is what he please to efform her , he hath no cause to complain if she be no better : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , his precepts and wise counsels can draw her off from vanities ; and as he said of Geometry , that if she be skill'd in that , she will not easily be a gamester or a dancer , may perfectly be said of Religion . If she suffers her self to be guided by his counsell , and efformed by his religion ; either he is an ill master in his religion , or he may secure in her and for his advantage an excellent vertue . And although in matters of religion the husband hath no empire and command , yet if there be a place lest to perswade , and intreat , and induce by arguments ; there is not in a family a greater endearment of affections then the unity of religion : and anciently it was not permitted to a woman to have a religion by her self . Eosdem quos maritus nosse Deos & colere solos uxor debet ( said Plutarch . ) And the rites which a woman performes severally from her husband are not pleasing to God ; and therefore Pomponia Graecina because she entertain'd a stranger religion was permitted to the judgement of her husband Plantius . And this whole affair is no stranger to Christianity . For the Christian woman was not suffered to marry an unbelieving man ; and although this is not to be extended to different opinions within the limits of the common faith , yet thus much advantage is won or lost by it ; that the complyance of the wife , and submission of her understanding to the better rule of her husband in matters of Religion , will help very much to warrant her , though she should be misperswaded in a matter lesse necessary ; yet nothing can warrant her in her separate rites and manners of worshippings , but an invincible necessity of conscience , and a curious infallible truth ; and if she be deceived alone , she hath no excuse ; if with him , she hath much pity , and some degrees of warranty under the protection of humility , and duty , and dear affections ; and she will finde that it is part of her priviledge and right to partake of the mysteries and blessings of her husbands religion . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Romulus . A woman by the holy Lawes hath right to partake of her husbands goods , and her husbands sacrifices , and holy things . Where there is a schisme in one bed , there is a nursery of temptations , and love is persecuted and in perpetuall danger to be destroyed ; there dwell jealousies , and divided interests , and differing opinions , and continuall disputes , and we cannot love them so well whom we beleeve to be lesse beloved of God , and it is ill uniting with a person concerning whom my perswasion tels me that he is like to live in hell to eternall ages . 2. The next line of the womans duty is compliance , which S. Peter cals , the hidden man of the heart , the ornament of a meek and a quiet spirit , and to it he opposes the outward and pompous ornament of the body ; concerning which as there can be no particular measure set down to all persons , but the propositions are to be measured by the customes of wise people , the quality of the woman , and the desires of the man ; yet it is to be limited by Christian modesty , and the usages of the more excellent and severe matrons . Menander in the Comedy brings in a man turning his wife from his house because she stain'd her hair yellow , which was then the beauty , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . A wise woman should not paint . A studious gallantry in cloathes cannot make a wise man love his wife the better . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said the Comedy , such gayeties are fit for tragedies , but not for the uses of life : decor occultus , & recta venustas , that 's the Christian womans finenesse , the hidden man of the heart , sweetnesse of manners , humble comportment , fair interpretation of all addresses , ready compliances , high opinion of him , and mean of her self . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , To partake secretly , and in her heart of all his joyes and sorrowes , to beleeve him comly and fair , though the Sun hath drawn a cypresse over him , ( for as marriages are not to be contracted by the hands and eye , but with reason and the hearts : so are these judgements to be made by the minde , not by the sight : ) and Diamonds cannot make the woman vertuous , nor him to value her who sees her put them off then , when charity and modesty are her brghtest ornaments . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. And indeed those husbands that are pleased with undecent gayeties of their wives , are like fishes taken with ointments and intoxicating baits , apt and easie for sport and mockery , but uselesse for food : and when Circe had turned Ulysses companions into hogs and monkies , by pleasures and the inchantments of her bravery and luxury , they were no longer usefull to her , she knew not what to do with them ; but on wise Ulysses she was continually enamour'd . Indeed the outward ornament is fit to take fools , but they are not worth the taking ; But she that hath a wise husband , must intice him to an eternall dearnesse by the vail of modesty , and the grave robes of chastity , the ornament of meeknesse , and the jewels of faith and charity ; she must have no fucus but blushings , her brightnesse must be purity , and she must shine round about with sweetnesses and friendship , and she shall be pleasant while she lives , and desired when she dies . If not , — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Her grave shall be full of rottennesse and dishonour , and her memory shall be worse after she is dead : after she is dead : For that will be the end of all merry meetings ; and I choose this to be the last advice to both . 3. Remember the dayes of darknesse , for they are many ; The joyes of the bridal chambers are quickly past , and the remaining portion of the state is a dull progresse without variety of joyes , but not without the change of sorrowes ; but that portion that shall enter into the grave must be eternall . It is fit that I should infuse a bunch of myrrhe into the festivall goblet , and after the Egyptian manner serve up a dead mans bones at a feast ; I will only shew it and take it away again ; it will make the wine bitter , but wholesome ; But those marryed pairs that live , as remembring that they must part again , and give an account how they treat themselves and each other , shall at the day of their death be admitted to glorious espousals , and when they shall live again , be marryed to their Lord , and partake of his glories , with Abraham and Joseph , S Peter and St. Paul , and all the marryed Saints . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . All those things that now please us shall passe from us , or we from them , but those things that concern the other life are permanent as the numbers of eternity : and although at the resurrection there shall be no relation of husband and wife , and no marriage shall be celebrated , but the marriage of the Lambe , yet then shall be remembred how men and women pass'd through this state which is a type of that , and from this sacramentall union all holy pairs shall passe to the spirituall and eternall , where love shall be their portion , and joyes shall crown their heads , and they shall lye in the bosome of Jesus , and in the heart of God to eternall ages . Amen . Sermon , XIX . APPLES of SODOM : OR The Fruits of Sinne. Part. I. Romans 6. 21. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed ? For the end of those things is death . THe son of Sirach did prudently advise concerning making judgements of the felicity or infelicity of men : Judge none blessed before his death , for a man shall be known in his children . Some men raise their fortunes from a cottage to the chaires of Princes , from a sheep-coat to a throne , and dwell in the circles of the Sun , and in the lap of prosperity ; their wishes and successe dwell under the same roof , and providence brings all events into their design , and ties both ends together with prosperous successes ; and even the little conspersions and intertextures of evill accidents in their lives are but like a faing'd note in musick , by an artificiall discord making the ear covetous , and then pleased with the harmony into which the appetite was inticed by passion , and a pretty restraint ; and variety does but adorn prosperity , and make it of a sweeter relish , and of more advantages ; and some of these men descend into their graves without a change of fortune , Eripitur persona , manet res . Indeed they cannot longer dwell upon the estate , but that remains unrifled , and descends upon the heir , and all is well till the next generation : but if the evill of his death , and the change of his present prosperity for an intolerable danger of an uncertain eternity , does not sowre his full chalice ; yet if his children prove vicious , or degenerous , cursed , or unprosperous , we account the man miserable , and his grave to be strewed with sorrowes and dishonours . The wise and valiant Chabrias grew miserable by the folly of his son Ctesippus ; and the reputation of brave Germanicus began to be ashamed , when the base Caligula entred upon his scene of dishonourable crimes . Commodus the wanton and feminine son of wise Antoninus gave a check to the great name of his Father ; and when the son of Hortensius Corbius was prostitute , and the heir of Q. Fabius Maximus was disinherited by the sentence of the city Praetor , as being unworthy to enter into the fields of his glorious Father , and young Scipio the son of Africanus was a fool and a prodigall ; posterity did weep afresh over the monuments of their brave progenitors , and found that infelicity can pursue a man , and overtake him in his grave . This is a great calamity when it fals upon innocent persons : and that Moses died upon Mount Nebo in the sight of Canaan , was not so great an evill , as that his sons Eliezer and Gersom were unworthy to succeed him ; but that Priesthood was devolv'd to his Brother , and the Principality to his servant : And to Samuel , that his sons prov'd corrupt , and were exauthorated for their unworthinesse , was an allay to his honour and his joyes , and such as proclaims to all the world , that the measures of our felicity are not to be taken by the lines of our own person , but of our relations too ; and he that is cursed in his children , cannot be reckoned among the fortunate . This which I have discoursed concerning families in generall , is most remarkable in the retinue and family of sin ; for it keeps a good house , and is full of company and servants , it is served by the possessions of the world , it is courted by the unhappy , flatter'd by fools , taken into the bosome by the effeminate , made the end of humane designs , and feasted all the way of its progresse ; wars are made for its interest , and men give or venture their lives that their sin may be prosperous ; all the outward senses are its handmaids , and the inward senses are of its privie chamber ; the understanding is its counsellour , the will its friend , riches are its ministers , nature holds up its train , and art is its emissary to promote its interest and affairs abroad : and upon this account , all the world is inrolled in its taxing tables , and are subjects or friends of its kingdome , or are so kinde to it as to make too often visits , and to lodge in its borders ; because all men stare upon its pleasures , and are intic'd to tast of its wanton delicacies . But then if we look what are the children of this splendid family , and see what issue sinne produces , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it may help to unite the charme . Sin and concupiscence marry together , and riot and feast it high , but their fruits , the children and production of their filthy union , are ugly and deform'd , foolish and ill natur'd ; and the Apostles cals them by their names , shame and death . These are the fruits of Sin , the apples of Sodom , fair outsides , but if you touch them , they turn to ashes and a stink ; and if you will nurse these children , and give them whatsoever is dear to you , then you may be admitted into the house of feasting , and chambers of riot where sin dwels ; but if you will have the mother , you must have the daughters ; the tree and the fruits go together ; and there is none of you all that ever enter'd into this house of pleasure , but he left the skirts of his garment in the hands of shame , and had his name roll'd in the chambers of death . What fruit had ye then ? That 's the Question . In answer to which question we are to consider , 1. What is the summe totall of the pleasure of sin ? 2. What fruits and relishes it leaves behinde by its naturall efficiency ? 3. What are its consequents by its demerit , and the infliction of the superadded wrath of God , which it hath deserved ? Of the first St. Paul gives no account , but by way of upbraiding asks , what they had ? that is , nothing that they dare own , nothing that remains : and where is it ? shew it ; what 's become of it ? Of the second he gives the summe totall ; all its naturall effects are shame and its appendages . The third , or the superinduc'd evils by the just wrath of God , he cals death , the worst name in it self , and the greatest of evils that can happen . 1. Let us consider what pleasures there are in sin ; most of them are very punishments . I will not reckon nor consider concerning envie , which one in Stobaeus cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the basest spirit and yet very just , because it punishes the delinquent in the very act of sin , doing as Aelian saies of the Polypus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , when he wants his prey , he devours his own armes ; and the leannesse , and the secret pangs , and the perpetuall restlesnesse of an envious man feed upon his own heart , and drink down his spirits , unlesse he can ruine or observe the fall of the fairest fortunes of his neighbour . The fruit of this tree are mingled and sowre , and not to be indured in the very eating . Neither will I reck on the horrid afrightments and amazements of murder , nor the uneasinesse of impatience , which doubles every evill that it feels , and makes it a sin , and makes it intolerable ; nor the secret grievings , and continuall troubles of peevishnesse , which makes a man uncapable of receiving good , or delighting in beauties and fair intreaties , in the mercies of God and charities of men . It were easie to make a catalogue of sins , every one of which is a disease , a trouble in it's very constitution and its nature : such are loathing of spirituall things , bitternesse of spirit , rage , greedinesse , confusion of minde , and irresolution , cruelty and despite , slothfulnesse and distrust , unquietnesse and anger , effeminacy and nicenesse , prating and sloth , ignorance and inconstancy , incogitancy and cursing , malignity and fear , forgetfulnesse and rashnesse , pusillanimity and despair , rancour and superstition : if a man were to curse his enemy , he could not wish him a greater evill then these ; and yet these are severall kinds of sin which men choose , and give all their hopes of heaven in exchange for one of these diseases . Is it not a fearfull consideration that a man should rather choose eternally to perish , then to say his prayers heartily , and affectionately ? But so it is with very many men ; they are driven to their devotions by custome , and shame , and reputation , and civill compliances ; they sigh and look sowre when they are called to it , and abide there as a man under the Chirurgeons hands , smarting and fretting all the while ; or else he passes the time with incogitancy , and hates the imployment , and suffers the torments of prayers which he loves not ; and all this , although for so doing it is certain he may perish : what fruit , what deliciousnesse can he fancy in being weary of his prayers ? There is no pretence or colour for these things . Can any man imagine a greater evill to the body and soul of a man , then madnesse , and furious eyes , and a distracted look , palenesse with passion , and trembling hands and knees , and furiousnesse , and folly in the heart and head ? and yet this is the pleasure of anger , and for this pleasure men choose damnation . But it is a great truth , that there are but very few sins that pretend to pleasure : although a man be weak and soon deceived , and the Devill is crafty , and sin is false and impudent , and pretences are too many , yet most kinds of sins are reall and prime troubles to the very body , without all manner of deliciousnesse , even to the sensuall , naturall , and carnall part ; and a man must put on something of a Devill before he can choose such sins , and he must love mischief because it is a sin ; for in most instances there is no other reason in the world . Nothing pretends to pleasure but the lusts of the lower belly , ambition , and revenge ; and although the catalogue of sins is numerous as the production of fishes , yet these three only can be apt to cousen us with a fair outside ; and yet upon the survey of what fruits they bring , and what taste they have , in the manducation , besides the filthy relish they leave behind , we shall see how miserably they are abused and fool'd , that expend any thing upon such purchases . 2. For a man cannot take pleasure in lusts of the flesh , in gluttony , or drunkennesse , unlesse he be helped forward with inconsideration and folly . For we see it evidently that grave and wise persons , men of experience and consideration are extremely lesse affected with lust and loves ; the hare-brain'd boy , the young gentleman that thinks nothing in the world greater then to be free from a Tutor , he indeed courts his folly and enters into the possession of lust without abatement ; consideration dwels not there ; but when a sober man meets with a temptation , and is helped by his naturall temper , or invited by his course of life ; if he can consider , he hath so many objections and fears , so many difficulties and impediments , such sharp reasonings and sharper jealousies concerning its event , that if he does at all enter into folly , it pleases him so little , that he is forced to do it in despite of himself ; and the pleasure is so allayed , that he knowes not whether it be wine or vinegar ; his very apprehension and instruments of relish are fill'd with fear and contradicting principles , and the deliciousnesse does but affricare cutem , it went but to the skin ; but the allay went further ; it kept a guard within , and suffered the pleasure to passe no further . A man must resolve to be a fool , a rash , inconsiderate person , or he will feel but little satisfaction in the enjoyment of his sin : indeed he that stops his nose , may drink down such corrupted waters , and he understood it well who chose rather to be a fool , Dum mala delectent mea me , vel denique fallant , Quàm sapere & ringi — so that his sins might delight him , or deceive him , then to be wise and without pleasure in the enjoyment . So that in effect , a man must lose his discerning faculties , before he discerns the little phantastick joyes of his concupiscence ; which demonstrates how vain , how empty of pleasure that is , that is beholding to folly and illusion , to a jugling and a plain cousenage , before it can be fancyed to be pleasant . For it is a strange beauty that he that hath the best eyes cannot perceive , and none but the blinde or blear-ey'd people can see ; and such is the pleasure of lust , which by every degree of wisdome that a man hath is lessened and undervalued . 3. For the pleasures of intemperance , they are nothing but the reliques and images of pleasure , after that nature hath been feasted ; For so long as she needs , that is , so long as temperance waits , so long pleasure also stands there . But as temperance begins to go away , having done the ministeries of Nature , every morsell , and every new goblet is still lesse delicious , and cannot be endured but as men force nature by violence to stay longer then she would : How have some men rejoyced when they have escaped a cup ! and when they cannot escape , they pour it in , and receive it with as much pleasure as the old women have in the Lapland dances ; they dance the round , but there is a horror and a harshnesse in the Musick ; and they call it pleasure , because men bid them do so : but there is a Devill in the company , and such as is his pleasure , such is theirs : he rejoyces in he thriving sin , and the swelling fortune of his darling drunkennesse , but his joyes are the joyes of him that knowes and alwayes remembers that he shall infallibly have the biggest damnation ; and then let it be considered how forc'd a joy that is , that is at the end of an intemperate feast . Non benè mendaci risus componitur ore , Nec benè sollicitis ebria verba sonant . Certain it is , intemperance takes but natures leavings ; when the belly is full and nature cals to take away , the pleasure that comes in afterwards is next to loathing : it is like the relish and taste of meats at the end of the third course , or the sweetnesse of honey to him that hath eaten til he can endure to take no more ; and in this , there is no other difference of these men from them that die upon another cause , then was observed among the Phalangia of old , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , some of these serpents make men die laughing , and some to die weeping : so does the intemperate , and so does his brother that languishes of a consumption ; this man dies weeping , and the other dies laughing : but they both die infallibly , and all his pleasure is nothing but the sting of a serpent , immixte liventia mella veneno , it wounds the heart , and he dies with a Tarantula dancing and singing till he bowes his neck , and kisses his bosome with the fatall noddings and declensions of death . 4. In these pretenders to pleasure which you see are but few , and they not very prosperous in their pretences , there is mingled so much trouble to bring them to act and injoyment , that the appetite is above half tired before it comes ; It is necessary a man should be hugely patient that is ambitious , Ambulare per Britannos , Scythicas pati pruinas : no man buy 's death and damnation at so dear a rate , as he that fights for it , and endures cold and hunger , — Patiens liminis atque solis , The heat of the sun , and the cold of the threshold ; the dangers of war , and the snares of a crafty enemy ; he lies upon the ground with a severity greater then the penances of a Hermit , and fasts beyond the austerity of a rare penitent ; with this only difference , that the one does it for heaven , the other for an uncertain honour , and an eternity of flames . But however , by this time that he hath won something , he hath spent some years , and he hath not much time left him to rest in his new purchase , and he hath worn out his body , and lessen'd his capacity of feeling it ; and although it is ten to one he cannot escape all the dangers he must venture at , that he may come near his trifle , yet when he is arrived thither , he can never long enjoy , nor well perceive or taste it ; and therefore there are more sorrowes at the gate , then there can dwell comforts in all the rooms of the houses of pride and great designs . And thus it is in revenge , which is pleasant only to a devill , or a man of the same cursed temper . He does a thing which ought to trouble him , and will move him to pity what his own vile hands have acted ; but if he does not pity , that is , be troubled with himself and wish the things undone , he hath those affections by which the Devill doth rejoyce in destroying souls ; which affections a man cannot have , unlesse he be perfectly miserable , by being contrary to God , to mercy , and to felicity ; and after all , the pleasure is false , phantastick , and violent ; it can do him no good , it can do him hurt : 't is ods but it will ; and on him that takes revenge , revenge shall be taken ; and by a reall evill he shall dearly pay for the goods that are but airy and phantasticall ; It is like a rolling stone , which when a man hath forced up a hill , will return upon him with a greater violence , and break those bones whose sinews gave it motion . The pleasure of revenge is like the pleasure of eating chalk and coals ; a foolish disease made the appetite , and it is entertain'd with an evill reward ; it is like the feeding of a Cancer or a Wolfe , the man is restlesse till it be done , and when it is , every man sees how infinitely he is removed from satisfaction or felicity . 5. These sins when they are entertain'd with the greatest fondnesse from without , it must have but extreme little pleasure , because there is a strong faction , and the better party against them : something that is within contests against the entertainment , and they sit uneasily upon the spirit when the man is vexed , that they are not lawfull . The Persian King gave Themistocles a goodly pension , assigning Magnesia with the revenue of 50 talents for his bread , Lampsacum for his wine , and Myos for his meat ; but all the while he sed high and drunk deep , he was infinitely afflicted that every thing went crosse to his undertaking , and he could not bring his ends about to betray his country ; and at last he mingled poison with his wine , and drank it off , having first intreated his friends to steal for him a private grave in his own countrey . Such are the pleasures of the most pompous and flattering sins : their meat and drink are good and pleasant at first , and it is plenteous and criminall ; but its imployment is base , and it is so against a mans interest , and against what is and ought to be dearest to him , that he cannot perswade his better parts to consent , but must fight against them and all their arguments . These things are against a mans conscience , that is , against his reason and his rest ; and something within makes his pleasure sit uneasily . But so do violent perfumes make the head ache , and therefore wise persons reject them ; and the eye refuses to stare upon the beauties of the Sun , because it makes it weep it self blinde ; and if a luscious dish please my palat , and turns to loathing in the stomach , I will lay aside that evill , and consider the danger and the bigger pain , not that little pleasure . So it is in sin , it pleases the senses , but diseases the spirit , and wounds that : and that it is as apt to smart as the skin , and is as considerable in the provisions of pleasure and pain respectively : and the pleasures of sin to a contradicting reason , are like the joyes of wine to a condemned man , — Difficile est imitari gaudia falsa , Difficile est tristi fingere mente jocum . It will be very hard to delight freely in that which so vexes the more tender and most sensible part ; so that , what Pliny said of the Poppies growing in the river Caïcus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it brings a stone in stead of a flower of fruit ; so are the pleasures of these pretending sins ; the flower at the best is stinking but there is a stone in the bottome , it is gravell in the teeth , and a man must drink the bloud of his own gums when he manducates such unwholesome , such unpleasant fruit . — Vitiorum gaudia vulnus habent . They make a wound , and therefore are not very pleasant . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , It is a great labour , and travail to live a vicious life . 6. The pleasure in the acts of these few sins that do pretend to it , is a little limited nothing , confin'd to a single faculty , to one sense , having nothing but the skin for its organ , or instrument , an artery , or something not more considerable then a Lute-string ; and at the best it is but the satisfaction of an apperite which reason can cure , which time can appease , which every diversion can take off ; such as is not perfective of his nature , nor of advantage to his person ; it is a desire to no purpose , and as it comes with no just cause , so can be satisfied with no just measures ; it is satisfied before it comes to a vice , and when it is come thither , all the world cannot satisfie it : a little thing will weary it , but nothing can content it . For all these sensuall desires are nothing but an impatience of being well and wise , of being in health , and being in our wits ; which two things if a man could endure ( and it is but reasonable , a man would think , that we should ) he would never lust to drown his heart in seas of wine , or oppresse his belly with loads of undigested meat , or make himself base as the mixtures of a harlot , by breaking the sweetest limits , and holy festivities of marriage . Malum impatientia est boni , said Tertullian , it is nothing else ; to please the sense , is but to do a mans self mischief ; and all those lusts tend to some direct dissolution of a mans health , or his felicity , his reason , or his religion ; it is an enemy that a man carries about him , and as the spirit of God said concerning Babylon , Quantum in deliciis fuit , tantum dat illi tormentum & luctum , Let her have torment and sorrow according to the measure of her delights ; is most eminently true in the pleasing of our senses ; the lust and desire is a torment ; the remembrance and the obsence is a torment , and the enjoyment does not satisfie , but disables the instrument , and tires the faculty ; and when a man hath but a little of what his sense covets , he is not contented , but impatient for more ; and when he hath loads of it , he does not feel it ; for he that swallowes a full goblet does not taste his wine : and this is the pleasure of the sense ; nothing contents it but that which he cannot perceive : and it is alwaies restlesse , till he be weary ; and all the way unpleased , till it can feel no pleasure ; and that which is the instrument of sense is the means of its torment ; by the faculty by which it tasts , by the same it is afflicted ; for so long as it can taste , it is tormented with desire , and when it can desire no longer , it cannot feel pleasure . 7. Sin hath little or no pleasure in its very injoyment ; because its very manner of entry and production is by a curse and a contradiction ; it comes into the world like a viper through the sides of its mother by means unnaturall , violent , and monstrous . Men love sin only because it is forbidden ; Sin took occasion by the Law , saith St. Paul , it could not come in upon its own pretences , but men rather suspect a secret pleasure in it because there are guards kept upon it ; Sed quia caecus inest vitiis amor , omne futurum Despicitur , suadéntque brevem praesentia fructum , Et ruit in vetitum damni secura libido . Men run into sin with blinde affections , and against all reason despise the future , hoping for some little pleasure for the present ; and all this is only because they are forbidden : Do not many men sin out of spight ? some out of the spirit of disobedience , some by wildenesse , and indetermination , some by impudence , and because they are taken in a fault , — Frontémque à crimine sumunt , Some because they are reproved , many by custome , others by importunity : Ordo fuit crevisse malis — It grows upon crab-stocks , and the lust it self is sowre and unwholesome ; and since it is evident , that very many sins come in wholly upon these accounts , such persons and such sins cannot pretend pleasure ; but as Naturalists say of pulse , cum maledictis & probris serendum praecipiunt , ut laetiùs porvemat ; the countrey people were used to curse it and rail upon it all the while that it was sowing that it might thrive the better ; t is true with sins , they grow up with curses , with spite and contradiction , peevishnesse and indignation , pride and cursed principles ; and therefore pleasure ought not to be the inscription of the box ; for that 's the least part of its ingredient and constitution . 8. The pleasures in the very enjoying of sin are infinitely trifling and inconsiderable , because they passe away so quickly ; if they be in themselves little , they are made lesse by their volatile and fugitive nature . But if they were great , then their being so transient does not only lessen the delight , but changes it into a torment , and loads the spirit of the sinner with impatience and indignation . Is it not a high upbraiding to the watchfull adulterer , that after he hath contriv'd the stages of his sin , and tyed many circumstances together with arts and labour , and these joyn and stand knit and solid only by contingency , and are very often born away with the impetuous torrent of an inevitable accident , like Xerxes bridge over the Hellespont , and then he is to begin again , and sets new wheels a going ; and by the arts , and the labour , and the watchings , and the importunity , and the violence , and the unwearied study , and indefatigable diligence of many moneths he enters upon possession , and finds them not of so long abode as one of his cares , which in so vast numbers made so great a portion of his life afflicted ? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The enjoying of sin for a season , St. Paul cals it ; he names no pleasures ; our English translation uses the word of enjoying pleasures ; but if there were any , they were but for that season , that instant , that very transition of the act , which dies in its very birth , and of which we can only say as the minstrell sung of Pacuvius when he was carryed dead from his supper to his bed , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , A man can scarce have time enough to say it is alive , but that it was : nullo non se die extulit , it died every day , it lived never unto life , but lived and dyed unto death , being its mother , and its daughter : The man dyed before the sin did live , and when it had lived , it consign'd him to dye eternally . Adde to this , that it so passes away , that nothing at all remains behind it , that is pleasant : it is like the path of an arrow in the air ; the next morning no man can tell what is become of the pleasures of the last nights sin : they are no where but in Gods books , deposited in the conscience , and sealed up against the day of dreadfull accounts ; but as to the man they are as if they never had been ; and then let it be considered , what a horrible aggravation it will be to the miseries of damnation , that a man shall for ever perish for that , which if he looks round about he cannot see , nor tell where it is . He that dies , dies for that which is not ; and in the very little present be findes it an unrewarding interest , to walk seven dayes together over sharp stones only to see a place from whence he must come back in an hour . If it goes off presently , it is not worth the labour ; ifit stayes long , it growes tedious : so that it cannot be pleasant , if it stayes ; and if it does stay , it is not to be valued : Haec mala mentis gaudia . It abides too little a while to be felt , or called pleasure ; and ifit should abide longer , it would be troublesome as pain , and loath'd like the tedious speech of an Orator pleading against the life of the innocent . 9. Sin hath in its best advantages but a trifling inconsiderable pleasure : because not only God and reason , conscience and honour , interest and lawes , do sowre it in the sense and gust of pleasure , but even the devill himself either being over-ruled by God , or by a strange unsignificant malice makes it troublesome and intricate , intangled and involv'd ; and one sin contradicts another , and vexes the man with so great variety of evils , that if in the course of Gods service he should meet with half the difficulty , he would certainly give over the whole imployment . Those that St. James speaks of who prayed that they might spend it upon their lusts , were covetous and prodigall , and therefore must endure the torments of one to have the pleasure of another ; and which is greater , the pleasure of spending , or the displeasure that it is spent , and does not still remain after its consumption , is easie to tell : certain it is , that this lasts much longer . Does not the Devill often tempt men to despair , and by that torment put bars and locks upon them , that they may never return to God ? Which what else is it but a plain indication that it is intended , the man should feel the images and dreams of pleasure , no longer but till he be without remedy ? Pleasure is but like centries or woodden frames , set under arches , till they be strong by their own weight and consolidation to stand alone ; and when by any means the Devill hath a man sure , he takes no longer care to cousen you with pleasures , but is pleased that men should begin an early hell , and be tormented before the time . Does not envie punish or destroy flattery ; and self-love sometimes torment the drunkard ; and intemperance abate the powers of lust , and make the man impotent ; and lazinesse become a hinderance to ambition ; and the desires of man wax impatient upon contradicting interests , and by crossing each others design on all hands lessen the pleasure , and leave the man tormented ? 10. Sinne is of so little relish and gust , so trifling a pleasure , that it is alwayes greater in expectation then it is in the possession . But if men did beforehand see , what the utmost is , which sinne ministers to please the beastly part of man , it were impossible it should be pursued with so much earnestnesse and disadvantages . It is necessary it should promise more then it can give ; Men could not otherwise be cousened . And if it be inquired , why men should sin again , after they had experience of the little and great deception ? It is to be confessed , it is a wonder they should ; but then we may remember that men sinne again , though their sinne did afflict them ; they will be drunk again , though they were sick ; they will again commit folly , though they be surprised in their shame , though they have needed an hospitall ; and therefore there is something else that moves them , and not the pleasure ; for they doe it without and against its interest ; but either they still proceed , hoping to supply by numbers what they finde not in proper measures ; or God permits them to proceed as an instrument of punishment ; or their understandings and reasonings grow cheaper ; or they grow in love with it , and take it upon any terms ; or contract new appetites , and are pleased with the baser and the lower reward of sinne : but whatsoever can be the cause of it , it is certain , by the experience of all the world , that the fancy is higher , the desires more sharp , and the reflexion more brisk , at the door and entrance of the entertainment , then in all the little and shorter periods of its possession : for then it is but limited by the naturall measures , and abated by distemper , and loathed by enjoying , and disturbed by partners , and dishonoured by shame and evill accidents ; so that as men coming to the river Lucius , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and seeing waters pure as the tears of the spring , or the pearls of the morning , expects that in such a fair promising bosome , the inmates should be fair and pleasant , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but findes the fishes black , filthy , and unwholesome ; so it is in sinne , its face is fair and beauteous , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Softer then sleep , or the dreams of wine , tenderer then the curds of milk , & Euganeâ quantumvis mollior agnâ ; but when you come to handle it , it is filthy , rough as the Porcupine , black as the shadowes of the night , and having promised a fish it gives a scorpion , and a stone in stead of bread . 11. The fruits of its present possession , the pleasures of its taste are lesse pleasant , because no sober person , no man that can discourse does like it long , — Breve sit quod turpiter audes . But he approves it in the height of passion , and in the disguises of a temptation ; but at all other times he findes it ugly and unreasonable ; and the very remembrances must at all times abate its pleasures , and sowre its delicacies . In the most parts of a mans life he wonders at his own folly , and prodigious madnesse , that it should be ever possible for him to be deluded by such trifles ; and he sighes next morning , and knowes it over night ; and is it not therefore certain that he leans upon a thorne , which he knowes will smart , and he dreads the event of to morrow ? But so have I known a bold trooper fight in the confusion of a battell , and being warm with heat and rage received from the swords of his enemy , wounds open like a grave ; but he felt them not , and when by the streams of bloud he found himself mark'd for pain , he refused to consider then , what he was to feel to morrow : but when his rage had cool'd into the temper of a man , and a clammy moisture had checked the fiery emission of spirits , he wonders at his own boldnesse , and blames his fate , and needs a mighty patience to bear his great calamity . So is the bold and merry sinner , when he is warm with wine and lust , wounded and bleeding with the strokes of hell , he twists with the fatall arm that strikes him , and cares not ; but yet it must abate his gayety , because he remembers that when his wounds are cold and considered , he must roar or perish , repent or do worse ; that is , be miserable or undone . The Greeks call this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the felicity of condemned slaves feasted high in sport . Dion Prusaeus reports that when the Persians had got the victory , they would pick out the noblest slave , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . They make him a King for three dayes , and cloath him with royall robes , and minister to him all the pleasures he can choose , and all the while he knowes he is to dye a sacrifice to mirth and folly . But then let it be remembred what checks and allayes of mirth the poor man starts at , when he remembers the axe and the altar where he must shortly bleed ; and by this we may understand what that pleasure is , in the midst of which the man sighs deeply , when he considers what opinion he had of this sin in the dayes of counsell and sober thoughts , and what reason against it , he shall feel to morrow when he must weep or die . Thus it happens to sinners according to the saying of the Prophet , Qui sacrificant bominem osculabuntur Vitulum , He that gives a man in sacrifice shall kisse the calf , that is , shall be admitted to the seventh chappell of Moloch to kisse the Idoll : a goodly reward for so great a price , for so great an iniquity . After all this I doe not doubt but these considerations will meet with some persons that think them to be protestatio contra factum , and fine pretences against all experience ; and that for all these severe sayings , sin is still so pleasant as to tempt the wisest resolution . Such men are in a very evill condition : and in their case only I come to understand the meaning of those words of Seneca ; Malorum ultimum est mala sua amare , ubi turpia non solùm delectant , sed etiam placent . It is the worst of evils when men are so in love with sin that they are not only delighted with them but pleased also ; not only feel the relish with too quick a sense , but also feel none of the objections , nothing of the pungency , the sting , or the lessening circumstances . However , to these men I say this only , that if by experience they feel sin pleasant , it is as certain also by experience , that most sins are in their own nature sharpnesses and diseases ; * and that very few do pretend to pleasure : * That a man cannot feel any deliciousnesse in them , but when he is helped by folly and inconsideration ; that is , a wise man cannot , though a boy or a fool can be pleased with them : * That they are but reliques and images of pleasure left upon Natures stock , and therefore much lesse then the pleasures of naturall vertues : * That a man must run through much trouble before he brings them to act and enjoyment : * That he must take them in despite of himself , against reason and his conscience , the tenderest parts of man and the most sensible of affliction : * They are at the best so little , that they are limited as one sense , not spread upon all the faculties like the pleasures of vertue , which make the bones fat by an intellectuall rectitude , and the eyes spritely by a wise proposition , and pain it self to become easie by hope and a present rest within : * It is certain ( I say ) by a great experience , that the pleasures of sin enter by cursings and a contradictory interest , and become pleasant not by their own relish , but by the viciousnesse of the palat , by spite and peevishnesse , by being forbidden and unlawfull ; * And that which is its sting is at some times the cause of all its sweetnesse it can have ; * They are gone sooner then a dream ; * They are crossed by one another , and their Parent is their Tormentor , * and when sinnes are tyed in a chain , with that chain they dash one anothers brains out , or make their lodging restlesse . * It is never lik'd long ; * and promises much and performes little ; * it is great at distance , and little at hand , against the nature of all substantiall things ; * And after all this , how little pleasure is left , themselves have reason with scorn and indignation to resent . So that if experience can be pretended against experience , there is nothing to be said to it but the words which Phryne desired to be writ on the gates of Thebes , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Phryne the harlot built it up , but Alexander digg'd it down ; the pleasure is supported by little things , by the experience of fools and them that observed nothing , and the relishes tasted by artificiall appetites , by art and cost , by violence and preternaturall desires , by the advantage of deception and evill habits , by expectation and delayes , by dreams and inconsiderations , these are the harlots hands that build the fairy eastle , but the hands of reason and religion , sober counsels and the voice of God , experience of wise men , and the sighings and intolerable accents of perishing or returning sinners dig it down , and sow salt in the foundations , that they may never spring up in the accounts of men that delight not in the portion of fools and forgetfulnesse . Neque enim Deus ita viventibus quicquam promisit boni , neque ipsa per se mens humana talium sibi conscia quicquam boni sperare audet . To men that live in sinne God hath promised no good , and the conscience it self dares not expect it . SERMON , XX. Part II. WE have already opened this dunghill cover'd with snow , which was indeed on the outside white as the spots of leprosie , but it was no better ; and if the very colours and instruments of deception , if the fucus and ceruse be so spotted and sullyed , what can we suppose to be under the wrinkled skin , what in the corrupted liver , and in the sinks of the body of sin ? That we are next to consider : But if we open the body , and see what a confusion of all its parts , what a rebellion and tumult of the humors , what a disorder of the members , what a monstrosity or deformity is all over , we shall be infinitely convinced , that no man can choose a sin , but upon the same ground on which he may choose a feaver , or long for madnesse or the gout . Sin in its naturall efficiency hath in it so many evils , as must needs afright a man , and scare the confidence of every one that can consider . * When our blessed Saviour shall conduct his Church to the mountains of glory , he shall present it to God without spot or wrinkle , that is , pure and vigorous , intirely freed from the power , and the infection of sin . Upon occasion of which expression it hath been spoken , that sin leaves in the soul a stain or spot , permanent upon the spirit , discomposing the order of its beauty , and making it appear to God in sordibus in such filthinesse , that he who is of pure eyes cannot behold . But roncerning the nature or proper effects of this spot or stain , they have not been agreed . Some call it an obligation or a guilt of punishment ; so Scotus . Some fancy it to be an elongation from God , by a dissimilitude of conditions ; so Peter Lombard . Alexander of Ales sayes it is a privation of the proper beauty and splendor of the soul , with which God adorn'd it in the creation and superaddition of grace ; and upon this expression they most agree , but seem not to understand what they mean by it ; and it signifies no more , but as you describing sicknesse , call it a want of health , and folly a want of wisdome ; which is indeed to say what a thing is not , but not to tell what it is : But that I may not be hindred by this consideration , we may observe that the spots and stains of sin are metaphoricall significations of the disorder and evill consequents of sin ; which it leaves partly upon the soul , partly upon the state and condition of a man ; as meeknesse is called an ornament , and faith a shield , and salvation a helmet , and sin it self a wrinkle , corruption , rottennesse , a burden , a wound , death , filthinesse : so it is a● defiling of a man , that is , as the body contracts nastinesse and dishonour by impure contacts , and adherencies , so does the soul receive such a change as must be taken away before it can enter in to the eternall regions , and house of purity . But it is not a distinct thing , not an inherent quality , which can be separated from other evill effects of sin , which I shall now reckon by their more proper names ; and St. Paul comprises under the scornfull appellative of shame . 1. The first naturall fruit of sin is ignorance . Man was first tempted by the promise of knowledge ; he fell into darknesse by beleeving the Devill holding forth to him a new light . It was not likely good should come of so foul a beginning ; that the woman should beleeve the Devill putting on no brighter shape then a snakes skin , she neither being afraid of sin nor afrighted to hear a beast speak , and he pretending so weakly in the temptation , that he promised only that they should know evill ; for they knew good before ; and all that was offered to them was the experience of evill : and it was no wonder that the Devill promised no more ; for sin never could perform any thing but an experience of evill , no other knowledge can come upon that account ; but the wonder was , why the woman should sin for no other reward , but for that which she ought to have fear'd infinitely ; for nothing could have continued her happinesse , but not to have known evill . Now this knowledge was the introduction of ignorance . For when the understanding suffered it self to be so baffled as to study evill , the will was as foolish to fall in love with it , and they conspir'd to undoe each other . For when the will began to love it , then the understanding was set on work to commend , to advance , to conduct and to approve , to beleeve it , and to be factious in behalf of the new purchase . I do not beleeve the understanding part of man received any naturall decrement or diminution . For if to the Devils their naturals remain intire , it is not likely that the lesser sin of man should suffer a more violent and effective mischief . Neither can it be understood how the reasonable soul being immortall both in it self and its essentiall faculties , can lose or be lessened in them , any more then it can die . But it received impediment , by new propositions : It lost and willingly forgot what God had taught , and went away from the fountain of truth , and gave trust to the father of lies , and it must without remedy grow foolish ; and so a man came to know evill , just as a man is said to taste of death : for in proper speaking , as death is not to be felt , because it takes away all sense ; so nether can evill be known , because whatsoever is truly cognoscible , is good and true ; and therefore all the knowledge a man gets by sin is to feel evill : he knowes it not by discourse , but by sense ; not by proposition , but by smart ; The Devill doing to man as Esculapius did to Neoclides , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he gave him a formidable collyrium to torment him more : the effect of which was , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : the Devill himself grew more quick-sighted to abuse us , but we became more blinde by that opening of our eyes . I shall not need to discourse of the Philosophy of this mischief , and by the connexion of what causes ignorance doth follow sin : but it is certain , whether a man would fam be pleased with sin , or be quiet , or fearlesse when he hath sinned , or continue in it , or perswade others to it , he must do it by false propositions , by lyings and such weak discourses as none can beleeve but such as are born fools , or such as have made themselves so , or are made so by others . Who in the world is a verier fool , a more ignorant wretched person then he that is an Atheist ? A man may better beleeve there is no such man as himself , and that he is not in being , then that there is no God : for himself can cease to be , and once was not , and shall be changed from what he is , and in very many periods of his life knowes not that he is ; and so it is every night with him when he sleeps : but none of these can happen to God ; and if he knowes it not , he is a fool . Can any thing in this world be more foolish then to think that all this rare fabrick of heaven and earth can come by chance , when all the skill of art is not able to make an Oyster ? To see rare effects and no cause ; an excellent government and no Prince ; a motion without an immovable ; a circle without a centre ; a time without eternity ; a second without a first ; a thing that begins not from it self , and therefore not to perceive there is something from whence it does begin , which must be without beginning ; these things are so against Philosophy , and naturall reason , that he must needs be a beast in his understanding that does not assent to them . This is the Atheist : the fool hath said in his heart , there is no God. That 's his character : the thing framed saies that nothing framed it ; the tongue never made it self to speak , and yet talks against him that did ; saying , that which is made , is , and that which made it , is not . But this folly is as infinite as hell , as much without light or bound , as the Chaos or the primitive nothing . But in this , the Devill never prevailed very farre ; his Schooles were alwaies thin at these Lectures : some few people have been witty against God , that taught them to speak before they knew to spell a syllable ; but either they are monsters in their manners , or mad in their understandings , or ever finde themselves confuted by a thunder or a plague , by danger or death . But the Devill hath infinitely prevail'd in a thing that is almost as senselesse and ignorant as Atheisme , and that is idolatry ; not only making God after mans image , but in the likenesse of a calf , of a cat , of a serpent ; making men such fools as to worship a quartan ague , fire and water , onions and sheep . This is the skill man learned , and the Philosophy that he is taught by beleeving the Devill . * What wisedome can there be in any man , that cals good evill , and evill good ; to say fire is cold , and the Sun black , that fornication can make a man happy , or drunkennesse can make him wise ? And this is the state of a sinner , of every one that delights in iniquity ; he cannot be pleased with it if he thinks it evill ; he cannot endure it , without beleeving this proposition , that there is in drunkennesse , or lust , pleasure enough , good enough to make him amends for the intolerable pains of damnation . But then if we consider upon what nonsense principles the state of an evill life relies , we must in reason be in patient , and with scorn and indignation drive away the fool ; such as are : sense is to be preferred before reason , interest before religion , a lust before heaven , moments before eternity , money above God himself ; that , a mans felicity consists in that which a beast enjoyes ; that , a little in present uncertain , fallible possession , is better then the certain state of infinite glories hereafter ; what childe , what fool can think things more weak , and more unreasonable ? And yet if men do not go upon these grounds , upon what account do they sin ? sin hath no wiser reasons for it self then these : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the same argument that a flye hath to enter into a candle , the same argument a fool hath , that enters into sin ; it looks prettily , but rewards the eye , as burning basons do , with intolerable circles of reflected fire . Such are the principles of a sinners Philosophy . And no wiser are his hopes ; all his hopes that he hath is , that he shall have time to repent of that which he chooses greedily ; that he whom he every day provokes will save him , whether he will or no ; that he can in an instant , or in a day make amends for all the evils of 40 years ; or else that he shall be saved whether he does or no ; that heaven is to be had for a sigh , or a short prayer , and yet hell shall not be consequent to the affections , and labours , and hellish services of a whole life ; he goes on and cares not , he hopes without a promise , and refuses to beleeve all the threatnings of God ; but beleeves he shall have a mercy for which he never had a revelation . If this be knowledge or wisdome , then there is no such thing as folly , no such disease as madnesse . But then consider , that there are some sins whose very formality is a lye . Superstition could not be in the world , if men did beleeve God to be good and wise , free and mercifull , not a tyrant , not an unreasonable exactor : no man would dare do in private , what he fears to do in publick , if he did know that God sees him there , and will bring that work of darknesse into light . But he is so foolish as to think , that if he sees nothing , nothing sees him ; for if men did perceive God to be present , and yet do wickedly , it is worse with them then I have yet spoke of ; and they beleeve another lie ; that to be seen by man will bring more shame , then to be discerned by God ; or that the shame of a few mens talk is more intolerable then to be confounded before Christ , and his army of Angels , and Saints , and all the world . * He that excuses a fault by telling a lie , beleeves it better to be guilty of two faults , then to be thought guilty of one ; and every hypocrite thinks it not good to be holy , but to be accounted so , is a fine thing ; that is , that opinion is better then reality , and that there is in vertue nothing good , but the fame of it . * And the man that takes revenge , relies upon this foolish proposition ; that his evill that he hath already suffer'd growes lesse if another suffers the like ; that his wound cannot smart , if by my hand he dies that gave it . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the sad accents and dolefull tunes are increased by the number of mourners , but the sorrow is not at all lessened . I shall not need to thrust into this account the other evils of mankinde that are the events of ignorance , but introduc'd by sin ; such as are our being moved by what we see strongly , and weakly by what we understand ; that men are moved rather by a fable then by a syllogisme , by parables then by demonstrations , by examples then by precepts , by seeming things then by reall , by shadowes then by substances ; that men judge of things by their first events , and measure the events by their own short lives , or shorter observations ; that they are credulous to beleeve what they wish , and incredulous of what makes against them , measuring truth or falshood by measures that cannot fit them , as foolishly as if they should judge of a colour by the dimensions of a body , or feel musick with the hand ; they make generall conclusions from particular instances , and take account of Gods actions by the measures of a man. Men call that justice that is on their side , and all their own causes are right , and they are so alwayes ; they are so when they affirm them in their youth , and they are so when they deny them in their old age ; and they are confident in all their changes ; and their first error which they now see , does not make them modest in the proposition which they now maintain ; for they do not understand that what was , may be so again : So foolish and ignorant was I ( said David ) and as it were a beast before thee . Ambition is folly , and temerity is ignorance , and confidence never goes without it , and impudence is worse , and zeal or contention is madnesse , and prating is want of wisdome , and lust destroyes it , and makes a man of a weak spirit , and a cheap reasoning ; and there are in the Catalogue of of sins very many , which are directly , kinds and parts , and appendages of ignorance ; such as are blindnesse of minde , affected ignorance , and wilfull ; neglect of hearing the word of God , resolved incredulity , forgetfulnesse of holy things , lying and beleeving a lye ; this is the fruit of sin , this is the knowledge that the Devill promised to our first parents as the rewards of disobedience ; and although they sinn'd as weakly and fondly , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , upon as slight grounds and trifling a temptation and as easie a deception as many of us since , yet the causes of our ignorance are increased by the multiplication of our sins ; and if it was so bad in the green tree , it is much worse in the dry ; and no man is so very a fool as the sinner , and none are wise but the servants of God , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The wise Chaldees and the wiser Hebrewes which worship God chastly and purely , they only have a right to be called wise ; all that do not so are fools and ignorants , neither knowing what it is to be happy , nor how to purchase it ; ignorant of the noblest end , and of the competent means towards it : they neither know God nor themselves , and no ignorance is greater then this or more pernicious . What man is there in the world that thinks himself covetous or proud ? and yet millions are , who like Harpaste think that the house is dark , but not themselves . Vertue makes our desires temperate and regular , it observes our actions , condemns our faults , mortifies our lusts , watches all our dangers and temptations : but sin makes our desires infinite , and we would have we cannot tell what ; we strive that we may forget our faults ; we labour that we may neither remember nor consider ; we justifie our errors , and call them innocent , and that which is our shame we miscall honour ; and our whole life hath in it so many weak discourses and trifling propositions , that the whole world of sinners is like the Hospitall of the insensati , madnesse and folly possesses the greater part of mankinde . What greater madnesse is there then to spend the price of a whole farm in contention for three sheaves of corn ? and yet tantum pectora caecae noctis habent , this is the wisdome of such as are contentious , and love their own will more then their happinesse , their humour more then their peace . — Furor est post omnia perdere naulum . Men lose their reason , and their religion , and themselves at last for want of understanding ; and all the wit and discourses by which sin creeps in , are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , frauds of the tongue , and consultations of care : but in the whole circle of sins there is not one wise proposition , by which a man may conduct his affairs , or himself become instructed to felicity . This is the first naturall fruit of sin : It makes a man a fool , and this hurt sin does to the understanding , and this is shame enough to that in which men are most apt to glory . Sin naturally makes a man weak ; that is , unapt to do noble things : by which I do not understand a naturall disability : for it is equally ready for a man to will good as evill , and as much in the power of his hands to be lifted up in prayer to God as against his Brother in a quarrell ; and between a vertuous object and his faculties there is a more apt proportion , then between his spirit and a vice ; and every act of grace does more please the minde , then an act of sin does delight the sense ; and every crime does greater violence to the better part of man , then mortification does to the lower ; and often times a duty consists in a negative , as not to be drunk , not to swear , and it is not to be understood that a man hath naturally no power not to do ; if there be a naturall disability , it is to action , not to rest or ceasing ; and therefore in this case , we cannot reasonably nor justly accuse our Nature , but we have reason to blame our manners which have introduced upon us a morall disability ; that is , not that the faculty is impotent and disabled , but that the whole man is ; for the will in many cases desires to do good , and the understanding is convinced and consents , and the hand can obey , and the passions can be directed , and be instrumentall to Gods service : but because they are not used to it , the will finds a difficulty to do them so much violence , and the understanding consents to their lower reasonings , and the desires of the lower man do will stronger ; and then the whole man cannot do the duty that is expected . There is a law in the members , and he that gave that law is a tyrant , and the subjects of that law are slaves , and oftentimes their ear is bored , and they love their fetters and desire to continue that bondage for ever ; The law is the law of sin , the Devill is the tyrant , custome is the sanction or the firmament of the law ; and every vicious man is a slave , and chooses the vilest master , and the basest of services , and the most contemptible rewards . Lex enim peccati est violentia consuetudinis , quâ trahitur & tenetur animus etiam invitus , eo merito quo in eam volens illabitur , said St. Austin ; The law of sin is the violence of custome , which keep a mans minde against his minde , because he entred willingly , and gave up his own interest , which he ought to have secur'd for his own felicity , and for his service who gave for it an invaluable price : And indeed in questions of vertue and vice there is no such thing as Nature ; or it is so inconsiderable , that it hath in it nothing beyond an inclination which may be reverted ; and very often not so much ; nothing but a perfect indifferency , we may if we will , or we may choose ; but custome brings in a new nature , and makes a Biass in every faculty . To a vicious man some sins become necessary ; Temperance makes him sick ; severity is death to him ; it destroys his chearfulnesse and activity ; it is as his nature , and the desire dwels for ever with him , and his reasonings are framed for it and his fancy , and in all he is helped by example , by company , by folly , and inconsideration ; and all these are a faction and a confederacy against the honour and service of God. And in this , Philosophy is at a stand , nothing can give an account of it but experience , and sorrowfull instances ; for it is infinitely unreasonable , that when you have discoursed wisely against unchastity , and told , that we are separated from it by a circumvallation of Lawes of God and man , that it dishonours the body , and makes the spirit caitive , that it is fought against by arguments sent from all the corners of reason and religion , and the man knows all this , and beleeves it , and prayes against his sin , and hates himself for it , and curses the actions of it ; yet oppose against all this but a fable or a merry story , a proverb or a silly saying , the sight of his mistresse , or any thing but to lessen any one of the arguments brought against it , and that man shall as certainly and clearly be determined to that sin , as if he had on his side all the reason of the world . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Custome does as much as Nature can doe ; it does sometimes more , and superinduces a disposition contrary to our naturall temper . Eudemus had so used his stomach to so unnaturall drinks , that , as himself tels the story , he took in one day two and twenty potions in which Hellebore was infused , and rose at noon , and supp'd at night , and felt no change . So are those that are corrupted with evill customes , nothing will purge them ; if you discourse wittily , they hear you not ; or if they do , they have twenty wayes to answer , and twice twenty to neglect it : if you perswade them to promise to leave their sin , they do but shew their folly at the next temptation , and tell that they did not mean it : and if you take them at an advantage when their hearts are softned with a judgement or a fear , with a shame or an indignation , and then put the bars and locks of vowes upon them , it is all one ; one vow shall hinder but one action , and the appetite shall be doubled by the restraint , and the next opportunity shall make an amends for the first omission : or else the sin shall enter by parts ; the vow shall only put the understanding to make a distinction , or to change the circumstance , and under that colour the crime shall be admitted , because the man is resolved to suppose the matter so dressed was not vowed against . But then when that is done , the understanding shall open that eye that did but wink before , and see that it was the same thing , and secretly rejoyce that it was so cousened : for now the lock is open'd , and the vow was broken against his will , and the man is at liberty again , because he did the thing at unawares , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , still he is willing to beleeve the sin was not formall vow-breach , but now he sees he broke it materially , and because the band is broken , the yoke is in pieces , therefore the next action shall go on upon the same stock of a single in quity without being afrighted in his conscience at the noise of perjury . I wish we were all so innocent as not to understand the discourse ; but it uses to be otherwise . Nam si discedas , laqueo tenet ambitiost Consuetudo mali : — & in agro corde senescit . Custome hath waxen old in his deceived heart , and made snares for him that he cannot disintangle himself ; so true is that saying of God by the Prophet , Can an Aethiop change his skin ? then may ye learn to do well when ye are accustomed to do evill . But I instance in two things which to my sense seem great aggravations of the slavery and weaknesse of a customary sinner . The first is , that men sin against their interest . They know they shall be ruin'd by it ; it will undoe their estates , lose their friends , ruine their fortunes , destroy their body , impoverish the spirit , load the conscience , discompose his rest , confound his reason , amaze him in all his faculties , destroy his hopes , and mischief enough besides ; and when he considers this , he declares against it ; but , Cum bona verba erumpant , affectus tamen ad consuetudinem relabuntur , the man gives good words , but the evill custome prevails ; and it happens as in the case of the Tyrinthians , who to free their nation from a great plague , were bidden only to abstain from laughter , while they offered their sacrifice : but they had been so us'd to a ridiculous effeminacy , and vain course of conversation , that they could not , though the honour and splendor of the Nation did depend upon it . God of his mercy keep all Christian people from a custome in sinning ; for if they be once fallen thither , nothing can recover them but a miraculous grace . 2. The second aggravation of it is , that custome prevails against experience . Though the man hath already smarted , though he hath been disgraced , and undone , though he lost his relation and his friends , he is turn'd out of service , and disimployed , he begs with a load of his old sins upon his shoulders , yet this will not cure an evill custome : Do not we daily see how miserable some men make themselves with drunkennesse , and folly ? Have not we seen them that have been sick with intemperance , deadly sick , enduring for one drunken meeting , more pain then are in all the fasting dayes of the whole year ? and yet do they not the very next day go to it again ? Indeed some few are smitten into the beginning of repentance , and they stay a fortnight , or a moneth , and it may be resist two or three invitations ; but yet the custome is not gone , Nec tu cum obstiteris semel , instantique negaris Parêre imperio , Rupi jam vincula , dicas . Think not the chain is off when thou hast once or twice resisted ; or if the chain be broke , part remains on thee , like a cord upon a dogs neck , Nam & luctata canis nodum arripit ; attamen illi Cum fugit , à collo trahitur pars magna catenae . He is not free that drawes his chain after him ; and he that breaks off from his sins with greatest passion , stands in need of prosperous circumstances , and a strange freedome from temptation , and accidentall hardnesse , and superinduced confidence , and a preternaturall severity ; Opus est aliquâ fortunae indulgentiâ adhuc inter humana luctanti , dum nodum illum exolvit & omne vinculum mortale , for the knot can hardly be untied which a course of evill manners hath bound upon the soul ; and every contingency in the world can intangle him that wears upon his neck the links of a broken chain . Nam qui ab eo quod amat , Quàm extemplò suaviis sagittatis percussus est , illico res foras labitur , liquitur ; if he sees his temptation again he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , his kindnesse to it , and conversation with his lust undoes him , and breaks his purposes , and then he dies again , or fals upon that stone that with so much pains he removed a little out of his way ; and he would lose the spent wealth , or the health and the reputation over again , if it were in his power . Philomusus was a wilde young fellow in Domitian's time , and he was hard put to it to make a large pension to maintain his lust and luxury , and he was every moneth put to beggerly arts to feed his crime . But when his father died and left him all , he disinherited himself ; he spent it all though he knew he was to suffer that trouble alwayes , which vexed his lustfull soul in the frequent periods of his violent want . Now this is such a state of slavery , that persons that are sensible ought to complain , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that they serve worse lords then Egyptian task-masters , there is a lord within that rules and rages , Intus & in jecore aegro pascuntur domini ; sin dwels there , and makes a man a miserable servant : and this is not only a Metaphoricall expression , under which some spirituall and metaphysicall truth is represented , but it is a physicall , materiall truth , and a man endures hardship , he cannot move but at this command , and not his outward actions only , but his will and his understanding too are kept in fetters and foolish bondage : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Marcus Antoninus ; The two parts of a man are rent in sunder , and that that prevails is the life , it is the man , it is the eloquence perswading every thing to its own interest . * And now consider what is the effect of this evill . A man by sin is made a slave , he loses that liberty that is dearer to him then life it self ; and like the dog in the fable , we suffer chains and ropes only for a piece of bread ; when the Lion thought liberty a sufficient reward and price for hunger , and all the hardnesses of the wildernesse . Do not all the world sight for liberty , and at no terms will lay down armes till at least they be cousened with the image and colour of it ? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; and yet for the pleasure of a few minutes we give our selves into bondage ; and all the world does it , more or lesse . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Either men are slaves to fortune , or to lust ; to covetousnesse , or tyranny ; something or other compels him to usages against his will and reason ; and when the lawes cannot rule him , money can ; divitia enim apud sapientem virum in servitute sunt , apud stultum in imperio ; for money is the wise mans servant , and the fools Master : but the bondage of a vicious person , is such a bondage as the childe hath in the wombe , or rather as a sick man in his bed ; we are bound fast by our disease , and a consequent weaknesse , we cannot go forth though the doors be open , and the fetters knockt off , and vertue and reason like St. Peters Angel call us and b●at us upon the sides , and offer to go before us , yet we cannot come forth from prison ; for we have by our evill customes given hostages to the Devill , never to stirre from the enemies quarter ; and this is the greatest bondage that is imaginable , the bondage of conquered , wounded , unresisting people : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Vertue only is the truest liberty : And if the Son of God make us free , then are we free indeed . 3. Sin does naturally introduce a great basenesse upon the spirit , expressed in Scripture in some cases by the Devils entring into a man , as it was in the case of Judas , after he had taken the sop , Satan entred into him ; and St. Cyprian speaking of them that after Baptisme lapsed into foul crimes , he affirms that spiritu immundo quasi redeunte quatiuntur , ut manifestum sit Diabolum in baptismo fide credentis excludi , si fides postmodum defecerit regredi ; Faith , and the grace of Baptisme turns the Devill out of possession : but when faith fails , and we loose the bands of Religion , then the Devill returns ; that is , the man is devolved into such sins of which there can be no reason given , which no excuse can lessen , which are set off with no pleasure , advanced by no temptations , which deceive by no allurements and flattering pretences : such things which have a proper and direct contrariety to the good Spirit , and such as are not restrained by humane laws ; because they are states of evill rather then evill actions , principles of mischief rather then direct emanations ; such as are , unthankfulnesse , impiety , giving a secret blow , fawning hypocrisie , detraction , impudence , forgetfulnesse of the dead , and forgetting to do that in their absence which we promised to them in presence , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; Concerning which sorts of unworthinesse it is certain they argue a most degenerous spirit , and they are the effect , the naturall effect of malice and despair , an unwholesome ill natur'd soul , a soul corrupted in its whole constitution . I remember that in the Apologues of Phaedrus , it is told concerning an ill natured fellow , that he refused to pay his Symbol , which himself and all the company had agreed should be given for every disease , that each man had ; he denying his itch to be a disease ; but the company taking off the refusers hat for a pledge , found that he had a scal'd head , and so demanded the money double ; which he pertinaciously resisting , they threw him down , and then discovered he was broken bellied , and justly condemned him to pay three Philippicles : — Quae fuerat fabula , poena fuit . One disease discovers it self by the hiding of another , and that being open'd discovers a third ; He that is almost taken in a fault , tels a lye to escape ; and to protect that lye , he forswears himself ; and that he may not be suspected of perjury , he growes impudent ; and that sin may not shame him , he will glory in it , like the slave in the Comedy , who being torn with whips , grinn'd , and forc'd an ugly smile that it might not seem to smart . * There are some sins which a man that is newly fallen , cannot entertain . There is no crime made ready for a young sinner , but that which nature prompts him to . Naturall inclination is the first tempter , then compliance , then custome , but this being helped by a consequent folly , dismantles the soul , making it to hate God , to despise Religion , to laugh at severity , to deride sober counsels , to flie from repentance , to resolve against it , to delight in sin without abatement of spirit or purposes : For it is an intolerable thing for a man to be tormented in his conscience for every sin he acts ; that must not be ; he must have his sin and his peace too , or else he can have neither long : and because true peace cannot come , [ for there is no peace , saith my God , to the wicked ] therefore they must make a phantastick peace by a studied cousening of themselves , by false propositions , by carelesnesse , by stupidity , by impudence , by sufferance , and habit ; by conversation , and daily acquaintances ; by doing some things as Absalom did when he lay with his fathers concubines , to make it impossible for him to repent , or to be forgiven , something to secure him in the possession of hell ; Tute hoc intristi quod tibi exedendum est , the man must thorough it now ; and this is it that makes men fall into all basenesse of spirituall sins , [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , when a man is come to the bottome of his wickednsse , he despises all ] such as malice and despite , rancor and impudence , malicious studied ignorance , voluntary contempt of all Religion , hating of good men and good counsels , and taking every wise man and wise action to be his enemy ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And this is that basenesse of sin which Plato so much detested , that he said he should blush to be guilty of , though he knew God would pardon him , and that men should never know it , propter solam peccati turpitudinem , for the very basenesse that is in it . A man that is false to God , will also , if an evill temptation overtakes him , betray his friend ; and it is notorious in the covetous and ambitious , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They are an unthankfull generation , and to please the people , or to serve their interest will hurt their friends . That man hath so lost himself to all sweetnesse and excellency of spirit , that is gone thus farre in sin , that he looks like a condemned man , or is like the accursed spirits preserved in chains of darknesse and impieties unto the Judgement of the great Day , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , this man can be nothing but evill ; for these inclinations and evill forwardnesses , this dyscrasie and gangren'd disposition does alwaies suppose a long or a base sin for their parent ; and the product of these is a wretchlesse spirit ; that is , an aptnesse to any unworthinesse , and an unwillingnesse to resist any temptation ; a perseverance in basenesse , and a consignation to all damnation , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , If men do evill things , evill things shall be their reward . If they obey the evill spirit , an evill spirit shall be their portion ; and the Devill shall enter into them as he entred into Judas , and fill them full of iniquity . SERMON , XXI . Part III. 4. ALthough these are shamefull effects of sin , and a man need no greater dishonour then to be a fool and a slave , and a base person , all which sin infallibly makes him ; yet there are some sins which are directly shamefull in their nature , and proper disreputation , and a very great many sins are the worst and basest in severall respects ; that is , every of them hath a venomous quality of its own , whereby it is marked and appropriated to a peculiar evill spirit . The Devils sin was the worst , because it came from the greatest malice : Adams was the worst , because it was of most universall efficacy and dissemination : Judas sin the worst of men , because against the most excellent person ; and the relapses of the godly are the worst , by reason they were the most obliged persons . But the ignorance of the Law is the greatest of evils , if we consider its danger , but covetousnesse is worse then it , if we regard its incurable and growing nature : luxury is most alien from spirituall things , and is the worst of all in its temptation and our pronenesse ; but pride growes most venomous by its unreasonablenesse and importunity , arising even from the good things a man hath ; even from graces , and endearments , and from being more in debt to God. Sins of malice and against the Holy Ghost oppu●n the greatest grace with the greatest spite ; but Idolatry is perfectly hated by God by a direct enmity . Some sins are therefore most hainous , because to resist them is most easie , and to act them there is the least temptation : such as are severally , lying , and swearing . There is a strange poison in the nature of sins , that of so many sorts , every one of them should be the worst . Every sin hath an evill spirit , a Devill of its own to manage , to conduct , and to imbitter it : and although all these are Gods enemies , and have an appendant shame in their retinue , yet to some sins shame is more appropriate , and a proper ingredient in their constitutions : such as are lying , and lust , and vow-breach , and inconstancy . God sometimes cures the pride of a mans spirit by suffering his evill manners , and filthy inclination to be determin'd upon lust ; lust makes a man afraid of publick eyes , and common voices ; it is ( as all sins else are , but this especially ) a work of darknesse , it does debauch the spirit , and make it to decay and fall off from courage and resolution , constancy and severity , the spirit of government and a noble freedome ; and those punishments which the nations of the world have inflicted upon it , are not smart so much as shame : Lustfull souls are cheap and easie , trifling and despised in all wise accounts ; they are so farre from being fit to sit with Princes , that they dare not chastise a sinning servant that is private to their secret follies ; It is strange to consider what laborious arts of concealment , what excuses and lessenings , what pretences and fig-leaves men will put before their nakednesse and crimes ; shame was the first thing that entred upon the sin of Adam , and when the second world began , there was a strange scene of shame acted by Noah and his sons , and it ended in slavery and basenesse to all descending generations . We see the event of this by too sad an experience . What arguments , what hardnesse , what preaching , what necessity can perswade men to confesse their sins ? they are so ashamed of them , that to be conceal'd they preferre before their remedy ; and yet in penitentiall confession the shame is going off , it is like Cato's coming out of the Theatre , or the Philosopher from the Taverne ; it might have been shame to have entred , but glory to have departed for ever ; and yet ever to have relation to sin is so shamefull a thing , that a mans spirit is amazed , and his face is confounded when he is dressed of so shamefull a disease . And there are but few men that will endure it , but rather choose to involve it in excuses and deniall , in the clouds of lying , and the white linnen of hypocrisie : and yet when they make a vail for their shame , such is the fate of sin , the shame growes the bigger and the thicker ; we lye to men , and we excuse it to God ; either some parts of lying , or many parts of impudence , darknesse , or forgetfulnesse , running away , or running further in , these are the covers of our shame , like menstruous rags upon a skin of leprosie : But so sometimes we see a decayed beauty besmear'd with a lying fucus , and the chinks fill'd with ceruse ; besides that it makes no reall beauty , it spoils the face , and betrayes evill manners ; it does not hide old age , or the change of years , but it discovers pride or lust ; it was not shame to be old , or wearied and worn out with age , but it is a shame to dissemble nature by a wanton vizor . So sin retires from blushing into shame ; if it be discover'd , it is not to be endured , and if we go to hide it , we make it worse . But then if we remember how ambitious we are for fame and reputation , for honour and a fair opinion , for a good name all our dayes , and when our dayes are done , and that no ingenuous man can enjoy any thing he hath , if he lives in disgrace , and that nothing so breaks a mans spirit as dishonour , and the meanest person alive does not think himself fit to be despised ; we are to consider into what an evill condition sin puts us , for which we are not only disgraced and disparaged here , marked with disgracefull punishments , despised by good men , our follies derided , our company avoided , and hooted at by boyes , talk'd of in fairs and markets , pointed at , and described by appellatives of scorn , and everybody can chide us , and we dye unpitied , and lye in our graves eaten up by wormes , and a foul dishonour ; but after all this , at the day of Judgement we shall be called from our charnell houses , where our disgrace could not sleep , and shall in the face of God , in the presence of Angels and Devils , before all good men and all the evill , see , and feel the shame of all our sins written upon our foreheads : Here in this state of misery and folly we make nothing of it ; and though we dread to be discovered to men , yet to God we confesse our sins without a trouble or a blush ; but tell an even story , because we finde some formes of confession prescrib'd in our prayer books ; and that it may appear how indifferent and unconcerned we seem to be , we read and say all , and confesse the sins we never did , with as much sorrow and regret as those that we have acted a thousand times . But in that strange day of recompences , we shall finde the Devill to upbraid the criminall , Christ to disown them , the Angels to drive them from the seat of mercy , and shame to be their smart , the consigning them to damnation ; they shall then finde , that they cannot dwell where vertue is rewarded , and where honour and glory hath a throne ; there is no vail but what is rent , no excuse to any but to them , that are declared as innocent ; no circumstances concerning the wicked to be considered , but them that aggravate ; then the disgrace is not confin'd to the talk of a village , or a province , but is scattered to all the world , not only in one age shall the shame abide , but the men of all generations shall see , and wonder at the vastnesse of that evill that is spread upon the souls of sinners for ever and ever ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . No night shall then hide it , for in those regions of darknesse where the dishonoured man shall dwell for ever , there is nothing visible but the shame ; there is light enough for that , but darknesse for all things else : and then he shall reap the full harvest of his shame ; all that for which wise men scorned him , and all that for which God hated him ; all that in which he was a fool , and all that in which he was malicious ; that which was publick , and that which was private ; that which fools applauded , and that which himself durst not own ; the secrets of his lust , and the criminall contrivances of his thoughts ; the base and odious circumstances , and the frequency of the action , and the partner of his sin ; all that which troubles his conscience , and all that he willingly forgets , shall be proclaim'd by the trumpet of God , by the voice of an Archangell in the great congregation of spirits and just men . There is one great circumstance more of the shame of sin , which extremely enlarges the evill of a sinfull state , but that is not consequent to sin by a naturall emanation , but is superinduc'd by the just wrath of God : and therefore is to be consider'd in the third part , which is next to be handled . 3. When the Boeotians asked the Oracle , by what they should become happy ? the answer was made , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , wicked and irreligious persons are prosperous : and they taking the Devill at his word , threw the inspired Pythian , the ministring witch , into the sea , hoping so to become mighty in peace and warre . The effect of which was this , The Devill was found a lyar , and they fools at first , and at last felt the reward of irreligion . For there are to some crimes such events , which are not to be expected from the connexion of naturall causes , but from secret influences and undiscernible conveyances ; * that a man should be made sick for receiving the holy Sacrament unworthily , and blinde for resisting the words of an Apostle , a preacher of the Lawes of Jesus , and dye suddenly for breaking of his vow , and committing sacriledge , and be under the power and scourge of an exterminating Angell for climbing his Fathers bed , these are things beyond the worlds Philosophy . But as in Nature , so in Divinity too there are Sympathies and Antipathies , effects which we feel by experience , and are forewarned of by revelation , which no naturall reason can judge , nor any providence can prevent but by living innocently , and complying with the Commandements of God. The rod of God , which cometh not into the lot of the righteous , strikes the sinning man with sore strokes of veng eance . 1. The first that I shall note is that which I called the aggravation of the shame of sin ; and that is , an impossibility of being concealed in most cases of heinous crimes ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , let no man suppose that he shall for ever hide his sin : a single action may be conveyed away under the covert of an excuse or a privacy , escaping as Ulysses did the search of Polyphemus , and it shall in time be known that it did escape , and shall be discover'd that it was private ; that is , that it is so no longer . But no wicked man that dwelt and delighted in sin , did ever go off from his scene of unworthinesse without a filthy character ; The black veile is thrown over him before his death , and by some contingency or other he enters into his cloud , because few sins determine finally in the thoughts ; but if they dwell there , they will also enter into action , and then the thing discovers it self ; or else the injured person will proclaim it , or the jealous man will talk of it before it 's done , or curious people will inquire and discover , or the spirit of detraction shall be let loose upon him , and in spite shall declare more then he knowes , not more then is true , The Ancients , especially the Scholars of Epicurus , beleev'd that no man could be secured or quiet in his spirit from being discovered . Scelus aliqua tutum , nulla securum tulit ; They are not secure even when they are safe ; but are afflicted with perpetuall jealousies ; and every whisper is concerning them , and all new noises , are arrests to their spirits ; and the day is too light , and the night is too horrid , and both are the most opportune for their discovery ; and besides the undiscernible connexion of the contingencies of providence , many secret crimes have been published by dreams , and talkings in their sleep . It is the observation of Lucretius , Multi de magnis per somnum rebus loquuntur , Indicióque sui facti persape fuêre . And what their understanding kept a guard upon , their fancy let loose ; fear was the bars and locks , but sleep became the key to open , even then when all the senses were shut , and God rul'd alone without the choice and discourse of man. And though no man regards the wilder talkings of a distracted man , yet it hath sometimes hapned that a delirium and a feaver , fear of death , and the intolerable apprehensions of damnation have open'd the cabinet of sin , and brought to light all that was acted in the curtains of night , Quippe ubi se multis per somnia saepe loquentes , Aut morbo delirantes protrâxe feruntur , Et celata diu in medium peccata dedisse . But there are so many wayes of discovery , and amongst so many , some one does so certainly happen that they are well summ'd up by Sophocles , by saying , that time hears all and tels all , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . A cloud may be its roof and cover till it passes over , but when it is driven by a fierce winde , or runs fondly after the Sun , it layes open a deformity , which like an ulcer had a skin over it , and a pain within , and drew to it a heap of sorrowes big enough to run over all its inclosures . Many persons have betrayed themselves by their own fears , and knowing themselves never to be secure enough , have gone to purge themselves of what no body suspected them ; offer'd an Apology , when they had no accuser but one within ; which like a thorn in the flesh , or like a word in a fools heart , was uneasie till it came out ; Non amo se nimium purgitantes , when men are over-busie in justifying themselves , it is a sign themselves think they need it . Plutarch tels of a young gentleman that destroyed a swallow's nest , pretending to them that repreved him for doing the thing , which in their superstition the Creeks esteemed so ominous , that the little bird accused him for killing his Father . And to this purpose it was that Solomon gave counsell : Curse not the King , no not in thy thought , nor the rich in thy bedchamber , for a bird of the air shall carry the voice , and that that hath wings shall tell the matter ; Murder and treason have by such strange wayes been revealed , as if God had appointed an Angell president of the revelation , and had kept this in secret and sure ministry to be as an argument to destroy Atheisme from the face of the earth , by opening the secrets of men with this key of providence . Intercepting of letters , mistaking names , false inscriptions , errors of messengers , faction of the parties , fear in the actors , horror in the action , the majesly of the person , the restlesnesse of the minde , distracted looks , wearinesse of the spirit , and all under the conduct of the Divine wisdome , and the Divine vengeance , make the covers of the most secret sin transparent as a net , and visible as the Chian wines in the purest Crystall . For besides that God takes care of Kings and of the lives of men , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , driving away evill from their persons , and watching as a Mother to keep gnats and flies from her dear boy sleeping in the cradle , there are in the machinations of a mighty mischief , so many motions to be concentred , so many wheels to move regularly , and the hand that turns them does so tremble , and there is so universall a confusion in the conduct , that unlesse it passes suddenly into act , it will be prevented by discovery , and if it be acted it enters into such a mighty horror , that the face of a man will tell what his heart did think , and his hands have done . And after all , it was seen and observed by him that stood behinde the cloud , who shall also bring every work of darknesse into light in the day of strange discoveries and fearfull recompences : and in the mean time certain it is , that no man can long put on a person and act a part , but his evill manners will peep through the corners of the white robe , and God will bring an hypocrite to shame even in the eyes of men . 2. A second superinduced consequent of sin brought upon it by the wrath of God , is sin ; when God punishes sin with sin he is extreamly angry ; for then the punishment is not medicinal , but finall and exterminating ; God in that case takes no care concerning him , though he dies and dies eternally . I do not here speak of those sins which are naturally consequent to each other , as evill words to evill thoughts , evill actions to evill words , rage to drunkennesse , lust to gluttony , pride to ambition ; but such which God suffers the mans evill nature to be tempted to by evill opportunities : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , This is the wrath of God , and the man is without remedy . It was a sad calamity , when God punished Davids adultery by permitting him to fall to murder , and Solomons wanton and inordinate love , with the crime of idolatry , and Ananias his sacriledge with lying against the holy Ghost , and Judas his covetousnesse with betraying his Lord , and that betraying with despair , and that despair with self-murder . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , One evill invites another , and when God is angry and withdrawes his grace , and the holy Spirit is grieved and departs from his dwelling , the man is left at the mercy of the mercilesse enemy , and he shall receive him only with variety of mischiefs ; like Hercules when he had broken the horn of Achelous , he was almost drown'd with the floud that sprung from it ; and the evill man when he hath pass'd the first scene of his sorrowes , shall be intic'd or left to fall into another . For it is a certain truth , that he who resists , or that neglects to use Gods grace , shall fall into that evill condition , that when he wants it most , he shall have least . It is so with every man ; he that hath the greatest want of the grace of God shall want it more ; if this great want proceeded once from his own sin . Habenti dabitur , said our blessed Lord , to him that hath shall be given , and he shall have more abundantly ; from him that hath not shall be taken , even that which he hath . It is a remarkable saying of David ; I have thought upon thy name O Lord in the night season , and have kept thy Law ; this I had because I kept thy Commandements : keeping Gods Commandements , was rewarded with keeping Gods Commandements ; And in this world God hath not a greater reward to give ; for so the soul is nourished unto life , so it growes up with the increase of God , so it passes onto a perfect man in Christ , so it is consigned for heaven , and so it enters into glory ; for glory is the perfection of grace , and when our love to God is come to its state and perfection , then we are within the circles of a Diadem , and then we are within the regions of felicity . And there is the same reason in the contrary instance . The wicked person fals into sin , and this he had because he sinn'd against his maker . Tradidit Deus eos in desideria cordis eorum : and it concerns all to observe it ; and if ever we finde that a sin succeeds a sin in the same instance , it is because we refuse to repent ; but if a sin succeeds a sin in another instance , as if lust followes pride , or murder drunkennesse ; it is a sign that God will not give us the grace of repentance : he is angry at us with a destructive fury , he hath dipt his arrowes in the venome of the serpent , and whets his-sword in the forges of hell ; then it is time that a man withdraw his foot , and that he start back from the preparations of an intolerable ruine : For though men in this case grow insensible , and that 's part of the disease , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith Chrysostome , it is the biggest part of the evill that the man feels it not , yet the very antiperistasis or the contrariety , the very horror and bignesse of the danger may possibly make a man to contend to leap out of the fire ; and sometimes God works a miracle , and besides his own rule delights to reform a dissolute person , to force a man from the grave , to draw him against the bent of his evill habits ; yet it is so seldome that we are left to consider , that such persons are in a desperate condition , who cannot be saved unlesse God is pleased to work a miracle . 3. Sinne brings in its retinue , fearfull plagues and evill angels , messengers of the displeasure of God , concerning which , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , there are enough of dead ; I mean the experience is so great , and the notion so common , and the examples so frequent , and the instances so sad , that there is scarce any thing new in this particular to be noted ; but something is remarkable , and that is this , that God even when he forgives the sin , does reserve such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , such remains of punishment , and those not only to the lesse perfect , but to the best persons , that it makes demonstration , that every sinner is in a worse condition then he dreams of . For consider ; can it be imagined that any one of us should escape better then David did ? we have reason to tremble when we remember what he suffered , even when God had seal'd his pardon . Did not God punish Zedekiah with suffering his eyes to be put out in the house of bondage ? was not God so angry with Valentinian , that he gave him into his enemies hand to be flay'd alive ? Have not many persons been struck suddenly in the very act of sin , and some been seised upon by the Devill and carryed away alive ? These are fearfull contingencies : but God hath been more angry yet ; rebellion was punished in Corah and his company , by the gaping of the earth , and the men were buryed alive ; and Dathan and Abiram were consumed with fire for usurping the Priests office : But God hath struck severely since that time ; and for the prostitution of a Lady by the Spanish King , the Moors were brought in upon his Kingdome , and rul'd there for 700. years . And have none of us known an excellent and good man to have descended , or rather to have been thrust into a sin , for which he hath repented , which he hath confessed , which he hath rescinded , and which he hath made amends for as he could , and yet God was so severely angry that this man was suffered to fall in so big a calamity , that he dyed by the hands of violence , in a manner so seemingly impossible to his condition , that it looked like the biggest sorrow that hath happened to the sons of men ? But then let us consider how many and how great crimes we have done ; and tremble to think that God hath exacted so fearfull pains , and mighty punishments for one such sin which we , it may be , have committed frequently . Our sin deserves as bad as theirs ; and God is impartial , and we have no priviledge , no promise of exemption , no reason to hope it ; what then do we think shall become of this affair ? where must we suffer this vengeance ? For that it is due , that it is just we suffer it , these sad examples are a perfect demonstration . We have done that for which God thought flaying alive not to be too big a punishment : that for which God hath smitten Kings with formidable plagues ; that for which governments have been changed , and nations enslaved , and Churches destroyed , and the Candlestick removed , and famines and pestilences have been sent upon a whole Kingdome ; and what shall become of us ? why do we vainly hope it shall not be so with us ? If it was just for these men to suffer what they did , then we are at least to expect so much ; and then let us consider into what a fearfull condition sin hath put us , upon whom a sentence is read , that we shall be plagued like Zedekiah , or Corah , or Dathan , or the King of Spain , or any other King who , were , for ought we know , infinitely more innocent and more excellent persons then any of us . What will become of us ? For God is as just to us as to them : and Christ dyed for them as well as for us ; and they have repented more then we have done ; and what mercy can we expect that they might not hope for , upon at least as good ground as we ? Gods wayes are secret , and his mercies and justice dwell in a great abysse ; but we are to measure our expectations by revelation and experience . But then what would become of us , if God should be as angry at our sin as at Zedekiahs , or King Davids ? where have we in our body room enough for so many stripes , as our sin ought justly to be punished withall ? or what security or probability have we that he will not so punish us ? For I did not represent this sad story , as a matter of possibility only , that we may fear such fearfull strokes as we see God lay upon sinners ; but we ought to look upon it as a thing that will come some way or other , and for ought we know we cannot escape it . So much , and more is due for the sin , and though Christ hath redeemed our souls , and if we repent we shall not die eternally , yet he hath no where promised we shall not be smitten . It was an odde saying of the Devill to a sinner whom he would fain have had to despair ; Me è Coelo ad Barathrum demisit peccatum , & vos ullum in terra locum tutum existimabitis ? Sin thrust me from heaven to hell , and do you think on earth to have security ? Men use to presume that they shall go unpunished ; but we see what little reason we have so to flatter and undoe our selves , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , He that hath sinn'd must look for a Judgement , and how great that is , we are to take our measures by those sad instances of vengeance by which God hath chastised the best of men , when they have committed but a single sin ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , sin is damnable and destructive : and therefore as the asse refused the barley which the fatted swine left , perceiving by it he was fatted for the slaughter ; Tuum libenter prorsus appeterem cibum , Nisi qui nutritus illo est , jugulatus foret ; we may learn to avoid these vain pleasures which cut the throat after they are swallowed , and leave us in that condition that we may every day fear , lest that evill happen unto us , which we see fall upon the great examples of Gods anger ; and our fears cannot , ought not at all to be taken off , but by an effective , busie , pungent , hasty , and a permanent repentance ; and then also but in some proportions , for we cannot be secured from temporall plagues , if we have sinn'd ; no repentance can secure us from all that ; nay Gods pardon , or remitting his finall anger , and forgiving the pains of hell , does not secure us here : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; but sin lies at the door ready to enter in , and rifle all our fortunes . 1. But this hath two appendages which are very considerable ; and the first is , that there are some mischiefs which are the proper and appointed scourges of certain sins , and a man need not aske ; Cujus vulturïs hoc erit cadaver ? what vultur , what death , what affliction shall destroy this sinner ? The sin hath a punishment of its own which usually attends it , as giddinesse does a drunkard . He that commits sacriledge , is marked for a vertiginousnesse and changeable fortune ; Make them , O my God , like unto a wheel , of an unconstant state : and we and our fathers have seen it , in the change of so many families , which have been undone by being made rich : they took the lands from the Church , and the curse went along with it , and the misery and the affliction lasted longer then the sin . Telling lies frequently hath for its punishment to be given over to believe a lye , and at last , that no body shall beleeve it but himself ; and then the mischief is full , he becomes a dishonoured and a baffled person . The consequent of lust is properly shame ; and witchcraft is still punished with basenesse , and beggery ; and oppression of widowes hath a sting , for the tears of the oppressed are to the oppressour , like the waters of jealousie , making the belly to swell , and the thigh to rot ; the oppressor seldome dies in a tolerable condition : but is remark'd towards his end with some horrible affliction . The sting of oppression is darted as a man goes to his grave . In these and the like , God keeps a rule of striking , In quo quis peccat , in eo punitur . The Divine Judgement did point at the sin , lest that be concealed by excuses , and protected by affection , and increased by passion , and destroy the man by its abode . For some sins are so agreeable to the spirit of a fool and an abused person , because he hath fram'd his affections to them , and they comply with his unworthy interest , that when God out of an angry kindnesse , smites the man , and punishes the sin , the man does fearfully defend his beloved sin , as the serpent does his head which he would most tenderly preserve . But therefore God that knowes all our tricks and devices , our stratagems to be undone , hath therefore apportioned out his punishments , by analogies , by proportions , and entaile : so that when every sin enters into its proper portion , we may discern why God is angry , and labour to appease him speedily . 2. The second appendage to this consideration is this , that there are some states of sin which expose a man to all mischief , as it can happen by taking off from him all his guards , and defences ; by driving the good Spirit from him , by stripping him of the guards of Angels . But this is the effect of an habituall sin , a course of an evill life , and it is called in Scripture , a grieving the good Spirit of God. But the guard of Angels is in Scripture only promised to them that live godly ; The Angels of the Lord pitch their tents round about them that fear him , and delivereth them , said David . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And the Hellenists use to call the Angels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 watchmen ; which custody is at first designed and appointed for all , when by baptisme they give up their names to Christ , and enter into the covenant of Religion . And of this the Heathen have been taught something by conversation with the Hebrewes and Christians ; unicuique nostrum dare paedagogum Deum , said Seneca to Lucilius , non primarium , sed ex eorum numero , quos Ovidius vocat ex plebe deos . There is a guardian God assigned to every one of us , of the number of those which are of the second order ; such are those of whom David speaks , before the Gods will I sing praise unto thee ; and it was the doctrine of the Stoicks , that to every one there was assigned a Genius and a Juno : Quamobrem major coelitum populus etiam quam hominum intelligi potest , quum singuli ex semetipsis totidem Deos faciant , Junones geniosque adoptando sibi , said Pliny . Every one does adopt Gods into his family and get a Gunius and a Juno of their own , Junonem meam iratam habeam ; it was the oath of Quartilla in Petronius ; and Socrates in Plato is said to swear by his Juno ; though afterwards among the Romans it became the womans oath , and a note of effeminacy ; But the thing they aim'd at was this , that God took a care of us below , and sent a ministring spirit for our defence ; but that this is only upon the accounts of piety , they know not . But we are taught it by the Spirit of God in Scripture . For , the Angels are ministring spirits , sent forth to minister to the good of them who shal be heirs of salvation ; and concerning St. Peter , the faithfull had an opinion , that it might be his Angell ; agreeing to the Doctrine of our blessed Lord , who spake of Angels appropriate to his little ones , to infants , to those that belong to him . Now what God said to the sons of Israel is also true to us Christians ; Behold I send an Angell before thee , beware of him and obey his voice , provoke him not , for he will not pardon your trangressions . So that if we provoke the Spirit of the Lord to anger by a course of evill living , either the Angell will depart from us , or if he staies , he will strike us . The best of these is bad enough , and he is highly miserable , — Qui non sit tanto hoc custode securus , whom an Angell cannot defend from mischief , nor any thing secure him from the wrath of God. It was the description and character which the Erythrean Sibyl gave of God , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It is Gods appellative to be a giver of excellent rewards to just and innocent persons : but to assign to evill men fury , wrath , and sorrow for their portion . If I should lanch further into this Dead sea , I should finde nothing but horrid shriekings , and the skuls of dead men utterly undone . Fearfull it is to consider , that sin does not only drive us into calamity , but it makes us also impatient , and imbitters our spirit in the sufferance : * It cryes loud for vengeance , and so torments men before the time , even with such fearfull outcries , and horrid alarms , that their hell begins before the fire is kindled . * It hinders our prayers , and consequently makes us hopelesse and helplesse . * It perpetually affrights the conscience , unlesse by its frequent stripes it brings a callousnesse and an insensible damnation upon it . * It makes us to lose all that which Christ purchased for us , all the blessings of his providence , the comforts of his spirit , the aids of his grace , the light of his countenance , the hopes of his glory ; it makes us enemies to God , and to be hated by him more then he hates a dog ; and with a dog shall be his portion to eternall ages ; with this only difference , that they shall both be equally excluded from heaven ; but the dog shall not , and the sinner shall descend into hell ; and which is the confirmation of all evill ; for a transient sin God shall inflict an eternall Death . Well might it be said in the words of God by the Prophet , ponam Babylonem in possessionem Erinacei , Babylon shall be the possession of an Hedgehog : that 's a sinners dwelling ; incompassed round with thornes and sharp prickles , afflictions and uneasinesse all over . So that he that wishes his sin big and prosperous , wishes his Bee as big as a Bull , and his Hedgehog like an Elephant ; the pleasure of the honey would not cure the mighty sting ; and nothing make recompense , or be a good , equall to the evill of an eternall ruine . But of this there is no end . I summe up all with the saying of Publius Mimus , Tolerabilior est qui mori jubet quàm qui malè vivere , He is more to be endured that puts a man to death , then he that betrayes him into sin . For the end of this is death eternall . Sermon , XXII . THE GOOD and EVILL TONGUE . Ephes. 4. 29. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth , but that which is good to the use of edifying , that it may minister grace unto the hearers . HE that had an ill memory did wisely comfort himselfe by reckoning the advantages he had by his forgetfulnesse . For by this means he was hugely secured against malice , and ambition ; for his anger went off with the short notice and observation of the injury ; and he saw himself unfit for the businesses of other men , or to make records in his head , & undertake to conduct the intrigues of affairs of a multitude , who was apt to forget the little accounts of his own seldom reading . He also remembred this , that his pleasures in reading books were more frequent , while he remembred but little of yesterdays study , and to morrow the book is newes , and with its novelties gives him fresh entertainment , while the retaining brain layes the book aside , and is full already . Every book is new to an ill memory , and one long book is a Library , and its parts return fresh as the morning , which becomes a new day , though by the revolution of the same sun . Besides these , it brought him to tell truth for fear of shame , and in meer necessity made his speech little and his discourses short ; because the web drawn from his brain was soon spun out , and his fountain grew quickly dry , and left running throug● forgetfulnesse . * He that is not eloquent and faire spoken , hath some of these comforts to plead in excuse of his ill fortune , or defective nature . For if he can but hold his peace , he shall be sure not to be troublesome to his company , not mark'd for lying , or become tedious with multiplicity of idle talk . He shall be presumed wise , and oftentimes is so ; he shall not feel the wounds of contention , nor be put to excuse an ill taken saying , nor sigh for the folly of an irrecoverable word ; If his fault be that he hath not spoken , that can at any time be mended , but if he sinn'd in speaking , it cannot be unspoken again . Thus he escapes the dishonor of not being believed , and the trouble of being suspected ; he shall never fear the Sentence of Judges , nor the Decrees of Courts , high reproaches , or the angry words of the proud , the contradiction of the disputing man , or the thirst of talkers . By these and many other advantages , he that holds his peace , and he that cannot speak , may please themselves ; and he may at least have the rewards and effects of solitarinesse , if he misses some of the pleasures of society . But by the use of the tongue , God hath distinguished us from beasts , and by the well or ill using it we are distinguished from one another ; and therefore though silence be innocent as death , harmlesse as a roses breath to a distant passenger , yet it is rather the state of death then life ; and therefore when the Egyptians sacrificed to Harpocrates their god of Silence , in the midst of their rites they cryed out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The Tongue is an Angel , good or bad , that 's as it happens ; Silence was to them a god , but the Tongue is greater ; it is the band of humane entercourse , and makes men apt to unite in Societies and Republicks ; and I remember what one of the Ancients said , that we are better in the company of a known dog , then of a man whose speech is not known , ut externus alieno non sit hominis vice ; a stranger to a stranger in his language , is not as a man to a man ; for by voices and homilies , by questions and answers , by narratives and invectives , by counsell and reproofe , by praises and hymnes , by prayers and glorifications , we serve Gods glory , and the necessities of men ; and by the tongue our Tables are made to differ from Mangers , our Cities from Deserts , our Churches from Herds of beasts and flocks of sheep . Faith comes by hearing , and hearing by the Word of God , spoken by the tongues of men and Angels ; and the blessed Spirits in heaven cease not from saying night and day their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , their song of glory to him that sitteth on the throne , and to the Lambe for ever and ever ; and then our imployment shall be glorious as our state , when our tongues shal to eternall ages sing Allelujahs to their Maker and Redeemer ; and therefore since Nature hath taught us to speak , and God requires it , and our thankfulnesse obliges us , and our necessities engage us , and charity sometimes calls for it , and innocence is to be defended , and we are to speak in the cause of the oppressed , and open our mouths in the cause of God : and it is alwayes a seasonable prayer , that God would open our lips , that our mouth may doe the work of heaven , and declare his praises , and shew forth his glory ; it concerns us to take care that nature be changed into grace , necessity into choice , that while we speak the greatnesse of God , and minister to the needs of our neighbor , and doe the works of life and religion , of society and prudence , we may be fitted to bear a part in the songs of Angels , when they shall rejoyce at the feast of the marriage supper of the Lambe . But the tongue is a fountain both of bitter waters and of pleasant ; it sends forth blessing , and cursing ; it praises God , and railes at men ; it is sometimes set on fire , and then it puts whole Cities in combustion ; it is unruly , and no more to be restrained then the breath of a tempest ; it is volatile and fugitive : reason should go before it , and when it does not , repentance comes after ; it was intended for an organ of the divine praises , but the Devill often playes upon it , and then it sounds like the Scriech-owle , or the groans of death ; sorrow and shame , folly and repentance are the notes , and formidable accents of that discord . We are all naturally 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , lovers of speech , more or lesse ; and God reproves it not , provided that we be also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , wise and materiall , usefull and prudent in our discourses . For since speech is for conversation , let it be also charitable and profitable ; let it be without sin , but not without profit and grace to the hearers , and then it is as God would have it ; and this is the precept of the text , first telling us what we should avoyd , and then telling us what we should pursue ; what our discourse ought not to be , and 2ly . what it ought to be ; there being no more variety in the structure of the words , I shall 1. discourse of the vices of the tongue ; 2. of its duty and proper employment . 1. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , corrupt or filthy communication ; so we read it ; and it seems properly to note such communication as ministers to wantonnesse ; such as are the Fescennines of Ausonius , the excrement and spume of Martial's verse , and the Ephesiaca of Xenophon ; indeed this is such a rudenesse as is not to be admitted into civill conversation ; and is wittily noted by the Apostle , charging that fornication should not be once named among them as becometh Saints ; not meaning that the vice should not have its name and filthy character , but that nothing of it be named , in which it can be tempting or offensive ; nothing tending to it , or teaching of it , should be named : we must not have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , fornication in our talk ; that 's such a basenesse , that it not onely grieves the Divine Spirit , but dishonors all its channels and conveyances : the proper language of the sin is not fit to be used so much as in reproofe ; and therefore I have sometimes wondred how it came to passe , that some of the Ancients , men wise and modest , chaste and of sober spirits , have faln into a fond liberty of declamation against uncleannesse , using such words which bring that sin upon the stage of fancy , and offend auriculas non calentes , sober and chaste eares . For who can without blushing read Seneca describing the Looking glasse of Hostius , or the severe but looser words of Persius , or the reproofes of St. Hierom himselfe , that great Patron of virginity , and exacter of chastity ? yet more then once he reproves filthy things with unhandsome language : St. Chrysostome makes an Apology for them that doe so ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , you cannot profit the hearers unlesse you discover the filthinesse , for the withdrawing the curtain is shame and confutation enough for so great a basenesse ; and Chirurgeons care not how they defile their hands , so they may doe profit to the patient . And indeed there is a materiall difference in the designe of him that speaks ; if he speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , according to his secret affection and private folly , it is certainly intolerable ; but yet if he speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , out of a desire to profit the hearer , and cure the criminall , though it be in the whole kinde of it honest and well meant ; yet that it is imprudent , Irritamentum Veneris languentis & acris Divitis urticae — and not wholly to be excused by the faire meaning , will soon be granted by all who know what danger and infection it leaves upon the fancy , even by those words by which the spirit is instructed . Ab hâc scabie tenemus ungues , it is not good to come near the leprosie , though to cleanse the Lepers skin . But the word which the Apostle uses [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] means more then this . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Eupolis , and so it signifies musty , rotten , and outworn with age ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , rusty peace , so Aristephanes : and according to this acception of the word , we are forbidden to use all language that is in any sense corrupted , unreasonable , or uselesse ; language proceeding from our old iniquity , evill habits , or unworthy customes , called in the style of Scripture the remains of the old man , and by the Grecks , doting or talking fondly ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; the boy talkes like an old dotard . 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies wicked , filthy , or reproachfull , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , any thing that is in its own nature criminall and disgracefull , any language that ministers to mischief . But it is worse then all this : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it is a deletery , an extinction of all good , for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it is a destruction , an intire corruption of all Morality ; and to this sense is that of Menander quoted by St. Paul , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Evill words corrupt good manners . And therefore under this word is comprised all the evill of the tongue , that wicked instrument of the unclean Spirit , in the capacity of all the appellatives . 1. Here is forbidden the uselesse , vain , and trifling conversation , the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the god of Flies , so is the Devils name , he rules by these little things , by trifles and vanity , by idle and uselesse words , by the entercourses of a vain conversation . 2. The Devill is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , an Accuser of the Brethren , and the calumniating , slandering , undervaluing , detracting tongue does his work , that 's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the second that I named , for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so Hesychius ; it is slander , hatred , and calumny . 3. But the third is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Devils worst appellative , the Destroyer , the dissolute , wanton , tempting , destroying conversation ; and its worst instance of all is flattery , that malicious cousening devill , that strengthens our friend in sin , and ruines him from whom we have received , and from whom we expect good . Of these in order , and first of the trifling , vain , uselesse , and impertinent conversation , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , let no vain communication proceed out of your mouth . 1. The first part of this inordination is multiloquium , talking too much : concerning which , because there is no rule or just measure for the quantity , and it is as lawfull , and sometimes as prudent to tell a long story as a short , and two as well as one , and sometimes ten as well as two ; all such discourses are to take their estimate by the matter , and the end , and can onely be altered by their circumstances and appendages . Much speaking is sometimes necessary , sometimes usefull , sometimes pleasant ; and when it is none of all this , though it be tedious and imprudent , yet it is not alwayes criminall . Such was the humour of the Gentleman Martial speaks of , he was a good man , and full of sweetnesse and justice and noblenesse , but he would read his nonsense verses to all companies at the publick games and in private feasts , in the baths , and on the beds , in publick and in private , to sleeping and waking people . Vis quantum mali facias videre ? Vir justus , probus , innocens timeris . Every one was afraid of him , and though he was good , yet he was not to be endured : The evill of this is very considerable in the accounts of prudence , and the effects and plaisance of conversation : and the Ancients described its evill well by a proverbiall expression ; for when a sudden silence arose , they said that Mercury was entred , meaning , that he being their loquax numen , their prating god , yet that quitted him not , but all men stood upon their guard , and called for aid and rescue , when they were seised upon so tedious an impertinence . And indeed there are some persons so full of nothings , that like the strait sea of Pontus they perpetually empty themselves by their mouth , making every company or single person they fasten on , to be their Propontis ; such a one as was Anaximenes , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , He was an Ocean of words , but a drop of understanding . And if there were no more in this then the matter of prudence , and the proper measures of civill conversation , it would yet highly concern old men , and young men and women to separate from their persons the reproach of their sex and age , that modesty of speech be the ornament of the youthfull , and a reserved discourse be the testimony of the old mans prudence . Adolescens from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said one : a young man is a talker for want of wit , and an old man for want of memory ; for while he remembers the things of his youth , and not how often he hath told them in his old age , he grows in love with the trifles of his youthfull dayes , and thinks the company must doe so too ; but he canonizes his folly , and by striving to bring reputation to his first dayes , he loses the honor of his last . But this thing is considerable to further issues ; for though no man can say , that much speaking is a sin , yet the Scripture sayes , In multiloquio peccatum non deerit , Sin goes along with it , and is an ingredient in the whole composition . For it is impossible but a long and frequent discourse must be served with many passions , and they are not alwayes innocent ; for he that loves to talke much , must rem corradere , scrape materials together to furnish out the scenes and long orations ; and some talke themselves into anger , and some furnish out their dialogues with the lives of others ; either they detract , or censure ; or they flatter themselves , and tell their owne stories with friendly circumstances , and pride creeps up the sides of the discourse ; and the man entertains his friend with his owne Panegyrick ; or the discourse lookes one way and rowes another , and more mindes the designe then its own truth ; and most commonly will be so ordered that it shall please the company , ( and that , truth or honest plainnesse seldome does ) or there is a byasse in it , which the more of weight and transportation it hath , the lesse it hath of ingenuity . Non credo Auguribus qui aureis rebus divinant , like Sooth-sayers , men speak fine words to serve ends , and then they are not beleeved , or at last are found lyars , and such discourses are built up to serve the ministeries or pleasures of the company , but nothing else . Pride and flattery , malice and spite , self-love and vanity , these usually wait upon much speaking ; and the reward of it is , that the persons grow contemptible and troublesome , they engage in quarrels , and are troubled to answer exceptions , some will mistake them , and some will not beleeve them , and it will be impossible that the minde should be perpetually present to a perpetuall talker , but they will forget truth and themselves , and their own relations . And upon this account it is , that the Doctors of the Primitive Church doe literally expound those minatory words of our blessed Saviour ; Verily I say unto you , of every idle word that men shall speak , they shall give account at the day of Judgement . And by idle words , they understand , such as are not usefull to edification and instruction . So St. Basil , So great is the danger of an idle word , that though a word be in its owne kinde good , yet unlesse it be directed to the edification of faith , he is not free from danger that speaks it : To this purpose are the words of St. Gregory ; while the tongue is not restrained from idle words , ad temeritatem stultae increpationis efferatur , it is made wilde , or may be brought forth to rashnesse and folly : And therein lies the secret of the reproofe : A periculo liber non est , & ad temeritatem efferatur , the man is not free from danger , and he may grow rash , and foolish , and run into crimes , whilest he gives his Tongue the reins , and lets it wander , and so it may be fit to be reproved , though in its nature it were innocent . I deny not but sometimes they are more severe . St. Gregory calls every word vain or idle , quod aut ratione justae necessitatis , aut intentione piae utilitatis caret : and St. Hierom calls it vain , quod sine utilitatis & loquentis dicitur & audientis , which profits neither the speaker nor the hearer . The same is affirmed by St. Chrysostom * , and Gregory Nyssen * upon Ecclesiastes , and the same seems intimated in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as it is in some copies , every word that is idle or empty of businesse . But for the stating the case of Conscience , I have these things to say . 1. That the words of our blessed Saviour being spoken to the Jews , were so certainly intended as they best and most commonly understood , and by [ vain ] they understood false or lying , not uselesse or imprudent ; and yet so though our blessed Saviour hath not so severely forbidden every empty , unsignificant discourse , yet he hath forbidden every lie , though it be in genere bonorum , as St. Basil's expression is ; that is , though it be in the intention charitable , or in the matter innocent . 2. Of every idle word we shal give account , but yet so , that sometimes the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the judgment shall fall upon the words , not upon the persons ; they be hay and stubble , uselesse and impertinent , light and easie , the fire shall consume them , and himselfe shall escape with that losse ; he shall then have no honor , no fair return for such discourses , but they shall with losse and prejudice be rejected and cast away . 3. If all unprofitable discourses be reckoned for idle words and put upon the account , yet even the capacities of profit are so large and numerous , that no man hath cause to complain that his tongue is too much restrained by this severity . For in all the wayes in which he can doe himselfe good , or his neighbour , he hath his liberty ; he is onely to secure the words from being directly criminal , and himselfe from being arrested with a passion , and then he may reckon it lawfull even upon the severest account to discourse freely , while he can instruct , or while he can please his neighbour ; Aut prodesse solent , aut delectare — while himselfe gets a fair opinion and a good name , apt to serve honest and fair purposes ; he may discourse himselfe into a friendship , or help to preserve it ; he may serve the works of art or nature , of businesse publick or private , the needs of his house , or the uses of mankinde , he may increase learning , or confirm his notices , cast in his symbol of experience and observation , till the particulars may become a proverbiall sentence and a rule ; he may serve the ends of civility and popular addresses , or may instruct his brother or himselfe , by something which at that time shall not be reduc'd to a precept by way of meditation , but is of it selfe apt at another time to doe it ; he may speak the praises of the Lord by discoursing of any of the works of creation , and himselfe or his brother may afterwards remember it to that purpose ; he may counsell or teach , reprove or admonish , call to minde a precept , or disgrace a vice , reprove it by a parable or a story , by way of Idea or witty representment ; and he that can finde talke beyond all this , discourse that cannot become usefull in any one of these purposes , may well be called a prating man , and expect to give account of his folly in the dayes of recompense . 4. Although in this latitude a mans discourses may be free and safe from judgement , yet the man is not , unlesse himself designe it to good and wise purposes , not alwayes actually , but by an habituall and generall purpose . Concerning which he may by these measures best take his accounts . 1. That he be sure to speak nothing that may minister to a vice , willingly and by observation . 2. If any thing be of a suspicious and dubious nature , that he decline to publish it . 3. That by a prudent morall care he watch over his words , that he doe none of this injury and unworthinesse . 4. That he offer up to God in his prayers all his words , and then look to it , that he speak nothing unworthy to be offered . 5. That he often interweave discourses of Religion , and glorifications of God , instructions to his brother , and ejaculations of his owne , something or other not onely to sanctifie the order of his discourses , but to call him back into retirement and sober thoughts , lest he wander and be carried off too far into the wilde regions of impertinence ; and this Zeno calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to dip our tongues in understanding . In all other cases the rule is good , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , either keep silence , or speak something that is better then it ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so Isocrates constantly enough to this Evangelicall precept ; a seasonable silence , or a profitable discourse , choose you whether ; for whatsoever cometh of more is sin , or else is folly at hand , and will be sin at distance . Lastly , 5. This account is not to be taken by little traverses and intercourses of speech , but by greater measures , and more discernible portions , such as are commensurate to valuable portions of time ; for however we are pleased to throw away our time , and are weary of many parts of it , yet are impatiently troubled when all is gone , yet we are as sure to account for every considerable portion of our time , as for every summe of money we receive ; and in this it was , that St. Bernard gave caution , Nemo parvi aestimet tempus quod in verbis consumitur otiosis , Let no man think it a light matter that he spend his pretious time in idle words ; let no man be so weary of what flies away too fast , and cannot be recalled , as to use arts and devices to passe the time away in vanity , which might be rarely spent in the interests of eternity . Time is given us to repent in , to appease the divine anger , to prepare for and hasten to the society of Angels , to stir up our slackned wills , and enkindle our cold devotions , to weep for our daily iniquities , and to sigh after , and work for the restitution of our lost inheritance ; and the reward is very inconsiderable that exchanges all this for the pleasure of a voluble tongue : and indeed this is an evill that cannot be avoyded by any excuse that can be made for words that are in any sense idle , though in all senses of their owne nature and proper relations they be innocent . They are a throwing away something of that which is to be expended for eternity , and put on degrees of folly , according as they are tedious and expensive of time to no good purposes . * I shall not after all this need to reckon more of the evill consequent to the vain and great talker ; but if these already reckoned were not a heap big enough , I could easily adde this great evill ; that the talking man makes himselfe artificially deafe , being like a man in the steeple when the bells ring , you talke to a deafe man , though you speake wisely ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Good counsell is lost upon him , and he hath serv'd all his ends when he pours out whatsoever he took in ; for he therefore loaded his vessell that he might pour it forth into the sea . These and many more evils , and the perpetuall unavoydable necessity of sinning by much talking , hath given great advantages to silence , and made it to be esteemed an act of Discipline and great Religion . St. Romualdus upon the Syrian mountaine severely kept a seaven years silence : and Thomas Cantipratensis tels of a religious person in a Monastery in Brabant , that spake not one word in 16 years . But they are greater examples which Palladius tels of , Ammona who liv'd with 3000 Brethren in so great silence , as if he were an Anachoret ; but Theona was silent for 30 years together , and Johannes surnamed Silentiarius was silent for 47 years . But this morosity and sullennesse is so far from being imitable and laudable , that if there were no direct prevarication of any commands expressed or intimated in Scripture , yet it must certainly either draw with it , or be it self an infinite omission of duty , especially in the externall glorifications of God , in the institution or advantages of others , in thanksgiving and publick offices , and in all the effects and emanations of spirituall mercy . This was to make amends for committing many sins by omitting many duties , and in stead of digging out the offending eye , to pluck out both , that they might neither see the scandall nor the duty ; for fear of seeing what they should not , to shut their eyes against all light . It was more prudent which was reported of St. Gregory Nazianzen , who made Silence an act of Discipline , and kept it a whole Lent in his religious retirements , cujus facti mei si causam quaeris ( said he in his account he gives of it ) idcircò à sermone prorsus abstinui , ut sermonibus meis moderari discam ; I then abstained wholly , that all the yeer after I might be more temperate in my talke . This was in him an act of caution , but how apt it was to minister to his purpose of a moderated speech for the future , is not certaine ; nor the philosophy of it , and naturall efficacy easie to be apprehended . It was also practised by way of penance , with indignation against the follies of the Tongue , and the itch of prating , so to chastise that petulant member , as if there were a great pleasure in prating , which when it grew inordinate , it was to be restrained and punished like other lusts . I remember it was reported of St. Paul the Hermit , Scholar of St. Anthony , that having once asked whether Christ or the old Prophets were first , he grew so ashamed of his foolish Question , that he spake not a word for 3 years following : And Sulpitius , as St. Hierom reports of him , being deceived by the Pelagians , spoke some fond things , and repenting of it , held his tongue till his dying day , ut peccatum quod loquendo contraxerat tacendo penitùs emendaret . Though the pious minde is in such actions highly to be regarded , yet I am no way perswaded of the prudence of such a deadnesse and Libitinarian Religion ; Murmuracum secum & rabiosa silentia rodunt , so such importune silence was called , and understood to be a degree of stupidity and madnesse ; for so Physicians among the signes of that disease in dogs , place their not barking ; and yet , although the excesse and unreasonablenesse of this may be well chastised by such a severe reproofe , yet it is certaine , in silence there is wisdome , and there may be deep religion . So Aretaeus describing the life of a studious man , among others , he inserts this , they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , without colour , pale and wise , when they are young , and by reason of their knowledge , silent as Mutes , and dumb as the Seriphian frogs . And indeed it is certaine , great knowledge , if it be without vanity , is the most severe bridle of the Tongue . For so have I heard that all the noyses and prating of the poole , the croaking of frogs and toads is hushed and appeased upon the instant of bringing upon them the light of a candle or torch . Every beam of reason and ray of knowledge checks the dissolutions of the Tongue . But , ut quisque contemptissimus & maximè ludibrio est , it a solutissimae linguae est , said Seneca , Every man as he is a fool and contemptible , so his tongue is hanged loose , being like a bell , in which there is nothing but tongue and noise . Silence therefore is the cover of folly , or the effect of wisdome ; but it is also religious , and the greatest mystick rites of any institution are ever the most solemn and the most silent ; the words in use are almost made Synonymous ; There was silence made in heaven for a while , said St. John , who noted it upon occasion of a great solemnity , and mysterious worshippings or revelations to be made there . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , one of the gods is within , said Telemachus , upon occasion of which his Father reproved his talking . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Be thou also silent and say little , let thy soule be in thy hand , and under command , for this is the rite of the gods above . And I remember that when Aristophanes describes the Religion in the Temple of Esculapius , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The Priest commanded great silence when the mysteriousnesse was nigh ; and so among the Romanes , Ite igitur pueri , linguis animisque faventes , Sertaque delubris & farra imponite cultris . But now although silence is become religious , and is wise and reverend , and severe , and safe , and quiet , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Hippocrates affirms of it , without thirst , and trouble , and anguish ; yet it must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it must be seasonable , and just , not commenced upon chance or humour , not sullen and ill-natur'd , not proud and full of fancy , not pertinacious and dead , not mad and uncharitable , nam sic etiam tacuisse nocet . He that is silent in a publick joy hath no portion in the festivity , or no thankfulnesse to him that gave the cause of it . And though of all things in the world , a prating Religion , and much talke in holy things does most profane the mysteriousnesse of it , and dismantles its regards , and makes cheap its reverence , and takes off fear and awfulnesse , and makes it loose and garish like the laughters of drunkennesse , yet even in Religion there are seasons to speak ; and it was sometimes pain and grief to David to be silent ; But yet , although tedious and dead silence hath not a just measure of praise and wisdome ; yet the worst silence of a religious person is more tolerable and innocent , then the usuall pratings of the looser and foolish men . Pone Domine custodiam ori meo & ostium circumstantiae lab●is meis , said David , Put a guard O Lord unto my mouth , and a dore unto my lips ; upon which St. Gregory said well , Non parietem , sed ostium petit , quod viz. aperitur & clauditur ; he did not ask for a wall , but for a dore ; a dore that might open and shut : and it were well it were so indeed . Labia tua sicut vitta coccinea , so Christ commends his Spouse in the Canticles ; Thy lips are like a scarlet hair-lace , that is tyed up with modesty from folly and dissolution . For however that few people offend in silence and keeping the dore shut too much , yet in opening it too hastily , and speaking too much and too foolishly , no man is without a load of guiltynesse , and some mouths like the gates of death Noctes atque dies patent — are open night and day , and he who is so cannot be innocent : It is said of Cicero , he never spake a word which himself would fain have recalled , he spake nothing that repented him . St. Austin in his 7. Ep. to Marcellinus sayes , it was the saying of a fool and a sot , not of a wise man , and yet I have read the same thing to have been spoken by the famous Abbat Pambo in the Primitive Church ; and if it could be well said of this man who was sparing and severe in talke , it is certain it could not be said of the other , who was a talking bragging person . SERMON , XXIII . Part II. THe consideration hitherto hath been of the immoderation and generall excesse in speaking without descending to particular cases : but because it is a principle and parent of much evill , it is with great caution to be cured , and the evill consequents will quickly disband . But when we draw neer to give counsell , we shall finde that upon a talking person scarce any medicine will stick . 1. Plutarch advises that such men should give themselves to writing , that making an issue in the arme , it should drain the flouds of the head ; supposing that if the humour were any way vented , the tongue might be brought to reason . But the experience of the world hath confuted this ; and when Ligurinus had writ a Poem , he talked of it to all companies he came in ; But however , it can be no hurt to try , for some have been cured of bleeding at the nose , by opening a vein in the arm . 2. Some advise , that such persons should keep company with their betters , with grave , and wise , and great persons , before whom men doe not usually bring forth all , but the better parts of their discourse , and this is apt to give assistance by the help of modesty ; and might doe well if men were not apt to learn to talk more in the society of the aged , and out of a desire to seem wise and knowing , be apt to speak before their opportunity . 3. Consideration of the dangers and consequent evills hath some efficacy in nature to restrain our looser talkings , by the help of fear and prudent apprehensions . Aelian tels of the geese flying over the mountain Taurus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that for fear of Eagles nature hath taught them to carry stones in their mouths , till they be past their danger ; care of our selves , desire of reputation , appetites of being believed , love of societies and faire complyances , fear of quarrels and misinterpretation , of lawsuits and affronts , of scorne and contempt , of infinite sins , and consequently the intolerable wrath of God , these are the great endearments of prudent and temperate speech . 4. Some advise that such persons should change their speech into businesse and action : and it were well if they chang'd it into any good thing , for then the evill were cured ; but action and businesse is not the cure alone , unlesse we adde solitarinesse ; for the experience of this last age hath made us to feel , that companies of working people have nurs'd up a strange Religion ; the first , second , and third part of which is talking and folly , save onely that mischief , and pride , and fighting came in the retinue . But he that works and works alone , he hath imployment , and no opportunity . But this is but a cure of the symptome and temporary effect ; but the disease may remain yet . Therefore , 5. Some advise that the businesse and imployment of the Tongue be changed into Religion , and if there be a pruritus or itch of talking , let it be in matters of Religion , in prayers and pious discourses , in glorifications of God , and the wise sayings of Scripture and Holy men ; this indeed will secure the material part , and make that the discourses in their nature shall be innocent . But I fear this cure will either be improper , or unsufficient . For in prayers , multitude of words is sometime foolish , very often dangerous , and of all things in the world we must be carefull we bring not to God the sacrifice of fooles ; and the talking much of the things of Scripture hath ministred often to vanity , and divisions . But therefore whoever will use this remedy must never dwell long upon any one instance , but by variety of holy duties entertaine himselfe ; for he may easily exceed his rule in any thing , but in speaking honorably of God , and in that let him enlarge himselfe as he can ; he shall never come to equall , much lesse to exceed that which is infinite . 6. But some men will never be cured without a Canker or a Squinsie ; and such persons are taught by all men what to doe , for if they would avoyd all company , as willingly as company avoyds them , they might quickly have a silence great as midnight , and prudent as the Spartan brevity . But Gods grace is sufficient to all that will make use of it ; and there is no way for the cure of this evill , but the direct obeying of a counsel , and submitting to the precept , and fearing the divine threatning ; alwayes remembring , that of every word a man speaks , he shall give account at the day of Judgement : I pray God shew us all a mercy in that day , and forgive us the sins of the Tongue . Amen . Citò lutum colligit amnis exundans , said St. Ambrose , Let your language be restrained within its proper channels and measures , for if the river swels over the banks , it leaves nothing but dirt and filthinesse behinde ; and besides the great evills and mischiefs of a wicked tongue , the vain tongue , and the trifling conversation hath some proper evils ; 1. Stultiloquium , or speaking like a fool : 2. Scurrilitas , or immoderate and absurd jesting : 3. And revealing secrets . 1. Concerning Stultiloquy , it is to be observed that the Masters of spirituall life meane not , the talke and uselesse babble of weak and ignorant persons ; because in their proportion they may serve their little mistaken ends of civility and humanity , as seemingly to them , as the strictest and most observed words of the wiser ; if it be their best , their folly may be pityed , but not reproved , and to them there is no caution to be added , but that it were well if they would put the bridle into the hands of another , who may give them check when themselves cannot ; and no wisdome can be required or usefull to them , but to suspect themselves and choose to be conducted by another . For so the little birds and laborious bees , who having no art and power of contrivance , no distinction of time , or foresight of new necessities , yet being guided by the hand , and counsel'd by the wisdome of the supreme power , their Lord , and ours , doe things with greater nicenesse and exactnesse of art , and regularity of time , and certainty of effect , then the wise Counsellour , who standing at the back of the Princes chaire , guesses imperfectly , and counsels timorously , and thinks by interest , and determines extrinsecall events by inward and unconcerning principles ; because these have understanding , but it is lesse then the infinity of accidents and contingences without ; but the other having none , are wholly guided by him that knows and determines all things : So it is in the imperfect designes and actions and discourses of weaker people ; if they can be rul'd by an understanding without , when they have none within , they shall receive this advantage , that their owne passions shall not transport their mindes , and the divisions and weaknesse of their owne sense and notices shall not make them uncertaine , and indeterminate ; and the measures they shall walke by , shall be disinterest and even , and dispassionate , and full of observation . But that which is here meant by Stultiloquy , or foolish speaking , is the Lubricum verbi , as St. Ambrose calls it , the slipping with the tongue , which prating people often suffer , whose discourses betray the vanity of their spirit , and discover the hidden man of the heart . For no prudence is a sufficient guard , or can alwayes stand in excubiis still watching , when a man is in perpetuall flouds of talke ; for prudence attends after the manner of an Angels ministery ; it is dispatched on messages from God , and drives away enemies , and places guards , and calls upon the man to awake , and bids him send out spies and observers , and then goes about his own ministeries above : but an Angell does not sit by a man , as a nurse by the babies cradle , watching every motion and the lighting of a flie upon the childes lip : and so is prudence ; it gives us rules and proportions cut our measures , and prescribes us cautions , and by generall influences orders our particulars ; but hee that is given to talke cannot be secured by all this ; the emissions of his tongue are beyond the generall figures and lines of rule ; and he can no more be wise in every period of a long and running talke , then a Lutenist can deliberate and make every motion of his hand by the division of his notes , to be chosen and distinctly voluntary . And hence it comes that at every corner of the mouth a folly peeps out , or a mischiefe creeps in . A little pride and a great deale of vanity will soon escape , while the man mindes the sequel of his talke , and not that uglinesse of humour which the severe man that stood by , did observe , and was ashamed of . Doe not many men talke themselves into anger , skrewing up themselves with dialogues and fancy , till they forget the company and themselves ? and some men hate to be contradicted , or interrupted , or to be discovered in their folly ; and some men being a little conscious , and not striving to amend it by silence , they make it worse by discourse ; a long story of themselves , a tedious praise of another collaterally to do themselves advantage , a declamation against a sin to undoe the person , or oppresse the reputation of their neighbour , unseasonable repetition of that which neither profits nor delights , trifling contentions about a goats beard , or the blood of an oyster , anger and animosity , spite and rage , scorn and reproach begun upon Questions , which concern neither of the litigants , fierce disputations , strivings for what is past , and for what shall never be , these are the events of the loose and unwary tongue ; which are like flies and gnats upon the margent of a poole , they doe not sting like an Aspic , or bite deep as a Bear , yet they can vex a man into a feaver and impatience , and make him uncapable of rest and counsel . 2. The second is Scurrility , or foolish jesting . This the Apostle so joyns with the former 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , [ foolish speaking and jestings which are not convenient ] that some think this to be explicative of the other , and that St. Paul using the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( which all men before his time used in a good sense ) meanes not that which indeed is witty and innocent , pleasant and apt for institution , but that which fooles and Parasites call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but indeed is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , what they called facetiousnesse and pleasant wit , is indeed to all wise persons a meer Stultiloquy , or talking like a foole ; and that kinde of jesting is forbidden . And indeed I am induc'd fully to this understanding of St. Pauls words by the conjunctive particle [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] which he uses , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and filthinesse , and [ foolish talking , or jesting ] just as in the succeeding verse he joynes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , uncleannesse ( so we read it ) or covetousnesse ; one explicates the other , for by covetousnesse is meant any defraudation ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , fraudator , so St. Cyprian renders it : and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 St. Hierom derives from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to take more then a man should ; and therefore when St. Paul said , Let no man circumvent his brother in any matter , he expounds it of adultery ; and in this very place he renders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , stuprum , lust ; and indeed it is usuall in Scripture , that Covetousnesse being so universall , so originall a crime , such a prolisick sin , be called by all the names of those sins by which it is either punished , or to which it tempts , or whereby it is nourished ; and as here it is called uncleannesse or corruption ; so in another place it is called idolatry . But to returne ; This jesting which St. Paul reproves , is a direct 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or the jesting of Mimics and Players , that of the foole in the play , which in those times , and long before , and long after , were of that licentiousnesse that they would abuse Socrates or Aristides : and because the rabble were the laughers , they knew how to make them roare aloud with a slovenly and wanton word , when they understood not the salt and ingenuity of a witty and usefull answer , or reply ; as is to be seen in the intertextures of Aristophanes Comedies . But in pursuance of this of St. Paul , the Fathers of the Church have been very severe in their censures of this liberty . St. Ambrose forbids all . Non solùm profusos , sed etiam omnes jocos declinandos arbitror ; Not onely the looser jestings , but even all are to be avoyded : Nay , licèt interdum joca honesta & suavia sint , tamen ab Ecclesiâ horrent regulâ , the Church allowes them not , though they be otherwise honest and pleasant ; for how can we use those things we finde not in holy Scriptures ? St. Basil gives reason for this severity ; jocus facit animam remissam & erga pracepta Dei negligentem ; and indeed that cannot be denyed ; those persons whose soules are dispersed and ungathered by reason of a wanton humour of intemperate jesting , are apt to be trifling in their Religion . St. Hierom is of the same opinion , and adds a commandement of a full authority , if at least the record was right ; for he quotes a saying of our blessed Saviour out of the Gospel of the Nazarens , Nunquam laett sitis nisi cum fratrem vestrum in charitate videritis , Never be merry but when you see your brother in charity : and when you are merry , St. James hath appointed a proper expression of it ; and a fair entertainment to the passion ; If any man be merry , let him sing Psalmes . But St. Bernard who is also strict in this particular , yet he addes the temper . Though jesting be not fit for a Christian , interdum tamen si incidant , ferendae fortassis , referendae nunquam : magis interveniendum cautè & prudentèr nugacitati : If they seldome happen , they are to be borne , but never to be returned and made a businesse of ; but we must rather interpose warily and prudently to hinder the growth and progresse of the trifle . But concerning this case of conscience , we are to remember , these holy persons found jesting to be a trade ; such were the ridicularii among the Romanes , and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among the Greeks ; and this trade besides its own unworthinesse , was mingled with infinite impieties ; and in the institution , and in all the circumstances of its practise , was not onely against all prudent severity , but against modesty and chastity , and was a licence in disparagement of vertue ; and the most excellent things and persons were by it undervalued ; that in this throng of evill circumstances finding a humour placed , which without infinite warinesse could never pretend to innocence , it is no wonder they forbad all ; and so also did St. Paul upon the same account . And in the same state of reproofe to this day , are all that doe as they did : such as are professed jesters , people that play the foole for money , whose employment and study is to unclothe themselves of the covers of reason , or modesty , that they may be laugh'd at . And let it be considered , how miserable every sinner is , if he does not deeply and truely repent ; and when the man is wet with teares and covered with sorrow , crying out mightily against his sins , how ugly will it look when this is remembred the next day that he playes the foole , and raises his laughter louder then his prayers and yesterdayes groans , for no interest but that he may eat ? A Penitent and a Jester is like a Grecian piece of money , on which were stamped a Helena on one side and a Hecuba on the other , a Rose and a deadly Aconite , a Paris and an Aesop , nothing was more contrary ; and upon this account this folly was reproved by St. Hierom , Verum & haec à sanctis viris penitùs propellenda , quibus magis convenit flere atque lugere ; Weeping and penitentiall sorrow , and the sweet troubles of pity and compassion become a holy person , much better then a scurrilous tongue . But the whole state of this Question is briefly this . 1. If j●sting be unseasonable , it is also intolerable ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 2. If it be immoderate it is criminall , and a little thing here makes the excesse ; it is so in the confines of folly , that as soon as it is out of dores it is in the regions of sin . 3. If it be in an ordinary person , it is dangerous ; but if in an eminent , a consecrated , a wise , and extraordinary person , it is scandalous . Inter saeculares nugae sunt , in ore Sacerdotis blasphemiae ; so St. Bernard . 4. If the matter be not of an indifferent nature , it becomes sinfull by giving countenance to a vice , or making vertue to become ridiculous . 5. If it be not watcht that it complies with all that heare , it becomes offensive and injurious . 6. If it be not intended to fair and lawfull purposes , it is sowre in the using . 7. If it be frequent , it combines and clusters into a formall sinne . 8. If it mingles with any sin , it puts on the nature of that new unworthinesse , beside the proper uglynesse of the thing it selfe ; and after all these , when can it be lawfull or apt for Christian entertainment ? The Ecclesiasticall History reports that many jests passed between St. Anthony the Father of the Hermits , and his Scholar St. Paul ; and St. Hilarion is reported to have been very pleasant , and of a facete , sweet , and more lively conversation ; and indeed plaisance , and joy , and a lively spirit , and a pleasant conversation , and the innocent caresses of a charitable humanity , is not forbidden ; plenum tamen suavitatis & gratiae sermonem non esse indecorum , St. Ambrose affirmed ; and here in my text our conversation is commanded to be such , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that it may minister grace , that is , favour , complacence , cheerfulnesse ; and be acceptable and pleasant to the hearer : and so must be our conversation ; it must be as far from sullennesse , as it ought to be from lightnesse ; and a cheerfull spirit is the best convoy for Religion ; and though sadnesse does in some cases become a Christian , as being an Index of a pious minde , of compassion , and a wise proper resentment of things , yet it serves but one end , being useful in the onely instance of repentance ; and hath done its greatest works , not when it weeps and sighs , but when it hates and grows carefull against sin . But cheerfulnesse and a festivall spirit fills the soule full of harmony , it composes musick for Churches and hearts , it makes and publishes glorifications of God , it produces thankfulnesse and serves the ends of charity , and when the oyle of gladnesse runs over , it makes bright and tall emissions of light and holy fires , reaching up to a cloud , and making joy round about : And therefore since it is so innocent , and may be so pious and full of holy advantage , whatsoever can innocently minister to this holy joy does set forward the work of Religion and Charity . And indeed charity it selfe , which is the verticall top of all Religion , is nothing else but an union of joyes , concentred in the heart , and reflected from all the angles of our life and entercourse . It is a rejoycing in God , a gladnesse in our neighbors good , a pleasure in doing good , a rejoycing with him ; and without love we cannot have any joy at all . It is this that makes children to be a pleasure , and friendship to be so noble and divine a thing ; and upon this account it is certaine that all that which can innocently make a man cheerfull , does also make him charitable ; for grief , and age , and sicknesse , and wearinesse , these are peevish and troublesome ; but mirth and cheerfulnesse is content , and civil , and compliant , and communicative , and loves to doe good , and swels up to felicity onely upon the wings of charity . In this account here is pleasure enough for a Christian in present , and if a facete discourse and an amicable friendly mirth can refresh the spirit , and take it off from the vile temptations of peevish , despairing , uncomp●ying melancholy , it must needs be innocent and commendable . And we may as well be refreshed by a clean and a brisk discourse , as by the aire of Campanian wines ; and our faces and our heads may as well be anointed and look pleasant with wit and friendy entercourse , as with the fat of the Balsam tree ; and such a conversation no wise man ever did , or ought to reprove . But when the jest hath teeth and nails , biting or scratching our Brother* , when it is loose and wanton* , when it is unseasonable* , and much , or many* , when it serves ill purposes* , or spends better time* , then it is the drunkennesse of the soul , and makes the spirit fly away , seeking for a Temple where the mirth and the musick is solemne and religious . But above all the abuses which ever dishonoured the tongues of men , nothing more deserves the whip of an exterminating Angel , or the stings of scorpions , then profane jesting : which is a bringing of the Spirit of God to partake of the follies of a man ; as if it were not enough for a man to be a foole , but the wisdome of God must be brought into those horrible scenes : He that makes a jest of the words of Scripture , or of holy things , playes with thunder , and kisses the mouth of a Canon , just as it belches fire and death ; he stakes heaven at spurnpoint , and trips crosse and pile whether ever he shall see the face of God or no ; he laughs at damnation , while he had rather lose God then lose his jest ; may ( which is the horror of all ) he makes a jest of God himselfe , and the Spirit of the Father and the Son to become ridiculous . Some men use to read Scripture on their knees , and many with their heads uncovered , and all good men with fear and trembling , with reverence and grave attention . Search the Scriptures , for therein you hope to have life eternall ; and , All Scripture is written by inspiration of God , and is fit for instruction , for reproofe , for exhortation , for doctrine , not for jesting ; but he that makes that use of it , had better part with his eyes in jest , and give his heart to make a tennisball ; and that I may speak the worst thing in the world of it , it is as like the materiall part of the sin against the holy Ghost , as jeering of a man is to abusing him ; and no man can use it but he that wants wit and manners as well as he wants Religion . 3. The third instance of the vain trifling conversation , and immoderate talking is , revealing secrets ; which is a dismantling and renting off the robe from the privacies of humane entercourse ; and it is worse then denying to restore that which was intrusted to our charge ; for this not onely injures his neighbors right , but throws it away , and exposes it to his enemy ; it is a denying to give a man his own arms , and delivering them to another , by whom he shall suffer mischief . He that intrusts a secret to his friend , goes thither as to sanctuary , and to violate the rites of that is sacriledge , and profanation of friendship , which is the sister of Religion , and the mother of secular blessing ; a thing so sacred , that it changes a Kingdome into a Church , and makes Interest to be Piety , and Justice to become Religion . But this mischief growes according to the subject matter and its effect ; and the tongue of a babbler may crush a mans bones , or break his fortune upon her owne wheel ; and whatever the effect be , yet of it self it is the betraying of a trust , and by reproach , oftentimes passes on to intolerable calamities , like a criminal to his scaffold through the execrable gates of Cities ; And though it is infinitely worse when the secret is laid open out of spite or treachery , yet it is more foolish when it is discovered for no other end but to serve the itch of talking , or to seem to know , or to be accounted worthy of a trust ; for so some men open their cabinets to shew onely that a treasure is laid up , and that themselves were valued by their friend , when they were thought capable of a secret ; but they shall be so no more ; for he that by that means goes in pursuit of reputation , loses the substance by snatching at the shadow , and by desiring to be thought worthy of a secret , proves himselfe unworthy of friendship or society . D' Avila tels of a French Marquesse , young and fond , to whom the Duke of Guise had conveyed notice of the intended massacre , which when he had whispered into the Kings ear , where there was no danger of publication , but onely would seem a person worthy of such a trust , he was instantly murder'd , lest a vanity like that might unlock so horrid a mysterie . I have nothing more to adde concerning this , but that if this vanity happens in the matters of Religion , it puts on some new circumstances of deformity : And if he that ministers to the souls of men , and is appointed to restore him that is overtaken in a fault , shall publish the secrets of a conscience , he prevaricates the bands of Nature and Religion , in stead of a Father he turns an Accuser , a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he weakens the hearts of the penitent , and drives the repenting man from his remedy by making it to be intolerable ; and so Religion becomes a scandall , and his duty is made his disgrace , and Christs yoke does bow his head unto the ground , and the secrets of the Spirit passe into the shames of the world , and all the sweetnesses by which the severity of the duty are alleviated and made easie , are imbittered and become venemous by the tongue of a talking fool . Valerius Soranus was put to death by the old and braver Romanes , ob meritum profanae vocis , quòd contra interdictum Romae nomen eloqui fuit ausus ; because by prating he profan'd the secret of their Religion , and told abroad that name of the City which the Tusean rites had commanded to be concealed , lest the enemies of the people should call from them their tutelar gods , which they could not doe but by telling the proper relation . And in Christianity all Nations have consented to disgrace that Priest , who loves the pleasure of a fools tongue before the charity of souls , and the arts of the Spirit , and the noblenesse of the Religion ; and they have inflicted upon him all the censures of the Church , which in the capacity of an Ecclesiasticall person he can suffer . These I reckon as the proper evils of the vain and trifling tongue ; for though the effect passes into further mischief , yet the originall is weaknesse and folly , and all that unworthynesse which is not yet arrived at malice . But hither also upon the same account some other irregularities of speech are reducible , which although they are of a mixt nature , yet are properly acted by a vain and a loose tongue ; and therefore here may be considered not improperly . 1. The first is common Swearing , against which St. Chrysostome spends twenty homilies : and by the number and weight of arguments hath left this testimony , that it is a foolish vice , but hard to be cured ; infinitely unreasonable , but strangely prevailing ; almost as much without remedy as it is without pleasure ; for it enters first by folly , and grows by custome , and dwels with carelesnesse , and is nurs'd by irreligion , and want of the fear of God ; it profanes the most holy things , and mingles dirt with the beames of the Sun , follies and trifling talke interweav'd and knit together with the sacred name of God ; it placeth the most excellent of things in the meanest and basest circumstances , it brings the secrets of heaven into the streets , dead mens bones into a Temple ; Nothing is a greater sacriledge then to prostitute the great name of God to the petulancy of an idle tongue , and blend it as an expletive to fill up the emptinesse of a weak discourse . The name of God is so sacred , so mighty , that it rends mountains , it opens the bowels of the deepest rocks , it casts out Devils and makes Hell to tremble , and fills all the regions of Heaven with joy ; the name of God is our strength and confidence , the object of our worshippings , and the security of all our hopes ; and when God had given himselfe a Name , and immur'd it with dread and reverence , like the garden of Eden with the swords of Cherubims , and none durst speak it but he whose lips were hallowed , and that at holy and solemn times , in a most holy and solemne place ; I mean the High Priest of the Jews at the solemnities when he entred into the sanctuary , then he taught all the world the majesty and veneration of his Name ; and therefore it was , that God made restraints upon our conceptions and expressions of him : and as he was infinitely curious , that from all the appearances he made to them , they should not depict or ingrave an image of him ; so he tooke care that even the tongue should be restrained , and not be too free in forming images and representments of his Name ; and therefore as God drew their eyes from vanity , by putting his name amongst them , and representing no shape ; so even when he had put his name amongst them , he took it off from the tongue and placed it before the eye ; for Jehovah was so written on the Priests Mitre , that all might see and read , but none speak it but the Priest. But besides all this , there is one great thing concerning the Name of God , beyond all that can be spoken or imagined else ; and that is , that when God the Father was pleased to pour forth all his glories , and imprint them upon his holy Son in his exaltation , it was by giving him his holy Name , the Tetragrammaton or Jehovah made articulate ; to signifie God manifested in the flesh ; and so he wore the character of God , and became the bright image of his person . Now all these great things concerning the Name of God are infinite reproofes of common and vain swearing by it , Gods name is left us here to pray by , to hope in , to be the instrument and conveyance of our worshippings , to be the witnesse of truth and the Judge of secrets , the end of strife and the avenger of perjury , the discerner of right and the severe exacter of all wrongs ; and shall all this be unhallowed by impudent talking of God without sense , or feare , or notices , or reverence , or observation ? One thing more I have to adde against this vice of a foolish tongue , and that is , that as much prating fils the discourse with lying , so this trifling swearing changes every trifling lye into a horrid perjury ; and this was noted by St. James , But above all things swear not at all , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that ye may not fall into condemnation ; so we read it , following the Arabian , Syrian , and Latin books , and some Greek Copies ; and it signifies , that all such swearing and putting fierce appendages to every word , like great iron bars to a straw basket , or the curtains of a tent , is a direct condemnation of our selves : For while we by much talking regard truth too little , and yet bind up our trifles with so severe a band , we are condemned by our owne words ; for men are made to expect what you bound upon them by an oath , and account your trifle to be serious ; of which when you faile , you have given sentence against your selfe : And this is agreeable to those words of our blessed Saviour , Of every idle word you shall give account ; for by thy words thou shalt be condemned , and by thy words thou shalt be justified . But there is another reading of these words , which hath great emphasis and power , in this article , Swear not at all , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that you may not fall into hypocrisie , that is , into the disreputation of a lying , deceiving , cousening person ; for he that will put his oath to every common word , makes no great matter of an oath ; for in swearing commonly , he must needs sometimes swear without consideration , and therefore without truth ; and he that does so in any company , tels the world he makes no great matter of being perjured . All these things put together may take off our wonder at St. James expression , of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , above all things sweare not , ] it is a thing so highly to be regarded , and yet is so little considered , that it is hard to say , whether there be in the world any instance in which men are so carelesse of their danger and damnation , as in this . The next appendage of vain and trifling speech is contention , wrangling and perpetuall talke proceeding from the spirit of contradiction : Profert enim mores plerumque oratio , & animi secreta detegit : Nec sine causâ Graeci prodiderunt , ut vivat quemque etiam dicere , said Quintilian : For the most part , a mans words betray his manners , and unlocks the secrets of the mind : And it was not without cause that the Greeks said , As a man lives so he speaks ; for so indeed Menander , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and Aristides , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : So that it is a signe of a peevish , an angry and quarrelling disposition , to be disputative and busic in Questions , and impertinent oppositions . You shall meet with some men ( such were the Sceptics , and such were the Academics of old ) who will not endure any man shall be of their opinion , and will not suffer men to speak truth , or to consent to their own propositions , but will put every man to fight for his owne possessions , disturbing the rest of truth , and all the dwellings of unity and consent ; clamosum altercatorem , Quintilian calls such a one . This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , an overflowing of the heart and of the gall ; and it makes men troublesome , and intricates all wise discourses , and throws a cloud upon the face of truth , and while men contend for truth , error drest in the same habit slips into her chaire , and all the litigants court her for the divine sister of wisdome . Nimirùm altercando veritas amittitur : There is noyse but no harmony , fighting but no victory , talking but no learning , all are teachers and all are wilfull , every man is angry , and without reason and without charity . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Their mouth is a spear , their language is a two-edged sword , their throat is a shield , ( as Nonnus his expression is ) and the clamors and noyses of this folly is that which St. Paul reproves in this chapt . Let all bitternesse and clamor be put away . People that contend earnestly , talke loud ; Clamor equus est irae , cum prostraveris equitem dejeceris , saith St. Chrysostom , Anger rides upon noyse as upon a horse , still the noyse and the rider is in the dirt ; and indeed so to doe is an act of fine strength , and the cleanest spirituall force that can be exercised in this instance ; and though it be hard in the midst of a violent motion instantly to stop , yet by strength and good conduct it may be done . But he whose tongue rides upon passion , and is spur'd by violence and contention , is like a horse or mule without a bridle , and without understanding , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , No person that is clamorous can be wise . These are the vanities and evill fruits of the easie talker ; the instances of a trifling impertinent conversation ; and yet it is observable , that although the instances in the beginning be onely vain , yet in the issue and effects they are troublesome and full of mischief : and that we may perceive , that even all effusion and multitude of language and vainer talke cannot be innocent , we may observe that there are many good things which are wholly spoyl'd if they doe but touch the tongue ; they are spoyl'd with speaking : such as is the sweetest of all Christian graces , humility , and the noblest actions of humanity , the doing favors and acts of kindnesse . If you speak of them , you pay your selfe , and lose your kindnesse ; humility is by talking changed into pride and hypocrisie , and patience passes into peevishnesse , and secret trust into perfidiousnesse , and modesty into dissolution , and judgement into censure ; but by silence and a restrained tongue all the first mischiefs are avoyded , and all these graces preserved . SERMON , XXIV . Part III. Of Slander and Flattery . HE that is twice asked a Question , and then answers , is to be excused if he answers weakly . But he that speaks before he be asked , had need take care he speak wisely ; for if he does not , he hath no excuse ; and if he does , yet it loses halfe its beauty ; and therefore the old man gave good counsell in the Comedie to the Boy , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The profits of a restrained modest tongue cannot easily be numbred any more then the evills of an unbridled and dissolute . But they were but infant mischiefs , which for the most part we have already observed as the issues of vain and idle talking ; but there are two spirits worse then these : 1. The spirit of detraction ; and 2. The spirit of flattery . The first is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , from whence the Devill hath his name , He is an Accuser of the brethren . But the second is worse ; it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , damnable and deadly ; it is the nurse of vice , and the poyson of the soule . These are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , sowre and filthy communication ; the first is rude , but the latter is most mischievous , and both of them to be avoyded like death , or the despairing murmurs of the damned . 1. Let no calumny , no slandering , detracting communication proceed out of your mouth ; the first sort of this is that which the Apostle calls whispering , which signifies to abuse our neighbor secretly , by telling a private story of him . — linguáque refert audita susurro , for here the man playes a sure game as he supposes , a mischiefe without a witnesse , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Anacreon calls them ; the light , swift arrows of a calumniating tongue ; they pierce into the heart and bowels of the man speedily . These are those which the holy Scripture notes by the disgracefull name of Talebearers : Thou shalt not goe up and down as a Talebearer among the people ; for there are six things which God hates , ( saith Solomon ) yea the seventh is an abomination unto him , it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as bad and as much hated by God as an idol , and that is , a whisperer or tale-bearer that soweth contention amongst brethren . This kinde of communication was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among the Greeks , and was as much hated as the Publicans among the Jewes , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , It is a vile thing , O ye Athenians , it is a vile thing for a man to be a Sycophant , or a Tale-bearer , and the dearest friendships in the world cannot be secure where such whisperers are attended to . Te fingente nefas Pyladen odisset Orestes , Thesea Pirithoi destituisset amor : Tu Siculos fratres , & majus nomen Atridas , Et Ledae poteras dissociare genus . But this crime is a conjugation of evils , and is productive of infinite mischiefs ; it undermines peace , and saps the foundation of friendship ; it destroyes families , and rends in pieces the very heart and vitall parts of charity ; it makes an evill man , party , and witnesse , and judge , and executioner of the Innocent , who is hurt though he deserv'd it not ; Et si non aliquà nocuisses , mortuus esses , and no mans interest nor reputation , no mans peace or safety can abide , where this nurse of jealousie , and parent of contention like the earwig creeps in at the car , and makes a diseased noyse , and scandalous murmur . 2. But such tongues as these , where they dare , and where they can safely , love to speak louder , and then it is detraction ; when men under the colour of friendship will certainly wound the reputation of a man , while by speaking some things of him fairly , he shall without suspicion be beleeved when he speaks evill of him ; such was he that Horace speaks of , Me Capitolinus convictore usus amicóque &c. Capitolinus is my friend , and we have long liv'd together , and obliged each other by mutuall endearments , and I am glad he is acquitted by the criminall Judges , Sed tamen admiror , quo pacto judicium illud Fugerit — yet I confesse I wonder how he should escape ; but I 'le say no more , because he is my friend . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , sayes Polybius ; This is a new way of accusation to destroy a man by praises . These men strike obliquely like a wilde swine , or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or like buls in a yoke , they have horns upon their necks , and doe you a mischief when they plough your ground ; and as Joab slew Abner , he took him by the beard and kissed him , and smote him under the fift rib that he died ; so doth the detracting tongue , like the smooth tongued lightning , it will break your bones when it kisses the flesh ; so Syphax did secretly wound Massinissa , and made Scipio watchfull and implacable against Sophonisba , onely by commending her beauty and her wit , her constancy and unalterable love to her country , and by telling how much himselfe was forc'd to break his faith by the tyranny of her prevailing charmes . This is that which the Apostle calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a crafty and deceitfull way of hurting , and renders a mans tongue venemous as the tongue of a serpent , that bites even though he be charm'd . 3. But the next is more violent , and that is railing or reviling , which Aristotle in his Rhetoricks says is very often the vice of boys and of rich men , who out of folly or pride , want of manners , or want of the measures of a man , wisdome and the just proportions of his brethren , doe use those that erre before them most scornfully and unworthily ; and Tacitus noted it of the Claudian family in Rome , an old and inbied pride and scornfulnesse made them apt to abuse all that fell under their power and displeasure ; quorum superbiam frustrà per obsequium & modestiam effugeres ; No observance , no prudence , no modesty can escape the reproaches of such insolent and high talkers . A. Gellius tels of a boy that would give every one that he met a box on the ear ; and some men will give foul words , having a tongue rough as a Cat , and biting like an Adder , and all their reproofes are direct scoldings , their common entercourse is open contumely . There have been in these last ages examples of Judges who would reproach the condemned and miserable criminall , deriding his calamity , and reviling his person . Nero did so to Thraseas , and the old Heathens to the primitive Martyrs , pereuntibus addita ludibria , said Tacitus of them , they crucified them again by putting them to suffer the shame of their fouler language , they rail'd at them when they bowed their heads upon the crosse , and groan'd forth the saddest accents of approaching death . This is that evill that possessed those of whom the Psalmist speaks . Our tongues are our owne , we are they that ought to speak , who is Lord over us ? that is , our tongues cannot be restrained ; and St. James said something of this , The tongue is an unruly member which no man can tame ; that is , no private person , but a publick may ; for he that can rule the tongue , is fit also to govern the whole body , that is , the Church or Congregation ; Magistrates and the Governours of souls , they are by severity to restraine this inordination , which indeed is a foul one ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , no evill is worse or of more open violence to the rest and reputation of men , then a reproachfull tongue . And it were well if we considered this evill , to avoyd it in those instances , by which our conversation is daily stain'd . Are we not often too imperious against our servants ? Do we not entertain and seed our own anger with vile and basest language ? Doe not we chastise a servants folly or mistake , his error or his chance , with language fit to be used by none but vile persons , and towards none but dogs ? Our blessed Saviour restraining the hostility and murther of the tongue , threatens hell fire to them that call their brother foole ; meaning , that all language which does really and by intention disgrace him in the greater instances , is as directly against the charity of the Gospel , as killing a man was against the severity and justice of the law . And although the word it self may be us'd to reprove the indiscretions , and carelesse follies of an idle person , yet it must be used onely in order to his amendment , * by an authorized person , * in the limits of a just reproofe , * upon just occasion , * and so as may not doe him mischief in the event of things . For so we finde that our blessed Saviour cal'd his Disciples , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , foolish ; and S. James used 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , vain man , signifying the same with the forbidden raca , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , vain , uselesse , or empty ; and St. Paul calls the Galatians , mad , and foolish , and bewitched ; and Christ called Herod , Fox ; and St. John called the Pharisees , the generation of vipers ; and all this matter is wholly determined by the manner , and with what minde it is done : If it be for correction and reproofe towards persons that deserve it , and by persons whose authority can warrant a just and severe reproofe , and this also be done prudently , safely , and usefully , it is not contumely ; But when men upon all occasions revile an offending person , lessening his value , sowring his spirit , and his life , despising his infirmities , tragically expressing his lightest misdemeanour , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , being tyrannically declamatory , and intolerably angry for a trifle , these are such , who , as Apollonius the Philosopher said , will not suffer the offending person to know when his fault is great , and when 't is little . For they who alwayes put on a supreme anger , or expresse the lesse anger with the highest reproaches , can doe no more to him that steals , then to him that breaks a Crystall : Non plus aequo , non diutiùs aequo , was a good rule for reprehension of offending servants ; But no more anger , no more severe language then the thing deserves ; if you chide too long , your reproofe is changed into reproach ; if too bitterly , it becomes railing ; if too loud , it is immodest ; if too publick , it is like a dog . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so the man told his wife in the Greek Comedy ; to follow me in the streets with thy clamorous tongue is to doe as dogs doe , not as persons civill or religious . 4. The fourth instance of the calumniating filthy communication , is that which we properly call slander , or the inventing evill things , falsely imputing crimes to our neighbor : Falsum crimen quasi venenatum telum , ( said Cicero ) A false tongue or a foul lye against a mans reputation , is like a poysoned arrow , it makes the wound deadly , and every scratch to be incurable . Promptissima vindicta contumelia , said one , To reproach and rail is a revenge that every girl can take . But falsely to accuse is spiteful as Hel , and deadly as the blood of Dragons . Stoicus occidit Baream , delator amicum . This is the direct murther of the Tongue , for life and death are in the hand of the tongue , said the Hebrew proverbe , and it was esteemed so vile a thing , that when Jesabel commanded the Elders of Israel to suborn false witnesses against Naboth , she gave them instructions to take two men , the sons of Belial ; none else were fit for the imployment . Quid non audebis perfida lingua loqui ? This was it that broke Ephraim in judgement , and executed the fierce anger of the Lord upon him ; God gave him over to be oppressed by a false witnesse , quoniam coepit abire post sordes , therefore he suffered calumny , and was overthrown in judgement . This was it that humbled Joseph in fetters , and the iron entred into his soule , but it crushed him not so much as the false tongue of his revengefull Mistresse , untill his cause was known , and the Word of the Lord tryed him . This was it that flew Abimelech , and endanger'd David ; it was a sword in manu linguae Doeg , in the hand of Doegs tongue . By this Siba cut off the legs of Mephibosheth , and made his reputation lame forever ; it thrust Jeremy into the dungeon , and carryed Susanna to her stake , and our Lord to his Crosse ; and therefore against the dangers of a slandering tongue , all laws have so cautelously arm'd themselves , that besides the severest prohibitions of God often recorded in both Testaments , God hath chosen it to be one of his appellatives to be the Defender of them , a party for those , whose innocency and defencelesse state makes them most apt to be undone by this evill spirit ; I mean pupils , and widows , the poore , and the oppressed . And in pursuance of this charity the Imperiall laws have invented a juramentum de calumniâ on oath to be exhibited to the Actor or Plaintiff , that he beleevs himself to have a just cause , and that he does not implead his adversary calumniandi animo , with false instances , and indefencible allegations ; and the Defendant is to swear that he thinks himselfe to use onely just defences , and perfect instances of resisting ; and both of them obliged themselves , that they would exact no proofe but what was necessary to the truth of the Cause . And all this defence was nothing but necessary guards . For , a spear , and a sword , and an arrow is a man that speaketh false witnesse against his neighbour . And therefore the laws of God added yet another bar against this evill , and the false Accuser was to suffer the punishment of the objected crime : and as if this were not sufficient , God hath in severall ages wrought miracles , and raised the dead to life , that by such strange appearances they might relieve the oppressed Innocent , and load the false accusing Tongue with shame and horrible confusion . So it happen'd in the case of Susanna , the spirit of a man was put into the heart of a childe to acquit the vertuous woman ; and so it was in the case of Gregory Bishop of Agrigentum , falsely accused by Sabinus and Crescentius ; Gods power cast the Devill out of Eudocia , the Devill or spirit of Slander , and compelled her to speak the truth . St. Austin in his book De curâ promortuis , tels of a dead Father that appeared to his oppressed Son , and in a great matter of Law delivered him from the teeth of false accusation . So was the Church of Monts rescued by the appearance of Aia the deceased wife of Hidulphus their Earle , as appears in the Hanovian story ; and the Polonian Chronicles tell the like of Stanislaus Bishop of Cracovia , almost oppressed by the anger and calumny of Boleslaus their King ; God relieved him by the testimony of St. Peter their Bishop , or a Phantasme like him . But whether these records may be credited or no , I contend not ; yet it is very materiall which Eusebius relates of the three false witnesses accusing Narcissus Bishop of Jerusalem , of an infamous crime , which they did , affirming it under severall curses : the first wishing that if he said false , God would destroy him with fire ; the second , that he might die of the Kings evil ; the third , that he might be blind : and so it came to passe ; the first being surprised with fire in his owne roofe , amaz'd and intricated , confounded and despairing , paid the price of his slander with the pains of most fearfull flames : and the second perished by pieces , and Chirurgeons , and torment : which when the third saw , he repented of his fault , cryed mightily for pardon , but wept so bitterly , and found at the same time the reward of his calumny , and the acceptation of his repentance : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Cleanthes , nothing is more operative of spitefull and malicious purposes , then the calumniating Tongue . In the Temple at Smyrna there were Looking-glasses which represented the best face as crooked , ugly , and deformed ; the Greeks call these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : and so is every false tongue ; it lies in the face of heaven , and abuses the ears of justice , it oppresses the Innocent , and is secretly revenged of vertue , it defeats all the charity of laws , and arms the supreme power , and makes it strike the Innocent ; it makes frequent appeals to be made to heaven , and causes an oath , in stead of being the end of strife , to be the beginning of mischief ; it calls the name and testimony of God to seale an injury ; it feeds and nourishes cruell anger , but mocks justice , and makes mercy weep her selfe into pity , and mourne because she cannot help the Innocent . 5. The last instance of this evill I shall now represent is Cursing ; concerning which I have this onely to say ; that although the causelesse curse shall return upon the tongue that spake it , yet because very often there is a fault on both sides , when there is reviling or cursing on either , the danger of a cursing tongue is highly to be declined , as the biting of a mad dog , or the tongue of a smitten serpent . For as envy is in the evill eye , so is cursing in the reproachfull tongue ; it is a kinde of venome and witchcraft , an instrument by which God oftentimes punishes anger and uncharitablenesse ; and by which the Devill gets power over the bodies and interests of men : For he that works by Thessalie ceremonies , by charmes , and non sense words , by figures and insignificant characterismes , by images and by rags , by circles and imperfect noyses , hath more advantage and reall title to the opportunities of mischief , by the cursing tongue ; and though God is infinitely more ready to doe acts of kindnesse then of punishment , yet God is not so carelesse a regarder of the violent and passionate wishes of men , but he gives some over to punishment , and chastises the follies of rage , and the madnesse of the tongue by suffering it to passe into a further mischief then the harsh sound and horrible accents of the evill language . By the tongue we blesse God and curse men ( saith St. James ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , reproaching is cursing ; and both of them opposed to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to blessing ; and there are many times and seasons in which both of them passe into reall effect . These are the particulars of the second . 3. I am now to instance in the third sort of silthy communication , that in which the Devill does the most mischief , by which he undoes souls ; by which he is worse then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , an Accuser : For though he accuses maliciously , and instances spitefully , and heaps objections diligently , and aggravates bitterly , and with all his powers endeavors to represent the separate souls to God as polluted and unfit to come into his presence , yet this malice is ineffective , because the scenes are acted before the wise Judge of Men and Angels , who cannot be abused ; before our Father and our Lord , who knows whereof we be made , and remembreth that we are but dust ; before our Saviour and our elder Brother , who hath felt our infirmities , and knows kow to pity , to excuse , and to answer for us : But though this accusation of us cannot hurt them who will not hurt themselves , yet this malice is prevailing when the spirit of flattery is let forth upon us . This is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Destroyer , and is the most contrary thing to charity in the whole world : and St. Paul noted it in his character of Charity , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Charity vaunteth not it selfe , so we translate it , but certainly not exactly , for it signifieth easinesse , complying foolishly , and flattering , Charity flattereth not , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith Suidas out of St. Basil , it signifies any thing that serves rather for ornament then for use , for pleasure then for profit . Et eo plectuntur poetae quàm suo vitio saepiùs , Ductabilitate nimiâ vestrâ aut perperitudine , saith the Comedy ; the Poets suffer more by your easinesse and flattery , then by their owne fault . And this is it which St. Paul sayes is against charity . For if to call a man foole and vitious , be so high an injury , we may thence esteem what a great calamity it is to be so ; and therefore he that makes him so , or takes a course he shall not become other , is the vilest enemy to his person , and his felicity ; and this is the mischief that is done by flattery ; it is a designe against the wisdome , against the repentance , against the growth and promotion of a mans soul. He that persuades an ugly , deformed man , that he is handsome , a short man that he is tall , a bald man that he hath a good head of hair , makes him to become ridiculous and a foole , but does no other mischief . But he that persuades his friend that is a goat in his manners , that he is a holy and a chaste person , or that his loosenesse is a signe of a quick spirit , or that it is not dangerous but easily pardonable , a trick of youth , a habit that old age will lay aside as a man pares his nailes , this man hath given great advantage to his friends mischief ; he hath made it grow in all the dimensions of the sin , till it grows intolerable , and perhaps unpardonable . And let it be considered , what a fearfull destruction and contradiction of friendship or service it is , so to love my self and my little interest , as to preferre it before the soul of him whom I ought to love . By my flattery I lay a snare to get 20 l. and rather then lose this contemptible sum of money , I will throw him that shall give it me ( as far as I can ) into hell , there to roar beyond all the measures of time or patience . Can any hatred be more , or love be lesse , can any expression of spite be greater , then that it be said , you will not part with 20 l. to save your Friends , or your Patrons , or your Brothers soul ? and so it is with him that invites him to , or confirms him in his folly , in hopes of getting something from him , he will see him die , and die eternally , and help forward that damnation , so he may get that little by it . Every state is set in the midst of danger , as all trees are set in the wind , but the tallest endure the greatest violence of tempest : No man flatters a begger , if he does a slovenly and rude crime it is entertained with ruder language , and the mean man may possibly be affrighted from his fault , while it is made so uneasie to him by the scorn and harsh reproaches of the mighty . But Princes and Nobles often die with this disease : And when the Courtiers of Alexander counterfeited his wry neck , and the Servants of the Sicilian Tyrant pretended themselves dim sighted , and on purpose rushed one against another , and overthrew the meat as it was served to his table , onely because the Prince was short-sighted , they gave them sufficient instances in what state of affaires they stood with them that waited ; it was certain they would commend every foolish answer , and pretend subtilty in every absurd question , and make a petition that their base actions might passe into a law , and be made to be the honor and sanctity of all the people : and what proportions or wayes can such great personages have towards felicity , when their vice shall be allowed and praised , every action that is but tolerable shall be accounted heroicall , and if it be intolerable among the wise , it shall be called vertuous among the flatterers ? Carneades said bitterly , but it had in it too many degrees of truth ; that Princes and great personages never learn to doe any thing perfectly well , but to ride the great horse , quia scil . ferociens bestia adulari non didicit , because the proud beast knows not how to flatter , but will as soon throw him off from his back as he will shake off the son of a Potter . But a Flatterer is like a neighing Horse , that neigheth under every rider , and is pleased with every thing , and commends all that he sees , and tempts to mischief , and cares not , so his friend may but perish pleasantly . And indeed that is a calamity that undoes many a soul ; we so love our peace , and sit so easily upon our own good opinions , and are so apt to flatter our selves , and leane upon our own false supports , that we cannot endure to be disturb'd or awakened from our pleasing lethargy . For we care not to be safe , but to be secure , not to escape hell , but to live pleasantly ; we are not solicitous of the event , but of the way thither , and it is sufficient , if we be perswaded all his well ; in the mean time we are carelesse whether indeed it be so or no , and therefore we give pensions to fools and vile persons to abuse us , and cousen us of felicity . But this evill puts on severall shapes , which we must discover , that they may not cousen us without our observation . For all men are not capable of an open flattery . And therefore some will dresse their hypocrisie and illusion so , that you may feel the pleasure , and but secretly perceive the complyance and tendernesse to serve the ends of your folly ? perit procari , si latet , said Plancus , If you be not perceived , you lose your reward ; if you be too open , you lose it worse . 1. Some flatter by giving great names , and propounding great examples ; and thus the Aegyptian villains hung a Tumblers rope upon their Prince , and a Pipers whistle ; because they called their Ptolemy by the name of Apollo their God of Musick . This put buskins upon Nero , and made him fidle in all the great Towns of Greece . When their Lords were Drunkards , they called them Bacchus ; when they were Wrestlers , they saluted them by the name of Hercules ; and some were so vain as to think themselves commended , when their Flatterers told aloud , that they had drunk more then Alexander the Conquerour . And indeed nothing more abuses easie fooles that onely seek for an excuse for their wickednesse , a Patron for their vice , a warrant for their sleepy peace , then to tell stories of great examples remarked for the instances of their temptation . When old Cato commended meretricious mixtures , and to prevent adulteries permitted fornication , the youth of the succeeding ages had warrant enough to goe ad olentes fornices , into their chambers of filthy pleasure ; Quidam notus homo cum exiret fornice ; macte Virtute esto ( inquit ) sententia dia Catonis : And it would passe the goblets in a freer circle , if a flattering man shall but say , Narratur & prisci Catonis saepè mero caluisse virtus , that old Cato would drink hard at sun-set . When Varro had noted , that wise and severe Salust , who by excellent sententious words had reproved the follies of lust , was himselfe taken in adultery , The Romane youth did hug their vice , and thought it grew upon their nature like a mans beard , and that the wisest men would lay their heads upon that threshold ; and Seneca tels that the women of that age despised the adultery of one man onely ; and hated it like marriage , and despis'd that as want of breeding , and grandeur of spirit , because the braver Spartans did use to breed their children promiscuously , as the Heards-men doe cattle from the fairest Buls . And Arrianus tels that the women would defend their basenesse by the doctrine of Plato , who maintain'd the community of women . This sort of flattery is therefore more dangerous , because it makes the temptation ready for mischief , apted and dressed with proper , materiall , and imitable circumstances . The way of discourse is far about , but evill examples kill quickly . 2. Others flatter by imitation : for when a crime is rare and insolent , singular and out of fashion , it must be a great strength of malice and impudence that must entertain it ; but the flattering man doing the vice of his Lord takes off the wonder , and the fear of being stared at ; and so incourages it by making it popular and common . Plutarch tels of one that divorced himself from his wife because his friend did so ; that the other might be hardened in the mischief ; and when Plato saw his scholars stoop in the shoulders , and Aristotle observed his to stammer , they began to be lesse troubled with those imperfections which they thought common to themselves and others . 3. Some pretend a rusticity and downright plainnesse , and upon the confidence of that humour their friends vice , and flatter his ruine . Seneca observed it of some of his time ; alius quidam adulatione clam utebatur parcè , alius ex aperto palm , rusticitate simulatâ , quasi simplicitas illa ars non sit . They pretend they love not to dissemble , and therefore they cannot hide their thoughts ; let their friend take it how he will , they must commend that which is commendable ; and so man that is willing to dye quietly , is content with the honest heartynesse and downright simplicity of him that with an artificial rudenesse dress'd the flattery . 4. Some will dispraise themselves that their friend may think better of himselfe , or lesse severely of his fault . 5. Others will reprove their friend for a trifle , but with a purpose to let him understand , that this is all ; for the honest man would have told his friend if it had been worse . 6. Some will laugh and make a sport of a vice , and can hear their friend tell the cursed narrative of his adultery , of his drunkennesse , of his craft and unjust purchases ; and all this shall prove but a merry scene ; as if damnation were a thing to be laughed at , and the everlasting ruine of his friend were a very good jest . But thus the poor sinner shall not be affrighted from his danger , nor chastised by severe language , but the villain that eats his meat shall take him by the hand , and dance about the pit till he fals in , and dies with shame and folly . Thus the evill Spirit puts on shapes enough ; none to affright the man , but all to destroy him ; and yet it is filthy enough when it is invested with its own character : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The Parasite or Flatterer is a beast that is all belly , looking round with his eye , watchfull , ugly , and deceitfull , and creeping on his teeth ; they feed him , and kill them that reach him bread : for that 's the nature of all vipers . I have this one thing onely to insert , and then the caution will be sufficient , viz. that we doe not think all praise given to our friend to be flattery , though it be in his presence . For sometimes praise is the best conveyance for a precept , and it may nourish up an infant vertue , and make it grow up towards perfection , and its proper measures and rewards . Friendship does better please our friend then flattery , and though it was made also for vertue , yet it mingles pleasures in the chalice , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it is delicious to behold the face of a friendly and a sweet person ; and it is not the office of a friend alwayes to be sowre , or at any time morose ; but free , open , and ingenuous , candid and humane , not denying to please , but ever refusing to abuse or corrupt . For as adulterine metals retain the lustre and colour of gold , but not the value ; so flattery in imitation of friendship takes the face and outside of it , the delicious part ; but the flatterer uses it to the interests of vice , and a friend by it serves vertue ; and therefore Plutarch well compared friendship to medicinall oyntments , which however delicious they be , yet they are also usefull , and minister to healing . But flattery is sweet and adulterate , pleasant but without health . He therefore that justly commends his friend to promote and incourage his vertue , reconciles vertue with his friends affection , and makes it pleasant to be good ; and he that does so , shall also better be suffered when he reproves , because the needing person shall finde that then is the opportunity and season of it , since he denyed not to please so long as he could also profit . I onely adde this advice , that since selfe-love is the serpents milk that feeds this viper flattery , we should doe well to choke it with its mothers milk ; I mean , learn to love our selves more , for then we should never endure to be flattered . For he that because he loves himselfe , loves to be flattered , does , because he loves himself , love to entertain a man to abuse him , to mock him , and to destroy him finally . But he that loves himselfe truly , will suffer fire , will endure to be burnt , so he may be purified ; put to pain , so he may be restored to health ; for of all sauces ( said Euenus ) sharpnesse , severity , and fire is the best . SERMON , XXV . Part IV. The Duties of the Tongue . Ephes. 4. latter part of the 29 verse . — But that which is good to the use of edifying , that it may minister grace unto the hearers . LOquendi ministros habemus homines , tacendi Deos , said one ; Men teach us to speak , and God teaches us to hold our tongue . The first we are taught by the lectures of our Schools ; the latter , by the mysteries of the Temple . But now in the new institution , we have also a great Master of speaking ; and though silence is one of the great paths of Innocence , yet Holy speaking is the instrument of Spirituall Charity , and is a glorification of God : and therefore this kinde of speaking is a degree of perfection beyond the wisdome and severity of silence . For although garrulity and foolish inordinate talking is a conjunction of folly and sin , and the prating man while he desires to get the love of them he converses with , incurres their hatred ; while he would be admir'd , is laughed at ; he spends much and gets nothing , he wrongs his friends and makes sport to his enemies , and injures himselfe ; he is derided when he tels what others know , he is indanger'd if he tels a secret and what they know not ; he is not beleeved when he tels good news , and when he tels ill news he is odious : and therefore that silence which is a cure of all this evill is an excellent portion of safety and Religion ; yet it is with holy speaking and innocent silence as it is with a Hermit and a Bishop ; the first goes to a good school , but the second is proceeded towards greater perfection ; and therefore the practicall life of Ecclesiasticall Governors being found in the way of holinesse and zeale , is called status perfectionis , a more excellent and perfect condition of life , and farre beyond the retirements and inoffensive life of those innocent persons which doe so much lesse of profit , by how much charity is better then meditation , and going to heaven by religion and charity , by serving God and converting soules , is better then going to heaven by prayers and secret thoughts : So it is with silence , and religious communication . That does not offend God ; this glorifies him : That prevents Sin ; this sets forward the interests of Religion . And therefore Plutarch said well , Qui generosè & regio more instituuntur , primum tacere , deinde loqui discunt . To be taught first to be silent , then to speak well and handsomely , is education fit for a Prince ; and that is St. Paul's method here : first we were taught how to restraine our tongues in the foregoing instances , and now we are called to imploy them in Religion . 1. We must speak that which is good ] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , any thing that may serve the ends of our God and of our Neighbour , in the measures of Religion and usefulnesse . But it is here as in all other propositions of Religion . God to us , who are in the body , and conducted by materiall phantasmes , and understanding nothing but what we feel , or is conveyed to us by the proportions of what we doe or have , hath given us a Religion that is fitted to our condition and constitution . And therefore when we are commanded to love God , by this love Christ understands obedience ; when we are commanded to honour God , it is by singing and reciting his praises , and doing things which cause reputation and honour : and even here when we are commanded to speak that which is good , it is instanced in such good things which are really profitable , practically usefull ; and here the measures of God are especially by the proportions of our neighbour . And therefore , though speaking honorable things of God be an imployment that does honour to our tongues and voices , yet we must tune and compose even these notes so , as may best profit our neighbour ; for so it must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , good speech , such as is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for the edification of necessity : the phrase is an Hebraisme , where the genitive case of a substantive is put for the adjective ; and meanes , that our speech be apted to necessary edification , or such edification as is needfull to every mans particular case ; that is , that we so order our communication , that it be apt to instruct the ignorant , to strengthen the weak , to recall the wanderer , to restraine the vicious , to comfort the disconsolate , to speak a word in season to every mans necessity , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that it may minister grace , something that may please and profit them , according as they shall need ; all which I shall reduce to these three heads : 1. To Instruct. 2. To Comfort . 3. To Reprove . 1. Our conversation must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , apt to teach . For since all our hopes on our part depend upon our obedience to God , and conformity to our Lord Jesus , by whom our endevours are sanctified and accepted , and our weaknesses are pardoned , and all our obedience relies upon , and is incouraged and grounded in faith , and faith is founded naturally and primarily in the understanding , we may observe that it is not onely reasonably to be expected , but experimentally felt , that in weak and and ignorant understandings there are no sufficient supports for the vigorousnesse of a holy life ; there being nothing , or not enough to warrant and strengthen great resolutions , to reconcile our affections to difficulties , to make us patient of affronts , to receive deeper mortifications , and ruder usages , unlesse where an extraordinary grace supplies the want of ordinary notices , as the Apostles were enabled to their preachings : But he therefore that carries and imports into the understanding of his Brother , notices of faith , and incomes of spirituall propositions , and arguments of the Spirit , enables his brother towards the work and practises of a holy life : and though every argument which the Spirit of God hath made and recorded in holy Scripture , is of it selfe inducement great enough to endear obedience ; yet it is not so in the event of things to every mans infirmity , and need ; but in the treasures of the Spirit , in the heaps and variety of institution , and wise discourses , there will not onely be enough to make a man without excuse , but sufficient to doe his work and to cure his evill , and to fortifie his weaker parts , and to comply with his necessities ; for although Gods sufficient grace is present to all that can use it , yet if there be no more then that , it is a sad consideration to remember , that there are but few that will be saved , if they be helped but with just so much as can possibly doe the work : and this we may well be assured of , if we consider that God is never wanting to any man in what is simply necessary ; but then if we adde this also , that of the vast numbers of men who might possibly be saved , so few really are so , we shall perceive that that grace which onely is sufficient , is not sufficient ; sufficient to the thing , is not sufficient for the person ; and therefore that God does usually give us more , and we need more yet ; and unlesse God works in us to will and to doe , we shall neither will nor doe ; though to will be in the power of our hand , yet we will not will ; it follows from hence that all they who will comply with Gods method of graciousnesse , and the necessities of their Brethren , must endevour by all meanes , and in all their owne measures , and capacities to lay up treasures of notices and instructions in their brothers soul , that by some argument or other they may be met withall and taken in every corner of their conversation . Adde to this , that the duty of a man hath great variety , and the souls of men are infinitely abused , and the persuasions of men are strangely divided , and the interests of men are a violent and preternaturall declination from the strictnesses of vertue , and the resolutions of men are quickly altered , and very hardly to be secured , and the cases of conscience are numerous and intricate , and every state of life that hath its proper prejudice , and our notices are abused by our affections , and we shall perceive that men generally need knowledge enough to over-power all their passions , to root out their vitious inclinations , to master their prejudice , to answer objections , to resist temptations , to refresh their wearynesse , to fixe their resolutions , and to determine their doubts ; and therefore to see your brother in a state of ignorance , is to see him unfurnished and unprepared to all good works , a person safe no longer then till a temptation comes , and one that cannot be saved but by an absolute unlimited predestination , a favour of which he hath no promise , no security , no revelation ; and although to doe this God , hath appointed a speciall Order of men , the whole Ecclesiasticall Order , whom he feeds at his owne charges , and whom men rob at their owne perill , yet this doth not disoblige others : for every Master of a family is to instruct , or cause his family to be instructed , and catechised ; every Governour is to instruct his charge , every Man his Brother , not alwayes in person , but ever by all possible and just provisions . For if the people dye for want of knowledge , they who are set over them shall also die for want of charity . Here therefore we must remember , that it is the duty of us all , in our severall measures and proportions , to instruct those that need it , and whose necessity is made ready for our ministration ; and let us tremble to think what will be the sad account which we shall make when even our families are not taught in the fundamentals of Religion ; for how can it be possible for those who could not account concerning the stories of Christs life and death , the ministeries of their redemption , the foundation of all their hopes , the great argument of all their obediences ; how can it be expected that they should ride in triumph over all the evills which the Devill , and the World , and their owne follies daily present to them in the course of every dayes conversation ? And it will be an ill return to say , that God will require no more of them then he hath given them ; for suppose that be true in your own sense , yet he will require it of thee , because thou gavest them no more ; and however , it is a formidable danger , and a trifling hope for any man to put all the hopes of his being saved upon the onely stock of ignorance ; for if his ignorance should never be accounted for , yet it may leave him in that state in which his evills shall grow great , and his sins may be irremediable . 2. Our Conversation must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , apt to comfort the disconsolate ; and then this , men in present can feel no greater charity . For since halfe the duty of a Christian in this life consists in the exercise of passive graces , and the infinite variety of providence , and the perpetuall adversity of chances , and the dissatisfaction and emptynesse that is in things themselves , and the wearynesse and anguish of our spirit does call us to the trial and exercise of patience even in the dayes of sunshine , and much more in the violent storms that shake our dwellings , and make our hearts tremble ; God hath sent some Angels into the world , whose office it is to refresh the sorrowes of the poore , and to lighten the eyes of the disconsolate ; he hath made some creatures whose powers are chiefly ordain'd to comfort ; wine , and oyle , and society , cordials and variety ; and time it selfe is checker'd with black and white ; stay but till to morrow , and your present sorrow will be weary , and will lie downe to rest . But this is not all . The third person of the holy Trinity is known to us by the name and dignity of the Holy Ghost the Comforter , and God glories in the appellative , that he is the Father of mercies , and the God of all comfort , and therefore to minister in the office is to become like God , and to imitate the charities of heaven ; and God hath fitted mankinde for it ; he most needs it , and he feels his brothers wants by his owne experience , and God hath given us speech , and the endearments of society , and pleasantness of conversation , and powers of seasonable discourse , arguments to allay the sorrow , by abating our apprehensions and taking out the sting , or telling the periods of comfort , or exciting hope , or urging a precept , and reconciling our affections , and reciting promises , or telling stories of the Divine mercy , or changing it into duty , or making the burden lesse by comparing it with greater , or by proving it to be lesse then we deserve , and that it is so intended , and may become the instrument of vertue . And certain it is , that as nothing can better doe it , so there is nothing greater , for which God made our tongues , next to reciting his prayses , then to minister comfort to a weary soul. And what greater measure can we have , then that we should bring joy to our brother , who with his dreary eyes looks to heaven and round about , and cannot finde so much rest as to lay his eye-lids close together , then that thy tongue should be tun'd with heavenly accents , and make the weary soul to listen for light and ease , and when he perceives that there is such a thing in the world , and in the order of things , as comfort and joy , to begin to break out from the prison of his sorrows at the dore of sighs and tears , and by little and little melt into showres and refreshment ? This is glory to thy voyce , and imployment fit for the brightest Angel. But so have I seen the sun kisse the frozen earth which was bound up with the images of death , and the colder breath of the North , and then the waters break from their inclosures , and melt with joy , and run in usefull channels , and the flies doe rise againe from their little graves in walls , and dance a while in the aire , to tell that there is joy within , and that the great mother of creatures will open the stock of her new refreshment , become usefull to mankinde , and sing prayses to her Redeemer : So is the heart of a sorrowfull man under the discourses of a wise Comforter , he breaks from the despairs of the grave , and the fetters and chains of sorrow , he blesses God , and he blesses thee , and he feels his life returning ; for to be miserable is death , but nothing is life but to be comforted ; and God is pleased with no musick from below so much as in the thanksgiving songs of relieved Widows , of supported Orphans , of rejoycing , and comforted , and thankfull persons . This part of communication does the work of God and of our Neighbors , and bears us to heaven in streams of joy made by the overflowings of our brothers comfort . It is a fearfull thing to see a man despairing . None knows the sorrow and the intolerable anguish but themselves , and they that are damned ; and so are all the loads of a wounded spirit , when the st●ffe of a mans broken fortune bowes its head to the ground , and sinks like an Osier under the violence of a mighty tempest . But therefore in proportion to this I may tell the excellency of the imployment , and the duty of that charity which bears the dying and languishing soul from the fringes of hell to the seat of the brightest stars , where Gods face shines and reflects comforts for ever and ever . And though God hath for this especially intrusted his Ministers and Servants of the Church , and hath put into their hearts and notices great magazines of promises , and arguments of hope and arts of the Spirit , yet God does not alwayes send Angels on these embassies , but sends a man ut sit homo homini Deus , that every good man in his season may be to his brother in the place of God , to comfort and restore him ; and that it may appear how much it is the duty of us all to minister comfort to our brother , we may remember that the same words and the same arguments doe oftentimes more prevaile upon our spirits when they are applyed by the hand of another , then when they dwell in us , and come from our owne discoursings . This is indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to the edification of our needs , and the greatest and most holy charity . 3. Our communication must in its just season be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , we must reprove our sinning brother ; for the wounds of a friend are better then the kisses of an enemy ( saith Solomon : ) we imitate the office of the great Shepheard and Bishop of souls , if we goe to seek and save that which was lost ; and it is a fearfull thing to see a friend goe to hell undisturbed , when the arresting him in his horrid progresse may possibly make him to return ; this is a course that will change our vile itch of judging and censuring others into an act of charity ; it will alter slander into piety , detraction into counsell , revenge into friendly and most usefull offices , that the Vipers flesh may become Mithridate , and the Devill be defeated in his malicious imployment of our language . He is a miserable man whom none dares tell of his faults so plainly , that he may understand his danger ; and he that is uncapable and impatient of reproof , can never become a good friend to any man. For besides that himself would never admonish his friend when he sins , ( and if he would , why should not himself be glad of the same charity ? ) he is also proud , and Scorner is his name ; he thinks himself exempt from the condition and failings of men , or if he does not , he had rather goe to hell then be call'd to his way by an angry Sermon , or driven back by the sword of an Angell , or endure one blushing , for all his hopes and interests of heaven . It is no shame to be reproved , but to deserve it ; but he that deserves it , and will doe so still , shall increase his shame into confusion , and bring upon himselfe a sorrow bigger then the calamities of war , and plagues , and hospitals , and poverty . He onely is truely wise , and will be certainly happy , that so understands himself and hates his sin , that he will not nurse it , but get to himselfe a Reprover on purpose , whose warrant shall be liberty , whose thanks shall be amendment , whose entertainment shall be obedience ; for a flattering word is like a bright sun-shine to a sore Eye , it increases the trouble , and lessens the sight ; Haec demum sapiet dictio quae feriet ; The severe word of the reproving man is wise and healthfull : But because all times and all circumstances , and all persons are not fit for this imployment : — et plurima sunt quae Non audent homines pertusâ dicere laenâ ; Some will not endure that a pore man , or an obliged person should reprove them , and themselves are often so unprofitable servants that they will rather venture their friends damnation then hazard their owne interest , therefore in the performance of this duty of the usefull communication , the following measures are fit to be observed . 1. Let not your reproofe be publick and personall : if it be publick , it must be in generall ; if it be personall , it must be in private ; and this is expressely commanded by our blessed Saviour : If thy Brother offends , tell it him between him and thee ; for when it comes afterwards in case of contumacy to be declared in publick , it passes from fraternall correption to Ecclesiasticall discipline . When Socrates reproved Plato at a feast , Plato told him , it had been better he had told him his fault in private ; for to speak it publickly is indecency : Socrates replyed ; and so it is for you publickly to condemne that indecency . For it is the nature of man to be spitefull when he is shamed , and to esteem that the worst of evils , and therefore to take impudence and perseverance for its cover , when his shame is naked : And for this indiscretion Aristomenes the Tutor of Ptolemy , who before the Corinthian Embassadors reproved the King for sleeping at the solemne audience , profited nothing , but enraged the Prince , and was himself forc'd to drink poyson . But this warinesse is not alwayes necessary . For 1. a publick and an authoriz'd person , may doe it publickly , and may name the person as himself shall judge expedient . — secuit Lucilius urbem : Te Lupe , te Muti ; & genuinum fregit in illis : Omne vafer vitium — Lucilius was a censor of manners , and by his office he had warrant and authority . 2. There are also some cases in which a publick reproofe is prudent , and that is when the crime is great , but not understood to be any at all ; for then it is Instruction and Catechism , and layes aside the affront and trouble of reproofe . Thus Ignatius the Martyr did reprove Trajan sacrificing at the Altar in the sight of all the Officers of the Army ; and the Iews were commanded to reprove the Babylonians for Idolatry in the land of their Captivity : and if we see a Prince in the confidence of his pride , and carelesnesse of spirit , and heat of war spoyle a Church or rob God , it is then fit to tell him the danger of Sacriledge , if otherwise he cannot well be taught his danger , and his duty . 3. There are some circumstances of person in which by interpretation , duty or custome a leave is indulged or presum'd , that liberty may be prudently used , publickly to reprove the publick vices : so it was in the old days of the Romans ; vice had then so little footing and authority , so few friends and advocates , that the Prophets and Poets used a bolder liberty to disgrace whatsoever was amisse ; — unde illa priorum Scribendi quodcunque animo flagrante liberet Simplicitas — and much of the same liberty is still reserved to Pulpits , and to the Bishops office , save onely , that although they may reprove publickly , yet they may not often doe it personally . 2. Use not to reprove thy brother for every thing , but for great things onely : for this is the office of a Tutor , not of a Friend ; and few men will suffer themselves to abide alwayes under Pupillage . When the friend of Philotimus the Physician came to him to be cured of a sore finger , he told him , Heus tu , non tibi cum reduvia est nego●ium , he let his finger alone , and told him that his liver was impostumate : and he that tells his friend that his countenance is not grave enough in the Church , when it may be the man is an Atheist , offers him a cure that will doe him no good , and to chastise a trifle is not a worthy price of that noblest liberty and ingenuity which becomes him that is to heale his brothers soule . But when a vice stains his soule , when he is a foole in his manners , when he is proud , and impatient of contradiction , when he disgraces himselfe by talking weakly , and yet beleeves himselfe wise , and above the confidence of a sober person , then it concerns a friend to rescue him from folly . So Solon reproved Croesus , and Socrates Alcibiades , and Cyrus chid Cyaxares , and Plato told to Dion that of all things in the world he should beware of that folly , by which men please themselves , and despise a better judgement : quia ei vitio adsidet solitudo , Because that folly hath in it singularity , and is directly contrary to all capacities of a friendship , or the entertainments of necessary reproofe . 3. Vse not liberty of reproofe in the dayes of sorrow and affliction ; for the calamity it self is enough to chastise the gayeties of sinning persons , and to bring him to repentance ; it may be sometimes fit to insinuate the mention of the cause of that sorrow , in order to repentance , and a cure : But severe and biting language is then out of season , and it is like putting vineger to an enflamed and smarting eye , it increases the anguish , and tempts unto impatience . In the accidents of a sad person , we must doe as nurses to their falling children , snatch them up and still their cryings , and entertain their passion with some delightfull avocation ; but chide not then when the sorrowfull man needs to be refreshed . When Crater the Cynic met Demetrius Phalereus in his banishment and trouble , he went to him and spoke to him friendly , and used his Philosophy in the ministeries of comfort , and taught him to bear his trouble nobly , and so wrought upon the criminal , and wilde Demetrius ; and he moved him to repentance , who if he had been chidden ( as he expected ) would have scorn'd the manners of the Cynic , and hated his presence and institution ; and Perseus kil'd Euchus and Eulaeus , for reproving his rashnesse , when he was newly defeated by the Romanes . 4. Avoid all the evill appendages of this liberty : for since to reprove a sinning brother is at the best but an unwelcome and invidious employment , though it may also be understood to be full of charity ; yet therefore we must not make it to be hatefull by adding reproach , scorn , violent expressions , scurrility , derision , or bitter invectives . Hieron invited Epicharmus to supper , and he knowing that Hieron had unfortunately kil'd his friend , replyed to his invitation , Atque nuper cum amicos immolares non vorasti , I think I may come , for when thou didst sacrifice thy friends thou didst not devour them . This was a bitter sarcasme , and might with more prudence and charity have been avoyded . They that intend charitably and conduct wisely , take occasions and proper seasons of reproof , they doe it by way of question and similitude , by narrative and apologues , by commending something in him that is good , and discommending the same fault in other persons by way that may disgrace that vice , and preserve the reputation of the man. Ammonius observing that his Scholars were nice and curious in their diet , and too effeminate for a Philosophicall life , caused his freed man to chastise his boy for not dining without vinegar , and all the while look'd upon the young Gentlemen , and read to them a lecture of Severity . Thus our dearest Lord reproved St. Peter , he look'd upon him when the signe was given with the crowing of the Cock , and so chid him into a showre of penitentiall tears . Some use to mingle prayses with their reprehensions , and to invite their friends patience to endure remedy , by ministring some pleasure with their medicine ; for as no wise man can well indure to be praised by him that knows not how to disprayse , and to reprove ; so neither will they endure to be reproved by him that knows not how to praise ; for reproof from such a man betrayes too great a love of himselfe , and an illiberall spirit : He that will reprove wisely , must efform himselfe into all images of things which innocently and wisely he can put on ; not by changing his manners , his principles , and the consequences of his discourse , ( as Alcibiades was supposed to doe ) for it is best to keep the severity of our owne principles , and the manner of our owne living : for so Plato lived at Syracuse , just as he lived in the Academy ; he was the same to Dionysius that he was to Dion : But this I mean , that he who meanes to win soules , and prevail to his brothers institution , must as St. Paul did , effigiate and conform himself to those circumstances of living , and discourse , by which he may prevaile upon the persuasions , by complying with the affections and usages of men . These are the measures by which we are to communicate our counsels and advices to our erring Brethren : to which I adde this last advice , That no man should at that time in which he is reproved give counsell and reproofe to his Reprover , for that betrayes an angry spirit , and makes discord out of piety , and changes charity into wrangling , and it looking like a revenge , makes it appear that himself took the first reproofe for an injury . That which remaines now is , that I persuade men to doe it , and that I persuade men to suffer it ; 't is sometimes hard to doe it , but the cause is onely , because it is hard to bear it ; for if men were but apprehensive of their danger , and were not desirous to die , there were no more to be said in this affair ; they would be as glad to entertain a severe Reprover as a carefull Physitian ; of whom because most men are so willing to make use , so thankfull for their care , so great valuers of their skill , such lovers of their persons ; no man is put to it to persuade men to be Physitians , because there is no need to persuade men to live , or to be in health : if therefore men would as willingly be vertuous as be healthfull , as willingly doe no evill as suffer none , be as desirous of heaven as of a long life on earth , all the difficulties and temptations against this duty of reproving our sinning brother would soon be conceal'd ; but let it be as it will , we must doe it in duty and piety to him that needs , and if he be impatient of it , he needs it more : Et per bujusmodi offensas emetiendum est confragosum hoc iter : it is a troublesome imployment , but it is duty and charity ; and therefore when it can with hope of successe , with prudence and piety be done , no other consideration ought to interpose . And for the other part , those I mean who ought to be reproved , they are to remember , that themselves give pensions to the Preacher on purpose to be reproved if they shall need it* , that God hath instituted a holy Order of men to that very purpose* , that they should be severally told of all that is amisse* , that themselves chide their children and their servants for their good , and that they may amend* , and that they endure thirst to cure their dropsies* , that they suffer burnings to prevent the gangrenes* , and endure the cutting off a limbe to preserve their lives* , and therefore that it is a strange witchcraft and a prodigious folly , that at so easie a mortification as the suffering of a plain friendly reproofe , they will not set forward their interest of heaven , and suffer themselves to be set forward in their hopes of heaven : — dura fatemur Esse , sed ut valeas multa dolenda feras . And when all remember that flattery and importune silence suffer the mighty to perish like fooles and inconsiderate persons , it ought to awake our spirits , and make us to attend to the admonitions of a friend , with a silence great as midnight , and watchfull as a widows eyes . It was a strange thing that Valentinian should in the midst of so many Christian Prelates make a law to establish Polygamy , and that no Bishop should dare to reprehend him . The effect of it was this , that he had a son by a second wife , the first being alive and not divorc'd , and he left him heir of a great part of the Empire ; and what the effect of that was to this soul , God who is his Judge best knows . If now at last it be inquir'd whether every man is bound to reprove every man , if he sins , and if he converse with him ? I answer , that if it should be so , it were to no purpose , and therefore for it there is no commandement ; every man that can may instruct him that wants it ; but every man may not reprove him that is already instructed ; that is an act of charity , for which there are no measures , but the others necessity , and his own opportunity ; but this is also an act of discipline , and must in many cases suppose an authority ; and in all cases such a liberty as is not fit to be permitted to mean , and ignorant , and inferiour persons ; I end this with the saying of a wise person , advising to every one concerning the use of the tongue , aut lucrentur vitam loquendo , aut tacendo abscondant scientiam ; if they speak , let them minister to the good of souls ; if they speak not , let them minister to sobriety ; in the first they serve the end of charity , in the other of humility . THE END . ERRATA . PAg. 10. l. 35. r. entertained that at . p. 6. l. 30. scen r. scene . 29. 21. dear r. clear . 152. 4. terrour r. fervour . 71. 40. the bowed r. they bowed . 87. 41. reverend r reverene'd . 112. 27. r. illius pejo a prioribus . 100. 1. one r. once . 102. 21. that flies r. he that flies . 142. 16. r. true or false . 98. 45. if it be turned r. if it be not turned . 283. ult . r. get a Genius . 309. 40. still r. till . 334. 5. r. his soul. 33. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lege ( forsan ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 52. 29. lege 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 140. 9. lege 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 200. ult . lege 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . In margin . p. 225. 5. lege 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . XXVIII SERMONS PREACHED AT GOLDEN GROVE ; Being for the Summer half-year , BEGINNING ON WHIT-SUNDAY , And ending on the xxv . Sunday after TRINITY . TOGETHER WITH A Discourse of the Divine Institution , Necessity , Sacredness , and Separation of the Office Ministeriall . BY JER . TAYLOR , D. D. QVI SEQVITUR ME NON AMBULAT IN TENEBRIS . printer's or publisher's device LONDON , Printed by R. N. for Richard Royston at the Angel in Ivie-Lane . 1651. To the right Honourable and truely Noble , RICHARD Lord VAVGHAN , Earl of Carbery , Baron of Emlin , and Molingar Knight of the Honourable Order of the Bath . My Lord , I Now present to your Lordship a Copy of those Sermons the publication of which was first designed by the appetites of that hunger and thirst of righteousnesse , which made your Dear Lady ( that rare soul ) so dear to God , that he was pleased speedily to satisfie her , by carrying her from our shallow and impure cisterns to drink out of the fountains of our Saviour . My Lord , I shall but prick your tender eye , if I shall remind your Lordship , how diligent a hearer , how carefull a recorder , how prudent an observer , how sedulous a practiser of holy discourses she was , and that therefore it was , that what did slide thorow her ear , she was desirous to place before her eye , that by those windows they might enter in and dwell in her heart : But because by this truth I shall do advantage to the following discourses , give me leave ( my Lord ) to fancy , that this Book is derived upon your Lordship almost in the nature of a legacy from her , whose every thing was dearer to your Lordship , then your own eyes , and that what she was pleased to beleeve apt to minister to her devotions , and the religions of her pious and discerning soul , may also be allowed a place in your closet , and a portion of your retirement , and a lodging in your thoughts , that they may incourage and instruct your practise and promote that interest , which is and ought to be dearer to you then all those blessings and separations with which God hath remarked your family and person . My Lord , I confesse the publication of these Sermons can so little serve the ends of my reputation , that I am therefore pleased the rather to do it , because I cannot at all be tempted , in so doing , to minister to any thing of vanity . Sermons may please when they first strike the ear , and yet appear flat and ignorant when they are offered to the eye , and to an understanding that can consider at leisure . I remember that a young Gentleman of Athens being to answer for his life , hired an Orator to make his defence , and it pleased him well , at his first reading ; but when the young man by often reading it that he might recite it publikely by heart , began to grow weary and dspleased with it , the Orator bade him consider that the Judges and the people were to hear it but once , and then it was likely , they at that first instant might be as well pleased as he . This hath often represented to my mind the condition and fortune of Sermons , and that I now part with the advantage they bad in their delivery , but I have sufficiently answered my self in that , and am at rest perfectly in my thoughts as to that particular , if I can in any degree serve the interest of souls , and ( which is next to that ) obey the piety , and record the memory of that dear Saint , whose name and whose soul is blessed : for in both these ministeries , I doubt not but your Lordship will be pleased , and account as if I had done also some service to your self : your religion makes me sure of the first , and your piety puts the latter past my fears . However , I suppose in the whole account of this affair , this publication may be esteemed but like preaching to a numerous Auditory , which if I had done , it would have been called either duty , or charity , and therefore will not now so readily be censured for vanity , if I make use of all the wayes I can to minister to the good of souls : But because my intentions are fair in themselves , and I hope are acceptable to God , and will be fairly expounded by your Lordship , ( whom for so great reason I so much value ) I shall not trouble you or the world with an Apologie for this so free publishing my weaknesses ; I can better secure my reputation by telling men how they ought to entertain Sermons , for if they that read or hear , do their duty aright , the Preacher shall soon be secured of his fame , and untouched by censure . 1. For it were well , if men would not inquire after the learning of the sermon , or its deliciousnesse to the ear or fancy , but observe its usefulnesse , not what concerns the preacher , but what concerns themselves , not what may make a vain reflexion upon him , but what may substantially serve their own needs , that the attending to his discourses may not be spent in vain talk concerning him , or his disparagements but may be used as a duty and a part of religion , to minister to edification and instruction . When S. John reckoned the principles of evil actions , he told but of three , The lust of the flesh , the lust of the eyes , and the pride of life . But there was then also in the world ( and now it is grown into age , and strength , and faction ) another lust , the lust of the ear , and a fift also , the lust of the tongue . Some people have an insatiable appetite in hearing , and hear onely that they may hear , and talk and make a party : They enter into their neighbours house to kindle their candle , and espying there , a glaring fire , sit down upon the hearth and warm themselves all day , and forget their errand , and in the mean time , their own fires are not lighted , nor their families instructed , or provided for , nor any need served , but a lazie pleasure , which is uselesse and imprudent . Hearing or reading sermons is , or ought to be in order to practise , for so God intended it , that faith should come by hearing , and that charity should come by faith , and by both together we may be saved . For a mans ears ( as Plutarch cals them ) are virtutum ansae , by them we are to hold and apprehend vertue , and unlesse we use them as men do vessels of dishonour , filling them with things fit to be thrown away , with any thing that is not necessary , we are by them more neerly brought to God , then by all the senses beside . For although things placed before the eye affect the minde more readily then the things we usually hear , yet the reason of that is , because we hear carelesly , and we hear variety ; the same species dwels upon the eye , and represents the same object in union and single representment , but the objects of the ear are broken into fragments of periods , and words , and syllables , and must be attended with a carefull understanding ; and because every thing diverts the sound , and every thing cals off the understanding , and the spirit of a man is truantly , and trifling ; therefore it is that what men hear , does so little affect them , and so weakly work toward the purposes of vertue , & yet nothing does so affect the minde of man as those voices to which we cannot chuse but attend , and thunder and all loud voices from Heaven rend the most ston● heart , and makes the most obstinate pay to God the homage of trembling , and fear , and the still voice of God usually takes the tribute of love , and choice , and obedience . Now since hearing is so effective an instrument of conveying impresses and images of things , and exciting purposes , and fixing resolutions , ( unlesse we hear weakly and imperfectly ) it will be of the greater concernment that we be curious to hear in order to such purposes , which are perfective of the soul , and of the spirit , and not to dwell in fancy and speculation , in pleasures and trifling arrests , which continue the soul in its infancy and childhood , never letting it go forth into the wisdom and vertues of a man. I have read concerning Dionysius of Sicily , that being delighted extremely with a Minstrel that sung well , and struck his Harp dexterously , he promised to give him a great reward , and that raised the fancy of the Man , and made him play better . But when the musick was done and the man waited for his great hope , the King dismissed him empty , telling him , that he should carry away as much of the promised reward , as himself did of the Musick , and that he had payed him sufficiently with the pleasure of the promise for the pleasure of his song : both their ears had been equally delighted and the profit just none at all : So it is in many mens hearing Sermons , they admire the Preacher , and he pleases their ears , and neither of them both bear along with them any good , and the hearer hath as little good by the sermon , as the Preacher by the ayr of the peoples breath , when they make a noise , and admire , and understand not . And that also is a second caution I desire all men would take . 2. That they may never trouble the affairs of preaching and hearing respectively , with admiring the person of any man. To admire a preacher is such a reward of his pains or worth , as if you should crown a Conqueror with a garland of roses , or a Bride with Laurell ; it is an undecency , it is no part of the reward which could be intended for him . For though it be a good natur'd solly , yet it hath in it much danger , for by that means , the Preacher may lead his hearers captive , and make them servants of a faction , or of a lust ; it makes them so much the lesse to be servants of Christ , by how much they call any man Master upon earth ; it weakens the heart and hands of others , it places themselves in a rank much below their proper station , changing from hearing the word of God , to admiration of the person and faces of men , and it being a fault that falls upon the more easie natures and softer understandings , does more easily abuse a man ; and though such a person may have the good fortune to admire a good man and a wise , yet it is an ill disposition , and makes him liable to every mans abuse : Stupidum hominem quâvis oratione percelli , said Heraclitus . An undiscerning person is apt to be cozened by every oration : And besides this , That Preacher whom some do admire , others will most certainly envy , and that also is to be provided against with diligence , and you must not admire too forwardly , for your own sake , lest you fall into the hands of a worse preacher , and for his sake , whom when you admire you also love , for others will be apt to envy him . 3. But that must by all men be avoided ; for envy is the worst counsellour in the world , and the worst hearer of a wise discourse . I pity those men who live upon flattery and wonder , and while they sit at the foot of the Doctors chair , stare in his face , and cry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , rarely spoken , admirably done , they are like callow and unfeathered birds , gaping perpetually to be fed from anothers mouth , and they never come to the knowledge of the truth , such a knowledge as is effective , and expressed in a prudent and holy life . But those men that envy the preacher ; besides that they are great enemies of the Holy Ghost , and are spitefully evil because God is good to him , they are also enemies to themselves . He that envies the honours , or the riches of another , envies for his own sake , and he would fain be rich with that wealth which sweats in his neighbours coffers , but he that envies him that makes good sermons , envies himself , and is angry because himself may receive the benefit , and be improved , or delighted or instructed by another . He that is apt fondly to admire any mans person must cure himself by considering , that the Preacher is Gods minister and servant , that he speaks Gods word and does it by the Divine assistance , that he hath nothing of his own but sin and imperfection , that he does but his duty and that also hardly enough , that he is highly answerable for his talent , and stands deeply charged with the cure of souls , and therefore that he is to be highly esteemed for the work sake , not for the person ; his industry and his charity is to be beloved , his ability is to be accounted upon another stock , and for it , the preacher and the hearer are both to give God thanks , but nothing is due to the man for that , save onely , that it is the rather to be imployed , because by it we may better be instructed , but if any other reflexion be made upon his person , it is next to the sin and danger of Herod and the people , when the fine Oration was made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , with huge fancy the people were pleased , and Herod was admired , and God was angry , and an Angel was sent to strike him with death and with dishonour . But the envy against a preacher is to be cured by a contrary discourse , and we must remember that he is in the place of God , and hath received the gift of God , and the aids of the holy Ghost , that by his abilities God is glorified , and we are instructed , and the interests of vertue , and holy religion are promoted , that by this means God who deserves that all souls should serve him for ever , is likely to have a fairer harvest of glory and service , and therefore that envie is against him : that if we envie because we are not the instrument of this good to others , we must consider that we desire the praise to our selves not to God. Admiration of a man supposes him to be inferiour to the person so admired , but then he is pleased so to be , but envie supposes him as low , and he is displeased at it , and the envious man is not onely lesse then the other mans vertue , but also contrary : the former is a vanity , but this is a vice , that wants wisdom , but this wants wisdom and charity too , that supposes an absence of some good , but this is a direct affliction and calamity . 4. And after all this , if the preacher be not despised , he may proceed cheerfully in doing his duty , and the hearer may have some advantages by every Sermon . I remember that Homer sayes the woers of Penelope laught at Ulisses , because at his return be called for a loaf , and did not , to shew his gallantry , call for swords and spears ; Vlysses was so wise as to call for that he needed , and had it , and it did him more good then a whole armory would in his case : so is the plainest part of an easie , and honest sermon , it is the sincere milk of the word , and nourishes a mans soul , though represented in its own naturall simplicity , and there is hardly any Orator , but you may finde occasion to praise something of him . When Plato misliked the order and disposition of the Oration of Lysias , yet he praised the good words , and the elocution of the man. Euripides was commended for his fulness , Parmenides for his composition . Phocilides for his easinesse , Archilochus for his argument , Sophocles for the unequalnesse of his stile : So may men praise their Preacher , he speaks pertinently , or he contrives wittily , or he speaks comely , or the man is pious , or charitable , or he hath a good text , or he speaks plainly , or he is not tedious or if he be he is at least industrious , or he is the messenger of God and that will not fail us , and let us love him for that ; and we know those that love can easily commend any thing , because they like every thing : and they say , fair men are like angels , and the black are manly , and the pale look like honey and the stars , and the crook-nosed are like the sons of Kings , and if they be flat they are gentle and easie , and if they be deformed they are humble , and not to be despised because they have upon them the impresses of divinity , and they are the sons of God. He that despises his Preacher , is a hearer of arts and learning , not of the word of God , and though when the word of God is set off with advantages and entertainments of the better faculties of our humanity , it is more usefull and of more effect , yet when the word of God is spoken truly , though but read in plain language , it will become the disciple of Jesus to love that man whom God sends , and the publik order , and the laws have imployed , rather then to despise the weaknesse of him who delivers a mighty word . Thus it is fit that men should be affected and imployed when they hear and read sermons , comming hither not as into a theatre , where men observe the gestures and noises of the people , the brow and eyes of the most busie censurers , and make parties , and go aside with them that dislike every thing , or else admire not the things , but the persons : But as to a sacrifice , and as unto a school , where vertue is taught and exercised , and none come but such as put themselves under discipline , and intend to grow wiser , and more vertuous , to appease their passion , from violent to become smooth and even , to have their faith established , and their hope confirmed , & their charity enlarged . They that are otherwise affected do not do their duty , but if they be so minded as they ought , I and all men of my imployment shall be secured against the tongues and faces of men who are ingeniosi in alieno libro , wittie to abuse and undervalue another mans book : And yet besides these spirituall arts already reckoned , I have one security more , for ( unlesse I deceive my self ) I intend the glory of God sincerely , and the service of Jesus in this publication , and therefore being I do not seek my self , or my own reputation , I shall not be troubled if they be lost in the voyces of busie people , so that I be accepted of God , and found of him in the day of the Lords visitation . My Lord , It was your charity and noblenesse that gave me opportunity to do this service ( little or great ) unto religion , and whoever shall find any advantage to their soul , by reading the following discourse , if they know how to blesse God , and to blesse all them that are Gods instruments in doing them benefit , will ( I hope ) help to procure blessings to your Person and Family , and say a holy prayer , and name your Lordship in their Letanies , and remember , that at your own charges you have digged a well , and placed cisterns in the high wayes , that they may drink and be refreshed , and their souls may blesse you . My Lord , I hope this , even because I very much desire it , and because you exceedingly deserve it , and above all , because God is good and gracious , and loves to reward such a charity , and such a religion as is yours , by which you have imployed me in the service of God , and in ministeries to your Family . My Lord , I am most heartily , and for very many Dear obligations Your Lordships most obliged , most humble , and most affectionate servant TAYLOR . Titles of the Sermons , their Order , Number , and Texts . SErmon 1. 2. Of the Spirit of Grace . Folio 1. 12. Rom. 8. ver . 9 , 10. But ye are not in the flesh , but in the Spirit , if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you . Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ , he is none of his . * And if Christ be in you , the body is dead because of sin , but the Spirit is life , because of righteousnesse . Sermon 3. 4. The descending and entailed curse cut off . fol. 27. 40. Exodus 20. part of the 5. verse . I the Lord tby God am a jealous God , visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children , unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me : 6. And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me , and keep my commandements . Sermon 5. 6. The invalidity of a late , or death-bed repentance . fol 52 , 66. Jerem. 13. 16. Give glory to the Lord your God , before he cause darknesse , and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains : and while ye look for light , or , ( lest while ye look for light ) he shall turn it into the shadow of death , and make it grosse darknesse . Sermon 7. 8. The deceitfulnesse of the heart . fol. 80. 92. Jerem. 17. 9. The heart is deceitfull above all things , and desperately wicked ; who can know it ? Sermon 9. 10. 11. The faith and patience of the Saints : Or the righteous cause oppressed . fol. 104. 119. 133. 1 Pet. 4. 17. For the time is come that judgement must begin at the house of God : and if it first begin at us , what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel of God ? 18. And if the righteous scarcely be saved , where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear ? Sermon 12. 13. The mercy of the Divine judgements ; or Gods method in curing sinners . fol. 146. 159. Romans 2. 4. Despisest thou the riches of his goodnesse , and forbearance , and long-suffering , not knowing that the goodnesse of God leadeth thee to repentance ? Sermon 14. 15. Of groweth in grace , with its proper instruments and signes . fol. 172. 183. 2 Pet. 3. 18. But grow in grace , and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ , to whom be glory both now and for ever . Amen . Sermon 16. 17. Of groweth in sin , or the severall states and degrees of sinners , with the manner how they are to be treated . fol. 197. 210. Jude Epist ver . 22 , 23. And of some have compassion , making a difference : * And others save with fear , pulling them out of the fire . Sermon 18. 19. The foolish exchange . sol . 224. 237. Matth. 16. ver . 26. For what is a man profited , if he shall gain the whole world , and lose his own soul ? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul ? Sermon 20 21. 22. The Serpent and the Dove , or a discourse of Christian Prudence . fol. 251. 263. 274. Matth. 10. latter part of ver . 16. Be ye therefore wise as serpents , and harmlesse as doves . Sermon 23. 24. Of Christian simplicity . 289. 301. Matth. 10. latter part of ver . 16. And harmlesse as doves . Sermon 25. 26. 27. The miracles of the Divine Mercy . fol. 313. 327. 340. Psal. 86. 5. For thou Lord art good and ready to forgive , and plenteous in mercy to all them that call upon thee . A Funerall Sermon , preached at the Obsequies of the Right Honourable the Countesse of Carbery . fol. 357. 2 Sam. 14. 14. For we must needs die , and are as water spilt on the ground which cannot be gathered up again : neither doth God respect any person : yet doth he devise means that his banished be not expelled from him . A Discourse of the Divine Institution , necessity , sacrednesse , and separation of the Office Ministeriall . Sermon . I. VVHITSVNDAY OF THE SPIRIT OF GRACE . 8. Romans . v. 9. 10. But ye are not in the flesh , but in the Spirit , if so be that the Spirit of God , dwell in you . Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ , he is none of his . * And if Christ be in you , the body is dead because of sin , but the Spirit is life , because of righteousnesse . THe day in which the Church commemorates the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles was the first beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This was the first day that the Religion was professed : now the Apostles first open'd their commission , and read it to all the people . [ The Lord gave his Spirit ] or [ the Lord gave his word ] and great was the company of the Preachers . For so I make bold to render that prophesie of David . Christ was the word of God , verbum aeternum but the Spirit was the word of God , verbum Patefactum : Christ was the word manifested in the flesh ; the Spirit was the word manifested to flesh , and set in dominion over , and in hostility against the flesh . The Gospel and the Spirit are the same thing ; not in substance ; but the manifestation of the Spirit is the Gospel of Jesus Christ ; and because he was this day manifested , the Gospel was this day first preached , and it became a law to us , called * the law of the Spirit of life , that is , a law taught us by the Spirit , leading us to life eternal . But the Gospel is called the Spirit , 1. Because it contains in it such glorious mysteries which were revealed by the immediate inspirations of the Spirit , not onely in the matter it self , but also in the manner and powers to apprehend them . For what power of humane understanding could have found out , the incarnation of a God ; that two natures [ a finite , and an infinite ] could have been concentred into one hypostasis ( or person ) : that a virgin should be a Mother , that dead men should live again , that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the ashes of dissolved bones should become bright as the Sun , blessed as Angels , swift in motion as thought , clear as the purest Noone : that God should so love us , as to be willing to be reconcil'd to us , and yet that himself must dye that he might pardon us : that Gods most Holy Son should give us his body to eat , and his bloud to crown our chalices , and his Spirit to sanctifie our souls , to turn our bodies into temperance , our souls into mindes , our mindes into Spirit , our Spirit into glory : that he who can give us all things , who is Lord of Men and Angels , and King of all the Creatures should pray to God for us without intermission : that he who reigns over all the world , should at the day of judgement give up the Kingdom to God the Father , and yet after this resignation , himself and we with him , should for ever reign the more gloriously : that we should be justified by Faith in Christ ; and that charity should be a part of faith ; and that both should work as acts of duty , and as acts of relation : that God should Crown the imperfect endeavours of his Saints with glory , and that a humane act should be rewarded with an eternal inheritance : that the wicked for the transient pleasure of a few minutes should be tormented with an absolute eternity of pains : that the waters of baptisme when they are hallowed by the Spirit shall purge the soul from sin : and that the Spirit of a man shall be nourished with the consecrated and mysterious elements : and that any such nourishment should bring a man up to heaven : and after all this , that all Christian People , all that will be saved must be partakers of the Divine nature ; of the Nature , the infinite nature of God , and , must dwell in Christ , and Christ must dwell in them , and they must be in the Spirit , and the Spirit must be for ever in them ; these are articles of so mysterious a Philosophy , that we could have inferred them from no premises , discours'd them upon the stock of no naturall , or scientificall principles ; nothing but God , and Gods spirit could have taught them to us : and therefore the Gospel is Spiritus patefactus , the manifestation of the Spirit ad aedificationem ( as the Apostle calls it ) for edification and building us up to be a Holy Temple to the Lord. 2. But when we had been taught all these mysterious articles , we could not by any humane power have understood them , unlesse the Spirit of God had given us a new light , and created in us a new capacity , and made us to be a new creature , of another definition . Animalis homo , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , as S. Jude expounds the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the animal , or the naturall man , the man that hath not the Spirit cannot discern the things of God , for they are spiritually discerned , that is , not to be understood but by the light proceeding from the Sun of righteousnesse , and by that eye whose bird is the Holy Dove , whose Candle is the Gospel ; Scio incapacem te sacramenti , Impie Non posse coecis mentibus mysterium Haurire nostrum : nil diurnum nox capit . He that shall discourse Euclids elements to a swine , or preach ( as Venerable Bede's story reports of him ) to a rock , or talk Metaphysicks to a Bore , will as much prevail upon his assembly as S. Peter , and S. Paul could do upon uncircumcised hearts and ears , upon the indisposed Greeks , and prejudicate Iews . An Ox will relish the tender flesh of Kids with as much gust and appetite , as an unspirituall , and unsanctified man , will do the discourses of Angels , or of an Apostle , if he should come to preach the secrets of the Gospel . And we finde it true by a sad experience . How many times doth God speak to us by his servants the Prophets , by his Son , by his Apostles , by sermons by spirituall books , by thousands of homilies , and arts of counsell and insinuation ; and we sit as unconcerned as the pillars of a Church , and hear the sermons as the Athenians did a story , or as we read a gazet : and if ever it come to passe that we tremble as Felix did , when we hear a sad story of death , of righteousnesse , and judgement to come , then we put it off to another time , or we forget it , and think we had nothing to do but to give the good man a hearing , and ( as Anacharsis said of the Greeks , they used money for nothing but to cast account withall ; so ) our hearers make use of sermons and discourses Evangelical , but to fill up void spaces of our time ; to help to tell an hour with , or without tediousnesse : The reason of this is a sad condemnation to such persons ; they have not yet entertained the Spirit of God , they are in darknesse : they were washed in water , but never baptized with the Spirit ; for these things are spiritually discerned . They would think the Preacher rude , if he should say they are not Christians , they are not within the Covenant of the Gospel : but it is certain that the spirit of Manifestation is not yet upon them ; and that is the first effect of the Spirit , whereby we can be called sons of God , or relatives of Christ. If we do not apprehend , and greedily suck in the precepts of this holy Discipline as aptly as Merchants do discourse of gain , or Farmers of fair harvests , we have nothing but the Name of Christians ; but we are no more such really , then Mandrakes are men , or spunges are living creatures . 3. The Gospel is called Spirit , because it consists of Spiritual Promises , and Spiritual precepts , and makes all men that embrace it , truly to be Spiritual men : and therefore S. Paul addes an Epithete beyond this , calling it a quiohening Spirit that is , it puts life into our Spirits , which the law could not . The law bound us to punishment , but did not help us to obedience , because it gave not the promise of Eternal life to its Disciples . The Spirit , that is , the Gospel onely does this : and this alone is it which comforts afflicted mindes , which puts activenesse into wearyed Spirits , which inflames our cold desires , and does 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 blows up sparks into live coles , and coles up to flames , and flames to perpetual burnings : and it is impossible that any man who believes , and considers the great , the infinite , the unspeakable , the unimaginable , the never ceasing joyes , that are prepared for all the sons and daughters of the Gospel should not desire them ; and unlesse he be a fool , he cannot but use means to obtain them , effective , hearty pursuances . For it is not directly in the nature of a man to neglect so great a good ; there must be something in his manners , some obliquity in his will , or madnesse in his intellectuals , or incapacity in his naturals that must make him sleep such a reward away , or change it for the pleasure of a drunken feaver , or the vanity of a Mistresse , or the rage of a passion , or the unreasonablenesse of any sin . However ; this promise is the life of all our actions , and the Spirit that first taught it is the life of our soules . 4. But beyond this , is the reason which is the consummation of all the faithful . The Gospel is called the Spirit , because by , and in the Gospel , God hath given to us not onely the Spirit of manifestation , that is , of instruction and of Catechisme , of faith and confident assent ; but the Spirit of Confirmation or obsignation to all them that believe and obey the Gospel of Christ ; that is , the power of God is come upon our hearts , by which in an admirable manner we are made sure of a glorious inheritance ; made sure ( I say ) in the nature of the thing ; and our own persuasions also are confirmed with an excellent , a comfortable , a discerning and a reasonable hope : in the strength of which , and by whose ayde , as we do not doubt of the performance of the promise : so we vigorously pursue all the parts of the condition , and are mabled to work all the work of God , so as not to be affrighted with fear , or seduced by vanity , or oppressed by lust , or drawn off by evil example , or abused by riches , or imprison'd by ambition and secular designes : This the Spirit of God does work in all his Servants ; and is called the spirit of obsignation , or the confirming spirit , because it confirms our hope , and assures our title to life eternall ; and by means of it , and other it 's collateral assistances , it also confirms us in our duty , that we may not onely professe in word , but live lives according to the Gospel . And this is the sense of [ the Spirit ] mentiond in the Text : ye are not in the flesh , but in the Spirit , if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you : That is , if ye be made partakers of the Gospel , or of the spirit of manifestation , if ye be truly intitled to God , and have received the promise of the Father , then are ye not carnall men ; ye are spirituall , ye are in the Spirit : if ye have the Spirit in one sense to any purpose , ye have it also in another : if the Spirit be in you , you are in it : if it hath given you hope , it hath also inabled and ascertain'd your duty . For the Spirit of manifestation will but upbraid you in the shame and horrours of a sad eternity , if you have not the Spirit of obsignation : if the Holy Ghost be not come upon you to great purposes of holinesse , all other pretences are vain , ye are still in the flesh , which shall never inherit the kingdom of God. In the Spirit ] that is , in the power of the spirit ; so the Greeks call him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who is possessed by a spirit , whom God hath filled with a coelestial immission ; he is said to be in God , when God is in him : and it is a similitude taken from persons encompassed with guards ; they are in custodiâ , that is , in their power , under their command , moved at their dispose , they rest in their time , and receive laws from their authority , and admit visiters whom they appoint , and mus● be employed as they shall suffer ; so are men who are in the Spirit , that is , they beleeve as he teaches , they work as he inables , they choose what he calls good , they are friends of his friends , and they hate with his hatred ; with this onely difference , that persons in custody , are forced to do what their keepers please , and nothing is free but their wils ; but they that are under the command of the Spirit , do all things which the Spirit commands , but they do them cheerfully ; and their will is now the prisoner , but it is in liber â custodiâ , the will is where it ought to be , and where it desires to be , and it cannot easily choose any thing else , because it is extreamly in love with this : as the Saints and Angels in their state of Beatific vision , cannot choose but love God ; and yet the liberty of their choice is not lessen'd , because the object fils all the capacities of the will , and the understanding . Indifferency to an object is the lowest degree of liberty , and supposes unworthinesse , or defect in the object , or the apprehension ; but the will is then the freest and most perfect in its operation , when it intirely pursues a good with so certain determination , and clear election , that the contrary evil cannot come into dispute or pretence : Such in our proportions is the liberty of the sons of God ; it is an holy and amiable captivity to the Spirit ; the will of man is in love with those chains , which draws to God , and loves the fetters that confine us to the pleasures and religion of the kingdom . And as no man will complain that his temples are restrain'd , and his head is prisoner when it is encircled with a crown : So when the Son of God had made us free , and hath onely subjected us to the service and dominion of the Spirit , we are free as Princes within the circles of their Diadem , and our chains are bracelets , and the law is a law of liberty , and his service is perfect freedom ; and the more we are subjects , the more we shall reign as Kings ; and the faster we run , the easier is our burden , and Christs yoke is like feathers to a bird , not loads , but helps to motion , without them the body fals : and we do not pity birds when in summer we wish them unfeathered and callow , or bald as egges , that they might be cooler and lighter : such is the load and captivity of the soul when we do the work of God and are his servants , and under the Government of the spirit : They that strive to be quit of this subjection , love the liberty of out-laws , and the licentiousness of anarchy , and the freedom of sad widows and distressed Orphans : For so Rebels and fools and children long to be rid of their Princes , and their Guardians , and their Tutors , that they may be accursed without law , and be undone without control , and be ignorant and miserable without a teacher and without discipline . He that is in the Spirit is under Tutours and Governours . untill the time appointed of the Father , just as all great Heirs are ; onely , the first seizure the Spirit makes , is upon the will. He that loves the yoke of Christ , and the discipline of the Gospel , he is in the Spirit , that is , in the spirits power . Upon this foundation , the Apostle hath built these two propositions . 1. Whosoever hath not the Spirit of Christ , he is none of his , he does not belong to Christ at all : he is not partaker of his Spirit , and therefore shall never be partaker of his glory . 2. Whosoever is in Christ , is dead to sin , and lives to the Spirit of Christ , that is , lives a Spirituall , a holy and a sanctifyed life . These are to be considered distinctly . 1. All that belong to Christ have the Spirit of Christ. Immediately before the ascension , our blessed Saviour bid his Disciples tarry in Jerusalem till they should receive the promise of the Father . Whosoever stay at Jerusalem , and are in the actuall Communion of the Church of God shall certainly receive this promise . For it is made to you and to your children ( saith S. Peter ) and to as many as the Lord our God shall call . All shall receive the Spirit of Christ , the promise of the Father , because this was the great instrument of distinction between the Law and the Gospel . In the Law God gave his Spirit , 1. to some ; to them 2. extraregularly , 3. without solennity , 4. in small proportions , like the dew upon Gideons fleece ; a little portion was wet sometime with the dew of heaven , when all the earth besides was dry : And the Jewes calld it filiam vocis , the daughter of a voice , still , and small , and seldom , and that by secret whispers , and sometimes inarticulate by way of enthusiasme , rather then of instruction , and God spake by the Prophets transmitting the sound , as thorough an Organ pipe , things which themselves oftentimes understood not . But in the Gospel , the spirit is given without measure ; first powred forth upon our head Christ Jesus ; then descending upon the beard of Aaron , the Fathers of the Church , and thence falling like the tears of the balsam of Judea upon the foot of the plant , upon the lowest of the people . And this is given regularly to all that ask it , to all that can receive it , and by a solemn ceremony , and conveyed by a Sacrament : and is now , not the Daughter of a voice , but the Mother of many voices , of divided tongues , and united hearts , of the tongues of Prophets , and the duty of Saints , of the Sermons of Apostles , and the wisdom of Governours ; It is the Parent of boldness , and fortitude to Martyrs , the fountain of learning to Doctors , an Ocean of all things excellent to all who are within the ship , and bounds of the Catholike Church : so that Old men and young men , maidens and boyes , the scribe and the unlearned , the Judge and the Advocate , the Priest and the people are full of the Spirit , if they belong to God ; Moses's wish is fulfilled , and all the Lords people are Prophets in some sense or other . In the wisdom of the Ancient it was observed , that there are four great cords which tye the heart of Man to inconvenience and a prison making it a servant of vanity , and an heir of corruption 1. Pleasure and 2. Pain . 3. Fear , and 4. Desire . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . These are they that exercise all the wisdom and resolutions of man , and all the powers that God hath given him . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . said Agathon . These are those evil Spirits that possess the heart of man & mingle with al his actions ; so that either men are tempted to 1. lust by pleasure , or 2. to baser arts by covetousness , or 3. to impatience by sorrow , or 4. to dishonourable actions by fear : and this is the state of man by nature ; and under the law ; and for ever till the Spirit of God came , and by four special operations cur'd these four inconveniences and restrained , or sweetned these unwholesome waters . 1. God gave us his Spirit that we might be insensible of worldly pleasures , having our souls wholly fil●d with spiritual and heavenly relishes . For when Gods Spirit hath entred into us and possessed us as his Temple , or as his dwelling , instantly we begin to taste Manna , and to loath the diet of Egypt ; we begin to consider concerning heaven , and to prefer eternity before moments , and to love the pleasures of the soul , above the sottish and beastly pleasures of the body . Then we can consider that the pleasures of a drunken meeting cannot make recompence for the pains of a surfet , and that nights intemperance ; much lesse for the torments of eternity : Then we are quick to discern that the itch and scab of lustful appetites is not worth the charges of a Surgeon , much lesse can it pay for the disgrace , the danger , the sicknesse , the death , and the hell of lustfull persons ; Then we wonder that any man should venture his head to get a crown unjustly ; or that for the hazard of a victory , he should throw away all his hopes of heaven certainly . A man that hath tasted of Gods Spirit can instantly discern the madnesse that is in rage , the folly and the disease that is in envy , the anguish and tediousnesse that is in lust , the dishonor that is in breaking our faith , and telling a lie ; and understands things truly as they are ; that is , that charity is the greatest noblenesse in the world ; that religion hath in it the greatest pleasures ; that temperance is the best security of health ; that humility is the surest way to honour ; and all these relishes are nothing but antepasts of heaven , where the quintessence of all these pleasures shall be swallowed for ever ; where the chast shall follow the Lamb , and the virgins sing there where the Mother of God shall reign ; and the zealous converters of souls , and labourers in Gods vineyard shall worship eternally where S. Peter and S. Paul do wear their crown of righteousnesse ; and the patient persons shall be rewarded with Job , and the meek persons with Christ and Moses , and all with God ; the very expectation of which proceeding from a hope begotten in us by the spirit of manifestation , and bred up and strengthened by the spirit of obsignation is so delicious an entertainment of all our reasonable appetites , that a spirituall man can no more be removed , or intic d from the love of God , and of religion , then the Moon from her Orb , or a Mother from loving the son of her joyes , and of her sorrows . This was observed by S. Peter , [ As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word , that ye may grow thereby ; if so be that ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious ] When once we have tasted the grace of God , the sweetnesses of his Spirit ; then , no food but the food of Angels , no cup but the cup of Salvation , the Divining cup , in which we drink Salvation to our God , and call upon the Name of the Lord with ravishment and thanksgiving ; and there is no greater externall testimony that we are in the spirit , and that the spirit dwels in us , then if we finde joy and delight , and spirituall pleasures in the greatest mysteries of our religion ; if we communicate often , and that with appetite and a forward choice , and an unwearied devotion , and a heart truly fixed upon God , and upon the offices of a holy worship . He that loaths good meat is sick at heart , or neer it ; and he that despises , or hath not a holy appetite to the food of Angels , the wine of elect souls , is fit to succeed the Prodigal at his banquet of sinne and husks , and to be partaker of the table of Devils ; but all they who have Gods Spirit , love to feast at the supper of the Lamb , and have no appetites but what are of the spirit , or servants to the spirit . I have read of a spiritual person who saw heaven but in a dream , but such as made great impression upon him , and was represented with vigorous and pertinacious phantasines , not easily disbanding , and when he awaked he knew not his cell , he remembred not him that slept in the same dorter , nor could tell how night and day were distinguished , nor could discern oyl from wine , but cal d out for his vision again , Redde mihi campos meos floridos , columnam auream , comitem Hieronymum , assistentes Angelos ; Give me my fields again , my most delicious fields , my pillar of a glorious light , my companion S. Jereme , my assistant Angels ; and this lasted till he was told of his duty , and matter of obedience , and the fear of a sin had disincharmed him , and caused him to take care lest he lose the substance , out of greedinesse to possesse the shadow . And if it were given to any of us to see Paradise , or the third heaven ( as it was to S. Paul ) could it be that ever we should love any thing but Christ , or follow any Guide but the Spirit , or desire any thing but Heaven , or understand any thing to be pleasant but what shall lead thither ? Now what a vision can do , that the Spirit doth certainly to them that entertain him . They that have him really and not in pretence onely , are certainly great despisers of the things of the world . The Spirit doth not create , or enlarge our appetites of things below : Spirituall men are not design●d to reign upon earth , but to reign over their lusts and sottish appetites . The Spirit doth not enflame our thirst of wealth , but extinguishes it , and makes us to esteem all things as lesse , and as dung so that we may gain Christ ; No gain then is pleasant but godlinesse , no ambition but longings after heaven , no revenge but against our selves for sinning ; nothing but God and Christ ; Deus meus & omnia ; and date nobis animas , catera vobis tollite ( as the king of Sodom said to Abraham ) Secure but the souls to us , and take our goods . Indeed this is a good signe that we have the Spirit . S. John spake a hard saying , but by the spirit of manifestation we are also taught to understand it . Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin , for his seed remaineth in him , and he cannot sin , because he is born of God. The seed of God ] is the spirit which hath a plastic power to efform us in similitudinem filiorum Dei , into the image of the sons of God ; and as long as this remains in us , while the Spirit dwels in us We cannot sin ; that is , it is against our natures , our reformed natures to sin : And as we say , we cannot endure such a potion , we cannot suffer such a pain ; that is , we cannot without great trouble , we cannot without doing violence to our nature : so all spirituall men , all that are born of God , and the seed of God remains in them , they cannot sin ; cannot without trouble , and doing against our natures , and their most passionate inclinations . A man , if you speak naturally , can masticate gums , and he can break his own legs , and he can sip up by little draughts , mixtures of Aloes and Rhubarb , of Henbane , or the deadly Nightshade ; but he cannot do this naturally , or willingly , cheerfully or with delight . Every sin is against a good mans nature he is ill at case when he hath missed his usual prayers ; he is amaz●d if he have fallen into an errour ; he is infinitely ashamed of his imprudence ; he remembers a sin , as he thinks of an enemy , or the horrors of a midnight apparition : for all his capacities , his understanding , and his choosing faculties are filled up with the opinion and perswasions , with the love , and with the desires of God : and this I say , is the Great benefit of the Spirit , which God hath given to us as an antidote against worldly pleasures : And therefore S. Paul joynes them as consequent to each other [ For it is impossible for those who were once enlightned , and have tasted of the heavenly gift , and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost , and have tasted the good word of God , and the powers of the world to come , &c. ] First we are enlightned in Baptisme , and by the Spirit of manifestation , the revelations of the Gospel : then we relish and taste interiour excellencies , and we receive the Holy Ghost , the Spirit of confirmation , and he gives us a taste of the powers of the world to come ; that is , of the great efficacy that is in the Article of eternall life to perswade us to religion and holy living : then we feel that as the belief of that Article dwels upon our understanding , and is incorporated into our wils and choice , so we grow powerfull to resist sin by the strengths of the Spirit , to defie all carnall pleasure , and to suppresse and mortifie it by the powers of this Article : [ those are the powers of the world to come . 2. The Spirit of God is given to all who truly belong to Christ as an anidote against sorrows , against impatience , against the evil accidents of the world , and against the oppression and sinking of our spirits under the crosse . There are in Scripture noted two births besides the naturall ; to which also by analogy we may adde a third . The first is to be born of water and the Spirit . It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one thing signified by a divided appellative , by two substantives , [ water and the Spirit ] that is , Spiritus aqueus , the Spirit moving upon the waters of Baptisme . The second is to be born of Spirit and fire , for so Christ was promised to baptize us with the Holy Ghost and with fire ; that is , cum spiritu igneo , with a fiery spirit , the Spirit as it descended in Pentecost in the shape of fiery tongues . And as the watry spirit washed away the sins of the Church , so the spirit of fire enkindles charity and the love of God. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( sayes Plutarch ) the Spirit is the same under both the titles , and it enables the Church with gifts and graces : And from these there is another operation of the new birth , but the same Spirit , the spirit of rejoycing , or spiritus exultans , spiritus laetitiae . Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in beleeving , that ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost . There is a certain joy and spirituall rejoycing , that accompanies them in whom the Holy Ghost doth dwell ; a joy in the midst of sorrow ; a joy given to allay the sorrows of saecular troubles , and to alleviate the burden of persecution . This S. Paul notes to this purpose . [ And ye became followers of us and of the Lord , having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost . ] Worldly afflictions and spirituall joyes , may very well dwell together ; and if God did not supply us out of his storehouses , the sorrows of this world would be mere and unmixt , and the troubles of persecution would be too great for naturall confidences . For who shall make him recompence that lost his life in a Duel , fought about a draught of wine , or a cheaper woman ? What arguments shall invite a man to suffer torments , in testimony of a proposition of naturall Philosophy ? And by what instruments shall we comfort a man who is sick , and poor , and disgrac'd and vitious , and lies cursing , and despairs of any thing hereafter ? That mans condition proclaims what it is to want the Spirit of God , the Spirit of comfort . Now this Spirit of comfort is the hope and confidence , the certain expectation of partaking in the inheritance of Jesus . This is the faith and patience of the Saints , this is the refreshment of all wearied travellers , the cordiall of all languishing sinners , the support of the scrupulous , the guide of the doubtfull , the anchor of timorous and fluctuating souls , the confidence and the staff of the penitent . He that is deprived of his whole estate for a good conscience , by the Spirit he meets this comfort , that he shall finde it again with advantage in the day of restitution : and this comfort was so manifest in the first dayes of Christianity , that it was no infrequent thing to see holy persons court a Martyrdom with a fondnesse as great as is our impatience , and timorousnesse in every persecution . Till the Spirit of God comes upon us we are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inopis nos , atque pusilli finxerunt animi ; we have little souls , little faith , and as little patience , we fall at every stumbling block , and sink under every temptation ; and our hearts fail us , and we die for fear of death , and lose our souls to preserve our estates , or our persons till the Spirit of God fills us with joy in beleeving : and a man that is in a great joy cares not for any trouble that is lesse then his joy ; and God hath taken so great care to secure this to us , that he hath turn'd it into a precept . Rejoyce evermore ; and Rejoyce in the Lord always , and again , I say rejoyce . But this rejoycing must be onely in the hope that is laid up for us , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; so the Apostle . Rejoycing in hope . For although God sometimes maks a cup of sensible comfort to overflow the spirit of a man , and thereby loves to refresh his sorrows ; yet that is from a secret principle , not regularly given not to be waitd for , not to be prayed for , and it may fail us if we think upon it : but the hope of life eternall can never fail us , and the joy of that is great enough to make us suffer any thing , or to do any thing — ibimus , ibimus utcunque praecedes , supremum Carpere iter comites parati To death , to bands , to poverty , to banishment , to tribunals , any whither in hope of life eternall : as long as this anchor holds , we may suffer a storm , but cannot suffer shipwrack : And I desire you by the way to observe , how good a God we serve , and how excellent a Religion Christ taught , when one of his great precepts is , that we should rejoyce and be exceeding glad ? and God hath given us the spirit of rejoycing , not a sullen , melancholy spirit , not the spirit of bondage or of a slave , but the Spirit of his Son , consigning us by a holy conscience to joyes unspeakable and full of glory : And from hence you may also infer , that those who sink under a persecution , or are impatient in a sad accident they put out their own fires , which the Spirit of the Lord hath kindled , and lose those glories which stand behinde the cloud . Part II. 3. THe Spirit of God is given us , as an antidote against evil concupiscences , and sinfull desires , and is then called the spirit of prayer and supplication . For ever since the affections of the outward man prevaild upon the ruins of the soul , all our desires were sensuall , and therefore hurtfull : for ever after , our body grew to be our enemy . In the loosnesses of nature , and amongst the ignorance , or imperfection of Gentile Philosophy , men used to pray with their hands full of rapine , and their mouths of blood , and their hearts of malice ; and they prayed accordingly , for an opportunity to steal , for a fair body , for a prosperous revenge , for a prevailing malice , for the satisfaction of whatsoever they could be tempted to by any object , by any lust , by any Devil whatsoever . The Jews were better taught for God was their teacher , and he gave the spirit to them in single rayes . But as the spirit of obsignation was given to them under a seal , and within a veile ; so the spirit of Manifestation or patefaction was like the gem of a vine , or the bud of a rose , plain indices and significations of life , and principles of juice and sweetnesse : but yet scarce out of the doors of their causes ; they had the infancy of knowledge ; and revelations to them were given as Catechisme is taught to our children ; which they read with the eye of a bird , and speak with the tongue of a bee , and understand with the heart of a childe , that is , weakly and imperfectly : and they understood so little ; that 1. They thought God heard them not unlesse they spake their prayers , at least efforming their words within their lips : and 2. Their forms of prayer were so few and seldome , that to teach a forme of prayer , or to compose a collect was thought a worke fit for a Prophet , or the founder of an institution . 3. Adde to this that as their promises were temporal , so were their hopes : as were their hopes so were their desires ; and according to their desires so were their prayers . And although the Psalms of David was their Creat office , and the treasury of devotion to their Nation ( and very worthily ) yet it was full of wishes for temporals , invocations of GOD the Avenger , on GOD the Lord of Hosts , on God the Enemy of their Enemies ; and they desired their Nation to be prospered , and themselves blessed , and distinguished from all the world , by the effects of such desires . This was the state of prayer in their Synagogue ; save onely that it had also this allay . 4. That their addresses to GOD were crasse , material , typical and full of shadows , and imagery , paterns of things to come , and so in its very being and constitution was relative and imperfect . But that we may see how great things the Lord hath done for us , God hath powred his spirit into our hearts , the spirit of prayer and supplication , and now . 1. Christians pray in their spirit , with sighs and groans , and know that GOD who dwells within them , can as clearly distinguish those secret accents , and read their meaning in the Spirit as plainly as he knows the voice of his own thunder , or could discern the letter of the law written in the tables of stone by the finger of God. 2. likewise the spirit helpeth our infirmities , for we know not what we should pray for as we ought . That is , when God sends an affliction or persecution upon us , we are indeed extreme apt to lay our hand upon the wound and never take it off but when we lift it up in prayer to be delivered from that sadnesse ; and then we pray fervently to be cured of a sicknesse , to be delivered from a Tyrant , to be snatched from the grave , not to perish in the danger . But the spirit of God hath from all sad accidents drawn the veil of errour and the cloud of intolerablenesse , and hath taught us that our happinesse cannot consist in freedom , or deliverances from persecutions , but in patience , resignation , and noble sufferance ; and that we are not then so blessed when God hath turn'd our scourges into ease and delicacy , as when we convert our very scorpions into the exercise of vertues : so that now the spirit having helped our infirmities , that is , comforted our weaknesses and afflictions , our sorrows and impatience by this proposition , that [ All things work together for the good of them that fear God ] he hath taught us to pray for grace , for patience under the crosse , for Charity to our persecutors , for rejoycing in tribulations , for perseverance and boldnesse in the faith ; and for whatsoever will bring us safely to Heaven . 3. Whereas onely a Moses , or a Samuel , a David , or a Daniel , a John the Baptist , or the Messias himself could describe and indite formes of prayer and thanksgiving to the time and accent of Heaven , now every wise and good Man is instructed perfectly in the Scriptures ( which are the writings of the spirit ) what things he may , and what things he must ask for . 4. The Spirit of God hath made our services to be spiritual , intellectual , holy , and effects of choice and religion , the consequents of a spiritual sacrifice , and of a holy union with God : The prayer of a Christian is with the effects of the spirit of Sanctification ; and then we pray with the Spirit when we pray with Holinesse , which is the great fruit , the principal gift of the spirit , And this is by Saint James called [ the prayer of faith ] and is said to be certain that it shall prevail . Such a praying with the spirit , when our prayers are the voices of our spirits , and our spirits are first taught , then sanctified by Gods spirit , shall never fail of its effect ; because then it is , that the spirit himself maketh intercession for us : that is , hath enabled us to do it upon his strengths , we speak his sense , we live his life , we breath his accents , we desire in order to his purposes , and our persons are Gracious by his Holinesse , and are accepted by his interpellation and intercession in the act and offices of Christ. This is praying with the spirit . To which by way of explication I adde these two annexes of holy prayer , in respect of which also , every good man prayes with the spirit . 5. The spirit gives us great relish and appetite to our prayers , and this Saint Paul calls [ serving of God in his spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is , with a willing minde ; not as Jonas did his errand , but as Christ did die for us , he was straimed till he had accomplished it . And they that say their prayers out of custome onely , or to comply with external circumstances , or collateral advantages , or pray with trouble and unwillingnesse , give a very great testimony that they have not the spirit of Christ within them , that spirit which maketh intercession for the Saints : but he that delighteth in his prayers , not by a sensible or phantastic pleasure , but whose choice dwells in his prayers , and whose conversation is with God in holy living , and praying accordingly , that man hath the spirit of Christ , and therfore belongs to Christ ; for by this spirit it is that Christ prayes in Heaven for us : and if we do not pray on earth in the same manner according to our measures ; we had as good hold our peace , our prayers are an abominable sacrifice , and send up to God no better a perfume , then if wee burned assa faetida , or the raw flesh of a murdered man upon the altar of incense . 6. The spirit of Christ and of prayer helps our infirmities , by giving us confidence and importunity . I put them together . For as our faith is , and our trust in God , so is our hope , and so is our prayer , weary or lasting , long or short , not in words , but in works , and in desires For the words of prayer are no part of the spirit of prayer : words may be the body of it , but the spirit of prayer alwayes consists in holinesse , that is in holy desires , and holy actions : words are not properly capable of being holy ; all words are in themselves servants of things , and the holinesse of a prayer is not at all concerned in the manner of its expression , but in the spirit of it , that is , in the violence of its desires , and the innocence of its ends , and the continuence of its imployment : this is the verification of that great Prophecie which Christ made ; that [ in all the world the true worshippers should worship in spirit and in truth ] that is , with a pure minde , with holy desires , for spiritual things , according to the minde of the spirit in imitation of Christs intercession , with perseverance , with charity , or love . That is the spirit of God , and these are the spiritualities of the Gospel , and the formalities of prayer as they are Christian and Evangelicall . 7. Some men have thought of a seventh way , and explicate our praying in the spirit , by a mere volubilty of language : which indeed is a direct undervaluing the spirit of God and of Christ , the spirit of manifestation and intercession ; it is to return to the materiality and imperfection of the law , it is to worship God in outward forms , and to think that Gods service consists in shels and rinds , in lips and voices , in shadows and images of things : it is to retire from Christ to Moses , and at the best , it is a going from real graces to imaginary gifts : and when praying with the spirit hath in it so many excellencies , and consists of so many parts of holinesse , and sanctification , and is an act of the inner man , we shall be infinitely mistaken , if we let go this substance , and catch at a shadow , and sit down and rest in the imagination of an improbable , unnecessary , uselesse gift of speaking to which the nature of many men , and the art of all learned men , and the very use and confidence of ignorant men is too abundantly sufficient . Let us not so despise the spirit of Christ as to make it no other then the breath of our lungs . * For though it might be possible that at the first , and when formes of prayer were few and seldome , the spirit of God might dictatethe very words to the Apostles , and first Christians ; yet it follows not that therfore he does so still to all that pretend praying with the spirit . For if he did not then , at the first , dictate words ( as we know not whether he did or no ) why shall he be suppos'd to do so now ? If he did then ; it follows that he does not now , ; because his doing it then , was sufficient for all men since : for so the formes taught by the spirit were paternes for others to imitate in all the deseending ages of the Church . There was once an occasion so great that the spirit of God did think it a work fit for him to teach a man to weave silke , or embroider gold , or woke in brasse , ( as it happened to Besaleel and Aholiab : ) But then every weaver or worker in brasse may by the same reason pretend that he works by the spirit , as that he prayes by the spirit , if by prayer he means forming the words . For although in the case of working it was certain that the spirit did teach : in the case of inditing or forming the words it is not certain whether he did or no ; yet because in both it was extraordinary ( if it was at all ) and ever since , in both it is infinitely needlesse ; to pretend the Spirit in forms of every mans making ( even though they be of contrary religions , and pray one against the other ) it may serve an end of a phantastic and hypochondriacal religion , or a secret ambition , but not the ends of God , or the honour of the Spirit . The Jews in their declensions to folly and idolatry did worship the stone of imagination , that is , certain smooth images in which by art magic pictures and little faces were represented , declaring hidden things and stoln goods ; and God severely forbad this basenesse : but we also have taken up this folly , and worship the stone of imagination : we beget imperfect phantasmes and speculative images in our phansy , and we fall down and worship them ; never considering that the spirit of God never appears through such spectres . Prayer is one of the noblest exercises of Christian religion ; or rather is it that duty in which all graces are concentred . Prayer is charity , it is faith , it is a conformity to Gods will , a desiring according to the desires of Heaven , an imitation of Christs intercession ; and prayer must suppose all holinesse , or else it is nothing : and therefore all that in which men need Gods Spirit , all that is in order to prayer . Baptisme is but a prayer , and the holy Sacrament of the Lords Supperl is but a prayer ; a prayer of sacrifice representative , and a prayer of oblation , and a prayer of intercession , and a prayer of thanksgiving : and obedience is a prayer , and begs and procures blessings : and if the Holy Ghost hath sanctified the whole man , then he hath sanctified the prayer of the man , and not till then ; and if ever there was , or could be any other praying with the spirit , it was such a one as a wicked man might have , and therefore it cannot be a note of distinction between the good and bad , between the saints and men of the world . But this onely ( which I have described from the fountains of Scripture ) is that which a good man can have , and therefore this is it in which we ought to rejoyce ; that he that glories , may glory in the Lord. Thus I have ( as I could ) described the effluxes of the Holy Spirit upon us in his great chanels . But the great effect of them is this ; That as by the arts of the spirits of darknesse , and our own malice our souls are turned into flesh , ( not in the naturall sense , but in the morall , and Theologicall ) and animalis homo is the same with carnalis , that is , his soul is a servant of the passions and desires of the flesh , and is flesh in it s operations and ends , in it s principles and actions : So on the other side , by the Grace of God , and the promise of the Father , and the influences of the Holy Ghost , our souls are not onely recovered from the state of flesh , and reduced back to the intirenesse of animall operations , but they are heightned into spirit , and transform d into a new nature : And this is a new Article , and now to be considered . S. Hierom tels of the Custome of the Empire ; When a Tyrant was overcome , they us d to break the head of his Statues , and upon the same Trunk , to set the head of the Conquerour , and so it passed wholly for the new Prince : So it is in the kingdom of Grace : As soon as the Tyrant sin is overcome , and a new heart is put into us , or that we serve under a new head , instantly we have a new Name given us , and we are esteemed a new Creation ; and not onely changed in manners , but we have a new nature within us , even a third part of an essentiall constitution . This may seem strange ; and indeed it is so : and it is one of the great mysteriousnesses of the Gospel . Every man naturally consists of soul and body : but every Christian man that belongs to Christ , hath more . For he hath body , and soul , and spirit . My Text is plain for it . If any man have not the Spirit of Christ , he is none of his : and by [ Spirit ] is not meant onely the graces of God , and his gifts enabling us to do holy things : there is more belongs to a good man then so . But as when God made man , he made him after his own image , and breath'd into him the spirit of life , and he was made in animam viventem , into a living soul ; then he was made a man : So in the new creation , Christ by whom God made both the worlds , intends to conform us to his image , and he hath given us the spirit of adoption , by which we are made sons of God ; and by the spirit of a new life we are made new creatures , capable of a new state , intitled to another manner of duration , enabled to do new and greater actions in order to higher ends ; we have new affections , new understandings , new wils : Veter a transierunt , & ecce omnia nova facta sunt ; All things are become new : And this is called the seed of God when it relates to the principle and cause of this production : but the thing that is produced is a spirit , and that is as much in nature beyond a soul , as a soul is beyond a body . This great Mystery I should not utter but upon the greatest authority in the world , and from an infallible Doctor , I mean S. Paul , who from Christ taught the Church more secrets , then all the whole Colledge besides : [ And the very God of peace sanctifie you wholly , and I pray God that your whole spirit , and soul , and body , be preserved blamelesse unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. ] We are not sanctified wholly , nor preserved in safety , unlesse besides our souls and bodies , our spirit also be kept blamelesse . This distinction is nice , and infinitely above humane reason : but the word of God ( saith the same Apostle ) is sharper then a two-edged sword , piercing even to the dividing asunder the soul and the spirit : and that hath taught us to distinguish the principle of a new life , from the principle of the old , the celestiall from the naturall ; and thus it is . The spirit ( as I now discourse of it ) is a principle infused into us by God , when we become his children , whereby we live the life of Grace , and understand the secrets of the Kingdom , and have passions and desires of things beyond , and contrary to our naturall appetites , enabling us not onely to sobriety ( which is the duty of the body ) not onely to justice , which is the rectitude of the soul ; but to such a sanctity as makes us like to God. * For so saith the Spirit of God ; Be ye holy as I am ; be pure , be perfect , as your heavenly Father is pure , as he is perfect : which because it cannot be a perfection of degrees , it must be in similitudine naturae , in the likenesse of that nature which God hath given us in the new birth , that by it , we might resemble his excellency , and holinesse . And this I conceive to be the meaning of S. Peter [ According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain to life and godlinesse , ( that is , to this new life of godlinesse ) through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and vertue , whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises , that by these you might be partakers of the Divine nature ( so we read it ) But it is something mistaken ; it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , [ The Divine nature ] for Gods nature is indivisible , and incommunicable ; but it is spoken participative , or per analogiam , [ partakers of a Divine nature ] that is , of this new and God-like nature , given to every person that serves God , whereby he is sanctified and made the childe of God , and framed into the likenesse of Christ. The Greeks generally call this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a gracious gift , an extraordinary super addition to nature , not a single gift in order to single purposes ; but an universall principle , and it remains upon all good men during their lives , and after their death ; and is that white stone spoken of in the Revelation ; and in it a new name written , which no man knoweth but he that hath it : And by this , Godssheep at the day of judgement shall be discerned from goats : If their spirits be presented to God pure and unblameable , this great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , this talent which God hath given to , all Christians to improve , in the banks of grace and of Religion , if they bring this to God increased and grown up to the fulnesse of the measure of Christ ( for it is Christs Spirit , and as it is in us , it is called , the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ ) then we shall be acknowledged for sons , and our adoption shall passe into an eternall inheritance in the portion of our elder Brother . I need not to apply this Discourse : The very mystery it self is in the whole world the greatest engagement of our duty that is imaginable , by the way of instrument , and by the way of thankfulnesse . Quisquis magna dedit voluit sibi magna rependi ; He that gives great things to us , ought to have great acknowledgements ; and Seneca said concerning wise men ; That he that doth benefit to others , hides those benefits as a man layes up great treasures in the earth , which he must never see with his eyes , unlesse a great occasion forces him to dig the graves , and produce that which he buried ; but all the while , the man was hugely rich , and he had the wealth of a great relation : so it is with God and us : For this huge benefit of the Spirit , which God gives us , is for our good , deposited in our souls , not made for forms and ostentation , not to be looked upon , or serve little ends , but growing in the secret of our souls , and swelling up to a treasure , making us in this world rich by title and relation , but it shall be produced in the great necessities of doomesday . In the mean time , if the fire be quenched , the fire of Gods Spirit , God will kindle another in his anger , that shall never be quenched : but if we entertain Gods Spirit with our own purities , and imploy it diligently , and serve it willingly , ( for Gods Spirit is a loving Spirit ) then we shall really be turned into spirits . Irenaeus had a proverbiall saying , Perfecti sunt qui tria sine querelâ Deo exhibent ; They that present three things right to God , they are perfect ; that is , a chast body , a righteous soul , and a holy spirit ; and the event shall be this , which Maimonides expressed not amisse , ( though he did not at all understand the secret of this mystery : ) The soul of a man in this life , is in potentiâ ad esse spiritum , it is designed to be a spirit , but in the world to come , it shall be actually as very a spirit as an Angel is : and this state is expressed by the Apostle , calling it , [ the earnest of the spirit ] that is , here it is begun , and given us as an antepast of glory , and a principle of Grace ; but then we shall have it in plenitudine — regit idem spiritus artus Orbe alio — Here , and there , it is the same ; but here we have the earnest , there the riches and the inheritance . But then , if this be a new principle , and be given us in order to the actions of a holy life , we must take care that we receive not the Spirit of God in vain , but remember it is a new life ; and as no man can pretend , that a person is alive that doth not alwayes do the works of life ; so it is certain , no man hath the Spirit of God , but he that lives the life of grace , and doth the works of the Spirit , that is , in all holinesse , and justice , and sobriety . Spiritus qui accedit animo , vel Dei est , vel Daemonis ( said Tertullian . ) Every man hath within him the Spirit of God , or the spirit of the devil . The spirit of fornication is an unclean devil , and extremely contrary to the Spirit of God ; and so is the spirit of malice or uncharitablenesse ; for the Spirit of God is the Spirit of love : for as by purities Gods Spirit sanctifies the body , so by love he purifies the soul , and makes the soul grow into a spirit , into a Divine nature . But God knows , that even in Christian societies , we see the devils walk up and down every day , and every hour ; the devil of uncleannesse , and the devil of drunkennesse , the devil of malice , and the devil of rage , the spirit of filthy speaking , and the spirit of detraction , a proud spirit , and the spirit of rebellion ; and yet all call [ Christian. It is generally supposed , that unclean spirits walk in the night ; and so it used to be ; for they that are drunk , are drunk in the night , said the Apostle : but Suidas tels of certain Empusae , that used to appear at Noon , at such time as the Greeks did celebrate the Funerals of the Dead ; and at this day some of the Russians fear the Noon-day Devil , which appeareth like a mourning widow to reapers of hay and corn , and uses to break their arms and legs , unlesse they worship her . The Prophet David speaketh of both kindes . Thou shalt not be afraid for the terrour by night , and a ruinâ & daemonio meridiano , from the Devil at noon thou shalt be free . It were happy if we were so ; but besides the solemn followers of the works of darknesse , in the times and proper seasons of darknesse , there are very many who act their Scenes of darknesse in the face of the Sun , in open defiance of God , and all lawes , and all modesty . There is in such men the spirit of impudence , as well as of impiety . And yet I might have expressed it higher ; for every habituall sin doth not onely put us into the power of the devil , but turns us into his very nature : just as the Holy Ghost transforms us into the image of God. Here therefore I have a greater Argument to perswade you to holy living , then Moses had to the sons of Israel . Behold , I have set before you life and death , blessing and cursing : so said Moses ; but I adde , that I have upon the stock of this Scripture , set before you , the good Spirit and the bad , God , and the devil : choose unto whose nature you will be likened , and into whose inheritance you will be adopted , and into whose possession you will enter . If you commit sin , ye are of your father the Devil , ye are begot of his principles , and follow his pattern , and shall passe into his portion , when ye are led captive by him at his will ; and remember what a sad thing it is to go into the portion of evil and accursed spirits , the sad and eternall portion of Devils . But he that hath the Spirit of God , doth acknowledge God for his Father , and his Lord , he despises the world , and hath no violent appetites for secular pleasures , and is dead to the desires of this life , and his hopes are spirituall , and God is his joy , and Christ is his pattern and his support , and Religion is his imployment , and godlinesse is his gain , and this man understands the things of God , and is ready to die for Christ , and fears nothing but to sin against God , and his will is filled with love , and it springs out in obedience to God , and in charity to his brother : and of such a man we cannot make judgement by his fortune , or by his acquaintance , by his circumstances , or by his adherencies , for they are the appendages of a naturall man : but the spirituall is judged of no man : that is , the rare excellencies that make him happy , do not yet make him illustrious , unlesse we will reckon Vertue to be a great fortune , and holinesse to be great Wisedom , and God to be the best Friend , and Christ the best Relative , and the Spirit the hugest advantage , and Heaven the greatest Reward . He that knows how to value these things , may sit down and reckon the felicities of him that hath the Spirit of God. The purpose of this Discourse is this ; That since the Spirit of God is a new nature , and a new life put into us , we are thereby taught , and enabled to serve God by a constant course of holy living , without the frequent returns and intervening of such actions , which men are pleased to call sins of infirmity . Whosoever hath the Spirit of God , lives the life of grace ; The Spirit of God rules in him , and is strong according to its age and abode , and allows not of those often sins which we think unavoidable , because we call them , naturall infirmities . [ But if Christ he in you , the body is dead because of sin , but the spirit is life because of righteousnesse . ] The state of sin is a state of death ; the state of a man under the law , was a state of bondage , and infirmity , ( as S. Paul largely describes him in the seventh Chapter to the Romanes ) but he that hath the Spirit is made alive , and free , and strong , and a conquerour over all the powers , and violencies of sin ; such a man resists temptations , falls not under the assault of sin , returns not to the sin which he last repented of , acts no more that errour which brought him to shame and sorrow : but he that falls under a crime , to which he still hath a strong , and vigorous inclination , he that acts his sin , and then curses it , and then is tempted , and then sins again , and then weeps again , and calls himself miserable , but still the inchantment hath confined him to that circle , this man hath not the Spirit ; for where the Spirit of God is , there is liberty , there is no such bondage and a returning folly to the commands of sin . But because men deceive themselves with calling this bondage , a pitiable and excusable infirmity , it will not be uselesse to consider the state of this question more particularly , lest men from the state of a pretended infirmity , fall into a reall death . 1. No great sin is a sin of infirmity , or excusable upon that stock . But that I may be understood , we must know that every sin is in some sense or other , a sin of infirmity . When a man is in the state of spirituall sicknesse or death , he is in a state of infirmity , for he is a wounded man , a prisoner , a slave , a sick man , weak in his judgement , and weak in his reasoning , impotent in his passions , of childish resolutions , great inconstancy , and his purposes untwist , as easily as the rude conjuncture of uncombining cables , in the violence of a Northern tempest : and he that is thus in infirmity , cannot be excused ; for it is the aggravation of the state of his sin ; he is so infirm that he is in a state unable to do his duty . Such a man is a servant of sin , a slave of the Devil , an heir of corruption , absolutely under command ; and every man is so , who resolves for ever to avoid such a sin , and yet for ever falls under it : for what can he be but a servant of sin , who fain would avoid it but cannot ; that is , he hath not the Spirit of God within him ; Christ dwels not in his soul , for where the Son is , there is liberty : and all that are in the Spirit are sons of God , and servants of righteousnesse , and therefore freed from sin . But then there are also sins of infirmity , which are single actions , intervening seldom , in litle instances , unavoidable , or through a faultlesse ignorance . Such as these are alwayes the allays of the life of the best men ; and for these Christ hath payd , and they are never to be accounted to good men , save onely to make them more wary , and more humble . Now concerning these , it is , that I say ; No great sin is a sin of excusable , or unavoidable infirmity . Because whosoever hath received the Spirit of God , hath sufficient knowledge of his duty , and sufficient strengths of grace , and sufficient advertency of minde , to avoid such things as do great and apparent violence to piety , and religion . No man can justly say , that it is a sin of infirmity that he was drunk ; For there are but three causes of every sin ( a fourth is not imaginable . ) 1. If ignorance cause it , the sin is as full of excuse , as the ignorance was innocent . But no Christian can pretend this to drunkennesse , to murder , to rebellion , to uncleannesse . For what Christian is so uninstructed but that he knows Adultery is a sin ? 2. Want of observation , is the cause of many indiscreet and foolish actions . Now at this gap many irregularities do enter and escape , because in the whole , it is impossible for a man to be of so present a spirit , as to consider , and reflect upon every word , and every thought : but it is in this case in Gods laws otherwise then in mans : the great flies cannot passe thorow without observation , little ones do ; and a man cannot be drunk , and never take notice of it ; or tempt his neighbours wife before he be aware ; therefore the lesse the instance be , the more likely it is to be a sin of infirmity : and yet if it be never so little , if it be observed , then it ceases to be a sin of infirmity . 3. But because great crimes cannot pretend to passe undiscernably , it follows that they must come in at the door of malice , that is , of want of Grace , in the absence of the Spirit ; they destroy where ever they come , and the man dies if they passe upon him . It is true , there is flesh and blood in every regenerate man , but they do not both rule : the flesh is left to tempt , but not to prevail . And it were a strange condition , if both the godly and the ungodly were captives to sin , and infallibly should fall into temptation , and death , without all difference , saue onely ; that the godly sins unwillingly , and the ungodly sins willingly . But if the same things be done by both , and God in both be dishonoured , and their duty prevaricated , the pretended unwillingnesse is the signe of a greater , and a baser slavery , and of a condition lesse to be endured . For the servitude which is against me is intollerable , but if I choose the state of a servant , I am free in my minde , — Libertatis servaveris umbrant Si quicquid jubeare velis — certain it is , that such a person who fain would , but cannot choose but commit adultery , or drunkennesse , is the veriest slave to sin that can be imagined , and not at all freed by the Spirit , and by the liberty of the sons of God ; * and there is no other difference , but that the mistaken good man feels his slavery , and sees his chains , and his fetters ; but therefore it is certain that he is , because he sees himself to be a slave . No man can be a servant of sin , and a servant of righteousnesse at the same time , but every man that hath the Spirit of God , is a servant of righteousnesse ; and therefore whosoever finde great sins to be unavoidable , are in a state of death and reprobation , ( as to the present ) because they willingly , or unwillingly ( it matters not much , whether of the two ) are servants of sin . 2. Sins of infirmity as they are small in their instance , so they put on their degree of excusablenesse , onely according to the weaknesse , or infirmity of a mans understanding : So far as men ( without their own fault ) understand not their duty , or are possessed with weaknesse of principles , or are destitute and void of discourse , or discerning powers , and acts , so far if a sin creeps upon them , it is as naturall , and as free from a law , as is the action of a childe ; But if any thing else be mingled with it , if it proceed from any other principle , it is criminall and not excused by our infirmity ; because it is chosen : and a mans will hath no infirmity , but when it wants the grace of God , or is mastered with passions , and sinfull appetites : and that infirmity is the state of unregeneration . 3. The violence or strength of a temptation is not sufficient to excuse an action , or to make it accountable upon the stock of a pitiable and innocent infirmity ; if it leaves the understanding still able to judge ; because a temptation cannot have any proper strengths but from our selves , and because we have in us a principle of basenesse which this temptation meets , and onely perswades me to act , because I love it . Joseph met with a temptation as violent and as strong as any man : and it is certain there are not many Christians but would fall under it , and call it , a sin of infirmity , since they have been taught so to abuse themselves , by sowing fig-leaves before their nakednesse : but because Joseph had a strength of God within him , the strength of chastity , therefore it could not at all prevail upon him . Some men cannot by any art of hell be tempted to be drunk ; others can no more resist an invitation to such a meeting , then they can refuse to die if a dagger were drunk with their heart blood ; because their evil habits made them weak on that part : And some man that is fortified against revenge , it may be will certainly fall under a temptation to uncleannesse : for every temptation is great or small , according as the man is ; and a good word will certainly lead some men to an action of folly , while another will not think ten thousand pound a considerable argument to make him tell one single lie , against his duty , or his conscience . 4. No habituall sin , ( that is ) no sin that returns constantly , or frequently , that is repented of , and committed again , and still repented of , and then again committed , no such sin is excusable with a pretence of infirmity : Because that sin is certainly noted , and certainly condemned , and therefore returns , not because of the weaknesse of nature , but the weaknesse of grace : the principle of this , is an evil spirit , an habituall aversation from God , a dominion and empire of sin : and as no man for his inclination , and aptnesse to the sins of the flesh , is to be called carnall , if he corrects his inclinations , and turns them into vertues : so no man can be called spirituall for his good wishes , and apt inclinations to goodnesse , if these inclinations passe not into acts , and these acts into habits , and holy customs , and walkings , and conversation with God. But as natural concupiscence corrected becomes the matter of vertue : so these good inclinations , and condemnings of our sin , if they be ineffective and end in sinfull actions , are the perfect signes of a reprobate , and unregenerate estate . The sum is this . An animal man , a man under the law , a carnall man ( for as to this , they are all one ) is sold under sin , he is a servant of corruption , he falls frequently into the same sin to which he is tempted , he commends the Law , he consents to it that it is good , he does not commend sin , he does some little things against it , but they are weak and imperfect , his lust is stronger , his passions violent , and unmortified , his habits vitious , his customs sinfull , and he lives in the regions of sin , and dies and enters into its portion ; But a spirituall man , a man that is in the state of grace , who is born anew of the Spirit , that is regenerate by the Spirit of Christ , he is led by the Spirit , he lives in the Spirit , he does the works of God cheerfully , habitually , vigorously : and although he sometimes slips , yet it is but seldom , it is in small instances : his life is such as he cannot pretend to be justified by works , and merit , but by mercy , and the faith of Jesus Christ ; yet he never sins great sins : If he does , he is for that present falne from Gods favour ; and though possibly he may recover , ( and the smaller , or seldomer the sin is , the sooner may be his restitution ) yet for the present ( I say ) he is out of Gods favour . But he that remains in the grace of God , sins not by any deliberate , consultive , knowing act ; he is incident to such a surprize as may consist with the weaknesse , and judgement of a good man : but whatsoever is , or must be considered , if it cannot passe without consideration , it cannot passe without sin ; and therefore cannot enter upon him , while he remains in that state . For he that is in Christ , in him the body is dead by reason of sin ; and the Gospel did not differ from the Law , but that the Gospel gives grace and strength to do whatsoever it commands , which the Law did not ; and the greatnesse of the promise of eternall life is such an argument to them that consider it , that it must needs be of force sufficient , to perswade a man to use all his faculties , and all his strength , that he may obtain it : God exacted all upon this stock ; God knew this could do every thing : Nihil non in hoc praesumpsit Deus ( said one . ) This will make a satyr chast , and Silenus to be sober , and Dives to be charitable , and Simon Magus himself to despise reputation , and Saul to turn from a Persecutor to an Apostle . For since God hath given us reason to choose , and a promise to exchange , for our temperance , and faith , and charity , and justice , for these ( I say ) happinesse , exceeding great happinesse ; that we shall be Kings , that we shall reigne with God , with Christ , with all the holy Angels for ever , in felicities so great , that we have not now capacities to understand it , our heart is not big enough to think it ; there cannot in the world be a greater inducement to engage us , a greater argument to oblige us to do our duty . God hath not in heaven a bigger argument ; it is not possible any thing in the world should be bigger : which because the Spirit of God hath revealed to us , if by this strength of his we walk in his wayes , and be ingrafted into his stock , and bring forth his fruits , the fruits of the Spirit , then we are in Christ , and Christ in us , then we walk in the spirit , and the Spirit dwels in us , and our portion shall be there , where Christ by the Spirit maketh intercession for us , that is , at the right hand of his Father for ever , and ever . Amen . Sermon . III. THE DESCENDING AND ENTAILED CVRSE . Cut off . Exodus 20. part of the 5. verse . I the Lord thy God am a jealous God , visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children , unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me : 6. And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me , and keep my Commandements . IT is not necessary that a Common-wealth should give pensions to Oratours , to disswade men from running into houses infected with the plague , or to intreat them to be out of love with violent torments , or to create in men evil opinions concerning famine , or painfull deaths : Every man hath a sufficient stock of self love , upon the strength of which he hath entertained principles strong enough to secure himself against voluntary mischiefs , and from running into states of death and violence . A man would think that this I have now said , were in all cases certainly true ; and I would to God it were . For that which is the greatest evil , that which makes all evils , that which turns good into evil , and every naturall evil into a greater sorrow , and makes that sorrow lasting and perpetual ; that which sharpens the edge of swords , and makes agues to be fever , and 〈◊〉 to turn into plagues ; that which puts stings into every fly , and uneasinesse to every trifling accident , and strings every wh●● with scorpions , ( you know I must needs mean sin ) that evil , men suffer patiently , and choose willingly , and run after it greedily , and will not suffer themselves to be divorced from it : and therefore God hath hired servants to fight a-against this evil ; he hath set Angels with fiery swords to drive us from it , he hath imployed Advocates to plead against it , he hath made Laws and Decrees against it , he hath dispatched Prophets to warn us of it , and hath established an Order of men , men of his own family , and who are fed at his own charges , ( I mean the whole Order of the Clergy ) whose office is like watchmen to give an alarum at every approach of sin , with as much affrightment as if an enemy were neer , or the sea broke in upon the flat Countrey ; and all this , onely to perswade men not to be extremely miserable , for nothing , for vanity , for a trouble , for a disease : for some sins naturally are diseases , and all others are naturall nothings , meer privations , or imperfections , contrary to goodnesse , to felicity , to God himself : And yet God hath hedged sin round about with thorns , and sin of it self too , brings thorns : and it abuses a man in all his capacities , and it places poison in all those seats and receptions where he could possibly entertain happinesse . For if sin pretend to please the sense , it doth first abuse it shamefully , and then humours it : it can onely feed an impostume ; no naturall , reasonable , and perfective appetite : and besides its own essentiall appendages , and proprieties ; things are so ordered that a fire is kindled round about us ; and every thing within us , above , below us , and on every side of us , is an argument against , and an enemy to sin ; and for its single pretence , that it comes to please one of the senses , one of those faculties which are in us the same they are in a Cow , it hath an evil so communicative , that it doth not onely work like poison , to the dislolution of soul and body ; but it is a sicknesse like the plague , it infects all our houses , and corrupts the air , and the very breath of heaven : for it moves God first to jealousie , ( and that takes off his friendship and kindnesse towards us ) and then to anger ; and that makes him a resolved enemy ; and it brings evil , not onely upon our selves , but upon all our relatives ; upon our selves , and our children , even the children of our Nephews , Ad natos natorum , & qui nascentur ab illis , to the third and fourth generation : and therefore if a man should despise the eye , or sword of man , if he sins he is to contest with the jealousie of a provoked God : If he doth not regard himself , let him pity his pretty children : If he be angry and hates all that he sees , and is not solioitous for his children , yet let him pitty the generations which are yet unborn ; let him not bring a curse upon his whole family , and suffer his name to rot in curses and dishonours ; let not his memory remain polluted with an eternal stain : if all this will not deter a man from sin , there is no instrument left for thats mans vertue , no hopes of his felicity , no recovery of his sorrows and sicknesses ; but he must sink under the stroaks of a jealous God into the dishonour of eternal ages , and the groanings of a never ceasing sorrow . God is a jealous God ] that is the first great stroke , he strikes against sin , he speakes after the manner of men , and in so speaking we know , he that is jealous is suspicious , he is inquisitive , he is implacable . 1. God is pleased to represent himself a person very suspioious , both in respect of persons and things . For our persons we give him cause enough : for we are sinners from our Mothers wo●●b ; we make solemn vows and break them instantly ; we cry for pardon and still renew the sin ; we desire God to try us once more , and we provoke him ten times further : we use the means of grace to cure us , and we turn them into vices and opportunites of sin ; we curse our sins and yet long for them extremely ; we renounce them publickly , and yet send for them in private and shew them kindnesse : we leave little offiences , but our faith and our charity is not strong enough to Master great ones ; and sometimes we are sham'd out of great ones , but yet entertain little ones ; or if we disdain both , yet we love to remember them , and delight in their past actions , and bring them home to us , at least by fiction of imagination ; and we love to be betrayed into them ; we would fain have things so ordered by chance or power that it may seem necessary to sin , or that it may become excusable , and dressed fitly for our own circumstances ; and for ever we long after the flesh pots of Egypt the garlick and the Onions ; and we so little do esteeme Manna , the food of Angels , we so loath the bread of Heaven , that any temptation will make us return to our fetters and our bondage ; and if we do not tempt our selves , yet we do not resist a temptation , or if we pray against it , we desire not to be heard ; and if we be assisted , yet we will not work together with those assistances ; so that unlesse we be forced , nothing will be done ; we are so willing to perish , and so unwilling to be saved , that we minister to God reason enough to suspect us ; and therefore it is no wonder that God is jealous of us : We keep company with Harlots and polluted persons ; we are kind to all Gods Enemies , and love that which he hates ; how can it be otherwise but that we should be suspected ? Let us make our best of it , and see if we can recover the good opinion of God ; for as ye : we are but suspected persons . 2. And therefore God is inquisitive ; he looks for that which he fain would never finde ; God sets spies upon us ; he looks upon us himself through the Curtains of a cloud ; and he sends Angels to espie us in all our wayes , and permits the Devil to winnow us and to accuse us , and erects a Tribunal and witnesses in our own consciences , and he cannot want information concerning our smalest irregularities . Sometimes the Devil accuses , but he also sometimes accuses us falsly , either malio●ously , or ignorantly , and we stand upright in that particular by innocence ; and sometimes by penitence , and all this while our Conscinence is our friend : Sometimes our conscience does accuse us unto God ; and then we stand convict by our own judgement . Sometimes , if our conscience acquit us , yet we are not thereby justified : For , as Moses accused the Jews ; so do Christ and his Apostles accuse us , not in their personss , but by their works , and by their words , by the thing it self , by confronting the laws of Christ , and our practises . Sometimes the Angels who are the observers of all our works carry up sad tidings to the Court of Heaven against us . Thus , two Angels were the informers against Sodom ; but yet these were the last ; for before that time the cry of their iniquity had sounded loud and sadly in Heaven ; and all this is the direct and proper effect of his jealousie ; which sets spies upon all the actions , and watches the circumstances , and tells the steps , and attends the businesses , the recreations , the publications , and retirements of every man , and will not suffer a thought to wander but he uses means to correct it's errour , and to reduce it to himself . For he that created us and daily feeds us , he that intreats us to be happy , with an opportunity so passionate as if ( not we , but ) himself were to receive the favour ; he that would part with his onely Son from his bosome , and the embraces of eternity , and give him over to a shameful and cursed death for us , cannot but be supposed to love us with a great love , and to own us with an intire title , and therefore that he would fain secure us to himself with an undivided possession : and it cannot but be infinitely reasonable : for to whom else should any of us belong , but to God ? Did the world create us ? Or did lust ever do us any good : Did Sathan ever suffer one stripe for our advantage ? Does not he study all the wayes to ruine us ? Doe the Sun or the stars preserve us alive ? Or do we get understanding from the Angels ? Did ever any joynt of our body knit , or our heart ever keep one true minute of a pulse without God ? Had not we been either nothing , or worse , that is , infinitely eternally miserable , but that God made us capable , and then pursued us with arts and devices of great mercy to force us to be happy ? Great reason therefore there is , that God should be jealous , lest we take any of our duty from him , who hath so strangely deserved it all , and give it to a creature , or to our enemy , who cannot be capable of any . But however it will concern us with much caution to observe our own wayes , since we are made aspectacle to God , to Angels , and to Men : God hath set so many spies upon us , the blessed Angels and the accursed Devils , good men and bad men , the eye of Heaven , and eye of that eye , God himself , all watching lest we rob God of his Honour , and our selves of our hopes ; For by his prime intention he hath chosen so to get his own glory , as may best consist with our felicity : His great designe is to be glorified in our being saved . 3. Gods jealousie hath a sadder effect then all this . For all this is for mercy ; but if we provoke this jealousie if he findes us in our spiritual whoredoms , he is implacable , that is , he is angry with us to eternity unlesse we returne in time : and if we do it may be he will not be appeased in all instances : and when he forgives us he will make some reserves of his wrath ; he will punish our persons , or our estate ; he will chastise us at home , or abroad in our bodies , or in our children ; for he will visit our sins upon our children from generation to generation : and if they be made miserable for our sins , they are unhappy in such parents ; but we bear the curse and the anger of God , even while they bear his rod : God visits the sins of the Fathers upon the children ] That 's the second Great stroke he strikes against sin , and is now to be considered . That God doth so is certain ; because he saith he doth ; and that this is just in him so to do , is also as certain therefore because he doth it . For as his lawes are our measures , so his actions , and his own will are his own measures . He that hath right over all things , and all persons , cannot do wrong to any thing . He that is essentially just , ( and there could be no such thing as justice , or justice it self could not be good , if it did not derive from him ) it is impossible for him to be unjust . But since God is pleased to speak after the manner of men , it may well consist with our duty to enquire into those manners of consideration , whereby we may understand the equity of God in this proceeding , and to be instructed also in our own danger , if we persevere in sin . 1. No man is made a sinner by the fault of another man without his own consent . For to every one God gives his choice , and sets life and death before every of the sons of Adam : and therefore this death is not a consequent to any sin , but our own . In this sense it is true , that if the fathers eat sowre grapes , the childrens teeth shall not be set on edge : and therefore the sin of Adam which was derived to all the world ; did not bring the world to any other death but temporall , by the intermediall stages of sickness , and temporal infelicities : And it is not said that sin passed upon all men , but death , & that also no otherwise but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in as much as al men have sinned ; as they have followed the steps of their father , so they are partakers of this death . And therefore it is very remarkable ; that death brought in by sin , was nothing superinduced to man ; man onely was reduced to his own naturall condition , from which before Adams fall he stood exempted by supernaturall favour ; and therefore although the taking away that extraordinary grace , or priviledge was a punishment ; yet the suffering the naturall death , was directly none ; but a condition of his creation , naturall , and therefore not primarily evil ; but if not good , yet at least indifferent . And the truth and purpose of this observation will extend it self , if we observe that before any man died , Christ was promised , by whom death was to lose its sting , by whom death did cease to be an evil , and was , or might be , if we do belong to Christ , a state of advantage . So that we by occasion of Adams sin , being returned to our naturall certainty of dying , do still even in this very particular stand between the blessing and the cursing . If we follow Christ , death is our friend ; If we imitate the praevarication of Adam , then death becomes an evil ; the condition of our nature , becomes the punishment of our own sin ; not of Adams : for although his sin brought death in , yet it is onely our sin that makes death to be evil : And I desire this to be observed , because it is of great use in vindicating the Divine justice in the matter of this question . The materiall part of the evil came from our father upon us , but the formality of it , the sting and the curse is onely by our selves . 2. For the fault of others many may become miserable , even all or any of those , whose relation is such to the sinner , that he in any sense may by such inflictions be punished , execrable , or oppressed . Indeed it were strange , if when a plague were in Ethiopia , the Athenians should be infected : or if the house of Pericles were visited , and Thucydides should die for it . For although there are some evils which ( as Plutarch saith ) are ansis & propagationibus praedita incredibili celeritate in longinquum penetrantia , such which can dart evil influences , as Porcupines do their quils ; yet as at so great distances the knowledge of any confederate events must needs be uncertain : so it is also uselesse , because we neither can joyne their causes , nor their circumstances , nor their accidents into any neighbourhood of conjunction : Relations are seldome noted at such distances ; and if they were , it is certain , so many accidents will intervene , that will out-weigh the efficacy of such relations ; that by any so far distant events , we cannot be instructed in any duty , nor understand our selves reproved for any fault . But when the relation is neerer , and is joyned under such a head , and common cause , that the influence is perceived , and the parts of it do usually communicate in benefit , notices , or infelicity ( especially if they relate to each other , as superiour and inferiour ) then it is certain , the sin is infectious ( I mean ) not onely in example , but also in punishment . And of this I shall shew . 1. In what instances usually it is so . 2. For what reasons it is so , and justly so . 3. In what degree , and in what cases it is so . 4. What remedies there are for this evil . 1. It is so in kingdoms , in Churches , in families , in politicall , artificiall , and even in accidentall societies . When David numbred the people , God was angry with him ; but he punished the people for the crime ; seventy thousand men died of the plague : and when God gave to David the choice of three plagues , he chose that of the pestilence , in which the meanest of the people and such which have the least society with the acts and crimes of Kings are most commonly devoured , whilest the powerfull and sinning persons by arts of physick , and flight , by provisions of nature , and accidents are more commonly secured . * But the story of the Kings of Israel hath furnished us with an example sitted with all the stranger circumstances in this question . Joshuah had sworn to the Gibeonites ( who had craftily secured their lives , by exchanging it for their liberties : ) Almost 500. yeers after , Saul in zeal to the men of Israel and Judah slew many of them . After this Saul dies , and no question was made of it . But in the dayes of David there was a famine in the land three yeers together ; and God being inquired of , said it was because of Saul his killing the Gibeonites . What had the people to do with their Kings fault ? or at least , the people of David with the fault of Saul ? That we shall see anon : But see the way that was appointed to expiate the crime , and the calamity . David took seven of Sauls sons and hanged them up against the Sun , and after that God was intreated for the land . The story observes one circumstance more : that for the kindnesse of Jonathan , David spared Mephibosheth . Now this story doth not onely instance in Kingdoms , but in families too . The fathers fault is punished upon the sons of the family ; and the Kings fault upon the people of his land , even after the death of the King , after the death of the father . Thus God visited the sin of Ahab , partly upon himself , partly upon his sons . I will not bring the evil in his dayes , but in his sons dayes will I bring the evil upon his house . Thus did God slay the childe of Bathsheba for the sin of his father David : and the whole family of E●i ▪ all his kinred of the neerer lines were thrust from the priesthood , and a curse made to descend upon his children for many ages , that all the males should die young , and in the flower of their youth . The boldnesse and impiety of Cham made his posterity to be accursed , and brought slavery into the world . Because Ataalek fought with the sons of Israel at Rephidim God took up a quarrell against the nation for ever . And above all examples is that of the Jews , who put to death the Lord of life , and made their nation to be an anathema for ever , untill the day of restitution . His blood be upon us , and upon our children . If we shed innocent blood , If we provoke God to wrath , If we oppresse the poor , If we crucifie the Lord of life again and put him to an open shame , the wrath of God will be upon us and upon our children , to make us a cursed family , and who are the sinners , to be the stock and original of the curse ; the pedigree of the misery shall derive from us . This last instance went further then the other of families and kingdoms . For not onely the single families of the Jews were made miserable for their Fathers murdering the Lord of life , nor also was the Nation extinguished alone for the sins of their Rulers , but the religion was removed ; it ceased to be God peoples ; the synagogue was rejected , and her vail rent , and her privacies dismantled , and the Gentiles were made to be Gods people , when the Jews inclosure was disparkd . I need not further to instance this proposition in the case of National Churches , though it is a sad calamity that is fallen upon the al seven Churches of Asia ( to whom the spirit of God wrote seven Epistles by Saint John ) and almost all the Churches of Africa , where Christ was worshipped , and now Mahomet is thrust in substitution , and the people are servants , and the religion is extinguished , or where it remains , it shines like the Moon in an Eclipse , or like the least spark of the pleiades , seen but seldom , And that rather shining like a gloworm , then a taper enkindled with a beam of the Sun of righteousnesse I shall adde no more instances to verifie the truth of this , save onely I shall observe to you , that even there is danger in being in evil company , in suspected places , in the civil societies and fellowships of wicked men . — Vetabo qui Cereris sacrum vnlgarit arcanae , sub ijsdem sit trabibus , fragilemque mecum solvat phaselum , saepe Diespiter Neglectus , in cesto addidit in tegrum And it hapned to the Mariners who carried Jonah , to be in danger with a horrid storme , because Jonah was there who had sinned against the Lord. Many times the sin of one man is punished by the falling of a house or a wall upon him , and then al the family are like to be crushed with the same ruine ; so dangerous , so pestilential , so infectious a thing is sin , that it scatters the poison of its breath to all the neighbourhood , and makes that the man ought to be avoided like a person infected with the plague . Next I am to consider why this is so , and why it is justly so ? To this I answer . 1. Between Kings and their people , Parents and their children there is so great a necessitude , propriety and entercourse of nature , dominion , right and possession , that they are by God and the laws of Nations reckoned as their Goods , and their blessings . The honour of a King is in the multitude of his people ; and children are a gift that cometh of the Lord ; and happy is that man that hath his quiver full of them : and Lo thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord ; his wife shall be like the fruitful vine by the wals of his house , his children like olive branches round about his Table . Now if children be a blessing , then to take them away in anger is a curse : and if the losse of flocks and herds , the burning of houses , the blasting of fields be a curse ; how much greater is it to lose our children , and to see God slay them before our eyes , in hatred to our persons , and detestation and loathing of our basenesse . When Jobs Messengers told him the sad stories of fire from Heaven , the burning his sheep , and that the Sabeans had driven his Oxen away , and the Chaldeans had stolne his Camels ; these were sad arrests to his troubled spirit : but it was reserved as the last blow of that sad execution that the ruines of a house had crush'd his Sons and Daughters to their graves . Sons & daughters are greater blessings then sheep & Oxen : they are not servants of profit as sheep are , but they secure greater ends of blesssing ; they preserve your Names ; they are so many titles of provision & providence ; every new childe is a new title to Gods care of that family : They serve the ends of honour , of commonwealths , and Kingdoms ; they are images of our souls , and images of God , and therefore are great blessings ; and by consequence , they are great riches , though they are not to be sold for mony : and surely he that hath a cabinet of invaluable jewels will think himself rich though he never sells them , Does 〈◊〉 take care for Oxen ? ( said our blessed Saviour ) much more for you : yea all and every one of your children are of more value then many Oxen : when therefore God for your sin strikes them with crookednesse , with deformity , with foolishnesse , with impertinent and caytive spirits , with hasty or sudden deaths , it is a greater curse to us , then to lose whole herds of cattel , of which ( it is certain ) most men would be very sensible They are our goods ; they are our blessings from God ; therefore we are striken , when for our sakes they dye : Therefore we may properly be punished by evils happening to our Relatives . 2. But as this is a punishment to us , so it is not unjust as to them , though they be innocent . For all the calamities of this life are incident to the most Godly persons of the world ; and since the King of Heaven and earth was made a man of sorrows , it cannot be called unjust or intolerable that innocent persons should be pressed with temporal infelicities : onely in such cases we must distinguish the misery from the punishment ; for that all the world dyes is a punishment of Adams sin : but it is no evil to those single persons that die in the Lord ; for they are blessed in their death . Jonathan was killed the same day with his Father the King ; and this was a punishment to Saul indeed ; but to Jonathan it was a blessing : for since God had appointed the kingdom to his neighbour , it was more honourable for him to die fighting the Lords battel , then to live and see himself the lasting testimony of Gods curse upon his Father ; who lost the Kingdom from his family by his disobedience . That death is a blessing which ends an Honorable , and prevents an inglorious life . And our children ( it may be ) shall be sanctified by a sorrow , and purified by the fire of affliction , and they shall receive the blessing of it ; but it is to their Fathers a curse , who shall wound their own hearts with sorrow , and cover their heads with a robe of shame , for bringing so great evil upon their house . 3. God hath many ends of providence to serve in this dispensation of his judgements . * 1. He expresses the highest indignation against sin ; and makes his examples lasting , communicative , and of great effect ; it is a little image of hell and we shall the lesse wonder that God with the pains of eternity punishes the sins of time , when with our eyes we see him punish a transient action with a lasting judgement . * 2. It arrests the spirits of men , and surprises their loosenesses , and restrains their gaiety , when we observe that the judgements of God finde us out in all relations , and turns our comforts into sadnesse , and makes our families the scene of sorrows , and we can escape him no where ; and by sin are made obnoxious not alone to personall judgements ; but that we are made like the fountains of the dead sea , springs of the lake of Sodom ; in stead of refreshing our families with blessings , we leave them brimstone and drought , and poison , and an evil 〈◊〉 , and the wrath of God , and a treasure of wrath ; and their Fathers sins for their portion and inheritance . * Naturalists say that when the leading goats in the Greek Islands have taken an Eryngus or sea holly into their mouths , all the herd will stand still , till the herds man comes and forces it out , as apprehending the evil that will come to them all , if any of them especially their Principals , tast an unwholesome plant : and indeed it is of a General concernment , that the Master of a family , or the Prince of a people , from whom as from a fountain many issues do derive upon their Relatives , should be springs of health and sanctity and blessing . It is a great right and propriety that a King hath in his people , or a Father in his children that even their sins can do these a mischiefe , not onely by a direct violence , but by the execution of Gods wrath : God hath made strange bands and vessels , or chanels of communication between them , when even the anger of God shal be conveied by the conduits of such relations . That would be considered . It binds them neerer then our new doctrine will endure : but it also binds us to pray for them and for their Holinesse , and good Government , as earnestly as we would be delivered from death , or sicknesse , or poverty , or war , or the wrath of God in any instance . 3. This also will satisfie the fearfulnesse of such persons who think the evil prosperous , and call the proud happy . No man can be called happy till he be dead ; nor then neither , if he lived vitiously : Look how God handles him in his children , in his family , in his grand-children ; and as it tells that generation which sees the judgement , that God was all the while angry with him ; so it supports the spirits of men in the intervall , and entertains them with the expectation of a certain hope ; for if I do not live to see his sin punished , yet his posterity may finde themselves accursed , and feel their fathers sins in their own calamity ; and the expectation , or belief of that , may relieve my oppression , and ease my sorrows , while I know that God will bear my injury in a lasting record , and when I have forgot it , will bring it forth to judgement . The Athenians were highly pleased when they saw honours done to the posterity of Cimon [ a good man , and a rare citizen , but murdered for being wise and vertuous ] and when at the same time they saw a decree of banishment passe against the children of Lacharis , and Aristo , they laid their hands upon their mouthes , and with silence did admire the justice of the Power above . The sum of this is ; That in sending evils upon the posterity of evil men , God serves many ends of providence , some of wisedome , some of mercy , some of justice , and contradicts none : For the evil of the innocent son is the fathers punishment upon the stock of his sin , and his relation ; but the sad accident happens to the son upon the score of nature , and many ends of providence , and mercy . To which I adde , that if any , even the greatest temporall evil may fall upon a man [ as blindnesse did upon the blinde man in the Gospel ] when neither he nor his parents have sinned ; much more may it do so , when his parents have , though he have not . For there is a neerer , or more visible commensuration of justice , between the parents sin , and the sons sicknesse , then between the evil of the son , and the innocence of father and son together . The dispensation therefore is righteous and severe . 3. I am now to consider in what degree , and in what cases , this is usuall , or to be expected . It is in the Text instanced in the matter of worshipping images . God is so jealous of his honour , that he will not suffer an image of himself to be made , lest the image dishonour the substance ; nor any image of a creature to be worshipped , though with a lesse honour , lest that lesse swell up into a greater : and he that is thus jealous of his honour , and therefore so instances it , is also very curious of it in all other particulars ; and though to punish the sins of fathers upon the children , be more solemnly threatned in this sin onely , yet we finde it inflicted indifferently in any other great sin , as appears in the former precedents . This one thing I desire to be strictly observed : That it is with much errour , and great indiligence usually taught in this question , that the wrath of God descends from fathers to children onely in case the children imitate , and write after their fathers copy ; supposing these words [ in them that hate me ] to relate to the children . But this is expressely against the words of the Text , and the examples of the thing : God afflicts good children of evil parents , for their fathers sins ; and the words are plain and determinate : God visits the sins of the fathers in tertiam & quartam generationem eorum qui oderunt me ; to the third generation of them , of those fathers that hate me : that is , upon the great-grand-children of such parents . So that if the great-grandfathers be haters of God , and lovers of iniquity , it may intail a curse upon so many generations , though the children be haters of their fathers hatred , and lovers of God. * And this hath been observed even by wise men among the Heathens , whose stories tell , that Antigonus was punished for the tyranny of his father Demetrius ; Phyleus for his father Auge●● ; pious and wise Nestor for his father Neleus : And it was so in the case of Jonathan , who lost the Kingdom and his life upon the stock of his fathers sins ; and the innocent childe of David was slain by the anger of God , not against the childe , who never had deserved it , but the fathers adultery . I need not here repeat what I said in vindication of the Divine justice ; but I observed this , to represent the danger of a sinning father , or mother , when it shall so infect the family with curses ; that it shall ruine a wise and an innocent son ; and that vertue and innocence which shall by God be accepted as sufficient through the Divine mercy to bring the son to Heaven , yet it may be shall not be accepted to quit him from feeling the curse of his fathers crime , in a load of temporall infelicities : And who but a villain would ruine and undo a wise , a vertuous , and his own son ? But so it is in all the world , A traytor is condemned to suffer death himself , and his posterity are made beggers , and dishonourable , his Escutcheon is reversed , his arms of honour are extinguished , the noblesse of his Ancestours is forgotten , but his own sin is not , while men by the characters of infamy are taught to call that family accursed which had so base a father . Tiresias was esteemed unfortunate because he could not see his friends and children : the poor man was blinde with age : But Athamas and Agave were more miserable , who did see their children , but took them for Lions , and Stags ; The parents were miserably frantick ; But of all , they deplored the misery of Hercules ; who when he saw his children , took them for enemies , and endeavoured to destroy them . And this is the case of all vitious parents . That a mans enemies were they of his own house , was accounted a great calamity : but it is worse , when we love them tenderly , and fondly , and yet do them all the despite we wish to enemies ; But so it is , that in many cases we do more mischief to our children , then if we should strangle them when they are newly taken from their mothers knees , on tear them in pieces as Media did her brother Absyrtus ; For to leave them to inherit a curse , to leave them an intaild calamity , a misery , a disease , the wrath of God for an inheritance , that it may descend upon them , and remark the family like their coat of arms , is to be the parent of evil ; the ruine of our family , the causes of mischief to them , who ought to be dearer to us then our own eyes . And let us remember this , when we are tempted to provoke the jealous God : let us consider that his anger hath a progeny , and a descending line , and it may break out in the dayes of our Nephews . A Greek woman was accused of adultery , because she brought forth a Blackmoor ; and could not acquit her self till she had proved that she had descended in the fourth degree from an Ethiopian : Her great Grand-father was a Moor. And if Naturalists say true , that Nephews are very often liker to their Grandfathers then to their Fathers ; we see that the semblance of our souls , and the character of the person , is conveyed by secret and undiscernable conveyances . Naturall production conveyes originall sin ; and therefore , by the chanels of the body , it is not strange that men convey an hereditary sin : And lustfull sons are usually born to Satyrs ; and monsters of intemperance to the drunkards ; and there are also hereditary diseases : which if in the fathers they were effects of their sin , as it is in many cases , it is notorious that the fathers sin is punished , and the punishment conveyed by naturall instruments : so that it cannot be a wonder , but it ought to be a huge affrightment from a state of sin ; If a man can be capable of so much charity , as to love himself in his own person , or in the images of his nature , and heirs of his fortunes , and the supports of his family , in the children that God hath given him . Consider therefore that you do not onely act your own tragedies when you sin , but you represent and effect the fortune of your children ; you slay them with your own barbarous and inhumane hands . Onely be pleased to compare the variety of estates ; of your own and your children . If they on earth be miserable many times for their fathers sins , how great a state of misery is that in hell which they suffer for their own ? And how vile a person is that father , or mother , who for a little money , or to please a lust , will be a parricide , and imbrue his hands in the blood of his own children ? The Intail of Curses cut off . Part II. 4. IAm to consider what remedies there are for sons to cut off this intall of curses ; and whether , and by what means it is possible for sons to prevent the being punished for their fathers sins ? And since this thing is so perplext and intricate , hath so easie an objection , and so hard an answer , looks so like a cruelty , and so unlike a justice , ( though it be infinitely just , and very severe , and a huge enemy to sin ) it cannot be thought but that there are not onely wayes left to reconcile Gods proceeding to the strict rules of justice , but also the condition of man to the possibilities of Gods usuall mercies . One said of old , Ex tarditate si Dij soutes praetereant , & insontes plectant , justitiam suam non sic rectè resarciunt . If God be so slow to punish the guilty , that the punishment be deferred till the death of the guilty person ; and that God shall be forced to punish the innocent , or to let the sin quite escape unpunished , it will be something hard to joyn that justice with mercy , or to joyn that action with justice . Indeed it will seem strange , but the reason of its justice , I have already discoursed : If now we can finde how to reconcile this to Gods mercy too , or can learn how it may be turned into a mercy , we need to take no other care , but that for our own particular we take heed we never tempt Gods anger upon our families , and that by competent and apt instruments , we indeavour to cancell the decree , if it be gone out against our families ; for then we make use of that severity which God intended ; and our selves shall be refreshed in the shades , and by the cooling brooks of the Divine mercy ; even then when we see the wrath of God breaking out upon the families round about us . 1. The first means to cut off the intail of wrath and cursings from a family , is for the sons to disavow those signall actions of impiety , in which their fathers were deeply guilty , and by which they stained great parts of their life , or have done something of very great unworthinesse and disreputation . Si quis paterni vitij nascitur haeres , nascitur & poenae ? The heir of his fathers wickednesse , is the heir of his fathers curse ; and a son comes to inherite a wickednesse from his father three wayes . 1. By approving , or any wayes consenting to his fathers sin : As by speaking of it without regret , or shame ; by pleasing himself in the story ; or by having an evil minde , apt to counsell or do the like , if the same circumstances should occur . For a son may contract a sin , not onely by derivation , and the contagion of example , but by approbation ; not onely by a corporall , but by a virtuall contact ; not onely by transcribing an evil copy , but by commending it : and a man may have animum leprosum in cute mundâ , a leprous and a polluted minde even for nothing , even for an empty and ineffective lust . An evil minde may contract the curse of an evil action ; and though the son of a covetous father prove a prodigall , yet if he loves his fathers vice for ministring to his vanity , he is disposed not onely to a judgement for his own prodigality , but also to the curse of his fathers avarice . 2. The son may inherit his fathers wickednesse by imitation and direct practise , and then the curse is like to come to purpose ; a curse by accumulation , a treasure of wrath : and then the children as they arrive to the height of wickednesse by a speedy passage , as being thrust forward by an active example , by countenance , by education , by a seldom restraint , by a remisse discipline ; so they ascertain a curse to the family , by being a perverse generation , a family set up in opposition against God , by continuing and increasing the provocation . 3. Sons inherit their fathers crimes , by receiving , and enjoying the purchases of their rapine , injustice , and oppression , by rising upon the ruine of their fathers souls , by sitting warme in the furres which their father stole , and walking in the grounds which are water'd with the tears of oppressed orphanes , and widows . Now in all these cases the rule holds . If the son inherits the sin , he cannot call it unjust , if he inherits also his fathers punishment But to rescind the fatall chain and break in sunder the line of Gods anger , a son is tied in all these cases to disavow his fathers crime But because the cases are severall , he must also in severall manners do it . 1. Every man is bound not to glory in , or speak honour of the powerfull and unjust actions of his Ancestors : But as all the sons of Adam are bound to be ashamed of that originall stain which they derive from the loins of their abused Father , they must be humbled in it , they must deplore it as an evil Mother , and a troublesome daughter : so must children account it amongst the crosses of their family , and the stains of their honour , that they passed thorow ●● impure chanels , that in the sense of morality as well as nature , they can say to corruption , thou art my father , and to rottennesse , thou art my mother . I do not say that sons are bound to publish , or declaim against their father crimes , and to speak of their shame in Piazza's and before Tribunals ; that indeed were a sure way to bring their fathers sins upon their own heads , by their own faults . No : Like Sem , and Japhet they must go backward , and cast a vail upon their nakednesse and shame , lest they bring the curse of their fathers angry dishonour upon their own impious and unrelenting heads . Noahs drunkennesse fell upon Chams head , because he did not hide the opennesse of his fathers follies : he made his father ridiculous ; but did not endeavour either to amend the sin , or to wrap the dishonour in a pious covering . He that goes to disavow his fathers sin by publishing his shame , hides an ill face with a more ugly vizor and endeavours by torches ●●d phantastick lights , to quench the burning of that house which his father set on fire : These fires are to be smothered and so extinguished . I deny not but it may become the piety of a childe to tell a sad story , to mourn , and represent a reall grief for so great a misery , as is a wicked father or mother ; but this is to be done with a tendernesse , as nice as we would dresse an eye withall ; it must be onely with designes of charity , of counsell , of ease , and with much prudence , and a sad spirit : These things being secured , that which in this case remains is , that with all entercourses between God and our selves , we disavow the crime . Children are bound to pray to God , to sanctifie , to cure , to forgive their parents : and even concerning the sins of our forefathers , the Church hath taught us in her Letanies , to pray that God would be pleased to forgive them , so that neither we , nor they may sink under the wrath of God for them . [ Remember not Lord our offences , nor the offences of our forefathers , neither take thou vengeance of our sins : Ours ] in common and conjunction : And David confessed to God , and humbled himself for the sins of his Ancestors and Decessors : Our fathers have done amisse , and dealt wickedly , neither kept they thy great goodnesse in remembrance , but were disobedient at the sea , even at the red sea . So did good King Josiah , Great is the wrath of the Lord which is kindled against us , because our fathers have not hearkned unto the words of this book . But this is to be done between God and our selves : or if in publike , then to be done by generall accusation ; that God onely may read our particular sorrows in the single shame of our families registred in our hearts , and represented to him with humiliation , shame , and a hearty prayer . 2. Those curses which descend from the Fathers to the children by imitation of the crimes of their progenitors , are to be cut off by special and personal repentance , and prayer , as being a state directly opposite to that which procured the curse : And if the sons be pious , or return to an early and a severe course of Holy living , they are to be remedied as other innocent and pious persons are , who are sufferers under the burdens of their Relatives , whom I shall consider by and by Onely observe this ; that no publick or imaginative disavowings no ceremonial and pompous rescission of our Fathers crimes can be sufficient to interrupt the succession of the curse , if the children do secretly practise or approve what they in pretence or ceremony disavow and this is clearly proved ( and it will help to explicate that difficult saying of our B. Saviour , ) Wo unto you for ye build the sepulchre of the Prophets and your Fathers killed them : truely ye beare witnesse that ye allow the deeds of your fathers : for they killed them and ye build their sepulchres : that is , the Pharisees were huge hypocrites , and adorned the monuments of the Martyr Prophets , and in words disclaim'd their Fathers sin , but in deeds and designe they approved it . 1. Because they secretly wish'd all such persons dead ; colebant mortuos quos nollent Superstites : In charity to themselves some men wish their enemies in Heaven , and would be at charges for a monument for them , that their malice and their power and their bones might rest in the same grave : and yet that wish , and that expence is no testimony of their Charity but of their anger . 2. These men were willing that the monuments of those Piophets should remain and be a visible affrightment to all such bold persons and severe reprehenders as they were ; and therefore they builded their Sepulchres to be as beacons , and publications of danger to al Honest Preachers . And this was the account Saint Chrysostome gave of the place . 3. To which also the circumstances of the place concur . For they onely said , if they had lived in their Fathers dayes they would not have done as they did ; but it is certain they approved it , because they pursued the same courses : and therefore our blessed Saviour calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Not onely the children of them that did kill the Prophets , but a Killing generation ; the sin also descends upon you , for ye have the same killing minde , and although you honour them that are dead , and cannot shame you ; yet you designe the same usages against them that are alive even against the Lord of the Prophets , against Christ himself , whom ye will kil : and as Dion said of Caracalla 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The man was troublesome to all good men when they were alive , but did them honour when they were dead : And when Herod had killed Aristobulus , yet he made him a most magnificent funeral ; & because the Pharisees were of the same humor , therefore our blessed Saviour bids them to filup the measure of their Fathers iniquity ; for they still continued the malice , onely they painted it over with a pretence of piety , and of disavowing their Fathers sin ; which if they had done really , they being children of persecutors , and much lesse could the adorning of the Prophets sepulchres have been just cause of a wo from christ ; this being an act of piety , and the other of nature , inevitable , and not chosen by them ; and therefore not chargable upon them . He therefore that will to reall purposes disavow his Fathers crimes ; must do it heartily and humbly , and charitably , and throw off all affections to the like actions . For he that findes fault with his Father for killing Isaiah , or Jeremy , and himself shall kill Aristohulus and John the Baptist ; he that is angry because the old Prophets were murdered , and shall imprison , and begger and destroy the new ones ; He that disavows the persecution in the primitive times , and honours the memory of the dead Martyrs , and yet every day makes new ones ; He that blames the oppression of the Country by any of his predecessors , and yet shall continue to oppresse his Tenants , and all that are within his gripe , that man cannot hope to be eased from the curse of his Fathers sins : He goes on to imitate them , and therefore to fill up their measure , and to reap a full treasure of wrath . 3. But concerning the third ; there is yet more difficulty . Those sons that inherit their Fathers sins by possessing the price of their Fathers souls , that is , by enjoying the goods gotten by their Fathers rapine , may certainly quit the inheritance of the curse , if they quit the purchase of the sin , that is , if they pay their Fathers debts ; his debts of contract , and his debts of justice ; his debts of entercourse , and his debts of oppression . I do not say that every man is bound to restore all the land which his Ancestors have unjustly snatched : for when by law the possession is established , though the Grandfather entred like a thief , yet the Grand-child is bonae fidei possessor , and may enjoy it justly : and the reasons of this are great , and necessary ; for the avoiding eternal suites , and perpetual diseases of rest and conscience : because there is no estate in the world that could be enjoyed by any man honestly , if posterity were bound to make restitution of all the wrongs done by their progenitors . But although the children of the far removed lines , are not obliged to restitution , yet others are ; and some for the same , some for other reasons . 1. Sons are tied to restore what their Fathers did usurpe , or to make agreement , and an acceptable recompence for it , if the case be visible , evident and notorious , and the oppressed party demands it ; because in this case the law hath not setled the possession in the new tenant : or if a judge hath , it is by injury ; and there is yet no collateral accidental title transferred by long possession , as it is in other cases : and therefore if the son continues to oppresse the same person , whom his Father first injured , he may well expect to be the heire of his Fathers curse , as well as of his cursed purchase . 2. Whether by law and justice , or not , the person be obliged , nay although by all the solemnities of law the unjust purchase be established , and that in conscience the Grand-children be not obliged to restitution in their own particulars , but may continue to enjoy it without a new sin ; yet if we see a curse descending upon the family for the old oppression done in the dayes of our Grandfathers ; or if we probpably suspect that to be the cause ; then if we make restitution we also most certainly remove the curse : because we take away the matter upon which the curse is grounded : I do not say , we sin , if we do not restore : but that , if we do not , we may still be punished ; The reason of this is clear and visible : For as without our faults , in many cases we may enjoy those lands which our forefathers got unjustly : so without our faults we may be punished for them . For as they have transmitted the benefit to us , it is but reasonable we should suffer the appendant calamity . If we receive good , we must also venture the evil that comes along withit : res transit cum suo onere . All lands and possessions passe with their proper burdens . And if any of my Ancestors was a Tenant , and a servant , and held his lands as a Villane to his Lord , his posterity also must do so , though accidentally they become noble . The case is the same If my Ancestors entred unjustly , there is a curse and a plague that is due to that oppression and injustice ; and that is the burden of the land , and it descends all along with it : And although I by the consent of laws am a just possessor , yet I am obliged to the burden that comes with the land : I am indeed anotherkinde of person then my Grand-father ; he was an usurper , but I am a just possessor ; but because in respect of the land this was but an accidentall change , therefore I still am liable to the burden , and the curse that descends with it but the way to take off the curse is to quit the title ; and yet a man may choose . It may be to loose the land would be the bigger curses but if it be not , the way is certain how you may be rid of it . * There was a custome among the Greeks that the children of them that dyed of consumptions or dropsies , all the while their Fathers bodies were burning in their funeral piles did sit with their feet in cold water , hoping that such a lustration , and ceremony would take off the lineal and descending contagion from the children : I know not what cure they found by their superstition ; but we may be sure , that if we wash ( not our feet , but ) our hands of all the unjust purchases which our Fathers have transmitted to us , their hydropick thirst of wealth shall not transmit to us a consumption of estate , or any other curse . But this remedy is onely in the matter of injury , or oppression , not in the case of other sins : because other sins were transient ; and as the guilt did not passe upon the children , so neither did the exteriour and permanent effect : and therefore in other sins ( in case they do derive a curse ) it cannot be removed , as in the matter of unjust possession , it may be ; whose effect ( we may so order it ) shall no more stick to us then the guilt of our fathers personal actions . The summe is this . As Kingdoms use to expiate the faults of others by acts of justice : and as Churches use to remove the accursed thing from sticking to the communities of the faithful , and the sins of Christians from being required of the whole Congregation , by excommunicating and censuring the delinquent persons : so the Heires and sons of families , are to 〈◊〉 from their house the curse descending from their Fathers 〈◊〉 by 1. Acts of disavowing the sins of their Ancestors , 2. By praying for pardon , 3. by being humbled for them , 4. By renouncing the example and , 5. Quitting the affection to the crimes , 6. By not imitaing the actions in Kinde , or in semblance and similitude ; and lastly , 7. By refusing to rejoyce in the ungodly purchases in which their Fathers did amisse and dealt wickedly . Secondly , But after all this , many cases do occur , in which we finde that innocent sons are p●●istied . The remedies I have already discoursed of , are for such children who have in some manner or other contracted and derived the sin upon themselves . But if we inquire , how those sons who have no 〈◊〉 , or affinity with their fathers sins ; or whose fathers sins were so transient , that no benefit or effect did passe upon their posterity , how they may prevent , or take off the curse that lyes upon the family , for their Fathers faults ; this will have some distinct considerations . 1. The pious children of evil Parents are to stand firme upon the confidence of the Divine grace and mercy ; and upon that persuasion to begin to work upon a new stock . For it is as certain that he may derive a blessing upon his Posterity , as that this Parents could transmit a curse : and if any man by piety shall procure Gods favour to his Relatives and children , it is certain that he hath done more , then to escape the punishment of his Fathers follies . If sin doth abound , and evils by sin are derived from his Parents , much more shall grace super abound , and mercy by grace . If he was in danger from the crimes of others , much rather shall he be secured by his own piety . For if God punishes the sins of the fathers to four generations , yet he rewards the piety of fathers to ten , to hundreds , and to thousands . Many of the Ancestors of Abraham were persons not noted for religion ; but suffered in the publike impiety , and almost universal idolatry of their ages ; and yet all the evils that could thence descend upon the family , were wiped off ; and God began to reckon with Abraham upon a new stock of blessings and piety ; and he was under God , the Original of so great a blessing , that his family for 1500. years together had from him a title to many favours ; and what ever evils did chance to them in the descending ages , were but single evils , in respect of that treasure of mercies which the fathers piety had obtained to the whole nation . And it is remarkable to observe ; how blessings did stick to them for their fathers sakes , even whether they would or no. For first , his Grand-childe Esau proved a naughty man , and he lost the great blessing which was in tailed upon the family ; but he got , not a curse , but a lesse blessing : and yet because he lost the greater blessing , God excluded him from being reckoned in the elder time ; for God foreseeing the event , so ordered it that he should first lose his birth-right , and then lose the blessing ; for it was to be certain , the family must be reckoned for prosperous in the proper line ; and yet God blessed Esau into a great Nation , and made him the Father of many Princes . Now the line of blessing being reckoned in Jacob , God blessed his family strangely , and by miracle , for almost five generations ; he brought them from Egypt by mighty signes and wonders ; and when for sin they all died in their way to Canaan , two onely excepted , God so ordered it , that they were all reckoned as single deaths , the Nation still descending like a river whose waters were drunk up for the beauvrage of an army , but still it keeps its name and current , and the waters are supplied by showers , and springs , and providence . After this , iniquity still increased , and then God struck deeper , and spread curses upon whole families : he translated the Priesthood from line to line , he removed the Kingome from one family to another ; and still they sinned worse ; and then we read that God smote almost a whole tribe ; the tribe of Benjmin was almost extinguished about the matter of the Levites Concubine : but still God remembred his promise which he made with their forefathers , and that breach was made up . After this we finde a greater rupture made ; and ten tribes fell into idolatry , and ten tribes were carried captives into Assyria and never came again : But still God remembred his covenant with Abraham , and left two Tribes ; but they were restlesse in their provocation of the God of Abraham ; and they also were carried captive : But still God was the God of their fathers and brought them back , and placed them safe , and they grew again into a Kingdom and should have remained for ever but that they killed one that was greater then Abraham , even the Messias ; and then they were rooted out , and the old covenant cast off , and God delighted no more to be called the God of Abraham ; but the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. As long as God kept that relation , so long for the fathers sakes they had a title and an inheritance to a blessing : for so saith Saint Paul. [ As touching the election they are beloved for the Fathers sakes . ] I did insist the longer upon this instance that I might remonstrate how great and how sure , and how persevering mercies , a pious Father of a family may derive upon his succeeding generations : And if we do but tread in the footsteps of our Father Abraham , we shall inherit as certain blessings . But then I pray , adde these considerations . 1. If a great impiety , and a clamorous wickednesse hath stained the honour of a family , and discomposed its title to the Divine mercies and protection , it is not an ordinary piety that can restore this family . An ordinary , even course of life , full of sweetnesse , and innocency will secure every single person in his own eternal interest : but that piety which must be a spring of blessings , and communicative to others , that must plead against the sins of their Ancestors , and begin a new bank of mercies for the Relatives ; that , must be a great , and excellent , a very religious state of life . A smal pension will maintain a single person : but he that hath a numerous family , and many to provide for , needs a greater providence of God , and a bigger provision for their maintenance : and a small revenue will not keep up the dignity of a great house ; especially , if it be charged with a great debt : And this is the very state of the present question . That piety that must be instrumental to take off the curse imminent upon a family ; to blesse a numerous posterity , to secure a fair condition to many ages , and to pay the debts of their Fathers sins , must be so large as that all necessary expences , and dutyes for his own soul being first discharged , it may be remarkeable in great expressions , it may be exemplar to all the family , it may be of universal efficacie , large in the extension of parts , deep in the intension of degrees : and then , as the root of a tree receives nourishment , not onely sufficient to preserve its own life , but to transmit a plastick juice to the trunk of the tree , and from thence to the utmost branch and smallest gem that knots in the most distant part : So shall the great and exemplar piety of the father of a family , not onely preserve to the interest of his own soul the life of grace , and hopes of glory , but shall be a quickning spirit , active and communicative of ablessing , not onely to the trunk of the tree , to the body and rightly descending line , but even to the collateral branches , to the most distant relatives , and all that shall claim a kinred , shall have a title to a blessing . And this was the way that was prescribed to the family of Eli , upon whom a sad curse was intailed that there should not be an old man of the family for ever , and that they should be beggers , and lose the office of Priesthood : by the counsel of R. Johanan the son of Zacheus all the family betook themselves to a great , a strict and a severe religion ; and God was intreated to revoke his decree , to be reconciled to the family , to restore them to the common condition of men , from whence they stood separate by the displeasure of God against the crime of Eli , and his Sons Hophni and Phinehas . This course is sure either to take off the judgement , or to change it into a blessing ; to take a way the rod , or the smart and evil of it ; to convert the punishment into a meer naturall , or humane chance , and that chance to the opportunity of a vertue , and that vertue to the occasion of a crown . 2. It is of great use for the securing of families , that every Master of a family order his life so that his piety and vertue be as communicative as is posible ; that is , that he secure the religion of his whole family , by a severe supravision and animadversion , and by cutting off all those unprofitable and hurtful branches which load the tree and hinder the growth , and stock & disimprove the fruit , & revert evil juice to the very root it self . Calvisius Sabinus laid out vast sums of mony upon his servants , to stock his house with learned men ; and bought one that could recite all Homer by heart ; a second that was ready at Hesiod ; a third at Pindar ; and for every of the Lyricks one : having this fancy that all that learning was his own , & whatsoever his servants knew , made him so much the more skilful . It was noted in the man for a rich and a prodigal folly : but if he had chang'd his instance , & bought none but vertuous servants into his house , he might better have reckoned his wealth upon their stock , & the piety of his family might have helped to blesse him , and to have increased the treasure of the Masters vertue . Every man that would either cut off the title of an old curse , or secure a blessing upon a new stock , must make vertue as large in the fountain as he can that it may the sooner water all his Relatives with fruitfulnesse and blessings . And this was one of the things that God noted in Abraham , and blessed his family for it , and his posterity . I know that Abraham will teach his sons to fear me . When a man teaches his family to know and fear God , then he scatters a blessing round about his habitation . And this helps to illustrate the reason of the thing as well as to prove its certainty . We hear it spoken in our books of Religion , that the faith of the parents is imputed to their children to good purposes , & that a good husband sanctifies an ill wife , & a beleeving wife , an unbeleeving husband ; and either of them makes the children to be sanctified , else they were unclean , and unholy ; that is , the very designing children to the service of God is a sanctification of them ; and therefore S. Hierom cals Christian children Candidatos fidei Christianae : and if this very designation of them makes them holy ; that is , acceptable to God , intitled to the promises , partakers of the Covenant , within the condition of sons ; much more shall it be effectual to greater blessings when the Parents take care that the children shall be actually pious , full of sobriety , full of religion , then it becomes a holy house , a chosen generation , an elect family ; and then there can no evil happen to them , but such which will bring them neerer to God ; that is , no crosse , but the crosse of Christ ; no misfortune , but that which shall lead them to felicity : and if any semblance of a curse happens in the generations , it is but like the anathema of a sacrifice ; not an accursed , but a devoted thing : for so the sacrifice upon whose neck the Priests knife doth fall , is so far from being accursed , that it helps to get a blessing to all that joyn in the oblation : so every misfortune that shal discompose the ease of a pious and religious family shall but make them fit to be presented unto God ; and the rod of God shall be like the branches of fig-trees , bitter and sharp in themselves , but productive of most delicious fruit : no evil can curse the family whose stock is pious , and whose branches are Holinesse unto the Lord. If any leaf , or any boughs shall fall untimely , God shall gather it up , and place it in his Temple , or at the foot of his throne ; and that family must needs be blessed , whom infelicity it self cannot make accursed . 3. If a curse be feared to descend upon a family for the fault of their Ancestors ; pious sons have yet another way to fecure themselves , & to withdraw the curse from the family , or themselves from the curse ; and that is , by doing some very great & illustrious act of piety , an action in gradu heroico ( as Aristotle cals it ) an heroicall action . If there should happen to be one Martyr in a family , it would reconcile the whole kinred to God , & make him who is more inclined to mercy then to severity , rather to be pleased with the Relatives of the Martyr , then continue to be angry with the Nephews of a deceased sinner . I cannot insist long upon this : But you may see it proved by one great instance in the case of Phinehas , who killed an unclean Prince , & turned the wrath of God from his people : he was zealous for God and for his countreymen , & did an heroicall action of zeal : Wherefore ( saith God ) Behold I give unto him my covenant of peace , and he shall have it , & his seed after him , even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood ; because he was zealous for his God , & made an atonement for the children of Israel . Thus the sons of Rechab obtain d the blessing of an enduring and blessed family , because they were most strict & religious observers of their fathers precept , and kept it after his death , & abstained from wine for ever ; and no temptation could invite them to taste it ; for they had as great reverence to their fathers ashes , as being children they had to his rod , & to his eyes . Thus a man may turn the wrath of God from his family , & secure a blessing for posterity , by doing some great noble acts of charity , or a remarkable chastity , like that of Joseph ; or an expensive , an effectionate religion and love to Christ and his servants ( as Mary Magdalene did ) . Such things as these which are extraordinary egressions and transvolations beyond the ordinary course of an even piety , God loves to reward with an extraordinary favour ; and gives it testimony by an extraregular blessing . One thing more I have to adde by way of advice ; and that is , that all parents and fathers of families , from whose loyns a blessing or a curse usually does descend , be very carefull , not onely generally in all the actions of their lives ( for that I have already pressed ) but , particularly in the matter of repentance ; that they be curious that they finish it , & do it thorowly : for there are certain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , leavings of repentance , which makes that Gods anger is taken from us so imperfectly : and although God for his sake who died for us , will pardon a returning sinner , & bring him to heaven through tribulation & a fiery triall ; yet when a man is weary of his sorrow , & his fastings are a load to him , & his sins are not so perfectly renounced , or hated as they ought , the parts of repentance which are left unfinished do sometimes fall upon the heads , or upon the fortunes of the children , I do not say , this is regular and certain , but sometimes God deals thus . For this thing hath been so , and therefore it may be so again : we see it was done in the case of Ahab ; he humbled himself and went softly , and lay in sackcloth , and called for pardon and God took from him a judgement which was falling heavily upon him : but we all know his repentance was imperfect and lame : The same evil fell upon his sons ; for so said God ; I will bring the evil upon his house in his sons dayes . Leave no arreares for thy posterity to pay ; but repent with an integral , a holy and excellent repentance , that God being reconciled to thee thoroughly , for thy sake also he may blesse thy seed after thee . And after all this , adde a continual , a fervent , a hearty , a never ceasing prayer for thy children , ever remembring when they beg a blessing , that God hath put much of their fortune into your hands ; and a transient formal [ God blesse thee ] will not out-weigh the load of a great vice ; and the curse that scatters from thee by virtual contact , and by the chanels of relation , if thou beest a vicious person : Nothing can issue from thy fountain but bitter waters , And as it were a great impudence for a condemned Traitor to beg of his injured Prince a province for his son , for his sake : so it is an ineffective blessing we give our children , when we beg for them , what we have no title to for our selves , Nay , when we can convey to them nothing but a curse . The praier of a sinner , the unhallowed wish of a vitious Parent is but a poor donative to give to a childe who suck'd poison from his nurse , and derives cursing from his Parents . They are punished with a double torture in the shame and paines of the damned , who dying Enemies to God have left an inventary of sins and wrath to be divided amongst their children . But they that can truely give a blessing to their children , are such as live a blessed life , and pray holy prayers , and perform an integral repentance , and do separate from the sins of their Progenitors , and do illustrious actions , and begin the blessing of their family upon a new stock ; for as from the eyes of some persons , there shoots forth a visible influence ; and some have an evileye , and are infectious ; some look healthfully as a friendly planet , and innocent as flowers : and as some fancies convey private effects to confederate and allayed bodyes ; and between the very vital spirits of friends and Relatives there is a cognation , and they refresh each other like social plants , and a good man is a * friend to every Good man ; and ( they say ) that an usurer knows an usurer and one rich man another , there being by the very manners of men contracted a similitude of nature , and a communication of effects : so in parents and their children there is so great a society of nature and of manners , of blessing and of cursing , that an evil parent cannot perish in a single death and holy parents never eat their meal of blessing alone ; but they make the roome shine like the fire of a holy sacrifice : and a Fathers or a Mothers piety makes all the house festivall , and full of joy from generation to generation . Amen . Sermon . V. THE Invalidity of a late , or death-bed Repentance . 13. Jeremy 16. Give glory to the Lord your God , before he cause darknesse , and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains : and while ye look for light , or , ( left while ye look for light ) he shall turn it into the shadow of death , and make it grosse darknesse . GOd is the eternall fountain of honour , and the spring of glory ; in him it dwells essentially , from him it derives originally ; and when an action is glorious , or a man is honourable , it is because the action is pleasing to God , in the relation of obedience or imitation , and because the man is honoured by God , or by Gods Vicegerent ; and therefore God cannot be dishonoured , because all honour comes from himself ; he cannot but be glorified , because to be himself is to be infinitely glorious . And yet he is pleased to say , that our sins dishonour him , and our obedience does glorifie him . But as the Sun , the great eye of the world , prying into the recesses of rocks , and the hollownesse of valleys , receives species , or visible forms from these objects , but he beholds them onely by that light which proceeds from himself : So does God who is the light of that eye ; he receives reflexes and returns from us , and these he calls glorifications of himself , but they are such which are made so by his own gracious acceptation . For God cannot be glorified by any thing but by himself , and by his own instruments , which he makes as mirrours to reflect his own excellency , that by seeing the glory of such emanations ; he may rejoyce in his own works , because they are images of his infinity . Thus when he made the beauteous frame of heaven and earth , he rejoyced in it , and glorified himself , because it was the glasse in which he beheld his wisedom , and Almighty power : And when God destroyed the old world , in that also he glorified himself ; for in those waters he saw the image of his justice ; they were the looking glasse for that Attribute ; and God is said to laugh at , and rejoyce in the destruction of a sinner , because he is pleased with the Oeconomy of his own lawes , and the excellent proportions he hath made of his judgements , consequent to our sins . But above all , God rejoyced in his Holy Son , for he was the image of the Divinity , the character and expresse image of his person , in him he beheld his own Essence , his wisedom , his power , his justice , and his person , and he was that excellent instrument , designed from eternall ages to represent as in a double mirrour , not onely the glories of God to himself , but also to all the world ; and he glorified God by the instrument of obedience , in which God beheld his own dominion , and the sanctity of his lawes clearly represented ; and he saw his justice glorified , when it was fully satisfied by the passion of his Son ; and so he hath transmitted to us a great manner of the Divine glorification , being become to us the Authour , and the Example of giving glory to God after the manner of men , that is , by well-doing , and patient suffering , by obeying his lawes , and submitting to his power , by imitating his holinesse , and confessing his goodnesse , by remaining innocent , or becoming penitent ; for this also is called in the Text [ GIVING GLORY TO THE LORD OUR GOD. ] For he that hath dishonoured God by sins , that is , hath denied , by a morall instrument of duty , and subordination , to confesse the glories of his power , and the goodnesse of his lawes , and hath dishonoured , and despised his mercy , which God intended as an instrument of our piety , hath no better way to glorifie God , then by returning to his duty , to advance the honour of the Divine Attributes in which he is pleased to communicate himself , and to have entercourse with man. He that repents , confesses his own errour , and the righteousnesse of Gods lawes , and by judging himself confesses that he deserves punishment , and therefore that God is righteous if he punishes him : and by returning , confesses God to be the fountain of felicity , and the foundation of true , solid , and permanent joyes , saying in the sense and passion of the Disciples , Whither shall we go ? for thou hast the words of eternall life : and by humbling himself , exalts God by making the proportions of distance more immense , and vast : and as repentance does contain in it all the parts of holy life which can be performed by a returning sinner ( all the acts , and habits of vertue , being but parts , or instances , or effects of repentance ) : so all the actions of a holy life do constitute the masse and body of all those instruments whereby God is pleased to glorifie himself . * For if God is glorified in the Sunne and Moon , in the rare fabrick of the honey-combs , in the discipline of Bees , in the oeconomy of Pismires , in the little houses of birds , in the curiosity of an eye , God being pleased to delight in those little images and reflexes of himself from those pretty mirrours , which like a crevice in a wall thorow a narrow perspective transmit the species of a vast excellency : much rather shall God be pleased to behold himself in the glasses of our obedience , in the emissions of our will and understanding ; these being rationall and apt instruments to expresse him , farre better then the naturall , as being neerer communications of himself . But I shall no longer discourse of the Philosophy of this expression ; certain it is , that in the stile of Scripture , repentance is the great glorification of God ; and the Prophet , by calling the people to give God glory , calls upon them to repent ; and so expresses both the duty and the event of it ; the event being [ Glory to God on high , and peace on earth , and good will towards men ] by the sole instrument of repentance . And this was it which Joshuah said to Achan , [ Give I pray thee glory to the Lord God of Israel , and make confession unto him : that one act of repentance is one act of glorifying God : and this , David acknowledged , Against thee onely have I sinned , ut tu justificeris , that thou mightest be justified , or cleared , that is , that God may have the honour of being righteous , and we , the shame of receding from so excellent a perfection : or as S. Paul quotes and explicates the place . Let God be true , and every man a liar , as it is written , that thou mightest be justified in thy sayings , and mightest overcome when thou art judged . But to clear the sense of this expression of the Prophet , observe the words of S. John : and men were scorched with great heat , and blasphemed the name of God who hath power over those plagues , and they repented not to give him glory . So that having strength and reason from these so many authorities , I may be free to read the words of my Text thus , [ Repent of all your sins before God cause darknesse , and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains ] and then we have here the duty of repentance , and the time of its performance ; it must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a seasonable and timely repentance , a repentance which must begin before our darknesse begin , a repentance in the day time , ut dum dies est operemini , that ye may work while it is to day , lest if we stumble upon the dark mountains , that is , fall into the ruines of old age , which makes a broad way narrow , and a plain way to be a craggy mountain ; or if we stumble and fall into our last sicknesse , instead of health God send us to our grave , and instead of light and salvation which we then confidently look for , he make our state to be outer darknesse , that is , misery irremediable , misery eternall . This exhortation of the Prophet was alwayes full of caution and prudence , but now it is highly necessary ; since men who are so clamorously called to repentance that they cannot avoid the necessity of it , yet that they may reconcile an evil life with the hopes of heaven , have crowded this duty into so little room , that it is almost strangled and extinct ; and they have lopped off so many members , that they have reduced the whole body of it to the dimensions of a little finger , sacrificing their childhood to vanity , their youth to lust , and to intemperance , their manhood to ambition and rage , pride and revenge , secular desires , and unholy actions ; and yet still further , giving their old age to covetousnesse and oppression , to the world , and to the Devil ; and after all this what remains for God and for Religion ? Oh , for that , they wll do well enough ; upon their death-bed they will think a few godly thoughts , they will send for a Priest to minister comfort to them ; they will pray and ask God forgivenesse , and receive the holy Sacrament , and leave their goods behinde them , disposing them to their friends and relatives , and some Dole , and issues of the almes-basket to the poor ; and if after all this they die quietly , and like a lambe , and be canoniz'd by a brib'd flatterer in a funerall sermon , they make no doubt but they are children of the kingdom , and perceive not their folly , till without hope of remedy they roar in their expectations of a certain , but a horrid eternity of pains . * Certainly nothing hath made more ample harvests for the Devil , then the deferring of repentance upon vain confidences , and lessening it in the extension of parts , as well as intension of degrees , while we imagine that a few tears , and scatterings of devotion are enough to expiate the basenesse of a fifty or threescore yeers impiety . This I shall endeavour to cure , by shewing what it is to repent , and that repentance implies in it the duty of a life , or of many and great , of long and lasting parts of it ; and then by direct arguments , shewing that repentance put off to our death-bed is invalid and ineffectuall , sick , languid , and impotent , like our dying bodies and disabled faculties . 1. First therefore , Repentance implies a deep sorrow , as the beginning and introduction of this duty ; not a superficiall sigh , or tear , not a calling our selves sinners , and miserable persons ; this is far from that godly sorrow that worketh repentance ; and yet I wish there were none in the world , or none amongst us , who cannot remember that ever they have done this little towards the abolition of their multitudes of sins ; but yet if it were not a hearty , pungent sorrow , a sorrow that shall break the heart in pieces ; a sorrow that shall so irreconcile us to sin , as to make us rather choose to die then to sin , it is not so much as the beginning of repentance . But in Holy Scripture , when the people are called to repentance , and sorrow ( which is ever the prologue to it ) marches sadly , and first opens the scene , it is ever expressed to be great , clamorous and sad : it is called [ a weeping sorely ] in the verse next after my text , [ a weeping with the bitternesse of heart ; a turning to the Lord with weeping , fasting , and mourning ; a weeping day and night ; the sorrow of heart ; the breaking of the spirit ; the mourning like a dove , and chattering like a swallow ; ] and if we observe the threnes and sad accents of the Prophet Jeremy when he wept for the sins of his Nation , the heart-breakings of David when he mourned for his adultery and murder , and the bitter tears of Saint Peter when he washed off the guilt and basenesse of his fall , and the denying his Master ; we shall be sufficiently instructed in this praeludium or introduction to repentance ; and that it is not every breath of a sigh , or moisture of a tender eye , not every crying [ Lord have mercy upon me ] that is such a sorrow as begins our restitution to the state of grace and Divine favour : but such a sorrow that really condemnes our selves , and by an active , effectual sentence declares us worthy of stripes and death , of sorrow and eternall paines , and willingly endures the first to prevent the second ; and weeps and mourns , and fasts to obtain of God but to admit us to a possibility of restitution : and although all sorrow for sins hath not the same expression , nor the same degree of pungency and sensitive trouble ( which differs according to the temper of the body , custome , the sexe , and accidental tendernesse ) yet it is not a Godly sorrow unlesse it really produce these effects ; that is , 1. That it makes us really to hate , & 2. actually to decline sin , and 3. produce in us a fear fo Gods anger , a sense of the guilt of his displeasure ; and 4. Then , such consequent trouble as can consist with such apprehension of the Divine displeasure : which if it expresse not in tears and hearty complaints , must be expressed in watchings and strivings against sin , in confessing the goodnesse and justice of God threatning or punishing us , in patiently bearing the rod of God , in confession of our sins , in accusation of our selves , in perpetual begging of pardon , and mean and base opinions of our selves , and in al the natural productions from these ; according to our temper and constitution ; it must be a sorrow of the reasonable faculty , the greatest in its kinde ; and if it be lesse in kinde ; or not productive of these effects , it is not a godly sorrow , not the exordium of repentance . But I desire that it be observed , that sorrow for sins , is not Repentance ; not that duty which gives glory to God , so as to obtain of him that he will glorifie us . Repentance is a great volume of duty ; and Godly sorrow is but the frontispiece or title page : it is the harbinger or first introduction to it ; or if you will consider it in the words of Saint Paul : [ Godly sorrow worketh repentance ] sorrow is the Parent , and repentance is the product ; and therefore it is a high piece of ignorance to suppose that , a crying out and roaring for our sins upon our deathbed can reconcile us to God ; our crying to God must be so early , and so lasting , as to be able to teeme , and produce such a daughter , which must live long , and grow from an Embryo to an infant , from infancy to childhood , from thence to the fulnesse of the stature of Christ , and then it is a holy and a happy sorrow : but if it be a sorrow onely of a death-bed , it is a fruitlesse shower , or like the rain of Sodom not the beginning of repentance , but the kindling of a flame , the comencement of an eternal sorrow . For Ahab had a great sorrow but it wrought nothing upon his spirit , it did not reconcile his affections to his duty , and his duty to God. Judas had so great a sorrow for betraying the innocent blood of his Lord , that it was intolerable to his Spirit , and he burst in the middle : and if meer sorrow be repentance , then hell is full of penitents , for [ there is weeping and wailing , and gnashing of teeth for evermore . Let us therefore beg of God ( as Calebs daughter did of her Father ) dedisti mihi terram aridam , da etiam & irriguam , thou hast given me a dry land , give me also a land of waters , a dwelling place in tears , rivers of tears , ut quoniam non sumus digni oculos orando ad coelum levare , at simus digni oculos plorando caecare , as Saint Austins expression is , that because we are not worthy to lift up our eyes to heaven in prayer , yet we may be worthy to weep our selves blinde for sin , the meaning is , that we beg sorrow of God , such a sorrow as may be sufficient to quench the flames of lust , and surmount the hills of our pride , and may extinguish our thirst of covetousnesse ; that is , a sorrow that shall be an effective principle of arming all our faculties against sin , and heartily setting upon the work of grace , and the persevering labours of a holy life . * I shall onely adde one word to this : That our sorrow for sin is not to be estimated by our tears , and our sensible expressions , but by our active hatred , and dereliction of sin : and is many times unperceived in outward demonstration . It is reported of the Mother of Peter Lombard , Gratian , and Comestor , that she having had three sons begotten in unhallowed embraces , upon her death-bed did omit the recitation of those crimes to her confessour ; adding this for Apology , that her three sons proved persons so eminent in the Church that their excellency was abundant recompence for her demerit : and therefore she could not grieve , because God had glorified himself so much by three instruments so excellent ; and that although her sin had abounded ; yet Gods grace did superabound . Her Confessor replied , at dole Saltent quod dolere non possis , grieve that thou canst not grieve : and so must we ; alwayes fear that our trouble for sin is nor great enough , that our sorrow is too remisse , that our affections are indifferent ; but we can onely be sure that our sorrow is a godly sorrow , when it worketh repentance ; that is , when it makes us hate and leave all our sin , and take up the crosse of patience or penance : that is , confesse our sin , accuse our selves , condemn the action by hearty sentence ; and then , if it hath no other emanation but fasting and prayer for its pardon , and hearty industry towards its abolition , our sorrow is not reproveable . For , sorrow alone will not do it , there must follow a total dereliction of our sin ; and this is the first part of repentance . Concerning which , I consider , that it is a sad mistake amongst many that do some things towards repentance , that they mistake the first addresses , and instruments of this part of repentance for the whole duty it self . Confession of sins is in order to the dereliction of them ; but then confession must not be like the unlading of a ship to take in new stowage ; or the vomits of intemperance , which ease the stomack that they may continue the merry meeting : but such a confession is too frequent , in which men either comply with custome or seek to ease a present load , or gripe of conscience , or are willing to dresse up their souls against afestiyal , or hope for pardon upon so easie terms : these are but retirings baok to leap the further into mischief ; or but approaches to God with the lips ; no confession can be of any use , but as it is an instrument of shame to the person , of humiliation of the man , and dereliction of the sin , and receives its recompence but as it ads to these purposes : all other , is like the bleating of the calves , and the lowing of the Oxen which Saul reserved after the spoil of Agag : they proclaim the sin , but do nothing towards its cure ; they serve Gods end to make us justly to be condemned out of our own mouthes , but nothing at all towards our absolution . * Nay , if we proceed further , to the greatest expressions of humiliation , ( parts of which I reckon , fasting , praying for pardon , judging and condemning of our selves by instances of a present indignation , against a crime ) yet unlesse this proceed so far as to a total deletion of the sin , to the extirpation of every vitious habit , God is not glorified by our repentance , nor we secured in our eternal interest . Our sin must be brought to judgement , and like Antinous in Homer , layed in the mids as the sacrifice and the cause of all the mischief . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is the murderer , this is the Achan , this is he that troubles Israel ; let the sin be confessed and carried with the pomps and solennities of sorrow to its funeral , and so let the murderer be slain : But if after all the forms of confession and sorrow , fasting , and humiliation , and pretence of doing the will of God , we spare Agag and the fattest of the cattel , our delicious sins , and still leave an unlawful King , and a tyrant sin to reigne in our mortal bodies , we may pretend what we will towards repentance , but we are no better penitents then Ahab , no neerer to the obtaining of our hopes then Esau was to his birthright , for whose repentance there was no place left though he sought it carefully with tears . Well ? let us suppose our penitent advanced thus far , as that he decrees against all sin , and in his hearty purposes resolves to decline it , as in a severe sentence he hath condemned it as his betrayer and his murderer ; yet we must be curious ( for now onely the repentance properly begins ) that it be not onely like the springings of the thorny of the high way ground , soon up and soon down : For some men when a sadnesse or an unhandsome accident surprizes them , then they resolve against their sin , but like the goats in Aristotle they give their milk no longer then they are stung : as soon as the thorns are removed , these men return to their first hardnesse , and resolve then to act their first temptation . Others there are who never resolve against a sin , but either when they have no temptation to it , or when their appetites are newly satisfied with it , like those who immediately after a full dinner resolve to fast at supper , and they keep it till their appetite returnes , and then their resolution unties like the cords of vanity or the gossamere against the violence of the Northen winde . Thus a lustfull person fills all the capacity of his lust , and when he is wearied , and the sin goes off with unquietnesse and regret , and the appetite falls down like a horseleech when it is ready to burst with putrifaction and an unwholsome plethory ; then he resolves to be a good man and could almost vow to be a Hermit , and hates his lust , as Amnon hated his sister Thamar , just when he had newly acted his unworthy rape ; but the next spring tide that comes , every wave of the temptation , makes an inrode upon the resolution and gets ground , and prevailes against it more then his resolution prevailed against his sin : How many drunken persons , how many Swearers resolve daily and hourely against their sin , and yet act them not once the lesse for all their infinite heape of shamefully ret eating purposes * That resolution that begins upon just grounds of sorrow and severe judgement , upon fear and love , that is made in the midst of a temptation , that is inquisitive into all the means and instruments of the cure , that prayes perpetually against a sin ; that watches continually against a surprize , and never sinks into it by deliberation ; that fights earnestly and carries on the war prudently and prevailes by a never ceasing diligence against the temptation ; that onely is a pious and well begun repentance . They that have their fits of a quartan , well and ill for ever , and think themselves in perfect health , when the ague is retired till its period returnes , are dangerously mistaken . Those intervals of imperfect and fallacious resolution , are nothing but states of death : and if a man should depart this world in one of those godly fits ( as he thinks them ) he is no neerer to obtain his blessed hope , then a man in the stone collick is to health when his pain is eased for the present , his disease still remaining , and threatning an unwelcome return . That resolution onely is the beginning of a holy repentance which goes forth into act , and whose acts enlarge into habits , and whose habits are productive of the fruits of a holy life . From hence we are to take our estimate , whence our resolutions of piety must commence . He that resolves not to live well till the time comes that he must die , is ridiculous in his great designe , as he is impertinent in his intermedial purposes , and vain in his hope . Can a dying man to any real effect resolve to be chast ? ( for vertue must be an act of election , and chastity is the contesting against a proud and an imperious lust , active flesh , and insinuating temptation ) And what doth he resolve against who can no more be tempted to the sin of unchastity then he can returne back again to his youth and vigour . And it is considerable , that since all the purposes of a holy life which a dying man can make , cannot be reduced to act , by what law , or reason , or covenant , or revelation are we taught to distinguish the resolution of a dying man from the purposes of a living and vigorous person ? Suppose a man in his youth and health mooved by consideration of the irregularity and deformity , of sin , the danger of its productions , the wrath and displeasure of Almightie God , should resolve to leave the puddles of impurity , and walk in the paths of righteousnesse ; can this resolution alone put him into the state of grace ; is he admitted to pardon and the favour of God before he hath in some measure performed actually what he so reasonably hath resolved ? By no means . For , [ resolution and purpose ] is in its own nature and constitution an imperfect act , and therefore can signifie nothing without its performance and consummation . It is as a faculty is to the act , as spring is to the harvest , as seed time is to the Autumne , as Egges are to birds , or as a relative to its correspondent ; nothing without it . And can it be imagined that a resolution in our health and life shall be ineffectual without performance and shall a resolution barely such , do any Good upon our deathbed ? Can such purposes prevail against a long impiety rather then against a young and a newly begun state of sin ? Will God at an easier rate pardon the sins of fifty or sixty yeers , then the sins of our youth onely , or the iniquity of five yeers , or ten ? If a holy life be not necessary to be liv'd , why shall it be necessary to resolve to live it ? But if a holy life be necessary , then it cannot be sufficient meerly to resolve it , unlesse this resolution go forth in an actuall and reall service . Vain therefore is the hope of those persons who either go on in their sins ; before their last sicknesse , never thinking to return into the wayes of God , from whence they have wandred all their life , never renewing their resolutions and vows of holy living ; or if they have , yet their purposes are for ever blasted with the next violent temptation . More prudent was the prayer of David , [ Oh spare me a little , that I may recover my strength before I go hence and be no more seen : ] And something like it was the saying of the Emperour Charles the fifth , Inter vitae negotia & mortis diem oportet spacium intercedere : When ever our holy purposes are renewed , unlesse God gives us time to act them , to mortifie and subdue our lusts , to conquer and subdue the whole kingdom of sin , to rise from our grave and be clothed with nerves and flesh and a new skin , to overcome our deadly sicknesses , and by little and little to return to health and strength ; unlesse we have grace and time to do all this , our sins will lie down with us in our graves . * For when a man hath contracted a long habit of sin , and it hath been growing upon him ten or twenty , fourty or fifty yeers , whose acts he hath daily or hourly repeated , and they are grown to a second nature to aim , and have so prevailed upon the ruines of his spirit , that the man is taken captive by the Devil at his will , he is fast bound as a slave tugging at the oar , that he is grown in love with his fetters , and longs to be doing the work of sin , is it likely that all this progresse and groweth in sin ( in the wayes of which he runs fast without any impediment ) is it ( I say ) likely , that a few dayes or weeks of sicknesse can recover him ? [ the especiall hindrances of that state I shall afterwards consider ] but , Can a man be supposed so prompt to piety and holy living , a man ( I mean ) that hath lived wickedly a long time together , can he be of so ready and active a vertue upon the sudden , as to recover in a moneth , or a week what he hath been undoing in 20 , or 30 yeers ? Is it so easie to build , that a weak and infirm person , bound hand and foot shall be able to build more in three dayes , then was a building above fourty yeers ? Christ did it in a figurative sence ; but in this , it is not in the power of any man so suddenly to be recovered from so long a sicknesse . Necessary therefore it is , that all these instruments of our conversion , [ Confession of sins , praying for their pardon , and resolutions to lead a new life ] should begin , [ before our feet slum le upon the dark mountains , ] lest we leave the work onely resolved upon to be begun , which , it is necessary we should in many degrees finish if ever we mean to escape the eternall darknesse : For that we should actually abolish the whole body of sin and death , that we should crucifie the old man with his lusts , that we should lay aside every weight , and the sin that doth so easily beset us , that we should cast away the works of darknesse , that we should awake from sleep , and arise from death , that we should redeem the time , that we should cleanse our hands and purifie our hearts , that we should have escaped the corruption , ( all the corruption ) that is in the whole world through lust , that nothing of the old leaven should remain in us , but that we be wholly a new lump , throughly transformed and changed in the image of our minde : these are the perpetuall precepts of the Spirit , and the certain duty of man ; and that , to have all these in purpose onely , is meerly to no purpose , without the actuall eradication of every vitious habit , and the certain abolition of every criminall adherence , is clearly and dogmatically decreed every where in the Scripture ; For ( they are the words of Saint Paul ) they that are Christs have crucified the flesh , with the affections and lusts : the work is actually done , and sin is dead , or wounded mortally , before they can in any sence belong to Christ , to be a portion of his inheritance : And He that is in Christ is a new creature . For in Christ Jesus nothing can avail but a new creature : nothing but a Keeping the Commandements of God : Not all our tears , though we should weep like David and his men at Ziklag , till they could weep no more , or the women of Ramah , or like the weeping in the valley of Hinnom , could suffice , if we retain the affection to any one sin , or have any unrepented of , or unmortified . It is true that a contrite and broken heart , God will not despise . No , he will not . For if it be a hearty and permanent sorrow , it is an excellent beginning of repentance ; and God will to a timely sorrow give the grace of repentance : He will not give pardon to sorrow alone ; but that which ought to be the proper effect of sorrow , that God shall give . He shall then open the gates of mercy , and admit you to a possibility of restitution ; so , that you may be within the covenant of repentance , which if you actually perform , you may expect Gods promise . And in this sense Confession will obtain our pardon ; and humiliation will be accepted ; and our holy purposes , and pious resolutions shall be accounted for ; that is , these being the first steps and addresses to that part of repentance , which consists in the abolition of sins , shall be accepted so far , as to procure so much of the pardon , to do so much of the work of restitution , that God will admit the returning man to a further degree of emendation , to a neerer possibility of working out his salvation : but then if this sorrow , and confession , and strong purposes begin then when our life is declined towards the West , and is now ready to set in darknesse and a dismall night ; because of themselves they could but procure an admission to repentance , not at all to pardon , and plenary absolution ; by shewing that on our death-bed these are too late and ineffectuall , they call upon us to begin betimes , when these imperfect acts may be consummate , and perfected in the actuall performing those parts of holy life , to which they were ordained , in the nature of the thing , and the purposes of God. Lastly , suppose all this be done , and that by a long course of strictnesse and severity , mortification and circumspection we have overcome all our vitious and baser habits contracted and grown upon us , like the ulcers and evils of a long surfet , and that we are clean and swept ; Suppose that he hath wept and fasted , prayed and vowed to excellent purposes ; yet all this is but the one half of repentance ; ( so infinitely mistaken is the world , to think any thing to be enough to make up repentance ; ) but to renew us , and restore us to the favour of God , there is required far more then what hath been yet accounted for . See it in the second of S. Peter , 1 Chap. 4 , 5. vers . Having escaped the corruption that is in the world thorough lust : And besides this , giving all diligence , adde to your faith vertue , to vertue knowledge , to knowledge temperance , to temperance patience , and so on , to godlinesse , to brotherly kindnesse , and to charity : These things must be in you and abound : This is the summe totall of repentance ; We must not onely have overcome sin , but we must after great diligence have acquired the habits of all those Christian graces which are necessary in the transaction of our affairs , in all relations to God , and our neighbour , and our own person . It is not enough to say , Lord , I thank thee I am no extortioner , no adulrerer , not as this Publican ; all the reward of such a poenitent is , that when he hath escaped the corruption of the world , he hath also escaped those heavy judgements which threatned his ruine . Nec furtum feci , nec fugi , si mihi dicat Servus ; habes precium ; loris non ureris , aio . Non hominem occidi ; non pasces in cruce corvos . If a servant have not rob'd his Master , nor offered to fly from his bondage , he shall scape the Furca , his flesh shall not be exposed to birds or fishes ; but this is but the reward of innocent slaves ; it may be we have escaped the rod of the exterminating Angel , when our sins are crucifyed ; but we shall never enter into the joy of our Lord , unlesse after we have put off the old man with his affections and lusts , we also put on the new man in righteousnesse and holinesse of life . And this we are taught in most plain doctrine by S. Paul [ Let us lay aside the weight that doth so easily beset us ; ] that is the one half ; and [ then it follows ] Let us run with patience the race that is set before us . These are the fruits meet for repentance , spoken of by S. John Baptist ; that is , when we renew our first undertaking in baptisme , and return to our courses of innocence . Parcus Deorum cultor , & infrequens , Insanientis dum sapientiae consultus erro Nunc retrorsum vela dare , atque iterare cursus Cogor relictos The sense of which words is well given us by S. John ; Remember whence thou art fallen , repent ; and do thy first works . For all our hopes of heaven rely upon that Covenant which God made with us in Baptisme ; which is , That being redeemed from our vain conversation , we should serve him in holinesse and righteousnesse all our dayes . Now when any of us hath prevaricated our part of the Covenant , we must return to that state , and redeem the intermedial time spent in sin by our doubled industry in the wayes of grace : we must be reduced to our first estate , and make some proportionable returns of duty , for our sad omissions , and great violations of our Baptismal vow . For God having made no covenant with us , but that which is consigned in Baptisme ; in the same proportion in which we retain , or return to that , in the same we are to expect the pardon of our sins , and all the other promises Evangelicall ; but no otherwise ; unlesse we can shew a new Gospel , or be baptized again by Gods appointment . He therefore that by a long habit , by a state and continued course of sin , hath gone so far from his baptismal purity , as that he hath nothing of the Christian left upon him but his name ; that man hath much to do to make his garments clean , to purifie his soul , to take off all the stains of sin , that his spirit may be presented pure to the eyes of God who beholds no impurity . It is not an easie thing to cure a long contracted habit of sin : Let any intemperate person but try in his own instance of drunkennesse ; or the swearer in the sweetning his unwholesome language : but then so to command his tongue that he never swear , but that his speech be prudent , pious and apt to edific the hearer , or in some sense to glorifie God ; or to become temperate , to have got a habit of sobriety , or chastity , or humility , is the work of a life : And if we do but consider that he that lives well from his younger yeers , or takes up at the end of his youthfull heats , and enters into the courses of a sober life early , diligently , and vigorously , shall finde himself after the studies and labours of 20. or 30. yeers , piety , but a very imperfect person : many degrees of pride left unrooted up , many inroads of intemperance , or beginnings of excesse , much indevotion and backwardnesse in religion , many temptations to contest against , and some infirmities which he shall never say he hath master'd ; we shall finde the work of a holy life is not to be deferred till our dayes are almost done , till our strengths are decayed , our spirits are weak , and our lust strong , our habits confirmed , and our longings after sin many and impotent : for what is very hard to be done , and is alwayes done imperfectly when there is length of time , and a lesse work to do , and more abilities to do it withall : when the time is short , and almost expired , and the work made difficult and vast , and the strengths weaker , and the faculties are disabled , will seem little lesse then absolutely impossible . * I shall end this generall consideration with the question of the Apostle . If the righteous scarcely be saved , ( if it be so difficult to overcome our sins , and obtain vertuous habits ; difficult ( I say ) to a righteous , a sober , and well living person ) where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear ? What shall become of him who by his evil life hath not onely removed himself from the affections , but even from the possibilities of vertue ? He that hath lived in sin will die in sorrow . The Invalidity of a death-bed Repentance . Part. II. BUt I shall pursue this , great and necessary truth , first ; by shewing what parts and ingredients of repentance are assigned , when it is described in holy Scripture . Secondly , by shewing the necessities , the absolute necessities of a holy life , and what it means in Scripture to [ live holily ] . Thirdly , by considering what directions or intimations we have concerning the last time of beginning to repent ; and what is the longest period that any man may venture with safety : And in the prosecution of these particulars , we shall remove the objections ; those aprons of fig-leaves which men use for their shelter to palliate their sin , and to hide themselves , from that , from which no rocks or mountains shall protect them , though they fall upon them ; that is , the wrath of God. First , That repentance is not onely an abolition , and extinction of the body of sin , a bringing it to the altar , and slaying it before God and all the people ; but that we must also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mingle gold and rich presents , the oblation of good works , and holy habits with the sacrifice , I have already proved : but now if we will see repentance in its stature and integrity of constitution described , we shall finde it to be the one half of all that which God requires of Christians . Faith and Repentance are the whole duty of a Christian. Faith is a sacrifice of the understanding to God : Repentance sacrifices the whole will : That , gives the knowing ; this , gives up all the desiring faculties : That makes us Disciples ; this , makes us servants of the Holy Jesus . Nothing else was preached by the Apostles , nothing was enjoyned as the duty of man , nothing else did build up the body of Christian religion . So that , as faith contains all that knowledge which is necessary to salvation : So repentance comprehends in it , all the whole practise and working duty of a returning Christian : And this was the sum totall of all that Saint Paul preached to the Gentiles , when in his farewell Sermon to the Bishops and Priests of Ephesus , he professed that he kept back nothing that was profitable to them ; and yet it was all nothing but this ; [ Repentance towards God , and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ ] so that whosoever believes in Jesus Christ , and repents towards God must make his accounts according to this standard , that is , to believe all that Christ taught him ; and to do all that Christ commanded : and this is remarked in Saint Pauls * Catechisme where he gives a more particular Catalogue of fundamentals : he reckons nothing but Sacraments and faith of which he enumerates two principal articles [ resurrection of the dead , and eternal judgement ] whatsoever is practical , all the whole duty of man , the practice of all obedience is called [ repentance from dead works ] which , if we observe the singularity of the phrase , does not mean [ sorrow ] For sorrow from dead works , is not sense ; but it must mean mutationem status , a conversion from dead works , which ( as in all motions ) supposes two terms ; from dead works , to living works , from the death of sin to the life of righteousnesse . I will adde but two places more , out of each Testament one ; in which I suppose you may see every lineament of this great duty described , that you may no longer mistake a grashopper for an Eagle , Sorrow and holy purposes , for the intire duty of repentance . In the 18. of Ezek. 21. you shall finde it thus described . [ But if the wicked will turne from all his sins that he hath committed , and keep all my statutes , and do that which is lawful and right , he shall surely live , he shall not die . ] or as it is more fully described in Ezek. 33. 14. [ When I say unto the wicked , Thou shalt surely die ; If he turn from his sin , and do that which is lawful and right ; if the wicked restore the pledge , give again that he had robbed ; walk in the statutes of life without committing iniquity , he shall surely live , he shall not die . ] Here onely is the condition of pardon ; to leave all your sins , to keep all Gods statutes , to walk in them , to abide , to proceed , and make progresse in them ; and this , without the interruption by a deadly sin , [ without committing iniquity ] to make restitution of all the wrongs he hath done , all the unjust money he hath taken , all the oppressions he hath committed , all that must be satisfied for , and repayed according to our ability : we must make satisfaction for all injury to our Neighbours fame , all wrongs done to his soul ; he must be restored to that condition of good things thou didst in any sense remove him from : when this is done according to thy utmost power , then thou hast repented truely , then thou hast a title to the promise ; thou shalt surely live , thou shalt not die for thy old sins thou hast formerly committed . * Onely be pleased to observe this one thing ; that this place of Ezekiel is it which is so often mistaken for that common saying , At what time soever a sinner repents him of his sins from the bottom of his heart I will put all his wickednesse out of my remembrance , saith the Lord ] For although at what time soever a sinner does repent ( as repentance is now explained ) God will forgive him , and that , repentance as it is now stated cannot be done [ At what time soever ] not upon a mans deathbed ; yet there are no such words in the whole Bible , nor any neerer to the sense of them then the words I have now read to you , out of the Prophet Ezekiel . Let that therefore no more deceive you , or be made a colour to countenance a persevering sinner , or a deathbed penitent . Neither is the duty of Repentance to be bought at an easier rate in the New Testament . You may see it described in the 2 Cor. 7. 11. Godly sorrow worketh repentance . Well ? but what is that repentance which is so wrought ? This it is . Behold the self same thing that ye sorrowed after a godly sort , what carefulnesse it wrought in you , yea what clearing of your selves , yea what indignation , yea what fear , ye what vehement desire , yea what zeal , yea what revenge . These are the fruits of that sorrow that is effectual : these are the parts of repentance ; clearing our selves of all that is past , and great carefulnesse for the future , anger at our selves for our old sins , and fear lest we commit the like again , vehement desires of pleasing God , and zeal of holy actions , and a revenge upon our selves for our sins , called by Saint Paul in another place , a judging our selves lest we be judged of the Lord. And in pursuance of this truth , the primitive Church did not admit a sinning person to the publike communions with the faithfull , till besides their sorrow they had spent some years in an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in doing good works and holy living ; and especially in such actions which did contradict that wicked inclination which led them into those sins whereof they were now admitted to repent . And therefore we find that they stood in the station of penitents seven years , 13 years , and somtimes till their death , before they could be reconciled to the peace of God , and his Holy Church . Scelerum si bene poenitet eradenda cupidinis pravi sunt elementa & tenerae nimis mentes asperioribus Formandae studijs — Horat. Repentance is the institution of a philosophical and severe life , an utter extirpation of all unreasonablenesse and impiety , and an addresse to , and a finall passing through all the parts of holy living . Now Consider whether this be imaginable or possible to be done upon our deathbed , when a man is frighted into an involuntary , a sudden and unchosen piety ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith Hierocles . He that never repents till a violent fear be upon him , till he apprehend himself to be in the jawes of death , ready to give up his unready and unprepared accounts , till he sees the Judge sitting in all the addresses of dreadfulnesse and Majesty , just now ( as he beleeves ) ready to pronounce that fearfull and intolerable sentence of [ Go ye cursed into everlasting fire ] this man does nothing for the love of God , nothing for the love of vertue ; It is just as a condemned man repents that he was a Traytor , but repented not till he was arrested , and sure to die . Such a repentance as this may still consist with as great an affection to sin as ever he had ; and it is no thanks to him , if when the knife is at his throat , then he gives good words and flatters . But suppose this man in his health , and the middest of all his lust , it is evident that there are some circumstances of action in which the man would have refused to commit his most pleasing sin . Would not the son of Tarquin have refused to ravish Lucrece if Junius Brutus had been by him ? Would the impurest person in the world act his lust in the market place ? or drink off an intemperate goblet if a dagger were placed at his throat ? In these circumstances , their fear would make them declare against the present acting their impurities . But does this cure the intemperance of their affections ? Let the impure person retire to his closet , and Junius Brutus be ingaged in a far distant war , and the dagger be taken from the drunkards throat , and the fear of shame , or death , or judgement be taken from them all , and they shall no more resist their temptation , then they could before remove their fear ; and you may as well judge the other persons holy , and haters of their sin , as the man upon his death-bed to be penitent ; and rather they then he , by how much this mans fear , the fear of death , and of the infinite pains of hell , the fear of a provoked God , and an angry eternall Judge , are far greater then the apprehensions of publike shame , or an abused husband , or the poniard of an angry person . * These men then sin not because they dare not , they are frighted from the act , but not from the affection , which is not to be cured but by discourse , and reasonable acts , and humane considerations ; of which that man is not naturally capable who is possessed with the greatest fear , the fear of death and damnation . If there had been time to cure his sin , and to live the life of grace , I deny not but God might have begun his conversion with so great a fear , that he should never have wiped off its impression ; * but if the man dies then , dies when he onely declaims against and curses his sin , as being the authour of his present fear , and apprehended calamity ; It is very far from reconciling him to God , or hopes of pardon , because it proceeds from a violent , unnaturall , and intolerable cause , no act of choice , or vertue , but of sorrow , a deserved sorrow , and a miserable , unchosen , unavoidable fear , — moriensque recepit Quas nollet victurus aquas — He curses sin upon his deathbed and makes a Panegyrick of vertue which in his life time he accounted folly , and trouble , and a needlesse vexation . Quae mens est hodie , cur eadem non puero fuit ? vel cur his animis incolumes non redeunt genae ? I shall end this first Consideration , with a plain exhortation ; that since repentance is a duty of so great and giant-like bulk ; let no man croud it up into so narrow room , as that it be strangled in its birth for want of time and aire to breath in . Let it not be put off to that time when a man hath scarce time enough to reckon all those particular duties which make up the integrity of its constitution . Will any man hunt the wild boare in his garden , or bait a bull in his closet , will a woman wrap her childe in her handkerchiefe , or a Father send his son to school when he is 50 yeers old ? These are undecencies of providence , and the instrument contradicts the end ; And this is our case . There is no roome for the repentance , no time to act all its essentiall parts ; and a childe who hath a great way to go before he be wise , may defer his studies , and hope to become very learned in his old age , and upon his deathbed , as well as a vitious person , may think to recover from all his ignorances and prejudicate opinions , from all his false principles and evil customs , from his wicked inclinations and ungodly habits , from his fondnesses of vice , and detestations of vertue , from his promptnesse to sin , and unwillingnesse to grace , from his spiritual deadnesse and strong sensuality ; upon his deathbed ( I say ) when he hath no naturall strength , and as little spirituall , when he is criminal and impotent , hardned in his vice , and soft in his fears , full of passion , and empty of wisdom , when he is sick and amazed , and timorous and confounded , and impatient , and extremely miserable . And now when any of you is tempted to commit a sin , remember , that sin will ruine you unlesse you repent of it . * But this ( you say ) is no news , and so far from affrighting you from sin , that ( God knows ) it makes men sin the rather . For therefore they venture to act the present temptation , because they know , if they repent , God will forgive them ; and therefore they resolve upon both , to sin now , and to repent hereafter . Against this folly I shall not oppose the consideration of their danger , and that they neither know how long they shall live , nor whether they shall die or no in this very act of sinne ; though this consideration is very materiall , and if they should die in it , or before it is washed off , they perish ; But I consider these things . 1 That he that resolves to sin upon a resolution to repent , by every act of sin , makes himself more uncapable of repenting , by growing more in love with sin , by remembring its pleasures , by serving it once more , and losing one degree more of the liberty of our spirit : and if you resolve to sin now , because it is pleasant , how do ye know that your appetite will alter ? will it not appear pleasant to you next week , and the next week after that , and so for ever ? And still you sin , and still you will repent ; that is , you will repent when the sin can please you no longer . For so long as it can please you , so long you are tempted not to repent , as well as now to act the sin . And the longer you lie in it , the more you will love it . So that it is in effect to say ; I love my sin now , but I will hereafter hate it ; onely I will act it a while longer , and grow more in love with it , and then I will repent , that is , then I will be sure to hate it , when I shal most love it . 2. To repent signifies to be sorrowful , to be ashamed , and to wish it had never been done . And then see the folly of this temptation . I would not sin , but that I hope to repent of it , that is , I would not do this thing but that I hope to be sorrowful for doing it , and I hope to come to shame for it , heartily to be ashamed of my doings , and I hope to be in that condition , that I would give all the world I had never done it ; that is , I hope to feel and apprehend an evil infinitely greater then the pleasures of my sin ; & are these arguments fit to move a man to sin ? what can affright a man from it , if these invite him to it ? it is asifa man should invite one to be a partner of his treason by telling him , if you will joyn with me , you shal have all these effects by it ; you shall be hang'd , drawn and quarter'd , and your blood shall be corrupted , and your estate forfeited , and you shall have many other reasons to wish you had never done it : He that should use this Rhetorick in earnest , might well be accounted a mad man : This is to scare a man , not to allure him , and so is the other when we understand it truely . 3. For I consider , He that repents , wishes he had never done that sin . Now I ask , does he wish so upon reason , or without reason ? Surely , if he may when he hath satisfied his lust , ask God pardon , and be admitted upon as easie termes for the time to come as if he had not done the sin , he hath no reason to be sorrowful , or wish he had not done it . For though he hath done it , and pleased himself by enjoying the pleasure of sin for that season , yet all is well again ; and let him onely be carefull now , and there is no hurt done , his pardon is certain . How can any man that understands the reason of his actions and passions wish , that he had never done that sin in which then he had pleasure , and now he feels no worse inconvenience . But he that truely repents , wishes , and would give all the world he had never done it . Surely then his present condition in respect of his past sin hath some very great evil in it , why else should he be so much troubled ? True , and this it is . He that hath committed sins after baptisme , is fallen out of the favour of God , is tied to hard duty for the time to come , to ory vehemently unto God , to call night and day for pardon , to be in great fear and tremblings of heart , lest God should never forgive him , lest God will never take off his sentence of eternal paines , and in this fear and in some degrees of it he will remain all the dayes of his life , and if he hopes to be quit of that , yet he knowes not how many degrees of Gods anger still hang over his head ; how many sad miseries shall afflict , and burne , and purifie him in this world with a sharpnesse so poinant as to divide the marrow from the bones ; and for these reasons , a considering man that knows what it is to repent , wishes with his soul , he had never sinned ; and therefore grieves in proportion to his former crimes , and present misery and future danger . And now , suppose that you can repent when you will , that is , that you can grieve when you will , ( though no man can do it , no man can grieve when he please ) though he could shed tears when he list , he cannot grieve without a real , or an apprehended infelicity , but , suppose it , and that he can fear when he please , and that he can love when he please , or what he please ; that is , suppose a man to be able to say to his palate , though I love sweet meats , yet to morrow I will hate and loath them and believe them bitter and distastful things ; suppose ( I say ) all these impssibilties , yet since , repentance does suppose a man to be in a state of such real misery that he hath reason to curse the day in which he sinned , is this a fit argument to invite a man , that is in his wits , to sin ? to sin in hope of repentance ? as if dangers of falling into hell , and fear of the Divine anger , and many degrees of the Divine judgements , and a lasting sorrow , and a perpetual labour , and a never ceasing trembling , and a troubled conscience and a sorrowful spirit were fit things to be desired or hoped for . The sum is this . He that commits sins shall perish eternally if he never does repent . And if he does repent and yet untimely , he is not the better ; and if he does not repent with an intire , a perfect and complete repentance , he is not the better : But if he does , yet repentance is a duty full of fears and sorrow , and labour ; a vexation to the spirit an asslictive , paenal , or punitive duty , a duty which suffers for sin , and labours for grace , which abides and suffers little images of hell in the way to heaven ; and though it be the onely way to felicity , yet it is beset with thorns and daggers of sufferance , and with rocks and mountains of duty . Let no man therefore dare to sin upon hopes of repentance : for he is a foole and a hypocrite , that now chooses and approves , what he knows hereafter he must condemn . 2. The second generall consideration is . The necessity , the absolute necessity of holy living . God hath made a Covenant with us , that we must give up our selves , bodies and souls , not a dying , but aliving , and healthfull sacrifice . He hath forgiven all our old sins , and we have bargained to quit them , from the time that we first come to Christ , and give our names to him ; and to keep all his Cominandements . We have taken the Sacramentall oath , like that of the old Romane Militia , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , we must beleeve , and obey , and do all that is commanded us , and keep our station , and fight against the flesh , the world , and the devil , not to throw away our military girdle , and we are to do what is bidden us , or to die for it , even all that is bidden us , according to our power . For , pretend nor , that Gods Commandements are impossible . It is dishonourable to think God enjoyns us to do more then he enables us to do ; and it is a contradiction to say , we cannot do all that we can ; and [ through Christ which strengthens me , I can do all things , saith S. Paul , ] however , we can do to the utmost of our strength , and beyond that we cannot take thought ; impossibilities enter not into deliberation , but according to our abilities , and naturall powers , assisted by Gods grace , so God hath covenanted with us to live a holy life . [ For in Christ Jesus nothing avayleth but a new creature , nothing but faith working by charity , nothing but keeping the Commandements of God. ] They are all the words of S. Paul before quoted ; to which he addes , [ and as many as walk according to this rule , peace be on them and mercy . ] This is the Covenant , [ they are the Israel of God ] upon those peace and mercy shall abide ; if they become a new creature , wholly transformed in the image of their minde ; if they have faith , and this faith be an operative working faith , a faith that produces a holy life , a faith that works by charity ; if they keep the Commandements of God , then they are within the Covenant of mercy , but not else ; for , in Christ Jesus nothing else avayleth . * To the same purpose are those words Hebr. 12. 14. Follow peace with all men , and holinesse , without which no man shall see the Lord. ] Peace with all men ] implies both justice and charity , without which it is impossible to preserve peace : Holinesse ] implies all our duty towards God , universall diligence ; and this must be followed , that is , pursued with diligence , in a lasting course of life and exercise , and without this , we shall never see the face of God. I need urge no more authorities to this purpose ; these two are as certain and convincing as two thousand , and since thus much is actually required and is the condition of the Covenant ; it is certain that sorrow for not having done what is commanded to be done ; and a purpose to do what is necessary to be actually performed , will not acquit us before the righteous judgement of God. * [ For the grace of God hath appeared to all men , teaching us that denying ungodlinesse and worldly lusts , we should live godly , justly , and soberly in this present world . ] for upon these termes alone we must [ look for the blessed hope , the glorious appearing of the great God , and our Saviour Jesus Christ ] . * I shall no longer insist upon this particular , but onely propound it to your consideration , To what purpose are all those Commandements in Scripture , of every page almost in it , [ of living holily , and according to the Commandements of God , of adorning the Gospel of God , of walking as in the day , of walking in light , of pure and undefiled religion , of being holy as God is holy , of being humble and meek , as Christ is humble , of putting on the Lord Jesus , of living a spirituall life , ] but that it is the purpose of God , and the intention and designe of Christ dying for us , and the Covenant made with man , that we should expect heaven upon no other termes in the world , but of a holy life , in the faith and obedience of the Lord Jesus . Now if a vitious person , when he comes to the latter end of his dayes , one that hath lived a wicked , ungodly life , can for any thing he can do upon his death-bed , be said to live a holy life ; then his hopes are not desperate ; but he that hopes upon this onely , for which God hath made him no promise , I must say of him as Galen said of consumptive persons , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the more they hope , the worse they are ; and the relying upon such hopes is an approach to the grave , and a sad eternity . Peleos & Priami transit , vel Nestoris aetas & fuerat serum jant tibi desinere . Eja age , rumpe moras , quo te spectabimus usque Dum quid sis dubitas , jam potes esse nihil . Mart. l. 2. ep . 64. And now it will be a vain question to ask , whether or no God cannot save a dying man that repents after a vitious life ? For it is true , God can do it if he please ; and he can raise children to Abraham out of the stones , and he can make ten thousand worlds if he sees good , and he can do what he list , and he can save an ill living man though he never repent at all , so much as upon his death-bed . All this he can do ; but Gods power is no ingredient into this question : we are never the better that God can do it , unlesse he also will ; and whether he will , or no , we are to learn from himself , and what he hath declared to be his will in holy Scripture . Nay since God hath said , that without actuall holinesse no man shall see God , God by his own will hath restrained his power , and though absolutely he can do all things , yet he cannot do against his own word . * And indeed the rewards of heaven are so great and glorious , and Christs burden is so light , his yoke is so easie , that it is a shamelesse impudence to expect so great glories at a lesse rate then so little a service , at a lower rate then a holy life . It cost the Eternall Son of God his life blood to obtain heaven for us upon that condition , and who then shall die again for us , to get heaven for us upon easier conditions . What would you do if God should command you to kill your eldest son ? or to work in the mines for a thousand yeers together ? or to fast all thy life time with bread and water ? were not heaven a great bargain even after all this ? and when God requires nothing of us but to live soberly , justly , and godly , ( which very things of themselves , to man are a very great felicity , and necessary to his present well-being ) shall we think this to be a load , and an unsufferable burden ? and that heaven is so little a purchase at that price , that God in meer justice will take a death-bed sigh or groan , and a few unprofitable tears and promises in exchange for all our duty ? Strange it should be so : but stranger that any man should rely upon such a vanity , when from Gods word he hath nothing to warrant such a confidence . But these men do like the Tyrant Dionysius , who stole from Apollo his golden cloak , and gave him a cloak of Arcadian home-spun , saying that this was lighter in summer , and warmer in winter . These men sacrilegiously rob God of the service of all their golden dayes , and serve him in their hoary head , in their furs and grave clothes ; and pretend that this late service is more agreeable to the Divine mercy on one side , and humane infirmity on the other , and so dispute themselves into an irrecoverable condition , having no other ground to rely upon a death-bed , or late-begun-repentance , but because they resolve to enjoy the pleasures of sin , and for heaven , they will put that to the venture of an after-game . These men sow in the flesh , and would reap in the spirit , live to the Devil , and die to God , and therefore it is but just in God that their hopes should be desperate , and their craft be folly , and their condition be , the unexpected , unfeared inheritance of an eternall sorrow . Lastly . Our last inquiry is into the time , the last or latest time of beginning our repentance . Must a man repent a yeer , or two , or seven yeers , or ten , or twenty before his death ? or what is the last period after which all repentance will be untimely and ineffectuall ? To this captious question I have many things to oppose . 1. We have entred into covenant with God , to serve him from the day of our Baptisme to the day of our death . He hath [ sworn this oath to us , that he would grant unto us , that we being delivered from fear of our enemies , might serve him without fear in holinesse and righteousnesse before him [ all the dayes of our life ] . Now although God will not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , forget our infirmities , but passe by the weaknesses of an honest , a watchfull , & industrious person ; yet the Covenant he makes with us is from the day of our first voluntary profession , to our grave : and according as we by sins retire from our first undertaking ; so our condition is insecure : there is no other Covenant made with us , no new beginnings of another period ; but if we be returned , and sin be cancelled , and grace be actually obtained ; then we are in the first condition of pardon ; but because it is uncertain when a man can have masterd his vices , and obtain'd the graces , therefore no man can tell any set time when he must begin . 2. Scripture describing the duty of repenting sinners , names no other time but [ to day . To day if ye will hear his voyce harden not your hearts . 3. The duty of a Christian is described in Scripture , to be such as requires length of time , and a continued industry . [ Let us run with patience the ●ace , that is set before us . ] and [ Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself , lest ye be wearied , and faint in your mindes . ] So great a preparation is not for the agony and contention of an hour , or a day , or a week , but for the whole life of a Christian , or for great parts of its abode . 4. There is a certain period and time set for our repentance , and beyond that all our industry is ineffectuall . There is a day of visitation , our own day , and there is a day of visitation , that is Gods day . This appeared in the case of Jerusalem . [ O Jerusalem , Jerusalem , if thou hadst known the time of thy visitation , at least in this thy day . ] Well! they neglected it , and then there was a time of Gods visitation which was his day ; called in Scripture , [ the day of the Lord ] and because they had neglected their own day , they fell into inevitable ruine : No repentance could have prevented their finall ruine . And this which was true in a Nation , is also clearly affirmed true in the case of single persons . [ Look diligently lest any fail of the grace of God , lest there be any person among you as Esau , who sold his birth-right , and afterwards when he would have inherited the blessing , he was rejected , for he found no place for his repentance though he sought it carefully with tears . ] Esau had time enough to repent his bargain as long as he lived ; he wept sorely for his folly , and carefulnesse sate heavy upon his soul , and yet he was not heard , nor his repentance accepted ; for the time was past : And [ take heed ] saith the Apostle , lest it come to passe to any of you to be in the same case . Now if ever there be a time in which repentance is too late , it must be the time of our death-bed , and the last time of our life : And after a man is fallen into the displeasure of Almighty God , the longer he lies in his sin without repentance and emendation , the greater is his danger , and the more of his allowed time is spent , and no man can antecedently , or before-hand , be sure that the time of his repentance is not past ; and those who neglect the call of God , and refuse to hear him call in the day of grace , God will laugh at them when their calamity comes : they shall call , and the Lord shall not hear them . * And this was the case of the five foolish virgins when the arrest of death surprized them : they discovered their want of oil , they were troubled at it , they beg'd oil , they were refused , they did something towards the proouring of the oil of grace , ( for they went out to buy oil ) and after all this stir the bridegroom came before they had finished their journey , and they were shut out from the communion of the bridegrooms joyes . Therefore concerning the time of beginning to repent , no man is certain but he that hath done his work . Mortem venientem nemo hilaris excipit nisi qui se ad eam diù composuerat , said Seneca . He onely dies cheerfully who stood waiting for death in a ready dresse of a long preceding preparation . He that repents to day , repents late enough that he did not begin yesterday : But he that puts it off till to morrow is vain and miserable . — hodiè tam posthume vivere serum est Ille sapit quisquis posthume vixit heri . Martial . l. 2. ep 90. Well! but what will you have a man do that hath lived wickedly , and is now cast upon his death-bed ? shall this man despair , and neglect all the actions of piety , and the instruments of restitution in his sicknesse ? No. God forbid . Let him do what he can then ; It is certain it will be little enough : for all those short gleames of piety , and flashes of lightning will help towards the alleviating some degrees of misery ; and if the man recovers , they are good beginnings of a renewed piety : and Ahabs tears and humiliation , though it went no further , had a proportion of a reward , though nothing to the portions of eternity . So that he that sayes , it is every day necessary to repent , cannot be supposed to discourage the piety of any day : a death-bed piety , when things are come to that sad condition may have many good purposes : therefore even then neglect nothing that can be done . Well! But shall such persons despair of salvation ? To them I shall onely return this . That they are to consider the conditions which on one side God requires of us , and on the other side , whether they have done accordingly ? Let them consider upon what termes God hath promised salvation , and whether they have made themselves capable by performing their part of the obligation . If they have not , I must tell them , that , not to hope where God hath made no promise , is not the sin of despair , but the misery of despair . A man hath no ground to hope that ever he shall be made an Angel , and yet , that not hoping , is not to be called , despair : and no man can hope for heaven without repentance ; And for such a man to despair , is not the sin , but the misery . If such persons have a promise of heaven , let them shew it , and hope it , and enjoy it ; if they have no promise , they must thank themselves , for bringing themselves into a condition without the Covenant , without a promise , hopelesse and miserable . But will not trusting in the merits of Jesus Christ save such a man ? For that we must be tried by the word of God : In which there is no contract at all made with a dying person that hath lived in Name a Christian , in practise a Heathen : and we shall dishonour the sufferings and redemption of our blessed Saviour , if we make them to be a Umbrello to shelter our impious and ungodly living . But that no such person may after a wicked life repose himself in his deathbed upon Christs merits , observe but these two places of scripture [ Our Saviour ●esus Christ who gave himself for us ] what to do ? that we might live as we list ? and hope to be saved by his merits ? No But [ that he might redeem us from all iniquity , and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works . These things speak and exhort , ] saith Saint Paul. But more plainly yet , in S. Peter [ Christ bare our sins in his own body on the tree . ] To what end ? [ that we being dead unto sin should live unto righteousnesse . ] since therefore our living a holy life is the end of Christs dying that sad and holy death for us , he that trusts on it to evil purposes , and to excuse his vicious life , does ( as much as lies in him ) make void the very purpose and designe of Christs passion , and dishonours the blood of the everlasting covenant : which covenant was confirmed by the blood of Christ : but as it brought peace from God , so it requires a holy life from us . But why may not we be saved as well as the thief upon the crosse ? even because our case is nothing alike . When Christ dies once more for us , we may look for such another instance ; not till then . But this thiefe did but then come to Christ ; he knew him not before ; and his case was as if a Turk or heathen should be converted to Christianity , and be baptized , and enter newly into the Covenant upon his deathbed . Then God pardons all his sins ; and so God does to Christians when they are baptized , or first give up their names to Christ by a voluntarie confirmation of their baptismal vow : but when they have once entred into the Covenant , they must performe what they promise , and to what they are obliged . The thief had made no contract with God in Jesus Christ , and therefore failed of none ; onely the defaillances of the state of ignorance Christ paid for at the thiefes admission . But we that have made a covenant with God in baptisme , and failed of it all our dayes , and then returne at night , when we cannot work ; have nothing to plead for our selves , because we have made all that to be uselesse to us which God with so much mercy and miraculous wisdom , gave us to secure our interest , and hopes of heaven . And therefore let no Christian man who hath covenanted with God to give him the service of his life , think that God will be answered with the sighs and prayers of a dying man ; for all that great obligation which lies upon us cannot be transacted in an instant , when we have loaded our souls with sin , and made them empty of vertue ; we cannot so soon grow up to a perfect man in Christ Jesus . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you cannot have an apple , or a cherry , but you must stay its proper periods , and let it blossom and knot , and grow and ripen , [ and in due season we shall reap if we faint not ] ( saith the Apostle ) far much lesse may we expect that the fruits of repentance , and the issues and degrees of holinesse shall be gathered in a few dayes or houres . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; you must not expect such fruits in a little time , nor with little labour . Suffer therefore not your selves to be deceived by false principles , and vain confidences ; for no man can in a moment root out the long contracted habits of vice , nor upon his deathbed make use of all that variety of preventing , accompanying and persevering grace , which God gave to man in mercy ; because man would need it all , because without it he could not be saved ; nor upon his death-bed can he exercise the duty of mortification ; nor cure his drunkennesse then , nor his lust , by any act of Christian discipline ; nor run with patience ; nor resist unto blood ; nor endure with long sufferance ; but he can pray , and groan , and call to God , and resolve to live well when he is dying ; but this is but just as the Nobles of Xerxes , when in a storm they were to lighten the ship to preserve their Kings life , they did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they did their obeysance , and leaped into the sea : so ( I fear ) doe these men , pray and mourn , and worship and so leap overboard into an ocean of eternal and into lerable calamity . From which God deliver us , and all faithful people . Hunc volo laudari qui sine morte potest . Mart. ep . l. 1. Vivere quod propero pauper , nec inutilis annis Da veniam , proper at vivere nemo satis . Differat hoc , patrios optat qui vincere census Atriaqueimmodicis arctat imaginibus . Mart. l. 2. ep . 90. Sermon . VII . THE DECEITFVLNESSE Of the HEART . 17. Jeremy 9. The heart is deceitful above all things , and desperatly wicked ; who can know it ? FOlly and subtiltie divide the greatest part of mankinde , and there is no other difference but this , that some are crafty enough to deceive ; Others foolish enough to be cozened and abused : And yet the scales also turn , for they that are the most craftie to cozen others , are the veriest Fools and most of all abused themselves . They rob their neighbour of his mony , and loose their own innocency ; they disturb his rest , and vex their own Conscience ; they throw him into prison , and themselves into Hell ; they make poverty to be their brothers portion , and damnation to be their own . Man entred into the world first alone ; but as soon as he met with one companion , he met with three to cozen him ; The Serpent , and Eve , and himself , all joyned ; first to make him a foole , and to deceive him , and then to make him miserable . But he first cozened himself , giving himself up to believe a lie , and being desirous to listen to the whispers of a tempting spirit , he sinned , before he fell , that is , he had within him a false understanding and a depraved will , and these were the Parents of his disobedience , and this was the parent of his infelicity , and a great occasion of ours . And then it was that he entred for himself and his posterity into the condition of an ignorant , credulous , easie , wilful , passionate , and impotent person ; apt to be abused , and so loving to have it so , that if no body else will abuse him , he will be sure to abuse himself , by ignorance and evil principles , being open to an enemy , and by wilfulnesse and Sensuality , doing to himself the most unpardonable injuries in the whole world . So that the condition of Man , in the rudenesses and first lines of its visage , seemes very miserable , deformed , and accursed . For a man is helplesse and vain ; of a condition so exposed to calamity , that a raisin is able to kill him ; any trooper out of the Egyptian army , a flie can do it , when it goes on Gods errand ; the most contemptible accident can destroy him , the smallest chance affright him , every future contingency , when but considered as possible , can amaze him ; and he is incompass'd with potent and malicious enemies , subtle and implacable : what shall this poor helplesse thing do ? trust in God ? Him he hath offended , and he fears him as an enemy ; and God knows , if we look onely on our selves , and our own demerits , we have to much reason so to doe . Shall he rely upon Princes ? God help poor Kings : they rely upon their Subjects , they fight with their swords , levy forces with their money , consult with their Counsels , hear with their ears , and are strong onely in their union , and many times they use all these things against them ; but however , they can do nothing without them while they live and yet if ever they can die , they are not to be trusted to . Now Kings and Princes die so sadly and not criously ; that it was used for a proverbe in holy scripture , ye shall die like men , and fall like one of the Princes . Who then shall we trust in ? in our Friend ? Poorman ! he may help thee in one thing , and need thee in ten ; he may pull thee out of the ditch , and his foot may slip and fal into it himself ; he gives thee counsel to choose a wife , and himself is to seek how prudently to choose his religion ; he counsels thee to abstain from a duel , and yet slayes his own soul with drinking , like a person void of all understanding he is willing enough to preserve thy interest , and is very carelesse of his own : for he does highly despise to betray or to be false to thee , and in the mean time is not his own friend , and is false to God , and then his friendship may be useful to thee in some circumstances of fortune ; but no security to thy condition . But what then ? shall we relie upon our patron , like the Roman Clients , who waited hourly upon their persons , and daily upon their baskets , and nightly upon their lusts , and married their friendships , and contracted also their hatred and quarrels ; This is a confidence will deceive us . For they may lay us by , justly or unjustly , they may grow weary of doing benefits , or their fortunes may change or they may be charitable in their gifts and burthensom in their offices ; able to feed you , but unable to counsel you ; or your need may be longer then their kindnesses , or such in which they can give you no assistance ; and indeed generally it is so in all the instances of men : we have a friend that is wise ; but I need not his counsel , but his meat ; or my patron is bountiful in his largesses , but I am troubled with a sad spirit ; and money and presents do me no more ease , then perfumes do to a broken arme : we seek life of a Physician that dies , and go to him for health , who cannot cure his own breath , or gowt ; and so become vain in our imaginations , abused in our hopes , restlesse in our passions , impatient in our calamity , unsupported in our need , exposed to enemies , wandring and wilde , without counsel and without remedy . At last after the infatuating and deceiving all our confidences without , we have nothing left us , but to return home , and dwell within our selves : for we have a sufficient stock of self-love , that we may be confident of our own affections , we may trust our selves surely ; for what we want in skill , we shall make up in diligence , and our industry shall supply the want of other circumstances : and no man vnderstands my own case so well as I do my self , and no man will judge so faithfully as I shall do for my self ; for I am most concern'd not to abuse my self ; and if I do , I shall be the loser , and therefore may best rely upon my self Alas ! and God help us ! we shall finde it to be no such matter : For we neither love our selves well , nor understand our own case , we are partial in our own questions , deceived in our sentences , carelesse of our interests , and the most false , perfidious creatures to our selves in the whole world : even the Heart of a man a mans own heart is deceitful above all things , and desperately wicked , who can know it ? And who can choose but know it ? And there is no greater argument of the deceitfulnesse of our Hearts , then this , that no man can know it all ; it cosens us in the very number of its cosenage : But yet we can reduce it all to two heads . We say concerning a false man , trust him not for he will deceive you , and we say concerning a weak and broken staffe , lean not upon it , for that will also deceive you . The man deceives because he is false , and the staffe because it is weak , and the heart because it is both . So that it is deceitful above all things , that is , failing and disabled to support us in many things ; but in other things where it can , it is false and desperately wicked . The first sort of deceitfulnesse is its calamitie , and the second is its iniquity , and that is the worst Calamitie of the two . 1. The heart is deceitfull in its strength ; and when we have the groweth of a Man , we have the weaknesses of a childe : nay more yet , and it is a sad consideration , the more we are in age , the weaker in our courage . It appears in the heats and forwardnesses of new converts , which are like to the great emissions of Lightning , or like huge fires , which flame and burn without measure , even all that they can ; till from flames they descend to still fires , from thence to smoak , from smoak to embers , from thence to ashes ; cold and pale , like ghosts , or the phantastick images of Death . And the primitive Church were zealous in their Religion up to the degree of Cherubins , and would run as greedily to the sword of the hangman , to die for the cause of God , as we do now to the greatest joy and entertainment of a Christian spirit , even to the receiving of the holy Sacrament . A man would think it reasonable that the first infancy of Christianity should , according to the nature of first beginnings , have been remisse , gentle , and unactive , and that according us the object or evidence of faith grew , which in every Age hath a great degree of Argument superadded to its confirmation ; so should the habit also and the grace , the longer it lasts & the more obiections it runs through , it still should shew a brighter and more certain light to discover the divinity of its principle ; and that after the more examples , and new accidents and strangenesses of providence , and daily experience , and the multitude of miracles , still the Christian should grow more certain in his faith , more refreshed in his hope , and warm in his charity ; the very nature of these graces increasing and swelling upon the very nourishment of experience , and the multiplication of their own acts . And yet because the heart of man is false , it suffers the fires of the Altar to go out , and the flames lessen by the multitude of fuel . But indeed it is because we put on strange fire , & put out the fire upon our hearths by letting in a glaring Sun beam , the fire of lust ; or the heates of an angry spirit , to quench the fires of God , and suppresse the sweet cloud of incense . The heart of man hath not strength enough to think one good thought of itself , it cannot command its own attention to a prayer of ten lines long ; but before its end it shall wander after some thing that is to no purpose : and no wonder then that it grows weary of a holy religion , which consists of so many parts as make the businesse of a whole life . And there is no greater argument in the world of our spiritual weaknesse and falsnesse of our hearts in the matters of religion , then the backwardnesse which most men have alwayes , and all men have somtimes to say their prayers : so weary of their length , so glad when they are done , so wittie to excuse and frustrate an opportunity ; and yet there is no manner of trouble in the duty , no wearinesse of bones , no violent labours ; nothing but begging a blessing , and receiving it ; nothing but doing our selves the greatest honour of speaking to the greatest person , and greatest king of the world ; and that we should be unwilling to do this , so unable to continue in it , so backward to return to it ; so without gust and relish in the doing it , can have no visible reason in the nature of the thing , but something within us , a strange sicknesse in the heart , a spiritual nauseating or loathing of Manna , something that hath no name , but we are sure it comes from a weake , a faint , and false heart . And yet this weak heart is strong in passions , violent in desires , unresistable in its appetites , impatient in its lust , furious in anger ; here are strengths enough , one would think : But so have I seen a man in a feaver , sick and distempered , unable to walk , lesse able to speak sence , or to do an act of counsel ; and yet when his feaver hath boild up to a delirium , he was strong enough to beat his nurse keeper and his doctor too ; and to resist the loving violence of all his friends , who would faine binde him down to reason and his bed : And yet we still say he is weak and sick to death . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for these strengths of madnesse are not health , but furiousnesse and disease ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , It is weaknesse another way ; And so are the strengths of a mans heart ; they are fetters and manacles ; strong , but they are the cordage of imprisonment , so strong , that the heart is not able to stir . And yet it cannot but be a huge sadnesse , that the heart shall pursue a temporal interest with wit and diligence , and an unwearied industry , and shall not have strength enough in a matter that concerns its Eternal interest to answer one obiection , to resist one assault , to defeate one art of the divel ; but shall certainly and infallibly fall when ever it is tempted to a pleasure . This , if it be examined , will prove to be a deceit indeed , a pretence , rather then true upon a just cause , that is , it is not a natural , but a moral & a vicious weaknesse ; and we may try it in one or two familiar instances . One of the great strengths , shall I call it ? or weaknesses of the heart is , that it is strong , violent and passionate in its lusts , and weak and deceitful to resist any . Tell the tempted person , that if he act his lust , he dishonours his body , makes himself a servant to follie , and one flesh with a harlot , he defiles the Temple of God , and him that defiles a Temple will God destroy : Tell him that the Angels who love to be present in the nastinesse and filth of prisons , that they may comfort and assist chast souls , and holy persons there abiding yet they are impatient to behold or come neer the filthynesse of a lustful person : Tell him , that this sin is so ugly , that the divels , who are spirits , yet they delight to counterfeit the acting of this crime , and descend unto the daughters or sons of men , that they may rather lose their natures , then not help to set a lust forward : Tell them these and ten thousand things more ; you move them no more , then if you should read one of Tullies orations to a mule ; for the truth is , they have no power to resist it , much lesse to master it , their heart fails them when they meet their Mistresse ; and they are driven like a fool to the stocks , or a Bull to the slaughter-house : And yet their heart deceives them ; not because it cannot resist the temptation , but because it will not go about it : For it is certain , the heart can , if it list : For let a Boy enter into your chamber of pleasure , and discover your folly , either your lust disbands , or your shame hides it ; you will not , you care not do it before a stranger Boy ; and yet that you dare do it before the eyes of the All-seeing God , is impudence and folly , and a great conviction of the vanity of your pretence , and the falsenesse of your heart . If thou beest a man given to thy appetite , and thou lovest a pleasant morsell as thy life , do not declame against the precepts of Temperance , as impossible : Try this once ; abstain from that draught , or that dish . I cannot . No ? Give this man a great blow on the face , or tempt him with twenty pound , and he shall fast from morning till night , and then feast himself with your money , and plain wholesome meat . And if Chastity and Temperance be so easie , that a man may be brought to either of them with so ready and easie instruments ; Let us not suffer our hearts to deceive us by the weaknesse of its pretences , and the strength of its desires : For we do more for a Boy , then for God ; and for 20. pound , then Heaven it self . But thus it is in every thing else ; take an Hereticke , a Rebel , a person that hath an ill cause to mannage ; what he wants in the strength of his reason , he shall make it up with diligence ; and a person that hath Right on his side is cold , indiligent , lazie , and unactive , trusting that the goodnesse of his Cause will do it alone ; But so , wrong prevails , while evil persons are zealous in a Bad matter , and others are remisse in a Good ; And the same person shall be very industrious alwayes when he hath least reason so to be . That 's the first particular . The heart is deceitfull in the mannaging of its naturall strengths ; it is Naturally and Physically strong , but Morally weak , and impotent . 2. The Heart of man is deceitfull in making judgement concerning its own Acts. It does not know when it is pleased , or displeased , it is peevish and trifling , it would and it would not , and it is in many Cases impossible to know whether a mans heart desires such a thing or not . Saint Ambrose hath an odde saying , Facilius inveneris innocentem , quam qui poenitentiani digne egerit , It is easier to finde a man that hath lived innocently , then one that hath truly repented him , with a grief and care great according to the merit of his sins . Now suppose a man that hath spent his younger yeers in vanity and folly , and is by the grace of God apprehensive of it , and thinks of returning to sober counsels , this man will finde his heart so false , so subtil and fugitive , so secret and undiscernable , that it will be very hard to discerne , whether he repents , or no. For if he considers that he hates sin , and therefore repents ; Alas ! he so hates it , that he dares not , if he be wise , tempt himself with an opportunity to act it : for in the midst of that which he calls hatred , he hath so much love left for it , that if the sin comes again and speaks him fair , he is lost again , he kisses the fire , and dies in its embraces . And why else should it be necessary for us to pray , that we be not lead into temptation ? but because we hate the sin , and yet love it too well ; we curse it , and yet follow it ; we are angry at our selves , and yet cannot be without it ; we know it undoes us , but we think it pleasant ; And when we are to execute the fierce anger of the Lord upon our sins , yet we are kinde-hearted , and spare the Agag , the reigning sin , the splendid temptation , we have some kindnesses left towards it . These are but ill signes . How then shall I know by some infallible token , that I am a true Penitent ? What and if I weep for my sins ? will you not then give me leave to conclude my heart right with God , and at enmity with sin ? It may be so . But there are some friends that weep at parting ; and is not thy weeping a forrow of affection ? It is a sad thing to part with our long companion . Or it may be thou weepest , because thou wouldest have a signe to cozen thy self withall ; for some men are more desirous to have a signe , then the thing signified ; they would do something to shew their Repentance , that themselves may beleeve themselves to be Penitents , having no reason from within to beleeve so . And I have seen some persons weep heartily for the losse of six pence , or for the breaking of a glasse , or at some trifling accident ; and they that do so cannot pretend to have their tears valued at a bigger rate then they will confesse their passion to be when they weep , and are vexed for the durting of their linnen , or some such trifle , for which the least passion is too big an expence . So that a man cannot tell his own heart by his tears , or the truth of his repentance by those short gusts of sorrow . How then ? Shall we suppose a man to pray against his sin ? So did Saint Austin , when in his youth he was tempted to lust and uncleannesse , he prayed against it , and secretly desired that God would not hear him : for here the heart is cunning to deceive it self . For no man did ever heartily pray against his sin in the midst of a temptation to it , if he did in any sence or degree listen to the temptation : For to pray against a sin , is to have desires contrary to it , and that cannot consist with any love , or any kindnesse to it . We pray against it , and yet do it , and then pray again , and do it again ; and we desire it , and yet pray against the desires , and that 's almost a contradiction : Now because no man can be supposed to will against his own will , or choose against his own desires ; it is plain that we cannot know whether we mean what we say , when we pray against sin , but by the event ; If we never act it , never entertain it , alwayes resist it , ever fight against it ; and finally do prevail ; then at length we may judge our own heart to have meant honestly in that one particular . Nay our heart is so deceitfull in this matter of Repentance , that the Masters of spirituall life are fain to invent suppletory Arts and stratagems to secure the duty . And we are advised to mourn , because we do not mourn , to be sorrowfull because we are not sorrowfull . Now if we be sorrowfull in the first stage , how happens it that we know it not ? Is our heart so secret to our selves ? But if we be not sorrowfull in the first period , how shall we be so , or know it in the second period ? For we may as well doubt concerning the sincerity of the second or reflex act of sorrow , as of the first and direct action . And therefore we may also as well be sorrowfull the third time , for want of the just measure , or hearty meaning of the second sorrow , as be sorrowfull the second time for want of true sorrow at the first ; and so on to infinite . And we shall never be secure in this Artifice , if we be not certain of our naturall and hearty passion in our direct and first apprehensions . Thus many persons think themselves in a good estate , and make no question of their salvation , being confident onely because they are confident ; and they are so , because they are bidden to be so ; and yet they are not confident at all , but extreamly timerous and fearfull . How many persons are there in the world , that say they are sure of their salvation , and yet they dare not die ? And if any man pretends , that he is now sure he shall be saved , and that he cannot fall away from grace ; there is no better way to confute him , then by advising him to send for the Surgeon , and bleed to death . For what should hinder him ? not the sin : for it cannot take him from Gods favour : not the change of his condition : for he sayes he is sure to go to a Better : why does he not then say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , like the Romane gallants when they decreed to die . The reason is plainly this . They say they are confident , and yet are extreamly timerous ; they professe to beleeve that Doctrine , and yet dare not trust it : nay they think they beleeve , but they do not ; so false is a mans heart ; so deceived in its own Acts , so great a stranger to its own sentence and opinions . 3. The heart is deceitfull in its own resolutions and purposes : for many times men make their resolutions onely in their understanding , not in their wills ; they resolve it sitting to be done , not decree that they will do it ; And instead of beginning to be reconciled to God , by the renewed and hearty purposes of holy living , they are advanced so far onely , as to be convinced , and apt to be condemned by their own sentence . But suppose our resolutions advanced further , and that our Will and Choices also are determined ; see how our hearts deceive us . 1. We resolve against those sins that please us not , or where temptation is not present , and think by an over-acted zeal against some sins to get an indulgence for some others . There are some persons who will be Drunk ; The Company , or the discourse , or the pleasure of madnesse , or an easie nature , and a thirsty soul ; something is amisse , that cannot be helped ; But they will make amends , and the next day pray twice as much . Or it may be they must satisfie a beastly lust ; but they will not be drunk for all the world ; and hope by their Temperance to Commute for their want of Chastity : But they attend not the eraft of their secret enemy , their Heart : for it is not love of the vertue ; if it were , they would love Vertue in all its Instances ; for Chastity is as much a vertue as Temperance , and God hates Lust as much as he hates Drunkennesse . * But this sin is against my health , or it may be it is against my lust , it makes me impotent , and yet impatient , full of desire , and empty of strength . Or else I do an act of Prayer , lest my conscience become unquiet , while it is not satisfied or cozened with some intervals of Religion : I shall think my self a damned wretch , if I do nothing for my soul ; but if I do , I shall call the one sin that remains nothing but my Infirmity ; and therefore it is my excuse ; and my Prayer is not my Religion , but my Peace , and my Pretence , and my Fallacy . 2. We resolve against our sin , that is , we will not act it in those circumstances as formerly ; I will not be drunk in the streets ; but I may sleep till I be recovered , and then come forth sober ; or if I be overtaken , it shall be in Civill and Gentile company ; Or it may be not so much ; I will leave my intemperance and my Lust too , but I will remember it with pleasure , I will revolve the past action in my minde , and entertain my fancy with a moros delectation in it , and by a fiction of imagination will represent it present , and so be satisfied with a little effeminacy , or phantastick pleasure . Beloved , suffer not your hearts so to cozen you , as if any man can be faithfull in much , that is faithlesse in a little . He certainly is very much in love with sin , and parts with it very unwillingly , that keeps its Picture , and wears its Favour , and delights in the fancy of it , even with the same desire , as a most passionate widow parts with her dearest husband , even when she can no longer enjoy him : But certainly her staring all day upon his picture , and weeping over his Robe , and wringing her hands over his children , are no great signes that she hated him : And just so do most men hate , and accordingly part with their sins . 3. We resolve against it when the opportunity is slipped , and lay it aside as long as the temptation please , even till it come again , and no longer . How many men are there in the world , that against every Communion renew their vowes of holy living ? Men , that for twenty , for thirty yeers together , have been perpetually resolving against what they daily Act ; and sure enough they did beleeve themselves : And yet if a man had daily promised us a curtesie , and failed us but ten times , when it was in his power to have done it , we should think , we had reason never to beleeve him more : And can we then reasonably beleeve the resolutions of our hearts , which they have falsified so many hundred times ? We resolve against a religious Time , because then it is the Custome of men , and the Guise of the Religion ; Or we resolve when we are in a great danger , and then we promise any thing , possible or impossible , likely or unlikely , all is one to us , we onely care to remove the present pressure , and when that is over , and our fear is gone , and no love remaining , our condition being returned to our first securities , our resolutions also revert to their first indifferencies : Or else we cannot look a temptation in the face , and we resolve against it , hoping never to be troubled with its arguments and importunity . Epictetus tells us of a Gentleman returning from banishment , in his journey towards home called at his house , told a sad story of an Imprudent life , the greatest part of which being now spent , he was resolved for the future to live Philosophically , and entertain no businesse , to be candidate for no employment , not to go to the Court , not to salute Caesar with ambitious attendancies , but to study , and worship the gods , and die willingly , when nature , or necessity called him . It may be this man beleeved himself , but Epictetus did not . And he had reason . For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Letters from Caesar met him at the doors , and invited him to Court , and he forgot all his promises , which were warm upon his lips , and grew pompous , secular , and ambitious , and gave the gods thanks for his preferment . Thus many men leave the world , when their fortune hath left them , and they are severe and philosophicall , and retired for ever , if for ever it be impossible to return : But let a prosperous Sunshine warm and refresh their sadnesses , and make it but possible to break their purposes , and there needs no more temptation ; Their own false heart is enough ; they are like Ephraim in the day of Battell , starting a side like a broken Bow. 4. The heart is false , deceiving and deceived in its intensions and designes . A man hears the precepts of God injoyning us to give Alms of all we possesse ; he readily obeys with much cheerfulnesse and alacrity ; And his charity , like a fair spreading tree , looks beauteously : But there is a Canker at the heart ; The man blowes a Trumpet to call the poor together , and hopes the neighbourhood will take notice of his Bounty . Nay he gives Alms privately , and charges no man to speak of it , and yet hopes by some Accident or other to be praised both for his Charity and Humility . And if by chance , the Fame of his Alms comes abroad , it is but his duty to let his light so shine before men , that God may bè glorified , and some of our neighbours be relieved , and others edified . But then to distinguish the intention of our heart in this Instance , and to seek Gods glory in a particular , which will also conduce much to our reputation , and to have no filthy adherence to stick to the heart , no reflexion upon our selves , or no complacency and delight in popular noyses , is the nicity of abstraction , and requires an Angel to do it . Some then are so kind-hearted , so true to their friend , that they will watch his very dying groans , and receive his last breath , and close his eyes ; And if this be done with honest intention , it is well : But there are some that do so ; and yet are vultures and harpyes , they watch for the Carcasse , and prey upon a Legacy . A man with a true story may be malicious to his enemy , and by doing himself right , may also do him wrong : And so false is the heart of man , so clancular and contradictory are its Actions and Intentions , that some men pursue vertue with great earnestnesse , and yet cannot with patience look upon it in another : It is Beauty in Themselves , and Deformity in the Other . Is it not plain , that not the Vertue , but its Reputation is the thing that is pursued ? And yet if you tell the man so , he thinks he hath reason to complain of your malice or detraction . Who is able to distinguish his fear of God from fear of punishment ? when from fear of punishment we are brought to fear God : And yet the difference must be distinguishable in new Converts & old Disciples ; And our fear of punishment must so often change its Circumstances , that it must be at last a fear to offend out of pure Love , and must have no formality left to distinguish it from Charity : It is easie to distinguish these things in Precepts , and to make the separation in the Schooles : The Head can do it easily , and the Tongue can do it : But when the Heart comes to separate Alms from Charity , Gods glory from Humane praise , fear from fear , and sincerity from Hypocrisie ; it does so intricate the questions and confound the ends , and blend and entangle circumstances , that a man hath reason to doubt , that his very best Actions are sullied with some unhandsom excrescencie something to mak them very often to be criminal , but alwayes to be imperfect . Here a man would think were enough to abate our confidence and the spirit of pride , and to make a man eternally to stand upon his guard , and to keep as strict watch upon his own heart , as upon his greatest enemy from without . Custodi , libera we de meipso , Deus . It was S. Augustines prayer , Lord keep me , Lord deliver me from my self . If God will keep a man , that he be not Felo de se , that he lay no violent hands upon himself , it is certain nothing else can do him mischief , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Agamemnon said , Neither Jupiter , nor Destinies , nor the Furies , but it is a mans self that does him the mischief . The Devil can but Tempt , and offer a dagger at the heart ; unlesse our hands thrust it home , the Devil can do nothing , but what may turne to our advantage . And in this sence we are to understand the two seeming Contradictories in Scripture , Pray that ye enter not into Temptation , said our Blessed Saviour , and count it all joy when you enter into divers Temptations , said one of Christs Disciples : The case is easie . When God suffers us to be 〈…〉 he means it but as a trial of our faith , as the exercise of our vertues , as the opportunity of reward , and in such cases we have reason to count it all joy ; since the Trial of our faith worketh Patience and Patience experience , and experience causeth hope , and hope maketh not ashamed : But yet for all this , pray against temptations : for when we get them into our hands , we use them as blind men do their clubs , neither distinguish person nor part ; as soone they strike the face of their friends as the back of the Enemie ; our hearts betray us to the enemie , we fall in love with our mischief , we contrive how to let the lust in , and leave a port open on purpose , and use arts to forget our duty , and to give advantages to the Divel . He , that uses a temptation thus , hath reason to pray against it ; and yet our hearts does all this and a thousand times more : so that we may ingrave upon our hearts the epitaph which was digged into Thiestes grave-stone . No lite , inquit , hospites adire ad me , ilico istic ; No contagio mea umbrave obsit , Tinta vis sceleris in corpore haeret . There is so much falsenesse and iniquity in mans heart , that it defiles all the members ; it makes the eyes lustful , and the tongue slanderous ; it fills the head with mischief , and the feet with blood , and the hands with injury , and the present condition of man with folly , and makes his future state apt to inherit eternal miserie . But this is but the beginning of those throws , & damnable impieties , which proceed out of the heart of man and defile the whole constitution . I have yet told but the weaknesses of the heart ; I shall the next time tel you the iniquities , those inherent Divels which pollute and defile it to the ground , and make it desperately , wicked , that is , wicked beyond all expression . The deceitfulnesse of the Heart . Part II. 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : It is the beginning of wisdom to know a mans own weaknesses , and failings in things of greatest necessitie ; and we have here so many objects to furnish out this knowledge , that we finde it with the longest and latest before it be obtained . A man does not begin to know him self till he be old , and then he is well stricken in death : A mans heart at first being like a plain table , unspotted indeed , but then there is nothing legible in it . As soon as ever we ripen towards the imperfect uses of our reason , we write upon this table such crooked characters , such imperfect configurations , so many fooleries ; and stain it with so many blots , and vitious inspersions , that there is nothing worth the reading in our hearts for a great while ; and when education and ripenesse , reason and experience , Christian philosophy and the grace of God hath made fair impressions and written the law in our hearts with the finger of Gods holy spirit , we blot out this handwriting of Gods ordinances , or mingle it with false principles , and interlinings of our our own ; we disorder the method of God , or deface the truth of God ; either we make the rule uneven we bribe or abuse our guide , that we may wonder with an excuse . Or if nothing else will do it we turn head and professe to go against the laws of God. Our Hearts are blinde ; or our hearts are hardned : for these are two great arguments of the wickednesse of our hearts : they do not see , or they will not see the wayes of God ; or if they do , they make use of their seeing , that they may avoid them . 1. Our hearts are blinde , wilfully blind . I need not instance in the ignorance and involuntary nescience of men , though if we speak of the necessary parts of religion , no man is ignorant of them without his own fault : such ignorance is alwayes a direct sin , or the direct punishment of a sin . A sin is either in its bosom , or in its retinue : But the ignorance , that I now intend , is a voluntary , chosen , delightful ignorance taken in upon designe ; even for no other end , but that we may perish quietly and infallibly . God hath opened all the windows of Heaven , and sent the Sun of Righteousnesse with glorious apparition , and hath discoverd the abysses of his own wisdom , made the second person in the Trinity , to be the doctor and preacher of his sentences and secrets , and the third person to be his Amanuensis or scribe , and our hearts to be the Book , in which the doctrine is written and miracles and prophecies to be its arguments , and all the world to be the verification of it : and those leaves contain within their folds all that excellent morality , which right reason pickt up after the shipwrack of nature ; and all those wise sayings , which singly made so many men famous for preaching some one of them ; all them Christ gathered and added some more out of the immediate book of Revelation : So that now the wisdom of God hath made every mans heart to be the true Veronica , in which he hath imprinted his own lineaments so perfectly , that we may dresse our selves like God , and have the aire and features of Christ our Elder-Brother ; that we may be pure as God is , perfect as our Father , meek and humble as the Son , and may have the holy Ghost within us , in gifts and Graces , in wisdom and holinesse . This hath God done for us ; and see what we do for Him. We stand in our own light , and quench Gods : we love darknesse more then light , and entertain our selves accordingly . For how many of us are there , that understand nothing of the wayes of God ; that know no more of the laws of Jesus Christ , then is remaining upon them since they learned the childrens Catechisme ? But amongst a thousand how many can explicate and unfold for his own practise the ten Commandments ; And how many sorts of sins are there forbidden ? which therefore passe into action and never passe under the scrutinies of repentance ; because they know not that they are sinnes ? Are there not very many , who know not the particular duties of meeknesse , and never consider concerning Longsuffering ? and if you talk to them of growth in Grace , or the spirit of obsignation , or the melancholy lectures of the Crosse and imitation of , and conformitie to Christs sufferings ; or adherences to God , or rejoycing in him , or not quenching the spirit ; you are too deep learned for them . And yet these are duties set down plainly for our practise , necessary to be acted in order to our Salvation . We brag of light , and reformation , and fulnesse of the spirit : in the mean time we understand not many parts of our dutie . We enquire into something that may make us talk , or be talked of , or that we may trouble a Church , or disturb the peace of mindes ; but in things that concern Holy living and that wisdom of God , whereby we are wise unto Salvation ; never was any age of Christendom more ignorant then we . For , if we did not wink hard we must needs see , that obedience to supreme Powers , Denying of our selves , Humility , Peacefulnesse and Charity , are written in such Capital text letters , that it is impossible to be ignorant of them . And if the heart of man had not rare arts to abuse the understanding , it were not to be imagined that any man should bring the 13. Chapter to the Romans to prove the lawfulnesse of taking up Armes against our rulers : but so we may abuse our selves at noon and go to bed , if we please to call it midnight . And there have been a sort of wittie men that maintained that snow was hot : I wonder not at the probleme ; but that a man should beleeve his paradox , and should let eternity go away with the fallacie , and rather lose heaven then leave his foolish argument , is a signe that wilfulnesse and the deceiving heart is the Sophister , and the great ingredient into our Deception . But that I may be more particular ; the heart of man uses devices that it may be ignorant . 1. We are impatient of honest and severe reproofe ; and order the circumstances of our persons and addresses that we shall never come to the true knowledge of our condition . Who will endure to heare his curate tell him , that he is Covetous , or that he is proud ? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It is Calumny and Reviling if he speak it to his head , and relates to his person : and yet if he speak onely in general , every man neglects what is not recommended to his particular . But yet if our Physitian tell us you look well , Sir ; but a Feaver lurks in your spirits , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 drink Julips and abstain from flesh ; no man thinks it shame or calumny to be told so : but when we are told that our liver is inflamed with lust or anger ; that our heart is vexed with envie ; that our eyes rowl with wantonnesse ; And though we think all is well , yet we are sick , sick unto death , & neer to a sad and fatal sentence we shall think that man that tells us so is impudent , or uncharitable ; and yet he hath done him no more injury , then a deformed man receives daily from his looking-glasse ; which if he shall dash against the wall , because it showes him his face just as it is ; his face is not so ugly as his manners . And yet our heart is so impatient of seeing its own staines , that like the Elephant , it tramples in the pure streames , and first troubles them , then stoops and drinks , when he can least see his huge deformitie . 2. In order to this , we heap up teachers of our own , and they guide us , not whither , but which way they please : for we are curious to go our own way , and carelesse of our Hospitall or Inne at night . A faire way , and a merry company , and a pleasant easie guide will entice us into the Enemies quarters ; and such guides we cannot want . Improbitati occasio nunquam defuit . If we have a minde to be wicked , we shall want no prompters ; and false teachers at first creeping in unawares have now so filled the pavement of the Church , that you can scarce set your foot on the ground , but you tread upon a snake . Cicero l. 7. ad Atticum , undertakes to bargain with them that kept the Sybils books , that for a sum of money they shall expound to him what he please ; and to be sure , ut quidvis potius , quam Regem proferrent . They shall declare against the government of kings , & say , that the Gods will endure any thing rather then Monarchy in their beloved republick . And the same mischief God complains of to be among the Jews ; the Prophets prophecie lies and my people love to have it so ; and what will the end of these things be ? even the same that Cicero complain'd of , Ad opinionem imperitorum fictas esse Religiones . Men shall have what Religion they please , and God shall be intitled to all the quarrels of covetous and Ambitious persons , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Demosthenes wittily complained of the Oracle , An answer shall be drawn out of Scripture to countenance the designe , & God made to Rebel against his own Ordinances . And then we are zealous for the Lord God of Hosts , and will live and die in that quarrel . But is it not a strange cozenage , that our hearts shall be the main wheel in the engine , and shall set all the rest on working ? The heart shall first put his own candle out , then put out the eye of reason ; then remove the Land-mark , and dig down the causeywayes , and then either hire a blinde guide , or make him so ; and all these Arts to get ignorance , that they may secure impiety . At first , man lost his innocence onely in hope to get a little knowledge ; and ever since then lest knowledge should discover his errour , and make him returne to innocence , we are content to part with that now , and to kow nothing that may discover or discountenance our sins , or discompose our secular designe . And as God made great revelations and furnished out a wise Religion , and sent his spirit to give the gift of Faith to his Church , that upon the foundation of Faith he might build a holy life ; now our hearts love to retire into Blindnesse , & sneak under the covert of False principles , and run to a cheape religion , and an unactive discipline , and make a faith of our own , that we may build upon it ease and ambition and a tall fortune , and the pleasures of revenge , and do what we have a minde to ; scarce once in seven years denying a strong and an unruly appetite upon the interest of a just conscience and holy religion . This is such a desperate method of impiety ; so certain arts and apt instruments for the Divel , that it does his work intirley , and produces an infallible damnation . 3. But the heart of man hath yet another stratagem to secure its iniquity by the means of ignorance ; and that is , Incogitancy or Inconsideration . For there is wrought upon the spirits of many men great impression by education , by a modest and temperate nature , by humane Laws , and the customes & severities of sober persons , and the fears of religion , and the awfulnesse of a reverend man , and the several arguments and endearments of vertue : And it is not in the nature of some men to do an act in despite of reason , and Religion , and arguments , and Reverence , and modesty , and fear ; But men are forced from their sin by the violence of the grace of God , when they heare it speak . But so a Roman Gentleman kept off a whole band of souldiers , who were sent to murther him ; and his eloquence was stronger then their anger and designe : But suddenly a rude trooper rushed upon him , who neither had , nor would heare him speak ; and he thrust his spear into that throat , whose musick had charmed all his fellows into peace and gentlenesse . So do we . The Grace of God is Armour and defence enough against the most violent incursion of the spirits , and the works of darknesse , but then we must hear its excellent charms , and consider its reasons , and remember its precepts , and dwell with its discourses . But this the heart of man loves not . If I be tempted to uncleannesse , or to an act of oppression , instantly the grace of God represents to me , that the pleasure of the sin is transient , and vain , unsatisfying and empty ; That I shall die , and then I shall wish too late , that I had never done it . It tells me that I displease God who made me , who feeds me , who blesses me , who fain would save me . It represents to me all the joyes of Heaven , and the horrours and amazements of a sad eternity And if I will stay and heare them , ten thousand excellent things besides , fit to be twisted about my understanding for ever . But here the heart of man shuffles all these discourses into disorder ; and will not be put to the trouble of answering the objections ; but by a meer wildenesse of purpose and rudnesse of resolution ventures super totam materiam , at all , and does the thing , not because it thinks it fit to do so , but because it will not consider whether it be or no : it is enough that it pleases a present appetite , and if such incogitancy comes to be habitual , as it is in very many men ; ( first by resisting the motions of the holy spirit , then by quenching him , ) we shall find the consequents to be , first an Indifferencie , then a dulnesse , then a Lethargie , then a direct Hating the wayes of God ; and it commonly ends in a wretchlessenesse of spirit to be manifested on our death-bed ; when the man shall passe hence not like the shadow , but like the dog , that departeth , without sence or interest , or apprehension , or real concernment in the considerations of eternity : and t is but just , when we will not heare our king speak and plead , not to save himself , but us , to speak for our peace , and innocency and Salvation , to prevent our ruine , and our intolerable calamity : certainly we are much in love with the wages of death , when we cannot endure to heare God cal us back ; and stop our ears against the voice of the charmer , charme he never so wisely . Nay further yet ; we suffer the Arguments of Religion to have so little impression upon our spirits , that they operate but like the discourses of childhood , or the Problems of uncertain Philosophy : A man talks of Religion but as of a dream , and from thence he awakens into the Businesses of the world , and acts them deliberately , with perfect Action and full Resolution , and contrives , and considers , and lives in them : But when he falls asleep again , or is taken from the Scene of his own employment and choice ; then he dreams again , and Religion makes such Impressions as is the conversation of a Dreamer , and he acts accordingly . Theocritus tells of a Fisherman that dreamed he had taken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a Fish of gold , upon which being over-joyed he made a vow , that he would never fish more : But when he waked , he soon declared his vow to be null , because he found his golden Fish was scaped away through the holes of his eyes , when he first opened them . Just so we do in the purposes of Religion ; sometimes in a good mood we seem to see Heaven opened , and all the streets of Heavenly Jerusalem paved with gold and precious stones , and we are ravished with spirituall apprehensions , and resolve never to return to the low affections of the world , and the impure adherencies of sin , but when this flash of lightning is gone , and we converse again with the Inclinations , and habituall desires of our false hearts , those other desires and fine considerations disband , and the Resolutions taken in that pious fit melt into Indifferency , and old Customes . He was prettily and fantastically troubled , who having used to put his trust in Dreams , one night dreamed , that all dreams were vain ; For he considered , If so , then This was vain , and then dreams might be true for all this : But if they might be true , then this dream might be so upon equall reason ; And then dreams were vain , because This dream , which told him so , was true , and so round again . In the same Circle runs the Heart of man ; All his cogitations are vain , and yet he makes especiall use of this , that , that Thought which thinks so , That is vain ; and if That be vain , then his other Thoughts , which are vainly declared so , may be Reall , and Relied upon ; And so we do . Those religious thoughts , which are sent into us , to condemne and disrepute the thoughts of sin and vanity , are esteemed the onely dreams ; And so all those Instruments , which the grace of God hath invented for the destruction of Impiety , are rendred ineffectuall , either by our direct opposing them , or ( which happens most commonly ) by our want of considering them . The effect of all is this , That we are ignorant of the things of God ; we make Religion to be the work of a few hours in the whole yeer ; we are without fancy or affection to the severities of holy Living ; we reduce Religion to the Beleeving of a few Articles , and doing nothing that is considerable ; we Pray seldome , and then but very coldly and indifferently ; we Communicate not so often as the Sun salutes both the Tropicks ; we professe Christ , but dare not die for him ; we are factious for a Religion , and will not live according to its precepts ; we call our selves Christians , and love to be ignorant of many of the Lawes of Christ : lest our knowledge should force us into shame , or into the troubles of a holy Life . All the mischiefs that you can suppose to happen to a furious inconsiderate person , running after the wilde-fires of the night , over Rivers and Rocks , and Precipices without Sun or starre , or Angel or Man to guide him : All that , and ten thousand times worse may you suppose to be the certain Lot of him , who gives himself up to the conduct of a passionate blinde Heart , whom no fire can warm , and no Sun enlighten ; who hates light and loves to dwell in the Regions of darknesse . That 's the first generall mischief of the Heart ; It is possessed with Blindnesse , wilfull and voluntary . 2. But the Heart is Hard too . Not onely Folly , but Mischief also is bound up in the Heart of man. If God strives to soften it with sorrow and sad Accidents , it is like an Ox , it grows callow , and hard . Such a heart was Pharaohs . When God makes the clouds to gather round about us , we wrap our heads in the clouds , and like the male-contents in Galba's time , Tristitiam simulamus Contumaciae propiores . We seem sad and troubled , but it is doggednesse and murmur . Or else if our fears be pregnant , and the heart yeelding , it sinks low into pusillanimity and superstition ; and our hearts are so childish , so timerous , or so impatient in a sadnesse , that God is weary of making us , and we are glad of it . And yet when the Sun shines upon us , our hearts are hardned with that too , and God 〈◊〉 to be at a losse , as if he knew not what to do to us . Warre undoes us and makes us violent : Peace undoes us and makes us wanton . Prosperity makes us Proud , Adversity renders us Impatient ; Plenty dissolves us and makes us Tyrants , Want makes us greedy , liars , and rapacious . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; No fortune can save that City to whom neither Peace nor Warre can do advantage . And what is there left for God to mollifie our hearts , whose temper is like both to wax and durt ; whom fire hardens , and cold hardens ; and contradictory Accidents produce no change , save that the heart growes worse and more obdurate for every change of Providence ? But here also I must descend to particulars . 1. The Heart of man is strangely Proud ; If men commend us we think we have reason to distinguish our selves from others , since the voice of discerning men hath already made the separation . If men do not commend us , we think they are stupid , and understand us not , or envious and hold their tongues in spite . If we are praised by many , then Vox populi , vox Dei. Fame is the voice of God. If we be praised but by few , then Satis unus , satis nullus . We cry , these are wise , and one wise man is worth a whole herd of the People . But if we be praised by none at all , we resolve to be even with all the world , and speak well of no body , and think well onely of our selves : And then we have such beggerly Arts , such tricks to cheat for praise ; we inquire after our faults and failings onely to be told we have none , but did excellently , and then we are pleased ; we rail upon our actions onely to be chidden for so doing ; and then he is our friend who chides us into a good opinion of our selves ; which however all the world cannot make us part with . Nay , Humility it self makes us proud ; so false , so base is the the Heart of man. For Humility is so noble a vertue , that even Pride it self puts on its upper Garment ; And we do like those , who cannot endure to look upon an ugly or a deformed person , and yet will give a great price for a picture extreamly like him . Humility is despised in substance , but courted and admired in effigie . And Aesops picture was sold two talents , when himself was made a slave at the price of two Philippicks . And because Humility makes a man to be honoured ; Therefore we imitate all its garbs and postures , its civilities and silence , its modesties and condescensions . And to prove that we are extreamly proud in the midst of all this pagentry , we should be extreamly angry at any man , that should say , we are proud ; And that 's a sure signe we are so . And in the middest of all our Arts to seem Humble , we use devices to bring our selves into talk ; we thrust our selves into company ; we listen at doors ; and like the great Beards in Rome , that pretended Philosophy and strict life , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , We walk by the Obelisk , and meditate in Piazza's , that they that meet us may talk of us , and they that follow may cry out , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; Behold ! there goes an excellent man ! He is very prudent , or very learned , or a charitable person , or a good housekeeper , or at least very Humble . The Heart of man is deeply in love with wickednesse , and with nothing else : Against , not onely the Lawes of God , but against his own Reason , it s own Interest , and its own Securities . For is it imaginable , that a man who knows the Lawes of God , the rewards of Vertue , the cursed and horrid effects of sin ; that knows and considers , and deeply sighes at the thought of the intolerable pains of Hell ; that knowes the joyes of Heaven to be unspeakable , and that concerning them there is no temptation , but that they are too big for man to hope for ; And yet he certainly beleeves , that a holy life shall infallibly attain thither ; Is it I say imaginable , that this man should for a transient Action forfeit all this Hope , and certainly and knowing incur all that calamity ? Yea , but the sin is pleasant , and the man is clothed with flesh and blood , and their appetites are materiall , and importunate , and present ; And the discourses of Religion are concerning things spirituall , separate and apt for spirits , Angels and souls departed . To take off this also ; We will suppose the man to consider , and really to beleeve that the pleasure of the sin , is sudden , vain , empty and transient ; that it leaves bitternesse upon the tongue , before it is descended into the bowels : that there it is poison , and makes the Belly to swell , and the Thigh to rot ; That he remembers and actually considers , that as soon as the moment of sin is past , he shall have an intolerable Conscience ; and does at the instant compare moments with Eternity , and with horrour remembers that the very next minute he is as miserable a man as is in the world ; Yet that this man should sin ? Nay , suppose the sin to have no pleasure at all ; such as is the sin of swearing ; Nay , suppose it really to have pain in it : such as is the sin of Envy , which never can have pleasure in its actions , but much torment and consumption of the very heart ; What should make this man sin so for nothing , so against himself , so against all Reason and Religion and Interest , without pleasure for no reward ? Here the heart betrayes it self to be desperately wioked . What man can give a reasonable account of such a man , who to prosecute his revenge will do himself an injury that he may do a lesse to him that troubles him . Such a man hath given me ill language ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; My head akes not for his language , nor hath he broken my thigh nor carried away my land . But yet this man must be requited . Well , suppose that . But then let it be proportionable ; you are not undone , let not him be so . Oh yes ; for else my revenge triumphs not . Well , if you do , yet remember he will defend himself , or the Law will right him ; at least do not do wrong to your self by doing him wrong . This were but Prudence , and self-Interest . And yet we see , that the heart of some men hath betrayed them to such furiousnesse of Appetite , as to make them willing to die , that their enemie may be buried in the same Ruines . Jovius Pontanus tells of an Italian slave ( I think ) who being enraged against his Lord , watched his absence from home , and the employment and inadvertency of his fellow-servants : he locked the doors , and secured himself for a while , and Ravished his Lady ; then took her three sons up to the battlements of the house , and at the return of his Lord , threw one down to him upon the pavement , and then a second to rend the heart of their sad Father , seeing them weltring in their blood and brains . The Lord begd for his third , and now his onely Son , promising pardon and libertie , if he would spare his life . The slave seemed to bend a little , and on condition his Lord would cut off his own Nose , he would spare his Son. The sad Father did so , being willing to suffer any thing , rather then the losse of that Childe ; But as soon as he saw his Lord all bloody with his wound , he threw the third Son , and himself down together upon the Pavement . The story is sad enough , and needs no lustre and advantages of sorrow to represent it : But if a man sets himself down , and considers sadly , he cannot easily tell upon what sufficient inducement , or what principle the slave should so certainly , so horridly , so presently , and then so eternally ruine himself . What could he propound to himself as a recompence to his own so immediate Tragedy ? There is not in the pleasure of the revenge , nor in the nature of the thing , any thing to tempt him ; we must confesse our ignorance , and say , that The Fleart of man is desperately wicked ; and that is the truth in generall , but we cannot fathom it by particular comprehension . For when the heart of man is bound up by the grace of God , and tied in golden bands , and watched by Angels , tended by those Nurse-keepers of the soul ; it is not easie for a man to wander ; And the evil of his heart is but like the ferity and wildnesse of Lyons-whelps : But when once we have broken the hedge , and got into the strengths of youth , and the licenciousnesse of an ungoverned age , it is wonderfull to observe , what a great inundation of mischief in a very short time will overflow all the banks of Reason and Religion . Vice first is pleasing , then it grows easie , then delightfull , then frequent , then habituall , then confirmed , then the man is impenitent , then he is obstinate , then he resolves never to Repent , and then he is Damned . And by that time he is come half way in this progresse , he confutes the Philosophy of the old Moralists ; For they , not knowing the vilenesse of mans Heart , not considering its desperate amazing Impiety , knew no other degree of wickednesse but This , That men preferred Sense before Reason , and their understandings were abused in the choice of a temporall before an intellectuall and eternall good : But they alwayes concluded that the Will of man must of necessity follow the last dictate of the understanding , declaring an object to be good in one sence or other . Happy men they were , that were so Innocent ; that knew no pure and perfect malice , and lived in an Age , in which it was not easie to confute them . But besides that , now the wells of a deeper iniquity are discovered , we see by too sad experience , that there are some sins proceeding from the heart of man , which have nothing but simple , and unmingled malice ; Actions of meer spite ; doing evil , because it is evil ; sinning without sensuall pleasures ; sinning with sensuall pain , with hazard of our lives ; with actuall torment , and sudden deaths , and certain and present damnation ; sins against the Holy Ghost ; open hostilities , and professed enmities against God and all vertue . I can go no further ; because there is not in the world , or in the nature of things , a greater Evil. And that is the Nature and Folly of the Devil ; he tempts men to ruine , and hates God , and onely hurts himself , and those he tempts ; and does himself no pleasure , and some say , he increases his own accidentall torment . Although I can say nothing greater ; yet I had many more things to say , if the time would have permitted me to represent the Falsenesse and Basenesse of the Heart . 1. We are false our selves , and dare not trust God. 2. We love to be deceived , and are angry , if we be told so . 3. We love to seem vertuous , and yet hate to be so . 4. We are melancholy and impatient , and we know not why . 5. We are troubled at little things , and are carelesse of greater . 6. We are overjoyed at a petty accident , and despise great and eternall pleasures . 7. We beleeve things , not for their Reasons and proper Arguments ; but as they serve our turns , be they true or false . 8. We long extreamly for things that are forbidden us ; And what we despise , when it is permitted us , we snatch at greedily , when it is taken from us . 9. We love our selves more then we love God ; and yet we eat poysons daily , and feed upon Toads and Vipers , and nourish our deadly enemies in our bosome , and will not be brought to quit them ; but brag of our shame , and are ashamed of nothing , but Vertue , which is most honourable . 10. We fear to die , and yet use all means we can to make Death terrible and dangerous . 11. We are busie in the faults of others , and negligent of our own . 12. We live the life of spies , striving to know others , and to be unknown our selves . 13. We worship and flatter some men , and some things , because we fear them , not because we love them . 14. We are ambitious of Greatnesse , and covetous of wealth , and all that we get by it , is , that we are more beautifully tempted ; and a troop of Clients run to us , as to a Pool , whom first they trouble , and then draw dry . 15. We make our selves unsafe by committing wickednesse , and then we adde more wickednesse to make us safe , and beyond punishment . 16. We are more servile for one curtesie , that we hope for , then for twenty that we have received . 17. We entertain slanderers , and without choice spread their calumnies ; and we hugg flatterers , and know they abuse us : And if I should gather the abuses , and impieties , and deceptions of the Heart , as Chrysippus did the oracular Lies of Apollo into a Table ; I fear they would seem Remedilesse , and beyond the cure of watchfulnesse and Religion . Indeed they are Great and Many : But the Grace of God is Greater ; and if Iniquity abounds , then doth Grace superabound , and that 's our Comfort and our Medicine , which we must thus use . 1. Let us watch our hearts at every turn . 2. Deny it all its Desires , that do not directly or by consequence end in godlinesse : At no hand be indulgent to its fondnesses , and peevish appetites . 3. Let us suspect it as an Enemy . 4. Trust not to it in any thing . 5. But beg the grace of God with perpetuall and importunate prayer , that he would be pleased to bring good out of these evils , and that he would throw the salutary wood of the Crosse , the merits of Christs death and passion , into these salt waters , and make them healthful and pleasant . And in order to the mannaging these advises , and acting the purposes of this prayer ; let us strictly follow a rule ; and choose a Prudent and faithful guide , who may attend our motions , and watch our counsels , and direct our steps , and prepare the way of the Lord , and make his paths streight , apt and imitable . For without great watchfulnesse , and earnest devotion , and a prudent Guide , we shall finde that true in a spiritual sense , which Plutarch affirmed of a mans body in the natural ; that of dead Buls arise Bees ; from the carcases of horses , hornets are produced ; But the body of man brings forth serpents . Our hearts wallowing in their own natural and acquired corruptions , will produce nothing but issues of Hell , and images of the old serpent the divel , for whom is provided the everlasting burning . Sermon . IX . THE FAITH and PATIENCE OF THE SAINTS : OR The righteous cause oppressed . 1 Peter . 4. 17. For the time is come that judgement must begin at the house of God : and if it first begin at us what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel of God ? 18. And if the righteous scarcely be saved , where shal the ungodly and the sinner appear ? SO long as the world lived by sense , and discourses of natural reason , as they were abated with humane infirmities , and not at all heightned by the spirit & divine revelations , So long men took their accounts of good and bad by their being prosperous or unfortunate : and amongst the basest and most ignorant of men , that onely was accounted honest which was profitable : and he onely wise that was rich ; and that man beloved of God , who received from him all that might satisfie their lust , their ambition , or their revenge : — Fatis accede deisque & col● felices , miseros fuge sidera terra ut distant & flamma maeri , sic utile recto . But because God sent wise men into the world and they were treated rudely by the world , and exercised with evil accidents , and this seemed so great a discouragement to vertue , that even these wise men were more troubled to reconcile vertue , and misery , then to reconcile their affections to the suffering ; God was pleased to enlighten their reason with a little beame of faith , or else heightned their reason by wiser principles then those of vulgar understandings ; and taught them in the clear glasse of faith , or the dim perspective of Philosophy , to look beyond the cloud , and there to spie that there stood glories behinde their curtain , to which they could not come but by passing through the cloud , and being wet with the dew of heaven and the waters of affliction . And accordding as the world grew more enlightned by faith so it grew more dark with mourning & sorrowes : God sometimes sent a light of fire and pillar of a cloud and the brightnesse of an angel and the lustre of a star , and the sacrament of a rainbowe to guide his people thorough their portion of sorrows , and to lead them through troubles to rest : But as the Sun of righteousnesse approached towards the chambers of the East , and sent the harbingers of light peeping through the curtains of the night , and leading on the day of faith and brightest revelation ; so God sent degrees of trouble upon wise and good men , that now in the same degree in the which the world lives by faith and not by sense , in the same degree they might be able to live in vertue even while she lived in trouble , and not reject so great a beauty because she goes in mourning , and hath a black cloud of cypresse drawn before her face : literally thus ; God first entertained their services , and allured and prompted on the infirmities of the infant world by temporal prosperity ; but by degrees changed his method ; and as men grew stronger in the knowledge of God and the expectations of heaven , so they grew weaker in their fortunes , more afflicted in their bodies , more abated in their expectations , more subject to their enemies , and were to endure the contradiction of sinners and the immission of the sharpnesses of providence and divine Oeconomy . First Adam was placed in a Garden of health and pleasure , from which when he fell , he was onely tied to enter into the covenant of natural sorrows which he and all his posteritie till the flood run through : but in all that period they had the whole wealth of the earth before them , they need not fight for empires or places for their cattle to grase in ; they lived long and felt no want , no slavery , no tyrannie , no war : and the evils that happened were single , personal , and natural , and no violences were then done , but they were like those things which the law calls rare contingencies ; for which as the law can now take no care , and make no provisions , so then there was no law ; but men lived free and rich and long , and they exercised no vertues but natural , and knew no felicity but natural : and so long their prosperity was , just as was their vertue , because it was a natural instrument towards all that which they knew of happinesse . * But this publick easinesse and quiet , the world turned into sin ; and unlesse God did compel men to do themselves good they would undoe themselves : and then God broke in upon them with a flood and destroyed that generation , that he might begin the government of the world upon a new stock , and binde vertue upon mens spirits by new bands , endeared to them by new hopes and fears . Then God made new laws and gave to Princes the power of the sword , and men might be punshed to death in certain cases , and mans life was shortened , and slavery was brought into the world and the state of servants ; and then war began , and evils multiplied upon the face of the earth ; in which it is naturally certain , that they that are most violent and injurious prevailed upon the weaker and more innocent ; and every tyranny that began from Nimrod to this day , and every usurper was a peculiar argument to shew that God began to teach the world , vertue by suffering ; and that therefore he suffered Tyrannies and usurpations , to be in the world , and to be prosperous , and the rights of men to be snatched away from the owners , that the world might be established in potent and setled governments and the sufferers be taught al the passive vertues of the soul. For so God brings good out of evil , turning Tyranny into the benefits of Government , and violence into vertue , and sufferings into rewards : and this was the second change of the world : personal miseries were brought in upon Adam and his posterity , as a punishment of sin in the first period : and in the second , publick evils were brought in by tyrants and usurpers , and God suffered them as the first elements of vertue , men being just newly put to schoole to infant sufferings . But all this was not much . Christs line was not yet drawn forth : it began not to appear in what family the King of sufferings should descend till Abrahams time , and therefore till then there were no greater sufferings then what I have now reckoned . But when Abrahams family was chosen from among the many nations , and began to belong to God , by a special right , and he was designed to be the Father of the Messias , then God found out a new way to trie him , even with a sound affliction , commanding him to offer his beloved Isaac ; but this was accepted and being intended by Abraham was not intended by God : for this was a type of Christ , and therefore was also but a type of sufferings , excepting the sufferings of the old periods and the sufferings of nature and accident , we see no change made , for a long while after , but God having established a law in Abrahams family did build it upon promises , of health , and peace , and victory , and plenty , and riches : and so long as they did not prevaricate the law of their God , so long they were prosperous : but God kept a remnant of Cananites in the land like a rod held over them to vex or to chastise them into obedience , in which while they persevered , nothing could hurt them ; and that saying of David needs no other sence , but the letter of its own expression , I have been young and now am old , and yet saw I never the righteous for saken nor his seed begging their bread : The godly generally were prosperous , and a good cause seldome had an ill end , and a good man never died an ill death , till the law had spent a great part of its time , and it descended towards its declension and period ; But that the great prince of sufferings might not appear upon his stage of tragedies without some forerunners of sorrow , God was pleased to choose out some good men , and honour them , by making them to become little images of suffering : I saiah , Jeremy , and Zachary were martyrs of the law ; but these were single deaths ; Shadrac , Meshec , and Abednego were thrown into a burning furnace , and Daniel into a den of lions , and Susanna was accused for adultery ; but these were but little arrests of the prosperity of the Godly : as the time drew neerer that Christ should be manifest , so the sufferings grew bigger and more numerous : and Antiochus raised up a sharp persecution in the time of the Maccabees , in which many passed through the red sea of blood into the bosome of Abraham ; & then Christ came : and that was the third period in which the changed method of Gods providence was perfected : for Christ was to do his great work by sufferings , & by sufferings was to enter into blessednesse ; & by his passion he was made prince of the Catholickchurch , and as our Head was , so must the members be : God made the same covenant with us , that he did with his most holy Son ; & Christ obtaind no better conditions for us , then for himself ; that was not to be looked for ; the servant must not be above his master , it is well if he be as his Master : if the world persecuted him , they will also persecute us ; and from the dayes of John the Baptist , the kingdome of Heaven suffers violence , and the violent take it by force : not the violent doers , but the sufferers of violence for though the old law was established in the promises of temporal prosperity , yet the gospel is founded in temporal adversity . It is directly a covenant of sufferings and sorrows ; for now the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God : that 's the sence and designe of the text ; and I intend it as a direct antinomy to the common perswasions of tyrannous , carnal , and vicious men , who reckon nothing good , but what is prosperous : for though that proposition had many degrees of truth in the beginning of the law , yet the case is now altered ; God hath established its contradictory : and now every good man must look for persecution , and every good cause must expect to thrive by the sufferings and patience of holy persons ; and as men do well , and suffer evil , so they are dear to God : and whom he loves most , he afflicts most , and does this with a designe of the greatest mercy in the world . 1. Then the state of the Gospel is a state of sufferings , not of temporal prosperities , this was foretold by the prophets ; a fountain shall go out of the house of the Lord , & irrigabit torrentem spinarum ; ( so it is in the vulgar latin ) and it shall water the torrent of thorns ; that is , the state or time of the gospel . which like a torrent shall cary all the world before it , and like a torrent shall be fullest in ill weather ; and by its banks shall grow nothing but thorns and briers , sharp afflictions , temporal infelicities and persecution . This sense of the words is more fully explained in the book of the prophet Isa. upon the ground of my people shall thorns and briers come up , how much more in all the houses of the city of rejoycing ; which prophecy is the same in the stile of the prophets , that my text is in the stile of the Apostles : the house of God shall be watered with the dew of heaven , and there shall spring up briers in it : judgement must begin there : but how much more in the houses of the city of rejoycing how much more among them that are at ease in Sion ; that serve their desires , that satisfie their appetites , that are given over to their own hearts lust , that so serves themselves , that they never serve God , that dwell in the city of rejoycing ; they are like Dives whose portion was in this life , who went in fine linnen and fared deliciously every day ; they indeed trample upon their briers and thorns and suffer them not to grow in their houses ; but the roots are in the ground , and they are reserved for fuel of wrath in the day of everlasting burning . Thus you see it was prophesied , now see how it was performed : Christ was the captain of our sufferings and he began . He entred into the world with all the circumstances of poverty ; he had a star to illustrate his birth but a stable for his bed chamber , and a manger for his cradle : the angels sang hymnes when he was born , but he was cold and cried , uneasy and unprovided ; he lived long in the trade of a carpenter , he by whom God made the world had in his first years the businesse of a mean and an ignoble trade ; he did good where ever he went , and almost where ever he went was abused ; he deserved heaven for his obedience , but found a crosse in his way thither ; and if ever any man had reason to expect fair usages from God , and to be dandled in lap of ease , softnes and a prosperous fortune , he it was onely that could deserve that , or any thing that can be good . But after he had chosen to live a life of vertue , of poverty , and labour , he entred into a state of death ; whose shame and trouble was great enough to pay for the sins of the whole world : And I shall choose to expresse this mystery in the vvords of scripture ; he died not by a single , or a sudden death but he was the Lambe slain from the beginning of the world : For he was massacred in Abel , ( saith Saint Paulinus ) he was tossed upon the waves of the Sea , in the person of Noah ; It was he that went out of his Countrey , when Abraham was called from Charran , and wandred from his native soil : He was offered up in Isaac , persecuted in Jacob , betrayed in Joseph , blinded in Sampson , affronted in Moses , sawed in Esay , cast into the dungeon with Jeremy . For all these were types of Christ suffering ; and then his passion continued even after his resurrection ; for it is he that suffers in all his members ; it is he that endures the contradiction of all sinners ; it is he that is the Lord of life , and is crucified again , and put to open shame in all the sufferings of his servants , and sins of rebels , and defiances of Apostates , and renegados , and violence of Tyrants , and injustice of usurpers , and the persecutions of his Church . It is he that is stoned in Saint Stephen , flayed in the person of Saint Bartholomew , he was rosted upon Saint Laurence his Gridiron , exposed to lyons in Saint Ignatius , burned in Saint Polycarpe , frozen in the lake where stood fourty Martyrs of Cappadocia ; Unigenitus enim Dei ad peragendum mortis suae sacramentum consummavit omne genus humanarum passionum said Saint Hilary . The Sacrament of Christs death is not to be accomplished , but by suffering all the sorrows of humanity . All that Christ came for , was , or was mingled with sufferings : For all those little joyes which God sent , either to recreate his person , or to illustrate his office , were abated , or attended with afflictions ; God being more carefull to establish in him the Covenant of sufferings , then to refresh his sorrows : Presently after the Angels had finished their Halleluiahs , he was forced to fly to save his life ; and the air became full of shrikes of the desolate mothers of Bethlehem for their dying Babes . God had no sooner made him illustrious with a voyce from heaven , and the descent of the Holy Ghost upon him in the waters of Baptisme , But he was delivered over to be tempted and assaulted by the Devil in the wildernesse : His transfiguration was a bright ray of glory , but then also he entred into a cloud , and was told a sad story what he was to suffer at Jerusalem : And upon Palme-Sunday , when he rode triumphantly into Jerusalem , and was adorned with the acclamations of a King , and a God , he wet the Palmes with his tears , sweeter then the drops of Mannah , or the little pearls of heaven , that descended upon mount Hermon , weeping in the midst of this triumph over obstinate , perishing , and maliciour Jerusalem . For this Jesus was like the rain-bowe which God set in the clouds as a sacrament to confirm a promise , and establish a grace , he was half made of the glories of the light , and half of the moisture of a cloud ; in his best dayes he was but half triumph , and half sorrow ; he was sent to tell of his Fathers mercies , and that God intended to spare us ; but appeared not but in the company , or in the retinue of a shower , and of foul weather : But I need not tell that Jesus , beloved of God , was a suffering person : that which concerns this question most , is that he made for us a covenant of sufferings : His Doctrines were such as expressely and by consequent enjoyne and suppose sufferings , and a state of affliction ; His very promises were sufferings , his beatitudes were sufferings , his rewards , and his arguments to invite men to follow him , were onely taken from sufferings in this life , and the reward of sufferings hereafter . For if we summon up the Commandements of Christ , we shall finde humility , mortification , self-deniall , repentance , renouncing the world , mourning , taking up the crosse , dying for him , patience and poverty , to stand in the chiefest rank of Christian precepts , and in the direct order to heaven : He that will be my Disciple must deny himself , and take up his crosse and follow me . We must follow him that was crowned with thorns and sorrows , him that was drenchd in Cedron , nailed upon the Crosse , that deserved all good , and suffered all evil : That is the summe of Christian Religion , as it distinguishes from all the Religions of the world . To which we may adde the expresse Precept recorded by Saint James , [ Be afflicted and mourn , and weep , let your laughter be turned into mourning , and your joy into weeping . ] You see the Commandements : Will you also see the Promises ? These they are . In the world yee shall have tribulation ; in me ye shall have peace : and through many tribulations , ye shall enter into heaven : and he that loseth father and mother , wives , and children , houses , and lands for my Names sake and the Gospel , shall receive a hundred fold in this life , with persecution : that 's part of his reward . [ And he chastiseth every son that he receiveth ; and if you be exempt from sufferings , ye are bastards and not sons : These are some of Christs promises : will you see some of Christs blessings , that he gives his Church : Blessed are the poor : Blessed are the hungry and thirsty . Blessed are they that mourn . Blessed are the humble . Blessed are the persecuted : Of the eight Beatitudes , five of them have temporall misery and meannesse , or an afflicted condition for their subject . Will you at last see some of the reward , which Christ hath propounded to his servants , to invite them to follow him . When I am lifted up , I will draw all men after me : when Christ is lifted up , as Moses lift up the serpent in the wildernesse , that is lifted upon the Crosse , then he will draw us after him . To you it is given for Christ ( saith Saint Paul ) when he went to sweeten and to flatter the Philippians . Well , what is given to them ? Some great favours surely , true . It is not onely given that you beleeve in Christ , ( though that be a great matter ) but also that you suffer for him , that 's the highest of your honour . And therefore saith Saint James , My brethren , count it all joy when ye enter into divers temptations . And Saint Peter , Communicating with the sufferings of Christ rejoyce : And Saint James again , We count them blessed that have suffered : And Saint Paul when he gives his blessing to the Thessalonians , he uses this form of prayer : Our Lord direct our hearts in the charity of God , and in the patience and sufferings of Christ. So that if wee will serve the King of sufferings , whose crown was of thorns , whose seepter was a reed of scorne , whose imperiall robe was a scarlet of mockery , whose throne was the Crosse ; We must serve him in sufferings , in poverty of spirit , in humility , and mortification , and for our reward we shall have persecution , and all its blessed consequents : Atque hoc est esse Christianum . Since this was done in the green-tree , what might we expect should be done in the dry : Let us in the next place consider how God hath treated his Saints and servants , and the descending ages of the Gospel ; That if the best of Gods servants were followers of Jesus in this covenant of sufferings , we may not think it strange concerning the fiery tryall , as if some new thing had happened to us . For as the Gospel was founded in sufferings , we shall also see it grow in persecutions : and as Christs blood did cement the corner stones , and the first foundations ; So the blood and sweat , the groans and sighings , the afflictions and mortifications of saints , and martyrs did make the super structures , and must at last finish the building . If I begin with the Apostles , who were to perswade the world to become Christian , and to use proper Arguments of invitation , we shall sinde that they never offered an Argument of temporall prosperity : they never promised Empires and thrones on earth , nor riches , nor temporall power , and it would have been soon confuted , if they who were whipt and imprisoned , banished and scattered , persecuted and tormented , should have promised Sun-shine dayes to others , which they could not to themselves : Of all the Apostles there was not one that died a naturall death but onely Saint John ; and did he escape ? Yes : But he was put into a Cauldron of scalding lead and oyl , before the Port Latin in Rome , and scaped death by miracle , though no miracle was wrought to make him scape the torture : And besides this , he lived long in banishment , and that was worse then Saint Peters chains : Sanctus Petrus in vinculis , & Johannes ante portam latinam , were both dayes of Martyrdom and Church Festivals : and after a long and laborious life , and the affliction of being detained from his crown , and his sorrows for the death of his fellow-disciples , he dyed full of dayes and sufferings : And when Saint Paul was taken into the Apostolate , his Commissions were signed in these words ; I will shew unto him how great things he must suffer for my Name : and his whole life was a continuall suffering : Quotidiè morior was his Motto , I die daily ; and his lesson that he daily learned was to know Christ Jesus and him crucified ; and all his joy was to rejoyce in the Crosse of Christ ; and the changes of his life were nothing but the changes , of his sufferings , and the variety of his labours . For though Christ hath finished his own sufferings for expiation of the world , yet there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , portions that are behinde of the sufferings of Christ which must be filled up by his body the Church ; and happy are they that put in the greatest symbol : for in the same measure you are partakers of the sufferings of Christ , in the same shall ye be also of the consolation . And therefore concerning S. Paul , as it was also concerning Christ , there is nothing or but very little in Scripture , relating to his person and chances of his private life , but his labours and persecutions , as if the holy Ghost did think nothing fit to stand upon record for Christ , but sufferings . And now began to work the greatest glory of the divine Providence : here was the case of Christianity at stake . The world was rich and prosperous , learned and full of wise men , the Gospel was preached with poverty and persecution , in simplicity of discourse , and in demonstration of the Spirit : God was on one side , and the Devil on the other ; they each of them dressed up their city ; Babylon upon Earth , Jerusalem from above ; the Devils city was full of pleasure , triumphs , victories and cruelty ; good news and great wealth , conquest over Kings , and making nations tributary ; They bound Kings in chains , and the Nobles with links of iron , and the inheritance of the Earth was theirs : the Romans were Lords over the greatest parts of the world ; and God permitted to the Devil the Firmament and increase , the wars and the successe of that people , giving to him an intire power of disposing the great changes of the world , so as might best increase their greatnesse and power : and he therefore did it , because all the power of the Romane greatnesse was a professed enemy to Christianity : and on the other side God was to build up Jerusalem , and the kingdom of the Gospel : and he chose to build it of hewen stone , cut and broken : the Apostles he chose for Preachers , and they had no learning ; women and mean people were the first Disciples , and they had no power : the Devil was to lose his kingdom , and he wanted no malice : and therefore he stirred up , and as well as he could , he made active all the power of Rome , and all the learning of the Greeks , and all the malice of Barbarous people , and all the prejudice and the obstinacy of the Jews , against this doctrine and institution ; which preached and promised , and brought persecution along with it . On the one side there was scandalum crucis , on the other patientia sanctorum , and what was the event ? They that had overcome the world , could not strangle Christianity . But so have I seen the Sun with a little ray of distant light challenge all the power of darknesse , and without violence and noise climbing up the hill , hath made night so to retire , that its memory was lost in the joyes and spritefulnesse of the morning ; and Christianity without violence or armies , without resistance and self-preservation , without strength or humane eloquence , without challenging of priviledges , or fighting against Tyranny , without alteration of government , and scandall of Princes , with its humility and meeknesse , with tolerations and patience , with obedience and charity , with praying , and dying , did insensibly turn the world into Christian , and persecution into victory . For Christ who began , and lived and died in sorrows , perceived his own sufferings to succeed so well , and that for suffering death , he was crowned with immortality , resolved to take all his Disciples and servants to the fellowship of the same suffering , that they might have a participation of his glory ; knowing , God had opened no gate of heaven but the narrow gate , to which the Crosse was the key : and since Christ now being our High Priest in heaven , intercedes for us by representing his passion , and the dolours of the Crosse , that even in glory he might still preserve the mercies of his past sufferings , for which the Father did so delight in him : he also designes to present us to God , dressed in the same robe , and treated in the same manner , and honoured with the marks of the Lord Jesus : He hath predestinated us to be conformable to the image of his Son : And if under a head crowned with thorns , we bring to God members circled with roses , and softnesse , and delicacy , triumphant members in the militant Church , God will reject us ; he will not know us who are so unlike our elder brother : For we are members of the Lamb , not of the Lion , and of Christs suffering part , not of the triumphant part : and for three hundred yeers together , the Church lived upon blood , and was nourished with blood ; the blood of her own children : Thirty three Bishops of Rome in immediate succession , were put to violent and unnaturall deaths : and so were all the Churches of the East and West built ; the cause of Christ and of Religion was advanced by the sword , but it was the sword of the persecutours , not of resisters , or warriours : They were all baptized into the death of Christ , their very profession and institution is to live like him ; and when he requires it , to die for him ; that is the very formality , the life and essence of Christianity . This I say lasted for three hundred yeers , that the prayers and the backs , and the necks of Christians fought against the rods and axes of the persecutours , and prevailed till the Countrey , and the Cities , and the Court it self was filled with Christians : And by this time , the army of Martyrs was vast and numerous , and the number of sufferers blunted the hangmans sword : For Christ first triumphed over the princes and powers of the world , before he would admit them to serve him ; he first felt their malice before he would make use of their defence , to shew that it was not his necessity that required it , but his grace that admitted Kings and Queens to be nurses of the Church . And now the Church was at ease , and she that sucked the blood of the Martyrs so long , began now to suck the milk of Queens : Indeed it was a great mercy in appearance and was so intended , but it proved not so . But then the Holy Ghost in pursuance of the designe of Christ , who meant by sufferings to perfect his Church , as himself was by the same instrument , was pleased now that persecution did cease , to inspire the Church with the spirit of mortification and austerity ; and then they made Colleges of sufferers , persons who to secure their inheritance in the world to come , did cut off all their portion in this , excepting so much of it as was necessary to their present being ; and by instruments of humility , by patience under , and a voluntary undertaking of the Crosse , the burden of the Lord , by self deniall , by fastings and sackcloth , and pernoctations in prayer , they chose then to exercise the active part of the religion , mingling it as much as they could with the suffering . And indeed it is so glorious a thing to be like Christ ; to be dressed like the prince of the Catholick church , who was so a man of sufferings , and to whom a prosperous and unafflicted person is very unlike , that in all ages the servants of God have put on the armour of righteousnesse , on the right hand , and on the left , that is , in the sufferings of persecution , or the labours of mortification , in patience under the rod of God , or by election of our own ; by toleration , or self denial , by actual martyrdom , or by aptnesse or disposition towards it , by dying for Christ or suffering for him ; by being willing to part with all when he calls for it , and by parting with what we can , for the relief of his poor members . For know this , there is no state in the Church , so serene , no days so prosperous , in which God does not give to his servants , the powers and opportunities of suffering for him , not onely they that die for Christ , but they that live according to his laws , shall finde some lives to part with , and many wayes to suffer for Christ. To kill and crucifie the old man , and all his lusts , to mortifie a beloved sin , to fight against temptations , to do violence to our bodies , to live chastly , to suffer affronts patiently , to forgive injuries and debts , to renounce all prejudice and interest in religion , and to choose our side for truthes sake ( not because it is prosperous , but because it pleases God ) to be charitable beyond our power , to reprove our betters with modesty and opennesse , to displease men rather then God , to be at enmity with the world , that you may preserve friendship with God , to denie the importunity and troublesome kindnesse of a drinking friend , to own truth in despite of danger or scorn , to despise shame ; to refuse worldly pleasure when they tempt your soul , beyond duty or safety ; to take pains in the cause of religion , the labour of love and the crossing of your anger , peevishnesse and morosity ; these are the daily sufferings of a Christian ; and if we performe them well , wil have the same reward and an equal smart and greater labour then the plain suffering the hangmans sword . This I have discoursed , to represent unto you , that you cannot be exempted from the similitude of Christs sufferings ; that God will shut no age nor no man from his portion of the crosse ; that we cannot fail of the result of this predestination , nor without our own fault be excluded from the covenant of sufferings : judgement must begin at Gods house , and enters first upon the sons and heirs of the kingdom ; and if it be not by the direct persecution of Tyrants , it will be by the persecution of the devil , or infirmities of our own flesh : But because this was but the secondary meaning of the text , I return to make use of all the former discourse . 1. Let no Christian man make any judgement concerning his condition , or his cause by the external event of things : for although in the law of Moses , God made with his people a covenant of temporal prosperity , and his Saints did binde the kings of the Amorites , and the Philistines in chains , and their nobles with links of iron , and then , that was the honour which all his Saints had ; yet in Christ Jesus he made a covenant of sufferings : most of the graces of Christianity are suffering graces , and God hath predestinated us to sufferings : and we are baptised into suffering , and our very communions are symbols of our duty , by being the sacrament of Christs death and passion ; and Christ foretold to us tribulation , and promised onely that he would be with us in tribulation , that he would give us his spirit to assist us at tribunals , and his grace to despise the world , and to contemn riches , and boldnesse to confesse every article of the Christian faith , in the face of armies and armed tyrants ; and he also promised that all things should work together for the best to his servants , that is , he would out of the eater bring meat , and out of the strong issue sweetnesse , and crowns and scepters should spring from crosses , and that the crosse it self should stand upon the globes and scepters of Princes ; but he never promised to his servants , that they should pursue Kings and destroy armies , that they should reign over the nations , and promote the cause of Jesus Christ by breaking his commandments : The shield of faith and the sword of the spirit , the armour of righteousnesse , and the weapons of spiritual warfare , these are they by which christianity swelled from a small company , and a lesse reputation , to possesse the chaires of Doctors , and the thrones of princes , and the hearts of all men . But men in all ages will be tampering with shadows and toyes . The Apostles at no hand could endure to hear that Christs kingdom was not of this world , and that their Master should die a sad and shameful death ; though that way he was to receive his crown , and enter into glory : and after Christs time , when his Disciples had taken up the crosse and were marching the Kings high way of sorrows , there were a very great many , even the generality of Christians , for two or three ages together , who fell on dreaming that Christ should come and reign upon earth again , for a thousand years , and then the Saints should reigne in all abundance of temporal power and fortunes : but these men were content to stay for it , till after the resurrection ; in the mean time took up their crosse and followed after their Lord , the King of sufferings : But now adayes we finde a generation of men , who have changed the covenant of sufferings into victories , and triumphs , riches and prosperous chances , and reckon their Christianity by their good fortunes , as if Christ had promised to his servants no heaven hereafter , no spirit in the mean time to refresh their sorrows ; as if he had enjoyned them no passive graces ; but as if to be a Christian and to be a Turk were the same thing . Mahomet entered and possessed by the sword : Christ came by the crosse , entered by humility , and his saints possesse their souls by patience . God was fain to multiply miracles to make Christ capable of being a man of sorrows ; and shall we think he will work miracles to make us delicate ? He promised us a glorious portion hereafter , to which if all the sufferings of the world were put together , they are not worthy to be compared , and shall we with Dives choose our portion of good things in this life ? If Christ suffered so many things onely that he might give us glory , shall it be strange that we shall suffer who are to receive this glory ? It is in vain to think we shall obtain glories at an easier rate , then to drink of the brook in the way in which Christ was drenched . When the Devil appeared to Saint Martin in a bright splendid shape and said he was Christ , he answered , Christus non nisi in cruce apparet suis in hac vita . And when Saint Ignatius was newly tied in a chain to be led to his martyrdom , he cryed out , nunc incipio esse Christianus : And it was observed by Minutius Felix , and was indeed a great and excellent truth , omnes viri fortes quos Gentiles praedicabant , in exemplum , aerumnis suis inclytifloruerunt . The Gentiles in their whole religion never propounded any man imitable , unlesse the man were poor or persecuted : Brutus stood for his countries liberty , but lost his army and his life ; Socrates was put to death for speaking a religious truth : Cato chose to be on the right side , but happened to fall upon the oppressed and the injured ; he died together with his party . Victrix causa Deis placuit sed vict a Catoni ; And if God thus dealt with the best of Heathens to whom he had made no cleare revelation of immortal recompences , how little is the faith and how much lesse is the patience of Christians if they shall think much to suffer sorrows since they so clearly see with the eye of faith the great things which are laid up for them that are faithful unto the death . Faith is uselesse , if now in the midst of so great pretended lights we shall not dare to trust God unlesse we have all in hand that we desire ; and suffer nothing , for all we can hope for . They that live by sense have no use of faith , yet our Lord Jesus concerning whose passions , the gospel speaks much , but little of his glorifications , whose shame was publick , whose pains were notorious , but his joyes and transfigurations were secret and kept private , he who would not suffer his holy mother , whom in great degrees he exempted from sin , to be exempted from many and great sorrows , certainly intends to admit none to his resurrection , but by the doors of his grave , none to glory but by the way of the crosse . If we be planted into the likenesse of his death , we shall be also of his resurrection , else on no termes ; Christ took away sin from us , but he left us our share of sufferings ; and the crosse which was first printed upon us in the waters of baptisme , must for ever be born by us in penance , in mortification , in self-denial and in martyrdom , and toleration according as God shall require of us by the changes of the world , and the condition of the Church . For Christ considers nothing , but souls , he values not their estate or bodies , supplying our want by his providence , and being secured that our bodies may be killed , but cannot perish so long as we preserve our duty and our consciences . Christ our Captain hangs naked upon the crosse , our fellow souldiers are cast into prison ; torne with Lions , rent in sunder with trees returning from their violent bendings , broken upon wheels , rosted upon gridirons , and have had the honour not onely to have a good cause , but also to suffer for it , and by faith not by armies , by patience not by fighting , have overcome the world ; & sit anima mea cum Christianis , I pray God my soul may be among the Christians ; and yet the Turks have prevailed upon a great part of the Christian world , and have made them slaves , and tributaries , and do them all spite , and are hugely prosperous ; but when Christians are so , then they are tempted and put in danger , and never have their duty and their interest so well secured , as when they lose all for Christ and are adorned with wounds , or poverty , change or scorn , affronts or revilings which are the obelisks and triumphs of a holy cause . Evil men and evil causes had need have good fortune and great successe to support their persons and their pretences ; for nothing but innocence and Christianity can flourish in a persecution . I summe up this first discourse in a word : in all the Scripture , and in all the Authentick stories of the Church we finde it often , that the Devil appeared in the shape of an Angell of light , but was never suffered so much as to conterfeit a persecuted sufferer ; say no more therefore as the murmuring Israelites said ; If the LORD be with us why have these evils apprehended us ? for if to be afflicted be a signe that God hath forsaken a man , and refuses to own his religion , or his question , then he that oppresses the widow , and murders the innocent , and puts the fatherlesse to death , and follows providence by doing all the evils that he can , that is , all that God suffers him , he I say is the onely Saint and servant of God : and upon the same ground the wolf and the fox may boast when they scatter and devour a flock of lambs and harmlesse sheep . Sermon . X. The Faith and Patience of the SAINTS : OR The righteous cause oppressed . Part II. IT follows now that we inquire concerning the reasons of the Divine Providence , in this administration of affairs , so far as he hath been pleased to draw aside the curtain , and to unfold the leaves of his counsels and predestination : and for such an inquiry we have the precedent of the Prophet Jeremy : Righteous art thou O Lord , when I plead with thee , yet let us talk to thee of thy judgements : wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper ? Wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously ? Thou hast planted them , yea they have taken root : they grow , yea they bring forth fruit Concerning which , in generall the Prophet Malachy gives this account after the same complaint made . And now we call the proud happy , and they that work wickednesse are set up , yea they that tempt God are even delivered . They that feared the Lord spake often one to another , and the Lord hearkened and heard , and a book of remembrance was written before time for them that feared the Lord , and thought upon his Name , and they shall be mine ( saith the Lord of Hosts ) in that day when I binde up my jewels , and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him : Then shall ye return and discern betwen the righteous , and the wicked , between him that serveth God , and him that serveth him not . In this interval which is a valley of tears , it is no wonder if they rejoyce , who shall weep for ever ; and they that sow in tears shall have no cause to complain , when God gathers all the mourners into his kingdom , they shall reape with joy . For innocence and joy were appointed to dwel together for ever . And joy went not first but when innocence went away , sorrow and sicknesse dispossessed joy of its habitation ; and now this world must be alwayes a scene of sorrows , and no joy can grow here but that which is imaginary and phantastick : there is no worldly joy , no joy proper for this world , but that which wicked persons fancy to themselves , in the hopes and designes of iniquity : He that covets his neighbours wife or land , dreams of fine things , and thinks it a fair condition to be rich and cursed , to be a beast and die , or to lie wallowing in his filthinesse : but those holy souls who are not in love with the leprosie & the Itch for the pleasure of scratching , they know no pleasure can grow from the thorns which Adam planted in the hedges of Paradise ; and that sorrow which was brought in by sin , must not go away till it hath returned us into the first condition of innocence : the same instant that quits us from sin , and the failings of mortality , the same instant wipes all tears from our eyes ; but that is not in this world ; In the mean time . God afflicts the godly that he might manifest many of his attributes , and his servants exercise many of their vertues . Nec fortuna probat causas sequiturque merentes , sed vaga percunctos nullo discrimine fertur : scilicet est aliud quod nos cogatque rogatque Majus , & in proprias ducat mortalia leges . For , without sufferings of Saints God should lose the glories of 1. Bringing good out of evil : 2. Of being with us in tribulation , 3. Of sustaining our infirmities , 4. Of triumphing over the malice of his enemies : 5. Without the suffering of Saints , where were the exaltation of the crosse , the conformity of the members to Christ their Head , the coronets of Martyrs ? 6. Where were the trial of our faith ? 7. Or the exercise of long suffering ? 8. Where were the opportunities , to give God the greatest love ? which cannot be but by dying and suffering for him ? 9. How should that which the world calls folly prove the greatest wisdom : 10. and God be glorified by events contrary to the probability and expectation of their causes : By the suffering of Saints , Christian religion is proved to be most excellent whilst the iniquity and cruelty of the adversaries proves the illecebra sectae as Tertullians phrase is , it invites men to consider the secret excellencies of that religion , for which and in which men are so willing to die : for that religion must needs be worth looking into , which so many wise and excellent men do so much value above their lives and fortunes ; 12. That a mans nature is passible , is its best advantage : for by it we are all redeemed : by the passivenesse and sufferings of our Lord and brother we were all rescued from the portion of Devils ; and by our suffering we have a capacity of serving God beyond that of Angels : who indeed can sing Gods praise with a sweeter note , and obey him with a more unabated will , and execute his commands with a swifter wing , and a greater power ; but they cannot die for God ; they can lose no lands for him ; and he that did so for all us , and commanded us to do so for him , is ascended farre above all Angels , and is Heir of a greater glory . 13. Do this , and live , was the covenant of the Law ; but in the Gospel it is , suffer this , and live : He that forsaketh house and land , friends and life , for my sake is my disciple . 14. By the sufferings of Saints God chastises their follies and levities , and suffers not their errours to climbe up into heresies , nor their infirmities into crimes . — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Alterat on makes a fool leave his folly . If David numbers the people of Judea , God punishes him sharply and loudly : But if Augustus Caesar numbers all the world he is let alone and prospers . Ille crucem pretium sceleris tulit , hic diadema . And it giving physick we alwayes call that just , and fitting that is usefull and profitable : no man complains of his Physitians Iniquity , if he burns one part to cure all the body , if the belly be punished to chastise the floods of humour , and the evils of a surfet : Punishments can no other way turn into a mercy , but when they are designed for medicine ; and God is then very carefull of thy soul , when he will suppresse every of its evils , when it first discomposes the order of things , and spirits . And what hurt is it to thee if a persecution draws thee from the vanities of a former prosperity , and forces thee into the sobrieties of a holy life ? What losse is it , what misery ? Is not the least sin a greater evil then the greatest of sufferings ? God smites some at the beginning of their sin : Others not till a long while after it is done . The first cannot say , that God is slack in punishing ; and have no need to complain that the wicked are prosperous ; for they finde that God is apt enough to strike ; and therefore that he strikes them , and strikes not the other , is not defect of justice , but because there is not mercy in store , for them that sin and suffer not : 15. For if God strikes the godly that they may repent , it is no wonder that God is so good to his servants ; but then we must not call that a misery , which God intends to make an instrument of saving them . And if God forbears to strike the wicked out of anger , and because he hath decreed death and hell against them , we have no reason to envy that they ride in a gilded chariot to the gallows : But if God forbears the wicked , that by his long sufferance they may be invited to repentance , then we may cease to wonder at the dispensation , and argue comforts to the afflicted Saints , thus ; 1. For if God be so gracious to the wicked ; how much more is he to the godly ? And if sparing the wicked be a mercy , then smiting the godly being the expression of his greater kindnesse ; affliction is of it self the more eligible condition . If God hath some degrees of kindnesse for the persecutor , so much as to invite them by kindnesse , how much greater is his love to them that are persecuted ? and therefore his entercourse with them is also a greater favour : and indeed it is the surer way of securing the duty ; fair means may do it , but severity will fix and secure it : fair means are more apt to be abused then harsh physick ; that may be turned into wantonnesse , but 〈◊〉 but the impudent and grown sinners , despise all Gods judgements ; and therefore God chooses this way to deal with his erring servants , that they may obtain an infallible and a great salvation : and yet if God spares not his children , how much lesse the reprobates ? and therefore as the sparing the latter , commonly is a sad curse , so the smiting the former is a very great mercy . 16 For by this Oeconomy God gives us a great argument to prove the resurrection , since to his saints and servants he assignes sorrow for their present portion . Sorrow cannot be the reward of vertue , it may be its instrument , and hand-maid , but not its reward ; and therefore it may be intermedial to some great purposes , but they must look for their portion in the other life : For if in this life onely we had hope , then we were of all men the most miserable . It is Sain Pauls argument to prove a beatificall resurrection : And we therefore may learn to estimate , the state of the afflicted godly to be a mercy great , in proportion to the greatnesse of that reward , which these afflictions come to secure and to prove . Nunc & damna juvant , sunt ipsa pericula tanti , Stantia non poterant tecta probare Deos. It is a great matter , an infinite blessing to escape the pains of hell ; and therefore that condition is also very blessed which God sends us to create and to confirm our hopes of that excellent mercy . 17. The sufferings of the saints are the sum of Christian Philosophy ; they are sent to wean us from the vanities and affections of this world , and to create in us strong desires of heaven , whiles God causes us to be here treated rudely , that we may long to be in our Countrey , where God shall be our portion , and Angels our companions , and Christ our perpetuall feast , and a never ceasing joy shall be our condition and entertainment . O death , how bitter art thou to a man that is at ease and rest in his possessions : but he that is uneasie in his body , and unquiet in his possessions , vexed in his person , discomposed in his designes , who findes no pleasure , no rest here , will be glad to fix his heart , where onely he shall have what he can desire , and what can make him happy . As long as the waters of persecutions are upon the earth , so long we dwell in the Ark ; but where the land is dry , the Dove it self will be tempted to a wandring course of life , and never to return to the house of her safety . What shall 1 say more ? 18 Christ nourisheth his Church by sufferings . 19 He hath given a single blessing to all other graces , but to them that are persecuted , he hath promised a double one . It being a double favour , first to be innocent like Christ , and then to be afflicted like him . 20. Without this , the miracles of patience , which God hath given to fortifie the spirits of the saints would signifie nothing . Nemo enim tolerare tanta velit sine causâ , nec potuit sine Deo , as no man would bear evils without a cause , so no man could bear so much without the supporting hand of God ; and we need not the Holy Ghost to so great purposes , if our lot were not sorrow and persecution ; and therefore without this condition of suffering , the Spirit of God should lose that glorious attribute of The Holy Ghost the Comforter . 21. Is there any thing more yet ? Yes They that have suffered or forsaken any lands for Christ , shall sit upon thrones and judge the twelve tribes of Israel , so said Christ to his Disciples . Nay the saints shall judge Angels , ( saith saint Paul ) well therefore might Saint Paul say , I rejoyce exceedingly in tribulation . It must be some great thing that must make an afflicted man to rejoyce exceedingly ; and so it was . For since patience is necessary that we receive the promise , and tribulation does work this : For a short time it worketh the consummation of our hope , even an exceeding weight of glory . We have no reason to think it strange concerning the fiery triall , as if it were a strange thing . It can be no hurt ; the Church is like Moses bush , when it is all on fire , it is not at all consumed , but made full of miracle , full of splendour , full of God : and unlesse we can finde something that God cannot turn into joy , we have reason not onely to be patient , but rejoyce , when we are persecuted in a righteous cause : For love is the soul of Christianity , and suffering is the soul of love . To be innocent , and to be persecuted , are the body and soul of Christianity . I John your brother , and partaker of tribulation , and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus , said Saint John : those were the titles and ornaments of his profession ; that is , I John your fellow Christian ; that 's the plain song of the former descant . He therefore that is troubled , when he is afflicted in his outward man , that his inward man may grow strong , like the birds upon the ruines of the shell , and wonders that a good man should be a begger , and a sinner be rich with oppression , that Lazarus should die at the gate of Dives , hungry and sick , unpitied , and unrelieved , may as well wonder , that carrion crowes should feed themselves fat upon a fair horse , farre better then himself ; or that his own excellent body should be devoured by wormes , and the most contemptible creatures , though it lies there to be converted into glory ; That man knows nothing of nature , or providence , or Christianity , or the rewards of vertue , or the nature of its constitution , or the infirmities of man , or the mercies of God , or the arts and prudence of his loving kindnesse , or the rewards of heaven , or the glorifications of Christs exalted humanity , or the precepts of the Gospel , who is offended at the sufferings of Gods deerest servants , or declines the honour and the mercy of sufferings in the cause of righteousnesse ; For the securing of a vertue , for the imitation of Christ , and for the love of God , or the glories of immortality . It cannot , it ought not , it never will be otherwise , the world may as well cease to be measured by time , as good men to suffer affliction . I end this point with the words of Saint Paul , Let as many as are perfect , be thus minded , and if any man be otherwise minded , God also will reveal this unto you , this , of the covenant of sufferings , concerning which the old Prophets , and holy men of the Temple had many thoughts of heart ; but in the full sufferings of the Gospel , there hath been a full revelation of the excellency of the sufferings . I have now given you an account of some of those reasons , why God hath so disposed it , that at this time , that is , under the period of the Gospel , judgement must begin at the house of God , and they are either , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or imitation of Christs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , chastisements , or trials , martyrdom , or a conformity to the sufferings of the Holy Jesus . But now besides all the premises , we have another account to make concerning the prosperity of the wicked : For if judgment first begin at us ? what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel of God ? that is the question of the Apostle , and is the great instrument of comfort to persons ill treated in the actions of the world . The first ages of the Church lived upon promises , and prophecies ; and because some of them are already fulfilled for ever , and the others are of a continuall and a successive nature , and are verified by the actions of every day : Therefore we and all the following Ages live upon promises and experience : and although the servants of God have suffered many calamities , from the tyranny and prevalency of evil men their enemies , yet still it is preserved as one of the fundamentall truths of Christianity ; That all the fair fortunes of the wicked are not enough to make them happy , nor the persecutions of the godly , able to make a good man miserable ; nor yet their sadnesses arguments of Gods displeasure against them . For when a godly man is afflicted and dies , it is his work and his businesse ; and if the wicked prevail , that is , if they persecute the godly , it is but that which was to be expected from them : For who are fit to be hangmen , and executioners of publike wrath but evil and ungodly persons ? And can it be a wonder that they whose cause wants reason , should betake themselves to the sword ? that what he cannot perswade he may wrest ? onely we must not judge of the things of God by the measures of men , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the things of men have this world for their stage , and their reward , but the things of God relate to the world to come : and for our own particulars we are to be guided by rule , and by the end of all , not by events intermedial , which are varied by a thousand irregular causes . For if all the evil men in the world were unprosperous ( as most certainly they are ) and if all good persons were temporally blessed ( as most certainly they are not ) yet this would not move us to become vertuous : If an angel should come from heaven , or one arise from the dead and preach repentance , or justice , and temperance , all this would be ineffectuall to those to whom the plain doctrines of God , delivered in the Law and the Prophets will not suffice . For why should God work a signe to make us to beleeve that we ought to do justice ; if we already beleeve , he hath commanded it , no man can need a miracle for the confirmation of that which he already beleeves to be the command of God : And when God hath expressely bidden us to obey every ordinance of man for the Lords sake , the King as supreme , and his deputies as sent by him : It is a strange infidelity to think , that a rebellion against the ordinance of God , can be sanctified by successe and prevalency , of them that destroy the authority , and the person , and the law , and the religion : The sin cannot grow to its height if it be crushed at the beginning ; unlesse it prosper in its progresse , a man cannot easily fill up the measure of his iniquity : but then that the sin swels to its fulnesse by prosperity , and grows too big to be suppressed without a miracle , it is so far from excusing , or lessening the sin , that nothing doth so nurse the sin as it : It is not vertue , because it is prosperous , but if it had not been prosperous , the sin could never be so great . — Facere omnia saevè Non impunè licet , nisi dum facis . A little crime is sure to smart , but when the sinner is grown rich , and prosperous , and powerfull , he gets impunity . Jusque datum sceleri — But that 's not innocence , and if prosperity were the voice of God to approve an action , then no man were vitious , but he that is punished , and nothing were rebellion , but that which cannot be easily suppressed , and no man were a Pirate but he that robs with a little vessell , and no man could be a Tyrant but he that is no prince , and no man an unjust invader of his neighbours rights , but he that is beaten and overthrown . Then the crime grows big and loud , then it calls to Heaven for vengeance , when it hath been long a growing , when it hath thrived under the Devils managing ; when God hath long suffered it , and with patience in vain expecting the repentance of a sinner : he that treasures up wrath against the day of wrath , that man hath been a prosperous , that is an unpunished and a thriving sinner : but then it is the sin that thrives not the man : and that is the mistake upon this whole question : for the sin cannot thrive , unlesse the man goes on without apparent punishment , and restraint . And all that the man gets by it is , that by a continual course of sin , he is prepared for an intollerable ruine . The Spirit of God bids us look upon the end of these men ; not the way they walk or the instrument of that pompous death . When Epaminondas was asked , which of the three was happiest , himself , Chalrias , or Iphicrates , bid the man stay till they were all dead ; for till then that question could not be answered . He that had seen the Vandals besiege the city of Hippo , and have known the barbarousnesse of that unchristned people , and had observed that S. Augustine withall his prayers and vows could not obtain peace in his own dayes , not so much as a reprieve for the persecution , and then had observed S. Augustine die with grief that very night , would have perceived his calamity more visible then the reward of his piety and holy religion . When Lewis sirnamed Pius went his voyage to Palestine upon a holy end , and for the glory of God to fight against the Saracens and Turks , and Mamalukes , the world did promise to themselves that a good cause should thrive in the hands of so holy a man : but the event was far otherwise ; his brother Robert was killed , and his army destroyed , and himself taken prisoner , and the money which by his Mother was sent for his redemption was cast away in a storm , and he was exchanged for the last town the Christians had in Egypt , and brought home the crosse of Christ upon his shoulder in a real pressure and participation of his Masters sufferings . When Charles the fifth went to Algier to suppresse pirates and unchristned villains , the cause was more confident then the event was prosperous : and when he was almost ruined in a prodigious storme , he told the minutes of the clock , expecting that at midnight , when religious persons rose to Mattins , he should be eased by the benefit of their prayers : but the providence of God trod upon those waters , and left no footstoops for discovery : his navie was beat in pieces , and his designe ended in dishonour , and his life almost lost by the bargain . Was ever cause more baffled then the Christian cause by the Turks , in all Asia and Africa , and some parts of Europe , if to be persecuted and afflicted be reckoned a calamity ? What prince was ever more unfortunate then Henry the sixt of England , and yet that age saw none more pious and devout , and the title of the house of Lancaster was advanced against the right of York , for three descents ; but then what was the end of these things ? the persecuted men were made Saints , and their memories are preserved in honour , and their souls shall reigne for ever ; and some good men were ingaged in a wrong cause , and the good cause was sometimes managed by evil men , till that the suppressed cause was lifted up by God in the hands of a young and prosperous prince , and at last , both interests were satisfied in the conjunction of two roses , which was brought to issue by a wonderful chain of causes managed by the divine providence : and there is no age , no history , no state , no great change in the world , but hath ministred an example of an afflicted truth , and a prevailing sin : For I will never more call that sinner prosperous , who after he hath been permitted to finish his businesse , shall die , and perish miserably : for at the same rate , we may envie the happinesse of a poor fisherman , who while his nets were drying , slept upon the rock and dreamt that he was made a King ; on a sudden starts up , and leaping for joy , fals down from the rock , and in the place of his imaginary felicities , loses his little portion of pleasure , and innocent folaces , he had from the sound sleep and little cares of his humble cottage . And what is the prosperity of the wicked ? to dwel in fine houses , or to command armies , or to be able to oppresse their brethren , or to have much wealth to look on , or many servants to feed , or much businesse to dispatch , and great cares to master ; these things are of themselves neither good nor bad ; but consider : would any man amongst us , looking and considering before hand , kill his lawful King to be heire of all that which I have named ? would any of you choose , to have God angry with you upon these terms ? would any of you be a perjured man for it all ? A wise man or a good , would not choose it : would any of you die an Atheist that you might live in plenty and power ? I believe you tremble to think of it . It cannot therefore be a happinesse to thrive , upon the stock of a great sin : for if any man should contract with an impure spirit , to give his soul up at a certain day , it may be 20. years hence , upon the condition he might for 20. years have his vain desires , should we not think that person infinitely miserable ; every prosperous thriving sinner is in the same condition ; within these twenty years , he shall be thrown into the portion of Devils , but shall never come out thence in twenty millions of years . His wealth must needs sit uneasie upon him , that remembers that within a short space he shall be extreamely miserable ; and if he does not remember it , he does but secure it the more . And that God defers the punishment , and suffers evil men to thrive in the opportunities of their sin , it may and does serve many ends of providence , and mercy , but serves no end that any evil men can reasonably wish or propound to themselves eligible . Bias said well to a vitious person , Non metuo ne non sis daturus paenas , sed metuo ne id non sim visurus , He was sure the man should be punished , he was not sure he should live to see it : and though the messenians that were betrayed and slain by Aristocrates in the battle of Cyprus , were not made alive again , yet the justice of God was admired , and treason infinitly disgraced , when twenty years after , the treason was discovered , and the the traitor punished , with a horrid death . Lyciscus gave up the Orchomenians to their enemies , having first wished his feet , which he then dipt in water , might rot off , if he were not true to them ; and yet his feet did not rot till those men were destroyed , and of a long time after ; and yet at last they did ; slay them not O Lord lest my people forget it ( saith David ) if punishment were instantly and totally inflicted , it would be but a sudden and single document : but a slow and lingring judgement , and , a wrath breaking out in the next age , is like an universal proposion , teaching our posterity , that God was angry all the while , that he had a long indignation in his brest , that he would not forget to take veangeance : and it is a demonstration , that even the prosperous sins of the present age , will finde the same period in the Divine revenge when men see a judgement upon the Nephevvs for the sins of their Grand-fathers , though in other instances , and for sinnes acted in the dayes of their Ancestors . We knovv that vvhen in Henry the eighth , or Edvvard the sixth dayes , some great men pulled dovvn Churches and built palaces , and robd religion of its just incouragements , and advantages ; the men that did it were sacrilegious ; and we finde also that God hath been punishing that great sin , ever since ; and hath displaied to so many generations of men , to three or four descents of children , that those men could not be esteemed happy in their great fortunes , against whom God was so angry , that he would show his displeasure for a hundred years together . When Herod had killed the babes of Bethlehem , it was seven years before God called him to an account . But he that looks upon the end of that man , would rather choose the fat of the oppressed babes , then of the prevailing and triumphing Tyrant : It was fourty years before God punished the Jews , for the execrable murder committed upon the person of their King , the holy Jesus ; and it was so long , that when it did happen , many men attributed it to their killing S. James their Bishop and seemed to forget the greater crime , but non eventu rerum sed fide verborum stamus : we are to stand to the truth of Gods word not to the event of things . Because God hath given us a rule but hath left the judgement to himself ; and we die so quickly , ( and God measures althings by his standard of eternity , and 1000 years to God is but as one day ) that we are not competent persons to measure the times of Gods account , and the returnes of judgement . We are dead before the arrow comes , but the man scapes not , unlesse his soul can die , or that God cannot punish him . Ducunt in bonis dies suos & in momento descendunt ad infernum , that 's their fate , they spend their dayes in plenty , and in a moment descend into hell : in the meane time they drink and forget their sorrow ; but they are condemned they have drunk their hemlock , but the poison does not work yet : the bait is in their mouths , and they are sportive ; but the hook hath strook their nostrils , and they shall never escape the ruine ; And let no man call the man fortunate , because his execution is deferd for a few dayes , when the very deferring shall increase , and ascertain the condemnation . But if we should look under the skirt of the prosperous and prevailing Tyrant , we should finde even in the dayes of his joyes , such allayes and abatements of his pleasure , as may serve to represent him presently miserable , besides his final infelicities . For I have seen a young and healthful person warm and ruddy under a poor and a thin garment , when at the same time , an old rich person hath been cold , and paralytick , under a load of sables and the skins of foxes ; it is the body that makes the clothes warm , not the clothes the body : and the spirit of a man makes felicity and content , not any spoils of a rich fortune wrapt about a sickly and an uneasie soul. Apollodorus was a Traitor , and a Tyrant , and the world wondered to see a bad man have so good a fortune ; But knew not that he nourished Scorpions in his brest , and that his liver and his heart were eaten up with Spectres and images of death ; his thoughts were full of interruptions , his dreams of illusions , his fancie was abused with real troubles , and phantastick images , imagining that he saw the Scythians flaying him alive , his daughters like pillars of fire dancing round about a cauldron in which himself was boyling , and that his heart accused it self to be the cause of all these evils : And although all tyrants have not imaginative and phantastick consciences , yet all tyrants shall die and come to judgement ; and such a man is not to be feared , nor at all to be envied : and in the mean time can he be said to escape , who hath an unquiet conscience , who is already designed for hell , he whom God hates and the people curse , and who hath an evil name , and against whom all good men pray , and many desire to fight , and all wish him destroyed , and some contrive to do it ? is this man a blessed man ? Is that man prosperous who hath stolen a rich robe , & is in fear to have his throat cut for it , and is fain to defend it with the greatest difficulty and the greatest danger ? Does not he drink more sweetly , that takes his beaverage in an earthen vessel , then he that looks and searches into his golden chalices for fear of poison , and looks pale , at every sudden noise , and sleeps in armour , and trusts no body and does not trust God for his safety , but does greater wickednesse onely to escape a while un punished for his former crimes ? Aurobibitur venenum , No man goes about to poison a poor mans pitcher , nor layes plots to forrage his little garden made for the hospital of two bee hives , and the feasting of a few Pythagorean herbe eaters . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They that admire the happinesse of a prosperous , prevailing Tyrant , know not the felicities , that dwell in innocent hearts , and poor cottages and small fortunes . A Christian so long as he preserves his integrity to God and to religion is bold in all accidents , he dares die , and he dares be poor ; but if the persecutor dies , he is undone . Riches are beholding to our fancies for their value ; and yet the more we value the riches , the lesse good they are , and by an overvaluing affection , they become our danger and our sin : But on the other side , death and persecution loose all the ill , that they can have , if we do not set an edge upon them by our fears and by our vices . From our selves riches take their wealth , and death sharpens his arrows at our forges and we may set their prices as we please ; and if we judge by the spirit of God , we must account them happy that suffer ; And therefore that the prevailing oppressor , Tyrant , or persecutor is infinitly miserable , onely let God choose by what instruments he will govern the world , by what instances himself would be served , by what waies he will chastise the failings and exercise the duties , and reward the vertues of his servants . God sometimes punishes one sinne with another , pride with adultery , drunkennesse with murder , carelesnesse with irreligion , idlenesse with vanity , penury with oppression , irreligion with blasphemy , and that with Atheisme , and therefore it is no wonder if he punishes a sinner by a sinner And if David made use of villains and profligate persons to frame an armie ; and Timoleon destroy'd the Carthaginians by the help of souldiers , who themselves were sacrilegious ; and Physitians use the poison to expel poisons ; and all common-wealths take the basest of men to be their instruments of justice and executions ; we shall have no further cause to wonder , if God raises up the Assyrians to punish the Israelites , and the Egyptians to destroy the Assyrians , and the Ethiopians to scourge the Egyptians , and at last his own hand shall separate the good from the bad in the day of separation , in the day when he makes up his Iewels . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Soph. Elect. God hath many ends of providence to serue by the hands of violent and vitious men , by them he not onely checks the beginning errours , and approaching sins of his predestinate , but by them he changes governments and alters kingdoms , and is terrible among the sons of men : for since it is one of his glories , to convert evil into good , and that good into his own glory , and by little and little to open and to turn the leaves and various folds of providence ; it becomes us onely to dwell in duty , and to be silent in our thoughts , and wary in our discourses of God ; and let him choose the time when he will prune his vine , and when he will burn his thorns : how long he will smite his servants , and when he will destroy his enemies . In the dayes of the primitive persecutions , what prayers , how many sighings , how deep groanes , how many bottles of tears did God gather into his repository , all praying for ease and deliverances , for Halcyon dayes and fine sunshine , for nursing fathers and nursing mothers , for publick assemblies , and open and solemn sacraments : And it was 3 hundred years before God would hear their prayers : and all that while the persecuted people were in a cloud , but they were safe and knew it not : and God kept for them the best wine untill the last ; they ventured for a crown and fought valiantly , they were faithful to the death , and they received a crown of life , and they are honored by God , by angels , and by men ; whereas in all the prosperous ages of the Church , we hear no stories of such multitudes of Saints no record of them , no honour to their memorial , no accident extraordinary ; scarce any made illustrious with a miracle , which in the dayes of suffering were frequent and popular . And after all our fears of sequestration and poverty , of death or banishment , our prayers against the persecution , and troubles under it , we may please to remember that twenty years hence ( it may be sooner , it wil not be much longer ) all our cares and our troubles shall be dead , and then it shall be enquired how we did bear our sorrows , and who inflicted them , and in what cause , and then he shall be happy that keeps company with the persecuted , and the persecutors shall be shut out amongst dogs and unbelievers . He that shrinks from the yoke of Christ , from the burden of the Lord , upon his death-bed will have cause to remember , that by that time all his persecutions would have been past , and that then there would remain nothing for him , but rest and crowns and scepters . When Lysimachus , impatient and overcome with thirst gave up his kingdom to the Getae , and being a captive and having drank a lusty draught of wine , and his thirst was now gone , he fetched a deep sigh and said , Miserable man that I am , who for so little pleasure , the pleasure of one draught lost so great a Kingdom such will be their case , who being impatient of suffering , change their persecution into wealth , and an easie fortune they shall finde themselves miserable , in the separations of eternity losing the glories of heaven for so little a pleasure , illiberalis & ingratae voluptatis causa as Plutarch calls it , for illiberal and ungratefull pleasure , in which when a man hath entred , he loses the rights and priviledges and honours of a good man , and gets nothing that is profitable and useful to holy purposes , or necessary to any ; but is already in a state so hateful and miserable , that he needs neither God nor man to be a revenger , having already under his splendid robe , miseries enough to punish and betray this hypocrisy of his condition : being troubled with the memory of what is past , distrustful of the present , suspicious of the future , vitious in their lives , and full of pageantry and out-sides , but in their death miserable with calamities , real , eternal and insupportable ; and if it could be other wise , vertue it self would be reproached with the calamity . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . I end with the advice of Saint Paul , In nothing be terrified of your adversaries , which to them is an evident token of perdition , but to you of salvation and that of God. Sermon . XI . The Faith and Patience of the SAINTS : OR The righteous cause oppressed . Part III. BUt now that the persecuted may at least be pitied , and assisted in that of which they are capable , I shall propound some rules by which they may learn to gather grapes from their thorns , and figs from their thistles , crowns from the crosse , glory from dishonour . As long as they belong to God , it is necessary that they suffer persecution , or sorrow , no rules can teach them to avoid that ; but the evil of the suffering , and the danger , must be declined , and we must use such spirituall arts as are apt to turn them into health and medicine : For it were a hard thing , first to be scourged , and then to be crucified ; to suffer here , and to perish hereafter ; through the fiery triall , and purging fire of afflictions , to passe into hell : that , is intollerable ; and to be prevented with the following cautions , least a man suffers like a fool , and a malefactour , or inherits damnation for the reward of his imprudent suffering . 1. They that suffer any thing for Christ , and are ready to die for him , let them do nothing against him . For certainly they think too highly of martyrdom , who beleeve it able to excuse all the evils of a wicked life . A man may give his body to be burned , and yet have no charity ; and he that dies without charity , dies without God , for God is love : And when those who fought in the dayes of the Maccabees , for the defence of true Religion , and were killed in those holy warres , yet being dead , were found having about their necks , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or pendants , consecrated to idols of the Jamnenses , it much allayed the hope , which by their dying in so good a cause was entertained concerning their beatificall resurrection . He that overcomes his fear of death does well ; but if he hath not also overcome his lust , or his anger , his baptisme of blood will not wash him clean . Many things may make a man willing to die in a good cause : Publike reputation , hope of reward , gallantry of spirit , a confident resolution , and a masculine courage ; or a man may be vexed into a stubborn and unrelenting suffering : But nothing can make a man live well , but the grace and the love of God. But those persons are infinitely condemned by their last act , who professe their religion to be worth dying for , and yet are so unworthy , as not to live according to its institution . It were a rare felicity , if every good cause could be mannaged by good men onely ; but we have found that evil men have spoiled a good cause , but never that a good cause made those evil men good and holy . If the Governour of Samaria had crucified Simon Magus for receiving Christian Baptisme , he had no more died a martyr , then he lived a saint . For dying is not enough , and dying in a good cause is not enough , but then onely we receive the crown of martyrdom , when our death is the seal of our life , and our life is a continuall testimony of our duty , and both give testimony to the excellencies of the religion , and glorifie the grace of God. If a man be gold , the fire purges him , but it burns him if he be like stubble , cheap , light , and uselesse : For martyrdom is the consummation of love : But then it must be supposed , that this grace must have had its beginning , and its severall stages , and periods , and must have passed thorow labour to zeal , thorow all the regions of duty , to the perfections of sufferings ; and therefore it is a sad thing to observe , how some empty souls will please themselves with being of such a religion , or such a cause , and though they dishonour their religion , or weigh down the cause with the prejudice of sin , beleeve all is swallowed up by one honourable name , or the appellative of one vertue : If God had forbid nothing but heresie and treason , then to have been a loyall man , or of a good beleef , had been enough ; but he that forbad rebellion , forbids also swearing , and covetousnesse , rapine , and oppression , lying , and cruelty : And it is a sad thing to see a man not onely to spend his time , and his wealth and his money , and his friends upon his lust , but to spend his sufferings too , to let the canker-worm of a deadly sin , devour his Martyrdom : He therefore that suffers in a good cause , let him be sure to walk worthy of that honour ▪ to which God hath called him ; Let him first deny his sins , and then deny himself , and then he may take up his crosse and follow Christ ; ever remembring that no man pleases God in his death , who hath walked perversely in his life . 2. He that suffers in a cause of God , must be indifferent what the instance be , so that he may serve God. I say , he must be indifferent in the cause , so it be a cause of God , and indifferent in the suffering , so it be of Gods appointment . For some men have a naturall aversation to some vices , or vertues , and a naturall affection to others . One man will die for his friend , and another will die for his money : Some men hate to be a rebell and will die for their Prince ; but tempt them to suffer for the cause of the Church , in which they were baptized , and in whose communion they look for heaven , and then they are tempted , and fall away . Or if God hath chosen the cause for them , and they have accepted it , yet themselves will choose the suffering . Right or wrong , some men will not endure a prison ; and some that can , yet choose the heaviest part of the burden , the pollution and stain of a sin , rather then lose their money ; and some had rather die twice then lose their estates once . In this our rule is easie . Let us choose God , and let God choose all the rest for us , it being indifferent to us , whether by poverty or shame , by lingring or a sudden death , by the hands of a Tyrant Prince , or the despised hands of a base usurper , or a rebell , we receive the crown , and do honour to God and to Religion . 3. Whoever suffer in a cause of God , from the hands of cruell and unreasonable men , let them not be too forward to prognosticate evil and death to their enemies ; but let them solace themselves in the assurance of the divine justice , by generall consideration , and in particular , pray for them that are our persecutours . Nebuchadnezzar was the rod in the hand of God against the Tyrians , and because he destroyed that city , God rewarded him with the spoil of Egypt ; and it is not alwayes certain , that God will be angry with every man , by whose hand affliction comes upon us . And sometimes two armies have met and fought , and the wisest man amongst them could not say , that either of the Princes had prevaricated either the lawes of God , or of Nations , and yet it may be some superstitious , easie , and half witted people of either side , wonder that their enemies live so long ! And there are very many cases of warre concerning which God hath declared nothing : and although in such cases , he that yeelds and quits his title rather then his charity , and the care of so many lives , is the wisest and the best man : yet if neither of them will do so , let us not decree judgements from heaven , in cases where we have no word from heaven , and thunder from our Tribunals , where no voice of God hath declared the sentence . But in such cases where there is an evident tyranny or injustice , let us do like the good Samaritan , who dressed the wounded man , but never pursued the thief ; let us do charity to the afflicted , and bear the crosse with noblenesse , and look up to Jesus , who endured the crosse , and despised the shame ; but let us not take upon us the office of God , who will judge the Nations righteously , and when he hath delivered up our bodies will rescue our souls from the hands of unrighteous judges . I remember in the story that Plutarch tels concerning the soul of Thespesius , that it met with a Prophetick Genius , who told him many things that should happen afterwards in the world , and the strangest of all was this , That there should be a King , Qui bonus cum sit , tyrannide vitam finiet : An excellent Prince , and a good man should be put to death by a rebell and usurping power ; and yet that Prophetick soul could not tell that those rebels should within three yeers die miserable and accursed deaths ; and in that great prophecy recorded by Saint Paul , That in the last dayes perillous times should come , and men should be traitours , and selvish , having forms of godlinesse , and creeping into houses , ] yet could not tell us when those men should come to finall shame and ruine ; onely by a generall signification he gave this signe of comfort to Gods persecuted servants , But they shall proceed no further , for their folly shall be manifest to all men : that is , at long running they shall shame themselves , and for the elects sake those dayes of evil shall be shortned . But you and I may be dead first : And therefore onely remember , that they that with a credulous heart , and a loose tongue are too decretory , and enunciative of speedy judgements to their enemies , turn their religion into revenge , and therefore do beleeve it will be so , because they vehemently desire it should be so , which all wise and good men ought to suspect , as lesse agreeing with that charity which overcomes all the sins , and all the evils of the world , and sits down and rests in glory . 4. Do not trouble your self by thinking how much you are afflicted , but consider how much you make of it : For reflex acts upon the suffering it self , can lead to nothing but to pride , or to impatience to temptation , or a postacy . He that measures the grains and scruples of his persecution , will soon sit down and call for ease , or for a reward ; will think the time long , or his burden great ; will be apt to complain of his condition , or set a greater value upon his person . Look not back upon him that strikes thee , but upward to God that supports thee , and forward to the crown that is set before thee ; and then consider , if the losse of thy estate hath taught thee to despise the world ? whether thy poor fortune hath made thee poor in spirit ? and if thy uneasie prison sets thy soul at liberty , and knocks off the fetters of a worse captivity . For then the rod of suffering turns into crowns and scepters , when every suffering is a precept , and every change of condition produces a holy resolution , and the state of sorrows makes the resolution actuall , and habituall , permanent , and persevering . For as the silk-worm eateth it self out of a seed to become a little worm , and there feeding on the leaves of mulberies , it grows till its coat be off , and then works it self into a house of silk , then casting its pearly seeds for the young to breed , it leaveth its silk for man , and dieth all white and winged in the shape of a flying creature : So it the progresse of souls : when they are regenerate by Baptisme , and have cast off their first stains and the skin of world 〈…〉 , by feeding on the leaves of Scriptures , and the fruits of 〈…〉 , and the joyes of the Sacrament , they incircle themselves in the rich garments of holy and vertuous habits ; then by leaving their blood , which is the Churches seed , to raise up a new generation to God , they leave a blessed memory , and fair example , and are themselves turned into Angels , whose felicity is to do the will of God , as their imployments was in this world to suffer it ; fiat voluntas tua is our daily prayer , and that is of a passive signification ; thy will be done upon us : and if from thence also we translate it into an active sence ; and by suffering evils increase in our aptnesses to do well , we have done the work of Christians , and shall receive the reward of Martyrs . 5. Let our suffering be entertained by a direct election , not by collateral ayds and phantastick assistances . It is a good refreshment to a weak spirit to suffer in good company : and so Phocion encouraged a timerous Greek condemned to die ; and he bid him be confident because that he was to die with Phocion ; and when 40 Martyrs in Cappadocia suffered , and that a souldier standing by came and supplyed the place of the one Apostate , who fell from his crown , being overcome with pain , it added warmth to the frozen confessors , and turnd them into consummate Martyrs . But if martyrdom were but a phantastick thing , or relyed upon vain accidents and irregular chances , it were then very necessary to be assisted by images of things , and any thing , lesse then the proper instruments of religion : But since it is the greatest action of the religion , and relies upon the most excellent promises , and its formality is to be an action of love , and nothing is more firmely chosen , ( by an after election ( at least ) then ) an act of love ; to support Martyrdom , or the duty of sufferings , by false arches and exteriour circumstances , is to build a tower upon the beams of the Sun , or to set up a woodden ladder to climbe up to Heaven ; the soul cannot attain so huge and unimaginable felicities by chance and instruments of fancy : and let no man hope to glorifie God and go to Heaven by a life of sufferings , unlesse he first begin in the love of God , and from thence derive his choice , his patience , and confidence in the causes of vertue and religion , like beams , and warmth , and influence , from the body of the Sun. Some there are that fall under the burden , when they are pressed hard , because they use not the proper instruments in fortifying the will in patience and resignation , but endeavour to lighten the burden in imagination ; and when these temporary supporters fail , the building that relies upon them , rushes into coldnesse , recidivation , and luke warmnesse : and among all instances , that of the main question of the Text is of greatest power to abuse imprudent and lesse severe persons . Nullos esse Deos , inane coelum Affirmat Selius , probatque Quod se videt dum negat haec beatum . When men choose a good cause , upon confidence that an ill one cannot thrive , that is not for the love of vertue , or duty to God , but for profit and secular interests , they are easily lost when they see the wickednesse of the enemy to swell up by impunity and successe to a great evil : for they have not learned to distinguish a great growing sin , from a thriving and prosperous fortune . Ulla si juris tibi pejerati Poena Barine nocuisset unquant : Dente si nigro fieret vel unto turpior ungui Crederem . They that beleeve and choose because of idle fears , and unreasonable fancies , or by mistaking the accounts of a man for the measures of God , or dare not commit treason , for fear of being blasted , may come to be tempted when they see a sinner thrive , and are scandalized all the way , if they die before him ; or they may come to receive some accidentall hardnesses , and every thing in the world may spoil such persons , and blast their resolutions . Take in all the aids you can , and if the fancy of the standers by or the hearing a cock crow , can adde any collaterall aids to thy weaknesse , refuse it not ; But let thy state of sufferings begin with choice , and be confirmed with knowledge , and rely upon love , and the aids of God , and the expectations of heaven , and the present sense of duty , and then the action will be as glorious in the event , as it is prudent in the enterprise , and religious in the prosecution . 6. Lastly , when God hath brought thee into Christs school , and entered thee into a state of sufferings , remember the advantages of that state : consider how unsavoury the things of the world appear to thee , when thou are under the arrest of death ; remember with what comforts the Spirit of God assists thy spirit ; set down in thy heart all those entercourses , which happen between God and thy own soul ; the sweetnesses of religion , the vanity of sins appearances , thy newly entertained resolutions , thy longings after heaven , and all the things of God , and if God finishes thy persecution with death proceed in them ; if he restores thee to the light of the world , and a temporall refreshment , change but the scene of sufferings into an active life , and converse with God upon the same principles on which in thy state of sufferings thou dost build all the parts of duty . If God restores thee to thy estate , be not lesse in love with heaven , nor more in love with the world ; let thy spirit be now as humble as before it was broken , and to what soever degree of sobriety or austerity , thy suffering condition did enforce thee , if it may be turned into vertue , when God restores thee ( because then it was necessary thou shouldest entertain it by an after choice ) do now also by a prae election : that thou mayest say with David , It is good for me that I have been afflicted , for thereby I have learned thy commandments : and Paphnutius did not do his soul more advantage when he lost his right eye , and suffered his left knee to be cut for Christianity , and the cause of God , then that in the dayes of Constantine and the Churches peace , he lived , ( not in the toleration , but ) in the active piety of a Martyrs condition ; not now a confessor of the faith onely , but of the charity of a Christian : we may every one live to have need of these rules ; and I do not at all think it safe to pray against it , but to be armed for it : and to whatsoever degree of sufferings God shal call us , we see what advantages God intends for us , and what advantages we our selves may make of it . I now proceed to make use of all the former discourse , by removing it a little further even into its utmost spiritual sense ; which the Apostle does in the last words of the text [ If the righteous scarcely be saved , where shall the wicked and the sinner appear . ] These words are taken out of the proverbs * according to the translation of the 70. If the righteous scarcely is safe : where the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implyes that he is safe ; but by intermedial difficulties : and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] he is safe in the midst of his persecutions they may disturb his rest , and discompose his fancy , but they are like the firy charriot to Elias ; he is encircled with fire and rare circumstances , and strange usages , but is carried up to Heaven in a robe of flames : and so was Noah safe when the flood came ; and was the great type and instance too of the verification of this proposition , he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he was put into a strange condition , perpetually wandring , shut up in a prison of wood , living upon faith , having never had the experience of being safe in flouds . And so have I often seen young and unskilful persons sitting in a little boat , when every little wave sporting about the sides of the vessel , and every motion and dancing of the barge seemed a danger , and made them cling fast upon their fellows , and yet all the while they were as safe as if they sat under a tree , while a gentle winde shaked the leaves into a refreshment , and a cooling shade : And the unskiful unexperienced Christian shrikes out when ever his vessel shakes , thinking it alwayes a danger , that the watry pavement is not stable and resident like a rock ; and yet all his danger is in himself , none at all from without : for he is indeed moving upon the waters , but fastned to an 〈◊〉 ; faith is his foundation , and hope is his anchor and deathis his harbour , and Christ is his pilot , and heaven is his countrey , and all the evils of poverty , or affronts of tribunals : and evil judges , of sears and sadder apprehensions are but like the loud wind blowing from the right point , they make a noise and drive faster to the harbour : and if we do not leave the ship and leap into the sea , quit the interests of religion and run to the securities of the world , cut our cables , and dissolve our hopes , grow impatient and hug a wave and die in its embraces , we are as safe at sea , safer in the storm which God sends us , then in a calm , when we are be friended with the world . 2. But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may also signifie raro : If the righteous is seldom safe ; which implyes that sometimes he is , even in a temporal sense : God sometimes sends Halcy on dayes to his Church , and when he promised Kings and Queens to be their nurses , he intended it for a blessing ; and yet this blessing does of tenimes so ill succeed , that it is the greater blessing of the two , not to give us that blessing too freely : but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this is scarcly done , and yet sometimes it is , and God sometimes refreshes languishing piety with such arguments , as comply with our infirmities , and though it be a shame to us to need such allectives and infant gauds , such which the heathen world and the first rudiments of the Israelites did need , God who pitties us and will be wanting in nothing to us , as he corroborates our willing spirits , with proper entertainments , so also he supports our weak flesh , and not onely cheers an afflicted soul with beams of light , and antepasts and earnests of glory , but is kinde also to our man of flesh , and weaknesse ; and to this purpose he sends thunder-bolts from heaven upon evil men , dividing their tongues , infatuating their counsels , cursing their posterity , and ruining their families . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Sometimes God destroyes their armies , or their strong holds , Sometimes breakes their ships , but this happens either for the weaknesse of some of his servants , and their too great aptnesse to be offended at a prosperous iniquity , or when he will not suffer the evil to grow too great , or for some end of his providence ; and yet if this should be very often , or last long , God knows the danger , and vve should feel the inconvenience . Of all the types of Christ onely Joshuah and Solomon vvere noted to be generally prosperous , and yet the fortune of the first was to be in perpetual vvar and danger , but the other vvas as himself could vvish it , rich and peaceful , and powerful , and healthful , and learned , and beloved , and strong and amoróus , and voluptuous , and so he fell , and though his fall was , yet his recovery vvas not upon record . And yet the vvorst of evils that happen to the godly is better , temporally better , then the greatest eternal felicity of the wicked : that in all senses the question may be considerable and argumentative ; If the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the ungodly appear ? if it be hard with good men , with the evil it shall be far worse . But see the difference . The godly man is timorous and yet safe , tossed by the seas , and yet safe at anchor , impaired by evil accidents and righted by divine comforts : made sad with a black cloud , and refreshed with a more gentle influence , abused by the world , and yet an heir of heaven , hated by men , and beloved by God , loses one house and gets an hundred , he quits a convenient lodging room and purchases a glorious countrey , is forsaken by his friends , but never by a good conscience , he fares hardly and sleeps sweetly , he flies from his enemies , but hath no distracting fears , he is full of thought , but of no amazement ; It is his businesse to be troubled , and his portion to be comforted , he hath nothing to afflict him , but the losse of that which might be his danger , but can never be his good , and in the recompence of this , he hath God for his father , Christ for his captain , the holy Ghost for his supporter so that he shall , have all the good which God can give him , and of all that good he hath the holy Trinity for an earnest and a gage , for his maintenance at the present , and his portion to all eternity . But though Paul and Silas sing psalms in prison and under the hang-mans whips and in an earth-quake , yet neither the Jaylor nor the persecuting Magistrates could do so : For the prosperitie of the wicked is like a winters sun , or the joy of a condemned drunkard , it is a forgetfulnesse of his present danger , and his future sorrows , nothing but imginary arts of inadvertency : he sits in the gates of the city and judges others , and is condemned himself ; he is honoured by the passers by , and is thought happy , but he sighs deeply ; he heapeth up riches and cannot tell who shall gather them ; he commands an army and is him self a slave to his passions ; he sleeps because he needs it , and starts from his uneasie pillows which his thoughtful head hath discomposed ; when he is waking he dreames of greatnesse , when he sleeps he dreams of spectars and illusions , he spoils a poor man of his lamb , and himself of his innocence and peace , and in every unjust purchase himself is the greatest loser . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . For just upon his oppression or injustice , he is turned a Devil , and Gods enemy , a wolf to his brother a greedy admirer of the ba●●s of fishes , and the bread of dogs , he is unsafe by reason of his sin : for he hath against him the displeasure of God , the justice of the laws , the shame of the sin , the revenge of the injured person ; and God and men , the laws of nations and private societies , stand upon their defence against this man ; he is unsafe in his rest , amazed in his danger , troubled in his labours , weary in his change , esteemed a base man , disgraced and scorned , feared and hated , flattered and derided , watched , and suspected , and it may be , dies in the middle of his purchase , and at the end is a fool and leaves a curse to his posterity . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . He leaves a generation of blacker children behinde him ; so the Poet describes the cursednesse of their posterity , and their memory sits down to eternal ages in dishonour , and by this time let them cast up their accounts , and see , if of all their violent purchases they carry any thing with them to the grave but sin , and a guilty conscience and a polluted soul , the anger of God and the shame of men ; and what help shall all those persons give to thee in thy flames who divide and scatter that estate , for which thou diedst for ever . Andire est operae pretium procedere recte Qui maechis non vultis , ut omni parte laborent : vt que illis multo corrupta dolore voluptas Atque haec rara cadat dura inter saepe pericla . And let but a sober answer tel me if any thing in the world be more distant either from goodnesse or happinesse , then to scatter the plague of an accursed soul , as upon our dearest children ; to make an universal curse ; to be the fountain of a mischief , to be such a person , whom our children and nephews shall hate , and despise and curse , when they groan under the burden of that plague , which their fathers sins brought upon the familie . If there were no other account to be given , it were highly enough to verifie the intent of my text ; If the righteous scarcely be saved , or escape Gods angry stroke , the wicked must needs be infinitely more miserable ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neither I , nor my son ( said the oldest of the Greek poets ) would be vertuous , if to be a just person were all one as to be miserable . No , not onely in the end of affaires , and at sun set , but all the day long the Godly man is happy , and the ungodly and the sinner is very miserable . Pellitur a populo victus Cato , tristior ille est , Qui vicit , facesque pudet rapuisse Catoni Nimque hoc dedecus est populi , morumque ruina Non homo pulsus erat : sed in uno victa potestas R●manumque decus . And there needs no other argument to be added , but this one great testimony ; that though the Godly are afflicted , and persecuted , yet even they are blessed and the persecutors are the most unsafe . They are essentially happy whom affliction cannot make miserable . Quis cur am neget esse te Deorunt propter quem fuit innocens ruina ? But turns into their advantages , and that 's the state of the Godly : and they are most intolerably accursed , who have no portions in the blessings of eternity , and yet cannot have comfort in the present purchases of their sin , to whom even their sunshine brings a drought , and their fairest is their foulest weather ; and that 's the portion of the sinner and the ungodly . The godly are not made unhappy by their sorrows : and the wicked are such whom prosperity it self cannot make fortunate . 4 And yet after al this it is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he scapes but hardly here : it will be well enough with him hereafter Isaac digged three wells : the first was called contention ; for he drank the waters of strife and digged the well with his sword : the second well was not altogether so hard a purchase , he got it with some trouble , but that being over , he had some room and his fortune swelled , and he called his well [ enlargement ] but his third he called [ abundance ] and then he dipt his foot in oyl and drank freely as out of a river ; every good man first sowes in tears , he first drinks of the bottle of his own tears , sorrow and trouble , labour and disquiet , strivings and temptations : But if they passe through a torrent , and that vertue becomes easie and habitual , they finde their hearts enlarged and made spritely by the visitations of God and refreshment of his spirit ; and then their hearts are enlarged , they know how to gather the down and softnesses from the sharpest thistles . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . At first we cannot serve God , but by passions and doing violence to all our wilder inclinations , and suffering the violence of tyrants and unjust persons . — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The second dayes of vertue are pleasant and easie in the midst of all the appendant labours ; but when the Christians last pit is diged ; when he is descended to his grave , and finished his state of sorrowes and suffering , then God opens the river of abundance , the rivers of life and never ceasing felicities . And this is that which God promised to his people . I hid my face from thee for a moment , but with everlasting kindnesse will I have mercy on thee saith the Lord thy redeemer ; so much as moments are exceeded by eternity and the sighing of a man by the joyes of an angel , and a salutary frown by the light of Gods countenance , a few groans by the infinite and eternal Halalujahs ; so much are the sorrows of the godly to be undervalued , in respect of what is deposited for them in the treasures of eternity . Their sorrows can die but so cannot their joyes : and if the blessed Martyrs and confessors were asked concerning their past sufferings , & their present rest , and the joyes of their certain expectation you should hear them glory in nothing , but in the mercies of God and in the crosse of the Lord Jesus . Every chaine is a raie of light , and every prison is a palace , and every losse is the purchase of a kingdom , and every affront in the cause of God is an eternal honour , and every day of sorrow is a thousand years of comfort , multiplied with a never ceasing numeration ; dayes without night , joyes without sorrow , sanctity without sin , charity without stain , possession without fear , society without envying , communication of joyes without lessening , and they shall dwell in a blessed countrey , where an enemy never entred , and from whence a friend never went away . Well might David say , sunes ceciderunt mihi in praeclaris , the cords of my tent , [ my ropes and the sorrow of my pilgrimage ] fell to me in a good ground , and I have a goodly heritage ; and when persecution hewes a man down from a high fortune , to an even one , or from thence to the face of the earth , or from thence to the grave , a good man is but preparing for a crown , and the Tyrant does but first knock off the fetters of the soul , the manacles of passion and desire , sensual loves and lower appetites : and if God suffers him to finish the persecution , then he can but dismantle the souls prison , and let the soul forth to flie to the mountains of rest : and all the intermedial evils are but like the Persian punishments ; the executioner tore off their haires and rent their silken mantles and discomposed their curious dressings , and lightly touched the skin , yet the offender cried out with most bitter exclamations , while his fault was expiated with a ceremony and without blood : so does God to his servants ; he rends their upper garments , and strips them of their unnecessary wealth , and tyes them to Physick , and salutary dicipline , and they cry out under usages which have nothing , but the outward sense , and opinion of evil , not the reall substance : But if we would take the measures of images , we must not take the height of the base , but the proportion of the members , nor yet measure the estates of men by their big looking supporter , or the circumstance of an exteriour advantage , but by its proper commensuration in its self , as it stands in its order to eternity : And then the godly man that suffers sorrow and persecution ought to be relieved by us , but needs not be pitied in the summe of affairs . But since the two estates of the world are measured by time , and by eternity , and divided by joy and sorrow , and no man shall have his portions of joyes in both the durations ; the state of those men is insupportably miserable , who are fatted for slaughter , and are crowned like beasts for sacrifice ; who are feared and fear , who cannot enjoy their purchases but by communications with others , and themselves have the least share , but themselves are alone in the misery , and the saddest dangers , and they possesse the whole portions of sorrows : to whom their prosperity gives but occasions to evil counsels , and strength to do mischief , or to nourish a serpent , or oppresse a neighbour , or to nurse a lust , to increase folly , and treasure up calamity : And did ever any man see , or story tell , that any tyrant Prince kissed his rods , and axes , his sword of justice , and his Imperiall ensignes of power ? They shine like a taper to all things but it self , but we read of many Martyrs who kissed their chains , and hugged their stakes , and saluted their hangman with great endearments , and yet abating the incursions of their seldom sins , these are their greatest evils ; and such they are , with which a wise and a good man may be in love : And till the sinners and ungodly men can be so with their deep groans , and broken sleeps , with the wrath of God , and their portions of eternity ; till they can rejoyce in death , and long for a resurrection , and with delight and a greedy hope can think of the day of judgement , we must conclude that their glasse gems , and finest pageantry , their splendid outsides , and great powers of evil , cannot make amends for that estate of misery which is their portion , with a certainty as great as is the truth of God , and all the Articles of the Christian Creed . Miserable men are they who cannot be blessed , unlesse there be no day of judgement ; who must perish unlesse the word of God should fail ; If that be all their hopes , then we may with a sad spirit and a soul of pity inquire into the Question of the Text , Where shall the ungodly and sinner appear ? Even there where Gods face shall never shine , where there shall be fire and no light , where there shall be no Angels , but what are many thousands yeers ago turned into Devils , where no good man shall ever dwell , and from whence the evil and the accursed shall never be dismissed . O my God let my soul never come into their counsels , nor lie down in their sorrows . Sermon . XII . THE MERCY OF THE DIVINE IVDGMENTS ; OR Gods Method in curing Sinners . 2. Romanes . 4. Despisest thou the riches of his goodnesse , and forbearance , and long-suffering , not knowing that the goodnesse of God leadeth thee to repentance ? FRom the beginning of Time till now , all effluxes which have come from God , have been nothing but emanations of his goodnesse , clothed in variety of circumstances . He made man with no other designe , then that man should be happy , and by receiving derivations from his fountain of mercy , might reflect glory to him . And therefore God making man for his own glory , made also a paradise for mans use , and did him good to invite him to do himself a greater ; for God gave forth demonstrations of his power by instances of mercy : and he who might have made ten thousand worlds , of wonder and prodigy , and created man with faculties able onely to stare upon , and admire those miracles of mightinesse , did choose to instance his power in the effusions of mercy , that at the same instant he might represent himself desireable and adorable , in all the capacities of amability ; that is , as excellent in himself , and profitable to us . For as the Sun sends forth a benigne and gentle influence on the seed of Plants , that it may invite forth the active and plastick power from its recesse and secresie , that by rising into the tallnesse and dimensions of a tree , it may still receive a greater and more refreshing influence from its foster-father , the prince of all the bodies of light ; and in all these emanations , the Sun its self receives no advantage , but the honour of doing benefits ; so doth the Almighty Father of all the creatures : He at first sends forth his blessings upon us , that we by using them aright , should make our selves capable of greater ; while the giving glory to God , and doing homage to him are nothing for his advantage , but onely for ours : our duties towards him being like vapours ascending from the earth , not at all to refresh the region of the clouds , but to return back in a fruitfull and refreshing shower : And God created us , not that we can increase his felicity , but that he might have a subject receptive of felicity from him : thus he causes us to be born , that we may be capable of his blessings ; he causes us to be baptized , that we may have a title to the glorious promises Evangelicall ; he gives us his Son , that we may be rescued from hell : and when we constraine him to use harsh courses towards us , it is also in mercy : he smites us to cure a disease , he sends us sicknesse to procure our health ; and as if God were all mercy , he his mercifull in his first designe , in all his instruments , in the way , and in the end of the journey , and does not onely shew the riches of his goodnesse to them that do well , but to all men that they may do well : he is good to make us good ; he does us benefits to make us happy : and if we by despising such gracious rayes of light and heat , stop their progresse and interrupt their designe , the losse is not Gods but ours ; we shall be the miserable and accursed people : This is the sense and paraphrase of my Text. Despisest thou the riches of his goodnesse , &c. Thou dost not know , that is , thou considerest not that it is for further benefit that God does thee this ; the goodnesse of God is not a designe to serve his own ends upon thee , but thine upon him : The goodnesse of God leadeth thee to repentance . Here then is Gods method of curing man-kind , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . First goodnesse , or inviting us to him by sugred words , by the placid arguments of temporall favour , and the propositions of excellent promises . Secondly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the same time , although God is provoked every day , yet he does 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he tolerates our stubbornnesse , he forbears to punish , and when he does begin to strike , takes his hand off , and gives us truce and respite . For so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies laxamentum , and inducias too . Thirdly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] still , a long putting off , and deferring his finall destroying anger ▪ by using all meanes to force us to repentance ; and this especially , by the way of judgements ; these being the last reserves of the Divine mercy , and how ever we esteem it , is the greatest instance of the divine long sufferance that is in the world . After these instruments , we may consider the end , the strand upon which these land us , the purpose of this variety , of these laborious and admirable arts , with which God so studies and contrives the happinesse and salvation of man ; it is onely that man may be brought by these meanes unto repentance , and by repentance may be brought to eternall life : This is the treasure of the Divine goodnesse , the great and admirable efflux of the eternal beneficence ; the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the riches of his goodnesse , which whosoever despises , despises himself and the great interest of his own felicity ; he shall die in his impenitence , and perish in his folly . 1. The first great instrument , that God chooses to bring us to him is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , profit , or benefit , and this must needs be first , for those instruments whereby we have a being are so great mercies ▪ that besides that they are such which give us the capacities of all other mercies , they are the advances of us in the greatest instances of promotion in the world : For from nothing to something is an infinite space , and a man must have a measure of infinite passed upon him , Before he can perceive himself to be either happy or miserable : he is not able to give God thanks for one blessing , untill he hath received many . But then God intends we should enter upon his service at the beginning of our dayes , because even then he is before-hand with us , and hath already given us great instances of his goodnesse : What a prodigy of favour is it to us , that he hath passed by , so many formes of his creatures , and hath not set us down in the rank of any of them , till we came to be paul● minores angelis , a little lower then the angels : and yet from the meanest of them God can perfect his own praise ; The deeps and the snows , the hail and the rain , the birds of the air , and the fishes of the sea , they can and do glorifie God , and give him praise in their capacity ; and yet he gave them no speech , no reason , no immortall spirit , or capacity of eternall blessednesse ; but he hath distinguished us from them by the absolute issues of his predestination , and hath given us a lasting and eternall spirit , excellent organs of perception , and wonderfull instruments of expression , that we may joyn in consort with the morning star , and bear a part in the Chorus with the Angels of light , to sing Alleluiah to the great Father of men and Angels . But was it not a huge chain of mercies that we were not strangled in the regions of our own naturall impurities , but were sustained by the breath of God , from perishing in the womb , where God formed us in secreto terrae , told our bones , and kept the order of nature , and the miracles of creation ; and we lived upon that which in the next minute after we were born would strangle us if it were not removed : but then God took care of us , and his hands of providence clothed us and fed us . But why do I reckon the mercies of production which in every minute of our being are alike and continued , and are miracles in all senses but that they are common and usuall ? I onely desire you to remember , that God made all the works of his hands to serve him ; and indeed this mercy of creating us such as we are , was not to lead us to repentance , but was a designe of innocence : he intended we should serve him as the Sun and the Moon do ; as fire and water do : never to prevaricate the laws he fixed to us , that we might have needed no repentance . But since we did degenerate , and being by God made better and more noble creatures then all the inhabitants of the air , the water and the earth besides , we made our selves baser and more ignoble then any : For no dog , crocodile , or swine was ever Gods enemy , as we made our selves : yet then from thence forward , God began his work of leading us to repentance , by the riches of his goodnesse . He causeth us to be born of Christian parents , under whom we were taught the mysteriousnesse of its goodnesse and designes , for the redemption of man : And by the designe of which religion repentance was taught to mankind , and an excellent law given for distinction of good and evil ; and this is a blessing which though possibly we do not often put into our eucharisticall Letanies to give God thanks for , yet if we sadly consider , what had become of us , if we had been born under the dominion of a Turkish Lord , or in America where no Christians do inhabite , where they worship the Devil , where witches are their priests , their prophets , their phisitians , and their Oracles , can we choose but apprehend a visible notorious necessity of perishing in those sins which we then should not have understood by the glasse of a divine law , to have declined , nor by a revelation have been taught to repent of ? But since the best of men does in the midst of all the great advantages of lawes , and examples , and promises , and threatnings do many things he ought to be ashamed of , and needs to repent of , we can understand the riches of the Divine goodnesse best , by considering that the very designe of our birth and education in the Christian religion is , that we may recover of , and cure our follies by the antidote of repentance , which is preached to us as a doctrine , and propounded as a favour , which was put into a law and purchased for us by a great expence , which God does not more command to us as a duty , then he gives us a blessing ; For now that we shall not perish for our first follies , but be admitted to new conditions , to be repaired by second thoughts to have our infirmities excused , and our sins forgiven , our habits lessened , and our malice cured after we were wounded , and sick , and dead , and buried , and in the possession of the Devil ; this was such a blessing , so great riches of the Divine goodnesse , that as it was taught to no religion but the Christian , revealed by no law-giver but Christ , so it was a favour greater then ever God gave to the Angels and Devils : for although God was rich in the effusion of his goodnesse towards them , yet they were not admitted to the condition of second thoughts ; Christ never shed one drop of blood for them , his goodnesse did not lead them to repentance : but to us it was that he made this largesse of his goodnesse ; to us , to whom he made himself a brother , and sucked the paps of our mother ; he paid the scores of our sin , and shame , and death , onely that we might be admitted to repent and that this repentance might be effectuall to the great purposes of felicity and salvation : And if we would consider this sadly , it might make us better to understand our madnesse and folly in refusing to repent ; That is , to be sorrowfull , and to leave all our sins , and to make amends by a holy life . For that we might be admitted and suffered to do so , God was fain to pour forth all the riches of his goodnesse : It cost our deerest Lord the price of his deerest blood , many a thousand groans , millions of prayers and sighes , and at this instant , he is praying for our repentance : nay he hath prayed for our repentance these 1600. yeers incessantly , night and day , and shall do so till doomes day , [ He sits at the right hand of God making intercession for us . ] And that we may know what he prayes for , he hath sent us Embassadours to declare the purpose of all his designe , for Saint Paul saith , [ We are Embassadours for Christ , as though he did beseech you by us , we pray you in Christs stead to be reconciled to God. ] The purpose of our Embassy and Ministery , is a prosecution of the mercies of God , and the work of Redemption , and the intercession and mediation of Christ : It is the work of atonement and reconciliation that God designed , and Christ died for , and still prayes for , and we preach for , and you all must labour for . And therefore here consider , if it be not infinite impiety to despise the riches of such a goodnesse , which at so great a charge , with such infinite labour , and deep mysterious arts , invites us to repentance ; that is , to such a thing which could not be granted to us unlesse Christ should die to purchase it ; such a glorious favour , that is the issue of Christs prayers in heaven , and of all his labours , his sorrows , and his sufferings on earth : if we refuse to repent now , we do not so much refuse to do our own duty as to accept of a reward ; it is the greatest and the dearest blessing that ever God gave to Men , that they may repent , and therefore to deny it , or to delay it , is to refuse health , brought us by the skill and industry of the Physitian ; it is to refuse liberty indulged to us by our gracious Lord ; and certainly we had reason to take it very ill if at a great expence we should purchase a pardon for a servant and he out of a peevish pride or negligence shall refuse it ; the scorne payes it self , the folly is its own scourge and sets down in an inglorious ruine . After the enumeration of these glories , these prodigies of mercies & loving kindnesses , of Christs dying for us , and interceding for us and merely that we may repent , and be saved ; I shall lesse need to instance those other particularities wherby God continues , as by so many arguments of kindnesse to sweeten our natures and make them malleable to the precepts of love and obedience , the twinne daughters of holy repentance ; but the poorest person amongst us , besides the blessing and graces already reckoned hath enough about him , and the accidents of every day to shame him into repentance . Does not God send his angels to keep thee in all thy wayes ? are not they ministring spirits sent forth to wait upon thee as thy guard ? art not thou kept from drowning , from fracture of bones , from madnesse , from deformities , by the riches of the divine goodnesse ? Tell the joynts of thy body , dost thou want a finger ? and if thou doest not understand how great a blessing that is , do but remember how ill thou canst spare the use of it when thou hast but a thorn in it ? The very privative blessings , the blessings of immunity , safeguard , and integrity , which we all enjoy deserve a thanks giving of a whole life . If God should send a cancer upon thy face or a wolf into thy brest , if he should spread a crust of leprosie upon thy skin , what wouldest thou give to be but as now thou art it wouldest thou not repent of thy sins upon that condition ? which is the greater blessing to be kept from them , or to be cured of them ? and why therfore shall not this greater blessing lead thee to repentance ? why do we not so aptly promise repentance when we are sick upon the condition to be made well , and yet perpetually forget it when we are well ? as if health never were a blessing , but when we have it not ; rather I fear the reason , is when we are sick we promised to repent , because then we cannot sin the sins of our former life ; but in health our appetites return to their capacity and in all the way we despise the riches of the divine goodnesse which preserves us from such evils which would be full of horror and amazement if they should happen to us . Hath God made any of you all chapfallen ? are you affrighted with spectars and illusions of the spirits of darknesse ? how many earthquakes have you been in ? how many dayes have any of you wanted ● read ? how many nights have you been without sleep ? 〈◊〉 any of you distracted of your senses ? and if God gives you meat and drink , health and sleep , proper seasons of the year , in the senses and an useful understanding , what a great unworthynesse it is to be unthankful to so good a God so benigne a Father , so gracious a Lord ? All the evils and basenesse of the world can shew nothing baser and more unworthy then ingratitude : and therefore it was not unreasonably said of Aristottle , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prosperity makes a man love God , supposing men to have so much humanity left in them , as to love him from whom they have received so many favours . And Hippocrates said , that although poor men use to murmur against God , yet rich men will be offering sacrifice to their Diety whose beneficiaries they are . Now since the riches of the divine goodnesse are so poured out upon the meanest of us all , if we shal refuse to repent , which is a condition so reasonable , that God requiers it onely for our sake and that it may end in our felicity , we do our selves despite to be unthankful to God ; that is , we become miserable by making our selves basely criminal . And if any man with whom God hath used no other method but of his sweetnesse and the effusion of mercies , brings no other fruits but the apples of Sodom in return for all his culture and labours ; God wil cut off that unprofitable branch that with Sodom it may suffer the flames of everlasting burning . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; If here we have good things and a continual shower of blessings to soften our stony hearts , and we shall remain obdurat against those sermons of mercy which God makes us every day , there will come a time when this shall be upbraided to us that we had not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thankful minde , but made God to sowe his seed upon the sand or upon the stones , without increase or restitution . It was a sad alarum which God sent to David by Nathan to upbraid his ingratitude . I anointed thee king over Israel , I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul , I gave thee thy masters house and wives into thy bosom , and the house of Israel and Judah , and if this had been too little , I would have given thee such and such things , wherefore hast thou despised the name of the Lord ? but how infinitely more can God say to all of us then all this came to ? he hath anointed us kings and priests in the royal pristhood of Christianity ; he hath given us his holy spirit to be our guide , his angels to be our protectors , his creatures for our food and raiment ; he hath delivered us from the hands of Sathan , hath conquered death for us , hath taken the sting out and made it harmlesse and medicinal , and proclaimed us heires of heaven , coheires with the eternal Jesus , and if after all this , we despise the commandment of the Lord , and defer and neglect our repentance , what shame is great enough , what miseries are sharp enough , what hell painful enough for such horrid ingratitude ? Saint Lewis the King having sent Ivo Bishop of Chartres , on an embassy , the Bishop met a woman on the way , grave , sad , Phantastick & malancholy , with fire in one hand and water in the other , he asked what those symbols ment , she answered my purpose is with fire to burn Paradise , and with my water to quench the flames of hell , that men may serve God without the incentives of hope and fear , & purely for the love of God. But this woman began at the wrong end : the love of God is not produced in us after we have contracted evil habits , til God with his fan in his hand hath throughly purged the floore , till he hath cast out all the devils and swept the house with the instrument of hope and fear and with the atchieuments and efficacy of mercies and judgements . But then since God may truely say to us , as of old to his rebellious people . Am I a dry tree to the house of Israel ? that is , do I bring them no fruit , do they serve me for nought , and he expects not our duty till first we feel his go odnesse , we are now infinitely inexcusable to throw away so great riches , to despise such a goodnesse . However that we may see the greatnesse of this treasure , of goodnesse God seldom leaves us thus : for he sees [ be it spoken to the shame of our natures , and the dishonour of our manners ] he sees that his mercies do not allure us , do not make us thankful ; but ( as the Roman said ) , felicitate corrumpimur , we become worse for Gods mercy : and think it will be alwayes holiday , and are like the Christal of Arabia hardned notby cold , but made crusty and stubborn by the warmth of the divine fire , by its refreshments and mercies ; therfore to demonstrate that God is good indeed , he con tinues his mercise still to us ; but in another instance : he is merciful to us in punishing us , that by such instruments we may be led to repentance which will scare us from sin ; he delivers us up to the paedagogy of the divine judgements , and there begins the second part of Gods method intimated in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or forbearance . God begins his cure by causticks , by incisions and instruments of vexation , to try if the disease that will not yeild to the allectives of cordials and perfumes , friction and baths , may be forced out by deleteries , soarifications , and more salutary but least pleasing Physicke . 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for bearance , it is called in the text , which signifies laxamentum or inducias , that is , when the decrees of the divine judgements temporal are gone out , either wholly to suspend the execution of them , which is induciae , or a reprieve ; or else when God hath struck once or twice , he takes on his hand , that is laxamentum , an ease of remission of his judgment , in both these , although in judgement God remembers mercy , yet we are under discipline , we are brought into the penitential chamber , at least we are shewed the rod of God : and if like Moses rod it turnes us into serpents , and that we repent not but grow more Devils , yet , then it turnes into a rod again and finishes up the smiting or the first designed affliction . But I consider it first in general , the riches of the divine goodnesse is manifest in beginning this new method of curing us , by severity and by a rod. And that you may not wonder that I expound this forbearance to be an act of mercy punishing , I observe that besides that the word supposes the method changed , and it is a mercy about judgements , and their manner of execution ; it is also in the nature of the thing , in the conjunction of circumstances and the designes of God , a mercy when he threatens us or strike us into repentance . We think that the way of blessings and prosperous accidents is the finer way of securing our duty , and that when our heads are anointed , our cups crowned , and our tables full , the very caresses of our spirits will best of all dance before the Ark , and sing perpetual Anthemes to the honour of our Benefactor and Patron God ; and we are apt to dream that God will make his Saints raigne here as kings in a millenary kingdom , and give them the riches and fortunes of this world , that they may rule over men and sing psalms to God for ever . But I remember what Xenophanes saies of God. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . God is like to men neither in shape nor in counsel , he knowes that his mercies confirm some , and encourage , more but they convert but few ; alone they lead men to dissolution of manners and forgetfulnesse of God , rather then repentance : not but that mercies are competent and apt instruments of grace , if we would ; but because we are more dispersed in our spirits and by a prosperous accident are melted into joy and garishnesse , and drawn off from the sobriety of recollection . Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked . Many are not able to suffer and endure prosperity ; it is like the light of the sun to a weak eye , glorious indeed in it self , but not proportioned to such an instrument . Adam himself ( as the Rabbins say ) did not dwell one night in Paradise , but was poisoned with prosperity , with the beauty of his fair wife , and a beauteous tree : and Noah and Lot were both righteous and examplary , the one to Sodom the other to the old world , so long as they lived in a place in which they were obnoxious to the common suffering : but as soon as the one of them had scaped from drowning , and the other from burning and were put into security , they fell into crimes which have dishonoured their memories for above thirty generations together , the crimes of drunkennesse and incest , wealth and a full fortune make men licenciously vitious , tempting a man with power to act all that he can desire or designe vitiously ; Indeirae faciles — Namque ut opes nimias mundo fortuna subacto Intulit , et rebus mores cessere secundis — Cultus gest are decoros vix nuribus rapuere mares : totoque accersitur orbe Quo gens quaeque perit . Lucan . And let me observe to you that though there are in the new Testament many promises and provisions made for the poor in that very capacity , they haveing a title , to some certain circumstances and additionals of grace and blessing , yet to rich men our blessed Saviour was pleased to make none at all , but to leave them involved in general comprehensions and to have a title to the special promises , onely by becomming poor in spirit , and in preparation of minde , though not in fortune and possession . How ever ; it is hard for God to perswade us to this , till we are taught it by a sad experience , that those prosperities which we think will make us serve God cheerfully , make us to serve the world and secular ends diligently and God not at all . Repentance is a duty that best complies with affliction , it is a symbolical estate , of the same complexion and constitution ; half the work of repentance is done by a sad accident , our spirits are made sad , our gayeties mortified , our wildnesse corrected , the water springs are ready to run over : but if God should grant our desires , and give to most men prosperity , with a designe to lead them to repentance , all his pompe and all his employment , and all his affections and passions , and all his circumstances are so many degrees of distance from the conditions and natures of repentance . It was reported by Dio concerning Neros mother , that she often wished that her Son might be Emperour , and wished it with so great passion that upon that condition she cared not though her Son might kill her ; Her first wish and her second fear were both granted ; but when she began to fear that her Son did really disigne to murder her , she used all the art and instruments of diversion that a witty and a powerfull a timerous person , and a woman could invent or apply . Just so it is with us , so we might have our wishes of prosperity we promise to undergo all the severities of repentance ; but when we are landed upon our desire , then every degree of satisfaction of those sensualities is a temptation against repentance : for a man must have his affections weaned from those possessions , before he can be reconciled to the possibilities of repentance . And because God knowes this well and loves us better then we do our selves , therefore he sends upon us the 1. scrolls of vengeance , the hand writing upon the wall to denounce judgement against us : for God is so highly resolved to bring us to repentance some way or other , that if by his goodnesse he cannot shame us into it , he will try if by his judgements he can scare us into it ; not that he strikes alwayes as soon as he hath sent his warrants out , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Philo . Thus God sent Jonas and denounced judgements against Niniveh ; but with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , with the forbearance of forty dayes for the time of their escape if they would repent . When Noah the great preacher of righteousnesse , denounced the flood to all the world , it was with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the forbearance of 120. years , and when the great extermination of the Jewish nation , and their total deletion from being Gods people , was foretold by Christ , and decreed by God , yet they had the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of forty years , in which they were perpetually called to repentance . These were reprieves and deferrings of the stroke . But sometimes God strikes once and then forbeares , and such are all those sadnesses which are lesse then death ; every sicknesse , every losse , every disgrace , the death of friends and neerest relatives , sudden discontents ; these are all of them the lowder calls of God to repentance ; but still , instances of forbearance . Indeed many times this forbearance makes men impudent , it was so in the case of Pharaoh when God smote him , and then forbore ; Pharaohs heart grew callous and insensible till God struck again ; and this was the meaning of these words of God , I will harden the heart of pharaoh , that is , I wil forbear him , smite him , and then take the blow off , Sic enim Deus induravit Pharaonis cor , said Saint Basil . For as water taken off from fire will sooner congeale and become icy , then if it had not been attenuated by the heate : so is the heart of some men , when smitten by God , it seemes soft and plyable , but taken off from the fire of affliction , it presently becomes horrid , then stiff and then hard as a rock of Adamant , or as the gates of death and hell . But this is besides the purpose and intention of the Divine mercy ; this is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a plain contradiction to the riches of Gods goodnesse ; this is to be evill because God is good ; to burn with flames , because we are coold with water ; this is to put out the lamps of heaven , or ( if we cannot do it ) to put our own eyes out , least we should behold the fair beauty of the Lord , and be enamoured of his goodnesse , and repent and live . O take heed of despising this goodnesse ; for this is one of Gods latest arts to save us ; he hath no way left beyond this , but to punish us with a lasting judgement and a poinant affliction . In the tomb of Terentia certain lamps burned under ground many ages together , but as soon as ever they were brought into the aire and saw a bigger light , they went out , never to be reenkindled : so long as we are in the retirements of sorrow , of want , of fear , of sicknesse or of any sad accident we are burning and shining lamps , but when God comes with his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , with his forbearance and lifts us up from the gates of death and carries us abroad into the open aire . , that we converse with prosperity and temptation , we go out in darknesse : and we cannot be preserved in heat and light but by still dwelling in the regions of sorrow : And if such be our weaknesses , or our folly , it concerns us to pray against such deliverances , to be afraid of health , to beg of God to continue a persecution , and not to deny us the mercy of an affliction . And do not we finde all this to be a great truth in our selves ? are we so great strangers to our own weaknesses and unworthinesse as not to remember when God scared us with judgements in the neighbourhood , whence we lived in a great plague , or if were ever in a storm , or God had sent a sicknesse upon us ; then we may please to remember that repentance was our businesse , that we designed mountains of piety , renewed our holy purposes , made vows and solemn sacraments to God to become penitent , and obedient persons ; and we may also remember without much considering , that assoon as God began to forbear us , we would no longer forbear to sin , but adde flame to flame , a heap of sins to a treasure of wrath , already too big ; being like Pharaoh or Herod , or like the oxe and mule , more hardy and callous for our stripes ; and melted in the fire , and frozen harder in the cold , worse for all our afflictions , and the worse for all Gods judgements ; not bettered by his goodnesse , nor mollified by his threatnings : and what is there more left for God to do unto us ? He that is not won by the sence of Gods mercy , can never finde any thing in God that shall convert him ; and he whom fear and sense of pain cannot mend , can never finde any argument from himself that shall make him wise ; This is sad , that nothing from without , and nothing from within shall move us ; nothing in Heaven and nothing in Hell , neither love nor fear , gratitude to God , nor preservation of our selves shall make us to repent , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that shall be his final sentence : He shall never escape that ruine from which the greatest art of God could nor entice , nor his terrour scare him : he loved cursing therefore shall it happen to him , he loved not blessing , therefore shall it be far from him . Let therefore every one of us take the account of our lives and read over the sermons that God hath made us ; besides that sweet language of his mercy , and his still voice from Heaven consider what voices of thunder you have heard , and presently that noise ceased and God was heard in the still voice again ; What dangers have any of you escaped , were you ever assaulted by the rudenesse of an ill natur'd man ? have you never had a dangerous fall , and escaped it ? did none of you ever scape drowning , and in a great danger saw the forbearance of God ? have you never been sick ( as your feared ) unto death ? or suppose none of these things hath happened , hath not God threatned you all , and forborne to smite you ? or smitten you , and forborne to kill you ? that is evident . But if you had been a Privado , and of the Cabinet councel with your Angel Guardian , that from him you might have known how many dangers you have escaped , how often you have been neer a ruine , so neer , that if you had seen your danger with a sober spirit , the fear of it would have half killed you ; If he had but told you how often God had sent out his Warrants to the exterminating Angel , and our Blessed Saviour by his intercession hath obtained a reprieve , that he might have the content of rejoycing at thy conversion and repentance ; If you had known from him the secrets of that providence which governs us in secret , and how many thousand times the Devil would have done thee hurt , and how often himself as a ministring spirit of Gods goodnesse and forbearance , did interpose and abate , or divert a mischief , which was falling on thy head , it must needs cover thy head with a cloud of shame and blushing at that ingratitude , and that folly , that neither will give God thanks , nor secure thy own well being . Hadst thou never any dangerous fall in thy intemperance ? then God shewed thee thy danger , and that he was angry at thy sin , but yet did so pity thy person , that he would forbear thee a little longer , else that fall had been into thy grave . When thy gluttony gave thee a surfet , and God gave thee a remedy , his meaning then was , that thy gluttony rather should be cured then thy surfet ; that repentance should have been thy remedy , and abstinence and fasting should be thy cure : Did ever thy proud or revengefull spirit engage thee upon a Duell , or a vexatious Law-suit , and God brought thee off with life or peace ? his purpose then was , that his mercy should teach thee charity : and he that cannot read the purposes of God written with the finger of judgement ( for as yet his whole hand is not laid on ) either is consigned to eternall ruine , because God will no more endeavour his cure , or if his mercy still continues and goes on in long-suffering , it shall be by such vexatious instruments , such causticks , and corrosives , such tormenting and desperate medicaments , such which in the very cure will soundly punish thy folly and ingratitude . For deceive not your selves , Gods mercy cannot be made a patron for any mans impiety : the purpose of it is to bring us to repentance , and God will do it by the mercies of his mercies , or by the mercies of his judgements : he will either break our hearts into a thousand fragments of contrition , or break our bones in the ruines of the grave and hell : And since God rejoyce in his mercy above all his works , he will be most impatient that we shall despise that , in which he most delights , and in which we have the greatest reason to delight , the riches of that goodnesse which is essentiall , and part of his glory , and is communicated to us , to bring us to repentance , that we may partake of that goodnesse , and behold that glory . Sermon . XIII . The mercies of the Divine Judgements . Part II. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] long-suffering ; in this one word are contained all the treasures of the Divine goodnesse : here is the length and extension of his mercy , pertrahit spiritum super nos Dominus , so the Syrian Interpreter reads , Luk 18. 7. God holds his breath : He retains his anger within him , lest it should come forth and blast us : and here is also much of the Divine justice : For although God suffers long yet he does not let us alone : he forbears to destroy us , but not to punish us ; and in both , he by many accidents gives probation of his power ; according to the prayer of the Wise man , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; Thou art mercifull towards us all because thou canst do all things , and thou passedst by the sins of men that they may repent . And that , God shall support our spirit , and preserve our patience , and nourish our hope , and correct our stubbornnesse , and mortifie our pride and bring us to him whether we will or no , by such gracious violences , and mercifull judgements which he uses towards us as his last remedies , is not onely the demonstration of a mighty mercy , but of an almighty power : So hard a thing it is to make us leave our follies and become wise , that were not the mercies of God an effective pity , and clothed in all the way of its progresse with mightinesse and power , every sinner should perish irrevocably . But this is the fiery triall , the last purgatory fire , which God uses to burn the thistles , and purifie the drosse : When the gentle influence of a Sun-beam will not wither them , nor the weeding hook of a short affliction cut them out ; then God comes with site to burn us : with the ax laid to the root of the tree : but then observe , that when we are under this state of cure , we are so neer destruction that the same instrument that God uses for remedy to us , is also prepared to destroy us ; the fire is as apt to burn us to ashes , as to cleansing , when we are so overgrown ; and the ax as instrumentall to cut us down for fewell , as to square us for building in Gods temple : and therefore when it comes that sat , it will be hard discerning what the purpose of the ax is ; and whether the fire means to burn we shall 〈…〉 it by the change wrought upon our selves . For what Plato said concerning his dream of Purgatory is true here : Quicunque non purgatus migrat ad inferos , jacebit in luto : quicunque verò mitratus illuc accesserit , habitabit cum Deis : He that dies in his impurities shall lie in it for ever , but he that descends to his grave purged and mitred , that is , having quitted his vices , & superinduens justitiam , being clothed with righteousnesse , shall dwell in light and immortality . It is sad that we put God to such extremities , and as it happens in long diseases , those which Physitians use for the last remedies seldom prevail ; and when consumptive persons come to have their heads shaven , they do not often escape : So it is when we put God to his last remedies ; God indeed hath the glory of his patience , and his long-suffering , but we seldom have the benefit and the use of it . For if when our sin was young , and our strength more active , and our habits lesse , and vertue not so much a stranger to us , we suffered sin to prevail upon us , to grow stronger then the ruins of our spirit , and to lesson us into the state of sicknesse and disability , in the midst of all those remedies which God used to our beginning diseases : much more desperate is our recovery , when our disease is stronger and our faculties weaker , when our sins raigne in us , and our thoughts of vertue are not alive . How ever , although I say this , and it is highly considerable , to the purpose that we never suffered things to come to this extremity , yet if it be upon us , we must do as well as we can : But then we are to look upon it as a designe of Gods last mercy , beyond which if we protract our repentance , our condition is desperately miserable . The whole state of which mercy we understand by the parable of the King reckoning with his servants that were in arrears to him : One was brought to him , which owed him ten thousand talents : but for as much as he had not to pay , his Lord commanded him to be sold , and his wife and children , and all that he had , and payment to be made : The man you see was under the arrest ; the sentence was passed upon him , he was a condemned man ; but before the execution of it , he fell down and worshipped and said , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Lord suffer me longer a while ; have patience with me and I will pay thee all . This tells its meaning : this is a long-sufferance , by being a forbearance onely of execution of the last sentence ; a putting off damnation upon a longer triall of our emendation ; but in the mean time it implies no other ease , but that together with his long-sufferance God may use all other severities and scourges to break our untamed spirits , and to soften them with hammers ; f●● death be put off , no matter else what hardship and loads of suff●●●●ce we have . Hic ure , hic seca , ut in aeternum parcas , so Saint Austin prayed , Here O Lord cut me , here burn me , spare me not now , that thou mayest spare me for ever : And it is just like the mercy used to a mad man , when he is kept in a dark room and tamed with whips , it is a cruel mercy , but such as his condition requires , he can receive no other mercy , all things else were cruelly unmercifull . I remember what Bion observed wittily of the punishment inflicted upon the daughters of Danaeus , whom the old Poets fained to be condemned in hell to fill a bottomlesse tub with water , and to increase the pain ( as they fancied ) this water they were to carry in sieves , and never to leave work till the tub were full ; It is well ( sayes he ) since their labour must be eternall , that it is so gentle , for it were more pains to carry their water in whole vessels , and a sad burden to go loaden to a leaking tub with unfruitfull labours : Just so is the condition of these persons upon whom a wrath is gone out ; it is a sad sentence , but acted with a gentle instrument ; and since they are condemned to pay the scores of their sins with the sufferance of a load of judgements , it is well they are such as will run quite thorough them , and not stick upon them to eternity . Omnes enim poenae non exterminantes sunt medicinales : All punishments whatsoever which do not destroy us , are intended to save us ; they are lancets which make a wound but to let forth the venome of our ulcers ; when God slue twenty three thousand of the Assyrians for their fornication that was a finall justice upon their persons , and consigned them to a sad eternity : for beyond such an infliction there was no remedy . But when God sent lions to the Assyrian inhabitants of Samaria , and the judgements drave them to inquire after the manner of the God of the land , and they sent for Priests from Jerusalem to teach them how to worship the God of Israel , that was a mercy and a judgement too : the long forbearance of God who destroyed not at all the inhabitants , lead the rest into repentance . 1. And I must make this observation to you ; That when things come to this passe that God is forced to the last remedies of judgements , this long-sufferance will little or nothing concern particular persons , but nations and communities of men : for those who are smitten with judgement if God takes his hands off again and so opens a way for their repentance by prolonging their time ; that comes under the second part of Gods method , the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or forbearance ; but if he smites single persons with a finall judgement , that is , a long-suffering not of him , but towards others : and God hath destroyed my neighbour to make me repent , my neighbours time being expired and the date of his possibility determined . For a mans death-bed is but an ill station for a penitent , and a 〈…〉 judgement is no good monitor to him , to whom it is a s●●ere executioner . They that perished in the gain-saying of Corah were out of the conditions of repentance ; but the people that were affrighted with the neighbourhood of the judgement and the expresses of Gods anger manifested in such visible remonstrances , they were the men called unto repentance . But concerning whole nations , or communities of men this long-sufferance is a Sermon of repentance ; loud , clamorous , and highly argumentative . When God suffered the mutinies , the affronts , the base : nesse , and ingratitude , the follies , and relapses of the children of Israel , who murmured against God ten times in the wildernesse , God sent evil angels among them , and fiery serpents , and pestilence , and fire from heaven , and prodigies from the earth , and a prevailing sword of the enemies , and in all these accidents , although some innocent persons felt the contingencies and variety of mortality , yet those wicked persons who fell by the designe of Gods anger , were made examples unto others and instances of Gods forbearance to the Nation : and yet this forbearance was such that although God preserved the Nation in being and in title to the first promises , yet all the particular persons that came from Egypt died in the wildernesse , two onely excepted . 2. And I desire you to observe this , that you may truly estimate the arts of the Divine justice and mercy : For all the world being one continuall and intire argument of the Divine mercy , we are apt to abuse that mercy to vain confidences and presumption ; First , mistaking the end , as if Gods mercy would be indulgent to our sin , to which it is the greatest enemy in the world , for it is a certain truth that the mercy of God is as great an enemy to sin as his justice is , and as Gods justice is made the hand-maid of his mercy to cure sin , so it is the servant also and the instrument to avenge our despight and contempt of mercy ; and in all the way where a difference can be there , justice is the lesse principall . And it were a great signe of folly and a huge mistake to think our Lord and friends do us offices of kindnesse , to make themselves more capable of affronts ; and that our fathers care over us , and provisions for us can tempt us to disobey them : The very purpose of all those emanations is , that their love may return in duty , and their providence be the parent of our prudence , and their care be crowned with our piety , and then we shall all be crowned , and shall return like the yeer , the ends into its own circle ; and the fathers and the children , the benefactours and the beneficiary shall knit the wreath and binde each other in the eternall inclosures and circlings of immortality , * but besides the men who presume to sin because of Gods mercy , do mistake the very end and designe of Gods mercy , they also mistake the Oeconomy of it , and the manner of its ministration . 3 For if God suffers men to go on in sins and punishes them not , it is not a mercy , it is not a forbearance ; it is a hardning them , a consigning them to ruine , and reprobation ; and themselves give the best argument to prove it ; for they continue in their sin , they multiply their iniquity , and every day grow more enemy to God , and that is no mercy that increases their hostility and enmity with God. A prosperous iniquity , is the most unprosperous condition in the whole world ; when he slew them , that sought him , and turned them early and enquired after God : but as long as they prevailed upon their enemies then they forgat that God was their strength and the high God was their redeemer . It was well observed by the Persian Embassadour of old , when he was telling the King a sad story of the overthrow of all his army by the Athenians ; he addes this of his own ; that the day before the fight , the young Persian gallants being confident they should destroy their enemies , were drinking drunk , and railing at the timerousnesse and fears of religion , and against all their Gods , saying , there were no such things , and that all things came by chance , & industry , nothing by the providence of the supreme power . But the next day when they had fought unprosperously and flying from their enemies , who were eager in their pursuit , they came to the river strymon , which was so frozen , that their boats could not lanch , and yet it began to thaw , so that they feared the ice would not bear them . Then you should see the bold gallants that the day before said there was no God , most timorously and superstitiously fall upon their faces and begged of God that the river strymon might bear them over from their enemies . What wisdom and Philosophy and perpetual experience , and revelation and promises and blessings cannot do , a mighty fear can ; it can allay the confidences of a bold lust , and an imperious sin , and soften our spirit into the lownesse of a Childe , our revenge into the charity of prayers , our impudence into the blushings of a chidden girle ; and therefore God hath taken a course proportionable : for he is not so unmercifully merciful , as to give milk to an infirm lust , and hatch the egge to the bignesse of a cocatrice : and therefore observe how it is , that Gods mercy prevailes over all his works ; it is even then when nothing can be discerned , but his judgements . For as when a famin had been in Israel in the dayes of Ahab for three years and a half , when the angry prophet Elijah met the King and presently a great winde arose , and the dust blew into the eyes of them that walked abroad , and the face of the heavens was black and all tempest , yet then the prophet was the most gentle , and God began to forgive , and the heavens were more beautiful , then when the Sun puts on the brightest ornaments of a bridegrome going from his chambers of the east : so it is in the Oeconomy of the divine mercy ; when God makes our faces black and the windes blow so loud till the cordage cracks , and our gay fortunes split , and our houses are dressed with Cypresse and yew , and the mourners go about the streets , this is nothing but the pompa misericordiae , this is the funeral of our sins , dressed indeed with emblems of mourning , and proclaimed with sad accents of death , but the sight is refreshing , as the beauties of the field , which God hath blessed , and the founds are healthful as the noise of a physitian . This is that riddle spoken of in the psalme , Calix in manu Dom. vini meri plenus misto ; the pure impure , the mingled unmingled cup ; for it is a cup in which God hath poured much of his severity and anger , and yet it is pure and unmingled ; for it is all mercy : and so the riddle is resolved , and our cup is full and made more wholsome lymphatum crescit , dulcescit , laedere nescit , it is some justice and yet it is all mercy ; the very justice of God being an act of mercy , a forbearance of the man , or the nation , and the punishing the sin . Thus it was in the case of the children of Israel , when they ran after the bleating of the idolatrous calves , Moses prayed passionately and God heard his prayer , and forgave their sin upon them . And this was Davids observation of the manner of Gods mercy to them ; Thou wast a God and forgavest them , though thou tookest veangeance of their inventions : for Gods mercy is given to us by parts ; and to certain purposes ; sometimes God onely so forgives us , that he does not cut us off in the sin , but yet layes on a heavy load of judgements : so he did to his people , when he sent them to schoole under the discipline of 70 years captivity ; somtimes he makes a judgement lesse and forgives in respect of the degree of the infliction ; he strikes more gently ; and whereas God had designed it may be the death of thy self or thy neerest relative he is content to take the life of a childe , and so he did to David when he forbore him . the Lord hath taken away thy sin , thou shalt not die , neverthelesse the childe that is born unto thee that shall die : sometimes he puts the evil off to a further day , as he did in the case of Ahab , and Hezekiah : to the first he brought the evil upon his house , and to the second he brought the evil upon his kingdom , in his sons dayes ; God forgiving onely so as to respite the evil , that they should have peace in their own dayes . And thus when we have committed a sin , against God , which hath highly provoked him to anger , even upon our repentance we are not sure to be forgiven , so as we understand forgivenes ; that is , to hear no more of it , never to be called to an account ; but we are happy , if God so forgives us , as not to throw us into the insufferable flames of hell , though he smite us still we groan for our misery till we chatter like a swallow ( as Davide expression is ) and though David was an excellent penitent , yet after he had lost the childe begotten of Bathsheba , and God had told him he had forgiven him , yet he raised up his darling son against him , and forced him to an inglorious flight , and his son lay with his Fathers concubins in the face of all Israel : so that when we are forgiven , yet it is ten to one , but GOD will make us to smart and roar for our sinnes , for the very disquietnesse of our souls . For if we sin and ask God forgivenesse and then are quiet , we feele so little inconvenience in the trade that we may more easily be tempted to make a trade of it indeed . I wish to God that for every sin we have committed , we should heartily cry God mercy and leave it , and judge our selves for it to prevent Gods anger , but when we have done all that we commonly call repentance , and when possibly God hath forgiven us to some purposes , yet it may be he punishes our sin when we least think of it ; that sin which we have long since forgotten . It may be for the lust of thy youth thou had a healthlesse old age ; an old religious person long agoe complained , it was his case . Quos nimis effraenes habui , nunc vapulo renes : Sic luitur juvellis culpa dolore senis . It may be thy sore eyes are the punishment of thy intemperance seven years ago , or God cuts thy dayes shorter and thou shalt die in a florid age , or he raises up afflictions to thee in thine own house , in thine own bowels , or hath sent a gangren into thy estate , or with any arrow out of his quiver he can wound thee , and the arrow shall stick fast in thy flesh , although God hath forgiven thy sin to many purposes . Our blessed Saviour was heard in all that he prayed for ( said the Apostle ) and he prayed for the Jews , that crucified him : Father forgive them for they know not what they do , and God did forgive that great sin , but how far ? whereas it was just in God to deprive them of all possibility of receiving benefit from the death of Christ , yet God admitted them to it , he gave them time and possibilities , and helps , and great advantages to bring them to repentance ; he did not presently shut them up , in his final and eternal anger : and yet he had finally resolved to destroy their city and nation and did so , but forbore them forty years , & gave them al the helps of miracles and sermons apostolical to shame them , and force them into sorrow for their fault . And before any man can repent God hath forgiven the man in one degree of forgivenesse ; for he hath given him grace of repentance and taken from him that final anger of the spirit of reprobation ; and when a man hath repented , no man can say that God hath forgiven him to all purposes , but he hath reserves of anger to punish the sin , to make the man affraid to sin any more , and to represent that when any man hath sinned what ever he does afterwards he shall be miserable as long as he lives , vexed with its adherencies and its neighbour-hood , and evil consequence . For as no man that hath sinned , can during his life ever returne to an integral and perfect innocence : so neither shall he be restored to a perfect peace , but must alwayes watch and strive against his sinne , and alwayes mourn and pray for its pardon , and alwayes finde cause to hate it by knowing himself to be for ever in danger of enduring some grievous calamity , even for those sinnes for which he hath truely repented him , for which God hath in many gracious degrees passed his pardon ; this is the manner of the dispensation of the divine mercy in respect of particular persons , and nations too . But sometimes we finde a severer judgement happening upon a people , and yet in that sad story , Gods mercy sings the triumph which although it be much to Gods glory , yet it is a sad story to sinning people . 600000. fighting men besides women and children , and decrepit persons , came out of Egypt and God destroyed them all in the wildernesse except Caleb and Joshuah , and there it was that Gods mercy prevailed over his justice , that he did not destroy the nation ; but still preserved a succession to Jacob , to possesse the promise . God drowned all the world except eight persons his mercy there also prevailed over his justice , that he preserved a remnant to mankinde ; his justice devoured all the world , and his mercy which preserved but eight , had the honour of the prevailing attribute . God destroyed Sodom , and the five cities of the plain , and rescued but four from the flames of that sad burning , and of the four lost one in the flight and yet his mercy prevailed over his justice , because he did not destroy all . And in these senses we are to understand the excellency of the divine mercy even when he smites , when he rebukes us for sin , when he makes our beauty to fail and our flesh to consume away like a moth fretting a garment , yet then his mercy is the prevailing ingredient . If his judgements be but fines set upon our heads accord-to the mercy of our old lawes , Salvo contenemento , so as to preserve our estates , to continue our hopes and possibilities of heaven ; and all the other judgements can be nothing but mercies , excellent instruments of grace arts to make us sober and wise , to take off from our vanity to restrain our wildnesses , which if they were left unbridled would set all the world on fire , Gods judgements ars like the censures of the Church in which a sinner is delivered over to Satan to be buffetted that the spirit may be saved ; the result of all this , is , that Gods mercies are not , ought not , cannot be , instruments of confidence to sin , because the very purpose of his mercy is to the contrary , and the very manner of his Oeconomy and dispensation is such that Gods mercy goes along in complection and conjunction with his judgements ; the riches of his forbearance is this , that he forbears to throw us into hell , and sends the mercies of his rod to chide us unto repentance , and the mercies of his rod to punish us for having sinned , and that when we have sinned we may never think our selves secured , nor ever be reconciled to such dangers and deadly poisons . This , this is the manner of the divine mercy . Go now fond man , and because God is merciful presume to sin , as heaving grounds to hope that thou mayest sin and be safe all the way . If this hope ( shall I call it ) or sordid flattery could be reasonable , then the mercies of God would not leade us to repentance ; so unworthy are we in the sense and largenesse of a wide fortune and pleasant accident . For impunity was never a good argument to make men to obey laws , quotusquisque reperitur qui impunitate proposita abstinere possit injurijs ? Impunitas est maxima peccandi illecebra said Cicero , and therefore the wisdom of God hath so ordered the actions of the world that the most fruitful showres shall be wrapped up in a cover of black clouds , that health shall be conveyed by bitter and ill tasted drugs , that the temples of our bodies shall be purged by whips , and that the cords of the whip shall be the cords of love to draw us from the intanglings of vanity and folly . This is the long suffering of God , the last remedy to our diseased souls , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Phalaris , unlesse we be senselesse we shall be brought to sober courses , by all those sad accidents and wholsome , but ill tasting mercies , which we feele in all the course and the succession of the divine long sufferance . The use of all the premises is , that which Saint Paul expresses in the text , that we do not despise all this : and he onely despises not , who serves the ends of God in all these designes of mercy , that is , he that repents him of his sins . But there are a great many despisers all they that live in their sins , they that have more blessings then they can reckon houres in their lives , that are courted by the divine favour and woed to salvation , as if mankinde were to give , not to receive so great a blessing , all they that answer not to so friendly summons , they are despisers of Gods mercies : and although God overflows with mercies and does not often leave us to the onely hopes of being cured by unctions and gentle cataplasmes , but proceeds further and gives us stibium or prepared steele , sharp arrows of his anger , and the sword , and the hand of sicknesse , yet we are not sure of so much favour as to be entertained longer in Gods hospital , but may be thrust forth among the incurabili . Plutarch reports concerning swine that then optick nervs are so disposed to turne their eyes downwards that they cannot look upwards nor behold the face of heaven unlesse they be thrown upon their backs such Swine are we , we seldom can look up to heaven til God by his judgements throws us upon our backs ; till he humbles us & softens us with showers of our own blood , and tears of sorrow : and yet God hath not promised that he will do so much for us ; but for ought we know as soon as ever the devil enters into our swinish and brutish hearts we shall run down the hill and perish in the floods and seas of intolerable miserie ; And therefore besides that it is a huge folly in us that we wil not be cured with pleasant medicines , but must be longing for colliquintida and for vomits , for knives and poniards instead of the gentle shoures of the divine refreshments , besides that this is an imprudence and sottishnesse , we do infinitely put it to the venture whether we shall be in a saveable condition or no , after the rejection of the first state of mercies . But however , then begins the first step of the judgement , and pungent misery , we are perishing people , or if not , yet at the last , not to be cured without the abscision of a member , without the cutting of a hand or leg ; or the putting out of an eye : we must be cut to take the stone out of our hearts , and that is a state of a very great infelicity : and if we scape the stone , we cannot escape the surgeons knife ; if we scape death , yet we have a sicknesse ; and though that be a great mercy in respect of death , yet it is as great a misery in respect of health : and that is the first punishment for the despite done to the first , and most sensible mercies : we are fallen into a sicknesse , that cannot be cured but by disease and hardship . But if this despite runs further , and when the mercies look on us with an angry countenance , and that God gives us onely the mercy of a punishment , if we despise this too , we increase but our misery as we increase our sin : the summe of which is this , that if Pharaoh will not be cured by one plague , he shall have ten , and if ten will not do it , the great and tenth wave , which is far bigger then all the rest , the severest and the last arrow of the quiver , then we shall perish in the red sea , the sea of flames and blood , in which the ungodly shall roule eternally . But some of these despisers are such as are unmooved when God smites others ; like Gallio when the Jews took Softhenes and beat him in the pleading place , he cared for none of these things ; he was not concerned in that interest ; and many Gallio's there are amongst us , that understand it not to be a part of the divine method , of Gods longsufferance to strike others to make us afraid . But however , we sleep in the midst of such alarums , yet know , that there is not one death in all the neighbour-hood , but is intended to thee ; every crowing of the cock is to awake thee to repentance : and if thou sleepest still , the next turn may be thine ; God will send his Angel as he did to Peter and smite thee on thy side , and wake thee from thy dead sleep of sin and sottishnesse . But beyond this , some are despisers still , and hope to drown the noises of mount Sinai , the sound of Canons , of thunders , and lightnings , with a counternoise of revelling and clamorous roarings , with merry meetings ; like the sacrifices to Moloch , they sound drums and trumpets , that they might not hear the sad shrikings of their children as they were dying in the cavety of the brazen idoll , and when their conscience shrikes out or murmurs in a sad melancholy ; or something that is dear to them is smitten , they attempt to drown it in a sea of drink , in the heathenish noises of idle and drunken company ; and that which God sends to lead them to repentance , leads them to a taverne not to refresh their needs of nature , or for ends of a tolerable civility , or innocent purposes , but like the condemned persons among the Levantines , they tasted wine freely that they might die and be insensible . I could easily reprove such persons with an old Greek proverb mentioned by Plutarch , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . You shall ill be cured of the knotted Gout , if you have nothing else but a wide shoe : But this reproof is too gentle for so great a madnesse : it is not onely an incompetent cure , to apply the plaister of a sin or vanity to cure the smart of a divine judgement , but it is a great increaser of the misery , by swelling the cause to bigger , and monstrous proportions . It is just as if an impatient fool , feeling the smart of his medicine , shall tear his wounds open and throw away the instruments of his cure , because they bring him health at the charge of a little pain , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . He that is full of stripes and troubles , and decked round about with thorns , he is neer to God ; But he , that because he sits uneasily when he sits neer the King that was crowned with thorns , shall remove thence , or strew flowers , roses , and Jessamine , the downe of thistles , and the softest Gossamere , that he may die without pain , die quietly and like a lamb , sink to the bottom of hell without noise , this man is a fool , because he accepts death , if it arrest him in civil language , is content to die by the sentence of an eloquent Judge , and prefers a quiet passage to hell , before going to heaven in a storm . That Italian Gentleman was certainly a great lover of his sleep , who was angry with the lizard that wak't him , when a viper was creeping into his mouth : when the Devil is entring into us to poison our spirits , and steal our souls away while we are sleeping in the lethargy of sin , God sends his sharp messages to awaken us , and we call that the enemy , and use arts to cure the remedy : not to cure the disease . There are some persons that will never be cured , not because the sicknesse is incurable , but because they have ill stomacks and cannot keep the medicine : Iust so is his case that so despises Gods method of curing him , by these instances of long-sufferance , that he uses all the arts he can to be quit of his Physitian , and to spill his physick , and to take cordials as soon as his vomit begins to work . There is no more to be said in this affair , but to read the poor wretches sentence , and to declare his condition . As at first , when he despised the first great mercies , God sent him sharpnesses and sad accidents to ensober his spirits : So now that he despises this mercy also , the mercy of the rod , God will take it away from him , and then I hope all is well ! Miserable man that thou art ! this is thy undoing ; if God ceases to strike thee because thou wilt not mend , thou art sealed up to ruine , and reprobation for ever : The Physitian hath giv● thee over , he hath no kindnesse for thee . This was the desperate estate of Judah . Ah sinfull nation , a people laden with iniquity , they have forsaken the Lord , they have provoked the Holy One of Israel ; why should ye be stricken any more ? This is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the most bitter curse , the greatest excommunication , when the delinquent is become a heathen and a publicane , without the covenant , out of the pale of the Church ; the Church hath nothing to do with them : for what have I to do with them that are without ? said Saint Paul : It was not lawfull for the Church any more to punish them ; and this court Christian is an imitation and paralell of the justice of the court of heaven : When a sinner is not mended by judgements at long running , God cuts him off from his inheritance and the lot of sons , he will chastise him no more , but let him take his course and spend his portion of prosperity , such as shall be allowed him in the great Oeconomy of the world . Thus God did to his Vineyard which he took such pains to fence , to plant , to manure , to dig , to cut , and to prune : and when after all , it brought forth wilde grapes , the last and worst of Gods anger was this , Auferam sepem ejus , God had fenced it with a hedge of thorns , and God would take away all that hedge , he would not leave a thorn standing , not one judgement to reprove or admonish them , but all the wilde beasts , and wilder and more beastly lusts , may come and devour it , and trample it down in scorn . And now what shall I say , but those words quoted by Saint Peter in his Sermon : Behold ye despisers , and wonder , and perish ; perish in your own folly by stubbornesse and ingratitude . For it is a huge contradiction to the nature and designes of God ; God calls us , we refuse to hear ; he invites us with fair promises , we hear and consider not ; he gives us blessings , we take them and understand not his meaning : we take out the token , but read not the letter : then he threatens us , and we regard not ; he strikes our neighbours , and we are not concerned ; then he strikes us gently , but we feel it not ; then he does like the Physitian in the Greek Epigram , who being to cure a man of a Lethargy , locked him into the same room with a mad-man , that he by dry beating him , might make him at least sensible of blows ; but this makes us instead of running to God , to trust in unskilfull Physitians , or like Saul to run to a Pythonisse , we run for cure to a crime , we take sanctuary in a pleasant sin ; just as if a man to cure his melancholy should desire to be stung with a Tarantula , that at least he may die merily ; what is there more to be done that God hath not yet done ? he is forced at last to break off with a Curavimus Babylonem & non est sanata , we dressed and tended Babylon , but she was incurable ; there is no help but such persons must die in their sins , and lie down in eternall sorrow . Sermon . XIV . Of Growth in Grace . 2 Pet. 3. 18. But grow in grace , and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ , to whom be glory both now and for ever . Amen . WHen Christianity like the day spring from the East , with a new light did not onely inlighten the world , but amazed the mindes of men , and entertained their curiosities , and seized upon their warmer and more pregnant affections , it was no wonder that whole Nations were converted at a Sermon , and multitudes were instantly professed , and their understandings followed their affections , and their wills followed their understandings , and they were convinced by miracle , and overcome by grace , and passionate with zeal , and wisely governed by their Guides , and ravished with the sanctity of the Doctrine , and the holinesse of their examples : And this was not onely their duty , but a great instance of providence , that by the great religion and piety of the first Professors , Christianity might be firmly planted , and unshaken by scandall , and hardened by persecution ; and that these first lights might be actuall Precedents for ever , and Copies for us to transcribe in all descending ages of Christianity , that thither we might run to fetch oil , to enkindle our extinguished lamps . But then piety was so universall , that it might well be enjoyned by Saint Paul , that if a brother walked disorderly , the Christians should avoid his company : He forbad them not , to accompany with the Heathens that walked disorderly ; for then a man must have gone out of the world . But they were not to endure so much as to eat with , or to salute a disorderly brother , an ill living Christian : But now if we should observe this canon of Saint Paul , and refuse to eat , or to converse with a fornicatour , or a drunkard , or a perjured person , or covetous , we must also go out of the world ; for a pious or a holy person is now as rare , as a disorderly Christian was at first : and as Christianity is multiplied every where in name and title , so it is destroyed in life , essence , and proper operation ; and we have very great reason to fear , that Christs name will serve us to no end but to upbraid our basenesse ; and his person onely to be our Judge , and his lawer as so many bills of accusation , and his graces and helps offered us , but as aggravations of our unworthinesse ; and our baptisme , but an occasion of vow-breach ; and the holy Communion , but an act of hypocrisie , formality , or sacrilege ; and all the promises of the Gospel but as pleasant dreams ; and the threatnings but as arts of affrightment ; for Christianity lasted pure and zealous , it kept its rules , and observed its own lawes for three hundred yeers , or thereabouts ; so long the Church remained a Virgin : For so long they were warmed with their first fires , and kept under discipline by the rod of persecution ; but it hath declined almost fourteen hundred yeers together ; prosperity and pride , wantonnesse and great fortunes , ambition and interest , false doctrine upon mistake , and upon designe , the malice of the Devil , and the arts of all his instruments , the want of zeal , and a wearinesse of spirit , filthy examples , and a disreputation of piety and a strict life ; seldome precedents , and infinite discouragements have caused so infinite a declension of piety and holy living , that what Papirius Massonius one of their own , said of the Popes of Rome ; In pontificibus nemo hodrè sanctitatem requirit , optimi putantur si vel leviter mali sint , vel minus boni quam caeteri mortales esse solent , No man looks for holines in the Bishops of Rome ; those are the best Popes who are not extremly wicked : the same is too true of the greatest part of Christians : Men are excellent persons if they be not traytors , or adulterous , oppressors , or injurious , drunkards , or scandalous , if they be not as this publican , as the vilest person with whom they converse : Nunc si depositum non inficiatur amicus Si reddat veterem cum totâ aerugine fllem Prodigiosa fides & Thuscis digna libellis Quaeque coronatâ lustrari debeat agnâ . Juven . Sat. 13. He that is better then the dregs of his own age , whose religion is something above prophanesse , and whose sobriety is a step or two from down right intemperance , whose discourse is not swearing , nor yet apt to edifie , whose charity is set out in pity , and a gentle yerning and saying , [ God help ] whose alms are contemptible , and his devotion infrequent , yet as things are now , he is unus è mitibus , one of a thousand , and he stands eminent and conspicuous in the valleys and lower grounds of the present piety ; for a bank is a mountain upon a levell : but what is rare and eminent in the manners of men this day would have been scandalous , and have deserved the rod of an Apostle , if it had been confronted with the fervours and rare devotion and religion of our fathers in the Gospel . Men of old looked upon themselves as they stood by the examples and precedents of Martyrs , and compared their piety to the life of Saint Paul , and estimated their zeal by the flames of the Boanerges , Saint James and his brother : and the Bishops were thought reproveable as they fell short of the ordinary government of Saint Peter , and Saint John ; and the assemblies of Christians were so holy , that every meeting had religion enough to hallow a house and convert it to a Church ; and every day of feasting was a Communion , and every fasting day was a day of repentance and alms ; and every day of thanksgiving was a day of joy , and alms : and religion begun all their actions , and prayer consecrated them , and they ended in charity , and were not polluted with designe : they despised the world heartily , and pursued after heaven greedily ; they knew no ends but to serve God , and to be saved ; and had no designes upon their neighbours , but to lead them to God , and to felicity ; till Satan full of envy to see such excellent dayes , mingled covetousnesse , and ambition within the throngs and conventions of the Church , and a vice crept into an office , and then the mutuall confidence grew lesse , and so charity was lessened ; and heresies crept in , and then faith began to be sullied , and pride crept in ; and then men snatched at offices , not for the work , but for the dignity ; and then they served themselves more then God and the Church ; till at last it came to the passe where now it is , that the Clergy live lives no better then the Laity , and the Laity are stooped to imitate the evil customes of strangers and enemies of Christianity ; so that we should think Religion in a good condition , so that men did offer up to God but the actions of an ordinary , even , and just life , without the scandall and allayes of a great impiety : But because such is the nature of things , that either they grow towards perfection , or decline towards dissolution ; There is no proper way to secure it but by setting its growth forward : for religion hath no station , or naturall periods ; if it does not grow better , it grows much worse , not that it alwayes returns the man into scandalous sins , but that it establishes and fixes him in a state of indifferency and lukewarmnesse : and he is more averse to a state of improvement , and dies in an incurious , ignorant and unrelenting condition . But grow in grace ] That 's the remedy , and that would make us all wise and happy , blessed in this world , and sure of heaven : Concerning which , we are to consider first ; what the estate of grace is , into which every one of us must be entred , that we may grow in it ; secondly the proper parts , acts and offices of growing in grace , 3. The signes , consequences , and proper significations , by which if we cannot perceive the growing , yet afterwards we may perceive that we are grown , and so judge of the state of our duty , and concerning our finall condition of being saved . 1. Concerning the state of grace , I consider that no man can be said to be in the state of grace , who retaines an affection to any one sin . The state of pardon and the divine favour , begins at the first instance of anger against our crimes , when we leave our fondnesses and kinde opinions , when we excuse them not , and will not endure their shame ; when we feele the smarts of any of their evil consequents ; for he that is a perfect lover of sin , and is sealed up to a reprobate sense , endures all that sin brings along with it , and is reconciled to all its mischiefes , can suffer the sicknesse of his own drunkennesse , and yet call it pleasure , he can wait like a slave to serve his lust , and yet count it no disparagement ; he can suffer the dishonour of being accounted a base and dishonest person , and yet look confidently , and think himself no worse . But when the grace of God begins to work upon a mans spirit , it makes the conscience nice and tender and although the sin as yet does not displease the man , but he can endure the flattering and alluring part , yet he will not endure to be used so ill by his sin ; he will not be abused and dishonoured by it ; But because God hath so allayed the pleasures of his sin , that he that drinks the sweet should also strain the dregs through his throat , by degrees Gods grace doth irreconcile the convert , and discovers , first its base attendance , then its worse consequents , then the displeasure of God , that here commences the first resolutions of leaving the sin , and trying if in the service of God , his spirit and the whole appetite of man may be better entertained . He that is thus far entred shall quickly perceive the difference , and meet arguments enough to invite him further ; For then God treats the man as he treated the spies , that went to discover the land of promise ; he ordered the year in plenty and directed them to a pleasant and a fruitful place , and prepared bunches of grapes of a miraculous and prodigious greatnesse that they might report good things of Canaan , and invite the whole nation to attempt its conquest : so Gods grace represents to the new converts and the weak ones in faith the pleasures and first deliciousnesses of religion : and when they come to spie the good things of that way that leads to heaven , they presently perceive themselves cased of the load of an evil conscience , of their fears of death , of the confusion of their shame , and Gods spirit gives them a cup of sensible comfort , and makes them to rejoyce in their prayers , and weep with pleasures mingled with innocent passions , and religious changes ; and although God does not deal with all men in the same method , or in manners that can regularly be described , and all men do not feele , or do not observe , or cannot for want of skill discern such accidental sweetnesses , and pleasant grapes at his first entrance into religion : yet God to every man does minister excellent arguments of invitation , and such that if a man will attend to them they will certainly move either his affections or his will , his fancy or his reason , and most commonly both : But while the spirit of God is doing this work of man , man must also be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fellow worker with God , he must entertain the spirit , attend his inspirations , receive his whispers , obey all his motions , invite him further , and utterly renounce all confederacy with his enemy , sin ; at no hand suffering any root of bitternesse to spring up , not allowing to himself any reserve of carnal pleasure , no clancular lust , no private oppressions , no secret covetousnesse , no love to this world that may discompose his duty ; for if a man prayes all day and at night is intemperate if he spends his time in reading , and his recreation be sinful ; if he studies religion , and practises self interest ; if he leaves his swearing and yet retaines his pride ; if he becomes chast and yet remains peevish and imperious ; this man is not changed from the state of sin , into the first stage of the state of grace : he does at no hand belong to God , he hath suffered himself to be scared from one sin , and tempted from another by interest , and hath left a third , by reason of his inclination , and a fourth for shame , or want of opportunity : But the spirit of God hath not yet planted one perfect plant there ; God may make use of the accidentally prepared advantages . But as yet the spirit of God hath not begun the proper and direct work of grace in his heart , But when we leave every sin , when we resolve never to return to the chaines , when we have no love for the world , but such as may be a servant of God ; then I account that we are entred into a state of grace , from whence I am now to begin to reckon the commencement of this precept , grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2. And now the first part of this duty is to make religion to be the businesse of our lives ; for this is the great instrument , which will naturally produce our growth in grace , and the perfection of a Christian. For a man cannot after a state of sin be instantly a Saint : the work of heaven is not done by a flash of lightning , or a dash of affectionate raine , or a few tears of a relenting pity ; God and his Church have appointed holy intervals , and have taken portions of our time for religion , that we may be called off from the world , and remember the end of our creation , and do honour to God , and think of heaven with hearty purposes and peremptory designes to get thither . But as we must not neglect those times which God hath reserved for his service , or the Church hath prudently decreed , nor yet act religion upon such dayes with forms and outsides , or to comply with customs ; or to seem religious ; so we must take care that all the other portions of our time be hallowed with little retirements of all thoughts , and short conversations with God ; and all along be guided with a holy intention , that even our works of nature may passe into the relations of grace , and the actions of our calling may help towards the obtaining the price of our high calling ; while our eatings are actions of temperance , our labours are profitable our humiliations are acts of obedience , and our almes are charity : our marriages are chast , and whether we eat or drink , sleep or wake we may do all to the glory of God , by a direct intuition or by a reflex act , by designe or by supplement , by fore sight or by an after election : and to this purpose we must not look upon religion as our trouble , and our hinderance ; nor think almes chargeable or expensive ; nor our fastings vexatious and burdensom ; nor our prayers a wearinesse of spirit ; But we must make these and all other the dutis of religion , our imployments , our care the work and end for which we came into the world ; and remember that we never do the work of men , nor serve the ends of God , nor are in the proper imployment and businesse of our life , but when we worship God or live like wise or sober persons , or do benefit to our brother . I will not turne this discourse into a reproofe , but leave it represented as a duty : Remember that God sent you into the world for religion ; we are but to passe through our pleasant fields , or our hard labours ; but to lodge a little while in our faire palaces or our meaner cottages ; but to bait in the way at our full tables or with our spare diet ; but then onely , man does his proper imployment , when he prayes and does charity , and mortifies his unruly appetites , and restrains his violent passions , and becomes like to God , and imitates his holy Son , and writes after the coppies of Apostles , and Saints . Then he is dressing himself for eternity , where he must dwell or abide , either in an excellent beatifical country , or in a prison of amazment and eternal horrour : And after all this , you may if you please call to minde , how much time you allovv to God and to your souls every day , or every moneth , or in a year if you please ; for I fear the account of the time is soon made ; but the account for the neglect , vvill be harder . And it vvill not easily be ansvvered , that all our dayes and years are little enough to attend perishing things , and to be svvallowed up in avaritious and vain attendances , and we shall not attend to religion with a zeal so great as is our revenge , or as is the hunger of one meale . Without much time , and a wary life , and a diligent circumspection , we cannot mortify our sins , or do the first works of grace . I pray God we be not found to have grown like the sinnews of old age , from strength to remisnesse , from thence to dissolution , and infirmity and death ; Menedemus was wont to say that the young boyes that went to Athens the first year were wise men , the second year , Philosophers , the third , Orators , and the fourth were but Plebeians and understood nothing but their own ignorance . And just so it happens to some in the progresses of religion : at first they are violent and active ; and then they satiate all the appetites of religion ; and that which is left , is , that they were soon weary , and sat down in displeasure , and return to the world and dwell in the businesse of pride , or mony ; and by this time they understand that their religion is declined , and passed from the heats and follies of youth , to the coldnesse and infirmities of old age ; The remedies of which is onely a diligent spirit and a busie religion a great industry & a full portion of time in holy offices ; that as the Oracle said to the Cirrheans , noctes diesque belligerandum , they could not be happy unlesse they waged war night and day : that is , unlesse we perpetually fight against our own vices ; and repell our Ghostly enemies , and stand upon our guard , we must stand for ever in the state of babes , in Christ , or else return to the first imperfections of an unchristened soul , and an unsanctified spirit . That 's the first particular . 2. The second step of our growth in grace is , when vertues grow habitual , apt and easie in our manners , and dispositions . For although many new converts have a great zeal , and a busie spirit , apt enough as they think to contest against all the difficulties of a spiritual life , yet they meet with such powerful oppositions from without , and a false heart within , that their first heats are soon broken , and either they are for ever discouraged , or are forced to march more slowly and proceed more temperately for ever after . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It is an easie thing to commit a wickednesse , for temptation and infirmity are alwayes too neer us : But God hath made care and sweat , prudence and diligence , experience and watchfulnesse , wisdom and labour at home , and good guides abroad to be instruments and means to purchase vertue . The way is long and difficult at first ; but in the progresse and pursuit we finde all the knots made plain , and the rough wayes made smooth . — jam monte potitus Ridet ; — Now , the spirit of grace is like a new soul within him , and he hath new appetites and new pleasures , when the things of the world grow unsavory and the things of religion are delicious ; when his temptations to his old crimes return but seldom , and they prevail not at all , or in very inconsiderable instances , and stay not at all , but are reproached with a penitentiall sorrow , and speedy amendment ; when we do actions of vertue quickly , frequently , and with delight : then we have grown in grace in the same degree in which they can perceive these excellent dispositions . Some persons there are who dare not sin : they dare not omit their hours of prayer ; and they are restlesse in their spirits till they have done ; but they go to it as to execution ; they stay from it as long as they can , and they drive like Pharoahs charets with the wheels off , sadly and heavily : and besides that such persons have reserved to themselves , the best part of their sacrifice , and do not give their will to God , they do not love him with all their heart ; they are also soonest tempted to retire and fall off . Sextius Romanus resigned the honours and offices of the city , and betook himself to the severity of a Philosophical life . But when his unusual diet and hard labour began to pinch his flesh , and he felt his propositions smart , and that which was fine in discourse at a Symposiack , or an Academical dinner , began to sit uneasily upon him in the practise ; he so despaired that he had like to have cast himself into the sea , to appease the labours of his religion ; Because he never had gone further then to think it a fine thing to be a wise man : he would commend it , but he was loth to pay for it at the price that God and the Philosopher sot upon it . But he that is grown in grace and hath made religion habitual to his spirit , is not at ease but when he is doing the works of the new man , he rests in religion and comforts his sorrows with thinking of his prayers , and in all crosses of the world he is patient , because his joy is at hand to refresh him when he list , for he cares not so he may serve God : and if you make him poor here , he is rich there , and he counts that to be his proper service , his worke , his recreation , and reward . 3. But because in the course of holy living , although the duty be regular and constant , yet the sensible relishes and the flowrings of affections , the zeal and the visible expressions do not alwayes make the same emission ; but sometimes by designe , and sometimes by order , sometimes by affection we are more busie ; more intire , and more intent upon the actions of religion ; in such cases we are to judge of our growth in grace , if after every interval of exraordinary piety , the next return be more devout and more affectionate , the labour be more cheerfull and more active ; and if religion returnes oftner and stayes longer in the same expressions , and leaves more satisfaction upon the spirit . Are your communions more frequent ? and when they are , do ye approach neerer to God ? have you made firmer resolutions and entertained more hearty purposes of amendment ? Do you love God more dutifully and your neighbour with a greater charity ? do you not so easily return to the world as formerly ? are not you glad when the thing is done ? do you go to your secular accounts with a more weaned affection then before ? if you communicate well , it is certain , that you will still do it better : if you do not communicate well , every opportunity of doing it is but a new trouble , easily excused , readily omitted , done because it is necessary , but not because we love it : and we shall finde that such persons in their old age do it worst of all ; And it was observed by a Spanish Confessor , who was also a famous preacher , that in persons not very religious , the confessions which they made upon their deathbed were the coldest , the most imperfect , and with lesse contrition then all that he had observed them to make in many years before . For so the Canes of Egypt when they newly arise from their bed of mud and slime of Nilus , start up into an equal and continual length , and are interrupted but with few knots , and are strong and beauteous with great distances , and intervals : but when they are grown to their full length they lessen into the point of a pyramis , and multiply their knots and joynts , interrupting the finenesse and smoothnesse of its body : so are the steps & declensions of him that does not grow in grace : at first when he springs up from his impurity , by the waters of baptisme and repentance , he grows straight and strong , and suffers but few interruptions of piety , and his constant courses of religion are but rarely intermitted ; till they ascend up to a full age or towards the ends of their life , then they are weak and their devotions often intermitted , and their breaches are frequent , and they seek excuses , and labour for dispensations , and love God and religion lesse and lesse , till their old age instead of a crown of their vertue and perseverance ends in levity and unprofitable courses ; light and uselesse as the tufted feathers upon the cane , every winde can play with it and abuse it , but no man can make it useful . When therefore our piety interrupts its greater and more solemn expressions , and upon the return of the greater offices , and bigger solemnities we finde them to come upon our spirits like the wave of a tide , which retired onely because it was natural so to do and yet came further upon the strand at the next rolling ; When every new confession , every succeeding communion , every time of separation for more solemn and intense prayer is better spent and more affectionate , leaving a greater relish upon the spirit , and possessing greater portions of our affections , our reason , and our choice , then we may give God thanks , who hath given us more grace to use that grace , and a blessing to endeavour our duty , and a blessing upon our endeavour . 4. To discern our growth in grace , we must inquire concerning our passions , whether they be mortified and quiet , complying with our ends of vertue and under command . For since the passions are the matter of vertue and vice respectively , he that hath brought into his power all the strengths of the enemy , and the forts from whence he did infest him , he onely hath secured his holy walking with God. But because this thing is never perfectly done , and yet must alwayes be doing , grace grows according as we have finished our portions of this work . And in this we must not onely inquire concerning our passions , whether they be sinfull and habitually prevalent ; for if they be , we are not in the state of grace ; But whether they return upon us in violences and undecencies , in transportation and unreasonable , and imprudent expressions ; for although a good man may be incident to a violent passion , and that without sin , yet a perfect man is not ; a well-grown Christian hath seldom such sufferings ; to suffer such things sometimes may stand with the being of vertue , but not with its security : For if passions range up and down and transport us frequently and violently , we may keep in our forts , and in our dwellings , but our enemy is master of the field , and our vertues are restrained , and apt to be starved , and will not hold out long ; a good man may be spotted with a violence , but a wise man will not : and he that does not adde wisedom to his vertue , the knowledge of Jesus Christ to his vertuous habits , will be a good man but till a storm comes . But beyond this , inquire after the state of your passions , in actions of religion : Some men fast to mortifie their lust , and their fasting makes them peevish : some reprove a vice but they do it with much inpatience ; some charitably give excellent counsell , but they do that also with a pompous and proud spirit ; and passion being driven from open hostilities , is forced to march along in the retinue and troops of vertue : And although this be rather a deception and a cosenage then an imperfection ; and supposes a state of sin rather then an imperfect grace ; yet because it tacitly and secretly creeps along among the circumstances of pious actions , as it spoils a vertue in some , so it lessens it in others , and therefore is considerable also in this question . And although no man must take accounts of his being in , or out of the state of grace , by his being dispassionate , and free from all the assaults of passion , yet as to the securing his being in the state of grace , he must provide that he be not a slave of passion , so to declare his growth in grace , he must be sure to take the measures of his affections , and see that they be lessened ; more apt to be suppressed ; not breaking out to inconvenience and imprudencies , not rifling our spirit and drawing us from our usuall and more sober tempers . Try therefore if your fear be turned into caution , your lust into chast friendships , your imperious spirit into prudent government , your revenge into justice , your anger into charity , and your peevishnesse and rage , into silence and suppression of language . Is our ambition changed into vertuous and noble thoughts ? can we emulate without envy ? is our covetousnesse lessen'd into good husbandry , and mingled with alms , that we may certainly discern the love of money to be gone ? do we leave to despise our inferiours , and can we willingly endure to admit him that excels us in any gift or grace whatsoever , and to commend it without abatement , and mingling allayes with the commendation , and disparagements to the man ? If we be arrived but thus farre , it is well , and we must go further . But we use to think that all disaffections of the body are removed , if they be changed into the more tolerable , although we have not an athletick health , or the strength of porters or wrastlers : For although it be felicity to be quit of all passion , that may be sinfull or violent ; and part of the happinesse of heaven shall consist in that freedom ; yet our growth in grace consists in the remission and lessening of our passions : onely he that is incontinent in his lust , or in his anger , in his desires of money , or of honour , in his revenge , or in his fear , in his joyes , or in his sorrows , that man is not grown at all in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ : This onely ; in the scruting and consequent judgement concerning our passions , it will concern the curiosity of our care , to watch against passions in the reflex act ; against pride , or lust , complacency , and peevishnesse attending upon vertue . For he was noted for a vain person , who being overjoyed for the cure of his pride ( as he thought ) cried out to his wife , Cerne Dionysia deposui fastum , behold I have laid aside all my pride : and of that very dream the silly man thought he had reason to boast ; but considered not that it was an act of pride , and levity besides . If thou hast given a noble present to thy friend , if thou hast rejected the unjust desire of thy Prince ; if thou hast endured thirst and hunger for religion or continence ; if thou hast refused an offer like that which was made to Joseph , sit down and rest in thy good conscience , and do not please thy self in opinions , and phantastick noises abroad , and do not despise him that did not do so as thou hast done ; and reprove no man with an upbraiding circumstance : for it will give thee but an ill return , and a contemptible reward , if thou shalt over-lay thy infant-vertue , or drown it with a flood of breast-milk . Sermon . XV. Of Growth in Grace . Part II. 5. HE is well grown in , or towards the state of grace , who is more patient of a sharp reproof , then of a secret flattery . For a reprehension contains so much mortification to the pride and complacencies of a man ; is so great an affront to an easie and undisturbed person , is so empty of pleasure , and so full of profit , that he must needs love vertue in a great degree , who can take in that which onely serves her end , and is displeasant to himself , and all his gayeties . A severe reprehendor of anothers vice , comes dressed like Iacob when he went to cozen his brother of the blessing : his outside is rough and hairy , but the voice is Jacobs voice ; rough hands , and a healthfull language get the blessing , even against the will of him that shall feel it ; but he that is patient , and even , not apt to excuse his fault , that is lesse apt to anger , or to scorn him that snatches him rudely from the flames of hell , he is vertues Confessor , and suffers these lesser stripes for that interest which will end in spirituall and eternall benedictions . They who are furious against their monitors are incorrigible : but it is one degree of meeknesse to suffer discipline : and a meek man cannot easily be an ill man , especially in the present instance : he appears , at least , to have a healthfull constitution ; he hath good flesh to heal ; his spirit is capable of medicine , and that man can never be despaired of , who hath a disposition so neer his health as to improve all physick , and whose nature is relieved by every good accident from without . But that which I observe is , That this is not onely a good disposition towards repentance , and restitution , but is a signe of growth in grace , according as it becomes naturall , easie , and habituall . Some men chide themselves for all their misdemeanours , because they would be represented to the censures and opinions of other men , with a fair Character , and such as need not to be reproved : others out of inconsideration sleep in their own dark rooms , and untill the charity of a Guide , or of a friend draws the curtain and lets in a beam of light , dream on untill the graves open , and hell devours them ; But if they be called upon by the grace of God , let down with a sheet of counsels and friendly precepts , they are presently inclined to be obedient to the heavenly monitions , but unlesse they be dressed with circumstances of honour and civility , with arts of entertainment , and insinuation they are rejected utterly , or received unwillingly : Therefore although upon any termes , to endure a sharp reproof be a good signe of amendment ; yet the growth of grace is not properly signified by every such sufferance : For when this disposition begins ▪ amendment also begins , and goes on in proportion to the increment of this . To endure a reproof without adding a new sin is the first step to amendments , that is , to endure it without scorn , or hatred , or indignation . 2. The next is to suffer reproof without excusing our selves : For he that is apt to excuse himself is onely desirous in a civill manner to set the reproof aside , and to represent the charitable monitour to be too hasty in his judgement , and deceived in his information ; and the fault to dwell there , not with himself . 3. Then he that proceeds in this instance admits the reprovers sermon , or discourse , without a private regret : he hath no secret murmurs . or unwillingnesses to the humiliation , but is onely ashamed that he should deserve it : but for the reprehension it self , that troubles him not ; but he looks on it as his own medicine , and the others charity . 4. But if to this he addes , that he voluntary confesses his own fault , and of his own accord vomits out the loads of his own intemperance , and eases his spirit of the infection , then it is certain he is not onely a professed and hearty enemy against sin , but a zealous , and a prudent , and an active person against all its interest ; and never counts himself at ease but while he rests upon the banks of Sion , or at the gates of the temple ; never pleased but in vertue and religion : Then he knows the state of his soul , and the state of his danger , he reckons it no objection to be abased in the face of man , so he may be gracious in the eyes of God : And that 's a signe of a good grace , and a holy wisdom ; That man is grown in the grace of God , and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Justus in principio sermonis est accusator sui , said the Wise man , The righteous accuseth himself in the beginning : that is , quickly , lest he be prevented : And certain it is , he cannot be either wise or good that had rather have a reall sin within him , then that a good man should beleeve him to be a repenting sinner ; that had rather keep his crime , then lose his reputation ; that is , rather to be so , then to be thought so , rather be without the favour of God , then of his neighbour . Diogenes once spied a young man coming out of a Tavern , or place of entertainment ; who perceiving himself observed by the Philosopher , with some confusion stepped back again , that he might ( if possible ) preserve his fame with that severe person . But Diogenes told him , Quanto magis intraveris tanto magis eris in cauponâ : The more you go back , the longer you are in the place where you are ashamed to be seen ; and he that conceals his sin , still retains that which he counts his shame , and his burden . Hippocrates was noted for an ingenious person , that he published and confessed his errour concerning the futures of the head : and all ages since Saint Austin have called him pious , for writing his book of retractations , in which he published his former ignorances and mistakes , and so set his shame off to the world , invested with a garment of modesty , and above half changed before they were seen . I did the rather insist upon this particular , because it is a consideration of huge concernment , and yet much neglected in all its instances and degrees . We neither confesse our shame , nor endure it ; we are privately troubled , and publikely excuse it ; we turn charity into bitternesse , and our reproof into contumacy and scrone ; and who is there amongst us that can endure a personall charge ? or is not to be taught his personall duty , by generall discoursings , by parable and apologue , by acts of in sinuation and wary distances ? but by this state of persons we know the estate of our own spirits . When God sent his Prophets to the people , and they stoned them with stones , and sawed them asunder , and cast them into dungeons , and made them beggers , the people fell into the condition of Babylon , Quam curavimus & non est sanata ; We healed her ( said the Prophets ) But she would not be cured : Derelinquamus eam , that 's her doom ; let her enjoy her sins and all the fruits of sin laid up in treasures of wrath against the day of vengeance and retribution . 6. He that is grown in grace , and the knowledge of Christ esteems no sin to be little or contemptible ; none fit to be cherished or indulged to . For it is not onely inconsistent with the love of God , to entertain any undecency or beginning of a crime , any thing that displeases him , but he alwayes remembers how much it cost him to arrive at the state of good things , whether the grace of God hath already brought him : He thinks of the prayers and tears , his restlesse nights , and his daily fears , his late escape , and his present danger , the ruines of his former state , and the difficult and imperfect reparations of this new ; his proclivity and aptnesse to , vice , and naturall aversnesse and uneasie inclinations to the strictnesse of holy living ; and when these are considered truly , they naturally make a man unwilling to entertaine any beginnings of a state of life contrary to that which with so much danger and difficulty , through so many objections and enemies he hath attained . And the truth is , when a man hath escaped the dangers of his first state of sin , he cannot but be extreamly unwilling to return again thither , in which he can never hope for heaven : ( and so it must be ) for a man must not flatter himself in a small crime , and say as Lot did when he begged a reprieve for Zoar , Alas Lord , is it not a little one and my soul shall live ? And it is not therefore to be entertained because it is little ; for it is the more without excuse , if it be little ; the temptations to it are not great ; the allurements not mighty ; the promises not insnaring , the resistance easie ; and a wise man considers , it is a greater danger to be overcome by a little sin , then by a great one ; a greater danger ( I say ) not directly , but accidentally ; not in respect of the crime , but in relation to the person : for he that cannot overcome a small crime , is in the state of infirmity , so great , that he perishes infallibly , when he is arrested by the sins of a stronger temptation : But he that easily can , and yet will not ; he is in love with sin , and courts his danger , that he may at least kisse the apples of Paradise , or feast himself with the parings : since he is by some displeasing instrument affrighted from glutting himself with the forbidden fruit , in ruder and bigger instances : But the well-grown Christian is curious of his newly trimmed soul , and like a nice person with clean clothes , is carefull that no spot or stain sully the virgin whitenesse of his robe : whereas another whose albes of baptisme are sullied in many places with the smoak and filth of Sodom and uncleannesse , cares not in what paths he treads , and a shower of dirt changes not his state , who already lies wallowing in the puddles of impurity ; It makes men negligent and easie , when they have an opinion or certain knowledge that they are persons extraordinary in nothing ; that a little care will not mend them ; that another sin cannot make them much worse : But it is as a signe of a tender conscience , and a reformed spirit , when it is sensible of every alteration , when an idle word is troublesom , when a wandering thought puts the whole spirit upon its guard ; when too free a merriment is wiped off with a sigh and a sad thought , and a severe recollection , and a holy prayer : Polycletus was wont to say , That they had work enough to do , who were to make a curuious picture of clay and dirt , when they were to take accounts for the handling of mud and morter : A mans spirit is naturally carelesse of baser and uncostly materials ; but if a man be to work in gold , then he will save the filings , and his dust , and suffer not a grain to perish : And when a man hath laid his foundations in precious stones , he will not build vile matter , stubble and dirt upon it : So it is in the spirit of a man ; If he have built upon the rock Christ Jesus , and is grown up to a good stature in Christ , he will not easily dishonour his building nor lose his labours , by an incurious entertainment of vanities and little instances of sin ; which as they can never satisfie any lust or appetite to sin ; so they are like a flie in a box of ointment or like little follies to a wise man , they are extreamly full of dishonour and disparagement , they disarray a mans soul of his vertue , and dishonour him for cockle-shels and baubles , and tempt to a greater folly : which every man , who is grown in the knowledge of Christ , therefore carefully avoids , because he fears a relapse , with a fear as great as his hopes of heaven are , and knowes that the entertainment of small sins do but entice a mans resolutions to disband , they unravel and untwist his holy purposes , and begin in infirmities and proceed in folly , and end in death . 7. He that is grown in grace pursues vertue for its own interest , purely and simply without the mixture and allay of collateral designes , and equally inclining purposes ; God in the beginning of our returns to him entertains us with promises and threatnings , the apprehensions of temporal advantages , with fear and shame , and with reverence of friends and secular respects , with reputation and coercion of humane laws and at first men snatch at the lesser and lower ends of vertue and such rewards are visible , and which God sometimes gives in hand to entertain our weak , and imperfect desires : The young Philosophers were very forward to get the precepts of their sect , and the rules of severity , that they might discourse with Kings , not that they might reform their own manners ; and some men study to get the ears and tongues of the people , rather then to gain their souls to God ; and they obey good laws , for fear of punishment , or to preserve their own peace ; and some are worse they do good deeds out of spite , and preach Christ out of envy , or to lessen the authority and fame of others : some of these lessen the excellency of the act , others spoil it quite : it is in some , imperfect , in others , criminal ; in some it is consistent with a beginning infant-grace , in others it is an argument of the state of sin and death : but in all cases , the well grown Christian , he that improoves or goes forward in his way to heaven , brings vertue forth , not into discourses and panegyrickes , but into his life and manners ; his vertue although it serves many good ends accidentally ; yet by his intention it onely suppresses his inordinate passions , makes him temperate and chast , casts out his devils of drunkennesse and lust , pride and rage , malice and revenge : it makes him useful to his brother and a servant of God ; and although these flowers cannot choose but please his eye , and delight his smell , yet he chooses to gather honey , and licks up the dew of heaven and feasts his spirit upon the Manna , and dwells not in the collateral usages and accidental sweetnesses which dwell at the gates of the other senses , but like a Bee loads his thighs with wax and his bag with honey ; that is , with the useful parts of vertue in order to holinesse and felicity . Of which the best signes and notices we can take will be if we as earnestly pursue vertues which are acted in private , as those whose scene lies in publick , If we pray in private , under the onely eye of God and his ministring angels as in Churches ; if we give our almes in secret rather then in publick ; if we take more pleasure in the just satisfaction of our consciences , and securing our reputation ; if we rather pursue innocence then seek an excuse ; if we desire to please God , though we lose our fame with men ; if we be just to the poorest servant as to the greatest prince , if we choose to be among the jewels of God though we be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the off-scouring of the world ; if when we are secure from witnesses and accusers and not obnoxious to the notices of the law , we think our selves obliged by conscience , and practise , and live accordingly ; then our services and intentions in vertue are right , then we are past the twilights of conversion , and the umbrages of the world , and walk in the light of God , of his word , and of his spirit , of grace and reason , as becometh not babes , but men in christ Jesus . In this progresse of grace I have not yet expressed , that perfect persons should serve God out of mere love of God and the divine excellencies , without the considerations of either heaven or hell ; such a thing as that is talked of in mystical Theology . And I doubt not but many good persons come to that growth of Charity that the goodnesse and excellency of God are more incumbent and actually pressing upon their spirit then any considerations of reward : But then I shall adde this ; that when persons come to that hight of grace ( or contemplation rather ) and they love God for himself and do their duties in order to the fruition of him and his pleasure ; all that , is but heaven in another sense , and under another name ; just as the mystical Theologie is the highest duty and the choicest parts of obedience under a new method : but in order to the present , that which I call a signification of our growth in grace , is a pursuance of vertue upon such reasons as are propounded to us , as motives in Christianity ( such as are to glorifie God , and to enjoy his promises in the way , and in our country , to avoid the displeasure of God , and to be united to his glories ) and then to exercise vertue in such parts and to such purposes as are useful to good life , and profitable to our neighbours ; not to such onely where they serve reputation , or secular ends . For though the great Physitian of our souls hath mingled profits and pleasures with vertue to make its chalice sweet and apt to be drank off , yet he that takes out the sweet ingredient and feasts his palate with the lesse wholsome part , because it is delicious , serves a low end of sense or interest , but serves not God at all ; and as little does benefit to the soul : such a person is like Homers bird , deplumes himselfe to feather all the naked callows that he sees , and holds a taper that may light others to heaven , while he burns his own fingers : but a well grown person , out of habit and choice out of love of vertue and just intention goes on his journey in straight wayes to heaven , even when the bridle and coercion of laws or the spurs of interest or reputation are laid aside and desires witnesses of his actions , not that he may advance his fame , but for reverence and fear , and to make it still more necessary to do holy things . 8. Some men there are in the beginning of their holy walking with God , and while they are babes in Christ , who are presently busied in delights of prayers , and rejoyce in publick communion , and count all solemn assemblies , festival ; but as they are pleased with them , so they can easily be without them ; It is a signe of a common and vulgar love onely to be pleased with the company of a friend , and to be as well with out him , amoris at morsum qui verè senserit , he that ha's felt the stings of a sharp and very dear affection is impatient in the absence of his beloved object , the soul that is sick and swallowed up with holy fire loves nothing else ; all pleasures else seem unsavory , company is troublesome , visitors are tedious , homilies of comfort are flat and uselesse . The pleasures of vertue to a good and perfect man are not like the perfumes of Nard Pistick , which is very delightful when the box is newly broken , but the want of it is no trouble ; we are well enough without it ; but vertue is like hunger and thirst it must be satisfied or we die ; and when we feel great longings after religion and faintings for want of holy nutriment , when a famine of the word and sacraments is more intolerable ; and we think our selves really most miserable , when the Church doors are shut against us , or like the Christians in the persecution of the Vandals , who thought it worse then death , that there Bishops were taken from them ; If we understand excommunication , or Church censures ( abating the disreputation and secular appendages ) in the sense of the spirit to be a misery next to hell it self , then we have made a good progresse in the Charity and grace of God ; till then we are but pretenders , or infants , or imperfect , in the same degree in which our affections are cold , and our desires remisse ; For a constant and prudent zeal is the best testimony of our masculine and vigorous heats , and an houre of fervour is more pleasing to God then a moneth of luke-warmnesse , and indifferency . 9 But as some are active onely in the presence of a good object , but remisse and carelesse for the want of it , so on the other side an infant grace is safe in the absence of a temptation , but falls easily , when it is in presence : He therefore that would understand if he be grown in grace , may consider if his safety consists onely in peace , or in the strength of the spirit . It is good that we will not seek out opportunities to sin ; but are not we too apprehensive of it , when it is presented ? or do we not sink under when it presses us ? can we hold our tapers neer the flames and not suck it in greedily like Naphtha or prepared Nitre ? or can we like the children of the captivity walk in the midst of flames and not be scorched or consumed , ? Many men will ( not like Judah ) go into high wayes and untie the girdles of harlots ; But can you reject the importunity of a beautious and an imperious Lady , as Joseph did we had need pray that we be not led into temptation ; that is , not onely into the possession , but not into the allurements and neighbour-hood of it , least by little and little our strongest resolutions be untwist , and crack in sunder like an easie cord severed into single threds : but if we by the necessity of our lives , and manner of living ▪ dwell where a temptation will assault us , then to resist , is the signe of a great grace ; but such a signe , that without it , the grace turns into wantonnesse , and the man into a beast , and an angel into a Devil . R. Moses will not allow a man to be a true penitent untill he hath left all his sin , and in all the like circumstances refuses those temptations under which formerly he sinned and died : and indeed it may happen that such a trial onely can secure our judgement concerning our selves : and although to be tried in all the same accidents be not safe , nor alwayes contingent , and in such cases it is sufficient to resist all the temptations we have , and avoid the rest and decree against all , yet if it please God we are tempted , as David was by his eyes , or the Martyrs by tortures , or Joseph by his wanton Mistris , then to stand sure and to ride upon the temptation like a ship upon a wave , or to stand like a rock in an impetuous storm , that 's the signe of a great grace and of a well-grown Christian . 10. No man is grown in grace but he that is ready for every work , that chooses not his employment , that refuses no imposition from God or his superiour ; a ready hand , an obedient heart , and a willing cheerful soul in all the work of God and in every office of religion is a great index of a good proficient in the wayes of Godlinesse . The heart of a man is like a wounded hand or arme , which if it be so cured that it can onely move one way and cannot turn to all postures and natural uses it is but imperfect , and still half in health , and half wounded : so is our spirit ; if it be apt for prayer and close sifted in almes , if it be sound in faith and dead in charity , if it be religious to God and unjust to our neighbour , there wants some integral part , or there is a lamenesse ; and the deficiency in any one duty implyes the guilt of all ( said Saint James ) and bonum exintegrâ causâ malum exquâlibet particulari , every fault spoils a grace . But one grace alone cannot make a good man. But as to be universal in our obedience is necessary to the being in the state of grace : so readily to change imployment from the better to the worse , from the honorable to the poor , from usefull to seemingly unprofitable , is a good Character of a well grown Christian , if he takes the worst part with indifferency and a spirit equally choosing all the events of the divine providence . Can you be content to descend from ruling of a province to the keeping of a herd : from the work of an Apostle to be confined into a prison , from disputing before Princes to a conversation with Shepherds ? can you be willing to all that God is willing , and suffer all that he chooses as willingly as if you had chosen your own fortune ? In the same degree , in which you can conform to God , in the same you have approached towards that perfection whether we must by degrees arrive in our journey towards heaven . This is not to be expected of beginners ; for they must be enticed with apt imployments ; and it may be , their office and work so fits their spirits , that it makes them first in love with it , and then with God for giving it ; and many a man goes to heaven in the dayes of peace , whose faith , and hopes , and patience would have been dashed in pieces , if he had fallen into a storm or persecution . Oppression will make a wise man mad ( saith Solomon ) : there are some usages that will put a sober person out of all patience , such which are besides the customes of this life , and contrary to all his hopes , and unworthy of a person of his quality : and when Nero durst not die , yet when his servants told him that the Senators had condemned him to be put to death more Majorum , that is , by scourging like a slave , he was forced into a preternatural confidence , and fel upon his own sword ; but when God so changes thy estate that thou art fallen into accidents to which thou art no otherwise disposed , but by grace and a holy spirit , and yet thou canst passe through them with quietnesse , and do the work of suffering as well as the works of a prosperous imployment ; this is an argument of a great grace and an extraordinary spirit . For many persons in a change of fortune perish , who if they had still been prosperous had gone to heaven ; being tempted in a persecution to perjuries and Apostacy and unhandsome compliances , and hypocricy , and irreligion : and many men are brought to vertue , and to God , and to felicity by being persecuted and made unprosperous : and these are effects of a more absolute and irrespective predestination ; but when the grace of God is great and prudent , and masculine , and well grown , it is unalter'd in all changes , save onely that every accident that is new and violent brings him neerer to God , and makes him with greater caution and severity to dwell in vertue . 11. Lastly , some there are who are firme in all great and foresoen changes and have laid up in the store-houses of the spirit ( reason and religion ) arguments and discourses enough to defend them against all violencies and stand at watch so much , that they are safe where they can consider , and deliberate ; but there may be something wanting yet ; and in the direct line , in the strait progresse to heaven , I call that an infallible signe of a great grace , and indeed the greatest degree of a great grace , when a man is prepared against sudden invasions of the spirit , surreptions and extemporary assaults : Many a valiant person dares sight a battle who yet will be timorous and surprised in a mid-night alarme ; or if he falls into a river ; And how many discreet persons are there , who , if you offer them a sin , and give them time to consider , and tell them of it before hand , will rather die then be perjured , or tell a deliberate lie , or break a promise ; who ( it may be ) tell many sudden lies , and excuse themselves , and break their promises , and yet think themselves safe enough ; and sleep without either affrightments , or any apprehension of dishonour done to their persons or their religion . Every man is not armed for all sudden arrests of passions : few men have cast such fetters upon their lusts and have their passions in so strict confinement , that they may not be over run with a midnight flood or an unlooked for inundation ; He that does not start when he is smitten suddenly , is a constant person : and that is it which I intend in this instance ; that he is a perfect man and well grown in grace , who hath so habitual a resolution and so unhasty and wary a spirit , as that he decrees upon no act before he hath considered maturely , and changed the sudden occasion into a sober counsel . David by chance spied Bathsheba washing her self , and being surprised , gave his heart away before he could consider , and when it was once gone , it was hard to recover it ; and sometimes a man is betrayed by a sudden opportunity and all things fitted for his sin ready at the door ; the act stands in all its dresse , and will not stay for an answear ; and incosideration is the defence and guard of the sin , and makes that his conscience can the more easily swallow it what shall the man do then ? unlesse he be strong by his old strengths , by a great grace , by an habitual vertue , and a sober unmoved spirit , he falls and dies in the death and hath no new strengths ; but such as are to be imployed for his recovery ; none for his present guard ; unlesse upon the old stock , and if he be a well grown Christian. These are the parts , acts , and offices of our growing in grace , and yet I have sometimes called them signes ; but they are signes , as eating and drinking are signes of life , they are signes so as also they are parts of life ; and these are parts of our growth in grace , so that a man can grow in grace to no other purpose but to these or the like improvements . Concerning which I have a caution or two to interpose . 1. The growth of grace is to be estimated as other morall things are , not according to the growth of things naturall : Grace does not grow by observation , and a continuall efflux , and a constant proportion ; and a man cannot call himself to the account for the growth of every day , or week , or moneth ; but in the greater portions of our life in which we have had many occasions and instances to exercise and improve our vertues , we may call our selves to account ; but it is a snare to our consciences to be examined in the growth of grace in every short resolution of solemn duty , as against every Communion , or great Festivall . 2. Growth in grace is not alwayes to be discerned either in single instances , or in single graces . Not in single instances ; for every time we are to exercise a vertue , we are not in the same naturall dispositions , nor do we meet with the same circumstances , and it is not alwayes necessary that the next act should be more earnest and intence then the former ; all single acts are to be done after the manner of men , and therefore are not alwayes capable of increasing ; and they have their termes beyond which easily they cannot swell : and therefore if it be a good act and zealous , it may proceed from a well grown grace , and yet a younger and weaker person may do some acts as great and as religious as it ; But neither do single graces alwayes affoord a regular and certain judgement in this affair ; for some persons at the first , had rather die then be unchast , or perjured : and greater love then this no man hath , that he lay down his life for God : he cannot easily grow in the substance of that act ; and if other persons , or himself , in processe of time do it more cheerfully , or with fewer fears , it is not alwayes a signe of a greater grace , but some times of greater collaterall assistances , or a better habit of body , or more fortunate circumstances : for he that goes to the block tremblingly for Christ , and yet endures his death certainly , and endures his trembling too , and runs through all his infirmities and the bigger temptations ; looks not so well many times in the eyes of men , but suffers more for God , then those confident Martyrs that courted death in the primitive Church ; and therefore may be much dearer in the eyes of God : But that which I say in this particular , is that a smallnesse in one , is not an argument of the imperfection of the whole estate : Because God does not alwayes give to every man occasions to exercise , and therefore not to improve every grace ; and the passive vertues of a Christian are not to be expected to grow so fast in prosperous , as in suffering Christians : but in this case we are to take accounts of our selves by the improvement of those graces which God makes to happen often in our lives ; such as are charity and temperance in young men , liberality and religion in aged persons , ingenuity and humility in schollers , justice in merchants and artificers , forgivenesse of injuries in great men , and persons tempted by law-suits ; for since vertues grow like other morall habits , by use ; diligence , and assiduity , there where God hath appointed our work and in our instances , there we must consider concerning our growth in grace , in other things we are but beginners : But it is not likely that God will trie us concerning degrees hereafter , in such things of which in this world he was sparing to give us opportunities . 3. Be carefull to observe that these rules are not all to be understood negatively , but positively , and affirmatively , that is , that a man may conclude that he is grown in grace if he observes these characters in himself , which I have here discoursed of ; but he must not conclude negatively , that he is not grown in grace , if he cannot observe such signall testimonies : for sometimes God covers the graces of his servants , and hides the beauty of his tabernacle with goats hair , and the skins of beasts , that he may rather suffer them to want present comfort , then the grace of humility ; for it is not necessary to preserve the gayeties and their spirituall pleasures ; but if their humility fails , ( which may easily do under the sunshine of conspicuous and illustrious graces ) their vertues and themselves perish in a sad declension . But sometimes men have not skill to make a judgement ; and all this discourse seems too artificiall to be tried by in the hearty purposes of religion . Sometimes they let passe much of their life , even of their better dayes , without observance of particulars ; sometimes their cases of conscience are intricate , or allayed with unavoydable infirmities ; sometimes they are so uninstructed in the more secret parts of religion , and there are so many illusions and accidentall miseariages , that if we shall conclude negatively in the present Question , we may produce scruples infinite , but understand nothing more of our estate , and do much lesse of our duty . 4. In considering concerning our growth in grace , let us take more care to consider matters that concern justice , and charity , then that concern the vertue of religion : because in this there may be much , in the other there cannot easily be any illusion , and cosenage . That is a good religion that beleeves , and trusts , and hopes in God through Jesus Christ , and for his sake does all justice , and all charity , that he can ; and our Blessed Lord gives no other deseription of love to God , but obedience and keeping his commandements : Justice and charity are like the matter , religion is the form of Christianity ; but although the form be more noble and the principle of life , yet it is lesse discernable , lesse materiall , and lesse sensible ; and we judge concerning the form by the matter , and by materiall accidents , and by actions : and so we must of our religion , that is of our love to God , and of the efficacy of our prayers , and the usefulnesse of our fastings ; we must make our judgements by the more materiall parts of our duty , that is , by sobriety , and by justice , and by charity . I am much prevented in my intention for the perfecting of this so very materiall consideration : I shall therefore onely tell you , that to these parts and actions of good life , or of our growth in grace , some have added some accidentall considerations , which are rather signes then parts of it : Such are . 1. To praise all good things , and to study to imitate what we praise . 2. To be impatient that any man should excell us ; not out of envy to the person , but of noble emulation to the excellency ; For so Themistocles could not sleep after the great victory at Marathon purchased by Miltiades ; till he had made himself illustrious by equall services to his countrey . 3. The bearing of sicknesse patiently , and ever with improvement , and the addition of some excellent principle , and the firm pursuing it . 4. Great devotion , and much delight in our prayers . 5. Frequent inspirations , and often whispers of the Spirit of God prompting us to devotion , and obedience , especially if we adde to this , a constant and ready obedience to all those holy invitations . 6. Offering peace to them that have injured me , and the abating of the circumstances of honour , or of right , when either justice , or charity , is concerned in it . 7. Love to the brethren . 8. To behold our companions , or our inferiours full of honour and fortune ; and if we sit still at home and murmur not , or if we can rejoyce both in their honour , and our own quiet , that 's a fair work of a good man ; And now 9. After all this , I will not trouble you with reckoning a freedom from being tempted , not onely from being overcome , but from being tried : for though that be a rare felicity , and hath in it much safety , yet it hath lesse honour and fewer instances of vertue , unlesse it proceed from a confirmed and heroicall grace ; which is indeed a little image of heaven , and of a celestiall charity ; and never happens signally to any , but to old and very eminent persons . 10. But some also adde an excellent habit of body and materiall passions , such as are chast and vertuous dreams , and suppose that as a disease abuses the fancy , and a vice does prejudice it ; so may an excellent vertue of the soul smooth and Calcine the body , and make it serve perfectly , and without rebellious indispositions . 11. Others are in love with Mary Magdalens tears , and fancy the hard knees of Saint James , and the sore eyes of Saint Peter , and the very recreations of Saint John. Proh ! quam virtute praeditos omnia decent ! thinking all things becomes a good man ; even his gestures and little incuriosities : And though this may proceed from a great love of vertue , yet because some men do thus much and no more , and this is to be attributed to the lustre of vertue , which shines a little thorow a mans eye-lids , though he perversely winks against the light ; yet as the former of these two is too Metaphysicall ; so as the later too Phantasticall : he that by the fore-going materiall parts and proper significations of a growing grace does not understand his own condition , must be content to work on still super totam materiam , without considerations of Particulars ; he must pray earnestly , and watch diligently , and consult with prudent Guides , and ask of God great measures of his Spirit , and hunger and thirst after righteousnesse : for he that does so , shall certainly be satisfied : and if he understands not his present good condition , yet if he be not wanting in the down right endeavours of piety , and in hearty purposes , he shall then finde that he is grown in grace when he springs up in the resurrection of the just , and shall be ingrafted upon a tree of Paradise , which beareth fruit for ever , Glory to God , rejoycing to Saints and Angels , and eternall felicity to his own pious , though undiscerning soul. Prima sequentem , honestum est in secundis aut tertijs consistere . Cicero . Sermon . XVI . Of Growth in Sinne , OR The severall states and degrees of Sinners , WITH The manner how they are to be treated . Jude Epist. Ver. 22 , 23. And of some have compassion , making a difference : * And others save with fear , pulling them out of the fire . MAn hath but one entrance into the world , but a thousand wayes to passe from thence ; and as it is in the natural , so it is in the spiritual ; nothing but the union of faith and obedience can secure our regeneration , and our new birth , and can bring us to see the light of heaven : but there are a thousand passages of turning into darknesse ; and it is not enough that our bodies are exposed to so many sad infirmities and dishonourable imperfections , unlesse our soul also be a subject capable of so many diseases , follies , irregular passions , false principles , accursed habits and degrees of perversnesse , that the very kindes of them are reducible to a method , and make up the part of a science : There are variety of stages and descents to death ; as there are diversity of torments , and of sad regions of misery in hell , which is the centre and kingdom of sorrows . But that we may a little refresh the sadnesses of this consideration ; for every one of these stages of sin , God hath measured out a proportion of mercy ; for if sin abounds , grace shall much more abound , and God hath concluded all under sin , not with purposes to destroy us , but , Ut omnium misereatur , that he might have mercy upon all ; that light may break forth from the deepest inclosures of darknesse , and mercy may rejoyce upon the recessions of justice , and grace may triumph upon the ruins of sin , and God may be glorified in the miracles of our conversion , and the wonders of our preservation , and glories of our being saved . There is no state of sin , but if we be persons capable ( according to Gods method of healing ) of receiving antidotes , we shall finde a sheet of mercy spread over our wounds and nakednesse . If our diseases be small , almost necessary , scarce avoidable , then God does , and so we are commanded to cure them , and cover them with a vail of pity , compassion , and gentle remedies : If our evils be violent , inveterate , gangrened and incorporated into our nature by evil customes , they must be pulled from the flames of hell with censures , and cauteries , and punishments , and sharp remedies , quickly and rudely ; their danger is present and sudden , its effect is quick and intolerable , and there is no soft counsels then to be entertained ; they are already in the fire ; but they may be saved for all that ; so great , so infinite , so miraculous is Gods mercy , that he will not give a sinner over , though the hairs of his head be singed with the flames of hell ; Gods desires of having us to be saved continue , even when we begin to be damned ; even till we will not be saved , and are gone beyond Gods method , and all the revelations of his kindnesse . And certainly that is a bold and a mighty sinner whose iniquity is sweld beyond all the bulk and heap of Gods revealed loving kindnesse : If sin hath sweld beyond grace , and superabounds over it , that sin is gone beyond the measures of a man ; such a person is removed beyond all the malice of humane nature , into the evil and spite of Devils , and accursed spirits ; there is no greater sadnesse in the world then this . God hath not appointed a remedy in the vast treasures of grace for some men , and some sins ; they have sinned like the falling Angels ; and having over run the ordinary evil inclinations of their nature , they are without the protection of the divine mercy ; and the conditions of that grace which was designed to save all the world , was sufficient to have saved twenty . This is a condition to be avoyded with the care of God and his Angels , and all the whole industry of man. In order to which end my purpose now is to remonstrate to you the several states of sin , and death , together with those remedies which God had proportioned out to them , that we may observe the evils of the least , and so avoid the intolerable mischiefs of the greater , even of those sins which still are within the power and possibilities of recovery , lest insensibly we fall into those sins and into those circumstances of person for which Christ never died , which the Holy Ghost never means to cure , and which the eternal God never will pardon ; for there are of this kinde more then commonly men imagine , whilest they amuse their spirits with gaietyes and false principles , till they have run into horrible impieties , from whence they are not willing to withdraw their foot , and God is resolved never to snatch and force them thence . I [ of some have compassion ] and these I shall reduce to four heads or orders of men and actions ; all which have their proper cure pro portionable to their proper state , gentle remedies to the lesser irregularities of the soul. The first are those that sin without observation of their particular state ; either because they are uninstructed in the special cases of conscience , or because they do an evil against which there is no expresse commandment . It is a sad calamity that there are so many milions of men and women that are entred into a state of sicknesse and danger , and yet are made to believe they are in perfect health ; and they do actions concerning which they never made a question whether they were just or no ; nor were ever taught by what names to call them . For while they observe that modesty is sometimes abused by a false name and called clownishnesse , & want of breeding ; and contentednesse and temperate living is suppressed to be want of courage and noble thoughts ; and severity of life is called imprudent and unsociable ; and simplicity and hearty honesty is counted foolish and unpolitick , they are easily tempted to honour prodigality and foolish dissolution of their estates with the title of liberal and noble usages , timorousnesse is called caution , rashnesse is called quicknesse of spirit , covetousnesse , is frugality , amorousnesse is society , and gentile ; peevishnesse and anger is courage , flattery is humane , and courteous ; and under these false vails vertue sli●s away ( like truth from under the hand of them that fight for her ) and leave vices dressed up with the same imagery , and the fraud not discovered , till the day of recompences , when men are distingushed by their rewards . But so men think they sleep freely when their spirits are loaden with a Lethargy and they call a hestick-feaver the vigour of a natural heat , tell nature changes those lesse discerned states into the notorious images of death . Very many men never consider whether they sin or no in 10000. of their actions , every one of which is very disputable ; and do not think they are bound to consider : these men are to be pitied and instructed , they are to be called upon to use religion like a daily diet ; their consciences must be made tender and their Catechisme enlarged ; teach them , and make them sensible and they are cured . But the other in this place are more considerable ; Men sin without observation because their actions have no restraint of an expresse Commandment , no letter of the law to condemn them by an expresse sentence . And this happens , when the crime is comprehended under a general notion without the instancing of particulars ; for if you search over all the Scripture you shall never finde incest named and marked with the black character of death ; and there are diveres sorts of uncleannesse , to which Scripture therefore gives no name , because she would have them have no being ; And it had been necessary that God should have described all particulars and all kindes , if he had not given reason to man. For so it is fit that a guide should point out every turning , if he be to teach a childe or a fool to return under his fathers roof : But he that bids us avoid intemperance for fear of a feaver , supposes you to be sufficiently instructed that you may avoid the plague ; and when to look upon a woman with lust is condemned , it will not be necessary to adde , you must not do more , when even the least is forbidden ; and when to uncover the nakednesse of Noah brought an universal plague upon the posterity of Cham , it was not necessary that the law-giver should say you must not ascend to your fathers bed , or draw the curtains from your sisters retirements . When the Athenians forbad to transport figs from Athens , there was no need to name the gardens of Alcibiades , much lesse was it necessary to adde that Chabrias should send no plants to Sparta . What so ever is comprised under the general notion , and partakes of the common nature and the same iniquity needs no special prohibition , unlesse we think we can mock God and elude his holy precepts with an absurd trick of mistaken Logick . I am sure that will not save us harmlesse from a thunderbolt . 2. Men sin without an expresse prohibition when they commit a thing that is like a forbidden evil . And when Saint Paul had reckoned many works of the flesh he addes [ and such like ] all that have the same unreasonablenesse & carnallity . For thus , poligamy is unlawful ; for if it be not lawful for a Christian to put away his wife and marry another ( unlesse for adultery ) much lesse may he keep a first and take a second , when the first is not put away ; If a Christian may not be drunk with wine , neither may he be drunk with passion ; if he may not kill his neighbour , neither then must he tempt him to sin ; for that destroyes him more : if he may not wound him , then he may not perswade him to intemperance , and a drunken feaver ; if it be not lawful to cozen a man , much lesse is it permitted that he make a man a fool , and a beast , and exposed to every mans abuse and to all ready evils . And yet men are taught to start at the one half of these , and make no conscience of the other half ; whereof some have a greater basenesse then the other that are named , and all have the same unreasonablenesse . 3. A man is guilty , even when no law names his action , if he does any thing that is a cause or an effect , a part or unhandsome adjunct of a forbidden instance ; he that forbad all intemperance , is as much displeased with the infinite of foolish talk that happens at such meetings , as he is at the spoiling of the drink and the destroying the health . If God cannot endure wantonnesse , how can he suffer lascivious dressings , tempting circumstances , wanton eyes , high diet if idlenesse be a sin , then al immoderate mispending of our time , all long and tedious games , all absurd contrivances how to throw away a precious hour and a day of salvation also , are against God and against religion . He that is commanded to be charitable it is also intended he should not spend his money vainely , but be a good husband and provident that he may be able to give to the poor , as he would be to purchase a Lordship , or pay his daughters portion : and upon this stock it is that Christian religion forbids jeering , and immoderate laughter and reckon jestings amongst the things that are unseemly . This also would be considered . 4. Besides the expresse laws of our religion , there is an universal line and limit to our passions and designes , which is called the anology of Christianity ; that is , the proportion of its sanctity and strictnesse of 〈◊〉 holy precepts . This is not forbidden , but does this become you ? Is it decent to see a Christian live in plenty and ease and heap up mony and never to partake of Christs passions , there is no law against a Judge , his being a dresser of gardens or a gatherer of Sycamore fruits , but it becomes him not , and deserves a reproof . If I do exact justice to my neighbour and cause him to be punished legally for all the evils he makes me suffer , I have not broken a fragment from the stony tables of the law : but this is against the analogy of our religion ; It does not become a Disciple of so gentle a master to take all advantages that he can . Christ , that quitted all the glories that were essential to him , and that grew up in his nature when he lodged in his Fathers bosom , Christ that suffered all the evils due for the sins of mankinde , himself remaining most innocent , Christ , that promised persecution , injuries and affronts as part of our present portion , and gave them to his Disciples as a legacy , and gave us his spirit to enable us to suffer injuries ; and made that the parts of suffering evils should be the matter of three or four Christian graces , of patience of fortitude of long animity and perseverance ; he that of eight beatitudes made that five of them should be instanced in the matter of humiliation and suffering temporal inconvenience , that blessed Master was certainly desirous that his Disciples should take their crowns from the crosse , not from the evennesse and felicities of the world ; He intended we should give something , and suffer more things , and forgive all things , all injuries whatsoever ; and though together with this may consist our securing a just interest ; yet in very many circumstances we shall be put to consider how far it becomes us , to quit something of that , to pursue peace ; and when we have secured the letter of the law , that we also look to its analogy ; when we do what we are strictly bound to , then also we must consider what becomes us , who are disciples of such a Master , who are instructed with such principles , charmed with so severe precepts and invited with the certainty of infinite rewards . Now although this discourse may seem new and strange , and very severe , yet it is infinitely reasonable , because Christianity is a law of love , and voluntary services ; it can in no sense be confined with laws and strict measures ; well may the Ocean receive its limits , and the whole capacity of fire be glutted , and the grave have his belly so full , that it shal cast up al its bowels and disgorge the continual meal of so many thousand years ; but love can never have a limit ; and it is indeed to be swallowed up but nothing can fill it but God , who hath no bound . Christianity is a law for sons , not for servants ; and God that gives his grace without measure , and rewards without end , and acts of favour beyond our askings , and provides for us beyond our needs , and gives us counsels beyond commandments , intends not to be limited out by the just evennesses and stricken measures of the words of a commandment . Give to God full measure , 〈◊〉 together , pressed down , heaped up , and running over ; for God does so to us ; and when we have done so to him , we are infinitely short of the least measure of what God does for us ; we are still unprofitable servants . And therefore as the breaking any of the laws of Christianity provoks God to anger , so the prevaricating in the analogy of Christianity stirres him up to jealousie : He hath reason to suspect our hearts are not right with him , when we are so reserved in the matter and measures of our services : and if we will give God but just what he calls for by expresse mandate , it is just in him to require all of that at our hands without any abatement & then we are sure to miscarry . And let us remember that when God said he was a jealous God he expressed the meaning of it to be , he did punish to the third and fourth genoration . Jelousie is like the rage of a man : but if it be also like the anger of God , it is insupportable and will crush us into the ruines of our grave . But because these things are not frequently considered , there are very many sins committed against religion , which because the commandment hath not marked men , refuse to mark , and think God requires no more . I am entred into a sea of matter , which I must not now prosecute ; but I shall onely note this to you that it is but reasonable , we should take accounts of our lives , by the proportions as well as by the expresse rules , of our religion ; because in humane and civil actions all the nations of the world use so to call their subjects to account . For that which in the accounts of men is called reputation and publick honesty , is the same which in religion we call analogy and proportion ; in both cases there being some things , which are besides the notices of laws , and yet are the most certain consignations of an excellent vertue . He is a base person that does any thing against publick honesty and yet no man can be punished if he marries a wife the next day after his first wives funeral : and so he that prevaricates the proportions and excellent reasons of Christianity , is a person without zeal , and without love : and unlesse care be taken of him he will quickly be without religion . But yet these I say are a sort of persons which are to be used with gentlenesse , and treated with compassion ; for no man must be handled roughly to force him to do a kindnesse : and coercion of laws and severity of Judges , serjeants and executioners are against offenders of commandments ; But the way to cure such persons is the easiest and genteliest remedy of all others . They are to be instructed in all the parts of duty , and invited forward by the consideration of the great rewards which are laid up for all the sons of God , who serve him without constraint , without measures and allaves , even as fire burns , and as the roses grow , even as much as they can , and to all the extent of their natural and artificial capacities For it is a thing fit for our compassion , to see men fettered in the iron bands of laws and yet to break the golden chains of love but all those instruments which are proper to enkindle the love of God and to turn fear into charity are the proper instances of that compassion which is to be used towards these men . 2. The next sort of those who are in the state of sin , and yet to be handled gently and with compassion are those who entertain themselves with the beginnings and little entrances of sin , which as they are to be more pitied because they often come by reason of inadvertancy , and an unavoidable weaknesse in many degrees , so they are more to be taken care of , because they are undervallued & undiscernably run into incovenience ; when we see a childe strike a servant rudely , or jeere a silly person , or wittily cheat his play-fellow , or talk words light as the skirt of a summer garment , we laugh and are delighted with the wit and confidence of the boy ; and incourage such hopeful beginnings ; and in the mean time we consider not that from these beginnings he shall grow up till he become a Tyrant , an oppressor , a Goat and a Traytor . Nemo simul malus fit & malus esse cernitur ; sicut nec scorpijs tum innas●untur stimuli cum pungunt No man is discerned to be vitious so soon as he is so , and vices have their infancy and their childe-hood and it cannot be expected that in a childs age should be the vice of a man ; that were monstrous as if he wore a beard in his cradle ; and we do not believe that a serpents sting does just then grow when he stricks us in a vital part : The venome and the little spear was there , when it first began to creep from his little shell : And little boldnesses and looser words and wranglings for nuts , and lying for trifles , are of the same proportion to the malice of a childe , as impudence and duels and injurious law-suits , and false witnesse in judgement & perjuries are in men . And the case is the same when men enter upon a new stock of any sin ; the vice is at first apt to be put out of countenance and a little thing discourages it ; and it amuses the spirit with words , and phantastick images , and cheape instances of sin ; and men think themselves safe because they are as yet safe from laws , and the sin does not as yet out cry the healthful noise of Christs loud cryings and intercession with his Father , nor call for thunder or an amazing judgement ; but according to the old saying the thornes of Dauphine will never fetch blood if they do not scratch the first day : & we shal finde that the little undecencies and riflings of our souls , the first openings and disparkings of our vertue differ onely from the state of perdition , as infancy does from old age , as sicknesse from death ; It is the entrance into those regions whether whosoever passes finally , shall lie down and groan with an eternal sorrow . Now in this case it may happen that a compassion may ruine a man , if it be the pity of an indiscreet mother , and nurse the sin from its weaknesse to the strength of habit and impudence ; The compassion that is to be used to such persons is the compassion of a Phisitian or a severe Tutor ; chastise thy infant-sinne by discipline , and acts of vertue ; and never begin that way from whence you must return with some trouble , and much shame , or else if you proceed , you finish your eternal ruine . He that means to be temperate and avoid the crime and dishonour of being a drunkard must not love to partake of the songs or to bear a part in the foolish scenes of laughter which destract wisdome and fright her from the company ; And Lavina that was chaster then the elder Sabines , and severer then her Philosophical guardian , was wel instructed in the great lines of honour and cold justice to her husband ; but when she gave way to the wanton ointments & looser circumstances of the Baie and bathed often in Avernus , and from thence hurried to the companies and dressings of Lucrinus , she quenched her honour , and gave her vertue and her body as a spoil to the follies and intemperance of a young gentle-man . For so have I seen the little purles of a spring sweat thorow the bottom of a bank and intenerate the stubborn pavement till it hath made it fit for the impression of a childes foot , and it was despised like the descending pearls of a misty morning , till it had opened its way , and made a stream large enough to carry away the ruines of the undermined strand , and to invade the neighbouring gardens : but then the despised drops were grown into an artificial river and an intolerable mischief : so are the first entrances of sin , stop'd with the antidotes of a hearty prayer , and checked into sobriety , by the eye of a Reverend man , or the counsells of a single sermon : But when such beginnings are neglected and our religion hath not in it so much Philosophy as to think any thing evil as long as we can endure it , they grow up to ulcers and pestilential evils ; they destroy the soul by their aboad , who at their first entry might have been killed with the pressure of a little finger . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Those men are in a condition in which they may if they please pity themselves ; keep their green wounds from festering and uncleanlinesse and it will heal alone , non procul absunt , they are not far from the kingdom of Heaven , but they are not within its portion ; and let me say this , that although little sins have not yet made our condition desperate but left it easily recoverable , yet it is a condition that is quite out of Gods favour : although they are not far advanced in their progresse to ruine , yet they are not at all in the state of grace , and therefore though they are to be pitied and relieved accordingly , yet that supposes the incumbency of a present misery . 3. There are some very much to be pitied and assisted because they are going to hell and ( as matters stand with them ) they cannot , or they think they cannot avoid it . Quidam ad alienum dormiunt somnum ad alienum edunt appetitum : amare & odisse ( res omnium maximè liberas ) jubentur . There are some persons whose life is so wholly in dependance from others , that they sleep when others please ; they eat and drink according to their Masters appetite , or intemperance : they are commanded to love or hate , and are not left free in the very Charter and priviledges of nature : Miserum est servire sub Dominis parùm felicibus , for suppose the Prince or the Patron be vitious , suppose he calls his servants to bathe their souls in the goblets of intemperance : if he be also imperious ( for such persons love not to be contradicted in their vices ) it is the losse of that mans fortune , not to lose his soul : and it is the servants excuse and he esteems it also his glory , that he can tell a merry tale , how his Master and himself did swim in drink , till they both talked like fools , and then did lie down like beasts — Facinus quos inquinat aequat . There is then no difference , but that the one is the fairest bull and the master of the heard . And how many Tenents and Relatives are known to have a servile conscience and to know no affirmation or negation but such as shall serve their Land-lords interest ? Alas the poor men live by it , and they must beg their bread if ever they turn recreant , or shall offer to be honest . There are some trades whose very foundations is laid in the vice of others ; and in many others if a threed of deceit do not quite run thorow all their negotiations , they decay into the sorrows of beggery ; and therefore they will support their neighbours vice , that he may support their trade : And what would you advise those men to do , to whom a false oath is offered to their lips , and a dagger at their heart : their reason is surprized , and their choice is seized upon , and all their consultation is arrested ; and if they did not prepare before hand , and stand armed with religion , and perfect resolutions , would not any man fall , and think that every good man will say his case is pitiable . Although no temptation is bigger then the grace of God , yet many temptations are greater then our strengths , and we do not live at the rate of a mighty and a victorious grace . Those persons which cause these vitious necessities upon their brethren will lie low in hell ; but the others will have but small comfort in feeling a lesser damnation . Of the same consideration it is , when ignorant people are Catechized into false doctrine , and know nothing but such principles which weaken the nerves , and enfeeble the joynts of holy living ; they never heard of any other ; those that follow great and evil examples ; the people that are ingaged in the publike sins of a kingdom wihch they understand not , and either must venture to be undone upon the strength of their own little reasonings , and weak discoursings , or else must go quâ itur , non quâ enndum est , there where the popular misery hath made the way plain before their eyes , though it be uneven and dangerous to their consciences . In these cases I am forced to reckon a Catalogue of mischiefs ; but it will be hard to cure any of them . Aristippus in his discourses was a great flatterer of Dionysius of Sicily , and did own doctrines which might give an easinesse to some vices , and knew not how to contradict the pleasures of his Prince ; but seemed like a person disposed to partake of them , that the example of a Philosopher , and the practise of a King might do countenance to a shamefull life . But when Dionysius sent him two women , slaves , fair , and young , he sent them back and shamed the easinesse of his doctrine by the severity of his manners , he daring to be vertuous when he was alone , though in the presence of him , whom he thought it necessary to flatter , he had no boldnesse to own the vertue : So it is with too many ; if they be left alone , and that they stand unshaken with the eye of their tempter , or the authority of their Lord , they go whither their education or their custome carries them : but it is not in some natures to deny the face of a man , and the boldnesse of a sinner ; and which is yet worse , it is not in most mens interest to do it ; these men are in a pitiable condition , and are to be helped by the following rules . 1. Let every man consider that he hath two relations to serve , and he stands between God and his Master , or his neerest relative : and in such cases it comes to be disputed whether interest be preferred ; which of the persons is to be displeased , God or my Master , God or my Prince , God or my Friend ? If we be servants of the man ; remember also that I am a servant of God ; adde to this , that if my present service to the man be a slavery in me , and a tyranny in him , yet Gods service is a noble freedom : And Apollonius said well . It was for slaves to lie , and for free men to speak the truth . If you be freed by the blood of the Son of God , then you are free indeed : and then consider how dishonourable it is to lie , to the displeasure of God , and onely to please your fellow-servant . The difference here is so great , that it might be sufficient onely to consider the antithesis . Did the man make you what you are ? Did he pay his blood for you , to save you from death ? Does he keep you from sicknesse ? True. You eat at his table ; but they are of Gods provisions that he and you feed of . Can your master free you from a fever , when you have drunk your self into it ? and restore your innocence when you have forsworn your self for his interest ? Is the change reasonable ? He gives you meat and drink for which you do him service . But is not he a Tyrant , and an usurper , an oppressor , and an extortioner , if he will force thee to give thy soul for him ? to sell thy soul for old-shoes , and broken bread ? But when thou art to make thy accounts of eternity , will it be taken for an answer , My Patron , or my Governour , my Prince , or my Master , forced me to it ? or if it will not . Will he undertake a portion of thy flames ? or if that may not be , will it be in the midst of all thy torments , any ease to thy sorrows to remember all the rewards and clothes , all the money , and civilities , all the cheerfull looks , and familiarity , and fellowship of vices which in your life time made your spirit so gay and easie ? It will in the eternall loads of sorrow , adde a duplicate of groans and indignation , when it shall be remembred for how base and trifling interest , and upon what weak principles we fell sick and died eternally . 2. The next advise to persons thus tempted is , that they would learn to separate duty from mistaken interest ; and let them be both served in their just proportions , when we have learned to make a difference . A wife is bound to her husband in all his just designes , and in all noble usages and Christian comportments : But a wife is no more bound to pursue her husbands vitious hatreds , then to serve and promote his unlawfull and wandring loves : It is not alwayes a part of duty to think the same propositions , or to curse the same persons , or to wish him successe in unjust designes : And yet the sadnesse of it is , that a good woman is easily tempted to beleeve the cause to be just , and when her affection hath forced her judgement , her judgement for ever after shall carry the affection to all its erring and abused determinations . A friend is turned a flatterer if he does not know , that the limits of friendship extend no further then the pale and inclosures of reason and religion . No Master puts it into his covenant that his servant shall be drunk with him , or give in evidence in his Masters cause , according to his Masters scrolls : and therefore it is besides and against the duty of a servant to sin by that authority ; it is as if he should set Mules to keep his sheep , or make his Dogs to carry burdens : it is besides their nature and designe ; and if any person falls under so tyrannicall relation , let him consider how hard a Master he serves ; where the Devil gives the imployment , and shame is his entertainment , and sin is his work , and hell is his wages . Take therefore the counsel of the son of Syrac . Accept no person against thy soul , and let not the reverence of any man cause thee to fall . 3. When passion mingles with duty , and is a necessary instrument of serving God , let not that passion run its own course and passe on to liberty , and thence to licence and dissolution : but let no more of it be entertained , then will just do the work . For no zeal of duty will warrant a violent passion to prevaricate a duty . I have seen some officers of Warre in passion and zeal of their duty have made no scruple to command a souldier with the dialect of cursing and accents of swearing , and pretended they could not else speak words effective enough , and of sufficient authority ; and a man may easily be overtaken in the issues of his government ; while his authority serves it still with passion , if he be not curious in his measures , his passion will also serve it self upon the authority and over rule the Ruler . 4. Let every such tempted person remember , that all evil comes from our selves , and not from others ; and therefore all pretences and prejudices , all commands and temptations , all opinions and necessities , are but instances of our weaknesse , and arguments of our folly : For unlesse we listed , no man can make us drink beyond our measures : And if I tell a lie for my Masters or my friends advantage , it is because I prefer a little end of money , or flattery before my honour and my innocence . They are huge follies which go up and down in the mouthes and heads of men , [ He that knows not how to dissemble , knows not how to reigne . [ He that will not do as his company does , must go out of the world , and quit all society of men : We create necessities of our own , and then think we have reason to serve their importunity . Non ego sum ambitiosus , sed nemo aliter Romae potest vivere , non ego sumptuosus , sed urbs ipsa magnas impensas exigit . Non est meum vitium quod iracundus sum , quod nondum constitui certum vitae genus adolescentia haec facit . The place we live in makes us expensive , the state of life I have chosen renders me ambitious , my age makes me angry or lustfull , proud or peevish . These are nothing else but resolutions never to mend as long as we can have excuse for our follies , and untill we can cozen our selves no more . There is no such thing as a necessity for a Prince to dissemble , or for a servant to lie , or for a friend to flatter , for a civil person and a sociable , to be drunk : we cozen our selves with thinking the fault is so much derivative from others , till the smart and the shame falls upon our selves , and covers our heads with sorrow . And unlesse this gap be stopped , and that we build our duty upon our own bottoms , as supported with the grace of God , there is no vice but may finde a Patron ; and no age or relation , or state of life , but will be an engagement to sin : And we shall think it necessary to be lustfull in our youth , and revengefull in our man hood , and covetous in our old age : and we shall perceive that every state of men , and every trade and profession , lives upon the vices of others , or upon their miseries ; and therefore they will think it necessary to promote , or to wish it . If men were temperate , Physitians would be poor : and unlesse some Princes were ambitious , or others injurious , there would be no imployment for souldiers . The Vintners retail supports the Merchants trade , and it is a vice that supports the Vintners retail ; and if all men were wise and sober persons , we should have fewer beggers , and fewer rich ; and if our Law-givers should imitate Demades of Athens , who condemned a man that lived by selling things belonging to funeralls , as supposing he could not choose but wish the death of men , by whose dying he got his living , we should finde most men accounted criminalls , because vice is so involved in the affairs of the world , that it is made the support of many trades and the businesse of great multitudes of men : Certainly from hence it is that iniquity does so much abound ; and unlesse we state our questions right , and perceive the evil to be designed onely from our selves , and that no such pretence shall keep off the punishment , or the shame from our selves we shall fall into a state which is onely capable of compassion because it is irrecoverable : and then we shall be infinitely miserable , when we can onely receive an uselesse and ineffective pity . Whatsoever is necessary cannot be avoided : He therefore that shall say , he cannot avoid his sin , is out of the mercies of this Text : they who are appointed Guides , & Physitians of souls cannot to any purpose do their offices of pity . It is necessary that we serve God , and do our duty , and secure the interest of our souls , and be as carefull to preserve our relations to God , as to our friend , or Prince . But , if it can be necessary for any man , in any condition to sin , it is also necessary for that man to perish . Sermon . XVII . The severall states and degrees of Sinners , WITH The manner how they are to be treated . Part II. 4. THe last sort of them that sin , and yet are to be treated with compassion , is of them that interrupt the course of an honest life with single acts of sin , stepping aside and starting like a broken bowe ; whose resolution stands fair , and their hearts are towards God , and they sojourn in religion , or rather , dwell there ; but that like evil husbands they go abroad , and enter into places of dishonour and unthriftinesse . Such as these , all stories remember with a sad character ; and every narrative concerning David which would end in honour and fair report , is sullied with the remembrances of Bathsheba : and the Holy Ghost hath called him a man after Gods own heart , save in the matter of Uriah ; there indeed he was a man after his own heart ; even then when his reason was stolne from him by passion , and his religion was sullied by the beauties of a fair woman . I wish we lived in an age in which the people were to be treated with , concerning renouncing the single actions of sin , and the seldome interruptions of piety : Men are taught to say , that every man sins in every action he does ; and this is one of the doctrines , for the beleeving of which he shall be accounted a good man ; and upon this ground it is easie for men to allow themselves some sins , when in all cases , and in every action it is unavoidable . I shall say nothing of the Question , save that the Scripture reckons otherwise , * and in the accounts of Davids life reckon but one great sin , * and in Zachary and Elizabeth gave a testimony of an unblameable conversation ; * and Hezekiah did not make his confession when he prayed to God in his sicknesse and said he had walked uprightly before God , * and therefore Saint Paul after his conversion designed and laboured hard , & therefore certainly with hopes to accomplish it , that he might keep his conscience void of offence both towards God and towards man , * and one of Christs great purposes is to present his whole Church pure and spotlesse to the throne of grace , and* Saint John the Baptist offended none but Herod , * and no pious Christian brought a bill of accusation against the holy Virgin Mother ; * certain it is , that God hath given us precepts of such a holinesse and such a purity , such a meeknesse and such humility as hath no pattern but Christ , no precedent but the purities of God : and therefore it is intended we should live with a life whose actions are not checker'd with white and black , half sin and half vertue : Gods sheep are not like Jacobs flock streaked and spotted : it is an intire holinesse that God requires , and will not endure to have a holy course interrupted by the dishonour of a base and ignoble action . I do not mean that a mans life can be as pure as the Sun or the rayes of celestial Jerusalem ; but like the Moon in which there are spots ; but they are no deformity ; a lessening onely and an abatement of light , no cloud to hinder and draw a vail before its face ; but sometimes it is not so serene and bright as at other times . Every man hath his indiscretions and infirmities , his arrests and sudden incursions , his neighbourhoods and semblances of sin , his little vidences to reason and peevish melancholy , and humorous Phantastick discourses ; unaptnesses to a devout prayer , his fondnesses to judge favourably in his own cases , little deceptions , and voluntary and involuntary cousenages , ignorances and inadvertencies , carelesse hours , and unwatchful seasons , but no good man ever commits one act of adultery ; no godly man wil at any time be drunk or if he be , he ceases to be a godly man , and is run into the confines of death , and is sick at heart , and may die of the sicknesse , die eternally . This happens more frequently in persons of an infant piety , when the vertue is not corroborated by a long abode and a confirmed resolution , and an usual victory and a triumphant grace , and the longer we are accustomed to piety the more imfrequent will be the little breaches of folly , and a returning sin . But as the needle of a compasse , when it is directed to its beloved star , at the first addresses waves on either side , and seems indifferent in his courtship of the rising or declining sun , and when it seems first determined to the North , stands a while trembling , as if it suffered inconvenience in the first fruition of its desires and stands not still in a full enjoyment till after , first , a great variety of motion , and then an undisturbed posture : so is the piety , and so is the conversion of a man ; wrought by degrees and several steps of imperfection ; and at first our choices are wavering convinced by the grace of God and yet not perswaded , and then perswaded but not resolved , and then resolved but deferring to begin , and then beginning , but ( as all beginnings are ) in weaknesse and uncertainty , and we flie out often into huge indiscretions and look back to Sodom and long to return to Egypt ; and when the storm is quite over we finde little bublings and unevennesses upon the face of the waters , we often weaken our own purposes by the returns of sin , and we do not call our selves conquerours till by the long possession of vertues it is a strange and unusual , and therefore an uneasy and unpleasant thing to act a crime . When Polemon of Athens by chance coming into the schools of Xenocrates was reformed upon the hearing of that one lecture , some wise men gave this censure of him ; peregninatus est hujus animus in nequitiâ , non habitavit , his minde wandred in wickednesse and travelled in it , but never dwelt there ; the same is the case of some men ; they make inroads into the enemies countrey , not like enemies to spoil , but like Dinah to be satisfied with the stranger beauties of the land , till their vertues are defloured and they enter into tragedies , and are possessed by death , and intolerable sorrows ; but because this is like the fate of Jacobs daughter and happens not by designe , but folly , not by malice , but surprise , not by the strength of will , but by the weaknesse of grace , and yet carries a man to the same place whether a great vice usually does , it is hugely pitiable , and the persons are to be treated with compassion and to be assisted by the following considerations and exercises . First let us consider , that for a good man to be overtaken in a single crime is the greatest dishonour and unthriftinesse in the whole world . As a fly in a box of ointment , so is a little folly to him who is accounted wise , said the Son of Sirach : No man chides a fool for his weaknesses , or scorns a childe for playing with flies and preferring the present appetite , before all the possibilities of to morrows event : But men wondered when they saw Socrates ride upon a cane ; and when Solomon laid his wisdom at the foot of Pharaohs daughter , and changed his glory for the interest of wanton sleep , he became the discourse of heaven and earth : and men think themselves abused , and their expectation cousened when they see a wise man do the actions of a fool , and a good man seized upon by the dishonours of a crime . But the losse of his reputation is the least of his evil . It is the greatest improvidence in the world to let a healthful constitution be destroyed in the surfet of one night . For although , when a man by the grace of God and a long endeavour hath obtained the habit of Christian graces , every single sin does not spoil the habit of vertue , because that cannot be lost but as it was gotten , that is , by parts , and succession , yet every crime interrupts the acceptation of the grace , and makes the man to enter into the state of enmity , and displeasure with God. The habit is onely lessened naturally , but the value of it is wholly taken away : and in this sence is that of Josephus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Saint James well renders . He that keeps the whole law and offends in one point is guilty of all ; that is , if he prevaricates in any commandment , the transgression of which by the law was capital , shall as certainly die as if he broke the whole law ; and the same is the case of those single actions which the school calls deadly sins , that is , actions of choice in any sin that hath a name , and makes a Kinde & hath a distinct matter . And sins once pardoned return again to al the purposes of mischief . If we by a new sin forfeit Gods former loving kindnesse . When the righteous man turneth from his righteousnesse and commiteth iniquity , all his righteousnesse that he hath done shall not be remembred , in the trespasse that he hath trespassed , and in the sin that he hath sinned , in them shall he die . Now then consider how great a fool he is who when he hath with much labour & by suffering violence contradicted his first desires ; when his spirit hath been in agony and care , and with much uneasinesse hath denied to please the lower man , when with many prayers and groans and innumerable sighs and strong cryings to God with sharp sufferances and a long severity , he hath obtained of God to begin his pardon and restitution , and that he is in some hopes to return to Gods favour , and that he shall become an heire of heaven : when some of his amazing fears and distracting cares begin to be taken off , when he begins to think , that now it is not certain he shall perish in a sad eternity , but he hopes to be saved and he considers how excellent a condition that is , he hopes when he dies to go to God , and that he shall never enter into the possession of Devils ; and this state , which is but the twilight of a glorious felicity , he hath obtained with great labour and much care , and infinite danger ; that this man should throw all this structure down , and then when he is ready to reap the fruits of his labours , by one indiscreet action , to set fire upon his corn fields , and destroy all his dearly earned hopes , for the madnesse and loose wandrings of an hour ; This man is an indiscreet gamester ; who doubles his stake as he thrives , and at one throw is dispossessed of all the prosperities of a luckie hand . They that are poor ( as Plutarch observes ) are carelesse of little things , because by saving them , they think no great moments can accrue to their estates , and they despairing to be rich , think such frugality impertinent : But they that feele their banks swell , and are within the possibilities of wealth , think it useful if they reserve the smaller minuts of expence , knowing that every thing will adde to their heap ; but then after long sparing , in one night to throw away the wealth of a long purchase , is an imprudence becoming none but such persons who are to be kept under Tutors and Guardians , and such as are to be chastised by their servants , and to be punished by them whom they clothe and feed . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . These men sowe much , and gather little , stay long and return empty , and after a long voyage they are dashed in pieces when their vessels are laden with the spoils of provinces . Every deadly sin destroyes the rewards of a seven years piety ; I adde to this , that God is more impatient at a sin committed by his servants then at many by persons that are his enemies ; and an uncivil answer from a son to a Father , from an obliged person to a benefactor is a greater undecency , then if an enemy should storm his house or revile him to his head . Augustus Caesar taxed all the world and God took no publick notices of it ; but when David taxed and numbered a petty province it was not to be expiated without a plague ; because such persons , besides the direct sin , adde the circumstance of ingratitude to God , who hath redeemed them from their vain conversation and from death , and from hell , and consigned them to the inheritance of sons and given them his grace and his spirit , and many periods of comfort , and a certain hope and visible earnests of immortality ; nothing is baser then that such a person against his reason , against his interest , against his God , against so many obligations , against his custome , against his very habits and acquired inclinations should do an action . Quam nisi Seductis nequeas committere Divis Which a man must for ever be ashamed of , and like Adam must run from God himself to do it , and depart from the state in which he had placed all his hopes , and to which he had designed all his labours . The consideration is effective enough , if we sum up the particulars ; for he that hath lived well and then falls into a deliberate sin , is infinitely dishonoured , is most imprudent , most unsafe , and most unthankful . 2. Let persons tempted to the single instances of sin in the midst of a laudable life , be very careful that they suffer not themselves to be drawn aside by the eminency of great examples . For some think drunkennesse hath a little honesty derived unto it by the examples of Noah , and Adultery is not so scandalous and intolerably dishonorable , since Bathsheba bathed , and David was defiled and men think a flight is no cowardise , if a General turns his head and runs . Pompeio fugiente timent Well might all the gowned Romans fear when Pompey fled , and who is there that can hope to be more righteous then David , or stronger then Samson , or have lesse hypocrisy then Saint Peter , or be more temperate then Noah ? These great examples bear men of weak discourses and weaker resolutions from the severity of vertues . But as Diagoras to them that shewed to him the votive garments of those that had escaped shipwrack upon their prayers and vows to Neptune answered , that they kept no account of those that prayed and vowed , and yet were drowned : So do these men keep catalogues of those few persons who broke the thrid of a fair life in sunder with the violence of a great crime , and by the grace of God recovered and repented and lived ; But they consider not concerning those infinite numbers of men , who died in their first fit of sicknesse , who after a fair voyage have thrown themselves over boord , and perished in a sudden wildnesse , One said well , Si quid Socrates , aut Aristippus contra morem et consuetudinem fecerunt , idem sibi ne arbitretur licere . Magnis enim illi & divinis bonis hanc licentiam assequebantur . If Socrates did any unusual thing , it is not for thee who art of an ordinary vertue to assume the same licence ; For he by a divine and excellent life hath obtained leave or pardon respectively , for what thou must never hope for , till thou hast arrived to the same glories . First be as devout as David , as good a Christian as Saint Peter , and then thou wilt not dare with designe to act that , which they fell into by surprize ; and if thou doest fall as they did , by that time thou hast also repented like them , it may be said concerning thee , that thou dist fall and break thy bones , but God did heal thee and pardon thee . Remember that all the damned soules shall bear an eternity of torments for the pleasures of a short sinfulnesse ; but for a single transient action , to die forever , is an intolerable exchange and the effect of so great a folly , that whosoever falls into and then considers it , it will make him mad and distracted for ever . 3. Remember , that since no man can please God or be partakers of any promises , or reap the reward of any actions in the returnes of eternity , unlesse he performs to God an intire duty , according to the capacities of a man so taught , and so tempted , and so assisted , such a person must be curious that he be not cozened with the duties and performances of any one relation , 1. Some there are that think all our religion consists in prayers and publick or private offices of devotion , and not in moral actions or entercourses of justice and temperance , of kindnesse and friendships of sincerity and liberality , of chastity and humility , of repentance and obedience : indeed no humour is so easie to be counterfeited as devotion , and yet no hypocrisy is more common among men , nor any so uselesse as to God ; for it being an addresse to him alone who knows the heart and all the secret purposes , it can do no service in order to heaven , so long as it is without the power of Godlinesse , and the energy and vivacity of a holy life . God will not suffer us to commute a duty , because all is his due ; and religion shall not pay for the want of temperance : if the devoutest Hermit be proud , or he that fasts thrice in the week be uncharitable once ; or he that gives much to the poor , gives also too much liberty to himself , he hath planted a fair garden , and invited a wilde boar to refresh himself under the shade of the fruit trees , and his guest being something rude hath disordered his paradise , and made it become a wildernesse , 2. Others there are that judge themselves by the censures that Kings and Princes give concerning them , or as they are spoken of by their betters , and so make false judgements concerning their condition . For our betters to whom we show our best parts , to whom we speak with caution and consider what we represent , they see our arts and our dressings , but nothing of our nature and deformities ; Trust not their censures concerning thee , but to thy own opinion of thy self , whom thou knowest in thy retirements and natural peevishnesse and unhandsome inclinations , and secret basenesse , 3. Some men have been admired abroad , in whom the wife and the servant never saw any thing excellent : a rare judge and a good common-wealths man in the streets , and publick meetings , and a just man to his neighbour , and charitable to the poor ; for in all these places the man is observed and kept in awe by the Sun , by light and by voices ; But this man is a Tyrant at home , an unkinde husband & ill Father , an imperious Master , and such men are like prophets in their own countreys , not honoured at home and can never be honoured by God , who will not endure that many vertues should excuse a few vices , Or that any of his servants shall take pensions of the Devil , and in the profession of his service do his enemy single advantages . 4. He that hath past many stages of a good life to prevent his being tempted to a single sin must be very careful that he never entertain his spirit with the remembrances of his past sin , nor amuse it with the phantastick apprehensions of the present . When the Israelites fancied the sapidnesse and relish of the flesh pots they longed to tast and to return . So when a Libian Tiger drawn from his wilder forragings is shut up and taught to eat civil meat and suffer the authority of a man , he sits down tamely in his prison and payes to his keeper fear and reverence for his meat : But if he chance to come again and taste a draught of warm blood , he presently leaps into his naturall cruelty . Admonitae tument gustato sanguine fauces , Feruet & à trepido vix abstinet ira Magistro . He scarce abstains from eating those hands that brought him discipline and food : so is the nature of a man made tame and gentle by the grace of God , and reduced to reason , and kept in awe by religion and lawes and by an awfull vertue is taught to forget those alluring and sottish relishes of sin : but if he diverts from his path , and snatches handfuls from the wanton vineyards , and remembers the lasciviousnesse of his unwholesome food that pleased his childish palate , then he grows sick again , and hungry after unwholesome diet , and longs for the apples of Sodom . A man must walk thorow the world without eyes , or ears , fancy , or appetite , but such as are created and sanctified by the grace of God ; and being once made a new man , he must serve all the needs of nature by the appetite ; and faculties of grace : nature must be wholly a servant , and we must so look towards the deliciousnesse of our religion , and the ravishments of heaven , that our memory must be for ever uselesse to the affairs and perceptions of sin : we cannot stand , wee cannot live , unlesse we be curious and watchfull in this particular . By these and all other arts of the Spirit , if we stand upon our guard , never indulging to our selves one sin , because it is but one ; as knowing that one sin brought in death upon all the world , and one sin brought slavery upon the posterity of Cham : and alwayes fearing lest death surprize us in that one sin ; we shall by the grace of God , either not need , or else easily perceive the effects and blessings of that compassion which God reserves in the secrets of his mercy , for such persons whom his grace hath ordained and disposed with excellent dispositions unto life eternall . These are the sorts of men which are to be used with compassion ; concerning whom we are to make a difference , making a difference ] so sayes the Text , and it is of high concernment that we should do so , that we may relieve the infirmities of the men , and relieve their sicknesses , and transcribe the copy of the Divine mercy , who loves not to quench the smoaking flax , nor break the bruised reed . For although all sins are against Gods Commandements , directly , or by certain consequents , by line , or by analogy , yet they are not all of the same tincture and mortality . Nec vincit ratio tantundem ut peccet idemque , Qui teneros caules alieni fregerit horti Ut qui nocturnus Diuûm sacra legerit . He that robs a garden of Coleworts , and carries away an armfull of Spinage , does not deserve hell as he that steals the Chalice from the Church , or betrayes a Prince ; and therefore men are distinguished accordingly : Est inter Tanaim quiddam socerunique Viselli . The Poet that Sejanus condemned for dishonouring the memory of Agamemnon , was not an equall criminall with Cataline , or Graechus : and Simon Magus and the Nicolaitans committed crimes which God hated , more then the complying of S. Barnabas , or the dissimulation of S. Peter ; and therefore God does treat these persons severally : Some of these are restrained with a fit of sicknesse , some with a great losse ; and in these there are degrees , and some arrive at death . And in this manner God scourged the Corinthians for their irreverent and disorderly receiving the Holy Sacrament . For although even the least of the sins that I have discoursed of , will lead to death eternall , if their course be not interrupted , and the disorder chastised , yet because we do not stop their progresse instantly , God many times does , and visits us with proportionable judgements , and so not onely checks the rivulet from swelling into rivers and a vastnesse , but plainly tells us , that although smaller crimes shall not be punished with equall severity as the greatest , yet even in hell there are eternal rods as well as eternal scorpions ; and the smallest crime that we act with an infant-malice , and manly deliberation , shall be revenged with the lesser stroaks of wrath ; but yet with the infliction of a sad eternity . But then that we also should make a difference , is a precept concerning Church discipline , and therefore not here proper to be considered , but onely as it may concern our own particulars in the actions of repentance ; and our brethren in internal correction : — assit Regula quae poenas peccatis irroget aequas , Nec seuticâ dignum horribili sectere flagello . Let us be sure that we neglect no sin , but repent for every one , and judge our selves for every one , according to the proportion of the malice , or the scandall , or the danger . And although in this there is no fear that we would be excessive ; yet when we are to reprove a brother we are sharp enough , and either by pride , or by animosity , by the itch of government , or the indignation of an angry minde , we run beyond the gentlenesse of a Christian Monitor ; we must remember that by Christs law some are to be admonished privately , some to be shamed and corrected publikely , and beyond these , there is an abscission , or a cutting off from the communion of faithfull people , A delivering over to Sathan . And to this purpose is that old reading of the words of my Text , which is still in some Copies , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; Reprove them sharply , when they are convinced , or separate by sentence . But because this also is a designe of mercy , acted with an instance of discipline , it is a punishment of the flesh , that the soul may be saved in the day of the Lord , it means the same with the usuall reading , and with the last words of the Text , and teaches us our usage towards the worst of recoverable sinners . Others save with fear , pulling them out of the fire . ] Some sins there are , which in their own nature are damnable , and some are such as will certainly bring a man to damnation ; the first are curable , but with much danger ; the second are desperate and irrecoverable ; when a man is violently tempted , and allured with an object that is proportionable and pleasant to his vigorous appetite , and his unabated , unmortified nature , this man falls into death , but yet we pity him as we pity a thief that robs for his necessity : this man did not tempt himself , but his spirit suffers violence , and his reason is invaded , and his infirmities are mighty , and his aids not yet prevailing : But when this single temptation hath prevailed for a single instance , and leaves a relish upon the palate , and this produces another , and that also is fruitfull and swels into a family and kinred of sin , that is , it grows first into approbation , then to a clear assent , and an untroubled conscience , thence into frequency , from thence unto a custome , and easinesse , and a habit , this man is fallen into the fire . There are also some single acts of so great a malice that they must suppose a man habitually sinfull before he could arrive at that height of wickednesse . No man begins his sinfull course with killing of his Father or his Prince ; and Simon Magus had preambulatory impieties ; he was covetous and ambitious , long before he offered to buy the Holy Ghost . Nemo repente fuit turpissimus — and although such actions may have in them the malice and the mischief , the disorder and the wrong , the principle and the permanent effect , of a habit and a long course of sin , yet because they never or very seldom go alone , but after the praedisposition of other huishering crimes , we shall not amisse comprise them under the name of habituall sins . For such they are , either formally or equivalently : and if any man hath fallen into a sinfull habit , into a course and order of sinning , his case is little lesser then desperate ; but that little hope that is remanent hath its degree according to the infancy or the growth of the habit . 1. For all sins lesse then habitual , it is certain , a pardon is ready to penitent persons : that is , to all that sin in ignorance , or in infirmity , by surprize , or inadvertency , in smaller instances , or infrequent returns , with involuntary actions , or imperfect resolutions , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Clemens in his Epistles : Lift up your hands to Almighty God , and pray him to be mercifull to you in all things when you sin unwillingly ; that is , in which you sin with an imperfect choice : for no man sins against his will directly , but when his understanding is abused by an inevitable , or an intolerable weaknesse , our wills follow their blind guide , and are not the perfect mistresses of their own actions , and therefore leave a way and easinesse to repent , and be ashamed of it ▪ and therefore a possibility and readinesse for pardon . And these are the sins that we are taught to pray to God that he would pardon , as he gives us our bread , that is , every day . For in many things we offend all , said Saint James , that is , in many smaller matters , in matters of surprize , or inevitable infirmity : And therefore Posidices said , that Saint Austin was used to say , That he would not have even good and holy Priests go from this world without the susception of equall and worthy penances : and the most innocent life in our account is not a competent instrument of a peremptory confidence , and of justifying our selves : I am guilty of nothing , ( said Saint Paul ) that is , of no ill intent , or negligence in preaching the Gospel , yet I am not hereby justified , for God it may bee knows many little irregularities , and insinuations of sin : In this case we are to make a difference ; but humility , and prayer , and watchfulnesse , are the direct instruments of the expiation of such sinnes . But then secondly , whosoever sins without these abating circumstances , that is , in great instances , in which a mans understanding cannot be cozened ; as in drunkennesse , murder , adultery , and in the frequent repetitions of any sort of sin whatsoever , in which a mans choice cannot be surprized , and in which it is certain there is a love of the sin , and a delight in it , and a power over a mans resolutions ; in these cases it is a miraculous grace , and an extraordinary change , that must turn the current and the stream of the iniquity : and when it is begun , the pardon is more uncertain , and the repentance more difficult , and the effect much abated , and the man must be made miserable that he may be accursed for ever . 1. I say his pardon is uncertain , because there are some sins which are unpardonable , ( as I shall shew ) and they are not all named in particular , and the degrees of malice being uncertain , the salvation of that man is to be wrought with infinite fear and trembling . It was the case of Simon Magus , Repent and ask pardon for thy sin , if peradventure the thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee . If peradventure ; ] it was a new crime , and concerning its possibility of pardon no revelation had been made , and by analogy to other crimes it was very like an unpardonable sin ; for it was a thinking a thought against the Holy Ghost , and that was next to speaking a word against him . Cains sin was of the same nature ; It is greater then it can be forgiven , his passion and his fear was too severe and decretory : it was pardonable , but truly we never finde that God did pardon it . 2. But besides this , it is uncertain in the pardon , because it may be the time of pardon is passed , and though God hath pardoned to other people the same sins , and to thee too some times before , yet it may be he will not now : he hath not promised pardon so often as we sin , and in all the returns of impudence , apostacy , and it gratitude ; and it may be thy day is past , as was Jerusalems in the day that they crucified the Saviour of the world . 3. Pardon of such habitual sins is uncertain , because life is uncertain ; and such sins require much time for their abolition and expiation . And therefore although these sins are not necessariò mortifera , that is , unpardonable , yet by consequence they become deadly , because our life may be cut off before we have finished or performed those necessary parts of repentance , which are the severe and yet the onely condition of getting pardon . So that you may perceive , that not onely every great single crime , but the habit of any sin is dangerous ; and therefore these persons are to be snatched from the fire , if you mean to rescue them , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , if you stay a day , it may be you stay too long . 4. To which I adde this fourth consideration , that every delay of return is in the case of habitual sins an approach to desperation , because the nature of habits is like that of Crocodiles they grow as long as they live ; and if they come to obstinacy , or confirmation , they are in hell already , and can never return back . For so the Pannonian Bears , when they have clasped a dart in the region of their Liver , wheel themselves upon the wound and with anger and malicious revenge strike the deadly barbe deeper , and cannot be quit from that fatal steel , but in flying bear along that which themselves make the instrument of a more hasty death : So is every vitious person struck with a deadly wound , and his own hands forced it into the entertainments of his heart . And because it is painfull to draw it forth by a sharp and salutary repentance he still rouls and turns upon his wound , and carries his death in his bowels , where it first entered by choice , and then dwelt by love , and at last shall finish the tragedy by divine judgements , and an unalterable decree . But as the pardon of these sins is uncertain , so the conditions of restitution are hard , even to them who shall be pardoned : their pardon and themselves too , must be fetched from the fire ; water will not do it , tears and ineffective sorrow cannot take off a habit , or a great crime . O nimium faciles , qui tristia crimina cadis , Tolli flumineâ posse putatis aquâ . Bion seeing a Prince weep and tearing his hair for sorrow , asked if baldnesse would cure his grief ? such pompous sorrows may bee good indices , but no perfect instruments of restitution . Saint James plainly declares the possibilities of pardon to great sins , in the cases of contention , adultery , lust , and envy , which are the four great indecencies that are most contrary to Christianity ; and in the 5. Chap. he implies also a possibility of pardon to an habitual sinner , whom he calls , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , one that erres from the truth , that is , from the life of a Christian , the life of the Spirit of truth and he addes , that such a person may be reduced and so be pardoned , though he have sinned long ; he that converts such a one , shall hide a multitude of sins : But then the way that he appoints for the restitution of such persons is humilty , and humiliation , penanoes . and sharp penitentiall sorrows , and afflictions , resisting the Devil , returning to God , weeping and mourning , confessions and prayers , as you may read at large in the 4. and 5. Chapters ; and there it is , that you shall finde it a duty , that such persons should be afflicted , and should confesse to their brethren ; and these are harder conditions then God requires in the formet cases ; these are a kinde of fiery tryall . I have now done with my Text , and should adde no more but that the nature of these sins is such that they may increase in their weight , and duration , and malice , and then they increase in mischief , and fatality , and so go beyond the Text. Cicero said well , Ipsa consuetudo assentiendi periculosa esse videtur & lubrica . l. 4. Acad. Qu. The very custome of consenting in the matters of civility is dangerous and slippery , and will quickly ingage us in errour , and then we think we are bound to defend them , or else we are made flatterers by it , and so become vitious ; and we love our own vices that we are used to , and keep them till they are incurable , that is , till we will never repent of them ; and some men resolve never to repent , that is , they resolve they will not be saved , they tread under foot the blood of the everlasting covenant ; those persons are in the fire too , but they will not be pulled out : concerning whom Gods Prophets must say as once concerning Babylon , Curavimus & non est sanata , derelinquamus eam , We would have healed them , but they would not be healed , let us leave them in their sins , and they shall have enough of it ; Onely this , those that put themselves out of the condition of mercy are not to be endured in Christian societies ; they deserve it not , and it is not safe that they should be suffered . But besides all this , I shall name one thing more unto you ; for — nunquam adeò foedis adeoquè pudendis , Utimur exemplis , ut non pejora supersint . There are some single actions of sin of so great a malice , that in their own nature they are beyond the limit of Gospel pardon : they are not such things for the pardon of which God entered into covenant ; because they are such sins which put a man into perfect indispotisions , and incapacities of entring into , or being in the covenant . In the first ages of the world , Atheisme was of that nature ; it was against their whole religion ; and the sin is worse now , against the whole religion still , and against a brighter light . In the ages after the flood idolatry was also just such another : for as God was known first onely as the creator , then he began to manifest himself in special contracts with men , and he quickly was declared the God of Israel and idolatry perfectly destroyed all that religion , and therefore was never pardoned intirely ; but God did visit it upon them that sinned ; and when he pardoned it in some degrees yet he also punished it in so me ; and yet rebellion against the supreme power of Moses and 〈…〉 was worse ; for that also is a perfect destruction of the whole religion , because it refused to submit to those hands upon which God had placed all the religion , and all the government . And now if we would know in the Gospel what answers these precedent sins ? I answer , first the same sins acted by a resolute hand and heart are worse now then ever they were : and a third or fourth is also to be added ; and that is Apostacy or or a voluntary malicious renouncing the faith : The Church hath often declared that sin to be unpardonable : witchcraft or final impenitence , and obstinacy in any sin are infallibly desperate : and in general , and by a certain parity of reason , whatsoever does destroy charity or the good life of a Christian with the same general venom and deletery as Apostacy destroyes faith ; and he that is a Renegado from charity , is as unpardonable as he that returns to solemn Atheisme or infidelity : for all that , is directly the sin against the holy Ghost , that is a throwing that away wherby onely we can be Christians , wherby onely we can hope to be saved ; to speak a word against the holy Ghost in the Pharisees , was declared unpardonable , because it was such a word which if it had been true , or believed , would have destroyed the whole religion ; for they said that Christ wrought by Beelzebub , and by consequence did not come from God : He that destroyes al the whole order of Priesthood , destroyes one of the greatest parts of the religion , & one of the greatest effects of the holy Ghost : He that destroyes government destroyes another part ; but that we may come neerer to our selves ; to quench the spirit of God is worse then to speak some words against him ; to grieve the spirit of God is a part of the same impiety , to resist the holy Ghost is another part ; and if we consider , that every great sin does this in its proportion , it would concern us to be careful , lest we fal into presumptuous sins , lest they get the dominion over us ; out of this that I have spoken you may easily gather what sort of men those are , who cannot be snatched from the fire ; for whom as S. John saies , we are not to pray , and how neer men come to it that continue in any known sin ; if I should descend to particulars , I might lay a snare to scrupulous and nice consciences . This onely every confirmed habitual sinner does manifest the divine justice in punishing the sins of a short life with a never dying worm , and a never quenched flame , because we have an affection to sin that no time will diminish , but such as would increase to eternal ages ; and accordingly as any man hath a degree of love , so he hath lodged in his soul a spark which unless it be speedily & effectively quenched will break forth into unquenchable fire . Sermon . XVIII . THE FOOLISH EXCHANGE . Matthew 16. Ver. 26. For what is a man profited , if he shall gain the whole world , and lose his own soul ? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul ? WHen the eternal mercy of God had decreed to rescue mankinde from misery and infelicity , and so triumphed over his own justice , the excellent wisdom of God resolved to do it in wayes contradictory to the appetites and designes of man , that it also might triumph over our weaknesses and imperfect conceptions . So God decreeing to glorifie his mercy by curing our sins , and to exalt his wisdome by the reproof of our ignorance , and the representing upon what weak and false principals , we had built our hopes and expectations of felicity : Pleasure and profit , victory over our enemies , riches and pompous honours , power and revenge , desires according to sensual appetites , and prosecutions violent and passionate of those appetites , health and long life , free from trouble , without poverty or persecution . Hac sunt jucundissime Martialis vitam quae faciunt beatiorem . These are the measures of good and evil , the object of our hopes and fears , the securing our content and the portion of this world ; and for the other , let it be as it may . But the Blessed Jesus having made revelations of an immortal duration , of another world ; and of a strange restitution to it , even by the resurrection of the body , and a new investiture of the soul , with the same upper garment , clarified , and made pure so as no Fuller on earth can whiten it ; hath also preached a new Philosophy , hath cancelled all the old principles , reduced the appetites of sence to the discourses of reason and heightned reason to the sublimities of the spirit , teaching us abstractions , and immaterial conceptions , giving us new eyes , and new objects , and new proportions ; For now , sensual pleasures are not delightful , riches are drosse , honours are nothing but the appendages of vertue , and in relation to it are to receive their account ; but now if you would enjoy life you must die , if you would be at ease , you must take up Christs crosse , and conform to his sufferings if you would save your life , you must lose it , and if you would be rich you must abound in good works , you must be poor in spirit and despise the world , and be rich unto God ; for whatsoever is contrary to the purchases and affections of this world is an endearment of our hopes in the world to come ; and therefore he having stated the question so , that either we must quit this world or the other , our affections I mean , and adherencies to this , or our interest and hopes of the other ; the choice is rendered very easie by the words of my text , because the distance is not lesse then infinite , and the comparison hath terms of a vast difference , heaven and hell , eternity and a moment , vanity and real felicity , life and death eternal , all that can be hoped for , and all that can be feared ; these are the terms of our choice ; and if a man have his wits about him and be not drunk with sensuality , and senslessenesse , he need not much to dispute before he passe the sentence . For nothing can be given to us to recompence the losse of heaven , and if our souls be lost , there is nothing remaining to us whereby we can be happy . What shall it profit a man ? or what shall a man give ? is there any exchange for a mans soul ? the question is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the negative . Nothing can be given for an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a price to satisfie for its losse . The blood of the son of God was given to recover it or as an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to God ; and when our souls were forfeit to him , nothing lesse then the life and passion of God and man could pay the price ( Isay ) to God , who yet was not concerned in the losse save onely that such was his goodnesse , that it pitied him to see his creature lost . But to us what shall be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ? what can make us recompence when we have lost our own souls , and are lost in a miserable eternity ? what can then recompence us ? not all the world , not ten thousand worlds , and of this that miserable man , whose soul is lost is the best judge ; For the qustion is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and hath a potential signification , and means 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is suppose a man ready to die condemned to the sentence of a horrid death , heightned with all the circumstances of trembling and amazement , what would he give to save his life ? eye for eye , tooth for tooth , and all that a man hath will he give for his life : and this turned to a proverb among the Jews ; for so the last words of the text are , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; which proverb being usually meant concerning a temporal death , and was intended , to represent , the sadnesses of a condemned person , our blessed Saviour fits to his own purpose , and translates to the signification of death eternal , which he first revealed clearly to the world and because no interest of the world can make a man recompence for his life , because to lose that , makes him incapable of enjoying the exchange ( and he were a strange fool who having no designe upon immortality or vertue , should be willing to be hanged for a thousand pound per annum ) this argument increases infinitely in the purpose of our Blessed Saviour ; and to gain the world , and to lose our souls in the Christian sence is infinitely more madnesse and a worse exchange then when our souls , signifie nothing but a temporal life ; and because possibly the indefinite hopes of Elysium or an honorable name , might tempt some hardy persons to leave this world hoping for a better condition even among the heathens ; yet no excuse will acquit a Christian from madnesse , If for the purchase of this world he lose his eternitie . Here then first we will consider the propositions of the exchange the world and a mans soul , by way of supposition , supposing all that is propounded were obtained ; the whole world . Secondly we will consider what is likely to be obtained really , and indeed of the world , and what are really the miseries of a lost soul ? For it is propounded in the text by way of supposition : If a man should gain the world which no man ever did , nor ever can ; and he that gets most , gets too little to be exchanged for a temporal life . And thirdly I shall apply it to your practise and make material considerations . 1. First , then suppose a man gets all the world , what is it that he gets ? It is a bubble , and a Phantasme , and hath no reality beyond a present transient use ; a thing that is impossible to be enjoyed , because its fruits and usages are transmitted to us , by parts and by succession ; ( He that hath all the world , ( if we can suppose such a man ) cannot have a dish of fresh summer fruits in the midst of winter , not so much as a green fig : and very much of its possessions is so hid , so fugacious and of so uncertain purchase , that it is like the riches of the sea to the Lord of the shore , all the fish and wealth within all its hollownesses are his , but he is never the better , for what he cannot get . All the shell fishes that produce pearl , produce them not for him ; and the bowels of the earth shall hide her treasures in undiscovered retirements ; so that it will signifie as much to this great purchaser , to be intitled to an inheritance in the upper region of the aire ; he is so far from possessing all its riches , that he does not so much as know of them , nor understand the Philosophy of her minerals . 2. I consider that he that is the greatest possessor in the world enjoyes its best and most noble parts and those which are of most excellent perfection but in common with the inferiour persons , and the most despicable of his kingdom . Can the greatest Prince inclose the Sun , and set one little star in his cabinet for his own use ? or secure to himself the gentle and benigne influence of any one constellation ? Are not his subjects fields bedewed with the same showers that water his gardens of pleasure ? Nay those things which he esteems his ornament and his singularity of his possessions , are they not of more use to others then to himself . For suppose his garments splendid and shining like the robe of a cherub or the clothing of the fields , all that he that wears them enjoyes , is that they keep him warm , and clean and modest ; and all this is done by clean and lesse pompous vestments ; & the beauty of them which distinguishes him from others , is made to please the eyes of the beholders ; and he is like a fair bird , or the meretricious painting of a wanton woman made wholly to be looked on , that is to be enjoyed by every one but himself ; and the fairest face and the sparkling eye cannot perceive or enjoy their own beauties but by reflection . It is I that am pleased with beholding his gayety , and the gay man in his greatest bravery is onely pleased because I am pleased with the sight : so borrowing his little and imaginary complacency , from the delight that I have , not from any inherency of his own possession . The poorest Artizan of Rome walking in Caesars gardens , had the same pleasures which they ministred to their Lord : and although it may be he was put to gather fruits to eat , from another place , yet his other senses were delighted equally with Caesars : the birds made him as good musick , the flowers gave him as sweet smells , he there sucked as good aire , and delighted in the beauty and order of the place , for the same reason and upon the same perception , as the prince himselfe : save onely that Caesar paid for all that pleasure vast summes of money , the blood and treasure of a province , which the poor man had for nothing . 3. Suppose a man Lord of all the world , ( for still we are but in supposition ) yet since every thing is received , not according to its own greatnesse and worth , but according to the capacity of the receiver , it signifies very little as to our content ; or to the riches of our possession . If any man should give to a Lion a fair meadow full of hay , or a thousand quince trees , or should give to the goodly Bull , the master and the fairest of the whole heard , a thousand fair Stags ; If a man should present to a childe a ship laden with Persian carpets , and the ingredients of the rich scarlet , all these being either disproportionate to the appetite or to the understanding , could adde nothing of content and might declare the freenesse of the presenter , but they upbraid the incapacity of the receiver : and so it does if God should give the whole world to any man ; He knows not what to do with it ; he can use no more but according to the capacities of a man. He can use nothing but meat and drink and cloths ; and infinite riches that can give him changes of raiment every day , and a full table , do but give him a clean trencher every bit he eats , it signifies no more but wantonnesse , and variety to the same , not to any new purposes ; He to whom the world can be given to any purpose greater then a private estate can minister , must have new capacities created in him ; He needs the understanding of an Angel to take the accounts of his estate ; He had need have a stomach like fire or the grave : for else he can eat no more then one of his healthful subjects , and unlesse he hath an eye like the Sun , and a motion like that of a thought , and a bulk as big as one of the orbs of heaven ; the pleasures of his eye can be no greater then to behold the beauty of a little prospect from a hill , or to look upon the heap of gold packt up in a little room or to dote upon a cabinet of Jewels better then which there is no man that sees at all but sees every day ; For not to name the beauties and sparkling diamonds of heaven , a mans or a womans or a haukes eye is more beauteous and excellent , then al the Jewels of his crown . And when we remember , that a beast who hath quicker senses then a man , yet hath not so great delight in the fruition of any object , because he wants understanding and the power to make reflex acts upon his perception , it will follow , that understanding and knowledge is the greatest instrument of pleasure , and he that is most knowing hath a capacity to become happy , which a lesse knowing prince or a rich person hath not : and in this onely a mans capacity is capable of enlargement : but then although they onely have power to relish any pleasure rightly , who rightly understand the nature and degrees and essences , and ends of things , yet they that do so , understand also the vanity and the unsatisfyingnesse of the things of this world so that the relish which could not be great , but in a great understanding appears contemptible , because its vanity appears at the same time ; the understanding sees all , and sees thorow it . 4. The greatest vanity of this world is remarkable in this , that all its joyes summed up together are not big enough to counterpoise the evil of one sharp disease , or to allay a sorrow . For imagine a man great in his dominion as Cyrus , rich as Solomon , victorious as David , beloved like Titus , learned as Trismegist , powerful as all the Roman greatnesse , all this , and the results of all this , give him no more pleasure in the midst of a feaver , or the tortures of the stone , then if he were only lord of a little dish , and a dishfull of fountain water . Indeed the excellency of a holy conscience is a comfort and a magazine of joy , so great , that it sweetens the most bitter potion of the world , and makes tortures and death not only tolerable , but amiable ; and therefore to part with this whose excellency is so great , for the world that is of so inconsiderable a worth as not to have in it recompence enough , for the sorrows of a sharp disease , is a bargain fit to be made by none but fools and mad men . Antiochus , Epiphanes & Herod the great & his grand child Agrippa , were sad instances of this great truth ; to every of which it happened that the grandeur of their fortune , the greatnesse of their possessions , and the encrease of their estate disappeared , and expired like Camphire at their arrest , by those several sharp diseases , which covered their head with Cypresse and hid their crowns in an inglorious grave . For what can all the world minister to a sick person ? If it represents all the spoils of nature and the choicest delicacies of land and sea . Alas his appetite is lost , and to see a pibble stone is more pleasing to him : For he can look upon that without loathing , but not so upon the most delicious fare that ever made famous the Roman luxury . Perfumes make his head ake ; if you load him with jewels , you presse him with a burden as troublesome as his grave-stone : and what pleasure is in all those possessions , that cannot make his pillow easie , nor tame the rebellion of a tumultuous humour , not restore the use of a withered hand , or straighten a crooked finger : vain is the hope of that man whose soul rests upon vanity , and such unprofitable possessions . 5. Suppose a man lord of all this world , an universal Monarch , as some princes have lately designed , all that cannot minister content to him ; not that content which a poor contemplative man by the strength of Christian Philosophy , and the support of a very small fortune daily does enjoy . All his power and greatnesse cannot command the sea to overflow his shores or to stay from the retiring to the opposit strand . It cannot make his children dutiful or wise & though the world admired at the greatness of Philip the second 's fortune in the accession of Portugal and the East Indies to his principalities , yet this could not allay the infelicitie of his family , and the unhandsomenesse of his condition in having a proud and indiscreet and a vitious young prince likely to inherit all his greatnesse . And if nothing appears in the face of such a fortune , to tell all the world that it is spotted and imperfect ; yet there is in all conditions of the world , such wearinesse and tediousnesse of the spirits , that a man is evermore pleased with hopes of going off for the present , then in dwelling upon that condition which it may be others admire , and think beauteous , but none knoweth the smart of it , but he that drank off the little pleasure , and felt the ill relish of the appendage . How many Kings have groaned under the burden of their crowns , and have sunk down and died ? How many have quitted their pompous cares , and retired into private lives , there to enjoy the pleasures of Philosophy and religion , which their thrones denied ? And if we consider the supposition of the Text , the thing will demonstrate it self . For he who can be supposed the owner and purchaser of the whole world , must either be a King or a private person . A private person can hardly be supposed to be the man. For if he be subject to another , how can he be Lord of the whole world ? But if he be a King , it is certain , that his cares are greater then any mans , his fears are bigger , his evils mountainous , the accidents that discompose him are more frequent , and sometimes intolerable : and of all his great possessions he hath not the greatest use and benefit . But they are like a great harvest which more labourers must bring in and more must eat of ; onely he is the centre of all the cares , and they fix upon him ; but the profits run out to all the lines of the circle : to all that are about him ; whose good is therefore greater then the good of the Prince : Because what they enjoy is the purchase of the Princes care ; and so they feed upon his cost . Privatusque magis vivam to Rege beatus . Servants live the best lives ; for their care is single , onely how to please their Lord ; but all the burden of a troublesome providence , and ministration , makes the outside pompous and more full of ceremony ; but they intricate the condition and disturb the quiet of the great possessor . And imagine a person as blest as can be supposed upon the stock of worldly interest ; when all his accounts are cast up , he differs nothing from his subjects , or his servants , but in meer circumstance , nothing of reality or substance . He hath more to wait at his Table , or persons of higher rank to do the meanest offices ; more ceremonies of addresse , a fairer Escutcheon , louder titles ; But can his multitude of dishes make him have a good stomack , or does not satiety cloy it : when his high diet is such , that he is not capable of being feasted , and knows not the frequent delights , and oftener possibilities , a poor man hath of being refreshed , while not onely his labour makes hunger , and so makes his meat delicate ; ( and then it cannot be ill fare , let it be what it will ) but also his provision is such , that every little addition is a direct feast to him , while the great owner of the world giving to himself the utmost of his desires , hath nothing left beyond his ordinary , to become the entertainment of his festival dayes , but more loads of the same meat . And then let him consider how much of felicity can this condition contribute to him . In which he is not further gone beyond a person of a little fortune , in the greatnesse of his possession , then he is fallen short in the pleasures and possibility of their enjoyment . And that is a sad condition when like Midas all that the man touches shall turn to gold : and his is no better to whom a perpetual full table not recreated with fasting , not made pleasant with intervening scarcity ministers no more good then a heap of gold does , that is , he hath no benefit of it , save the beholding of it with his eyes . Cannot a man quench his thirst as well out of an Urn or Chalice , as out of a whole River ? It is an ambitious thirst , and a pride of draught that had rather lay his mouth to Euphrates then to a petty goblet ; but if he had rather , it addes not so much to his content , as to his danger , and his vanity . — eo sit Plenior ut si quos delectet copia justo , Cum ripâ simul vulsos ferat Aufidus acer . For so I have heard of persons whom the river hath swept away , together with the Turf they pressed when they stooped to drown their pride rather then their thirst . 6. But this supposition hath a lessening tearm . If a man could be born heir of all the world , it were something : But no man ever was so ; except him onely who enjoyed the least of it , the Son of man , that had not where to lay his head : but in the supposition it is ; [ If a man could [ gain ] the whole world , ] which supposes labour and sorrow , trouble and expence , venture and hazard , and so much time expired in its acquist and purchase , that besides the possession is not secured to us for tearm of life , yet our lives are almost expired , before we become estated in our purchases . And indeed it is a sad thing to see an ambitious , or a covetous person , make his life unpleasant , troublesome , and vexatious , to grasp a power bigger then himself ; To fight for it with infinite hazards of his life , so that it is a thousand to one but he perishes in the attempt , and gets nothing at all , but an untimely grave , a reproachfull memory , and an early damnation . But suppose he gets a victory , and that the unhappy party is but to begin a new game , then to see the fears , the watchfulnesse , the diligence , the laborious arts to secure a possession , lest the desperate party should recover a desperate game : And suppose this with a new stock of labours , danger and expence , be seconded by a new successe ; then to look upon the new emergencies , and troubles , and discontents among his friends , about parting the spoil , the envies , the jealousies , the slanders , the underminings , and the perpetuall inscourity of his condition ; all this I say , is to see a man take infinite pains to make himself miserable ; but if he will be so unlearned , as to call this gallantry , or a splendid fortune , yet by this time when he remembers , he hath certainly spent much of his time in trouble ; and how long he shall enjoy this he is still uncertain ; he is not certain of a moneth , and suppose it be seven yeers , yet when he comes to die , and cast up his accounts , and shall finde nothing remaining , but a sad remembrance of evils , and troubles past , and expectations of worse , infinitely worse he must acknowledge himself convinced , that to gain all this world is a fortune not worth the labour and the dangers , the fears , and transportations of passions , though the souls losse be not considered in the bargain . But I told you all this while , that this is but a supposition still , the putting of a case , or like a fiction of love , nothing reall : for if we consider in the second place , how much every man is likely to get really , and how much it is possible for any man to get , we shall finde the account far shorter yet , and the purchase most trifling and inconsiderable . For 1. the world is at the same time enjoyed by all its inhabitants , and the same portion of it by severall persons in their several capacities . A Prince enjoyes his whole kingdom , not as all his people enjoyes it , but in the manner of a Prince ; the subjects in the manner of subjects . The Prince hath certain Regalia beyond the rest ; But the feudall right of subjects does them more emolument , and the Regalia does the Prince more honour ; and these that hold the fees in subordinate right , transmit it also to their Tenants , and beneficiaries , and dependants to publike uses , to charity , and hospitality ; all which is a lessening of the lords possessions and a cutting his river into little streams , not that himself alone , but that all his relatives may drink and be refreshed . Thus the Well where the woman of Samaria sate was Jacobs Well , and he drank of it , but so did his wives , and his children , and his cattel ; so that what we call ours , is really ours , but for our portion of expence and use ; we have so little of it , that our servants have far more , and that which is ours is nothing but the title , and the care , and the trouble of securing and dispensing ; save onely that God whose stewards we all are , will call such owners ( as they are pleased to call themselves ) to strict accounts for their disbursments . And by this account the possession or dominion is but a word , and serves a fancy or a passion , or a vice , but no reall end of nature ; it is the use and spending it that makes a man , to all reall purposes of nature to be the owner of it , and in this the lord and master have but a share . But secondly , consider how far short of the whole world the greatest Prince that ever reigned did come . Alexander that wept because he had no more worlds to conquer , was in his knowledge deceived , and bruitish , as in his passion ; he over-run much of Asia , but he could never passe the Ganges , and never thrust his sword in the bowels of Europe , and knew nothing of America . And the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or the whole world began to have an appropriate sence , and was rather put to the Romane Greatnesse as an honourable Appellative then did signifie that they were lords of the world , who never went beyond Persia , Egypt , nor Britain . But why do I talk of great things in this Question of the exchange of the soul for the world ? Because it is a reall bargain , which many men ( too many God knows ) do make , we must consider it as applicable to practice . Every man that loses his soul for the purchase of the world , must not looke to have the portion of a King. How few men are Princes , and of those that are not born so , how seldom instances are found in story , of persons that by their industry became so ? But we must come far lower yet . Thousands there are that damne themselves , and yet their purchase at long-running , and after a base and weary life spent , is but five hundred pounds a yeer ; nay it may be they onely cozen an easie person out of a good estate , and pay for it at an easie rate , which they obtain by lying , by drinking , by flattery , by force ; and the gain is nothing but a thousand pound in the whole , or it may bee nothing but a convenience . Nay how many men hazard their salvation for an acre of ground , for twenty pound , to please a master , to get a smile and a kinde usage from a Superiour ? These men get but little , though they did not give so much for it . So little , that Epictetus thought the purchase deer enough , though you paid nothing for it but flattery , and observance , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Observance was the price of his meal , and he paid too dear for one that gave his birth-right for it : but he that exchanges his soul for it , knowes not the vanity of his purchase , nor the value of his losse . He that gains the purchase and spoil of a kingdom hath got that which to all that are placed in heaven or to a man , that were seated in the paths of the Sun seem but like a spot in an eye , or a Mathematical point , so without vastnesse that it seems to be without dimensions . But he whose purchase is but his neighbours field , or a few unjust acres , hath got that which is inconsiderable , below the notice and description of the Map ; for by such Hieroglyphicall representments , Socrates chid the vanity of a proud Athenian . 3. Although these premises may suffice to shew that the supposed purchase is but vain , and that all which men use really to obtain , is lesse then trifles , yet even the possession of it whatsoever it be is not meer and unmixt , but allaid with sorrow and uneasinesse : the gain hath but enlarged our appetite , and like a draught to an hydropick person , hath enraged his thirst ; and still that which he hath not is infinitely bigger then what he hath , since the first enlargement of his purchase was not to satisfie necessity , but his passion , his lust or his avarice , his pride or his revenge , these things cease not by their fewell but their flames grow bigger , and the capacities are stretched , and they want more then they did at first . For who wants most , he that wants five pound , or he that wants five thousand : And supposing a man naturally supported , and provided for in the dispensations of nature there is no difference , but that the poor hath enough to fill his belly , and the rich man can never have enough to fill his eye . The poor mans wants are no greater then what may be supplied by charity ; and the rich mans wants are so big , that none but Princes can relieve them , and they are left to all the temptations of great vices , and huge cares to make their reparations . Dives eget gemmis , Cereali munere pauper , Sed cum egeant ambo pauper egens minus est . If the greatnesse of the worlds possessions produce such fruits , vexation , and care , and want , the ambitious requiring of great estates , is but like the selling of a fountain , to buy a fever , a parting with content , to buy necessity , and the purchase of an unhandsome condition , at the price of infelicity . 4. He that enjoyes a great portion of this world hath most commonly the allay of some great crosse , which although sometimes God designes in mercy , to wean his affections from the world , and for the abstracting them from sordid adherencies and cohabitation , to make his eyes like stars , to fix them in the orbs of heaven , and the regions of felicity , yet they were an inseparable appendant and condition of humanity . Solomon observed the vanity of some persons , that heaped up great riches for their heits , and yet knew not whether a wise man or a fool should possesse them , this is a great evil under the Sun. And if we observe the great crosses many times God permits in great families , as discontent in marriages , artificiall or naturall bastardies , a society of man and wife like the conjunction of two politicks , full of state , and ceremony , and designe , but empty of those sweet caresses , and naturall hearty complications , and endearments , usuall in meaner and innocent persons , the perpetuall sicknesse , fulnesse of diet , fear of dying , the abuse of flatterers , the trouble and noise of company ; the tedious officiousnesse , of impertinent and ceremonious visits , the declension of estate , the sadnesse of spirit , the notoriousnesse of those dishonours which the meannesse of lower persons conceals , but their eminency makes us visible , as the spots in the moons face , we shall finde him to be most happy , that hath most of wisdom , and least of the world , because he onely hath the least danger , and the most security . 5. And lastly , his soul so gets nothing that wins all this world , if he loses his soul , that it is ten to one but he that gets the one , therefore shall lose the other ; For to a great and opulent fortune sin is so adherent and insinuating , that it comes to him in the nature of civility ; It is a sad sight to see a great personage undertake an action passionately and upon great interest ; and let him manage it as indiscreetly , let the whole designe be unjust , let it be acted with all the malice and impotency in the world , he shall have enough to tell him that he proceeds wisely enough , to be servants of his interest , and promoters of his sin , instruments of his malice and actors of revenge . But which of all his relatives shall dare to tell him of his indiscretion , of his rage and of his folly ? he had need be a bold man and a severe person , that shall tell him of his danger ; and that he is in a direct progresse towards hell ; and indeed such personages have been so long nourished up in softnes flattery and effeminancy , that too often themselves are impatient of a monitor , and think the charity and duty of a modest reprehension to be a rudenesse and incivility that Prince is a wise man that loves to have it otherwise ; and certainly it is a strange civility and dutifulnesse in friends and relatives , to suffer him to go to hell uncontrolled ; rather then to seem unmannerly towards a great sinner . But certainly this is none of the least infelicities of them who are Lords of the world and masters of great possessions . I omit to speak of the habitual intemperance , which is too commonly annexed to Festival and delicious tables , where there is no other measure or restraint upon the appetite , but its fulnesse and satiety , and when it cannot or dare not eat more . Oftentimes it happens , that the intemperance of a poor table is more temperate and hath lesse of luxury in it , then the temperance of a rich . To this are consequent all the evil accidents and effects of fulnesse ; pride , lust , wantonnesse , softnesses of disposition and dissolution of manners , huge talking , imperiousnesse , despite and contempt of poor persons , and at the best it is a great temptation for a man to have in his power , whatsoever he can have in his sensual desires : who then shall check his voracity or calm his revenge or allay his pride or mortify his lust or humble his spirit ? it is like as when a lustful young and tempted person lives perpetually with his amorous and delicious mistris , if he scapes burning , that is inflamed from within and set on fire from without it is a greater miracle then the escaping from the flames of the furnace , by the three children of the captivity . And just such a thing is the possession of the world , it furnishes us with abilities to sin and opportunities of ruine , and it makes us to dwell with poisons and dangers , and enemies . And although the grace of God is sufficient to great personages , and masters of the world , and that it is possible for a young man to be tyed upon a bed of flowers and fastned by the arms and band of a curtesan and tempted wantonly and yet to escape the danger and the crime , and to triumph gloriously : ( for so Saint Hierome reports of a son of the king of Nicomedia ) and riches and a free fortune are designed by God to be a mercy and an opportunity of doing noble things , and excellent charity , and exact justice , and to protect innocence , and to defend oppressed people ; yet it is a mercy mixt with much danger ; yet it is like the present of a whole vintage to a man in a hectick feaver , he will be shrewdly tempted to drink of it , and if he does , he is inflamed and may chance to die with the kindnesse . Happy are those persons who use the world and abuse it not , who possesse a part of it and love it for no other ends , but for necessities of nature , and conveniencies of person and discharge of all their duty and the offices of religion , and in charity to Christ and all Christs members ; but since he that hath all the world cannot command nature to do him one office extraordinary , and enjoyes the best parts but in common with the poorest man in the world , and can use no more of it but according to a limited and a very narrow capacity , and whatsoever he can use or possesse cannot out-weigh the present pressure of a sharp disease , nor can it at all give him content without which there can be nothing of felicity ; since a prince in the matter of using the world , differs nothing from his subjects , but in mere accedents and circumstances , and yet these very many trifling differences are not to be obtained but by so much labour and care , so great expence of time and trouble , that the possession will not pay thus much of the price , and after all this , the man may die two hours after he hath made his troublesome and expensive purchase and is certain not to enjoy it long . Adde to this last , that most men get so little of the world that it is all together of a trifling and inconsiderable interest , that they who have the most of this world , have the most of that but in title and in supreme rights , and reserved priviledges , the real use descending upon others to more substantial purposes ; that the possession of this trifle is mixt with sorrow upon other accidents , and is allayed with fear , and that the greatnesse of mens possessions increase their thirst , and enlarge their wants , by swelling their capacitie , and above all , is of so great danger to a mans vertue that a great fortune and a very great vertue are not alwayes observed to grow together ; He that observes all this , and much more he may observe , will see that he that gains the whole world hath made no such great bargain of it although he had it for nothing , but the necessary unavoidable troubles in getting it ; but how great a folly is it to buy so great a trouble , so great a vanity , with the losse of our pretious soules remains to be considered in the folowing parts of the text . Sermon . XIX . The foolish exchange . Part II. ANd lose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul ] And now the question is finally stated , and the dispute is concerning the sum of affaires . De morte hominis nulla est cunctatio longa . And therefore when the soul is at stake , not for its temporal , but for its eternal interest , it is not good to be hasty in determining , without taking just measures of the exchange . Solomon had the good things of the world actually in possession , and he tried the touch-stone of prudence and natural value and found them allayed with vanitie and imperfection , and wee that see them wayed in the ballance of the sanctuary , and tryed by the touch-stone of the spirit , finde them not onely light and unprofitable but pungent and dolorous , but now we are to consider what it is that men part with , and lose when with passion and impotency they get the world and that will present the bargain to be a huge infelicity . And this I observe to be intimated in the word , [ lose ] for he gives gold for cloth or pretious stones for bread serves his needs of nature , and loses nothing by it , and the merchant that found a pearle of great price , and sold al that he had to make the purchase of it made a good venture he was no loser , but here the case is otherwise , when a man gains the whole world , and his soul goes in the exchange , he hath not done like a merchant , but like a childe , or a prodigal , he hath given himself away , he hath lost all that can distinguish him from a slave , or a miserable preson , he loses his soul in the exchange , for the soul of a man , all the world cannot be a just price , a man may lose it or throw it away , but he can never make good exchange , when he parts with this Jewel , and therefore our blessed Saviour rarely well expresses it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is fully opposed to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gain , it is such an ill market a man makes as if he should proclaim his riches , goods , vendible for a garland of thistles decked and trimmed up with the stinking poppy . But we shall better understand the nature of this bargain if we consider the soul that is exchanged , what it is in it self in order not of nature but to felicity and the capacities of joy , secondly what price the Son of God payed for it , and thirdly what it is to lose it , that is , what miseries and tortures are signified by losing a mans soul. First if we consider what the soul is in its own capacity to happinesse , we shall finde it to be an excellency greater then the sun ; of an angelicall substance , sister to a cherubin , an image of the divinity , and the great argument of that mercy , whereby God did distinguish us from the lower form of beasts and trees and minerals . For so it was the scripture affirmes , that God made man after his own image , that is , secundum illam imaginem & ideam quam concepitipse , not according to the likenesse of any of those creatures which were prexistent to mans production ; not according to any of those images or ideas whereby God created the heavens , and the earth ; but by a new form ; to distinguish him , from all other substances ; he made him by a new idea of his own , by an uncreated exemplar ; and besides that this was a donation of intelligent faculties , such as we understand to be perfect , and essential , or rather the essence of God , it was also a designation of him to a glorious immortality and a communication of the rayes and reflections of his own essential felicities . But the soul is al that whereby we may be , and without which we cannot be happy . It is not the eye that sees the beauties of the heaven , nor the ear that hears the sweetnesses of musick , or the glad-tidings of a prosperous accident , but the soul that perceives all the relishes of sensual and intellectual perfections and the more noble and excellent the soul is the greater and more savory are its perceptions ; and if a childe beholds the rich Ermine , or the Diamonds of a starry night , or the order of the world , or hears the discourses of an Apostle , because he makes no reflex acts upon himself , and sees not that he sees ; he can have but the pleasure of a fool or the deliciousnesse of a mule . But although the reflection of its own acts be a rare instrument of pleasure or pain respectively , yet the souls excellency is upon the same reason not perceived by us , by which the sapidnesse of pleasant things of nature , are not understood by a childe ; even because the soul cannot reflect far enough . For as the Sun which is the fountain of light and heat , makes violent and direct emission of his rayes from himself but reflects them no further then to the bottom of a cloud , or the lowest imaginary circle of the middle region , and therefore receives a duplicate of his own heat ; so is the soul of man , it reflects upon its own inferiour actions of particular sense or general understanding ; but because it knows little of its own nature , the manners of volition the immediate instruments of understanding , the way how it comes to meditate , and cannot discern how a sudden thought arrives , or the solution of a doubt , not depending upon preceding premises , therefore above halfe its pleasures are abated , and its own worth lesse understood ; and possibly it is the better , it is so . If the Elephant knew his strength , or the horse the vigorousnesse of his own spirit , they would be as rebellious against their rulers , as unreasonable men against government : nay the Angels themselves , because their light reflected home to their orbs , and they understood all the secrets of their own perfection , they grew vertiginous and fell from the battlements of heaven . But the excellency of a humane soul shall then be truly understood , when the reflection will make no distraction of our faculties , nor enkindle any irregular fires ; when we may understand our selves without danger . In the mean this consideration is gone high enough when we understand the soul of a man to be so excellently perfect , that we cannot understand how excellently perfect it is : that being the best way of expressing our conceptions of God himself ; and therefore I shall not need by distinct discourses to represent that the will of man is the last resort and sanctuary of true pleasure , which in its formality can be nothing else but a conformity of possession or of being to the will ; that the understanding being the chanel and conveyance of the noblest perceptions feeds upon pleasures in all its proportionate acts , and unlesse it be disturbed by intervening sins and remembrances , derived hence , keeps a perpetual festival ; that the passions are every of them fitted with an object , in which they rest as in their centre ; that they have such delight in these their proper objects , that too often they venture a damnation , rather then quit their interest and possession ; but yet from these considerations it would follow that to lose a soul , which is designed to be an immense sea of pleasures , even in its natural capacities is to lose all that whereby a man can possibly be , or be supposed happy ; and so much the rather is this understood to be an insupportable calamity , because losing a soul in this sense , is not a meer privation of those felicities of which a soul is naturally designed to be a partaker , but it is an investing it with contrary objects , and crosse effects , and dolorous perceptions : For the will if it misses its desires , is afflicted , and the understanding when it ceases to be ennobled with excellent things is made ignorant as a swine , dull as the foot of a rock , and the afflictions are in the destitution of their perfective actions , made tumultuous , vexed and discomposed , to the height of rage and violence . But this is but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the beginning of those throes which end not but in eternal infelicity . Secondly if we consider the price that the Son of God payed for the redemption of a soul , we shall better estimate of it , then from the weak discourses of our imperfect and unlearned Philosophy : not the spoil of rich provinces , not the aestimate of kingdoms , not the price of Cleopatra's draught , not any thing that was corruptible or perishing ; for that , which could not one minute retard the tearm of its own natural dissolution , could not be a price for the redemption of one perishing soul. And if we list but to remember and then consider that a miserable , lost , and accursed soul does so infinitely undervalue , and disrelish all the goods and riches that this world dotes on ; that he hath no more gust in them , or pleasure , then the fox hath in eating a turfe : that if he could be imagined to be the Lord of ten thousand worlds , he would give them all for any shaddow of a hope of a possibility of returning to life again ; that Dives in hell would have willingly gone on embassy to his fathers house that he might have been quit a little from his flames , and on that condition would have given Lazarus the fee-simple of all his temporal possessions , though he had once denied to relieve him with the superfluities of his table , will soon confesse that a moment of time is no good exchange for an eternity of duration ; and a light unprofitable possession is not to be put in the ballance against a soul , which is the glory of the creation ; a soul , with whom God had made a contract , and contracted excellent relations , it being one of Gods appellatives , that he is [ the lover of souls . ] When God made a soul , it was onely , faciamus hominem ad imaginem nostram ; He spake the word and it was done ; but when man had lost this soul which the spirit of God breathed in him , it was not so soon recovered . It is like the resurrection which hath troubled the faith of many who are more apt to believe , that God made a man from nothing , then that he can return a man from dust & corruption ; but for this resurrection of the soul , for the reimplacing the divine image , for the rescuing it from the devils power , for the reintitling it to the kingdoms of grace and glory , God did a work greater then the creation ; He was fain to contract Divinity , to a span , to send a person to die for us who of himself could not die , and was constrained to use rare and mysterious arts , to make him capable of dying , he prepared a person instrumental to his purpose , by sending his Son from his own bosom , a person both God and man , an aenigma to all nations , and to all sciences ; one that ruled over all the Angels , that walked upon the pavements of heaven , whose feet were clothed with stars , whose eyes were brighter then the Sun , whose voice is louder then thunder , whose understanding is larger then that infinite space which we imagine in the uncircumscribed distance , beyond the first orbe of heaven , a person to whom felicity was as essential as life to God , this was the onely person that was designed in the eternal decrees of the divine predestination to pay the price of a soul , to ransom us from death ; lesse then this person could not do it ; for although a soul in its essence is finite , yet there were many infinites which were incident and annexed to the condition of lost souls ; For all which because provision was to be made , nothing lesse then an infinite excellence could satisfie for a soul who was lost to infinite and eternal ages , who was to be afflicted with insupportable and indetermined that is next to infinite paines , who was to bear the load of an infinite anger from the provocation of an eternal God : and yet if it be possible that infinite can receive degrees , this is but one half of the abysse , and I think the lesser : for that this person who was God eternal , should be lessened in all his appearances , to a span , to the little dimensions of a man , and that he should really become very contemptibly little , although at the same time he was infinitely and unalterably great , that is essential , natural and necessary felicity should turn into an intolerable , violent and immense calamity to his person , that this great God should not be admitted to pay the price of our redemption unlesse he would suffer that horrid misery , which that lost soul should suffer , as it represents the glories of his goodnesse , who used such rare and admirable instruments in actuating the designes of his mercy : so it shewes our condition to have been very desperate , and our losse invaluable . A soul in Gods account is valued at the price of the blood , and shame , and tortures , of the Son of God , and yet we throw it a way for the exchange of sins , that a man naturally is ashamed to own ; we lose it for the pleasure , the sottish beastly pleasure of a night : I need not say , we lose our soul to save our lives ; for though that was our blessed Saviours instance of the great unreasonablenesse of men , who by saving their lives lose them , that is , in the great account of Dooms-day , though this ( I say ) be extreamly unreasonable , yet there is something to be pretended in the bargain , nothing to excuse him with God , but something in the accounts of timerous men ; but to lose our souls with swearing , that unprofitable , dishonourable , and unpleasant vice , to lose our souls with disobedience , or rebellion , a vice that brings a curse , and danger all the way in this life : To lose our souls with drunkennesse , a vice which is painfull , and sickly in the very acting it , which hastens our damnation , by shortning our lives ; are instances fit to be put in the stories of fools and mad-men ; and all vice is a degree of the same unreasonablenesse , the most splendid temptation , being nothing but a prety well weaved fallacy , a meer trick , a sophisme , and a cheating , and abusing the understanding ; but that which I consider here is , that it is an affront and contradiction to the wisdom of God , that we should so slight and undervalue a soul , in which our interest is so concerned ; a soul which he who made it , and who delighted not to see it lost , did account a fit purchase to be made , by the exchange of his Son , the eternal Son of God. To which also I adde this additionall account , that a soul is so greatly valued by God , that we are not to venture the losse of it , to save all the world For therefore whosoever should commit a sin to save kingdoms from perishing , or if the case could be put that all the good men , and good causes , and good things in this world , were to be destroyed by Tyranny , and it were in our power by perjury to save all these , that doing this sin would be so farre from hallowing the crime , that it were to offer to God a sacrifice of what he most hates , and to serve him with swines blood : and the rescuing all these from a Tyrant , or a hangman , could not be pleasing to God upon those termes , because a soul is lost by it , which is in it self a greater losse and misery , then all the evils in the world put together can out-ballance ; and a losse of that thing for which Christ gave his blood a price : Persecutions and temporal death in holy men and in a just cause , are but seeming evils , and therefore not to be bought off with the losse of a soul , which is a real but an intolerable calamity : And if God for his own sake would not have all the world saved by sin , that is by the hazarding of a soul , we should do well for our own sakes not to lose a soul for trifles , for things that make us here to be miserable , and even here also to be ashamed . 3. But it may be some natures , or some understandings care not for all this , therefore I proceed to the third and most material consideration , as to us ; and I consider what it is to lose a soul ? which Hierocles thus explicates , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . An immortall substance can die , not by ceasing to be , but by losing all being well , by becomming miserable . And it is remarkable , when our blessed Saviour gave us caution , that we should not fear them that can kill the body onely , but fear him ( he sayes not that can kill the soul ) But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , him that is able to destroy the body , and soul in hell ; which word signifieth not death but tortures . For some have chosen death for sanctuary , and fled to it to avoid intolerable shame , to give a period to the sence of a sharp grief , or to cure the earthquakes of fear ; and the damned perishing souls shall wish for death , with a desire impatient as their calamity ; But this shall be denied them , because death were a deliverance , a mercy , and a pleasure , of which these miserable persons must despair of for ever . I shall not need to represent to your considerations those expressions of Scripture , which the Holy Ghost hath set down to represent to our capacities the greatnesse of this perishing ; choosing such circumstances of character as were then usuall in the world , and which are dreadful to our understanding as any thing : Hell fire ] is the common expression ; for the Eastern nations accounted burnings the greatest of their miserable punishments : and burning malefactours was frequent , [ brimstone and fire ] to Saint John Revel . 14. 10. calls the state of punishment , prepared for the Devil and all his servants , he adding the circumstance of brimstone , for by this time the Devil had taught the world more ingenious pains , and himself was new escaped out of boiling oil and brimstone , and such bituminous matter ; and the Spirit of God knew right well the worst expression was not bad enough , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so our blessed Saviour calls it , the outer darknesse , that is , not onely an abjection from the beatifick regions , where God , and his Angels , and his Saints dwell for ever , but then there is a positive state of misery expressed by darknesses , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as two Apostles , Saint Peter and Saint Jude call it , The blacknesse of darknesse for ever . In which although it is certain , that God whose Justice there rules , will inflict but just so much as our sins deserve , and not superadde degrees of undeserved misery , as he does to the Saints of glory ( for God gives to blessed souls in heaven more , infinitely more then all their good works could possibly deserve , and therefore their glory is infinitely bigger glory then the pains of hell are great pains ) yet because Gods Justice in hell rules alone , without the allayes and sweeter abatements of mercy , they shall have pure and unmingled misery ; no pleasant thought to refresh their wearinesse , no comfort in an other accident to alleviate their pressures , no waters to cool their flames ; but because when there is a great calamity upon a man , every such man thinks himself the most miserable ; and though there are great degrees of pain in hell , yet there are none perceived by him that thinks he suffers the greatest ; It follows that every man that loses his soul in this darknesse is miserable beyond all those expressions which the tortures of this world could furnish to the Writers of holy Scripture . But I shall choose to represent this consideration in that expression of our blessed Saviour , Mark the 9. the 44. verse ; which himself took out of the Prophet Esay , the 66. verse the 24. Where the worm dieth not , and the fire is not quenched ; this is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , spoken of by Daniel the Prophet ; for although this expression was a prediction of that horrid calamity and abscision of the Jewish Nation , when God poured out a full vial of his wrath upon the crucifiers of his Son , and that this which was the greatest calamity which ever did or ever shall happen to a Nation , Christ with great reason took to describe the calamity of accursed souls , as being the greatest instance to signifie the greatest torment : yet we must observe that the difference of each state makes the same words in the several cases to be of infinite distinction : The worm stuck close to the Jewish Nation , and the fire of Gods wrath flamed out till they were consumed with a great and unheard of destruction ; till many millions did die accursedly , and the small remnant became vagabonds , and were reserved , like broken pieces , after a storm , to shew the greatnesse of the storm , and misery of the shipwrack ; but then this being translated to signifie the state of accursed souls , whose dying is a continual perishing , who cannot cease to be , it must mean an eternity of duration , in proper and naturall significations . And that we may understand it fully , observe the places . In the 34. Esa. 8. The Prophet prophecies of the great destruction of Jerusalem for all her great iniquities . It is the day of the Lords vengeance , and the yeer of recompences , for the controversie of Sion , and the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch , and the dust thereof into brimstone , and the land thereof shall become burning pitch . It shall not be quenched night nor day , the smoak thereof shall go up for ever , from generation to generation . It shall lie wast , none shall passe thorow it for ever and ever . This is the final destruction of the Nation ; but this destruction shall have an end , because the Nation shall end , and the anger also shall end in its own period , even then when God shall call the Jews into the common inheritance with the Gentiles , and all the sons of God. And this also was the period of their worme , as it is of their fire , The fire of the Divine vengeance upon the Nation ; which was not to be extinguished till they were destroyed , as we see it come to passe . And thus also in Saint Jude , the Angels who kept not their first state , are said to be reserved by God in everlasting chains under darknesse : which word [ everlasting ] signifies not absolutely to eternity , but to the utmost end of that period , for so it follows [ unto the judgement of the great day ] that [ everlasting ] lasts no longer ; and in verse the seventh , the word [ eternal ] is just so used : The men of Sodom and Gomorrha are set forth for an example suffering the vengeance of [ eternal fire , ] that is , of a fire , which burned till they were quite destroyed , and the cities and the countrey with an irreparable ruine never to be rebuilt , and reinhabited as long as this world continues . The effect of which observations is this ; That these words [ for ever , everlasting , eternal , the never-dying worme , the fire unquenchable , ] being words borrowed by our blessed Saviour and his Apostles from the stile of the old Testament , must have a signification just proportionable to the state in which they signifie ; so that as this worme when it signifies a temporal infliction meanes a worme that never ceases , giving torment , till the body is consumed : So when it is translated to an immortall state , it must signifie as much in that proportion : that [ eternal , ] that everlasting , hath no end at all : because the soul cannot be killed in the natural sense , but is made miserable and perishing for ever ; that is , the worme shall not die so long as the soul shall be unconsumed : the fire shall not be quenched , till the period of an immortall nature comes , and that this shall be absolutely for ever without any restriction , appears unanswerably in this , because the same ( for ever ) that is , for the blessed souls , the same for ever , is for the accursed souls ; but the blessed souls that die in the Lord , henceforth shall die no more ; death hath no power over them ; for death is destroyed , it is swallowed up in victory ( saith Saint Paul ) and there shall be no more death , saith Saint John , Revel . 21. 4. So that because for ever hath no end , till the thing or the duration it self have end , in the same sense in which the Saints and Angels give glory to God for ever , in the same sense the lost souls shall suffer the evils of their sad inheritance ; and since after this death of nature , which is a separation of soul and body , there remains no more death , but this second death , this eternal perishing of miserable accursed souls , whose duration must be eternall ; It follows that the worm of conscience , and the unquenchable fire of hell have no period at all ; but shall last as long as God lasts , or the measures of a proper eternity ; that they who provoke God to wrath , by their base , unreasonable , and sottish practises , may know what their portion shall be in the everlasting habitations : and yet suppose that Origens opinion had been true ; and that accursed souls should have ease and a period to their tortures after a thousand years ; I pray let it be considered , whether it be not a great madnesse to choose the pleasures , or the wealth of a few years here , with trouble , with danger , with uncertainty , with labour , with intervalls of sicknesse , and for this to endure the flames of hell for a thousand yeers together ? The pleasures of the world no man can have for a hundred yeers , and no man hath pleasure a hundred dayes together , but he hath some trouble intervening : or at least a wearinesse and a loathing of the pleasure ; and therefore to endure insufferable calamities ( suppose it be ) for a hundred yeers , without any interruption , without so much comfort as the light of a small candle , or a drop of water amounts to in a fever , is a bargain to be made by no man that loves himself , or is not in love with infinite affliction . If a man were condemned but to lie still , or to lie a bed in one posture without turning , for seven yeers together , would he not buy it off with the losse of all his estate ? If a man were to be put upon the rack , for every day , three moneths together , ( suppose him able to live so long ) what would he do to be quit of his torture ? Wouldany man curse the King to his face , if he were sure to have both his hands burnt off , and to be tormented with torments three yeers together ? Would any man in his wits accept of a hundred pound a yeer for fourty yeers , if he were sure to be tormented in the fire for the next hundred yeers together without intermission ? Think then what a thousand yeers signifie : Ten ages , the age of two Empires ; but this account I must tell you is infinitely short , though I thus discourse to you , how great fools wicked men are , though this opinion should be true : A goodly comfort surely ! that for two or three yeers sottish pleasure , a man shall be infinitely tormented but for a thousand yeers . But then when we cast up the minutes , and yeers , and ages of eternity , the consideration it self is a great hell to those persons who by their evil lives are consigned to such sad and miserable portions . A thousand yeers is a long while to be in torment ; we finde a fever of 21. dayes to be like an age in length : but when the duration of an intolerable misery is for ever in the height , and for ever beginning , and ten thousand yeers hath spent no part of its terme , but it makes a perpetual efflux , and is like the centre of a circle , which ever transmits lines to the circumference ; this is a consideration so sad that the horrour of it and the reflexion upon its abode and duration , make a great part of the hell ; for hell could not be hell without the despair of accursed souls ; for any hope were a refreshment , and a drop of water , which would help to allay those flames , which as they burn intolerably , so they must burn for ever . And I desire you to consider that although the Scripture uses the word [ fire ] to expresse the torments of accursed souls , yet fire can no more equal the pangs of hell then it can torment a material substance ; the pains of perishing souls being as much more afflictive then the smart of fire , as the smart of fire is troublesome beyond the softnesse of Persian carpets , or the sensuality of the Asian Luxury : for the pains of hell ; and the perishing or losing of the soul is to suffer the wrath of God , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , our God is a consuming fire : that is the fire of hell , when God takes away all comfort from us , nothing to support our spirit is left us , when sorrow is our food and tears our drink ; when it is eternal night without Sun or star , or lamp , or sleep ; when we burn with fire without light that is , are loaden with sadnesse , without remedy or hope or ease , and that this wrath is to be expressed , and to fall upon us , in spiritual , immateriall , but most accursed , most pungent and dolorous emanations , then we feel what it is to lose a soul. We may guesse at it by the terrours of a guilty conscience , those verbera & laeniatus , those secret lashings and whips of the exterminating Angel , those thorns in the soul , when a man is haunted by an evil spirit ; those butcheries which the soul of a Tyrant , or a violent , or a vitious person , when he falls in to fear or any calamity does feel , are the infinite arguments , that Hell which is the consummation of the torment of conscience , just as man-hood is the consummation of infancy or as glory is the perfection of grace , is an affliction greater then the bulk of heaven and earth ; for there it is that God powrs out the treasures of his wrath and empties the whole magazin of thunder bolts , and all the armory of God is imployed not in the chastising , but in the tormenting of a perishing soul. Lucian brings in Radamanthus telling the poor wandring souls upon the banks of Elysium , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for every wickednesse that any man commits in his life when he comes to hell he hath stamped upon his soul an invisible brand and mark of torment ; and this begins here , and is not cancelled by death but there is enlarged by the greatnesse of infinite and the aboads of eternity . How great these tormens of conscience are here , let any man imagine that can but understand what despair means ; despair upon just reason : let it be what it will , no misery can be greater then despaire : and because I hope none here have felt those horrors of an evil conscience , which are consignations to eternity , you may please to learn it by your own reason , or els by the sad instances of story . It is reported of Petrus Ilosuanus , A Polonian School-master that having read some ill managed discourses of absolute decrees and divine reprobation , began to be Phantastick and melancholy and apprehensive that he might be one of those many whom God had decreed for hell from all eternity ; from possible to probable , from probable , to certain , the temptation soon carried him , and when he once began to believe himself to be a person inevitably perishing , it is not possible to understand perfectly , what infinite fears , and agonies and despairs , what tremblings , what horrors , what confusion and amazement the poor man felt within him , to consider that he was to be tormented extremely without remedy even to eternal ages ; This in a short continuance grew insufferable , and prevailed upon him so far that he hanged himself , and left this account of it or to this purpose in writing in his study ; I am gone from hence to the flames of hell , & have forced my way thither being impatient to try what those great torments are which here I have heard with an insupportable amazement : this instance may suffice to show what it is to lose a soul. But I will take off from this sad discourse ; onely I shall crave your attention , to a word of exhortation . That you take care , lest for the purchase of a little , trifling , inconsiderable portion of the world you come into this place and state of torment . Although Homer was pleased to complement the beauty of Helena to such a height as to say it was a sufficient price for all the evils which the Greeks and Trojans suffered in ten years . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Yet it was a more reasonable conjecture of Herodotus , that during the ten years siege of Troy Helena for whom the Greeks fought was in Egypt , not in the city , because it was unimaginable but that the Trojans would have thrown her over the walls rather then for the sake of such a trifle , have endured so great calamities , we are more sottish then the Trojans , if we retain our Helena , any one beloved lust , any painted Devil , any sugar'd temptation with , ( not the hazard but ) the certainty of having such horrid miseries , such in valuable losses . And certainly its a strange stupidity of spirit that can sleep in the midst of such thunder , when God speaks from heaven with his lowdest voice , and draws aside his curtain , and shows his arsenal and his armory , full of arrows steeled with wrath , headed and pointed , and hardned with vengeance , still to snatch at those arrows , if they came but in the retinue of a rich fortune or a vain Mistris , if they wait but upon pleasure or profit or in the reare of an ambitious designe . But let not us have such a hardinesse against the threats and representments of the divine vengeance as to take the little imposts and revenues of the world , and stand in defiance against God and the fears of hell unlesse we have a charm that we can be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 invisible to the judge of heaven and earth and are impregnable against , or are sure we shall be insensible of the miseries of a perishing soul. There is a sort of men who because they will be vitious and Atheistical in their lives , have no way to go on with any plaisance and without huge disturbances , but by being also Atheistical in their opinions and to believe that the story of hell is but a bug-bear to affright children and fools , easy believing people to make them soft and apt for government and designes of princes ; and this is an opinion that befriends none but impure and vicious persons ; others there are that believe God to be all mercy , that he forgets his justice , believing that none shall perish with so sad a ruine , if they do but at their death-bed ask God forgivenesse and say they are sorry ; but yet continue their impiety till their house be ready to fall ; being like the Circassians whose Gentlemen enter not into the Church till they be threescore years old , that is , in effect till by their age they cannot any longer use rapine : till then they hear service at their windows : dividing unequally their life between sin and devotition , dedicateing their youth to robbery , and their old age to a repentance without restitution . Our youth , and our man-hood and old age are all of them due to God , and justice and mercy are to him equally essential , and as this life is a time of the possibilities of mercy so to them that neglect it , the next world shall be a state of pure and unmingled justice . Remember the fatal and decretory sentence which God hath passed upon all man-kinde [ it is appointed to all men once to die and after death comes judgement ] and if any of us were certain to die next morning , with what earnestnesse should we pray , with what hatred should we remember our sins , with what scorn should we look upon the licentious pleasures of the world then nothing could be welcome unto us but a prayer book , no company but a Comforter and a Guide of souls , no imployment but repentance , no passions but in order to religion , no kindnesse for a lust that hath undone us ; and if any of you have been arrested with alarmes of death , or been in hearty fear of its approach , remember what thoughts and designes then possessed you , how precious a soul was then in your account and what then you would give that you had despised the world , and done your duty to God and man , and lived a holy life . It will come to that again and we shall be in that condition in which we shall perfectly understand , that all the things and pleasures of the world are vain and unprofitable , and irkesome , and that he onely is a wise man who secures the interest of his soul though it be with the losse of all this world and his own life into the bargain . When we are to depart this life to go to strange company and stranger places , and to an unknown condition , then a holy conscience will be the best security the best possession ; it wil be a horror that every friend we meet shall with triumph upbraid to us the sottishnesse of our folly . Lo this is the goodly change you have made , you had your good things in your life time , and how like you the portion that is reserved to you for ever ? The old Rabbins those Poets of religion report of Moses that when the courtiers of Pharaoh were sporting with the childe Moses in the chamber of Pharaohs daughter , they presented to his choice an ingot of gold in one hand , and a cole of fire in the other ; and that the childe snatched at the coal , thrust it into his mouth , and so singed and parched his tongue , that he stammered ever after : and certainly it is infinitely more childish in us for the glittering of the small gloworms and the charcoal of worldly possessions , to swallow the flames of hell greedily , in our choice : such a bit will produce a worse stammering then Moses had : for so the aeccursed and lost souls have their ugly and horrid dialect , they roare and blaspheme , blaspheme and roare for ever . And suppose God should now at this instant send the great Archangel with his trumpet to summon all the world to judgement , would not all this seem a notorious visible truth , a truth , which you will then wonder that every man did not lay to his heart and preserve therein actual , pious and effective consideration ? let the trumpet of God perpetually sound in your ears , surgite mortui , & venite ad judicium , place your selves by meditation every day upon your death-bed , and remember what thoughts shall then possesse you ; and let such thoughts dwell in your understanding for ever , and be the parent of all your resolutions and actions . The Doctors of the Jews report , that when Absalom hanged among the oakes , by the haire of the head , he seemed to see under him hell gaping wide , ready to receive him , and he durst not cut off the hair that intangled him , for fear he should fall into the horrid lake whose portion is flames and torment ; but chose to protract his miserable life a few minuts in that pain of posture , and to abide the stroke of his pursuing enemies : His condition was sad when his arts of remedy were so vain . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Soph. A condemned man hath but small comfort to stay the singing of a long psalm , it is the case of every vitious person . Hell is wide open to every impenitent persevering sinner , to every unpurged person . Noctes atque dies patet atri Janua Ditis . And although God hath lighted his candle and the lantern of his word and clearest revelations is held out to us , that we can see hell in its worst colours , and most horrid representments yet we run greedily after bables into that praecipice which swallows up the greatest part of man kinde ; and then onely we begin to consider , when all consideration is fruitlesse . He therefore is a huge fool that heaps up riches , that greedily pursues the world , and at the same time , ( for so it must be heaps of wrath to himself against the day of wrath ; when sicknesse & death arrests him , then they appear unprofitable & himself extreamly miserable : & if you would know how great that misery is you may take account of it by those fearful words and killing Rhetorick of Scripture , It is a fearful things to fall into the hands of the living God and who can dwell with the everlasting burning ? That is , No patience can abide there one houre where they must dwell for ever . Sermon . XX. OF CHRISTIAN PRVDENCE . Matthew 10. latter part of Ver. 16. Be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmlesse as doves . WHen our B. Saviour entailed a law & a condition of sufferings , & promised a state of persecution to his servants , and withall had charmed them with the bands & unactive chains of so many passive graces , that they should not be able to stir against the violence of Tyrants , or abate the edge of axes , by any instrument , but their own blood ; being sent forth as sheep among wolves , innocent and silent , harmlesse , and defencelesse , certainly exposed to sorrow , and uncertainly guarded in their persons ; their condition seemed nothing else , but a designation to slaughter : and when they were drawn into the folds of the church , they were betrayed into the hands of evil men , infinitely and unavoidably ; and when an Apostle invited a proselyte to come to Christ , it was in effect a snare laid for his life , and he could neither conceal his religion , nor hide his person , nor avoid a captious question , nor deny his accusation , nor elude the bloody arts of Orators and informers , nor break prisons , nor any thing but die . If the case stood just thus , it was well eternity stood at the outer doors of our life , ready to receive such harmlesse people ; but surely there could be no art in the designe , no pitying of humane weaknesses , no complying with the condition of man , no allowances made for customs and prejudices of the world , no inviting men by the things of men , no turning nature into religion ; but it was all the way a direct violence , and an open prostitution of our lives ; and a throwing away our fortune into a sea of rashnesse and credulity . But therefore God ordered the affaires and necessities of religion in other wayes and to other purposes . Although God bound our hands behinde us , yet he did not tie our understandings up : although we might not use our swords , yet we might use our reason : we were not suffered to be violent , but we might avoid violence by all the arts of prudence and innocence ; if we did take heed of sin , we might also take heed of men : & because in al contentions between wit and violence , prudence & rudenesse , learning and the sword , the strong hand took it first , and the strong head possessed it last : the strong man first governed , and the witty man succeeded him , and lasted longer ; it came to passe that the wisdom of the Father hath so ordered it , that all his Disciples should overcome the power of the Roman legions by a wise religion ; and prudence and innocence should become the mightiest guards ; and the Christian although exposed to persecution , yet is so secured that he shall never need to die But when the circumstances are so ordered that his reason is convinced that then it is fit he should ; fit ( I say ) in order to Gods purposes and his own . For he that is innocent is safe against all the rods and the axes of all the Consuls of the world , if they rule by justice ; and he that is prudent will also escape from many rudenesses and irregular violences , that can come by injustice : and no wit of man , no government , no armies can do more ; for Caesar perished in the midst of all his legions and all his honours , and against chance and irregularities there is no provision lesse then infinite , that can give security ; and although prudence alone cannot do this ; yet innocence gives the greatest title to that providence which onely can if he pleases , and will if it be fitting . Here then are the two armes defensive of a Christian : Prudence against the evils of men , Innocence against the evils of Devils and all that relates to his kingdom . Prudence fences against persecution , and the evil snares , against the opportunities and occasions of sin , it prevents surprizes , it fortifies all its proper weaknesses , it improves our talents , it does advantage to the kingdom of Christ and the interests of the Gospel , it secures our condition , and instructs our choice in all the wayes and just passages to felicity , it makes us to live profitably , and die wisely ; and without it , simplicity would turn to sillinesse , zeal into passion , passion into fury , religion into scandal , conversation into a snare , civilities into temptation , curtesies into danger , and an imprudent person falls into a condition of harmelesse , rich and unwary fools , or rather of birds , sheep , and bevers , who are hunted and persecuted for the spoils of their Fleece , or their flesh , their skins , or their entrails , and have not the foresight to avoid a snare , but by their fear and undefending follies are driven thither where they die infallibly . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Every good man is incircled with many enemies , and dangers : and his vertue shall be rifled , and the decency of his soul and spirit shall be discomposed and turned into a heap of inarticulate and disorderly fancies , unlesse by the methods and guards of prudence it be mannaged and secured . But in order to the following discourse and its method , we are first to consider whether this be , or indeed can be a commandement , or what is it ? For can all men that give up their names in baptisme , be enjoyned to be wise and prudent ? It is as if God would command us to be eloquent , or witty men , fine speakers , or strait bodied , or excellent schollers , or rich men : If he please to make us so , we are so ; and prudence is a gift of God , a blessing of an excellent nature , and of great leisure , and a wise opportunity , and a severe education , and a great experience , and a strict observation , and good company ; all which being either wholly , or in part out of our power , may be expected as free gifts , but cannot be imposed as commandments . To this I answer , That Christian prudence is in very many instances a direct duty ; in some an instance and advice , in order to degrees and advantages : where it is a duty , it is put into every mans power ; where it is an advice it is onely expected according to what a man hath , and not according to what he hath not : and even here , although the events of prudence are out of our power , yet the endeavours and the observation , the diligence and caution , the moral part of it , and the plain conduct of our necessary duty ( which are portions of this grace ) are such things which God will demand in proportion to the talent which he hath intrusted into our Banks . There are in indeed some Christians very unwary and unwise in the conduct of their religion , and they cannot all help it , at least not in all degrees ; but yet they may be taught to do prudent things , though not to be prudent persons ; if they have not the prudence of advice , and conduct , yet they may have the prudence of obedience , and of disciples : and the event is this ; without prudence their vertue is unsafe , and their persons defenselesse , and their interest is unguarded ; for prudence is a hand-maid waiting at the production and birth of vertue : It is a nurse to it in its infancy , its patron an assaults , its guide in temptations , its security in all portions of chance and contingency : And he that is imprudent , if he have many accidents and varieties , is in great danger of being none at all , or if he be , at the best he is but a weak and an unprofitable servant , uselesse to his neighbour , vain in himself , and as to God , the least in the kingdom : his vertue is contingent , and by chance , not proportioned to the reward of wisdom , and the election of a wise religion . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . No purchase , no wealth , no advantage is great enough to be compared to a wise soul , and a prudent spirit ; and he that wants it hath a lesse vertue , and a defenselesse minde , and will suffer a mighty hazard in the interest of eternity . Its parts and proper acts consist in the following particulars . 1. It is the duty of Christian prudence to choose the end of a Christian , that which is perfective of a man , satisfactory to reason , the rest of a Christian , and the beatification of his spirit ; and that is , to choose and desire , and propound to himself heaven , and the fruition of God , as the end of all his acts and arts , his designes and purposes . For in the nature of things that is most eligible , and most to be pursued , which is most perfective of our nature , and is the acquiescence , the satisfaction , and proper rest of our most reasonable appetites . Now the things of this world are difficult and uneasie , full of thornes , and empty of pleasures , they fill a diseased faculty , or an abused sense , but are an infinite dissatisfaction to reason , and the appetites of the soul : they are short , and transient , and they never abide , unlesse sorrow like a chain be bound about their leg , and then they never stir , till the grace of God and religion breaks it , or else that the rust of time eats the chain in pieces : they are dangerous and doubtfull , few and difficult , sordid and particular , not onely not communicable to a multitude , but not diffusive upon the whole man ; there being no one pleasure or object in this world , that delights all the parts of man : and after all this , they are originally from earth , and from the creatures , onely that they oftentimes contract alliances with hell and the grave , with shame and sorrow ; and all these put together make no great amability , or proportion to a wise mans choice : But on the other side , the things of God are the noblest satisfactions to those desires , which ought to be cherished and swelled up to infinite ; their deliciousnesse is vast and full of relish , and their very appendant thorns are to be chosen , for they are gilded , they are safe and medicinall , they heal the wound they make , and bring forth fruit of a blessed and a holy life : The things of God and of religion are easie and sweet , they bear entertainments in their hand , and reward at their back , their good is certain and perpetual , and they make us cheerfull to day , and pleasant to morrow ; and spiritual songs end not in a sigh and a groan ; neither like unwholesome physick do they let loose a present humour , and introduce an habitual indisposition : But they bring us to the felicity of God , the same yesterday , and to day , and for ever ; they do not give a private and particular delight , but their benefit is publike , like the incense of the altar , it sends up a sweet smell to heaven , and makes atonement for the religious man that kindled it , and delights all the standers by , and makes the very air wholesome ; there is no blessed soul goes to heaven , but he makes a generall joy in all the mansions where the Saints do dwell , and in all the chappels where the Angels sing : and the joyes of religion are not univocal , but productive of rare and accidental , and praeternatural pleasures ; for the musick of holy hymnes delights the ear , and refreshes the spirit , and makes the very bones of the Saint to rejoyce : and charity , or the giving alms to the poor , does not onely ease the poverty of the receiver , but makes the giver rich , and heals his sicknesse , and delivers from death ; and temperance though it be in the matter of meat , and drink , and pleasures , yet hath an effect upon the understanding and makes the reason sober , and his will orderly , and his affections regular , and does things beside , and beyond their natural and proper efficacy ; for all the parts of our duty are watered with the showers of blessing , and bring forth fruit according to the influence of heaven , and beyond the capacities of nature . And now let the voluptuous person go and try whether putting his wanton hand to the bosome of his Mistris will get half such honour as Scaevola put upon his head , when he put his hand into the fire . Let him see whether a drunken meeting will cure a fever , or make him wise ? A hearty and a persevering prayer will. Let him tell me , if spending great summes of money upon his lusts will make him sleep soundly , or be rich ? Charity will ; Alms will increase his fortune , and a good conscience shall charme all his cares and sorrows into a most delicious slumber ; well may a full goblet wet the drunkards tongue , and then the heat rising from the stomack will dry the spunge , and heat it into the scorchings and little images of hell : and the follies of a wanton bed will turn the itch into a smart , and empty the reins of all their lustfull powers ; but can they do honour , or satisfaction in any thing that must last , and that ought to be provided for ? No : All the things of this world are little , and trifling , and limited , and particular , and sometimes necessary because we are miserable , wanting and imperfect , but they never do any thing toward perfection , but their pleasure dies like the time in which it danced a while , and when the minute is gone , so is the pleasure too , and leaves no footstep but the impression of a sigh , and dwells no where , but in the same house where you shall finde yesterday , that is in forgetfulnesse , and annihilation , unlesse its onely childe , sorrow , shall marry , and breed more of its kinde , and so continue its memory and name to eternall ages . It is therefore the most necessary part of prudence to choose well in the main stake ; and the dispute is not much ; for if eternall things be better then temporall , the soul more noble then the body , vertue more honourable then the basest vices , a lasting joy to be chosen before an eternall sorrow , much to be preferred before little , certainty before danger , publike good things , before private evils , eternity before moments , then let us set down in religion , and make heaven to be our end , God to be our Father , Christ our elder Brother , the Holy Ghost the earnest of our inheritance , vertue to be our imployment , and then we shall never enter into the portion of fools and accursed ill-choosing spirits . Nazianzen said well , Malim prudentiae guttam quàm foecundioris fortunae pelagus : One drop of prudence is more usefull , then an ocean of a smooth fortune ; for prudence is a rare instrument towards heaven ; and a great fortune is made oftentimes the high-way to hell and destruction . However , thus farre , prudence is our duty ; every man can be so wise , and is bound to it , to choose heaven and a cohabitation with God , before the possessions and transient vanities of the world . 2. It is a duty of Christian prudence to pursue this great end , with apt means and instruments in proportion to that end . No wise man will sail to Ormus in a cock-boat , or use a childe for his interpreter ; and that Generall is a Cyclops without an eye , who chooses the sickest men to man his Towns , and the weakest to fight his battels . It cannot be a vigorous prosecution unlesse the means have an efficacy or worth commensurate to all the difficulty , and something of the excellency of that end which is designed . And indeed men use not to be so weak in acquiring the possessions of their temporals ; But in matters of religion they think any thing effective enough to secure the greatest interest ; as if all the fields of heaven , and the regions of the Kingdom were waste ground , and wanted a Colony of planters ; and that God invited men to heaven upon any terms , that he might rejoyce in the multitude of subjects . For certain it is , men do more to get a little money , then for all the glories of heaven : Men rise up early , and sit up late , and eat the bread of carefulnesse , to become richer then their neighbours ; and are amazed at every losse , and impatient of an evil accident , and feel a direct storm of passion , if they suffer in their interest : But in order to heaven they are cold in their religion , indevour in their prayers , incurious in their walking , unwatchfull in their circumstances , indifferent in the use of their opportunities , infrequent in their discoursings of it , not inquisitive of the way , and yet think they shall surely go to heaven : But a prudent man knows that by the greatnesse of the purchase , he is to make an estimate of the value and the price : When we ask of God any great thing ; As wisdom , delivery from sicknesse , his holy Spirit , the forgivenesse of sins , the grace of chastity , restitution to his favour , or the like , do we hope to obtain them without a high opinion of the things we ask ? and if we value them highly , must we not desire them earnestly ? and if we desire them earnestly , must we not pray for them fervently ? and whatsoever we ask for fervently , must not we beg for frequently ? and then because prayer is but one hand toward the reaching a blessing , and God requires our cooperation and endeavour ; and we must work with both hands : are we not convinced that our prayers are either faint , or a designe of lazinesse , when we either ask coldly , or else pray loudly , hoping to receive the graces we need without labour ? A prudent person that knows to value the best object of his desires , will also know that he must observe the degrees of labour , according to the excellency of the reward : Prayer must be effectuall , servent , frequent , continuall , holy , passionate , that must get a grace , or secure a blessing : The love that we must have to God must be such as to keep his commandements , and to make us willing to part with all our estate , and all our honour , and our life for the testimony of a holy conscience . Our charity to our neighbours must be expressive in a language of a reall friendship , aptnesse to forgive , readinesse to forbear , in pitying infirmities , in relieving necessities , in giving our goods and our lives , and quitting our privileges to save his soul , to secure and support his vertue . Our repentance must be full of sorrows and care , of diligence and hatred against sin , it must drive out all , and leave no affections towards it ; it must be constant and persevering , fearfull of relapse , and watch-full of all accidents : Our temperance must sometimes turn into abstinence , and most commonly be severe , and ever without reproof : He that striveth for masteries is temperate ( saith Saint Paul ) in all things ; he that does all this , may with some pretence and reason say , he intends to go to heaven : But they that will not deny a lust , nor refrain an appetite , they that will be drunk when their friends do merrily constrain them , or love a cheap religion and a gentle and lame prayer , short and soft , quickly said , and soon passed over , seldome returning , and but little observed , How is it possible that they should think themselves persons disposed to receive such glorious crowns and scepters , such excellent conditions , which they have not faith enough to believe , nor attention enough to consider , and no man can have wit enough to understand . But so might an Arcadian shepherd look from the rocks , or thorow the clefts of the valley where his sheep graze , and wonder that the messenger stayes so long from comming to him to be crowned King of all the Greek Ilands , or to be adopted heir to the Macedonian Monarchy . It is an infinite love of God , that we have heaven upon conditions , which we can perform with greatest diligence ; But truely the lives of men are generally such , that they do things in order to heaven , things ( I say ) so few , so trifling , so unworthy , that they are not proportionable to the reward of a crown of oak , or a yellow riband , the slender reward with which the Romans payed their souldiers for their extraordinary valour . True it is , that heaven is not in a just sense of a commutation , a reward , but a gift , and an infinite favour : but yet it is not reached forth but to persons disposed by the conditions of God ; which conditions when we pursue in kinde , let us be very carefull we do not fail of the mighty price of our high calling , for want of degrees , and just measures , the measures of zeal and a mighty love . 3. It is an office of prudence so to serve God that we may at the same time preserve our lives and our estates , our interest and reputation for our selves , and our relatives , so farre as they can consist together . Saint Paul in the beginning of Christianity was careful to instruct the forwardnesse and zeal of the new Christians into good husbandry , and to catechize the men into good trades , and the women into useful imployments , that they might not be unprofitable . For Christian religion carrying us to heaven , does it by the way of a man , and by the body it serves the soul , as by the soul it serves God ; and therefore it endeavours to secure the body and its interest , that it may continue the opportunities of a crown , and prolong the stage in which we are to run for the mighty price of our salvation : and this is that part of prudence , which is the defensative and guards of a Christian in the time of persecution ; and it hath in it much of duty . He that through an indiscreet zeal casts himself into a needlesse danger , hath betrayed his life to tyranny and tempts the sin of an enemy , he loses to God the service of many yeers , and cuts off himself from a fair opportunity of working his salvation ( in the main parts of which we shall finde a long life , and very many yeers of reason to be little enough ) he betrayes the interest of his relatives , ( which he is bound to preserve ) he disables himself of making provision for them of his own house , and he that fails in this duty by his own fault , is worse then an infidel , and denies the faith , by such unseasonably dying , or being undone , which by that testimony he did intend gloriously to confesse ; he serves the end of ambition and popular services , but not the sober ends of religion , he discourages the weak , and weakens the hands of the strong , and by upbraiding their warinesse , tempts them to turn it into rashnesse or despair ; he affrights strangers from entring into religion , while by such imprudence , he shall represent it to be impossible at the same time to be wise and to be religious ; it turns all the whole religion into a forwardnesse of dying or beggery , leaving no space for the parts and offices of a holy life ▪ which in times of persecution are infinitely necessary , for the advantages of the institution . But God hath provided better things for his servants : Quem fata cogunt , ille cum veniâ est miser , He whom God by an inevitable necessity calls to sufferance , he hath leave to be undone , and that ruine of his estate or losse of his life shall secure first a providence , then a crown . At si quis ultro se malis offert volens . seque ipse torquet , perdere est dignus bona Queis nescit uti . But he that invites the cruelty of a Tyrant by his own follyes or the indiscretions of an unsignificant and impertinent zeal , suffers as a wilful person , and enters into the portion and reward of fools . And this is the precept of our Blessed Saviour , next after my text : Beware of men : use your prudence to the purposes of avoiding their snare , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Man is the most harmful of all the wilde beasts : ye are sent as sheep among wolves , be therefore wise as serpents ; when you can avoid it suffer not men to ride over your heads , or trample you under foot ; that 's the wisdom of Serpents ; and so must we ; that is by all just complyances , and toleration of all indifferent changes in which a duty is not destroyed and in which we were not active , so to preserve our selves that we might be permitted to live , and serve God , and to do advantages to religion ; so purchasing time to do good in , by bending in all those flexures of fortune , and condition , which we cannot help , and which we do not set forward , and which we never did procure ; and this is the direct meaning of Saint Paul ; see then that ye walk circumspectly , not as fools but as wise , Redeeming the time because the dayes are evil ; that is , we are fallen into times that are troublesome , dangerous , persecuting and afflictive , purchase as much respite as you can : Buy or redeem the time by all honest arts , by humility , by fair carriage and sweetnesses of society , by civility , and a peaceful conversation , by good words , and all honest offices , by praying for your persecutors , by patient sufferance of what is unavoidable : And when the Tyrant draws you forth from all these guards and retirements , and offers violence to your duty or tempts you to do a dishonest act , or to omit an act of obligation , then come forth into the Theater and lay your necks down to the hangmans axe , and fear not to die the most shamful death of the crosse or the gallows ; for so have I known angels ascending and descending upon those ladders ; and the Lord of glory suffered shame and purchased honour upon the crosse . Thus we are to walk in wisdom towards them that are without redeeming the time : for so Saint Paul renewes that permission , or commandment : Give them no just cause of offence ; with all humility and as occasion is offered represent their duty , and invite them sweetly to felicities and vertue , but do not in ruder language upbraid and reproach their basenesse : and when they are in corrigible , let them alone , lest like cats they run mad with the smell of delicious ointments ; And therefore Pothinus Bishop of Lyons being asked by the unbaptized President , who was the God of the Christians ? answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; If you be disposed with real and hearty desires of learning , what you ask you shall quickly know ; But if your purposes be in direct , I shall not preach to you , to my hurt and your no advantage . Thus the wisdom of the primitive Christians was careful not to prophane the temples of the heathen , not to revile their false Gods , and when they were in duty to represent the follies of their religion they chose to do it , from their own writings and as relators of their own records they fled from the fury of a persecution , they hid themselves in caves , and wandred about in disguises , and preached in private , and celebrated their synaxes , and communions in grots and retirements , and made it appear to all the world , they were peaceable , and obedient , charitable , and patient , and at this price bought their time . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As knowing that even in this sense , time was very pretious and the opportunitie of giving glory to God by the offices of an excellent religion , was not too deare a purchase at that rate . But then when the wolves had entred into the folds and seized upon a lamb the rest fled , and used all the innocent arts of concealment . Saint Athanasius being overtaken by his persecutors , but not known , and asked whether he saw Athanasius passing that way ; pointed out forward with his finger , non longè abest Athanasius ; the man is not far off ; a swift foot-man will easily overtake him . And Saint Paul divided the councell of his Judges , and made the Pharisees his parties by a witty insinuation of his own belief of the resurrection , which was not the main question , but an incident to the matter of his accusation . And when Plinius secundus in the face of a Tyrant court was pressed so invidiously to give his opinion concerning a good man in banishment and under the disadvantage of an unjust sentence he diverted the snare of Marcus Regulus by referring his answer to a competent judicatory according to the laws ; being pressed again , by offering a direct answer upon a just condition , which he knew , they would not accept ; and the third time , by turning the envy upon the impertinent and malicious Orator , that he won great honour , the honour of a severe honesty , and a witty man , and a prudent person . The thing I have noted , because it is a good pattern to represent the arts of honest evasion , and religious , prudent honesty : which any good man may transcribe and turn into his own instances if an equal case should occur . For in this case the rule is easy ; If we are commanded to be wise and redeeme our time , that we serve God and religion , we must not use unlawful arts which set us back in the accounts of our time , no lying Subterfuges , no betraying of a truth , no treachery to a good man , no insnaring of a brother , no secret renouncing of any part or proposition of our religion , no denying to confesse the article when we are called to it . For when the primitive Christians had got a trick to give money for certificates , that they had sacrificed to idols , though indeed they did not do it , but had corrupted the officers and ministers of state , they dishonoured their religion and were marked with the appellative of libellatici , Libellers ; and were excommunicate and cast off from the society of Christians and the hopes of Heaven , till they had returned to God by a severe repentance ; optanduum est ut quod libenter facis din facere possis . It is good to have time long to doe that which wee ought to doe ; but to pretend that , which we dare not doe , and to say we have , when we have not , if we know we ought not , is to dishonour the cause and the person too ; it is expressly against confession of Christ , of which Saint Paul saith , by the mouth confession is made unto salvation And our Blessed Saviour , he that confesseth me before men . I will confesse him before my Heavenly Father ; and if here he refuseth to own me , I will not own him hereafter : it is also expressly against Christian fortitude and noblenesse ; and against the simplicity and sincerity of our religion , and it turnes prudence into craft , and brings the Devil to wait in the temple , and to minister to God ; and it is a lesser Kinde of apostacy : and it is well that the man is tempted no further ; for if the persecutors could not be corrupted with money , it is ods but the complying man would , and though he would with the money hide his shame , yet he will not with the losse of all his estate redeeme his religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : some men will lose their lives rather then a faire estate : and doe not almost all the armies of the world ( I mean ) those that fight in the justest causes , pretend to fight and die for their lands and liberties : and there are too many also that will die twice rather then be beggers once : although we all know that the second death is intolerable . Christian prudence forbids us to provoke a danger ; and they were fond persons that run to persecution , and when the Proconsul sate on the life and death , and made strict inquisition after Christians , went and offered themselves to die ; and he was a fool that being in Portugal run to the Priest as he elevated the host ; and overthrew the mysteries and openly defied the rites of that religion : God when he sends a persecution will pick out such persons whom he will have to die , and whom he will consigne to banishment , and whom to poverty : In the mean time let us do our duty when we can , and as long as we can , and with as much strictnesse as we can ; walking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( as the Apostles Phrase is ) not prevaricating in the least tittle ; and then if we can be safe with the arts of civil , innocent , inoffensive , compliance , let us blesse God for his permissions made to us , and his assistances in the using them . But if either we turne our zeal into the ambition of death , and the follies of an unnecessary beggery ; or on the other side turn our prudence into craft and covetousnesse ; to the first , ( I say ) that God hath no pleasure in fooles , to the latter , If you gain the whole world and lose your own soul : your losse is infinite and intolerable . Sermon . XXI . Of Christian Prudence . Part II. 4. IT is the office of Christian prudence so to order the affaires of our life as that in all the offices of our souls and conversation , we do honour and reputation , to the religion we professe . For the follies and vices of the Professors give great advantages to the adversary to speak reproachfully , and does aliene the hearts and hinder the complyance of those undetermined persons , who are apt to be perswaded , if their understandings be not prejudiced . But as our necessary duty is bound upon us by one ligament more in order to the honour of the cause of God : so it particularly bindes us to many circumstances adjuncts and parts of duty which have no other commandment , but the law of prudence . There are some sects of Christians which have some one constant indisposition , which as a character divides them from all others , and makes them reproved on all hands : some are so suspitious and ill natured , that if a person of a facile nature and gentle disposition fall into their hands he is presently sowred and made morose , unpleasant , and uneasy in his conversation : Others there are that do things so like to what themselves condemn that they are forced to take sanctuary and labour in the mine of unsignificant distinctions , to make themselves believe they are innocent : and in the mean time they offend all men else , and open the mouths of their adversaries to speak reproachful things ; true , or false ; ( as it happens ) And it requires a great wit to understand all the distinctions and devices thought of , for legitimating the worshipping of images : And those people that are liberal in their excommunications make men think they have reason to say their Judges are proud , or self willed , or covetous , or ill natured people . These that are the faults of Governours , and continued , are quickly derived upon the sect and cause a disreputation to the whole society and institution . And who can think that congregation to be a true branch of the Christian , who makes it their profession to kill men to save their souls against their will , and against their understanding ? who calling themselves disciples of so meek a Master , do live like bears upon prey , and spoil and blood ? It is a huge dishonour to the sincerity of a mans purposes to be too busie in fingring money in the matters of religion : and they that are zealous for their rights and tame in their devotion , furious against sacrilege , and a companion of drunkards ; implacable against breakers of a Canon , and carelesse and patient enough with them that break the fifth or sixth Commandments of the Decalogue , tell all the world their private sense is to preserve their own interest with scruple and curiosity , and leave God to take care for his . Thus Christ reproved the Pharisees , for straining at a gnat and swallowing a Camel ; the very representation of the manner and matter of fact discovers the vice by reproving the folly of it . They that are factious to get a rich proselyte and think the poor not worth saving dishonour their zeal and teach men to call it covetousnesse , and though there may be a reason of prudence to desire one more then the other , because of a bigger efficacy , the example of the one may have more then the other ; yet it will quickly be discovered if it be done by secular designe : and the Scripture that did not allow the preferring of a gay man before a poor Saint in the matter of place , will not be pleased that in the matter of souls , which are all equal , there should be a faction and designe , and an acceptation of persons . Never let us pollute our religion with arts of the world , nor offer to support the arke with unhallowed hands ; nor mingle false propositions with true , nor make religion a pretence to profit or preferment , nor do things which are like a vice ; neither ever speak things dishonorable of God , nor abuse thy brother for Gods sake , nor be solicitous and over busie to recover thy own little things neither alwayes think it fit to lose thy charity by forcing thy brother to do justice ; and all those things which are the outsides and faces , the garments and most discerned parts of religion , be sure that they be dressed according to all the circumstances of men and by all the rules of common honesty , and publick reputation . Is it not a sad thing that the Jew should say , the Christians worship images ? or that it should become a proverb , that the Jew spends all in his passeover , the Moore in his marriage , and the Christian in his law suits ? that , what the first sacrifice to religion , and the second to publick joy , we should spend in malice , covetousnesse , and revenge ? Pudet haec opprobria nobis & dici potuisse , & non potuisse refelli . But among our selves also , we serve the Devils ends , and minister to an eternal dis-union , by saying and doing things which look unhandsomely . One sort of men is superstitious , phantastical , greedy of honour , and tenacious of propositions to fill the purse , and his religion is thought nothing but policy , and opinion . Another sayes he hath a good religion , but he is the most indifferent and cold person in the world , either to maintain it , or to live according to it ; the one dresses the images of Saints with fine clothes , the other lets the poor go naked , and disrobes the priests that minister in the religion . A third uses God worse then all this , and sayes of him such things that are scandalous even to an honest man , and such which would undo a good mans reputation : And a fourth yet endures no governour but himself , and pretends to set up Christ and make himself his lieutenant . And a fifth hates all government , and from all this it comes to passe that it is hard for a man to choose his side , and he that chooses wisest takes that , which hath in it least hurt ; but some he must endure , or live without communion : and every Church of one denomination is , or hath been too incurious of preventing infamy or disreputation to their confessions . One thing I desire should be observed , that here the Question being concerning prudence , and the matter of doing reputation to our religion , it is not enough to say , we can with learning justifie all that we do , and make all whole with 3. or 4. distinctions ; for possibly the man that went to visit the Corinthian Lais , if he had been asked why he dishonoured himself with so unhandsome an entrance , might finde an excuse to legitimate his act , or at least to make himself beleeve well of his own person ; but he that intends to do himself honour , must take care that he be not suspected , that he give no ocasion of reproachful language ; for fame and honour is a nice thing , tender as a womans chastity , or like the face of the purest mirrour , which a foul breath , or an unwholesome air , or a watry eye can fully , and the beauty is lost although it be not dashed in pieces . When a man or a sect is put to answer for themselves in the matter of reputation , they with their distinctions wipe the glasse , and at last can do nothing but make it appear it was not broken ; but their very abstersion and laborious excuses confesse it was foul and faulty : We must know that all sorts of men , and all sects of Christians , have not onely the mistakes of men and their prejudices to contest withall , but the calumnies and aggravation of Devils : and therefore it will much ease our accounts of dooms-day , if we are now so prudent that men will not be offended here , nor the Devils furnished with a libell in the day of our great account . To this rule appertains that we be curious in observing the circumstances of men , and satisfie all their reasonable expectations , and do things at that rate of charity and religion which they are taught to be prescribed in the institution . There are some things which are undecencies rather then sins , such which may become a just Heathen , but not a holy Christian ; a man of the world , but not a man professing godlinesse . Because when the greatnesse of the man , or the excellency of the Law , engage us upon great severity , or an exemplar vertue , whatsoever is lesse then it renders the man unworthy of the religion , or the religion unworthy of its fame : Men think themselves abused , and therefore return shame for payment . We never read of an Apostle that went to law ; and it is but reasonable to expect that of all men in the world Christians should not be such fighting people , and Clergy men should not command Armies , and Kings should not be drunk , and subjects should not strike Princes for justice , and an old man should not be youthfull in talk , or in his habit ; and women should not swear , and great men should not lie , and a poor man should not oppresse ; for besides the sin of some of them , there is an undecency in all of them ; and by being contrary to the end of an office , or the reputation of a state , or the sobrieties of a graver or sublimed person , they asperse the religion as insufficient to keepe the persons within the bounds of fame and common reputation . But above all things those sects of Christians whose professed doctrine brings destruction and diminution to government , give the most intolerable scandal , and dishonour to the institution ; and it had been impossible that Christianity should have prevailed over the wisdom and power of the Greeks and Romans , if it had not been humble to superiours , patient of injuries , charitable to the needy , a great exactour of obedience to Kings , even to heathens , that they might be won , and convinced ; and to persecutours that they might be sweetned in their anger , or upbraided for their cruel injustice : for so doth the humble vine creep at the foot of an oak , and leans upon its lowest base , and begs shade and protection , and leave to grow under its branches , and to give and take mutuall refreshment , and pay a friendly influence for a mighty patronage , and they grow and dwell together , and are the most remarkable of friends and married pairs of all the leavie nation . Religion of it self is soft , easie and defenselesse , and God hath made it grow up with empire , and to leane upon the arms of Kings , and it cannot well grow alone ; and if it shall like the Ivy suck the heart of the oak upon whose body it grew and was supported , it will be pulled down from its usurped eminency , and fire and shame shall be its portion . We cannot complain if Princes arm against those Christians , who if they are suffered to preach will disarm the Princes ; and it will be hard to perswade that Kings are bound to protect and nourish those that will prove ministers of their own exauctoration : And no Prince can have justci reason to forbid , nor any man have greater reason to deny communion to a family , then if they go about to destroy the power of the one , or corrupt the duty of the other . The particulars of this rule are very many ; I shall onely instance in one more , because it is of great concernment to the publike interest of Christendome . There are some persons whose religion is hugely disgraced , because they change their propositions according as their temporall necessities or advantages do return . They that in their weaknesse and beginning cry out against all violence as against persecution : and from being suffered , swell up till they be prosperous , and from thence to power , and at last to Tyranny ; and then suffer none but themselves , and trip up those feet , which they humbly kissed , that themselves should not be trampled upon ; these men tell all the world that at first they were pusillanimous , or at last outragious ; that their doctrine at first served their fear , and at last served their rage , and that they did not at all intend to serve God : and then who shall believe them in any thing else ? Thus some men declaim against the faults of Governours , that themselves may governe ; and when the power was in their hands , what was a fault in others , is in them necessity ; as if a sin could be hallowed for comming into their hands . Some Greeks at Florence subscribed the Article of Purgatory , and condemned it in their own Diocesses : And the Kings supremacy in causes Ecclesiastical , was earnestly defended against the pretences of the Bishop of Rome , and yet when he was thrust out , some men were , and are violent to submit the King to their Consistories , as if he were Supreme in defiance of the Pope , and yet not Supreme over his own Clergy . These Articles are mannaged too suspitiously . Omnia si perdas famam servare memento . You lose all the advantages to your cause , if you lose your reputation . 5 It is a duty also of Christian prudence that the teachers of others by authority , or reprovers of their vices by charity , should also make their persons apt to do it without objection . Lori pedem rectus derideat , Aethiopemalbus . No man can endure the Gracchi preaching against sedition , nor Uerres prating against theevery , or Milo against homicide : and if Herod had made an oration of humility , or Antiochus of mercy , men would have thought , it had been a designe to evil purposes . He that means to gain a soul , must not make his Sermon an ostentation of his Eloquence , but the law of his own life . If a Gramarian should speak solaecismes , or a Musician sing like a bittern , he becomes ridiculous for offending in the faculty he professes : So it is in them who minister to the conversion of souls : If they fail in their own life , when they professe to instruct another , they are defective in their proper part , and are unskilfull to all their purposes ; and the Cardinal of Crema did with ill successe tempt the English priests to quit their chaste marriages , when himself was deprehended in unchaste embraces . For good counsel seems to be unhallowed , when it is reached forth by an impure hand , and he can ill be beleeved by another , whose life so confutes his rules , that it is plain he does not beleeve himself . Those Churches that are zealous for souls , must send into their ministeries men so innocent , that evil persons may have no excuse to be any longer vitious . When Gorgias went about to perswade the Greeks to be at peace , he had eloquence enough to do advantage to his cause , and reason enough to presse it : But Melanthius was glad to put him off , by telling him that he was not fit to perswade peace , who could not agree at home with his wife , nor make his wife agree with her maid ; and he that could not make peace between three single persons , was unapt to prevail for the reuniting fourteen or fifteen Common-wealths : And this thing Saint Paul remarks by enjoyning that a Bishop should be chosen such a one as knew well to rule his own house , or else he is not fit to rule the Church of God. And when thou perswadest thy brother to be chaste , let not him deride thee for thy intemperance ; and it will ill become thee to be severe against an idle servant , if thou thy self beest uselesse to the publike ; and every notorious vice is infinitely against the spirit of government , and depresses the man to an evennesse with common persons , — Facinus quos inquinat , aequat , to reprove , belongs to a Superiour ; and as innocence gives a man advantage over his brother , giving him an artificiall and adventitious authority ; so the follies and scandals of a publike and Governing man destroyes the efficacy of that authority that is just and naturall . Now this is directly an office of Christian prudence , that good offices and great authority , become not ineffective by ill conduct . Hither also it appertains that in publike or private reproofs , we observe circumstances of time , of place , of person , of disposition . The vices of a King are not to be opened publikely ; and Princes must not be reprehended as a man reproves his servant ; but by Categoricall propositions , by abstracted declamations , by reprehensions of a crime in its single nature , in private , with humility , and arts of insinuation : And it is against Christian prudence not onely to use a Prince or great Personage with common language , but it is as great an imprudence to pretend for such a rudenesse , the examples of the Prophets in the old Testament . For their case was extraordinary , their calling peculiar , their commission special , their spirit miraculous , their authority great , as to that single mission , they were like thunder or the trump of God , sent to do that office plainly , for the doing of which in that manner , God had given no commission to any ordinary minister : And therefore we never finde that the Priests did use that freedom , which the Prophets were commanded to use , whose very words being put into their mouthes , it was not to be esteemed an humane act , or a lawfull manner of doing an ordinary office ; neither could it become a precedent to them whose authority is precarious and without coërcion whose spirit is allayed with Christian graces and duties of humility , whose words are not prescribed , but left to the conduct of prudence , as it is to be advised by publike necessities , and private circumstances , in ages where all things are so ordered , that what was fit and pious amongst the old Jews , would be incivil and intolerable to the latter Christians . He also that reproves a vice should also treat the persons with honour , and civilities , and by fair opinions , and sweet addresses place the man in the regions of modesty , and the confines of grace , and the fringes of repentance . For some men are more restrained by an imperfect , feared shame , so long as they think there is a reserve of reputation which they may secure , then they can be with all the furious declamations of the world , when themselves are represented ugly and odious , full of shame , and actually punished with the worst of temporal evils , beyond which he fears not here to suffer , and from whence because he knows it will be hard for him to be redeemed by an after-game of reputation , it makes him desperate and incorrigible by fraternall correption . A zealous man hath not done his duty , when he calls his brother drunkard and beast , and he may better do it , by telling him he is a man , and sealed with Gods Spirit , and honoured with the title of a Christian , and is , or ought to be reputed as a discreet person by his friends ; and a governour of a family , or a guide in his countrey , or an example to many , and that it is huge pity so many excellent things should be sullied , and allayed with what is so much below all this : Then a reprover does his duty , when he is severe against the vice , and charitable to the man , and carefull of his reputation , and sorry for his reall dishonour , and observant of his circumstances , and watchfull to surprize his affections and resolutions , there where they are most tender , and most tenable ; and men will not be in love with vertue whither they are forced with rudenesse and incivilities ; but they love to dwell there whither they are invited friendly , and where they are treated civilly , and feasted liberally , and lead by the hand and the eye to honour and felicity . 6. It is a duty of Christian prudence not to suffer our souls to walk alone , unguarded , unguided , and more single then in other actions and interests of our lives , which are of lesse concernment . Uae soli & singulari , said the Wise man , Wo to him that is alone : and if we consider how much God hath done to secure our souls , and after all that , how many wayes there are for a mans soul to miscarry , we should think it very necessary to call to a spirituall man to take us by the hand , to walk in the wayes of God , and to lead us in all the regions of duty , and thorow the labyrinths of danger . For God who best loves , and best knows how to value our souls , set a price no lesse upon it then the life-blood of his Holy Son ; he hath treated it with variety of usages according as the world had new guises , and new necessities ; he abates it with punishment to make us avoid greater ; he shortned our life that we might live for ever ; he turns sicknesse into vertue ; he brings good out of evil ; he turns enmities to advantages , our very sins into repentances , and stricter walking ; he defeats all the follies of men , and all the arts of the Devil and layes snares , and uses violence to secure our obedience , he sends Prophets and Priests to invite us , and to threaten us to felicities ; he restrains us with lawes , and he bridles us with honour and shame , reputation , and society , friends , and foes ; he layes hold on us by the instruments of all the passions ; he is enough to fill our love , he satisfies our hope , he affrights us with fear , he gives us part of our reward in hand , and entertains all our faculties with the promises of an infinite and glorious portion ; he curbs our affections ; he directs our wills , he instructs our understandings with Scriptures , with perpetuall Sermons , with good books , with frequent discourses , with particular observations , and great experience , with accidents and judgements , with rare events of providence , and miracles ; he sends his Angels to be our guard , and to place us in opportunities of vertue , and to take us off from ill company and places of danger , to set us neer to good example ; he gives us his holy Spirit , and he becomes to us a principle of a mighty grace , descending upon us in great variety , and undiscerned events , besides all those parts of it which men have reduced to a method and an art ; and after all this he forgives us infinite irregularities , and spares us every day , and still expects , and passes by , and waits all our dayes , still watching to do us good , and to save that soul which he knowes is so precious , one of the chiefest of the works of God , and an image of divinity , Now from all these arts and mercies of God , besides that we have infinite reason to adore his goodnesse , we have also a demonstration , that we ought to do all that possibly we can , and extend all our faculties , and watch all our opportunities , and take in all assistances to secure the interest of our soul , for which God is pleased to take such care , and use so many arts for its security . If it were not highly worth it , God would not do it . If it were not all of it necessary , God would not do it . But if it be worth it , and all of it be necessary , why should we not labour in order to this great end ? If it be worth so much to God it is so much more to us : for if we perish , his felicity is undisturbed , but we are undone , infinitely undone . It is therefore worth taking in a spirituall guide , so far we are gone . But because we are in the question of prudence , we must consider whether it be necessary to do so : For every man thinks himself wise enough as to the conduct of his soul , and managing of his eternal interest ; and divinity is every mans trade , and the Scriptures speak our own language , and the commandments are few and plain , and the laws are the measure of justice , and if I say my prayers , and pay my debts , my duty is soon summed up , and thus we usually make our accounts for eternity , and at this rate onely take care for heaven ; but let a man be questioned for a portion of his estate or have his life shaken with diseases , then it will not be enough to employ one agent , or to send for a good woman to minister a potion of the juices of her country garden , but the ablest Lawyers and the skilfullest Physitians & the advice of friends and huge caution , and diligent attendances and a curious watching concerning all the accidents and little passages of our disease , and truly a mans life , and health is worth all that , and much more , and in many cases it needs it all . But then is the soul the onely safe and the onely trifling thing about us ? Are not there a thousand dangers , and ten thousand difficulties , and innumerable possibilities of a misadventure ? Are not all the congregations in the world divided in their doctrines , and all of them call their own way necessary and most of them call all the rest damnable ? we had need of a wise instructor and a prudent choice at our first entrance , and election of our side : and when we are well in the matter of Faith for its object , and jnstitution ; all the evils of my self and all the evils of the Church and all the good that happens to evil men , every day of danger , the periods of sicknesse and the day of death are dayes of tempest and storm , and our faith wil suffer shipwrack unlesse it be strong and supported and directed . But who shall guide the vessel when a stormy passion or a violent imagination transports the man ? who shall awaken his reason and charm his passion into slumber & instruction ? How shal a man make his fears confident , and allay his confidence with fear , and make the allay with just proportions , and steere evenly , between the extremes , or call upon his sleeping purposes or actuate his choices , or binde him to reason in all the wandrings and ignorances , in his passion and mistakes ? For suppose the man of great skil and great learning in the wayes of religion , yet if he be abused by accident , or by his own will , who shall then judge his cases of conscience , and awaken his duty and renew his holy principle , and actuate his spiritual powers ? For Physitians that prescribe to others , do not minister to themselves in cases of danger , and violent sicknesses ; and in matter of distemperature we shall not finde that books alone will do all the work of a spiritual Physitian more then of a natural , I will not go about to increase the dangers and difficulties of the soul , to represent the assistance of a spiritual man to be necessary . But of this I am sure ; our not understanding , and our not considering our soul make us first to neglect , and then many times to lose it . But is not every man an unequal judge in his own case ? and therefore the wisdom of God and the laws hath appointed tribunals and Judges and arbitrators and that men are partial in the matter of souls , it is infinitely certain , because amongst those milions of souls that perish , not one in ten thousand but believes himself in a good condition ; and all sects of Christians think they are in the right , and few are patient to enquire whether they be or no : then adde to this , that the Questions of souls , being clothed with circumstances of matter and particular contingency , are or may be infinite , and most men are so infortunate , that they have so intangled their cases of conscience , that there where they have done something good , it may be , they have mingled half a dozen evils ; and when interests are confounded and governments altered , and power strives with right , and insensibly passes into right , and duty to God would fain be reconciled with duty to our relatives , will it not be more then necessary that we should have some one that we may enquire of after the way to heaven , which is now made intricate by our follies and inevitable accidents ? But by what instrument shall men alone and in their own cases be able to discern the spirit of truth from the spirit of illusion , just confidence from presumption , fear from pusillanimity ; are not all the things and assistances in the world little enough to defend us against pleasure and pain , the two great fountains of temptation ? is it not harder to cure a lust then to cure a feaver ? and are not the deceptions and follies of men , and the arts of the Devil and inticements of the world & the deceptions of a mans own heart , and the evils of sin more evil and more numerous then the sicknesses and diseases of any one man ? and if a man perishes in his soul , is it not infinitely more sad then if he could rise from his grave and die a thousand deaths over ? Thus we are advanced a second step in this prudential motive ; God used many arts to secure our souls interest ; and there is infinite dangers , and infinite wayes of miscarriage in the souls interest ; and therefore there is great necessity God should do all those mercies of security , and that we should do all the under-ministeries we can in this great work . But what advantage shall we receive by a spiritual Guide ? much every way . For this is the way that God hath appointed who in every age hath sent a succession of spiritual persons , whose office is to minister in holy things , and to be stewards of Gods houshold , shepherds of the stock , dispensers of the mysteries , under mediators , and ministers of prayer , preachers of the law , expounders of questions , monitors of duty , conveiances of blessings , and that which is a good discourse in the mouth of another man is from them an ordinance of God ; and besides its natural efficacy and perswasion , it prevails by the way of blessing , by the reverence of his person , by divine institution , by the excellency of order , by the advantages of opinion and assistances of reputation , by the influence of the spirit who is the president of such ministeries , and who is appointed to all Christians according to the despensation ] that is appointed to them ; to the people in their obedience , and frequenting of the ordinance , to the Priest in his ministery and publick and privat offices ; To which also I adde this consideration , that as the Holy Sacraments are hugely effective to spiritual purposes , not onely because they convey a blessing to the worthy suscipients , but because men cannot be worthy suscipients unlesse they do many excellent acts of vertue in order to a previous disposition : so that in the whole conjunction , and transaction of affaires there is good done by way of proper efficacy and divine blessing ; so it is in following the conduct of a spiritual man , and consulting with him in the matter of our souls ; we cannot do it unless we consider our souls and make religion our businesse and examine our present state , and consider concerning our danger , and watch and designe for our advantages , which things of themselves wil set a man much forwarder in the way of Godlinesse ; besides thath naturally every man will lesse dare to act a sin for which he knows he shall feel a present shame in his discoveries made to the spiritual Guide , the man that is made the witnesse of his conversation . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Holy men ought to know all things from God , and that relate to God , in order to the conduct of souls : and there is nothing to be said against this , if we do not suffer the devil in this affaire to abuse us , as he does many people in their opinions , teaching men to suspect there is a designe and a snake under the plantain ? But so may they suspect Kings when they command obedience , or the Levites when they read the law of tithes , or Parents when they teach their children temperance , or Tutors when they watch their charge . However , it is better to venture the worst of the designe , then to lose the best of the assistance ; and he that guides himself hath much work , and much danger ; but he that is under the conduct of another , his work is easy , little and secure ; it is nothing but diligence and obedience , and though it be a hard thing to rule well , yet nothing is easier then to follow and to be obedient . Sermon . XXII . Of Christian Prudence . Part III. 7. AS it is a part of Christian prudence to take into the conduct of our soules a spiritual man for a guide , so it is also of great concernment that we be prudent in the choice of him whom we are to trust in so great an interest . Concerning which it will be impossible to give characters and significations particular enough to enable a choice without the interval assistances of prayer , experience and the Grace of God ; He that describes a man can tell you the colour of his hair , his stature and proportions , and describe some general lines , enough to distingush him from a Cyclops or a Saracen , but when you chance to see the man you will discover figures or little features of which the description had produced in you no Phantasme , or expectation . And in the exteriour significations of a sect there are more semblances then in mens faces and greater uncertainty in the signes : & what is faulty strives so craftily to act the true and proper images of things , and the more they are defective in circumstances , the more curious they are in forms ; and they also use such arts of gaining Proselytes which are of most advantage towards an effect , and therefore such which the true Christian ought to pursue , and the Apostles actually did , and they strive to follow their patterns in arts of perswasion , not onely because they would seem like them , but because they can have none so good , so effective to their purposes ; that it follows that it is not more a duty to take care , that we be not corrupted with false teachers , then that we be not abused with false signes ; for we as well finde a good man teaching a false proposition , as a good cause managed by ill men , and a holy cause is not alwayes dressed with healthful symptomes ; nor is there a crosse alwayes set upon the doores of those congregations , who are infected with the plague of heresy . When Saint John was to separate false teachers from true , he took no other course but to remark the doctrine which was of God , and that should be the mark of cognisance to distinguish right shepheards from robbers and invaders : every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God : He that denieth it is not of God. By this he bids his schollers to avoid the present sects of Ebion , Cerinthus , Simon Magus and such other persons that denied that Christ was at all before he came , or that he came really in the flesh and a proper humanity . This is a clear note and they that conversed with Saint John or believed his doctrine were sufficiently instructed in the present Questions . But this note will signify nothing to us ; for all sects of Christians confesse Jesus Christ come in the flesh , and the following sects did avoid that rock over which a great Apostle had hung out so plain a lantern . In the following ages of the Church men have been so curious to signifie misbelievers , that they have invented and observed some signes , which indeed in some cases were true , real appendages of false believers ; but yet such which were also , or might be common to them with good men , and members of the Catholick Church ; some few I shall remark and give a short account of them that by removing the uncertain , we may fix our inquiries and direct them by certain significations ; lest this art of prudence turn into folly and faction , errour and secular designe . 1. Some men distinguish errour from truth by calling their adversaries doctrine , new , and of yesterday ; and certainly this is a good signe if it be rightly applyed ; for since all Christian doctrine is that which Christ taught his Church , and the spirit enlarged , or expounded , and the Apostles delivered , we are to begin the Christian aera for our faith and parts of religion by the period of their preaching : our account begins then , and whatsoever is contrary to what they taught is new and false , and whatsoever is besides , what they taught , is no part of our religion ( and then no man can be prejudiced for believing it or not ) and if it be adopted into the confessions of the Church , the proposition is alwayes so uncertain , that it s not to be admitted into the faith ; and therefore if it be old in respect of our dayes , it is not therefore necessary to be believed : if it be new it may be received into opinion according to its probabilitie , and no sects or interest are to be divided upon such accounts . This onely I desire to be observed , that when a truth returns from banishment by a postliminium , if it was from the first , though the Holy fire hath been buried , or the river ran under ground , yet that we do not call that new ; since newnesse is not to be accounted of by a proportion to our short lived memories , or to the broken records and fragments of story lest after the inundation of barbarisme and war , and change of Kingdoms and corruption of Authors ; but by its relation to the fountain of our truths and the birth of our religion under our Fathers in Christ , the holy Apostles , and Disciples : a Camel was a new thing to them that saw it in the fable ; But yet it was created as soon as a cow or the domestick creatures , and some people are apt to call every thing new , which they never heard of before , as if all religion were to be measured by the standards of their observation , or country customs . Whatsoever was not taught by Christ , or his Apostles though it came in by Papias , or Dionysius , by Arius or Liberius , is certainly new as to our account ; and whatsoever is taught to us by the Doctors of the present age if it can shew its test from the beginning of our period for revelaltion , is not to be called new though it be pressed with a new zeal and discoursed of by unheard of arguments ; that is though men be ignorant and need to learn it , yet it is not therefore new or unnecessary . 2. Some would have false teachers sufficiently signified by a name or the owning of a private Appellative as of Papist , Lutheran , Calvenists Zuinglian , Socinian ; & think it is enough to denominat them not , of Christ if they are called by the name of a man. And indeed the thing is in it self ill : but then if by this mark we shall esteem false teachers sufficiently signified we must follow no man , no Church , nor no communion : for all are by their adversaries marked with an appellative of separation and singularity , and yet themselves are tenacious of a good name , such as they choose or such as is permitted to them by fame , and the people , and a natural necessity of making a distinction . Thus the Donatist called themselves the flock of God , and the Novatians called the Catholicks traditors , and the Eustathians called themselves Catholikes and the worshippers of images made Iconoclast to be a name of scorn , and men made names as they listed , or as the fate of the market went. And if a Doctor preaches a doctrine which another man likes not , but preaches the contradictory , he that consents and he that refuses have each of them a teacher by whose name , if they please to wrangle , they may be signified . It was so in the Corinthian Church with this onely difference that they divided themselves by names which signified the same religion . I am of Paul , and I of Apollo and I am of Peter , and I of Christ ; these Apostles were ministers of Christ ; and so does every teacher new or old among the Christians pretend himself to be ; Let that therefore be examined ; if he ministers to the truth of Christ and the religion of his master , let him be entertained as a servant of his Lord ; but if an appellative be taken from his name , there is a faction commenced in it ; and there is a fault in the men if there be none in the doctrine ; but that the doctrine be true or false , to be received , or to be rejected because of the name is accidental and extrinsecall ; and therefore not to be determined by this signe . 3. Amongst some men a sect is sufficiently thought to be reproved , if it subdivides and breaks into little fractions , or changes its own opinions : indeed if it declines its own doctrine , no man hath reason to beleeve them upon their word , or to take them upon the stock of reputation , which ( themselves being judges ) they have forfeited and renounced in the changing that which at first they obtruded passionately . And therefore in this case there is nothing to be done , but to beleeve the men so farre as they have reason to beleeve themselves : that is , to consider when they prove what they say : and they that are able to do so , are not persons in danger to be seduced by a bare authority , unlesse they list themselves ; for others that sink under an unavoidable prejudice , God will take care for them if they be good people ; and their case shall be considered by and by . But for the other part of the signe ; when men fall out among themselves for other interests or opinions , it is no argument , that they are in an errour concerning that doctrine , which they all unitedly teach or condemn respectively ; but it hath in it some probability that their union is a testimony of truth , as certainly as that their fractions are a testimony of their zeal , or honesty , or weaknesse ( as it happens ) : and if we Christians be too decretory in this instance , it will be hard for any of us to keep a Jew from making use of it against the whole religion which from the dayes of the Apostles hath been rent into innumerable sects , and under-sects , springing from mistake or interest , from the arts of the Devil , or the weaknesse of man. But from hence we may make an advantage in the way of prudence and become sure that all that doctrine is certainly true , in which the generality of Christians ( who are divided in many things , yet ) do constantly agree : and that that doctrine is also sufficient since it is certain that because in all Communions and Churches there are some very good men , that do all their duty to the getting of truth , God will not fail in any thing that is necessary to them that honestly and heartily desire to obtain it : and therefore if they rest in the heartinesse of that , and live accordingly , and superinduce nothing to the destruction of that , they have nothing to do but to rely upon Gods goodnesse : and if they perish , it is certain they cannot help it , and that is demonstration enough that they cannot perish , considering the justice and goodnesse of our Lord and Judge . 4. Whoever break the bands of a Society , or Communion , and go out from that Congregation in whose Confession they are baptized , do an intolerable scandal to their doctrine and persons , and give suspicious men reason to decline their Assemblies , and not to choose them at all for any thing of their authority , or outward circumstances : and Saint Paul bids the Romans to mark them that cause divisions and offences . But the following words make their caution prudent and practicable , [ contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them ] they that recede from the doctrine which they have learned , they cause the offence , and if they also obtrude this upon their congregations , they also make the division . For it is certain , if we receive any doctrine contrary to what Christ gave , and the Apostles taught , for the authority of any man , then we call men Masters , and leave our Master which is in heaven ; and in that case we must separate from the Congregation and adhere to Christ ; but this is not to be done , unlesse the case be evident and notorious . But as it is hard , that the publike doctrine of a Church should be rifled , and misunderstood , and reproved , and rejected , by any of her wilful or ignorant sons and daughters : so it is also as hard that they should be bound , not to see when the case is plain and evident . There may be mischiefs on both sides ; but the former sort of evils men may avoid if they will ; for they may be humble and modest , and entertain better opinions of their Superiours then of themselves , and in doubtful things give them the honour of a just opinion : and if they do not do so , that evil will be their own private : for that it become not publike , the King and the Bishop are to take care : but for the latter sort of evil it will certainly become universal ; If ( I say ) an authoritative false doctrine be imposed , and is to be accepted accordingly ; for then all men shall be bound to professe against their conscience , that is , with their mouthes not to confesse unto salvation , what with their hearts they believe unto righteousnesse . The best way of remedying both the evils is , that Governours lay no burden of doctrines or lawes but what are necessary , or very profitable : and that Inferiours do not contend for things unnecessary , nor call any thing necessary that is not : till then there will be evils on both sides ; and although the Governours are to carry the Question in the point of law , reputation , and publike government , yet as to Gods Judicature they will bear the bigger load , who in his right do him an injury , and by the impresses of his authority destroy his truth . But in this case also , although separating be a suspicious thing and intolerable , unlesse it be when a sin is imposed , yet to separate is also accidentall to truth : for some men separate with reason , some men against reason ; therefore here all the certainty that is in the thing , is when the truth is secured , and all the security to the men will be in the humility of their persons , and the heartinesse and simplicity of their intention , and diligence of inquiry . The Church of England had reason to separate from the Confession and practises of Rome in many particulars , and yet if her children separate from her they may be unreasonable and impious . 5. The wayes of direction which we have from holy Scripture to distinguish false Apostles from true , are taken from their doctrine or their lives . That of the doctrine is the most sure way if we can hit upon it ; but that also is the thing signified , and needs to have other signes . Saint John and Saint Paul took this way , for they were able to do it infallibly . All that confesse Jesus incarnate are of God said Saint John ; those men that deny it are hereticks ; avoid them : and Saint Paul bids to observe them that cause divisions and offences against the doctrine delivered . Them also avoid , that do so . And we might do so as easily as they , if the world would onely take their depositum , that doctrine which they delivered to all men , that is , the Creed , and superinduce nothing else , but suffer Christian faith to rest in its own perfect simplicity , unmingled with arts , and opinions , and interests . This course is plain and easie , and I will not intricate it with more words , but leave it directly in its own truth and certainty , with this onely direction . That when we are to choose our doctrine , or our side , we take that which is in the plain unexpounded words of Scripture ; for in that onely our religion can consist . Secondly choose that which is most advantageous to a holy life , to the proper graces of a Christian , to humility , to charity , to forgivenesse and alms , to obedience , and complying with governments , to the honour of God and the exaltation of his attributes , and to the conservation and advantages of the publike societies of men ; and this last , Saint Paul directs , Let ours be carefull to maintain goodworks for necessary uses , for he that heartily pursues these proportions cannot be an ill man , though he were accidentally and in the particular applications deceived . 6. But because this is an act of wisdom , rather then prudence , and supposes science or knowledge rather then experience , therefore it concerns the prudence of a Christian to observe the practise , and the rules of practise , their lives , and pretences , the designes , and colours , the arts of conduct , and gaining proselytes , which their Doctors and Catechists do use in order to their purposes , and in their ministery about souls . For although many signes are uncertain , yet some are infallible and some are highly probable . 7. Therefore those teachers that pretend to be guided by a private spirit are certainly false Doctors . I remember what Simmias in Plutarch tels concerning Socrates , that if he heard any man say he saw a divine vision , he presently esteemed him vain and proud ; but if he pretended onely to have heard a voice or the word of God , he listened to that religiously , and would enquire of him with curiosity . There was some reason in his fancy ; for God does not communicate himself by the eye to men but by the ear : ye saw no figure , but ye heard a voice , said Moses to the people concerning God : and therefore if any man pretends to speak the word of God , we will enquire concerning it ; the man may the better be heard , because he may be certainly reproved if he speaks amisse : but if he pretends to visions and revelations , to a private spirit and a mission extraordinary , the man is proud and unlearned , vicious and impudent . No Scripture is of private interpretation ( saith S. Peter ) that is , of private emission or declaration . Gods words were delivered indeed by single men , but such as were publikely designed Prophets , remarked with a known character , approved of by the high Priest , and Sanhedrim , indued with a publike spirit , and his doctrines were alwayes agreeable to the other Scriptures . But if any man pretends now to the spirit , either it must be a private or publike ; if it be private , it can but be usefull to himself alone , and it may cozen him too , if it be not assisted by the spirit of a publike man. But if it be a publike spirit , it must enter in at the publike door of ministeries , and divine ordinances , of Gods grace , and mans endeavour , it must be subject to the Prophets , it is discernable and judicable by them , and therefore may be rejected , and then it must pretend no longer . For he that will pretend to an extraordinary spirit , and refuses to be tried by the ordinary wayes , must either prophecy , or work miracles , or must have a voice from heaven to give him testimony . The Prophets in the old Testament , and the Apostles in the New , and Christ between both had no other way of extraordinary probation : and they that pretend to any thing extraordinary , cannot , ought not to be beleeved , unlesse they have something more then their own word . If I bear witnesse of my self , my witnesse is not true , said Truth it self , our Blessed Lord. But secondly , they that intend to teach by an extraordinary spirit , if they pretend to teach according to Scripture must be examined by the measures of Scripture , and then their extraordinary must be judged by the ordinary spirit , and stands or falls by the rules of every good mans religion , and publike government ; and then we are well enough . But if they speak any thing against Scripture it is the spirit of Antichrist , and the spirit of the Devil ; For if an Angel from heaven ( he certainly is a spirit ) preach any other doctrine , let him be accursed . But this pretence of a single and extraordinary spirit is nothing else but the spirit of pride , errour , and delusion , a snare to catch easie and credulous souls , which are willing to die for a gay word and a distorted face ; it is the parent of folly , and giddy doctrine , impossible to be proved , and therefore uselesse to all purposes of religion , reason , or sober counsels ; it is like an invisible colour , or musick without a sound , it is , and indeed is so intended to be , a direct overthrow of order , and government , and publike ministeries ; It is bold to say any thing , and resolved to prove nothing ; it imposes upon willing people after the same manner that Oracles and the lying Daemons did of old time , abusing men not by proper efficacy of its own , but because the men love to be abused ; it is a great disparagement to the sufficiency of Scripture , and asperses the Divine providence for giving to so many ages of the Church an imperfect religion , expressely against the truth of their words who said , they had declared the whole truth of God , and told all the will of God : and it is an affront to the Spirit of God , the Spirit of wisdom , and knowledge , of order and publike ministeries . But the will furnishes out malice , and the understanding sends out levity , and they marry , and produce a phantastick dream , and the daughter sucking winde instead of the milk of the word , growes up to madnesse and the spirit of reprobation . Besides all this , an extraordinary spirit is extremely unnecessary , and God does not give immissions and miracles from heaven to no purpose , and to no necessities of his Church ; for the supplying of which he hath given Apostles and Evangelists , Prophets and Pastors , Bishops and Priests , the spirit of Ordination , and the spirit of instruction , Catechists , and Teachers , Arts and Sciences , Scriptures and a constant succession of Expositors , the testimony of Churches , and a constant line of tradition , or delivery of Apostolical Doctrine in all things necessary to salvation . And after all this , to have a fungus arise from the belly of mud and darknesse , and nourish a gloworm , that shall challenge to out-shine the lantern of Gods word , and all the candles which God set upon a hill , and all that the Spirit hath set upon the candlesticks ; and all the starres in Christs right hand , is to annull all the excellent , established , orderly , and certain effects of the Spirit of God , and to worship the false fires of the night . He therefore that will follow a Guide that leads him by an extraordinary spirit , shall go an extraordinary way , and have a strange fortune , and a singular religion , and a portion by himself , a great way off from the common inheritance of the Saints , who are all led by the Spirit of God , and have one heart , and one minde , one faith , and one hope , the same baptisme , and the helps of the Ministery , leading them to the common countrey , which is the portion of all that are the sons of adoption , consigned by the Spirit of God , the earnest of their inheritance . Concerning the pretence of a private spirit , for interpretation of the confessed doctrine of God ( the holy Scriptures ) it will not so easily come into this Question of choosing our spirituall Guides ; Because every person that can be Candidate in this office , that can be chosen to guide others , must be a publike man , that is , of a holy calling , sanctified or separate publikely to the office ; and then to interpret is part of his calling , and imployment , and to do so is the work of a publike spirit ; he is ordained and designed , he is commanded and inabled to do it : and in this there is no other caution to be interposed , but that the more publike the man is , of the more authority his interpretation is ; and he comes neerest to a law of order , and in the matter of government is to be observed : but the more holy and the more learnd the man is , his interpretation in matter of Question is more likely to be true : and though lesse to be pressed as to the publick confession yet it may be more effective to a private perswasion , provided it be done without scandal , or lessening the authority , or disparagement to the more publick person . 8. Those are to be suspected for evil guides , who to get authority among the people pretend a great zeal , and use a bold liberty in reproving Princes and Governours , nobility and Prelates ; for such homilies cannot be the effects of a holy religion , which lay a snare for authority , and undermine power , and discontent the people and make them bold against Kings , and immodest in their own stations , and trouble the government . Such men may speak a truth or teach a true doctrine ; for every such designe does not unhallow the truth of God ; but they take some truthes and force them to minister to an evil end ; but therefore , mingle not in the communities of such men , for they will make it a part of your religion to prosecute that end openly which they by arts of the Tempter have insinuated privately . But if ever you enter into the seats of those Doctors that speak reproachfully of their Superiours , or detract from government , or love to curse the King in their heart , or slander him with their mouths , or disgrace their persons , blesse your self and retire quickly ; for there dwells the plague , but the spirit of God is not president of the assembly ; and therefore you shall observe in all the characters which the B. Apostles of our Lord made for describing and avoiding societies of hereticks , false guides and bringers in of strange doctrines , still they reckon treason and rebellion ; so S. Paul , In the last dayes perillous times shall come , the men shall have the form of Godlinesse , and denie the power of it ; they shall be Traitors , heady , high minded : that 's their characteristic note . So Saint Peter the Lord knoweth how to deliver the Godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgement to be punished . But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleannesse and despise government ; presumptuous are they , self willed they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities . The same also is recorded and observed by Saint Jude , likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh , despise dominion and speak evil of dignities . These three testimonies are but the declaration of one great contingency ; they are the same prophesy declared by three Apostolical men , that had the gift of prophecy : and by this character the Holy Ghost in all ages hath given us caution to avoid such assemblies , where the speaking and ruling man shall be the canker of government , and a preacher of sedition , who shall either ungirt the Princes sword , or unloose the button of their mantle . 9. But the Apostles in all these prophecies have remarked lust to be the inseparable companion of these rebel prophets : they are filthy dreamers , they defile the flesh ; so Saint Jude : they walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleannesse , so Saint Peter they are lovers of pleasure more then lovers of God , incontinent and sensual . So Saint Paul and by this part of the character , as the Apostles remarked the Nicolatians , and Gnosticks , the Carpocratians and all their impure branches which began in their dayes and multiplied after their deaths , so they prophetically did foresignifie al such sects to be avoided who to catch silly women laden with sins preach doctrines of ease and licenciounesse , apt to countenance and encourage vile things , and not apt to restrain a passion , or mortifie a sin . Such as those ; that [ God sees no sin in his children : that no sin will take us from Gods favour ; that all of such a party are elect people : that God requires of us nothing but faith : and that faith which justifies is nothing but a meere believing , that we are Gods chosen : that we are not tied to the law of commandments : that the law of grace is a law of liberty : and that liberty is to do what we list ; that divorces are to be granted upon many and slight causes : that simple fornication is no sin : these are such doctrines , that upon the belief of them men may doe any thing , and will do that which shall satisfie their own desires and promote their interests and seduce their shee disciples : and indeed it was not without great reason that these three Apostles joyned lust and treason together ; because the former is so shameful a crime and renders a mans spirit naturally averse to government that if it falls upon the person of a Ruler , it takes from him the spirit of government , and renders him diffident , pusillanimous , private , and ashamed ; if it happen in the person of a subject , it makes him hate the man that shall shame him and punish him : it hates the light and the Sun , because that opens him , and therefore is much more against government because that publishes and punishes too . One thing I desire to be observed , that though the primitive heresies now named and all those others their successors practised and taught horrid impurities , yet they did not invade government at all , and therefore those sects that these Apostles did signifie by prophecy , and in whom both these are concentred , were to appear in some latter times ; and the dayes of the prophecy were not then to be fulfill'd ; what they are since , every age must judge , by its own experience , & for its own interest . But Christian religion is so pure and holy that chastity is sometimes used for the whole religion , and to do an action chastly signifies purity of intention , abstraction from the world and separation from low and secular ends , the virginity of the soul , and its union with God ; and all deviations and estrangements from God and adhesion to forbidden objects is called fornication and adultery . Those sects therefore that teach , incourage , or practise impious or unhallowed mixtures and shameful lusts are issues of the impure spirit and most contrary to God who can behold no unclean thing . 10. Those prophets and Pastors that pretend severity and live loosely , or are severe in small things and give liberty in greater , or forbid some sins with extreme rigour , and yet practise or teach those that serve their interest or constitute their sect , are to be suspected and avoided accordingly . Nihil est hominum ineptâ persuasione falsius , nec fictâ severitate ineptius . All ages of the Church were extremely curious to observe when any new teachers did arise , what kinde of lives they lived : and if they pretended severely and to a strict life , then they knew their danger doubled : for it is certain all that teach doctrines contrary to the established religion , delivered by the Apostles , all they are evil men . God will not suffer a good man to be seduced damnably , much lesse can he be a seducer of others : and therefore you shall still observe the false Apostles to be furious and vehement in their reproofs and severe in their animadversions of others ; but then if you watch their private , or stay till their numbers are full , or observe their spiritual habits , you shall finde them indulgent to themselves , or to return from their disguises , or so spiritually wicked , that their pride , or their revenge , their envie or their detraction , their scorn or their complacency in themselves , their desire of preheminence and their impatience of arrival , shall place them far enough in distance from a poor carnal sinner , whom they shall load with censures and an upbraiding scorn ; but themselves are like Devils , the spirits of darknesse the spiritual wickednesses in high places . Some sects of men are very angry against servants for recreating and easing their labours with a lesse prudent and an unsevere refreshment ; but the patron of their sect shall oppresse a wicked man and an unbelieving person ; they shall chastise a drunkard and entertain murmurrers ; they shall not abide an oath and yet shal force men to break three or four . This sect is to be avoided , because although it is good to be severe against carnal or bodily sins , yet it is not good to mingle with them who chastise a bodily sin to make way for a spiritual , or reprove a servant , that his Lord may sin alone , or punish a stranger and a begger that will not approve their sins , but will have sins of his own . Concering such persons Saint Paul hath told us that they shall not proeecd far , but their folly shall bemanifest . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Lysias . Cito ad naturam sicta reciderunt sua . They that dissemble their sin and their manners , or make severity to serve loosnesse , and an imaginary vertue to minister to a real vice ; they that abhor Idols and would commit sacrilege : chastise a drunkard and promote sedition , declaime against the vanity of great persons , and then spoil them of their goods , reform manners and engrosse estates , talk godly and do impiously , these are teachers , which the Holy spirit of God hath by three Apostles bid us to beware of and decline as we would run from the hollownesse of a grave or the despaires and sorrows of the damned . 11. The substance of al is this , that we must not chose our doctrine by our guide ; but our guide by the doctrine , & if we doubt concerning the doctrine we may judge of that by the lives and designes of the Teachers : By their fruits you shall know them , and by the plain words of the scripture , by the Apostles Creed , and by the commandments , and by the certain known and established forms of government ; These are the great indices , and so plain , apt and easy ; that he that is deceived is so because he will be so ; he is betrayed into it by his own lust and a voluntary chosen folly . 12 Besides these premises there are other little candles , that can help to make the judgement clearer but they are such as do not signifie alone , but in conjunction with some of the precedent characters which are drawn by the great lines of scripture . Such as are 1. when the teachers of sects stir up unprofitable and uselesse Questions , 2. when they causelesly retire from the universal customs of Christendom , 3. And cancel all the memorials of the greatest mysteries of our redemption , 4. When their confessions and Catechismes and their whole religion consist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in speculations and ineffective notions , in discourses of Angels and spirits , in abstractions and raptures , in things they understand not and of which they have no revelation 5. Or else if their religion spends it self in ceremonies , outward guises and material solemnities and imperfect formes drawing the heart of the vine forth into leaves and irregular fruitless suckers , turning the substance into circumstances , and the love of God into gestures , and the effect of the spirit into the impertinent offices of a burdensom ceremonial : For by these two particulars the Apostles reproved the Jews and the Gnostics , or those that from the school of Pythagoras pretended conversation with Angels and great knowledge of the secrets of the spirits ; chosing tutelar Angels and assigning them offices and charges , as in the Church of Rome to this day they do to Saints : to these adde , 6. that we observe whether the guides of souls avoid to suffer for their religion , for then the matter is foul , or the man not fit to lead , that dares not die in cold blood for his religion : will the man lay his life and his soul upon the proposition ? If so , then you may consider him upon his proper grounds , but if he refuses that , refuse his conduct sure enough , 7. You may also watch whether they do not chose their proselyts amongst the rich and vitious ; that they may serve themselves upon his wealth , and their disciple upon his vice , 8. If their doctrines evidently and greatly serve the interest of wealth or honour , and are ineffective to piety , 9. If they strive to gain any one to their confession , and are negligent to gain them to good life , 10. If by pretences they lessen the severity of Christs precepts , and are easy in dispensations and licencious glosses : 11. If they invent suppletories to excuse an evil man and yet to reconcile his bad life with the hopes of heaven , you have reason to suspect the whole and to reject these parts of errour and designe which in themselves are so unhandsom alwayes , and somtimes criminal . He that shal observe the Church of Rome so implacably fierce for purgatory and the Popes supremacy , from clerical immunities , and the Superiority of the Ecclesiastical persons to secular , for indulgencies and precious and costly pardons , and then so full of devises to reconcile an evil life with heaven , requiring onely contrition , even at the last for the abolition of eternal guilt and having a thousand wayes to commute and take off the temporal ; will see he hath reason to be jealous that interest is in these bigger then the religion , and yet that the danger of the soul is greater then that interest ; and therefore the man is to do accordingly . Here indeed is the great necessity that we should have the prudence and discretion , the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of serpents , — ut cernamus acutum Quam aut aquila aut serpens Epidaurius . For so serpents as they are curious to preserve their heads from contrition or a bruise , so also to safeguard themselves that they be not charmed with sweet and enticing words of false prophets ; who charm not wisely , but cunningly , leading aside unstable souls ; against these we must stop our ears or lend our attention according to the foregoing measures and significations ; but here also I am to insert two or three cautions . 1. We cannot expect that by these or any other signes we shall be inabled to discover concerning all men whether they teach an errour or no. Neither can a man by these reprove a Lutheran , or a Zuinglian , a Dominican or a Franciscan , a Russian or a Greek , a Muscovite or a Georgian , because those which are certain signes of false teachers , do signifie such men , who destroy an article of faith or a commandment ; God was careful to secure us from death by removing the Lepers from the camp , and giving certain notices of distinction , and putting a term between the living and the dead : but he was not pleased to secure every man from innocent and harmlesse errors , from the mistakes of men , and the failings of mortality . The signes which can distinguish a living man from a dead , will not also distinguish a black man from a brown , or a pale from a white : It is enough that we decline those guides that lead us to hell , but not to think that we are inticed to death by the weaknesses of every disagreeing brother . 2. In all discerning of sects , we must be careful to distinguish the faults of men from the evils of their doctrine ; for some there are that say very well , and do very ill , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Multos Thyrsigeros , paucos est cernere Bacchos : Many men of holy calling and holy religion that are of unholy lives ; homines ignavâ oper â Philosophâ sententiâ : But these must be separated from the institution : and the evil of the men is onely to be noted , as that such persons be not taken to our single conduct , and personal ministery ; I will be of the mans religion if it be good , though he be not ; but I will not make him my confessor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . If he be not wise for himself , I will not sit down at his feet lest we mingle filthinesse instead of being cleansed and instructed . 3. Let us make one separation more & then we may consider and act according to the premises : If we espie a designe or an evil mark upon one doctrine let us divide it from the other that are not so spotted , for indeed the publick communions of men are at this day so ordered , that they are as fond of their errours as of their truthes , and somtimes moct zealous for what they have least reason to be so : and if we can by any arts of prudence separate from an evil proposition and communicate in all the good , then we may love colleges of religious persons , though we do not worship images , and we may obey our Prelates , though we do no injury to princes , and we may be zealous against a crime , though we be not imperious over mens persons , and we may be diligent in the conduct of souls though we be not rapacious of estates , and we may be moderate exactors of Obedience to human laws though we do not dispense with the breach of the divine ; and the Clergy may represent their calling necessary though their persons be full of modesty and humility , and we may preserve our rights and not lose our charity . For this is the meaning of the Apostle , Try all things and retain that which is good : from every sect and communitie of Christians take any thing that is good , that advances holy religion , and the Divine honour ; For one hath a better government , a second a better confession , a third hath excellent spiritual arts for the conduct of souls , a fourth hath fewer errours , and by what instrument soever a holy life is advantaged use that though thou grindest thy spears and arrows at the forges of the Philistines ; knowing thou hast no Master but Christ , no religion but the Christian , no rule but the Scriptures , and the laws and right reason , other things that are helps , are to be used accordingly . These are the general rules of Christian prudence which I have chosen to insist upon ; there are many others more particular indeed , but yet worth not onely the enumerating , but observing also , and that they be reduced to practise . For the prudence of a Christian does oblige and direct respectively all the children of the institution ; * that we be careful to decline a danger , * watchful against a temptation , * alwayes choosing that that is safe , and fitted to all circumstances , * that we be wise in choosing our company * reserved and wary in our friendships , * and communicative in our charity , * that we be silent and retentive of what we hear and what we think , * not credulous , * not unconstant , * that we be deliberate in our election * and vigorous in our prosecutions , * that we suffer not good nature to discompose our duty but that we separate images from substances , and the pleasing of a present company from our religion to God , and our eternal interest : for sometimes that which is counselled to us by Christian prudence is accounted folly by humane prudence , and so it is ever accounted when our duty leads us into a persecution . * Hither also appertain ; that we never do a thing that we know we must repent of , * that we do not admire too many things , nor any thing too much , * that we be even in prosperity * and patient in adversity ; but transported with neither into the regions of despair or levity , pusillanimity or Tyranny , dejection or Garishnesse , * alwayes to look upon the sear we have impressed upon our flesh , and no more to handle dangers and knives , * to abstain from ambitious and vexatious suits , * not to contend with a mighty man , * ever to listen to him ( who according to the proverb ) hath four ears , Reason Religion , wisdom and experience , * rather to lose a benefit then to suffer a detriment and an evil , * to stop the beginnings of evil , * to pardon and not to observe all the faults of friends or enemies ; * of evils to choose the least , * and of goods to choose the greatest , if it be also safest ; * not to be insolent in successe , but to proceed according to the probability of humane causes and contingencies , * ever to be thankful for benefits , * and profitable to others and useful in all that we can , * to watch the seasons and circumstances of actions , * to do that willingly which cannot be avoided , lest the necessity serve anothers appetite , and it be lost to all our purposes , Insignis enim est prudentiae , ut quod non facere non possis , id facere ut libenter fecisse videaris , * not to pursue difficult uncertain and obscure things with violence and passion . These if we observe we shall do advantage to our selves and to the religion , and avoid those evils which fools and unwary people suffer for nothing , dying or bleeding without cause and without pity . I end this with the saying of Socrates . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vertue is but a shadow and a servile imployment unlesse it be adorned and instructed with prudence which gives motion and conduct , spirits and vigourousnesse to religion , making it not onely humane and reasonable but Divine and caelestial . Sermon . XXIII . OF CHRISTIAN SIMPLICITY . Matthew 10. latter part of Ver. 16. And harmlesse as doves . ] OUR Blessed Saviour having prefac'd concerning Prudence , addes to the integrity of the precept , and for the conduct of our religion , that we be simple as well as prudent , innocent as well as wary : harmlesse and safe together do well ; for without this blessed union , prudence turns into craft , and simplicity degenerates into folly . Prudens simplicitas , is Martial's character of a good man : a wary and cautious innocence , a harmlesse providence , and provision : Verâ simplicitate bonus , a true simplicity , is that which leaves to a man arms defensive ; his castles and strong forts , but takes away his swords , and spears , or else his anger and his malice , his peevishnesse and spite . But such is the misery , and such is the iniquity of mankinde , that craft hath invaded all the contracts and entercourses of men , and made simplicity so weak a thing , that it is grown into contempt , sometimes with , and sometimes without reason ; Et homines simplices , minimè malos , the Romans called parum cautos , saepè stolidos , unwary fools , and defenselesse people were called simple : and when the innocency of the old simple Romans in Junius Brutus time , in Fabritius , and Camillus began to degenerate , and to need the Aquilian law to force men to deal honestly , quickly the mischief increased , till the Aquilian law grew as much out of power , as honesty was out of countenance . And there , and every where else men thought they got a purchase , when they met with an honest man , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristotle calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . A fool is a profitable person , and he that is simple is little better then mad : And so it is , when simplicity wants prudence . He that because he means honestly himself , thinks every man else does so , and therefore is unwary in all , or any of his entercourses , is a simple man in an evil sence , and therefore Saint Gregory Nazianzen remarks Constantius with a note of folly , for suffering his easie nature to be abused by Georgius , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The Princes simplicity , so he calls it for reverence , but indeed it was folly , for it was zeal without knowledge : But it was a better temper , which he observed in his own father , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , such a simplicity which onely wanted craft , or deceit , but wanted no prudence or caution , and that is truly Christian simplicity , or the sincerity of an honest , and ingenious , and a fearlesse person ; and it is a rare band , not onely of societies , and contracts , but also of friendships , and advantages of mankinde . We do not live in an age in which there is so much need to bid men be wary , as to take care that they be innocent : Indeed in religion we are usually too loose , and ungirt , exposing our selves to temptation , and others to offence , and our name to dishonour , and the cause it self to reproach , and we are open and ready to every evil but persecution : from that we are close enough , and that alone we call prudence ; but in the matter of interest we are wary as serpents , subtil as foxes , vigilant as the birds of the night , rapacious as Kites , tenacious as grapling hooks and the weightiest anchors , and above all , false and hypocritical as a thin crust of ice , spread upon the face of a deep , smooth , and dissembling pit ; if you set your foot , your foot slips , or the ice breaks , and you sink into death , and are wound in a sheet of water , descending into mischief or your grave ; suffering a great fall , or a sudden death by your confidence and unsuspecting foot . There is an universal crust of hypocrisie , that covers the face of the greatest part of mankinde . Their religion consists in forms and outsides , and serves reputation or a designe , but does not serve God : Their promises are but fair language , and the civilities of the Piazzas or Exchanges , and disband and unty like the air that beat upon their teeth , when they spake the delicious and hopefull words . Their oaths are snares to catch men , and make them confident : Their contracts are arts and stratagems to deceive , measured by profit and possibility ; and every thing is lawfull that is gainfull ; and their friendships are trades of getting ; and their kindnesse of watching a dying friend , is but the office of a vulture , the gaping for a legacy , the spoil of the carcasse ; and their sicknesses are many times policies of state , sometimes a designe to shew the riches of our bed-chamber ; and their funeral tears are but the paranymphs and pious solicitors of a second Bride ; and every thing that is ugly must be hid , and every thing that is handsome must be seen , and that will make a fair cover for a huge deformity ; and therefore it is ( as they think ) necessary that men should alwayes have some pretences and forms , some faces of religion , or sweetnesse of language , confident affirmatives , or bold oaths , protracted treaties , or multitude of words , affected silence , or grave deportment , a good name , or a good cause , a fair relation , or a worthy calling , great power , or a pleasant wit ; any thing that can be fair , or that can be usefull , any thing that can do good , or be thought good , we use it to abuse our brother , or promote our interests . Leporina resolved to die , being troubled for her husbands danger , and he resolved to die with her that had so great a kindnesse for him as not to out-live the best of her husbands fortune . It was agreed and she temperd the poyson , and drank the face of the unwholesome goblet , but the weighty poyson sunke to the bottome , and the easie man drank it all off , and died , and the woman carried him forth to funeral , and after a little illnesse which she soon recovered , she enterd upon the inheritance and a second marriage . Tuta frequensque via est — This is an usual and a safe way to cozen , upon colour of friendship or religion , but that is hugely criminal ; to tell a lie to abuse a mans belief , and by it to enter upon any thing of his possession or his injury is a perfect destruction of all humane society , the most ignoble of all humane follies , perfectly contrary to God , who is Truth it self , the greatest argument of a timorous and a base , a cowardly and a private minde , not at all honest , or confident to see the Sun , a vice fit for slaves ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Dio Chrysostomus calls it ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; for the most timorous and the basest of beasts use craft , and lie in wait , and take their prey , and save their lives by deceit , and it is the greatest injury to the abused person in the world ; for besides that it abuses his interest , it also makes him for ever insecure , and uneasie in his confidence , which is the period of cares , the rest of a mans spirit ; it makes it necessary for a man to be jealous and suspicious , that is , to be troublesome to himself and every man else ; and above all , lying , or craftinesse , and unfaithful usages , robs a man of the honour of his soul , making his understanding uselesse and in the condition of a fool ; spoiled , and dishonoured , and despised : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : Said Plato , Every soul loses truth very unwillingly : Every man is so great a lover of truth , that if he hath it not he loves to beleeve he hath , and would fain have all the world to beleeve as he does ; either presuming that he hath truth , or else hating to be deceived , or to be esteemed a cheated and an abused person . Non licet suffurari mentem hominis etiam Samaritani , said R. Moses , sed veritatem loquere atque age ingenuè , If a man be a Samaritan , that is , a hated person , a person from whom you differ in matter of religion , yet steal not his minde away , but speak truth to him honestly and ingenuously . A mans soul loves to dwell in truth , it is his resting place ; and if you take him from thence , you take him into strange regions , a place of banishment and dishonour . Qui ignotos loedit , latro appellatur , qui amicos , paulò minus quam parricida . He that hurts strangers is a thief , but he that hurts his friends is little better then a parricide : That 's the brand and stigma of hypocrisie and lying : it hurts our friends , mendacium in damnum potens , and makes the man that owns it guilty of a crime , that is , to be punished by the sorrows usually suffered in the most execrable places of the cities ; But I must reduce the duty to particulars , and discover the contrary vice , by the several parts of its proportion . 1. The first office of Christian simplicity consists in our religion and manners : that they he open and honest , publike and justifiable , the same at home and abroad ; for besides the ingenuity and honesty of this , there is an indispensable , and infinite necessity it should be so , because whoever is a hypocrite in his religion , mocks God , presenting to him the outside , and reserving the inward for his enemy : which is either a denying God to be the searcher of our hearts , or else an open defiance of his omniscience , and of his justice : To provoke God that we may deceive men , to defie his Almightinesse , that we may abuse our brother , is to destroy all that is Sacred , all that is prudent , it is an open hostility to all things humane and divine , a breaking from all the bands of all relations , and uses God so cheaply as if he were to be treated , or could be cozened like a weak man , and an undiscerning and easie merchant : But so is the life of many men : Vita fallax , abditos sensus gerens , Nimisque pulchram turpibus faciem induens . It is a crafty life that men live , carrying designes , and living upon secret purposes ; Pudor impudentem celat , audacem quies , piet as nefandum , vera fallaces probant ; simulantque molles dura . Men pretend modesty , and under that red vail are bold against Superiours , saucy to their betters upon pretences of religion , invaders of others rights by false propositions in Theology , pretending humility they challenge superiority above all orders of men , and for being thought more holy , think that they have title to govern the world ; they bear upon their face great religion , and are impious in their relations , false to their trust , unfaithful to their friend , unkinde to their dependants ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , turning up the white of their eye , and seeking for reputation in the streets ; so did some of the old hypocrites , the Gentile Pharisees , Asperum cultum , & intonsum caput & negligentiorem barbam & nitidum argento odium , & cubile humi positum & quicquid aliud ambitionem viâ perversâ sequitur : being the softest persons under an austere habit , the loosest livers under a contracted brow ; under a pale face , having the reddest and most spritely livers ; these kinde of men have abused all ages of the world , and all religions , it being so easie in nature , so prepared and ready for mischiefs , that men should creep into opportunities of devouring the flock upon pretence of defending them , and to raise their estates upon colour of saving their souls . Introrsum turpes speciosi pelle decorâ . Men that are like painted sepulchres , entertainment for the eye , but images of death , chambers of rottennesse , and repositories of dead mens bones . It may sometimes concern a man to seem religious ; Gods glory may be shewed by fair appearances , or the edification of our brother , or the reputation of a cause ; but this is but sometimes ; but it alwayes concerns us that we be religious , and we may reasonably think , that if the colours of religion so well do advantage to us , the substance and reality would do it much more . For no man can have a good by seeming religious , and another by not being so ; the power of godlinesse never destroys any well built fabrick that was raised upon the reputation of religion , and its pretences : Nunquam est peccare utile quia semper est turpe , said Cicero . It is never profitable to sin because it is always base and dishonest : and if the face of religion could do a good turn , which the heart and substance does destroy , then religion it self were the greatest hypocrite in the world , and promises a blessing which it never can perform , but must be beholding to its enemy to verifie its promises . No. We shall be sure to feel the blessings of both the worlds if we serve in the offices of religion devoutly and charitably , before men and before God : if we ask of God things honest in the sight of men , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( as Pythagoras gave in precept ) praying to God with a free heart and a publike prayer , and doing before men things that are truly pleasing to God , turning our heart outward and our face inwards , that is , conversing with men as in the presence of God , and in our private towards God , being as holy and devout , as if we prayed in publike , and in the corners of the streets . Pliny praising of Ariston , gave him the title of an honest and hearty religion . Ornat hunc maguitudo animi quae nihil ad ostentationem , omnia ad conscientiam refert : rectèque facti , non ex populi sermone mercedem , sed ex facto petit . And this does well state the question of a sincere religion , and an ingenuous goodnesse ; It requires that we do nothing for ostentation , but every thing for conscience ; and we may be obliged in conscience to publish our manner of lives , but then it must be , not that we may have a popular noise for a reward , but that God may be glorified by our publike worshippings , and others edified by our good examples . Neither doth the sincerity of our religion require that we should not conceal our sins , for he that sins and dares to own them publikely may become impudent : and so long as in modesty we desire our shame should be hid , and men to think better of us then we deserve , I say for no other reason , but either because we would not derive the ill examples to others , or the shame to our selves , we are within the protection of one of vertues sisters , and we are not far from the gates of the kingdom of heaven ; easie and apt to be invited in , and not very unworthy to enter . But if any other principle draws the vail , if we conceal our vices because we would be honoured for sanctity , or because we would not be hindered in our designes , we serve the interest of pride and ambition , covetousnesse , or vanity ; if an innocent purpose hides the ulcer , it does half heal it ; but if it retires into the secrecy of sin and darknesse , it turns into a plague , and infects the heart , and it dies infallibly of a double exulceration . The Macedonian boy that kept the coal in his flesh , and would not shake his arm , lest he should disturbe the sacrifice , or discompose the ministery before Alexander the Great , concealed his pain to the honour of patience and religion . But the Spartan boy who suffered the little fox to eat his bowels rather then confesse his theft when he was in danger of discovery , payed the price of a bold hypocrisie ; that is , the dissimulation reproveable in matter of manners , which conceals one sin to make way for another ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; Lucian notes it of his Philosophical hypocrites , dissemblers in matter of deportment and religion , they seem severe abroad , but they enter into the vaults of harlots , and are not ashamed to see a naked sin in the midst of its uglinesse , and undressed circumstances . A mighty wrastler , that had won a crown at Olympus , for contending prosperously , was observed to turn his head and go forward , with his face upon his shoulder , to behold a fair woman that was present ; and he lost the glory of his strength , when he became so weak , that a woman could turn his head about , which his adversary could not . These are the follies and weaknesses of man and dishonours to religion , when a man shall contend nobly and do handsomly and then be taken in a base or a dishonorable action ; and mingle venome with his delicious ointment . Quid quod olet gravius mistum dia pasmate virus . Atque duplex animae longius exit odor . When Fescenia perfumed her breath that she might not smell of wine , she condemned the crime of drunkennesse : but grew ridiculous when the wine broke thorow the cloud of a tender perfume and the breath of a Lozenge ; and that indeed is the reward of an hypocrite ; his laborious arts of concealment furnish all the world with declamation and severity against the crime which himself condemnes with his caution : But when his own sentence too is prepared against the day of his discovery . Notas ergo nimis fraudes , deprensaque furta Jam tollas , & sis ebria simpliciter . A simple drunkard hath but one fault , But they that avoid discovery , that they may drink on without shame or restraint adde hypocrisy to their vitious fulnesse : and for all the amazements of their consequent discovery have no other recompence , but that they pleased themselves in the security of their crime , and their undeserved reputation : Sic quae nigrior est cadente moro ; Cerussata sibi placet Lycoris : for so the most easy and deformed woman , whose girdle no foolish young man will unloose , because shee is blacker then the falling mulbery ; may please her self under a skin of Cerusse , and call her self fairer then Pharaohs daughter , or the hinds living upon the snowy mountaines . One thing more there is to be added as an instance to the simplicity of religion , and that is that we never deny our religion , or lie concerning our faith , nor tell our propositions , and articles deceitfully , nor instruct Novices or catechumens with fraud , but that when we teach them , we do it honestly , justly , and severely , not alwayes to speak all , but never to speak otherwise then it is , nor to hide a truth from them , whose soules are concerned in it , that it be known , nequè enim id est celare cum quid reticias , sed cum quod tuscias , id ignorare emolumenti tui causâ velis eos , quorum inter est id scire : So Cicero determins the case of prudence and simplicity . The discovery of pious frauds , and the disclaiming of false but profitable and rich propositions ; the quitting honours , fraudulently gotten , and unjustly detained ; the reducing every man to the perfect understanding of his own religion so far as can concern his duty , the disallowing false miracles , legends and fabulous stories , of cosening the people into awfulnesse , fear and superstition , these are parts of Christian simplicity which do integrate this duty : for religion hath strengths enough of its own to support it self ; it needs not a devil for its advocate ; it is the breath of God , and as it is purer then the beams of the morning , so it is stronger then a tempest , or the combination of all the windes though united by the prince that ruleth in the aire : And we finde that the Nicene faith prevailed upon all the world though some Arian Bishops went from Ariminum to Nice , and there decreed their own articles , and called it , the faith read at Nice , and used all arts and all violence , and all lying , and all diligence to discountenance it , yet it could not be , it was the truth of God and therefore it was stronger then all the gates of hell , then all the powers of darknesse : and he that tells a lie for his religion or goes about by fraud and imposture to gain proselytes , either dares not trust his cause or dare not trust God. True religion is open in its articles , honest in its prosecutions , just in its conduct , innocent when it is accused , ignorant of falsehood , sure in its truth , simple in its sayings : and ( as Julius Capitolinus said of the Emperour Verus ) it is morum simplicium & quae adumbrare nihil possit : it covers indeed a multitude of sins by curing them , and obtaining pardon for them , but it can dissemble nothing of it self , it cannot tell or do a lie : but it can become a sacrifice ; a good man can quit his life but never his integrity . That 's the first duty ; the sum of which is that which Aquilius said concerning fraud and craft , bona sides the honesty of a mans faith and religion is destroyed cum aliud simulatum aliud actum sit , when either we conceale what we ought to publish , or do not act what we pretend . 2. Christian simplicity or the innocence of prudence relates to laws both in their sanction and execution ; that they be decreed with equity and proportioned to the capacity and profit of the subjects and that they be applied to practise with remissions and reasonable interpretations agreeable to the sence of the words and the minde of the lawgiver ; but laws are not to be cosened and abused by contradictory glosses , and phantastick elusions as knowing that if the majesty and sacrednesse of them be once abused and subjected to contempt and unreasonable and easy resolutions , their girdle is unloosed and they suffer the shame of prostitution and contempt When Saul made a law , that he that eat before night should die , the people perswaded him directly to rescind it , in the case of Jonathan , because it was unequal and unjust that he who had wrought their deliverance , and in that working it , was absent from the promulgation of the law should suffer for breaking it , in a case of violent necessity and of which he heard nothing upon so faire and probable a cause : and it had been well that the Persian had been so rescued who against the laws of his country killed a Lion to save the life of his Prince ; in such cases it is fit the law be rescinded and dispensed with all , as to certain particulars , so it be done ingenuously with competent authority , in great necessity , and without partiality : But that which I intend here is , that in the rescission or dispensation of the law the processe be open and free , and such as shall preserve the law and its sacrednesse as well as the person and his interest . The laws of Sparta forbad any man to be twice Admiral , but when their affaires required it , they made Araeus titular and Lysander supravisor of him , and Admiral to all real and effective purposes ; this wanted ingenuity and laid a way open for them to despise the law which was made patient of such a weak evasion ; The Lacedemonian Embassador perswaded Pericles to turn the tables of the law , which were forbidden to be removed , and an other ordained in a certain case that the laws should sleep 24. hours ; A third decreed that June should be called May , because the time of an election appointed by the law was elapsed ; these arts are against the ingenuity and simplicitie of laws , and lawgivers ; and teach the people to cheat in their obedience , when their Judges are so fraudulent in the administration of their laws . Every law should be made plain , open , honest , & significant , and he that makes a decree and intricates it on purpose , or by inconsideration , layes a snare or leaves one there , and is either an imprudent person , and therefore unfit to govern , or else he is a Tyrant and a vultur . It is too much that a man can make a law by an arbitrary power . But when he shall also leave the law so that every of the ministers of Justice and the Judges shall have power to rule by a loose , by an arbitrary ▪ by a contradictory interpretation , it is intolerable . They that rule by prudence , should above all things see that the patrons and Advocates of innocence should be harmlesse and without an evil sting . 3. Christian simplicity relates to promises and acts of grace and favour ; and its caution is , that all promises be simple , ingenuous , agreeable to the intention of the promiser , truly and effectually expressed and never going lesse in the performance , then in the promise , and words of the expression : concerning which the cases are several . 1. First all promises in which a third or a second person hath no interest , that is the promises of kindnesse and civilities , are tied to passe into performance , secundum aequum & bonum : and though they may oblige to some small inconvenience , yet never to a great one : and I will visit you to morrow morning , because I promised you , and therefore . I will come etiamsi non concoxero , although I have not slept my full sleep , but Si febricitavero if I be in a feaver or have reason to fear one , I am disobliged . For the nature of such promises bears upon them no bigger burthen , then can be expounded by reasonable civilities and the common expectation of kinde , and the ordinary performances of just men , who do excuse and are excused respectively , by all rules of reason proportionably to such small entercourses : and therefore although such conditions be not expressed in making promises , yet to perform or rescind them by such laws is not against Christian simplicity . 2. Promises in matters of justice or in matters of grace as from a superiour to an inferiour must be so singly and ingenuously expressed , intended and performed accordingly , that no condition is to be reserved or supposed in them to warrant their non-performance , but impossibility , or that which is next to it , an intolerable inconvenience ; in which cases we have a natural liberty to commute our promises , but so that we pay to the interested person a good , at least equal to that which we first promised . And to this purpose it may be added that it is not against Christian simplicity to expresse our promises in such words which we know the interested man will understand to other purposes then I intend so it be not lesse that I mean , then that he hopes for . When our Blessed Saviour told his disciples , that they should sit upon twelve thrones , they presently thought they had his bond for a kingdom , and dreamt of wealth , and honour , power and a splendid court ; and Christ knew they did , but did not disintangle his promise from the enfolded and intricate sence of which his words were naturally capable ; but he performed his promise , to better purposes , then they hoped for ; they were presidents in the conduct of souls , Princes of Gods people , the chief in sufferings stood neerest to the crosse , had an elder brothers portion in the Kingdom of grace , were the founders of Churches , and dispensers of the mysteries of the kingdom and ministers of the spirit of God and chanels of mighty blessings , under mediators in the Priesthood of their Lord and their names were written in heaven ; and this was infinitely better , then to groan and wake under a head pressed with a golden crown and pungent cares , and to eat alone , and to walk in a croud and to be vexed with all the publick and many of the private evils of the people , which is the sum Total of an earthly Kingdom . When God promised to the obedient that they should live long in the land , which he would give them , he meant it of the land of Canaan , but yet reserved to himself the liberty of taking them quickly from that land and carrying them to a better . He that promises to lend me a staffe to walk withal , and instead of that gives me a horse to carry me , hath not broken his promise , nor dealt deceitfully . And this is Gods dealing with mankinde ; he promises more then we could hope for ; and when he hath done that , he gives us more then he hath promised . God hath promised to give to them that fear him all that they need , food and raiment ; but he addes out of the treasures of his mercy ; variety of food and changes of raiment ; some to get strength and some to refresh , something for them that are in health and some for the sick . And though that skins of buls and stagges and foxes and bears could have drawn a vail thick enough to hide the apertures of sin and natural shame and to defend us from heat and cold , yet when he addeth the fleeces of sheep and beavers , and the spoiles of silk worms , he hath proclaimed that although his promises are the bounds of our certain expectation , yet they are not the limits of his loving kindnesse ; and if he does more then he hath promised , no man can complain that he did otherwise , and did greater things then he said : thus God does , but therefore so also must we ; imitating that example , and transcribing that copy of divine truth , alwayes remembring that his promises are yea and Amen And although God often goes more , yet he never goes lesse ; and therefore we must never go from our promises , unlesse we be thrust from thence by disability , or let go by leave , or called up higher by a greater intendment and increase of kindnesse : And therefore when Solyman had sworn to Ibrahim-Bassa that he would never kill him so long as he were alive , he quitted himself but ill , when he sent an Eunuch to cut his throat when he slept , because the Priest told him that sleep was death . His act was false and deceitful as his great prophet . But in this part of simplicity we Christians have a most especiall obligation , for our religion being ennobled by the most and the greatest promises , and our faith made confident by the veracity of our Lord , and his word made certain by miracles and prophecies , and voices from heaven , and all the testimony of God himself , and that truth it self is bound upon us by the efficacy of great endearments and so many precepts ; if we shall suffer the faith of a Christian to be an instrument to deceive our brother , and that he must either be incredulous or deceived , uncharitable or deluded like a fool , we dishonour the sacrednesse of the institution and become strangers to the spirit of truth , and to the eternall word of God. Our Blessed Lord would not have his disciples to swear at all ( no not in publick Judicature ) if the necessities of the world would permit him to be obeyed : If Christians will live according to the religion , the word of a Christian were sufficient instrument to give testimony and to make promises , to secure a faith , and upon that supposition oathes were uselesse , and therefore forbidden , because there could be no necessity to invoke Gods name in promises or affirmations if men were indeed Christians : and therefore in that case would be a taking it in vain ; but because many are not and they that are in name oftentimes are so in nothing else , it became necessary that man should swear in judgment and in publick courts ; but consider who it was that invented and made the necessitie of oaths , of bonds , of securities , of statutes , extents , judgements and all the artifices of humane diffidence and dishonesty ; These things were indeed found out by men ; but the necessity of these was from him that is the father of lies , from him that hath made many faire promises but never kept any . or if he did , it was to do a bigger mischief , to cozen the more : for so does the Devil : He promises rich harvests and blasts the corn in the spring , he tells his servants they shall be rich , and fills them with beggerly qualities , makes them base and indigent , greedy and penurious , and they that serve him intirely , as witches and such miserable persons never can be rich : if he promises health , then men grow confident and intemperate and do such things whereby they shall die the sooner , and die longer they shall die eternally . He deceives men in their trust , and frustrates their hopes , and eludes their expectations ; and his promises have a period set , beyond which they cannot be true ; For wicked men shall enjoy a faire fortune but till their appointed time , and then it ends imperfect and most accomplished misery : and therefore even in this performance he deceives them most of all , promising and performing coloured stones , and glasse-gems that he may cozen them of their glorious inheritance . All fraudulent breakers of promises dresse themselves by his glasse whose best imagery , is deformity and lies . Sermon . XXIV . Of Christian Simplicity . Part II. 4. CHristian simplicity teaches opennesse , and ingenuity in Contracts , and matters of buying and selling , covenants , associations , and all such entercourses , which suppose an equality of persons as to the matter of right and justice in the stipulation , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was the old Attick law : and nothing is more contrary to Christian religion , then that the entercourses of justice be direct snares , and that we should deal with men , as men deal with foxes , and wolves , and vermin ; do all violence , and when that cannot be , use all craft and every thing whereby they can be made miserable . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . There are men in the world who love to smile , but that smile is more dangerous then the furrows of a contracted brow , or a storm in Adria ; for their purpose is onely to deceive ; they easily speak what they never mean , they heap up many arguments to perswade that to others , which themselves beleeve not ; they praise that vehemently which they deride in their hearts , they declaim against a thing which themselves covet , they beg passionately for that which they value not , and run from an object which they would fain have to follow and overtake them , they excuse a person dexterously , where the man is beloved , and watch to surprize him where he is unguarded ; they praise that they may sell , and disgrace that they may keep . And these hypocrisies are so interwoven and imbroidered with their whole designe ; that some nations refuse to contract till their arts are taken off by the society of banquets , and the good natured kidnesses of festivall chalices , for so Tacitus observes concerning the old Germans , [ De asciscendis principibus de pace & bello in conviviis consultant , tanquam nullo magis tempore ad simplices cogitationes pateat animus , aut ad magnas incalescat : as if then they were more simple when they were most valiant , and were least deceitfull , when they were least themselves . But it is an evil condition that a mans honesty shall be owing to his wine , and vertue must live at the charge and will of a vice . The proper band of societies and contracts is , justice and necessities , religion and the laws ; the measures of it are equitie and our selves and our own desires in the dayes of our need , natural or forced ; But the instruments of the exchange and conveyance of the whole entercourse is , words and actions , as they are expounded by custome , consent , or the understanding of the interested person ; in which if simplicitie be not severely preserved , it is impossible that humane society can subsist , but men shall be forced to snatch at what they have bought , and take securities that men swear truly , and exact an oath , that such is the meaning of the word , and no man shall think himself secure , but shall fear he is robbed if he has not possession first ; and it shall be disputed who shall trust the other , and neither of them shall have cause to be confident upon bands or oaths , or witnesses , or promises , or all the honour of men , or all the ingagements of religion , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Cyrus in Xenophon , A man though he desires it , yet cannot be confident of the man that pretends truth yet tells a lye and is deprehended to have made use of the sacred name of friendship or religion , honesty or reputation to deceive his brother . But because a man may be deceived by deeds and open actions as well as words ; therefore it concerns their duty , that no man by an action on purpose done to make his brother believe a lie abuse his persuasion and his interest , When Pythius the Sicilian had a minde to sell his garden to Cannius he invited him thither , and caused fishermen ( as if by custom ) to fish in the chanell by which the gardens stood , and they threw a great store of fish into their arbours , and made Cannius believe it was so every day , and the man grew greedy of that place of pleasure , and gave Pythius a double price , and the next day perceived himself abused . Actions of pretence and simulation are like snares laid , into which the beasts fall though you pursue them not , but walk in the inquiry for their necessary provisions ; and if a man fall into a snare that you have laid , it is no excuse to say you did not tempt him thither : to lay a snare is against the ingenuity of a good man and a Christian , and from thence he ought to be drawn , and therefore it is not fit we should place a danger which our selves are therefore bound to hinder , because from thence we are obliged to rescue him . Vir bonus est , qui prodest quibus potest , nocet nemini , when we do all the good we can , and do an evil to no man , then onely we are accounted good men . But this pretence of an action signifying otherwise then it looks for , is onely forbidden in matter of contract , and the material interest of a second person . But when actions are of a double signification , or when a man is not abused or defeated of his right by an uncertain signe , it is lawfull to do a thing to other purposes then is commonly understood . Flight is a signe of fear ; but it is lawfull to fly when a man fears not . Circumoision was the seal of the Jewish religion , and yet Saint Paul circumcised Timothy though he intended he should live like the Centile Christians , and not as do the Jews . Put because that rite did signifie more things beside that one , he onely did it to represent that he was no enemy of Moses law , but would use it when there was just reason , which was one part of the things which the using of circumcision could signifie : So our blessed Saviour pretended that he would passe forth beyond Emaus , out if he intended not to do it , yet he did no injury to the two disciples , for whose good it was that he intended to make this offer : and neither did he prevaricate the strictnesse of simplicity and sincerity , because they were persons with whom he had made no contracts , to whom he had passed no obligation , and in the nature of the thing it is proper and natural , by an offer to give an occasion to another to do a good action ; and in case it succeeds not , then to do what we intended not , and so the offer was conditional . But in all cases of bargaining , although the actions of themselves may receive naturally another sense , yet I am bound to follow that signification which may not abuse my brother , or pollute my own honesty , or snatch , or rifle his interest : Because it can be no ingredient into the commutation , if I exchange a thing which he understands not , and is by errour lead into this mistake , and I hold forth the fire , and delude him , and amuse his eye : for by me he is made worse . But secondly , as our actions must be of a sincere and determinate signification in contracts , so must our words : in which the rule of the old Roman honesty was this : Uterque si ad eloquendum venerit non plus quam semel eloquetur ; Every one that speaks is to speak but once ; that is , but one thing ; because commonly that is truth ; truth being but one ; but errour and falsehood infinitely various and changeable ; and we shall seldom see a man so stiffned with impiety , as to speak little and seldome , and pertinaciously adhere to a single sense , and yet that at first , and all the way after shall be a lie . Men use to go about , when they tell a lie , and devise circumstances , and stand off at distance , and cast a cloud of words , and intricate the whole affair , and cozen themselves first , and then cozen their brother , while they have minced the case of conscience into little particles , and swallowed the lie by crumbs , so that no one passage of it should rush against the conscience , nor do hurt , until it is all got into the belly , and unites in the effect ; for by that time , two men are abused , the Merchant in his soul , and the Contractor in his interest ; and this is the certain effect of much talking and little honesty : but he that means honestly , must speak but once , that is , one truth , and hath leave to vary within the degrees of just prices , and fair conditions , which because they have a latitude may be enlarged , or restrained according as the Merchant please , save onely he must never prevaricate the measures of equity , and the proportions of reputation , and the publike . But in all the parts of this traffick let our words be the significations of our thoughts , and our thoughts designe nothing , but the advantages of a permitted exchange . In this case , the severity is so great , so exact , and so without variety of case , that it is not lawfull for a man to tell a truth , with a collateral designe to cozen and abuse ; and therefore at no hand can it be permitted to lie or equivocate , to speak craftily , or to deceive by smoothnesse , or intricacy , or long discourses . But this precept of simplicity in matter of contract hath one step of severity beyond this : In matter of contract it is not lawfull so much as to conceal the secret and undiscernable faults of the merchandize ; but we must acknowledge them , or else affix prices made diminute and lessened to such proportions and abatements as that fault should make . Caveat emptor is a good caution for him that buyes , and it secures the seller in publike Judicature , but not in court of conscience ; and the old lawes of the Romans were as nice in this affair , as the conscience of a Christian. Titus Claudius Centimalus was commanded by the Augures to pull down his house in the Coelian mountain , because it hindred their observation of the flight of birds ; he exposes his house to sale , Publius Calpurnius buyes it , and is forced to pluck it down ; But complaining to the Judges had remedy , because Claudius did not tell him the true state of the inconvenience . He that sels a house infected with the plague , or haunted with evil spirits , sels that which is not worth such a price which it might be put to if it were in health and peace : and therefore cannot demand it but openly and upon publication of the evil . To which also this is to be added , that in some great faults and such as have danger , ( as in the cases now specified ) no diminution of the price is sufficient to make the Merchant just and sincere , unlesse he tels the appendant mischief ; because to some persons in many cases , and to all persons in some cases , it is not at all valuable , and they would not possesse it if they might for nothing . Marcus Gratidianus bought a house of Sergius Orata , which himself had sold before ; But because Sergius did not declare the appendant vassalage and service , he was recompenced by the Judges ; for although it was certain that Gratidianus knew it , because it had been his own , yet Oportuit ex bonâ fide denunciari said the law ; it concerned the ingenuity of a good man to have spoken it openly . In all cases it must be confessed in the price , or in the words ; But when the evil may be personal , and more then matter of interest and money , it ought to be confessed , and then the goods prescribed , lest by my act I do my neighbour injury , and I receive profit by his dammage . Certain it is , that ingenuity is the sweetest and easiest way , there is no difficulty or cases of conscience in that , and it can have no objection in it but that possibly sometimes we lose a little advantage , which it may be we may lawfully acquire , but still we secure a quiet conscience : and if the merchandise be not worth so much to me , then neither is it to him ; if it be to him , it is also to me ; and therefore I have no losse , no hurt to keep it if it be refused : but he that secures his own profit , and regards not the interest of another , is more greedy of a full purse then of a holy conscience , and prefers gain before justice , and the wealth of his private , before the necessity of publike society and commerce , being a son of earth whose centre is it self , without relation to heaven that moves upon anothers point , and produces flowers , for others , and sends influence upon all the world , and receives nothing in return , but a cloud of perfume , or the smell of a fat sacrifice . God sent justice into the world , that all conditions in their several proportions should be equall ; and he that receives a good , should pay one , and he whom I serve is obliged to feed and to defend me in the same proportions as I serve ; and justice is a relative terme , and supposes two persons obliged , and though fortunes are unequal , and estates are in majority and subordination , and men are wise or foolish , honoured or despised ; yet in the entercourses of justice God hath made that there is no difference , and therefore it was esteemed ignoble to dismisse a servant when corn was dear , in dangers of shipwrack to throw out an unprofitable boy and keep a fair horse ; or for a wise man to snatch a plank from a drowning fool , or if the Master of the ship should challenge the board upon which his passenger swims for his life , or to obtrude false moneys upon others , which we first took for true , but at last discovered to be false ; or not to discover the gold which the merchant sold for alchimy : The reason of all these is , because the collateral advantages are not at all to be considered in matter of rights ; and though I am dearest to my self , as my neighbour is to himself , yet it is necessary that I permit him to his own advantages , as I desire to be permitted to mine . Now therefore simplicity and ingenuity in all contracts is perfectly and exactly necessary , because its contrary destroys that equality which justice hath placed in the affaires of men , and makes all things private , and makes a man dearer to himself , and to be preferred before Kings , and republicks , and Churches ; it destroyes society , and it makes multitudes of men to be but like heards of beasts , without proper instruments of exchange , and securities of possession , without faith and without propriety concerning all which there is no other account to be given , but that the rewards of craft are but a little money and a great deal of dishonour and much suspicion : and proportionable scorn ; watches and guards , spies and jealousies are his portion ; But the crown of justice is a fair life and a clear reputation , & an inheritance there where justice dwells since she left the earth , even in the kingdome of the just , who shall call us to judgement for every word , and render to every man according to his works : and what is the hope of the hypocrite though he hath gained when the Lord taketh away his soul , Tollendum esse ex rebus contrahendis omne mendacium . That 's the sum of this rule : no falshod or deceit is to be endured in any contract . 5. Christian simplicity hath also its necessity and passes obligation upon us towards enemies in questions of law or war. Plutarch commends Lysander and Philopaemen for their craft and subtilty in war , but commends it not as an ornament to their manners , but that which had influence into prosperous events ; just as Ammianus affirms , nullo discrimine virtutis ac doli prosperos omnes laudari debere bellorum eventus : whatsoever in war is prosperous , men use to commend : But he that is a good souldier is not alwayes a good man. Callicratidas was a good man and followed the old way of downright hostility , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : But Lysander was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a crafty man , full of plots but not noble in the conduct of his armes . I remember Euripides brings in Achilles commending the ingenuity of his breeding and the simplicity and noblenesse of his own heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The good old man Chiron was my Tutor , and he taught me to use simplicity and honesty in all my manners . It was well and noble ; But yet some wise men do not condemn all souldiers that use to get victories by deceit : Saint Austin allows it to be lawful ; and Saint Chrysostome commends it . These Good men supposed that a crafty victory was better then a bloody war ; and certainly so it is , if the power gotten by craft be not exercised in blood : But this businesse ( as to the case of conscience ) will quickly be determined . Enemies are no persons bound by contract and society , and therefore are not obliged to open hostilities and ingenuous prosecutions of the war ; and if it be lawful to take by violence , it is not unjust to take the same thing by craft . But this is so to be understood , that where there is an obligation either by the law of nations or by special contracts , No man dare to violate his faith or honour , but in these things deal with an ingenuity equal to the truth of peacefull promises , and acts of favour and endearment to our relatives . Josephus tells of the sons of Herod , that in their enmities with their Vncle Pherora and Salome they had disagreeing manners of prosecution , as they had disagreeing hearts ; some railed openly , and thought their enmity the more honest , because it was not concealed , but by their ignorance and rude , untutor'd malice lay open to the close designes of the elder brood of foxes . In this because it was a particular and private quarrel , there is no rule of conscience but that it be wholly laid aside , and appeased with charity ; for the opennesse of the quarrel was but the rage and indiscretion of the malice : and the close designe was but the craft and advantage of the malice : But in just wars on that side where a competent authority and a just cause warrants the arms and turns the active opposition into the excuse and licence of defence , there is no restraint upon the actions and words of men in the matter of sincerity , but that the laws of nations be strictly pursued and all parties ; promises , and contracts observed religiously & by the proportion of a private & Christian ingenuity . We finde it by wise and good men mentioned with honour , that the Romans threw bread from the besieged Capitol into the stations of the Gauls , that they might think them full of corn : and that Agesilaus discouraged the enemies by causing his own men to wear crowns in token of a Navall victory gotten by Pisander who yet was at that time destroyed by Conon , and that Flaccus said the city was taken by Emilius , or that Joshua dissembled a flight at Ai , and the Consul Quinctius told aloud that the left wing of the enemies was fled , and that made the right wing fly ; or that Valerius Levinus bragged prudently that he had killed Pyrrhus , and that others use the ensigns of enemies colours and garments , concerning which sort of actions and words Agesilaus , in Plutarch said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It is just and pleasant , profitable and glorious , but to call a parley and fall in upon the men that treat ; to swear a peace and watch advantage ; to entertain Heralds and then to torment them , to get from them notices of their party ; these are such which are dishonorable and unjust , condemned by the laws of nations and essential justice , & by all the world and the Hungarian army was destroyed by a divine judgement at the prayer & appeal of the Mahumetan enemy , for their violating their faith and honour and prophaning the name of Christ by using it in a solemn oath to deceive their enemies , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : that is to dispise God when men first sware by him , and then violate their oathes or leagues , their treaties or promises . In other cases liberty hath been taken by all men and it is reproved by no man , since the first simplicity of fighting & down right blows did cease by the better instructed people of the world : which was as is usually computed , about the end of the second Carthaginian war ; since that time , some few persons have been found so noble as to scorn to steal a victory , but had rather have the glory of a sharp sword , then of a sharp wit ; But their fighting gallantry is extrinsecal to the Question of lawful or unlawful 6. Thus we see how far the laws of ingenuity and Christian simplicity have put fetters upon our words and actions and directed them in the paths of truth and noblenesse , and the first degrees of permission of simulation is in the arts of war , and the cases of just hostility . But here it is usually inquired whether it be lawful to tell a lie , or dissemble to save a good mans life , or to do him a great benefit ? a Question which Saint Austine was much troubled withal affirming it to be of the greatest difficulty : for he saw generally all the Doctors before his time allowed it ; and of all the fathers no man is noted to have reproved it but Saint Austin alone , and he also ( as his manner is ) with some variety : those which followed him are to be accounted upon his score : and it relies upon such precedents which are not lightly to be disallowed ; for so Abraham and Isaac told a lie in the case of their own danger to Abimelech ; so did the Israelitish midwives to Pharaoh and Rachab concering the spies , and David to the King of Gath , and the prophet that anointed Saul , and Elisha to Hazael , and Solomon in the sentence of the stolen childe ; concerning which Irenaeus hath given us a rule that those whose actions the Scripture hath remarked , & yet not chastised or censured , we are not without great reason and certain rule to condemn : but whether his rule can extend to this case is now to be enquired . 1. It is certain that children may be cozned into goodnesse , and sick men to health , and passengers in a storm into fafety ; and the reason of these is , because not onely the end is fair and charitable and just , but the means are such which do no injury to the persons which are to receive benefit : Because these are persons who are either naturally or accidentally ignorant and incompetent judges of affaires : and if they be also wilful as such persons most commonly are , there is in art and nature left no wayes to deal with them but with innocent , charitable , and artificial deceptions ; they are not capable of reason and solid discourses , and therefore either must be exposed to all harms like Lions whelps when their nurse and sire are taken in a toile , or else be provided for in wages proportionable to their capacitie . 2. Sinners may not be treated with the liberty we take to children and sick persons , because they must serve God with choice and election ; and therefore although a sick man may be cozened into his health , yet a man must not be cozened into his duty , which is no duty at all or pleasing to God , unlesse it be voluntary and chosen : and therefore they are to be treated with arguments proper to move their wills by the instrument of understanding specially , being persons of perfect faculties and apt to be moved by the wayes of health and of a man. It is an argument of infirmity that in some cases it is necessary to make pretences ; but those pretences are not made legitimate , unlesse it be the infirmity of the interested man with whom we do comply . My infirmity can not make it lawful to make colours and images of things : But the infirmity of him with whom I deal , may be such , that he can be defended or instructed no other way : But sinners that offend God by choice must have their choice corrected , and their understandings instructed or else their evill is not cured nor their state amended . 2. For it is here very observable , that in entercourses of this nature we are to regard a double duty ; the matter of justice , and the rights of charity : that is , that good be done by lawful instruments ; for it is certain it is not lawful to abuse a mans understanding , with a purpose to gain him 6. d. it is not fit to do evil for a good end , or to abuse one man to preserve or do advantage to another : and therefore it is not sufficient that I intend to do good to my neighbour ; for I may not therefore tell a lie and abuse his credulity ; because his understanding hath a right as certain as his will hath , or as his money ; and his right to truth is no more to be cozened and defrauded , then his right unto his money ; and therefore such artificial entercourses are no wayes to be permitted , but to such persons over whose understandings we have power and authority . Plato said it was lawful for Kings and Governours to dissemble , because there is great necessity for them so to do : but it was but crudely said , so nakedly to deliver the doctrine for in such things which the people cannot understand and yet ought to obey , there is a liberty to use them as we use children , who are of no other condition or capacities then children ; but in all things where they can and ought to choose , because their understanding is onely a servant to God , no man hath power to abuse their credulity and reason , to preserve their estates , and peace . But because Children and mad people and diseased , are such whose underdandings are in minority and under Tuition , they are to be governed by their proper instruments and proportions ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Proclus , a good turn is to be preferred before a true saying , it is onely true to such persons who cannot value truth , and prefer an intellectual before a material interest . It is better for children to have warm clothes then a true proposition , and therefore in all senses they and their like may be so treated : But other persons who have distinct capacities have an injury done them by being abused into advantages ; and although those advantages make them recompence , yet he that is tied to make a man recompence , hath done him injury and committed a sin , by which he was obliged to restitution ; & therefore the man ought not to be cozened for his own good 4. And now upon the grounds of this discourse , we may more easily determine concerning saving the life of a man by telling a lie in judgement 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Pericles of Athens when his friend desired him to swear on his side ; I will assist my friend so far as I may not dishonour God , and to lie in judgment is directly against the being of government , the honour of Tribunals and the commandement of God , and therefore by no accident can be hallowed ; it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle said of a lie , it is a thing evil in it self , that is , it is evil in the whole kinde , ever since it came to be forbidden by God : and therefore all those instances of crafty and delusive answers which are recorded in scripture were extrajudicial and had not this load upon them to be a deceiving of authority in those things where they had right to command or inquire , & either were before or besides the commandment , not at all against it : and since the law of Moses forbad lying in judgement onely , by that law we are to judge of those actions in the old testament which were committed after its publication : and because in the sermons of the prophets and especially in the new testament Christ hath superadded or enlarged the law of ingenuity & hearty simplicity , we are to leave the old scripture precedents upon the ground of their own permissions , and finish our duty by the rules of our religion : which hath so restrained our words , that they must alwayes be just and alwayes charitable , and there is no leave given to prevaricate but to such persons where there can be no obligation , persons that have no right , such with whom no contract can be made ; such as children and fools and infirm persons , whose faculties are hindred or depraved . I remember that Secundus extremely commends Arria for deluding her husbands fears concerning the death of his beloved boy , and wiped her eyes and came in confidently and sate by her husbands bed-side , and when she could no longer forbear to weep , her husbands sicknesse was excuse enough to legitimate that sorrow , or else she could retire ; but so long she forbore to confess the boy's death til Caecinna Paetus had so far recovered that he could go forth to see the boy and need not fear with sorrow to returne to his disease . It was indeed a great kindnesse and a rare prudence as their affaires and laws were ordered ; but we have better means to cure our sick ; our religion can charme the passion and enable the spirit to entertain and master a sorrow ; and when we have such rare supplies out of the store-houses of reason and religion we have lesse reason to use these arts and little deviees , which are arguments of an infirmity as great as is the charity : and therefore we are to keep our selves strictly to the foregoing measures ; Let every man speak the truth to his neighbour , putting away lying , for we are members one of another : and be as harmlesse as doves saith our blessed Saviour in my text : which contain the whole duty concerning the matter of truth and sincerity ; in both which places truth and simplicity are founded upon justice and charity : and therefore wherever a lie is in any sense against justice , and wrongs any thing of a man , his judgement and his reason , his right or his liberty , it is expresly forbidden in the Christian religion : what cases we can truly suppose to be besides these , the law forbids not and therefore it is lawful to say that to my self which I believe not , for what innocent purpose I please and to all those over whose understanding I have or ought to have right . These cases are intricate enough , and therefore I shall return plainly to presse the doctrine of simplicity which ought to be so sacred that a man ought to do nothing indirectly which it is not lawful to own ; to receive no advantage by the sin of another , which I should account dishonest if the action were my own ; for whatsoever disputes may be concerning the lawfulnesse of pretending craftily in some rare and contingent cases , yet it is on all hands condemned that my craft should do injury to my brother . I remember that when some greedy and indigent people forged a will of Lucius Minutius Basilius and joyned M. Crassus , and Q. Hortensius in the inheritance that their power for their own interest might secure the others share , they suspecting the thing to be a forgery , yet being not principals and actors in the contrivance alieni facinoris munus culum non repudiaverunt , refused not to receive a present made them by anothers crime ; but so they entred upon a moiety of the estate and the biggest share of the dishonour : we must not be crafty to anothers injury so much as by giving countenance to the wrong ; for Tortoises and the Estrich hatch their egges with their looks onely ; and some have designes which a dissembling face or an acted gesture can produce ; but as a man may commit adultery with his eye so with his eye also he may tell a lie , and steal with one finger and do injury collaterally and yet designe it with a direct intuition upon which he looks with his face over his shoulder : and by whatsoever instrument my neighbour may be abused , by the same instrument I sin if I do designe it antecedently , or fal upon it together with something else , or rejoyce in it when it is done . 7. One thing more I am to adde , that it is not lawful to tell a lie in jest . It was a vertue noted in Aristides and Epaminondes that they would not lie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not in sport : and as Christian simplicity forbids all lying in matter of interest and serious rights : so there is an appendix to this precept forbidding to lie in mirth ; for of every idle word a man shall speak he shall give account in the day of judgment : and such are the jestings which S. Paul reckons amongst things uncomly ; But amongst these ; fables , apologues , parables or figures of Rhetorick , and any artificial instrument of instruction , or innocent pleasure are not to be reckoned ; But he that without any end of charity or institution shal tell lies onely to become ridiculous in himself or mock another , hath set some thing upon his doomsday book which must be taken off , by water or by fire , that is , by repentance or a judgement . Nothing is easier then simplicity and ingenuity , it is open and ready without trouble and artificial cares , fit for communities and the proper vertue of men , the necessary appendage of useful speech , without which language were given to men as nails and teeth to Lions , for nothing but to do mischief ; it is a rare instrument of institution , and a certain token of courage , the companion of goodnesse and a noble minde , the preserver of friendship , the band of society , the security of merchants , and the blessing of trade ; it prevents infinite of quarrels and appeals to Judges , and suffers none of the evils of Jealousie : men by simplicity converse as do the Angels , they do their own work and secure their proper interest , and serve the publick and do glory to God : But hypocrites and liars and dissemblers spread darknesse over the face of affaires and make men like the blinde to walk softly and timorously : and crafty men like the close aire such that which is open , and devour its portion and destroy its liberty ; and it is the guise of devils , and the dishonour of the soul , and the canker of society , and the enemy of justice , and truth and peace of wealth and honour , of courage and merchandise , He is a good man with whom a blind man may safely converse dignus quicum in tenebris mices to whom in respect of his fair treatings , the darknesse and light are both alike : But he that bears light upon the face and a dark heart , is like him that transforms himself into an Angel of light , when he means to do most mischief . Remember this onely ; that false colours laid upon the face besmear the skin and durty it , but they neither make a beauty nor mend it . Apocal : 22. 15. For without shall be dogs and sorcerers , and whoremongers and Murderers and idolaters , and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie . Sermon . XXV . THE MIRACLES OF THE DIVINE MERCY . Psalm . 86. 5. For thou Lord art good and ready to forgive , and plenteous in mercy to all them that call upon thee . MAN having destroyed that which God delighted in , that is , the beauty of his soul , fell into an evil portion , and being seized upon by the divine justice , grew miserable , and condemned to an incurable sorrow . Poor Adam being banished and undone , went and lived a sad life in the mountains of India , and turned his face and his prayers towards Paradise ; thither he sent his sighes , to that place he directed his devotions ; there was his heart now , and his felicity sometimes had been ; but he knew not how to return thither , for God was his enemy , and by many of his attributes opposed himself against him . Gods power was armed against him ; and poor man , whom a fly , or a fish could kill , was assaulted and beaten with a sword of fire in the hand of a Cherubim . Gods eye watched him , his omniscience was mans accuser , his severity was the Judge , his justice the executioner . It was a mighty calamity that man was to undergo , when he that made him , armed himself against his creature , which would have died or turned to nothing , if he had but withdrawn the miracles and the Almightinesse of his power . If God had taken his arm from under him , man had perished ; but it was therefore a greater evil when God laid his arm upon him and against him , and seemed to support him that he might be longer killing him . In the midst of these sadnesses God remembered his own creature , and pitied it , and by his mercy rescued him from the hand of his power , and the sword of his justice , and the guilt of his punishment , and the disorder of his sin , and placed him in that order of good things where he ought to have stood : It was mercy that preserved the noblest of Gods creatures here below ; he who stood condemned and undone under all the other attributes of God , was onely saved and rescued by his mercy : that it may be evident that Gods mercy is above all his works , and above all ours , greater then the creation , and greater then our sins ; as is his Majesty , so is his mercy , that is , without measures , and without rules , sitting in heaven and filling all the world , calling for a duty that he may give a blessing , making man that he may save him , punishing him that he may preserve him : and Gods justice bowed down to his mercy , and all his power passed into mercy , and his omniscience converted into care and watchfulnesse , into providence , and observation for mans avail , and Heaven gave its influence for man , and rained showers for our food and drink , and the Attributes and Acts of God sat at the foot of mercy , and all that mercy descended upon the head of man : For so the light of the world in the morning of the creation was spread abroad like a curtain , and dwelt no where , but filled the expansum with a dissemination great as the unfoldings of the airs looser garment , or the wilder fringes of the fire , without knots , or order or combination ; but God gathered the beams in his hand , and united them into a globe of fire , and all the light of the world became the body of the Sun , and he lent some to his weaker sister that walks in the night , and guides a traveller and teaches him to distinguish a house from a river , or a rock from a plain field ; so is the mercy of God ; a vast expansum and a huge Ocean , from eternall ages it dwelt round about the throne of God , and it filled all that infinite distance and space , that hath no measures but the will of God ; untill God desiring to communicate that excellency and make it relative , created Angels , that he might have persons capable of huge gifts , and man , who he knew would need forgivenesse ; for so the Angels our elder Brothers dwelt for ever in the house of their Father , and never brake his commandements ; but we the younger like prodigals , forsook our fathers house , and went into a strange countrey , and followed stranger courses , and spent the portion of our nature , and forfeited all our title to the family , and came to need another portion : for ever since the fall of Adam , who like an unfortunate man spent all that a wretched man could need , or a happy man could have , our life is repentance , and forgivenesse is all our portion : and though Angels were objects of Gods bounty , yet man onely is ( in proper speaking ) the object of his mercy . And the mercy which dwelt in an infinite circle , became confin'd to a little ring , and dwelt here below , and here shall dwell below , till it hath carried all Gods portion up to heaven , where it shall reigne and glory upon our crowned heads for ever and ever . But for him that considers Gods mercies , and dwels a while in that depth , it is hard not to talk wildly and without art , and order of discoursings : Saint Peter talked he knew not what , when he entered into a cloud with Jesus upon mount Tabor , though it passed over him like the little curtains that ride upon the North-winde , and passe between the Sun and us : And when we converse with a light greater then the Sun , and tast a sweetnesse more delicious then the dew of heaven , and in our thoughts entertain the ravishments and harmony of that atonement which reconciles God to man , and man to felicity , it will be more easily pardoned , if we should be like persons that admire much , and say but little : and indeed we can best confesse the glories of the Lord by dazeled eyes and a stammering tongue , and a heart overcharged with the miracles of this infinity ; For so those little drops that run over , though they be not much in themselves , yet they tell that the vessell was full , and could expresse the greatnesse of the shower no otherwise , but by spilling , and inartificiall expressions and runnings over . But because I have undertaken to tell the drops of the Ocean , and to span the measures of eternity , I must do it by the great lines of revelation , and experience , and tell concerning Gods mercy as we do concerning God himself , that he is that great fountain of which we all drink , and the great rock of which we all eat , and on which we all dwell , and under whose shadow we all are refreshed . Gods mercy is all this , and we can onely draw great lines of it , and reckon the constellations of our hemisphere instead of telling the number of the stars : we onely can reckon what we feel , and what we live by ; And though there be in every one of these lines of life enough to ingage us for ever to do God service , and to give him praises , yet it is certain there are very many mercies of God upon us , and toward us , and concerning us , which we neither feel , nor see , nor understand as yet ; but yet we are blessed by them , and are preserved and secured ; and we shall then know them , when we come to give God thanks in the festivities of an eternall sabbath . But that I may confine my discourse into order , since the subject of it cannot , I consider ; 1. That mercy being an emanation of the Divine goodnesse upon us , and supposes us , and found us miserable ; In this account concerning the mercies of God , I must not reckon the miracles and graces of the creation , or any thing of the nature of man ; nor tell how great an endearment God passed upon us that he made us men , capable of felicity , apted with rare instruments of discourse , and reason , passions , and desires , notices of sense , and reflections upon that sense , that we have not the deformity of a Crocodile , nor the motion of a Worm , nor the hunger of a Wolf , nor the wildenesse of a Tigre , nor the birth of Vipers , nor the life of flies , nor the death of serpents . Our excellent bodies , and usefull faculties , the upright motion , and the tenacious hand , the fair appetites , and proportioned satisfactions , our speech and our perceptions , our acts of life , the rare invention of letters , and the use of writing , and speaking at distance , the intervals of rest and labour , ( either of which if they were perpetual would be intolerable ) the needs of nature , and the provisions of providence , sleep , and businesse , refreshments of the body , and entertainment of the soul ; these are to be reckoned as acts of bounty rather then mercy ; God gave us these when he made us , and before we needed mercy ; these were portions of our nature , or provided to supply our consequent necessities ; but when we forfeited all Gods favour by our sins , then that they were continued , or restored to us , became a mercy , and therefore ought to be reckoned upon this new account ; for it was a rare mercy that we were suffered to live at all , or that the Anger of God did permit to us one blessing ; that he did punish us so gently : But when the rack is changed into an ax , and the ax into an imprisonment , and the imprisonment changed into an enlargement , and the enlargement into an entertainment in the family , and this entertainment passes on to an adoption , these are steps of a mighty favour , and perfect redemption from our sin : and the returning back our own goods is a gift , and a perfect donative , sweetned by the apprehensions of the calamity , from whence every lesser punishment began to free us ; and thus it was , that God punished us and visited the sin of Adam upon his posterity . He threatned we should die , and so we did , but not so as we deserved ; we waited for death and stood sentenced , and are daily summoned by sicknesses and uneasinesse ; and every day is a new reprieve , and brings a new favour , certain as the revolution of the Sun upon that day , and at last when we must die by the irreversible decree , that death , is changed into a sleep , and that sleep is in the bosom of Christ , and there dwels all peace and security , and it shall passe forth into glories and felicities . We looked for a Judge , and behold a Saviour ; we feared an accuser , and behold an Advocate ; we sate down in sorrow , and rise in joy ; we leaned upon Rhubarb and Aloes , and our aprons were made of the sharp leaves of Indian fig-trees , and so we fed , and so were clothed : But the Rhubarb proved medicinal , and the rough leaf of the tree brought its fruit wrapped up in its foldings ; and round about our dwellings was planted a hedge of thornes , and bundles of thistles , the Aconite , and the Briony , the Night-shade , and the Poppy , and at the root of these grew the healing Plantain , which rising up into a talnesse , by the friendly invitation of a heavenly influence , turn'd about the tree of the crosse , and cured the wounds of the thorns , and the curse of the thistles , and the malediction of man , and the wrath of God. Si sic irascitur , quomodo convivatur ? If God be thus kinde when he is Angry , what is he when he feasts us with caresses of his more tender Kindnesse ? All that God restored to us after the fo●feiture of Adam grew to be a double Kindnesse ; for it became the expression of a bounty which knew not how to repent , a graciousnesse that was not to be altered , though we were , and that was it which we needed . That 's the first generall : all the bounties of the creation became mercies to us , when God continued them to us and restored them after they were forfeit . 2. But as a circle begins every where , and ends no where , so do the mercies of God : after all this huge progresse , now it began anew : God is good and gracious , and God is ready to forgive . Now that he had once more made us capable of mercies God had what he desired , and what he could rejoyce in , something upon which he might pour forth his mercies ; and by the way , this I shall observe , ( for I cannot but speak without art , when I speak of that which hath no measure ) God made us capable of one sort of his mercies , and we made our selves capable of another : God is good and gracious , that is , desirous to give great gifts ; and of this , God made us receptive , first by giving us naturall possibilities , that is , by giving those gifts he made us capable of more ; and next , by restoring us to his favour , that he might not by our provocations be hindered from raining down his mercies . But God is also ready to forgive ] and of this kinde of mercy we made our selves capable , even by not deserving it ; Our sin made way for his grace , and our infirmities called upon his pity ; and because we sinned , we became miserable , and because we were miserable , we became pitiable , and this opened the other treasure of his mercy ; that because our sin abounds , his grace may superabound . In this method we must confine our thoughts ; 1. Giving , Thou Lord art good ▪ and ready to forgive , plenteous in mercy to all them that call upon thee . 2. Forgiving , Thou Lord art good ▪ and ready to forgive , plenteous in mercy to all them that call upon thee . 3. Gods mercies , or the mercies of his giving , came first upon us by mending of our nature : For the ignorance we fell into is instructed and better learned in spirituall notices then Adams morning knowledge in Paradise , our appetites are made subordinate to the spirit , and the liberty of our wills is improved , having the liberty of the sons of God , and Christ hath done us more grace and advantage then we lost in Adam ; and as man lost Paradise and got Heaven , so he lost the integrity of the first , and got the perfection of the second Adam : his living soul is changed into a quickning spirit , our discerning faculties are filled with the spirit of faith , and our passions and desires are entertained with hope , and our election is sanctified with charity ; and his first life of a temporall possession is passed into a better , a life of spirituall expectations ; and though our first parent was forbidden it , yet we live of the fruits of the tree of life . But I instance in two great things in which humane nature is greatly advanced , and passed on to greater perfections ; The first is , that besides body and soul , which was the summe totall of Adams constitution . God hath superadded to us a third principle , the beginner of a better life ; I mean , the Spirit : so that now , man hath a spiritual and celestial nature breathed into him , and the old man , that is , the old constitution is the least part and in its proper operations is dead , or dying , but the new man is that which gives denomination , life , motion , and proper actions to a Christian , and that is renewed in us day by day . But secondly , Humane nature is so highly exalted , and mended by that mercy which God sent immediately upon the fall of Adam , the promise of Christ , that when he did come , and actuate the purposes of this mission , and ascended up into heaven , he carried humane nature above the seats of Angels ; to the place whither Lucifer the son of the morning aspird to ascend , but in his attempt fell into hell . For ( so said the Prophet ) the son of the morning said , I will ascend into heaven , and sit in the sodes of the North , that is , the throne of Jesus seated in the East , called the sides , or obliquity of the North : and as the seating of his humane nature in that glorious seat brought to him all adoration , and the Majesty of God , and the greatest of his exaltation : So it was so great an advancement to us , that all the Angels of heaven take notice of it , and feel a change in the appendage of their condition : not that they are lessened , but that we , who in nature are lesse then Angels , have a relative dignity greater , and an equall honour of being fellow-servants . This mystery is plain in Scripture , and the reall effect of it we read in both the Testaments . When Manoah the father of Sampson saw an Angel , he worshipped him ; and in the old Testament it was esteemed lawfull ; for they were the lieutenants of God , sent with the impresses of his Majesty , and took in his Name the homage from us , who then were so much their inferiours . But when the man Christ Jesus was exalted , and made the Lord of all the Angels , then they became our fellow servants , and might not receive worship from any of the servants of Jesus , especially from Prophets and Martyrs and those that are ministers of the testimony of Jesus . And therefore when an Angel appeared to Saint John , and he according to the Custom of the Jews fell down and worshipped him , as not yet knowing or not considering any thing to the contrary , the Angell reproved him , saying , see thou do it not , I am thy fellow servant and of thy brethren the prophets and of them which keep the sayings of this book : worship God ; or as Saint Cyprian reads it , worship Jesus . God and man are now onely capable of worship : but no Angel ; God essentially ; Man in the person of Christ and in the exaltation of our great Redeemer ; but Angels not so high , and therefore not capable of any religious worship : and this dignity of man Saint Gregory explicates fully . Quid est quod ante Redemptoris adventum adorantur ab hominibus [ Angeli ] & tacent , postmodum vero adorarirefugiunt : why did the Angels of old receive worshippings and were silent , but in the new testament decline it and fear to accept it ? Nisi quod naturam nostram quam prius despexerant , postquam hanc super se assumptam aspiciunt prostratam sibi videre pertimescunt , nec jam sub se velut insirmam contemnere ausi sunt , quam super se viz. in caeli Rege venerantur : the reason is , because they seeing our nature which they did so lightly value raised up above them they fear to see humbled under them , neither do they any more despise the weaknesse which themselves worship in the King of heaven . The same also is the sense of the Glosse , of Saint Ambrose , Ansbertus , Haymo , Rupertus and others of old ; and Ribera , Salmeron , and Lewis of Granada of late ; which being so plainly consonant to the words of the Angel and consigned by the testimony of such men , I the rather note , that those who worship Angels and make religious addresses to them , may see what priviledge themselves lose and how they part with the honour of Christ who in his nature relative to us , is exalted far above all thrones and principalities and dominions . I need not adde lustre to this ; It is like the Sun the biggest body of light and nothing can describe it so well as its own beams : and there is not in nature or the advantages of honour any thing greater then that we have the issues of that mercy which makes us fellow servants with Angels , too much honoured to pay them a religious worship , whose Lord is a man , and he that is their King is our Brother . 4. To this for the likenesse of the matter I adde , that the divine mercy hath so prosecuted us with the enlargement of his favours , that we are not onely fellow ministers and servants with the Angels and in our nature in the person of Christ exalted above them , but we also shall be their Judges ; and if this be not an honour above that of Joseph or Mordecai , an honour beyond all the measures of a man , then there is in honour no degrees no priority or distances , or characters of fame and noblenesse . Christ is the great Judge of all the world , his humane nature shall then triumph over evil men and evil spirits , then shall the Devils , those Angels that fel from their first originals be brought in their chains from their dark prisons and once be allowed to see the light , that light that shall confound them ; while all that follow the lamb , and that are accounted worthy of that resurrection shall be assessors in the judgment . Know ye not , ( saith , S. Paul ) that ye shall judge Angels ? And Tertullian speaking concerning Devils and accursed spirits [ de cultu foeminarum ] saith , Hi sunt Angeli quos judicaturi sumus , Hi sunt Angeli quibus in lavacro renunciavimus . Those Angels which we renounced in baptisme those we shall judge in the day of the Lords Glory , in the great day of recompences : And that the honour may be yet greater the same day of sentence that condemns the evil Angels shal also reward the good , and increase their glory : which because they derive from their Lord and ours , from their King and our elder Brother , the King of glories , whose glorious hands shall put the crown upon all our heads , we who shall be servants of that judgement and some way or other assist in it , have a part of that honour , to be judges of all Angels , and of all the world . The effect of these things ought to be this , that we do not by base actions dishonour that nature that sits upon the throne of God , that reigns over Angels , that shall sit in judgement upon all the world . It is a great undecency that the son of a King should bear water upon his head , and dresse vineyards among the slaves ; or to see a wise man and the guide of his country drink-drunk among the meanest of his servants ; but when members of Christ shall be made members of an harlot , and that which rides above a rain-bow stoopes to an imperious whorish woman , when the soul that is sister to the Lord of Angels , shall degenerate into the foolishnesse or rage of a beast , being drowned with the blood of the grape , or made mad with passion , or ridiculous with weaker follies , we shall but strip our selves of that robe of honour with which Christ hath invested , and adorned our nature , and carry that portion of humanity which is our own , and which God had honoured in some capacities above Angels , into a portion of an eternal shame , and became lesse in all senses , and equally disgraced with Devils . The shame and sting of this change shall be , that we turned the glories of the Divine mercy into the basenesse of ingratitude and the amazement of suffering the Divine vengeance . But I passe on . 5. The next order of Divine mercies that I shall remark is also an improvement of our nature or an appendage to it : for whereas our constitution is weak , our souls apt to diminution and impedite faculties , our bodies to mutilation and imperfection , to blindnesse and crookednesse , to stammering and sorrows , to baldnesse and deformity to evil conditions and accidents of body , and to passions and sadnesse of spirit , God hath in his infinite mercy provided for every condition rare suppletories of comfort and usefulnesse to make recompence and sometimes with an overrunning proportion for those natural defects which were apt to make our persons otherwise contemptible and our conditions intolerable ; God gives to blinde men better memories . For upon this account it is , that Rufinus makes mention of Didymus of Alexandria , who being blinde , was blessed with a rare attention and singular memory , and by prayer , and hearing , and meditating , and discoursing , came to be one of the most excellent Divines of that whole age . And it was more remarkable in Nicasius Machliniensis , who being blockish at his book in his first childhood fell into accidental blindnesse , and from thence continually grew to so quick an appretension and so tenacious a memory , that he became the wonder of his contemporaries , and was chosen Rector of the College at Mechlin , and was made licentiate of Theology at Lovaine , and Doctor of both the laws , at Colein , living and dying in great reputation for his rare parts and excellent learning . At the same rate also God deals with men in other instances ; want of children he recompences with freedom from care , and whatsoever evil happens to the body is therefore most commonly single and unaccompanied , because God accepts that evil as the punishment of the sin of the man , or the instrument of his vertue , or his security , and is reckoned as a sufficient cure , or a sufficient Antidote . God hath laid laid a severe law upon all women that in sorrow they shall bring forth children , yet God hath so attempered that sorrow , that they think themselves more accursed if they want that sorrow , and they have reason to rejoyce in that state , the trouble of whic is alleviared by a promise , that they shall be saved in bearing children . He that wants one eye hath the force and vigorousnesse of both united in that which is left him ; and when ever any man is afflicted with sorrow his reason and his religion , himself and all his friends , persons that are civil , and persons that are obliged , run in to comfort him , and he may , if he will observe wisely , finde so many circumstances of ease and remission , so many designes of providence and studied favours , such contrivances of collateral advantage and certain reserves of substantial and proper comfort , that in the whole sum of affaires , it often happens that a single crosse is a double blessing , & that even in a temporal sense it is better to go to the house of mourning , then of joyes and festival egressions . Is not the affliction of poverty better then the prosperity of a great and tempting fortune ? does not wisdom dwell in a mean estate and a low spirit retired thoughts and under a sad roof ? and is it not generally true that sicknesse it self is appayed with religion and holy thoughts with pious resolutions and penitential prayers , with returns to God and to sober councels ? and if this be true , that God sends sorrow to cure sin , and affliction be the hand-maid to grace , it is also certain that every sad contingency in nature is doubly recompenced with the advantages of religion , besides those intervening refreshments which support the spirit , and refresh its instruments . I shall need to instance but once more in this particular . God hath sent no greater evil into the world , then that in the sweat of our brows we shall eat our bread , and in the difficulty and agony , in the sorrows and contention of our souls we shall work out our salvation . But see how in the first of these God hath out done his own anger and defeated the purposes of his wrath by the inundation of his mercy ; for this labour and sweat of our brows is so far from being a curse that without it our very bread would not be so great a blessing . It is not labour that makes the Garlick and the pulse , the Sycamore and the Cresses , the cheese of the Goats and the butter of the sheep to be savoury and pleasant , as the flesh of the Roe-buek or the milk of the Kine , the marrow of Oxen or the thighs of birds ? If it were not for labour , men neither could eat so much , nor relish so pleasantly , nor sleep so soundly nor be so healthful , nor so useful , so strong nor so patient , so noble , or so untempted , and as God hath made us beholding to labour for the purchase of many good things , so the thing it self ows to labour , many degrees of its worth and value : and therefore I need not reckon that besides these advantages , the mercies of God have found out proper and natural remedies for labour ; Nights to cure the sweat of the day , sleep to ease our watchfulnesse , rest to alleviate our burdens , and dayes of religion to procure our rest : and things are so ordered that labour is become a duty , and an act of many vertues , and is not so apt to turne into a sin as is its contrary , and is therefore necessary , not onely because we need it , for making provisions of our life , but even to ease the labour of our rest ; there being no greater tediousnesse of spirit in the world then want of imployment , and an unactive life : and the lasie man is not onely unprofitable , but also accursed , and he groans under the load of his time , which yet passes over the active man light , as a dreame or the feathers of a bird , while the disimployed , is a desease , and like a long sleeplesse night to himself , and a load unto his country : And therefore although in this particular God hath been so merciful in this infliction that from the sharpnesse of the curse a very great part of mankinde are freed , and there are myriads of people , good and bad , who do not eat their bread in the sweat of their brows , yet this is but an overrunning and an excesse of the divine mercy ; God did more for us then we did absolutely need ; for he hath disposed of the circumstances of this curse , that mans affections are so reconciled to it , that they desire it , and are delighted in it ; and so the Anger of God is ended in loving Kindnesse , and the drop of water is lost in the full chalice of the wine , and the curse is gone out into a multiplied blessing . But then for the other part of the severe law and laborious imposition , that we must work out our spiritual interest with the labours of our spirit , seems to most men to be so intolerable , that rather then passe under it they quit their hopes of heaven , and passe into the portion of Devils ; and what can there be to alleviate this sorrow , that a man shall be perpetually sollicited with an impure tempter , and shall carry a flame within him , and all the world is on fire round about him , and every thing brings fuel to the flame , and full tables are a snare , and empty tables are collateral servants to a lust , and help to blow the fire and kindle the heap of prepared temptations , and yet a man must not at all tast of the forbidden fruit , and he must not desire what he cannot choose but desire , and he must not enjoy whatsoever he does violently covet , and must never satisfy his appetite in the most violent importunities , but must therefore deny himself , because to do so is extremely troublesome ; this seems to be an art of torture and a devise to punish man with the spirit of agony , and a restlesse vexation . But this also hath in it a great ingredient of mercy , or rather is nothing else but a heap of mercy in its intire constitution : For if it were not for this we had nothing of our own to present to God , nothing proportionable to the great rewards of heaven , but either all men or no man must go thither ; for nothing can distinguish man from man in order to beatitude but choice and election , and nothing can enoble the choice but love , and nothing can exercise love but difficulty , and nothing can make that difficulty but the contradiction of our appetite and the crossing of our natural affections ; and therefore when ever any of you is tempted violently or grow weary in your spirits with resisting the petulancy of temptation , you may be cured if you will please but to remember and rejoyce , that now you have something of your own to give to God ; something that he will be pleased to accept , something that he hath given thee that thou mayest give it him : for our mony and our time , our dayes of feasting and our dayes of sorrow , our discourse and our acts of praise , our prayers and our songs , our vows and our offerings , our worshippings and prostrations , and whatsoever else can be accounted in the sum of our religion , are onely accepted according as they bear along with them portions of our wil and choice of love and appendant difficulty . Laetius est quoties magno tibi constat honestum . So that whoever can complain that he serves God with pains and mortifications , he is troubled because there is a distinction of things such as we call vertue and vice , reward and punishment , and if he will not suffer God to distinguish the first he will certainly confound the latter ; and his portion shall be blacknesse without variety and punishment shall be his reward . 6. As an appendage to this instance of divine mercy , we are to account that not onely in nature ; but in contingency and emergent events of providence , God makes compensation to us , for all the evils of chance , and hostilities of accident ▪ & brings good out of evil , which is that solemn triumph which mercy makes over justice , when it rides upon a cloud and crowns its darknesse with a robe of glorious light . God indeed suffered Joseph to be sold a bondslave into Egypt , but then it was that God intended to crown and reward his chastity ; for by that means he brought him to a fair condition of dwelling and there gave him a noble trial ; he had a brave contention and he was a conqueror : Then God sent him to prison , but still that was mercy , it was to make way to bring him to Pharaohs court ; and God brought famine upon Canaan , and troubled all the souls of Jacobs family , and there was a plot laid for another mercy ; this was to bring them to see and partake of Josephs glory : and then God brought a great evil upon their posterity and they groaned under task-masters , but this God changed into the miracles of his mercy , and suffered them to be afflicted that he might do ten miracles for their sakes , and proclaim to all the world how dear they were to God. And was not the greatest good to mankinde brought forth from the greatest treason that ever was committed ; the redemption of the world from the fact of Judas , God loving to defeat the malice of man and the arts of the Devil by rare emergencies and stratagems of mercy ? It is a sad calamity to see a kingdom spoiled , and a church afflicted , the Priests slain with the sword , and the blood of Nobles mingled with cheaper sand , religion made a cause of trouble , and the best men most cruelly persecuted , Government confounded , and laws ashamed , Judges decreeing causes in fear and covetousnesse , and the ministers of holy things setting themselves against all that is sacred , and setting fire upon the fields , and turning in little foxes on purpose to destroy the vineyards ; and what shall make recompence for this heap of sorrows , when ever God shall send such swords of fire ? even the mercies of God which then will be made publick , when we shall hear such afflicted people sing Inconvertendo captivitatem Sion with the voice of joy and festival eucharist , among such as keep holy day ; and when peace shall become sweeter and dwell the longer ; and in the mean time it serves religion , and the affliction shall try the children of God , and God shall crown them , and men shall grow wiser , and more holy , and leave their petty interstes , and take sanctuary in holy living and be taught temperance by their want , and patience by their suffering , and charity by their persecution , and shall better understand the duty of their relations , and at last the secret worm that lay at the root of the plant , shall be drawn forth and quite extinguished . For so have I known a luxuriant Vine swell into irregular twigs , and bold excrescencies , and spend it self in leaves and little rings , and affoord but trifling clusters to the wine-presse , and a faint return to his heart which longed to be refreshed with a full vintage : But when the Lord of the vine had caused the dressers to cut the wilder plant and made it bleed , it grew temperate in its vain expense of uselesse leaves , and knotted into fair and juicy bunches , and made accounts of that losse of blood by the return of fruit : So is an afflicted Province , cured of its surfets , and punished for its sins , and bleeds for its long riot , and is left ungoverned for its disobedience , and chastised for its wantonnesse , and when the sword hath let forth the corrupted blood , and the fire hath purged the rest , then it enters into the double joyes of restitution , and gives God thanks for his rod , and confesses the mercies of the Lord in making the smoke be changed into fire , and the cloud into a perfume , the sword into a staffe , and his anger into mercy . Had not David suffered more if he had suffered lesse , and had he not been miserable unlesse he had been afflicted ? he understood it well when he said . It is good for me that I have been afflicted . He that was rival to Crassus , when he stood candidate to command the Legions in the Parthians warre was much troubled that he missed the dignity , but he saw himself blessed that he scaped the death , and the dishonour of the overthrow , by that time the sad news arrived at Rome . The Gentleman at Marseilles cursed his starres that he was absent when the ship set sail to sea , having long waited for a winde , and missed it ; but he gave thanks to the providence that blest him with the crosse , when he knew that the ship perished in the voyage , and all the men were drowned : And even those virgins and barren women in Jerusalem , that longed to become glad mothers , and for want of children would not be comforted , yet when Titus sacked the City , found the words of Jesus true Blessed is the womb that never bare , and the paps that never gave suck . And the world being governed with a rare variety , and changes of accidents , and providence ; that which is a misfortune in the particular , in the whole order of things becomes a blessing bigger then we hoped for , then when we were angry with God for hindring us , to perish in pleasant waves , or when he was contriving to pour upon thy head a mighty blessing . Do not think the Judge condemns you when he chides you , nor think to read thy own finall sentence by the first half of his words ; Stand still and see how it will be in the whole event of things ; let God speak his minde out ; for it may be , this sad beginning is but an art to bring in , or to make thee to esteem , and entertain , and understand the blessing . They that love to talk of the mercies of the Lord , and to recount his good things , cannot but have observed that God delights to be called by such Appellatives which relate to miserable and afflicted persons : He is the Father of the fatherlesse , and an avenger of the widowes cause , he standeth at the right hand of the poor to save his soul from unrighteous Judges , and he is with us in tribulation : And upon this ground , let us account whether mercy be not the greater ingredient in that death and deprivation , when I lose a man and get God to be my Father ; and when my weak arm of flesh is cut from my shoulder , and God makes me to lean upon him , and becomes my Patron and my Guide , my Advocate and Defender : and if in our greatest misery Gods mercy is so conspicuous , what can we suppose him to be in the endearment of his loving Kindnesse ? If his vail be so transparent , well may we know that upon his face dwels glory , and from his eyes light , and perpetuall comforts run in channels , larger then the returns of the Sea , when it is driven and forced faster into its naturall course , by the violence of a tempest from the North. The summe is this , God intends every accident should minister to vertue and every vertue is the mother and the nurse of joy , and both of them daughters of the Divine goodnesse , and therefore , if our sorrows do not passe into comforts , it is besides Gods intention ; it is because we will not comply with the act of that mercy which would save us by all means , and all varieties , by health and by sicknesse , by the life and by the death of our dearest friends , by what we choose and by what we fear ; that as Gods providence rules over all chances of things , and all designes of men , so his mercy may rule over all his providence . Sermon . XXVI . The Miracles of the Divine Mercy . Part II. 7. GOD having by these means secured us from the evils of nature and contingencies , he represents himself to be our Father , which is the great endearment , and tye , and expression , of a naturall , unalterable , and essentiall kindnesse , he next makes provisions for us to supply all those necessities which himself hath made . For even to make necessities , was a great circumstance of the mercy , and all the relishes of wine , and the savourinesse of meat , the sweet and the fat , the pleasure and the satisfaction , the restitution of spirits , and the strengthening of the heart , are not owing to the liver of the vine , or the kidneys of wheat , to the blood of the grape , or the strength of the corne , but to the appetite , or the necessity ; and therefore it is , that he that sits at a full table and does not recreate his stomack with fasting , and let his digestion rest , and place himself in the advantages of natures intervals , he loses the blessing of his daily bread , and leans upon his table as a sick man upon his bed , or the lion in the grasse , which he cannot feed on ; but he that wants it , and sits down when nature gives the signe , rejoyces in the health of his hunger , and the taste of his meat , and the strengthening of his spirit , and gives God thanks while his bones and his flesh rejoyce in the provisions of nature , and the blessing of God. Are not the imperfections of infancy , and the decayes of old age , the evils of our nature , because respectively they want desire , and they want gust and relish , and reflections upon their acts of sense ? and when desire failes , presently the mourners go about the streets . But then , that these desires are so provided for by nature and art , by ordinary and extraordinary , by foresight and contingency , according to necessity , and up unto conveniency , until we arrive at abundance , is a chain of mercies larger then the Bowe in the clouds , and richer then the trees of Eden , which were permitted to feed our miserable father : Is not all the earth our orchard , and our granary , our vineyard , and our garden of pleasure ? and the face of the Sea is our traffique , and the bowels of the Sea is our vivarium , a place for fish to feed us , and to serve some other collaterall appendant needs ; and all the face of heaven is a repository for influences and breath , fruitfull showers and fair refreshments ; and when God made provisions for his other creatures , he gave it of one kinde , and with variety no greater , then the changes of day and night , one devouring the other , or sitting down with his draught of blood , or walking upon his portion of grasse : But man hath all the food of beasts , and all the beasts themselves that are fit for food ; and the food of Angels , and the dew of heaven , and the fatnesse of the earth ; and every part of his body hath a provision made for it , and the smoothnesse of the olive , and the juice of the vine refresh the heart and make the face cheerfull , and serve the ends of joy , and the festivity of man , and are not onely to cure hunger or to allay thirst , but to appease a passion , and allay a sorrow . It is an infinite variety of meat with which God furnishes out the table of mankinde ; and in the covering our sin , and clothing our nakednesse , God passed from sig-leaves to the skins of beasts , from aprons to long-robes , from leather to wool , and from thence to the warmth of furres , and the coolnesse of silks , he hath dressed not onely our needs , but hath fitted the severall portions of the year , and made us to go dressed like our mother ; leaving off the winter sables when the florid spring appears , and assoon as the Tulip fades we put on the robe of Summer , and then shear our sheep for Winter ; and God uses us as Ioseph did his brother Benjamin , we have many changes of raiment , and our messe is five times bigger then the provision made for our brothers of the Creation . But the providence and mercies of God are to be estimated also according as these provisions are dispensed to every single person . For that I may not remark the bounties of God , running over the tables of the rich , God hath also made provisions for the poorest person : so that if they can but rule their desires they shall have their tables furnished ; and this is secured and provided for by one promise and two duties , by our Own labour , and our Brothers charity ▪ and our faith in this affair is confirmed by all our own , and by all the experience of other men . Are not all the men and the women of the world provided for , and fed and clothed till they die ? and was it not alwayes so from the first morning of the creatures ? and that a man is starved to death , is a violence and a rare contingency , happening almost as seldom as for a man to have but one eye : and if our being provided for be as certain as for a man to have two eyes , we have reason to adore the wisdom , and admire the mercies of our Almighty Father . But these things are evident . Is it not a great thing that God hath made such strange provisions for our health ? such infinite differences of Plants , and hath discovered the secrets of their nature by meer chance , or by inspiration ? either of which is the miracle of providence , secret to us , but ordered by certain and regular decrees of heaven . It was a huge diligence and care of the divine mercy that discovered to man , the secrets of Spagyrick medicines , of stones , of spirits , and the results of 7. or 8. decoctions , and the strange effects of accidental mixtures , which the art of man could not suspect , being bound up in the secret sanctuary of hidden causes , and secret natures , and being laid open by the concourse of 20. or 30. little accidents , all which were ordered by God , as certainly as are the first principles of nature , or the descent of sons from fathers in the most noble families . But that which I shall observe in this whole affair is , that there are both for the provision of our tables , and the relief of our sicknesses , so many miracles of providence that they give plain demonstration what relation we bear to heaven : and the poor man need not be troubled that he is to expect his daily portion after the Sun is up : for he hath found to this day he was not deceived , and then he may rejoyce because he sees by an effective probation that in heaven a decree was made , every day to send him provisions of meat and drink ; and that is a mighty mercy , when the circles of heaven are bowed down to wrap us in a bosome of care , and nourishment , and the wisdom of God is daily busied to serve his mercy , as his mercy serves our necessities . Does not God plant remedies there where the diseases are most popular , and every Countrey is best provided against its own evils ? Is not the Rhubarb found where the Sun most corrupts the liver , and the Scabious by the shore of the Sea , that God might cure as soon as he wounds , and the inhabitants may see their remedy against the leprosie , and the scurvy , before they feel their sicknesse ? And then to this we may adde , Natures commons and open fields , the shores of rivers , and the strand of the Sea , the unconfined air , the wildernesse that hath no hedge , and that in these every man may hunt and fowl and fish respectively ; and that God sends some miracles and extraordinary blessings so for the publike good , that he will not endure they should be inclosed and made severall : Thus he is pleased to dispense the Manna of Calabria , the medicinall waters of Germany , the Musles at Sluce at this day , and the Egyptian beans in the marishes of Albania , and the salt at Troas of old ; which God to defeat the covetousnesse of man , and to spread his mercy over the face of the indigent , as the Sun scatters his beams over the bosome of the whole earth , did so order that as long as every man was permitted to partake , the bosome of heaven was open ; but when man gathered them into single handfulls , and made them impropriate , God gathered his hand into his bosome , and bound the heavens with ribs of brasse , and the earth with decrees of iron , and the blessing reverted to him that gave it , since they might not receive it , to whom it was sent . And in general , this is the excellency of this mercy , that all our needs are certainly supplied , and secured by a promise which God cannot break , but he that cannot breake the lawes of his own promises , can break the lawes of nature , that he may perform his promise , and he will do a miracle rather then forsake thee in thy needs : So that our security and the relative mercy , is bound upon us by all the power and the truth of God. 8. But because such is the bounty of God , that he hath provided a better life for the inheritance of man , if God is so mercifull in making fair provisions for our lesse noble part , in order to the transition toward our Countrey , we may expect that the mercies of God hath rare arts to secure to us his designed bounty , in order to our inheritance , to that which ought to be our portion for ever . And here I consider , that it is an infinite mercy of the Almighty Father of mercies that he hath appointed to us such a religion that leads us to a huge felicity , through pleasant wayes . For the felicity that is designed to us is so above our present capacities and conceptions , that while we are so ignorant as not to understand it , we are also so foolish as not to desire it with passions great enough to perform the little conditions of its purchase ; God therefore knowing how great an interest it is , and how apt we would be to neglect it , hath found out such conditions of acquiring it which are eases and satisfaction to our present appetites . God hath bound our salvation upon us by the endearment of temporall prosperities ; and because we love this world so well , God hath so ordered it , that even this world may secure the other . And of this , God in old time made open profession , for when he had secretly designed to bring his people to a glorious immortality in another world , he told them nothing of that , it being a thing bigger then the capacity of their thoughts , or of their Theology , but told them that which would tempt them most , and endear obedience : If you will obey , ye shall eat the good things of the land : Ye shall possesse a rich countrey , ye shall triumph over your enemies , ye shall have numerous families , blessed children , rich granaries , over-running wine-presses ; for God knew the cognation of most of them was so dear , between their affections and the good things of this world , that if they did not obey in hope of that they did need , and fancy , and love , and see , and feel , it was not to be expected they should quit their affections for a secret in another world , whither before they come they must die , and lose all desire and all capacities of enjoyment . But this designe of God which was bare-faced in the dayes of the law , is now in the Gospel interwoven secretly ( but yet plain enough to be discovered by an eye of faith and reason ) into every vertue , and temporal advantage is a great ingredient in the constitution of every Christian grace for so the richest tissue dazles the beholders eye when the Sun reflects upon the mettal , the silver and the gold weaved into phantastic imagery , or a wealthy plainnesse , but the rich wire and shining filaments are wrought upon cheaper silk , the spoil of worms and flies : so is the imbroidery of our vertue ; the glories of the spirit dwell upon the face and vestment , upon the fringes and the borders ; and there we see the Beril and the Onyx , the Jasper and the sardyx , order and perfection love and peace and joy , mortification of the passions and ravishment of the will , adherencies to God and imitation of Christ , reception and entertainment of the Holy Ghost and longings after heaven , humility , and chastity , temperance , and sobriety ; these make the frame of the garment , the cloaths of the soul that it may not be found naked in the day of the Lords visitation ; but through these rich materials a thrid of silk is drawn , some compliance with worms and weaker creatures , something that shall please our bowels , and make the lower man to rejoyce : they are wrought upon secular content , and material satisfactions , and now we cannot be happy unlesse we be pious , and the religion of a Christian is the greatest security and the most certain instrument of making a man rich , and pleased , and healthful and wise and beloved in the whole world . I shall now remark onely two or three instances ; for the main body of this truth I have other where represented . 1. The whole religion of a Christian as it relates to others is nothing but justice and mercy , certain parents of peace and benefit : and upon this supposition what evil can come to a just and a merciful to a necessary and useful person ? For the first permission of evil was upon the stock of injustice : He that kills may be killed , and he that does injury may be mischieved ; he that invades another mans right , must venture the losse of his own ; and when I put my Brother to his defence he may chance drive the evil so far from himself , that it may reach me ; Laws and Judges , private & publick judicatures , wars and tribunals axes and wheels were made , not for the righteous , but for the unjust ; and all that whole order of things and persons would be uselesse , if men did do as they would willingly suffer . 2. And because there is no evil that can befal a just man unlesse it comes by injury and violence , our religion hath also made as good provisions against that too , as the nature of the thing will suffer ; for by patience we are reconciled to the sufferance , and by hope and faith we see a certain consequent reward ; and by praying for the persecuting man we are cured of all the evil of the minde , the envy and the fretfulnesse that uses to gall the troubled and resisting man ; and when we turn all the passion into charity , and God turns all the suffering into reward , there remains nothing that is very formidable . So that our religion obliges us to such duties which prevent all evils that happen justly to men , ( and in our religion no man can suffer as a malefactor , if he follows the religion truely ) and for the evils that are unavoidable and come by violence , the graces of this discipline turne them into vertues and rewards , and make them that in their event they are desirable and in the suffering they are very tolerable . 3. But then when we consider that the religion of a Christian consists in doing good to all men , that it is made up of mercies and friendships , of friendly conventions and assemblies of Saints , that all are to do good works for necessary uses , that is to be able to be beneficial to the publick and not to be burthensome to any , where it can be avoided , what can be wished to man in relation to others , and what can be more beneficial to themselves then that they be such whom other men will value for their interest , such whom the publick does need , such whom Princes and Nobles ought to esteem , and all men can make use of according to their several conditions ; that they are so well provided for that unlesse a persecution disables them they cannot onely maintain themselves , but oblige others to their charity . This is a temporal good which all wise men reckon as part of that felicity which recompences all the labours of their day , and sweetens the sleep of their night , and places them in that circle of neigbour-hood and amity where men are most valued and most secure . 4. To this we may adde this material consideration . That al those graces which oblige us to do good to others are nothing else but certain instruments of doing advantage to our selves . It is a huge noblenesse of charity to give alms not onely to our Brother , but for him , It is the Christian sacrifice , like that of Job who made oblations for his sons when they feasted each other , fearing lest they had sinned against God ; and if I give almes and fast and pray in behalf of my prince , or my Patron , my friend or my children , I do a combination of holy actions , which are of all things that I can do , the most effectual intercession for him , whom I so recommend ; but then observe the art of this , and what a plot is laid by the divine mercy to secure blessing to to our selves . That I am a person fit to intercede and pray for him must suppose me a gracious person , one whom God rather will accept ; so that before I be fit to pray and interpose for him ; I must first become dear to God , and my charity can do him no good , for whose interest I gave it , but by making me first acceptable to God , that so he may the rather hear me ; and when I fast , it is first an act of repentance for my self before it can be an instrument of impetration for him . And thus I do my Brother a single benefit , by doing myself a double one , and it is also so ordered that when I pray for a person for whom God will not hear me , yet then he will hear me for my self though I say nothing in my own behalf , and our prayers are like Jonathans arrows , if they fall short , yet they return my friend or my friendship to me ; or if they go home , they secure him whom they pray for , and I have not onely the comfort of rejoycing with him but the honour and the reward of procuring him a joy ; and certain it is that a charitable prayer for another , can never want what it asks , or instead of it , a greater blessing . The good man that saw his poor brother troubled because he had nothing to present for an offering at the Holy communion ( when all knew themselves obliged to do kindnesse for Christs poor members with which themselves were incorporated with so mysterious union ) and gave him mony that he might present for the good of his soul as other Christians did , had not onely thereward of almes but of religion too ; and that offering was well husbanded , for it did benefit to two souls ; for as I sin when I make another sin : so if I help him to do a good , I am a sharer in the gains of his talent , and he shall not have the lesse but I shall be rewarded upon his stock . And this was it which David rejoyced in , Particeps sum omnium timentium te ; I am a partner , a companion of all them that fear thee , I share in their profits . If I do but rejoyce at every grace of God which I see in my Brother , I shall be rewarded for that grace ; and we need not envy the excellency of another ; It becomes mine as well as his : and if I do rejoyce , I shall have cause to rejoyce so excellent , so full , so artificial is the mercy of God in making and seeking and finding all occasions to do us good . 5. The very charity and love and mercy that is commanded in our religion is in it self a great excellency , not onely in order to heaven , but to the comforts of the earth too & such without which a man is not capable of a blessing or a comfort ; & he that sent charity and friendships into the world , intended charity to be as relative as justice , & to do its effect both upon the loving and the beloved person . It is a reward and a blessing to a kinde Father , when his children do well , and every degree of prudent love which he bears to them is an endearment of his joy ; and he that loves them not , but looks upon them as burdens of necessity , and loads to his fortune , loses those many rejoycings and the pleasures of kindnesse , which they feast withal who love to divide their fortunes , amongst them , because they have already divided out large and equal portions of their heart . I have instanced in this relation ; but it is true in all the excellency of friendship ; and every man rejoyces twice when he hath a partner of his joy ; A friend shares my sorrow and makes it but a moiety ; but he swells my joy and makes it double . For so two chanels divide the river and lessen it into rivulets , and make it foordable and apt to be drunk up at the first revels of the Sirian star ; but two torches do not divide but increase the flame ; and though my tears are the sooner dryed up , when they run upon my friends cheeks in the furrows of compassion , yet when my flame hath kindled his lamp , we unite the glories and make them radiant like the golden Candle-sticks that burn before the throne of God , because they shine by numbers , by unions , and confederations of light and joy . And now upon this account which is already so great I need not reckon concerning the collateral issues , and little streams of comfort which God hath made to issue from that religion to which God hath obliged us ; such as are mutual comforts , visiting sick people , instructing the ignorant and so becoming better instructed and fortified and comforted our selves by the instruments of our Brothers case and advantages ; the glories of converting souls , of rescuing a sinner from hell , of a miserable man from the grave the honour and noblenesse of being a good man , the noble confidence , and the bravery of innocence , the ease of patience , the quiet of contentednesse , the rest of peacefulnesse , the worthinesse of forgiving others , the greatnesse of spirit that is in despising riches , and the sweetnesse of spirit that is in meeknesse and humility ; these are Christian graces in every sense ; favours of God and issues of his bounty & his mercy ; but al that I shal now observe further concerning them , is this , that God hath made these necessary ; he hath obliged us to have them under pain of damnation , he hath made it so sure to us to become happy even in this world , that if we will not , he hath threatened to destroy us , which is , not a desire or aptnesse to do us an evil , but an art to make it impossible that we should For God hath so ordered it that we cannot perish unlesse we desire it our selves , and unlesse we will do our selves a mischief on purpose to get hell , we are secured of heaven , and there is not in the nature of things , any way that can more infallibly do the work of felicity upon creatures that can choose , then to make that which they should naturally choose , be spiritually their duty , and that he will make them happy hereafter , if they will suffer him to make them happy here ; But hardly stand another throng of mercies that must be considered by us , and God must be glorified in them , for they are such as are intended to preserve to us all this felicity . 9. God that he might secure our duty and our present and consequent felicity hath tied us with golden chaines and bound us not onely with the bracelets of love , and the deliciousnesse of hope , but with the ruder cords of fear and reverence , even with all the innumerable parts of a restraining grace . For it is a huge aggravation of humane calamity to consider that after a man hath been instructed in the love and advantages of his Religion , and knows it to be the way of honour and felicity , and that to prevaricate his holy sanctions is certain death and disgrace to eternal ages , yet that some men shall despise their religion , others shall be very weary of its laws , and cal the commandments a burden , and too many , with a perfect choice shall delight in death , and the wayes that lead thither , and they choose mony infinitely , and to rule over their Brother by al means , & to be revenged extremely , and to prevail by wrong and to do all that they can , and please themselves in all that they desire , and love it fondly , and be restlesse in all things but where they perish ; if God should not interpose by the arts of a miraculous and merciful grace , and put a bridle in the mouth of our lusts , and chastise the sea of our follies by some heaps of sand or the walls of a rock , we should perish in the deluge of sin universally as the old world did in that storm of the divine anger , the flood of waters . But thus God suffers but few adulteries in the world in respect of what would be if all men that desire to be adulterers had power & opportunity ; and yet some men and very many women are by modesty and natural shamefacednesse chastised in their too forward appetites : or the laws of man or publick reputation or the undecency and unhandsome circumstances of sin check the desire and make it that it cannot arrive at act : for so have I seen a busie flame sitting upon a sullen cole turn its point to all the angles and portions of its neighbour-hood and reach at a heap of prepared straw , which like a bold temptation called it to a restlesse motion and activity , but either it was at too big a distance or a gentle breath from heaven diverted the speare and the ray of the fire to the other side , and so prevented the violence of the burning , till the flame expired in a weak consumption , and dyed turning into smoak and the coolnesse of death and the harmlesnesse of a Cinder : and when a mans desires are winged with sailes and a lusty wind of passion and passe on in a smooth chanel of opportunity , God often times hinders the lust and the impatient desire from passing on to its port , and entring into action , by a suddain thought , by a little remembrance of a word , by a fancy , by a sudden disability , by unreasonable and unlikely fears , by the suddain intervening of company , by the very wearinesse of the passion , by curiosity , by want of health , by the too great violence of the desire , bursting it self with its fulnesse into dissolution & a remisse easinesse , by a sentence of scripture , by the reverence of a good man , or else by the proper interventions of the spirit of grace chastising the crime and representing its appendant mischiefs and its constituent disorder and irregularity ▪ and after all this , the very anguish and trouble of being defeated in the purpose hath rolled it self into so much uneasinesse and unquiet reflections , that the man is grown a shamed and vexed into more sober counsels . And the mercy of God is not lesse then infinite in separating men from the occasions of their sin , from the neighbour-hood and temptation ; for if the Hyaena and a dog should be thrust into the same Kennel , one of them would soon finde a grave , and it may be both of them their death ; so infallible is the ruine of most men , if they be shewed a temptation : Nitre and resin , Naphtha and Bitumen , sulphur and pitch are their constitution , and the fire passes upon them infinitely , and there is none to rescue them . But God by removing our sins far from us , as far as the East is from the West not onely putting away the guilt , but setting the occasion far from us , extremely far ; so far that sometimes we cannot sin and many times , not easily , hath magnified his mercy , by giving us safety in all those measures in which we are untempted . It would be the matter of new discourses , if I should consider concerning the variety of Gods grace , his preventing and accompanying , his inviting and corroborating grace ; his assisting us to will , his enabling us to do , his sending Angels to watch us , to remove us from evil company , to drive us with swords of fire from forbidden instances , to carry us by unobserved opportunities into holy company , to minister occasions of holy discourses , to make it by some means or other necessary to do a holy action , to make us in love with vertue , because they have mingled that vertue with a just and a fair interest , to some men by making religion that thing they live upon , to others , the means of their reputation , and the securities of their honour , and thousands of wayes more , which every prudent man that watches the wayes of God cannot but have observed . But I must also observe other great conjugations of mercy , for he that is to passe through an infinite must not dwell upon everie little line of life . 10. The next order of mercies is such , which is of so pure , and unmingled constitution , that it hath at first no regard to the capacities and disposition of the receivers , and afterwards when it hath , it relates onely to such conditions , which it self creates and produces in the suscipient , I mean the mercies of the divine predestination . For was it not an infinite mercy that God should predestinate all mankinde to salvation by Jesus Christ , even when he had no other reason to move him to do it but because man was miserable and needed his pity ? But I shall instance onely in the intermediall part of this mysterious mercy . Why should God cause us to be born of Christian parents , and not to be circumcised by the impure hands of a Turkish Priest ? What distinguished me from another , that my Father was severe in his discipline and carefull to bring me up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord , and I was not exposed to the carelesnesse of an irreligious guardian , and taught to steal , and lie , and to make sport with my infant vices , and beginnings of iniquity ? Who was it that discerned our persons from the lot of dying Chrysomes , whose portion must be among those who never glorified God with a free obedience ? What had you done of good , or towards it , that you was not condemned to the stupid ignorance which makes the souls of most men but a little higher then beasts , and who understand nothing of religion and noble principles , of parables and wise sayings of old men . And not onely in our cradles , but in our schools , and in our colledges , in our friendships , and in our marriages , in our enmities , and in all our conversation , in our vertues and in our vices , where all things in us were equal , or else we were the inferiour , there is none of us but have felt the mercies of many differencies . Or it may be my brother and I were intemperate , and drunk , and quarelsome , and he kill'd a man , but God did not suffer me to do so : He fell down and died with a little disorder , I was a beast and yet was permitted to live , and not yet to die in my sins : He did a misse once and was surprized in that disadvantage : I sin daily and am still invited to repentance ; he would fain have lived and amended ; I neglect the grace , but am allowed the time . And when God sends the Angel of his wrath to execute his anger upon a sinfull people we are encompassed with funerals , and yet the Angel hath not smitten us : what or who makes the difference ? We shall then see , when in the separations of eternity , we sitting in glory , shall see some of the partners of our sins carried into despair and the portions of the left hand , and roaring in the seats of the reprobate ; we shall then perceive that it is even that mercy which hath no cause but it self , no measure of its emanation but our misery , no natural limit but eternity , no beginning but God , no object but man , no reason but an essential and an unalterable goodnesse , no variety but our necessity and capacity , no change but new instances of its own nature , no ending or repentance , but our absolute and obstinate refusall to entertain it . II. Lastly , All the mercies of God are concentred in that which is all the felicity of man ; and God is so great a lover of souls that he provides securities and fair conditions for them , even against all our reason and hopes , our expectations , and weak discoursings . The particulars I shall remark are these . 1. Gods mercy prevails over the malice and ignorances , the weaknesses and follies of men , so that in the convention and assemblies of hereticks ( as the word is usually understood for erring and mistaken people ) although their doctrines are such that if men should live according to their proper and naturall consequences , they would live impiously , yet in every one of these there are persons so innocently and invincibly mistaken , and who mean nothing but truth , while in the simplicity of their heart they talk nothing but error , that in the defiance and contradiction of their own doctrines , they live according to its contradictory . He that beleeves contrition alone with confession to a Priest , is enough to expiate ten thousand sins , is furnished with an excuse easie enough to quit himself from the troubles of a holy life ; and he that hath a great many cheap wayes of buying off his penances for a little money , even for the greatest sins , is taught a way not to fear the doing of an act , for which he must repent ; since repentance is a duty so soon , fo certainly , and so easily performed : But these are notorious doctrines in the Roman Church , and yet God so loves the souls of his creatures that many men who trust to these doctrines in their discourses , dare not rely upon them in their lives . But while they talk as if they did not need to live strictly , many of them live so strictly as if they did not beleeve so foolishly . He that tels , that antecedently God hath to all humane choice decreed man to heaven or to hell , takes away from man all care of the way , because they beleeve that he that infallibly decreed that end , hath unalterably appointed the means , and some men that talk thus wildly live soberly , and are over-wrought in their understanding by some secret art of God , that man may not perish in his ignorance , but be assisted in his choice , and saved by the Divine mercies . And there is no sect of men but are furnished with antidotes and little excuses to cure the venom of their doctrine ; and therefore although the adherent and constituent poison is notorious and therefore to be declined , yet because it is collaterally cured and over-poured by the torrent and wisdom of Gods mercies , the men are to be taken into the Quire that we may all joyn in giving of God praise for the operation of his hands . 2. I said formerly that there are many secret and undiscerned mercies by which men live , and of which men can give no account till they come to give God thanks at their publication ; and of this sort , is that mercy which God reserves for the souls of many millions of men and women concerning whom we have no hopes , if we account concerning them by the usuall proportions of revelation and Christian commandements , and yet we are taught to hope some strange good things concerning them by the analogy and generall rules of the Divine mercy . For what shall become of ignorant Christians , people that live in wildnesses and places more desert then a primitive hermitage , people that are baptized , and taught to go to Church , it may be once a yeer , people that can get no more knowledge , they know not where to have it , nor how to desire it ; and yet that an eternity of pains shall be consequent to such an ignorance is unlike the mercy of God , and yet that they should be in any dispositions towards an eternity of intellectuall joyes is no where set down in the leaves of revelation ; and when the Jews grew rebellious , or a silly woman of the daughters of Abraham was tempted , and sinned , and punished with death , we usually talk as if that death passed on to a worse ; but yet we may arrest our thoughts upon the Divine mercies , and consider that it is reasonable to expect from the Divine goodnesse , that no greater forfeiture be taken upon a law , then was expressed in its sanction and publication . He that makes a law and bindes it with the penalty of stripes , we say he intends not to afflict the disobedient with scorpions and axes ; and it had been hugely necessary that God had scar'd the Jews from their sins by threatning the pains of hell to them that disobeyed , if he intended to inflict it ; for although many men would have ventured the future , since they are not affrighted with the present and visible evil , yet some persons would have had more Philosophical and spiritual apprehensions then others , and have been infallibly cured in all their temptations with the fear of an eternall pain ; and however , whether they had or no , yet since it cannot be understood how it consists with the Divine justice to exact a pain bigger then he threatned , greater then he gave warning of so we are sure it is a great way off from Gods mercy to do so . He that usually imposes lesse , and is loth to inflict any and very often forgives it all , is hugely distant from exacting an eternall punishment , when the most that he threatned and gave notice of , was but a temporall . The effect of this consideration I would have to be this , that we may publikely worship this mercy of God which is kept in secret and that we be not too forward in sentencing all Heathens , and prevaricating Jews to the eternall pains of hell , but hope that they have a portion in the secrets of the Divine mercy , where also unlesse many of us have some little portions deposited , our condition will be very uncertain , and sometimes most miserable . God knows best how intolerably accursed a thing it is to perish in the eternall flames of hell , and therefore he is not easie to inflict it : and if the joyes of heaven be too great to be expected upon too easie termes , certainly the pains of the damned are infinitely too big to passe lightly upon persons who cannot help themselves , and who if they were helped with clearer revelations would have avoided it : But as in these things we must not pry into the secrets of the Divine Oeconomy , being sure whether it be so or no , it is most just , even as it is ; so we may expect to see the glories of the Divine mercy made publike in unexpected instances at the great day of manifestation : And indeed our dead many times go forth from our hands very strangely and carelesly , without prayers , without Sacraments , without consideration , without counsel , and without comfort ; and to dresse the souls of our dear people to so sad a parting is an imployment , we therefore omit , not alwayes because we are negligent , but because the work is sad and allay the affections of the world , with those melancholy circumstances ; but if God did not in his mercies make secret and equivalent provisions for them , and take care of his redeemed ones we might unhappily meet them in a sad eternity , and without remedy weep together and groan for ever . But God hath provided better things for them , that they without us , that is , without our assistances , shall be made perfect . Sermon . XXVII . The Miracles of the Divine Mercy . Part III. THere are very many more orders and conjugations of mercies , but because the numbers of them naturally tend to their own greatnesse , that is , to have no measure , I must reckon but a few more , and them also without order ; for that they do descend upon us , we see and feel , but by what order of things , or causes , is as undiscerned as the head of Nilus , or a sudden remembrance of a long neglected and forgotten proposition . 1. But upon this account it is , that good men have observed , that the providence of God is so great a provider for holy living , and does so certainly minister to religion , that nature and chance , the order of the world , and the influences of heaven are taught to serve the ends of the Spirit of God , and the spirit of a man. I do not speak of the miracles that God hath in the severall periods of the world wrought for the establishing his lawes , and confirming his promises , and securing our obedience ; though that was all the way the overflowings and miracles of mercy as well as power : but that which I consider is , that besides the extraordinary emanations of the Divine power upon the first and most solemn occasions of an institution and the first beginnings of a religion , such as were , the wonders God did in Egypt and in the wildernesse , preparatory to the sanction of that law , and the first covenant ; and the miracles wrought by Christ and his Apostles , for the founding and the building up the religion of the Gospel , and the new covenant : God does also do things wonderfull and miraculous , for the promoting the ordinary and lesse solemn actions of our piety , and to assist and accompany them in a constant and regular succession . It was a strange variety of naturall efficacies , that Manna should stink in 24. hours if gathered upon Wednesday and Thursday , and that it should last till 48. hours if gathered upon the Even of the Sabbath ; and that it should last many hundreds of yeers when placed in the Sanctuary by the ministery of the high Priest ; but so it was in the Jews religion ; and Manna pleased every palate , and it filled all appetites , and the same measure was a different proportion ; it was much and it was little ; as if nature , that it might serve religion , had been taught some measures of infinity , which is every where and no where , filling all things , and circumscribed with nothing , measured by one Omer , and doing the work of two ; like the crowns of Kings , fitting the browes of Nimrod and the most mighty Warriour , and yet not too large for the temples of an infant Prince . And not onely is it thus in nature , but in contingencies and acts depending , upon the choice of men ; for God having commanded the sons of Israel to go up to Jerusalem to worship thrice every yeer , and to leave their borders to be guarded by women , and children and sick persons , in the neighbourhood of diligent and spitefull enemies , yet God so disposed of their hearts and opportunities , that they never entered the land when the people were at their solemnity ; untill they desecrated their rites , by doing at their Passeover the greatest sin and treason in the world ; till at Easter they crucified the Lord of life and glory , they were secure in Jerusalem and in their borders ; but when they had destroyed religion by this act , God took away their security , and Titus besieged the City at the feast of Easter , that the more might perish in the deluge of the Divine indignation . To this observation the Jews adde , that in Jerusalem no man ever had a fall that came thither to worship ; that at their solemn festivals there was reception in the Town for all the inhabitants of the land ; concerning which although I cannot affirm any thing , yet this is certain , that no godly person among all the tribes of Israel was ever a begger , but all the variety of humane chances , were over-ruled to the purposes of providence , and providence was measured by the ends of the religion , and the religion which promised them plenty , performed the promise till the Nation and the religion too began to decline , that it might give place to a better ministery , and a more excellent dispensation of the things of the world . But when Christian religion was planted and had taken root , and had filled all lands , then all the nature of things , the whole creation became servant to the kingdom of grace , and the Head of the religion is also the Head of the creatures , and ministers all the things of the world in order to the Spirit of grace : and now Angels are ministring spirits , sent forth to minister for the good of them that fear the Lord , and all the violences of men , and things of nature and choice , are forced into subjection and lowest ministeries , and to cooperate as with an united designe to verifie all the promises of the Gospel , and to secure and advantage all the children of the kingdom , and now he that is made poor by chance , or persecution , is made rich by religion , and he that hath nothing , yet possesses all things , and sorrow it self is the greatest comfort , not only because it ministers to vertue , but because it self is one , as in the case of repentance ; and death ministers to life , and bondage is freedom , and losse is gain , and our enemies are our friends , and every thing turns into religion , and religion turns into felicity , and all manner of advantages . But that I may not need to enumerate any more particulars in this observation certain it is that Angels of light and darknesse , all the influences of heaven , and the fruits and productions of the earth , the stars , and the elements , the secret things that lie in the bowels of the Sea , and the entrails of the earth , the single effects of all efficients , and the conjunction of all causes , all events foreseen , and all rare contingencies , every thing of chance , and every thing of choice , is so much a servant to him whos 's greatest desire , and great interest , is by all means to save our souls , that we are thereby made sure , that all the whole creation shall be made to bend in all the flexures of its nature and accidents , that it may minister to religion , to the good of the Catholike Church , and every person within its bosom , who are the body of him that rules over all the world , and commands them as he chooses . 2. But that which is next to this , and not much unlike the designe of this wonderfull mercy , is , that all the actions of religion , though mingled with circumstances of differing and sometimes of contradictory relations are so concentred in God their proper centre , and conducted in such certain and pure channels of reason and rule , that no one duty does contradict another ; and it can never be necessary for any man in any case to sin . They that bound themselves by an oath to kill Paul were not environed with the sad necessities of murder on one side , and vow-breach on the other , so that if they did murder him they were man-slayers , if they did not they were perjured ; for God had made provision for this case , that no unlawful oath should passe an obligation . He that hath given his faith in unlawfull confederation against his Prince , is not girded with a fatall necessity of breach of trust on one side , or breach of allegeance on the other ; for in this also God hath secured the case of conscience , by forbidding any man to make an unlawfull promise , and upon a stronger degree of the same reason , by forbidding him to keep it in case he hath made it . He that doubts whether it be lawfull to keep the Sunday holy , must not do it during that doubt , because whatsoever is not of faith is sin ; But yet Gods mercy hath taken care to break this snare in sunder , so that he may neither sin against the commandement , nor against his conscience ; for he is bound to lay aside his errour and be better instructed ; till when , the scene of his sin lies in something that hath influence upon his understanding , not in the omission of the fact ; No man can serve two Masters , but therefore he must hate the one and cleave to the other . But then if we consider what infinite contradiction there is in sin , and that the great long suffering of God is expressed in this , that God suffered the contradiction of sinners , we shall feel the mercy of God in the peace of our consciences and the unity of religion , so long as we do the work of God. It is a huge affront to a covetous man that he is the further off from fulnesse by having great heaps & vast revenues ; and that his thirst increases by having that which should quench it ; and that the more he shall need to be satisfied , the lesse he shall dare to do it ; and that he shall refuse to drink because he is dry ; that he dyes if he tasts , and languishes if he does not ; and at the same time he is full and empty , bursting with a plethory , and consumed with hunger , drowned with rivers of oyle and wine and yet dry as the Arabian sands ; but then the contradiction is multiplyed and the labyrinths more amazed , when prodigality waits , upon another curse , and covetousnesse heaps up , that prodigality may scatter abroad ; then distractions are infinite , and a man hath two Devils to serve of contradictory designes and both of them exacting obedience more unreasonably then the Egyptian task-masters then there is no rest , no end of labours , no satisfaction of purposes , no method of things , but they begin where they should end , and begin again , and never passe forth to content or reason , or quietnesse , or possession . But the duty of a Christian is easie in a persecution , it is clear under a Tyranny , it is evident in despite of heresy , it is one in the midst of schisme , it is determined amongst infinite disputes , being like a rock in the sea which is beaten with the tide and washed with retiring waters , and encompassed with mists , and appears in several figures , but it alwayes dips its foot in the same bottom and remaines the same in calms and storms , and survives the revolution of ten thousand tides , and there shall dwell till time and tides shall be no more : so is our duty , uniform and constant , open and notorious , variously represented , but in the same manner exacted ; and in the interest of our souls God hath not exposed us to uncertainty or the variety of anything that can change , and it is by the grace and mercy of God put into the power of every Christian to do that which God through Jesus Christ will accept to salvation ; and neither men nor Devils shall hinder it unlesse we list our selves . 3. After all this we may sit down and reckon by great sums and conjugations of his gracious gifts , and tell the minuts of eternity by the number of the Divine mercies : God hath given his laws to rule us , his word to instruct us , his spirit to guide us , his Angels to protect us , his ministers to exhort us ; he revealed all our duty and he hath concealed whatsoever can hinder us , he hath affrighted our follies with feare of death and engaged our watchfulnesse by its secret coming ; he hath exercised our faith by keeping private the state of souls departed , and yet hath confirmed our faith by a promise of a resurrection and entertained our hope by some general significations of the state of interval : His mercies make contemptible means instrumental to great purposes , and a small herb the remedy of the greatest diseases ; he impedes the Devils rage and infatuates , his counsels , he diverts his malice , and defeats his purposes , he bindes him in the chaine of darknesse and gives him no power over the children of light ; he suffers him to walk in solitary places and yet fetters him that he cannot disturb the sleep of a childe ; he hath given him mighty power & yet a young maiden that resists him shall make him flee away ; he hath given him a vast knowledge and yet an ignorant man can confute him with the twelve articles of his creed , he gave him power over the winds and made him Prince of the air and yet the breath of a holy prayer can drive him as far as the utmost sea ; and he hath so restrained him , that ( except it be by faith ) we know not whether there be any Devils yea , or no : for we never heard his noises , nor have seen his affrighting shapes . ] This is that great Principle of all the felicity we hope for , and of all the means thither , and of all the skill and all the strengths we haue to use those means he hath made great variety of conditions and yet hath made all necessary , and all mutual helpers , and by some instruments and in some respects they are all equal in order to felicity , to content and final and intermedial satisfactions : He gave us part of our reward in hand that he might enable us to work for more ; he taught the world arts for use , arts for entertainment of all our faculties , and all our dispositions ; he gives eternal gifts for temporal services and gives us whatsoever we want , for asking , and commands us to ask , and theatens us if we will not ask , and punishes us for refusing to be happy . This is that glorious attribute that hath made order , and health , and harmony and hope , restitutions and variety , the joyes of direct possession , and the joyes , the artificial joyes of contrariety and comparison ; he comforts the poor , and he brings down the rich , that they may be safe in their humility and sorrow , from the transportations of an unhappy and - uninstructed prosperity ; he gives necessaries to all , and scatters the extraordinary provisions so , that every nation may traffick in charity , and commute for pleasures ; He was the Lord of hosts , and he is stil what he was , but he loves to be called the God of peace , because he was terrible in that , but he is delighted in this . His mercy is his glory , and his glory is the light of heaven ; his mercy is the life of the creation and it fills all the earth , and his mercy is a sea too ; and it fills all the abysses of the deep ; it hath given us promises for supply of whatsoever we need and relieves us in all our fears , and in all the evils that we suffer ; his mercies are more then we can tell , and they are more then we can feel ; for all the world in the abysse of the Divine mercies is like a man diving into the bottom of the sea , over whose head the waters run insensibly , and unperceived , and yet the weight is vast and the sum of them is unmeasurable , and the man is not pressed with the burden , nor confounded with numbers ; and no observation is able to recount , no sense sufficient to perceive , no memory large enough to retain , no understanding great enough to apprehend this infinity , but we must admire and love and worship , and magnify this mercy for ever and ever ; that we we may dwell in what we feel , and be comprehended by that which is equal to God , and the parent of all felicity . And yet this is but the one half . The mercies of giving I have now told of , but those of forgiving are greater , though not more . [ He is ready to forgive ] and upon this stock thrives the interest of our great hope , the hopes of a blessed immortality ; for if the mercies of giving have not made our expectations big enough to entertain the confidences of heaven ; yet when we think of the graciousnesse and readinesse of forgiving , we may with more readinesse hope to escape hell , and then we cannot but be blessed by an eternal consequence : we have but small opinion of the Divine mercy , if we dare not believe concerning it , that it is desirous and able and watchful and passionate to keep us or rescue us respectively from such a condemnation the pain of which is insupportable , and the duration is eternal , and the extension is misery upon all our faculties , and the intension is great beyond patience or natural or supernatural abilities , and the state is a state of darknesse , and despair , of confusion and amazement , of cursing and roaring , anguish of spirit , and gnashing of teeth , misery universal , perfect and irremediable . From this it is which Gods mercies would so fain preserve us : This is a state that God provides for his enemies , not for them that love him , that endeavour to obey though they do it but in weaknesse , that weep truely for their sins though but with a shower no bigger then the drops of pitty , that wait for his coming with a holy and pure flame , though their lamps are no brighter then a poor mans candle , though their strengths are no greater then a contrite reed or a strained arme , and their fires have no more warmth then the smok of kindling flax ; if our faith be pure and our love unfained , if the degree of it be great God will accept it into glory : if it be little he will accept it into grace , and make it bigger . For that is the first instance of Gods readinesse to forgive : he will upon any termes , that are not unreasonable and that do not suppose a remanent affection to sin keep us from the intolerable paines of hell . And indeed if we consider the constitution of the conditions which God requires , we shall soon perceive God intends heaven to us as a meer gift , and that the duties on our part are but little entertainments and exercises of our affections and our love that the Devil might not seize upon that portion which to eternal ages shall be the instrument of our happinesse . For in all the parts of our duty it may be there is but one instance in which we are to do violence to our natural and first desires . For those men have very ill natures to whom vertue is so contrary that they are inclined naturally to lust , to drunkennesse and anger , and pride and covetousnesse , and unthankefulnesse and disobedience : Most men that are tempted with lust , could easily enough entertain the sobrieties of other counsels , as of temperance , and justice , or religion , if it would indulge to them but that one passion of lust , & persons that are greedy of mony are not fond of amorous vanities nor care they to sit long at the wine and one vice destroyes another , and when one vice is consequent to another , it is by way of punishment and dereliction of the man , unlesse where vices have cognation , and seem but like several degrees of one another ; and it is evil custome and superinduced habits that make artificiall appetites in most men to most sins ; But many times their naturall temper vexes them into uneasie dispositions and aptnesses onely to some one unhandsome sort of action ; that one thing therefore is it in which God demands of thee mortification and self deniall . Certain it is ; There are very many men in the world that would fain commute their severity in al other instances for a licence in their one appetite ; they would not refuse long prayers after a drunken meeting , or great almes to gether with one great lust ; but then consider how easie it is for them to go to heaven ; God demands of them for his sake & their own to crucifie but one natural lust , or one evil habit , ( for all the rest they are easie enough to do themselves ) & God will give them heaven , where the joy is more then one , and I said it is but one mortification God requires of most men ; for if those persons would extirp but that one thing in which they are principally tempted it is not easily imaginable that any lesse evill to which the temptation is trifling should interpose between them and their great interest . If Saul had not spared Agag , the people could not have expected mercy ; and our little and inferiour appetites that rather come to us by intimation and consequent adherences , then by direct violence , must not dwell with him who hath crossed the violence of his distempered nature in a beloved instance ; since therefore this is the state of most men and God in effect demands of them but one thing , and in exchange for that will give them all good things , it gives demonstration of his huge easinesse to redeem us from that intolerable evil that is equally consequent to the indulging to one or to twenty sinful habits . 2. Gods readinesse to pardon appears in this , that he pardons before we ask , for he that bids us ask for pardon hath in designe and purpose done the thing already : for what is wanting on his part in whose onely power it is to give pardon , and in whose desire it is that we should be pardoned , and who commands us to lay hold upon the offer ; he hath done all that belongs to God ; that is all that concerns the pardon : there it lies ready , it is recorded in the book of life , it wants nothing , but being exemplified and taken forth , and the Holy spirit stands ready to consigne and passe the privy signet , that we may exhibit it to devils and evil men when they tempt us to despair or sin . 3. Nay God is so ready in his mercy that he did pardon us even before he redeemed us : for what is the secret of the mysterie , that the eternal Son of God should take upon him our nature , and die our death and suffer for our sins and do our work , and enable us to do our own ? he that did this is God : he who thought it no robbery to be equal with God : he came to satisfie himself , to pay to himself the price for his own creature : and when he did this for us that he might pardon us , was he at that instant angry with us ? was this an effect of his anger or of his love that God sent his Son to work our pardon and salvation ? Indeed we were angry with God , at enmity with the the Prince of life : but he was reconciled to us so far , as that he then did the greatest thing in the world for us : for nothing could be greater then that God , the Son of God , should die for us : here was reconciliation before pardon : and God that came to die for us did love us first before he came : this was hasty love . But it went further yet . 4. God pardoned us before we sinned ; and when he foresaw our sin , even mine and yours , he sent his son to die for us ; our pardon was wrought and effected by Christs death above 1600. years ago ; and for the sins of to morrow , and the infirmities of the next day Christ is already dead , already risen from the dead , and does now make intercession and atonement . And this is not onely a favour to us who were born in the due time of the Gospel , but to all mankinde since Adam ; For God who is infinitely patient in his justice , was not at all patient in his mercy ; he forbears to strike and punish us , but he would not forbear to provide cure for us , and remedy ; for as if God could not stay from redeeming us , he promised the Redeemer to Adam , in the beginning of the worlds sin ; & Christ was the lamb slain from the begining of the world ; and the covenant of the Gospel though it was not made with man yet it was from the beginning performed by God as to his part , as to the ministration of pardon ; The seed of the woman was set up against the dragon as soon as ever the Tempter had won his first battle ; and though God laid his hand , and drew a vail of types and secresy before the manifestation of his mercies , yet he did the work of redemption , and saved us by the covenant of faith , and the righteousnesse of believing , and the mercies of repentance , the graces of pardon , and the blood of the slain lamb , even from the fall of Adam to this very day , and will do , till Christs second coming . Adam fell by his folly and did not perform the covenant of one little work , a work of a single abstinence ; but he was restored by faith in the seed of the woman ; and of this righteousnesse Noah was a preacher ; and by faith Enoch was traslated , and by faith a remnant was saved at the flood : and to Abraham this was imputed for righteousnesse and to all the Patriarks , and to al the righteous judges , and holy Prophets , and Saints of the old Testament , even while they were obliged ( so far as the words of their covenant were expressed ) to the law of works , their pardon was sealed & kept with in the vail within the curtains of the sanctuary , and they saw it not then , but they feel it ever since ; and this was a great excellency of the Divine mercy unto them : God had mercy on all mankinde before Christs manifestation , even beyond the mercies of their covenant : & they were saved as we are , by the seed of the woman by God incarnate by the lamb slain from the beginning of the world ; not by works , for we all failed of them ; that is , not by an exact obedience , but by faith working by love , by sincere , hearty endeavours & believing God and relying upon his infinite mercy , revealed in part , and now fully manifest by the great instrument and means of that mercy Jesus Christ. So that here is pardon before we asked it ; pardon before Christs coming , pardon before redemption ; and pardon before we sinned : what greater readinesse to forgive us can be imagined ? yes : there is one degree more yet ; and that will prevent a mistake in this . 5. For God so pardoned us once , that we should need no more pardon ; he pardons us by turning every one of us away from our iniquities ; that 's the purpose of Christ , that he might safely pardon us before we sinned ; and we might not sin upon the confidence of pardon , he pardoned us not onely upon condition we would sin no more , but he took away our sin , cured our cursed inclinations , instructed our understanding , rectified our will , fortified us against temptations , and now every man whom he pardons he also sanctifies , and he is born of God , and he must not , will not , cannot sin , so long as the seed of God remains within him , so long as his pardon continues . This is the consummation of pardon . For if God had so pardoned us , as onely to take away our evils which are past , we should have needed a second Saviour , and a redeemer for every month , and new pardons perpetually . But our blessed Redeemer hath taken away our sin not onely the guilt of our old , but our inclinations to new sins : he makes us like himself and commands us to live so , that we shall not need a second pardon , that is , a second state of pardon : for we are but once baptized into Christs death , and that death was one , and our redemption but one , and our covenant the same , and as long as we continue within the covenant , we are still within the power and comprehensions of the first pardon . 6. And yet there is a necessity of having one degree of pardon more beyond all this . For although we do not abjure our covenant and renounce Christ and extinguish the spirit , yet we resist him , and we grieve him : and we go off from the holinesse of the covenant , and return again , and very often step aside , and need this great pardon to be perpetually applyed and renewed : and to this purpose : that we may not have a possible need without a certain remedy , the Holy Jesus , the Author , and finisher of our faith and pardon , sits in heaven in a perpetual advocation for us , that this pardon once wrought may be for ever applyed to every emergent need , and every tumor of pride , and every broken heart , and every disturbed conscience , and upon every true and sincere return of a hearty repentance : And now upon this title no more degrees can be added : it is already greater , and was before all our needs , and was greater then the old covenant , and beyond the revelations , and did in Adams youth antidate the Gospel , turning the publike miseries by secret grace , into eternall glories . But now upon other circumstances it is remarkable and excellent , and swels like an hydropick cloud when it is fed with the breath of the morning tide , till it fills the bosome of heaven , and descends in dews and gentle showers , to water and refresh the earth . 7. God is so ready to forgive that himself works our dispositions towards it , and either must in some degree pardon us before we are capable of pardon , by his grace making way for his mercy , or else we can never hope for pardon . For unlesse God by his preventing grace should first work the first part of our pardon , even without any dispositions of our own to receive it , we could not desire a pardon , nor hope for it , nor work towards it , nor ask it , nor receive it ; This giving of preventing grace , is a mercy of forgivenesse contrary to that severity by which some desperate persons are given over to a reprobate sense ; that is , a leaving of men to themselves , so that they cannot pray effectually , nor desire holily , nor repent truly , nor receive any of those mercies which God designed so plenteously , and the Son of God purchased so dearly for us . When God sends a plague of warre upon a land , in all the accounts of religion , and expectations of reason , the way to obtain our peace is to leave our sins , for which the warre was sent upon us , as the messenger of wrath : and without this , we are like to perish in the judgement . But then consider what a sad condition we are in , warre mends but few , but spoils multitudes ; it legitimates rapine , and authorizes murder , and these crimes must be ministred to by their lesser relatives , by covetousnesse , and anger , and pride , and revenge , and heats of blood , and wilder liberty , and all the evil that can be supposed to come from , or run to , such cursed causes of mischief . But then if the punishment increases the sin , by what instrument can the punishment be removed ? How shall we be pardoned and eased , when our remedies are converted into causes of the sicknesse , and our antidotes are poison ? Here there is a plain necessity of Gods preventing grace ; and if there be but a necessity of it , that is enough to ascertain us we shall have it : But unlesse God should begin to pardon us first , for nothing , and against our own dispositions , we see there is no help in us , nor for us . If we be not smitten we are undone , if we are smitten we perish : and as young Damarchus said of his Love , when he was made master of his wish ; Salvus sum quia pereo , si non peream plane inteream , we may say of some of Gods judgements : We perish when we are safe , because our sins are not smitten , and if they be , then we are worse undone ; because we grow worse for being miserable ; but we can be relieved onely by a free mercy ; for pardon is the way to pardon : and when God gives us our peny , then we can work for another , and a gift is the way to a grace , and all that we can do towards it , is but to take it in Gods method ; and this must needs be a great forwardnesse of forgivenesse , when Gods mercy gives the pardon , and the way to finde it , and the hand to receive it , and the eye to search it , and the heart to desire it ; being busie and effective as Elijah's fire , which intending to convert the sacrifice into its own more spirituall nature of flames and purified substances ; stood in the neighbourhood of the fuell , and called forth all its enemies , and licked up the hindering moisture , and the water of the trenches , and made the Altar send forth a phantastick smoke before the sacrifice was enkindled : So is the preventing grace of God , it does all the work of our souls , and makes its own way , and invites it self , and prepares its own lodging , and makes its own entertainment , it gives us precepts and makes us able to keep them ; it enables our faculties and excites our desires , it provokes us to pray , and sanctifies our heart in prayer , and makes our prayer go forth to act , and the act does make the desire valid , and the desire does make the act certain , and persevering ; and both of them are the works of God : for more is received into the soul from without the soul , then does proceed from within the soul : It is more for the soul to be moved and disposed , then to work when that is done : as the passage from death to life is greater then from life to action , especially since the action is owing to that cause that put in the first principle of life . These are the great degrees of Gods forwardnesse and readinesse to forgive , for the expression of which no language is sufficient , but Gods own words describing mercy in all those dimensions which can signifie to us its greatnesse and infinity . His mercy is great , his mercies are many , his mercy reacheth unto the heavens , it fils heaven and earth , it is above all his works , it endureth for ever , God pitieth as a Father doth his children ; nay he is our Father , and the same also is the Father of mercy , and the God of all comfort : So that mercy and we have the same relation ; and well it may be so , for we live and die together ; for as to man onely , God shews the mercy of forgivenesse , so if God takes away his mercy , man shall be no more , no more capable of felicity , or of any thing that is perfective of his condition , or his person . But as God preserves man by his mercy , so his mercy hath all its operations upon man , and returns to its own centre and incircumscription , and infinity , unlesse it issues forth upon us . And therefore besides the former great lines of the mercy of forgivenesse , there is another chain , which but to produce and tell its links , is to open a cabinet of Jewels , where every stone is as bright as a star , and every star is great as the Sun , and shines for ever , unlesse we shut our eyes , or draw the vail of obstinate and finall sins . 1. God is long-suffering , that is , long before he be angry , and yet God is provoked every day , by the obstinacy of the Jews , and the folly of the Heathens , and the rudenesse and infidelity of the Mahumetans , and the negligence and vices of Christians ; and he that can behold no impurity is received in all places with perfumes of mushromes , and garments spotted with the flesh , and stained souls , and the actions and issues of misbelief , and an evil conscience , and with accursed sins that he hates , upon pretence of religion which he loves ; and he is made a party against himself by our voluntary mistakes , and men continue ten yeers , and 20. and 30. and 50. in a course of sinning , and they grow old with the vices of their youth ; and yet God forbears to kill them , and to consigne them over to an eternity of horrid pains , still expecting that they should repent and be saved . 2. Besides this long-sufferance and for-bearing with an unwearied patience , God also excuses a sinner oftentimes and takes a little thing for an excuse , so far as to move him to intermediall favours first ; and from thence to a finall pardon . He passes by the sins of our youth with a huge easinesse to pardon , if he be intreated and reconciled by the effective repentance of a vigorous manhood ; he takes ignorance for an excuse , and in every degree of its being inevitable , or innocent in its proper cause , it is also inculpable and innocent in its proper effects , though in their own natures criminal . But I found mercy of the Lord because I did it in ignorance , saith S. Paul ; he pities our infirmities and strikes off much of the account upon that stock ; the violence of a temptation and restlesnesse of its motion , the perpetuity of its sollicitation , the wearinesse of a mans spirit , the state of sicknesse , the necessity of secular affairs , the publike customs of a people have all of them a power of pleading and prevailing towards some degrees of pardon and diminution before the throne of God. 3. When God perceives himself forced to strike , yet then he takes off his hand and repents him of the evil ; It is as if it were against him , that any of his creatures should fall under the strokes of an exterminating fury . 4. When he is forced to proceed , he yet makes an end before he hath half done ; and is as glad of a pretence to pardon us , or to strike lesse , as if he himself had the deliverance and not we : When Ahab had but humbled himself at the word of the Lord , God was glad of it and went with the message to the Prophet himself , saying , Seest thou not how Ahab humbles himself ? What was the event of it ? I will not bring the evil in his dayes , but in his sons dayes the evil shall come upon his house . 5 God forgets our sin and puts it out of his remembrance , that is , he makes it as though it had never been ; he makes penitence to be as pure as innocence to all the effects of pardon and glory : the memory of the sins shall not be upon record , to be used to any after act of disadvantage , and never shall return unlesse we force them out of their secret places by ingratitude and a new state of sinning . 6. God sometimes gives pardon beyond all his revelations and declared will , and provides suppletories of repentance , even then when he cuts a man off from the time of repentance , accepting a temporal death instead of an eternal : that although the Divine anger might interrupt the growing of the fruits , yet in some cases , and to some persons , the death and the very cutting off shall go no further , but be instead of explicite and long repentances . Thus it happened to Uzzah , who was smitten for his zeal , and died in severity for prevaricating the letter , by earnestnesse of spirit to serve the whole religion . Thus it was also in the case of the Corinthians that died a temporal death for their undecent circumstances in receiving the holy Sacrament . Saint Paul who used it for an argument to threaten them into reverence , went no further , nor pressed the argument to a sadder issue then to die temporally . But these suppletories are but seldom , and they are also great troubles , and ever without comfort , and dispensed irregularly , and that not in the case of habituall sins that we know of , or very great sins , but in single actions , or instances of a lesse malignity ; and they are not to be relied upon , because there is no rule concerning them ; but when they do happen they magnifie the infinitenesse of Gods mercy which is commensurate to all our needs , and is not to be circumscribed by the limits of his own revelations . 7. God pardons the greatest sinners , and hath left them upon record : and there is no instance in Scripture of the Divine forgivenesse , but in such instances , the misery of which was a fit instrument to speak aloud the glories of Gods mercies , and gentlenesse , and readinesse to forgive : Such were S. Paul a persecutor , and S. Peter that forswore his Master , Mary Magdalene , with seven Devils , the thief upon the crosse , Manasses an Idolater , David a murderer and adulterer , the Corinthian for incest , the children of Israel for ten times rebelling against the Lord in the wildernesse , with murmuring , and infidelity , and rebellion , and schisme , and a golden calf , and open disobedience ; and above all , I shall instance in the Pharisees among the Jews , who had sinned against the Holy Ghost , as our Blessed Saviour intimates , and tels the particular , viz. in saying that the Spirit of God by which Christ did work was an evil spirit ; and afterward they crucified Christ , so that two of the Persons of the most Holy Trinity were openly and solemnly defied , and God had sent out a decree that they should be cut off ; yet 40. yeers time ( after all this ) was left for their repentance , and they were called upon by arguments more perswasive and more excellent in that 40. yeers , then all the Nation had heard from their Prophets , even from Samuel to Zecharias : And Jonas thought he had reason on his side , to refuse to go to threaten Nineveh ; he knew Gods tendernesse in destroying his creatures , and he should be thought to be but a false Prophet ; and so it came to passe according to his belief . Jonah prayed unto the Lord and said , I pray thee Lord was not this my saying when I was yet in my countrey ; therefore I fled for I knew thou wert a gracious God and mercifull , slow to anger , and of great kindnesse and repentest thee of the evil : He told before hand what the event would be ; and he had reason to know it ; God proclaimed it in a cloud before the face of all Israel , and made it to be his Name , Miserator & misericors Deus . The Lord , the Lord God , mercifull and gracious , &c. You see the largenesse of this treasure ; but we can see no end , for we have not yet looked upon the rare arts of conversion ; nor that God leaves the naturall habit of vertues , even after the acceptation is interrupted ; nor his working extraregular miracles , besides the sufficiencie of Moses and the Prophets , and the New Testament , and thousands more which we cannot consider now . But this we can , when God sent an Angel to pour plagues upon the earth , there were in their hands Phialae aureae , golden phials : for the death of men is precious and costly , and it is an expence that God delights not in ; but they were Phials , that is , such vessels as out of them no great evil could come at once ; but it comes out with difficulty , sobbing and troubled as it passes forth ; it comes thorow a narrow neck , and the parts of it croud at the port to get forth , and are stifled by each others neighbourhood ; and all strive to get out , but few can passe , as if God did nothing but threaten , and draw his judgements to the mouth of the Phial with a full body , and there made it stop it self . The result of this consideration is , that as we fear the Divine judgements , so that we adore and love his goodnesse , and let the golden chains of the Divine mercy tie us to a noble prosecution of our duty and the interests of religion ; For he is the worst of men whom Kindnesse cannot soften , nor endearments oblige whom gratitude cannot tie faster then the bands of life and death : He is an ill natur'd sinner if he will not comply with the sweetnesses of heaven , and be civill to his Angel guardian , or observant of his Patron God , who made him , and feeds him , and keeps all his faculties , and takes care of him , and endures his follies , and waits on him more tenderly then a Nurse , more diligently then a Client , who hath greater care of him then his father , and whose bowels yern over him with more compassion then a mother ; who is bountifull beyond our needs , and mercifull beyond our hopes , and makes capacities in us to receive more . Fear is stronger then death , and Love is more prevalent then Fear , and kindnesse is the greatest endearment of Love ; and yet to an ingenuous person gratitude is greater then all these , and obliges to a solemn duty when love fails , and fear is dull and unactive , and death it self is despised : but the man who is hardened against kindnesse , and whose duty is not made alive with gratitude , must be used like a slave , and driven like an ox , and inticed with goads and whips , but must never enter into the inheritance of sons : Let us take heed : for Mercy is like a rainbowe , which God set in the clouds to remember mankinde ; it shines here as long as it is not hindered ; but we must never look for it after it is night , and it shines not in the other world ; if we refuse mercy here , we shall have justice to eternity . Sermon . XXVIII . A FVNERAL SERMON , Preached at the Obsequies of the Right Honorable and most vertuous Lady , The Lady FRANCES Countesse of CARBERY : Who deceased October the 9th . 1650. at her House Golden-Grove in CARMARTHEN-SHIRE . To the right Honorable , and truly Noble , RICHARD Lord VAVGHAN , Earl of Carbery , Baron of Emlim and Molinger , Knight of the Honorable Order of the Bath . My Lord , I Am not ashamed to professe that I pay this part of service to your Lordship most unwillingly : for it is a sad office to be the chief Minister in the house of mourning , and to present an interested person with a branch of Cypresse and a bottle of tears . And indeed , my Lord , it were more proportionable to your needs to bring something that might alleviate your sorrow , then to dresse the hearse of your Dear Lady , and to furnish it with such circumstances , that it may dwell with you , and lie in your closet , and make your prayers and your retirements more sad and full of weepings . But because the Divine providence hath taken from you a person so excellent , a woman fit to converse with Angels , and Apostles , with Saints and Martyrs give me leave to present you with her picture ; drawn in little and in water-colours , sullied indeed with tears and the abrupt accents of a real and consonant sorrow ; but drawn with a faithful hand , and taken from the life : and indeed it were too great a losse , to be deprived of her example and of her rule , of the original and the copy too . The age is very evil and deserved her not ; but because it is so evil , it hath the more need to have such lives preserved in memory to instruct our piety , or upbraid our wickednesse . For now that God hath cut this tree of Paradise down from its seat of earth , yet so the dead trunk may support a part of the declining Temple , or at least serve to kindle the fire on the altar . My Lord , I pray God this heap of sorrow may swell your piety till it breaks into the greatest joyes of God and of religion : and remember , when you pay a tear upon the grave , or to the memory of your Lady ( that dear and most excellent soul ) that you pay two more : one of repentance for those things that may have caused this breach ; and another of joy for the mercies of God to your Dear departed Saint , that he hath taken her into a place where she can weep no more . My Lord , I think I shall , so long as I live , that is so long as I am Your Lordships most humble Servant TAYLOR . 2 Samuel 14. 14. For we must needs die , and are as water spilt on the ground which cannot be gathered up again : neither doth God respect any person : yet doth he devise means that his banished be not expelled from him . WHen our blessed Saviour and his Disciples viewed the Temple , some one amongst them cryed out , Magister aspice , quales lapides ! Master behold what fair , what great stones are here ! Christ made no other reply but foretold their dissolution and a world of sadnesse and sorrow which should bury that whole Nation when the teeming cloud of Gods displeasure should produce a storm which was the daughter of the biggest anger , and the mother of the greatest calamitie which ever crushed any of the sons of Adam [ the time shall come , that there shall not be left one stone upon another . ] The whole Temple and the Religion , the ceremonies ordained by God , and the Nation beloved by God and the fabrick erected for the service of God , shall run to their own period and lie down in their several graves . Whatsoever had a beginning can also have an ending , and it shall die , unlesse it be daily watered with the purls flowing from the fountain of life ▪ and refreshed with the dew of Heaven and the wells of God. And therefore God had provided a tree in Paradise to have supported Adam in his artificial immortality : Immortality was not in his nature , but in the hands , and arts , in the favour and superadditions of God. Man was alwaies the same mixture of heat and cold , of drynesse and moisture ; ever the same weak things , apt to feel rebellion in the humors , and to suffer the evils of a civil war in his body natural : and therefore health and life was to descend upon him from Heaven , and he was to suck life from a tree on earth ; himself being but ingraffed into a tree of life , and adopted into the condition of an immortal nature : But he that in the best of his dayes was but a Cien of this tree of life , by his sin was cut off from thence quickly , and planted upon thorns , and his portion was for ever after among the flowers , which to day spring and look like health and beauty , and in the evening , they are sick , and at night are dead , and the oven is their grave . And as before , even from our first spring from the dust of the earth , we might have died if we had not been preserved by the continual flux of a rare providence : so now that we are reduced to the laws of our own nature , we must needs die . It is natural , and therefore necessary ; It is become a punishment to us , and therefore it is unavoidable , and God hath bound the evill upon us by bands of naturall and inseparable propriety , and by a supervening unalterable decree of Heaven : and we are fallen from our privilege , and are returned to the condition , of beast , and buildings , and common things : And we see Temples defiled unto the ground , and they die by Sacrilege : and great Empires die by their own plenty and ease , full humors , and factious Subjects : and huge buildings fall by their own weight , and the violence of many winters eating and consuming the cement which is the marrow of their bones : and Princes die like the meanest of their Servants : and every thing findes a grave and a tomb ; and the very tomb it self dies by the bignesse of its pompousnesse and luxury . — Phario nutantia pondera saxo Quae cineri vanus dat ruitura labor , and becomes as friable and uncombined dust as the ashes of the Sinner or the Saint that lay under it , and is now forgotten in his bed of darknesse : And to this Catalogue of mortality Man is inrolled with a [ Statutum est ] It is appointed for all men once to die , and after death comes judgement ; and if a man can be stronger then nature , or can wrestle with a degree of Heaven , or can escape from a Divine punishment by his own arts , so that neither the power nor the providence of God , nor the laws of nature , nor the bands of eternal predestination can hold him , then he may live beyond the fate and period of flesh , and last longer then a flower : But if all these can hold us and tie us to conditions , then we must lay our heads down upon a turfe and entertain creeping things in the cells and little chambers of our eyes , and dwell with worms till time and death shall be no more . We must needs die ] That 's our sentence . But that 's not all . We are as water spilt on the ground , which cannot be gathered up again ] Stay. 1. We are as water , weak and of no consistence , alwaies descending abiding in no certain place , unlesse where we are detained with violence : and every little breath of winde makes us rough and tempestuous , and troubles our faces : every trifling accident discomposes us ; and as the face of the waters wafting in astrom so wrinkles it self that it makes upon its fore-head furrows deep and hollow like a grave : so do our great and little cares and trifles , first make the wrinkles of old age , and then they dig a grave for us : And there is in nature nothing so contemptible , but it may meet with us in such circumstances , that it may be too hard for us in our weaknesses : and the sting of a Bee is a weapon sharp enough to pierce the finger of a childe , or the lip of a man : and those creatures which nature hath left without weapons , yet they are armed sufficiently to vex those parts of men which are left defenselesse and obnoxious to a sun beam , to the roughnesse of a sower grape , to the unevennesse of a gravel-stone , to the dust of a wheel , or the unwholesome breath of a star looking awry upon a sinner . 2. But besides the weaknesses and natural decayings of our bodies , if chances and contingencies be innumerable , then no man can reckon our dangers , and the praeternatural causes of our deaths . So that he is a vain person whose hopes of life are too confidently increased by reason of his health : and he is too unreasonably timorous , who thinks his hopes at an end when he dwels in sickness . For men die without rule ; and with , and without occasions ; and no man suspecting or foreseeing any of deaths addresses , and no man in his whole condition is weaker then another . A man in a long Consumption is fallen under one of the solemnities and preparations to death : but at the same instant the most healthful person is as neer death , upon a more fatal , and a more sudden , but a lesse discerned cause . There are but few persons upon whose foreheads every man can read the sentence of death written in the lines of a lingring sicknesse , but they ( sometimes ) hear the passing bell ring for stronger men , even long before their own knell calls at the house of their mother to open her womb and make a bed for them . No man is surer of to morrow then the weakest of his brethren : and when Lepidus and Aufidius stumbled at the threshold of the Senate and fell down and died , the blow came from heaven in a cloud but it struck more suddenly then upon the poor slave that made sport upon the Theatre with a praemeditated and foredescribed death : Quod quisque vitet , nunquam homini satis cautum est in horas . There are sicknesses that walk in darknesse , and there are exterminating Angels that fly wrapt up in the curtains of immateriality and an uncommunicating nature ; whom we cannot see , but we feel their force and sink under their sword , and from heaven the vail descends that wraps our heads in the fatal sentence . There is no age of man but it hath proper to it self some posterns and outlets for death , besides those infinite and open ports out of which myriads of men and women every day passe into the dark and the land of forgetfulnesse . Infancie hath life but in effigie , or like a spark dwelling in a pile of wood : the candle is so newly lighted , that every little shaking of the taper , and every ruder breath of air , puts it out , and it dies . Childhood is so tender , and yet so unwary ; so soft to all the impressions of chance , and yet so forward to run into them , that God knew there could be no security without the care and vigilance of an Angel-keeper : and the eyes of Parents and the arms of Nurses , the provisions of art , and all the effects of Humane love and Providence are not sufficient to keep one childe from horrid mischiefs , from strange and early calamities and deaths , unlesse a messenger be sent from heaven to stand sentinel , and watch the very playings and the sleepings , the eatings and the drinkings of the children ; and it is a long time before nature makes them capable of help : for there are many deaths , and very many diseases to which poor babes are exposed ; but they have but very few capacities of physick ; to shew , that infancy is as liable to death as old age , and equally exposed to danger , and equally uncapable of a remedy : with this onely difference , that old age hath diseases incurable by nature , and the diseases of child-hood are incurable by art ; and both the states are the next heirs of death . 3. But all the middle way the case is altered . Nature is strong , and art is apt to give ease and remedy : but still , there is no security ; and there , the case is not altered . 1 For there are so many diseases in men that are not understood . 2. So many new ones every year . 3 The old ones are so changed in circumstance , and intermingled with so many collateral complications . 4 The Symptoms are oftentimes so alike . 5 Sometimes so hidden and fallacious . 6 Sometimes none at all ( as in the most sudden and the most dangerous imposthumations . ) 7 And then , the diseases in the inward parts of the body , are oftentimes such , to which no application can be made . 8 They are so far off , that the effects of all medicines can no otherwise come to them , then the effect and juices of all meats , that is , not till after two or three alterations , and decoctions , which change the very species of the medicament . 9 And after all this , very many principles in the art of Physick are so uncertain , that after they have been believed seven or eight ages , and that upon them much of the practise hath been established ; they come to be considered by a witty man , and others established in their stead ; by which , men must practise , and by which three or four generations of men more ( as happens ) must live or die . 10. And all this while the men are sick , and they take things that certainly make them sicker for the present , and very uncertainly restore health for the future : that it may appear of what a large extent is humane calamity ; when Gods providence hath not onely made it weak and miserable upon the certain stock of a various nature , and upon the accidents of an infinite contingency ; but even from the remedies which are appointed , our dangers and our troubles are certainly increased : so that we may well be likened to water ; our nature is no stronger , our aboad no more certain ; If the sluces be opened , it falls away and runneth apace ; if its current be stopped , it swells and grows troublesome , and spils over with a greater diffusion ; If it be made to stand still it putrefies : and all this we do . For , 4. In all the processe of our health we are running to our grave : we open our own sluces by vitiousnesse , and unworthy actions ; we pour in drink , and let out life ; we increase diseases and know not how to bear them ; we strangle our selves with our own intemperance ; we suffer the feavers and the inflammations of lust , and we quench our souls with drunkennesse ; we bury our understandings in loads of meat and surfets : and then we lie down upon our beds and roar with pain and disquietnesse of our souls : Nay , we kill one anothers souls and bodies with violence and folly , with the effects of pride and uncharitablenesse ; we live and die like fools , and bring a new mortality upon our selves ; wars and vexatious cares , and private duels , and publike disorders , and every thing that is unreasonable , and every thing that is violent : so that now we may adde this fourth gate to the grave : Besides Nature and Chance , and the mistakes of art , men die with their own sins , and then enter into the grave in haste and passion , and pull the heavy stone of the monument upon their own heads . And thus we make our selves like water spilt on the ground : we throw away our lives as if they were unprofitable , ( and indeed most men make them so ) we let our years slip through our fingers like water ; and nothing is to be seen , but like a showr of tears upon a spot of ground ; there is a grave digged , and a solemn mourning , and a great talk in the neighbourhood , and when the dayes are finished , they shall be , and they shall be remembred no more : And that 's like water too , when it is spilt , it cannot be gathered up again . There is no redemption from the grave . — inter se mortales mutua vivunt Et quasi cursores vitäi lampada tradunt . Men live in their course and by turns : their light burns a while , and then it burns blew and faint , and men go to converse with Spirits , and then they reach the taper to another ; and as the hours of yesterday can never return again , so neither can the man whose hours they were , and who lived them over once , he shall never come to live them again , and live them better . When Lazarus , and the widows son of Naim , and Tabitha , and the Saints that appeared in Jerusalem at the resurrection of our blessed Lord , arose ; they came into this world , some as strangers onely to make a visit , and all of them to manifest a glory : but none came upon the stock of a new life , or entred upon the stage as at first , or to perform the course of a new nature : and therefore it is observable that we never read of any wicked person that was raised from the dead : Dives would fain have returned to his brothers house ; but neither he , nor any from him could be sent : but all the rest in the New Testament ( one onely excepted ) were expressed to have been holy persons , or else by their age were declared innocent . Lazarus was beloved of Christ : those souls that appeared at the resurrection were the souls of Saints : Tabitha raised by Saint Peter was a charitable and a holy Christian : and the maiden of twelve years old , raised by our blessed Saviour , had not entred into the regions of choice and sinfulnesse : and the onely exception of the widows son , is indeed none at all ; for in it the Scripture is wholly silent ; and therefore it is very probable that the same processe was used , God in all other instances having chosen to exemplifie his miracles of nature to purposes of the Spirit , and in spirituall capacities . So that although the Lord of nature did break the bands of nature in some instances , to manifest his glory to succeeding , great and never failing purposes ; yet ( besides that this shall be no more ) it was also instanced in such persons who were holy and innocent , and within the verge and comprehensions of the eternall mercy . We never read that a wicked person felt such a miracle , or was raised from the grave to try the second time for a Crown ; but where he fell there he lay down dead , and saw the light no more . This consideration I intend to you as a severe Monitor , and an advice of carefulnesse , that you order your affairs so that you may be partakers of the first resurrection , that is , from sin to grace , from the death of vitious habits , to the vigour , life and efficacy of an habituall righteousnesse : For ( as it hapned to those persons in the New Testament now mentioned , to them ( I say ) in the literall sense ) Blessed are they that have part in the first resurrection , upon them the second death shall have no power : meaning that they who by the power of Christ and his holy Spirit were raised to life again , were holy and blessed souls , and such who were written in the book of God ; and that this grace happened to no wicked and vitious person : so it is most true in the spirituall and intended sense : You onely that serve God in a holy life ; you who are not dead in trespasses and sins ; you who serve God with an early diligence and an unwearied industry , and a holy religion , you , and you onely shall come to life eternall , you onely shall be called from death to life ; the rest of mankind shall never live again but passe from death to death ; from one death to another , to a worse ; from the death of the body , to the eternall death of body and soul : and therefore in the Apostles Creed there is no mention made of the resurrection of wicked persons : but of the resurrection of the body to everlasting life . The wicked indeed shall be haled forth from their graves , from their everlasting prisons , where in chains of darknesse they are kept unto the judgement of the great day : But this therefore cannot be called in sensu favoris , a resurrection , but the solennities of the eternall death ; It is nothing but a new capacity of dying again ; such a dying as cannot signifie rest ; but where death means nothing but an intolerable and never ceasing calamity : and therefore these words of my Text are otherwise to be understood of the wicked , otherwise of the godly : The wicked are spilt like water and shall never be gathered up again ; no not in the gatherings of eternity ; They shall be put into vessels of wrath and set upon the flames of hell ; but that is not a gathering , but a scattering from the face and presence of God. But the godly also come under the sense of these words . They descend into their graves , and shall no more be reckoned among the living ; they have no concernment in all that is done under the Sun. Agamemnon hath no more to do with the Turks armies invading and possessing that part of Greece where he reigned , then had the Hippocentaur , who never had a beeing : and Cicero hath no more interest in the present evils of Christendome , then we have to do with his boasted discovery of Catilines conspiracie . What is it to me that Rome was taken by the Gauls ? and what is it now to Camillus if different religions be tolerated amongst us ? These things that now happen concern the living , and they are made the scenes of our duty or danger respectively : and when our wives are dead and sleep in charnel houses , they are not troubled when we laugh loudly at the songs sung at the next marriage feast ; nor do they envy when another snatches away the gleanings of their husbands passion . It is true they envy not , and they lie in a bosome where there can be no murmure , and they that are consigned to Kingdoms , and to the feast of the marriage-supper of the Lamb , the glorious and eternall Bride-groom of holy souls , they cannot think our marriages here , our lighter laughings , and vain rejoycings considerable as to them . And yet there is a relation continued still . Aristotle said , that to affirm the dead take no thought for the good of the living is a disparagement to the laws of that friendship which in their state of separation they cannot be tempted to rescind . And the Church hath taught in generall that they pray for us , they recommend to God the state of all their Relatives , in the union of the intercession that our blessed Lord makes for them and us : and Saint Ambrose gave some things in charge to his dying brother Satyrus , that he should do for him in the other world : he gave it him ( I say ) when he was dying , not when he was dead . And certain it is that though our dead friends affection to us is not to be estimated according to our low conceptions , yet it is not lesse , but much more then ever it was ; it is greater in degree , and of another kind . But then we should do well also to remember , that in this world we are something besides flesh and blood ; that we may not without violent necessities run into new relations , but preserve the affections we bear to our dead when they were alive : We must not so live as if they were perished , but so as pressing forward to the most intimate participation of the communion of Saints . And we also have some wayes to expresse this relation , and to bear a part in this communion , by actions of intercourse with them , and yet proper to our state : such as are strictly performing the will of the dead , providing for , and tenderly and wisely educating their children , paying their debts , imitating their good example , preserving their memories privately , and publikely keeping their memorials , and desiring of God with hearty and constant prayer that God would give them a joyfull resurrection , and a mercifull judgement , ( for so S. Paul prayed in behalf of Onesiphorus ) that God would shew them a mercy in that day , that fearfull , and yet much to be desired day , in which the most righteous person hath need of much mercy and pity , and shall find it . Now these instances of duty shew that the relation remains still ; and though the Relict of a man or woman hath liberty to contract new relations ; yet I do not finde they have liberty to cast off the old ; as if there were no such thing as immortality of souls . Remember that we shall converse together again : let us therefore never do any thing of reference to them which we shall be ashamed of in the day when all secrets shall be discovered , and that we shall meet again in the presence of God : In the mean time , God watcheth concerning all their interest , and he will in his time both discover and recompense . For though , as to us , they are like water spilt , yet , to God , they are as water fallen into the sea , safe and united in his comprehension , and inclosures . But we are not yet passed the consideration of the sentence : This descending to the grave is the lot of all men . [ neither doth God respect the person of any man ] The rich is not protected for favour , nor the poor for pity , the old man is not reverenced for his age , nor the infant regarded for his tendernesse ; youth and beauty , learning and prudence , wit and strength lie down equally in the dishonours of the grave . All men , and all natures , and all persons resist the addresses and solennities of death , and strive to preserve a miserable and an unpleasant life ; and yet they all sink down and die . For so have I seen the pillars of a building assisted with artificiall props bending under the pressure of a roof , and pertinaciously resisting the infallible and prepared ruine , Donec certa dies omni compage solutâ Ipsum cum rebus subruat auxilium , till the determined day comes , and then the burden sunk upon the pillars , and disordered the aids and auxiliary rafters into a common ruine and a ruder grave : so are the desires and weak arts of man , with little aids and assistances of care and physick we strive to support our decaying bodies , and to put off the evil day ; but quickly that day will come , and then neither Angels nor men can rescue us from our grave ; but the roof sinks down upon the walls , and the walls descend to the foundation ; and the beauty of the face , and the dishonours of the belly , the discerning head and the servile feet , the thinking heart , and the working hand , the eyes and the guts together shall be crush'd into the confusion of a heap , and dwell with creatures of an equivocall production , with worms and serpents , the sons and daughters of our own bones , in a house of durt and darknesse . Let not us think to be excepted or deferred . If beauty , or wit , or youth , or Noblenesse , or wealth , or vertue could have been a defence , and an excuse from the grave , we had not met here to day to mourn upon the hearse of an excellent Lady ; and God onely knows for which of us next the mourners shall go about the streets , or weep in houses . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . We have lived so many years ; and every day and every minute we make an escape from those thousands of dangers and deaths that encompasse us round about : and such escapings we must reckon to be an extraordinary fortune , and therefore that it cannot last long . Vain are the thoughts of Man , who when he is young or healthfull , thinks he hath a long threed of life to run over , and that it is violent and strange for young persons to die ; and naturall and proper onely for the aged . It is as naturall for a man to die by drowning as by a fever : And what greater violence or more unnaturall thing is it , that the horse threw his Rider into the river , then that a drunken meeting cast him into a fever ; and the strengths of youth are as soon broken by the strong sicknesses of youth and the stronger intemperance , as the weaknesse of old age by a cough , or an asthma , or a continuall rheume : Nay it is more naturall for young Men and Women to die , then for old ; because that is more naturall which hath more naturall causes ; and that is more naturall which is most common : but to die with age is an extreme rare thing ; and there are more persons carried forth to buriall before the five and thirtieth year of their age , then after it . And therefore let no vain considence make you hope for long life . If you have lived but little , and are still in youth , remember that now you are in your biggest throng of dangers both of body and soul ; and the proper sins of youth to which they rush infinitely and without consideration , are also the proper and immediate instruments of death . But if you be old you have escaped long and wonderfully , and the time of your escaping is out : you must not for everthink to live upon wonders , or that God will work miracles to satisfie your longing follies , and unreasonable desires of living longer to sin and to the world . Go home and think to die , and what you would choose to be doing when you die , that do daily : for you will all come to that passe , to rejoyce that you did so , or wish that you had : that will be the condition of every one of us ; for God regardeth no mans person . Well! but all this you will think is but a sad story . What ? we must die , and go to darknesse and dishonour ; and we must die quickly , and we must quit all our delights , and all our sins , or do worse , infinitely worse ; and this is the condition of us all from which none can be excepted ; every man shall be spilt and fall into the ground , and be gathered up no more . Is there no comfort after all this ? shall we go from hence , and be no more seen , and have no recompense . Miser , ô miser , aiunt , omnia ademit Una die infausta mihi tot praemia vitae . Shall we exchange our fair dwellings for a coffine , our softer beds for the moistned and weeping turf , and our pretty children for worms , and is there no allay to this huge calamity ? Yes , there is There is a [ yet ] in the Text : [ For all this , yet doth God devise means that his banished be not expelled from him . ] All this sorrow and trouble is but a phantasme , and receives its account and degrees from our present conceptions and the proportion to our relishes and gust . When Pompey saw the Ghost of his first Lady Julia , who vexed his rest and his conscience for superinducing Cornelia upon her bed within the ten moneths of mourning , he presently fancied it , either to be an illusion , or else that death could be no very great evil . Aut nihil est sensus animis in morte relictum , Aut morsipsa nihil — Either my dead wife knows not of my unhandsome marriage , and forgetfulnesse of her ; or if she does , then the dead live . — longae , canitis si cognita , vitae Mors media est — Death is nothing but the middle point between two lives between this and another : concerning which comfortable mystery the holy Scripture instructs our faith , and entertains our hope in these words . God is still the God of Abraham , Isaak , and Jacob ; for all do live to him : and the souls of Saints are with Christ : I desire to be dissolved ( saith S. Paul ) and to be with Christ , for that is much better : and , Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord : they rest from their labours , and their works follow them : For we know , that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved , we have a building of God , a house not made with hands , eternall in the heavens : and this state of separation S. Paul calls , a being absent from the body , and being present with the Lord : This is one of Gods means which he hath devised , that although our Dead are like persons banished from this world , yet they are not expelled from God : They are in the hands of Christ ; they are in his presence ; they are , or shall be clothed with a house of Gods making ; they rest from all their labours ; all tears are wiped from their eyes , and all discontents from their spirits ; and in the state of separation before the soul be reinvested with her new house the spirits of al persons are with God , so secured and so blessed , and so sealed up for glory , that this state of interval and imperfection is in respect of its certain event and end , infinitely more desirable then all the riches and all the pleasures , and all the vanities , and all the Kingdoms of this world . I will not venture to determine what are the circumstances of the aboad of Holy Souls in their separate dwellings ; and yet possibly that might be easier then to tell what or how the soul is and works in this world , where it is in the body tanquam in alienâ domo , as in a prison , in fetters and restraints : for here the soal is discomposed and hindered , it is not as it shall be , as it ought to be , as it was intended to be ; it is not permitted to its own freedom , and proper operation ; so that all that we can understand of it here , is that it is so incommodated with a troubled and abated instrument , that the object we are to consider cannot be offered to us in a right line , in just and equal propositions or if it could , yet because we are to understand the soul by the soul , it becomes not onely a troubled and abused object , but a crooked instrument ; and we here can consider it , just as a weak eye can behold a staffe thrust into the waters of a troubled river ; the very water makes a refraction , and the storm doubles the refraction , and the water of the eye doubles the species , and there is nothing right in the thing , the object is out of its just place , and the medium is troubled , and the organ is impotent : At cum exierit & in liberum coelum quasi in domum suam venerit , when the soul is entred into her own house , into the free regions of the rest and the neighbourhood of heavenly joyes , then its operations are more spiritual , proper , and proportioned to its being ; and though we cannot see at such a distance , yet the object is more fitted if we had a capable understanding ; it is in it self in a more excellent and free condition . Certain it is , that the body does hinder many actions of the soul : it is an imperfect body , and a diseased brain , or a violent passion that makes fools : no man hath a foolish soul ; and the reasonings of men have infinite difference and degrees by reason of the bodies constitution . Among beasts which have no reason , there is a greater likenesse then between men , who have : & as by faces it is easier to know a man from a man , then a sparrow from a sparrow , or a squirrel from a squirrel : so the difference is very great in our souls ; which difference because it is not originally in the soul ( and indeed cannot be in simple and spiritual substances of the same species or kind ) it must needs drive wholly from the body , from its accidents and circumstances : from whence it follows , that because the body casts fetters and restraints , hindrances and impediments upon the soul , that the soul is much freer in the state of separation ; and if it hath any any act of life , it is much more noble and expedite . That the soul is alive after our death , S. Paul affirms [ Christ died for us , that whether we wake or sleep , we should live together with him . ] Now it were strange that we should be alive , and live with Christ , and yet do no act of life : the body when it is asleep does many : and if the soul does none , the principle is lesse active then the instrument ; but if it does any act at all in separation , it must necessarily be an act or effect of understanding ; there is nothing else it can do . But this it can . For it is but a weak and an unlearned proposition to say , That the Soul can do nothing of it self , nothing without the phantasmes and provisions of the body . For 1. In this life the soul hath one principle clearly separate , abstracted & immaterial , I mean , the Spirit of grace , which is a principle of life and action and in many instances does not all at communicate with matter , as in the infusion , superinduction and the creation of spiritual graces . 2. As nutrition , generation , eating and drinking are actions proper to the body and its state : so , extasies , visions , raptures , intuitive knowledge , and consideration of its self , acts of volition , and reflex acts of understanding are proper to the soul. 3. And therefore it is observable that S. Paul said that he knew not whether his visions and raptures were in or out of the body : for by that we see his judgement of the thing , that one was as likely as the other , neither of them impossible or unreasonable ; and therefore that the soul is as capable of action alone as in conjunction . 4. If in the state of blessednesse there are some actions of the soul which doe not passe through the body , such as contemplation of God , and conversing with spirits , and receiving those influences and rare immissions which coming from the Holy and mysterious Trinity make up the crown of glory ; it follows that the necessity of the bodies ministery is but during the state of this life , and as long as it converses with fire and water , and lives with corn and flesh , and is fed by the satisfaction of material appetits ; which necessity and manner of conversation when it ceases , it can be no longer necessary for the soul to be served by phantasmes and material representations . 5. And therefore when the body shall be re-united , it shall be so ordered that then the body shall confesse it gives not any thing , but receives all its being and operation , its manner and abode from the soul , and that then it comes not to serve a necessity , but to partake a glory . For as the operations of the soul in this life , begin in the body , and by it the object is transmitted to the soul : so then they shall begin in the soul and pass to the body ; and as the operations of the soul by reason of its dependence on the body are animal , natural and material : so in the resurrection , the body shall be spiritual by reason of the preeminence , influence , and prime operation of the soul. Now between these two states , stands the state of separation , in which the operations of the soul are of a middle nature , that is , not so spirituall as in the resurrection , and not so animal and natural as in the state of conjunction . To all which I adde this consideration . That our souls have the same condition that Christs soul had in the state of separation ; because he took on him all our nature , and all our condition ; and it is certain , Christs soul in the three dayes of his separation did exercise acts of life , of joy and triumph , and did not sleep , but visited the souls of the Fathers , trampled upon the pride of Devils , and satisfied those longing souls which were Prisoners of hope ; and from all this we may conclude that the souls of all the servants of Christ are alive , and therfore do the actions of life , and proper to their state ; and therefore it is highly probable that the soul works clearer , and understands brighter , and discourses wiser , and rejoyces louder , and loves noblier , and desires purer , and hopes stronger then it can do here . But if these arguments should fail , yet the felicity of Gods Saints cannot fail . For suppose , the body to be a necessary instrument but out of tune , and discomposed by sin and anger , by accident and chance , by defect and imperfections , yet , that it is better then none at all : and that if the soul works imperfectly with an imperfect body , that then she works not at all when she hath none ; and suppose also that the soul should be as much without sense or perception in death , as it is in a deep sleep which is the image and shadow of death ; yet then God devises other means that his banished be not expelled from him . For , 2. God will restore the soul to the body , and raise the body to such a perfection , that it shall be an Organ fitt to praise him upon ; it shall be made spiritual to minister to the soul , when the soul is turned into a Spirit , then the soul shall be brought forth by Angels from her incomparable and easie bed , from her rest in Christs Holy Bosome , and be made perfect in her being , and in all her operations ; And this shall first appear by that perfection which the soul shall receive as instrumental to the last judgement : for then she shall see clearly all the Records of this world , all the Register of her own memory . For all that we did in this life , is laid up in our memories : and though dust and forgetfulnesse be drawn upon them , yet when God shall lift us from our dust , then shall appear clearly all that we have done , written in the Tables of our conscience , which is the souls memory . We see many times , and in many instances , that a great memory is hindered and put out , and we thirty years after come to think of something that lay so long under a curtain ; we think of it suddenly and without a line of deduction , or proper consequence : And all those famous memories , of Simonides and Theodectes , of Hortensius and Seneca , of Sceptius Metrodorus and Carneades , of Cyneas the Embassadour of Pyrrhus , are onely the Records better kept , and lesse disturbed by accident and desease . For even the memory of Herods son of Athens , of Bathyllus and the dullest person now alive is so great , and by God made so sure a record of all that ever he did , that assoon as ever God shall but tune our instrument , and draw the curtains , and but light up the candle of immortality , there we shal finde it all , there we shall see all , and all the world shall see all ; then we shall be made fit to converse with God after the manner of Spirits , we shall be like to Angels . In the mean time , although upon the perswasion of the former discourse it be highly probable that the souls of Gods servants do live in a state of present blessednesse ; and in the exceeding joyes of a certain expectation of the revelation of the day of the Lord , and the coming of Jesus yet it will concern us onely to secure our state by holy living , and leave the event to God ; that ( as S. Paul said ) whether present or absent , whether sleeping or waking , whether perceiving or perceiving not , we may be accepted of him : that when we are banished this world , and from the light of the sun , we may not be expelled from God , and from the light of his countenance , but that from our beds of sorrows , our souls may passe into the bosome of Christ , and from thence to his right hand in the day of sentence : For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ , & then if we have done wel in the body , we shal never be expelled from the beatifical presence of God , but be domesticks of his family , and heires of his Kingdom , and partakers of his glory . Amen I Have now done with my Text , but yet am to make you another Sermon . I have told you the necessity and the state of death ; it may be too largely for such a sad story ; I shal therefore now with a better compendium teach you how to live by telling you a plain narrative of a life , which if you imitate and write after the copy , it will make , that death shall not be an evil , but a thing to be desired , and to be reckoned amongst the purchases and advantages of your fortune . When Martha and Mary went to weep over the grave of their brother , Christ met them there and preached a Funeral Sermon , discoursing of the resurrection , and applying to the purposes of faith , and confession of Christ , and glorification of God : We have no other , we can have no better precedent to follow : and now that we are come to weep over the grave of our Dear Sister , this rare personage , we cannot chuse but have many vertues to learn , many to imitate , and some to exercise . I chose , not to declare her extraction and genealogy . It was indeed fair and Honorable ; but having the blessing to be descended from worthy and Honoured Ancestors , and her self to be adopted and ingraffed into a more Noble family , yet she felt such outward appendages to be none of hers , because not of her choice , but the purchase of the vertues of others , which although they did ingage her to do noble things , yet they would upbraid all degenerate and lesse honourable lives then were those which began and increased the honour of the families . She did not love her fortune for making her noble ; but thought it would be a dishonour to her if she did not continue her Noblenesse and excellency of vertue fit to be owned by persons relating to such Ancestors . It is fit for all us to honour the Noblenesse of a family : but it is also fit for them that are Noble to despise it and to establish their honour upon the foundation of doing excellent things , and suffering in good causes , and despising dishonourable actions , and in communicating good things to others . For this is the rule in Nature : Those creatures are most Honourable which have the greatest power and do the greatest good : And accordingly my self have been a witnesse of it , how this excellent Lady would by an act of humility , and Christian abstraction strip her self of all that fair appendage of exteriour honour which decked her person and her fortune ; and desired to be owned by nothing but what was her own , that she might onely be esteemed Honourable according to that which is the honour of a Christian , and a wise person . 2. She had a strict and severe education , and it was one of Gods graces and favours to her . For being the Heiresse of a great fortune , and living amongst the throng of persons in the sight of vanities and empty temptations , that is , in that part of the Kingdom where greatnesse is too often expressed in great follies , and great vices , God had provided a severe and angry education to chastise the forwardnesses of a young spirit , and a fair fortune ; that she might for ever be so far distant from a vice , that she might onely see it and loath it , but never tast of it , so much as to be put to her choice whether she would be vertuous or no. God intending to secure this soul to himself , would not suffer the follies of the world to seize upon her by way of too neer a trial , or busie temptation . 3. She was married young ; and besides her businesses of religion seemed to be ordained in the providence of God to bring to this Honourable family a part of a fair fortune , and to leave behinde her a fairer issue worth ten thousand times her portion : and as if this had been all the publick businesse of her life ; when she had so far served Gods ends , God in mercy would also serve hers , and take her to an early blessednesse . 4. In passing through which line of providence , she had the art to secure her eternal interest , by turning her condition into duty , & expressing her duty in the greatest eminency of a vertuous , prudent and rare affection , that hath been known in any example . I will not give her so low a testimony , as to say onely that she was chast ; She was a person of that severity , modesty , and close religion ( as to that particular ) that she was not capable of uncivil temptation ; and you might as well have suspected the sun to smell of the poppy that he looks on , as that she could have been a person apt to be sullyed by the breath of a foul question . 5. But that which I shall note in her , is that which I would have exemplar to all Ladies , and to all women . She had a love so great for her Lord , so intirely given up to a dear affection , that she thought the same things and loved the same loves , and hated according to the same enmities , and breathed in his soul , and lived in his presence , and languished in his absence : and all that she was or did , was onely for and to her Dearest Lord , Si gaudet , si slet , si tacit , hunc loquitur . Coenat , propinat , poscit , negat , innuit , unus Naevius est : — and although this was a great enamel to the beauty of her soul , yet it might in some degrees be also a reward to the vertue of her Lord : For she would often discourse it to them that conversed with her ; that he would improve that interest which he had in her affection to the advantages of God , and of religion : and she would delight to say , that he called her to her devotions , he encouraged her good inclinations he directed her piety , he invited her with good books : and then she loved religion , which she saw was not onely pleasing to God , and an act or state of duty , but pleasing to her Lord , and an act also of affection and conjugal obedience ; and what at first she loved the more forwardly for his sake ; in the using of religion left such relishes upon her spirit , that she found in it amability enough , to make her love it for its own . So God usually brings us to him by instruments of nature and affections , and then incorporates us into his inheritance , by the more immediate relishes of Heaven , and the secret things of the Spirit . He only was ( under God ) the light of her eyes , and the cordiall of her spirits , and the guide of her actions , and the measure of her affections , till her affections swelled up into a religion , and then it could go no higher , but was confederate with those other duties which made her dear to God. Which rare combination of duty and religion , I choose to expresse in the words of Solomon : She forsook not the guide of her youth , nor brake the Covenant of her God. 6. As she was a rare wife : so she was an excellent Mother . For in so tender a constitution of spirit as hers was , and in so great a kindnesse towards her children , there hath seldom been seen a stricter and more curious care of their persons , their deportment , their nature , their disposition , their learning and their customs : And if ever kindnesse and care did contest , and make parties in her , yet her care and her severity was ever victorious ; and she knew not how to do an ill turn to their severer part , by her more tender and forward kindnesse . And as her custome was , she turned this also into love to her Lord. For she was not onely diligent to have them bred nobly and religiously , but also was carefull and solicitous , that they should be taught to observe all the circumstances & inclinations , the desires and wishes of their Father ; as thinking , that vertue to have no good circumstances which was not dressed by his copy , and ruled by his lines , and his affections : And her prudence in the managing her children was so singular and rare , that when ever you mean to blesse this family , and pray a hearty and a profitable prayer for it , beg of God , that the children may have those excellent things which she designed to them , and provided for them in her heart and wishes , that they may live by her purposes , and may grow thither , whither she would fain have brought them . All these were great parts of an excellent religion as they concerned her greatest temporal relations . 7. But if we examine how she demeaned her self towards God , there also you will finde her , not of a common , but of an exemplar piety . She was a great reader of Scripture , confining her self to great portions every day ; which she read , not to the purposes of vanity , and impertinent curiosities , not to seem knowing , or to become talking , not to expound and Rule , but to teach her all her duty , to instruct her in the knowledge and love of God and of her Neighbours ; to make her more humble , and to teach her to despise the world , and all its gilded vanities ; and that she might entertain passions wholly in designe and order to heaven . I have seen a female religion that wholly dwelt upon the face and tongue ; that like a wanton and an undressed tree spends all its juice in suckers and irregular branches , in leafs and gumme , and after all such goodly outsides you should never eat an apple , or be delighted with the beauties , or the perfumes of a hopefull blossome . But the religion of this excellent Lady was of another constitution ; It took root downward in humility , and brought forth fruit upward in the substantiall graces of a Christian , in charity and justice , in chastity and modesty , in fair friendships and sweetnesse of society : She had not very much of the forms and outsides of godlinesse ; but she was hugely carefull for the power of it , for the morall , essentiall , and usefull parts ; such which would make her be , not seem to be religious . 8. She was a very constant person at her prayers , and spent all her time which Nature did permit to her choice , in her devotions , and reading and meditating and the necessary offices of houshold government , every one of which is an action of religion , some by nature , some by adoption . To these also God gave her a very great love to hear the word of God preached ; in which because I had sometimes the honour to minister to her , I can give this certain testimony , that she was a diligent , watchfull and attentive hearer : and to this had so excellent a judgement , that if ever I saw a woman whose judgement was to be revered , it was hers alone : and I have sometimes thought that the eminency of her discerning faculties did reward a pious discourse , and placed it in the regions of honour and usefulnesse , and gathered it up from the ground , where commonly such homilies are spilt , or scattered in neglect and inconsideration . But her appetite was not soon satisfied with what was usefull to her soul : she was also a constant Reader of Sermons , and seldome missed to read one every day ; and that she might be full of instruction and holy principles , she had lately designed to have a large Book in which she purposed to have a stock of Religion transcrib'd in such assistances as she would chuse , that she might be readily furnished and instructed to every good work . But God prevented that , and hath filled her desires not out of cisterns and little aquaeducts , but hath carried her to the fountain , where she drinks of the pleasures of the river , and is full of God. 9. She alwayes lived a life of much Innocence , free from the violences of great sins : her person , her breeding , her modesty , her honour , her religion , her early marriage , the Guide of her soul , and the Guide of her youth , were as so many fountains of restraining grace to her , to keep her from the dishonours of a crime . Bonum est portare jugum ab adolescentiâ : it is good to bear the yoak of the Lord from our youth ; and though she did so , being guarded by a mighty providence , and a great favour and grace of God from staining her fair soul with the spots of hell , yet she had strange fears and early cares upon her ; but these were not onely for her self , but in order to others , to her neerest Relatives . For she was so great a lover of this Honourable family of which now she was a Mother , that she desired to become a chanel of great blessings to it unto future ages , and was extremely jealous lest any thing should be done , or lest any thing had been done , though an age or two since , which should intail a curse upon the innocent posterity ; and therefore ( although I do not know that ever she was tempted with an offer of the crime ) yet she did infinitely remove all sacrilege from her thoughts , and delighted to see her estate of a clear and disintangled interest : she would have no mingled rights with it ; she would not receive any thing from the Church , but religion and a blessing : and she never thought a curse and a sin far enough off , but would desire it to be infinitely distant ; and that as to this family God had given much honour and a wise head to govern it , so he would also for ever give many more blessings : And because she knew that the sins of Patents descend upon Children , she endevoured by justice and religion , by charity and honour to secure that her chanel should convey nothing but health , and a fair example , and a blessing . 10. And though her accounts to God was made up of nothing but small parcels , little passions , and angry words , and trifling discontents , which are the allayes of the piety of the most holy persons , yet she was early at her repentance ; and toward the latter end of her dayes , grew so fast in religion as if she had had a revelation of her approaching end ; and therefore that she must go a great way in a little time : her discourses more full of religion , her prayers more frequent , her charity increasing ; her forgivenesse more forward , her friendships more communicative , her passion more under discipline , and so she trimm'd her lamp , not thinking her night was so neer , but that it might shine also in the day time , in the Temple , and before the Altar of incense . But in this course of hers there were some circumstances , and some appendages of substance , which were highly remarkable . 1. In all her Religion , and in all her actions of relation towards God , she had a strange evennesse and untroubled passage , sliding toward her Ocean of God and of infinity with a certain and silent motion . So have I seen a river deep and smooth passing with a still foot and a sober face , and paying to the Fiscus , the great Exchequer of the Sea , the Prince of all the watry bodies , a tribute large and full : and hard by it a little brook skipping and making a noise upon its unequall and neighbour bottom ; and after all its talking and bragged motion , it payed to its common Audit no more then the revenues of a little cloud , or a contemptible vessel : So have I sometimes compar'd the issues of her religion to the solemnities and fam'd outsides of anothers piety . It dwelt upon her spirit , and was incorporated with the periodicall work of every day : she did not beleeve that religion was intended to minister to fame and reputation , but to pardon of sins , to the pleasure of God , and the salvation of souls . For religion is like the breath of Heaven ; if it goes abroad into the open air , it scatters and dissolves like camphyre : but if it enters into a secret hollownesse , into a close conveyance , it is strong and mighty , and comes forth with vigour and great effect at the other end , at the other side of this life , in the dayes of death and judgement . 2. The other appendage of her religion , which also was a great ornament to all the parts of her life , was a rare modesty and humility of spirit , a confident despising and undervaluing of her self . For though she had the greatest judgement , and the greatest experience of things and persons that I ever yet knew in a person of her youth , and sex , and circumstances ; yet as if she knew nothing of it she had the meanest opinion of her self ; and like a fair taper when she shined to all the room , yet round about her own station she had cast a shadow and a cloud , and she shined to every body but her self . But the perfectnesse of her prudence and excellent parts could not be hid ; and all her humility , and arts of concealment , made the vertues more amiable and illustrious . For as pride sullies the beauty of the fairest vertues , and makes our understanding but like the craft and learning of a Devil : so humility is the greatest eminency , and art of publication in the whole world ; and she in all her arts of secrecy and hiding her worthy things , was but like one that hideth the winde , and covers the oyntment of her right hand . I know not by what instrument it hapned ; but when death drew neer , befor it made any shew upon her body , or revealed it self by a naturall signification , it was conveyed to her spirit : she had a strange secret perswasion that the bringing this Childe should be her last scene of life : and we have known , that the soul when she is about to disrobe her self of her upper garment , sometimes speaks rarely Magnifica verba : mors propè admota excutit ; sometimes it is prophetical ; sometimes God by a superinduced perswasion wrought by instruments , or accidents of his own , serves the ends of his own providence and the salvation of the soul : But so it was , that the thought of death dwelt long with her , and grew from the first steps of faney and fear , to a consent , from thence to a strange credulity , and expectation of it ; and without the violence of sicknesse she died , as if she had done it voluntarily , and by designe , and for fear her expectation should have been deceived , or that she should seem to have had an unreasonable fear , or apprehension ; or rather ( as one said of Cato ) sic abiit è vitâ ut causam moriendi nactam se esse gauderet , she died , as if she had been glad of the opportunity . And in this I cannot but adore the providence and admire the wisdom and infinite mercies of God. For having a tender and soft , a delicate and fine constitution and breeding , she was tender to pain , and apprehensive of it , as a childs shoulder is of a load and burden : Grave est tenerae cérvici jugum ; and in her often discourses of death , which she would renew willingly and frequently , she would tell , that she feared not death , but she feared the sharp pains of death : Emori nolo , me esse mortuam non curo : The being dead , and being freed from the troubles and dangers of this world , she hoped would be for her advantage ; and therefore that was no part of her fear : But she believing the pangs of death were great , and the use and aids of reason little , had reason to fear left they should do violence to her spirit and the decency of her resolution . But God that knew her fears , and her jealousie concerning her self , fitted her with a death so easie , so harmlesse , so painlesse , that it did not put her patience to a severe trial . It was not ( in all appearance ) of so much trouble , as two fits of a common ague ; so carefull was God to remonstrate to all that stood in that sad attendance , that this soul was dear to him : and that since she had done so much of her duty towards it , he that began would also finish her redemption , by an act of a rare providence , and a singular mercy . Blessed be that goodnesse of God , who does so careful actions of mercy for the ease and security of his servants . But this one instance was a great demonstration that the apprchension of death is worse then the pains of death : and that God loves to reprove the unreasonablenesse of our fears , by the mightiness , and by the arts of his mercy . She had in her sickness ( if I may so cal it , or rather in the solemnities , and graver preparations towards death ) some curious and well-becoming fears , concerning the final state of her soul. But from thence she passed into a deliquium , or a kinde of trance , and as soon as she came forth of it , as if it had been a vision , or that she had conversed with an Angel , and from his hand had received a label or scroll of the book of life , and there seen her name enrolled , she cried out aloud , [ Glory be to God on high : Now I am sure I shall be saved . ] Concerning which manner of discoursing we are wholy ignorant , what judgement can be made : but certainly there are strange things in the other world ; and so there are in all the immediate preparation to it ; and a little glimps of heaven , a minutes conversing with an Angel , any ray of God , any communication extraordinary from the spirit of comfort which God gives to his servants in strange and unknown manners , are infinitely far from illusions ; and they shall then be understood by us , when we feel them , and when our new and strange needs shall be refreshed by such unusual visitations . But I must be forced to use summaries and arts of abbreviature in the enumerating those things in which this rare Personage was dear to God and to all her Relatives . If we consider her Person , she was in the flower of her age , Jucundum cum aetas florida ver ageret ; of a temperate , plain and natural diet ; without curiosity or an intemperate palate ; she spent lesse time in dressing , then many servants ; her recreations were little and seldom , her prayers often , her reading much : she was of a most noble and charitable soul ; a great lover of honourable actions and as great a despiser of base things ; hugely loving to oblige others , and very unwilling to be in arrear to any upon the stock of courtesies and liberality ; so free in all acts of favour , that she would not stay to hear her self thanked , as being unwilling that what good went from her to a needful or an obliged person should ever return to her again ; she was an excellent friend , and hugely dear to very many , especially to the best and most discerning persons , to all that conversed with her , and could understand her great worth and sweetnesse : she was of an Honourable , a nice and tender reputation ; and of the pleasures of this world which were laid before her in heaps she took a very small and inconsiderable share , as not loving to glut her self with vanity , or to take her portion of good things here below . If we look on her as a Wife , she was chast and loving , fruitful and discreet , humble and pleasant , witty and complyant , rich and fair , & wanted nothing to the making her a principal and a precedent to the best Wives of the world , but a long life , and a full age . If we remember her as a Mother ; she was kinde and severe , careful and prudent , very tender , & not at al fond , a greater lover of her childrens souls , then of their bodies , and one that would value them more by the strict rules of honour and proper worth , then by their relation to her self . Her servants found her prudent , and fit to Govern , and yet open-handed and apt to reward ; a just Exactor of their duty and a great Rewarder of their diligence . She was in her house a comfort to her dearest Lord , a guide to her children , a Rule to her Servants , an example to all . But as she related to God in the offices of Religion , she was even and constant , silent and devout , prudent and material : she loved what she now enjoyes , and she feared what she never felt , and God did for her what she never did expect . Her fears went beyond all her evil ; and yet the good which she hath received was , and is , and ever shall be beyond all her hopes . She lived as we al should live , and she died as I fain would die — Et cum supremos Lachesis perneverit annos , Non aliter cineres mando jacere meos . I pray God I may feel those mercies on my death-bed that she felt , and that I may feel the same effect of my repentance which she feels of the many degrees of her innocence . Such was her death that she did not die too soon ; and her life was so useful and so excellent that she could not have lived too long . Nemo parum diu vixit qui virtutis perfectae perfecto functus est munere : and as now in the grave it shall not be enquired concerning her , how long she lived , but how well ? so to us who live after her to suffer a longer calamity , it may be some ease to our sorrows , and some guide to our lives , and some securitie to our conditions , to consider that God hath brought the piety of a yong Lady to the early rewards of a never ceasing , and never dying eternity of glory . And we also if we live as she did , shall partake of the same glories ; not onely having the honour of a good name and a dear and honoured memory , but the glories of these glories , the end of all excellent labours , and all prudent counsels , and all holy religion , even the salvation of our souls in that day , when all the Saints , and amongst them this excellent Woman shall be shown to all the world to have done more , and more excellent things then we know of or can describe . Mors illos consecrat , quorum exitum & qui timent , laudant : Death consecrates and makes sacred that person whose excellency was such , that they that are not displeased at the death , cannot dispraise the life ; but they that mourn sadly , think they can never commend sufficiently . The end . CLERVS DOMINI : OR , A DISCOURSE OF THE DIVINE INSTITUTION , Necessity , Sacrednesse , and Separation OF THE OFFICE MINISTERIAL . TOGETHER WITH THE NATURE AND MANNER OF its Power and Operation . WRITTEN By the speciall command of our late KING . BY JER . TAYLOR D. D. ACADEMIA ◆ OXONIENSIS ◆ printer's or publisher's device LONDON , Printed by James Flesher , for R. Royston at the Angel in Ivie-Lane . 1651. THE Divine institution and necessity OF THE OFFICE MINISTERIAL , &c. SECT . I. WHen severall Nations , and differing Religions have without any famous mutuall intercourse agreed upon some common rites , and formes of Religion , because one common effect cannot descend from chance , it is certain they come to them by reason , or tradition from their common Parents , or by imitation ; something , that hath a common influence . If reason be the principle , then it is more regular and lasting , and admits of no other variety , then as some men grow unreasonable , or that the reason ceases ; If tradition be the fountain , then it is not onely universall , and increases as the world is peopled , but remains also so long as we retain reverence to our Parents , or that we doe not think our selves wiser then our forefathers ; But these two have produced Customes and Laws of the highest obligation : for whatsoever we commonly call the Law of Nature , it is either a custome of all the world derived from Noah or Adam ; or else it is therefore done , because naturall reason teaches us to doe it in the order to the preservation of our selves and the publique . But imitation of the customes of a wise nation , is something lesse , and yet it hath produced great consent in externall rites and offices of Religion . And since there is in ceremonies so great indifferency , there being no antecedent law to determine their practise , nothing in their nature to make them originally necessary , they grow into a Custome or a Law according as they are capable ; For if a wise Prince , or a Governour , or a Nation , or a famous family hath chosen rites of common Religion , such as were consonant to the Analogy of his duty , expressive of his sense , decent in the expression , grave in the forme , or full of ornament in their representment , such a thing is capable of no greater reason and needs no greater authority , but hath been , and may reasonably enough be imitated upon the reputation of their wisdome , and disinterested choice , who being known wise persons , or nations , took them first into their religious offices . Thus the Jews and the Gentiles used a white garments in their holy offices , and the Christians thought it reasonable enough from so united example to doe so too . Example was reason great enough for that . The b Gentile Priests were forbid to touch a dead body , to c eate leavened bread , to d mingle with secular imployments during their attendance in holy offices ; these they took up from the pattern of the Jews , and professed it reasonable to imitate a wise people in the rituals of their religion . The Gentile Priests used Ring and Staffe and Mitre ( saith Philostratus : ) the Primitive Bishops did so too ; and in the highest detestation of their follies thought they might wisely enough imitate their innocent customes and Priestly ornaments , and hoped they might better reconcile their mindes to the Christian Religion by compliance in ceremonials , then exasperate them by rejecting their ancient and innocent ceremonies : for so the Apostles invited and inticed Judaisme into Christianity . And Tertullian complains of the Devils craft , who by imitating the Christian rites reconciled mens mindes with that compliance to a more charitable opinion of the Gentile superstition . The Devill intending to draw the professors of truth to his own portion , or to preserve his own in the same fetters he first put upon them , imitates the rites of our religion , adopting them into his superstition . He baptizes some of his disciples , and when he initiates them to the worship of Mithra promiseth them pardon of sins , by that rite , he signes his souldiers in their forehead , he represents the oblation of bread , and introduces representments of the resurrection , and laboriously gets martyrs to his cause . His Priests marry but once ; he hath his virgins and his abstemious and continent followers : that what Christians love and the world commends in them , being adopted into the rituals of Idolatry , may allure some with the beauty and fair imagery , and abuse others with colour and phantastick faces . And thus also all wise men that intended to perswade others to their religion , did it by retaining as much as they innocently could of the other , that the change might not be too violent , and the persons be more endeared by common rites and the relation and charity of likenesse and imitation . Thus did the Church and the Synagogue , thus did the Gentiles both to the Jews and to the Christians ; and all wise men did so . e The Gentiles offered first fruits to their Gods , and their tithes to Hercules , f kept vigils and anniversaries , forbad marriages without the consent of Parents , and clandestine contracts ; these were observed with some variety according as the people were civill or learned ; and according to the degree of the tradition , or as the thing was reasonable , so these customes were more or lesse universall . But when all wise people , nay when absolutely all the world have consented upon a rite , it cannot derive from a fountain lower then the current , but it must either be a command which God hath given to all the world ; ( and so Socrates in Xenophon , Quod ab omnibus gentibus observatum est , id non nisi à Deo sancitum esse dicendum est ) or a tradition , or a law descending from our common parents , or a reason derived from the nature of things ; there cannot in the world be any thing great enough to take away such a rite , except an expresse divine commandement : and a man by the same reason may marry his nearest relative as he may deny to worship God by the recitation of his prayses and excellencies ; because reason and a very common tradition have made almost all the world consent in these two things that we must abstain from the mixtures of our nearest kindred , and that we must worship God by recounting and declaring excellent things concerning him . I have instanced in two things in which I am sure to finde the fewest adversaries , ( I said the fewest ; for there are some men which have lost all humanity ) but these two great instances are not attested with so universall a tradition and practise of the world as this that is now in question . For in some nations they have married their sisters , so did the Magi among the Persians : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , says Tatianus in Clemens Alexandrinus , and Bardisanes Syrus in Eusebius . And the Greeks worshipped Hercules by railing , and Mercury by throwing stones at him . But there was never any people but had their Priests and Presidents of religious rites , and kept holy things within a mure , that the people might not approach to handle the mysteries : and therefore besides that it is a recession from the customes of mankinde , and charges us with the disrespect of all the world ( which is an incuriousnesse next to infinite ) it is also a doing against that which all the reason of all the wise men of the world have chosen antecedently or ex post facto , and he must have a strange understanding , who is not perswaded by that which hath determined all the world . For religion cannot be at all in communities of men without some to guide , to minister , to preserve and to prescribe the offices and ministeries : What can profane holy things but that which makes them common ? and what can make them common more then when common persons handle them , when there is no distinction of Persons in their ministration ? For although places are good accessories to religion , yet in all religions they were so accidentall to it , that a sacrifice might hallow the place , but the place ( unlesse it were naturally impure ) could not desecrate the sacrifice : and therefore Jacob worshipped upon a stone , offered upon a turfe , and the Arke rested in Obed-Edoms house , and was holy in Dagons Temple ; and hils and groves , fields and orchards , according to the severall customes of the nations , were the places of addresse ; But a common person ministring , was so near a circumstance , and was so mingled with the action , that since the materiall part and exteriour actions of Religion could be acted and personated by any man , there was scarce any thing left to make it religious , but the attrectation of the rites by a holy person ; A Holy place is something , a separate time is something , a prescript form of words is more , & separate and solemn actions are more yet ; but all these are made common by a cōmon person , & therfore without a distinction of persons have not a natural and reasonable distinction of solemnity & exterior religion . And indeed it were a great disreputation to religion , that all great and publique things , and every artifice or profitable science should in all the societies of men be distinguished by professors , artists and proper ministers ; and onely religion should lie in common , apt to be bruised by the hard hand of mechanicks , and sullied by the ruder touch of undiscerning and undistinguished persons ; for although the light of it shines to all , and so farre every mans interest is concerned in religion , yet it were not handsome that every man should take the taper in his hand : and religion is no more to be handled by all men , then the laws are to be dispensed by all , by whom they are to be obeyed ; though both in religion and the laws , all men have a common interest . For since all meanes must have some equality or proportion towards their end , that they may of their own being or by institution be symbolicall , it is but reasonable that by elevated and sublimed instruments we should be promoted towards an end supernaturall and divine ; now besides , that of all the instruments of distinction , the person is the most principall and apt for the honour of religion ( and to make our religion honourable is part of the religion it self ) it is also apt for the uses of it ; such as are , preserving the rights , ordering , decent ministration , dispensing the laws of religion , judging causes , ceremonies and accidents ; and he that appoints not offices to minister his religion , cares not how it is performed ; and he that cares so little , will finde a great contempt passe upon it , and a cheapnesse meaner then of the meanest civill offices ; and he that is content with that , cares not how little honour God receives , when he presents to him a cheape , a common , and a dishonorable religion . But the very naturall design of religion forces us to a distinction of persons in order to the ministration ; for besides that every man is not fit to approach to God with all his sordes and adherent indispositions ; an assignment in reason must be made of certain persons , whose calling must be holy , and their persons taught to be holy , by such a solemn and religious assignment ; that those persons being made higher then the people by their calling and religion , and yet our brethren in nature , may be intermediall between God and the people , and present to God the peoples needs , and be instrumentall to the reconveying Gods blessing upon those whose fiduciaries they are . This last depends upon Gods own act , and designation , and therefore must afterwards be proved by testimonies of his own , that he hath accepted such persons to such purposes ; but the former part we our selves are taught by naturall reason , by the rules of proportion , by the honour we owe unto religion , by the hopes of our own advantages , and by the distance between God and us , towards which we should thrust up persons as high as they are capable . And that all the world hath done prudently in this , we are confirmed by Gods own act , who knowing it was most agreeable , not onely to the constitution of religion , and of our addresses to God , but to our meer necessities also , did in his glorious wisdome send his sonne , and made him apt to become a mediator between himself and us , by clothing him with our nature , and decking him with great participation of his own excellencies , that he might doe our worke , the worke of his own humane nature , and by his great sanctity and wisdome approach neer to Gods mercy seat , whither our imperfections and sins could not have neer accesse . And this consideration is not onely good reason , but true divinity , and was a consideration in the Greek Church , and affixed to the head of a prayer as the reason of their addresse to God in designing ministers in religion . O Lord God who because mans nature cannot of it selfe approach to thy glorious Deity , hast appointed Masters and Teachers of the same passions with our selves , whom thou hast placed in thy throne , viz. in the ministery of the kingdome , to bring sacrifices and oblations in behalfe of thy people , &c. And indeed if the greatnesse of an imployment separates persons from the vulgus , either we must thinke the immediate offices of religion and the entercourse with God to be the meanest of imployments , or the persons so officiating to receive their estimate according to the excellency of their offices . And thus it was amongst the Jews and Gentiles before Christs time , amongst whom they not onely separated persons for the service of their Gods respectively , but chose the best of men and the Princes of the people to officiate in their mysteries , and adorned them with the greatest honours and speciall immunities . Among the Jews , the Priesthood was so honourable , that although the expectation which each Tribe had of the Messias was reason enough to make them observe the law of distinct marriages , yet it was permitted to the Tribe of Levi to marry with the Kingly Tribe of Judah , that they also might have the honour and portion of the Messias's most glorious generation ; and for the Priesthood of Aaron it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith Philo , a celestiall honour , not an earthly , a heavenly profession , and it grew so high and was so naturalized into that nation to honour their Priests and mystick persons , that they made it the pretence of their warres and mutinies against their conquerours . Honor sacerdotii firmamentum potentiae assumebatur , saith Tacitus , speaking of their warres against Antiochus ; the honour of their Priesthood was the strength of their cause , and the pretence of their armes ; and all the greatest honour they could doe to their Priesthood they fairly derived from a divine precept , that the Prince and the People and the Elders and the Synagogue should goe in and out , that is , should commence and finish their greatest and most solemn actions at the voice and command of the Priest ; And therefore King Agrippa did himself honour in his Epistle to Cajus Caesar. * I had Kings that were my ancestors , and some of them were high Priests , which dignity they esteemed higher then their Royall purple , beleeving that Priesthood to be greater then the kingdome , as God is greater then men . And this great estimate of the Ministers of their religion derived it selfe from the Jewes unto their enemies the Philistines that dwelt upon their skirts ; insomuch that in the hill of God where there was a garrison of the Philistines , there was also a colledge of Prophets newly instituted by Samuel ( from whom because he was their founder , S. Peter reckoned the ordinary descent from Samuel ) unharmed and undisturbed though they were enemies to the nation ; and when David fled from Saul , he came to Naioth where the Prophets dwelt , and thought to take sanctuary there , knowing it was a priviledged place ; there it was where Sauls messengers , and Saul himselfe turned Prophets , that they might estimate the place and preserve its priviledge , himselfe becoming one of their society . For this was observed amongst all nations that besides the band of humanity forbidding souldiers to touch unarmed people , as by all religions and all nations Priests ever were , the very sacrednesse of their persons should exempt them from violence , and the chances or insolencies of warre . Thus the Cretians did to their Priests and to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the persons who were appointed for buriall of the dead , the same with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or fossarii in the Primitive Church , no souldiers durst touch them ; they had the priviledge of religion , the immunity of Priests , Hos quae necabant non erant purae manus ; and therefore it grew up into a proverb , when they intended to expresse a most destructive and unnaturall warre , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , not so much as the Priests that carried fire before the army did escape ; the same with that in Homer in the case of messengers , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not so much as a messenger returned into the City : These were sacred and therefore exempt persons , and so were the Elei among the Grecians as being sacred to Jupiter , safe from the hostility of a professed enemy ; the same which was observed amongst the Romans , Quis homo est tantâ confidentiâ Qui sacerdotem audeat violare ! At magno cum malo suo fecit Herculè . But this is but one instance of advantage . The Gentiles having once separated their Priests , and affixed them to the ministeries of religion , thought nothing great enough either to expresse the dignity of their imployment , or good enough to doe honour to their persons , and it is largely discoursed of by Cicero , in the case of the Roman Augures , Maximum autem & praestantissimum in Rep. jus est Augurum , cum est authoritati conjunctum ; neque verò hoc quia sum ipse Augur ita sentio , sed quia sio existimare nos necesse est . Quid enim majus est , si de jure quaerimus , quàm posse à summis imperiis & summis potestatibus comitia tollere ? concilia vel instituta dimittere , vel habita rescindere ? Quid magnificentius quàm posse decernere ut magistratu se abdicent consules ? quid religiosius quàm cum populo , cum plebe agendi jus aut dare aut non dare ? It was a vast power these men had , to be in proportion to their greatest honour : they had power of bidding and dissolving publick meetings , of indicting solemnities of religion ; just as the Christian Bishops had in the beginning of Christianity ; they commanded publick fasts , at their indiction onely they were celebrated ; Benè autem quod & Episcopi universae plebi mandare jejunia assolent ; non dico industriâ stipium conferendarum , ut vestrae capturae est , sed interdum , & aliquâ sollicitudinis Ecclestasticae causâ . The Bishops also called publick conventions Ecclesiasticall . Aguntur praecepta per Graecias illas certis in locis concilia ex universis Ecclesiis , per quae et altior a quaeque in commune tractantur & ipsarepraesentatio totius nominis Christiani magna veneratione celebratur . It was so in all religions ; the Antistites , the presidents of rites and guides of consciences had great immissions and influences into the republick , and communities of men , and they verified the saying of Tacitus , Deûm munere summum pontisicem , etiam summum hominem esse , non aemulatione , non odio , aut privatis affectionibus obnoxium . The chief Priest was ever the chief man , and free from the envies , and scornes , and troubles of popular peevishnesse and contumacy ; and that I may use the expression of Tacitus , utque glisceret dignatio sacerdotum , ( for all the great traverses of the republick were in their disposing ) atque ipsis promptior animus foret ad capessendas ceremonias , the very lower institutions of their religion were set up with the markes of speciall laws and priviledges ; insomuch that the seat of the Empresse in the Theatre was among the Vestall virgins . But the highest had all that could be heaped upon them , till their honours were as sublimed as their functions . a Amongst the Ethiopians the Priests gave laws to their Princes , and they used their power sometimes to the ruine of their Kings , till they were justly removed ; b Among the Egyptians the Priests were their Judges ; so they were in Athens ; for the Areopagites were Priests ; and the Druids among the Gaules were Judges of murder , of titles of land , of bounds , and inheritances , magno apud eos sunt honore , nam fere de omnibus controversiis publicis privatisque constituunt ; and for the Magi of Persia and India , Strabo reports 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they conversed with Kings , meaning they were their counsellours and guides of their consciences . And Herodotus in Eustathius tells us of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the divine order of Prophets or Priests in Delphos , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they did eate of the publick provisions together with Kings . By these honours they gave testimony of their religion , not onely separating certain persons for the service of their Temples , but also separating their condition from the impurities and the contempt of the world ; as knowing , that they who were to converse with their Gods , were to be elevated from the common condition of men and vulgar miseries . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . As soon as I was made a Priest of Idaean Jupiter , all my garments were white , and I declined to converse with mortals . Novae sortis oportet illum esse qui jubente Deo canat , said Seneca . He had need be of a distinct and separate condition that sings to the honour and at the command of God : thus it was among the Jews and Heathens . SECT . II. NOw if Christian Religion should doe otherwise then all the world hath done , either it must be because the rites of Christianity are of no mystery and secret dispensation , but common actions of an ordinary addresse , and cheap devotion , or else because we under value all religion ; that is , because indeed we have nothing of it ; The first is dishonorable to Christianity , and false as its greatest enemy ; The second , is shame to us ; and both so unreasonable and unnaturall , that if we separate not certain persons for the ministeries of Christianity , we must confesse we have the worst religion , or that we are the worst of men . But let us consider it upon its proper grounds . When Christ had chosen to himselfe twelve Apostles , and was drawing now to the last scene of his life , he furnished them with commissions and abilities to constitute and erect a Church , and to transmit such powers as were apt for its continuation and perpetuity . And therefore to the Apostles in the capacity of Church officers , he made a promise That he would be with them untill the end of the world ; they might presonally be with him untill the end of the world , but he could not be here with them , who after a short course run , were to goe hence , and be no more seen : and therefore for the verification of the promise it is necessary that since the promise was made for the benefit of the Church , and to them as the ministers of the benefit , so long as the benefit was to be dispensed , so long they were to be succeeded to , and therefore assisted by the Holy Jesus according to that glorious promise : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Not onely to the Apostles , but absolutely and indefinitely to all Christs disciples , their successors , he promised to abide for ever , even to the consummation of the world , to the whole succession of the Clergy : so Theophylact upon this place . And if we consider what were the power and graces Jesus committed to the dispensation of the Apostles , such as were not temporary , but lasting , successive , and perpetuall , we must also conclude the ministery to be perpetuall . I instance first in the power of binding and loosing remitting and retaining sins , which Christ gave them together with his breathing on them the holy Spirit , and a legation , and a speciall commission , as appears in S. John ; which power , what sense soever it admits of , could not expire with the persons of the Apostles , unlesse the succeeding ages of the Church had no discipline , or government , no scandals to be removed , no weak persons offended , no corrupt members to be cut off , no hereticks rejected , no sins , or no pardon ; and that were a more heresie , then that of the Novatians , for they onely denyed this ministery in some cases ; not in all : saying , Priestly absolution was not fit to be dispensed to them , who in time of persecution had sacrificed to idols . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , To these ] onely , pardon is to be dispensed without the ministery of the Priest , To these ] who were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , sacrificers , and mingled the table of the Lord with the table of devils . Against other sinners they were not so severe . But however , so long as that distinction remaines , of sinnes unto death , and sinnes not unto death ; there are a certain sort of sins which are remediable , and cognoscible , and judicable , and a power was dispensed to a distinct sort of persons , to remit or retain those sins ; which therefore must remain with the Apostles for ever , that is , with their persons first , and then with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with their successors ; because the Church needs it for ever ; and there was nothing in the power that by relating to a present and temporary occasion did insinuate its short life and speedy expiration . In execution of this power and pursuance of this commission , for which the power was given ; the Apostles went forth , and all they upon whom this signature passed , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , executed this power in appropriation and distinct ministery : it was the sword of their proper ministery ; and S. Paul does almost exhibite his commission and reades the words when he puts it in execution , and does highly verifie the parts and the consequence of this argument ; God hath reconciled us to himself by Christ Jesus , and hath given to us the ministery of reconciliation ; and it followes , now then we are Embassadours for Christ. The ministery of reconciliation , is an appropriate ministery , It is committed to us ; we are Embassadours , it is appropriate by virtue of Christs mission , and legation . He hath given to us , he hath made and deputed certain Embassadours whom he hath sent upon the message , and ministery of reconcilement ; which is a plain exposition of the words of his commission , before recorded ; John 20. 21. And that this also descended lower we have the testimony of S. James , who advises the sick person to send for the Elders of the Church , that they may pray over him , that they may anoint him , that in that society there may be consession of sins by the clinick or sick person , and that after these preparatives , and in this ministery , his sins may be forgiven him . Now that this power fell into succession , this instance proves ; for the Elders were such who had not the commission immediately from Christ , but were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they were fathers of the people , but sons of the Apostles , and therefore it is certain the power was not personall , and meerly Apostolicall , but derived upon others by such a communication , as gives evidence the power was to be succeeded in ; And when went it out ? when the anointing and miraculous healing ceased ? There is no reason for that . For forgivenesse of sins was not a thing visible , and therefore could not be of the nature of miracles to confirme the faith and christianity first , and after its work was done , return to God that gave it ; neither could it be onely of present use to the Church , but as eternall and lasting as sin is : and therefore there could be nothing in the nature of the thing to make it so much as suspicious , it was presently to expire . To which also I adde this consideration , that the Holy Ghost which was to enable the Apostles in the precise office Apostolicall , as it was an office extraordinary , circumstantionate , definite , and to expire , all that , was promised should descend upon them after Christs ascension , and was verified in Pentecost ; for to that purpose to bring all things to their minde , all of Christs doctrine and all that was necessary of his life and miracles , and a power from above to enable them to speake boldly and learnedly , and with tongues , all that , besides the other parts of ordinary power , was given them ten days after the Ascension . And therefore the breathing the holy Ghost upon the Apostles in the octaves of the resurrection , and this mission with such a power , was their ordinary mission , a sending them as ordinary Pastors , and Curates of souls , with a power to govern , ( binding and loosing can mean no lesse : and they were the words of the promise ) with a power to minister reconciliation : ( for so S. Paul expounds remitting and retaining ) which two were the great hinges of the Gospell , the one to invite and collect a Church , the other to govern it , the one to dispense the greatest blessing in the world , the other to keep them in capacities of enjoying it . For since the holy Ghost was now actually given to these purposes here expressed , and yet in order to all their extraordinaries and temporary needs was promised to descend after this , there is no collection from hence more reasonable , then to conclude all this to be part of their commission of ordinary Apostleship , to which the ministers of religion were in all ages to succeed . In attestation of all which , who please may see the united testimony of a S. Cyrill , b S. Chrysostome , c S. Ambrose , d S. Gregory , and the e Author of the questions of the old and new Testament , who unlesse by their calling shall rather be called persons interest , then by reason of their famous piety and integrity shall be accepted as competent , are a very credible , and fair representment of this truth , and that it was a doctrine of Christianity , that Christ gave this power to the Apostles for themselves , and their successors for ever , and that therefore as Christ in the first donation , so also some Churches in the tradition of that power used the same forme of words intending the collation of the same power and separating persons for the work of that ministery . I end this with the counsell S. Augustine gives to all publick penitents , Veniant ad Antistites per quos illis in Ecclesia claves ministrantur , & a praepositis sacrorum accipiant satisfactionis suae modum , let them come to the Presidents of religion by whom the Keys are ministred , and from the governours of holy things let them receive those injunctions which shall exercise and signifie their repentance . SECT . III. THe second power I instance in is preaching the Gospel : for which work he not onely at first designed Apostles , but others also were appointed for the same work forever , to all generations of the Church . This Commission was signed immediately before Christs ascension ; All power is given to me in heaven and in earth , Goe yee therefore and teach all nations , teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you , and loe I am with you always even unto the end of the world . First , Christ declared his own commission , [ all power is given him into his hand ] he was now made King of all the creatures , and Prince of the Catholick Church ; and therefore as it concerned his care and providence to look to his cure , and flock , so he had power to make deputations accordingly [ Goe yee therefore , ] implying that the sending them to this purupose was an issue of hispower , either because the authorizing certain persons was an act of power , or else because the making them doctors of the Church and teachers of the Nations , was a placing them in an eminency above their scholars ; and converts , and so also was an emanation of that power which derived upon Christ from his Father , from him descended upon the Apostles . And the wiser persons of the world have always understood , that a power of teaching was a presidency and authority ; for sinco all dominion is naturally founded in the understanding ; although civill government accidentally , and by inevitable publick necessity relies upon other titles , yet where the greatest understanding and power of teaching is , there is a naturall preheminence and superiority eatenus , that is according to the proportion of the excellency ; and therefore in the instance of S Paul we are taught the style of the court , and Disciples sit at the feet of their Masters , as he did at the feet of his Tutor Gamaliel , which implies duty , submission , and subordination ; and indeed it is the highest of any kinde , not onely because it is founded upon nature , but because it is a submission of the most imperious faculty we have , even of that faculty which when we are removed from our Tutors , is submitted to none but God ; for no man hath power over the understanding faculty ; and therefore so long as we are under Tutors and instructors , we give to them that duty , in the succession of which claim , none can succeed but God himself , because none else can satisfie the understanding but he . Now then because the Apostles were created Doctors of all the world , hoc ipso they had power given them over the understandings of their disciples , and they were therefore fitted with an infallible spirit , and grew to be so authentick that their determination was the last addresse of all inquiries in questions of Christianity : and although they were not absolute Lords of their faith and understandings , as their Lord was , yet they had , under God , a supreme care , and presidency , to order , to guide , to instruct , and to satisfie their understandings ; and those whom they sent out upon the same errand , according to the proportion and excellency of their spirit , had also a degree of superiority and eminency ; and therefore they who were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Labourers in the word and doctrine , were also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Presbyters that were Presidents and Rulers of the Church ; and this eminency is for ever to be retained according as the unskilfulnesse of the Disciple retains him in the forme of Catechumens , or as the excellency of the instructor still keeps the distance , or else , as the office of teaching being orderly and regularly assigned makes a legall , politicall , and positive authority , to which all those persons are for orders sake to submit , who possibly in respect of their personall abilities might be exempt from that authority . Upon this ground it is , that learning amongst wise persons is esteemed a title of nobility and secular eminency : Ego enim quid aliud munificentiae adhibere potui , ut studia , ut sic dixerim , in umbr a educata è quibus claritudo venit , said Seneca to Nero. And Aristotle and A. Gellius affirme that not onely excellency of extraction , or great fortunes , but learning also makes noble ; circumundique sedentibus multis doctrinâ , aut genere , aut fortunâ nobilibus viris : and therefore the Lawyers say , that if a legacy be given pauperi nobili , the executors , if they please , may give it to a Doctor . I onely make this use of it , that they who are by publick designation appointed to teach , are also appointed in some sense to governe them : and if learning it self be a faire title to secular opinion , and advantages of honour , then they who are professors of learning , and appointed to be publick teachers , are also set above their disciples as farre as the chair is above the Area or floor , that is , in that very relation of teachers and scholars : and therefore among the heathen the Priests who were to answer de mysteriis , sometimes bore a scepter . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Upon which verse of Homer Eustathius observes , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The scepter was not onely an ensigne of a King , but of a Judge and of a Prophet ; it signified a power of answering in judgment , and wise sentences . This discourse was occasioned by our blessed Saviours illative ; All power is given me , goe yee therefore and teach ; and it concludes , that the authority of Preaching is more then the faculty , that it includes power and presidency , that therefore a separation of persons is ex abundanti inferred , unlesse order and authority be also casuall , and that all men also may be Governours as well as Preachers . Now that here was a plain separation of some persons for this ministery , I shall not need to prove by any other argument besides the words of the Commission ; save onely that this may be added , that here was more necessary , then a commission ; great abilities , speciall assistances , extraordinary and divine knowledge , and understanding the mysteries of the kingdome ; so that these abilities were separations enough of the persons , and designation of the officers ; But this may possibly become the difficulty of the question ; For , when the Apostles had filled the world with the Sermons of the Gospel , and that the holy Ghost descended in a plentifull manner , then was the prophecy of Joel fulfilled , Old men dreamed dreams , and young men saw visions , and sons and daughters did prophecy ; now the case was altered ; and the disciples themselves start up doctors , and women prayed and prophecied , and Priscilla sate in the chaire with her husband Aquila , and Apollos sat at their feet : and now all was common again ; and therefore although the commission went out first to the Apostles , yet when by miracle God dispensed great gifts to the Laity , and to women , he gave probation that he intended that all should prophecy and preach , lest those gifts should be to no purpose . This must be considered . 1. These gifts were miraculous verifications of the great promise of the Father , of sending the holy Ghost , and that all persons were capable of that blessing in their severall proportions , and that Christianity did descend from God were ex abundanti proved by those extraregular dispensations : so that here is purpose enough signified although they be not used to inferre an indistinction of officers in this ministery . 2. These gifts were given extraregularly ; but yet with some difference of persons ; for all did not prophecy , nor all interpret , nor all speak with tongues ; they were but a few that did all this ; we finde but the daughters of one man onely , and Priscilla among all the nations of the Jews that ever did prophecy , of the women ; and of Laymen I remember not one but Aquila and Agabus ; and these will be but too straight an argument to blend a whole order of men in a popular and vulgar indiscrimination . 3. These extraordinary gifts were no authority to those who had them , and no other commission , to speake in publick . And therefore S. Paul forbids the women to speak in the Church , and yet it was not denyed but some of them might have the spirit of prophecy . Speaking in the Church was part of an ordinary power , to which not onely ability but authority also and commission are required : That was clearly one separation ; women were not capable of a clericall imployment , no not so much as of this ministery of preaching . And by this we may take speedier account concerning Deaconesses in the Primitive Church ; de Diaconissâ ego Bartholomaus dispono ; O Episcope , impones ei manus praesentibus Presbyteris , Diaconis & Diaconissis , & dices , Respice super hanc famulam tuam ; so it is in the constitutions Apostolicall under the name of S. Clement : By which it should seem they were ordained for some Ecclesiasticall ministery ; which is also more credible by those words of Tertullian , Quantae igitur & quae in Ecclesiis ordinari solent , quae Deo nubere maluerunt ? And Sozomen tells of Olympias , Hanc enim cum genere esset nobilissimo , quamvis juvenculam ex quo vidua facta erat , quia ex praescripto Ecclesiae egregiè philosophatur , in Ministram Nectarius ordinat : and such a one it was , whom S. Basil called impollutam sacerdotem ; whatsoever these Deaconesses could be , they could not speake in publick unlesse they did prevaricate the Apostolicall rule , given to the Corinthian and Ephesian Churches : And therefore though Olympias was an excellent person , yet she was no preacher ; she was a Philosopher , not in her discourse , but in her manner of living and beleeving : Philosophata ex ecclesiae praescripto , and that could not be by preaching : but these Deaconesses after the Apostolicall age , were the same with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the good women , that did domestick offices and minister to the temporall necessity of the Churches in the days of the Apostles ; Such a one was Phoebe of Cenchrea ; but they were not admitted to any holy or spirituall office : so we have certain testimony from antiquity , whence the objection comes . For so the Nicene councell expresly : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 &c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Deaconesses are to be reckoned in the Laity , because they have no imposition of hands , viz. for any spirituall office . For they had imposition of hands in some places to temporall administrations about the Church , and a solemn benediction , but nothing of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; the same were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Presbyteresses who were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or the governesses of women , in order to manners and religion ; but these , though ( as Tertullian affirmes , and Zonaras and Balsamo confesse ) they were solemnly ordained and set over the women in such offices , yet pretended to nothing of the clericall power or the right of speaking in publick . So Epiphanius : There is an order of deaconesses in the Church , but not to medle , or to attempt any of the holy offices . And in this sense it was that S. Ambrose reckons it amongst the heresies of the Cataphrygians , that they ordained their Deaconesses , viz. to spirituall ministeries ; but those women that desire to be meddling are not moved with such discourses ; they care for none of all these things ; therefore I remit them to the precept of the Apostle . But I suffer not a woman to teach but to be in silence . And as for the men who had gifts extraordinary of the Spirit , although they were permitted at first in the Corinthian Church ( before there was a Bishop , or a fixed colledge of Clergy ) to utter the inspired dictates of the Spirit , yet whether they were Lay or Clergy is not there expressed ; and it is more agreeable to the usuall dispensation that the prophets of ordinary ministery , though now extraordinarily assisted should prophecy in publick ; but however , when these extraordinaries did cease , if they were common persons , they had no pretence to invade the Chaire ( nor that we finde ever did : ) for an ordinary ability to speake was never any warrant to disturb an order ; unlesse they can say the words of S. Paul [ Whereunto I am ordained a Preacher , ] they might not invade the office . To be able to performe an office , though it may be a fair disposition to make the person capable to receive it orderly , yet it does not actually invest him ; every wise man is not a Counsellour of State , nor every good Lawyer a Judge . And I doubt not but in the Jewish religion there were many persons as able to pray as their Priests , who yet were wiser then to refuse the Priests advocation apud Deum and reciting offices in behalfe of the people : Orabit pro eo sacerdos was the order of Gods appointing , though himself were a devout person and of an excellent spirit . And it had need be something extraordinary that must warrant an ordinary person to rise higher then his own evennesse ; and ability or skill is but a possibility , and must be reduced to act by something that transmits authority , or does establish order , or distinguish persons , and separate professions . And it is very remarkable that when Judas had miscarried and lost his Apostolate , it was said , that it was necessary for some body to be chosen to be a witnesse of Christs resurrection . Two were named , of ability sufficient , but that was not all : they must choose one , to make up the number of the twelve , a distinct separate person ; which shews that it was not onely a work ( for that , any of them might have done ) but an office of ordinary ministery . The ability of doing which work although all they that lived with Jesus , might either have had , or received at Pentecost , yet the authority and grace was more : the first they had upon experience , but this onely by divine election : which is a demonstration that every person that can doe offices clericall is not permitted to doe them , and that besides the knowledge and naturall or artificiall abilities , a divine qualification is necessary . And therefore God complains by the Prophet , I have not sent them , and yet they run ; and the Apostle leaves it as an established rule , How shall they preach except they be sent ? which two places , I shall grant to be meant concerning a distinct and a new message ; Prophets must not offer any doctrine to the people or pretend a doctrine for which they had not a commission from God. But which way soever they be expounded , they will conclude right in this particular . For if they signifie an ordinary mission , then there is an ordinary mission of preachers which no man must usurpe unlesse he can prove his title certainly and clearly , derivative from God ; which when any man of the Laity can doe , we must give him the right hand of fellowship , and wish him good speed . But if these words signifie an extraordinary case , and that no message must be pretended by Prophets but what they have commission for , then must not ordinary persons pretend an extraordinary mission to an ordinary purpose : for besides , that God does never doe things unreasonably , nor will endure that order be interrupted to no purpose , he will never give an extraordinary Commission unlesse it be to a proportionable end ; whosoever pretends to a license of preaching by reason of an extraordinary calling , must look that he be furnished with an extraordinary message , lest his Commission be ridiculous ; and when he comes he must be sure to shew his authority by an argument proportionable ; that is , by such a probation without which no wise man can reasonably beleeve him ; which cannot be lesse then miraculous and divine . In all other cases he comes under the curse of the non missi those whom God sent not , they goe on their own errand , and must pay themselves their wages . But besides that , the Apostles were therefore to have an immediate mission , because they were to receive new instructions : these instructions were such as were by an ordinary , and yet by a distinct ministery to be conveyed for ever after , and therefore did design an ordinary , successive , and lasting power and authority . Nay our blessed Lord went one step further in this provision , even to remark the very first successors and partakers of this power , to be taken into the lot of this ministery ; and they were the seventy two whom Christ had sent ( as probationers of their future preaching ) upon a short errand into the Cities of Judah : But by this assignation of more persons then those to whom he gave immediate commission , he did declare that the office of preaching was to be dispensed by a separate and peculiar sort of men , distinct from the people , and yet by others then those who had the commission extraordinary ; that is , by such who were to be called to it by an ordinary vocation . As Christ constituted the office and named the persons , both extraordinary and ordinary , present and successive ; so he provided gifts for them too ; that the whole dispensation might be his and might be apparent . And therefore Christ when he ascended up on high gave gifts to men , to this very purpose ; and these gifts comming from the same Spirit made separation of distinct ministeries under the same Lord. So S. Paul testifies expresly . Now there are diversities of gifts , but the same spirit , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 [ there are different administrations ] differencies of ministeries ; it is the proper word for Church offices ; the ministery , is distinguished by the gift ; It is not a gift for the ministery , but the ministery it selfe is the gift ▪ and distinguished accordingly . An extraordinary ministery needs an extraordinary and a miraculous gift ; that is a miraculous calling and vocation and designation by the holy Ghost ; but an ordinary gift cannot sublime an ordinary person to a supernaturall imployment ; and from this discourse of the differing gifts of the Spirit , S. Paul without any further artifice , concludes that the Spirit intended a distinction of Church officers for the work of the ministery ; for the conclusion of the discourse is ; that God hath set some in the Church , first Apostles , secondarily Prophets , thirdly Teachers ; and lest all Gods people should usurpe these offices , which God by his Spirit hath made separate and distinguished , he addes , Are all Apostles ? are all Prophets ? are all Teachers ? If so , then were all the body one member , quite contrary to nature and to Gods Oeconomy . And that this designation of distinct Church officers is for ever , S. Paul also affirmes as expresly as this question shall need ; He gave some Apostles , some Prophets , and some Evangelists , and some Pastors and Teachers , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for the work of the ministery , till we all arrive at the unity of faith , which as soon as it shall happen , then commeth the end . Till the end be , the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the work of the Ministery must goe forwards , and is incumbent upon the Pastors and Teachers ; this is their work , and they are the ministers , whom the holy Ghost designed . 1. For , I consider that either to preach requires but an ordinary or an extraordinary ability ; if it requires an extraordinary , they who are illiterate and unlearned persons are the unfittest men in the world for it ; if an ordinary sufficiency will discharge it , why cannot they suppose the clergy of a competency , and strength sufficient to doe that which an ordinary understanding , and faculties can performe ? what need they entermeddle with that , to which no extraordinary assistance is required ? or else why do they set their shoulder to such a work , with which no strength but extraordinary , is commensurate ? in the first case it is needlesse ; in the second it is uselesse ; in both vain and impertinent . For either no man needs their help , or if they did , they are very unable to help ; I am sure they are , if they be unlearned persons ; and if they be learned , they well enough know that to teach the people is not a power of speaking , but is also an act of jurisdiction and authority , and in which , order is at least concerned in an eminent degree : Learned men are not so forward ; and those are most confident who have least reason . 2. Although as Homilies to the people are now used according to the smallest rate , many men more preach then should , yet besides that to preach prudently , gravely , piously and with truth , requires more abilities then are discernible by the people , such as make even a plain work reasonable to wise men , and usefull to their hearers , and acceptable to God ; besides this , I say , the office of teaching is of larger extent then making homilies or speaking prettily enough to please the common and undiscerning auditors . They that are appointed to teach the people must respondere de jure , give account of their faith in defiance of the numerous armies of Hereticks ; they must watch for their flock , and use excellent arts to arme them against all their weaknesses from within , and hostilities from without ; they must streng then the weak , confirme the strong , compose the scrupulous , satisfie the doubtfull , and be ready to answer cases of conscience ; and I beleeve there are not so little as 5000 cases already started up among the Casuists , and for ought I know , there may be 5000 times 5000. And there are some cases of conscience that concern Kings and kingdomes in the highest mysteriousnesse , both of State and Religion , and they also belong to Pastors for the interests of Religion , and Teachers to determine or advise in . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The preachers were always messengers between God and men , being Mediators by their sacrifices , and they were interested in their councells , and greater causes ; And if religion can have influences into councells of Princes and publick interest of kingdomes , and that there can be any difficulty , latent senses , intricacy of question , or mysteriousnesse in Divinity , it will be found that there are other parts of the Preachers office , besides making homilies , and that when so great skill is required it will not be easie to make pretenses to invade it ; unlesse a man cannot be an excellent Lawyer without twenty years skill and practise , besides excellency of naturall indowments , and yet can be an excellent Teacher and guide in all cases of conscience , meerly with opening his mouth , and rubbing his forehead hard . But God hath taken order that those whom he hath appointed teachers of the people , should make it the work and businesse of their lives , that they should diligently attend to reading , to exhortation , and to doctrine , that they may watch over their flock , over whom the holy Ghost hath made them overseers . The inconvenience that this discourse is like to meet withall is , that it concerns those men who are sure not to understand it : for they that have not the wisdome of Prophets and wise men , cannot easily be brought to know the degrees of distance between the others wisdome and their own ignorance . To know that there is great learning beyond us is a great part of learning ; but they that have the confidence in the midst of their deepest ignorance to teach others , want both modesty and understanding too , either to perceive or to confesse their own wants , they never kissed the lips of the wise , and therefore thinke all the world breaths a breath as fenny and moorish as themselves . 3. Besides the consideration of the ability that a separate number of men should be the teachers , and it be not permitted promiscuously to every person of a confident language and bold fancy , is highly necessary in the point of prudence and duty too . Of Prudence , because there can be no security against all the evill doctrines of the world in a promiscuous unchosen company of Preachers . For if he be allowed the pretense of an extraordinary , he shall belie the holy Spirit , to cousen you , when he hath a minde to it : If you allow him nothing but an ordinary spirit , that is , abilities of art and nature , there cannot in such discourses be any compensation for the disorder , or the danger , or the schismes , and innumerable Churches , when one head and two members shall make a distinct body , and all shall pretend to Christ , without any other common term of union . And this which is disorder in the thing , is also dishonourable to this part of religion ; and the divine messages shall be conveyed to the people by common Curriers or rather messengers by chance , and as they goe by ; whereas God sent at first Embassadours extraordinary , and then left his Leigers in his Church for ever . But there is also a duty too to be secured ; for they that have the guiding of souls must remember that they must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , must render an account ; and that cannot be done with joy , when it shall be indifferent to any man to superseminate what he please : and ( by the way ) I suppose , they who are apt to enter into the Chaire of Doctors and Teachers , would be unwilling to be charged with a cure of souls ; If they knew what that means , they would article more strictly before they would stand charged with it ; and yet it is harder to say that there is no such thing as the cure of souls ; that Christ left his flock to wander and to guide themselves , or to finde shepheards at the charges of accident and chance . Christ hath made a better provision , and after he had with the greatest earnestnesse committed to S. Peter the care of feeding his lambes and sheep , S. Peter did it carefully , and thought it part of the same duty to provide other shepheards who should also feed the flocks by a continuall provision and attendance ; The Presbyters which are among you , I who also am a Presbyter exhort , feed the flock of God which is among you , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , doing the office of Bishops over them , taking supravision or oversight of them willingly and of a ready minde . The Presbyters and Bishops , they are to feed the flock , there was a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a flock to be distinguished from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the shepheards , the elders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the flock among you , distinguished by a regular office of teaching and a relation of shepheards and sheep . But this discourse would be unnecessarily long unlesse I should omit many arguments , and contract the rest . I onely shall desire it be considered , concerning the purpose of that part of divine providence , in giving the Christian Church commandements concerning provisions to be made for the preachers ; Let the Elders that rule well have a double honour , an elder brothers portion at least , both of honour and maintenance , especially , if they labour in the word and doctrine ; and the reason is taken out of Moses Law , but derived from the naturall , Bovi trituranti non ligabis os . For God hath ordained that those that labour in the Gospell should live of the Gospell . This argument will force us to distinguish persons , or else our purses will ; and if all will have a right to preach the Gospell that thinke themselves able , then also they have a right to be maintained too . I shall adde no more , 1 God hath designed persons to teach the people , 2 charged them with the cure of souls , 3 given them commission to goe into all the world , 4 given them gifts accordingly , 5 charged the people to attend and to obey , 6 hath provided them maintenance and support , and 7 separated them to reading , to exhortation , and to doctrine from the affaires of this world , that they may attend to these , by the care of the whole man. If any man in charity or duty will doe any ghostly offices to his erring or weak brother , he may have a reward of charity : for in this sense it is that Tertullian says , that in remote and barbarous countreys the Laity doe Sacerdotio aliquatenus fungi . But if he invades the publick chair he may meet with the curse of Corah , if he intends maliciously ; or if he have fairer , but mistaken purposes , the gentler sentence passed upon Uzzah may be the worst of his evill portion . SECT . IV. I Instance next in the case of Baptisme , which indeed hath some difficulty and prejudice passed upon it , and although it be put in the same Commission , intrusted to the same persons , be a sacred ministery , a Sacrament and a mysterious rite : whose very Sacramentall and separate nature , requires the solemnity of a distinct order of persons for its ministration , yet if the Laity may be admitted to the dispensation of so sacred and solemn rites , there is nothing in the calling of the Clergy that can distinguish them from the rest of Gods people , but they shall be holy enough , to dispense holy offices without the charges of paying honour and maintenance to others to doe what they can doe themselves . In opposition to which , I first consider , that the ordinary minister of baptisme is a person consecrated ; the Apostles and their successors in the office Apostolicall , and all those that partake of that power ; and it needs no other proof , but the plain production of the Commission ; they who are teachers by ordinary power , and authority , they also had command to baptize all nations : and baptisme being the solemn rite of initiating disciples , and making the first publick profession of the institution , it is in reason and analogy of the mystery to be ministred by those who were appointed to collect the Church , and make Disciples . It is as plain and decretory a Commission , as any other mysteriousnesse of Christianity ; and hath been accepted so for ever as the doctrine of Christianity , as may appear in a Ignatius , b Tertullian , c S. Gelasius , d S. Epiphanius , and e S. Hierom ; who affirme in variety of senses , that Bishops , Priests and Deacons onely are to baptize ; some by ordinary right , some by deputation ; of which I shall afterwards give account ; But all the Jius ordinarium they intend to fixe upon the Clergy according to divine institution and commandement . So that in case lay-persons might baptize 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , upon urgent necessity , yet this cannot upon just pretence invade the ordinary ministery , because God hath dispensed the affairs of his Church , so that cases of necessity doe not often occurre to the prejudice and dissolution of publick order , and ministeries ; and if permissions being made to supply necessities , be brought further then the case of exception gives leave , the permission is turned into a crime , and does greater violence to the rule , by how much it was fortified by that very exception , as to other cases not excepted . And although in case of extreme necessity every man may preach the Gospell , as to dying Heathens , or unbeleeving persons , yet if they do this without such , or the like necessity , what at first was charity , in the other case is schisme and pride , the two greatest enemies to charity in the world . But now for the thing it self , whether indeed any case of necessity can transmit to lay persons a right of baptizing , it must be distinctly considered . Some say it does . For Ananias baptized Paul , who yet ( as it is said ) was not in holy orders ; and that the 3000 Converts at the first Sermon of S. Peter were all baptized by the Apostles , is not easily credible , it being too numerous a body for so few persons to baptize ; and when Peter had preached to Cornelius and his family , he caused the brethren that came along with him to baptize them ; and whether hands had been imposed on them or no , is not certain : And in pursuance of the instance of Ananias , and the other probabilities the Doctors of the Church have declared their opinions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , In cases of necessity , a lay person may baptize . So Tertullian in his book of baptisme , Alioqui & Laicis jus est baptizandi . Quod enim ex aequo accipitur , ex aequo dari potest . The reason is also urged by S. Hierome to the same purpose , onely requiring that the baptizer be a Christian , supposing whatsoever they have received they may also give ; but because the reason concludes not , because ( as themselves beleeve ) a Presbyter cannot collate his Presbyterate , it must therefore rest onely upon their bare authority ; if it shall be thought strong enough to bear the weight of the contrary reasons . And the Fathers in the councell of Eliberis determined , Peregrè navigantes , aut si ecclesia in proximo non fuerit , posse fidelem , qui lavacrum suum integrum habet , nec sit bigamus , baptizare in necessitate infirmitatis positum Catechumenum , it a ut si supervixerit , ad Episcopum eum producat , ut per manus impositionem proficere possit . The Synod held at Alexandria under Alexander their Bishop approved the baptisme of the children by Athanasius , being but a boy ; and the Nicene Fathers ratifying the baptisme made by hereticks ( amongst whom they could not but know in some cases , there was no true Priesthood or legitimate ordination ) must by necessary consequence suppose baptisme to be dispensed effectually by lay-persons . And S. Hierome is plain . Baptizare si necessitas cogat , scimus etiam licere Laicis ; the same almost with the Canon of the fourth Councell of Carthage , Mulier baptizare non praesumat nisi necessitate cogente : though , by the way , these words of [ cogente necessitate ] are not in the Canon , but thrust in by Gratian and Peter Lombard . And of the same opinion is S. Ambrose , or he who under his name wrote the Commentaries upon the fourth to the Ephesians , a P. Gelasius , b S. Augustine and c Isidor , & generally all the Scholars after their Master . But against this doctrine were all the African Bishops for about 150 years ; who therefore rebaptized persons returning from hereticall conventicles ; Because those hereticall Bishops being deposed and reduced into Lay communion , could not therefore collate baptisme , for their want of holy Orders : as appears in S. Basils canonicall Epistle to Amphilochius , where he relates their reason , and refutes it not . And however Firmilian and S. Cyprian might be deceived in the thinking heretickes , quite lost their orders ; yet in this they were untouched , that although their supposition was questionable , yet their superstructure was medled with , viz. that if they had been Lay persons , their baptizations were null and invalid . I confesse the opinion hath been very generally taken up in these last ages of the Church , almost with a Nemine contradicente ; the first ages had more variety of opinion : and I think it may yet be considered anew upon the old stock . For since absolutely , all the Church affixes the ordinary ministery of baptism to the Clergy ; if others doe baptize , doe they sin , or doe they not sin ? That it is no sinne , is expresly affirmed in the 16 Canon of Nicephorus of C. P. If the own Father baptizes the child , or any other Christian man , it is no sinne . * S. Augustine is almost of another minde , & si Laicus necessitate compulsus baptismum dederit , nescio an pie quisquam dixerit , Baptismum esse repetendum : Nullâ enim cogente necessitate si fiat , alieni muner is usurpatio est ; si autem necessitas urgeat , aut nullum aut veniale delictum est . And of this minde are all they who by frequent using of that saying have made it almost proverbiall , Factum valet , fieri non debet . If they doe not sinne , then women & Lay men have as much right from Christ to baptize as Deacons or Presbyters ; then they may upon the same stock and right doe it as Deacons doe : for if a Bishop was present it was not lawfull for Deacons , as is expresly affirmed by S. Ignatius in his Epistle to Heron the Deacon ; and S. Epiphanius with the same words denies a sus baptizandi , to women and to Deacons ; and both of them affirme it to be proper to Bishops . Further yet , Tertullian and S. Hierom deny a power to Presbyters to doe it without Episcopall dispensation . Now if Presbyters and Deacons have this power onely by leave and in certain cases , then it is no more then women have ; onely that they are fitter persons to be intrusted with the deputation ; a lesse necessity will devolve it upon Presbyters then upon Deacons , and upon Deacons then Lay men , and a lesse yet will cast it upon Lay men then women ; and this difference is in respect of humane order and positive constitution , but in the nature of the thing according to this doctrine all persons are equally receptive of it : And therefore to baptize is no part of the grace of Orders , no fruit of the holy Ghost , but a work which may be done by all , and at some times must ; and if baptisme may , then it will be hard to keep all the other rites from the common inrodes , and then the whole office wil perish . But if Lay persons baptizing , though in case of necessity , doe sin , as S. Augustine seems to say they doe , then it is certain , Christ never gave them leave so much as by insinuation ; and then neither can the Church give leave ; for she can give leave for no man to sin ; and besides , such a deputation were to no purpose ; Because no person shall dare to doe it , for evill is not to be done , though for the obtaining the greatest good : and it will be hard to state the question , so that either the childe shall perish , or some other must perish for it ; for he that positively ventures upon a sin for a good end , worships God with a sinne , and therefore shall be thank'd with a damnation , if he dies before repentance ; but if the childe shall not perish in such case of not being baptized , then why should any man break the rule of institution ? and if he shall perish without being baptized , then God hath affixed the salvation of the childe upon the condition of another mans sinne . 3. And indeed the pretence of cases of necessity may doe much towards the excusing an irregularity in an exterior rite , though of divine institution , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . But it will not be easily proved that God hath made any such necessities , it is certain that for persons having the use of reason God hath provided a remedy that no lay persons should have need to baptize a Catechumen ; for his votum or desire of Baptisme shall serve his turne ; And it will be unimaginable that God hath made no provision for infants , and yet put it upon them in many cases with equall necessity , which without breach of a divine institution cannot be supplied . 4. If a Lay person shall baptize , whether or no shall the person baptized receive benefit , or will any more but the outward act be done ? for that the Lay person shall convey rem Sacramenti or be the minister of sacramentall grace , is no where revealed in Scripture , and is against the Analogy of the Gospell ; for the verbum reconciliationis , all the whole ministery of reconciliation is intrusted to the Priest , Nobis , ( saith S. Paul ) to us who are Embassadors . And what difference is there , if cases of necessity be pretended in the defect of other ministeries , but that they also may be invaded ? and cases of necessity may by other men also be numbred in the other Sacrament ; and they have done so , and I know , who said that no man must consecrate the Sacramēt of the Lords supper but he that is lawfully called , except there be a case of necessity ; and that there may be a case of necessity for the blessed Sacrament , there needs no other testimony then the a Nicene councell ; which calls the Sacrament in the article of death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viaticum , the most necessary provision for our journey : and if a lay person absolves , there is as much promise of the validity of one as of the other , unlesse it be said , that there may be absolute necessity of baptisme , but not so of absolution ; which the maintainers of the other opinion are not apt to professe . And therefore S. Augustine did not know whether baptisme administred by a lay person be to be repeated or no ; Nescio an piè quisquam dixerit , he knew not ; neither doe I. But Simeon of Thessalonica is confident 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No man baptizes but he that is in holy orders ; the baptisme is null ; I cannot say so ; nor can I say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Let it be received . Onely I offer this to consideration ; if a Deacon can doe no ministeriall act with effect , but a lay person may doe the same with effect upon the person suscipient , what is that supernaturall grace and inherent and indelible character which a Deacon hath received in his ordination ? If a Deacon can doe no supernaturall act which were void and null if done by him that is not a Deacon , he hath no character , no spirituall inherent power ; and that he is made the ordinary minister of it , is for order sake ; but he that can doe the same thing , hath the same power and ability ; by this ground a Lay person and a Deacon are not distinguished by any inherent character , and therefore they who understand the spirituall powers and effects of ordination in the sense and expression of an inherent and indelible character , will finde some difficulty in allowing the effect of a lay baptisme . But I consider that the instances of Scripture brought for the lawfulnesse of lay administration , if they had no particular exception , yet are impertinent to this question : for it is not with us pretended in any case to be lawfull , but in extreme necessity : And therefore , S. Peters deputing the brethren who come with him to Cornelius to baptize his family , is nothing to our purpose , and best answers it selfe ; for either they were of the Clergy , who came with them , or else lay persons may baptize by the right of an ordinary deputation , without a case of necessity : for here was none ; S. peter might have done it himself . And as for Ananias , he was one of the seventy two ; and if that be nothing , yet he was called to that ministration about Paul as Paul himselfe was to the Apostleship even by an immediate vocation , and mission from Christ himselfe . And if this answer were not sufficient ( as it is most certainly ) the argument would presse further then is intended ; for Ananias tells him , he was sent to him that he might lay his hands on him that he might receive the holy Ghost : and to doe that was more then Philip could doe , though he was a Deacon , and in as great a necessity as this was : And yet besides all this this was not a case of necessity , unlesse there was never a Presbyter or Deacon in all Damascus , or that God durst not trust any of them with Paul , but onely Ananias , or that Paul could not stay longer without baptisme , as many thousand converts did in descending ages . And for the other conjecture it is not considerable at all ; for the Apostles might take three or four days time to baptize the 3000 ; there was no hurt done if they had stayed a week : the text insinuates nothing to the contrary ; The same day about 3000 were added to the Church ; then they were added to the Church , that is , by virtue and efficacy of that Sermon , who , it may be , considered some while of S. Peters discourse , and gave up their names upon mature deliberation and positive conviction . But it is not said they were baptized the same day ; and yet it was not impossible for the twelve Apostles to doe it in one day , if they had thought it reasonable . For my own particular I wish we would make no more necessities then God made , but that we leave the administration of the Sacraments to the manner of the first institution , and the Clericall offices be kept with their cancells , that no Lay hand may pretend a reason to usurpe the sacred ministery ; and since there can be no necessity for unbaptized persons of years of discretion , because their desire may supply them , it were well also , if our charity would finde some other way also , to understand Gods mercy towards infants : for certainly he is most mercifull and full of pity to them also ; and if there be no neglect of any of his own appointed ministeries , so as he hath appointed them , me thinks it were but reasonable to trust his goodnesse with the infants in other cases ; for it cannot but be a jealousie and a suspicion of God , a not daring to trust him , and an unreasonable proceeding beside , that we will rather venture to dispense with divine institution , then thinke that God will ; or that we shall pretend more care of children then God hath ; when we will breake an institution , and the rule of an ordinary ministery of Gods appointing , rather then cast them upon God ; as if God loved this ceremony better then he loved the child : for so it must be , if the childe perishes for want of it : and yet still me thinkes according to such doctrine , there was little or no care taken for infants ; for when God had appointed a ministery , and fixed it with certain rules and a proper deputation ; in reason ( knowing in all things else how mercifull God is and full of goodnesse ) we should have expected that God should have given expresse leave to have gone besides the first circumstances of the Sacrament if he had intended we might or should ; and that he should have told us so too ; rather then by leaving them fast tyed without any expresse cases of exception , or markes of difference , permit men to dispute and stand unresolved between a case of Duty , and a point of Charity ; for although God will have mercy rather then sacrifice , yet when both are commanded , God takes order they shall never crosse each other , and sacrifice is to be preferred before mercy , when the sacrifice is in the commandement and the mercy is not : as it is in the present question . And if it were otherwise in this case , yet because God loves mercy so well , why should we not thinke , that God himself will shew this mercy to this Infant when he hath not expressed his pleasure that we should doe it ? we cannot be more mercifull then he is . The Church of England hath determined nothing in this particular , that I know of ; onely when in the first Liturgy of King Edward the sixt , a rubrick was inserted permitting midwives to baptize in cases of extreme danger , it was left out in the second Liturgies , which is at least an argument she intended to leave the question undetermined ; if at least that omission of the clause was also not a rejection of the Article : Onely this Epiphanius objects it against the Marcionites , and Tertullian against the Gnosticks , that they did permit women to baptize : I cannot say but they made it an ordinary imployment , and a thing besides the case of necessity : I know not whether they did or no. But if they be permitted it is considerable whither the example may drive : b Petulans mulier quae usurpavit docere , an non utique & tingendi jus sibi pariet ? that I may turn Tertullians Thesis into an Interrogative . The women usurpe the office of teaching , if also they may be permitted to baptize , they may in time arrogate and invade other ministeries ; or if they doe not by reason of the naturall and politicall incapacity of their persons , yet others may upon the same stock : for necessity consists not in a Mathematicall point , but hath latitude which may be expounded to inconvenience ; and that I say truth and feare reasonably , I need no other testimony then the Greek Church , for amongst them a [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] the absence of the Priest is necessity enough for a woman to baptize ; for so says Gabriel Philadelphiensis c . In the absence of a Priest a Christian Laick may baptize whether it be man or woman ; either may doe it ; and whether that be not onely of danger in the sequel , but in it selfe a very dissolution of all discipline , I leave it to the Church of England to determine as for her own perticular , that at least the Sacrament be left intirely to clericall dispensation according to divine commandement . One thing I offer to consideration ; that since the keyes of the kingdome of heaven be most notoriously and signally used in baptisme , in which the kingdome of heaven the Gospel , and all its promises , is opened to all beleevers , and though as certainly yet lesse principally in reconciling penitents , and admitting them to the communion of the faithfull , it may be of ill consequence , to let them be usurped by hands to whom they were not consigned . Certain it is S. Peter used his keyes , and opened the kingdome of heaven first , when he said , Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sinnes , and ye shall receive the gift of the holy Ghost . However as to the main question , we have not onely the universall doctrine of Christendome , but also expresse authority and commission in Scripture , sending out Apostles and Apostolicall men , persons of choice and speciall designation to baptize all nations , and to entertain them into the services and institution of the holy Jesus . SECT . V. I Shall instance but once more , but it is in the most solemn , sacred and divinest mystery of our Religion ; that in which the Clergy in their appointed ministery doe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stand between God and the people , and doe fulfill a speciall and incomprehensible ministery , which the Angels themselves doe look into with admiration ; to which the people if they come without fear , cannot come without sinne ; and this is of so sacred and reserved mysteriousnesse , that but few have dared to offer at with unconsecrated hands : some have . But the Eucharist is the fulnesse of all the mysteriousnesse of our religion ; and the Clergy when they officiate here , are most truly in the phrase of Saint Paul dispensatores mysteriorum Dei dispensers of the great mysteries of the kingdome . For ( to use the word of S. Cyprian . ) Jesus Christ is our high Priest , and himself became our sacrifice which he finished upon the crosse in a reall performance , and now in his office of Mediatorship makes intercession for us by a perpetuall exhibition of himselfe , of his own person in heaven , which is a continuall , actually represented argument to move God to mercy to all that beleeve in , and obey the Holy Jesus . Now Christ did also establish a number of select persons , to be ministers of this great sacrifice , finished upon the crosse ; that they also should exhibit and represent to God ( in the manner which their Lord appointed them ) this sacrifice , commemorating the action and suffering of the great Priest ; and by way of prayers and impetration , offering up that action in behalfe of the people , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( as Gregory Naz. expresses it ) sending up sacrifices to be laid upon the Altar in heaven , that the Church might be truly united unto Christ their head , and in the way of their ministery may doe what he does in heaven ; for he exhibites the sacrifice , that is , himselfe , actually and presentially in heaven : the Priest on earth commemorates the same , and by his prayers represents it God in behalf of the whole Catholick Church ; presentially too , by another and more mysterious way of presence ; but both Christ in heaven , and his ministers on earth doe actuate that sacrifice , and apply it to its purposed designe by praying to God in virtue and merit of that sacrifice ; Christ himselfe , in a high and glorious manner ; the ministers of his priesthood ( as it becomes ministers ) humbly , sacramentally , and according to the energy of humane advocation and intercession ; This is the summe and great mysteriousnesse of Christianity , and is now to be proved . This is expresly described in Scripture ; that part concerning Christ is the doctrine of S. Paul who disputes largely concerning Christs priesthood ; affirming that Christ is a Priest for ever ; he hath therefore an unchangeable priesthood , because he continueth for ever , and he lives for ever to make intercession for us ; this he does as Priest , and therefore it must be by offering a sacrifice [ for every high Priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices ] and therefore it is necessary he also have something to offer , as long as he is a Priest , that is , for ever , till the consummation of all things ; since therefore he hath nothing new to offer , and something he must continually offer , it is evident , he offers himselfe as the medium of advocation , and the instance and argument of a prevailing intercession : and this he calls [ a more excellent ministery ] and by it , Jesus is a minister of the Sanctuary and of the true Tabernacle , that is , he as our high Priest officiates in heaven , in the great office of a Mediator , in the merit and power of his death and resurrection . Now what Christ does always in a proper and most glorious manner , the ministers of the Gospell also doe in theirs : commemorating the sacrifice upon the crosse , giving thanks , and celebrating a perpetuall Eucharist for it , and by declaring the death of Christ , and praying to God in the virtue of it , for all the members of the Church and all persons capable ; it is in genere orationis a sacrifice , and an instrument of propitiation , as all holy prayers are in their severall proportions . And this was by a precept of Christ ; Hoc facite , Doe this in remembrance of me . Now this precept is but twice reported of , in the new Testament , though the institution of the Sacrament , be four times . And it is done with admirable mystery ; to distinguish the severall interest , and operations which concern severall sorts of Christians in their distinct capacities : S. Paul thus represents it ; [ Take eat — This doe in remembrance of me ] plainely referring this precept to all that are to eate and drinke the symbols : for they also doe in their manner enunciate , declare , or represent , the Lords death till he come . And S. Paul prosecutes it with instructions particular to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to them that doe communicate , as appears in the succeeding cautions against unworthy manducation and for due preparation to its reception . But S. Luke reports it , plainly to another purpose , [ and he took bread , and gave thankes , and brake it , and gave it unto them , saying : This is my body which is given for you ; Hoc facite , This ] doe in remembrance of me : [ This ] cannot but relate to accepit , gratias egit , fregit , distribuit ; Hoc facite . Here was no manducation expressed , and therefore Hoc facite concerns the Apostles in the capacity of ministers , not as receivers but as Consecrators and Givers ; and if the institution had been represented in one scheme without this mysterious distinction , and provident separation of imployment , we had been eternally in a cloud , and have needed a new light to guide us ; but now the spirit of God hath done it in the very first fountains of Scripture . And this being the great mystery of Christianity and the onely remanent expresse of Christs sacrifice on earth , it is most consonant to the Analogy of the mystery , that this commemorative sacrifice be presented by persons as separate , and distinct in their ministery , as the sacrifice it selfe is from , and above the other parts of our religion . Thus also the Church of God hath for ever understood it , without any variety of sense or doubtfulnesse of distinguishing opinions . It was the great excellency and secret ministery of the religion , to consecrate and offer the holy symbols and sacraments : I shall transcribe a passage out of Justin Martyr giving the account of it to Antoninus Pius in his oration to him ; and it will serve in stead of many ; for it tells the religion of the Christians in this mystery , and gives a full account of all the ceremony . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. When the prayers are done , then is brought to the President of the brethren [ the Priest ] the bread , and the Chalice of wine mingled with water , which being received he gives praise and glory to the Father of all things , and presents them in the name of the Son and the Holy Spirit , and largely gives thankes , that he hath been pleased to give us these gifts : and when he hath finished the prayers and thanksgiving , all the people that is present , with a joyfull acclamation , say Amen . Which when it is done by the Presidents and people , those which amongst us are called Deacons and Ministers , distribute to every one that is present , that they may partake of him , in whom the thanks were presented , the Eucharist , bread , wine , and water ; and may beare it to the absent . Moreover this nourishment is by us called the Eucharist ; which it is lawfull for none to partake , but to him who beleeves our doctrine true , and is washed in the Laver for the remission of sins , and regeneration , and that lives so as Christ delivered . For we doe not take it as common bread & common drink ; but as by the word of God Jesus Christ the Saviour of the world was made flesh , and for our salvation sake had flesh and bloud : after the same manner also we are taught that this nourishment , in which by the prayers of his word , which is from him the food in which thanks are given , or the consecrated food by which our flesh & bloud by mutation or change are nourished , is the flesh & bloud of the incarnate Jesus . For the Apostles in their commentaries which they wrote , which are called the Gospells , so delivered , that Jesus commanded . For when he had given thanks and taken bread he said , Doe this in remembrance of me ; This is my body ; And likewise taking the Chalice , and having given thanks he said , [ This is my bloud , ] and that he gave it to them alone . ] This one testimony I reckon as sufficient : who please to see more , may observe the tradition full , testified and intire , in a Ignatius , b Clemens Romanus , or who ever wrote the Apostolicall constitutions in his name , c Tertullian , d S. Cyprian , e S. Athanasius , f Epiphanius , g S. Basil , h S. Chrysostome , ( almost every where ) i S. Hierome , k S. Augustine : and indeed we cannot look in vain , into any of the old writers : The summe of whose doctrine in this particular , I shall represent in the words of the most ancient of them , S. Ignatius , saying that he is worse then an infidell that offers to officiate about the holy Altar unlesse he be a Bishop or a Priest. And certainly he could upon no pretence have challenged the Appellative of Christian , who had dared either himselfe to invade the holy rites within the Cancels , or had denyed the power of celebrating this dreadfull mystery to belong onely to sacerdotall ministration . For either it is said to be but common bread and wine , and then , if that were true , indeed any body may minister it ; but then they that say so are blasphemous , they count the bloud of the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( as S. Paul calls it in imitation of the words of institution ) The bloud of the Covenant or new Testament , a profane or common thing ; they discerne not the Lords body ; they know not that the bread that is broken is the communication of Christs body : But if it be a holy , separate , or divine and mysterious thing , who can make it ( ministerially I mean ) and consecrate or sublime it from common and ordinary bread , but a consecrate , separate , and sublimed person ? It is to be done either by a naturall power , or by a supernaturall . A naturall , cannot hallow a thing in order to God ; and they onely have a supernaturall , who have derived it from God in order to this ministration ; who can show that they are taken up into the lot of that Deacon-ship , which is the type and representment of that excellent ministery of the true Tabernacle where Jesus himselfe does the same thing , in a higher and a more excellent manner . This is the great secret of the kingdome , to which in the Primitive Church , many who yet had given up their names to Christ by designation , or solemnity were not admitted , so much as to the participation ; as the Catechumens , the Audientes , the Poenitentes , Neophytes , and Children : and the ministery of it was not onely reserved for sacred persons , but also performed with so much mysterious secrecy , that many were not permitted so much as to see . This is that rite , in which the Priest intercedes for , and blesses the people ; offering in their behalfe , not onely their prayers , but applying the sacrifice of Christ to their prayers , and representing them with glorious advantages , and tithes of acceptation , which because it was so excellent , celestiall , sacred , mysticall , and supernaturall , it raised up the persons too ; that the ministeriall Priesthood in the Church , might according to the nature of all great imployments , passe an excellency and a value upon the ministers . And therefore according to the naturall reason of religion and the devotion of all the world , the Christians , because they had the greatest reason so to doe , did honour their Clergy with the greatest veneration , and esteem . It is without a Metaphor regale sacerdotium a royall Priesthood , so S. Peter ; which although it be spoken in generall of the Christian Church , and in an improper large sense , is verified of the people , yet it is so to be expounded , as that parallel place of the books of Moses , from whence the expression is borrowed , Yee shall be a kingdome of Priests and an Holy Nation ; which plainly by the sense and Analogy of the Mosaick law , signifies a nation blessed by God with rites and ceremonies of a separate religion ; a kingdome in which Priests are appointed by God ; a kingdome , in which nothing is more honourable then the Priesthood ; for it is certain , the nation was famous in all the world , for an honorable Priesthood ; and yet the people were not Priests in any sense , but of a violent Metaphor . And therefore the Christian ministery having greater privileges , and being honoured with attrectation of the body and bloud of Christ , and offices serving to a better Covenant , may with greater argument be accounted excellent , honorable , and royall ; and all the Church be called a royall Priesthood , the denomination being given to the whole , from the most excellent part ; because they altogether make one body under Christ the head , the medium of the union being the Priests , the collectors of the Church , and instrument of adunation ; and reddendo singula singulis dividing to each his portion of the expression , the people is a peculiar people , the Clergy a holy Priesthood : and all in conjunction , and for severall excellencies a chosen Nation : so that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Priesthood of the kingdome , that is , the ministery of the Gospell : for in the new Testament the kingdome ] signifies the Gospell : and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Kingly is of , or belonging to the Gospell : for therefore it is observable , it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , not well rendred by the vulgar Latine regale sacerdotium ; as if Kingly were the Appellative or Epithete of this Priesthood ; it is regium , a Priesthood appertaining to the kingdome of the Gospel ; and the Priest being enumerated distinctly from the people , the Priests of the kingdome and the people of the kingdome are all holy and chosen ; but in their severall manner : the Priests of the kingdome those , the people of the kingdome , these ; these to bring or designe a spirituall sacrifice , the Priest to offer it ; or altogether , to sacrifice ; the Priest by his proper ministery , the people by their assent , conjunction and assistance , chosen to serve God , not onely in their own formes , but under the ministrations of an honourable Priesthood . And in al the descent of Christian religion it was indeed honorable , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith S. Chrysostome the Christian Priesthood does its ministery and is perfected on earth , but hath the beauty , order , and excellency of the heavenly hosts : so that I shall not need to take notice of the Lamina aurea which Polycrates reports S. John to have worne in token of his royall Priesthood , a wreath of Gold ; ( so also did S. James Bishop of Jerusalem , as S. Hierome and Epiphanius report ) nor the exemption of the Clergy from tribute , their authority with the people , their great donatives and titles of secular advantage : these were accidentall to the Ministery , and relyed upon the favour of Princes , and devotion of the people ; and if they had been more , yet are lesse then the honours God had bestowed upon it : for certainly there is not a greater degree of power in the world then to remit and retain sinnes , and to consecrate the sacramentall symbols into the mysteriousnesse of Christs body and bloud ; nor a greater honour , then that God in heaven should ratifie what the Priest does on earth ; & should admit him to handle the sacrifice of the world , and to present the same which in heaven is presented by the eternall Jesus . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . So Gregory Nazienzen describes the honour and mysteriousnesse of the Priests power : They minister the spirituall and unbloudy sacrifice , they are honourable Guardians of soules , they bear the work of God in their hands . And S. Hierom speaking of these words of S. Paul , I am ordained a preacher and an Apostle ; Quod Paulus ait , [ Apostolus Jesu Christi ] tale mihi videtur quasi dixisset , praefectus praetorio Augusti Caesaris , magister exercitus Tiberii imperatoris . And a little after , grandem inter Christianos sibi vindicans dignitatē Apostolorum se Christi titulo praenotavit , ut ex ipsa lecturos nominis autoritate deterreret , indicans omnes qui Christo crederent , debere esse sibi subjectos . And therefore S. Chrysostome says it is the trick of hereticks not to give to Bishops titles of their eminency and honour which God hath vouchsafed them : Ut Diabolus it a etiam quilibet facit haereticus vehementissimus in tempore persecutionis , loquens cum Pontisice , nec eum vocat Pontisicem , nec Archiepiscopum , nec religiosissimum , nec sanctum , sed quid ? Reverentia tua &c. nomina illi adducit communia , ejus negans autoritatem : Diabolus hoc tunc fecit in Deo : It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , A separating and purifying order of men , so Dionysius calls it : but Nazianzen speaks greater and more glorious words yet ; and yet what is no more then a sober truth ; for he calls the Priest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . He stands with Angels and is magnified with Archangels ; he sends sacrifices to celestiall altar , and is consecrated in the Priesthood of Christ , a divine person , and an instrument of making others so too . I shall adde no more as to this particular . The expresse precepts of God in Scripture are written in great characters , there is a double honour to be given to the Ecclesiasticall Rulers . Rulers that also labour in the word and doctrine : There is obedience due to them , obedience in all things , and estimation , and love , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , very abundantly ; esteem such very highly for their worke sake ; a communicating to them in all good things ; and their offices are described to be great , separate , busie , eminent and profitable , they are Rulers , Presidents , set over us in the Lord , taking care for us , labouring in doctrine , spirituall persons , restorers of them that were overtaken in a fault , curates of souls , such as must give an account for them , the salt , the light of the world , shepheards ; and much more signifying work , and rule and care and honour . But next to the words of Scripture there can no more be said concerning the honour of the sacred order of the Clergy , then is said by S. Chrysostome in his books Desacerdotio , and S. Ambrose De dignitate sacerdotali , and no greater thing can be supposed communicated to men then to be the Ministers of God , in the great conveyances of grace , and instruments of God in the pardon of sins , in the consecration of Christs body and bloud , in the guidance and conduct of souls . And this was the stile of the Church , calling Bishops and Priests according to their respective capacity , Stewards of the grace of God , leaders of the blind , a light of them that sit in darknesse , instructors of the ignorant , teachers of babes , stars in the world , amongst whom ye shine as lights in the world , and that is Scripture too ; starres in Christs right hand , lights set upon the candlesticks : And now supposing these premises , if Christendome had not paid proportionable esteem to them , they had neither known how to value religion or the mysteries of Christianity . But that all Christendome ever did pay the greatest reverence to the Clergy and religious veneration , is a certain argument that in Christian Religion the distinction of the Clergy from the Laity , is supposed as a praecognitum , a principle of the institution . I end this with the words of the 7th generall Councell : It is manifest to all the world that in the Priesthood there is order and distinction , and to observe the ordinations and elections of the Priesthood with strictnesse and severity is well pleasing to God. SECT . VI. ASsoon as God began to constitute a Church and fix the Priesthood , which before was very ambulatory , and dispensed into all families , but ever officiated by the Major domo , God gives the power and designs the person . And therefore Moses consecrated Aaron agitatus à Deo consecrationis Principe saith Dionysius , Moses performed the externall rites of designation , but God was the consecrator , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Moses appointed Aaron to the Priesthood , and gave him the order , but it was onely as the Minister and Deputy of God , under God the chief consecrator . And no man taketh upon him this honour but he that was called of God as was Aaron , saith S. Paul. For in every Priesthood God designed and appointed the ministery , and collates a power , or makes the person gratious : either gives him a spirituall ability of doing something which others have not , or if he be onely imployed in praying and presenting sacrifices of beasts for the people , yet that such a person should be admitted to a neerer addresse , and in behalf of the people , must depend upon Gods acceptation , and therefore upon divine constitution ; for there can be no reason given in the nature of the thing , why God will accept the intermediation of one man for many , or why this man more then another , who possibly hath no naturall or acquired excellency beyond many of the people , except what God himself makes , after the constitution of the person . If a spirituall power be necessary to the ministration , it is certain , none can give it but the fountain and the principle of the Spirits emanation . Or if the graciousnesse and aptnesse of the person be required , that also being arbitrary , preternaturall and chosen , must derive from the divine election : For God cannot be prescribed unto by us , whom he shall hear , and whom he shall entertain in a more immediate addresse , and freer entercourse . And this is divinely taught us by the example of the high Priest himself ; who , because he derived all power from his Father , and all his gratiousnesse and favour in the office of Priest and Mediator , was also personally chosen and sent , and took not the honour but as it descended on him from God , that the honour and the power , the ability , and the ministery , might derive from the same fountain . Christ did not glorisie himself to become high Priest. Honour may be deserved by our selves , but always comes from others ; and because no greater honour then to be ordained for men in things pertaining to God , every man must say as our blessed High Priest said of himself : If I honour my self , my honour is nothing ; it is God that honoureth me ; For Christ being the fountain of Evangelicall ministery , is the measure of our dispensations , and the rule of Ecclesiasticall oeconomy ; and therefore we must not arrogate any power from our selves , or from a lesse authority then our Lord and Master did : and this is true and necessary in the Gospell , rather then in any ministery or Priesthood that ever was , because of the collation of so many excellent and supernaturall abilities which derive from Christ upon his Ministers , in order to the work of the Gospel . And the Apostles understood their duty in this particular , as in all things else ; for when they had received all this power from above they were carefull to consign the truth , that although it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a divine grace in a humane ministery , and that although 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , He that is ordained by men , yet receives his power from God ; not at all by himself ; and from no man as from the fountain of his power ; And this I say the Apostles were carefull to consign in the first instance of Ordination in the case of Mathias . Thou Lord shew which of these two thou hast chosen : God was the Elector , and they the Ministers ; and this being at the first beginning of Christianity , in the very first designation of an ecclesiasticall person , was of sufficient influence into the religion for ever after ; and taught us to derive all clericall power from God ; and therefore by such means and Ministeries which himself hath appointed , but in no hand to be invaded , or surprized in the entrance , or polluted in the execution . This descended in the succession of the Churches doctrine for ever . Receive the holy Ghost , said Christ to his Apostles , when he enabled them with Priestly power ; and S. Paul to the Bishops of Asia said , The holy Ghost hath made you Bishops or Overseers ; because no mortall man , no Angel , or Archangell , nor any other created power , but the Holy Ghost alone hath constituted this order , saith S. Chrysostome . And this very thing , besides the matter of fact , and the plain donation of the power by our blessed Saviour , is intimated by the words of Christ otherwhere ; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the vineyard that he will send labourers into his harvest ; Now his mission is not onely a designing of the persons , but enabling them with power ; because he never commands a work but he gives abilities to its performance ; and therefore still in every designation of the person , by what ever ministery it be done , either that ministery is by God constituted to be the ordinary means of conveying the abilities , or else God himself ministers the grace immediately . It must of necessity come from him some way or other . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. James hath adopted it into the family of Evangelicall truths ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , every perfect gift , and therefore every perfecting gift , which in the stile of the Church is the gift of Ordination , is from above , the gifts of perfecting the persons of the Hierarchy , and ministery Evangelicall ; which thing is further intimated by S. Paul , Now he which stablisheth us with you [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] in order to Christ [ and Christian Religion ] is God , and that his meaning be understood concerning the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of establishing him in the ministery , he addes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and he which anointeth us is God , and hath sealed us with an earnest of his Spirit [ unction ] and [ consignation ] and [ establishing by the holy Spirit : ] the very stile of the Church for ordination 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it was said of Christ , Him hath the Father sealed , that is , ordained him the Priest and Prophet of the world ; and this he plainly spoke as their Apostle and President in religion . Not as Lords over your faith , but fellow-workers ; he spake of himself and Timothy , concerning whose Ministery in order to them , he now gives account : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : God anoints the Priest , and God consigns him with the holy Ghost , that is the Principale quaesitum , that is the main question . And therefore the Author of the books of Ecclesiasticall hierarchy , giving the rationale of the rites of Ordination , says that the Priest is made so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of proclaiming and publication of the person , signifying , That the holy man that consecrates is but the proclaimer of the divine election , but not by any humane power or proper grace does he give the perfect gift and consecrate the person . And * Nazianzen , speaking of the rites of ordination hath this expression , with which the divine grace is proclaimed : ( And Billius renders it ill by superinvocatur . ) He makes the power of consecration to be declarative ; which indeed is a lesser expression of a fuller power , but it signifies as much as the whole comes to ; for it must mean , God does transmit the grace [ at ] or [ by ] or [ in ] the exteriour ministery , and the Minister is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a declarer ] not by the word of his mouth , distinct from the work of his hand : But by the ministery , he declares the work of God , then wrought in the person suscipient . And thus in absolution the Priest declares the act of God pardoning , not that he is a Preacher onely of the pardon upon certain conditions , but that he is not the principall agent , but by his ministery declares and ministers the effect and work of God. And this interpretation is clear in the instance of the blessed Sacrament , where not onely the Priest but the people doe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 declare the Lords death , not by a Homily , but by virtue of the mystery which they participate . And in the instance of this present question , the consecrator does declare the power to descend from God upon the person to be ordained . But thus the whole action being but a ministery is a declaration of the effect and grace of Gods vouchsafing ; and because God does it not immediately , and also because such effects are invisible and secret operations , God appointing an externall rite and ministery , does it , that the private working of the Spirit may become as perceived as it can be , that is , that it may by such rites be declared to all the world what God is doing , and that man cannot doe it of himself ; and besides the reasonablenesse of the thing , the very words in the present allegation doe to this very sense expound themselves : for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are the same thing and expressive of each other ; the consecrator declares , that is , he doth not do it by collation of his own grace or power , but the grace of God and power from above . And this doctrine we read also in S. Cyprian towards the end of his Epistle to Cornelius : ut Dominus qui Sacerdotes sibi in ecclesia sua eligere & constituere dignatur , electos quoque & constitutos sua voluntate atque opitulatione tueatur : It is a good prayer of ordination ; [ that the Lord who vouchsafes to choose and consecrate Priests in his Church , would also be pleased by his ayd and grace to defend them whom he hath so chosen and appointed ] Homo manum imponit , & Deus largitur gratiam : Sacerdos imponit supplicem dextram , Deus benedicit potenti dextra , saith S. Ambrose , man imposes his hand , but God gives the grace : the Bishop layes on his hand of prayer , and God blesses with his hand of power . The effect of this discourse is plain ; the grace and powers that enable men to minister in the mysteries of the Gospel is so wholly from God , that whosoever assumes it without Gods warrant , and besides his way ; ministers with a vain , sacrilegious , and ineffective hand , save onely that he disturbs the appointed order , and does himself a mischief . SECT . VII . BY this ordination the persons ordained are made ministers of the Gospel , stewards of all its mysteries , the light , the salt of the earth , the shepheard of the flock , Curates of soules ; these are their offices , or their appellatives ( which you please ) for the Clericall ordination is no other , but a sanctification of the person in both senses ; that is , 1 a separation of him to do certain mysterious actions of religion : which is that sanctification by which Jeremy and S. John the Baptist were sanctified from their mothers wombs . 2 It is also a sanctification of the person , by the increasing or giving respectively to the capacity of the suscipient , such graces as make the person meet to speak to God , to pray for the people , to handle the mysteries , and to have influence upon the cure . The first sanctification is a designation of the person ; which must of necessity be some way or other by God : because it is a neerer approach to him , a ministery of his graces , which without his appointment , a man must not , cannot any more doe , then a messenger can cary pardon to a condemned person , which his Prince never sent . But this separation of the person , is not onely a naming of the man , ( for so farre the separation of the person may be previous to the ordination : for so it was in the ordinations of Mathias and the seven Deacons ; The Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they appointed two , before God chose by lot ; and the whole Church chose the seven Deacons before the Apostles imposed hands ; ) but the separation , or this first sanctification of the person , is a giving him a power to doe such offices , which God hath appointed to be done to him , and for the people , which we may clearly see and understand in the instance of Job and his friends : For when God would be intreated in behalfe of Eliphaz and his companions , he gave order that Job should make the addresse ; Goe to my servant , he shall pray for you , and him will I accept ; this separation of a person for the offices of advocation , is the same thing which I mean by this first sanctification ; God did it , and gave him a power and authority to goe to him , and put him into a place of trust and favour about him , and made him a minister of the sacrifice ; which is a power and eminency above the persons for whom he was to sacrifice , and a power or grace from God to be in neernesse to him . This I suppose to be the great argument for the necessity of separating a certain order of men for ecclesiasticall ministeries : And it relies upon these propositions . 1. All power of ordination descends from God , and he it is who sanctifies and separates the person . 2. The Priest by God is separate to be the gracious person to stand between him and the people . 3. Hee speaks the word of God , and returns the prayers and duty of the people , and reconveyes the blessings of God by his prayer and by his ministery . So that although every Christian must pray , and may be heard , yet there is a solemn person appointed to pray in publick : and though Gods spirit is given to all that aske it , and the promises of the Gospel are verified to all that obey the Gospell of Iesus , yet God hath appointed sacraments and solemnities , by which the promises and blessings are ministred more solemnly , and to greater effects . All the ordinary devotions the people may doe alone ; the solemn , rituall , and publick , the appointed Minister onely must do . And if any man shall say , because the Priests ministery is by prayer , every man can doe it , and so , no need of him ; by the same reason he may say also that the Sacraments are unnecessary , because the same effect which they produce is also in some degree the reward of a private piety , and devotion . But the particulars are to be further proved and explicated as they need . Now what for illustration of this article I have brought from the instance of Job , is true in the ministers of the Gospell , with the superaddition of many degrees of eminency . But still in the same kind , for the power God hath given , is indeed mysticall ; but it is not like a power operating by way of naturall or proper operation ; it is not vis but facultas , not an inherent quality that issues out actions by way of direct emanation , like naturall or acquired habits , but it is a grace or favour done to the person , and a qualification of him in genere politico , he receives a politick , publick , and solemn capacity , to intervene between God and the people ; and although it were granted that the people could do the externall work , or the action of Church ministeries , yet they are actions to no purpose , they want the life and all the excellency , unlesse they be done by such persons whom God hath called to it , and by some means of his own hath expressed his purpose to accept them in such ministrations . And this explication will easily be verified in all the particulars of the Priests power ; because all the ministeries of the Gospell are in genere orationis , ( unlesse we except preaching , in which God speaks by his servants to the people ) the minister by his office is an intercessor with God , and the word used in Scripture for the Priests officiating , signifies his praying [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] as they were ministring or doing their Liturgy , the work of their supplications and intercession ; and therefore the Apostles positively included all their whole ministery in these two : [ but we will give our selves to the word of God and to prayer ; the prayer of consecration , the prayer of absolution , the prayer of imposition of hands : they had nothing else to doe , but pray and preach . And for this reason it was , that the Apostles in a sense neerest to the letter did verifie the precept of our blessed Saviour ; Pray continually , that is , in all the offices , acts , parts and ministeries of a dayly Liturgy . This is not to lessen the power , but to understand it ; for the Priests ministery is certainly the instrument of conveying all the blessings of the people , which are annexed to the ordinary administration of the Spirit . But when all the office of Christs Priesthood in heaven is called intercession for us , and himself makes the sacrifice of the Crosse , effectuall to the salvation and graces of his Church , by his prayer , since we are ministers of the same Priesthood , can there be a greater glory then to have our ministery like to that of Jesus ? not operating by virtue of a certain number of syllables , but by a holy , solemn , determined and religious prayer , in the severall manners and instances of intercession ; according to the analogy of all the religions in the world , whose most solemn mystery , was then most solemn prayer : I mean it in the matter of sacrificing ; which also is true in the most mysterious solemnity of Christianity in the holy Sacrament of the Lords supper , which is hallowed and lifted up from the common bread and wine by mysticall prayers and solemn invocations of God. And therefore S. Dionysius calls the forms of consecration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prayers of consecration , and S. Cyrill in his 3 mystagogique Catechism says the same . The Eucharisticall bread [ after the invocations of the holy Ghost ] is not any longer common bread , but the body of Christ. For although it be necessary that the words which in the Latin Church have been for a long time called the words of consecration ( which indeed are more properly the words of institution ) should be repeated in every consecration , because the whole action is not completed according to Christs pattern , nor the death of Christ so solemnly enunciated without them yet even those words also are part of a mysticall prayer ; and therefore as they are not onely intended there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by way of history or narration ( as Cabasil . mistakes ; ) so also in the most ancient Liturgies , they were not onely read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or as a meer narrative , but also with the form of an addresse , or invocation : Fiat hic panis corpus Christi , & fiat hoc vinum sanguis Christi , Let this bread be made the body of Christ , &c. So it is in S. James his Liturgy , S. Clement , S. Marks , and the Greek Doctors : And in the very recitation of the words of institution , the people ever used to answer [ Amen ] which intimates it to have been a consecration in genere orationis , called by S. Paul benediction , or the bread of blessing , and therefore S. Austin expounding those words of S. Paul [ Let prayers and supplications and intercessions , and giving of thanks be made ] saith , Eligo in his verbis hoc intelligere , quod omnis vel pene omnis frequent at ecclesia , ut [ precationes ] accipiamus dictas quas fecimus in celebratione sacramentorum antequam illud quod est in Domini mensâ accipiat benedici : [ orationes ] cum benedicitur , & ad distribuendum comminuitur : quam totam orationem pene omnis ecclesia Dominicâ oratione concludit . The words and form of consecration he calls by the name of [ orationes ] supplications ; the prayers before the consecration [ preces ] and all the whole action [ oratio : ] and this is according to the stile and practise , and sense of the whole Church or very neer the whole . And S. Basil saith , that there is more necessary to consecration then the words recived by the Apostles and by the Evangelists . * The words of invocation in the shewing the bread of the Eucharist , and the cup of blessing , who of all the Saints have left to us ? For we are not content with those which the Apostle and the Evangelists mention : but both before and after , we say other words , having great power towards the mystery , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we have received by tradition . These words set down in Scripture they retained as a part of the mystery cooperating to the solemnity , manifesting the signification of the rite , the glory of the change , the operation of the Spirit , the death of Christ , and the memory of the sacrifice ; but this great work which all Christians knew to be done by the holy Ghost , the Priest did obtain by prayer and solemn invocation : according to the saying of Proclus of C. P. speaking of the tradition of certain prayers used in the mysteries , and indited by the Apostles ( as it was said ) but especially in S. James his Liturgy : By these prayers ( saith he ) they expected the coming of the holy Ghost , that his divine presence might make the bread and the wine mixt with water to become the body and bloud of our blessed Saviour . And S. Justin Martyr very often calls the Eucharist food made sacramentall and eucharisticall by prayer ; and Origen , b we eat the bread holy , and made the body of Christ by prayer : Verbo Dei & per obsecrationem sanctificatus , bread sanctified by the word of God , and by prayer , viz. the prayer of consecration : prece mystica is S. Austins expression of it : c Corpus Christi & sanguinem dicimus illud tantum , quod ex fructibus terrae acceptum & pree mystica consecratum ritè sumimus . That onely we call the body and bloud of Christ which we receive of the fruits of the earth and being consecrated by the mysticall prayer , we take according to the rite . And S. Hierom chides the insolency of some Deacons towards Priests , upon this ground . d Who can suffer that the Ministers of widdows and tables should advance themselves above those [ at whose prayers ] the body and bloud of Christ are exhibited or made presentiall . I adde onely the words of Damascen The bread and wine are changed into the body and bloud of Christ supernaturally by invocation and coming of the Holy Ghost . Now whether this consecration by prayer , did mean to reduce the words of institution to the sense and signification of a prayer , or that they mean , the consecration was made by the other prayers annexed to the narrative of the institution , according to the severall senses of the Greek and Latin Church , yet still the ministery of the Priest whether in the words of consecration , or in the annexed prayers is still by way of prayer . Nay further yet , the whole mystery it self is operative in the way of prayer , saith Cassander , in behalf of the School and of all the Roman Church ; and indeed S. Ambrose and others of the Fathers in behalf of the Church Catholick . Nunc Christus offertur , sed offertur quasi homo , quasi recipiens passionem , & offert seipsum quasi Sacerdos ut peccata nostra dimittat hic in imagine [ ibi in veritate , ubi apudpatrem quasi advocatus intervenit ] So that what the Priest does here , being an imitation of Christ does in heaven , is by the sacrifice of a solemn prayer , and by the representing the action and passion of Christ , which is effectuall in the way of prayer , and by the exhibiting it to God by a solemn prayer , and advocation , in imitation of , and union with Christ. All the whole office is an office of intercession , as it passes from the Priest to God , and from the people to God ; And then for that great mysteriousnesse , which is the sacramentall change , which is that which passes from God unto the people by the Priest , that also is obtained and effected by way of prayer . For since the Holy Ghost is the consecrator , either he is called down by the force of a certain number of syllables , which that he will verifie , himself hath no where described ; and that he means not to do it he hath fairly intimated , in setting down the institution in words of great vicinity , to expresse the sense of the mystery , but yet of so much difference and variety as will shew , this great change is not wrought by such certain and determined words , [ The bloud of the New Testament ] so it is in S. Matthew and S. Mark , [ The new Testament in my bloud ] so S. Paul and S. Luke , My body which is broken , My body which is given , &c. and to think otherwise is so neer the Gentile rites , and the mysteries of Zoroastes , and the secret operations of the Enthei and heathen Priests , that unlesse God had declared expressely such a power to be affixed to the recitation of such certain words , it is not with too much forwardnesse to be supposed true in the spirituality of the Gospel . But if the Spirit descends not by the force of syllables , it follows he is called down by the prayers of the Church , presented by the Priests , which indeed is much to the honour of God and of religion , an endearment of our duty , is according to the analogy of the Gospell , and a proper action or part of spirituall sacrifice , that great excellency of Evangelicall religion . For what can be more aptand reasonable to bring any great blessing from God then prayer , which acknowledges him the fountain of blessing , and yet puts us into a capacity of receiving it by way of morall predisposition , that holy graces may descend into holy vessels , by holy ministeries , and conveyances ; and none are more fit for the employment then prayers , whereby we blesse God , and blesse the symbols , and aske that God may blesse us , and by which every thing is sanctified , viz. by the word of God and prayer , that is , by Gods benediction and our impetration ; according to the use of the word in the saying of our blessed Saviour , Man lives [ by every word ] that proceeds out of the mouth of God : that is , by Gods blessing ; to which , prayer is to be joyned , that we may cooperate with God in a way most likely to prevail with him ; and they are excellent words which a Cassander hath said to the purpose ; Some Apostolicall Churches from the beginning used such solemn prayers to the celebration of the mysteries , and Christ himself beside that he recited the words ( of institution ) he blessed the Symbols before and after , sung an Ecclesiasticall hymn . And therefore the Greek Churches which have with more severity kept the first and most ancient forms of consecration , then the Latin Church ; affirm that the consecration is made by solemn invocation alone , and the very recitation of the words spoken in the body of a prayer are used for argument to move God to hallow the gifts and as an expression and determination of the desire . And this , * Gabriel of Philadelphia observes out of an Apostolical Liturgy , The words of our Lord [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] antecedently and by way of institution , and incentive are the form , together with the words which the Priest afterwards recites according as it is set down in the divine Liturgy . It is supposed he meanes the Liturgy reported to be made by S. James , which is of the most ancient use in the Greek Church , and all Liturgies in the world in their severall Canons of communion , doe now , and did for ever mingle solemn prayers together with recitation of Christs words ; The Church of England does most religiously observe it according to the custome and sense of the primitive Liturgies ; who always did beleeve the consecration not to be a naturall effect , and change finished in any one instant , but a divine alteration consequent to the whole ministery : that is , the solemn prayer and invocation . Now if this great ministery be by way of solemn prayer it will easier be granted that so the other are . For absolution and reconciliation of penitents I need say no more , but the question of S. Austin , Quid est aliud manus impositio , quam or atio super hominem ? And the Priestly absolution is called by Saint Leo Sacerdotum supplicationes , the prayers of Priests : and in the old Ordo Romanus , and in the Pontificall the forms of reconciliation were [ Deus te absolvat ] the Lord pardon thee , &c. But whatsoever the forms were ( for they may be optative , or indicative , or declarative , ) the case is not altered as to this question ; for whatever the act of the Priest be , whether it be the act of a Judge , or of an Embassadour , a Counsellor , or a Physitian , or all this , the blessing which he ministers is by way of a solemn prayer , according to the exigence of the present rite ; and the form of words doth not alter the case ; for [ Ego benedico , & Deus benedicat ] is the same , and was no more when God commanded the Priest in expresse terms to blesse the people ; onely the Church of late , chooses the indicative form , to signifie that such a person is by authority and proper designation appointed the ordinary minister of benediction . For in the sense of the Church and Scripture , none can give blessing but a superiour , and yet every person may say in charity God blesse you ; He may not be properly said to blesse , for the greater is not blessed of the lesser by Saint Pauls rule ; the Priest may blesse , or the Father may , and yet their benediction , ( save that it signifies the authority , and solemn deputation of the person to such an ordinary Ministery ) signifies but the same thing ; that is , it operates by way of prayer ; but is therefore prevalent and more effectuall because it is by persons appointed by God. And so it is in absolution , for he that ministers the pardon being the person that passes the act of God to the penitent , and the act of the penitent to God ; all that manner that the Priest interposes for the penitent to God is by way of prayer , and by the mediation of intercession ; for there is none else in this imaginable ; and the other of passing Gods act upon the penitent is by way of interpretation and enunciation , as an Embassador , and by the word of his ministery ; in persona Christi condonavi , I pardon in the person of Christ : saith S. Paul , in the first he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; in the second he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; in both , a minister of divine benediction to the people , the anointing from above descends upon Aarons beard , and so by degrees to the skirts of the people ; and yet in those things which the Priest or the Prophet does but signifie by divine appointment , he is said to doe the thing , which he onely signifies and makes publick as a Minister of God : thus God sent Jeremie , he set him over the Nations to root out , and to pull down , and to destroy , to throw down , and to build , and to plant ; and yet in all this his ministery was nothing but Propheticall : and he that converts a sinner is said to save him , and to hide a multitude of sins ; that is , he is instrumentall to it and ministers in the imployment ; so that here also , Verbum est oratio , the word of God and prayer do transact both the parts of this office . And I understand , though not the degree and excellency , yet the truth of this manner of operation in the instance of Isaac blessing Jacob , which in the severall parts was expressed in all forms , indicative , optative , enunciative , and yet there is no question but it was intended to do Jacob benefit by way of impetration ; so that although the Church may expresse the acts of her ministery in what form she please , and with design to make signification of another article , yet the manner of procuring blessings and graces for the people is by a ministery of interpellation and prayer , we having no other way of addresse or return to God but by petition and eucharist . 17. I shall not need to instance any more , S. Austin summes up all the Ecclesiasticall ministeries in an expression fully to this purpose ; Si ergo ad hoc valet quod dictum est in Evangelio , Deus peceatorem non audit , ut per peceatorem sacramenta non celebrentur , Quomodo exaudit — deprecantem vel super aquam baptismi , vel super oleum , vel super Eucharistiam , vel super capita eorum super quibus manus imponitur ? with S. Austin , praying over the symbols of every Sacrament , and sacramental , is all one with celebrating the mystery . And therefore in the office of Consecration in the Greek Church , this power passes upon the person ordained . That he may be worthy to aske things of thee for the salvation of the people , that is , to celebrate the Sacraments and Rites , and that thou wilt hear him : which fully expresses the sense of the present discourse , that the first part of that grace of the holy Spirit which consecrates the Priest , the first part of his sanctification , is a separation of the person to the power of intercession , for the people , and a ministeriall mediation , by the ministration of such rites and solemn invocations which God hath appointed or designed . And now this sanctification which is so evident in Scripture , tradition , and reason , taken from proportion and analogy to religion , is so far from making the power of the holy man lesse then is supposed , that it shews the greatnesse of it by a true representment ; and preserves the sacrednesse of it so within its own cancels , that it will be the greatest sacriledge in the world to invade it , for who ever will boldly enter within this vail , nisi qui vocatur sicut Aaron , unlesse he be sanctified as is the Priest , who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Nazianzen calls him , a Minister cooperating with Christ , he does without leave call himself a man of God , a Mediator between God and the people under Christ , he boldly thrusts himself into the participation of that glorious mediation which Christ officiates in heaven ; all which things as they are great honours to the person , rightly called to such vicinity and indearments with God , so they depend wholly upon divine dignation of the grace & vocation of the person . 2 Now for the other part of spirituall emanation or descent of graces in sanctification of the Clergy , that is in order to the performance of the other , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; that 's the sense of it , that God who is the lover of soules may grant a pure and unblameable Priesthood ; and certainly they who are honoured with so great a grace as to be called to officiate in holy and usefull Ministeries have need also of other graces to make them persons holy in habit and disposition , as well as holy in calling , and therefore God hath sent his Spirit to furnish his Emissaries with excellencies proportionable to their need and the usefulnesse of the Church . At the beginning of Christianity God gave gifts extraordinary , as boldnesse of spirit , fearless courage , freedome of discourse , excellent understanding , discerning of spirits , deep judgement , innocence and prudence of deportment , the gift of tongues , these were so necessary at the institution of the Christian Church , that if we had not had testimony of the matter of fact , the reasonablenesse of the thing would prove the actuall dispensation of the Spirit ; because God never fails in necessaries ; But afterward , when all the extraordinary needs were served , the extraordinary stock was spent and God retracted those issues into their fountains , and then the graces that were necessary for the well discharging the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Priestly function , were such as make the person of more benefit to the people , not onely by being exemplary to them , but gracious and loved by God ; and those are spirituall graces of sanctification . And therefore Ordination is a collation of holy graces of sanctification ; of a more excellent faith , of fervent charity , of providence and paternall care : Gifts which now descend not by way of miracle , as upon the Apostles , are to be acquired by humane industry , by study and good letters , and therefore are presupposed in the person to be ordained ; to which purpose the Church now examines the abilities of the man , before she lays on hands ; and therefore the Church does not suppose that the Spirit in ordination descends in gifts , and in the infusion of habits , and perfect abilities , though then also , it is reasonable to beleeve that God will assist the pious and carefull endeavours of holy Priests , and blesse them with speciall ayds and cooperation ; because a more extraordinary ability is needfull for persons so designed ; But the proper and great aid which the spirit of ordination gives , is such instances of assistance which make the person more holy . And this is so certainly true , that even when the Apostle had ordained Timothy to be Bishop of Ephesus , he calls upon him to stirre up the gift of God , which was in him by the putting on of his hands , & that gift is a rosary of graces ; what graces they are he enumerates in the following words : God hath not given us the spirit of fear but of power , of love , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and of a modest and sober mind ( and these words are made part of the form of collating the Episcopall order in the church of Eng. ) Here is all that descend from the Spirit in ordination , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 power , that is , to officiate and intercede with God in the parts of ministery , and the rest are such as implie duty , such as make him fit to be a Ruler in paternal and sweet government , modesty , sobriety , love ; And therfore in the forms of ordination of the Gr. Church ( which are therfore highly to be valued , because they are most ancient , have suffered the least change , & been polluted with fewer interests ) the mystical prayer of ordination names graces in order to holiness . We pray thee that the grace of the ever holy Spirit may descend upon him , a Fill him ful of all faith & love and power & sanctification by the illumination of thy holy & life-giving Spirit : & the reason why these things are desir'd , & given , is in order to the right performing his holy offices b that he may be worthy to stand without blame at thy Altar , to preach the Gospell of thy Kingdome , to minister the words of thy truth , to bring to thee gifts , & spiritual sacrifices , to renew the people with the laver of regeneratiō . And therefore S. c Cyrill says that Christs saying [ receive ye the Holy Ghost ] signifies grace given by Christ to the Apostles , whereby they were sanctified : that by the Holy Ghost they might be absolved from their sins , saith d Haymo ; and Saint e Austin says , that many persons that were snatched violently to be made Priests or Bishops , who had in their former purposes determined to marry and live a secular life , have in their ordination received the gift of continency . And therefore there was reason for the greatnesse of the solemnities used in all ages in separation of Priests from the world , insomuch that whatsoever was used in any sort of sanctification or solemn benediction by Moses law , all that was used in consecration of the Priest , who was to receive the greatest measure of sanctification . Eadem item vis etiam Sacerdotem augustum & honorandum facit novitate benedictionis à communitate vulgi segregatum . Cum enim heri unus è plebe esset , repente redditur praeceptor , praeses , Doctor pietatis , mysteriorum latentium Praesul &c. Invisibili quadam vi , ac gratia invisibilem animam in melius transformatam gerens , that is , improved in all spiritual graces ; which is highly expressed by f Martyrius who said to Nectarius ; Tu ô beate recens baptizatus & purificatus , & mox insuper sacerdotio auctus es ; utr aque autem haec peccatorum expiatoria esse Deus constituit : which are not to be expounded as if ordination did conferre the first grace , which in the Schools is understood onely to be expiatorious ; but the increment of grace , and sanctification ; and that also is remissive of sins , which are taken off by parts as the habit decreases ; and we grow in Gods favour , as our graces multiply or grow . Now that these graces being given in ordination are immediate emanations of the holy Spirit , and therefore not to be usurped or pretended to by any man , upon whom the holy Ghost in ordination hath not descended , I shall lesse need to prove , because it is certain upon the former grounds , and will be finished in the following discourses ; and it is in the Greek Ordination given as a reason of the former prayer , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , For not in the imposition of my hands , but in the overseeing providence of thy rich mercies , grace is given to them that are worthy . So that we see , more goes to the fitting of a person for Ecclesiasticall Ministeries then is usually supposed ; together with the power , a grace is specially collated , and that is not to be taken up and laid down , and pretended to by every bolder person . The thing is sacred , separate , solemn , deliberate , derivative from God , and not of humane provision , or authority , or pretence , or disposition . SECT . VIII . THe holy Ghost was the first consecrator , that is made evident ; and the persons first consecrated were the Apostles , who received the severall parts of the Priestly order , at severall times ; the power of consecration of the Eucharist , at the institution of it ; the power of remitting and retaining sinnes in the octaves of Easter ; the power of baptizing & preaching , together with universall jurisdiction , immediately before the Ascension , when they were commanded to goe into all the world preaching and baptizing . This is the whole office of the Priesthood , and nothing of this was given in Pentecost when the holy Spirit descended and rested upon all of them ; the Apostles , the brethren , the women ; for then they received those great assistances which enabled them who had been designed for Embassadors to the world , to doe their great work ; and others of a lower capacity had their proportion , as the effect of the promise of the Father , and a mighty verification of the truth of Christianity . Now all these powers which Christ had given to his Apostles were by some means or other to be transmitted to succeeding persons , because the severall Ministeries were to abide for ever . All nations were to be converted , a Church to be gathered and continued , the new Converts to be made Confessors , and consigned with baptism , sins to be remitted , flocks to be fed and guided , and the Lords death declared , represented , exhibited , and commemorated untill his second coming . And since the powers of doing these offices , are acts of free and gracious concession , emanations of the holy Spirit , and admissions to a vicinity with God , it is not onely impudence and sacriledge in the person , falsly to pretend , that is , to bely the holy Ghost , and thrust into these offices , but there is an impossibility in the thing , it is null in the very deed doing , to handle these mysteries without some appointment by God ; unlesse he calls and points out the person , either by an extraordinary or by an ordinary vocation ; Of these I must give a particular account . The extraordinary calling was first , that is , the immediate ; for the first beginning of a lasting necessity , is extraordinary , and made ordinary in succession , and by continuation of a fixed and determined Ministery . The first of every order hath another manner of constitution , then all the whole succession . The rising of the spring is of greater wonder , and of more extraordinary and latent reason , then the descent of the current ; and the derivation of the powers of the holy Ghost that make the Priestly order , are just like the creation , the first man was made with Gods own hands , and all the rest by God , cooperating with a humane act ; and there is never the same necessity as at first for God to create man. The species or kind shall never fail , but be preserved in an ordinary way : And so it is in the designation of the Ministers of Evangelicall Priesthood ; God breathed into the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the breath of the life-giving spirit ; and that breath was to be continued in a perpetuall , univocall production ; they who had received , they were also to give ; and they onely could . Grace cannot be conveyed to any man , but either by the fountain or by the channell ; by the Author , or by the Minister . God onely is the fountain and Author ; and he that makes himself the Minister whom God appointed not , does in effect make himself the Author ; for he undertakes to dispose of grace which he hath not received , to give Gods goods upon his own authority ; which he that offers at , without Gods warrant , does it onely upon his own . And so either he is the Author , or an Usurper , either the fountain , or a dry cloud , which in effect calls him either blasphemous , or sacrilegious . But the first and immediate derivation from the fountain , that onely I affirm to be miraculous , and extraordinary ; as all beginnings of essences and graces of necessity must ; those persons who receive the first issues , they onely are extraordinarily called ; all that succeed are called or designed by an ordinary vocation , because whatsoever is in the succession is but an ordinary necessity , to which God hath proportioned an ordinary Ministery ; and when it may be supplyed by the common provisions to look for an extraordinary calling , is as if a man should expect some new man to be created , as Adam was ; it is to suppose God will multiply beeings and operations without necessity . God called at first , and if he had not called , man could not have come to him in his neernesse of a holy Ministery ; he sent persons abroad , and if he had not sent they could not have gone ; but after that he had appointed by his own designation persons who should be Fathers in Christ , he called no more , but left them to call others : He first immediately gives the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the grace , and leaves this as a Depositum to the Church , faithfully to be kept till Christs second coming ; and this Depositum is the doctrine and discipline of Jesus ; he opens the door , and then left it open , commanding all to come in that way , into the Ministry and tuition of the flock , calling all that came in by windows , and posterns , and oblique ways , theeves and robbers . And it is observable , that the word vocation or calling in Scripture when it is referred to a designation of persons to the Ministery , it always signifies that which we term , calling extraordinary ; it always signifies , an immediate act of God ; which also ceased when the great necessity expired , that is , when the fountain had streamed forth abundantly , and made a current to descend without interruption . The purpose of this discourse is , that now no man should in these days of ordinary Ministery , look for an extraordinary calling nor pretend in order to vainer purposes any new necessities . They are fancies of a too confident opinion , and over-valuing of our selves , when we think the very beeing of a Church is concerned in our mistakes ; and if all the world be against us , we are not ashamed of our folly , but think truth is failed from among the children of men , and the Church is at a losse , and the current derived from the first emanations is dryed up , and then he that is boldest to publish his follies is also as apt to mistake his own boldnesse for a call from God , as he did at first his own vain opinion for a necessary truth ; and then he is called extraordinarily , and so ventures into the secrets of the Sanctuary . First , he made a necessity more then ever God made , and then himself finds a remedy that God never appointed . He that thinks every shaking of the Ark is absolute ruine to it , when peradventure it was but the weaknesse of his own eyes that made him fancy what was not , may also think he heares a call from above to support it , which indeed was nothing but a noyse in his own head : And there is no cure for this , but to cure the man , and set his head right . For he that will pretend any thing that is beyond ordinary , as he that will say he hath two reasonable soules within him , or three wills , is not to be confuted but by Physick , or by tying him to abjure his folly till he were able to prove it . But God by promising that his Church should abide forever , and that the gates of hell should not prevail against it , but that himself would be with her to the end of the world , hath sufficiently confuted the vanity of those men , who that they might thrust themselves into an office , pretend the dissolution of the very beeing of the Church : For if the Church remains in her beeing , let her corruptions be what they will , the ordinary Prophets have power to reform them ; and if they doe not , every man hath power to complain , so he does it with peace , and modesty , and truth , and necessity . 2. And there is no need of an extraordinary calling to amend such things which are certain , foreseen events ; and such were heresies and corruption in doctrine and manners , for which God appointed an ordinary Ministery to take cognisance and make a remedy , for which himself when he had told us , heresies must needs be , yet made no provisions extraordinary , but left the Church sufficiently instructed by her Rule , and guided by her Pastors . 3 When Christ meanes to give us a new Law , then he will give us a new Priesthood , a new Ministery : One will not be changed without the other ; God now no more comes in a mighty rushing winde , but in a still voice , in the gentle homilies of ordinary Prophets ; and now that the Law by which we are to frame our understandings and our actions is established , we must not expect an Apostle to correct every abuse ; for if they will not hear Moses and the Prophets , if one should come from the dead or an Angel come from heaven , it is certain they will not be entertained , but till the wonder be over , and the curiosity of news be satisfied . Against this , it is pretended that Christ promised to be with his Church for ever , upon condition the Church would do their duty ; but they being but a company of men , have power to choose , and they may choose amisse ; and if all should doe so , Christs promises may fail us , though not fail of their intentions ; and then in this case the Church failing , either there must be an extraordinary calling of single persons , or else any man may enter into the ordinary way , which is all one with an extraordinary : for it is extraordinary that common persons should by necessity be drawn into an imployment which by ordinary vocation they are not to meddle with . Against this we can ( thanks be to God for it ) pretend the experience of 16 ages ; for hitherto it hath ever been in the Christian Church , that God hath preserved a holy Clergy in the same proportion as he hath preserved a holy people ; never yet were the Clergy all Antichristian , in the midst of Christian Churches ; and we have no reason to fear it will be so now , after so long an experience to expound the promises of our Lord to the sense of a perpetuall Ministery and a perpetual Church , by the means of ordinary ministrations . And how shall the Church be supposed to fail since God hath made no provisions for its restitution ? For by what means should the Church be renewed and Christianity restored ? Not by Scripture ? For we have no certainty that the Scriptures which we have this day , are the same which the Apostles delivered , and shall remain so for ever ; but onely 1. the reputation and testimony of all Christian Churches , ( which also must transmit the same by a continuall successive testimony to the following , or else they will be of an uncertain faith , ) and 2. the confidence of the divine providence and goodnesse , who will not let us want what is fit for us , that without which we cannot attain the end to which in mercy he hath designed us . Now the same Arguments which we have for the continuation of Scripture , we have for the perpetuity of a Christian Clergy , that is , besides the so long actuall succession and continuance , we have the goodnesse and unalterable sweetnesse of the divine mercies , who will continue such Ministeries which himself hath made the ordinary means of salvation ; he would not have made them the way to heaven and of ordinary necessity , if he did not mean to preserve them : indeed if the ordinary way should fail , God will supply another way to them that doe their duty ; but then Scripture may as well fail as the ordinary succession of the Clergy ; they both were intended but as the ordinary ministeries of salvation , and if Scripture be kept for the use of the Church , it is more likely the Church will be preserved in its necessary constituent parts then the Scripture ; because Scripture is preserved for the Church , it is kept that the Church might not fail . For as for the fancy that all men being free agents may choose amisse ; suppose that ; but then may they not all consent to the corruption or destroying of Scripture ? yea , but God will preserve them from that , or will overrule the event : yea , but how doe they know that ? what revelation have they ? yet grant that too , but why then will he not also over-rule the event in the matter of universall Apostasie ? for both of them are matter of choyce . But then that all the Clergy should consent to corrupt Scripture , or to loose their faith , is a most unreasonable supposition ; for supposing there is a naturall possibility , yet it is morally impossible ; and we may as well fear that all the men of the world will be vitious upon the same reason ; for if all the Clergy may , then all the people may , and you may as well poyson the Sea , as poyson all the springs ; and it is more likely all the Ideots and the ordinary persons in the world should be cousened out of their religion , then that all the wise men and Antistites , the Teachers , Doctors , and publick Ministers of religion should . And when all men turn Mariners , or Apothecaries , or that all men will live single lives , and turn Monks , and so endanger the species of mankind to perish , ( for there is a great fear of that too ) that is , when all the world choose one thing ( for if two men doe , two thousand may doe it if they will , and so may all upon this ground ) then also we may fear that all the Governours of the Church may fail , because some doe , and more have , and all may ; till then , there will be no need of an extraordinary commission ; but the Church shall goe on upon the stock of the first calling , and designation , which was extraordinary . The Spirit issued out at first miraculously , and hath continued running still in the first channels by ordinary conducts , and in the same conveyances it must run still , or it cannot without a miracle derive upon us , who stand at infinite distance from the fountain . Since then there is now no more expectation of an extraordinary calling ( and to do so were an extraordinary vanity ) it remains that the derivation of the ministeriall power be by an ordinary conveyance . The Spirit of God in Scripture hath drawn a line , and chalked out the path that himself meant to tread in giving the graces of Evangelicall ministrations . At first , after that Christ had named twelve , ( one whereof was lost ) they not having an expresse command for the manner of ordination , took such course as reason and religion taught them . They named two persons , and prayed God to choose one ; and to manifest it by lot ; which was a way lesse then the first designation of the other eleven ; and yet had more of the extraordinary in it , then could be reasonably continued in an ordinary succession . The Apostles themselves had not as yet received skill enough how to officiate in their ordinary ministery , because the Holy Ghost was not yet descended . But when the Holy Ghost descended , then the work was to begin ; the Apostles wanted no power necessary for the main work of the Gospel ; but now also they received Commissions to dispense the Spirit to all such purposes to which he was intended . They before had the office in themselves , but it was not communicable to others , till the Spirit , the anointing from above , ranne over to the fringes of the Priests garments ; they had it but in imperfection and unactive faculties ; So saith Theophylact : He breathed , not now giving to them the perfect gift of the Holy Ghost , for that he intended to give at Pentecost : but he prepared them for the fuller reception of it . They had the gift before , but not the perfect consummation of it , that was reserved for the great day ; and because the power of consecration is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or perfection of the Priestly order , it was the proper emanation of this days glory , then was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the perfection of what power Christ had formerly consigned . For of all faculties , that is not perfect which produces perfect and excellent actions in a direct line , actions of a particular sort ; but that which produces the actions , and enables others to doe so too ; for then the perfection is inherent , not onely formally , but virtually and eminently ; and that 's the crown of habits , and naturall faculties . Now besides the reasonablenesse of the thing , this is also verified by a certainty that will not easily fail us ; by experience and ex postfacto ; For as we doe not find the Apostles had before Pentecost a productive power , which made them call for a miracle , or a speciall providence by lots , so we are sure that immediately after Pentecost they had it : for they speedily began to put it in execution and it is remarkable , that the Apostles did not lay hands upon Mathias he being made Apostle before the descent of the Holy Ghost : they had no power to doe it , they were not yet made Ministers of the Spirit ; which because afterwards presently they did , concludes fairly that at Pentecost they were amongst other graces made the ordinary Ministers of Ordination . This I say is certain , that the holy Ghost descending at Pentecost , they instantly did officiate in their ministeriall offices , they preached , they baptized , they confirmed and gave the holy Spirit of obsignation , and took persons into the Lot of their Ministery , doing of it by an externall rite and solemn invocation : and now the extraordinary way did cease ; God was the fountain of the power , but man conveyed it by an externall rite ; And of this Saint Paul who was the onely exception from the common way , takes notice ; calling himself an Apostle , not of man , nor by man , but by Jesus Christ ; implying that he had a speciall honour done , to be chosen an Apostle in an extraordinary way ; therefore others might be Apostles , and yet not so as he was ; for else his expression had been all one , as if one should say Titius the sonne of a man , not begotten of an Angell , or Spirit , nor produced by the Sunne or Starre , but begotten by a man of a woman : the discourse had been ridiculous , for no man is born otherwise ; and yet he also had something of the ordinary too ; for in an extraordinary manner he was sent to be ordained in an ordinary ministery . And yet because the ordinary ministery was setled , Saint Paul was called to an account for so much of it as was extraordinary ; and was tyed to doe that which every man now is bound to doe , that shall pretend a calling extraordinary , viz. to give an extraordinary proof of his extraordinary calling : which when he had done in the College of Jerusalem , the Apostles gave him the right hand of fellowship , and approved his vocation ; which also shews , that now the way of Ordination was fixed and declared to be by humane ministery ; of which I need no other proof but the instances of Ordinations recorded in Scripture , and the no instances to the contrary , but of Saint Paul , whose designation was as immediate as that of the 11 Apostles , though his Ordination was not . I end this with the saying of Job the Monk : Concerning the Order of Priesthood it is supernaturall and unspeakable . He that yesterday and the day before was in the form of Ideots , and private persons , to day by the power of the Holy Ghost , and the voice of the chief Priest , and laying on of hands , receives so great an improvement and alteration , that he handles and can consecrate the divine mysteries of the holy Church , and becomes ( under Christ ) a Mediator [ Ministeriall ] between God and man , and exalted to hallow himself and sanctifie others : The same almost with the words of Gregory Nyssen , in his book De sancto baptismate . This is the summe of the preceding discourses ; God is the Consecrator ; man is the Minister ; the separation is mysterious and wonderfull ; the power great and secret ; the office , to stand between God and the people , in the ministery of the Evangelicall rites ; the calling to it ordinary , and by a setled Ministery , which began after the descent of the holy Ghost in Pentecost . This great change was in nothing expressed greater , then that Saul upon his Ordination changed his name , which Saint Chrysostome observing , affirms the same of S. Peter . I conclude , Differentiam inter ordinem & plebem constituit Ecclesiae authoritas & honor per ordin is consessum sanctificatus à Deo , saith Tertullian . The authority of the whole Church of God hath made distinction between the person ordained and the people , but the honour and power of it is derived from the sanctification of God : It is derived from him , but conveyed by an ordinary Ministery of his appointing : Whosoever therefore with unsanctified , that is , with unconsecrated hands shall dare to officiate in the ministerial office , separate by God , by gifts , by graces , by publick order , by an established rite , by the institution of Jesus , by the descent of the holy Ghost , by the word of God , by the practise of the Apostles , by the practise of sixteen ages of the Catholick Church , by the necessity of the thing , by reason , by analogy to the discourse of all the wise men that ever were in the world ; that man like his predecessor Corah brings an unhallowed Censer , which shall never send up a right cloud of incense to God , but yet that unpermitted , and disallowed smoak shall kindle a fire , even the wrath of God which shall at least destroy the sacrifice : His work shall be consumed , and when upon his repentance himself escapes , yet it shall be so as by fire that is , with danger , and losse , and shame , and trouble . For our God is a consuming fire . Remember Corah and all his company . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The End. The Printer to the Reader . THe absence of the Author , and his inconvenient distance from London , hath occasioned some lesser escapes in the impression of these Sermons , and the Discourse annexed . The Printer thinks it the best instance of pardon if his Escapes be not layd upon the Author , and he hopes they are no greater then an ordinary understanding may amend , and a little charity may forgive . A Table to both the Volumes of Sermons . A. WHo shall be the Accusers of sinners , that belong not to life in the great judgement , Vol. 1. p. 23 Almes : wherein and how far our respects to the duties of justice may withhold our hands from giving almes , 1. 183 Of the Angel Guardian , 1. 263. C Athanasius being overtaken by his persecutors in his flight from them , how he concealed himself , 2. 260 Atheism ; the folly of it , 1. 262. B B. Bishop : whether the calling of a King or a Bishop is to be preferred , 1. 174 C. Celibate : a comparison between it and marriage , 1. 223 Certainty of salvation : how to confute such vain confidences , 1. 87 Comfort : we must in our discourse comfort our brethren where there is cause , 1. 327 Complying : of complying with superiors in their sins , by imitation of them , 2. 206. B Conscience : the torments of an unquiet conscience described and considered , 1. 20 Confession : of revealing secrets delivered under the seal of Confession , 1. 306. D Covetousnesse in Scripture hath other names besides its own , 1. 302. A Cursing , 1. 317 Custome ; its ill effects upon man. 1. 267 D. Dreams ; the vanity of them , 1. 121 Deceit : various sorts of men , that do the work of the Lord deceitfully , 1. 155. & seq . Despise : who despise the mercies of God , 2. 167. D. their condition dangerous , 168 Detraction , 1. 312. E Doctrines ; how we are to try them , 2. 285 & 275 E. Eccles. 12. 5. explicated , 1. 115 Ephes. 1. 4 , 5. explicated , 2. 301 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; what St. Paul meant by it , 1. 301. D Evill nature ; how one may cure it in himself , 1. 147 F. Faith : divers sorts of insufficient faith , 1. 169 Fasting , 1. 188 Fear ; its severall acceptions , 1. 86. the properties of a religious fear , 1. 88. & seq . of fear in times of persecution , 1. 102 Flattery , 1. 318 severall wayes of it , 1. 320 Flesh ; the weaknesse of flesh , and its naturall powers , 1. 128 Fortune : disadvantages of a great fortune , 1. 179 G. God : a scheme of what he hath done for us in order to our salvation , 1. 24. the manner of jealousie in God , 2. 29. B. that it is not injust in God to punish one for the sin of another , 2. 35. D. his ends in doing it , 2. 36. B. in what instances he punishes one person for the sin of another , 2. 37. D. how God can be glorified by us , 2. 53. the goodnesse of God towards us , 2. 146 , & 148 , & 149. how great impiety to despise such goodnesse , 2. 150. E. his long suffering towards us , 2. 153 , & 159. his not punishing sinners , sometimes no mercy , 2. 163. Gospel ; the mysterious articles thereof , 2. 2. that they could be revealed by none but the Spirit , Ib. nor can be received but by the help of the Spirit , 2. 3. why the Gospel is called Spirit , 2. 4. the Gospel a covenant of sufferings , 2. 107. C. & 108 , & seq . Grace : what is the state of grace , 2. 155. he is not in the state of grace , who retains affections to any one sin , 2. 155. degrees of increasing grace , 2. 178. how to discern our growth in grace , 2. 180. & seq . the manner of its growth , 2. 192. E. a caution to be taken with the rules of discerning our growth in grace , 2. 194. signes of growth in grace given by some , 2. 195 H. Heart ; reasons why God chooseth to be served by it principally , 1. 155. weaknesse of the heart in relation to good actions , 2. 83. its strength in lusts and sinfull passions , 2. 84. its deceitfulnesse , 2. 102. & vol. 2. ser. 7. per tot . it is deceitfull in its purposes and resolutions , 2. 87. in its designes , 2. 89. our hearts are blinde , 2. 92. by what means the heart of man procures its owne ignorance , 2. 94. the hardnesse of the heart , 2. 98. the heart is proud , lb. it is deeply in love with wickednesse , 2. 99. how we are to treat our hearts , 2. 102. D Hell ; the opinion of some of the primitive Fathers concerning the eternity of the pains of hell , 1. 39. Husband , the rules of his love to his Wife , 1. 234. & seq . I. Idle words , how farre forbidden or lawfull , 1. 292 Iesting , 1. 301. & seq . against profane jesting , 1. 305 Iealousie , the circumstances of it in God , 2. 29. B Impunity , not alwaies an argument of mercy , 2. 163 Ignorance , an effect of sin , 1. 26 Instruction ; that we ought to teach and instruct others , 1. 325 Intemperance in eating and drinking , an enemy to health , 1. 198 , destructive of wisdome , 1. 107. the measures of temperance in eating and drinking , 1. 109 Intercession in prayer , vol. 1. ser. 6. per tot . Ioy , what the joy of the ungodly is , 1. 145 1 Ioh. 3. 9. explained . 2. 9 Iudgment , the necessity of a day of universall Judgement , 1. 2. signes of the day of Judgement , which the Jews give , 1. 11 to be unmoved at the judgements of God on others , how dangerous a folly , 2. 168. E K. King : whether the calling of a King or Bishop is to be preferred in our choyce , 1. 174 L. Life : the necessity of holy life , 2. 72 Luke 11. 47. explicated , 2. 43. A Lukewarmnesse , in what sense God hates it , 1. 165. the reasons why , 1. 166 M. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 2. 159 Man ; God hath provided better for the naturall appetites of man then other earthly creatures , 1. 193. the vanity of mans life and strength , 2. 81. Mat. 12. 36. explicated , 1. 291 Marriage ; a comparison between it and celibate , 1. 223. rules for deportment of married persons , 1. 225 & seq . Minister ; of the efficacy of prayer made by an evill Minister , 1. 79 Miracles ; of the probation of Religion by them , 1. 46 Mirth , 1. 304 P. Pardon of sin ; the signes of it , 1. 99. not obtained without difficulty , 1. 97 Pleasures of the world no proper instruments of felicity , 1. 193. pleasures of sin considered , 1. 247. found to be troublesome in their acquisition , 1. 250. the Spirit of God is given as a preservative against it . Perseverance , 1. 176 Persecution ; the benefit and usefulnesse of persecution and suffering , 1. 120 , 121. rules for the practise of them , that are under persecution , 2. 133. & seq . Poverty , its benefits , 2. 129. E Popes of Rome , a character of them given by one . 2. 173. D Prayer ; of frequency in it , 179. a caution concerning frequency of prayer , 1. 181. E why the prayers of good men often prevail not . 1. 59 Prosperity , no argument of a just cause , 2. 125. E. we must not expect it in this life , 2. 116. prosperity of the wicked what it is , how vain , 2. 127 R. Recidivation , 1. 109. & seq Railing and reviling , 1. 313 Religion , how far it is to be preferred before secular businesse , 1. 173. how far delight in works of Religion is required , 1. 177. against compulsive courses in the propagating of Religion . 1. 185 Repentance , broken into fragments is to be suspected , 1. 92. how it glorifies God , 2. 54. A. what it is in its essence and necessary properties , 2. 55. & seq . & 66. sorrow alone is not repentance , 2. 57. there must be a dereliction of sinne , 2. 58. B. a death-bed repentance insufficient , 2. 63 , 64. & ser. 5. per tot . & 2. 68. E. there is a kinde of repentance , that is consistent with the greatest affection to sin , 2. 69. B. it ought not to be delayed , 2. 70. B. of them that are bold in sin , upon a resolution to repent , 2. 70. of what use it is , to make that question , Whether God can save a dying man that then begins to repent , 2. 74. C. when is the latest time of beginning repentance , 2. 75. how this doctrine is to be separated from despair , 2. 77. how contradicted by the mercies of Christ , 2. 78. A. the thief upon the Crosse no objection against this , 2. 78 Reproofe ; it is a duty , 1. 328. the rules of managing it , 1. 330. of bearing reproof , 2. 183 Resolving to live a good life , what efficacy it hath ( as a part of repentance ) without performance , 2. 60 Restitution : of that restitution which those sons are to make , who are made rich by the rapine and oppression of their Ancestors , 2. 44 S. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , what it is , 1. 289 D Secrets ; of revealing them , 1. 305 Sins ; how far faith and charity prevaile to the blotting out of sins , 1. 160 Sin ; its pleasures considered , 1. 247. found to be troublesome in their acquisition , 1. 250. its solly , 1. 263. it makes a man morally weak , 1. 265. the custome of it prevails against the interest of man , 1. 268. A. and against his experience , Ibid. C. it introduces basenesse upon the spirit , 1. 270. many sins directly shamefull in their nature , 1. 273. the shame that follows sin , 1. 275. & seq . sin cannot be concealed , 1. 276. C God punishes sin with sin , 1. 278. the horrid punishments of sin , 1. 280. & seq . the punishment of some sins is foreseen and usuall , 1. 282. D. whether we sin in every action , 2. 210. E. of sins of infirmity , 2. 22. & seq . we doe not sufficiently beware of sin , 2. 28. how the guilt and punishment of it is propagated , 2 , 31. D. upon whom the punishment of sin descends by propagation , 2. 34. why this guilt and punishment of sin is thus propagated , 2. 35. E. that it is not in just in God to doe so , Ib. D. Gods ends in doing it , 1. 36. B. in what cases one person is punished for the sin of another , 2. 37. D. what remedies there are against the danger of such punishments 2. 40. to be used by such sons , &c. as are partners in the guilt , Ib. & seq . by such as are innocent , 2 46. C Silence ; the praise of it , 1. 296 , & 1. 341. C. its moderation , 1. 296. E Sinners ; how God treats them , 2. 197. the orders of lesser sinners explicated , who are to be treated gently by men , 2. 199. rules and helps for the use of them , that are good men generally , but interrupt their state by some failings , 2. 214. & seq . how the hopes of their pardon stands that are grosse sinners , 2. 220 Slander , 1. 311. & 319 What is the Signe of the Son of man , mentioned , Mat. 24. 30. 1. 10 Soul ; how great a charity to save the soul of a Brother , 1. 184 Spirit ; what it is to grieve him , 1. 210. what it is to be in the Spirit , 2. 5. all that belong to Christ have the Spirit of Christ , 2. 6. how the Spirit is given in the Gospel , 2. 7. B. it is given as a remedy against worldly pleasure , 2. 8. as a remedy against sorrow , 2. 10. as an antidote against evill concupiscences , 2. 12. the measure of the Spirit in Christians compared with those measures which the Jews had , 2. 13. the effects of the Spirit in a Christian , 2. 14 , 15. He helps our infirmities in prayer , 2. 15. of praying in the Spirit , 2. 15. E. the spirituall man , and naturall man compared , 2. 23 Speaking : of much speaking , 1. 290 examples of men that abstained from speaking a long time , 1. 294. E. St. Gregory Naz. abstained from speaking one whole Lent , 1. 295. B. St. Paul the Hermit was so ashamed of a foolish question , that he spake not for 3 yeares after , 1. 295. C. Cicero affirmed , that he never spake that of which he repented , 1. 297. C. censured for it by St. Augustine , Ibid. Remedies against such speaking considered and prescribed , 1. 298. Stultiloquy , 1. 300. Scurrility , 1. 301. & seq . contentious speaking , 1. 309. the Duties of the Tongue in speaking , 1. 325 Sufferings ; Gods method in bringing them into the world , 2. 105. the Gospel a covenant of sufferings , 2. 107. C. reasons of Gods providence for the sufferings of his Children , 2. 120. C. & 130. C. the advantages of them , 2. 138. D. the end of them , 2. 144 State of separation . 2. 367 Superstition , 1. 114. & seq . per tot . Successe , no argument of a just cause , 2. 125. E. & 1. 155 Sword , not a competent instrument to propagate Religion by it , 1. 186 Swearing , 1. 307. common swearing maketh perjury common , 1. 308 T. Temperance ; the measures of temperance in eating and drinking , 1. 209 Teachers : of false teachers , 2. 94. D. how to discern them from good , 2. ●74 W. Wife : the rules of her obedience to the husband , 1. 240. & seq . of her complyance with him , 1 242 V. Vertue is to be loved for it selfe , not for the consequent reward , 2. 187 Understanding ; how it was impaired in the fall of man : not by a change of its essentiall faculties , but by impeding them , 1. 261. D Z. Zeale ; its rules , 1. 173 and excesses , 1. 185 THE END . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A63888-e1540 1. 2. 3. Florus . Rom. 4. 10. Lucan . l. 1. Notes for div A63888-e3430 Rom. 2. 5. In Psal. 103. * In Ierem. hom . 13. & in Luk. hom . 14. & Lactantius lib. 7. instit . c. 21. Hilarius in Psal. 118. octon . 3. & in Mat. can . 2. In Psal. 118. serm . 3. Heb. 4. Psal. 74. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Revel . 8. 3. Rom. 8. 26. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. Notes for div A63888-e6020 Ioel 1. Mat. 12 36. Iob 31. 14. Eph. 5. 6. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 1. 2. Xenoph. 1. 1. Mat. 25. 34. 41. Hymn . 5. lib. Cath●mer . Lib. 2. cap. 65. 1. 2. Rev. 14. 11. Rev. 20. 14. Notes for div A63888-e9440 Job 27. 9. Ps. 6. 6. 18. Prov. 1. 28. Isa. 1. 15. Ier. 14. 12. 10. Vide etiam Ps. 34. 6. Micah 3. 4. 1 Pet. 3. 12. Iam. 2. 13. Notes for div A63888-e11880 Psal. 22. 29. See 2. Sermon of lukewarmnesse and zeal . Notes for div A63888-e14170 Ezek. 14. 14. 1 Ioh. 5. 16. Chap. 42. 7 , 8. Eccles. 5. 2. Gen. 20. 7. Iudg. 17. 13. Iames 5. 14. Heb. 7. 7. Act. 6. 4. Lib. 1. ep . 4. Ad Demo. a 1. q. 1. c. sacrosancta . a Homil. 53. b In scholiis ad hunc locum . c Lib. 6 , A. D. 108. Biblioth . d Ep. 16. Biblioth . pp. tom . 3. 11. 19. e Decret . 1. q. 1. ad c. cos qui. f Lib. 6. regist . 5. in decretis & l. 7. c. 120. g De dignit . sacerd . c. 6. h Can. 9. orat . 4. de sacerd . i 1. in ep . 20. hom . 1. part . 2. ep . 27. k Ep. 9. tom . 3 ad Michael . imperator . d. in 4 dist . 13. Collat. 9. cap. 32. Ierem. 5. 1. Notes for div A63888-e17650 Vers. 25. 2. 7. Deut. 4. 24. 1 Pet. 1. 17. Deut. 10. 12. Psal. 111. 10. Eccles. 12. 13. 2 Cor. 7. 1. Ionah 1. 9. 2 King. 17. 25. Mat. 5. ad v. 10. Ioh. 1. 17. Rom. 6. 14 , 15. Rom. 6. 15. 1 Cor. 10. 22. 1 Pet. 4. 19 Apud Eurip. in Phoenissis . 1 Cor. 10. 12. * Heb. 6. 6. Heb. 10 26. 2 Pet. 2. 22. Notes for div A63888-e20570 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Mat. 9. 2. 6. 1 Pet. 1. 18. 2 Ep. 1. 3. Act. 3. 26. 1. Exod. 23. 20. 21. Ier. 2. 36. Ephes. 4. 17 , 18. Mat. 12. 45. vide 2 Pet. 2. 20. Notes for div A63888-e22730 Lib. de nat . Dcorum . Eccles. 12. 5. * 1 Cor. 10. 20. * 4. 7. 2 Rom. 11. 25. Eurip. Revel . 21. 8. Notes for div A63888-e25370 Eph. 2. 3. Plutar. Notes for div A63888-e28050 Lactantius . Euripides . Ephes. 4. 16. 1 Ioh. 5. 4. Luk. 11. 13. Mat. 7. 11. Phil. 4. 4. Ephes. 5. 18. Trinummus . Notes for div A63888-e31030 Den. 4. 27. Notes for div A63888-e33240 Prov. 18. 9. His qui sacris visis abeunt ad inferos Homines beati sunt , solis quia vivere Contingit illic istis , turba caetera Omnium malorum generi incidit . See Sermons of the Return of Prayer , Part 2 Notes for div A63888-e36040 Lam. 3. 44. Aristo . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Mat. 5. 16. 3. Iam. 3. 14. Notes for div A63888-e38370 Horace . Sence . 1. Ver. sat . 2. S. Chrysost. Notes for div A63888-e41740 Iam. 2. 6. Prudent . hym . de jejun . Clem. Alexandr . Alcaeus . 3. Chrysost. * Viz. ab Areto , unde sicut ex ali● Etruriae figulinis testacea vasa Romam des●rebant . Prov. 31. 6. Seneca . Boetius l. 3. Metr . 7. Notes for div A63888-e45700 * Quemlibet hominem cui non est uxor , minimè esse hominem , cum etiam in Scriptura dicatur , Masculum & foeminam creavit eos & vocavit no men corum Adam seu hominem . R. Eliezer dixit in Gem. Bab. Quicunque ncgligit praeceptum de multiplicatione humani generis habendum esse veluti homicidam . Christiani & apud Athenas , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 refert Julius Pollux l. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Idem etiam Laccdaemone & Romae . vide Festum verb. uxorium , atque ibi Joseph . Scal. Etiam Judaei qui praeceptum esse viris 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aiunt uno ore conc●dunt tamen dispensatum esse cum iis qui assiduo legis studio vacare volunt , aliàs etiam immunibus ab acriori carnis stimulo . Maimon . cap. 15. Halach . Ishoth . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. Epist. ad Philadelph . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Ignatius epistel . ad Philadelph . Et Clomens idem ait apud Eusebium hist. Eccles. lib. 3. sed tamen eam non circumduxit sicut Petrus : probat autem ex Philip. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Plato . Adde quòd Eunuchus nulla pietate movetur , Nec generi natis●e cavet : clementia cunctis In similes , animósque ligant consortia damni . Claudian . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Siquis patriam majorem parentem extinguit , in eo culpa est , quod facit pro sua parte qui se exnuchat aut aliquâ liberos producit , i. e. differt eorum procreationem . Varro in lege Maenia . a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. b Non ego illam mihi dotem duco esse quae dos dicitur , Sed pudicitiam & pudorem , & sedatum cupidinem , Deûm metum , parentum amorem , & cognatûm concordiam . Plaut . in Amphit . c Facies , non uxor amatur . Tres rugae subeant , & se cutis arida laxet , Fiant obscuri dentes , oculique minores , Collige sarcinutas dicet libertus , & exi . Juven . Sat. 6. Macrobius ex Varrone . Epist. ad Philadelph . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * Quaedam parva quidem , s●d non toleranda maritis . — Hujus n●rari summique voluptas Nulla boni , quoties animocorrupta superbo Plus aloes quam mellis habet — Juven . Sat. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Notes for div A63888-e48670 Exhort . ad virg . Aeneid . 6. Epithal. Juliae . Eph. 5. 25. Col. 3. 19. 1 Pet. 3. 7. * Ah lapis est , ferrumque , suam quicunque puellam Verberat , è coelo diripit ille Deos. Sit satis è membris tenuem praescindere vestem , Sit satis ornatas dissoluisse comas , Sit lachrymas movisse satis quater ille beatus , Quo tenerairato flere puella potest . Sed manibus qui saevus erit , scutúmque sudémque Is gerat , & miti sit procul à Venere . Tibull . Iliad . O. Homil. 7. Hexaem . * Felicet ter & amplius Quos irrupta tenet copula , nec malis Divulsus querimonus Suprema citius solvet amor die . Horat. Uxoris vitium tollas opus est , aut feras : Qui tollit vitium , uxorem commodiusculam Sibi praestat ; qui fert , sese meliorem facit . Varro . Eurip. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . C. alia D. solut . Matrim . Pluatus in Sticho . Gen. 5. 2. Juvenal . Esai . 3. 4. Ephes. 5. 24. Col. 3. 18. Stromat . 7. — Quis deditus autem Usque adeò est , ut non illam quam laudibus effert , Horreat , inque diem septenis oderit hor●● ? Juven . Sat. 6. 1 Pot. 3. 4. Malo Venusinam quàm te Cornelia mater Gracchorum , si cum magnis virtutibus offers Grande supercilium , & numer as in dote triumphos . Juven Sat. 6. Quid juvat ornato procedere vitta capillo , Teque peregrmis vendere muneribus , Naturaeque decus mercato perdere cultu , Nec sinere in propriis membra nitere bonis ? Propert. l. 1. el. x. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Notes for div A63888-e52400 Eccles. 11. 28. Heb. 11. 25. Juven . Hos. 13. 2 , Plat. de Rep. Notes for div A63888-e55770 Ephes. 5. Psa. 38. 4. & 65. 2 Tim. 3. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. Plutarch . Seneca de vitâ beatâ . Euripid. Ioh. 13. 27. Cypr. Ep. 76. Eurip. Notes for div A63888-e58990 Eccles. 10. 20. Homer . Ps. 119. 55 , 56. Phaedrus . Psal. 83. Psal. 33. Exod. 23. 20. Notes for div A63888-e61940 Homil. 4. in ep . Rom. Lib. 3. ep . 44 Supellex ejus 〈…〉 . Comoed . Mul●●bre ingen●um p●cluvium . Acci●s in Androme . à. Sola laboranti potuit 〈◊〉 Lunae . Matt. 12. 36. In Reg. brevior . Lib. 7. Moral . c. 17. ubi sup . in cap. 12 Matt. * in Ps. 118. * cap. 1. Eurip. Serm. de triplici custodiâ . Eurip. Plu●us . Notes for div A63888-e65280 Ephes. 1. 4 , 5. Lil. de Offic. In ep . ad Ephes. Vide St. Chrysostom . homil . 6. in Matth. vbi supra . Chap. 5. v. 12. Matth. 12. Notes for div A63888-e69010 Levit. 19. 6. Prov. 6. 17. & 26. 20. James 3. Matt. 23. 17 , 19. Luk. 24. 25. Levit. 6. Zech. 7. Luk. 3. c. 11. l. 6. c. 7. 1 Cor. 13. 5. Notes for div A63888-e73100 Prov. 27. 6. Jer. 10. 11. Notes for div A63888-e77680 * Rom. 8. 2. * Rom. 8. 2. 1 Cor. 12. 7. 1 Cor. 2. 14. Prudent . 2 Cor. 3. 6. 1 Ep. 2. chap. ver . 5. 1 Ep. 3. 9. Hebr. 6. 4. 3. Rom. 15. 13. 1 Thess. 1. 6. 1 Thess. 5. 16. Rom. 12. 12. Notes for div A63888-e80150 Rom. 1. 9. Levit. 26. 1. 1 Thess. 5. 23. Hebr. 4. 12. 2 Epist. 1. 4. Apoc. 2. 17. Philip. 1. 19. Psal. 91. 1. 2. 3. * — Tot rebus iniquis Parüimus victi : veniaest haec sola pudoris , Degenerisque metus , nil jam potuisse negari . Lucan . 2. 3. 4. Notes for div A63888-e82730 2. 2 Sam. 21. 14. 1 King. 21. 29. Hor. l. 3. od . 2. 2. Notes for div A63888-e84400 2 King 32. 13. Luke . 11. 47. Mat. 23. 31. Rom. 11. 28. Numb . 25. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Aristot. Notes for div A63888-e86020 Joshuah 7. 19. Psal. 51. 4. Rom. 3. 4. Revel . 16. 9. Ezek. 27. 31. Joel : 2. 13. see Rule of H. ●iving . D. of repentance . p. 33● . 2 Cor 7. Gal. 5. 24. Gal. 6. 15. Gal. 6. ● . 1 Cor. 7. 9. Heb. 12. 1. Revel . 2. Notes for div A63888-e87930 Acts. 20. 21. * Hebr. 6. 1 * Hebr. 6. 1 1 Cor. 11. 31. Hierocles . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . See life of H. Jesus part . 2. disc . of Repentance . * Cogimur à suetis animum suspendere rebus Atque ut vivamus , vivere desinimus . Cornel. Gal. * Nec ad rem pertinet ubi inciperet , quod placuerat ut fieret . Hor. l. 4. od . 10. Rom. 12. 1. Tit. 2. 12. 3. Luke 1. 74. Hebr. 12. 1. Ver. 3. Heb. 12. 15. Epist. 30. Titus . 2. 14. 1 Pet. 2 24. See! se of Jesus Disc. of Repentance . part 2. Arrian . Epictet l. 1. c. 15. Notes for div A63888-e90600 Arriart . * Virtutem unam si vniseris etsi amiui non potest virtus , sed si unam confessus sueris te non habere , nullam te esse habiturum ] an nescis ? Cicer. Notes for div A63888-e91730 Epict. Arrian . 1. De Divinat . l. 2 2. Aristoph : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : Act. 5. Scen. 4. Notes for div A63888-e93260 Joel . 3. Isaiah . 23. 3. James 4. 10. Matth. 5. Phil. 1. 28. James 5. 10. 1 Pet. 4. 13. 2 Thess. 1. Heb. 2. 10. 1 Pet. 4. 12. Tertul. S. Hieron . Acts 9. 15. Notes for div A63888-e96440 Jerem. 12. 1 , 2. Mala 3. 14. Ecclus. 40. 1. Matth. 5. 12 , &c. Phil. 3. 15. Job . 21. Phil. 1. 28. Notes for div A63888-e98950 2 Tim. 3. 1. 2 Tim. 3. 9. * 11. chap. 31 Hesiod Hefiod . Esay . 54. 8. Notes for div A63888-e103430 Wisd. 11. 24. Psal. 94. 9. Psal. 98. 8. Offic. 3 , Isai. 1. 4 , 5. Isai. 5. 5. Acts 13. 14. Notes for div A63888-e107980 Seneca . Ecclus. 4. 22. Notes for div A63888-e109720 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 2 Chap. 11. Ezek. 18. 24. Hom. I li. ● Hic ubi dissuetae sylvis in carcere clausae Mansuevere ferae , & ●ultus posuêre minaces Atque hominem didicere pati si torrida parvu● Venit in ora cruor , redeunt rabiesque , furorque . Acts 7. 22. 2. 3. 4. Chap. 4. 1 , 3. Cha. 4. ver . ult . Notes for div A63888-e112690 Hor. l 1. ●at . 3. Rare volte hà fame chjsta sempre à tavola Notes for div A63888-e114060 Matth. 10. 27. Notes for div A63888-e115890 Eph. 5. 16. Col. 4. 5. Notes for div A63888-e117700 Sophocl . Notes for div A63888-e118770 2 Tim. 3. 4. 5. 2 Pet. 2. 10. vers . 8. ep . Jude . Eloquia Domini casta eloquia 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Colos. 2 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. Plut. Phaedon Notes for div A63888-e121390 Orat. 21. Dissert . 1. de regno . Can. Eth. So Cicero . lib. 3. offic . Notes for div A63888-e122830 Lib. 8. in●●it . Cicero . Quae. 10. super Joshuam lib. 1. de sacerdotio . Hist l. 16. cap. 6 Ephes. 4. 25. Notes for div A63888-e124430 Vide Serm. II. Judges 13. John Revel . 22. 9. de bono patientiae Homil. 8. in Evange . 1 Cor. 6. 3. Notes for div A63888-e126880 Eccles. 12. Life of H. Jesus . part 3. Disc. 14. Notes for div A63888-e128200 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Jonah 4. 2. Exod. 34. 6. Notes for div A63888-e130870 3. a 2 Tim. 1. 18. Il. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Vide 1 Cor. 15. 18. 1 Thess. 4. 16. Revel . 14. 13. John 5. 24. 2 Cor. 5. 8. & 6. 1 Thes. 5. 10. Notes for div A63888-e133470 Prov. 2. 17. Notes for div A63888-e134710 1. 2. a Valer. Maxim. l. 1. c. 1. Philostr . lib. 2. 3. b Dion hist. li. 54 c A. Gell. lib. 10. c. 15. d Ibid. Lib. 3. De praescript . c. 40. Hujus sunt partes invertendi veritatem , qui ipsas quoque res sacramentorum divinorum in idolorum mysteriis aemulatur . Tingit & ipse quosdam utique credentes & fideles suos : expiationem delictorum de lavacro re-promittit , & sic adhut initiat Mithrae : signat illic in srontibus milites suos , celebrat & panis oblationem & imaginem resurrectionis inducit , & sub gladio redimit coronam . Quid , quod & summum Pontificem in unis nuptiis statuit ? habet & virgines , habet & continentes . Qui ergo ipsas res de quibus sacramenta Christi administrantur tam amulanter affectavit exprimere in negotiis idololatriae , utique & idem & eodem ingenio gestiit , & potuit instrumenta quoque divinarum rerum et sanctorum Christianorum sensum de sensibus , verba de verbis , parabolas de parabolis , profanae & aemulae sidei attemperare . 4. e Censor . de die natal . c. 1. 5. f Sueton. in Vesp●s . Livi. decad . 1. lib. 10. 6. Lib. 4. de factis & dict . Socr. 7. Stromat . 3. Lib. 4. praepar . Evangel . 8. 9. 10. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . In ordinat . Episc. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. 12. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 13. 1 Sam. 10. 5. & 10. Acts 3. 24. 1 Sam. 19. 18. 14. Iliad . μ. vide 1. li. Eustath . Plautus in Rudent . 15. Cicero lib. 2. de leg . Tertulli . adv . psychicos c. 13. Ibid. Lib. 3. Annal. Lib. 4. Annal. 16. a Strabo Geogr. lib. 17. b Aelian : var. hist. lib. 14. c. 34. Joseph . antiq . lib. 14. c. 16. Caesar com . de bello Gall. li. 6. Eustath . in Il. a. Porphirius citat ex Eurip. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 1. 2. 3. John 20. 21. Vide Socrat. li. 1. c. 7. Sozom. l. 1. c. 20. 4. 2 Cor. 5. 20. 5. James 5. a In John 20. b Ibid. c In 1 Tim. 4. d Homil. 26. in Evang. e Quest. 93. 1. Mat. 28. 19 , 20. 2. 3. Apud Tacitum lib. 18. Arist. lib. 4. Polit. c. 4. A. Gellius . lib. 19. c. 10. Barthol . in l. Judices . Cod. de dignit . l. 12. Baldus in l. nemini . C. de advo . divers . judic . 4. 5. 6. 7. Lib. 8. c. 26. In exhort . ad castitatem . Lib. 4. c. 9. Lib. de virg . c. 19. Heres . 79. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . In 1 Tim. c. 3. 1 Tim. 2. 12. 8. 9. 10. 11. 1 Cor. 12. 4. Vers. 28. 12. Ephes. 4. 11. 13. 14. Eustath . in Iliad . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 15. 1 Pet. 5. 1 , 2. 16. 1 Tim. 5. 1. 2. a Epist. ad Heron. b Lib. de bapt . c Epist. 1. c. 9. d Haeres . 79. e Dial. ad Lucifer . 3. Dial. adv . Lucifer . Can. 38. Ruffin . lib. 10. c. 14. Can. mulier de consecr . dist . li. 4. sent . dist . 6. a Epist. 1. b Lib. 2. Contr. Epist. Parmen . c. 13. c Lib. 2. de di . vin . off . c. 24. 4. 5. * Lib. 2. Contr. Epist. Parmen . c. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Haeres . 19. De bapt . adv . Lucifer . 6. 7. Eurip. 8. De captivit . Babyl . c. de ordine , & in l. deinstituendis ministris and senatum Pragensem in l. de missâ abrogandâ , in l. de notis ecclesiae . a Can. 13. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. De praescript . haeres . 42. b Tertullian de baptismo . c Tractat. de sacramento cap. de baptismo . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 14. Acts 2. 38. 1. 1 Cor. 4. 1. Ad Caecil . Ep. 63. Si Jesus Christus dominus & Deus noster ipse est summus sacerdos Dei patris & sacrificium Patri seipsum primus obtulit , & hoc fieri in sui commemorationem praecepit , utique ille sacerdos vice Christi vere sungitur qui id quod Christus fecit , imitatur : & sacrificium verum & plenum tunc offert in Ecclesiâ Deo Patri , si incipiat offerre secundum quod ipsum Christum videat obtulisse . 2. Orat. 11. 3. Heb. 7. 23. &c. And 8. v. 2 , 3. &c. 4. 5. 6. Vide etiam Justin. in Apol. 2. a Epist. ad Trallian . b Lib. 1. c. 31. & lib. 8. c. ult . c De praescript . d Lib. 1. Ep. 2. & 9. & lib. 3. Epist. 15. e Apol. 2. cum de Ischirâ rationem reddit cum calice sacro uti non potuisse . f Haeres . 79. g Lib. 2. de bapt . c. 8. h Lib. 3. & 6. de sacerd . Homil. 51. & 83. in Matth. & hom . 60. ad pop . An. ioch . i Contr. Lucifer . & Ep. 1. ad . Heliodor . & 85. ad Evagrium & ad Hedito . 150. 9. 2. k Lib. 20. de Civ . c. ●0 . 7. Heb. 10. 26. 8. 9. 1 Pet. 2. 9. Exod. 19. 6. 10. Lib. 3. de saccr . Apud Euseb. hist. lib. 5. c. 25. De script . in Iacobo Haeres . 78. 1 Tim. 1. 3. Orat. 1. 1 Tim. 5. 17. Heb. 13. 17. 2 Cor. 2. 9. 1 Thes. 5. 12. Gal. 6. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Can. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Eccles. Hierarch . Dionys. ibid. 2. Heb. 5. 5. 3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Heb. 5. Acts 1. 24. 4. Chrysost. lib. 3. de Sacerdot . Quippe non mortalis quispiam , non Angelus , non Archangelus , non alia quaevis creat a potentia , sed ipse Para●l●tus ordinem esusmodi disposuit . James 1. 17. 2 Cor. 1. 21. verse 22. John 6. 27. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * In Ora. in laudem sui patris . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 6. Epist. 45. De dignit . Sacer. c. 5. & in comment . in 1 Tim. c. 2. & in 1 Cor. 12. in illud [ Divisiones gratiarum . ] 1. 2. Job 42. 8. 3. 4. 5. Cap. ult . de Eccles . Hier. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 6 In Exposit. Liturg. Epist. 59. q. 5. Cap. 27. de spi. S. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 7. b Apol. 2. pro Christianis li. 8 contra Cels. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Matth. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c Lib. 3. de Tri. cap. 4. d Quis patiatur ut mensarum & viduarum minister supra cos se tumidus esserat , ad quorum proces , Christi corpus sanguisque consicitur ? ● Lib. 4. de side cap. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Vide Optat. Mil●vit . lib. 6. contra Parmenian . 8. S. Cyprian lib. 5. c. ult . Eusebius Emissen . Serm. 5. de Paschate . De Iteratione in consultat . 9. 10. 11. a De iteratione . Atque hinc adeo credo Apostolicas ipsas jam inde ab initio Ecclesias aliquas , hujusmodi preces ad mysteriorum celebrationem adhibuisse ; imo Christum ipsum non solâ verborum recitatione , sed etiam eulogiâ ante ipsam mysteriorum confectionem , & postea hymmo usum fuisse manifestum est . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 12. Lib. 3. de bap . contr . Donat. c. 16. Epist. 92. 1 Jer. 10. 13. Lib. 31. de bapt . con . Donat. c. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in consecrat . Episc. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 15. 16. 17. a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . c Gratiam Apostolis à Christo collatam qua sanctificarentur : ut per spiritum sanctum à propriis peccatis absolverenture . Lib. 12. in 10. cap. 56. 18. d Homil. in 8uas . Paschae . e Lib. 2. cap. ult . de adulter . conjug . f Sozo . l. 7. c. 10. 19. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Acts 13. 2. 16. 10. Heb. 5. 4. 5. 10. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Volket lib. 6. cap. 18. 11. 12. Ibid. cap. 19. 13. 14. 15. Theophylact. in 20. Johan . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Tract . de Sacrament . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 17. 18. Homil. 28. in Acta 18. Exhort . ad castitat . 
A63641	----	Antiquitates christianæ, or, The history of the life and death of the holy Jesus as also the lives acts and martyrdoms of his Apostles : in two parts. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. 1675 Approx. 3573 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 378 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-10 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A63641 Wing T287 ESTC R19304 11760153 ocm 11760153 48662 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A63641) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 48662) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 551:9) Antiquitates christianæ, or, The history of the life and death of the holy Jesus as also the lives acts and martyrdoms of his Apostles : in two parts. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. Great exemplar of sanctity and holy life according to the christian institution. Cave, William, 1637-1713. Antiquitates apostolicae, or, The lives , acts and martyrdoms of the holy apostles of our Saviour. Cave, William, 1637-1713. Lives, acts and martydoms of the holy apostles of our Saviour. [750] p. : ill., port. Printed by R. Norton for R. Royston ..., London : 1675. Part 1, subdivided into three sections, each with special t.p. Part 1, fifth edition. Reproduction of the original in Bristol Public Library, Bristol, England. Pt. 1: The great exemplar of sanctity and holy life according to the Christian institution / Jer. Taylor -- Pt. 2: Antiquitates apostolicae, or, The lives, acts and martyrdoms of the holy apostles of our Saviour / William Cave. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO. 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Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Jesus Christ -- Biography. Bible. -- N.T. -- Biography. Apostles -- Early works to 1800. Fathers of the church -- Early works to 1800. 2000-00 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2001-00 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2001-07 Jason Bredle Sampled and proofread 2005-03 John Latta Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-04 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion Antiquitates Christianae : OR , THE HISTORY OF THE Life and Death OF THE HOLY JESUS : AS ALSO THE LIVES , ACTS and MARTYRDOMS OF HIS APOSTLES . IN TWO PARTS . The First Part , containing the Life of CHRIST , Written by JER . TAYLOR , late Lord Bishop of Down and Connor . The Second , containing the Lives of the APOSTLES , with an Enumeration , and some Brief Remarks upon their first Successors in the Five Great APOSTOLICAL CHURCHES ; By WILLIAM CAVE , D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to His MAJESTY . By whom also is added an APPARATUS , or Discourse Introductory to the whole Work , concerning the Three Great Dispensations of the Church , Patriarchal , Mosaical and Evangelical . Orig. c●ntr . Cels. lib. 1. d● Pr●●●● , p. 1 , 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LONDON , Printed by R. Norton , for R. Royston , Bookseller to his most Sacred Majesty , at the Angel in Amen-Corner , M DC LXXV . THE ANNUNTIATION . Ave gratiâ plena ; Dominus tecum ; Benedicta tu inter mulieres . Hail thou full of grace . y e Lord is with thee ; Blessed art thou among women . Luke 1. 28. Will : Fathorne sculp . ANTIQUITATES CHRISTIANAE OR The Life and Death of the Holy JESUS AS ALSO The Lives Acts and Martyrdoms of his Apostles . London Printed for R : Royston at the Angell in Amen Corner . 1675. TO THE Right Honourable , and Right Reverend Father in God NATHANAEL , Lord BISHOP of DURHAM , And Clerk of the Closet to His MAJESTY . MY LORD , NOTHING but a great experience of Your Lordships Candor could warrant the laying what concernment I have in these Papers at Your Lordships feet . Not but that the subject is in it self Great and Venemble , and a considerable part of it built upon that Authority that needs no Patronage to defend it : But to prefix Your Lordships Name to a subject so thinly and meanly manag'd , may perhaps deserve a bigger Apologie than I can make . I have only brought some few scattered handfuls of Primitive Story , contenting my self to Glean , where I could not Reap . And I am well assur'd , that Your Lordships wisdom and love to Truth would neither allow me to make my Materials , nor to trade in Legends and Fabulous reports . And yet alas ! how little solid Foundation is left to Build upon in these matters ? So fatally mischievous was the carelessness of those who ought to have been the Guardians of Books and Learning in their several Ages , in suffering the Records of the Ancient Church to perish . Vnfaithful Trustees , to look no better after such Divine and inestimable Treasures committed to them . Not to mention those infinite Devastations that in all Ages have been made by Wars and Flames , which certainly have prov'd the most severe and merciless Plagues and Enemies to Books . By such unhappy accidents as these we have been robb'd of the Treasures of the wiser and better Ages of the World , and especially the Records of the first times of Christianity , whereof scarce any footsteps do remain . So that in this Enquiry I have been forc'd to traverse remote and desert paths , ways that afford little fruit to the weary Passenger : but the consideration , that it was Primitive and Apostolical , sweetned my journey , and rendred it pleasant and delightful . Our inbred thirst after knowledge naturally obliges us to pursue the notices of former times , which are recommended to us with this peculiar advantage , that the Stream must needs be purer and clearer , the nearer it comes to the Fountain ; for the Ancients ( as Plato speaks ) were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , better than we , and dwelt nearer to the Gods. And though'tis true the 〈◊〉 of those times is very obscure and dark , and truth oft covered over with heaps of idle and improbable Traditions ; yet may it be worth our labour to seek for a few Jewels , though under a whole 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 heap of Rubbish . Is not the Gleaning of the Ancients ( say the Jews ) better than the Vintage of later times ? The very fragments of Antiquity are Venerable , and at once instruct our minds , and gratifie our curiosity . Besides , I was somewhat the more inclinable to retire again into these studies , that I might get as far as I could from the crowd and the noise of a quarrelsome and contentious Age. MY LORD , We live in times , wherein Religion is almost wholly disputed into talk and clamour , men wrangle eternally about useless and insignificant Notions , and which have no tendency to make a man either wiser or better . And in these quarrels the Laws of Charity are violated , and men persecute one another with hard names and characters of reproach , and after all consecrate their fierceness with the honourable title of Zeal for Truth . And what is yet a much sorer evil , the Peace and Order of an excellent Church , incomparably the best that ever was since the first Ages of the Gospel , is broken down , her holy Offices derided , her solemn Assemblies deserted , her Laws and Constitutions slighted , the Guides and Ministers of Religion despised , and reduc'd to their Primitive Character , The Scum and Off-scouring of the World. How much these evils have contributed to the 〈◊〉 and Impiety of the present Age , I shall not take upon me to determine . Sure I am , the thing it self is too sadly visible , men are not content to be modest and retired Atheists , and with the Fool to say only in their hearts , there is no God ; but 〈◊〉 appears with an open forehead , and disputes its place in every company , and without any regard to the Voice of Nature , the Dictates of Conscience , and the common sence of Mankind , men peremptorily determine against a Supreme Being , account it a pleasant divertisement to Droll upon Religion , and a piece of Wit to plead for Atheism . To avoid the 〈◊〉 and troublesome importunity of such uncomfortable Reflections , I find no better way , than to retire into those Primitive and better times , those first and purest Ages of the Gospel , when men really were , what they pretended to be , when a solid Piety and Devotion , a strict Temperance and Sobriety , a Catholick and unbounded Charity , an exemplary Honesty and Integrity , a great reverence for every thing that was Divine and Sacred , rendred Christianity Venerable to the World , and led not only the Rude and the Barbarous , but the Learned and Politer part of Mankind in triumph after it . But , My Lord , I must remember that the Minutes of great Men are Sacred , and not to be invaded by every tedious impertinent address . I have done , when I have begg'd leave to acquaint Your Lordship , that had it not been more through other mens fault than my own , these Papers had many Months since waited upon You in the number of those Publick Congratulations , which gave You joy of that great Place , which You worthily sustain in the Church . Which that You may long and prosperously enjoy , happily adorn , and successfully discharge to the honour of God , the benefit of the Church , and the endearing Your Lordships Memory to Posterity , is the hearty Prayer of , My Lord , Your Lordships faithfully devoted Servant , WILLIAM CAVE . TO THE READER . THE design of the following APPARATUS is only to present the Reader with a short Scheme of the state of things in the preceding periods of the Church , to let him see by what degrees and measures the Evangelical state was introduc'd , and what Methods God in all Ages made use of to conduct Mankind in the paths of Piety and Vertue . In the Infancy of the World he taught men by the Dictates of Nature , and the common Notices of Good and Evil ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Philo calls them , the most Ancient Law ) by lively Oracles , and great Examples of Piety . He set forth the Holy Patriarchs ( as Chrysostom observes ) as Tutors to the rest of Mankind , who by their Religious lives might train up others to the practice of Vertue , and as Physicians , be able to cure the minds of those , who were infected and overrun with Vice. Afterwards ( says he ) having sufficiently testified his care of their welfare and happiness by many instances of a wise and benign Providence towards them both in the land of Canaan and in Egypt , he gave them Prophets , and by them wrought Signs and Wonders , together with innumerable other expressions of his bounty . At last finding that none of these Methods did succeed , not Patriarchs , not Prophets , not Miracles , not daily Warnings and Chastisements brought upon the World , he gave the last and highest instance of his love and goodness to Mankind , he sent his only begotten Son out of his own bosom , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the great Physician both of Soul and Body , who taking upon him the form of a Servant , and being born of a Virgin , conversed in the World , and bore our sorrows and infirmities , that by rescuing Humane Nature from under the weight and burden of Sin , he might exalt it to Eternal Life . A brief account of these things is the main intent of the following Discourse , wherein the Reader will easily see , that I considered not what might , but what was fit to be said , with respect to the end I designed it for . It was drawn up under some more disadvantageous circumstances , than a matter of this nature did require ; which were it worth the while to represent to the Reader , might possibly plead for a softer Censure . However such as it is , it is submitted to the Readers Ingenuity and Candor . W. C. IMPRIMATUR . THO. TOMKYNS . Ex AEd. Lambeth . Feb. 25. 1674. AN APPARATUS OR Discourse Introductory TO THE Whole WORK , concerning the Three Great Dispensations OF THE CHURCH , PATRIARCHAL , MOSAICAL , and EVANGELICAL . SECT . I. Of the PATRIARCHAL Dispensation . The Tradition of Elias . The three great Periods of the Church . The Patriarchal Age. The Laws then in force natural or positive . Natural Laws what ; evinced from the testimony of natural conscience . The 〈◊〉 Precepts of the Sons of Noah . Their respect to the Law of Nature . Positive Laws under that dispensation . Eating Blood why prohibited . The mystery and signification of it . Circumcision when commanded and why . The Laws concerning Religion . Their publick Worship what . Sacrifices in what sence natural , and how far instituted . The manner of God's testifying his acceptance . What the place of their publick Worship . Altars , and Groves whence . Abraham's Oke , its long continuance , and destruction by Constantine . The Original of the Druids . The times of their religious Assemblies . In process of time , Genes . 4. what meant by it . The Seventh Day whether kept from the beginning . The Ministers of Religion , who . The Priesthood of the first-born . In what cases exercised by younger Sons . The state of Religion successively under the several Patriarchs . The condition of it in Adam's Family . The Sacrifices of Cain and Abel , and their different success , whence . Seth , his great Learning and Piety . The face of the Church in the time of Enosh . What meant by , Then began Men to call upon the Name of the Lord. No Idolatry before the Flood . The Sons of God , who . The great corruption of Religion in the time of Jared . Enoch's Piety , and walking with God. His translation , what . The incomparable sanctity of Noah , and his strictness in an evil Age. The character of the men of that time . His preservation from the Deluge . God's Covenant with him . Sem or 〈◊〉 whether the Elder Brother . The confusion of Languages when , and why . Abraham's Idolatry and conversion . His eminency for Religion noted in the several instances of it . God's Covenant with him concerning the Messiah . The Piety of Isaac and Jacob. Jacob's blessing the twelve Tribes , and foretelling the Messiah . Patriarchs extraordinary under this dispensation . Melchisedeck who : wherein a type of Christ. Job , his Name , Country , Kindred , Quality , Religion , Sufferings ; when he lived . A reflection upon the religion of the old World , and its agreement with Christianity . GOD who at sundry times , and in divers manners spake in time past to the Fathers by the Prophets , hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son. For having created Man for the noblest purposes , to love , serve , and enjoy his Maker ; he was careful in all Ages by various Revelations of his Will to acquaint him with the notices of his duty ; and to shew him what was good , and what the Lord did require of him : till all other Methods proving weak and ineffectual for the recovery and the happiness of humane nature , God was pleased to crown all the former dispensations with the Revelation of his Son. There is among the * Jews an ancient Tradition of the House of Elias , that the World should last Six Thousand Years , which they thus compute , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Two Thousand Years empty , ( little being recorded of those first Ages of the World ) Two Thousand Years the Law , and Two Thousand the Days of the Messiah . A Tradition , which if it minister to no other purposes , does yet afford us a very convenient division of the several Ages and Periods of the Church , which may be considered under a three-fold Oeconomy , the Patriarchal , Mosaical , and Evangelical dispensation . A short view of the two former will give us great advantage to survey the later , that new and better dispensation which God has made to the World. 2. THE Patriarchal Age , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as the Jews call it , the days of emptiness , commenced from the beginning of the World , and lasted till the delivery of the Law upon Mount Sinai . And under this state the Laws which God gave for the exercise of Religion , and the Government of his Church were either Natural , or Positive . Natural Laws are those innate Notions and Principles , whether speculative or practical , with which every Man is born into the World , those common sentiments of Vertue and Religion , those Principia justi & decori , Principles of fit and right , that naturally are upon the minds of Men , and are obvious to their reason at first sight , commanding what is just and honest , and forbidding what is evil and uncomely ; and that not only in the general , that what is good is to be embraced , and what is evil to be avoided , but in the particular instances of duty according to their conformity or repugnancy to natural light , being conversant about those things , that do not derive their value and authority from any arbitrary constitutions , but from the moral and intrinsick nature of the things themselves . These Laws , as being the results and dictates of right reason , are , especially as to their first and more immediate emanations , the same in all Men in the World , and in all Times and Places , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ' as the Jewes call them , Precepts that are evident among all Nations , indeed they are interwoven into Mens nature , inserted into the texture and constitution of their minds , and do discover themselves as soon as ever they arrive to the free use and exercise of their reason . That there are such Laws and Principles naturally planted in Mens breasts , is evident from the consent of Mankind , and the common experience of the World. Whence else comes it to pass , that all wicked Men even among the Heathens themselves , after the commission of gross sins , such as do more sensibly rouze and awaken conscience , are filled with horrours and fears of punishment ? but because they are conscious to themselves of having violated some Law and Rule of Duty . Now what Law can this be ? not the written and revealed Law , for this the Heathens never had : it must be therefore the inbred Law of Nature , that 's born with them , and fixed in their minds , antecedently to any external revelation . For when the Gentiles which have not the Law , do by nature ( by the light and evidence , by the force and tendency of their natural notions and dictates ) the things contained in the Law , these having not a Law , are a Law unto themselves , which shew the work of the Law written in their hearts , their conscience also bearing witness , and their thoughts , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the reasonings of their minds , in the mean while ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by turns ) accusing or else excusing one another ; that is , although they had not a written Law , as the Jewes had of old , and we Christians have at this day , yet by the help of their natural Principles they performed the same actions , and discharged the same Duties that are contained in , and commanded by the written and external Law , shewing by their practices that they had a Law ( some common notions of good and evil ) written in their hearts . And to this their very Consciences bear witness , for according as they either observe or break these natural Laws , their Consciences do either acquit or condemn them . Hence we find God in the very infancy of the World , appealing to Gain for the truth of this , as a thing sufficiently plain and obvious , Why art thou wroth , and why is thy countenance fallen ? if thou doest well , shalt thou not be accepted , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be lift up ? able to walk with a pleased and a chearful countenance the great indication of a mind satisfied in the conscience of its duty : but if thou doest not well , sin lies at the door ; the punishments of sin will be ready to follow thee , and conscience as a Minister of vengeance will perpetually pursue and haunt thee . By these Laws Mankind was principally governed in the first Ages of the World , there being for near Two Thousand Years no other fixed and standing Rule of Duty , than the dictates of this Law of Nature ; those Principles of Vice and Vertue , of Justice and Honesty , that are written in the heart of every Man. 3. THE Jewes very frequently tell us of some particular commands to the number of Seven , which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Precepts of the Sons of Noah , Six whereof were given to Adam and his Children , and the Seventh given to Noah , which they thus reckon up . The first was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning strange worship , that they should not give Divine honour to Idols , or the Gods of the Heathens , answerable to the two first commands of the Decalogue , Thou shalt have no other Gods but me ; thou shalt not make unto thee any graven Image , nor the likeness of any thing , that is in . Heaven above , or in the Earth beneath , or in the Water under the Earth ; thou shalt not bow down thy self to them , or serve them : for , &c. From the violation of this Law it was that Job , one of the Patriarchs that lived under this dispensation , solemnly purges himself , when speaking concerning the worship of the Celestial Lights , the great if not only Idolatry of those early Ages , says he , if I beheld the Sun when it shined , or the Moon walking in her brightness , and my heart hath been secretly inticed , or my mouth hath kissed my hand , this also were an iniquity to be punished by the Judge , for I should have denied the God that is above . The second 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning blessing , or worshipping , that they should not blaspheme the Name of God. This Law Job also had respect to , when he was careful to sanctifie his Children , and to propitiate the Divine Majesty for them every Morning , for it may be ( said he ) that my Sons have sinned , and cursed God in their hearts . The third was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning the shedding of blood , forbidding Man-slaughter ; a Law expresly renewed to Noah after the Flood , and which possibly Job aimed at , when he vindicates himself , that he had not rejoyced at the destruction of him that hated him , or lift up himself when evil found him . Nor was all effusion of humane blood forbidden by this Law , capital punishments being in some cases necessary for the preservation of humane Society , but only that no Man should shed the blood of an innocent Person , or pursue a private revenge without the warrant of publick Authority . The fourth was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning the disclosing of uncleanness , against filthiness and adultery , unlawful marriages , and incestuous mixtures : If mine heart ( says Job in his Apology ) hath been deceived by a Woman , or if I have laid wait at my neighbour's door ; then let my Wife grind , &c. for this is an heinous crime , yea it is an iniquity to be punished by the Judges . The fifth was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning theft and rapine , the invading another Man's right and property , the violation of bargains and compacts , the falsifying a Man's word or promise , the deceiving of another by fraud , lying , or any evil arts . From all which Job justifies himself , that he had not walked with vanity , nor had his foot hasted to deceit , that his step had not turned out of the way , nor his heart walked after his eyes , nor any blot cleaved to his hands . And elsewhere he bewails it as the great iniquity of the Times , that there were some that removed the Land-marks , that violently took away the Flocks , and fed thereof , that drove away the Asse of the Fatherless , and took the Widows Oxe for a pledge , that turned the needy out of the way , and made the poor of the Earth hide themselves together , &c. The sixth was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning judgments , or the administration of Justice , that Judges and Magistrates should be appointed in every Place for the Order and Government of Civil Societies , the determination of Causes , and executing of Justice between Man and Man. And that such there then were , seems evident from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Job twice speaks of in one Chapter , the judged iniquity , which the Jewes expound , and we truly render , an iniquity to be punished by the Judges . The seventh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning the member of any live-creature , that is , as God expresses it in the Precept to Noah , they might not eat the blood , or the flesh with the life thereof . Whether these Precepts were by any solemn and external promulgation particularly delivered to the Ante-deluvian Patriarchs ( as the Jewes seem to contend ) I will not say : for my part I cannot but look upon them ( the last only excepted ) as a considerable part of Nature's Statute-law , as comprizing the greater strokes and lineaments of those natural dictates that are imprinted upon the souls of Men. For what more comely and reasonable , and more agreeable to the first notions of our minds , than that we should worship and adore God alone , as the Authour of our beings , and the Fountain of our happiness , and not derive the lustre of his incommunicable perfections upon any Creature ; that we should entertain great and honourable thoughts of God , and such as become the Grandeur and Majesty of his being ; that we should abstain from doing any wrong or injury to another , from invading his right , violating his priviledges , and much more from making any attempt upon his life , the dearest blessing in this World ; that we should be just and fair in our transactions , and do to all men , as we would they should do to us ; that we should live chastely and temperately , and not by wild and extravagant lusts and sensualities offend against the natural modesty of our minds ; that Order and Government should be maintained in the World , Justice advanced , and every Man secured in his just possessions ? And so suitable did these Laws seem to the reason and understandings of Men , that the Jewes though the most zealous People under Heaven of their Legal Institutions , received those Gentiles who observed them as Proselytes into their Church , though they did not oblige themselves to Circumcision , and the rest of the Mosaic Rites . Nay in the first Age of Christianity , when the great controversie arose between the Jewish and Gentile-Converts about the obligation of the Law of Moses as necessary to salvation , the observation only of these Precepts , at least a great part of them , was imposed upon the Gentile-Converts as the best expedient to end the difference , by the Apostolical Synod at Jerusalem . 4. BUT though the Law of Nature was the common Law by which God then principally governed the World , yet was not he wanting by Methods extraordinary to supply , as occasion was , the exigencies and necessities of his Church , communicating his mind to them by Dreams and Visions , and other ways of Revelation , which we shall more particularly remarque , when we come to the Mosaical Oeconomy . Hence arose those positive Laws which we meet with in this period of the Church , some whereof are more expresly recorded , others more obscurely intimated . Among those that are more plain and obvious two are especially considerable , the prohibition sor not eating blood , and the Precept of Circumcision , the one given to Noah , the other to Abraham . The prohibition concerning blood is thus recorded , every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you : but flesh with the life thereof , which is the blood thereof , shall you not eat . The blood is the vehiculum to carry the spirits , as the Veins are the channels to convey the blood , now the animal 〈◊〉 give vital heat and activity to every part , and being let out , the blood presently cools , and the Creature dies . Not flesh with the blood , which is the life thereof , that is , not flesh while it is alive , while the blood and the spirits are yet in it . The mystery and signification whereof was no other than this that God would not have Men train'd up to arts of cruelty , or whatever did but carry the colour and aspect of a merciless and a savage temper , lest severity towards Beasts should degenerate into fierceness towards Men. It 's good to defend the out-guards , and to stop the remotest ways that lead towards sin , especially considering the violent propensions of humane nature to passion and revenge . Men commence bloody and inhumane by degrees , and little approaches in time render a thing in it self abhorrent not only familiar , but delightful . The Romans who at first entertained the People in the 〈◊〉 only with wild Beasts killing one another , came afterwards wantonly to sport away the Lives of the Gladiators , yea to cast Persons to be devoured by Bears and Lions , for no other end than the divertisement and pleasure of the People . He who can please himself in tearing and eating the Parts of a living Creature , may in short time make no scruple to do violence to the Life of Man. Besides eating blood naturally begets a savage temper , makes the spirits rank and fiery , and apt to be easily inflamed and blown up into choler and fierceness . And that hereby God did design to bar out ferity , and to secure mercy and gentleness , is evident from what follows after : and surely your blood of your lives will I require : at the hand of every beast will I require it , and at the hand of Man , at the hand of every Man's brother will I require the life of man ; whoso sheddeth Man's blood , by Man shall his blood be shed . The life of a Beast might not be wantonly sacrificed to Mens humours , therefore not Man 's ; the life of Man being so sacred , and dear to God , that if kill'd by a Beast , the Beast it self was to dye for it ; if by man , that man's life was to go for retaliation , by man shall his blood be shed ; where by man we must necessarily understand the ordinary Judge and Magistrate , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Jewes call it , the lower Judicature , with respect to that Divine and Superiour Court , the immediate judgment of God himself . By which means God admirably provided for the safety and security of Man's life , and for the order and welfare of humane society : and it was no more than necessary , the remembrance of the violence and oppression of the Nephilim or Giants before the Flood being yet fresh in memory , and there was no doubt but such mighty Hunters , men of robust bodies , of barbarous and inhumane tempers would afterwards arise . This Law against eating blood was afterwards renewed under the Mosaic Institution , but with this peculiar signification , for the life of the flesh is in the blood , and I have given it to you upon the Altar , to make an atonement for your souls ; for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul : that is , the blood might not be eaten , not only for the former reason , but because God had designed it for particular purposes , to be the great Instrument of Expiation , and an eminent type of the Blood of the Son of God , who was to dye as the great expiatory Sacrifice for the World : Nay it was re-established by the Apostles in the infancy of Christianity , and observed by the Primitive Christians for several Ages , as we have elsewhere observed . 5. THE other Precept was concerning Circumcision , given to Abraham at the time of God's entring into Covenant with him . God said unto Abraham , Thou shalt keep my Covenant , &c. This is my Covenant which ye shall keep between me and you , and thy Seed after thee , every Man-child among you shall be circumcised : and ye shall circumcise the flesh of your fore-skin , and it shall be a token of the Covenant betwixt me and you . God had now made a Covenant with Abraham to take his Posterity for his peculiar People , and that out of them should arise the promised Messiah : and as all foederal compacts have some solemn and external rites of ratification , so God was pleased to add Circumcision as the sign and seal of this Covenant , partly as it had a peculiar fitness in it to denote the promised Seed , partly that it might be a discriminating badge of Abraham's Children ( that part whom God had especially chosen out of the rest of Mankind ) from all other People . On Abraham's part it was a sufficient argument of his hearty compliance with the terms of this Covenant , that he would so chearfully submit to so unpleasing and 〈◊〉 a sign as was imposed upon him . For Circumcision could not but be both painful and dangerous in one of his Years , as it was afterwards to be to all new-born Infants : whence 〈◊〉 complained of Moses , commanding her to circumcise her Son , that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an husband of bloods , a cruel and inhumane Husband . And this the * Jewes tell us was the reason , why circumcision was omitted during their Fourty Years Journy in the Wilderness , it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by reason of the trouble and inconvenience of the way , God mercifully dispensing with the want of it , 〈◊〉 it should hinder their travelling , the soarness and weakness of the circumcised Person not comporting with hard and continual Journies . It was to be administred the eighth day , not sooner , the tenderness of the Infant not well till then complying with it , besides that the Mother of a Male-child was reckoned legally impure till the seventh Day ; not later , probably because the longer it was deferred , the more unwilling would Parents be to put their Children to pain , of which they would every Day become more sensible , not to say the satisfaction it would be to them , to see their Children solemnly entred into Covenant . Circumcision was afterwards incorporated into the Body of the Jewish Law , and entertained with a mighty Veneration , as their great and standing Priviledge , relied on as the main Basis and Foundation of their 〈◊〉 , and hopes of acceptance with Heaven , and accounted in a manner equivalent to all the other Rites of the Mosaic Law. 6. BUT besides these two , we find other positive Precepts , which though not so clearly expressed , are yet sufficiently intimated to us . Thus there seems to have been a Law that none of the Holy Line , none of the Posterity of Seth should marry with Infidels , or those corrupt and idolatrous Nations which God had rejected , as appears in that it 's charged as a great part of the sin of the old World , that the Sons of God matched with the Daughters of Men , as also from the great care which Abraham took that his Son Isaac should not take a Wife of the Daughters of the Canaanites among whom he dwelt . There was also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jus Levirationis , whereby the next Brother to him who died without Issue was obliged to marry the Widow of the deceased , and to raise up seed unto his Brother , the contempt whereof cost Onan his Life : together with many more particular Laws which the story of those Times might suggest to us . But what is of most use and importance to us , is to observe what Laws God gave for the administration of his Worship , which will be best known by considering what worship generally prevailed in those early Times ; wherein we shall especially remarque the nature of their publick Worship , the Places where , the Times when , and the Persons by whom it was administred . 7. IT cannot be doubted but that the Holy Patriarchs of those days were careful to instruct their Children , and all that were under their charge ( their Families being then very vast and numerous ) in the Duties of Religion , to explain and improve the natural Laws written upon their minds , and acquaint them with those Divine Traditions , and positive Revelations which they themselves had received from God : this being part of that great character which God gave of Abraham , I know him , that he will command his Children , and his Houshold after him , and they shall keep the way of the Lord , to do justice and judgment . To this they joyned Prayer and Invocation , than which no duty is more natural and necessary ; more natural , because it fitly expresses that great reverence and veneration which we have for the Divine Majesty , and that propensity that is in Mankind to make known their wants : none more necessary , because our whole dependance being upon the continuance and constant returns of the Divine power and goodness , 't is most reasonable that we should make our Daily addresses to him , in whom we live , move , and have our being . Nor were they wanting in returns of praise , and solemn celebrations of the goodness of Heaven , both by entertaining high and venerable thoughts of God , and by actions suitable to those honourable sentiments which they had of him . In these acts of worship they were careful to use gestures of the greatest reverence and submission , which commonly was prostration . Abraham bowed himself towards the ground : and when God sent the Israelites the happy news of their deliverance out of Egypt , they bowed their Heads and worshipped . A posture which hath ever been the usual mode of adoration in those Eastern Countries unto this day . But the greatest instance of the Publick Worship of those times was Sacrifices ; a very early piece of Devotion , in all probability taking its rise from Adam's fall . They were either Eucharistical , expressions of thankfulness for blessings received , or expiatory , offered for the remission of sin . Whether these Sacrifices were first taken up at Mens arbitrary pleasure , or positively instituted and commanded by God , might admit of a very large enquiry . But to me the case seems plainly this , that as to Eucharistical 〈◊〉 , such as first-fruits , and the like oblations , Mens own reason might suggest and perswade them , that it was fit to present them as the most natural significations of a thankful mind . And thus far there might be Sacrifices in the state of Innocence : for Man being created under such excellent circumstances as he was in Paradise , could not but know that he owed to God all possible gratitude and subjection ; obedience he owed him as his Supreme Lord and Master , gratitude , as his great Patron and Benefactor , and was therefore obliged to pay to him some Eucharistical Sacrifices , as a testimony of his grateful acknowledgment , that he had both his being and preservation from him . But when sin had changed the scene , and Man-kind was sunk under a state of guilt , he was then to seek for a way how to pacifie God's anger : and this was done by bloody and expiatory sacrifices , which God accepted in the sinners stead . And as to these , it seems reasonable to suppose that they should be founded upon a positive Institution , because pardon of sin being a matter of pure grace and favour , whatever was a means to signifie and convey that , must be appointed by God himself , first revealed to Adam , and by him communicated to his Children . The Deity propitiated by these atonements was wont to testifie his acceptance of them by some external and visible sign ; Thus Cain sensibly perceived that God had respect to Abel's sacrifice , and not to his : though what this sign was , it is not easie to determine . Most probably it was fire from Heaven coming down upon the Oblation , and consuming it : For so it frequently was in the Sacrifices of the Mosaic dispensation , and so we find it was in that famous Sacrifice of Abraham , a Lamp of Fire passed between the parts of the Sacrifice . Thus when 't is said , God had respect to Abel and to his offering , Theodotion renders it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he burnt it ; and to this custome the Psalmist alludes in that Petition , Remember all thy offerings , and accept thy burnt Sacrifice , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reduce thy burnt-offering into ashes . 8. WHERE it was that this Publick Worship was performed , is next to be enquired into . That they had fixed and determinate Places for the discharge of their religious Duties , those especially that were done in common , is greatly probable , Nature and the reason of things would put them upon it . And this most think is intended in that phrase , where it is said of Cain and Abel , that they brought their oblations , that is , ( as Aben-Ezra and others expound it ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the place set apart for divine worship : And this probably was the reason , why Cain though vexed to the heart to see his Brother preferred before him , did not presently set upon him , the solemnity and religion of the Place , and the sensible appearances of the Divine Majesty having struck an awe into him , but deferred his murdrous intentions till they came into the Field , and there fell upon him . For their Sacrifices they had Altars , whereon they offered them , contemporary no doubt with Sacrifices themselves , though we read not of them till after the Flood , when Noah built an Altar unto the Lord , and offered burnt-offerings upon it : So Abraham immediately after his being called to the worship of the true God , in Sichem built an Altar unto the Lord , who appeared unto him , and removing thence , to a Mountain Eastward , he built another Altar , and called on the Name of the Lord , as indeed he did almost in every place where he came . Thus also when he dwelt at Beer-sheba in the Plains of Mamre , he planted a Grove there , and called on the Name of the Lord the everlasting God. This no doubt was the common Chappel or Oratory ; whither Abraham and his numerous Family , and probably those whom he gained to be Proselytes to his Religion were wont to retire for their publick adorations , as a Place infinitely advantageous for such Religious purposes . And indeed the Ancient devotion of the World much delighted in Groves , in Woods and Mountains , partly for the conveniency of such Places , as better composing the thoughts for divine contemplations , and resounding their joynt-praises of God to the best advantage , partly because the silence and retiredness of the Place was apt to beget a kind of sacred dread and horrour in the mind of the Worshipper . Hence we find in Ophrah where Gideon's Father dwelt , an Altar to Baal , and a Grove that was by it ; and how common the superstitions and idolatries of the Heathen-world were in Groves and High-places , no Man can be ignorant , that is never so little conversant either in prophane or sacred stories . For this reason that they were so much abused to idolatry , God commanded the Israelites to destroy their Altars , break down their Images , and cut down their Groves : and that they should not plant a Grove of any Trees near unto the Altar of the Lord , lest he should seem to countenance what was so universally prostituted to false worship and idolatry . But to return to Abraham . He planted a Grove , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Tree , which the Ancients generally make to have been a large spreading Oake ; and some foundation there is for it in the sacred Text ; for the place where Abraham planted it is called the Plain of Mamre , or as in the Hebrew , he dwelt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among the Oakes of Mamre , and so the Syriac renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The House of the Oake : The name whereof * Josephus tells us , was Ogyges ; and it is not a conjecture to be despised , that Noah might probably inhabit in this place , and either give the name to it , or at least derive his from it , Ogyges being the Name by which he is usually described in forreign Writers . This very Oake S. * Hierom assures us , and ‖ Eusebius intimates as much , was yet standing till the time of Constantine , and worshipped with great superstition . And * Sozomen tells us more particularly that there was a famous Mart held there every Summer , and a Feast celebrated by a general confluence of the neighbouring Countries , and Persons of all Religions , both Christians , Jews and Gentiles , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every one doing honour to this Place according to the different Principles of their Religion : but that Constantin being offended that the Place should be prophan'd with the superstitions of the Jews , and the idolatry of the Gentiles , wrote with some severity to Macarius the Bishop of Jerusalem , and the Bishops of Palestin , that they should destroy the Altars and Images , and deface all Monuments of Idolatry , and restore the Place to its ancient Sanctity . Which was accordingly done , and a Church 〈◊〉 in the Place , where God was purely and sincerely worshipped . From this Oake , the ordinary place of Abraham's worship and devotion , the Religion of the Gentiles doubtless derived its Oakes and Groves , and particularly the Druids , the great and almost only Masters and Directors of all Learning and Religion among the Ancient Brittains , hence borrowed their Original ; who are so notoriously known to have lived wholly under Oakes and Groves , and there to have delivered their Doctrines and Precepts , and to have exercised their Religious and mysterious Rites , that hence they fetched their denomination , either from 〈◊〉 ( as the Ancients generally thought ) or more probably from the old Cetlic word Deru , both signifying an Oake , and which the Welch , the Descendants of the Ancient Brittains , still call Derw at this day . But of this enough . 9. FROM the place where , we proceed to the times when they usually paid their Devotions . And seeing Order is necessary in all undertakings , and much more in the actions of Religion , we cannot think that Mankind was left at a roving uncertainty in a matter of so great importance , but that they had their stated and solemn times of Worship : especially when we find among all Nations , even the most rude and unpolished Heathens , times peculiarly set apart for the honour of their gods , and the publick solemnities of Religion . And so no question it was in the more early Ages of the World , they had fix'd and appropriate Seasons , when they met together to do homage unto God , and to offer up their joynt-acknowledgments to Heaven . Thus we read of Cain that he brought his oblation in process of time , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the end of days , at one of those fixed and periodical returns , when they used to meet in the Religious Assemblies , the word 〈◊〉 denoting not simply an end , but a determinate and an appointed end . I know many with great zeal and eagerness contend , that the Sabbath or Seventh Day from the Creation was set apart , and universally observed as the time of Publick Worship , and that from the beginning of the World. But alas the foundation upon which this opinion is built , is very weak and sandy , having nothing to rely on , but one place where it is said , that God resting on the Seventh Day from all his Works , blessed the Seventh Day and sanctified it . Which words are reasonably thought to have been set down by Moses by way of Prolepsis , as it was in his time , if they relate at all to the 〈◊〉 , and are not rather to be understood of God's blessing and sanctifying the Seventh Day , as having compleated all his Works in the creating of Man and in whom as in the crown and glory of the Creation he would sanctifie himself . For that it should be meant of a Weekly Sabbath , hath as little countenance from this Text , as it hath from the practice of those times , there being no foot-steps or shadow of any such Sabbath kept through all the Patriarchal periods of the Church , till the times of Moses , which besides the evidence of the story , is universally owned by the Ancient Jewes , and very many of the Fathers do expresly assert it . 10. THE last circumstance concerns the Persons by whom the Publick Worship was administred . Impossible it is that any Society should be regularly managed , where there are not some peculiar Persons to 〈◊〉 , direct , and govern the affairs of it . And God who in all other things is a God of Order , is much more so in matters of Religion : and therefore no doubt from the beginning appointed those , whose care and business it should be to discharge the publick parts of Piety and Devotion in the name of the rest . Now the Priesthood in those times was vested in the Heads of Tribes , and in the first-born of every Family . To the Patriarch or Head of every Tribe it belonged to bless the Family , to offer Sacrifice , to intercede for them by Prayer , and to minister in other solemn acts of Religion . And this Office hereditarily descended to the first-born , who had power to discharge it during the life of his Father ; for it was not necessary , that he who was Priest by vertue of his primogeniture , should be also the eldest of the House , Jacob , who succeeded in his Brother 's right , offered Sacrifices in the life of his Father Isaac , and Abraham was a Priest , though Sem the Head of the Family , and ten degrees removed from him in a direct line , was then alive , yea survived Abraham near Forty Years . Every first-born had three great Prerogatives , a double portion of the Paternal inheritance a Lordship and Principality over his Brethren , and a right to the Priesthood , to instruct them in the knowledge of Divine things , and to manage the common Offices of Religion . So that in those times there was a particular Priesthood in every Family , the administration whereof was usually appropriate to the first born . Thus Noah , Abraham , and Isaac offered Sacrifices , and Job ( who lived about that time , or not long after ) both for his Children and his Friends . Thus 〈◊〉 was a Priest by his primogeniture , and that goodly Raiment of her Son Esau which Rebeccah put upon Jacob , when he went in to his Father , is by many not improbably understood of the Sacerdotal Vestments , wherein as first-born he was wont to execute his Office. Of these Priests we are to understand that Place , Let the Priests which come near to the Lord , sanctifie themselves . This could not be meant of the Levitical Priests , ( the Aaronical Order not being yet instituted ) and therefore must be understood of the Priesthood of the first-born , and so Solomon farchis gloss expounds it . Thus when Moses had built an Altar at the foot of the Mountain , he sent young men of the children of Israel , which offered burnt-offerings , and sacrificed peace-offerings unto the Lord. Where for young men , the Chaldee Paraphrase and the Hierusalem Targum have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first-born of the children of Israel ; so has that of Jonathan , who expresly adds this reason , for unto that very Hour the worship remained among the first-born , the Tabernacle of the Covenant not being yet made , nor the Aaronical Priesthood set up . So when Jacob bequeathed his blessing to Reuben , Reuben thou art my first-born , my might , and the beginning of my strength , the excellency of dignity , and the excellency of power , the same Jewish Paraphrasts tell us , that there were three things in this blessing conveyed and confirmed to Reuben , the Birth-right , the Kingdom , and the Priesthood , but that for his enormous and unnatural sin they were transferred to others , the primogeniture to Joseph , the Kingdom to Judah , and the Priesthood to Levi. But though the Sacerdotal function ordinarily belonged to the first-born , yet was it not so wholly invested in them , but that it might in some cases be exercised by younger Brothers , especially when passing into other Families , and themselves becoming Heads of Tribes and Families . Abraham we know was not a first-born , and it 's highly probable that Sem himself was not Noah's eldest Son , Moses was a Priest , yea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Jewes call him , the Priest of Priests , and yet was but 〈◊〉 second Son , and Aaron's younger Brother . So that the case in short seemed to lye thus . The Patriarch or surviving Head of every Tribe was a kind of High Priest over all the Families that were descended from him , the first-born in every Family was the ordinary Priest , who might officiate in his Father's stead , and who after his decease succeeded in his room , the younger Brethren , when leaving their Father's house , and themselves becoming heads of Families , and their seats removed too far distant to make use of the ordinary Priesthood , did themselves take the office upon them , and exercise it over all those that were under them , and sprung from them , though the main honour and dignity was reserved for the Priesthood of the first-born : Thus Abraham , though but a second Son , yet when become the head of a great Family , and removed into another Country , became a Priest , and that not only during the life of his Father , but of Sem himself , the grand surviving Patriarch of that time . I observe no more concerning this , than that this right of the first-born was a prime honour and priviledge , and therefore the reason ( 〈◊〉 the * Jews ) why Jacob was so greatly desirous of the birth right , was because in those days the Priesthood was entail'd upon it . And for this chiefly no doubt it was that Esau is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a prophane person , for selling his birth-right for a mess of Pottage , because thereby he made so light of the sacred honour of the Priesthood , the Venerable office of ministring before God. 11. HAVING thus seen what were the Laws , what the Worship of those times , it remains briefly to consider what was the face of the Church , and the state of Religion under the several Patriarchs of this Oeconomy . Not to meddle with the story either of the Creation or Apostasie of Adam , no sooner was he fallen from that innocent and happy state wherein God had placed him , but Conscience began to stir , and he was sensible that God was angry , and saw it necessary to propitiate the offended Deity by Prayer and Invocation , by Sorrow and Repentance , and probably by offering Sacrifice ; a conjecture that hath at least some countenance from those Coats of Skins wherewith God clothed our first Parents , which seem likely to have been the Skins of Beasts slain for Sacrifice ; for that they were not killed for food is evident , because flesh was not the ordinary diet ( if it was at all ) of those first Ages of the World. And God might purposely make choice of this sort of covering , to put our first Parents in mind of their great degeneracy , how deep they were sunk into the animal life , and by gratifying brutish and sensual appetites at so dear a rate , how like they were become to the Beasts that perish . And 〈◊〉 this were so , it possibly might give birth to that Law of Moses , that every Priest that offered any man's burnt-offering , should have to himself the skin of the burnt-offering which he had offered . But however this was , t is certain that Adam was careful to instruct his Children in the knowledge of Divine things , and to maintain Religion and the worship of God in his Family . For we find Cain and Abel bringing their oblations , and that at a certain time , though they had a different success . I omit the Traditions of the East , that the cause of the difference between Cain and Abel was about a Wife , and that they sought to decide the case by Sacrifice , and that when Abel's sacrifice was accepted , Cain out of envy and indignation fell upon his brother , struck his head with a stone , and slew him . The present they brought was according to their different ways and institutions of life : Cain as an Husbandman brought of the fruit of the ground , Abel as a Shepherd brought of the firstlings of his Flock , and of the fat thereof : But the one was accepted , and the other rejected . The cause whereof certainly was not that the one was little and inconsiderable , the other large and noble ; the one only a dry oblation , the other a burnt-offering ; or that Cain had entertained a conceived prejudice against his Brother ; the true cause lay in the different temper and disposition of their minds ; Abel had great and honourable thoughts of God , and therefore brought of the best that he had , Cain mean and unworthy apprehensions , and accordingly took what came first to hand ; Abel came with a grateful sense of the goodness of Heaven , with a mind piously and heartily devoted to the Divine Majesty , and an humble reliance upon the Divine acceptance ; Cain brought his oblation indeed , but looked no further , was not careful to offer up himself a living sacrifice , holy and acceptable to God , as being the most reasonable service , too confidently bearing up himself , as we may suppose , upon the prerogative of his primogeniture . By which means Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain , by which he obtained witness , that he was righteous , God testifying of his gifts . For he had respect unto Abel , and to his offering : But unto Cain , and to his offering he had not respect . And if in that fire , by which God testified his respect by consuming one oblation , and not the other , there was ( as the Jews say ) seen the face of a Lion , it doubtless prefigured the late promised Messiah , The Lion of the Tribe of Judah , our great expiatory sacrifice , of whom all other sacrifices were but types and shadows , and in whom all our oblations are rendred grateful unto God , The odour of a sweet smell , a sacrifice acceptable and well-pleasing unto God. 12. A. B. E. L being taken away by his envious and enraged Brother , God was pleased to repair the loss by giving his Parents another Son , whom they called Seth , and he accordingly proved a very Vertuous and Religious man. He was ( if we may believe the Ancients ) a great Scholar ; the first inventor of Letters , and Writing , an accurate Astronomer , and taught his Children the knowledge of the Stars , who having heard from their Grandfather Adam , that the World was to be twice destroyed , once by Fire , and again by Water ( if the story be true which Josephus without any great warrant reports ) wrote their Experiments and the principles of their Art upon two Pillars , one of Brick , the other of Stone , that if the one perished , the other might remain , and convey their notions to posterity , one of which Pillars Josephus adds , was said to be standing in Syria in his time . But that which rendred Seth most renowned , was his piety and devotion ; a good man he was , one who asserted and propagated Religion and the true worship of God , as he had received it from his Father Adam , notwithstanding the 〈◊〉 and degeneracy , and possibly oppositions of his Brother Cain and his party . The Eastern Writers , both Jews and * Arabians , confidently assure us , that Seth and his retinue withdrew from Cain , who dwelt in the Valley , where he had killed his brother Abel , into a very high mountain ( on the top whereof their Father Adam was buried ) so high , if we could believe them , that they could hear the Angels singing Anthems , and did daily joyn in with that Heavenly Quire. Here they wholly devoted themselves to the daily worship of God , and obtained a mighty name and veneration for the holiness and purity of their lives . When Seth came to lie upon his death-bed , he summoned his Children , their Wives and Families together , blessed them , and as his last Will commanded them to worship God , adjuring them by the bloud of Abel ( their usual and solemn oath ) that they should not descend from the holy Mount , to hold any correspondence or commerce with Cain or his wicked faction . And then breathed his last . A command , say my Authors , which they observed for seven generations , and then came in the promiscuous mixtures . 13. To Seth succeeded his Son Enos , who kept up the glory and purity of Religion , and the honour of the holy Line . Of his time it is particularly recorded , then began men to call upon the name of the Lord. The ambiguity of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying sometimes to prophane , sometimes to begin , hath begotten various apprehensions among learned men concerning this place , and led them not only into different , but quite contrary sences . The words are by some rendred thus , Then men prophaned in calling upon the name of the Lord ; which they thus explain , that at that time when Enos was born , the true worship and service of God began to sink and fail , corruption and idolatry mightily prevailing by reason of Cains wicked and apostate Family ; and that as a sad memorial of this corrupt and degenerate Age , holy Seth called his son's name Enosh , which not only simply signifies a man , but a poor , calamitous , miserable man. And this way go many of the Jews , and some Christian writers of great name and note . Nay Maimonides , one of the wisest and soberest of all the Jewish writers , begins his Tract about * Idolatry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the times of Enosh , referring to this very passage ; he tells us , that men did then grievously erre , and that the minds of the wise men of those days were grown gross and stupid ; yea , that Enos himself was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among those that erred , and that their Idolatry consisted in this , That they worshipped the Stars and the Host of Heaven . ‖ Others there are who expresly assert , that 〈◊〉 was the first that invented Images , to excite the Spirit of the Creatures , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that by their mediation men might invocate and call upon God. But how infirm a foundation this Text is to build all this upon , is evident . For besides , what * some have observed , that the Hebrew phrase is not tolerably reconcileable with such a sence , if it were , yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as one of the ‖ Rabbins has well noted , that there wants a foundation for any such exposition , no mention being made in Moses his story of any such false Gods as were then worshipped , no footsteps of Idolatry appearing in the World till after the Flood . Nor indeed is it reasonable to suppose , that the Creation of the World being yet fresh in memory , and Divine Traditions so lately received from Adam , and God frequently communicating himself to men , that the case being thus , men could in so short a time be fallen under so great an apostasie , as wholly to forget and renounce the true God , and give Divine honours to senseless and inanimate creatures ; I can hardly think that the Cainites themselves should be guilty of this , much less Enosh and his Children . The meaning of the words then is plainly this , That in Enosh his time the holy Line being greatly multiplied , they applied themselves to the worship of God in a more publick and remarkable manner , either by framing themselves into more distinct societies for the exercise of publick worship , or by meeting at more fixed and stated times , or by invocating God under more solemn and peculiar rites than they had done before . And this probably they did the rather , to obviate that torrent of prophaneness and impiety , which by means of the sons of Cain they saw flowing in upon the World. This will be further confirmed , if we take the words as by some they are rendred , then men began to be called by the name of the Lord , that is , the difference and separation that was between the children of Seth and Cain every day ripening into a wider distance , the posterity of Seth began to take to themselves a distinctive title , that the World might the better distinguish between those who kept to the service of God , and those who threw off Religion , and let loose the reins to disorder and impiety . And hereof we meet with clear intimation in the story of those times when we read of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sons of God ( who doubtless were the pious and devout posterity of Seth , calling themselves after the name of the Lord , whom they constantly and sincerely worshipped , notwithstanding the fancy of Josephus , and the Fathers , that they were Angels , or that of the Jewish Paraphrasts , that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sons of great men and Princes ) in opposition to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sons of men , the impure and debauched posterity of Cain , who made light of Religion , and were wholly governed by 〈◊〉 and sensual inclinations . And the matching of these sons of God with the daughters of men , that is , those of the Family of Cain , and the fatal consequences of those unhappy marriages , was that which provoked God to destroy the World. I have no more to add concerning Enosh , than that we are told , that dying he gave the same commands to his Children , which he had received of his Father , that they should make Religion their great care and business , and keep themselves pure from society and converse with the Line of Cain . 14. AFTER Enosh was his son Kenan , who , as the Arabian * Historian informs us , ruled the people committed to him by a wise and excellent government , and gave the same charge at his death that had been given to him . Next Kenan comes Mahalcleel , who carries devotion and piety in his very name , signifying , one that praises God , of whom they say , that he trained up the people in ways of justice and piety , blessed his Children at his death , and having charged them to separate from the Cainites , appointed his son Jared to be his successor ; whose name denotes a descent , probably either because of the notable decrease and declension of piety in his time , or because in his days some of the Sethites descended from the holy Mountain to mix with the posterity of Cain . For so the * Oriental writers inform us , that a great noise and shout coming up from the Valley , an hundred of the holy Mountaineers agreed to go down to the sons of Cain , whom Jared endeavoured to hinder by all the arts of counsel and perswasion . But what can stop a mind bent upon an evil course ? down they went , and being ravished with the beauty of the Cainite-women , promiscuously committed folly and lewdness with them ; from whence sprang a race of Giants , men of vast and robust bodies , but of more vicious and ungovernable tempers , who made their Will their Law , and Might the standard and rule of Equity . Attempting to return back to the holy Mount , Heaven had shut up their way , the stones of the Mountain burning like fire when they came upon them ; which whether the Reader will have faith enough to believe , I know not . Jared being near his death , advised his Children to be wise by the folly of their Brethren , and to have nothing to do with that prophane generation . His son Enoch followed in his steps , a man of admirable strictness and piety , and peculiarly exemplary for his innocent and holy conversation , it being particularly noted of him , that he walked with God : He set the Divine Majesty before him , as the guide and pattern , the spectator and rewarder of his actions , in all his ways endeavoured to approve himself to his All-seeing eye , by doing nothing but what was grateful and acceptable to him ; he was the great instance of vertue and goodness in an evil Age , and by the even tenor and constancy of a holy and a religious life shewed his firm belief and expectation of a future state , and his hearty dependence upon the Divine goodness for the rewards of a better life . And God , who is never behind-hand with his servants , crowned his extraordinary obedience with an uncommon reward . By faith Enoch was translated , that he should not see death , and was not found , because God had translated him : For before his translation he had this testimony , that he pleased God. And what that faith was , is plain by what follows after , a belief of God's Being and his Bounty , Without faith it is impossible to please him : For he that cometh to God , must believe that he is , and that 〈◊〉 is a 〈◊〉 of them that diligently seek him . What this translation was , and whether it was made , whither into that Terrestrial Paradise out of which Adam was expelled and banished , and whereunto Enoch had desired of God he might be translated , as some fancy , or whether placed among the Stars , as others , or carried into the highest Heavens , as others will have it , were nice and useless speculations . 'T is certain he was taken out of these mutable Regions , and set beyond the reach of those miseries and misfortunes , to which a present state of sin and mortality does betray us ; translated , probably , both Soul and Body , that he might be a type and specimen of a future Resurrection , and a sensible demonstration to the World that there is a reward for the righteous , and another state after this , wherein good Men shall be happy sor ever . I pass by the fancy of the Jewes as vain and frivolous , that though Enoch was a good Man , yet was he very mutable and inconstant , and apt to be led aside , and that this was the reason , why God translated him so soon , lest he should have been debauched by the charms and allurements of a wicked World. He was an eminent Prophet , and a fragment of his Prophecy is yet extant in S. Jude's Epistle , by which it appears , that wickedness was then grown rampant , and the manners of men very corrupt and vicious , and that he as plainly told them of their faults , and that Divine vengeance that would certainly overtake them . Of Methuselah his Son nothing considerable is upon Record , but his great Age , living full DCCCCLXIX . Years ( the longest proportion which any of the Patriarchs arrived to ) and died in that very Year wherein the Flood came upon the World. 15. FROM his Son Lamech , concerning whom we find nothing memorable , we proceed to his Grand child Noah , by the very imposition of whose Name his Parents presaged that he would be a refreshment and comfort to the World , and highly instrumental to remove that curse which God by an Universal Deluge was bringing upon the Earth , he 〈◊〉 his Name Noah , saying , This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands , because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed ; he was one in whom his Parents did acquiesce and rest satisfied , that he would be eminently 〈◊〉 and serviceable to the World. Indeed he proved a person of incomparable sanctity and integrity , a Preacher of righteousness to others , and who as carefully practised it himself . He was a just man , and perfect in his generation , and he walked with God. He did not warp and decline with the humour of the Age he lived in , but maintained his station , and kept his Line . He was upright in his Generation . 'T is no thanks to be religious , when it is the humour and fashion of the Times : the great trial is , when we live in the midst of a corrupt generation . It is the crown of vertue to be good , when there are all manner of temptations to the contrary , when the greatest part of Men goe the other way , when vertue and honesty are laughed and drolled on , and censured as an over-wise and affected singularity ; when lust and debauchery are accounted the modes of Gallantry , and pride and oppression suffered to ride in prosperous triumphs without controll . Thus it was with Noah , he contended with the Vices of the Age , and dared to own God and Religion , when almost all Mankind besides himself had rejected and thrown them off . For in his time wickedness openly appeared with a brazen Forehead , and violence had covered the face of the Earth , the promiscuous mixtures of the Children of Seth and Cain had produced Giants and mighty Men , men strong to do evil , and who had as much will as power , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Josephus describes them , a race of men insolent and ungovernable , scornful and injurious , and who bearing up themselves in the confidence of their own strength , despised all justice and equity , and made every thing truckle under their 〈◊〉 lusts and appetites . The very same character does Lucian give of the Men of this Age , speaking of the times of Deucalion ( their Noah ) and the Flood , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( says he ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. Men exceedingly scornful and contumelious , and guilty of the most unrighteous and enormous actions , violating all Oaths and Covenants , throwing off kindness and hospitality , and rejecting all addresses and supplications made to them . For which cause great miseries overtook them : for Heaven and Earth , Seas and Rivers conspired together to pour out mighty Floods upon the World ; which swept all away , but Deucalion only , who for his prudence and piety was left to repair Mankind . And so he goes on with the relation consonant to the account of the Sacred story . This infection had spread it self over all parts , and was become so general and Epidemical , that all Flesh had corrupted their ways , and scarce any besides Noah left to keep up the face of a Church , and the profession of Religion . Things being come to this pass quickly alarm'd the Divine Justice , and made the World ripe for vengeance ; the patience of God was now tired out , and he resolved to make Mankind feel the just effects of his incensed severity . But yet in the midst of judgment he remembers mercy : he tells them , that though he would not suffer his patience to be eternally prostituted to the wanton humours of wicked men , yet that he would bear with them CXX . Years longer in order to their reformation . So loth is God to take advantage of the sins of men , not willing that any should perish , but that all should come unto repentance . In the mean time righteous Noah found favour with Heaven ( a good man hath a peculiar guardianship and protection in the worst of times ) and God orders him to prepare an Ark for the saving of his House . An Hundred Years was this Ark in building , not but that it might have been finished in a far less time , but that God was willing to give them so long a space for wise and sober considerations , Noah preaching all the while both by his doctrine and his practice , that they would break off their sins by repentance , and prevent their ruine . But they that are filthy , will be filthy still ; the hardned World persisted in their impieties , till the wrath of God came upon them to the uttermost ; and destroyed the World of the ungodly . God shut up Noah , his Wife , his three Sons and their Wives into the Ark , together with provisions , and so many Creatures of every sort as were sufficient not only for food , but for reparation of the kind ( Miracles must not be expected , where ordinary means may be 〈◊〉 ) and then opened the Windows of Heaven , and broke up the Fountains of the Deep , and brought in the Flood that swept all away . Twelve months Noah and his Family continued in this floating habitation ; when the Waters being gone , and the Earth dried , he came forth , and the first thing he did , was to erect an Altar , and offer up an Eucharistical Sacrifice to God for 〈◊〉 remarkable a deliverance ( some of the Jews tell us , that coming out of the Ark he was bitten by a Lion , and rendred unfit for Sacrifice , and that therefore Sem did it in his room ) he did not concern himself for food , or a present habitation , but immediately betook himself to his devotion . God was infinitely pleased with the pious and grateful sense of the good man , and openly declared that his displeasure was over , and that he would no more bring upon the World such effects of his severity as he had lately done , and that the Ordinances of Nature should duly perform their constant motions , and regularly observe their periodical revolutions . And because Man was the principal Creature in this lower World , he restored to him his Charter of Dominion and Soveraignty over the Creatures , and by enacting some Laws against Murder and Cruelty secured the peace and happiness of his life : and then established a 〈◊〉 with Noah and all Mankind , that he would no more drown the World , for the ratification and ensurance whereof he placed the Rain-bow in the Clouds , as a perpetual sign and memorial of his Promise . Noah after this betook himself to Husbandry , and planting Vineyards , and being unwarily overtaken with the fruit of the Vine , became a scorn to C ham one of his own Sons , while the two others piously covered their Fathers shame . A wakeing out of his sleep , and knowing what had been done , he prophetically cursed Cham and his Posterity ; blessed Sem , and in Japhet foretold the calling of the Gentiles to the worship of God , and the knowledge of the Messiah , that God should enlarge Japhet , and that he should dwell in the Tents of Shem. He died in the DCCCCL . Year of his Age , having seen both Worlds , that before the Flood , and that which came after it . 16. SEM and Japhet were the two good Sons of Noah , in the assigning whose primogeniture , though the Scripture be not positive and decretory , yet do the most probable reasons appear for Japhet , especially if we compute their Age. Sem was an Hundred Years old two Years after the Flood ( for 〈◊〉 he begat Arphaxad ) now the Flood hapned just in the DC . Year of Noah's Age ; whence it follows that Sem was born , when his Father was Five Hundred and Two Years old . But Noah being expresly said to have begotten Sons in the Five Hundredth Year of his Age , plain it is that there must be another Son two Years Elder than Sem , which could be no other than Japhet , Cham being acknowledged by all the Younger Brother . And hence it is that Sem is called , the Brother 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Japhet the Greater , or as we render it , the Elder . They were both pious and devout Men , having been brought up under the religious Institutions , not only of their Father Noah , but their Grand-father 〈◊〉 , and their Great-grand-father Methuselah , who had for some Hundreds of Years conversed with Adam . The holy story records nothing concerning the state of Religion in their days , and little heed 〈◊〉 to be given to the Eastern Writers , when they tell us of Sem , that according to the command of his Father he took the Body of Adam , which Noah had secretly hidden in the Ark , and joyning himself to Melchisedec , they went and 〈◊〉 it in the heart of the Earth , an Angel going before , and conducting them to the placewith a great deal more , with little truth , and to as little purpose . As for the 〈◊〉 born after the Flood , little notice is taken of them besides the 〈◊〉 mention of their names , Arphaxad , Salah , Eber. Of this last they say , that he was a great 〈◊〉 , that he instituted Schools and Seminaries for the advancement and propagation of 〈◊〉 : and there was great reason for him to bestir himself , if it be true , what the Arabian Historians tell us , that now Idolatry began mightily to prevail , and men generally carved to themselves the Images of their Ancestors , to which upon all occasions they addressed themselves with the most solemn veneration , the Daemons giving answers through the Images wich they worshipped . Heber was the Father of the Jewish Nation , who from him are said to have derived the title of Hebrews , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Josephus tells us , ( though there want not those who assign other reasons of the name ) and that the Hebrew Language was preserved in his family , which till his time had been the mother-tongue , and the common Language of the World. To Eber succeeded his son Peleg , a name given him out of a Prophetical foresight of that memorable division that hapned in his time . For now it was that a company of bold daring persons combining themselves under the conduct and command of Nimrod , resolved to erect a vast and stupendous Fabrick , partly to raise themselves a mighty reputation in the World , partly to secure themselves from the Invasion of an after-deluge , and probably as a place of retreat and defence , the better to enable them to put in practice that oppression and tyranny which they designed to exercise over the World. But whatever it was , God was displeased with the attempt , and to shew how easily he can basfle the subtillest Councils , and in a moment subvert the firmest projects , on a sudden he confounded the Language of these foolish Builders , so that they were forced to desist from their vain and ambitious design , as not being able to understand and converse with one another . To Peleg succeeded his son Rehu , to 〈◊〉 Serug , to him 〈◊〉 , to Nachor Terah , who dwelt in Ur of the Chaldaeans , where conversing with those Idolatrous Nations , he laps'd himself into the most gross Idolatry . So apt are men to follow a multitude to do evil , so fatally mischievous is ill company , and a bad example . But the best way to avoid the plague , is to remove out of the house of infection . Away goes Terah to Haran , where by repentance he is said to have recovered himself out of the snare of the Devil . 17. ABRAHAM the second son of Terah succeeds in the Patriarchal Line . In his minority he was educated in the Idolatries of his Father's house , who , they say , was a maker of Statues and Images : And the * Jews tells us many pleasant stories of Abraham's going into the shop in the absence of his Father , his breaking the Images , and jeering those that came to buy , or worship them ; of his Father's carrying him to Nimrod to be punished , his witty answers , and miraculous escapes . But God who had designed him for higher and nobler purposes , called him at length out of his Father's house , fully discoverd himself to him , and by many solemn promises and federal compacts peculiarly engaged him to himself . He was a man intirely devoted to the honour of God , and had consecrated all his services to the interests of Religion , scarce any duty either towards God or men for which he is not eminent upon record . Towards God , how great was his zeal and care to promote his worship ? erecting Altars almost in every place , whereon he publickly offered his prayers and sacrifice . His love to God wholly swallowed up the love and regard that he had to his dearest interests , witness his intire resignation of himself , his chearful renouncing all the concernments of his Estate and Family , and especially his readiness to sacrifice his only son , the son of his old age , and which is above all , the son of the promise , when God by way of trial required it of him . How vigorous and triumpant was his faith , especially in the great promise of a son , which he firmly embraced against all humane probabilities to the contrary ? Against hope he believed in hope , and being strong in faith , gave glory to God. How hearty was his dependence upon the Divine Providence , when called to leave his Father's house , and to go into a strange Country , how chearfully did he obey and go out , though he knew not whither he went ? How unconquerable was his patience , how even the composure of his mind in all conditions ? in fifteen several journeys that he undertook , and ten difficult temptations which he underwent , he never betrayed the least murmuring or hard thought of God. Towards others he shewed the greatest tenderness and respect , the most meek and unpassionate temper , a mind inflamed with a desire of peace and concord : Admirable his justice and equity in all his dealings , his great hospitality and bounty towards strangers , and for that end ( say the Jews ) he got him an house near the entring into Haran , that he might entertain strangers as they went in , or came out of the City , at his own table ; as indeed he seems to have had that most excellent and Divine temper of mind , an universal love and charity towards all men . But his greatest charity appeared in the care that he took of the Souls of men . Maimonides tells us , that he kept a publick School of institution , whither he gathered men together , and instructed them in that truth , which he himself had embraced , and he gives us an account by what methods of reasoning and information he used to convince and perswade them . But whatever he did towards others , we are sure he did it towards those that were under his own charge . He had a numerous family , and a vast retinue , and he was as careful to inform them in the knowledge of the true God , and to instruct them in all the duties of Religion . 'T is the character which God himself gave of him , I know Abraham , that he will command his children , and his houshold after him , and they shall keep the way of the Lord , to do justice and judgment . And so he did , his house being a School of piety , wherein Religion was both taught and practised , many reclaimed from the errors and idolatries of the times , and all his domesticks and dependants solemnly dedicated to God by Circumcision . Therefore when 't is said , that he brought with him all the Souls which they had gotten in Haran , the Paraphrase of Onkelos renders it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Souls which they had subjected to the Law in Haran ; Jonathans Targum , and much at the same rate that of Jerusalem , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Souls which they had made proselytes in Haran , or as Solomon Jarchi expresses it , a little more after the Hebrew mode , the Souls which they had gathered , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 under the wings of the Divine Majesty ; and he further adds , that Abraham proselyted the men , and Sarah the women . So when elsewhere we read of his trained servants , some of the Jewish Masters expound it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those that were initiated and trained up in the knowledge of the Law. Such being the temper of this holy man , God was pleased frequently to converse with him , and to impart his mind to him , acquainting him with the secret counsels and purposes of his Providence , whence he is stiled the friend of God. But that which shewed him to be most dear to Heaven , was the Covenant which God solemnly made with him , wherein binding Abraham and his seed to a sincere and universal obedience , he obliged himself to become their God , to be his shield and his exceeding great reward , to take his posterity for his peculiar people , to encrease their number , and to inlarge their power , to settle them in a rich and a pleasant Country ( a type of that Heavenly and better Country that is above ) and which was the crown of all , that in his seed all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed , that is , the promised Messiah should proceed out of his loins , who should be a common blessing to mankind , in whom both Jew and Gentile should be justified and saved , and he by that means become ( spiritually ) the Father of many Nations . This Covenant was ratified and ensured on God's part by a solemn oath , For when God made promise to Abraham , because he could swear by no greater , he sware by himself , saying , Surely blessing I will bless thee , and multiplying I will multiply thee . On Abraham's part it was sealed with the Sacrament of Circumcision , which God instituted as a peculiar federal rite , to distinguish Abraham's posterity from all other people . Abraham died in the 〈◊〉 year of his Age , and was buried in the Sepulchre which himself had purchased of the sons of Heth. Contemporary with Abraham was his Nephew Lot , a just man , but vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked ; for dwelling in the midst of an impure and debauched generation , In seeing and hearing he vexed his righteous Soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds . This endeared him to Heaven , who took a particular care of him , and sent an Angel on purpose to conduct him and his family out of Sodom , before he let loose that fatal vengeance that overturned it . 18. Abraham being dead , Isaac stood up in his stead , the son of his Parents old age , and the fruit of an extraordinary promise . Being delivered from being a sacrifice , he frequented ( say the Jews ) the School of Sem , wherein he was educated in the knowledge of Divine things till his marriage with Rebeccah . But however that was , he was a good man , we read of his going out to meditate or pray in the field at even-tide , and elsewhere we find him publickly sacrificing and calling upon God. In all his distresses God still appeared to him , animated him against his fears , and encouraged him to go on in the steps of his Father , renewing the same promises to him which he had made to Abraham . Nay , so visible and remarkable was the interest which he had in Heaven , that Abimelech King of the Philistines and his Courtiers thought it their wisest course to confederate with him for this very reason , because they saw certainly that the Lord was with him , and that he was the blessed of the Lord. Religion is the truest interest , and the wisest portion , 't is the surest protection , and the safest refuge . When a man's ways please the Lord , he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him . Isaac dying in the CLXXX , year of his life , the Patriarchate devolved upon his son Jacob , by vertue of the primogeniture which he had purchased of his brother Esau , and which had been confirmed to him by the grant and blessing of his Father ( though subtilly procured by the artifice and policy of his Mother ) who also told him , that God Almighty would bless and multiply him and his seed after him , and that the blessing of Abraham should come upon them . He intirely devoted himself to the fear and service of God , kept up his Worship , and vindicated it from the incroachments of Idolatry , he erected Altars at every turn , and zealously purged his house from those Teraphim or Idols which Rachel had brought along with her out of Laban's house , either to prevent her Father's enquiring at them which way Jacob had made his escape , or to take away from him the instruments of his Idolatry , or possibly that she might have wherewith to propitiate and 〈◊〉 her Father in case he should pursue and overtake them , as Josephus thinks , though surely then she would have produced them , when she saw her Father so zealous to retrieve them . He had frequent Visions and Divine condescensions , God appearing to him , and ratifying the Covenant that he had made with Abraham , and changing his name from Jacob to Israel , as a memorial of the mighty prevalency which he had with Heaven . In his later time he removed his family into Egypt , where God had prepared his way by the 〈◊〉 of his son Joseph to be Vice-Roy and Lord of that vast and fertile Country , advanced to that place of state and grandeur by many strange and unsearchable methods of the Divine Providence . By his two Wives , the Daughters of his Uncle Laban , and his two Handmaids he had twelve Sons , who afterwards became founders of the Twelve Tribes of the Jewish Nation ; to whom upon his death-bed he bequeathed his blessings , consigning their several portions , and the particular fates of every Tribe , among whom that of 〈◊〉 is most remarkable , to whom it was foretold , that the 〈◊〉 should arise out of that Tribe , that the Regal Power & Political Soveraignty should be annexed to it , and remain in it till the 〈◊〉 came , at whose coming the Scepter should depart , and the Law-giver from between his knees : And thus all their own Paraphrasts , both Onkelos , Jonathan , and he of Jerusalem do expound it , that there should not want Kings or Rulers of the house of Judah , nor Scribes to teach the Law of that race , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 until the time that 〈◊〉 the King shall come , whose the Kingdom is . And so it accordingly came to pass , for at the time of Christ's Birth , Herod , who was a stranger , had usurped the Throne , debased the Authority of their great Sanhedrim , murdered their Senators , devested them of all Judiciary power , and kept them so low , that they had not power 〈◊〉 to put a man to death . And unto him shall the gathering of the people be . A prophecy exactly accomplished , when in the first Ages of Christianity the Nations of the World 〈◊〉 to the standard of Christ at the publication of the Gospel . Jacob died CXLVII . years old , and was buried in Canaan , in the Sepulchre of his Fathers : After whose decease his posterity for some hundreds of years were afflicted under the Egyptian yoke . Till God remembring the Covenant he had made with their Fathers , powerfully rescued them from the Iron Furnace ; and conducted them through the wilderness into the Land of Promise , where he framed and ordered their Commonwealth , appointed Laws for the government of their Church , and setled them under a more fixed and certain dispensation . 19. HITHERTO we have surveyed the state of the Church in the constant succession of the Patriarchal Line . But if we step a little further into the History of those times , we shall find that there were some extraordinary persons without the Pale of that holy Tribe , renowned for the worship of God , and the profession of Religion ; among whom two are most considerable , Melchisedeck and Job . Melchisedeck was King of Salem in the land of Canaan , and Priest of the most high God. The short account which the Scripture gives of him hath left room for various fancies and conjectures . The opinion that has most generally obtained is , that Melchisedeck was Sem , one of the sons of Noah , who was of a great Age , and lived above LXX . years after Abraham's coming into Canaan , and might therefore well enough meet him in his triumphant return from his conquest over the Kings of the Plain . But notwithstanding the universal authority which this opinion assumes to it self , it appears not to me with any tolerable probability , partly because Canaan , where Melchisedeck lived , was none of those Countries which were allotted to Sem and to his posterity , and unlikely it is that he should be Prince in a foreign Country : partly , because those things which the Scripture reports concerning Melchisedeck , do no ways agree to Sem , as that he was without Father and Mother , without genealogie , &c. whenas Moses does most exactly describe and record Sem and his Family , both as to his Ancestors , and as to his posterity . That therefore which seems most probable in the case , is , that he was one of the Reguli , or petty Kings ( whereof there were many ) in the land of Canaan , but a pious and devout man , and a worshipper of the true God , as there were many others in those days among the Idolatrous Nations ; he being extraordinarily raised up by God from among the Canaanites , and brought in without mention of Parents , original or end , without any Predecessor or Successor in his office , that he might be a fitter type of the Royal and Eternal Priesthood of Christ. And for any more particular account concerning his person , it were folly and rashness over-curiously to enquire after what God seems industriously to have concealed from us . The great character under which the Scripture takes notice of him , is his relation to our blessed Saviour , who is more than once said to be a Priest , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , after the order , in the same way and manner that Melchisedeck was , or ( as the Apostle explains himself ) after the similitude of Melchisedeck . Our Lord was such a Priest as Melchisedeck was , there being a nearer similitude and conformity between them , than ever was between any other Priests whatsoever . A subject which S. Paul largely and particularly treats of . Passing by the minuter instances of the parallel , taken from the name of his person , Melchisedeck , that is , King of righteousness , and his title to his Kingdom , King of Salem , that is , of Peace ; we shall observe three things especially wherein he was a type of Christ. First , in the peculiar qualification of his person , something being recorded of him uncommon to the rest of men , and that is , that he was without Father , without Mother , and without descent . Not that Melchisedeck like Adam was immediately created , or in an instant dropt down from Heaven , but that he hath no kindred recorded in the story , which brings him in without any mention of Father or Mother , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Chrysostom glosses , we know not what Father or Mother he had : He was ( says S. Paul ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , without genealogie , without having any pedigree extant upon record , whence the ancient Syriack Version truly expresses the sence of the whole passage thus , Whos 's neither Father nor Mother are written , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among the generations , that is , the genealogies of the ancient Patriarchs . And thus he eminently typified Christ , of whom this is really true : He is without Father in respect of his humane nature , begotten only of a pure Virgin ; without Mother , in respect of his Divinity , being begotten of his Father before all Worlds , by an eternal and ineffable generation . Secondly , Melchisedeck typified our Saviour in the duration and continuance of his office ; for so 't is said of him , that he was without descent , having neither beginning of days , nor end of life , but made like unto the Son of God , abideth a Priest continually . By which we are not to understand that Melchisedeck never died , for being a man he was subject to the same common Law of mortality with other men : But the meaning is , that as he is said to be without Father and Mother , because the Scripture speaking of him makes no mention of his Parents , his Genealogy and descent : So he is said to abide a Priest for ever , without any beginning of days , or end of life , because we have no account of any that either preceded , or succeeded him in his office , no mention of the time either when he took it up , or laid it down . And herein how lively and eminent a type of Christ , the true Melchisedeck , who as to his Divine nature was without beginning of days from Eternal Ages , and who either in the execution or vertue of his office abides for ever . There is no abolition , no translation of his office , no expectation of any to arise that shall succeed him in it : He was made a Priest not after the Law of a carnal Commandment , a transient and mutable dispensation , but after the power of an endless life . Thirdly , Melchisedeck was a type of Christ in his excellency above all other Priests . S. Paul's great design is to evince the preheminence and precedency of Melchisedeck above all the Priests of the Mosaick ministration , yea , above Abraham himself , the Founder and Father of the Jewish Nation , from whom they reckoned it so great an honour to derive themselves . And this the Apostle proves by a double instance . First , that Abraham , in whose loins the Levitical Priests then were , paid tithes to Melchisedeck , when he gave him the tenth of all his spoils , as due to God and his Ministers , thereby confessing himself and his posterity inferiour to him . Now consider how great this man was , unto whom even the Patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils . Secondly , that Melchisedeck conferred upon Abraham a solemn benediction , it being a standing part of the Priests office to bless the people . And this was an undeniable argument of his superiority . He whose descent is not counted from them ( the legal Priests ) received tithes of Abraham , and blessed him that had the promises : And without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better . Whereby it evidently appears , that Melchisedeck was greater than Abraham , and consequently than all the Levitical Priests that descended from him . Now herein he admirably prefigured and shadowed out our blessed Saviour , a person peculiarly chosen out by God , sent into the World upon a nobler and a more important errand , owned by more solemn and mighty attestations from Heaven , than ever was any other person ; his office incomparably beyond that of the legal Oeconomy , his person greater , his undertaking weightier , his design more sublime and excellent , his oblation more valuable and meritorious , his prayers more prevalent and successful , his office more durable and lasting , than ever any whose business it was to intercede and mediate between God and man. 20. THE other extraordinary person under this 〈◊〉 is Job , concerning whom two things are to be enquired into , Who he was , and when he lived . For the first , we find him described by his Name , his Country , his Kindred , his Quality , his Religion , and his Sufferings , though in many of them we are left under great uncertainties , and to the satisfaction only of probable conjectures . For his name , among many conjectures two are especially considerable , though founded upon very different reasons , one that it is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying one that grieves or groans , mystically presaging those grievous miseries and sufferings that afterwards came upon him ; the other , more probably , from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to love , or to desire , noting him the desire and delight of his Parents , earnestly prayed for , and affectionately embraced with the tenderest endearments . His Country was the land of 〈◊〉 , though where that was , is almost as much disputed , as about the source of Nilus : Some will have it Armenia , others Palestine , or the land of Canaan , and some of the Jewish Masters assure us , that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his School , or place of institution was at Tiberias , and nothing more commonly shewed to Travellers than Job's well in the way between Ramah and Jerusalem ; others place it in Syria near Damascus , so called from 〈◊〉 , the supposed Founder of that City ; others a little more Northward at Apamea , now called Hama , where his house is said to be shewed at this day : Most make it to be part of Idumaea near mount 〈◊〉 , or else Arabia the Desart ( probably it was in the confines of both ) this part of Arabia being nearest to the Sabaeans and Chaldaeans , who invaded him , and most applicable to his dwelling among the Sons of the East , to the situation of his friends who came to visit him , and best corresponding with those frequent Arabisms discernable both in the Language and Discourses of Job and his Friends ; not to say that this Country produced persons exceedingly addicted to Learning and Contemplation , and the studies of natural Philosophy , whence the wise men who came out of the East to worship Christ are thought by many to have been Arabians . For his kindred and his friends , we find four taken notice of , who came to visit him in his distress ; Eliphaz the Temanite , the son probably of Teman , and grandchild of Esau by his eldest son Eliphaz , the Country deriving its name Teman from his Father , and was situate in Idumaea in the borders of the Desart Arabia : Bildad the Shuhite , a descendant in all likelihood of Shuah , one of the sons of Abraham by his wife Keturah , whose seat was in this part of Arabia : Zophar the Naamathite , a Country lying near those parts : And Elihu the Buzite , of the off-spring of Buz the son of Nahor , and so nearly related to Job himself . He was the son of Barachel , of the kindred of Ram , who was the head of the Family , and his habitation was in the parts of Arabia the Desart near Euphrates , or at least in the Southern part of 〈◊〉 bordering upon it . As for Job himself , he is made by some a Canaanite , of the posterity of Cham ; by others to descend from Sem by his son Amram , whose eldest sons name was 〈◊〉 ; by most from Esau , the Father of the Idumaean Nations ; but most probably either from Nahor , Abraham's brother , whose sons were Huz , Buz , Chesed , &c. or from Abraham himself by some of the sons which he had by his wife Keturah , whereby an account is most probably given , how Job came to be imbued with those seeds of Piety and true Religion , for which he was so eminently remarkable , as deriving them from those Religious principles and instructions which Abraham and Nahor had bequeathed to their posterity . His quality and the circumstances of his External state were very considerable , a man rich and honourable ; His substance was seven thousand Sheep , and three thousand Camels , and five hundred yoke of Oxen , and five hundred she-Asses , and a very great houshold , so that he was the greatest of all the men of the East ; himself largely describes the great honour and prosperity of his fortunes , that he washed his steps in Butter , and the rock poured out rivers of Oil ; when he went out to the gate through the City , and prepared his seat in the street , the young men saw him , and hid themselves , the aged arose and stood up , the Princes refrained talking , and laid their hand on their mouth , &c. He delivered the poor that cried , and the fatherless and him that had none to help him , the blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon him , &c. He brake the jaws of the wicked , and pluckt the spoil out of their teeth , &c. Indeed so great his state and dignity , that it has led many into a perswasion , that he was King of Idumaea , a powerful and mighty Prince ; a fancy that has received no small encouragement from the common but groundless confounding of Job with Jobab King of Edom , of the race of Esau. For the story gives no intimation of any such royal dignity , to which Job was advanced , but always speaks of him as a private person , though exceeding wealthy and prosperous , and thereby probably of extraordinary power and estimation in his Country . Nay that he might not want fit Companions in his Regal capacity , three of his friends are made Kings as well as he , the LXX . Translators themselves stiling Eliphaz King of the Temanites , Bildad of the Suchites , and Zophar King of the Minaeans , though with as little , probably less reason than the former . 21. BUT whatever his condition was , we are sure he was no less eminent for Piety and Religion , he was a man perfect and upright , one that feared God , and eschewed evil . Though living among the Idolatrous Gentiles , he kept up the true and sincere worship of God , daily offered up Sacrifices and Prayers to Heaven , piously instructed his Children and Family , lived in an intire dependence upon the Divine Providence , in all his discourses expressed the highest and most honourable sentiments and thoughts of God , and such as best became the Majesty of an Infinite Being ; in all transactions he was just and righteous , compassionate and charitable , modest and humble , indeed by the character of God himself , who knew him best , There was none like him in the Earth , a perfect and an upright man , fearing God , and eschewing evil : his mind was submissive and compliant , his patience generous and unshaken , great even to a Proverb , You have heard of the Patience of Job . And enough he had to try it to the utmost , if we consider what sufferings he underwent ; those evils which are wont but singly to seise upon other men , all centred and met in him . Plundered in his Estate by the Sabaean and Chaldaean Free-booters ( whose standing livelihood were spoils and robberies ) and not an Oxe or Asse left of all the Herd , not a Sheep or a Lamb either for Food or Sacrifice : Undone in his Posterity , his Seven Sons , and Three Daughters being all slain at once by the fall of one House : blasted in his credit and good name , and that by his nearest friends , who traduced and challenged him for a dissembler and an hypocrite . Ruined in his health , being smitten with sore boiles from the crown of the Head to the sole of the Foot , till his Body became a very Hospital of Diseases : tormented in his mind with sad and uncomfortable reflections , The arrows of the Almighty being shot within him , the poyson whereof drank up his spirit , the terrours of God setting themselves in array against him . All which were aggravated and set home by Satan , the grand Engineer of all those torments , and all this continuing for at least Twelve Months ( say the Jews ) probably for a much longer time ; and yet endured with great courage and fortitude of mind , till God put a period to this tedious Trial , and crowned his sufferings with an ample restitution . We have seen who this excellent Person was , we are next to enquire when he lived . And here we meet with almost an infinite variety of Opinions , some making him contemporary with Abraham , others with Jacob , which had he been , we should doubtless have found some mention of him in their story , as well as we do of 〈◊〉 : others again refer him to the time of the Law given at Mount Sinai , and the Israelites travels in the Wilderness ; others to the times of the Judges after the settlement of the Israelites in the Land of Promise , nay some to the reign of David and Solomon ; and I know not whether the Reader will not smile at the fancy of the Turkish Chronologists , who make Job Major-domo to Solomon , as they make Alexander the Great , the General of his Army . Others go further , and place him among those that were carried away in the Pabylonish Captivity , yea in the time of Ahasuerus , and make his fair Daughters to be of the number of those beautiful young Virgins that were sought-for for the King. Follies that need no confutation . 'T is certain that he was elder than Moses , his Kindred and Family , his way of sacrificing , the Idolatry rise in his time , evidently placing him before that Age ; besides that there are not the least foot-steps in all his Book of any of the great things done for the 〈◊〉 deliverance , which we can hardly suppose should have been omitted , being examples so fresh in memory , and so apposite to the design of that Book . Most probable therefore it is , that he lived about the time of the Israelitish Captivity in Egypt , though whether as some Jews will have it , born that very Year that Jacob came down into Egypt , and dying that Year that they went out of Egypt , I dare not peremptorily affirm . And this no question is the reason why we find nothing concerning him in the Writings of Moses , the History of those Times being crowded up into a very little room , little being recorded even of the Israelites themselves for near Two Hundred Years , more than in general that they were heavily oppressed under the Egyptian Yoke . More concerning this great and good Man , and the things relating to him , if the Reader desire to know , he may among others consult the elaborate exercitations of the younger 〈◊〉 in his Historia Jobi , where the largest curiosity may find enough to satisfie it . 22. AND now for a Conclusion to this Occonomy , if we reflect a little upon the state of things under this period of the World , we shall find that the Religion of those 〈◊〉 Ages was plain and simple , unforced and natural , and highly agreeable to the common dictates and notions of Mens minds . They were not educated under any forreign Institutions , nor conducted by a Body of numerous Laws and written Constitutions , but were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( as Philo calls them ) tutor'd and instructed by the dictates of their own minds , and the Principles of that Law that was written in their hearts , following the order of Nature and right Reason , as the safest , and most ancient Rule . By which means ( as one of the Ancients observes ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they maintained a free and uninterrupted course of Religion , conducting their lives according to the rules of Nature , so that having purged their minds from lust and passion , and attained to the true knowledge of God , they had no need of external and written Laws . Their Creed was short and perspicuous , their notions of God great and venerable , their devotion and piety real and substantial , their worship grave and serious , and such as became the grandeur and majesty of the Divine being , their Rites and Ceremonies few and proper , their obedience prompt and sincere , and indeed the whole conduct of their conversation discovering it self in the most essential and important duties of the humane life . According to this standard it was that our blessed Saviour mainly designed to reform Religion in his most excellent Institutions , to retrieve the piety and purity , the innocency and simplicity of those 〈◊〉 and more uncorrupted Ages of the World , to improve the Laws of Nature , and to reduce Mankind from ritual observances to natural and moral duties , as the most vital and essential parts of Religion , and was therefore pleased to charge Christianity with no more than two positive Institutions , Baptism , and the Lord's Supper , that Men might learn , that the main of Religion lies not in such things as these . Hence Eusebius undertakes at large to prove the faith and manners of the Holy Patriarchs , who lived before the times of Moses , and the belief and practice of Christians to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , one and the same . Which he does not only assert and make good in general , but deduce from particular instances , the examples of Enoch , Noah , Abraham , Melchisedeck , Job , &c. whom he expresly proves to have believed and lived 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , altogether after the manner of Christians : Nay that they had the name also as well as the thing , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as he shews from that place ( which he proves to be meant of Abraham , Isaac and Jacob ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Touch not my Christians , mine Anointed , and do my Prophets no harm . And in short , that as they had the same common Religion , so they had the common blessing and reward . SECT . II. Of the MOSAICAL Dispensation . Moses the Minister of this Oeconomy . His miraculous preservation . His learned and noble education . The Divine temper of his mind . His conducting the Israelites out of Egypt . Their arrival at Mount Sinai . The Law given , and how . Moral Laws ; the Decalogue whether a perfect Compendium of the Moral Law. The Ceremonial Laws what . Reduced to their proper Heads . Such as concerned the matter of their Worship . Sacrifices , and the several kinds of them . Circumcision . The Passover , and its typical relation . The place of Publick Worship . The Tabernacle and Temple , and the several parts of them , and their typical aspects considered . Their stated times and 〈◊〉 , weekly , monthly , annual . The Sabbatical Year . The Year of Jubilee . Laws concerning the Persons ministring ; Priests , Levites , the High-Priest , how a type of Christ. The Design of the Ceremonial Law , and its abolition . The Judicial Laws , what . The Mosaick Law how divided by the Jews into affirmative and negative Precepts , and why . The several ways of Divine revelation . Urim and Thummim what , and the manner of its giving Answers . Bath-Col . Whether any such way of revelation among the Jews . Revelation by Dreams . By Visions . The Revelation of the Holy Spirit , what . Moses his way of Prophecy wherein exceeding the rest . The pacate way of the spirit of prophecy . This spirit when it ceased in the Jewish Church . The state of the Church under this Dispensation briefly noted . From the giving of the Law till Samuel . From Samuel till Solomon . It s condition under the succeeding Kings till the Captivity . From thence till the coming of Christ. The state of the Jewish Church in the time of Christ more particularly considered . The prophanations of the Temple . The Corruption of their Worship . The abuse of the Priesthood . The Depravation of the Law by false glosses . Their Oral and unwritten Law. It s original and succession according to the mind of the Jews . Their unreasonable and blasphemous preferring it above the written Law. Their religious observing the Traditions of the Elders . The Vow of Corban , what . The superseding Moral Duties by it . The Sects in the Jewish Church . The Pharisees , their denomination , rise , temper and principles . Sadducees , their impious Principles , and evil lives . The Essenes , their original , opinions , and way of life . The Herodians , who . The Samaritans . Karraeans . The Sect of the Zealots . The Roman Tyranny over the Jewes . 1. THE Church , which had hitherto lyen dispersed in private Families , and had often been reduced to an inconsiderable number , being now multiplied into a great and a populous Nation , God was pleased to enter into Covenant , not any longer with particular Persons , but with the Body of the People , and to govern the Church by more certain and regular ways and methods , than it had hitherto been . This Dispensation began with the delivery of the Law , and continued till the final period of the Jewish state , consisting only of meats and drinks , and divers washings , and carnal Ordinances , imposed on them until the time of reformation . In the survey whereof we shall chiefly consider what Laws were given for the Government of the Church , by what Methods of revelation God communicated his mind and will to them , and what was the state of the Church , especially towards the conclusion of this Oeconomy . 2. THE great Minister of this Dispensation was Moses the Son of Amram , of the House of Levi , a Person , whose signal preservation when but an Infant presaged him to be born for great and generous undertakings . Pharaoh King of Egypt desirous to suppress the growing numbers of the Jewish Nation had afflicted and kept them under with all the rigorous severities of tyranny and oppression . But this not taking its effect , he made a Law that all Hebrew Male-children should be drowned as soon as born , knowing well enough how to kill the root , if he could keep any more Branches from springing up . But the wisdom of Heaven defeated his crafty and barbarous 〈◊〉 . Among others that were born at that time was Moses , a goodly Child , and whom his Mother was infinitely desirous to preserve : but having concealed him , till the saving of his might endanger the losing her own life , her affection suggested to her this little stratagem , she prepared an Ark made of Paper-reeds , and pitched within , and so putting him a-board this little Vessel , threw him into the River Nilus , committing him to the mercy of the waves , and the conduct of the Divine Providence . God , who wisely orders all events , had so disposed things that Pharaohs daughter ( whose name , say the Jews , was Bithia , Thermuth says Josephus , say the Arabians , Sihhoun ) being troubled with a distemper that would not endure the hot Bathes , was come down at this time to wash in the Nile , where the cries of the tender Babe soon reached her ears . She commanded the Ark to be brought a-shore , which was no sooner opened , but the silent oratory of the weeping Infant sensibly struck her with compassionate resentments : And the Jews add , that she no sooner touched the Babe , but she was immediately healed , and cried out that he was a holy Child , and that she would save his life ; for which ( say they ) she obtained the favour to be brought under the wings of the Divine Majesty , and to be called the daughter of God. His Sister Miriam , who had all this while beheld the scene afar off , officiously proffered her service to the Princess to call an Hebrew Nurse , and accordingly went and brought his Mother . To her care he was committed with a charge to look tenderly to him , and the promise of a reward . But the hopes of that could add but little , where nature was so much concerned . Home goes the Mother joyful and proud of her own pledge , and the royal charge , carefully providing for his tender years . His infant state being pass'd , he was restored to the Princess , who adopted him for her own son , bred him up at Court , where he was polished with all the arts of a noble and ingenuous education , instructed in the modes of civility and behaviour , in the methods of policy and government , Learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians , whose renown for wisdom is not only once and again taken notice of in holy Writ , but their admirable skill in all liberal Sciences , Natural , Moral and Divine , beyond the rate and proportion of other Nations , is sufficiently celebrated by foreign Writers . To these accomplishments God was pleased to add a Divine temper of mind , a great zeal for God , not able to endure any thing that seemed to clash with the interests of the Divine honour and glory ; a mighty courage and resolution in God's service , whose edge was not to be taken off either by threats or charms ; He was not afraid of the Kings commandment , nor feared the wrath of the King , for he endured as seeing him that is invisible . His contempt of the World was great and admirable , sleighting the honours of Pharoah's Court , and the fair probabilities of the Crown , the treasures and pleasures of that rich , soft and luxurious Country , out of a firm belief of the invisible rewards of another World ; He refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter , chusing rather to suffer 〈◊〉 with the people of God , than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season ; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt ; for he had respect unto the recompence of reward . Josephus relates , that when but a child he was presented by the Princess to her Father , as one whom she had adopted for her son , and designed for his successor in the Kingdom , the King taking him up into his arms , put his Crown upon his head , which the child immediately pull'd off again , and throwing it upon the ground , trampled it under his feet . An action which however looked upon by some Courtiers then present , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 portending a fatal Omen to the Kingdom , did however evidently presage his generous contempt of the grandeur and honours of the Court , and those plausible advantages of Soveraignty that were offered to him . His patience was insuperable , not tired out with the abuses and disappointments of the King of Egypt , with the hardships and troubles of the Wilderness , and which was beyond all , with the cross and vexatious humors of a stubborn and unquiet generation . He was of a most calm and treatable disposition , his spirit not easily ruffled with passion ; he who in the cause of God and Religion could be bold and fierce as a Lion , was in his own patient as a Lamb , God himself having given this character of him , That he was the meekest man upon the Earth . 3. THIS great personage thus excellently qualified , God made choice of him to be the Commander and conducter of the Jewish Nation , and his Embassador to the King of Egypt , to demand the enfranchisement of his people , and free liberty to go serve and worship the God of their Fathers . And that he might not seem a mere pretender to Divine revelation , but that he really had an immediate commission from Heaven , God was pleased to furnish him with extraordinary Credentials , and to seal his Commission with a power of working Miracles beyond all the Arts of Magick , and those tricks for which the Egyptian Sorcerers were so famous in the World. But Pharaoh unwilling to part with such useful Vassals , and having oppressed them beyond possibility of reconcilement , would not hearken to the proposal , but sometimes downright rejected it , otherwhiles sought by subtil and plausible pretences to evade and shift it off ; till by many astonishing Miracles , and severe Judgments God extorted at length a grant from him . Under the conduct of Moses they set forwards after at least two hundred years servitude under the Egyptian yoke ; and though 〈◊〉 sensible of his error , with a great Army pursued them , either to cut them off , or bring them back , God made way for them through the midst of the Sea , the waters becoming like a wall of Brass on each side of them , till being all passed to the other 〈◊〉 , those invisible cords which had hitherto tied up that liquid Element , bursting in sunder , the waters returned and overwhelmed their enemies that pursued them . Thus God by the same stroke can protect his friends , and punish his enemies . Nor did the Divine Providence here take its leave of them , but became their constant guard and defence in all their journeys , waiting upon them through their several stations in the wilderness ; the most memorable whereof was that at Mount Sinai in Arabia : The place where God delivered them the pattern in the Mount , according to which the form both of their Church and State was to be framed and modelled . In order hereunto Moses is called up into the Mount , where by Fasting and Prayer he conversed with Heaven , and received the body of their Laws . Three days the people were by a pious and devout care to sanctifie and prepare themselves for the promulgation of the Law , they might not come near their Wives , were commanded to wash their clothes , as an embleme and representation of that cleansing of the heart , and that inward purity of mind , where with they were to entertain the Divine will. On the third day in the morning God descended from Heaven with great appearances of Majesty and terror , with thunders and lightnings , with black clouds and tempests , with shouts and the loud noise of a trumpet ( which trumpet , say the Jews , was made of the horn of that Ram that was offered in the room of Isaac ) with fire and smoke on the top of the Mount , ascending up like the smoke of a Furnace ; the Mountain it self greatly quaking , the people trembling ; nay , so terrible was the sight , that Moses ( who had so frequently , so familiarly conversed with God ) said , I exceedingly fear and quake . All which pompous trains of terror and magnificence God made use of at this time , to excite the more solemn attention to his Laws , and to beget a greater reverence and veneration for them in the minds of the people , and to let them see how able he was to call them to account , and by the severest penalties to vindicate the violation of his Law. 4. THE Code and Digest of those Laws , which God now gave to the Jews as the terms of that National Covenant that he made with them , consisted of three sorts of Precepts , Moral , Ecelesiastical and Political ; which the Jews will have intimated by those three words , that so frequently occur in the writings of Moses , Laws , Statutes and Judgments . By 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Laws , they understand the Moral Law , the notices of good and evil naturally implanted in mens minds : By 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Statutes , Ceremonial Precepts , instituted by God with peculiar reference to his Church : By 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Judgments , Political Laws concerning Justice and Equity , the order of humane society , and the prudent and peaceable managery of the Commonwealth . The Moral Laws inserted into this Code are those contained in the Decalogue , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they are called , the ten words that were written upon two Tables of Stone . These were nothing else but a summary Comprehension of the great Laws of Nature , engraven at first upon the minds of all men in the World ; the most material part whereof was now consigned to writing , and incorporated into the body of the Jewish Law. I know the Decalogue is generally taken to be a complete System of all natural Laws : But whoever impartially considers the matter , will find that there are many instances of duty so far from being commanded in it , that they are not reducible to any part of it , unless hook'd in by subtilties of wit , and drawn thither by forc'd and unnatural inferences . What provision except in one case or two do any of those Commandments make against neglects of duty ? Where do they obligue us to do good to others , to love , assist , relieve our enemies ? Gratitude and thankfulness to benefactors is one of the prime and essential Laws of Nature , and yet no where that I know of ( unless we will have it implied in the Preface to the Law ) commanded or intimated in the Decalogue : With many other cases , which 'tis naturally evident are our duty , whereof no footsteps are to be seen in this Compendium , unless hunted out by nice and sagacious reasonings , and made out by a long train of consequences , never originally intended in the Commandment , and which not one in a thousand are capable of deducing from it . It is probable therefore that God reduc'd only so many of the Laws of Nature into writing , as were proper to the present state and capacities of that people to whom they were given , superadding some , and explaining others by the Preaching and Ministery of the Prophets , who in their several Ages endeavoured to bring men out of the Shades and Thickets , into clear light and Noon-day , by clearing up mens obligations to those natural and essential duties , in the practice whereof humane nature was to be advanced unto its just accomplishment and perfection . Hence it was that our Lord , who came not to destroy the Law , but to fulfil and perfect it , has explained the obligations of the natural Law more fully and clearly , more plainly and intelligibly , rendred our duty more fixed and certain , and extended many instances of obedience to higher measures , to a greater exactness and perfection , than ever they were understood to have before . Thus he commands a free and universal charity , not only that we love our friends and relations , but that we love our enemies , bless them that curse us , do good to them that hate us , and pray for them that despitefully use and persecute us : He hath forbidden malice and revenge with more plainness and smartness ; obliged us not only to live according to the measures of sobriety , but extended it to self-denial , and taking up the Cross , and laying down our lives , whenever the honour of God , and the interest of Religion calls for it ; he not only commands us to do no wrong , but when we have done it , to make restitution ; not only to retrench our irregular appetites , but to cut off our right hand , and pluck out our right eye , and cast them from us , that is , mortifie and offer violence to those vicious inclinations , which are as dear to us , as the most useful and necessary parts and members of our body . Besides all this , had God intended the Decalogue for a perfect summary of the Laws of Nature , we cannot suppose that he would have taken any but such into the collection , whereas the Fourth Commandment concerning the Seventh day is unquestionably Typical and Ceremonial , and has nothing more of a Natural and Eternal obligation in it , than that God should be served and honoured both with publick and private worship , which cannot be done without some portions of time set apart for it : But that this should be done just at such a time , and by such proportions , upon the Seventh rather than the Sixth or the Eighth day , is no part of natural Religion . And indeed the reasons and arguments that are annexed to it , to enforce the observance of it , clearly shew that it is of a later date , and of another nature than the rest of those Precepts in whose company we find it , though it seems at first sight to pass without any peculiar note of discrimination from the rest . As for the rest they are Laws of Eternal righteousness , and did not derive their value and authority from the Divine sanction which God here gave them at Mount Sinai , but from their own moral and internal goodness and equity , being founded in the nature of things , and the essential and unchangeable differences of good and evil . By which means they always were , always will be obligatory and indispensable , being as Eternal and Immutable as the nature of God himself . 5. THE second sort of Laws were Ceremonial , Divine Constitutions concerning Ritual observances , and matters of Ecclesiastical cognizance and relation , and were instituted for a double end , partly for the more orderly government of the Church , and the more decent administration of the worship of God ; partly that they might be types and figures of the Evangelical state , Shadows of good things to come , visible and symbolical representments of the Messiah , and those great blessings and priviledges which he was to introduce into the World ; which doubtless was the reason why God was so infinitely punctual and particular in his directions about these matters , giving orders about the minutest circumstances of the Temple ministration , because every part of it had a glance at a future and better state of things . The number of them was great , and the observation burdensom , the whole Nation groaning under the servility of that yoke . They were such as principally related to God's worship , and may be reduced either to such as concerned the worship it self , or the circumstances of time , place and persons that did attend it . Their worship consisted chiefly in three things , Prayers , Sacrifices and Sacraments . Prayers were daily put up together with their Offerings , and though we have very few Constitutions concerning them , yet the constant practice of that Church , and the particular forms of Prayer yet extant in their writings , are a sufficient evidence . Sacrifices were the constant and most solemn part of their publick worship ; yea , they had their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their continual burnt-offering , a Lamb offered Morning and Evening with a Measure of Flower , Oil and Wine , the charge whereof was defrayed out of the Treasury of the Temple . The rest of their Sacrifices may be considered either as they were Expiatory , or Eucharistical . Expiatory were those that were offered as an atonement for the sins of the people , to 〈◊〉 the Divine displeasure , and to procure his pardon , which they did by vertue of their Typical relation to that great Sacrifice which the Son of God was in the fulness of time to offer up for the sins of the World. They were either of a more general relation , for the expiation of sin in general , whole burnt-offerings , which were intirely ( the skin and the entrails only excepted ) burnt to ashes ; or of a more private and particular concernment , designed for the redemption of particular offences , whereof there were two sorts : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the sin-offering , for involuntary offences committed through errour or ignorance , which according to the condition and capacity of the Person were either for the Priest , or the Prince , or the whole Body of the People , or a private Person . The other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the trespass-offering , for sins done wittingly , studied and premeditated transgressions , and which the Man could not pretend to be the effects of surprize or chance . Eucharistical Sacrifices were testimonies of gratitude to God for mercies received , whereof three sorts especially . 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the meat-offering , made up of things without life , oyl , fine flower , incense , &c. which the worshipper offered as a thankful return for the daily preservation and provisions of life , and therefore it consisted only of the fruits of the ground . 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the peace-offering ; this was done either out of a grateful sense of some blessing conferred , or as a voluntary offering to which the Person had obliged himself by vow in expectation of some safety or deliverance which he had prayed for . In this Sacrifice God had his part , the fat which was the only part of it burnt by fire , the Priest his , as the instrument of the ministration , the Offerer his , that he might have wherewith to rejoyce before the Lord. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thanksgivingoffering , or a Sacrifice of praise , it was a mixt kind of Sacrifice , consisting of living Creatures , and the fruits of the Earth , which they might offer at their own will , but it must be eaten the same day , and none of it left until the morrow . What other provisions we meet with concerning ceremonial uncleannesses , first-fruits , the first-born , tenths , &c. are conveniently reducible to some of these heads which we have already mentioned . The last part of their worship concerned their Sacraments , which were two , Circumcision , and the Paschal Supper . Circumcision was the federal Rite annexed by God as a Seal to the Covenant which he made with Abraham and his Posterity , and accordingly renewed and taken into the Body of the Mosaical constitutions . It was to be administred the eighth day , which the Jews understand not of so many days compleat , but the current time , six full days , and part of the other . In the room of this , Baptism succeeds in the Christian Church . The Passover , which was the eating of the Paschal Lamb , was instituted as an Annual memorial of their signal and miraculous deliverance out of Egypt , and as a typical representation of our spiritual Redemption by Christ from the bondage of sin and that Hell that follows it . It was to be celebrated with a Male-lamb without blemish taken out of the Flock , to note the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the World , who was taken from among men , a Lamb without blemish and without spot , holy , harmless , and separate from sinners . The Door-posts of the House were to be sprinkled with the blood of the Lamb , to signifie our security from the Divine vengeance by the blood of sprinkling . The Lamb was to be roasted and eaten whole , typifying the great sufferings of our blessed Saviour , who was to pass through the fire of Divine wrath , and to be wholly embrac'd and entertain'd by us in all his Offices , as King , Priest , and Prophet . None but those that were clean and circumcised might eat of it , to shew that only true believers , holy and good men can be partakers of Christ and the merits of his Death ; It was to be eaten standing , with their Loins girt , and their staff in their hand , to put them in mind what haste they made out of the house of bondage , and to intimate to us what present diligence we should use to get from under the empire and tiranny of sin and Satan , under the conduct and assistance of the Captain of our Salvation . The eating of it was to be mixed with bitter herbs , partly as a memorial of that bitter servitude which they underwent in the Land of Egypt , partly as a type of that repentance and bearing of the cross ( duties difficult and unpleasant ) which all true Christians must undergo . Lastly , it was to be eaten with unleavened Bread , all manner of leaven being at that time to be banished out of their Houses with the most critical diligence and curiosity , to represent what infinite care we should take to cleanse and purifie our hearts , to purge 〈◊〉 the old leaven , that we may be a new lump : and that since Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us , therefore we should keep the Feast ( the Festival commemoration of his Death ) not with old leaven , neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness , but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth . 6. THE Places of their Publick Worship were either the Tabernacle made in the Wilderness , or the Temple built by Solomon , between which in the main there was no other difference , than that the Tabernacle was an ambulatory Temple , as the Temple was a standing Tabernacle , together with all the rich costly Furniture that was in them . The parts of it were three , the Holiest of all , whither none entred but the High-Priest , and that but once a Year , this was a type of Heaven ; the holy place , whither the Priests entred every Day to perform their Sacred Ministrations ; and the outward Court , whither the People came to offer up their Prayers and Sacrifices . In the Sanctum Sanctorum , or Holiest of all there was the Golden Censer , typifying the Merits and Intercession of Christ ; the Ark of the Covenant , as a representation of him who is the Mediator of the Covenant between God and man ; the Golden Pot of Manna , a type of our Lord , the true Manna , the Bread that came down from Heaven ; the Rod of Aaron that budded , signifying the Branch of the Root of Jesse , that though our Saviour's Family should be reduced to a state of so much meanness and obscurity , as to appear but like the trunk or stump of a Tree , yet there should come forth a rod out of this stem of Jesse , and a branch grow out of his roots , which should stand for an Ensign of the People , and in him should the Gentiles trust . And within the Ark were the two Tables of the Covenant , to denote him , in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge , and who is the end and perfection of the Law : Over it were the Cherubims of glory shadowing the Mercy-seat , who looking towards each other , and both to the Mercy-seat denoted the two Testaments , or Dispensations of the Church , which admirably agree , and both direct to Christ the Mediator of the Covenant . The Propitiatory , or Mercy-seat was the Golden covering to the Ark , where God vailing his Majesty was wont to manifest his Presence , to give Answers , and shew Himself reconciled to the People , herein eminently 〈◊〉 our Blessed Saviour , who interposes between us and the Divine Majesty , whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation , through faith in his blood for the remission of sins ; so that now we may come boldly to the Throne of Grace , and find mercy to help us . Within the Sanctuary , or the Holy Place was the Golden 〈◊〉 with Seven Branches , representing Christ , who is the Light of the World , and who enlightens every one that comes into the World , and before whose Throne there are said to be seven Lamps of Fire , which are the seven spirits of God : The Table , compassed about with a Border and a Crown of Gold , denoting the Ministry , and the Shew-bread set upon it , shadowing out Christ , the Bread of Life , who by the Ministry of the Gospel is offered to the World : here also was the Golden Altar of Incense , whereon they burnt the sweet 〈◊〉 Morning and Evening , to signifie to us that our Lord is the true Altar , by whom all our Prayers and Services are rendred the odour of a sweet smell acceptable unto God ; to this the Psalmist refers , Let my Prayer be set forth before thee as incense , and the 〈◊〉 up of my hands as the Evening Sacrifice . The third part of the Tabernacle , as also of the Temple , was the Court of Israel , wherein stood the Brazen Altar , upon which the Holy Fire was continually preserved , by which the Sacrifices were consumed , one of the Five great Prerogatives that were wanting in the second Temple . Here was the Brazen Laver , with its Basis , made of the brazen Looking-glasses of the Women that assembled at the Door of the Tabernacle , wherein the Priests washed their Hands and their Feet , when going into the Sanctuary , and both they and the People when about to offer Sacrifice ; to teach us to purifie our hearts , and to cleanse our selves 〈◊〉 all filthiness of flesh and spirit , especially when we approach to offer up our services to Heaven ; hereunto David alludes , I will wash mine hands in innocency , so will I compass thine Altar , O Lord. Solomon in building the Temple made an addition of a fourth Court , the Court of the Gentiles , whereinto the unclean Jewes and Gentiles might enter , and in this was the Corban or Treasury , and it is sometimes in the New Testament called the Temple . To these Laws concerning 〈◊〉 Place of Worship we may reduce those that relate to the holy Vessels and Utensils of the Tabernacle and the Temple , Candlesticks , Snuffers , Dishes , &c. which also had their proper mysteries and significations . 7. THE stated times and seasons of their worship are next to be considered , and they were either Daily , Weekly , Monthly , or Yearly . Their Daily worship was at the time of the Morning , and the Evening Sacrifice ; their Weekly solemnity was the Sabbath , which was to be kept with all imaginable care and strictness , they being commanded to rest in it from all servile labours , and to attend the Duties and Offices of Religion , a type of that rest that remains for the People of God. Their monthly Festivals were the New-moons , wherein they were to blow the Trumpets over their Sacrifices and Oblations , and to observe them with great expressions of joy and triumph , in a thankful resentment of the blessings which all that Month had been conferred upon them . Their Annual Solemnities were either ordinary or extraordinary ; Ordinary were those that returned every Year , whereof the first was the Passover , to be celebrated upon the Fourteenth day of the first Month , as a Memorial of their great deliverance out of Egypt : The second , Pentecost , called also the Feast of Weeks , because just seven Weeks , or fifty days after the Passover : Instituted it was partly in memory of the promulgation of the Law , published at Mount Sinai fifty days after their celebration of the Passover in Egypt , partly as a thanksgiving for the in gathering of their Harvest , which usually was fully brought in about this time . The third was the Feast of Tabernacles , kept upon the Fifteenth day of the Seventh Month for the space of Seven days together ; at which time they dwelt in Booths made of green Boughs , as a memento of that time when they sojourn'd in Tents and Tabernacles in the Wilderness , and a sensible demonstration of the transitory duration of the present life , that the Earthly house of our Tabernacle must be dissolved , and that therefore we should secure a building of God , an house not made with hands , Eternal in the Heavens . These were the three great solemnities , wherein all the Males were obliged to appear at Jerusalem , and to present themselves and their offerings in testimony of their homage and devotion unto God : Besides which they had some of lesser moment , such as their Feast of Trumpets , and that of Expiation . The Annual Festivals extraordinary were those that recurr'd but once in the periodical return of several years ; such was the Sabbatical year , wherein the Land was to lye fallow , and to rest from ploughing and sowing , and all manner of cultivation ; and this was to be every seventh year , typifying the Eternal Sabbatism in Heaven , where good men shall rest from their labours , and their works shall follow them . But the great Sabbatical year of all was that of Jubilee , which returned at the end of seven ordinary Sabbatick years , that is , every fiftieth year , the approach whereof was proclaimed by the sound of Trumpets ; in it servants were released , all debts discharged , and mortgaged Estates reverted to their proper heirs . And how evidently did this shadow out the state of the Gospel , and our Lord 's being sent to preach good tidings to the meek , to bind up the broken hearted , to preach liberty to the captives , and the opening of the prison to them that are bound , to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord , that they might lift up their heads , because their redemption drew nigh ? 8. LASTLY , They had Laws concerning the persons by whom their publick worship was administred ; and here there was appointed an High Priest , who had his proper offices and rules of duty , his peculiar attire and consecration ; ordinary Priests whose business was to instruct the people , to Pray and offer sacrifice , to bless the Congregation , and judge in cases of Leprosie , and such like ; at their Ordination , they were to be chosen before all the people , to be sprinkled with the water of Expiation , their Hair shaved , and their Bodies washed , afterwards anointed , and sacrifices to be offered for them , and then they might enter upon their Priestly ministrations . Next to these were the Levites , who were to assist the Priests in preparing the Sacrifices , to bear the Tabernacle ( while it lasted ) and lay up its Vessels and Utensils , to purifie and cleanse the Vessels and Instruments , to guard the Courts and Chambers of the Temple , to watch weekly in the Temple by their turns , to sing and celebrate the praises of God with Hymns and Musical Instruments , and to joyn with the Priests in judging and determining Ceremonial causes ; they were not to be taken into the full discharge of their Function till the thirtieth , nor to be kept at it beyond the fiftieth year of their age ; God mercifully thinking it fit to give them then a Writ of Ease , whose strength might be presumed sufficiently impaired by truckling for so many years under such toilsom and laborious ministrations . Though the Levitical Priests were types of Christ , yet it was the High Priest , who did eminently typifie him , and that in the unity and singularity of his office ; for though many Orders and Courses of inferior Priests and Ministers , yet was there but one High Priest , There is one Mediator between God and man , the man Christ Jesus ; in the qualifications necessary to his election , as to place , he was to be taken out of the Tribe of Levi ; as to his person , which was to be every ways perfect and comely , and the manner of his Consecration ; in his singular capacity , that he alone might enter into the holy of holies , which he did once every year upon the great day of Expiation , with a mighty pomp and train of Ceremonies , killing Sacrifices , burning Incense , sprinkling the bloud of the Sacrifice before and upon the Mercy-seat , going within the veil , and making an attonement within the holy place . All which immediately referred to Christ , who by the sacrifice of himself , and through the veil of his own flesh entred , not into the holy place made with hands , but into Heaven it self , now to appear in the presence of God for us . All which might be represented more at large , but that I intend not a discourse about these matters . 9. BESIDES the Laws which we have hitherto enumerated , there were several other particular Commands , Ritual Constitutions about Meats and Drinks , and other parts of humane life . Such was the difference they were to make between the Creatures , some to be clean , and others unclean ; such were several sorts of pollution and uncleanness , which were not in their own nature sins , but Ceremonial defilements ; of this kind were several provisions about Apparel , Diet , and the ordering Family-affairs , all evidently of a Ceremonial aspect , but too long to be insisted on in this place . The main design of this Ceremonial Law was to point out to us the Evangelical state , The Law had only a shadow of good things to come , and not the very image of the things themselves , the body was Christ , and therefore though the Law came by Moses , yet grace and truth ( the truth of all those types and figures ) came by Christ. It was time for Moses to resign the Chair , when once this great Prophet was come into the World. Ceremonies could no longer be of use , when once the substance was at hand : well may the Stars disappear at the rising of the Sun : the Messiah being cut off , should cause the Sacrifice and the Oblation to cease . At the time of Christ's death the veil of the Temple from top to bottom rent in sunder , to shew that his death had revealed the mysteries , and destroyed the foundations of the legal Oeconomy , and put a period to the whole Temple-ministration . Nay , the Jews themselves confess , that forty years before the destruction of the Temple ( a date that corresponds exactly with the death of Christ ) the Lot did no more go up into the right hand of the Priest ( this is meant of his dismission of the Scape-goat ) nor the scarlet Ribbon , usually laid upon the forehead of the Goat , any more grow white , ( this was a sign that the Goat was accepted for the remission of their sins ) nor the Evening Lamp burn any longer , and that the gates of the Temple opened of their own accord . By which as at once they confirm what the Gospel reports of the opening of the Sanctum Sanctorum by the scissure of the veil ; so they plainly confess , that at that very time their Sacrifices and Temple-services began to cease and fail : As indeed the reason of them then ceasing , the things themselves must needs vanish into nothing . 10. THE third sort of Laws given to the Jews were Judicial and Political , these were the Municipal Laws of the Nation , enacted for the good of the State , and were a kind of appendage to the second Table of the Decalogue , as the Ceremonial Laws were of the first . They might be reduced to four general heads ; such as respected men in their private and domestical capacities , concerning Husbands and Wives , Parents and Children , Masters and Servants ; such as concerned the Publick and the Common-wealth , relating to Magistrates , and Courts of Justice , to Contracts and matters of right and wrong , to Estates and Inheritances , to Executions and Punishments , &c. such as belong'd to strangers , and matters of a soreign nature , as Laws concerning Peace and War , Commerce and Dealing with persons of another Nation ; or lastly , such as secured the honour and the interests of Religion , Laws against Apostates and Idolaters , Wizards , Conjurers and false Prophets , against Blasphemy , Sacriledge , and such like ; all which not being so proper to my purpose , I omit a more particular enumeration of them . These Laws were peculiarly calculated for the Jewish State , and that while kept up in that Country wherein God had placed them , and therefore must needs determine and expire with it . Nor can they be made a pattern and standard for the Laws of other Nations ; for , though proceeding from the wisest Law-giver , they cannot reasonably be imposed upon any State or Kingdom , unless where there is an equal concurrence of circumstances , as there were in that people , for whom God enacted them . They went off the Stage with the Jewish Polity , and if any parts of them do still remain obligatory , they bind not as Judicial Laws , but as branches of the Law of Nature , the reason of them being Immutable and Eternal . I know not whether it may here be useful to remark what the Jews so frequently tell us of , that the intire body of the Mosaick Law consists of DCXIII . Precepts , intimated ( say they ) in that place where 't is said Moses commanded us a Law , where the Numeral Letters of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Law make up the number of DCXI. and the two that are wanting to make up the complete number are the two first Precepts of the Decalogue , which were not given by Moses to the people , but immediately by God himself . Others say that there are just DCXIII . letters in the Decalogue , and that every letter answers to a Law : But some that have had the patience to tell them , assure us that there are two whole words consisting of seven letters supernumerary , which in my mind quite spoils the computation . These DCXIII . Precepts they divide into CCXLVIII . 〈◊〉 , according to the number of the parts of man's body ( which they make account are just so many ) to put him in mind to serve God with all his bodily powers , as if every member of his body should say to him , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make use of me to fulfil the command ; and into CCCLXV . Negative , according to the number of the days of the year , that so every day may call upon a man , and say to him , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 oh do not in me transgress the Command : Or as others will have it , they answer to the Veins or Nerves in the body of man ; that as the complete frame and compages of man's body is made up of CCXLVIII . Members , and CCCLXV . Nerves , and the Law of so many affirmative , and so many negative Precepts , it denotes to us , that the whole perfection and accomplishment of man lies in an accurate and diligent observance of the Divine Law. Each of these divisions they reduce under twelve houses , answerable to the twelve Tribes of Israel . In the Affirmative Precepts the first House is that of Divine worship , consisting of twenty Precepts ; the second , the House of the Sanctuary , containing XIX ; the third , the House of Sacrifices , wherein are LVII ; the fourth , that of Cleanness and Pollution , containing XVIII ; the fifth , of Tithes and Alms , under which are XXXII ; the sixth , of Meats and Drinks , containing VII ; the seventh , of the Passeover , concerning Feasts , containing XX ; the eighth , of Judgment , XIII ; the ninth , of Doctrine , XXV ; the tenth , of Marriage , and concerning Women , XII ; the eleventh , of Judgments criminal , VIII ; the twelfth , of Civil 〈◊〉 , XVII . In the Negative Precepts , the first House is concerning the worship of the Planets , containing XLVII Commands ; the second , of separation from the Heathens , XIII ; the third , concerning the reverence due to holy things , XXIX ; the fourth , of Sacrifice and Priesthood , LXXXII ; the fifth , of Meats , XXXVIII ; the sixth , of Fields and Harvest , XVIII ; the seventh , of Doctrine , XLV ; the eighth , of Justice , XLVII ; the ninth , of Feasts , X ; the tenth , of Purity and Chastity , XXIV ; the eleventh , of Wedlock , VIII ; the twelfth , concerning the Kingdom , IV. A method not contemptible , as which might minister to a distinct and useful explication of the whole Law of Moses . 11. THE next thing considerable under the Mosaical Oeconomy , was the methods of the Divine revelation , by what ways God communicated his mind to them , either concerning present emergences or future events , and this was done , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as the Apostle tells us , at sundry times , or by sundry degrees and parcels , and in diverse manners , by various methods of revelation , whereof three most considerable , the Urim and Thummim , the audible voice , and the spirit of Prophecy , imparted in dreams , visions , &c. We shall make some brief remarks upon them , referring the Reader , who desires fuller satisfaction herein , to those who purposely treat about these matters . The Urim and Thummim was a way of revelation peculiar to the High Priest : Thou shalt put on the breast-plate of Judgment , the Urim and the Thummim , and they shall be upon Aaron's heart , when he goeth in before the Lord , and Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart before the Lord continually . Thus Eleazar the Priest is commanded to ask counsel after the Judgment of Urim before the Lord. What this Urim and Thummim was , and what the manner of receiving answers by it , is difficult , if not impossible to tell , there being scarce any one difficulty that I know of in the Bible that hath more exercised the thoughts either of Jewish or Christian Writers . Whether it was some addition to the High Priests breast-plate made by the hand of some curious Artist , or whether only those two words engraven upon it , or the great name Jehovah carved and put within the foldings of the breast-plate , or whether the twelve stones resplendent with light , and completed to perfection with the Tribes names therein , or whether some other mysterious piece of artifice immediately framed by the hand of Heaven , and given to Moses , when he delivered him the two Tables of the Law , is vain and endless to enquire , because impossible to determine . Nor is the manner of its giving answers less uncertain : Whether at such times the fresh and orient lustre of the stones signified the answer in the Affirmative , while their dull and dead colour spake the Negative ; or whether it was by some extraordinary protuberancy and thrusting forth of the letters engraven upon the stones , from the conjunction whereof the Divine Oracle was gathered ; or whether probably it might be , that when the High Priest enquired of God , with this breast-plate upon him , God did either by a lively voice , or by immediate suggestions to his mind , give him a distinct and perspicuous answer , illuminating his mind with the Urim , or the light of the knowledge of his will in those cases , and satisfying his doubts and scruples with the Thummim of a perfect and complete determination of those difficulties that were propounded to him , thereby enabling him to give a satisfactory and infallible answer in all the particulars that lay before him . And this several of the Jews seem to intend , when they make this way of revelation one of the degrees of the Holy Ghost , and say that no sooner did the High Priest put on the Pectoral , and had the case propounded to him , but that he was immediately clothed with the Holy Spirit . But it 's to little purpose to hunt after that where fancy and conjecture must decide the case . Indeed among the various conjectures about this matter , none appears with greater probability than the opinion of those who conceive the Urim and Thummim to have been a couple of Teraphim , or little Images ( probably formed in humane shape ) put within the hollow foldings of the Pontifical breast-plate , from whence God by the ministry of an Angel vocally answered those interrogatories which the High Priest made : Nothing being more common even in the early Ages of the World , than such Teraphim in those Eastern Countries , usually placed in their Temples , and whence the Daemon was wont oracularly to determine the cases brought before him . And as God permitted the Jews the use of Sacrifices , which had been notoriously abused to Superstition and Idolatry in the Heathen World , so he might indulge them these Teraphim ( though now converted to a sacred use ) that so he might by degrees wean them from the Rites of the Gentile World , to which they had so fond an inclination . And this probably was the reason , why when Moses is so particular in describing the other parts of the Sacerdotal Ornaments , nothing at all is said of this , because a thing of common use among the Nations , with whom they had conversed , and notoriously known among themselves . And such we may suppose the Prophet intended , when he threatned the Jews , that they should abide without a Sacrifice , without an Image or Altar , without an Ephod , and without a Teraphim . A notion very happily improved by an ingenious Pen , whose acute conjectures , and elaborate dissertations about this matter justly deserve commendation even from those who differ from it . It seems to have been a kind of political Oracle and to be consulted only in great and weighty cases , as the Election of Supreme Magistrates , making War , &c. and only by Persons of the highest rank , none being permitted ( say the Jews ) to enquire of it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unless in a case wherein the King , or the Sanhedrim , or the whole Congregation was concerned . 12. A SECOND way of Divine Revelation was by an audible voice , accompanied many times with Thunder , descending as it were from Heaven , and directing them in any emergency of affairs . This the Jewish Writers call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the daughter or Eccho of a 〈◊〉 oice , which they confess to have been the lowest kind of revelation , and to have been in use only in the times of the second Temple , when all other ways of Prophecy were ceased . But notwithstanding their common and confident assertions whether ever there was any such standing way of revelation as this , is justly questionable ( nay it is peremptorily denied by one incomparably versed in the Talmudick Writings , who adds , that if there was any such thing at any time , it was done by Magick Arts , and diabolical delusions ) partly because it is only delivered by Jewish Writers , whose faith and honesty is too well known to the World to be trusted in stories that make so much for the honour of their Nation , not to mention their extravagant propension to lies and fabulous reports ; partly , because by their own confession God had withdrawn all his standing Oracles and ordinary ways of Revelation , their notorious impieties having caused Heaven to retire , and therefore much less would it correspond with them by such immediate converses ; partly , because this seemed to be a way more accommodate to the Evangelical dispensation at the appearance of the Son of God in the World. A voice from Heaven is the most immediate testimony , and therefore sittest to do honour to him who came down from Heaven , and was sure to meet with an obdurate and incredulous Generation , and to give evidence to that Doctrin that he published to the World. Thus by a Bath-Col or a Voice from Heaven God bare witness to our Saviour at his Baptism , and a second time at his Transfiguration , and again at the Passover at Jerusalem , when there came a Voice from Heaven , which the People took for Thunder , or the Communication of an Angel , and most of S. John's intelligences from above recorded in his Book of Revelation are ushered in with an , I heard a 〈◊〉 from Heaven . 13. BUT the most frequent and standing method of Divine communications was that whereby God was wont to transact with the Prophets , and in extraordinary cases with other Men , which was either by Dreams , Visions , or immediate Inspirations . The way by Dreams was when the Person being overtaken with a deep sleep , and all the exteriour senses locked up , God presented the Species and Images of things to their understandings , and that in such a manner , that they might be able to apprehend the will of God , which they presently did upon their awaking out of sleep . These Divine Dreams the Jews distinguish into two sorts , Monitory , such as were sent only by way of instruction and admonition , to give Men notice of what they were to do , or warning of what they should avoid , such were the Dreams of Pharaoh , Abimelech , Laban , &c. or else they were Prophetical , when God by such a powerful energy acted upon the mind and imagination of the Prophet , as carried the strength and force of a Divine evidence along with it . This was sometimes done by a clear and distinct impression of the thing upon the mind without any dark or aenigmatical representation of it , such as God made to Samuel , when he first revealed himself to him in the Temple : sometimes by apparition , yet so as the Man though a-sleep was able to discern an Angel conversing with him . By Visions , God usually communicated himself two ways . First , when something really appeared to the sight ; thus Moses beheld the Bush burning , and stood there while God conversed with him ; Manoah and his 〈◊〉 saw the Angel , while he took his leave , and in a flaming Pyramid went up to Heaven ; the three Angels appeared to Abraham a little before the fatal ruine of Sodom ; all which apparitions were unquestionably true and real , the Angel assuming an humane shape , that he might the freelier converse with , and deliver his message to those to whom he was sent . Secondly , by powerful impressions upon the imagination , usually done while the Prophet was awake , and had the free and uninterrupted exercise of his reason , though the Vision oft over-powered , and cast him into a trance , that the Soul being more retired from sensible objects might the closer intend those Divine notices that were represented to it . Thus all the Prophets had the Ideas of those things that they were to deliver to the People , the more strongly impressed upon their fancies , and this commonly when they were in the greatest solitude and privacy , and their powers most called in , that the Prophetical influx might have the greater force upon them . In some such way S. Paul was caught up into the third Heaven , probably not so much by any real separation of his Soul from his Body , or local translation of his Spirit thither , as by a profound abstraction of it from his corporeal Senses , God , during the time of the trance , entertaining it with an internal and admirable 〈◊〉 of the glory and happiness of that state , as truly and effectually , as if his Soul had been really conveyed thither . 14. THIRDLY , God was wont to communicate his mind by immediate Inspirations , whereby he immediately transacted with the understandings of Men , without any relation to their sancy or their senses . It was the most pacate and serene way of Prophecy , God imparting his mind to the Prophet not by Dreams or Visions , but while they were awake , their powers active , and their minds calm and undisturbed . This the Jews call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Holy Spirit , or that kind of Revelation that was directly conveyed into the mind by the most efficacious irradiation and inspiration of the Holy Spirit ; God by these Divine illapses enabling the Prophet clearly and immediately to 〈◊〉 the things delivered to him . And in this way the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or holy Writings 〈◊〉 dictated and conveyed to the World , in which respect the Apostle says , that all 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , given by divine inspiration . The highest pitch of this Prophetical revelation was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the gradus Mosaicus , or that way of Prophecy that God used towards Moses , of whom it is particularly said , that the Lord spake unto Moses face to face , as a Man speaketh unto his friend : and elsewhere it is evidently distinguished from all inferiour ways of Prophecy , If there be a Prophet among you , I the Lord will make my self known unto him in a Vision , and will speak unto him in a Dream : 〈◊〉 Servant Moses is not so , with him I will speak mouth to mouth , even apparently , and not in dark speeches , and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold : Clearly implying a mighty 〈◊〉 in God's way of revelation to Moses above that of other Prophets , which the Jewish Writers make to have lyen in four things . First , that in all God's communications to Moses 〈◊〉 immediately spake to his understanding , without any impressions upon fancy , any visible appearances , any Dreams or Visions of the Night . Secondly , that Moses had prophecies conveyed to him without any fears or consternations , whereas the other Prophets were astonished and weakned at the sight of God. Thirdly , that Moses had no previous dispositions or preparations to make him capable of the Divine revelation , but could directly go to God and consult him , as a man speaketh with his friend , other Prophets being forced many times by some preparatory arts to invite the Prophetick spirit to come upon them . Fourthly , that Moses had a freedom and liberty of spirit to prophecy at all times , and could when he pleased have recourse to the Sacred Oracle . But as to this the Scripture intimates no such thing , the spirit of Prophecy retiring from him at some times as well as from the rest of the Prophets . And indeed the Prophetick spirit did not reside in the holy men by way of habit , but occasionally , as God saw fitting to pour it out upon them ; it was not in them as light is in the Sun , but as light in the Air , and consequently depended upon the immediate irradiations of the Spirit of God. 15. THESE Divine Communications were so conveyed to the minds of the Prophets and inspired 〈◊〉 , that they always knew them to be Divine revelations ; so mighty and 〈◊〉 was the evidence that came along with them , that there could be no doubt , but they were the birth of Heaven . It 's true , when the Prophetick spirit at any time seised upon wicked men , they understood not its effect upon them , nor were in the least improved and bettered by it ; the revelation passed through them , as a sound through a Trunk , or water through a Leaden-pipe , without any particular and distinct apprehension of the thing , or useful impression made upon their minds , as is evident besides others in the case of Caiaphas and Balaam , of which last the Jews say expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he prophesied according to the will of God , but understood not what he prophesied . But it was otherwise with the true Prophets , they always knew who 't was that acted them , & what was the meaning of that intelligence that was communicated to them . In the Gentile world , when the Daemon entred into the inspired person , he was usually carried out to the furious transports of rage and madness . But in the Prophets of God , although the impulse might sometimes be very strong and violent ( whence the Prophet Jeremy complains , Mine heart within me is broken , all my bones shake , I am like a drunken man , like a man whom wine hath overcome , because of the Lord , and because of the words of his holiness ) so as a little to ruffle their imagination , yet never so as to discompose their reason , or hinder them from a clear perception of the notices conveyed upon their minds ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , says Epiphanius , the Prophet had his Oracles dictated by the Holy Spirit , which he delivered strenuously , and with the most firm and unshaken consistency of his rational powers ; and afterwards , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Prophets were often in a bodily ecstasie , but never in an ecstasie of mind , their understandings never being rendred useless and unserviceable to them . Indeed it was absolutely necessary that the Prophet should have a full satisfaction of mind concerning the truth and Divinity of his message ; for how else should they perswade others , that the thing was from God , if they were not first sufficiently assured themselves ; and therefore even in those methods that were most liable to doubts and questions , such as communications by dreams , we cannot think but that the same Spirit that moved and impressed the thing upon them , did also by some secret and inward operations settle their minds in the firmest belief and perswasion of what was revealed and suggested to them . All these ways of immediate revelation ceased some hundreds of years before the final period of the Jewish Church . A thing confessed not only by Christians but by Jews themselves , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There was no Prophet in the second Temple ; indeed they universally acknowledge , that there were five things wanting in the second Temple , built after their return from the Babylonish Captivity , which had been in that of Solomon , viz. the Ark of the Covenant , the fire from Heaven that lay upon the Altar , the Schekinah or presence of the Divine Majesty , the 〈◊〉 and Thummim , and the spirit of Prophecy , which ceased ( as they tell us ) about the second year of Darius , to be sure at the death of Malachy , the last of that order , after whom there arose no Prophet in Israel , whom therefore the Jews call , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the seal of the Prophets . Indeed it is no wonder that Prophecy should cease at that time , if we consider that one of the prime ends of it did then cease , which was to be a seal and an assurance of the Divine inspiration of the holy Volumes , now the Canon of the Old Testament being consigned and completed by Ezra with the assistance of Malachy , and some of the last Prophets , God did not think good any longer to continue this Divine and Miraculous gift among them : But especially if we consider the great degeneracy into which that Church was falling ; their horrid and crying sins having made God resolve to reject them , the departure of the Prophetick spirit shewed that God had written them a bill of divorce , and would utterly cast them off ; that by this means they might be awakened to a more lively expectation of that new state of things , which the Messiah was coming to establish in the World , wherein the Prophetick spirit should revive , and be again restored to the Church , which accordingly came to pass , as we shall elsewhere observe . 16. THE third thing propounded , was to consider the state of Religion , and the Church under the successive periods of this 〈◊〉 . And here we shall only make some general remarks , a particular survey of those matters not consisting with the design of this discourse . Ecclesiastical Constitutions being made in the Wilderness , and the place for publick worship fram'd and erected , no sooner did they come into the promised Land , but the Tabernacle was set down at Gilgal , where , if the Jewish Chronology say true , it continued fourteen years , till they had subdued and divided the Land : Then fixed at Shiloh , and the Priests and Levites had Cities and Territories assigned to them , where it is not to be doubted but there were Synagogues , or places equivalent for prayer and the ordinary solemnities of Religion , and Courts for the decision of Ecclesiastical causes . Prosperity and a plentiful Country had greatly contributed to the depravation of mens manners , and the corruption of Religion till the times of Samuel , the great Reformer of that Church , who erected Colledges , and instituted Schools of the Prophets , reduced the Societies of the Levites to their Primitive order and purity , forced the Priests to do their duty diligently to minister in the affairs of God's worship , and carefully to teach and instruct the people : A piece of reformation no more than necessay , For the word of the Lord was precious in those days , there was no open vision . CCCLXIX . years ( say the Jews ) the Tabernacle abode at Shiloh , from whence it was translated to Nob a City in the Tribe of Benjamin , probably about the time that the Ark was taken , thence after thirteen years to Gibeon , where it remained fifty years ; and lastly , by Solomon to Jerusalem . The Ark being taken out to carry along with them for their more prosperous success in their War against the Philistines , was ever after exposed to an ambulatory and unsetled course : For being taken captive by the Philistines , it was by them kept prisoner seven months , thence removed to 〈◊〉 , and thence to Kirtath-jearim , where it remained in the house of Abinadab twenty years , thence solemnly 〈◊〉 by David , and after three months rest by the way in the house of Obed-Edom , brought triumphantly to Jerusalem , and placed under the covert of a Tent which he had purposely erected for it . David being setled in the Throne , like a pious Prince took especial care of the affairs of Religion , he fixed the High Priest and his second , augmented the courses of the Priests from eight to four and twenty , appointed the Levites , and Singers , and their several turns and times of waiting , assigned them their proper duties and ministeries , setled the Nethinim or Porters , the posterity of the 〈◊〉 , made Treasurers of the revenues belonging to holy uses , and of the vast summs contributed towards the building of a Temple , as a more solemn and stately place for Divine worship , which he was fully resolved to have erected , but that God commanded it to be reserved for the peaceable and prosperous Reign of Solomon , who succeeding in his Father's Throne , accomplished it , building so stately and magnificent a Temple , that it became one of the greatest wonders of the World. Under his son Rehoboam hapned the fatal division of the Kingdom , when ten parts of twelve were rent off at once , and brought under the Empire of Jeroboam , who knew no better way to secure his new-gotten Soveraignty , than to take off the people from hankering after the Temple and the worship at Jerusalem , and therefore out of a cursed policy erected two Golden Calves at Dan and Bethel , perswading the people there to pay their publick adorations , appointing Chaplains like himself , Priests of the lowest of the people ; and from this time Religion began visibly to ebb and decline in that Kingdom , and Idolatry to get ground amongst them . 17. THE two Tribes of Judah and Benjamin were loyal both to God and their Prince , continuing obedient to their lawful Sovereign , and firmly adhering to the worship of the Temple , though even here too impiety in some places maintained its ground , having taken root in the Reign of Solomon , who through his over-great partiality and fondness to his Wives had been betrayed to give too much countenance to 〈◊〉 . The extirpation hereof was the design and attempt of all the pious and good Princes of Judah : Jehosaphat set himself in good earnest to recover Religion and the state of the Church to its ancient purity and lustre , he abolished the Groves and high places , and appointed itinerant Priests and Levites to go from City to City to expound the Law , and instruct the people in the knowledge of their duty ; nay , he himself held a royal Visitation , Going quite through the Land , and bringing back the people to the Lord God of their Fathers . But under the succeeding Kings Religion again lost its ground , and had been quite extinct during the tyranny and usurpation of Athaliah , but that good Jehoiada the High Priest kept it alive by his admirable zeal and industry . While he lived , his Pupil Joas ( who owed both his Crown and his life to him ) promoted the design , and purged the Temple , though after his Tutors death he apostatized to prophaneness and idolatry . Nor indeed was the reformation effectually advanced till the time of Hezekiah , who no sooner ascended the Throne , but he summoned the Priests and Levites , exhorted them to begin at home , and first to reform themselves , then to cleanse and repair the Temple ; he resetled the Priests and Levites in their proper places and offices , and caused them to offer all sorts of Sacrifices , and the Passeover to be universally celebrated with great strictness and solemnity ; he destroyed the Monuments of Idolatry , took away the Altars in Jerusalem , and having given commission , the people did the like in all parts of the Kingdom , breaking the Images , cutting down the Groves , throwing down the Altars and high places , until they had utterly destroyed them all . But neither greatness nor piety can exempt any from the common Laws of mortality , Hezekiah dies , and his son Manasseh succeeds , a wicked Prince , under whose influence impiety like a land-flood broke in upon Religion , and laid all waste before it . But his Grandchild Josiah made some amends , he gave signal instances of an early piety ; for in the eighth year of his Reign , while he was yet young , he began to seek after the God of David his Father , and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem ; he defaced whatever had been abused and prostituted to Idolatry and Superstition throughout the whole Kingdom , repaired God's house , and ordered its worship according to the prescript of the Mosaick Law , a copy whereof they had found in the ruines of the Temple , solemnly engaged himself and his people to be true to Religion and the worship of God , and caused so great and solemn a Passeover to be held , that there was no Passeover like to it kept in Israel from the days of Samuel . And more he had done , had not an immature death cut him off in the midst both of his days , and his pious designs and projects . Not many years after God being highly provoked by the prodigious impieties of that Nation , delivered it up to the Army of the King of Babylon , who demolished the City , harassed the Land , and carried the people captive unto Babylon . And no wonder the Divine patience could hold no longer , when all the chief of the Priests and the people transgressed very much , after all the abominations of the Heathen , and polluted the house of the Lord , which he had hallowed in Jerusalem . Seventy years they remained under this captivity , during which time the Prophet Daniel gave lively and particular accounts of the Messiah , that he should come into the World to introduce a Law of everlasting righteousness , to die as a sacrifice and expiation for the sins of the people , and to put a period to the Levitical sacrifices and oblations . And whereas other prophecies had only in general defined the time of the Messiah's coming , he particularly determines the period , that all this should be at the end of LXX . weeks , that is , at the expiration of CCCCXC . years ; which exactly fell in with the time of our Saviour's appearing in the World. The seventy years captivity being run out , by the 〈◊〉 of the King of Babylon they were set free , and by him permitted and assisted to repair Jerusalem , and rebuild the Temple , which was accordingly done under the government of Nehemiah , and the succeeding Rulers , and the Temple finished by Zorobabel , and things brought into some tolerable state of order and decency , and so continued till the Reign of Antiochus Epiphanes King of Syria , by whom the Temple was prophaned and violated , and the Jewish Church miserably afflicted and distressed ; he thrust out Onias the High Priest , and put in his brother Jason , a man lost both to Religion and good manners , and who by a vast summ of money had purchased the Priesthood of Antiochus : At this time Matthias a Priest , and the head of the 〈◊〉 Family , stood up for his Country ; after whom came Judas Macchabaeus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Josephus truly characters him , a man of a generous temper , and a valiant mind , ready to do or suffer any thing to assert the Liberties and Religion of his Country , followed both in his zeal and prosperous success by his two Brothers Jonathan and Simon , successively High Priests and Commanders after him . Next him came John surnamed Hyrcanus , then Aristobulus , Alexander , Hyrcanus , Aristobulus junior , Alexander , Antigonus ; in whose time Herod the Great having by the favour of Antony obtained of the Roman Senate the Sovereignty over the Jewish Nation , and being willing that the Priesthood should intirely depend upon his arbitrary disposure , abrogated the succession of the Asmonaean Family , and put in one Ananel , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Josephus calls him , an obscure Priest , of the line of those who had been Priests in Babylon . To him succeeded Aristobulus , to him Jesus the son of Phabes , to him Simon , who being deposed , next came Matthias , deposed also by Herod , next him Joazar , who underwent the same fate from Archelaus , then Jesus the son of Sie , after whom Joazar was again restored to the Chair , and under his Pontificate ( though before his first deposition ) Christ was born , things every day growing worse among them , till about seventy years after the wrath of God came upon them to the uttermost , and brought the Romans , who finally took away their place and Nation . 18. BEFORE we go off from this part of our discourse , it may not be amiss to take a more particular view of the state of the Jewish Church , as it stood at the time of our Saviour's appearing in the World , as what may reflect some considerable light upon the History of CHRIST and his Apostles . And if we cast our eyes upon it at this time , How was the Gold become dim , and the most fine Gold changed ! How miserably deformed was the face of the Church , how strangely degenerated from its Primitive Institution ! whereof we shall observe some particular instances . Their Temple though lately repaired and rebuilt by Herod , and that with so much pomp and grandeur , that Josephus , who may justly be presumed partial to the honour of his own Nation , says of it , that it was the most admirable structure that was ever seen or heard of both for the preparation made for it , the greatness and magnificence of the thing it self , and the infinite expence and cost bestowed upon it , as well as for the glory of that Divine worship that was performed in it , yet was it infinitely short of that of Solomon ; besides that it had been often exposed to rudeness and violence . Not to mention the horrible prophanations of Antiochus , it had been of late invaded by Pompey , who boldly ventured into the Sanctum Sanctorum , and without any scruple curiously contemplated the mysteries of that place , but suffered no injury to be offered to it . After him came Crassus , who to the others boldness added Sacrilege , seizing what the others piety and modesty had spared , plundering the Temple of its vast wealth and treasure . Herod having procured the Kingdom , besieged and took the City and the Temple , and though to ingratiate himself with the People he endeavoured what in him lay to secure it from rapine and impicty , and afterwards expended incredible Summes in its reparation , yet did he not stick to make it truckle under his wicked policies and designs . The more to indear himself to his Patrons at Rome , he set up a Golden Eagle of a vast dimension ( the Arms of the Roman Empire ) over the great Gate of the Temple : a thing so expresly contrary to the Law of Moses , which forbids all Images , and accounted so monstrous a prophanation of that holy place , that while Herod lay a dying the People in a great tumult and uproar gathered together and pull'd it down . A great part of it was become an Exchange and a Market ; the place where Men were to meet with God , and to trade with Heaven , was now turned into a Ware-house for Merchants , and a Shop for Usurers , and the House of Prayer into a Den of Thieves . The worship formerly wont to be performed there with pious and devout affections , was now shrunk into a meer shell and out-side , they drew near to God with their mouths , and honoured him with their lips , but their hearts were 〈◊〉 from him ; Rites of humane invention had justled out those of Divine Institution , and their very Prayers were made traps to catch the unwary People , and to devour the Widow and the Fatherless . Their Priesthood was so changed and altered , that it retain'd little but its ancient Name ; the High-priests who by their Original Charter were lineally to succeed , and to hold their place for life , were become almost annual , scarce a Year passing over , wherein one was not thrust out , and another put in , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as 〈◊〉 notes out of their own Historian . Nay which was far worse , it was become not only annual , but venal , Herod exposing it to sale , and scarce admitting any to the Sacerdotal Office , who had not first sufficiently paid for his Patent ; and which was the natural consequence of that , the place was filled with the resuse of the People , Men of mean abilities , and debauched manners , who had neither parts nor piety to recommend them , he being the best and the fittest man , that offered most . Nay into so strange a degeneracy were they fallen in this matter , that Josephus reports , that one Phannias was elected High-priest , not only a rustick and illiterate fellow , not only not of the Sacerdotal Line , but so intolerably stupid and ignorant , that when they came to acquaint him , he knew not what the High-Priesthood meant . And not content to be imposed upon , and tyrannized over by a Forreign Power , they fell a quarrelling among themselves , and mutually prey'd upon one another ; the High-priests falling out with the inferiour Orders , and both Parties going with an armed retinue after them , ready to clash and fight where-ever they met , the High-priest sending his Servants to fetch away the Tithes due to the inferiour Priests , insomuch that many of the poorest of them were famished for want of necessary food . 19. THEIR Law , which had been delivered with so much majesty and magnificence , and for which they themselves pretended so great a reverence , they had miserably corrupted and depraved ( the moral part of it especially ) and that two ways . First , by gross and absurd interpretations , which the Teachers of those times had put upon it . The Scribes and Pharisees , who ruled the Chair in the Jewish Church , had by false and corrupt glosses debased the majesty and purity of the Law , and made it to serve the purposes of an evil life : they had taught the People , that the Law required no more than external righteousness , that if there was but a visible conformity of the life , they needed not be sollicitous about the government of their minds , or the regular conduct of their thoughts or passions ; that so Men did but carry themselves fair to the eye of the World , it was no great matter how things went in the secret and unseen retirements of the Soul , nay that a punctual observance of some external Precepts of the Law would compensate and quit scores with God for the neglect or violation of the rest . They told Men that when the Law forbad murder , so they did not actually kill another , and sheath their Sword in their Brother's bowels , it was well enough , Men were not restrained from furious and intemperate passions , they might be angry , yea though by peevish and uncomely speeches they betray'd the rancor and malice of their minds . They confessed the Law made it adultery actually to embrace the bosom of a stranger , but would not have it extend to wanton thoughts and unchast desires , or that it was adultery for a man to lust after a Woman , and to commit folly with her in his heart : they told them that in all oaths and vows , if they did but perform what they had sworn to God , the Law took no further notice of it , when as every vain and unnecessary oath ; all customary and trifling use of the name of God was forbidden by it . They made them believe that it was lawful for them to proceed by the rigorous Law of retaliation , to exact their own to the utmost , and to right and revenge themselves ; when as the Law requires a tender , compassionate , and benevolent temper of mind , and is so far from owning the rigorous punctilio's of revenge , that it obliges to meekness and patience , to forgiveness and charity , and which is the very height of charity , not only to pardon , but to love and befriend our greatest enemies , quite contrary to the doctrine which these men taught , that though they were to love their neighbours , that is , Jewes , yet might they hate their enemies . In these and such like instances they had notoriously abused and evacuated the Law , and in a manner rendred it of no effect . And therefore when our Lord as the great Prophet sent from God came into the World , the first thing he did after the entrance upon his publick Ministry , was to cleanse and purifie the Law , and to remove that rubbish which the Jewish Doctors had cast upon it . He rescued it out of the hands of their poysonous and pernicious expositions , restored it to its just authority , and to its own primitive sence and meaning , he taught them that the Law did not only bind the external act , but prescribe to the most inward motions of the mind , and that whoever transgresses here , is no less obnoxious to the Divine Justice , and the penalties of the Law , than he that is guilty of the most gross and palpable violations of it : he shewed them how infinitely more pure and strict the command was , than these Impostors had represented it , and plainly told them that if ever they expected to be happy , they must look upon the Law with an other-guise eye , and follow it after another rate , than their blind and deceitful Guides did , For I say unto you , Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees , you can in no case enter into the Kingdome of God. 20. THE other way by which they corrupted and dishonoured the Law , and weakned the power and reputation of it , was by preferring before it their Oral and unwritten Law. For besides the Law consigned to Writing , they had their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Law delivered by word of mouth , whose pedigree they thus deduce . They tell us that when Moses waited upon God Fourty Days in the Mount , he gave him a double Law , one in Writing , the other Traditionary , containing the sence and explication of the former : being come down into his Tent , he repeated it first to Aaron , then to Ithamar and Eleazar his Sons , then to the Seventy Elders , and lastly to all the People , the same Persons being all this while present . Aaron who had now heard it four times recited , Moses being gone out , again repeated it before them : after his departure out of the Tent , his two Sons who by this had heard it as oft as their Father , made another repetition of it , by which means the Seventy Elders came to hear it four times , and then they also repeated it to the Congregation , who had now also heard it repeated four times together , once from Moses , then from Aaron , then from his Sons , and lastly from the Seventy Elders , after which the Congregation broke up , and every one went home , and taught it his Neighbour . This Oral Law Moses upon his Death-bed repeated to 〈◊〉 , he delivered it to the Elders , they to the Prophets , the Prophets to the men of the great Synagogue , the last of whom was Symeon the Just , who delivered it to Antigonus Sochaeus , and he to his Successors , the wise Men , whose business it was to recite it , and so it was handed through several Generations , the names of the Persons who delivered it in the several Ages from its first rise under Moses till above an Hundred Years after Christ , being particularly enumerated by Maimonides . At last it came to R. Jehuda , commonly stiled by the Jews 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our holy Master , the Son of Rabban Symeon ( who flourished a little before the time of the Emperour Antoninus ) who considering the unsetled and tottering condition of his own Nation , and how apt these traditionary Precepts would be to be forgotten or mistaken , by the weakness of Mens memories , or the perversness of their wits , or the dispersion of the Jews in other Countries , collected all these Laws and Expositions , and committed them to Writing , stiling his Book Mishnaioth , or the Repetition . This was asterwards illustrated and explained by the Rabbines dwelling about Babylon , with infinite cases and controversies concerning their Law , whose resolutions were at last compiled into another Volume , which they called Gemara , or Doctrin , and both together constitute the intire Body of the Babylonish Talmud , the one being the Text , the other the Comment . The folly and vanity of this account , though it be sufficiently evident to need no confutation with any wise and discerning Man , yet have the Jewes in all Ages made great advantage of it , magnifying and extolling it above the written Law with Titles and Elogies that hyperbolize into blasphemy . They tell us , that this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the foundation of the Law for whose sake it was that God entred into Covenant with the Israelites , that without this the whole Law would lye in the dark , yea be meer obscurity and darkness it self , as being contrary and repugnant to it self , and defective in things necessary to be known : that it is joy to the heart , and health to the bones , that the words of it are more lovely and desirable than the words of the Law , and a greater sin to violate the one than thé other ; that it 's little or no commendation for a Man to read the Bible , but to study the Mishna is that for which a Man shall receive the reward of the other World , and that no Man can have a peaceable and quiet conscience , who leaves the study of the Talmud to go to that of the Bible ; that the Bible is like Water , the Mishna like Wine ; the Talmud like spiced Wine ; that all the words of the Rabbins are the very words of the living God ; from which a Man might not depart , though they should tell him his right hand were his left , and his left his right ; nay they blush not , nor tremble to assert , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that to study in the holy Bible is nothing else but to lose our time : I will mention but one bold and blasphemous sentence more , that we may see how far these desperate wretches are given over to a spirit of impiety and infatuation , they tell us , that he that dissents from his Rabbin or Teacher , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dissents from the Divine Majesty , but he that believes the words of the wise men , believes God himself . 21. STRANGE ! that Men should so far offer violence to their reason , so far conquer and subdue their conscience , as to be able to talk at this wild and prodigious rate : and stranger it would seem , but that we know a Generation of Men , great Patrons of Tradition too , in another Church , who mainly endeavour to debase and suppress the Scriptures , and value their unwritten Traditions at little less rate than this . But I let them pass . This is no novel and upstart humour of the Jews , they were notoriously guilty of it in our 〈◊〉 days , whom we find frequently charging them with their superstitious observances of many little rites and usages derived from the Traditions of the Elders , wherein they placed the main of Religion , and for which they had a far more sacred regard , than for the plain and positive commands of God. Such were their frequent washings of their Pots and Cups , their brazen Vessels and Tables , the purifying themselves after they came from Market ( as if the touching of others had defiled them ) the washing their hands before every Meal , and many other things which they had received to hold . In all which they were infinitely nice and scrupulous , making the neglect of them of equal guilt with the greatest immorality , not sticking to affirm , that he who eats Bread with unwashen hands , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , is as if he lay with an Harlot . This it 's plain they thought a sufficient charge against our Lord's Disciples , that they were not zealous observers of these things . When they saw some of his Disciples eat Bread with defiled ( that is to say , with unwashen ) hands , they found fault ; and asked him , Why walk not thy Disciples according to the Tradition of the Elders , but 〈◊〉 Bread with unwashen hands ? To whom our Saviour smartly answered , that they were the Persons of whom the Prophet had spoken , who honoured God with their lips , but their hearts were far from him , that in vain did they worship him , while for doctrines they taught the commandments of men , laying aside and rejecting the commandments of God , that they might hold the Tradition of men . For they were not content to make them of equal value and authority with the Word of God , but made them a means wholly to evacuate and supersede it . Whereof our Lord gives a notorious instance in the case of Parents . They could not say but that the Law obliged Children to honour and revere their Parents , and to administer to their necessities in all straits and exigencies , but then had found out a fine way to evade the force of the command , and that under a pious and plausible pretence . Moses said , Honour thy Father and thy Mother : and who so curseth Father or Mother let him die the death . But ye say , If a man shall say to his Father or Mother , It is Corban , that is to say , a gift , by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me , 〈◊〉 shall be 〈◊〉 : And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his Father ; or Mother . By which is commonly understood , that when their Parents required relief and assistance from their Children , they put them off with this excuse , that they had consecrated their Estate to God , and might not divert it to any other use . Though this seems a 〈◊〉 and plausible pretence , yet it is not reasonable to suppose , that either they had , or would pretend that they had intirely devoted whatever they had to God , and must therefore refer to some other custom . Now among the many kinds of oaths and vows that were among the Jews they had one , which they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the vow of interdict ; whereby a man might restrain himself as to this or that particular person , and this or that particular thing ; as , he might vow not to accept of such a courtesie from this friend or that neighbour , or that he would not part with this or that thing of his own to such a man , to lend him his Horse , or give him any thing towards his maintenance , &c. and then the thing became utterly unlawful , and might not be done upon any consideration whatsoever , lest the Man became guilty of the violation of his Vow . The form of this Vow frequently occurs in the Jewish Writings , and even in the very same words wherein our Lord expresses it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be it 〈◊〉 or a gift ( that is , a thing sacred ) whereby I may be any ways prositable to thee , that is , be that thing unlawful or prohibited to me , wherein I may be helpful and assistant to thee . And nothing more common than this way of vowing in the particular case of Parents , whereof there are abundant instances in the writings of the Jewish Masters , who thus explain the forementioned Vow , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whatever I shall gain hereafter , shall be sacred , as to the maintenance of my Father ; or as Maimonides expresses it , That what I provide , my Father shall eat nothing of it , that is , says he , he shall receive no profit by it ; and then as they tell us , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that had thus vowed , might not transgress or make void his Vow . So that when indigent Parents craved relief and assistance from their Children , and probably wearied them with importunity , it was but vowing in a passionate resentment , that they should not be better for what they had , and then they were safe , and might no more dispose any part of their Estate to that use , than they might touch the Corban , that which was most solemnly consecrated to God. By which means they were taught to be unnatural under a pretence of Religion , and to suffer their Parents to starve , lest themselves should violate a senceless and unlawful Vow . So that though they were under the precedent obligations of a natural duty , a duty as clearly commanded by God as words could express it , yet a blind Tradition , a rash and impious Vow , made for the most part out of passion or covetousness , should cancel and supersede all these obligations , it being unlawful hence forth to give them one penny to relieve them : 〈◊〉 suffer him no more ( says our Lord ) to do ought for his Father or his Mother , making the word of God of none effect through your tradition , which ye have delivered . 22. THE last instance that I shall note of the corruption and degeneracy of this Church , is the many Sects and divisions that were in it , a thing which the Jews themselves in their writings confess would happen in the days of the 〈◊〉 , whose Kingdom should be overrun with heretical opinions . That Church which heretofore like Jerusalem had been at unity within it self , was now miserably broken into 〈◊〉 and Factions , whereof three most considerable , Pharisees , Sadducees , and the Essenes . The Pharisees derive their name from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which may admit of a double signification , and either not unsuitable to them : It may refer to them as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Explainers or Interpreters of the Law , which was a peculiar part of their work , and for which they were famous and venerable among the Jews ; or more probably to their separation ( the most proper and natural importance of the word ) so called , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as 〈◊〉 observed of old , because separated from all others in their extraordinary pretences of piety , the very Jews themselves thus describing a Pharisee , he is one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that separates himself from all uncleanness , and from all unclean meats , and from the people of the Earth , ( the common rout ) who accurately observe not the difference of Meats . It is not certain when this Sect first thrust up its head into the World , probably not long after the times of the Macchabees , 't is certain they were of considerable standing , and great account in the time of our Saviour : To be sure strangely wide of the mark are those Jewish Chronologists who say , that the Sect of the Pharisees arose in the times of Tiberius Caesar , and 〈◊〉 the AEgyptian , under whom the Septuagint translation was accomplished ; as if Ptolomy Philadelphus and Tiberius Caesar had been Contemporaries , between whom there is the distance of no less than CCLX . years . But when ever it began , a bold and daring Sect it was , not fearing to affront Princes , and persons of the greatest quality , crafty and insinuative , and who by a shew of great zeal , and infinite strictness in Religion , beyond the rate of other men , had procured themselves a mighty reverence from the people ; so strict , that ( as a Learned man observes ) Pharisee is used in the 〈◊〉 writings to denote a pious and holy man ; and Benjamin the Jew speaking of R. Ascher , says , he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a truly devout man , separate from the affairs of this world . And yet under all this seeming severity they were but Religious villains , spiteful and malicious , griping and covetous , great oppressors , merciless dealers , heady and seditious , proud and scornful , indeed guilty of most kinds of immorality , of whose temper and manners I say the less in this place , having elsewhere given an account of them . They held that the Oral Law was of infinitely greater moment and value than the written Word ; that the Traditions of their fore Fathers were above all things to be embraced and followed , the strict observance whereof would entitle a man to Eternal Life ; that the Souls of men are Immortal , and had their dooms awarded in the Subterraneous Regions ; that there is a Metempsuchosis or Transmigration of pious Souls out of one Body into another ; that things come to pass by fate , and an inevitable necessity , and yet that Man's will is free , that by this means men might be rewarded and punished according to their works . I add no more concerning them , than that some great men of the Church of Rome say with some kind of boasting , that such as were the Pharisees among the Jews , such are the Religious ( they mean the Monastical Orders of their Church ) among Christians . Much good may it do them with the comparison , I confess my self so far of their mind , that there is too great a conformity between them . 23. NEXT the Pharisees come the Sadducees , as opposite to them in their temper , as their principles ; so called ( as Epiphanius and some others will have it ) from 〈◊〉 justice , as pretending themselves to be very just and righteous men , but this agrees not with the account given of their lives . They are generally thought to have been denominated from Sadock the Scholar of Antigonus Sochaeus , who flourished about the year of the World MMMDCCXX . CCLXXXIV . years before the Nativity of our Saviour . They pass under a very ill character even among the writers of their own Nation , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 impious men , and of very loose and debauched manners : which is no more than what might be expected as the natural consequence of their principles , this being one of their main dogmata or opinions , that the Soul is not Immortal , and that there is no future state after this life . The occasion of which desperate principle is said to have been a mistake of the doctrine of their Master Antigonus , who was wont to press his Scholars not to be like 〈◊〉 Servants , who serve their Masters merely for what they can get by them ; but to serve God for himself , without expectation of rewards . This , Sadock and Baithos , two of his disciples misunderstanding , thought their Master had peremptorily denied any state of future rewards ; and having laid this dangerous foundation , these unhappy superstructures were built upon it ; that there is no Resurrection , for if there be no reward , what need that the Body should rise again ; that the Soul is not Immortal , nor exists in the separate state , for if it did , it must be either rewarded or punished ; and if not the Soul , then by the same proportion of reason no spiritual substance , neither Angel , nor Spirit ; that there is no Divine Providence , but that God is perfectly placed as beyond the commission , so beyond the inspection and regard of what sins or evils are done or happen in the World , as indeed what great reason to believe a wise and righteous Providence , if there be no reward or punishment for vertue and vice in another life ? These pernicious and Atheistical opinions justly exposed them to the reproach and hatred of the people , who were wont eminently to stile them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Hereticks , 〈◊〉 , Epicureans , no words being thought bad enough to bestow upon them . They rejected the Traditions so vehemently asserted by the Pharisees , and taught that men were to keep to the Letter of the Law , and that nothing was to be imposed either upon their belief or practice , but what was expresly owned and contained in it . Josephus observes , that they were the fewest of all the Sects , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but usually men of the better rank and quality ; as what wonder , if rich and great men , who tumble in the pleasures and advantages of a prosperous fortune , be willing to take sanctuary at those opinions , that afford the greatest patronage to looseness and debauchery , and care not to hear of being called to account in another World , for what they have done in this ? For this reason the Sadducees ever appeared the greatest sticklers to preserve the peace , and were the most severe and implacable Justicers against the Authors or fomenters of tumults and seditions , lest they should disturb and interrupt their soft and easie course of life , the only happiness their principles allowed them to expect . 24. THE Essenes succeed , a Sect probably distinct from either of the former . Passing by the various conjectures concerning the derivation of their name , which when dressed up with all advantages are still but bare conjectures , they began about the times of the 〈◊〉 , when the violent persecutions of Antiochus forced the Jews for their own safety to retire to the Woods and Mountains . And though in time the storm blew over , yet many of them were too well pleased with these undisturbed solitudes to return , and therefore combined themselves into Religious societies , leading a solitary and contemplative course of life , and that in very great numbers , there being usually above four thousand of them , as both Philo and Josephus tell us . Pliny takes notice of them , and describes them to be a solitary generation , remarkable above all others in this , that they live without Women , without any embraces , without money , conversing with nothing but Woods and Palm-trees ; that their number encreased every day as fast as any died , persons flocking to them from all quarters , to seek repose here , after they had been wearied with the inquietudes of an improsperous fortune . They paid a due reverence to the Temple , by sending gifts and presents thither , but yet worshipped God at home , and used their own Rites and Ceremonies . Every seventh day they publickly met in their Synagogues , where the younger seating themselves at the feet of the elder , one reads some portions out of a Book , which another , eminently skilled in the principles of their Sect , expounds to the rest ( their dogmata , like the Philosophy of the Ancients , being obscurely and enigmatically delivered to them ) instructing them in the rules of piety and righteousness , and all the duties that concerned God , others , or themselves . They industriously tilled and cultivated the ground , and lived upon the fruits of their own labours ; had all their revenues in common ; there being neither rich , nor poor among them : Their manners were very harmless and innocent , exact observers of the rules of Justice , somewhat beyond the practice of other men . As for that branch of them that lived in Egypt , whose excellent Manners and Institutions are so particularly described and commended by Philo , and whom 〈◊〉 and others will needs have to have been Christians converted by S. Mark , we have taken notice of elsewhere in S. Mark' s Life . We find no mention of them in the History of the Gospel , probably because living remote from Cities and all places of publick concourse , they never concerned themselves in the actions of Christ or his Apostles . What their principles were in matters of speculation is not much material to enquire , their Institutions mainly referring to practice . Out of a great regard to wisdom and vertue they neglected all care of the body , renounced all conjugal embraces , abstained very much from Meats and Drinks , some of them not eating or drinking for three , others for five or six days together , accounting it unbecoming men of such a Philosophical temper and genius , to spend any part of the day upon the necessities of the body : Their way they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , worship , and their rules 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , doctrines of wisdom ; their contemplations were sublime and speculative , and of things beyond the ordinary notions of other Sects ; they traded in the names and mysteries of Angels , and in all their carriages bore a great shew of modesty and humility . And therefore these in all likelihood were the very persons , whom S. Paul primarily designed ( though not excluding others who espoused the same principles ) when he charges the 〈◊〉 to let no man 〈◊〉 them of their reward in a voluntary humility , and worshipping of Angels , intruding into those things which he hath not seen , vainly puffed up by his 〈◊〉 mind , that being dead to the rudiments of the World , they should no longer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , be subject to these dogmata or ordinances , such as Touch not , taste not , handle not , ( the main principles of the Essenian Institution ) being the commandments and doctrines of men ; which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will-worship and humility , and neglecting of the body , not in any honour to the satisfying of the 〈◊〉 . Besides these three greater , there were several other lesser Sects in the Jewish Church , such as the Herodians , supposed to have been either part of Herod's guard , or a combination of men , who to ingratiate themselves with the Prince , maintained Herod to be the Messiah , and at their own charge celebrated his Coronation-days , as also the Sabbath , when they used to set lighted Candles crowned with Violets in their windows ; an opinion which S. 〈◊〉 justly laughs at as trifling and ridiculous . Probably they were a party that had 〈◊〉 Herod's interest , and endeavoured to support his new-gotten Soveraignty . For Herod being a stranger , and having by the Roman power usurped the Kingdom , was generally hateful and burdensom to the people , and therefore beside the assistance of a foreign power , needed some to stand by him at home . They were peculiarly 〈◊〉 in pressing people to pay Tribute to Caesar , Herod being obliged ( as S. Hierom observes ) by the Charter of his Soveraignty to look after the Tribute due to Caesar , and they could not do him a more acceptable service , by this means endearing him to his great Patrons at Rome . In matters of opinion they seem to have sided with the Sadducees ; what S. Matthew calls the leaven of the Sadducees , S. Mark stiles the leaven of Herod . Probable it is , that they had drawn Herod to be of their principles , that as they asserted his right to the Kingdom , he might favour and maintain their impious opinions . And 't is likely enough that men of so debauched manners might be easily tempted to take shelter under principles that so directly served the purposes of a bad life . Another Sect in that Church were the Samaritans , the posterity of those who succeeded in the room of the ten captivated Tribes , a mixture of Jews and Gentiles , they held , that nothing but the 〈◊〉 was the Word of God , that Mount Gerizim was the true place of publick and solemn worship , that they were the descendents of Joseph , and heirs of the Aaronical Priesthood , and that no dealing or correspondence was to be maintained with strangers , nor any unclean thing to be touched . The Karraeans were a branch of the Sadducees , but rejected afterwards their abominable and unsound opinions , they are the true Textualists , adhering only to the writings of Moses and the Prophets , and expounding the Scripture by it self , peremptorily disowning the absurd glosses of the Talmud , and the idle Traditions of the Rabbins , insomuch that they admit not so much as the Hebrew points into their Bibles , accounting them part of the Oral and Traditionary Law ; for which reason they are greatly hated by the rest of the Jews . They are in great numbers about 〈◊〉 , and in other places at this day . There was also the Sect of the Zealots , frequently mentioned by Josephus , a Generation of men insolent and ungovernable , 〈◊〉 and savage , who under a pretence of extraordinary zeal for God and the honour of his Law , committed the most enormous outrages against God and Man ; but of them we have given an account in the Life of S. Simon the Zealot . And yet as if all this had not been enough to render their Church miserable within it self , their sins and intestine divisions had brought in the Roman power upon them , who set Magistrates and Taskmasters over them , depressed their great 〈◊〉 , put in and out Senators at pleasure , made the Temple pay tribute , and placed a Garrison at hand to command it , abrogated a great part of their Laws , and stript them so naked both of Civil and Ecclesiastical Order and Authority , that they had not power left so much as to put a man to death . All evident demonstrations that Shiloh was come , and the Scepter departed , that the Sacrifice and Oblation was to cease , the Messiah being cut off , who came to finish transgression , to make an end of sins , to make reconciliation for iniquity , and to bring in everlasting righteousness . SECT . III. Of the EVANGELICAL Dispensation . The gradual revelations concerning the Messiah . John the Baptist Christ's forerunner , His extraordinary Birth . His austere Education , and way of Life . His Preaching , what . His initiating proselytes by Baptism . Baptism in use in the Jewish Church . It s Original , whence . His resolution and impartiality . His Martyrdom . The character given him by Josephus , and the Jews . The Evangelical Dispensation wherein it exceeds that of Moses . It s 〈◊〉 and perfection . It s agreeableness to humane nature . The Evangelical promises better than those of the Law , and in what respects . The aids of the Spirit plentifully assorded under the Gospel . The admirable confirmation of this Occonomy . The great extent and latitude of it . Judaism not capable of being communicated to all mankind . The comprehensiveness of the Gospel . The Duration of the Evangelical Covenant . The Mosaical Statutes in what sence said to be for ever . The Typical and transient nature of that State. The great happiness of Christians under the Occonomy of the Gospel . 1. GOD having from the very infancy of the World promised the Messiah , as the great Redeemer of Mankind , was accordingly pleased in all Ages to make gradual discoveries and manifestations of him , the revelations concerning him in every Dispensation of the Church still shining with a bigger and more particular light , the nearer this Sun of Righteousness was to his rising . The first Gospel and glad tidings of him commenced with the fall of Adam , God out of infinite tenderness and commiseration promising to send a person who should triumphantly vindicate and rescue mankind from the power and tyranny of their Enemies , and that he should do this by taking the humane nature upon him , and being born of the seed of the Woman . No further account is given of him till the times of Abraham , to whom it was revealed , that he should proceed out of his loins , and arise out of the Jewish Nation , though both Jew and Gentile should be made happy by him . To his Grandchild Jacob God made known out of what Tribe of that Nation he should rise , the Tribe of Judah ; and what would be the time of his appearing , viz. the departure of the Scepter from Judah , the abrogation of the Civil and Legislative power of that Tribe and People ( accomplished in Herod the Idumaean , set over them by the Roman power . ) And this is all we find concerning him under that Oeconomy . Under the Legal Dispensation we find Moses foretelling one main 〈◊〉 of his coming , which was to be the great Prophet of the Church , to whom all were to hearken as an extraordinary person sent from God to acquaint the World with the Councils and the Laws of Heaven . The next news we hear of him is from David , who was told that he should spring out of his house and family , and who frequently speaks of his sufferings , and the particular manner of his death , by piercing his hands and his feet , of his powerful Resurrection , that God would not leave his Soul in Hell , nor suffer his holy one to see corruption , of his triumphant Ascension into Heaven , and glorious session at God's right hand . From the Prophet Isaiah we have an account of the extraordinary and miraculous manner of his Birth , that he should be born of a Virgin , and his name be Immanuel , of his incomparable furniture of gifts and graces for the execution of his office , of the entertainment he was to meet with in the World , and of the nature and design of those sufferings which he was to undergo . The place of his Birth was foretold by Micah , which was to be 〈◊〉 , the least of the Cities of Judah , but honoured above all the rest with the nativity of a Prince , who was to be Ruler in Israel , whose goings forth had been from everlasting . Lastly , the Prophet Daniel 〈◊〉 the particular period of his coming , expresly affirming , that the Messiah should appear in the World , and be cut off as a Victim and Expiation for the sins of the people at the expiration of LXX . prophetical weeks , or CCCCXC . years , which accordingly punctually came to pass . 2. FOR the date of the prophetick Scriptures concerning the time of the 〈◊〉 's coming being now run out , In the fulness of time God sent his Son made of a Woman , made under the Law , to 〈◊〉 them that were under the Law : This being the truth of which God spake by the mouth of all his holy Prophets , which have been since the World began . But because it was not sit that so great a Person should come into the World , without an eminent Harbinger to introduce and usher in his Arrival , God had promised that he would send his Messenger , who should prepare his way before him , even 〈◊〉 the Prophet , whom he would send before the coming of that great day of the Lord , who should turn the hearts of the Fathers to the Children , &c. This was particularly accomplished in John the Baptist , who came in the power and spirit of Elias . He was the Morning-star to the Son of Righteousness , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as S. Cyril says of him , the great and eminent Fore-runner , a Person remarkable upon several accounts . First for the extraordinary circumstances of his Nativity , his Birth foretold by an Angel , sent on purpose to deliver this joyful Message , a sign God intended him for great undertakings , this being never done but where God designed the Person for some uncommon services ; his Parents aged , and though both righteous before God , yet hitherto Childless ; Heaven does not dispence all its bounty to the same Person , Children though great and desirable blessings are yet often denied to those , for whom God has otherwise very dear regards . Elizabeth was barren , and they were both well stricken in years . But is any thing too hard for the Lord ? said God to Abraham in the same case ; God has the Key of the Womb in his own keeping , it is one of the Divine Prerogatives , that he makes the barren Woman to keep house , and to be a joyful Mother of Children . A Son is promised , and mighty things said of him : a promise which old Zachary had scarce faith enough to digest , and therefore had the assurance of it sealed to him by a miraculous dumbness imposed upon him till it was made good , the same Miracle at once confirming his faith , and punishing his infidelity . Accordingly his Mother conceived with Child , and as if he would do part of his errand before he was born , he leaped in her Womb at her salutation of the Virgin Mary , then newly conceived with Child of our Blessed Saviour ; a piece of homage paid by one , to one yet unborn . 3. THESE presages were not vain and fallible , but produced a Person no less memorable for the admirable strictness and austerity of his 〈◊〉 . For having escaped Herod's butcherly and merciless Executioners ( the Divine providence being a shelter and a covert to him ) and been educated among the rudenesses and solitudes of the Wilderness , his manners and way of life were very 〈◊〉 to his Education . His Garments borrowed from no other Wardrobe than the backs of his Neighbour-creatures , the skins of Beasts , 〈◊〉 hair , and a Leathern girdle , and herein he literally made good the character of Elias , who is described as an hairy man , girt with a Leathern girdle about his Loins . His Diet suitable to his Garb , his Meat was Locusts , and wild Honey : Locusts , accounted by all Nations amongst the meanest and vilest sorts of food ; wild honey , such as the natural artifice and labour of the Bees had stored up in caverns and hollow Trees , without any elaborate curiosity to prepare and dress it up . Indeed his abstinence was so great , and his food so unlike other Mens , that the Evangelist says of him , that he came neither eating nor drinking , as if he had eaten nothing , or at least what was worth nothing . But Meat commends us not to God ; it is the devout mind , and the honest life that makes us valuable in the eye of Heaven . The place of his abode was not in Kings houses , in stately and delicate Palaces , but where he was born and bred , the Wilderness of Judaea , he was in the Desarts until the time of his shewing unto Israel . Divine grace is not consined to particular places , it is not the holy City , or the Temple at Mount Sion makes us nearer unto Heaven ; God can , when he please , consecrate a Desart into a Church , make us gather Grapes among Thorns , and Religion become fruitful in a barren Wilderness . 4. PREPARED by so singular an Education , and furnished with an immediate Commission from God , he entred upon the actual administration of his Office : In those days came John the Baptist , preaching in the Wilderness of Judaea , and saying , Repent ye , for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand . He was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Justin Martyr calls him , the Herald to Proclaim the first approach of the Holy Jesus , his whole Ministry tending to prepare the way to his entertainment , accomplishing herein what was of old foretold concerning him , For this is he that was spoken of by the Prophet Esaias , saying , The Voice of one crying in the Wilderness , Prepare ye the way of the Lord , make his paths straight . He told the 〈◊〉 , that the Messiah whom they had so long expected was now at hand , and his Kingdom ready to appear , that the Son of God was come down from Heaven , a Person as far beyond him in dignity , as in time and existence , to whom he was not worthy to minister in the meanest Offices ; that he came to introduce a new and better state of things , to enlighten the World with the clearest Revelations of the Divine will , and to acquaint them with counsels brought from the bosom of the Father , to put a period to all the types and umbrages of the Mosaic Dispensation , and bring in the truth and substance of all those shadows , and to open a Fountain of grace and fulness to Mankind ; to remove that state of guilt into which humane nature was so deeply sunk , and as the Lamb of God by the expiatory Sacrifice of 〈◊〉 to take away the sin of the World , not like the continual Burnt-offering , the Lamb offered Morning and Evening only for the sins of the House of Israel , but for Jew and Gentile , Barbarian and Scythian , bond and free : he told them , that God had a long time born with the sins of Men , and would now bring things to a quicker issue , and that therefore they should do well to break off their sins by repentance , and by a serious amendment and reformation of life dispose themselves for the glad tidings of the Gospel ; that they should no longer bear up themselves upon their external priviledges , the Fatherhood of Abraham , and their being God's select and peculiar People , that God would raise up to himself another Generation , a Posterity of Abraham from among the Gentiles , who should walk in his steps , in the way of his unshaken faith , and sincere obedience ; and that if all this did not move them to bring forth fruits meet for repentance , the Axe was laid to the root of the Tree , to extirpate their Church , and to hew them down as fuel for the unquenchable Fire . His free and resolute preaching together with the great severity of his life procured him a vast Auditory , and numerous Proselytes , for there went out to him Jerusalem , and all Judaea , and the Region round about Jordan , Persons of all ranks and orders , of all Sects and Opinions , 〈◊〉 and Sadducees , Souldiers and Publicans , whose Vices he impartially censured and condemned , and pressed upon them the duties of their particular places and relations . Those whom he gained over to be Proselytes to his Doctrine , he entred into this new Institution of life by Baptism ( and hence he derived his Title of the Baptist ) a solemn and usual way of initiating Proselytes , no less than Circumcision , and of great antiquity in the Jewish Church . In all times ( says Maimonides ) if any Gentile would enter into Covenant , remain under the wings of the Schechina , or Divine Majesty , and take upon him the yoke of the Law , he is bound to have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Circumcision , Baptism , and a Peace-offering : and if a Woman , Baptism , and an Oblation , because it is said , As ye are , so shall the stranger be ; as ye your selves 〈◊〉 into Covenant by Circumcision , Baptism , and a Peace-offering , so ought the Proselyte also in all Ages to enter in . Though this last he confesses is to be omitted during their present state of desolation , and to be made when their Temple shall be rebuilt . This Rite they generally make contemporary with the giving of the Law. So Maimonides , By three things ( says he ) the Israelites entred into Covenant ( he means the National Covenant at Mount Sinai ) by Circumcision , Baptism , and an Oblation ; Baptism being used some little time before the Law ; which he proves from that place , 〈◊〉 the People to day and to morrow , and let them wash their Clothes . This the Rabbines unanimously expound concerning Baptism , and expresly affirm , that where-ever we read of the Washing of Clothes , there an obligation to Baptism is intended . Thus they entred into the first Covenant , upon the frequent violations whereof God having promised to make a new and solemn Covenant with them in the times of the Messiah , they expected a second Baptism , as that which should be the Rite of their Initiation into it . And this probably is the reason , why the Apostle writing to the Hebrews , speaks of the Doctrin of Baptisms ( in the plural number ) as one of the primary and elementary Principles of the faith , wherein the Catechumens were to be instructed ; meaning that besides the Baptism whereby they had been initiated into the Mosaic Covenant , there was another by which they were to enter into this new 〈◊〉 that was come upon the World. Hence the Sanhedrim ( to whom the cognizance of such cases did peculiarly appertain ) when told of John's Baptism , never expressed any wonder at it , as a new upstart Ceremony , it being a thing daily practised in their Church , nor found fault with the thing it self , which they supposed would be a federal Rite under the dispensation of the Messiah , but only quarrelled with him for taking upon him to administer it , when yet he denied himself to be one of the prime Ministers of this new state . They said unto him , why baptizest thou then , if thou be not that Christ , nor 〈◊〉 , neither that 〈◊〉 ? Either of which had he owned himself , they had not questioned his right to enter Proselytes by this way of Baptism . It is called the Baptism of Repentance , this being the main qualification that he required of those , who took it upon them , as the fittest means to dispose them to receive the Doctrine and Discipline of the Messiah ; and to intitle them to that pardon of sin which the Gospel brought along with it ; whence he is said to baptize in the Wilderness , and to preach the Baptism of repentance , for the remission of sins . And the success was answerable , infinite Multitudes flocking to it , and were baptized of him in Jordan , confessing their sins . Nor is it the least part of his happiness , that he had the honour to baptize his Saviour , which though modestly declined , our Lord put upon him , and was accompanied with the most signal and miraculous attestations which Heaven could bestow upon it . 5. AFTER his Preparatory Preachings in the Wilderness he was called to Court by Herod , at least he was his frequent Auditor , was much delighted with his plain and impartial Sermons , and had a mighty reverence for him , the gravity of his Person , the strictness of his Manners , the freedom of his Preaching commanding an awe and veneration from his Conscience , and making him willing in many things to reform ; But the bluntness of the holy Man came nearer , and touched the King in the tenderest part , smartly reproving his adultery and incestuous embraces , for that Prince kept Herodias his Brother Philip's Wife . And now all corrupt interests were awakened to conspire his ruine . Extravagant Lusts love not to be controll'd and check'd , Herodias resents the asfront , cannot brook disturbance in the pleasures of her Bed , or the open challenging of her honour , and therefore by all the arts of Feminine subtlety meditates revenge . The issue was , the Baptist is cast into Prison , as the praeludium to a sadder fate . For among other pleasures and scenes of mirth performed upon the King's Birth-day , Herod being infinitely pleased with the Dancing of a young Lady , Daughter of this Herodias , promised to give her Her request , and solemnly ratified his promise with an Oath . She prompted by her Mother , asks the Head of John the Baptist , which the King partly out of a pretended reverence to his Oath , partly out of a desire not to be interrupted in his unlawful pleasures , presently granted , and it was as quickly accomplished . Thus died the Holy man , a man strict in his conversation beyond the ordinary measures of an Anchoret , bold and resolute , faithful and impartial in his Office , indued with the power and spirit of Elias , a burning and a shining light , under whose light the Jews rejoyced to sit , exceedingly taken with his temper and principles . He was the happy Messenger of the Evangelical tidings , and in that respect more than a Prophet , a greater not arising among them that were born of Women . In short , he was a Man loved of his Friends , revered and honoured by his Enemies ; Josephus gives this character of him , that he was a good man , and pressed the Jews to the study of vertue , to the practice of picty towards God , and justice and righteousness towards men , and to joyn themselves to his Baptism , which he told them would then become effectual , and acceptable to God , when they did not only cleanse the body , but purifie the mind by goodness and vertue . And though he gives somewhat a different account of Herod's condemning him to dic , from what is assigned in the Sacred History , yet he confesses , that the Jews universally looked upon the putting him to death as the cause of the miscarriage of Herod's Army , and an evident effect of the Divine vengeance and displeasure . The Jews in their Writings make honourable mention of his being put to death by Herod , because reproving him for the company of his Brother Philip's Wife , stiling him Rabbi Johanan the High-Priest , and reckoning him one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the wise men of Israel . Where he is called High-Priest , probably with respect to his being the Son of Zachariah , Head or Chief of one of the XXIV . Families or courses of the Priests , who are many times called Chief or High-Priests in Scripture . 6. THE Evangelical state being thus proclaimed and ushered in by the Preaching and Ministry of the Baptist , our Lord himself appeared next more fully to publish and confirm it , concerning whose Birth , Life , Death , and Resurrection , the Doctrine he delivered , the Persons he deputed to Preach and convey it to the World , and its success by the Ministry of the Apostles , large & particular accounts are given in the following work . That which may be proper and material to observe in this place is , what the Scripture so frequently takes notice of , the excellency of this above the preceding dispensations , especially that brought in by Moses , so much magnified in the Old Testament , and so passionately admired and adhered to by the Jews at this day . Jesus is the Mediator 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as the Apostle calls it , of a better Covenant . And better it is in several regards ; besides the infinite difference between the Persons , who were imployed to introduce and settle them , Moses and our Lord. The preheminence eminently appears in many instances , whereof we shall remark the most considerable . And first , the Mosaick dispensation was almost wholly made up of types and shadows , the Evangelical has brought in the truth and substance . The Law was given by Moses , but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Their Ordinances were but shadows of good things to come , sensible representations of what was to follow after , the Body is Christ , the perfection and accomplishment of their whole ritual Ministration . Their Ceremonies were Figures of those things that are true , the Land of Canaan typified Heaven , Moses and Joshua were types of the Blessed Jesus , and the Israelites after the flesh of the true Israel which is after the Spirit , and all their Expiatory Sacrifices did but represent that Great Sacrifice whereby Christ offered up himself , and by his own bloud purged away the sins of mankind , indeed the most minute and inconsiderable circumstances of the Legal Oeconomy were intended as little lights , that might gradually usher in the state of the Gospel . A curious Artist that designs a famous and excellent piece is not wont to complete and finish it all at once , but first with his Pencil draws some rude lines and rough draughts before he puts his last hand to it . By such a method the wise God seems to have delivered the first draughts and Images of those things by Moses to the Church , the substance and perfection whereof he designed should be brought in by Christ. And how admirably did God herein condescend to the temper and humor of that people ; for being of a more rough and childish disposition , apt to be taken with gaudy and sensible objects , by the external and pompous institutions of the Ceremonial Dispensation he prepared them for better things , as children are brought on by things accommodate to their weak capacities . The Church was then an heir under age , and was to be trained up in such a way , as agreed best with its Infant-temper , till it came to be of a more ripe manly age , able to digest Evangelical mysteries , and then the cover and the veil was taken off , and things made to appear in their own form and shape . 7. HENCE in the next place appears our happiness above them , that we are redeemed from those many severe and burdensom impositions wherewith they were clogg'd , and are now obliged only to a more easie and reasonable service . That the Law was a very grievous and 〈◊〉 Dispensation , is evident to any that considers , how much it consisted of carnal ordinances , costly duties , chargeable sacrifices , and innumerable little Rites and Ceremonies . Under that state they were bound to undergo ( yea even new-born Infants ) the bloudy and painful 〈◊〉 of Circumcision , to abstain from many sorts of food , useful and pleasant to man's life , to keep multitudes of solemn and stated times , new Moons , and Ceremonial Sabbaths , to take long and tedious journeys to Jerusalem to offer their sacrifices at the Temple , to observe daily washings and purifications , to use infinite care and caution in every place ; for if by chance they did but touch an unclean thing , besides their present confinement , it put them to the expences of a sacrifice , with hundreds more troublesome and costly observances required of them . A cruel bondage , heavy burdens , and grievous to be born ; under the weight whereof good men did then groan , and earnestly breath after the time of reformation ; the very Apostles complained that it was a yoke upon their necks , which neither their Fathers nor they were able to bear . But this yoke is taken off from our shoulders , and the way open into the liberties of the children of God. The Law bore a heavy hand over them , as children in their minority , we are got from under the rod and lash of its tutorage and Pedagogie , and are no more subject to the severity of its commands , to the exact punctilio's and numerousness of its impositions . Our Lord has removed that low and troublesome Religion , and has brought in a more manly and rational way of worship , more suitable to the perfections of God , and more accommodate to the reason and understandings of men . A Religion incomparably the wisest and the best that ever took place in the World. God did not settle the Religion of the Jews , and their way of worship , because good and excellent in it self , but for its suitableness to the temper of that people . Happy we , whom the Gospel has freed from those intolerable observances to which they were obliged , and has taught us to serve God in a better way , more 〈◊〉 and acceptable , more humane and natural , and in which we are helped forwards by greater aids of Divine assistence , than were afforded under that Dispensation . All which conspire to render our way smooth and plain , Take my yoke upon you , for my yoke is easie , and my burden is light . 8. THIRDLY , the Dispensation of the Gospel is founded upon more noble and excellent promises : A better Covenant established upon better promises . And better promises they are both for the nature and clearness of their revelation . They were of a more sublime and excellent nature , as being promises of spiritual and eternal things , such as immediately concerned the perfection and happiness of mankind , grace , peace , pardon , and eternal life . The Law strictly considered as a particular Covenant with the Jews at Mount Sinai had no other promises but of temporal blessings , plenty and prosperity , and the happiness of this life . This was all that appeared above-ground , and that was expresly held forth in that transaction , whatever might otherwise by due inferences , and proportions of reason be deduced from it . Now this was a great defect in that Dispensation , it being by this means , considering the nature and disposition of that people , and the use they would make of it , apt to intangle and debase the minds of men , and to arrest their thoughts and desires in the pursuit of more sublime and better things . I do not say but that under the Old Testament there were promises of spiritual things , and of eternal happiness , as appears from 〈◊〉 Psalms , and some passages in the Books of the Prophets : But then these though they were under the Law , yet they were not of the Law , that is , did not properly belong to it as a legal Covenant ; God in every age of the Jewish Church raising up some extraordinary persons , who preached notions to the people above the common standard of that Dispensation , and who spoke things more plainly , by how much nearer they approached the times of the Messiah . But under the Christian Oeconomy the promises are evidently more pure and spiritual ; not a temporal Canaan , external prosperity , or pardon of ceremonial uncleanness , but remission of sins , reconciliation with God , and everlasting life are proposed and offered to us . Not but that in some measure temporal blessings are promised to us as well as them , only with this difference , to them earthly blessings were pledges of spiritual , to us spiritual blessings are ensurances of temporal , so far as the Divine wisdom sees fit for us . Nor are they better in themselves , than they are clearly discovered and revealed to us . Whatever spiritual blessings were proposed under the former state were obscure and dark , and very few of the people understood them : But to us the veil is taken off , and we behold the glory of the Lord with open face , especially the things that relate to another World ; for this is the promise that he hath promised us , even Eternal Life . Hence our Lord is said to have brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel . Which he may be justly said to have done , inasmuch as he has given the greatest certainty , and the clearest account of that state . He hath given us the greatest assurance and certainty of the thing , that there is such a state . The happiness of the other World was a notion not so firmly agreed upon either amongst Jews or Gentiles . Among the Jews it was peremptorily denied by the Sadducees , a considerable Sect in that Church , which we can hardly suppose they would have done , had it been clearly propounded in the Law of Moses . And among the Heathens the most sober and considering persons did at some times at least doubt of it , witness that confession of Socrates himself , the wisest and best man that ever was in the Heathen World , who when he came to plead his cause before his Judges , and had bravely discoursed of the happy state of good men in the other Life , plainly consessed , that he could be content 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to die a thousand times over , were he but assured that those things were true ; and being condemned , concludes his Apologie with this farewell , And now , Gentlemen , I am going off the stage , it 's your lot to live , and mine to die , but whether of us two shall fare better , is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , unknown to any but to God alone . But our blessed Saviour has put the case past all peradventure , having plainly published this doctrine to the World , and sealed the truth of it , and that by raising others from the dead , and especially by his own Resurrection and 〈◊〉 , which were the highest pledge and assurance of a future Immortality . But besides the security , he hath given the clearest account of the nature of it . 'T is very probable that the Jews generally had of old , as 't is certain they have at this day , the most gross and carnal apprehensions concerning the state of another Life . But to us the Gospel has perspicuously revealed the invisible things of the other World ; told us what that Heaven is , which is promised to good men , a state of spiritual joys , of chaste and rational delights , a conformity of ours to the Divine Nature , a being made like to God , and an endless and uninterrupted communion with him . 9. BUT because in our lapsed and degenerate state we are very unable without some foreign assistance to attain the promised rewards , hence arises in the next place another great priviledge of the Evangelical Oeconomy , that it is blessed with larger and more abundant communications of the Divine Spirit , than was afforded under the Jewish state . Under the one it was given by drops , under the other it is poured forth . The Law laid heavy and hard commands , but gave little strength to do them , it did not assist humane nature with those powerful aids that are necessary for us in our 〈◊〉 state , it could do nothing in that it was weak through the flesh , and by reason of the weakness and unprofitableness thereof , it could make nothing 〈◊〉 : 〈◊〉 was this made it an heavy yoke , when the commands of it 〈◊〉 uncouth and troublesome , and the assistances so small and inconsiderable . Whereas now the Gospel does not only prescribe such Laws as are happily accommodate to the true temper of humane nature , and adapted to the reason of mankind , such as every wise and prudent man must have pitched upon , but it affords the insluences of the Spirit of God , by whose assistance our vitiated faculties are repaired , and we enabled under so much weakness , and in the midst of so many temptations to hold on in the paths of piety and vertue . Hence it is that the plentiful effusions of the Spirit were reserved as the great blessing of the Evangelical state , that God would then pour water upon him that is thirsty , and sloods upon the dry ground , that he would pour out his Spirit upon their seed , and his blessing upon their off-spring , whereby they should spring up as among the grass , as willows by the water-courses : That he would give them a new heart , and put his Spirit within them , and cause them to walk in his statutes , and keep his judgments to do them : And this is the meaning of those branches of the Covenant , so oft repeated , I will put my Law into their minds , and write it in their hearts , that is , by the help of my Grace and Spirit 〈◊〉 enable them to live according to my Laws , as readily and willingly , as if they were written in their hearts . For this reason the Law is compared to a dead letter , the Gospel to the Spirit that giveth life , thence stiled the ministration of the Spirit , and as such said to 〈◊〉 in glory , and that to such a degree , that what glory the Legal Dispensation had in this 〈◊〉 is eclipsed into nothing , For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect , by reason of the glory that excelleth , for if that which was done away was glorious , much more that which remaineth is glorious . Hence the Spirit is said to be Christ's peculiar mission , I will pray the Father , and he will send you another comforter , even the Spirit of truth , which was done immediately after his Ascension , when he ascended up on high , and gave gifts to men , even the Holy Ghost , which he shed on them abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour : For the Holy Ghost was not yet given , because that Jesus was not yet glorified . Not but that he was given before , even under the old Oeconomy , but not in those large and diffusive measures , wherein it was afterwards communicated to the World. 10. FIFTHLY , The Dispensation of the Gospel had a better establishment and confirmation than that of the Law ; for though the Law was introduced with great scenes of pomp and Majesty , yet was the Gospel ushered in by more kindly and rational methods , 〈◊〉 by more and greater miracles , whereby our Lord unquestionably evinced his Divine Commission , and shewed that he came from God , doing more miracles in three years than were done through all the periods of the Jewish Church , and many of them such as were peculiar to him alone . He often raised the dead , which Moses never did , commanded the winds and waves of the Sea , expelled Devils out of Lunaticks and possessed persons , who fled assoon as ever he commanded them to be gone , cured many inveterate and chronical distempers with the speaking of a word , and some without a word spoken , vertue silently going out from him . He searched men's hearts , and revealed the most secret transactions of their minds ; had this miraculous power always residing in him , and could exert it when , and upon what occasions he pleased , and impart it to others , communicating it to his Apostles and followers , and to the Primitive Christians for the three first Ages of the Church ; he never exerted it in methods of dread and terror , but in doing such miracles as were highly useful and beneficial to the World. And as if all this had not been enough , he 〈◊〉 down his own life after all to give testimony to it . Covenants were ever wont to be ratified with bloud , and the death of sacrifices . But when out Lord came to introduce the Covenant of the Gospel , he did not consecrate it with the bloud of Bulls and Goats , but with his own most precious bloud , as of a Lamb without spot and blemish . And could he give a greater testimony to the truth of his doctrine , and those great things he had promised to the World , than to seal it with his bloud . Had not these things been so , t were infinitely unreasonable to suppose , that a person of so much wisdom and goodness as our Saviour was , should have made the World believe so , and much less would he have chosen to die for it , and that the most acute and ignominious death . But he died , and rose again for us , and appeared after his Resurrection : His enemies had taken him away by a most bitter and cruel death , had guarded and secured his Sepulchre with all the care , power and diligence which they could invent . And yet he rose again the third day in triumph , visibly conversed with his Disciples for forty days together , and then went to Heaven . By which he gave the most solemn and undeniable assurance to the World , that he was the Son of God ( for he was declared to be the Son of God with power by the Resurrection from the dead ) and the Saviour of mankind , and that those doctrines which he had taught were most true , and did really contain the terms of that solemn transaction , which God by him had offered to men in order to their eternal happiness in another World. 11. THE last instance I shall note of the excellency of this above the Mosaical Dispensation , is the 〈◊〉 extent and latitude of it , and that both in respect of place and time . First , it 's more universally extensive as to place , not confined as the former was to a small part of mankind , but common unto all . Heretofore in Judah only was God known , and his name was great in Israel , he shewed his Word unto Jacob , his Statutes and his Judgments unto Israel ; but he did not deal so with any other Nation , neither had the Heathen knowledge of his Laws . In those times Salvation was only of the Jews , a few Acres of Land like Gideons Fleece was watered with the dew of Heaven , while all the rest of the World for many Ages lay dry and barren round about it , God suffering all Nations in times past to walk in their own ways , the ways of their own superstition and Idolatry , being aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel , strangers from the Covenants of promise , having no hope , and without God in the World , that is , they were without those promises , discoveries , and declarations which God made to Abraham and his Seed , and are therefore peculiarly described under this character , the Gentiles which knew not God. Indeed the Religion of the Jews was in it self incapable to be extended over the World , many considerable parts of it , as Sacrifices , First-fruits , Oblations , &c. ( called by the Jewes themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 statutes belonging to that land ) being to be performed at Jerusalem and the Temple , which could not be done by those Nations that lay a considerable distance from the Land of promise . They had it's true now and then some few Proselytes of the Gentiles , who came over and imbodied themselves into their way of worship ; but then they either resided among the Jewes , or by reason of their vicinity to Judaea were capable to make their personal appearance , and to comply with the publick Institutions of the Divine Law. Other Proselytes they had , called Proselytes of the Gate , who lived dispersed in all Countries , whom the Jewes call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the pious of the Nations , Men of devout minds , and Religious lives , but these were obliged to no more than the observation of the Seven Precepts of the Sons of Noah , that is , in effect to the Precepts of the Natural Law. But now the Gospel has a much wider sphere to move in , as vast and large as the whole World it self , it is communicable to all Countries , and may be exercised in any part or corner of the Earth . Our Lord gave Commission to his Apostles to go into all 〈◊〉 , and to Preach the Gospel to every Creature ; and so they did , their sound went into all the Earth , and their 〈◊〉 unto the ends of the World , by which means , the grace of God that brings salvation appeared unto all men , and the Gospel was Preached to every Creature under Heaven . So that now there is neither Jew , nor Greek , neither bond nor free , neither male nor female , but we are all one in Christ Jesus , and in every Nation he that feareth God , and worketh righteousness is accepted with him . The Prophet had long since foretold it of the times of Christ , that the House of God , that is , his Church should be called an House of Prayer for all People ; the Doors should be open , and none excluded that would enter in . And the Divine providence was singularly remarkable in this affair , that after our Lord's Ascension , when the Apostles were going upon their Commission , and were first solemnly to proclaim it at Jerusalem , there were dwelling there at that time Parthians , Medes , Elamites , &c. persons out of every Nation under Heaven , that they might be as the First-fruits of those several Countries , which were to be gathered in by the preaching of the Gospel , which was accordingly done with great success , the Christian Religion in a few years spreading its triumphant Banners over the greatest part of the then known World. 12. AND as the true Religion was in those Days pent up within one particular Country , so the more publick and ordinary worship of God was confined onely to one particular place of it , viz. Jerusalem , hence called the Holy City . Here was the Temple , here the Priests that ministred at the Altar , here all the more publick Solemnities of Divine adoration , Thither the Tribes go up , the Tribes of the Lord unto the Testimony of Israel , to give thanks unto the Name of the Lord. Now this was not the least part of the bondage of that dispensation to be obliged thrice every Year to take such long and tedious Journies , many of the Jews living some Hundreds of Miles distance from Jerusalem , and so strictly were they limited to this place , that to build an Altar , and offer Sacrifices in any other place ( unless in a case or two wherein God did extraordinarily dispense ) although it were to the true God , was though not false , yet unwarrantable worship ; for which reason the Jews at this day abstain from Sacrifices , because banished from Jerusalem and the Temple , the only legal place of offering . But behold the liberty of the Gospel in this case , we are not tied to present our devotions at Jerusalem , a pious and sincere mind is the best Sacrifice that we can offer up to God , and this may be done in any part of the World no less acceptably , than they of old sacrificed in the Temple . The hour cometh , when ye shall neither in this Mountain , ( Mount Gerizim ) nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father , when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth , as our Lord told the Woman of Samaria ; in spirit and in truth ] in spirit , in opposition to that carnal and Idolatrous worship that was in use among the Samaritans , who worshipped God under the representation of a Dove : in truth , in opposition to the typical and figurative worship of the Jews , which was but a shadow of the true worship of the Gospel . The great Sacrifice required in the Christian Religion is not the fat of Beasts , or the first-fruits of the Ground , but an honest heart , and a pious life , and a grateful acknowledgment of our dependance upon God in the publick Solemnities of his praise and worship . For the Law and the Gospel did not differ in this , that the one commanded publick worship , the other not , but that under the one publick worship was fixed to one only place , under the other it is free to any where the providence of God has placed us , it being part of the duty bound upon us by natural and unalterable obligations , that we should publickly meet together for the solemn Celebration of the Divine honour and service . 13. NOR is the Oeconomy of the Gospel less extensive in time than place ; the Old Testament was only a temporary dispensation , that of the Gospel is to last to the end of the World ; the Law was to continue only for a little time , the Gospel is an Everlasting Covenant ; the one to be quickly antiquated and abolished , the other never to be done away by any other to succeed it . The Jews indeed stickle hard for the perpetual and immutable obligation of the Law of Moses , and frequently urge us with those places , where the Covenant of Circumcision is called an Everlasting Covenant , and God said to chuse the Temple at Jerusalem to place his name there for ever , to give the Land of Canaan to Abraham and his seed for an everlasting possession , thus the Law of the Passeover is called an Ordinance for ever , the command of the First-fruits a statute for ever , and the like in other places , which seem to intimate a perpetual and unalterable Dispensation . But the answer is short and plain , that this phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for ever ( though when 't is applied to God it always denotes Eternity ) yet when 't is attributed to other things , it implies no more than a periodical duration , limited according to the will of the Law-giver , or the nature of the thing ; thus the Hebrew Servant was to serve his Master for ever , that is , but for seven years , till the next year of Jubilee : He shall walk before mine anointed for ever , says God concerning Samuel , that is , be a Priest all his days . Thus when the Ritual services of the Mosaick Law are called Statutes for ever , the meaning is , that they should continue a long time obligatory , until the time of the 〈◊〉 , in whose days the Sacrifice and Oblation was to cease , and those carnal Ceremonies to give way to the more spiritual services of the Gospel . Indeed the very typical nature of that Dispensation evidently argued it to be but for a time , the shadow being to cease , that the substance might take place ; and though many of them continued some considerable time after Christ's death , yet they lost their positive and obligatory power , and were used only as things indifferent in compliance with the inveterate prejudices of new Converts , lately brought over from Judaism , and who could not quickly lay aside that great veneration which they had for the Rites of the Mosaick Institution . Though even in this respect it was not long before all Jewish Ceremonies were thrown off , and Moses quite turn'd out of doors . Whereas the Evangelical state is to run parallel with the age and duration of the World , 't is the Everlasting Covenant , the Everlasting Gospel , the last Dispensation that God will make to the World , God who at sundry times , and in divers manners spake in time past by the Prophets , hath in these last days spoken to us by his 〈◊〉 ; in which respect the Gospel in opposition to the Law is stiled a Kingdom that cannot 〈◊〉 moved . The 〈◊〉 in the foregoing Verses speaking concerning the Mosaical state , Whose voice ( says he ) then shook the Earth , but now he hath promised , saying , Yet once more I shake not the Earth only , but also the Heaven ( a phrase peculiar to the Scripture to note the introducing a new scene and state of things ) and this word , Yet once more , signisieth the removing of those things that are shaken , as of things that are made , that those things which cannot be shaken may remain , that is , that the state of the Gospel may endure for ever . Hence Christ is said to have an unchangeable Priesthood , to be a Priest for ever , to be consecrated for evermore . From all which it appears , how incomparably happy we Christians are under the Gospel , above what the Jews were in the time of the Law ; God having placed us under the best of Dispensations , freed us from those many nice and troublesome observances to which they were tied , put us under the clearest discoveries and revelations , and given us the most noble , rational , and masculine Religion , a Religion the most perfective of our natures , and the most conducive to our happiness ; while their Covenant at best was faulty , and after all could not make him that did the service perfect in things pertaining to the Conscience . Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see , for I 〈◊〉 you that many Prophets and Kings have desired to see those things which ye see , and have not seen them , and to hear those things which ye hear , and have not heard them . The End of the APPARATUS . THE GREAT EXEMPLAR OF Sanctity and Holy Life according to the Christian Institution ; DESCRIBED In the HISTORY of the LIFE and DEATH of the ever-Blessed JESUS CHRIST , THE SAVIOUR of the WORLD . WITH CONSIDERATIONS and DISCOURSES upon the several parts of the Story ; And PRAYERS fitted to the several MYSTERIES . IN THREE PARTS . The Fifth Edition . By JER . TAYLOR , Chaplain in Ordinary to King CHARLES the First , and late Lord Bishop of Down and Conner . LONDON , Printed by R. Norton , for R. Royston , Bookseller to his most Sacred Majesty , at the Angel in Amen-Corner , 1675. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE and most truly Noble Lord , CHRISTOPHER LORD HATTON , Baron HATTON of Kirby , &c. MY LORD , WHEN Interest divides the Church , and the Calentures of men breathe out in Problems and unactive Discourses , each part in pursuance of its own portion follows that Proposition which complies with and bends in all the flexures of its temporal ends ; and while all strive for Truth , they hug their own Opinions dressed up in her imagery , and they dispute for ever , and either the Question is indeterminable , or , which is worse , men will never be convinced . For such is the nature of Disputings , that they begin commonly in Mistakes , they proceed with Zeal and fancy , and end not at all but in Schisms and uncharitable names , and too often dip their feet in bloud . In the mean time , he that gets the better of his adversary oftentimes gets no good to himself , because although he hath fast hold upon the right side of the Problem , he may be an ill man in the midst of his triumphant Disputations . And therefore it was not here that God would have Man's Felicity to grow : For our condition had been extremely miserable , if our final state had been placed upon an uncertain hill , and the way to it had been upon the waters , upon which no spirit but that of Contradiction and Discord did ever move : for the man should have tended to an end of an uncertain dwelling , and walked to it by ways not discernible , and arrived thither by chance ; which , because it is irregular , would have discomposed the pleasures of a Christian Hope , as the very disputing hath already destroyed Charity , and disunited the continuity of Faith ; and in the consequent there would be no Vertue , and no Felicity . But God , who never loved that Man should be too ambitiously busie in imitating his Wisedom , ( and Man lost Paradise for it ) is most desirous we should imitate his Goodness , and transcribe copies of those excellent Emanations from his Holiness , whereby as he communicates himself to us in Mercies , so he propounds himself imitable by us in Graces . And in order to this , God hath described our way plain , certain , and determined : and although he was pleased to leave us indetermined in the Questions of exteriour Communion , yet he put it past all question that we are bound to be Charitable . He hath placed the Question of the state of Separation in the dark , in hidden and undiscerned regions ; but he hath opened the windows of Heaven , and given great light to us , teaching how we are to demean our selves in the state of Conjunction . Concerning the Salvation of Heathens he was not pleased to give us account ; but he hath clearly described the duty of Christians , and tells upon what terms alone we shall be saved . And although the not inquiring into the ways of God and the strict rules of practice have been instrumental to the preserving them free from the serpentine enfoldings and labyrinths of Dispute ; yet God also with a great design of mercy hath writ his Commandments in so large characters , and engraven them in such Tables , that no man can want the Records , nor yet skill to read the hand-writing upon this wall , if he understands what he understands , that is , what is placed in his own spirit . For God was therefore desirous that humane nature should be perfected with moral , not intellectual , Excellencies , because these only are of use and compliance with our present state and conjunction . If God had given to Eagles an appetite to swim , or to the Elephant strong desires to fly , he would have ordered that an abode in the Sea and the Air respectively should have been proportionable to their manner of living ; for so God hath done to Man , fitting him with such Excellencies which are useful to him in his ways and progress to Perfection . A man hath great use and need of Justice ; and all the instances of Morality serve his natural and political ends , he cannot live without them , and be happy : but the filling the rooms of the Understanding with aiery and ineffective Notions , is just such an Excellency as it is in a Man to imitate the voice of Birds ; at his very best the Nightingale shall excel him , and it is of no use to that End which God designed him in the first intentions of creation . In pursuance of this consideration , I have chosen to serve the purposes of Religion by doing assistence to that part of Theologie which is wholly practical , that which makes us wiser , therefore , because it makes us 〈◊〉 . And truly ( my Lord ) it is enough to weary the spirit of a Disputer , that he shall argue till he hath lost his voice , and his time , and sometimes the Question too , and yet no man shall be of his mind more than was before . How few turn Lutherans , or Calvinists , or Roman Catholicks , from the Religion either of their Country or Interest ? Possibly two or three weak or interested , phantastick and easie , prejudicate and effeminate understandings pass from Church to Church , upon grounds as weak as those for which formerly they did dissent ; and the same Arguments are good or bad , as exteriour accidents or interiour appetites shall determine . I deny not but for great causes some Opinions are to be quitted : but when I consider how few do forsake any , and when any do , oftentimes they chuse the wrong side , and they that take the righter do it so by contingency , and the advantage also is so little , I believe that the triumphant persons have but small reason to please themselves in gaining Proselytes , since their purchase is so small , and as inconsiderable to their triumph , as it is unprofitable to them who change for the worse , or for the better upon unworthy motives . In all this there is nothing certain , nothing noble . But he that follows the work of God , that is , labours to gain Souls , not to a Sect and a Subdivision , but to the Christian Religion , that is , to the Faith and Obedience of the Lord JESUS , hath a promise to be assisted and rewarded : and all those that go to Heaven are the purchase of such undertakings , the fruit of such culture and labours ; for it is only a holy life that lands us there . And now ( my Lord ) I have told you my reasons , I shall not be ashamed to say that I am weary and toiled with rowing up and down in the seas of Questions which the Interests of Christendom have commenced ; and in many Propositions of which I am heartily perswaded I am not certain that I am not deceived ; and I find that men are most confident of those Articles which they can so little prove , that they never made Questions of them . But I am most certain , that by living in the Religion and fear of God , in Obedience to the King , in the Charities and duties of Communion with my Spiritual Guides , in Justice and Love with all the world in their several proportions , I shall not fail of that End which is perfective of humane nature , and which will never be obtained by Disputing . Here therefore when I had fixed my thoughts , upon sad apprehensions that God was removing our Candlestick , ( for why should be not , when men themselves put the Light out , and pull the Stars from their Orbs , so hastening the day of God's Judgment ? ) I was desirous to put a portion of the holy fire into a Repository , which might help to re-enkindle the Incense , when it shall please God Religion shall return , and all his Servants sing ( In convertendo captivitatem Sion ) with a voice of Eucharist . But now ( my Lord ) although the results and issues of my retirements and study do naturally run towards You , and carry no excuse for their forwardness , but the confidence that your Goodness rejects no emanation of a great affection ; yet in this Address I am apt to promise to my self a fair interpretation , because I bring you an instrument and auxiliaries to that Devotion whereby we believe you are dear to God , and know that you are to good men . And if these little sparks of holy fire which I have heaped together do not give life to your prepared and already-enkindled Spirit ; yet they will sometimes help to entertain a Thought , to actuate a Passion , to imploy and hallow a Fancy , and put the body of your Piety into fermentation , by presenting you with the circumstances and parts of such Meditations which are symbolical to those of your daily Office , and which are the passe-temps of your severest hours . My Lord , I am not so vain to think that in the matter of Devotion , and the rules of Justice and Religion , ( which is the business of your life ) I can add any thing to your heap of excellent things : but I have known and felt comfort by reading , or hearing from other persons , what I knew my self ; and it was unactive upon my spirit , till it was made vigorous and effective from without : And in this sence I thought I might not be useless and impertinent . My Lord , I designed to be instrumental to the Salvation of all persons that shall read my Book : But unless ( because Souls are equal in their substance , and equally redeemed ) we are obliged to wish the Salvation of all men , with the greatest , that is , with equal , desires , I did intend in the highest manner I could to express how much I am to pay to you , by doing the offices of that Duty which , although you less need , yet I was most bound to pay , even the duties and charities of Religion ; having this design , that when posterity ( for certainly they will learn to distinguish things and persons ) shall see your Honoured Name imployed to separate and rescue these Papers from contempt , they may with the more confidence expect in them something fit to be offered to such a Personage . My Lord , I have my end , if I serve God , and You , and the needs and interests of Souls ; but shall think my return full of reward , if you shall give me pardon , and put me into your Litanies , and account me in the number of your Relatives and Servants ; for indeed , my Lord , I am most heartily Your Lordship's most affectionate and most obliged Servant , JER . TAYLOR . THE CONTENTS . THE PREFACE . fol. I. An Exhortation to the Imitation of the Life of CHRIST . fol. ( i ) SECT . I. The History of the Conception of JESUS . pag. 1. Considerations upon the Annunciation of the Blessed MARY , and the Conception of the Holy Jesus . p. 3. SECT . II. The Bearing of JESUS in the 〈◊〉 of the Blessed 〈◊〉 . p. 7. Considerations concerning the circumstances of the Interval between the Conception and Nativity . p. 8. SECT . III. The Nativity of our Blessed Saviour JESUS . p. 13. Considerations upon the Birth of our Blessed Saviour JESUS . p. 15. Discourse 1. Of Nursing Children , in imitation of the Blessed Virgin-Mother . p. 18. SECT . IV. Of the great and glorious Accidents happening about the Birth of JESUS . p. 25. Considerations upon the Apparition of the Angels to the Shepherds . p. 28. Considerations upon the Epiphany of the Blessed JESUS by a Star , and the Adoration of JESUS by the Eastern Magi. p. 31. SECT . V. Of the Circumcision of JESUS , and his Presentation in the Temple . p. 35. Considerations upon the Circumcision of the Holy Child JESUS . p. 36. Discourse 2. Of the Vertue of Obedience . p. 40. Considerations upon the Presentation of JESUS in the Temple . p. 51. Discourse 3. Of Meditation . p. 54. SECT . VI. Of the Death of the Holy Innocents or the Babes of Bethlehem , and the Flight of JESUS into Egypt . p. 65. Considerations upon the Death of the Innocents , and the Flight of the Holy JESUS into Egypt . p. 67. SECT . VII . Of the younger years of JESUS , and his Disputation with the Doctors in the Temple . p. 73. Considerations upon the Disputation of JESUS with the Doctors in the Temple . p. 74. SECT . VIII . Of the Preaching of John the Baptist , preparative to the Manifestation of JESUS . p. 77. Considerations upon the Preaching of John the Baptist. p. 78. Discourse 4. Of Mortification and corporal Austerities . p. 82. SECT . IX . Of JESUS being Baptized , and going into the Wilderness to be tempted . p. 93. Considerations upon the Baptizing , Fasting , and Temptation of the Holy JESUS by the Devil . p. 95. Discourse 5. Of Temptation . p. 102. Discourse 6. Of Baptism . p. 116. Of Baptizing Infants . p. 127. SECT . X. Of the first Manifestation of JESUS , by the Testimony of John , and a Miracle . p. 151. Considerations touching the Vocation of five Disciples , and of the first Miracle of JESUS , done at Cana in Galilee . p. 155. Discourse 7. Of Faith. p. 159. SECT . XI . Of CHRIST's going to Jerusalem to the Passeover the first time after his Manifestation , and what followed till the expiration of the Office of John the Baptist. p. 167. Considerations upon the first Journey of the Holy JESUS to Jerusalem , when he whipt the Merchants out of the Temple . p. 169. Discourse 8. Of the Religion of Holy Places . p. 171. SECT . XII . Of JESUS's departure into Galilee ; his manner of Life , Miracles and Preaching ; his calling of Disciples ; and what happened until the second Passeover . p. 181. Considerations upon the Entercourse happening between the Holy JESUS and the Woman of Samaria . p. 187. Considerations upon CHRIST's first Preaching , and the Accidents happening about that time . p. 193. Discourse 9. Of Repentance . p. 197. Upon CHRIST's Sermon on the Mount , and of the Eight Beatitudes . p. 221. Discourse 10. Upon that part of the Decalogue which the Holy JESUS adopted into the Institution and obligation of Christianity . p. 231. Of the three additional Precepts which CHRIST super induced , and made parts of the Christian Law. Discourse 11. Of CHARITY , with its parts , Forgiving , Giving , not Judging . p. 232. Of Alms. p. 258. Discourse 12. Of the second additional Precept of CHRIST , ( viz. ) Of PRAYER . p. 261. Discourse 13. Of the third additional Precept of CHRIST , ( viz. ) of the manner of FASTING . p. 272. Discourse 14. Of the Miracles which JESUS wrought for confirmation of his Doctrine , during the whole time of his Preaching . p. 277. SECT . XIII . Of the Second Year of the Preaching of JESUS . p. 289. Discourse 15. Of the Excellency , 〈◊〉 , Reasonableness and Advantages of bearing CHRIST's Yoke , and living according to his Institution . p. 295. Discourse 16. Of Certainty of 〈◊〉 . p. 313. SECT . XIV . Of the Third Year of the Preaching of JESUS . p. 319. Discourse 17. Of Scandal , or Giving and taking Offence . p. 328. Discourse 18. Of the Causes and Manner of the Divine Judgments . p. 335. SECT . XV. Of the Accidents happening from the Death of Lazarus , until the Death and Burial of JESUS . p. 345. Considerations of some preparatory Accidents before the entrance of JESUS into his Passion . p. 357. Considerations upon the Washing of the Disciples feet by JESUS , and his Sermon of 〈◊〉 . p. 363. Discourse 19. Of the Institution and Reception of the Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper . p. 369. Considerations upon the Accidents happening on the Vespers of the Passion . p. 383. Considerations upon the Scourging and other Accidents happening from the Apprehension till the Crucifixion of JESUS . p. 389. Discourse 20. Of Death , and the due manner of Preparation to it . p. 397. Considerations upon the Crucifixion of the Holy JESUS . p. 411. SECT . XVI . Of the Resurrection and Ascension of JESUS . p. 419. Considerations upon the Accidents happening in the interval after the Death of the Holy JESUS , until his Resurrection . p. 423. THE PREFACE . 1. CHRISTIAN Religion hath so many exterior advantages to its Reputation and Advancement , from the Author and from the Ministers , from the fountain of its Origination and the chanels of Conveyance , ( GOD being the Author , the Word incarnate being the great Doctor and Preacher of it , his Life and Death being its Consignation , the Holy Spirit being the great Argument and demonstration of it , and the Apostles the Organs and Conduits of its dissemination ) that it were glorious beyond all opposition and disparagement , though we should not consider the Excellency of its Matter , and the Certainty of its Probation , and the Efficacy of its Power , and the Perfection and rare accomplishment of its Design . But I consider that Christianity is therefore very little understood , because it is reproached upon that pretence which its very being and design does infinitely confute . It is esteemed to be a Religion contrary in its Principles or in its Precepts to that wisdom * whereby the World is governed , and Common-wealths increase , and Greatness is acquired , and Kings go to war , and our ends of Interest are served and promoted ; and that it is an Institution so wholly in order to another World , that it does not at all communicate with this , neither in its End nor in its Discourses , neither in the Policy nor in the Philosophy : and therefore as the Doctrine of the Cross was entertained at first in scorn by the Greeks , in offence and indignation by the Jews ; so is the whole Systeme and collective Body of Christian Philosophy esteemed imprudent by the Politicks of the world , and flat and irrational by some men of excellent wit and submile discourse ; who , because the permissions and dictates of natural , true and essential Reason are at no hand to be contradicted by any superinduced Discipline , think , that whatsoever seems contrary to their Reason is also violent to our Nature , and offers indeed a good to us , but by ways unnatural and unreasonable . And I think they are very great strangers to the present affairs and perswasions of the World , who know not that Christianity is very much undervalued upon this principle , men insensibly becoming unchristian , because they are perswaded that much of the Greatness of the World is contradicted by the Religion . But certainly no mistake can be greater . For the Holy Jesus by his Doctrine did instruct the Understandings of men , made their Appetites more obedient , their Reason better principled , and argumentative with less deception , their Wills apter for noble choices , their Governments more prudent , their present Felicities greater , their hopes more excellent , and that duration which was intended to them by their Creator he made manifest to be a state of glory : and all this was to be done and obtained respectively by the ways of Reason and Nature , such as God gave to Man then when at first he designed him to a noble and an immortal condition ; the Christian Law being , for the substance of it , nothing but the * restitution and perfection of the Law of Nature . And this I shall represent in all the parts of its natural progression , and I intend it not only as a Preface to the following Books , but for an Introduction and Invitation to the whole Religion . 2. For God when he made the first emanations of his eternal Being , and created Man as the End of all his productions here below , designed him to an End such as himself was pleased to chuse for him , and gave him abilities proportionable to attain that End. God gave Man a reasonable and an intelligent nature . And to this noble Nature he designed as noble an End ; he intended Man should live well and happily , in proportion to his appetites , and in the reasonable doing and enjoying those good things which God made him naturally to desire . For since God gave him proper and peculiar Appetites with proportion to their own objects , and gave him Reason and abilities , not only to perceive the sapidness and relish of those objects , but also to make reflex acts upon such perceptions , and to perceive that he did perceive , which was a rare instrument of pleasure and pain respectively ; it is but reasonable to think , that God , who created him in mercy , did not only proportion a Being to his nature , but did also provide satisfaction for all those Appetites and desires which himself had created and put into him . For if he had not , then the Being of a man had been nothing but a state of perpetual Affliction , and the creation of men had been the greatest Unmercifulness in the world , disproportionate objects being mere instances of affliction , and those unsatisfied appetites nothing else but instruments of torment . 3. Therefore , that this intendment of God and Nature should be effected , that is , that Man should become happy , it is naturally necessary , that all his regular appetites should have an object appointed them , in the fruition of which Felicity must consist . Because nothing is Felicity , but when what was reasonably or orderly desired is possessed : for the having what is not desired , or the wanting of what we desired , or the desiring what we should not , are the several constituent parts of Infelicity ; and it can have no other constitution . 4. Now the first Appetite Man had in order to his great End was , to be as perfect as he could , that is , to be as like * the best thing he knew as his nature and condition would permit . And although by Adam's sancy and affection to his Wife , and by God's appointing fruit for him , we see the lower Appetites were first provided for : yet the first Appetite which Man had , as he distinguishes from lower creatures , was to be like God , ( for by that the Devil tempted him ; ) and in order to that he had naturally sufficient instruments and abilities . For although by being abused with the Devil's sophistry he chose an incompetent instrument ; yet because it is naturally certain , that Love is the greatest assimilation of the object and the faculty , Adam by loving God might very well approach nearer him according as he could . And it was natural to Adam to love God , who was his Father , his Creator , the fountain of all good to him , and of excellency in himself ; and whatsoever is understood to be such , it is as natural for us to love , and we do it for the same reasons , for which we love any thing else ; and we cannot love for any other reason , but for one or both these in their proportion apprehended . 5. But because God is not only excellent and good , but by being supreme Lord hath power to give us what Laws he pleases , Obedience to his Laws therefore becomes naturally , but consequently , necessary , when God decrees them , because he does make himself an enemy to all Rebels and disobedient sons , by affixing penalties to the transgressors : And therefore Disobedience is naturally inconsistent , not only with love to our selves , because it brings afflictions upon us , but with love to our supreme Law-giver : it is contrary to the natural love we bear to God so understood , because it makes him our enemy , whom naturally and reasonably we cannot but love ; and therefore also opposite to the first Appetite of Man , which is to be like God , in order to which we have naturally no instrument but Love , and the consequents of Love. 6. And this is not at all to be contradicted by a pretence that a man does not naturally know there is a GOD. Because by the same instrument by which we know that the World began , or that there was a first man , by the same we know that there is a GOD , and that he also knew it too , and conversed with that God , and received Laws from him . For if we discourse of Man , and the Law of Nature , and the first Appetites , and the first Reasons abstractedly , and in their own complexions , and without all their relations and provisions , we discourse jejunely , and falsely , and unprofitably . For as Man did not come by chance , nor by himself , but from the universal Cause : so we know that this universal Cause did do all that was necessary for him in order to the End he appointed him . And therefore to begin the history of a Man's Reason , and the philosophy of his Nature , it is not necessary for us to place him there where without the consideration of a * GOD , or Society , or Law , or Order , he is to be placed , that is , in the state of a thing rather than a person ; but God by Revelations and Scriptures having helped us with Propositions and parts of story relating Man's first and real condition , from thence we can take the surest account , and make the most perfect derivation of Propositions . 7. From this first Appetite of Man to be like God , and the first natural instrument of it , Love , descend all the first obligations of Religion . In which there are some parts more immediately and naturally expressive , others by superinduction and positive command . Natural Religion I call such actions which either are proper to the nature of the thing we worship , ( such as are giving praises to him , and speaking excellent things of him , and praying to him for such things as we need , and a readiness to obey him in whatsoever he commands : ) or else such as are expressions proportionate to our natures that make them ; that is , giving to God the best things we have , and by which we can declare our esteem of his honour and excellency ; assigning some portion of our time , of our estate , the labours of our persons , the increase of our store , * First fruits , Sacrifices , Oblations , and Tithes ; which therefore God rewards , because he hath allowed to our natures no other instruments of doing him honour , but by giving to him in some manner , which we believe honourable and apt , the best thing we have . 8. The next Appetite a man hath is , to beget one like himself , God having implanted that appetite into Man for the propagation of mankind , and given it as his first Blessing and permission : It is not good for man to be alone ; and , Increase and multiply . And * Artemidorus had something of this doctrine , when he reckons these two Laws of Nature , Deum colere , Mulieribus vinci , To worship God , and To be overcome by women , in proportion to his two first Appetites of Nature , To be like God , and To have another like himself . This Appetite God only made regular by his first provisions of satisfaction . He gave to Man a Woman for a Wife , for the companion of his sorrows , for the instrument of multiplication ; and yet provided him but of one , and intimated he should have no more : which we do not only know by an after-revelation , the Holy Jesus having declared it to have been God's purpose , but Adam himself understood it , as appears by his first discourses at the entertainment of his new Bride . And although there were permissions afterward of Polygamy , yet there might have been a greater pretence of necessity at first , because of enlarging and multiplying fountains rather than chanels ; and three or four at first would have enlarged mankind by greater proportion than many more afterwards ; little distances near the Centre make greater and larger figures than when they part near the fringes of the Circle : and therefore those after-permissions were to avoid a greater evil , not a hallowing of the licence , but a reproach of their infirmity . And certainly the multiplication of Wives is contrariant to that design of love and endearment which God intended at first between Man and Wife . — Connubia mille : Non illis generis nexus , non pignora curae , Sed numero languet pietas — And amongst them that have many Wives , the relation and necessitude is tristing and loose , and they are all equally contemptible ; because the mind entertains no loves or union where the object is multiplied , and the act unfixed and distracted . So that this having a great commodity in order to Man 's great End , that is , of living well and happily , seems to be intended by God in the nature of things and instruments natural and reasonable towards Man's End ; and therefore to be a Law , if not natural , yet at least positive and superinduced at first , in order to Man 's proper End. However , by the provision which God made for satisfaction of this Appetite of Nature , all those actions which deflect and erre from the order of this End are unnatural and inordinate , and not permitted by the concession of God , nor the order of the thing ; but such actions only which naturally produce the end of this provision and satisfaction are natural , regular , and good . 9. But by this means Man grew into a Society and a Family , and having productions of his own kind , which he naturally desired , and therefore loved , he was consequently obliged to assist them in order to their End , that they might become like him , that is , perfect men , and brought up to the same state : and they also by being at first impotent , and for ever after * beneficiaries and obliged persons , are for the present subject to their Parents , and for ever after bound to duty ; because there is nothing which they can do that can directly produce so great a benefit to the Parents , as they have to the Children . From hence naturally descend all those mutual Obligations between Parents and Children , which are instruments of Protection and benefit on the one side , and Duty and obedience on the other ; and all these to be expressed according as either of their necessities shall require , or any stipulation or contract shall appoint , or shall be superinduced by any positive Laws of God or Man. 10. In natural descent of the Generations of Man this one first Family was multiplied so much , that for conveniency they were forced to divide their dwellings ; and this they did by Families especially , the great Father being the Major-domo to all his minors . And this division of dwellings , although it kept the same form and power in the several Families which were in the original , yet it introduced some new necessities , which although they varied in the instance , yet were to be determined by such instruments of Reason which were given to us at first upon foresight of the publick necessities of the World. And when the Families came to be divided , that their common Parent being extinct , no Master of a Family had power over another Master ; the rights of such men and their natural power became equal , because there was nothing to distinguish them , and because they might do equal injury , and invade each other's possessions , and disturb their peace , and surprise their liberty . And so also was their power of doing benefit equal , though not the same in kind : But God , who made Man a sociable creature , because he knew it was not good for him to be alone , so dispensed the abilities and possibilities of doing good , that in something or other every man might need or be benefited by * every man. Therefore that they might pursue the end of Nature , and their own appetites of living well and happily , they were forced to consent to such Contracts which might secure and supply to every one those good things without which he could not live happily . Both the Appetites , the Irascible and the Concupiscible , fear of evil , and desire of benefit , were the sufficient endearments of Contracts , of Societies , and Republicks . And upon this stock were decreed and hallowed all those Propositions , without which Bodies politick and Societies of men cannot be happy . And in the transaction of these , many accidents daily happening , it grew still reasonable , that is , necessary to the End of living happily , that all those after-Obligations should be observed with the proportion of the same faith and endearment which bound the first Contracts . For though the natural Law be always the same , yet some parts of it are primely necessary , others by supposition and accident ; and both are of the same necessity , that is , equally necessary in the several cases . Thus , to obey a King is as necessary and naturally reasonable as to obey a Father , that is , supposing there be a King , as it is certain naturally a man cannot be , but a Father must be supposed . If it be made necessary that I promise , it is also necessary that I perform it ; for else I shall return to that inconvenience which I sought to avoid when I made the Promise : and though the instance be very far removed from the first necessities and accidents of our prime being and production ; yet the reason still pursues us , and natural Reason reaches up to the very last minutes , and orders the most remote particulars of our well-being . 11. Thus , Not to Steal , Not to commit Adultery , Not to kill , are very reasonable prosecutions of the great End of Nature , of living well and happily : But when a man is said to steal , when to be a Murtherer , when to be Incestuous , the natural Law doth not teach in all cases ; but when the superinduced Constitution hath determined the particular Law , by natural Reason we are obliged to observe it : because though the Civil power makes the instance , and determines the particular ; yet right Reason makes the Sanction , and passes the Obligation . The Law of Nature makes the major Proposition ; but the Civil Constitution , or any superinduced Law , makes the Assumption in a practical Syllogism . To kill is not Murther ; but to kill such persons whom I ought not . It was not Murther among the Jews to kill a man-slayer before he entred a City of Refuge : to kill the same man after his entry , was . Among the Romans , to kill an Adulteress or a Ravisher in the act was lawful ; with us it is Murther . Murther , and Incest , and Theft , always were unlawful ; but the same actions were not always the same crimes . And it is just with these as with Disobedience , which was ever criminal ; but the same thing was not estimated to be Disobedience , nor indeed could any thing be so , till the Sanction of a Superior had given the instance of Obedience . So for Theft : To catch Fish in rivers , or Deer , or Pigeons , when they were esteemed ferae naturae , of a wild condition , and so primo 〈◊〉 , was lawful ; just as to take or kill Badgers or Foxes , and Bevers , and Lions : but when the Laws had appropriated Rivers , and divided Shores , and imparked Deer , and housed Pigeons , it became Theft to take them without leave . To despoil the Egyptians was not Theft , when God , who is the Lord of all possessions , had bidden the Israelites : but to do so now were the breach of the natural Law , and of a Divine Commandment . For the natural Law ( I said ) is eternal in the Sanction , but variable in the instance and the expression . And indeed the Laws of Nature are very few : They were but two at first , and but two at last , when the great change was made from Families to Kingdoms . The first is , to do duty to God : The second is , to do to our selves and our Neighbours , that is , to our neighbours as to our selves , all those actions which naturally , reasonably , or by institution or emergent necessity are in order to a happy life . Our Blessed Saviour reduces all the Law to these two ; 1. Love the Lord with all thy heart , 2. Love thy neighbour as thy self . In which I observe , in verification of my former * discourse , that Love is the first natural bond of Duty to God , and so also it is to our Neighbour . And therefore all entercourse with our neighbour was founded in , and derived from , the two greatest endearments of Love in the world : A man came to have a Neighbour by being a Husband , and a Father . 12. So that still there are but two great natural Laws binding us in our relations to God and Man ; we remaining essentially , and by the very design of creation , obliged to God in all , and to our neighbours in the proportions of equality , [ as thy self ; ] that is , that he be permitted and promoted in the order to his living well and happily , as thou art : for Love being there not an affection , but the duty that results from the first natural bands of Love , which began Neighbourhood , signifies Justice , Equality , and such reasonable proceedings which are in order to our common End of a happy life , and is the same with that other , Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you , do you to them ; and that is certainly the greatest and most effective Love , because it best promotes that excellent End which God designed for our natural perfection . All other particulars are but prosecutions of these two , that is , of the order of Nature : save only that there is a third Law , which is a part of Love too , it is Self-love , and therefore is rather supposed than at the first expressed , because a man is reasonably to be presumed to have in him a sufficient stock of Self-love , to serve the ends of his nature and creation ; and that is , that man demean and use his own body in that decorum which is most orderly and proportionate to his perfective End of a happy life ; which Christian Religion calls [ Sobriety : ] and it is a prohibition of those uncharitable , self-destroying sins of Drunkenness , Gluttony , and inordinate and unreasonable manners of Lust ; destructive of Nature's intendments , or at least no ways promoting them . For it is naturally lawful to satisfie any of these desires , when the desire does not carry the satisfaction beyond the design of Nature , that is , to the violation of health , or that happy living which consists in observing those Contracts which mankind thought necessary to be made in order to the same great End ; unless where God hath superinduced a restraint , making an instance of Sobriety to become an act of Religion , or to pass into an expression of Duty to him : But then it is not a natural , but a Religious Sobriety , and may be instanced in fasting or abstinence from some kinds of meat , or some times or manners of conjugation . These are the three natural Laws described in the Christian Doctrine , that we live , 1. Godly , 2. Soberly , 3. Righteously . And the particulars of the first are ordinarily to be determined by God immediately , or his Vicegerents , and by Reason observing and complying with the accidents of the world , and dispositions of things and persons : the second by the natural order of Nature , by sense , and by experience : and the third by humane contracts and civil Laws . 13. The result of the preceding discourse is this . Man , who was designed by God to a happy life , was fitted with sufficient means to attain that End , so that he might , if he would , be happy ; but he was a free Agent , and so might chuse . And it is possible that Man may fail of his End , and be made miserable , by God , by himself , or by his neighbour ; or by the same persons he may be made happy in the same proportions , as they relate to him . If God be angry or disobeyed , he becomes our enemy , and so we fail : If our Neighbour be injured or impeded in the direct order to his happy living , he hath equal right against us as we against him , and so we fail that way : An dif I be intemperate , I grow sick and worsted in some Faculty , and so I am unhappy in my self . But if I obey God , and do right to my Neighbour , and confine my self within the order and design of Nature , I am secured in all ends of Blessing in which I can be assisted by these three , that is , by all my relatives ; there being no End of man designed by God in order to his Happiness , to which these are not proper and sufficient instruments . Man can have no other relations , no other discourses , no other regular appetites , but what are served and satisfied by Religion , by Sobriety , and by Justice . There is nothing whereby we can relate to any person , who can hurt us , or do us benefit , but is provided for in these three . These therefore are all , and these are sufficient . 14. But now it is to be enquired how these become Laws obliging us to sin if we transgress , even before any positive Law of God be superinduced : for else , how can it be a natural Law , that is , a Law obliging all Nations and all persons , even such who have had no intercourse with God by way of special revelation , and have lost all memory of tradition ? For either such persons , whatsoever they do , shall obtain that End which God designed for them in their nature , that is , a happy life according to the duration of an immortal nature : or else they shall perish for prevaricating of these Laws . And yet if they were no Laws to them , and decreed and made sacred by sanction , promulgation and appendent penalties , they could not so oblige them as to become the Rule of Vertue or Vice. 15. When God gave us natural Reason , that is , sufficient ability to do all that should be necessary to live well and happily , he also knew that some Appetites might be irregular , just as some stomachs would be sick , and some eyes blind ; and a man being a voluntary Agent might chuse an evil with as little reason as the Angels of darkness did , that is , they might do unreasonably because they would do so ; and then a man's Understanding should serve him but as an instrument of mischief , and his Will carry him on to it with a blind and impotent desire , and then the beauteous order of creatures would be discomposed by unreasonable and unconsidering or evil persons . And therefore it was most necessary that Man should have his appetites 〈◊〉 within the designs of Nature , and the order to his End ; for a Will without the restraint of a superior power , or a perfect Understanding , is like a knife in a child's hand , as apt for mischief as for use . Therefore it pleased God to bind man by the signature of Laws to observe those great natural reasons , without which man could not arrive at the great End of God's designing , that is , he could not live well and happily . God therefore made it the first Law to love him , and , which is all one , to worship him , to speak honour of him , and to express it in all our ways , the chief whereof is Obedience . And this we find in the instance of that positive Precept which God gave to Adam , and which was nothing but a particular of the great general . But in this there is little scruple , because it is not imaginable that God would in any period of time not take care that himself be honoured , his Glory being the very end why he made Man ; and therefore it must be certain , that this did at the very first pass into a Law. 16. But concerning this and other things , which are usually called natural Laws , I consider , that the things themselves were such , that the doing them was therefore declared to be a Law , because the not doing them did certainly bring a punishment proportionable to the crime , that is , a just deficiency from the End of creation , from a good and happy life ; 2. And also a punishment of a guilty Conscience : which I do not understand to be a 〈◊〉 of Hell , or of any supervening penalty , unless the Conscience be accidentally instructed into such fears by experience or revelation ; but it is a malum in genere Rationis , a disease or evil of the Reasonable faculty : that , as there is a rare content in the discourses of Reason , there is a satisfaction , an acquiescency like that of creatures in their proper place and definite actions and competent perfections ; so in prevaricating the natural Law there is a dissatisfaction , a disease , a removing out of the place , an unquietness of spirit , even when there is no monitor or observer . Adeo facinora atque flagitia sua ipsi quoque in supplicium verterant . Neque frustra 〈◊〉 [ Plato ] sapientiae firmare solitus est , si 〈◊〉 Tyrannorum mentes , posse aspici laniatus & 〈◊〉 , quando ut corpora verberibus , ita saevitia , libidine , malis consultis animus dilaceretur , said a Tacitus out of b Plato , whose words are ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It is naturally certain , that the Cruelty of Tyrants torments themselves , and is a hook in their nostrils , and a * scourge to their spirit ; and the pungency of forbidden Lust is truly a thorn in the flesh , full of anguish and secret vexation . Quid , demens , manifesta negas ? En pectus inustae Deformant maculae , vitiisque inolevit imago , said Claudian of Rusinus . And it is certain to us , and verified by the experience and observation of all wise Nations , though not naturally demonstrable , that this secret punishment is sharpned and promoted in degrees by the hand of Heaven , the finger of the same hand that writ the Law in our Understandings . 17. But the prevarications of the natural Law have also their portion of a special punishment , besides the scourge of an unquiet spirit . The man that disturbs his neighbour's rest meets with disturbances himself : and since I have naturally no more power over my neighbour than he hath over me , ( unless he descended naturally from me ) he hath an equal priviledge to defend himself , and to secure his quiet by disturbing the order of my happy living , as I do his . And this equal permission is certainly so great a sanction and signature of the law of Justice , that in the just proportion of my receding from the reasonable prosecution of my End , in the same proportion and degree my own Infelicity is become certain ; and this in several degrees up to the loss of all , that is , of Life it self : for where no farther duration or differing state is known , there Death is ordinarily esteemed the greatest infelicity ; where something beyond it is known , there also it is known that such prevarication makes that farther duration to be unhappy . So that an affront is naturally punished by an affront , the loss of a tooth with the loss of a tooth , of an eye with an eye , the violent taking away of another man's goods by the losing my own . For I am liable to as great an evil as I infer , and naturally he is not unjust that inflicts it . And he that is drunk is a fool or a mad-man for the time , and that is his punishment , and declares the law and the sin : and so in proportions to the transgressions of sobriety . But when the first of the natural laws is violated , that is , God is disobeyed or dishonoured , or when the greatest of natural evils is done to our Neighbour , then Death became the penalty : to the first , in the first period of the World ; to the second , at the restitution of the World , that is , at the beginning of the second period . He that did attempt to kill , from the beginning of Ages might have been resisted and killed , if the assaulted could not else be safe ; but he that killed actually , as Cain did , could not be killed himself , till the Law was made in Noah's time , because there was no person living that had equal power on him , and had been naturally injured : while the thing was doing , the assailant and the assailed had equal power ; but when it was done , and one was killed , he that had the power or right of killing his murtherer , is now dead , and his power is extinguished with the man. But after the Floud the power was put into the hand of some trusted person , who was to take the forfeiture . And thus I conceive these natural reasons in order to their proper end became Laws , and bound fast by the band of annexed and consequent penalties : Metum prorsus & noxam conscientiae pro foedere haberi , said Tacitus . And that fully explains my sence . 18. And thus Death was brought into the world ; not by every prevarication of any of the Laws , by any instance of unreasonableness : 〈◊〉 in proportion to the evil of the action would be the evil of the suffering , which in all cases would not arrive at death ; as every injury , every intemperance should not have been capital . But some things were made evil by a superinduced prohibition , as eating one kinde of fruit ; some things were evil by inordination : the first was morally evil , the second was evil naturally . Now the first sort brought in death by a prime sanction ; the second , by degrees and variety of accident . For every disobedience and transgression of that Law which God made as the instance of our doing him honour and obedience , is an integral violation of all the band between him and us ; it does not grow in degrees according to the instance and subject matter ; for it is as great a disobedience to eat when he hath forbidden us , as to offer to climb to Heaven with an ambitious Tower. And therefore it is but reasonable for us to fear , and just in him to make us at once suffer Death , which is the greatest of natural evils , for disobeying him . To which Death we may arrive by degrees , in doing actions against the reasonableness of Sobriety and Justice , but cannot arrive by degrees of Disobedience to God , or Irreligion ; because every such act deserves the worst of things , but the other naturally deserves no greater evil than the proportion of their own inordination , till God by a superinduced Law hath made them also to become acts of Disobedience as well as Inordination , that is , morally evil , as well as naturally : For by the Law ( saith S. Paul ) sin became exceeding sinful , that is , had a new degree of obliquity added to it . But this was not at first . For therefore ( saith S. Paul ) Before , or until , the Law sin was in the world ; but sin is not imputed when there is no Law : meaning , that those sins which were forbidden by Moses's Law were actually in the manners of men and the customs of the world , but they were not imputed , that is , to such personal punishments and consequent evils which afterwards those sins did introduce ; because those sins which were only evil by inordination , and discomposure of the order of man's end of living happily , were made unlawful upon no other stock , but that God would have man to live happily , and therefore gave him Reason to effect that end ; and if a man became unreasonable , and did things contrary to his end , it was impossible for him to be happy , that is , he should be miserable in proportion . But in that degree and manner of evil they were imputed ; and that was sanction enough to raise natural Reason up to the constitution of a Law. 19. Thirdly , The Law of Nature being thus decreed and made obligatory was a sufficient instrument of making man happy , that is , in producing the end of his Creation . But as Adam had evil discourses and irregular appetites before he fell , ( for they made him fall ) and as the Angels , who had no Original sin , yet they chose evil at the first , when it was wholly arbitrary in them to do so or otherwise ; so did Man. God made man upright , and he sought out many inventions . Some men were Ambitious , and by incompetent means would make their brethren to be their servants ; some were Covetous , and would usurp that which by an earlier distinction had passed into private possession : and then they made new principles , and new discourses , such which were reasonable in order to their private indirect ends , but not to the publick benefit , and therefore would prove unreasonable and mischievous to themselves at last . 20. And when once they broke the order of creation , it is easie to understand by what necessities of consequence they ran into many sins and irrational proceedings . AElian tells of a Nation who had a Law binding them to beat their Parents to death with clubs , when they lived to a decrepit and unprofitable age . The Persian Magi mingled with their Mothers and all their nearest relatives . And by a Law of the Venetians ( says Bodinus ) a Son in banishment was redeemed from the sentence , if he killed his banished Father . And in Homer's time there were a sort of Pirats who professed Robbing , and did account it honourable . But the great prevarications of the Laws of Nature were in the first Commandment ; when the tradition concerning God was derived by a long line , and there were no visible remonstrances of an extraordinary power , they were quickly brought to believe that he whom they saw not was not at all , especially being prompted to it by Pride , Tyranny , and a loose imperious spirit . Others 〈◊〉 to low opinions concerning God , and made such as they list of their own ; and they were like to be strange Gods which were of Man's making . When Man either maliciously or carelesly became unreasonable in the things that concerned God , God was pleased to * give him over to a reprobate mind , that is , an unreasonable understanding , and false principles concerning himself and his Neighbour , that his sin against the natural Law might become its own punishment , by discomposing his natural happiness . Atheism and Idolatry brought in all unnatural Lusts , and many unreasonable Injustices . And this we learn from S. Paul : As they did not like to retain God in their knowledge , God gave them over to a reprobate mind , to do those things which are not convenient , that is , incongruities towards the end of their creation ; and so they became full of unrighteousness , lust , covetousness , malice , envy , strise , and murther , disobedient to parents , breakers of Covenants , unnatural in their affections , and in their passions : and all this was the consequent of breaking the first natural Law. They changed the truth of God into a lie : For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections . 21. Now God , who takes more care for the good of man than man does 〈◊〉 his own , did not only imprint these Laws in the hearts and understandings of man , but did also take care to make this light shine clear enough to walk by , by adopting some instances of the natural Laws into Religion . Thus the Law against Murther became a part of Religion in the time of Noah ; and some other things were then added concerning worshipping God , against Idolatry , and against unnatural and impure Mixtures . Sometimes God superadded Judgments , as to the 23000. Assyrians for Fornication . For although these punishments were not threatned to the crime in the sanction and expression of any definite Law , and it could not naturally arrive to it by its inordination ; yet it was as agreeable to the Divine Justice to inflict it , as to inflict the pains of Hell upon evil livers , who yet had not any revelation of such intolerable danger : for it was sufficient that God had made such crimes to be against their very Nature ; and they who will do violence to their Nature , to do themselves hurt , and to displease God , deserve to lose the title to all those good things which God was pleased to design for man's final condition . And because it grew habitual , customary , and of innocent reputation , it pleased God to call this precept out of the darkness , whither their evil customs and false discourses had put it , and by such an extraregular , but very signal , punishment to re-mind them , that the natural permissions of Concubinate were only confined to the ends of mankind , and were hallowed only by the Faith and the design of Marriage . And this was signified by S. Paul in these words . They that sin without the Law shall also perish without the Law ; that is , by such Judgments which God hath inflicted on evil livers in several periods of the world , irregularly indeed , not signified in kind , but yet sent into the world with designs of a great mercy , that the ignorances and prevarications and partial abolitions of the natural Law might be cured and restored , and by the dispersion of prejudices the state of natural Reason be redintegrate . 22. Whatsoever was besides this , was accidental and emergent . Such as were the Discourses of wise men , which God raised up in several Countreys and Ages , as Job , and Eliphaz , and Bildad , and those of the families of the Patriarchs dispersed into several countreys ; and constant Tradition in some noble and more eminent descents . And yet all this was so little and imperfect , not in it self , but in respect of the thick cloud man had drawn before his Understanding , that darkness covered the face of the earth in a great proportion . Almost all the World were Idolaters : and when they had broken the first of the natural Laws , the breach of the other was not only naturally consequent , but also by Divine judgment it descended infallibly . And yet God , pitying mankind , did not only still continue the former remedies , and added blessings , giving them 〈◊〉 seasons , and filling their hearts with food and gladness , so leaving the Nations without excuse ; but also made a very noble change in the world : For having chosen an excellent Family , the Fathers of which lived exactly according to the natural Law , and with observation of those few superadded Precepts , in which God did specificate their prime Duty , having swelled that Family to a great Nation , and given them possession of an excellent Land , which God took from seven Nations , because they were egregious violators of the natural Law , he was pleased to make a very great restitution and declaration of the natural Law in many instances of Religion and Justice , which he framed into positive Precepts , and adopted them into the family of the first original instances , making them as necessary in the particulars as they were in the primary obligation : but the instances were such , whereof some did relate only to the present constitution of the Commonwealth ; others to such universal Contracts which obliged all the World , by reason of the equal necessity of all mankind to admit them . And these himself writ on Tables of stone , and dressed up their Nation into a body politick by an excellent System of politick Laws , and adorned it with a rare Religion , and left this Nation as a piece of leven in a mass of dow , not only to do honour to God , and happiness to themselves , by those instruments which he had now very much explicated , but also to transmit the same reasonable Propositions into other Nations : and he therefore multiplied them to a great necessity of a dispersion , that they might serve the ends of God and of the natural Law by their ambulatory life and their numerous disseminations . And this was it which S. Paul 〈◊〉 , The Law was added because of transgression : meaning , that because men did transgress the natural , God brought Moses's Law into the world , to be as a strand to the inundation of Impiety . And thus the world stood , till the fulness of time was come : for so we are taught by the Apostle , [ The Law was added because of transgression ; ] but the date of this was to expire at a certain period , it was added to serve but [ till the seed should come to whom the Promise was made . ] 23. For because Moses's Law was but an imperfect explication of the natural ; there being divers parts of the three Laws of Nature not at all explicated by that Covenant , not the religion of Prayers , not the reasonableness of Temperance and Sobriety in Opinion and Diet , and in the more noble instances of Humanity and doing benefit it was so short that , as S. Paul says , The Law could not make the comers thereunto perfect ; and , which was most of all considerable , it was confined to a Nation , and the other parts of mankind had made so little use of the Records of that Nation , that all the world was placed in darkness , and sate in the 〈◊〉 of death : Therefore it was that in great mercy God sent his Son , a light to lighten the Gentiles , and the glory of the people Israel ; to instruct those , and consummate these ; that the imperfection of the one and the mere darkness of the other might be illustrated by the Sun of Righteousness . And this was by restoring the Light of Nature , ( which they by evil Customs and 〈◊〉 Principles and evil Laws had obscured ) by restoring Man to the liberty of his spirit , by freeing him from the slavery of Sin , under which they were so lost and oppressed , that all their discourses and conclusions , some of their moral Philosophy , and all their habitual practices , were but servants of sin , and made to cooperate to that end , not which God intended as perfective of humane nature , but which the Devil and vicious persons superinduced to serve little ends and irregular , and to destroy the greater . 24. For certain it is , Christianity is nothing else but the most perfect design that ever was to make a man be happy in his whole capacity : and as the Law was to the Jews , so was Philosophy to the Gentiles , a Schoolmaster to bring them to Christ , to teach them the rudiments of Happiness , and the first and lowest things of Reason ; that when Christ was come , all mankind might become perfect , that is , be made regular in their Appetites , wise in their Understandings , assisted in their Duties , directed to and instructed in their great Ends. And this is that which the Apostle calls [ being perfect men in Christ Jesus , ] perfect in all the intendments of nature , and in all the designs of God. And this was brought to pass by discovering , and restoring , and improving the Law of Nature , and by turning it all into Religion . 25. For the natural Law being a sufficient and a proportionate instrument and means to bring a man to the End designed in his creation , and this Law being eternal and unalterable , ( for it ought to be as lasting and as unchangeable as the nature it self , so long as it was capable of a Law ) it was not imaginable that the body of any Law should make a new Morality , new rules , and general proportions , either of Justice , or Religion , or Temperance , or Felicity ; the essential parts of all these consisting in natural proportions and means toward the consummation of man's last End , which was first intended , and is always the same . It is as if there were a new truth in an essential and a necessary Proposition . For although the instances may vary , there can be no new Justice , no new Temperance , no new relations , proper and natural relations and intercourses , between God and us , but what always were in Praises and Prayers , in adoration and honour , and in the symbolical expressions of God's glory and our needs . 26. Hence it comes that that which is the most obvious and notorious appellative of the Law of Nature , ( that it is a Law written in our hearts ) was also recounted as one of the glories and excellencies of Christianity . Plutarch saying , that Kings ought to be governed by Laws , explains himself , that this Law must be * a word , not written in Books and Tables , but dwelling in the Mind , a living rule , the 〈◊〉 guide of their manners , and monitors of their life . And this was the same which S. Paul expresses to be the guide of the Gentiles , that is , of all men naturally . The Gentiles , which have not the Law , do by nature the things contained in the Law ; which shews the work of the Law written in their hearts . And that we may see it was the Law of Nature that returned in the Sanctions of Christianity ; God declares that in the constitution of this Law he would take no other course than at first , that is , he would write them in the hearts of men : indeed with a new style , with a quill taken from the wings of the holy Dove ; the Spirit of God was to be the great Engraver and the Scribe of the New Covenant , but the Hearts of men should be the Tables . For this is the Covenant that I will make with them after those days , saith the Lord ; I will put my laws into their hearts , and into their minds will I write them : And their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more : That is , I will provide a means to expiate all the iniquities of man , and restore him to the condition of his first creation , putting him into the same order towards Felicity which I first designed to him , and that also by the same instruments . Now I consider , that the Spirit of God took very great care , that all the Records of the Law of Jesus should be carefully kept and transmitted to posterity in Books and Sermons , which being an act of providence and mercy , was a provision , lest they should be lost or mistaken , as they were formerly , when God writ some of them in Tables of stone for the use of the sons of Israel , and all of them in the first Tables of Nature with the 〈◊〉 of Creation , as now he did in the new creature by the singer of the Spirit . But then writing them in the Tables of our minds ( besides the other , ) can mean nothing but placing them there where they were before , and from whence we blotted them by the mixtures of impure principles and discourses . But I descend to particular and more minute considerations . 27. The Laws of Nature either are bands of Religion , Justice , or Sobriety . Now I consider concerning Religion , that when-ever God hath made any particular Precepts to a Family , as to Abraham's , or to a single Person , as to the man of Judah prophesying against the Altar of Bethel , or to a Nation , as to the Jews at Sinai , or to all Mankind , as to the world descending from Noah ; it was nothing else but a trial or an instance of our Obedience , a particular prosecution of the Law of Nature , whereby we are obliged to do honour to God , which was to be done by such expressions which are natural entercourses between God and us , or such as he hath made to be so . Now in Christianity we are wholly left to that manner of prosecuting this first natural Law which is natural and proportionable to the nature of the thing , which the Holy Jesus calls worshipping God in spirit and truth : In spirit ] that is , with our Souls heartily and devoutly , so as to exclude hypocrisie and 〈◊〉 ; and In truth ] that is , without a lie , without vain imaginations and phantastick resemblances of him , which were introduced by the evil customs of the Gentiles , and without such false guises and absurd undecencies , which as they are contrary to man's Reason , so are they contrary to the Glory and reputation of God ; such as was that universal Custom of all Nations of sacrificing in man's bloud , and offering festival lusts and impurities in the solemnities of their Religion ; for these being against the purpose and design of God , and against right Reason , are a Lie , and enemies to the truth of a natural and proper Religion . The Holy Jesus only commanded us to pray often , and to praise God , to speak honour of his Name , not to use it lightly and vainly , to believe him , to revere the instruments and ministers of Religion , to ask for what we need , to put our trust in God , to worship him , to obey him , and to love him ; for all these are but the expressions of Love. And this is all Christ spake concerning the first natural Law , the Law of Religion . For concerning the Ceremonies or Sacraments which he instituted , they are but few , and they become matter of duty but by accident , as being instruments and rites of consigning those effects and mercies which God sent to the world by the means of this Law , and relate rather to the contract and stipulation which Christ made for us , than to the natural order between Duty and Felicity . 28. Now all these are nothing but what we are taught by natural Reason , that is , what God enabled us to understand to be fit instruments of entercourse between God and us , and what was practised and taught by sober men in all Ages and all Nations , whose Records we have received , ( as I shall remark at the Margent of the several Precepts . ) For to make these appear certainly and naturally necessary there was no more requisite , but that Man should know there was a GOD , that is , an eternal Being , which gave him all that he had or was ; and to know what himself was , that is , indigent and necessitous of himself , needing help of all the Creatures , exposed to accidents and calamity , and 〈◊〉 no ways but by the same hand that made him ; Creation and Conservation , in the Philosophy of all the world , being but the same act continuing and flowing on him from an instant to duration , as a Line from its Mathematical Point . And for this God took sufficient care , for he conversed with Man in the very first in such clear and certain and perceptible transaction , that a man could as certainly know that God was as that Man was . And in all Ages of the world he hath not left himself without witness , but gave such testimonies of himself that were sufficient ; for they did actually perswade all Nations , barbarous and civil , into the belief of a God. And it is but a nicety to consider whether or no that Proposition can be naturally demonstrated . For it was sufficient to all God's purposes and to all Man's , that the Proposition was actually believed ; the instances were therefore sufficient to make faith , because they did it . And a man may remove himself so far 〈◊〉 all the degrees of aptness to believe a Proposition , that nothing shall make them joyn . For if there were a Sect of witty men , that durst not believe their Senses , because they thought them fallible ; it is no wonder if some men should think every Reason reproveable . But in such cases Demonstration is a relative term , and signifies every probation , greater or lesser , which does actually make faith in any Proposition : And in this God hath never been deficient , but hath to all men , that believe him , given sufficient to confirm them ; to those few that believed not , sufficient to reprove them . 29. Now in all these actions of Religion which are naturally consequent to this belief there is no scruple , but in the instance of Faith , which is presented to be an infused Grace , an immission from God , and that for its object it hath principles supernatural , that is , naturally incredible ; and therefore Faith is supposed a Grace above the greatest strength of Reason . But in this I consider , that if we look into all the Sermons of Christ , we shall not easily find any Doctrine that in any sense troubles natural Philosophy , but only that of the Resurrection : ( for I do not think those mystical expressions of plain truths , such as are , [ being born again , eating the flesh of the Son of man , being in the Father , and the Father in him ] to be exceptions in this assertion . ) And although some Gentiles did believe and deliver that article , and particularly Chrysippus , and the Thracians , ( as Mela and Solinus report of them ; ) yet they could not naturally discourse themselves into it , but had it from the imperfect report and opinion of some Jews that dwelt among them : And it was certainly a revelation or a proposition sent into the world by God. But then the believing it is so far from being above or against Nature , that there is nothing in the world more reasonable than to believe any thing which God tells us , or which is told us by a man sent from God with mighty demonstration of his power and veracity . Naturally our bodies cannot rise , that is , there is no natural agent or natural cause sufficient to produce that effect ; but this is an effect of a Divine power : and he hath but a little stock of natural Reason , who cannot conclude that the same power which made us out of nothing , can also restore us to the same condition as well and easily from dust and ashes certainly , as from mere nothing . And in this , and in all the like cases , Faith is a submission of the understanding to the Word of God , and is nothing else but a confessing that God is Truth , and that he is omnipotent , that is , he can do what he will , and he will when he hath once said it . And we are now as ignorant of the essence and nature of forms , and of that which substantially distinguishes Man from Man , or an Angel from an Angel , as we were of the greatest Article of our Religon before it was revealed ; and we shall remain ignorant for ever of many natural things , unless they be revealed ; and unless we knew all the secrets of Philosophy , the mysteries of Nature , and the rules and propositions of all things and all creatures , we are fools , if we say that what we call an Article of Faith , I mean , truly such , is against natural Reason . It may be indeed as much against our natural reasonings , as those reasonings are against truth . But if we remember how great an ignorance dwells upon us all , it will be found the most reasonable thing in the world only to enquire whether God hath revealed any such Proposition ; and then not to say , It is against natural Reason , and therefore an Article of Faith ; but , I am told a truth which I knew not till now , and so my Reason is become instructed into a new Proposition . And although Christ hath given us no new moral Precepts , but such which were essentially and naturally reasonable in order to the End of Man's Creation ; yet we may easily suppose him to teach us many a new Truth which we knew not , and to explicate to us many particulars of that estate which God designed for Man in his first production , but yet did not then declare to him ; and to furnish him with new Revelations , and to signifie the greatness of the designed End , to become so many arguments of indearment to secure his Duty , that is , indeed , to secure his Happiness by the infallible using the instruments of attaining it . 30. This is all I am to say concerning the Precepts of Religion Jesus taught us : he took off those many superinduced Rites which God injoyned to the Jews , and reduced us to the natural Religion , that is , to such expressions of Duty which all wise men and Nations used ; save only that he took away the Rite of sacrificing Beasts , because it was now determined in the great Sacrifice of Himself , which sufficiently and eternally reconciled all the world to God. All the other things , as Prayers , and Adoration , and Eucharist , and Faith in God , are of a natural order and an unalterable expression : And in the nature of the thing there is no other way of address to God than these , no other expression of his Glories and our needs ; both which must for ever be signified . 31. Secondly , Concerning the Second natural Precept , Christian Religion hath also added nothing beyond the first obligation , but explained it all : * Whatsoever ye would men should do to you , do ye so to them , that is the eternal rule of Justice ; and that binds contracts , keeps promises , affirms truth , makes Subjects obedient , and Princes just ; it gives security to Marts and Banks , and introduces an equality of condition upon all the world , save only when an inequality is necessary , that is , in the relations of Government , for the preservation of the * common rights of equal titles and possessions , that there be some common term indued with power , who is to be the Father of all men by an equal provision , that every man's rights be secured by that fear which naturally we shall bear to him , who can and will punish all unreasonable and unjust violations of Property . And concerning this also the Holy Jesus hath added an express Precept , of paying Tribute , and all Caesar's dues , to Caesar : in all other particulars it is necessary that the instances and minutes of Justice be appointed by the Laws and Customs of the several Kingdoms and Republicks . * And therefore it was that Christianity so well combined with the Government of Heathen Princes , because whatsoever was naturally just , or declared so by the Political power , their Religion bound them to observe , making Obedience to be a double duty , a duty both of Justice and Religion : And the societies of Christians growing up from Conventicles to Assemblies , from Assemblies to Societies , introduced no change in the Government , but by little and little turned the Commonwealth into a Church , till the World being Christian , and Justice also being Religion , Obedience to Princes , observation of Laws , honesty in Contracts , faithfulness in promises , gratitude to benefactors , simplicity in discourse , and ingenuity in all pretences and transactions , became the Characterisms of Christian men , and the word of a Christian the greatest solemnity of stipulation in the world . 32. But concerning the general , I consider , that in two very great instances it was remonstrated , that Christianity was the greatest prosecution of natural Justice and equality in the whole world . The one was in an election of an A postle into the place of Judas : when there were two equal Candidates of the same pretension and capacity , the Question was determined by Lots , which naturally was the arbitration in questions whose parts were wholly indifferent ; and as it was used in all times , so it is to this day used with us in many places , where lest there be a disagreement concerning the manner of tithing some creatures , and to prevent unequal arts and unjust practices , they are tithed by lot , and their sortuitous passing through the door of their sold. The other is in the Coenobitick life of the first Christians and Apostles , they had all things in common , which was that state of nature in which men lived charitably and without injustice , before the distinction of dominions and private rights . But from this manner of life they were soon driven by the publick necessity and constitution of affairs . 33. Thirdly , Whatsoever else is in the Christian Law , concerns the natural precept of Sobriety , in which there is some variety and some difficulty . In the matter of 〈◊〉 the Holy Jesus did clearly reduce us to the first institution of Marriage in Paradise , allowing no other mixture but what was first intended in the creation and first sacramental union : and in the instance he so permitted us to the natural Law , that he was pleased to mention no instance of forbidden Lust , but in general and comprehensive terms of Adultery and Fornication : in the other , which are still more unnatural , as their names are concealed and hidden in shame and secrecy , we are to have no instructer but the modesty and order of Nature . 34. As an instance of this Law of Sobriety , Christ superadded the whole doctrine of Humility , which Moses did not , and which seem'd almost to be extinguished in the world ; and it is called by S. Paul , sapere ad sobrietatem , the reasonableness or wisdom of sobriety . And it is all the reason in the world , that a man should think of himself but just as he is . He is deceived that thinks otherwise , and is a fool . And when we consider that Pride makes wars , and causes affronts , and no man loves a proud man , and he loves no man but himself and his flatterers , we shall understand that the Precept of Humility is an excellent art , and a happy instrument towards humane Felicity . And it is no way contradicted by a natural desire of Honour ; it only appoints just and reasonable ways of obtaining it . We are not forbidden to receive Honour ; but to seek it for desigus of pride and complacency , or to make it rest in our hearts . But when the hand of Vertue receives the honour , and transmits it to God from our own head , the desires of Nature are sufficiently satisfied , and nothing of Religion contradicted . And it is certain by all the experience of the world , that in every state and order of men , he that is most humble in proportion to that state is ( if all things else be symbolical ) the most honoured person . For it is very observable , that when God designed man to a good and happy life , as the natural end of his creation , to verifie this , God was pleased to give him objects sufficient and apt to satisfie every appetite ; I say , to satisfie it naturally , not to satisfie those extravagancies which might be accidental , and procured by the irregularity either of Will or Understanding ; not to answer him in all that his desires could extend to , but to satisfie the necessity of every appetite ; all the desires that God made , not all that man should make . For we see even in those appetites which are common to men and beasts , all the needs of Nature and all the ends of creation are served by the taking such proportions of their objects which are ordinate to their end , and which in man we call Temperance , ( not as much as they naturally can : ) such as are mixtures of sexes merely for production of their kind , eating and drinking for needs and hunger . And yet God permitted our appetites to be able to extend beyond the limits of the mere natural design , that God by restraining them , and putting the setters of Laws upon them , might turn natural desires into Sobriety , and Sobriety into Religion , they becoming servants of the Commandment . And now we must not call all those swellings of appetites Natural inclination , nor the satisfaction of such tumours and excrescencies any part of natural felicities : but that which does just cooperate to those ends which perfect humane Nature in order to its proper End. For the appetites of meat , and drink , and pleasures , are but intermedial and instrumental to the End , and are not made for themselves , but first for the End , and then to serve God in the instances of Obedience . And just so is the natural desire of Honour intended to be a spur to Vertue ( for to Vertue only it is naturally consequent , or to natural and political Superiority : ) but to desire it beyond or besides the limit , is the swelling and the disease of the desire . And we can take no rule for its perfect value , but by the strict limits of the natural End , or the superinduced End of Religion in positive restraints . 35. According to this discourse we may best understand , that even the severest precepts of the Christian Law are very consonant to Nature and the first Laws of mankind . Such is the Precept of Self-denial , which is nothing else but a confining the Appetites within the limits of Nature : for there they are permitted , ( except when some greater purpose is to be served than the present answering the particular desire ) and whatsoever is beyond it is not in the natural order to Felicity ; it is no better than an itch , which must be scratched and satisfied , but it is unnatural . But for Martyrdom it self , quitting our goods , losing lands , or any temporal interest , they are now become as reasonable in the present constitution of the world , as taking unpleasant potions , and suffering a member to be cauterized , in sickness or disease . And we see that death is naturally a less evil than a continual torment , and by some not so resented as a great disgrace ; and some persons have chosen it for sanctuary and remedy : And therefore much rather shall it be accounted prudent and reasonable , and agreeable to the most perfect desires of Nature , to exchange a House for a Hundred , a Friend for a Patron , a short Affliction for a lasting Joy , and a temporal Death for an eternal Life . For so the question is stated to us by him that understands it best . True it is , that the suffering of losses , afflictions , and death , is naturally an evil , and therefore no part of a natural Precept , or prime injunction . But when God having commanded instances of Religion , Man will not suffer us to obey God , or will not suffer us to live , then the question is , Which is most agreeable to the most perfect and reasonable desires of Nature , to obey God , or to obey man ; to fear God , or to fear man ; to preserve our bodies , or to preserve our Souls ; to secure a few years of uncertain and troublesome duration , or an eternity of a very glorious condition . Some men reasonably enough chuse to die for considerations lower than that of a happy Eternity ; therefore Death is not such an evil , but that it may in some cases be desired and reasonably chosen , and in some be recompensed at the highest rate of a natural value : And if by accident we happen into an estate in which of necessity one evil or another must be suffered , certainly nothing is more naturally reasonable and eligible than to chuse the least evil ; and when there are two good things propounded to our choice , both which cannot be possessed , nothing is more certainly the object of a prudent choice than the greater good . And therefore when once we understand the question of Suffering , and Self-denial , and Martyrdom to this sence , as all Christians do , and all wise men do , and all Sects of men do in their several perswasions , it is but remembring , that to live happily after this life is more intended to us by God , and is more perfective of humane nature , than to live here with all the prosperity which this state affords ; and it will evidently follow , that when violent men will not let us enter into that condition by the ways of Nature and prime intendment , that is , of natural Religion , Justice , and Sobriety , it is made in that case , and upon that supposition , certainly , naturally and infallibly reasonable to secure the perfective and principal design of our Felicity , though it be by such instruments which are as unpleasant to our senses as are the instruments of our restitution to Health ; since both one and the other in the present conjunction and state of affairs are most proportionable to Reason , because they are so to the present necessity ; not primarily intended to us by God , but superinduced by evil accidents and the violence of men . And we not only find that Socrates suffered death in attestation of a God , though he flattered and discoursed himself into the belief of an immortal reward , De industria consultae aequanimitatis , non de fiducia compertae veritatis ( as Tertullian says of him ; ) but we also find that all men , that believed the Immortality of the Soul firmly and unmoveably , made no scruple of exchanging their life for the preservation of Vertue with the interest of their great hope , for Honour sometimes , and oftentimes for their Countrey . 36. Thus the Holy Jesus perfected and restored the natural Law , and drew it into a System of Propositions , and made them to become of the family of Religion . For God is so zealous to have Man attain to the End to which he first designed him , that those things which he hath put in the natural order to attain that End he hath bound fast upon us , not only by the order of things , by which it was that he that prevaricated did naturally fall short of Felicity , but also by bands of Religion ; he hath now made himself a party and an enemy to those that will be not-happy . Of old , Religion was but one of the natural Laws , and the instances of Religion were distinct from the discourses of Philosophy . Now all the Law of Nature is adopted into Religion , and by our love and duty to God we are tied to do all that is reason ; and the parts of our Religion are but pursuances of the natural relation between God and us : and beyond all this , our natural condition is in all sences improved by the consequents and adherencies of this Religion . For although Nature and Grace are opposite , that is , Nature depraved by evil habits , by ignorance and ungodly customs , is contrary to Grace , that is , to Nature restored by the Gospel , engaged to regular living by new revelations , and assisted by the Spirit ; yet it is observable , that the Law of Nature and the Law of Grace are never opposed . There is a Law of our members , ( saith S. Paul , ) that is , an evil necessity introduced into our appetites by perpetual evil customs , examples and traditions of vanity ; and there is a Law of sin that answers to this : and they differ only as inclination and habit , vicious desires and vicious practices . But then contrary to these are , 〈◊〉 , a Law of my mind , which is the Law of Nature and right Reason , and then the Law of Grace , that is , of Jesus Christ , who perfected and restored the first Law , and by assistances reduced it into a Law of holy living : and these two 〈◊〉 as the other , the one is in order to the other , as 〈◊〉 and growing degrees and capacities are to perfection and consummation . The Law of the mind had been so rased and obliterate , and we by some means or other so disabled from observing it exactly , that until it was turned into the Law of Grace , ( which is a Law of pardoning infirmities , and assisting us in our choices and elections ) we were in a state of deficiency from the perfective state of Man , to which God intended us . 37. Now although God always designed Man to the same state which he hath now revealed by Jesus Christ , yet he told him not of it , and his permissions and licences were then greater , and the Law it self lay closer 〈◊〉 up in the compact body of necessary Propositions in order to so much of his End as was known , or could be supposed . But now , according to the extension of the revelation the Law it self is made wider , that is , more explicit ; and natural Reason is thrust forward into discourses of Charity and benefit , and we tied to do very much good to others , and tied to cooperate to each other's felicity . 38. That the Law of Charity is a Law of Nature , needs no other argument but the consideration of the first constitution of Man. The first instances of Justice or entercourse of man with a second or third person were to such persons towards whom he had the greatest endearments of affection in the world , a 〈◊〉 and Children ; and Justice and Charity at first was the same thing . And it hath obtained in Ages far removed from the first , that Charity is called Righteousness : He hath dispersed and given to the poor ; his righteousness remaineth for ever . And it is certain , Adam could not in any instance be unjust , but he must in the same also be uncharitable ; the band of his first Justice being the ties of love , and all having commenced in love . And our Blessed Lord , restoring all to the intention of the first perfection , expresses it to the same sence , as I formerly observed ; Justice to our Neighbour is , loving him as our selves . For since Justice obliges us to do as we would be done to , as the irascible faculty restrains us 〈◊〉 doing evil for fear of receiving evil , so the concupiscible obliges us to Charity , that our selves may receive good . 39. I shall say nothing concerning the reasonableness of this Precept , but that it concurs rarely with the first reasonable appetite of man , of being like God. Deus est mortali juvare mortalem , 〈◊〉 haec est ad aeternitatem via , said Pliny : and , It is more blessed to give than to receive , ( said our Blessed Saviour : ) And therefore the Commandment of Charity in all its parts is a design not only to reconcile the most miserable person to some participations and sense of felicity , but to make the Charitable man happy ; and whether this be not very agreeable to the desires of an intelligent nature , needs no farther enquiry . And Aristotle asking the Question , whether a man had more need of friends in prosperity or adversity , makes the case equal ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . " When they are in want , they need assistance ; when they are prosperous , they need partners of their felicity , that by communicating their joy to them it may reflect and double upon their spirits . And certain it is , there is no greater felicity in the world , than in the content that results from the emanations of Charity . And this is that which S. John calls the old Commandment , and the new Commandment . It was of old , for it was from the beginning , even in Nature , and to the offices of which our very bodies had an organ and a seat ; for therefore Nature gave to a man bowels and the passion of yerning ; but it grew up into Religion by parts , and was made perfect , and in that degree appropriate to the Law of Jesus Christ. For so the Holy Jesus became our Law-giver , and added many new Precepts over and above what were in the Law of Moses , but not more than was in the Law of Nature . The reason of both is what I have all this while discoursed of : Christ made a more perfect restitution of the Law of Nature than Moses did , and so it became the second Adam to consummate that which began to be less perfect from the prevarication of the first Adam . 40. A particular of the Precept of Charity is forgiving Injuries ; and besides that it hath many superinduced benefits by way of blessing and reward , it relies also upon this natural reason , That a pure and a simple revenge does no way restore man towards the felicity which the injury did interrupt . For Revenge is a doing a simple evil ; and does not in its formality imply reparation : For the mere repeating of our own right is permitted to them that will do it by charitable instruments ; and to secure my self or the publick against the future by positive inflictions upon the injurious , ( if I be not Judge my self ) is also within the moderation of an unblameable defence , ( unless some accidents or circumstances vary the case : ) but forgiving injuries is a separating the malice from the wrong , the transient act from the permanent effect ; and it is certain , the act which is passed cannot be rescinded , the effect may ; and if it cannot , it does no way alleviate the evil of the accident , that I draw him that caused it into as great a misery , since every evil happening in the world is the proper object of pity , which is in some sense afflictive ; and therefore , unless we become unnatural and without bowels , it is most unreasonable that we should encrease our own afflictions by introducing a new misery , and making a new object of pity . All the ends of humane Felicity are secured without Revenge , for without it we are permitted to restore our selves ; and therefore it is against natural Reason to do an evil that no way cooperates towards the proper and perfective End of humane nature . And he is a miserable person whose good is the evil of his neighbour : and he that revenges in many cases does worse than he that did the injury ; in all cases as bad . For if the first injury was an injustice to serve an end of an advantage and real benefit , then my revenge , which is abstracted , and of a consideration separate and distinct from the reparation , is worse ; for I do him evil without doing my self any real good , which he did not , for he received advantage by it . But if the first injury was matter of mere malice without advantage , yet it is no worse than Revenge , for that is just so ; and there is as much phantastick pleasure in doing a spight , as in doing revenge . They are both but like the pleasures of eating coals , and toads , and vipers . And certain it is , if a man upon his private stock could be permitted to revenge , the evil would be immortal . And it is rarely well discoursed by Tyndarus in Euripides ; If the angry Wife shall kill her Husband , the Son shall revenge his Father's death , and kill his Mother , and then the Brother shall kill his Mother's murtherer , and he also will meet with an avenger for killing his Brother . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What end shall there be to such inhumane and sad accidents ? If in this there be injustice , it is against natural Reason ; and , If it be evil , and disorders the felicity and security of Society , it is also against natural Reason . But if it be just , it is a strange Justice that is made up of so many inhumanities . 41. And now if any man pretends specially to Reason , to the ordinate desires and perfections of Nature , and the sober discourses of Philosophy , here is in Christianity , and no-where else , enough to satisfie and inform his Reason , to perfect his Nature , and to reduce to act all the Propositions of an intelligent and wise spirit . And the Holy Ghost is promised and given in our Religion to be an eternal band to keep our Reason from returning to the darknesses of the old creation , and to promote the ends of our natural and proper Felicity . For it is not a vain thing that S. Paul reckons helps , and governments , and healings , to be fruits of the Spirit . For since the two greatest Blessings of the world , personal and political , consist , that in Health , this in * Government , and the ends of humane Felicity are served in nothing greater for the present interval than in these two , Christ did not only enjoyn rare prescriptions of Health , such as are Fasting , Temperance , Chastity , and Sobriety , and all the great endearments of Government , ( and , unless they be sacredly observed , man is infinitely miserable ; ) but also hath given his Spirit , that is , extraordinary aids to the promoting these two , and facilitating the work of Nature : that ( as S. Paul says at the end of a discourse to this very purpose ) the excellency of the power may be of God , and not of us . 42. I shall add nothing but this single consideration . God said to the children of Israel , Ye are a royal Priesthood , a Kingdom of Priests . Which was therefore true , because God reigned by the Priests , and the Priests lips did then preserve knowledge , and the people were to receive the Law from their mouths ; for God having by Laws of his own established Religion and the Republick , did govern by the rule of the Law , and the ministery of the Priests . The Priests said , Thus saith the LORD ; and the people obeyed . And these very words are spoken to the Christian Church ; Ye are a Royal Priesthood , an holy Nation , a peculiar people , that ye should shew forth the praises of him that hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light . That is , God reigns over all Christendom just as he did over the Jews . He hath now so given to them and restored respectively all those reasonable Laws which are in order to all good ends personal , oeconomical and political , that if men will suffer Christian Religion to do its last intention , if men will live according to it , there needs no other coercion of Laws or power of the Sword. The Laws of God revealed by Christ are sufficient to make all societies of men happy ; and over all good men God reigns by his Ministers , by the preaching of the Word . And this was most evident in the three first Ages of the Church , in which all Christian Societies were for all their proper entercourses perfectly guided , not by the authority and compulsion , but by the Sermons of their Spiritual Guides ; insomuch that S. Paul sharply reprehends the Corinthians , that Brother goeth to law with Brother , and that before the unbelievers ; as if he had said , Ye will not suffer Christ to be your Judge , and his Law to be your Rule : which indeed was a great fault among them , not only because they had so excellent a Law , so clearly described , ( or , where they might doubt , they had infallible Interpreters ) so reasonable and profitable , so evidently concurring to their mutual felicity ; but also because God did design Jesus to be their King to reign over them by spiritual regiment , as himself did over the Jews , till they chose a King. And when the Emperors became Christian , the case was no otherwise altered , but that the Princes themselves submitting to Christ's yoke , were ( as all other Christians are ) for their proportion to be governed by the Royal Priesthood , that is , by the Word preached by Apostolical persons , the political Interest remaining as before , save that by being submitted to the Laws of Christ it received this advantage , that all Justice was turned to be Religion , and became necessary , and bound upon the Conscience by Divinity . And when it happens that a Kingdom is converted to Christianity , the Common-wealth is made a Church , and Gentile Priests are Christian Bishops , and the Subjects of the Kingdom are Servants of Christ , the Religion of the Nation is turned Christian , and the Law of the Nation made a part of the Religion ; there is no change of Government , but that Christ is made King , and the Temporal Power is his substitute , and is to promote the interest of Obedience to him , as before he did to Christ's enemy ; Christ having left his Ministers as Lieger Embassadors , to signifie and publish the Laws of Jesus , to pray all in Christ's stead to be reconciled to God : so that over the obedient Christ wholly reigns by his Ministers , publishing his Laws ; over the disobedient , by the Prince also , putting those Laws in execution . And in this sense it is that S. Paul says , Bonis Lex non est posita , To such ( who live after the Spirit ) there is no Law , that is , there needs no coercion . But now if we reject God from reigning over us , and say , like the people in the Gospel , Nolumus hunc regnare , We will not have him to reign over us , by the ministery of his Word , by the Empire of the Royal Priesthood , then we return to the condition of Heathens , and persons sitting in darkness , then God hath armed the Temporal Power with a Sword to cut us off . If we obey not God speaking by his Ministers , that is , if we live not according to the excellent Laws of Christianity , that is , holily , soberly and justly in all our relations , he hath placed three Swords against us ; the Sword of the Spirit against the unholy and irreligious , the Sword of natural and supervening Infelicities upon the intemperate and unsober , and the Sword of Kings against the unjust ; to remonstrate the excellency of Christianity , and how certainly it leads to all the Felicity of man , because every transgression of this Law , according to its proportion , makes men unhappy and unfortunate . 43. What effect this Discourse may have I know not ; I intended it to do honour to Christianity , and to represent it to be the best Religion in the World , and the conjugation of all excellent things that were in any Religion , or in any Philosophy , or in any Discourses . For whatsoever was honest , whatsoever was noble , whatsoever was wise , whatsoever was of good report , if there be any praise , if there be any vertue , it is in Christianity . For even to follow all these instances of excellency , is a Precept of Christianity . And 〈◊〉 , they that pretend to Reason cannot more reasonably endear themselves to the reputation of Reason , than by endearing their Reason to Christianity ; the conclusions and belief of which is the most reasonable and perfect , the most excellent design , and complying with the noblest and most proper Ends of Man. And if this Gate may suffice to invite such persons into the Recesses of the 〈◊〉 , then I shall tell them that I have dressed it in the ensuing Books with some variety : and as the nature of the Religion is , some parts whereof are apt to satisfie our discourse , some to move our affections , and yet all of this to relate to practice ; so is the design of the following pages . For some men are wholly made up of Passion , and their very Religion is but Passion put into the family and society of holy purposes : and sor those I have prepared Considerations upon the special Parts of the Life of the Holy Jesus : and yet there also are some things mingled in the least severe and most affectionate parts which may help to answer a Question , and appease a Scruple , and may give Rule for Determination of many cases of Conscience . For I have so ordered the Considerations , that they spend not themselves in mere affections and ineffective passions , but they are made Doctrinal and little repositories of Duty . But because of the variety of mens spirits and of mens necessities , it was necessary I should interpose some practical Discourses more severe : For it is but a sad thought to consider , that Piety and Books of Devotion are counted but entertainment for little understandings and softer spirits : and although there is much sault in such imperious minds , that they will not distinguish the weakness of the Writers from the reasonableness and wisdom of the Religion ; yet I cannot but think the Books themselves are in a large degree the occasion of so great indevotion ; because they are ( some few excepted ) represented naked in the conclusions of spiritual life without or art or learning , and made apt for persons who can do nothing but believe and love ; not for them that can consider and love . And it is not well , that , since nothing is more reasonable and excellent in all perfections spiritual than the Doctrines of the Spirit or holy life , yet nothing is offered to us so unlearnedly as this is , so miserable and empty of all its own intellectual perfections . If I could , I would have had it otherwise in the present Books : for since the Understanding is not an idle Faculty in a spiritual life , but hugely operative to all excellent and reasonable choices ; it were very fit that this Faculty were also entertained by such discourses which God intended as instruments of hallowing it , as he intended it towards the sanctification of the whole man. For want of it , busie and active men entertain themselves with notions infinitely unsatisfying and unprofitable : But in the mean time they are not so wise . For concerning those that study unprofitable Notions , and neglect not only that which is wisest , but that also which is of most real advantage , I cannot but think as Aristotle did of Thales and Anaxagoras , that they may be learned , but they are not wise , or wise , but not prudent , when they are ignorant of such things as are profitable to them . For suppose they know the wonders of Nature , and the subtilties of Metaphysicks , and operations Mathematical ; yet they cannot be prudent , who spend themselves wholly upon unprofitable and ineffective contemplations . He is truly wise that knows best to promote the best End , that which he is bound to desire , and is happy if he obtains , and miserable if he misses ; and that is the End of a happy Eternity , which is obtained by the only means of living according to the purposes of God , and the prime intentions of Nature ; natural and prime Reason being now all one with the Christian Religion . But then I shall only observe that this part of Wisdom , and the excellency of its secret and deep Reason , is not to be discerned but by Experience : the Propositions of this Philosophy being ( as in many other ) Empirical , and best found out by observation of real and material events . So that I may say of Spiritual learning as Quintilian said of some of Plato's Books : Nam Plato cum in aliis quibusdam , tum praecipue in Timaeo , ne intelligi quidem , nisi abiis qui hanc quoque partem disciplinae [ Musicae ] diligenter perceperint , potest : The secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven are not understood truly and throughly but by the sons of the Kingdom ; and by them too in several degrees , and to various purposes : but to evil persons the whole systeme of this Wisdom is insipid and flat , dull as the foot of a rock , and unlearned as the elements of our mother-tongue . But so are Mathematicks to a Scythian boor , and Musick to a Camel. 44. But I consider that the wisest persons , and those who know how to value and entertain the more noble Faculties of their Soul , and their precious hours , take more pleasure in reading the productions of those old wise spirits who preserved natural Reason and Religion in the midst of heathen darkness , ( such as are Homer , Euripides , Orpheus , Pindar and Anacreon , AEschylus and Menander , and all the Greek Poets ; Plutarch and Polybius , Xenophon , and all those other excellent persons of both Faculties , ( whose choicest Dictates are collected by Stobaeus , ) Plato and his Scholars , Aristotle , and after him Porphyrie , and all his other Disciples , Pythagoras and his , especially Hierocles ; all the old Academies and Stoicks within the Roman Schools ) more pleasure , I say , in reading these , than the triflings of many of the later School-men , who promoted a petty interest of a Family , or an unlearned Opinion , with great earnestness , but added nothing to Christianity , but trouble , scruple and vexation . And from hence I hope that they may the rather be invited to love and consider the rare documents of Christianity , which certainly is the great Treasure-house of those excellent , moral and perfective discourses , which with much pains and greater pleasure we find respersed and thinly scattered in all the Greek and Roman Poets , Historians and Philosophers . But because I have observed that there are some principles entertained into the perswasions of men which are the seeds of evil life , such as are , the Doctrine of late Repentance , the mistakes of the 〈◊〉 of the sins of 〈◊〉 , the evil understanding the consequents and nature of Original sin , the sufficiency of Contrition in order to pardon , the efficacy of the Rites of 〈◊〉 without the necessity of 〈◊〉 adherencies , the nature of Faith , and many other ; I was diligent to remark such Doctrines , and to pare off the mistakes so far that they hinder not Piety , and yet , as near as I could , without engaging in any Question in which the very life of Christianity is not concerned . Haec sum profatus — haud ambagibus Implicita , sed quae , regulis aequi & boni Suffulta , rudibus pariter & doctis patent . My great purpose is to advance the necessity , and to declare the manner and parts of a good 〈◊〉 , and to invite some persons to the consideration of all the parts of it , by intermixing something of pleasure with the use ; others by such parts which will better entertain their spirits than a Romance . I have followed the design of Scripture , and have given milk for babes , and for stronger men stronger meat ; and in all I have despised my own reputation , by so striving to make it useful , that I was less careful to make it strict in retired sences , and embossed with unnecessary , but graceful , ornaments . I pray God this may go forth into a blessing to all that shall use it , and reflect blessings upon me all the way , that my spark may grow greater by kindling my brother's Taper , and God may be glorified in us both . If the Reader shall receive no benefit , yet I intended him one , and I have laboured in order to it ; and I shall receive a great recompence for that intention , if he shall please to say this Prayer for me , That while I have preached to others , I may not become a cast-away . AN EXHORTATION To the Imitation of the Life of Christ. HOwever the Person of JESUS CHRIST was depressed with a load of humble accidents , and shadowed with the darknesses of Poverty and sad contingencies , so that the Jews , and the contemporary Ages of the Gentiles , and the Apostles themselves could not at first 〈◊〉 the brightest essence of Divinity : yet as a Beauty artificially covered with a thin cloud of Cypress transmits its excellency to the eye , made more greedy and apprehensive by that imperfect and weak restraint ; so was the Sanctity and Holiness of the Life of JESUS glorious in its Darknesses , and found Confessors and Admirers even in the midst of those despites which were done him upon the contrariant designs of malice and contradictory ambition . Thus the wife of Pilate called him that just person ; Pilate pronounced him guiltless ; Judas said he was innocent ; the Devil himself called him the Holy one of God. For however it might concern any man's mistaken ends to mislike the purpose of his Preaching and Spiritual Kingdom , and those Doctrines which were destructive of their 〈◊〉 and carnal securities ; yet they could not deny but that he was a man of God , of exemplar Sanctity , of an Angelical Chastity , of a Life sweet , affable , and complying with humane conversation , and as obedient to Government as the most humble children of the Kingdom . And yet he was Lord of all the World. 2. And certainly very much of this was with a design , that he might shine to all the generations and Ages of the World , and become a guiding Star , and a pillar of fire to us in our journey . For we who believe that Jesus was perfect God and perfect Man , do also believe that one minute of his intolerable Passion , and every action of his , might have been satisfactory , and enough for the expiation and reconcilement of ten thousand worlds ; and God might upon a less effusion of bloud , and a shorter life of merit , ( if he had pleased ) have accepted humane nature to pardon and favour : but , that the Holy Jesus hath added so many excellent instances of Holiness , and so many degrees of Passion , and so many kinds of Vertues , is , that he might become an Example to us , and reconcile our Wills to him , as well as our Persons to his heavenly Father . 3. And 〈◊〉 it will prove but a sad consideration , that one drop of bloud might be enough to obtain our Pardon , and the treasures of his bloud running out till the fountain it self was dry shall not be enough to procure our Conformity to him ; that the smallest minute of his expence shall be enough to justifie us , and the whole Magazine shall not procure our Sanctification ; that at a smaller expence God might pardon us , and at a greater we will not imitate him : For therefore Christ hath suffered for us , ( saith the Apostle ) leaving an Example to us , that we might follow his steps . The least of our Wills cost Christ as much as the greatest of our Sins . And therefore he calls himself the Way , the Truth , and the Life : That as he redeems our Souls from death to life by becoming Life to our Persons , so he is the Truth to our Understandings , and the Way to our Will and Affections , enlightning that , and leading these in the paths of a happy Eternity . 4. When the King of Moab was pressed hard by the sons of Isaac , [ the Israelites and Edomites ] he took the King of Edom's eldest Son , or , as some think , his own Son , the Heir of his Kingdom , and offered him as a Holocaust upon the wall ; and the Edomites presently raised the siege at Kir-haraseth , and went to their own Countrey . The same and much more was God's design , who took not his enemie's , but his own Son , his only begotten Son , and God himself , and offered him up in Sacrifice , to make us leave our perpetual fightings against Heaven : and if we still persist , we are hardned beyond the wildnesses of the Arabs and Edomites , and neither are receptive of the impresses of Pity nor Humanity , who neither have compassion to the Suffering of Jesus , nor compliance with the designs of God , nor conformity to the Holiness and Obedience of our Guide . In a dark night , if an Ignis Fatuus do but precede us , the glaring of its lesser flames do so amuse our eyes , that we follow it into Rivers and Precipices , as if the ray of that false light were designed on purpose to be our path to tread in : And therefore not to follow the glories of the Sun of Righteousness , who indeed leads us over rocks and difficult places , but secures us against the danger , and guides us into safety , is the greatest both undecency and unthankfulness in the world . 5. In the great Council of Eternity , when God set down the Laws and knit fast the eternal bands of Predestination , he made it one of his great purposes to make his Son like us , that we also might be like his Holy Son ; he , by taking our Nature , we , by imitating his Holiness : God hath predestinated us to be conformable to the image of his Son , ( saith the Apostle . ) For the first in every kind is in nature propounded as the Pattern of the rest : And as the Sun , the Prince of all the Bodies of Light , and the Fire of all warm substances , is the principal , the Rule and the Copy which they in their proportions imitate and transcribe : so is the Word incarnate the great Example of all the Predestinate ; for he is the first-born among many brethren . And therefore it was a precept of the Apostle , and by his doctrine we understand its meaning , Put you on the Lord Jesus Christ. The similitude declares the duty . As a garment is composed and made of the same fashion with the body , and is applied to each part in its true figure and commensuration : so should we put on Christ , and imitate the whole body of his Sanctity , conforming to every integral part , and express him in our lives , that God , seeing our impresses , may know whose image and superscription we bear , and we may be acknowledged for Sons , when we have the air and features and resemblances of our elder Brother . 6. In the practice of this duty we may be helped by certain considerations , which are like the proportion of so many rewards . For this , according to the nature of all holy Exercises , stays not for pay till its work be quite finished ; but , like Musick in Churches , is Pleasure , and Piety , and Salary besides . So is every work of Grace ; full of pleasure in the execution , and is abundantly rewarded , besides the stipend of a glorious Eternity . 7. First , I consider that nothing is more honourable than to be like God ; and the Heathens , worshippers of false Deities , grew vicious upon that * stock ; and we who have fondnesses of imitation , counting a Deformity full of honour , if by it we may be * like our Prince , ( for pleasures were in their height in Capreae , because Tiberius there wallowed in them , and a wry neck in Nero's Court was the Mode of Gallantry ) might do well to make our imitations prudent and glorious , and , by propounding excellent Examples , heighten our faculties to the capacities of an evenness with the best of Precedents . He that strives to imitate another , admires him , and confesses his own imperfections : and therefore that our admirations be not flattering , nor our consessions phantastick and impertinent , it were but reasonable to admire Him from whom really all Perfections do derive , and before whose Glories all our imperfections must confess their shame , and needs of reformation . God by a voice from Heaven , and by sixteen generations of Miracles and Grace , hath attested the Holy Jesus to be the fountain of Sanctity , and the wonderful Counsellor , and the Captain of our sufferings , and the guide of our manners , by being his beloved Son in whom he took pleasure and complacency to the height of satisfaction : And if any thing in the world be motive of our affections , or satisfactory to our understandings , what is there in Heaven or Earth we can desire or imagine beyond a likeness to God , and participation of the Divine Nature and Perfections ? And therefore , as when the Sun arises every man goes to his work , and warms himself with his heat , and is refreshed with his influences , and measures his labour with his course : So should we frame all the actions of our life by His Light who hath shined by an excellent Righteousness , that we no more walk in Darkness , or sleep in Lethargies , or run a-gazing after the lesser and imperfect beauties of the Night . It is the weakness of the Organ that makes us hold our hand between the Sun and us , and yet stand staring upon a Meteor or an inflamed jelly . And our judgments are as mistaken , and our appetites are as sottish , if we propound to our selves in the courses and designs of Perfections any copy but of Him , or something like Him , who is the most perfect . And lest we think his Glories too great to behold , 8. Secondly , I consider that the imitation of the Life of Jesus is a duty of that excellency and perfection , that we are helped in it not only by the assistance of a good and a great Example , which possibly might be too great , and scare our endeavours and attempts ; but also by its easiness , compliance and proportion to us . For Jesus in his whole life conversed with men with a modest Vertue , which like a well-kindled fire fitted with just materials casts a constant heat ; not like an inflamed heap of stubble , glaring with great emissions , and suddenly stooping into the thickness of 〈◊〉 . His Piety was even , constant , unblameable , complying with civil society , without affrightment of precedent , or prodigious instances of actions greater than the imitation of men . For if we observe our Blessed Saviour in the whole story of his Life , although he was without Sin , yet the instances of his Piety were the actions of a very holy , but of an ordinary life : and we may observe this difference in the Story of Jesus from Ecclesiastical Writings of certain beatified persons , whose life is told rather to amaze us and to create scruples , than to lead us in the evenness and serenity of a holy Conscience . Such are the prodigious Penances of Simeon Stylites , the Abstinence of the Religious retired into the mountain Nitria , but especially the stories of later Saints in the midst of a declining Piety and aged Christendom , where persons are represented Holy by way of Idea and fancy , if not to promote the interests of a Family and Institution . But our Blessed Saviour , though his eternal Union and adherences of love and obedience to his heavenly Father were next to infinite , yet in his external actions , in which only , with the correspondence of the Spirit in those actions , he propounds himself imitable , he did so converse with men , that men after that example might for ever converse with him . We find that some Saints have had excrescencies and eruptions of Holiness in the instances of uncommanded Duties , which in the same particulars we find not in the story of the Life of Jesus . John Baptist was a greater Mortifier than his Lord was ; and some Princes have given more money than all Christ's Family did , whilest he was alive : but the difference which is observable is , that although some men did some acts of Counsel in order to attain that perfection which in Jesus was essential and unalterable , and was not acquired by degrees , and means of danger and difficulty ; yet no man ever did his whole duty , save only the Holy Jesus . The best of men did sometimes actions not precisely and strictly requisite , and such as were besides the Precept ; but yet in the greatest flames of their shining Piety they prevaricated something of the Commandment : They that have done the most things beyond , have also done some things short of their duty . But Jesus , who intended himself the Example of Piety , did in manners as in the rule of Faith , which , because it was propounded to all men , was fitted to every understanding ; it was true , necessary , short , easie , and intelligible . So was his Rule and his Copy 〈◊〉 not only with excellencies worthy , but with compliances possible to be imitated ; of glories so great , that the most early and constant industry must confess its own imperfections , and yet so sweet and humane , that the greatest infirmity , if pious , shall find comfort and encouragement . Thus God gave his children Manna from Heaven ; and though it was excellent like the food of Angels , yet it conformed to every palate , according to that appetite which their several fancies and constitutions did produce . 9. But now when the Example of Jesus is so excellent , that it allures and tempts with its facility and sweetness , and that we are not commanded to imitate a Life whose story tells of 〈◊〉 in Prayer , and * Abstractions of senses , and immaterial Transportations , and Fastings to the exinanition of spirits , and disabling all animal operations ; but a Life of Justice and Temperance , of Chastity and Piety , of Charity and Devotion , such a Life without which humane Society cannot be conserved , and by which as our irregularities are made regular , so our weaknesses are not upbraided , nor our miseries made a mockery ; we find so much reason to address our selves to a heavenly imitation of so blessed a Pattern , that the reasonableness of the thing will be a great argument to chide every degree and minute of neglect . It was a strange and a confident encouragement which Phocion used to a timorous Greek who was condemned to die with him ; Is it not enough to thee that thou must die with Phocion ? I am sure he that is most incurious of the issues of his life , is yet willing enough to reign with Jesus , when he looks upon the Glories represented without the Duty : but it is a very great stupidity and unreasonableness not to live with him in the imitation of so holy and so prompt a Piety . It is glorious to do what he did , and a shame to decline his Sufferings , when there was a God to hallow and sanctifie the actions , and a Man clothed with infirmity to undergo the sharpness of the passion : so that the Glory of the person added excellency to the first , and the Tenderness of the person excused not from suffering the latter . 10. Thirdly , Every action of the Life of Jesus , as it is imitable by us , is of so excellent merit , that by making up the treasure of Grace , it becomes full of assistances to us , and obtains of God Grace to enable us to its imitation by way of influence and impetration . For as in the acquisition of Habits the very exercise of the Action does produce a Facility to the action , and in some proportion becomes the cause of its self : so does every exercise of the Life of Christ kindle its own fires , inspires breath into it self , and makes an univocal production of its self in a differing subject : And Jesus becomes the fountain of spiritual Life to us , as the Prophet Elisha to the dead child ; when he stretched his hands upon the child's hands , laid his mouth to his mouth , and formed his posture to the boy , and breathed into him , the spirit returned again into the child at the prayer of Elisha : so when our lives are formed into the imitation of the Life of the Holiest Jesus , the spirit of God returns into us , not only by the efficacy of the imitation , but by the merit and impetration of the actions of Jesus . It is reported in the Bohemian Story , that S. Wenceslaus their King one winter-night going to his Devotions in a remote Church bare-footed in the snow and sharpness of unequal and pointed ice , his servant Podavivus , who waited upon his Master's piety , and endeavoured to imitate his affections , began to faint through the violence of the snow and cold , till the King commanded him to follow him , and set his feet in the same footsteps which his feet should mark for him : the servant did so , and either fansied a cure , or found one ; for he followed his Prince , help'd forward with shame and zeal to his imitation , and by the forming footsteps for him in the snow . In the same manner does the Blessed Jesus : for since our way is troublesome , obscure , full of objection and danger , apt to be mistaken and to affright our industry , he commands us to mark his footsteps , to tread where his feet have stood , and not only invites us forward by the argument of his Example , but he hath troden down much of the difficulty , and made the way easier and fit for our feet . For he knows our infirmities , and himself hath felt their experience in all things but in the neighbourhoods of sin ; and therefore he hath proportioned a way and a path to our strengths and capacities , and like Jacob hath marched softly and in evenness with the children and the cattel , to entertain us by the comforts of his company , and the influences of a perpetual guide . 11. Fourthly , But we must know , that not every thing which Christ did is imitable by us , neither did he in the work of our Redemption in all things imitate his heavenly Father . For there are some things which are issues of an absolute Power , some are expresses of supreme Dominion , some are actions of a Judge . And therefore Jesus prayed for his enemies , and wept over Jerusalem , when at the same instant his Eternal Father laughed them to scorn : for he knew that their day was coming , and himself had decreed their ruine . But it became the Holy Jesus to imitate his Father's mercies ; for himself was the great instrument of the eternal Compassion , and was the instance of Mercy ; and therefore in the operation of his Father's design every action of his was univocal , and he shewed the power of his Divinity in nothing but in miracles of Mercy , and illustrations of Faith , by creating arguments of Credibility . In the same proportion we follow Jesus as himself followed his Father : For what he abated by the order to his intendment and design , we abate by the proportions of our Nature : for some excellent acts of his were demonstrations of Divinity , and an excellent Grace poured forth upon him without measure was their instrument ; to which proportions if we should extend our infirmities , we should crack our sinews , and dissolve the silver cords , before we could entertain the instances and support the burthen . Jesus fasted forty days and forty nights : but the manner of our Fastings hath been in all Ages limited to the term of an artificial day ; and in the Primitive Observations and the Jewish Rites , men did eat their meal as soon as the Stars shone in the firmament . We never read that Jesus laughed , and but once that he rejoyced in spirit : but the declensions of our Natures cannot bear the weight of a perpetual grave deportment , without the intervals of refreshment and free alacrity . Our ever-blessed Saviour suffered the Devotion of Mary Magdalene to transport her to an expensive expression of her Religion , and twice to anoint his feet with costly Nard : and yet if persons whose conditions were of no greater lustre or resplendency of Fortune than was conspicuous in his family and retinue should suffer the same profusion upon the dressing and perfuming their bodies , possibly it might be truly said , It might better be sold and distributed to the poor . This Jesus received as he was the CHRIST and Anointed of the Lord , and by this he suffered himself to be designed to Burial , and he received the oblation as Eucharistical for the ejection of seven Devils ; for therefore she loved much . 12. The instances are not many . For how-ever Jesus had some extraordinary transvolations and acts of emigration beyond the lines of his even and ordinary conversation , yet it was but seldom : for his being exemplary was of so great consideration , that he chose to have fewer instances of Wonder , that he might transmit the more of an imitable Vertue . And therefore we may establish this for a rule and limit of our imitations : Because Christ our Law-giver hath described all his Father's will in Sanctions and signature of Laws ; whatsoever he commanded , and whatsoever he did of precise Morality , or in pursuance of the Laws of Nature , in that we are to trace his footsteps : and in these his Laws and his practice differ but as a Map and a Guide , a Law and a Judge , a Rule and a Precedent . But in the special instances of action , we are to abate the circumstances , and to separate the obedience from the effect : whatsoever was moral in a ceremonial performance , that is highly imitable ; and the obedience of Sacrificing , and the subordination to Laws actually in being , even now they are abrogated , teach us our duty , in a differing subject upon the like reason . Jesus's going up to Jerusalem to the Feasts , and his observation of the Sabbaths , teach us our duty in celebration of Festivals constitute by a competent and just Authority . For that which gave excellency to the observation of Mosaical Rites was an Evangelical duty ; and the piety of Obedience did not only consecrate the observations of Levi , but taught us our duty in the constitutions of Christianity . 13. Fifthly , As the Holy Jesus did some things which we are not to imitate : so we also are to do some things which we cannot learn from his Example . For there are some of our Duties which presuppose a state of Sin , and some suppose a violent temptation and promptness to it ; and the duties of prevention and the instruments of restitution are proper to us , but conveyed only by Precept , and not by Precedent : Such are all the parts and actions of Repentance , the duties of Mortification and Self-denial . For whatsoever the Holy Jesus did in the matter of Austerity looked directly upon the work of our Redemption , and looked back only on us by a reflex act , as Christ did on Peter when he looked him into Repentance . Some states of life also there are which Jesus never led ; such are those of temporal Governors , Kings and Judges , Merchants , Lawyers , and the state of Marriage : in the course of which lives many cases do occur which need a Precedent , and the vivacity of an excellent Example , especially since all the rules which they have , have not prevented the subtilty of the many inventions which men have found out , nor made provision for all contingencies . Such persons in all their special needs are to govern their actions by the rules of proportion , by analogy to the Holiness of the person of Jesus , and the Sanctity of his Institution ; considering what might become a person professing the Discipline of so Holy a Master , and what he would have done in the like case ; taking our heights by the excellency of his Innocency and Charity . Only remember this , that in such cases we must always judge on the strictest side of Piety and Charity , if it be a matter concerning the interest of a second person ; and that in all things we do those actions which are farthest removed from scandal , and such as towards our selves are severe , towards others full of gentleness and sweetness . For so would the righteous and merciful Jesus have done ; these are the best analogies and proportions : And in such 〈◊〉 when the Wells are dry , let us take water from a Cistern , and propound to our selves some exemplar Saint , the necessities of whose life have determined his Piety to the like occurrences . 14. But now from these particulars we shall best account to what the duty of the Imitation of Jesus does amount : for it signifies , that we should walk as he walked , tread in his steps , with our hand upon the Guide , and our eye upon his Rule ; that we should do glory to him as he did to his Father ; and that whatsoever we do , we should be careful that it do him honour , and no reproach to his Institution ; and then account these to be the integral parts of our Duty , which are imitation of his Actions or his Spirit , of his Rule or of his Life ; there being no better Imitation of him than in such actions as do him pleasure , however he hath expressed or imitated the precedent . 15. He that gives Alms to the poor , takes Jesus by the hand ; he that patiently endures Injuries and affronts , helps him to bear his Cross ; he that comforts his brother in Affliction , gives an amiable kiss of peace to Jesus ; he that bathes his own and his neighbour's sins in tears of penance and compassion , washes his Master's feet : We lead Jesus into the recesses of our heart by holy Meditations ; and we enter into his heart , when we express him in our actions : for so the Apostle says , He that is in Christ walks as he also walked . But thus the actions of our life relate to him by way of Worship and Religion ; but the use is admirable and effectual , when our actions refer to him as to our Copy , and we transcribe the Original to the life . He that considers with what affections and lancinations of spirit , with what effusions of love Jesus prayed , what fervors and assiduity , what innocency of wish , what modesty of posture , what subordination to his Father and conformity to the Divine Pleasure were in all his Devotions , is taught and excited to holy and religious Prayer : The rare sweetness of his deportment in all Temptations and violences of his Passion , his Charity to his enemies , his sharp Reprehensions to the Scribes and Pharisees , his Ingenuity toward all men , are living and effectual Sermons to teach us Patience and Humility , and Zeal and candid Simplicity , and Justice in all our actions . I add no more instances , because all the following Discourses will be prosecutions of this intendment . And the Life of Jesus is not described to be like a Picture in a chamber of Pleasure , only for beauty and entertainment of the eye ; but like the Egyptian Hieroglyphicks , whose every feature is a Precept , and the Images converse with men by sense , and signification of excellent 〈◊〉 . 16. It was not without great reason advised , that every man should propound the example of a wise and vertuous personage , as Cato , or Socrates , or Brutus ; and by a fiction of imagination to suppose him present as a witness , and really to take his life as the direction of all our actions . The best and most excellent of the old Law-givers and Philosophers among the Greeks had an allay of Viciousness , and could not be exemplary all over : Some were noted for Flatterers , as Plato and Aristippus ; some for Incontinency , as Aristotle , Epicurus , Zeno , Theognis , Plato and Aristippus again ; and Socrates , whom their Oracle affirmed to be the wisest and most perfect man , yet was by Porphyry noted for extreme intemperance of Anger both in words and actions : And those Romans who were offered to them for Examples , although they were great in reputation , yet they had also great Vices ; Brutus dipt his hand in the bloud of Caesar his Prince , and his Father by love , endearments and adoption ; and Cato was but a wise man all day , at night he was used to drink too liberally ; and both he and Socrates did give their Wives unto their friends ; the Philosopher and the Censor were procurers of their Wives Unchastity : and yet these were the best among the Gentiles . But how happy and richly furnished are Christians with precedents of Saints , whose Faith and Revelations have been productive of more spiritual Graces , and greater degrees of moral perfections ? And this I call the priviledge of a very great assistance , that I might advance the reputation and account of the Life of the Glorious Jesu , which is not abated by the imperfections of humane Nature , as they were , but receives great heightnings and perfection from the Divinity of his Person , of which they were never capable . 17. Let us therefore press after Jesus , as 〈◊〉 did after his Master , with an inseparable prosecution , even whithersoever he goes ; that , according to the reasonableness and proportion expressed in S. Paul's advice , As we have born the image of the earthly , we may also bear the image of the heavenly . For , in vain are we called Christians , if we live not according to the example and discipline of Christ the Father of the Institution . When S. Laurence was in the midst of the torments of the Grid-iron , he made this to be the matter of his joy and Eucharist , that he was admitted to the Gates through which Jesus had entred : and therefore thrice happy are they who walk in his Courts all their days . And it is yet a nearer union and vicinity , to imprint his Life in our Souls , and express it in our exterior converse : and this is done by him only who ( as S. Prosper describes the duty ) despises all those gilded vanities which he despised , that fears none of those sadnesses which he suffered , that practises or also teaches those Doctrines which he taught , and hopes for the accomplishment of all his Promises . * And this is truest Religion , and the most solemn Adoration . The PRAYER . OEternal , Holy , and most glorious Jesu , who hast united two Natures of distance infinite , descending to the lownesses of Humane nature , that thou mightest exalt Humane nature to a participation of the Divinity ; we thy people that sate in darkness and in the shadows of death have seen great light , to entertain our Understandings and enlighten our Souls with its excellent influences ; for the excellency of thy Sanctity shining gloriously in every part of thy Life is like thy Angel , the Pillar of Fire which called thy children from the darknesses of Egypt . Lord , open mine eyes , and give me power to behold thy righteous Glories , and let my Soul be so entertained with affections and holy ardours , that I may never look back upon the flames of 〈◊〉 , but may follow thy Light , which recreates and enlightens , and guides us to the mountains of Safety , and Sanctuaries of Holiness . Holy Jesu , since thy 〈◊〉 is imprinted on our Nature by Creation , let me also express thy Image by all the parts of a holy life , 〈◊〉 my Will and Affections to thy holy Precepts , submitting my Understanding to thy Dictates and Lessons of perfection ; imitating thy sweetnesses and Excellencies of Society , thy Devotion in Prayer , thy Conformity to God , thy Zeal tempered with Meekness , thy Patience heightned with Charity ; that Heart , and Hands , and Eyes , and all my Faculties may grow up with the increase of God , till I come to the full measure of the 〈◊〉 of Christ , even to be a perfect man in Christ Jesus ; that at last in thy light I may see light , and reap the fruits of Glory from the seeds of Sanctity in the 〈◊〉 of thy holy Life , O Blessed and Holy Saviour Jesus . Amen . THE HISTORY OF THE Life and Death OF THE HOLY JESUS : BEGINNING At the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin MARY , until his Baptism and Temptation inclusively : WITH CONSIDERATIONS and DISCOURSES upon the several parts of the Story ; And PRAYERS fitted to the several MYSTERIES . THE FIRST PART . Qui sequitur me , non ambulat in Tenebris . LONDON , Printed by R. Norton , for R. Royston , 1675. THE LIFE Of our Blessed Lord and Saviour JESUS CHRIST . The Evangelical Prophet Behold a Virgin shall conceive & beare a son and shall call his name Immanuel Isa 7 14. Mat 1 22 23 The Annunciation . S. LUKE . 1. 28 Haile , thou that art highly favoured , the Lord is with thee ; Blessed art thou among women . SECT . I. The History of the Conception of JESVS . 1. WHen the fulness of time was come , after the frequent repetition of Promises , the expectation of the Jewish Nation , the longings and tedious waitings of all holy persons , the departure of the Scepter from Judah , and the Law-giver from between his feet ; when the number of Daniel's Years was accomplished , and the Egyptian and Syrian Kingdoms had their period ; God having great compassion towards mankind , remembring his Promises and our great Necessities , sent his Son into the world to take upon him our Nature , and all that guilt of Sin which stuck close to our Nature , and all that Punishment which was consequent to our Sin : which came to pass after this manner . 2. In the days of Herod the King , the Angel Gabriel was sent from God to a City of Galilce named Nazareth , to a holy Maid called Mary , espoused to Joseph , and found her in a capacity and excellent disposition to receive the greatest Honour that ever was done to the daughters of men . Her imployment was holy and pious , her person young , her years florid and springing , her Body chaste , her Mind humble , and a rare repository of divine Graces . She was full of grace and excellencies . And God poured upon her a full measure of Honour , in making her the Mother of the 〈◊〉 . For the Angel came to her and said , 〈◊〉 thou that art highly 〈◊〉 , the Lord is with thee ; blessed art thou among women . 3. We cannot but imagine the great mixture of innocent disturbances and holy passions that in the first address of the Angel did rather discompose her settledness , and interrupt the silence of her spirits , than dispossess her dominion which she ever kept over those subjects , which never had been taught to rebel beyond the mere possibilities of natural imperfection . But if the Angel appeared in the shape of a Man , it was an unusual arrest to the Blessed Virgin , who was accustomed to retirements and solitariness , and had not known an experience of admitting a comely person , but a stranger , to her closet and privacies . But if the Heavenly Messenger did retain a Diviner form , more symbolical to Angelical nature , and more proportionable to his glorious Message , although her daily imployment was a conversation with Angels , who in their daily ministring to the Saints did behold her chaste conversation coupled with 〈◊〉 , yet they used not any affrighting glories in the offices of their daily attendances , but were seen only by spiritual discernings . However so it happened , that when she saw him she was troubled at his saying , and cast in her mind what manner of Salutation this should be . 4. But the Angel , who came with designs of honour and comfort to her , not willing that the inequality and glory of the Messenger should , like too glorious a light to a weaker eye , rather confound the Faculty than enlighten the Organ , did , before her thoughts could find a tongue , invite her to a more familiar confidence than possibly a tender Virgin ( though of the greatest serenity and composure ) could have put on in the presence of such a Beauty and such a Holiness . And the Angel said unto her , Fear not , Mary , for thou hast found favour with God. And behold , thou shalt conceive in thy womb , and bring forth a Son , and shalt call his name JESUS . 5. The Holy Virgin knew her self a person very unlikely to be a Mother : For although the desires of becoming a Mother to the MESSIAS were great in every of the Daughters of Jacob , and about that time the expectation of his Revelation was high and pregnant , and therefore she was espoused to an honest and a just person of her kindred and family , and so might not despair to become a Mother ; yet she was a person of a rare Sanctity and so mortified a spirit , that for all this Desponsation of her , according to the desire of her Parents , and the custom of the Nation , she had not set one step toward the consummation of her Marriage , so much as in thought ; and possibly had set her self back from it by a vow of Chastity and holy Coelibate . For Mary said unto the Angel , How shall this be , seeing I know not a man ? 6. But the Angel , who was a person of that nature which knows no conjunctions but those of love and duty , knew that the Piety of her Soul and the Religion of her chaste purposes was a great imitator of 〈◊〉 Purity , and therefore perceived where the Philosophy of her question did consist ; and being taught of God , declared , that the manner should be as miraculous as the Message it self was glorious . For the Angel told her , that this should not be done by any way which our sin and the shame of Adam had unhallowed , by turning Nature into a blush , and forcing her to a retirement from a publick attesting the means of her own preservation ; but the whole matter was from God , and so should the manner be : For the Angel said unto her , The Holy Ghost shall come upon 〈◊〉 , and the power of the Highest shall over shadow thee : therefore also that Holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. 7. When the Blessed Virgin was so ascertain'd that she should be a Mother * and a Maid , and that two Glories , like the two Luminaries of Heaven , should meet in her , that she might in such a way become the Mother of her Lord , that she might with better advantages be his Servant ; then all her hopes and all her desires received such satisfaction , and filled all the corners of her Heart so much , as indeed it was fain to make room for its reception . But she to whom the greatest things of Religion and the transportations of Devotion were made familiar by the assiduity and piety of her daily practices , however she was full of joy , yet she was carried like a full vessel , without the violent tossings of a tempestuous passion , or the wrecks of a stormy imagination : And as the power of the Holy Ghost did descend upon her like rain into a fleece of wool , without any obstreperous noises or violences to nature , but only the extraordinariness of an exaltation : so her spirit received it with the gentleness and tranquillity fitted for the entertainment of the spirit of love , and a quietness symbolical to the holy Guest of her spotless womb , the Lamb of God ; for she meekly replied , Behold the handmaid of the Lord , be it unto me according unto thy word . And the Angel departed from her , having done his message . And at the same time the holy Spirit of God did make her to conceive in her womb the immaculate Son of God , the Saviour of the World. Ad SECT . I. Considerations upon the Annunciation of the Blessed MARY , and the Conception of the Holy JESVS . 1. THat which shines brightest presents it self first to the eye ; and the devout Soul in the chain of excellent and precious things which are represented in the counsel , design and first beginnings of the work of our Redemption , hath not 〈◊〉 to attend the twinkling of the lesser Stars , till it hath stood and admired the glory and eminencies of the Divine Love , manifested in the Incarnation of the Word eternal . God had no necessity in order to the conservation or the heightning his own Felicity , but out of mere and perfect charity and the bowels of compassion sent into the world his only Son for remedy to humane miseries , to ennoble our Nature by an union with Divinity , to sanctifie it with his Justice , to inrich it with his Grace , to instruct it with his Doctrine , to fortifie it with his Example , to rescue it from servitude , to assert it into the liberty of the sons of God , and at last to make it partaker of a beatifical Resurrection . 2. God , who in the infinite treasures of his wisdom and providence could have found out many other ways for our Redemption than the Incarnation of his eternal Son , was pleased to chuse this , not only that the Remedy by Man might have proportion to the causes of our Ruine , whose introduction and intromission was by the prevarication of Man ; but also that we might with freer dispensation receive the influences of a Saviour with whom we communicate in Nature : although Abana and Pharpar , Rivers of Damascus , were of greater name and current ; yet they were not so salutary as the waters of Jordan to cure Naaman's Leprosie . And if God had made the remedy of humane nature to have come all the way clothed in prodigy , and every instant of its execution had been as terrible , affrighting , and as full of Majesty as the apparitions upon Mount Sinai ; yet it had not been so useful and complying to humane necessities , as was the descent of God to the susception of Humane Nature , whereby ( as in all Medicaments ) the cure is best wrought by those instruments which have the fewest dissonancies to our temper , and are the nearest to our constitution . For thus the Saviour of the world became humane , alluring , full of invitation and the sweetnesses of love , exemplary , humble and medicinal . 3. And if we consider the reasonableness of the thing , what can be given more excellent for the Redemption of Man , than the Bloud of the Son of God ? And what can more ennoble our Nature , than that by the means of his holy Humanity it was taken up into the * Cabinet of the mysterious Trinity ? What better Advocate could we have for us , than he that is appointed to be our Judge ? And what greater hopes of Reconciliation can be imagined , than that God , in whose power it is to give an absolute Pardon , hath taken a new Nature , entertained an Office , and undergone a life of Poverty , with a purpose to procure our Pardon ? For now , though as the righteous Judge he will judge the Nations righteously ; yet by the susception of our Nature , and its appendant crimes , he is become a party : and having obliged himself as Man , as he is God he will satisfie , by putting the value of an infinite Merit to the actions and sufferings of his Humanity . And if he had not been God , he could not have given us remedy ; if he had not been Man , we should have wanted the excellency of Example . 4. And till now Humane nature was less than that of Angels ; but by the Incarnation of the Word was to be exalted above the Cherubims : yet the * Archangel Gabriel being dispatched in embassie , to represent the joy and exaltation of his inferiour , instantly trims his wings with love and obedience , and hastens with this Narrative to the Holy Virgin. And if we should reduce our prayers to action , and do God's Will on earth as the Angels in Heaven do it , we should promptly 〈◊〉 every part of the Divine Will , though it were to be instrumental to the exaltation of a Brother above our selves ; knowing no end but conformity to the Divine Will , and making simplicity of intention to be the 〈◊〉 and exterior borders of our garments . 5. When the eternal God meant to stoop so low as to be fixt to our centre , he chose for his Mother a Holy person and a Maid , but yet 〈◊〉 to a Just man , that he might not only be secure in the Innocency , but also provided sor in the Reputation of his holy Mother : teaching us , That we must not only satisfie our selves in the purity of our purposes and hearty Innocence , but that we must provide also things honest in the 〈◊〉 of all men , being free from the suspicion and semblances of evil ; so making provision for private Innocence and publick Honesty ; it being necessary in order to Charity and edification of our Brethren , that we hold forth no impure flames or smoaking firebrands , but pure and trimmed lamps , in the eyes of all the world . 6. And yet her Marriage was more mysterious : for as , besides the Miracle , it was an eternal honour and advancement to the glory of Virginity , that he chose a Virgin for his Mother ; so it was in that manner 〈◊〉 , that the Virgin was betrothed , lest honourable Marriage might be disreputed and seem inglorious by a positive rejection from any participation of the honour . Divers of the old Doctors , from the authority of 〈◊〉 , add another reason , saying , That the Blessed Jesus was therefore born of a woman betrothed , and under the pretence of Marriage , that the Devil , who knew the 〈◊〉 was to be born of a Virgin , might not expect him there , but so be ignorant of the person , till God had serv'd many ends of Providence upon him . 7. The Angel in his address needed not to go in inquisition after a wandring fire , but knew she was a Star fixt in her own Orb : he found her at home ; and 〈◊〉 that also might be too large a Circuit , she was yet confined to a more intimate retirement , she was in her Oratory private and devout . There are some * Curiosities so bold and determinate as to tell the very matter of her Prayer , and that she was praying for the Salvation of all the World , and the Revelation of the 〈◊〉 , desiring she might be so happy as to kiss the feet of her who should have the glory to be his Mother . We have no security of the particular : but there is no piety so diffident as to require a sign to create a belief that her imployment at the instant was holy and religious ; but in that disposition she received a grace which the greatest Queens would have purchased with the quitting of their Diadems , and hath consigned an excellent Document to all women , that they accustom themselves often to those Retirements , where none but God and his Angels can have admittance . For the Holy Jesus can come to them too , and dwell with them , hallowing their Souls , and consigning their bodies to a participation of all his glories . But recollecting of all our scattered thoughts and exteriour extravagances , and a receding from the inconveniences of a too free conversation , is the best circumstance to dispose us to a heavenly visitation . 8. The holy Virgin , when she saw an Angel , and heard a testimony from Heaven of her Grace and Piety , was troubled within her self at the Salutation , and the manner of it . For she had learn'd , that the affluence of Divine comforts and prosperous successes should not exempt us from fear , but make it the more prudent and wary , lest it intangle us in a vanity of spirit : God having ordered , that our spirits should be affected with dispositions in some degrees contrary to exteriour events , that we be fearful in the affluence of prosperous things , and joyful in adversity ; as knowing that this may produce benefit and advantage ; and the changes that are consequent to the other are sometimes full of mischiefs , but always of danger . But her Silence and Fear were her Guardians ; that , to prevent excrescencies of Joy , this , of vainer complacency . 9. And it is not altogether inconsiderable to observe , that the holy Virgin came to a great perfection and state of Piety by a few , and those modest and even , exercises and external actions . S. Paul travelled over the World , preached to the Gentiles , disputed against the Jews , confounded Hereticks , writ excellently-learned Letters , suffered dangers , injuries , affronts , and persecutions to the height of wonder , and by these violences of life , action and patience , obtained the Crown of an excellent Religion and Devotion . But the holy Virgin , although she was ingaged sometimes in an active life , and in the exercise of an ordinary and small oeconomy and government , or ministeries of a Family , yet she arrived to her Perfections by the means of a quiet and silent Piety , the internal actions of Love , Devotion and Contemplation : and instructs us , that not only those who have opportunity and powers of a magnificent Religion , or a pompous Charity , or miraculous Conversion of Souls , or assiduous and effectual Preachings , or exteriour demonstrations of corporal Mercy , shall have the greatest crowns , and the addition of degrees and accidental rewards ; but the silent affections , the splendors of an internal Devotion , the unions of Love , Humility and Obedience , the daily offices of Prayer and Praises sung to God , the acts of Faith and Fear , of Patience and Meekness , of Hope and Reverence , Repentance and Charity , and those Graces which walk in a veil and silence , make great ascents to God , and as sure progress to favour and a Crown , as the more ostentous and laborious exercises of a more solemn Religion . No 〈◊〉 needs to complain of want of power or opportunities for Religious perfections : a devout woman in her Closet , praying with much zeal and affections for the conversion of Souls , is in the same order to a shining like the stars in glory , as he who by excellent discourses puts it into a more forward disposition to be actually performed . And possibly her Prayers obtained energy and force to my Sermon , and made the ground fruitful , and the seed spring up to life eternal . Many times God is present in the still voice and private retirements of a quiet Religion , and the constant spiritualities of an ordinary life ; when the loud and impetuous winds , and the shining fires of more laborious and expensive actions are profitable to others only , like a tree of Balsam , distilling precious liquor for others , not for its own use . The PRAYER . O Eternal and Almighty God , who didst send thy holy Angel in embassy to the Blessed Virgin-Mother of our Lord , to manifest the actuating 〈◊〉 eternal Purpose of the 〈◊〉 of Mankind by the Incarnation of thine eternal Son ; put me , by the 〈◊〉 of thy Divine Grace , into such holy dispositions , that I may never impede the event and effect of those mercies which in the counsels of thy Predestination thou didst design for me . Give me a promptness to obey thee to the degree and semblance of Angelical alacrity ; give me holy Purity and Piety , Prudence and Modesty , like those Excellencies which thou didst create in the ever-blessed Virgin , the Mother of God : grant that my imployment be always holy , unmixt with worldly affections , and , as much as my condition of life will bear , retired from secular interests and disturbances ; that I may converse with Angels , entertain the Holy JESUS , conceive him in my Soul , nourish him with the expresses of most innocent and holy affections , and bring him forth and publish him in a life of Piety and Obedience , that he may dwell in me for ever , and I may for ever dwell with him in the house of eternal pleasures and glories world without end . Amen . SECT . II. The Bearing of JESUS in the Womb of the Blessed Virgin. MARY visiting ELIZABETH S. LUKE . 1. 43. And whence is this to me that y e Mother of my LORD should come to me . Josephs Dreame . S MAT : 1. 20. Joseph , thou son of David , Feare not to 〈◊〉 unto thee Mar●● thy wife ; for that 〈◊〉 is conceived in her is of the Holy 〈◊〉 1. ALthough the Blessed Virgin had a faith as prompt and ready as her Body was chast and her Soul pure ; yet God , who uses to give full measure , shaken together and running over , did by way of confirmation and fixing the confidence of her assent give an instance of his Omnipotency in the very particular of an extraordinary Conception : For the Angel said , Behold thy Cousin Elizabeth hath also conceived a son in her old age , and this is the sixth month with her that was called barren : For with God nothing shall be impossible . A less argument would have satisfied the necessity of a Faith which had no scruple ; and a greater would not have done it in the incredulity of an ungentle and pertinacious spirit . But the Holy Maid had complacency enough in the Message , and holy desires about her to carry her understanding as far as her affections ; even to the fruition of the Angel's Message ; which is such a sublimity of Faith , that it is its utmost consummation , and shall be its Crown when our Faith is turned into Vision , our Hopes into actual Possessions , and our Grace into Glory . 2. And she , who was now full of God , bearing God in her Virgin-Womb , and the Holy Spirit in her Heart , who had also over-shadowed her , enabling her to a supernatural and miraculous Conception , arose with haste and gladness , to communicate that joy which was designed for all the World ; and she found no breast to pour forth the first emanations of her over-joyed heart so fit as her Cousin Elizabeth's , who had received testimony from God to have been righteous , walking in all the Commandments of the Lord blameless , who also had a special portion in this great honour ; for she was designed to be the Mother of the Baptist , who was sent as a fore-runner to prepare the ways of the Lord , and to make his paths straight . And Mary arose in those days , and went into the Hill-countrey with haste into a City of Judah . 3. Her Haste was in proportion to her Joy and desires , but yet went no greater pace than her Religion : for as in her journey she came near to Jerusalem , she turned in , that she might visit His Temple whose Temple she her self was now ; and there , not only to remember the pleasures of Religion , which she had felt in continual descents and showers falling on her pious heart for the space of eleven years attendance there in her Childhood , but also to pay the first-fruits of her Thanks and Joy , and to lay all her glory at his feet whose humble hand maid she was in the greatest honour of being his blessed Mother . Having worshipped , she went on her journey , and entred into the house of Zasharias , and saluted 〈◊〉 . 4. It is not easiè to imagine what a collision of joys was at this blessed Meeting : two Mothers of two great Princes , the one the greatest that was born of woman , and the other was his Lord , and these made Mothers by two Miracles , met together with joy and mysteriousness ; where the Mother of our Lord went to visit the Mother of his Servant , and the Holy Ghost made the meeting festival , and descended upon Elizabeth , and she prophesied . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Heaven was there more joy and ecstásie . The persons , who were Women , whose fancies and affections were not only hallowed , but made pregnant and big with Religion , meeting together to compare and unite their joys , and their Eucharist , and then made prophetical and inspired , must needs have discoursed like 〈◊〉 and the most ecstasied order of Intelligences ; for all the faculties of Nature were turned into Grace , and expressed in their way the excellent Solemnity . For it came to pass when Elizabeth heard the Salutation of Mary , the 〈◊〉 leaped in her Womb ; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost . 5. After they had both prophesied and sang their Hymns , and re-saluted each other with the religion of Saints and the joys of Angels , Mary abode with her cousin Elizabeth about three mouths , and then returned to her own house . Where when she appeared with her holy burthen to her Husband Joseph , and that he perceived her to be with child , and knew that he had never unsealed that holy fountain of virginal purity , he was troubled . For although her deportment had been pious and chaste to a miracle , her carriage reserved , and so grave , that she drave away temptations and impure visits and all unclean purposes from the neighbourhood of her holy person : yet when he saw she was with child , and had not yet been taught a lesson higher than the principles of Nature , he was minded to put her away , for he knew she was with child ; but yet privily , because he was a good man , and knew her Piety to have been such that it had a most done violence to his sense , and made him disbelieve what was visible and notorious , and therefore he would do it privately . But while he thought on these things , the Angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a Dream , saying , Joseph thou son of David , fear not to take unto thee Mary thy 〈◊〉 , for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost . Then Joseph , being raised from sleep , did as the Angel of the Lord had bidden him , and took unto him his Wife . Ad SECT . II. Considerations concerning the circumstances of the Interval between the Conception and Nativity . 1. WHen the Blessed Virgin was ascertained of the manner of her becoming a Mother , and that her tremblings were over upon the security she should preserve her Virgin purity as a clean oblation to the honour of God , then she expressed her consent to the Angelical message , and instantly she conceived the Holy Jesus in her Womb , by the supernatural and divine influence of the Holy Ghost . For she was highly zealous to reconcile her being Mother to the 〈◊〉 , with those Purities and holy Coelibate which she had designed to keep as advantages to the interests of Religion , and his honour who chose her from all the daughters of Adam , to be instrumental of the restitution of grace and innocence to all her Father's family . And we shall receive benefit from so excellent example , if we be not so desirous of a Priviledge as of a Vertue , of Honour as of Piety : and as we submit to the weight and pressure of sadnesses and infelicities , that God's will may be accomplished ; so we must be also ready to renounce an exteriour grace or favour , rather than it should not be consistent with exemplar and rare Piety . 2. When the Son of God was incarnate in the Womb of his Virgin-Mother , the Holy Maid arose ; and though she was superexalted by an honour greater than the world yet ever saw , she still dwelt upon the foundation of Humility ; and to make that vertue more signal and eminent , she arose and went hastily to visit her Cousin Elizabeth , who also had conceived a son in her old age : for so we all should be curious and watchful against vanities and transportations , when we are advanced to the gayeties of prosperous accidents , and in the greatest priviledges descend to the lowest , to exercise a greater measure of Vertue against the danger of those tentations which are planted against our heart to ruine our hopes and glories . 3. But the Joys that the Virgin-Mother had were such as concerned all the world , and that part of them which was her peculiar she would not conceal from persons apt to their entertainment , but go to publish God's mercy toward her to another holy person , that they might joyn in the praises of God ; as knowing , that though it may be convenient to represent our personal necessities in private , yet God's gracious returns and the blessings he makes to descend on us are more fit , when there is no personal danger collaterally appendent , to be published in the Communion of Saints ; that the Hopes of others may receive increase , that their Faith may have confirmation , that their Charity and Eucharist may grow up to become excellent and great , and the praises of God may be sung aloud , till the sound strike at Heaven , and joyn with the Hallelujahs which the Morning-stars in their Orbs pay to their great Creator . 4. When the Holy Virgin had begun her journey , she made haste over the Mountains , that she might not only satisfie the desires of her joy by a speedy gratulation , but lest she should be too long abroad under the dispersion and discomposing of her retirements : And therefore she hastens to an inclosure , to her Cousin's house , as knowing that all vertuous women , like Tortoises , carry their house on their heads , and their Chappel in their heart , and their danger in their eye , and their Souls in their hands , and God in all their actions . And indeed her very little burthen which she bare hindred her not but she might make haste enough ; and as her spirit was full of chearfulness and alacrity , so even her body was made aiery and vegete : for there was no Sin in her burthen to fill it with natural inconveniences ; and there is this excellency in all spiritual things , that they do no disadvantage to our persons , nor retard our just temporal interests . And the Religion by which we carry Christ within us is neither so peevish as to disturb our health , nor so sad as to discompose our just and modest chearfulness , nor so prodigal as to force us to needs and ignoble trades ; but recreates our body by the medicine of holy Fastings and Temperance , fills us full of serenities and complacencies by the sweetnesses of a holy Conscience and joys spiritual , promotes our temporal interests by the gains and increases of the rewards of Charity , and by securing God's providence over us while we are in the pursuit of the Heavenly Kingdom . And as in these dispositions she climb'd the mountains with much facility ; so there is nothing in our whole life of difficulty so great but it may be managed by those assistances we receive from the Holiest Jesus , when we carry him about us ; as the valleys are exalted , so the mountains are made plain before us . 5. When her Cousin Elizabeth saw the Mother of her Lord come to visit her , as the Lord himself descended to visit all the world in great humility , she was pleased and transported to the height of wonder and prophecy , and the Babe sprang in her womb and was sanctified , first doing his homage and adoration to his Lord that was in presence . And we also , although we can do nothing unless the Lord first prevent us with his gracious visitation , yet if he first come unto us , and we accept and entertain him with the expresses and correspondencies of our duty , we shall receive the grace and honour of Sanctification . But if S. Elizabeth , who received testimony from God , that she walked in all the Commandments of the Lord blameless , was carried into ecstasie , wondring at the dignation and favour done to her by the Mother of her Lord ; with what preparations and holy solemnities ought we to entertain his addresses to us by his Holy Sacrament , by the immissions of his Spirit , by the assistances of his Graces , and all other his vouchsafings and descents into our hearts ? 6. The Blessed Virgin hearing her Cousin full of spirit and prophecy , calling her blessed , and praising her Faith , and confirming her Joy , instantly sang her hymn to God , returning those praises which she received to him to whom they did appertain . For so we should worship God with all ourpraises , being willing upon no other condition to extend one hand to receive our own honour , but that with the other we might transmit it to God , that as God is honoured in all his Creatures , so he may be honoured in us too ; looking upon the Graces which God hath given us but as greater instruments and abilities to serve him , being none of ours , but talents which are intrusted into our Banks to be improved . But as a precious Pearl is orient and medicinal , because God hath placed those excellencies in it for ends of his own , but it self is dcad to all apprehensions of it , and knows no reflexions upon its own value ; only God is magnified in his work : so is every pious person precious and holy , but mortified to all vainer complacencies in those singularities and eminencies , which God placed there because he was so pleased , saying , there he would have a Temple built ; because from thence he would take delight to receive glory and adoration . 7. After all these holy and festival joys which the two glad Mothers feasted themselves withal , a sad cloud did intervene and passed before the face of the Blessed Virgin. The just and righteous Joseph , her espoused Husband , perceiving her to be with child , was minded to put her away , as not knowing the Divinity of the fountain which watered the Virgin 's sealed and hallowed Womb , and made it fruitful . But he purposed to do it privily , that he might preserve the reputation of his Spouse , whose Piety he knew was great , and was sorrowful it should now set in a sad night and be extinct . But it was an exemplar charity , and reads to us a rule for our deportment towards erring and lapsed persons , that we intreat them with meekness and pity and fear ; not hastening their 〈◊〉 , nor provoking their spirit , nor making their remedy desperate by using of them rudely , till there be no worse thing for them to fear if they should be dissolved into all licentiousness . For an open shame is commonly protested unto when it is remediless , and the person either despairs and sinks under the burthen , or else grows impudent and tramples upon it . But the gentleness of a modest and charitable remedy preserves that which is Vertue 's girdle , Fear and Blushing ; and the beginning of a punishment chides them into the horrour of remembrance and guilt , but preserves their meekness and modesty , because they , not feeling the worst of evils , dare not venture upon the worst of sins . 8. But it seems the Blessed Virgin , having received this greatest honour , had not made it known to her Husband Joseph ; and when she went to her Cousin Elizabeth , the Virgin was told of it by her Cousin before she spake of it her self , for her Cousin had it by revelation and the spirit of prophecy . And it is in some circumstances and from some persons more secure to conceal Visions , and those heavenly Gifts which create estimations among men , than to publish them , which may possibly minister to vanity ; and those exteriour Graces may do God's work , though no observer note them but the person for whose sake they are sent : like rain falling in uninhabited Valleys , where no eye observes showers ; yet the Valleys laugh and sing to God in their refreshment without a witness . However , it is better to hear the report of our good things from the mouths of others than from our selves : and better yet , if the beauty of the Tabernacle be covered with skins , that none of our beauties be seen but by worshippers , that is , when the glory of God and the interests of Religion or Charity are concerned in their publication . For so it happened to be in the case of the Blessed Virgin , as she related to her Cousin Elizabeth ; and so it happened not to be , as she referred to her Husband Joseph . 9. The Holy Virgin could not but know that Joseph would be troubled with sorrow and insecure apprehensions concerning her being with child ; but such was her Innocence and her Confidence in God , that she held her peace , expecting which way God would provide a remedy to the inconvenience : for if we commit our selves to God in well doing as unto a faithful Creator , preserving the tranquillity of our spirits and the evenness of our temper in the assault of infamy and disreputation , God , who loves our Innocence , will be its Patron , and will assert it from the scandal , if it be expedient for us ; if it be not , it is not fit we should desire it . But if the Holy Jesus did suffer his Mother to fall into misinterpretation and suspect , which could not but be a great affliction to her excellent spirit , rarely temper'd as an Eye , highly sensible of every ruder touch ; we must not think it strange , if we be tried and pressed with a calamity and unhandsome accidents : only remember , that God will find a remedy to the trouble , and will sanctifie the affliction , and secure the person , if we be innocent , as was the Holy Virgin. 10. But Joseph was not hasty in the execution of his purposes , nor of making his thoughts determinate , but stood long in deliberation , and longer before he acted it , because it was an invidious matter , and a rigour : He was first to have defam'd and accus'd her publickly , and , being convicted , by the Law she was to die , if he had gone the ordinary way ; but he who was a just man , that is , according to the style of Scripture and other wise Writers , a good , a charitable man , found that it was more agreeable to Justice , to treat an offending person with the easiest sentence , than to put things to extremity , and render the person desperate and without remedy , and provoked by the suffering of the worst of what she could fear . No obligation to Justice does force a man to be cruel , or to use the sharpest sentence . A just man does Justice to every man and to every thing ; and then , if he be also wise , he knows there is a debt of mercy and compassion due to the infirmities of a man's nature , and that debt is to be paid : and he that is cruel and ungentle to a sinning person , and does the worst thing to him , dies in his debt , and is unjust . Pity , and forbearance , and long-suffering , and fair interpretation , and excusing our brother , and taking things in the best sence , and passing the gentlest sentence , are as certainly our duty , and owing to every person that does offend and can repent , as calling men to account can be owing to the Law , and are first to be paid ; and he that does not so is an unjust person : which because Joseph was not , he did not call furiously for Justice , or pretend that God required it at his hands presently , to undo a suspected person ; but waved the killing letter of the Law , and secured his own interest and his Justice too , by intending to dismiss her privately . But before the thing was irremediable , God ended his Question by a heavenly demonstration , and sent an Angel to reveal to him the Innocence of his Spouse , and the Divinity of her Son ; and that he was an immediate derivative from Heaven , and the Heir of all the World. And in all our doubts we shall have a resolution from Heaven or some of its Ministers , if we have recourse thither for a Guide , and be not hasty in our discourses , or inconsiderate in our purposes , or rash in judgment . For God loves to give assistances to us , when we most fairly and prudently endeavour that Grace be not put to do all our work , but to facilitate our labour ; not creating new faculties , but improving those of Nature . If we consider warily , God will guide us in the determination : But a hasty person out-runs his guide , prevaricates his rule , and very often engages upon error . The PRAYER . O Holy Jesu , Son of the Eternal God , thy Glory is far above all Heavens , and yet thou didst descend to Earth , that thy Descent might be the more gracious , by how much thy Glories were admirable , and natural , and inseparable : I adore thy holy Humanity with humble veneration , and the thankful addresses of religious joy , because thou hast personally united Humane nature to the Eternal Word , carrying it above the seats of the highest Cherubim . This great and glorious Mystery is the honour and glory of man : it was the expectation of our Fathers , who saw the mysteriousness of thy Incarnation at great and obscure distances : And blessed be thy Name , that thou hast caused me to be born after the fulfilling of thy Prophecies , and the consummation and exhibition of so great a love , so great mysteriousness . Holy Jesu , though I admire and adore the immensity of thy love and condescension , who wert pleased to undergo our burthens and infirmities for us ; yet I abhor my self , and detest my own impurities , which were so great and contradictory to the excellency of God , that to destroy Sia , and save us , it became necessary that thou shouldest be sent into the World , to die our death for us , and to give us of thy Life . 2. DEarest Jesu , thou didst not breath one sigh , nor shed one drop of bloud , nor weep one tear , nor suffer one stripe , nor preach one Sermon for the salvation of the Devils : and what sadness and shame is it then , that I should cause so many insufferable loads of sorrows to fall upon thy sacred head ? Thou art wholly given for me , wholly spent upon my uses , and wholly for every one of the Elect. Thou in the beginning of the work of our Redemption didst suffer nine months imprisonment in the pure Womb of thy Holy Mother , to redeem me from the eternal servitude of Sin and its miserable consequents . Holy Jesu , let me be born anew , receive a new birth and a new life , imitating thy Graces and Excellencies by which thou art beloved of thy Father , and hast obtained for us a favour and atonement . Let thy holy will be done by me , let all thy will be wrought in me , let thy will be wrought concerning me ; that I may do thy pleasure , and submit to the dispensation of thy Providence , and conform to thy holy will , and may for ever serve thee in the Communion of Saints , in the society of thy redeemed ones , now and in the glories of Eternity . Amen . SECT . III. The Nativity of our Blessed Saviour JESVS . The Birth of LESUS . And she brought forth her first borne son , and wrapped him in swadling clothes and laid him in a manger , because there was no roome sor them in the Inne . Luk. 2. 7. The Virgin MOTHER S LUKE . 11. 27 Blessed is the Womb that bare thee , and the paps which thou hast Sucked . v. 28. Yea , rather Blessed are they that heare the word of God and keep it . 1. THE Holy Maid longed to be a glad Mother , and she who carried a burthen whose proper commensuration is the days of Eternity counted the tedious minutes , expecting when the Sun of Righteousness should break forth from his bed , where nine months he hid himself as behind a fruitful cloud . About the same time God , who in his infinite wisdom does concentre and tie together in one end things of disparate and disproportionate natures , making things improbable to cooperate to what wonder or to what truth he pleases , brought the Holy Virgin to Bethlehem the City of David , to be taxed with her Husband Joseph , according to a Decree upon all the World issuing from Augustus Caesar. * But this happened in this conjunction of time , that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet Micah , And thou Bethlehem in the land of Judah art not the least among the Princes of Judah ; for out of thee shall come a Governour that shall rule my people Israel . This rare act of Providence was highly remarkable , because this Taxing seems wholly to have been ordered by God to serve and minister ( (a) to the circumstances of this Birth . For this Taxing was not in order to Tribute : Herod was now King , and received all the Revenues of the Fiscus , and paid to Augustus an appointed Tribute after the manner of other Kings , Friends and Relatives of the Roman Empire : neither doth it appear that the Romans laid a new Tribute on the Jews before the Confiscation of the goods of Archelaus . Augustus therefore sending special Delegates to tax every City , made onely an inquest after the strength of the Roman Empire in men and moneys ; and did himself no other advantage , but was directed by him who rules and turns the hearts of Princes , that he might , by verifying a Prophecy , signifie and publish the Divinity of the Mission and the Birth of Jesus . 2. She that had conceived by the operation of that Spirit who dwells within the element of Love , was no ways impeded in her journey by the greatness of her burthen , but arrived at Bethlehem in the throng of strangers , who had so filled up the places of hospitality and publick entertainment , that there was no room for Joseph and Mary in the Inne . But yet she felt that it was necessary to retire where she might softly lay her Burthen , who began now to call at the gates of his prison , and Nature was ready to let him forth . But she that was Mother to the King of all the creatures could find no other but a Stable , * a Cave of a rock , whither she retired ; where when it began to be with her after the manner of women , she humbly bowed her knees , in the posture and guise of worshippers , and in the midst of glorious thoughts and highest speculation brought forth her first born into the world . 3. As there was no sin in the Conception , so neither had she pains in the Production , as the Church from the days of Gregory Nazianzen untill now hath piously believed ; though before his days there were some opinions to the contrary , but certainly neither so pious , nor so reasonable . For to her alone did not the punishment of Eve extend , that in sorrow she should bring forth : For where nothing of Sin was an ingredient , there Misery cannot cohabit . For though amongst the daughters of men many Conceptions are innocent and holy , being sanctified by the Word of God and Prayer , hallowed by Marriage , designed by Prudence , seasoned by Temperance , conducted by Religion towards a just , an hallowed and a holy end , and yet their Productions are in sorrow ; yet this of the Blessed Virgin might be otherwise , because here Sin was no relative , and neither was in the principle nor the derivative , in the act nor in the habit , in the root nor in the branch : there was nothing in this but the sanctification of a Virgin 's Womb , and that could not be the parent of sorrow , especially that gate not having been opened by which the Curse always entred . And as to conceive by the Holy Ghost was glorious , so to bring forth any of the fruits of the spirit is joyful , and full of felicities . And he that came from his grave fast tied with a stone and signature , and into the College of Apostles the doors being shut , and into the glories of his Father through the solid orbs of all the Firmament , came also ( as the Church piously believes ) into the World so , without doing violence to the virginal and pure body of his Mother , that he did also leave her Virginity entire , to be as a seal , that none might open the gate of that Sanctuary , that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the Prophet , This gate shall be shut , it shall not be opened , and no man shall enter in by it ; because the Lord God of Israel hath entred by it , therefore it shall be shut . 4. Although all the World were concerned in the Birth of this great Prince , yet I find no story of any one that ministred at it save onely Angels , who knew their duty to their Lord , and the great Interests of that person ; whom , as soon as he was born , they presented to his Mother , who could not but receive him with a joy next to the rejoycings of glory and beatifick vision , seeing him to be born her Son who was the Son of God , of greater beauty than the Sun , purer than Angels , more loving than the Seraphims , as dear as the eye and heart of God , where he was from eternity engraven , his beloved and his onely-begotten . 5. When the Virgin-Mother now felt the first tenderness and yernings of a Mother's bowels and saw the Saviour of the World born , poor as her fortunes could represent him , naked as the innocence of Adam , she took him , and wrapt him in swadling cloaths ; and after she had a while cradled him in her arms , she laid him in a manger : for so was the design of his Humility ; that as the last Scene of his life was represented among Thieves , so the first was amongst Beasts , the sheep and the oxen ; according to that mysterious Hymn of the Prophet Habakkuk , His brightness was as the light , he had horns coming out of his hand , and there was the hiding of his power . 6. But this place , which was one of the great instances of his Humility , grew to be as venerable as became an instrument , and it was consecrated into a Church , the Crib into an Altar , where first lay that Lamb of God which afterwards was sacrificed for the sins of all the World. And when Adrian the Emperour , who intended a great despite to it , built a Temple to Venus and Adonis in that place where the Holy Virgin-Mother and her more Holy Son were humbly laid ; even so he could not obtain , but that even amongst the Gentile inhabitants of the neighbouring Countries it was held in an account far above scandal and contempt . For God can ennoble even the meanest of creatures , especially if it be but a relative and instrumental to Religion , higher than the injuries of scoffers and malicious persons . But it was then a Temple full of Religion , full of glory , when Angels were the Ministers , the Holy Virgin was the Worshipper , and CHRIST the Deity . Ad SECT . III. Considerations upon the Birth of our Blessed Saviour JESVS . 1. ALthough the Blessed Jesus desired with the 〈◊〉 of an inflamed love to be born , and to finish the work of our Redemption ; yet he did not prevent the period of Nature , nor break the laws of the Womb , and antedate his own sanctions which he had established 〈◊〉 ever . He staid nine months , and then brake forth as a Giant joyful to run his course . For premature and hasty actions , and such counsels as know not how to expect the times appointed in God's decree , are like hasty fruit , or a young person snatcht away in his florid age , sad and untimely . He that hastens to enjoy his wish before the time , raises his own expectation , and yet makes it unpleasant by impatience , and loseth the pleasure of the fruition when it comes , because he hath made his desires bigger than the thing can satisfie . He that must eat an hour before his time , gives probation of his intemperance or his weakness ; and if we dare not trust God with the Circumstance of the event , and stay his leisure , either we disrepute the infinity of his Wisdom , or give clear demonstration of our own vanity . 2. When God descended to earth , he chose to be born in the Suburbs and retirement of a small Town ; but he was pleased to die at Jerusalem , the Metropolis of Judaea : Which chides our shame and pride , who are willing to publish our gayeties in Piazza's and the corners of the streets of most populous places ; but our defects and the instruments of our humiliation we carry into desarts , and cover with the night , and hide them under ground , thinking no secrecy dark enough to hide our shame , nor any theatre large enough to behold our pompous vanities ; for so we make provisions for Pride , and take great care to exclude Humility . 3. When the Holy Virgin now perceived that the expectation of the Nations was arrived at the very doors of revelation and entrance into the World , she brought forth the Holy Jesus , who , like Light through transparent glass , past through , or a ripe Pomegranate from a fruitful tree , fell to the earth , without doing violence to its Nurse and Parent : She had no ministers to attend but Angels , and neither her Poverty nor her Piety would permit her to provide other Nurses ; but her self did the offices of a tender and pious Parent . She kissed him and worshipped him , and thanked him that he would be born of her , and she suckled him , and bound him in her arms and swadling-bands ; and when she had 〈◊〉 to God her first scene of joy and Eucharist , she softly laid him in the manger , till her desires and his own necessities called her to take him , and to rock him softly in her arms and from this deportment she read a lecture of Piety and maternal care , which Mothers should perform toward their children when they are born , not to neglect any of that duty which nature and maternal piety requires . 4. Jesus was pleased to be born of a poor Mother in a poor place , in a cold winter's night , far from home , amongst strangers , with all the circumstances of humility and poverty . And no man will have cause to complain of his course Robe , if he remembers the swadling-clothes of this Holy Child ; nor to be disquieted at his hard Bed , when he considers Jesus laid in a manger ; nor to be discontented at his thin Table , when he calls to mind the King of Heaven and Earth was fed with a little breast-milk . But since the eternal wisdom of the Father , who knew to chuse the good and refuse the evil , did chuse a life of Poverty , it gives us demonstration , that Riches and Honors , those idols of the World's esteem , are so far from creating true felicities , that they are not of themselves eligible in the number of good things ; however , no man is to be ashamed of innocent Poverty , of which many wise men make Vows , and of which the Holy Jesus made election , and his Apostles after him made publick profession . And if any man will chuse and delight in the affluence of temporal good things , suffering himself to be transported with caitive affections in the pleasures of every day , he may well make a question whether he shall speed as well hereafter ; * since God's usual method is , that they only who follow Christ here shall be with him for ever . 5. The Condition of the person 〈◊〉 was born is here of greatest consideration . For he that cried in the Manger , that suck'd the paps of a Woman that hath exposed himself to Poverty and a world of inconveniences , is the Son of the living God , of the same substance with his Father , begotten before all Ages , before the Morning-stars ; he is GOD eternal . He is also , by reason of the personal Union of the Divinity with his Humane nature , the Son of God ; not by Adoption , as good Men and beatified Angels are , but by an extraordinary and miraculous Generation . He is the Heir of his Father's glories and possessions , not by succession , ( for his Father cannot die , ) but by an equality of communication . He is the express image of his Father's person according to both Natures ; the miracle and excess of his Godhead being , as upon wax , imprinted upon all the capacities of his Humanity . And after all this , he is our Saviour ; that to our duties of wonder and adoration we may add the affections of love and union , as himself , besides his being admirable in himself , is become profitable to us . Verè Verbum hoc est abbreviatum , saith the Prophet ; The eternal Word of the Father is shortned to the dimensions of an infant . 6. Here then are concentred the prodigles of Greatness and Goodness , of Wisdom and Charity , of Meekness and Humility , and march all the way in mysterie and incomprehensible mixtures ; if we consider him in the bosome of his Father , where he is seated by the postures of Love and essential Felicity ; and in the Manger , where Love also placed him , and an infinite desire to communicate his Felicities to us . As he is God , his Throne is in the Heaven , and he fills all things by his immensity : as he is Man , he is circumscribed by an uneasie Cradle , and cries in a Stable . As he is God , he is seated upon a super-exalted Throne ; as Man , exposed to the lowest estate of uneasiness and need . As God , clothed in a robe of Glory , at the same instant when you may behold and wonder at his Humanity wrapped in cheap and unworthy Cradle-bands . As God , he is incircled with millions of Angels ; as Man , in the company of Beasts . As God , he is the eternal Word of the Father , Eternal , sustained by himself , all-sufficient , and without need : and yet he submitted himself to a condition imperfect , inglorious , indigent and necessitous . And this consideration is apt and natural to produce great affections of love , duty and obedience , desires of union and conformity to his sacred Person , Life , Actions , and Laws ; that we resolve all our thoughts , and finally determine all our reason and our passions and capacities upon that saying of St. Paul , He that loves not the Lord Jesus Christ , let him be accursed . 7. Upon the consideration of these Glories , if a pious soul shall upon the supports of Faith and Love enter into the Stable where this great King was born , and with affections behold every member of the Holy Body , and thence pass into the Soul of Jesus , we may see a scheme of holy Meditations , enough to entertain all the degrees of our love and of our understanding , and make the mysterie of the Nativity as fruitful of holy thoughts as it was of Blessings to us . And it may serve instead of a description of the Person of Jesus conveyed to us in imperfect and Apocryphal schemes . If we could behold his sacred Feet with those affections which the Holy Virgin did , we have transmitted to us those Mysteries in story which she had first in part by spiritual and divine infused light , and afterwards by observation . Those holy Feet , tender and unable to support his sacred Body , should bear him over all the Province of his Cure with great zeal for the gaining of Souls to the belief and obedience of his holy Laws ; those are the Feet that should walk upon seas and hills of water as upon firm pavement ; at which the Lepers and diseased persons should stoop , and gather health up ; which Mary Magdalen should wash with tears , and wipe with her hair , and anoint with costly Nard , as expressions of love and adoration , and there find absolution and remedy for her sins ; and which finally should be rent by the nails of the Cross , and afterwards ascend above the Heavens , making the earth to be his foot-stool . From hence take patterns of imitation , that our Piety be symbolical , that our Affections be passionate and Eucharistical , full of love , and wonder , and adoration , that our feet tread in the same steps , and that we transfer the Symbol into Mystery , and the Mystery to Devotion , praying the Holy Jesus to actuate the same mercies in us which were finished at his holy feet , forgiving our sins , healing our sicknesses ; and then place our selves irremoveably , becoming his Disciples , and strictly observing the rules of his holy Institution , sitting at the feet of this our greatest Master . 8. In the same manner a pious person may ( with the Blessed Virgin ) pass to the consideration of his holy Hands , which were so often lifted up to God in Prayer ; whose touch was miraculous and medicinal , cleansing Lepers , restoring perishing limbs , opening blind eyes , raising dead persons to life ; those Hands which fed many thousands by two Miracles of multiplication , that purged the Temple from prophaneness , that in a sacramental manner bare his own Body , and gave it to be the food and refreshment of elect Souls , and after were cloven and rent upon the Cross , till the Wounds became ( after the Resurrection ) so many transparencies and glorious Instruments of solemn , spiritual and efficacious benediction . Transmit this meditation into affections and practices , lifting up pure hands in prayer , that our Devotions be united to the merits of his glorious Intercession ; and putting our selves into his hands and holy providence , let us beg those effects upon our Souls and spiritual Cures which his precious hands did operate upon their bodies , transferring those Similitudes to our ghostly and personal advantages . 9. We may also behold his holy Breast , and consider , that there lay that sacred Heart , like the Dove within the Ark , speaking peace to us , being the regiment of love and sorrows , the fountain of both the Sacraments , running out in the two holy streams of Bloud and Water , when the Rock was smitten , when his holy Side was pierced : and there with St. John let us lay our head , and place our heart , and thence draw a treasure of holy revelations and affections , that we may rest in him onely , and upon him lay our burthens , filling every corner of our heart with thoughts of the most amiable and beloved JESUS . 10. In like manner we may unite the Day of his Nativity with the day of his Passion , and consider all the parts of his Body as it was instrumental in all the work of our Redemption , and so imitate , and in some proportion partake of , that great variety of sweetnesses and amorous reflexes and gracious intercourses which passed between the Blessed Virgin and the Holy Child , according to his present capacities , and the clarity of that light which was communicated to her by Divine Infusion . And all the Members of this Blessed Child , his Eyes , his Face , his Head , all the Organs of his Senses afford variety of entertainment and motion to our Affections , according as they served in their several imployments and cooperations in the mysteries of our Restitution . 11. But his Body was but his Soul' s upper garment , and the considerations of this are as immaterial and spiritual as the Soul it self , and more immediate to the mystery of the Nativity . This Soul is of the same nature and substance with ours ; in this inferiour to the Angels , that of it self it is incompleat , and discursive in a lower order of ratiocination ; but in this superiour : 1. That it is personally united to the Divinity , full of the Holy Ghost , over-running with Grace , which was dispensed to it without measure . ( And by the mediation of this Union , as it self is exalted far above all orders of Intelligences , so we also have contracted alliance with God , teaching us not to unravel our excellencies by infamous deportments . ) 2. Here also we may meditate , that his Memory is indeterminable and unalterable , ever remembring to do us good , and to present our needs to God by the means of his holy intercession . 3. That his Understanding is without ignorance , knowing the secrets of our hearts , full of mysterious secrets of his Father's Kingdom , in which all the treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of God are hidden . 4. That his Will is impeccable , entertained with an uninterrupted act of Love to God , greater than all Angels and beatified spirits present to God in the midst of the transportations and ravishments of Paradise : That this Will is full of Love to us , of Humility in it self , of Conformity to God , wholly resign'd by acts of Adoration and Obedience . It was moved by six Wings ; Zeal of the honour of God , and Compunction for our sins , Pity to our miseries , and Hatred of our impieties . Desires of satisfying the wrath of God , and great Joy at the consideration of all the fruits of his Nativity , the appeasing of his Father , the redemption of his brethren . And upon these wings he mounted up into the throne of Glory , carrying our nature with him above the seats of Angels . These second considerations present themselves to all that with Piety and Devotion behold the Holy Babe lying in the obscure and humble place of his Nativity . The PRAYER . HOly and Immortal Jesus , I adore and worship thee with the lowest prostrations and humility of Soul and body , and give thee all thanks for that great Love to us whereof thy Nativity hath made demonstration ; for that Humility of thine expressed in the poor and ignoble circumstances which thou didst voluntarily chuse in the manner of thy Birth . And I present to thy holy Humanity inchased in the adorable Divinity my Body and Soul ; humbly desiring , that as thou didst clothe thy self with a Humane body , thou mayest invest me with the robes of Righteousness , covering my sins , inabling my weaknesses , and sustaining my mortality , till I shall finally in conformity to thy Beauties and Perfections be clothed with the stole of Glory . Amen . 2. VOuchsafe to come to me by a more intimate and spiritual approximation , that so thou mayest lead me to thy Father ; for of my self I cannot move one step towards thee . Take me by the hand , place me in thy heart , that there I may live , and there I may die : that as thou hast united our Nature to thy Eternal Being , thou mightest also unite my Person to thine by the interiour adunations of Love , and Obedience , and Conformity . Let thy Ears be open to my prayers , thy merciful Eyes look upon my miseries , thy holy Hands be stretched out to my relief and succour : let some of those precious distilling Tears which nature , and thy compassion , and thy Sufferings did cause to distill and drop from those sacred fontinels , water my stony heart , and make it soft , apt for the impressions of a melting , obedient and corresponding love ; and moisten mine eyes , that I may upon thy stock of pity and weeping mourn for my sins , that so my tears and sorrows , being drops of water coming from that holy Rock , may indeed be united unto thine , and made precious by such holy mixtures . Amen . 3. BLessed Jesus , now that thou hast sanctified and exalted Humane nature , and made even my Body precious by a personal uniting it to the Divinity , teach me so reverently to account of it , that I may not dare to prophane it with impure lusts or caitive affections , and unhallow that ground where thy holy feet have troden . Give to me ardent desires , and efficacious prosecutions of these holy effects which thou didst design for us in thy Nativity , and other parts of our Redemption : give me great confidence in thee , which thou hast encouraged by the exhibition of so glorious favours ; great sorrow and confusion of face at the sight of mine own imperfections , and estrangements , and great distances from thee , and the perfections of thy Soul ; and bring me to thee by the strictnesses of a Zealous and affectionate imitation of those Sanctities which , next to the hypostatical Union , added lustre and excellency to thy Humanity , that I may live here with thee in the expresses of a holy life , and die with thee by mortification and an unwearied patience , and reign with thee in immortal glories world without end . Amen . DISCOURSE I. Of Nursing Children , in imitation of the Blessed Virgin-Mother . 1. THese later Ages of the world have declined into a Softness above the effeminacy of Asian Princes , and have contracted customes which those innocent and healthful days of our Ancestors knew not , whose Piety was natural , whose Charity was operative , whose Policy was just and valiant , and whose Oeconomy was sincere and proportionable to the dispositions and requisites of Nature . And in this particular the good women of * old gave one of their instances ; the greatest personages nurst their own Children , did the work of Mothers , and thought it was unlikely women should become vertuous by ornaments and superadditions of Morality , who did decline the laws and prescriptions of Nature , whose principles supply us with the first and most common rules of Manners and more perfect actions . In imitation of whom , and especially of the Virgin Mary , who was Mother and Nurse to the Holy Jesus , I shall endeavour to correct those softnesses and unnatural rejections of Children , which are popular up to a custom and fashion , even where no necessities of Nature or just Reason can make excuse . 2. And I cannot think the Question despicable , and the Duty of meanest consideration ; although it be specified in an office of small esteem , and suggested to us by the principles of Reason , and not by express sanctions of Divinity . For although other actions are more perfect and spiritual , yet this is more natural and humane ; other things being superadded to a full Duty rise higher , but this builds stronger , and is like a part of the foundation , having no lustre , but much strength ; and however the others are full of ornament , yet this hath in it some degrees of necessity , and possibly is with more danger and irregularity omitted than actions which spread their leaves fairer , and look more gloriously . 3. First , here I consider , that there are many sins in the scene of the Body and the matter of Sobriety which are highly criminal , and yet the Laws of God expressed in Scripture name them not ; but men are taught to distinguish them by that Reason which is given us by nature , and is imprinted in our understanding in order to the conservation of humane kind . For since every creature hath something in it sufficient to propagate the kind , and to conserve the individuals from perishing in confusions and general disorders , which in Beasts we call Instinct , that is , an habitual or prime disposition to do certain things which are proportionable to the End whither it is designed ; Man also , if he be not more imperfect , must have the like : and because he knows and makes reflexions upon his own acts , and understands the reason of it , that which in them is Instinct , in him is natural Reason , which is , a desire to preserve himself and his own kind , and differs from Instinct , because he understands his Instinct and the reasonableness of it , and they do not . But Man being a higher thing even in the order of creation , and designed to a more noble End in his animal capacity , his Argumentative Instinct is larger than the Natural Instinct of Beasts : for he hath Instincts in him in order to the conservation of Society , and therefore hath Principles , that is , he hath natural desires to it for his own good ; and because he understands them , they are called Principles , and Laws of Nature , but are no other than what I have now declared ; for Beasts do the same things we do , and have many the same inclinations , which in us are the Laws of Nature , even all which we have in order to our common End. But that which in Beasts is Nature and an impulsive force , in us must be duty and an inviting power : we must do the same things with an actual or habitual designation of that End to which God designs Beasts , ( supplying by his wisdom their want of understanding ) and then what is mere Nature in them , in us is Natural reason . And therefore Marriage in men is made sacred , when the mixtures of other creatures are so merely natural , that they are not capable of being vertuous ; because men are bound to intend that End which God made . And this , with the superaddition of other Ends , of which Marriage is representative in part , and in part effective , does consecrate Marriage , and makes it holy and mysterious . But then there are in marriage many duties which we are taught by Instinct ; that is , by that Reason whereby we understand what are the best means to promote the End which we have assigned us . And by these Laws all unnatural mixtures are made unlawful , and the decencies which are to be observed in Marriage are prescribed us by this . 4. Secondly , Upon the supposition of this Discourse I consider again , that although to observe this Instinct or these Laws of Nature ( in which I now have instanced ) be no great vertue in any eminency of degree , ( as no man is much commended for not killing himself , or for not degenerating into beastly Lusts ; ) yet to prevaricate some of these Laws may become almost the greatest sin in the world . And therefore although to live according to Nature be a testimony fit to give to a sober and a temperate man , and rises no higher ; yet to do an action against Nature is the greatest dishonour and impiety in the world , ( I mean of actions whose scene lies in the Body ) and disentitles us to all relations to God , and vicinity to Vertue . 5. Thirdly , Now amongst actions which we are taught by Nature , some concern the being and the necessities of Nature , some appertain to her convenience and advantage : and the transgressions of these respectively have their heightnings or depressions ; and therefore to kill a man is worse than some preternatural pollutions , because more destructive of the end and designation of Nature , and the purpose of instinct . 6. Fourthly , Every part of this Instinct is then in some sense a Law , when it is in a direct order to a necessary End , and by that is made reasonable . I say [ in some sence ] it is a Law , that is , it is in a near disposition to become a Law. It is a Rule without obligation to a particular punishment , beyond the effect of the natural inordination and obliquity of the act ; it is not the measure of a moral good or evil , but of the natural , that is , of comely and uncomely . For if in the individuals it should fail , or that there pass some greater obligation upon the person in order to a higher end , not consistent with those means designed in order to the lesser end , in that particular it is no fault , but sometimes a vertue . And therefore although it be an Instinct , or reasonable towards many purposes , that every one should beget a man in his own image , in order to the preservation of nature : yet if there be a superaddition of another and higher end , and contrary means perswaded in order to it , ( such as is holy Coelibate or Virginity in order to a spiritual life , in some persons ) there the instinct of Nature is very far from passing obligation upon the Conscience , and in that instance ceases to be reasonable . And therefore the Romans , who invited men to marriage with priviledges , and punished morose and ungentle natures that refused it , yet they had their chaste and unmarried Vestals ; the first , in order to the Commonwealth ; these , in a nearer order to Religion . 7. Fifthly , These Instincts or reasonable inducements become Laws , obliging us in Conscience and in the way of Religion , and the breach of them is directly criminal , when the instance violates any end of Justice , or Charity , or Sobriety , either designed in Nature's first intention , or superinduced by God or man. For every thing that is unreasonable to some certain purpose is not presently criminal , much less is it against the Law of Nature , ( unless every man that goes out of his way sins against the Law of Nature ; ) and every contradicting of a natural desire or inclination is not a sin against a law of Nature . For the restraining sometimes of a lawful and a permitted desire is an act of great Vertue , and pursues a greater reason ; as in the former instance . But those things only against which such a reason as mixes with Charity or Justice , or something that is now in order to a farther end of a commanded instance of Piety , may be without errour brought , those things are only criminal . And God having first made our instincts reasonable , hath now made our Reason and Instincts to be spiritual ; and having sometimes restrained our Instincts , and always made them regular , he hath by the intermixture of other principles made a separation of Instinct from Instinct , leaving one in the form of natural inclination , and they rise no higher than a permission or a decency , it is lawful , or it is comely so to do : ( for no man can asfirm it to be a Duty to kill him that assaults my life , or to maintain my children for ever without their own industry , when they are able , what degrees of natural fondness 〈◊〉 I have towards them ; nor that I sin , if I do not marry , when I can contain ) and yet every one of these may proceed from the affections and first inclinations of Nature ; but until they mingle with Justice , or Charity , or some instance of Religion and Obedience , they are no Laws ; the other that are so mingled being raised to Duty and Religion . Nature inclines us , and Reason judges it apt and requisite in order to certain ends ; but then every particular of it is made to be an act of Religion from some other principle : as yet , it is but fit and reasonable not Religion and particular Duty , till God or man hath interposed . But whatsoever particular in nature was fit to be made a Law of Religion , is made such by the superaddition of another principle : and this is derived to us by tradition from Adam to Noah , or else transmitted to us by the consent of all the world upon a natural and prompt reason , or else by some other instrument derived to us from God , but especially by the Christian Religion , which hath adopted all those things which we call things honest , things comely , and things of good report , into a law and a duty , as appears Phil. 4. 8. 8. Upon these Propositions I shall infer by way of Instance , that it is a Duty that Women should nurse their own Children . For first , it is taught to women by that Instinct which Nature hath implanted in them . For , as Favorinus the Philosopher discoursed , it is but to be half a Mother to bring forth Children , and not to nourish them : and it is some kind of Abortion , or an exposing of the Infant , which in the reputation of all wise Nations is infamous and uncharitable . And if the name of Mother be an appellative of affection and endearments , why should the Mother be willing to divide it with a stranger ? The Earth is the Mother of us all , not only because we were made of her Red clay , but chiefly that she daily gives us food from her bowels and breasts ; and Plants and Beasts give nourishment to their off-springs , after their production , with greater tenderness than they bare them in their wombs : and yet Women give nourishment to the Embryo , which whether it be deformed or perfect they know not , and cannot love what they never saw ; and yet when they do see it , when they have rejoyced that a Child is born , and forgotten the sorrows of production , they who then can first begin to love it , if they begin to divorce the Infant from the Mother , the Object from the Affection , cut off the opportunities and occasions of their Charity or Piety . 9. For why hath Nature given to women two exuberant Fontinels , which like two Rocs that are twins feed among the Lilics , and drop milk like dew from Hermon , and hath (a) invited that nourishment from the secret recesses where the Infant dwelt at first , up to the Breast where naturally now the Child is cradled in the entertainments of love and maternal embraces ; but that Nature having removed the Babe , and carried its meat after it , intends that it should be (b) preserved by the matter and ingredients of its constitution , and have the same diet prepared with a more mature and proportionable digestion ? If Nature intended them not for Nourishment , I am sure it less intended them for Pride and wantonness ; they are needless Excrescences and Vices of Nature , unless imployed in Nature's work and proper intendment . And if it be a matter of consideration of what bloud Children are derived : we may also consider , that the derivation continues after the birth , and therefore , abating the sensuality , the Nurse is as much the Mother as she that brought it forth ; and so much the more , as there is a longer communication of constituent nourishment ( for so are the first emanations ) in this than in the other . So that here is first the Instinct or prime intendment of Nature . 10. Secondly , And that this Instinct may also become humane and reasonable , we see it by experience in many places , that Foster-Children are dearer to the Nurse than to the Mother , as receiving and ministring respectively perpetual prettinesses of love , and fondness , and trouble , and need , and invitations , and all the instruments of indearment ; besides a vicinity of dispositions and relative tempers by the communication of bloud and spirits from the Nurse to the Suckling , which makes use the more natural , and nature more accustomed . And therefore the affections which these exposed or derelict Children bear to their Mothers have no grounds of nature or assiduity , but civility and opinion ; and that little of love which is abated from the Foster-parents upon publick report that they are not natural , that little is transferred to Mothers upon the same opinion , and no more . Hence come those unnatural aversions , those unrelenting dispositions , those carelesnesses and incurious deportments towards their Children , which are such ill-sown seeds , from whence may arise up a bitterness of disposition and mutual provocation . The affection which Children bear to their Nurses was highly remarked in the instance of Scipio Asiaticus , who rejected the importunity of his Brother Africanus in behalf of the ten Captains who were condemned for offering violence to the Vestals , but pardoned them at the request of his Foster-sister : and being asked why he did more for his Nurse's Daughter than for his own Mother's Son , gave this answer , I esteem her rather to be my Mother that brought me up , than her that bare me and forsook me . And I have read the observation , That many Tyrants have killed their Mothers , but never any did violence to his Nurse ; as if they were desirous to suck the bloud of their Mother raw , which she refused to give to them digested into milk . And the Bastard-Brother of the Gracchi , returning from his Victories in Asia to Rome , presented his Mother with a Jewel of Silver , and his Nurse with a Girdle of Gold , upon the same account . Sometimes Children are exchanged , and artificial Bastardies introduced into a Family , and the right Heir supplanted . It happened so to Artabanus King of Epirus : his Child was changed at nurse , and the Son of a mean Knight succeeded in the Kingdom . The event of which was this : The Nurse too late discovered the Treason ; a bloudy War was commenced , both the Pretenders slain in Battel , and the Kingdom it self was usurped by Alexander the Brother to Olympias , the wife of Philip the Macedonian . At the best , though there happen no such extravagant and rare accidents , yet it is not likely a Stranger should love the Child better than the Mother : and if the Mother's care could suffer it to be exposed , a Stranger 's care may suffer it to be neglected . For how shall an Hireling endure the inconveniences , the tediousnesses and unhandsomnesses of a Nursery , when she , whose natural affection might have made it pleasant , out of wantonness or softness hath declined the burthen ? But the sad accidents which by too frequent observation are daily seen happening to Nurse-children give great probation , that this intendment of Nature designing Mothers to be the Nurses , that their affection might secure and increase their care , and the care best provide for their Babes , is most reasonable , and proportionable to the discourses of Humanity . 11. But as this instinct was made reasonable , so in this also the reason is in order to grace and spiritual effects ; and therefore is among those things which God hath separated from the common Instincts of Nature , and made properly to be Laws , by the mixtures of Justice and Charity . For it is part of that Education which Mothers as a duty owe to their children , that they do in all circumstances , and with all their powers which God to that purpose gave them , * promote their capacities and improve their faculties . Now in this also , as the temper of the Body is considerable in order to the inclinations of the Soul , so is the Nurse in order to the temper of the Body : and a Lamb sucking a Goat , or a Kid sucking an Ewe , change their fleece and hair respectively , say Naturalists . For if the Soul of Man were put into the body of a Mole , it could not see nor speak , because it is not fitted with an Instrument apt and organical to the faculty : and when the Soul hath its proper Instruments , its musick is pleasant or harsh according to the sweetness or the unevenness of the string it touches : for David himself could not have charmed Saul's melancholick spirit with the strings of his Bow , or the wood of his Spear . And just so are the actions or dispositions of the Soul , angry or pleasant , lustful or cold , querulous or passionate , according as the Body is disposed by the various intermixtures of natural qualities . And as the carelesness of Nurses hath sometimes returned Children to their Parents crooked , consumptive , half starved , and unclean from the impurities of Nature : so their society and their nourishment together have disposed them to peevishness , to lust , to drunkenness , to pride ; to low and base demeanours , to stubbornness . And as a man would have been unwilling to have had a Child by Harpaste , Seneca's wife's Fool ; so he would in all reason be as unwilling to have had her to be the Nurse : for very often Mothers by the birth do not transmit their imperfections , yet it seldome happens but the Nurse does . Which is the more considerable , because Nurses are commonly persons of no great rank , certainly lower than the Mother , and by consequence liker to return their Children with the lower and more servile conditions : and commonly those vainer people teach them to be peevish and proud , to lie , or at least seldom give them any first principles contrariant to the Nurse's vice . And therefore it concerns the Parents care , in order to a vertuous life of the Child , to secure its first seasonings ; because , whatever it sucks in first , it swallows and believes infinitely , and practises easily , and continues longest . And this is more proper for a Mother's care , while the Nurse thinks that giving the Child suck , and keeping its body clean , is all her duty . But the Mother cannot think her self so easily discharged . And this consideration is material in all cases , be the choice of the Nurse never so prudent and curious : and it is not easily apprehended to be the portion of her care to give it spiritual milk , and therefore it intrenches very much upon Impiety and positive relinquishing the education of their Children , when Mothers expose the spirit of the Child either to its own weaker inclinations , or the wicked principles of an ungodly Nurse , or the carelesness of any less-obliged person . 12. And then let me add , That a Child sucks the Nurse's milk , and digests her conditions , if they be never so * bad , seldom gets any good . For Vertue being superaddition to Nature , and Perfections not radical in the body , but contradictions to and meliorations of natural indispositions , does not easily convey it self by ministrations of food , as Vice does , which in most instances is nothing but mere Nature grown to Custom , and not mended by Grace : so that it is probable enough , such natural distemperatures may pass in the rivulets of milk , like evil spirits in a white garment , when Vertues are of harder purchase , and dwell so low in the heart , that they but rarely pass through the fountains of generation . And therefore let no Mother venture her child upon a stranger , whose heart she less knows than her own . And because few of those nicer women think better of others than themselves , ( since out of self-love they neglect their own bowels ) it is but an act of improvidence to let my Child derive imperfections from one of whom I have not so good an opinion as of my self . 13. And if those many blessings and holy prayers which the Child needs , or his askings or sicknesses , or the Mother's fears or joyes respectively do occasion , should not be cast into this account ; yet those principles which in all cases wherein the neglect is vicious are the causes of the exposing the Child , are extremely against the Piety and Charity of Christian Religion , which prescribes severity and austere deportment , and the labours of love , and exemplar tenderness of affections , and piety to children , which are the most natural and nearest relations the Parents have . That Religion which commands us to visit and to tend sick strangers , and wash the feet of the poor , and dress their ulcers , and sends us upon charitable embassies into unclean prisons , and bids us lay down our lives for one another ; is not pleased with a niceness and sensual curiosity ( that I may not name the wantonnesses of lusts ) which denies suck to our own children . What is more humane and affectionate than Christianity ? and what is less natural and charitable than to deny the expresses of a Mother's affection ? which certainly to good women is the greatest trouble in the world , and the greatest violence to their desires , if they should not express and minister . 14. And it would be considered , whether those Mothers who have neglected their first Duties of Piety and Charity can expect so prompt and easie returns of Duty and Piety from their Children , whose best foundation is Love , and that love strongest which is most natural , and that most natural which is conveyed by the first ministeries and impresses of Nourishment and Education . And if Love descends more strongly than it ascends , and commonly falls from the Parents upon the Children in Cataracts , and returns back again up to the Parents but in gentle Dews ; if the Child's affection keeps the same proportions towards such unkind Mothers , it will be as little as atoms in the Sun , and never express it self but when the Mother needs it not , that is , in the Sun-shine of a clear fortune . 15. This then is amongst those Instincts which are natural , heightned first by Reason , and then exalted by Grace into the obligation of a Law : and being amongst the Sanctions of Nature , its prevarication is a crime very near those sins which Divines , in detestation of their malignity , call Sins against Nature , and is never to be excused but in , cases of * Necessity or greater Charity ; as when the Mother cannot be a Nurse by reason of natural disability , or is afflicted with a disease which might be 〈◊〉 in the milk , or in case of the publick necessities of a Kingdom , for the securing of Succession in the Royal Family . And yet concerning this last Lycurgus made a Law , that the Noblest amongst the Spartan women , though their Kings Wives , should at least nurse their Eldest son , and the Plebeians should nurse all theirs : and Plutarch reports , that the second son of King Themistes inherited the Kingdom in Sparta , only because he was nursed with his Mother's milk , and the eldest was therefore rejected because a stranger was his Nurse . And that Queens have suckled and nursed their own children , is no very unusual kindness in the simplicity and hearty affections of elder Ages , as is to be seen in Herodotus and other Historians . I shall only remark one instance out of the Spanish Chronicles , which Henry Stephens in his Apology for Herodotus reports to have heard from thence related by a noble personage , Monsieur Marillac ; That a Spanish Lady married into France nursed her child with so great a tenderness and jealousie , that having understood the little Prince once to have suck'd a stranger , she was unquiet till she had forced him to vomit it up again . In other cases the crime lies at their door who inforce neglect upon the other , and is heightned in proportion to the motive of the omission ; as if Wantonness or Pride be the parent of the crime , the Issue , besides its natural deformity , hath the excrescencies of Pride or Lust to make it more ugly . 16. To such Mothers I propound the example of the Holy Virgin , who had the honour to be visited by an Angel yet , after the example of the Saints in the Old Testament , she gave to the Holy Jesus drink from those bottles which himself had filled for his own drinking ; and her Paps were as surely blessed for giving him suck , as her Womb for bearing him ; and reads a Lecture of Piety and Charity , which if we deny to our children , there is then in the world left no argument or relation great enough to kindle it from a cinder to a flame . God gives dry breasts , for a curse to some , for an affliction to others ; but those that invite it to them by voluntary arts , love not blessing , therefore shall it be far from them . And I remember that it was said concerning Annius Minutius the Censor , that he thought it a prodigy and extremely ominous to Rome , that a Roman Lady refused to nurse her Child , and yet gave suck to a Puppy , that her milk might with more safety be dried up with artificial applications . Let none therefore divide the interests of their own Children : for she that appeared before Solomon , and would have the Child divided , was not the true Mother , and was the more culpable of the two . The PRAYER . O Holy and Eternal God , Father of the Creatures , and King of all the World , who hast imprinted in all the sons of thy Creation principles and abilities to serve the end of their own preservation , and to Men hast superadded Reason , making those first propensities of Nature to be reasonable in order to Society , and a conversation in Communities and Bodies politick , and hast by several laws and revelations directed our Reasons to nearer applications to thee , and performance of thy great End , the glory of our Lord and Father ; teach me strictly to observe the order of Creation , and the designs of the Creatures , that in my order I may do that service which every creature does in its proper capacity . Lord , let me be as constant in the ways of Religion as the Sun in his course , as ready to follow the intimations of thy Spirit as little Birds are to obey the directions of thy Providence and the conduct of thy hand ; and let me never by evil customs , or vain company , or false persuasions , extinguish those principles of Morality and right Reason which thou hast imprinted in my understanding , in my creation and education , and which thou hast ennobled by the superadditions of Christian institution : that I may live according to the rules of Nature in such things which she teaches , modestly , temperately and affectionately , in all the parts of my natural and political relations ; and that I , proceeding from Nature to Grace , may henceforth go on from Grace to Glory , the crown of all Obedience , prudent and holy walking , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . SECT . IV. Of the great and glorious Accidents happening about the Birth of JESVS . The Angels appearing to the Shepherds . S. LUKE . 2. 14. Glory to God in the highest , and on earth peace , good will towards men . The Epiphanie . S. MAT : 2. 11. When they had opened their treasures , they presented unto him gifts , Gold , and Frank incense , and Myrrhe . 1. ALthough the Birth of Christ was destitute of the usual excrescences and less necessary Pomps which used to signifie and illustrate the birth of Princes ; yet his first Humility was made glorious with Presages , Miracles , and Significations from Heaven , which did not only , like the furniture of a Princely Bed-chamber , speak the riches of the Parent , or greatness of the Son within its own walls , but did declare to all the world that their Prince was born , publishing it with figures and representments almost as great as its Empire . 2. For when all the world did expect that in Judaea should be born their Prince , and that the incredulous world had in their observation slipt by their true Prince , because he came not in pompous and secular illustrations ; upon that very stock Vespasian was nurs'd up in hope of the Roman Empire , and that hope made him great in designs , and they being prosperous made his fortunes correspond to his hopes , and he was indeared and engaged upon that fortune by the Prophecy which was never intended him by the Prophet . But the fortune of the Roman Monarchy was not great enough for this Prince design'd by the old Prophets . And therefore it was not without the influence of a Divinity , that his Decessor Augustus about the time of Christ's Nativity refused to be called LORD : possibly it was , to entertain the people with some hopes of restitution of their Liberties , till he had grip'd the Monarchy with a stricter and faster hold ; but the Christians were apt to believe , that it was upon the 〈◊〉 of a Sibyll foretelling the birth of a greater Prince , to whom all the world should pay adoration ; and that the Prince was about that time born in Judaea , the Oracle which was dumb to Augustus's question told him unask'd , the Devil having no tongue permitted him , but one to proclaim that an Hebrew child was his Lord and Enemy . 3. At the Birth of which Child there was an universal Peace through all the World. For then it was that Augustus Caesar , having composed all the Wars of the World , did the third time cause the gates of Janus's Temple to be shut ; and this Peace continued for twelve years , even till the extreme old age of the Prince , until rust had sealed the Temple doors , which opened not till the Sedition of the 〈◊〉 and the Rebellion of the Dacians caused Augustus to arm . For he that was born was the Prince of Peace , and came to reconcile God with man , and man with his brother ; and to make , by the sweetness of his Example , and the influence of a holy Doctrine , such happy atonements between disagreeing natures , such confederations and 〈◊〉 between Enemies , that the Wolf and the Lamb should lie down together , and a little child boldly and without danger put his finger in the nest and cavern of an Asp : and it could be no less than miraculous , that so great a Body as the Roman Empire , consisting of so many parts , whose Constitutions were differing , their Humours contrary , their Interests contradicting each others greatness , and all these violently oppressed by an usurping power , should have no limb out of joynt , not so much as an aking tooth or a rebelling humour in that huge collection of parts : but so it seemed good in the eye of Heaven , by so great and good a symbol to declare not only the Greatness , but the Goodness of the Prince that was then born in Judaea , the Lord of all the World. 4. But because the Heavens , as well as the Earth , are his Creatures , and do serve him , at his Birth he received a sign in Heaven above , as well as in the Earth beneath , as an homage paid to their common Lord. For as certain Shepherds were keeping watch over their slocks by night , near that part where Jacob did use to feed his cattel when he was in the land of Canaan , the Angel of the Lord came upon them , and the glory of the Lord shone round about them . Needs must the Shepherds be afraid , when an Angel came arrayed in glory , and clothed their persons in a robe of light , great enough to confound their senses and scatter their understandings . But the Angel said unto them , Fear not , for I bring unto you tidings of great joy which shall be to all people . For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour , which is Christ the Lord. The Shepherds needed not be invited to go see this glorious sight ; but lest their fancy should rise up to an expectation of a Prince as externally glorious as might be hoped for upon the consequence of so glorious an Apparition , the Angel , to prevent the mistake , told them of a Sign , which indeed was no other than the thing 〈◊〉 ; but yet was therefore a Sign , because it was so remote from the common probability and exspectation of such a birth , that by being a Miracle , so great a Prince should be born so poorly , it became an instrument to signifie it self and all the other parts of mysterious consequence . For the Angel said , This shall be a sign unto you , Ye shall find the Babe wrapt in swadling-cloaths , lying in a manger . 5. But as Light , when it first begins to gild the East , scatters indeed the darknesses from the earth , but ceases not to increase its 〈◊〉 till it hath made perfect day : so it happened now in this Apparition of the Angel of light , he appeared and told his message , and did shine , but the light arose higher and higher , till midnight was as bright as mid-day ; for suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly 〈◊〉 : and after the Angel had told his Message in plain-song , the whole Chorus joyned in descant , and sang an Hymn to the tune and sence of Heaven , where glory is paid to God in eternal and never-ceasing offices , and whence good will descends upon men in perpetual and never-stopping torrents . Their Song was , Glory be to God on high , on earth peace , good will towards men : by this Song not only * referring to the strange Peace which at that time put all the World in 〈◊〉 , but to the great Peace which this new-born Prince should make between his Father and all Mankind . 6. As soon as these blessed Choristers had sung their Christmas Carol , and taught the Church a Hymn to put into her Offices for ever in the anniversary of this Festivity , the Angels returned into Heaven , and the Shepherds went to Bethlehem , to see this thing which the Lord had made known unto them . And they came with haste , and sound Mary and Joseph , and the Babe lying in a manger . Just as the Angel had prepared their expectation , they found the narrative verified , and saw the glory and the mystery of it by that representment which was made by the heavenly Ministers , seeing GOD through the veil of a Child's flesh , the Heir of Heaven wrapt in Swadling-clothes , and a person to whom the Angels did minister laid in a Manger ; and they beheld , and wondred , and worshipped . 7. But as precious Liquor warmed and heightned by a flame first crowns the vessel , and then dances over its brim into the fire , increasing the cause of its own motion and extravagancy : so it happened to the Shepherds , whose hearts being filled with the oil of gladness up unto the brim , the Joy ran over , as being too big to be consined in their own breasts , and did communicate it self , growing greater by such dissemination : for when they had seen it , they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this Child . And ( as well they might ) all that heard it wondred . But Mary , having first changed her joy into wonder , turned her wonder into entertainments of the mystery , and the mystery into a fruition and cohabitation with it : For Mary kept all these sayings , and pondered them in her heart . And the Shepherds having seen what the Angels did upon the publication of the news , which less concerned them than us , had learnt their duty , to sing an honour to God for the Nativity of Christ : For the Shepherds returned , glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen , as it was told unto them . 8. But the Angels had told the Shepherds that the Nativity was glad tidings of great joy unto all people : and , that the Heavens might declare the glory of God , and the firmament shew his handy-work , this also was told abroad even to the Gentiles by a sign from Heaven , by the message of a Star. For there was a Prophecy of Balaam famous in all the Eastern Countrey , and recorded by Moses , There shall come a Star out of Jacob , and a Scepter shall arise out of Israel : Out of Jacob shall come he that shall have dominion . Which although in its first sence it signified David , who was the conqueror of the Moabites ; yet , in its more mysterious and chiefly-intended sence , it related to the Son of David . And in expectation of the event of this Prophecy , the Arabians , the sons of Abraham by Keturah , whose portion given by their Patriarch was Gold , Frankincense and Myrrh , who were great lovers of Astronomy , did with diligence expect the revelation of a mighty Prince in Judaea at such time when a miraculous and extraordinary Star should appear : And therefore when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of 〈◊〉 in the days of Herod the King , there came wise men , inspired by God , taught by Art , and perswaded by Prophecy , from the East to Jerusalem , saying , Where is he that is born King of the Jews ? for we have seen his Star in the East , and are come to worship him . The Greeks suppose this which was called a Star to have been indeed an Angel in a pillar of fire , and the semblance of a Star ; and it is made the more likely , by coming and standing directly over the humble roof of his Nativity , which is not discernible in the station of a Star , though it be supposed to be lower than the Orb of the Moon . To which if we add , that they only saw it , ( so far as we know , ) and that it appeared as it were by voluntary periods , it will not be very improbable but that it might be like the Angel that went before the sons of Israel in a pillar of fire by night , or rather like the little shining Stars sitting upon the Bodies of 〈◊〉 , Tharacus and Andronicus , Martyrs , when their bodies were searched for , in the days of Diocletian , and pointed at by those bright Angels . 9. This Star did not trouble Herod , till the Levantine Princes expounded the mysteriousness of it , and said it declared a King to be born in Jewry , and that the Star was his , not applicable to any signification but of a King's birth . And therefore although it was * no Prodigy nor Comet , foretelling Diseases , Plagues , War , and Death , but only the happy Birth of a most excellent Prince ; yet it brought affrightment to Herod and all Jerusalem : For when Herod the King had heard these things , he was troubled , and all Jerusalem with him . And thinking that the question of the Kingdom was now in dispute , and an Heir sent from Heaven to lay challenge to it , who brought a Star and the Learning of the East with him for evidence and probation of his Title , Herod thought there was no security to his usurped possession ; unless he could rescind the decrees of Heaven , and reverse the results and eternal counsels of Predestination . And he was resolved to venture it , first by craft , and then by violence . 10. And first , he calls the chief Priests and Scribes of the people together , and demanded of them , where CHRIST should be born ; and found by their joynt determination that Bethlehem of Judaea was the place designed by ancient Prophecy and God's Decree . Next he enquired of the Wise men concerning the Star , but privily , what time it appeared . For the Star had not motion certain and regular , by the laws of Nature ; but it so guided the Wise men in their journey , that it stood when they stood , moved not when they rested , and went forward when they were able , making no more haste than they did , who carried much of the business and imployment of the Star along with them . But when Herod was satisfied in his questions , he sent them to Bethlehem , with instructions to search diligently for the young child , and to bring him word , pretending that he would come and worship him also . 11. The Wise men prosecuted the business of their journey , and having heard the King , they departed , and the Star ( which , as it seems , attended their motion ) went before them , until it came and stood over where the young Child was ; where when they saw the Star , they rejoyced with exceeding great joy . Such a Joy as is usual to wearied Travellers when they are entring into their Inne , such a joy as when our hopes and greatest longings are laying hold upon the proper objects of their desires , a joy of certainty immediately before the possession : for that is the greatest Joy , which possesses before it is satisfied , and rejoyces with a joy not abated by the surfeits of possession , but heightned with all the apprehensions and fancies of hope , and the neighbourhood of fruition ; a joy of Nature , of Wonder , and of Religion . And now their hearts laboured with a throng of spirits and passions , and ran into the house to the embracement of Jesus even before their feet : But when they were come into the house , they saw the young Child with Mary his mother . And possibly their expectation was something lessened and their wonder heightned , when they saw their hope empty of pomp and gayety , the great King's Throne to be a Manger , a Stable to his Chamber of presence , a thin Court , and no Ministers , and the King himself a pretty Babe , and , but that he had a Star over his head , nothing to distinguish him from the common condition of children , or to excuse him from the miseries of a poor and empty fortune . 12. This did not scandalize those wise persons , but being convinced by that Testimony from Heaven , and the union of all Circumstances , they fell down and worshipped him , after the manner of the Easterlings when they do veneration to their Kings ; not with an empty Ave and gay blessing of fine words , but they bring presents , and come into his Courts ; for when they had opened their treasures , they presented unto him gifts , Gold , Frankincense , and Myrrh . And if these Gifts were mysterious beyond the acknowledgment of him to be the King of the Jews , and Christ that should come into the world ; Frankincense might signifie him to be acknowledged a God , Myrrh to be a Man , and Gold to be a King : Unless we chuse by Gold to signifie the acts of Mercy , by Myrrh the Chastity of minds and Purity of our bodies , to the incorruption of which Myrrh is especially instrumental , and by 〈◊〉 we intend our * Prayers , as the most apt presents and oblations to the honour and service of this young King. But however the fancies of Religion may represent variety of Idea's , the act of Adoration was direct and religious , and the Myrrh was medicinal to his tender body ; the Incense possibly no more than was necessary in a Stable , the first throne of his Humility ; and the Gold was a good Antidote against the present indigencies of his Poverty : Presents such as were used in all the Levant , ( especially in Arabia and Saba , to which the growth of Myrrh and Frankincense were proper ) in their addresses to their God and to their King , and were instruments with which under the veil of Flesh they worshipped the Eternal Word ; the Wisdom of God under infant Innocency , the Almighty Power in so great Weakness , and under the lowness of Humane nature the altitude of Majesty and the infinity of Divine Glory . And so was verified the prediction of the Prophet * Esay under the type of the son of the Prophetess , Before a child shall have knowledge to cry , My Father and my Mother , he shall take the spoil of Damascus and Samaria from before the King of Assyria . 13. When they had paid the tribute of their Offerings and Adoration , Being warned in their sleep by an Angel not to return to Herod , they returned into their own countrey another way : where , having been satisfied with the pleasures of Religion , and taught by that rare demonstration which was made by Christ , how Man's Happiness did nothing at all consist in the affluence of worldly Possessions , or the tumours of Honour ; having seen the Eternal Son of God poor and weak , and unclothed of all exteriour Ornaments ; they renounced the World , and retired empty into the recesses of Religion , and the delights of Philosophy . Ad SECT . IV. Considerations upon the Apparition of the Angels to the Shepherds . 1. WHen the Angels saw that come to pass which Gabriel the great Embassador of God had declared , that which had been prayed for and expected four thousand years , and that by the merits of this new-born Prince their younger brethren and inferiours in the order of Intelligent creatures were now to be redeemed , that Men should partake the glories of their secret habitations , and should fill up those void places which the fall of Lucifer and the third part of the Stars had made , their joy was great as their understanding , and these mountains did leap with joy , because the valleys were filled with benediction and a fruitful shower from Heaven . And if at the Conversion of one sinner there is jubilation and a festival kept among the Angels , how great shall we imagine this rejoycing to be , when Salvation and Redemption was sent to all the World ? But we also , to whom the joy did more personally relate , ( for they rejoyced for our sakes ) should learn to estimate the grace done us , and believe there is something very extraordinary in the Piety and Salvation of a man , when the Angels , who in respect of us are unconcern'd in the communications , rejoyce with the joy of Conquerors , or persons suddenly 〈◊〉 from tortures and death . 2. But the Angels also had other motions : for besides the pleasures of that joy which they had in beholding Humane nature so highly exalted , and that God was Man , and Man was God ; they were transported with admiration at the ineffable Counsel of God's Predestination , prostrating themselves with adoration and modesty , seeing God so humbled , and Man so changed , and so full of charity , that God stooped to the condition of Man , and Man was inflam'd beyond the love of Seraphims , and was made more knowing than Cherubims , more established than Thrones , more happy than all the orders of Angels . The issue of this consideration teaches us to learn their Charity , and to exterminate all the intimations and beginnings of Envy , that we may as much rejoyce at the good of others as of our selves : for then we love good for God's sake , when we love good whereever God hath placed it ; and that joy is charitable which overflows our neighbours fields , when our selves are unconcerned in the personal accruements ; for so we are made partakers of all that fear God , when Charity unites their joy to ours , as it makes us partakers of their common sufferings . 3. And now the Angels , who had adored the Holy Jesus in Heaven , come also to pay their homage to him upon Earth ; and laying aside their flaming swords they take into their hands instruments of musick , and sing , Glory be to God on high . First signifying to us , that the Incarnation of the Holy Jesus was a very great instrument of the glorification of God , and those divine Perfections in which he is chiefly pleased to communicate himself to us were in nothing manifested so much as in the mysteriousness of this work . Secondly , And in vain doth man satisfie himself with complacencies and ambitious designs upon earth , when he sees before him God in the form of a servant , humble , and poor , and crying , and an infant full of need and weakness . 4. But God hath pleased to reconcile his Glory with our eternal Benefit ; and that also was part of the Angels song , In earth peace to men of good will. For now we need not with Adam to fly from the presence of the Lord , saying , I heard thy voice , and I was afraid , and hid my self ; for he from whom our sins made us once to flie now weeps , and is an infant in his Mother's arms , seeking strange means to be reconciled to us , hath forgotten all his anger , and is swallowed up with love , and 〈◊〉 with irradiations of amorous affections and good will : and the effects of this good will are not referred only to persons of heroical and eminent graces and operations , of vast and expensive charities , of prodigious abstinencies , of eremitical retirements , of ascetical diet , of perfect Religion , and canoniz'd persons ; but to all men of good will , whose Souls are hallowed with holy purposes and pious desires , though the beauties of the Religion and holy thoughts were not spent in exterior acts , nor called out by the opportunities of a rich and expressive fortune . 5. But here we know where the seat and regiment of Peace is placed , and all of it must pass by us and descend upon us as duty and reward . It proceeds from the Word Incarnate , from the Son of God undertaking to reconcile us to his Father ; and it is ministred and consigned unto us by every event and act of Providence , whether it be decyphered in characters of paternal Indulgence , or of Correction , or Absolution . For that is not Peace from above , to have all things according to our humane and natural wishes ; but to be in favour with God , that is Peace ; always remembring , that to be chastised by him is not a certain testimony of his mere wrath , but to all his servants a character of love and of paternal provision , since he chastises every son whom he receives . Whosoever seeks to avoid all this world's Adversity , can never find Peace : but he only who hath resolved all his Affections and placed them in the heart of God , he who denies his own Will , and hath killed Self-love , and all those enemies within that make Afflictions to become Miseries indeed and full of bitterness , he only enjoys this Peace ; and in proportion to every man's Mortification and Self-denial , so are the degrees of his Peace : and this is the Peace which the Angel proclaimed at the enunciation of that Birth which taught Humility , and Contempt of things below , and all their vainer glories , by the greatest argument in the world , even the Poverty of God incarnate . And if God sent his own , natural , only-begotten and beloved Son , in all the 〈◊〉 of Poverty and contempt ; that person is vain who thinks God will love him better than he loved his own Son , or that he will express his love any other or gentler way than to make him partaker of the fortune of his eldest Son. There is one other postern to the dwellings of Peace , and that is , good will to Men ; for so much Charity as we have to others , such a measure of Peace also we may enjoy at home : For Peace was only proclaimed to Men of good will , to them that are at peace with God and all the World. 6. But the Angel brought the Message to Shepherds , to persons simple and mean and humble , persons likely to be more apprehensive of the Mystery , and less of the Scandal , of the Poverty of the Messias : for they whose custom or affections dwell in secular Pomps , who are not used by Charity or Humility to stoop to an Evenness and consideration of their brethren , of equal natures though of unequal fortunes , are persons of all the world most indisposed and removed from the understanding of spiritual excellencies , especially when they do not come clothed with advantages of the world , and of such beauties which they admire . God himself in Poverty comes in a prejudice to them that love Riches , and * Simplicity is Folly to crafty persons , a Mean birth is an ignoble stain , Beggery is a scandal , and the Cross an unanswerable objection . But the Angel's moral in the circumstance of his address , and inviting the poor Shepherds to Bethlehem , is , That none are fit to come to Christ but those who are poor in spirit , despisers of the world , simple in their hearts , without craft and secular designs ; and therefore neither did the Angel tell the story to Herod , nor to the Scribes and Pharisees , whose ambition had ends contradictory to the simplicity and poverty of the Birth of Jesus . 7. These Shepherds when they conversed with Angels were watching over their flocks by night ; no Revellers , but in a painful and dangerous imployment , the work of an honest Calling , securing their Folds against incursions of wild beasts , which in those Countries are not seldom or infrequent . And Christ being the great Shepherd , ( and possibly for the analogie's sake the sooner manifested to Shepherds , ) hath made his Ministers overseers of their Flocks , distinguished in their particular Folds , and conveys the mysteriousness of his Kingdom first to the Pastors , and by their ministery to the Flocks : But although all of them be admitted to the ministery , yet those only to the interiour recesses and nearer imitations of Jesus who are watchful over their Flocks , assiduous in their labours , painful in their sufferings , present in the dangers of the Sheep , ready to interpose their persons and sacrifice their lives ; these are Shepherds who first converse with Angels , and finally shall enter into the presence of the Lord. But besides this symbol , we are taught in the significations of the letter , That he that is diligent in the business of an honest Calling , is then doing service to God , and a work so pleasing to him who hath appointed the sons of men to labour , that to these Shepherds he made a return and recompence by the conversation of an Angel ; and hath advanced the reputation of an honest and a mean imployment to such a testimony of acceptance , that no honest person , though busied in meaner offices , may ever hereafter in the estimation of Christ's disciples become contemptible . 8. The signs which the Angel gave to discover the Babe were no marks of Lustre and Vanity , but they should find , 1. a Babe , 2. swadled , 3. lying in a Manger : the first a testimony of his Humility , the second of his Poverty , the third of his Incommodity and uneasiness ; for Christ came to combate the whole body of Sin , and to destroy every Province of Satan's Kingdom ; for these are direct antinomies to the Lusts of the flesh , the Last of the eyes , and the Pride of life . Against the first Christ opposed his hard and uneasie Lodging ; against the second , the poorness of his Swadling-bands and Mantle ; and the third is combated by the great dignation and descent of Christ from a Throne of Majesty to the state of a sucking Babe . And these are the first Lessons he hath taught us for our imitation ; which that we may the better do , as we must take him for our pattern , so also for our helper , and pray to the Holy Child , and he will not only teach us , but also give us power and ability . The PRAYER . O Blessed and Eternal Jesu , at whose Birth the Quires of Angels sang praises to God , and proclaimed peace to Men , sanctifie my Will and inferiour Affections ; make me to be within the conditions of Peace , that I be holy and mortified , a despiser of the world and exteriour vanities , humble and charitable ; that by thy eminent example I may be so fixed in the designs and prosecution of the Ends of God and a blissful Eternity , that I be unmoved with the terrors of the world , unaltered with its allurements and seductions , not ambitious of its honour , not desirous of its fulness and plenty ; but make me diligent in the imployment thou givest me , faithful in discharge of my trust , modest in my desires , content in the issues of thy Providence : that in such dispositions I may receive and entertain visitations from Heaven , and Revelations of the Mysteries and blisses Evangelical ; that by such directions I may be brought into thy presence , there to see thy Beauties and admire thy Graces , and imitate all thy imitable Excellencies , and rest in thee for ever , in this world by the perseverance of a holy and comfortable life , and in the world to come in the participation of thy essential Glories and Felicities , O Blessed and Eternal Jesus . Considerations of the Epiphany of the B. Jesus by a Star , and the Adoration of Jesus by the Eastern Magi. 1. GOD , who is the universal Father of all Men , at the Nativity of the Messias gave notice of it to all the World , as they were represented by the grand Division of Jews and Gentiles ; to the Jewish Shepherds by an Angel , to the Eastern Magi by a Star. For the Gospel is of universal dissemination , not confined within the limits of a national Prerogative , but Catholick and diffused . As God's Love was , so was the dispensation of it , without respect of persons : for all being included under the curse of Sin , were to him equal and indifferent , undistinguishable objects of Mercy . And Jesus , descended of the Jews , was also the expectation of the Gentiles , and therefore communicated to all : the Grace of God being like the air we breathe , and it hath appeared to all men , saith S. Paul ; but the conveyances and communications of it were different in the degrees of clarity and illustration . The Angel told the Shepherds the story of the Nativity plainly and literally : The Star invited the Wise men by its rareness and preternatural apparition ; to which also , as by a foot-path , they had been led by the Prophecy of Balaam . 2. But here first the Grace of God prevents us ; without him we can do nothing ; he lays the first Stone in every Spiritual Building , and then expects by that strength he first gave us that we make the Superstructures . But as a Stone thrown into a River first moves the water , and disturbs its surface into a Circle , and then its own force wafts the neighbouring drops into a larger figure by its proper weight : so is the Grace of God the first principle of our spiritual motion , and when it moves us into its own figure , and hath actuated and ennobled our natural Powers by the influence of that first incentive , we continue the motion , and enlarge the progress . But as the Circle on the face of the waters grows weaker till it hath smoothed it self into a natural and even current , unless the force be renewed or continued : so does all our natural endeavour , when first set a-work by God's preventing Grace , decline to the imperfection of its own kind , unless the same force be made energetical and operative by the continuation and renewing of the same supernatural influence . 3. And therefore the Eastern Magi , being first raised up into wonder and curiosity by the apparition of the Star , were very far from finding Jesus by such general and indefinite significations ; but then the goodness of God's Grace increased its own influence ; for an inspiration from the Spirit of God admonished them to observe the Star , shewed the Star that they might find it , taught them to acknowledge it , instructed them to understand its purpose , and invited them to follow it , and never left them till they had found the Holy Jesus . Thus also God deals with us . He gives us the first Grace , and adds the second ; he enlightens our Understandings , and actuates our Faculties , and sweetly allures us by the proposition of Rewards , and wounds us with the arrows of his Love , and inflames us with fire from Heaven ; ever giving us new assistances or increasing the old , refreshing us with comforts or arming us with patience ; sometimes stirring our affections by the lights held out to our Understanding , sometimes bringing confirmation to our understanding by the motion of our Affections , till by variety of means we at last arrive at Lethlehem , in the service and entertainments of the Holy Jesus . Which we shall certainly do , if we follow the invitations of Grace and exteriour assistances which are given us to instruct us , to help us , and to invite us , but not to force our endeavours and cooperations . 4. As it was an unsearchable wisdom , so it was an unmeasurable grace of Providence and dispensation which God did exhibit to the Wise men , to them , as to all men , disposing the Ministeries of his Grace sweetly , and by proportion to the capacities of the person suscipient . For God called the Gentiles by such means which their Customs and Learning had made prompt and easie . For these Magi were great Philosophers and Astronomers , and therefore God sent a miraculous Star to invite and lead them to a new and more glorious light , the lights of Grace and Glory . And God so blessed them in following the Star , to which their innocent Curiosity and national Customs were apt to lead them ; that their Custom was changed to Grace , and their Learning heightned with Inspiration , and God crowned all with a spiritual and glorious event . It was not much unlike , which God did to the Princes and Diviners among the Philistines , who sent the Ark back with five golden Emrods and five golden Mice ; an act proportionable to the Custom and sense of their Nation and Religion : yet God accepted their opinion and divination to the utmost end they designed it , and took the plagues of Emrods and Mice from them . For oftentimes the Custom or the Philosophy of the opinions of a Nation are made instrumental , through God's acceptance , to ends higher than they can produce by their own energy and intendment . And thus the Astrological Divinations of the Magi were turned into the order of a greater design than the whole Art could promise , their imployment being altered into Grace , and Nature into a Miracle . But then when the Wise men were brought by this means , and had seen Jesus , then God takes ways more immediate and proportionable to the Kingdom of Grace : the next time God speaks to them by an Angel. For so is God's usual manner to bring us to him ; first , by ways agreeable to us , and then to increase , by ways agreeable to himself . And when he hath furnished us with new capacities , he gives new Lights in order to more perfect imployments : and , To him that hath shall be given full measure , pressed down , shaken together , and running over ; the eternal kindness of God being like the Sea , which delights to run in its old Chanel , and to fill the hollownesses of the Earth which it self hath made , and hath once watered . 5. This Star , which conducted the Wise men to Bethlehem , ( if at least it was proproperly a Star , and not an Angel ) was set in its place to be seen by all ; but was not observed , or not understood , nor its message obeyed , by any but the three Wise men . And indeed no man hath cause to complain of God , as if ever he would be deficient in assistances necessary to his Service ; but first the Grace of God separates us from the common condition of incapacity and indisposition , and then we separate our selves one from another by the use or neglect of this Grace : and God doing his part to us , hath cause to complain of us , who neglect that which is our portion of the work . And however even the issues and the kindnesses of God's Predestination and antecedent Mercy do very much toward the making the Grace to be effective of its purpose , yet the manner of all those influences and operations being moral , perswasive , reasonable and divisible , by concourse of various circumstances , the cause and the effect are brought nearer and nearer in various suscipients ; but not brought so close together , but that God expects us to do * something towards it ; so that we may say with S. Paul , It is not I , but the Grace of God that is with me : and at the same time , when by reason of our cooperation we actuate and improve God's Grace , and become distinguished from other persons more negligent under the same opportunities , God is he who also does distinguish us by the proportions and circumstantiate applications of his Grace to every singular capacity ; that we may be careful not to neglect the Grace , and yet to * return the intire glory to God. 6. Although God , to second the generous design of these wise personages in their Enquiry of the new Prince , made the Star to guide them through the difficulties of their journey , yet when they came to Jerusalem the Star disappeared ; God so resolving to try their Faith , and the activity of their desires ; to remonstrate to them that God is the Lord of all his Creatures , and a voluntary Dispenser of his own favours , and can as well take them away as indulge them ; and to engage them upon the use of ordinary means and ministeries when they are to be had : for now the extraordinary and miraculous Guide for a time did cease , that they being at Jerusalem might enquire of them whose office and profession of sacred Mysteries did oblige them to publish the MESSIAS . For God is so great a lover of Order , so regular and certain an exactor of us to use those ordinary ministeries of his own appointing , that he having used the extraordinary but as Architects do frames of wood , to support the Arches till they be built , takes them away when the work is ready , and leaves us to those other of his designation ; and hath given such efficacy to these , that they are as perswasive and operative as a Miracle ; and S. Paul's Sermon would convert as many , as if Moses should rise from the grave . And now the Doctrines of Christianity have not only the same truth , but the same evidence and virtue also they had in the midst of those prime demonstrations extraordinary by Miracle and Prophecy , if men were equally disposed . 7. When they were come to the Doctors of the Jews , they asked confidently , and with great openness , under the ear and eye of a Tyrant Prince , bloudy and timorous , jealous and ambitious , Where is he that is born King of the Jews ? and so gave evidence of their Faith , of their Magnanimity , and fearless confidence and profession of it , and of their love of the mystery and object , in pursuance of which they had taken so troublesome and vexatious journeys : and besides that they upbraided the tepidity and 〈◊〉 baseness of the Jewish Nation , who stood unmoved and unconcerned by all the Circumstances of wonder , and stirred not one step to make enquiry after or to visit the new-born King ; they also teach us to be open and confident in our Religion and Faith , and not to consider our temporal , when they once come to contest against our Religious interests . 8. The Doctors of the Jews told the Wise men where Christ was to be born , the Magi they address themselves with haste to see him and to worship , and the Doctors themselves stir not ; God not only serving himself with truth out of the mouths of impious persons , but magnifying the recesses of his Counsel and Wisdom and Predestination , who uses the same Doctrine to glorifie himself and to confound his enemies , to save the Scholars and to condemn the Tutors , to instruct one and upbraid the other ; making it an instrument of Faith , and a conviction of Infidelity : the Sermons of the Doctors in such cases being like the spoils of Bevers , Sheep and Silk-worms , design'd to clothe others , and are made the occasions of their own nakedness , and the causes of their death . But as it is a demonstration of the Divine Wisdom , so it is of humane Folly ; there being no greater imprudence in the world , than to do others advantage , and to neglect our own . If thou dost well unto thy 〈◊〉 , men will speak good of thee : but if thou beest like a Chanel in a Garden , through which the water runs to cool and moisten the herbs , but nothing for its own use ; thou buildest a fortune to them upon the ruines of thine own house , while after thy preaching to others , thou thy self dost become a cast-away . 9. When the Wise men departed from Jerusalem , the Star again appeared , and they rejoyced with exceeding great joy : and indeed to new Converts and persons in their first addresses to the worship of God such spiritual and exterior Comforts are often indulged , because then God judges them to be most necessary , as being invitations to Duty by the entertainments of our affections with such sweetnesses , which represent the glory of the reward by the Antepasts and refreshments dispensed even in the ruggedness of the way , and incommodities of the journey . All other delights are the pleasures of Beasts , or the sports of Children ; these are the Antepasts and preventions of the full Feasts and overflowings of Eternity . 10. When they came to Bethlehem , and the Star pointed them to a Stable , they entred in , and being enlightned with a Divine Ray proceeding from the face of the Holy Child , and seeing through the cloud , and passing through the scandal of his mean Lodging and poor condition , they bowed themselves to the earth ; first giving themselves an Oblation to this great King , then they made offering of their Gifts ; for a man's person is first accepted , then his Gift ; God first regarded Abel , and then accepted his Offering : which we are best taught to understand by the present instance ; for it means no more , but that all outward Services and Oblations are made acceptable by the prior presentation of an inward Sacrifice . If we have first presented our selves , then our Gift is pleasant , as coming but to express the truth of the first Sacrifice ; but if our Persons be not first made a Holocaust to God , the lesser Oblations of outward Presents are like Sacrifices without Salt and Fire , nothing to make them pleasant or religious . For all other sences of this Proposition charge upon God the distinguishing and acceptation of Persons , against which he solemnly protests : God regards no man's Person , but according to the doing of his Duty ; but then God is said first to accept the Person , and then the Gist , when the Person is first sanctified and given to God by the vows and habits of a holy life , and then all the actions of his Religion are homogeneal to their principle , and accepted by the acceptation of the man. 11. These Magi presented to the Holy Babe Gold , Frankincense and Myrrh , protesting their Faith of three Articles by the symbolical Oblation : By Gold , that he was a King ; by Incense , that he was a God ; by Myrrh , that he was a Man. And the Presents also were representative of interiour Vertues : the Myrrh signifying Faith , Mortification , Chastity , Compunction , and all the actions of the Purgative way of Spiritual life ; the Incense signifying Hope , Prayer , Obedience , good Intention , and all the actions and Devotions of the Illuminative ; the giving the Gold representing Love to God and our Neighbours , the Contempt of riches , Poverty of spirit , and all the eminencies and spiritual riches of the Unitive life . And these Oblations if we present to the Holy Jesus , both our Persons and our Gifts shall be accepted , our Sins shall be purged , our Understandings enlightned , and our Wills united to this Holy Child , and entitled to a communion of all his Glories . 12. And thus in one view and two Instances God hath drawn all the world to himself by his Son Jesus , in the Instance of the Shepherds and the Arabian Magi , Jews and Gentiles , Learned and Unlearned , Rich and Poor , Noble and Ignoble ; that in him all Nations , and all Conditions , and all Families , and all persons might be blessed ; having called all by one Star or other , by natural Reason or by the secrets of Philosophy , by the Revelations of the Gospel or by the ministery of Angels , by the Illuminations of the Spirit or by the Sermons and Dictates of spiritual Fathers ; and hath consigned this Lesson to us , That we must never appear before the Lord empty , offering Gifts to him by the expences or by the affections of Charity , either the worshipping or the oblations of Religion , either the riches of the World or the love of the Soul : for if we cannot bring Gold with the rich Arabians , we may with the poor Shepherds come and kiss the Son , lest he be angry ; and in all cases come and serve him with fear and reverence , and spiritual rejoycings . The PRAYER . MOst Holy Jesu , Thou art the Glory of thy people Israel , and a light to the Gentiles , and wert pleased to call the Gentiles to the adoration and knowledge of thy sacred Person and Laws , communicating the inestimable riches of thy holy Discipline to all , with an universal undistinguishing Love ; give unto us spirits docible , pious , prudent and ductile , that no motion or invitation of Grace be ineffectual , but may produce excellent effects upon us , and the secret whispers of thy Spirit may prevail upon our Affections in order to Piety and Obedience , as certainly as the loudest and most clamorous Sermons of the Gospel . Create in us such Excellencies as are fit to be presented to thy glorious Majesty ; accept of the Oblation of my self , and my entire services : but be thou pleased to verifie my Offering , and secure the possession to thy self , that the enemy may not pollute the Sacrifice , or divide the Gift , or question the Title ; but that I may be wholly thine , and for ever , clarifie my Understanding , sanctifie my Will , replenish my Memory with arguments of Piety ; then shall I present to thee an Oblation rich and precious as the treble gift of the Levantine Princes . Lord , I am thine , reject me not from thy favour , exclude me not from thy presence ; then shall I serve thee all the days of my life , and partake of the glories of thy Kingdom , in which thou reignest gloriously and eternally . Amen . SECT . V. Of the Circumcision of JESUS , and his Presentation in the Temple . The Circumcision of Iesus . S. LUKE . 2. 21. And when eight daies were accomphshed for the circumcising of the Child , his name was called Iesus , which was so named of the angel , before he was conceived in the Wombe . The Purification and Presentation . S. LUKE . 2. 22. And when the dayes of her purification were accomplished , they brought him to Ierusalem , to present him to the Lord. 1. AND now the Blessed Saviour of the World began to do the work of his Mission and our Redemption : and because Man had prevaricated all the Divine Commandments , to which all humane nature respectively to the persons of several capacities was obliged , and therefore the whole Nature was obnoxious to the just rewards of its demerits ; first Christ was to put that Nature he had assumed into a saveable condition , by fulfilling his Father's preceptive will , and then to reconcile it actually , by suffering the just deservings of its Prevarications . He therefore addresses himself to all the parts of an active Obedience , and when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the Child , he exposed his tender body to the sharpness of the circumcising stone , and shed his bloud in drops , giving an earnest of those rivers which he did afterwards pour out for the cleansing all Humane nature , and extinguishing the wrath of God. 2. He that had no sin , nor was conceived by natural generation , could have no adherences to his Soul or Body which needed to be pared away by a Rite , and cleansed by a Mystery : neither indeed do we find it expressed , that * Circumcision was ordained for abolition or pardon of original sin , ( it is indeed presumed so ) but it was instituted to be a Seal of a Covenant between God and Abraham , and Abraham's posterity , a seal of the righteousness of Faith , and therefore was not improper for him to suffer who was the child of Abraham , and who was the Prince of the Covenant , and the author and finisher of that Faith which was consigned to 〈◊〉 in Circumcision . But so mysterious were all the actions of Jesus , that this one served many ends . For 1. It gave demonstration of the verity of Humane nature . 2. So he began to fulfil the Law. 3. And took from himself the scandal of Uncircumcision , which would eternally have prejudiced the Jews against his entertainment and communion . 4. And then he took upon him that Name which declared him to be the Saviour of the World ; which as it was consummate in the bloud of the Cross , so was it inaugurated in the bloud of Circumcision : For when the eight days were accomplished for circumcising of the Child , his name was called JESUS . 3. But this holy Family , who had laid up their joys in the eyes and heart of God , longed till they might be permitted an address to the Temple , that there they might present the Holy Babe unto his Father ; and indeed that he , who had no other , might be brought to his own house . For although , while he was a child , he did differ nothing from a servant , yet he was the Lord of the place : It was his Father's house , and he was the Lord of all ; and therefore when the days of the Purification were accomplished , they brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord , to whom he was holy , as being the first-born ; the first-born of his Mother , the only-begotten son of his Father , and the first-born of every creature . And they did with him according to the Law of Moses , offering a pair of Turtle-doves for his redemption . 4. But there was no publick act about this Holy Child but it was attended by something miraculous and extraordinary . And at this instant the Spirit of God directed a holy person into the Temple , that he might feel the fulfilling of a Prophecy made to himself , that he might before his death behold the Lord 's CHRIST , and imbrace the glory and consolation of Israel and the light of the Gentiles in his arms : for old Simeon came by the Spirit into the Temple , and when the Parents brought in the Child Jesus , then took he him up in his arms , and blessed God , and prophesied , and spake glorious things of that Child , and things sad and glorious concerning his Mother ; that the Child was set for the rising and falling of many in Israel , for a sign that should be spoken against ; and the bitterness of that contradiction should pierce the heart of the holy Virgin-Mother like a Sword , that her joy at the present accidents might be attempered with present revelation of her future trouble , and the excellent favour of being the Mother of God might be crowned with the reward of Martyrdom , and a Mother's love be raised up to an excellency great enough to make her suffer the bitterness of being transfixed with his love and sorrow as with a Sword. 5. But old Anna the Prophetess came also in , full of years and joy , and found the reward of her long prayers and fasting in the Temple ; the long-looked-for redemption of Israel was now in the Temple , and she saw with her eyes the Light of the World , the Heir of Heaven , the long-looked-for Messias , whom the Nations had desired and expected till their hearts were faint , and their eyes dim with looking farther and apprehending greater distances . She also prophesied and gave thanks unto the Lord. But Joseph and his Mother marvelled at those things which were spoken of him . Ad SECT . V. Considerations upon the Circumcision of the Holy Child JESVS . 1. WHen eight days were come , the Holy Jesus was circumcised , and shed the first-fruits of his Bloud , offering them to God like the prelibation of a Sacrifice , and earnest of the great seas of effusion designed for his Passion , not for the expiation of any stain himself had contracted , for he was spotless as the face of the Sun , and had contracted no wrinkle from the aged and polluted brow of Adam ; but it was an act of Obedience , and yet of Choice and voluntary susception , to which no obligation had passed upon him in the condition of his own person . For as he was included in the vierge of Abraham's posterity , and had put on the common outside of his Nation , his Parents had intimation enough to pass upon him the Sacrament of the National Covenant , and it became an act of excellent Obedience : but because he was a person extraordinary , and exempt from the reasons of Circumcision , and himself in person was to give period to the Rite , therefore it was an act of Choice in him , and in both the capacities becomes a precedent of Duty to us , in the first of Obedience , in the second of Humility . 2. But it is considerable , that the Holy Jesus , who might have pleaded his exemption , especially in a matter of pain and dishonour , yet chose that way which was more severe and regular ; so teaching us to be strict in our duties , and sparing in the rights of priviledge and dispensation . We pretend every indisposition of body to excuse us from penal duties , from Fasting , From going to Church ; and instantly we satisfie our selves with saying , God will have mercy , and not sacrifice ; so making our selves Judges of our own privileges , in which commonly we are parties against God , and therefore likely to pass unequal sentence . It is not an easie argument that will bring us to the severities and rigours of Duty , but we snatch at occasions of dispensation , and therefore possibly may mistake the justice of the opportunities by the importunities of our desires . However , if this too much easiness be in any case excusable from sin , yet in all cases it is an argument of infirmity , and the regular observation of the Commandment is the surer way to Perfection . For not every inconvenience of body is fit to be pleaded against the inconvenience of losing spiritual advantages , but only such which upon prudent account does intrench upon the Laws of Charity ; or such whose consequent is likely to be impediment of a duty in a greater degree of loss than the present omission . For the Spirit being in many perfections more eminent than the Body , all spiritual improvements have the same proportions ; so that if we were just estimators of things , it ought not to be less than a great incommodity to the Body which we mean to prevent by the loss of a spiritual benefit , or the omission of a Duty : he were very improvident , who would lose a Finger for the good husbandry of saving a Ducat ; and it would be an unhandsome excuse from the duties of Repentance to pretend care of the Body . The proportions and degrees of this are so nice and of so difficult determination , that men are more apt to untie the girdle of Discipline with the loose hands of dispensation and excuse , than to strain her too hard by the strictures and bindings of severity ; but the errour were the surer on this side . 3. The Blessed Jesus refused not the signature of this bloudy Covenant , though it were the Character of a Sinner ; and did Sacramentally rescind the impure reliques of Adam , and the contractions of evil customes ; which was the greatest descent of Humility that is imaginable , that he should put himself to pain to be reckoned amongst sinners , and to have their Sacraments and their Protestations , though his Innocence was purer than the flames of Cherubim . But we use arts to seem more righteous than we are , desiring rather to be accounted holy , than to be so ; as thinking the vanity of Reputation more useful to us than the happiness of a remote and far distant Eternity . But if ( as it is said ) Circumcision was ordained , besides the signing of the Covenant , to abolish the guilt of Original sin , we are willing to confess that , it being no act of humiliation to confess a crime that all the world is equally guilty of , that could not be avoided by our timeliest industry , and that serves us for so many ends in the excuse and minoration of our actual impieties : so that as Diogenes trampled upon Plato's pride with a greater fastuousness and humorous ostentation ; so we do with Original sin , declaim against it bitterly , to save the others harmless , and are free in the publication of this , that we may be instructed how to conceal the actual . The Blessed Jesus had in him no principle of Sin , original nor actual , and therefore this designation of his in submitting himself to the bloudy Covenant of Circumcision , which was a just express and Sacramental abscission of it , was an act of glorious Humility ; yet our charging of our selves so promptly with Adam's fault , what-ever truth it may have in the strictness of Theology , hath ( forsitan ) but an ill end in Morality ; and so I now consider it without any reflexion upon the precise Question . 4. For though the Fall of Adam lost to him all those supernatural assistences which God put into our Nature by way of Grace , yet it is by accident that we are more prone to many sins than we are to Vertue . Adam's sin did discompose his Understanding and Affections ; and every sin we do does still make us more unreasonable , more violent , more sensual , more apt still to the multiplication of the same or the like actions : the first rebellion of the inferiour Faculties against the Will and Understanding , and every victory the Flesh gets over the Spirit , makes the inferiour insolent , strong , tumultuous , domineering and triumphant upon the proportionable ruines of the spirit , blinding our Reason and binding our Will ; and all these violations of our Powers are increased by the perpetual ill customes , and false principles , and ridiculous guises of the World ; which makes the later Ages to be worse than the * former , unless some other accident do intervene to stop the ruine and declension of Vertue , such as are God's Judgments , the sending of Prophets , new imposition of Laws , messages from Heaven , diviner Institutions , such as in particular was the great Discipline of Christianity . And even in this sense here is origination enough for sin , and impairing of the reasonable Faculties of humane Souls , without charging our faults upon Adam . 5. But besides this , God , who hath propounded to Man glorious conditions , and design'd him to an excellent state of Immortality , hath required of him such a duty as shall put man to labour , and present to God a service of a free and difficult obedience . For therefore God hath given us Laws which come cross and are restraints to our natural inclinations , that we may part with something in the service of God which we value . For although this is nothing in respect of God , yet to Man it is the greatest he can do . What thanks were it to man to obey God in such things which he would do though he were not commanded ? But to leave all our own desires , and to take up objects of God's propounding contrary to our own , and desires against our Nature , this is that which GOD design'd as a sacrifice of our selves to him . And therefore God hath made many of his Laws to be prohibitions in the matter of natural pleasure , and restraints of our sensitive appetite . Now this being become the matter of Divine Laws , that we should in many parts and degrees abstain from what pleases our senses , by this supervening accident it happens that we are very hardly weaned from sin , but most easily tempted to a Vice. And then we think we have reason to lay the fault upon Original sin and natural aversation from goodness , when this inclination to Vice is but accidental , and occasional upon the matter and sanction of the Laws . Our Nature is not contrary to Vertue , for the Laws of Nature and right Reason do not only oblige us , but * incline us to it ; but the instances of some Vertues are made to come cross to our Nature , that is , to our natural appetites , by reason of which it comes to pass that ( as * S. Paul says ) we are by nature the children of wrath , meaning , that by our natural inclinations we are disposed to contradict those Laws which lay fetters upon them , we are apt to satisfie the Lusts of the Flesh , for in these he there instances . 6. But in things intellectual and spiritual , where neither the one nor the other 〈◊〉 the sensual part , we are indifferent to Vertue or to Vice , and when we do amiss , it is wholly and in all degrees inexcusably our own fault . In the Old Law , when it was a duty to swear by the God of Israel in solemn causes , men were apt enough to swear by him only ; and that sometimes the Israelites did swear by the Queen of Heaven , it was by the ill example and desires to comply with the neighbour Nations , whose Daughters they sometime married , or whose armes they feared , or whose friendship they desired , or with whom they did negotiate . It is indifferent to us to love our Fathers and to love strangers , according as we are determined by custom or education . Nay , for so much of it as is natural and original , we are more inclined to love them than to disrepute them ; and if we disobey them , it is when any injunction of theirs comes cross to our natural desires and purposes . But if from our infancy we be told concerning a stranger that he is our Father , we frame our affections to nature , and our nature to custome and education , and are as apt to love him who is not , and yet is said to be , as him who is said not to be , and yet indeed is our natural Father . 7. And in sensual things , if GOD had commanded Polygamy or promiscuous Concubinate , or unlimited Eatings and Drinkings , it is not to be supposed but that we should have been ready enough to have obeyed God in all such impositions ; and the sons of Israel never murmured when God bad them borrow jewels and ear-rings ; and spoil the Egyptians : But because God restrained these desires , our duties are the harder , because they are fetters to our Liberty , and contradictions to those natural inclinations , which also are made more active by evil custom and unhandsome educations . From which Premisses we shall observe in order to practice , That sin creeps upon us in our education * so tacitely and undiscernibly , that we mistake the cause of it , and yet so prevalently and effectually , that we judge it to be our very nature , and charge it upon Adam , to lessen the imputation upon us , or to increase the licence or the confidence , when every one of us is the Adam , the man of sin , and the parent of our own impurities . For it is notorious that our own iniquities do so discompose our naturals , and evil customs and examples do so incourage impiety , and the Law of God enjoyns such Vertues which do violence to Nature , that our proclivity to sin is occasioned by the accident , and is caused by our selves ; * what-ever mischief Adam did to us , we do more to our selves . We are taught to be revengeful in our Cradles ; and are taught to strike our Neighbour as a means to still our frowardness , and to satisfie our wranglings . Our Nurses teach us to know the greatness of our Birth , or the riches of our Inheritance , or they learn us to be proud , or to be impatient , before they learn us to know God , or to say our Prayers . And then , because the use of Reason comes at no definite time , but insensibly and divisibly , we are permitted such acts with impunity too long , deferring to repute them to be sins , till the habit is grown strong , natural and masculine : and because from the infancy it began in inolinations , and tender overtures and slighter actions , Adam is laid in the fault , and Original sin did all : and this clearly we therefore confess , * that our faults may seem the less , and the misery be pretended natural , that it may be thought to be irremediable , and therefore we not engaged to endeavour a cure ; so that the confession of our original sin is no imitation of Christ's Humility in suffering Circumcision , but too often an act of Pride , Carelesness , Ignorance and Security . 8. At the Circumcision his Parents imposed the Holy Name told to the Virgin by the Angel , his Name was called JESUS ; a Name above every name . For in old times God was known by names of Power , of Nature , of Majesty : But his name of Mercy was reserved till now , when God did purpose to pour out the whole treasure of his Mercy by the mediation and ministry of his Holy Son. And because God gave to the Holy Babe the name in which the treasures of Mercy were deposited , and exalted this name above all names , we are taught that the purpose of his Counsel was , to exalt and magnifie his Mercy above all his other works , he being delighted with this excellent demonstration of it , in the Mission , and Manifestation , and Crucifixion of his Son ; he hath changed the ineffable Name into a name utterable by man , and desirable by all the world , the Majesty is all arrayed in robes of Mercy , the Tetragrammation or adorable Mystery of the Patriarchs is made fit for pronunciation and expression when it becometh the name of the Lord 's CHRIST . And if JEHOVAH be full of majesty and terrour , the name JESUS is full of sweetness and mercy . It is GOD clothed with circumstances of facility , and opportunities of approximation . The great and highest name of GOD could not be pronounced truly , till it came to be sinished with a Guttural that made up the name given by this Angel to the Holy Child ; nor God received or entertained by men , till he was made humane and sensible by the adoption of a sensitive nature , like Vowels pronunciable by the intertexture of a Consonant . Thus was his Person made tangible , and his Name utterable , and his Mercy brought home to our necessities , and the Mystery made explicate , at the Circumcision of this Holy Babe . 9. But now God's mercy was at full Sea , now was the time when God made no reserves to the effusion of his mercy . For to the Patriarchs and persons of eminent Sanctity and imployment in the elder Ages of the World , God , according to the degrees of his manifestation or present purpose , would give them one letter of this ineffable Name . For the reward that Abraham had in the change of his name was , that he had the honour done him to have one of the letters of Jehovah put into it ; and so had Joshua , when he was a type of Christ , and the Prince of the Israelitish Armies : and when God took away one of these letters , it was a curse . But now he communicated all the whole Name to this Holy Child , and put a letter more to it , to signifie that he was the glory of God , the express image of his Father's person , God Eternal ; and then manifested to the World in his Humanity , that all the intelligent world who expected Beatitude , and had treasured all their hopes in the ineffable Name of GOD , might find them all with ample returns in this Name of JESUS , which God hath exalted above every name , even above that by which God in the Old Testament did represent the greatest awfulness of his Majesty . This miraculous Name is above all the powers of Magical Inchantments , the nightly rites of Sorcerers , the Secrets of Memphis , the Drugs of Thessaly , the silent and mysterious Murmurs of the wise Chaldees , and the Spells of Zoroastres : This is the Name at which the Devils did tremble , and pay their inforced and involuntary adorations , by confessing the Divinity , and quitting their possessions and usurped habitations . If our prayers be made in this Name , God opens the windows of Heaven , and rains down benediction : at the mention of this Name the blessed Apostles , and Hermione the daughter of St. Philip , and Philotheus the son of Theophila , and St. Hilarion , and St. Paul the Eremite , and innumerable other Lights who followed hard after the Sun of Righteousness . wrought great and prodigious Miracles : Signs and wonders and healings were done by the Name of the Holy Child JESUS . This is the Name which we should ingrave in our hearts , and write upon our fore-heads , and pronounce with our most harmonious accents , and rest our faith upon , and place our hopes in , and love with the overflowings of charity , and joy , and adoration . And as the revelation of this Name satisfied the hopes of all the World , so it must determine our worshippings , and the addresses of our exteriour and interiour Religion : it being that Name whereby God and God's mercies are made presential to us , and proportionate objects of our Religion and affections . The PRAYER . MOst Holy and ever-Blessed Jesu , who art infinite in Essence , glorious in Mercy , mysterious in thy Communications , affable and presential in the descents of thy Humanity ; I adore thy glorious Name , whereby thou hast shut up the abysses , and opened the gates of Heaven , restraining the power of Hell , and discovering and communicating the treasures of thy Father's mercies . O Jesu , be thou a JESUS unto me , and save me from the precipices and ruines of sin , from the expresses of thy Father's wrath , from the miseries and unsufferable torments of accursed spirits , by the power of thy Majesty , by the sweetnesses of thy Mercy , and sacred influences and miraculous glories of thy Name . I adore and worship thee in thy excellent Obedience and Humility , who hast submitted thy Innocent and spotless flesh to the bloudy Covenant of Circumcision . Teach me to practise so blessed and holy a precedent , that I may be humble and obedient to thy sacred Laws , severe and regular in my Religion , mortified in my body and spirit , of circumcised heart and tongue ; that what thou didst represent in symbol and mysterie , I may really express in the exhibition of an exemplar , pious and mortified life , cutting off all excrescences of my spirit , and whatsoever may minister to the flesh , or any of its ungodly desires ; that now thy holy Name is called upon me , I may do no dishonour to the Name , nor scandal to the Institution , but may do thee honour and worship and adorations of a pure Religion , O most Holy and ever-Blessed JESU . Amen . DISCOURSE II. Of the Vertue of Obedience . 1. THere are certain Excellencies either of habit or consideration , which Spiritual persons use to call General ways , being a dispersed influence into all the parts of good life , either directing the single actions to the right end , or managing them with right instruments , and adding special excellencies and formalities to them , or morally inviting to the repetition of them ; but they are like the general medicaments in Physick , or the prime instruments in Mathematical Disciplines : such as are the consideration of the Divine presence , the Example of JESUS , right Intention ; and such also is the vertue of Obedience , which perfectly unites our actions to God , and conforms us to the Divine will , which is the original of goodness , and sanctifies and makes a man an holocaust to God , which contains in it eminently all other Graces , but especially those Graces whose essence consists in a conformity of a part or the whole , ( such are Faith , Humility , Patience and Charity ; ) which gives quietness and tranquillity to the spirit , and is an Antepast of Paradise , ( where their Jubilee is the perpetual joys of Obedience , and their doing is the enjoying the Divine pleasure ; ) which adds an excellency and lustre to pious actions , and hallows them which are indifferent , and lifts up some actions from their unhallowed nature to circumstances of good and of acceptation . If a man says his prayers or communicates out of custome , or without intuition of the Precept and divine Commandment , the act is like a Ship returning from her voyage without her venture and her burthen , as unprofitable as without stowage : But if God commands us either to eat or to abstain , to sleep or to be waking , to work or to keep a Sabbath ; these actions , which are naturally neither good nor evil , are sanctified by the Obedience , and rank'd amongst actions of the greatest excellency . And this also was it which made Abraham's offer to kill his Son , and the Israelites spoiling the Egyptians , to become acts laudable , and not unjust : they were acts of Obedience , and therefore had the same formality and essence with actions of the most spiritual Devotions . God's command is all our rule for practice , and our Obedience united to the Obedience of Jesus is all our title to acceptance . 2. But by Obedience I do not here mean the exteriour execution of the work , for so , Obedience is no Grace distinct from the acting any or all the Commandments : but besides the doing of the thing , ( for that also must be presupposed ) it is a sacrifice of our proper Will to God , a chusing the duty because God commands it . For beasts also carry burthens and do our commands by compulsion : and the fear of slaves and the rigour of task-masters made the number of bricks to be compleated , when Israel groaned and cried to God for help . But sons that labour under the sweet paternal regiment of their Fathers , and the influence of love , they love the precept , and do the imposition , with the same purposes and compliant affections with which the Fathers made it . When Christ commanded us to renounce the World , there were some that did think it was a hard saying , and do so still ; and the young rich man forsook him upon it : but Ananias and Sapphira , upon whom some violences were done by custome , or the excellent Sermons of the Apostles , sold their possessions too , but it was so against their will , that they retain'd part of it : but St. Paul did not only forsake all his secular fortunes , but counted all to be dross that he might gain Christ ; he gave his Will , made an offertory of that , as well as of his goods , chusing the act which was enjoyned . This was the Obedience the Holy Jesus paid to his heavenly Father , so voluntary , that it was meat to him to do his Father's will. 3. And this was intended always by God , [ My son , give me thy heart ; ] and particularly by the Holy Jesus , for in the saddest instance of all his Precepts , even that of suffering persecution , we are commanded to rejoyce , and to be exceeding glad . And so did those holy Martyrs in the primitive Ages , who upon just grounds , when God's glory or the 〈◊〉 of the Church had interest in it , they offered themselves to Tyrants , and dared the violence of the most cruel and bowelless hang-men . And this is the best oblation we can present to God. To offer Gold is a present fit to be made by young beginners in Religion , not by men in Christianity ; yea , Crates the Theban threw his gold away , and so did Antisthenes : but to offer our Will to God , to give our selves , is the act of an Apostle , the proper act of Christians . And therefore when the Apostles made challenge of a reward for leaving all their possessions , Christ makes no reply to the instance , nor says , You who have left all , but , You who have followed me in the regeneration , shall sit upon twelve thrones , and judge the twelve Tribes of Israel : meaning , that the quitting the goods was nothing ; but the obedience to Christ , that they followed Jesus in the Regeneration , going themselves in pursuit of him , and giving themselves to him , that was it which intitled them to a Throne . 4. And this therefore God enjoyns , that our offerings to him may be intire and complete , that we pay him a holocaust , that we do his work without murmuring , and that his burthen may become easie , when it is born up by the wings of love and alacrity of spirit . For in effect this obedience of the Will is in true speaking and strict Theology nothing else but that Charity which gives excellency to Alms , and energy to Faith , and acceptance to all Graces . But I shall reduce this to particular and more minute considerations . 5. First , We shall best know that our Will is in the obedience by our prompt undertaking , by our chearful managing , by our swift execution ; for all degrees of delay are degrees of immorigerousness and unwillingness . And since time is extrinsecal to the act , and alike to every part of it , nothing determines an action but the Opportunity without , and the desires and Willingress within . And therefore he who deliberates beyond his first opportunity , and exteriour determination and appointment of the act , brings fire and wood , but wants a Lamb for the sacrifice ; and unless he offer up his Isaac , his beloved Will , he hath no ministery prepared for God's acceptance . He that does not repent to day , puts it to the Question whether he will repent at all or no. He that defers Restitution when all the Circumstances are fitted , is not yet resolved upon the duty . And when he does it , if he does it against his will , he does but do honorary Penance with a Paper upon his hat , & a Taper in his hand ; it may satisfie the Law , but not satisfie his Conscience ; it neither pleases himself , and less pleases God. A Sacrifice without a Heart was a sad and ominous presage in the superstition of the Roman Augurs , and so it is in the service of God ; for what the exhibition of the work is to man , that the presentation of the Will is to God. It is but a cold Charity to a naked begger to say , God help thee , and do nothing ; give him clothes , and he feels your Charity : But God , who is the searcher of the heart , his apprehension of actions relative to him is of the inward motions and addresses of the Will ; and without this our exteriour services are like the paying of a piece of mony in which we have defaced the image , it is not currant . 6. Secondly , But besides the Willingness to do the acts of express command , the readiness to do the Intimations and tacite significations of God's pleasure is the best testimony in the world that our Will is in the obedience . Thus did the Holy Jesus undertake a Nature of infirmity , and suffer a Death of shame and sorrow , and became obedient from the Circumcision even unto the death of the Cross ; not staying for a Command , but because it was his Father's pleasure Mankind should be redeemed . For before the susception of it he was not a person subjicible to a Command : It was enough that he understood the inclinations and designs of his Father's Mercies . And therefore God hath furnished us with instances of uncommanded Piety to be a touchstone of our Obedience . He that does but his endeavour about the express commands hath a bridle in his mouth , and is restrained by violence : but a willing spirit is like a greedy eye , devours all it sees , and hopes to make some proportionable returns and compensations of duty for his infirmity , by taking in the intimations of God's pleasure . When God commands Chastity , he that undertakes a holy Coelibate hath great obedience to the command of Chastity . God bids us give Alms of our increase ; he obeys this with great facility that sells all his goods , and gives them to the poor . And , provided our hastiness to snatch at too much does not make us let go our duty , like the indiscreet loads of too forward persons , too big , or too inconvenient and uncombin'd , there is not in the world a greater probation of our prompt Obedience , than when we look farther than the precise Duty , swallowing that and more with our ready and hopeful purposes ; nothing being so able to do miracles as Love , and yet nothing being so certainly accepted as Love , though it could do nothing in productions and exteriour ministeries . 7. Thirdly , but God requires that our Obedience should have another excellency to make it a becoming present to the Divine acceptance ; our Understanding must be sacrificed too , and become an ingredient of our Obedience . We must also believe that whatsoever God commands is most fitting to be commanded , is most excellent in it self , and the best for us to do . The first gives our Affections and desires to God , and this also gives our Reason , and is a perfection of Obedience not communicable to the duties we owe to Man. For God only is Lord of this faculty , and , being the fountain of all wisdom , therefore commands our Understanding , because he alone can satisfie it . We are bound to obey humane Laws , but not bound to think the Laws we live under are the most prudent Constitutions in the World. But God's Commandments are not only a lantern to our feet , and a light unto our paths , but a rule to our Reason , and satisfaction to our Understandings , as being the instruments of our address to God , and conveyances of his Grace , and manuductions to Eternity . And therefore St. John Climacus defines Obedience to be An unexamined and unquestioned motion , a voluntary death and sepulture of the Will , a life without curiosity , a laying aside our own discretion in the midst of the riches of the most excellent understandings . 8. And certainly there is not in the world a greater strength against temptations than is deposited in an obedient Understanding , because that only can regulary produce the same affections , it admits of fewer degrees , and an infrequent alteration . But the actions proceeding from the Appetite , as it is determined by any other principle than a satisfied Understanding , have their heightnings and their declensions , and their changes and mutations according to a thousand accidents . Reason is more lasting than Desire , and with fewer means to be tempted ; but Affections and motions of appetite , as they are procured by any thing , so may they expire by as great variety of causes . And therefore to serve God by way of Understanding is surer , and in it self , unless it be by the accidental increase of degrees , greater , than to serve him upon the motion and principle of passions and desires ; though this be fuller of comfort and pleasure than the other . When Lot lived amongst the impure 〈◊〉 , where his righteous Soul was in a continual agony , he had few exteriour incentives to a pious life , nothing to enkindle the sensible flame of burning desires toward Piety ; but in the midst of all the discouragements of the world , nothing was left him but the way and precedency of a truly-informed Reason and Conscience . Just so is the way of those wise souls who live in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation : where Piety is out of countenance , where Austerity is ridiculous , 〈◊〉 under persecution , no Examples to lead us on ; there the Understanding is left to be the guide , and it does the work the surest , for this makes the duty of many to be certain , regular , and chosen , constant , integral , and perpetual : but this way is like the life of an unmarried or a retired person , less of grief in it , and less of joy . But the way of serving God with the affections , and with the pleasures and entertainments of desires , is the way of the more passionate and imperfect , not in a man's power to chuse or to procure ; but comes by a thousand chances , meeting with a soft nature , credulous or weak , easie or ignorant , softned with fears or invited by forward desires . 9. Those that did live amidst the fervours of the primitive Charity , and were warmed by their fires , grew inflamed by contact and vicinity to such burning and shining lights . And they therefore grew to high degrees of Piety , because then every man made judgment of his own actions by the proportions which he saw before him , and believed all descents from those greater examples to be so many degrees from the Rule : And he that lives in a College of devout persons will compare his own actions with the Devotion and customes of that Society , and not with the remisness of persons he hears of in story , but what he sees and lives with . But if we live in an Age of Indevotion , we think our selves well assoiled if we be warmer than their Ice ; every thing which is above our example being eminent and conspicuous , though it be but like the light of a Gloworm or the sparkling of a Diamond , yet if it be in the midst of darkness , it is a goodly beauty . This I call the way of serving God by desires and affections : and this is altered by example , by publick manners , by external works , by the assignment of 〈◊〉 , by designation of conventions for prayer , by periods and revolutions of times of duty , by hours and solemnities ; so that a man shall owe his Piety to these chances , which although they are graces of God and instruments of Devotion , yet they are not always in our power ; and therefore they are but accidental ministeries of a good life , and the 〈◊〉 constant or durable . But when the principle of our Piety is a conformity of our Understanding to God's Laws , when we are instructed what to do , and therefore do it because we are satisfied it is most excellent to obey God ; this will support our Piety against objections , lead it on in despight of disadvantages ; this chuses God with Reason , and is not determined from without : and as it is in some degree necessary for all times , so it is the greatest security against the change of Laws and Princes , and Religions and Ages : when all the incentives of affection and exteriour determinations of our Piety shall cease , and perhaps all external offices , and the daily sacrifice , and Piety it self shall fail from the face of the Land ; then the obedience founded in the Understanding is the only lasting strength is left us to make retreat to , and to secure our conditions . Thus from the composition of the Will and Affections with our exteriour acts of obedience to God , our Obedience is made willing , swift and chearful ; but from the composition of the Understanding , our Obedience becomes strong , sincere and persevering ; and this is that which S. Paul calls our reasonable service . 10. Fourthly , To which if we add that our Obedience be universal , we have all the qualifications which make the duty to be pious and prudent . The meaning is , that we obey God in all his Sanctions , though the matter be in common account small and inconsiderable , and give no indulgence to our selves to recede from the Rule in any matter whatsoever . For the veriest minute of Obedience is worth our attention , as being by God esteemed the trial of our Obedience in a greater affair . He that is unjust in a little will be unjust in a greater , said our Blessed Saviour . And since to God all matter is alike , and no more accrues to him in an Hecatomb than in a piece of gumm , in an Ascetick severity than in a secular life , God regards not the matter of a precept , but the Obedience , which in all instances is the same ; and he that will prevaricate when the matter is 〈◊〉 , and by consequence the temptations to it weak and impotent , and soon confuted , will think he may better be excused when the temptations are violent and importunate , as it commonly happens in affairs of greater importance . He that will lie to save sixpence , will not stick at it when a thousand pound is the purchase ; and possibly there is more contempt and despite done to the Divine authority , when we disobey it in such particulars wherein the Obedience is most easie , and the temptations less troublesome : I do not say there is more injustice or more malice in a small Disobedience than in a greater , but there is either more contempt , or more negligence and dissolution of discipline , than in the other . 11. And it is no small temptation of the Devil soliciting of us not to be curious of scruples and grains , nor to disturb our peace for lighter Disobediences ; persuading us that something must be indulged to publick manners , something to the civilities of society , something to nature , and to the approaches of our passions , and the motions of our first desires ; but that we be not over-righteous . And true it is , that sometimes such surreptions and smaller undecencies are therefore pardoned and lessened almost to a nullity , because they dwell in the confines of things lawful and honest , and are not so notorious as to be separated from permissions by any publick , certain and universal cognisance , and therefore may pass upon a good man sometimes without observation . But it is a temptation when we think of neglecting them by a predetermined incuriousness , upon pretence they are small . But this must be reduced to more regular Conclusions . 12. First , Although smaller Disobediences , expressed in slight mis-becoming actions , when they come by surprise and sudden invasion , are through the mercies of God dashed in the very approach , their bills of accusation are thrown out , and they are not esteemed as competent instruments of separation from God's love ; yet when a smaller sin comes by design , and is acted with knowledge and deliberation , ( for then it is properly an act of Disobedience ) Malitia supplet defectum aetatis , The malice of the agent heightens the smalness of the act , and makes up the iniquity . To drink liberally once , and something more freely than the strict rules of Christian sobriety and temperance permit , is pardoned the easier , when without deliberation and by surprise the person was abused , who intended not to transgress a minute , but by little and little was mistaken in his proportions : but if a man by design shall estimate his draughts and his good fellowship , and shall resolve upon a little intemperance , thinking , because it is not very much , it is therefore none at all , that man hath mistaken himself into a crime ; and although a little wound upon the finger is very curable , yet the smallest prick upon the heart is mortal : So is a design and purpose of the smallest Disobedience in its formality as malicious and destructive , as in its matter it was pardonable and excusable . 13. Secondly , Although every lesser Disobedience , when it comes singly , destroys not the love of God ; ( for although it may lessen the habit , yet it takes not away its natural being , nor interrupts its acceptation , lest all the world should in all instants of time be in a damnable condition ) yet when these smaller obliquities are repeated , and no repentance intervenes , this repetition combines and unites the lesser till they be concentred , and by their accumulation make a crime : and therefore a careless reiterating and an incurious walking in mis-becoming actions is deadly and damnable in the return , though it was not so much at the setting forth . Every idle word is to be accounted for , but we hope in much mercy ; and yet he that gives himself over to immoderate * talking will swell his account to a vast and mountainous proportion , and call all the lesser escapes into a stricter judgment . He that extends his Recreation an hour beyond the limits of Christian prudence , and the analogie of its severity and imployment , is accountable to God for that improvidence and waste of Time ; but he that shall mis-spend a day , and because that sin is not scandalous like Adultery , or clamorous like Oppression , or unusual like Bestiality , or crying for revenge like detaining the portion of Orphans , shall therefore mis-spend another day without revocation of the first by an act of repentance and redemption of it , and then shall throw away a week , still adding to the former account upon the first stock , will at last be answerable for a habit of Idleness , and will have contracted a vain and impertinent spirit . For since things which in their own kind are lawful become sinful by the degree ; if the degree be heightned by intention , or become great like a heap of sand by a coacervation of the innumerable atoms of dust , the actions are as damnable as any of the natural daughters and productions of Hell , when they are entertained without scruple , and renewed without repentance , and continued without dereliction . 14. Thirdly , Although some inadvertencies of our life and lesser disobediences accidentally become less hurtful , and because they are entailed upon the infirmities of a good man , and the less wary customes and circumstances of society , are also consistent with the state of Grace ; yet all affection to the smallest sins becomes deadly and damnable . He that loves his danger shall perish in it , saith the Wise man ; and every friendly entertainment of an undecency invites in a greater Crime : for no man can love a small sin , but there are in the greater crimes of its kind more desirable flatteries , and more satisfactions of sensuality than in those suckers and sprigs of sin . At first a little Disobedience is proportionable to a man's temper , and his Conscience is not fitted to the bulk of a rude Crime : but when a man hath accepted the first insinuation of delight and swallowed it , that little sin is past , and needs no more to dispute for entrance ; then the next design puts in and stands in the same probability to succeed the first , and greater than the first had to make the entry . However , to love any thing that God hates is direct enmity with him ; and whatsoever the Instance be , it is absolutely inconsistent with Charity , and therefore incompetent with the state of Grace . So that if the sin be small , it is not a small thing that thou hast given thy love to it ; every such person perishes like a Fool , cheaply and ingloriously . 15. Fourthly , But it also concerns the niceness and prudence of Obedience to God to stand at farther distance from a Vice than we usually attend to . For many times Vertue and Vice differ but one degree , and the neighbourhood is so dangerous , that he who desires to secure his Obedience and Duty to God will remove farther from the danger . For there is a rule of Justice , to which if one degree more of severity be added it degenerates into Cruelty ; and a little more Mercy is Remissness and want of discipline , introduces licentiousness , and becomes unmercifulness as to the publick , and unjust as to the particular . Now this Consideration is heightned , if we observe that Vertue and Vice consist not in an indivisible point , but there is a latitude for either , which is not to be judged by any certain rules drawn from the nature of the thing , but to be estimated in proportion to the persons and other accidental Circumstances . He that is burthened with a great charge , for whom he is bound under a Curse and the crime of Infidelity to provide , may go farther in the acquisition , and be more provident in the use of his mony , than those persons for whom God hath made more ample provisions , and hath charged them with fewer burthens and engagements oeconomical . And yet no man can say , that just beyond such a degree of Care stands Covetousness , and thus far on this side is Carelesness , and a man may be in the confines of death before he be aware . Now the only way to secure our Obedience and duty in such cases is , to remove farther off , and not to dwell upon the confines of the enemies Countrey . My meaning is , that it is not prudent nor safe for a man to do whatsoever he lawfully may do . 16. For besides that we are often mistaken in our judgments concerning the lawfulness or unlawfulness of actions , he that will do all that he thinks he may lawfully do , if ever he does change his station and increase in giving himself liberty , will quickly arrive at doing things unlawful . It is good to keep a reserve of our liberty , and to restrain our selves within bounds narrower than the largest sense of the Commandment , that when our affections wander and enlarge themselves , ( as sometime or other they will do ) then they may enlarge beyond the ordinary , and yet be within the bounds of lawfulness . That of which men make a scruple and a question at first , after an habitual resolution of it stirs no more ; but then their question is of something beyond it . When a man hath accustomed himself to pray seven times a day , it will a little trouble his peace if he omits one or two of those times ; but if it be resolved then that he may please God with praying devoutly though but thrice every day , after he hath digested the scruples of this first question , possibly some accidents may happen that will put his Conscience and Reason to dispute whether three times be indispensably necessary : and still if he be far within the bounds of lawfulness , 't is well ; but if he be at the margent of it , his next remove may be into dissolution and unlawfulness . He that resolves to gain all that he may lawfully this year , it is odds but next year he will be tempted to gain something unlawfully . He that , because a man may be innocently angry , will never restrain his passion , in a little time will be intemperate in his anger , and mistake both his object and the degree . Thus facetiousness and urbanity entertained with an open hand will turn into jestings that are uncomely . 17. If you will be secure , remove your tent , dwell farther off . God hath given us more liberty than we may safely use ; and although God is so gracious as to comply much with our infirmities , yet if we do so too , as God's goodness in indulging liberty to us was to prevent our sinning , our complying with our selves will engage us in it : But if we imprison and confine our affections into a narrower compass , then our 〈◊〉 may be imperfect , but will not easily be criminal . The dissolution of a scrupulous and strict person is not into a vice , but into a less degree of vertue : he that makes a conscience of loud Laughter , will not easily 〈◊〉 drawn into the wantonnesses of Balls and Revellings , and the longer and more impure Carnivalls . This is the way to secure our Obedience ; and no men are so curious of their health , as they that are scrupulous of the Air they breathe in . But now for our Obedience to Man , that hath distinct considerations , and apart . 18. First , All obedience to Man is for God's sake ; for God imprinting his Authority upon the sons of men , like the Sun reflecting upon a cloud , produces a Parelius , or a representation of his own glory , though in great distances and imperfection : it is the Divine Authority , though character'd upon a piece of clay , and imprinted upon a weak and imperfect man. And therefore obedience to our Superiours must be universal in respect of persons ; to all Superiours . This precept is expresly Apostolical , Be subject to every constitution and authority of man for the Lord's sake : It is for God's sake , and therefore to every one , Whether it be to the King , as supreme , or to his Ministers in subordination . That 's for Civil government . For Ecclesiastical this ; Obey them that have the rule over you , and submit your selves ; for they watch for your souls , as they that must give account . All upon whom any ray of the Divine Authority is imprinted , whether it be in greater or smaller Characters , are in proportion to their authority to be obeyed ; to all upon the same ground ; [ for * there is no power but of God. ] So that no infirmity of person , no undervaluing circumstance , no exteriour accident is an excuse for disobedience : and to obey the Divine authority passing through the dictates of a wise , excellent and prudent Governour , but to neglect the impositions of a looser head , is to worship Christ onely upon the Mount Tabor , and in the glories of his 〈◊〉 , and to despise him upon Mount Calvary , and in the clouds of his inglorious and humble Passion : Not onely to the good and gentle , ( so * S. Peter , ) but to the harsh and rigid . And it was by Divine providence that all those many and stricter precepts of obedience to Governours in the New Testament were 〈◊〉 by instances of Tyrants , Persecutors , Idolaters , and Heathen Princes ; and for others amongst whom there was variety of disposition , there is no variety of imposition , but all excuses are removed , and all kinds of Governours drawn into the sanction and sacredness of Authority . 19. Secondly , Not onely to all Governours , but in all things we must obey . Children , obey your Parents in all things : and Servants , obey your Masters in all things . And this also is upon the same ground ; Do it as unto Christ ; as unto the Lord , and not unto men . But then this restrains the universality of obedience , that it may run within its own chanel ; as unto the Lord , therefore nothing against the Divine Commandment . For if God speaks to us by man , transmitting Laws for conservation of Civil society , for 〈◊〉 policy , for Justice and personal advantages , for the interests of Vertue and Religion , for discountenancing of Vice , we are to receive it with the same Veneration as if God spake himself to us immediately . But because by his terrour upon Mount Sinai he gave testimony how great favour it is to speak to us by the ministration of our brethren , it were a strange impudence , when we desire a proportionable and gentle instrument of Divine commands , we should for this very proportion despise the Minister ; like the frogs in the Apologue insulting upon their wooden King. But then if any thing come contrary to a Divine Law , know it is the voice of Jacob , of the Supplanter , not of the right Heir ; and though we must obey man for God's sake , yet we must never disobey God for man's sake . In all things else we finde no exception ; but according as the Superiours intend the obligation , and express it by the signature of Laws , Customes , Interpretations , Permissions , and Dispensations , that is , so far as the Law is obligatory in general , and not dispensed with in particular , so far Obedience is a duty in all instances os acts where no sin is ingredient . 20. Thirdly , And here also the smalness and cheapness of the duty does not tolerate disobedience ; for the despising the smallest Injunction is an act of as formal and direct Rebellion as when the prevarication is in a higher instance . It is here as in Divine Laws , but yet with some difference : For small things do so little cooperate to the end of humane Laws , that a smaller reason does by way of interpretation and tacite permission dispense , than can in a Divine Sanction though of the lowest offices . Because God commands duties not for the end to which they of themselves do co-operate ; but to make sacred his Authority , and that we by our obedience may confess him to be Lord : But in humane Laws the Authority is made sacred not primarily for it self , but principally that the Laws made in order to the conservation of Societies may be observed . So that in the neglect of the smallest of Divine Ordinances we as directly oppose God's great purpose and intendment as in greater matters ; God's dominion and authority ( the conservation of which was his principal intention ) is alike neglected : But in omitting an humane Imposition of small concernment the case is different ; it is certain there is not any considerable violence done to the publick interest by a contemptible omission of a Law : the thing is not small , if the Commonwealth be not safe , and all her great ends secured ; but if they be , then the Authority is inviolate , unless a direct contempt were intended , for its being was in order to that end , not for it self , as it is in the case of Divine Laws , but that the publick interest be safe . 21. And therefore as great matters of humane Laws may be omitted for great reasons , so may smaller matters for smaller reasons , but never without reason : for , causelesly and contemptuously are all one . But in the application of the particulars , either the Laws themselves , or Custom , or the prudence of a sincere righteous man , or of a wise and disinterest person , is to be the Judge . But let no man's confidence increase from the smalness of the matter to a contempt of the Authority ; for there are some sins whose malignity is accidentally increased by the slightness of the subject matter ; such are Blasphemy , Perjury , and the contempt of Authority . To blaspheme God for the loss of an Asper or a peny , to be forsworn in judgment for the rescuing of a few Maravides or a fivegroats fine , is a worse crime than to be perjur'd for the saving ten thousand pounds ; and to despise Authority , when the obedience is so easie as the wearing of a garment or doing of a posture , is a greater and more impudent contempt , than to despise Authority imposing a great burthen of a more considerable pressure , where humane infirmity may tempt to a disobedience , and lessen the crime . And let this caution also be inserted , that we do not at all neglect small Impositions , if there be direct and signal injunction in the particular instance . For as a great Body of Light transmitting his rays through a narrow hollowness , does by that small Pyramis represent all the parts of its magnitude and glory : so it may happen that a publick Interest , and the concernments of Authority , and the peace of a Church , and the integral obedience of the Subjects , and the conservation of a Community , may be transferred to us by an instance in its own nature inconsiderable ; such as are wearing of a Cognizance , remembring of a Word , carrying a Branch in time of War , and things of the same nature : And therefore when the hand of Authority is stretced out and held forth upon a Precept , and designs the duty upon particular reason , or with actual intuition ; there is not the same facility of being dispensed with , as in the neglected and unconsidered instances of other duties . This onely I desire to be observed ; That if death or any violent accident , imprisonment , loss of livelihood , or intolerable inconveniences be made accidentally consequent to the observing of a Law merely humane , the Law binds not in the particular instance . No man is bound to be a Martyr for a Ceremony , or to die rather than break a Canon , or to suffer Confiscation of goods for the pertinacious keeping of a civil Constitution . And it is not to be supposed that a Law-giver would have decreed a Rite , and bound the Lives of the subjects to it , which are of a far greater value than a Rite ; not only because it were tyrannical and unreasonable , but because the evil of the Law were greater than the good of it , it were against the reason of all Laws , and destroys the privileges of Nature , and it puts a man into a condition as bad as the want of all Laws ; for nothing is civilly or naturally worse than Death , to which the other evils arrive in their proportion . This is to be understood in particular and positive Precepts , introduced for reasons particular , that is , less than those are which combine all Societies , and which are the cement of all Bodies political ; I mean Laws ritual in the Church , and accidental and emergent in the State. And that which is the best sign to distinguish these Laws from others , is also the reason of the assertion . Laws decreed with a Penalty to the transgressours cannot bind to an evil greater than that Penalty . If it be appointed that we use a certain form of Liturgy under the forseiture of five pound for every omission , I am bound in Conscience to obey it where I can ; but I am supposed legally to be disabled , if any Tyrant-power shall threaten to kill me if I do , or make me pay an hundred pound , or any thing greater than the forfeiture of the Law. For all the civil and natural power of the Law is by its coercion , and the appendent punishment . The Law operates by rewards and punishments , by hope and fear , and it is unimaginable that the Law under a less penalty can oblige us in any case or accident to suffer a greater . For the compulsion of the Tyrant is greater than the coercion of the Law-giver ; and the Prince thinking the penalty annexed to be band sufficient , intended no greater evil to the transgressour than the expressed penalty ; and therefore much less would he have them that obey the Law by any necessity be forced to a greater evil : for then , Disobedience should escape better than 〈◊〉 . True it is , every disobeying person that pays the penalty is not quite discharged from all his Obligation ; but it is then when his disobeying is criminal upon some other stock besides the mere breach of the Law , as Contempt , Scandal , or the like : for the Law binds the Conscience indirectly and by consequence ; that is , in plain language , God commands us to obey humane Laws , & the penalty will not pay for the contempt , because that 's a sin against God ; it * pays for the violation of the Law , because that was all the direct transgression against Man. And then who shall make him recompence for suffering more than the Law requires of him ? Not the Prince ; for it is certain , the greatest value he set upon the Law was no bigger than the Penalty ; and the Common-wealth is supposed to be sufficiently secured in her interest by the Penalty , or else the Law was weak , impotent , and unreasonable . Not God ; for it is not an act of obedience to him , for he binds us no farther to obey humane Laws than the Law-giver himself intends or declares ; who cannot reasonably be supposed so over-careful , as to bind Hay with cords of Silk and Gold , or sumptuary Laws with the threads of Life ; nor a Father commanding his Child to wait on him every Meal , be thought to intend his Obligation , even though the House be ready to fall on his head , or when he is to pass a sudden or unfoordable floud before he can get to him . And that it may appear Man ought not , it is certain God himself doth not oblige us in all cases and in all circumstances to observe every of his positive Precepts . For , assembling together is a duty of God's commanding , which we are not to neglect : but if Death waits at the door of these Assemblies , we have the practice of the Primitive and best Christians to warrant us to serve God in Retirements , and Cells , and Wildernesses , and leave the assembling together till better opportunities . If I receive more benefit , or the Common-wealth , or the Church and Religion any greater advantage by my particular obedience in these circumstances , ( which cannot easily be supposed will be ) it is a great act of charity to do it , and then to suffer for it : But if it be no more , that is , if it be not expresly commanded to be done , ( though with loss of life or confiscation ) it is a good charity to save my own life , or my own estate : And though the other may be better , yet I am not in all cases obliged to do that which is simply the best . It is a tolerable in 〈◊〉 , and allowed amongst the very 〈◊〉 permissions of Nature , that I may preserve my Life , unless it be in a very few cases , which are therefore clearly to be expressed , or else the contrary is to be presumed , as being a case most favourable . And it is considerable , that nothing is worse than Death but Damnation , or something that partakes of that in some of its worst ingredients ; such as is a lasting Torment , or a daily great misery in some other kind . And therefore since no humane Law can bind a man to a worse thing than Death , if Obedience brings me to death , I cannot be worse when I disobey it , and I am not so bad , if the penalty of death be not expressed . And so for other penalties in their own proportions . This Discourse is also to be understood concerning the Laws of Peace , not of War ; not onely because every disobedience in War may be punished with death , ( according as the reason may chance ) but also because little things may be of great and dangerous consequence . But in Peace it is observable , that there is no humane positive superinduced Law but by the practice of all the world ( which , because the 〈◊〉 of the Prince is certainly included in it , is the surest interpretation ) it is dispensed withall , by ordinary necessities , by reason of lesser inconveniences and common accidents : thus the not saying of our Office daily is excused by the study of Divinity , the publishing the banns of Matrimony by an ordinary incommodity , the Fasting-days of the Church by a little sickness or a journey ; and therefore much rather if my Estate , and most of all if my Life be in danger with it : and to say that in these cases there is no interpretative permission to omit the particular action , is to accuse the Laws and the Law-giver , the one of unreasonableness , the other of uncharitableness . 22. Fourthly , These Considerations are upon the execution of the duty : but even towards Man our obedience must have a mixture of the Will and choice , like as our injunction of obedience to the Divine Command . With good will doing service ( saith the Apostle , ) for it is impossible to secure the duty of inferiours but by conscience and good will ; unless provision could be made against all their secret arts and concealments and escapings , which as no providence can foresee , so no diligence can cure . It is but an eye-service whatsoever is compelled and involuntary : nothing rules a man in private but God and his own desires ; and they give Laws in a Wilderness , and accuse in a Cloister , and do execution in a Closet , if there be any prevarication . 23. Fifthly , But obedience to humane Laws goes no farther , we are not bound to obey with a direct and particular act of Understanding , as in all Divine Sanctions : for so long as our Superiours are fallible , though it be highly necessary we conform our wills to their innocent Laws , yet it is not a duty we should think the Laws most prudent or convenient because all Laws are not so ; but it may concern the interest of humility and self-denial to 〈◊〉 subject to an inconvenient , so it be not a sinful , Command : for so we must chuse an affliction when God offers it , and give God thanks for it , and yet we may cry under the smart of it , and call to God for ease and remedy . And yet it were well if inferiours would not be too busie in disputing the prudence of their Governours , and the convenience of their Constitutions : Whether they be sins or no in the execution , and to our particulars , we are concern'd to look to ; I say , as to our particulars ; for an action may be a sin in the Prince commanding it , and yet innocent in the person executing : as in the case of unjust Wars , in which the Subject , who cannot , ought not to be a Judge , yet must be a Minister ; and it is notorious in the case of executing an unjust sentence , in which * not the Executioner , but the Judge is only the unjust person ; and he that serves his Prince in an unjust War is but the executioner of an unjust sentence : But what-ever goes farther , does but undervalue the person , slight the Government , and unloose the golden cords of Discipline . For we are not intrusted in providing for degrees , so we secure the kind and condition of our actions . And since God having derived rays and beams of Majesty , and transmitted it in parts upon several states of men , hath fixed humane authority and dominion in the golden candlestick of Understanding , he that shall question the prudence of his Governour , or the wisdom of his Sanction , does unclasp the golden rings that tie the purple upon the Prince's shoulder ; he tempts himself with a reason to disobey , and extinguish the light of Majesty by overturning the candlestick , and hiding the opinion of his wisdom and understanding . And let me say this ; He that is confident of his own understanding and reasonable powers , ( and who is more than he that thinks himself wiser than the Laws ? ) needs no other Devil in the neighbourhood , no tempter but himself to pride and vanity , which are the natural parents of Disobedience . 24. But a man's Disobedience never seems so reasonable as when the Subject is forbidden to do an act of Piety , commanded indeed in the general , but uncommanded in certain circumstances . And forward Piety and assiduous Devotion , a great and undiscreet Mortifier , is often tempted to think no Authority can restrain the fervours and distempers of zeal in such holy Exercises ; and yet it is very often as necessary to restrain the indiscretions of a forward person , as to excite the remissness of the cold and frozen . Such persons were the Sarabaites spoken of by 〈◊〉 , who were greater labourers and stricter mortifiers than the Religious in Families and Colledges ; and yet they endured no Superiour , nor Laws . But such customs as these are Humiliation without Humility , humbling the body and exalting the spirit , or indeed Sacrifices and no Obedience . It was an argument of the great wisdom of the Fathers of the 〈◊〉 : when they heard of the prodigious Severities exercised by 〈◊〉 Stylites upon himself , they sent one of the Religious to him , with power to enquire what was his manner of living , and what warrant he had for such a rigorous undertaking , giving in charge to command him to give it over , and to live in a community with them , and according to the common institution of those Religious families . The Messenger did so , and immediately 〈◊〉 removed his foot from his Pillar , with a purpose to descend ; but the other according to his Commission called to him to stay , telling him his station and severity was from God. And he that in so great a Piety was humble and obedient , did not undertake that Strictness out of singularity , nor did it transport him to vanity ; for that he had received from the Fathers to make judgment of the man , and of his institution : whereas if upon pretence of the great Holiness of that course he had refused the command , the spirit of the person was to be declared caitive and imprudent , and the man 〈◊〉 from his troublesom and ostentous vanity . 25. Our Fasts , our Prayers , our Watchings , our Intentions of duty , our frequent Communions , and all exteriour acts of Religion , are to be guided by our Superiour , if he sees cause to restrain or asswage any 〈◊〉 . For a wound may heal too fast , and then the tumour of the flesh is proud , not healthful ; and so may the indiscretions of Religion swell to vanity , when we think they grow towards perfection : but when we can indure the causticks and correctives of our Spiritual Guides in those things in which we are most apt to please our selves , then our Obedience is regular and humble , and in other things there is less of danger . There is a story told of a very Religious person , whose spirit in the ecstasie of Devotion was transported to the clarity of a Vision , and he seemed to converse personally with the Holy Jesus , feeling from such entercourse great spiritual delights and huge satisfactions : in the midst of these joys the Bell call'd to Prayers , and he , used to the strictness and well instructed in the necessities of Obedience , went to the Church , and having finished his Devotions , returned , and found the Vision in the same posture of glories and entertainment ; which also said to him , Because thou hast left me , thou hast found me ; for if thou 〈◊〉 not left me , I had presently left thee . What-ever the story be , I am sure it is a 〈◊〉 Parable ; for the way to increase spiritual comforts is , to be strict in the offices of humble Obedience ; and we never lose any thing of our joy by laying it aside to attend a Duty : and Plutarch reports more honour of Agesilaus's prudence and modesty , than of his gallantry and military fortune ; * for he was more honourable by obeying the Decree of the Spartan Senate recalling him from the midst of his Triumphs , than he could have been by finishing the War with prosperous success and disobedience . 26. Our Obedience , being guided by these Rules , is urged to us by the consignation of Divine Precepts and the loud voice of thunder , even seal'd by a signet of God's right hand , the signature of greatest Judgments . For God did with greater severity punish the Rebellion of Korah and his company , than the express Murmurs against himself , nay , than the high crime of Idolatry : for this Crime God visited them with a sword ; but for Disobedience and Mutiny against their Superiours , God made the Earth to swallow some of them , and fire from Heaven to consume the rest ; to shew that Rebellion is to be punished by the conspiration of Heaven and Earth , as it is hateful and contradictory both to God and Man. And it is not amiss to observe , that obedience to Man , being it is for God's sake , and yet to a person clothed with the circumstances and the same infirmities with our selves , is a greater instance of Humility , than to obey God immediately , whose Authority is Divine , whose Presence is terrible , whose Power is infinite , and not at all depressed by exterior disadvantages or lessening appearances : just as it is both greater Faith and greater Charity to relieve a poor Saint for Jesus sake , than to give any thing to Christ himself , if he should appear in all the robes of Glory and immediate address . For it is to God and to Christ , and wholly for their sakes , and to them that the Obedience is done , or the Charity expressed ; but themselves are persons whose awfulness , majesty and veneration , would rather force than invite Obedience or Alms. But when God and his Holy Son stand behind the cloud , and send their Servants to take the Homage or the Charity , it is the same as if it were done to them , but receives the advantage of acceptation by the accidental adherencies of Faith and Humility to the several actions respectively . When a King comes to Rebels in person , it strikes terrour and veneration into them , who are too apt to neglect and despise the person of his Ministers , whom they look upon as their fellow-subjects , and consider not in the exaltation of a deputed Majesty . Charles the Fifth found a happy experience of it at Gaunt in Flanders , whose Rebellion he appeased by his presence , which he could hardly have done by his Army . But if the King's Authority be as much rever'd in his Deputy as it is sacred in his own Person , it is the greater Humility and more confident Obedience . And as it is certain that he is the most humble that submits to his inferiours ; so in the same proportion , the lower and meaner the instrument upon which God's authority is born , the higher is the Grace that teaches us to stoop so low . I do not say that a sin against humane Laws is greater than a prevarication against a Divine Commandment ; as the instances may be , the distance is next to infinite , and to touch the earth with our foot within the Octaves of Easter , or to tast flesh upon days of Abstinence , ( even in those places and to those persons where they did or do oblige ) have no consideration , if they be laid in balance against the crimes of Adultery , or Blasphemy , or Oppression : because these Crimes cannot stand with the reputation and sacredness of Divine Authority ; but those others may in most instances very well consist with the ends of Government , which are severally provided for in the diversity of Sanctions respectively . But if we make our instances to other purposes , we find , that to mutiny in an Army , or to keep private Assemblies in a Monarchy , are worse than a single thought or morose delectation in a fancy of impurity ; because those others destroy Government more than these destroy Charity of God or Obedience . But then though the instances may vary the Conclusion , yet the formal reason is alike , and Disobedience to Man is a disobedience against God ; for God's Authority , and not Man's , is imprinted upon the Superiour ; and it is like sacred fire in an earthen Censer , as holy as if it were kindled with the fanning of a Cherub's wing , or placed just under the Propitiatory upon a golden Altar ; and it is but a gross conceit which cannot distinguish Religion from its Porter , 〈◊〉 from the Beast that carried it : so that in all Disobedience to Men , in proportion to the greatness of the matter , or the malice of the person , or his contradiction to the ends of Government and combinations of Society , we may use the words by which the Prophet upbraided Israel , 〈◊〉 it not enough that you are grievous unto men , but will you grieve my God also ? It is a contempt of the Divinity , and the affront is transmitted to God himself , when we despise the Power which God hath ordained , and all power of every lawful Superiour is such ; the Spirit of God being witness in the highest measure , Rebellion is as the sin of 〈◊〉 , and stubbornness as Idolatry . * It is spoken of Rebellion against God , and all Rebellion is so , for , * He that despiscth you , despiseth me , saith the Blessed Jesus ; that 's menace enough in the instance of Spiritual regiment . And , You are gathered together against the Lord , saith Moses to the rebellious Princes in the conspiracy of Dathan ; that 's for the Temporal . And to encourage this Duty , I shall use no other words than those of Achilles in Homer , * They that obey in this world are better than they that command in Hell. A PRAYER for the Grace of Holy OBEDIENCE . O Lord and Blessed Saviour Jesus , by whose Obedience many became righteous , and reparations were made of the ruines brought to humane Nature by the Disobedience of Adam ; thou camest into the world with many great and holy purposes concerning our Salvation , and hast given us a great precedent of Obedience , which that thou mightest preserve to thy Heavenly Father , thou didst neglect thy Life , and becamest obedient even to the death of the Cross : O , let me imit ate so blessed example , and by the merits of thy Obedience let me obtain the grace of Humility and Abnegation of all my own desires in the clearest Renunciation of my Will ; that I may will and refuse in conformity to thy sacred Laws and holy purposes ; that I may do all thy will chearfully ; chusingly , humbly , confidently , and continually ; and thy will may be done upon me with much mercy and fatherly dispensation of thy Providence . Amen . 2. LOrd , let my Understanding adhere to and be satisfied in the excellent 〈◊〉 of thy Commandments ; let my Affections dwell in their desires , and all my other Faculties be set on daily work for performance of them : and let my love to obey thee make me dutiful to my Superiors , upon whom the impresses of thy Authority are set by thine own hand ; that I may never despise their Persons , nor refuse their Injunctions , nor chuse mine own work , nor murmur at their burthens , nor dispute the prudence of the Sanction , nor excuse my self , nor pretend 〈◊〉 or impossibilities ; but that I may be 〈◊〉 in my desires , and resigned to the will of those whom thou hast set over me ; that since all thy Creatures obey thy word , I alone may not disorder the Creation , and cancel those bands and intermedial links of Subordination whereby my duty should pass to 〈◊〉 and thy glory , but that my Obedience being united to thy Obedience , I may also have my portion in the 〈◊〉 of thy Kingdom , O Lord and Blessed Saviour Jesus . Amen . Considerations upon the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple . 1. THE Holy Virgin-Mother , according to the Law of Moses , at the expiration of a certain time came to the Temple to be purified : although in her sacred Parturition she had contracted no Legal impurity ; yet she exposed her self to the publick opinion and common reputation of an ordinary condition ; and still amongst all generations she is in all circumstances accounted blessed , and her reputation no tittle altered , save only that it is made the more sacred by this testimony of her Humility . But this we are taught from the consequence of this instance ; That if an End principally designed in any Duty should be supplied otherwise in any particular person , the Duty is nevertheless to be observed ; and then the obedience and publick order is reason enough for the observation , though the proper End of its designation be wanting in the single person . Thus is Fasting designed for mortification of the flesh and killing all its unruly appetites ; and yet Married persons who have another remedy , and a Virgin whose Temple is hallowed by a gift and the strict observances of Chastity , may be tied to the Duty : and if they might not , then Fasting were nothing else but a publication of our impure desires , and an exposing the person to the confidence of a bold temptation , whilst the young men did observe the Faster to be tempted from within . But the Holy Virgin from these acts ( of which in signification she had no need , because she sinned not in the Conception , nor was impure in the production ) expressed other Vertues besides Obedience ; such as were humble thoughts of her self , Devotion and Reverence to publick Sanctions , Religion and Charity , which were like the pure leaves of the whitest Lily , fit to represent the beauties of her innocence , but were veiled and shadowed by that sacramental of the Mosaick Law. 2. The Holy Virgin received the greatest favour that any of the Daughters of Adam ever did , and knowing from whence and for whose glory she had received it , returns the Holy Jesus in a Present to God again ; for she had nothing so precious as himself to make oblation of : and besides that , every first-born among the Males was holy to the Lord ; this Child had an eternal and essential Sanctity , and until he came into the World , and was made apt for her to make present of him , there was never in the world any act of Adoration proportionable to the honour of the great God ; but now there was , and the Holy Virgin made it , when she presented the Holy Child Jesus . And now , besides that we are taught to return to God whatsoever we have received from him , if we unite our Offerings and Devotions to this holy Present , we shall by the merit and excellency of this Oblation exhibit to God an Offertory , in which he cannot but delight for the combination's sake and society of his Holy Son. 3. The Holy Mother brought five Sicles and a pair of Turtle-doves to redeem the Lamb of God from the Anathema ; because every first-born was to be sacrificed to God , or redeemed if it was clean ; it was the poor man's price , and the Holy Jesus was never set at the greater prices when he was estimated upon earth . For he that was Lord of the Kingdom chose his portion among the poor of this World , that he might advance the poor to the riches of his inheritance ; and so it was from his Nativity hither . For at his Birth he was poor , at his Circumcision poor , and in the likeness of a sinner ; at his Presentation poor , and like a sinner and a servant , for he chose to be redeemed with an ignoble price . The five Sicles were given to the Priest for the redemption of the Child ; and if the Parents were not able , he was to be a servant of the Temple , and to minister in the inferiour offices to the Priest ; and this was God's seizure and possession of him : for although all the servants of God are his inheritance ; yet the Ministers of Religion , who derive their portion of temporals from his title , who live upon the Corban , and eat the meat of the Altar , which is God's peculiar , and come nearer to his Holiness by the addresses of an immediate ministration , are God's own upon another and a distinct challenge . But because Christ was to be the Prince of another Ministry , and the chief Priest of another Order ; he was redeemed from attending the Mosaick Rites , which he came to 〈◊〉 , that he might do his Father's business in establishing the Evangelical . Only remember , that the Ministers of Religion are but God's 〈◊〉 : as they are not Lords of God's portion , and therefore must dispense it like Stewards , not like Masters ; so the People are 〈◊〉 their Patrons in paying , nor they their Beneficiaries in receiving Tithes or other provisions of maintenance ; they owe for it to none but to God himself : and it would also be considered , that in all sacrilegious detentions of Ecclesiastical rights God is the person principally injured . 4. The Turtle-doves * were offered also with the signification of another mystery . In the sacred Rites of Marriage , although the permissions of natural desires are such as are most ordinate to their ends , the avoiding Fornication , the alleviation of Oeconomical cares and vexations , and the production of Children , and mutual comfort and support ; yet the apertures and permissions of Marriage have such restraints of modesty and prudence , that all transgression of the just order to such ends is a crime : and besides these , there may be degrees of inordination or obliquity of intention , or too sensual complacency , or unhandsom preparations of mind , or unsacramental thoughts ; in which particulars , because we have no determined rule but Prudence , and the analogy of the Rite , and the severity of our Religion , which allow in some cases more , in some 〈◊〉 , and always uncertain latitudes , for ought we know , there may be lighter transgressions , something that we know not of : and for these at the Purification of the woman it is supposed the Offering was made , and the Turtures , by being an oblation , did deprecate a supposed irregularity ; but by being a chast and marital Embleme , they professed the obliquity ( if any were ) was within the protection of the sacred bands of Marriage , and therefore so excusable as to be expiated by a cheap offering : and what they did in Hieroglyphick , Christians must do in the exposition ; be strict observers of the main rites and principal obligations , and not neglectful to deprecate the lesser unhandsomenesses of the too sensual applications . 5. God had at that instant so ordered that , for great ends of his own and theirs , two very holy persons , of divers Sexes and like Piety , 〈◊〉 and Anna , the one who lived an active and secular , the other a retired and contemplative life , should come into the Temple by revelation and direction of the holy Spirit , and see him whom they and all the World did look for , the Lord 's CHRIST , the consolation of Israel . They saw him , they rejoyced , they worshipped , they prophesied , they sang Hymns ; and old Simeon did comprehend and circumscribe in his arms him that filled all the World , and was then so satisfied that he desired to live no longer : God had verified his promise , had shewn him the Messias , had filled his heart with joy , and made his old age honourable ; and now after all this sight , no object could be pleasant but the joys of Paradise . For as a man who hath stared too freely upon the face and beauties of the Sun is blind and dark to objects of a less splendor , and is forced to shut his eyes , that he may through the degrees of darkness perceive the inferiour beauties of more proportioned objects : so was old Simeon , his eyes were so filled with the glories of this Revelation , that he was willing to close them in his last night , that he might be brought into the communications of Eternity ; and he could never more find comfort in any other object this world could minister . For such is the excellency of spiritual things , when they have once filled the corners of our hearts , and made us highly sensible and apprehensive of the interiour beauties of God and of Religion , all things of this World are flat and empty , and unsatisfying vanities , as unpleasant as the lees of Vineger to a tongue filled with the spirit of high Italick Wines . And until we are so dead to the World as to apprehend no gust or freer complacency , in exteriour objects , we never have entertained Christ , or have had our cups overflow with Devotion , or are filled with the Spirit . When our Chalice is filled with holy oyl , with the Anointing from above , it will entertain none of the waters of bitterness ; or if it does , they are thrust to the bottom , they are the lowest of our desires , and therefore only admitted , because they are natural and constituent . 6. The good old Prophetess Anna had lived long in chast Widowhood , in the service of the Temple , in the continual offices of Devotion , in Fasting and Prayer ; and now came the happy instant in which God would give her a great benediction , and an earnest of a greater . The returns of Prayer and the blessings of Piety are certain ; and though not dispensed according to the expectances of our narrow conceptions , 〈◊〉 shall they so come , at such times and in such measures , as shall crown the Piety , and 〈◊〉 the desires , and reward the expectation . It was in the Temple , the same place where she had for so many years poured out her heart to God , that God poured forth his heart to her , sent his Son from his bosom , and there she received his benediction . Indeed in such places God does most particularly exhibit himself , and Blessing goes along with him where-ever he goes : In holy places God hath put his holy Name , and to holy persons God does oftentimes manifest the interiour and more secret glories of his Holiness ; provided they come thither , as old Simeon and Anna did , by the motions of the holy Spirit , not with designs of vanity , or curiosity , or sensuality ; for such spirits as those come to profane and desecrate the house , and unhallow the person , and provoke the Deity of the place , and blast us with unwholsom airs . 7. But Joseph and Mary wondred at these things which were spoken , and treasured them in their hearts , and they became matter of Devotion and mental Prayer , or Meditation . The PRAYER . O Eternal God , who by the Inspirations of thy Holy Spirit didst direct thy servants Simeon and Anna to the Temple at the instant of the Presentation of the Holy Child Jesus , that so thou mightest verifie thy promise , and manifest thy Son , and reward the 〈◊〉 of holy people , who longed for Redemption by the coming of the Messias ; give me the perpetual assistance of the same Spirit to be as a Monitor and a Guide to me , leading me to all holy actions , and to the embracements and possessions of thy glorious Son ; and remember all thy faithful people , who wait for the consolation and redemption of the Church from all her miseries and persecutions , and at last satisfie their desires by the revelations of thy mercies and Salvation . Thou hast advanced thy Holy Child , and set him up for a sign of thy Mercies , and a representation of thy Glories . Lord , let no act or thought or word of mine ever be in contradiction to this blessed sign , but let it be for the ruine of all my vices , and all the powers the Devil imploys against the Church , and for the raising up all those vertues and Graces which thou didst design me in the purposes of Eternity : but let my portion never be amongst the 〈◊〉 , or the scornful , or the Heretical , or the profane , or any of those who stumble at this Stone which thou hast laid for the foundation of thy Church , and the structures of a vertuous life . Remember me with much mercy and compassion when the sword of Sorrows or Afflictions shall pierce my heart ; first transfix me with love , and then all the Troubles of this world will be consignations to the joys of a better : 〈◊〉 grant for the mercies and the name sake of thy Holy Child Jesus . Amen . DISCOURSE III. Of Meditation . 1. IF in the Definition of Meditation I should call it an unaccustomed and unpractised Duty , I should speak a truth , though somewhat inartificially : for not only the interior beauties and brighter excellencies are as unfelt as Idea's and Abstractions are , but also the practice and common knowledge of the Duty it self are strangers to us , like the retirements of the Deep , or the undiscovered treasures of the Indian Hills . And this is a very great cause of the driness and expiration of mens Devotion , because our Souls are so little 〈◊〉 with the waters and holy dews of Meditation . We go to our prayers by chance , or order , or by determination of accidental occurrences ; and we recite them as we read a book ; and sometimes we are sensible of the Duty , and a flash of lightning makes the room bright , and our prayers end , and the lightning is gone , and we as dark as ever . We draw our water from standing pools , which never are filled but with sudden showers , and therefore we are dry so often : Whereas if we would draw water from the Fountains of our Saviour , and derive them through the chanel of diligent and prudent Meditations , our Devotion would be a continual current , and safe against the barrenness of frequent droughts . 2. For Meditation is an attention and application of spirit to Divine things ; a searching out all instruments to a holy life , a devout consideration of them , and a production of those affections which are in a direct order to the love of God and a pious conversation . Indeed Meditation is all that great instrument of Piety whereby it is made prudent , and reasonable , and orderly , and perpetual . For supposing our Memory instructed with the knowledge of such mysteries and revelations as are apt to entertain the Spirit , the Understanding is first and best imployed in the consideration of them , and then the Will in their reception , when they are duly prepared and so transmitted ; and both these in such manner and to such purposes , that they become the Magazine and great Repositories of Grace , and instrumental to all designs of Vertue . 3. For the Understanding is not to consider the matter of any meditation in itself , or as it determines in natural excellencies or unworthiness respectively , or with a purpose to furnish it self with notion and riches of knowledge ; for that is like the Winter-Sun , it shines , but warms not ; but in such order as themselves are put in the designations of Theology , in the order of Divine Laws , in their spiritual capacity , and as they have influence upon Holiness : for the Understanding here is something else besides the Intellectual power of the Soul , it is the Spirit , that is , it is celestial in its application , as it is spiritual in its nature ; and we may understand it well by considering the beatifical portions of Soul and body in their future glories . For therefore even our Bodies in the Resurrection shall be spiritual , because the operation of them shall be in order to spiritual glories , and their natural actions ( such as are Seeing and Speaking ) shall have a spiritual object and supernatural end ; and here as we partake of such excellencies and cooperate to such purposes , men are more or less spiritual . And so is the Understanding taken from its first and lowest ends of resting in notion and ineffective contemplation , and is made Spirit , that is , wholly ruled and guided by God's Spirit to supernatural ends and spiritual imployments ; so that it understands and considers the motions of the Heavens , to declare the glory of God , the prodigies and alterations in the Firmament , to demonstrate his handy-work ; it considers the excellent order of creatures , that we may not disturb the order of Creation , or dissolve the golden chain of Subordination . Aristotle and Porphyry , and the other Greek Philosophers , studied the Heavens to search out their natural causes and production of Bodies ; the wiser Chaldees and Assyrians studied the same things , that they might learn their Influences upon us , and make Predictions of contingencies ; the more moral AEgyptian described his Theorems in Hieroglyphicks and phantastick representments , to teach principles of Policy , Oeconomy , and other prudences of Morality and secular negotiation : But the same Philosophy , when it is made Christian , considers as they did , but to greater purposes , even that from the Book of the Creatures we may glorifie the Creator , and hence derive arguments of Worship and Religion ; this is Christian Philosophy . 4. I instance only in considerations natural to spiritual purposes ; but the same is the manner in all Meditation , whether the matter of it be Nature or Revelation . For if we think of Hell , and consider the infinity of its duration , and that its flames last as long as God lasts , and thence conjecture , upon the rules of proportion , why a finite creature may have an infinite , unnatural duration ; or think by what ways a material fire can torment an immaterial substance ; or why the Devils , who are intelligent and wise creatures , should be so foolish as to hate God from whom they know every rivulet of amability derives ; This is to study , not to meditate : for Meditation considers any thing that may best make us to avoid the place , and to quit a vicious habit , or master and 〈◊〉 an untoward inclination , or purchase a vertue , or exercise one : so that Meditation is an act of the Understanding put to the right use . 5. For the Holy Jesus , coming to redeem us from the bottomless pit , did it by lifting us up out of the puddles of impurity and the unwholsome waters of vanity ; He redeemed us from our vain conversation ; and our Understandings had so many vanities , that they were made instruments of great impiety . The unlearned and ruder Nations had fewer Vertues , but they had also fewer Vices than the wise Empires , that ruled the World with violence and wit together . The softer * Asians had Lust and Intemperance in a full Chalice ; but their Understandings were ruder than the finer Latines , for these mens understandings distilled wickedness as through a Limbeck , and the Romans drank spirits and the sublimed quintessences of Villany , whereas the other made themselves drunk with the lees and cheaper instances of sin : so that the Understanding is not an idle and useless faculty , but naturally drives to practice , and brings guests into the inward Cabinet of the Will , and there they are entertained and feasted . And those Understandings which did not serve the baser end of Vices , yet were unprofitable for the most part , and furnished their inward rooms with glasses and beads , and trifles fit for an American Mart. From all these impurities and vanities Jesus hath redeemed all his Disciples , and not only thrown out of his Temples all the impure rites of Flora and Cybele , but also the trifling and unprofitable ceremonies of the more sober Deities , not only Vices , but useless and unprofitable Speculations , and hath consecrated our Head into a Temple , our Understanding to Spirit , our Reason to Religion , our Study to Meditation : and this is the first part of the Sanctification of our Spirit . 6. And this was the cause Holy Scripture commands the duty of Meditation in proportion still to the excellencies of Piety and a holy life , to which it is highly and aptly instrumental . Blessed is the man that meditates in the Law of the Lord day and night . And the reason of the Proposition and the use of the Duty is expressed to this purpose ; Thy words have I hid in my heart , that I should not sin against thee . The placing and fixing those divine Considerations in our understandings , and hiding them there , are designs of high Christian prudence , that they with advantage may come forth in the expresses of a holy life . For what in the world is more apt and natural to produce Humility , than to meditate upon the low stoopings and descents of the Holy Jesus , to the nature of a Man , to the weaknesses of a Child , to the poverties of a Stable , to the ignobleness of a Servant , to the shame of the Cross , to the pains of Cruelty , to the dust of Death , to the title of a Sinner , and to the wrath of God ? By this instance Poverty is made honourable , and Humility is sanctified and made noble , and the contradictions of nature are amiable and 〈◊〉 for a wise election . Thus hatred of sin , shame of our selves , confusion at the sense of humane misery , the love of God , confidence in his Promises , desires of Heaven , holy resolutions , resignation of our own appetites , 〈◊〉 to Divine will , oblations of our selves , Repentance and mortification , are the proper emanations from Meditation of the sordidness of sin , our proneness to it , our daily miseries as issues of Divine vengeance , the glories of God , his infinite unalterable Veracity , the satisfactions in the vision of God , the rewards of Piety , the rectitude of the Laws of God , and perfection of his Sanctions , God's supreme and paternal Dominion , and his certain malediction of sinners : and when any one of these Considerations is taken to pieces , and so placed in the rooms of application , that a piece of duty is conjoyned to a piece of the mystery , and the whole office to the purchase of a grace , or the extermination of a vice , it is like opening our windows to let in the Sun and the Wind ; and Holiness is as proportioned an effect to this practice , as Glory is to a persevering Holiness , by way of reward and moral causality . 7. For all the Affections that are in Man are either natural , or by chance , or by the incitation of Reason and discourse . Our natural affections are not worthy the entertainments of a Christian ; they must be supernatural and divine that put us into the hopes of Perfection and Felicities : and these other that are good , unless they come by Meditation , they are but accidental , and set with the evening Sun : But if they be produced upon the strengths of pious Meditation , they are as perpetual as they are reasonable , and excellent in proportion to the Piety of the principle . A Garden that is watered with short and sudden showrs is more uncertain in its fruits and beauties than if a Rivulet waters it with a perpetual distilling and constant humectation : And just such are the short emissions and unpremeditated resolutions of Piety begotten by a dash of holy rain from Heaven , whereby God sometimes uses to call the careless but to taste what excellencies of Piety they neglect ; but if they be not produced by the Reason of Religion , and the Philosophy of Meditation , they have but the life of a Fly or a tall Gourd , they come into the World only to say they had a Being , you could scarce know their length but by measuring the ground they cover in their fall . 8. For since we are more moved by material and sensible objects than by things merely speculative and intellectual , and generals even in spiritual things are less perceived and less motive than particulars : Meditation frames the understanding part of Religion to the proportions of our nature and our weakness , by making some things more circumstantiate and material , and the more spiritual to be particular , and therefore the more applicable ; and the mystery is made like the Gospel to the Apostles , Our eyes do see , and our ears do hear , and our hands do handle thus much of the word of life as is prepared for us in the Meditation . 9. First , And therefore every wise person , that intends to furnish himself with affections of Religion , or detestation against a Vice , or glorifications of a Mystery , still will proportion the Mystery , and fit it with such circumstances of fancy and application , as by observation of himself he knows aptest to make impression . It was a wise design of Mark Antony when he would stir up the people to revenge the death of Caesar , he brought his body to the pleading-place , he shewed his wounds , held up the rent mantle , and shewed them the garment that he put on that night in which he beat the Nervii , that is , in which he won a victory , for which his memory was dear to them ; he shewed them that wound which pierced his heart , in which they were placed by so dear a love , that he made them his heirs , and left to their publick use places of delight and pleasure : and then it was natural , when he had made those things present to them which had once moved their love and his honour , that grief at the loss of so honourable and so lov'd a person should succeed ; and then they were Lords of all , their sorrow and revenge seldom slept in two beds . And thus holy Meditation produces the passions and desires it intends , it makes the object present and almost sensible , it renews the first passions by a fiction of imagination ; it passes from the Paschal Parlour to Cedron , it tells the drops of sweat , and measures them , and finds them as big as drops of bloud , and then conjectures at the greatness of our sins ; it fears in the midst of Christ's Agonies , it hears his groans , it spies Judas his Lantern afar off , it follows Jesus to Gabbatha , and wonders at his innocence and their malice , and feels the strokes of the Whip , and shrinks the head when the Crown of Thorns is thrust hard upon his holy brows , and at last goes step by step with Jesus , and carries part of the Cross , and is nailed fast with sorrow and compassion , and dies with love . For if the Soul be principle of its own actions , it can produce the same effects by reflex acts of the Understanding , when it is assisted by the Imaginative part , as when it sees the thing acted : only let the Meditation be as minute , particular and circumstantiate as it may ; for a Widow by representing the caresses of her dead Husband's love produces sorrow and the new affections of a sad endearment . It is too sure , that the recalling the circumstances of a past impurity does re-inkindle the flame , and entertain the fancy with the burnings of an impure fire : And this happens not by any advantages of Vice , but by the nature of the thing , and the efficacy of Circumstances . So does holy Meditation produce those impresses and signatures which are the proper effects of the Mystery , if presented in a right line and direct representation . 10. Secondly , He that means to meditate in the best order to the productions of Piety , must not be inquisitive for the highest Mysteries , but the plainest Propositions are to him of the greatest use and evidence . For Meditation is the duty of all , and therefore God hath fitted such matter for it which is proportioned to every understanding , and the greatest Mysteries of Christianity are plainest , and yet most fruitful of Meditation , and most useful to the production of Piety . High Speculations are as barren as the tops of Cedars ; but the Fundamentals of Christianity are fruitful as the Valleys or the creeping Vine . For know , that it is no Meditation , but it may be an Illusion , when you consider Mysteries to become more learned , without thoughts of improving Piety . Let your affections be as high as they can climb towards God , so your considerations be humble , fruitful , and practically mysterious . Oh that I had the wings of a Dove , that I might flie away and be at rest , said David . The wings of an Eagle would have carried him higher , but yet the innocent Dove did furnish him with the better Embleme to represent his humble design ; and lower meditations might sooner bring him to rest in God. It was a saying of AEgidius , That an old and a simple woman , if she loves Jesus , may be greater than was Brother Bonaventure . Want of Learning and disability to consider great secrets of Theology does not at all retard our progress to spiritual perfections ; Love to Jesus may be better promoted by the plainer understandings of honest and unlettered people , than by the finer and more exalted speculations of great Clerks that have less Devotion . For although the way of serving God by the Understanding be the best and most lasting , yet it is not necessary the Understanding should be dressed with troublesom and laborious Notions : the Reason that is in Religion is the surest principle to engage our services , and more perpetual than the sweetnesses and the motives of Affection ; but every honest man's Understanding is then best furnished with the discourses and the reasonable parts of Religion , when he knows those mysteries of Religion upon which Christ and his Apostles did build a holy life , and the superstructures of Piety ; those are the best materials of his Meditation . 11. So that Meditation is nothing else but the using of all those arguments , motives and irradiations which God intended to be instrumental to Piety . It is a composition of both ways ; for it stirs up our Affections by Reason and the way of Understanding , that the wise Soul may be satisfied in the Reasonableness of the thing , and the affectionate may be entertained with the sweetnesses of holy Passion ; that our Judgment be determined by discourse , and our Appetites made active by the caresses of a religious fancy . And therefore the use of Meditation is , to consider any of the Mysteries of Religion with purposes to draw from it Rules of life , or affections to Vertue , or detestation of Vice ; and from hence the man rises to Devotion , and mental Prayer , and Entercourse with God ; and after that he rests himself in the bosom of Beatitude , and is swallowed up with the comprehensions of Love and Contemplation . These are the several degrees of Meditation . But let us first understand that part of it which is Duty ; and then , if any thing succeed of a middle condition between Duty and Reward , we will consider also how that Duty is to be performed , and how the Reward is to be managed , that it may prove to be no Illusion : Therefore I add also this Consideration . 12. Thirdly , Whatsoever pious purposes and deliberations are entertained in the act of Meditation , they are carefully to be maintained and thrust forward to actual performances , although they were indefinite and indeterminate , and no other ways decreed but by resolutions and determinations of Reason and Judgment . For God assists every pious action according to its exigence and capacity , and therefore blesses holy Meditations with results of Reason , and prepossessions dogmatically decreeing the necessity of Vertue , and the convenience of certain exercises in order to the purchase of it . He then that neglects to actuate such discourses , loses the benefit of his Meditation ; he is gone no farther than when he first set out , and neglects the inspirations of the Holy Spirit . For if at any time it be certain what spirit it is that speaks within the Soul , it is most certain that it is the good Spirit that moves us to an act of Vertue in order to acquisition of the habit : and when God's grace hath assisted us so far in our Meditation that we understand our Duty , and are moved with present arguments , if we put not forth our hand and make use of them , we do nothing towards our Duty ; and it is not certain that God will create Graces in us as he does the Soul. Let every pious person think every conclusion of Reason in his Meditation to have passed an obligation upon him : and if he hath decreed that Fasting so often , and doing so many Religious acts , is convenient and conducing to the production of a Grace he is in pursuit of ; let him know that every such decree and reasonable proposition is the Grace of God , instrumental to Piety , part of his assistance , and therefore in no case to be extinguished . 13. Fourthly , In Meditation let the Understanding be restrained , and under such prudent coercion and confinement that it wander not from one discourse to another , till it hath perceived some fruit from the first ; either that his Soul be instructed in a Duty , or moved by a new argument , or confirmed in an old , or determined to some exercise and intermedial action of Religion , or hath broke out into some Prayers and intercourse with God in order to the production of a Vertue . And this is the mystical design of the Spouse in the 〈◊〉 of Solomon : I adjure you , O you daughters of Jerusalem , by the 〈◊〉 and by the Hinds of the field , that you stir not up nor awake my love till he please . For it is lightness of spirit to pass over a field of flowers and to fix no-where , but to leave it without carrying some honey with us ; unless the subject be of it self barren and unfruitful , and then why was it chosen ? or that it is made so by our indisposition , and then indeed it is to be quitted . But ( it is S. Chrysostom's Simile ) As a Lamb sucking the breast of its dam and Mother moves the head from one part to another till it hath found a distilling fontinel , and then it fixes till it be satisfied , or the 〈◊〉 cease dropping : so should we in Meditation reject such materials as are barren like the tops of hills , and six upon such thoughts which nourish and refresh , and there dwell till the nourishment be drawn forth , or so much of it as we can then temperately digest . 14. Fifthly , In Meditation strive rather for Graces than for Gifts , for affections in the way of Vertue more than the overslowings of sensible Devotion ; and therefore if thou findest any thing by which thou mayest be better , though thy spirit do not actually rejoyce or find any gust or relish in the manducation , yet chuse it greedily . For although the chief end of Meditation be Affection , and not Determinations intellectual ; yet there is choice to be had of the Affections , and care must be taken that the affections be desires of Vertue , or repudiations and aversions from something criminal ; not joys and transportations spiritual , comforts and complacencies , for they are no part of our duty : sometimes they are encouragements , and sometimes rewards ; sometimes they depend upon habitude and disposition of body , and seem great matters when they have little in them , and are more bodily than spiritual , like the gift of tears , and yerning of the bowels ; and sometimes they are illusions and temptations , at which if the Soul stoops and be greedy after , they may prove like Hippomenes's golden Apples to Atalanta , retard our course , and possibly do some hazard to the whole race . And this will be nearer reduced to practice , if we consider the variety of matter which is fitted to the Meditation in several states of men travelling towards Heaven . 15. For the first beginners in Religion are imployed in the mastering of their first Appetites , casting out their Devils , exterminating all evil customs , lessening the proclivity of habits , and countermanding the too-great forwardness of vicious inclinations ; and this , which Divines call the Purgative way , is wholly spent in actions of Repentance , Mortification and Self-denial : and therefore if a penitent person snatches at Comforts , or the tastes of sensible Devotion , his Repentance is too delicate , it is but a rod of Roses and Jessamine . If God sees the spirit broken all in pieces , and that it needs a little of the oyl of gladness for its support and restitution to the capacities of its duty , he will give it ; but this is not to be designed , nor snatched at in the Meditation : Tears of joy are not good expressions nor instruments of Repentance ; we must not gather grapes from thorns , nor figs from thistles ; no refreshments to be looked for here , but such only as are necessary for support ; and when God sees they are , let not us trouble our selves , he will provide them . But the Meditations which are prompt to this Purgative way and practice of first beginners are not apt to produce delicacies , but in the sequel and consequent of it . Afterwards it brings forth the pleasant fruit of righteousness , but for the present it hath no joy in it , no joy of sense , though much satisfaction to Reason . And such are Meditations of the Fall of Angels and Man , the Ejection of them from Heaven , of our Parents from Paradise , the Horrour and obliquity of Sin , the Wrath of God , the severity of his Anger , Mortification of our body and spirit , Self-denial , the Cross of Christ , Death , and Hell , and Judgment , the terrours of an evil Conscience , the insecurities of a Sinner , the unreasonableness of Sin , the troubles of Repentance , the Worm and sting of a burthened spirit , the difficulties of rooting out evil Habits , and the utter abolition of Sin : if these nettles bear honey , we may fill our selves ; but such sweetnesses spoil the operations of these bitter potions . Here therefore let your addresses to God and your mental prayers be affectionate desires of Pardon , humble considerations of our selves , thoughts of revenge against our Crimes , designs of Mortification , indefatigable solicitations for Mercy , expresses of shame and confusion of face ; and he meditates best in the purgative way that makes these affections most operative and high . 16. After our first step is taken , and the punitive part of Repentance is resolved on , and begun , and put forward into good degrees of progress , we then enter into the Illuminative way of Religion , and set upon the acquist of Vertues , and the purchase of spiritual Graces ; and therefore our Meditations are to be proportioned to the design of that imployment : such as are considerations of the Life of Jesus , Examples of Saints , reasons of Vertue , means of acquiring them , designations of proper exercises to every pious habit , the Eight Beatitudes , the gifts and fruits of the Holy Ghost , the Promises of the Gospel , the Attributes of God as they are revealed to represent God to be infinite , and to make us Religious , the Rewards of Heaven , excellent and select Sentences of holy persons , to be as incentives of Piety : These are the proper matter for Proficients in Religion . But then the affections producible from these are love of vertue , desires to imitate the Holy Jesus , affections to Saints and holy persons , conformity of choice , subordination to God's will , election of the ways of Vertue , satisfaction of the Understanding in the ways of Religion , and resolutions to pursue them in the midst of all discomforts and persecutions ; and our mental prayers or entercourse with God , which are the present emanations of our Meditations , must be in order to these affections , and productions from those : and in all these yet there is safety and piety , and no seeking of our selves , but designs of Vertue in just reason and duty to God , and for his sake , that is , for his commandment . And in all these particulars , if there be such a sterility of spirit that there be no end served but of spiritual profit , we are never the worse ; all that God requires of us is , that we will live well , and repent in just measure and right manner , and he that doth so , hath meditated well . 17. From hence if a pious Soul passes to affections of greater sublimity , and intimate and more immediate , abstracted and immaterial love , it is well ; only remember that the love God requires of us is an operative , material , and communicative love ; If ye love me , keep my Commandments : so that still a good life is the effect of the sublimest Meditation ; and if we make our duty sure behind us , ascend up as high into the Mountain as you can , so your ascent may consist with the securities of your person , the condition of infirmity , and the interests of your duty . According to the saying of * 〈◊〉 , Our empty saying of 〈◊〉 , and reciting verses in honour of his Name , please not God so well as the imitation of him does advantage to us ; and a devout 〈◊〉 pleases the Spouse better than an idle Panegyrick : Let your work be like his , your Duty in imitation of his Precept and Example , and then sing praises as you list ; no heart is large enough , no voice pleasant enough , no life long enough , nothing but an eternity of duration and a beatifical state can do it well : and therefore holy David joyns them both , Whoso offereth me thanks and praise , he honoureth me ; and to him that ordereth his conversation aright I will shew the salvation of God. All thanks and praise without a right-ordered conversation are but the Echo of Religion , a voice and no substance ; but if those praises be sung by a heart righteous and obedient , that is , singing with the spirit and singing with understanding , that is the Musick God delights in . 18. Sixthly , But let me observe and press this caution : It is a mistake , and not a little dangerous , when people religious and forward shall too promptly , frequently and nearly spend their thoughts in consideration of Divine Excellencies . God hath shewn thee merit enough to spend all thy stock of love upon him in the characters of his Power , the book of the Creature , the great tables of his Mercy , and the lines of his Justice ; we have cause enough to praise his Excellencies in what we feel of him , and are refreshed with his influence , and see his beauties in reflexion , though we do not put our eyes out with staring upon his face . To behold the Glories and Perfections of God with a more direct intuition is the priviledge of Angels , who yet cover their faces in the brightness of his presence : it is only permitted to us to consider the back parts of God. And therefore those Speculations are too bold and imprudent addresses , and minister to danger more than to Religion , when we pass away from the direct studies of Vertue , and those thoughts of God which are the freer and safer communications of the Deity , which are the means of entercourse and relation between him and us , to those considerations concerning God which are Metaphysical and remote , the formal objects of adoration and wonder , rather than of vertue and temperate discourses : for God in Scripture never revealed any of his abstracted Perfections and remoter and mysterious distances , but with a purpose to produce fear in us , and therefore to chide the temerity and boldness of too familiar and nearer entercourse . 19. True it is that every thing we see or can consider represents some perfections of God ; but this I mean , that no man should consider too much and meditate too frequently upon the immediate Perfections of God , as it were by way of intuition , but as they are manifested in the Creatures and in the ministeries of Vertue : and also when-ever God's Perfections be the matter of Meditation , we should not ascend upwards into him , but descend upon our selves , like fruitful vapours drawn up into a cloud , descending speedily into a shower , that the effect of the consideration be a design of good life ; and that our loves to God be not spent in abstractions , but in good works and humble Obedience . The other kind of love may deceive us ; and therefore so may such kind of considerations which are its instrument . But this I am now more particularly to consider . 20. For beyond this I have described , there is a degree of Meditation so exalted , that it changes the very name , and is called Contemplation , and it is in the unitive way of Religion , that is , it consists in unions and adherences to God ; it is a prayer of quietness and silence , and a meditation extraordinary , a discourse without variety , a vision and intuition of 〈◊〉 Excellencies , an immediate entry into an orb of light , and a resolution of all our faculties into sweetnesses , affections and starings upon the Divine beauty ; and is carried on to ecstasies , raptures ; suspensions , elevations , abstractions , and apprehensions beatifical . In all the course of vertuous meditation the Soul is like a Virgin invited to make a matrimonial contract , it inquires the condition of the person , his estate and disposition , and other circumstances of amability and desire : But when she is satissied with these enquiries , and hath chosen her Husband , she no more considers particulars , but is moved by his voice and his gesture , and runs to his entertainment and sruition , and spends her self wholly in affections , not to obtain , but enjoy his love . Thus it is said . 21. But this is a thing not to be discoursed of , but felt : And although in other Sciences the terms must first be known , and then the Rules and Conclusions scientifical ; here it is otherwise : for first the whole experience of this must be obtained , before we can so much as know what it is ; and the end must be acquired first , the Conclusion before the Premises . They that pretend to these Heights call them the Secrets of the Kingdom ; but they are such which no man can describe , such which God hath not revealed in the publication of the Gospel , such for the acquiring of which there are no means prescribed , and to which no man is obliged , and which are not in any man's power to obtain , nor such which it is lawful to pray for or desire , nor concerning which we shall ever be called to an account . 22. Indeed when persons have been long sostned with the continual droppings of Religion , and their spirits made timorous and apt for impression by the assiduity of Prayer , and perpetual alarms of death , and the continual dyings of Mortification ; the Fancy , which is a very great instrument of Devotion , is kept continually warm and in a disposition and aptitude to take fire , and to flame out in great ascents : and when they suffer transportations beyond the burthens and support of Reason , they suffer 〈◊〉 know not what , and call it what they please , and other pious people that hear 〈◊〉 of it admire that Devotion which is so eminent and beatified , ( for so they esteem 〈◊〉 ) and so they come to be called Raptures and Ecstasies , which even amongst the A 〈◊〉 were so seldom , that they were never spoke of ; for those Visions , Raptures and Intuitions of S. Stephen , * S. Paul , S. Peter , and S. John , were not pretended to be of this kind , not excesses of Religion , but prophetical and intuitive Revelations to great and significant purposes , such as may be and are described in story ; but these other cannot : for so Cassian reports and commends a saying of Antony the Eremite , That is not a perfect Prayer in which the Votary does either understand himself or the Prayer ; meaning , that persons eminently Religious were Divina patientes , as Dionysius Areopagita said of his Master Hierotheus , Paticks in Devotion , suffering ravishments of senses , transported beyond the uses of humanity into the suburbs of beatifical apprehensions : but whether or no this be any thing besides a too intense and indiscreet pressure of the faculties of the Soul to inconveniences of understanding , or else a credulous , busie and untamed fancy , they that think best of it cannot give a certainty . There are and have been some Religious who have acted Madness , and pretended Inspirations ; and when these are destitute of a Prophetick spirit , if they resolve to serve themselves upon the pretences of it , they are disposed to the imitation , if not to the sufferings of Madness ; and it would be a great folly to call such Dei plenos , full of God , who are no better than phantastick and mad People . 23. This we are sure of , that many Illusions have come in the likeness of Visions , and absurd fancies under the pretence of Raptures , and what some have called the spirit of Prophecy hath been the spirit of Lying , and Contemplation hath been nothing but Melancholy and unnatural lengths , and stilness of Prayer hath been a mere Dream and hypochondriacal devotion , and hath ended in pride or despair , or some sottish and dangerous temptation . It is reported of Heron the Monk , that having lived a retired , mortified and religious life for many years together , at last he came to that habit of austerity or singularity , that he refused the festival refection and freer meals of Easter and other Solemnities , that he might do more eminently than the rest , and spend his time in greater abstractions and contemplations : but the Devil , taking advantage of the weakness of his melancholick and unsettled spirit , gave him a transportation and an ecstasie in which he fansied himself to have attained so great perfection , that he was as dear to God as a crowned Martyr , and Angels would be his security for indemnity , though he threw himself to the bottome of a Well . He obeyed his fancy and temptation , did so , bruised himself to death , and died possessed with a persuasion of the verity of that Ecstasie and transportation . 24. I will not say that all violences and extravagancies of a religious fancy are Illusions , but I say that they are all unnatural , not hallowed by the warrant of a Revelation , nothing reasonable , nothing secure : I am not sure that they ever consist with Humility , but it is confessed that they are often produced by Self-love , Arrogancy , and the great opinion others have of us . I will not judge the condition of those persons who are said to have suffered these extraordinaries , for I know not the circumstances , or causes , or attendants , or the effects , or whether the stories be true that make report of them ; but I shall onely advise that we follow the intimation of our Blessed Saviour , that we sit down in the lowest place , till the Master of the Feast comes and bids us sit up higher . If we entertain the inward Man in the purgative and illuminative way , that is , in actions of Repentance , Vertue and precise Duty , that is the surest way of uniting us to God , whilest it is done by Faith and Obedience ; and that also is Love : and in these peace and safety dwell . And after we have done our work , it is not discretion in a servant to hasten to his meal , and snatch at the refreshment of Visions , Unions , and Abstractions ; but first we must gird our selves , and wait upon the Master , and not sit down our selves till we all be called at the great Supper of the Lamb. 25. It was therefore an excellent desire of St. Bernard , who was as likely as any to have such altitudes of Speculation , if God had really dispensed them to persons holy , phantastick and Religious ; I pray God grant to me peace of spirit , joy in the 〈◊〉 Ghost , to compassionate others in the midst of my mirth ; to be charitable in simplicity , to rejoyce with them that rejoyce , and to mourn with them that mourn ; and with these I shall be content : other Exaltations of Devotion I leave to Apostles and Apostolick men ; the high Hills are for the Harts and the climbing Goats , the stony Rocks and the recesses of the earth for the Conies . It is more healthful and nutritive to dig the earth , and to eat of her fruits , than to stare upon the greatest glories of the Heavens , and live upon the beams of the Sun : so unsatisfying a thing is Rapture and transportation to the Soul ; it often distracts the Faculties , but seldome does advantage 〈◊〉 , and is full of danger in the greatest of its lustre . If ever a man be more in love with God by such instruments , or more indeared to Vertue , or made more severe and watchful in his Repentance , it is an excellent grace and gift of God ; but then this is nothing but the joys and comfort of ordinary Meditation : those extraordinary , as they have no sense in them , so are not pretended to be instruments of Vertue , but are like , Jonathan's arrows shot beyond it , to signifie the danger the man is in towards whom such arrows are shot ; but if the person be made unquiet , unconstant , proud , pusillanimous , of high opinion , pertinacious and confident in uncertain judgments , or desperate , it is certain they are temptations and illusions : so that , as all our duty consists in the ways of Repentance and acquist of Vertue ; so there rests all our safety , and by consequence all our solid joys ; and this is the effect of ordinary , pious , and regular Meditations . 26. If I mistake not , there is a temptation like this under another name amongst persons whose Religion hath less discourse and more fancy , and that is a Familiarity with God , which indeed , if it were rightly understood , is an affection consequent to the Illuminative way , that is , an act or an effect of the vertue of Religion and Devotion , which consists in Prayers and addresses to God , Lauds and Eucharists and Hymns , and confidence of coming to the throne of Grace upon assurance of God's veracity and goodness infinite : so that Familiarity with God , which is an affection of Friendship , is the entercourse of giving and receiving blessings and graces respectively ; and it is produced by a holy life , or the being in the state of Grace , and is part of every man's inheritance that is a friend of God. But when familiarity with God shall be esteemed a privilege of singular and eminent persons not communicated to all the faithful , and is thought to be an admission to a nearer entercourse of secrecy with God , it is an effect of Pride , and a mistake in judgment concerning the very same thing which the old Divines call the Unitive way , if themselves that claim it understood the terms of art , and the consequents of their own intentions . 27. Onely I shall observe one Circumstance , That Familiarity with God is nothing else but an admission to be of God's Family , the admission of a servant or a son in minority , and implies Obedience , Duty and Fear on our parts ; Care and Providence and Love on God's part : And it is not the familiarity of Sons , but the impudence of proud Equals , to express this pretended privilege in 〈◊〉 , unmannerly and unreverent addresses and discourses : and it is a sure rule , that whatsoever heights of Piety , union or familiarity any man pretends to , it is of the Devil , unless the greater the pretence be , the greater also be the Humility of the man. The highest flames are the most tremulous ; and so are the most holy and eminent Religious persons more full of awfulness , and fear , and modesty , and humility : so that in true Divinity and right speaking there is no such thing as the Unitive way of Religion , save onely in the effects of duty , obedience , and the expresses of the precise vertue of Religion . Meditations in order to a good life let them be as exalted as the capacity of the person and subject will endure , up to the height of Contemplation ; but if Contemplation comes to be a distinct thing , and something besides or beyond a distinct degree of vertuous Meditation , it is lost to all sense and Religion and prudence . Let no man be hasty to eat of the fruits of Paradise before his time . 28. And now I shall not need to enumerate the blessed fruits of holy Meditation ; for it is a Grace that is instrumental to all effects , to the production of all Vertues , and the extinction of all Vices , and , by consequence , the inhabitation of the Holy Ghost within us is the natural or proper emanation from the frequent exercise of this Duty , onely it hath something particularly excellent , besides its general influence : for Meditation is that part of Prayer which knits the Soul to its right object , and confirms and makes actual our intention and Devotion . Meditation is the Tongue of the Soul and the language of our spirit ; and our wandring thoughts in prayer are but the neglects of Meditation , and recessions from that Duty ; and according as we neglect Meditation , so are our Prayers imperfect , Meditation being the Soul of Prayer , and the intention of our spirit . But in all other things Meditation is the instrument and conveyance ; it habituates our affections to Heaven , it hath permanent content , it produces constancy of purpose , despising of things below , inflamed desires of Vertue , love of God , self-denial , humility of understanding , and universal correction of our life and manners . The PRAYER . HOly and Eternal Jesus , whose whole Life and Doctrine was a perpetual Sermon of Holy life , a treasure of Wisedom , and a repository of Divine materials for Meditation ; give me grace to understand , diligence and attention to consider , care to lay up , and carefulness to reduce to practice all those actions , discourses and pious lessons and intimations by which thou didst expresly teach , or tacitly imply , or mysteriously signifie our Duty . Let my Understanding become as spiritual in its imployment and purposes as it is immaterial in its nature : fill my Memory as a vessel of Election with remembrances and notions highly compunctive , and greatly incentive of all the parts of 〈◊〉 . Let thy holy Spirit dwell in my Soul , instructing my Knowledge , sanctifying my Thoughts , guiding my Affections , directing my Will in the choice of Vertue ; that it may be the great imployment of my life to meditate in thy Law , to study thy preceptive will , to understand even the niceties and circumstantials of my Duty , that Ignorance may neither occasion a sin , nor become a punishment . Take from me all vanity of spirit , lightness of fancy , curiosity and impertinency of inquiry , illusions of the Devil and phantastick deceptions : Let my thoughts be as my Religion , plain , honest , pious , simple , prudent and charitable , of great imployment and force to the production of Vertues and extermination of Vice , but suffering no transportations of sense and vanity , nothing greater than the capacities of my Soul , nothing that may minister to any intemperances of spirit ; but let me be wholly inebriated with Love , and that love wholly spent in doing such actions as best please thee in the conditions of my infirmity and the securities of Humility , till thou shalt please to draw the curtain and reveal thy interiour beauties in the Kingdom of thine eternal Glories : which grant for thy mercie 's sake , O Holy and Eternal Jesu . Amen . The goodly CEDAR of Apostolick & Catholick EPISCOPACY , compared with the moderne Shoots & Slips of divided NOVELTIES , in the Church before the Introduction of the Apostles Lives In Rama was there a voice heard , lamentation and weeping and great mourning , ●●●hel weeping for her Children , and would not be Comforted because they are not . SECT . VI. Of the Death of the Holy Innocents , or the Babes of Bethlehem , and the Flight of JESVS into Egypt . The killing the Infants S. MAT. 2. 18 In Rama was there a voice heard Lamentation and weeping and great mourning Rachel weeping for her children and would not be conforted because they are not The flight into Egipt S. MAT. 2. 14. When he arose he took the young Child and his mother by night and departed into egipt 1. ALL this while Herod waited for the return of the Wise men , that they might give directions where the Child did lie , and his Sword might find him out with a certain and direct execution . But when he saw that he was mocked of the Wise men , he was exceeding wroth . For it now began to deserve his trouble , when his purposes which were most secret began to be contradicted and diverted with a prevention , as if they were resisted by an all-seeing and almighty Providence . He began to suspect the hand of Heaven was in it , and saw there was nothing for his purposes to be acted , unless he could dissolve the golden chain of Predestination . Herod believed the divine Oracles , foretelling that a King should be born in Bethlehem ; and yet his Ambition had made him so stupid , that he attempted to cancel the Decree of Heaven . For if he did not believe the Prophecies , why was he troubled ? If he did believe them , how could he possibly hinder that event which God had foretold himself would certainly bring to pass ? 2. And therefore since God already had hindered him from the executions of a distinguishing sword , he resolved to send a sword of indiscrimination and confusion , hoping that if he killed all the Babes of Bethlehem , this young King's Reign also should soon determine . He therefore sent forth and 〈◊〉 all the children that were in Bethlehem and all the coasts thereof from two years old and under , according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the Wise men . For this Execution was in the beginning of the second year after Christ's Nativity , as in all probability we guess ; not at the two years end , as some suppose : because as his malice was subtile , so he intended it should be secure ; and though he had been diligent in his inquiry , and was near the time in his computation , yet he that was never sparing of the lives of others , would now to secure his Kingdom , rather over-act his severity for some moneths , than by doing execution but just to the tittle of his account hazard the escaping of the Messias . 3. This Execution was sad , cruel and universal : no abatements made for the dire shriekings of the Mothers , no tender-hearted souldier was imployed , no hard-hearted person was softned by the weeping eyes and pity-begging looks of those Mothers , that wondred how it was possible any person should hurt their pretty Sucklings ; no connivences there , no protections , or friendships , or consideration , or indulgences ; but Herod caus'd that his own child which was at nurse in the coasts of Bethlehem should bleed to death : which made Augustus Caesar to say , that in Heroa's house it were better to be a 〈◊〉 than a Child ; because the custome of the Nation did secure a Hog from Heroa's knife , but no Religion could secure his Child . The sword being thus made sharp by Herod's commission killed 14000 pretty Babes , as the Greeks in their Calendar , and the 〈◊〉 of AEthiopia do commemorate in their offices of Liturgy . For Herod , crafty and malicious , that is perfectly * Tyrant , had caused all the Children to be gathered together ; which the credulous Mothers ( supposing it had been to take account of their age and number in order to some taxing ) hindred not , but unwittingly suffered themselves and their Babes to be betrayed to an irremediable 〈◊〉 . 4. Then was 〈◊〉 that which was spoken by Jeremy the Prophet , saying , Lamentation and weeping and great mourning , Rachel weeping for her children , and would not be comforted . All the synonyma's of sadness were little enough to express this great weeping , when 14000 Mothers in one day saw their pretty Babes pouring forth their blood into that bosome whence not long before they had sucked milk , and instead of those pretty smiles which use to entertain the fancy and dear affections of their Mothers , nothing but affrighting shrieks , and then gastly looks . The mourning was great , like the mourning in the valley of Hinnom , and there was no comforter ; their sorrow was too big to be cured till it should lie down alone and rest with its own weariness . 5. But the malice of Herod went also into the Hill-countrey , and hearing that of John the son of Zachary great things were spoken , by which he was designed to a great ministery about this young Prince , he attempted in him also to rescind the Prophecies , and sent a messenger of death towards him ; but the Mother's care had been early with him , and sent him into desart places , where he continued till the time appointed of his manifestation unto 〈◊〉 . But as the Children of Bethlehem died in the place of Christ , so did the Father of the Baptist die for his Child . For Herod 〈◊〉 Zachary between the Temple and the Altar , * because he refused to betray his son to the fury of that rabid Bear. Though some persons very eminent amongst the Stars of the Primitive Church ( a ) report a Tradition , that a place being separated in the Temple for Virgins , Zachary suffered the Mother of our Lord to abide there after the Birth of her Holy Son , affirming her still to be a Virgin ; and that for this reason , not Herod , but the Scribes and Pharisees did kill Zachary . 6. Tertullian * reports , that the bloud of Zachary had so 〈◊〉 the stones of the pavement , which was the Altar on which the good old Priest was sacrificed , that no art or industry could wash the tincture out , the dye and guilt being both indeleble ; as if , because God did intend to exact of that Nation all the bloud of righteous persons from Abel to Zacharias , who was the last of the Martyrs of the Synagogue , he would leave a character of their guilt in their eyes to upbraid their Irreligion , Cruelty and 〈◊〉 . Some there are who affirm these words of our Blessed Saviour not to relate to any Zachary who had been already slain ; but to be a Prophecy of the last of all the Martyrs of the Jews , who should be slain immediately before the destruction of the last Temple and the dissolution of the Nation . Certain it is , that such a Zachary the son of 〈◊〉 ( if we may believe Josephus ) was slain in the middle of the Temple a little before it was destroyed ; and it is agreeable to the nature of the Prophecy and reproof here made by our Blessed Saviour , that [ from Abel to Zachary ] should take in all the righteous bloud from first to last , till the iniquity was complete ; and it is not imaginable that the bloud of our Blessed Lord and of S. James their Bishop ( for whose death many of themselves thought God destroyed their City ) should be left out of the account , which yet would certainly be left out , if any other Zachary should be 〈◊〉 than he whom they last slew : and in proportion to this , Cyprian de 〈◊〉 expounds that which we read in the past tense , to signifie the future , ye slew , i. e. shall slay ; according to the style often used by Prophets , and as the Aorist of an uncertain signification will beat . But the first great instance of the Divine vengeance for these Executions was upon Herod , who in very few years after was smitten of God with so many plagues and tortures , that himself alone seemed like an Hospital of the 〈◊〉 : For he was tormented with a soft slow fire , like that of burning Iron or the cinders of Yew , in his body ; in his bowels with intolerable Colicks and Ulcers , in his natural parts with Worms , in his feet with Gout , in his nerves with Convulsions , 〈◊〉 of breathing ; and out of divers parts of his body issued out so impure and ulcerous a steam , that the loathsomness , pain and indignation made him once to snatch a knife with purpose to have killed himself , but that he was prevented by a Nephew of his that stood there in his attendance . 7. But as the flesh of Beasts grows callous by stripes and the pressures of the yoak ; so did the heart of Herod by the loads of Divine vengeance . God began his Hell here , and the pains of Hell never made any man less impious : for Herod perceiving that he must now die , * first put to death his son Antipater , under pretence that he would have poisoned him ; and that the last scene of his life might for pure malice and exalted spight out-do all the rest , because he believed the Jewish nation would rejoyce at his death , he assembled all the Nobles of the people , and put them in prison , giving in charge to his Sister Salome , that when he was expiring his last all the Nobility should be slain , that his death might be lamented with a perfect and universal sorrow . 8. But God , that brings to nought the counsels of wicked Princes , turned the design against the intendment of Herod ; for when he was dead , and could not call his Sister to account for disobeying his most bloudy and unrighteous commands , she released all the imprisoned and despairing Gentlemen , and made the day of her Brother's death a perfect Jubilee , a day of joy , such as was that when the Nation was delivered from the violence of Haman in the days of 〈◊〉 . 9. And all this while God had provided a Sanctuary for the Holy Child Jesus . For God seeing the secret purposes of bloud which Herod had , sent his Angel , who appeared to Joseph in a dream , saying , Arise and take the young Child and his Mother , and fly into Egypt , and be thou there until I bring thee word ; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy him . Then he arose , and took the young Child and his Mother by night , and departed into Egypt . And they made their first abode in Hermopolis in the Countrey of Thebais , whither when they first arrived , the Child Jesus being by design or providence carried into a Temple , all the Statues of the Idol-gods fell down , like Dagon at the presence of the Ark , and suffered their timely and just dissolution and dishonour , according to the Prophecy of Isaiah , * Behold the Lord shall come into Egypt , and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence . And in the Life of the Prophet Jeremy , written by Epiphanius , it is reported , that he told the Egyptian Priests , that then their Idols should be broken in pieces , when a Holy Virgin with her Child should enter into their Countrey : which Prophecy possibly might be the cause that the Egyptians did , besides their vanities , worship also an Infant in a manger , and a Virgin in her bed . 10. From Hermopolis to Maturea went these Holy Pilgrims in pursuance of their safety and provisions , where it was reported they dwelt in a garden of balsam , till Joseph being at the end of seven years ( as it is commonly believed ) ascertain'd by an Angel of the death of Herod , and commanded to return to the land of Israel , he was obedient to the heavenly Vision , and returned . But hearing that Archelaus did reign in the place of his Father , and knowing that the Cruelty and Ambition of Herod was 〈◊〉 or intail'd upon Archelaus , being also warned to turn aside into the parts of Galilee , which was of a distinct jurisdiction , governed indeed by one of Herod's sons , but not by Archelaus , thither he diverted , and there that Holy Family remained in the City of Nazareth , whence the Holy Child had the appellative of a Nazarene . Ad SECT . VI. Considerations upon the Death of the Innocents , and the Flight of the Holy JESVS into Egypt . 1. HErod having called the Wise men , and received information of their design , and the circumstances of the Child , pretended Religion too ; and desired them to bring him word when they had found the Babe , that he might come and worship him ; meaning to make a Sacrifice of him , to whom he should pay his Adoration ; and in stead of investing the young Prince with a Royal purple , he would have stained his swadling-bands with his bloud . It is ever dangerous when a wicked Prince pretends Religion , his design is then foulest by how much it needs to put on a fairer out-side : but it was an early policy in the world , and it concerned mens interests to seem Religious , when they thought that to be so was an abatement of great designs . When Jezabel designed the robbing and destroying Naboth , she sent to the Elders to proclaim a Fast ; for the external and visible remonstrances of Religion leave in the spirits of men a great reputation of the seeming person , and therefore they will not rush into a furious sentence against his actions , at least not judge them with prejudice against the man towards whom they are so fairly prepared , but do some violence to their own understanding , and either disbelieve their own Reason , or excuse the fact , or think it but an errour , or a less crime , or the incidencies of humanity ; or however , are so long in decreeing against him , whom they think to be religious , that the rumour is abated , or the stream of indignation is diverted by other laborious arts intervening before our zeal is kindled , and so the person is unjudged , or at least the design secured . 2. But in this , humane Policy was exceedingly infatuated : and though Herod had trusted his design to no keeper but himself , and had pretended fair , having Religion for the word , and called the Wise men privately , and intrusted them with no imployment but a civil request , an account of the success of their journey , which they had no reason or desire to conceal ; yet his heart was opened to the eye of Heaven , and the Sun was not more visible than his dark purpose was to God , and it succeeded accordingly : the Child was sent away , the Wise men warned not to return , Herod was mocked and enraged ; and so his crast became foolish and vain : and so are all counsels intended against God , or any thing of which he himself hath undertaken the protection . For although we understand not the reasons of security , because we see not that admirable concentring of infinite things in the Divine Providence , whereby God brings his purposes to act by ways unlook'd for , and sometimes contradictory ; yet the publick and perpetual experience of the world hath given continual demonstrations , that all evil counsels have come to nought ; that the succeeding of an impious design is no argument that the man is prosperous ; that the curse is then surest , when his fortune spreads the largest ; that the contradiction and impossibilities of deliverance to pious persons are but an opportunity and engagement for God to do wonders , and to glorifie his power and to exalt his mercy by the instances of miraculous or extraordinary events . And as the Afflictions happening to good men are alleviated by the support of God's good Spirit ; and enduring them here are but consignations to an honourable amends hereafter : so the succeeding Prosperities of fortunate impiety , when they meet with punishment in the next or in the third Age , or in the deletion of a people five Ages after , are the greatest arguments of God's Providence , who keeps wrath in store , and forgets not to do judgment for all them that are oppressed with wrong : It was laid up with God , and was perpetually in his eye , being the matter of a lasting , durable and unremitted anger . 3. But God had care of the Holy Child ; he sent his Angel to warn Joseph with the Babe and his Mother to fly into Egypt . Joseph and Mary instantly arise , and without inquiry how they shall live there , or when they shall return , or how be secured , or what accommodations they shall have in their Journey , at the same hour of the night begin the Pilgrimage with the chearfulness of Obedience , and the securities of Faith , and the confidence of Hope , and the joys of Love , knowing themselves to be recompensed for all the trouble they could endure , that they were instruments of the safety of the Holy Jesus , that they then were serving God , that they were encircled with the securities of the Divine Providence , and in these dispositions all places were alike ; for every region was a Paradise where they were in company with Jesus . And indeed that man wants many degrees of faith and prudence , who is solicitous for the support of his necessities when he is doing the commandment of God. If he commands thee to offer a Sacrifice , himself will provide a Lamb , or enable thee to find one ; and he would remove thee into a state of separation , where thy body needs no supplies of provision , if he meant thou shouldest serve him without provisions : He will certainly take away thy need , or satisfie it : he will feed thee himself , as he did the Israelites ; or take away thy hunger , as he did to Moses ; or send ravens to feed thee , as he did to Elias ; or make charitable people minister to thee , as the Widow to Elisha , or give thee his own portion , as he maintained the Levites ; or make thine enemies to pity thee , as the Assyrians did the captive Jews : For whatsoever the World hath , and whatsoever can be conveyed by wonder or by providence , all that is thy security for provisions , so long as thou doest the work of God. And remember that the assurance of Blessing and Health and Salvation is not made by doing what we list , or being where we desire , but by doing God's will , and being in the place of his appointment : we may be safe in Egypt , if we be there in obedience to God ; and we may perish among the Babes of Bethlehem , if we be there by our own election . 4. Joseph and Mary did not argue against the Angel's message , because they had a confidence of their charge , who with the breath of his mouth could have destroyed Herod , though he had been abetted with all the Legions marching under the Roman Eagles ; but they , like the two Cherubims about the Propitiatory , took the Child between them , and fled , giving way to the fury of Persecution , which possibly when the materials are withdrawn might expire , and die like fire , which else would rage for ever . Jesus fled , undertook a sad Journey , in which the roughness of the ways , his own tenderness , the youth of his Mother , the old age of his supposed Father , the smalness of their viaticum and accommodation for their voyage , the no-kindred they were to go to , hopeless of comsorts and exteriour supplies , were so many circumstances of Poverty , and lesser strokes of the Persecution ; things that himself did chuse to remonstrate the verity of his Nature , the infirmity of his Person , the humility of his spirit , the austerity of his undertaking , the burthen of his charge , and by which he did teach us the same vertues he then expressed , and also consign'd this permission to all his Disciples in future Ages , that they also may fly from their persecutors , when the case is so that their work is not done , that is , they may glorifie God with their lives more than with their death . And of this they are ascertained by the arguments of prudent account : For sometimes we are called to glorisie God by dying , and the interest of the Church and the Faith of many may be concerned in it ; then we must abide by it . In other cases it is true that Demosthenes said in apology for his own escaping from a lost field , A man that runs away may fight again . And S. Paul made use of a guard of Souldiers to rescue him from the treachery of the Jewish Rulers , and of a basket to escape from the Inquisition of the Governour of Damascus , and the Primitive Christians of Grotts and subterraneous retirements , and S. Athanasius of a fair Ladie 's House , and others of desarts and graves ; as knowing it was no shame to fly when their Master himself had fled , that his time and his work might be fulfilled ; and when it was , he then laid his life down . 5. It is hard to set down particular Rules that may indefinitely guide all persons in the stating of their own case ; because all things that depend upon circumstances are alterable unto infinite . But as God's glory and the good of the Church are the great considerations to be carried before us all the way , and in proportions to them we are to determine and judge our Questions ; so also our infirmities are allowable in the scrutiny : for I doubt not but God intended it a mercy and a compliance with humane weakness when he gave us this permission , as well as it was a design to secure the opportunities of his service and the consummation of his own work by us . And since our fears , and the incommodities of flight , and the sadness of exile , and the insecurities and inconveniences of a strange and new abode are part of the Persecution ; provided that God's glory be not certainly and apparently neglected , nor the Church evidently scandalized by our 〈◊〉 , all interpretations of the question in favour of our selves , and the declension of that part which may tempt us to apostasie , or hazard our confidence , and the chusing the lesser part of the Persecution , is not against the rule of Faith , and always hath in it less glory , but oftentimes more security . 6. But thus far Herod's Ambition transported him , even to resolutions of murther of the highest person , the most glorious and the most innocent upon earth ; and it represents that Passion to be the most troublesome and vexatious thing that can afflict the sons of men . Vertue hath not half so much trouble in it , it sleeps quietly without startings and affrighting fancies , it looks chearfully , smiles with much 〈◊〉 , and though it laughs not often , yet it is ever delightful in the apprehensions of some faculty ; it fears no man , nor no thing , nor is it discomposed , and hath no concernments in the great alterations of the World , and entertains Death like a Friend , and reckons the issues of it as the greatest of its hopes : but Ambition is full of distractions , it teems with stratagems , as Rebecca with strugling twins , and is swelled with expectation as with a tympany , and sleeps sometimes as the wind in a storm , still and quiet for a minute , that it may burst out into an impetuous blast till the cordage of his heart-strings crack ; fears when none is 〈◊〉 , and prevents things which never had intention , and falls under the inevitability of such accidents which either could not be foreseen , or not prevented . It is an infinite labour to make a man's self miserable , and the utmost acquist is so goodly a purchase , that he makes his days full of sorrow to enjoy the troubles of a three years reign ; for Herod lived but three years , or five at the most , after the flight of Jesus into Egypt . And therefore there is no greater unreasonableness in the world than in the designs of Ambition : for it makes the present certainly miserable , unsatisfied , troublesome and discontent , for the uncertain acquist of an honour which nothing can secure ; and besides a thousand possibilities of miscarrying , it relies upon no greater certainty than our life , and when we are dead , all the world sees who was the fool . But it is a strange caitiveness and baseness of disposition of men so furiously and unsatiably to run after perishing and uncertain interests , in defiance of all the Reason and Religion of the world ; and yet to have no appetite to such excellencies which satisfie Reason , and content the spirit , and create great hopes , and ennoble our expectation , and are advantages to Communities of men and publick Societies , and which all wise men teach , and all Religion commands . 7. And it is not amiss to observe how Herod vexed himself extremely upon a mistake . The Child Jesus was born a King , but it was a King of all the World , not confined within the limits of a Province , like the weaker beauties of a Torch to shine in one room , but , like the Sun , his Empire was over all the World ; and if Herod would have become but his Tributary , and paid him the acknowledgments of his Lord , he should have had better conditions than under Caesar , and yet have been as absolute in his own Jewry as he was before : His Kingdom was not of this World , and he that gives heavenly Kingdoms to all his servants , would not have stooped to have taken up Herod's petty Coronet . But as it is a very vanity which Ambition seeks , so it is a shadow that disturbs and discomposes all its motions and apprehensions . 8. And the same mistake caused calamities to descend upon the Church , for some of the Persecutions commenced upon pretence Christianity was an enemy to Government : But the pretence was infinitely unreasonable , and therefore had the fate of senseless allegations , it disbanded presently ; for no external accident did so incorporate the excellency of Christ's Religion into the hearts of men , as the innocency of the men , their inoffensive deportment , the modesty of their designs , their great humility and obedience , a life expresly in enmity and contestation against secular Ambition . And it is to be feared that the mingling humane interests with Religion will deface the image Christ hath stamped upon it . Certain it is , the metall is much abated by so impure allay , while the Christian Prince serves his end of Ambition , and bears arms upon his neighbour's Countrey for the service of Religion , making Christ's Kingdom to invade Herod's rights : and in the state Ecclesiastical secular interests have so deep a portion , that there are snares laid to tempt a Persecution , and men are invited to Sacrilege , while the Revenues of a Church are a fair fortune for a Prince . I make no scruple to find fault with Painters that picture the poor Saints with rich garments ; for though they deserved better , yet they had but poor ones : and some have been tempted to cheat the Saint , not out of ill will to his Sanctity , but love to his Shrine , and to the beauty of the cloaths , with which some imprudent persons have of old time dressed their Images . So it is in the fate of the Church , Persecution and the robes of Christ were her portion and her cloathing , and when she is dressed up in gawdy fortunes , it is no more than she deserves , but yet sometimes it is occasion that the Devil cheats her of her Holiness , and the men of the world sacrilegiously cheat her of her Riches : and then when God hath reduced her to that Poverty he first promised and intended to her , the Persecution ceases , and Sanctity returns , and God curses the Sacrilege , and stirs up mens minds to religious Donatives ; and all is well till she grows rich again . And if it be dangerous in any man to be rich , and discomposes his steps in his journey to Eternity ; it is not then so proportionable to the analogy of Christ's Poverty and the inheritance of the Church , to be sedulous in acquiring great Temporalties , and putting Princes in jealousie , and States into care for securities , lest all the Temporal should run into Ecclesiastical possession . 9. If the Church have by the active Piety of a credulous , a pious and less-observant Age , been endowed with great Possessions , she hath rules enough , and poor enough , and necessities enough to dispend what she hath with advantages to Religion : but then all she gets by it is , the trouble of an unthankful , a suspected and unsatisfying dispensation ; and the Church is made by evil persons a Scene of ambition and stratagem ; and to get a German Bishoprick is to be a Prince ; and to defend with niceness and Suits of Law every Custom or lesser Rite , even to the breach of Charity and the scandal of Religion , is called a Duty : and every single person is bound to forgive injuries , and to quit his right rather than his Charity ; but if it is not a duty in the Church also , in them whose life should be excellent to the degree of Example , I would fain know if there be not greater care taken to secure the Ecclesiastical Revenue , than the publick Charity and the honour of Religion in the strict Piety of the Clergy ; for as the not ingaging in Suits may occasion bold people to wrong the Church , so the necessity of ingaging is occasion of losing Charity and of great Scandal . I find not fault with a free Revenue of the Church ; it is in some sense necessary to Governours , and to preserve the Consequents of their Authority ; but I represent that such things are occasion of much mischief to the Church , and less Holiness , and in all cases respect should be had to the design of Christianity , to the Prophecies of Jesus , to the promised lot of the Church , to the dangers of Riches , to the excellencies and advantages and rewards of Poverty ; and if the Church have enough to perform all her duties and obligations chearfully , let her of all Societies be soonest content . If she have plenty , let her use it temperately and charitably ; if she have not , let her not be querulous and troublesome . But however it would be thought upon , that though in judging the quantum of the Church's portion the World thinks every thing too much , yet we must be careful we do not judge every thing too little ; and if our fortune be safe between envy and contempt , it is much mercy . If it be despicable , it is safe for Ecclesiasticks , though it may be accidentally inconvenient or less profitable to others ; but if it be great , publick experience hath made remonstrance that it mingles with the world , and durties those fingers which are instrumental in Consecration and the more solemn Rites of Christianity . 10. Jesus fled from the Persecution ; as he did not stand it out , so he did not stand out against it ; he was careful to transmit no precedent or encouragement of resisting tyrannous Princes , when they offer violence to Religion and our lives : He would not stand disputing for privileges , nor calling in Auxiliaries from the Lord of Hosts , who could have spared him many Legions of Angels , every single Spirit being able to have defeated all Herod's power ; but he knew it was a hard lesson to learn Patience , and all the excuses in the world would be sought out to discourage such a Doctrine by which we are taught to die , or lose all we have , or suffer inconveniences at the will of a Tyrant : we need no authentick examples , much less Doctrines , to invite men to War , from which we see Christian Princes cannot be restrained with the engagements and peaceful Theorems of an excellent and a holy Religion , nor Subjects kept from Rebelling by the interests of all Religions in the world , nor by the necessities and reasonableness of Obedience , nor the indearments of all publick Societies of men ; one word or an intimation from Christ would have sounded an alarm , and put us into postures of defence , when all Christ's excellent Sermons and rare exemplar actions cannot tie our hands . But it is strange now , that of all men in the World Christians should be such fighting people , or that Christian Subjects should lift up a thought against a Christian Prince , when they had no intimation of encouragement from their Master , but many from him to endear Obedience , and Humility , and Patience , and Charity ; and these four make up the whole analogy , and represent the chief design and meaning of Christianity in its moral constitution . 11. But Jesus , when himself was safe , could also have secured the poor Babes of Bethlehem , with thousands of diversions and avocations of Herod's purposes , or by discovering his own Escape in some safe manner not unknown to the Divine wisedom ; but yet it did not so please God. He is Lord of his Creatures , and hath absolute dominion over our lives , and he had an end of Glory to serve upon these Babes , and an end of Justice upon Herod : and to the Children he made such compensation , that they had no reason to complain that they were so soon made Stars , when they shined in their little Orbs and participations of Eternity : for so the sense of the Church hath been , that they having dyed the death of Martyrs , though incapable of making the choice , God supplied the defects of their will by his own entertainment of the thing ; that as the misery and their death , so also their glorification might have the same Author in the same manner of causality , even by a peremptory and unconditioned determination in these particulars . This sense is pious and nothing unreasonable , considering that all circumstances of the thing make the case particular ; but the immature death of other Infants is a sadder story : for though I have no warrant or thought that it is ill with them after death , and in what manner or degree of well-being it is there is no revelation ; yet I am not of opinion , that the securing of so low a condition as theirs in all reason is like to be , will make recompence , or is an equal blessing with the possibilities of such an Eternity as is proposed to them who in the use of Reason and a holy life glorifie God with a free Obedience ; and if it were otherwise , it were no blessing to live till the use of Reason , and Fools and Babes were in the best , because in the securest , condition , and certain expectation of equal glories . 12. As soon as Herod was dead , ( for the Divine Vengeance waited his own time for his arrest ) the Angel presently brought Joseph word . The holy Family was full of content and indifferency , not solicitous for return , not distrustful of the Divine Providence , full of poverty , and sanctity , and content , waiting God's time , at the return of which God delayed not to recall them from Exile ; out of Egypt he called his Son , and directed Joseph's fear and course , that he should divert to a place in the jurisdiction of Philip , where the Heir of Herod's Cruelty , Archelaus , had nothing to do . And this very series of Providence and care God expresses to all his sons by adoption ; and will determine the time , and set bounds to every Persecution , and punish the instruments , and ease our pains , and refresh our sorrows , and give quietness to our fears , and deliverance from our troubles , and sanctifie it all , and give a Crown at last , and all in his good time , if we wait the coming of the Angel , and in the mean time do our duty with care , and sustain our temporals with indifferency : and in all our troubles and displeasing accidents we may call to mind , that God by his holy and most reasonable Providence hath so ordered it , that the spiritual advantages we may receive from the holy use of such incommodities are of great recompence and interest , and that in such accidents the Holy Jesus , having gone before us in precedent , does go along with us by love and fair assistences ; and that makes the present condition infinitely more eligible than the greatest splendour of secular fortune . The PRAYER . O Blessed and Eternal God , who didst suffer thy Holy Son to fly from the violence of an enraged Prince , and didst chuse to defend him in the ways of his infirmity by hiding himself , and a voluntary exile ; be thou a defence to all thy faithful people when-ever Persecution arises against them , send them the ministery of Angels to direct them into ways of security , and let thy holy Spirit guide them in the paths of Sanctity , and let thy Providence continue in custody over their persons till the times of refreshment and the day of Redemption shall return . Give , O Lord , to thy whole Church Sanctity and Zeal , and the confidences of a holy Faith , boldness of confession , Humility , content , and resignation of spirit , generous contempt of the World , and unmingled desires of thy glory and the edification of thy Elect ; that no secular interests disturb her duty , or discompose her charity , or depress her hopes , or in any unequal degree possess her affections and pollute her spirit : but preserve her from the snares of the World and the Devil , from the rapine and greedy desires of Sacrilegious persons ; and in all conditions , whether of affluence or want , may she still promote the interests of Religion : that when plenteousness is within her palaces , and peace in her walls , that condition may then be best for her ; and when she is made as naked as Jesus to his Passion , then Poverty may be best for her : that in all estates she may glorifie thee , and in all accidents and changes thou mayest sanctifie and bless her , and at last bring her to the eternal riches and abundances of glory , where no Persecution shall disturb her rest . Grant this for sweet Jesus sake , who suffered exile and hard journeys , and all the inconveniences of a friendless person , in a strange Province ; to whom with thee and the eternal Spirit be glory for ever , and blessing in all generations of the World , and for ever and ever . Amen . SECT . VII . Of the younger years of JESVS , and his Disputation with the Doctors in the Temple . The House of Prayer . It is written , My house shall be called of all Nations , the house of prayer . Mark. 11. 17. If they return , confess thy name , and pray , and make supplication before thee in this House : Then hear thou in heaven , and forgive . 2. Chron 6. 24. 26. IESUS disputing with the Doctors S. LUKE . 2. 46. 47. They found him in the Temple , sitting in the midst of the Doctors both hearing them and asking them questions . And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding & answers . 1. FRom the return of this holy Family to Judaea , and their habitation in Nazareth , till the blessed Child Jesus was twelve years of age , we have nothing transmitted to us out of any authentick Record , but that they went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover . And when Jesus was twelve years old , and was in the Holy City attending upon the Paschal Rites and solemn Sacrifices of the Law , his Parents , having fulfilled their days of Festivity , went homeward , supposing the Child had been in the Caravan among his friends , and so they erred for the space of a whole day's journey ; and when they sought him , and found him not , they returned to Jerusalem full of fears and sorrow . 2. No fancy can imagine the doubts , the apprehensions , the possibilities of mischief , and the tremblings of heart which the Holy Virgin-Mother felt thronging about her fancy and understanding , but such a person who hath been tempted to the danger of a violent fear and transportation , by apprehension of the loss of a hope greater than a Miracle ; her discourses with her self could have nothing of distrust , but much of sadness and wonder , and the indetermination of her thoughts was a trouble great as the passion of her love : Possibly an Angel might have carried him she knew not whither ; or it may be the son of Herod had gotten the prey , which his cruel Father missed ; or he was sick , or detained out of curiosity and wonder , or any thing but what was right . And by this time she was come to Jerusalem , and having spent three days in her sad and holy pursuit of her lost jewel , despairing of the prosperous event of any humane diligence , as in all other cases she had accustomed , she made her address to God , and entring into the Temple to pray , God , that knew her desires , prevented her with the blessings of goodness , and there her sorrow was changed into joy and wonder ; for there she found her Holy Son sitting in the midst of the Doctors , both hearing them and asking them questions . 3. And when they saw him , they were amazed , and so were all that heard him , at his understanding and answers ; beyond his education , beyond his experience , beyond his years , and even beyond the common spirits of the best 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 up to the height of a Prophet , with the clearness of an Angel , and the infallibility of inspiration : for here it was verified in the highest and most literal signification , that out of the 〈◊〉 of babes God had ordained strength ; but this was the strength of 〈◊〉 , and science of the highest Mysteries of Religion and secret Philosophy . 4. Glad were the Parents of the Child to find him illustrated with a Miracle , concerning which when he had given them such an account which they understood not , but yet Mary laid up in her heart , as that this was part of his imployment and his Father's business , he returned with them to Nazareth , and was subject to his Parents ; where he lived in all Holiness and Humility , shewing great signs of Wisdom , indearing himself to all that beheld his conversation , did nothing less than might become the great expectation which his miraculous Birth had created of him ; for he increased in 〈◊〉 and stature , and favour with God and Man , still growing in proportion to his great beginnings to a miraculous excellency of Grace , sweetness of demeanour , and excellency of understanding . 5. They that love to serve God in hard questions , use to dispute whether Christ did truly or in appearance only increase in Wisdom . For being personally united to the Word , and being the eternal Wisdom of the Father , it seemed to them that a plenitude of Wisdom was as natural to the whole Person , as to the Divine Nature . But others , fixing their belief upon the words of the story , which equally affirms Christ as properly to have increased in favour with God as with Man , in wisdom as in stature , they apprehend no inconvenience in affirming it to belong to the verity of Humane Nature to have degrees of Understanding as well as of other perfections : and although the Humanity of Christ made up the same Person with the Divinity , yet they think the Divinity still to be free , even in those communications which were imparted to his inferiour Nature , and the Godhead might as well suspend the emanation of all the treasures of Wisdom upon the Humanity for a time , as he did the Beatifical Vision , which most certainly was not imparted in the interval of his sad and dolorous Passion . But whether it were truly or in appearance , in habit or in exercise of act , by increase of notion or experience , it is certain the promotions of the Holy Child were great , admirable , and as full of wonder as of Sanctity , and sufficient to entertain the hopes and expectations of Israel with preparations and dispositions , as to satisfie their wonder for the present , so to accept him at the time of his publication , they having no reason to be scandalized at the smalness , improbability , and indifferency of his first beginnings . 6. But the Holy Child had also an imployment which he undertook in obedience to his supposed Father , for exercise and example of Humility , and for the support of that holy Family which was dear in the eyes of God , but not very splendid by the opulency of a free and indulgent fortune . He wrought in the trade of a Carpenter , and when Joseph died , which happened before the Manifestation of Jesus unto Israel , he wrought alone , and was no more called the Carpenter's son , but the Carpenter himself . Is not this the Carpenter , the son of Mary ? said his offended Countrymen . And in this condition the Blessed Jesus did abide till he was thirty years old ; for he that came to fulfil the Law , would not suffer one tittle of it to pass unaccomplished ; for by the Law of the Nation and custom of the Religion no Priest was to officiate , or Prophet was to preach , before he was thirty years of age . Ad SECT . VII . Considerations upon the Disputation of JESVS with the Doctors in the Temple . 1. JOseph and Mary , being returned unto Nazareth , were sedulous to enjoy the priviledges of their Countrey , the opportunities of Religion , the publick address to God , in the Rites of Festivals and Solemnities of the Temple : they had been long grieved with the impurities and Idol-rites which they with sorrow had observed to be done in Egypt ; and being deprived of the blessings of those holy Societies and imployments they used to enjoy in Palestine , at their return came to the offices of their Religion with appetites of fire , and keen as the evening Wolf ; and all the joys which they should have received in respersion and distinct emanations , if they had kept their Anniversaries at Jerusalem , all that united they received in the duplication of their joys at their return , and in the fulfilling themselves with the resection and holy Viands of Religion . For so God uses to satisfie the longings of holy people , when a Persecution has shut up the beautiful gates of the Temple , or denied to them opportunities of access : although God hears the Prayers they make with their windows towards Jerusalem , with their hearts opened with desires of the publick communions , and sends them a Prophet with a private meal , as Habakkuk came to Daniel ; yet he fills their hearts when the year of Jubilee returns , and the people sing In convertendo , the Song of joy for their redemption . For as of all sorrows the deprivations and eclipses of Religion are the saddest , and of the worst and most inconvenient consequence ; so in proportion are the joys of spiritual plenty and religious returns , the Communion of Saints being like the Primitive Corban , a 〈◊〉 to feed all the needs of the Church , or like a Taper joyned to a Torch , it self is kindled , and increases the other's flames . 2. They failed not to go to Jerusalem : for all those holy prayers and ravishments of love , those excellent meditations and entercourses with God , their private readings and discourses , were but entertainments and satisfaction of their necessities , they lived with them during their retirements ; but it was a Feast when they went to Jerusalem , and the freer and more indulgent resection of the Spirit ; for in publick Solemnities God opens his treasures , and pours out his grace more abundantly . Private Devotions and secret Offices of Religion are like refreshing of a Garden with the distilling and petty drops of a Water-pot ; but addresses to the Temple , and serving God in the publick communion of Saints , is like rain from Heaven , where the Offices are described by a publick spirit , heightned by the greater portions of assistance , and receive advantages by the adunations and symbols of Charity , and increment by their distinct title to Promises appropriate even to their assembling , and mutual support , by the piety of Example , by the communication of Counsels , by the awfulness of publick Observation , and the engagements of holy Customs . For Religion is a publick vertue , it is the ligature of Souls , and the great instrument of the conservation of Bodies politick , and is united in a common object , the God of all the World , and is managed by publick ministeries , by Sacrifice , Adoration , and Prayer , in which with variety of circumstances indeed , but with infinite consent and union of design , all the sons of Adam are taught to worship God ; and it is a publication of God's honour , its very purpose being to declare to all the World how great things God hath done for us , whether in publick Donatives or private Missives ; so that the very design , temper and constitution of Religion is to be a publick address to God : and although God is present in Closets , and there also distills his blessings in small rain ; yet to the Societies of Religion and publication of Worship as we are invited by the great blessings and advantages of Communion , so also we are in some proportions more straitly limited by the analogy and exigence of the Duty . It is a Persecution when we are forced from publick Worshippings ; no man can hinder our private addresses to God , every man can build a Chappel in his breast , and himself be the Priest , and his heart the Sacrifice , and every foot of glebe he treads on be the Altar ; and this no Tyrant can prevent . If then there can be Persecution in the offices of Religion , it is the prohibition of publick profession and Communions , and therefore he that denies to himself the opportunities of publick rites and conventions , is his own Persecutor . 3. But when Jesus was twelve years old , and his Parents had finished their Offices , and returned filled with the pleasures of Religion , they missed the Child , and sought him amongst their kindred , but there they found him not ; for whoever seeks Jesus must seek him in the Offices of Religion , in the Temple , not amongst the engagements and pursuit of worldly interests : I forgat also mine own Father's house , said 〈◊〉 , the Father of this Holy Child ; and so must we , when we run in an enquiry after the Son of David . But our relinquishing must not be a dereliction of duty , but of engagement ; our affections toward kindred must always be with charity , and according to the endearments of our relation , but without immersion , and such adherencies as either contradict or lessen our duty towards God. 4. It was a sad effect of their pious journey to lose the joy of their Family , and the hopes of all the World : but it often happens that after spiritual imployments God seems to absent himself , and withdraw the sensible effects of his presence , that we may seek him with the same diligence and care and holy fears with which the Holy Virgin-Mother sought the Blessed Jesus . And it is a design of great mercy in God to take off the light from the eyes of a holy person , that he may not be abused with complacencies and too confident opinions and reflexions upon his fair performances . For we usually judge of the well or ill of our Devotions and services by what we feel ; and we think God rewards every thing in the present , and by proportion to our own expectations ; and if we feel a present rejoycing of Spirit , all is well with us , the smoak of the Sacrifice ascended right in a holy Cloud : but if we feel nothing of comfort , then we count it a prodigy and ominous , and we suspect our selves , ( and most commonly we have reason . ) Such irradiations of chearfulness are always welcom , but it is not always anger that takes them away : the Cloud removed from before the camp of Israel , and stood before the host of Pharaoh ; but this was a design of ruine to the Egyptians , and of security to Israel : and if those bright Angels that go with us to direct our journeys , remove out of our sight and stand behind us , it is not always an argument that the anger of the Lord is gone out against us ; but such decays of sense and clouds of spirit are excellent conservators of Humility , and restrain those intemperances and vainer thoughts which we are prompted to in the gayety of our spirits . 5. But we often give God cause to remove and for a while to absent himself , and his doing of it sometimes upon the just provocations of our demerits makes us at other times with good reason to suspect our selves even in our best actions . But sometimes we are vain , or remiss , or pride invades us in the darkness and incuriousness of our spirits , and we have a secret sin which God would have us to enquire after ; and when we suspect every thing , and condemn our selves with strictest and most angry sentence , then , it may be , God will with a ray of light break through the cloud ; if not , it is nothing the worse for us : for although the visible remonstrance and face of things in all the absences and withdrawings of Jesus be the same , yet if a sin be the cause of it , the withdrawing is a taking away his Favour and his love ; but if God does it to secure thy Piety , and to enflame thy desires , or to prevent a crime , then he withdraws a Gift only , nothing of his Love , and yet the darkness of the spirit and sadness seem equal . It is hard in these cases to discover the cause , as it is nice to judge the condition of the effect ; and therefore it is prudent to ascertain our condition by improving our care and our Religion ; and in all accidents to make no judgment concerning God's Favour by what we feel , but by what we do . 6. When the Holy Virgin with much Religion and sadness had sought her joy , at last she found him disputing among the Doctors , hearing them , and asking them questions ; and besides that he now first opened a fontinel , and there sprang out an excellent rivulet from his abyss of Wisdom , he consigned this Truth to his Disciples , That they who mean to be Doctors and teach others , must in their first accesses and degrees of discipline learn of those whom God and publick Order hath set over us in the Mysteries of Religion . The PRAYER . BLessed and most Holy Jesus , Fountain of Grace and comfort , Treasure of Wisdom and spiritual emanations , be pleased to abide with me for ever by the inhabitation of thy interiour assistances and refreshments ; and give me a corresponding love , acceptable and unstained purity , care and watchfulness over my ways , that I may never , by provoking thee to anger , cause thee to remove thy dwelling , or draw a cloud before thy holy face : but if thou art pleased upon a design of charity or trial to cover my eyes , that I may not behold the bright rays of thy Favour , nor be refreshed with spiritual comforts ; let thy Love support my spirit by ways insensible , and in all my needs give me such a portion as may be instrumental and incentive to performance of my duty ; and in all accidents let me continue to seek thee by Prayers , and Humiliation , and frequent desires , and the strictness of a Holy life ; that I may follow thy example , pursue thy foot-steps , be supported by thy strength , guided by thy hand , enlightned by thy favour , and may at last after a persevering holiness and an unwearied industry dwell with thee in the Regions of Light and eternal glory , where there shall be no fears of parting from the habitations of Felicity , and the union and fruition of thy Presence , O Blessed and most Holy Jesus . Amen . SECT . VIII . Of the Preaching of John the Baptist , preparative to the Manifestation of JESVS . ELIAS Luke : 1 : 17. And he shall goe before him in the spirit and power of Elias . S t IOHN the Baptist Luk : 1 : 15 And as the people were in expectation . ve : 16 Iohn answered saying unto them all , I indeed baptize you with water but one mightier then I cometh y e latchet of whose shooes I am not worthy to unloose he shall baptize you with y e Holy Ghost and with fire WHen Herod had drunk so great a draught of bloud at Bethlehem , and sought for more from the Hill-country , Elizabeth carried her Son into the Wilderness , there in the desert places and recesses to hide him from the fury of that Beast , where she attended him with as much care and tenderness as the affections and fears of a Mother could express in the permission of those fruitless Solitudes . The Child was about eighteen months old when he first sled to Sanctuary ; but after forty days his Mother died , and his Father Zachary at the time of his ministration , which happened about this time , was killed in the Court of the Temple ; so that the Child was exposed to all the dangers and infelicities of an Orphan , in a place of solitariness and discomfort , in a time when a bloudy King endeavoured his destruction . But when his Father and Mother were taken from him , the Lord took him up . For , according to the tradition of the Greeks , God deputed an Angel to be his nourisher and Guardian , as he had formerly done to * Ishmael who dwelt in the Wilderness , and to Elias when he fled from the rage of Ahab ; so to this Child , who came in the spirit of Elias , to make demonstration that there can be no want where God undertakes the care and provision . 2. The entertainment that S. John's Proveditóre the Angel gave him was such as the Wilderness did afford , and such as might dispose him to a life of Austerity ; for there he continued spending his time in Meditations , Contemplation , Prayer , Affections and Colloquies with God , eating Flies and wild Honey , not clothed in soft , but a hairy garment , and a leathern girdle , till he was thirty years of age . And then , being the fifteenth year of Tiberius , Pontius Pilate being Governour of Judaea , the Word of God came unto John in the Wilderness . And he came into all the countrey about Jordan , preaching and baptizing . 3. This John , according to the Prophecies of him and designation of his person by the Holy Ghost , was the fore-runner of Christ , sent to dispose the people for his entertainment , and prepare his ways ; and therefore it was necessary his person should be so extraordinary and full of Sanctity , and so clarified by great concurrences and wonder in the circumstances of his life , as might gain credit and reputation to the testimony he was to give concerning his LORD the Saviour of the World. And so it happened . 4. For as the Baptist , while he was in the Wilderness , became the pattern of solitary and contemplative life , a School of Vertue , and Example of Sanctity and singular Austerity ; so at his emigration from the places of his Retirement he seemed , what indeed he was , a rare and excellent Personage : and the Wonders which were great at his Birth , the prediction of his Conception by an Angel , which never had before happened but in the persons of Isaac and Sampson , the contempt of the world which he bore about him , his mortified countenance and deportment , his austere and eremitical life , his vehement spirit and excellent zeal in Preaching , created so great opinions of him among the people , that all held him for a Prophet in his Office , for a heavenly person in his own particular , and a rare example of Sanctity and holy life to all others : and all this being made solemn and ceremonious by his Baptism , he prevailed so , that he made excellent and apt preparations for the LORD 's appearing ; for there went out to him Jerusalem , and all Judaea , and all the regions round about Jordan , and were baptized of him , confessing their sins . 5. The Baptist having by so heavenly means won upon the affections of all men , his Sermons and his testimony concerning Christ were the more likely to be prevalent and accepted ; and the summ of them was Repentance and dereliction of sins , and bringing forth the fruits of good life ; in the promoting of which Doctrine he was a severe reprehender of the Pharisees and Sadducees , he exhorted the people to works of mercy , the Publicans to do justice and to decline oppression , the Souldiers to abstain from plundering , and doing violence or rapine : and publishing that he was not the CHRIST , that he only baptized with water , but the Messias should baptize with the holy Ghost and with fire ; he finally denounced judgment and great severities to all the World of impenitents , even abscission and fire unquenchable . And from this time forward , viz. From the days of John the Baptist , the Kingdom of Heaven suffered violence , and the violent take it by force . For now the Gospel began to dawn , and John was like the Morning-star , or the blushings springing from the windows of the East , foretelling the approach of the Sun of Righteousness : and as S. John Baptist laid the first rough , hard and unhewen stone of this building in Mortification , Self denial and doing violence to our natural affections ; so it was continued by the Master-builder himself , who propounded the glories of the Crown of the heavenly Kingdom to them only who should climb the Cross to reach it . Now it was that Multitudes should throng and croud to enter in at the strait gate , and press into the Kingdom ; and the younger brothers should snatch the inheritance from the elder , the unlikely from the more likely , the Gentiles from the Jews , the strangers from the natives , the Publicans and Harlots from the Scribes and Pharisees , who , like violent persons , shall by their importunity , obedience , watchfulness and diligence snatch the Kingdom from them to whom it was first offered ; and Jacob shall be loved , and Esau rejected . Ad SECT . VIII . Considerations upon the Preaching of John the Baptist. 1. FRom the Disputation of Jesus with the Doctors to the time of his Manifestation to Israel , which was eighteen years , the Holy Child dwelt in Nazareth in great obedience to his Parents , in exemplar Modesty , singular Humility , working with his hands in his supposed Father's trade , for the support of his own and his Mother's necessities , and that he might bear the Curse of Adam , that in the sweat of his brows he should eat his bread : all the while he increased in favour with God and man , sending forth excellent testimonies of a rare Spirit and a wise Understanding in the temperate instances of such a conversation to which his Humility and great Obedience had engaged him . But all this while the stream ran under ground : and though little bublings were discerned in all the course , and all the way men looked upon him as upon an excellent person , diligent in his calling , wise and humble , temperate and just , pious and rarely temper'd ; yet at the manifestation of John the Baptist he brake forth like the stream from the bowels of the earth , or the Sun from a cloud , and gave us a precedent that we should not shew our lights to minister to vanity , but then only when God , and publick order , and just dispositions of men call for a manifestation : and yet the Ages of men have been so forward in prophetical Ministeries , and to undertake Ecclesiastical imployment , that the viciousness and indiscretions and scandals the Church of God feels as great burthens upon the tenderness of her spirit , are in great part owing to the neglect of this instance of the Prudence and Modesty of the Holy Jesus . 2. But now the time appointed was come , the Baptist comes forth upon the Theatre of Palestine , a fore-runner of the Office and publication of Jesus , and by the great reputation of his Sanctity prevailed upon the affections and judgment of the people , who with much case believed his Doctrine , when they had reason to approve his Life ; for the good Example of the Preacher is always the most prevailing Homily , his Life is his best Sermon . He that will raise affections in his Auditory must affect their eyes ; for we seldom see the people weep if the Orator laughs loud and loosely ; and there is no reason to think that his discourse should work more with me than himself . If his arguments be fair and specious , I shall think them fallacies , while they have not faith with him ; and what necessity for me to be temperate , when he that tells me so sees no such need , but hopes to go to Heaven without it ? or if the duty be necessary , I shall learn the definition of Temperance , and the latitudes of my permission , and the bounds of lawful and unlawful , by the exposition of his practice ; if he binds a burthen upon my shoulders , it is but reason I should look for him to bear his portion too . Good works convince more than Miracles ; and the power of ejecting Devils is not so great probation that Christian Religion came from God , as is the holiness of the Doctrine , and its efficacy and productions upon the hearty Professors of the Institution . S. Pachomius , when he wore the military girdle under Constantine the Emperor , came to a City of Christians , who having heard that the Army in which he then marched was almost starved for want of necessary provisions , of their own charity relieved them speedily and freely . He wondring at their so free and chearful dispensation , inquired what kind of people these were whom he saw so bountiful . It was answered they were Christians , whose Profession it is to hurt no man , and to do good to every man. The pleased Souldier was convinced of the excellency of that Religion which brought forth men so good and so pious , and loved the Mother for the Children's sake , threw away his girdle , and became Christian , and Religious , and a Saint . And it was Tertullian's great argument in behalf of Christians , See how they love one another , how every man is ready to die for his brother : it was a living argument and a sensible demonstration of the purity of the Fountain , from whence such lympid waters did derive . But so John the Baptist made himself a fit instrument of preparation , and so must all the Christian Clergy be fitted for the dissemination of the Gospel of Jesus . 3. The Baptist had till this time , that is , about thirty years , lived in the Wilderness under the Discipline of the Holy Ghost , under the tuition of Angels , in conversation with God , in great mortification and disaffections to the World , his garments rugged and uneasie , his meat plain , necessary , and without variety , his imployment prayers and devotion , his company wilde beasts , in ordinary , in extraordinary , messengers from Heaven ; and all this not undertaken of necessity to subdue a bold lust , or to punish a loud crime , but to become more holy and pure from the lesser stains and insinuations of too free infirmities , and to prepare himself for the great ministery of serving the Holy Jesus in his Publication . Thirty years he lived in great austerity ; and it was a rare Patience and exemplar Mortification : we use not to be so pertinacious in any pious resolutions , but our purposes disband upon the sense of the first violence ; we are free and confident of resolving to fast when our * bellies are full , but when we are called upon by the first necessities of nature , our zeal is cool , and dissoluble into air upon the first temptation ; and we are not upheld in the violences of a short Austerity without faintings and repentances to be repented of , and enquirings after the vow is past , and searching for excuses and desires to reconcile our nature and our Conscience ; unless our necessity be great , and our sin clamorous , and our Conscience loaden , and no peace to be had without it : and it is well if upon any reasonable grounds we can be brought to suffer contradictions of nature , for the advantages of Grace . But it would be remembred , that the Baptist did more upon a less necessity ; and possibly the greatness of the example may entice us on a little farther than the customs of the World or our own indevotions would engage us . 4. But after the expiration of a definite time John came forth from his Solitude , and served God in Societies . He served God and the content of his own spirit by his conversing with Angels and Dialogues with God , so long as he was in the Wilderness , and it might be some trouble to him to mingle with the impurities of Men , amongst whom he was sure to observe such recesses from perfection , such violation of all things sacred , so great despite done to all ministeries of Religion , that to him who had no experience or neighbourhood of actions criminal , it must needs be to his sublim'd and clarified spirit more punitive and affictive than his hairen shirt and his ascetick diet was to his body ; but now himself , that tried both , was best able to judge which state of life was of greatest advantage and perfection . 5. In his Solitude he did breath more pure inspiration , Heaven was more open , God was more familiar and frequent in his visitations . In the Wilderness his company was Angels , his imployment Meditations and Prayer , his Temptations simple and from within , from the impotent and lesser rebellions of a mortified body , his occasions of sin as few as his examples , his condition such , that if his Soul were at all busie , his life could not easily be other than the life of Angels ; for his work and recreation , and his visits , and his retirements , could be nothing but the variety and differing circumstances of his Piety : his inclinations to Society made it necessary for him to repeat his addresses to God ; for his being a sociable Creature , and yet in solitude , made that his conversing with God , and being partaker of Divine communications , should be the satisfaction of his natural desires , and the supply of his singularity and retirement ; the discomforts of which made it natural for him to seck out for some refreshment , and therefore to go to Heaven for it , he having rejected the solaces of the World already . And all this besides the innocencies of his * silence , which is very great , and to be judged of in proportion to the infinite extravagancies of our language , there being no greater ‖ perfection here to be expected than not to offend in our tongue . It was solitude and retirement in which Jesus kept his Vigils , the Desart places heard him pray , in a privacy he was born , in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he fed his thousands , upon a Mountain apart he was transfigured , upon a Mountain he died , and from a Mountain he 〈◊〉 to his Father ; in which Retirements his Devotion certainly did receive the advantage of convenient circumstances , and himself in such dispositions twice had the opportunities of Glory . 6. And yet after all these Excellencies the Spirit of God called the Baptist forth to a more excellent Ministery : for in Solitude pious persons might go to Heaven by the way of Prayers and Devotion , but in Society they might go to Heaven by the way of Mercy and Charity and dispensations to others . In Solitude there are fewer occasions of Vices , but there is also the exercise of fewer Vertues ; and the Temptations , though they be not from many Objects , yet are in some Circumstances more dangerous , not only because the worst of evils , spiritual Pride , does seldom miss to creep upon those goodly Oaks , like Ivy , and suck their heart out , and a great Mortifier without some complacencies in himself , or affectations or opinions , or something of singularity , is almost as unusual as virgin-purity and unstained thoughts in the Bordelli , ( S. Hierom had tried it and found it so by experience , and he it was that said so ; ) but also because whatsoever temptation does invade such retired persons , they have * privacies enough to act it in , and no eyes upon them but the eye of Heaven , no shame to encounter withal , no fears of being discovered : and we know by experience , that a Witness of our conversation is a great restraint to the inordination of our actions . Men seek out darknesses and secrecies to commit a sin ; and The evil that no man sees , no man reproves ; and that makes the Temptation bold and confident , and the iniquity easie and ready : So that as they have not so many tempters as they have abroad , so neither have they so many restraints ; their vices are not so many , but they are more dangerous in themselves , and to the World safe and opportune . And as they communicate less with the World , so they do less Charity and fewer offices of Mercy : no Sermons there but when solitude is made popular , and the City removes into the Wilderness ; no comforts of a publick Religion , or visible remonstrances of the Communion of Saints ; and of all the kinds of spiritual Mercy , only one can there properly be exercised , and of the corporal none at all . And this is true in lives and institutions of less retirement , in proportion to the degree of the Solitude : and therefore Church story reports of divers very holy persons , who left their Wildernesses and sweetnesses of Devotion in their retirement , to serve God in publick by the ways of Charity and exteriour offices . Thus S. Antony and Acepsamas came forth to encourage the fainting people to contend to death for the Crown of Martyrdom ; and Aphraates in the time of Valens the Arian Emperor came abroad to assist the Church in the suppressing the flames kindled by the Arian Faction . And upon this ground they that are the greatest admirers of Eremitical life call the Episcopal Function the State of perfection , and a degree of ministerial and honorary excellency beyond the pieties and contemplations of Solitude , because of the advantages of gaining Souls , and Religious conversation , and going to God by doing good to others . 7. John the Baptist united both these lives , and our Blessed Saviour , who is the great Precedent of Sanctity and Prudence , hath determined this question in his own instance ; for he lived a life common , sociable , humane , charitable , and publick , and yet for the opportunities of especial Devotion retir'd to prayer and contemplation , but came forth speedily ; for the Devil never set upon him but in the Wilderness , and by the advantage of retirement . For as God hath many , so the Devil hath some opportunities of doing his work in our solitariness . But Jesus reconcil'd both , and so did John the Baptist in several degrees and manners : and from both we are taught , that Solitude is a good School , and the World is the best Theatre ; the Institution is best there , but the Practice here ; the Wilderness hath the advantage of Discipline , and Society opportunities of Perfection ; Privacy is the best for Devotion , and the Publick for Charity . In both God hath many Saints and Servants , and from both the Devil hath had some . 8. His Sermon was an Exhortation to Repentance and an Holy life : He gave particular schedules of Duty to several states of persons ; sharply reproved the 〈◊〉 for their Hypocrisie and Impiety , it being worse in them , because contrary to their rule , their profession and institution ; gently guided others into the ways of Righteousness , calling them the streight ways of the Lord , that is , the direct and shortest way to the Kingdom , for of all Lines the streight is the shortest , and as every Angle is a turning out of the way , so every Sin is an obliquity , and interrupts the journey . By such 〈◊〉 and a Baptism he disposed the spirits of men for the entertaining the 〈◊〉 , and the Homilies of the Gospel . For John's Doctrine was to the Sermons of Jesus as a Preface to a Discourse ; and his Baptism was to the new Institution and Discipline of the Kingdom as the Vigils to a Holy-day , of the same kind in a less degree . But the whole Oeconomy of it represents to us , that Repentance is the first intromission into the Sanctities of Christian Religion . The Lord treads upon no paths that are not hallowed and made smooth by the sorrows and cares of Contrition , and the impediments of sin cleared by dereliction and the succeeding fruits of emendation . But as it related to the Jews , his Baptism did signifie , by a cognation to their usual Rites and Ceremonies of Ablution and washing Gentile Proselytes , that the Jews had so far receded from their duty and that Holiness which God required of them by the Law , that they were in the state of strangers , no better than Heathens , and therefore were to be treated , as themselves received Gentile Proselytes , by a Baptism and a new state of life , before they could be fit for the reception of the 〈◊〉 , or be admitted to his Kingdom . 9. It was an excellent sweetness of Religion that had entirely 〈◊〉 the Soul of the Baptist , that in so great reputation of Sanctity , so mighty concourse of people , such great multitudes of Disciples and confidents , and such throngs of admirers , he was humble without mixtures of vanity , and confirmed in his temper and Piety against the strength of the most impetuous temptation . And he was tried to some purpose : for when he was tempted to confess himself to be the CHRIST , he refused it , or to be Elias , or to be accounted that Prophet , he refused all such great appellatives , and confessed himself only to be a Voice , the lowest of Entities , whose being depends upon the Speaker , just as himself did upon the pleasure of God , receiving form and publication and imployment wholly by the will of his Lord , in order to the manifestation of the Word eternal . It were 〈◊〉 that the spirits of men would not arrogate more than their own , though they did not lessen their own just dues . It may concern some end of Piety or Prudence , that our reputation be preserved by all just means ; but never that we assume the dues of others , or grow vain by the spoils of an undeserved dignity . Honours are the rewards of Vertue , or engagement upon Offices of trouble and publick use ; but then they must suppose a preceding worth , or a fair imployment . But he that is a Plagiary of others titles or offices , and dresses himself with their beauties , hath no more solid worth or reputation , than he should have nutriment if he ate only with their mouth , and slept their slumbers , himself being open and unbound in all the Regions of his Senses . The PRAYER . O Holy and most glorious God , who before the publication of thy eternal Son , the Prince of Peace , didst send thy Servant John Baptist , by the examples of Mortification , and the rude Austerities of a penitential life , and by the Sermons of Penance , to remove all the impediments of sin , that the ways of his Lord and ours might be made clear , ready and expedite ; be pleased to let thy Holy Spirit lead me in the streight paths of Sanctity , without deslections to either hand , and without the interruption of deadly sin , that I may with facility , Zeal , 〈◊〉 and a persevering diligence walk in the ways of the Lord. Be pleased that the Axe may be laid to the root of Sin , that the whole body of it may be cut down in me , that no fruit of Sodom may grow up to thy displeasure . Throughly purge the floor and 〈◊〉 of my heart with thy Fan , with the breath of thy Diviner Spirit , that it may be a holy repository of Graces , and full of benediction and Sanctity ; that when our Lord shall come , I may at all times be prepared for the entertainment of so Divine a Guest , apt to lodge him and to feast him , that he may for ever delight to dwell with me . And make me also to dwell with him , sometimes retiring into his recesses and private rooms by Contemplation , and admiring of his Beauties , and beholding the Secrets of his Kingdom ; and at all other times walking in the Courts of the Lord's House by the diligences and labours of Repentance and an Holy life , till thou shalt please to call me to a nearer communication of thy Excellencies , which then grant , when by thy gracious assistances I shall have done thy works , and glorified thy holy Name , by the strict and never-failing purposes and proportionable endeavours of Religion and Holiness , through the merits and mercies of Jesus Christ. Amen . DISCOURSE IV. Of Mortification and corporal Austerities . 1. FRom the days of John the Baptist , the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence , and the violent take it by force , said our Blessed Saviour . For now that the new Covenant was to be made with Man , Repentance , which is so great a part of it , being in very many actions a punitive duty , afflictive and vindicative , from the days of the Baptist ( who first , by office and solemnity of design , published this Doctrine ) violence was done to the inclinations and dispositions of Man , and by such violences we were to be possessed of the Kingdom . And his Example was the best 〈◊〉 upon his Text ; he did violence to himself ; he lived a life in which the rudenesses of Camel's hair , and the lowest nutriment of Flies and Honey of the Desart , his life of singularity , his retirement from the sweetnesses of Society , his resisting the greatest of Tentations , and despising to assume false honours , were instances of that violence , and explications of the Doctrine of Self-denial and Mortification , which are the Pedestal of the Cross , and the Supporters of Christianity , as it distinguishes from all Laws , Religions , and Institutions of the World. 2. Mortification is the one half of Christianity ; it is a dying to the World , it is a denying of the Will and all its natural desires : An abstinence from pleasure and sensual complacencies , that the 〈◊〉 being subdued to the spirit , both may joyn in the service of God , and in the offices of holy Religion . It consists in actions of Severity and Renunciation ; it refuses to give entertainment to any vanity , nor uses a freer licence in things lawful , lest it be tempted to things unlawful ; it kills the lusts of the flesh by taking away its fewel and incentives , and by using to contradict its appetite , does inure it with more facility to obey the superiour Faculties : and , in effect , it is nothing but a great care we sin not , and a prudent and severe using such remedies and instruments which in Nature and Grace are made apt for the production of our purposes . And it consists in interiour and exteriour offices ; these being but instruments of the interiour , as the Body is organical or instrumental to the Soul , and no part of the Duty it self , but as they are advantages to the End , the mortification of the Spirit ; which by whatsoever means we have once acquired and do continue , we are disobliged from all other exteriour 〈◊〉 , unless by accident they come to be obligatory , and from some other cause . 3. Mortification of the Will or the Spirit of Man , that 's the Duty ; that the Will of Man may humbly obey God , and absolutely rule its inferiour Faculties ; that the inordinations of our natural desires , begun by Adam's sin , and continued and increased by our continuing evil customs , may be again placed in the right order ; that since many of the Divine Precepts are restraints upon our natural desires , we should so deny 〈◊〉 Appetites that covet after natural satisfactions , that they may not serve themselves by disserving God. For therefore our own Wills are our greatest dangers and our greatest enemies , because they tend to courses contradictory to God. God commands us to be humble ; our own desires are to be great , considerable , and high ; and we are never secure enough from contempt , unless we can place our neighbours at our feet : Here therefore we must deny our Will , and appetites of Greatness , for the purchase of Humility . God commands Temperance and Chastity ; our desires and natural promptness breaks the bands asunder , and entertains dissolutions to the licentiousness of Apicius , or the wantonness of a Mahumetan Paradise , sacrificing meat and drink-offerings to our appetites , as if our stomachs were the Temples of 〈◊〉 , and making Women and the opportunities of Lust to be our dwelling , and our imployment , even beyond the common loosenesses of entertainment : Here therefore we must deny our own Wills , our appetites of Gluttony and Drunkenness , and our prurient beastly inclinations , for the purchase of Temperance and Chastity . And every other Vertue is , either directly or by accident , a certain instance of this great Duty , which is , like a Catholicon , purgative of all distemperatures , and is the best preparative and disposition to Prayer in the world . 4. For it is a sad consideration , and of secret reason , that since Prayer of all Duties is certainly the sweetest and the 〈◊〉 , it having in it no difficulty or 〈◊〉 labour , no weariness of bones , no dimness of eyes or hollow 〈◊〉 is directly consequent to it , no natural desires of contradictory quality , nothing of disease , but much of comfort and more of hope in it ; yet we are infinitely averse from it , weary of its length , glad of an occasion to pretermit our offices ; and yet there is no visible cause of such 〈◊〉 , nothing in the nature of the thing , nor in the circumstances necessarily appendent to the duty . Something is amiss in us , and it wanted a name , till the Spirit of God by enjoyning us the duty of Mortification hath taught us to know that Immortification of spirit is the cause of all our secret and spiritual indispositions : we are so incorporated to the desires of sensual objects , that we feel no relish or gust of the spiritual . It is as if a Lion should eat hay , or an Oxe venison , there is no proportion between the object and the appetite , till by mortification of our first desires our Wills are made spiritual , and our Apprehensions supernatural and clarified . For as a Cook told Dionysius the Tyrant , the black Broth of Lacedaemon would not do well at Syracusa , unless it be tasted by a Spartan's palate ; so neither can the Excellencies of Heaven be discerned but by a spirit disrelishing the sottish appetites of the world , and accustomed to diviner banquets . And this was mystically signified by the two Altars in Solomon's Temple , in the outer Court whereof Beasts were sacrificed , in the inner Court an Altar of incense : the first representing Mortification or slaying of our beastly appetites ; the 〈◊〉 the offering up our Prayers , which are not likely to become a pleasant offertory , unless our impurities be removed by the attonement made by the first Sacrifices ; without 〈◊〉 spirit be mortified , we neither can love to pray , nor God love to hear us . 5. But there are three steps to ascend to this Altar . The first is , to abstain from satisfying our carnal desires in the instances of sin ; and although the furnace flames with vehement emissions at some times , yet to walk in the midst of the burning without being consumed , like the Children of the Captivity : that is the duty even of the most imperfect , and is commonly the condition of those good persons whose interest in secular imployments speaks fair , and solicits often , and tempts highly ; yet they manage their affairs with habitual Justice , and a Constant Charity , and are temperate in their daily meals , chast in the solaces of marriage , and pure in their spirits , unmingled with sordid affections in the midst of their possessions and enjoyments . These men are in the world , but they are strangers here : They have a City , but not an abiding one ; they are Proselytes of the House , but have made no Covenant with the world . 〈◊〉 though they desire with secular desires , yet it is but for necessaries , and then they are content ; they use the creatures with freedom and modesty , but never to intemperance and transgression : so that their hands are below tied there by the necessities of their life ; but their hearts are above , lifted up by the abstractions of this first degree of Mortification . And this is the first and nicest distinction between a man of the world and a man of God ; for this state is a denying our affections nothing but the sin , it enjoys as much of the World as may be consistent with the possibilities of Heaven : a little less than this is the state of Immortification , and a being in the 〈◊〉 , which ( 〈◊〉 the Apostle ) cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. The flesh must first be separated , and the adherences pared off from the skin , before the parchment be fit to make a schedule for use , or to transmit a Record : whatsoever in the sence of the Scripture is 〈◊〉 , or an enemy to the spirit , if it be not rescinded and mortified , makes that the Laws of God cannot be written in our hearts . This is the Doctrine S. Paul taught the Church : For if ye live after the flesh , ye shall die ; but if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body , ye shall live . This first Mortification is the way of life , if it continues : but its continuance is not fecured , till we are advanced towards life by one degree more of this Death . For this condition is a state of a daily and dangerous warfare , and many inrodes are made by sin , and many times hurt is done and booty carried off : for he that is but thus far mortified , although his dwelling be within the Kingdom of Grace , yet it is in the borders of it , and hath a dangerous neighbourhood . If we mean to be safe , we must remove into the heart of the Land , or carry the war farther off . 6. Secondly , We must not only be strangers here , but we must be dead too , dead unto the World : that is , we must not only deny our Vices , but our Passions ; not only contradict the direct immediate Perswasion to a sin , but also cross the Inclination to it . So long as our Appetites are high and full , we shall never have peace or safety , but the dangers and insecurities of a full War and a potent Enemy ; we are always disputing the Question , ever strugling for life : but when our Passions are killed , when our desires are little and low , then Grace reigns , then our life is hid with Christ in God , then we have fewer interruptions in the way of Righteousness , then we are not so apt to be surprised by sudden eruptions and transportation of Passions , and our Piety it self is more prudent : and reasonable , chosen with a freer election , discerned with clearer understanding , hath more in it of Judgment than of Fancy , and is more spiritual and Angelical . He that is apt to be angry , though he be habitually careful and full of observation that he sin not , may at some time or other be surprised , when his guards are undiligent and without actual expectation of an enemy : but if his Anger be dead in him , and the inclination lessened to the indisferency and gentleness of a Child , the man dwells safe , because of the impotency of his Enemy , or that he is reduced to Obedience , or hath taken conditions of peace . He that hath refused to consent to actions of Uncleanness , to which he was strongly tempted , hath won a victory by sine force , God hath blessed him well : but an opportunity may betray him instantly , and the sin may be in upon him unawares ; unless also his desires be killed , he is betrayed by a party within . David was a holy person , but he was surprised by the sight of Bathsheba , for his freer use of permitted beds had kept the fire alive , which was apt to be put into a flame when so fair a beauty reflected through his eyes . But Joseph was a Virgin , and kept under all his inclinations to looser thoughts ; opportunity , and command , and violence , and beauty did make no breach upon his spirit . 7. He that is in the first state of Pilgrimage does not mutiny against his Superiors , nor publish their faults , nor envy their dignities ; but he that is dead to the world sees no fault that they have , and when he hears an objection , he buries it in an excuse , and rejoyces in the dignity of their persons . Every degree of Mortification endures reproof without murmur ; but he that is quite dead to the world and to his own will feels no regret against it , and hath no secret thoughts of trouble and unwillingness to the suffering , save only that he is sorry he deserv'd it . For so a dead body resists not your violence , changes not its posture you plac'd it in , strikes not his striker , is not moved by your words , nor provoked by your scorn , nor is troubled when you shrink with horror at the sight of it ; only it will hold the head downward in all its situations , unless it be hindred by violence : And a mortified spirit is such , without indignation against scorn , without revenge against injuries , without murmuring at low offices , not impatient in troubles , indifferent in all accidents , neither transported with joy nor deprest with sorrow , and is humble in all his thoughts . And thus he that is dead ( saith the Apostle ) is justified from sins . And this is properly a state of life , in which by the grace of Jesus we are restored to a condition of order and interiour beauty in our Faculties , our actions are made moderate and humane , our spirits are even , and our understandings undisturbed . 8. For Passions of the sensitive Soul are like an Exnalation , hot and dry , born up from the earth upon the wings of a cloud , and detained by violence out of its place , causing thunders , and making eruptions into lightning and sudden fires . There is a Tempest in the Soul of a passionate man ; and though every wind does not shake the earth , nor rend trees up by the roots , yet we call it violent and ill weather , if it only makes a 〈◊〉 and is harmless . And it is an inordination in the spirit of a man , when his Passions are tumultuous and mighty ; though they do not determine directly upon a sin , they discompose his peace , and disturb his spirit , and make it like troubled waters , in which no man can see his own figure and just 〈◊〉 portions , and therefore by being less a man cannot be so much a Christian , in the midst 〈◊〉 so great indispositions . For although the Cause may hallow the Passion , ( and if a man be very angry for God's cause , it is Zeal , not Fury ) yet the Cause cannot secure the Person from violence , transportation and inconvenience . When Elisha was consulted by three Kings concerning the success of their present Expedition , he grew so angry against idolatrous soram , and was carried on to so great degrees of disturbance , that when for Jehosaphat's sake he was content to enquire of the Lord , he called for a minstrel , who by his harmony might re-compose his disunited and troubled spirit , that so he might be apter sor divination . And sometimes this zeal goes besides the intention of the man , and beyond the degrees of prudent or lawful , and ingages in a sin , though at first it was Zeal for Religion . For so it happened in Moses , at the waters of Massah and Meribah he spake foolishly ; and yet it was when he was zealous for God , and extremely careful of the people's interest . For his Passion , he was hindred from entring into the Land of Promise . And we also , if we be not moderate and well-tempered , even in our 〈◊〉 for God , may , like Moses , break the Tables of the Law , and throw them out of our hands with zeal to have them preserved ; for Passion violently snatches at the Conclusion , but is inconsiderate and incurious concerning the Premises . The summ and purpose of this Discourse is that saying of our Blessed Saviour , He that will be my Disciple must deny himself ; that is , not only desires that are sinful , but desires that are his own , pursuances of his own affections , and violent motions , though to things not evil or in themselves contagious . 9. Thirdly , And yet there is a degree of Mortification of spirit beyond this : for the condition of our security may require , that we not only deny to act our temptations , or to please our natural desires , but also to seek opportunities of doing displeasure to our affections , and violence to our inclinations ; and not only to be indifferent , but to chuse a contradiction and a denial to our strongest appetites , to rejoyce in a trouble : and this was the spirit of S. Paul , I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulations ; and , We glory in it . Which joy consists not in any sensitive pleasure any man can take in asflictions and adverse accidents , but in a despising the present inconveniences , and looking through the cloud unto those great felicities , and graces , and consignations to glory , which are the effects of the Cross : Knowing that tribulation worketh patience , and patience experience , and experience hope , and hope maketh not ashamed ; that was the incentive of S. Paul's joy . And therefore as it may consist with any degree of Mortification to pray for the taking away of the Cross , upon condition it may consist with God's glory and our ghostly profit ; so it is properly an act of this vertue to pray for the Cross , or to meet it , if we understand it may be for the interest of the spirit . And thus S. Basil prayed to God to remove his violent pains of Head-ach : but when God heard him , and took away his pain , and Lust came in the place of it , he prayed to God to restore him his Head-ach again ; that cross was gain and joy , when the removal of it was so full of danger and temptation . And this the Masters of spiritual life call being crucified with Christ ; because as Christ chose the death , and desired it by the appetites of the spirit , though his flesh smarted under it , and groaned and died with the burthen ; so do all that are thus mortified , they place misfortunes and sadnesses amongst things eligible , and set them before the eyes of their desire , although the flesh and the desires of sense are factious and bold against such sufferings . 10. Of these three degrees of interiour or spiritual Mortification , the first is Duty , the second is Counsel , and the third is Perfection . We sin if we have not the first ; we are in danger without the second ; but without the third we cannot be perfect as our heavenly Father is , but shall have more of humane infirmities to be ashamed of than can be excused by the accrescencies and condition of our nature . The first is only of absolute necessity ; the second is prudent , and of greatest convenience ; but the third is excellent and perfect . And it was the consideration of a wise man , that the Saints in Heaven , who understand the excellent glories and vast differences of state and capacities amongst beatified persons , although they have no envy nor sorrows , yet if they were upon earth with the same notion and apprehensions they have in Heaven , would not for all the world lose any degree of Glory , but mortifie to the greatest 〈◊〉 , that their Glory may be a derivation of the greatest ray of light ; every degree being of compensation glorious , and disproportionably beyond the inconsiderable troubles of the greatest Self-denial . God's purpose is , that we abstain from sin ; there is no more in the Commandment ; and therefore we must deny our selves , so as not to admit a sin , under pain of a certain and eternal curse : but the other degrees of Mortification are by accident so many degrees of Vertue , not being enjoyned or counselled for themselves , but for the preventing of crimes , and for securities of good life ; and therefore are parts and offices of Christian prudence , which whosoever shall positively reject , is neither much in love with Vertue , nor careful of his own safety . 11. Secondly , But Mortification hath also some designs upon the Body . For the Body is the Shop and Forge of the Soul , in which all her designs which are transient upon external objects are framed : and it is a good servant , as long as it is kept in obedience and under discipline ; but he that breeds his servant delicately will find him contumacious and troublesome , bold and confident as his son : and therefore S. Paul's practice , ( as himself gives account of it ) was , to keep his body under , and bring it into subjection , lest he should become a 〈◊〉 - away ; for the desires of the Body are in the same things in which themselves are satisfied so many injuries to the Soul , because upon every one of the appetites a restraint is made , and a law placed sor Sentinel , that if we transgress the bounds fixt by the divine 〈◊〉 , it becomes a sin ; now it is hard for us to keep them within compass , because they are little more than agents merely natural , and therefore cannot interrupt their act , but covet and desire as much as they can without suspension or coercion but what comes from without , which is therefore the more troublesome , because all such restraints are against nature , and without sensual pleasure . And therefore this is that that S. Paul said , When we were in the flesh , the 〈◊〉 of sin which were by the Law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto Death . For these pleasures of the body draw us as loadstones draw iron , not for love , but for prey and nutriment ; it feeds upon the iron , as the bodily pleasures upon the life of the spirit , which is lessened and impaired according as the gusts of the flesh grow high and sapid . 12. He that seeds a Lion must obey him , unless he make his den to be his prison : Our Lusts are as wild and as cruel Beasts , and , unless they feel the load of fetters and of Laws , will grow unruly and troublesome , and increase upon us , as we give them food and satisfaction . He that is used to drink high Wines , is sick if he hath not his proportion , to what degree soever his custom hath brought his appetite ; and to some men Temperance becomes certain death , because the inordination of their desires hath introduced a custom , and custom hath increased those appetites , and made them almost natural in their degree : but he that hath been used to hard diet and the pure stream , his 〈◊〉 are much within the limits of Temperance , and his desires as moderate as his diet . S. Jerom affirms , that to be continent in the state of Widowhood is barder than to keep our Firgin pure : and there is reason that then the Appetite should be harder to be restrained , when it hath not been accustomed to be denied , but satisfied in its freer solicitations . When a fontinel is once opened , all the symbolical humours run thither , and issue out , and it is not to be stopped without danger , unless the humour be purged or diverted : So is the satisfaction of an impure desire , it opens the issue , and makes way for the emanation of all impurity , and , unless the desire be mortified , will not be stopt by purposes and easie desires . 13. Since therefore the Body is the instrument of sins , the fewel and the incentive , our Mortification must reach thither also , at least in some degrees , or it will be to small purpose to think of mortifying our spirit in some instances of Temptation . In vain does that man think to keep his honour and Chastity , that invites his Lust to an activeness by soft beds and high diet , and idleness and opportunity : Make the Soul's instrument unapt , and half the work is done . And this is true in all instances of Carnality or natural desires , whose scene lies in the lower region of Passions , and are acted by the Body ; but the operation of the cure must be in proportion to the design ; as the mortification of the Spirit is in several degrees , so the mortification of the Body also hath its several parts of prudence , injunction and necessity . For the prescribing all sorts of Mortifications corporal indefinitely and indiseriminately to all persons , without separation of their ends and distinct capacities , is a snare to mens Consciences , makes Religion impertinently troublesome , occasions some men to glory in corporal Austerity , as if of it self it were an act of Piety , and a distinction of the man from the more imperfect persons of the world , and is all the way unreasonable and inartificial . 14. First , Therefore such whose ingagements in the world or capacities of person confine them to the lowest and first step of Mortification , those who fight only for life and liberty , not for priviledges and honour , that are in perpetual contestation and close fightings with sin , it is necessary that their Body also be mortified in such a degree , that their desires transport them not beyond the permissions of Divine and humane Laws : let such men be strict in the rules of Temperance and Sobriety , be chaste within the laws of Marriage , cherish their body to preserve their health , and their health to serve God , and to do their offices . To these persons the best instruments of Discipline are the strict laws of Temperance , denying all transgressions of the appetite boiling over its margent and proper limit , assiduous Prayer and observation of the publick laws of 〈◊〉 , which are framed so moderate and even , as to be proportionable to the common manner of living of persons secular and incumbred . For though many persons of common imployments and even manner of living have , in the midst of worldly avocations , undertaken Austerities very rude and rigorous , yet it was in order to a higher mortification of spirit ; and it is also necessary they should , if either naturally , or habitually , or easily they suffer violent transportation of Passions : for since the occasions of anger and disturbance in the world frequently occur , if such Passions be not restrained by greater violence than is competent to the ordinary offices of a moderate Piety , the cure is weaker than the humour , and so leaves the work imperfect . 15. Secondly , But this is coincident to the second degree of Mortification : for if either out of desire of a farther step towards perfection , or out of the necessities of nature or evil customs , it be necessary also to subdue our Passions as well as the direct invitations to sin , in both these cases the Body must suffer more Austerities , even such as directly are contrariant to every passionate disturbance , though it be not ever sinful in the instance . All Mortifiers must abstain from every thing that is unlawful ; but these , that they may abstain from things unlawful , must also deny to themselves satisfaction in things lawful and pleasant : and this is in a just proportion to the End , the subduing the Passions , lest their liberty and boldness become licentious . And we shall easier deny their importunity to sin , when we will not please them in those things in which we may : such in which the fear of God , and the danger of our Souls , and the convictions of Reason and Religion do not immediately cooperate . And this was the practice of David , when he had thirsted for the water of Bethlehem , and some of his Worthies ventured their lives and brought it , he refused to drink it , but poured it upon the ground unto the Lord , that is , it became a Drink-offering unto the Lord ; an acceptable Oblation , in which he 〈◊〉 his desires to God , denying himself the satisfaction of such a desire which was natural and innocent , save that it was something nice , delicate and curious . Like this was the act of the Fathers in the mountain Nitria , to one of which a fair cluster of dried grapes being sent , he refused to taste them , lest he should be too sensual and much pleased , but sent them to another , and he to a third , and the same consideration transmitted the Present through all their Cells , till it came to the first man again ; all of them not daring to content their appetite in a thing too much desired , lest the like importunity in the instance of a sin should prevail upon them . To these persons the best instruments of Discipline are subtractions rather than imposition of Austerities ; let them be great haters of corporal pleasures , eating for necessity , diet 〈◊〉 and cheap , abridging and making short the opportunities of natural and permitted solaces , * refusing exteriour comforts , not chusing the most pleasant object , nor suffering delight to be the end of eating , and therefore separating delight from it as much as prudently they may , not being too importunate with God to remove his gentler hand of paternal correction , but inuring our selves to patient suffering , and indifferent acceptation of the Cross that God lays upon us , at no hand living delicately , or curiously , or impatiently . And this was the condition of S. Paul , suffering with excellent temper all those persecutions and inconveniences which the enemies of Religion loaded him withall ; which he called bearing the marks of the Lord Jesus in his body , and carrying about in his body the dying or mortification of the Lord Jesus : it was in the matter of Persecution , which because he bare patiently , and was accustomed to , and he accepted with indifference and renunciation , they were the mortifications and the marks of Jesus , that is , a true 〈◊〉 to the Passion of Christ , and of great effect and interest for the preventing sins by the mortification of his natural desires . 16. Thirdly , But in the pale of the Church there are and have been many tall Cedars 〈◊〉 tops have reached to Heaven ; some there are that chuse afflictions of the Body , that by turning the bent and inclination of their affections into sensual 〈◊〉 , they may not only cut off all pretensions of Temptation , but grow in spiritual Graces , and perfections intellectual and beatified . To this purpose they served themselves with the instances of Sack-cloth , Hard lodging , long Fasts , Pernoctation in prayers , Renunciation of all secular possessions , great and expensive Charity , bodily Labours to great weariness and affiction , and many other prodigies of voluntary suffering , which Scripture and the Ecclesiastical stories do frequently mention . S. Lewis King of France wore Sack-cloth every day , unless sickness hindred ; and S. Zenobius as long as he was a Bishop . And when Severus Sulpitius sent a Sack-cloth to S. Panlinus Bishop of Nola , he returned to him a letter of thanks , and discoursed piously concerning the use of corporal Austerities . And that I need not instance , it was so general , that this was by way of appropriation called the Garment of the Church , because of the frequent use of such instruments of exteriour 〈◊〉 : and so it was in other instances . S. James neither are flesh nor drank wine ; S. Matthew lived upon acorns , seeds and herbs ; and , amongst the elder Christians , some rolled themselves naked in snows , some upon thorns , some on burning coals , some chewed bitter pills and masticated gumms , and sipped frequently of horrid potions , and wore iron upon their skin and bolts upon their legs , and in witty torments excelled the cruelty of many of their persecutors , whose rage determined quickly in death , and had certainly less of torment than the tedious afflictions and rude penances of Simeon surnamed Stylites . But as all great examples have excellencies above the ordinary Devotions of good people , so have they some danger and much consideration . 17. First , therefore , I consider , that these Bodily and voluntary self - 〈◊〉 can only be of use in carnal and natural Temptations , of no use in spiritual : for ascetick diet hard lodging and severe disciplines , cannot be directly operative upon the spirit , but only by mediation of the Body , by abating its extravagancies , by subtracting its maintenance , by lessening its temptations ; these may help to preserve the Soul chaste or temperate , because the scene of these sins lies in the Body , and thence they have their * maintenance , and from thence also may receive their abatements . But in actions which are less material , such as Pride , and Envy , and Blasphemy , and Impenitence , and all the kinds and degrees of Malice , external Mortifications do so little cooperate to their cure , that oftentimes they are their greatest 〈◊〉 and incentives , and are like Cordials given to cure a cold fit of an Ague , they do their work , but bring a hot fit in its place : and besides that great Mortifiers have been soonest assaulted by the spirit of Pride , we find that great Fasters are naturally angry and cholerick . S. Hierom found it in himself , and 〈◊〉 felt some of the effects of it . And therefore this last part of corporal Mortification , and the chusing such Afflictions by a voluntary imposition , is at no hand to be applied in all cases , but in cases of Lust only and Intemperance or natural Impatience , or such crimes which dwell in the Senses : and then it also would be considered , whether or no rudeness to the Body applied for the obtaining Patience be not a direct temptation to Impatience , a provoking the spirit , and a running into that whither we pray that God would not suffer us to be led . Possibly such Austerities , if applied with great caution and wise circumstances , may be an exercise of Patience , when the Grace is by other means acquired ; and he that finds them so , may use them , if he dares trust himself : but as they are dangerous before the Grace is obtained , so when it is , they are not necessary . And still it may be enquired in the case of temptations to Lust , whether any such Austerities which can consist with health will do the work . So long as the Body is in health , it will do its offices of nature ; if it is not in health , it cannot do all offices of Grace , nor many of our Calling . And therefore although they may do some advantages to persons tempted with the lowest sins , yet they will not do it all , nor do it alone , nor are they safe to all dispositions : and where they are useful to these smaller and lower purposes , yet we must be careful to observe , that the Mortification of the spirit to the greatest and most perfect purposes is to be set upon by means spiritual and of immediate efficacy ; for they are the lowest operations of the Soul which are moved and produced by actions corporal ; the Soul may from those become lustful or chast , chearful or sad , timorous or confident : but yet even in these the Soul receives but some dispositions thence , and more forward inclinations : but nothing from the Body can be operative in the begetting or increase of Charity , or the Love of God , or Devotion , or in mortifying spiritual and 〈◊〉 Vices : and therefore those greater perfections and heights of the Soul , such as are designed in this highest degree of 〈◊〉 , are not apt to be enkindled by corporal Austerities . And Nigrinus in Lucian finds sault with those Philosophers who thought Vertue was to be purchased by cutting the skin with whips , binding the nerves , razing the 〈◊〉 with iron : but he taught that 〈◊〉 is to be placed in the Mind by actions internal and immaterial , and that from thence remedies are to be derived against perturbations and actions criminal . And this is determined by the Apostle in fairest intimation , Mortifie therefore your carthly members ; and he instances in carnal crimes , fornication , uncleanness , inordinate affection , evil concupiscence , and covetousness , which are things may be something abated by corporal Mortifications : and that these are by distinct manner to be helped from other more spiritual Vices , he adds , But now therefore put off all these , anger , wrath , malice , blasphemy , filthy communication , and lying . To both these sorts of sins , Mortification being the general remedy , particular applications are to be made , and it must be only spiritual , or also corporal in proportion to the nature of the sins : he seems to distinguish the remedy by separation of the nature of the crimes , and possibly also by the differing words of [ * 〈◊〉 ] applied to carnal sins , and [ * put 〈◊〉 ] to crimes spiritual . 18. Secondly , But in the lesser degrees of Mortification , in order to subduing of all Passions of the Sensitive appetite , and the consequent and symbolical sins , * bodily Austerities are of good use , if well understood and prudently undertaken . To which purpose I also consider , No acts of corporal Austerity or external Religion are of themselves to be esteemed holy or acceptable to God , are no-where precisely commanded , no instruments of union with Christ , no immediate parts of Divine worship ; and therefore to suffer corporal Austerities with thoughts determining upon the external action or imaginations of Sanctity inherent in the action , is against the purity , the spirituality and simplicity of the Gospel . And this is the meaning of S. Paul , It is a good thing that the heart be established with Grace , not with meats , which have not profited them which have walked in them ; and , The kingdom of God consists not in meat and drink , but in righteousness , and peace , and joy in the holy Ghost ; and , Bodily exercise profiteth little , but Godliness is profitable unto all things . Now if external Mortifications are not for themselves , then they are to receive their estimate as they cooperate to the End : Whatsoever is a prudent restraint of an extravagant Passion , whatsoever is a direct denial of a sin , whatsoever makes provision for the spirit , or withdraws the fewel from the impure fires of carnality , that is an act of Mortification ; but those Austerities which Baal's Priests did use , or the 〈◊〉 , an ignorant Faction that went up and down Villages whipping themselves , or those which return periodically on a set day of Discipline , and using rudenesses to the Body by way of ceremony and solemnity , not directed against the actual incursion of a pungent Lust , are not within the vierge of the grace of 〈◊〉 . For unless the Temptation to a carnal sin be actually incumbent and pressing upon the Soul , pains of 〈◊〉 and smart do no benefit to ward suppressing the habit or inclination : for such sharp disciplines are but short and transient troubles ; and although they take away the present fancies of a Temptation , yet unless it be rash and uncharitable , there is no effect remanent upon the body , but that the Temptation may speedily return . As is the danger , so must be the application of the remedy . Actual Severities are not imprudently undertaken in case of imminent danger ; but to cure an habitual Lust , such corporal Mortifications are most reasonable whose effect is permanent , and which takes away whatsoever does minister more 〈◊〉 , and puts a torch to the pile . 19. But this is 〈◊〉 a discourse of Christian Prudence , not of precise Duty and Religion ; for if we do by any means provide for our indemnity and secure our innocence , all other exteriour Mortifications are not necessary , and they are convenient but as they do facilitate or cooperate towards the 〈◊〉 . And if that be well understood , it will concern us that they be used with prudence and caution , with purity of intention , and without pride : for since they are nothing in themselves , but are hallowed and adopted into the family of Religious actions by participation of the End , the doing them not for themselves takes off all complacency and fancy reflecting from an opinion of the external actions , guides and purifies the intention and teaches us to be prudent in the managing of those Austerities , which as they are in themselves afflictive , so have in them nothing that is eligible , if they be imprudent . 20. And now supposing these premises as our guide to chuse and enter into the action , Prudence must be called into the execution and discharge of it , and the manner of its managing . And for the prudential part , I shall first give the advice of Nigrinus in the discipline of the old Philosophers : He that will best institute and instruct men in the studies of Vertue and true Philosophy , must have regard to the mind , to the body , to the age , to the former education , and capacities or incapacities of the person ; to which all such circumstances may be added as are to be accounted for in all prudent estimations ; such as are national customs , dangers of scandal , the presence of other remedies , or disbanding of the inclination . 21. Secondly , It may also concern the prudence of this duty , not to neglect the smallest inadvertencies and minutes of Lust or spiritual inconvenience , but to contradict them in their weakness and first beginnings . We see that great disturbances are wrought from the smallest occasions meeting with an impatient spirit , like great flames kindled from a little spark fallen into an heap of prepared Nitre . S. Austin tells a Story of a certain person much vexed with Flies in the region of his dwelling , and himself heightned the trouble by too violent and busie reflexions upon the inconsiderableness of the instrument , and the greatness of the vexation alighting upon a peevish spirit . In this disposition he was visited by a Manichee , ( an Heretick that denied God to be the Maker of things visible : ) he being busie to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Infection upon the next thing he met , asked the impatient person whom he thought to be the Maker of Flies . He 〈◊〉 , I think the Devil was ; for they are instruments of great vexation and perpetual trouble . What he rather sansied than believed , or expressed by anger rather than at all had entertained within , the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by such arguments , to which his adversary was very apt to give consent by reason of his impatience and peevishness . The Manichee having set his foot firm upon his first breach proceeded in his Question , If the Devil made Flies , why not Bees , who are but a little bigger , and have a sting too ? The consideration of the Sting made him fit to think , that the little difference in bigness needed not a distinct and a greater Efficient , especially since the same work-man can make a great as well as a little vessel . The Manichee proceeded , If a Bee , why not a Locust ? if a Locust , then a Lizzard ? if a Lizzard , then a Bird ? if a Bird , then a Lamb ? and thence he made bold to 〈◊〉 to a Cow , to an Elephant , to a Man. His adversary by this time being insnared by granting so much , and now ashamed not to grant more , lest his first concessions should seem unreasonable and impious , confessed the Devil to be the Maker of all Creatures visible . The use which is made of this Story is this Caution , that the Devil do not abuse us in Flies , and provoke our spirits by trifles and impertinent accidents : for if we be unmortified in our smallest motions , it is not imaginable we should stand the blast of an impetuous accident and violent perturbation . Let us not therefore give our Passions course in a small accident , because the instance is inconsiderable ; for though it be , the consequence may be dangerous , and a wave may follow a wave , till the inundation be general and desperate . And therefore here it is intended for advice , that we be observant of the accidents of our domestick affairs , and curious that every trifling inadvertency of a servant , or slight misbecoming action , or imprudent words , be not apprehended as instruments of vexation ; for so many small occasions , if they be productive of many small disturbances , will produce an habitual churlishness and immortification of spirit . 22. Thirdly , Let our greatest diligence and care be imployed in mortifying our predominant Passion : for if our care be so great as not to entertain the smallest , and our resolution so strong and holy as not to be subdued by the greatest and most passionate desires , the Spirit hath done all its work , secures the future , and sanctifies the present , and nothing is wanting but perseverance in the same prudence and Religion . And this is typically commanded in the Precept of God to Moses and Aaron in the matter of Peor ; Vex the Midianites , because they vexed you , and made you sin by their daughters : and Phinehas did so , he killed a Prince of the house of Simeon and a Princess of Midian , and God confirmed the Priesthood to him for ever ; meaning , that we shall for ever be admitted to a nearer relation to God , if we sacrifice to God our dearest Lust. And this is not so properly an act , as the end of Mortification . Therefore it concerns the prudence of the Duty , that all the efficacy and violence of it be imployed against the strongest , and there where is the most dangerous hostility . 23. Fourthly , But if we mean to be Matters of the field , and put our victory past dispute , let us mortifie our morosity and natural aversations , reducing them to an indifferency , having in our wills no fondnesses , in our spirits no faction of persons or nations , being prepared to love all men , and to endure all things , and to undertake all employments which are duty or counsel in all circumstances and disadvantages . For the excellency of Evangelical Sanctity does surmount all Antipathies , as a vessel climbs up and rides upon a wave ; The Wolf and the Lamb shall cohabit , and a Child shall play and put his fingers in the Cavern of an Aspick ; Nations whose interests are most contradictory must be knit by the confederations of a mortified and a Christian Spirit , and single persons must triumph over the difficulties of an indisposed nature , or else their own will is unmortified , and Nature is stronger than can well consist with the dominion and absolute empire of Grace . To this 〈◊〉 reduce such peevish and unhandsome nicenesses in matters of Religion , that are unsatisfied unless they have all exteriour circumstances trimmed up and made pompous for their Religious offices ; such who cannot pray without a convenient room , and their Devotion is made active only by a well-built Chappel , and they cannot sing Lauds without Church-musick , and too 〈◊〉 light dissolves their intention , and too much dark promotes their melancholy ; and because these and the like exteriour Ministeries are good advantages , therefore without them they can do nothing , which certainly is a great intimation and likeness to Immortification . Our Will should be like the Candle of the Eye , without all colour in it self , that it may entertain the species of all colours from without : and when we lust after mandrakes and deliciousness of exteriour Ministeries , we many times are brought to betray our own interest , and prostitute our dearest affections to more ignoble and stranger desires . Let us love all natures , and serve all persons , and pray in all places , and fast without opportunities , and do alms above our power , and set our selves heartily on work , to neglect and frustrate those lower temptations of the Devil , who 〈◊〉 frequently enough make our Religion inopportune if we then will make it infrequent ; and will present us with objects enough and flies to disquiet our persons , if our natures be petulant , peevish , curious , and unmortified . 24. It is a great mercy of God to have an affable , sweet and well-disposed nature , and it does half the work of Mortification for us ; we have the less trouble to 〈◊〉 our Passions and destroy our Lusts. But then as those whose natures are morose , cholerick , peevish and lustful , have greater difficulty ; so is their vertue of greater excellence , and returned with a more ample reward : but it is in all mens natures as with them who gathered Manna , They that gathered little had no lack , and they that gathered much had nothing over : they who are of ill natures shall want * no assistance of God's grace to work their cure , though their flesh be longer 〈◊〉 ; and they who are sweetly tempered , being naturally meek and modest , chaste or temperate , will find work enough to contest against their temptations from without , though from within possibly they may have fewer . Yet there are greater degrees of Vertue and heroical excellencies , and great rewards to which God hath designed them by so fair dispositions , and it will concern all their industry to mortifie their spirit , which though it be malleable and more ductile , yet it is as bare and naked of imagery as the rudest and most iron nature : so that Mortification will be every man's duty ; no nature , nor piety , nor wisdom , nor 〈◊〉 , but will need it , either to subdue a Lust , or a Passion ; to cut off an occasion , or to resist a Temptation ; to persevere , or to go on ; to secure our present estate , or to proceed towards perfection . But all men do not think so . 25. For there are some who have great peace , no fightings within , no troubles without , no disputes or contradictions in their spirit : but these men have the peace of tributaries or a conquered people , the gates of their city stand open day and night , that all the carriages may enter without disputing the pass : the flesh and the spirit dispute not , because the spirit is there in pupillage or in bonds , and the flesh rides in triumph , with the tyranny and pride and impotency of a female tyrant . For in the sence of Religion we all are Warriors or Slaves ; either our selves are stark dead in trespasses and sins , or we need to stand perpetually upon our guards in continual observation , and in contestation against our Lusts and our Passions ; so long denying and contradicting our own Wills , till we will and chuse to do things against our Wills , having an eye always to those infinite satisfactions which shall 〈◊〉 our Wills and all our Faculties , when we arrive to that state in which there shall be no more contradiction , but only that our mortal shall put on immortality . 26. But as some have a vain and dangerous peace , so others double their trouble by too nice and impertinent scruples , thinking that every Temptation is a degree of Immortification . As long as we live we shall have to do with Enemies : but as this Life is ever a state of 〈◊〉 , so the very design and purpose of Mortification is not to take away Temptations , but to overcome them ; it endeavours to facilitate the work , and secure our condition by removing all occasions it can : but the opportunity of a crime and the solicitation to a sin is no fault of ours , unless it be of our procuring , or finds entertainment when it comes unsent for . To suffer a Temptation is a misery , but if we then set upon the 〈◊〉 of it , it is an occasion of Vertue ; and never is criminal , unless we give consent . But then also it would be considered , that it is not good offering our selves to fire ordeal , to confirm our Innocence ; nor prudent to enter into Battel without need , and to shew our valour ; nor safe to procure a Temptation , that we may have the reward of Mortification of it . For 〈◊〉 of the spirit is not commanded as a Duty finally resting in it self , or immediately landing upon God's glory , such as are acts of Charity and Devotion , Chastity and Justice : but it is the great instrument of Humility and all other Graces ; and therefore is to be undertaken to destroy a sin , and to secure a vertuous habit . And besides that to call on a danger is to tempt God , and to invite the Devil , ( and no man is sure of a victory : ) it is also great imprudence to create a need , that we may take it away again ; to drink poison , to make experiment of the antidote ; and at the best it is but a running back , to come just to the same place again : for he that is not tempted does not sin , but he that invites a Temptation , that he might overcome it , or provokes a Passion , that he may allay it , is then but in the same condition after his pains and his 〈◊〉 : He was not sure he should come so far . The PRAYER . O Dearest God , who hast framed Man of Soul and Body , and fitted him with Faculties and proportionable instruments to serve thee according to all our capacities , let thy holy Spirit rule and sanctifie every power and member both of Soul and Body , that they may keep that beautious order which in our creation thou didst intend , and to which thou dost restore thy people in the renovations of Grace ; that our Affections may be guided by Reason , our Understanding may be enlightned with thy Word , and then may guide and perswade our Will ; that we suffer no violent transportation of Passions , nor be overcome by a Temptation , nor consent to the impure solicitations of Lust ; that Sin may not reign in our mortal bodies , but that both Bodies and Souls may be conformable to the Sufferings of the Holy Jesus ; that in our Body we may bear the marks and dying of our Lord , and in our spirits we may be humble and mortified , and like him in all his imitable perfections ; that we may die to sin and live to righteousness , and after our suffering together with him in this world , we may reign together with him hereafter , to whom in the unity of the most mysterious Trinity be all glory and dominion and praise for ever and ever . Amen . SECT . IX . Of JESVS being Baptized , and going into the Wilderness to be Tempted . The Baptisme of Iesus S. MAT. 3. 17. And lo , a voice from heaven , saying This is my beloved Son , in whom I am well pleased . Luc. 3 : 23. And Iesus himselfe began to be about thirty yeares of age . The Temqtation of Iesus S. MAT. 4 : 10 Get thee behind me Satan For it is written Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou sarue 1. NOW the full time was come , Jesus took leave of his Mother and his Trade , to begin his Father's work and the Office Prophetical in order to the Redemption of the World ; and when John was baptizing in Jordan Jesus came to John to be baptized of him . The Baptist had never seen his face , because they had been from their infancy driven to several places , designed to several imployments , and never met till now . But immediately the Holy Ghost inspired S. John with a discerning and knowing spirit , and at his first arrival he knew him , and did him worship . And when Jesus desired to be baptized , John forbad him , saying , I have need to be baptized of thee , and comest thou to me ? For the Baptism of John , although it was not a direct instrument of the Spirit for the collation of Grace , neither find we it administred in any form of words , not so much as in the name of Christ to come , ( as * many dream ) ( because even after John had baptized , the Pharisees still doubted if he were the Messias , which they would not , if in his form of Ministration he had published Christ to come after him ; and also because it had not been proper for Christ himself to have received that Baptism whose form had specified himself to come hereafter ; neither could it consist with the Revelation which John had , and the confession which he made , to baptize in the name of Christ to come , whom the Spirit marked out to him to be come already , and himself pointed at him with his 〈◊〉 ) yet it was a ceremonious consignation of the Doctrine of * Repentance , which was one great part of the Covenant Evangelical , and was a Divine Institution , the susception of it was in order to the fulfilling all righteousness , it was a sign of Humility , the persons baptized confessed their sins , it was a sacramental disposing to the Baptism and Faith of Christ ; but therefore John wondred why the Messias , the Lamb of God , pure and without spot , who needed not the abstersions of Repentance or the washings of Baptism , should demand it , and of him a sinner and his servant . And in the Hebrew Gospel of S. Matthew which the 〈◊〉 used at 〈◊〉 ( as S. Hierom reports ) these words are added ; [ The Mother of the Lord and his brethren said unto him , John Baptist baptizeth to the Remission of sins , let us go and be baptized of him . He said to them , 〈◊〉 have I sinned , that I should go and be baptized of him ? ] And this part of the Story is also told by Justin Martyr . But Jesus wanted not a proposition to consign by his Baptism proportionable enough to the analogy of its institution ; for as others professed their return towards Innocence , so he avowed his perseverance in it : and though he was never called in Scripture [ a Sinner , ] yet he was made Sin for us ; that is , he did undergo the shame and the punishment ; and therefore it was proper enough for him to perform the Sacrament of Sinners . 2. But the Holy Jesus who came ( as himself in answer to the Baptist's question professed ) to sulfil all rightcousness , would receive that Rite which his Father had instituted in order to the manifestation of his Son. For although the Baptist had a glimpse of him by the first irradiations of the Spirit , yet John professed , That he therefore came baptizing with water , that Jesus might be manifested to Israel ; and it was also a sign given to the Baptist himself , that on whomsoever he saw the Spirit descending and remaining , he is the person that baptizeth with the Holy Ghost . And God chose to actuate the sign at the waters of Jordan in great and religious assemblies convened there at John's Baptism , and therefore Jesus came to be baptized , and by this Baptism became known to John , who as before he gave to him an indiscriminate testimony , so now he pointed out the person in his Sermons and Discourses , and by calling him the * Lamb of God prophesied of his Passion , and preached him to be the World's Redeemer , and the Sacrifice for mankind . He was now manifest to Israel , he confirmed the Baptism of John , he 〈◊〉 the water to become sacramental and ministerial in the remission of sins , he by a real event declared , that to them who should rightly be baptized the Kingdom of Heaven should certainly be opened , he inserted himself by that Ceremony into the society and participation of holy people , of which communion himself was Head and Prince ; and he did in a symbol purifie Humane nature , whose stains and guilt he had undertaken . 3. As soon as John had performed his Ministery , and Jesus was baptized , he prayed , and the heavens were opened , and the air clarified by a new and * glorious light , and the holy Ghost in the manner of a Dove alighted upon his sacred head , and God the Father gave a voice from Heaven , saying , Thou art my beloved Son , in whom I am well pleased . This was the inauguration and proclamation of the Messias , when he began to be the great Prophet of the new Covenant . And this was the greatest meeting that ever was upon earth , where the whole Cabinet of the mysterious Trinity was opened and shewn , as much as the capacities of our present imperfections will permit ; the Second Person in the veil of Humanity , the Third * in the shape or with the motion of a Dove : but the First kept his primitive state , and as to the Israelites he gave notice by way of caution , Ye saw no shape , but ye heard a voice ; so now also God the Father gave testimony to his Holy Son , and appeared only in a voice without any visible representment . 4. When the Rite and the Solemnity was over , Christ ascended up out of the waters , and left so much vertue behind him , that , as Gregorius Turonensis reports , that creek of the River where his holy body had been baptized was indued with a healing quality , and a power of curing Lepers that bathed themselves in those waters , in the faith and with invocation of the holy Name of Jesus . But the manifestation of this power was not till afterwards , for as yet Jesus did no Miracles . 5. As soon as ever the Saviour of the World was baptized , had opened the Heavens , which yet never had been opened to Man , and was declared the Son of God , Jesus was by the Spirit driven into the Wilderness , not by an unnatural violence , but by the efficacies of Inspiration , and a supernatural inclination and activity of resolution ; for it was the Holy Spirit that bare him thither , he was led by the good Spirit to be tempted by the evil : whither also he was pleased to retire , to make demonstration that even in an active life , such as he was designed to and intended , some recesses and temporary dimissions of the world are most expedient , for such persons especially whose office is Prophetical , and for institution of others , that by such vacancies in prayer and contemplation they may be better enabled to teach others , when they have in such retirements conversed with God. 6. In the Desart , which was four miles 〈◊〉 the place of his Baptism , and about twenty miles from Jerusalem , as the common computations are , he did abide forty days and forty nights , where he was perpetually disturbed and assaulted with evil spirits , in the midst of wild beasts , in a continual fast , without eating bread or drinking water ; And the Angels ministred to him , being Messengers of comfort and sustentation sent from his Father for the support and service of his Humanity , and imployed in resisting and discountenancing the assaults and temporal hostilities of the spirits of darkness . 7. Whether the Devils 〈◊〉 in any horrid and affrighting shapes is not certain ; but it is more likely , to a person of so great Sanctity and high designation they would appear more Angelical and immaterial , in representments intellectual , in words and Idea's , temptations and inticements , because Jesus was not a person of those low weaknesses to be affrighted or troubled with an ugly 〈◊〉 , which can do nothing but abuse the weak and imperfect conceptions of persons nothing extraordinary . And this was the way which Satan or the Prince of the Devils took , whose Temptations were reserved for the last assault , and the great day of trial ; for at the expiration of his forty days , Jesus being hungry , the Tempter invited him only to eat bread of his own providing , which might refresh his Humanity and prove his Divinity , hoping that his hunger , and the desire of convincing the Devil , might tempt him to eat before the time appointed . But Jesus answered , It is written , Man shall not live by Bread alone , but by every word that 〈◊〉 out of the mouth of God ; meaning , that in every word of God , whether the Commandment be general or special , a promise is either expressed or implied of the supply of all provisions necessary for him that is doing the work of God ; and that was the present case of Jesus , who was then doing his Father's work , and promoting our interest , and 〈◊〉 was sure to be provided for : and therefore so are we . 8. The Devil , having failed in this assault , tries him again , requiring but a demonstration of his being the Son of God. He sets him upon the * battlement of the Temple , and invites him to throw himself down , upon a pretence that God would send his Angels to keep his Son , and quotes Scripture for it . But Jesus understood it well ; and though he was secured of God's protection , yet he would not tempt God , nor solicite his Providence to a dereliction by tempting him to an unnecessary conservation . This assault was silly and weak . But at last he unites all his power of stratagem , and places the Holy Jesus upon an exceeding high mountain , and by an Angelical power draws into one Centre Species * and Idea's from all the Kingdoms and glories of the World , and makes an admirable Map of beauties , and represents it to the eyes of Jesus , saying , that all that was put into his power to give , and he would give it him , if he would fall down and worship him . But then the Holy Lamb was angry as a provoked Lion , and commanded him away , when his temptations were violent , and his demands impudent and blasphemous . Then the Devil leaveth him , and the Angels came and ministred unto him , bringing such things as his necessities required , after he had by a forty days Fast done penance for our sins , and consigned to his Church the Doctrine and Discipline of Fasting in order to a Contemplative life , and the resisting and overcoming all the Temptations and allurements of the Devil , and all our ghostly enemies . Ad SECT . IX . Considerations upon the Baptizing , Fasting , and Temptation of the Holy JESVS by the Devil . 1. WHen the day did break , and the Baptist was busie in his Offices , the Sun of Righteousness soon entred upon our Hemisphere ; and after he had lived a life of darkness and silence for thirty years together , yet now that he came to do the greatest work in the World , and to minister in the most honourable Embassie , he would do nothing of singularity , but fulfil all righteousness , and satisfie all Commands , and joyn in the common Rites and Sacraments , which all people innocent or penitent did undergo either as deleteries of 〈◊〉 or instruments of Grace . For so he would needs be baptized by his servant ; and though he was of Purity sufficient to do it , and did actually by his Baptism purifie the Purifier , and sanctifie that and all other streams to a holy ministery and effect , yet he went in , bowing his head like a sinner , uncloathing himself like an imperfect person , and craving to be washed , as if he had been crusted with an impure Leprosie : thereby teaching us to submit our selves to all those Rites which he would institute ; and although 〈◊〉 of them be , like the Baptism of John , joyned with confession of sins and publication of our infirmities , yet it were better for us to lay by our loads and wash our ulcers , than by concealing them , out of vainer desires of impertinent reputation , cover our disease till we are heart-sick and die . But when so holy a person does all the pious Ministeries of the more imperfect , it is a demonstration to us , that a life common and ordinary , without affectation or singularity , is the most prudent and safe . Every great change , every violence of fortune , all eminencies and unevennesses whatsoever , whether of person or accident or circumstance , puts us to a new trouble , requires a distinct care , creates new dangers , objects more temptations , marks us out the object of envy , makes our standing more insecure , and our fall more contemptible and ridiculous . But an even life spent with as much rigour of duty to God as ought to be , yet in the same manner of Devotions , in the susception of ordinary Offices , in bearing publick burthens , frequenting publick Assemblies , performing offices of civility , receiving all the Rites of an established Religion , complying with national Customs and hereditary Solemnities of a people , in nothing disquieting publick peace , or disrelishing the great instruments of an innocent communion , or dissolving the circumstantial ligaments of Charity , or breaking Laws , and the great relations and necessitudes of the World , out of fancy or singularity , is the best way to live holily , and 〈◊〉 , and happily ; safer from sin and envy , and more removed from trouble and temptation . 2. When Jesus came to John to be baptized , John out of humility and modesty refused him ; but when Jesus by reduplication of his desire , fortifying it with a command , made it in the Baptist to become a Duty , then he obeyed . And so also did the primitive Clerks refuse to do offices of great dignity and highest ministery , looking through the honour upon the danger , and passing by the Dignity they considered the charge of the Cure , and knew that the eminency of the Office was in all sences insecure to the person , till by command and peremptory injunction of their Superiours it was put past a dispute , and became necessary , and that either they must perish instantly in the ruines and precipices of Disobedience , or put it to the hazard and a fair venture for a brighter crown or a bigger damnation . I wish also this care were entailed and did descend upon all Ages of the Church ; for the ambitious seeking of Dignities and Prelacies Ecclesiastical is grown the Pest of the Church , and corrupts the Salt it self , and extinguishes the lights , and gives too apparent evidences to the world that neither the end is pure , nor the intention sanctified , nor the person innocent , but the purpose ambitious or covetous , and the person vicious , and the very entrance into Church offices is with an impure torch , and a foul hand , or a heart empty of the affections of Religion , or thoughts of doing God's work . I do not think the present Age is to be treated with concerning denying to accept rich Prelacies and pompous Dignities ; but it were but reasonable that the main intention and intellectual design should be to appreciate and esteem the Office and employment to be of greatest consideration . It is lawful to desire a Bishoprick , neither can the unwillingness to accept it be , in a prudent account , adjudged the aptest disposition to receive it , ( especially if done in * ceremony , just in the instant of their entertainment of it , and possibly after a long ambition : ) but yet it were well if we remember that such desires must be sanctified with holy care and diligence in the Office ; for the hony is guarded with thousands of little sharp stings and dangers , and it will be a sad account , if we be called to audit for the crimes of our Diocese after our own Talleys are made even ; and he that believes his own load to be big enough , and trembles at the apprehension of the horrors of Dooms-day , is not very wise if he takes up those burthens which he sees have crushed their Bearers , and presses his own shoulders till the bones crack , only because the bundles are wrapt in white linen and bound with silken cords . He that desires the Office of a Bishop , desires a good work , saith S. Paul ; and therefore we must not look on it for the fair-spreading Sails and the beauteous Streamers which the favour of Princes hath put to it , to make it sail fairer and more secure against the dangers of secular discomforts ; but upon the Burthen it bears . Prelacy is a good work , and a good work well done is very honourable , and shall be rewarded ; but he that considers the infinite dangers of miscarrying , and that the 〈◊〉 of the Ship will be imputed to the Pilot , may think it many times the safest course to put God or his Superiours to the charge of a Command before he undertakes such great Ministeries : And he that enters in by the force of Authority , as he himself receives a testimony of his worth and aptness to the employment , so he gives the world another , that his search for it was not criminal , nor his person immodest , and by his weighty apprehension of his dangers he will consider his work , and obtain a grace to do it diligently , and to be accepted graciously . And this was the modesty and prudence of the Baptist. 3. When Jesus was baptized , he prayed , and the heavens were opened . External Rites of Divine Institution receive benediction and energy from above , but it is by the mediation of Prayer : * for there is nothing ritual , but it is also joyned with something moral , and required on our part in all persons capable of the use of Reason , that we may 〈◊〉 that the blessings of Religion are works and Graces too ; God therefore requiring us to do something , not that we may glory in it , but that we may estimate the Grace , and go to God for it in the means of his own hallowing . Naaman had been stupid , if , when the Prophet bade him wash seven times in Jordan for his cure , he had not confessed the cure to be wrought by the God of Israel and the ministery of his Prophet , but had made himself the Author , because of his obedience to the enjoyned condition ; and it is but a weak sancy to derogate from God's grace , and the glory and the freedom of it , because he bids us wash before we are cleansed , and pray when we are washed , and commands us to ask before we shall receive . But this also is true from this instance , that the external rite 〈◊〉 Sacrament is so instrumental in a spiritual Grace , that it never does it but with the conjunction of something moral : And this truth is of so great perswasion in the Greek Church , that the mystery of Consecration in the venerable Eucharist is amongst them attributed not to any mystical words and secret operations of syllables , but to the efficacy of the prayers of the Church , in the just imitation of the whole action and the rite of Institution . And the purpose of it is , that we might secure the excellency and holiness of such predispositions and concomitant Graces , which are necessary to the worthy and effectual susception of the external Rites of Christianity . 4. After the Holy Jesus was baptized and had prayed , the Heavens opened , the holy Ghost descended , and a voice from Heaven proclaimed him to be the Son of God , and one in whom the Father was well pleased ; and the same 〈◊〉 that was cast upon the head of our High Priest , went unto his 〈◊〉 , and thence sell to the borders of his garment : for as Christ our Head felt these effects in manifestation , so the Church believes God does to her and to her meanest children in the susception of the holy Rite of Baptism in right , apt and holy dispositions . For the Heavens open too upon us , and the Holy Ghost descends to 〈◊〉 the waters , and to hallow the Catechumen , and to pardon the passed and repented sins , and to consign him to the inheritance of 〈◊〉 , and to put on his military girdle , and give him the Sacrament and oath of fidelity ; for all this is understood to be meant by those frequent expressions of Scripture , calling Baptism the Laver of Regeneration , Illumination , a washing away the filth of the flesh , and the Answer of a good conscience , a being buried with Christ , and many others of the like purpose and signification . But we may also learn hence sacredly to esteem the Rites of Religion , which he first sanctified by his own personal susception , and then made necessary by his own institution and command , and God hath made to be conveyances of blessing and ministeries of the Holy Spirit . 5. The Holy Ghost descended upon Jesus in the manner or visible representment of a Dove : either in similitude of figure which he was pleased to assume , as the Church more generally hath believed ; or at least he did descend like a Dove , and in his robe of fire hovered over the Baptist's head , and then sate upon him , as the Dove uses to sit upon the house of her dwelling ; whose proprieties of nature are pretty and modest Hieroglyphicks of the duty of spiritual persons , which are thus observed in both Philosophies . The Dove sings not , but mourns , it hath no * gall , strikes not with its bill , hath no crooked talons , and forgets its young ones soonest of any the inhabitants of the air . And the effects of the Holy Spirit are symbolical in all the sons of Sanctification : For the voice of the Church is sad in those accents which express her own condition : but as the Dove is not so sad in her breast as in her note ; so neither is the interiour condition of the Church wretched and miserable , but indeed her Song is most of it Elegy within her own walls , and her condition looks sad , and her joys are not pleasures in the publick estimate , but they that afflict her think her miserable , because they know not the sweetnesses of a holy peace and serenity which supports her spirit , and plains the heart under a rugged brow , making the Soul festival under the noise of a Threne and sadder groanings . But the Sons of consolation are also taught their Duty by this Apparition : for upon whomsoever the Spirit descends , he teaches him to be meek and charitable , neither offending by the violence of hands , or looser language . For the Dove is inoffensive in beak and foot , and feels no disturbance and violence of passions when its dearest interests are destroyed ; that we also may be of an even spirit in the saddest accidents , which usually discompose our peace : and however such symbolical intimations receive their efficacy from the fancy of the contriver ; yet here , whether this Apparition did intend any such moral representment or no , it is certain that where-ever the holy Spirit does dwell , there also Peace and Sanctity , Meekness and Charity , a mortisied will and an active dereliction of our desires do inhabit . But besides this hieroglyphical representment , this Dove , like that which Noah sent out from the Ark , did aptly signifie the World to be renewed , and all to be turned to a new creation , and God hath made a new Covenant with us , that , unless we provoke him , he will never destroy us any more . 6. No sooner had the voice of God pronounced Jesus to be the well-beloved Son of God , but the Devil thought it of great concernment to attempt him with all his malice and his art ; and that is the condition of all those whom God's grace hath separated from the common expectations and societies of the world : and therefore the Son of Sirach gave good advice , My son , if thou come to serve the Lord , prepare thy Soul for temptation ; for not only the Spirits of darkness are exasperated at the declension of their own Kingdom , but also the nature and constitution of vertues and eminent graces , which holy persons exercise in their lives , is such as to be easily assailable by their contraries , apt to be lessened by time , to be interrupted by weariness , to grow flat and insipid by tediousness of labour , to be omitted and grow infrequent by the impertinent diversions of society and secular occasions ; so that to rescind the 〈◊〉 of Vice made firm by nature and evil habits , to acquire every new degree 〈◊〉 Vertue , to continue the holy fires of zeal in their just proportion , to 〈◊〉 the Devil , and to reject the invitations of the World , and the 〈◊〉 embraces of the Flesh , which are the proper employment of the sons of God , is a perpetual difficulty , and every possibility of 〈◊〉 the strictness of a Duty is a Temptation , and an insecurity to them who have begun to serve God in hard battels . 7. The Holy Spirit did drive Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil . And 〈◊〉 we are bound to pray instantly that we fall into no Temptation ; yet if by Divine permission or by an inspiration of the Holy Spirit we be engaged in an action or course of life that is full of Temptation and empty of comfort , let us apprehend it as an issue of Divine Providence , as an occasion of the rewards of Diligence and Patience , as an instrument of Vertue , as a designation of that way in which we must glorifie God ; but no argument of disfavour , since our dearest Lord , the most Holy Jesus , who could have driven the Devil away by the Breath of his mouth , yet was by the Spirit of his Father permitted to a trial and molestation by the spirits of Darkness . And this is S. James's counsel , My brethren , count it all joy when ye enter into divers temptations , knowing that the trial of your Faith worketh Patience . So far is a Blessing , when the Spirit is the instrument of our motion , and brings us to the trial of our Faith : but if the Spirit leaves us , and delivers us over to the Devil , not to be tempted , but to be abused and ruined , it is a sad condition , and the greatest instance of their infelicity whom the Church upon sufficient reason and with competent authority delivers over to Satan , by the infliction of the greater Excommunication . 8. As soon as it was permitted to the Devil to tempt our Lord , he , like fire , had no power to suspend his act , but was as entirely determined by the fulness of his malice as a natural agent by the appetites of nature ; that we may know to whom we owe the happinesses of all those hours and days of peace in which we sit under the trees of Paradise , and see no serpent encircling the branches , and presenting us with fair fruit to ruine us . It is the mercy of God we have the quietness of a minute ; for if the Devil's chain were taken off , he would make our very beds a torment , our tables to be a snare , our sleeps phantastick , lustful and illusive , and every sense should have an object of delight and danger , an Hyaena to kiss , and to perish in its embraces . But the Holy Jesus having been assaulted by the Devil , and felt his malice by the experiments of Humanity , is become so merciful a high Priest , and so sensible of our sufferings and danger , by the apprehensions of compassion , that he hath put a hook into the nostrils of Leviathan ; and although the reliques of seven Nations be in our borders and fringes of our Countrey , yet we live as safe as did the Israelites , upon whom sometimes an inroad and invasion was made , and sometimes they had rest forty years , and when the storm came , some remedy was found out , by his grace by whose permission the tempest was stirred up : and we find many persons who in seven years meet not with a violent temptation to a crime , but their battels are against impediments and retardations of improvement ; their own rights are not directly questioned , but the Devil and Sin are wholly upon the defensive . Our duty here is an act of affection to God , making returns of thanks for the protection , and of duty to secure and continue the favour . 9. But the design of the Holy Ghost being to expose Jesus to the Temptation , he arms himself with Fasting , and Prayer , and Baptism , and the Holy Spirit against the day of battel ; he continues in the Wilderness forty days and sorty nights without meat or drink , attending to the immediate addresses and colloquies with God , not suffering the interruption of meals , but representing his own and the necessities of all mankind with such affections and instances of spirit , love and wisdom , as might express the excellency of his person , and promote the work of our Redemption ; his conversation being in this interval but a resemblance of Angelical perfection , and his * Fasts not an instrument of Mortification , for he needed none , he had contracted no stain from his own nor his Parents acts ; neither do we find that he was at all hungry , or asslicted with his 〈◊〉 , till after the expiration of forty days . He was afterwards an hungry ( said the Evangelist , ) and his abstinence from meat might be a defecation of his faculties , and an opportunity of Prayer , but we are not sure it intended any thing else : but it may concern the prudence of Religion to snatch at this occasion of duty so far as the instance is imitable , and in all violences of Temptation to fast and pray , Prayer being a rare antidote against the poison , and Fasting a convenient disposition to intense , actual and undisturbed Prayer . * And we may remember also that we have been baptized and consign'd with the Spirit of God , and have received the adoption of Sons , and the graces of Sanctification in our Baptisms , and had then the seed of God put into us , and then we put on Christ , and entring into battel put on the whole armour of Righteousness ; and therefore we may by observing our strength gather also our duty and greatest obligation , to fight manfully , that we may triumph gloriously . 10. The Devil 's first Temptation of Christ was upon the instances and first necessities of Nature ; Christ was hungry , and the Devil invited him to break his fast upon the expence of a Miracle , by turning the stones into bread . But the answer Jesus made was such as taught us , since the ordinary Providence of God is sufficient for our provision or support , extraordinary ways of satisfying necessities are not to be undertaken , but God must be relied upon , his time attended , his manner entertained , and his measure thankfully received . Jesus refused to be relieved , and denied to manifest the Divinity of his Person , rather than he would do an act which had in it the intimation of a diffident spirit , or might be expounded a disreputation to God's Providence . And therefore it is an improvident care and impious security to take evil courses , and use vile instruments to furnish our Table , and provide for our necessities . God will certainly give us bread , and till he does , we can live by the breath of his mouth , by the Word of God , by the light of his countenance , by the refreshment of his Promises ; for if God gives not provisions into our granaries , he can feed us out of his own , that is , 〈◊〉 of the repositories of Charity . If the flesh-pots be removed , he can also alter the appetite ; and when our stock is 〈◊〉 , he can also lessen the necessity ; or if that continues , he can drown the sense of it in a deluge of patience and resignation . Every word of God's mouth can create a Grace , and every Grace can supply two necessities , both of the body and the spirit , by the comforts of this to support that , that they may bear each others burthen , and alleviate the pressure . 11. But the Devil is always prompting us to change our Stones into Bread , our sadnesses into sensual comfort , our drinesses into inundations of fancy and exteriour sweetnesses : for he knows that the ascetick Tables of Mortification and the stones of the Desart are more healthful than the fulnesses of voluptuousness and the corn of the valleys . He cannot endure we should live a life of Austerity or Self-denial : if he can get us but to satisfie our Senses , and a little more freely to please our natural desires , he then hath a fair Field for the Battel ; but so long as we force him to fight in hedges and morasses , encircling and crowding up his strengths into disadvantages , by our stone-walls , our hardnesses of Discipline and rudenesses of Mortification , we can with more facilities repell his flatteries , and receive fewer incommodities of spirit . But thus the Devil will abuse us by the impotency of our natural desires , and therefore let us go to God for satisfaction of our wishes : God can , and does , when it is good for us , change our stones into bread : for he is a Father so merciful , that if we ask him a Fish , he will not give us a Scorpion ; if we ask him bread , he will not offer us a stone ; but will satisfie all our desires by ministrations of the Spirit , making stones to become our meat , and tears our drink ; which although they are unpleasant and harsh to natural appetites , yet by the operation and influences of God's Holy Spirit they are made instruments of health , and life , and Salvation . 12. The Devil , perceiving Jesus to be a person of greater eminency and perfection than to be moved by sensual and low desires , makes a second assault by a Temptation something more spiritual , and tempts him to Presumption and indiscreet confidence , to a throwing himself down from the pinnacles of the Temple , upon the stock of Predestination , that God might secure him by the ministery of Angels , and so prove his being the Son of God. And indeed it is usual with the Devil , when severe persons have so much mortified their lower appetites that they are not easily overcome by an invitation of carnality or intemperance , to stir them to opinions of their own Sanctity , and make their first escaping prove their second and greater dangers . But that the Devil should perswade Jesus to throw himself down because he was the Son of God , was an invitation to no purpose , save only that it gave occasion to this truth , That God's Providence secures all his sons in the ways of Nature , and while they are doing their duty ; but loves not to be tempted to acts unreasonable and unnecessary : God will protect his servants in or from all evils happening without their knowledge , or against their will ; but not from evils of their own procuring . Heron , an inhabitant of the Desart , suffered the same Temptation , and was overcome by it ; for he died with his fall , sinfully and ingloriously . For the caresses of God's love to his Saints and servants are security against all but themselves . The Devil and all the World offer to do them mischief , but then they shall be safe , because they are innocent ; if they once offer to do the same to themselves , they lose their Protection , because they lost their Prudence and their Charity . But here also it will concern all those who by their eminent imployment and greater ministeries in Ecclesiasticals are set upon the pinnacle of the Temple , to take care that the Devil tempt not them to a precipice ; a fall from so great a height will break the bones in pieces : and yet there also the station is less firm , the posture most uneasie , the prospect vertiginous , and the Devil busie and desirous to thrust us headlong . 13. S. Hierom here observes well , the Devil intending mischief to our Blessed Saviour , invited him to cast himself down . He may perswade us to a fall , but cannot precipitate us without our own act . And it is an infinite mercy in God , that the Devil , who is of malice infinite , is of so restrained and limited a power , that he can do us no ghostly disadvantage , but by perswading us to do it our selves . And then it will be a strange imprudence to lay violent and unreasonable hands upon our selves , and do that mischief which our strongest and most malicious Adversary cannot ; or to be invited by the only Rhetorick of a dog's barking , to come near him , to untie his chain , to unloose his muzzle , for no other end but that we may be bitten . Just such a fool is every person that consents to the Temptations of the Devil . 14. By this time the Devil began to perceive that this was the Son of God , and designed to be the King of all the World , and therefore resolved for the last assault to profer him the Kingdoms of the World ; thinking Ambition more likely to ruine him , because he knew it was that which prevailed upon himself , and all those fallen Stars , the Angels of Darkness . That the Devil told a lie it is most likely , when he said , he had power to dispose the Kingdoms of the World ; for originally and by proper inherent right God alone disposes all Governments : but it is also certain , that the Devil is a person capable of a delegate imployment in some great mutation of States ; and many probabilities have been observed by wise personages , perswading that the Grandeur of the Roman Empire was in the degrees of increment and decrement permitted to the power and managing of the Devil , that the greatness of that Government , being in all appearance full of advantage to Satan's Kingdom , and imployed for the dis-improvement of the weak beginnings and improbable increase of Christianity , might give lustre and demonstration to it that it came from God , since the great permissions of power made to the Devil , and acted with all art and malice in defiance of the Religion , could produce no other effect upon it but that it made it grow greater ; and the greatness was made more miraculous , since the Devil , when his chain was off , fain would , but could not suppress it . 15. The Lamb of God , that heard him with patience tempt him to do himself a mischief , and to throw himself headlong , could by no means endure it when he tempted to a direct dishonouring of God. Our own injuries are opportunities of patience ; but when the glory of God and his immediate Honour is the question , then is the occasion and precise minute for the 〈◊〉 of a clear-shining and unconsuming Zeal . But the care of God's Glory had so filled and imployed all the Faculties of Jesus , that he takes no notice of the offer : and it were well also that we had fewer opinions of the lustre of worldly dignities , or at least that we in imitation of our Blessed Master should resuse to accept all the World , when it is to be bought of the Devil at the expence of a deadly sin . For that Government cannot be very honourable that makes us slaves to the worst of Tyrants ; and all those Princes and great personages , who by injury and usurpation possess and invade others rights , would do well to consider , that a Kingdom is too dearly paid for if the condition be first to worship the Devil . 16. When the Devil could do no good , he departed for a time . If he could ever have spied a time of returning , he wanted not will nor malice to observe and use it : And although Jesus was a person without danger , yet I doubt not but the Holy Ghost described that circumstance , that we should not have the securities of a deep peace when we have had the success of conquerors , for a surprise is most full of horror and of more certain ruine ; so that we have no security , but a perpetual observation ; that , together with the grace of God , ( who takes care of all his servants , and will drive away the Tempter when he pleases , and help us always when we need ) is as great an argument for our confidence and encouragement to our prayers and address to God , as it is safety to our person , and honour to our victory . And let us account it our honour , that the trials of Temptation , which is the greatest sadness of our condition , are hallowed by the Temptation of Jesus , and our condition assured by his assistances , and the assistances procured by our Prayers most easily upon the advantage of his sufferings and compassion . And we may observe that Poverty , Predestination and Ambition are the three quivers from which the Devil drew his arrows which ( as the most likely to prevail ) he shot against Christ : but now he shot in vain , and gave probation that he might be overcome ; our Captain hath conquered for himself and us . By these instances we see our danger , and how we are provided of a remedy . The PRAYER , O Holy Jesus , who didst fulfil all Righteousness , and didst live a life of evenness and obedience and community , submitting thy self to all Rites and Sanctions of Divine ordinance ; give me grace to live in the fellowship of thy holy Church , a life of Piety , and without singularity , receiving the sweet influence of thy Sacraments and Rites , and living in the purities and innocencies of my first Sanctification . I adore thy goodness infinite , that thou hast been pleased to wash my Soul in the Laver of Regeneration , that thou hast consigned me to the participation of thy favours by the holy 〈◊〉 . Let me not return to the infirmities of the Old Man , whom thou hast crucified on thy Cross , and who was buried with thee in Baptism ; nor 〈◊〉 the crimes of my sinsul years , which were so many recessions from 〈◊〉 purities : but let me ever receive the emissions of thy Divine Spirit , and be a Son of God , a partner of thine immortal inheritance ; and when thou seest it needful , I may receive testimony from Heaven , that I am thy servant and thy child . And grant that I may so walk , that I neither disrepute the honour of the Christian Institution , nor stain the whitenesses of that Innocence which thou didst invest my Soul withall when I put on the Baptismal Robe , nor break my holy Vow , nor lose my right of inheritance which thou hast given me by promise and grace ; but that thou mayest love me with the love of a Father , and a Brother , and a Husband , and a Lord , and I serve thee in the communion of Saints , in the susception of Sacraments , in the actions of a holy life , and in a never-failing love or uninterrupted Devotion ; to the glory of thy Name , and the promotion of all those Ends of Religion which thou hast designed in the excellent Oeconomy of Christianity . Grant this , Holy Jesus , for thy mercie 's sake , and for the honour of thy Name , which is and shall be adored for ever and ever . Amen . DISCOURSE V. Of Temptation . 1. GOD , who is the Fountain of good , did chuse rather to bring good out of evil , than not to suffer any evil to be : not only because variety of accidents and natures do better entertain our affections and move our spirits , who are transported and suffer great impressions by a circumstance , by the very opposition and accidental lustre and eminency of contraries ; but also that the glory of the Divine Providence in turning the nature of things into the designs of God might be illustrious , and that we may in a mixt condition have more observation , and after our danger and our labour may obtain a greater reward : for Temptation is the opportunity of Vertue and a Crown ; God having disposed us in such a condition , that our Vertues must be difficult , our inclinations 〈◊〉 and corrigible , our avocations many , our hostilities bitter , our dangers proportionable , that our labour might be great , our inclinations suppressed and corrected , our intentions be made actual , our enemies be resisted , and our dangers pass into security and honour , after a contestation , and a victory , and a perseverance . It is every man's case ; * Trouble is as certainly the lot of our nature and inheritance , and we are so sure to be tempted , that in the deepest peace and silence of spirit oftentimes is our greatest danger ; not to be tempted is sometimes our most subtle Temptation . It is certain then , we cannot be secure when our Security is our enemy ; but therefore we must do as God himself does , make the best of it , and not be sad at that which is the publick portion and the case of all men , but order it according to the intention , place it in the eye of vertue , that all its actions and motions may tend thither , there to be changed into felicities . But certain it is , unless we first be cut and hewen in the mountains , we shall not be fixed in the Temple of God ; but by incision and contusions our roughnesses may become plain , or our sparks kindled , and we may be either for the Temple or the Altar , spiritual building or holy fire , something that God shall delight in , and then the Temptation was not amiss . 2. And therefore we must not wonder that oftentimes it so happens , that nothing will remove a Temptation , no diligence , no advices , no labour , no prayers ; not because these are ineffectual , but because it is most fit the Temptation should abide for ends of God's designing : and although S. Paul was a person whose prayers were likely to be prevalent , and his industry of much prudence and efficacy toward the drawing out of his thorn ; yet God would not do it , but continued his war , only promising to send him succour , My grace is sufficient for thee : meaning , he should have an enemy to try his spirit and improve it , and he should also have God's grace to comfort and support it ; but as without God's grace the Enemy would spoil him , so without an Enemy God's grace would never swell up into glory and crown him . For the caresses of a pleasant Fortune are apt to swell into extravagancies of spirit , and burst into the dissolution of manners ; and unmixt Joy is dangerous : but if in our fairest Flowers we spie a Locust , or feel the uneasiness of a Sackcloth under our fine Linen , or our Purple be tied with an uneven and a rude Cord ; any little trouble , but to correct our wildnesses , though it be but a Death's-head served up at our Feasts , it will make our Tables fuller of health and freer from snare , it will allay our spirits , making them to retire from the weakness of dispersion , to the union and strength of a sober recollection . 3. Since therefore it is no part of our imployment or our care to be free from all the attempts of an enemy , but to be safe in despite of his hostility ; it now will concern us to inform our selves of the state of the War in general , and then to make provisions and to put on Armour accordingly . 4. First , S. * 〈◊〉 often observes , and makes much of the discourse , that the Devil , when he intends a Battery , first views the Strengths and Situation of the place . His sence drawn out of the cloud of an Allegory is this ; The Devil first considers the Constitution and temper of the person he is to tempt , and where he observes his natural inclination apt for a Vice , he presents him with objects , and opportunity , and arguments 〈◊〉 to his caitive disposition ; from which he is likely to receive the smaller opposition , since there is a party within that desires his intromission . Thus to Lustful natures he represents the softer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 of Fornication ; to the Angry and revengeful he offers to consideration the satisfactions and content of a full Revenge , and the emissions of anger ; to the Envious he makes Panegyricks of our Rivals , and swells our fancies to opinion , our opinion to self-love , self-love to arrogance , and these are supported by contempt of others , and all determine upon Envy , and expire in Malice . Now in these cases , when our natures are caitive and unhandsome , it were good we were conscious of our own weaknesses , and by special arts and strengths of Mortification fortifie that part where we are apt and exposed to danger : we are sure enough to meet a Storm there , and we also are likely to perish in it , unless we correct those a versenesses and natural indispositions , and reduce them to the evennesses of Vertue , or the affections and moderation of a good nature . Let us be sure that the Devil take not a helve from our own branches to 〈◊〉 his axe , that so he may cut the tree down : and certainly he that does violence to his nature , will not be easie to the entertainment of affections preternatural and violent . 5. Secondly , But the Devil also observes all our exteriour Accidents , Occasions and Opportunities of action ; he sees what Company we keep , he observes what degrees of love we have to our Wives , what looseness of affection towards Children , how prevalent their perswasions , how inconvenient their discourses , how trifling their interests , and to what degrees of determination they move us by their importunity or their power . The Devil tempted Adam by his Wife , because he saw his affections too pliant , and encirling her with the entertainment of fondness , joy , wonder , and amorous fancy : It was her hand that made the fruit beauteous to Adam ; She saw it 〈◊〉 of it self , and so she ate ; but Adam was not moved by that argument , but , The Woman gave it me , and I did eat : she gave vivacity to the Temptation , and efficacy to the argument . And the severity of the Man's understanding would have given a reasonable answer to the 〈◊〉 of the Serpent ; That was an ugly Beast , and his arguments not being of themselves convincing to a wise person , either must put on advantages of a fair insinuation and representment , or they are returned with scorn : But when the 〈◊〉 hands of his young Virgin. Mistriss became the Orators , the Temptation was an amorevolezza , he kisses the presenter , and hugs the ruine . Here therefore it is our safest course , to make a retrenchment of all those excrescences of Affections which , like wild and irregular Suckers , draw away nourishment from the Trunk , making it as sterile as it self is unprofitable . As we must restrain the inclinations of Nature , so also of Society and Relation , when they become inconvenient , and let nothing of our Family be so adopted or naturalized into our affections , as to create within us a new concupiscence , and a second time spoil our nature : What God intended to us for a Help , let not our fondnesses convert into a Snare ; and he that is not ready to deny the importunities and to reject the interests of a Wife or Child or Friend , when the question is for God , deserves to miss the comforts of a good , and to feel the troubles of an imperious woman . 6. Thirdly , We also have Ends and designs of our own , some great purpose upon which the greatest part of our life turns ; it may be we are to raise a Family , to recover a sunk Estate , or else Ambition , Honour , or a great Imployment is the great hindge of all our greater actions ; and some men are apt to make haste to be rich , or are to pass through a great many difficulties to be honourable : and here the Devil will swell the hopes , and obstruct the passages ; he will heighten the desire , and multiply the business of access , making the concupiscence more impatient , and yet the way to the purchase of our purposes so full of imployment and variety , that both the implacable desire and the multitude of changes and transactions may increase the danger , and multiply the sin . When the Enemy hath observed our Ends , he makes his Temptations to reflect from that angle which is direct upon them , provoking to malice and impatience against whomsoever we find standing in our way , whether willingly or by accident ; then follow naturally all those sins which are instrumental to removing the impediments , to facilitating the passage , to endearing our friends , to procuring more confidents , to securing our hopes , and entring upon possession . Simon Magus had a desire to be accounted some great one ; and by that purpose he was tempted to Sorcery and Divination ; and with a new object he brought a new sin into the world , adding Simony to his Sorcery , and taught posterity that crime , which till then had neither name nor being . And those Ecclesiasticks who violently affect rich or pompous Prelacies , pollute themselves with worldly Arts , growing covetous as Syrian Merchants , ambitious as the Levantine Princes , factious as the people , revengeful as 〈◊〉 , and proud as Conquerors and Usurpers ; and by this means Beasts are brought into the Temple , and the Temple it self is exposed to sale , and the holy Rites as well as the beasts of Sacrifice are made venial . To prevent the 〈◊〉 inconveniencies that thrust themselves into the common and great roads of our life , the best course is to cut our great Chanel into little Rivulets , making our Ends the more , that we may be indifferent to any , proposing nothing great , that our desires may be little ; for so we shall be better able to digest the troubles of an Enemy , the contradictions of an unhandsome accident , the crossing of our hopes , because our desires are even , and our ends are less considerable , and we can with much readiness divert upon another purpose , having another ready with the 〈◊〉 proportion to our hopes and desires as the 〈◊〉 . Thus 〈◊〉 we propound to our selves an honest imployment or a quiet retirement , a work of Charity abroad or of Devotion at home , if we miss in our first setting sorth , we return to shoar , where we can 〈◊〉 with content , it being alike to us either to 〈◊〉 abroad with more gain , or trade at home with more 〈◊〉 : But when we once grow great in our desires , fixing too earnestly upon one object , we either grow 〈◊〉 , ( as Rachel , Give me children , or I die ; ) or take ill courses and use 〈◊〉 means , ( as Thamar , chusing rather to lie with her Father than to die without issue ; ) or else are 〈◊〉 in the loss and frustration of our hopes , ( like the Women of Ramah , who would 〈◊〉 be comforted , ) Let therefore our life be moderate , our desires reasonable , our hopes little , our Ends none in eminency and 〈◊〉 above others : for as the rays of Light passing through the thin air end in a small and undiscerned Pyramis , but 〈◊〉 upon a wall are doubled and increase the warmth to a scorching and troublesome heat ; so the desires of Man , if they pass through an even and an indifferent life towards the issues of an ordinary and necessary course , they are little and within command , but if they pass upon an end or aim of difficulty or ambition , they duplicate and grow to a 〈◊〉 : and we have seen the even and temperate lives of indifferent persons continue in many degrees of Innocence ; but the Temptation of busie designs is too great even for the best of dispositions . 7. But these Temptations are crasse and material , and soon discernible ; it will require some greater observation to arm against such as are more spiritual and immaterial . For he hath Apples to cousen Children , and Gold for Men ; the Kingdoms of the World for the Ambition of Princes , and the Vanities of the World for the Intemperate ; he hath Discourses and fair-spoken Principles to abuse the pretenders to Reason , and he hath common Prejudices for the more vulgar understandings . Amongst these I chuse to consider such as are by way of Principle or Proposition . 8. The first great Principle of Temptation I shall note , is a general mistake , which excuses very many of our crimes upon pretence of Infirmity , calling all those sins to which by natural disposition we are inclined ( though by carelesness and evil customs they are heightned to a habit ) by the name of Sins of infirmity ; to which men suppose they have reason and title to pretend . If , when they have committed a crime , their Conscience checks them , and they are troubled , and , during the interval and abatement of the heats of desire , resolve against it , and commit it readily at the next opportunity ; then they cry out against the weakness of their Nature , and think , as long as this body of death is about them , it must be thus , and that this condition may stand with the state of Grace : And then the Sins shall return periodically , like the revolutions of a Quartan Ague , well and ill for ever , till Death surprizes the mistaker . This is a Patron of sins , and makes the Temptation prevalent by an authentick instrument : and they pretend the words of S. Paul , For the good that I would , that I do not ; but the evil that I would not , that I do . For there is a law in my members 〈◊〉 against the law of my mind , bringing me into captivity to the law of Sin. And thus the 〈◊〉 of Sin is mistaken for a state of Grace , and the imperfections of the Law are miscalled the affections and necessities of Nature , that they might seem to be incurable , and the persons apt for an excuse therefore , because for Nature there is no absolute cure . But that these words of S. Paul may not become a 〈◊〉 of death and instruments of a temptation to us , it is observable , that the Apostle by a siction of person ( as is usual * with him ) speaks of himself not as in the state of Regeneration under the Gospel , but under the 〈◊〉 , obscurities , insufficiencies and imperfections of the Law , which indeed he there contends to have been a Rule good and holy , apt to remonstrate our misery , because by its prohibitions , and limits given to natural desires , it made actions ( before indifferent ) now to be sins , it added many curses to the breakers of it , and by an 〈◊〉 of contrariety it made us more desirous of what was now unlawful : but it was a Covenant in which our Nature was restrained , but not helped ; it was provoked , but not sweetly assisted ; our Understandings were instructed , but our Wills not sanctified , and there were no suppletories of Repentance ; every greater sin was like the fall of an Angel , irreparable by any mystery , or express recorded or enjoyned . Now of a man under this Govenant he describes the condition to be such , that he understands his Duty , but by the infirmities of Nature he is certain to fall , and by the helps of the Law not strengthened against it , nor restored after it ; and therefore he calls himself under that notion a miserable man sold under sin , not doing according to the rules of the Law or the dictates of his Reason , but by the unaltered misery of his Nature certain to prevaricate . But the person described here is not S. Paul , is not any justified person , not so much as a Christian , but one who is under a state of direct opposition to the state of Grace ; as will manifestly appear if we observe the antithesis from S. Paul's own characters . For the Man here named is such , as in whom sin wrought all concupiscence , in whom sin lived , and slew him , ( so that he was dead in trespasses and sins ; ) and although he did delight in the Law after his inwardman , that is , his understanding had intellectual complacencies and satisfactions , which afterwards he calls serving the Law of God with his mind , ( that is , in the first dispositions and preparations of his spirit ) yet he could act nothing ; for the law in his members did inslave him , and brought him into captivity to the law of sin : so that this person was full of actual and effective lusts , he was a slave to sin and dead in trespasses : But the state of a regenerate person is such , as to have 〈◊〉 the flesh with the affections and lusts ; in whom sin did not reign , not only in the mind , but even also not in the mortal body ; over whom sin had no dominion ; in whom the old man was crucified , and the body of sin was destroyed , and sin not at all served . And to make the antithesis yet clearer , in the very beginning of the next Chapter the Apostle saith , that the spirit of life in Christ Jesus had made him free from the law of sin and death ; under which law he complained immediately before , he was sold and killed , to shew the person was not the same in these so different and contradictory representments . No man in the state of Grace can say , The evil that I would not , that I do : if by evil he means any evil that is habitual , or in its own nature deadly . 9. So that now let no man pretend an inevitable necessity to sin : for if ever it comes to a custom or to a great violation , though but in a single act , it is a condition of Carnality , not of spiritual life ; and those are not the infirmities of Nature , but the weaknesses of Grace , that make us sin so frequently ; which the Apostle truly affirms to the same purpose , The flesh lusteth against the Spirit , and the Spirit against the flesh ; and these are contrary the one to the other : so that [ ye cannot ] or [ that ye * do not do ] the things that ye would . This disability proceeds from the strength of the flesh , and weakness of the spirit : For he adds , But if ye be led by the Spirit , ye are not under the Law : saying plainly , that the state of such a combate , and disability of doing good , is a state of a man under the Law , or in the flesh , which he accounts all one ; but every man that is sanctified under the Gospel is led by the Spirit , and walks in the Spirit , and brings forth the fruits of the Spirit . It is not our excuse , but the aggravation of our sin , that we fall again in despite of so many resolutions to the contrary . And let us not flatter our selves into a confidence of sin , by supposing the state of Grace can stand with the Custom of any sin : for it is the state either of an animalis homo , ( as the Apostle calls him ) that is , a man in pure naturals , without the clarity of divine Revelations , who cannot perceive or understand the things of God ; or else of the carnal man , that is , a person , who though in his mind he is convinced , yet he is not yet freed from the dominion of sin , but only hath his eyes opened , but not his bonds loosed . For by the perpetual analogy and frequent expresses in Scripture , the spiritual person , or the man redeemed by the spirit of life in Christ Jesus , is free from the Law , and the Dominion , and the Kingdom , and the Power of all sin . For to be carnally minded is death , but to be spiritually minded is life and peace . 10. But sins of Infirmity in true sence of Scripture signifie nothing but the sins of an unholy and an unsanctified nature , when they are taken for actions done against the strength of resolution out of the strength of natural appetite and violence of desire : and therefore in Scripture the state of Sin and the state of Infirmity is all one . For when we were yet without strength , in due time Christ died for the ungodly , ( saith the Apostle : ) the condition in which we were when Christ became a sacrifice for us was certainly a condition of sin and enmity with God , and yet this he calls a being without strength , or in a state of weakness and infirmity ; which we , who believe all our strength to be derived from Christ's death , and the assistance of the holy Spirit , the fruit of his Ascension , may soon apprehend to be the true meaning of the word . And in this sence is that saying of our Blessed Saviour , The whole have no need of a Physician , but they that are weak : for therefore Christ came into the world to save sinners , those are the persons of Christ's Infirmary , whose restitution and reduction to a state of life and health was his great design . So that whoever sin habitually , that is , constantly , periodically , at the revolution of a temptation , or frequently , or easily , are persons who still remain in the state of sin and death ; and their intervals of Piety are but preparations to a state of Grace , which they may then be when they are not used to countenance or excuse the sin , or to flatter the person . But if the intermediate resolutions of emendation ( though they never run beyond the next assault of passion or desire ) be taken for a state of Grace blended with infirmities of Nature , they become destructive of all those purposes , through our mistake , which they might have promoted if they had been rightly understood , observed and cherished . Sometimes indeed the greatness of a Temptation may become an instrument to excuse some degrees of the sin , and make the man pitiable , whose ruine seems almost certain , because of the greatness and violence of the enemy , meeting with a natural aptness : but then the question will be , whither and to what actions that strong Temptation carries him ; whether to a work of a mortal nature , or only to a small irregularity , that is , whether to death , or to a wound : for whatever the principle be , if the effect be death , the man's case was therefore to be pitied , because his ruine was the more inevitable ; not so pitied , as to excuse him from the state of death . For let the Temptation be never so strong , every Christian man hath assistances sufficient to support him , so as that , without his own yielding , no Temptation is stronger than that grace which God offers him ; for if it were , it were not so much as a sin of infirmity , it were no sin at all . This therefore must be certain to us ; When the violence of our Passions or desires overcomes our resolutions and fairer purposes , against the dictate of our Reason , that indeed is a state of Infirmity , but it is also of sin and death , a state of Immortification ; because the offices of Grace are to crucifie the Old man , that is , our former aud impurer conversation , to subdue the petulancy of our Passions , to reduce them to reason , and to restore Empire and dominion to the superiour Faculties . So that this condition in proper speaking is not so good as the Infirmity of Grace , but it is no Grace at all : for whoever are Christ's , have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts : those other imperfect , ineffective resolutions are but the first approaches of the Kingdom of Christ , nothing but the clarities of lightning , dark as 〈◊〉 as light ; and they therefore cannot be excuses to us , because the contrary weaknesses ( as we call them ) do not make the sin involuntary , but chosen and pursued , and in true speaking is the strength of the Lust , not the infirmity of a state of Grace . 11. But yet there is a condition of Grace which is a state of little and imperfect ones , such as are called in Scripture Smoaking flax and bruised reeds ; which is a state of the first dawning of the Sun of Righteousness , when the lights of Grace new rise upon our eyes ; and then indeed they are weak , and have a more dangerous neighbourhood of Temptations and desires , but they are not subdued by them : they sin not by direct election ; their actions criminal are but like the slime of Nilus , leaving rats half formed ; they sin but seldom , and when they do , it is in small instances , and then also by surprise , by inadvertency , and then also they interrupt their own acts , and lessen them perpetually ; and never do an act of sinfulness , but the principle is such as makes it to be involuntary in many degrees . For when the Understanding is clear , and the dictate of Reason undisturbed and determinate , whatsoever then produces an irregular action excuses not , because the action is not made the less voluntary by it ; for the action is not made involuntary from any other principle but from some defect of Understanding , either in act , or habit , or faculty . For where there is no such defect , there is a full deliberation according to the capacity of the man , and then the act of election that follows is clear and full , and is that proper disposition which makes him truly capable of punishment or reward respectively . Now although in the first beginnings of Grace there is not a direct Ignorance to excuse totally ; yet because a sudden surprise or an inadvertency is not always in our power to prevent , these things do lessen the election and freedom of the action : and then because they are but seldom , and never proceed to any length of time , or any great instances of crime , and are every day made still more infrequent , because Grace growing stronger , the observation and advertency of the spirit and the attendance of the inner man grows more effectual and busie ; this is a state of the imperfection of Grace , but a state of Grace it is . And it is more commonly observed to be expressed in the imperfection of our good actions , than in the irregularity of bad actions : and in this sence are those words of our Blessed Saviour , The Spirit 〈◊〉 is willing , but the flesh is weak ; which in this instance was not expressed in sin , but in a natural imperfection , which then was a recession from a civility , a not watching with the Lord. And this is the only Infirmity that can consist with the state of Grace . 12. So that now we may lay what load we please upon our Nature , and call our violent and unmortified desires by the name of an imperfect Grace ; but then we are dangerously mistaken , and flatter our selves into an opinion of Piety , when we are in the gall of bitterness ; so making our misery the more certain and irremediable , because we think it needs nothing but a perpetuity and perseverance to bring us to Heaven . The violence of Passion and Desires is a misery of Nature , but a perfect principle of Sin ; multiplying and repeating the acts , but not lessening the malignity : But sins of Infirmity , when we mean sins of a less and lower malice , are sins of a less and imperfect choice , because of the unavoidable imperfection of the Understanding . Sins of Infirmity are always infirm sins , that is , weak and imperfect in their principle , and in their nature , and in their design ; that is , they are actions incomplete in all their capacities : but then Passions and periodical inclinations consisting with a regular and determined and actual understanding must never be their principle ; for whatsoever proceeds thence is destructive of spiritual life , and inconsistent with the state of Grace . But sins of infirmity , when they pretend to a less degree of malignity and a greater degree of excuse , are such as are little more than sins of pure and inculpable ignorance ; for in that degree in which any other principle is mixt with them , in the same degree they are criminal and inexcusable . For as a sin of infirmity is pretended to be little in its value and malignity : so it is certain , if it be great in the instance , it is not a sin of infirmity , that is , it is a state or act of death , and absolutely inconsistent with the state of Grace . 13. Secondly , Another Principle of Temptation pregnant with sin , and fruitful of monsters , is a weaker pretence which less wary and credulous persons abuse themselves withall , pretending as a ground for their confidence and incorrigible pursuance of their courses , that they have a Good meaning , that they intend sometimes well , and sometimes not ill , and this shall be sufficient to sanctifie their actions , and to hallow their sin . And this is of worse malice , when Religion is the colour for a War , and the preservation of Faith made the warrant for destruction of Charity , and a Zeal for God made the false light to lead us to Disobedience to Man , and hatred of Idolatry is the usher of Sacriledge , and the 〈◊〉 of Superstition the introducer of Profaneness , and Reformation made the colour for a Schism , and Liberty of conscience the way to a 〈◊〉 and saucy Heresie : for the End may indeed hallow an indifferent action , but can never make straight a crooked and irregular . It was not enough for Saul to cry for God and the Sacrifice , that he spared the fat flocks of Amalek : and it would be a strange zeal and forwardness , that rather than the Altar of incense should not smoak , will burn Assa foetida , or the marrow of a man's bones . For as God will be honoured by us , so also in ways of his own appointment : for we are the makers of our Religion , if we in our zeal for God do what he hath forbidden us . And every sin committed for Religion is just such a violence done to it as it seeks to prevent or remedy . 14. And so it is if it be committed for an end or pretence of Charity as well as of Religion . We must be curious that no pretence engage us upon an action that is certainly criminal in its own nature . Charity may sometimes require our Lives , but no obligation can endear a Damnation to us ; we are not bound to the choice of an eternal ruine , to save another . Indeed so far as an Option will go , it may concern the excrescences of Piety to chuse by a tacite or express act of volition to become Anathema for our brethren , that is , by putting a case and fiction of Law , to suppose it better , and wish it rather , that I should perish than my Nation . Thus far is charitable , because it is innocent ; for as it is great love to our Countrey , so it is no uncharitableness to our selves : for such Options always are ineffective , and produce nothing but rewards of Charity , and a greater glory . And the Holy Jesus himself , who only could be and was effectively accursed to save us , got by it an exceeding and mighty glorification ; and S. Paul did himself advantage by his charitable Devotion for his Countreymen . But since God never puts the question to us , so that either we or our Nation must be damned , he having xt every man's final condition upon his own actions in the vertue and obedience of Christ , if we mistake the expresses of Charity , and suffer our selves to be damned indeed for God's glory or our Brethrens good , we spoil the Duty , and ruine our selves when our Option comes to act . But it is observable , that although Religion is often pretended to justifie a sin , yet Charity is but seldom ; which makes it full of suspicion , that Religion is but the cover to the Death's-head , and at the best is but an accusing of God , that he is not willing or not able to preserve Religion without our irregular and impious cooperations . But however , though it might concern us to wish our selves rather 〈◊〉 than Religion , or our Prince , or our Country should perish , ( for I find no instances that it is lawful so much as to 〈◊〉 it for the preservation of a single friend ; ) yet it is against Charity to bring such a 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 , and by sin to damn our selves really for a good end either 〈◊〉 Religion or Charity . 15. Let us therefore serve God as he hath 〈◊〉 the way ; for all our accesses to him , being acts of his free concession and grace , must be by his 〈◊〉 designation and appointment . We might as well have chosen what shape our 〈◊〉 should be of , as of what instances the substance of our Religion should consist . 16. Thirdly , a third Principle of Temptation is , an opinion of prosecuting actions of Civility , Compliance and Society , to the luxation of a point of Piety and 〈◊〉 Duty : and good natures , persons of humane and sweeter dispositions , are too apt to dash upon this rock of offence . But the evil that I would note is , that there are some conditions of men to whom a Vice is so accustomed , that he that 〈◊〉 with them must handle the crime and touch the venome . There are some Vices which are National , there are some that are points of Honour , some are Civilities of entertainment ; and they are therefore accounted unavoidable , because the understandings of men are degenerous as their manners , and it is accounted sottish and 〈◊〉 not to 〈◊〉 in their accustomed loosenesses . Amongst some men all their first addresses are 〈◊〉 , their entertainments intemperate beyond the permissions of Christian austerity ; their drink is humorous , and their humours quarrellous , and it is dishonourable not to engage in Duel , and venture your Soul to 〈◊〉 an empty Reputation . These inconveniences 〈◊〉 upon false opinions and vain fancies , having no greater foundation than the sottish discourses of ignorant and 〈◊〉 persons ; and they have no peculiar and appropriate remedy , but a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of manners , and a consideration what is required of us as Christians to 〈◊〉 against 〈◊〉 fonder customs and expectations from us , as we engage in the puddles of the world and are blended in society . 17. To which purposes we must be careful not to engage too freely in looser company , never without business or unavoidable accidents ; and when we mingle in affairs , it will concern our safety to watch , lest multitude of talk , 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 of nature , the delight of company , and the freedom and ill - 〈◊〉 civilities do by degrees draw us away from our guards and 〈◊〉 of spirit . For in these cases every degree of dissolution disarms us of our strengths ; and if we give way 〈◊〉 far as we think it tolerable , we instantly and undiscernibly pass into unlawful and criminal . But our best defences are deposited in a severe and prudent understanding , and discerning the sottishness of such principles which represent Vice in civil 〈◊〉 , and propound a crime to you under the cover of kindness ; which is just so much recompence as it is satisfaction to a condemned person that he was accused by a witty Oratour , and sentenced by an eloquent Judge . Remember always , that the friendships of the world are enmity with God ; and that those Societies which are combined by relations of drink , and wantonness , and impertinency , and crimes , are either inconsiderable in civility , or reason , or reputation ; no wise man is moved by their testimony or discourses ; and they are so impotent , rude and undiscerning a theatre , that most commonly he is the best man who from thence is the worst reported and represented . 18. But in all the instances of this great evil , the very stating the question right is above half the victory . For it is a question between mistaken Civility and certain Duty ; Piety on one side , and the disguises of Humanity on the other . God and Man are the parties interested : and to counterpoise the influence of the sight and face of Man , ( which being in a visible communication , it is not in some natures to neglect or contradict ) there are all the Excellencies of God , the effects of his Power , his certain Presence and Omniscience , the severities of his Judgment , and the sweetness and invitation of his Mercies ; besides the prudence , wisdom and satisfaction to the spirit when we wisely neglect such sottish and low abuses and temptations , to conform to the rules of Reason and Duty in compliance with the purposes of God and our own 〈◊〉 . 19. Thirdly , These ill-managed Principles are dangers as universal as an infected air ; yet there are some diseases more proper to the particular state of Religion . First , To young beginners in Religion he represents the Difficulties of Religion , and propounds the greater Examples of holy persons , and affrights them with those mountains of Piety , observing where and upon what instance of Severity his fancy will be most apprehensive and 〈◊〉 : and this he fails not often to represent with a purpose , that by believing no Piety less than the greatest can be good , he may despair of those heights , and retire into the securities and indifferencies of a careless life . But this is to be cured by all those instruments of Piety which in special are incentives of the love of God , and endearments of spiritual and religious affections ; and particularly by consideration of the Divine goodness , who knows whereof we are made , and remembers that we are but dust , and will require no more of us than according to our powers and present capacities . But the subject matter of this Temptation is considered and refuted in the Discourse of the Love of God. 20. But most commonly young beginners are zealous and high , and not so easily tempted to a recession , till after a long time by a revolution of affections they are abated by a defervescency in holy actions . The Devil uses to prompt them on , not that he loves the Piety and the progress , but that he would engage the person in imprudences and such forwardness of expresses , which either are in their own nature indiscretions , or from which , by reason of the incapacity of the person , it is necessary for him to retire . A new Convert is like a Bird newly entred into a Net , through which possibly she might pass without danger , if her fears and unreasonable strivings did not intangle her ; but when by busie and disturbed slutterings she discomposes the order of it , she is intangled and unpenned , and made a prey to her treacherous enemy . Such are the undiscreet strivings and too 〈◊〉 enterprises of new Penitents , whom we shall observe too often undertaking great Austerities , making Vows and casting bands upon their liberty , and snares upon their persons , thinking nothing great enough to expiate their sin , or to present to God , or to endear their services , or secure their perseverance ; and therefore they lay a load of fetters upon themselves , or rather cut off their legs that they may never go back ; therefore laying an obligation of Vows and intolerable burthens on themselves , that by these they may by a compendium of Piety redeem the time , and by those make it impossible to prevaricate . But the observation of the sad events and 〈◊〉 accidents of these men hath given probation of the indiscretion of such furious addresses and beginnings . And it was prudently done of Mcletius of Antioch , when he visited the Dioceses of Syria , and the several Religious persons famous for severe undertakings ; espying that Simeon Stylites dwelt upon a Pillar , and had bound his leg with a strong chain of iron , he sent for a Smith , causing it to be knocked off , and said , To 〈◊〉 man that loves God , his Mind is a sufficient chain . For the loads of voluntary Austerities rashly undertaken make Religion a burthen when their first heats expire ; and their Vows , which are intended to secure the practice and perpetuate the Piety , are but the occasions of an aggravate crime ; and the Vow does not secure the Piety , but the weariness and satiety of the Duty tempts to the breaking of the Vow , or at least makes the man impatient , when he cannot persist with content , nor retire with 〈◊〉 . 21. It therefore concerns all Spiritual Guides , to manage their new Converts with sober counsels and moderate permissions , knowing that sublime speculations in the Metaphysicks are not fit entertainment for an infant-understanding . There is milk for babes , and strong meat for men of riper Piety ; and it will imploy all the regular strength of young beginners to contest against the reliques of those mischiefs which remain since the expulsion of the Old man , and to master those difficulties which by the nature of the state are certainly consequent to so late mutation . And if we by the furies of Zeal and the impatience of mistaken Piety are violent and indiscreet in the destroying of our Enemies , we probably may tread the thistle down , and trample upon all its appearances , and yet leave the root in the ground with haste and imprudent forwardness . Gentle and soft counsels are the surest Enemies to your Vice , and the best conservators and 〈◊〉 of a vertuous state : but a hasty charge and the conduct of a young Leader may engage an early spirit in dangers and dishonours . And this Temptation is of so much greater danger , because it 〈◊〉 a face of Zeal , and meets with all encouragements from without ; every man being apt to cherish a Convert , and to enflame his new 〈◊〉 : but few consider 〈◊〉 inconveniences that are consequent to indiscreet beginnings , and the worse events usually appendent to 〈◊〉 inconveniences . 22. Indeed it is not usual that Prudence and a new-kindled Zeal meet in the 〈◊〉 person : but it will therefore concern the safety of new Converts , who cannot guide themselves , to give themselves up to the conduct of an experienced Spiritual person , who being disinterest in those heats of the 〈◊〉 apprehensions , and being long taught by the observation of the accidents of a spiritual life upon what rocks Rashness and Zeal usually do engage us , can best tell what degrees and what instances of Religion they may with most safety undertake : but for the general , it is best in the addresses of Grace to follow the course of Nature ; let there be an Infancy , and a Childhood , and a vigorous Youth , and by the divers and distant degrees of increment let the persons be established in Wisdom and Grace . But above all things let them be careful that they do not lay upon themselves Necessities of any lasting course , no Vows of perpetuity in any instance of uncommanded action or degree of Religion : for he may alter in his capacity and exteriour condition ; he may see by experience , that the particular engagement is imprudent ; he may by the virtue of Obedience be engaged on a duty inconsistent with the conveniences and advantages of the other ; and his very loss of liberty in an uncommanded instance may tempt him to inconvenience . But then , for the single and transient actions of Piety , although in them the danger is less , even though the imprudence be great , yet it were well if new beginners in Religion would attempt a moderate and an even Piety , rather than actions of eminency , lest they retire with shame , and be 〈◊〉 with scruple , when their first heats are spent , and expire in weariness and temptation . It is good to keep within the circuits of a man's affections , not stretching out all the degrees of fancy and desire , but leaving the appetites of Religion rather unsatisfied , and still desiring more , than by stretching out the whole faculty leave no desires but what are fulfilled and wearied . 23. Thirdly , I shall not need here to observe such Temptations which are direct invitations to sin , upon occasion of the Piety of holy persons ; such as are Security , too much Confidence , Pride and Vanity : these are part of every man's danger , and are to be considered upon their several arguments . Here I was only to note the general instruments of mischief . It remains now that I speak of such Remedies and general Antidotes , not which are proportioned to Sins in special , but such as are preventions or remedies and good advices in general . 24. First , Let every man abstain from all Occasions of sin as much as his condition will permit . And it were better to do some violence to our secular affairs , than to procure apparent or probable danger to our Souls . For if we see not a way open and ready prepared to our iniquity , our desires oftentimes are not willing to be troubled , but Opportunity gives life and activeness to our appetites . If David had not from his towers beheld the private beauties of Bathsheba , Uriah had lived , and his Wife been unattempted ; but sin was brought to him by that chance , and entring at the casements of his eyes set his heart on fire , and despoiled him of his robes of honour and innocence . The riches of the wedge of gold and the beauty of the Babylonish garment made Achan sacrilegious upon the place , who was innocent enough in his preceding purposes : and therefore that Soul that makes it self an object to sin , and invites an Enemy to view its possessions and live in the vicinage , loves the sin it self ; and he that is pleased with the danger , would willingly be betrayed into the necessity and the pleasure of the sin : for he can have no other ends to entertain the hazards , but that he hath a farther purpose to serve upon them ; he loves the pleasure of the sin , and therefore he would make the condition of sinning certain and unavoidable . And therefore Holy Scripture , which is admirable and curious in the cautions and securities of Vertue , does not determine its Precepts in the precise commands of vertuous actions , but also binds up our senses , obstructs the passage of Temptation , blocks up all the ways and avenues of Vice , commanding us to make a covenant with our eyes ; not to look upon a Maid ; not to sit with a woman that is a singer ; not to consider the wine when it sparkles , and gives its colour rightly in the cup ; but to set a watch before our mouths , to keep the door of our lips , and many more instances to this purpose , that sin may not come so near as to be repulsed ; as knowing sin hath then prevailed too far , when we give the denial to its solicitations . 25. We read a Story of a vertuous Lady , that desired of S. Athanasius to procure for her , out of the number of the Widows fed from the Ecclesiastical Corban , an old woman , morose , peevish and impatient , that she might by the society of so ungentle a person have often occasion to exercise her Patience , her Forgiveness and Charity . I know not how well the counsel succeeded with her ; I am sure it was not very safe : and to invite the trouble to triumph over it , is to wage a war of an uncertain issue for no end but to get the pleasures of the victory , which oftentimes do not pay for the trouble , never for the danger . An Egyptian , who acknowledged Fire for his God , one day doing his devotions kissed his God after the manner of Worshippers , and burnt his lips . It was not in the power of that false and imaginary Deity to cure the real hurt he had done to his devoutest worshipper . Just such a fool is he that kisses a danger , though with a design of vertue , and hugs an opportunity of sin for an advantage of Piety ; he burns himself in the neighbourhood of the flame , and twenty to one but he may perish in its embraces : And he that looks out a danger that he may overcome it , does as did the Persian , who 〈◊〉 the Sun , looked upon him when he prayed him to cure his sore eyes . The Sun may as well cure a weak eye , or a great burthen knit a broken arm , as a danger can do him advantage that seeks such a combate which may ruine him , and after which he rarely may have this reward , that it may be said of him , he had the good 〈◊〉 not to perish in his folly . It is easier to prevent a mischief than to cure it ; and besides the pain of the wound , it is infinitely more full of 〈◊〉 to cure a broken leg , which a little care and observation would have preserved whole . To recover from a sin is none of the 〈◊〉 labours that concern the sons of men ; and therefore it concerns them rather not to enter into such a narrow strait , from which they can never draw back their head , without leaving their hair and skin and their ears behind . If God please to try us , he means us no hurt , and he does it with great reason and great mercy ; but if we go to try our selves , we may mean well , but not wisely : For as it is simply unlawful for weak persons to seek a Temptation , so for the more perfect it is dangerous . We have enemies enough without , and one of our own within : but we become our own tempter , when we run out to meet the World or invite the Devil home , that we may throw holy water upon his flames , and call the danger nearer , that we may run from it . And certainly men are more guilty of many of their temptations than the Devil , through their incuriousness or 〈◊〉 doing as much mischief to themselves as he can : For he can but offer ; and so much we do when we run into danger . Such were those Stories of S. Antony provoking the Devil to battel : If the Stories had been as true as the actions were rash & ridiculous , the Story had 〈◊〉 a note of indiscretion upon that good man ; though now I think there is nothing but a mark of 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 on the Writer . 26. Secondly , Possibly without 〈◊〉 we may be engaged in a 〈◊〉 , but then we must be diligent to resist the first Beginnings : For when our strength is yet intire and unabated , if we suffer our selves to be overcome , and consent to its 〈◊〉 and weakest attempts , how shall we be able to resist when it hath tired our contestation , and wearied our patience , when we are weaker and prevailed upon , and the Temptation is stronger and triumphant in many degrees of victory ? By how much a Hectick Feaver is harder to be cured than a Tertian , or a Consumption of the Lungs than a little Distillation of Rheum upon the throat ; by so much is it harder to prevail upon a 〈◊〉 Lust than upon its first insinuations . But the ways of resisting are of a different consideration , proportionably to the nature of the crimes . 27. First , If the Temptation be to crimes of Pleasure and Sensuality , let the resistance be by flight : For in case of Lust , even to consider the arguments against it is half as great Temptation as to press the arguments for it : For all considerations of such allurements make the Soul perceive something of its relish , and entertain the fancy . Even the pulling pitch from our cloaths defiles the fingers ; and some adherences of pleasant and carnal sins will be remanent even from those considerations which stay within the circuit of the flames , though but with purpose to quench the fire and preserve the house . Chastity cannot suffer the least thought of the reproaches of the spirit of impurity : and it is necessary to all that will keep their purity and innocence against sensual Temptations , to avoid every thing that may prejudice decorum . Libanius 〈◊〉 Sophister reports , that a Painter being one day desirous to paint Apollo upon a Laurelboard , the colours would not stick , but were rejected : out of which his fancy found out this extraction ; That the 〈◊〉 Daphne ( concerning whom the Poets feign that , flying from Apollo , who attempted to 〈◊〉 her , she was turned into a Laurel-tree ) could not endure him even in painting , and rejected him after the loss of her sensitive powers . And indeed chaste Souls do even to death resent the least image and offer of impurity : whatsoever is like a sin of uncleanness , he that means to preserve himself chaste must avoid , as he would avoid the sin ; in this case there being no difference but of degrees between the inward Temptation and the Crime . 28. Secondly , If the Temptation be to crimes of troublesome and preternatural desires or intellectual nature , let the resistance be made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by a perfect fight , by the amassing of such arguments in general and remedies in particular which are apt to become deleteries to the Sin , and to abate the Temptation . But in both these instances the resistance must at 〈◊〉 be as soon as the attempt is , lest the violence of the Temptation out-run our powers : for if against our full strength it hath prevailed to the first degrees , its progress to a complete victory is not so improbable as were its successes at the first beginnings . But to serve this and all other ends in the resisting and subduing a Temptation , these following Considerations have the best and most universal influence . 29. First , Consideration of the Presence of God , who is witness of all our actions , and a revenger of all Impiety . This is so great an instrument of fear and Religion , that whoever does actually consider God to be present , and considers what the first consideration signifies , either must be restrained from the present Temptation , or must have thrown off all the possibilities and aptnesses for Vertue ; such as are Modesty , and Reverence , and holy Fear . For if the face of a Man scatters all base machinations , and we dare not act our crimes in the Theatre , unless we be impudent as well as criminal ; much more does the sense of a present Deity fill the places of our heart with veneration and the awe of Religion , when it is throughly apprehended and actually considered . We see not God , he is not in our thoughts , when we run into darkness to act our impurities . For we dare not commit Adultery if a Boy be present ; behold the Boy is sent off with an excuse , and God abides there , but yet we commit the crime : it is because , as Jacob said at Bethel , God was in that place , and we knew not of it ; and yet we neither breath nor move an artery but in him and by his assistance ; ( a ) In him we live , and move , and have our being . And , ( b ) All things are naked and open in his sight . ( c ) The iniquity of my people is very great ; for they say , The Lord seeth not . ( d ) Shall not he that made the eye see ? ( e ) To him the night and day are both alike . These and many more to the same design are the voices of Scripture , that our spirits may retire into the beholding of God , to the purposes of fear and holiness , with whom we do cohabit by the necessities of nature , and the condition of our essence wholly in dependence ; and then only we may sin securely , when we can contrive to do it so that God may not see us . 30. There are many men who are servants of the eyes , as the Apostle's phrase is , who when they are looked on act vertue with much pompousness and theatrical bravery ; but these men when the Theatre is empty , put off their upper garment , and retire into their primitive baseness . Diogenes endured the extremity of winter's cold , that the people might wonder at his austerity and philosophical patience : but Plato seeing the people admiring the man , and pitying the susserance , told them , that the way to make him warm himself was for them to be gone and to take no notice of him . For they that walk as in the sight of men , serve that design well enough when they fill the publick voice with noises and opinions , and are not by their purposes engaged to act in private ; but they who are servants of the eyes of God , and walk as in the Divine presence , perceive the same restraints in darkness , and closets , and grots , as in the light and midst of theatres ; and that consideration imposes upon us a happy necessity of doing vertuously , which presents us placed in the eyes of our Judge . And therefore it was not unhandsomely said of a Jewish Doctor , If every man would consider God to be the great Eye of the World watching perpetually over all our actions , and that his Hand is indefatigable , and his Ear ever open , possibly sin might be extirpated from off the face of the earth . And this is the condition of Beatitude ; and the blessed Souls within their regions of light and felicity cannot sin , because of the Vision beatifical , they always behold the face of God : and those who partake of this state by way of consideration , which is essential to the condition of the Blessed , and derive it into practice and discourse , in proportion to this shall retain an innocence and a part of glory . 31. For it is a great declension of humane Reason , and a disreputation to our spirits , that we are so wholly led by Sense , that we will not walk in the regions of the Spirit , and behold God by our eyes of Faith and Discourse , suffering our course of life to be guided by such principles which distinguish our natures from Beasts , and our conditions from vicious , and our spirits from the World , and our hopes from the common satisfactions of Sense and corruption . The better half of our Nature is of the same constitution with that of Angels ; and therefore although we are drenched in Matter and the communications of Earth , yet our better part was designed to converse with God : and we had , besides the eye of Reason , another eye of Faith put into our Souls , and both clarified with revelations and demonstrations of the Spirit , expressing to us so visible and clear characters of God's presence , that the expression of the same Spirit is , We may feel him , for he is within us , and about us , and we are in him , and in the comprehensions of his embracings , as birds in the Air , or Infants in the wombs of their pregnant Mothers . And that God is pleased not to communicate himself to the eyes of our Body , but still to remain invisible , besides that it is his own glory and perfection , it is also no more to us but like a retreat behind a curtain , where when we know our Judge stands as an Espial and a watch over our actions , we shall be sottish if we dare to provoke his jealousie , because we see him not , when we know that he is close by , though behind the cloud . 32. There are some general impressions upon our spirits , which by way of presumption and custom possess our perswasions , and make restraint upon us to excellent purposes ; such as are the Religion of Holy places , reverence of our Parents , presence of an austere , an honourable , or a vertuous person . For many sins are prevented by the company of a witness , especially if besides the ties of modesty we have also towards him an indearment of * reverence and fair opinion ; and if he were with us in our privacies , he would cause our retirements to be more holy . S. Ambrose reports of the Virgin Mary , that she had so much Piety and Religion in her Countenance and deportment , that divers persons , moved by the veneration and regard of her Person , in her presence have 〈◊〉 commenced their resolutions of Chastity and sober living . However the story be , her person certainly was of so express and great Devotion and Sanctity , that he must needs have been of a very impudent disposition and firm immodesty who durst have spoken unhandsome language in the presence of so rare a person . And why then any rudeness in the presence of God , if that were as certainly believed and considered ? For whatsoever amongst men can be a restraint of Vice or an endearment of Vertue , all this is highly verisied in the presence of God , to whom our Conscience in its very concealments is as a fair Table written in capital letters by his own finger ; and then if we fail of the advantage of this exercise , it must proceed either from our dishonourable opinion of God , or our own fearless inadvertency , or from a direct spirit of reprobation : for it is certain , that this consideration is in its own nature apt to correct our manners , to produce the fear of God , and Humility , and spiritual and holy thoughts , and the knowledge of God and of our selves , and the consequents of all these , holy walking , and holy comforts . And by this only argument S. Paphnutius and S. Ephrem are reported in Church-story to have converted two Harlots from a course of Dissolution to great Sanctity and Austerity . 33. But then this Presence of God must not be a mere speculation of the Understanding ; though so only it is of very great benefit and immediate efficacy , yet it must reflect as well from the Will as from discourse : and then only we walk in the presence of God , when by Faith we behold him present , when we speak to him in frequent and holy Prayers , when we beg aid from him in all our needs , and ask counsel of him in all our doubts , and before him bewail our sins , and tremble at his presence . This is an entire exercise of Religion . And beside that the Presence of God serves to all this , it hath also especial influence in the disimprovement of Temptations , because it hath in it many things contrariant to the nature and efficacy of Temptations ; such as are Consideration , Reverence , Spiritual thoughts , and the Fear of God : for where-ever this consideration is actual , there either God is highly despised , or certainly feared . In this case we are made to declare ; for our purposes are concealed only in an incuriousness and inconsideration ; but whoever considers God as present , will in all reason be as religious as in a Temple , the Reverence of which place Custom or Religion hath imprinted in the spirits of most men : so that as Ahasuerus said of Haman , Will he ravish the Queen in my own house ? aggravating the crime by the incivility of the circumstance ; God may well say to us , whose Religion compells us to believe God every-where present ; since the Divine Presence hath made all places holy , and every place hath a Numen in it , even the Eternal God , we unhallow the place , and desecrate the ground whereon we stand , supported by the arm of God , placed in his heart , and enlightned by his eye , when we sin in so sacred a Presence . 34. The second great instrument against Temptation is Meditation of Death . Raderus reports , that a certain Virgin , to restrain the inordination of intemperate desires , which were like thorns in her flesh , and disturbed her spiritual peace , shut her self up in a Sepulchre , and for twelve years dwelt in that Scene of death . It were good we did so too , making Tombs and Coffins presential to us by frequent meditation . For God hath given us all a definitive arrest in Adam , and from it there lies no appeal , * but it is infallibly and unalterably 〈◊〉 for all men once to die , or to be changed , to pass from hence to a condition of Eternity , good or bad . Now because this law is ‖ certain , and the time and the manner of its execution is uncertain , and from this moment Eternity depends , and that after this life the final sentence is irrevocable , that all the pleasures here are sudden , transient , and unsatisfying , and vain ; he must needs be a 〈◊〉 that knows not to distinguish moments from Eternity : and since it is a condition of necessity , established by Divine decrees , and fixt by the indispensable Laws of Nature , that we shall after a very little duration pass on to a condition strange , not understood , then unalterable , and yet of great mutation from this , even of greater distance from 〈◊〉 in which we are here than this is from the state of Beasts ; this , when it is considered , must in all reason make the same impression upon our understandings and affections which naturally all strange things and all great considerations are apt to do , that is , create resolutions and results passing through the heart of man , such as are reasonable and prudent , in order to our own 〈◊〉 , that we neglect the vanities of the present Temptation , and secure our future condition , which will , till Eternity it self expires , remain such as we make it to be by our deportment in this short transition and passage through the World. 35. And that this Discourse is reasonable I am therefore confirmed , because I find it to be to the same purpose used by the Spirit of God , and the wisest personages in the world . My soul is always in my hand , therefore do I keep thy Commandments , said David : he looked upon himself as a dying person , and that restrained all his inordinations , and so he prayed , Lord , teach me to number my days , that I may apply my heart unto wisdom . And therefore the AEgyptians used to serve up a Skeleton to their Feasts , that the dissolutions and vapours of wine might be restrained with that bunch of myrrh , and the vanities of their eyes chastised by that sad object : for they thought it unlikely a man should be transported far with any thing low or vicious that looked long and often into the hollow eye-pits of a Death's head , or dwelt in a Charnel-house : And such considerations make all the importunity and violence of sensual desires to disband . For when a man stands perpetually at the door of Eternity , and , as did John the Almoner , every day is building of his Sepulchre , and every night one day of our life is gone and passed into the possession of death , it will concern us to take care that the door leading to Hell do not open upon us , that we be not crusht to ruine by the stones of our grave , and that our death become not a consignation to us to a sad Eternity . For all the pleasures of the whole world , and in all its duration , cannot make recompence for one hour's torment in Hell : and yet if wicked persons were to 〈◊〉 in Hell for ever without any change of posture , or variety of torment beyond that session , it were unsufferable beyond the indurance of nature : and therefore where little less than infinite misery in an infinite duration shall punish the pleasures of sudden and transient crimes , the gain of pleasure and the exchange of banks here for a condition of eternal and miserable death is a permutation 〈◊〉 to be made by none but fools and desperate persons , who made no use of a reasonable Soul , but that they in their perishing might be convinced of unreasonableness , and die by their own fault . 36. The use that wise men have made when they reduced this consideration to practice is to believe every day to be the last of their life , for so it may be , and for ought we know it will ; and then think what you would avoid , or what you would do , if you were dying , or were to day to suffer death by sentence and conviction ; and that in all reason ; and in proportion to the strength of your consideration , you will do every day . For that is the sublimity of Wisdom , to do those things living , which are to be desired and chosen by dying persons . An alarm of death every day renewed , and pressed earnestly , will watch a man so tame and soft , that the precepts of Religion will dwell deep in his spirit . But they that make a covenant with the grave , and put the 〈◊〉 day far 〈◊〉 them , they are the men that eat spiders and toads for meat greedily , and a Temptation to them is as welcome as joy , and they seldom dispute the point in behalf of Piety or Mortification : for they that look upon Death at distance apprehend it not , but in such general lines and great representments that describe it only as future and possible , but nothing of its terrors or 〈◊〉 or circumstances of advantage are discernible by such an eye that disturbs its 〈◊〉 and discomposes the posture , that the object may seem another thing than what it is truly and really . S. Austin with his Mother Monica was led one day by a Roman Prator to 〈◊〉 the tomb of Caesar. Himself thus describes the Corps . It looked of a blew mould , the bone of the nose laid bare , the flesh of the neather lip quite fallen off , his mouth full of worms , and in his eye-pits two hungry Toads feasting upon the remanent portion of flesh and moisture ; and so he dwelt in his house of darkness . And if every person tempted by an opportunity of Lust or intemperance would chuse such a room for his privacy , that company for his witness , that object to allay his appetite , he would soon find his spirit more sober , and his desires obedient . I end this with the counsel of S. Bernard , Let every man in the first address to his actions consider , whether if he were now to die he might safely and prudently do such an act , and whether he would not be infinitely troubled that death should surprise him in the present dispositions , and then let him proceed accordingly . For since our treasure is in earthen vessels , which may be broken in pieces by the collision of ten thousand accidents , it were not safe to treasure up wrath in them ; for if we do , we shall certainly drink it in the day of recompence . 37. Thirdly , Before , and in , and 〈◊〉 all this the Blessed Jesus propounds Prayer as a remedy against Temptations ; Watch and pray , that ye enter not into temptation : For besides that Prayer is the great instrument of obtaining victory by the grace of God , as a fruit of our desires and of God's natural and essential goodness ; the very praying against a Temptation , if it be hearty , servent and devout , is a denying of it , and part of the victory : for it is a 〈◊〉 the entertainment of it , it is a positive rejection of the crime ; and every consent to it is a ceasing to pray , and to desire remedy . And we shall observe that whensoever we begin to listen to the whispers of a tempting spirit , our Prayers against it lessen , as the consent increases ; there being nothing a more direct enemy to the Temptation than Prayer , which as it is of it self a professed hostility against the crime , so it is a calling in auxiliaries from above to make the victory more certain . If Temptation sets upon thee , do thou set upon God ; for he is as soon overcome as thou art , as soon moved to good as thou art to evil , * he is as quickly invited to pity thee as thou to ask him ; provided thou dost not finally rest in the petition , but pass into action , and endeavour by all means humane and moral to quench the 〈◊〉 newly kindled in thy bowels , before it come to devour the marrow of the bones . For a strong Prayer , and a lazy , incurious , unobservant walking , are contradictions in the discourses of Religion . * 〈◊〉 tells us a story of a young man solicited by the spirit of Uncleanness , who came to an old Religious person , and begged his prayers . It was in that Age when God used to answer Prayers of very holy persons by more clear and familiar significations of his pleasure than he knows now to be necessary . But after many earnest prayers sent up to the throne of Grace , and the young man not at all bettered , upon consideration and enquiry of particulars , he found the cause to be , because the young man relied so upon the Prayers of the old Eremite , that he did nothing at all to discountenance his Lust or contradict the Temptation . But then he took another course , enjoyned him Austerities and exercises of Devotion , gave him rules of prudence and caution , tied him to work and to stand upon his guard ; and then the Prayers returned in triumph , and the young man trampled upon his Lust. And so shall I and you , by God's grace , if we pray earnestly and frequently , if we watch carefully that we be not surprised , if we be not idle in secret , nor talkative in publick , if we read Scriptures , and consult with a spiritual Guide , and make Religion to be our work , that serving of God be the business of our life , and our designs be to purchase Eternity ; then we shall walk safely or recover speedily , and , by doing advantages to 〈◊〉 , secure a greatness of Religion and spirituality to our spirits and understanding . But remember that when Israel fought against Amalek , Moses's prayer and Moses's hand secured the victory , his Prayer grew ineffectual when his Hands were slack ; to remonstrate to us , that we must cooperate with the grace of God , praying devoutly , and watching carefully , and observing prudently , and labouring with diligence and assiduity . The PRAYER . ETernal God and most merciful Father , I adore thy Wisdom , Providence , and admirable Dispensation of affairs in the spiritual Kingdom of our Lord Jesus , that thou , who art infinitely good , dost permit so many sadnesses and dangers to discompose that order of things and spirits which thou didst create innocent and harmless , and dost design to great and spiritual perfections ; that the emanation of good from evil by thy over-ruling power and excellencies may force glory to thee from our shame , and honour to thy Wisdom by these contradictory accidents and events . Lord , have pity upon me in these sad disorders , and with mercy know my infirmities . Let me , by suffering what thou pleasest , cooperate to the glorification of thy Grace and magnifying thy Mercy ; but never let me consent to sin , but with the power of thy Majesty , and mightiness of thy prevailing Mercy , rescue me from those 〈◊〉 of dangers and enemies which daily seck to 〈◊〉 that Innocence with which thou didst cloath my Soul in the New birth . Behold , O God , how all the Spirits of Darkness endeavour the extinction of our hopes , and the dispersion of all those Graces , and the prevention of all those 〈◊〉 which the Holy Jesus hath purchased for every loving and obedient Soul. Our very 〈◊〉 and drink are full of poison , our Senses are snares , our 〈◊〉 is various Temptatio .. , our sins are inlets to more , and our good actions made occasions of sins . Lord , deliver me from the Malice of the Devil , from the Fallacies of the World , from my own Folly ; that I be not devoured by the first , nor cheated by the second , nor betrayed by my self : but let thy Grace , which is sufficient for me , be always present with me ; let thy Spirit 〈◊〉 me in the spiritual 〈◊〉 , arming my Understanding , and securing my Will , and 〈◊〉 my Spirit with resolutions of Piety , and incentives of Religion , and deleteries of Sin ; that the dangers I am encompassed withall may become unto me an occasion of victory and trimph , through the aids of the Holy Ghost , and by the Cross of the Lord Jesus , who hath for himself and all his servants triumphed over Sin and Hell and the Grave , even all the powers of Darkness , from which by the mercies of Jesus and the merits of his Passion now and ever deliver me and all thy 〈◊〉 people . Amen . DISCOURSE VI. Of Baptism . Part I. 1. WHen the Holy Jesus was to begin his Prophetical Office , and to lay the foundation of his Church on the Corner-stone , he first temper'd the Cement with Water , and then with Bloud , and afterwards built it up by the hands of the Spirit : Himself enter'd at that door by which his Disciples for ever after were to follow him ; for therefore he went in at the door of Baptism , that he might hallow the entrance which himself made to the House he was now building . 2. As it was in the old , so it is in the new Creation ; out of the waters God produced every living creature : and when at first the Spirit moved upon the waters , and gave life , it was the type of what was designed in the Renovation . Every thing that lives now is born of Water and the Spirit ; and Christ , who is our Creator and Redeemer in the New birth , opened the fountains and hallowed the stream : Christ , who is our Life , went down into the waters of Baptism ; and we , who descend thither , find the effects of life : it is living Water , of which whose drinks needs not to drink of it again , for it shall be in him a Well of water springing up to life eternal . 3. But because every thing is resolved into the same principles from whence they are taken ; the old World , which by the power of God came from the Waters , by their own sin fell into the Waters again , and were all drowned , and only eight persons were saved by an Ark : and the World renewed upon the stock and reserves of that mercy consigned the Sacrament of Baptism in another figure ; for then God gave his sign from Heaven , that by water the World should never again perish : but he meant that they should be saved by water ; for Baptism , which is a figure like to this , doth also now save us by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. 4. After this the Jews report that the World took up the doctrine of Baptisms , in remembrance that the iniquity of the old world was purged by water ; and they washed all that came to the service of the true God , and by that Baptism bound them to the observation of the Precepts which God gave to Noah . 5. But when God separated a Family for his own special service , he gave them a Sacrament of Initiation , but it was a Sacrament of bloud , the Covenant of Circumcision : and this was the fore-runner of Baptism , but not a Type ; when that was abrogated , this came into the place of it , and that consigned the same Faith which this professes . But it could not properly be a Type , whose nature is by a likeness of matter or ceremony to represent the same Mystery . Neither is a Ceremony , as Baptism truly is , properly capable of having a Type , it self is but a Type of a greater mysteriousness . And the nature of Types is , in shadow to describe by dark lines a future substance : so that although Circumcision might be a Type of the effects and graces bestowed in Baptism , yet of the Baptism or Ablution it self it cannot be properly , because of the unlikeness of the symbols and configurations , and because they are both equally distant from substances , which Types are to consign and represent . The first Bishops of Jerusalem and all the Christian Jews for many years retained Circumcision together with Baptism ; and Christ himself , who was circumcised , was also baptized ; and therefore it is not so proper to call Circumcision a Type of Baptism : it was rather a Seal and Sign of the same Covenant to Abraham and the Fathers and to all Israel , as Baptism is to all Ages of the Christian Church . 6. And because this Rite could not be administred to all persons , and was not at all times after its institution , God was pleased by a proper and specifick Type to consign this Rite of Baptism , which he intended to all , and that for ever : and God , when the family of his Church grew separate , notorious , numerous and distinct , sent them into their own Countrey by a Baptism through which the whole Nation pass'd ; for all the Fathers were under the Cloud , and all passed through the Sea , and were all baptized unto Moses in the Cloud , and in the Sea ; so by a double figure foretelling , that as they were initiated to Moses's Law by the Cloud above and the Sea beneath , so should all the persons of the Church , men , women and children , be initiated unto Christ by the Spirit from above and the Water below : for it was the design of the Apostle in that discourse , to represent that the Fathers and we were equal as to the priviledges of the Covenant ; he proved that we do not exceed them , and it ought therefore to be certain that they do not exceed us , nor their children ours . 7. But after this , something was to remain which might not only consign the Covenant which God made with Abraham , but be as a passage from the Fathers through the Synagogue to the Church , from Abraham by Moses to Christ : and that was Circumcision , which was a Rite which God chose to be a mark to the posterity of Abraham , to distinguish them from the Nations which were not within the Covenant of Grace , and to be a Seal of the righteousness of Faith , which God made to be the spirit and life of the Covenant . 8. But because Circumcision , although it was ministred to all the males , yet it was not to the females , although they and all the Nation were baptized and initiated into Moses in the Cloud and in the Sea ; therefore the Children of Israel by imitation of the Patriarchs , the posterity of Noah , used also Ceremonial Baptisms to their Women and to their Proselytes , and to all that were circumcised ; and the Jews deliver , That Sarah and Rebecca , when they were adopted into the family of the Church , that is , of Abraham and Isaac , were baptized : and so were all strangers that were married to the sons of Israel . And that we may think this to be typical of Christian Baptism , the Doctors of the Jews had a Tradition , that when the Messias would come , there should be so many Proselytes , that they could not be circumcised , but should be baptized . The Tradition proved true , but not for their reason . But that this Rite of admitting into Mysteries , and Institutions , and Offices of Religion by Baptisms , was used by the posterity of Noah , or at least very early among the Jews , besides the testimonies of their own Doctors , I am the rather induced to believe , because the Heathens had the same Rite in many places and in several Religions : so they initiated disciples into the Secrets of (a) Mithra ; and the Priests of 〈◊〉 were called (b) 〈◊〉 , because by Baptism they were admitted into the Religion ; and they (c) thought Muther , Incest , Rapes , and the worst of crimes , were purged by dipping in the Sea or fresh Springs ; and a Proselyte is called in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 , a Baptized person . 9. But this Ceremony of Baptizing was so certain and usual among the Jews in their admitting Proselytes and adopting into Institutions , that to baptize and to make Disciples are all one ; and when John the Baptist by an order from Heaven went to prepare the way to the coming of our Blessed Lord , he preached Repentance , and baptized all that professed they did repent . He taught the Jews to live good lives , and baptized with the Baptism of a Prophet , such as was not unusually done by extraordinary and holy persons in the change or renewing of Discipline or Religion . Whether 〈◊〉 's Baptism was from heaven , or os men , Christ asked the Pharisees . That it was from heaven the people therefore believed , because he was a Prophet and a holy person : but it implies also , that such Baptisms are sometimes from men , that is , used by 〈◊〉 of an eminent Religion , or extraordinary fame for the gathering of Disciples and admitting Proselytes : and the Disciples of Christ did so too ; even before Christ had instituted the Sacrament for the Christian Church , the Disciples that came to Christ were baptized by his Apostles . 10. And now we are come to the gates of Baptism . All these till John were but Types and preparatory Baptisms , and John's Baptism was but the prologue to the Baptism of Christ. The Jewish Baptisms admitted Proselytes to Moses and to the Law of Ceremonies ; John's Baptism called them to 〈◊〉 in the Messias now appearing , and to repent of their sins , to enter into the Kingdom which was now at 〈◊〉 , and preached that Repentance which should be for the 〈◊〉 os 〈◊〉 . His Baptism remitted no sins , but preached and consigned Repentance , which in the belief of the 〈◊〉 , whom he pointed to , should pardon sins . But because he was taken from his Office before the work was completed , the Disciples of Christ 〈◊〉 it : They went forth preaching the same Sermon of Repentance , and the approach of the Kingdom and baptized , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Disciples , as John did ; only they ( as it is probable ) baptized in the Name of Jesus , which it is not so likely John did . And this very thing might be the cause of the (a) different forms of Baptism recorded in the Acts , of (b) baptizing in the Name of 〈◊〉 , and at other times (c) In the 〈◊〉 of the Father , Son , and 〈◊〉 Ghost ; the sormer being the manner of doing it in pursuance of the design of John's Baptism , and the latter the form of Institution by Christ for the whole Christian Church , appointed after his Resurrection ; the Disciples at first using promiscuously what was used by the same Authority , though with some difference of Mystery . 11. The Holy Jesus having found his way ready prepared by the Preaching of 〈◊〉 and by his Baptism , and the 〈◊〉 manner of adopting Proselytes and Disciples into the Religion a way chalked out for him to initiate Disciples into his Religion , took what was so prepared , and changed it into a perpetual Sacrament . He kept the Ceremony , that they who were led only by outward things might be the better called in and easier enticed into the Religion , when they entred by a Ceremony which their Nation always used in the like cases : and therefore without change of the outward act he put into it a new spirit , and gave it a new grace and a proper efficacy ; he sublimed it to higher ends , and adorned it with Stars of Heaven ; he made it to signific greater Mysteries , to convey greater Blessings , to consign the bigger Promises , to cleanse deeper than the skin , and to carry Proselytes farther than the gates of the Institution . For so he was pleased to do in the other Sacrament : he took the Ceremony which he found ready in the Custom of the Jews , where the Major-domo after the Paschal Supper gave Bread and Wine to every person of his family ; he changed nothing of it without , but transferred the Rite to greater Mysteries , and put his own Spirit to their Sign , and it became a Sacrament Evangelical . It was so also in the matter of Excommunication , where the Jewish practice was made to pass into Christian discipline : without violence and noise old things became new , while he fulfilled the Law , making it up in full measures of the Spirit . 12. By these steps Baptism passed on to a Divine Evangelical institution , which we find to be consigned by three Evangelists ; Go ye therefore , and teach all Nations , baptizing them in the Name of the Father , and of the Son , and of the Holy Ghost . It was one of the last Commandments the Holy Jesus gave upon the earth , when he taught his Apostles the things which concerned his Kingdom . For he that believes and is baptized shall be saved : but , 〈◊〉 a man be born of Water and the Holy Spirit , he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven ; agreeable to the decretory words of God by Abraham in the Circumcision , to which Baptism does succeed in the consignation of the same Covenant and the same Spiritual Promises , The uncircumcised child whose flesh is not circumcised , that soul shall be cut off from his people ; he hath broken my Covenant . The Manichees , Selencas , Hermias , and their followers , people of a day's abode and small interest , but of malicious doctrine , taught Baptism not to be necessary , not to be used , upon this ground , because they supposed that it was proper to John to baptize with water , and reserved for Christ , as his peculiar , to baptize with the Holy Ghost and with fire . Indeed Christ baptized none otherwise ; he sent his Spirit upon the Church in Pentecost and baptized them with fire , the Spirit appearing like a flame : but he appointed his Apostles to baptize with water , and they did so , and their successors after them , every-where and for ever , not expounding , but obeying the preceptive words of their Lord , which were almost the last that he spake upon earth . And I cannot think it needful to prove this to be necessary by any more Arguments ; for the words are so plain that they need no exposition : and yet if they had been obscure , the universal practice of the Apostles and the Church for ever is a sufficient declaration of the Commandment : No Tradition is more universal , no not of Scripture it self ; no words are plainer , no not the Ten Commandments : and if any suspicion can be superinduced by any jealous or less discerning person , it will need no other refutation , but to turn his eyes to those lights by which himself fees Scripture to be the Word of God , and the Commandments to be the declaration of his Will. 13. But that which will be of greatest concernment in this affair is , to consider the great benefits are conveyed to us in this Sacrament ; for this will highly conclude , that the Precept was 〈◊〉 ever , which God so seconds with his grace and mighty blessings ; and the susception of it necessary , because we cannot be without those excellent things which are the Graces of the Sacrament . 14. First , The first fruit is , That in Baptism we are admitted to the Kingdom of Christ , presented unto him , consigned with his Sacrament , enter into his Militia , give up our Understandings and our choice to the obedience of Christ , and in all senses that we can become his Disciples , witnessing a good confession , and undertaking a holy life : and therefore in Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are conjoyned in the significations , as they are in the mystery ; it is a giving up our names to Christ , and it is part of the foundation or the first Principles of the Religion , as appears in S. Paul's Catechism ; it is so the first thing , that it is for babes and Neophytes , in which they are matriculated and adopted into the house of their Father , and taken into the hands of their Mother . Upon this account Baptism is called in antiquity 〈◊〉 janua , porta Gratiae , & primus introitus Sanctorum adaeternam Dei & Ecclesiae consuetudinem ; The gate of the Church , the door of Grace , the first entrance of the Saints to an eternal conversation with God and the Church . Sacramentum initiationis , & intrantium Christianismum investituram , S. Bernard calls it ; The Sacrament of initiation , and the investiture of them that enter into the Religion . And the person so entring is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , one of the Religion , or a Proselyte and Convert , and one added to the number of the Church , in imitation of that of S. Luke , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , God added to the Church those that should be saved ; just as the Church does to this day and for ever , baptizing Infants and Catechuments : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they are added to the Church , that they may be added to the Lord , and the number of the Inhabitants of Heaven . 15. Secondly , The next step beyond this is Adoption into the Convenant , which is an immediate consequent of the first Presentation ; this being the first act of man , that the first act of God. And this is called by S. Paul a being * baptized in one spirit into one body , that is , we are made capable of the Communion of Saints , the blessings of the faithful , the priviledges of the Church : by this we are , as S. Luke calls it , ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ordained , or disposed , put into the order of Eternal Life , being made members of the mystical Body under Christ our Head. 16. Thirdly , And therefore Baptism is a new birth , by which we enter into the new world , the new Creation , the blessings and spiritualities of the Kingdom : and this is the expression which our Saviour himself used * Nicodemus , Unless a man be born of Water and the Spirit ; and it is by S. Paul called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the laver of Regeneration ; for now we begin to be reckoned in new Census or account , God is become our Father , Christ our elder Brother , the Spirit the earnest of our Inheritance , the Church our Mother , our food is the body and bloud of our Lord , Faith is our learning , Religion our employment , and our whole life is spiritual , and Heaven the object of our Hopes , and the mighty price of our high Calling . And from this time forward we have a new principle put into us , the Spirit of Grace , which , besides our Soul and body , is a principle of action , of one nature , and shall with them enter into the portion of our Inheritance . And therefore the Primitive Christians , who consigned all their affairs and goods and writings with some marks of their Lord , usually writing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Jesus Christ , the Son of God , our Saviour , made it an abbreviature by writing only the Capitals thus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; which the Heathens in mockery and derision made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifies a Fish , and they used it for Christ as a name of reproach : but the Christians owned the name , and turned it into a pious Metaphor , and were content that they should enjoy their pleasure in the Acrostich ; but upon that occasion Tertullian speaks pertinently to this Article , Nos pisciculi , sccundùm 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nostrum Jesum Christum , in aqua nascimur , Christ , whom you call a Fish , we knowledge to be our Lord and Saviour ; and we , if you please , are the little fishes , for we are born in water , thence we derive our spiritual life . And because from henceforward we are a new Creation , the Church uses to assign new relations to the Catechumens , Spiritual Fathers and Susceptors ; and , at their entrance into Baptism , the Christians and Jewish Proselytes did use to cancel all secular affections to their temporal relatives . Nec quicquam priùs 〈◊〉 quàm contemnere Deos , exuere patriam , parentes , liberos , fratres vilia habere , said Tacitus of the Christians : which was true in the sence only that Christ said , He that doth not hate father or mother for my sake , is not worthy of me ; that is , he that doth not hate them praeme , rather than forsake me , forsake them , is unworthy of me . 17. Fourthly , In Baptism all our sins are pardoned , according to the words of a Prophet , I will sprinkle clean water upon you , and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness . The Catechumen descends into the Font a Sinner , he arises purified ; he goes down the son of Death , he comes up the son of the Resurrection ; he enters in the son of Folly and prevarication , he returns the son of Reconciliation ; he stoops down the child of Wrath , and ascends the heir of Mercy ; he was the child of the Devil , and now he is the servant and the son of God. They are the words of Venerable Bede concerning this Mystery . And this was ingeniously signified by that Greek inscription upon a Font , which is so prettily contriv'd , that the words may be read after the Greek or after the Hebrew manner , and be exactly the same ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Lord , wash my sin , and not my face only . And so it is intended and promised : * Arise and be baptized , and wash away thy sins , and call on the Name of the Lord , said Ananias to Saul ; for ‖ Christ loved the Church , and gave himself for it , that he might sanctifie and cleanse it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the washing of water in the word , that is , Baptism in the Christian Religion : and therefore * Tertullian calls Baptism lavacrum compendiatum , a compendious Laver , that is , an intire cleansing the Soul in that one action justly and rightly performed . In the rehearsal of which Doctrine it was not an unpleasant Etymology that 〈◊〉 Sinaita gave of Baptism , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in which our sins are thrown off ; and they fall like leeches when they are full of bloud and water , or like the chains from S. Peter's hands at the presence of the Angel. Baptism is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an intire full forgiveness of sins , so that they shall never be called again to scrutiny . — Omnia Daemonis armae His merguntur aquis , quibus ille renascitur Infans Qui captivus erat — The captivity of the Soul is taken away by the bloud of Redemption , and the fiery darts of the Devil are quenched by these salutary waters ; and what the flames of Hell are expiating or punishing to eternal ages , that is washed off quickly in the Holy Font , and an eternal debt paid in an instant . For so sure as the Egyptians were drowned in the Red Sea , so sure are our Sins washed in this Holy floud : for this is a Red Sea too ; these waters signifie the bloud of Christ ; These are they that have washed their Robes , and made them white in the bloud of the Lamb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The Bloud of Christ cleanseth us , the Water cleanseth us , the Spirit purifies us ; the Bloud by the Spirit , the Spirit by the Water , all in Baptism , and in pursuance of that Baptismal state . * These three are they that bear record in Earth , the Spirit , the Water , and the Bloud , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these three agree in one , or are to one purpose ; they agree in Baptism , and in the whole pursuance of the assistances which a Christian needs all the days of his life . And therefore S. Cyrill calls Baptism 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Antitype of the Passions of Christ : it does preconsign the death of Christ , and does the infancy of the work of Grace , but not weakly ; it brings from death to life ; and though it brings us but to the birth in the New life , yet that is a greater change than is in all the periods of our growth to manhood , to a perfect man in Christ Jesus . 18. Fifthly , Baptism does not only pardon our sins , but puts us into a state of Pardon for the time to come . For Baptism is the beginning of the New life , and an admission of us into the Evangelical Covenant , which on our parts consists in a sincere and timely endeavour to glorifie God by Faith and Obedience ; and on God's part , he will pardon what is past , assist us for the future , and not measure us by grains and scruples , or exact our duties by the measure of an Angel , but by the span of a man's hand . So that by Baptism we are consigned to the mercies of God and the Graces of the Gospel ; that is , that our Pardon be continued , and our Piety be a state of Repentance . And therefore that Baptism which in the Nicene Creed we 〈◊〉 to be for the remission of sins , is called in the Jerusalem 〈◊〉 The Baptism of Repentance ; that is , it is the entrance of a new life , the gate to a perpetual change and reformation , all the way continuing our title to and hopes of forgiveness of sins . And this excellency is clearly recorded by S. Paul ; The kindness and love of God our Saviour towards man hath appeared , Not by works of righteousness which we have done : that 's the formality of the Gospel-Covenant , not to be exacted by the strict measures of the Law : but according to his mercy he saved us , that is , by gentleness and remissions , by pitying and pardoning us , by relieving and supporting us , because he remembers that we are but dust ; and all this mercy we are admitted to , and is conveyed to us , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by the laver of Regeneration , and the renewing of the Holy Ghost . And this plain evident Doctrine was observed , explicated and urged against the Messalians , who said that Baptism was like a razor , that cuts away all the sins that were past , or presently adhering , but not the sins of our future life : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . This Sacrament promises more and greater things ; It is the earnest of future good things , the type of the Resurrection , the communication of the Lord's Passion , the partaking of his Resurrection , the robe of Righteousness , the garment of Gladness , the vestment of Light , or rather Light it self . And for this reason it is that Baptism is not to be repeated , because it does at once all that it can do at an hundred times : for it admits us to the condition of Repentance and Evangelical mercy , to a state of Pardon for our infirmities and sins , which we timely and effectually leave ; and this is a thing that can be done but once , as a man can begin but once ; he that hath once entred in at this gate of Life is always in possibility of Pardon , if he be in a possibility of working and doing after the manner of a man that which he hath promised to the Son of God. And this was expresly delivered and observed by S. Austin : That which the Apostle says , Cleansing him with the washing of water in the word , is to be understood , that in the same Laver of Regeneration and word of Sanctification all the evils of the regenerate are cleansed and healed ; not only the sins that are past , which are all now remitted in Baptism , but also those that are contracted afterwards by humane ignorance and infirmity : not that Baptism be repeated as often as we sin , but because by this which is once administred is brought to pass that pardon of all sins , not only of those that are past , but also those which will be committed afterwards , is obtained . The Messalians denied this , and it was part of their Heresie in the undervaluing of Baptism ; and for it they are most excellently confuted by Isidore Pelusiot , in his third Book , 195 Epistle to the Count Hermin , whither I refer the Reader . 19. In proportion to this Doctrine it is that the Holy Scripture calls upon us to live a holy life , in pursuance of this grace of Baptism . And S. Paul recalls the lapsed Galatians to their Covenant , and the grace of God stipulated in Baptism : Ye are all children of God by faith in Jesus Christ ; that is , heirs of the promise , and Abraham's seed ; that promise which cannot be disannulled , encreased or diminished , but is the same to us as it was to Abraham , the same before the Law and after . Therefore do not you hope to be 〈◊〉 by the Law , for you are entred into the Covenant of Faith , and are to be justified thereby . This is all your hope , by this you must stand for ever , or you cannot stand at all ; but by this you may : for you are God's children by Faith , that is , not by the Law , or the Covenant of Works . And that you may remember whence you are going , and return again , he proves that they are the Children of God by 〈◊〉 in Jesus Christ , because they have been baptized into Christ , and so put on Christ. This makes you Children , and such as are to be saved by Faith , that is , a Covenant , not of Works , but of Pardon in Jesus Christ , the Author and Establisher of this Covenant . For this is the Covenant made in Baptism , that being justified by his grace , we shall be heirs of life eternal : for by grace , that is , by favour , remission and forgiveness in Jesus Christ , ye are saved . This is the only way that we have of being justified , and this must remain as long as we are in hopes of Heaven ; for besides this we have no hopes : and all this is stipulated and consigned in Baptism , and is of force after our 〈◊〉 into sin and risings again . In pursuance of this the same Apostle declares , that the several states of sin are so many recessions from the state of Baptismal grace ; and if we arrive to the direct Apostasie , and renouncing of or a contradiction to the state of Baptism , we are then unpardonable , because we are fallen from our state of Pardon . This S. Paul conditions most strictly in his Epistle to the Hebrews ; This is the Covenant I will make in those days : I will put my Laws in their hearts ; And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more . Now where remission of these is , there is no more offering for sin ; that is , our sins are so pardoned that we need no more oblation , we are then made partakers of the death of Christ ; which we afterwards renew in memory and Eucharist and representment . But the great work is done in Baptism ; for so it follows , Having boldness to 〈◊〉 into the Holiest by the bloud of Jesus by a new and living way , that is , by the veil of his flesh , his Incarnation . But how do we enter into this ? Baptism is the door , and the ground of this confidence for ever : for so he adds , Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith , having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience , and our bodies washed with pure water . This is the consignation of this blessed state , and the gate to all this mercy . Let us hold fast the profession of our faith , that is , the Religion of a Christian , the Faith into which we were baptized ; for that is the Faith that justifies and saves us : Let us therefore hold fast this profession of this Faith , and do all the intermedial works in order to the conservation of it such as are assembling in the Communion of Saints , ( the use of the Word and Sacrament is included in the Precept ) mutual Exhortation , good Example , and the like : For if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth , that is , if we sin against the profession of this Faith , and hold it not fast , but let the Faith and the profession go wilfully , ( which afterwards he calls a treading under foot the Son of God , accounting the bloud of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing , and a doing despite to the spirit of grace , viz. which moved upon those waters , and did illuminate him in Baptism ) if we do this , there is no more sacrifice for sins , no more deaths of Christ into which you may be baptized ; that is , you are fallen from the state of Pardon and Repentance into which you were admitted in Baptism , and in which you continue so long as you have not quitted your baptismal Rights and the whole Covenant . Contrary to this is that which S. Peter calls making our Calling and Election sure , that is , a doing all that which may continue us in our state of Baptism and the grace of the Covenant . And between these two states , of absolute Apostasie from , and intirely adhering to and securing , this state of Calling and Election , are all the intermedial sins , and being overtaken in single faults , or declining towards vicious habits , which in their several proportions are degrees of danger and insecurity ; which S. Peter calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a forgetting our Baptism or purification from our sins . And in this sence are those words , The just shall live by Faith , that is , by that profession which they made in Baptism ; from which if they swerve not , they shall be supported in their spiritual life . It is a Grace which , by virtue of the Covenant consigned in Baptism , does like a centre 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to all the periods and portions of our life ; our whole life , all the periods of our succeeding hopes are kept alive by this . This consideration is of great use , besides many other things , to reprove the folly of those who in the Primitive Church deferred their Baptism till their death-bed ; because Baptism is a Laver of Sanctification , and drowns all our sins , and buries them in the grave of our Lord , they thought they might sin securely upon the stock of an after-Baptism ; for unless they were strangely prevented by a sudden accident , a death-bed Baptism they thought would secure their condition : but early some of them durst not take it , much less in the beginning of their years , that they might at least gain impunity for their follies and heats of their youth . Baptism hath influence into the pardon of all our sins committed in all the days of our folly and infirmity ; and so long as we have not been baptized , so long we are out of the state of Pardon : and therefore an early Baptism is not to be avoided upon this mistaken fancy and plot upon Heaven ; it is the greater security towards the pardon of our sins , if we have taken it in the beginning of our days . 20. Fifthly , The next benefit of Baptism , which is also a verification of this , is a Sanctification of the baptized person by the Spirit of Grace . Sanctus in hunc coelo descendit Spiritus amnem , Coelestique sacras fonte maritat aquas : Concipit unda Deum , sanctámque liquoribus almis Edit ab aeterno semine progeniem . The Holy Ghost descends upon the waters of Baptism , and makes them prolifical , apt to produce children unto God : and therefore S. Leo compares the Font of Baptism to the Womb of the Blessed Virgin when it was replenished with the Holy Spirit . And this is the Baptism of our dearest Lord : his Ministers baptize with Water , our Lord at the same time verifies their Ministery with giving the Holy Spirit . They are joyned together by S. Paul , We are by one Spirit baptized into one body ; that is , admitted into the Church by baptism of Water and the Spirit . This is that which our Blessed Lord calls a being born of Water and of the Spirit ; by Water we are sacramentally dead and buried , by the Spirit we are made alive . But because these are mysterious expressions , and , according to the style of Scripture , high and secret in spiritual significations , therefore , that we may understand what these things signifie , we must consider it by its real effects , and what it produces upon the Soul of a man. 21. First , It is the suppletory of original Righteousness , by which Adam was at first gracious with God , and which he lost by his prevarication . It was in him a principle of Wisdom and Obedience , a relation between God and himself , a title to the extraordinary mercies of God , and a state of Friendship : When he fell , he was discomposed in all , the links of the golden chain and blessed relation were broken ; and it so continued in the whole life of Man , which was stained with the evils of this folly and the consequent mischiefs : and therefore when we began the world again , entring into the Articles of a new life , God gave us his Spirit to be an instrument of our becoming gracious persons , and of being in a condition of obtaining that supernatural End which God at first designed to us . And therefore as our Baptism is a separation of us from unbelieving people ; so the descent of the Holy Spirit upon us in our Baptism is a consigning or marking us for God , as the Sheep of his pasture , as the Souldiers of his Army , as the Servants of his houshold : we are so separated from the world , that we are appropriated to God , so that God expects of us Duty and Obedience ; and all Sins are acts of Rebellion and Undutifulness . Of this nature was the sanctification of Jeremy and John the Baptist from their mothers womb ; that is , God took them to his own service by an early designation , and his Spirit marked them to a holy Ministery . To this also relates that of S. Paul , whom God by a decree separated from his mother's womb to the Ministery of the Gospel : the 〈◊〉 did antedate the act of the Spirit , which did not descend upon him until the day of his Baptism . What these persons were in order to exteriour Ministeries , that all the faithful are in order to Faith and Obedience , consigned in Baptism by the Spirit of God to a perpetual relation to God , in a continual service and title to his Promises . And in this sence the Spirit of God is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , * a Seal , ‖ In whom also , after that ye believed , ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of Promise : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Water washes the body , and the Spirit seals the Soul , viz. to a participation of those Promises which he hath made , and to which we receive a title by our Baptism . 22. Secondly , The second effect of the Spirit is Light or Illumination ; that is , the holy Spirit becomes unto us the Author of holy thoughts and firm perswasions , and sets to his seal that the Word of God is true , into the belief of which we are then baptized , and makes Faith to be a Grace , and the Understanding resigned , and the Will confident , and the Assent stronger than the premises , and the Propositions to be believed , because they are beloved ; and we are taught the ways of Godliness after a new manner , that is , we are made to perceive the Secrets of the Kingdom , and to love Religion , and to long for Heaven and heavenly things , and to despise the World , and to have new resolutions , and new perceptions , and new delicacies , in order to the establishment of Faith , and its increments and perseverance . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God sits in the Soul when it is illuminated in 〈◊〉 , as if he sate in his Throne ; that is , he rules by a firm perswasion , and intire principles of Obedience . And therefore Baptism is called in Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the baptized 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; illuminated ; Call to mind the former days , in which you were illuminated : and the same phrase is in the * 6. to the Hebrews , where the parallel places expound each other . For that which S. Paul calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 illuminated , he calls after , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a receiving the knowledge of the truth : and that you may perceive this to be wholly meant of Baptism , the 〈◊〉 expresses it still by Synonyma's , Tasting of the heavenly gift , and made partakers of the Holy Ghost , sprinkled in our hearts from an evil conscience , and washed in our bodies with pure water ; all which also are a syllabus or collection of the several effects of the graces bestowed in Baptism . But we are now instancing in that which relates most properly to the Understanding , in which respect the Holy Spirit also is called Anointing or Unction ; and the mystery is explicated by S. John , The Anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you ; and ye need not that any man teach you , but as the same Anointing teacheth you of all things . 23. Thirdly , The Holy Spirit descends upon us in Baptism , to become the principle of a new life , to become a holy seed , springing up to Holiness , and is called by S. John 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the 〈◊〉 of God ; and the purpose of it we are taught by him , Whosoever is 〈◊〉 of God ( that is , he that is regenerated and entred into this New birth ) doth not 〈◊〉 sin ; for his seed remaineth in him , and he cannot sin , because he is born of God. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of life ; and now that he by the Spirit is born anew , he hath in him that principle which , if it be cherished , will grow up to life , to life eternal . And this is the Spirit of Sanctification , the victory over the World , the deletery of Concupiscence , the life of the Soul , and the perpetual principle of Grace sown in our spirits in the day of our Adoption to be the sons of God , and members of Christ's body . But take this Mystery in the words of S. Basil. There are two Ends proposed in Baptism ; to wit , to abolish the body of Sin , that we may no more bring forth fruit unto death ; and to live in the Spirit , and to have our fruit to Sanctification . The Water represents the image of death , receiving the body in its bosom , as in a Sepulchre : but the quickning Spirit sends upon us a vigorous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 power or 〈◊〉 , even from the beginning renewing our Souls from the death of sin unto life : For as our Mortification is 〈◊〉 in the water , so the Spirit works life in us . To this purpose is the discourse of S. Paul , having largely discoursed of our being baptized into the death of 〈◊〉 , he adds this as the Corollary of all , a He that is * dead is freed from sin ; that is , being mortified and b buried in the waters of Baptism , we have a new life of Righteousness put into us , we are quitted from the dominion of Sin , and are c planted together in the likeness of Christ's Resurrection , d that henceforth we should not serve sin . 24. Fourthly , But all these intermedial Blessings tend to a glorious Conclusion , for Baptism does also consign us to a holy Resurrection . It takes the sting of death from us , by burying us together with Christ ; and takes 〈◊〉 Sin , which is the sting of death , and then we shall be partakers of a blessed Resurrection . This we are taught by S. Paul , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ , were baptized into his Death ? For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his Death , we shall be also in the likeness of his Resurrection . That declares the real event in its due season . But because Baptism consigns it , and admits us to a title to it , we are said with S. Paul , to be risen with Christ in Baptism ; Buried with him in Baptism , wherein also you are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God , which hath raised him from the dead . Which expression I desire to be remembred , that by it we may better understand those other sayings of the Apostle , of putting on Christ in Baptism , putting on the new man , &c. for these only signifie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or the design on God's part , and the endeavour and duty on Man's : we are then consigned to our Duty , and to our Reward ; we undertake one , and have a title to the other . And though men of ripeness and Reason enter instantly into their portion of Work , and have present use of the assistances , and something of their Reward in hand ; yet we cannot conclude , that those that cannot do it 〈◊〉 are not baptized rightly , because they are not in capacity to put on the New man in Righteousness , that is , in an actual holy life ; for they may put on the New man in Baptism , just as they are risen with Christ : which because it may be done by Faith before it is done in real event , and it may be done by Sacrament and design before it be done by a proper Faith ; so also may our putting on the New man be ; it is done sacramentally , and that part which is wholly the work of God does only antedate the work of man , which is to succeed in its due time , and is after the 〈◊〉 of preventing grace . But this is by the bye . In order to the present Article , Baptism is by 〈◊〉 called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a participation of the Lord's Resurrection . 25. Fifthly and lastly , By Baptism we are saved : that is , we are brought from death to life 〈◊〉 , and that is the first Resurrection ; and we are brought from death to life hereafter , by virtue of the Covenant of the state of Grace into which in Baptism we enter , and are preserved from the second Death , and receive a glorious and an eternal life . He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved , said our Blessed Saviour ; and , According to his mercy he saved us , by the washing of Regeneration and renowing of the Holy Ghost . 26. After these great Blessings so plainly testified in Scripture and the Doctrine of the Primitive Church , which are regularly consigned and bestowed in Baptism , I shall less need to descend to temporal Blessings , or rare contingencies , or miraculous events , or probable notices of things less certain . Of this nature are those Stories recorded in the Writings of the Church , that Constantine was cured of a Leprosie in Baptism ; Theodosius recovered of his disease , being baptized by the Bishop of Thessalonica ; and a paralytick Jew was cured as soon as he became a Christian , and was baptized by Atticus of CP . and Bishop Arnulph baptizing a Leper also cured him , said Vincentius Bellovacensis . It is more considerable which is generally and piously believed by very many eminent persons in the Church , that at our Baptism God assigns an Angel-Guardian , ( for then the Catechumen , being made a Servant and a Brother to the Lord of Angels , is sure not to want the aids of them who pitch their tents round about them that fear the Lord ) and that this guard and ministery is then appointed when themselves are admitted into the inheritance of the Promises : and their title to Salvation is hugely agreeable to the words of S. Paul , Are they not all ministring spirits , sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of Salvation ? where it appears , that the title to the inheritance is the title to this ministery , and therefore must begin and end together . But I insist not on this , though it seems to me hugely probable . All these Blessings put into one Syllabus have given to Baptism many honourable appellatives in Scripture and other Divine Writers , calling it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sacramentum 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 salutis : A New birth , a Regeneration , a Renovation , a Chariot carrying us to God , the great Circumcision , a Circumcision made without hands , the Key of the Kingdom , the Paranymph of the Kingdom , the Earnest of our inheritance , the Answer of a good Conscience , the Robe of light , the Sacrament of a new life and of eternal Salvation . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . This is celestial water , springing from the sides of the Rock upon which the Church was built , when the Rock was smitten with the Rod of God. 27. It remains now that we enquire what concerns our Duty , and in what persons or in what dispositions Baptism produces all these glorious effects : for the Sacraments of the Church work in the virtue of Christ , but yet only upon such as are servants of Christ , and hinder not the work of the Spirit of Grace . For the water of the Font and the Spirit of the Sacrament are indeed to wash away our Sins , and to purifie our Souls ; but not unless we have a mind to be purified . The Sacrament works pardon for them that hate their sin , and procures Grace for them that love it . They that are guilty of sins must repent of them , and renounce them , and they must make a profession of the Faith of Christ , and give or be given up to the obedience of Christ ; and then they are rightly disposed . He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved , saith Christ ; and S. Peter call'd out to the whole assembly , Repent , and be baptized every one of you . Concerning this Justin Martyr gives the same account of the Faith and practice of the Church ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 &c. Whosoever are perswaded and believe those things to be true which are delivered and spoken by us , and undertake to live accordingly , they are commanded to fast and pray , and to ask of God remission for their former sins , we also praying together with them , and fasting . Then they are brought to us where water is , and are regenerated in the same manner of Regeneration by which we our selves are regenerated . For in Baptism S. Peter observes there are two parts , the Body and the Spirit : that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the putting away the 〈◊〉 of the flesh , that is the material washing ; and this is Baptism no otherwise than a dead corps is a man : the other is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the answer of a good conscience towards God , that is , the conversion of the Soul to God ; that 's the effective disposition in which Baptism does save us . And in the same sence are those sayings of the Primitive Doctors to be understood ; Anima non lavatione , sed 〈◊〉 sancitur , The Soul is not healed by washing , viz. alone , but by the answer , the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in S. Peter , the correspondent of our part of the Covenant : sor that 's the perfect 〈◊〉 of this unusual expression . And the effect is attributed to this , and denied to the other , when they are distinguished . So Justin Martyr affirms ; The only Baptism that can heal us is Kepentance , and the knowledge of God. For what need is there of that Baptism that can only 〈◊〉 the flesh and the body ? Be washed in your flesh from wrath and 〈◊〉 , from envy and hatred ; and behold the body is pure . And Clemens Alexandrinus upon that Proverbial saying , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Be not pure in the laver , but in the mind , adds , I suppose that an exact and a firm Repentance is a sufficient purification to a man ; if judging and considering our selves for the facts we have done before , we proceed to that which is before us , considering that which follows , and cleansing or washing our mind from sensual affections and from former sins . Just as we use to deny the effect to the instrumental cause , and attribute it to the principal , in the manner of speaking , when our purpose is to affirm this to be the principal , and of chief 〈◊〉 . So we say , It is not the good Lute , but the skilful hand , that makes the musick : It is not the Body , but the Soul , that is the Man : and yet he is not the man without both . For Baptism is but the material part in the Sacrament , it is the Spirit that giveth life ; whose work is Faith and Repentance begun by himself without the Sacrament , and consigned in the Sacrament , and actuated and increased in the cooperation of our whole life . And therefore Baptism is called in the Jerusalem Creed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , one Baptism of Repentance for the remission of sins : and by Justin Martyr , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The Baptism of Repentance and the knowledge of God , which was made for the sins of the people of God. He explains himself a little after , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Baptism that can only cleanse them that are penitent . In Sacrament is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fides credentium & professio , quae apud Act a conficitur Angelorum , 〈◊〉 miscentur 〈◊〉 & spiritualia semina ; ut sancto germine nova possit renascentium indoles procreari , ut dum Trinitas cum Fide concordat , qui natus fuerit seculo renascatur spiritualiter Deo. Sic fit hominum Pater Deus , sancta fit Mater Ecclesia , said Optatus : The Faith and Profession of the Believers meets with the ever-blessed Trinity , and is recorded in the Register of Angels , where heavenly and spiritual seeds are mingled ; that from so holy a Spring may be produced a new nature of the Regeneration , that while the Trinity ( viz. that is invocated upon the baptized ) meets with the Faith of the Catechumen , he that was born to the world may be born spiritually to God. So God is made a Father to the man , and the holy Church a Mother . Faith and Repentance stript the Old man naked , and make him fit for Baptism ; and then the Holy Spirit moving upon the waters cleanses the Soul , and makes it to put on the New man , who grows up to perfection and a spiritual life , to a life of glory , by our verification of our undertaking in Baptism on our part , and the Graces of the Spirit on the other . For the waters pierce no farther than the skin , till the person puts off his affection to the sin that he hath contracted ; and then he may say , Aquae intraverunt 〈◊〉 ad animam meam , The waters are entred even unto my Soul , to purifie and cleanse it , by the washing of water , and the renewing by the Holy Spirit . The summ is this ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Being baptized we are illuminated , being illuminated we are adopted to the inheritance of sons , being adopted we are promoted towards perfection , and being perfected we are made immortal . Quisquis in hos fontes vir venerit , exeat indè Semideus , tactis citò nobilitetur in undis . 28. This is the whole Doctrine of Baptism , as it is in it self considered , without relation to rare Circumstances or accidental cases : and it will also serve to the right understanding of the reasons why the Church of God hath in all Ages baptized all persons that were within her power , for whom the Church could stipulate that they were or might be relatives of Christ , sons of God , heirs of the Promises , and partners of the Covenant , and such as did not hinder the work of Baptism upon their Souls . And such were not only persons of age and choice , but the Infants of Christian Parents . For the understanding and verifying of which truth , I shall only need to apply the parts of the former Discourse to their particular case , premising first these Propositions . Of Baptizing Infants . Part II. 1. BAPTISM is the Key in Christ's hand , and therefore opens as he opens , and shuts by his rule : and as Christ himself did not do all his Blessings and effects unto every one , but gave to every one as they had need ; so does Baptism . Christ did not cure all mens eyes , but them only that were blind ; Christ came not to call the righteous , but sinners , to 〈◊〉 : that is , They that lived in the fear of God , according to the Covenant in which they were debtors , were indeed improved and promoted higher by Christ , but not called to that Repentance to which he called the vicious Gentiles , and the Adulterous persons among the Jews , and the hypocritical Pharisees . There are some so innocent that they need no repentance , ( saith the Scripture ; ) meaning , that though they do need Contrition for their single acts of sin , yet they are within the state of Grace , and need not Repentance as it is a Conversion of the whole man. And so it is in Baptism , which does all its effects upon them that need them all , and some upon them that need but some : and therefore as it pardons sins to them that have committed them , and do repent and believe ; so to the others , who have not committed them , it does all the work which is done to the others above or besides that Pardon . 2. Secondly , When the ordinary effect of a Sacrament is done already by some other efficiency or instrument , yet the Sacrament is still as obligatory as before , not for so many reasons or necessities , but for the same Commandment . Baptism is the first ordinary Current in which the Spirit moves and descends upon us ; and where God's Spirit is , they are the Sons of God , for Christ's Spirit descends upon none but them that are his : and yet Cornelius , who had received the holy Spirit , and was heard by God , and visited by an Angel , and accepted in his Alms and Fastings and Prayers , was tied to the susception of Baptism . To which may be added . That the receiving the effects of Baptism before-hand was used as an argument the rather to administer Baptism . The effect of which consideration is this , That Baptism and its effect may be separated , and do not always go in conjunction ; the effect may be before , and therefore much rather may it be after its susception ; the Sacrament operating in the virtue of Christ , even as the Spirit shall move : according to that saying of S. Austin , Sacrosancto lavacro inchoata innovatio novi hominis perficiendo perficitur in aliis citiùs , in aliis taràiùs ; and S. Bernard , Lavari quidem citò possumus , sed ad sanandum multâ curatione opus est . The work of Regeneration , that is begun in the ministery of Baptism , is perfected in some sooner , in some later : We may soon be washed , but to be healed is a work of a long cure . 3. Thirdly , The Dispositions which are required to the ordinary susception of Baptism are not necessary to the efficacy , or required to the nature of the Sacrament , but accidentally , and because of the superinduced necessities of some men ; and therefore the Conditions are not regularly to be required . But in those accidents it was necessary for a Gentile Proselyte to repent of his sins , and to believe in Moses's Law , before he could be circumcised : but Abraham was not tied to the same Conditions , but only to Faith in God ; but Isaac was not tied to so much ; and Circumcision was not of Moses , but of the Fathers : and yet after the sanction of Moses's Law , men were tied to conditions , which were then made necessary to them that entred into the Covenant , but not necessary to the nature of the Covenant it self . And so it is in the susception of Baptism : If a sinner enters into the Font , it is necessary he be stripped of those appendages which himself sewed upon his Nature , and then Repentance is a necessary disposition : if his Understanding hath been a stranger to Religion , polluted with evil Principles and a false Religion , it is necessary he have an actual Faith , that he be given in his Understanding up to the obedience of Christ. And the reason of this is plain , Because in these persons there is a disposition contrary to the state and effects of Baptism ; and therefore they must be taken off by their contraries , Faith and Repentance , that they may be reduced to the state of pure Receptives . And this is the sence of those words of our Blessed Saviour , Unless ye become like one of these little ones , ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven ; that is , Ye cannot be admitted into the Gospel-Covenant , unless all your contrarieties and impediments be taken from you , and you be as apt as children to receive the new immissions from Heaven . And this Proposition relies upon a great Example , and a certain Reason . The Example is our Blessed Saviour , who was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 debitor , he had committed no sin , and needed no Repentance ; he needed not to be saved by Faith , for of Faith he was the Author and Finisher , and the great object , and its perfection and reward : and yet he was baptized by the Baptism of John , the Baptism of Repentance . And therefore it is certain that Repentance and Faith are not necessary to the susception of Baptism , but necessary to some persons that are baptized . For it is necessary we should much consider the difference . If the Sacrament by any person may be justly received in whom such Dispositions are not to be sound , then the Dispositions are not necessary or intrinsecal to the susception of the Sacrament ; and yet some persons coming to this Sacrament may have such necessities of their own as will make the Sacrament ineffectual without such Dispositions . These I call necessary to the person , but not to the Sacrament ; that is , necessary to all such , but not necessary to all absolutely . And Faith is necessary sometimes where Repentance is not , sometimes Repentance and Faith together , and sometimes otherwise . When Philip baptized the Eunuch , he only required of him to believe , not to repent . But S. Peter , when he preached to the Jews and converted them , only required Repentance ; which although it in their case implied Faith , yet there was explicit stipulation for it : they had crucified the Lord of life , and if they would come to God by Baptism , they must renounce their sin ; that was all was then stood upon . It is as the case is , or as the persons have superinduced necessities upon themselves . In Children the case is evident as to the one part , which is equally required , I mean , Repentance ; the not doing of which cannot prejudice them as to the susception of Baptism , because they having done no evil are not bound to repent ; and to repent is as necessary to the susception of Baptism as Faith is : But this shews that they are accidentally necessary , that is , not absolutely , not to all , not to Insants : and if they may be excused from one duty which is indispensably necessary to Baptism , why they may not from the other , is a secret which will not be found out by these whom it concerns to believe it . 4. And therefore when our Blessed Lord made a stipulation and express Commandment for Faith , with the greatest annexed penalty to them that had it not , He that believeth not shall be damned , the proposition is not to be verified or understood as relative to every period of time ; for then no man could be converted from Insidelity to the Christian Faith , and from the power of the Devil to the Kingdom of Christ , but his present Infidelity shall be his final ruine . It is not therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , not a Sentence , but a 〈◊〉 , a Prediction and Intermination . It is not like that saying , God is true , and every man a lier , and , Every good and every perfect gift is from above ; for these are true in every instant , without reference to circumstances : but , He that believeth not shall be damned , is a Prediction , or that which in Rhetorick is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or a Use , because this is the affirmation of that which usually or frequently comes to pass ; such as this , He that strikes with the sword shall perish by the sword ; He that robs a Church shall be like a wheel , of a vertiginous and unstable estate ; He that loves wine and oyl shall not be rich : and therefore it is a declaration of that which is universally or commonly true ; but not so , that in what instant soever a man is not a believer , in that instant it is true to say he is damned ; for some are called the third , some the sixth , some the ninth hour , and they that come in , being first called , at the eleventh hour , shall have their reward : so that this sentence stands true at the day and the judgment of the Lord , not at the judgment or day of man. And in the same necessity as Faith stands to Salvation , in the same it stands to Baptism , that is , to be measured by the whole latitude of its extent . Our Baptism shall no more do all its intention , unless Faith supervene , than a man is in possibility of being saved without Faith ; it must come in its due time , but is not indispensably necessary in all instances and periods . Baptism is the seal of our Election and adoption ; and as Election is brought to effect by Faith and its consequents , so is Baptism : but to neither is Faith necessary as to its beginning and first entrance . To which also I add this Consideration , That actual Faith is necessary , not to the susception , but to the consequent effects of Baptism , appears , because the Church , and particularly the Apostles , did baptize some persons who had not Faith , but were Hypocrites ; such as were Simon Magus , Alexander the Copper-smith , Demas and Diotrephes ; and such was Judas when he was baptized , and such were the Gnostick Teachers . For the effect depends upon God , who knows the heart , but the outward susception depends upon them who do not know it : which is a certain argument , That the same Faith which is necessary to the effect of the Sacrament is not necessary to its susception ; and if it can be administred to Hypocrites , much more to Infants ; if to those who really hinder the effect , much rather to them that hinder not . And if it be objected , that the Church does not know but the Pretenders have Faith , but she knows Infants have not : I reply , that the Church does not know but the Pretenders hinder the effect , and are contrary to the grace of the Sacrament , but she knows that Infants do not : The first possibly may receive the Grace , the other cannot hinder it . 5. But besides these things it is considerable , that , when it is required , persons have Faith : It is true , they that require Baptism should give a reason why they do ; so it was in the case of the Eunuch baptized by Philip : but this is not to be required of others that do not ask it , and yet they may be of the Church , and of the Faith ; for by Faith is also understood the Christian Religion , and the Christian Faith is the Christian Religion , and of this a man may be though he make no confession of his Faith , as a man may be of the Church , and yet not be of the number of God's secret ones ; and to this more is required than to that : to the first it is sufficient that he be admitted by a Sacrament or a Ceremony ; which is infallibly certain , because Hypocrites and wicked people are in the visible Communion of the Church , and are reckoned as members of it , and yet to them there was nothing done but the Ceremony administred ; and therefore when that is done to Insants , they also are to be reckoned in the Church-Communion . And indeed , in the examples of Scripture , we find more inserted into the number of God's family by outward Ceremony than by the inward Grace . Of this number were all those who were circumcised the eighth day , who were admitted thither , as the woman's daughter was cured in the Gospel , by the Faith of their mother , their natural parents , or their spiritual ; to whose Faith it is as certain God will take heed , as to their Faith who brought one to Christ who could not come himself , the poor Paralytick ; for when Christ saw their faith , he cured their friend : and yet it is to be observed , that Christ did use to exact faith , actual faith , of them that came to him to be cured , [ According to your faith be it unto you . ] The case is equal in its whole kind . And it is considerable what Christ saith to the poor man that came in behalf of his son , All things are possible to him that believeth : it is possible for a son to receive the blessing and benefit of his father's faith ; and it was so in his case , and is possible to any ; for to Faith all things are possible . And as to the event of things it is evident in the story of the Gospel , that the faith of their relatives was equally effective to children and friends or servants , absent or sick , as the faith of the interested person was to himself : as appears beyond all exception in the case of the friends of the Paralytick , let down with cords through the tiles ; of the Centurion , in behalf of his servant ; of the nobleman , for his son sick at Capernaum ; of the 〈◊〉 , for her daughter : and Christ required saith of no sick man , but of * him that presented himself to him , and desired for himself that he might be cured , as it was in the case of the blind man. Though they could not believe , yet Christ required belief of them that came to him on their behalf . And why then it may not be so , or is not so , in the case of Infants Baptism , I confess it is past my skill to conjecture . The Reason on which this farther relies is contained in the next Proposition . 6. Fourthly , No disposition or act of man can deserve the first Grace , or the grace of Pardon : for so long as a man is unpardoned , he is an enemy to God , and as a dead person , and , unless he be prevented by the grace of God , cannot do a single act in order to his pardon and restitution ; so that the first work which God does upon a man is so wholly his own , that the man hath nothing in it , but to entertain it , that is , not to hinder the work of God upon him . And this is done in them that have in them nothing that can hinder the work of Grace , or in them who remove the hinderances . Of the latter sort are all Sinners , who have lived in a state contrary to God ; of the first are they who are prevented by the grace of God before they can chuse , that is , little Children , and those that become like unto little Children . So that Faith and Repentance are not necessary at first to the reception of the first grace , but by accident . If Sin have drawn curtains , and put bars and coverings to the windows , these must be taken away ; and that is done by Faith and Repentance : but if the windows be not shut , so that the light can pass through them , the eye of Heaven will pass in and dwell there . No man can come unto me , unless my Father draw him : that is , The first access to Christ is nothing of our own , but wholly of God ; and it is as in our creation , in which we have an obediential capacity , but cooperate not ; only if we be contrary to the work of Grace , that contrariety must be taken off , else there is no necessity . And if all men , according to Christ's saying , must receive the Kingdom of God as little children , it is certain , little children do receive it ; they receive it as all men ought , that is , without any impediment or obstruction , without anything within that is contrary to that state . 7. Fifthly , Baptism is not to be estimated as one act , transient and effective to single purposes ; but it is an entrance to a conjugation and a state of Blessings . All our life is to be transacted by the measures of the Gospel-Covenant , and that Covenant is consign'd by Baptism , there we have our title and adoption to it ; and the grace that is then given to us is like a piece of Leven put into a lump of dough , and Faith and Repentance do in all the periods of our life put it into fermentation and activity . Then the seed of God is put into the ground of our hearts , and Repentance waters it , and Faith makes it subactum solum , the ground and surrows apt to produce fruits : and therefore Faith and Repentance are necessary to the effect of Baptism , not to its susception ; that is , necessary to all those parts of life in which Baptism does operate , not to the first sanction or entring into the Covenant . The seed may lie long in the ground , and produce fruits in its due season , if it be refreshed with the former and the later rain , that is , the Repentance that first changes the state , and converts the man , and afterwards returns him to his title , and recalls him from his wandrings , and keeps him in the state of Grace , and within the limits of the Covenant : and all the way Faith gives efficacy and acceptation to this Repentance , that is , continues our title to the Promise of not having Righteousness exacted by the measures of the Law , but by the Covenant and promise of Grace , into which we entred in Baptism , and walk in the same all the days of our life . 8. Sixthly , The Holy Spirit which descends upon the waters of Baptism does not instantly produce its effects in the Soul of the baptized ; and when he does , it is irregularly , and as he pleases . The Spirit bloweth where it listeth , and no man knoweth whence it cometh , nor whither it goeth : and the Catechumen is admitted into the Kingdom , yet the Kingdom of God cometh not with observation : and this saying of our Blessed Saviour was spoken of * the Kingdom of God that is within us , that is , the Spirit of Grace , the power of the Gospel put into our hearts , concerning which he affirmed , that it operates so secretly , that it comes not with outward shew ; neither shall they say , Lo here , or lo there . Which thing I desire the rather to be observed , because in the same discourse , which our Blessed Saviour continued to that assembly , he affirms this Kingdom of God to belong unto little children , this Kingdom that cometh not with outward significations or present expresses , this Kingdom that is within us . For the present , the use I make of it is this , That no man can conclude that this Kingdom of Power , that is , the Spirit of Sanctification , is not come upon Infants , because there is no sign or expression of it . It is within us , therefore it hath no signification . It is the seed of God ; and it is no good Argument to say , Here is no seed in the bowels of the earth , because there is nothing green upon the face of it . For the Church gives the Sacrament , God gives the Grace of the Sacrament . But because he does not always give it at the instant in which the Church gives the Sacrament , ( as if there be a secret impediment in the suscipient ) and yet afterwards does give it when the impediment is removed , ( as to them that repent of that impediment ) it follows , that the Church may administer rightly even before God gives the real Grace of the Sacrament : and if God gives this Grace afterwards by parts , and yet all of it is the effect of that Covenant which was consigned in Baptism ; he that desers some may defer all , and verifie every part as well as any part . For it is certain , that in the instance now made all the Grace is deferred ; in Infants it is not certain but that some is collated or infused : however , be it so or no , yet upon this account the administration of the Sacrament is not hindred . 9. Seventhly , When the Scripture speaks of the effects of or dispositions to Baptism , it speaks in general expressions , as being most apt to signifie a common duty , or a general effect , or a more universal event , or the proper order of things : but those general expressions do not supponere universaliter , that is , are not to be understood exclusively to all that are not so qualified , or universally of all suscipients , or of all the subjects of the Proposition . When the Prophets complain of the Jews , that they are fallen from God , and turned to Idols , and walk not in the way of their Fathers ; and at other times the Scripture speaks the same thing of their Fathers , that they walked perversly toward God , starting aside like a broken bow ; in these and the like expressions the Holy Scripture uses a Synecdoche , or signifies many only , under the notion of a more large and indesinite expression : for neither were all the Fathers good , neither did all the sons prevaricate ; but among the Fathers there were enough to recommend to posterity by way of example , and among the Children there were enough to stain the reputation of the Age ; but neither the one part nor the other was true of every single person . S. John the Baptist spake to the whole audience , saying , O generation of 〈◊〉 ! and yet he did not mean that all Jerusalem and Judaea that went out to be baptized of him were such ; but he , under an undeterminate reproof , intended those that were such , that is , especially the Priests and the Pharisees . And it is more considerable yet in the story of the event of Christ's Sermon in the Synagogue , upon his Text taken out of Isaiah , All wondred at his gracious words , and bare him witness ; and a little after , All they in the Synagogue were filled with wrath : that is , it was generally so , but hardly to be supposed true of every single 〈◊〉 , in both the contrary humors and usages . Thus Christ said to the Apostles , To have abidden with me in my temptations ; and yet Judas was all the way a follower of interest and the bag , rather than Christ , and afterwards none of them all did abide with Christ in his greatest Temptations . Thus also , to come nearer the present Question , the secret effects of Election and of the Spirit are in Scripture attributed to all that are of the outward Communion . So S. Peter calls all the Christian strangers of the Eastern dispersion , Elect according to the sore-knowledge of God the Father ; and S. Paul saith of all the Roman Christians , and the same of the 〈◊〉 , that their Faith was spoken of in all the world : and yet amongst them it is not to be supposed that all the 〈◊〉 had an unreproveable Faith , or that every one of the Church of 〈◊〉 was an excellent and a charitable person ; and yet the 〈◊〉 useth this expression , 〈◊〉 faith groweth exceedingly , and the charity of every one of you all towards each other aboundeth . These are usually significant of a general custom or order of things , or duty of men , or design , and natural or proper expectation of events . Such are these also in this very Question , As many of you as are baptized into Christ , have put on Christ ; that is , so it is regularly , and so it will be in its due time , and that is the order of things , and the designed event : but from hence we cannot conclude of every person , and in every period of time , This man hath been baptized , therefore now he is 〈◊〉 with Christ , he hath put on Christ ; nor thus , This person cannot in a spiritual sence as yet put on Christ , therefore he hath not been baptized , that is , he hath not put him on in a 〈◊〉 sence . Such is the saying of S. Paul , Whom he hath predestinated , them he also called ; and whom he called , them he also justified ; and whom he justified , them he also glorified : this also declares the regular event , or at least the order of things , and the design of God , but not the actual verification of it to all persons . These sayings concerning Baptism in the like manner are to be so understood , that they cannot exclude all persons from the 〈◊〉 that have not all those real effects of the Sacrament at all times which some men have at some times , and all men must have at some time or other , viz. when the Sacrament obtains its last intention . But he that shall argue from hence , That Children are not rightly baptized , because they cannot in a spiritual sence put on Christ , concludes nothing , unless these Propositions did signifie universally , and at all times , and in every person , and in every manner : which can no more pretend to truth , than that all Christians are God's Elect , and all that are baptized are Saints , and all that are called are justified , and all that are once justified shall be saved finally . These things declare only the event of things , and their order , and the usual effect , and the proper design , in their proper season , in their limited proportions . 10. Eighthly , A Negative Argument for matters of fact in Scripture cannot conclude a Law , or a necessary or a regular event . And therefore supposing that it be not intimated that the Apostles did baptize Insants , it follows not that they did not ; and if they did not , it does not follow that they might not , or that the Church may not . For it is unreasonable to argue , The Scripture speaks nothing of the Baptism of the Holy Virgin Mother , therefore she was not baptized . The words and deeds of Christ are infinite which are not recorded , and of the Acts of the Apostles we may suppose the same in their proportion : and therefore what they did not is no rule to us , unless they did it not because they were forbidden . So that it can be no good Argument to say , The Apostles are not read to have baptized Infants , therefore Infants are not to be baptized : but thus , We do not find that Infants are excluded from the common Sacraments and Ceremonies of Christian institution , therefore we may not presume to exclude them . For although the Negative of a Fact is no good Argument , yet the Negative of a Law is a very good one . We may not say , The Apostles did not , therefore we may not : but thus , They were not forbidden to do it , there is no Law against it , therefore it may be done . No man's deeds can prejudicate a Divine Law expressed in general terms , much less can it be prejudiced by those things that were not done . That which is wanting cannot be numbred , cannot be effectual ; therefore , Baptize all Nations , must signifie all that it can signifie , all that are reckoned in the Capitations and accounts of a Nation . Now since all contradiction to this Question depends wholly upon these two Grounds , the Negative Argument in matter of Fact , and the Pretences that Faith and Repentance are required to Baptism ; since the first is wholly nothing , and infirm upon an infinite account , and the second may conclude , that Infants can no more be saved than be baptized , because Faith is more necessary to Salvation than to Baptism ; it being said , He that believeth not shall be damned , and it is not said , He that believeth not shall be excluded from Baptism : it follows , that the Doctrine of those that resuse to baptize their Infants is upon both its legs weak and broken and insufficient . 11. Upon the supposition of these Grounds , the Baptism of Infants , according to the perpetual practice of the Church of God , will stand firm and unshaken upon its own Base . For , as the Eunuch said to Philip , What hinders them to be baptized ? If they can receive benefit by it , it is infallibly certain , that it belongs to them also to receive it , and to their Parents to procure it ; for nothing can deprive us of so great a Grace but an Unworthiness , or a Disability . They are not disabled to receive it , if they need it , and if it does them good ; and they have neither done good nor evil , and theresore they have not sorseited their right to it . This theresore shall be the first great Argument or Combination of inducements , Infants receive many benefits by the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 , and theresore in charity and in duty we are to bring them to Baptism . 12. First , The first Effect of Baptism is , That in it we are admitted to the Kingdom of Christ , offered and presented unto him . In which certainly there is the same act of Worship to God , and the same blessing to the Children of Christians , as there was in presenting the first-born among the Jews . For our Children can be God's own portion as well as theirs : And as they presented the first-born to God , and so acknowledged that God might have taken his life in Sacrifice , as well as the Sacrifice of the Lamb or the Oblation of a Beast ; yet when the right was consessed , God gave him back again , and took a Lamb in exchange , or a pair of Doves : so are our Children presented to God as forseit , and God might take the forfeiture , and not admit the Babe to the Promises of Grace ; but when the Presentation of the Child and our acknowledgment is made to God , God takes the Lamb of the World in exchange , and he hath paid our forfeiture , and the Children are holy unto the Lord. And what hinders here ? Cannot a Cripple receive an alms at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple , unless he go thither himself ? or cannot a Gift be presented to God by the hands of the owners , and the Gift become holy and pleasing to God , without its own consent ? The Parents have a portion of the possession : Children are blessings , and God's gifts , and the Father's greatest wealth , and therefore are to be given again to him . In other things we give something to God of all that he gives us ; all we do not , because our needs force us to retain the greater part , and the less sanctifies the whole : but our Children must all be returned to God ; for we may love them , and so may God too , and they are the better our own by being made holy in their Presentation . Whatsoever is given to God is holy , every thing in its proportion and capacity ; a Lamb is holy when it becomes a Sacrifice , and a Table is holy when it becomes an Altar , and an House is holy when it becomes a Church , and a Man is holy when he is consecrated to be a Priest , and so is every one that is dedicated to Religion : these are holy persons , the others are holy Things . And Infants are between both : they have the Sanctification that belongs to them , the Holiness that can be of a reasonable nature offer'd and destin'd to God's service ; but not in that degree that is in an understanding , chusing person . Certain it is that Infants may be given to God ; and if they may be , they must be : for it is not here as in Goods , where we are permitted to use all or some , and give what portion we please out of them ; but we cannot do our duty towards our Children unless we give them wholly to God , and offer them to his service and to his grace . The first does honour to God , the second does charity to the Children . The effects and real advantages will appear in the sequel . In the mean time this Argument extends thus sar , That Children may be presented to God acceptably in order to his service . And it was highly preceptive , when our Blessed Saviour commanded that we should 〈◊〉 little children to come to him : and when they came , they carried away a Blessing along with them . He was desirous they should partake of his Merits : he is not willing , neither is it his Father's will , that any of these little ones should perish . And therefore he died for them , and loved , and blessed them : and so he will now , if they be brought to him , and presented as Candidates of the Religion and of the Resurrection . Christ hath a Blessing for our Children ; but let them come to him , that is , be presented at the doors of the Church to the Sacrament of Adoption and Initiation ; for I know no other way for them to come . 13. Secondly , Children may be adopted into the Covenant of the Gospel , that is , made partakers of the Communion of Saints , which is the second Effect of Baptism ; parts of the Church , members of Christ's Mystical body , and put into the order of eternal life . Now concerning this , it is certain the Church clearly hath power to do her offices in order to it . The faithful can pray for all men , they can do their piety to some persons with more regard and greater earnestness , they can admit whom they please in their proper dispositions to a participation of all their holy Prayers , and Communions , and Preachings , and Exhortations : and if all this be a blessing , and all this be the actions of our own Charity , who can hinder the Church of God from admitting Infants to the communion of all their pious offices , which can do them benefit in their present capacity ? How this does necessarily infer Baptism , I shall * afterwards discourse . But for the present I enumerate , That the blessings of Baptism are communicable to them ; they may be admitted into a fellowship of all the Prayers and Priviledges of the Church , and the Communion of Saints , in blessings , and prayers , and holy offices . But that which is of greatest perswasion and convincing efficacy in this particular is , That the Children of the Church are as capable of the same Covenant as the children of the Jews : But it was the same Covenant that Circumcision did consign , a spiritual Covenant under a veil , and now it is the same spiritual Covenant without the veil ; which is evident to him that considers it , thus : 14. The words of the Covenant are these , [ I am the Almighty God , walk before me , and be thou perfect : I will multiply thee exceedingly : Thou shalt be a Father of many Nations : Thy name shall not be Abram , but Abraham : Nations and Kings shall be out of thee : I will be a God unto thee and unto thy seed after thee : and , I will give all the Land of Canaan to thy seed : and , All the Males shall be circumcised ; and it shall be a token of the Covenant between me and thee : and , He that is not circumcised shall be cut off from his people . ] The Covenant which was on 〈◊〉 's part was , To walk before God , and to be perfect ; on God's part , To bless him with a numerous issue , and them with the Land of Canaan : and the sign was Circumcision , the token of the Covenant . Now in all this here was no duty to which the posterity was obliged , nor any blessing which 〈◊〉 could perceive or feel , because neither he nor his posterity did enjoy the Promise for many hundred years after the Covenant : and therefore as there was a duty for the posterity which is not here expressed ; so there was a blessing for Abraham , which was concealed under the leaves of a temporal Promise , and which we shall better understand from them whom the Spirit of God hath taught the mysteriousness of this transaction . The argument indeed and the observation is wholly S. Paul's . Abraham and the Patriarchs died in faith , not having received the Promises , viz. of a possession in Canaan . They saw the Promises afar off , they embraced them , and looked through the Cloud , and the temporal veil : this was not it ; they might have returned to Canaan , if that had been the object of their desires , and the design of the Promise : but they desired and did seek a Country , but it was a better , and that a heavenly . This was the object of their desire , and the end of their seach , and the reward of their Faith , and the secret of their Promise . And therefore Circumcision was a seal of the righteousness of Faith which he had before his Circumcision , before the making this Covenant ; and therefore it must principally relate to an effect and a blessing greater than was afterwards expressed in the temporal Promise : which effect was forgiveness of sins , a not imputing to us our infirmities , Justification by Faith , accounting that for righteousness : and these effects or graces were promised to Abraham , not only for his posterity after the flesh , but his children after the spirit , even to all that shall believe and walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham which he walked in being yet uncircumcised . 15. This was no other but the Covenant of the Gospel , though afterwards otherwise consigned : for so the Apostle expresly affirms , that Abraham was the father of Circumcision ( viz. by virtue of this Covenant ) not only to them that are circumcised , but to all that believe : for this promise was not through the Law of Works , or of Circumcision , but of Faith. And therefore , as S. Paul observes , God promised that Abraham should be a father ( not of that Nation only , but ) of many Nations , and the heir of the world ; that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through Faith. And if ye be Christ's , then ye are Abraham's seed , and heirs according to the Promise . Since then the Covenant of the Gospel is the Covenant of Faith , and not of Works ; and the Promises are spiritual , not secular ; and Abraham the father of the faithful Gentiles as well as the circumcised Jews ; and the heir of the world , not by himself , but by his seed , or the Son of Man , our Lord Jesus : it follows , that the Promises which Circumcision did seal were the same Promises which are consigned in Baptism ; the Covenant is the same , only that God's people are not impal'd in 〈◊〉 , and the veil is taken away , and the Temporal is passed into Spiritual ; and the result will be this , That to as many persons , and in as many capacities , and in the same dispositions as the Promises were applied and did relate in Circumcision , to the same they do belong and may be applied in Baptism . And let it be remembred , That the Covenant which Circumcision did sign was a Covenant of Grace and 〈◊〉 ; the Promises were of the Spirit , or spiritual ; it was made before the Law , and could not be rescinded by the Legal Covenant ; nothing could be added to it , or taken from it : and we that are partakers of this grace are therefore partakers of it by being Christ's servants , united to Christ , and so are become Abraham's seed , ( as the Apostle at large and prosessedly proves in divers places , but especially in the fourth to the 〈◊〉 , and the third to the Galatians . ) And therefore if Infants were then admitted to it , and consigned to it by a Sacrament which they understood not any more than ours do , there is not any reason why ours should not enter in at the ordinary gate and door of grace as well as they . Their Children were circumcised the eighth day , but were instructed afterwards , when they could enquire what these things meant . Indeed their Proselytes were first taught , then circumcised ; so are ours baptized : but their Infants were consigned first ; and so must ours . 16. Thirdly , In Baptism we are born again ; and this Infants need in the present circumstances , and for the same great reason that men of age and reason do . For our natural birth is either of it self insufficient , or is made so by the Fall of Adam and the consequent evils , that Nature alone , or our first birth , cannot bring us to Heaven , which is a supernatural end , that is , an end above all the power of our Nature as now it is . So that if Nature cannot bring us to Heaven , Grace must , or we can never get thither ; if the first birth cannot , a second must : but the second birth spoken of in Scripture is Baptism , A man must be born of 〈◊〉 and the Spirit . And therefore Baptism is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the laver of a new birth . Either then Infants cannot go to Heaven any way that we know of , or they must be baptized . To say they are to be left to God , is an excuse , and no answer : for when God hath opened the door , and calls that the entrance into Heaven , we do not leave them to God , when we will not carry them to him in the way which he hath described , and at the door which himself hath opened : we leave them indeed , but it is but helpless and destitute : and though God is better than man , yet that is no warrant to us ; what it will be to the children , that we cannot warrant or conjecture . And if it be objected , that to the New birth are required dispositions of our own , which are to be wrought by and in them that have the use of Reason : Besides that this is wholly against the Analogy of a New birth , in which the person to be born is wholly a passive , and hath put into him the principle that in time will produce its proper actions ; it is certain that they that can receive the new birth are capable of it . The effect of it is a possibility of being saved , and arriving to a supernatural felicity . If Infants can receive this effect , then also the New birth , without which they cannot receive the effect . And if they can receive Salvation , the effect of the New birth , what hinders them but they may receive that that is in order to that effect , and ordained only for it , and which is nothing of it self , but in its institution and relation , and which may be received by the same capacity in which one may be created , that is , a passivity , or a capacity obediential ? 17. Fourthly , Concerning pardon of sins , which is one great effect of Baptism , it is certain that 〈◊〉 have not that benefit which men of sin and age may receive . He that hath a sickly stomach drinks wine , and it not only refreshes his spirits , but cures his stomach : He that drinks wine and hath not that disease , receives good by his wine , though it does not minister to so many needs ; it refreshes , though it does not cure him : and when oyl is poured upon a man's head , it does not always heal a wound , but sometimes makes him a chearful countenance , sometimes it consigns him to be a King or a Priest. So it is in Baptism : it does not heal the wounds of actual sins , because they have not committed them : but it takes off the evil of Original sin : whatsoever is imputed to us by Adam's prevarication , is washed off by the death of the second Adam into which we are baptized . But concerning original sin , because there are so many disputes which may intricate the Question , I shall make use only of that which is confessed on both sides , and material to our purpose . Death came upon all men by Adam's sin , and the necessity of it remains upon us as an evil consequent of the Disobedience . For though death is natural , yet it was kept off from man by God's favour , which when he lost , the banks were broken , and the water reverted to its natural course , and our nature became a curse , and death a punishment . Now that this also relates to Infants so far is certain , because they are sick , and die . This the Pelagians denied not . But to whomsoever this evil descended , for them also a remedy is provided by the second Adam ; That as in Adam all die , even so in Christ shall all be made alive ; that is , at the day of Judgment : then death shall be destroyed . In the mean time , Death hath a sting and a bitterness , a curse it is , and an express of the Divine anger : and if this sting be not taken away here , we shall have no participation of the final victory over death . Either therefore Infants must be for ever without remedy in this evil consequent of their Father's sin , or they must be adopted into the participation of Christ's death , which is the remedy . Now how can they partake of Christ's death , but by Baptism into his death ? For if there be any spiritual way 〈◊〉 , it will by a stronger argument admit them to Baptism : for if they can receive spiritual effects , they can also receive the outward Sacrament ; this being denied only upon pretence they cannot have the other . If there be no spiritual way extraordinary , then the ordinary way is only left for them . If there be an extraordinary , let it be shewn , and Christians will be at rest concerning their Children . One thing only I desire to be observed , That Pelagius denied Original Sin , but yet denied not the necessity of Infants Baptism ; and being accused of it in an Epistle to Pope Innocent the First , he purged himself of the suspicion , and allowed the practice , but denied the inducement of it : which shews , that their arts are weak that think Baptism to be useless to Infants , if they be not formally guilty of the prevarication of Adam . By which I also gather , that it was so universal , so primitive a practice , to baptize Infants , that it was greater than all pretences to the contrary : for it would much have conduced to the introducing his opinion against Grace and Original Sin , if he had destroyed that practice which seemed so very much to have its greatest necessity from the doctrine he denied . But against Pelagins , and against all that follow the parts of his opinion , it is of good use which S. Austin , Prosper and Fulgentius argue ; If Infants are punished for Adam's sin , then they are also guilty of it in some sence . Nimis enim impium est hoc de Dei sentire 〈◊〉 , quòd à praevaricatione liberos cum reis 〈◊〉 esse 〈◊〉 : So Prosper . Dispendia quae slentes nascendo testantur , dicito quo merito sub 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 judice 〈◊〉 , sinullum peccatum 〈◊〉 , arrogentur , said S. Austin . For the guilt of it signifies nothing but the obligation to the punishment ; and he that feels the evil consequent , to him the sin is imputed ; not as to all the same dishonour , or moral accounts , but to the more material , to the natural account : and in Holy Scripture the taking off the punishment is the pardon of the sin ; and in the same degree the punishment is abolished , in the same God is appeased , and then the person stands upright , being reconciled to God by his grace . Since therefore Infants have the punishment of sin , it is certain the sin is imputed to them ; and therefore they need being reconciled to God by Christ : and if so , then when they are baptized into Christ's Death and into his Resurrection , their sins are pardoned , because the punishment is taken off , the sting of natural death is taken away , because God's anger is removed , and they shall partake of Christ's Resurrection ; which because Baptism does signifie and consign , they also are to be baptized . To which also add this appendent Consideration , That whatsoever the Sacraments do consign , that also they do convey and minister : they do it , that is , God by them does it ; lest we should think the Sacraments to be mere illusions , and abusing us by deceitful ineffective signs : and therefore to Infants the grace of a title to a Resurrection and Reconciliation to God by the death of Christ is conveyed , because it signifies and consigns this to them more to the life and analogy of resemblance than Circumcision to the Infant sons of Israel . I end this Consideration with the words of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Our birth by Baptism does cut off every unclean appendage of our natural birth , and leads us to a celestial life . And this in Children is therefore more necessary , because the evil came upon them without their own act of reason and choice , and therefore the grace and remedy ought not to stay the leisure of dull Nature and the formalities of the Civil Law. 18. Fifthly , The Baptism of Insants does to them the greatest part of that benefit which belongs to the remission of sins : For Baptism is a state of Repentance and Pardon for ever . This I suppose to be already proved ; to which I only add this Caution , That the Pelagians , to undervalue the necessity of Supervening grace , affirmed , that Baptism did minister to us Grace sufficient to live perfectly , and without sin for ever . Against this S. Jerome sharply declaims , and affirms , Baptismum praeterita donare peccata , non suturam servare justitiam ; that is , non statim justum facit & omni plenum justitiâ , as he expounds his meaning in another place . Vetera peccata conscindit , novas virtutes non tribuit ; dimittit à carcere , & dimisso , si laboraverit , praemia pollicetur . Baptism does not so forgive future sins that we may do what we please , or so as we need not labour and watch , and fear perpetually , and make use of God's grace to actuate our endeavours ; but puts us into a state of Pardon , that is , in a Covenant of Grace , in which so long as we labour and repent , and strive to do our duty , so long our infirmities are pitied , and our sins certain to be pardoned upon their certain conditions ; that is , by virtue of it we are capable of Pardon , and must work for it , and may hope it . And therefore Infants have a most certain capacity and proper disposition to Baptism : for sin creeps before it can go ; and little undecencies are soon learned , and malice is before their years , and they can do mischief and irregularities betimes ; and though we know not when , nor how far they are imputed in every month of their lives , yet it is an admirable art of the Spirit of grace , to put them into a state of Pardon , that their remedy may at least be as soon as their necessity . And therefore Tertullian and Gregory Nazianzen advised the Baptism of Children to be at three or four years of age ; meaning , that they then begin to have little inadvertencies and hasty follies , and actions so evil as did need a Lavatory . But if Baptism hath an influence upon sins in the succeeding portion , of our life , then it is certain , that their being presently innocent does not hinder and ought not to retard the Sacrament : and therefore Tertullian's Quid festinat innocens aetas ad remissionem peccatorum ? What need Innocents hasten to the remission of sin ? is soon answered . It is true , they need not in respect of any actual sins , for so they are innocent : but in respect of the evils of their nature derived from their original , and in respect of future sins in the whole state of their life , it is necessary they be put into a state of Pardon before they sin , because some sin early , some sin later ; and therefore unless they be baptized so early as to prevent the first sins , they may chance die in a sin , to the pardon of which they have ●●t derived no title from Christ. 19. Sixthly , The next great effect of Baptism which Children can have is the Spir it of Sanctification ; and it they can be baptized with Water and the Spirit , it will be sacriledge to rob them of so holy treasures . And concerning this , although it be with them as S. Paul says of Heirs , The Heir so long as he is a child differeth nothing from a Servant , though he be Lord of all ; and Children , although they receive the Spirit of Promise , and the Spirit of Grace , yet in respect of actual exercise they differ not from them that have them not at all : yet this hinders not but they may have them . For as the reasonable Soul and all its Faculties are in Children , Will , and Understanding , Passions , and Powers of Attraction and Propulsion , yet these Faculties do not operate or come ahead till time and art , observation and experience have drawn them forth into action : so may the Spirit of Grace , the principle of Christian life , be infused , and yet lie without action , till in its own day it is drawn forth . For in every Christian there are three parts concurring to his integral constitution , Body , and Soul , and Spirit ; and all these have their proper activities and times ; but every one in his own order , first that which is natural , then that which is spiritual . And what Aristotle said , A man first lives the life of a Plant , then of a Beast , and lastly of a Man , is true in this sence : and the more spiritual the principle is , the longer it is before it operates , because more things concur to spiritual actions than to natural : and these are necessary , and therefore first ; the other are perfect , and therefore last . And who is he that so well understands the Philosophy of this third principle of a Christian's life , the Spirit , as to know how or when it is infused , and how it operates in all its periods , and what it is in its being and proper nature ; and whether it be like the Soul , or like the faculty , or like a habit ; or how or to what purposes God in all varieties does dispence it ? These are secrets which none but bold people use to decree , and build propositions upon their own dreams . That which is certain is , * That the Spirit is the principle of a new life , or a new birth . * That Baptism is the Laver of this new birth . * That it is the seed of God , and may lie long in the furrows before it springs up . * That from the faculty to the act the passage is not always sudden and quick . * That the Spirit is the earnest of our Inheritance , that is , of Resurrection to eternal life : which inheritance because Children we hope shall have , they cannot be denied to have its Seal and earnest ; that is , if they shall have all , they are not to be denied a part . * That Children have some effects of the Spirit , and therefore do receive it , and are baptized with the Spirit , and therefore may with Water : which thing is therefore true and evident , because some Children are sanctified , as Jeremy and the Baptist , and therefore all may . And because all Sanctification of persons is an effect of the Holy Ghost , there is no peradventure but they that can be 〈◊〉 by God , can in that capacity receive the Holy Ghost : and all the ground of dissenting here is only upon a mistake ; because Infants do no act of Holiness , they suppose them incapable of the grace of 〈◊〉 . Now 〈◊〉 of Children is their Adoption to the Inheritance of sons , their Presentation to Christ , their Consignation to Christ's service and to Resurrection , their being put into a possibility of being saved , their restitution to God's favour , which naturally , that is , as our Nature is depraved and punished , they could not have . And in short the case is this : * Original righteousness was in Adam 〈◊〉 the manner of Nature , but it was an act or effect of Grace , and by it men were not made , but born Righteous ; the inferiour Faculties obeyed the superiour , the Mind was whole and right , and conformable to the Divine Image , the Reason and the Will always concurring , the Will followed Reason , and Reason followed the Laws of God ; and so long as a man had not lost this , he was pleasing to God , and should have passed to a more perfect state . Now because this , if Adam had stood , should have been born with every child , there was in Infants a principle which was the seed of holy life here , and a blessed hereafter ; and yet the children should have gone in the road of Nature then as well as now , and the Spirit should have operated at Nature's leisure ; God being the giver of both , would have made them instrumental to and perfective of each other , but not destructive . Now what was lost by Adam is restored by Christ , the same Righteousness , only it is not born , but superinduced , not integral , but interrupted ; but such as it is , there is no difference , but that the same or the like principle may be derived to us from Christ as there should have been from Adam , that is , a principle of Obedience , a regularity of 〈◊〉 , a beauty in the Soul , and a state of acceptation with God. And we see also in men of understanding and reason , the Spirit of God 〈◊〉 in them , ( which Tatianus describing uses these words , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 Soul is possessed with sparks , or materials , of the power of the Spirit ) and yet it is sometimes ineffective and unactive , sometimes more , sometimes less , and does no more do its work at all times than the Soul does at all times understand . Add to this , that if there be in 〈◊〉 naturally an evil principle , a proclivity to sin , an ignorance and pravity of mind , a disorder of affections , ( as experience teacheth us there is , and the perpetual Doctrine of the Church , and the universal mischiefs issuing from mankind , and the sin of every man does witness too much ) why cannot Infants have a good principle in them , though it works not till its own season , as well as an evil principle ? If there were not by nature some evil principle , it is not possible that all the world should chuse sin . In free Agents it was never heard that all individuals loved and chose the same thing , to which they were not naturally inclined . Neither do all men chuse to marry , neither do all chuse to abstain ; and in this instance there is a natural inclination to one part . But of all the men and women in the world there is no one that hath never sinned : If we say that we have no sin , we deceive our selves , and the truth is not in us , said an Apostle . If therefore Nature hath in Infants an evil principle , which operates when the child can chuse , but is all the while within the Soul ; either Infants have by Grace a principle put into them , or else Sin abounds where Grace does not superabound , expresly against the doctrine of the Apostle . The event of this discourse is , That if Infants be capable of the Spirit of Grace , there is no reason but they may and ought to be baptized as well as men and women ; unless God had expresly forbidden them , which cannot be pretended : and that Infants are capable of the Spirit of Grace , I think is made very credible . Christus infantibus infans 〈◊〉 , sanctificans 〈◊〉 , said Irenaeus ; Christ became an Infant among the Infants , and does sanctifie Infants : and S. Cyprian affirms , Esse apud omnes , 〈◊〉 Infantes 〈◊〉 majores 〈◊〉 , unam divini muneris aequitatem ; There is the same dispensation of the Divine grace to all alike , to Infants as well as to men . And in this Royal Priesthood , as it is in the secular , Kings may be anointed in their Cradles . Dat ( Deus ) sui Spiritûs 〈◊〉 gratiam , quam etiam latenter infundit in parvulis ; God gives the most secret Grace of his Spirit , which he also secretly infuses into Infants . And if a secret infusion be rejected , because it cannot be proved at the place and at the instant , many men that hope for Heaven will be very much to 〈◊〉 for a proof of their earnest , and need an earnest of the earnest . For all that have the Spirit of God cannot in all instants prove it , or certainly know it : neither is it defined by how many indices the Spirit 's presence can be proved or fig●●ed . And they limit the Spirit too much , and understand it too little , who take ac●●unts of his secret workings , and measure them by the material lines and methods of natural and animal effects . And yet because whatsoever is holy is made so by the Holy Spirit , we are certain that the Children of believing , that is , of Christian , Parents are holy . S. Paul affirmed it , and by it hath distinguished ours from the Children of unbelievers , and our Marriages from theirs . And because the Children of the Heathen , when they come to choice and Reason , may enter into Baptism and the Covenant , if they will ; our Children have no priviledge beyond the Children of Turks or Heathens , unless it be in the present capacity , that is , either by receiving the Holy Ghost immediately , and the Promises , or at least having a title to the Sacrament , and entring by that door . If they have the Spirit , nothing can hinder them from a title to the 〈◊〉 ater ; and if they have only a title to the water of the Sacrament , then they shall receive the promise of the Holy Spirit , the benefits of the Sacrament : else their priviledge is none at all , but a dish of cold water , which every Village-Nurse can provide for her new-born babe . 20. But it is in our case as it was with the Jews Children : Our Children are a holy seed ; for if it were not so with Christianity , how could S. Peter move the Jews to Christianity by telling them the Promise was to them and their Children ? For if our Children be not capable of the Spirit of Promise and Holiness , and yet their Children were holy , it had been a better Argument to have kept them in the Synagogue , than to have called them to the Christian Church . Either therefore , 1. there is some Holiness in a reasonable nature , which is not from the Spirit of Holiness ; or else , 2. our Children do receive the Holy Spirit because they are holy ; or if they be not holy , they are in worse condition under Christ than under Moses : or if none of all this be true , then our Children are holy by having received the holy Spirit of Promise , and consequently nothing can hinder them from being baptized . 21. And indeed if the Christian 〈◊〉 , whose Children are circumcised , and made partakers of the same Promises and Title , and Inheritance and Sacraments , which themselves had at their Conversion to the Faith of Christ , had seen their Children now shut out from these new Sacraments , it is not to be doubted but they would have raised a strom greater than could easily have been suppressed , since about their Circumcisions they 〈◊〉 raised such Tragedies and implacable disputations . And there had been great reason to look for a storm ; for their Children were circumcised , and if not baptized , then they were left under a burthen which their fathers were quit of , for S. Paul said , Whosoever is circumcised is a debtor to keep the whole Law. These Children therefore that were circumcised stood obliged , for want of Baptism , to perform the Law of Ceremonies , to be presented into the Temple , to pay their price , to be redeemed with silver and gold , to be bound by the Law of pollutions and carnal Ordinances : and therefore , if they had been thus left , it would be no wonder if the Jews had complained and made a tumult : they used to do it for less matters . 22. To which let this be added , That the first book of the New Testament was not written till eight years after Christ's Ascension , and S. Mark' s Gospel twelve years . In the mean time , to what Scriptures did they appeal ? By the Analogy or proportion of what writings did they end their Questions ? Whence did they prove their Articles ? They only appealed to the Old Testament , and only added what their Lord superadded . Now either it must be said that our Blessed Lord commanded that Infants should not be baptized , which is no-where pretended ; and if it were , cannot at all be proved : or if by the proportion of Scriptures they did serve God , and preach the Religion , it is plain , that by the Analogy of the Old Testament , that is , of those Scriptures by which they proved Christ to be come and to have suffered , they also approved the Baptism of Infants , or the admitting them to the society of the faithful Jews , of which also the Church did then principally consist . 23. Seventhly , That Baptism , which consigns men and women to a blessed Resurrection , doth also equally consign Infants to it , hath nothing , that I know of , pretended against it , there being the same signature and the same grace , and in this thing all being alike passive , and we no way cooperating to the consignation and promise of Grace : and Infants have an equal necessity , as being liable to sickness and groaning with as sad accents , and dying sooner than men and women , and less able to complain , and more apt to be pitied , and broken with the unhappy consequents of a short life and a speedy death , & infelicitate priscorum hominum , with the infelicity and folly of their first Parents ; and therefore have as great need as any : and that is capacity enough to receive a remedy for the evil which was brought upon them by the fault of another . 24. Eightly , And after all this , if Baptism be that means which God hath appointed to save us , it were well if we would do our parts towards Infants final interest : which whether it depends upon the Sacrament and its proper grace , we have nothing to relie upon but those Texts of Scripture which make Baptism the ordinary way of entring into the state of Salvation : save only we are to add this , that because of this law since Infants are not personally capable , but the Church for them , as for all others indefinitely , we have reason to believe that their friends neglect shall by some way be supplied ; but Hope hath in it nothing beyond a Probability . This we may be certain of , that naturally we cannot be heirs of Salvation , for by nature we are children of wrath ; and therefore an eternal separation from God is an infallible consequent to our evil nature : either therefore Children must be put into the state of Grace , or they shall dwell for ever where God's face does never shine . Now there are but two ways of being put into the state of Grace and Salvation ; the inward , by the Spirit , and the outward , by Water ; which regularly are together . If they be renewed by the Spirit , what hinders them to be baptized , who receive the Holy Ghost as well as we ? If they are not capable of the Spirit , they are capable of Water ; and if of neither , where is their title to Heaven , which is neither internal nor external , neither spiritual nor sacramental , neither secret nor manifest , neither natural nor gracious , neither original nor derivative ? And well may we lament the death of poor babes that are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , concerning whom if we neglect what is regularly prescribed to all that enter Heaven , without any difference expressed or case reserved , we have no reason to be comforted over our dead children , but may weep as they that have no hope . We may hope when our neglect was not the hinderance , because God hath wholly taken the matter into his own hand , and then it cannot miscarry ; and though we know nothing of the Children , yet we know much of God's goodness : but when God hath permitted it to us , that is , offered and permitted Children to our ministery , what-ever happens to the Innocents , we may well fear 〈◊〉 God will require the Souls at our hands : and we cannot be otherwise secure , but that it will be said concerning our children which S. Ambrose used in a case like this , Anima illa potuit salva fieri , si habuisset purgationem , This Soul might have gone to God , if it had been purified and washed . We know God is good , infinitely good ; but we know it is not at all good to tempt his goodness : and he tempts him that leaves the usual way , and pretends it is not made for him , and yet hopes to be at his journey's end , or expects to meet his Child in Heaven , when himself shuts the door against him , which , for ought he knows , is the only one that stands open . S. Austin was severe in this Question against unbaptized Infants , therefore he is called durus Pater Infantum : though I know not why the original of that Opinion should be attributed to him , since S. Ambrose said the same before him , as appears in his words before quoted in the margent . 25. And now that I have enumerated the Blessings which are consequent to Baptism , and have also made apparent that Infants can receive these Blessings , I suppose I need not use any other perswasions to bring Children to Baptism . If it be certain they may receive these good things by it , it is certain they are not to be hindred of them without the greatest impiety and sacriledge and uncharitableness in the world . Nay , if it be only probable that they receive these Blessings , or if it be but possible they may , nay , unless it be impossible they should , and so declared by revelation or demonstratively certain ; it were intolerable unkindness and injustice to our pretty Innocents , to let their crying be unpitied , and their natural misery eternally irremediable , and their sorrows without remedy , and their Souls no more capable of relief than their bodies of Physick , and their death left with the sting in , and their Souls without Spirits to go to God , and no Angel-guardian to be assigned them in the Assemblies of the faithful , and they not to be reckoned in the accounts of God and God's Church . All these are sad stories . 26. There are in Scripture very many other probabilities to perswade the Baptism of Infants ; but because the places admit of divers interpretations , the Arguments have so many diminutions , and the certainty that is in them is too fine for 〈◊〉 understandings , I have chosen to build the ancient Doctrines upon such principles which are more easie and certain , and have not been yet sullied and rifled with the contentions of an adversary . This only I shall observe , That the words of our Blessed Lord [ Unless a man be born of Water and the Spirit , he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven ] cannot be expounded to the exclusion of Children , but the same expositions will also make Baptism not necessary for men : for if they be both necessary ingredients , Water and the Spirit , then let us provide water , and God will provide the Spirit ; if we bring wood to the Sacrifice , he will provide a Lamb. And if they signifie distinctly , one is ordinarily as necessary as the other ; and then Infants must be baptized , or not be saved . But if one be exegetical and explicative of the other , and by Water and the Spirit is meant only the purification of the Spirit , then where is the necessity of Baptism 〈◊〉 men ? It will be , as the other Sacrament , at most but highly convenient , not simply necessary ; and all the other places will easily be answered , if this be avoided . But however , these words being spoken in so 〈◊〉 a manner are to be used with fear and reverence ; and we must be infallibly sure by some certain infallible arguments , that 〈◊〉 ought not to be baptized , or we ought to fear concerning the 〈◊〉 of these decretery words . I shall only add two things by way of Corollary to this Discourse . 27. That the Church of God , ever since her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , hath for very many Ages consisted almost wholly of Assemblies of them who have been 〈◊〉 in their Infancy : and although in the 〈◊〉 callings of the Gentiles the chiefest and most frequent Baptisms were of converted and 〈◊〉 persons and believers , yet from the beginning also the Church hath baptized the Infants of Christian Parents ; according to the Prophecy of Isaiah , Behold , I will list up my hands to the Gentiles , and set up a standard to the people , and they shall bring thy sons in their arms , and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders . Concerning which I shall not only bring the testimonies of the matter of 〈◊〉 , but either a report of an Apostolical Tradition , or some Argument from the Fathers , which will make their testimony more effectual in all that shall relate to the Question . 28. The Author of the Book of Ecclesiastical Hierarchy , attributed to S. Denis the 〈◊〉 , takes notice , that certain unholy persons and enemies to the Christian Religion think it a ridiculous thing that Infants , who as yet cannot understand the Divine Mysteries , should be partakers of the Sacraments ; and that Professions and Abrenunciations should be made by others for them and in their names . He answers , that Holy men , Governours of Churches , have so taught , having received a Tradition from their Fathers and Elders in Christ. By which answer of his , as it appears that he himself was later than the Areopagite ; so it is so early by him affirmed , that even then there was an ancient Tradition for the Baptism of Infants , and the use of Godfathers in the ministery of the Sacrament . Concerning which , it having been so ancient a Constitution of the Church , it were well if men would rather humbly and modestly observe , than like scorners deride it , in which they shew their own folly as well as immodesty . For what 〈◊〉 or incongruity is it , that our Parents , natural or spiritual , should stipulate for us , when it is agreeable to the practice of all the laws and transactions of the world , an effect of the Communion of Saints and of Christian Oeconomy ? For why may not Infants be stipulated for as well as we ? All were included in the stipulation made with Adam ; he made a losing bargain for himself , and we smarted for his folly : and if the faults of Parents , and Kings , and relatives , do bring evil upon their Children , and subjects , and correlatives , it is but equal that our children may have benefit also by our charity and 〈◊〉 . But concerning making an agreement for them , we find that God was confident concerning Abraham , that he would teach his children : and there is no doubt but Parents have great power , by strict education and prudent discipline , to efform the minds of their children to Vertue . 〈◊〉 did expresly undertake for his houshold , I and my house will serve the Lord : and for children we may better do it , because , till they are of perfect choice , no Government in the world is so great as that of Parents over their children , in that which can concern the parts of this Question ; for they rule over their Understandings , and children know nothing but what they are told , and they believe it infinitely . And it is a rare art of the Spirit , to engage Parents to bring them up well in the 〈◊〉 and admonition of the Lord ; and they are persons obliged by a superinduced band , they are to give them instructions and holy principles as they give them meat . And it is certain that Parents may better stipulate for their Children than the Church can for men and women : For they may be present Impostors and Hypocrites , as the Church story tells of some , and consequently are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , not really converted , and ineffectively baptized ; and the next day they may change their resolution , and grow weary of their Vow : and that is the most that Children can do when they come to age : and it is very much in the Parents whether the Children shall do any such thing or no. — purus & insons ( Ut me collandem ) si & vivo charus amicis , Causa fuit Pater his — Ipse mihi custos incorruptissimus omnes Circum Doctores aderat : quid multa ? pudicum ( Qui primus virtutis honos ) servavit ab omni Non solùm facto , verùm opprobrio quoque turpi : — ob hoc nunc Laus illi debetur , & à me gratia major . For education can introduce a habit and a second nature , against which Children cannot kick , unless they do some violence to themselves and their inclinations . And although it fails too 〈◊〉 when-ever it fails , yet we pronounce prudently concerning future things when we have a less influence into the event than in the present case , ( and therefore are more unapt persons to stipulate ) and less reason in the thing it self , ( and therefore have not so much reason to be confident . ) Is not the greatest prudence of Generals instanced in their foreseeing 〈◊〉 events , and guessing at the designs of their enemies ? concerning which they have less reason to be confident , than Parents of their childrens belief of the Christian Creed . To which I add this consideration , That Parents or Godfathers may therefore safely and prudently promise that their Children shall be of the Christian Faith , because we not only see millions of men and women who not only believe the whole Creed only upon the stock of their education , but there are none that ever do renounce the Faith of their Country and breeding , unless they be violently tempted by 〈◊〉 or weakness , antecedent or consequent . He that sees all men almost to be Christians because they are bid to be so , need not question the fittingness of Godfathers promising in behalf of the Children for whom they answer . 29. And however the matter be for Godfathers , yet the tradition of baptizing Infants passed through the hands of 〈◊〉 : Omnem aetatem sanctificans per illam quae ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 similitudinem . Omnes 〈◊〉 venit per semetipsum salvare , omnes , inquam , qui per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Deum , infantes , & parvulos , & 〈◊〉 , & juvenes , & seniores . Ideo per 〈◊〉 venit 〈◊〉 , & infantibus infans factus , sanctificans infantes ; in parvulis 〈◊〉 , &c. Christ did sanctifie every age by his own susception of it , and similitude to it . For he came to save all men by himself , I say , all who by him are born again unto God , infants , and children , and boys , and young men , and old men . He was made an Infant to Infants , sanctifying Infants ; a little one to the little ones , &c. And Origen is express , 〈◊〉 traditionem ab Apostolis suscepit 〈◊〉 parvulis dare Baptismum , The Church hath received a Tradition from the 〈◊〉 to give Baptism to Children . And S. 〈◊〉 in his Epistle to 〈◊〉 gives account of this Article : for being questioned by some less 〈◊〉 persons whether it were lawful to baptize Children before the eighth day , he gives account of the whole Question : And a whole Council of sixty six Bishops upon very good reason decreed , that their Baptism should at no hand be deferred ; though whether six or eight or ten days , was no matter , so there be no danger or present necessity . The whole Epistle is worth the reading . 30. But besides these Authorities of such who writ before the starting of the Pelagian Questions , it will not be useless to bring the discourses of them and others , I mean , the reason upon which the Church did it both before and after . 31. 〈◊〉 his Argument was this : Christ took upon him our Nature to sanctific and to save it , and passed through the several periods of it , even unto death , which is the symbol and effect of old age ; and therefore it is certain he did sanctifie all the periods of it : and why should he be an Infant , but that Infants should receive the crown of their age , the 〈◊〉 of their stained nature , the sanctification of their persons , and the saving of their 〈◊〉 by their Infant Lord and elder Brother ? 32. Omnis 〈◊〉 anima 〈◊〉 in Adam censetur , 〈◊〉 in Christo recenseatur ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : Every Soul is accounted in Adam , till it be new accounted in Christ ; and so long as it is accounted in Adam , so long it is unclean ; and we know no unclean thing 〈◊〉 enter into Heaven , and therefore our Lord hath desined it , Unless 〈◊〉 be born of Water and the Spirit , ye cannot 〈◊〉 into the Kingdom of Heaven ; that is , ye cannot be holy . It was the argument of 〈◊〉 ; which the rather is to be received , because he was one less favourable to the Custom of the Church in his time of baptizing Infants , which Custom he noted and acknowledged , and hath also in the preceding discourse fairly proved . And indeed , ( that S. Cyprian may superadd his symbol ) God , who is no accepter of persons , will also be no accepter of ages . For if to the greatest delinquents 〈◊〉 long before against God remission of sins be given when afterwards they believe , and from Baptism and from Grace no man is forbidden ; how much more ought not an 〈◊〉 be forbidden , who being new born hath 〈◊〉 nothing , save only that being in the 〈◊〉 , born of Adam , in his first birth he hath contracted the contagion of an old death ? who therefore comes the easier to obtain 〈◊〉 of sins , because to him are forgiven not his own , but the 〈◊〉 of another man. None ought to be driven from Baptism and the Grace of God , who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gentle , and pious unto all ; and therefore much less Infants , who more 〈◊〉 our aid , and more need the Divine mercy , because in the first beginning of their birth , crying and 〈◊〉 , they can do nothing but call for mercy and relief . 〈◊〉 this reason it was , ( saith 〈◊〉 ) that they to whom the secrets of the Divine 〈◊〉 were committed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their 〈◊〉 , because there was born with them the impurities of sin , which did need material Ablution , as a Sacrament of spiritual purification . For that it may appear that our sins have a proper analogy to this Sacrament , the Body it self is called the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 : and therefore the washing of the Body is not ineffectual towards the great work of Pardon and abolition . Indeed after this Ablution there remains 〈◊〉 , or the material part of our misery and sin : For Christ by his death only took away that which , when he did die for us , he bare in his own body upon the tree . Now Christ only bare the punishment of our sin , and therefore we shall not die for it ; but the material part of the sin Christ bare not : Sin could not come so near him ; it might make him sick and die , but not disordered and stained . He was pure from Original and Actual sins ; and therefore that remains in the body , though the guilt and 〈◊〉 be 〈◊〉 off , and changed into advantages and grace ; and the Actual are 〈◊〉 by the Spirit of Grace descending afterwards upon , the Church , and sent by our Lord to the same purpose . 33. But it is not rationally to be answered what S. Ambrose says , Quia omnis peccato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : For it were strange that sin and misery should seize upon the innocent and most 〈◊〉 persons ; and that they only should be left without a Sacrament , and an instrument of expiation . And although they cannot consent to the present susception , yet neither do they refuse ; and yet they consent as much to the grace of the Sacrament as to the prevarication of Adam ; and because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 under this , it were but reason they should be relieved by that . And * it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( as Gregory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) that they should be consigned and sanctified without their own knowledge , than to die without their being sanctified ; for so it happened to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Israel : and if the conspersion and washing the door-posts with the bloud of a Lamb did sacramentally preserve all the first-born of Goshen ; it cannot 〈◊〉 thought impossible or unreasonable , that the want of understanding in Children should hinder them from the blessing of a Sacrament , and from being redeemed and washed with the bloud of the Holy Lamb , who was 〈◊〉 for all from the beginning of the world . 34. After all this it is not inconsiderable , that we say the Church hath great power and authority about the Sacraments ; which is observable in many instances . She appointed what persons she pleased , and in equal power made an unequal dispensation and ministery . The Apostles first dispensed all things , and then they left off exteriour ministeries to attend to the Word of God and Prayer : and S. Paul accounted it no part of his office to Baptize , when he had been separated by imposition of hands at Antioch to the work of Preaching and greater ministeries ; and accounted that act of the Church the act of Christ , saying , Christ sent me not to baptize , but to preach the Gospel . They used various forms in the ministration of Baptism : sometimes baptizing in the name of Christ , sometimes expresly invocating the Holy and ever-Blessed Trinity ; one while [ 〈◊〉 baptize 〈◊〉 , ] as in the Latine Church , but in the Greek , [ Let the servant of Christ be baptized . ] And in all Ecclesiastical ministeries the Church invented the forms , and in most things hath often changed them , as in Absolution , Excommunication . And sometimes they baptized people under their profession of Repentance , and then taught them ; as it happened to the Goaler and his family ; in whose case there was no explicit Faith 〈◊〉 in the mysteries of Religion , so far as appears , and yet he , and not only he , but all his house were baptized at that hour of the night when the Earthquake was terrible , and the 〈◊〉 was pregnant upon them ; and this upon their Master's account , as it is likely : but others were baptized in the conditions of a previous Faith , and a new-begun * Repentance . They baptized in Rivers or in Lavatories , by dipping or by sprinkling : for so we find that S. Laurence did as he went to martyrdom ; and so the Church did sometimes to Clinicks ; and so it is highly convenient to be done in Northern Countries ; according to the Prophecy of 〈◊〉 , So shall 〈◊〉 sprinkle many Nations , according as the typical expiations among the Jews were usually by sprinkling . And it is fairly relative to the mystery , to the sprinkling with the 〈◊〉 of Christ , and the watering of the furrows of our Souls with the dew of Heaven , to make them to bring forth fruit unto the Spirit and unto Holiness . The Church sometimes dipt the Catechumen three times , sometimes but once . Some Churches use Fire in their Baptisms ; so do the Ethiopians ; and the custom was ancient in 〈◊〉 places . And so in the other Sacrament : sometimes they stood , and sometimes kneeled ; and sometimes received it in the mouth , and sometimes in the hand ; one while in 〈◊〉 , another while in unlevened bread : sometimes the wine and water were mingled , sometimes they were pure ; and they admitted some persons to it sometimes , which at other times they rejected : sometimes the Consecration was made by one form , sometimes by another : and , to conclude , sometimes it was given to Infants , sometimes not . And she had power so to do ; for in all things where there was not a Commandment of Christ expressed or implied in the nature and in the end of the Institution , the Church had power to alter the particulars as was most expedient , or conducing to edification . And although the after-Ages of the Church , which refused to communicate Infants , have 〈◊〉 some little things against the lawfulness , and those Ages that used it found out some pretences for its 〈◊〉 ; yet both the one and the other had liberty to follow their own necessities , so in all things they followed Christ. Certainly there is 〈◊〉 more reason why Insants may be Communicated , than why they may not be Baptized . And that this discourse may 〈◊〉 to its first intention ; although there is no record extant of any Church in the world , and from the Apostles days inclusively to this very day ever refused to Baptize their Children , yet if they had upon any present reason , they might also change 〈◊〉 practice , when the reason should be 〈◊〉 ; and therefore if there were nothing else in it , yet the universal practice of all Churches in all Ages , is abundantly sufficient to determine us , and to legitimate the practice , since Christ hath not forbidden it . It is sufficient confutation to disagreeing people to use the words of S. Paul , We have no such custom , nor the Churches of God , to suffer Children to be strangers from the Covenant of Promise , till they shall enter into it as 〈◊〉 or Turks may enter , that is , by choice and disputation . But although this 〈◊〉 to modest and obedient , that is , to Christian Spirits , be sufficient , yet this is more than the question did need . It can stand upon its proper foundation . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 recentes ab uteris matrum baptizandos negat , anathema 〈◊〉 . He that refuseth to baptize his Infants , shall be in danger of the Council . The PRAYER . OHoly and Eternal Jesus , who in thine own person wert pleased to sanctifie the waters of Baptism , and by thy Institution and Commandment didst make them effectual to excellent purposes of grace and remedy , be pleased to verifie the holy effects of Baptism to me and all thy servants whose names are dedicated to thee in an early and timely presentation , and enable us with thy grace to verifie all our promises , by which we are bound , then when thou didst first make us thy own proportion and 〈◊〉 in the consummation of a holy Covenant . O be pleased to pardon all those undecencies and unhandsome interruptions of that state of favour in which thou didst plant us by thy grace , and admit us by the gates of Baptism : and let that Spirit which moved upon 〈◊〉 holy Waters never be absent from us , but call upon us and invite us by a perpetual argument and daily solicitations and inducements to holiness ; that we may never return to the 〈◊〉 of sin , but by the answer of a good Conscience may please thee and glorifie thy name and do honour to thy Religion and Institution in this world , and may receive the blessings and the rewards of it in the world to come , being presented to thee pure and spotless in the day of thy power when thou shalt lead thy Church to a Kingdom , and endless glories . Amen . Appendix ad Sect. 9. numb . 3. of JESUS being Baptized , &c. Christ ' s Prayer at his Baptism . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O Father , according to the good pleasure of thy will I am made a Man , and from the time in which I was born of a Virgin unto this day I have finished those things which are agreeing to the nature of Man , and with due observance have perform'd all thy Commandments , the mysteries and types of the Law : and now truly I am baptized , and so have I ordain'd Baptism , that from thence , as from the place of spiritual birth , the Regeneration of men may be accomplish'd : and as John was the last of the Legal Priests , so am I the first of the Evangelical . Thou therefore , O Father , by the mediation of my Prayer open the Heavens , and from thence send thy Holy Spirit upon this womb of Baptism ; that as he did untie the womb of the Virgin , and thence form me , so also he would loose this Baptismal womb , and so sanctifie it unto men , that from thence new men may be begotten , who may become thy Sons , and my Brethren , and Heirs of thy Kingdom . And what the Priests under the Law until John could not do , grant unto the Priests of the New Testament , ( whose chief I am in the oblation of this Prayer ) that whensoever they shall celebrate Baptism , or pour forth Prayers unto thee , as the Holy Spirit is seen with me in open vision , so also it may be made manifest that the same Spirit will adjoyn himself in their society a more secret way , and will by them persorm the ministeries of the New Testament , for which I am made a Man ; and as the High Priest I do offer these Prayers in thy sight . This Prayer was transcrib'd out of the Syriack Catena upon the third Chapter of S. Luke's Gospel , and is by the Author of that Catena reported to have been made by our Blessed Saviour immediately before the opening of the Heavens at his Baptism ; and that the Holy Spirit did 〈◊〉 upon him while he was thus praying : and for it he cites the Authority of S. Philoxenus . I cannot but foresee that there is one clause in it which will be us'd as an objection against the authority of this Prayer ; viz. [ as John was the last of Legal Priests : ] For he was no Priest at all , nor ever officiated in the Temple , or at the Mosaick Rites . But this is nothing : because , that the Baptist was of the family of the Priests , his Father Zachary is a demonstration ; that he did not 〈◊〉 , his being imployed in another Ministery is a sufficient answer ; that he was the last of the Priests is to be understood in this sence , that he was the period of the Law , the common term between the Law and the Gospel : by him the Gospel was first preached solemnly , and therefore in him the Law first ended . And as he was the last of the Prophets , so he was the last of the Priests : not but that after him many had the gift of Prophecy , and some did officiate in the Mosaical Priesthood ; but that his Office put the first period to the solemnity of Moses's Law , that is , at him the Dispensation Evangelical did first enter . That the Ministers of the Gospel are here called Priests , ought not to be a prejudice against this Prayer in the perswasions of any men ; because it was usual with our Blessed Saviour to retain the words of the Jews his Country-men before whom he spake , that they might by words to which they were used be instructed in the notice of persons and things , offices and ministeries Evangelical , which afterwards were to be represented under other , that is , under their proper , names . And now all that I shall say of it is this : 1. That it is not unlikely but our Blessed Saviour prayed when he was baptized , and when the Holy Ghost descended upon him ; not only because it was an imployment symbolical to the Grace he was to receive , but also to become to us a precedent by what means we are to receive the Holy Spirit of God. 2. That it is very likely our Blessed Lord would consecrate the Waters of Baptism to those mysterious ends whither he design'd them , as well as the Bread and Chalice of the Holy Supper . 3. That it is most likely the Easterlings did preserve a record of many words and actions of the Holy Jesus which are not transmitted to us . 4. It is certain that our Blessed Lord did do and say many more things than are in the Holy Scriptures ; and that this was one of them we have the credit of this ancient Author , and the Authority of S. Philoxenus . However , it is much better to make such good use of it as the matter and piety of the Prayer will minister , than to quarrel at it by the imperfection of uncertain conjectures . The End of the First Part. THE HISTORY OF THE Life and Death OF THE HOLY JESUS : BEGINNING At the time of his first MIRACLE , until the Second Year of his PREACHING : WITH CONSIDERATIONS and DISCOURSES upon the several parts of the Story ; And PRAYERS fitted to the several MYSTERIES . THE SECOND PART . Chrysost. ad Demet. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LONDON , Printed by R. Norton , for R. Royston , 1675. TO The Right Honourable and Excellent Lady , THE LADY MARY Countess Dowager of NORTHAMPTON . I AM now to present to your Honour part of that Production of which your great love to Sanctity was Parent , and which was partly designed to satisfie those great appetites to Vertue which have made you hugely apprehensive and forward to entertain any Instrument whereby you may grow and encrease in the Service of God , and the Communion and Charities of holy people . Your Honour best knows in what Soil the first Design of these Papers grew ; and but that the Excellent Personage who was their first Root is transplanted for a time , that he may not have his righteous Soul vexed with the impurer Conversation of ill-minded men , I am confident you would have received the fruits of his abode to more excellent purposes . But because he was pleased to leave the managing of this to me , I hope your Honour will for his sake entertain what that rare Person conceived , though I was left to the pains and danger of bringing forth ; and that it may dwell with you for its first relation , rather than be rejected for its appendent imperfections , which it contracted not in the fountain , but in the chanels of its progress and emanation . Madam , I shall beg of God that your Honour may receive as great increment of Piety and ghostly strength in the reading this Book , as I receive honour if you shall be pleased to accept and own this as a confession of your great Worthiness , and a testimony of the Service which ought to be payed to your Honour by , Madam , Your Honour 's most humble and most obliged Servant , JER . TAYLOR . SECT . X. Of the first Manifestation of JESVS , by the Testimony of John , and a Miracle . Iohn points to Iesus . The next day Iohn seeth Iesus coming unto him , and saith , Behold the Lamb of God , which taketh away the sin of the world . This is he of whom . I said , after me cometh a man , which is preserred before me ; for he was before me . And I knew him not , but that he should be made manifest to Israel . Ioh. 1. 29 , 30 , 31. Christ turns water into wine . There was a marriage in Cana of Galilee . And there were set there six water pots of stone , after the manner of the purifying of the Iewes , containing two or three firkins a peice . Iesus saith unto them , fill the water pots with water , and they filled them to the brim . Iesus saith unto them draw out now &c. This begin̄ing of miracles did Iesus in Cana of Galilee , and manifested forth his glory . Ioh. 2 6 , 7 , 8-11 . 1. AFTER that the Baptist by a sign from Heaven was confirmed in spirit and understanding that Jesus was the Messias , he immediately published to the Jews what God had manifested to him ; and first to the Priests and 〈◊〉 , sent in legation from the Sanhedrim , he professed indefinitely , in answer to their question , that himself was (a) not the CHRIST , nor Elias , nor that Prophet whom they by a special Tradition did expect to be revealed they knew not when . And concerning himself definitely he said nothing , but that he was (b) the voice of one crying in the wilderness , Make straight the way of the Lord. He it was who was then (c) amongst them , but not known , a person of great dignity , to whom the Baptist was (d) not worthy to do the office of the lowest Ministery , (e) who coming after John was preferred far before him , who (f) was to increase , and the Baptist was to decrease , who did (g) baptize with the Holy Ghost and with Fire . 2. This was the Character of his personal Prerogatives ; but as yet no demonstration was made of his Person , till after the descent of the Holy Ghost upon Jesus , and then when-ever the Baptist saw Jesus , he points him out with his finger , Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the World : This is he . Then he shews him to Andrew , Simon Peter's brother , with the same designation , and to another Disciple with him , who both followed Jesus , and abode with him all night : Andrew brings his brother Simon with him , and then Christ changes his name from Simon to Peter , or Cephas , which signifies a Stone . Then Jesus himself finds out Philip of Bethsaida , and bad him follow him ; and Philip finds out Nathanael , and calls him to see . Thus persons bred in a dark cell , upon their first ascent up to the chambers of light , all run staring upon the beauties of the Sun , and call the partners of their darkness to communicate in their new and stranger revelation . 3. When Nathanael was come to Jesus , Christ saw his heart , and gave him a testimony to be truly honest , and full of holy simplicity , a true Israelite without guile . And Nathanael , being overjoyed that he had found the Messias , believing out of love , and loving by reason of his joy , and no suspicion , took that for a proof and verification of his person , which was very insufficient to 〈◊〉 a doubt , or ratifie a probability : But so we believe a story which we love , taking probabilities for demonstrations , and casual accidents for probabilities , and any thing creates vehement presumptions ; in which cases our guides are not our knowing faculties , but our 〈◊〉 , and if they be holy , God guides them into the right perswasions , as he does little birds to make rare nests , though they understand not the mystery of operation , nor the design and purpose of the action . 4. But Jesus took his will and forwardness of affections in so good part , that he promised him greater things ; and this gave occasion to the first Prophecy which was made by Jesus . For Jesus said 〈◊〉 him , 〈◊〉 I said I saw thee under the Fig-tree , believest thou ? Thou shalt see greater things than these : and then he prophesied that he should see Heaven open , and the Angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. But , being a Doctor of the Law , Christ chose him not at all to the Colledge of Apostles . 5. Much about the same time there happened to be a Marriage in Cana 〈◊〉 Galilee , in the vicinage of his dwelling , where John the Evangelist is by some supposed to have been the Bridegroom ; ( but of this there is no certainty : ) and thither Jesus being with his 〈◊〉 invited , he went to do civility to the persons espoused , and to do honour to the holy rite of Marriage . The persons then married were but of indifferent fortunes , richer in love of neighbours than in the 〈◊〉 of rich possessions ; they had more company than wine . For the Master of the Feast ( whom , according to the order and piety of the Nation , they chose 〈◊〉 the order of * Priests to be the president of the Feast , by the reverence of his person to restrain all inordination , by his discretion to govern and order the Circumstances , by his religious knowledge to direct the solemnities of Marriage , and to retain all the persons and actions in the bounds of prudence and modesty ) complained to the Bridegroom that the Guests wanted 〈◊〉 . 6. As soon as the Holy Virgin-Mother had notice of the want , out of charity , that uses to be imployed in 〈◊〉 even the minutes and smallest articles of necessity as well as the clamorous importunity of extremities and great indigencies , she complained to her Son by an indefinite address ; not desiring him to make supply , for she knew not how he should ; but either out of an habitual commiseration she complained without hoping for remedy , or else she looked on him who was a fountain of holiness and of plenty , as expecting a derivation from him either of discourses or Miracles . But Jesus answered her , Woman , what have I to do with thee ? mine hour is not yet come . By this answer intending no denial to the purpose of his Mother's intimation , to whom he always bare a religious and pious reverence ; but to signifie that he was not yet entred into his period and years of Miracles ; and when he did , it must be not for respect of kindred or civil relations , but as it is a derivation of power from above , so it must be in pursuit of that service and design which he had received in charge together with his power . 7. And so his Mother understood him , giving express charge to the ministers to do whatsoever he commanded . Jesus therefore bad them fill the water-pots which stood there for the use of frequent washings , which the Jews did use in all publick meetings , for fear of touching pollutions , or contracting legal impurities : which they did with a curiousness next to superstition , washing the very beds and tables used at their Feasts . The ministers filled them to the brim , and , as they were commanded , drew out , and bare 〈◊〉 the Governour of the Feast , who knew not of it , till the Miracle grew publick , and like light shewed it self : for while they wondred at the oeconomy of that Feast in keeping the best wine till the last , it grew apparent that he who was the Lord of the Creatures , who in their first seeds have an obediential capacity to receive the impresses of what forms he pleases to imprint , could give new natures , and produce new qualities in that subject in which he chuses to glorifie his Son. 8. This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee . For all those Miracles which are reported to be done by Christ in his Infancy , and interval of his younger years , are Apocryphal and spurious , feigned by trifling understandings , ( who think to serve God with a well-meant lie , ) and promoted by the credulity of such persons in whose hearts easiness , folly , and credulity are bound up and tied fast with silken thread , and easie softnesses of religious affections , not made severe by the rigours of wisdom and experience . This first Miracle manifested his Glory , and his Disciples believed in him . Ad SECT . X. Considerations touching the Vocation of five Disciples , and of the first Miracle of JESVS , done at Cana in Galilee . Christ calling Peter and Andrew . Matth. 4. 18 , 19 , 20. Jesus walking by the sea of Galilee saw two brethren , Simon called Peter & Andrew his brother , casting a net into the sea , ( for they were fishers ) . And he saith unto them , follow me , and I will make you fishers of men . And they straightway left their nets , and followed him . Nathanaels coming to Christ. John 45 , 46. Philip findeth Nathanael & saith unto him , we have found him , of whom Moses in ye● and y e prophets did write , Jesus of Nazareth y e son of Joseph , Nathanael said unto him , can any good thing come out of Nazareth ? Philip saith unto him , come and see . Jesus saw Nathanael coming , & said , Behold an Israelite indeed , etc. 1. AS soon as ever John the Baptist was taught by the descent of the Holy Spirit that this was Jesus , he instantly preaches him to all that came near him . For the Holy Ghost was his Commission and instruction ; and now he was a Minister Evangelical , and taught all those that have the honour to be servants in so sacred imployment , that they must not go till they be sent , nor speak till they be instructed , 〈◊〉 yet hold their peace when their Commission is signed by the consignation of the Spirit in ordinary Ministery . For all power and all wisdom is from above , and in spiritual ministrations is a direct emanation from the Holy Spirit : that as no man is fit to speak the Mysteries of Godliness , be his person never so holy , unless he derive wisdom in order to such ministeries ; so be he never so instructed by the assistance of art or infused knowledge , yet unless he also have derived power as well as skill , authority as well as knowledge from the same Spirit , he is not enabled to minister in publick in ordinary ministrations . The Baptist was sent by a prime designation to prepare the way to Jesus , and was instructed by the same 〈◊〉 , which had sanctified or consecrated him in his Mother's womb to this holy purpose . 2. When the Baptist had shewed Jesus to Andrew and another Disciple , they immediately followed him with the distances and fears of the first approach , and the infirmities of new Converts ; but Jesus seeing them follow their first light , invited them to see the Sun : For God loves to cherish Infants in grace , and having sown the immortal seed in their hearts , if it takes root downwards , and springs out into the verdure of a leaf , he still waters it with the gentle rain of the Holy Spirit , in graces and new assistances , till it brings forth the fruits of a holy conversation . And God , who knows that Infants have need of pleasant , and gentle , and frequent nutriment , hath given to them this comfort , that himself will take care of their first beginnings , and improve them to the strength of men , and give them the strengths of nature , and the wisdom of the Spirit , which ennoble men to excellencies and perfections . By the preaching of the Baptist they were brought to seek for Christ , and when they did , Christ found them , and brought them home , and made them stay all night with him ; which was more favour than they look'd for . For so God usually dispenses his mercies , that they may run over our thoughts and expectations , and they are given in no proportion to us , but according to God's measures ; he considering not what we are worthy of , but what is fit for him to give ; he only requiring of us capacities to receive his favour , and fair reception and entertainment of his graces . 3. When Andrew had found Jesus , he calls his Brother Simon to be partaker of his joys , which ( as it happens in accidents of greatest pleasure ) cannot be contained within the limits of the possessor's thoughts . But this calling of Peter was not to a beholding , but to a participation of his felicities : for he is strangely covetous who would enjoy the Sun , or the Air , or the Sea , alone ; here was treasure sor him and all the world : and by lighting his brother Simon' s taper , he made his own light the greater and more glorious . And this is the nature of Grace , to be diffusive of its own excellencies ; for here no 〈◊〉 can inhabit : the proper and personal ends of holy persons in the contract and transmissions of Grace are increased by the participation and communion of others . For our Prayers are more effectual , our aids increased , our incouragement and examples more prevalent , God more honoured , and the rewards of glory have accidental advantages , by the superaddition of every new Saint and beatified person ; the members of the mystical body , when they have received nutriment from God and his Holy Son , supplying to each other the same which themselves received , and live on , in the communion of Saints . Every new Star gilds the firmament , and increases its first glories : and those who are instruments of the Conversion of others , shall not only introduce new beauties , but when themselves shine like the stars in glory , they shall have some reflexions from the light of others , to whose fixing in the Orb of Heaven themselves have been instrumental . And this consideration is not only of use in the exaltations of the dignity Apostolical and Clerical , but for the enkindling even of private charities ; who may do well to promote others interests of Piety , in which themselves also have some concernment . 4. These Disciples asked of Christ where he 〈◊〉 : Jesus answered , Come and see . It was an answer very expressive of our duty in this instance . It is not enough for us to understand where Christ inhabits , or where he is to be found ; for our understandings may follow him afar off , and we receive no satisfaction unless it be to curiosity ; but we must go where he is , eat of his meat , wash in his Lavatory , rest on his beds , and dwell with him : for the Holy Jesus hath no kind influence upon those who stand at distance , save only the affections of a Loadstone , apt to draw them nigher , that he may transmit his vertues by union and confederations ; but if they persist in a sullen distance , they shall learn his glories as Dives understood the peace of Lazarus , of which he was never to participate . Although the Son of man hath not where to lay his head , yet he hath many houses where to convey his Graces ; he hath nothing to cover his own , but he hath enough to sanctifie ours : and as he dwelt in such houses which the charity of good people then afforded for his entertainment ; so now he loves to abide in places which the Religion of his servants hath vowed to his honour , and the advantages of Evangelical ministrations . Thither we must come to him , or any-where else where we may enjoy him : He is to be found in a Church , in his ordinances , in the communion of Saints , in every religious duty , in the heart of every holy person ; and if we go to him by the addresses of Religion in Holy places , by the ministery of Holy rites , by Charity , by the adherences of Faith , and Hope , and other combining Graces , the Graces of union and society , or prepare a lodging for him within us , that he may come to us , then shall we see such glories and interiour beauties , which none know but they that dwell with him . The secrets of spiritual benediction are understood only by them to whom they are conveyed , even by the children of his house . Come and see . 5. S. Andrew was first called , and that by Christ immediately , his Brother Simon next , and that by Andrew ; but yet Jesus changed Simon' s name , and not the other 's ; and by this change design'd him to an eminency of Office , at least in signification , principally above his Brother , or else separately and distinctly from him : to shew that these Graces and favours which do not immediately cooperate to eternity , but are gifts and offices , or impresses of authority , are given to men irregularly , and without any order of predisponent causes , or probabilities on our part , but are issues of absolute predestination ; and as they have efficacy from those reasons which God conceals , so they have some purposes as conccal'd as their causes ; only if God pleases to make us vessels of fair imployment and of great capacity , we shall bear a greater burthen , and are bound to glorifie God with special offices . But as these exteriour and ineffective Graces are given upon the same good will of God which made this matter to be a humane Body , when , if God had so pleased , it was as capable of being made a Fungus or a Sponge : so they are given to us with the same intentions as are our Souls , that we might glorifie God in the distinct capacity of Grace , as before of a reasonable nature . And besides that it teaches us to magnifie God's free mercy , so it removes every such exalted person from being an object of envy to others , or from pleasing himself in vainer opinions : for God hath made him of such an imployment as freely and voluntarily as he hath made him a Man , and he no more cooperated to this Grace than to his own creation , and may as well admire himself for being born in Italy , or from rich parents , or for having two hands or two feet , as for having received such a designation extraordinary . But these things are never instruments of reputation among severe understandings , and never but in the sottish and unmanly apprehensions of the vulgar . Only this , when God hath imprinted an authority upon a person , although the man hath nothing to please himself withal but God's grace , yet others are to pay the duty which that impression demands ; which duty because it rapports to God , and touches not the man , 〈◊〉 as it passes through him to the fountain of authority and grace , it extinguishes all 〈◊〉 of opinion and pride . 6. When Jesus espied 〈◊〉 ( who also had been called by the first Disciples ) coming towards him , he gave him an excellent character , calling him a true Israelite in whom was no guile , and admitted him amongst the first Disciples of the Institution ; by this character in one of the first of his Scholars hallowing Simplicity of spirit , and receiving it into his Discipline , that it might now become a vertue and duty Evangelical . For although it concerns us as a Christian duty to be prudent , yet the Prudence of Christianity is a duty of spiritual effect , and in instances of Religion with no other purposes than to avoid giving offence to those that are without and within ; that we cause no disreputation to Christianity ; that we do nothing that may incourage enemies to the Religion ; and that those that are within the communion and obedience of the Church may not suffer as great inconveniences by the indiscreet conduct of religious actions as by direct temptations to a sin . These are the purposes of private Prudence , to which in a greater measure and upon more variety of rules the Governours of Churches are obliged . But that which Christian Simplicity prohibits is the mixing arts and unhandsome means for the purchase of our ends ; witty counsels that are underminings of our neighbour , destroying his just interest to serve our own , stratagems to deceive , infinite and insignificant answers with fraudulent design , unjust and unlawful concealment of our purposes , fallacious promises and false pretences , flattery and unjust and unreasonable praise , saying one thing and meaning the contrary , pretending Religion to secular designs , breaking faith , taking false oaths , and such other instruments of humane purposes framed by the Devil , and sent into the world to be perfected by man. Christian Simplicity speaks nothing but its thoughts ; and when it concerns Prudence that a thought or purpose should be concealed , it concerns Simplicity that silence be its cover , and not a false vizor ; it rather suffers inconvenience than a lie ; it destroys no man's right , though it be inconsistent with my advantages ; it reproves freely , palliates no man's wickedness ; it intends what it ought , and does what is bidden , and uses courses regular and just , sneaks not in corners , and walks always in the eye of God and the face of the world . 7. Jesus told Nathanael that he knew him , when he saw him under the Fig-tree ; and Nathanael took that to be probation sufficient that he was the 〈◊〉 , and believed rightly upon an insufficient motive : which because Jesus did accept , it gives testimony to us , that however Faith be produced , by means regular or by arguments incompetent , whether it be proved or not proved , whether by chance or deliberation , whether wisely or by occasion , so that Faith be produced by the instrument , and love by Faith , God's work is done , and so is ours . For if S. Paul rejoyced that Christ was preached , though by the 〈◊〉 of peevish persons ; certainly God will not reject an excellent product because it came from a weak and sickly parent : and he that brings good out of evil , and rejoyces in that good , having first triumphed upon the evil , will certainly take delight in the Faith of the most ignorant persons , which his own grace hath produced out of innocent , though insufficient , beginnings . It was folly in Naaman to refuse to be cured , because he was to recover only by washing in Jordan . The more incompetent the means is , the greater is the glory of God , who hath produced waters from a rock , and fire from the collision of a sponge and wool ; and it is certain , the end , unless it be in products merely natural , does not take its estimate and degrees from the external means . Grace does miracles , and the productions of the Spirit in respect of its instruments are equivocal , extraordinary , and supernatural ; and ignorant persons believe as strongly , though they know not why , and love God as 〈◊〉 , as greater spirits and more excellent understandings : and when God pleases , or if he sees it expedient , he will do to others as to Nathanael , give them greater arguments and better instruments for the confirmation and heightning of their 〈◊〉 , than they had for the first production . 8. When Jesus had chosen these few Disciples to be witnesses of succeeding accidents , every one of which was to be a probation of his mission and Divinity , he entred into the theatre of the world at a Marriage-feast , which he now first hallowed to a Sacramental signification , and made to become mysterious : he now began to chuse his Spouse out from the communities of the world , and did mean to endear her by unions ineffable and glorious , and consign the Sacrament by his bloud , which he first gave in a secret 〈◊〉 , and afterwards in 〈◊〉 and apparent effusion . And although the Holy Jesus did in his own person consecrate Coelibate , and Abstinence , and Chastity in his Mother's : yet by his 〈◊〉 he also hallowed Marriage , and made it honourable , not only in civil account and the rites of Heraldry , but in a spiritual sence , he having new sublim'd it by making it a Sacramental representment of the union of Christ and his 〈◊〉 the Church . And all married persons should do 〈◊〉 to remember what the conjugal society does represent , and not break the matrimonial bond , which is a 〈◊〉 ligament of Christ and his Church ; for whoever dissolves the sacredness of the Mystery , and unhallows the Vow by violence and impurity , he dissolves his relation to Christ. To break faith with a Wife or Husband is a divorce from Jesus , and that is a separation from all possibilities of Felicity . In the time of the 〈◊〉 Statutes , to violate Marriage was to do injustice and dishonour and a breach to the sanctions of Nature , or the first constitutions : But two bands more are added in the Gospel , to make Marriage more sacred . For now our Bodies are made Temples of the Holy Ghost , and the Rite of Marriage is made significant and Sacramental , and every act of Adultery is Profanation and Irreligion , it 〈◊〉 a Temple , and deflours a Mystery . 9. The Married pair were holy , but poor , and they wanted wine , and the Blessed Virgin-Mother , pitying the 〈◊〉 of the young man , complained to Jesus of the want ; and 〈◊〉 gave her an answer which promised no satisfaction to her purposes . For now that Jesus had lived thirty years , and done in person nothing answerable to 〈◊〉 glorious Birth and the miraculous accidents of his Person , she longed till the time 〈◊〉 in which he was to manifest himself by actions as miraculous as the Star of his Birth : She knew by the rejecting of his Trade , and his going abroad , and probably by his own 〈◊〉 to her , that the time was near ; and the forwardness of her love and holy desires 〈◊〉 might go some minutes before his own precise limit . However 〈◊〉 answered to this purpose , to shew , that the work he was to do was done not to satisfie her importunity , which is not occasion enough for a Miracle , but to prosecute the great work of Divine designation . For in works spiritual and religious all exteriour relation ceases . The world's order , and the manner of our nature , and the infirmities of our person have produced Societies , and they have been the parents of Relation ; and God hath tied them fast by the knots of duty , and made the duty the occasion and opportunities of reward : But in actions spiritual , in which we relate to God , our relations are sounded upon the Spirit , and therefore we must do our duties upon considerations separate and spiritual , but never suffer temporal relations to impede our Religious duties . Christian Charity is a higher thing than to be confined within the terms of dependence and correlation , * and those endearments which leagues or nature or society have made , pass into spiritual , and , like Stars in the presence of the Sun , appear not when the heights of the Spirit are in place . Where duty hath prepared special instances , there we must for Religion's sake promote them ; but even to our Parents or our Children the charities of Religion ought to be greater than the affections of Society : And though we are bound in all offices exteriour to prefer our Relatives before others , because that is made a Duty ; yet to purposes spiritual , all persons eminently holy put on the efficacy of the same relations , and pass a duty upon us of religious affections . 10. At the command of Jesus the Water-pots were filled with water , and the water was by his Divine power turned into wine ; where the different oeconomy of God and the world is highly observable . Every man sets forth good wine at first , and then the worse : But God not only turns the water into wine , but into such wine that the last draught is most pleasant . The world presents us with fair language , promising 〈◊〉 , convenient fortunes , pompous honours , and these are the outsides of the bole ; but when it is swallowed , these dissolve in the instant , and there remains 〈◊〉 , and the malignity of Coloquintida . Every sin 〈◊〉 in the first address , and carries light in the face , and hony in the lip ; but when we have well drunk , then comes that which is worse , a whip with six strings , fears and terrors of Conscience , and shame and displeasure , and a caitive disposition , and diffidence in the day of death . But when after the manner of the purifying of the Christians we fill our Water-pots with water , watering our couch with our tears , and moistening our cheeks with the perpetual distillations of Repentance ; then Christ turns our water into wine ; first Penitents , and then Communicants ; first waters of sorrow , and then the wine of the Chalice ; first the justifications of Correction , and then the sanctifications of the Sacrament , and the effects of the Divine power , joy , and peace , and serenity , hopes full of confidence , and confidence without shame , and boldness without presumption : for Jesus keeps the best wine till the last ; not only because of the direct reservations of the highest joys till the nearer approaches of glory , but also because our relishes are higher after a long 〈◊〉 than at the first Essays ; such being the nature of Grace , that it increases in relish as it does in fruition , every part of Grace being new Duty and new Reward . The PRAYER . O Eternal and ever-Blessed Jesu , who didst chuse Disciples to be witnesses of thy Life and Miracles , so adopting man into a participation of thy great imployment of bringing us to Heaven by the means of a holy Doctrine ; be pleased to give me thy grace , that I may 〈◊〉 and revere their Persons whom thou hast set over me , and follow their Faith , and imitate their Lives , while they imitate thee ; and that I also in my capacity and proportion may do some of the meaner offices of spiritual building , by Prayers , and by holy Discourses , and 〈◊〉 Correption , and friendly Exhortations , doing advantages to such Souls with whom I shall converse . And since thou wert pleased to enter upon the stage of the World with the commencement of Mercy and a Miracle , be pleased to visit my Soul with thy miraculous grace , turn my water into wine , my natural desires into supernatural perfections , and let my sorrows be turned into joys , my sins into vertuous habits , the weaknesses of humanity into communications of the 〈◊〉 nature ; that since thou keepest the best unto the last , I may by thy assistance grow from Grace to Grace , till thy Gifts be turned to Reward , and thy Graces to participation of thy Glory , O Eternal and ever-Blessed Jesu . Amen . DISCOURSE VII . Of Faith. 1. NAthanael's Faith was produced by an argument not demonstrative , not certainly concluding ; Christ knew him when he saw him first , and he believed him to be the Messias : His Faith was excellent , what-ever the argument was . And I believe a GOD , because the Sun is a glorious body ; or because of the variety of Plants , or the fabrick and rare contexture of a man's Eye : I may as fully assent to the Conclusion , as if my belief dwelt upon the Demonstrations made by the Prince of Philosophers in the 8. of his Physicks and 12. of his Metaphysicks . This I premise as an inlet into the consideration concerning the Faith of ignorant persons . For if we consider upon what 〈◊〉 terms most of us now are Christians , we may possibly suspect that either Faith hath but little excellence in it , or we but little Faith , or that we are mistaken generally in its definition . For we are born of Christian parents , made Christians at ten days old , interrogated concerning the Articles of our Faith by way of anticipation , even then when we understand not the difference between the Sun and a Tallow-candle : from thence we are taught to say our Catechism , as we are taught to speak , when we have no reason to judge , no discourse to dilcern , no arguments to contest against a Proposition , in case we be catechised into False doctrine ; and all that is put to us we believe infinitely , and without choice , as children use not to chuse their language . And as our children are made Christians , just so are thousand others made Mahumetans , with the same necessity , the same facility . So that thus sar there is little thanks due to us for believing the Christian Creed ; it was indifferent to us at first , and at last our Education had so possest us , and our interest , and our no temptation to the contrary , that as we were disposed into this condition by Providence , so we remain in it without praise or excellency . For as our beginnings are inevitable , so our progress is imperfect and insufficient ; and what we begun by Education , we retain only by Custom : and if we be instructed in some slighter Arguments to maintain the Sect or Faction of our Country Religion as it disturbs the unity of Christendom ; yet if we examine and consider the account upon what slight arguments we have taken up Christianity it self , ( as that it is the Religion of our Country , or that our Fathers before us were of the same Faith , or because the Priest bids us , and he is a good man , or for something else , but we know not what ) we must needs conclude it the good providence of God , not our choice , that made us Christians . 2. But if the question be , Whether such a Faith be in it self good and acceptable that relies upon insufficient and unconvincing grounds ; I suppose this case of Nathanael will determine us : and when we consider that Faith is an 〈◊〉 Grace , if God pleases to behold his own glory in our weakness of understanding , it is but the same thing he does in the instances of his other Graces . For as God enkindles Charity upon variety of means and instruments , by a thought , by a chance by a text of Scripture , by a natural tenderness , by the sight of a dying or a tormented beast : so also he may produce Faith by arguments of a differing quality , and by issues of his Providence he may engage us in such conditions , in which as our Understanding is not great enough to chuse the best , so neither is it furnished with powers to reject any proposition ; and to believe well is an effect of a singular predestination , and is a Gift in order to a Grace , as that Grace is in order to Salvation . But the insufficiency of an argument or disability to prove our Religion is so far from disabling the goodness of an ignorant man's Faith , that as it may be as strong as the Faith of the greatest Scholar , so it hath full as much excellency , not of nature , but in order to Divine acceptance . For as he who believes upon the only stock of Education made no election of his Faith ; so he who believes what is demonstrably proved is forced by the demonstration to his choice . Neither of them did 〈◊〉 and both of them may equally love the Article . 3. So that since a 〈◊〉 Argument in a weak understanding does the same work that a strong Argument in a more 〈◊〉 and learned , that is , it convinces and makes Faith , and yet neither of them is matter of choice ; if the thing believed be good , and matter of 〈◊〉 or necessity , the Faith is not rejected by God upon the weakness of the first , nor accepted upon the strength of the latter principles : when we are once in , it will not be enquired by what entrance we passed thither ; whether God leads us or drives us in , whether we come by Discourse or by Inspiration , by the guide of an Angel or the conduct of Moses , whether we be born or made Christians , it is indifferent , so we be there where we should be ; for this is but the gate of Duty , and the entrance to Felicity . For thus far Faith is but an act of the Understanding , which is a natural Faculty , serving indeed as an instrument to Godliness , but of it self no part of it ; and it is just like fire producing its act inevitably , and burning as long as it can , without power to interrupt or suspend its action ; and therefore we cannot be more pleasing to God for understanding rightly , than the fire is for burning clearly : which puts us evidently upon this consideration , that Christian Faith , that glorious Duty which gives to Christians a great degree of approximation to God by Jesus Christ , must have a great proportion of that ingredient which makes actions good or bad , that is , of choice and effect . 4. For the Faith of a Christian hath more in it of the Will than of the Understanding . Faith is that great mark of distinction which separates and gives formality to the Covenant of the Gospel , which is a Law of Faith. The Faith of a Christian is his Religion , that is , it is that whole conformity to the Institution or Discipline of Jesus Christ which distinguishes him from the believers of false Religions . And to be one of the faithful signifies the same with being a Disciple ; and that contains Obedience as well as believing . For to the same sense are all those appellatives in Scripture , [ the Faithful , Brethren , Believers , the Saints , Disciples , ] all representing the duty of a Christian . A Believer and a Saint , or a holy person , is the same thing ; Brethren signifies Charity , and Believers Faith in the intellectual sence : the Faithful and Disciples signifie both ; for besides the consent to the Proposition , the first of them is also used for Perseverance and Sanctity , and the greatest of Charity mixt with a confident Faith up to the height of Martyrdom . Be faithful unto the death , ( said the Holy Spirit ) and I will give thee the Crown of life . And when the Apostles by way of abbreviation express all the body of Christian Religion , they call it Faith working by Love ; which also S. Paul in a parallel place calls a New Creature ; it is a keeping of the Commandments of God : that is the Faith of a Christian , into whose desinition Charity is ingredient , whose sence is the same with keeping of God's Commandments ; so that if we desine Faith , we must first distinguish it . The faith of a natural person , or the saith of Devils , is a 〈◊〉 believing a certain number of Propositions upon conviction of the Understanding : But the Faith of a Christian ; the Faith that justifies and saves him , is Faith working by Charity , or Faith keeping the Commandments of God. They are distinct Faiths in order to different ends , and therefore of different constitution ; and the instrument of distinction is Charity or Obedience . 5. And this great Truth is clear in the perpetual testimony of Holy Scripture . For Abraham is called the Father of the Faithful ; and yet our Blessed Saviour told the Jews , that if they had been the sons of Abraham , they would have done the works of Abraham ; and therefore Good works are by the Apostle called the sootsteps of the Faith of our Father Abraham . For Faith in every of its stages , at its first beginning , at its increment , at its greatest perfection , is a Duty made up of the concurrence of the Will and the Understanding , when it pretends to the Divine acceptance ; Faith and Repentance begin the Christian course . Repent and believe the Gospel was the summ of the Apostles Sermons ; and all the way after it is , Faith working by Love. Repentance puts the first spirit and life into Faith , and Charity preserves it , and gives it nourishment and increase ; it self also growing by a mutual supply of spirits and nutriment from Faith. Whoever does heartily believe a Resurrection and Life eternal upon certain Conditions , will certainly endeavour to acquire the Promises by the Purchase of Obedience and observation of the Conditions . For it is not in the nature or power of man directly to despise and reject so 〈◊〉 a good : So that Faith supplies Charity with argument and maintenance , and Charity supplies Faith with life and motion ; Faith makes Charity reasonable , and Charity makes Faith living and effectual . And therefore the old Greeks called Faith and Charity a miraculous Chariot or Yoke , they bear the burthen of the Lord with an equal consederation : these are like 〈◊〉 twins , they live and die together . Indeed Faith is the first-born of the twins ; but they must come both at a birth , or else they die , being strangled at the gates of the womb . But if Charity , like Jacob , lays hold upon his elder brother's heel , it makes a timely and a prosperous birth , and gives certain title to the eternal Promises . For let us give the right of primogeniture to Faith , yet the Blessing , yea and the Inheritance too , will at last fall to Charity . Not that Faith is disinherited , but that Charity only enters into the possession . The nature of Faith passes into the excellency of Charity before they can be rewarded ; and that both may have their estimate , that which justifies and saves us keeps the name of Faith , but doth not do the deed till it hath the nature of Charity . * For to think well , or to have a good opinion , or an excellent or a fortunate understanding , entitles us not to the love of God , and the consequent inheritance ; but to chuse the ways of the Spirit , and to relinquish the paths of darkness , this is the way of the Kingdom , and the purpose of the Gospel , and the proper work of Faith. 6. And if we consider upon what stock Faith it self is instrumental and operative of Salvation , we shall find it is in it self acceptable , because it is a Duty and commanded ; and therefore it is an act of Obedience , a work of the Gospel , a submitting the Understanding , a denying the Affections , a laying aside all interests , and a bringing our thoughts under the obedience of Christ. This the Apostle calls * the Obedience of Faith. And it is of the same condition and constitution with other Graces , all which equally relate to Christ , and are as firm instruments of union , and are washed by the bloud of Christ , and are sanctified by his Death , and apprehend him in their capacity and degrees , some higher and some not so high : but Hope and Charity apprehend Christ in a measure and proportion greater than Faith , when it distinguishes from them . So that if Faith does the work of Justification , as it is a mere relation to Christ , 〈◊〉 so also does Hope and Charity ; or if these are Duties and good works , so also is Faith : and they all being alike commanded in order to the same end , and encouraged by the same reward , are also accepted upon the same stock , which is , that they are acts of Obedience and relation too ; they obey Christ , and lay hold upon Christ's merits , and are but several instances of the great duty of a Christian , but the actions of several faculties of the 〈◊〉 Creature . But 〈◊〉 Faith is the beginning Grace , and hath insluence and causality in the production of the other , 〈◊〉 all the other , as they are united in Duty , are also united in their Title and appellative ; they are all called by the name of Faith , because they are parts of Faith , as Faith is taken in the larger sence : and when it is taken in the strictest and distinguishing sence , they are 〈◊〉 and proper products by way of natural emanation . 7. That a good life is the genuine and true-born issue of Faith , no man questions that knows himself the Disciple of the Holy Jesus ; but that Obedience is the same thing with * Faith , and that all Christian Graces are parts of its bulk and constitution , is also the doctrine of the Holy Ghost , and the Grammar of Scripture , making Faith and Obedience to be terms coincident and expressive of each other . For Faith is not a single Star , but a Constellation , a chain of Graces , called by S. Paul the power of God unto salvation to every believer ; that is , Faith is all that great instrument by which God intends to bring us to Heaven : and he gives this reason , In the Gospel the 〈◊〉 cousness of God is revealed from faith to faith , for it is written , The 〈◊〉 shall live by Faith. Which discourse makes Faith to be a course of Sanctity and holy 〈◊〉 , a continuation of a Christian's duty , such a duty as not only gives the first breath , but by which a man lives the life of Grace . The just shall live by Faith ; that is , such a Faith as grows from step to step , till the whole righteousness of God be fulfilled in it . From faith to faith , ( saith the Apostle ) which S. 〈◊〉 expounds , From Faith believing , to Faith obeying ; from imperfect Faith , to Faith made perfect by the animation of Charity ; that he who is justified may be justified still . For as there are several degrees and parts of Justification , so there are several degrees of Faith answerable to it ; that in all sences it may be true , that by Faith we are justified , and by Faith we live , and by Faith we are saved . For if we proceed from Faith to Faith , from believing to obeying , from Faith in the Understanding to Faith in the Will , from Faith barely assenting to the revelations of God to Faith obeying the Commandments of God , from the body of Faith to the soul of Faith , that is , to Faith sormed and made alive by Charity ; then we shall proceed from Justification to Justification , that is , from Remission of Sins to become the Sons of God , and at last to an actual possession of those glories to which we were here consigned by the fruits of the Holy Ghost . 8. And in this sence the Holy Jesus is called by the Apostle the Author and 〈◊〉 of our Faith : he is the principle , and he is the promoter ; he begins our Faith in Revelations , and perfects it in Commandments ; he leads us by the assent of our Understanding , and finishes the work of his grace by a holy life : which S. Paul there expresses by its several constituent parts ; as laying aside every weight and the sin that so easily besets us , and running with patience the race that is set before us , resisting unto bloud , striving against sin ; for in these things Jesus is therefore made our example , because he is the Author and Finisher of our Faith ; without these Faith is imperfect . But the thing is something plainer yet , for S. James says that Faith lives not but by Charity ; and the life or essence of a thing is certainly the better part of its constitution , as the Soul is to a Man. And if we mark the manner of his probation , it will come home to the main point . For he proves that Abraham's saith was therefore imputed to him for Righteousness , because he was justified by Works ; Was not Abraham our Father justified by Works , when he offered up his son ? And the Scripture was fulfilled , saying , Abraham believed God , and it was imputed to him for righteousness . For Faith wrought with his Works , and made his Faith perfect . It was a dead and an imperfect Faith , unless Obedience gave it being , and all its integral or essential parts . So that Faith and Charity in the sence of a Christian are but one duty , as the Understanding and the Will are but one reasonable Soul ; only they produce several actions in order to one another , which are but divers 〈◊〉 , and the same spirit . 9. Thus S. Paul , describing the (a) Faith of the Thessalonians , calls it that whereby they turned from Idols , and whereby they served the living God ; and the (b) Faith of the Patriarchs believed the world's Creation , received the Promises , did Miracles , wrought Rightcousness , and did and suffered so many things as make up the integrity of a holy life . And therefore (c) disobedience and unrighteousness is called want of Faith ; and (d) Heresie , which is opposed to Faith , is a work of the flesh , because Faith it self is a work of Righteousness . And , that I may enumerate no more particulars , the thing is so known , that the word * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in propriety of language signifies 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 , is rendred disobedience ; and the not providing for our families is an act of 〈◊〉 , by the same reason and analogy that 〈◊〉 or Charity and a holy life are the duties of a Christian , of a justifying Faith. And although in the natural or philosophical sence Faith and Charity are distinct habits ; yet in the sence of a Christian and the signification of duty they are the same ; for we cannot believe aright , as Believing is in the Commandment , unless we live aright ; for our Faith is put upon the account just as it is made precious by Charity ; according to that rare saying of S. 〈◊〉 , recorded by the supposed S. Denis , Charity is the greatest and the least Theologie : all our Faith , that is , all our Religion , is compleated in the duties of universal Charity ; as our Charity or our manner of living is , so is our Faith. If our life be unholy , it may be the faith of Devils , but not the Faith of Christians . For this is the difference . 10. The faith of the Devils hath more of the Understanding in it , the Faith of Christians more of the Will : The Devils in their saith have better Discourse , the Christians better affections : They in their faith have better Arguments , we more Charity . So that Charity or a good life is so necessary an ingredient into the definition of a Christian's Faith , that we have nothing else to distinguish it from the faith of Devils : and we need no trial os our Faith , but the examination of our lives . If you keep the Commandments of God , then have you the Faith of Jesus , ( they are immediate in S. John's expression : ) but if you be 〈◊〉 and ungodly , you are in S. Paul's list amongst them that have no saith . Every Vice , that rules amongst us and sullies the fair beauty of our Souls , is a conviction of Infidelity . 11. For it was the Faith of Moses that made him despise the riches of Egypt ; the Faith of 〈◊〉 , that made him valiant ; the Faith of Joseph , that made him chast : Abraham's Faith made him obedient ; S. Mary Magdalen's Faith made her penitent ; and the Faith of S. Paul made him travel so far , and suffer so much , till he became a prodigy both of zeal and patience . Faith is a Catholicon , and cures all the distemperatures of the Soul ; (a) it 〈◊〉 the World , ( saith S. John ) it (b) works rightcousness , ( saith S. Paul ) it (c) purifies the heart , ( saith S. Peter ) it works Miracles , ( saith our Blessed Saviour ) Miracles in Grace always , as it did Miracles in nature at its first publication : and whatsoever is good , if it be a Grace , it is an act of Faith ; if it be a reward , it is the fruit of Faith. So that as all the actions of man are but the productions of the Soul , so are all the actions of the new man the effects of Faith. For Faith is the life of Christianity , and a good life is the life of Faith. 12. Upon the grounds of this discourse we may understand the sence of that Question of our Blessed Saviour , When the son of man comes , shall he find Faith on earth ? Truly just so much as he finds Charity and holy living , and no more . For then only we can be confident that Faith is not failed from among the children of men , when we seel the heats of the primitive Charity return , and the calentures of the first old Devotion are renewed ; when it shall be accounted honourable to be a servant of Christ , and a shame to commit a sin : then , and then only , our Churches shall be Assemblies of the faithful , and the Kingdoms of the world Christian Countries . But so long as it is notorious that we have made Christian Religion another thing than what the Holy Jesus designed it to be ; when it does not make us live good lives , but it self is made a pretence to all manner of impiety , a stratagem to serve ends , the ends of covetousness , of ambition and revenge ; when the Christian Charity ends in killing one another for Conscience sake , so that Faith is made to cut the throat of Charity , and our Faith kills more than our Charity preserves ; when the Humility of a Christian hath indeed a name amongst us , but it is like a mute person , talk'd of only ; while Ambition and Rebellion , Pride and Scorn , Self-seeking and proud undertakings transact most of the great affairs of Christendom ; when the custody of our Senses is to no other purposes but that no opportunity of pleasing them pass away ; when our Oaths are like the fringes of our discourses , going round about them , as if they were ornaments and trimmings ; when our Blasphemies , Prophanation , Sacriledge and Irreligion are become scandalous to the very Turks and Jews ; while our Lusts are always habitual , sometimes unnatural ; will any wise man think that we believe those Doctrines of Humility and Obedience , of Chastity and Charity , of Temperance and Justice , which the Saviour of the World made sacred by his Sermon and example , or indeed any thing he either said or did , promised or threatned ? For is it possible , a man with his wits about him , and believing that he should certainly be damned , ( that is , be eternally tormented in body and Soul with terments greater than can be in this world ) if he be a Swearer , or Lier , or Drunkard , or cheats his neighbour , that this man should dare to do these things , to which the temptations are so small , in which the delight is so inconsiderable , and the satisfaction so none at all ? 13. We see by the experience of the whole world , that the belief of an honest man in a matter of temporal advantage makes us do actions of such danger and difficulty , that half so much industry and 〈◊〉 would ascertain us into a possession of all the Promises Evangelical . Now let any man be asked , whether he had rather be rich or be saved , he will tell you , without all doubt , Heaven is the better option by infinite degrees : for it cannot be that Riches , or Revenge , or Lust should be directly preferred , that is , be thought more eligible than the glories of Immortality . That therefore men neglect so great Salvation , and so greedily run after the satisfaction of their baser appetites , can be attributed to nothing but want of Faith ; they do not heartily believe that Heaven is worth so much ; there is upon them a stupidity of spirit , and their Faith is dull , and its actions suspended most commonly , and often interrupted , and it never enters into the Will : so that the Propositions are considered nakedly and precisely in themselves , but not as referring to us or our interests ; there is nothing of Faith in it , but so much as is the first and direct act of Understanding ; there is no consideration nor reflexion upon the act , or upon the person , or upon the subject . So that even as it is seated in the Understanding , our Faith is commonly lame , mutilous and imperfect ; and therefore much more is it culpable , because it is destitute of all cooperation of the rational appetite . 14. But let us consider the power and efficacy of worldly Belief . If a man believes that there is gold to be had in Peru for fetching , or Pearls and rich Jewels in India for the exchange of trifles , he instantly , if he be in capacity , leaves the wife of his bosom , and the pretty delights of children , and his own security , and ventures into the dangers of waters and unknown seas , and freezings and calentures , thirst and hunger , Pirates and shipwrecks , and hath within him a principle strong enough to answer all objections , because he believes that Riches are desirable , and by such means likely to be had . Our Blessed Saviour , comparing the Gospel to a Merchant-man that found a pearl of great price , and sold all to buy it , hath brought this instance home to the present discourse . For if we did as verily believe that in Heaven those great Felicities which transcend all our apprehensions are certainly to be obtained by leaving our Vices and lower desires , what can hinder us but we should at least do as much for obtaining those great Felicities as for the lesser , if the belief were equal ? For if any man thinks he may have them without Holiness and Justice and Charity , then he wants Faith , for he believes not the saying of S. Paul , Follow peace with all men , and Holiness , without which no man shall ever see God. If a man believes Learning to be the only or chiefest ornament and beauty of Souls , that which will ennoble him to a fair employment in his own time , and an honourable memory to succeeding ages ; this if he believes heartily it hath power to make him indure Catarrhs , Gouts , Hypochondriacal passions , to read till his eyes almost fix in their orbs , to despise the pleasures of idleness or tedious sports , and to undervalue whatsoever does not cooperate to the end of his Faith , the desire of Learning . Why is the Italian so abstemious in his drinkings , or the Helvetian so valiant in his fight , or so true to the Prince that imploys him , but that they believe it to be noble so to be ? If they believed the same , and had the same honourable thoughts of other Vertues , they also would be as national as these . For Faith will do its proper work . And when the Understanding is peremptorily and fully determined upon the perswasion of a Proposition , if the Will should then dissent and chuse the contrary , it were unnatural and monstrous , and possibly no man ever does so ; for that men do things without reason and against their Conscience is , because they have put out their light , and discourse their Wills into the election of a sensible good , and want faith to believe truly all circumstances which are necessary by way of predisposition for choice of the 〈◊〉 . 15. But when mens Faith is confident , their resolution and actions are in proportion : For thus the Faith of Mahumetans makes them to abstain from Wine for ever ; and therefore , if we had the Christian Faith , we should much rather abstain from Drunkenness for ever ; it being an express Rule Apostolical , Be not drunk with wine , wherein is excess . The Faith of the Circumcellians made them to run greedily to violent and horrid deaths as willingly as to a Crown : for they thought it was the King's high-way to Martyrdom . And there was never any man zealous for his Religion , and of an imperious bold Faith , but he was also willing to die for it ; and therefore also by as much reason to live in it , and to be a strict observer of its prescriptions . And the stories of the strict Sanctity , and prodigious Sufferings , and severe Disciplines , and expensive Religion , and compliant and laborious Charity of the primitive Christians , is abundant argument to convince us , that the Faith of Christians is infinitely more fruitful and productive of its univocal and proper issues than the Faith of Hereticks , or the false religions of Misbelievers , or the perswasions of Secular persons , or the Spirit of Antichrist . And therefore when we see men serving their Prince with such difficult and ambitious services , because they believe him able to reward them , though of his will they are not so certain , and yet so supinely negligent and incurious of their services to God , of whose power and will to reward us infinitely there is certainty absolute and irrespective ; it is certain probation that we believe it not : for if we believe there is such a thing as Heaven , and that every single man's portion of Heaven is far better than all the wealth in the world , it is morally impossible we should prefer so little before so great profit . 16. I instance but once more . The Faith of Abraham was instanced in the matter of confidence or trust in the Divine Promises ; and he being the father of the faithful , we must imitate his Faith by a clear dereliction of our selves and our own interests , and an intire confident relying upon the Divine goodness in all cases of our needs or danger . Now this also is a trial of the verity of our Faith , the excellency of our condition , and what title we have to the glorious names of Christians , and Faithful , and 〈◊〉 . If our Fathers when we were in pupillage and minority , or a true and an able Friend when we were in need , had made promises to supply our necessities ; our confidence was so great that our care determined . It were also well that we were as confident of God , and as secure of the event , when we had disposed our selves to reception of the blessing , as we were of our Friend or Parents . We all profess that God is Almighty , that all his Promises are certain , and yet , when it comes to a pinch , we find that man to be more confident that hath ten thousand pounds in his purse than he that reads God's Promises over ten thousand times . Men of a common spirit , ( saith S. Chrysostome ) of an ordinary Sanctity , will not steal , or kill , or lie , or commit Adultery ; but it requires a rare Faith , and a sublimity of pious affections , to believe that God will work a 〈◊〉 which to me seems impossible . And indeed S. 〈◊〉 hit upon the right . He had need be a good man and love God 〈◊〉 that puts his trust in him . For those we * love we are most apt to trust ; and although trust and confidence is sometime founded upon experience , yet it is also begotten and increased by love , as often as by reason and discourse . And to this purpose it was excellently said by S. Basil , That the 〈◊〉 which one man learneth of another is made perfect by continual Use and Exercise ; but that which through the grace of God is engrassed in the mind of man is made absolute by Justice , 〈◊〉 and Charity . So that if you are willing even in death to confess not only the Articles , but in affliction and death to trust the Promises ; if in the lowest nakedness of Poverty you can cherish your selves with the expectation of God's promises and dispensation , being as confident of food and raiment and deliverance or support when all is in God's hand , as you are when it is in your own ; if you can be chearful in a storm , smile when the world frowns , be content in the midst of spiritual desertions and anguish of spirit , expecting all should work together for the best , according to the promise ; if you can strengthen your selves in God when you are weakest , believe when you see no hope , and entertain no jealousies or suspicions of God though you see nothing to make you confident ; then , and then only , you have Faith , which in conjunction with its other parts is able to save your Souls . For in this precise duty of trusting God there are the rays of hope , and great proportions of Charity and Resignation . 17. The summ is that pious and most Christian sentence of the Author of the ordinary Gloss : To believe in God through Jesus Christ is , by believing to love him , to adhere to him , to be united to him by Charity and Obedience , and to be incorporated into Christ ' s mystical body in the Communion of Saints . I conclude this with a collation of certain excellent words of S. Paul highly to the present purpose : Examine your selves , Brethren , whether ye be in the Faith ; prove your own selves . Well , but how ? Know you not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you , except ye be Reprobates ? There 's the touchstone of Faith. If Jesus Christ dwells in us , then we are true Believers ; if he does not , we are Reprobates , we have no Faith. But how shall we know whether Christ be in us or no ? Saint Paul tells us that too : If Christ be in you , the body is dead , by reason of sin ; but the spirit is life , because of righteousness . That 's the Christian's mark , and the Characteristick of a true Believer ; A death unto sin , and a living unto righteousness ; a mortified body , and a quickned spirit . This is plain enough , and by this we see what we must trust to . A man of a wicked life does in vain hope to be saved by his Faith , for indeed his Faith is but equivocal and dead , which as to his purpose is just none at all ; and therefore let him no more deceive himself . For ( that I may still use the words of S. Paul ) This is a faithful saying , and these things I will that thou affirm constantly , that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works . For such , and such only , in the great scrutiny for Faith in the day of Doom , shall have their portion in the bosom of faithful Abraham . The PRAYER . I. O Eternal GOD , 〈◊〉 of all Truth and Holiness , in whom to believe is life eternal ; let thy Grace descend with a mighty power into my Soul , beating down every strong hold and vainer imagination , and bringing every proud thought and my confident and ignorant understanding into the obedience of Jesus : Take from me all disobdience and refractoriness of spirit , all ambition and private and baser interests ; remove from me all prejudice and weakness of perswasion , that I may wholly resign my Understanding to the perswasions of Christianity , acknowledging Thee to be the principle of Truth , and thy Word the measure of Knowledge , and thy Laws the rule of my life , and thy Promises the satisfaction of my hopes , and an union with thee to be the consummation of Charity in the fruition of Glory . Amen . II. HOly JESUS , make me to acknowledge thee to be my Lord and Master , and my self a Servant and Disciple of thy holy Discipline and Institution ; let me love to sit at thy feet , and suck in with my ears and heart the sweetness of thy holy Sermons . Let my Soul be shod with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace , with a peaceable and docile disposition . Give me great boldness in the publick Confession of thy Name and the Truth of thy Gospel , in despite of all hostilities and temptations . And grant I may always remember that thy Name is called upon me , and I may so behave my self , that I neither give scandal to others , nor cause disreputation to the honour of Religion ; but that thou mayest be glorified in me , and I by thy mercies after a strict observance of all the holy Laws of Christianity . Amen . III. O Holy and ever-Blessed SPIRIT , let thy gracious influences be the perpetual guide of my rational Faculties : Inspire me with Wisdom and Knowledge , spiritual Understanding and a holy Faith ; and sanctifie my Faith , that it may arise up to the confidence of Hope , and the adherencies of Charity , and be fruitful in a holy Conversation . Mortifie in me all peevishness and pride of spirit , all heretical dispositions , and whatsoever is contrary to sound Doctrine ; that when the eternal Son of God , the Author and Finisher of our Faith , shall come to make scrutiny and an inquest for Faith , I may receive the Promises laid up for them that believe in the Lord Jesus , and wait for his coming in holiness and purity : to whom with the Father and thee , O Blessed Spirit , be all honour and eternal adoration payed with all sanctity and joy and Eucharist now and for ever . Amen . SECT . XI . Of CHRIST's going to Jerusalem to the Passeover the first time after his Manifestation , and what followed till the expiration of the Office of John the Baptist. The Visitation of the Temple . Marke . 11. 15. And Iesus went into y e Temple & began to cast out them that sold & bought in y e Temple , and overthrew the tables of the money changers . 16. And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the Temple . The Conference with Nicodemus . Iohn . 3. 9. Nicodemus answered & said unto him . How can these things be ? 10. Iesus answered and sayd unto him , Art thou a Master of Israel , and knowest not these things ? 1. IMmediately after this Miracle Jesus abode a few days in Capernaum , but because of the approach of the great Feast of Passeover he ascended to Jerusalem ; and the first publick act of record that he did was an act of holy Zeal and Religion in behalf of the honour of the Temple . For divers Merchants and Exchangers of money made the Temple to be the Market and the Bank , and brought Beasts thither to be sold for sacrifice against the great Paschal Solemnity . At the sight of which Jesus , being moved with zeal and indignation , made a whip of cords , and drave the Beasts out of the Temple , overthrew the accounting Tables , and commanded them that sold the Doves to take them from thence . For his anger was holy , and he would mingle no injury with it ; and therefore the Doves , which if let loose would be detrimental to the owners , he caused to be fairly removed ; and published the Religion of Holy places , establishing their Sacredness for ever by his first Gospel-Sermon that he made at Jerusalem . Take these things hence : Make not my Father's House a house of merchandise ; for it shall be called a house of Prayer to all Nations . And being required to give a sign of his Vocation , ( for this , being an action like the Religion of the Zelots among the Jews , if it was not attested by something extraordinary , might be abused into an excess of liberty ) he only foretold the Resurrection of his body after three days death , but he expressed it in the metaphor of the Temple : Destroy this Temple , and I will build it again in three days . He spake of the Temple of his Body , and they understood him of the Temple at Jerusalem ; and it was never rightly construed till it was accomplished . 2. At this publick Convention of the Jewish Nation Jesus did many Miracles , published himself to be the Messias , and perswaded many Disciples , amongst whom was Nicodemus , a Doctor of the Law , and a Ruler of the Nation : he came by night to Jesus , and affirmed himself to be convinced by the Miracles which he had seen ; for no man could do those miracles except God be with him . When Jesus perceived his understanding to be so far disposed , he began to instruct him in the great secret and mysteriousness of Regeneration , telling him that every production is of the same nature and condition with its parent ; from flesh comes flesh and corruption , from the Spirit comes spirit and life and immortality ; and nothing from a principle of nature could arrive to a supernatural end ; and therefore the only door to enter into the Kingdom of God was Water by the manuduction of the Spirit ; and by this Regeneration we are put into a new capacity , of living a spiritual life in order to a spiritual and supernatural end . 3. This was strange Philosophy to Nicodemus ; but Jesus bad him not to wonder : for this is not a work of humanity , but a fruit of God's Spirit , and an issue of Predestination . For the Spirit bloweth where it listeth , and is as the wind , certain and notorious in the effects , but secret in the principle and in the manner of production . And therefore this Doctrine was not to be estimated by any proportions to natural principles or experiments of sense , but to the secrets of a new Metaphysick , and abstracted , separate Speculations . Then Christ proceeds in his Sermon , telling him there are yet higher things for him to apprehend and believe ; for this , in respect of some other mysteriousness of his Gospel , was but as Earth in comparison of Heaven . Then he tells of his own descent from Heaven , foretells his Death and Ascension , and the blessing of Redemption , which he came to work for mankind ; he preaches of the Love of the Father , the Mission of the Son , the rewards of Faith , and the glories of Eternity ; he upbraids the unbelieving and impenitent , and declares the differences of a holy and a corrupt Conscience , the shame and fears of the one , the confidence and serenity of the other . And this is the summ of his Sermon to Nicodemus , which was the fullest of mystery and speculation and abstracted sences of any that he ever made , except that which he made immediately before his Passion ; all his other Sermons being more practical . 4. From Jerusalem Jesus goeth into the Country of Judaea , attended by divers Disciples , whose understandings were brought into subjection and obedience to Christ upon confidence of the divinity of his Miracles . There his Disciples did receive all comers , and baptized them , as John at the same time did , and by that Ceremony admitted them to the Discipline and Institution , according to the custom of the Doctors and great Prophets among the Jews , whose Baptizing their Scholars was the ceremony of their Admission . As soon as John heard it , he acquitted himself in publick by renewing his former testimony concerning Jesus , affirming him to be the Messias , and now the time was come that Christ must increase , and the Baptist suffer diminution ; for Christ came from above , was above all , and the summ of his Doctrine was that which he had heard and seen from the Father , whom God sent to that purpose , to whom God had set his seal , that he was true , who spake the words of God , whom the Father loved , to whō he gave the Spirit without measure , and into whose hands God had delivered all things ; this was he , whose testimony the world received not . And that they might know not only what person they sleighted , but how great Salvation also they neglected , he summs up all his Sermons and finishes his Mission with this saying , He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life ; and he that believeth not on the Son shall not see life , but the wrath of God abideth on him . 5. For now that the Baptist had fulfilled his Office of bearing witness unto Jesus , God was pleased to give him his writ of ease , and bring him to his reward upon this occasion . John , who had so learned to despise the world and all its exteriour vanities and impertinent relations , did his duty justly , and so without respect of persons , that as he reproved the people for their prevarications , so he spared not Herod for his , but abstaining from all expresses of the spirit of scorn and asperity , mingling no discontents , interests nor mutinous intimations with his Sermons , he told Herod it was not lawful for him to have his * Brother's wife . For which Sermon he felt the furies and malice of a woman's spleen , was cast into prison , and about a year after was sacrificed to the scorn and pride of a lustful woman and her immodest daughter , being at the end of the second year of Christ's Preaching beheaded by Herod's command , who would not retract his promise , because of his honour , and a rash vow he made in the gayety of his Lust and complacencies of his riotous dancings . His head was brought up in a dish , and made a Festival-present to the young girl , ( who gave it to her mother : ) a Cruelty that was not known among the Barbarisms of the worst of people , to mingle banquetings with bloud and sights of death ; an insolency and inhumanity for which the 〈◊〉 Orators accused Q. Flaminius of Treason , because , to satisfie the wanton cruelty of Placentia , he caused a condemned slave to be killed at supper ; and which had no precedent but in the furies of Marius , who caused the head of the Consul Antonius to be brought up to him in his Feasts , which he handled with much pleasure and insolency . 6. But God's Judgments , which sleep not * long , found out Herod , and marked him for a Curse . For the Wise of Herod , who was the Daughter of Aretas a King of Arabia Petraea , being repudiated by paction with Herodias , provoked her Father to commence a War with Herod ; who prevailed against Herod in a great Battel , defeating his whole Army , and forcing him to an inglorious flight : which the Jews generally expounded to be a Judgment on him for the unworthy and barbarous execution and murther of John the Baptist ; God in his wisdom and severity making one sin to be the punishment of another , and neither of them both to pass without the signature of a Curse . And Nicephorus reports , that the dancing daughter of Herodias passing over a frozen lake , the ice brake , and she fell up to the neck in water , and her head was parted from her body , by the violence of the fragments shaked by the water and its own fall , and so perished ; God having fitted a Judgment to the Analogy and representment of her Sin. Herodias her self with her adulterous Paramour Herod were banished to Lions in France by decree of the Roman Senate , where they lived ingloriously and died miserably , so paying dearly for her triumphal scorn superadded to her crime of murther : for when she saw the Head of the Baptist , which her Daughter Salome had presented to her in a charger , she thrust the tongue through with a needle , as Fulvia had formerly done to Cicero . But her self paid the charges of her triumph . Ad SECT . XI . Considerations upon the first Journey of the Holy Jesus to Jerusalem , when he whipt the Merchants out of the Temple . 1. WHen the Feast came , and Jesus was ascended up to Jerusalem , the first place we find him in is the Temple , where not only was the Area and Court of Religion , but , by occasion of publick Conventions , the most opportune scene for transaction of his Commission and his Father's business . And those Christians who have been religious and affectionate even in the circumstances of Piety have taken this for precedent , and accounted it a good express of the regularity of their Devotion and order of Piety , at their first arrival to a City to pay their first visits to God , the next to his servant the President of Religious Rites ; first they went into the Church and worshipp'd , then to the Angel of the Church , to the Bishop , and begg'd his blessing : and having thus commenced with the auspiciousness of Religion , they had better hopes their just affairs would succeed prosperously , which after the rites of Christian Countries had thus been begun with Devotion and religious order . 2. When the Holy Jesus entred the Temple , and espied a Mart kept in the Holy Sept , a Fair upon Holy ground , he , who suffered no transportations of Anger in matters and accidents temporal , was born high with an ecstasie of Zeal , and , according to the custom of the Zelots of the Nation , took upon him the office of a private insliction of punishment in the cause of God , which ought to be dearer to every single person than their own interest and reputation . What the exterminating Angel did to 〈◊〉 , who came into the Temple upon design of Sacriledge , that the meekest Jesus did to them who came with acts of Profanation ; he whipt them forth : and as usually good Laws spring from ill Manners , and excellent Sermons are occasioned by mens 〈◊〉 ; now also our great Master upon this accident asserted the Sacredness of Holy places in the words of a Prophet , which now he made a Lesson Evangelical , My House shall be called a house of Prayer to all Nations . 3. The Beasts and Birds there sold were brought for Sacrifice , and the Banks of money were for the advantage of the people that came from far , that their returns might be safe and easie when they came to Jerusalem upon the employments of Religion . But they were not yet fit for the Temple ; they who brought them thither purposed their own gain , and meant to pass them through an unholy usage , before they could be made Anathemata , Vows to God : and when Religion is but the purpose at the second hand , it cannot hallow a Lay-design , and make it fit to become a Religious ministery , much less sanctifie an unlawful action . When Rachel stole her Father's gods , though possibly she might do it in zeal against her Father's Superstition , yet it was occasion of a sad accident to her self . For the Jews say that Rachel died in Child-birth of her second Son , because of that imprecation of Jacob , With whomsoever thou findest thy gods , let him not live . Saul pretended Sacrifice when he spared the fat cattel of Amalek ; and Micah was zealous when he made him an Ephod and a Teraphim , and meant to make himself an Image for Religion when he stole his mother's money : but these are colours of Religion , in which not only the world but our selves also are deceived by a latent purpose , which we are willing to cover with a remote design of Religion , lest it should appear unhandsome in its own dressing . Thus some believe a Covetousness allowable , it they greedily heap treasure with a purpose to build Hospitals or Colledges ; and sinister acts of acquiring Church-livings are not so soon condemned , if the design be to prefer an able person ; and actions of Revenge come near to Piety , if it be to the ruine of an 〈◊〉 man ; and indirect proceedings are made sacred , if they be for the good of the Holy Cause . This is profaning the Temple with Beasts brought for Sacrifices , and dishonours God by making himself accessary to his own dishonour , as far as lies in them ; for it disserves him with a pretence of Religion : and , but that our hearts are deceitful , we should easily perceive that the greatest business of the Letter is written in Postscript ; the great pretence is the least purpose ; and the latent Covetousness or Revenge , or the secular appendix , is the main engine to which the end of Religion is made but instrumental and pretended . But men , when they sell a Mule , use to speak of the Horse that begat him , not of the Ass that bore him . 4. The Holy Jesus made a whip of cords , to represent and to chastise the implications and enfoldings of sin and the cords of vanity . 1. There are some sins that of themselves are a whip of cords : those are the crying sins , that by their degree and malignity speak loud for vengeance ; or such as have great disreputation , and are accounted the basest issues of a caitive disposition ; or such which are unnatural and unusual ; or which by publick observation are marked with the signature of Divine Judgments . Such are Murther , Oppression of widows and orphans , detaining the Labourer's hire , Lusts against nature , Parricide , Treason , Betraying a just trust in great instances and base manners , Lying to a King , Perjury in a Priest : these carry Cain's mark upon them , or Judas's sting , or Manasses's sorrow , unless they be made impudent by the spirit of Obduration . 2. But there are some sins that bear shame upon them , and are used as correctives of pride and vanity , and if they do their cure , they are converted into instruments of good by the great power of the Divine grace ; but if the spirit of the man grows impudent and hardned against the shame , that which commonly follows is the worst string of the whip , a direct consignation to a reprobate spirit . 3. Other sins there are for the chastising of which Christ takes the whip into his own hand ; and there is much need ; when sins are the Customs of a Nation , and marked with no exteriour disadvantage , or have such circumstances of encouragement that they are unapt to disquiet a Conscience , or make our beds uneasie , till the pillows be softned with penitential showers . In both these cases the condition of a sinner is sad and miserable . For it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God ; his hand is heavy , and his sword is sharp , and pierces to the dividing the marrow and the bones : and he that considers the infinite distance between God and us must tremble , when he remembers that he is to feel the issues of that anger , which he is not certain whether or no it will destroy him infinitely and eternally . 4. But if the whip be given into our hands , that we become executioners of the Divine wrath , it is sometimes worse ; for we seldom strike our selves for emendation , but add sin to sin , till we perish miserably and inevitably . God scourges us often into Repentance ; but when a Sin is the whip of another sin , the rod is put into our hands , who like blind men strike with a rude and undiscerning hand , and , because we love the punishment , do it without intermission or choice , and have no end but ruine . 5. When the Holy Jesus had whipt the Merchants in the Temple , they took away all the instruments of their sin . For a Judgment is usually the commencement of Repentance : Love is the last of Graces , and 〈◊〉 at the beginning of a new life , but is reserved to the perfections and ripeness of a Christian. We begin in Pear ; The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom : 〈◊〉 hen he smote them , then they turned , and enquired early after God. And afterwards the impresses of Fear continue like a hedge of thorns about us , to restrain our dissolutions within the awfulness of the Divine Majesty , that it may preserve what was from the same principle begun . This principle of their emendation was from God , and therefore innocent and holy ; and the very purpose of Divine Threatnings is , that upon them , as upon one of the great hindges , the Piety of the greatest part of men should turn : and the effect was answerable ; but so are not the actions of all those who follow this precedent in the tract of the letter . For indeed there have been some reformations which have been so like this , that the greatest alteration which hath been made was , that they carried all things out of the Temple , the Money , and the Tables , and the Sacrifice ; and the Temple it self went at last . But these mens scourge is to follow after , and Christ , the Prince of the Catholick Church , will provide one of his own contexture , moresevere than the stripes which 〈◊〉 felt from the infliction of the exterminating Angel. But the Holy Spirit of God , by making provision against such a Reformation , hath prophetically declared the aptnesses which are in pretences of religious alterations to degenerate into sacrilegious desires : Thou that abhorrest Idols , dost thou commit sacriledge ? In this case there is no amendment , only one sin resigns to another , and the person still remains under its power and the same dominion . The PRAYER . OEternal Jesu , thou bright Image of thy Father's glories , whose light did shine to all the world , when thy heart was inflamed with zeal and love of God and of Religion , let a coal from thine Altar , fanned with the wings of the Holy Dove , kindle in my Soul such holy flames , that I may be zealous of thy honour and glory , forward in Religious duties , earnest in their pursuit , prudent in their managing , ingenuous in my purposes , making my Religion to serve no end but of thy glories , and the obtaining of thy promises : and so sanctific my Soul and my Body , that I may be a holy Temple , fit and prepared for the inhabitation of thy ever-blessed Spirit , whom grant that I may never grieve by admitting any impure thing to desecrate the place , and unhallow the Courts of his abode ; but give me a pure Soul in a chaste and healthful 〈◊〉 , a spirit full of holy simplicity , and designs of great ingenuity , and perfect Religion , that I may intend what thou commandest , and may with proper instruments 〈◊〉 what I so intend , and by thy aids may obtain the end of my labours , the rewards of obedience and holy living , even the society and inheritance of Jesus in the participation of the joys of thy Temple , where thou dwellest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost , O Eternal Jesus . Amen . DISCOURSE VIII . Of the Religion of Holy Places . 1. THE Holy Jesus brought a Divine warrant for his Zeal . The selling Sacrifices , and the exchange of Money , and every Lay-employment did violence and dishonour to the Temple , which was hallowed to Ecclesiastical ministeries , and set apart for Offices of Religion , for the use of holy things ; for it was God's House : and so is every house by publick designation separate for Prayer or other uses of Religion , it is God's House . [ My house : ] God had a propriety in it , and had set his mark on it , even his own Name . And therefore it was in the Jews Idiome of speech called the Mountain of the Lord's House , and the House of the Lord by David frequently : God had put his Name into all places appointed for solemn Worship ; In all places where I record my Name , I will come unto thee , and bless thee . For God , who was never visible to mortal eye , was pleased to make himself presential by substitution of his Name ; that is , in certain places he hath appointed that his Name shall be called upon , and by promising and imparting such Blessings which he hath made consequent to the invocation of his Name , hath made such places to be a certain determination of some special manner of his Presence . For God's Name is not a distinct thing from himself , not an Idea , and it cannot be put into a place in literal signification ; the expression is to be resolved into some other sence : God's Name is that whereby he is known , by which he is invocated , that which is the most immediate publication of his Essence , nearer than which we cannot go unto him : and because God is essentially present in all places , when he makes himself present in one place more than another , it cannot be understood to any other purpose , but that in such places he gives special Blessings and Graces , or that in those places he appoints his Name , that is , himself , specially to be invocated . 2. So that when God puts his Name in any place by a special manner , it signifies that there himself is in that manner : But in separate and hallowed places God hath expressed that he puts his Name with a purpose it should be called upon ; therefore in plain signification it is thus , In Consecrate places God himself is present to be invok'd , that is , there he is most delighted to hear the Prayers we make unto him . For all the expressions of Scripture , of God's 〈◊〉 , the Tabernacle of God , God's Dwellings , putting his Name there , his Sanctuary , are resolved into that saying of God to Solomon , who prayed that he would hear the Prayers of necessitous people in that place : God granting the request expressed it thus ; I have sanctified the House which thou hast built : that is , the House which thou hast designed for my Worship , I have designed for your Blessing ; what you have dedicated , I have accepted ; what you have consecrated , I have hallowed ; I have taken it to the same purpose to which your desires and designation pretended it in your first purposes and expence . So that since the purpose of man in separating places of Worship is , that thither by order and with convenience and in communities of men God may be worshipped and prayed unto , God having declared that he accepts of such separate places to the same purposes , says , that there he will be called upon , that such places shall be places of advantage to our Devotions in respect of humane order and Divine acceptance and benediction . 3. Now these are therefore God's Houses , because they were given by men , and accepted by God , for the service of God and the offices of Religion . And this is not the effect or result of any distinct Covenant God hath made with man in any period of the world , but it is merely a favour of God , either hearing the Prayer of Dedication , or complying with humane order or necessities . For there is nothing in the Covenant of Moses's Law that by virtue of special stipulation makes the assignment of a house for the service of God to be proper to Moses's rite . Not only because God had memorials and determinations of this manner of his Presence before Moses's Law , as at 〈◊〉 , where Jacob laid the first stone of the Church , ( nothing but a Stone was God's memorial ) and the beginning and first rudiments of a Temple ; but also because after Moses's Law was given , as long as the Nation was ambulatory , so were their places and instruments of Religion : and although the Ark was not confined to a place till Solomon's time , yet God was pleased in this manner to confine himself to the Ark ; and in all places where-ever his Name was put , even in Synagogues and Oratories and Threshing-floors , when they were hallowed with an Altar and Religion , thither God came , that is , there he heard them pray , and answered and blessed accordingly , still in proportion to that degree of Religion which was put upon them . And those places , when they had once entertained Religion , grew separate and sacred for ever . For therefore David bought the Threshing-floor of Araunah , that it might never return to common use any more : for it had been no trouble or inconvenience to Araunah to have used his floor for one solemnity ; but he offered to give it , and David resolved to buy it , because it must of necessity be aliened from common uses , to which it could never return any more when once it had been the instrument of a religious solemnity : and yet this was no part of Moses's Law , that every place of a temporary Sacrifice should be holy for ever . David had no guide in this but right Reason and the Religion of all the world . For such things which were great instruments of publick ends , and thing ; of highest use , were also in all societies of men of greatest honour , and immured by reverence and the security of Laws . For honour and reputation is not a thing inherent in any creature , but depends upon the estimate of God or men , who either in diffusion or representation become fountains of a derivative honour . Thus some Men are hohourable ; that is , those who are fountains of Honour in civil account have commanded that they shall be honoured . And so Places and Things are made honourable , that as honourable Persons are to be distinguished from others by honourable usages and circumstances proper to them , so also should Places and Things ( upon special reason separate ) have an usage proper to them , when by a publick Instrument or Minister they are so separated . No common usage then ; something proper to tell what they are , and to what purposes they are designed , and to signifie their separation and extraordinariness . Such are the Person of the Prince , the Archives and Records of a Kingdom , the Walls and great Defences of the Imperial City , the Eagles and Ensigns of war amongst the 〈◊〉 , and above all things , though not above all persons , the Temples and Altars , and all the instruments of Religion . And there is much reason in it . For thus a servant of a King , though his employment be naturally mean , yet is more honourable , because he relates to the most excellent person : and therefore much more those things which relate to God. And though this be the reason why it should be so ; yet for this and other reasons they that have power , that is , they who are acknowledged to be the fountains and the chanels of Honour , I mean the Supreme power , and publick fame have made it actually to be so . For whatsoever all wise men , and all good men , and all publick societies , and all supreme Authority hath commanded to be honoured or rever'd , that is honourable and reverend ; and this Honour and Reverence is to be expressed according to the Customs of the Nation , and instruments of honour proper to the nature of the thing or person respectively . Whatsoever is 〈◊〉 so is so ; because Honour and Noble separations are relative actions and terms , creatures and productions of Fame , and the voice of Princes , and the sense of people : and they who will not honour those things or those persons which are thus decreed to be honourable , have no communications with the civilities of humanity , or the guises of wise Nations ; they do not give honour to whom honour belongs . Now that which in civil account we call [ honourable , ] the same in religious account we call [ sacred : ] for by both these words we mean things or persons made separate and retired from common opinion and vulgar usages by reason of some excellency really inherent in them , ( such as are excellent men ; ) or for their relation to excellent persons , or great ends , publick or * religious , ( and so servants of Princes , and Ministers of Religion , and its Instruments and Utensils , are made honourable or sacred : ) and the expressions of their honour are all those actions and usages which are contrary to despite , and above the usage of vulgar Things or Places . ( (a) Whatsoever is sacred , that is honourable for its religious relation ; and whatsoever is honourable , that also is sacred ( that is , separate from the vulgar usages and account ) for its civil excellency or relation . The result is this , That when publick Authority , or the consent ( (b) of a Nation hath made any Place sacred for the uses of Religion , we must esteem it sacred , just as we esteem Persons honourable who are so honoured . And thus are Judges and the very places of Judicature , the King's Presence-chamber , the Chair of State , the Senate-house , the royal Ensigns of a Prince , whose Gold and Purple in its natural capacity hath in it no more dignity than the Money of the bank , or the Cloth of the Mart ; but it hath much more for its signification and relative use . And it is certain , these things whose excellency depends upon their relation must receive the degree of their Honour in that proportion they have to their term and foundation : and therefore what belongs to God ( as holy Places of Religion ) must rise highest in this account ; I mean higher than any other places . And this is besides the honour which God hath put upon them by his presence & his title to them , w ch in all Religions he hath signified to us . 4. Indeed among the Jews , as God had confined his Church and the rites of Religion to be used only in communion and participation with the Nation , so also he had limited his Presence , and was more sparing of it than in the time of the Gospel his Son declared he would be . It was said of old , that at Jerusalem men ought to worship , that is , by a solemn , publick and great address in the capital expresses of Religion , in the distinguishing rites of Liturgy ; for else it had been no new thing . For in ordinary Prayers God was then , and long before , pleased to hear Jeremy in the dungeon , Manasses in prison , Daniel in the Lion's den , Jonas in the belly of the deep , and in the offices yet more solemn in the Proseuchae , in the houses of prayer which the Jews had , not only in their dispersion , but even in Palestine , for their diurnal and nocturnal offices . But when the Holy Jesus had broken down the partition-wall , then the most solemn Offices of Religion were as unlimited as their private Devotions were before ; for where-ever a Temple should be built , thither God would come , if he were worshipped spirituallly and in truth , that is , according to the rites of Christ , ( who is Grace and Truth ) and the dictate of the Spirit , and analogy of the Gospel . All places were now alike to build Churches in , or Memorials for God , God's houses . And that our Blessed Saviour discourses of places of publick Worship to the woman of Samaria is notorious , because the whole question was concerning the great addresses of Moses's rites , whether at Jerusalem or Mount Gerizim , which were the places of the right and the 〈◊〉 Temple , the 〈◊〉 of the whole Religion : and in antithesis Jesus said , Nor here nor there shall be the solemnities of address to God , but in all places you may build a Temple , and God will dwell in it . 5. And this hath descended from the first beginnings of Religion down to the consummation of it in the perfections of the Gospel . For the Apostles of our Lord carried the Offices of the Gospel into the Temple of Jerusalem , there they preached and prayed , and payed Vows , but never , that we read of , offered Sacrifice : which 〈◊〉 , that the Offices purely Evangelical were proper to be done in any of God's proper places , and that thither they went not in compliance with Moses's Rites , but merely for Gospel-duties , or for such Offices which were common to Moses and Christ , such as were Prayers and Vows . While the Temple was yet standing they had peculiar places for the Assemblies of the faithful , where either by accident , or observation , or Religion , or choice , they met regularly . And I instance in the house of John surnamed Mark , which , as Alexander reports in the life of S. Barnabas , was consecrated by many actions of Religion , by our Blessed Saviour's eating the 〈◊〉 , his Institution of the holy Eucharist , his Farewell-Sermon ; and the Apostles met there in the Octaves of Easter , whither Christ came again , and hallowed it with his presence ; and there , to make up the relative Sanctification complete , the Holy Ghost descended upon their heads in the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 : and this was erected into a fair 〈◊〉 , and is mentioned as a famous Church by S. Jerome and V. Bede ; in which , as 〈◊〉 adds , S. Peter preached that 〈◊〉 which was miraculoasly prosperous in the Conversion of three thousand ; there S. James Brother of our Lord was 〈◊〉 first Bishop of Jerusalem , S. Stephen and the other six were there ordained Deacons ; there the Apostles kept their first Council , and 〈◊〉 their Creed : by these actions and their frequent conventions shewing the same reason , order and prudence of Religion in 〈◊〉 of special places of Divine service , which were ever observed by all the Nations , and Religions , and wise men of the world . And it were a strange imagination to 〈◊〉 that in Christian Religion there is any principle contrary to that wisdom or God and all the world , which for order , for necessity , for convenience , for the solemnity of Worship , hath set apart Places for God and for Religion . Private Prayer had always an unlimited residence and relation , even under Moses's Law ; but the publick solemn Prayer of 〈◊〉 in the Law of Moses was restrained to one Temple : In the Law of Nature it was not confined to one , but yet determined to publick and solemn places ; and when the Holy Jesus disparked the inclosures of Moses , we all returned to the permissions and liberty of the Natural Law , in which although the publick and solemn Prayers were confined to a Temple , yet the Temple was not consined to a place ; but they might be any-where , so they were at all ; instruments of order , conveniences of assembling , residences of Religion : and God , who always loved order , and was apt to hear all holy and prudent Prayers , ( and therefore also the Prayers of Consecration ) hath often declared that he loves such Places , that he will dwell in them ; not that they are advantages to him , but that he is pleased to make them so to us . And therefore all Nations of the world built publick Houses for Religion ; and since all Ages of the Church * did so too , it had need be a strong and a convincing argument that must shew they were deceived . And if any man list to be 〈◊〉 , he must be answered with S. Paul's reproof , We have no such custom , nor the Churches of God. 6. Thus S. Paul reproved the Corinthians for despising the Church of God by such uses , which were therefore unsit for God's , because they were proper for their own , that is , for common houses . And although they were at first and in the descending Ages so afflicted by the tyranny of enemies , that they could not build many Churches ; yet some they did , and the Churches themselves suffered part of the persecution . For so 〈◊〉 reports , that when under Severus and Gordianus , 〈◊〉 and Galienus , the Christian affairs were in a tolerable condition , they built Churches in great number and expence . But when the Persecution waxed hot under Diocletian , down went the Churches , upon a design to extinguish or disadvantage the Religion . Maximinus gave leave to re-build them . Upon which Rescript ( saith the story ) the Christians were overjoyed , and raised them up to an incredible height and * incomparable beauty . This was Christian Religion then , and so it hath continued-ever since , and , unless we should have new reason and new revelation , it must continue so till our Churches are exchanged for Thrones , and our Chappels for seats placed before the Lamb in the eternal Temple of celestial Jerusalem . 7. And to this purpose it is observed , that the Holy Jesus first ejected the Beasts of Sacrifice out of the Temple , and then proclaimed the Place holy , and the scene of representing Prayers , which in type intimates the same thing which is involved in the expression of the next words , My House shall be called the House of Prayer to all Nations ; now and for ever , to the Jews and to the Gentiles , in all circumstances and variety of Time and Nation , God's Houses are holy in order to holy uses ; the time as unlimited as the * Nations were indefinite and universal . Which is the more observable , because it was of the outward Courts , not whither Moses's Rites alone were admitted , but the natural Devotion of Jews and Gentile-Proselytes , that Christ affirmed it to be holy , to be the House of God , and the place of Prayer . So that the Religion of publick places of Prayer is not a Rite of Levi , but a natural and prudent circumstance and advantage of Religion in which all wise men agree , who therefore must have some common principle with influence upon all the World which must be the univocal cause of the consent of all men : which common principle must either be a dictate of natural or prime Reason , or else some Tradition from the first Parents of mankind ; which because it had order in it , beauty , Religion , and confirmation from Heaven , and no reason to contest against it , it hath surprised the understanding and practices of all Nations . And indeed we find that even in Paradise God had that which is analogical to a Church , a distinct place where he manifested himself present in proper manner : For Adam and Eve , when they had sinned , hid themselves from the Presence of the Lord ; and this was the word in all descent of the Church , for the being of God in holy places , the Presence of the Lord was there . And probably when Adam from this intimation , or a greater direction , had taught Cain and Abel to offer sacrifice to God in a certain place , where they were observed of each in their several Offerings , it became one of the rules of Religion which was derived to their posterity by tradition , the only way they had to communicate the dictates of Divine commandment . 8. There is no more necessary to be added in behalf of Holy Places , and to assert them into the family and relatives of Religion ; our estimate and deportment towards them is matter of practice , and therefore of proper consideration . To which purpose I consider , that Holy Places being the residence of God's Name upon earth , there where he hath put it , that by fiction of Law it may be the * sanctuary and the last resort in all calamities and need , God hath sent his Agents to possess them in person for him . Churches and Oratories are regions and courts of Angels , and they are there not only to minister to the Saints , but also they possess them in the right of God. There they are : so the greatest and Prince of Spirits tells us , the Holy Ghost ; I saw the Lord sitting upon his throne , and his train filled the Temple ; Above it stood the Seraphim ; that was God's train , and therefore holy David knew that his addresses to God were in the presence of Angels : I will praise thee with my whole heart , before the gods will i sing praise unto thee : * before the Angels , so it is in the Septuagint And that we might know where or how the Kingly worshipper would pay this adoration , he adds , I will worship towards thy holy 〈◊〉 . And this was so known by him , that it became expressive of God's manner of presence in Heaven : The Chariots of God are twenty thousand , even thousands of Angels , and the Lord is among them as in Sinai , in the holy place ; God in the midst of Angels , and the Angels in the midst of the 〈◊〉 place ; and God in Heaven in the midst of that holy circle , as 〈◊〉 as he is amongst Angels in the recesses of his Sanctuary . Were the rudiments of the Law worthy of an attendance of Angels ? and are the memorials of the Gospel destitute of so brave a retinue ? Did the beatisied Spirits wait upon the Types ? and do 〈◊〉 decline the office at the ministration of the Substance ? Is the nature of Man made worse since the Incarnation of the Son of God ? and have the Angels purchased an exemption from their ministery since Christ became our brother ? We have little reason to think so : And therefore S. Paul still makes use of the argument to press women to modesty and humility in Churches , because of the Angels . And upon the same stock S. Chrysostome chides the people of his Diocese for walking , and laughing , and prating in Churches : The Church is not a shop of manufactures or merchandise , but the place of Angels and of Archangels , the Court of God , and the image or representment of Heaven it self . 9. For if we consider that Christianity is something more than ordinary , that there are Mysteries in our Religion and in none else , that God's Angels are ministring spirits for 〈◊〉 good , and especially about the conveyances of our Prayers ; either we must think very low of Christianity , or that greater things are in it than the presence of Angels in our Churches : and yet if there were no more , we should do well to behave our selves there with the thoughts and apprehensions of Heaven about us ; always remembring , that our business there is an errand of Religion , and God is the object of our Worshippings ; and therefore although by our weakness we are fixt in the lowness of men , yet because God's infinity is our object , it were very happy if our actions did bear some few degrees of a proportionable and commensurate address . 10. Now that the Angels are there in the right of God , and are a manner and an exhibition of the Divine Presence , is therefore certain , because when-ever it is said in the Old Testament that God appeared , it was by an Angel ; and the Law it self , in the midst of all the glorious terrors of its manisestation , was ordained by Angels , and a word spoken by Angels ; and yet God is said to have descended upon the Mount : and in the greatest glory that ever shall be revealed till the consummation of all things , the instrument of the Divine splendour is the apparition of Angels ; for when the Holy Jesus shall come in the glory of his Father , it is added by way of explication , that is , with an 〈◊〉 of Angels . 11. The result is those words of God to his people , Reverence my 〈◊〉 . For what God loves in an especial manner , it is most fit we should esteem accordingly . God loves the gates of Sion more than all the 〈◊〉 of Jacob. The least turf of hallowed glebe is with God himself of more value than all the Champain of common possession ; it is better in all sences : The Temple is better than gold , said our Blessed Saviour ; and therefore it were well we should do that which is expressed in the command of giving reverence to it , for we are too apt to pay undue devotions to gold . Which precept the holiest of that Nation expressed by worshipping towards the Sanctuary , by * pulling off their shoes when they went into it , by making it the determination of their Religious addresses , by falling down low upon the earth in their accesses , by opening their windows towards it in their private Devotions , by calling it the glory of their Nation ; as is certain in the instances of David , Daniel , and the wife of Phinehas . I shall not need to say , that the devouter Christians in the first Ages did worship God with solemnities of address when-ever they entred into their Oratories . It was a civility Jesus commanded his Disciples to use to common houses , When ye enter into a house , salute it : I suppose he means the dwellers in it . And it is certain , what-ever those devouter people did in their religious approaches , they designed it to God , who was the Major-domo , the Master of those Assemblies : and thus did the convinced Christian in S. Paul's discourse , when he came into the Church where they were prophesying in a known language ; The secrets of his heart are made manifest , and so falling down on his face he will worship God. 12. It was no unhandsome expression of reverencing God's Sanctuary , that pious people ever used in bestowing costly and 〈◊〉 Ornaments upon it : for so all the Christians did ; as soon as themselves came from contempt and scorn , they raised Christian Oratories to an equal portion of their honour ; and by this way they thought they did honour to God , who was the Numen of the place . Not that a rich house or costly Offertory is better in respect of God , for to him all is alike , save that in equal abilities our Devotion is distinguished by them ; and be the Offering never so contemptible , it is a rich Devotion that gives the best we have : because although if all the wealth of the Levant were united into a Present , it were short of God's infinity ; yet such an Offertory , or any best we have , makes demonstration , that if we had an Offering infinitely better , we should give it , to express our love and our belief of God's infinite merit and perfection . And therefore let not the widow's two mites become a Precedent to the instance and value of our Donation ; and because she , who gave no more , was accepted , think that two farthings is as fit to be cast into the Corban as two thousand pound . For the reason why our Blessed Saviour commended the Widow's oblation was for the greatness of it , not the smallness ; she gave all she had , even all her living , therefore she was accepted . And indeed since God gives to us more than enough , beyond our necessities , much for our conveniency , much for ease , much for repute , much for publick compliances , for variety , for content , for pleasure , for ornament ; we should deal unworthily with God Almighty , if we limit and restrain our returns to him , by confining them within the narrow bounds of mere necessity . Certainly beggerly services and cheapness is not more pleasing to God than a rich and magnificent address . To the best of Essences the best of Presents is most proportionable : and although the service of the Soul and Spirit is most delectable and esteemed by God ; yet because our Souls are served by things perishing and material , and we are of that constitution , that by the Body we serve the Spirit , and by both we serve God , as the Spirit is chiefly to be offered to God , because it is better than the Body , so the richest Oblation is the best in an equal power and the same person , because it is the best of things material : and although it hath not the excellency of the Spirit , it hath an excellency that a cheap Oblation hath not ; and besides the advantage of the natural value , it can no otherwise be spoiled than a meaner Offering may , it is always capable of the same commendation from the Piety of the presenter's spirit , and may be as much purified and made holy as the cheaper or the more contemptible . God hath no-where expressed that he accepts of a cheaper Offering , but when we are not able to give him better . When the people brought Offerings more than enough for the Tabernacle , Moses restrained their forwardness , by saying it was enough , but yet commended the disposition highly , and wished it might be perpetual : But God chid the people when they let his House lie waste without reparation of its decaying beauty ; and therefore sent famines upon the Land and a curse into their estate because they would not by giving a portion to Religion sanctifie and secure all the rest . For the way for a man to be a saver by his Religion is to deposite one part of his estate in the Temple , and one in the hands of the Poor ; for these are God's treasury and stewards respectively : and this is laying up treasures in Heaven ; and besides that it will procure blessing to other parts , it will help to save our Souls ; and that 's good husbandry , that 's worth the saving . 13. For I consider that those riches and beauties in Churches and Religious solemnities , which add nothing to God , add much Devotion to us , and much honour and efficacy to Devotion . For since impression is made upon the Soul by the intervening of corporal things , our Religion and Devotion of the Soul receives the addition of many degrees by such instruments . Insomuch that we see persons of the greatest fancy , and such who are most pleased with outward fairnesses , are most Religious . Great Understandings make Religion lasting and reasonable ; but great Fancies make it more scrupulous , strict , operative , and effectual . And therefore it is strange , that we shall bestow such great expences to make our own houses convenient and delectable , that we may entertain our selves with complacency and appetite ; and yet think that Religion is not worth the ornament , nor our fancies fit to be carried into the choice and prosecution of religious actions with sweetness , entertainments , and fair propositions . If we say that God is not the better for a rich House or a costly service : we may also remember that neither are we the better for rich Cloaths ; and the Sheep will keep us as modest , as warm , and as clean as the Silk-worm ; and a Gold chain or a carkenet of Pearl does no more contribute to our happiness than it does to the service of Religion . For if we reply , that they help to the esteem and reputation of our Persons , and the distinction of them from the vulgar , from the servants of the lot of Issachar , and add reverence and veneration to us : how great a shame is it , if we study by great expences to get reputation and accidental advantages to our selves , and not by the same means to purchase reverence and esteem to Religion , since we see that Religion amongst persons of ordinary understandings receives as much external and accidental advantages by the accession of exteriour ornaments and accommodation , as we our selves can by rich cloaths and garments of wealth , ceremony and distinction ? And as in Princes Courts the reverence to Princes is quickened and encreased by an outward state and glory ; so also it is in the service of God : although the Understandings of men are no more satisfied by a pompous magnificence than by a cheap plainness ; yet the Eye is , and the Fancy , and the Affections , and the Senses ; that is , many of our Faculties are more pleased with Religion , when Religion by such instruments and conveyances pleases them . And it was noted by Sozomen concerning Valens the Arrian Emperor , that when he came to Caesarea in Cappadocia he praised S. Basil their Bishop , and upon more easie terms revoked his Banishment , * because he was a grave person , and did his holy Offices with reverent and decent addresses , and kept his Church-assemblies with much ornament and solemnity . 14. But when I consider that saying of S. Gregory , that the Church is Heaven within the Tabernacle , Heaven dwelling among the sons of men , and remember that God hath studded all the Firmament and paved it with stars , because he loves to have his House beauteous , and highly representative of his glory ; I see no reason we should not do as Apollinaris says God does , In earth do the works of Heaven . For he is the God of beauties and perfections , and every excellency in the Creature is a portion of influence from the Divinity , and therefore is the best instrument of conveying honour to him who made them for no other end but for his own honour , as the last resort of all other ends for which they were created . 15. But the best manner to reverence the Sanctuary is by the continuation of such actions which gave it the first title of Holiness . Holiness becometh thine House for ever , said David : Sancta sanc̄tis , Holy persons and holy rites in holy places ; that as it had the first relation of Sanctity by the consecration of a holy and reverend Minister and President of Religion , so it may be perpetuated in holy Offices , and receive the daily consecration by the assistance of sanctified and religious persons . Foris canes , dogs and criminal persons are unfit for Churches ; the best ornament and beauty of a Church is a holy Priest and a sanctified people . * For since Angels dwell in Churches , and God hath made his Name to dwell there too ; if there also be a holy people , that there be Saints as well as Angels , it is a holy fellowship and a blessed communion : But to see a Devil there , would scare the most confident and bold fancy , and disturb the good meeting ; and such is every wicked and graceless person : Have I not chosen twelve of you , and one of you is a Devil ? An evil Soul is an evil spirit , and such are no good ornaments for Temples : and it is a shame that a goodly Christian Church should be like an Egyptian Temple ; without , goodly buildings , within , a Dog or a Cat for the Deity they adore : It is worse , if in our addresses to Holy Places and Offices we bear our Lusts under our garments . For Dogs and Cats are of God's making , but our Lusts are not , but are God's enemies ; and therefore , besides the Unholiness , it is an affront to God to bring them along , and it defiles the place in a great degree . 16. For there is a defiling of a Temple by insinuation of impurities , and another by direct and positive profanation , and a third by express Sacriledge : This defiles a Temple to the ground . Every small sin is an unwelcome guest , and is a spot in those Feasts of Charity which entertain us often in God's Houses : but there are some ( and all great crimes are such ) which desecrate the place , unhallow the ground , as to our particulars , stop the ascent of our Prayers , obstruct the current of God's blessing , turn Religion into bitterness , and Devotion into gall ; such as are marked in Scripture with a distinguishing character , as enemies to the peculiar dispositions of Religion : And such are Unchastity , which defiles the Temples of our Bodies ; Covetousness , which sets up an Idol in stead of God ; and Unmercifulness , which is a direct enemy to the Mercies of God , and the fair return of our Prayers . He that shews not the mercies of Alms , of Forgiveness and Comfort , is forbid to hope for comfort , relief or forgiveness from the hands of God. * A pure Mind is the best manner of worship , and the impurity of a crime is the greatest contradiction to the honour and religion of Holy Places . And therefore let us imitate the Precedent of the most religious of Kings , ( a ) I will wash my hands in innocency , O Lord , and so will I go to thine Altar ; always remembring those decretory and final words of ( b ) S. Paul , He that defiles a Temple , him will God destroy . The PRAYER . O Eternal God , who dwellest not in Temples made with hands , the Heaven of Heavens is not able to contain thee , and yet thou art pleased to manifest thy presence amongst the sons of men by special issues of thy favour and benediction ; make my Body and Soul to be a Temple pure and holy , apt for the entertainments of the Holy Jesus , and for the habitation of the Holy Spirit . Lord , be pleased with thy rod of paternal discipline to cast out all impure Lusts , all worldly affections , all covetous desires from this thy Temple , that it may be a place of Prayer and Meditation , of holy appetites and chaste thoughts , of pure intentions and zealous desires of pleasing thee ; that I may become also a Sacrifice as well as a Temple , eaten up with the zeal of thy glory , and consumed with the fire of love ; that not one thought may be entertained by me but such as may be like perfume breathing from the Altar of Incense , and not a word may pass from me but may have the accent of Heaven upon it , and sound pleasantly in thy ears . O dearest God , fill every Faculty of my Soul with impresses , dispositions , capacities and aptnesses of Religion ; and do thou hallow my Soul , that I may be possest with zeal and religious affections , loving thee above all things in the world , worshipping thee with the humblest adorations and frequent addresses , continually feeding upon the apprehensions of thy divine sweetness , and consideration of thy infinite excellencies , and observations of thy righteous Commandments , and the feast of a holy Conscience , as an antepast of Eternity , and consignation to the joys of Heaven , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . SECT . XII . Of JESVS's departure into Galilee ; his manner of Life , Miracles , and Preaching ; his calling of Disciples ; and what happened until the Second Passeover . Jesus and the Woman of Samaria Joh. 4. 5 , 6. 7. He cometh to a City of Samaria called Sychar : now Iacob's well was there . There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water . Iesus saith etc. For his disciples were gone into the city to buy meat V. 27. His disciples came & marvelled y t he talked with the woman , yet no man said , what seekest thou ? or , why talkest thou with her ? The Samaritans coming to Jesus V. 28. The woman left her water pot & went her way into the city , & saith to the men , Come see a man which told me all things that ever I did : is not this the Christ ? Then they went out of the city , & came unto him . V. 39. Many of the Samaritans beleived on him , for the saying of the woman ; & when they were come to him , many more believed because of his own word . 1. WHen Jesus understood that John was cast into prison , and that the Pharisees were envious at him for the great multitudes of people that resorted to his Baptism , which he ministred not in his own person , but by the deputation of his Disciples , they finishing the ministration which himself began , ( who , as Euodins Bishop of Antioch reports , baptized the Blessed Virgin his Mother ther and Peter only , and Peter baptized Andrew , James and John , and they others ) he left Judaea , and came into Galilee ; and in his passage he must touch Sychar a City of Samaria , where in the heat of the day and the weariness of his journey he sate himself down upon the margent of Jacob's Well ; whither , when his Disciples were gone to buy meat , a Samaritan woman cometh to draw water , of whom Jesus asked some to cool his thirst , and refresh his weariness . 2. Little knew the woman the excellency of the person that asked so small a charity ; neither had she been taught , that a cup of cold water given to a Disciple should be rewarded , and much rather such a present to the Lord himself . But she prosecuted * the spite of her Nation , and the interest and quarrel of the Schism ; and in stead of washing Jesus's feet , and giving him drink , demanded , why he being a Jew should ask water of a Samaritan : for the Jews have no intercourse with the Samaritans . 3. The ground of the quarrel was this . In the sixth year of Hezekiah Salmanasar King of Assyria sacked Samaria , transported the Israelites to Assyria , and planted an Assyrian Colony in the Town and Country , who by Divine vengeance were destroyed by Lions , which no power of man could restrain or lessen . The King thought the cause was , their not serving the God of Israel according to the Rites of Moses ; and therefore sent a Jewish captive Priest to instruct the remanent inhabitants in the Jewish Religion ; who so learned and practised it , that they still retained the Superstition of the Gentile rites ; till Manasses , the Brother of Jaddi the high Priest at Jerusalem , married the daughter of Sanballat , who was the Governour under King Darius . Manasses being reproved for marrying a stranger , the daughter of an uncircumcised Gentile , and admonished to dismiss her , flies to Samaria , perswades his Father-in-law to build a Temple in Mount Gerizim , introduces the Rites of daily Sacrifice , and makes himself high Priest , and began to pretend to be the true successor of Aaron , and commences a Schism in the time of Alexander the Great . From whence the Question of Religion grew so high , that it begat disassections , anger , animosities , quarrels , bloudshed and murthers , not only in Palestine , but where ever a Jew and Samaritan had the ill fortune to meet : Such being the nature of men , that they think it the greatest injury in the world when other men are not of their minds ; and that they please God most when they are most furiously zealous ; and no zeal better to be expressed than by hating all those whom they are pleased to think God hates . This Schism was prosecuted with the greatest spite that ever any was , because both the people were much given to Superstition ; and this was helped forward by the constitution of their Religion , consisting much in externals and Ceremonials , and which they cared not much to hallow and make moral by the intertexture of spiritual senses and Charity . And therefore the Jews called the Samaritans accursed ; the Samaritans at the Paschal solemnity would at midnight , when the Jews Temple was open , scatter dead mens bones to profane and desecrate the place ; and both would fight , and eternally dispute the Question : sometimes referring it to Arbitrators , and then the conquered party would decline the Arbitration after sentence ; which they did at Alexandria before Ptolemaeus Philometor , when Andronicus had by a rare and exquisite Oration procured sentence against Theodosius and Sabbaeus , the Samaritan Advocates : The sentence was given for Jerusalem , and the Schism increased , and lasted till the time of our Saviour's conference with this woman . 4. And it was so implanted and woven in with every understanding , that when the woman perceived Jesus to be a Prophet , she undertook this Question with him : Our Fathers worshipped in this mountain ; and ye say that Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship . Jesus knew the Schism was great enough already , and was not willing to make the rent wider : and though he gave testimony to the truth by saying , Salvation is of the Jews ; and we know what we worship , ye do not ; yet because the subject of this Question was shortly to be taken away , Jesus takes occasion to preach the Gospel , to hasten an expedient , and by way of anticipation to reconcile the disagreeing interests , and settle a revelation to be verified for ever . Neither here nor there by way of confinement , not in one Countrey more than another , but where-ever any man shall call upon God in spirit and truth , there he shall be heard . 5. But all this while the Holy Jesus was athirst , and therefore hastens at least to discourse of water , though as yet he got none . He tells her of living water , of eternal satisfactions , of never thirsting again , of her own personal condition , of matrimonial relation , and professes himself to be the Messias : And then was interrupted by the coming of his Disciples , who wondred to see him alone talking with a woman , besides his custom and usual reservation . But the Woman full of joy and wonder left her water-pot , and ran to the City , to publish the Messias : and immediately all the City came out to see , and many believed on him upon the testimony of the Woman , and more when they heard his own discourses . They invited him to the Town , and received him with hospitable civilities for two days , after which he departed to his own Galilee . 6. Jesus therefore came into the Countrey , where he was received with respect and fair entertainment , because of the Miracles which the Galileans saw done by him at the Feast ; and being at Cana , where he wrought the first Miracle , a Noble personage , a little King say some , a Palatine says S. Hierome , a Kingly person certainly , came to Jesus with much reverence , and desire that he would be pleased to come to his house , and cure his Son now ready to die ; which he seconds with much importunity , fearing left his Son be dead before he get thither . Jesus , who did not do his Miracles by natural operations , cured the child at distance , and dismissed the Prince , telling him his Son lived ; which by narration of his servants he found to be true , and that he recovered at the same time when Jesus spake these'salutary and healing words . Upon which accident he and all his house became Disciples . 7. And now Jesus left Nazareth , and came to Capernaum , a maritime Town , and of great resort , chusing that for his scene of Preaching , and his place of dwelling . For now the time was fulfilled , the office of the Baptist was expired , and the Kingdom of God was at hand . He therefore preached the summ of the Gospel , Faith and Repentance , Repent ye , and believe the Gospel . And what that Gospel was , the summ and series of all his Sermons afterwards did declare . 8. The work was now grown high and pregnant , and Jesus saw it convenient to chuse Disciples to his ministery and service in the work of Preaching , and to be witnesses of all that he should say , do or teach , for ends which were afterwards made publick and excellent . Jesus therefore , as he walked by the Sea of Galilee , called Simon and Andrew , who knew him before by the preaching of John , and now left all , their ship and their net , and followed him . And when he was gone a little farther , he calls the two sons of Zebedee , James and John ; and they went after him . And with this family he goes up and down the whole Galilee , preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom , healing all manner of diseases , curing Demoniacks , cleansing Lepers , and giving strength to Paralyticks and lame people . 9. But when the people pressed on him to hear the word of God ; he stood by the Lake of Genesareth , and presently entring into Simon 's ship , commanded him to lanch into the deep , and from thence he taught the people , and there wrought a Miracle ; for , being Lord of the Creatures , he commanded the fishes of the sea , and they obeyed . For when Simon , who had fished all night in vain , let down his net at the command of Jesus , he inclosed so great a multitude of fishes , that the Net brake , and the fishermen were amazed and fearful at so prodigious a draught . But beyond the Miracle it was intended , that a representation should be made of the plenitude of the Catholick Church , and multitudes of Believers who should be taken by Simon and the rest of the Disciples , whom by that Miracle he consign'd to become fishers of men ; who by their artifices of prudence and holy Doctrine might gain Souls to God , that when the Net should be drawn to shore , and separation made by the Angels , they and their Disciples might be differenced from the reprobate portion . 10. But the light of the Sun uses not to be confined to a Province or a Kingdom ; so great a Prophet , and so divine a Physician , and so great Miracles created a same loud as thunder , but not so full of sadness and presage . Immediately the fame of Jesus went into all Syria , and there came to him multitudes from Galilee , Decapolis , Jerusalem and Judaea . And all that had any sick with divers deseases brought them to him ; and he laid his hands on every one of them , and healed them . And when he cured the Lunaticks and persons possessed with evil spirits , the Devils cried out and confessed him to be CHRIST the Son of God ; but he suffered them not , chusing rather to work Faith in the perswasions of his Disciples by moral arguments and the placid demonstrations of the Spirit , that there might in Faith be an excellency in proportion to the choice , and that it might not be made violent by the conviction and forced testimonies of accursed and unwilling spirits . 11. But when Jesus saw his assembly was grown full , and his audience numerous , he went up into a mountain , and when his Disciples came unto him , he made that admirable Sermon , called the Sermon upon the Mount ; which is a Divine repository of such excellent Truths and mysterious Dictates of secret Theology , that contains a Breviary of all those Precepts which integrate the Morality of Christian Religion ; pressing the Moral Precepts given by Moses , and enlarging their obligation by a stricter sence and more severe exposition , that their righteousness might exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ; preaches Perfection , and the doctrines of Meekness , Poverty of spirit , Christian mourning , desire of holy things , Mercy and Purity , Peace and toleration of injuries ; affixing a special promise of blessing to be the guerdon and inheritance of those Graces and spiritual excellencies . He explicates some parts of the Decalogue , and adds appendices and precepts of his own . He teaches his Disciples to Pray , how to Fast , how to give Alms , contempt of the world , not to judge others , forgiving injuries , an indifferency and incuriousness of temporal provisions , and a seeking of the Kingdom of God and its appendent righteousness . 12. When Jesus had finished his Sermon , and descended from the mountain , a poor leprous person came and worshipped , and begged to be cleansed ; which Jesus soon granted , engaging him not to publish it where he should go abroad , but sending him to the Priest to offer an oblation according to the Rites of Moses's Law ; and then came directly to Capernaum , and taught in their Synagogues upon the Sabbath-days : where in his Sermons he expressed the dignity of a Prophet , and the authority of a person sent from God , not inviting the people by the soft arguments and insinuations of Scribes and Pharisees , but by demonstrations and issues of Divinity . There he cures a Demoniack in one of their Synagogues , and by and by after going abroad he heals Peter's wives 〈◊〉 of a Fever ; insomuch that he grew the talk of all men and their wonder , till they flocked so to him to see him , to hear him , to satisfie their curiosity and their needs , that after he had healed those multitudes which beset the house of Simon , where he cured his Mother of the Fever , he retired himself into a desert place very early in the morning , that he might have an opportunity to pray , free from the oppressions and noises of the multitude . 13. But neither so could he be hid , but , like a light shining by the fringes of a curtain , he was soon discovered in his solitude ; for the multitude found him out , imprisoning him in their circuits and undeniable attendances . But Jesus told them plainly , he must preach the Gospel to other Cities also , and therefore resolved to pass to the other side of the Lake of Genesareth , so to quit the throng . Whither as he was going , a Scribe offered himself a Disciple to his Institution ; till Jesus told him his condition to be worse than foxes and birds , for whom an habitation is provided , but none for him , no not a place where to bow his head and find rest . And what became of this forward Professor afterward we find not . Others that were Probationers of this fellowship Jesus bound to a speedy profession , not suffering one to go home to bid his Friends farewell , nor another so much as to bury his dead . 14. By the time Jesus got to the Ship it was late , and he , heavy to sleep , rested on a pillow , and slept soundly , as weariness , meekness , and innocence could make him ; insomuch that a violent storm , the chiding of the winds and waters , which then happened , could not awake him ; till the ship being almost covered with broken billows and the impetuous dashings of the waters , the men already sunk in their spirits , and the ship like enough to sink too , the Disciples awaked him , and called for help : Master , carest thou not that we perish ? Jesus arising reproved their infidelity , commanded the wind to be still and the seas peaceable , and immediately there was a great calm ; and they presently arrived in the land of the Gergesenes or Gerasenes . 15. In the land of Gergesites or Gergesenes , which was the remaining name of an extinct people , being one of the Nations whom the sons of Jacob drave from their inheritance , there were two Cities ; Gadara from the tribe of Gad , to whom it fell by lot in the Division of the Land , ( which , having been destroyed by the Jews , was rebuilt by Pompey at the request of Demetrius Gadarensis , Pompey's freed man ) and near to it was Gerasa , as Josephus reports : which diversity of Towns and names is the cause of the various recitation of this story by the Evangelists . Near the City of Gadara there were many sepulchres in the hollownesses of rocks , where the dead were buried , and where many superstitious persons used Memphitick and Thessalick rites , invocating evil spirits ; insomuch that at the instant of our Saviour's arrival in the Countrey there met him two possessed with Devils from these tombs , exceeding fierce , and so had been long , insomuch that no man durst pass that way . 16. Jesus commanded the Devils out of the possessed persons : but there were certain men feeding swine , which though extremely abominated by the Jewish Religion , yet for the use of the Roman armies and quarterings of souldiers they were permitted , and divers priviledges * granted to the Masters of such herds : and because Gadara was a Greek City , and the company mingled of Greeks , Syrians and Jews , these last in all likelihood not making the greatest number ; the Devils therefore besought Jesus , he would not send them into the abysse , but permit them to enter into the Swine . He gave them leave ; and the swine ran violently down a steep place into the hot baths , which were at the foot of the hill on which Gadara was built , ( which smaller congregation of waters the Jews used to call [ Sea ; ] ) or else , as others think , into the Lake of Genesareth , and perished in the waters . But this accident so troubled the inhabitants , that they came and intreated Jesus to depart out of their coasts . And he did so ; leaving Galilee of the Gentiles , he came to the lesser Galilee , and so again to the City of Capernaum . 17. But when he was come thither , he was met by divers Scribes and Pharisees , who came from Jerusalem , and Doctors of the Law from Galilee ; and while they were sitting in a house , which was encompassed with multitudes , that no business or necessity could be admitted to the door , a poor Paralytick was brought to be cured , and they were fain to uncover the tiles of the house , and let him down in his bed with cords in the midst before Jesus sitting in conference with the Doctors . When Jesus saw their Faith , he said , Man , thy sins be forgiven thee . At which saying the Pharisees being troubled , thinking it to be blasphemy , and that none but God could forgive sins ; Jesus was put to 〈◊〉 his absolution , which he did in a just satisfaction and proportion to their understandings . For the Jews did believe that all afflictions were punishments 〈◊〉 sin ; ( Who sinned , this man or his Father , that he was born blind ? ) and that removing of the punishment was forgiving of the sin . And therefore Jesus , to prove that his sins were forgiven , removed that which they supposed to be the effect of his sin , and by curing the Palsie prevented their farther murmur about the Pardon ; That ye might know the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins , ( he saith to the sick of the Palsie , ) Arise , take up thy bed , and walk . And the man arose , was healed , and glorified God. 18. A while after Jesus went again toward the Sea , and on his way , seeing Matthew the Publican sitting at the receit of custom , he bad him follow him . Matthew first feasted Jesus , and then became his Disciple . But the Pharisees that were with him began to be troubled that he ate with Publicans and sinners . For the office of Publican , though amongst the Romans it was honest and of great account , and * the flower of the Roman Knights , the ornament of the City , the security of the Commonwealth , was accounted to consist in the society of Publicans ; yet amongst both the (a) Jews and Greeks the name was odious , and the persons were accursed : not only because they were strangers that were the chief of them , who took in to them some of the Nation where they were imployed ; but because the Jews especially stood upon the Charter of their Nation and the priviledge of their Religion , that none of them should pay tribute ; and also because they exercised great injustices and (b) oppressions , having a power unlimited , and a covetousness wide as hell , and greedy as the fire or the grave . But Jesus gave so fair an account concerning his converse with these persons , that the Objection turned to be his Apology : for therefore he conversed with them because they were sinners ; and it was as if a Physician should be reproved for having so much to do with sick persons ; for therefore was he sent , not to call the righteous , but sinners , to Repentance , to advance the reputation of Mercy above the rites of Sacrifice . 19. But as the little bubbling and gentle murmurs of the water are presages of a Storm , and are more troublesome in their prediction than their violence : so were the arguings of the Pharisees symptoms of a secret displeasure and an ensuing war ; though at first represented in the civilities of Question and scholastical 〈◊〉 , yet they did but fore-run vigorous objections and bold calumnies , which were the fruits of the next Summer . But as yet they discoursed fairly , asking him why John's Disciples fasted often , but the Disciples of Jesus did not fast . Jesus told them , it was because these were the days in which the Bridëgroom was come in person to espouse the Church unto himself ; and therefore for the children of the bride-chamber to fast then , was like the bringing of a dead corps to the joys of a Bride or the pomps of Coronation ; the days should come , that the Bridegroom should retire into his chamber and draw the curtains , and then they should fast in those days . 20. While Jesus was discoursing with the Pharisees , Jairus , a Ruler of the Synagogue , came to him , desiring he would help his Daughter , who lay in the confines of death ready to depart . Whither as he was going , a woman met him who had been diseased with an issue of bloud twelve years , without hope of remedy from art or nature ; and therefore she runs to Jesus , thinking , without precedent , upon the confident perswasions of a holy Faith , that if she did but touch the hem of his garment , she should be whole . She came trembling , and full of hope and reverence , and touched his garment , and immediately the 〈◊〉 of her unnatural emanation was stopped , and reverted to its natural course and offices . S. Ambrose says that this woman was Martha . But it is not likely that she was a Jewess , but a Gentile , because of that return which she made in memory of her cure and honour of Jesus according to the Gentile rites . For (a) Eusebius reports that himself saw at Caesarea Philippi a Statue of 〈◊〉 representing a woman kneeling at the feet of a goodly personage , who held his hand out to her in a posture of granting her request , and doing favour to her ; and the inhabitants said it was erected by the care and cost of this woman , adding ( whether out of truth or easiness is not certain ) that at the pedestal of this Statue an usual plant did grow , which when it was come up to that maturity and height as to arrive at the fringes of the brass monument , it was medicinal in many dangerous diseases : So far Eusebius . Concerning which story I shall make no censure but this , that since S. Mark and S. Luke affirm that this woman before her cure had spent all her substance upon Physicians , it is not easily imaginable how she should become able to dispend so great a summ of money as would purchase two so great Statues of brass : and if she could , yet it is still more unlikely that the Gentile Princes and Proconsuls , who searched all places publick and private , and were curiously diligent to destroy all honorary monuments of Christianity , should let this alone ; and that this should escape not only the diligence of the Persecutors , but the fury of such Wars and changes as happened in Palestine , and that for three hundred years together it should stand up in defiance of all violences and changeable fate of all things . However it be , it is certain that the Book against Images , published by the command of Charles the Great 850 years ago , gave no credit to the story : and if it had been true , it it more than probable that Justin Martyr , who was born and bred in Palestine , and Origen , who lived many years in Tyre , in the neighbourhood of the place where the Statue is said to stand , and were highly diligent to heap together all things of advantage and reputation to the Christian cause , would not have omitted so notable an instance . It is therefore likely that the Statues which Eusebius saw , and concerning which he heard such stories , were first placed there upon the stock of a heathen story or Ceremony , and in process of time , for the likeness of the figures , and its capacity to be translated to the Christian story , was by the Christians in after-Ages attributed by a fiction of fancy , and afterwards by credulity confidently applied , to the present Narrative . 21. When Jesus was come to the Ruler's house , he found the minstrels making their funeral noises for the death of Jairus's daughter , and his servants had met him , and acquainted him of the death of the child ; yet Jesus turned out the minstrels , and entred with the parents of the child into her chamber , and taking her by the hand called her , and awakened her from her sleep of death , and commanded them to give her to eat , and enjoyned them not to publish the Miracle . But as 〈◊〉 suppressed by violent detentions break out and rage with a more impetuous and rapid motion : so it happened to Jesus , who endeavouring to make the noises and reports of him less popular , made them to be 〈◊〉 ; for not only we do that most greedily from which we are most restrained , but a great merit enamell'd with humility , and restrained with modesty , grows more beautious and florid , up to the heights of wonder and glories . 22. As he came from Jairus's house , he cured two blind men upon their petition , and confession that they did believe in him , and cast out a dumb Devil , so much to the wonder and amazement of the people , that the Pharisees could hold no longer , being ready to burst with envy , but said , he cast out Devils by help of the Devils : Their malice being , as usually it is , contradictory to its own design , by its being unreasonable ; nothing being more sottish than for the Devil to divide his kingdom upon a plot ; to ruine his certainties upon hopes future and contingent . But this was but the first eruption of their malice ; all the year last past , which was the first year of Jesus's Preaching , all was quiet , neither the Jews nor the Samaritans nor the Galileans did malign his Doctrine or Person , but he preached with much peace on all hands ; for this was the year which the Prophet Isaiah called in his prediction the acceptable year of the Lord. Ad SECT . XII . Considerations upon the Entercourse happening between the Holy Jesus and the Woman of Samaria . The Woman of Samaria . Iohn . 4 : 7. There cemeth a woman of Samaria to draw water . Iesus saith unto her , giue me to drink . 9. Then saith the Woman of Samaria unto him , How is it , that thou being a Iew , askest drink of me , which am a woman of Samaria ? The great draught of Fishes . Luk. 5. 4. 5. etc. He said unto Simon , Let down your nets for a draught . And they enclosed a great multitude of fishes : and when Simon Peter saw it he fell down att Jesus knees — for he was astonished , & all that were with him , at the draught of the fishes . And Jesus said to Simon , Fear not from henceforth thou shalt catch men . 1. WHen the Holy Jesus , perceiving it unsafe to be at Jerusálem , returned to Galilee , where the largest scene of his Prophetical Office was to be represented , he journeyed on foot through Samaria , and being weary and faint , hungry and thirsty , he sate down by a Well , and begged water of a Samaritan woman that was a Sinner ; who at first refused him with some incivility of language . But he , in stead of returning anger and passion to her rudeness , which was commenced upon the interest of a mistaken * Religion , preached the coming of the Messias to her , unlock'd the secrets of her heart , and let in his Grace , and made a fountain of living water to spring up in her Soul , to extinguish the impure flames of Lust which had set her on fire , burning like Hell ever since the death of her ‖ fifth Husband , she then becoming a Concubine to the sixth . Thus Jesus transplanted Nature into Grace , his hunger and thirst into religious appetites , the darkness of the Samaritan into a clear revelation , her Sin into Repentance and Charity , and so quenched his own thirst by relieving her needs : and as it was meat to him to do his Father's will , so it was drink to him to bring us to drink of the fountain of living water . For thus God declared it to be a delight to him to see us live , as if he were refreshed by those felicities which he gives to us as communications of his grace , and instances of mercy , and consignations to Heaven . Upon which we can look with no eye but such as sees and admires the excellency of the Divine Charity , which being an emanation from the mercies and essential compassion of Eternity , God cannot chuse but 〈◊〉 in it , and love the works of his Mercy , who was so well pleased in the works of his Power . He that was delighted in the Creation , was highly pleased in the nearer conveyances of himself , when he sent the Holy Jesus to bear his image , and his mercies , and his glories , and offer them to the use and benefit of Man. For this was the chief of the works of God , and therefore the Blessed Master could not but be highliest pleased with it , in imitation of his heavenly Father . 2. The woman observing our Saviour to have come with his face from 〈◊〉 , was angry at him upon the quarrel of the old Schism . The Jews and the Samaritans had differing Rites , and the zealous persons upon each side did commonly dispute themselves into Uncharitableness : and so have Christians upon the same confidence , and zeal , and mistake . For although righteousness hath no fellowship with unrighteousness , nor Christ with Belial ; yet the consideration of the crime of Heresie , which is a spiritual wickedness , is to be separate from the person , who is material . That is , no spiritual communion is to be endured with Heretical persons , when it is certain they are such , when they are convinced by competent authority and sufficient argument . But the persons of the men are to be pitied , to be reproved , to be redargued and convinced , to be wrought upon by fair compliances and the offices of civility , and invited to the family of Faith by the best arguments of Charity , and the instances of a holy life ; having your conversation honest among them , that they may , beholding your good works , glorifie God in the day when he shall visit them . Indeed if there be danger , that is , a weak understanding may not safely converse in civil society with a subtile Heretick ; in such cases they are to be avoided , not saluted : But as this is only when the danger is by reason of the unequal capacities and strengths of the person ; so it must be only when the article is certainly Heresie , and the person criminal , and interest is the ingredient in the perswasion , and a certain and a necessary Truth destroyed by the opinion . We read that S. John , spying Cerinthus in a Bath , refused to wash there where the enemy of God and his Holy Son had been . This is a good precedent for us when the case is equal . S. John could discern the spirit of Cerinthus , and his Heresie was notorious , fundamental and highly criminal , and the Apostle a person assisted up to infallibility . And possibly it was done by the whisper of a Prophetick spirit , and upon a miraculous design ; for immediately upon his retreat the Bath fell down , and crushed Cerinthus in the ruines . But such acts of aversation as these are not easily by us to be drawn into example , unless in the same or the parallel concourse of equally-concluding accidents . We must not quickly , nor upon slight grounds , nor unworthy instances , call Heretick ; there had need be a long process , and a high conviction , and a competent Judge , and a necessary Article , that must be ingredients into so sad and decretory definitions , and condemnation of a person or opinion . But if such instances occur , come not near the danger nor the scandal . And this advice S. Cyprian gave to the Lay-people of his Diocese : Let them decline their discourses , whose Sermons creep and corrode like a Cancer ; let there be no colloquies , no banquets , no commerce with such who are excommunicate and justly driven from the Communion of the Church . For such persons ( as S. Leo descants upon the Apostle's expression of heretical discourses ) creep in humbly , and with small and modest beginnings , they catch with flattery , they bind gently , and kill privily . Let therefore all persons who are in danger secure their persons and Perswasions by removing far from the infection . And for the scandal , S. Herminigilda gave an heroick example , which in her perswasion , and the circumstances of the Age and action , deserved the highest testimony of zeal , religious passion , and confident perswasion . For she rather chose to die by the mandate of her tyrant-Father Leonigildus the Goth , than she would at the Paschal solemnity receive the blessed Sacrament at the hand of an Arrian Bishop . 3. But excepting these cases , which are not to be judged with forwardness , nor rashly taken measure of , we find that conversing charitably with persons of differing Perswasions hath been instrumental to their Conversion and God's glory . The believing wife may sanctifie the unbelieving husband ; and we find it verified in Church-story . S. Cecily converted her husband Valerianus ; S. Theodora converted Sisinius ; S. Monica converted Patricius , and Theodelinda Agilulphus ; S. Clotilda perswaded King Clodoveus to be a Christian ; and S. Natolia perswaded Adrianus to be a Martyr . For they , having their conversation honest and holy amongst the unbelievers , shined like virgin Tapers in the midst of an impure prison , and amused the eyes of the sons of darkness with the brightness of the flame . For the excellency of a holy life is the best argument of the inhabitation of God within the Soul : and who will not offer up his understanding upon that Altar , where a Deity is placed as the President and author of Religion ? And this very entercourse of the Holy Jesus with the Woman is abundant argument , that it were well we were not so forward to refuse Communion with dissenting persons upon the easie and confident mistakes of a too-forward zeal . They that call Heretick may themselves be the mistaken persons , and by refusing to communicate the civilities of hospitable entertainment may shut their doors upon Truth , and their windows against Light , and refuse to let Salvation in . For sometimes Ignorance is the only parent of our Perswasions , and many times 〈◊〉 hath made an impure commixture with it , and so produced the issue . 4. The Holy Jesus gently insinuates his discourses . If thou hadst known who it is that asks thee water , thou wouldest have asked water of him . Oftentimes we know not the person that speaks , and we usually chuse our Doctrine by our affections to the man : but then if we are uncivil upon the stock of prejudice , we do not know that it is Christ that calls our understandings to obedience , and our affections to duty and compliances . The Woman little thought of the glories which stood right against her . He that sate upon the Well had a Throne placed above the heads of Cherubims . In his arms who there rested himself was the Sanctuary of rest and peace , where wearied Souls were to lay their heads , and dispose their cares , and there to turn them into joys , and to gild their thorns with glory . That holy tongue which was parched with heat streamed forth rivulets of holy Doctrine , which were to water all the world , to turn our Deserts into Paradise . And though he begged water at Jacob's Well , yet Jacob drank at his : For at his charge all Jacob's flocks and family were sustained , and by him Jacob's posterity were made honourable and redeemed . But because this Well was deep , and the woman had nothing to draw water with , and of her self could not fathom so great a depth , therefore she refused him ; just as we do , when we refuse to give drink to a thirsty Disciple . Christ comes in that humble manner of address , under the veil of poverty or contempt , and we cannot see Christ from under that robe , and we send him away without an alms ; little considering , that when he begs an alms of us in the instance of any of his poor relatives , he asks of us but to give him occasion to give a blessing for an alms . Thus do the Ministers of Religion ask support , but when the Laws are not more just than many of the people are charitable , they shall fare as their Master did ; they shall preach , but , unless they can draw water themselves , they shall not drink : but , si scirent , if men did but know who it is that asks them , that it is Christ either in his Ministers or Christ in his poor servants , certainly they could not be so obstructed in the issues of their Justice and Charity , but would remember that no honour could be greater , no love more fortunate , than to meet with an opportunity to be expressed in so noble a manner , that God himself is pleased to call his own relief . 5. When the Disciples had returned from the Town , whither they went to buy provision , they wondred to see the Master talking alone with a woman . They knew he never did so before , they had observed him to be of a reserved deportment , and not only innocent , but secure from the dangers of Malice , and suspicion in the matter of Incontinence . The Jews were a jealous and froward people : and as nothing will more blast the reputation of a Prophet than effeminacy and wanton affections ; so he knew no crime was sooner objected or harder cleared than that : Of which , because commonly it is acted in privacy , men look for no probation , but pregnant circumstances and arguments of suspect : so nothing can wash it off , until a man can prove a negative ; and if he could , yet he is guilty enough in the estimate of the vulgar for having been accused . But then , because nothing is so destructive of the reputation of a Governour , so contradictory to the authority and dignity of his person , as the low and baser appetites of Uncleanness , and the consequent shame and scorn , ( insomuch that David , having faln into it , prayed God to confirm or establish him spiritu principali with the spirit of a Prince , the spirit of Lust being uningenuous and slavish ) the Holy Jesus , who was to establish a new Law in the authority of his person , was highly curious so to demean himself , that he might be a person uncapable of any such suspicions , and of a temper apt not only to answer the calumny , but also to prevent the jealousie . But yet , now he had a great design in hand , he meant to reveal to the Samaritans the coming of the Messias ; and to this his discourse with the Woman was instrumental . And in imitation of our great Master , Spiritual persons and the Guides of others have been very prudent and reserved in their societies and entercourse with women . Hereticks have served their ends upon the impotency of the Sex , and having led captive silly women , led them about as triumphs of Lust , and knew no scandal greater than the scandal of Heresie , and therefore sought not to decline any , but were infamous in their unwary and lustful mixtures . Simon Magus had his Helena partner of his Lust and Heresie ; the author of the Sect of the Nicolaitans ( if S. Hierom was not misinformed ) had whole troups of women ; Marcion sent a woman as his Emissary to Rome ; Apelles had his Philomene ; Montanus , Prisca and Maximilla ; Donatus was served by Lucilla , Helpidius by Agape ; Priscillian by Galla , and 〈◊〉 spreads his nets by opportunity of his conversation with the Prince's Sister , and first he corrupted her , then he seduced the world . 6. But holy persons , Preachers of true Religion and holy Doctrines , although they were careful by publick Homilies to instruct the female Disciples , that they who are heirs together with us of the same Hope may be servants in the same Discipline and Institution ; yet they remitted them to their * Husbands and Guardians to be taught at home . And when any personal transactions concerning the needs of their spirit were of necessity to intervene between the Priest and a woman , the action was done most commonly under publick test ; or if in private , yet with much caution and observation of circumstance , which might as well prevent suspicion as preserve their innocence . Conversation and frequent and familiar address does too much rifle the ligaments and reverence of Spiritual authority , and amongst the best persons is matter of danger . When the Cedars of Libanus have been observed to fall , when David and Solomon have been dishonoured , he is a bold man that will venture farther than he is sent in errand by necessity , or invited by charity , or warranted by prudence . I deny not but some persons have made holy friendships with women ; S. Athanasius with a devout and religious Virgin , S. Chrysostome with Olympia , S. Hierome with Paula Romana , S. John with the elect Lady , S. Peter and S. Paul with * Petronilla and Tecla . And therefore it were a jealousie beyond the suspicion of Monks and Eunuchs to think it impossible to have a chaste conversation with a distinct Sex. 1. A pure and right intention , 2. an entercourse not extended beyond necessity or holy ends , 3. a short stay , 4. great modesty , 5. and the business of Religion , will by God's grace hallow the visit , and preserve the friendship in its being spiritual , that it may not degenerate into carnal affection . And yet these are only advices useful when there is danger in either of the persons , or some scandal incident to the Profession , that to some persons and in the conjunction of many circumstances are oftentimes not considerable . 7. When Jesus had resolved to reveal himself to the Woman , he first gives her occasion to reveal her self to him , fairly insinuating an opportunity to confess her sins , that , having purged her self from her impurity , she might be apt to entertain the article of the revelation of the Messias . And indeed a crime in our Manners is the greatest indisposition of our Understanding to entertain the Truth and Doctrine of the Gospel : especially when the revelation contests against the Sin , and professes open hostility to the Lust. For Faith being the gift of God and an illumination , the Spirit of God will not give this light to them that prefer their darkness before it ; either the Will must open the windows , or the light of Faith will not shine into the chamber of the Soul. How can ye believe ( said our Blessed Saviour ) that receive honour one of another ? Ambition and Faith , believing God and seeking of our selves , are incompetent and totally incompossible . And therefore Serapion Bishop of Thmuis spake like an Angel , ( saith Socrates ) saying , that the Mind , which feedeth upon spiritual knowledge , must throughly be cleansed . The Irascible faculty must first be cured with brotherly Love and Charity , and the Concupiscible must be suppressed with Continency and Mortification . Then may the Understanding apprehend the mysteriousness of Christianity . For since Christianity is a holy Doctrine , if there be any remanent affections to a sin , there is in the Soul a party disaffected to the entertainment of the Institution , and we usually believe what we have a mind to : Our Understandings , if a crime be lodged in the Will , being like icterical eyes , transmitting the species to the Soul with prejudice , disaffection , and colours of their own framing . If a Preacher should discourse that there ought to be a Parity amongst Christians , and that their goods ought to be in common , all men will apprehend that not Princes and rich persons , but the poor and the servants would soonest become Disciples , and believe the Doctrines , because they are the only persons likely to get by them ; and it concerns the other not to believe him , the Doctrine being destructive of their interests . Just such a perswasion is every persevering love to a vicious habit ; it having possessed the Understanding with fair opinions of it , and surprised the Will with Passion and desires , whatsoever Doctrine is its enemy will with infinite difficulty be entertained . And we know a great experience of it in the article of the Messias dying on the Cross , which though infinitely true , yet because to the Jews it was a scandal , and to the Greeks 〈◊〉 , it could not be believed , they remaining in that indisposition ; that is , unless the Will were first set right , and they willing to believe any Truth , though for it they must disclaim their interest : Their Understanding was blind , because the Heart was hardened and could not receive the impression of the greatest moral demonstration in the world . 8. The Holy Jesus asked water of the Woman , unsatisfying water ; but promised that himself , to them that ask him , would give waters of life , and satisfaction infinite ; so distinguishing the pleasures and appetites of this world from the desires and complacencies spiritual . Here we labour , but receive no 〈◊〉 ; we sow many times , and reap not ; or reap , and do not gather in ; or gather in , and do not 〈◊〉 ; or possess , but do not enjoy ; or if we enjoy , we are still 〈◊〉 , it is with 〈◊〉 of spirit and circumstances of vexation . A great heap of riches make 〈◊〉 our 〈◊〉 warm , nor our meat more nutritive , nor our beverage more 〈◊〉 ; and it seeds the eye , but never fills it , but , like drink to an hydropick person , increases the thirst , and promotes the torment . But the Grace of 〈◊〉 , though but like a grain of 〈◊〉 dseed , fills the furrows of the heart ; and as the capacity increases , it self grows up in equal degrees , and never suffers any emptiness or dissatisfaction , but carries content and fulness all the way ; and the degrees of augmentation are not steps and near approaches to satisfaction , but increasings of the capacity ; the 〈◊〉 is satished all the way , and receives more , not because it wanted any ; but that it can now hold more , is more receptive of 〈◊〉 : and in every minute of 〈◊〉 there is so excellent a condition of joy and high satisfaction , that the very calamities the afflictions and persecutions of the world are turned into 〈◊〉 by the activity of the prevailing ingredient ; like a drop of water falling into a tun of wine , it is ascribed into a new family , losing its own nature by a conversion into the more noble . For now that all passionate desires are dead , and there is nothing remanent that is vexatious , the peace , the 〈◊〉 , the quiet sleeps , the evenness of spirit and contempt of things below , remove the Soul from all neighbourhood of displeasure , and place it at the foot of the throne , whither when it is ascended , it is possessed of Felicities eternal . These were 〈◊〉 waters which were given to us to drink , when with the rod of God the Rock 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was smitten : the Spirit of God moves for ever upon these waters ; and when the Angel of the Covenant hath stirred the pool , who ever descends hither shall find health and peace , joys spiritual and the satisfactions of Eternity . The PRAYER . O Holy Jesus , Fountain of eternal life , thou Spring of joy and spiritual satisfactions , let the holy stream of bloud and water issuing from thy sacred side cool the thirst , soften the hardness , and refresh the barrenness of my desert Soul ; that I thirsting after thee , as the wearied Hart after the cool stream , may despise all the vainer complacencies of this world , refuse all societies but such as are safe , pious and charitable , mortifie all 〈◊〉 appetites , and may desire nothing but thee , seek none but thee , and rest in thee with intire 〈◊〉 of my own caitive inclinations ; that the desires of Nature may pass into desires of Grace , and my thirst and my hunger may be spiritual , and my hopes placed in thee , and the expresses of my Charity upon thy relatives , and all the parts of my life may speak thy love and obedience to thy Commandments : that thou possessing my Soul and all its Faculties , during my whole life , I may possess thy glories in the fruition of a blessed Eternity ; by the light of thy Gospel here and the streams of thy Grace being guided to thee the fountain of life and glory , there to be inebriated with the waters of Paradise , with joy and love and contemplation , adoring and admiring the beauties of the Lord for ever and ever . Amen . Considerations upon Christ's first Preaching , and the Accidents happening about that time . Jesus preaching to the people . Mauh . 4. 17. From that time Jesus began to preach saying , Repent . for the Kingodm of heaven is at hand . V. 29. And he went about all Gallilee teaching & preaching the Gospel of the kingdom , and healing all manner of sickness , &c. V. 25. And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee , and from D●●apolis , and from Ierusalem , etc. Christ sending forth his Apostles . Mark. 6. 7. And he called unto him y e twelve & began to send them forth by two and two and gave them power over unclean spirits , And conunanded them that they should take nothing for their journey , etc. V. 12 And they went out , and preached that men should repent . 1. WHen John was cast into Prison , then began Jesus to preach ; not only because the Ministery of John by order of Divine designation was to precede the Publication of Jesus , but also upon prudent considerations and designs of Providence , lest two great personages at once upon the theatre of Palestine might have been occasion of divided thoughts , and these have determined upon a Schism , some professing themselves to be of Christ , some of John. For once an offer was made of a dividing Question by the spite of the Pharisees , Why do the Disciples of John fast often , and thy Disciples fast not ? But when John went off from the scene , then Jesus appeared like the Sun in 〈◊〉 to the Morning-Star , and there were no divided interests upon mistake , or the fond adherencies of the Followers . And although the Holy Jesus would certainly have cured all accidental inconveniences which might have happened in such accidents ; yet this may become a precedent to all Prelates , to be prudent in avoiding all occasions of a Schism , and rather than divide a people , submit and relinquish an opportunity of Preaching to their inferiours , as knowing that God is better served by Charity than a Homily ; and if my modesty made me resign to my inferiour , the advantages of honour to God by the cession of Humility are of greater consideration than the smaller and accidental advantages of better-penned and more accurate discourses . But our Blessed Lord , designing to gather Disciples , did it in the manner of the more extraordinary persons and Doctors of the Jews , and particularly of the Baptist , he initiated them into the Institution by the solemnity of a Baptism ; but yet he was pleased not to minister it in his own person . His Apostles were baptized in John's Baptism , said Tertullian ; or else , S. Peter only was baptized by his Lord , and he baptized the rest . However , the Lord was pleased to depute the ministery of his servants , that so he might constitute a Ministery ; that he might reserve it to himself as a specialty to baptize with the Spirit , as his servants did with water ; that he might declare that the efficacy of the Rite did not depend upon the Dignity of the Minister , but his own Institution , and the holy Covenant ; and lastly , lest they who were baptized by him in person might please themselves above their brethren whose needs were served by a lower ministery . 2. The Holy Jesus , the great Physician of our Souls , now entring upon his Cure and the Diocese of Palestine , which was afterwards enlarged to the pale of the Catholick Church , was curious to observe all advantages of prudence for the benefit of Souls , by the choice of place , by quitting the place of his education , ( which , because it had been poor and humble , was apt to procure contempt to his Doctrine and despite to his Person ) by fixing in Capernaum , which had the advantage of popularity , and the opportunity of extending the benefit , yet had not the honour and ambition of Jerusalem ; that the Ministers of Religion might be taught to seek and desire imployment in such circumstances which may serve the end of God , but not of Ambition ; to promote the interest of Souls , but not the inordination of lower appetites . Jesus quitted his natural and civil interests , when they were less consistent with the end of God and his Prophetical Office , and considered not his Mother's house , and the vicinage in the accounts of Religion , beyond those other places in which he might better do his Father's work : In which a forward piety might behold the insinuation of a duty to such persons , who by rights of Law and Custome were so far instrumental to the cure of Souls , as to design the persons ; they might do but duty if they first considered the interests of Souls before the advantages of their kindred and relatives : and although , if all things else be alike , they may in equal dispositions prefer their own before strangers ; yet it were but reason that they should first consider sadly if the men be equal , before they remember that they are of their kindred , and not let this consideration be ingredient into the former judgment . And another degree of liberty yet there is ; if our kindred be persons apt and holy , and without exceptions either of Law , or Prudence , or Religion , we may do them advantages before others who have some degrees of Learning and improvement beyond the other : or else no man might lawfully prefer his kindred , unless they were absolutely the ablest in a Diocese or Kingdom ; which doctrine were a snare apt to produce scruples to the Consciences , rather than advantages to the Cure. But then also Patrons should be careful that they do not account their Clerks by an estimate taken from comparison with unworthy Candidates , set up on purpose , that when we chuse our kindred we may abuse our consciences by saying , We have fulfilled our trust , and made election of the more worthy . In these and the like cases let every man who is concerned deal with justice , nobleness and sincerity , with the simplicity of a Christian and the wisdome of a man , without tricks and stratagems , to disadvantage the Church by doing temporal advantages to his friend or family . 3. The Blessed Master began his Office with a Sermon of Repentance , as his Decessor John the Baptist did in his Ministration , to tell the world that the new Covenant , which was to be established by the Mediation and Office of the Holy Jesus , was a Covenant of grace and favour , not established upon Works , but upon Promises , and remission of right on God's part , and remission of sins on our part . The Law was a Covenant of Works , and who-ever prevaricated any of its Sanctions in a considerable degree , he stood sentenced by it without any hopes of restitution supplied by the Law. And therefore it was the Covenant of Works ; not because Good works were then required more than now , or because they had more efficacy than now ; but because all our hopes did rely upon the perfection of Works and Innocence , without the suppletories of Grace , Pardon , and Repentance . But the Gospel is therefore a Covenant of Grace , not that works are excluded from our duty , or from cooperating to Heaven ; but that , because there is in it so much mercy , the imperfections of the Works are made up by the grace of Jesus , and the defects of Innocence are supplied by the substitution of Repentance . Abatements are made for the infirmities and miseries of humanity ; and if we do our endeavour now after the manner of men , the Faith of Jesus Christ , that is , conformity to his Laws , and submission to his Doctrine , entitles us to the grace he hath purchased for us , that is , our sins for his sake shall be pardoned . So that the Law and the Gospel are not opposed barely upon the title of Faith and Works , but as the Covenant of Faith and the Covenant of Works . In the Faith of a Christian Works are the great ingredient and the chief of the constitution , but the Gospel is not a Covenant of Works , that is , it is not an agreement upon the stock of Innocence without allowances of Repentance , requiring Obedience in rigour and strictest estimate . But the Gospel requires the Holiness of a Christian , and yet after the manner of a man ; for , always provided that we do not allow to our selves a liberty , but endeavour with all our strength , and love with all our Soul , that which , if it were upon our allowance , would be required at our hands , now that it is against our will , and highly contested against , is put upon the stock of Christ , and allowed to us by God in the accounts of Pardon by the merits of Jesus , by the Covenant of the Gospel . And this is the Repentance and Remission of sins which John first preached upon the approximation of the Kingdom , and Christ at the first manifestation of it , and the Apostles afterward in the name of Jesus . 4. Jesus now having begun his Preaching , began also to gather his Family ; and first called Simon and Andrew , then James and John ; at whose vocation he wrought a Miracle , which was a signification of their Office and the success of it ; a draught of fishes so great and prodigious , that it convinc'd them that he was a person very extraordinary , whose voice the Fishes heard , and came at his call : and since he designed them to become fishers of men , although themselves were as unlikely instruments to persuade men as the voice of the Son of man to command fishes , yet they should prevail in so great numbers , that the whole world should run after them , and upon their Summons come into the Net of the Gospel , becoming Disciples of the glorious Nazarene . S. Peter the first time that he threw his net , at the descent of the Holy Ghost in Pentecost , catched three thousand men ; and at one Sermon sometimes the Princes of a Nation have been converted , and the whole Land presently baptized ; and the multitudes so great , that the Apostles were forced to design some men to the ministration of Baptism by way of peculiar office ; and it grew to be work enough , the easiness of the ministery being made busie and full of imployment where a whole Nation became Disciple . And indeed the Doctrine is so holy , the Principle so Divine , the Instruments so supernatural , the Promises so glorious , the Revelations so admirable , the Rites so mysterious , the whole fabrick of the Discipline so full of wisdome , perswasion and energy , that the infinite number of the first Conversions were not so great a wonder , as that there are so few now : every man calling himself Christian , but few having that power of godliness which distinguishes Christian from a word and 〈◊〉 empty name . And the Word is now the same , and the arguments greater , ( for some have been growing ever since , as the Prophecies have been fulfilled ) and the Sermons more , and the Spirit the same ; and yet such diversity of operations , that we hear and read the Sermons and Dictates Evangelical as we do a Romance , but that it is with less passion , but altogether as much unconcerned as with a story of Salmanasar or Ibrahim Bassa : For we do not leave one Vice , nor reject one Lust , nor deny one impetuous Temptation the more for the four Gospels sake , and all S. Paul's Epistles mingled in the argument . And yet all think themselves fishes within Christ's Net , and the prey of the Gospel : and it is true they are so ; for the Kingdom is like unto a Net , which inclosed fishes good and bad ; but this shall be of small advantage when the Net shall be drawn to the shore , and the separation made . 5. When Jesus called those Disciples , they had been fishing all night , and caught nothing ; but when Christ bad them let down the Net , they took multitudes : to shew to us , that the success of our endeavours is not in proportion to our labours , but the divine assistence and benediction . It is not the excellency of the Instrument , but the capacity of the Subject , nor yet this alone , but the aptness of the application , nor that without an influence from Heaven , can produce the fruits of a holy Perswasion and Conversion . Paul may plant , and Apollo may water ; but God gives the increase . Indeed when we let down the Nets at the Divine appointment , the success is the more probable , and certainly God will bring benefit to the place , or Honour to himself , or Salvation to them that will obey , or Conviction to them that will not : But what-ever the fruit be in respect of others , the reward shall be great to themselves . And therefore S. Paul did not say he had profited , but , he had laboured more than they all , as knowing the Divine acceptance would take its account in proportion to our endeavours and intendments ; not by commensuration to the effect , which being without us , depending upon God's blessing and the cooperation of the recipients , can be no ingredients into our account . But this also may help to support the weariness of our hopes , and the protraction and deferring of our expectation , if a laborious Prelate and an assiduous Preacher have but few returns to his many cares and greater labours . A whole night a man may labour , ( the longest life is no other ) and yet catch nothing , and then the Lord may visit us with his special presence , and more forward assistences , and the harvest may grow up with the swiftness of a Gourd , and the fruitfulness of Olives , and the plaisance of the Vine , and the strength of Wheat ; and whole troups of Penitents may arise from the darkness of their graves at the call of one Sermon , even when he pleases : and till then we must be content that we do our duty , and lay the consideration of the effect at the feet of Jesus . 6. In the days of the Patriarchs the Governours of the Lord's people were called Shepherds ; so was Moses , and so was David . In the days of the Gospel they are Shepherds still , but with the addition of a new appellative , for now they are called Fishers . Both the callings were honest , humble and laborious , watchful and full of trouble ; but now that both the titles are conjunct , we may observe the symbol of an implicit and folded duty . There is much simplicity and care in the Shepherd's Trade ; there is much craft and labour in the Fisher's : and a Prelate is to be both full of Piety to his Flock , careful of their welfare ; and , because in the political and spiritual sense too feeding and governing are the same duty , it concerns them that have cure of Souls to be discrect and wary , observant of advantages , laying such baits for the people as may entice them into the nets of Jesus's Discipline . But being crafty I caught you , saith S. Paul ; for he was a Fisher too . And so must Spiritual persons be Fishers to all spiritual senses of watchfulness and care and prudence : only they must not fish for preferment and ambitious purposes , but must say with the King of Sodom , Date nobis animas , caetera vobis tollite ; which S. Paul renders , We seek not yours , but you . And in order to such acquist , the purchace of Souls , let them have the diligence and the craft of Fishers , the watchfulness and care of Shepherds , the prudence of Politicks , the tenderness of Parents , the spirit of Government , the wariness of Observation , great knowledge of the dispositions of their people , and experience of such advantages by means of which they may serve the ends of God , and of Salvation upon their Souls . 7. When Peter had received the fruits of a rich Miracle in the prodigious and prosperous draught of fishes , he instantly falls down at the feet of Jesus , and confesses himself a sinner , and unworthy of the presence of Christ. In which confession I not only consider the conviction of his Understanding by the testimony of the Miracle , but the modesty of his spirit , who in his exaltation , and the joy of a sudden and happy success , retired into Humility and consideration of his own unworthiness , lest , as it happens in sudden joys , the lavishness of his spirit should transport him to intemperance , to looser affections , to vanity and garishness , less becoming the severity and government of a Disciple of so great a Master . For in such great and sudden accidents men usually are dissolved and melted into joy and inconsideration , and let fly all their severe principles and discipline of manners , till , as Peter here did , though to another purpose , they say to Christ , Depart from me , O Lord ; as if such excellencies of joys , like the lesser Stars , did disappear at the presence of him who is the fountain of all joys regular and just . When the spirits of the Body have been bound up by the cold Winter air , the warmth of the Spring makes so great an aperture of the passages , and by consequence such dissolution of spirits , in the presence of the Sun , that it becomes the occasion of Fevers and violent diseases . Just such a thing is a sudden Joy , in which the spirits leap out from their cells of austerity and sobriety , and are warmed into Fevers and wildnesses , and forfeiture of all Judgment and vigorous understanding . In these accidents the best advice is to temper and allay our joys with some instant consideration of the vilest of our sins , the shamefulness of our disgraces , the most dolorous accidents of our lives , the worst of our fears , with meditation of Death , or the terrours of Dooms-day , or the unimaginable miseries of damned and accursed spirits . For such considerations as these are good instruments of Sobriety , and are correctives to the malignity of excessive Joys or temporal prosperities , which , like Minerals , unless allayed by art , prey upon the spirits , and become the union of a contradiction , being turned into mortal medicines . 8. At this time Jesus preached to the people from the Ship , which in the fancies and tropical discoursings of the old Doctors signifies the Church , and declares that the Homilies of order and authority must be delivered from the Oracle ; they that preach must be sent , and God hath appointed Tutors and Instructors of our Consciences by special designation and peculiar appointment : if they that preach do not make their Sermons from the Ship , their discourses either are the false murmurs of Hereticks and false Shepherds , or else of Thieves and invaders of Authority , or corrupters of Discipline and Order . For God , that loves to hear us in special places , will also be heard himself by special persons ; and since he sent his Angels Ministers to convey his purposes of old , then when the Law was ordained by Angels , as by the hands of a Mediatour , now also he will send his servants the sons of men , since the new Law was ordained by the Son of man , who is the Mediatour between God and man in the New Covenant . And therefore in the Ship Jesus preach'd , but he had first caused it to put off from land ; to represent to us , that the Ship in which we preach must be put off from the vulgar communities of men , * separate from the people , by the designation of special appointment and of special Holiness ; that is , they neither must be common men , nor of common lives , but consecrated by order , and hallowed by holy living , lest the person want authority in destitution of a Divine Character , and his Doctrine lose its energy and power when the life is vulgar , and hath nothing in it holy and extraordinary . 9. The Holy Jesus in the choice of his Apostles was resolute and determined to make election of persons bold and confident , ( for so the Galilaeans were observed naturally to be , and Peter was the boldest of the Twelve , and a good Sword-man , till the spirit of his Master had fastened his sword within the scabbard , and charmed his spirit into quietness ) but he never chose any of the Scribes and Pharisees , none of the Doctors of the Law , but persons ignorant and unlearned ; which , in design and institutions whose divinity is not demonstrated from other Arguments , would seem an art of concealment and distrust . But in this , which derives its raies from the fountain of wisdom most openly and infallibly , it is a contestation against the powers of the world upon the interests of God , that he who does all the work might have all the glory , and in the productions in which he is fain to make the instruments themselves , and give them capacity and activity , every part of the operation and causality and effect may give to God the same honour he had from the Creation , for his being the only workman ; with the addition of those degrees of excellency which in the work of Redemption of Man are beyond that of his Creation and first being . The PRAYER . O Eternal Jesu , Lord of the Creatures , and Prince of the Catholick Church , to whom all Creatures obey in acknowledgment of thy supreme Dominion , and all according to thy disposition cooperate to the advancement of thy Kingdom , be pleased to order the affairs and accidents of the world , that all things in their capacity may do the work of the Gospel , and cooperate to the good of the Elect , and retrench the growth of Vice , and advance the interests of Vertue . Make all the states and orders of men Disciples of thy holy Institution : Let Princes worship thee and defend Religion ; let thy Clergy do thee honour by personal zeal , and vigilancy over their Flocks ; let all the world submit to thy Scepter , and praise thy Righteousness , and adore thy Judgments , and revere thy Laws : and in the multitudes of thy people within the enclosure of thy Nets let me also communicate in the offices of a strict and religious duty , that I may know thy voice , and obey thy call , and entertain thy Holy Spirit , and improve my talents ; that I may also communicate in the blessings of the Church ; and when the Nets shall be drawn to the shore , and the Angels shall make separation of the good Fishes from the bad , I may not be rejected , or thrown into those Seas of fire which shall afflict the enemies of thy Kingdom , but be admitted into the societies of Saints , and the everlasting communion of thy 〈◊〉 and Glories , O Blessed and Eternal Jesu . Amen . DISCOURSE IX . Of Repentance . 1. THE whole Doctrine of the Gospel is comprehended by the Holy Ghost in these two Summaries , Faith and Repentance ; that those two potent and imperious Faculties which command our lower powers , which are the fountain of actions , the occasion and capacity of Laws , and the title to reward or punishment , the Will and the Understanding , that is , the whole man considered in his superiour Faculties , may become subjects of the Kingdom , servants of Jesus , and heirs of glory . Faith supplies our imperfect conceptions , and corrects our Ignorance , making us to distinguish good from evil , not onely by the proportions of Reason and Custome and old Laws , but by the new standard of the Gospel ; it teaches us all those Duties which were enjoyned us in order to a participation of mighty glories ; it brings our Understanding into subjection , making us apt to receive the Spirit for our Guide , Christ for our Master , the Gospel for our Rule , the Laws of Christianity for our measure of good and evil : and it supposes us naturally ignorant , and comes to supply those defects which in our Understandings were left after the spoils of Innocence and Wisdome made in Paradise upon Adam's prevarication , and continued and encreased by our neglect , evil customes , voluntary deceptions , and infinite prejudices . And as Faith presupposes our Ignorance , so Repentance presupposes our Malice and Iniquity . The whole design of Christ's coming and the Doctrines of the Gospel being to recover us from a miserable condition , from Ignorance to spiritual Wisdome , by the conduct of Faith ; and from a vicious habitually-depraved life and ungodly manners to the purity of the Sons of God , by the instrument of Repentance . 2. And this is a loud publication of the excellency and glories of the Gospel , and the felicities of man over all the other instances of Creation . The Angels , who were more excellent Spirits than humane Souls , were not comprehended and made safe within a Covenant and Provisions of Repentance . Their first act of volition was their whole capacity of a blissful or a miserable Eternity : they made their own sentence when they made their first election ; and having such excellent Knowledge , and no weaknesses to prejudge and trouble their choice , what they first did was not capable of Repentance ; because they had at first in their intuition and sight all which could afterward bring them to Repentance . But weak Man , who knows first by elements , and after long study learns a syllable , and in good time gets a word , could not at first know all those things which were sufficient or apt to determine his choice , but as he grew to understand more , saw more reasons to rescind his first elections . The Angels had a full peremptory Will and a satisfied Understanding at first , and therefore were not to mend their first act by a second contradictory : But poor Man hath a Will alwayes strongest when his Understanding is weakest , and chuseth most when he is least able to determine ; and therefore is most passionate in his desires , and follows his object with greatest earnestness , when he is blindest , and hath the least reason so to do . And therefore God , pitying Man , begins to reckon his choices to be criminal just in the same degree as he gives him Understanding . The violences and unreasonable actions of Childhood are no more remembred by God than they are understood by the Child . The levities and passions of Youth are not aggravated by the imputation of Malice , but are sins of a lighter dye , because Reason is not yet impressed , and marked upon them with characters and tincture in grain . But he who ( when he may chuse , because he understands ) shall chuse the evil and reject the good , stands marked with a deep guilt , and hath no excuse left to him , but as his degrees of Ignorance left his choice the more imperfect . And because every sinner in the style of Scripture is a fool , and hath an election as imperfect as is the action , that is , as great a declension from Prudence as it is from Piety , and the man understands as imperfectly as he practises : therefore God sent his Son to take upon him ( not the nature of Angels , but ) the 〈◊〉 of Abraham , and to propound Salvation upon such terms as were possible , that is , upon such a Piety which relies upon experience , and trial of good and evil ; and hath given us leave , if we chuse amiss at first , to chuse again , and chuse better ; Christ having undertaken to pay for the issues of their first follies , to make up the breach made by our first weaknesses and abused understandings . 3. But as God gave us this mercy by Christ , so he also revealed it by him . He first used the Authority of a Lord and a Creator and a Law-giver : he required Obedience indeed upon reasonable terms , upon the instance of but a few Commandments at first , which when he afterwards multiplied , he also appointed ways to expiate the smaller irregularities ; but left them eternally bound without remedy who should do any great violence or a crime . But then he bound them but to a Temporal death . Only this , as an eternal death was also tacitely implied , so also a remedy was secretly ministred , and Repentance particularly preached by Homilies distinct from the Covenant of Moses's Law. The Law allowed no Repentance for greater crimes ; he that was convicted of Adultery was to die without mercy : but God pitied the miseries of man , and the inconveniences of the Law , and sent Christ to suffer for the one , and remedy the other ; for so it behoved Christ to suffer , and to rise from the dead , and that Repentance and Remission of sins should be preached in his Name among all Nations . And now this is the last and only hope of Man , who in his natural condition is imperfect , in his customs vicious , in his habits impotent and criminal . Because Man did not remain innocent , it became necessary he should be penitent , and that this Penitence should by some means be made acceptable , that is , become the instrument of his Pardon , and restitution of his hope . Which because it is an act of favour , and depends wholly upon the Divine dignation , and was revealed to us by Jesus Christ , who was made not onely the Prophet and Preacher , but the Mediatour of this New Covenant and mercy ; it was necessary we should become Disciples of the Holy Jesus , and servants of his Institution ; that is , run to him to be made partakers of the mercies of this new Covenant , and accept of him such conditions as he should require of us . 4. This Covenant is then consigned to us when we first come to Christ , that is , when we first profess our selves his Disciples and his servants , Disciples of his Doctrine and servants of his Institution ; that is , in Baptism , in which Christ who died for our sins makes us partakers of his death . For we are buried by Baptism into his death , saith S. Paul. Which was also represented in ceremony by the Immersion appointed to be the Rite of that Sacrament . And then it is that God pours forth together with the Sacramental waters a salutary and holy fountain of Grace to wash the Soul from all its stains and impure adherences . And therefore this first access to Christ is in the style of Scripture called Regeneration , the New Birth , Redemption , Renovation , Expiation , or Atonement with God , and Justification . And these words in the New Testament relate principally and properly to the abolition of sins committed before Baptism . For we are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ ; Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation , to declare his Rightcousness for the remission of sins that are past : To declare , I say , at this time his righteousness . And this is that which S. Paul calls Justification by Faith , that boasting might be excluded , and the grace of God by Jesus made exceeding glorious . For this being the proper work of Christ , the first entertainment of a Disciple , and manifestation of that state which is first given him as a favour , and next intended as a duty , is a total abolition of the precedent guilt of sin , and leaves nothing remaining that can condemn ; we then freely receive the intire and perfect effect of that Atonement which Christ made for us , we are put into a condition of innocence and favour . And this , I say , is done regularly in Baptism , and S. Paul expresses it to this sense ; after he had enumerated a series of Vices subjected in many , he adds , and such were some of you ; but ye are washed , but ye are sanctified . There is nothing of the old guilt remanent , when ye were washed ye were sanctified , or , as the Scripture calls it in another place , Ye were redeemed from your vain conversation . 5. For this Grace was the formality of the Covenant : Repent , and believe the Gospel . Repent and be converted , ( so it is in S. Peter's Sermon , ) and your sins shall be done away , that was the Covenant . But that Christ chose Baptism for its signature appears in the Parallel ; Repent , and be baptized , and wash away your sins : For Christ loved his Church , and gave himself for it ; That he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word ; That he might present it to himself a glorious Church , not having spot or wrinkle , or any such thing , but that it should be holy and without blemish . The Sanctification is integral , the Pardon is universal and immediate . 6. But here the process is short , no more at first but this , Repent , and be baptized , and wash away your sins ; which Baptism because it was speedily administred , and yet not without the preparatives of Faith and Repentance , it is certain those predispositions were but instruments of reception , actions of great facility , of small employment , and such as , supposing the * person not unapt , did confess the infiniteness of the Divine mercy , and fulness of the redemption & is called by the Apostle ( a ) a being justified freely . 7. Upon this ground it is that , by the Doctrine of the Church , heathen persons , strangers from the 〈◊〉 of grace , were invited to a confession of Faith , and dereliction of false Religions , with a promise , that at the very first resignation of their persons to the service of Jesus they should obtain full pardon . It was S. Cyprian's counsel to old Demetrianus , Now in the evening of thy days , when thy Soul'is almost expiring , repent of thy sins , believe in Jesus , and turn Christian ; and although thou art almost in the embraces of death , yet thou shalt be comprehended of immortality . Baptizatus ad horam securus bine exit , saith S. Austin ; A baptized person dying immediately shall live eternally and gloriously . And this was the case of the Thief upon the Cross , he confessed Christ , and repented of his sins , and begged pardon , and did acts enough to facilitate his first access to Christ , and but to remove the hindrances of God's favour ; then he was redeemed and reconciled to God by the death of Jesus , that is , he was pardoned with a full , instantaneous , integral and clear Pardon ; with such a pardon which declared the glory of God's mercies , and the infiniteness of Christ's merits , and such as required a more reception and entertainment on man's part . 8. But then we , having received so great a favour , enter into Covenant to correspond with a proportionable endeavour ; the benefit of absolute Pardon , that is , Salvation of our Souls , being not to be received till the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord : all the intervall we have promised to live a holy life in obedience to the whole Discipline of Jesus . That 's the condition on our part : And if we prevaricate that , the mercy shewn to the blessed Thief is no argument of hope to us , because he was saved by the mercies of the first access , which corresponds to the Remission of sins we receive in Baptism ; and we shall perish by breaking our own promises and obligations , which Christ passed upon us when he made with us the Covenant of an intire and gracious Pardon . 9. For in the precise Covenant there is nothing else described , but Pardon so given and ascertained upon an Obedience persevering to the end . And this is clear in all those places of Scripture which express a holy and innocent life to have been the purpose and design of Christ's death for us , and redemption of us from the former estate . Christ bare our sins in his own body on the tree , that we being dead unto sins , should live unto righteousness ; by whose stripes ye are healed . [ Exinde ] from our being healed , from our dying unto sin , from our being buried with Christ , from our being baptized into his death ; the end of Christ's dying for us is , that we should live unto righteousness . Which was also highly and prophetically expressed by S. Zachary in his divine Ecstasie : This was the oath which he sware to our Fore-father Abraham , That he would grant unto us , that we being delivered out of the hands of our Enemies might serve him without fear , In holiness and righteousness before him , all the days of our life . And S. Paul discourses to this purpose pertinently and largely : For the grace of God that bringeth Salvation hath appeared to all men , Teaching us , that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts , [ Hi sunt Angeli quibus in lavacro renunciavimus , saith Tertullian , Those are the evil Angels , the Devil and his works , which we deny or renounce in Baptism ] we should live soberly , righteously and godly in this present world , that is , lead a whole life in the pursuit of universal holiness , [ Sobriety , Justice and Godlinèss being the proper language to signifie our Religion and respects to God , to our neighbours , and to our selves . ] And that this was the very end of our dying in Baptism , and the design of Christ's manifestation of our Redemption , he adds , Looking for that blessed hope , and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus , Who gave himself for us , to this very purpose , that he might redeem us from all iniquity , and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works . Purifying a people peculiar to himself is cleansing it in the Laver of Regeneration , and appropriating it to himself in the rites of Admission and Profession . Which plainly designs the first consignation of our Redemption to be in Baptism , and that Christ , there cleansing his Church from every spot or wrinkle , made a Covenant with us , that we should renounce all our sins , and he should cleanse them all , and then that we should abide in that state . Which is also very explicitely set down by the same Apostle in that divine and mysterious Epistle to the Romans : How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein ? Know ye not , that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ , were baptized into his death ? Well , what then ? Therefore we are buried with him by Baptism into his death , that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father , even so we also should walk in newness of life . That 's the end and mysteriousness of Baptism , it is a consignation into the Death of Christ , and we die with him that once , that is , die to sin , that we may for ever after live the life of righteousness . Knowing this , that our old man is crucified with him ; that the body of sin might be destroyed , that henceforth we should not serve sin ; that is , from the day of our Baptism to the day of our death . And therefore God , who knows the weaknesses on our part , and yet the strictness and necessity of conserving Baptismal grace by the Covenant Evangelical , hath appointed the auxiliaries of the Holy Spirit to be ministred to all baptized people in the holy Rite of Confirmation , that it might be made possible to be done by Divine aids , which is necessary to be done by the Divine Commandments . 10. And this might not be improperly said to be the meaning of those words of our Blessed Saviour , He that speaks a word against the Son of man , it shall be forgiven him ; but he that speaks a word against the Holy Ghost , it shall not be forgiven him : That is , those sins which were committed in Infidelity , before we became Disciples of the Holy Jesus , are to be remitted in Baptism and our first profession of the Religion ; but the sins committed after Baptism and Confirmation , in which we receive the Holy Ghost , and by which the Holy Spirit is grieved , are to be accounted for with more severity . And therefore the * Primitive Church , understanding our obligations according to this discourse , admitted not any to holy Orders who had lapsed and fallen into any sin of which she could take cognisance , that is , such who had not kept the integrity of their Baptism ; but sins committed before Baptism were no impediments to the susception of Orders , because they were absolutely extinguished in Baptism . This is the nature of the Covenant we made in Baptism , that 's the grace of the Gospel , and the effect of Faith and Repentance ; and it is expected we should so remain . For it is nowhere expressed to be the mercy and intention of the Covenant Evangelical , that this Redemption should be any more than once , or that Repentance , which is in order to it , can be renewed to the same or so great purposes and present effects . 11. But after we are once reconciled in Baptism and put intirely into God's favour , when we have once been redeemed , if we then fall away into sin , we must expect God's dealing with us in another manner and to other purposes . Never must we expect to be so again justified , and upon such terms as formerly ; the best days of our Repentance are interrupted : not that God will never forgive them that sin after Baptism , and recover by Repentance ; but that Restitution by repentance after Baptism is another thing than the first Redemption . No such intire , clear , and integral , determinate , and presential effects of Repentance ; but an imperfect , little , growing , uncertain , and hazardous Reconciliation : a Repentance that is always in production , a Renovation by parts , a Pardon that is revocable , a Salvation to be wrought by fear and trembling : all our remanent life must be in bitterness , our hopes allayed with fears , our meat attempered with Coloquintida , and death is in the pot : as our best actions are imperfect , so our greatest Graces are but possibilities and aptnesses to a Reconcilement , and all our life we are working our selves into that condition we had in Baptism , and lost by our relapse . As the habit lessens , so does the guilt ; as our Vertues are imperfect , so is the Pardon ; and because our Piety may be interrupted , our state is uncertain , till our possibilities of sin are ceased , till our fight is finished , and the victory therefore made sure because there is no more fight . And it is remarkable , that S. Peter gives counsel to live holily in pursuance of our redemption , of our calling , and of our escaping from that corruption that is in the world through Lust , lest we lose the benefit of our purgation , to which by way of antithesis he opposes this . Wherefore the rather give diligence to make your calling and election sure . And , if ye do these things , ye shall never fall . Meaning , by the perpetuating our state of Baptism and first Repentance we shall never fall , but be in a sure estate ; our calling and election shall be sure . But not , if we fall ; * if we forget we were purged from our old sins ; if we forfeit our calling , we have also made our election unsure , movable and disputable . 12. So that now the hopes of lapsed sinners relie upon another bottom . And as in Moses's Law there was no revelation of Repentance , but yet the Jews had hopes in God , and were taught the succours of Repentance by the Homilies of the Prophets and other accessory notices : So in the Gospel the Covenant was established upon Faith and Repentance , but it was consigned in Baptism , and was verifiable onely in the integrity of a following holy life according to the measures of a man ; not perfect , but sincere ; not faultless , but heartily endeavoured : but yet the mercies of God in pardoning sinners lapsed after Baptism was declared to us by collateral and indirect occasions ; by the Sermons of the Apostles , and the Commentaries of Apostolical persons , who understood the meaning of the Spirit , and the purposes of the Divine mercy , and those other significations of his will which the blessed Jesus left upon record in other parts of his Testament , as in Codicills annexed , besides the precise Testament it self . And it is certain , if in the Covenant of Grace there be the same involution of an after-Repentance as there is of present Pardon upon past Repentance and future Sanctity , it is impossible to justifie that a holy life and a persevering Sanctity is enjoyned by the Covenant of the Gospel : if , I say , in its first intention it be declared that we may as well , and upon the same terms , hope for Pardon upon a Recovery hereafter , as upon the perseverance in the present condition . 13. From these premisses we may soon understand what is the Duty of a Christian in all his life , even to pursue his own undertaking made in Baptism or his first access to Christ , and redemption of his person from the guilt and punishment of sins . The state of a Christian is called in Scripture Regeneration , Spiritual life , Walking after the Spirit , Walking in newness of life , that is , a bringing forth fruits meet for Repentance . That Repentance which tied up in the same ligament with Faith was the disposition of a Christian to his Regeneration and Atonement , must have holy life in perpetual succession ; for that is the apt and proper fruit of the first Repentance which John the Baptist preached as an introduction to Christianity , and as an entertaining the Redemption by the bloud of the Covenant . And all that is spoken in the New Testament is nothing but a calling upon us to do what we promised in our Regeneration , to perform that which was the design of Christ , who therefore redeemed us , and bare our sins in his own body , that we might die unto sin , and live unto righteousness . 14. This is that saying of S. Paul , Follow peace with all men , and holiness , without which no man shall see the Lord : Looking diligently , lest any man fail of the grace of God , lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you : Plainly saying , that unless we pursue the state of Holiness and Christian communion into which we were baptized when we received the grace of God , we shall fail of the state of Grace , and never come to see the glories of the Lord. And a little before , Let us draw near with a true heart , in full assurance of Faith , having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience , and our bodies washed with pure water . That 's the first state of our Redemption , that 's the Covenant God made with us , to remember our sins no more , and to put his laws in our hearts and minds . And this was done when our bodies were washed with water , and our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience , that is , in Baptism . It remains then that we persist in the condition , that we may continue our title to the Covenant ; for so it follows , Let us hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering : For if we sin wilfully after the profession , there remains no more sacrifice : that is , If we hold not fast the profession of our Faith , and continue not the condition of the Covenant , but fall into a contrary state , we have forfeited the mercies of the Covenant . So that all our hopes of Blessedness , relying upon the Covenant made with God in Jesus Christ , are ascertained upon us by holding fast that profession , by retaining our hearts still sprinkled from an evil conscience , by following peace with all men and holiness : For by not failing of the grace of God , we shall not fail of our hopes , the mighty price of our high calling ; but without all this we shall never see the face of God. 15. To the same purpose are all those places of Scripture which intitle us to Christ and the Spirit upon no other condition but a holy life , and a prevailing , habitual , victorious Grace . Know you not your own selves , Brethren , how that Jesus Christ is in you , except ye be reprobates ? There are but two states of being in order to Eternity , either a state of the Inhabitation of Christ , or the state of Reprobation : Either Christ is in us , or we are reprobates . But what does that signifie , to have Christ dwelling in us ? That also we learn at the feet of the same Doctor ; If Christ be in you , the body is dead by reason of sin , but the spirit is life because of righteousness . The body of Sin is mortified , and the life of Grace is active , busie , and spiritual in all them who are not in the state of Reprobation . The Parallel with that other expression of his ; They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts . If sin be vigorous , if it be habitual , if it be beloved , if it be not dead or dying in us , we are not of Christ's portion , we belong not to him , nor he to us . For whoever is born of God doth not commit sin , for his seed remaineth in him ; and he cannot sin , because he is born of God : that is , every Regenerate person is in a condition whose very being is a contradiction and an opposite design to Sin. When he was regenerate and born anew of water and the spirit , the seed of God , the original of Piety , was put into him , and bidden to encrease and multiply . The seed of God ( in S. John ) is the same with the word of God ( in S. James ) by which he begat us ; and as long as this remains , a Regenerate person cannot be given up to sin ; for when he is , he quits his Baptism , he renounces the Covenant , he alters his relation to God in the same degree as he enters into a state of sin . 16. And yet this discourse is no otherwise to be understood than according to the design of the thing it self and the purpose of God , that is , that it be a deep ingagement and an effectual consideration for the necessity of a holy life : but at no hand let it be made an instrument of Despair , nor an argument to lessen the influences of the Divine Mercy . For although the nicety and limits of the Covenant being consigned in Baptism are fixed upon the condition of a holy and persevering uninterrupted Sanctity ; and our Redemption is wrought but once , compleated but once , we are but once absolutely , intirely and presentially forgiven , and reconciled to God , this Reconciliation being in virtue of the Sacrifice , and this Sacrifice applied in Baptism is one , as Baptism is one , and as the Sacrifice is one : yet the Mercy of God besides this great Feast hath fragments , which the Apostles and Ministers spiritual are to gather up in baskets , and minister to the afterneeds of indigent and necessitous Disciples . 17. And this we gather , as fragments are gathered , by respersed sayings , instances and examples of the Divine mercy recorded in Holy Scripture . The Holy Jesus commands us to forgive our brother seventy times seven times , when he asks our pardon and implores our mercy ; and since the Divine mercy is the pattern of ours , and is also procured by ours , the one being made the measure of the other by way of precedent and by way of reward , God will certainly forgive us as we forgive our brother : and it cannot be imagined God should oblige us to give pardon oftner than he will give it himself , especially since he hath expressed ours to be a title of a proportionable reception of his ; and hath also commanded us to ask pardon all days of our life , even in our daily offices , and to beg it in the measure and rule of our own Charity and Forgiveness to our Brother . And therefore God in his infinite wisdom foreseeing our frequent relapses , and considering our infinite infirmities , appointed in his Church an ordinary ministery of Pardon , designing the Minister to pray for sinners , and promising to accept him in that his advocation , or that he would open or shut Heaven respectively to his act on earth , that is , he would hear his prayers , and verifie his ministery , to whom he hath committed the word of Reconciliation . This became a duty to Christian Ministers , Spiritual persons , that they should restore a person overtaken in a fault , that is , reduce him to the condition he begins to lose ; that they should pray over sick persons , who are also commanded to confess their sins , and God hath promised that the sins they have committed shall be forgiven them . Thus S. Paul absolved the incestuous excommunicate Corinthian ; in the person of Christ he forgave him . And this also is the confidence S. John taught the Christian Church upon the stock of the excellent mercy of God and propitiation of Jesus : * If we confess our sins , he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins , and to cleanse us from all 〈◊〉 . Which discourse he directs to them who were Christians already initiated into the Institution of Jesus . And the Epistles which the Spirit sent to the Seven Asian Churches , and were particularly addressed to the Bishops , the Angels , of those Churches , are exhortations , some to Perseverance , some to Repentance , that they may return from whence they are fallen . And the case is so with us , that it is impossible we should be actually and perpetually free from sin in the long succession of a busie , and impotent , and a tempted conversation . And without these reserves of the Divine grace and after-emanations from the Mercy-seat , no man could be saved ; and the death of Christ would become inconsiderable to most of his greatest purposes : for none should have received advantages but newly-baptized persons , whose Albs of Baptism served them also for a winding-sheet . And therefore our Baptism , although it does consign the work of God presently to the baptized person in great , certain and intire effect in order to the remission of what is past , in case the Catechumen be rightly disposed or hinders not ; yet it hath also influence upon the following periods of our life , and hath admitted us into a lasting state of Pardon , to be renewed and actually applied by the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper , and all other Ministeries Evangelical , and so long as our Repentance is timely , active , and affective . 18. But now although it is infinitely certain that the gates of Mercy stand open to sinners after Baptism ; yet it is with some variety , and greater difficulty . He that renounces Christianity , and becomes Apostate from his Religion , not by a seeming abjuration under a storm , but by a voluntary and hearty dereliction , he seems to have quitted all that Grace which he had received when he was illuminated , and to have lost the benefits of his Redemption and former expiation . And I conceive this is the full meaning of those words of S. Paul , which are of highest difficulty and latent sense ; For it is impossible for those who were once enlightned , &c. if they shall fall away , to renew them again unto Repentance . The reason is there subjoyned , and more clearly explicated a little after : For if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth , there remains no more sacrifice for sins ; For he hath counted the bloud of the Covenant , wherewith he was sanctified , an unholy thing , and hath done despite to the Spirit of Grace . The meaning is divers , according to the degrees of apostasie or relapse . They who fall away after they were once enlightned in Baptism , and felt all those blessed effects of the sanctification and the emanations of the Spirit , if it be into a contradictory state of sin and mancipation , and obstinate purposes to serve Christ's enemies ; then there remains nothing but a fearful expectation of Judgment : but if the backsliding be but the interruption of the first Sanctity by a single act , or an unconformed , unresolved , unmalicious habit ; then also it is impossible to renew them unto Repentance , viz. as formerly , that is , they can never be reconciled as before , integrally , fully , and at once , during this life . For that Redemption and expiation was by Baptism into Christ's death , and there are no more deaths of Christ , nor any more such sacramental consignations of the benefit of it ; there is no more sacrifice for sins , but the Redemption is one , as the Sacrifice is one in whose virtue the Redemption does operate . And therefore the Novatians , who were zealous men denied to the first sort of persons the peace of the Church , and remitted them to the Divine Judgment . The * Church her self was sometimes almost as zealous against the second sort of persons lapsed into capital crimes , granting to them Repentance but once ; by such disciplines consigning this truth , That every recession from the state of Grace , in which by Baptism we were established and consigned , is a farther step from the possibilities of Heaven , and so near a ruine , that the Church thought them persons fit to be transmitted to a Judicature immediately Divine ; as supposing either her power to be too little , or the others malice too great , or else the danger too violent , or the scandal insupportable . For concerning such persons , who once were pious , holy , and forgiven , ( for so is every man and woman worthily and aptly baptized ) and afterwards fell into dissolution of manners , extinguishing the Holy Ghost , doing despite to the Spirit of Grace , crucisying again the Lord of Life , that is , returning to such a condition from which they were once recovered , and could not otherwise be so but by the death of our dearest Lord ; I say , concerning such persons the Scripture speaks very suspiciously , and to the sense and signification of an infinite danger . For if the speaking a word against the Holy Ghost be not to be pardoned here nor hereafter , what can we imagine to be the end of such an impiety which crucifies the Lord of Life , and puts him to an open shame , which quenches the Spirit , doing despite to the Spirit of Grace ? Certainly that is worse than speaking against him . And such is every person who falls into wilful Apostasie from the Faith , or does that violence to Holiness which the other does to Faith ; that is , extinguishes the sparks of Illumination , quenches the Spirit , and is habitually and obstinately criminal in any kind . For the same thing that 〈◊〉 was in the first period of the world , and Idolatry in the second , the same is Apostasie in the last ; it is a state wholly contradictory to all our religious relation to God according to the nature and manner of the present communication . Only this last , because it is more malicious , and a declension from a greater grace , is something like the fall of Angels . And of this the Emperour Julian was a sad example . 19. But as these are degrees immediately next , and a little less ; so the hopes of pardon are the more visible . Simon Magiss spake a word , or at least thought , against the Holy Ghost , he thought he was to be bought with mony . Concerning him S. Peter pronounced , Thou art in the gall of bitterness , and in the bond of iniquity : Yet repent , & pray God , if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee . Here the matter was of great difficulty ; but yet there was a possibility 〈◊〉 , at least no impossibility of recovery declared . And therefore S. Jude bids us , of some to have compassion , making a difference ; and others save with fear , pulling them out of the fire : meaning that their condition is only not desperate . And still in descent , retaining the same proportion , every lesser sin is easier pardoned , as better consisting with the state of Grace ; the whole Spirit is not destroyed , and the body of sin is not introduced : Christ is not quite ejected out of possession , but , like an oppressed Prince , still continues his claim ; and such is his mercy that he will still do so , till all be lost , or that he is provoked by too much violence , or that Antichrist is put in substitution , and sin reigns in 〈◊〉 mortal body . So that I may use the words of Saint John , These things I write unto you , that ' you sin not . But if any man sin , we have an Advocate with the 〈◊〉 , Jesus Christ the Righteous : And he is a propitiation for our sins ; and not for ours only , but for the sins of the whole world . That is plainly , Although the design of the Gospel be , that we should erect a Throne for Christ to reign in our spirits , and this doctrine of Innocence be therefore preached that ye sin not ; yet if one be overtaken in a fault , despair not , Christ is our Advocate , and he is the Propitiation : he did propitiate the Father by his death , and the benefit of that we receive at our first access to him ; but then he is our Advocate too , and prays perpetually for our perseverance or restitution respectively . But his purpose is , and he is able so to do , to keep you from falling , and to present you faultless before the presence of his Glory . 20. This consideration I intend should relate to all Christians of the world : And although by the present custom of the Church , we are baptized in our infancy , and do not actually reap that fruit of present Pardon which persons of a mature age in the primitive Church did , ( for we yet need it not , as we shall when we have past the calentures of Youth , which was the time in which the wisest of our Fathers in Christ chose for their Baptism , as appears in the instance of S. Ambrose , S. Austin , and divers others ; ) yet we must remember , that there is a Baptism of the Spirit as well as of water : and when-ever this happens , whether it be together with that Baptism of water , as usually it was when only men and women of years of discretion were baptized ; or whether it be ministred in the rite of Confirmation , which is an admirable suppletory of an early Baptism , and intended by the Holy Ghost for a corroborative of Baptismal grace , and a defensative against danger ; or that , lastly , it be performed by an internal and merely spiritual Ministery , when we by acts of our own election verifie the promise made in Baptism , and so bring back the Rite by receiving the effect of Baptism ; that is , when-ever the filth of our flesh is washt away , and that we have the answer of a pure conscience towards God , which S. Peter affirms to be the true Baptism , and which by the purpose and design of God it is expected we should not defer longer than a great reason or a great necessity enforces ; when our sins are first explated , and the sacrifice and death of Christ is made ours , and we made God's by a more immediate title , ( which at some time or other happens to all Christians , that pretend to any hopes of Heaven : ) then let us look to our standing , and take heed lest we fall . When we once have tasted of the heavenly gift , and are made partakers of the Holy Ghost , and have tasted the good word of God , and the powers of the world to come , that is , when we are redeemed by an actual mercy and presential application , which every Christian that belongs to God is at some time or other of his life ; then a fall into a deadly crime is highly dangerous , but a relapse into a contrary estate is next to desperate . 21. I represent this sad , but most true , Doctrine in the words of S. Peter : If , after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ , they are again entangled therein , and overcome ; the latter end is worse with them than the beginning . For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness , than after they have known it to turn from the holy Commandment delivered unto them . So that a relapse after a state of Grace into a state of sin , into confirmed habits , is to us a great sign , and possibly in it self it is more than a sign , even a state , of reprobation and final abscission . 22. The summ of all is this . There are two states of like opposite terms . First , Christ redeems us from our vain conversation , and reconciles us to God , putting us into an intire condition of Pardon , Favour , Innocence and Acceptance , and becomes our Lord and King , his Spirit dwelling and reigning in us . The opposite state to this is that which in Scripture is called a crucifying the Lord of Life , a doing despite to the Spirit of grace , a being entangled in the pollutions of the world , the Apostasie or falling away , an impotency or disability to do good , viz. of such who cannot cease from sin , who are slaves of sin , and in whom sin reigns in their bodies . This condition is a full and integral deletery of the first ; it is such a condition , which as it hath no Holiness or remanent affections to Vertue , so it hath no hope or revelation of a mercy , because all that benefit is lost which they received by the death of Christ ; and the first being lost , there remains no more sacrifice for sins , but a certain fearful expectation of Judgment . But between these two states stand all those imperfections and single delinquencies , those slips and falls , those parts of recession and apostasie , those grievings of the Spirit : and so long as any thing of the first state is left , so long we are within the Covenant of grace , so long we are within the ordinary limits of mercy and the Divine compassion , we are in possibilities of recovery , and the same sacrifice of Christ hath its power over us ; Christ is in his possession , though he be disturbed : but then our restitution consists upon the only condition of a renovation of our integrity ; as are the degrees of our Innocence , so are our degrees of Confidence . 23. Now because the intermedial state is divisible , various , successive , and alterable ; so also is our condition of Pardon . Our flesh shall no more return as that of a little child , our wounds shall never be perfectly cured ; but a scar , and pain , and danger of a relapse shall for ever afflict us ; our sins shall be pardoned by parts and degrees , to uncertain purposes , but with certain danger of being recalled again ; and the Pardon shall never be 〈◊〉 till that day in which all things have their consummation . 24. And this is evident to have been God's usual dealing with all those upon whom his Name is called . God pardoned David's sins of Adultery and Murther : but the Pardon was but to a certain degree , and in a limited expression ; God hath taken away thy sin , thou shalt not die : but this Pardon was as imperfect as his condition was , Nevertheless the child that is born unto thee , that shall die . Thus God pardoned the Israelites at the importunity of Moses , and yet threatned to visit that sin upon them in the day of Visitation . And so it is in Christianity : when once we have broke and discomposed the golden chain of Vocation , Election and Justification , which are intire links and methodical periods of our happiness when we first give up our names to Christ , for ever after our condition is imperfect ; we have broken our Covenant , and we must be saved by the excrescencies and overflowings of mercy . Our whole endeavour must be to be reduced to the state of our Baptismal innocence and integrity , because in that the Covenant was established . And since our life is full of defailances , and all our endeavours can never make us such as Christ made us , and yet upon that condition our hopes of happiness were established , I mean , of remaining such as he had made us ; as are the degrees of our Restitution and access to the first federal condition , so also are the degrees of our Pardon : but as it is always in imperfection during this life , and subject to change and defailance ; so also are the hopes of our felicity , never certain till we are taken from all danger , never perfect till all that is imperfect in us is done away . 25. And therefore in the present condition of things our pardon was properly expressed by David , and S. Paul , by a covering , and a not imputing . For because the body of sin dies visibly , and fights perpetually , and disputes with hopes of victory , and may also prevail , all this life is a condition of suspense ; our sin is rather covered , than properly pardoned ; God's wrath is suspended , not satisfied ; the sin is not to all purposes of anger imputed , but yet is in some sence remanent , or at least lies ready at the door . Our condition is a state of Imperfection ; and every degree of imperfection brings a degree of Recession from the state Christ put us in ; and every recession from our Innocence is also an abatement of our Confidence ; the anger of God hovers over our head , and breaks out into temporal Judgments ; and he retracts them again ; and threatens worse , according as we approach to or retire from that first Innocence , which was the first entertainment of a Christian , and the Crown of the Evangelical Covenant . Upon that we entertained the mercies of Redemption ; and God established it upon such an Obedience which is a constant , perpetual and universal sincerity and endeavour : and as we perform our part , so God verifies his , and not only gives a great assistance by the perpetual influences of his Holy Spirit , by which we are consigned to the day of Redemption , but also takes an account of Obedience , not according to the standard of the Law and an exact scrutiny , but by an Evangelical proportion ; in which we are on one side looked upon as persons already redeemed and assisted , and therefore highly engaged ; and on the other side as compassed about with infirmities and enemies , and therefore much pitied . So that as at first our Calling and Election is presently good , and shall remain so , if we make it sure ; so if we once prevaricate it , we are rendred then full of hazard , difficulty and uncertainty , and we must with pains and sedulity work out our Salvation with fear and trembling ; first by preventing a fall , or afterwards by returning to that excellent condition from whence we have departed . 26. But although the pardon of sins after Baptism be , during this life , difficult , imperfect , and revocable ; yet because it is to great effects for the present , and in order to a complete Pardon in the day of Judgment , we are next to enquire , what are the parts of duty to which we are obliged after such prevarications which usually interrupt the state of Baptismal innocence , and the life of the Spirit . S. John gives this account : If we say we have fellowship with God , and walk in darkness , we lie , and do not the truth . But if we walk in the light , as he is in the light , we have communion one with another , and the bloud of Jesus cleanseth us from all sin . This state of duty S. Paul calls a casting off the works of darkness , a putting on the armour of light , a walking honestly , a putting on the Lord Jesus Christ. And to it he confronts , making provision for the flesh , to fulfill the lusts thereof . S. Peter , describing the duty of a Christian , relates the proportion of it as high as the first precedent , even God himself . As he which hath called you is holy , so be ye holy in all manner of conversation : Not fashioning your selves according to the former lusts . And again , Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved , what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness ? And S. John , with the same severity and perfection , Every one that hath this hope ( that is , every one who either does not , or hath no reason to despair ) purifieth himself , even as God is pure ; meaning , that he is pure by a Divine purity , which God hath prescribed as an imitation of his Holiness , according to our capacities and possibilities . That Purity must needs be a laying aside all malice , and guile , and hypocrisies , and envies , and evil speakings ; so S. Peter expresses it : a laying aside every weight , and the sin that does so easily beset us ; so S. Paul. This is to walk in the light , as he is in the light ; for in him is no darkness at all ; which we have then imitated , when we have escaped the corruption that is in the world through lusts , that is , so as we are not held by them , that we take them for our enemies , for the object and party of our contestation and spiritual fight , when we contend earnestly against them , and resist them unto bloud , if need be ; that 's being pure as he is pure . But besides this positive rejection of all evil , and perpetually contesting against sin , we must pursue the interests of Vertue and an active Religion . 27. And besides this , saith S. Peter , giving all diligence , add to your Faith Vertue , to your Vertue Knowlege , and to Knowledge Temperance , and to Temperance Patience , and to Patience Godliness , and to Godliness Brotherly kindness , and to Brotherly kindness Charity . All this is an evident prosecution of the first design , the holiness and righteousness of a whole life , the being clear from all spots and blemishes , a being pure , and so presented unto Christ : for upon this the Covenant being founded , to this all industries must endeavour , and arrive in their proportions . * For if these things be in you and abound , they shall make that you be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind , and hath forgotten he was purged from his old sins ; that is , he hath lost his Baptismal grace , and is put from the first state of his Redemption towards that state which is contradictory and destructive of it . 28. Now because all these things are in latitude , distance and divisibility , and only injoyn a sedulity and great endeavour , all that we can dwell upon is this , That he who endeavours most is most secure , and every degree of negligence is a degree of danger ; and although in the intermedial condition between the two states of Christianity and a full impiety there is a state of recovery and possibility , yet there is danger in every part of it , and it increases according as the deflection and irregularity comes to its height , position , state and finality . So that we must give all diligence to work out our Salvation , and it would ever be with fear and trembling : with fear , that we do not lose our innocence ; and with trembling , if we have lost it , for fear we never recover , or never be accepted . But Holiness of life and uninterrupted Sanctity being the condition of our Salvation , the ingredient of the Covenant , we must proportion our degrees of hope and confidence of Heaven according as we have obtained degrees of Innocence , or Perseverance , or Restitution . Only this : As it is certain he is in a state of reprobation who lives unto sin , that is , whose actions are habitually criminal , who gives more of his consent to wickedness than to Vertue : so it is also certain he is not in the state of God's favour and Sanctification , unless he lives unto righteousness , that is , whose desires , and purposes , and endeavours , and actions , and customs are spiritual , holy , sanctified , and obedient . When sin is dead , and the spirit is life ; when the Lusts of the flesh are mortified , and the heart is purged from an evil conscience , and we abound in a whole Systeme of Christian Vertues ; when our hearts are right to God , and with our affections and our wills we love God and keep his Commandments ; when we do not only cry , Lord , Lord , but also do his will ; then Christ dwells in us , and we in Christ. Now let all this be taken in the lowest sence that can be imagined , all I say which out of Scripture I have transcribed ; [ casting away every weight ; laying aside all malice , mortifying the deeds of the flesh , crucifying the old man with all his affections and lusts , and then having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust , besides this , adding vertue to vertue till all righteousness be fulfilled in us , walking in the light , putting on the Lord Jesus , purifying our selves as God is pure , following peace with all men and holiness , resisting unto bloud , living in the Spirit , being holy in all manner of conversation as he is holy , being careful and excellent in all conversation and godliness , ] all this , being a pursuit of the first design of Christ's death and our reconcilement , can mean no less but that , 1. We should have in us no affection to a sin ; of which we can best judge , when we never chuse it , and never fall under it but by surprise , and never lie under it at all , but instantly recover , judging our selves severely : and 2. That we should chuse Vertue with great freedom of spirit and alacrity , and pursue it earnestly , * integrally , and make it the business of our ‖ lives : and that , 3. The effect of this be , that sin be crucified in us , and the desires to it dead , flat and useless ; and that our desires of serving Christ be quick-spirited , active , and effective , inquisitive for opportunities , apprehensive of the offer , chearful in the action , and persevering in the employment . 29. Now let a prudent person imagine what infirmities and over-sights can consist with a state thus described , and all that does no violence to the Covenant ; God pities us , and calls us not to an account for what * morally cannot , or certainly will not with great industry be prevented . But whatsoever is inconsistent with this condition is an abatement from our hopes , as it is a retiring from our duty , and is with greater or less difficulty cured , as are the degrees of its distance from that condition which Christ stipulated with us when we became his Disciples . For we are just so restored to our state of grace and favour as we are restored to our state of purity and holiness . Now this redintegration or renewing of us into the first condition is also called Repentance , and is permitted to all persons who still remain within the powers and possibilities of the Covenant , that is , who are not in a state contradictory to the state and portion of Grace ; but with a difficulty increased by all circumstances , and incidences of the crime and person . And this I shall best represent in repeating these considerations . 1. Some sins are past hopes of Pardon in this life . 2. All that are pardoned are pardoned by parts , revocably and imperfectly during this life , not quickly , nor yet manifestly . 3. Repentance contains in it many operations , parts and imployments , its terms and purpose being to redintegrate our lost condition , that is , in a second and less perfect sence , but , as much as in such circumstances we can , to verifie our first obligations of innocence and holiness in all manner of conversation and godliness . 30. Concerning the first , it is too sad a consideration to be too dogmatical and conclusive in it ; and therefore I shall only recall those expresses of Scripture which may without envy decree the article : such as are those of S. Paul , that there is a certain sort of men , whom he twice describes , whom it is impossible to renew again unto Repentance ; or those of S. Peter , such whose latter end is worse than the beginning , because after they once had escaped the pollutions of the world , they are intangled therein ; such who , as our Blessed Saviour threatens , shall never be forgiven in this world , nor in the world to come . For there is an unpardonable estate , by reason of its malice and opposition to the Covenant of Grace ; and there is a state unpardonable , because the time of Repentance is past . There are days and periods of Grace : If thou hadst known , at least in this thy day , said the weeping Saviour of the world to foreknown and determined Jerusalem . When God's decrees are gone out , they are not always revocable : and therefore it was a great caution of the Apostle , that we should follow peace and holiness , and look diligently that we fall not from the grace of God , lest any of us become like 〈◊〉 , to whose Repentance there was no place left , though he sought it carefully with tears : meaning , that we also may put our selves into a condition , when it shall be impossible we should be renewed unto Repentance : and those are they who sin a sin unto death , for whom we have from the Apostle no encouragement to pray . And these are in so general and conclusive terms described in Scripture , that every persevering sinner hath great reason to suspect himself to be in the number : If he endeavours , as soon as he thinks of it , to recover , it is the best sign he was not arrived so far ; but he that liveth long in a violent and habitual course of sin is at the margin and brim of that state of final reprobation , and some men are in it before they be aware , and to some God reckons their days swifter and their periods shorter . The use I make of this consideration is , that if any man hath reason to suspect , or to be certain that his time of Repentance is past , it is most likely to be a death-bed Penitent after a vicious life , a life contrary to the mercies and grace of the Evangelical Covenant ; for he hath provoked God as long as he could , and rejected the offers of Grace as long as he lived , and refused Vertue till he could not entertain her , and hath done all those things which a person rejected from hopes of Repentance can easily be imagined to have done . And if there be any time of rejection , although it may be earlier , yet it is also certainly the last . 31. Concerning the second I shall add this to the former discourse of it , that perfect Pardon of sins is not in this world at all after the first emission and great efflux of it in our first Regeneration . During this life we are in imperfection , minority , and under conditions , which we have prevaricated , and our recovery is in perpetual flux , in heightnings and declensions , and we are highly uncertain of our acceptation , because we are not certain of our restitution and innocence ; we know not whether we have done all that is sufficient to repair the breach made in the first state of favour and Baptismal grace . But he that is dead , saith S. Paul , is justified from sin ; not till then . And therefore in the doctrine of the most learned Jews it is affirmed ; He that is guilty of the profanation of the Name of God , he shall not interrupt the apparent malignity of it by his present Repentance , nor make attonement in the day of Expiation , nor wath the stains away by chastising of himself , but during his life it remains wholly in suspence , and before death is not extinguished ; according to the saying of the Prophet Esay , This iniquity shall not be blotted out till ye die , saith the LORD of Hosts . And some wise persons have affirmed , that Jacob related to this in his expression and appellatives of God , whom he called the God of Abraham , and the fear of his father Isaac , because ( as the Doctors of the Jews tell us ) Abraham being dead was ascribed into the final condition of God's family ; but Isaac , being living , had apprehensions of God not only of a pious , but also of a tremulous fear : he was not sure of his own condition , much less of the degrees of his reconciliation , how far God had forgiven his sins , and how far he had retained them . And it is certain , that if every degree of the Divine favour be not assured by a holy life , those sins of whose pardon we were most hopeful return in as full vigour and clamorous importunity as ever , and are made more vocal by the appendent ingratitude , and other accidental degrees . And this Christ taught us by a Parable : For as the lord made his uncharitable servant pay all that debt which he had formerly forgiven him ; even so will God do to us , if we from our hearts forgive not one another their trespasses . Behold the goodness and severity of God , saith S. Paul : on them which fell severity ; but on thee goodness , if thou continue in that goodness ; otherwise thou shalt be cut off . For this is my Covenant which I shall make with them , when I shall take away their sins . And if this be true in those sins which God certainly hath forgotten , such as were all those which were committed before our illumination ; much rather is it true in those which we committed after , concerning whose actual and full pardon we cannot be certain without a revelation . So that our pardon of sins , when it is granted after the breach of our Covenant , is just so secure as our perseverance is : concerning which because we must ascertain it as well as we can , but ever with fear and trembling so also is the estate of our Pardon , hazardous , conditional , revocable and uncertain ; and therefore the best of men do all their lives ask pardon even of those sins for which they have wept bitterly and done the sharpest and severest penance . And if it be necessary we pray that we may not enter into temptation , because temptation is full of danger , and the danger may bring a sin , and the sin may ruine us : it is also necessary that we understand the condition of our pardon to be , as is the condition of our person , variable as will , sudden as affections , alterable as our purposes , revocable as our own good intentions , and then made as ineffective as our inclinations to good actions . And there is no way to secure our confidence and our hope but by being perfect , and holy , and pure , as our heavenly Father is ; that is , in the sence of humane capacity , free from the habits of all sin , and active and industrious and continuing in the ways of godliness . For upon this only the Promise is built , and by our proportion to this state we must proportion our confidence , we have no other revelation . Christ reconciled us to his Father upon no other conditions , and made the Covenant upon no other articles , but of a holy life , in obedience universal and perpetual : and the abatements of the rigorous sence of the words , as they are such as may infinitely testifie and prove his mercy , so they are such as must secure our duty and habitual graces ; an industry manly , constant and Christian : and because these have so great latitude , ( and to what degrees God will accept our returns he hath no-where punctually described ) he that is most severe in his determination does best secure himself , and by exacting the strictest account of himself , shall obtain the easier scrutiny at the hands of God. The use I make of this consideration is to the same purpose with the former : For if every day of sin and every criminal act is a degree of recess from the possibilities of Heaven , it would be considered at how great distance a death-bed Penitent after a vicious life may apprehend himself to stand for mercy and pardon : and since the terms of restitution must in labour , and in extension of time , or intension of degrees , be of value great enough to restore him to some proportion or equivalence with that state of Grace from whence he is fallen , and upon which the Covenant was made with him ; how impossible , or how near to impossible , it will appear to him to go so far , and do so much in that state , and in those circumstances of disability . 32. Concerning the third particular , I consider that Repentance , as it is described in Scripture , is a system of holy Duties , not of one kind , not properly consisting of parts as if it were a single Grace ; but it is the reparation of that estate into which Christ first put us , a renewing us in the spirit of our mind , so the Apostle calls it ; and the Holy Ghost hath taught this truth to us by the implication of many appellatives , and also by express discourses . For there is in Scripture (a) a Repentance to be repented of , and (b) a Repentance never to be repented of . The first is mere Sorrow for what is past , an ineffective trouble producing nothing good ; such as was the Repentance of Judas , he repented , and hanged himself ; and such was that of Esau , when it was too late ; and so was the Repentance of the five foolish Virgins : which examples tell us also when ours is an impertinent and ineffectual Repentance . To this Repentance Pardon is nowhere promised in Scripture . But there is a Repentance which is called Conversion or Amendment of life , a Repentance productive of holy fruits , such as the Baptist and our Blessed Saviour preached , such as himself also propounded in the example of the (c) Ninivites ; they repented at the preaching of Jonah , that is , (d) they fasted , they covered them in sackcloth , they cried mightily unto God , yea , they turned every one from his evil way , and from the violence that was in their hands . And this was it that appeased God in that instance . God saw their works , that they turned from their evil way ; and God repented of the evil , and did it not . 33. The same Character of Repentance we find in the Prophet Ezekiel : When the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed , and doth that which is lawful and right ; If the wicked restore the pledge , give again that he had robbed , walk in the statutes of life without committing iniquity , he hath done that which is lawful and right , he shall surely live , he shall not die . And in the Gospel Repentance is described with as full and intire comprehensions as in the old Prophets . For Faith and Repentance are the whole duty of the Gospel . Faith when it is in conjunction with a practical grace signifies an intellectual . Faith signifies the submission of the understanding to the Institution ; and Repentance includes all that whole practice which is the intire duty of a Christian after he hath been overtaken in a fault . And therefore Repentance first includes a renunciation and abolition of all evil , and then also enjoyns a pursuit of every vertue , and that till they arrive at an habitual confirmation . 34. Of the first sence are all those expressions of Scripture which imply Repentance to be the deletery of sins . Repentance from dead works S. Paul affirms to be the prime Fundamental of the Religion , that is , conversion or returning from dead works : for unless Repentance be so construed , it is not good sence . And this is therefore highly verified , because Repentance is intended to set us into the condition of our first undertaking , and articles covenanted with God. And therefore it is a redemption of the time , that is , a recovering what we lost , and making it up by our doubled industry . Remember whence thou art fallen , repent , that is , return , and do thy first works , said the Spirit to the Angel of the Church of Ephesus ; or else I will remove the Candlestick , except thou repent . It is a restitution ; If a man be overtaken in a fault , restore such a one , that is , put him where he was . And then , that Repentance also implies a doing all good , is certain by the Sermon of the Baptist , Bring forth fruits meet for Repentance : Do thy first works , was the Sermon of the Spirit ; Laying aside every weight , and the sin that easily encircles us , let us run with patience the race that is set before us , So S. Paul taught . And S. Peter gives charge , that when we have escaped the corruptions of the world and of lusts , besides this , we give all diligence to acquire the rosary and conjugation of Christian vertues . And they are proper effects , or rather constituent parts , of a holy Repentance . For godly sorrow worketh Repentance ( saith S. Paul ) not to be repented of : and that ye may know what is signified by Repentance , behold the product was carefulness , clearing of themselves , indignation , fear , vehement desires , zeal and revenge ; to which if we add the Epithet of holy , ( for these were the results of a godly sorrow , and the members of a Repentance not to be repented of ) we are taught that Repentance , besides the purging out the malice of iniquity , is also a sanctification of the whole man , a turning Nature into Grace , Passions into Reason , and the flesh into spirit . 35. To this purpose I reckon those Phrases of Scripture calling it a (a) renewing of our minds ; a * renewing of the Holy Ghost ; a (b) cleansing of our hands and purifying our hearts , that is , a becoming holy in our affections and righteous in our actions ; a ( a ) transformation or utter change ; a (c) crucifying the flesh with the affections and lusts ; a * mortified state ; a ‖ purging out the old leven , and becoming a new conspersion ; a (a) waking out of sleep , and (b) walking honestly as in the day ; a (c) being born again , and being born from above ; a new life . And I consider that these preparative actions of Repentance , such as are Sorrow , and Confession of sins , and Fasting , and exteriour Mortifications and severities , are but fore-runners of Repentance , some of the retinue , and they are of the family , but they no more complete the duty of Repentance than the harbingers are the whole Court , or than the Fingers are all the body . There is more joy in Heaven , said our Blessed Saviour , over one sinner that repenteth , than over ninety nine just persons who need no repentance . There is no man but needs a tear and a sorrow even for his daily weaknesses , and possibly they are the instrumental expiations of our sudden and frequent and lesser surprises of imperfection ; but the just persons need no repentance , that is , need no inversion of state , no transformation from condition to condition , but from the less to the more perfect the best man hath . And therefore those are vain persons who when they owe God a hundred will write fourscore , or a thousand will write fifty . It was the saying of an excellent person , that Repentance is the beginning of Philosophy , a flight and renunciation of evil works and words , and the first preparation and entrance into a life which is never to be repented of : And therefore a penitent is not taken with umbrages and appearances , nor quits a real good for an imaginary , or chuses evil for fear of enemies and adverse accidents ; but peremptorily conforms his sentence to the Divine Laws , and submits his whole life in a conformity with them . He that said those excellent words had not been taught the Christian Institution , but it was admirable reason and deep Philosophy , and most consonant to the reasonableness of Vertue , and the proportions and designs of Repentance , and no other than the doctrine of Christian Philosophy . 36. And it is considerable , since in Scripture there is a Repentance mentioned which is impertinent and ineffectual as to the obtaining Pardon , a Repentance implied which is to be repented of , and another expressed which is never to be repented of , and this is described to be a new state of life , a whole conversion and transformation of the man ; it follows , that whatsoever in any sence can be called Repentance , and yet is less than this new life , must be that ineffective Repentance . A Sorrow is a Repentance , and all the acts of dolorous expression are but the same sorrow in other characters , and they are good when they are parts or instruments of the true Repentance : but when they are the whole Repentance , that Repentance is no better than that of Judas , nor more prosperous than that of Esau. Every sorrow is not a godly sorrow , and that which is , is but instrumental and in order to Repentance . Godly sorrow worketh repentance , saith S. Paul ; that is , it does its share towards it , as every Grace does toward the Pardon , as every degree of Pardon does toward Heaven . By godly sorrow it is probable S. Paul means the same thing which the School hath since called Contrition ; a grief proceeding from a holy principle , from our love of God , and anger that we have offended him : and yet this is a great way off from that Repentance without the performance of which we shall certainly perish : But no Contrition alone is remissive of sins , but as it cooperates towards the integrity of our duty . 〈◊〉 conversus ingemuerit , is the Prophet's expression ; When a man mourns and turns from all his evil way , that 's a godly sorrow , and that 's Repentance too : but the tears of a dolorous person , though running over with great effusions , and shed in great bitterness , and expressed in actions of punitive justice , all being but the same sence in louder language , being nothing but the expressions of sorrow , are good only as they tend farther ; and if they do , they may by degrees bring us to Repentance , and that Repentance will bring us to Heaven ; but of themselves they may as well make the Sea swell beyond its margin , or water and refresh the Sun-burnt earth , as move God to merey and pierce the heavens . But then to the consideration we may add , that a sorrow upon a death-bed after a vicious life is such as cannot easily be understood to be ordinarily so much as the beginning of Vertue , or the first instance towards a holy life . For he that till then retained his sins , and now when he is certain and believes he shall die , or is fearful lest he should , is sorrowful that he hath sinned , is only sorrowful because he is like to perish : and such a sorrow may perfectly consist with as great an affection to sin as ever the man had in the highest caresses and invitation of his Lust. For even then in certain circumstances he would have refused to have acted his greatest temptation . The boldest and most pungent Lust would refuse to be satisfied in the Market-place , or with a dagger at his heart ; and the greatest intemperance would refuse a pleasant meal , if he believed the meat to be mixt with poison : and yet this restraint of appetite is no abatement of the affection , any more than the violent fears which by being incumbent upon the death-bed Penitent make him grieve for the evil consequents more than to hate the malice and irregularity . He that does not grieve till his greatest fear presses him hard , and damnation treads upon his heels , feels indeed the effects of fear , but can have no present benefit of his sorrow , because it had no natural principle , but a violent , unnatural and intolerable cause , inconsistent with a free , placid and moral election . But this I speak only by way of caution : for God's merey is infinite , and can , if he please , make it otherwise . But it is not good to venture , unless you have a promise . 37. The same also I consider concerning the Purpose of a new life , which that any man should judge to be Repentance , that Duty which restores us , is more unreasonable than to think sorrow will do it . For as a man may sorrow , and yet never be restored , ( and he may sorrow so much the more , because he shall never be restored , as Esan did , as the five 〈◊〉 Virgins did , and as many more do : ) so he that purposes to lead a new life hath convinced himself that the Duty is undone , and therefore his pardon not granted , nor his condition restored . As a letter is not a word , nor a word an action ; as an Embryo is not a man , nor the seed the fruit : so is a purpose of Obedience but the element of Repentance , the first imaginations of it , differing from the Grace it self as a disposition from a habit , or ( because it self will best express it self ) as the purpose does from the act . For either a holy life is necessary , or it is not necessary . If it be not , why does any man hope to escape the wrath to come by resolving to do an unnecessary thing ? or if he does not purpose it , when he pretends he does , that is a mocking of God , and that is a great way from being an instrument of his restitution . But if a holy life be necessary , as it is certain by infinite testimonies of Scriptures , it is the unum necessarium , the one great necessary ; it cannot reasonably be thought that any thing less than doing it shall serve our turns . That which is only in purpose is not yet done , and yet it is necessary it should be done , because it is necessary we should purpose it . And in this we are sufficiently concluded by that ingeminate expression used by S. Paul : * In Jesus Christ nothing can avail but a new Creature ; nothing but Faith working by Charity , nothing but a keeping the Commandments of God. ‖ And as many as walk according to this rule , peace be on them , and mercy , they are the Israel of God. 38. This consideration I intended to oppose against the carnal security of Death-bed penitents , who have ( it is to be feared ) spent a vicious life , who have therefore mocked themselves , because they meant to mock God , they would reap what they sowed not . But be not deceived , saith the Apostle , he that soweth to the flesh , shall of the flesh reap corruption ; but he 〈◊〉 soweth to the Spirit , shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting . Only this , let us not be weary of well-doing , for in due season we shall reap , if we faint not : meaning , that by a persevering industry , and a long work , and a succession of religious times , we must sow to the Spirit ; a work of such length , that the greatest danger is of fainting and intercision : but he that sows to the Spirit , not being weary of well-doing , not fainting in the long process , he , and he only , shall reap life everlasting . But a purpose is none of all this . If it comes to act , and be productive of a holy life , then it is useful , and it was like the Eve of a Holiday , festival in the midst of its abstinence and vigils , it was the beginnings of a Repentance . But if it never come to act , it was to no purpose , a mocking of God , an act of direct hypocrisie , a provocation of God , and a deceiving our own selves ; you are unhappy you began not early , or that your earlier days return not together with your good purposes . 39. And neither can this have any other sentence , though the purpose be made upon our death-bed . For God hath made no Covenant with us on our death-bed distinct from that he made with us in our life and health . And since in our life and present abilities good purposes and resolutions and vows ( for they are but the same thing in differing degrees ) did signifie nothing till they came to act , and no man was reconciled to God by good intentions , but by doing the will of God ; can we imagine that such purposes can more prevail at the end of a wicked life than at the beginning ? that less piety will serve our turns after 50 or 60 years impiety , than after but 5 or 10 ? that a wicked and sinful life should by less pains be expiated than an unhappy year ? For it is not in the state of Grace as in other exteriour actions of Religion or Charity , where God will accept the will for the deed , when the external act is inculpably out of our powers , and may also be supplied by the internal : as bendings of the body , by the prostration of the Soul ; Alms , by Charity ; Preaching , by praying for conversion . These things are necessary , because they are precepts , and obligatory only in certain circumstances , which may fail , and we be innocent and disobliged . But it is otherwise in the essential parts of our duty , which God hath made the immediate and next condition of our Salvation , such which are never out of our power but by our own fault . Such are Charity , Forgiveness , Repentance , and Faith ; such to which we are assisted by God , such which are always put by God's grace into our power , therefore because God indispensably demands them . In these cases , as there is no revelation God will accept the will for the deed , the purpose for the act , so it is unreasonable to expect it ; because God did once put it into our powers , and , if we put it out , we must not complain of want of fire which our selves have quench'd , nor complain we cannot see , when we have put our own lights out ; and hope God will accept the will for the deed , since we had no will to it when God put it into our powers . These are but fig leaves to cover our nakedness , which our sin hath introduced . 40. For either the reducing such vows and purposes to act is the duty , without which the purpose is ineffectual ; or else that practice is but the sign and testimony of a sincere intention , and that very sincere intention was of it self accepted by God in the first spring . If it was nothing but a sign , then the Covenant which God made with Man in Jesus Christ was Faith and Good meaning , not Faith and Repentance , and a man is justified as soon as ever he purposes well , before any endeavours are commenced , or any act produced , or habit ratified ; and the duties of a holy life are but shadows and significations of a Grace , no part of the Covenant , not so much as smoak is of fire , but a mere sign of a person justified as soon as he made his vow : but then also a man may be justified five hundred times in a year , as often as he makes a new vow and confident resolution , which is then done most heartily , when the Lust is newly satisfied , and the pleasure disappears for the instant , though the purpose disbands upon the next temptation . Yea but , unless it be a sincere purpose , it will do no good ; and although we cannot discern it , nor the man himself , yet God knows the heart , and if he sees it would have been reduced to act , then he accepts it , and this is the hopes of a dying man. But faint they are and dying , as the man himself . 41. For it is impossible for us to know but that what a man intends ( as himself thinks ) heartily , is sincerely meant , and if that may be insincere , and is to be judged only by a never-following event , ( in case the man dies ) it cannot become to any man the ground of hope , nay , even to those persons who do mean sincerely it is still an instrument of distrust and fears infinite , since his own sincere meaning hath nothing in the nature of the thing , no distinct formality , no principle , no sign to distinguish it from the unsincere vows of sorrowful , but not truly penitent , persons . 2. A purpose acted and not acted differ not in the principle , but in the effect , which is extrinsecal and accidental to the purpose , and each might be without the other : a man might live holily , though he had not made that vow ; and when he hath made the vow , he may fail of living holily . * And as we should think it hard measure to have a damnation encreased upon us for those sins which we would have committed if we had lived ; so it cannot be reasonable to build our hopes of Heaven upon an imaginary Piety , which we never did , and , if we had lived , God knows whether we would or not . 3. God takes away the godly , lest malice should corrupt their Understandings , and for the Elects sake those days are shortned , which if they should continue , no flesh should escape : but now shall all that be laid upon their score which , if God had not so prevented by their death , God knows they would have done ? And God deals with the wicked in a proportionable manner , to the contrary purpose , he shortens their days , and takes a way their possibilities and opportunities , when the time of Repentance is past , because he will not do violence to their Wills ; and this * lest they should return , and be converted , and I should heal them : so that it is evident , some persons are by some acts of God , after a vicious life and the frequent rejection of the Divine grace , at last prevented from mercy , who , without such courses and in contrary circumstances , might possibly do acts of Repentance , and return , and then God would healthem . 4. Let their purposes and vows be never so sincere in the principle , yet since a man who is in the state of Grace may again fail of it , and forget he was purged from his old sins , ( and every dying sinner did so , if ever he was washed in the laver of Regeneration and sanctified in his spirit ; ) then much more may such a sincere purpose fail , and then it would be known to what distance of time or state from his purpose will God give his final sentence . Whether will he quit him , because in the first stage he will correspond with his intention , and act his purposes ; or condemn him , because in his second stage he would prevaricate ? And when a man does fail , it is not because his first principle was not good ; for the Holy Spirit , which is certainly the best principle of spiritual actions , may be extinguished in a man , and a sincere or hearty purpose may be lost , or it may again be recovered , and be lost again : so that it is as unreasonable as it is unrevealed , that a sincere purpose on a death-bed shall obtain pardon or pass for a new state of life . Few men are at those instants and in such pressures hypocritical and vain ; and yet to perform such purposes is a new work and a new labour ; it comes in upon a new stock differing from that principle , and will meet with temptations , difficulties and impediments ; and an honest heart is not sure to remain so , but may split upon a rock of a violent invitation . A promise is made to be faithful or unfaithful ex post 〈◊〉 by the event , but it was sincere or insincere in the principle , only if the person promising did or did not respectively at that time mean what he said . A sincere promise many times is not truly performed . 42. Concerning all the other acts which it is to be supposed a dying person can do , I have only this consideration : If they can make up a new Creature , become a new state , be in any sence a holy life , a keeping the Commandments of God , a following of peace and holiness , a becoming holy in all conversation ; if they can arrive to the lowest sence of that excellent condition Christ intended to all his Disciples , when he made keeping the Commandments to be the condition of entring into life , and not crying Lord , Lord , but doing the will of God ; if he that hath served the Lusts of the flesh and taken pay under all God's enemies during a long and malicious life , can for any thing a dying person can do be said in any sence to have lived holily ; then his hopes are fairly built : if not , they rely upon a sand , and the 〈◊〉 of Death and the Divine displeasure will beat 〈◊〉 violently upon them . There are no suppletories of the Evangelical Covenant : If we walk according to the Rule , then shall peace and righteousness kiss each other ; if we have sinned and prevaricated the Rule , Repentance must bring us into the ways of Righteousness , and then we must go on upon the old stock ; but the deeds of the 〈◊〉 must be mortified , and Christ must dwell in us , and the Spirit must reign in us , and Vertue must be habitual , and the habits must be confirmed : and this as we do by the Spirit of Christ , so it is hallowed and accepted by the grace of God , and we put into a condition of favour , and redeemed from sin , and reconciled to God. But this will not be put off with single acts , nor divided parts , nor newly-commenced purposes , nor fruitless sorrow ; it is a great folly to venture Eternity upon dreams : so that now let me represent the condition of a dying person after a vicious life . 43. First , He that considers the srailty of humane bodies , their incidences and aptness to sickness , casualties , death sudden or expected , the condition of several diseases , that some are of too quick a sense and are intolerable , some are dull , stupid and Lethargical ; then adds the prodigious Judgments which fall upon many sinners in the act of sin , and are marks of our dangers and God's essential justice and severity ; and that security which possesses such persons whose lives are vicious , and that habitual carelesness , and groundless confidence , or an absolute inconsideration , which is generally the condition and constitution of such minds , every one whereof is likely enough to confound a persevering sinner in miseries eternal ; will soon apprehend the danger of a delayed Repentance to be infinite and unmeasurable . 44. Secondly , But suppose such a person , having escaped the antecedent circumstances of the danger , is set fairly upon his Death-bed with the just apprehension of his sins about him and his addresses to Repentance ; consider then the strength of his Lusts , that the sins he is to mortifie are inveterate , habitual and confirmed , having had the growth and stability of a whole life ; that the liberty of his Will is impaired , ( the Scripture saying of such persons , whose eyes are full of lust , and that cannot cease from sin ; and that his servants they are whom they obey ; that they are slaves to sin , and so not sui juris , not at their own dispose ) that his Understanding is blinded , his Appetite is mutinous and of a long time used to rebell and prevail ; that all the inferiour Faculties are in disorder ; that he wants the helps of Grace proportionable to his necessities , ( for the longer he hath continued in sin the weaker the Grace of God is in him ; so that , in effect , at that time the more need he hath the less he shall receive , it being God's rule to give to him that hath , and from him that hath not to take even what he hath : ) then add the innumerable parts and great burthens of Repentance , that it is not a Sorrow , nor a Purpose , because both these suppose that to be undone which is the only necessary support of all our hopes in Christ when it is done ; the innumerable difficult cases of Conscience that may then occur , particularly in the point of Restitution , ( which , among many other necessary parts of Repentance , is indispensably required of all persons that are able , and in every degree in which they are able ; ) the many Temptations of the Devil , the strength of Passions , the impotency of the Flesh , the illusions of the spirits of darkness , the tremblings of the heart , the incogitancy of the mind , the implication and intanglings of ten thousand thoughts , and the impertinences of a disturbed fancy , and the great * hindrances of a sick body and a sad and weary spirit : All these represent a Death-bed to be but an ill station for a Penitent . If the person be suddenly snatched away , he is not left so much as to dispute ; if he be permitted to languish in his sickness , he is either stupid , and apprehends nothing , or else miserable , and hath reason to apprehend too much . However , all these difficulties are to be passed and overcome before the man be put into a saveable condition . From this consideration ( though perhaps it may infer more , yet ) we cannot but conclude this difficulty to be as great as the former danger , that is , vast , and ponderous , and insupportable . 45. Thirdly , Suppose the Clinick or death-bed Penitent to be as forward in these employments , and as successfull in the mastering many of the Objections , as reasonably can be thought : yet it is considerable , that there is a Repentance which is to be repented of , and that is a Repentance which is not productive of fruits of amendment of life ; that there is a period set down by God in his Judgment , and that many , who have been profane as Esau was , are reduced into the condition of Esau , and there is no place left for their Repentance , though they seek it carefully with tears ; that they who have long refused to hear God calling them to Repentance , God will refuse to hear them calling for grace and mercy ; that he will laugh at some men when their calamity comes ; that the five foolish Virgins addressed themselves at the noise of the Bridegroom 's coming , and begg'd oil , and went out to buy oil , and yet for want of some more time and an early diligence came too late , and were shut out for ever ; that it is no-where revealed that such late endeavours and imperfect practices shall be accepted ; that God hath made but one Covenant with us in Jesus Christ , which is Faith and Repentance consigned in 〈◊〉 , and the signification of them and the purpose of Christ is , that we should henceforth no more serve sin , but mortifie and kill him perpetually , and destroy his kingdom , and extinguish as much as in us lies his very title ; that we should live holily , justly , and soberly in this present world , in all holy conversation and godliness ; and that either we must be continued or reduced to this state of holy living and habitual sanctity , or we have no title to the Promises ; that every degree of recession from the state Christ first put us in is a recession from our hopes , and an insecuring our condition , and we add to our 〈◊〉 only as our Obedience is restored : All this is but a sad story to a dying person , who sold himself to work wickedness in an habitual iniquity and aversation from the conditions of the holy Covenant in which he was sanctified . 46. And certainly it is unreasonable to plant all our hopes of Heaven upon a Doctrine that is destructive of all Piety , which supposes us in such a condition that God hath been offended at us all our life long , and yet that we can never return our duties to him unless he will unravel the purposes of his Predestination , or call back time again and begin a new computation of years for us ; and if he did , it would be still as uncertain . For what hope is there to that man who hath fulfilled all iniquity , and hath not fulfilled righteousness ? Can a man live to the Devil ; and die to God ? sow to the flesh , and reap to the Spirit ? hope God will in mercy reward him who hath served his enemy ? Sure it is , the Doctrine of the avail of a death-bed Repentance cannot easily be reconciled with God's purposes and intentions to have us live a good life , for it would reconcile us to the hopes of Heaven for a few thoughts or words or single actions when our life is done ; it takes away the benefit of many Graces , and the use of more , and the necessity of all . 47. For let it be seriously weighed , To what purpose is the variety of God's Grace ? what use is there of preventing , restraining , concomitant , subsequent , and persevering Grace , unless it be in order to a religious conversation ? And by deferring Repentance to the last we despoil our Souls , and rob the Holy Ghost of the glory of many rays and holy influences with which the Church is watered and refreshed , that it may grow from grace to grace , till it be consummate in glory . It takes away the very being of Chastity and Temperance ; no such Vertues , according to this Doctrine , need to be named among Christians . For the dying person is not in capacity to exercise these ; and then either they are troublesome , without which we may do well enough , or else the condition of the unchaste and intemperate Clinick is sad and deplorable . For how can he eject those Devils of Lust and Drunkenness and Gluttony , from whom the disease hath taken all powers of election and variety of choice , unless it be possible to root out long-contracted habits in a moment , or acquire the habits of Chastity , Sobriety and Temperance , those self-denying and laborious Graces , without doing a single act of the respective vertues in order to obtaining of habits ; unless it be so that God will infuse habits into us more immediately than he creates our reasonable Souls , in an instant , and without the cooperation of the suscipient , without the working out our Salvation with fear , and without giving all diligence , and running with patience , and resisting unto bloud , and striving to the last , and enduring unto the end in a long fight and a long race ? If God infuses such habits , why have we laws given us , and are commanded to work , and to do our duty with such a succession and lasting diligence as if the habits were to be acquired , to which indeed God promises and ministers his aids , still leaving us the persons obliged to the law and the labour , as we are capable of the reward ? I need not instance any more . But this doctrine of a death-bed Repentance is inconsistent with the duties of Mortification , with all the vindictive and punitive parts of Repentance in exteriour instances , with the precepts of waiting and watchfulness and preparation , and standing in a readiness against the coming of the Bridegroom , with the patience of well-doing , with exemplary living , with the imitation of the Life of Christ , and conformities to his Passion , with the kingdom and dominion and growth of Grace . And lastly , it goes about to defeat one of God's great purposes ; for Cod therefore concealed the time of our death , that we might always stand upon our guard ; the Holy Jesus told us so , Watch , for ye know not what hour the Lord will come : but this makes men seem more crafty in their late-begun Piety , than God was provident and mysterious in concealing the time of our dissolution , 48. And now if it be demanded , How long time must our Repentance and holy living take up ? what is the last period of commencement of our Piety , after which it will be unaccepted or ineffectual ? will a month , or a year , or three years , or seven suffice ? For since every man fails of his first condition , and makes violent recessions from the state of his Redemption and his Baptismal grace , how long may he lie in that state of recession with hopes of Salvation ? To this I answer , He cannot lie in sin a moment without hazarding his Eternity ; every instant is a danger , and all the parts of its duration do increase it ; and there is no answer to be given antecedently , and by way of rule , but all the hopes of our restitution depends upon the event . It is just as if we should ask , How long will it be before an Infant comes to the perfect use of Reason , or before a fool will become wise , or an ignorant person become excellently learned ? The answer to such questions must be given according to the capacity of the man , to the industry of his person , to his opportunities or hinderances , to his life and health , and to God's blessing upon him . Only this ; every day of deferring it lessens our hopes , and increases the difficulty ; and when this increasing , divisible difficulty comes to the last period of impossibility , God only knows , because he measures the thoughts of man , and comprehends his powers in a span , and himself only can tell how he will correspond in those assistences without which we can never be restored . Agree with thy adversary quickly , while thou art in the way : Quickly . And therefore the Scripture sets down no other time than to day , while it is yet called to day . But because it will every day be called to day , we must remember that our duty is such as requires a time , a duration , it is a course , a race that is set before us , a duty requiring patience , and longanimity , and perseverance , and great care and diligence , that we faint not . And supposing we could gather probably by circumstances when the last period of our hopes begins ; yet he that stands out as long as he can , gives probation that he came not in of good will or choice , that he loves not the present service , that his body is present , but his heart is estranged from the yoak of his present imployment ; and then all that he can do is odious to God , being a sacrifice without a heart , an offertory of shells and husks , while the Devil and the Man's Lusts have devoured the Kernels . 49. So that this question is not to be asked beforehand , but after a man hath done much of the work , and in some sence lived holily , then he may enquire into his condition , whether , if he persevere in that , he may hope for the mercies of Jesus . But he that enquires beforehand , as commonly he means ill , so he can be answered by none but God , because the satisfaction of such a vain question depends upon future contingencies , and accidents depending upon God's secret pleasure and predestination . He that repents but to day , repents late enough , that he put it off from yesterday . It may be that some may begin to day , and find mercy , and to another person it may be too late ; but no man is safe or wise that puts it off till to morrow . And that it may appear how necessary it is to begin early , and that the work is of difficulty and continuance , and that time still encreases the objections , it is certain that all the time that is lost must be redeemed by something in the sequel equivalent , or sit to make up the breach , and to cure the wounds long since made , and long festering ; and this must be done by doing the first works , by something that God hath declared he will accept in stead of them : the intension of the following actions and the frequent repetition must make up the defect in the extension and coexistence with a longer time . It was an act of an heroical Repentance and great detestation of the crime which Thomas Cantipratanus relates of a young Gentleman condemned to die for robberies who endeavouring to testifie his Repentance , and as far as was then permitted him to expiate the crime , begged of the Judge that tormentors might be appointed him , that he might be long a dying , and be cut in small pieces , that the severity of the execution might be proportionable to the immensity of his sorrow and greatness of the iniquity . Such great acts do facilitate our Pardon , and hasten the Restitution , and in a few days comprise the elapsed duty of many moneth 's : but to relie upon such acts is the last remedy , and like unlikely Physick to a despairing person : if it does well , it is well ; if it happen otherwise , he must thank himself , it is but what in reason he could expect . The Romans sacrificed a Dog to Mana Geneta , and prayed Ne quis domi natorum bonus fiat , that none of their Domesticks might be good ; that is , that they might not die , ( saith Plutarch ) because dead people are called good . But if they be so only when they die , they will hardly find the reward of goodness in the reckonings of Eternity , when to kill and to make good is all one , ( as Aristole observed it to be in the Spartan Covenant with the Tegeatae , and as it is in the case of Penitents never mending their lives till their lives be done ; ) that goodness is fatal , and the prologue of an eternal death . 50. I conclude this point with the words of S. Paul , God will render to every man according to his deeds : To them 〈◊〉 by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality ; [ to them ] 〈◊〉 life . But to them that are contentious , and do not obey the truth , but obey unrighteousness ; [ to them ] indignation and wrath : Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil . 51. Having now discoursed of Repentance upon distinct principles , I shall not need to consider upon those particulars which are usually reckoned parts or instances of Repentance ; such as are Contrition , Confession , and Satisfaction . Repentance is the fulfilling all righteousness , and includes in it whatsoever is matter of Christian duty and expresly commanded ; such as is Contrition or godly Sorrow , and Confession to God , both which are declared in Scripture to be in order to Pardon and purgation of our sins . A contrite and a broken heart , O God , thou wilt not despise ; and , If we consess our sins , God is just and righteous to forgive us our sins , and to cleanse us from all iniquity . To which add concerning Satisfaction , that it is a judging and punishing of our selves ; that it also is an instrument of Repentance , and a fruit of godly sorrow , and of good advantage for obtaining mercy of God. For indignation and revenge are reckoned by S. Paul effects of a godly sorrow , and the blessing which encourages its practice is instanced by the same Saint ; When we are judged , we are chastened of the Lord ; but if we would judge our selves , we should not be judged : where he expounds judged by chastened ; if we were severer to our selves , God would be gentle and 〈◊〉 . And there are only these two cautions to be annexed , and then the direction is sufficient . 1. That when promise of Pardon is annexed to any of these or another Grace , or any good action , it is not to be understood as if alone it were effectual either to the abolition or pardon of sins , but the promise is made to it as to a member of the whole body of Piety . In the coadunation and conjunction of parts the title is firm , but not at all in distinction and separation . For it is certain , if we fail in one , we are guilty of all , and therefore cannot be repaired by any one Grace , or one action , or one habit . And therefore Charity hides a multitude of sins with men and God too ; Alms deliver from death ; 〈◊〉 pierceth the clouds , and will not depart before its answer be gracious ; and Hope purifieth , and makes not ashamed ; and Patience , and Faith , and Piety to parents , and Prayer , and the eight Beatitudes , have promises of this life , and of that which is to come respectively : and yet nothing will obtain these promises but the harmony and uniting of these Graces in a holy and habitual confederation . And when we consider the Promise as singularly relating to that one Grace , it is to be understood comparatively ; that is , such persons are happy if compared with those who have contrary dispositions . For such a capacity does its portion of the work towards complete Felicity , from which the contrary quality does estrange and disintitle us . 2. The special and minute actions and instances of these three preparatives of Repentance are not under any command in the particulars , but are to be disposed of by Christian prudence in order to those ends to which they are most aptly instrumental and designed : such as are Fasting , and corporal severities in Satisfaction , or the punitive parts of Repentance ; they are either vindictive of what is past and so are proper acts or effects of Contrition and godly sorrow ; or else they relate to the present and future estate , and are intended for correction or emendation , and so are of good use as they are medicinal , and in that proportion not to be omitted . And so is Confession to a Spiritual person an excellent instrument of Discipline , a bridle of intemperate Passions , an opportunity of Restitution ; Ye which are spiritual 〈◊〉 such a person overtaken in a fault , ( saith the Apostle ; ) it is the application of a remedy , the consulting with a guide , and the best security to a weak or lapsed or an ignorant person , in all which cases he is 〈◊〉 to judge his own questions , and in these he is also committed to the care and conduct of another . But these special instances of Repentance are capable of suppletories , and are like the corporal works of Mercy , necessary only in time and place , and in accidental obligations . He that relieves the poor , or visits the sick , chusing it for the instance of his Charity , though he do not redeem captives , is charitable , and hath done his Alms. And he that cures his sin by any instruments , by external , or interiour and spiritual remedies , is penitent , though his diet be not 〈◊〉 and afflictive , or his lodging hard , or his sorrow bursting out into tears , or his expressions passionate and dolorous . I only add this , that acts of publick Repentance must be by using the instruments of the Church , such as she hath appointed ; of private , such as by experience , or by reason , or by the counsel we can get , we shall learn to be most effective of our penitential purposes . And yet it is a great argument that the exteriour expressions of corporal severities are of good benefit , because in all Ages wise men and severe Penitents have chosen them for their instruments . The PRAYER . O Eternal God , who wert pleased in mercy to look upon us when we were in our 〈◊〉 , to reconcile us when we were enemies , to forgive us in the midst of our provocations of thy infinite and eternal Majesty , finding out a remedy for us which man-kind could never ask , even making an atonement for us by the death of thy Son , sanctifying us by the bloud of the everlasting Covenant and thy all-hallowing and Divinest Spirit ; let thy 〈◊〉 so perpetually assist and encourage my endeavours , conduct my will , and fortifie my intentions , that 〈◊〉 may persevere in that holy condition which thou hast put me in by the grace of the Covenant , and the mercies of the Holy Jesus . O let me never fall into those sins , and retire to that vain conversation , from which the eternal and merciful Saviour of the World hath redeemed me ; but let me grow in Grace , adding Vertue to vertue , reducing my purposes to act , and increasing my acts till they grow into habits , and my habits till they be confirmed , and still confirming them till they be consummate in a blessed and holy perseverance . Let thy Preventing grace dash all Temptations in their approach ; let thy Concomitant grace enable me to resist them in the assault , and overcome them in the fight : that my hopes be never discomposed , nor my Faith weakned , nor my confidence made remiss , or my title and portion in the Covenant be lessened . Or if thou permittest me at any time to 〈◊〉 , ( which , Holy Jesu , avert for thy mercy and compession sake ) yet let me not sleep in sin , but recall me instantly by the clamours of a nice and tender Conscience , and the quickning Sermons of the Spirit , that I may never pass from sin to sin , from one degree to another ; lest sin should get the dominion over me , lest thou be angry with me , and reject me from the Covenant , and I perish . Purifie me from all 〈◊〉 , sanctifie my spirit , that I may be holy as thou art , and let me never provoke thy jealousie , nor presume upon thy goodness , nor distrust thy mercies , nor 〈◊〉 my Repentance , nor rely upon vain confidences ; but that I may by a constant , sedulous and timely endeavour make my calling and election sure , living to thee and dying to thee , that having sowed to the Spirit , I may from thy mercies reap in the Spirit bliss , and eternal sanctity , and everlasting life , through Jesus Christ our Saviour , our hope , and our mighty and ever-glorious Redeemer . Amen . Vpon Christ ' s Sermon on the Mount , and of the Eight Beatitudes . Moses delivers the Law. Joh. 1. 17. The Law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Iesus Christ. These words the Lord spake unto all the Assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire with a great voice , & he wrote them in two Tables of stone , delivered them unto me . Deut. 5. 22. Christ preaches in the Mount. He went up into a mountain , & opened his mouth & taught them saying Blessed are the poor in spirit , &c. Blessed are they that mourn , &c. Blessed are the meek , &c. Blessed are they which hunger and thirst , &c. Blessed are the merciful , &c. Math. 5. 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , & 1. THe Holy Jesus , being entred upon his Prophetical Office , in the first solemn Sermon gave testimony that he was not only an Interpreter of Laws then in being , but also a Law-giver , and an Angel of the new and everlasting Covenant ; which because God meant to establish with mankind by the mediation of his Son , by his Son also he now began to publish the conditions of it : and that the publication of the Christian Law might retain some proportion at least and analogy of circumstance with the promulgation of the Law of Moses , Christ went up into a Mountain , and from thence gave the Oracle . And here he taught all the Disciples ; for what he was now to speak was to become a Law , a part of the condition on which he established the Covenant , and founded our hopes of Heaven . Our excellent and gracious Law-giver , knowing that the great argument in all practical disciplines is the proposal of the end , which is their crown and their reward , begins his Sermon , as David began his most divine collection of Hymns , with Blessedness . And having enumerated Eight Duties , which are the rule of the spirits of Christians , he begins every Duty with a Beatitude , and concludes it with a Reward ; to manifest the reasonableness , and to invite and determine our choice to such Graces which are circumscribed with Felicities , which have blessedness in present possession and glory in the consequence , which in the midst of the most passive and afflictive of them tells us that we are blessed , which is indeed a felicity , as a hope is good , or as a rich heir is rich , who in the midst of his Discipline and the severity of Tutors and Governours knows he is designed to and certain of a great inheritance . 2. The Eight Beatitudes , which are the duty of a Christian , and the rule of our spirit , and the special discipline of Christ , seem like so many paradoxes and impossibilities reduced to Reason ; and are indeed Vertues made excellent by rewards , by the sublimity of Grace , and the mercies of God , hallowing and crowning those habits which are despised by the world , and are esteemed the conditions of lower and less considerable people . But God sees not as man sees , and his rules of estimate and judgment are not borrowed from the exteriour splendour , which is apt to seduce children , and cousen fools , and please the appetites of sense and abused fancy ; but they are such as he makes himself , excellencies which by abstractions and separations from things below land us upon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And they are states of suffering rather than states of life : for the great imployment of a Christian being to bear the Cross , Christ laid the Pedestal so low , that the rewards were like rich mines interred in the deeps and inaccessible retirements , and did chuse to build our 〈◊〉 upon the torrents and violences of affliction and sorrow . Without these Graces we 〈◊〉 get Heaven ; and without sorrow and sad accidents we cannot exercise these Graces . Such are , 3. First , Blessed are the Poor in spirit ; for theirs is the Kingdome of Heaven . Poverty of spirit is in respect of secular affluence and abundance , or in respect of great opinion and high thoughts ; either of which have divers acts and offices . That the first is one of the meanings of this Text is certain , because S. Luke , repeating this Beatitude , delivers it plainly , Blessed are the poor ; and to it he opposes riches . And our Blessed Saviour speaks so suspiciously of riches and rich men , that he represents the condition to be full of danger and temptation : and S. James calls it full of sin , describing rich men to be oppressors , litigious , proud , spightful , and contentious ; which sayings , like all others of that nature , are to be understood in common and most frequent accidents , not regularly , but very improbable to be otherwise . For if we consider our Vocation , S. Paul informs us , That not many mighty , not many noble are called ; but God hath chosen the poor of this world rich in faith : And how hard it is for a rich man to enter into Heaven , our great Master hath taught us , by saying , it is more easie for a Camel to pass through a needle's eye . And the reason is , because of the infinite temptation which Riches minister to our spirits , it being such an opportunity of vices , that nothing remains to countermand the act but a strong , resolute , unaltered and habitual purpose , and pure love of 〈◊〉 ; Riches in the mean time offering to us occasions of Lust , fuel for Revenge , instruments of Pride , entertainment of our desires , engaging them in low , worldly and sottish appetites , inviting us to shew our power in oppression , our greatness in vanities , our wealth in prodigal expences , and to answer the importunity of our Lusts , not by a denial , but by a correspondence and satisfaction , till they become our mistresses , imperious , arrogant , tyrannical and vain . But Poverty is the sister of a good mind , it ministers aid to wisdome , industry to our spirit , severity to our thoughts , soberness to counsels , modesty to our desires ; it restrains extravagancy and dissolution of appetites ; the next thing above our present condition , which is commonly the object of our wishes , being temperate and little , proportionable enough to nature , not wandring beyond the limits of necessity or a moderate conveniency , or at 〈◊〉 but to a free 〈◊〉 and recreation . And the 〈◊〉 of Poverty are single and mean , rather a sit imploiment to correct our levities , than a business to impede our better thoughts ; since a little thing supplies the needs of nature , and * the earth and the fountain with little trouble minister food to us , and God's common providence and daily dispensation cases the cares , and makes them portable . But the cares and businesses of rich men are violences to our whole man , they are loads of memory , business for the understanding , work for two or three arts and sciences , imployment for many servants to assist in , increase the appetite and heighten the thirst ; and by making their dropsie bigger , and their capacities large , they destroy all those opportunities and possibilities of Charity in which only Riches can be useful . 4. But it is not a 〈◊〉 poverty of possession which intitles us to the blessing , but a poverty of spirit ; that is , a contentedness in every state , an aptness to renounce all when we are obliged in duty , a refusing to continue a possession when we for it must quit a vertue or a noble action , a divorce of our affections from those gilded vanities , a generous contempt of the world ; and at no hand heaping riches , either with injustice or with avarice , either with wrong or impotency , of action or affection . Not like Laberius described by the Poet , who thought nothing so criminal as Poverty , and every spending of a sesterce was the loss of a moral 〈◊〉 , and every gaining of a talent was an action glorious and heroical . But Poverty of spirit accounts Riches to be the servants of God first , and then of our selves , being sent by God , and to return when he pleases , and all the while they are with us to do his business . It is a looking upon riches and things of the earth , as they do who look upon it from Heaven , to whom it appears little and unprofitable . And because the residence of this blessed Poverty is in the mind , it follows that it be here understood , that all that exinanition and renunciation , abjection and humility of mind , which depauperates the spirit , making it less worldly and more spiritual , is the duty here enjoyned . For if a man throws away his gold , as did Crates the Theban , or the proud Philosopher Diogenes , and yet leaves a spirit high , aiery , phantastical and vain , pleasing himself , and with complacency reflecting upon his own act , his Poverty is but a circumstance of Pride , and the opportunity of an imaginary and a secular greatness . Ananias and Sapphira renounced the world by selling their possessions ; but because they were not poor in spirit , but still retained the affections to the world , therefore they kept back part of the price , and lost their hopes . The Church of Laodicea was possessed with a spirit of Pride , and flattered themselves in imaginary riches ; they were not poor in spirit , but they were poor in possession and condition . These wanted Humility , the other wanted a generous contempt of worldly things ; and both were destitute of this Grace . 5. The acts of this Grace are ; 1. To cast off all inordinate affection to * Riches . 2. In heart and spirit , that is , preparation of mind , to quit the possession of all Riches , and actually so to do when God requires it , that is , when the retaining Riches loses a Vertue . 3. To be well pleased with the whole oeconomy of God , his providence and dispensation of all things , being contented in all estates . 4. To imploy that wealth God hath given us in actions of Justice and Religion . 5. To be thankful to God in all temporal losses . 6. Not to distrust God , or to be solicitous and fearful of want in the future . 7. To put off the spirit of vanity , pride and phantastick complacency in our selves , thinking lowly or meanly of whatsoever we are or do . 8. To prefer others before our selves , doing honour and prelation to them , and either contentedly receiving affronts done to us , or modestly undervaluing our selves . 9. Not to praise our selves , but when God's glory and the edification of our neighbour is concerned in it , nor willingly to hear others praise us . 10. To despoil our selves of all interiour propriety , denying our own will in all instances of subordination to our Superiours , and our own judgment in matters of difficulty and question , permitting our selves and our affairs to the advice of wiser men , and the decision of those who are trusted with the cure of our Souls . 11. Emptying our selves of our selves , and throwing our selves wholly upon God , relying upon his Providence , trusting his Promises , craving his Grace , and depending upon his strength for all our actions , and deliverances , and duties . 6. The reward promised is the Kingdome of Heaven . Fear not little Flock , it is your Father's pleasure to give you a Kingdom . To be little in our own eyes is to be great in God's ; the Poverty of the spirit shall be rewarded with the Riches of the Kingdoms , of both Kingdoms : that of Heaven is expressed . Poverty is the high-way of Eternity . But therefore the Kingdom of Grace is taken in the way , the way to our Countrey ; and it being the forerunner of glory , and nothing else but an antedated Eternity , is part of the reward as well as of our duty . And therefore whatsoever is signified by Kingdome in the appropriate Evangelical sense , is there intended as a recompence . For the Kingdom of the Gospel is a congregation and society of Christ's poor , of his little ones : they are the Communion of Saints , and their present entertainment is knowledge of the truth , remission of sins , the gift of the Holy Ghost , and what else in Scripture is signified to be a part or grace or condition of the Kingdom . For to the poor the Gospel is preached : that is , to the poor the Kingdome is promised and ministred . 7. Secondly , Blessed are they that Mourn ; for they shall be comforted . This duty of Christian mourning is commanded not for it self , but in order to many good ends . It is in order to Patience : Tribulation worketh Patience ; and therefore we glory in them , ( saith S. Paul ; ) and S. James , * My brethren , count it all joy when ye enter into divers temptations , Knowing that the trial of your faith ( viz. by afflictions ) worketh Patience . 2. It is in order to Repentance : (a) Godly sorrow worketh Repentance . By consequence it is in order to Pardon ; for a contrite heart God will not reject . And after all this it leads to Joy. And therefore S. * James preached a Homily of Sorrow ; Be afflicted , and mourn , and weep , that is , in penitential mourning ; for he adds , Humble your selves in the sight of the Lord , and he shall lift you up . The acts of this duty are ; 1. To bewail our own sins . 2. To lament our infirmities , as they are principles of sin , and recessions from our first state . 3. To weep for our own evils and sad accidents , as they are issues of the Divine anger . 4. To be sad for the miseries and calamities of the Church , or of any member of it , and indeed to weep with every one that weeps ; that is , not to rejoyce in his evil , but to be compassionate , and pitiful , and apt to bear another's burthen . 5. To avoid all loose and immoderate laughter , all dissolution of spirit and manners , uncomely jestings , free revellings , carnivals and balls , which are the perdition of precious hours , ( allowed us for Repentance and possibilities of Heaven ) which are the instruments of infinite vanity , idle talking , impertinency and lust , and very much below the severity and retiredness of a Christian spirit . Of this Christ became to us the great example ; for S. Basil reports a tradition of him , that he never laughed , but wept often . And if we mourn with him , we also shall rejoyce in the joys of eternity . 8. Thirdly , Blessed are the Meek ; for they shall possess the earth : That is , the gentle and softer spirits , persons not turbulent or unquiet , not clamorous or impatient , not over-bold or impudent , not querulous or discontented , not brawlers or contentious , not nice or curious , but men who submit to God , and know no choice of fortune or imployment or success but what God chuses for them , having peace at home , because nothing from without does discompose their spirit . In summe , Meekness is an indifferency to any exteriour accident , a being reconciled to all conditions and instances of Providence , a reducing our selves to such an evenness and interiour satisfaction , that there is the same conformity of spirit and fortune by complying with my fortune , as if my fortune did comply with my spirit . And therefore in the order of Beatitudes , Meekness is set between Mourning and Desire , that it might balance and attemper those actions by indifferency which by reason of their abode are apt to the transportation of passion . The reward expressed is a possission of the earth , that is , a possession of all which is excellent here below , to consign him to a future glory , as Canaan was a type of Heaven . For Meekness is the best cement and combining of friendships , it is a great endearment of us to our company . It is an (a) ornament to have a meek and quiet spirit , a (b) prevention of quarrels , and pacifier of wrath ; it purchaseth peace , and is it self a quietness of spirit : it is the greatest affront to all injuries in the world ; for it returns them upon the injurious , and makes them useless , ineffective , and innocent : and is an antidote against all the evil consequents of anger and adversity , and tramples upon the usurping passions of the irascible faculty . 9. But the greatest part of this Paisage and Landtschap is Sky : and as a man in all countreys can see more of Heaven than of the earth he dwells on ; so also he may in this Promise . For although the Christian hears the promise of the inheritance of the Earth , yet he must place his eye and fix his heart upon Heaven , which by looking downward also upon this Promise , as in a vessel of limpid water , he may see by reflexion , without looking upwards by a direct intuition . It is Heaven that is designed by this Promise as well as by any of the rest ; though this Grace takes in also the refreshments of the earth by equivalence and a suppletory 〈◊〉 . But here we have no abiding city , and therefore no inheritance ; this is not our Countrey , and therefore here cannot be our portion : unless we chuse , as did the Prodigal , to go into a strange Countrey , and spend our portion with riotous and beastly living , and forfeit our Father's blessing . The Devil carrying our Blessed Saviour to a high mountain shewed him all the Kingdoms of the world ; but , besides that they were offered upon ill conditions , they were not eligible by him upon any . And neither are they to be chosen by us for our inheritance and portion Evangelical : for the Gospel is founded upon better promises , and therefore the hopes of a Christian ought not to determine upon any thing less than Heaven . Indeed our Blessed Saviour chose to describe this Beatitude in the words of the Psalmist , so inviting his Disciples to an excellent precept by the insinuation of those Scriptures which themselves admitted . But as the earth which was promised to the meek man in David's Psalm was no other earth but the terra 〈◊〉 , the Land of Canaan ; if we shall remember that this Land of promise was but a transition and an allegory to a greater and more noble , that it was but a type of Heaven , we shall not see cause to wonder why the Holy Jesus intending Heaven for the reward of this Grace also , together with the rest , did call it the inheritance of the earth . For now is revealed to us a new heaven and a new earth , an habitation made without hands , 〈◊〉 in the heavens . And he understands nothing of the excellency of Christian Religion whose affections dwell below , and are satisfied with a portion of dirt and corruption . If we be risen with Christ , let us seek those things that are above , where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. But if a Christian desires to take possession of this earth in his way as his inheritance or portion , he hath reason to fear it will be his All. We have but one inheritance , one countrey , and here we are strangers and Pilgrims . Abraham told Dives that he had enjoyed his good things here ; he had the inheritance of the earth , in the crass material sense ; and therefore he had no other portion but what the Devils have . And when we remember that Persecution is the lot of the Church , and that Poverty is her portion , and her quantum is but food and raiment at the best , and that Patience is her support , and Hope her refreshment , and Self-denial her security , and Meekness is all her possession and title to a subsistence ; it will appear certain , that as Christ's Kingdom was not of this world , so neither shall his Saints have their portion in that which is not his Kingdom . They are miserable if they do not reign with him , and he never reigned here ; but if we suffer with him , we shall also reign with him hereafter . True it is , Christ promised to him that should lose any interest for his sake the restitution of a hundred fold in this world . But as the sense of that cannot be literal , for he cannot receive a hundred Mothers or a hundred Wives ; so whatsoever that be , it is to be enjoyed with persecution . And then such a portion of the Earth as Christ hath expressed in figure , and shall by way of recompence restore us , and such a recompence as we can enjoy with Persecution , and such an enjoyment as is consistent with our having lost all our temporals , and such an acquist and purchace of it as is not destructive of the grace of Meekness ; all that we may enter into our accounts as part of our lot , and the emanation from the holy Promise . But in the foot of this account we shall not find any great affluence of temporal accruements . However it be although , when a meek man hath earthly possessions , by this Grace he is taught how to use them and how to part with them ; yet if he hath them not , by the vertue here commanded , he is not suffered to use any thing violent towards the acquiring them , not so much as a violent passion or a stormy imagination ; for then he loses his Meekness , and what ever he gets can be none of the reward of this Grace . He that sights for temporals ( unless by some other appendent duty he be obliged ) loses his title by striving incompetently for the reward , he cuts off that hand by which alone he can receive it . For unless he be indeed meek , he hath no right to what he calls the inheritance of the earth ; and he that is not content to want the inheritance of the earth when God requires him , is not meek . So that if this Beatitude be understood in a temporal sense , it is an offer of a reward upon a condition we shall be without it , and be content too : For , in every sense of the word , Meekness implies a just satisfaction of the spirit , and acquiescence in every estate or contingency whatsoever , though we have no possessions but of a good Conscience , no bread but that of carefulness , no support but from the Holy Spirit , and a providence ministring to our natural necessities by an extemporary provision . And certain it is , the meekest of Christ's servants , the Apostles and the Primitive Christians , had no other verification of this Promise but this , that rejoycing in tribulation , and knowing how to want as well as how to abound , through many tribulations they entered into the Kingdom of Heaven : For that is the Countrey in which they are co-heirs with Jesus . But if we will certainly understand what this reward is , we may best know it by understanding the duty ; and this we may best learn from him that gave it in commandment . Learn of me , for I am meek , ( said the Holy Jesus : ) and to him was promised that the uttermost ends of the earth should be his inheritance ; and yet he died first , and went to Heaven before it was verified to him in any sense , but only of content , and desire , and joy in suffering , and in all variety of accident . And thus also if we be meek , we may receive the inheritance of the Earth . 10. The acts of this Grace are , 1. To submit to all the instances of Divine Providence , not repining at any accident which God hath chosen for us , and given us as part of our lot , or a punishment of our deserving , or an instrument of vertue ; not envying the gifts , graces , or prosperities of our neighbours . 2. To pursue the interest and imployment of our calling in which we are placed , not despising the meanness of any work , though never so disproportionable to our abilities . 3. To correct all malice , wrath , evil-speaking , and inordinations of anger , whether in respect of the object or the degree . 4. At no hand to entertain any thoughts of revenge or retaliation of evil . 5. To be affable and courteous in our deportment towards all persons of our society and entercourse . 6. Not to censure or reproach the weakness of our neighbour , but support his burthen , cover and cure his infirmities . 7. To excuse what may be excused , lessening severity , and being gentle in reprehension . 8. To be patient in afflictions , and thankful under the Cross. 9. To endure reproof with shame at our selves for deserving it , and thankfulness to the charitable Physician that offers the remedy . 10. To be modest and fairly-mannered toward our Superiours , obeying , reverencing , speaking honourably of and doing honour to aged persons , and all whom God hath set over us , according to their several capacities . 11. To be ashamed and very apprehensive of the unworthiness of a crime ; at no hand losing our fear of the invisible God , and our reverence to visible societies , or single persons . 12. To be humble in our exteriour addresses and behaviour in Churches and all Holy places . 13. To be temperate in government , not imperious , unreasonable , insolent or oppressive ; lest we provoke to wrath those whose interest of person & of Religion we are to defend or promote . 14. To do our endeavour to expiate any injury we did , by confessing the fact , & offering satisfaction , & asking forgiveness . 11. Fourthly , Blessed are they that Hunger and thirst after Righteousness ; for they shall be filled . This Grace is the greatest indication of spiritual health , when our appetite is right , strong , and regular ; when we are desirous of spiritual nourishment , when we long for Manna , and follow Christ for loaves , not of a low and terrestrial gust , but of that bread which came down from heaven . Now there are two sorts of holy repast which are the proper objects of our desires . The bread of Heaven , which is proportioned to our hunger ; that is , all those immediate emanations from Christ's pardon of our sins , and redemption from our former conversation , holy Laws and Commandments . To this Food there is also a spiritual Beverage to quench our thirst : and this is the effects of the Holy Spirit , who first moved upon the waters of Baptism , and afterwards became to us the breath of life , giving us holy inspirations and assistences , refreshing our wearinesses , cooling our fevers , and allaying all our intemperate passions , making us holy , humble , resigned and pure , according to the pattern in the mount , even as our Father is pure . So that the first Redemption and Pardon of us by Christ's Merits is the Bread of Life , for which we must hunger ; and the refreshments and daily emanations of the Spirit , who is the spring of comforts and purity , is that drink which we must thirst after : A being first reconciled to God by Jesus , and a being sanctisied and preserved in purity by the Holy Spirit , is the adequate object of our desires . Some to hunger and thirst best fancy the analogy and proportion of the two Sacraments , the Waters of Baptism , and the Food of the Eucharist ; some , the Bread of the Patin , and the Wine of the Chalice . But it is certain they signifie one desire expressed by the most impatient and necessary of our appetites , hungring and thirsting . And the object is whatsoever is the principle or the effect , the beginning , or the way , or the end of righteousness ; that is , the Mercies of God , the Pardon of Jesus , the Graces of the Spirit , a holy life , and a holy death , and a blessed Eternity . 12. The blessing and reward of this Grace is fulness or satisfaction ; which relates immediately to Heaven , because nothing here below can satisfie us . The Grace of God is our Viaticum , and entertains us by the way ; its nature is to increase , not to satisfie the appetites : not because the Grace is empty and unprofitable , as are the things of the world ; but because it is excellent , but yet in order to a greater perfection ; it invites the appetite by its present goodness , but it leaves it unsatisfied , because it is not yet arrived at glory : and yet the present imperfection , in respect of all the good of this World's possession , is rest and satisfaction , and is imperfect only in respect of its own future complement and perfection , and our hunger continues , and our needs return , because all we have is but an antepast . But the glories of Eternity are also the proper object of our desires ; that 's the reward of God's Grace , this is the crown of righteousness . As for me , I will behold thy face in righteousness ; and when I awake up after thy likeness , I shall be satisfied with it . The acts of this Vertue are multiplied according to its object ; for they are only , 1. to desire , and 2. pray for , and 3. labour for all that which is Righteousness in any sense : 1. For the Pardon of our sins ; 2. for the Graces and Sanctification of the Spirit ; 3. for the advancement of Christ's Kingdome ; 4. for the reception of the holy Sacrament , and all the instruments , ordinances and ministeries of Grace ; 5. for the grace of Perseverance ; 6. and finally for the crown of Righteousness . 13. Fisthly , Blessed are the Merciful ; for they shall obtain mercy . Mercy is the greatest mark and token of the 〈◊〉 , elect and predestinate persons in the world . Put ye on ( my beloved ) as the elect of God the bowels of mercy , holy and precious . For Mercy is an attribute , in the manifestation of which as all our happiness consists , so God takes greatest complacency , and delights in it above all his other Works . He punishes to the third and fourth Generation , but shews mercy unto thousands . Therefore the Jews say , that Michael 〈◊〉 with one wing , and Gabriel with two ; meaning , that the pacifying Angel , the Minister of mercy , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but the exterminating Angel , the Messenger of wrath , is slow . And we are called to our approximation to God by the practice of this Grace : we are made partakers of the Divine nature by being merciful as our heavenly Father is merciful . This mercy consists in the affections , and in the effects and actions . In both which the excellency of this Christian Precept is eminent above the goodness of the moral precept of the old Philosophers , and the piety and charity of the Jews by virtue of the Mosaic Law. The Stoick Philosophers affirm it to be the duty of a wise man to succour and help the necessities of indigent and miserable persons ; but at no hand to pity them , or suffer any trouble or compassion in our affections : for they intended that a wise person should be dispassionate , unmoved , and without disturbance in every accident and object and concernment . But the Blessed Jesus , who came to reconcile us to his Father , and purchase us an intire possession , did intend to redeem us from sin , and make our passions obedient and apt to be commanded , even and moderate in temporal affairs , but high and active in some instances of spiritual concernment ; and in all instances , that the affection go along with the Grace ; that we must be as merciful in our compassion , as compassionate in our exteriour expressions and actions . The Jews by the prescript of their Law were to be merciful to all their Nation and confederates in Religion ; and this their Mercy was called Justice : He hath dispersed abroad and given to the poor , his righteousness [ or Justice ] 〈◊〉 for ever . But the mercies of a Christian are to extend to all : Do good to all men , especially to the houshold of Faith. And this diffusion of a Mercy , not only to Brethren , but to Aliens and Enemies , is that which S. Paul calls goodness , still retaining the old appellative for Judaical mercy , [ 〈◊〉 : ] For scarcely for a 〈◊〉 man will one die , yet peradventure for a good man some will even dare to die . So that the Christian Mercy must be a mercy of the whole man , the heart must be merciful , and the hand operating in the labour of love ; and it must be extended to all persons of all capacities , according as their necessity requires , and our ability permits , and our endearments and other obligations dispose of and determine the order . 14. The acts of this Grace are , 1. To pity the miseries of all persons , and all calamities spiritual or temporal , having a fellow-feeling in their afflictions . 2. To be afflicted and sad in the publick Judgments imminent or incumbent upon a Church , or State , or Family . 3. To pray to God for remedy for all afflicted persons . 4. To do all acts of bodily assistence to all miserable and distressed people , to relieve the Poor , to redeem Captives , to forgive Debts to disabled persons , to pay Debts for them , to lend them mony , to feed the hungry and clothe the naked , to rescue persons from dangers , to defend and relieve the oppressed , to comfort widows and fatherless children , to help them to right that suffer wrong ; and , in brief , to do any thing of relief , support , succour , and comfort . 5. To do all acts of spiritual 〈◊〉 , to counsel the doubtful , to admonish the erring , to strengthen the weak , to resolve the scrupulous , to teach the ignorant , and any thing else which may be instrumental to his Conversion , Perseverance , Restitution and Salvation , or may rescue him from spiritual dangers , or supply him in any ghostly necessity . The reward of this Vertue is symbolical to the Vertue it self , the grace and glory differing in nothing but degrees , and every vertue being a reward to it self . The merciful shall receive mercy ; mercy to help them in time of need ; mercy from God. who will not only give them the great mercies of Pardon and Eternity , but also dispose the hearts of others to pity and supply their needs as they have done to others . For the present , there is nothing more noble than to be beneficial to others , and to lift up the poor 〈◊〉 of the mire , and rescue them from misery ; it is to do the work of God : and for the future , nothing is a greater title to a mercy at the Day of Judgment than to have shewed mercy to our necessitous Brother ; it being expressed to be the only rule and instance in which Christ means to judge the world , in their Mercy and Charity , or their Unmercifulness respectively ; I was hungry , and ye fed me , or ye fed me not : and so we stand or fall in the great and eternal scrutiny . And it was the prayer of Saint Paul , ( Onesiphorus shewed kindness to the great Apostle ) The Lord shew him a mercy in that day . For a cup of charity , though but full of cold water , shall not lose its reward . 15. Sixthly , Blessed are the Pure 〈◊〉 heart ; for they shall see God. This purity of heart includes purity of hands . Lord , who shall dwell in thy Tabernacle ? even he that is of clean hands and a pure heart ; that is , he that hath not given his mind unto vanity , nor sworn to deceive his Neighbour . It signifies justice of action and candour of spirit , innocence of manners and sincerity of purpose ; it is one of those great circumstances that consummates Charity : For the end of the Commandment is Charity out of a pure heart , and of a good Conscience , and Faith unfeigned ; that is , a heart free from all carnal affections , not only in the matter of natural impurity , but also spiritual and immaterial , such as are Heresies , ( which are theresore impurities , because they mingle secular interest or prejudice with perswasions in Religion ) Seditions , hurtful and impious Stratagems , and all those which S. Paul enumerates to be works or fruits of the flesh . A good Conscience ; that 's a Conscience either innocent or penitent , a state of Grace , 〈◊〉 a not having prevaricated , or a being restored to our Baptismal purity . Faith unfeigned ; that also is the purity of Sincerity , and excludes Hypocrisie , timorous and half perswasions , neutrality and indifferency in matters of Salvation . And all these do integrate the whole duty of Charity . But Purity , as it is a special Grace , signifies only honesty and uprightness of Soul , without hypocrisie to God and dissimulation towards men ; and then a freedom from all carnal desires , so as not to be governed or led by them . Chastity is the purity of the body , Simplicity is the purity of the spirit ; both are the Sanctification of the whole Man , for the entertainment of the Spirit of Purity and the Spirit of Truth . 16. The acts of this Vertue are , 1. To quit all Lustful thoughts , not to take delight in them , not to retain them or invite them , but as objects of displeasure to avert them from us . 2. To resist all lustful desires , and extinguish them by their proper correctories and remedies . 3. To resuse all occasions , opportunities and temptations to Impurity ; denying to please a wanton 〈◊〉 , or to use a 〈◊〉 gesture , or to go into a danger , or to converse with an improper , unsafe object ; hating the garment spotted with the flesh , so S. Jude calls it ; and not to look upon a maid , so Job ; not to sit with a woman that is a singer , so the son of Sirach . 4. To be of a liberal soul , not mingling with affections of mony and inclinations of covetousness , not doing any act of violence , rapine or injustice . 5. To be ingenuous in our thoughts , purposes and professions , speaking nothing contrary to our intentions , but being really what we 〈◊〉 . 6. To give all our faculties and affections to God , without dividing interests between God and his enemies , without entertaining of any one crime in society with our pretences for God. 7. Not to lie in sin , but instantly to repent of it and return , purifying our Conscience from dead works , 8. Not to dissemble our faith or belief when we are required to its confession , pretending a perswasion complying with those from whom 〈◊〉 we differ . Lust , Covetousness and Hypocrisie are the three great enemies of this Grace , they are the motes of our eyes , and the spots of our Souls . The reward of Purity is the vision beatifical . If we are pure as God is pure , we shall also see him as he is : When we awake up after his likeness , we shall 〈◊〉 hold his presence . To which in this world we are consigned by freedom from the cares of Covetousness , the shame of Lust , the fear of discovery , and the stings of an evil Conscience , which are the portion of the several Impurities here forbidden . 17. Seventhly , Blessed are the Peace-makers ; for they shall be called the children of God. The wisdome of God is first pure , and then peaceable ; that 's the order of the Beatitudes . As soon as Jesus was born , the Angels sang a Hymn , Glory be to God on high , and on earth peace , good will towards men ; signifying the two great 〈◊〉 upon which Christ was dispatched in his Legation from Heaven to earth . He is the Prince of Peace . Follow peace with all men , and holiness , without which no man ever shall see God. The acts of this Grace are , 1. To mortisie our Anger , 〈◊〉 , and fiery dispositions , apt to enkindle upon every slight accident , inadvertency , or misfortune of a friend or servant . 2. Not to be hasty , rash , provocative , or upbraiding in our language . 3. To live quietly and serenely in our families and neighbourhoods . 4. Not to backbite , slander , misreport or undervalue any man , carrying tales , or sowing dissention between brethren . 5. Not to interest our selves in the quarrels of others by abetting either part , except where Charity calls us to rescue the oppressed ; and then also to do a work of charity without mixtures of uncharitableness . 6. To avoid all suits of Law as much as is possible , without intrenching upon any other collateral obligation towards a third interest , or a necessary support for our selves , or great conveniency for our families ; or , if we be engaged in Law , to pursue our just interests with just means and charitable maintenance . 7. To endeavour by all means to reconcile disagreeing persons . 8. To endeavour by affability and fair deportment to win the love of our neighbours . 9. To offer satisfaction to all whom we have wronged or slandered , and to remit the offences of others , and in trials of right to find out the most charitable expedient to determine it , as by indifferent arbitration , or something like it . 10. To be open , free and ingenuous in reprehensions and fair expostulations with persons whom we conceive to have wronged us , that no seed of malice or rancor may be latent in us , and upon the breath of a new displeasure break out into a flame . 11. To be modest in our arguings , disputings , and demands , not laying great interest upon trifles . 12. To moderate , balance and temper our zeal by the rules of Prudence and the allay of Charity , that we quarrel not for opinions , nor intitle God in our impotent and mistaken fancies , nor lose Charity for a pretence of an article of Faith. 13. To pray heartily for our enemies , real or imaginary , always loving and being apt to benefit their persons , and to cure their faults by charitable remedies . 14. To abstain from doing all affronts , disgraces , slightings and 〈◊〉 jearings and mockings of our neighbour , not giving him appellatives of scorn or irrision . 15. To submit to all our Superiours in all things , either doing what they command , or suffering what they impose ; at no hand lifting our 〈◊〉 against those upon whom the characters of God and the marks of Jesus are imprinted in signal and eminent authority ; such as are principally the King , and then the Bishops , whom God hath set to watch over our Souls . 16. Not to invade the possessions of our Neighbours , or commence War , but when we are bound by justice and legal trust to defend the rights of others , or our own in order to our duty . 17. Not to speak evil of dignities , or undervalue their persons , or publish their faults , or upbraid the levities of our Governours ; knowing that they also are designed by God , to be converted to us for castigation and amendment of us . 18. Not to be busie in other mens affairs . And then the peace of God will rest upon us . The reward is no less than the adoption and inheritance of sons ; for he hath given unto us power to be called the sons of God ; for he is the Father of Peace , and the Sons of Peace are the Sons of God , and theresore have a title to the inheritance of Sons , to be heirs with God , and coheirs with Christ in the kingdom of Peace , and essential and never-failing charity . 18. Eightly , Blessed are they which are Persecuted sor righteousness sake ; for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven . This being the hardest command in the whole Discipline of Jesus is fortified with a double Blessedness ; for it follows immediately , Blessed are ye when men shall revile you , and persecute you : meaning , that all Persecution for a cause of Righteousness , though the affliction be instanced only in reproachful language , shall be a title to the Blessedness . Any suffering for any good or harmless action is a degree of Martyrdom . It being the greatest testimony in the world of the greatest love , to quit that for God which hath possessed our most natural , regular and orderly affections . It is a preferring God's cause before our own interest ; it is a loving of Vertue without secular ends ; it is the noblest , the most resigned , ingenuous , valiant act in the world , to die for 〈◊〉 , whom we never have seen ; it is the crown of Faith , the confidence of Hope , and our greatest Charity . The Primitive Churches living under Persecution commenced many pretty opinions concerning the state and special dignity of Martyrs , apportioning to them one of the three Coronets which themselves did knit , and supposed as pendants to the great Crown of righteousness . They made it suppletory of Baptism , expiatory of sin , satisfactory of publick 〈◊〉 ; they placed them in bliss immediately , declared them to need no after-Prayer , such as the Devotion of those times used to pour upon the graves of the faithful : with great prudence they did endeavour to alleviate this burthen , and sweeten the bitter chalice ; and they did it by such doctrines which did only remonstrate this great truth , That since no love was greater than to lay down our lives , nothing could be so great but God would indulge to them . And indeed whatsoever they said in this had no inconvenience , nor would it now , unless men should think mere suffering to be sufficient to excuse a wicked life , or that they be invited to dishonour an excellent patience with the mixture of an impure action . There are many who would die for Christ if they were put to it , and yet will not quit a Lust for him : those are hardly to be esteemed Christ's Martyrs : unless they be dead unto sin , their dying for an Article or a good action will not pass the great scrutiny . And it may be boldness of spirit , or sullenness , or an honourable gallantry of mind , or something that is excellent in civil and political estimate , moves the person , and endears the suffering ; but that love only which keeps the Commandments will teach us to 〈◊〉 for love , and from love to pass to blessedness through the red Sea of bloud . And indeed it is more easie to die for Chastity than to live with it : and many women have been found , who suffered death under the violence of Tyrants for defence of their holy vows and purity , who , had they long continued amongst pleasures , courtships , curiosities , and importunities of men , might perchance have yielded that to a Lover which they denied to an Executioner . S. Cyprian observes that our Blessed Lord , in admitting the innocent Babes of Bethlehem first to die for him , did to all generations of Christendom consign this Lesson , That only persons holy and innocent were fit to be Christ's Martyrs . And I remember that the Prince of the Latine Poets , over against the region and seats of Infants , places in the Shades below persons that suffered death wrongfully ; but adds , that this their death was not enough to place them in such blessed mansions , but the Judge first made inquiry into their lives , and accordingly designed their station . It is certain that such dyings or great sufferings are Heroical actions , and of power to make great compensations , and redemptions of time , and of omissions and imperfections ; but if the Man be unholy , so also are his * Sufferings : for Hereticks have died , and vicious persons have suffered in a good cause , and a dog's neck may be cut off in sacrifice , and Swine's bloud may 〈◊〉 the trench about the Altar : but God only accepts the Sacrifice which is pure and spotless , first seasoned with salt , then seasoned with fire . The true Martyr must have all the preceding Graces , and then he shall receive all the Beatitudes . 19. The acts of this Duty are , 1. Boldly to confess the Faith , nobly to exercise publick vertues , not to be ashamed of any thing that is honest , and rather to quit our goods , our liberty , our health , and life it self , than to deny what we are bound to affirm , or to omit what we are bound to do , or to pretend contrary to our present perswasion . 2. To rejoyce in Afflictions ; counting it honourable to be conformable to Christ , and to wear the cognizance of Christianity , whose certain lot it is to suffer the hostility and violence of enemies visible and invisible . 3. Not to revile our Persecutors , but to bear the Cross with evenness , tranquillity , patience and charity . 4. To offer our sufferings to the glory of God , and to joyn them with the Passions of Christ , by doing it in love to God , and obedience to his Sanctions , and testimony of some part of his Religion , and designing it as a part of duty . The reward is the Kingdom of Heaven ; which can be no other but eternal Salvation , in case the Martyrdom be consummate : and they also shall be made perfect ; so the words of the reward were read in Clement's time . If it be less , it keeps its proportion : all suffering persons are the combination of Saints , they make the Church , they are the people of the Kingdom , and heirs of the Covenant . For if they be but Confessors , and confess Christ in prison , though they never preach upon the rack or under the axe , yet Christ will confess them before his heavenly Father ; and they shall have a portion where they shall never be persecuted any more . The PRAYER . O Blessed Jesus , who art become to us the Fountain of Peace and Sanctity , of Righteousness and Charity , of Life and perpetual Benediction , imprint in our spirits these glorious characterisms of Christianity , that we by such excellent dispositions may be consigned to the infinity of Blessedness which thou camest to reveal , and minister , and exhibit to mankind . Give us great Humility of spirit ; and deny us not , when we beg Sorrow of thee , the mourning and sadness of true Penitents , that we may imitate thy excellencies , and conform to thy sufferings . Make us Meek , patient , indifferent , and resigned in all accidents , changes and issues of Divine Providence . Mortifie all inordinate Anger in us , all Wrath , Strife , Contention , Murmurings , Malice and Envy ; and interrupt , and then blot out all peevish dispositions and morosities , all disturbances and unevenness of spirit 〈◊〉 of habit , that may hinder us in our duty . Oh teach me so to hunger and thirst after the ways of Righteousness , that it may be meat and drink to me to do thy Father's will. Raise my affections to Heaven and heavenly things , fix my heart there , and prepare a treasure for me , which I may receive in the great diffusions and communications of thy glory . And in this sad interval of infirmity and temptations strengthen my hopes , and 〈◊〉 my Faith , by such emissions of light and grace from thy Spirit , that I may relish those Blessings which thou preparest for thy Saints with so great appetite , that I may despise the world and all its gilded vanities , and may desire nothing but the crown of righteousness and the paths that lead thither , 〈◊〉 graces of thy Kingdom and the glories of it ; that when I have served thee in holiness and strict obedience , I may reign with thee in the glories of Eternity : for thou , O Holy Jesus , art our hope , and our life , and glory , our 〈◊〉 great reward . Amen . II. 〈◊〉 Jesu , who art infinitely pleased in demonstrations of thy Mercy , and didst descend into a state of misery , suffering persecution and 〈◊〉 , that thou mightest give us thy mercy , and reconcile us to thy Father , and make us partakers of thy Purities ; give unto us tender bowels , that we may suffer together with our calamitous and necessitous Brethren , that we having a fellow-feeling of their miseries may use all our powers to help them , and ease our selves of our common sufferings . But do thou , O Holy Jesu , take from us also all our great calamities , the Carnality of our affections , our Sensualities and Impurities , that we may first be pure , then peaceable , living in peace with all men , and preserving the peace which thou hast made for us with our God , that we may never commit a sin which may interrupt so blessed an atonement . Let neither hope nor fear , tribulation nor anguish , pleasure nor pain make us to relinquish our interest in thee , and our portion of the everlasting Covenant . But give us hearts constant , bold and valiant , to confess thee before all the world in the midst of all disadvantages and contradictory circumstances , chusing rather to beg , or to be disgraced , or 〈◊〉 , or to die , than quit a holy Conscience , or renounce an Article of Christianity : that we either in act , when thou shalt call us , or always in preparation of mind , suffering with thee , may also reign with thee in the Church Triumphant , O Holy and most merciful Saviour Jesu . Amen . DISCOURSE X. A Discourse upon that part of the Decalogue which the Holy JESVS adopted into the Institution and obligation of Christianity . 1. WHen the Holy Jesus had described the Characterisms of Christianity in these Eight Graces and Beatitudes , he adds his Injunctions , that in these Vertues they should be eminent and exemplar , that they might adorn the Doctrine of God ; for he intended that the Gospel should be as Leven in a lump of dough , to season the whole mass , and that Christians should be the instruments of communicating the excellency and reputation of this holy Institution to all the world . Therefore Christ calls them Salt , and Light , and the societies of Christians a City set upon a hill , and a 〈◊〉 set in a candlestick , whose office and energy is to illuminate all the vicinage ; which is also expressed in these preceptive words , Let your light so shine before men , that they may see your good works , and glorifie your Father which is in heaven : which I consider not only as a Circumstance of other parts , but as a precise Duty it self , and one of the Sanctions of Christianity , which hath so confederated the Souls of the Disciples of the Institution , that it hath in some proportion obliged every man to take care of his Brother's Soul. And since Reverence to God and Charity to our Brother are the two 〈◊〉 Ends which the best Laws can have , this precept of exemplary living is enjoyned in order to them both : We must shine as lights in the world , that God may be glorified , and our Brother edified ; that the excellency of the act may 〈◊〉 the reputation of the Religion , and invite men to confess God according to the sanctions of so holy an Institution . And if we be curious that vanity do not mingle in the intention , and that the intention do not spoil the action , and that we suffer not our lights to shine that men may magnifie us , and not glorifie God , this duty is soon performed by way of adherence to our other actions , and hath no other difficulty in it , but that it will require our prudence and care to preserve the simplicity of our purposes and humility of our spirit in the midst of that excellent reputation which will certainly be consequent to a holy and exemplary life . 2. But since the Holy Jesus had set us up to be lights in the world , he took care we should not be stars of the least magnitude , but eminent , and such as might by their great emissions of light give evidence of their being immediately derivative from the Sun of Righteousness . He was now giving his Law , and meant to retain so much of Moses , as Moses had of natural and essential Justice and Charity , and superadd many degrees of his own ; that as far as Moses was exceeded by Christ in the capacity of a Law-giver , so far Christianity might be more excellent and holy than the Mosaical Sanctions . And therefore , as a Preface to the Christian Law , the Holy Jesus declares , that unless our righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees , that is , of the stricter sects of the Mosaical Institution , we shall not enter into the Kingdom of heaven . Which not only relates to the prevaricating Practices of the Pharisees , but even to their Doctrines and Commentaries upon the Law of Moses , as appears evidently in the following instances . For if all the excellency of Christianity had consisted in the mere command of Sincerity and prohibition of Hypocrisie , it had nothing in it proportionable to those excellent promises and clearest revelations of Eternity there expressed , nor of a fit imployment for the designation of a special and a new Law-giver , whose Laws were to last forever , and were established upon foundations stronger than the pillars of Heaven and Earth . 3. But S. Paul , calling the Law of Moses a Law of Works , did well insinuate what the Doctrine of the Jews was concerning the degrees and obligations of Justice : for besides that it was a Law of Works in opposition to the Law of Faith , ( and so the sence of it is * formerly explicated ) it is also a Law of Works in opposition to the Law of the Spirit ; and it is understood to be such a Law which required the exteriour Obedience ; such a Law according to which S. Paul so lived that no man could reprove him , that is , the Judges could not tax him with prevarication ; such a Law which , being in very many degrees carnal and material , did not with much severity exact the intention and purposes spiritual . But the Gospel is the Law of the spirit . If they failed in the exteriour work , it was accounted to them for sin ; but to Christians nothing becomes a sin , but a failing and prevaricating spirit . For the outward act is such an emanation of the interiour , that it enters into the account for the relation sake , and for its parent . When God hath put a duty into our hands , if our spirits be right , the work will certainly follow ; but the following work receives its acceptation , not from the value the Christian Law hath precisely put upon it , but because the spirit from whence it came hath observed its rule : the Law of Charity is acted and expressed in works , but hath its estimate from the spirit . Which discourse is to be understood in a limited and qualified signification . For then also God required the Heart , and interdicted the very concupiscences of our irregular passions , at least in some instances ; but because much of their Law consisted in the exteriour , and the Law appointed not nor yet intimated any penalty to evil thoughts , and because the expiation of such interiour irregularities was easie , implicite , and involved in their daily Sacrifices without special trouble , therefore the old Law was a Law of Works , that is , especially and in its first intention . But this being less perfect , the Holy Jesus inverted the order . 1. For very little of Christianity stands upon the outward action ; ( Christ having appointed but two Sacraments immediately : ) and 2. a greater restraint is laid upon the passions , desires , and first motions of the spirit , than under the severity of Moses : and 3. they are threatned with the same curses of a sad eternity with the acts proceeding from them : and 4. because the obedience of the spirit does in many things excuse the want of the outward act , God always requiring at our hands what he hath put in our power , and no more : and 5. lastly , because the spirit is the principle of all actions moral and spiritual , and certainly productive of them when they are not impeded from without ; therefore the Holy Jesus hath secured the fountain , as knowing that the current must needs be healthful and pure , if it proceeds through pure chanels from a limpid and unpolluted principle . 4. And certainly it is much for the glory of God , to worship him with a Religion whose very design looks upon God as the searcher of our hearts and Lord of our spirits , who judges the purposes as a God , and does not only take his estimate from the outward action as a man. And it is also a great reputation to the Institution it self , that it purifies the Soul , and secures the secret cogitations of the mind : It punishes Covetouiness as it judges Rapine ; it condemns a Sacrilegious heart as soon as an Irreligious hand ; it detests hating of our Brother by the same aversation which it expresses against doing him 〈◊〉 . He that curses in his heart shall die the death of an explicite and bold Blasphemer ; murmur and repining is against the Laws of Christianity : but either by the remissness of Moses's Law , or the gentler execution of it , or the innovating or lessening glosses of the Pharisees , he was esteemed innocent whose actions were according to the letter , not whose spirit was conformed to the intention and more secret Sanctity of the Law. So that our Righteousness must therefore exceed the Pharisaical standard , because our spirits must be pure as our hands , and the heart as regular as the action , our purposes must be sanctified , and our thoughts holy ; we must love our Neighbour as well as relieve him , and chuse Justice with adhesion of the mind , as well as carry her upon the palms of our hands . And therefore the Prophets , foretelling the Kingdom of the Gospel and the state of this Religion , call it a writing the Laws of God in our hearts . And S. Paul distinguishes the Gospel from the Law by this only measure , We are all Israelites , of the seed of Abraham , heirs of the same inheritance ; only now we are not to be accounted Jews for the outward consormity to the Law , but for the inward consent and obedience to those purities which were secretly signified by the types of Moses . They of the Law were Jews outwardly , their Circumcision was outward in the flesh , their praise was of men : We are Jews inwardly , our Circumcision is that of the heart , in the spirit , and not in the letter , and our praise is of God ; that is , we are not judged by the outward act , but by the mind and the intention ; and though the acts must sollow in all instances where we can and where they are required , yet it is the less principal , and rather significative , than by its own strength and energy operative , and accepted . 5. S. Clemens of Alexandria saith , the Pharisees righteousness consisted in the not doing evil , and that Christ superadded this also , that we must do the contrary good , and so exceed the Pharisaical measure . They would not wrong a Jew , nor many times relieve him ; they reckoned their innocence by not giving offence , by walking blameless , by not being accused before the Judges sitting in the gates of their Cities . But the balance in which the Judge of quick and dead weighs Christians is , not only the avoiding evil , but doing good ; the following peace with all men and holiness ; the proceeding from faith to faith ; the adding vertue to vertue ; the persevering in all holy conversation and godliness . And therefore S. Paul , commending the grace of universal Charity , says , that Love worketh no ill to his neighbour , therefore Love is the fulfilling of the Law ; implying , that the prime intention of the Law was , that every man's right be secured , that no man receive wrong . And indeed all the Decalogue consisting of Prohibitions rather than Precepts , saving that each Table hath one positive Commandment , does not obscurely verifie the doctrine of S. Clement's interpretation . Now because the Christian Charity abstains from doing all injury , therefore it is the fulfilling of the Law : but because it is also patient and liberal , that it suffers long and is kind ; therefore the Charity commanded in Christ's Law exceeds that Charity which the Scribes and Pharisees reckoned as part of their Righteousness . But Jesus himself does with great care in the particulars instance in what he would have the Disciples to be eminent above the most strict Sect of the Jewish Religion : 1. in practising the moral Precepts of the Decalogue with a stricter interpretation ; 2. and in quitting the Permissions and licences which for the hardness of their heart Moses gave them as indulgences to their persons , and securities against the contempt of too severe Laws . 6. The severity of exposition was added but to three Commandments , and in three indulgences the permission was taken away . But because our great Law-giver repeated also other parts of the Decalogue in his * after-Sermons , I will represent in this * one view all that he made to be Christian by adoption . 7. The first Commandment Christ often repeated and enforced , as being the basis of all Religion , and the first endearment of all that relation whereby we are capable of being the sons of God , as being the great Commandment of the Law , and comprehensive of all that duty we owe to God in the relations of the vertue of Religion : Hear , O Israel , the Lord thy God is one Lord ; and , Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart , and with all thy soul , and with all thy mind , and with all thy strength . This is the first Commandment , that is , this comprehends all that which is moral and eternal in the first Table of the 〈◊〉 . 8. The Duties of this Commandment are , 1. To worship God alone with actions proper to him , and 2. to love , and 3. obey him with all our faculties . 1. Concerning Worship . The actions proper to the Honour of God are , to offer Sacrifice , Incense and Oblations , making Vows to him , Swearing by his Name as the instrument of secret testimony , confessing his incommunicable Attributes , and Praying to him for those Graces which are essentially annexed to his dispensation , as Remission of sins , Gifts of the Spirit , and the grace of 〈◊〉 , and Life eternal . Other acts of Religion , such as are uncovering the head , 〈◊〉 the knee , falling upon our face , stooping to the ground , reciting praises , are by the consent of Nations used as testimonies of civil or religious veneration , and do not always pass for confessions of a Divinity , and therefore may be without sin used to Angels , or Kings , or Governours , or to persons in any sence more excellent than our selves , provided they be intended to express an excellency no greater than is proper to their dignities and persons ; not in any sence given to an Idol , or false Gods. But the first sort are such which all the world hath consented to be actions of Divine and incommunicable Adoration , and such which God also in several Religions hath reserved as his own appropriate regalities , and are Idolatry if given to any Angel or man. 9. The next Duties are , 2. Love , 3. and Obedience ; but they are united in the Gospel , This is Love , that we keep his Commandments : and since we are for God's sake bound also to love others , this Love is appropriate to God by the extension of parts , and the intension of degrees . The Extension signifies that we must serve God with all our Faculties ; for all division of parts is hypocrisie , and a direct prevarication : our Heart must think what our Tongue speaks , our Hands act what we promise or purpose ; and God's enemies must have no share so much as in appearance or dissimulation . Now no Creature can challenge this ; and if we do Justice to our neighbours , though unwillingly , we have done him no injury ; for in that case he only who sees the irregularity of our thoughts is the person injured . And when we swear to him , our heart must swear as well as our tongue , and our hands must pay what our lips have promised ; or else we provoke him with an imperfect sacrifice : we love him not with all our mind , with all our strength , and all our faculties . 10. But the difficulty and question of this Commandment lies in the Intension . For it is not enough to serve God with every Capacity , Passion , and Faculty ; but it must be every degree of every Faculty , all the latitude of our Will , all the whole intension of our Passions , all the possibility and energy of our Senses and our Understanding : which because it is to be understood according to that moderate sentence and account which God requires of us set in the midst of such a condition , so attended , and depressed and prejudiced , the full sence of it I shall express in several Propositions . 11. First , The Intension of the Love to which we are obliged requires not the Degree which is absolutely the greatest and simply the most perfect . For there are degrees of Grace , every one of which is pleasing to God , and is a state of Reconciliation and atonement : and he that breaks not the bruised reed , nor quenches the smoaking slax , loves to cherish those endeavours which , beginning from small principles , pass through the variety of degrees , and give demonstration that though it be our duty to contend for the best , yet this contention is with an enemy , and that enemy makes an abatement , and that abatement being an imperfection rather than a sin is actually consistent with the state of Grace , the endeavour being in our power , and not the success ; the perfection is that which shall be our reward , and therefore is not our present duty . And indeed if to do the best action , and to love God as we shall do in Heaven , were a present obligation , it would have been clearly taught us what is simply the best action ; whereas now that which is of it self better , in certain circumstances is less perfect , and sometimes not lawful ; and concerning those circumstances we have no rules , nor any guide but prudence and probable inducements : so that it is certain , in our best endeavours we should only increase our scruples in stead of doing actions of the highest perfections , we should crect a tyranny over our Consciences , and no augmentation of any thing but the trouble . And therefore in the Law of Moses , when this Commandment was given in the same words , yet that the sence of it might be clear , the analogy of the Law declared that their duty had a latitude , and that God was not so strict a task-master , but that he left many instances of Piety to the voluntary Devotion of his servants , that they might receive the reward of Free-will-offerings . But if these words had obliged them to the greatest degree , that is , to all the degrees of our capacities in every instance , every act of Religion had been duty and necessity . 12. And thus also it was in the Gospel . Ananias and Sapphira were killed by sentence from Heaven for not performing what was in their power at first not to have promised ; but because they brought an obligation upon themselves which God brought not , and then prevaricated , they paid the forfeiture of their lives . S. Paul took no wages of the Corinthian Churches , but wrought night and day with his own hand ; but himself says he had power to do otherwise . There was laid upon him a necessity to preach , but no necessity to preach without wages and support . There is a good and a better in Virginity and Marriage ; and yet there is no command in either , but that we abstain from sin : we are left to our own election for the particular , having no necessity , but power in our will. David prayed seven times a day , and Daniel prayed three times ; and both were beloved of God. The Christian masters were not bound to manumit their slaves , and yet were commended if they did so . Sometimes the Christians fled in Persecution ; S. Paul did so , and S. Peter did so , and S. Cyprian did so , and S. Athanasius , and many more : But time was , when some of these also chose to suffer death rather than to fly . And if to fly be a permission , and no duty , there is certainly a difference of degrees in the choice ; to fly is not so great a suffering as to die , and yet a man may innocently chuse the easier . And our Blessed Lord himself , who never failed of any degree of his obligations , yet at some time prayed with more zeal and servour than at other times , as a little before his Passion . Since then at all times he did not do actions of that degree which is absolutely the greatest ; it is evident that God's goodness is so great , as to be content with such a Love which parts no share between him and sin ; and leaves all the rest under such a liberty , as is only encouraged by those extraordinary rewards and crowns proportioned to heroical endeavours . It was a pretty Question which was moved in the Solitudes of Nitria concerning two Religious Brothers ; the one gave all his goods to the poor at once , the other kept the inheritance and gave all the revenue . None of all the Fathers knew which was absolutely the better , at once to renounce all , or by repetition of charitable acts to divide it into portions : one act of Charity in an heroical degree , or an habitual Charity in the degree of Vertue . This instance is probation enough , that the opinion of such a necessity of doing the best action simply and indefinitely is impossible to be safely acted , because it is impossible to be understood . Two talents shall be rewarded , and so shall five , both in their proportions : He that sows sparingly shall reap sparingly , but he shall reap : Every man as he purposes in his heart , so let him give . The best action shall have the best reward ; and though he is the happiest who rises highest , yet he is not sasest that enters into the state of disproportion to his person . I find in the Lives of the later reputed Saints , that S. Teresa à Jesu made a vow to do every thing which she should judge to be the best . I will not judge the person , nor censure the action , because possibly her intention and desires were of greatest Sanctity ; but whosoever considers the story of her Life , and the strange repugnancies in the life of man to such undertakings , must needs fear to imitate an action of such danger and singularity . The advice which in this case is safest to be followed is , That we employ our greatest industry that we fall not into sin and actions of forbidden nature ; and then strive by parts and steps , and with much wariness , in attempering our zeal , to superadd degrees of eminency , and observation of the more perfect instances of Sanctity ; that doing some excellencies which God hath not commanded , he may be the rather moved to pardon our prevaricating so many parts of our necessary duty . If Love transport us and carry us to actions sublime and heroical , let us follow so good a guide , and pass on with diligence , and zeal , and prudence , as far as Love will carry us : but let us not be carried to actions of great eminency and strictness and unequal severities by scruple and pretence of duty ; lest we charge our miscarriages upon God , and call the yoak of the Gospel insupportable , and Christ a hard Task-master . But we shall pass from Vertue to Vertue with more fafety , if a Spiritual guide take us by the hand ; only remembring , that if the Angels themselves and the beatisied Souls do now and shall hereafter differ in degrees of love and glory , it is impossible the state of imperfection should be confined to the highest Love , and the greatest degree , and such as admits no variety , no increment or difference of parts and stations . 13. Secondly , Our Love to God consists not in any one determinate Degree , but hath such a latitude as best agrees with the condition of men , who are of variable natures , different affectious and capacities , changeable abilities , and which receive their heightnings and declensions according to a thousand accidents of mortality . For when a Law is regularly prescribed to perions whose varieties and different constitutions cannot be regular or uniform , it is certain 〈◊〉 gives a great latitude of perfermance , and binds not to just atomes and points . The Laws of God are like universal objects received into the Faculty partly by choice , partly by nature ; but the variety of perfection is by the variety of the instruments , and disposition of the Recipient , and are excelled by each other in several sences , and by themselves at several times . And so is the practice of our Obedience , and the entertainments of the Divine Commandments : For some are of malleable natures , others are morese ; some are of healthful and temperate constitutions , others are lustful , full of fancy , full of appetite ; some have excellent leisure and opportunities of retirement , others are busie in an active life , and cannot with advantages attend to the choice of the better part ; some are peaceable and timorous , and some are in all instances serene , others are of tumultuous and unquiet spirits : and these become opportunities of Temptation on one side , and on the other occasions of a Vertue : But every change of faculty and variety of circumstance hath influence upon Morality ; and therefore their duties are personally altered , and increase in obligation , or are slackned by necessities , according to the infinite alteration of exteriour accidents and interiour possibilities . 14. Thirdly , Our Love to God must be totally exclusive of any affection to sin , and engage us upon a great , assiduous and laborious care to resist all Temptations , to subdue sin , to acquire the habits of Vertues , and live holily ; as it is already expressed in the Discourse of Repentance . We must prefer God as the object of our hopes , we must chuse to obey him rather than man , to please him rather than satisfie our selves , and we must do violence to our strongest Passions when they once contest against a Divine Commandment . If our Passions are thus regulated , let them be fixed upon any lawful object whatsoever , if at the same time we prefer Heaven and heavenly things , that is , would rather chuse to lose our temporal love than our eternal hopes , ( which we can best discern by our refusing to sin upon the solicitation or engagement of the temporal object ; ) then , although we feel the transportation of a sensual love towards a Wife , or Child , or Friend , actually more pungent and sensible than Passions of Religion are , they are less perfect , but they are not criminal . Our love to God requires that we do his Commandments , and that we do not sin ; but in other things we are permitted in the condition of our nature to be more sensitively moved by visible than by invisible and spiritual objects . Only this , we must ever have a disposition and a mind prepared to quit our sensitive and pleasant objects , rather than quit a Grace , or commit a sin . Every act of sin is against the Love of God , and every man does many single actions of hostility and provocation against him ; but the state of the Love of God is that which we actually call the state of Grace . When Christ reigns in us , and sin does not reign , but the Spirit is quickned , and the Lusts are mortified ; when we are habitually vertuous , and do acts of Piety , Temperance and Justice frequently , easily , chearfully , and with a successive , constant , moral and humane industry , according to the talent which God hath intrusted to us in the banks of Nature and Grace ; then we are in the love of God , then we love him with all our heart . But if Sin grows upon us , and is committed more frequently , or gets a victory with less difficulty , or is obeyed more readily , or entertained with a freer complacency ; then we love not God as he requires , we divide between him and sin , and God is not the Lord of all our faculties . But the instances of Scripture are the best exposition of this Commandment : For David followed God with all his heart , to do that which was right in his eyes ; and Josiah turned to the Lord with all his heart , and with all his soul , and with all his might . Both these Kings did it ; and yet there was some imperfection in David , and more violent recessions : for so saith the Scripture of Josiah , Like unto him was there no King before him ; David was not so exact as he , and yet he followed God with all his heart . From which these two Corollaries are certainly deducible : That to love God with all our heart admits variety of degrees , and the lower degree is yet a Love with all our heart ; and yet to love God requires a holy life , a diligent walking in the Commandments , either according to the sence of innocence or of penitence , either by first or second counsels , by the spirit of Regeneration or the spirit of Renovation and restitution . The summ is this , The sence of this Precept is such as may be reconciled with the Infirmities of our Nature , but not with a Vice in our Manners ; with the recession of single acts seldom 〈◊〉 , and always disputed against , and long fought with , but not with an habitual aversation , or a ready obedience to sin , or an easie victory . 15. This Commandment , being the summ of the First Table , had in Moses's Law particular instances which Christ did not insert into his Institution ; and he added no other particular , but that which we call the Third Commandment , concerning Veneration and reverence to the Name of God. The other two , viz. concerning Images and the Sabbath , have some special considerations . 16. The Jews receive daily offence against the 〈◊〉 of some Churches , who , 〈◊〉 . COM. in the recitation of the Decalogue , omit the Second Commandment , as supposing it to be a part of the first , according as we account them ; and their offence rises higher , because they observe that in the New Testament , where the Decalogue is six times repeated in special recitation and in summaries , there is no word prohibiting the making , retaining , or respect of Images . Concerning which things Christians consider , that God for bad to the Jews 〈◊〉 very having and making Images and Representments , not only of the true God , or of false and imaginary Deities , but of visible creatures ; which because it was but of temporary reason , and relative consideration of their aptness to Superstition and their conversing with idolatrous Nations , was a command proper to the Nation , part of their Govenant , not of essential , indispensable and eternal reason , not of that which we usually call the Law of Nature . Of which also God gave testimony , because himself commanded the signs and representment of Seraphim to be set upon the Mercy - 〈◊〉 , toward which the Priest and the people made their addresses in their religious Adorations ; and of the Brazen Serpent , to which they looked when they called to God for help against the sting of the venomous Snakes . These instances tell us , that to make Pictures or Statues of creatures is not against a natural reason , and that they may have uses which are profitable , as well as be abused to danger and Superstition . Now although the nature of that people was apt to the abuse , and their entercourse with the Nations in their confines was too great an invitation to entertain the danger ; yet Christianity hath so far removed that danger by the analogy and design of the Religion , by clear Doctrines , Revelations , and infinite treasures of wisdom , and demonstrations of the Spirit , that our Blessed Law-giver thought it not necessary to remove us from Superstition by a prohibition of the use of Images and Pictures ; and therefore left us to the sence of the great Commandment , and the dictates of right Reason , to take care that we do not dishonour the invisible God with visible representations of what we never saw nor cannot understand , 〈◊〉 yet convey any of God's incommunicable Worship in the forenamed instances to any thing but himself . And for the matter of Images we have no other Rule left us in the New Testament ; the rules of Reason and Nature , and the other parts of the Institution , are abundantly sufficient for our security . And possibly S. Paul might relate to this , when he affirmed concerning the Fifth , that it was the first Commandment with promise . For in the Second Commandment to the Jews , as there was a great threatning , so also a greater promise of shewing mercy to a thousand generations . But because the body of this Commandment was not transcribed into the Christian Law , the first of the Decalogue which we retain , and in which a promise is inserted , is the Fifth Commandment . And therefore the wisdom of the Church was remarkable in the variety of sentences concerning the permission of Images . At first , when they were blended in the danger and impure mixtures of Gentilism , and men were newly recovered from the snare , and had the reliques of a long custom to superstitious and false worshippings , they endured no Images , but merely civil : but as the danger ceased , and Christianity prevailed , they found that Pictures had a natural use of good concernment , to move less-knowing people by the representment and declaration of a Story ; and then they , knowing themselves permitted to the liberties of Christianity and the restraints of nature and reason , and not being still weak under prejudice and childish dangers , but fortified by the excellency of a wise Religion , took them into lawful uses , doing honour to Saints as unto the absent Emperors , according to the custom of the Empire ; they erected Statues to their honour , and transcribed a history , and sometimes a precept , into a table , by figures making more lasting impressions than by words and sentences . While the Church stood within these limits , she had natural reason for her warrant , and the custom of the several Countreys , and no precept of Christ to countermand it : They who went farther were unreasonable , and according to the degree of that excess were Superstitious . 17. The Duties of this Commandment are learned by the intents of it : For it was directed against the false Religion of the Nations , who believed the Images of their Gods to be filled with the Deity ; and it was also a caution to prevent our low imaginations of God , lest we should come to think God to be like Man. And thus far there was indispensable and eternal reason in the Precept : and this was never lessened in any thing by the Holy Jesus , and obliges us Christians to make our addresses and worshippings to no God but the God of the Christians , that is , of all the world ; and not to do this in or before an Image of him , because he cannot be represented . For the Images of Christ and his Saints , they come not into either of the two considerations , and we are to understand our duty by the proportions of our reverence to God , expressed in the great Commandment . Our Fathers in Christianity , as I observed now , made no scruple of using the Images and Pictures of their Princes and Learned men ; which the Jews understood to be forbidden to them in the Commandment . Then they admitted even in the Utensils of the Church some coelatures and engravings : Such was that Tertullian speaks of , The good Shepherd in the 〈◊〉 . Afterwards they admitted Pictures , but not before the time of Constantine ; for in the Council of Eliberis they were forbidden . And in succession of time the scruples lessened with the danger , and all the way they signified their belief to be , that this Commandment was only so far retained by Christ as it relied upon natural reason , or was a particular instance of the great Commandment : that is , Images were forbidden where they did dishonour God , or lessen his reputation , or estrange our duties , or became Idols , or the direct matter of superstitious observances , charms , or senseless confidences ; but they were permitted to represent the Humanity of Christ , to remember Saints and Martyrs , to recount a story , to imprint a memory , to do honour and reputation to absent persons , and to be the instruments of a relative civility and esteem . But in this particular infinite care is to be taken of Scandal and danger , of a forward and zealous ignorance , or of a mistaking and peevish confidence ; and where a Society hath such persons in it , the little good of Images must not be violently retained with the greater danger and certain offence of such persons of whom consideration is to be had in the cure of Souls . I only add this , that the first Christians made no scruple of saluting the Statues of their Princes , and were confident it made no intrenchment upon the natural prohibition contained in this Commandment ; because they had observed , that exteriour inclinations and addresses of the body , though in the lowest manner , were not proper to God , but in Scripture found also to be communicated to Creatures , * to Kings , to Prophets , to Parents , to Religious persons : and because they found it to be death to do affront to the Pictures and Statues of their Emperors , they concluded in reason , ( which they also saw verified by the practice and opinion of all the world ) that the respect they did at the Emperor's Statue was accepted as a veneration to his person . But these things are but sparingly to be drawn into Religion , because the customs of this world are altered , and their opinions new ; and many , who have not weak understandings , have weak Consciences ; and the necessity for the entertainment of them is not so great as the offence is or may be . 18. Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain . This our Blessed Saviour repeating expresses it thus , It hath been said to them of old time , [ Thou shalt not for swear thy self ; ] to which Christ adds out of Num. 30. 2. But thou shalt perform thy Oaths unto the Lord. The meaning of the one we are taught by the other . We must not invocate the Name of God in any promise in vain , that is , with a Lie : which happens either out of levity , that we change our purpose , which at first we really intended ; or when our intention at that instant was fallacious , and contradictory to the undertaking . This is to take the Name of God , that is , to use it , to take it into our mouths , for vanity ; that is , according to the perpetual style of Scripture , for a Lie. Every one hath spoken vanity to his neighbour , that is , he hath lied unto him ; for so it follows , with flattering lips , and with a double heart : and swearing deceitfully is by the Psalmist called lifting up his soul unto vanity . And Philo the Jew , who well understood the Law and the language of his Nation , renders the sence of this Commandment to be , to call God to witness to a Lie. And this is to be understood only in Promises , for so Christ explains it by the appendix out of the Law , Thou shalt perform thy Oaths : For lying in Judgment , which is also with an Oath , or taking God's Name for witness , is forbidden in the Ninth Commandment . To this Christ added a farther restraint . For whereas by the Natural Law it was not unlawful to swear by any Oath that implied not Idolatry , 〈◊〉 the belief of a false God , ( I say ) any grave and prudent Oath , when they spake a grave truth ; and whereas it was lawful for the 〈◊〉 in ordinary entercourse to swear by God , so they did not swear to a Lie , ( to which also swearing to an impertinency might be reduced by a proportion of reason , and was so accounted of in the practice of the Jews ) but else and in other cases they us'd to swear by God , or by a Creature respectively ; ( for , they that swear by him shall be commended , saith the Psalmist ; and swearing to the Lord of Hosts is called speaking the language of Canaan : ) Most of this was rescinded ; Christ forbad all swearing , not only swearing to a Lie , but also swearing to a truth in common affairs ; not only swearing commonly by the Name of God , but swearing commonly by Heaven , and by the Earth , by our Head , or by any other Oath : only let our speech be yea , or nay , that is , plainly affirming or denying . In these , I say , Christ corrected the licence and vanities of the Jews and Gentiles . For as the Jews accounted it Religion to name God , and therefore would not swear by him but in the more solemn occasions of their life ; but in trifles they would swear by their Fathers , or the Light of Heaven , or the Ground they trode on : so the Greeks were also careful not to swear by the Gods lightly , much less fallaciously ; but they would swear by any thing about them or near them , upon an occasion as vain as their Oath . But because these Oaths are either indirectly to be referred to God , ( and Christ instances in divers ) or else they are but a vain testimony , or else they give a Divine honour to a Creature by making it a Judge of truth and discerner of spirits ; therefore Christ seems to forbid all forms of Swearing whatsoever . In pursuance of which law , Basilides , being converted at the prayers of Potamiaena a Virgin-Martyr , and required by his fellow-souldiers to swear upon some occasion then happening , answered , it was not lawful for him to swear , for he was a Christian ; and many of the Fathers have followed the words of Christ in so severe a sence , that their words seem to admit no exception . 19. But here a grain of salt must be taken , lest the letter destroy the spirit . First , it is certain the Holy Jesus forbad a * custom of Swearing ; it being great irreligion to despise and lessen the Name of God , which is the instrument and conveyance of our Adorations to him , by making it common and applicable to trifles and ordinary accidents of our life . He that swears often , many times swears false , and however lays by that reverence which , being due to God , the Scripture determines it to be due at his Name : His Name is to be loved and feared . And therefore Christ commands that our communication be yea , yea , or nay , nay ; that is , our ordinary discourses should be simply affirmative or negative . In order to this , * Plutarch affirms out of Phavorinus , that the reason why the Greeks forbad children who were about to swear by Hercules , to swear within doors , was , that by this delay and preparation they might be taught not to be hasty or quick in swearing , but all such invocations should be restrained and retarded by ceremony : and Hercules himself was observed never to have sworn in all his life-time but once . 2. Not only customary Swearing is forbidden , but all Swearing upon a slight cause . S. Basil upbraids some Christians his contemporaries with the example of Clinias the Pythagorean , who , rather than he would swear , suffered a mulct of three talents . And all the followers of Pythagoras admitted no Oath , unless the matter were grave , necessary , and charitable : and the wisest and gravest persons among the Heathens were very severe in their Counsels concerning Oaths . 3. But there are some cases in which the interests of Kingdoms and 〈◊〉 politick , Peace and Confederacies , require the sanction of promissory Oaths ; and they whom we are bound to obey , and who may kill us if we do not , require that their interests be secured by an Oath : and that in this case , and all that are equal , our Blessed Saviour did not forbid Oaths , is certain , not only by the example of Christians , but of all the world before and since this prohibition , understanding it to be of the nature of such natural bands and securities , without which Commonwealths in some cases are not easily combined , and therefore to be a thing necessary , and therefore not to be forbidden . Now what is by Christians to be esteemed a slight cause , we may determine by the account we take of other things . The Glory of God is certainly no light matter ; and therefore when that is evidently and certainly concerned , not phantastically and by vain and imaginary consequences , but by prudent and true estimation , then we may lawfully swear . We have S. Paul's example , who well understood the precept of his Master , and is not to be supposed easily to have done any violence to it ; but yet we find religious affirmations , and God invoked for witness as a record upon his soul , in his Epistles to the Romans , Galatians , and Corinthians . But these Oaths were only assertory . Tertullian affirmeth , that Christians refused to swear by the Genius of their Prince , because it was a Daemon ; but they sware by his Health , and their solemn Oath was by God , and Christ , and the Holy Spirit , and the Majesty of the Emperor . The Fathers of the Ephesine Council made Nestorius and Victor swear ; and the Bishops at Chalcedon sware by the health of their Princes . But as S. Paul did it extrajudicially , when the glory of God was concerned in it and the interest of Souls ; so the Christians used to swear in a cause of Piety and Religion , in obedience and upon publick command , or for the ends of Charity and Justice , both with Oaths promissory and assertory , as the matter required : with this only difference , that they never did swear in the causes of Justice or Charity but when they were before a Magistrate ; but if it were in a cause of Religion , and in matters of promise , they did indeed swear among themselves , but always to or in communities and societies , obliging themselves by Oath not to commit wickedness , Robberies , Sacriledge , not to deceive their trust , not to detain the pledge ; which rather was an act of direct entercourse with God , than a solemn or religious obligation to man. Which very thing Pliny also reports of the Christians . 20. The summ is this : Since the whole subject matter of this Precept is Oaths promissory , or Vows ; all Promises with Oaths are regularly forbidden to Christians , unless they be made to God or God's 〈◊〉 , in a matter not trisling . For in the first case , a Promise made to God , and a swearing by God to perform the Promise , to him is all one : For the Name of God being the instrument and determination of all 〈◊〉 addresses , we cannot be supposed to speak to God without using of his Name 〈◊〉 or by implication : and therefore he that promises to God makes a Promise , and uses God's Name in the Promise ; the Promise it self being in the nature of a Prayer or solemn Invocation of God. In the second case , when the publick necessity requires it , of which we are not judges , but are under authority , we find the lawfulness by being bound to believe , or not to contradict , the pretence of its necessity ; only care is to be taken that the matter be grave or religious , that is , it is to be esteemed and presumed so by us , if the Oath be imposed by our lawful Superiours , and to be cared for by them : or else it is so to be provided for by our selves , when our entercourse is with God , as in Vows and Promises passed to God ; being careful that we do not offer to God Goats-hair , or the 〈◊〉 of Mushromes , or the bloud of Swine , that is , things either impious or vain . But in our communication , that is , in our ordinary entercourse with men , we must promise by simple testimony , not by religious adjurations , though a creature be the instrument of the Oath . 21. But this forbids not assertory Oaths at all , or deposing in Judgment ; for of this Christ speaks not here , it being the proper matter of another Commandment : and since ( as S. Paul affirms ) an Oath is the end of all controversie , and that the necessity of Commonwealths requires that a period should be fixed to questions , and a rule for the nearest certainty for Judgment ; whatsoever is necessary is not unlawful , and Christ , who came to knit the bonds of Government faster by the stricture of more religious ties , cannot be understood to have given precepts to dissolve the instruments of Judicature and prudent Government . But concerning assertory Oaths , although they are not forbidden , but supposed in the Ninth Commandment to be done before our Judges in the cause of our Neighbour ; yet because they are only so supposed , and no way else mentioned by permission or intimation , therefore they are to be estimated by the proportions of this Precept concerning promissory Oaths : they may be taken in Judgment and righteousness , but never lightly , never extrajudicially ; only a less cause , so it be judicial , may authorize an assertory than a promissory Oath ; because many cases occur in which Peace and Justice may be concerned , which without an Oath are indeterminable , but there are but few necessities to confirm a Promise by an Oath . And therefore the reverence of the Name of God ought not to be intrenched upon in accidents of little or no necessity ; God not having made many necessities in this case , would not in the matter of Promise give leave to use his Name but when an extraordinary case happens . An Oath in Promises is of no use for ending questions and giving judicial sentences ; and the faith of a Christian and the word of a just person will do most of the work of Promises ; and it is very much to the disreputation of our Religion or ourselves , if we fall into hypocrisie or deceit , or if a Christian Asseveration were not of value equal with an Oath . And therefore Christ forbidding promissory Oaths , and commanding so great simplicity of spirit and honesty , did consonantly to the design and perfection of his Institution , intending to make us so just and sincere , that our Religion being infinite obligation to us , our own Promises should pass for bond enough to others , & the Religion receive great honour by being esteemed a sufficient security and instrument of publick entercourse . And this was intimated by our Lord himself in that reason he is pleased to give of the prohibition of swearing : ( (a) Let your communication be Yea , yea , Nay , nay ; for whatsoever is more cometh of evil : that is , As good Laws come from ill manners , the modesty of cloathing from the shame of sin , Antidotes and Physick by occasion of poisons and diseases ; so is Swearing an effect of distrust , and want of faith or honesty , on one or both sides . Men dare not trust the word of a Christian , or a Christian is not just and punctual to his Promises , and this calls for confirmation by an Oath . So that Oaths suppose a fault , though they are not faults always themselves ; whatsoever is more than Yea or Nay , is not always evil , but it always cometh of evil . And therefore the Essenes esteemed every man that was put to his Oath no better than an infamous person , a perjurer , or at least suspected , not esteemed a just man : and the Heathens would not suffer the Priest of Jupiter to swear , because all men had great opinion of his sanctity and authority : and the Scythians derided Alexander's caution and timorous provision , when he required an Oath of them ; Nos religionem in ipsa side novimus , Our faith is our bond : and * they who are willing to deceive men will not stick to deceive God , when they have called God to witness . But I have a caution to insert for each , which I propound as an humble advice to persons eminent and publickly interested . 22. First , That Princes , and such as have power of decreeing the injunction of promissory Oaths , be very curious and reserved , not lightly enjoyning such Promises , neither in respect of the matter trivial , nor yet frequently , nor without great reason enforcing . The matter of such Promises must be only what is already matter of Duty or Religion ; for else the matter is not grave enough sor the calling of God to testimony : but when it is a matter of Duty , then the Oath is no other than a Vow or Promise made to God in the presence of men . And because Christians are otherwise very much obliged to do all which is their duty in matters both civil and religious , of Obedience and Piety ; therefore it must be an instant necessity and a great cause to superinduce such a confirmation as derives from the so sacredly invocating the Name of God ; it must be when there is great necessity that the duty be actually performed , and when the Supreme power either hath not power sufficient to punish the delinquent , or may miss to have notice of the delict . For in these cases it is reasonable to bind the faith of the obliged persons by the fear of God after a more special manner ; but else there is no reason sufficient to demand of the subject any farther security than their own faith and contract . The reason of this advice relies upon the strictness of the words of this Precept against promissory Oaths , and the reverence we owe to the name of God. Oaths of Allegiance are fit to be imposed in a troubled State or to a mutinous People : But it is not so fit to tie the People by Oath to abstain from transportations of Metal , or Grain , or Leather , from which by Penalties they are with as much security , and less suspicion of iniquity , restrained . 23. Secondly , Concerning assertory Oaths and Depositions in Judgment , although a greater liberty may be taken in the subject matter of the Oath , and we may , being required to it , swear in Judgment , though the cause be a question of money , or our interest , or the rights of a Society ; and S. Athanasius purged himself by Oath before the Emperour Constantius : yet it were a great pursuance and security of this part of Christian Religion , if in no case contrary Oaths might be admitted , in which it is certain one part is perjured to the * ruine of their Souls , to the intricating of the Judgment , to the dishonour of Religion ; but that such rules of prudence and reasonable presumption be established , that upon the Oath of that party which the Law shall chuse , and upon probable grounds shall presume for , the sentence may be established . For by a small probability there may a surer Judgment be given than upon the confidence of contradictory Oaths , and after the sin the Judge is left to the uncertainty of conjectures as much as if but one part had sworn ; and to much more , because such an Oath is by the consent of all men accepted as a rule to determine in Judgment . By these discourses we understand the intention of our Blessed Master in this Precept : and I wish by this or any thing else men would be restrained 〈◊〉 that low , cheap , unreasonable and unexcusable vice of customary Swearing , to which we have nothing to invite us that may lessen the iniquity , for which we cannot pretend temptation nor alledge infirmity , but it begins by wretchlesness and a malicious carelesness , and is continued by the strength of habit and the greatest immensity of folly . And I consider that Christian Religion , being so holy an Institution , to which we are invited by so great promises , in which we are instructed by so clear revelations , and to the performance of our duties compelled by the threatnings of a sad and insupportable eternity , should more than sufficiently endear the performance of this Duty to us . The name of a Christian is a high and potent antidote against all sin , if we consider aright the honour of the name , the undertaking of our Covenant , and the reward of our duty . The Jews eat no Swines flesh , because they are of Moses , and the Turks drink no Wine , because they are Mahumetans ; and yet we swear for all we are Christians , than which there is not in the world a greater conviction of our baseness and irreligion . Is the authority of the Holy Jesus so despicable ? are his Laws so unreasonable , his rewards so little , his threatnings so small , that we must needs in contempt of all this profane the great Name of God , and trample under foot the Laws of Jesus , and cast away the hopes of Heaven , and enter into security to be possessed by Hell-torments for Swearing , that is , for speaking like a fool , without reason , without pleasure , without reputation , much to our disesteem , much to the trouble of civil and wise persons with whom we joyn in society and entercourse ? Certainly Hell will be heat seven times hotter for a customary Swearer , and every degree of his unreasonableness will give him a new degree of torment , when he shall find himself in flames for being a stupid , an Atheistical , an irreligious fool . This only I desire should be observed , that our Blessed Master forbids not only swearing by God , but by any Creature ; for every Oath by a creature does involve and tacitely relate to God. And therefore saith Christ , Swear not by Heaven , for it is the throne of God ; and he that sweareth by the throne of God , sweareth by it , and by him that sitteth thereon . So that it is not a less matter to swear by a Creature than to swear by God ; for a Creature cannot be the instrument of testimony , but as it is a relative to God ; and it by implication calls the God of that Creature to witness . So that although in such cases in which it is permitted to swear by God , we may in those cases express our Oath in the form of advocating and calling the Creature , ( as did the primitive Christians swearing by the health of their Emperour , and as Joseph swearing by the life of Pharaoh , and as Elisha swearing by the life of Elias , and as did S. Paul protesting by the rejoycing he had in Jesus Christ , and as we in our forms of swearing in Courts of Judicature touch the Gospels , saying , So help me God , and the Contents of this Book ; and in a few Ages lately past Bishops and Priests sometimes swore upon the Cross , sometimes upon the Altar , sometimes by their holy Order : ) yet we must remember that this in other words and ceremonies is but a calling God for witness ; and he that swears by the Cross , swears by the holy Crucifix , that is , Jesus crucified thereon . And therefore these and the like forms are therefore not to be used in ordinary communication , because they relate to God ; they are as obligatory as the immediate invocation of his Holiness and Majesty ; and it was a Judaical vanity to think swearing by Creatures was less obliging : they are just with the same restraints made to be religious as the most solemn invocation of the holy and reverend Name of God , lawful or unlawful as the other : unless the swearing by a Creature come to be spoiled by some other intervening circumstance , that is , with a denying it to relate to God ; for then it becomes Superstition as well as Profanation , and it gives to a Creature what is proper to God ; or when the Creature is contemptible , or less than the gravity of the matter , as if a man should swear by a Fly , or the shadow of a Tree ; or when there is an indecorum in the thing , or something that does at too great distance relate to God : for that which with greatest vicinity refers to God in several Religions is the best instrument of an Oath , and nearest to God's honour ; as in Christianity are the Holy Sacrament , the Cross , the Altar , and the Gospels ; and therefore too great a distance may be an indecency next to a disparagement . This only may be added to this consideration ; That although an Oath , which is properly calling God or God's relative into testimony , is to be understood according to the former Discourse ; yet there may be great affirmations or negations respectively , and confirmed by forms of vehement asseveration , such as the customes of a Nation or consent shall agree upon : and those do in some cases promote our belief or confirm our pretensions better than a plain Yea or No ; because by such consent the person renders himself infamous if he breaks his word or trust . And although this will not come under the restraint of Christ's words , because they are not properly Oaths , but circumstances of earnest affirmation or negation ; yet these are humane Attestations , introduced by custome or consent , and as they come not under the notion of Swearing , so they are forms of testimony and collateral engagement of a more strict truth . 24. The Holy Jesus having specified the great Commandment of loving God with all our heart , in this one instance of hallowing and keeping his Name sacred , that is , from profane and common talk , and less prudent and unnecessary entercourses , instanced in no other commandment of Moses : but having frequent occasion to speak of the Sabbath , for ever expresses his own dominion over the Day , and that he had dissolved the bands of Moses in this instance ; that now we were no more obliged to that Rest which the 〈◊〉 religiously observed by prescript of the Law ; and by divers acts against securities of the then-received practices did desecrate the day , making it a broken yoke , and the first great instance of Christian Liberty . And when the Apostle gave instructions that no man should judge his 〈◊〉 in a Holy-day , or New-moons , or the Sabbath-days , he declared all the Judaical Feasts to be obliterated by the spunge which Jesus tasted on the Cross ; it was within the Manuscript of Ordinances , and there it was cancelled . And there was nothing moral in it , but that we do honour to God for the Creation , and to that and all other purposes of Religion separate and hallow some portion of our time . The Primitive Church kept both the Sabbath and the Lord's day till the time of the 〈◊〉 Council , about 300 years after Christ's nativity , and almost in every thing made them equal ; and therefore did not esteem the Lord's day to be substituted in the place of the obliterated Sabbath , but a Feast celebrated by great reason and perpetual consent , without precept or necessary Divine injunction . But the liberty of the Church was great : they found themselves disobliged from that strict and necessary Rest which was one great part of the Sabbatick rites , only they were glad of the occasion to meet often for offices of Religion , and the day served well for the gaining and facilitating the Conversion of the Jews , and for the honourable sepulture of the Synagogue , it being kept so long , 〈◊〉 the forty days mourning of Israel for the death of their Father Jacob ; but their liberty they improved not to licence , but as an occasion of more frequent assemblies . And there is something in it for us to imitate , even to sanctifie the Name of God in the great work of the Creation , reading his praises in the book of his Creatures , and taking all occasions of religious acts and offices , though in none of the Jewish circumstances . 25. Concerning the observation of the Lord's Day , which now the Church observes and ever did in remembrance of the Resurrection , because it is a day of positive and Ecclesiastical institution , it is fit that the Church , who instituted the day , should determine the manner of its observation . It was set apart in honour of the Resurrection , and it were not ill if all Churches would into the weekly Offices put some memorial of that mystery , that the reason of the Festival might be remembred with the day , & God thanked with the renewing of the Offices . But because Religion was the design of the Feast , and 〈◊〉 was necessary for Religion , therefore to abstain from * Suits of Law and servile works , but such works as are of (a) necessity and charity , ( which to observe are of themselves a very good Religion ) is a necessary duty of the day ; and to do acts of publick Religion is the other part of it . So much is made matter of duty by the intervention of Authority : and though the Church hath made no more prescriptions in this , & God hath made none at all ; yet he who keeps the Day most strictly , most religiously , he keeps it best , and most consonant to the design of the Church , and the ends of Religion , and the opportunity of the present leisure , and the interests of his Soul. The acts of Religion proper for the Day are Prayers and publick Liturgies , Preaching , Catechizing , acts of Charity , Visiting sick persons , acts of Eucharist to God , of Hospitality to our poor neighbours , of friendliness and civility to all , reconciling differences ; and after the publick Assemblies are dissolved , any act of direct Religion to God , or of ease and remission to Servants , or whatsoever else is good in Manners , or in Piety , or in Mercy . What is said of this great Feast of the Christians is to be understood to have a greater 〈◊〉 and obligation in the Anniversary of the Resurrection , of the Ascension ; of the Nativity of our Blessed Saviour , and of the descent of the Holy Spirit in Pentecost . And all days festival to the honour of God in remembrance of the holy Apostles , and Martyrs , and departed Saints , as they are with prudence to be chosen and retained by the Church , so as not to be unnecessary , or burthensome , or useless ; so they are to be observed by us as instances of our love of the communion of Saints , and our thankfulness for the blessing , and the example . 26. Honour thy Father and thy Mother . This Commandment Christ made also to be Christian by his frequent repetition and mention of it in his Sermons and Laws , and so ordered it , that it should be the band of civil Government and Society . In the Decalogue God sets this Precept immediately after the duties that concern himself , our duty to Parents being in the consines with our duty to God , the Parents being in order of nature next to God , the cause of our being and production , and the great Almoners of Eternity , conveying to us the essences of reasonable Creatures , and the charities of Heaven . And when our Blessed Saviour in a Sermon to the 〈◊〉 spake of duty to Parents , he rescued it from the impediments of a vain tradition , and secured this Duty , though against a pretence of Religion towards God , telling us that God would not himself accept a gift which we took from our Parents needs . This duty to Parents is the very 〈◊〉 and band of Commonwealths . He that honours his Parents will also love his Brethren derived from the same loins , he will dearly account of all his relatives and persons of the same cognation ; and so Families are united , and 〈◊〉 them Cities and Societies are framed . And because Parents and Patriarchs of 〈◊〉 and of Nations had regal power , they who by any change 〈◊〉 in the care and government of Cities and Kingdomes succeeded in the power and authority of Fathers , and became so in estimate of Law and true Divinity to all their people . So that the Duty here commanded is due to all our Fathers in the sense of Scripture and Laws , not onely to our natural , but to our civil Fathers , that is , to Kings and Governours . And the Scripture adds Mothers , for they also , being instruments of the blessing , are the objects of the Duty . The duty is , Honour , that is , Reverence and Support , if they shall need it . And that which our Blessed Saviour calls not 〈◊〉 our Parents in S. Matthew , is called in S. Mark doing nothing for them ; and Honour is expounded by * S. Paul to be maintenance as well as reverence . Then we honour our Parents , if with great readiness we minister to their necessities , and communicate our estate , and attend them in sicknesses , and supply their wants , and , as much as lies in us , give them support , who gave us being . 27. Thou shalt do no Murther : so it was said to them of old time . He that kills shall be guilty of Judgment , that is , he is to die by the sentence of the Judge . To this Christ makes an appendix , But I say unto you , he that is angry with his Brother without a cause shall be in danger of the Judgment . This addition of our Blessed Saviour , as all the other , which are severer explications of the Law than the Jews admitted , was directed against the vain and imperfect opinion of the Lawyers , who thought to be justified by their external works , supposing , if they were innocent in matter of fact , God would require no more of them than Man did , and what by custome or silence of the Laws was not punishable by the Judge , was harmless before God ; and this made them to trust in the letter , to neglect the duties of Repentance , to omit asking pardon for their secret irregularities , and the obliquities and aversations of their spirits ; and this S. Paul also complains of , that neglecting the righteousness of God , they sought to establish their own , that is , according to Man's judgment . But our Blessed Saviour tells them that such an innocence is not enough ; God requires more than conformity , and observation of the fact , and exteriour 〈◊〉 , placing Justice not in legal innocency , or not being condemned in judgment of the Law and humane judicature , but in the righteousness of the spirit also : for the first acquits us before man , but by this we shall be held upright in judgment before the Judge of all the world . And therefore besides abstinence from murther or actual wounds , Christ forbids all anger without cause against our Brother , that is , against any man. 28. By which not the first motions are forbidden , the twinklings of the eye , as the Philosophers call them , the pro-passions and sudden and irresistible alterations ; for it is impossible to prevent them , unless we could give our selves a new nature , any more than we can refuse to wink with our eye when a sudden blow is offered at it , or refuse to yawn when we see a yawning sleepy person : but by frequent and habitual mortification , and by continual watchfulness , and standing in readiness against all inadvertencies , we shall lessen the inclination , and account fewer sudden irreptions . A wise and meek person should not kindle at all , but after violent and great collision ; and then , if like a flint he sends a spark out , it must as soon be extinguished as it shews , and cool as soon as sparkle . But however , the sin is not in the natural disposition . But when we entertain it , though it be , as 〈◊〉 expresses it , cum voluntate non 〈◊〉 , without a determination of revenge , then it begins to be a sin . Every indignation against the person of the man , in us is pride and self-love , and towards others ungentleness , and an immorigerous spirit . Which is to be understood , when the cause is not sufficient , or when the anger continues longer , or is excessive in the degrees of its proportion . 29. The causes of allowable Anger are , when we see God dishonoured , or a sin committed , or any irregularity , or fault in matter of Government ; a fault against the laws of a family or good manners , disobedience or stubbornness ; which in all instances where they may be prudently judged such by the Governour , yet possibly they are not all direct sins against God and Religion . In such cases we may be angry . But then we may also sin , if we exceed in time , or measure of degree . 30. The proportion of time S. Paul expresses , by not letting the Sun set upon 〈◊〉 anger . Leontius Patricius was one day extremely and unreasonably angry with John the Patriarch of Alexandria ; at Evening the Patriarch sent a servant to him with this message , Sir , the Sun is set : upon which Patricius reflecting , and the grace of God making the impression deep , visible and permanent , he threw away his anger , and became wholly subject to the counsel and ghostly aids of the Patriarch . This limit S. Paul borrowed from the Psalmist : for that which in the fourth Psalm verse 5. we read , Stand in awe , and sin not , the Septuagint reads , Be angry , but sin not . And this measure is taken from the analogy of the Law of the Jews , that a malefactor should not hang upon the accursed tree after the Sun was set : and if the Laws laid down their just anger against Malefactors as soon as the Sun descended , and took off his beams from beholding the example ; much more is it reasonable that a private anger , which is not warranted by authority , not measured by laws , not examined by solemnities of Justice , not made reasonable by considering the degree of the causes , not made charitable by intending the publick good , not secured from injuriousness by being disinterest , and such an anger in which the party is judge and witness and executioner ; it is ( I say ) but reason such an anger should unyoke and go to bed with the Sun , since Justice and Authority laid by the Rods and Axes as soon as the Sun unteamed his chariot . Plutarch reports that the Pythagoreans were strict observers of the very letter of this caution : For if Anger had boiled up to the height of injury or reproach , before Sun set they would shake hands , salute each other , and depart friends : for they were ashamed that the same anger which had disturbed the counsels of the day should also trouble the quiet and dreams of the night , lest anger by mingling with their rest and nightly fancies should grow natural and habitual . Well , anger must last no longer ; but neither may a Christian's anger last so long ; for if his anger last a whole day , it will certainly before night sour into a crime . A man's anger is like the Spleen , at the first it is natural , but in its excess and distemper it swells into a disease : and therefore although to be angry at the presence of certain objects is natural , and therefore is indifferent , because he that is an essential enemy to sin never made sin essential to a man ; yet unless it be also transient and pass off at the command of Reason and Religion , it quickly becomes criminal . The meaning is , that it be no more but a transient Passion , not permanent at all ; but that the anger against the man pass into indignation against the crime , and pity of the person , till the pity grows up into endeavours to help him . For an angry , violent and disturbed man is like that white Bramble of Judaea , of which Josephus reports , that it is set on 〈◊〉 by impetuous winds , & consumes it self , and burns the neighbour-plants : and the * evil effects of a violent and passionate Anger are so great , so dangerous , so known to all the world , that the very consideration of them is the best argument in the world to dispute against it ; Families and Kingdomes have suffered horrid calamities ; and whatsoever is violent in art or nature hath been made the instrument of sadness in the hands of Anger . 31. The measure of the degree is to be estimated by humane prudence , that it exceed not the value of the cause , nor the proportion of other circumstances , and that it cause no eruption into indiscretions or undecencies . For therefore Moses's anger , though for God and Religion , was reproved , because it went forth into a violent and troubled expression , and shewed the degree to be inordinate . For it is in this passion as in Lightning , which , if it only breaks the cloud and makes a noise , shews a tempest and disturbance in nature , but the hurt is none ; but if it seises upon a man , or dwells upon a house , or breaks a tree , it becomes a judgment and a curse . And as the one is a mischief in chance and accident , so the other is in morality and choice : if it passes from passion into action , from a transient violence to a permanent injury , if it abides , it scorches the garment or burns the body ; and there is no way to make it innocent , but to remove and extinguish it , and , while it remains , to tie the hands , and pare the nails , and muzzle it , that it may neither scratch , nor bite , nor talk . An anger in God's cause may become unhallowed , if it sees the Sun rise and set : and an anger in the cause of a man is innocent according to the degrees of its suddenness and discontinuance ; for by its quickness and volatile motion it shews that it was 1. unavoidable in its production , or 2. that it was 〈◊〉 in the event , or 3. quickly suppressed : according to which several cases Anger is either 1. natural , or 2. excusable , or 3. the matter of a vertue . 32. The Vulgar 〈◊〉 Bible in this Precept of our Blessed Saviour reads not the appendix , without a cause , but indefinitely , he that is angry with his Brother ; and S. 〈◊〉 affirms that the clause without a cause is not to be found in the true Greek copies : upon supposition of which , because it is not to be imagined that all Anger in 〈◊〉 causes and in all degrees is simply unlawful , and S. Paul distinguishes being angry from committing a sin , Be angry , but sin not , these words are left to signifie such an anger as is the crime of Homicide in the heart , like the secret Lusting called by Christ Adultery in the heart ; and so here is forbidden not only the outward act , but the inward inclinations to 〈◊〉 , that is , * an Anger with deliberation and purpose of revenge , this being explicative and additional to the Precept forbidding Murther : which also our Blessed Saviour seems to have intended , by threatning the same penalty to this anger or spiritual Homicide which the Law inflicted upon the actual and external , that is , judgment or condemnation . And because this prohibition of Anger is an explication and more severe commentary upon the Sixth Commandment , it is more than probable that this Anger , to which condemnation is threatned , is such an Anger as hath entertained something of mischief in the spirit . And this agrees well enough with the former interpretation , save that it affirms no degree of anger to be criminal as to the height of condemnation , unless it be with a thought of violence or desires of revenge ; the other degrees receiving their heightnings and declensions as they keep their distance or approach to this . And besides , by not limiting or giving caution concerning the cause , it restrains the malice only or the degree , but it permits other causes of anger to be innocent besides those spiritual and moral , of the interests of God's glory and Religion . But this is also true , which soever of the readings be retained . For the irascible faculty having in nature an object proper to its constitution and natural design , if our anger be commenced upon an object naturally troublesome , the anger is very natural , and no-where said to be irregular . And he who is angry with a servant's unwariness or inadvertency , or the remisness of a child's spirit and application to his studies , or on any sudden displeasure , is not in any sense guilty of prevaricating the Sixth Commandment , unless besides the object he adds an inequality of degree , or unhandsome circumstance , or adjunct . And possibly it is not in the nature of man to be strict in discipline , if the prohibitions of Anger be confined only to causes of Religion ; and it were hard that such an Anger which is innocent in all effects , and a good instrument of Government , should become criminal and damnable ; because some instances of displeasure are in actions not certainly and apparently sinful . So that our Blessed Saviour forbidding us to be angry without a cause , means such causes which are not only irregularities in Religion , but 〈◊〉 in manners ; and an Anger may be religious , and political , and oeconomical , according as it meets with objects proper to it in several kinds . It is sometimes necessary that a man carry a tempest in his face and a rod in his hand ; but for ever let him have a smooth mind , or at least under command , and within the limits of Reason and Religion , that he may steer securely , and avoid the rocks of sin : for then he may reprove a friend that did amiss , or chastise an offending son , or correct a vicious servant . The summe is this : There are no other bounds to hallow or to allow and legitimate Anger but that , 1. The cause be Religion , or matter of Government : 2. That the degree of the Anger in prudent accounts be no bigger than the cause : 3. That if it goes forth , it be not expressed in any action of uncharitableness , or unseasonable violence : 4. Whether it goes forth or abides at home , it must not dwell long any-where ; nor abide in the form of a burning coal , but at the most of a thin flame , thence passing into air salutary and gentle , fit to breath , but not to blast . There is this onely nicety to be observed : That although an Anger arising for Religion , or in the matter of 〈◊〉 , cannot innocently abide long ; yet it may abide till it hath passed forth into its proper and temperate expression , whether of reprehension or chastisement , and then it must sit down . But if the Anger arises from another cause , ( provided it be of it self innocent , not sinful in the object or cause ) the passion in its first spring is also innocent , because it is 〈◊〉 , and on the sudden unavoidable : but this must be suppressed within , and is not permitted to express it self at all : for in that degree in which it goes out of the mouth , or through the eyes , or from the hand , in that degree it is violent , ought to be corrected and restrained ; for so that passion was intended to be turned into vertue . For this passion is like its natural parent or instrument : And if Choler keeps in its proper seat , it is an instrument of digestion ; but if it goes forth into the stranger regions of the body , it makes a Fever : and this Anger which commences upon natural causes , though so far as it is natural it must needs be innocent , yet when any consent of the will comes to it , or that it goes forth in any action or voluntary signification , it also becomes criminal . Such an Anger is only permitted to be born and die ; but it must never take nourishment , or exercise any act of life . 33. But if that prohibition be 〈◊〉 , then it is certain the analogy of the Commandment , of which this is an explication , refers it to Revenge or Malice : it is an Anger that is Wrath , an Anger of Revenge or Injury , which is here prohibited . And I add this consideration , That since it is certain that Christ intended this for an explication of the prohibition of Homicide , the clause of [ * without cause ] seems less natural and proper . For it would intimate , that though anger of Revenge is forbidden when it is rash and unreasonable ; yet that there might be a cause of being angry with a purpose of revenge and recompence , and that in such a case it is permitted to them to whom in all other it is denied , that is , to private persons ; which is against the meekness and charity of the Gospel . More reasonable it is , that as no man might kill his Brother in Moses's Law by his own private authority ; so an Anger is here forbidden , such an Anger which no qualification can permit to private persons , that is , an Anger with purposes of Revenge . 34. But Christ adds , that a farther degree of this sin is , when our Anger breaks out in contumelies and ill language , and receives its increment according to the degree and injury of the reproach . There is a Homicide in the tongue as well as in the heart ; and he that kills a mans * reputation by calumnies , or slander , or open reviling , hath broken this Commandment . But this is not to be understood so , but that persons in authority or friends may reprehend a vicious person in language proper to his crime , or expressive of his malice or iniquity . Christ called Herod Fox : and although S. Michael brought not a railing accusation against Satan , yet the Scripture calls him an Accuser , and Christ calls him the Father of lies , and S. Peter , a devourer and a roaring Lion ; and S. John calls Diotrephes a lover of pre-eminence , or ambitious . But that which is here forbidden , is not a representing the crimes of the man for his emendation , or any other charitable or religious end , but a reviling him to do him mischief , to murther his reputation : which also shews , that whatever is here forbidden is in some sense or other accounted Homicide ; the Anger in order to reproach , and both in order to murther , subject to the same punishment , because forbidden in the same period of the Law ; save only that , according to the degrees of the sin , Christ proportions several degrees of punishment in the other world , which he apportions to the degrees of death which had ever been among the Jews , viz. the Sword , & Stoning to death , which were punishments legal and judicial , and the Burning infants in the Valley of Hinnom , which was a barbarous and superstitious custome used formerly by their Fathers in imitation of the Phoenician accursed rites . 35. The remedies against Anger , which are prescribed by Masters of spiritual life , are partly taken from rules of Prudence , partly from Piety and more precise rules of Religion . In Prudence , 1. Do not easily entertain , or at all encourage , or willingly hear , or promptly believe Tale-bearers and reporters of other mens faults : for oftentimes we are set on fire by an ignis 〈◊〉 , a false flame , and an empty story . 2. Live with peaceable people , if thou canst . 3. Be not inquisitive into the misdemeanours of others , or the reports which are made of you . 4. Find out reasons of excuse to alleviate and lessen the ignorances of a friend , or carelesnesses of a servant . 5. Observe what object is aptest to inflame thee , and by special arts of fortification stop up the avenues to that part : If Losses , if Contempt , if Incivilities , if Slander , still make it the greatest part of your imployment to subdue the impotency of that Passion that is more apt to raise tempests . 6. Extirpate petty curiosities of Apparel , Lodging , Diet , and learn to be indifferent in circumstances ; and if you be apt to be transported with such little things , do some great thing that shall cut off their frequent intervening . 7. Do not multiply secular cares , and troublesome negotiations which have variety of conversation with several humours of men and accidents of things ; but frame to thy self a life simple as thou canst , and free from all affectations . 8. Sweeten thy temper and allay the violence of thy spirit with some convenient , natural , temperate and medicinal solaces ; for some dispositions we have seen inflamed into Anger , and often assaulted by Peevishness , through immoderate fasting and inconvenient austerities . 9. A gentle answer is an excellent Remora to the progresses of Anger , whether in thy self or others . For Anger is like the waves of a troubled sea ; when it is corrected with a soft reply , as with a little strand , it retires , and leaves nothing behind it but froth and shells , no permanent mischief . 10. ( (a) ) Silence is an excellent art : and that was the advice which S. Isaac , an old religious person in the Primitive Church , is reported to have followed , to suppress his Anger within his breast , and use what means he could there to strangle it ; but never permitting it to go forth in language : Anger and Lust being like fire , which if you enclose , suffering it to have no emission , it perishes and dies ; but give it the smallest vent , and it rages to a consumption of all it reaches . And this advice is coincident with the general rule which is prescribed in all temptations , that Anger be suppressed in its cradle and first ( (b) assaults . 11. Lastly , let every man be careful that in his Repentance , or in his Zeal , or his Religion , he be as dispassionate and free from Anger as is possible ; lest Anger pass upon him in a reflex act , which was rejected in the direct . Some mortifiers in their contestation against Anger , or any evil or troublesome principle , are like Criers of Assizes , who calling for silence make the greatest noise ; they are extremely angry when they are fighting against the habit or violent inclinations to Anger . 36. But in the way of more strict Religion it is advised , that he who would cure his Anger should pray often . It is S. Austin's counsel to the Bishop Auxilius , that , like the Apostles in a storm , we should awaken Christ , and call to him for aid , lest we shipwreck in so violent 〈◊〉 and impetuous disturbances . 2. Propound to thy self the example of Meek and Patient persons ; remembring always that there is a family of Meek Saints , of which Moses is the Precedent ; a family of Patient Saints , under the conduct of Job : every one in the mountain of the Lord shall be gathered to his own Tribe , to his own Family , in the great day of Jubilee : and the Angry shall perish with the effects of Anger ; and peevish persons shall be vexed with the disquietness of an eternal worm and sting of a vexatious Conscience , if they suffer here the transportations and saddest effects of an unmortified , habitual and prevailing anger . 3. Above all things endeavour to be humble , to think of thy self as thou deservest , that is , meanly and unworthily ; and in reason it is to be presumed thou wilt be more patient of wrong , quiet under affronts and injuries , susceptive of inconveniences , and apt to entertain all adversities , as instruments of Humiliation . deleteries of Vice , corrections of undecent Passions , and instruments of Vertue . 4. All the Reason , and all the Relations , and all the Necessities of mankind are daily arguments against the violences and inordinations of Anger . For he that would not have his Reason confounded , or his discourse useless , or his family be a den of Lions ; he that would not have his Marriage a daily duel , or his Society troublesome , or his Friendship formidable , or his Feasts bitter ; he that delights not to have his Discipline cruel , or his Government tyrannical , or his Disputations violent , or his Civilities unmannerly , or his Charity be a rudeness , or himself brutish as a Bear , or peevish as a Fly , or miserable upon every accident and in all the changes of his life , must mortifie his Anger . For it concerns us as much as Peace , and Wisdome , and Nobleness , and Charity , and Felicity are worth , to be at peace in our breasts , and to be pleased with all God's Providence , and to be in charity with every thing , and with every man. 37. Thou shalt not commit Adultery . These two Commandments are immediate to each other , and of the greatest cognation : for Anger and Lust work upon one subject ; and the same fervours of bloud which make men revengeful , will also make men unchast . But the prohibition is repeated in the words of the old Commandment ; so it was said to them of old : which was not only a prohibition of the violation of the rights of Marriage , but was even among the Jews extended to signifie all mixture of sexes not matrimonial . For Adultery in Scripture is sometimes used to signifie Fornication , and Fornication for Adultery ; as it is expressed in the permissions of Divorce in the case of Fornication : and by Moses's Law Fornication also was forbidden , and it was hated also and reproved in the natural . But it is very probable that this Precept was restrained only to the instance of Adultery in the proper sense , that is , violation of Marriage ; for Moses did in other annexes of the Law forbid Fornication . And as a blow or wound was not esteemed in Moses's Law a breach of the sixth Commandment ; so neither was any thing but Adultery esteemed a violation of the seventh by very many of their own Doctors : of which I reckon this a sufficient probation , because they permitted stranger Virgins and Captives to fornicate ; only they believed it sinful in the Hebrew Maidens . And when two Harlots pleaded before Solomon for the Bastard-child , he gave sentence of their question , but nothing of their crime . * Strangers with the Hebrews signified many times Harlots , because they were permitted to be such , and were entertained to such purposes . But these were the licences of a looser interpretation ; God having to all Nations given sufficient testimony of his detestation of all Concubinate not hallowed by Marriage : of which among the Nations there was abundant testimony , in that the Harlots were not permitted to abide in the Cities , and wore veils in testimony of their shame and habitual undecencies ; which we observe * in the story of Thamar , and also in Chrysippus . And although it passed without punishment , yet never without shame , and a note of turpitude . And the abstinence from Fornication was one of the Precepts of Noah , to which the Jews obliged the stranger-Proselytes , who were only Proselytes of the House : and the Apostles inforce it upon the Gentiles in their first Decree at Jerusalem , as renewing an old stock of Precepts and obligations in which all the converted & religious Gentiles did communicate with the Jews . 38. To this Christ added , that the Eyes must not be adulterous ; his Disciples must not only abstain from the act of unlawful Concubinate , but from the impurer intuition of a wife of another man : so according to the design of his whole Sermon opposing the Righteousness of the Spirit to that of the Law , or of Works , in which the Jews confided . Christians must have chast desires , not indulging to themselves a liberty of looser thoughts ; keeping the threshold of their Temples pure , that the Holy Ghost may observe nothing unclean in the entry of his habitation . For he that lusts after a woman , wants nothingto the consummation of the act but some convenient circumstances ; which because they are not in our power the act is impeded , but nothing of the malice abated . But so severe in this was our Blessed Master , that he commanded us rather to put our eyes out than to suffer them to become an offence to us , that is , an inlet of sin , or an invitation or transmission of impurity : by putting our eye out meaning the extinction of all incentives of Lust , the rejection of all opportunities and occasions , the quitting all conditions of advantage which ministers fuel to this Hell-fire . And by this severity we must understand all beginnings , temptations , likenesses , and insinuations and minutes 〈◊〉 Lust and impurity to be forbidden to Christians ; such as are all morose delectations in vanity , wanton words , gestures , Balls , revellings , wanton diet , garish and lascivious dressings and trimmings of the body , looser Banquetings : all making provisions for the flesh to fulfill the lusts of it , all lust of Concupiscence , and all lust of the eye , and all lust of the hand , unclean contracts , are to be rescinded , all lust of the tongue and palate , all surfeiting and drunkenness : for it is impossible to keep the spirit pure , if it be exposed to all the entertainment of enemies . And if Christ forbad the wanton eye , and placed it under the prohibition of Adultery ; it is certain , whatsoever ministers to that Vice , and invites to it , is within the same restraint ; it is the eye , or the hand , or the foot , that is to be cut off . To this Commandment Fastings and severe Abstinences are apt to be reduced , as being the proper abscission of the instruments and temptations of Lust , to which Christ invites by the mixt proposition of threatning and reward ; for better it is to go to Heaven with but one eye or one foot , that is , with a body half nourished , than with full meals and an active Lust to enter into Hell. And in this our Blessed Lord is a Physician rather than a Law-giver : for abstinence from all impure Concubinate , and morose delectations so much as in thought , being the Commandment of God ; that Christ bids us retrench the occasions and insinuations of Lust , it is a facilitating the duty , not a new severity , but a security and caution of prudence . 39. Thou shalt not steal . To this Precept Christ added nothing ; because God had already in the Decalogue 〈◊〉 this Precept with a restraint upon the * desires . ( (a) ) For the Tenth Commandment sorbids all coveting of our Neighbour's goods : for the Wife there reckoned , and forbidden to be desired from another man , is not a restraint of Libidinous appetite , but of the Covetous ; it being accounted part of wealth to have a numerous family , many wives and many servants : and this also God by the Prophet Nathan upbraided to David , as an instance of David's wealth and God's liberality . But yet this Commandment Christ adopted into his Law , it being prohibited by the natural Law , or the Law of right Reason , Commonwealths not being able to subsist without distinction of Dominion , nor industry to be encouraged but by propriety , nor Families to be maintained but by defence of just rights and truly-purchased Possessions . And this Prohibition extends to all injustice , whether done by force or fraud ; whether it be by ablation , or prevention , or detaining of rights ; any thing in which injury is done directly or obliquely to our Neighbour's fortune . 40. Thou shalt not bear false witness . That is , Thou shalt not answer in judgment against thy Neighbour falsely : which testimony in the Law was given solemnly and by Oath , invoking the Name of God. 〈◊〉 adjure thee by God that thou tell us whether thou be the CHRIST , said the High Priest to the Blessed Jesus , that is , speak upon thy Oath ; and then he told them fully , though they made it the pretence of murthering him , and he knew they would do so . Confessing and witnessing truth is giving glory to God : but false witness is high injustice , it is inhumanity and treason against the quietness , or life , or possession of a just person ; it is in it self irregular and unreasonable , and therefore is so forbidden to Christians , not only as it is unjust , but as it is false . For a Lie in communication and private converse is also forbidden as well as unjust testimony ; ( (a) Let every man speak truth with his Neighbour , that is , in private society : and whether a Lie be in * jest or earnest , when the purpose is to deceive and abuse , though in the smallest instance , it is in that degree criminal as it is injurious . I find not the same affirmed in every deception of our Neighbours , wherein no man is injured , and some are benefited ; the errour of the affirmation being nothing but a natural irregularity , nothing malicious , but very charitable . I find no severity superadded by Christ to this Commandment prohibiting such discourse which , without injury to any man , deceives a man into Piety or safety . But this is to be extended no farther : In all things else we must be severe in our discourses , and neither lie in a great matter nor a small , for the custom thereof is not good , saith the son of Sirach . I could add concerning this Precept , That Christ having left it in that condition he found it in the Decalogue , without any change or alteration of circumstance , we are commanded to give true testimony in Judgment ; which because it was under an Oath , there lies upon us no prohibition , but a severity of injunction to swear truth in Judgment when we are required . The securing of Testimonies was by the sanctity of an Oath , and this remains unaltered in Christianity . 41. Thou shalt not covet . This Commandment we find no-where repeated in the Gospel by our Blessed Saviour ; but it is inserted in the repetition of the Second Table , which S. Paul mentioned to the Romans : for it was so abundantly expressed in the inclosures of other Precepts , and the whole design of Christ's Doctrine , that it was less needful specially to express that which is every-where affixed to many Precepts Evangelical . Particularly it is inherent in the first Beatitude , Blessed are the poor in spirit ; and it means , that we should not wish our Neighbour's goods with a deliberate entertained desire , but that upon the commencement of the motion it be disbanded instantly : for he that does not at the first address and 〈◊〉 of the passion suppress it , he hath given it that entertainment which in every period of staying is a degree of morose delectation in the appetite . And to this I find not Christ added any thing , for the Law it self , forbidding to entertain the desire , hath commanded the instant and present suppression ; they are the same thing , and cannot reasonably be distinguished . Now that Christ in the instance of Adultery hath commanded to abstain also from occasions and accesses towards the Lust , in this hath not the same severity ; because the vice of Covetousness is not such a wild-fire as Lust is , not inflamed by contact , and neighbourhood of all things in the world : every thing may be instrumental to libidinous desires , but to covetous appetites there are not temptations of so different natures . 42. Concerning the order of these Commandments it is not unusefully observed , that , if we account from the first to the last , they are of greatest perfection which are last described ; and he who is arrived to that severity and dominion of himself as not to desire his Neighbour's goods , is very far from actual injury , and so in proportion ; it being the least degree of Religion to confess but One God. But therefore Vices are to take their estimate in the contrary order : he that prevaricates the First Commandment is the greatest sinner in the world ; and the least is he that only covets without any actual injustice . And there is no variety or objection in this , unless it be altered by the accidental difference of degrees ; but in the kinds of sin the Rule is true : this onely , The Sixth and Seventh are otherwise in the Hebrew Bibles than ours , and in the Greek otherwise in Exodus than in Deuteronomy ; and by this rule it is a greater sin to commit Adultery than to Kill ; concerning which we have no certainty , save that S. Paul in one respect makes the sin of Uncleanness the greatest of any sin , whose scene lies in the body ; Every sin is without the body , but he that commits Fornication sins against his own body . The PRAYER . O Eternal Jesus , Wisdome of the Father , thou light of Jews and Gentiles , and the great Master of the world , who by thy holy Sermons and clearest revelations of the mysteries of thy Father's Kingdom didst invite all the world to great degrees of Justice , Purity and Sanctity , and instruct us all in a holy Institution , give us understanding of thy Laws ; that the light of thy celestial Doctrine illuminating our darknesses , and making bright all the recesses of our spirits and understandings , we may direct our feet , all the lower man , the affections of the inferiour appetite , to walk in the paths of thy Commandments . Dearest God , make us to live a life of Religion and Justice , of Love and Duty ; that we may adore thy Majesty , and reverence thy Name , and love thy Mercy , and admire thy infinite glories and perfections , and obey thy Precepts . Make us to love thee for thy self , and our neighbours for thee ; make us to be all Love and all Duty : that we may adorn the Gospel of thee our Lord , walking worthy of our Vocation ; that as thou hast called us to be thy Disciples , so we may walk therein , doing the work of faithful servants , and may receive the adoption of sons , and the gift of eternal glory , which thou hast reserved for all the Disciples of thy holy Institution . Make all the world obey thee as a Prophet ; that , being redeemed and purified by thee our High Priest , all may reign with thee our King in thy eternal Kingdom , O Eternal Jesus , Wisdom of thy Father . Amen . Of the Three additional Precepts which Christ superinduced , and made parts of the Christian Law. DISCOURSE XI . Of CHARITY , with its parts , Forgiving , Giving , not Judging . Of Forgiveness . PART I. 1. THE Holy Jesus coming to reconcile all the world to God , would reconcile all the parts of the world one with another , that they may rejoyce in their common band and their common Salvation . The first instance of Charity forbad to Christians all Revenge of Injuries ; which was a perfection and endearment of duty beyond what either most * of the old Philosophers , or the Laws of the Nations 〈◊〉 of Moses , ever practised or enjoyned . For Revenge was esteemed to unhallowed , unchristian natures as sweet as life , a satisfaction of injuries , and the onely cure of maladies and affronts . Onely , Laws of the wisest Commonwealths commanded that Revenge should be taken by the Judge ; a few cases being excepted , in which , by sentence of the Law , the injured person or his nearest Relative might be the Executioner of the Vengeance : as among the Jews in the case of Murther ; among the Romans , in the case of an Adulteress or a ravished daughter , the Father might kill the Adulteress or the Ravisher . In other things the Judge onely was to be the Avenger . But Christ commanded his Disciples , rather than to take revenge , to expose themselves to a second injury , rather offer the other cheek than be avenged for a blow on this ; For vengeance belongs to God , and he will retaliate : and to that wrath we must give place , saith S. Paul ; that is , in well-doing and evil suffering commit our selves to his righteous judgment , leaving room for his execution , who will certainly do it , if we snatch not the sword from his arm . 2. But some observe , that our Blessed Saviour instanced but in smaller injuries : He that bad us suffer a blow on the cheek , did not oblige us tamely to be sacrificed ; he that enjoyned us to put up the loss of our Coat and Cloak , did not signifie his pleasure to be that we should 〈◊〉 our Family to be turned out of doors , and our whole Estate aliened and cancelled , especially we being otherwise obliged to provide for them under the pain of the curse of Infidelity . And indeed there is much reason our defences may be extended , when the injuries are too great for our sufferance , or that our defence bring no greater damage to the other than we divert from our selves . But our Blessed Saviour's prohibition is instanced in such small particulars , which are no limitations of the general Precept , but particulars of common consideration . But I say unto you , resist not evil : so our English Testament reads it ; but the word signifies avenge not evil , and it binds us to this only , that we be not avengers of the wrong , but rather suffer twice , than once to be avenged . He that is struck on the face may run away , or may divert the blow , or bind the hand of his enemy ; and he whose Coat is snatched away may take it again , if without injury to the other he may do it . We are sometimes bound to resist evil : every clearing of our innocence , refuting of calumnies , quitting our selves of reproach , is a resisting evil ; but such which is hallowed to us by the example of our Lord himself and his Apostles . But this Precept is clearly expounded by S. Paul , Render not evil for evil , that is , be not revenged : You may either secure or restore your selves to the condition of your own possessions or fame , or preserve your life , provided that no evil be returned to him that offers the injury . For so sacred are the Laws of Christ , so holy and great is his Example , so much hath he endear'd us who were his enemies , and so frequently and severely hath he preached and enjoyned Forgiveness ; that he who knows not to forgive , knows not to be like a Christian , and a Disciple of so gentle a Master . 3. So that the smallness or greatness of the instance alters not the case in this duty : In the greatest matters we are permitted only to an innocent defence , in the smallest we may do so too : I may as well hold my coat fast as my gold , and I may as well hide my goods as run away , and that 's a defence ; and if my life be in danger , I must do no more but defend my 〈◊〉 . Save only that defence in case of life is of a larger signification than in case of goods . I may wound my enemy , if I cannot else be safe ; I may disarm him , or in any sence disable him , and this is extended even to a liberty to kill him , if my defence necessarily stands upon so hard conditions : for although I must not give him a wound for a wound , because that cannot cure me , but is certainly Revenge ; yet when my life cannot be otherwise safe than by killing him , I have used that liberty which Nature hath permitted me , and Christ hath not forbidden , who only interdicted Revenge , and for bad no desence which is charitable and necessary , and not blended with malice and anger . And it is as much Charity to preserve my self as him , when I fear to die . 4. But although we find this no-where forbidden , yet it is very consonant to the excellent mercy of the Gospel , and greatly laudable , if we chuse rather to lose our life ; in imitation of Christ , than save it by the loss of another's in pursuance of the permissions of Nature . When Nature only gives leave , and no Law-giver gives command to defend our lives , and the excellence of Christianity highly commends dying for our enemies , and propounds to our imitation the greatest Example that ever could be in the world ; it is a very great imperfection , if we chuse not rather to obey an insinuation of the Holy Jesus , than with greediness and appetite pursue the bare permissions of Nature . But in this we have no necessity . Only this is to be read with two cautions . 1. So long as the assaulted person is in actual danger , he must use all arts and subterfuges which his wit or danger can supply him with , as passive defence , flight , arts of diversion , entreaties , soft and gentle answers , or whatsoever is in its kind innocent , to prevent his sin and my danger ; that when he is forced to his last defence , it may be certain he hath nothing of Revenge mingled in so sad a remedy . 2. That this be not understood to be a permission to defend our lives against an angry and unjust Prince : for if my lawful Prince should attempt my life with rage , or with the abused solemnities of Law ; in the first case the Sacredness of his Person , in the second , the reverence and religion of Authority , are his defensatives , and immure him , and bind my hands , that I must not 〈◊〉 them up , but to Heaven , for my own defence and his pardon . 5. But the vain pretences of vainer persons have here made a Question where there is no seruple ; And if I may defend my Life with the sword , or with any thing which Nature and the Laws forbid not , why not also mine Honour , which is as dear as life , which makes my 〈◊〉 without contempt , useful to my friend , and comfortable to my self ? For to be reputed a Coward , a baffled person , and one that will take affronts , is to be miserable and scorned , and to invite all insolent persons to do me injuries . May I not be permitted to fight for mine Honour , and to wipe off the stains of my reputation ? Honour is as dear as life , and sometimes dearer . To this I have many things to say , For that which men in this question call Honour is nothing but a reputation amongst persons vain , unchristian in their deportment , empty and ignorant souls , who count that the standard of Honour which is the instrument of reprobation ; as if to be a Gentleman were to be no Christian. They that have built their Reputation upon such societies must take new estimates of it , according as the wine , or fancy , or custom , or some great fighting person shall determine it ; and whatsoever invites a quarrel is a rule of Honour . But then it is a sad consideration to remember , that it is accounted honour not to recede from any thing we have said or done : It is honour not to take the Lie , in the mean time it is not dishonourable to lie indeed , but to be told so ; and not to kill him that says it , and venture my life and his too , that is a forfeiture of reputation . A Mistresses's favour , an idle discourse , a jest , a jealousie , a health , a gayety , any thing must ingage two lives in hazard , and two Souls in ruine ; or else they are dishonoured . As if a Life , which is so dear to a man's self , which ought to be dear to others , which all Laws and wisePrinces and States have secured by the circumvallation of Laws and penalties , which nothing but Heaven can recompense for the loss of , which is the breath of God , which to preserve Christ died , the Son of God died , as if this were so contemptible a thing , that it must be ventured for satisfaction of a vicious person , or a vain custom , or such a folly which a wise and a severe person had rather die than be guilty of . Honour is from him that honours : now certainly God and the King are the fountains of Honour ; right Reason and Religion , the Scripture and the Laws , are the best rules of estimating Honour : and if we offer to account our Honours by the senseless and illiterate discourses of vain and vicious persons , our Honour can be no greater than the fountain from whence it is derivative ; and at this rate Harpaste , Seneca's Wive's fool , might have declared Thersites an honourable person , and every bold Gladiator in a Roman Theatre , or a fighting Rebel among the slaves of Sparta , or a Trouper of Spartacus his Guard , might have stood upon their Honour upon equal and as fair a challenge . Certainly there is no greater honour than to be like the Holy Jesus , and he is delectable in the eyes of God , and so are all his relatives and sollowers , by participation of his honour ; and nothing can be more honourable than to do wise and excellent actions , according to the account of Divine and 〈◊〉 Laws : and if either God or the King can derive Honour upon their subjects , then whatsoever is contrary to that which they honour must needs be base , dishonourable and inglorious . 6. But if we be troubled for fear of new and succeeding injuries , and will needs fight , and as much as lies in us kill our Brother to * prevent an injury , nothing can be more unworthy of a Christian , nothing can be more inhumane . 〈◊〉 , pleading in the Roman Senate in the behalf of the Rhodian Embassadors , who came to beg peace of the Commonwealth , which had entertained an anger and some thoughts of war against them , upon pretence that the Rhodians would war with them when they durst , discoursed severely and prudently against such unreasonable purposes . And the life of men and the interest of states is not like the trade of Fencers , whose lot is to conquer if they strike sirst , to die if they be prevented : Man's life is not established upon so unequal and unreasonable necessities , that either we must sirst do an injury , or else it is certain we must receive a mischief . God's providence and care in his government of the world is more vigilant and merciful , and he protects persons innocent and just in all cases , except when he means to make an injury the instrument of a grace , or a violent death to be the gate of glory . It was not ill answered of 〈◊〉 to King Polyphontes , who therefore killed his Brother , because he had entertained a purpose to have killed him ; You should only have done the same injury to him which he did to you ; you should still have had a purpose to kill him : for his injustice went no farther ; and it is hard to requite ill and uncertain purposes with actual Murther , especially when we are as much secured by the power of Laws , as the whole Commonwealth is in all its greatest interests . And therefore for Christians to kill a man to prevent being bastled or despised , is to use an extreme desperate remedy , infinitely painful and deadly , to prevent a little griping in the belly foreseen as possible to happen it may be three years after . But besides , this objection supposes a Disease almost as earnestly to be cured as this of the main Question ; for it represents a man keeping company with lewd and debauched persons , spending his time in vanity , drunken societies , or engaged in lust , or placing his 〈◊〉 amongst persons apt to do affronts and unworthy misdemeanours ; and indeed an affront , an injury , a blow , or a loud disgrace , is not the consequent of not sighting , but a punishment for engaging in loose , baser and vicious company . If the Gallants of the age would find an honest and a noble employment , or would be delicate in the choice of their friends and company , or would be severe in taking accounts of themselves and of their time , would live as becomes persons wise and innocent , that is , like Christians , they would soon perceive themselves removed far from injuries , and yet farther from trouble , when such levities of mischance or folly should intervene . But suppose a man affronted or disgraced , it is considerable whether the man deserved it or no. If he did , let him entertain it for his punishment , and use it for an instrument of correction and humility : If he did not , as an instance of fortitude and despite of lower things . But to venture lives to abolish a past-act is madness , unless in both those lives there was not good enough to be esteemed greater and of better value than the light affront had in it of misery and trouble . Certainly those persons are very unfortunate , in whose lives much more pleasure is not than there is mischief in a light blow , or a lighter affront , from a vain or an angry person . But suppose there were not , yet how can sighting or killing my adversary wipe off my aspersion , or take off my blow , or prove that I did not lie ? For it is but an ill argument to say , If I dare kill him , then I did not lie ; or if I dare fight , then he struck me not ; or if I dare venture damnation , then I am an honourable person . And yet farther , who gave me power over my own life , or over the life of another , that I shall venture my own , and offer to take his ? God and God's Vicegerent only are the Lords of lives ; who made us Judges , and Princes , or Gods ? and if we be not such , we are Murtherers and Villains . When Moses would have parted the Duellists that fought in Egypt , the injurious person asked him , Who made thee a judge or ruler over us ? Wilt thou kill me , as thou didst the Egyptian yesterday ? meaning , he had no power to kill , none to judge of life and death , unless he had been made a Ruler . Yea but flesh and bloud cannot endure a blow or a disgrace . Grant that too , but take this into the account , Flesh and bloud shall not inherit the Kingdom of God. And yet besides this , those persons have but a tender stock of reason and wisdom and patience who have not discourse enough to make them bear an injury , which the Philosophy of the Gentiles , without the light of Christianity , taught them to tolerate with so much equanimity and dispassionate entertainment . That person is not a man who knows not how to suffer the inconvenience of an accident , and indiscretion of light persons ; or if he could not , yet certainly that is a mad impatience when a man , to remedy the pain of a drop of scalding water , shall drench himself in the liquid flames of pitch and a bituminous bath . 7. Truth is , to fight a Duel is a thing that all Kingdoms are bound to restrain with highest severity ; it is a consociation of many the worst acts that a person ordinarily can be guilty of ; it is want of Charity , of Justice , of Humility , of trust in God's providence ; it is therefore Pride , and Murther , and Injustice , and infinite Unreasonableness , and nothing of a Christian , nothing of excuse , nothing of honour in it , if God and wise men be admitted Judges of the Lists . And it would be considered , that every one that fights a Duell must reckon himself as dead or dying , ( for however any man flatters himself by saying he will not kill , if he could avoid it ; yet rather than be killed he will , and to the danger of being killed his own act exposes him : ) now is it a good posture for a man to die with a sword in his hand thrust at his Brother's breast with a purpose either explicit or implicit to have killed him ? Can a man die twice , that in case he miscarries and is damned for the first ill dying , he may mend his fault and die better the next time ? Can his vain , imaginary and phantastick shadow of Reputation make him recompence for the disgrace and confusion of face , and pains and horrors of Eternity ? Is there no such thing as forgiving injuries , nothing of the discipline of Jesus in our spirits ? are we called by the name of Christ , and have nothing in us but the spirit of Cain , and Nimrod , and Joab ? If neither Reason nor Religion can rule us , neither interest nor safety can determine us , neither life nor Eternity can move us , neither God nor wise men be sufficient Judges of Honour to us ; then our damnation is just , but it is heavy ; our fall is certain , but it is cheap , base , and inglorious . And let not the vanities or the Gallants of the world slight this friendly monition , rejecting it with a scorn , because it is talking like a Divine : it were no disparagement if they would do so too , and believe accordingly ; and they would find a better return of honour in the crowns of Eternity by talking like a Divine , than by dying like a fool ; by living in imitation and obedience to the laws of the Holy Jesus , than by perishing , or committing Murther , or by attempting it , or by venturing it , like a weak , impotent , passionate and brutish person . Upon this Chapter it is sometime asked , whether a Virgin may not kill a Ravisher to defend her Chastity . Concerning which as we have no special and distinct warrant , so there is in reason and analogy of the Gospel much for the negative . For since his act alone cannot make her criminal , and is no more than a wound in my body , or a civil or a natural inconvenience , it is unequal to take a life in exchange for a lesser injury , and it is worse that I take it my self . Some great examples we find in story , and their names are remembred in honour ; but we can make no judgement of them , but that their zeal was reproveable for its intemperance , though it had excellency in the matter of the Passion . 8. But if we may not secure our Honour , or be revenged for injuries by the sword , may we not crave the justice of the Law , and implore the vengeance of the Judge , who is appointed for vengeance against evil doers ? and the Judge being the King's Officer , and the King God's Vicegerent , it is no more than imploring God's hand ; and that is giving place to wrath , which S. Paul speaks of , that is , permitting all to the Divine Justice . To this I answer , That it is not lawful to go to Law for every occasion or slighter injury , because it is very distant from the mercies , forgiveness and gentleness of a Christian , to contest for Trifles ; * and it is certain that the injuries , or evil , or charges of trouble and expence , will be more vexatious and afflictive to the person contested , than a small instance of wrong is to the person injured . And it is a great intemperance of anger and impotence of spirit , a covetousness and impatience , to appeal to the Judge for determination concerning a lock of Camel's hair or a Goat's beard , I mean any thing that is less than the gravity of Laws or the solemnity of a Court , and that does not out-weigh the inconveniencies of a Suit. But this we are to consider in the expression of our Blessed Saviour , If a man will sue thee at the Law , and take thy Cloak , let him have thy Coat also . Which words are a particular instance in pursuit of the general Precept , Resist not , or avenge not , evil . The primitive Christians ( as it happens in the first fervours of a Discipline ) were sometimes severe in observation of the letter , not subtlely distinguishing Counsels from Precepts , but swallowing all the words of Christ without chewing or discrimination . They abstained from Tribunals , unless they were forced thither by persecutors ; but went not thither to repeat their goods . And if we consider Suits of Law as they are wrapp'd in circumstances of action and practice , with how many subtleties and arts they are managed , how pleadings are made mercenary , and that it will be hard to find right counsel that shall advise you to desist if your cause be wrong , ( and therefore there is great reason to distrust every Question , since , if it be never so wrong , we shall meet Advocates to encourage us and plead for it ) what danger of miscarriages , of uncharitableness , anger and animosities , what desires to prevail , what care and fearfulness of the event , what 〈◊〉 temptations do intervene , how many sins are secretly 〈◊〉 in our 〈◊〉 and actions ; if a Suit were of it self never so lawful , it would concern the duty of a Christian to avoid it , as he prays against temptations , and cuts off the opportunities of a sin . It is not lawful for a Christian to sue his brother at the Law , unless he can be patient if he loses , and charitable if he be wronged , and can 〈◊〉 his end without any mixture of Covetousness , or desires to prevail without Envy , or can believe himself wrong when his Judge says he is , or can submit to peace when his just cause is oppressed , and rejected and condemned , and without pain or regret can sit down by the loss of his right , and of his pains and his money . And if he can do all this , what need he go to Law ? He may with less trouble and less danger take the loss singly , and expect God's providence for reparation , than disentitle himself to that by his own srowardness , and take the loss when it comes loaden with many circumstances of trouble . 9. But however by accident it may become unlawful to go to Law in a just cause , or in any , yet by this Precept we are not 〈◊〉 . To go to Law for revenge we are simply 〈◊〉 , that is , to return evil for evil ; and therefore all those Suits which are for * vindictive sentences , not for reparative , are directly criminal . To follow a Thief to death for spoiling my goods is extremely unreasonable and uncharitable ; for as there is no proportion between my goods and his life , ( and therefore I demand it to his evil and injury ) so the putting him to death repairs not my estate : the first makes it in me to be unjust , the latter declares me malicious and revengeful . If I demand an eye for an eye , his eye extinguished will not enlighten mine ; and therefore to prosecute him to such purposes is to resist or render evil with evil , directly against Christ's Sermon . But if the postulation of sentence be in order only to restore my self , we find it permitted by S. Paul , who , when for the 〈◊〉 sake he forbad going to Law before unbelievers , and for the danger and temptation's sake , and the latent irregularity which is certainly appendent to ordinary Litigations , he is angry indefinitely with them that go to Law ; yet he adviseth that Christian Arbitrators be appointed for decision of emergent Questions . And therefore when the Supreme Authority hath appointed and regularly established an Arbitrator , the permission is the same . S. Paul is angry that among Christians there should be Suits , but it is therefore he is chiefly angry because Christians do wrong ; they who should rather suffer wrong , yet that they should do it , and defraud their brother , which in some sence enforces Suits , that 's it he highly blames . But when injustice is done , and a man is in a considerable degree defrauded , then it is permitted to him to repeat his own before Christian Arbitrators , whether chosen by private consent or publick authority ; for that circumstance makes no essential alteration in the Question : but then this must be done with as much simplicity and unmingled design as is possible , without any desire of rendring evil to the person of the offender , without arts of heightning the charge , without prolongation , devices , and arts of vexation , without anger and animosities ; and then although accidentally there is some appendent charge to the offending person , that is not accounted upon the stock of Revenge , because it was not designed , and is not desired , and is cared for to prevent it as much as may be , and therefore offer was made of private and unchargeable Arbitrators ; and this being refused , the charge and accidental evil , if it be less than the loss of my sufferance and injury , must be reckoned to the necessities of affairs , and put upon the stock of his injustice , and will not affix a guilt upon the actor . I say , this is true , when the actor hath used all means to accord it without charge , and when he is refused manages it with as little as he can , and when it is nothing of his desire , but something of his trouble , that he cannot have his own without the lesser accidental evil to the offender , and that the question is great and weighty in his proportion ; then a Suit of Law is of it self lawful . But then let it be remembred how many ways afterwards it may become unlawful , and I have no more to add in this Article but the saying of the son of Sirach , He that loves danger shall perish in it . And certainly he had need be an Angel that manages a Suit innocently ; and he that hath so excellent a spirit as with innocence to run through the 〈◊〉 temptations of a Law-suit , in all probability hath so much holiness as to suffer the injury , and so much prudence as to avoid the danger : and therefore nothing but a very great defalcation or ruine of a man's estate will from the beginning to the end justifie such a controversie . When the man is put to it so , that he cannot do some other duty without venturing in this , then the grace of God is sufficient for him ; but he that enters lightly shall walk dangerously , and a thousand to one but he will fall foully . It is utterly a fault among you , said S. Paul , because ye go to Law one with another . It is not always a crime , but ever a fault and an irregularity , a recession from Christian perfection , and an entertaining of a danger , which though we escape through , yet it was a fault to have entred into it , when we might have avoided it . And even then when it is lawful for us , it is not expedient : For so the Apostle summs up his reprehension concerning Christians going to Law , We must rather take wrong , rather suffer our selves to be defrauded ; and when we cannot bear the burthen of the loss , then indeed we are permitted to appeal to Christian Judges ; but then there are so many cautions to be observed , that it may be the remedy is worse than the disease . I only observe this one thing , that S. Paul permits it only in the instance of defraudation or matter of interest ; such as are defending of Widows and Orphans and Churches , which in estimation of Law are by way of fiction reckoned to be in pupillage and minority ; add also repeating our own interests , when our necessities , or the support of our family and relatives , requires it : for all these are cases of Charity or duty respectively . But besides the matter of defraudation , we find no instance expressed , nor any equality and parallel of reason to permit Christians in any case to go to Law ; because in other things the sentence is but vindictive , and cannot repair us ; and therefore demanding Justice is a rendring evil in the proper matter of Revenge . Concerning which I know no 〈◊〉 but in an action of Scandal and ill report . But because an innocent and an holy life will force light out of darkness , and Humility , and Patience , and waiting upon God will bring glory out of shame ; I suppose he who goes to Law to regain his credit attempts the cure by incompetent remedies : if the accusation be publick , the Law will call him to an account , and then he is upon his defence , and must acquit himself with meekness and sincerity ; but this allows not him to be the actor , for then it is rather a design of Revenge than a proper deletery of his disgrace , and purgative of the 〈◊〉 . For if the accusation can be proved , it was no calumny ; if it be not proved , the person is not always innocent , and to have been accused leaves something foul in his reputation : and therefore he that by Law makes it more publick propagates his own disgrace , and sends his shame farther than his innocence , and the crime will go whither his absolution shall not arrive . 10. If it be yet farther questioned , whether it be lawful to pray for a Revenge , or a Punishment upon the offender , ( I reckon them all one ; he that prays for punishment of him that did him personal injury cannot easily be supposed to separate the Punishment from his own Revenge ) I answer , that although God be the avenger of all our wrongs , yet it were fit for us to have the affections of brethren , not the designs and purposes of a Judge , but leave them to him to whom they are proper . When in the bitterness of soul an oppressed person curses sadly , and prays for vengeance , the calamity of the man and the violence of his enemy hasten a curse , and ascertain it . But whatever excuses the greatness of the Oppression may make I know not ; but the bitterness of the spirit , besides that it is pitiable as it is a passion , yet it is violent and less Christian as it is active and sends forth prayers . Woe is pronounced to them by whom the 〈◊〉 cometh ; yet we must beware of offences , because by them we are engaged in a sin : and he that prays for a Revenge hath a revengeful spirit , however it be restrained by Laws and exteriour tendernesses from acting such dire purposes . And he that prays for Revenge may indeed procure a Justice to be done upon the injurious person ; but oftentimes it happens then to fall on him when we least wish it , when we also have a conjunct interest in the others preservation and escape : God so punishing the first wrong , that we also may smart for our uncharitable wishes . For the ground of all this discourse is , that it is part of Christian Charity to forgive * injuries : which forgiveness of the injury , although it may reasonably enough stand with my fair and innocent requiring of my own , which goes no farther than a fair repetition ; yet in no case can it stand with the acting and desiring Revenge , which also in the formality of Revenge can have no pretence of Charity , because it is ineffective to my restitution . This Discourse concerns private persons ; whether it concern the Question of War , and how far , is not proper for this Consideration . Of Alms. PART II. 1. BUT Christian Charity hath its effect also in Benefits as well as Gentleness and innocence : Give to him that asketh , and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away . But when thou dost thine Alms , 〈◊〉 not thy left hand know what thy right hand doth . These are the Precepts of the Lord , for the substance and the manner of Alms , for the quantity and freeness of the donative , and the simplicity of him that gives ; to which add those other words of his , Sell your possessions , and give Alms. This Precept with its circumstances was intended as a defensative against Covetousness and Prodigality , and a suppletory to make up the wants , and to make even the breaches of mankind : In which we shall best understand our obligation , if we consider in what proportion we must give Alms , and to what persons , and in what manner . 2. First , For the Quantity , we shall best take an estimate of it , if we remember the portion which God allows to Christians , Having food and raiment , let us be content with it : and our Blessed Saviour at the latter end of this Sermon stirs us up to confidence in God , and not to doubt our provisions , by telling that God feeds the Ravens , and clothes the Lilies , and he will much rather do it to us , he will clothe us and feed us ; no more is in the promise , no more is in our need : and therefore whatsoever is beside our needs natural and personal , that is , proportioning our needs to the condition of our life , and exigence of our calling , and quality of our person , all that can be spared from what we modestly and temperately spend in our support , and the supply of our families , and other necessary incidents , all that is to be spent in Charity or Religion . He defrauds the poor of their right who detains from them beyond his own necessary , prudent , and convenient supplies , saith S. Hierom : and this is intended to be a retrenchment of all vain expences , costly feasts , rich cloaths , pompous retinue , and such 〈◊〉 of expence which of themselves serve no end of piety or just policy , but by wife and temperate persons are esteemed unnecessary , and without which the dignity and just value of the person may still be retained . Whatsoever is vainly spent was the portion of the poor ; whatsoever we lose in idle gaming , revelling , and wantonness of prodigality , was designed by Christ to refresh his own bowels , to fill the bellies of the poor ; whatsoever lies in our repository useless and superfluous , all that is the poor man's inheritance : and certainly there is not any greater baseness than to suffer a man to perish or be in extreme want of that which God gave me for him , and beyond my own needs . It is unthankfulness to God , it is unmercifulness to the poor , it is improvidence to our selves , it is unfaithfulness in the dispensation of the money of which God made him but the Steward , and his chest the Bank for the exchange and issuing it to the indigent . And he that is unmerciful and unjust is extremely unlike God. But in taking this estimate concerning our 〈◊〉 we are to 〈◊〉 according to the rules of prudence , not making determinations in grains and scruples , but in the greater actions and accountable proportions of our estates . And if any man seeing great necessities of indigent and calamitous persons shall give beyond his ability , he had the Philippians for his precedent , and he hath God ingaged for his payment , and a greater 〈◊〉 in Heaven for his reward . Only this ; as we are to provide for our selves , so also for our Family and the relatives of our charge and nearer endearments , not only with a provision of the present day's entertainment , but also for all nearer , probable , foreseen and expected events , such as are Portions for our Children , Dowries for Daughters : but this must not be extended to care and reservations for all possible and far-distant events ; but so much is to be permitted to the Divine Providence as our present duty gives leave . In which although a prudent guide and a sober reason are to make application to practice , yet the Rule in general is , That by so much we are to relieve the poor , as we can deduct from such a portion of good things as God permits us to use for our own support , and reasonable and temporal conveniencies of our person and condition ; ever remembring , that if we encrease in our Estate we also should encrease in Charity , that in this also may be verified what is written , He that had much had nothing over , and he that had little had no lack . There is in the quantity of these donatives some latitude ; but if we sow sparingly , or if we scatter plentifully , so we shall reap : Only we must be careful that no extreme necessity or biting want lies upon any poor man , whom we can relieve without bringing such a want upon our selves which is less than the permissions of fortune which the mercies of God have permitted to us , that is , food and raiment proper for us . Under food and raiment all the necessaries of our life are to be understood : Whatsoever is more than this is counsel and perfection ; for which a proportionable reward is deposited in the treasures of Eternity . 3. Secondly , If question be made concerning the Persons who are to be the object of our Alms , our rule is plain and easie ; for nothing is required in the person suscipient and capable of Alms , but that he be in misery and want , and unable to relieve himself . This last clause I insert in pursuance of that caution given to the Church of Thessalonica by S. Paul , If any one will not work , neither let him eat ; for we must be careful that our Charity , which is intended to minister to poor mens needs , do not minister to idleness and the love of beggery , and a wandring , useless , unprofitable life . But , abating this , there is no other consideration that can exempt any needy person from participation of your Charity ; not , though he be your Enemy ; ( for that is it which our Blessed Saviour means in the appendix of this Precept , Love your Enemies , that is , according to the exposition of the Apostle , If thine enemy hunger , 〈◊〉 him , if he thirst , give him drink ) not , though he be an Unbeliever ; not , though he be a vicious * person : provided only that the vice be such to which your relief ministers no fuel and adds no flame ; and if the mere necessities of his nature be supplied , it will be a fair security against the danger ; but if the vice be in the scene of the body , all freer comforts are to be denied him , because they are but incentives of sin and Angels of darkness . This I the rather insert , that the pride and supercilious austerities of some persons become not to them an instrument of excuse from ministring to needy persons , upon pretence their own sins brought them into that condition . For though the causes of our calamities are many times great secrets of Providence , yet suppose the poverty of the man was the effect of his Prodigality or other baseness , it matters not as to our duty how he came into it , but where he is ; lest we also be denied a visit in our sicknesses , and a comfort in our sorrow , or a counsel in our doubts , or aid in any distress , upon pretence that such sadness was procured by our sins : and ten to one but it was so . Do good to all , faith the Apostle , but especially to the family of faith ; for to them our Charity is most proper and proportioned : to all , viz. who are in need , and cannot relieve themselves ; in which number persons that can work are not to be accounted . So that if it be necessary to observe an order in our Charity , that is , when we cannot supply and suffice for all our opportunities of mercy , then let not the Brethren of our Lord go away ashamed ; and in other things observe the order and propriety of your own relations , and where there is otherwise no difference , the degree of the necessity is first to be considered . This also , if the necessity be 〈◊〉 and extreme , what-ever the man be , he is first to be relieved before the lesser necessities of the best persons or most holy poor . But the proper objects of our Charity are old persons , sick or impotent , laborious and poor Housekeepers , Widows and Orphans , people oppressed or persecuted for the cause of Righteousness , distressed Strangers , Captives and abused Slaves , prisoners of Debt . To these we must be liberal , whether they be holy or unholy , remembring that we are sons of that Father who makes the dew of Heaven to drop upon the dwellings of the righteous and the fields of sinners . 4. Thirdly , The Manner of giving Alms is an office of Christian prudence ; for in what instances we are to exemplifie our Charity we must be determined by our own powers , and others needs . The Scripture reckons entertaining strangers , visiting the sick , going to prisons , feeding and cloathing the hungry and naked : to which , by the exigence of the poor and the analogy of Charity , many other are to be added . The Holy Jesus in the very Precept instanced in lending money to them that need to borrow ; and he adds , looking for nothing again , that is , if they be unable to pay it . Forgiving Debts is a great instance of mercy , and a particular of excellent relief : but to imprison men for Debt , when it is certain they are not able to pay it , and by that prison will be far more disabled , is an uncharitableness next to the cruelties of salvages , and at infinite distance from the mercies of the Holy Jesus . Of not Judging . PART III. ANother instance of Charity our great Master inserted in this Sermon , [ not to judge our Brother : ] and this is a Charity so cheap and so reasonable , that it requires nothing of us but silence in our spirits . We may perform this duty at the charge of a negative ; if we meddle not with other mens affairs we shall do them no wrong , and purchase to our selves a peace , and be secured the rather from the 〈◊〉 sentence of a severer Judge . But this interdict forbids only such judging as is ungentle and uncharitable : in criminal causes let us find all the ways to alleviate the burthen of the man by just excuses , by extenuating or lessening accidents , by abatement of incident circumstances , by gentle sentences , and whatsoever can do relief to the person , that his spirit be not exasperated , that the crime be not the parent of impudence , that he be not insulted on , that he be invited to repentance , and by such sweetnesses he be led to his restitution . This also in questions of doubts obliges us to determine to the more favourable sence ; and we also do need the same mercies , and therefore should do well by our own rigour not to disintitle our selves to such possibilities and reserves of Charity . But it is foul and base , by detraction and iniquity to blast the reputation of an honourable action , and the fair name of vertue with a calumny . But this duty is also a part of the grace of Justice and of Humility , and by its relation and kindred to so many vertues is furnished with so many arguments of amability and endearment . The PRAYER . HOly and merciful Jesus , who art the great principle and the instrument of conveying to us the charity and mercies of Eternity , who didst love us when we were enemies , forgive us when we were debtors , recover us when we were dead , ransom us when we were slaves , relieve us when we were poor , and naked , and wandring , and full of sadness and necessities ; give us the grace of Charity , that we may be pitiful and compassionate of the needs of our necessitous Brethren , that we may be apt to relieve them , and that according to our duty and possibilities we may rescue them from their calamities . Give us courteous , affable , and liberal souls ; let us by thy example forgive our debtors , and love our enemies , and do to them offices of civility and tenderness and relief ; always propounding thee for our pattern , and thy mercies for our precedent , and thy Precepts for our rule , and thy Spirit for our guide : that we , shewing mercy here , may receive the mercies of Eternity by thy merits , and by thy charities , and dispensation , O Holy and merciful Jesus . Amen . DISCOURSE XII . Of the Second additional Precept of Christ , ( viz. ) Of PRAYER . Non magna loquimur sed vivimus . Cum clamore valido et lachrymas pr●ces offerens exauditus ●●● pro sua rererent●● 1. THE Soul of a Christian is the house of God , Ye are God's building , ( saith S. Paul ; ) but the house of God is the house of Prayer : and therefore Prayer is the work of the Soul , whose organs are intended for instruments of the Divine praises ; and when every stop and pause of those instruments is but the conclusion of a Collect , and every breathing is a Prayer , then the Body becomes a Temple , and the Soul is the Sanctuary , and more private recess , and place of entercourse . Prayer is the great duty , and the greatest priviledge of a Christian ; it is his entercourse with God , his Sanctuary in troubles , his remedy for sins , his cure of griefs , and , as S. Gregory calls it , it is the principal instrument whereby we minister to God in execution of the decrees of eternal Predestination ; and those things which God intends for us , we bring to our selves by the mediation of holy Prayers . Prayer is the * ascent of the mind to God , and a petitioning for such things as we need for our support and duty . It is an abstract and summary of Christian Religion . Prayer is an act of Religion and Dinine ‖ Worship , confessing his power and his mercy ; it celebrates his Attributes , and confesses his glories , and reveres his person , and implores his aid , and gives thanks for his blessings : it is an act of Humility , condescension , and dependence , expressed in the prostration of our bodies and humiliation of our spirits : it is an act of Charity when we pray for others ; it is an act of Repentance when it confesses and begs pardon for our sins , and exercises every Grace according to the design of the man , and the matter of the Prayer . So that there will be less need to amass arguments to invite us to this Duty ; every part is an excellence , and every end of it is a blessing , and every design is a motive , and every need is an impulsive to this holy office . Let us but remember how many needs we have , at how cheap a rate we may obtain their remedies , and yet how honourable the imployment is to go to God with confidence , and to fetch our supplies with easiness and joy ; and then , without farther preface , we may address our selves to the understanding of that Duty by which we imitate the imployment of Angels and beatified spirits , by which we ascènd to God in spirit while we remain on earth , and God descends on earth while he yet resides in Heaven , sitting there on the Throne of his Kingdom . 2. Our first enquiry must be concerning the Matter of our Prayers ; for our Desires are not to be the rule of our Prayers , unless Reason and Religion be the rule of our Desires . The old Heathens * prayed to their Gods for such things which they were ashamed to name publickly before men ; and these were their private prayers , which they durst not for their undecency or iniquity make publick . And indeed sometimes the best men ask of God Things not unlawful in themselves , yet very hurtful to them : and therefore , as by the Spirit of God and right Reason we are taught in general what is lawful to be asked ; so it is still to be submitted to God , when we have asked lawful things , to grant to us in kindness , or to deny us in mercy : after all the rules that can be given us , we not being able in many instances to judge for our selves , unless also we could certainly pronounce concerning future contingencies . But the Holy Ghost being now sent upon the Church , and the rule of Christ being left to his Church , together with his form of Prayer taught and prescribed to his Disciples , we have sufficient instruction for the matter of our Prayers so far as concerns the lawfulness or unlawfulness . And the rule is easie and of no variety . 1. For we are bound to pray for all things that concern our duty , all that we are bound to labour for ; such as are Glory and Grace , necessary assistances of the Spirit , and rewards spiritual , Heaven and Heavenly things . 2. Concerning those things which we may with safety hope for , but are not matter of duty to us , we may lawfully testifie our hope and express our desires by petition : but if in their particulars they are under no express promise , but only conveniencies of our life and person , it is only lawful to pray for them under condition , that they may conform to God's will and our duty , as they are good and placed in the best order of eternity . Therefore 1 for spiritual blessings let our Prayers be particularly importunate , perpetual and persevering : 2 For temporal blessings let them be generally * short , conditional and modest : 3 And whatsoever things are of mixt nature , more spiritual than Riches , and less necessary than Graces , such as are gifts and exteriour aids , we may for them as we may desire them , and as we may expect them , that is , with more confidence and less restraint than in the matter of temporal requests , but with more reservedness and less boldness of petition than when we pray for the graces of Sanctification . In the first case we are bound to pray : in the second , it is only lawful under certain conditions : in the third , it becomes to us an act of zeal , nobleness , and Christian prudence . But the matter of our Prayers is best taught us in the form our Lord taught his Disciples ; which because it is short , mysterious , and , like the treasures of the Spirit , full of wisdom and latent sences , it is not improper to draw forth those excellencies which are intended and signified by every Petition , that by so excellent an authority we may know what it is lawful to beg of God. 3. Our Father which art in Heaven . The address reminds us of many parts of our duty . If God be our Father , where is his fear , and reverence , and obedience ? If ye were Abraham's children , ye would do the works of Abraham ; and , Ye are of your father the Devil , for his works ye do . Let us not dare to call him Father , if we be rebels and enemies ; but if we be obedient , then we know he is our Father , and will give us a Child's portion , and the inheritance of Sons . But it is observable , that Christ here speaking concerning private Prayer , does describe it in a form of plural signification ; to tell us , that we are to draw into the communication of our prayers all those who are confederated in the common relation of Sons to the same Father . Which art in Heaven tells us * where our hopes and our hearts must be fixed , whither our desires and our prayers must tend . Sursum corda ; Where our treasure is , there must our hearts be also . 4. Hallowed be thy Name . That is , Let thy Name , thy Essence and glorious Attributes be honoured and adored in all the world , believed by Faith , loved by Charity , celebrated with praises , thanked with Eucharist ; and let thy Name be hallowed in us ; as it is in it self . Thy Name being called upon us , let us walk worthy of that calling ; that our light may shine before men , that they seeing our good works may glorifie thee our Father which art in heaven . In order also to the sanctification of thy Name grant that all our praises , hymns , Eucharistical remembrances and representments of thy glories may be useful , blessed and esfectual for the dispersing thy fame , and advancing thy honour over all the world . This is a direct and formal act of worshipping and adoration . The Name of God is representative of God himself , and it signifies , Be thou worshipped and adored , be thou thanked and celebrated with honour and Eucharist . 5. Thy Kingdom come . That is , As thou hast caused to be preached and published the coming of thy Kingdom , the peace and truth , the revelation and glories of the Gospel ; so let it come verily and esfectually to us and all the world ; that thou mayest truly reign in our spirits , exercising absolute dominion , subduing all thine Enemies , ruling in our Faculties , in the Understanding by Faith , in the Will by Charity , in the Passions by Mortification , in the Members by a chaste and right use of the parts . And as it was more particularly and in the letter proper at the beginning of Christ's Preaching , when he also taught the Prayer , that God would hasten the coming of the Gospel to all the world : so 〈◊〉 also and ever it will be in its proportion necessary and pious to pray that it may come still , making greater progress in the world , extending it self where yet it is not , and intending it where it is already ; that the Kingdom of Christ may not only be in us in name and form and honourable appellatives , but in effect and power . This Petition in the first Ages of Christianity was not expounded to signifie a prayer for Christ's second coming ; because the Gospel not being preached to all the world , they prayed for the delay of the day of Judgment , that Christ's Kingdom upon earth might have its proper increment : but since then every Age , as it is more forward in time , so it is more earnest in desire to accomplish the intermedial Prophecies , that the Kingdom of God the Father might come in glories infinite . And , indeed , the Kingdom of Grace being in order to the Kingdom of Glory , this , as it is principally to be desired , so may possibly be intended chiefly : which also is the more probable , because the address of this Prayer being to God the Father , it is proper to observe , that the Kingdom of Grace , or of the Gospel , is called the Kingdom of the * Son , and that of Glory in the style of the Scripture is the Kingdom of the Father . S. German , Patriarch of Constantinople , expounds it with some little difference , but not ill ; Thy Kingdom come , that is , Let thy Holy Spirit come into us ; for the Kingdom of Heaven is within us , saith the Holy Scripture : and so it intimates our desires that the promise of the Father , and the Prophecies of old , and the Holy Ghost the Comforter , may come upon us : Let that anointing from above descend upon us , whereby we may be anointed Kings and Priests in a spiritual Kingdom and Priesthood by a holy Chrism . 6. Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven . That is , The whole Oeconomy and dispensation of thy Providence be the guide of the world , and the measure of our desire ; that we be patient in all accidents , conformable to God's will both in doing and in suffering , submitting to changes , and even to persecutions , and doing all God's will : which because without God's aid we cannot do , therefore we beg it of him by prayer ; but by his aid we are 〈◊〉 we may do it in the manner of Angelical obedience , that is , promptly , readily , chearfully , and with all our faculties . Or thus : As the Angels in Heaven serve thee with harmony , concord and peace ; so let us all joyn in the service of thy Majesty with peace and purity , and love unfeigned : that as all the Angels are in peace , and amongst them there is no persecutor and none persecuted , there is none afflicting or afflicted , none assaulting or assaulted , but all in sweetness and peaceable serenity glorifying thee ; so let thy will be done on earth by all the world in peace and unity , in charity and tranquillity , that with one heart and one voice we may glorifie thee our universal Father , having in us nothing that may displease thee , having quitted all our own desires and pretensions , living in Angelick conformity , our Souls subject to thee , and our Passions to our Souls ; that in earth also thy will may be done as in the spirit and Soul , which is a portion of the heavenly substance . These three Petitions are addressed to God by way of adoration . In the first the Soul puts on the affections of a Child , and devests it self of its own interest , offering it self up wholly to the designs and glorifications of God. In the second it puts on the relation and duty of a Subject to her legitimate Prince , seeking the promotion of his Regal Interest . In the third she puts on the affection of a Spouse , loving the same love , and chusing the same object , and delighting in unions and conformities . The next part descends lower , and makes addresses to God in relation to our own necessities . 7. Give us this day our * daily bread . That is , Give unto us all that is necessary for the support of our lives , the bread of our necessity , so the Syriack Interpreter reads it ; This day give us the portion of bread which is day by day necessary . Give us the bread or support which we shall need all our lives ; only this day minister our present part . For we pray for the necessary bread or maintenance , which God knows we shall need all our days ; but that we be not careful for to morrow , we are taught to pray not that it be all at once represented or deposited , but that God would minister it as we need it , how he pleases : but our needs are to be the measure of our desires , our desires must not make our needs ; that we may be consident of the Divine Providence , and not at all covetous : for therefore God feeds his people with extemporary provisions , that by needing always they may learn to pray to him , and by being still supplied may learn to trust him for the future , and thank him for that is past , and rejoyce in the present . So God rained down Manna , giving them their daily portion ; and so all Fathers and Masters minister to their children and servants , giving them their proportion as they eat it , not the meat of a year at once ; and yet no child or servant fears want , if his Parent or Lord were good , and wise , and rich . And it is necessary for all to pray this Prayer : the Poor , because they want the bread , and have it not deposited but in the hands of God ; mercy ploughing the 〈◊〉 of Heaven ( as Job's expression is ) brings them corn ; and the caltel upon a thousand hills are God's , and they find the poor man meat : the Rich also need this Prayer , because although they have the bread , yet they need the blessing ; and what they have now may perish or be taken from them ; and as preservation is a perpetual creation , so the continuing to rich men what God hath already bestowed is a continual giving it . Young men must pray , because their needs are like to be the longer ; and Old men , because they are present : but all these are to pray but for the * present ; that which in estimation of Law is to be reckoned as imminent upon the present , and part of this state and condition . But it is great improvidence , and an unchristian spirit , for old men to heap up provisions , and load their sumpters still the more by how much their way is shorter . But there is also a bread which came down from heaven , a diviner nutriment of our Souls , the food and wine of Angels , Christ himself , as he communicates himself in the expresses of his Word and Sacraments : and if we be destitute of this bread , we are miserable and perishing people . We must pray that our Souls also may feed upon those celestial viands prepared for us in the antepasts of the Gospel , till the great and fuller meal of the Supper of the Lamb shall answer all our prayers , and 〈◊〉 every desire . 8. Forgive us our trespasses , as we forgive them that trespass against us . Not only those sins of infirmity , invasion , and sudden surprise , which , like excrescencies of luxuriant trees , adhere to many actions by inadvertency , and either natural weakness or accidental prejudice ; but also all those great sins which were washed off from our Souls , and the stain taken away in Baptism ; or when by choice and after the use of Reason we gave up our names to Christ , when we first received the adoption of sons : for even those things were so pardoned , that we must for ever confess and glory in the Divine mercy , and still ascertain it by performing what we then promised , and which were the conditions of our covenant . For although Christ hath taken off the guilt , yet still there remains the disreputation ; and S. Paul calls himself the chiefest of sinners , not referring to his present condition , but to his former persecuting the Church of God , which is one of the greatest crimes in the world , and for ever he asked pardon for it : and so must we , knowing that they may return ; if we shake off the yoke of Christ , and break his cords from us , the bands of the covenant Evangelical , the sins will return so as to undo us . And this we pray with a tacite obligation to forgive : for so only and upon that condition we beg pardon to be given or continued respectively ; that is , as we from our hearts forgive them that did us injury in any kind , never entertaining so much as a thought of revenge , but contrariwise loving them that did us wrong ; for so we beg that God should do to us : and therefore it is but a lesser revenge to say , I will forgive , but I will never have to do with him . For if he become an object of Charity , we must have to do with him to relieve him ; because he needs prayers , we must have to do with him and pray for him : and to refuse his society when it is reasonably and innocently offered , is to deny that to him which Christians have only been taught to deny to persons excommunicate , to persons under punishment , i. e. to persons not yet forgiven : and we shall have but an evil portion , if God should forgive our sins , and should not also love us , and do us grace , and bestow benefits upon us . So we must forgive others ; so God forgives us . 9. And lead us not into temptation . S. Cyprian , out of an old Latin copy , reads it , * Suffer us not to be led into temptation , that is , Suffer us not to be overcome by temptation . And therefore we are bound to prevent our access to such temptation whose very approximation is dangerous , and the contact is irregular and evil ; such as are temptations of the flesh : yet in other temptations the assault sometimes makes confident , and hardens a resolution . For some spirits , who are softned by fair usages , are steeled and emboldned by a persecution . But of what nature soever the temptations be , whether they be such whose approach a Christian is bound to fear , or such which are the certain lot of Christians , ( such are troubles and persecutions , into which when we enter we must count it joy ) yet we are to pray that we enter not into the possession of the temptation , that we be not overcome by it . 10. But deliver us from evil . From the assaults or violence of evil , from the Wicked one , who not only presents us with objects , but heightens our concupiscence , and makes us imaginative , phantastical and passionate , setting on the temptation , making the lust active , and the man full of appetite , and the appetite full of energy and power : therefore deliver us from the Evil one , who is interested as an enemy in every hostility and in every danger . Let not Satan have any power or advantage over us ; and let not evil men prevail upon us in our danger , much less to our ruine . Make us safe under the covering of thy wings against all fraud and every violence , that no temptation destroy our hopes , or break our strength , or alter our state , or overthrow our glories . In these last Petitions , which concern our selves , the Soul hath affections proper to her own needs ; as in the former proportion to God's glory . In the first of these , the affection of a poor , indigent , and necessitous Begger ; in the second , of a delinquent and penitent servant ; in the last , of a person in affliction or danger . And after all this the reason of our confidence is derived from God. 11. For thine is the kingdom , the power , and the glory , for ever . That is , These which we beg are for the honour of thy kingdom , for the manifestation of thy power , and the glory of thy Name and mercies : And it is an express Doxology or Adoration , which is apt and 〈◊〉 to conclude all our Prayers and addresses to God. 12. These are the generals and great Treasures of matter to which all our present or sudden needs are reducible ; and when we make our Prayers more minute and particular , if the instance be in matter of duty and merely spiritual , there is no danger : but when our needs are temporal , or we are transported with secular desires , all descending to particulars is a confining the Divine Providence , a judging for our selves , a begging a temptation oftentimes , sometimes a mischief : and to beg beyond the necessities of our life , is a mutiny against that Providence which assigns to Christians no more but food and raiment for their own use ; all other excrescencies of possessions being entrusted to the rich man's 〈◊〉 , only as to a steward , and he shall be accountable for the coat that lies by him , as the portion of moths , and for the shoes which are the spoils of mouldiness , and the contumely of plenty . Grant me , O Lord , not what I desire , but what is profitable for me . For sometimes we desire that which in the succeeding event of things will undo us . This rule is in all things that concern our selves . There is some little difference in the affairs and necessities of other men : for , provided we submit to the Divine Providence , and pray for good things for others only with a tacite condition , so far as they are good and profitable in order to the best ends , yet if we be particular , there is no covetousness in it ; there may be indiscretion in the particular , but in the general no fault , because it is a prayer and a design of Charity . For Kings and all that are in authority we may yet enlarge , and pray for a peaceable reign , true lieges , strong armies , victories and fair success in their just wars , health , long life , and riches , because they have a capacity which private persons have not ; and whatsoever is good for single persons , and whatsoever is apt for their uses as publick persons , all that we may and we must pray for , either particularly , for so we may , or in general significations , for so we must at least : that we may lead a godly , peaceable and quiet life , in all godliness and honesty ; that is S. Paul's rule , and the prescribed measure and purpose of such prayers . And in this instance of Kings , we may pray for defeating all the King's enemies , such as are truly such ; and we have no other restraint upon us in this , but that we keep our desires confined within the limits of the end we are commanded ; that is , so far to confound the King's enemies , that he may do his duty , and we do ours , and receive the blessing : ever as much as we can to distinguish the malice from the person . But if the enemies themselves will not also separate what our intentions distinguish , that is , if they will not return to their duty , then let the prayers operate as God pleases , we must be zealous for the end of the King's authority and peaceable government . By enemies I mean Rebels or Invaders , Tyrants and 〈◊〉 ; for in other Wars there are many other considerations not proper for this place . 13. The next consideration will be concerning the Manner ; I mean both the manner of our Persons , and the manner of our Prayers ; that is , with what conditions we ought to approach to God , and with what circumstances the Prayers may or ought to be performed . The Conditions to make our Prayers holy and certain to prevail are , 1. That we live good lives , endeavouring to conform by holy obedience to all the Divine Commandments . This condition is expresly recorded by S. John ; Beloved , if our hearts condemn us not , then have we confidence towards God , and whatsoever we ask of him we shall obtain : and S. James affirms that the effectual servent prayer of a righteous man availeth much : and our Blessed Saviour , limiting the confidence of our Prayers for Forgiveness to our Charity and forgiving others , plainly tells us , that the uncharitable and unrighteous person shall not be heard . And the blind man in the Gospel understood well what he said , Now we know that God heareth not sinners ; but if any man be a worshipper , and doth his will , him he heareth . And it was so decreed and resolved a point in the doctrine of their Religion , that it was a proverbial saying . And although this discourse of the blind man was of a restrained occasion , and signified , if Christ had been a false Prophet , God would not have attested his Sermons with the power of Miracles ; yet in general also he had been taught by David , If I regard iniquity in my heart , the Lord will not hear my prayer . And therefore when men pray in every place , ( for so they are commanded ) let them lift up pure hands , without anger and contention . And indeed although every sin entertained with a free choice and a full understanding is an obstruction to our Prayers ; yet the special sin of Uncharitableness makes the biggest cloud , and is in the proper matter of it an indisposition for us to receive mercy : for he who is softned with apprehension of his own needs of mercy , will be tender-hearted towards his brother ; and therefore he that hath no bowels here , can have no aptness there to receive or heartily to hope for mercy . But this rule is to be understood of persons who persevere in the habit and remanent affections of sin ; so long as they entertain sin with love , complacency and joy , they are in a state of enmity with God , and therefore in no fit disposition to receive pardon and the entertainment of friends : but penitent sinners and returning souls , loaden and grieved with their heavy pressures , are next to holy innocents , the aptest persons in the world to be heard in their Prayers for pardon ; but they are in no farther disposition to large favours , and more eminent charities . A sinner in the beginning of his Penance will be heard for himself , and yet also he needs the prayers of holy persons more signally than others ; for he hath but some very few degrees of dispositions to reconciliation : but in prayers of intercession or mediation for others , only holy and very pious persons are fit to be interested . All men as matter of duty must pray for all men : but in the great necessities of a Prince , of a Church , or Kingdom , or of a family , or of a great danger and calamity to a single person , only a Noah , a David , a Daniel , a 〈◊〉 , an Enoch or Job , are fit and proportioned advocates . God so requires Holiness in us that our Prayers may be accepted , that he entertains them in several degrees according to the degrees of our Sanctity ; to fewer or more purposes , according as we are little or great in the kingdom of Heaven . As for those irregular donations of good things which wicked persons ask for and have ; they are either no mercies , but instruments of cursing and crime ; or else they are designs of grace , intended to convince them of their unworthiness , and so , if they become not instruments of their Conversion , they are aggravations of their Ruine . 14. Secondly , The second condition I have already explained in the description of the Matter of our Prayers . For although we may lawfully ask for whatsoever we need , and this leave is consigned to us in those words of our Blessed Saviour , Your heavenly Father knoweth what you have need of : yet because God's Providence walks in the great deep , that is , his foot-steps are in the water , and leave no impression ; no former act of grace becomes a precedent that he will give us that in kind which then he saw convenient , and therefore gave us , and now he sees to be inconvenient , and therefore does deny . Therefore in all things , but what are matter of necessary and unmingled duty , we must send up our Prayers ; but humility , mortification and conformity to the Divine will must attend for an answer , and bring back not what the publick Embassy pretends , but what they have in private instructions to desire ; accounting that for the best satisfaction which God pleases , not what I have either unnecessarily , or vainly , or sinfully desired . 15. Thirdly , When our persons are disposed by Sanctity , and the matter of our Prayers is hallowed by prudence and religious intendments , then we are bound to entertain a full Perswasion and 〈◊〉 Hope that God will hear us . What things soever ye desire when ye pray , believe that ye receive them , and ye shall obtain them , said our Blessed Saviour : and S. James taught from that Oracle , If any of you lack wisdome , let him ask it of God : But let him ask in faith , nothing wavering ; for he that wavereth is like a wave of the Sea , driven with the wind and tossed to and fro : Meaning , that when there is no fault in the matter of our Prayers , but that we ask things pleasing to God , and there is no indisposition and hostility in our persons and manners between God and us , then to doubt were to distrust God ; for all being right on our parts , if we doubt the issue , the defailance must be on that part , which to suspect were infinite impiety . But after we have done all we can , if , out of humility , and fear that we are not truly disposed , we doubt of the issue , it is a modesty which will not at all discommend our persons , nor impede the event ; provided we at no hand suspect either God's power or veracity . Putting trust in God is an excellent advantage to our Prayers ; I will deliver him , ( saith God ) because he hath put his trust in me . And yet distrusting our selves , and suspecting our own dispositions , as it pulls us back in our actual confidence of the event , so because it abates nothing of our confidence in God , it prepares us to receive the reward of humility , and not to lose the praise of a holy trusting in the Almighty . 16. These conditions are essential : some other there are which are incidents and accessories , but at no hand to be neglected . And the first is , actual or habitual attention to our Prayers , which we are to procure with moral and severe endeavours , that we desire not God to hear us when we do not hear our selves . To which purpose we must avoid , as much as our duty will permit us , multiplicity of cares and exteriour imployments ; for a River cut into many rivulets divides also its strength , and grows contemptible , and apt to be forded by a lamb , and drunk up by a Summer-Sun : so is the spirit of man busied in variety and divided in it self ; it abates its fervour , cools into indifferency , and becomes trifling by its dispersion and inadvertency . Aquinas was once asked , with what compendium a man might best become learned ; he answered , By reading of one Book : meaning that an understanding entertained with several objects is intent upon neither , and profits not . And so it is when we pray to God ; if the cares of the world intervene , they choak our desire into an indifferency , and suppress the flame into a smoak , and strangle the spirit . But this being an habitual carelesness and intemperance of spirit , is an enemy to an habitual attention , and therefore is highly criminal , and makes our Prayers to be but the labour of the lips , because our desires are lessened by the remanent affections of the world . But besides an habitual attention in our Prayers , that is , a desire in general of all that our Prayers pretend to in particular , there is also for the accommodation , and to facilitate the access of our Prayers , required , that we attend actually to the words or sense of every Collect or Petition . To this we must contend with Prayer , with actual dereliction and seposition of all our other affaires , though innocent and good in other kinds , by a present spirit . And the use of it is , that such attention is an actual conversing with God ; it occasions the exercise of many acts of vertue , it increases zeal and fervency , and by reflexion enkindles love and holy desires . And although there is no rule to determine the degree of our actual attention , and it is ordinarily impossible never to wander with a thought , or to be interrupted with a sudden immission into our spirit in the midst of prayers ; yet our duty is , by mortification of our secular desires , by suppression of all our irregular passions , by reducing them to indifferency , by severity of spirit , by enkindling our holy appetites and desires of holy things , by silence and meditation and repose , to get as forward in this excellency as we can : to which also we may be very much helped by ejaculatory prayers and short breathings ; in which as , by reason of their short abode upon the spirit , there is less fear of diversion ; so also they may so often be renewed , that nothing of the Devotion may be unspent or expire for want of oil to feed and entertain the flame . But the determination of the case of Conscience is this : Habitual attention is absolutely necessary in our Prayers , that is , it is altogether our duty to desire of God all that we pray for , though our mind be not actually attending to the form of words ; and therefore all worldly desires , that are inordinate , must be rescinded , that we more earnestly attend on God than on the world . He that prays to God to give him the gift of Chastity , and yet secretly wishes rather for an opportunity of Lust , and desires God would not hear him , ( as S. Austin confesses of himself in his youth ) that man sins for want of holy and habitual desires ; he prays only with his lips , what he in no sense attests in his heart . 2. Actual attention to our Prayers is also necessary , not ever to avoid a sin , but that the present Prayer become effectual . He that means to feast , and to get thanks of God , must invite the poor ; and yet he that invites the rich , in that he sins not , though he hath no reward of God for that . So that Prayer perishes to which the man gives no degree of actual attention , for the Prayer is as if it were not , it is no more than a dream or an act of custom and order , nothing of Devotion , and so accidentally becomes a sin ( I mean there where and in what degrees it is avoidable ) by taking God's Name in vain . 3. It is not necessary to the prevalency of the Prayer that the spirit actually accompany every clause or word ; if it says a hearty Amen , or in any part of it attests the whole , it is such an attention which the present condition of most men will sometimes permit . 4. A wandering of the spirit through carelesness , or any vice , or inordinate passion , is in that degree criminal as is the cause , and it is heightened by the greatness of the interruption . 5. It is only excused by our endeavours to cure it , and by our after-acts either of sorrow , or repetition of the Prayer , and reinforcing the intention . And certainly if we repeat our Prayer , in which we have observed our spirits too much to wander , and resolve still to repeat it , ( as our opportunities permit ) it may in a good degree defeat the purpose of the Enemy , when his own arts shall return upon his head , and the wandring of our spirits be made the occasion of a Prayer , and the parent of a new Devotion . 6. Lastly , according to the degrees of our actual attention , so our Prayers are more or less perfect : a present spirit being a great instrument and testimony of wisdome , and apt to many great purposes ; and our continual abode with God being a great indearment of our persons by encreasing the affections . 17. Secondly , The second accessory is intension of spirit or fervency ; such as was that of our Blessed Saviour , who prayed to his Father with strong cries and loud petitions , not clamorous in language , but strong in Spirit . S. Paul also , when he was pressed with a strong temptation , prayed thrice , that is , earnestly ; and S. James affirms this to be of great value and efficacy to the obtaining blessings , The effectual servent prayer of a just person avails much ; and 〈◊〉 , though a man of like 〈◊〉 , yet by earnest prayer he obtained rain , or drought , according as he desired . Now this is properly produced by the greatness of our desire of heavenly things , our true value and estimate of Religion , our sense of present pressures , our lears ; and it hath some accidental increases by the disposition of our body , the strength of fancy , and the tenderness of spirit , and assiduity of the dropping of religious discourses ; and in all men is necessary to be so great , as that we prefer Heaven and Religion before the world , and desire them rather , with the choice of our wills and understanding : though there cannot always be that degree of sensual , pungent or delectable affections towards Religion , as towards the desires of nature and sense ; yet ever we must prefer celestial objects , restraining the appetites of the world , lest they be immoderate , and heightning the desires of grace and glory , lest they become indifferent , and the fire upon the altar of incense be extinct . But the greater zeal and servour of desire we have in our Prayers , the sooner and the greater will the return of the Prayer be , if the Prayer be for spiritual objects . For other things our desires must be according to our needs , not by a value derived from the nature of the thing , but the usefulness it is of to us in order to our greater and better purposes . 18. Thirdly , Of the same consideration it is , that we persevere and be importunate in our Prayers , by repetition of our desires , and not remitting either our affections or our offices , till God , overcome by our importunity , give a gracious answer . Jacob wrastled with the Angel all night , and would not dismiss him till he had given him a blessing ; Let me alone , saith God , as if he felt a pressure and burthen lying upon him by our prayers , or could not quit himself , nor depart , unless we give him leave . And since God is detained by our Prayers , and we may keep him as long as we please , and that he will not go away till we leave speaking to him ; he that will dismiss him till he hath his blessing , knows not the value of his benediction , or understands not the energy and power of a persevering Prayer . And to this purpose Christ spake a Parable , that men ought always to pray , and not to faint : Praying without ceasing S. Paul calls it , that is , with continual addresses , frequent interpellations , never ceasing renewing the request till I obtain my desire . For it is not enough to recommend our desires to God with one hearty Prayer , and then forget to ask him any more ; but so long as our needs continue , so long , in all times , and upon all occasions , to renew and repeat our desires : and this is praying continually . Just as the Widow did to the unjust Judge , she never left going to him , she troubled him every day with her clamorous suit ; so must we pray always , that is , every day , and many times every day , according to our occasions and necessities , or our devotion and zeal , or as we are determined by the customs and laws of a Church ; never giving over through weariness or distrust , often renewing our desires by a continual succession of Devotions , returning at certain and determinate periods . For God's blessings , though they come infallibly , yet not always speedily ; saving only that it is a blessing to be delayed , that we may encrease our desire , and renew our prayers , and do acts of confidence and patience , and ascertain and encrcase the blessing when it comes . For we do not more desire to be blessed than God does to hear us importunate for blessing ; and he weighs every sigh , and bottles up every tear , and records every Prayer , and looks through the cloud with delight to see us upon our knees , and when he sees his time , his light breaks through it , and shines upon us . Only we must not make our accounts for God according to the course of the Sun , but the measures of Eternity . He measures us by our needs , and we must not measure him by our impatience . God is not slack , as some men count slackness , saith the Apostle ; and we find it so , when we have waited long . All the elapsed time is no part of the tediousness ; the trouble of it is passed with it self : and for the future , we know not how little it may be : for ought we know we are already entred into the cloud that brings the blessing . However , pray till it comes : for we shall never miss to receive our desire , if it be holy , or innocent , and safe ; or else we are sure of a great reward of our Prayers . 19. And in this so determined there is no danger of blasphemy or vain repetitions : For those repetitions are vain which repeat the words , not the Devotion , which renew the expression , and not the desire ; and he that may pray the same Prayer to morrow which he said to day , may pray the same at night which he said in the morning , and the same at noon which he said at night , and so in all the hours of Prayer , and in all the opportunities of Devotion . Christ in his agony went thrice , and said the same words , but he had intervals for repetition ; and his need and his Devotion pressed him forward : and whenever our needs do so , it is all one if we say the same words or others , so we express our desire , and tell our needs , and beg the remedy . In the same office and the same hour of Prayer to repeat the same things often hath but few excuses to make it reasonable , and fewer to make it pious : But to think that the Prayer is better for such repetition is the fault which the Holy Jesus condemned in the Gentiles , who in their Hymns would say a name over a hundred times . But in this we have no rule to determine us in numbers and proportion , but right Reason . God loves not any words the more for being said often ; and those repetitions which are unreasonable in prudent estimation cannot in any account be esteemed pious . But where a reasonable cause allows the repetition , the same cause that makes it reasonable makes it also proper for Devotion . He that speaks his needs , and expresses nothing but his fervour and greatness of desire , cannot be vain or long in his Prayers ; he that speaks impertinently , that is , unreasonably and without desires , is long , though he speak but two syllables ; he that thinks for speaking much to be heard the sooner , thinks God is delighted in the labour of the lips : but when Reason is the guide , and Piety is the rule , and Necessity is the measure , and Desire gives the proportion , let the Prayer be very long ; he that shall blame it for its length must proclaim his disrelish both of Reason and Religion , his despite of Necessity and contempt of Zeal . 20. As a part and instance of our importunity in Prayer it is usually reckoned and advised , that in cases of great , sudden and violent need we corroborate our Prayers with a Vow of doing something holy and religious in an uncommanded instance , something to which God had not formerly bound our duty , though fairly invited our will ; or else , if we chuse a Duty in which we were obliged , then to vow the doing of it in a more excellent manner , with a greater inclination of the Will , with a more fervent repetition of the act , with some more noble circumstance , with a fuller assent of the Understanding , or else adding a new Promise to our old Duty , to make it become more necessary to us , and to secure our duty . In this case , as it requires great prudence and caution in the susception , lest what we piously intend obtain a present blessing , and lay a lasting snare ; so if it be prudent in the manner , holy in the matter , useful in the consequence , and safe in all the circumstances of the person , it is an endearing us and our Prayer to God by the increase of duty and charity , and therefore a more probable way of making our Prayers gracious and acceptable . And the religion of Vows was not only hallowed by the example of Jacob at Bethel , of Hannah praying for a child and God hearing her , of David vowing a Temple to God , and made regular and safe by the rules and cautions in Moses's Law ; but left by our Blessed Saviour in the same constitution he found it , he having innovated nothing in the matter of Vows : and it was practised accordingly in the instance of S. Paul at Cenchrea ; of * Ananias and Sapphira , who vowed their possessions to the use of the Church ; and of the Widows in the Apostolical age , who therefore vowed to remain in the state of widowhood , because concerning them who married after the entry into Religion S. Paul says , they have broken their first faith : and such were they of whom our Blessed Saviour affirms , that some make themselves 〈◊〉 for the kingdom of Heaven , that is , such who promise to God a life of Chastity . And concerning the success of Prayer so seconded with a prudent and religious Vow , besides ‖ the instances of Scripture , we have the perpetual experience and witness of all Christendom ; and in particular our Saxon Kings have been remarked for this part of importunity in their own Chronicles . * Oswy got a great victory with unlikely forces against Penda the 〈◊〉 after his earnest Prayer , and an appendent Vow : and Ceadwalla obtained of God power to recover the Isle of Wight from the hands of Infidels after he had prayed , and promised to return the fourth part of it to be imployed in the proper services of God and of Religion . This can have no objection or suspicion in it among wise and disabused persons ; for it can be nothing but an encreasing and a renewed act of Duty , or Devotion , or Zeal , or Charity , and the importunity of Prayer acted in a more vital and real expression . 21. First , All else that is to be considered concerning Prayer is extrinsecal and accidental to it . Prayer is publick , or private ; in the communion or society of Saints , or in our Closets : these Prayers have less temptation to vanity ; the other have more advantages of Charity , example , fervour , and energy . In publick offices we avoid singularity , in the private we avoid hypocrisie : those are of more 〈◊〉 , these of greater retiredness and silence of spirit : those serve the needs of all the world in the first intention , and our own by consequence ; these serve our own needs first , and the publick only by a secondary intention : these have more pleasure , they more duty : these are the best instruments of Repentance , where our Confessions may be more particular , and our shame less scandalous ; the other are better for Eucharist and instruction , for edification of the Church and glorification of God. 22. Secondly , The posture of our bodies in Prayer had as great variety as the Ceremonies and civilities of several Nations came to . The Jews most commonly prayed standing : so did the Pharisee and the Publican in the Temple . So did the Primitive Christians in all their greater Festivals , and intervals of Jubilee ; in their Penances they kneeled . The Monks in 〈◊〉 sate when they sang the Psalter . And in every Country , whatsoever by the custom of the Nation was a symbol of reverence and humility , of silence and attention , of gravity and modesty , that posture they translated to their Prayers . But in all Nations bowing the head , that is , a laying down our glory at the feet of God , was the manner of Worshippers : and this was always the more humble and the lower , as their Devotion was higher ; and was very often expressed by prostration , or lying flat upon the ground ; and this all Nations did and all Religions . Our deportment ought to be grave , decent , humble , apt for adoration , apt to edisie ; and when we address our selves to Prayer , not instantly to leap into the office , as the Judges of the Areopage into their sentence , without preface or preparatory affections ; but , considering in what presence we speak , and to what purposes , let us balance our servour with reverential fear : and when we have done , not rise from the ground as if we vaulted , or were glad we had done ; but , as we begin with desires of assistance , so end with desires of pardon and acceptance , concluding our longer offices with a shorter mental Prayer of more private reflexion and reverence , designing to mend what we have done amiss , or to give thanks and proceed if we did well , and according to our powers . 23. Thirdly , In private Prayers it is permitted to every man to speak his Prayers , or only to think them , which is a speaking to God. Vocal or mental Prayer is all one to God , but in order to us they have their several advantages . The sacrifice of the heart and the calves of the lips make up a holocaust to God : but words are the arrest of the desires , and keep the spirit fixt , and in less permissions to wander from fancy to fancy ; and mental Prayer is apt to make the greater fervour , if it wander not : our office is more determined by words ; but we then actually think of God when our spirits only speak . Mental Prayer , when our spirits wander , is like a Watch standing still , because the spring is down ; wind it up again , and it goes on regularly : but in Vocal Prayer , if the words run on , and the spirit wanders , the Clock strikes false , the Hand points not to the right hour , because something is in disorder , and the striking is nothing but noise . In mental Prayer we confess God's omniscience ; in vocal Prayer we call the Angels to witness . In the first our spirits rejoyce in God ; in the second the Angels rejoyce in us . Mental Prayer is the best remedy against lightness , and indifferency of affections ; but vocal Prayer is the aptest instrument of communion . That is more Angelical , but yet fittest for the state of separation and glory ; this is but humane , but it is apter for our present constitution . They have their distinct proprieties , and may be used according to several accidents , occasions , or dispositions . The PRAYER . O Holy and eternal God , who hast commanded us to pray unto thee in all our necessities , and to give thanks unto thee for all our instances of joy and blessing , and to adore thee in all thy Attributes and communications , thy own glories and thy eternal mercies ; give unto me thy servant the spirit of Prayer and Supplication , that I may understand what is good for me , that I may desire regularly , and chuse the best things , that I may conform to thy will , and submit to thy disposing , relinquishing my own affections and imperfect choice . Sanctifie my heart and spirit , that I may sanctifie thy Name , and that I may be gracious and accepted in thine eyes . Give me the humility and obedience of a Servant , that I may also have the hope and confidence of a Son , making humble and confident addresses to the Throne of grace ; that in all my necessities I may come to thee for aids , and may trust in thee for a gracious answer , and may receive satisfaction and supply . II. GIve me a sober , diligent and recollected spirit in my Prayers , neither choaked with cares , nor scattered by levity , nor discomposed by passion , nor estranged from thee by inadvertency , but fixed fast to thee by the indissolvible bands of a great love and a pregnant Devotion : And let the beams of thy holy Spirit descending from above enlighten and enkindle it with great servours , and holy importunity , and unwearied industry ; that I may serve thee , and obtain thy blessing by the assiduity and Zeal of perpetual religious offices . Let my Prayers come before thy presence , and the lifting up of my hands be a daily sacrifice , and let the fires of zeal not go out by night or day ; but unite my Prayers to the intercession of thy Holy Jesus , and to a communion of those offices which Angels and beatified Souls do pay before the throne of the Lamb , and at the celestial Altar ; that my Prayers being hallowed by the Merits of Christ , and being presented in the phial of the Saints , may ascend thither where thy glory dwells , and from whence mercy and eternal benediction descends upon the Church . III. LOrd , change my sins into penitential sorrow , my sorrow to petition , my petition to 〈◊〉 ; that my Prayers may be consummate in the adorations of eternity , and the glorious participation of the end of our hopes and prayers , the fulness of never-failing Charity , and fruition of thee , O Holy and Eternal God , Blessed Trinity and mysterious Unity , to whom all honour , and worship , and thanks , and confession , and glory , be ascribed for ever and ever . Amen . DISCOURSE XIII . Of the Third additional Precept of Christ , ( viz. ) Of the manner of FASTING . 1. FAsting , being directed in order to other ends , as for mortifying the body , taking away that fuel which ministers to the flame of Lust , or else relating to what is past , when it becomes an instrument of Repentance , and a part of that revenge which S. Paul affirms to be the effect of godly sorrow , is to take its estimate for value , and its rules for practice , by analogy and proportion to those ends to which it does cooperate . Fasting before the holy Sacrament is a custom of the Christian Church , and derived to us from great antiquity ; and the use of it is , that we might express honour to the mystery , by suffering nothing to enter into our mouths before the symbols . Fasting to this purpose is not an act of Mortification , but of Reverence and venerable esteem of the instruments of Religion , and so is to be understood . And thus also , not to eat or drink before we have said our morning Devotions , is esteemed to be a religious decency , and preference of Prayer and God's honour before our temporal satisfaction , a symbolical attestation that we esteem the words of God's mouth more than our necessary food . It is like the zeal of Abraham's servant , who would not eat nor drink till he had done his errand . And in pursuance of this act of Religion , by the tradition of their Fathers it grew to be a custom of the Jewish Nation , that they should not eat bread upon their solemn Festivals before the sixth hour ; that they might first celebrate the rites of their Religious solemnities , before they gave satisfaction to the lesser desires of nature . And therefore it was a reasonable satisfaction of the objection made by the assembly against the inspired Apostles in Pentecost , These are not drunk , as ye suppose , seeing it is but the third hour of the day : meaning , that the day being festival , they knew it was not lawful for any of the Nation to break their fast before the sixth hour ; for else they might easily have been drunk by the third hour , if they had taken their morning's drink in a freer proportion . And true it is that Religion snatches even at little things ; and as it teaches us to observe all the great Commandments and significations of duty , so it is not willing to pretermit any thing , which , although by its greatness it cannot of it self be considerable , yet by its smallness it may become a testimony of the greatness of the affection , which would not omit the least minutes of love and duty . And therefore when the Jews were scandalized at the Disciples of our Lord for rubbing the ears of corn on the Sabbath-day , as they walked through the fields early in the morning , they intended their reproof not for breaking the Rest of the day , but the Solemnity ; for eating before the publick Devotions were finished . Christ excused it by the necessity and charity of the act ; they were hungry , and therefore having so great need , they might lawfully do it : meaning , that such particles and circumstances of Religion are not to be neglected , unless where greater cause of charity or necessity does supervene . 2. But when Fasting is in order to greater and more concerning purposes , it puts on more Religion , and becomes a duty , according as it is necessary or highly conducing to such ends , to the promoting of which we are bound to contribute all our skill and faculties . Fasting is principally operative to mortification of carnal appetites , to which Feasting and full tables do minister aptness and power and inclinations . When I fed them to the full , then they committed adultery , and assembled by troups in the Harlots houses . And if we observe all our own vanities , we shall find that upon every sudden joy , or a prosperous accident , or an opulent fortune , or a pampered body , and highly spirited and inflamed , we are apt to rashness , levities , inconsiderate expressions , scorn and pride , idleness , wantonness , curiosity , niceness , and impatience . But Fasting is one of those afflictions which reduces our body to want , our spirits to soberness , our condition to sufferance , our desires to abstinence and customes of denial ; and so , by taking off the inundations of sensuality , leaves the enemies within in a condition of being easier subdued . Fasting directly advances towards Chastity ; and by consequence and indirect powers to Patience , and Humility , and Indifferency . But then it is not the Fast of a day that can do this ; it is not an act , but a state of Fasting , that operates to Mortification . A perpetual Temperance and frequent abstinence may abate such proportions of strength and nutriment , as to procure a body mortified and 〈◊〉 in desires . And thus S. Paul kept his body under , using severities to it for the taming its rebellions and distemperatures . And S. Jerom reports of S. Hilarion , that when he had fasted much and used course diet , and found his Lust too strong for such austerities , he resolv'd to encrease it to the degree of Mastery , lessening his diet , and encreasing his hardship , till he should rather think of food than wantonness . And many times the Fastings of some men are ineffectual , because they promise themselves cure too soon , or make too gentle applications , or put less proportions into their antidotes . I have read of a Maiden , that , seeing a young man much transported with her love , and that he ceased not to importune her with all the violent pursuits that passion could suggest , told him , she had made a Vow to fast forty days with bread and water , of which she must discharge her self before she could think of corresponding to any other desire ; and desired of him as a testimony of his love , that he also would be a party in the same Vow . The young man undertook it , that he might give probation of his love : but because he had been used to a delicate and nice kind of life , in twenty days he was so weakned , that he thought more of death than love ; and so got a cure for his intemperance , and was wittily cousened into remedy . But S. Hierom's counsel in this Question is most reasonable , not allowing violent and long fasts , and then returns to an ordinary course ; for these are too great changes of diet to consist with health , and too sudden and transient to obtain a permanent and natural effect : but a belly always hungry , a table never full , a meal little and necessary , no extravagancies , no freer repast , this is a state of Fasting , which will be found to be of best avail to suppress pungent Lusts and rebellious desires . And it were well to help this exercise with the assistences of such austerities which teach Patience , and ingenerate a passive fortitude , and accustome us to a despight of pleasures , and which are consistent with our health . For if Fasting be left to do the work alone , it may chance either to spoil the body , or not to spoil the Lust. Hard lodging , 〈◊〉 garments , laborious postures of prayer , journies on foot , sufferance of cold , paring away the use of ordinary solaces , denying every pleasant appetite , rejecting the most pleasant morsels ; these are in the rank of bodily exercises , which though ( as S. Paul says ) of themselves they profit little , yet they accustome us to acts of self-denial in exteriour instances , and are not useless to the designs of mortifying carnal and sensual lusts . They have * a proportion of wisdome with these cautions , viz. in will-worship , that is , in voluntary susception , when they are not imposed as (a) necessary Religion ; in humility , that is , without contempt of others that use them not ; in neglecting of the body , that is , when they are done for discipline and mortification , that the flesh by such handlings and rough usages become less satisfied and more despised . 3. As Fasting hath respect to the future , so also to the present ; and so it operates in giving assistence to Prayer . There is a kind of Devil that is not to be ejected but by prayer and fasting , that is , Prayer elevated and made intense by a defecate and pure spirit , not loaden with the burthen of meat and vapours . S. (b) Basil affirms , that there are certain Angels deputed by God to minister , and to describe all such in every Church who mortifie themselves by Fasting ; as if paleness and a meagre visage were that mark in the forehead which the Angel observed when he signed the Saints in Jerusalem to escape the Judgment . Prayer is the * wings of the Soul , and Fasting is the wings of Prayer . Tertullian calls it (c) the nourishment of Prayer . But this is a Discourse of Christian Philosophy ; and he that chuses to do any act of spirit , or understanding , or attention , after a full meal , will then perceive that Abstinence had been the better disposition to any intellectual and spiritual action . And therefore the Church of God ever joyned Fasting to their more solemn offices of Prayer . The Apostles fasted and prayed when they laid hands and invocated the Holy Ghost upon Saul and Barnabas . And these also , when they had prayed with fasting , ordained Elders in the Churches of Lystra and Iconium . And the Vigils of every Holy-day tell us , that the Devotion of the Festival is promoted by the Fast of the Vigils . 4. But when Fasting relates to what is past , it becomes an instrument of Repentance , it is a punitive and an 〈◊〉 action , an effect of godly sorrow , a testimony of contrition , a judging of our selves , and chastening our bodies , that we be not judged of the Lord. The Fast of the Ninevites , and the Fast the Prophet Joel calls for , and the Discipline of the Jews in the rites of Expiation , proclaim this usefulness of Fasting in order to Repentance . And indeed it were a strange Repentance that had no sorrow in it , and a stranger sorrow that had no affliction ; but it were the strangest scene of affliction in the world , when the sad and afflicted person shall * eat freely , and delight himself , and to the banquets of a full table serve up the chalice of tears and sorrow , and no bread of affliction . Certainly he that makes much of himself hath no great indignation against the sinner , when himself is the man. And it is but a gentle revenge and an easie judgment , when the sad sinner shall do penance in good meals , and expiate his sin with sensual satisfaction . So that Fasting relates to Religion in all variety and difference of time : it is an antidote against the poison of sensual temptations , an advantage to Prayer , and an instrument of extinguishing the guilt and the affections of sin by judging our selves , and representing in a Judicatory of our own , even our selves being Judges , that sin deserves condemnation , and the sinner merits a high calamity . Which excellencies I repeat in the words of Baruch the Scribe , he that was Amanuensis to the Prophet Jeremy , The soul that is greatly vexed , which goeth stooping and feeble , and the eyes that fail , and the hungry soul , will give thee praise and righteousness , O Lord. 5. But now as Fasting hath divers ends , so also it hath divers Laws . If Fasting be intended as an instrument of Prayer , it is sufficient that it be of that quality and degree that the spirit be clear , and the head undisturbed ; an ordinary act of Fast , an abstinence from a meal , or a deferring it , or a lessening it when it comes , and the same abstinence repeated according to the solemnity , and intendment of the offices . And this is evident in reason , and the former instances , and the practice of the Church , dissolving some of her Fasts which were in order only to Prayer by noon , and as soon as the great and first solemnity of the day is over . But if Fasting be intended as a punitive act , and an instrument of Repentance , it must be greater . S. Paul at his Conversion continued three days without eating or drinking . It must have in it so much affliction as to express the indignation , and to condemn the sin , and to judge the person . And although the measure of this cannot be exactly determined , yet the general proportion is certain ; for a greater sin there must be a greater sorrow , and a greater sorrow must be attested with a greater penalty . And Ezra declares his purpose thus , I proclaimed a Fast , that we might afflict our selves besore God. Now this is no farther required , nor is it in this sense 〈◊〉 useful , but that it be a trouble to the body , an act of judging and severity ; and this is to be judged by proportion to the sorrow and indignation , as the sorrow is to the crime . But this affliction needs not to leave any remanent effect upon the body ; but such transient sorrow which is consequent to the abstinence of certain times designed for the solemnity is sufficient as to this purpose . Only it is to be renewed often , as our Repentance must be habitual and lasting ; but it may be commuted with other actions of severity and discipline , according to the Customs of a Church , or the capacity of the persons , or the opportunity of circumstances . But if the Fasting be intended for Mortification , then it is fit to be more severe , and medicinal by continuance , and quantity , and quality . To Repentance , total abstinences without interruption , that is , during the solemnity , short and sharp , are most apt : but towards the mortifying a Lust those sharp and short Fasts are not reasonable ; but a diet of Fasting , an habitual subtraction of nutriment from the body , a long and lasting austerity , increasing in degrees , but not violent in any . And in this sort of Fasting we must be highly careful we do not violate a duty by sondness of an instrument ; and because we intend Fasting as a help to mortifie the Lust , let it not destroy the body , or retard the spirit , or violate our health , or impede us in any part of our necessary duty . As we must be careful that our Fast be reasonable , serious , and apt to the end of our designs ; so we must be curious , that by helping one duty uncertainly , it do not certainly destroy another . Let us do it like honest persons and just , without artifices and hypocrisie ; but let us also do it like wise persons , that it be neither in it self unreasonable , nor by accident become criminal . 6. In the pursuance of this Discipline of Fasting , the Doctors of the Church and Guides of Souls have not unusefully prescribed other annexes and circumstances ; as that all the other acts of deportment be symbolical to our Fasting . If we fast for Mortification , let us entertain nothing of temptation or semblance to invite a Lust ; no sensual delight , no freer entertainments of our body to countenance or corroborate a passion . If we fast that we may pray the better , let us remove all secular thoughts for that time ; for it is vain to alleviate our spirits of the burthen of meat and drink , and to depress them with the loads of care . If for Repentance we fast , let us be most curious that we do nothing contrary to the design of Repentance , knowing that a sin is more contrary to Repentance than Fasting is to sin ; and it is the greatest stupidity in the world to do that thing which I am now mourning for , and for which I do judgment upon my self . And let all our actions also pursue the same design , helping one instrument with another , and being so zealous for the Grace , that we take in all the aids we can to secure the Duty . For to fast from flesh , and to eat delicate fish ; not to eat meat , but to drink rich wines freely ; to be sensual in the objects of our other appetites , and restrained only in one ; to have no dinner , and that day to run on hunting , or to play at cards ; are not handsome instances of sorrow , or devotion , or self-denial . It is best to accompany our Fasting with the retirements of Religion , and the enlargements of Charity , giving to others what we deny to our selves . These are proper actions : and although not in every instance necessary to be done at the same time , ( for a man may give his Alms in other circumstances , and not amiss ; ) yet as they are very convenient and proper to be joyned in that society , so to do any thing contrary to Religion or to Charity , to Justice or to Piety , to the design of the person or the design of the solemnity , is to make that become a sin which of it self was no vertue , but was capable of being hallowed by the end and the manner of its execution . 7. This Discourse hath hitherto related to private Fasts , or else to Fasts indefinitely . For what rules soever every man is bound to observe in private for Fasting piously , the same rules the Governours of a Church are to intend in their publick prescription . And when once Authority hath intervened , and proclaimed a Fast , there is no new duty incumbent upon the private , but that we obey the circumstances , letting them to chuse the time and the end for us : and though we must prevaricate neither , yet we may improve both ; we must not go less , but we may enlarge ; and when Fasting is commanded only for 〈◊〉 , we may also use it to Prayers , and to Mortification . And we must be curious that we do not obey the letter of the prescription , and violate the intention , but observe all that care in publick Fasts which we do in private ; knowing that our private ends are included in the publick , as our persons are in the communion of Saints , and our hopes in the common inheritance of sons : and see that we do not fast in order to a purpose , and yet use it so as that it shall be to no purpose . Whosoever so fasts as that it be not effectual in some degree towards the end , or so fasts that it be accounted of it self a duty and an act of Religion , without order to its proper end , makes his act vain , because it is unreasonable ; or vain , because it is superstitious . The PRAYER . O Holy and Eternal Jesu , who didst for our sake fast forty days and forty nights , and hast left to us thy example , and thy prediction , that in the days of thy absence from us we thy servants and children of thy Bride-chamber should fast ; teach us to do this act of discipline so , that it may become an act of Religion . Let us never be like Esau , valuing a dish of meat above a blessing ; but let us deny our appetites of meat and drink , and accustom our selves to the yoak , and subtract the fuel of our Lusts , and the incentives of all our unworthy desires : that our bodies being free from the intemperances of nutriment , and our spirits from the load and pressure of appetite , we may have no desires but of thee ; that our outward man daily decaying by the violence of time , and mortified by the abatements of its too free and unnecessary support ; it may by degrees resign to the intire dominion of the Soul , and may pass from vanity to Piety , from weakness to ghostly strength , from darkness and mixtures of impurity to great transparences and clarity in the society of a beatified Soul , reigning with thee in the glories of Eternity , O Holy and Eternal Jesu . Amen . DISCOURSE XIV . Of the Miracles which JESVS wrought for confirmation of his Doctrine during the whole time of his Preaching . Mary & Martha . A woman , named Martha , received him into her house And her sister Mary sat at Iesus feet , and heard his word . But Martha was cumbred about much serving — And Iesus said unto her , Martha , Martha , thou art careful & troubled about many things : but one thing is needfull : & Mary hath chosen that good part : Luk. 10. 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42. The dried hand healed , & devil cast out Mat 12. 10 And behold There was a man which had his hand dryed up &c. 13. Then said he unto the man stretch sorth thine hand &c. 22. Then was brought to him one possessed with a Devill &c. and he healed him . 1. WHen Jesus had ended his Sermon on the Mount , he descended into the valleys , to consign his Doctrine by the power of Miracles and the excellency of a rare Example ; that he might not lay a yoak upon us which himself also would not bear . But as he became the authour , so also the finisher of our Faith ; what he designed in proposition , he represented in his * own practice ; and by these acts made a new Sermon , teaching all Prelates and spiritual persons to descend from their 〈◊〉 of contemplation , and the authority and business of their discourses , to apply themselves to do more material and corporal mercies to afflicted persons , and to preach by Example as well as by their Homilies . For he that teaches others well , and practises contrary , is like a fair candlestick bearing a goodly and bright taper , which sends forth light to all the house , but round about it self there is a shadow and circumstant darkness . The Prelate should be the light consuming and spending it self to enlighten others , scattering his rays round about from the 〈◊〉 of Contemplation and from the 〈◊〉 of Practice , but himself always tending upwards , till at last he expires into the element of Love and celestial fruition . 2. But the Miracles which Jesus did were next to infinite ; and every circumstance of action that passed from him , as it was intended for Mercy , so also for Doctrine , and the impotent or diseased persons were not more cured than we instructed . But because there was nothing in the actions but what was a pursuance of the Doctrines delivered in his Sermons , in the Sermon we must look after our Duty , and look upon his practice as a verification of his Doctrine , & instrumental also to other purposes . Therefore in general if we consider his Miracles , we shall see that he did design them to be a compendium of Faith and Charity . For he chose to instance his Miracles in actions of Mercy , that all his powers might especially determine upon bounty and Charity ; and yet his acts of Charity were so miraculous , that they became an argument of the Divinity of his Person and Doctrine . Once he turned water into wine , which was a mutation by a supernatural power in a natural suscipient , where a person was not the subject , but an Element ; and yet this was done to rescue the poor Bridegroom from affront and trouble , and to do honour to the holy rite of Marriage . All the rest , ( unless we except his Walking upon the waters ) during his natural life , were actions of relief and mercy , according to the design of God , manifesting his power most chiefly in shewing mercy . 3. The great design of Miracles was to prove his Mission from God , to convince the world of sin , to demonstrate his power of forgiving sins , to indear his Precepts , and that his Disciples might believe in him , and that believing they might have life through his name . For he , to whom God by doing Miracles gave testimony from Heaven , must needs be sent from God ; and he who had received power to restore nature , and to create new organs , and to extract from incapacities , and from privations to reduce habits , was Lord of Nature , and therefore of all the world . And this could not but create great confidences in his Disciples , that himself would verifie those great Promises upon which he established his Law. But that the argument of Miracles might be infallible , and not apt to be reproved , we may observe its eminency by divers circumstances of probability heightned up to the degree of moral demonstration . 4. First , The Holy Jesus did Miracles which no man ( before him , or at that time ) ever did . Moses smote the Rock , and water gushed out ; but he could not turn that water into wine : Moses cured no diseases by the empire of his will , or the word of his mouth ; but Jesus healed all infirmities . Elisha raised a dead Child to life ; but Jesus raised one who had been dead four days , and buried , and corrupted . Elias . and Samuel , and all the Prophets , and the succession of the High Priests in both the Temples , put all together , never did so many or so great Miracles as Jesus did . He cured Leprous persons by his touch : he restored Sight to the blind , who were such not by any intervening accident hindering the act of the organ , but by nature , who were born blind , and whose eyes had not any natural possibility to receive sight , who could never see without creating of new eyes for them , or some integral part cooperating to vision ; and therefore the Miracle was wholly an effect of a Divine power , for nature did not at all cooperate ; or , that I may use the elegant expression of Dante , it was such — à cui natura Non scaldò ferro mai , ne battè ancude , for which Nature never did heat the iron , nor beat the anvil . He made crooked lims become straight , and the lame to walk ; and habitual diseases and inveterate of 18 years continuance ( and once of 38 ) did disappear at his speaking , like darkness at the presence of the Sun. He cast out Devils , who by the majesty of his person were forced to confess and worship him , and yet by his humility and restraints were commanded silence , or to go whither he pleased ; and without his leave all the powers of Hell were as infirm and impotent as a withered member , and were not able to stir . He raised three dead persons to life ; he fed thousands of People with two small fishes and five little barly-cakes : and , as a consummation of all power and all Miracles , he foretold , and verified it , that himself would rise from the dead after three days sepulture . But when himself had told them , he did Miracles which no man else ever did , they were not able to reprove his saying with one single instance ; but the poor blind man found him out one instance to verify his assertion , It was yet never heard , that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind . 5. Secondly , The scene of his Preaching and Miracles was Judaea , which was the Pale of the Church , and God's inclosed portion , of whom were the Oracles and the Fathers , and of whom , as concerning the Flesh , Christ was to come , and to whom he was promised . Now since these Miracles were for verification of his being the Christ , the promised MÉSSIAS , they were then to be esteemed a convincing argument , when all things else concurring , as the Predictions of the Prophets , the Synchronisms , and the capacity of his person , he brought Miracles to attest himself to be the person so declared and signified . God would not suffer his People to be abused by Miracles , nor from Heaven would speak so loud in testimony of any thing contrary to his own will and purposes . They to whom he gave the Oracles , and the Law , and the Predictions of the Messias , and declared before-hand , that at the coming of the Messias the blind should see , the lame should walk , and the deaf should hear , the lepers should be cleansed , and to the poor the Gospel should be preached , could not expect a greater conviction for acceptation of a person , than when that happened which God himself by his Prophets had consigned as his future testimony ; and if there could have been deception in this , it must needs have been inculpable in the deceived person , to whose errour a Divine Prophecy had been both nurse and parent . So that taking the Miracles Jesus did in that conjunction of circumstances , done to that People to whom all their Oracles were transmitted by miraculous verifications , Miracles so many , so great , so accidentally , and yet so regularly , to all comers and necessitous persons that prayed it , after such Predictions and clearest Prophecies , and these Prophecies owned by himself , and sent by way of symbol and mysterious answer to John the Baptist , to whom he described his Office by recounting his Miracles in the words of the Prediction ; there cannot be any fallibility or weakness pretended to this instrument of probation , applied in such circumstances to such a people , who , being dear to God , would be preserved from invincible deceptions , and being commanded by him to expect the Messias in such an equipage of power and demonstration of Miracles , were therefore not deceived , nor could they , because they were bound to accept it . 6. Thirdly , So that now we must not look upon these Miracles as an argument primarily intended to convince the Gentiles , but the Jews . It was a high probability to them also , and so it was designed also in a secondary intention : But it could not be an argument to them so certain , because it was destitute of two great supporters . For they neither believed the Prophets foretelling the Messias to be such , nor yet saw the Miracles done : So that they had no testimony of God before-hand , and were to rely upon humane testimony for the matter of fact ; which , because it was fallible , could not infer a necessary conclusion alone and of it self , but it put on degrees of perswasion , as the 〈◊〉 had degrees of certainty or universality ; that they also which see not , and yet have believed , might be blessed . And therefore Christ sent his Apostles to convert the Gentiles , and supplied in their case what in his own could not be applicable , or so concerning them . For he sent them to do Miracles in the sight of the Nations , that they might not doubt the matter of fact ; and prepared them also with a Prophecy , foretelling that they should do the same and greater Miracles than he did : they had greater prejudices to contest against , and a more unequal distance from belief and aptnesses to credit such things ; therefore it was necessary that the Apostles should do greater Miracles to remove the greater mountains of objection . And they did so ; and by doing it in pursuance and testimony of the ends of Christ and Christianity , verified the fame and celebrity of their Master's Miracles , and represented to all the world his power , and his veracity , and his Divinity . 7. Fourthly , For when the Holy Jesus appeared upon the stage of Palestine , all things were quiet and at rest from prodigy and wonder ; nay , John the Baptist , who by his excellent Sanctity and Austerities had got great reputation to his person and Doctrines , yet did no Miracle ; and no man else did any , save some few Exorcists among the Jews cured some Demoniacks and distracted People . So that in this silence a Prophet appearing with signs and wonders had nothing to lessen the arguments , no opposite of like power , or appearances of a contradictory design . And therefore it perswaded infinitely , and was certainly operative upon all persons , whose interest and love of the world did not destroy the piety of their wills , and put their understanding into fetters . And Nicodemus , a Doctor of the Law , being convinced , said , We know that thou art a Doctor sent from God ; for no man can do those 〈◊〉 which thou doest , unless God be with him . But when the Devil saw what great affections and confidences these Miracles of Christ had produced in all persons , he too late strives to lessen the argument by playing an after-game ; and weakly endeavours to abuse vicious persons ( whose love to their sensual pleasures was of power to make them take any thing for argument to retain them ) by such low , few , inconsiderable , uncertain and suspicious instances , that it grew to be the greatest confirmation and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in behalf of Religion , that either friend or foe upon his own industry could have represented . Such as were the making an Image speak , or fetching fire from the clouds ; and that the images of Diana Cyndias and Vesta among the Jasiaeans would admit no rain to wet them , or cloud to darken them ; and that the bodies of them who entred into the Temple of Jupiter in Arcadia would cast no shadow : which things Polybius himself , one of their own Superstition , laughs at as impostures , and says they were no way to be excused , unless the pious purpose of the inventors did take off from the malice of the lie . But the Miracles of Jesus were confessed , and wondred at by Josephus , were published to all the world by his own Disciples , who never were accused , much less convicted , of forgery , and they were acknowledged by (a) Celsus and (b) Julian , the greatest enemies of Christ. 8. But farther yet , themselves gave it out that one Caius was cured of his blindness by AEsculapius , and so was 〈◊〉 Aper ; and at Alexandria Vespasian cured a man of the Gout by treading upon his Toes , and a blind man with spittle . And when Adrian the Emperour was sick of a Fever , and would have killed himself , it is said , two blind persons were cured by touching him , whereof one of them told him that he also should recover . But although Vespasian by the help of Apollonius Tyaneus , who was his familiar , who also had the Devil to be his , might do any thing within the power of nature , or by permission might do much more ; yet besides that this was of an uncertain and less credible report , if it had been true , it was also infinitely short of what Christ did , and was a weak , silly imitation , and usurping of the argument which had already prevailed upon the perswasions of men beyond all possibility of confutation . And for that of Adrian , to have reported it is enough to make it ridiculous ; and it had been a strange power to have cured two blind persons , and yet be so unable to help himself , as to attempt to kill himself by reason of anguish , impatience and despair . 9. Fifthly , When the Jews and Pharisees believed not Christ for his Miracles , and yet perpetually called for a Sign , he refused to give them a Sign which might be less than their prejudice , or the perswasions of their interest ; but gave them one which alone is greater than all the Miracles which ever were done , or said to be done , by any Antichrist or the enemies of the Religion , put all together ; a Miracle which could have no suspicion of imposture , a Miracle without instance or precedent or imitation : and that is , Jesus's lying in the grave three days and three nights , and then rising again , and appearing to many , and conversing for forty days together , giving probation of his Rising , of the verity of his Body , making a glorious promise , which at Pentecost was verified , & speaking such things which became Precepts & parts of the Law for ever after . 10. Sixthly , I add two things more to this consideration . First , that the Apostles did such Miracles , which were infinitely greater than the pretensions of any adversary , and inimitable by all the powers of man or darkness . They raised the dead , they cured all diseases by their very shadow passing by , and by the touch of garments ; they converted Nations , they foretold future events , they themselves spake with Tongues , and they gave the Holy Ghost by imposition of hands , which inabled others to speak Languages which immediately before they understood not , and to cure diseases , and to eject Devils . Now supposing Miracles to be done by Gentile Philosophers and Magicians after ; yet when they fall short of these in power , and yet teach a contrary Doctrine , it 〈◊〉 a demonstration that it is a lesser power , and therefore the Doctrine not of Divine authority and sanction . And it is remarkable , that among all the Gentiles none ever reasonably pretended to a power of casting out Devils . For the Devils could not get so much by it , as things then stood : And besides , in whose name should they do it who worshipped none but Devils and false gods ? which is too violent presumption , that the Devil was the Architect in all such buildings . And when the seven sons of Sceva , who was a Jew , ( amongst whom it was sometimes granted to cure Demoniacks ) offered to exorcize a possessed person , the Devil would by no means endure it , but beat them for their pains . And yet , because it might have been for his purpose to have enervated the reputation of S. Paul , and by a voluntary cession equalled S. Paul's enemies to him , either the Devil could not go out but at the command of a Christian ; or else to have gone out would have been a disservice and ruine to his kingdom : either of which declares , that the power of casting out Devils is a testimony of God , and a probation of the Divinity of a Doctrine , and a proper argument of Christianity . 11. Seventhly , But , besides this , I consider , that the Holy Jesus , having first possessed upon just title all the reasonableness of humane understanding by his demonstration of a miraculous power , in his infinite wisdome knew that the Devil would attempt to gain a party by the same instrument , and therefore so ordered it , that the Miracles which should be done , or pretended to , by the Devil , or any of the enemies of the Cross of Chris̄t , should be a confirmation of Christianity , not do it disservice ; for he foretold that Antichrist and other enemies should come in prodigies , and lying wonders and signs . Concerning which , although it may be disputed whether they were truly Miracles , or mere deceptions and magical pretences ; yet because they were such which the People could not discern from Miracles really such , therefore it is all one , and in this consideration are to be supposed such : but certainly he that could foretell such a future contingency , or such a secret of Predestination , was able also to know from what principle it came ; and we have the same reason to believe that Antichrist shall do Miracles to evil purposes , as that he shall do any at all ; he that foretold us of the man , foretold us also of the imposture , and commanded us not to trust him . And it had been more likely for Antichrist to prevail upon Christians by doing no Miracles , than by doing any : For if he had done none , he might have escaped without discovery ; but by doing Miracles , as he verified the wisdom and prescience of Jesus , so he declared to all the Church that he was the enemy of their Lord , and therefore less likely to deceive : for which reason it is said , that he shall deceive , if it were possible , the very elect ; that is therefore not possible , because that by which he insinuates himself to others , is by the elect , the Church and chosen of God , understood to be his sign and mark of discovery , and a warning . And therefore as the Prophecies of Jesus were an infinite verification of his Miracles , so also this Prophecy of Christ concerning Antichrist disgraces the reputation and faith of the Miracles he shall act . The old Prophets foretold of the Messias , and of his Miracles of power and mercy , to prepare for his reception and entertainment : Christ alone , and his Apostles from him , foretold of Antichrist , and that he should come in all Miracles of deception and lying , that is , with true or false Miracles to perswade a lie : and this was to prejudice his being accepted , according to the Law of Moses . So that as all that spake of Christ bade us believe him for the Miracles ; so all that foretold of Antichrist bade us disbelieve him the rather for his : and the reason of both is the same , because the mighty and surer word of Prophecy ( as S. Peter calls it ) being the greatest testimony in the world of a Divine principle , gives authority , or reprobates , with the same power . They who are the predestinate of God , and they that are the praesciti , the foreknown and marked people , must needs stand or fall to the Divine sentence ; and such must this be acknowledged : for no enemy of the Cross , not the Devil himself , ever foretold such a contingency , or so rare , so personal , so voluntary , so unnatural an event , as this of the great Antichrist . 12. And thus the Holy Jesus , having shewed forth the treasures of his Father's Wisdom in Revelations and holy Precepts , and upon the stock of his Father's greatness having dispended and demonstrated great power in Miracles , and these being instanced in acts of Mercy , he mingled the glories of Heaven to transmit them to earth , to raise us up to the participations of Heaven : he was pleased , by healing the bodies of infirm persons , to invite their spirits to his Discipline , and by his power to convey healing , and by that mercy to lead us into the treasures of revelation ; that both Bodies and Souls , our Wills and Understandings , by Divine instruments might be brought to Divine perfections in the participations of a Divine nature . It was a miraculous mercy that God should look upon us in our bloud , and a miraculous condescension that his Son should take our nature ; and even this favour we could not believe without many Miracles : and so contrary was our condition to all possibilities of happiness , that if Salvation had not marched to us all the way in Miracle , we had perished in the ruines of a sad eternity . And now it would be but reasonable , that , since God for our sakes hath rescinded so many laws of natural establishment , we also for his , and for our own , would be content to do violence to those natural inclinations , which are also criminal when they derive into action . Every man living in the state of Grace is a perpetual Miracle , and his Passions are made reasonable , as his Reason is turned to Faith , and his Soul to Spirit , and his Body to a Temple , and Earth to Heaven ; and less than this will not dispose us to such glories , which being the portion of Saints and Angels , and the nearest communications with God , are infinitely above what we see , or hear , or understand . The PRAYER . O Eternal Jesu , who didst receive great power , that by it thou mightest convey thy Father's mercies to us impotent and wretched people ; give me grace to believe that heavenly Doctrine which thou didst ratifie with arguments from above , that I may fully assent to all those mysterious Truths which integrate that Doctrine and Discipline in which the obligations of my duty and the hopes of my felicity are deposited . And to all those glorious verifications of thy Goodness and thy Power add also this Miracle , that I , who am stained with Leprosie of sin , may be cleansed , and my eyes may be opened , that I may see the wondrous things of thy Law ; and raise thou me up from the death of sin to the life of righteousness , that I may for ever walk in the land of the living , abhorring the works of death and darkness : that as I am by thy miraculous mercy partaker of the first , so also I may be accounted worthy of the second Resurrection ; and as by Faith , Hope , Charity and Obedience I receive the fruit of thy Miracles in this life , so in the other I may partake of thy Glories , which is a mercy above all Miracles . Lord , if thou wilt , thou canst make me clean . Lord , I believe ; help mine unbelief : and grant that no 〈◊〉 or incapacity of mine may hinder the wonderful operations of thy Grace ; but let it be thy first Miracle to turn my water into wine , my barrenness into fruitfulness , my aversations from thee into unions and intimate adhesions to thy infinity , which is the fountain of mercy and power . Grant this for thy mercie 's sake , and for the honour of those glorious Attributes in which thou hast revealed thy self and thy Father's excellencies to the world , O Holy and Eternal Jesu . Amen . The End of the Second Part. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THE HISTORY OF THE Life and Death OF THE HOLY JESUS : BEGINNING At the Second Year of his PREACHING , until his ASCENSION : WITH CONSIDERATIONS and DISCOURSES upon the several parts of the Story ; And PRAYERS fitted to the several MYSTERIES . THE THIRD PART . Seneca apud Lactant. lib. 6. c. 17. Hic est ille homo qui , sive toto corpore tormenta patienda sunt , sive flamma ore recipienda est , sive extendenda per patibulum manus ; non quaerit quid patiatur , sed quàm bene . LONDON , Printed by R. Norton , for R. Royston , 1675 TO The Right Honourable and Vertuous Lady , The LADY FRANCES Countess of CARBERY . MADAM , SInce the Divine Providence hath been pleased to bind up the great breaches of my little fortune by your Charity and Nobleness of a religious tenderness , I account it an excellent circumstance and handsomeness of condition , that I have the fortune of S. Athanasius , to have my Persecution relieved and comforted by an Honourable and Excellent Lady ; and I have nothing to return for this honour done to me , but to do as the poor Paralyticks and infirm people in the Gospel did when our Blessed Saviour cured them , they went and told it to all the Countrey , and made the Vicinage full of the report , as themselves were of health and joy . And although I know the modesty of your person and Religion had rather do favours than own them , yet give me leave to draw aside the curtain and retirement of your Charity ; for I had rather your vertue should blush , than my unthankfulness make me ashamed . Madam , I intended by this Address not onely to return you spirituals for your temporal's , but to make your noble usages of me and mine to become , like your other Charities , productive of advantages to the standers by . For although the beams of the Sun reflected from a marble return not home to the body and fountain of light ; yet they that walk below feel the benefit of a doubled heat : so whatever reflexions or returns of your Favours I can make , although they fall short of what your Worth does most reasonably challenge , and can proceed but towards you with forward desires and distant approaches ; yet I am desirous to believe that those who walk between us may receive assistences from this entercourse , and the following Papers may be auxiliary to the enkindling of their Piety , as to the confirming and establishing yours . For although the great Prudence of your most Noble Lord , and the modesties of your own temperate and sweeter dispositions , become the great endearments of Vertue to you ; yet because it is necessary that you make Religion the business of your life , I thought it not an impertinent application , to express my thankfulness to your Honour by that which may best become my duty and my gratitude , because it may do you the greatest service . Madam , I must beg your pardon , that I have opened the sanctuary of your retired Vertues ; but I was obliged to publish the endearments and favours of your Noble Lord and your self towards me and my relatives : For as your hands are so clasp'd , that one Ring is the ligature of them both ; so I have found emanations from that conjuncture of hands with a consent so forward and apt , that nothing can satisfie for my obligations , but by being , in the greatest eminency of thankfulness and humility of person , MADAM , Your Honour 's most obliged and most humble Servant , JER . TAYLOR . TO The Right Honourable and Vertuous Lady , The LADY ALICE Countess of CARBERY . MADAM , BY the Divine Providence , which disposes all things wisely and charitably , you are in the affections of your Noblest Lord Successor to a very dear and most Excellent person , & designed to fill up those offices of Piety to her dear pledges , which the hast which God made to glorify and secure her would not permit her to finish . I have much ado to refrain from telling great stories of her Wisdom , Piety , Judgment , Sweetness , and Religion ; but that it would renew the wound , and make our sins bleed afresh at the memory of that dear Saint : and we hope that much of the storm of the Divine anger is over , because he hath repaired the breach by sending you to go on upon her account , and to give countenance and establishment to all those Graces which were warranted and derived from her example . Madam , the Nobleness of your Family , your Education and your excellent Principles , your fair dispositions & affable Comportment , have not only made all your servants confident of your Worthiness and great Vertues , but have disposed you so highly and necessarily towards an active and a zealous Religion , that we expect it should grow to the height of a great Example ; that you may draw others after you , as the eye follows the light in all the angles of its retirement , or open stages of its publication . In order to this I have chosen your Honour into a new relation , and have endeared you to this instrument of Piety ; that if you will please to do it countenance , and imploy it in your counsels and pious offices , it may minister to your appetites of Religion ; which as they are already fair and prosperous , so they may swell up to a vastness large enough to entertain all the secrets and pleasures of Religion : that so you may add , to the Blessings and Prosperities which already dwell in that Family where you are now fixed , new title to more , upon the stock of all those Promises which have secured and entailed Felicities upon such persons who have no vanities , but very many Vertues . Madam , I could not do you any service but by doing my self this honour , to adorn my Book with this fairest title and inscription of your Name . You may observe , but cannot blame , my ambition ; so long as it is instanced in a religious service , and means nothing but this , that I may signifie how much I honour that Person who is designed to bring new Blessings to that Family which is so Honourable in it self , and for so many reasons dear to me . Madam , upon that account , besides the stock of your own Worthiness , I am Your Honour 's most humble and obedient Servant , JER . TAYLOR . SECT . XIII . Of the Second Year of the Preaching of JESVS . The poole of Bethesda . IOH. 5. 8. 9. Iesus saith unto him Rise take up thy bed and walk and immediately the man was made whol and walked and on the same day was the Sabboath . place this to the third Sunday in Advent . Marie washing CHRISTS feet . IOH. 12. 7 Then said Iesus . let her alone : Against the day of my burying hath she kept this . 8 For the poore alwayes ye haue with you , but me ye haue not alwayes . Monday before Easter . 1. WHEN the First Year of Jesus , the year of Peace and undisturbed Preaching , was expired , there was a Feast of the Jews , and Jesus went up to Jerusalem . This Feast was the second Passeover he kept after he began to preach ; not the Feast of Pentecost or Tabernacles , both which were passed before Jesus came last from Judaea : whither when he was now come , he finds an impotent person lying at the pool of Bethesda , waiting till the Angel should move the waters , after which whosoever first stepped in was cured of his infirmity . The poor man had waited thirty eight years , and still was prevented by some other of the Hospital that needed a Physician . But Jesus seeing him , had pity on him , cured him , and bade him take up his bed and walk . This cure happened to be wrought upon the Sabbath , for which the Jews were so moved with indignation , that they thought to 〈◊〉 him : And their anger was enraged by his calling himself the Son of God , and making himself equal with God. 2. Upon occasion of this offence , which they snatched at before it was ministred , Jesus discourses upon his Mission , and derivation of his authority from the Father ; of the union between them , and the excellent communications of power , participation of dignity , delegation of judicature , reciprocations and reflexions of honour from the Father to the Son , and back again to the Father . He preaches of life and Salvation to them that believe in him ; prophesies of the resurrection of the dead by the efficacy of the voice of the Son of God ; speaks of the day of Judgment , the differing conditions after , of Salvation and Damnation respectively ; confirms his words and mission by the testimony of John the Baptist , of Moses and the other Scriptures , and of God himself . And still the scandal rises higher : for in the second Sabbath after the first , that is , in the first day of unleavened bread , which happened the next day after the weekly Sabbath , the Disciples of Jesus pull ripe 〈◊〉 of corn , rub them in their hands , and eat them to satisfie their hunger : For which he offered satisfaction to their scruples , convincing them , that works of necessity are to be permitted even to the breach of a positive temporary constitution , and that works of Mercy are the best serving of God upon any day whatsoever , or any part of the day that is vacant to other offices , and proper for a religious Festival . 3. But when neither Reason nor Religion would give them satisfaction , but that they went about to kill him , he withdrew himself from Jerusalem , and returned to Galilee ; whither the Scribes and Pharisees followed him , observing his actions , and whether or no he would prosecute that which they called profanation of their Sabbath , by doing acts of Mercy upon that day . He still did so . For entring into one of the Synagogues of Galilee upon the Sabbath , Jesus saw a man ( whom S. Hierom reports to have been a Mason ) coming to Tyre , and complaining that his hand was withered , and desiring help of him , that he might again be restored to the use of his hands , lest he should be compelled with misery and shame to beg his bread . Jesus restored his hand as whole as the other in the midst of all those spies and enemies . Upon which act , being confirmed in their malice , the Pharisees went forth , and joyned with the Herodians , ( a Sect of people who said Herod was the Messias , because by the decree of the Roman Senate , when the Sceptre departed from Judah , * he was declared King ) and both together took counsel how they might kill him . 4. Jesus therefore departed again to the sea-coast , and his companies encreased as his fame , for he was now followed by new multitudes from Galilee , from Judaea , from Jerusalem , from Idumaea , 〈◊〉 beyond Jordan , from about Tyre and Sidon ; who , hearing the report of his miraculous power to cure all diseases by the word of his mouth , or the touch of his hand , or the handling his garment , came with their ambulatory hospital of sick and their possessed ; and they pressed on him , but to touch him , and were all immediately cured . The Devils confessing publickly , that he was the Son of God , till they were upon all such occasions restrained , and compelled to silence . 5. But now Jesus having commanded a ship to be in readiness against any inconvenience or troublesome pressures of the multitude , went up into a mountain to pray , and continued in prayer all night , intending to make the first ordination of Apostles : which the next day he did , chusing out of the number of his Disciples these * twelve to be Apostles ; Simon Peter and Andrew , James and John , the sons of thunder , Philip and Bartholomew , Matthew and Thomas , James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zelot , Judas the brother of James and Judas 〈◊〉 . With these descending from the mountain to the plain , he repeated the same Sermon , or much of it , which he had before preached in the first beginning of his Prophesyings ; that he might publish his Gospel to these new Auditors , and also more particularly inform his Apostles in the Doctrine of the Kingdom : for now , because he saw Israel scattered like sheep having no Shepherd , he did purpose to send these twelve abroad to preach Repentance and the approximation of the Kingdom ; and therefore first instructed them in the mysterious parts of his holy Doctrine , and gave them also particular instructions together with their temporary commission for that journey . 6. For Jesus sent them out by two and two , giving them power over unclean spirits , and to heal all manner of sickness and diseases ; telling them they were the light , and the eyes , and the salt of the world , so intimating their duties of diligence , holiness , and incorruption ; giving them in charge to preach the Gospel , to dispense their power and Miracles freely , as they had received it , to anoint sick persons with oil , not to enter into any Samaritan Town , but to go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel , to provide no viaticum for their journeys , but to put themselves upon the Religion and Piety of their Proselytes : he arms them against persecutions , gives them leave to slye the storm from City to City , promises them the assistances of his Spirit , encourages them by his own example of long-sufferance , and by instances of Divine providence expressed even to creatures of smallest value , and by promise of great rewards , to the confident confession of his Name ; and furnishes them with some propositions , which are like so many bills of exchange , upon the trust of which they might take up necessaries ; promising great retributions not only to them who quit any thing of value for the sake of Jesus , but to them that offer a cup of water to a thirsty Disciple . ] And with these instructions they departed to preach in the Cities . 7. And Jesus returning to Capernaum received the address of a faithful Centurion of the Legion called the Iron Legion ( which usually quartered in Judaea ) in behalf of his servant , whom he loved , and who was grievously afflicted with the Palsie ; and healed him , as a reward and honour to his Faith. And from thence going to the City Naim , he raised to life the only son of a widow , whom the mourners followed in the street , bearing the corps sadly to his funeral . Upon the fame of these and divers other Miracles John the Baptist , who was still in prison , ( for he was not put to death till the latter end of this year ) sent two of his Disciples to him by divine providence , or else by John's designation , to minister occasion of his greater publication , enquiring if he was the Messias . To whom Jesus returned no answer , but a Demonstration taken from the nature of the thing , and the glory of the Miracles , saying , Return to John and tell him what ye see ; for the deaf hear , the blind see , the lame walk , the dead are raised , and the lepers are cleansed , and to the poor the Gospel is preached : which were the Characteristick notes of the Messias , according to the predictions of the holy Prophets . 6. When John's Disciples were gone with this answer , Jesus began to speak concerning John , of the austerity and holiness of his person , the greatness of his function , the Divinity of his commission , saying , that he was greater than a Prophet , a burning and shining light , the Elias that was to come , and the consummation or ending of the old Prophets : Adding withall , that the perverseness of that Age was most notorious in the entertainment of himself and the Baptist : for neither could the Baptist , who came neither eating nor drinking , ( that by his austerity and mortified deportment he might invade the judgment and affections of the people ) nor Jesus , who came both eating and drinking , ( that by a moderate and an affable life framed to the compliance and common use of men he might sweetly insinuate into the affections of the multitude ) obtain belief amongst them . They could object against every thing , but nothing could please them . But wisdom & righteousness had a theatre in its own family , and is justified of all her children . Then he proceeds to a more applied reprehension of Capernaum and Chorazin and Bethsaida , for being pertinacious in their sins and infidelity , in defiance and reproof of all the mighty works which had been wrought in them . But these things were not revealed to all dispositions ; the wife and the mighty of the world were not subjects prepared for the simplicity and softer impresses of the Gospel , and the down-right severity of its Sanctions . And therefore Jesus glorified God for the magnifying of his mercy , in that these things which were hid from the great ones were revealed to babes ; and concludes this Sermon with an invitation of all wearied and disconsolate persons , loaded with sin and misery , to come to him , promising ease to their burthens , and refreshment to their weariness , and to exchange their heavy pressures into an easie yoke , and a light burthen . 9. When Jesus had ended this Sermon , one of the Pharisees , named Simon , invited him to eat with him ; into whose house when he was entred , a certain woman that was a sinner , abiding there in the City , heard of it ; her name was Mary : she had been married to a noble personage , a native of the Town and Castle of Magdal , from whence she had her name of Magdalen , though she her self was born in Bethany ; a widow she was , and prompted by her wealth , liberty and youth to an intemperate life , and too free entertainments . She came to Jesus into the Pharisee's house : not ( as did the staring multitude ) to glut her eyes with the sight of a miraculous and glorious person ; nor ( as did the Centurion , or the 〈◊〉 , or the Ruler of the Synagogue ) for cure of her sickness , or in behalf of her friend , or child , or servant ; but ( the only example of so coming ) she came in remorse and regret for her sins , 〈◊〉 came to Jesus to lay her burthen at his feet , and to present him with a broken heart , and a weeping eye , and great affection , and a box of Nard Pistick , salutary and precious . For she came trembling , and fell down before him , weeping bitterly for her sins , pouring out a 〈◊〉 great enough to wash the feet of the Blessed Jesus , and wiping them with the hairs of her head ; after which she brake the box , and anointed his feet with ointment . Which expression was so great an ecstasie of love , sorrow and adoration , that to anoint the feet even of the greatest Monarch was long unknown , and in all the pomps and greatnesses of the Roman Prodigality it was not used till Otho taught it to Nero ; in whose instance it was by Pliny reckoned for a prodigy of unnecessary profusion , and in it self , without the circumstance of 〈◊〉 free a dispensation , it was a present for a Prince , and an Alabaster-box of Nard Pistick was sent as a present from 〈◊〉 to the King of Ethiopia . 10. When Simon observed this sinner so busie in the expresses of her Religion and 〈◊〉 to Jesus , he thought with himself that this was no Prophet , that did not know her to be a sinner , or no just person , that would suffer her to touch him . For although the Jews Religion did permit Harlots of their own Nation to live , and enjoy the priviledges of their Nation , save that their Oblations were refused : yet the Pharisees , who pretended to a greater degree of Sanctity than others , would not admit them to civil 〈◊〉 , or the benefits of ordinary society ; and thought Religion it self and the honour of a Prophet was concerned in the interests of the same superciliousness : and therefore Simon made an objection within himself . Which Jesus knowing , ( for he understood his thoughts as well as his words ) made her Apology and his own in a civil question expressed in a Parable of two Debtors , to whom a greater and a less debt respectively was forgiven ; both of them concluding , that they would love their merciful Creditor in proportion to his mercy and donative : and this was the case of Mary Magdalen , to whom because much was forgiven , she loved much , and expressed it in characters so large , that the Pharisee might read his own incivilities and inhospitable entertainment of the Master , when it stood confronted with the magnificency of Mary Magdalen's penance and charity . 11. When Jesus had dined , he was presented with the sad sight of a poor Demoniack possessed with a blind and a dumb Devil , in whose behalf his friends intreated Jesus , that he would cast the Devil out ; which he did immediately , and the blind man saw , and the dumb spake , so much to the amazement of the people , that they ran in so prodigious companies after him , and so scandalized the Pharisees , who thought that by means of this Prophet their reputation would be lessened and their Schools empty , that first a rumour was scattered up and down from an uncertain principle , but communicated with tumult and apparent noises , that Jesus was beside himself . Upon which rumour his friends and kindred came together to see , and to make provisions accordingly ; and the holy Virgin-mother came her self , but without any apprehensions of any such horrid accident . The words and things she had from the beginning laid up in her heart would furnish her with principles exclusive of all apparitions of such fancies ; but she came to see what that persecution was which , under that colour , it was likely the Pharisees might commence . 12. When the Mother of Jesus and his kindred came , they found him in a house , encircled with people , full of wonder and admiration : And there the holy Virgin-mother might hear part of her own Prophecy verified , that the generations of the earth should call her blessed ; for a woman worshipping Jesus cried out , Blessed is the womb that bare thee , and the paps that gave thee suck . To this Jesus replied , not denying her to be highly blessed who had received the honour of being the Mother of the Messias , but advancing the dignities of spiritual excellencies far above this greatest temporal honour in the world ; Yea rather blessed are they that hear the word of God , and do it . For in respect of the issues of spiritual perfections and their proportionable benedictions , all immunities and temporal honours are empty and hollow blessings ; and all relations of kindred disband and empty themselves into the greater chanels and flouds of Divinity . 13. For when Jesus being in the house , they told him his Mother and his Brethren staid for him without ; he told them , those relations were less than the ties of Duty and Religion : For those dear names of Mother and Brethren , which are hallowed by the laws of God and the endearments of Nature , are made far more sacred when a spiritual cognation does supervene , when the relations are subjected in persons religious and holy : but if they be abstract and separate , the conjunction of persons in spiritual bands , in the same Faith , and the same Hope , and the union of them in the same mystical Head , is an adunation nearer to identity than those distances between Parents and Children , which are only cemented by the actions of Nature as it is of distinct consideration from the spirit . For Jesus pointing to his Disciples said , Behold my Mother and my Brethren ; for whosoever doth the will of my Father which is in heaven , he is my Brother , and Sister , and Mother . 14. But the Pharisees upon the occasion of the Miracles renewed the old quarrel ; He casteth out Devils by Beelzebub . Which senseless and illiterate objection Christ having confuted , charged them highly upon the guilt of an unpardonable crime , telling them , that the so charging those actions of his done in the virtue of the Divine Spirit , is a sin against the Holy Ghost : and however they might be bold with the Son of Man , and prevarications against his words or injuries to his person might upon Repentance and Baptism find a pardon ; yet it was a matter of greater consideration to sin against the Holy Ghost ; that would find no pardon here , nor hereafter . But taking occasion upon this discourse , he by an ingenious and mysterious Parable gives the world great caution of recidivation and backsliding after Repentance . For if the Devil returns into a house once swept and garnished , he bringeth seven spirits more impure than himself ; and the last estate of that man is worse than the first . 15. After this , Jesus went from the house of the Pharisee , and , coming to the Sea of Tiberias or Genezareth , ( for it was called the Sea of Tiberias from a Town on the banks of the Lake ) taught the people upon the shore , himself sitting in the ship ; but he taught them by Parables , under which were hid mysterious senses , which shined through their veil like a bright Sun through an eye closed with a thin eye-lid ; it being light enough to shew their infidelity , but not to dispell those thick Egyptian darknesses which they had contracted by their habitual indispositions and pertinacious aversations . By the Parable of the Sower scattering his seed by the way side , and some on stony , some on thorny , some on good ground , he intimated the several capacities or indispositions of mens hearts , the carelesness of some , the frowardness and levity of others , the easiness and softness of a third , and how they are spoiled with worldliness and cares , and how many ways there are to miscarry , and that but one sort of men receive the word , and bring forth the fruits of a holy life . By the Parable of Tares permitted to grow amongst the Wheat , he intimated the toleration of dissenting Opinions not destructive of Piety or civil societies . By the three Parables of the Seed growing insensibly , of the grain of Mustard-seed swelling up to a tree , of a little Leven qualifying the whole lump , he signified the increment of the Gospel , and the blessings upon the Apostolical Sermons . 16. Which Parables when he had privately to his Apostles rendred into their proper senses , he added to them two Parables concerning the dignity of the Gospel , comparing it to Treasure hid in a field , and a Jewel of great price , for the purchace of which every good Merchant must quit all that he hath rather than miss it : telling them withall , that however purity and spiritual perfections were intended by the Gospel , yet it would not be acquired by every person ; but the publick Professors of Christianity should be a mixt multitude , like a net inclosing fishes good and bad . After which discourses he retired from the Sea side , and went to his own City of Nazareth ; where he preached so excellently upon certain words of the Prophet * 〈◊〉 , that all the people wondred at the wisdom which he expressed in his Divine discourses . But the men of Nazareth did not do honour to the Prophet , that was their Countryman , because they knew him in all the disadvantages of youth , and kindred , and trade , and poverty , still retaining in their minds the infirmities and humilities of his first years , and keeping the same apprehensions of him a man and a glorious Prophet , which they had to him a child in the shop of a Carpenter . But when Jesus in his Sermon had reproved their infidelity , at which he wondred , and therefore did but few Miracles there in respect of what he had done at Capernaum , and intimated the prelation of that City before 〈◊〉 , they thrust him out of the City , and led him to the brow of the hill on which the City was built , intending to throw him down headlong . But his work was not yet finished , therefore he passing through the midst of them went his way . 17. Jesus therefore departing from Nazareth went up and down to all the Towns and Castles of Galilce , attended by his Disciples , and certain women out of whom he had cast unclean spirits ; such as were Mary Magdalen , Johanna wife to Chuza Herod's Steward , Susanna , and some others , who did for him offices of provision , and ministred to him out of their own substance , and became parts of that holy Colledge which about this time began to be 〈◊〉 ; because now the Apostles were returned from their Preaching , full of joy that the Devils were made subject to the word of their mouth , and the Empire of their Prayers , and invocation of the holy Name of Jesus . But their Master gave them a lenitive to asswage the tumour and excrescency , intimating that such priviledges are not solid foundations of a holy joy ; but so far as they cooperate toward the great end of God's glory and their own Salvation , to which when they are consigned , and their names written in Heaven , in the book of Election and Registers of Predestination , then their joy is reasonable , holy , true , and perpetual . 18. But when Herod had heard these things of Jesus , presently his apprehensions were such as derived from his guilt , he thought it was John the Baptist who was risen from the dead , and that these mighty works were demonstrations of his power , increased by the superadditions of immortality and diviner influences made proportionable to the honour of a Martyr , and the state of separation . For a little before this time Herod had sent to the Castle of Macheruns , where John was prisoner , and caused him to be beheaded . His head Herodias buried in her own Palace , thinking to secure it against a re-union , lest it should again disturb her unlawful Lusts , and disquiet Herod's conscience . But the body the Disciples of John gathered up , and carried it with honour and sorrow , and buried it in Sebaste , in the confines of Samaria , making his grave between the bodies of 〈◊〉 and Abdias the Prophets . And about this time was the Passeover of the Jews . DISCOURSE XV. Of the Excellency , Ease , Reasonableness and Advantages of bearing Christ ' s Yoke , and living according to his Institution . Ecce agnus Dei gui to●lit peccata Mundi Iohn . 1. 29. Behold the lamb of God , which taketh away the sin of the World. The Christian's Work and Reward . Matth. 11. 29 , 30. Take my yoke upon you , & learn of me . For my yoke is easie & my burthen is light . Revel . 2 , 10. Be thou faithful unto death , and I will give thee a crown of life . 1 Cor. 9. 24 , 25. So run that ye may obtain . Every man that striueth for y e mastery is temperate in all things : now they do it to obtain a corrupible crown , but we an incorruptible . THE Holy Jesus came to break from off our necks two great yokes ; the one of Sin , by which we were fettered and imprisoned in the condition of slaves and miserable persons ; the other of Moses's Law , by which we were kept in pupillage and minority , and a state of Imperfection : and asserted us into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. The first was a Despotick Empire , and the Government of a Tyrant : the second was of a School-master , severe , absolute and imperious , but it was in order to a farther good , yet nothing pleasant in the sufferance and load . And now Christ having taken off these two , hath put on a third . He quits us of our Burthen , but not of our Duty ; and hath changed the former Tyranny and the less-perfect Discipline into the sweetness of paternal regiment , and the excellency of such an Institution whose every Precept carries part of its reward in hand , and assurances of after-glories . Moses's Law was like sharp and unpleasant Physick , certainly painful , but uncertainly healthful . For it was not then communicated to them by promise and universal revelations , that the end of their Obedience should be Life eternal : but they were full of hopes it might be so , as we are of health when we have a learned and wise Physician . But as yet the Reward was in a cloud , and the hopes in fetters and confinement . But the Law of Christ is like Christ's healing of diseases ; he does it easily , and he does it infallibly . The event is certainly consequent , and the manner of cure is by a touch of his hand , or a word of his mouth , or an approximation to the hem of his garment , without pain and vexatious instruments . My meaning is , that Christianity is by the assistance of Christ's spirit , which he promised us and gave us in the Gospel , made very easie to us : And yet a reward so great is promised , as were enough to make a lame man to walk , and a broken arm endure the burthen ; a reward great enough to make us willing to do violence to all our inclinations , passions , and desires . A hundred weight to a giant is a light burthen , because his strength is disproportionably great , and makes it as easie to him as an ounce is to a child . And yet if we had not the strength of giants , if the hundred weight were of Gold or Jewels , a weaker person would think it no trouble to bear that burthen , if it were the reward of his portage and the hire of his labours . The Spirit is given to us to enable us , and Heaven is promised to encourage us ; the first makes us able , and the second makes us willing : and when we have power and affections , we cannot complain of pressure . And this is the meaning of our Blessed Saviour's invitation ; Come to me , for my burthen is light , my 〈◊〉 is easie : which S. John also observed , For this is the love of God , that we keep his Commandments ; and his Commandments are not grievous . For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world ; and this is the victory that overcometh , even our Faith : that is , our belief of God's promises , the promise of the Spirit for present aid , and of Heaven for the future reward , is strength enough to overcome all the world . 2. But besides that God hath made his yoke easie by exteriour supports more than ever was in any other Religion ; Christianity is of it self , according to humane estimate , a Religion more easie and desirable by our natural and reasonable appetites , than Sin in the midst of all its pleasures and imaginary felicities . Vertue hath more pleasure in it than Sin , and hath all satisfactions to every desire of man in order to humane and prudent ends ; which I shall represent in the consideration of these particulars . 〈◊〉 To live according to the Laws of Jesus is in some things most natural and proportionable to the desires and first intentions of Nature . 2. There is in it less trouble than in Sin. 3. It conduces infinitely to the content of our lives , and natural and political satisfactions . 4. It is a means to preserve our temporal lives long and healthy . 5. It is most reasonable ; and he only is prudent that does so , and he a fool that does not . And all this besides the considerations of a glorious and happy Eternity . 3. Concerning the First I consider , that we do very ill when , in stead of making our Natural infirmity an instrument of Humility , and of recourse to the grace of God , we pretend the sin of Adam to countenance our actual sins , natural infirmity to excuse our malice ; either laying Adam in fault for deriving the disability upon us , or God , for putting us into the necessity . But the 〈◊〉 that we feel in this are from the rebellion of the inferiour Appetite against Reason , or against any Religion that puts restraint upon our first desires , And therefore in carnal and sensual instances accidentally we 〈◊〉 the more natural averseness , because God's Laws have put our irascible and concupiscible faculties in fetters and restraints ; yet in matters of duty , which are of immaterial and spiritual concernment , all our natural reason is a perfect enemy and contradiction to , and a Law against , Vice. It is natural for us to love our Parents , and they who do not are unnatural ; they do violence to those dispositions which God gave us to the constitution of our Nature , and for the designs of Vertue : and all those tendernesses of affection , those bowels and relenting dispositions , which are the endearments of Parents and Children , are also the bands of duty . Every degree of love makes duty delectable : and therefore either by nature we are inclined to hate our Parents , which is against all reason and experience ; or else we are by nature enclined to do to them all that which is the effect of love to such Superiours and principles of being and dependency : and every prevarication from the rule , effects and expresses of love , is a contradiction to Nature , and a mortification ; to which we cannot be invited by any thing from within , but by something from without , that is violent and preternatural . There are also many other vertues even in the matter of sensual appetite which none can lose , but by altering in some degree the natural disposition . And I instance in the matter of Carnality and Uncleanness , to which possibly some natures may think themselves apt and disposed : but yet God hath put into our mouths a bridle to curb the licentiousness of our speedy appetite , putting into our very natures a principle as strong to restrain it as there is in us a disposition apt to invite us ; and this is also in persons who are most apt to the vice , women and young persons , to whom God hath given a modesty and shame of nature , that the entertainments of Lusts may become contradictions to our retreating and backward modesty , more than they are satisfactions to our too-forward appetites . It is as great a mortification and violence to nature to blush , as to lose a desire ; and we find it true , when persons are invited to confess their sins , or to ask forgiveness publickly , a secret smart is not so violent as a publick shame : and therefore to do an action which brings shame all along , and opens the Sanctuaries of nature , and makes all her retirements publick , and dismantles her inclosure , as Lust does , and the shame of carnality , hath in it more asperity and abuse to nature , than the short pleasure to which we are invited can repay . There are unnatural Lusts , Lusts which are such in their very condition and constitution , that a man must turn a woman , and a woman become a beast in acting them ; and all Lusts that are not unnatural in their own complexion , are unnatural by a consequent and accidental violence . And if Lust hath in it dissonancies to Nature , there are but few apologies 〈◊〉 to excuse our sins upon Nature's stock : and all that systeme of principles and reasonable inducements to Vertue , which we call the Law of Nature , is nothing else but that firm ligature and incorporation of Vertue to our natural principles and dispositions , which whoso prevaricates does more against Nature than he that restrains his appetite . And besides these particulars , there is not in our natural discourse any inclination directly and by intention of it self contrary to the love of God , because by God we understand that Fountain of Being which is infinitely perfect in it self , and of great good to us ; and whatsoever is so apprehended , it is as natural for us to love , as to love any thing in the world ; for we can love nothing but what we believe to be good in it self , or good to us . And beyond this , there are in Nature many principles and reasons to make an aptness to acknowledge and confess God ; and by the consent of Nations , which they also have learned from the dictates of their Nature , all men in some manner or other worship God. And therefore when this our Nature is determined in its own indefinite principle to the manner of worship , all acts against the Love , the Obedience and the Worship of God , are also against Nature , and offer it some rudeness and violence . And I shall observe this , and refer it to every man's reason and experience , that the great difficulties of Vertue commonly apprehended commence not so much upon the stook of Nature , as of * Education and evil Habits . Our Vertues are difficult , because we at first get ill Habits ; and these Habits must be unrooted before we do well : and that 's our trouble . But if by the strictness of Discipline and wholsome Education we begin at first in our duty and the practice of vertuous principles , we shall find Vertue made as natural to us , while it is customary and habitual , as we pretend infirmity to be and propensity to vicious practices . And this we are taught by that excellent Hebrew who said , Wisdom is easily seen of them that love her , and found of such as seek her : She preventeth them that desire her , in making her self first known unto them . Whoso seeketh her early shall have no great travel ; for he shall find her sitting at his doors . 4. Secondly , In the strict observances of the Law of Christianity there is less Trouble than in the habitual courses of sin . For if we consider the general design of Christianity , it propounds to us in this world nothing that is of difficult purchase , nothing beyond what God allots us by the ordinary and common Providence , such things which we are to receive without care and solicitous vexation : So that the Ends are not big , and the Way is easie ; and this walk'd over with much simplicity and sweetness , and those obtained without difficulty . He that propounds to himself to live low , pious , humble , and retired , his main imployment is nothing but sitting quiet , and undisturbed with variety of impertinent affairs : But he that loves the World and its acquisitions entertains a thousand businesses , and every business hath a world of employment , and every employment is multiplied and made intricate by circumstances , and every circumstance is to be disputed , and he that disputes ever hath two sides in enmity and opposition ; and by this time there is a genealogy , a long descent and cognation of troubles , branched into so many particulars , that it is troublesome to understand them , and much more to run through them . The ways of Vertue are very much upon the defensive , and the work one , uniform and little ; they are like war within a strong Castle , if they stand upon their guard , they seldom need to strike a stroak . But a Vice is like storming of a Fort , full of noise , trouble , labour , danger , and disease . How easie a thing is it to restore the pledge ? but if a man means to defeat him that trusted him , what a world of arts must he use to make pretences ? to delay first , then to excuse , then to object , then to intricate the business , next to quarrel , then to forswear it , and all the way to palliate his crime , and represent himself honest ? And if an oppressing and greedy person have a design to cozen a young Heir , or to get his neighbour's land , the cares of every day and the interruptions of every night's sleep are more than the purchase is worth ; since he might buy Vertue at half that watching , and the less painful care of a fewer number of days . A plain story is soonest told , and best confutes an intricate Lie. And when a person is examined in judgment , one false answer asks more wit for its support and maintenance than a History of truth . And such persons are put to so many shameful retreats , false colours , Fucus's and dawbings with untempered morter , to avoid contradiction or discovery , that the labour of a false story seems in the order of things to be designed the beginning of its punishment . And if we consider how great a part of our Religion consists in Prayer , and how easie a thing God requires of us when he commands us to pray for blessings , the duty of a Christian cannot seem very troublesome . 5. And indeed I can cardly instance in any Vice but there is visibly more pain in the order of acting and observing it , than in the acquist or promotion of Vertue . I have seen drunken persons in their seas of drink and talk dread every cup as a blow , and they have used devices and private arts to escape the punishment of a full draught ; and the poor wretch being condemned by the laws of Drinking to his measure , was forced and haled to execution , and he suffered it , and thought himself engaged to that person who with much kindness and importunity invited him to a Fever : but certainly there was more pain in it than in the strictness of holy and severe Temperance . And he that shall compare the troubles and dangers of an ambitious War with the gentleness and easiness of Peace , will soon perceive that every Tyrant and usurping Prince , that snatches at his neighbour's rights , hath two armies , one of men , and the other of cares . Peace sheds no bloud , but of the pruned vine ; and hath no business , but modest and quiet entertainments of the time , opportune for Piety , and circled with reward . But God often punishes Ambition and Pride with Lust ; and he sent a thorn in the flesh as a corrective to the elevations and grandezza of S. Paul , growing up from the multitude of his Revelations : and it is not likely the punishment should have less trouble than the crime , whose pleasures and obliquity this was designed to punish . And indeed every experience can verifie , that an Adulterer hath in him the impatience of desires , the burnings of lust , the fear of shame , the apprehensions of a jealous , abused , and an inraged Husband . He endures affronts , mistimings , tedious waitings , the dulness of delay , the regret of interruption , the confusion and amazements of discovery , the scorn of a reproached vice , the debasings of contempt upon it ; unless the man grows impudent , and then he is more miserable upon another stock . But David was so put to it to attempt , to obtain , to enjoy Bathsheba , and to prevent the shame of it , that the difficulty was greater than all his wit and power , and it drove him into base and unworthy arts , which discovered him the more , and multiplied his crime . But while he enjoyed the innocent pleasures of his lawful bed , he had no more trouble in it than there was in inclining his head upon his pillow . The ways of sin are crooked , desert , rocky and uneven : they are broad indeed , and there is variety of ruines , and allurements to entice fools , and a large theatre to act the bloudy tragedies of Souls upon ; but they are nothing smooth , or safe , or delicate . The ways of Vertue are streight , but not crooked ; narrow , but not unpleasant . There are two Vices for one Vertue ; and therefore the way to Hell must needs be of greater extent , latitude and dissemination : But because Vertue is but one way , therefore it is easie , regular , and apt to walk in without error or diversions . Narrow is the gate , and streight is the way . It is true , considering our evil customs and depraved natures , by which we have made it so to us . But God hath made it more passable by his grace and present aids ; and S. John Baptist receiving his Commission to preach Repentance , it was expressed in these words , Make plain the paths of the Lord. Indeed Repentance is a rough and a sharp vertue , and like a mattock and spade breaks away all the roughnesses of the passage , and hinderances of sin : but when we enter into the dispositions which Christ hath designed to us , the way is more plain and easie than the ways of Death and Hell. Labour it hath in it , just as all things that are excellent ; but no confusions , no distractions of thought , no amazements , no labyrinths , and intricacy of counsels : But it is like the labours of Agriculture , full of health and simplicity , plain and profitable , requiring diligence , but such in which crafts and painful stratagems are useless and impertinent . But Vice hath oftentimes so troublesome a retinue , and so many objections in the event of things , is so intangled in difficult and contradictory circumstances , hath in it parts so opposite to each other , and 〈◊〉 inconsistent with the present condition of the man , or some secret design of his , that those little pleasures which are its Fucus and pretence are less perceived and least enjoyed , while they begin in phantastick semblances , and rise up in smoak , vain and hurtful , and end in dissatisfaction . 6. But it is considerable , that God , and the Sinner , and the Devil , all joyn in increasing the difficulty and trouble of sin , upon contrary designs indeed , but all cooperate to the verification of this discourse . For God by his restraining grace , and the checks of a tender Conscience , and the bands of publick honesty , and the sense of honour and reputation , and the customs of Nations , and the severities of Laws , makes that in most men the choice of Vice is imperfect , dubious and troublesome , and the pleasures abated , and the apprehensions various and in differing degrees ; and men act their crimes while they are disputing against them , and the balance is cast by a few grains , and scruples vex and disquiet the possession ; and the difference is perceived to be so little , that inconsideration and inadvertency is the greatest means to determine many men to the entertainment of a sin . And this God does with a design to lessen our choice , and to disabuse our perswasions from arguments and weak pretences of Vice , and to invite us to the trials of Vertue , when we see its enemy giving us so ill conditions . And yet the Sinner himself makes the business of sin greater ; for its nature is so loathsome , and its pleasure so little , and its promises so unperformed , that when it lies open , easie and apt to be discerned , there is no argument in it ready to invite us ; and men hate a vice which is every day offered and prostitute , and when they seek for pleasure , unless difficulty presents it , as there is nothing in it really to perswade a choice , so there is nothing strong or witty enough to abuse a man. And to this purpose ( amongst some others , which are malicious and crafty ) the Devil gives assistance , knowing that men despise what is cheap and common , and suspect a latent excellency to be in difficult and forbidden objects : and therefore the Devil sometimes crosses an opportunity of sin , knowing that the desire is the iniquity , and does his work sufficiently ; and yet the crossing the desire by impeding the act heightens the appetite , and makes it more violent and impatient . But by all these means sin is made more troublesome than the pleasures of the temptation can account for : and it will be a strange imprudence to leave Vertue upon pretence of its difficulty , when for that very reason we the rather entertain the instances of sin , despising a cheap sin and a costly Vertue ; chusing to walk through the brambles of a Desart , rather than to climb the fruit-trees of Paradise . 7. Thirdly , Vertue conduces infinitely to the Content of our lives , to secular felicities , and political satisfactions ; and Vice does the quite contrary . For the blessings of this life are these that make it happy , Peace and quietness , Content and satisfaction of desires , Riches , Love of friends and neighbours , Honour and reputation abroad , a Healthful body , and a long Life . This last is a distinct consideration , but the other are proper to this title . For the first it is certain , Peace was so designed by the Holy Jesus , that he framed all his Laws in compliance to that design . He that returns good for evil , a soft answer to the asperity of his enemy , kindness to injuries , lessons the contention always , and sometimes gets a friend , and when he does not , he shames his enemy . Every little accident in a family to peevish and angry persons is the matter of a quarrel , and every quarrel discomposes the peace of the house , and sets it on fire , and no man can tell how far that may burn , it may be to a dissolution of the whole fabrick . But whosoever obeys the Laws of Jesus , bears with the infirmities of his relatives and society , seeks with sweetness to remedy what is ill , and to prevent what it may produce , and throws water upon a spark , and lives sweetly with his wife , affectionately with his children , providently and discreetly with his servants ; and they all love the Major-domo , and look upon him as their Parent , their Guardian , their Friend , their Patron , their Proveditore . But look upon a person angry , peaceless and disturbed , when he enters upon his threshold , it gives an alarm to his house , and puts them to flight , or upon their defence ; and the Wife reckons the joy of her day is done , when he returns ; and the Children enquire into their Father's age , and think his life tedious ; and the Servants curse privately , and do their service as slaves do , only when they dare not do otherwise ; and they serve him as they serve a Lion , they obey his strength , and fear his cruelty , and despise his manners , and hate his person . No man enjoys content in his family but he that is peaceful and charitable , just and loving , forbearing and forgiving , careful and provident . He that is not so , his house may be his Castle , but it is manned by enemies ; his house is built , not upon the sand , but upon the waves , and upon a tempest : the foundation is uncertain , but his ruine is not so . 8. And if we extend the relations of the man beyond his own walls , he that does his duty to his Neighbour , that is , all offices of kindness , gentleness and humanity , nothing of injury and affront , is certain never to meet with a wrong so great as is the inconvenience of a Law-suit , or the contention of neighbours , and all the consequent dangers and inconvenience . Kindness will create and invite kindness ; an injury provokes an injury . And since the love of Neighbours is one of those beauties which Solomon did admire , and that this beauty is within the combination of precious things which adorn and reward a peaceable , charitable disposition ; he that is in love with spiritual excellencies , with intellectual rectitudes , with peace and with blessings of society , knows they grow amongst rose bushes of Vertue and holy obedience to the Laws of Jesus . And for a good man some will even dare to die , and a sweet and charitable disposition is received with fondness , and all the endearments of the Neighbourhood . He that observes how many families are ruined by contention , and how many spirits are broken by the care , and contumely , and fear , and spite , which are entertained as advocates to promote a Suit of Law , will soon confess that a great loss , and peaceable quitting of a considerable interest , is a purchace and a gain , in respect of a long Suit and a vexatious quarrel . And still if the proportion rises higher , the reason swells , and grows more necessary and determinate . For if we would live according to the Discipline of Christian Religion , one of the great plagues which vex the world would be no more . That there should be no wars , was one of the designs of Christianity ; and the living according to that Institution which is able to prevent all wars , and to establish an universal and eternal peace , when it is obeyed , is the using an infallible instrument toward that part of our political happiness which consists in Peace . This world would be an image of Heaven , if all men were charitable , peaceable , just , and loving . To this excellency all those precepts of Christ which consist in forbearance and forgiveness do cooperate . 9. But the next instance of the reward of holy Obedience and conformity to Christ's Laws is it self a Duty , and needs no more but a mere repetition of it . We must be content in every state ; and because Christianity teaches us this lesson , it teaches us to be happy : for nothing from without can make us 〈◊〉 , unless we joyn our own consents to it , and apprehend it such , and entertain it in our sad and melancholick retirements . A Prison is but a retirement , and opportunity of serious thoughts , to a person whose spirit is confined , and apt to sit still , and desires no enlargement beyond the cancels of the body , till the state of Separation calls it forth into a fair liberty . But every retirement is a prison to a loose and wandring fancy , for whose wildness no 〈◊〉 are restraint , no band of duty is consinement , who , when he hath broken the first hedge of duty , can never after endure any enclosure so much as in a Symbol . But this Precept is so necessary , that it is not more a duty than a rule of prudence , and in many accidents of our lives it is the only cure of sadness : for it is certain that no providence less than divine can prevent evil and cross accidents ; but that is an excellent remedy to the evil that receives the accident within its power , and takes out the sting , paring the nails , and drawing the teeth of the wild beast , that it may be tame , or harmless and medicinal . For all Content consists in the proportion of the object to the appetite : and because external accidents are not in our power , and it were nothing excellent that things happened to us according to our first desires ; God hath by his grace put it into our own power to make the happiness , by making our desires descend to the event , and comply with the chance , and combine with all the issues of Divine Providence . And then we are noble persons , when we borrow not our content from things below us , but make our satisfactions from * within . And it may be considered , that every little care may disquiet us , and may increase it self by reflexion upon its own acts , and every discontent may discompose our spirits , and put an edge , and make afflictions poynant , but cannot take off one from us , but makes every one to be two . But Content removes not the accident , but complies with it , it takes away the sharpness and displeasure of it , and by stooping down makes the lowest equal , proportionable , and commensurate . Impatience makes an Ague to be a Fever , and every Fever to be a Calenture , and that Calenture may expire in Madness : But a quiet spirit is a great disposition to health , and for the present does alleviate the sickness . And this also is notorious in the instance of Covetousness . The love of money is the root of all evil , which while some have coveted after , they have pierced themselves with many sorrows . Vice makes poor , and does ill endure it . 10. For he that in the School of Christ hath learned to determine his desires when his needs are served , and to judge of his needs by the proportions of nature , hath nothing wanting towards Riches . Vertue makes Poverty become rich , and no Riches can satisfie a covetous mind , or rescue him from the affliction of the worst kind of Poverty . He only wants that is not satisfied . And there is great infelicity in a Family where Poverty dwells with discontent : There the Husband and Wife quarrel for want of a full table and a rich wardrobe ; and their love , that was built upon false arches , sinks when such temporary supporters are removed ; they are like two Milstones , which set the Mill on fire when they want corn : and then their combinations and society were unions of Lust , or not supported with religious love . But we may easily suppose S. Joseph and the Holy Virgin-Mother in Egypt poor as hunger , forsaken as banishment , disconsolate as strangers ; and yet their present lot gave them no afflicton , because the Angel fed them with a necessary hospitality , and their desires were no larger than their tables , and their eyes look'd only upwards , and they were careless of the future , and careful of their duty , and so made their life pleasant by the measures and discourses of Divine Philosophy . When Elisha stretched himself upon the body of the child , and laid hands to hands , and applied mouth to mouth , and so shrunk himself into the posture of commensuration with the child , he brought life into the dead trunk : and so may we , by applying our spirits to the proportions of a narrow fortune , bring life and vivacity into our dead and lost condition , and make it live till it grows bigger , or else returns to health and salutary uses . 11. And besides this Philosophical extraction of gold from stones , and Riches from the dungeon of Poverty , a holy life does most probably procure such a proportion of Riches which can be useful to us , or consistent with our felicity . For besides that the Holy Jesus hath promised all things which our heavenly Father knows we need , ( provided we do our duty ) and that we find great securities and rest from care when we have once cast our cares upon God , and placed our hopes in his bosome ; besides all this , the temperance , sobriety , and prudence of a Christian is a great income , and by not despising it , a small revenue combines its parts till it grows to a heap big enough for the emissions of Charity , and all the offices of Justice , and the supplies of all necessities : whilest Vice is unwary , prodigal and indiscreet , throwing away great revenues as tributes to intem perance and vanity , and suffering dissolution and forfeiture of estates as a punishment and curse . Some sins are direct improvidence and ill husbandry . I reckon in this number Intemperance , Lust , Litigiousness , Ambition , Bribery , Prodigality , * Caming , Pride , Sacrilege , which is the greatest spender of them all , and makes a fair estate evaporate like Camphire , turning it into nothing , no man knows which way . But what the 〈◊〉 gave as an estimate of a rich man , saying , He that can maintain an Army is rich , was but a short account ; for he that can maintain an Army may be beggered by one Vice , and it is a vast revenue that will pay the debt-books of Intemperance or Lust. 12. To these if we add that Vertue is * honourable , and a great advantage to a fair reputation , that it is * praised by them that love it not , that it is honoured by the followers and family of Vice , that it forces glory out of shame , honor from contempt , that it reconciles men to the fountain of Honour , the Almighty God , who will honour them that honour him ; there are but a few more excellencies in the world to make up the Rosary of temporal Felicity . And it is so certain that Religion serves even our temporal ends , that no great end of State can well be served without it ; not Ambition , not desires of Wealth , not any great design , but Religion must be made its usher or support . If a new Opinion be commenced , and the Author would make a Sect , and draw Disciples after him , at least he must be thought to be Religious ; which is a demonstration how great an instrument of reputation Piety and Religion is : and if the pretence will do us good offices amongst men , the reality will do the same , besides the advantages which we shall receive from the Divine Benediction . The power of godliness will certainly do more than the form alone . And it is most notorious in the affairs of the Clergy , whose lot it hath been to fall from great riches to poverty , when their wealth made them less curious of their duty ; but when Humility and Chastity and exemplary Sanctity have been the enamel of their holy Order , the people , like the Galatians , would pull out their own eyes to do them benefit . And indeed God hath singularly blessed such instruments to the being the only remedies to repair the breaches made by Sacrilege and Irreligion . But certain it is , no man was ever honoured for that which was esteemed vicious . Vice hath got mony , and a curse many times , and Vice hath adhered to the instruments and purchaces of Honour : But among all Nations whatsoever those called Honourable put on the face and pretence of Vertue . But I chuse to instance in the proper cognisance of a Christian , Humility , which seems contradictory to the purposes and reception of Honour ; and yet in the world nothing is a more certain means to purchase it . Do not all the world hate a proud man ? And therefore what is contrary to Humility is also contradictory to Honour and Reputation . And when the Apostle had given command , that in giving honour we should one go before another , he laid the foundation of praises , and Panegyricks , and Triumphs . And as Humility is secure against affronts and tempests of despight , because it is below them : so when by imployment or any other issue of Divine Providence it is drawn from its 〈◊〉 and secrecy , it shines clear and bright as the purest and most polished metals . Humility is like a Tree , whose Root , when it sets deepest in the earth , rises higher , and spreads fairer , and stands surer , and lasts longer ; every step of its descent is like a rib of iron combining its parts in unions indissoluble , and placing it in the chambers of security . No wise man ever lost any thing by cession ; but he receives the hostility of violent 〈◊〉 into his embraces , like a stone into a lap of wooll , it rests and sits down soft and innocently ; but a stone falling upon a stone makes a collision , and extracts fire , and finds no rest : and just so are two proud persons , despised by each other , contemned by all , living in perpetual dissonancies , always fighting against asfronts , 〈◊〉 of every person , disturbed by every accident , a perpetual storm within , and daily hissings from without . 13. Fourthly , Holiness and Obedience is an excellent preservative of Life , and makes it long and healthful . In order to which discourse , because it is new , material , and argumentative , apt to perswade men who prefer life before all their other interests , I consider many things . First , In the Old Testament a long and a prosperous life were the great promises of the Covenant , their hopes were built upon it , and that was made the support of all their duty . If thou wilt diligently hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God , I will put none of the diseases upon thee which I brought upon the Egyptians ; for I am the LORD that healeth thee . And more particularly yet , that we may not think Piety to be security only against the plagues of Egypt , God makes his promise more indefinite and unconfined ; Ye shall serve the LORD your God , and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee , and will fulfill the number of thy days ; that is , the period of nature shall be the period of thy person thou shalt live long , and die in a seasonable and ripe age . And this promise was so verified by a long experience , that by David's time it grew up to a rule , What man is he that desireth life , and loveth many days , that he may see good ? Keep thy tongue from evil , and thy lips that they speak no guile . And the same argument was pressed by Solomon , who was an excellent Philosopher , and well skilled in the natural and accidental means of preservation of our lives . Fear the LORD , and depart from evil ; and it shall be health to thy navel , and marrow to thy bones . Length of days is in the right hand of wisdome : For she is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her . Meaning , that the Tree of Life and immortality which God had planted in Paradise , and which if Man had stood he should have tasted , and have lived for ever , the fruit of that Tree is offered upon the same conditions ; if we will keep the Commandments of God , our Obedience , like the Tree of life , shall consign us to Immortality hereafter by a long and a healthful life here . And therefore although in Moses's time the days of Man had been shortned , till they came to threescore years and ten , or fourscore years , and then their strength is but labour and sorrow ; ( for Moses was Author of that Psalm ; ) yet to shew the great privilege of those persons whose Piety was great , Moses himself attained to one hundred and twenty years , which was almost double to the ordinary and determined period . But Enoch and Elias never died , and became great examples to us , that a spotless and holy life might possibly have been immortal . 14. I shall add no more examples , but one great conjugation of precedent observed by the Jewish Writers , who tell us that in the second Temple there were 300 high Priests , ( I suppose they set down a certain number for an uncertain , and by 300 they mean very many ) and yet that Temple lasted but 420 years ; the reason of this so rapid and violent abscission of their Priests being their great and scandalous impieties : and yet in the first Temple , whose abode was within ten years as long as the second , there was a succession but of 18 high Priests ; for they being generally very pious , and the preservers of their Rites and Religion against the Schism of 〈◊〉 , and the Defection of 〈◊〉 , and the Idolatry and Irreligion of many of the Kings of Judah , God took delight to reward it with a long and honourable old age . And 〈◊〉 knew well enough what he said , when in his 〈◊〉 and prophetick rapture he made his prayer to God , Let my Soul die the death of the righteous . It was not a Prayer that his Soul might be saved , or that he might repent at last ; for Repentance and Immortality were revelations of a later date : but he in his prophetick 〈◊〉 seeing what God had purposed to the Moabites , and what blessings he had reserved for Israel , prays that he might not die , as the Moabites were like to die , with an untimely death , by the sword of their enemies , dispossessed of their Countrey , spoiled of their goods , in the period and last hour of their Nation : but let my soul die the death of the just , the death designed for the faithful Israelites ; such a death which God promised to Abraham , that he should return to his Fathers in peace , and in a good old age . For the death of the righteous is like the descending of ripe and wholsome fruits from a pleasant and florid Tree ; our senses intire , our lims unbroken , without horrid tortures , after provision made for our children , with a blessing entailed upon posterity , in the presence of our Friends , our dearest relative closing up our eyes and binding our feet , leaving a good name behind us . O let my soul die such a death ; for this , in whole or in part , according as God sees it good , is the manner that the righteous die . And this was Balaam's prayer . And this was the state and condition in the Old Testament . 15. In the Gospel the case is nothing altered . For besides that those austerities , rigours and mortifications which are in the Gospel advised or commanded respectively , are more salutary or of less corporal inconvenience than a vicious life of Intemperance , or Lust , or Carefulness , or tyrant Covetousness ; there is no accident or change to the sufferance of which the Gospel hath engaged us , but in the very thing our life is carefully provided for , either in kind , or by a gainful exchange : He that loseth his life for my sake shall find it , and he that will save his life shall lose it . And although God , who promised long life to them that obey , did not promise that himself would never call for our life , borrowing it of us , and repaying it in a glorious and advantagious exchange ; yet this very promise of giving us a better life in exchange for this , when we exposed it in Martyrdome , does confirm our title to this , this being the instrument of permutation with the other : for God obliging himself to give us another in exchange for this , when in cases extraordinary he calls for this , says plainly , that this is our present right by grace , and the title of the Divine Promises . But the Promises are clear . For S. Paul calls children to the observation of the fifth Commandment by the same argument which God used in the first promulgation of it . Honour thy Father and thy Mother , ( which is the first Commandment with Promise ) That it may be well with thee , and that thou mayst live long upon the earth . For although the Gospel be built upon better Promises than the Law , yet it hath the same too , not as its foundation , but as appendences and adjuncts of grace , and supplies of need . Godliness hath the promise of this life , as well as of the life that is to come . That is plain . And although Christ revealed his Father's mercies to us in new expresses and great abundance ; yet he took nothing from the world which ever did in any sense invite Piety , or indear Obedience , or cooperate towards Felicity . And 〈◊〉 the Promises which were made of old are also presupposed in the new , and mentioned by intimation and implication within the greater . When our Blessed Saviour in seven of the Eight Beatitudes had instanced in new Promises and Rewards , as Heaven , Seeing of God , Life eternal ; in one of them , to which Heaven is as certainly consequent as to any of the rest , he did chuse to instance in a temporal blessing , and in the very words of the Old Testament ; to shew , that that part of the old Covenant which concerns Morality , and the rewards of Obedience , remains firm and included within the conditions of the Gospel . 16. To this purpose is that saying of our Blessed Saviour ; Man liveth not by bread alone , but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God : meaning , that besides natural means ordained for the preservation of our lives , there are means supernatural and divine . God's Blessing does as much as bread : nay , it is Every word proceeding out of the 〈◊〉 of God ; that is , every Precept and Commandment of God is so for our good , that it is intended as food and Physick to us , a means to make us live long . And therefore God hath done in this as in other graces and issues Evangelical , which he purposed to continue in his Church for ever : He first gave it in miraculous and extraordinary manner , and then gave it by way of perpetual ministery . The Holy Ghost appeared at first like a prodigy , and with Miracle ; he descended in visible representments , expressing himself in revelations and powers extraordinary : but it being a Promise intended to descend upon all Ages of the Church , there was appointed a perpetual ministery for its conveyance ; and still , though without a sign or miraculous representment , it is ministred in Confirmation by imposition of the Bishop's hands . And thus also health and long life , which by way of ordinary benediction is consequent to Piety , Faith and Obedience Evangelical , was at first given in a miraculous manner ; that so the ordinary effects , being at first confirmed by miraculous and extraordinary instances and manners of operation , might for ever after be confidently expected without any dubitation , since it was in the same manner consigned by which all the whole Religion was , by a voice from Heaven , and a verification of Miracles , and extraordinary supernatural effects . That the gift of healing , and preservation and restitution of life , was at first miraculous , needs no particular probation . All the story of the Gospel is one entire argument to prove it : and amongst the fruits of the Spirit S. Paul reckons gifts of healing , and government , and helps , or exteriour assistences and advantages ; to represent that it was intended the life of Christian people should be happy and healthful for ever . Now that this grace also descended afterwards in an ordinary ministery is recorded by S. James : Is any man sick amongst you ? let him call for the Elders of the Church , and let them pray over him , anointing him with oyl in the name of the Lord ; that was then the ceremony , and the blessing and effect is still ; for the prayer of faith shall save the sick , and the Lord shall raise him up . For it is observable , that the blessing of healing and recovery is not appendent to the Anealing , but to the Prayer , of the Church ; to manifest , that the ceremony went with the first miraculous and extraordinary manner ; yet that there was an ordinary ministery appointed for the daily conveyance of the blessing : the faithful prayers & offices of holy Priests shall obtain life and health to such persons who are receptive of it , and in spiritual and apt dispositions . And when we see , by a continual flux of extraordinary benediction , that even some Christian Princes are instruments of the Spirit not only in the government , but in the gifts of healing too , as a reward for their promoting the just interests of Christianity ; we may acknowledge our selves convinced , that a holy life in the faith and obedience of Jesus Christ may be of great advantage for our health and life , by that instance to entertain our present desires , and to establish our hopes of life eternal . 17. For I consider that the fear of God is therefore the best antidote in the World against sickness and death , because it is the direct enemy to sin , which brought in sickness and death ; and besides this , that God by spiritual means should produce alterations natural , is not hard to be understood by a Christian Philosopher , take him in either of the two capacities . 2. For there is a rule of proportion , and analogy of effects , that if sin destroys not only the Soul but the Body also , then may Piety preserve both , and that much rather : for if sin , that is , the effects and consequents of sin , hath abounded , then shall grace superabound ; that is , Christ hath done us more benefit than the Fall of Adam hath done us injury ; and therefore the effects of sin are not greater upon the body , than either are to be restored or prevented by a pious life . 3. There is so near a conjunction between Soul and Body , that it is no wonder if God , meaning to glorifie both by the means of a spiritual life , suffers spirit and matter to communicate in effects and mutual impresses . Thus the waters of Baptism purifie the Soul ; and the Holy Eucharist , not the symbolical , but the mysterious and spiritual part of it , makes the Body also partaker of the death 〈◊〉 Christ and a holy union . The flames of Hell , whatsoever they are , torment accursed Souls ; and the stings of Conscience vex and disquiet the Body . 4. And if we consider that in the glories of Heaven , when we shall live a life purely spiritual , our Bodies also are so clarified and made spiritual that they also become immortal ; that state of Glory being nothing else but a perfection of the state of Grace , it is not unimaginable but that the Soul may have some proportion of the same operation upon the Body as to conduce to its prolongation , as to an antepast of immortality . 5. For since the Body hath all its life from its conjunction with the Soul , why not also the perfection of life according to its present capacity , that is , health and duration , from the perfection of the Soul , I mean , from the ornaments of Grace ? And as the blessedness of the Soul ( saith the Philosopher ) consists in the speculation of honest and just things ; so the perfection of the Body and of the whole Man consists in the practick , the exercise and operations of Vertue . 18. But this Problem in Christian Philosophy is yet more intelligible , and will be reduced to certain experience , if we consider good life in union and concretion with particular , material , and circumstantiate actions of Piety : For these have great powers and influences even in Nature to restore health and preserve our lives . Witness the sweet sleeps of temperate persons , and their constant appetite ; which Timotheus the son of Conon observed , when he dieted in Plato's Academy with severe and moderated diet ; They that sup with Plato are well the next day . Witness the symmetry of passions in meek men , their freedome from the violence of inraged and passionate indispositions , the admirable harmony and sweetness of content which dwells in the retirements of a holy Conscience : to which if we add those joys which they only understand truly who feel them inwardly , the joys of the Holy Ghost , the content and joys which are attending upon the lives of holy persons are most likely to make them long and healthful . For now we live , ( saith S. Paul ) if ye stand fast in the Lord. It would prolong S. Paul's life to see his ghostly children persevere in holiness ; and if we understood the joys of it , it would do much greater advantage to our selves . But if we consider a spiritual life abstractedly and in it self , Piety produces our life , not by a natural efficiency , but by Divine benediction . God gives a healthy and a long life as a reward and blessing to crown our Piety even before the sons of men : For such as be blessed of him shall inherit the Earth ; but they that be cursed of him shall be cut off . So that this whole matter is principally to be referred to the act of God , either by ways of nature , or by instruments of special providence , rewarding Piety with a long life . And we shall more fully apprehend this if , upon the grounds of Scripture , Reason , and Experience , we weigh the contrary . Wickedness is the way to shorten our days . 19. Sin brought Death in first ; and yet Man lived almost a thousand years . But he sinned more , and then Death came nearer to him : for when all the World was first drowned in wickedness , and then in water , God cut him shorter by one half , and five hundred years was his ordinary period . And Man sinned still , and had strange imaginations , and built towers in the air ; and then about Peleg's time God cut him shorter by one half yet , two hundred and odd years was his determination . And yet the generations of the World returned not unanimously to God ; and God cut him off another half yet , and reduced him to one hundred and twenty years . And by Moses's time one half of the final remanent portion was pared away , reducing him to threescore years and ten ; so that , unless it be by special dispensation , men live not beyond that term , or thereabout . But if God had gone on still in the same method , and shortned our days as we multiplied our sins , we should have been but as an Ephemeron , Man should have lived the life of a Fly or a Gourd ; the morning should have seen his birth , his life have been the term of a day , and the evening must have provided him of a shroud . But God seeing Man's thoughts were onely evil continually , he was resolved no longer so to strive with him ; nor destroy the kinde , but punish individuals onely and single persons ; and if they sinned , or if they did obey , regularly their life should be proportionable . This God set down for his rule , Evil shall 〈◊〉 the wicked person : and , He that keepeth the Commandments keepeth his own Soul ; but he that despiseth his own ways shall die . 20. But that we may speak more exactly in this Probleme , we must observe that in Scripture three general causes of natural death are assigned , Nature , Providence , and Chance . By these three I onely mean the several manners of Divine influence and operation . For God only predetermines ; and what is changed in the following events by Divine permission , to this God and Man in their several manners do cooperate . The saying of David concerning Saul with admirable Philosophy describes the three ways of ending Man's life . David said furthermore , As the LORD liveth , the LORD shall smite him , or his day shall come to die , or he shall descend into battel and perish . The first is special Providence . The second means the term of Nature . The third is that which in our want of words we call Chance or Accident , but is in effect nothing else but another manner of the Divine Providence . That in all these Sin does interrupt and retrench our lives , is the undertaking of the following periods . 21. First , In Nature Sin is a cause of dyscrasies and distempers , making our bodies healthless and our days few . For although God hath prefixed a period to Nature by an universal and antecedent determination , and that naturally every man that lives temperately , and by no supervening accident is interrupted , shall arrive thither ; yet because the greatest part of our lives is governed by will and understanding , and there are temptations to Intemperance and to violations of our health , the period of Nature is so distinct a thing from the period of our person , that few men attain to that which God had fixed by his first law and 〈◊〉 purpose , but end their days with folly , and in a period which God appointed 〈◊〉 with anger , and a determination secondary , consequent , and accidental . And therefore says David , Health is far from the 〈◊〉 , for they regard not thy statutes . And to this purpose is that saying of (a) Abenezra : He that is united to God , the Fountain of Life , his Soul , being improved by Grace , communicates to the Body an establishment of its radical moisture and natural heat , to make it more healthful , that so it may be more instrumental to the spiritual operations and productions of the Soul , and it self be preserved in perfect constitution . Now how this blessing is contradicted by the impious life of a wicked person is easie to be understood , if we consider that from (b) drunken Surfeits come Dissolution of members , Head-achs , Apoplexies , dangerous Falls , Fracture of bones , Drenchings and dilution of the brain , Inslammation of the liver , Crudities of the stomach , and thousands more , which Solomen sums up in general terms ; * Who hath woe ? who hath sorrow ? who hath redness of eyes ? they that tarry long at the 〈◊〉 . I shall not need to instance in the sad and uncleanly consequents of Lusts , the wounds and accidental deaths which are occasioned by Jealousies , by Vanity , by Peevishness , vain Reputation and Animosities , by Melancholy , and the despair of evil Consciences ; and yet these are abundant argument , that when God so permits a man to run his course of Nature , that himself does not intervene by an extraordinary 〈◊〉 , or any special acts of providence , but only gives his ordinary assistence to natural causes , a very great part of men make their natural period shorter , and by sin make their days miserable and few . 22. Secondly , Oftentimes Providence intervenes , and makes the way shorter ; God for the iniquity of man not suffering Nature to take her course , but stopping her in the midst of her journey . Against this David prayed , O my God , cut me 〈◊〉 off in the midst of my days . But in this there is some variety . For God does it sometimes in mercy , sometimes in judgment . The righteous die , and no man regardeth ; not considering that they are taken away from the evil to come . God takes the righteous man hastily to his Crown , lest temptation snatch it from him by interrupting his hopes and sanctity . And this was the case of the old World. For from Adam to the Floud by the Patriarchs were eleven generations , but by Cain's line there were but eight , so that Cain's posterity were longer liv'd : because God , intending to bring the Floud upon the World , took delight to rescue his elect from the dangers of the present impurity , and the future Deluge . Abraham lived five years less than his son Isaac , it being ( say the Doctors of the Jews ) intended for mercy to him , that he might not see the iniquity of his Grandchild 〈◊〉 . And this the Church for many Ages hath believed in the case of baptized Infants dying before the use of Reason . For besides other causes in the order of Divine Providence , one kind of mercy is done to them too ; for although their condition be of a lower form , yet it is secured by that timely ( shall I call it ? ) or untimely death . But these are cases extraregular : ordinarily and by rule God hath revealed his purposes of interruption of the lives of sinners to be in anger and judgment ; for when men commit any signal and grand impiety , God suffers not Nature to take her course , but strikes a stroke with his own hand . To which purpose I think it a remarkable instance which is reported by 〈◊〉 , that for 3332 years even to the twentieth Age , there was not one example of a Son that died before his Father , but the course of Nature was kept , that he who was first born in the descending line did die first ; ( I speak of natural death , and therefore Abel cannot be opposed to this observation ) till that Terah the father of Abraham taught the People to make Images of clay and worship them ; and concerning him it was first remarked , that Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity : God by an unheard-of Judgment and a rare accident punishing his newly-invented crime . And when-ever such 〈◊〉 of a life happens to a vicious person , let all the world acknowledge it for a Judgment ; and when any man is guilty of evil habits or unrepented sins , he may therefore expect it , because it is threatned and designed for the lot and curse of such persons . This is threatned to Covetousness , Injustice , and Oppression . As a Partridge sitteth on eggs , and hatcheth them not : so he that getteth riches , and not by right , shall leave them in the midst of his days , and at his end shall be a Fool. The same is threatned to Voluptuous persons in the highest caresses of delight ; and Christ told a parable with the same design . The rich man said , Soul , take thy ease ; but God answered , O fool , this night shall thy Soul be required of thee . Zimri and Cozbi were slain in the trophies of their Lust ; and it was a sad story which was told by Thomas Cantipratanus : Two Religious persons tempted by each other in the vigour of their youth , in their very first pleasures and opportunities of sin were both struck dead in their embraces and posture of entertainment . God (a) smote Jeroboam for his Usurpation and Tyranny , and he died . (b) Saul died for Disobedience against God , and asking counsel of a Pythonisse . God smote (c) 〈◊〉 with a Leprosie for his profaneness ; and distressed ‖ 〈◊〉 sorely for his Sacrilege ; and (d) sent a horrid disease upon Jehoram for his Idolatry . These instances represent Voluptuousness and Covetousness , Rapine and Injustice , Idolatry and Lust , Profaneness and Sacrilege , as remarked by the signature of exemplary Judgments to be the means of shortening the days of man ; God himself proving the Executioner of his own fierce wrath . I instance no more , but in the singular case of Hananiah the false Prophet : Thus saith the LORD , Behold , I will cut thee from off the face of the earth ; this year thou shalt die , because thou hast taught Rebellion against the LORD . That is the curse and portion of a false Prophet , a short life , and a suddén death of God's own particular and more immediate 〈◊〉 . 23. And thus also the sentence of the Divine anger went forth upon criminal persons in the New Testament ; Witness the Disease of Herod , Judas's Hanging himself , the Blindness of 〈◊〉 , the Sudden death of Ananias and Sapphira , the Buffetings with which Satan 〈◊〉 the bodies of persons excommunicate . Yea , the blessed Sacrament of CHRIST's Body and Bloud , which is intended for our spiritual life , if it be unworthily received , proves the cause of a natural death : For this cause many are weak and sickly among you , and many are fallen asleep , saith S. Paul to the 〈◊〉 Church . 24. Thirdly , But there is yet another manner of ending man's life , by way of Chance or Contingency ; meaning thereby the manner of God's Providence and event of things which is not produced by the disposition of natural causes , nor yet by any particular and special act of God ; but the event which depends upon accidental causes , not so certain and regular as Nature , not so conclusive and determined as the acts of decretory Providence , but comes by disposition of causes irregular to events rare and accidental . This David expresses by entring into battel : and in this , as in the other , we must separate cases extraordinary and rare from the ordinary and common . Extraregularly , and upon extraordinary reasons and permissions , we find that holy persons have miscarried in battel . So the 〈◊〉 fell before Benjamin ; and Jonathan , and 〈◊〉 , and many of the Lord's champions , fighting against the Philistines : but in these deaths as God served other ends of Providence , so he kept to the good men that fell all the mercies of the Promise by giving them a greater blessing of event and compensation . In the more ordinary course of Divine dispensation , they that prevaricate the Laws of God are put out of protection ; God withdraws his special Providence , or their tutelar Angel , and leaves them exposed to the influences of Heaven , to the power of a Constellation , to the accidents of humanity , to the chances of a Battel , which are so many and various , that it is ten thousand to one , a man in that case never escapes ; and in such variety of contingencies there is no probable way to assure our safety , but by a holy life to endear the Providence of God to be our Guardian . It was a remarkable saying of Deborah , The Stars sought in their courses , 〈◊〉 in their orbs , against Sisera . Sisera fought when there was an evil Aspect or malignant influence of Heaven upon him . For even the smallest thing that is in opposition to us is enough to turn the chance of a Battel ; that although it be necessary for defence of the godly that a special Providence should intervene , yet to confound the impious no special act is requisite . If God exposes them to the ill aspect of a Planet , or any other casualty , their days are interrupted , and they die . And this is the meaning of the Prophet * Jeremy ; Be not ye 〈◊〉 at the signs of Heaven , for the Heathen are dismayed at them : meaning , that God will over-rule all inferiour causes for the safety of his servants ; but the wicked shall be exposed to chance and humane accidents ; and the signs of Heaven , which of themselves do but signifie , or at most but dispose and incline towards events , shall be enough to actuate and consummate their ruine . And this is the meaning of that Proverb of the Jews , * Israel hath no Planet : which they expounded to mean , If they observe the Law , the Planets shall not hurt them , God will over-rule all their influences ; but if they prevaricate and rebel , the least Star in the firmament of Heaven shall bid them battel , and overthrow them . A 〈◊〉 shall lie in a wicked Man's way , and God shall so expose him to it , leaving him so unguarded and defenceless , that he shall stumble at it and fall , and break a bone , and that shall 〈◊〉 a Fever , and the Fever shall end his days . For not onely every creature , when it is set on by God , can prove a ruine ; but if we be not by the Providence of God defended against it , we cannot behold the least atome in the Sun without danger of losing an eye , nor eat a grape without fear of choaking , nor sneeze without breaking of a vein . And Arius , going to the ground , purged his entrails forth , and fell down unto the earth and died . Such and so miserable is the great insecurity of a sinner . And of this Job had an excellent meditation : How oft is the candle of the wicked put out ? and how oft cometh their destruction upon them ? GOD distributeth sorrows in his anger . For what pleasure hath he in his house after him , when the number of his moneths is cut off in the midst ? This is he that dieth in his full strength , being wholly at ease and quiet . 25. I summe up this discourse with an observation that is made concerning the Family of Eli , upon which , for the remisness of Discipline on the Father's part , and for the Impiety and Profaneness of his 〈◊〉 , God sent this Curse , All the increase of their house shall die in the flower of their age . According to that sad malediction it happened for many generations ; the Heir of the Family died as soon as he begat a Son to succeed him : till the Family being wearied by so long a Curse , by the counsel of Rabbi Johanan Ben Zachary , betook themselves universally to a sedulous and most devout meditation of the Law , that is , to an exemplar Devotion and strict Religion : but then the Curse was turned into a Blessing , and the line masculine lived to an honourable old age . For the Doctors of the Jews said , that God often changes his purposes concerning the death of man , when the sick person is liberal in Alms , or fervent in Prayer , or changes his Name , that is , gives up his name to God by the serious purposes and religious vows of holy Obedience . He that followeth after righteousness ( Alms it is in the vulgar 〈◊〉 ) and mercy findeth life ; that verifies the first : and the fervent Prayer of Hezekiah is a great instance of the second : and all the 〈◊〉 discourse was intended for probation of the third and proves that no disease is so deadly as a deadly Sin ; and the ways of Righteousness are therefore advantages of Health , and preservatives of Life , ( when health and life are good for us ) because they are certain title to all God's Promises and Blessings . 26. Upon supposition of these premisses I consider , there is no cause to wonder , that tender persons and the softest women endure the violences of art and Physick , sharp pains of Causticks and Cupping-glasses , the abscission of the most sensible part , for preservation of a mutilous and imperfect body : but it is a wonder that , when God hath appointed a remedy in Grace apt to preserve Nature , and that a dying unto sin should prolong our natural life , yet few men are willing to try the experiment ; they will buy their life upon any conditions in the world but those which are the best and easiest , any thing but Religion and Sanctity ; although for so doing they are promised that immortality shall be added to the end of a long life , to make the life of a mortal partake of the eternal duration of an Angel , or of God himself . 27. Fifthly , The last testimony of the Excellency and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ's yoke , the fair load of Christianity , is the Reasonableness of it , and the Unreasonableness of its contrary . For whatsoever the wisest men in the world in all Nations and Religions did agree upon as most excellent in it self , and of greatest power to make political , or future and immaterial felicities , all that and much more the Holy Jesus adopted into his Law : for they receiving sparks or single irradiations from the regions of light , or else having fair tapers shining indeed excellently in representations and expresses of Morality , were all involved and swallowed up into the body of light , the Sun of Righteousness . Christ's Discipline was the breviary of all the Wisdome of the best men , and a fair copy and transcript of his Father's Wisdome ; and there is nothing in the laws of our Religion but what is perfective of our spirits , excellent rules of Religion , and rare expedients of obeying God by the nearest ways of imitation , and such duties which are the proper ways of doing benefits to all capacities and orders of men . But I remember my design now is not to represent Christianity to be a better Religion than any other ; for I speak to Christians , amongst whom we presuppose that : but I design to invite all Christians in name to be such as they are called , upon the interest of such arguments which represent the advantages of Obedience to our Religion as it is commanded us by God. And this I shall do yet farther , by considering , that those Christian names who apprehend Religion as the Fashion of their Countrey , and know no other use of a Church but customary , or secular and profane , that , supposing Christian Religion to have come from God , as we all profess to believe , there are no greater fools in the world than such whose life conforms not to the pretence of their Baptism and Institution . They have all the signs and characters of fools , and undiscreet , unwary persons . 28. First , Wicked persons , like children and fools , chuse the present , whatsoever it is , and neglect the infinite treasures of the future . They that have no faith nor foresight have an excuse for snatching at what is now represented , because it is that all which can move them : but then such persons are infinitely distant from wisdome , whose understanding neither Reason nor Revelation hath carried farther than the present adherencies ; not only because they are narrow souls who cannot look forward , and have nothing to distinguish them from beasts , who enjoy the present , being careless of what is to come ; but also because whatsoever is present is not fit satisfaction to the spirit , nothing but gluttings of the sense and sottish appetites . Moses was a wise person , and so esteemed and reported by the Spirit of God , because he despised the pleasures of Pharaoh's Court , having an eye to the recompence of reward ; that is , because he despised all 〈◊〉 present arguments of delight , and preferred those excellencies which he knew should 〈◊〉 infinitely greater , as well as he knew they should be at all . He that would have rather chosen to stay in the Theatre and see the sports out , then quit the present Spectacle upon assurance to be adopted into Caesar's family , had an offer made him too great for a fool ; and yet his misfortune was not big enough for pity , because he understood nothing of his felicity , and rejected what he understood not . But he that prefers moments before eternity , and despises the infinite successions of eternal Ages that he may enjoy the present , not daring to trust God for what he sees not , and having no objects of his affections but those which are the objects of his eyes , hath the impatience of a child , and the indiscretion of a fool , and the faithlesness of an unbeliever . The Faith and Hope of a Christian are the graces and portions of spiritual wisdome , which Christ designed as an antidote against this folly . 29. Secondly , Children and fools chuse to please their Senses rather than their Reason , because they still dwell within the regions of Sense , and have but little residence amongst intellectual essences . And because the needs of Nature first imploy our sensual appetites , these being first in possession would also fain retain it , and therefore for ever continue their title , and perpetually fight for it : but because the inferiour faculty fighting against the superiour is no better than a Rebel , and that it takes Reason for its enemy , it shews such actions which please the Sense and do not please the Reason to be unnatural , monstrous , and unreasonable . And it is a great disreputation to the understanding of a man , to be so cozened and deceived , as to chuse Money before a moral Vertue ; to please that which is common to him and beasts , rather than that part which is a communication of the Divine nature ; to see him run after a bubble which himself hath made , and the Sun hath particoloured , and to despise a treasure , which is offered to him to call him off from pursuing that emptiness and nothing . But so does every vicious person , feeds upon husks , and loaths Manna ; worships Cats and Onions , the beggarly and basest of Egyptian Deities , and neglects to adore and honour the eternal God : he prefers the society of Drunkards before the communion of Saints ; or the fellowship of Harlots before a quire of pure , chast , and immaterial Angels ; the sickness and filth of Luxury before the health and purities of Chastity and Temperance ; a dish of red lentil pottage before a Benison ; Drink before Immortality , Money before Mercy , Wantonness before the severe Precepts of Christian Philosophy , Earth before Heaven & Folly before the crowns and 〈◊〉 and glories of a Kingdom . Against this folly Christian Religion opposes 〈◊〉 of things below , and setting our affections on things above . 30. Thirdly , Children and fools propound to themselves Ends silly , low and cheap , the getting of a nut-shel , or a bag of cherry-stones , a gaud to entertain the fancy of a few minutes ; and in order to such ends direct their counsels and designs . And indeed in this they are innocent . But persons not living according to the Discipline of Christianity are as foolish in the designation of their Ends , chusing things as unprofitable and vain to themselves , and yet with many mixtures of malice and injuriousness both to themselves and others . His end is to cozen his Brother of a piece of Land , or to disgrace him by telling of a lie , to supplant his fortune , to make him miserable : Ends which wise men and good men look upon as miseries and persecutions , instruments of affliction and regret ; because every man is a member of a society , and hath some common terms of union and conjuncture , which make all the body susceptive of all accidents to any part . And it is a great folly , for pleasing of the eye to snatch a knife which cuts our fingers ; to bring affliction upon my brother or relative , which either must affect me , or else I am an useless , a base or dead person . The ends of Vice are ignoble and dishonourable : to discompose the quiet of a family , or to create jealousies , or to raise wars , or to make a man less happy , or apparently miserable , or to fish for the Devil , and gain Souls to our Enemy , or to please a passion that undoes us , or to get something that cannot satisfie us ; this is the chain of counsels , and the great aims of unchristian livers , they are all of them extreme great miseries . And it is a great undecency for a man to propound an end less and more imperfect than our present condition ; as if we went about to unravel our present composure , and to unite every degree of essence and capacity , and to retire back to our first matter and unshapen state , hoping to get to our journey's end by going backwards . Against this folly the Holy Jesus opposed the Fourth Beatitude , or Precept of hungring and thirsting after Righteousness . 31. Fourthly , But children and fools , what-ever their ends be , they pursue them with as much weakness and folly as they first chose them with indiscretion ; running to broken cisterns or to puddles to quench their thirst . When they are hungry , they make phantastick banquets , or put Coloquintida into their pottage , that they may be furnished with pot-herbs : or are like the Asse that desired to flatter his Master , and therefore fawned upon him like a Spaniel , and bruised his shoulders . Such undecencies of means and prosecutions of interests we find in unchristian courses . It may be-they propound to themselves Riches for their end , and they use Covetousness for their means , and that brings nought home ; or else they steal to get it , and they are apprehended , and made to restore fourfold . Like moths gnawing a garment they devour their own house , and by greediness of desire they destroy their content , making impatience the parent and instrument of all their 〈◊〉 . Or they are so greedy and imaginative , and have raised their expectation by an over-valuing esteem of temporary felicities , that when they come they fall short of their promises , and are indeed less than they 〈◊〉 have been , by being before-hand apprehended greater than they could be . If their design be to represent themselves innocent and guiltless of a suspicion or a fault , they deny the fact , and double it . When they would repair their losses they fall to Gaming ; and besides that they are infinitely full of fears , passions , wrath and violent disturbances in the various chances of their game , that which they use to restore their 〈◊〉 ruines even the little remnant , and condemns them to beggery , or what is worse . Thus evil men 〈◊〉 for content out of things that cannot satisfie , and take care to get that content ; that is , they raise War to enjoy present Peace , and renounce all Content to get it : They strive to depress their Neighbours , that they may be their equals ; to disgrace them , to get reputation to themselves ; ( which arts being ignoble do them the most disparagement ) and resolve never to enter into the felicities of God by content taken in the prosperities of man , which is a making our selves wretched by being wicked . Malice and Envy is indeed a mighty curse ; and the Devil can shew us nothing more foolish and unreasonable than Envy , which is in its very formality a curse , an eating of coals and vipers because my neighbour's table is full , and his cup is crowned with health and plenty . The Christian Religion , as it chuseth excellent ends , so it useth proportionate and apt means . The most contradictory accident in the world , when it becomes hallowed by a pious and Christian design , becomes a certain means of felicity and content . To quit our lands for Christ's sake will certainly make us rich ; to depart from our friends will encrease our relations and beneficiaries : but the striving to secure our temporal interests by any other means than obedient actions or obedient sufferings , is declared by the Holy Jesus to be the greatest improvidence and ill husbandry in the world . Even in this world Christ will repay us an hundred fold for all our losses which we suffer for the interests of Christianity . In the same proportion we find , that all Graces do the work of humane felicities with a more certain power and 〈◊〉 effect than their contraries . Gratitude endears Benefits , and procures more Friendships : Confession gets a Pardon ; Impudence and lying doubles the fault , and exasperates the offended person : Innocence is bold , and rocks a man asleep ; but an evil Conscience is a continual alarm . Against this folly of using disproportionate means in order to their ends the Holy Jesus hath opposed the Eight Beatitudes , which by contradictions of nature and improbable causes , according to humane and erring estimate , bring our best and wisest ends to pass infallibly and divinely . 32. But this is too large a field to walk in : for it represents all the flatteries of sin to be a mere cozenage and deception of the Understanding ; and we find by this scrutiny , that evil and unchristian persons are infinitely unwise , because they neglect the counsel of their superiours and their guides . They dote passionately upon trifles ; they rely upon false foundations and deceiving principles ; they are most confident when they are most abused ; they are like shelled fish , singing loudest when their house is on fire about their ears , and being merriest when they are most miserable and perishing ; when they have the option of two things , they ever chuse the worst ; they are not masters of their own actions , but break all purposes at the first temptation ; they take more pains to do themselves a mischief than would 〈◊〉 Heaven : that is , they are rude , ignorant , foolish , unwary and undiscerning people in all senses and to all purposes ; and are incurable but by their Obedience and conformity to the Holy Jesus , the eternal Wisdome of the Father . 33. Upon the strength of these premisses the yoke of Christianity must needs be apprehended light , though it had in it more pressure than it hath ; because lightness or heaviness being relative terms are to be esteemed by comparison to others . Christianity is far easier than the yoke of Moses's Law , not only because it consists of fewer Rites , but also because those perfecting and excellent Graces which integrate the body of our Religion are made easie by God's assisting , and the gifts of the Holy Ghost : and we may yet make it easier by Love and by Fear , which are the proper products of the Evangelical Promises and Threatnings . For I have seen persons in affrightment have carried burthens , and leaped ditches , and climbed walls , which their natural power could never have done . And if we understood the sadnesses of a cursed Eternity , from which we are commanded to fly , and yet knew how near we are to it , and how likely to fall into it , it would create fears greater than a sudden fire , or a mid-night alarm . And those unhappy souls who come to feel this truth , when their condition is without remedy , are made the more miserable by the apprehension of their stupid folly . For certainly the accursed Spirits feel the smart of Hell once doubled upon them , by considering by what vain unsatisfying trifles they lost their happiness , with what pains they perished , and with how great ease they might have been beatified . And certain it is , Christian Religion hath so furnished us with assistences , both exteriour and interiour , both of perswasion and advantages , that whatsoever Christ hath doubled upon us in perfection he hath alleviated in aids . 34. And then if we compare the state of Christianity with Sin , all the preceding discourses were intended to represent how much easier it is to be a Christian , than a vile and wicked person . And he that remembers , that whatever fair allurements may be pretended as invitations to a sin , are such false and unsatisfying pretences , that they drive a man to repent him of his folly , and like a great laughter end in a sigh , and expire in weariness and indignation ; must needs confess himself a fool for doing that which he knows will make him repent that he ever did it . A sin makes a man afraid when it thunders , and in all dangers the sin detracts the visour , and affrights him and visits him when he comes to die , upbraiding him with guilt , and threatning misery . So that Christianity is the easiest Law and the easiest state , it is more perfect and less troublesome ; it brings us to Felicity by ways proportionable , landing us in rest by easie and unperplexed journeys . This Discourse I therefore thought necessary , because it reconciles our Religion with those passions and desires which are commonly made the instruments and arguments of sin . For we rarely meet with such spirits which love Vertue so metaphysically , as to abstract her from all sensible and delicious compositions , and love the purity of the Idea . S. Lewis the King sent Ivo Bishop of Chartres on an Embassy : and he told , that he met a grave Matron on the way with fire in one hand , and water in the other ; and , observing her to have a melancholick , religious and phantastick deportment and look , asked her what those symbols meant , and what she meant to do with her fire and water . She answered , My purpose is with the fire to burn Paradise , and with my water to quench the flames of Hell , that men may serve God without the incentives of hope and fear , and purely for the love of God. Whether the Woman were onely imaginative and sad , or also zealous , I know not . But God knows he would have few Disciples , if the arguments of invitation were not of greater promise than the labours of Vertue are of trouble . And therefore the Spirit of God knowing to what we are inflexible , and by what we are made most ductile and malleable , hath propounded Vertue clothed and dressed with such advantages as may entertain even our Sensitive part and first desires , that those also may be invited to Vertue who understand not what is just and reasonable , but what is profitable , who are more moved with advantage than justice . And because emolument is more felt than innocence ; and a man may be poor for all his gift of 〈◊〉 ; the Holy Jesus , to endear the practices of Religion , hath represented Godliness unto us under the notion of gain , and sin as unfruitful : and yet besides all the natural and reasonable advantages , every Vertue hath a supernatural reward , a gracious promise attending ; and every Vice is not only naturally deformed , but is made more ugly by a threatning , and horrid by an appendent curse . Henceforth therefore let no man complain that the Commandments of God are impossible ; for they are not onely possible , but easie ; and they that say otherwise , and do accordingly , take more pains to carry the instruments of their own death , than would serve to ascertain them of life . And if we would do as much for Christ as we have done for Sin , we should find the pains less , and the pleasure more . And therefore such complainers are without excuse ; for certain it is , they that can go in foul ways , must not say they cannot walk in fair : they that march over rocks in despight of so many impediments , can travel the even ways of Religion and Peace , when the Holy Jesus is their Guide , and the Spirit is their Guardian , and infinite felicities are at their journey's end , and all the reason of the world , political , oeconomical and personal , do entertain and support them in the travel of the passage . The PRAYER . O Eternal Jesus , who gavest Laws unto the world , that man-kind , being united to thee by the bands of Obedience , might partake of all thy glories and felicities ; open our understanding , give us the spirit of discerning , and just apprehension of all the beauties with which thou hast enamelled Vertue , to represent it beauteous and amiable in our eyes ; that by the allurements of exteriour decencies and appendent blessings our present desires may be entertained , our hopes promoted , our affections satisfied , and Love entring in by these doors may dwell in the interiour regions of the Will. O make us to love thee for thy self , and Religion for thee , and all the instruments of Religion in order to thy glory and our own felicities . Pull off the visors of Sin , and discover its deformities by the lantern of thy Word and the light of the Spirit ; that I may never be bewitched with sottish appetites . Be pleased to build up all the contents I expect in this world upon the interests of a vertuous life , and the support of Religion ; that I may be rich in Good works , content in the issues of thy Providence , my Health may be the result of Temperance and severity , my Mirth in spiritual emanations , my Rest in Hope , my Peace in a good Conscience , my Satisfaction and acquiescence in thee : that from Content I may pass to an eternal Fulness , from Health to Immortality , from Grace to Glory , walking in the paths of Righteousness , by the waters of Comfort , to the land of everlasting Rest , to feast in the glorious communications of Eternity , eternally adoring , loving and enjoying the infinity of the ever-Blessed and mysterious Trinity ; to whom be glory , and 〈◊〉 , and dominion now and for ever . Amen . DISCOURSE XVI . Of Certainty of Salvation . 1. WHen the Holy Jesus took an account of the first Legation and voyage of his Apostles , he found them rejoycing in priviledges and exteriour powers , in their authority over unclean spirits : but weighing it in his balance , he found the cause too light , and therefore diverted it upon the right object ; Rejoyce that your names are written in Heaven . The revelation was confirmed and more personally applied in answer to S. Peter's Question , We have for saken all and followed thee : what shall we have therefore ? Their LORD answered , Ye shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel . Amongst these persons to whom Christ spake Judas was ; he was one of the Twelve , and he had a throne allotted for him ; his name was described in the book of life , and a Scepter and a Crown was deposited for him too . For we must not judge of Christ's meaning by the event , since he spake these words to produce in them Faith , comfort and joy in the best objects : it was a Sermon of duty as well as a Homily of comfort , and therefore was equally intended to all the Colledge : and since the number of Thrones is proportioned to the number of men , it is certain there was no exception of any man there included ; and yet it is as certain Judas never came to sit upon the throne , and his name was blotted out of the book of life . Now if we put these ends together , that in Scripture it was not revealed to any man concerning his final condition , but to the dying penitent Thief , and to the twelve Apostles , that twelve thrones were designed for them , and a promise made of their inthronization , and yet that no man's final estate is so clearly declared miserable and lost as that of Judas , one of the Twelve , to whom a throne was promised ; the result will be , that the election of holy persons is a condition allied to duty , absolute and infallible in the general , and supposing all the dispositions and requisites concurring ; but fallible in the particular , if we fall off from the mercies of the Covenant , and prevaricate the conditions . But the thing which is most observable is , that if in persons so eminent and priviledged , and to whom a revelation of their Election was made as a particular grace , their condition had one weak leg , upon which because it did rely for one half of the interest , it could be no stronger than its supporters ; the condition of lower persons , to whom no revelation is made , no priviledges are indulged ; no greatness of spiritual eminency is appendent , as they have no greater certainty in the thing , so they have less in person , and are therefore to work out their salvation with great fears and tremblings of spirit . 2. The purpose of this consideration is , that we do not judge of our final condition by any discourses of our own , relying upon God's secret Counsels , and Predestination of Eternity . This is a mountain upon which whosoever climbs , like Moses , to behold the land of Canaan at great distances , may please his eyes , or satisfie his curiosity , but is certain never to enter that way . It is like enquiring into fortunes , concerning which Phavorinus the Philosopher spake not unhandsomely ; They that foretell events of destiny and secret providence , either foretell sad things , or prosperous . If they promise prosperous , and deceive , you are made miserable by a vain speculation . If they threaten ill fortune , and say false , thou art made wretched by a false fear . But if they foretell adversity , and say true , thou art made miserable by thy own apprehension before thou art so by destiny ; and many times the fear is worse than the evil feared . But if they promise felicities , and promise truly what shall come to pass ; then thou shalt be wearied by an impatience and a suspended hope , and thy hope shall ravish and * deflower the joys of thy possession . Much of it is hugely applicable to the present Question ; and our Blessed Lord , when he was petitioned that he would grant to the two sons of Zebedee , that they might sit one on the right hand and the other on the left in his Kingdom , rejected their desire , and only promised them what concerned their duty and their suffering , referring them to that , and leaving the final event of men to the disposition of his Father . This is the great Secret of the Kingdom , which God hath locked up and sealed with the counsels of Eternity . The sure foundation of God standeth , having this seal , The Lord knoweth who are his . This seal shall never be broken up till the great day of Christ ; in the mean time the Divine knowledge is the only 〈◊〉 of the final sentences , and this way of God is unsearchable and past finding out . And therefore if we be solicitous and curious to know what God in the counsels of Eternity hath decreed concerning us , he hath in two fair Tables described all those sentences from whence we must take accounts , the revelations of Scripture , and the book of Conscience : The first recites the Law and the conditions ; the other gives in evidence : the first is clear , evident and conspicuous ; the other , when it is written with large characters , may also be discerned ; but there are many little accents , periods , distinctions , and little significations of actions , which either are there written in water , or fullied over with carelesness , or blotted with forgetfulness , or not legible by ignorance , or misconstrued by interest and partiality , that it will be extremely difficult to read the hand upon the wall , or to copy out one line of the eternal sentence . And therefore excellent was the counsel of the Son of Sirach , 〈◊〉 not out the things that are 〈◊〉 hard for thee , 〈◊〉 search the things that are above thy strength : 〈◊〉 what is 〈◊〉 thee think thereupon with reverence ; for it is not 〈◊〉 for thee 〈◊〉 see with thine eyes the things that are in secret . For whatsoever God hath revealed in general concerning Election , it concerns all persons within the pale of Christianity : He hath conveyed notice to all Christian people , that they are the sons of God , that they are the 〈◊〉 of Eternity , coheirs 〈◊〉 Christ , partakers of the Divine nature ; meaning , that such they are by the design of God , and the purposes of the manifestation of his Son. The Election 〈◊〉 God is disputed in Scripture to be an act of God separating whole Nations , and rejecting others ; in each of which many particular instances there were contrary to the general and universal purpose ; and of the elect nations many particulars perished , and many of the rejected people sate down with Abraham , Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of Heaven : and to those persons to whom God was more particular , and was pleased to shew the scrowls of his eternal counsels , and to reveal their particular Elections , as he did to the twelve Apostles , he shewed them wrapped up and 〈◊〉 ; and , to take off their confidences or presumptions , he gave probation in one instance that those scrowls may be cancelled , that his purpose concerning particulars may be altered by us ; and 〈◊〉 that he did not discover the bottom of the Abysse , but some purposes of special grace and 〈◊〉 design . But his peremptory , final , 〈◊〉 Decree he keeps in the cabinets of the eternal ages , never to be unlocked till the Angel of the Covenant shall declare the unalterable universal Sentence . 3. But as we take the measure of the course of the Sun by the dimensions of the shadows made by our own bodies or our own instruments ; so must we take the measures of Eternity by the span of a man's hand , and guess at what God decrees of us , by considering how our relations and endearments are to him . And it is observable , that all the confidences which the Spirit of God hath created in the Elect are built upon Duty , and stand or fall according to the strength or weakness of such supporters . We know we are translated from death to life by our love unto the Brethren : meaning , that the performance of our duty is the best consignation to Eternity , and the only testimony God gives us of our Election . And therefore we are to make our judgments accordingly . And here I consider , that there is no state of a Christian in which by virtue of the Covenant of the Gospel it is effectively and fully declared that his sins are actually pardoned , but only in Baptism , at our first coming to Christ , when he redeems us from our 〈◊〉 conversation , when he makes us become Sons of God , when he justifies us 〈◊〉 by his grace , when we are purified by Faith , when we make a Covenant with Christ to live 〈◊〉 ever according to his Laws . And this I shall suppose I have already proved and explicated in the Discourse of Repentance . So that whoever is certain he hath not offended God since that time , and in nothing transgresseth the Laws of Christianity , he is certain that he actually remains in the state of Baptismal purity : but it is too certain that this certainty remains not long , but we commonly throw some dirt into our waters of Baptism , and stain our white robe which we then put on . 4. But then because our restitution to this state is a thing that consists of so many parts , is so divisible , various , and uncertain whether it be arrived to the degree of Innocence , ( and our Innocence consists in a Mathematical point , and is not capable of degrees any more than Unity , because one stain destroys our being innocent ) it is therefore a very difficult matter to say that we have done all our duty towards our restitution to Baptismal grace ; and if we have not done all that we can do , it is harder to say that God hath accepted that which is less than the conditions we entred into when we received the great Justification and Pardon of sins . We all know we do less than our duty , and we hope that God makes abatements for humane infirmities ; but we have but a few rules to judge by , and they not infallible in themselves , and we yet more fallible in the application , whether we have not mingled some little minutes of malice in the body of infirmities , and how much will bear excuse , and in what time , and to what persons , and to what degrees , and upon what endeavours we shall be pardoned . So that all the interval between our losing baptismal grace and the day of our death we walk in a cloud , having lost the certain knowledge of our present condition by our prevarications . And indeed it is a very hard thing for a man to know his own heart : And he that shall observe how often himself hath been abused by confidences and secret imperfections , and how the greatest part of Christians in name only do think themselves in a very good condition , when God knows they are infinitely removed from it ; ( and yet if they did not think themselves well and sure , it is unimaginable they should sleep so quietly , and walk securely , and consider negligently , and yet proceed 〈◊〉 ) he that considers this , and upon what weak and false principles of Divinity men have raised their strengths and perswasions , will easily consent to this , that it is very easie for men to be deceived in taking estimate of their present condition , of their being in the state of Grace . 5. But there is great variety of men , and difference of degrees ; and every step of returning to God may reasonably add one degree of hope , till at last it comes to the certainty and top of hope . Many men believe themselves to be in the state of Grace , and are not : many are in the state of Grace , and are infinitely fearful they are out of it : and many that are in God's favour do think they are so , and they are not deceived . And all this is certain . For some sin that sin of Presumption and Flattery of themselves , and some good persons are vexed with violent fears and temptations to despair , and all are not : and when their hopes are right , yet some are strong , and some are weak ; for they that are well perswaded of their present condition have perswasions as different as are the degrees of their approach to innocence ; and he that is at the highest hath also such abatements which are apt and proper for the conservation of humility and godly 〈◊〉 . I am guilty of nothing , ( saith S. Paul ) but I am not hereby justified ; meaning thus , Though I be innocent , for ought I know , yet God , who judges otherwise than we judge , may find something to reprove in me : It is God that judges , that is , concerning my degrees of acceptance and hopes of glory . If the person be newly recovering from a state of sin , because his state is imperfect , and his sin not dead , and his lust active , and his habit not quite extinct , it is easie for a man to be too hasty in pronouncing well . He is wrapt up in a cloak of clouds , hidden and encumbred ; and his brightest day is but twilight , and his discernings dark , conjectural and imperfect ; and his heart is like a cold hand newly applied to the fire , full of pain , and whether the heat or the cold be strongest is not easie to determine ; or like middle colours , which no man can tell to which of the extremes they are to be accounted . But according as persons grow in Grace , so they may grow in confidence of their present condition . It is not certain they will do so ; for sometimes the beauty of the tabernacle is covered with goats hair and skins of beasts , and holy people do infinitely deplore the want of such Graces which God observes in them with great complacency and acceptance . Both these cases say , that to be certainly perswaded of our present condition is not a Duty : Sometimes it is not possible , and sometimes it is better to be otherwise . But if we consider of this Certainty as a Blessing and a Reward , there is no question but in a great and an eminent Sanctity of life there may also be a great confidence and fulness of perswasion that our present being is well and gracious , and then it is certain that such persons are not deceived . For the thing it self being sure , if the perswasion answers to it , it is needless to dispute of the degree of certainty and the manner of it . Some persons are heartily perswaded of their being reconciled ; and of these some are deceived , and some are not deceived ; and there is no sign to distinguish them , but by that which is the thing signified : a holy life according to the strict rules of Christian Discipline tells what persons are confident , and who are presumptuous . But the certainty is reasonable in none but in old Christians , habitually holy persons , not in new Converts , or in lately lapsed people : for concerning them we find the Spirit of God speaking with clauses of restraint and ambiguity , a * perhaps , and , who knoweth , and , peradventure the thoughts of thy heart may be forgiven thee ; God may have mercy on 〈◊〉 And that God hath done so , they only have reason to be confident whom God hath blessed with a lasting continuing Piety , and who have wrought out the habits of their precontracted vices . 6. But we find in Scripture many precepts given to holy persons being in the state of Grace to secure their standing , and perpetuate their present condition . For , (a) He that endureth unto the end , he [ only ] shall be saved , ( said our Blessed Saviour : ) and , (b) He that standeth , let him take heed lest he fall : and (c) Thou standest by Faith ; be not high-minded , but fear : and , (d) Work out your Salvation with fear and trembling . (e) Hold fast that 〈◊〉 hast , and let no man take the crown from thee . And it was excellent advice ; for one Church had (f) lost their first love , and was likely also to lose their crown . And S. Paul himself , who had once entred within the veil , and seen unutterable glories , yet was forced to endure hardship , and to fight against his own disobedient appetite , and to do violence to his inclinations , for fear that , whilest he preached to others , himself should become a cast-away . And since we observe in holy story that Adam and Eve fell in Paradise , and the Angels fell in Heaven it self , stumbling at the very jewels which pave the streets of the celestial Jerusalem ; and in Christ's family , one man for whom his Lord had prepared a throne turned Devil ; and that in the number of the Deacons it is said that one turned Apostate , who yet had been a man full of the Holy Ghost : it will lessen our train , and discompose the gayeties of our present confidence , to think that our securities cannot be really distinguished from danger and uncertainties . For every man walks upon two legs : one is firm , invariable , constant and eternal ; but the other is his own . God's Promises are the objects of our Faith ; but the events and final conditions of our Souls , which is consequent to our duty , can at the best be but the objects of our Hope . And either there must in this be a less certainty , or else Faith and Hope are not two distinct Graces . God's 〈◊〉 and vocation are without repentance ; meaning , on God's part : but the very people concerning whom S. Paul used the expression were reprobate and cut off , and in good time shall be called again ; in the mean time many single persons perish . There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus . God will look to that , and it will never fail ; but then they must secure the following period , and not walk after the Flesh , but after the Spirit . Behold the goodness of God towards thee , ( saith S. Paul ) if thou continue in his goodness , otherwise thou also shalt be cut off . And if this be true concerning the whole Church of the Gentiles , to whom the Apostle then made the address , and concerning whose election the decree was publick and manifest , that they might be cut off , and their abode in God's favour was upon condition of their perseverance in the Faith ; much more is it true in single persons , 〈◊〉 election in particular is shut up in the abyss , and permitted to the condition of our Faith and Obedience , and the revelations of Dooms-day . 7. Certain it is that God hath given to holy persons the Spirit of adoption , enabling them to cry , Abba , Father , and to account themselves for sons ; and by this Spirit we know we dwell in him , and therefore it is called in Scripture the earnest of the Spirit : though at its first mission , and when the Apostle wrote and used this appellative , the Holy Ghost was of greater signification , and a more visible earnest and endearment of their hopes , than it is to most of us since . For the visible sending of the Holy Ghost upon many Believers in gifts , signs and prodigies , was infinite argument to make them expect events as great beyond that as that was beyond the common gifts of men : just as Miracles and Prophecy , which are gifts of the Holy Ghost , were arguments of probation for the whole Doctrine of Christianity . And this being a mighty verification of the great Promise , the promise of the Father , was an apt instrument to raise their hopes and confidences concerning those other Promises which Jesus made , the promises of Immortality and eternal life , of which the present miraculous Graces of the Holy Spirit were an earnest , and in the nature of a contracting peny : and still also the Holy Ghost , though in another manner , is an earnest of the great price of the heavenly calling , the rewards of Heaven ; though not so visible and apparent as at first , yet as certain and demonstrative where it is discerned or where it is believed , as it is and ought to be in every person who does any part of his duty , because by the Spirit we do it , and without him we cannot . And since we either feel or believe the presence and gifts of the Holy Ghost to holy purposes , ( for whom we receive voluntarily , we cannot casily receive without a knowledge of his reception ) we cannot but entertain him as an argument of greater good hereafter , and an earnest-peny of the perfection of the present Grace , that is , of the rewards of Glory ; Glory and Grace differing no otherwise , than as an earnest in part of payment does from the whole price , the price of our high calling . So that the Spirit is an earnest , not because he always signifies to us that we are actually in the state of Grace , but by way of argument or reflexion ; we know we do belong to God when we receive his Spirit ; ( and all Christian people have received him , if they were rightly baptized and confirmed ) I say , we know by that testimony that we belong to God , that is , we are the people with whom God hath made a Covenant , to whom he hath promised and intends greater blessings , to which the present gifts of the Spirit are in order . But all this is conditional , and is not an immediate testimony of the certainty and future event ; but of the event as it is possibly future , and may ( without our fault ) be reduced to act as certainly as it is promised , or as the earnest is given in hand . And this the Spirit of God oftentimes tells us in secret visitations and publick testimonies : and this is that which S. Paul calls , tasting of the heavenly gift , and partaking of the Holy Ghost , and tasting of the good word of God , and the powers of the world to come . But yet some that have done so have fallen away , and have quenched the Spirit , and have given back the earnest of the Spirit , and contracted new relations , and God hath been their Father no longer , for they have done the works of the Devil . So that if new Converts be uncertain of their present state , old Christians are not absolutely certain they shall persevere . They are as sure of it as they can be of future acts of theirs which God hath permitted to their own power . But this certainty cannot exclude all fear , till their Charity be perfect ; only according to the strength of their habits , so is the confidence of their abodes in Grace . 8. Beyond this , some holy persons have degrees of perswasion superadded as Largesses and acts of grace , God loving to bless one degree of Grace with another , till it comes to a Confirmation in Grace , which is a state of Salvation directly opposite to Obduration ; and as this is irremediable and irrecoverable , so is the other inamissible : as God never saves a person obdurate and obstinately impenitent , so he never loses a man whom he hath confirmed in grace , whom he [ so ] loves , he loves unto the end ; and to others indeed he offers his persevering love , but they will not entertain it with a persevering duty , they will not be beloved unto the end . But I insert this caution , that every man that is in this condition of a confirmed Grace does not always know it ; but sometimes God draws aside the curtains of peace , and shews him his throne , and visits him with irradiations of glory , and sends him a little star to stand over his dwelling , and then again covers it with a cloud . It is certain concerning some persons , that they shall never fall , and that God will not permit them to the danger or probability of it ; to such it is morally impossible : but these are but few , and themselves know it not as they know a demonstrative proposition , but as they see the Sun , sometimes breaking from a cloud very brightly , but all day long giving necessary and sufficient light . 9. Concerning the multitude of Believers this discourse is not pertinent , for they only take their own accounts by the imperfections of their own duty blended with the mercies of God : the cloud gives light on one side , and is dark upon the other ; and sometimes a bright ray peeps through the fringes of a shower , and immediately hides it self , that we might be humble and diligent , striving forwards and looking upwards , endeavouring our duty and longing after Heaven , working out our Salvation with fear and trembling , and in good time our calling and 〈◊〉 may be assured , when we first according to the precept of the Apostle , use all diligence . S. Paul , when he writ his first Epistle to the Corinthians , was more fearful of being reprobate , and therefore he used exteriour arts of mortification . But when he writ to the Romans , which was a good while after , we find him more confident of his final condition , perswaded that neither height , nor depth , Angel , nor principality , nor power could separate him from the love of God in Jesus Christ : and when he grew to his latter end , when he wrote to S. Timothy , he was more confident yet , and declared that now a crown of rightcousness was certainly laid up for him , for now he had sought the fight , and finished his course , the time of his departure was at hand . Henceforth he knew no more fear ; his love was perfect as this state would permit , and that cast out all fear . According to this precedent if we reckon our securities , we are not likely to be reproved by any words of Scripture , or by the condition of humane infirmity . But when the confidence out-runs our growth in Grace , it is it self a sin ; though when the confidence is equal with the Grace , it is of it self no regular and universal duty , but a blessing and a reward indulged by special dispensation , and in order to personal necessities or accidental purposes . For only so much hope is simply necessary as excludes despair , and encourages our duty , and glorifies God , and entertains his mercy ; but that the hope should be without fear is not given but to the highest Faith , and the most excellent Charity , and to habitual , ratified and confirmed Christians , and to them also with some variety . The summ is this : All that are in the state of beginners and imperfection have a conditional Certainty , changeable and fallible in respect of us , ( for we meddle not with what it is in God's secret purposes ; ) changeable , I say , as their wills and resolutions . They that are grown towards perfection have more reason to be confident , and many times are so : but still although the strength of the habits of Grace adds degrees of moral certainty to their expectation , yet it is but as their condition is , hopeful and promising , and of a moral determination . But to those few to whom God hath given confirmation in Grace , he hath also given a certainty of condition , and therefore if that be revealed to them , their perswasions are certain and infallible . If it be not revealed to them , their condition is in it self certain , but their perswasion is not so ; but in the highest kind of Hope , an anchor of the Soul sure and stedfast . The PRAYER . O Eternal God , whose counsels are in the great deep , and thy ways past finding out ; thou hast built our Faith upon thy Promises , our Hopes upon thy Goodness , and hast described our paths between the waters of comfort and the dry barren land of our own duties and affections : we acknowledge that all our comforts derive from thee , and to our selves we owe all our shame and confusions and degrees of desperation . Give us the assistances of the Holy Ghost to help us in performing our duty , and give us those comforts and visitations of the Holy Ghost which thou in thy 〈◊〉 and eternal wisdom knowest most apt and expedient to encourage our duties , to entertain our hopes , to alleviate our sadnesses , to refresh our spirits , and to endure our abode and constant endeavours in the strictnesses of Religion and Sanctity . Lead us , dearest God , from Grace to Grace , from imperfection to strength , from acts to habits , from habits to confirmation in Grace , that we may also pass into the regions of comfort , receiving the earnest of the Spirit , and the adoption of Sons ; till by such a signature we be consigned to glory , and enter into the possession of the inheritance which we expect in the Kingdom of thy Son , and in the fruition of the felicities of thee , O gracious Father , God Eternal . Amen . SECT . XIV . Of the Third Year of the Preaching of JESUS . Five loaves satisfy so many Thousands . Mat : 14. 19. And he took the five loaves and the two fishes and looking up to Heaven he blessed and brake , and gave the loaves to his Disciples , and the Disciples to the Multitude . 20. And they did all eat and were filled , and they took up the fragments , that remayned twelve baskets . 21. And they that had eaten , were about five Thousand men , beside women and Children . Lazarus at the rich glutton's gate . Luk : 16. 19. There was a certain rich man which was Clothed in purple and fine linen , and fared sumptuously everey day . 20. And there was a certain Begger , named Lazarus , which was layd at his gate , full of sores . 25. And in Hell he lift up his eyes being in Torments , and seeth Abraham a far off , and Lazarus in his Bosome . 1. BUT Jesus knowing of the death of the Baptist , Herod's jealousie , and the envy of the Pharisees , retired into a desert place beyond the Lake together with his Apostles : For the people pressed so upon them , they had not leisure to eat . But neither there could he be hid , but great multitudes flocked thither also , to whom he preached many things . And afterwards , because there were no villages in the neighbourhood , lest they should faint in their return to their houses , he caused them to sit down upon the grass , and with five loaves of barley and two small fishes he satisfied five thousand men , besides women and children , and caused the Disciples to gather up the fragments , which being amassed together filled twelve baskets . Which Miracles had so much proportion to the understanding , and met so happily with the affections of the people , that they were convinced that this was the 〈◊〉 who was to come into the world , and had a purpose to have taken him by force , and made him a King. 2. But he , that left his Father's Kingdom to take upon him the miseries and infelicities of the world , fled from the offers of a Kingdom , and their tumultuary election , as from an enemy ; and therefore sending his Disciples to the ship before towards Bethsaida , he ran into the mountains to hide himself till the multitude should scatter to their several habitations ; he in the mean time taking the opportunity of that retirement for the advantage of his Prayers . But when the Apostles were far engaged in the Deep , a great tempest arose , with which they were pressed to the extremity of danger and the last refuges , labouring in sadness and hopelesness , till the fourth watch of the night , when in the midst of their fears and labours Jesus comes walking on the sea , and appeared to them , which turned their fears into affrightments ; for they supposed it had been a spirit : but he appeased their fears with his presence , and manifestation who he was ; which yet they desired to have proved to them by a sign . For Simon Peter said unto him , Master , if it be thou , command me to come to thee on the waters . The Lord did so ; and Peter , throwing himself upon the confidence of his Master's power and providence , came out of the ship , and his fear began to weigh him down , and he cried , saying , Lord , save me . Jesus took him by the hand , reproved the timorousness of his Faith , and went with him into the ship : where when they had worshipped him , and admired the Divinity of his Power and Person , they presently came into the land of Genesareth , the ship arriving at the Port immediately ; and all that were sick or possessed with unclean spirits were brought to him , and as many as touched the border of his garment were made whole . 3. By this time they whom Jesus had left on the other side of the Lake had come as far as Capernaum to seek him , wondring that he was there before them : but upon the occasion of their so diligent inquisition Jesus observes to them , That it was not the Divinity of the Miracle that provoked their zeal , but the satisfaction they had in the loaves , a carnal complacency in their meal ; and upon that intimation speaks of celestial bread , the divine nutriment of souls ; and then discourses of the mysterious and symbolical manducation of Christ himself , affirming that he himself was the bread of life that came down from Heaven , that he would give his Disciples his flesh to eat and his bloud to drink , and all this should be for the life of the World , to nourish unto life eternal ; so that without it a happy eternity could not be obtained . Upon this discourse divers of his Disciples ( amongst whom S. Mark the Evangelist is said to be one , though he was afterwards recalled by Simon Peter ) for sook him , being scandalized by their literal and carnal understanding of those words of Jesus , which he intended in a spiritual sence . For the words that he spake were not profitable in the sence of flesh and bloud , but they are spirit , and they are life , himself being the Expounder , who best knew his own meaning . 4. When Jesus saw this great defection of his Disciples from him , he turned him to the twelve Apostles , and asked if they also would go away . Simon Peter answered , Lord , whither shall we go ? thou hast the words of eternal life : And we believe and are sure thou art that CHRIST , the Son of the living God. Although this publick confession was made by Peter in the name and confidence of the other Apostles , yet Jesus told them , that even amongst the twelve there was one Devil ; meaning Judas Iscariot , who afterwards betrayed him . This he told them Prophetically , that they might perceive the sad accidents which afterwards happened did not invade and surprize him in the disadvantages of ignorance or improvision , but came by his own knowledge and providence . 5. Then came to him the Pharisees , and some Scribes which came from Jerusalem and Galilee , ( for Jesus would not go to Judaea , because the Jews laid wait to kill him ) and quarrelled with him about certain impertinent , unnecessary Rites , derived to them not by Divine sanction , but ordinances of man ; such as were washing their hands oft when they eat , baptizing cups and platters , and washing tables and beds ; which ceremonies the Apostles of Jesus did not observe , but attended diligently to the simplicity and spiritual Holiness of their Master's Doctrine . But , in return to their vain demands , Jesus gave them a sharp reproof for prosecuting these and many other traditions to the discountenance of Divine Precepts ; and in particular they taught men to give to the Corban , and refused to supply the necessity of their parents , thinking it to be Religion , though they neglected Piety and Charity . And again he thunders out woes and sadnesses against their impieties , for being curious of minutes , and punctual in rites and ceremonials , but most negligent and incurious of Judgment and the love of God ; for their Pride , for their Hypocrisie , for their imposing burthens upon others which themselves helped not to support ; for taking away the key of knowledge from the people , obstructing the passages to Heaven ; for approving the acts of their Fathers in persecuting the Prophets . But for the Question it self concerning Washings , Jesus taught the people that no outward impurity did stain the Soul in the sight of God , but all pollution is from within , from the corruption of the heart , and impure thoughts , unchast desires , and unholy purposes , and that Charity is the best purifier in the world . 6. And thence Jesus departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon , and entred into a house , that he might not be known . The diligence of a Mother's love , and sorrow and necessity , found him out in his retirement ; for a Syrophoenician woman came and be sought him that he would cast the Devil out of her daughter . But Jesus discoursed to her by way of discomfort and rejection of her , for her Nation 's sake . But the seeming denial did but enkindle her desires , and made her importunity more bold and undeniable ; she begged but some crums that fell from the childrens table , but one instance of favour to her daughter , which he poured forth without measure upon the sons and daughters of Israel , Jesus was pleased with her zeal and discretion , and pitied her daughter's infelicity , and dismissed her with saying , The Devil was gone out of her Daughter . 7. But Jesus stayed not long here , but returning to the Sea of Galilee through the midst of 〈◊〉 , they brought unto him a man deaf and dumb , whom Jesus cured by touching his tongue , and putting his fingers in his ears : which caused the people to give a large testimony in approbation of all his actions . And they followed him unto a mountain , bringing to him multitudes of diseased people , and he healed them all . But because the people had followed him three days , and had nothing to eat , Jesus in pity to their need resolved to 〈◊〉 them once more at the charge of a Miracle : therefore taking seven 〈◊〉 and a few small fishes , he blessed them , and satisfied four thousand men , besides women and children . And there remained seven baskets full of broken bread and fish . From whence Jesus departed by ship to the coasts of Mageddon and Dalmanutha , whither the Pharisees and Sadduces came , seeking of him a sign . But Jesus rejected their impertinent and captious demand , knowing they did it to ill purposes and with disaffection ; reproving them , that they discerned the face of the sky , and the prognosticks of fair or foul weather , but not the signs of the times of the Son of man. However , since they had neglected so great demonstrations of Miracles , gracious Discourses , holy Laws and Prophecies , they must expect no other sign but the 〈◊〉 of the Prophet Jonas ; meaning , the Resurrection of his Body after three days burial : and so he dismissed the impertinent inquisitors . 8. And passing again over the Lake , as his Disciples were solicitous because they had forgot to take bread , he gave them caution to beware of the leven of the Pharisees and Sadduces , and the leven of Herod ; meaning , the Hypocrisie and vanities of the one , and the Heresie of the other . For Herod's leven was the pretence that he was the Messias , which the Sect of the 〈◊〉 did earnestly and spitefully promote . And after this 〈◊〉 of themselves by the way , they came together to Bethsaida , where Jesus cured a blind man with a collyrium of spittle , salutary as Balsam or the purest Eyebright , when his divine benediction once had hallowed it . But Jesus staid not there , but departing thence into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi , out of Herod's power , ( for it was in Philip's jurisdiction ) after he had prayed with his Disciples , he enquired what opinion the world had of him , and whom they reported him to be . They answered , Some say thou art John the Baptist , some that thou art Elias , or Jeremias , or one of the Prophets : for in 〈◊〉 especially the Sect of the Pharisees was mightily disseminated , whose opinion it was , that the Souls of dead men according to their several merits did transmigrate into other bodies of very perfect and excellent persons . And therefore in all this variety none hit upon the right , or fansied him to be a distinct person from the ancients ; but although they differed in the assignation of his name , yet generally they agreed it was the Soul of a departed Prophet which had passed into another Body . But Jesus asked the Apostles their opinion , and Peter , in the name of all the rest , made an open and confident Confession , Thou art CHRIST , the Son of the living God. 9. This Confession Jesus not only confirmed as true , but as revealed by God , and of fundamental necessity : for after the blessing of Peter's person , upon allusion of Peter's name , Jesus said , that upon this Rock [ the article of Peter's Confession ] he would build his Church , promising to it assistances even to perpetuity , insomuch that the gates of hell , that is , persecution and death and the grave , should never prevail against it : adding withall a promise to Peter , in behalf of all the rest , as he had made a Confession for them all , that he would give unto him the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven , so that whatsoever he should bind on earth should be bound in Heaven , and whatsoever he should loose on earth should be loosed in Heaven ; a power which he never communicated before or since , but to their successors ; greater than the large Charter of Nature and the donative of Creation , in which all the creatures under Heaven were made subject to Man's Empire , but till now Heaven it self was never subordinate to humane ministration . 10. And now the days from hence forward to the Death of Jesus we must reckon to be like the Vigils or Eves of his Passion ; for now he began and often did ingeminate those sad predictions of his unhandsome usage he should shortly find , that he 〈◊〉 be rejected of the Elders , and chief Priests , and Scribes , and suffer many things at Jerusalem , and be killed , and be raised up the third day . But Peter , hearing that sad discourse so contrary to his hopes , which he had blended with temporal expectances , ( for he had learned the Doctrine of Christ's Advent , but not the mystery of the Cross ) in great and mistaken civility took Jesus aside , and began to rebuke him , saying , Be it far from thee , Lord , this shall not be unto thee . But Jesus full of zeal against so soft and humane admonition , that savoured nothing of God or of abstracted immaterial considerations , chid Peter bitterly ; Get thee behind me , Satan , thou art an offence unto me . And calling his Disciples to him , told them a second part of a sad doctrine , that not only himself , but all they also must suffer . For when the Head was to be crowned with thorns , if the Members were wrapped in softnesses , it was an unhansome undecency , and a disunion too near an antipathy ; and therefore who ever will be the Disciple of Jesus must take up his Cross , deny himself and his own fonder appetites , and trace his Master's foot-steps marked out with bloud that he shed for our Redemption and restitution . And that there be no escape from the participation of Christ's suffering , Jesus added this Dilemma ; He that will save his life shall lose it ; and he that will lose it shall save it to eternity . Which part soever we chuse , there is a life to be lost : but as the first are foolish to the extremest misery , that will lose their Souls to gain the World ; so they are most wise and fortunate that will give their lives for him ; because when the Son of Man shall come in his own glory , and his Father's , and of his Angels , he shall reward every man according to his works . This discourse Jesus concluded with a Prophecy , that some standing in that presence should not die till they saw the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom . 11. Of the greater glories of which , in due time to be revealed , Jesus after eight days gave a bright and excellent probation . For , taking with him Peter and James and John , he went up into the mountain Tabor to pray ; and while he prayed , he was transfigured before them , and his face did shine like the Sun , and his garments were white and 〈◊〉 . And there appeared talking with him Moses and Elias gloriously , speaking of the decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem , which glory these Apostles , after they had awaked from sleep , did behold . And the Interlocutors with Jesus having finished their embassy of death ( which they delivered in forms of glory representing the excellencies of the reward , together with the sharpness of the passage and interval ) departed , leaving the Apostles full of fear , and wonder , and 〈◊〉 , insomuch that Peter talked he knew not what , but nothing amiss , something Prophetical , saying , Master , it is good to be here ; 〈◊〉 us build three tabernacles . And some devout persons in memory of the mystery did 〈◊〉 three Churches in the same place in after-Ages . But after the departure of those attendent Saints , a cloud incircled Jesus and the Disciples , and a voice came from the excellent glory , This is my beloved Son , hear him . The cloud quickly disappeared , and freed the Disciples from the fear it had put them in . So they attended Jesus , and descended from the mountain , being commanded silence , which they observed till the Resurrection . 12. The next day came to Jesus a man praying in behalf of his son , Lunatick and sore troubled with a Devil , who sought oft to destroy him in fire and water , that Jesus would be pleased to deliver him . For his Apostles tried , and could not , by reason of the want of Faith ; for this Grace , if it be true , though in a less degree , is of power to remove mountains , to pluck up trees by the roots , and to give them solid foundation in the waters . And Jesus rebuked the Devil , and 〈◊〉 departed out of him from that very hour . Thence Jesus departed privately into Galilee , and in his journey repeated those sadnesses of his approaching Passion : Which so afflicted the spirits of the Disciples , that they durst no more provoke him to discourse , lest he should take occasion to interweave something of that unpleasant argument with it . For sad and disconsolate persons use to create comsorts to themselves by fiction of fancy , and use arts of avocation to remove displeasure from them , and stratagems to remove it from their presence , by removing it from their apprehensions , thinking the incommodity of it is then taken away when they have lost the sense . 13. When Jesus was now come to Capernaum , the exactors of rates came to Simon Peter , asking him if his Master paid the accustomed imposition , viz. a sicle or didrachm , the fourth part of an ounce of silver , which was the tribute which the Lord imposed upon all the sons of Israel from twenty years old and above , to pay for redemption and propitiation , and for the use of the Tabernacle . When Peter came into the house , Jesus knowing the message that he was big with , prevented him , by asking him , Of whom do the Kings of the Nations take tribute ? of their own children , or of strangers ? Peter answered , Of strangers . Then said Jesus , then are the children free ; meaning , that since the Gentile Kings do not exact tribute of their sons , neither will God of his . And therefore this Pension to be paid for the use of the Tabernacle , for the service of God , for the redemption of their Souls , was not to be paid by him , who was the Son of God , but by strangers . Yet to avoid offence , he sent Peter a-fishing , and provided a fish with two didrachms of silver in it , which he commanded Peter to pay for them two . 14. But when the Disciples were together with Jesus in the house , he asked them what they discoursed of upon the way ; for they had fallen upon an ambitious and mistaken quarrel , which of them should be greatest in their Master's Kingdom , which they still did dream should be an external and secular Royalty , full of fancy and honour . But the Master was diligent to check their forwardness , establishing a rule for Clerical deportment ; He that will be greatest among you , let him be your Minister : so supposing a greater and a lesser , a Minister and a person to be ministred unto , but dividing the grandeur of the Person from the greatness of Office , ( that the higher the imployment is , the more humble should be the man ; ) because in Spiritual prelation it is not as in Secular pomps , where the Dominion is despotick , the Coercion bloudy , the Dictates 〈◊〉 , the Laws externally compulsory , and the Titles arrogant and vain ; and all the advantages are so passed upon the Person , that making that first to be splendid , it passes from the Person to the subjects , who in abstracted essences do not easily apprehend Regalities in veneration , but as they are subjected in persons made excellent by such superstructures of Majesty : But in Dignities Ecelesiastical the Dominion is paternal , the 〈◊〉 perswasive and argumentative , the Coercion by censures immaterial , by cession and consent , by denial of benefits , by the interest of vertues , and the efficacy of hopes , and impresses upon the spirit ; the Laws are full of admonition and Sermon ; the Titles of honour monitors of duty , and memorials of labour and offices ; and all the advantages , which from the Office usually pass upon the Person , are to be devested by the humility of the man ; and when they are of greatest veneration they are abstracted excellencies and immaterial , not passing through the Person to the people , and reslected to his lustre , but transmitted by his labour and ministery , and give him honour for his labour's sake , ( which is his personal excellency ) not for his honour and title , which is either a derivative from Christ , or from the constitution of pious persons , estimating and valuing the relatives of Religion . 15. Then Jesus taketh a little child , and setteth him in the midst , propounding him by way of Emblem a pattern of Humility and Simplicity , without the mixtures of Ambition or caitive distempers ; such infant candour and low liness of spirit being the necessary port through which we must pass , if we will enter into the Courts of Heaven . But as a current of wholsome waters breaking from its restraint runs out in a succession of waters , and every preceding draught draws out the next : so were the Discourses of Jesus excellent and opportune , creating occasions for others , that the whole doctrine of the Gospel and the entire will of the Father might be communicated upon design ; even the chances of words and actions being made regular and orderly by Divine Providence . For from the instance of Humility in the symbol and Hieroglyphick of the child , Jesus discourses of the care God takes of little children , whether naturally or spiritually such ; the danger of doing them scandal and offences ; the care and power of their Angels guardian ; of the necessity in the event that Scandals should arise , and of the great woe and infelicity of those persons who were the active ministers of such offences . 16. But if in the traverses of our life discontents and injuries be done , Jesus teaches how the injured person should demean himself : First , reprove the offending party privately ; if he repent , forgive him for ever with a mercy as unwearied and as multiplied as his repentance . For the servant to whom his Lord had forgiven 10000 talents , because he refused to forgive his fellow-servant 100 pence , was delivered to the * tormentors , till he should pay that debt which his Lord once forgave , till the servant's impiety forced him to repent his donative and remission . But if he refuses the charity of private correction , let him be reproved before a few witnesses : and in case he be still incorrigible , let him be brought to the tribunal of the Church ; against whose advices if he shall kick , let him feel her power , and be cut off from the communion of Saints , becoming a Pagan or a Publican . And to make that the Church shall not have a dead and ineffectual hand in her animadversions , Jesus promises to all the Apostles , what before he promised to Peter , a power of binding and loosing on earth , and that it should be ratified in Heaven what they shall so dispose on earth with an unerring key . 17. But John interrupted him , telling him of a stranger that cast out Devils in the name of Jesus , but because he was not of the family , he had forbidden him . To this Jesus replied , that he should in no wise have forbidden him , for in all reason he would do veneration to that person whose Name he saw to be energetical and triumphant over Devils , and in whose name it is almost necessary that man should believe ; who used it as an instrument of ejection of impure spirits . Then Jesus proceeded in his excellent Sermon and union of discourses , adding holy Precepts concerning offences which a man might do to himself ; in which case he is to be severe , though most gentle to others . For in his own case he must shew no mercy , but abscission : for it it better to cut off the offending hand or foot , or extinguish the offending eye , rather than upon the support of a troublesome soot , and by the light of an offending eye , walk into ruine and a sad eternity , where the worm dieth not , and the fire is not quenched . And so Jesus ended this chain of excellent Discourses . 18. About this time was the Jews Feast of Tabernacles , whither Jesus went up as it were in secret , and passing through Samaria he found the inhabitants of a little village so inhospitable , as to refuse to give him entertainment ; which so provoked the intemperate zeal of James and John , that they would fain have called for fire to consume them , even as Elias did . But Jesus rebuked the furies of their anger , teaching them to distinguish the spirit of Christianity from the ungentleness of the decretory zeal of Elias . For since the Son of man came with a purpose to seek and save what was lost , it was but an indiscreet temerity suddenly upon the lightest umbrages of displeasure to destroy a man , whose redemption cost the effusion of the dearest bloud from the heart of Jesus . But contrariwise Jesus does a Miracle upon the ten Leprous persons which came to him from the neighbourhood , crying out with sad exclamations for help . But Jesus sent them to the Priest to offer for their cleansing . Thither they went , and but one only returned to give thanks , and he a stranger , who with a loud voice glorified God , and with humble adoration worshipped , and gave thanks to Jesus . 19. When Jesus had finished his journey , and was now come to Jerusalem , for the first days he was undiscerned in publick conventions , but heard of the various opinions of men concerning him : some saying he was a good man , others , that he 〈◊〉 the people ; and the Pharisees sought for him to do him a mischief . But when they despaired of finding him in the midst of the Feast and the people , he made Sermons openly in the midst of the Temple ; whom when he had convinced by the variety and divinity of his Miracles and Discourses , they gave the greatest testimony in the world of humane weakness , and how prevalent a prejudice is above the confidence and conviction of a demonstration . For a proverb , a mistake , an error in matter of circumstance did in their understandings outweigh multitudes of Miracles and arguments ; and because Christ was of Galilee , because they knew whence he was , because of the Proverb , that 〈◊〉 of Galilee comes no Prophet , because the Rulers did not believe in him , these outweighed the demonstrations of his mercy , and his power , and Divinity . But yet very many believed on him ; and no man durst lay hands to take him ; for as yet his time was not come , in which he meant to give himself up to the power of the Jews : and therefore when the Pharisees sent Officers to seise him , they also became his Disciples , being themselves surprised by the excellency of his Doctrine . 20. After this Jesus went to the mount of Olivet on the East of Jerusalem , and the next day returned again into the Temple , where the Scribes and Pharisees brought him a woman taken in the act of Adultery , tempting him to give sentence , that they might accuse him of severity or intermedling if he condemned her , or of remisness and popularity if he did acquit her . But Jesus found out an expedient for their difficulty , and changed the Scene , by bidding the innocent person among them cast the first stone at the Adulteress ; and then stooping down to give them fair occasion to withdraw , he wrote upon the ground with his finger , whilest they left the woman and her crime to a more private censure : Jesus was left alone , and the woman in the midst ; whom Jesus dismissed , charging her to sin no more . And a while after Jesus begins again to discourse to them , of his Mission from the Father , of his Crucifixion and exaltation from the earth , of the reward of Believers , of the excellency of Truth , of spiritual Liberty and Relations , who are the sons of Abraham , and who the children of the Devil , of his own eternal generation , of the desire of Abraham to see his day . In which Sermon he continued , adding still new excellencies , and confuting their malicious and vainer calumnies , till they , that they also might 〈◊〉 him , took up stones to cast at him ; but he went out of the Temple , going through the midst of them , and so passed by . 21. But in his passage he met a man who had been born blind : and after he had discoursed cursorily of the cause of that Blindness , it being a misery not sent as a punishment to his own or his parents sin , but as an occasion to make publick the glory of God ; he , to manifest that himself was the light of the World in all sences , said it now , and proved it by a Miracle : for sitting down he made clay of spittle , and anointing the eyes of the blind man , bid him go wash in Siloam ; which was a Pool of limpid water which God sent at the Prayer of Isaiah the Prophet , a little before his death , to satisfie the necessities of his people oppressed with thirst and a strict siege , and it stood at the foot of the mount Sion , and gave its water at first by returns and periods , always to the Jews , but not to the enemies . And those intermitted springings were still continued , but only a Pool was made from the frequent effluxes . The blind man went , and washed , and returned seeing ; and was incessantly vexed by the Pharisees , to tell them the manner and circumstances of the cure : and when the man had averred the truth , and named his Physician , giving him a pious and charitable testimony , the Pharisees , because they could not force him to disavow his good opinion of Jesus , cast him out of the 〈◊〉 . But Jesus meeting him received him into the Church , told him he was CHRIST ; and the man became again enlightned , and he believed , and worshipped . But the Pharisees blasphemed : for such was the dispensation of the Divine mysteries , that the blind should see , and they which think they see clearly should become blind , because they had not the excuse of ignorance to lessen or take off the sin , but in the midst of light they shut their eyes , and doted upon darkness , and therefore did their sin remain . 22. But Jesus continued his Sermon among the Pharisees , insinuating reprehensions in his dogmatical discourses , which like light shined and discovered error . For by discoursing the properties of a good Shepherd , and the lawful way of intromission , he proved them to be thieves and robbers , because they refused to enter in by Jesus , who is the door of the sheep ; and upon the same ground reproved all those false Christs which before him usurped the title of Messias , and proved his own vocation and office by an argument which no other shepherd would use , because he laid down his life for his sheep : others would take the fleece and eat the flesh , but none but himself would die for his sheep ; but he would first die , and then gather his sheep together into one fold , ( intimating the calling of the Gentiles ; ) to which purpose he was enabled by his Father to lay down his life , and to take it up ; and had also endeared them to his Father , that they should be preserved unto eternal life , and no power should be able to take them out of his hand , or the hand of his Father : for because Jesus was united to the Father , the Father's care preserved the Son's flocks . 23. But the Jews , to requite him for his so divine Sermons , betook themselves to their old argument , they took up stones again to cast at him , pretending he had blasphemed : but Jesus proved it to be no blasphemy to call himself the son of God , because they to whom the Word of God came are in Scripture called Gods. But nothing could satisfie them , whose temporal interest was concerned not to consent to such Doctrine which would save their souls by ruining their temporal concernments . But when they sought again to take him , Jesus escaped out of their hands , and went away beyond Jordan , where John at first baptized : which gave the people occasion to remember that John did no Miracle , but this man does many , and John , whom all men did revere and highly account of for his Office and Sanctity , gave testimony to Jesus . And many believed on him there . 24. After this , Jesus , knowing that the harvest was great , and as yet the labourers had been few , sent out seventy two of his Disciples with the like commission as formerly the 12. Apostles , that they might go before to those places whither himself meant to come . Of which number were the Seven , whom afterwards the Apostles set over the Widows , and Matthias , Mark , and some say Luke , Justus , Barnabas , Apelles , Rufus , Niger , Cephas , ( not Peter ) Thaddaeus , Aristion , and John. The rest of the names could not be recovered by the best diligence of Eusebius and Epiphanius . But when they returned from their journey , they rejoyced greatly in the legation and power , and Jesus also rejoyced in spirit , giving glory to God , that he had made his revelations to babes and the more imperfect 〈◊〉 ; like the lowest Valleys which receive from Heaven the greatest flouds of rain and blessings , and stand thick with corn and flowers , when the Mountains are unfruitful in their height and greatness . 25. And now a Doctor of the Law came to Jesus , asking him a Question of the greatest consideration that a wise man could ask , or a Prophet answer ; Master , what shall I do to inherit eternal life ? Jesus referred him to the Scriptures , and declared the way to Heaven to be this only , to love the Lord with all our powers and faculties , and our neighbour as our self . But when the Lawyer being captious made a scruple in a smooth rush , asking what is meant by Neighbour : Jesus told him , by a Parable of a Traveller fallen into the hands of robbers , and neglected by a Priest and by a Levite , but relieved by a Samaritan , that no distance of Countrey or Religion destroys the relation of Neighbourhood ; but every person with whom we converse in peace and charity is that Neighbour whom we are to love as our selves . 26. Jesus having departed from Jerusalem upon the forementioned danger , came to a village called Bethany , where Martha making great and busie preparation for his entertainment , to express her joy and her affections to his person , desired Jesus to dismiss her Sister Mary from his feet , who sate there feasting her self with the viands and sweetnesses of his Doctrine , incurious of the provisions for entertainment . But Jesus commended her choice ; and though he did not expresly disrepute Martha's Civility , yet he preferred Mary's Religion and Sanctity of affections . In this time ( because the night drew on , in which no man could work ) Jesus hastened to do his Father's business , and to pour out whole cataracts of holy Lessons , like the fruitful Nilus swelling over the banks , and filling all the trenches , to make a plenty of corn and fruits great as the inundation . Jesus therefore teaches his Disciples that Form of Prayer the second time which we call the Lord's Prayer : teaches them assiduity and indefatigable importunity in Prayer , by a Parable of an importunate Neighbour borrowing loaves at midnight , and a troublesome Widow who forced an unjust Judge to do her right by her clamorous and hourly addresses : encourages them to pray , by consideration of the Divine goodness and fatherly affection , far more indulgent to his Sons than natural Fathers are to their dearest issue ; and adds a gracious promise of success to them that pray . He reproves Pharisaical ostentation ; arms his Disciples against the fear of men and the terrors of Persecution , which can arrive but to the incommodities of the Body ; teaches the fear of God , who is Lord of the whole Man , and can accurse the Soul as well as punish the Body . He refuses to divide the inheritance between two Brethren , as not having competent power to become Lord in temporal jurisdictions . He preaches against Covetousness , and the placing felicities in worldly possessions , by a Parable of a rich man , whose riches were too big for his barns , and big enough for his Soul , and he ran over into voluptuousness , and stupid complacencies in his perishing goods : he was snatched from their possession , and his Soul taken from him in the violence of a rapid and hasty sickness in the space of one night . Discourses of divine Providence and care over us all , and descending even as low as grass . He exhorts to Alms-deeds , to Watchfulness , and preparation against the sudden and unexpected coming of our Lord to Judgment , or the arrest of death : tells the offices and sedulity of the Clergy , under the Apologue of Stewards and Governours of their Lords houses ; teaches them gentleness and sobriety , and not to do evil upon confidence of their Lord's absence and delay ; and teaches the people even of themselves to judge what is right concerning the signs of the coming of the Son of Man. And the end of all these discourses was , that all men should repent , and live good lives , and be saved . 27. At this Sermon there were present some that told him of the Galileans , whose bloud Pilate mingled with their sacrifices . For the Galileans were a sort of people that taught it to be unlawful to pay tribute to strangers , or to pray for the Romans ; and because the Jews did both , they refused to communicate in their sacred Rites , and would sacrifice apart : at which Solemnity when Pilate the Roman Deputy had apprehended many of them , he caused them all to be slain , making them to die upon the same Altars . These were of the Province of Judaea , but of the same Opinion with those who taught in Galilee , from whence the Sect had its appellative . But to the story ; Jesus made reply , that these external accidents , though they be sad and calamitous , yet they are no arguments of condemnation against the persons of the men , to convince them of a greater guilt than others , upon whom no such visible signatures have been imprinted . The purpose of such chances is , that we should repent , lest we perish in the like judgment . 28. About this time a certain Ruler of a Synagogue renewed the old Question about the observation of the Sabbath , repining at Jesus that he cured a woman that was crooked , loosing her from her infirmity , with which she had been afflicted eighteen years . But Jesus made the man ashamed by an argument from their own practice , who themselves loose an oxe from the stall on the Sabbath , and lead him to watering : And by the same argument he also stopt the mouths of the Scribes and Pharisees , which were open upon him for curing an Hydropick person upon the Sabbath . For Jesus , that he might draw off and separate Christianity from the yoke of Ceremonies by abolishing and taking off the strictest Mosaical Rites , chose to do very many of his Miracles upon the Sabbath , that he might do the work of abrogation and institution both at once ; not much unlike the Sabbatical Pool in Judaea , which was dry six days , but gushed out in a full stream upon the Sabbath . For though upon all days Christ was operative and miraculous , yet many reasons did concur and determine him to a more frequent working upon those days of publick ceremony and convention . But going forth from thence he went up and down the Cities of Galilee , re-enforcing the same Doctrine he had formerly taught them , and daily adding new Precepts and cautions , and prudent insinuations : advertising of the multitudes of them that perish , and the paucity of them that shall be saved , and that we should strive to enter in at the strait gate ; that the way to destruction is broad and plausible , the way to Heaven nice and austere , and few there be that find it : teaches them modesty at Feasts , and entertainments of the poor : discourses of the many excuses and unwillingnesses of persons who were invited to the feast of the Kingdom , the refreshments of the Gospel ; and tacitly insinuates the rejection of the Jews , who were the first invited , and the calling of the Gentiles , who were the persons called in from the high ways and hedges . He reprehends Herod for his subtilty and design to kill him : prophesies that he should die at Jerusalem ; and intimates great sadnesses future to them for neglecting this their day of visitation , and for killing the Prophets and the Messengers sent from God. 29. It now grew towards Winter , and the Jews feast of Dedication was at hand ; therefore Jesus went up to Jerusalem to the Feast , where he preached in Solomon's Porch , which part of the Temple stood intire from the first ruines : and the end of his Sermon was , that the Jews had like to have stoned him . But retiring from thence he went beyond Jordan , where he taught the people in a most elegant and perswasive Parable concerning the mercy of God in accepting Penitents , in the Parable of the Prodigal son returning ; discourses of the design of the Messias coming into the world to recover erring persons from their sin and danger , in the Apologues of the Lost sheep , and Goat ; and under the representment of an Unjust , but prudent , Steward , he taught us so to employ our present opportunities and estates , by laying them out in acts of Mercy and Religion , that when our Souls shall be dismissed from the stewardship and custody of our body , we may be entertained in everlasting habitations . He instructeth the Pharisees in the question of Divorces , limiting the permissions of Separations to the only cause of Fornication : preferreth holy Coelibate before the estate of Marriage , in them to whom the gift of Continency is given in order to the Kingdom of Heaven . He telleth a Story or a Parable ( for which , is uncertain ) of a Rich man ( whom Euthymius out of the tradition of the Hebrews , nameth Nymensis ) and Lazarus ; the first a voluptuous person , and uncharitable ; the other pious , afflicted , sick , and a begger : the first died , and went to Hell ; the second to Abraham's bosome : God so ordering the dispensation of good things , that we cannot easily enjoy two Heavens , nor shall the infelicities of our lives ( if we be pious ) end otherwise than in a beatified condition . The Epilogue of which story discovered this truth also , That the ordinary means of Salvation are the express revelations of Scripture , and the ministeries of God's appointment ; and whosoever neglects these shall not be supplied with means extraordinary , or if he were , they would be totally ineffectual . 30. And still the people drew water from the fountains of our Saviour , which streamed out in a full and continual emanation . For adding wave to wave , line to line , precept upon precept , he reproved the Fastidiousness of the Pharisee , that came with Eucharist to God and contempt to his brother ; and commended the Humility of the Publican's address , who came deploring his sins , and with modesty and penance and importunity begged and obtained a mercy . Then he laid hands upon certain young children , and gave them benediction , charging his Apostles to admit infants to him , because to them in person , and to such in embleme and signification , the Kingdom of Heaven does appertain . He instructs a young man in the ways and counsels of perfection , besides the observation of Precepts , by heroical Renunciations and acts of munificent Charity . Which discourse because it alighted upon an indisposed and an unfortunate subject , ( for the young man was very rich ) Jesus discourses how hard it is for a rich man to be saved ; but he expounds himself to mean , they that trust in riches ; and however it is a matter of so great temptation , that it is almost impossible to escape , yet with God nothing is impossible . But when the Apostles heard the Master bidding the young man sell all , and give to the poor , and follow him , and for his reward promised him a heavenly treasure , Peter , in the name of the rest , began to think that this was their case , and the promise also might concern them : but they asked the Question , What shall we have , who have forsaken all , and followed thee ? Jesus answered , that they should sit upon twelve thrones , judging the twelve tribes of Israel . 31. And Jesus extended this mercy to every Disciple that should forsake either house , or wife , or children , or any thing for his sake and the Gospel's , and that they should receive a hundred fold in this life , by way of comfort and equivalency , and in the world to come thousands of glories and possessions in fruition and redundancy . For they that are last shall be first , and the first shall be last : and the despised people of this world shall reign like Kings , and contempt it self shall swell up into glory , and poverty into an eternal satisfaction . And these rewards shall not be accounted according to the priviledges of Nations , or priority of vocation , but readiness of mind and obedience , and sedulity of operation after calling : which Jesus taught his Disciples in the Parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard , to whom the Master gave the same reward , though the times of their working were different ; as their calling and employment had determined the opportunity of their labours . DISCOURSE XVII . Of Scandal , or Giving and taking Offence . 1. A Sad curse being threatned in the Gospel to them who offend any of Christ's little ones , that is , such as are novices and babes in Christianity , it concerns us to learn our duty and perform it , that we may avoid the curse ; for , Woe to all them by whom offences come . And although the duty is so plainly explicated and represented in gloss and case by the several Commentaries of S. Paul upon this menace of our Blessed Saviour ; yet because our English word Offence , which is commonly used in this Question of Scandal , is so large and equivocal that it hath made many pretences , and intricated this article to some inconvenience , it is not without good purpose to draw into one body those Propositions which the Masters of Spiritual life have described in the managing of this Question . 2. First , By whatsoever we do our duty to God we cannot directly do offence or give scandal to our Brother ; because in such cases where God hath obliged us , he hath also obliged himself to reconcile our duty to the designs of God , to the utility of Souls , and the ends of Charity . And this Proposition is to be extended to our Obedience to the lawful Constitutions of our competent Superiours , in which cases we are to look upon the Commandment , and leave the accidental events to the disposition of that Providence who reconciles dissonancies in nature , and concentres all the variety of accidents into his own glory . And whosoever is offended at me for obeying God or God's Vicegerent , is offended at me for doing my duty ; and in this there is no more dispute , but whether I shall displease God , or my peevish neighbour . These are such whom the Spirit of God complains of under other representments : They think it strange we run not into the same excess of riot ; Their eye is evil because their Master's eye is good ; and the abounding of God's grace also may become to them an occasion of falling , and the long-suffering of God the encouragement to sin . In this there is no difficulty : for in what case soever we are bound to obey God or Man , in that case and in that conjunction of circumstances we have nothing permitted to our choice , and have no authority to remit of the right of God or our Superiour . And to comply with our neighbour in such Questions , besides that it cannot serve any purposes of Piety if it declines from Duty in any instance , it is like giving Alms out of the portion of Orphans , or building Hospitals with the money and spoils of Sacriledge . It is pusillanimity , or hypocrisie , or a denying to confess Christ before men , to comply with any man , and to offend God , or omit a Duty . Whatsoever is necessary to be done , and is made so by God , no weakness or peevishness of man can make necessary not to be done . For the matter of Scandal is a duty beneath the prime obligations of Religion . 3. Secondly , But every thing which is used in Religion is not matter of precise Duty , but there are some things which indeed are pious and religious , but dispensable , voluntary , and commutable ; such as are voluntary Fasts , exteriour acts of Discipline and Mortification not enjoyned , great degrees of exteriour Worship , Prostration , long Prayers , Vigils : and in these things , although there is not directly a matter of Scandal , yet there may be some prudential considerations in order to Charity and Edification . By pious actions I mean either particular pursuances of a general Duty , which are uncommanded in the instance , such as are the minutes and expresses of Alms ; or else they are commended , but in the whole kind of them unenjoyned , such as Divines call the Counsels of perfection . In both these cases a man cannot be scandalous . For the man doing in charity and the love of God such actions which are aptly expressive of love , the man ( I say ) is not uncharitable in his purposes ; and the actions themselves being either attempts or proceedings toward Perfection , or else actions of direct Duty , are as innocent in their productions as in themselves , and therefore without the malice of the recipient cannot induce him into sin : and nothing else is Scandal . To do any pious act proceeds from the Spirit of God , and to give Scandal , from the Spirit of Malice or Indiscretion ; and therefore a pious action , whose fountain is love and 〈◊〉 , cannot end in Uncharitableness or Imprudence . But because when any man is offended at what I esteem Piety , there is a question whether the action be pious or no : therefore it concerns him that works to take care that his action be either an act of Duty , though not determined to a certain particular ; or else be something 〈◊〉 in Scripture , or practised by a holy person there recorded , and no-where reproved ; or a practice warranted by such precedents which modest , prudent and religious persons account a sufficient inducement of such particulars : for he that proceeds upon such principles derives the warrant of his actions from beginnings which secure the particular , and quits the Scandal . 4. This , I say , is a security against the Uncharitableness and the Sin of Scandal ; because a zeal of doing pious actions is a zeal according to God : but it is not always a security against the Indiscretion of the Scandal . He that reproves a foolish person in such circumstances that provoke him , or make him impudent or blasphemous , does not give Scandal , and brings no sin upon himself , though he occasioned it in the other : But if it was probable such effects would be consequent to the reprehension , his zeal was imprudent and rash ; but so long as it was zeal for God , and in its own matter lawful , it could not be an active or guilty Scandal : but if it be no zeal , and be a design to entrap a man's unwariness or passion or shame , and to disgrace the man , by that means or any other to make him sin , then it is directly the offending of our Brother . They that preach'd Christ out of envy intended to do offence to the Apostles : but because they were impregnable , the sin rested in their own bosom , and God wrought his own ends by it . And in this sence they are Scandalous persons who fast for Strife , who pray for Rebellion , who intice simple persons into the snare by colours of Religion . Those very exteriour acts of Piety become an Offence , because they are done to evil purposes , to abuse Proselytes , and to draw away Disciples after them , and make them love the sin , and march under so splendid and fair colours . They who out of strictness and severity of perswasion represent the conditions of the Gospel alike to every person , that is , nicer than Christ described them in all circumstances , and deny such liberties of exteriour desires and complacency which may be reasonably permitted to some men , do very indiscreetly , and may occasion the alienation of some mens minds from the entertainments of Religion : but this being accidental to the thing it self , and to the purpose of the man , is not the Sin of Scandal , but it is the Indiscretion of Scandal , if by such means he divorces any man's mind from the cohabitation and unions of Religion : and yet if the purpose of the man be to affright weaker and unwise persons , it is a direct Scandal , and one of those ways which the Devil uses toward the peopling of his kingdom ; it is a plain laying of a snare to entrap feeble and uninstructed souls . 5. But if the pious action have been formerly joyned with any thing that is truly criminal , with Idolatry , with Superstition , with impious Customs or impure Rites , and by retaining the Piety I give cause to my weak brother to think I approve of the old appendage , and by my reputation invite him to swallow the whole action without discerning ; the case is altered : I am to omit that pious action , if it be not under command , until I have acquitted it from the suspicion of evil company . But when I have done what in prudence I guess sufficient to thaw the frost of jealousie , & to separate those dissonancies which formerly seemed united , I have done my duty of Charity , by endeavouring to free my brother from the snare , and I have done what in Christian prudence I was obliged , when I have protested against the appendent crime : If afterwards the same person shall entertain the crime upon pretence of my example , who have plainly 〈◊〉 it , he lays the snare for himself , and is glad of the pretence , or will in spite enter into the net , that he might think it reasonable to rail at me . I may not with Christian charity or prudence wear * the picture of our Blessed Lord in rings or medals , though with great affection and designs of doing him all the honour that I can , if by such Pictures I invite persons , apt more to follow me than to understand me , to give Divine honour to a Picture : but when I have declared my hatred of Superstitious worshippings , and given my brother warning of the snare which his own mistake or the Devil's malice was preparing for him , I may then without danger signifie my Piety and affections in any civil representments which are not against God's Law , or the Customs of the Church , or the analogy of Faith. And there needs no other reason to be given for this Rule than that there is no reason to be given against it : if the nature of the thing be innocent , and the purpose of the man be pious , and he hath used his moral industry to secure his brother against accidental mischances and abuses ; his duty in this particular can have no more parts and instances . 6. But it is too crude an assertion to affirm indefinitely , that whatsoever hath been abused to evil or superstitious purposes must presently be abjured , and never entertained for fear of Scandal ; for it is certain that the best things have been most abused . Have not some persons used certain verses of the Psalter as an antidote against the Tooth-ach ? and carried the blessed Sacrament in pendants about their necks as a charm to countermand Witches ? and S. John's Gospel as a spell against wild beasts and wilder untamed spirits ? Confession of sins to the Ministers of Religion hath been made an instrument to serve base ends ; and so indeed hath all Religion been abused : and some persons have been so receptive of Scandal , that they suspected all Religion to be a mere stratagem , because they have observed very many men have used it so . For some natures are like Spunges or Sugar , whose utmost verge if you dip in Wine , it drowns it self by the moisture it sucks up , and is drenched all over , receiving its alteration from within ; it s own nature did the mischief , and plucks on its own dissolution . And these men are greedy to receive a Scandal , and when it is presented but in small instances , they suck it up to the dissolution of their whole Religion , being glad of a quarrel , that their impieties may not want all excuse . But yet it is certainly very unreasonable to reject excellent things because they have been abused ; as if separable accidents had altered natures and essences , or that they resolve never to forgive the duties for having once fallen into the hands of unskilful or malicious persons . Hezekiah took away the brazen Serpent because the people abused it to Idolatry ; but the Serpent had long before lost its use : and yet if the people had not been a peevish and refractory and superstitious people , in whose nature it was to take all occasions of Superstition ; and farther yet , if the taking away such occasions and opportunities of that Sin in special had not been most agreeable with the designs of God , in forbidding to the people the common use of all Images in the second Commandment , which was given them after the erection of that brazen Statue ; Hezekiah possibly would not , or at least had not been bound to have destroyed that monument of an old story and a great blessing , but have sought to separate the abuse from the minds of men , and retained the Image . But in Christianity , when none of these circumstances occur , where by the greatness and plenty of revelations we are more fully instructed in the ways of Duty , and when the thing it self is pious , and the abuse very separable , it is infinite disparagement to us , or to our Religion , either that our Religion is not sufficient to cure an abuse , or that we will never part with it , but we must unpardonably reject a good because it had once upon it a crust or spot of leprosie , though since it hath been washed in the waters of Reformation . The Primitive Christians abstained from actions of themselves indifferent , which the unconverted people used , if those actions were symbolical , or adopted into false Religions , or not well understood by those they were bound to satisfie : But when they had washed off the accrescences of Gentile Superstition , they chose such Rites which their neighbours used , and had designs not imprudent or unhandsome ; and they were glad of a Heathen Temple to celebrate the Christian Rites in them , and they made no other change , but that they ejected the Devil , and invited their Lord into the possession . 7. Thirdly , In things merely indifferent , whose practice is not limited by command , nor their nature heightned by an appendent Piety , we must use our liberty so as may not offend our Brother , or lead him into a sin directly or indirectly . For Scandal being directly against Charity , it is to be avoided in the same measure and by the same proportions in which Charity is to be pursued . Now we must so use our selves , that we must cut off a foot , or pluck out an eye , rather than the one should bear us and the other lead us to sin and death ; we must rather rescind all the natural and sensual or dearest invitations to Vice , and deny our selves lawful things , than that lawful things should betray us to unlawful actions . And this rule is the measure of Charity : our neighbour's Soul ought to be dearer unto us than any temporal priviledge . It is lawful for me to eat herbs , or fish , and to observe an ascetick diet : But if by such austerities I lead others to a good opinion of Montanism , or the practices of Pythagoras , or to believe flesh to be impure , I must rather alter my diet , than teach him to sin by mistaking me . S. Paul gave an instance of eating flesh sold in the shambles from the Idol Temples : to eat it in the relation of an Idol-sacrifice is a great sin ; but when it is sold in the shambles , the property is altered to them that understand it so . But yet even this Paul would not do , if by so doing he should encourage undiscerning people to eat all meat conveyed from the Temple , and offered to Devils . It is not in every man's head to distinguish formalities , and to make abstractions of purpose from exteriour acts , and to alter their devotions by new relations and respects depending upon intellectual and Metaphysical notions . And therefore it is not safe to do an action which is not lawful , but after the making distinctions , before ignorant and weaker persons , who swallow down the bole and the box that carries it , and never 〈◊〉 their apple , or take the core out . If I by the law of Charity must rather quit my own goods than suffer my brother to perish ; much rather must I quit my priviledge , and those superstructures of favour and grace which Christ hath given me beyond my necessities , than wound the spirit and destroy the Soul of a weak man , for whom Christ died . It is an inordinate affection to love my own case , and circumstances of pleasure , before the soul of a Brother ; and such a thing are the priviledges of Christian liberty : for Christ hath taken off from us the restraints which God had laid upon the Jews in meat and Holy-days ; but these are but circumstances of grace given us for opportunities , and cheap instances of Charity ; we should ill die for our brother , who will not lose a meal to prevent his sin , or change a dish to save his Soul. And if the thing be indifferent to us , yet it ought not to be indifferent to us whether our brother live or die . 8. Fourthly , And yet we must not , to please peevish or froward people , betray our liberty which Christ hath given us . If any man opposes the lawfulness and licence of indifferent actions , or be disturbed at my using my priviledges innocently ; in the first case I am bound to use them still , in the second I am not bound to quit them to please him . For in the first instance , he that shall cease to use his liberty , to please him that says his liberty is unlawful , encourages him that says so in his false opinion , and by complying with him gives the Scandal ; and he who is angry with me for making use of it , is a person that , it may be , is crept in to spy out and invade my liberty , but not apt to be reduced into sin by that act of mine which he detests , for which he despises me , and so makes my person unapt to be exemplar to him . To be angry with me for doing what Christ hath allowed me , and which is part of the liberty he purchased for me when he took upon himself the form of a servant , is to judge me , and to be uncharitable to me : and he that does so is beforehand with me , and upon the active part ; he does the Scandal to me , and by offering to deprive me of my liberty he makes my way to Heaven narrower and more encumbred than Christ left it , and so places a stumbling-stone in my way ; I put none in his . And if such peevishness and discontent of a Brother engages me to a new and unimposed yoke , then it were in the power of my enemy or any malevolent person to make me never to keep Festival , or never to observe any private Fast , never to be prostrate at my Prayers , nor to do any thing but according to his leave , and his humour shall become the rule of my actions ; and then my Charity to him shall be the greatest uncharitableness in the world to my self , and his liberty shall be my bondage . Add to this , that such complying and obeying the peevishness of discontented persons is to no end of Charity : for besides that such concessions never satisfie persons who are unreasonably angry , because by the same reason they may demand more , as they ask this for which they had no reason at all ; it also incourages them to be peevish , and gives fewel to the passion , and seeds the wolf , and so encourages the sin , and prevents none . 9. Fifthly , For he only gives Scandal who induces his Brother directly or collaterally into sin , as appears by all the discourses in Scripture guiding us in this Duty ; and it is called laying a stumbling-block in our Brother's way , a wounding the Conscience of our weak Brother . Thus Balaam was said to lay a Scandal before the sons of Israel , by tempting them to Fornication with the daughters of Moab . Every evil example , or imprudent , sinful and unwary deportment , is a Scandal , because it invites others to do the like leading them by the hand , taking off the strangeness and insolency of the act , which deters many men from entertaining it ; and it gives some offers of security to others , that they shall escape as we have done ; besides that it is in the nature of all agents , natural and moral , to assimilate either by proper efficiency , or by counsel and moral invitements , others to themselves . But this is a direct Scandal : and such it is to give money to an idle person , who you know will be drunk with it ; or to invite an intemperate person to an opportunity of excess , who desires it always , but without thee wants it . Indirectly and accidentally , but very criminally , they give Scandal , who introduce persons into a state of life from whence probably they pass into a state of sin : so did the 〈◊〉 , who married their daughters to the idolatrous Moabites ; and so do they who intrust a Pupil to a vicious Guardian . For although God can preserve children in the midst of flames without scorching ; yet if they sindge their hair or scorch their flesh , they that put them in are guilty of the burning . And yet farther , if persons so exposed to danger should escape by miracle , yet they escape not who expose them to the danger . They who threw the Children of the Captivity into the furnace were burnt to death , though the Children were not hurt : and the very offering a person in our trust to a certain or probable danger foreseen and understood , is a likely way to pass sin upon the person so exposed , but a certain way to contract it in our selves ; it is directly against Charity , for no man loves a Soul unless he loves its safety , and he cares not to have his child safe that throws him into the fire . Hither are to be reduced all false Doctrines aptly productive of evil life ; the Doctrines are scandalous , and the men guilty , if they understand the consequents of their own propositions : or if they think it probable that persons will be led by such Doctrines into evil perswasions , though themselves believe them not to be necessary products of their Opinions , yetthe very publishing such Opinions which ( of themselves not being necessary , or otherwise very profitable ) are apt to be understood , by weak persons at least , to ill ends , is against Charity , and the duty we owe to our Brother's Soul. 10. Sixthly , It is not necessary for ever to abstain from things indifferent to prevent the offending of a Brother , but only till I have taken away that rock against which some did stumble , or have done my endeavour to remove it . In Questions of Religion it is lawful to use primitive and ancient words , at which men have been weakned and seem to stumble , when the objection is cleared , and the ill consequents and suspicion disavowed : and it may be of good use , charity and edification , to speak the language of the purest Ages , although that some words were used also in the impurest Ages , and descended along upon changing and declining Articles ; when it is rightly explicated in what sence the best men did innocently use them , and the same sence is now protested . But in this case it concerns prudence to see that the benefit be greater than the danger . And the same also is to be said concerning all the actions and parts of Christian liberty . For if after I have removed the unevenness and objection of the accident , that is , if when I have explained my disrelish to the crime which might possibly be gathered up and taken into practice by my misunderstood example , still any man will stumble and fall , it is a resolution to fall , a love of danger , a peevishness of spirit , a voluntary misunderstanding ; it is not a misery in the man more than it is his own fault : and when ever the cause of any sin becomes criminal to the man that sins , it is certain that if the other who was made the occasion did disavow and protest against the crime , the man that sins is the only guilty person both in the effect and cause too ; for the other could do no more but use a moral and prudent industry to prevent a being mis-interpreted ; and if he were tied to more , he must quit his interest for ever in a perpetual scruple ; and it is like taking away all Laws to prevent Disobedience , and making all even to secure the world against the effects of Pride or Stubbornness . I add to this , that since actions indifferent in their own natures are not productive of effects and actions criminal , it is merely by accident that men are abused into a sin ; that is , by weakness , by misconceit , by something that either discovers malice or indiscretion ; which because the act it self does not of it self , if the man does not voluntarily or by intention , the sin dwells no-where but with the man that entertains it : the man is no longer weak than he is mistaken , and he is not mistaken or abused into the sin by example of any man who hath rightly stated his own question , and divorced the suspicion of the sin from his action ; whatsoever comes after this is not weakness of understanding , but strength of passion ; and he that is always learning , and never comes to the knowledge of the truth , is something besides a silly man : Men cannot be always * babes in Christ without their own fault ; they are no longer Christ's little 〈◊〉 than they are inculpably ignorant . For it is but a mantle cast over pride and frowardness , to think our selves able to teach others , and yet pretend Offence and Scandal ; to scorn to be instructed , and yet complain that we are offended , and led into sin for want of knowledge of our Duty . He that understands his Duty is not a person capable of Scandal by things indifferent . And it is certain , that no man can say concerning himself that he is scandalized at another , that is , that he is led into sin by mistake and weakness ; for if himself knows it , the mistake is gone : well may the Guides of their Souls complain concerning such persons , that their sin is procured by offending persons or actions ; but he that complains concerning himself to the same purpose , pretends ignorance for other ends , and contradicts himself by his complaint and knowledge of his error . The boy was prettily peevish who , when his Father bid him pronounce Thalassius , told him he could not pronounce Thalassius , at the same time speaking the word : just so impotent , weak and undiscerning a person is that , who would forbid me to do an indifferent action upon pretence that it makes him ignorantly sin ; for his saying so confutes his Ignorance , and argues him of a worse folly ; it is like asking my neighbour , whether such an action be done against my own will. 11. Seventhly , When an action is apt to be mistaken to contrary purposes , it concerns the prudence and charity of a Christian to use such compliance as best cooperates to God's glory , and hath in it the less danger . The Apostles gave an instance in the matter of Circumcision , in which they walked warily , and with variety of design , that they might invite the Gentiles to the easie yoke of Christianity , and yet not deter the Jew by a disrespect of the Law of Moses . And therefore S. Paul circumcised Timothy , because he was among the Jews , and descended from a Jewish parent , and in the instance gave sentence in compliance with the Jewish perswasion , because Timothy might well be accounted for a Jew by birth ; unto them the Rites of Moses were for a while permitted : But when Titus was brought upon the scene of a mixt assembly , and was no Jew , but a Greek , to whom Paul had taught they ought not to be circumcised ; although some Jews watched what he would do , yet he plainly refused to circumcise him , chusing rather to leave the Jews angry , than the Gentiles scandalized or led into an opinion that Circumcision was necessary , or that he had taught them otherwise out of collateral ends , or that now he did so . But when a case of Christian liberty happened to S. Peter , he was not so prudent in his choice , but at the coming of certain Jews from Jerusalem withdrew himself from the society of the Gentiles ; not considering , that it was worse if the Gentiles , who were invited to Christianity by the sweetness of its liberty and compliance , should fall back , when they that taught them the excellency of Christian liberty durst not stand to it , than if those Jews were displeased at Christianity for admitting Gentiles into its communion , after they had been instructed that God had broken down the partition-wall , and made them one sheepfold . It was of greater concernment to God's glory to gain the Gentiles , than to retain the Jews ; and yet if it had not , the Apostles were bound to bend to the inclinations of the weaker , rather than be mastered by the wilfulness of the stronger , who had been sufficiently instructed in the articles of Christian liberty , and in the adopting the Gentiles into the Family of God. Thus if it be a question whether I should abate any thing of my external Religion or Ceremonies to satisfie an Heretick or a contentious person , who pretends Scandal to himself , and is indeed of another Perswasion ; and at the same time I know that good persons would be weakned at such forbearance , and estranged from the good perswasion and Charity of Communion , which is part of their Duty ; it more concerns Charity and the glory of God that I secure the right , than twine about the wrong , wilful and malicious persons . A Prelate must rather fortifie and encourage Obedience , and strengthen Discipline , than by remisness toward refractory spirits , and a desire not to seem severe , weaken the hands of consciencious persons by taking away the marks of difference between them that obey and them that obey not : and in all cases when the question is between a friend to be secured from Apostasie , or an enemy to be gained from Indifferency , S. Paul's rule is to be observed , Do good to all , but especially to the houshold of Faith. When the Church in a particular instance cannot be kind to both , she must first love her own children . 12. Eighthly , But when the question is between pleasing and contenting the fancies of a Friend , and the gaining of an Enemy , the greater good of the Enemy is infinitely to be preferred before the satisfying the unnecessary humour of the Friend ; and therefore , that we may gain persons of a different Religion , it is lawful to entertain them in their innocent customs , that we may represent our selves charitable and just , apt to comply in what we can , and yet for no end complying farther than we are permitted . It was a policy of the Devil to abuse Christians to the Rites of 〈◊〉 by imitating the Christian Ceremonies ; and the Christians themselves were before-hand with him in that policy ; for they facilitated the reconcilement of Judaism with Christianity by common Rites , and invited the Gentiles to the Christian Churches , because they never violated the Heathen Temples , but loved the men , and imitated their innocent Rites , and only offered to reform their Errors , and hallow their abused purposes : and this , if it had no other contradictory or unhandsome circumstance , gave no offence to other Christians , when they had learned to trust them with the government of Ecclesiastical affairs to whom God had committed them , and they all had the same purposes of Religion and Charity . And when there is no objection against this but the furies or greater heats of a mistaken Zeal , the compliance with evil or unbelieving persons , to gain them from their Errors to the ways of Truth and sincerity , is great prudence and great Charity ; because it chuses and acts a greater good at no other charge or expence but the discomposing of an intemperate Zeal . 13. Ninthly , We are not bound to intermit a good or a lawful action as soon as any man tells us it is scandalous , ( for that may be an easie stratagem to give me laws , and destroy my liberty : ) but either when the action is of it self , or by reason of a publick known indisposition of some persons , probably introductive of a sin ; or when we know it is so in fact . The other is but affrighting a man ; this only is prudent , that my Charity be guided by such rules which determine wise men to actions or omissions respectively . And therefore a light fame is not strong enough to wrest my liberty from me ; but a reasonable belief or a certain knowledge , in the taking of which estimate we must neither be too credulous and easie , nor yet ungentle and stubborn , but do according to the actions of wise men and the charities of a Christian. Hither we may refer the rules of abstaining from things which are of evil report . For not every thing which is of good report is to be followed , for then a false opinion , when it is become popular , must be professed for Conscience sake ; nor yet every thing that is of bad report is to be avoided , for nothing endured more shame and obloquy than Christianity at its first commencement . But by good report we are to understand such things which are well reported of by good men and wise men , or Scripture , or the consent of Nations . And thus for a woman to marry within the year of mourning is scandalous , because it is of evil report , gives suspicion of lightness or some worse confederacy before the death of her husband : the thing it self is apt to minister the suspicion , and this we are bound to prevent : And unless the suspicion be malicious , or imprudent and unreasonable , we must conceal our actions from the surprises and deprehensions of suspicion . It was scandalous amongst the old Romans not to marry ; among the Christians for a Clergy-man to marry twice , because it was against an Apostolical Canon : but when it became of ill report for any Christian to marry the second time , because this evil report was begun by the errors of Montanus , and is against a permission of holy Scripture , no Lay-Christian was bound to abstain from a second bed for fear of giving scandal . 14. Tenthly , The precept of avoiding Scandal concerns the Governours of the Church or State in the making and execution of Laws . For no Law in things indifferent ought to be made to the provocation of the Subject , or against that publick disposition which is in the spirits of men , and will certainly cause perpetual irregularities and Schisms . Before the Law be made , the Superiour must comply with the subject ; after it is made , the subject must comply with the Law. But in this the Church hath made fair provision , accounting no Laws obligatory till the people have accepted them , and given tacite approbation : for Ecclesiastical Canons have their time of probation , and if they become a burthen to the people , or occasion Schisms , Tumults , publick disunion of affections , and jealousies against Authority , the Laws give place , and either fix not when they are not first approved , or disappear by desuetude . And in the execution of Laws no less care is to be taken ; for many cases occur in which the Laws can be rescued from being a snare to mens Consciences by no other way but by dispensation , and slacking of the Discipline as to certain particulars . Mercy and Sacrifice , the Letter and the Spirit , the words and the intention , the general case and the particular exception , the present disposition and the former state of things , are oftentimes so repugnant , and of such contradictory interests , that there is no stumbling-block more troublesome or dangerous than a severe literal and rigorous exacting of Laws in all cases . But when Stubbornness or a Contentious spirit , when Rebellion and Pride , when secular Interest or ease and Licenciousness set men up against the Laws , the Laws then are upon the defensive , and ought not to give place : It is ill to cure particular Disobedience by removing a Constitution decreed by publick wisdom for a general good . When the evil occasioned by the Law is greater than the good designed , or than the good which will come by it in the present constitution of things , and the evil can by no other remedy be healed , it concerns the Law-giver's charity to take off such positive Constitutions which in the authority are merely humane , and in the matter indifferent , and evil in the event . The summ of this whole duty I shall chuse to represent in the words of an excellent person , S. Jerome : We must , for the avoiding of Scandal , quit everything which may be omitted without prejudice to the threefold truth , of Life , of Justice , and Doctrine : meaning , that what is not expresly commanded by God or our Superiours , or what is not expresly commended as an act of Piety and Perfection , or what is not an obligation of Justice , that is , in which the interest of a third person , or else our own Christian liberty , is not totally concerned , all that is to be given in sacrifice to Mercy , and to be made matter of Edification and Charity , but not of Scandal , that is , of danger , and sin , and falling , to our neighbour . The PRAYER . O Eternal Jesus , who art made unto us Wisdom , Righteousness , Sanctification , and Redemption , give us of thy abundant Charity , that we may love the eternal benefit of our 〈◊〉 Soul with a true , diligent and affectionate care and tenderness : Give us a fellow-feeling of one another's calamities , a readiness to bear each others burthens , aptness to forbear , wisdom to advise , counsel to direct , and a spirit of meekness and modesty trembling at our 〈◊〉 , fearful in our Brother's dangers , and joyful in his restitution and securities . Lord , let all our actions be pious and prudent , our selves wise as Serpents and innocent as Doves , and our whole life exemplar , and just , and charitable ; that we may like Lamps shining in thy Temple serve thee , and enlighten others , and guide them to thy Sanctuary ; and that shining clearly and burning zealously , when the Bridegroom shall come to bind up his Jewels , and beautifie his Spouse , and gather his Saints together , we and all thy Christian people knit in a holy fellowship may enter into the joy of our Lord , and partake of the eternal refreshments of the Kingdom of Light and Glory , where thou , O Holy and Eternal Jesu , livest and reignest in the excellencies of a Kingdom , and the infinite durations of Eternity . Amen . DISCOURSE XVIII . Of the Causes and Manner of the Divine Judgments . 1. GOD's Judgments are like the Writing upon the wall , which was a missive of anger from God upon Belshazzar ; it came upon an errand of Revenge , and yet was writ in so dark characters that none could read it but a Prophet . When-ever God speaks from Heaven , he would have us to understand his meaning ; and if he declares not his sence in particular signification , yet we understand his meaning well enough , if every voice of God lead us to Repentance . Every sad accident is directed against sin , either to prevent it , or to cure it ; to glorifie God , or to humble us ; to make us go forth of our selves and to rest upon the centre of all Felicities , that we may derive help from the same hand that smote us . Sin and Punishment are so near relatives , that when God hath marked any person with a sadness or unhandsome accident , men think it warrant enough for their uncharitable censures , and condemn the man whom God hath smitten , making God the executioner of our uncertain or ungentle sentences . Whether sinned , this man , or his parents , that 〈◊〉 was born blind ? said the Pharisees to our blessed LORD . Neither this man nor his parents , was the answer : meaning , that God had other ends in that accident to serve ; and it was not an effect of wrath , but a design of mercy both directly and collaterally . God's glory must be seen clearly by occasion of the curing the blind man. But in the present case the answer was something different . Pilate slew the Galileans when they were sacrificing in their Conventicles apart from the Jews . For they first had separated from Obedience and paying Tribute to Caesar ; and then from the Church , who disavowed their mutinous and discontented Doctrines . The cause of the one and the other are linked in mutual complications and endearment , and he who despises the one will quickly disobey the other . Presently upon the report of this sad accident the people run to the Judgment-seat , and every man was ready to be accuser and witness and judge upon these poor destroyed people . But Jesus allays their heat , and though he would by no means acquit these persons from deserving death for their denying tribute to Caesar , yet he alters the face of the tribunal , and makes those persons who were so apt to be accusers and judges to act another part , even of guilty persons too , that since they will needs be judging , they might judge themselves ; for , Think not these were greater sinners than all the other Galileans , because they suffered such things . I tell you nay , but , except ye repent ; ye shall all likewise perish : meaning , that although there was great probability to believe such persons , 〈◊〉 ( I mean ) and Rebels , to be the greatest sinners of the world , yet themselves , who had designs to destroy the Son of God , had deserved as great damnation . And yet it is observable , that the Holy Jesus only compared the sins of them that suffered with the estate of the other Galileans who suffered not ; and that also applies it to the persons present who told the news : to consign this Truth unto us , That when persons consederate in the same crimes are spared from a present Judgment falling upon others of their own society , it is indeed a strong alarm to all to secure themselves by Repentance against the hostilities and eruptions of sin ; but yet it is no exemption or security to them that escape , to believe themselves persons less sinful : for God sometimes decimates or tithes delinquent persons , and they die for a common crime , according as God hath cast their lot in the decrees of Predestination ; and either they that remain are sealed up to a worse calamity , or left within the reserves and mercies of Repentance ; for in this there is some variety of determination and undiscerned Providence . 2. The purpose of our Blessed Saviour is of great use to us in all the traverses and changes , and especially the sad and calamitous accidents , of the world . But in the misfortune of others we are to make other discourses concerning Divine Judgments than when the case is of nearer concernment to our selves . For first , when we see a person come to an * unfortunate and untimely death , we must not conclude such a man perishing and miserable to all eternity . It was a sad calamity that fell upon the Man of Judah , that returned to eat bread into the Prophet's house contrary to the word of the Lord : He was abused into the act by a Prophet , and a pretence of a command from God ; and whether he did violence to his own understanding , and believed the man because he was willing , or did it in sincerity , or in what degree of sin or excuse the action might consist , no man there knew : and yet a Lion slew him , and the lying Prophet that abused him escaped and went to his grave in peace . Some persons joyned in * society or interest with criminals have perished in the same Judgments ; and yet it would be hard to call them equally guilty who in the accident were equally miserable and involved . And they who are not strangers in the affairs of the world cannot but have heard or seen some persons who have lived well and moderately , though not like the 〈◊〉 of the Holocaust , yet like the ashes of Incense , sending up good perfumes , and keeping a constant and slow fire of Piety and Justice , yet have been surprised in the midst of some unusual , unaccustomed irregularity , and died in that sin : A sudden gayety of fortune , a great joy , a violent change , a friend is come , or a marriage-day hath transported some persons to indiscretions and too bold a licence ; and the indiscretion hath betrayed them to idle company , and the company to drink , and drink to a fall , and that hath hurri'd them to their grave . And it were a sad sentence to think God would not repute the untimely death for a punishment great enough to that deflexion from duty , and judge the man according to the constant tenor of his former life ; unless such an act was of malice great enough to outweigh the former habits , and interrupt the whole state of acceptation and grace . Something like this was the case of 〈◊〉 , who espying the tottering Ark went to support it with an unhallowed hand ; God smote him , and he died immediately . It were too severe to say his zeal and indiscretion carried him beyond a temporal death to the ruines of Eternity . Origen and many others have made themselves Eunuchs for the Kingdome of Heaven , and did well after it ; but those that did so , and died of the wound , were smitten of God , and died in their folly : and yet it is rather to be called a sad consequence of their indiscretion , than the express of a final anger from God Almighty . For as God takes off our sins and punishments by parts , remitting to some persons the sentence of death , and inflicting the fine of a temporal loss , or the gentle scourge of a lesser sickness : so also he lays it on by parts , and according to the proper proportions of the man and of the crime ; and every transgression and lesser deviation from our duty does not drag the Soul to death eternal , but God suffers our Repentance , though imperfect , to have an imperfect effect , knocking off the fetters by degrees , and leading us in some cases to a Council , in some to Judgment , and in some to Hell-fire : but it is not always certain that he who is led to the prison-doors shall there lie entombed ; and a Man may by a Judgment be brought to the gates of Hell , and yet those gates shall not prevail against him . This discourse concerns persons whose life is habitually fair and just , but are surprised in some unhandsome , but less criminal , action , and 〈◊〉 or suffer some great Calamity as the instrument of its expiation or amendment . 3. Secondly , But if the person upon whom the Judgment falls be habitually vicious , or the crime of a clamorous nature or deeper tincture ; if the man sin a sin unto death , and either meets it , or some other remarkable calamity not so feared as death ; provided we pass no farther than the sentence we see then executed , it is not against Charity or prudence to say , this calamity in its own formality , and by the intention of God , is a Punishment and Judgment . In the favourable cases of honest and just persons our sentence and opinions ought also to be favourable , and in such questions to encline ever to the side of charitable construction , and read other ends of God in the accidents of our neighbour than Revenge or express Wrath. But when the impiety of a person is scandalous and notorious , when it is clamorous and violent , when it is habitual and yet corrigible , if we find a sadness and calamity dwelling with such a sinner , especially if tho punishment be spiritual , we read the sentence of God written with his own hand , and it is not 〈◊〉 of opinion , or a pressing into the secrets of Providence , to say the same thing which God hath published to all the world in the 〈◊〉 of his Spirit . In such cases we are to observe the severity of God , on them that fall severity ; and to use those Judgments as instruments of the fear of God , & arguments to hate sin ; which we could not well do , but that we must look on them as verifications of God's threatning against great and impenitent sinners . But then if we descend to particulars , we may easily be deceived . 4. For some men are diligent to observe the accidents and chances of Providence upon those especially who differ from them in Opinion ; and whatever ends God can have , or whatever sins man can have , yet we lay that in fault which we therefore hate because it is most against our interest ; the contrary Opinion is our enemy , and we also think God hates it . But such fancies do seldom serve either the ends of Truth or Charity . Pierre Calceon died under the Barber's hand : there wanted not some who said it was a Judgement upon him for condemning to the fire the famous Pucelle of France , who prophesied the expulsion of the English out of the Kingdom . They that thought this believed her to be a Prophetess ; but others , that thought her a Witch , were willing to 〈◊〉 out another conjecture for the sudden death of the Gentleman . Garnier Earl of Gretz kept the Patriarch of Jerusalem from his right in David's Tower and the City , and died within three days ; and by Dabert the Patriarch it was called a Judgment upon him for his Sacrilege . But the uncertainty of that censure appeared to them who considered that Baldwin ( who gave commission to Garnier to withstand the Patriarch ) did not die ; but Godsrey of 〈◊〉 did die immediately after he had passed the right of the Patriarch : and yet when Baldwin was beaten at Rhamula , * some bold People pronounced that then God punished him upon the Patriarch's score , and thought his Sacrilege to be the secret cause of his overthrow ; and yet his own Pride and Rashness was the more visible , and the Judgment was but a cloud , and passed away quickly into a succeeding Victory . But I instance in a trisle . Certain it is , that God removed the Candlestick from the Levantine Churches because he had a quarrel unto them ; for that punishment is never sent upon pure designs of emendation , or for direct and immediate purposes of the Divine glory , but ever makes reflexion upon the past sin : but when we descend to a judgment of the particulars , God walks so in the dark to us , that it is not discerned upon what ground he smote them . Some say it was because they dishonoured the eternal Jesus , in denying the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son. And in this some thought themselves sufficiently assured by a sign from Heaven , because the Greeks lost Constantinople upon Whitsunday , the day of the Festival of the Holy Spirit . The Church of Rome calls the Churches of the Greek Communion Schismatical , and thinks God righted the Roman quarrel when he revenged his own . Some think they were cut off for being Breakers of Images ; others think that their zeal against Images was a means they were cut off no sooner : and yet he that shall observe what innumerable Sects , Heresies and Factions were commenced amongst them , and how they were wanton with Religion , making it serve ambitious and unworthy ends , will see that , besides the ordinary conjectures of interested persons , they had such causes of their ruine which we also now feel heavily incumbent upon our selves . To see God adding eighteen years to the life of Hezekiah upon his Prayer , and yet cutting off the young Son of David begotten in adulterous embraces ; to see him rejecting Adonijah , and receiving Solomon to the Kingdom , begotten of the same Mother whose Son God in anger formerly slew ; to observe his mercies to Manasses , in accepting him to favour , and continuing the Kingdom to him , and his severity to Zedekiah , in causing his eyes to be put out ; to see him rewarding Nebuchadnezzar with the spoils of Egypt for destroying Tyre , and executing God's severe anger against it , and yet punishing others for being executioners of his wrath upon Jerusalem , even then when he purposed to chastise it ; to see 〈◊〉 raised from a Peasant to a Throne , and Pompey from a great Prince reduced to that condition , that a Pupil and an Eunuch passed sentence of death upon him ; to see great fortunes fall into the hand of a Fool , and Honourable old persons and Learned men descend to unequal Beggery ; to see him strike a stroke with his own hand in the Conversion of Saul , and another quite contrary in the cutting off of Judas , must needs be some restraint to our judgments concerning the general state of those men who lie under the rod ; but it proclaims an infinite uncertainty in the particulars , since we see contrary accidents happening to persons guilty of the same crime , or put in the same indispositions . God hath marked all great sins with some signal and express Judgments , and hath transmitted the records of them , or represented them before our eyes ; that is , hath done so in our Age , or it hath been noted to have been done before : and that being sufficient to affright us from those crimes , God hath not thought it expedient to do the same things to all persons in the same cases , having to all persons produced instances and examples of fear by fewer accidents , sufficient to restrain us , but not enough to pass sentence upon the changes of Divine Providence . 5. But sometimes God speaks plainer , and gives us notice what crimes he punishes in others , that we may the rather decline such rocks of offence . If the Crime and the Punishment be symbolical , and have proportion and correspondence of parts , the hand of God strikes the Man , but holds up one finger to point at the Sin. The death of the child of Bathsheba was a plain declaration that the anger of God was upon David for the Adulterous mixture . That Blasphemer whose Tongue was presently struck with an ulcerous tumour , with his tongue declared the glories of God and his own shame . And it was not doubted but God , when he smote the Lady of Dominicus Silvius , the Duke of Venice , with a loathsome and unsavory disease , did intend to chastise a remarkable vanity of hers in various and costly Perfumes , which she affected in an unreasonable manner , and to very evil purposes . And that famous person , and of excellent learning , Giacchettus of Geneva , being by his Wife found dead in the unlawful embraces of a stranger woman , who also died at the same instant , left an excellent example of God's anger upon the crime , and an evidence that he was then judged for his intemperate Lust. Such are all those punishments which are natural consequents to a Crime : as Dropsies , Redness of eyes , Dissolution of nerves , Apoplexies , to continual Drunkenness ; to intemperate Eating , Short lives and Sudden deaths ; to Lust , a Caitive slavish disposition , and a Foul diseased body ; Fire and Sword , and Depopulation of Towns and Villages , the consequents of Ambition and unjust Wars ; Poverty to Prodigality ; and all those Judgments which happen upon Cursings and horrid Imprecations , when God is under a Curse called to attest a Lie , and to connive at impudence ; or when the Oppressed persons in the bitterness of their souls wish evil and pray for vengeance on their Oppressors ; or that the Church upon just cause inflicts Spiritual censures , and delivers unto Satan , or curses and declares the Divine sentence against sinners , as S. Peter against Ananias and Sapphira , and S. Paul against Elymas , and of old Moses against Pharaoh and his Egypt , ( of this nature also was the plague of a withered hand inflicted upon 〈◊〉 , for stretching forth his hand to strike the Prophet . ) In these and all such instances the off-spring is so like the parent , that it cannot easily be concealed . Sometime the crime is of that nature , that it cries aloud for vengeance , or is threatned with a special kind of punishment , which by the observation and experience of the World hath regularly happened to a certain sort of persons : such as are dissolutions of Estates , the punishment of Sacrilege ; a descending curse upon posterity for four generations , specially threatned to the crime of Idolatry ; any plague whatsoever to Oppression ; untimely death to Murther ; an unthriving estate to the detention of Tithes , or whatsoever is God's portion allotted for the services of Religion : untimely and strange deaths to the Persecutors of Christian Religion : Nero killed himself ; Domitian was killed by his servants ; Maximinus and Decius were murthered , together with their children ; Valerianus imprisoned , flay'd and slain with tortures by Sapor King of Persia ; Diocletian perished by his own hand , and his House was burnt with the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah , with fire from above ; Antiochus the President under Aurelian , while Agapetus was in his agony and sufferance of Martyrdom , cried out of a flame within him , and died ; Flaccus vomited out his entrails presently after he had caused Gregory Bishop of Spoleto to be slain ; and Dioscorus , the father of S. Barbara , accused and betrayed his Daughter to the Hangman's cruelty for being a Christian , and he died by the hand of God by fire from Heaven . These are God's tokens , marks upon the body of insected persons , and declare the malignity of the disease , and bid us all beware of those determined crimes . 6. Thirdly , But then in these and all other accidents we must first observe from the cause to the effect , and then judge from the effect concerning the nature and the degree of the cause . We cannot conclude , This family is lessened , beggered , or extinct , therefore they are guilty of Sacrilege : but thus , They are Sacrilegious , and God hath blotted out their name from among the posterities , therefore this Judgment was an express of God's anger against Sacrilege : the Judgment will not conclude a Sin , but when a Sin infers the Judgment with a legible character and a prompt signification , not to understand God's choice is next to stupidity or carelesness . Arius was known to be a seditious , heretical and dissembling person , and his entrails descended on the earth when he went to cover his feet : it was very suspicious that this was the punishment of those sins which were the worst in him : But he that shall conclude Arius was an Heretick or Seditious , upon no other ground but because his bowels gushed out , begins imprudently , and proceeds uncharitably . But it is considerable , that men do not arise to great crimes on the sudden , but by degrees of carelesness to lesser impieties , and then to clamorous sins : And God is therefore said to punish great crimes or actions of highest malignity , because they are commonly productions from the spirit of Reprobation , they are the highest ascents , and suppose a Body of sin . And therefore although the Judgment may be intended to punish all our sins , yet it is like the Syrian Army , it kills all that are its enemies , but it hath a special commission to fight against none but the King of Israel , because his death would be the dissolution of the Body . And if God humbles a man for his great sin , that is , for those acts which combine and consummate all the rest , possibly the Body of sin may separate , and be apt to be scattered and subdued by single acts and instruments of mortification : and therefore it is but reasonable , in our making use of God's Judgments upon others , to think that God will rather strike at the greatest crimes ; not only because they are in themselves of greatest malice and iniquity , but because they are the summe total of the rest , and by being great progressions in the state of sin suppose all the rest included ; and we , by proportioning and observing the Judgment to the highest , acknowledge the whole body of sin to lie under the curse , though the greatest only was named , and called upon with the voice of thunder . And yet because it sometimes happens , that upon the violence of a great and new occasion some persons leap into such a sin which in the ordinary course of sinners uses to be the effect of an habitual and growing state , then if a Judgment happens , it is clearly appropriate to that one great crime , which as of it self it is equivalent to a vicious habit , and interrupts the acceptation of all its former contraries , so it meets with a curse , such as usually God chuses for the punishment of a whole body and state of sin . However , in making observation upon the expresses of God's anger , we must be careful that we reflect not with any bitterness or scorn upon the person of our calamitous Brother , left we make that to be an evil to him which God intends for his benefit , if the Judgment was medicinal ; or that we increase the load , already great enough to sink him beneath his grave , if the Judgment was intended for a final abscission . 7. Fourthly , But if the Judgments descend upon our selves , we are to take another course ; not to enquire into particulars to find out the proportions , ( for that can only be a design to part with just so much as we must needs ) but to mend all that is amiss ; for then only we can be secure to remove the Achan , when we keep nothing within us or about us that may provoke God to jealousie or wrath . And that is the proper product of holy fear , which God intended should be the first effect of all his Judgments : and of this God is so careful , and yet so kind and provident , that fear might not be produced always at the expence of a great suffering , that God hath provided for us certain prologues of Judgment , and keeps us waking with alarms , that so he might reconcile his mercies with our duties . Of this nature are Epidemical diseases , not yet arrived at us , prodigious Tempests , Thunder and loud noises from Heaven ; and he that will not fear when God speaks so loud , is not yet made soft with the impresses and perpetual droppings of Religion . Venerable Bede reports of S. Chad , that if a great gust of Wind suddenly arose , he presently made some holy ejaculation to beg favour of God for all mankind , who might possibly be concerned in the effects of that Wind ; but if a Storm succeeded , he fell prostrate to the earth , and grew as violent in Prayer as the Storm was 〈◊〉 at Land or Sea. But if God added Thunder and Lightning , he went to the Church , and there spent all his time during the Tempest in reciting Litanies , Psalms , and other holy Prayers , till it pleased God to restore his favour , and to seem to forget his anger . And the good Bishop added this reason ; Because these are the extensions and stretchings forth of God's hand , and yet he did not strike : but he that trembles not when he sees God's arm held forth to strike us , understands neither God's mercies nor his own danger ; he neither knows what those horrours were which the People saw from mount Sinai , nor what the glories and amazements shall be at the great day of Judgment . And if this Religious man had seen Tullus Hostilius , the Roman King , and Anastasius , a Christian Emperor , but a reputed Heretick , struck dead with Thunderbolts , and their own houses made their urns to keep their ashes in ; there could have been no posture humble enough , no Prayers devout enough , no place holy enough , nothing sufficiently expressive of his fear , and his humility , and his adoration , and Religion to the almighty and infinite power and glorious mercy of God , sending out his Emissaries to denounce war with designs of peace . A great Italian General , seeing the sudden death of Alfonsus Duke of Ferrara , kneeled down instantly , saying , And shall not this sight make me religious ? Three and twenty thousand fell in one night in the Assyrian Camp , who were all slain for Fornication . And this so prodigious a Judgement was recorded in Scripture for our example and affrightment , that we should not with such freedom entertain a crime which destroyed so numerous a body of men in the darkness of one evening . Fear , and Modesty , and universal Reformation , are the purposes of God's Judgments upon us , or in our neighbourhood . 8. Fifthly , Concerning Judgments happening to a Nation or a Church , the consideration is particular , because there are fewer capacities of making sins to become national than personal ; and therefore if we understand when a sin is National , we may the rather understand the meaning of God's hand when he strikes a People . For National sins grow higher and higher not merely according to the degree of the sin , or the intension alone , but according to the extension ; 〈◊〉 to its being 〈◊〉 , so it is productive of more or less mischief to a Kingdom . Customary iniquities amongst the People do then amount to the account of National sins , when they are of so universal practice as to take in well-near every particular ; such as was that of Sodom , not to leave ten righteous in all the Countrey : and such were the sins of the Old world , who left but eight persons to escape the angry baptism of the Floud . And such was the murmur of the children of Israel , refusing to march up to Canaan at the commandment of God , they all murmured but Caleb and 〈◊〉 ; and this God in the case of the Amalekites calls the fulfilling of their sins , and a filling up the measure of their iniquities . And hither also I reckon the defection of the Ten Tribes from the House of Judah , and the Samaritan Schism ; these caused the total extirpation of the offending People . For although these sins were personal and private at first , yet when they come to be universal by diffusion and dissemination , and the good People remaining among them are but like drops of Wine in a Tun of Water , of no consideration with God , save only to the preservation of their own persons ; then , although the persons be private , yet all private or singular persons make the Nation . But this hath happened but seldome in Christianity : I think indeed never , except in the case of Mutinies and Rebellion against their lawful Prince , or the attesting violence done in unjust Wars . But God only knows , and no man can say , that any sin is national by diffusion ; and therefore in this case we cannot make any certain judgment or advantage to our selves , or very rarely , by observing the changes of Providence upon a People . 9. But the next above this in order to the procuring popular Judgments is publick impunities , the not doing Justice upon Criminals publickly complained of and demanded , especially when the persons interested call for Justice and execution of good Laws , and the Prince's arm is at liberty and in full strength , and there is no contrary reason in the particular instance to make compensation to the publick for the omission , or no care taken to satisfie the particular . Abimelech thought he had reason to be angry with Isaac for saying 〈◊〉 was his Sister ; for one of the people might have ly'ne with thy wife , and thou shouldst have brought 〈◊〉 upon us : meaning , that the man should have escaped unpunished by reason of the mistake , which very impunity he feared might be expounded to be a countenance and encouragement to the sin . But this was no more than his fear . The case of the Benjamites comes home to this present article ; for they refused to do justice upon the men that had ravished and killed the Levite's Concubine ; they lost twenty five thousand in battel , their Cities were destroyed , and the whole Tribe almost extinguished . For punishing publick and great acts of injustice is called in Scripture putting away the evil from the land ; because to this purpose the sword is put into the Prince's hand , and he bears the sword in vain who ceases to protect his People : and not to punish the evil is a voluntary retention of it , unless a special case intervene , in which the Prince thinks it convenient to give a particular pardon ; provided this be not encouragement to others , nor without great reason , big enough to make compensation for the particular omission , and with care to render some other satisfaction to the person injured : in all other cases of impunity , that sin becomes National by forbearing , which in the acting was personal ; and it is certain the impunity is a spring of universal evils , it is no thank to the publick if the best man be not as bad as the worst . 10. But there is a step beyond this , and of a more publick concernment : such are the Laws of Omri , when a Nation consents to and makes ungodly Statutes ; when mischief is established as a Law , then the Nation is engaged to some purpose . When I see the People despise their Governours , scorn and rob and disadvantage the Ministers of Religion , make rude addresses to God , to his Temple , to his Sacraments ; I look upon it as the insolency of an untaught People , who would as readily do the contrary , if the fear of God and the King were upon them by good Examples , and Precepts , and Laws , and severe executions . And farther yet , when the more publick and exemplar persons are without sense of Religion , without a dread of Majesty , without reverence to the Church , without impresses of Conscience and the tendernesses of a religious fear towards God ; as the persons are greater in estimation of Law and in their influences upon the People , so the score of the Nation advances , and there is more to be paid for in popular Judgments . But when Iniquity or Irreligion is made a Sanction , and either God must be dishonoured , or the Church exauthorated , or her Rites invaded by a Law ; then the fortune of the Kingdom is at stake . No sin engages a Nation so much , or is so publick , so solemn iniquity , as is a wicked Law. Therefore it concerns Princes and States to secure the Piety and innocency of their Laws : and if there be any evil Laws , which upon just grounds may be thought productive of God's anger , because a publick misdemeanour cannot be expiated but by a publick act of Repentance , or a publick Calamity , the Laws must either have their edge abated by a desuetude , or be laid asleep by a non-execution , or dismembred by contrary proviso's , or have the sting drawn forth by interpretation , or else by abrogation be quite rescinded . But these are National sins within it self , or within its own Body , by the act of the Body ( I mean ) diffusive or representative , and they are like the personal sins of men in or against their own bodies in the matter of Sobriety . There are others in the matter of Justice , as the Nation relates to other People communicating in publick Entercourse . 11. For as the Entercourse between man and man in the actions of commutative and distributive Justice is the proper matter of Vertues and Vices personal ; so are the Transactions between Nation and Nation against the publick rules of Justice Sins National directly , and in their first original , and answer to Injustice between man and man. Such are commencing War upon unjust titles , Invasion of neighbours territories , Consederacies and aids upon tyrannical interest , Wars against true Religion or Sovereignty , Violation of the Laws of nations , which they have consented to as the publick instrument of accord and negotiation , Breach of publick faith , desending Pirates , and the like . When a publick Judgment comes upon a Nation , these things are to be thought upon , that we may not think our selves acquitted by crying out against Swearing and Drunkenness and Cheating in manufactures , which , unless they be of universal dissemination , and made national by diffusion , are paid for upon a personal score ; and the private infelicities of our lives will either expiate or punish them severely . But while the People mourns for those sins of which their low condition is capable , sins that may produce a popular Fever , or perhaps the Plague , where the misery dwells in Cottages , and the Princes often have indemnity , as it was in the case of David : yet we may not hope to appease a War , to master a Rebellion , to cure the publick Distemperatures of a Kingdom , which threaten not the People only , or the Governours also , but even the Government it self , unless the sins of a more publick capacity be cut off by publick declarations , or other acts of national Justice and Religion . But the duty which concerns us all in such cases is , that every man in every capacity should enquire into himself , and for his own portion of the Calamity , put in his own symbol of Emendation for his particular , and his Prayers for the publick interest : in which it is not safe that any private persons should descend to particular censures of the crimes of Princes and States , no not towards God , unless the matter be notorious and past a question ; but it is a sufficient assoilment of this part of his duty , if , when he hath set his own house in order , he would pray with indefinite significations of his charity and care of the publick , that God would put it into the hearts of all whom it concerns , to endeavour the removal of the sin that hath brought the exterminating Angel upon the Nation . But yet there are sometimes great lines drawn by God in the expresses of his anger in some Judgments upon a Nation ; and when the Judgment is of that danger as to invade the very Constitution of a Kingdom , the proportions that Judgments many times keep to their sins intimate that there is some National sin , in which either by diffusion , or representation , or in the direct matter of sins , as false Oaths , unjust Wars , wicked Confederacies , or ungodly Laws , the Nation in the publick capacity is delinquent . 12. For as the Nation hath in Sins a capacity distinct from the sins of all the People , inasmuch as the Nation is united in one Head , guarded by a distinct and a higher Angel , as Persia by Saint Michael , transacts affairs in a publick right , transmits insluence to all particulars from a common fountain , and hath entercourse with other collective Bodies , who also distinguish from their own particulars : so likewise it hath Punishments distinct from those infelicities which vex particulars , Punishments proportionable to it self and to its own Sins ; such as are Change of Governments , of better into worse , of Monarchy into Aristocracy , and so to the lowest ebb of Democracy ; Death of Princes , Infant Kings , Forein Invasions , Civil Wars , a disputable Title to the Crown , making a Nation tributary , Conquest by a Foreiner , and , which is worst of all , removing the Candlestick from a People by extinction of the Church , or that which is necessary to its conservation , the several Orders and Ministeries of Religion : and the last hath also proper sins of its own analogy ; such as are false Articles in the publick Confessions of a Church , Schism from the Catholick , publick Scandals , a general Viciousness of the Clergy , an Indifferency in Religion , without warmth and holy fires of Zeal , and diligent pursuance of all its just and holy interests . Now in these and all parallel cases , when God by Punishments hath probably marked and distinguished the Crime , it concerns publick persons to be the more forward and importunate in consideration of publick Irregularities : and for the private also not to neglect their own particulars ; for by that means , although not certainly , yet probably , they may secure themselves from falling in the publick calamity . It is not infallibly sure that holy persons shall not be smitten by the destroying Angel ; for God in such deaths hath many ends of mercy , and some of Providence , to serve : but such private and personal emendations and Devotions are the greatest securities of the men against the Judgment , or the evil of it , preserving them in this life , or wasting them over to a better . Thus many of the Lord's champions did fall in battel , and the armies of the 〈◊〉 did twice prevail upon the juster People of all Israel ; and the Greek Empire hath declined and shrunk under the fortune and power of the Ottoman Family ; and the Holy Land , which was twice possessed by Christian Princes , is now in the dominion of unchristened Saracens ; and in the production of these alterations many a gallant and pious person suffered the evils of war , and the change of an untimely death . 13. But the way for the whole Nation to proceed in cases of epidemical Diseases , Wars , great Judgments , and popular Calamities , is to do in the publick proportion the same that every man is to do for his private ; by publick acts of Justice , Repentance , Fastings , pious Laws , and execution of just and religious Edicts , making peace , quitting of unjust interests , declaring publickly against a Crime , protesting in behalf of the contrary Vertue or Religion : and to this also every man , as he is a member of the body politick , must co-operate ; that by a Repentance in diffusion help may come , as well as by a Sin of universal dissemination the Plague was hastened and invited the rather . But in these cases all the work of discerning and pronouncing concerning the cause of the Judgment , as it must be without asperity , and only for designs of correction and emendation , so it must be done by Kings and Prophets , and the assistence of other publick persons , to whom the publick is committed . Josua cast lots upon Achan , and discovered the publick trouble in a private instance ; and of old the Prophets had it in commission to reprove the popular iniquity of Nations , and the consederate sins of Kingdomes ; and in this Christianity altered nothing . And when this is done modestly , prudently , humbly and penitently , oftentimes the tables turn immediately , but always in due time ; and a great Alteration in a Kingdome becomes the greatest Blessing in the world , and fastens the Church , or the Crown , or the publick Peace , in bands of great continuance and security ; and it may be the next Age shall feel the benefits of our Sufferance and Repentance . And therefore , as we must endeavour to secure it , so we must not be too decretory in the case of others , or disconsolate or diffident in our own , when it may so happen , that all succeeding generations shall see that God pardoned us and loved us even when he smote us . Let us all learn to fear and walk humbly . The Churches of Laodicea and the Colossians suffered a great calamity within a little while after the Spirit of God had sent them two Epistles by the ministery of S. Paul ; their Cities were buried in an Earthquake : and yet we have reason to think they were Churches beloved of God , and Congregations of holy People . The PRAYER . OEternal and powerful God , thou just and righteous Governour of the world , who callest all orders of men by Precepts , Promises and Threatnings , by Mercies and by Judgments , teach us to admire and adore all the Wisdome , the effects and infinite varieties of thy Providence ; and make us to dispose our selves so by Obedience , by Repentance , by all the manners of Holy living , that we may never provoke thee to jealousie , much less to wrath and indignation against us . Keep far from us the Sword of the destroying Angel , and let us never perish in the publick expresses of thy wrath , in diseases Epidemical , with the furies of War , with calamitous , sudden and horrid Accidents , with unusual Diseases ; unless that our so strange fall be more for thy glory and our eternal benefit , and then thy will be done : We beg thy grace , that we may chearfully conform to thy holy will and pleasure . Lord , open our understandings , that we may know the meaning of thy voice , and the signification of thy language , when thou speakest 〈◊〉 Heaven in signs and Judgments ; and let a holy fear so soften our spirits , and an intense love so 〈◊〉 and sanctifie our desires , that we may apprehend every intimation of thy pleasure at its first and remotest and most obscure representment , that so we may with Repentance go out to meet thee , and prevent the expresses of thine anger . Let thy restraining grace and the observation of the issues of thy Justice so allay our spirits , that we be not severe and forward in condemning others , nor backward in passing sentence upon our selves . Make us to obey thy voice described in holy Scripture , to tremble at thy voice expressed in wonders and great effects of Providence , to condemn none but our selves , nor to enter into the recesses of thy Sanctuary , and search the forbidden records of Predestination ; but that we may read our duty in the pages of Revelation , not in the labels of accidental effects ; that thy Judgments may confirm thy Word , and thy Word teach us our Duty , and we by such excellent instruments may enter in and grow up in the ways of Godliness , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . SECT . XV. Of the Accidents happening from the Death of Lazarus , untill the Death and Burial of JESVS . Bartimeus healed of blindnesse . Mark. 10. 46. And as he went out of Iericho with his Disciples , and a great number of people , blind Bartimeus sate by the high way begging . 47. And when he heard , that it was Iesus of Nazareth he began to cry out , and say , Iesus thou son of David have mercy on me . Lazarus raysed from death . Ioh. 11. 44. And he that was dead came forth bound hand and foot with gravecloths , and his face was bound about with a napkin , Iesus saith unto them , Loose him and let him go . 45. Then Many of the Iewes , which came to Mary , and had seen the things , which Iesus did believed on him . 1. VVHile Jesus was in Galilee , messengers came to him from Martha and her Sister Mary , that he would hasten into Judaea to Bethany , to relieve the sickness and imminent dangers of their Brother Lazarus . But he deferred his going till Lazarus was dead ; purposing to give a great probation of his Divinity , Power , and Mission , by a glorious Miracle ; and to give God glory , and to receive reflexions of the glory upon himself . For after he had stayed two days , he called his Disciples to go with him into Judaea , telling them , that Lazarus was dead , but he would raise him out of that sleep of death . But by that time Jesus was arrived at Bethany , he found that Lazarus had been dead four days , and now near to putrefaction . But when Martha and Mary met him , weeping their pious tears for their dead Brother , Jesus suffered the passions of piety and humanity , and wept , distilling that precious liquor into the grave of Lazarus , watering the dead plant , that it might spring into a new life , and raise his head above the ground . 2. When Jesus had by his words of comfort and institution strengthened the Faith of the two mourning Sisters , and commanded the stone to be removed from the grave , he made an address of Adoration and Eucharist to his Father , confessing his perpetual propensity to hear him , and then cried out , Lazarus , come forth . And he that was dead came forth from his bed of darkness with his night-cloaths on him , whom when the Apostles had unloosed at the command of Jesus , he went to Bethany : and many that were present believed on him ; but others wondring and malicious went and told the Pharisees the story of the Miracle , who upon that advice called their great Council , whose great and solemn cognisance was of the greater causes of Prophets , of Kings , and of the holy Law. At this great Assembly it was that Caiaphas , the High Priest , prophesied , that it was expedient one should die for the people . And thence they determined the death of Jesus . But he , knowing they had passed a decretory sentence against him , retired to the City 〈◊〉 in the Tribe of Judah near the desart , where he stayed a few days , till the approximation of the Feast of Easter . 3. Against which Feast when Jesus with his Disciples was going to Jerusalem , he told them the event of the journey would be , that the Jews should deliver him to the Gentiles , that they should scourge him , and mock him , and crucifie him , and the third day he should rise again . After which discourse the Mother of 〈◊〉 's Children begg'd of Jesus for her two Sons , that one of them might sit at his right hand , the other at the left , in his Kingdom . For no discourses of his Passion or intimations of the mysteriousness of his Kingdom could yet put them into right understandings of their condition . But Jesus , whose heart and thoughts were full of phancy and apprehensions of the neighbour Passion , gave them answer in proportion to his present conceptions and their future condition . For if they desired the honours of his Kingdom , such as they were , they should have them , unless themselves did decline them ; they should drink of his Cup , and dip in his Lavatory , and be washed with his baptism , and sit in his Kingdom , if the heavenly Father had prepared it for them ; but the donation of that immediately was an issue of Divine election and predestination , and was only competent to them who by holy living and patient suffering put themselves into a disposition of becoming vessels of Election . 4. But as Jesus in this journey came near Jericho , he cures a blind man , who sate begging by the way-side : and espying Zaccheus , the chief of the Publicans , upon a tree , ( that he being low of stature might upon that advantage of station see Jesus passing by ) he invited himself to his house ; who received him with gladness , and repentance of his crimes , purging his Conscience , and filling his heart and house with joy and sanctity ; for , immediately upon the arrival of the Master at his house , he offered restitution to all persons whom he had injured , and satisfaction , and half of his remanent estate he gave to the poor , and so gave the fairest entertainment to Jesus , who brought along with him Salvation to his house . There it was that he spake the Parable of the King who concredited divers talents to his servants , and having at his return exacted an account , rewarded them who had improved their bank , and been faithful in their trust , with rewards proportionable to their capacity and improvement ; but the negligent servant , who had not meliorated his stock , was punished with ablegation and 〈◊〉 to outer darkness . And from hence sprang up that dogmatical proposition , which is mysterious and 〈◊〉 in Christianity , To him that hath shall be given ; and from him that hath not shall be taken away even what he hath . After this , going forth of Jericho , he cured two blind men upon the way . 5. Six days before Easter Jesus came to Bethany , where he was feasted by Martha and Mary , and accompanied by Lazarus , who sate at the table with Jesus . But Mary brought a pound of Nard * Pistick , and , as formerly she had done , again anoints the feet of Jesus , and fills the house with the odour , till God himself smelt thence a savour of a sweet-smelling sacrifice . But Judas Iscariot , the Thief and the Traitor , repined at the vanity of the expence , ( as he pretended ) because it might have been sold for three hundred pence , and have been given to the poor . But Jesus in his reply taught us , that there is an opportunity for actions of Religion as well as of Charity . Mary did this against the Burial of Jesus , and her Religion was accepted by him , to whose honours the holocaust of love and the oblations of alms-deeds are in their proper seasons direct actions of worship and duty . But at this meeting there came many Jews to see Lazarus , who was raised from death , as well as to see Jesus : and because by occasion of his Resurrection many of them believed on Jesus , therefore the Pharisees deliberated about putting him to death . But God in his glorious providence was pleased to preserve him as a trumpet of his glories , and a testimony of the Miracle , thirty years after the death of Jesus . 6. The next day , being the fifth day before the Passeover , Jesus came to the foot of the mount of Olives , and sent his Disciples to Bethphage , a village in the neighbourhood , commanding them to unloose an asse and a colt , and bring them to him , and to tell the owners it was done for the Master's use ; and they did so : and when they brought the Asse to Jesus , he rides on him to Jerusalem ; and the People , having notice of his approach , took * branches of Palm-trees , and went out to meet him , strewing branches and garments in the way , crying out , Hosanna to the son of David : Which was a form of exclamation used to the honour of God , and in great Solemnities , and * signifies [ Adoration to the Son of David by the rite of carrying branches ; ] which when they used in procession about their Altars they used to pray , Lord , save us , Lord , prosper us , which hath occasioned the reddition of Hoschiannah to be , amongst some , that Prayer which they repeated at the carrying of the Hoschiannah , as if it self did signifie , Lord , save us . But this honour was so great and unusual to be done even to Kings , that the Pharisees , knowing this to be an appropriate manner of address to God , said one to another by way of wonder , Hear ye what these men say ? For they were troubled to hear the People revere him as a God. 7. When Jesus from the mount of Olives beheld Jerusalem , he wept over it , and foretold great sadnesses and infelicities futurely contingent to it ; which not only happened in the sequel of the story according to the main issues and significations of this Prophecy , but even to minutes and circumstances it was verified . For in the mount of Olives , where Jesus shed tears over perishing Jerusalem , the Romans first pitched their Tents when they came to its final overthrow . From thence descending to the City he went into the Temple , and still the acclamations followed him , till the Pharisees were ready to burst with the noises abroad , and the tumults of envy and scorn within , and by observing that all their endeavours to suppress his glories were but like clapping their hands to veil the Sun , and that , in despight of all their stratagems , the whole Nation was become Disciple to the glorious Nazarene . And there 〈◊〉 cured certain persons that were blind and lame . 8. But whilest he abode at Jerusalem , certain Greeks , who came to the Feast to worship , made their address to Philip , that they might be brought to Jesus . Philip tells Andrew , and they both tell Jesus ; who , having admitted them , discoursed many things concerning his Passion , and then prayed a petition , which is the end of his own Sufferings , and of all humane actions , and the purpose of the whole Creation , Father , glorifie thy Name . To which he was answered by a voice from Heaven , I have both glorified it , and will glorifie it again . But this , nor the whole series of Miracles that he did , the Mercies , the Cures , nor the divine Discourses , could gain the Faith of all the Jews , who were determined by their humane interest ; for many of the Rulers who believed on him durst not confess him , because they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. Then Jesus again exhorted all men to believe on him , that so they might in the same act believe on God ; that they might approach unto the light , and not abide in darkness ; that they might obey the commandments of the Father , whose express charge it was , that Jesus should preach this Gospel ; and that they might not be judged at the last Day by the Word which they have rejected , which Word to all its observers is everlasting life . After which Sermon retiring to Bethany , he abode there all Night . 9. On the morrow returning to Jerusalem , on the way being hungry he passed by a Fig-tree , where expecting fruit he found none , and cursed the Fig-tree , which by the next day was dried up and withered . Upon occasion of which preternatural event Jesus discoursed of the power of Faith , and its power to produce Miracles . But upon this occasion others , the Disciples of Jesus in after-Ages , have pleased themselves with phancies and imperfect descants , as that he cursed this Tree in mystery and secret intendment , it having been the tree in the eating whose fruit Adam , prevaricating the Divine Law , made an inlet to sin , which brought in death , and the sadnesses of Jesus's Passion . But Jesus having entred the City came into the Temple , and preached the Gospel ; and the chief Priests and Scribes questioned his commission , and by what authority he did those things . But Jesus promising to answer them , if they would declare their opinions concerning John's Baptism , which they durst not for fear of displeasing the people , or throwing durt in their own faces , was acquitted of his obligation , by their declining the proposition . 10. But there he reproved the Pharisees and Rulers by the Parable of two Sons ; the first whereof said to his Father , he would not obey , but repented , and did his command ; the second gave good words , but did nothing : meaning , that persons of the greatest improbability were more heartily converted than they whose outside seemed to have appropriated Religion to the labels of their frontlets . He added a Parable of the Vineyard let out to Husbandmen , who killed the servants sent to demand the fruits , and at last the Son himself , that they might invade the inheritance : but made a sad commination to all such who should either stumble at this stone , or on whom this stone should fall . After which , and some other reprehensions , which he so veiled in Parable that it might not be expounded to be calumny or declamation , although such sharp Sermons had been spoken in the People's hearing , but yet so transparently , that themselves might see their own iniquity in those modest and just representments , the Pharisees would fain have seised him , but they durst not for the People , but resolved , if they could , to entangle him in his talk ; and therefore sent out spies , who should pretend sanctity and veneration of his person , who with a goodly 〈◊〉 preface , that Jesus regarded no man's person , but spake the word of God with much simplicity and justice , desired to know if it were lawful to pay tribute to 〈◊〉 , or not . A question which was of great dispute , because of the numerous Sect of the 〈◊〉 , who denied it , and of the affections of the People , who loved their Money , and their Liberty , and the Privileges of their Nation . And now in all probability he shall fall under the displeasure of the People , or of Caesar. But Jesus called to see a peny ; and 〈◊〉 it to be superscribed with Caesar's image , with incomparable wisdome he brake their snare , and established an Evangelical proposition for ever , saying , Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's , and to God the things that are God's . 11. Having so excellently and so much to their wonder answered the Pharisees , the Sadduces bring their great objection to him against the Resurrection , by putting case of a Woman married to seven Husbands , and whose Wife should she be in the Resurrection ? thinking that to be an impossible state , which ingages upon such seeming incongruities , that a woman should at once be wife to seven men . But Jesus first answered their objection , telling them , that all those relations whose 〈◊〉 is in the imperfections and passions of 〈◊〉 and bloud , and duties here below , shall cease in that state , which is so spiritual , that it is like to the condition of Angels , amongst whom there is no difference of sex , no cognations , no genealogies or derivation from one another ; and then by a new argument proves the Resurrection , by one of God's appellatives , who did then delight to be called the God of Abraham , Isaac , and Jacob : for since God is not the God of the dead , but of the living , unto him even these men are alive ; and if so , then either they now exercise acts of life , and therefore shall be restored to their bodies , that their actions may be compleat , and they not remain in a state of imperfection to all eternity ; or if they be alive , and yet cease from operation , they shall be much rather raised up to a condition which shall actuate and make perfect their present capacities and dispositions , lest a power and inclination should for ever be in the root , and never rise up to fruit or herbage , and so be an eternal vanity , like an old bud , or an eternal child . 12. After this , the Pharisees being well pleased , not that Jesus spake so excellently , but that the Sadduces were 〈◊〉 , came to him , asking , which was the great Commandment , and some other things , more out of curiosity than pious desires of satisfaction . But at last Jesus was pleased to ask them concerning CHRIST , whose son he was . They answered , The Son of David : but he replying , How then doth David call him Lord ? [ The LORD said unto my Lord , Sit thou on my right hand , &c. ] they had nothing to answer . But Jesus then gave his Disciples caution against the Pride , the Hypocrisie , and the Oppression of the Scribes and Pharisees ; and commended the poor widow's oblation of her two mites into the treasury , it being a great love in a little print , for it was all her living . All this was spoken in the Temple , the goodly stones of which when the Apostles beheld with wonder , they being white and firm , twenty cubits in length , twelve in breadth , eight in depth , as Josephus reports , Jesus prophesies the destruction of the place : concerning which Prediction when the Apostles , being with him at the mount of Olives , asked him privately concerning the time and the ligns of so sad event , he discoursed largely of his coming to Judgment against that City , and interweaved Predictions of the universal Judgment of all the world ; of which this , though very sad , was but a small adumbration : adding Precepts of Watchfulness , and standing in preparation with hearts filled with grace , our lamps always shining , that when the Bridegroom shall come we may be ready to enter in ; which was intended in the Parable of the five wise Virgins : and concluded his Sermon with a narrative of his Passion , foretelling that within two days he should be crucisied . 13. Jesus descended from the mount , and came to Bethany , and turning into the house of Simon the Leper , Mary 〈◊〉 Magdalen having been reproved by Judas for spending ointment upon 〈◊〉 's 〈◊〉 , it being so unaccustomed and large a profusion , thought now to speak her love once more , and trouble no body , and therefore the poured ointment on his sacred head , believing that , being a pompousness of a more accustomed festivity , would be indulged to the expressions of her affection : but now all the Disciples murmured , wondring at the prodigiousness of the woman's Religion , great enough to consume a Province in the 〈◊〉 of her thankfulness and duty . But Jesus now also entertained the sincerity of her miraculous love , adding this Prophecy , that where the Gospel should be preached , there also a record of this act should be kept , as a perpetual monument of her Piety , and an attestation of his Divinity , who could foretell future 〈◊〉 ; Christianity receiving the greatest argument from that which S. Peter calls the surer word of Prophecy , meaning it to be greater than the testimony of Miracles , not easie to be dissembled by impure spirits , and whose efficacy should descend to all Ages : for this Prophecy shall for ever be fulfilling , and , being every day verified , does every day preach the Divinity of Christ's 〈◊〉 and of his Institution . 14. Two days before the 〈◊〉 the Scribes and Pharisees called a council to contrive crafty ways of 〈◊〉 Jesus , they not daring to do it by open violence . Of which meeting when Judas 〈◊〉 had notice , ( for those assemblies were publick and notorious ) he ran from 〈◊〉 , and offered himself to betray his Master to them , if they would give him a considerable reward . They agreed for thirty pieces of silver . Of what value each piece was is uncertain ; but their own Nation hath given a rule , that when a piece of silver is named in the Pentateuch it signifies a sicle ; if it be named in the Prophets , it signifies a pound ; if in the other writings of the Old Testament , it signifies a talent : This therefore being alledged out of the Prophet * Jeremy by one of the Evangelists , it is probable the price at which Judas sold his Lord was thirty pound weight of silver ; a 〈◊〉 price for the Saviour of the world to be prized at by his undiscerning and unworthy Countreymen . 15. The next day was the first day of 〈◊〉 bread , on which it was necessary they should kill the Passeover ; therefore Jesus sent Peter and John to the City to a certain man , whom they should 〈◊〉 carrying a pitcher of water to his house ; him they should follow , and there prepare the Passeover . They went and found the man in the same circumstances , and prepared for Jesus and his Family , who at the even came to celebrate the Passeover . It was the house of John surnamed Mark , which had always been open to this blessed Family , where he was pleased to finish his last Supper , and the mysteriousness of the Vespers of his Passion . 16. When evening was come , Jesus stood with his Disciples and 〈◊〉 the Paschal Lamb ; after which he girt himself with 〈◊〉 , and taking a bason washed the feet of his Disciples , not only by the ceremony , but in his discourses , instructing them in the doctrine of Humility , which the Master by his so great 〈◊〉 to his Disciples had made sacred , and imprinted the lesson in lasting characters by making it symbolical . But Peter was unwilling to be washed by his Lord , until he was told he must renounce his part in him unless he were washed ; which option being given to Peter , he cried out , Not my feet only , but my hands and my head . But Jesus said the ablution of the feet was sufficient for the purification of the whole man ; relating to the custom of those Countreys who used to go to supper immediately from the baths , who therefore were sufficiently clean save only on their feet , by reason of the dust contracted in their passage from the baths to the dining-rooms ; from which when by the hospitable master of the house they were caused to be cleansed , they needed no more ablution : and by it Jesus , passing from the letter to the spirit , meant , that the body of sin was washed in the baths of Baptism ; and afterwards , if we remained in the same state of purity , it was only necessary to purge away the filth contracted in our passage from the Font to the Altar ; and then we are clean all over , when the 〈◊〉 state is unaltered , and the little adherencies of imperfection and passions are also washed off . 17. But after the 〈◊〉 of the Paschal Lamb it was the custom of the Nation to sit down to a second Supper , in which they ate herbs and unlevened bread , the Major-domo first dipping his morsel , and then the family ; after which the Father brake bread into pieces , and distributed a part to every of the Guests , and first drinking himself , gave to the rest the chalice filled with wine , according to the age and dignity of the person , adding to each distribution a form of benediction proper to the mystery , which was Eucharistical and commemorative of their Deliverance from Egypt . This Supper Jesus being to celebrate , changed the forms of benediction , turned the Ceremony into Mystery , and gave his body and bloud in Sacrament and religious configuration ; so instituting the venerable Sacrament which from the time of its institution is called the Lord's Supper : which rite Jesus commanded the Apostles to perpetuate in commemoration of him their Lord until his second coming . And this was the first delegation of a perpetual Ministery which Jesus made to his Apostles , in which they were to be succeeded to in all generations of the Church . 18. But Jesus being troubled in spirit told his Apostles that one of them should betray him ; which Prediction he made , that they might not be scandalized at the sadness of objection of the Passion , but be confirmed in their belief , seeing so great demonstration of his wisdom and spirit of Prophecy . The Disciples were all troubled at this 〈◊〉 arrest , looking one on another , and doubting of whom he spake ; but they beckned to the beloved Disciple , 〈◊〉 on Jesus's breast , that he might ask : for they who knew their own innocency and infirmity were desirous to satisfie their curiosity , and to be rid of their indetermination and their fear . But Jesus being asked gave them a sign , and a 〈◊〉 to Judas , commanding him to do what he list speedily ; for Jesus was extremely 〈◊〉 till he had drunk the chalice off , and accomplished his mysterious and 〈◊〉 Baptism . After Judas received the sop , the Devil entred into him , and Judas went forth immediately , it being now night . 19. When he was gone out , Jesus began his Farewel-Sermon , rarely mixt of sadness and joys , and studded with mysteries as with Emeralds , discoursing of the glorification of God in his Son , and of those glories which the Father had prepared for him ; of his sudden departure , and his migration to a place whither they could not come yet , but afterwards they should ; meaning , first to death , and then to glory : commanding them to love one another ; and foretelling to Peter , ( who made consident protests that he would die with his Master ) that before the cock should crow twice , he should deny him thrice . But lest he should afflict them with too sad representments of his present condition , he comforts them with the comforts of Faith , with the intendments of his departure to prepare places in Heaven for them , whither they might come by him , who is the way , the truth , and the life ; adding a promise in order to their present support and future felicities , that if they should ask of God any thing in his name , they should receive it ; and upon condition they would love him , and keep his Commandments , he would pray for the Holy Ghost to come upon them , to supply his room , to furnish them with proportionable comforts , to enable them with great Gifts , to lead them into all truth , and to abide with them for ever . Then arming them against future Persecutions , giving them divers holy Precepts , discoursing of his emanation from the Father , and of the necessity of his departure , he gave them his blessing , and prayed for them ; and then , having sung a Hymn , which was part of the great Allelujah beginning at the 114 Psalm , [ When Israel came out of Egypt ] and ending at the 118 inclusively , went forth with his Disciples over the brook 〈◊〉 unto the mount of Olives to a village called Gethsemani , where there was a Garden , into which he entred to pray together with his Disciples . 20. But taking Peter , James and John apart with him about a stone 's cast from the rest , he began to be exceeding sorrowful and sad even unto death . For now he 〈◊〉 the ingredients of his bitter Draught pouring into the Chalice , and the sight was full of horror and amazement ; he therefore fell on his face , and prayed , O my Father , if it be possible , let this cup pass from me . In this Prayer he fell into so sad an agony , that the pains inflicted by his Father's wrath and made active by his own apprehension were so great , that a sweat distilled from his sacred body as great and conglobated as drops of 〈◊〉 ; and God , who heard his Prayer , but would not answer him in kind , sent an Angel to comfort him in the sadness , which he was pleased not to take away . But knowing that the drinking this Cup was the great end of his coming into the world , he laid aside all his own interests , and devested himself of the affections of flesh and bloud , willing his Father's will ; and because his Father commanded , he , in desiance of sense and passion , was desirous to suffer all our pains . But as when two seas meet , the billows 〈◊〉 in ungentle embraces , and make violent noises , till , having wearied themselves into smaller waves and disunited drops , they run quietly into one stream : so did the spirit and nature of Jesus assault each other with disagreeing interests and distinguishing disputations , till the earnestness of the contention was diminished by the demonstrations of the spirit , and the prevailings of Grace , which the sooner got the victory , because they were not to contest with an unsanctified or a rebellious nature , but a body of affections which had no strong desires , but of its own preservation : and therefore Jesus went thrice , and prayed the same prayer , that , if it were 〈◊〉 , the cup might pass from him , and thrice made an act of resignation , and in the intervals came and found his Apostles asleep , gently chiding their incuriousness , and warning them to watch and pray , that they enter not into temptation ; till the time that the Traitor came with a multitude armed with swords and staves from the Priests and Elders of the people to apprehend him . 21. Judas gave them the opportunity of the night , that was all the advantage they had by him , because they durst not seise him by day for fear of the people ; and he signified the person of his Master to the souldiers by a Kiss , and an address of seeming civility . But when they came towards him , Jesus said , Whom seek ye ? They said , JESUS of Nazareth . He said , I am he . But there was a Divinity upon him , that they could not seise him at first : But as a wave climbing of a Rock is beaten back and scattered into members , till falling down it creeps with gentle waftings and kisses the feet of the stony mountain , and so encirles it : so the Souldiers , coming at first with a rude attempt , were twice repelled by the glory of his person , till they falling at his feet were at last admitted to the seisure of his body , having by those involuntary prostrations confessed his power greater than theirs , and that the lustre and influence of a GOD are greater than the violences and rudenesses of Souldiers . And still they like weak eyes durst not behold the glory of this Sun , till a cloud like a dark veil did interrupt the emissions of his glories ; they could not seise upon him , till they had thrown a veil upon his holy face : which although it was a custom of the Easterlings , and of the * Roman Empire generally ; yet in this case was violence and necessity , because a certain impetuosity and vigorousness of spirit and Divinity issuing from his holy Face made them to take sanctuary in darkness , and to throw a veil over him in that dead time of a sad and dismal night . But Peter , a stout * Galilean , bold and zealous , attempted a rescue , and smote a servant of the High Priest , and cut off his ear ; but Jesus rebuked the intemperance of his passion , and commanded him to put up his sword , saying , all they that strike with the sword shall perish with the sword ; so putting a bridle upon the illegal inflictions and expresses of anger or revenge from an incompetent authority . But Jesus touched Malchus's ear , and cured it . 22. When Jesus had yielded himself into their power , and was now led away by the chief Priests , Captains of the Temple , Elders of the people , and Souldiers , who all came in combination and covenant to surprize him , his Disciples fled ; and John the Evangelist , who with grief and an over-running phancy had forgot to lay aside his upper garment , which in Festivals they are used to put on , began to make escape , but being arrested by his linen upon his bare body , was forced to leave that behind him , that himself might escape his Master's danger : for now was verified the prophetical saying , I will smite the Shepherd , and the sheep shall be scattered . But Peter followed afar off ; and the greatness of John's love , when he had mastered the first inconsiderations of his fear , made him to return a while after into the High Priest's Hall. 23. Jesus was first led to Annas , who was the Prince of the Sanhedrim , and had cognizance of Prophets and publick Doctrines ; who therefore enquired of Jesus concerning his Disciples and his Discipline : but he answered , that his Doctrine had been publick or popular , that he never taught in Conventicles ; and therefore referred him to the testimony of all the people . For which free answer , a servant standing by smote him on the face ; and Jesus meekly asked him what evil he had done . But Annas without the Seventy Assessors could judge nothing , and therefore sent him bound to Caiaphas , who was High Priest that year , President of the Rites of the Temple , as the other High Priest was of the great Council . Thither Peter came , and had admission by the means of another Disciple , supposed to be John , who , having sold his possessions in Galilee to Caiaphas , came and dwelt near mount Sion , but was by intervention of that bargain made known to the High Priest , and brought Peter into the house ; where when Peter was challenged three times by the servants to be a Galilean , and of Jesus's family , he denied and forswore it ; till Jesus , looking back , re-minded him of his prediction , and the foulness of the crime , and the cock crew ; for it was now the second cock-crowing after ten of the clock in the fourth Watch. And Peter went out , and wept bitterly , that he might cleanse his Soul , washing off the foul stains he had contracted in his shameful Perjury and Denying of his Lord. And it is reported of the same holy person , that ever after , when he heard the cock crow , he wept , remembring the old instrument of his Conversion , and his own unworthiness , for which he never ceased to do actions of sorrow and sharp Repentance . 24. On the morning the Council was to assemble ; and whilest Jesus was detained in expectation of it , the servants mocked him , and did all actions of affront and ignoble despite to his Sacred head : and because the question was whether he were a Prophet , they covered his eyes , and smote him in derision , calling on him to prophesie who smote him . But in the morning , when the high Priests and rulers of the people were assembled , they sought false witness against Jesus , but found none to purpose ; they railed boldly , and could prove nothing ; they accused vehemently , and the allegations were of such things as were no crimes , and the greatest article which the united diligence of all their malice could pretend was , that he said he would destroy the Temple , and in three days build it up again . But Jesus neither answered this nor any other of their vainer allegations ; for the witnesses destroyed each others testimony by their disagreeing : till at last Caiaphas , who , to verifie his Prophecy , and to satisfie his Ambition , and to bait his Envy , was furiously determined Jesus should die , adjures him by the living God to say whether he were the CHRIST , the Son of the living God. Jesus knew his design to be an inquisition of death , not of Piety or curiosity ; yet , because his hour was now come , openly affirmed it without any expedient to elude the high Priest's malice , or to decline the question . 25. When Caiaphas heard the saying , he accused Jesus of Blasphemy , and pretended an apprehension so tragical , that he over-acted his wonder and feigned 〈◊〉 ; for he rent his garments , ( which was the interjection of the Countrey , and custom of the Nation , but forbidden to the High Priest ) and called presently to sentence : and , as it was agreed before-hand , they all condemned him as guilty of death , and as far as they had power inflicted it ; for they beat him with their fists , smote him with the palms of their hands , spit upon him , and abused him beyond the licence of enraged 〈◊〉 . When Judas heard that they had passed the final and decretory sentence of death upon his Lord , he , who thought not it would have gone so far , repented him to have been an instrument of so damnable a machination , and came and brought the silver which they gave him for hire , threw it in amongst them , and said , I have sinned in betraying the innocent 〈◊〉 . But they , incurious of those Hell-torments Judas felt within him , because their own fires burnt not yet , dismissed him , and upon consultation bought with the money a field to bury strangers in . And Judas went and hanged himself : and the Judgment was made more notorious and eminent by an unusual accident at such deaths , for he so swelled , that he burst , and his bowels gushed out . But the Greek Scholiast and some * others report out of Papias , S. John's Scholar , that Judas fell from the Fig-tree on which he hanged , before he was quite dead , and survived his attempt some while , being so sad a spectacle of deformity , and pain , and a prodigious tumour , that his plague was deplorable , and highly miserable , till at last he burst in the very substance of his Trunk , as being extended beyond the possibilities and capacities of nature . 26. But the High Priests had given Jesus over to the secular power , and carried him to Pilate , to be put to death by his sentence and military power : but coming thither , they would not enter into the Judgment-hall because of the Feast , but Pilate met them , and , willing to decline the business , bid them judge him according to their own Law. They replied , it was not lawful for them to put any man to death ; meaning , during the seven days of unlevened bread , ( as appears in the instance of Herod , who detained Peter in prison , intending after Easter to bring him out to the people . ) And their malice was restless , till the Sentence they had passed were put in execution . Others thinking that all the right of inflicting capital punishments was taken from the Nation by the Romans ; and * Josephus writes , that when Ananias their High Priest had by a Council of the Jews condemned S. James the Brother of our Lord , and put him to death , without the consent of the Roman President , he was deprived of his Priesthood . But because Pilate , who either by common right , or at that time , was the Judge of capital inflictions , was averse from intermedling in the condemnation of an innocent person , they attempted him with excellent craft ; for knowing that Pilate was a great servant of the Roman Greatness , and a hater of the Sect of the Galileans , the High Priest accused Jesus , that he was of that Sect , that he denied paying tribute to 〈◊〉 , that he called himself King. Concerning which when Pilate interrogated Jesus , he answered that his Kingdom was not of this world ; and Pilate thinking he had nothing to do with the other , came forth again , and gave testimony , that he found nothing worthy of death in Jesus . But hearing that he was a Galilean and of Herod's jurisdiction , Pilate sent him to Herod , who was at Jerusalem at the Feast . And Herod was glad , because he had heard much of him , and since his return from Rome had desired to see him , but could not , by reason of his own avocations , and the ambulatory life of Christ ; and now he hoped to see a Miracle done by him , of whom he had heard so many . But the event of this was , that Jesus did there no Miracle ; Herod's souldiers set him at nought , and mocked him . And that day Herod was reconciled to Pilate . And Jesus was sent back arrayed in a white and splendid garment : which though possibly it might be intended for derision , yet was a symbol of Innocence , condemned persons usually being arrayed in blacks . And when Pilate had again examined him , Jesus , meek as a lamb , and as a sheep before the shearers , opened not his mouth ; insomuch that Pilate wondred , perceiving the greatest Innocence of the man by not offering to excuse or lessen any thing : for though Pilate had power to release him , or crucifie him , yet his contempt of death was in just proportion to his Innocence ; which also Pilate concealed not , but published Jesus's Innocence by Herod's and his own sentence ; to the great regret of the Rulers , who , like ravening wolves , thirsted for a draught of bloud , and to devour the morning prey . 27. But Pilate hoped to prevail upon the Rulers by making it a favour from them to Jesus , and an indulgence from him to the Nation , to set him free : for oftentimes even Malice it self is driven out by the Devil of Self-love , and so we may be acknowledged the authors of a safety , we are content to rescue a man even from our own selves . Pilate therefore offered that , according to the custom of the Nation , Jesus should be released for the honour of the present Festival , and as a donative to the people . But the spirit of Malice was here the more prevalent , and they desired that Barabbas , a Murtherer , a Thief , and a seditious person , should be exchanged for him . Then Pilate casting about all ways to acquit Jesus of punishment , and himself of guilt , offered to scourge him , and let him go , hoping that a lesser draught of bloud might stop the furies and rabidness of their passion , without their bursting with a river of his best and vital liquor . But these leeches would not so let go ; they cry out , Crucifie him ; and to engage him finally they told him , if he did let this man go , he was no friend to Caesar. 28. But Pilate called for water , and washed his hands , to demonstrate his own unwillingness , and to reject and transmit the guilt upon them , who took it on them as greedily as they sucked the bloud ; they cried out , His bloud be on us and our children . As Pilate was going to give sentence , his Wife , being troubled in her dreams , sent , with the earnestness and passion of a woman , that he should have nothing to do with that just Person ; but he was engaged : Caesar and Jesus , God and the King , did seem to have different interests ; or at least he was threatned into that opinion ; and Pilate , though he was satisfied it was but Calumny and Malice , yet he was loth to venture upon his answer at Rome , in case the High Priest should have accused him . For no man knows whether the interest or the mistake of his Judge may cast the sentence ; and who-ever is accused strongly is never thought intirely innocent . And therefore , not only against the Divine Laws , but against the Roman too , he condemned an innocent person upon objections notoriously malicious ; he adjudged him to a death which was only due to publick Thieves and Homicides , ( crimes with which he was not charg'd ) upon a pretence of Blasphemy , of which he stood accused , but not convicted , and for which by the Jewish Law he should have been stoned , if found guilty . And this he did put into present execution , against the Tiberian Law , which about twelve years before decreed in favour of condemned persons , that after sentence execution should be deferred ten days . 29. And now was the Holy Lamb to bleed . First therefore Pilate's souldiers array him in a kingly robe , put a reed in his hand for a Sceptre , plait a Crown of thorns and put it on his head , they bow the knee , and mock him , they smite him with his phantastick Sceptre , and in stead of tribute pay him with blows and spittings upon his holy head : and when they had emptied the whole stock of poisonous contempt , they devest him of the robes of mockery , and put him on his own ; they lead him to a pillar , and bind him fast , and scourage him with whips , a punishment that Slaves only did use to suffer , ( free persons being in certain cases beaten with rods and clubs ) that they might add a new scorn to his afflictions , and make his sorrows like their own guilt , vast and mountainous . After which Barabbas being set free , Pilate delivered Jesus to be crucified . 30. The Souldiers therefore having framed a Cross sad and heavy , laid it upon Jesus's shoulders , ( who , like Isaac , bore the wood with which he was to be sacrificed himself ) and they drive him out to Crucifixion , who was scarce able to stand under that load . It is generally supposed that Jesus bore the whole Tree , that is , both the parts of his Cross ; but to him that considers it it will seem impossible : and therefore it is more likely , and agreeable to the old manner of crucifying malefactors , that Jesus only carried the cross part ; the body of it being upon the place either already fixed , or prepared for its station . Even that lesser part was grievous and intolerable to his tender , virginal , and weakned body ; and when he fainted , they compel Simon a Cyrenian to help him . A great and a mixt multitude followed Jesus to Golgotha , the 〈◊〉 - house of the City , and the place of Execution . But the Women wept with bitter exclamations , and their sadness was increased by the sad predictions Jesus then made of their future misery , saying , Ye daughters of Jerusalem , weep not for me , but weep for your selves and for your children : For the time shall come that men shall say , Blessed are the barren that never bare , and the paps that never gave 〈◊〉 ; for they shall call on the hills to cover them , and on the mountains to fall upon them , that by a sudden ruine they may escape the lingring calamities of famine and fear , and the horror of a thousand deaths . 31. When Jesus was come to Golgotha , a place in the mount of Calvary , ( where , according to the tradition of the (a) Ancients , Adam was buried , and where (b) Abraham made an Altar for the sacrifice of his Son ) by the piety of his Disciples , and ( it is probable ) of those good women which did use to minister to him , there was provided wine mingled with myrrh , which among the Levantines is an (c) excellent and pleasant mixture , and such as the piety and indulgence of the nations used to administer to condemned persons . But Jesus , who by voluntary susception did chuse to suffer our pains , refused that refreshment which the piety of the women presented to him . The souldiers having stripp'd him , nail'd him to the Cross with * four nails , and divided his Mantle into four parts , giving to each souldier a part ; but for his Coat , because it would be spoiled if parted , it being weaved without seam , they cast lots for it . 32. Now Pilate had caused a title containing the cause of his death to be superscribed on a Table in Latine , Greek , and Hebrew , the Hebrew being first , the Greek next , and the Latine nearest to the holy body ; but all written after the Jewish manner , from the right hand to the left ; for so the Title is shewn in the Church of Santa Croce in Rome , the Latin letters being to be read as if it were Hebrew : the reason of which I could never find sufficiently discovered , unless it were to make it more legible to the Jews , who by conversing with the Romans began to understand a little Latine . The title was , JESUS OF NAZARETH , KING OF THE JEWS : But the Pharisees would have it altered , and that he said he was King of the Jews . But Pilate out of wilfulness , or to do despight to the Nation , or in honour to Jesus , whom he knew to be a just person , or being over-ruled by Divine providence , refused to alter it . And there were crucified with Jesus two Thieves , Jesus being in the midst , according to the Prophecy , He was reckoned with the transgressors . Then Jesus prayed for his Persecutors ; Father , forgive them , for they know not what they do . But while Jesus was full of pain and charity , and was praying and dying for his Enemies , the Rulers of the Jews mocked him , upbraiding him with the good works he did and the expresses of his power , saying , He saved others , himself he cannot save ; others saying , Let him come down from the Cross , if he be the King of the Jews , and we will believe in him : and others , according as their Malice was determined by phancy and occasion , added weight and scorn to his pains ; and of the two Malefactors that were crucified with him , one reviled him , saying , If thou be the CHRIST , save thy self and us . And thus far the Devil prevailed , undoing himself in riddle , provoking men to do despite to Christ , and to heighten his Passion out of hatred to him ; and yet doing and promoting that which was the ruine of all his own Kingdom and potent mischiefs : like the * Jew who in indignation against Mercury threw stones at his Image , and yet was by his Superiour judged idolatrous , that being the manner of doing honour to the Idol among the Gentiles . But then Christ , who had upon the Cross prayed for his enemies , and was heard of God in all that he desired , felt now the beginnings of success . For the other Thief , whom the present pains and circumstances of Jesus's Passion had softned and made believing , reproved his fellow for not fearing God , confessed that this death happened to them deservedly , but to Jesus causelesly : and then prayed to Jesus , Lord , remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdom . Which combination of pious acts and miraculous Conversion Jesus entertained with a speedy promise of a very great felicity , promising that upon that very day he should be with him in Paradise . 33. Now there were standing by the Cross the Mother of Jesus and her Sister , and Mary Magdalen and John. And Jesus being upon his Death-bed , although he had no temporal estate to bestow , yet he would make provision for his Mother , who , being a Widow , and now childless , was likely to be exposed to necessity and want ; and therefore he did arrogate John the beloved Disciple into Marie's kindred , making him to be her adopted Son , and her to be his Mother , by fiction of Law : Woman , behold thy son ; and , Man , behold thy Mother . And from that time forward John took her home to his own house , which he had near mount Sion , after he had sold his inheritance in Galilee to the High Priest. 34. While these things were doing , the whole frame of Nature seemed to be dissolved and out of order , while their LORD and Creator suffered . For the Sun was so darkened that the Stars appeared ; and the Eclipse was prodigious in the manner as well as in degree , because the Moon was not then in Conjunction , but full : and it was noted by Phlegon , the freed man of the Emperor Hadrian , by Lucian out of the Acts of the Gauls , and Dionysius while he was yet a Heathen , excellent Scholars all , great Historians and Philosophers ; who also noted the day of the week and hour of the day , agreeing with the circumstances of the Cross. For the Sun hid his head from beholding such a prodigy of sin and sadness , and provided a veil for the nakedness of Jesus , that the women might be present , and himself die , with modesty . 35. The Eclipse and the Passion began at the sixth hour , and endured till the ninth , about which time Jesus , being tormented with the unsufferable load of his Father's wrath due for our sins , and wearied with pains and heaviness , cried out , My God , my God , why hast thou forsaken me ? and , as it is thought , repeated the whole two and twentieth Psalm , which is an admirable Narrative of the Passion , full of Prayer and sadness , and description of his pains at first , and of Eucharist and joy and prophecy at the last . But these first words , which it is certain and recorded that he spake , were in a language of it self , or else by reason of distance , not understood , for they thought he had called for Elias to take him down from the Cross. Then Jesus , being in the agonies of a high Fever , said , I thirst . And one ran , and filled a spunge with vinegar , wrapping it with hyssop , and put it on a reed , that he might drink . The Vinegar and the Spunge were in Executions of condemned persons set to stop the too violent issues of bloud , and to prolong the death ; but were exhibited to him in scorn ; mingled with gall , to make the mixture more horrid and ungentle . But Jesus tasted it only , and refused the draught . And now knowing that the Prophecies were fulfilled , his Father's wrath appeased , and his torments satisfactory , he said , It is finished , and crying with a loud voice , Father , into thy hands I commend my spirit , he bowed his head , and yielded up his spirit into the hands of God , and died , hastning to his Father's glories . Thus did this glorious Sun set in a sad and clouded West , running speedily to shine in the other world . 36. Then was the veil of the Temple , which separated the secret Mosaick Rites from the eyes of the people , rent in the midst from the top to the bottom ; and the Angels , Presidents of the Temple , called to each other to depart from their seats ; and so great an Earthquake happened , that the rocks did rend , the mountains trembled , the graves opened , and the bodies of dead persons arose , walking from their coemeteries to the Holy City , and appeared unto many : and so great apprehensions and amazements happened to them all that stood by , that they departed , smiting their breasts with sorrow and fear : and the Centurion that ministred at the execution said , Certainly this was the Son of God ; and he became a Disciple , renouncing his military imployment , and died a Martyr . 37. But because the next day was the Jews Sabbath , and a Paschal Festival besides , the Jews hastened that the bodies should be taken from the Cross ; and therefore sent to 〈◊〉 to hasten their death by breaking their legs , that * before Sun-set they might be taken away , according to the Commandment , and be buried . The souldiers therefore came , and brake the legs of the two Thieves ; but espying , and wondring , that Jesus was already dead , they brake not his legs ; for the Scripture foretold , that a bone of him should not be broken : but a souldier with his lance pierced his side , and immediately there streamed out two rivulets of Water and Bloud . But the Holy Virgin-Mother , ( whose Soul during this whole passion was pierced with a sword and sharper sorrows , though she was supported by the comforts of Faith , and those holy Predictions of his Resurrection and future glories , which Mary had laid up in store against this great day of expence ) now that she saw her Holy Son had suffered all that our necessities and their malice could require or inflict , caused certain ministers , with whom she joyned , to take her dead Son from the Cross ; whose Body when she once got free from the nails she kissed , and embraced with entertainments of the nearest vicinity that could be expressed by a person that was holy and sad , and a Mother weeping for her dead Son. 38. But she was highly satisfied with her own meditations , that now that great Mystery determined by Divine Predestination before the beginning of all Ages was fulfilled in her Son ; and the Passion , that must needs be , was accomplished : she therefore first bathes his cold body with her warm tears , and makes clean the surface of the wounds , and delivering a winding napkin to Joseph of Arimathaea , gave to him in charge to enwrap the Body and embalm it , to compose it to the grave , and do it all the rites of Funeral , having first exhorted him to a publick confession of what he was privately till now : and he obeyed the counsel of so excellent a person , and ventured upon the displeasure of the Jewish Rulers , and went confidently to Pilate , and begged the body of Jesus . And Pilate gave him the power of it . 39. Joseph therefore takes the body , binds his face with a napkin , washes the body , anoints it with ointment , enwraps it in a composition of myrrh and aloes , and puts it into a new tomb which he for himself had hewen out of a rock , ( it not being lawful among the Jews to interr a condemned person in the common coemeteries : ) for all these circumstances were in the Jews manner of burying . But when the Sun was set , the chief Priests and Pharisees went to Pilate , telling him that Jesus , whilest he was living , foretold 〈◊〉 own resurrection upon the third day ; and lest his Disciples should come and steal the body , and say he was risen from the dead , desired that the sepulchre might be secured against the danger of any such imposture . Pilate gave them leave to do their pleasure , even to the satisfaction of their smallest scruples . They therefore sealed the grave , rolled a great stone at the mouth of it , and , as an ancient Tradition says , bound it about with labels of iron , and set a watch of souldiers , as if they had intended to have made it surer than the decrees of Fate , or the never-failing laws of Nature . Ad SECT . XV. Considerations of some preparatory Accidents before the entrance of JESVS into his Passion . Christ riding in triumph . Matth. 21. 7. And they brought y e Ass. & put on their clothes , & set him thereon ; and a very great multitude spread their garments , others cut down branches from y e trees , & strawed them in y e way . And the multitude y t went before , and y t followed after , cried ; Hosannah , etc. Mary pouring ointment on Christ's head . Mark. 14. 3. As he sat at meat in the house of Simon y e leper , there came a woman having an Alabaster-box of ointment very pretious , & poured it on his head . And Jesus said , let hir alone she is come aforehand to anoint my body to y e burying . 1. HE that hath observed the Story of the Life of Jesus , cannot but see it all the way to be strewed with thorns and sharp-pointed stones ; and although by the kisses of his feet they became precious and salutary , yet they procured to him sorrow and disease : it was meat and drink to him to do his Father's will , but it was bread of affliction , and rivers of tears to drink ; and for these he thirsted like the earth after the cool stream . For so great was his Perfection , so exact the conformity of his Will , so absolute the subordination of his inferiour Faculties to the infinite love of God , which sate Regent in the Court of his Will and Understanding , that in this election of accidents he never considered the taste , but the goodness , never distinguished sweet from bitter , but Duty and Piety always prepared his table . And therefore now knowing that his time determined by the Father was nigh , he hastened up to Jerusalem ; he went before his Disciples , saith S. Mark , and they followed him trembling and amazed ; and yet before that , even then when his brethren observed he had a design of publication of himself , he suffered them to go before him , and went up as it were in secret . For so we are invited to Martyrdom , and suffering in a Christian cause by so great an example : the Holy Jesus is gone before us , and it were a holy contention to strive whose zeal were forwardest in the designs of Humiliation and Self-denial ; but it were also well , if in doing our selves secular advantage , and promoting our worldly interest , we should follow him , who was ever more distant from receiving honours than from receiving a painful death . Those affections which dwell in sadness , and are married to grief , and lie at the foot of the Cross , and trace the sad steps of Jesus , have the wisdom of recollection , the tempers of sobriety , and are the best imitations of Jesus , and securities against the levity of a dispersed and a vain spirit . This was intimated by many of the Disciples of Jesus in the days of the Spirit , and when they had tasted of the good word of God , and the powers of the world to come ; for then we find many ambitious of Martyrdom , and that have laid stratagems and designs by unusual deaths to get a Crown . The Soul of S. Laurence was so scorched with ardent desires of dying for his Lord , that he accounted the coals of his Gridiron but as a Julip or the aspersion of cold water to refresh his Soul ; they were chill as the Alpine snows in respect of the heats of his diviner flames . And if these lesser Stars shine so brightly and burn so warmly , what heat of love may we suppose to have been in the Sun of Righteousness ? If they went fast toward the Crown of Martyrdom , yet we know that the Holy Jesus went before them all : no wonder that he cometh forth as a Eridegroom from his chamber , and rejoyceth as a giant to run his course . 2. When the Disciples had overtaken Jesus , he begins to them a sad Homily upon the old Text of Suffering , which he had well nigh for a year together preached upon ; but because it was an unpleasing Lesson , so contradictory to those interests upon the hopes of which they had entertained themselves , and spent all their desires , they could by no means understand it : for an understanding prepossessed with a fancy , or an unhandsome principle , construes all other notions to the sence of the first ; and whatsoever contradicts it , we think it an objection , and that we are bound to answer it . But now that it concerned Christ to speak so plainly , that his Disciples by what was to happen within five or six days might not be scandalized , or believe it happened to Jesus without his knowledge and voluntary entertainment , he tells them of his Sufferings to be accomplished in this journey to Jerusalem . And here the Disciples shewed themselves to be but men , full of passion and indiscreet affection ; and the bold Galilean , S. Peter , took the boldness to dehort his Master from so great an infelicity ; and met with a reprehension so great , that neither the Scribes , nor the Pharisees , nor Herod himself ever met with its parallel : Jesus called him Satan ; meaning , that no greater contradiction can be offered to the designs of God and his Holy Son , than to disswade us from Suffering . And if we understood how great are the advantages of a suffering condition , we should think all our Daggers gilt , and our pavements strewed with Roses , and our Halters silken , and the Rack an instrument of pleasure , and be most impatient of those temptations which seduce us into ease , and divorce us from the Cross , as being opposite to our greatest hopes and most perfect desires . But still this humour of S. Peter's imperfection abides amongst us : He that breaks off the yoak of Obedience , and unties the bands of Discipline , and preaches a cheap Religion , and presents Heaven in the midst of flowers , and strews Carpets softer than the Asian luxury in the way , and sets the songs of Sion to the tunes of Persian and lighter airs , and offers great liberty of living , and bondage under affection and sins , and reconciles Eternity with the present enjoyment , he shall have his Schools filled with Disciples ; but he that preaches the Cross , and the severities of Christianity , and the strictnesses of a holy life , shall have the lot of his Blessed Lord , he shall be thought ill of , and deserted . 3. Our Blessed Lord , five days before his Passion , sent his Disciples to a village to borrow an Asse , that he might ride in triumph to Jerusalem ; he had none of his own , but yet he who was so dear to God could not want what was to supply his needs . It may be God hath laid up our portion in the repositories of other men , and means to furnish us from their tables , to feed us from their granaries , and that their wardrobe shall cloath us ; for it is all one to him to make a Fish bring us money , or a Crow to bring us meat , or the stable of our neighbour to furnish our needs of Beasts : if he brings it to thy need as thou wantest it , thou hast all the good in the use of the Creature which the owners can receive ; and the horse which is lent me in charity does me as much ease , and the bread which is given me in alms feeds me as well , as the other part of it , which the good man that gave me a portion reserved for his own eating , could do to him . And if we would give God leave to make provisions for us in the ways of his own chusing , and not estimate our wants by our manner of receiving , being contented that God by any of his own ways will minister it to us , we should find our cares eased , and our content encreased , and our thankfulness engaged , and all our moderate desires contented by the satisfaction of our needs . For if God is pleased to feed me by my neighbour's charity , there is no other difference , but that God makes me an occasion of his ghostly good , as he is made the occasion of my temporal ; and if we think it disparagement , we may remember that God conveys more good to him by me , than to me by him : and it is a proud impatience to refuse or to be angry with God's provisions , because he hath not observed my circumstances and ceremonies of election . 4. And now begins that great Triumph in which the Holy Jesus was pleased to exalt his Office , and to abase his Person . He rode like a poor man upon an Asse , a beast of burthen and the lowest value , and yet it was not his own ; and in that equipage he received the acclamations due to a mighty Prince , to the Son of the eternal King : telling us , that the smallness of fortune , and the rudeness of exteriour habiliments , and a rough wall , are sometimes the outsides of a great glory ; and that when God means to glorifie or do honour to a person , he needs no help from secular advantages . He hides great Riches in Renunciation of the World , and makes great Honour break forth from the clouds of Humility , and Victory to arise from Yielding and the modesty of departing from our interest , and Peace to be the reward of him that suffers all the Hostilities of men and Devils . For Jesus in this great Humility of his gives a great probation that he was the Messias , and the King of Sion , because no other King entred into those gates riding upon an Asse , and received the honour of Hosannah in that unlikelihood and contradiction of unequal circumstances . 5. The Blessed Jesus had never but two days of triumph in his life ; the one was on his 〈◊〉 upon mount Tabor , the other , this his riding into the Holy City . But that it may appear how little were his joys and present exteriour complacencies ; in the day of his Transfiguration Moses & Elias appeared to him , telling him what great things he was to suffer ; and in this day of his riding to Jerusalem he wet the Palms with a dew sweeter than the moistures upon mount Hermon or the drops of Manna : for , to allay the little warmth of a springing joy , he let down a shower of tears , weeping over undone Jerusalem in the day of his triumph , leaving it disputable whether he felt more joy or sorrow in the acts of love ; for he triumphed to consider that the Redemption of the world was so near , and wept bitterly that men would not be redeemed ; his joy was great to consider that himself was to suffer so great sadness for our good , and his sorrow was very great to consider that we would not entertain that Good that he brought and laid before us by his Passion . He was in figure , as his servant S. 〈◊〉 was afterwards in letter and true story , crucified upon Palms : which indeed was the emblem of a Victory ; but yet such as had leaves sharp , poinant , and vexatious . However , he entred into Jerusalem dressed in gayeties , which yet he placed under his feet ; but with such pomps and solemnities each Family , according to its proportion , was accustomed to bring the Paschal Lamb to be slain for the Passeover : and it was not an undecent ceremony , that the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world should be brought to his slaughter with the acknowledgments of a religious solemnity , because now that real good was to be exhibited to the world which those little Paschal Lambs did but signifie and represent in shadow : and that was the true cause of all the little joy he had . 6. And if we consider what followed , it might seem also to be a design to heighten the dolorousness of his Passion : for to descend from the greatest of worldly honours , from the adoration of a GOD , and the acclamations to a King , to the death of a Slave , and the torments of a Cross , and the dishonours of a condemned Criminal , were so great stoopings and vast changes that they gave height and sense and excellency to each other . This then seemed an excellent glory , but indeed was but an art and instrument of grief : for such is the nature of all our Felicities , they end in sadness , and increase the sting of sorrows , and add moment to them , and cause impatience and uncomfortable remembrances ; but the griefs of a Christian , whether they be instances of Repentance , or parts of Persecution , or exercises of Patience , end in joy and endless comfort . Thus Jesus , like a Rainbow , half made of the glories of light , and half of the moisture of a cloud , half triumph , and half sorrow , entred into that Town where he had done much good to others , and to himself received nothing but affronts : yet his tenderness encreased upon him , and that very journey , which was Christ's last solemn visit for their recovery , he doubled all the instruments of his Mercy and their Conversion : He rode in triumph , the 〈◊〉 sang Hosannah to him , he cured many diseased persons , he wept for them , and pitied them , and sighed out the intimations of a Prayer , and did penance for their ingratitude , and stayed all day there , looking about him towards evening , and no man would invite him home , but he was forced to go to Bethany , where he was sure of an hospitable entertainment . I think no Christian that reads this but will be full of indignation at the whole City , who for malice or for fear would not or durst not receive their Saviour into their houses ; and yet we do worse : for now that he is become our Lord with mightier demonstrations of his eternal power , we suffer him to look round about upon us for months and years together , and possibly never entertain him , till our house is ready to rush upon our heads , and we are going to unusual and stranger habitations . And yet in the midst of a populous and mutinous City this great King had some good subjects , persons that threw away their own garments , and laid them at the feet of our Lord ; that being devested of their own , they might be re-invested with a robe of his Righteousness , wearing that till it were changed into a stole of glory : the very ceremony of their reception of the Lord became symbolical to them , and expressive of all our duties . 7. But I consider that the Blessed Jesus had affections not less than infinite towards all mankind ; and he who wept upon Jerusalem , who had done so great despight to him , and within five days were to fill up the measure of their iniquities , and do an act which all Ages of the world could never repeat in the same instance , did also in the number of his tears reckon our sins as sad considerations and incentives of his sorrow . And it would well become us to consider what great evil we do , when our actions are such as for which our Blessed Lord did weep . He who was seated in the bosom of Felicity , yet he moistened his 〈◊〉 Lawrels upon the day of his Triumph with tears of love and bitter allay . His day of Triumph was a day of Sorrow : and if we would weep for our sins , that instance of sorrow would be a day of triumph and 〈◊〉 . 8. From hence the Holy Jesus went to Pethany , where he had another manner of reception than at the Holy City . There he supped ; for his goodly day of Triumph had been with him a fasting-day . And Mary Magdalen , who had spent one box of Nard pistick upon our Lord's feet as a sacrifice of Eucharist for her Conversion , now bestowed another in thankfulness for the restitution of her Brother Lazarus to life , and consigned her Lord unto his Burial . And here she met with an evil interpreter : 〈◊〉 , an Apostle one of the Lord 's own Family , pretended it had been a better Religion to have given it to the poor ; but it was Malice , and the spirit either of Envy or Avarice , in him that passed that sentence ; for he that sees a pious action well done , and seeks to undervalue it by telling how it might have been better , reproves nothing but his own spirit . For a man may do very well , and God would accept it ; though to say he might have done better , is to say only that action was not the most perfect and absolute in its kind : but to be angry at a religious person , and without any other pretence but that he might have done better , is spiritual Envy ; for a pious person would have nourished up that infant action by love and praise , till it had grown to the most perfect and intelligent Piety . But the event of that man gave the interpretation of his present purpose ; and at the best it could be no other than a rash judgment of the action and intention of a religious , thankful , and holy person . But she found her Lord , who was her 〈◊〉 in this , become her Patron and her Advocate . And hereafter , when we shall find the Devil , the great Accuser of God's Saints , object against the Piety and Religion of holy persons ; a cup of cold water shall be accepted unto reward , and a good intention heightned to the value of an exteriour expression , and a piece of gum to the equality of a 〈◊〉 , and an action done with great zeal and an intense love be acquitted from all its adherent imperfections ; Christ receiving them into himself , and being like the Altar of incense , hallowing the very smoak , and raising it into a flame , and entertaining it into the embraces of the firmament and the bosom of Heaven . Christ himself , who is the Judge of our actions , is also the entertainer and object of our Charity and Duty , and the Advocate of our persons . 9. Judas , who declaimed against the woman , made tacite reflexions upon his Lord for suffering it : and indeed every obloquy against any of Christ's servants is looked on as an arrow shot into the heart of Christ himself . And now a Persecution being begun against the Lord within his own Family , another was raised against him from without . For the chief Priests took crafty counsel against Jesus and called a Consistory to contrive how they might destroy him : and here was the greatest representment of the goodness of God and the ingratitude of man that could be practised or understood . How often had Jesus poured forth tears for them ? how many sleepless nights had he awaked to do them advantage ? how many days had he spent in Homilies and admirable visitations of Mercy and Charity , in casting out Devils , in curing their sick , in correcting their delinquencies , in reducing them to the ways of security and peace , and , that we may use the greatest expression in the world , that is , his own in gathering them as a Hen gathereth her Chickens under her wings , to give them strength , and warmth , and life , and ghostly nourishment ? And the chief Priests together with their faction use all arts and watch all opportunities to get Christ , not that they might possess him , but to destroy him ; little considering that they extinguish their own eyes , and destroy that spring of life which was intended to them for a blissful immortality . 10. And here it was that the Devil shewed his promptness to furnish every evil-intended person with apt instruments to act the very worst of his intentions : the Devil knew their purposes , and the aptness and proclivity of Judas ; and by bringing these together he served their present design , and his own great intendment . The Devil never fails to promote every evil purpose ; and , except where God's restaining grace does intervene and interrupt the opportunity , by interposition of different and cross accidents to serve other ends of Providence , no man easily is fond of wickedness , but he shall receive enough to ruine him . Indeed Nero and Julian , both witty men and powerfull , desired to have been Magicians , and could not : and although possibly the Devil would have corresponded with them , who yet were already his own in all degrees of security ; yet God permitted not that , lest they might have understood new ways of doing despight to Martyrs and 〈◊〉 Christians . And it concerns us not to tempt God , or invite a forward enemy : for as we are sure the Devil is ready to promote all vicious desires , and bring them out to execution ; so we are not sure that God will not permit him ; and he that desires to be undone , and cares not to be prevented by God's restraining grace , shall finde his ruine in the folly of his own desires , and become wretched by his own election . Judas , hearing of this Congregation of the Priests , went and offered to betray his Lord , and made a Covenant , the Price of which was Thirty Pieces of Silver , and he returned . 11. It is not intimated in the History of the Life of Jesus , that Judas had any Malice against the Person of Christ ; for when afterwards he saw the matter was to end in the death of his Lord , he repented : but a base and unworthy spirit of Covetousness possessed him ; and the reliques of 〈◊〉 for missing the Price of the Ointment which the holy Magdalen had poured upon his feet burnt in his bowels with a secret dark melancholick 〈◊〉 and made an eruption into an act which all ages of the world could never parallel . They appointed him for hire thirty pieces , and some say that every piece did in value equal ten ordinary current Deniers ; and so Judas was satisfied by receiving the worth of the three hundred pence at which he valued the Nard pistick . But hereafter let no Christian be ashamed to be despised and undervalued ; for he will hardly meet so great a reproach as to have so disproportioned a price set upon his life as was upon the Holy Jesus . S. Mary 〈◊〉 thought it not good enough to aneal his sacred feet , Judas thought it a sufficient price for his head : for Covetousness aims at base and low purchaces , whilest holy Love is great and comprehensive as the bosome of Heaven , and aims at nothing that is less than infinite . The love of God is a holy fountain , limpid and pure , sweet and salutary , lasting and eternal : the love of Mony is a vertiginous pool sucking all into it to destroy it ; it is troubled and uneven , giddy and unsafe , serving no end but its own , and that also in a restless and uneasie motion . The love of God spends it self upon him , to receive again the reflexions of grace and benediction : the love of Money spends all its desires upon it sell , to purchase nothing but unsatisfying instruments of exchange , or supernumerary provisions , and ends in dissatisfaction , and emptiness of spirit , and a bitter curse . S. Mary Magdalen was defended by her Lord against calumny , and rewarded with an honourable mention to all Ages of the Church ; besides the unction from above , which she shortly after received to consign her to crowns and sceptres : but Judas was described in the Scripture , the Book of life , with the black character of death , he was disgraced to eternal Ages , and presently after acted his own tragedy with a sad and ignoble death . 12. Now , all things being fitted , our Blessed Lord sends two Disciples to prepare the Passeover , that he might fulfill the Law of Moses , and pass from thence to institutions Evangelical , and then fulfill his Sufferings . Christ gave them a sign to guide them to the house , a man bearing a pitcher of water ; by which some , that delight in mystical significations , say was typified the Sacrament of Baptism : meaning , that although by occasion of the Paschal solemnity the holy Eucharist was first instituted , yet it was afterwards to be applied to practice according to the sence of this accident ; only baptized persons were apt suscipients of the other more perfective Rite , as the taking nutriment supposes persons born into the world , and within the common conditions of humane nature . But in the letter it was an instance of the Divine omniscience , who could pronounce concerning accidents at distance as if they were present : and yet also , like the provision of the Colt to ride on , it was an instance of Providence , and security of all God's sons for their portion of temporals . Jesus had not a Lamb of his own , and possibly no money in the bags to buy one : and yet Providence was his guide , and the charity of a good man was his Proveditore , and he found excellent conveniences in the entertainments of a hospitable good man , as if he had dwelt in Ahab's Ivory-house , and had had the riches of Solomon , and the meat of his houshold . The PRAYER . O Holy King of Sion , Eternal Jesus , who with great Humility and infinite Love didst enter into the Holy City , riding upon an Asse , that thou mightest verisie the Predictions of the Prophets , and give example of Meekness and of the gentle and paternal government which the eternal Father laid upon thy shoulders ; be pleased , deares̄t Lord , to enter into my Soul with triumph , trampling over all thine enemies : and give me grace to entertain thee with joy and adoration , with abjection of my own desires , with lopping off all my supersluous branches of a temporal condition , and spending them in the offices of Charity and Religion , and devesting my self of all my desires , laying them at thy holy feet , that I may bear the yoke and burthen of the Lord with alacrity , with love , and the wonders of a satisfied and triumphant spirit . Lord , enter in and take possession ; and thou , to whose honour the very stones would give testimony , make my stony heart an instrument of thy praises ; let me strew thy way with flowers of Vertue , and the holy Rosary of Christian Graces : and by thy aid and example let us also triumph over all our infirmities and hostilities , and then lay our victories at thy feet , and at last follow thee into thy heavenly Jerusalem with palms in our hands , and joy in our hearts , and eternal acclamations on our lips , rejoycing in thee , and singing Hallelujahs in a happy Eternity to thee , O holy King of Sion , eternal Jesus . Amen . 2. O Blessed and dear Lord , who wert pleased to permit thy self to be sold to the assemblies of evil persons for a vile price by one of thy own servants , for whom thou hadst done so great favours , and hadst designed a crown and a throne to him , and he turned himself into a sooty coal , and entred into the portion of evil Angels ; teach us to value thee above all the joys of men , to prize thee at an estimate beyond all the wealth of nature , to buy wisdome , and not to sell it , to part with all that we may enjoy thee : and let no temptation abuse our understandings , no loss vex us into impatience , no frustration of hope fill us with indignation , no pressure of calamitous accidents make us angry at thee the fountain of love and blessing , no Covetousness transport us into the suburbs of Hell and the regions of sin ; but make us to love thee as well as ever any creature loved thee , that we may never burn in any fires but of a holy love , nor sink in any inundation but what proceeds from penitential showrs , and suffer no violence but of implacable desires to live with thee , and , when thou callest us , to suffer with thee , and for thee . 3. LOrd , let me never be betrayed by my self , or any violent accident and 〈◊〉 temptation ; let me never be sold for the vile price of temporal gain , or transient pleasure , or a pleasant dream ; but since thou hast bought me with a price , even then when thou wert sold thy self , let me never be separated from thy possession . I am thine , bought with a price , Lord , save me ; and in the day when thou bindest up thy Jewels remember , Lord , that I cost thee as dear as any , and therefore cast me not into the portion of Judas : but let me walk and dwell and bathe in the field of thy bloud , and pass from hence pure and sanctified into the society of the elect Apostles , receiving my part with them , and my lot in the communications of thy inheritance , O gracious Lord and dearest Saviour Jesus . Amen . Considerations upon the Washing of the Disciples Feet by JESUS , and his Sermon of Humility . He washeth his Disciples feet . Iohn . 13. 5. After that he powreth water into a baso● and began to wash the Disciples feet and to wipe them with the towel , wherewith he was girded . 6. Then cometh he to Simon Peter , & Peter saith unto him , Lord doest thou wash my feet ? The Institution of his last Supper . Mark : 14. 22. And as they did eat , Lesus took bread ; & blessed & brake it & gaue to them & said , Take eat , this is my body . And he took y e Cup & when he had given thanks he gave it to them & they all dranke of it . In the 〈◊〉 of the Communion 1. THE Holy JESUS went now to eat his last Paschal Supper , and to finish the work of his Legation , and to fulfill that part of the Law of Moses in every of its smallest and most minute particularities , in which also the actions were significant of spiritual duties : which we may transfer from the letter to the spirit in our own instances , That as JESUS ate the Paschal Lamb with a staff in his Hand , with his Loins girt , with sandals on his Feet , in great haste , with unlevened Bread , and with bitter Herbs ; so we also should do all our services according to the signification of these symbols , leaning upon the Cross of JESUS for a staff , and bearing the rod of his Government , with Loins girt with Angelical Chastity , with shoes on our Feet , that so we may guard and have custody over our affections , and be shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace , eating in haste , as becomes persons hungring and thirsting after Righteousness , doing the work of the Lord zealously and fervently , without the leven of Malice and secular interest , with bitter herbs of Self-denial and Mortification of our sensual and inordinate desires . The sence and mystery of the whole act with all its circumstances is , That we obey all the Sanctions of the Divine Law , and that every part of our Religion be pure and peaceable , chaste and obedient , confident in God and diffident in our selves , frequent and zealous , humble and resigned ; just and charitable ; and there will not easily be wanting any just circumstance to hallow and consecrate the action . 2. When the Holy Jesus had finished his last Mosaic Rite , he descends to give example of the first fruit of Evangelical Graces : he rises from Supper , lays aside his garment like a servant , and with all the circumstances of an humble ministery washes the feet of his Disciples , * beginning at the first , S. Peter , until he came to Judas the Traitor ; that we might in one scheme see a rare conjunction of Charity and Humility , of Self-denial and indifferency , represented by a person glorious and great , their Lord and Master , sad and troubled . And he chose to wash their * feet rather than their head , that he might have the opportunity of a more humble posture , and a more apt signification of his Charity . Thus God lays every thing aside that he may serve his servants ; Heaven stoops to earth , and one abyss calls upon another , and the Miseries of man , which were next to infinite , are excelled by a Mercy equal to the immensity of God. And this washing of their feet , which was an accustomed civility and entertainment of honoured strangers at the beginning of their meal , Christ deferred to the end of the Paschal Supper , that it might be the preparatory to the second , which he intended should be festival to all the world . S. Peter was troubled that the hands of his Lord should wash his servants feet , those hands which had opened the eyes of the blind , and cured lepers , and healed all diseases , and when lift up to Heaven were omnipotent , and could restore life to dead and buried persons ; he counted it a great indecency for him to suffer it : but it was no more than was necessary , for they had but lately been earnest in dispute for Precedency ; and it was of it self so apt to swell into tumour and inconvenience , that it was not to be cured but by some Prodigy of Example and Miracle of Humility , which the Holy Jesus offered to them in this express , calling them to learn some great Lesson ; a Lesson which God descended from Heaven to earth , from riches to poverty , from essential innocence to the disreputation of a sinner , from a Master to a Servant , to learn us , that is , that we should esteem our selves but just as we are , low , sinful , miserable , needy and unworthy . It seems it is a great thing that man should come to have just and equal thoughts of himself , that God used such powerful arts to transmit this Lesson , and engrave it in the spirits of men ; and if the Receipt fails , we are eternally lost in the mists of vanity , and enter into the condition of those Angels whom Pride transformed and spoiled into the condition of Devils : and upon consideration of this great example Guericus a good man cried out , Thou hast overcome , O Lord , thou hast overcome my Pride ; this Example hath mastered me ; I deliver my self up into thy hands , never to receive liberty or exaltation but in the condition of thy humblest servant . 3. And to this purpose S. Bernard hath an affectionate and devout consideration , saying , That some of the Angels as soon as they were created had an ambition to become like God , and to aspire into the Throne which God had appointed to the Holy Jesus in eternal ages . When God created Man , presently the Devil rubbed his Leprosie upon him , and he would needs be like God too , and Satan promised him that he should . As the evil Angels would have been like to God in Power and Majesty , so Man would have been like him in Knowledge , and have imitated the Wisdome of the Eternal Father . But Man had the fate of Gehezi ; he would needs have the talent and garments of Lucifer , and he had also his plague ; he lost Paradise for his Pride . And now what might befit the Son of God to do , seeing Man so lost , and God so zealous of his honour ? I see ( saith he ) that by occasion of me the Father loses his Creatures , for they have all aspired to be like me , and are fallen into the greatest infelicities . Behold , I will go towards man in such a form , that whosoever from henceforth would become like me shall be so , and be a gainer by it . And for this cause the Son of God came from Heaven , and made himself a poor humble person , and by all the actions of his life commented upon the present discourse : Learn of me , for I am meek and humble of heart . Blessed be that mercy and bounty which moved Almighty God to condescend to that so great appetite we had of being like him ; for now 〈◊〉 may be like unto God , but it must be by Humility , of which he hath given us an example powerful as Miracles , and great as our own Pride and Misery . 4. And indeed our Blessed Lord , knowing that Examples are like Maps and perfect Schemes in which the whole Continent may at once be represented to the eye to all the purposes of art and benefit , did in the latter end of his life draw up the dispersions and larger harvest of his Precepts , binding them in the bundle of great Examples , and casting them into actions as into summs total : for so this act of Washing the feet of his own Ministers , and then dying for them , and for all his enemies , did preach the three great 〈◊〉 of Evangelical Perfection with an admirable energy and abbreviature ; Humility , and Charity , and Sufferings , being to Christianity as the Body , and the Soul , and the Spirit are to the whole man. For no man brings a sad Funeral into the theatre to make his spectators merry , nor can well preach Chastity in the impurity of the Bordelli , or perswade Temperance when himself is full of wine and luxury , and enters into the baths to boil his undigested meat that he may return to his second supper , and breaths forth impure belchings together with his Homily ; a poor Eremite , or a severely-living Philosopher , into whose life his own Precepts have descended , & his Doctrin is mingled with his Soul , mingles also effect and virtue with Homilies , and incorporates his Doctrine in the hearts of his Disciples . And this the Holy Jesus did in his own person , bearing the burthen first upon his own shoulders , that we may with better alacrity undergo what our Blessed Lord bears with us and for us . But that we may the better understand what our Blessed Lord designed to us in this Lecture , let us consider the proper acts of Humility which integrate the Vertue . 5. The first is , Christ's Humble man thinks meanly of himself : and there is great reason every man should . For his Body is but rottenness and infirmity covered with a fair mantle , a dunghil overcast with snow : and if we consider sadly , that from Trees and Plants come oile , balsam , wine , spices , and aromatick odors , and that from the sinks of our Body no such sweet or salutary emanations are observed , we may at least think it unreasonable to boast our Beauty , which is nothing but a clear and well-coloured skin , which every thing in the world can spoil ; nor our Strength , which an Ague tames into the infirmities of a child , and in which we are excelled by a Bull ; nor any thing of our Body , which is nothing but an unruly servant of the Soul , marked with characters of want and dependence , and begging help from all the elements , and upon a little disturbance growing troublesome to it self by its own impurities . And yet there is no reason in respect of the Soul for any man to exalt himself above his Brother ; because all reasonable Souls are equal ; and that one is wise , and another is foolish or less learned , is by accident and extrinsick causes : God at first makes all alike ; but an indisposed Body , or an mopportune Education , or evil Customs superinduce variety and difference . And if God discerns a man from his Brother by distinction of Gifts , it alters not the case ; still the man hath nothing of himself that can call him excellent : it is as if a Wall upon which the Sun reflects should boast it self against another that stands in the shadow . Greater glory is to be paid to God for the discerning Gifts ; but to take any of it to our selves , and rise higher than our Brother , or advance our own opinion , is as if a man should be proud of being in debt , and think it the greater excellency that he is charged with heavier and more severe accounts . 6. This act consists not in declamations and forms of Satyre against our selves , saying , I am a miserable sinful creature , I am proud , or covetous , or ignorant . For many men say so that are not willing to be thought so . Neither is Humility a vertue made up of wearing old cloaths , or doing servile and mean imployments by voluntary undertaking , or of sullen gestures , or demiss behaviour , and artifice of lowly expressions : for these may become snares to invite and catch at Honour , and then they are collateral designs of Pride , and direct actions of Hypocrisie . But it consists in a true understanding of our own condition , and a separating our own Nothing from the good we have received , and giving to God all the glory , and taking to our selves all the shame and dishonour due to our sinful condition . He that thinks himself truly miserable and vilified by sin , hates it perfectly ; and he that knows himself to be nothing cannot be exalted in himself : and whatsoever is besides these two extremes of a natural Nothing and a superadded Sin , must be those good things we have received , which , because they derive from God , must make all their returns thither . But this act is of greater difficulty in persons pious , full of Gifts and eminent in Graces , who , being fellow-workers together with God , sometimes grow tacitely and without notice given to 〈◊〉 in themselves , and with some freer phancy ascribe too much of the good action to their own choice and diligence , and take up their crowns , which lie at the foot of the throne , and set them upon their own heads . For a Sinner to desire to be esteemed a sinner , is no more Humility than it is for the son of a Plow-man to confess his Father ; but indeed it is hard for a man to be cried up for a Saint , to walk upon the spire of glory , and to have no adherence or impure mixtures of Vanity grow upon the outside of his heart . All men have not such heads as to walk in great heights without giddiness and unsettled eyes : Lucifer and many Angels walking upon the battlements of Heaven grew top-heavy and fell into the state of Devils ; and the Father of the Christian Eremites , S. Antony , was frequently attempted by the Devil , and solicited to vanity , the Devil usually making phantastick noises to be heard before him , Make room for the Saint and Servant of God : But the good man knew Christ's voice to be a low Base of Humility , and that it was the noise of Hell that invited to complacencies and vanity ; and therefore took the example of the Apostles , who in the midst of the greatest reputation and spiritual advancements were dead unto the world , and seemed to live in the state of separation . For the true stating our own Question and knowing our selves must needs represent us set in the midst of infinite imperfections , loaden with sins , choaked with the noises of a polluted Conscience , persons fond of trifles , neglecting objects fit for wise men , full of ingratitude , and all such things which in every man else we look upon as scars and deformities , and which we use to single out , and take one alone as sufficient to disgrace and disrepute all the excellencies of our Neighbour : But if we would esteem them with the same severity in our selves , and remember with how many such objections our little felicities are covered , it would make us charitable in our censures , compassionate and gentle to others , apt to excuse , and as ready to support their weaknesses , and in all accidents and chances to our selves to be content and thankful , as knowing the worst of poverty and inconvenience to be a mercy and a splendid fortune in respect of our demerits . I have read , that when the Duke of Candia had voluntarily entred into the incommodities of a Religious Poverty and retirement , he was one day spied and pitied by a Lord of Italy , who out of tenderness wished him to be more careful and nutritive of his person . The good Duke answered , Sir , be not troubled , and think not that I am ill provided of conveniences , for I send a Harbinger before , who makes my lodgings ready , and takes care that I be royally entertained . The Lord asked him who was his Harbinger . He answered , The knowledge of my self , & the consideration of what I deserve for my sins , which is eternal torments ; and when with this knowledge I arrive at my lodging , how unprovided soever I find it , methinks it is ever better than I deserve . The summe of this Meditation consists in believing , and considering , and reducing to practice those thoughts , that we are nothing of our selves , that we have nothing of our own , that we have received more than ever we can discharge , that we have added innumerable sins , that we can call nothing our own but such things which we are ashamed to own , and such things which are apt to ruine us . If we do nothing contrary to the purpose and hearty perswasion of such thoughts , then we think meanly of our selves . And in order to it , we may make use of this advice , To let no day pass without some sad recollection and memory of somewhat which may put us to confusion and mean opinion of our selves ; either call to mind the worst of our sins , or the undiscreetest of our actions , or the greatest of our shame , or the uncivilest of our affronts , any thing to make us descend lower , and kiss the foot of the mountain . And this consideration applied also to every tumour of spirit as soon as it rises may possibly allay it . 7. Secondly , Christ's Humble man bears contumelies evenly and sweetly , and desires not to be honoured by others : He chuses to do those things that deserve honour and a fair name , but then eats not of those fruits himself , but transmits them to the use of others , and the glories of God. This is a certain consequence of the other : for he that truly disesteems himself is content that others should do so too ; and he who with some regret and impatience hears himself scorned or undervalued , hath not acquired the grace of Humility . Which Serapion in Cassian noted to a young person , who perpetually accused himself with the greatest semblances of Humility , but was impatient when Serapion reproved him . Did you hope that I would have praised your Humility , and have reputed you for a Saint ? It is a strange perversness to desire others to esteem highly of you for that , in which to your self you seem most unworthy . He that inquires into the faults of his own actions , requiring them that saw them to tell him in what he did amiss , not to learn the fault , but to engage them to praise it , cozens himself into Pride and makes Humility the instrument . And a man would be ashamed if he were told that he used stratagems for praise : but so glorious a thing is Humility , that Pride , to hide her own shame , puts on the others vizor ; it being more to a proud man's purposes to seem humble than to be so . And such was the Cynick whom Lucian derided , because that one searching his scrip in expectation to have found in it mouldy bread or old rags , he discovered a bale of dice , a box of perfumes , and the picture of his fair Mistress . Carisianus walked in his Gown in the Feast of Saturn , and when all Rome was let loose in wantonness , he put on the long Robe of a Senator , and a severe person ; and yet nothing was more lascivious than he . But the Devil Pride prevails sometimes upon the spirit of Lust. Humility neither directly nor by consequence seeks for praise , and suffers it not to rest upon its own pavement , but reflects it all upon God , and receives all lessenings and instruments of affront and disgrace , that mingle not with sin or undecencies , more willingly than Panegyricks . When others have their desires , thou not thine ; the sayings of another are esteemed , thine slighted ; others ask and obtain , thou beggest and art refused ; they are cried up , thou disgraced and hissed at ; and while they are imployed , thou art laid by , as fit for nothing ; or an unworthy person commands thee and rules thee like a tyrant , he reproves thee , suspects thee , reviles thee ; canst thou bear this sweetly , and entertain the usage as thy just portion , and as an accident most fit and proper to thy person and condition ? Dost thou not raise Theatres to thy self , and take delight in the suppletories of thy own good opinion , and the flatteries of such whom thou endearest to thee , that their praising thee should heal the wounds of thine honour by an imaginary and phantastick restitution ? He that is not content and patient in affronts , hath not yet learned Humility of the Holy Jesus . 8. Thirdly , As Christ's Humble man is content in affronts , and not greedy of praise ; so when it is presented to him , he takes no contentment in it : and if it be easie to want Praise when it is denied , yet it is harder not to be delighted with it when it is offered . But there is much reason that we should put restraints upon our selves , lest if we be praised without desert , we find a greater Judgment of God ; or if we have done well and received praise for it , we 〈◊〉 all our reward , which God hath deposited for them that receive not their good things in this life . For as silver is tried in the melter , and gold in the Crucible : so is a man tried by the mouth of him that praises him : that is , he is either clarified from his dross by looking upon the praise as a homily to teach and an instrument to invite his duty ; or else , if he be already pure , he is consolidated , strengthned in the sobriety of his spirit , and retires himself closer into the strengths and securities of Humility . Nay , this step of Humility uses in very holy persons to be enlarged to a delight in affronts and disreputation in the world . Now I begin to be Christ ' s Disciple , ( said 〈◊〉 the Martyr , when in his journey to Rome he suffered perpetual revilings and abuse . ) S. Paul rejoyced in his infirmities and reproach : and all the Apostles at Jerusalem went from the tribunal rejoycing that they were esteemed worthy to suffer shame for the name of Jesus . This is an excellent condition and degree of Humility . But I chuse to add one that is less , but in all persons necessary . 9. Fourthly , Christ's Humble man is careful never to speak any thing that may redound to his own praise , unless it be with a design of Charity or Duty , that either God's glory or the profit of his neighbour be concerned in it ; but never speaking with a design to be esteemed learned or honourable . S. Arsenius had been Tutor to three Caesars , Theodosius , Arcadius , and Honorius ; but afterwards when he became Religious , no word escaped him that might represent and tell of his former greatness : and it is observable concerning S. Jerome , that although he was of noble extraction , yet in all his own Writings there is not the smallest intimation of it . This I desire to be understood only to the sence and purposes of Humility , and that we have no designs of vanity and phancy in speaking learnedly , or recounting our exteriour advantages : but if either the 〈◊〉 of our brother or the glory of God , if either there be Piety or Charity in the design , it is lawful to publish all those excellencies with which God hath distinguished us from others . The young Marquess of Castilion being to do publick exercise in his course of Philosophy , made it a case of Conscience whether he were bound to dispute his best , fearing lest vanity might transport him in the midst of those praises which his Collegiates might give him . It was an excellent consideration in the young Gentleman : but in actions civil and humane , since the danger is not so immediate , and a little complacency becoming the instrument of vertue and encouragement of studies may with like care be referred to God as the giver , and 〈◊〉 his praises ; he might with more safety have done his utmost , it being in some sense a duty to encourage others , to give account of our Graces and our labours , and all the appendent vanity may quickly be suppressed . A good name may give us opportunity of perswading others to their duty , especially in an Age in which men chuse their Doctrines by the men that preach them : and S. Paul used his liberty when he was zealous for his Corinthian Disciples , but restrained himself when it began to make reflexions upon his own spirit . But although a good name be necessary , and in order to such good ends whither it may serve it is lawful to desire it ; yet a great name , and a pompous honour , and secular greatness , hath more danger in it to our selves than ordinarily it can have of benefit to others : and although a man may use the greatest honours to the greatest purposes , yet ordinary persons may not safely desire them ; because it will be found very hard to have such mysterious and abstracted considerations , as to separate all our proper interest from the publick end . To which I add this consideration , That the contempt of Honour , and the instant pursuit of Humility , is more effective of the ghostly benefit of others , than Honours and great Dignities can be , unless it be rarely and very accidentally . 10. If we need any new incentives to the practice of this Grace , I can say no more , but that Humility is Truth , and Pride is a Lie ; that the one glorifies God , the other dishonours him ; Humility makes men like Angels , Pride makes Angels to become Devils ; that Pride is Folly , Humility is the temper of a holy spirit and excellent Wisdom ; that Humility is the way to glory , Pride to ruine and confusion : Humility makes Saints on Earth , Pride undoes them : Humility beatifies the Saints in Heaven , and the Elders throw their Crowns at the foot of the Throne ; Pride disgraces a man among all the Societies of Earth : God loves one , and Satan solicits the cause of the other , and promotes his own interest in it most of all . And there is no one Grace in which Christ propounded himself imitable so signally as in this of Meekness and Humility : for the enforcing of which he undertook the condition of a Servant , and a life of Poverty , and a death of Disgrace ; and washed the feet of his Disciples , and even of Judas himself , that his action might be turned into a Sermon to preach this Duty , and to make it as eternal as his own Story . The PRAYER . O Holy and Eternal Jesus , who wert pleased to lay aside the Glories and incomprehensible Majesty which clothed thy Infinity from before the beginning of Creatures , and didst put on a cloud upon thy Brightness , and wert invested with the impure and imperfect broken robe of Humane nature , and didst abate those Splendors which broke through the veil , commanding Devils not to publish thee , and men not to proclaim thy Excellencies , and the Apostles not to reveal those Glories of thine which they discovered incircling thee upon mount Tabor in thy transfiguration , and didst by perpetual Homilies and symbolical mysterious actions , as with deep characters , engrave Humility into the spirits of thy Disciples and the Discipline of Christianity ; teach us to approach near to these thy Glories which thou hast so covered with a cloud that we might without amazement behold thy Excellencies ; make us to imitate thy gracious Condescensions ; take from us all vanity and phantastick complacencies in our own persons or actions ; and when there arises a reputation consequent to the performance of any part of our Duty , make us to 〈◊〉 the glory upon thee , suffering nothing to adhere to our own spirits but shame at our own imperfection , and thankfulness to thee for all thy assistences : let us never seek the praise of men from unhandsome actions , from flatteries and unworthy discourses , nor entertain the praise with delight , though it proceed from better principles ; but fear and tremble , lest we deserve punishment , or lose a reward which thou hast deposited for all them that seek thy glory , and despise their own , that they may imitate the example of their Lord. Thou , O Lord , didst triumph over Sin and Death ; subdue also my proud Understanding and my prouder Affections , and bring me under thy yoak ; that I may do thy work , and obey my Superiours , and be a servant of all my brethren in their necessities , and esteem my self inferiour to all men by a deep sense of my own unworthiness , and in all things may obey thy Laws , and conform to thy precedents , and enter into thine inheritance , O Holy and Eternal Jesus . Amen . DISCOURSE XIX . Of the Institution and Reception of the Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper . 1. AS the Sun among the Stars , and Man among the sublunary creatures , is the most eminent and noble , the Prince of the inferiours , and their measure , or their guide : so is this action among all the instances of Religion ; it is the most perfect and consummate , it is an union of Mysteries and a consolidation of Duties , it joyns God and Man , and confederates all the Societies of men in mutual complexions , and the entertainments of an excellent Charity ; it actually performs all that could be necessary for Man , and it presents to Man as great a thing as God could give ; for it is impossible any thing should be greater than himself . And when God gave his Son to the world , it could not be but he should give us all things else : and therefore this Blessed Sacrament is a consigning us to all Felicities , because after a mysterious and ineffable manner we receive him who is Light and Life , the fountain of Grace , and the sanctifier of our secular comforts , and the author of Holiness and Glory . But as it was at first , so it hath been ever since ; Christ came into the world , and the world knew him not : so Christ hath remained in the world by the communications of this Sacrament , and yet he is not rightly understood , and less truly valued . But Christ may say to us as once to the woman of Samaria , Woman , if thou didst know the gift of God , and who it is that speaks to thee , thou wouldst ask him : So if we were so wise , or so fortunate , to know the excellency of this Gift of the Lord , it would fill us full of wonder and adoration , joy and thankfulness , great hopes and actual felicities , making us heirs of glory by the great additions and present increment of Grace . 2. After supper Jesus took bread , and blessed it , and made it to be a heavenly gift : He gave them bread , and told them it was his body ; that Body which was broken for the redemption of Man , for the Salvation of the world . S. Paul calls it [ bread ] even after Consecration ; The Bread which we break , is it not the communication of the Body of Christ ? So that by divine Faith we are taught to express our belief of this Mystery in these words ; [ The Bread , when it is consecrated and made sacramental , is the Body of our Lord ; and the fraction and distribution of it is the communication of that Body which died for us upon the Cross. ] He that doubts of either of the parts of this Proposition must either think , Christ was not able to verifie his word , and to make bread by his benediction to become to us to be his body ; or that S. Paul did not well interpret and understand this Mystery , when he called it bread . Christ reconciles them both , calling himself the bread of life : and if we be offended at it , because it is alive , and therefore less apt to become food , we are invited to it because it is bread ; and if the Sacrament to others seem less mysterious , because it is bread , we are heightned in our Faith and reverence because it is life : The Bread of the Sacrament is the life of our Soul , and the Body of our Lord is now conveyed to us by being the Bread of the Sacrament . And if we consider how easie it is to Faith , and how impossible it seems to Curiosity , we shall be taught confidence and modesty ; a resigning our understanding to the voice of Christ and his Apostles , and yet expressing our own articles as Christ did , in indefinite significations . And possibly it may not well consist with our Duty to be inquisitive into the secrets of the Kingdom , which we see by plain event hath divided the Church almost as much as the Sacrament hath united it , and which can only serve the purposes of the School and of evil men , to make Questions for that , and Factions for these , but promote not the ends of a holy life , Obedience , or Charity . 3. Some so observe the literal sence of the words , that they understand them also in a natural : Some so alter them by metaphors and preternatural significations , that they will not understand them at all in a proper . We see it , we feel it , we taste it , and we smell it to be Bread ; and by Philosophy we are led into a belief of that substance whose accidents these are , as we are to believe that to be fire which burns and flames and shines : but Christ also affirmed concerning it , This is my Body ; and if Faith can create an assent as strong as its object is infallible , or can be as certain in its conclusion as sense is certain in its apprehensions , we must at no hand doubt but that it is Christ's Body . Let the sence of that be what it will , so that we believe those words , and ( whatsoever that sence is which Christ intended ) that we no more doubt in our Faith than we do in our Sense ; then our Faith is not reproveable . It is hard to do so much violence to our Sense , as not to think it Bread ; but it is more unsafe to do so much violence to our Faith , as not to believe it to be Christ's Body . But it would be considered , that no interest of Religion , no saying of Christ , no reverence of Opinion , no sacredness of the Mystery is disavowed , if we believe both what we hear and what we see . He that believes it to be Bread , and yet verily to be Christ's Body , is only tied also by implication to believe God's Omnipotence , that he who affirmed it can also verifie it . And they that are forward to believe the change of substance , can intend no more but that it be believed verily to be the Body of our Lord. And if they think it impossible to reconcile its being Bread with the verity of being Christ's Body , let them remember that themselves are put to more difficulties , and to admit of more Miracles , and to contradict more Sciences , and to refuse the testimony of Sense , in affirming the special manner of Transubstantiation . * And therefore it were safer to admit the words in their first sence , in which we shall no more be at war with Reason , nor so much with Sense , and not at all with Faith. And for persons of the contradictory perswasion , who to avoid the natural sence affirm it only to be figurative , since their design is only to make this Sacrament to be Christ's Body in the sence of Faith , and not of Philosophy , they may remember that its being really present does not hinder but that all that reality may be spiritual ; and if it be Christ's Body , so it be not affirmed such in a natural sence and manner , it is still only the object of Faith and spirit ; and if it be affirmed only to be spiritual , there is then no danger to Faith in admitting the words of Christ's institution , This is my Body . I suppose it to be a mistake , to think what soever is real must be natural ; and it is no less to think spiritual to be only figurative : that 's too much , and this is too little . Philosophy and Faith may well be reconciled ; and whatsoever objection can invade this union may be cured by modesty . And if we profess we understand not the manner of this Mystery , we say no more but that it is a Mystery ; and if it had been necessary we should have construed it into the most latent sence , Christ himself would have given a Clavis , and taught the Church to unlock so great a Secret. Christ said , This is my Body , this is my 〈◊〉 : S. Paul said , The bread of blessing that we break is the communication of the body of Christ , and the Chalice which we bless is the communication of the bloud of Christ ; and , We are all one body , because we eat of one bread . One proposition as well as the other is the matter of Faith , and the latter of them is also of Sense ; one is as literal as the other : and he that distinguishes in his belief , as he may place the impropriety upon which part he please , and either say it is improperly called Bread , or improperly called Christ's Body ; so he can have nothing to secure his proposition from errour , or himself from boldness , in decreeing concerning Mysteries against the testimonies of Sense , or beyond the modesty and simplicity of Christian Faith. Let us love and adore the abyss of Divine Wisdom and Goodness , and entertain the Sacrament with just and holy receptions ; and then we shall receive all those fruits of it which an earnest disputer , or a peremptory dogmatizer , whether he happen right or wrong , hath no warrant to expect upon the interest of his Opinion . 4. In the Institution of this Sacrament Christ manifested , first , his Almighty Power , secondly , his infinite Wisdome , and thirdly , his unspeakable Charity . First , his Power is manifest in making the Symbols to be the instruments of conveying himself to the spirit of the Receiver : He nourishes the Soul with Bread , and feeds the Body with a Sacrament ; he makes the Body spiritual by his Graces there ministred , and makes the Spirit to be united to his Body by a participation of the Divine nature : In the Sacrament that Body which is reigning in Heaven is exposed upon the Table of blessing ; and his Body which was broken for us is now broken again , and yet remains impassible . Every consecrated portion of bread and wine does exhibit Christ intirely to the faithful Receiver ; and yet Christ remains one , while he is wholly ministred in 10000 portions . So long as we call these mysterious , and make them intricate to exercise our Faith , and to represent the wonder of the Mystery , and to encrease our Charity ; our being inquisitive into the abyss can have no evil purposes . God hath instituted the Rite in visible Symbols , to make the secret Grace as presential and discernible as it might , that by an instrument of Sense our spirits might be accommodated as with an exteriour object to produce an internal act . But it is the prodigy of a miraculous power , by instruments so easie to produce effects so glorious . This then is the object of Wonder and Adoration . 5. Secondly , And this effect of Power does also remark the Divine Wisdome , who hath ordained such Symbols , which not only , like spittle and clay toward the curing blind eyes , proclaim an Almighty Power , but they are apposite and proper to signifie a Duty , and become to us like the Word of Life , and from Bread they turn into a Homily . For therefore our wisest Master hath appointed Bread and Wine , that we may be corporally united to him ; that as the Symbols becoming nutriment are turned into the substance of our bodies , so Christ being the food of our Souls should assimilate us , making us partakers of the Divine Nature . It also tells us , that from hence we derive life and holy motion ; for in him we live , and move , and have our being . He is the staff of our life , and the light of our eyes , and the strength of our spirit ; He is the Viand for our journey , and the antepast of Heaven . And because this holy Mystery was intended to be a Sacrament of Union , that Lesson is morally represented in the Symbols ; That as the salutary juice is expressed from many clusters running into one 〈◊〉 , and the Bread is a mass made of many grains of Wheat ; so we also ( as the Apostie infers from hence , himself observing the analogy ) should be one bread and one bodr , because we partake of that one bread . And it were to be wished that from hence also all Christians would understand a signification of another Duty , and that they would 〈◊〉 communicate , as remembring that the Soul may need a frequent ministration , as well as the Body its daily proportion . This consideration of the Divine Wisdome is apt to produce Reverence , Humility , and Submission of our understanding to the immensity of God's unsearchable abysses . 6. Thirdly , But the story of the Love of our dearest Lord is written in largest characters , who not only was at that instant busie in doing Man the greatest good , even then when man was contriving his death and his dishonour , but contrived to represent his bitter Passion to us without any circumstances of horror , in symbols of pleasure and delight ; that we may taste and see how gracious our LORD is , who would not transmit the record of his Passion to us in any thing that might trouble us . No Love can be greater than that which is so beatifical as to bestow the greatest good ; and no Love can be better expressed than that which , although it is productive of the greatest blessings , yet is curious also to observe the smallest circumstances . And not only both these , but many other circumstances and arguments of Love concur in the Holy Sacrament . 1. It is a tenderness of affection that ministers wholsome Physick with arts and instruments of pleasure : And such was the Charity of our Lord , who brings health to us in a golden Chalice ; life , not in the bitter drugs of Egypt , but in spirits and quintessences ; giving us apples of Paradise , at the same time yielding food and health and pleasure . 2. Love desires to do all good to its beloved object , and that is the greatest love which gives us the greatest blessings : And the Sacrament therefore is the argument of his greatest love ; for in it we receive the honey and the honey-comb , the Paschal Lamb with his bitter herbs , Christ with all his griefs , and his Passion with all the salutary effects of it . 3. Love desires to be remembred , and to have his object in perpetual representment : And this Sacrament Christ designed to that purpose , that he , who is not present to our eyes , might always be present to our spirits . 4. Love demands love again , and to desire to be beloved is of it self a great argument of love : And as God cannot give us a greater blessing than his Love , which is himself with an excellency of relation to us superadded ; so what greater demonstration of it can he make to us , than to desire us to love him with as much earnestness and vehemency of desire , as if we were that to him which he is essentially to us , the author of our being and our blessing ? 5. And yet to consummate this Love , and represent it to be the greatest and most excellent , the Holy Jesus hath in this Sacrament designed that we should be united in our spirits with him , incorporated to his body , partake of his Divine nature , and communicate in all his Graces ; and Love hath no expression beyond this , that it desires to be united unto its object . So that what Moses said to the men of Israel , What nation is so great , who hath God so nigh unto them , as the Lord our God is in all things for which we call upon him ? we can enlarge in the meditation of this Holy Sacrament : for now the Lord our God calls upon us , not only to be nigh unto him , but to be all one with him ; not only as he was in the Incarnation , flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone , but also to communicate in spirit , in grace , in nature , in Divinity it self . 7. Upon the strength of the premisses we may sooner take an estimate of the Graces which are conveyed to us in the reception and celebration of this Holy Sacrament and Sacrifice . For as it is a Commemoration and representment of Christ's Death , so it is a commemorative Sacrifice : as we receive the symbols and the mystery , so it is a Sacrament . In both capacities the benefit is next to infinite . First , For whatsoever Christ did at the Institution , the same he commanded the Church to do in remembrance and repeated rites ; and himself also does the same thing in Heaven for us , making perpetual Intercession for his Church , the body of his redeemed ones , by representing to his Father his death and sacrifice : there he sits a high Priest continually , and offers still the same one perfect sacrifice , that is , still represents it as having been once finished and consummate in order to perpetual and never-failing events . And this also his Ministers do on earth , they offer up the same Sacrifice to God , the sacrifice of the Cross , by prayers , and a commemorating rite and representment according to his holy Institution . And as all the effects of Grace and the titles of glory were purchased for us on the Cross , and the actual mysteries of Redemption perfected on earth , but are applied to us and made effectual to single persons and communities of men by Christ's Intercession in Heaven ; so also they are promoted by acts of Duty and Religion here on earth , that we may be workers together with God , ( as S. Paul expresses it ) and in virtue of the eternal and all-sufficient Sacrifice may offer up our prayers and our duty , and by representing that sacrifice may send up together with our prayers an instrument of their graciousness and acceptation . The Funerals of a deceased friend are not only performed at his first interring , but in the monthly minds and anniversary commemorations , and our grief returns upon the fight of a picture , or upon any instance which our dead friend desired us to preserve as his memorial : we celebrate and exhibite the Lora's death in sacrament and symbol : and this is that great express , which when the Church offers to God the Father , it obtains all those blessings which that sacrifice purchased . Themistocles snatch'd up the son of King Admetus , and held him between himself and death , to mitigate the rage of the King , and prevailed accordingly . Our very holding up the Son of God , and representing him to his Father , is the doing an act of mediation 〈◊〉 advantage to our selves in the virtue and efficacy of the Mediatour . As Christ is a Priest in Heaven for ever , and yet does not sacrifice himself afresh , nor yet without a sacrifice could he be a Priest , but by a daily ministration and intercession represents his sacrifice to God , and offers himself as sacrificed : so he does upon earth by the ministery of his servants ; he is offered to God , that is , he is by Prayers and the Sacrament represented or offered up to God as sacrificed , which , in effect , is a celebration of his death , and the applying it to the present and future necessities of the Church , as we are capable , by a ministery like to his in Heaven . It follows then , that the celebration of this Sacrifice be in its proportion * an instrument of applying the proper Sacrifice to all the purposes which it first designed ; It is ministerially and by application an instrument propitiatory , it is Eucharistical , it is an homage , and an act of adoration , and it is impetratory , and obtains for us and for the whole Church all the benefits of the sacrifice , which is now celebrated and applied ; that is , As this Rite is the remembrance and ministerial celebration of Christ's sacrifice , so it is destined to do honour to God , to express the homage and duty of his servants , to acknowledge his supreme dominion , to give him thanks and worship , to beg pardon , blessings and supply of all our needs . And its profit is enlarged not only to the persons celebrating , but to all to whom they design it , according to the nature of Sacrifices and Prayers , and all such solemn actions of Religion . 8. Secondly , If we consider this , not as the act and ministery of Ecclesiastical persons , but as the duty of the whole Church communicating , that is , as it is a 〈◊〉 , so it is like the Springs of Eden , from whence issue many Rivers , or the Trees of celestial Jerusalem , bearing various kinds of Fruit. For whatsoever was offered in the Sacrifice , is given in the Sacrament ; and whatsoever the Testament bequeaths , the holy Mysteries dispense . 1. He that 〈◊〉 my 〈◊〉 and drinketh my bloud abideth in me , and 〈◊〉 in him ; Christ in his Temple and his resting-place , and the worthy Communicant is in Sanctuary and a place of protection : and every holy Soul having feasted at his Table may say as S. Paul , * 〈◊〉 live , yet not I , but Christ liveth in me . ‖ So that to live is Christ : * Christ is our life , and he dwells in the body and the spirit of every one that eats Christ's flesh and drinks his bloud . Happy is that man that sits at the Table of Angels , that puts his hand into the dish with the King of all the Creatures , and feeds upon the eternal Son of God , joyning things below with things above , Heaven with Earth , Life with Death , that mortality might be swallowed up of life , and Sin be destroyed by the inhabitation of its greatest Conqueror . And now I need not enumerate any particulars , since the Spirit of God hath ascertained us that Christ enters into our hearts , and takes possession , and abides there ; that we are made Temples and celestial mansions ; that we are all one with our Judge , and with our Redeemer ; that our Creator is bound unto his Creature with bonds of charity which nothing can dissolve , unless our own hands break them ; that Man is united with God , and our weakness is fortified by his strength , and our miseries wrapped up in the golden leaves of glory . 2. Hence it follows that the Sacrament is an instrument of reconciling us to God , and taking off the remanent guilt , and stain , and obligations of our sins . This is the 〈◊〉 that was shed for you for the remission of sins . For there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus . And such are all they who worthily eat the flesh of Christ ; by receiving him , they more and more receive remission of sins , redemption , sanctification , wisdom , and certain hopes of glory . 〈◊〉 as the Soul touching and united to the flesh of Adam contracts the stain of original misery and imperfection ; so much the 〈◊〉 shall the Soul united to the flesh of Christ receive pardon and purity , and all those blessed emanations from our union with the Second Adam . But this is not to be understood , as if the first beginnings of our pardon were in the holy Communion ; for then a man might come with his impurities along with him , and lay them on the holy Table , to stain and pollute so bright a presence . No ; first , Repentance must 〈◊〉 the ways of the Lord : and in this holy Rite those words of our Lord are verified , He that is justified , let him be justified 〈◊〉 , that is , here he may receive the increase of Grace ; and as it grows , so sin dies , and we are reconciled by nearer unions and approximations to God. 9. Thirdly , The holy Sacrament is the pledge of Glory and the earnest of Immortality ; for when we have received him who hath overcome Death , and henceforth dies no more , he becomes to us like the Tree of life in Paradise ; and the consecrated Symbols are like the seeds of an eternal duration , springing up in us to eternal life , nourishing our spirits with Grace , which is but the prologue and the infancy of Glory , and differs from it only as a Child from a Man. But God first raised up his Son to life , and by giving him to us hath also consigned us to the same state ; for our life is hid with Christ in God : When we lay down and cast aside the impurer robes of flesh , they are then but preparing for glory ; and if by the only touch of Christ bodies were redintegrate and restored to natural perfections , how shall not we live for ever who eat his flesh and drink his bloud ? It is the discourse of S. Cyril . Whatsoever the Spirit can convey to the body of the Church , we may expect 〈◊〉 this Sacrament ; for as the Spirit is the instrument of life and action , so the bloud of Christ is the conveyance of his Spirit . And let all the mysterious places of holy Scripture concerning the effects of Christ communicated in the blessed Sacrament be drawn together in one Scheme , we cannot but observe , that although they are so expressed as 〈◊〉 their meaning may seem intricate and involved , yet they cannot be drawn to any meaning at all , but it is as glorious in its sense as it is mysterious in the expression ; and the more intricate they are , the greater is their purpose ; no words being apt and proportionate to signifie this spiritual secret , and excellent effects of the Spirit . A veil is drawn before all these testimonies , because the people were not able to behold the glory which they cover with their curtain ; and Christ dwelling in us , and giving us his flesh to 〈◊〉 and his bloud to drink , and the hiding of our life with God , and the communication of the body of Christ , and Christ being our life , are such secret glories , that as the fruition of them is the portion of the other world , so also is the full perception and understanding of them : for therefore God appears to us in a cloud , and his glories in a veil , that we understanding more of it by its concealment than we can by its open face , which is too bright 〈◊〉 our weak eyes , may with more piety also entertain the greatness by these indefinite and mysterious significations , than we can by plain and direct intuitions , which like the Sun in a direct ray enlightens the object , but confounds the organ . 10. I should but in other words describe the same glories , if I should add , That this holy Sacrament does enlighten the spirit of Man , and clarifie it with spiritual discernings ; and as he was to the two Disciples at 〈◊〉 , so also to other faithful people , Christ is known in the breaking of bread ; That it is a great * defence against the hostilities of our ghostly enemies , this Holy Bread being like the Cake in 〈◊〉 's Camp , overturning the tents of 〈◊〉 ; That it is the relief of our sorrows , the antidote and preservative of Souls , the viand of our journey , the guard and passe-port of our death , the wine of Angels ; That it is more healthful than Rhubarb , more pleasant than Cassia ; That the Betele and 〈◊〉 of the 〈◊〉 , the * Moly or Nepenthe of Pliny , the Lirinon of the 〈◊〉 , the Balsam of 〈◊〉 , the Manna of Israel , the Honey of Jonathan , are but weak expressions to tell us that this is excellent above Art and Nature , and that nothing is good enough in Philosophy to become its 〈◊〉 . All these must needs fall very short of those plain words of Christ , This is my Body . The other may become the ecstasies of Piety , the transportation of joy and wonder , and are like the discourse of S. 〈◊〉 upon mount Tabor , he was resolved to say some great thing , but he knew not what : but when we remember that the Body of our Lord and his Bloud is communicated to us in the Bread and the Chalice of blessing , we must sit down and rest our selves , for this is the mountain of the Lord , and we can go no farther . 11. In the next place it will 〈◊〉 our enquiry to consider how we are to prepare our selves : For at the gate of life a man may meet with death : and although this holy Sacrament be like Manna , in which the obedient find the relishes of Obedience , the chaste of Purity , the meek persons of Content and Humility ; yet vicious and corrupted palats find also the gust of death and Coloquintida . The Sybarites invited their women to their solemn sacrifices a full year before the solemnity , that they might by previous dispositions and a long foresight 〈◊〉 with gravity and fairer order the celebration of the rites . And it was a reasonable answer of Pericles , to one that ask'd him why he , being a Philosophical and severe person , came to a wedding trimmed and adorned like a Paranymph ; I come adorned to an adorned person , trimmed , to a Bridegroom . And we also , if we come to the marriage of the Son with the Soul , ( which marriage is celebrated in this sacred Mystery ) and have not on a wedding garment , shall be cast into outer darkness , the portion of undressed and unprepared souls . 12. For from this Sacrament are excluded all unbaptized persons , and such who lie in a known sin , of which they have not purged themselves by the apt and proper instruments of Repentance . For if the Paschal Lamb was not to be eaten but by persons pure and clean according to the sanctifications of the Law ; the Son of God can less endure the impurities of the Spirit , than God could 〈◊〉 the uncleannesses of the Law. S. Paul hath given us instruction in this : First , let a man examine himself , and so let him eat : For he that eats and drinks unworthily , eats and drinks damnation to himself , not discerning the Lord's body . That is , although in the Church of Corinth , by reason of the present Schism , the publick Discipline of the Church was neglected , and every man permitted to himself ; yet even then no man was disobliged from his duty of private Repentance , and holy preparations to the perception of so great a mystery ; that the Lord's body may be discerned from common nutriment . Now nothing can so unhallow and desecrate the rite as the remanent affection to a sin , or a crime unrepented of . And Self-examination is prescribed , not for it self , but in order to abolition of sin and death ; for it self is a relative term and an imperfect duty , whose very nature is in order to something beyond it . And this was in the Primitive Church understood to so much severity , that if a man had relapsed after one publick Repentance into a 〈◊〉 crime , he was never again readmitted to the holy Communion ; and the Fathers of the Council of 〈◊〉 call it [ a mocking and jesting at the Communion of our Lord , to give it once again after a Repentance and a relapse , and a second or third postulation . ] And indeed we use to make a sport of the greatest instruments of Religion , when we come to them after an habitual vice , whose face we have , it may be , wetted with a tear , and breathed upon it with a sigh , and abstained from the worst of crimes for two or three days , and come to the Sacrament to be purged , and to take our rise by going a little back from our sin , that afterwards we may leap into it with more violence , and enter into its utmost angle : This is dishonouring the body of our Lord , and deceiving our selves . Christ and Belial cannot cohabit ; unless we have left all our sins , and have no fondness of affection towards them , unless we hate them , ( which then we shall best know when we leave them , and with complacency entertain their contraries : ) then Christ hath washed our feet , and then he invites us to his holy Supper . Hands dipt in bloud , or polluted with unlawful gains , or stained with the spots of flesh , are most unfit to handle the holy body of our Lord , and minister nourishment to the Soul. Christ loves not to enter into the mouth full of cursings , oathes , blasphemies , revilings or evil speakings ; and a heart full of vain and vicious thoughts stinks like the lake of Sodom ; he finds no rest there , and when he enters he is vexed with the unclean conversation of the impure inhabitants , and flies from thence with the wings of a Dove , that he may retire to pure and whiter habitations . S. Justin Martyr , reckoning the predispositions required of every faithful soul for the entertainment of his Lord , says , that it is not lawful for any to eat the Eucharist , but to him that is washed in the laver of regeneration sor the remission of sins , that believes Christ's Doctrine to be true , and that lives according to the Discipline of the Holy Jesus . And therefore S. Ambrose refused to minister the holy Communion to the Emperor Theodostus , till by publick Repentance he had reconciled himself to God and the society of faithsul people , after the furious and cholerick rage and slaughter committed at Thessalonica : And as this act was like to cancellating and a circumvallation of the holy mysteries , and in that sence and so far was a proper duty sor a Prelate , to whose dispensation the rites are committed ; so it was an act of duty to the Emperor , of paternal and tender care , not of proper authority or jurisdiction , which he could not have over his Prince , but yet had a care and the supravision of a Teacher over him , whose Soul S. Ambrose had betrayed , unless he had represented his indisposition to communicate in expressions of Magisterial or Doctoral authority and truth . For this holy Sacrament is a nourishment of spiritual life , and therefore cannot with effect be ministred to them who are in the state of spiritual death ; it is giving a Cordial to a dead man ; and although the outward rite be ministred , yet the Grace of the Sacrament is not communicated , and therefore it were well that they also abstained from the rite it self . For a * fly can boast of as much priviledge as a wicked person can receive from this holy Feast ; and oftentimes pays his life sor his access to sorbidden delicacies , as certainly as they . 13. It is more generally thought by the Doctors of the Church , that our Blessed Lord administred the Sacrament to Judas , although he knew he sold him to the Jews . * Some others deny it , and suppose Judas departed presently after the sop given him , before he communicated . However it was , Christ , who was Lord of the Sacraments , might dispense it as he pleased ; but we must minister and receive it according to the rules he hath since described : but it becomes a precedent to the Church in all succeeding Ages , although it might also have in it something extraordinary and apter to the first institution ; for because the fact of Judas was secret , not yet made notorious , Christ chose rather to admit him into the rites of external Communion , than to separate him with an open shame for a fault not yet made open . For our Blessed Lord did not reveal the man and his crime till the very time of ministration , if Judas did communicate . But if Judas did not communicate , and that our Blessed Lord gave him the sop at the Paschal Supper , 〈◊〉 at the interval between it and the institution of his own , it is certain that Judas went out as soon as he was discovered , and left this part of Discipline upon record , That when a crime is made publick and notorious , the Governours of the Church , according to their power , are to deny to give the blessed Sacrament , till by Repentance such persons be restored . * In private sins , or sins not known by solemnities of Law , or evidence of fact , good and bad are entertained in publick communion ; and it is not to be accounted a crime in them that minister it , because they cannot avoid it , or have not competent authority to separate persons , whom the publick act of the Church hath not separated : but if once a publick separation be made , or that the fact is notorious , and the 〈◊〉 of Law is in such cases already declared , they that come , and he that rejects them not , both pollute the bloud of the everlasting Covenant . And here it is applicable what God spake by the Prophet , * If thou wilt separate the precious thing from the vile , thou shalt be as my mouth . But this is wholly a matter of Discipline , arbitrary , and in the power of the Church ; nothing in it of Divine commandment , but what belongs to the Communicants themselves : For S. Paul reproves them that receive disorderly , but gives no orders to the Corinthian Presbyters to reject any that present themselves . Neither did our Blessed Lord leave any Commandment concerning it , nor hath the holy Scripture given rules or measures concerning its actual reduction to practice ; neither who are to be separated , nor for what offences , nor by what authority , nor who is to be the Judge . And indeed it is a judgment that can only belong to God , who knows the secrets of hearts , the degrees of every sin , the beginnings and portions of Repentance , the sincerity of purposes , by what thoughts and designs men begin to be accepted , who are hypocrites , and who are true men . But when many and common men come to judge , they are angry upon trisling mistakes and weak disputes ; they call that Sin that angers their Party , or grieves their Interest ; they turn Charity into Pride , and Admonition into Tyranny ; they set up a tribunal that themselves may sit higher , not that their Brethren may walk more securely : And then concerning sins , in most cases , they are most incompetent 〈◊〉 ; they do not know all their kinds ; they miscall many ; they are ignorant of the ingredient and constituent parts and circumstances ; they themselves make false measures , and give out according to them , when they please ; and when they list not , they can change the balance . When the matter is publick , evident and notorious , the man is to be admonished of his danger by the Minister , but not by him to be forced from it : for the power of the Minister of holy things is but the power of a Preacher and a Counsellor , of a Physician and a Guide ; it hath in it no coercion or violence , but what is indulged to it by humane laws and by consent , which may vary as its 〈◊〉 . Add to this , that the Grace of God can begin the work of Repentance in an instant , and in what period or degree of Repentance the holy Communion is to be administred no Law of God declares ; which therefore plainly allows it to every period , and leaves no difference , except where the Discipline of the Church and the authority of the Supreme power doth intervene . For since we do not find in Scripture that the Apostles did drive from the communion of holy things even those whom they delivered over to Satan or other Censures , we are left to consider that , in the nature of the thing , those who are in the state of weakness and 〈◊〉 have more need of the solemn Prayers of the Church , and therefore , by presenting themselves to the holy Sacrament , approach towards that Ministery which is the most effectual cure ; especially since the very presenting themselves is an act of Religion , and therefore supposes an act of Repentance and Faith , and other little introductions to its fair reception : and if they may be prayed for , and prayed with , why they may not also be communicated , which is the 〈◊〉 of the greatest Prayer , is not yet clearly revealed . This discourse relates only to private Ministery : for when I affirm , that there is no command from Christ to all his Ministers to refuse whom they are pleased to call scandalous or sinners , I intend to defend good people from the tyranny and arbitrary power of those great companies of Ministers , who in so many hundred places would have a Judicature supreme in Spirituals , which would be more intolerable than if they had in one Province 20000 Judges of life and death . But when the power of separation and interdiction is only in some more eminent and authorized persons , who take publick cognizance of causes by solemnities of Law , and exercise their power but in some rare instances , and then also for the publick interest , in which although they may be 〈◊〉 , yet they are the most competent and likely Judges , much of the inconvenience which might otherwise follow is avoided : and then it only remains that they consider , in what cases it can be a competent and a proper infliction upon sinners , to take from them that which is the means and ministery of grace and recovery ; whether they have any warrant from Christ , or precedent in the Apostles practice , and how far . As for the sorms and 〈◊〉 of the Primitive Church , they were hugely different , sometimes for one cause sometimes for another . Sometimes whole Churches have been excommunicated ; sometimes the criminal and all his houshold for his offence , as it happened in the Excommunication of Andronicus and Thoas in Synesius , in the year 411 : sometimes they were absolved and restored by Lay Confessors , sometimes by Emperors , as it happened to Eusebius of Nicomedia and Theognis of Nice , who were absolved by Constantine from the sentence of Excommunication inflicted by the Nicene Fathers ; and a Monk did excommunicate Theodosius the younger . So that in this there can be no certainty to make a measure and a rule . The surest way , most agreeable to the precedents of Scripture and the Analogy of the Gospel , is , that by the word of their proper ministery all sinners should be separate from the holy Communion , that is , threatned by the words of God with damnation , and fearful temporal dangers , if themselves , knowing an unrepented sin , and a remanent affection to sin to be within them , shall dare to profane that Body and Bloud of our Lord by so impure an address . The evil is to themselves , and if the Ministers declare this powerfully , they are acquitted . But concerning other judgments or separations , The Supreme power can forbid all assembling , and therefore can permit them to all , and therefore can deny them or grant them to single persons ; and therefore when he by Laws makes separations in order to publick benefit they are to be obeyed : but it is not to be endured that single Presbyters should upon vain pretences erect so high a tribunal and tyranny over Consciences . 14. The duty of Preparation , that I here discourse of , is such a Preparation as is a disposition to life : it is not a matter of convenience or advantage , to repent of our sins before the Communion , but it is of absolute necessity , we perish if we neglect it ; for we cat 〈◊〉 , and Satan enters into us , not Christ. And this Preparation is not the act of a day or a week ; but it is a new state of life : no man that is an habitual sinner must come to this Feast , till he hath wholly changed his course of life . And then , according as the actions of infirmity have made 〈◊〉 or greater invasion upon his peace and health , so are the acts of Repentance to be proportioned ; in which the greatness of the prevarications , their neighbourhood to death , or their frequent repetition , and the conduct of a Spiritual man , are to give us counsel and determination . When a ravening and hungry Wolf is destitute of prey , he 〈◊〉 the turf , and loads his stomach with the glebe he treads on ; but as soon as he finds better food , he vomits up his first load . Our secular and sensual affections are loads of earth upon the Conscience , and when we approach to the Table of the Lord to eat the bread of the elect , and to drink the wine of Angels , we must reject such impure adhesions , that holy persons , being nourished with holy Symbols , may be sanctified and receive the eternal reward of Holiness . 15. But as none must come hither but they that are in the state of Grace , or Charity , and the love of God and their Neighbours , and that the abolition of the state of sin is the necessary preparation , and is the action of years , and was not accepted as sufficient till the expiration of divers years by the Primitive Discipline , and in some cases not till the approach of Death : so there is another Preparation which is of less necessity , which supposes the state of Grace , and that oil is burning in our lamps ; but yet it is a preparation of ornament , a trimming up the Soul , a dressing the spirit with degrees and instances of Piety and progresses of perfection : and it consists in setting apart some portion of our time before the Communion , that it be spent in Prayer , in Meditations , in renewing the vows of holy Obedience , in Examining our Consciences , in Mortifying our lesser irregularities , in Devotions and actions of precise Religion , in acts of Faith , of Hope , of Charity , of Zeal and holy desires , in acts of Eucharist or Thanksgiving , of Joy at the approach of so blessed opportunity , and all the acts of Vertue whatsoever , which have indefinite relation to this and to other mysteries ; but yet are specially to be exercised upon this occasion , because this is the most perfect of external 〈◊〉 , and the most mysterious instrument of sanctification and perfection . There is no time or degree to be determined in this Preparation ; but they to whom much is forgiven will love much ; and they who 〈◊〉 the excellence and holiness of the Mystery , the glory of the Guest that comes to inhabit , and the undecency of the closet of their Hearts by reason of the adherencies of impurity , the infinite benefit then designed , and the increase of degrees by the excellence of these previous acts of Holiness , will not be too inquisitive into the necessity of circumstances and measures , but do it heartily , and devoutly , and reverently , and as much as they can , ever esteeming it necessary , that the actions of so great solemnity should by some actions of Piety attending like handmaids be distinguished from common imployments , and remarked for the principal and most solemn of religious actions . The Primitive Church gave the holy Sacrament to Infants * immediately after Baptism , and by that act transmitted this Proposition , That nothing was of absolute necessity ‖ but Innocency and purity from sin , and a being in the state of Grace ; other actions of Religion are excellent addition to the dignity of the person and honour of the mystery , but they were such of which Infants were not capable . The summ is this ; After the greatest consociation of religious duties for Preparation , no man can be sufficiently worthy to communicate : let us take care that we be not unworthy , by bringing a guilt with us , or the remanent affection to a sin . Est gloriosus sanè convictus Die ; Sed illi qui invitatur , non qui invisus est . 16. When the happy hour is come in which the Lord vouchsafes to enter into us , and dwell with us , and be united with his servants , we must then do the same acts over again with greater 〈◊〉 & intension ; confess the glories of God and thy own unworthiness , praise his mercy with ecstasie of thanksgiving and joy , make oblation of thy self , of all thy faculties and capacities , pray , and read , and meditate , and worship : And that thou mayest more opportunely do all this , rise early to meet the Bridegroom , pray for special assistance , enter into the assembly of faithful people chearfully , attend there diligently , demean thy self reverently , and before any other meat or drink receive the Body of thy Saviour with pure hands , with holy intention , with a heart full of joy , and faith , and hope , and wonder , and Eucharist . These things I therefore set down irregularly and without method , because in these actions no rule can be given to all persons ; and only such a love and such a Religion in general is to be recommended , which will over-run the banks , and not 〈◊〉 stand confined within the margent of rules and artificial prescriptions . Love and Religion are boundless , and all acts of grace relating to the present Mystery are sit and proportioned entertainments of our Lord. This only remember , that we are by the Mystery of one bread confederated into one body , and the communion of Saints , and that the 〈◊〉 , which we then commemorate was designed by our Lord for the benefit of all his Church : Let us be sure to draw all faithful people into the society of the present Blessing , joyning with the holy Man that ministers in prayers and offerings of that Mystery for the 〈◊〉 of all sorts of men , of Christ's Catholick Church . And it were also an excellent act of Christian communion , and agreeable to the practice of the Church in all Ages , to make an Oblation to God for the poor ; that as we are 〈◊〉 by Christ's body , so we also should 〈◊〉 Christ's body , making such returns as we can , a grain of Frankincense in exchange for a Province , an act of duty and Christian Charity as Eucharistical for the present Grace , that all the body may rejoyce and glory in the Salvation of the Lord. 17. After thou hast received that pledge of immortality and antepast of glory , even the Lord's Body in a mystery , leave not thy Saviour there alone , but attend him with holy thoughts and colloquies of Prayer and Eucharist . It was sometime counted infamous for a woman to entertain a second love , till the body of her dead Husband was dissolved into ashes , and disappeared in the form of a body . And it were well , that so long as the consecrated Symbols remain within us according to common estimate , we should keep the flame bright , and the perfume of an actual Devotion burning , that our Communion be not a transient act , but a permanent and lasting intercourse with our Lord. But in this every man best knows his own opportunities and necessities of diversion . I only commend earnestly to practice , that every Receiver should make a recollection of himself , and the actions of the day , that he improve it to the best advantage , that he shew unto our Lord all the defects of his house , all his poverty and weaknesses : and this let every man do by such actions and Devotions which he can best attend , and himself by the advice of a Spiritual man finds of best advantage . I would not make the practice of Religion , especially in such irregular instances , to be an art , or a burthen , or a snare to scrupulous persons : What S. Paul said in the 〈◊〉 of Charity , I say also in this ; He that sows plentifully shall reap plentifully , and he that 〈◊〉 sparingly shall gather at the same rate ; let every man do as himself purposeth in his heart . Only it were well in this Sacrament of Love we had some correspondency , and proportionable returns of Charity and religious affections . 18. Some religious persons have moved a Question , Whether it were better to communicate often or seldom : some thinking it more reverence to those holy Mysteries to come but seldom ; while others say , it is greater Religion or Charity to come frequently . But I suppose this Question does not differ much from a dispute , Whether is better to pray often , or to pray seldom ? For whatsoever is commonly pretended against a frequent Communion , may in its proportion object against a solemn Prayer ; 〈◊〉 affection to a sin , enmity with neighbours , secular avocations to the height of care and trouble : for these either are great undecencies in order to a holy Prayer ; or else are direct irregularities , and unhallow the Prayer . And the celebration of the holy Sacrament is in it self and its own formality a sacred , solemn , and ritual Prayer , in which we invocate God by the Merits of Christ , expressing that adjuration not only in words , but in actual representment and commemoration of his Passion . And if the necessities of the Church were well considered , we should find that a daily Sacrifice of Prayer and a daily Prayer of Sacrifice were no more but what her condition requires : and I would to God the Governours of Churches would take care , that the necessities of Kings and Kingdoms , of Churches and States , were represented to God by the most solemn and 〈◊〉 intercessions ; and Christ hath taught us none greater than the praying in the virtue and 〈◊〉 of his Sacrifice . And this is the counsel that the Church received from Ignatius ; Haslen frequently to approach the 〈◊〉 , the glory of God. For when this is daily celebrated , we break the powers of Satan , who turns all his actions into 〈◊〉 and darts of fire . But this concerns the Ministers of Religion , who living in Communities and Colledges must make Religion the business of their lives , and support Kingdoms , and serve the interest of Kings by the prayer of a daily sacrifice . And yet in this ministery the Clergy may serve their own necessary affairs , if the ministration be divided into courses , as it was by the oeconomy and wisdom of Solomon for the Temple . 19. But concerning the Communion of Secular and lay persons , the consideration is something different . * S. Austin gave this answer to it : To receive the Sacrament every day I neither praise nor reprove ; at least let them receive it every Lord's day . And this he spake to Husbandmen and Merchants . At the first commencement of Christianity , while the fervors Apostolical and the calentures of infant Christendom did last , the whole assembly of faithsul people communicated every day ; and this lasted in Rome and Spain until the time of S. Jerome : concerning which diligence he gives the same 〈◊〉 which I now recited from S. Austin ; for it suffered inconvenience by reason of a declining Piety , and the intervening of secular interests . But then it came to once a week ; and yet that was not every-where strictly observed . But that it be received once every fortnight S. 〈◊〉 counsels very strongly to Eustochium a holy Virgin ; Let the 〈◊〉 confess their sins twice every month , or 〈◊〉 , and being fortified with the communion of the Lord's Body , let them manfully fight against the Devil's forces and attempts . A while 〈◊〉 it came to once a month , then once a year , then it fell from that too ; till all the Christians in the West were commanded to communicate every Easter by the Decree of a * great Council above 500 years since . But the Church of England , finding that too little , hath commanded all her Children to receive thrice every year at least , intending that they should come oftner ; but of this she demands an account . For it hath fared with this Sacrament as with other actions of Religion , which have descended 〈◊〉 flames to still fires , from fires to sparks , from sparks to embers , from embers to smoke , from smoke to nothing . And although the publick 〈◊〉 of Piety is such , that in this present conjuncture of things it is impossible men should be reduced to a daily Communion ; yet that they are to communicate frequently is so a Duty , that as no excuse but impossibility can make the omission innocent , so the loss and consequent want is infinite and invaluable . 20. For the holy Communion being a remembrance and sacramental repetition of Christ's Passion , and the application of his Sacrifice to us and the whole Catholick Church ; as they who seldom communicate delight not to remember the Passion of our Lord , and sin against his very purpose , and one of the designs of institution ; so he cares not to receive the benefits of the Sacrifice who so neglects their application , and reducing them to actual profit and 〈◊〉 . Whence came the sanctimony of the primitive Christians ? whence came their strict observation of the Divine Commandments ? whence was it that they persevered in holy actions with hope and an unweary diligence ? from whence did their despising worldly things come , and living with common possession , and the distributions of an universal Charity ? Whence came these and many other excellencies , but from a constant Prayer , and a daily Eucharist ? They who every day represented the death of Christ , every day were ready to die for Christ. It was the discourse of an ancient and excellent person . And if we consider this Sacrament is intended to unite the spirits and affections of the world , and that it is diffusive and powerful to this purpose , [ for we are one body , ( saith S. Paul ) because we partake of one bread ; ] possibly we may have reason to say , that the wars of Kingdoms , the animosity of Families , the infinite multitude of Law-suits , the personal hatreds , and the 〈◊〉 want of Charity , which hath made the world miserable and wicked , may in a great degree be attributed to the neglect of this great symbol and instrument of Charity . The Chalice of the Sacrament is called by S. Paul , The cup of blessing ; and if children need every day to beg blessing of their Parents , if we also thirst not after this Cup of blessing , blessing may be far from us . It is called The communication of the bloud of Christ ; and it is not imaginable that man should love Heaven , or felicity , or his Lord , that desires not perpetually to bathe in that salutary stream , the Bloud of the Holy Jesus , the immaculate Lamb of God. 21. But I find that the religious fears of men are pretended a colour to excuse this Irreligion . Men are wicked , and not prepared , and busie , and full of cares and affairs of the world , and cannot come with due Preparation ; and therefore better not come at all : Nay , men are not ashamed to say , they are at 〈◊〉 with certain persons , and therefore cannot come . Concerning those persons who are unprepared because they are in a state of sin or uncharitableness , it is true , they must not come ; but this is so far from excusing their not coming , that they increase their sin , and secure misery to themselves , because they do not lay aside every weight , and the sin that doth so easily beset them , that they may come to the Marriage-supper . It is as if we should excuse our selves from the duties of Charity , by saying we are uncharitable ; from giving Alms , by saying we are covetous ; from Chastity , by saying we are lascivious . To such men it is just that they graze with the Goats , because they refuse to wash their hands , that they may come to the Supper of the Lamb. 2. Concerning those that pretend cares and incumbrances of the world ; If their affairs make sin and impure affections to stick upon them , they are in the first consideration : but if their office be necessary , just , or charitable , they imitate Martha , and chuse the less perfect part , when they neglect the offices of Religion for duties oeconomical . 3. But the other sort have more pretence and fairer vertue in their outside . They suppose , like the Persian Princes , the seldomer such mysterious rites are seen , the more reverence we shall have , and they the more majesty : and they are fearful lest the frequent attrectation of them should make us less to value the great earnests of our Redemption and Immortality . It is a pious consideration , but not becoming them : For it cannot be that the Sacrament be under-valued by frequent reception , without the great unworthiness of the persons , so turning God's grace into lightness and loathing Manna : nay , it cannot be without an unworthy communication ; for he that receives worthily increases in the love of God and Religion , and the fires of the Altar are apt to kindle our sparks into a slame ; and when Christ our Lord enters into us , and we grow weary of him , or less fond of his frequent entrance and perpetual cohabitation , it is an infallible sign we have let his enemy in , or are preparing for it . For this is the difference between secular and spiritual objects : Nothing in this world hath any pleasure in it long beyond the hope of it , for the possession and enjoyment is found so empty , that we grow weary of it ; but whatsoever is spiritual , and in order to God , is less before we have it , but in the fruition it swells our desires , and enlarges the appetite , and makes us more receptive and forward in the entertainment : and therefore those acts of Religion that set us forward in time , and backward in affection , do declare that we have not well done our duty , but have communicated unworthily . So that the mending of our fault will answer the objection . Communicate with more devotion , and repent with greater contrition , and walk with more caution , and pray more earnestly , and meditate diligently , and receive with reverence and godly fear ; and we shall find our affections increase together with the spiritual emolument ; ever remembring that pious and wise advice of S. Ambrose , Receive every day , that which may profit thee every day . But he that is not disposed to receive it every day , is not fit to receive it every year . 22. And if after all diligence it be still feared that a man is not well prepared , I must say that it is a scruple , that is , a trouble beyond a doubt and without reason , next to Superstition and the dreams of Religion ; and it is nourished by imagining that no duty is accepted , if it be less than perfection , and that God is busied in Heaven , not only to destroy the wicked , and to dash in pieces vessels of dishonour , but to break a bruised reed in pieces , and to cast the smoaking flax into the flames of hell . In opposition to which we must know , that nothing makes us unprepared but an evil Conscience , a state of sin , or a deadly act : but the lesser infirmities of our life , against which we daily strive , and for which we never have any kindness or affections , are not spots in these Feasts of Charity , but instruments of Humility , and stronger invitations to come to those Rites which are ordained for 〈◊〉 against infirmities of the Soul , and for the growth of the spirit in the strengths of God. For those other acts of Preparation which precede and accompany the duty , the better and more religiously they are done , they are indeed of more advantage , and honourary to the Sacrament ; yet he that comes in the state of Grace , though he takes the opportunity upon a sudden offer , sins not : and in such indefinite duties , whose degrees are not described , it is good counsel to do our best ; but it is ill to make them instruments of scruple , as if it were essentially necessary to do that in the greatest height , which is only intended for advantage and the fairer accommodation of the mystery . But these very acts , if they be esteemed necessary preparations to the Sacrament , are the greatest arguments in the world that it is best to communicate often ; because the doing of that which must suppose the exercise of so many Graces , must needs promote the interest of Religion , and dispose strongly to habitual Graces by our frequent and solemn repetition of the acts . It is necessary that every Communicant be first examined concerning the state of his Soul , by himself or his Superiour ; and that very Scrutiny is in admirable order towards the reformation of such irregularities which time and temptation , negligence and incuriousness , infirmity or malice have brought into the secret regions of our Will and Understanding . Now although this Examination be therefore enjoyned , that no man should approach to the holy Table in the state of ruine and reprobation , and that therefore it is an act not of direct Preparation , but an enquiry whether we be prepared or no ; yet this very Examination will find so many little irregularities , and so many great imperfections , that it will appear the more necessary , to repair the breaches and lesser ruines by such acts of Piety and Religion ; because every Communication is intended to be a nearer approach to God , a 〈◊〉 step in Grace , a progress towards glory , and an instrument of perfection ; and therefore upon the stock of our spiritual interests , for the purchase of a greater hope , and the advantages of a growing Charity , ought to be frequently received . I end with the words of a pious and learned person : It is a vain fear and an imprudent 〈◊〉 , that procrastinates and desers going to the Lord that calls them : they deny to go to the fire , pretending they are cold ; and refuse Physick , because they need it . The PRAYER , O Blessed and Eternal Jesus , who gavest thy self a Sacrifice for our sins , thy Body for our spiritual food , thy 〈◊〉 to nourish our spirits , and to quench the flames of Hell and Lust , who didst so love us , who were thine enemies , that thou desiredst to reconcile us to thee , and becamest all one with us , that we may live the same life , think the same thoughts , love the same love , and be partakers of thy Resurrection and Immortality ; open every window of my Soul , that I may be full of light , and may see the excellency of thy Love , the merits of thy Sacrifice , the bitterness of thy Passion , the glories and virtues of the mysterious Sacrament . Lord , let me ever hunger and thirst after this instrument of Righteousness ; let me have no gust or relish of the unsatisfying delights of things below , but let my Soul dwell in thee ; let me for ever receive thee spiritually , and very frequently communicate with thee sacramentally , and imitate thy Vertues pionsly and strictly , and dwell in the pleasures of thy house eternally . Lord , thou hast prepared a table for me , against them that trouble me : let that holy Sacrament of the Eucharist be to me a defence and shield , a nourishment and medicine , life and health , a means of sanctification and spiritual growth ; that I receiving the body of my dearest Lord may be one with his mystical body , and of the same spirit , united with indissoluble bonds of a strong Faith , and a holy Hope , and a never-failing Charity , that from this veil I may pass into the visions of eternal clarity , from eating thy Body to beholding thy face in the glories of thy everlasting Kingdom , O Blessed and Eternal Jesus . Amen . Considerations upon the Accidents happening on the Vespers of the Passion . The Prayer in the Garden . Luk : 22. 41. And he was withdrawn from them about a stones cast , & kneeled down & prayed . 42 Saying , Father , if thou be willing remove this Cup from me : nevertheless not my will but thine be done . 43 And there appeared an Angel from heaven strengthening him . Iudas betrayeth Christ : Mat : 26. 47. And while he yet spake , Lo. Iudas one of the twelue came , and with him a great multitude with swords and staves from the chief Preists & Elders of the people . 48. Now he that be trayed him gave them a sign saying whomsoever I shall kiss , that same is he , hold him fast . 49. And forthwith he came to Iesus and said , Haile Master , and kissed him . 1. WHen Jesus had supped and sang a Hymn , and prayed , and exhorted and comforted his Disciples with a Farewell-Sermon , in which he repeated 〈◊〉 of his former Precepts which were now apposite to the present condition , and re-inforced them with proper and pertinent arguments , he went over the brook Cedron , and entred into a Garden , and into the prologue of his Passion ; chusing that place for his Agony and satisfactory pains , in which the first scene of humane misery was represented , and where he might best attend the offices of Devotion preparatory to his Death . Besides this , he therefore departed from the house , that he might give opportunity to his Enemies surprise , and yet not incommodate the good man by whose hospitality they had eaten the Paschal Lamb ; so that he went like a Lamb to the slaughter , to the Garden as to a prison , as if by an agreement with his persecutors he had expected their arrest , and stayed there to prevent their farther enquiry . For so great was his desire to pay our Ransom , that himself did assist by a forward patience and active opportunity towards the persecution : teaching us , that by an active zeal and a ready spirit we assist the designs of God's glory , though in our own sufferings and secular infelicities . 2. When he entred the Garden , he left his Disciples at the entrance of it , calling with him only Peter , James and John : he withdrew himself from the rest about a stone 's cast , and began to be exceeding heavy . He was not sad till he had called them , ( for his sorrow began when he pleased : ) which sorrow he also chose to represent to those three who had seen his Transfiguration , the earnest of his future Glory , that they might see of how great glory for our sakes he disrobed himself ; and that they also might by the confronting those contradictory accidents observe , that God uses to dispense his comforts , the irradiations and emissions of his glory , to be preparatives to those sorrows with which our life must be allayed and seasoned ; that none should refuse to partake of the sufferings of Christ , if either they have already felt his comforts , or hope hereafter to wear his crown . And it is not ill observed , that S. Peter , being the chief of the Apostles and Doctor of the Circumcision , S. John , being a Virgin , and S. James the first of the Apostles that was martyred , were admitted to Christ's greatest retirements and mysterious secrecies , as being persons of so singular and eminent dispositions , to whom , according to the pious opinion of the Church , especially Coronets are prepared in Heaven , besides the great Crown of rightcousness , which in common shall beautifie the heads of all the Saints ; meaning this , that Doctors , Virgins and Martyrs shall receive , even for their very state of life and accidental Graces , more eminent degrees of accidental Glory , like as the Sun , reflecting upon a limpid fountain , receives its rays doubled , without any increment of its proper and natural light . 3. Jesus began to be exceeding sorrowful , to be sore amazed and sad even to death . And because he was now to suffer the pains of our sins , there began his Passion whence our sins spring . From an evil heart and a prevaricating spirit all our sins arise ; and in the spirit of Christ began his sorrow , where he truly felt the full value and demerit of Sin , which we think not worthy of a tear or a hearty sigh , but he groaned and fell under the burthen . But therefore he took upon him this sadness , that our imperfect sorrow and contrition might be heightned in his example , and accepted in its union and consederacy with his . And Jesus still designed a farther mercy for us ; for he sanctified the passion of Fear , and hallowed natural sadnesses , that we might not think the infelicities of our nature and the calamities of our temporal condition to become criminal , so long as they make us not omit a duty , or dispose us to the election of a crime , or force us to swallow a temptation , nor yet to exceed the value of their impulsive cause . He that grieves for the loss of friends , and yet had rather lose all the friends he hath than lose the love of God , hath the sorrow of our Lord for his precedent . And he that fears death , and trembles at its approximation , and yet had rather die again than sin once , hath not sinned in his fear ; Christ hath hallowed it , and the necessitous condition of his nature is his excuse . But it were highly to be wished , that in the midst of our caresses and levities of society , in our festivities and triumphal merriments , when we laugh at folly and rejoyce in sin , we would remember that for those very merriments our Blessed Lord felt a bitter sorrow ; and not one vain and sinful laughter ; but cost the Holy Jesus a sharp pang and throe of Passion . 4. Now that the Holy Jesus began to taste the bitter Cup , he betook him to his great Antidote , which himself , the great Physician of our Souls , prescribed to all the world to cure their calamities , and to make them pass from miseries into vertue , that so they may arrive at glory ; he prays to his heavenly Father , he kneels down , and not only so , but falls flat upon the earth , and would in humility and fervent adoration have descended low as the centre ; he prays with an intension great as his sorrow , and yet with a dereliction so great , and a conformity to the Divine will so ready , as if it had been the most indifferent thing in the world for him to be delivered to death , or from it : for though his nature did decline death , as that which hath a natural horrour and contradiction to the present interest of its preservation ; yet when he looked upon it as his heavenly Father had put it into the order of Redemption of the World , it was that Baptism which he was straitned till he had accomplished . And now there is not in the world any condition of prayer which is essential to the duty , or any circumstances of advantage to its performance , but were concentred in this one instance ; Humility of spirit , lowliness of deportment , importunity of desire , a fervent spirit , a lawful matter , resignation to the will of God , great love , the love of a Son to his Father , ( which appellative was the form of his address ) perseverance , ( he went thrice , and prayed the same prayer . ) It was not long , and it was so retired as to have the advantages of a sufficient solitude and opportune recollection ; for he was withdrawn from the most of his Disciples : and yet not so alone as to lose the benefit of communion ; for Peter and the two Boanerges were near him . Christ in this prayer , which was the most fervent that he ever made on earth , intending to transmit to all the world a precedent of Devotion to be transcribed and imitated ; that we should cast all our cares , and empty them in the bosom of God , being content to receive such a portion of our trouble back again , which he assigns us for our spiritual emolument . 5. The Holy Jesus having in a few words poured out torrents of innocent desires , was pleased still to interrupt his Prayer , that he might visit his charge , that little flock which was presently after to be scattered : he was careful of them in the midst of his Agonies ; they in his sufferings were fast asleep . He awakens them , gives them command to watch and pray , that is to be vigilant in the custody of their senses , and obervant of all accidents , and to pray that they may be strengthened against all incursions of enemies and temptations ; and then returns to prayer ; and so a third time ; his Devotion still encreasing with his sorrow . And when his Prayer was full , and his sorrow come to a great measure , after the third , God sent his Angel to comfort him ; and by that act of grace then only expressed , hath taught us to continue our Devotions so long as our needs last . It may be God will not send a Comsorter till the third time , that is , after a long expectation , and a patient 〈◊〉 , and a lasting hope : in the interim God supports us with a secret hand , and in his own time will refresh the spirit with the visitations of his Angels , with the emissions of comfort from the Spirit , the Comforter . And know this also , that the holy Angel , and the Lord of all the Angels , stands by every holy person when he prays ; and although he draws before his glories the curtain of a cloud , yet in every instant he takes care we shall not perish , and in a just season dissolves the cloud , and makes it to distill in holy dew , and drops sweet as Manna , pleasant as Nard , and wholsome as the breath of Heaven . And such was the consolation which the Holy Jesus received by the ministery of the Angel , representing to Christ the Lord of the Angels , how necessary it was that he should die for the glory of God ; that in his Passion his Justice , Wisdom , Goodness , Power and Mercy should shine ; that unless he died all the World should perish , but his bloud should obtain their pardon ; and that it should open the gates of Heaven , repair the ruine of Angels , establish a holy Church , be 〈◊〉 of innumerable adoptive children to his Father , whom himself should make heirs of glory ; and that his Passion should soon pass away , his Father hearing and granting his Prayer , that the Cup should pass speedily , though indeed it should pass through him ; that it should be attended and followed with a glorious Resurrection , with eternal rest and glory of his Humanity , with the exaltation of his Name , with a supreme dominion over all the world , and that his Father should make him King of Kings , and Prince of the Catholick Church . These , or whatsoever other comforts the Angel ministred , were such considerations which the Holy Jesus knew , and the Angel knew not but by communication from that God to whose assumed Humanity the Angel spake ; yet he was pleased to receive comfort from his servant , just as God receives glory from his creatures , and as he rejoyces in his own works , even because he is good and gracious , and is pleased so to do ; and because himself had caused a voluntary sadness to be interposed between the habitual knowledge and the actual consideration of these discourses ; and we feel a pleasure when a friendly hand lays upon our wound the plaister which our selves have made , and applies such instruments and considerations of comfort which we have in notion and an ineffective habit , but cannot reduce them to act , because no man is so apt to be his own comforter ; which God hath therefore permitted , that our needs should be the occasion of a mutual Charity . 6. It was a great season for the Angel's coming , because it was a great necessity which was incumbent upon our Lord ; for his sadness and his Agony was so great , mingled and compounded of sorrow and zeal , fear and desire , innocent nature and perfect grace , that he sweat drops as great as if the bloud had started through little undiscerned fontinels , and outrun the streams and rivers of his Cross. * Euthymius and ‖ Theophylact say , that the Evangelists use this as a tragical expression of the greatest Agony , and an unusual sweat , it being usual to call the tears of the greatest sorrow tears of 〈◊〉 . But from the beginning of the Church it hath been more generally apprehended literally , and that some bloud mingled with the 〈◊〉 substance issued from his veins in so great abundance , that they moistened the ground , and bedecked his garment , which stood like a new firmament studded with stars , portending an approaching storm . Now he came from Bozrah with his garments red and bloudy . And this Agony verified concerning the Holy Jesus those words of David , I am poured out like water , my bones are dispersed , my heart in the midst of my body is like melting wax , saith Justin Martyr . * Venerable Bede saith , that the descending of these drops of bloud upon the earth , besides the general purpose , had also a particular relation to the present infirmities of the Apostles , that our Blessed Lord obtained of his Father , by the merits of those holy drops , mercies and special support for them ; and that effusion redeemed them from the present participation of death . And S. Austin meditates , that the Body of our Lord all overspread with drops of bloudy sweat did prefigure the future state of Martyrs , and that his Body mystical should be clad in a red garment variegated with the symbols of labour and passion , sweat and bloud ; by which himself was pleased to purifie his Church , and present her to God holy and spotless . What collateral designs and tacite significations might be designed by this mysterious sweat , I know not ; certainly it was a sad beginning of a most dolorous Passion : and such griefs , which have so violent , permanent and sudden effects upon the body , which is not of a nature symbolical to interiour and immaterial causes , are proclaimed by such marks to be high and violent . We have read of some persons , that the grief and fear of one night hath put a cover of snow upon their heads , as if the labours of thirty years had been extracted , and the quintessence drank off in the passion of that night : but if Nature had been capable of a greater or more prodigious impress of passion than a bloudy sweat , it must needs have happened in this Agony of the Holy Jesus , in which he undertook a grief great enough to make up the imperfect Contrition of all the Saints , and to satisfie for the impenitencies of all the world . 7. By this time the Traitor Judas was arrived at Gethsemani , and being in the vicinage of the Garden , Jesus rises from his prayers , and first calls his Disciples from their sleep , and by an Irony seems to give them leave to sleep on , but reproves their drousiness , when danger is so near , and bids them henceforth take their rest ; meaning , if they could for danger , which now was indeed come to the Garden-doors . But the Holy Jesus , that it might appear he undertook the Passion with choice and a free election , not only refused to flie , but called his Apostles to rise , that they might meet his Murtherers , who came to him with swords and staves , as if they were to surprise a Prince of armed Out-laws , whom without force they could not reduce . So also might Butchers do well to go armed , when they are pleased to be afraid of Lambs , by calling them Lions . Judas only discovered his Master's retirements , and betrayed him to the opportunities of an armed band ; for he could not accuse his Master of any word or private action , that might render him obnoxious to suspicion or the Law. For such are the rewards of innocence and prudence , that the one secures against sin , the other against suspicion and appearances . 8. The Holy Jesus had accustomed to receive every of his Disciples after absence with entertainment of a Kiss , which was the endearment of persons , and the expression of the oriental civility : and Judas was confident that his Lord would not reject him , whose feet he had washed at the time when he foretold this event , and therefore had agreed to signifie him by this * sign ; and did so , beginning war with a Kiss , and breaking the peace of his Lord by the symbol of kindness : which because Jesus entertained with much evenness and charitable expressions , calling him ‖ Friend , he gave evidence , that if he retained civilities to his greatest enemies in the very acts of hostility , he hath banquets and crowns and scepters for his friends , that adore him with the kisses of Charity , and love him with the sincerity of an affectionate spirit . But our Blessed Lord , besides his essential sweetness and serenity of spirit , understood well how great benefits himself and all the World were to receive by occasion of that act of Judas : and our greatest enemy does by accident to holy persons the offices of their dearest friends ; telling us our faults without a cloak to cover their deformities , but out of malice laying open the circumstances of aggravation , doing us affronts , from whence we have an instrument of our Patience , and restraining us from scandalous crimes , lest we become a scorn and reproof to them that 〈◊〉 us . And it is none of God's least mercies , that he permits enmities amongst men , that animosities and peevishness may reprove more sharply , and correct with more severity and simplicity , than the gentle hand of friends , who are apter to bind our wounds up , than to discover them and make them smart ; but they are to us an excellent probation how friends may best do the offices of friends , if they would take the plainness of enemies in accusing , and still mingle it with the tenderness and good affections of friends . But our Blessed Lord called Judas Friend , as being the instrument of bringing him to glory , and all the World to pardon , if they would . 9. Jesus himself begins the enquiry , and leads them into their errand , and tells them he was JESUS of Nazareth whom they sought . But this also , which was an answer so gentle , had in it a strength greater than the Eastern wind or the voice of thunder ; for God was in that still voice , and it * struck them down to the ground . And yet they , and so do we still persist to persecute our Lord , and to provoke the eternal God , who can with the breath of his mouth , with a word , or a sign , or a thought , reduce us into nothing , or into a worse condition , even an eternal duration of torments , and cohabitation with a never-ending misery . And if we cannot bear a soft answer of the merciful God , how shall we dare to provoke the wrath of the Almighty Judge ? But in this instance there was a rare mixture of effects , as there was in Christ of Natures ; the voice of a Man , and the power of God. For it is observed by the Doctors of the Primitive Ages , that from the Nativity of our Lord to the day of his Death , the Divinity and Humanity did so communicate in effects , that no great action passed , but it was like the Sun shining through a cloud , or a beauty with a thin veil drawn over it , they gave illustration and testimony to each other . The Holy Jesus was born a tender and a crying Infant ; but is adored by the Magi as a King , by the Angels as their GOD. He is circumcised as a Man ; but a name is given him to signifie him to be the SAVIOUR of the World. He flies into Egypt like a distressed Child under the conduct of his helpless Parents ; but as soon as he enters the Country , the Idols fall down and confess his true Divinity . He is presented in the Temple as the Son of man ; but by Simeon and Anna he is celebrated with divine praises for the MESSIAS , the SON OF GOD. He is baptized in Jordan as a Sinner ; but the Holy Ghost descending upon him proclaimed him to be the well-beloved of God. He is hungry in the Desart as a Man ; but sustained his body without meat and drink for forty days together by the power of his Divinity : There he is tempted of Satan as a weak Man , and the Angels of light minister unto him as their supreme Lord. And now a little before his death , when he was to take upon him all the affronts , miseries and exinanitions of the most miserable , he receives testimonies from above , which are most wonderful : For he was tranfigured upon Mount Tabor , entred triumphantly into Jerusalem , had the acclamations of the people : when he was dying , he darkned the Sun ; when he was dead , he opened the sepulchres ; when he was fast nailed to the Cross , he made the earth to tremble ; now when he suffers himself to be apprehended by a guard of Souldiers , he strikes them all to the ground only by replying to their answer , that the words of the Prophet might be verified , Therefore my people shall know my Name ; therefore they shall know in that day , that I am he that doth speak , behold it is I. 10. The Souldiers and servants of the Jews having recovered from their fall , and risen by the permission of Jesus , still persisted in their enquiry after him , who was present , ready , and desirous to be sacrificed . He therefore permitted himself to be taken , but not his Disciples : for he it was that set them their bounds ; and he secured his Apostles to be witnesses of his suffering and his glories ; and this work was the Redemption of the world , * in which no man could have an active share , he alone was to tread the wine-press ; and time enough they should be called to a fellowship of sufferings . But Jesus went to them , and they bound him with cords : and so began our liberty and redemption from slavery , and sin , and cursings , and death . But he was bound faster by bands of his own ; his Father's Will , and Mercy , Pity of the world , Prophecies , and ‖ Mysteries , and Love held him fast : and these cords were as strong as death ; and the cords which the Souldiers malice put upon his holy hands were but symbols and figures , his own compassion and affection were the morals . But yet he undertook this short restraint and condition of a prisoner , that all sorts of persecution and exteriour calamities might be hallowed by his susception , and these pungent sorrows should like bees sting him , and leave their sting behind , that all the sweetness should remain for us . Some melancholick Devotions have from uncertain stories added sad circumstances of the first violence done to our Lord ; That they bound him with three cords , and that with so much violence , that they caused bloud to start from his tender hands ; That they 〈◊〉 then also upon him with a violence and incivility like that which their Fathers had used towards Hur the brother of Aaron , whom they choaked with impure spittings into his throat , because he refused to consent to the making a golden Calf . These particulars are not transmitted by certain Records . Certain it is , they wanted no malice , and now no power ; for the Lord had given himself into their hands . 11. S. Peter seeing his Master thus ill used asked , Master , shall we strike with the sword ? and before he had his answer cut off the ear of Malchus . Two swords there were in Christ's family , and S. Peter bore one ; either because he was to kill the Paschal Lamb , or , according to the custom of the Country , to secure them against beasts of prey , which in that region were frequent , and dangerous in the night . But now he used it in an unlawful war ; he had no competent authority , it was against the Ministers of his lawful Prince , and against our Prince we must not draw a sword for Christ himself , himself having forbidden us ; as his kingdom is not of this world , so neither were his defences secular : he could have called for many legions of Angels for his guard , if he had so pleased ; and we read that one Angel slew 185000 armed men in one night ; and therefore it was a vast power which was at the command of our Lord ; and he needs not such low auxiliaries as an army of Rebels , or a navy of Pirates , to 〈◊〉 his cause : he first lays the foundation of our happiness in his sufferings , and hath ever since supported Religion by patience and suffering , and in poverty , and all the circumstances and conjunctures of improbable causes . Fighting for Religion is certain to destroy Charity , but not certain to support Faith. S. Peter therefore may use his keys , but he is commanded to put up his sword ; and he did so ; and presently he and all his fellows fairly ran away : and yet that course was much the more Christian , for though it had in it much infirmity , yet it had no malice . In the mean time the Lord was pleased to touch the ear of Malchus , and he cured it ; adding to the first instance of power , in throwing them to the ground , an act of miraculous mercy , curing the wounds of an enemy made by a friend . But neither did this pierce their callous and obdurate spirits ; but they led him in uncouth ways , and through the brook Cedron , in which it is said the ruder souldiers plunged him , and passed upon him all the affronts and rudenesses which an insolent and cruel multitude could think of , to signifie their contempt and their rage . And such is the nature of evil men , who , when they are not softned by the instruments and arguments of Grace , are much hardned by them ; such being the purpose of God , that either Grace shall cure sin , or accidentally increase it ; that it shall either pardon it , or bring it to greater punishment : for so I have seen healthful medicines abused by the incapacities of a heathless body become fuel to a fever , and increase the distemperature from indisposition to a sharp disease , and from thence to the margent of the grave . But it was otherwise in Saul , whom Jesus threw to the ground with a more angry sound than these persecutors : but Saul rose a Saint , and they persisted Devils , and the grace of God distinguished the events . The PRAYER . O Holy Jesus , make me by thy example to conform to the will of that Eternal God who is our Father , merciful and gracious , that I may chuse all those accidents which his Providence hath actually disposed to me , that I may know no desires but his commands , and his will , and that in all afflictions I may fly thither for mercy , pardon , and support , and may wait for deliverance in such times and manners which the Father hath reserved in his own power , and graciously dispenses according to his infinite wisdom and compassion . Holy Jesus , give me the gift and spirit of Prayer , and do thou by thy gracious intercession supply my ignorances and passionate desires and imperfect choices , procuring and giving to me such returns of favour which may support my needs , and serve the ends of Religion and the Spirit , which thy wisdom chuses , and thy Passion hath purchased , and thy grace loves to bestow upon all thy Saints and servants . Amen . II. ETernal God , sweetest Jesu , who didst receive Judas with the affection of a Saviour , and sufferedst him to kiss thy cheek , with the serenity and tranquillity of God , and didst permit the souldiers to bind thee , with Patience exemplary to all ages of Martyrs , and didst cure the wound of thy enemy with the Charity of a Parent , and the tenderness of an infinite pity ; O kiss me with the kisses of thy mouth , embrace me with the entertainments of a gracious Lord , and let my Soul dwell and feast in thee , who art the repository of eternal sweetness and refreshments . Bind me , O Lord , with those bands which tied thee fast , the chains of Love ; that such holy union may dissolve the cords of vanity , and confine the bold pretensions of usurping Passions , and imprison all extravagancies of an impertinent spirit , and lead Sin captive to the dominion of Grace and sanctified Reason ; that I also may imitate all the parts of thy holy Passion , and may by thy bands get my liberty , by thy kiss enkindle charity , by the touch of thy hand and the breath of thy mouth have all my wounds cured and restored to the integrity of a holy Penitent , and the purities of Innocence , that I may love thee , and please thee , and live with thee for ever , O Holy and sweetest Jesu . Amen . Considerations upon the Scourging and other Accidents happening from the Apprehension till the Crucifixion of JESUS . Christ brought before the Highpreist . Iohn . 18 : 12. Then the Band and the Captain and the Officers of the Iews took Iesus and bound him . 25. And lead him away to Annas first for he was Father-in-law to Cajaphas , which was Highpreist that same yeare . Christ arraigned before Herod . Luk. 23. 7. 8. 11. And assoone as he knew that he belonged to Herods jurisdiction , he sent him to Herod . 8. And when Herod saw Iesus , he was exceeding glad : 11. And Herod with his men of war set him at nought , and mocked him , and arrayed him in a gorgeous robe , and sent him againe to Pilate . 1. THE house of Annas stood in the mount Sion , and in the way to the house of Caiaphas ; and thither he was led as to the first stage of their triumph for their surprise of a person so feared and desired ; and there a naughty person smote the 〈◊〉 Jesus upon the face , for saying to Annas that he had made his Doctrine publick , and that all the people were able to give account of it : to whom the Lamb of God 〈◊〉 as much meekness and patience in his answer , as in his answer to Annas he had 〈◊〉 prudence and modesty . For now that they had taken Jesus , they wanted a crime to object against him , and therefore were desirous to snatch occasion from his discourses , to which they resolved to tempt him by questions and affronts : but his answer was general and indefinite , safe and true , enough to acquit his Doctrine from suspicions of secret designs , and yet secure against their present snares ; for now himself , who always had the innocence of Doves , was to joyn with it the prudence and wariness of Serpents ; not to prevent death , ( for that he was resolved to suffer ) but that they might be destitute of all apparence of a just cause on his part . Here it was that Judas received his money ; and here that holy Face which was designed to be that object in the beholding of which much of the celestial glory doth consist , that Face which the Angels stare upon with wonder , like infants at a bright Sun-beam , was smitten extrajudicially by an incompetent person , with circumstances of despight , in the presence of a Judge , in a full assembly , and none reproved the insolency and the cruelty of the affront : for they resolved to use him as they use Wolves and Tigres , with all things that may be destructive , violent and impious : and in this the injury was heightned , because the blow was said to be given by Malchus an Idumaean slave , and therefore a contemptible person ; but far more unworthy by his ingratitude , for so he repayed the Holy Jesus for working a Miracle and healing his ear . But so the Scripture was fulfilled ; He shall give his body to the smiters , and his cheeks to the nippers , saith the Prophet Isay ; and , They shall smite the cheek of the Judge of Israel , saith Micah . And this very circumstance of the Passion Lactantius . * affirms to have been foretold by the Erythraean Sibyll . But no meekness or indifferency could engage our Lord not to protest his innocency : and though following his steps we must walk in the regions of patience , and tranquillity , and admirable toleration of injuries ; yet we may represent such defences of our selves , which by not resisting the sentence may testifie that our suffering is undeserved : and if our Innocency will not preserve our lives , it will advance our title to a better ; and every good cause ill judged shall be brought to another tribunal to receive a just and unerring sentence . 2. Annas having suffered this unworthy usage towards a person so excellent , sent him away to Caiphas , who had formerly in a full council resolved he should die ; yet now palliating the design with the scheme of a tribunal , they seek out for witnesses , and the witnesses are to seek for allegations ; and when they find them , they are to seek for proof , and those proofs were to seek for unity and consent , and nothing was ready for their purposes ; but they were forced to use the semblance of a judicial process , that , because they were to make use of Pilate's authority to put him to death , they might perswade Pilate to accept of their examination and conviction without farther enquiry . But such had been the excellency and exemplar Piety and prudence of the life of Jesus , that if they pretended against him questions of their Law , they were not capital in a Roman Court : if they affirmed that he had moved the people to sedition and affected the Kingdom , they saw that all the world would convince them of 〈◊〉 testimony . At last , after many attempts , they accused him for a figurative speech , a trope which they could not understand ; which if it had been spoken in a literal sence , and had been acted too according to the letter , had been so far from a fault , that it would have been a prodigy of power ; and it had been easier to raise the Temple of Jerusalem , than to raise the temple of his Body . In the mean time , the Lamb of God left his cause to defend it self under the protection of his heavenly Father ; not only because himself was determined to die , but because if he had not , those premisses could never have inferred it . But this Silence of the Holy Jesus fulfilled a Prophecy , it made his enemies full of murmur and amazement , it made them to see that he despised the accusations as certain and apparent calumnies ; but that himself was fearless of the issue , and in the sence of morality and mysteries taught us not to be too apt to excuse our selves , when the semblance of a fault lies upon us , unless by some other duty we are obliged to our defences ; since he who was most innocent , was most silent : and it was expedient , that as the first Adam increased his sin by a vain apology , the silence and sufferance of the second Adam should expiate and reconcile it . 3. But Caiaphas had a reserve , which he knew should do the business in that assembly ; he adjured him by God to tell him if he were the CHRIST . The Holy Jesus , being adjured by so sacred a Name , would not now refuse an answer , lest it might not consist with that honour which is due to it , and which he always payed , and that he might neither despise the authority of the High Priest , nor upon so solemn occasion be wanting to that great truth which he came down to earth to perswade to the world . And when three such circumstances concur , it is enough to open our mouths , though we let in death . And so did our Lord , confessed himself to be the CHRIST , the Son of the living God. And this the High Priest was pleased , as the design was laid , to call Blasphemy ; and there they voted him to die . Then it was the High Priest rent his cloaths ; the veil of the Temple was rent when the Passion was finished , the cloaths of the Priests at the beginning of it : and as that signified the departing of the Synagogue , and laying Religion open ; so did the rending the garments of Caiaphas prophetically signifie that the Priesthood should be rent from him , and from the Nation . And thus the personated and theatrical admiration at Jesus became the type of his own punishment , and consigned the Nation to delition : and usually God so dispenses his Judgments , that when men personate the tragedies of others , they really act their own . 4. Whilest these things were acting concerning the Lord , a sad accident happened to his servant Peter : for being engaged in strange and evil company in the midst of danger , surprised with a question without time to deliberate an answer , to find subterfuges , or to fortifie himself , he denied his Lord shamefully , with some boldness at first , and this grew to a licencious confidence , and then to impudence , and denying with perjury , that he knew not his Lord , who yet was known to him as his own heart , and was dearer than his eyes , and for whom he professed but a little before he would die ; but did not do so till many years after . But thus he became to us a sad example of humane infirmity ; and if the Prince of the Apostles fell so 〈◊〉 , it is full of pity , but not to be upbraided , if we see the fall of lesser stars . And yet that we may prevent so great a ruine , we must not mingle with such company who will provoke or scorn us into sin ; and if we do , yet we must stand upon our guard that a sudden motion do not surprise us : or if we be arrested , yet let us not enter farther into our sin , like wild beasts intricating themselves by their impatience . For there are some who , being ashamed and impatient to have been engaged , take sanctuary in boldness and a shameless abetting it , so running into the darkness of Hell to hide their nakedness . But he also by returning , and rising instantly , became to us a rare example of Penitence ; and his not lying long in the crime did facilitate this restitution . For the spirit of God being extinguished by our works of darkness , is like a taper , which if , as soon as the 〈◊〉 is blown out , it be brought to the fire , it sucks light , and without trouble is re-enkindled ; but if it cools into death and stiffness , it requires a longer stay and trouble . The Holy Jesus in the midst of his own sufferings forgat not his servant's danger , but was pleased to look upon him when the Cock crew ; and the Cock was the Preacher , and the Look of Jesus was the Grace that made the Sermon effectual : and because he was but newly fallen , and his habitual love of his Master , though interrupted , yet had suffered no natural abatement , he returned with the swiftness of an Eagle to the embraces and primitive affections of his Lord. 5. By this time suppose Sentence given , Caiaphas prejudging all the Sanhedrim ; for he first declared Jesus to have spoken Blasphemy , and the fact to be notorious , and then asked their votes ; which whoso then should have denied , must have contested the judgment of the High Priest , who by the favour of the Romans was advanced , ( Valerius Gratus , who was President of Judaea , having been his Patron ) and his Faction potent , and his malice great , and his heart set upon this business : all which inconveniences none of them durst have suffered , unless he had had the confidence greater than of an Apostle at that time . But this Sentence was but like strong dispositions to an enraged fever ; he was only declared apt and worthy for death , they had no power at that time to inflict it ; but yet they let loose all the fury of mad-men and insolency of wounded smarting souldiers : and although from the time of his being in the house of Annas till the Council met , they had used him with studied indignities ; yet now they renewed and doubled the unmercifulness , and their injustice , to so great a height , that their injuries must needs have been greater than his Patience , if his Patience had been less than infinite . For thus Man's Redemption grows up as the load swells which the Holy Jesus bare for us ; for these were our portion , and we , having turned the flowers of Paradise into thistles , should for ever have felt their infelicity , had not Jesus paid the debt . But he bearing them upon his tender body with an even and excellent and dispassionate spirit , offered up these beginnings of sufferings to his Father , to obtain pardon even for them that injured him , and for all the World. 6. Judas now seeing that this matter went farther than he intended it , repented of his fact . For although evil persons are in the progress of their iniquity invited on by new arguments , and supported by confidence and a careless spirit : yet when iniquity is come to the height , or so great a proportion that it is apt to produce Despair or an intolerable condition , then the Devil suffers the Conscience to thaw and grow tender ; but it is the tenderness of a Bile , it is soreness rather and a new disease ; and either it comes when the time of Repentance is past , or leads to some act which shall make the pardon to be impossible : and so it happened here . For Judas , either impatient of the shame or of the sting , was thrust on to despair of pardon , with a violence as hasty and as great as were his needs . And Despair is very often used like the bolts and bars of Hell-gates , it 〈◊〉 upon them that had entred into the suburbs of eternal death by an habitual sin , and it secures them against all retreat . And the Devil is forward enough to bring a man to Repentance , provided it be too late ; and Esau wept bitterly and repented him , and the five foolish Virgins lift up their voice aloud when the gates were shut , and in Hell men shall repent to all eternity . But I consider the very great folly and infelicity of Judas : it was at midnight he received his money in the house of Annas , betimes in that morning he repented his bargain ; he threw the money back again , but his sin stuck close , and it is thought to a 〈◊〉 eternity . Such is the purchace of Treason and the reward of Covetousness ; it is cheap in its offers , momentany in its possession , unsatisfying in the fruition , uncertain in the stay , sudden in its 〈◊〉 , horrid in the remembrance , and a ruine , a certain and miserable ruine is in the event . When Judas came in that sad condition , and told his miserable story to them that set him on work , they 〈◊〉 him go away unpitied ; he had served their ends in betraying his Lord , and those that hire such servants use to leave them in the disaster , to shame and to sorrow : and so did the Priests , but took the money , and 〈◊〉 to put it into the treasury , because it was the price of bloud ; but they made no scruple to take it from the treasury to buy that bloud . Any thing seems lawful that serves the ends of ambitious and bloudy persons , and then they are scrupulous in their cases of Conscience when nothing of Interest does intervene : for evil men make Religion the servant of Interest ; and sometimes weak men think that it is the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 Religion , and suspect that all of it is a design , because many great Politicks make it so . The end of the Tragedy was , that Judas died with an ignoble death , marked with the circumstances of a horrid Judgment , and perished by the most infamous hands in the world , that is , by his own . Which if it be confronted against the excellent spirit of S. Peter , who did an act as contradictory to his honour and the grace of God as could be easily imagined ; yet taking sanctuary in the arms of his Lord , he lodged in his heart for ever , and became an example to all the world of the excellency of the Divine Mercy , and the efficacy of a holy Hope , and a hearty , timely and an operative Repentance . 7. 〈◊〉 now all things were ready for the purpose , the High Priest and all his Council go along with the Holy Jesus to the house of Pilate , hoping he would verifie their Sentence , and bring it to execution , that they might 〈◊〉 be rid of their fears , and enjoy their sin and their reputation quietly . S. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that the High Priest caused the Holy Jesus to be led with a cord about his neck , and , in memory of that , the Priests for many Ages 〈◊〉 a stole about theirs . But the Jews did it according to the custom of the Nation , to signifie he was condemned to death : they desired Pilate that he would crucifie him , they having 〈◊〉 him worthy . And when Pilate enquired into the particulars , they gave him a general and an indefinite answer ; If he were not guilty , we would not have brought him 〈◊〉 thee : they intended not to make Pilate Judge of the cause , but 〈◊〉 of their cruelty . But Pilate had not learned to be guided by an implicite faith of such persons , which he knew to be malicious and violent ; and therefore still called for instances and arguments of their Accusation . And that all the world might see with how great unworthiness they prosecuted the 〈◊〉 , they chiefly there accused him of such crimes upon which themselves condemned him not , and which they knew to be false , but yet likely to move Pilate , if he had been passionate or inconsiderate in his sentences ; [ He offered to make himself a King. ] This 〈◊〉 happened at the entry of the Praetorium ; for the 〈◊〉 , who made no conscience of killing the King of Heaven , made a conscience of the external customs and ceremonies of their Law , which had in them no interiour sanctity , which were apt to separate them 〈◊〉 the Nations , and remark them with characters of Religion and abstraction : it would defile them to go to a Roman Forum , 〈◊〉 a capital action was to be judged ; and yet the effusion of the best bloud in the world was not esteemed against their 〈◊〉 : so violent and blind is the spirit of malice , which turns humanity into 〈◊〉 , wisdom into craft , diligence into subornation , and Religion into Superstition . 8. Two other articles they alledged against him : but the first concerned not Pilate , and the second was involved in the third , and therefore he chose to examine him upon this only of his being a King. To which the Holy Jesus answered , that it is true , he was 〈◊〉 King indeed , but not of this world ; his Throne is Heaven , the Angels are his Courtiers , and the 〈◊〉 Creation are his Subjects : His Regiment is spiritual , his 〈◊〉 are the Courts of Conscience and Church-tribunals , and at Dooms-day the Clouds : The Tribute which he demands are conformity to his Laws , Faith , 〈◊〉 , and Charity ; no other Gabels but the duties of a holy Spirit , and the expresses of a religious Worship , and obedient Will , and a consenting Understanding . And in all this Pilate thought the interest of 〈◊〉 was not invaded . For certain it is , the Discipline of Jesus confirmed it much , and supported it by the strongest pillars . And here Pilate saw how impertinent and malicious their Accusation was : And we , who declaim against the unjust proceedings of the Jews against our dearest Lord , should do well to take care that we , in accusing any of our Brethren either with malicious purpose , or with an uncharitable circumstance , do not commit the same fault which in them we so hate and accuse . Let no man speak any thing of his neighbourhood but what is true : and yet if a truth be heightned by the biting Rhetorick of a satyrical spirit , extended and drawn forth in circumstances and arts of aggravation , the truth becomes a load to the guilty person , is a prejudice to the sentence of the Judge , and hath not so much as the excuse of Zeal , much less the Charity of Christianity . Sufficient to every man is the plain story of his crime ; and to excuse as much of it as we can , would better become us , who perish unless we be excused for infinite irregularities . But if we add this also , that we accuse our Brethren 〈◊〉 them that may amend them and reform their error , if we pity their persons and do not hate them , if we seek nothing of their disgrace and make not their shame publick , but when the publick is necessarily concerned or the state of the man's sin requires it ; then our accusations are charitable : but if they be not , all such accusations are accepted by Christ with as much displeasure in proportion to the degree of the malice and the proper effect , as was this Acculation of his own person . 9. But Pilate having pronounced Jesus innocent , and perceiving he was a Galilean , sent him to 〈◊〉 , as being a more competent person to determine 〈◊〉 one of his own jurisdiction . Herod was glad at the honour done to him and the person brought him , being now desirous to see some Miracle 〈◊〉 before him . But the Holy Jesus spake not one word there , nor did any sign ; so to reprove the sottish carelesness of Herod , who , living in the place of Jesus's abode , never had seen his person or heard his Sermons . And if we neglect the opportunities of Grace , and refuse to hear the 〈◊〉 of Christ in the time of mercy and Divine appointment , we may arrive at that state of 〈◊〉 in which Christ will refuse to speak one word of comfort to us ; and the Homilies of the Gospel shall be dead letters , and the spirit not at all refreshed , nor the Understanding instructed , nor the Affections moved , nor the Will determined ; but because we have during all our time stopt our ears , in his time God will stop his mouth , and shut up the springs of Grace , that we shall receive no refreshment , or instruction , or pardon , or felicity . Jesus suffered not himself to be moved at the pertinacious accusations of the 〈◊〉 , nor the desires of the Tyrant , but persevered in silence , till Herod and his servants despised him and dismissed him . For so it became our High Priest , who was to sanctifie all our sufferings , to consecrate affronts and scorn , that we may learn to endure contempt , and to suffer our selves in a religious cause to be despised ; and when it happens in any other , to remember that we have our dearest Lord for a precedent of bearing it with admirable simplicity and equanimity of deportment : and it is a mighty stock of Self-love that dwells in our spirits , which makes us of all afflictions most impatient of this . But Jesus endured this despite , and suffered this to be added , that he was exposed in scorn to the boys of 〈◊〉 streets . For 〈◊〉 caused him to be arrayed in white , sent him out to be scorned by the people and hooted at by idle persons , and so remitted him to Pilate . And since that Accident to our Lord , the Church hath not undecently chose to cloath her Priests with Albs or white garments ; and it is a symbolical intimation and representment of that part of the Passion and 〈◊〉 which Herod passed upon the Holy Jesus : and this is so far from deserving a reproof , that it were to be wished all the children of the Church would imitate all those Graces which Christ exercised when he wore that garment , which she hath taken up in ceremony and thankful memory ; that is , in all their actions and sufferings be so estranged from secular arts and mixtures of the world , so intent upon Religion , and active in all its interests , so indifferent to all acts of Providence , so equal in all chances , so patient of every accident , so charitable to enemies , and so undetermined by exteriour events , that nothing may draw us forth from 〈◊〉 severities of our Religion , or entice us from the retirements of a 〈◊〉 and sober and patient spirit , or make us to depart from the courtesies of Piety , though for such adhesion and pursuit we be esteemed fools , or ignorant , or contemptible . Iesus is scourged by the Souldiers Mar : 15 : 14. Then Pilate said unto them why what evill hath he done and they cried the more exceedingly Crucify him . 15 And so Pilate willing to content the People released Barabbas unto them and delivered Iesus when he had scourged him to be Crucified . They Crown him with Thornes . Mat : 27. 28. And they stripped him and put on him a Scarlet robe . 29 And when they had platted a crown of Thornes , they put it upon his head and a reed in his right hand , and they bowed the knee before him , & mocked him , saying , Hayle King of the Iews . 10. When Pilate had received the Holy Jesus , and found that Herod had sent him back uncondemned , he attempted to rescue him from their malice , by making him a donative and a freed man at the petition of the people . But they preferred a Murtherer and a Rebel , Barabbas , before him ; for themselves being Rebels against the King of Heaven , loved to acquit persons criminal in the same kind of sin , rather than their Lord , against whom they took up all the arms which they could receive from violence and perfect malice , desiring to have him crucified who raised the dead , and to have the other 〈◊〉 who destroyed the living . And when Pilate saw they were set upon it , he consented , and delivered him first to be scourged ; which the souldiers executed with violence and unrelenting hands , opening his virginal body to nakedness , and tearing his tender flesh till the pavement was purpled with a shower of holy bloud . Itis reported in the Ecclesiastical story , that when S. Agnes and S. Barbara , holy Virgins and Martyrs , were stripp'd naked to execution , God , pitying their great shame and trouble to have their nakedness discovered , made for them a veil of light , and sent them to a modest and desired death . But the Holy Jesus , who chose all sorts of shame and confusion , that by a fulness of suffering he might expiate his Father's anger , and that he might consecrate to our sufferance all kind of affront and passion , endured even the shame of nakedness at the time of his scourging , suffering himself to be devested of his robes , that we might be clothed with that stole he put off : for 〈◊〉 he 〈◊〉 on him the state of sinning Adam , and became naked , that we might 〈◊〉 be 〈◊〉 with Righteousness , and then with Immortality . 11. After they had scourged him without remorse , they clothed him with purple , and crowned him with thorns , and put a cane in his hand for a scepter , and bowed their knees before him , and saluted him with mockery , with a [ Hail King of the Jews , ] and 〈◊〉 beat him and spate upon him ; and then Pilate brought him forth , and shewed this sad spectacle to the people , hoping this might move them to compassion , who never loved to see a man prosperous , and are always troubled to see the same man in misery . But the Earth , which was cursed for Adam's sake , and was sowed with thorns and thistles , produced the full harvest of them , and the Second Adam gathered them all , and made garlands of them as ensigns of his Victory which he was now in pursuit of against Sin , the Grave , and Hell. And we also may make our thorns , which are in themselves 〈◊〉 and dolorous , to be a Crown , if we bear 〈◊〉 patiently , and unite them to Christ's Passion , and offer them to his honour , and bear them in his cause , and rejoyce in them for his sake . And indeed , after such a grove of 〈◊〉 growing upon the head of our Lord , to see one of Christ's members soft , delicate and effeminate , is a great indecency , next to this of seeing the Jews use the King of glory with the greatest reproach and infamy . 12. But nothing prevailing , nor the Innocence of Jesus , nor his immunity from the sentence of Herod , nor the industry and diligence of Pilate , nor the misery nor the sight of the afflicted Lamb of God , at last ( for so God decreed to permit it , and Christ to 〈◊〉 it ) Pilate gave sentence of death upon him , having first washed his hands ; of which God served his end , to declare the Innocence of his Son , of which in this whole process he was most curious , and suffered not the least probability to adhere to him ; yet Pilate served no end of his , nor preserved any thing of his innocence . He that 〈◊〉 upon a Prince , and cries , Saving your honour , you are a Tyrant ; and he that strikes a man upon the face , and cries him mercy , and undoes him , and says it was in jest , does just like that person that sins against God , and thinks to be excused by saying it was against his Conscience ; that is washing our hands when they are stained in bloud , as if a ceremony of purification were enough to cleanse a soul from the stains of a spiritual impurity . So some refuse not to take any Oath in times of Persecution , and say it obliges not , because it was forced , and done against their wills ; as if the doing of it were washed off by protesting against it , whereas the protesting against it declares me criminal , if I rather chuse not death than that which I profess to be a sin . But all the persons which cooperated in this death were in this life consigned to a fearful judgment after it . The Jews took the bloud ( which Pilate seemed to wash off ) upon themselves and their children , and the bloud of this Paschal Lamb stuck upon their forehead and marked them , not to escape , but to fall under the sword of the destroying Angel , and they perished either by a more hasty death , or shortly after in the extirpation and miserable ruine of their Nation . And Pilate , who had a less share in the crime , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a black character of a secular Judgment ; for not long after he was by Vitellius the President of Syria sent to Rome to answer to the crimes objected against him by the Jews , whom to please he had done so much violence to his Conscience ; and by 〈◊〉 sentence he was banished to Vienna , deprived of all his honours , where he lived ingloriously , till by impatience of his calamity he killed himself with his own hand . And thus the bloud of Jesus shed for the Salvation of the world became to them a Curse , and that which purifies the Saints stuck to them that shed it , and mingled it not with the tears of Repentance , to be a leprosie loathsome and incurable . So Manna turns to worms , and the wine of Angels to Vineger and Lees , when it is received into impure vessels , or tasted by wanton palats ; and the Sun himself produces Rats and Serpents , when it reflects upon the dirt of Nilus . The PRAYER . O Holy and immaculate Lamb of God , who wert pleased to 〈◊〉 shame and sorrow , to be brought before tribunals , to be accused maliciously , betrayed treacherously , condemned unjustly , and scourged most 〈◊〉 , suffering the most severe and most unhandsome inflictions which could be procured by potent , subtle and extremest malice , and didst 〈◊〉 this out of love greater than the love of Mothers , more affectionate than the tears of joy and pity dropt from the eyes of most passionate women , by these fontinels of bloud issuing forth life and health and pardon upon all thine enemies ; teach me to apprehend the baseness of Sin , in proportion to the greatest of those calamities which my sin made it necessary for thee to susfer , that I may hate the cause of thy 〈◊〉 , and adore thy mercy , and imitate thy charity , and copy 〈◊〉 thy patience ànd humility , and love thy person to the uttermost extent and degrees of my affections . Lord , what am I , that the eternal Son of God should 〈◊〉 one stripe for me ? But thy Love is infinite : and how great a misery is it to provoke by sin so great a mercy , and despise so miraculous a goodness , and to do fresh despite to the Son of God ? But our sins are innumerable , and our infirmities are mighty . Dearest Jesu , pity me , for I am accused by my own Conscience , and am found guilty ; I am stripped naked of my Innocence , and bound fast by Lust , and tormented with stripes and wounds of enraged Appetites . But let thy Innocence excuse me , the robes of thy Righteousness cloath me , thy Bondage set me free , and thy Stripes heal me ; that thou being my Advocate , my Physician , my Patron , and my Lord , I may be adopted into the union of thy Merits , and partake of the efficacy of thy Sufferings , and be crowned as thou art , having my sins changed to vertues , and my thorns to rays of glory under thee our Head , in the participations of Eternity , O Holy and immaculate Lamb of God. Amen . DISCOURSE XX. Of Death , and the due manner of Preparation to it . 1. THE Holy Spirit of God hath in Scripture revealed to us but one way of preparing to Death , and that is , by a holy life ; and there is nothing in all the Book of Life concerning this exercise of address to Death , but such advices which suppose the dying person in a state of Grace . S. James indeed counsels , that in sickness we should send for the Ministers Ecclesiastical , and that they pray over us , and that we confess our sins , and they shall be forgiven ; that is , those prayers are of great efficacy for the removing the sickness , and taking off that punishment of sin , and healing them in a certain degree , according to the efficacy of the ministery , and the dispositions or capacities of the sick person . But we must know that oftentimes universal effects are attributed to partial causes ; because by the analogy of Scripture we are taught , that all the body of holy actions and ministeries are to unite in production of the event , and that without that adunation one thing alone cannot operate ; but because no one alone does the work , but by an united power , therefore indefinitely the effect is ascribed sometimes to one , sometimes to another , meaning , that one as much as the other , that is , all together , are to work the Pardon and the Grace . But the doctrine of Preparation to Death we are clearest taught in the * Parable of the ten Virgins . Those who were wise stood waiting for the coming of the Bridegroom , their Lamps burning ; only when the Lord was at hand , at the notice of his coming published , they trimmed their Lamps , and they , so disposed , went forth and met him , and entred with him into his interiour and eternal joys . They whose Lamps did not stand ready before-hand , expecting the uncertain hour , were shut forth , and bound in darkness . [ Watch therefore , so our Lord applies and expounds the Parable , for ye know not the day nor the hour of the coming of the Son of man. ] Whenever the arrest of Death seises us , unless before that notice we had Oil in our Vessels , that is , Grace in our hearts , habitual Grace , ( for nothing else can reside or dwell there , an act cannot inhabit or be in a Vessel ) it is too late to make preparation . But they who have it , may and must prepare , that is , they must stir the fire , trim the vessel , make it more actual in its exercise and productions , full of ornament , advantages and degrees . And that is all we know from Scripture concerning Preparation . 2. And indeed since all our life we are dying , and this minute in which I now write death divides with me , and hath got the surer part and more certain possession , it is but reasonable that we should always be doing the Offices of Preparation . If to day we were not dying and passing on to our grave , then we might with more safety defer our work till the morrow : But as fewel in a furnace in every degree of its heat and reception of the flame is converting into fire and ashes , and the disposing it to the last mutation is the same work with the last instance of its change : so is the age of every day a beginning of death , and the night composing us to sleep bids us go to our lesser rest ; because that night , which is the end of the preceding day , is but a lesser death ; and whereas now we have died so many days , the last day of our life is but the dying so many more , and when that last day of dying will come we know not . There is nothing then added but the circumstance of Sickness , which also happens many times before ; only men are pleased to call that Death which is the end of dying , when we cease to die any more : and therefore to put off our Preparation till that which we call Death , is to put off the work of all our life , till the time comes in which it is to cease and determine . 3. But to accelerate our early endeavour , ( besides what hath been formerly considered upon the proper grounds of Repentance ) I here re-inforce the consideration of Death in such circumstances which are apt to engage us upon an early industry . 1. I consider , that no man is sure that he shall not die suddenly ; and therefore if Heaven be worth securing , it were fit that we should reckon every day the Vespers of death , and therefore that according to the usual rites of Religion it be begun and spent with religious offices : And let us consider , that those many persons who are remarked in history to have died suddenly , either were happy by an early Piety , or miserable by a sudden death . And if uncertainty of condition be an abatement of felicity , and spoils the good we possess , no man can be happy but he that hath lived well , that is , who hath secured his condition by an habitual and living Piety . For since God hath not told us we shall not die suddenly is it not certain he intended we should prepare for sudden death , as well as against death cloathed in any other circumstances ? Fabius surnamed Pictor was choaked with a Hair in a mess of Milk , Anacreon with a Raisin , Cardinal Colonna with Figs crusted with Ice , Adrian the fourth with a Flie , Drusius Pompeius with a Pear , Domitius Afer , Quintilian's Tutor , with a full Cup , * Casimire the Second , King of Polonia , with a Little draught of Wine , Amurath with a Full goblet , Tarquinius Priscus with a Fish-bone . For as soon as a man is born , that which in nature only remains to him is to die ; and if we differ in the way or time of our abode , or the manner of our Exit , yet we are even at last : and since it is not determined by a natural cause which way we shall go , or at what age , a wise Man will suppose himself always upon his Death-bed ; and such supposition is like making of his Will , he is not the nearer Death for doing it , but he is the readier for it when it comes . 4. Saint Jerome said well , He deserves not the name of a Christian , who will live in that state of life in which he will not die : And indeed it is a great venture to be in an evil state of life , because every minute of it hath a danger ; and therefore a succession of actions , in every one of which he may as well perish as escape , is a boldness that hath no mixture of wisdome or probable venture . How many persons have died in the midst of an act of sport , or at a merry meeting ? Grimoaldus , a Lombard King , died with shooting of a Pidgeon ; Thales the Milesian in the Theatre : Lucia , the sister of Aurelius the Emperor , playing with her little son , was wounded in her breast with a Needle , and died : Benno , Bishop of Adelburg , with great ceremony and joy consecrating S. Michael's Church , was crouded to death by the People ; so was the Duke of Saxony at the Inauguration of Albert I. The great Lawyer Baldus , playing with a little Dog , was bitten upon the lip , instantly grew mad , and perished : Charles the Eighth of France , seeing certain Gentlemen playing at Tenniscourt , swooned , and recovered not : Henry II. was killed running at Tilt : Ludovicus Borgia with riding the great Horse : and the old Syracusan , Archimedes , was slain by a rude Souldier as he was making Diagrams in the sand , which was his greatest pleasure . How many Men have died laughing , or in the ecstasies of a great joy ? (a) Philippides the Comedian , and Dionysius the Tyrant of Sicily , died with joy at the news of a victory : (b) Diagoras of Rhodes , and Chilo the Philosopher , expired in the embraces of their sons crowned with an Olympick Lawrel : (c) Polycrita Naxia , being saluted the Saviouress of her Countrey ; Marcus Juventius , when the Senate decreed him honours ; the Emperour (d) Conrade the Second , when he triumphed after the conquest of Italy , had a joy bigger than their heart , and their phancy swelled it , till they burst and died . Death can enter in at any door : 〈◊〉 of Nice died with excessive laughter ; so did the Poet Philemon , being provoked to it only by seeing an Asse eat sigs . And the number of persons who have been found suddenly dead in their beds is so great , that as it ingages many to a more certain and regular devotion for their Compline , so it were well it were pursued to the utmost intention of God ; that is , that all the parts of Religion should with zeal and assiduity be entertained and finished , that , as it becomes wise men , we never be surprised with that we are sure will sometime or other happen . A great General in Italy at the sudden death of Alsonsus of Ferrara , and Lodovico 〈◊〉 at the sight of the sad accident upon Henry II. of France now mentioned , turned religious , and they did what God intended in those deaths . It concerns us to be curious of single actions , because even in those shorter periods we may expire and 〈◊〉 our Graves . But if the state of life be contradictory to our hopes of Heaven , it is like affronting of a Cannon 〈◊〉 a beleaguer'd Town a month together ; it is a contempt of safety , and a rendring all Reason useless and unprofitable : but he only is wise who , having made Death familiar to him by expectation and daily apprehension , does at all instants go forth to meet it . The wise Virgins went forth to meet the Bridegroom , for they were ready . Excellent therefore is the counsel of the Son of Sirach ; Use Physick or ever thou be sick . 〈◊〉 Judgment examine thy self , and in the day of visitation thou shalt finde mercy . Humble thy self before then be sick , and in the time of sins shew Repentance . Let nothing hinder thee to pay thy 〈◊〉 in due time , and defer not until death to be justified . 5. Secondly , I consider , that it osten happens that in those few days of our last visitation , which many Men design for their Preparation and Repentance , God hath expressed by an exteriour accident , that those persons have deceived themselves and neglected their own Salvation . S. Gregory reports of Chrysaurius , a Gentleman in the Province of 〈◊〉 , rich , vicious and witty , lascivious , covetous and proud , that being cast upon his Death-bed he phansied he saw evil spirits coming to arrest him and drag him to Hell. He fell into great agony and trouble , shrieked out , called for his son , who was a very religious person , flattered him , as willing to have been rescued by any thing : but perceiving his danger increase and grown desperate , he called loud with repeated clamours , Give me respite but till the morrow , and with those words he died , there being no place left 〈◊〉 his Repentance , though he sought it carefully with tears and groans . The same was the case of a drunken Monk , whom Venerable Bede mentions . Upon his Death bed he seemed to see Hell opened , and a place assigned him near to Caiaphas and those who crucified our dearest Lord. The religious persons that stood about his Bed called on him to repent of his sins , to implore the mercies of God , and to trust in Christ : But he answered with reason enough , This is no time to change my life , the sentence is passed upon me , and it is too late . And it is very considerable and sad * which Petrus Damianus tells of Gunizo , a sactious and ambitious person , to whom , it is said , the Tempter gave notice of his approaching death : but when any Man preached Repentance to him , out of a strange incuriousness , or the spirit of reprobation , he seemed like a dead and unconcerned person ; in all other discourses he was awake and apt to answer . For God had shut up the gates of Mercy , that no streams should issue forth to quench the flames of Hell ; or else had shut up the gates of reception and entertainment , that it should not enter : either God denies to give them pardon when they call , or denies to them a power to call ; they either cannot pray , or God will not answer . Now since these stories are related by Men learned , pious and eminent in their generations , and because they served no design but the ends of Piety , and have in them nothing dissonant from revelation or the frequent events of Providence , we may upon their stock consider , that God's Judgements and visible marks being set upon a state of Life , although they happen but seldom in the instances , yet they are of universal purpose and signfication . Upon all Murtherers God hath not thrown a thunder-bolt , nor broke all sacrilegious persons upon the wheel of an inconstant and ebbing estate , nor spoken to every Oppressor from Heaven in a voice of thunder , nor cut off all Rebels in the first attempts of insurrection : But because he hath done so to some , we are to look upon those Judgments as Divine accents , and voices of God , threatning all the same crimes with the like events , and with the ruines of eternity . For though God does not always make the same prologues to death , yet by these few accidents happening to single persons we are to understand his purposes concerning all in the same condition ; it was not the person so much as the estate which God then remarked with so visible characters of his displeasure . 6. And it seems to me a wonder , that since from all the records of Scripture urging the uncertainty of the day of death , the horrour of the day of Judgment , the severity of God , the dissolution of the world , the certainty of our account , still from all these premisses the Spirit of God makes no other inference , but that we watch , and stand in a readiness , that we live in all holy conversation and godliness , and that there is no one word concerning any other manner of an essentially-necessary Preparation , none but this ; yet that there are Doctrines commenced , and Rules prescribed , and Offices set down , and Suppletories invented by Curates of Souls how to prepare a vicious person , and upon his Death-bed to reconcile him to the hopes and promises of Heaven . Concerning which I desire that every person would but enquire , where any one promise is recorded in Scripture concerning such addresses , and what Articles CHRIST hath drawn up between his Father and us concerning a Preparation begun upon our Death-bed : and if he shall find none ( as most certainly from Genesis to the Revelation there is not a word concerning it , but very much against it ) let him first build his hopes upon this proposition , that A holy life is the onely Preparation to a happy death , and then we can without danger proceed to some other Considerations . 7. When a good man , or a person concerning whom it is not certain he hath lived in habitual Vices , comes to die , there are but two general ways of entercourse with him ; the one to keep him from new sins , the other to make some emendations of the old ; the one to fortifie him against special weaknesses and proper temptations of that estate , and the other to trim his lamp , that by excellent actions he may adorn his spirit , making up the omissions of his life , and supplying the imperfections of his estate , that his Soul may return into the hands of its Creator as pure as it can , every degree of perfection being an advantage so great , as that the loss of every the least portion of it cannot be recompensed with all the good of this World. Concerning the first ; The Temptations proper to this estate are either Weakness in Faith , Despair , or Presumption : for whatsoever is besides these , as it is the common infelicity of all the several states of life , so they are oftentimes arguments of an ill condition , of immortification of vicious habits , and that he comes not to this combate well prepared ; such as are Covetousness , unwillingness to make Restitution , remanent affections to his former Vices , an unresigned spirit , and the like . 8. In the Ecclesiastical story we finde many dying persons mentioned , who have been very much afflicted with some doubts concerning an Article of Faith. S. Gregory in an Epistle he writ to S. Austin instances in the temptation which Fusebius suffered upon his Death-bed . And although sometimes the Devil chuses an Article that is not proper to that state , knowing that every such doubt is well enough for his purpose , because of the incapacity of the person to suffer long disputes , and of the jealousie and suspicion of a dying and weak man , fearing lest every thing should cozen him ; yet it is commonly instanced in the Article of the Resurrection , or the state of Separation or re-union . And it seems to some persons incredible , that from a bed of sickness , a state of misery , a cloud of ignorance , a load of passions , a man should enter into the condition of a perfect understanding , great joy , and an intellectual life , a conversation with Angels , a fruition of God ; the change is greater than his Reason ; and his Faith being in conclusion tottering like the Ark , and ready to fall , seems a Pillar as unsafe and unable to rely on , as a bank of turf in an Earth-quake . Against this a general remedy is prescribed by Spiritual persons ; That the sick man should apprehend all changes of perswasion which happened to him in his sickness , contradictory to those assents which in his clearest use of Reason he had , to be temptations and arts of the Devil . And he hath reason so to think , when he remembers how many comforts of the Spirit of God , what joys of Religion , what support , what assistences , what strengths he had in the whole course of his former life upon the stock of Faith , & interest of the Doctrin of Christianity . And since the disbelieving the Promises Evangelical at that time can have no end of advantage , and that all wise men tell him it may have an end to make him lose the title to them , and do him infinite disadvantage ; upon the stock of interest and prudence he must reject such fears which cannot help him , but may ruine him . For all the works of Grace which he did upon the hopes of God , and the stock of the Divine revelations , ( if he fails in his hold upon them ) are all rendred unprofitable . And it is certain , if there be no such thing as Immortality and Resurrection , he shall lose nothing for believing there is ; but if there be , they are lost to him for not believing it . 9. But this is also to be cured by proper arguments . And there is no Christian man but hath within him , and carries about him , demonstrations of the possibility and great instances of the credibility of those great changes , which these tempted persons have no reason to distrust , but because they think them too great , and too good to be true . And here , not only the consideration of the Divine Power and his eternal Goodness is a proper Antidote , but also the observation of what we have already received from God. To be raised from nothing to something is a mutation not less than insinite ; and from that which we were in our first conception to pass into so perfect and curious bodies , and to become discursive , sensible , passionate , and reasonable , and next to Angels , is a greater change , than from this state to pass into that excellency and perfection of it which we expect as the melioration and improvement of the present : for this is but a mutation of degrees , that of substance : this is more sensible , because we have perception in both states ; that is of greater distance , because in the first term we were so far distant from what we are , that we could not perceive what then we were , much less desire to be what we now perceive : and yet God did that for us unasked , without any obligation on his part , or merit on ours ; much rather then may we be confident of this alteration of accidents and degrees , because God hath obliged himself by promise ; he hath disposed us to it by qualities , actions , and habits , which are to the state of Glory as infancy is to manhood , as 〈◊〉 are to excellent discourses , as blossoms are to ripe fruits . And he that hath wrought miracles for us , preserved us in dangers , done strange acts of Providence , sent his Son to take our Nature , made a Virgin to bear a Son , and GOD to become Man , and two Natures to be one individual Person , and all in order to this End of which we doubt , hath given us so many arguments of credibility , that if he had done any more , it would not have been lest in our choice to believe or not believe ; and then much of the excellency of our Faith would have been lost . Add to this , that we are not tempted to disbelieve the Roman story , or that Virgil's AEneids , were writ by him , or that we our selves are descended of such Parents ; because these things are not only transmitted to us by such testimony which we have no reason to distrust , but 〈◊〉 the Tempter cannot serve any end upon us by producing such doubts in us : and therefore since we have greater testimony for every Article of Faith , and to believe it is of so much concernment to us , we may well suspect it to be an artifice of the Devil to rob us of our reward ; this proceeding of his being of the same nature with all his other Temptations , which in our life-time like fiery darts he threw into our face , to despoil us of our glory , and blot out the Image of God imprinted on us . 10. Secondly , If the Devil tempts the sick person to Despair , he who is by God appointed to minister a word of comfort must fortifie his spirit with consideration and representment of the Divine Goodness , manifest in all the expresses of Nature and Grace , of Providence and Revelation ; that God never extinguishes the smoaking slax , nor breaks the bruised reed ; that a constant and a hearty endeavour is the Sacrifice which God delights in ; that in the firmament of Heaven there are little Stars , and they are most in number , and there are but few of the greatest magnitude ; that there are children and babes in Christ as well as strong men , and amongst these there are great difference ; that the interruptions of the state of Grace by intervening crimes , if they were rescinded by Repentance , they were great danger in the intervall , but served as increment of the Divine Glory , and arguments of care and diligence to us at the restitution . These and many more are then to be urged when the sick person is in danger of being swallowed up with over-much sorrow ; and therefore to be insisted on in all like cases as the Physician gives him Cordials , that we may do charity to him and minister comfort , not because they are always necessary , even in the midst of great sadnesses and discomforts . For we are to secure his love to God , that he acknowledge the Divine Mercy , that he believe the Article of Remission of sins , that he be thankful to God for the blessings which already he hath received , and that he lay all the load of his discomfort upon himself , and his own incapacities of mercy : and then the sadness may be very great , and his tears clamorous , and his heart broken all in pieces , and his Humility lower than the earth , and his Hope indiscernible ; and yet no danger to his final condition . Despair reflects upon God , and dishonours the infinity of his Mercy : And if the sick person do but confess that God is not at all wanting in his Promises , but ever abounding in his Mercies , and that it is want of the condition on his own part that makes the misery , and that if he had done his duty God would save him ; let him be assisted with perpetual prayers , with examples of lapsed and returning sinners , whom the Church celebrates for Saints , such as Mary Magdalen , Mary of Egypt , Asra , Thasis , Pelagia ; let it be often inculcated to him , that as God's Mercy is of it self infinite , so its demonstration to us is not determined to any certain period , but hath such latitudes in it and reservations , which as they are apt to restrain too great boldness , so also to become sanctuaries to disconsolate persons ; let him be invited to throw himself upon God upon these grounds , that he who is our Judge is also our Advocate and Redeemer , that he knows and pities our infirmities , and that our very hoping in him does indear him , and he will deliver us the rather for our confidence , when it is balanced with reverence and humility : and then all these supernumerary fears are advantagious to more necessary Graces , and do more secure his final condition than they can disturb it . 11. When Saint Arsenius was near his death , he was observed to be very tremulous , sad , weeping and disconsolate . The standers by asked the reason of his fears , wondring that he , having lived in great Sanctity for many years , should not now rejoyce at the going forth of his prison . The good man confessed the fear , and withall said it was no other than he had always born about with him in the days of his pilgrimage ; and what he then thought a duty , they had no reason now to call either a fault or a misery . Great sorrows , fears and distrustings of a man 's own condition , are oftentimes but abatements of confidence , or a remission of joys and gayeties of spirit ; they are but like salutary clouds , dark and fruitful : and if the tempted person be strengthened in a love of God , though he go not farther in his hopes than to believe a possibility of being saved , than to say , God can save him , if he please , and to pray that he will save him , his condition is a state of Grace , it is like a root in the ground , trod upon , humble and safe , not so fine as the state of flowers ; yet that which will spring up in as glorious a Resurrection as that which looks fairer , and pleases the sense , and is indeed a blessing , but not a duty . 12. But there is a state of Death-bed which seems to have in it more Question , and to be of nicer consideration , A sick person after a vicious and base life : and if upon whatsoever he can do , you give him hopes of a Pardon , where is your promise to warrant it ? if you do not give him hopes , do you not drive him to Despair , and ascertain his ruine , to verifie your proposition ? To this I answer that Despair is opposed to Hope , and Hope relies upon the Divine Promises ; and where there is no Promise , there the Despair is not a sin , but a mere impossibility . The accursed Spirits which are sealed up to the Judgment of the last Day cannot hope ; and he that repents not , cannot hope for pardon . And therefore if all which the state of Death-bed can produce be not the duty of Repentance , which is required of necessity to Pardon , it is not in such a person properly to be called Despair , any more than it is Blindness in a stone that it cannot see : Such a man is not within the capacities of Pardon , and therefore all those acts of exteriour Repentance , and all his sorrow and resolution and tears of emendation , and other preparatives to interiour Repentance , are like oil poured into mortal wounds ; they are the care of the Physician ; and these are the cautions of the Church , and they are at no hand to be neglected . For if they do not alter the state , they may lessen the judgment , or procure a temporal blessing ; and if the person recover , they are excellent beginnings of the state of Grace , and if they be pursued in a happy opportunity , will grow up into Glory . 13. But if it be demanded , whether in such cases the Curate be bound to give Absolution ; I can give no other answer but this , that if he lie under the Censure of the Church , the Laws of the Church are to determine the particular , and I know no Church in the World but uses to absolve Death-bed Penitents upon the instances of those actions of which their present condition is capable ; though in the Primitive Ages in some cases they denied it . But if the sick person be under no positive Censure , and is bound only by the guilt of habitual vice , if he desires the Prayers of the Church , she is bound in charity to grant them , to Pray for Pardon to him , and all other Graces in order to Salvation : and if she absolves the Penitent , towards God it hath no other efficacy but of a solemn Prayer ; and therefore it were better that all the charity of the Office were done , and the solemnity omitted ; because in the earnest Prayer she co-operates to his Salvation as much as she can , and by omitting the solemnity distinguishes evil livers from holy persons , and walks securely , whilst she refuses to declare him pardoned whom God hath not declared to be so . And possibly that form of Absolution which the Churches of the West now use , being indicative and declaratory of a present Pardon , is for the very form sake not to be used to Death bed Penitents after a vicious life ; because if any thing more be intended in the form than a Prayer , the truth of the affirmation may be questioned , and an Ecclesiastical person hath no authority to say to such a man , I absolve thee : but if no more be intended but a Prayer , it is better to use a mere Prayer and common form of address , than such words which may countenance unsecure confidences , evil purposes , and worse lives . 14. Thirdly , If the Devil tempts a sick person , who hath lived well , to Presumption , and that he seems full of Confidence and without trouble , the care that is then to be taken is to consider the Disease , and to state the Question right . For at some instants and periods God visits the spirit of a man , and sends the immission of a bright ray into him ; and some good men have been so used to apprehensions of the Divine mercy , that they have an habitual chearfulness of spirit and hopes of Salvation . Saint Hierome reports that Hilarion in a Death-bed agony felt some tremblings of heart , till reflecting upon his course of life , he found comforts springing from thence by a proper emanation , and departed chearfully : and Hezekiah represented to God in Prayer the integrity of his life , and made it the instrument of his hope . And nothing of this is to be calied Presumption , provided it be in persons of eminent Sanctity and great experience , old Disciples , and the more perfect Christians : But because such persons are but seldome and rare , if the same Confidence be observed in persons of common imperfection and an ordinary life , it is to be corrected and allayed with consideration of the Divine Severity and Justice , and with the strict requisites of a holy life , with the deceit of a man 's own heart , with consideration and general remembrances of secret sins , and that the most perfect state of life hath very great needs of mercy , and if the righteous scarcely be saved , where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear ? And the spirit of the man is to be promoted and helped in the encrease of Contrition , as being the proper deletery to cure the extravagancies of a forward and intemperate spirit . 15. But there is a Presumption commenced upon opinion , relying either upon a perswasion of single Predestination , or else ( which is worse ) upon imaginary securities , that Heaven is to be purchased upon conditions easier than a Day 's labour , and that an evil life may be reconciled to Heaven by the intervening of little or single acts of Piety or Repentance . If either of them both have actually produced ill life , to which they are apt , or apt to be abused , the persons are miserable in their condition , and cannot be absolutely remedied by going about to cure the Presumption ; that was the cause of all , but now it is the least thing to be considered : his whole state is corrupted , and men will not by any discourses or spiritual arts used on their Death-beds be put into a state of Grace ; because then is no time to change the state , and there is no mutation then but by single actions ; from good to better a dying man may proceed , but not from the state of Reprobation to the life of Grace . And yet it is good charity to unloose the bonds of Satan , whereby the man is bound and led captive at his will , to take off the Presumption by destroying the cause ; and then let the work of Grace be set as forward as it can , and leave the event to God ; for nothing else is left possible to be done . But if the sick man be of a good life , and yet have a degree of Confidence beyond his Vertue upon the phancie of Predestination , it is not then a time to rescind his opinion by a direct opposition , but let him be drawn off from the consideration of it by such discourses as are apt to make him humble and penitent ; for they are the most apt instruments to secure the condition of the man , and attemper his spirit . These are the great Temptations incident to the last scene of our lives ; and are therefore more particularly suggested by the Tempter , because they have in them something contrary to the universal effect of a holy life , and are designs to interpose between the end of the journey and the reception of the crown : and therefore it concerns every man who is in a capacity of receiving the end of his Faith , the Salvation of his Soul , to lay up in the course of his life something against this great day of expence , that he may be better fortified with the armour of the Spirit against these last assaults of the Devil , that he may not shipwreck in the haven . 16. Eschewing evil is but the one half of our work , we must also do good . And now in the few remanent days or hours of our life there are certain exercises of Religion which have a special relation to this state , and are therefore of great concernment to be done , that we may make our condition as certain as we can , and our portion of Glory greater , and our Pardon surer , and our Love to increase , and that our former omissions and breaches be repaired with a condition in some measure proportionable to those great hopes which we then are going to possess . And first , Let the sick person , in the beginning of his sickness , and in every change and great accident of it , make acts of Resignation to God , and intirely submit himself to the Divine will ; remembring , that Sickness may , to men properly disposed , do the work of God , and produce the effect of the Spirit , and promote the interest of his Soul , as well as Health , and oftentimes better , as being in it self and by the grace of God apt to make us confess our own impotency and dependencies , and to understand our needs of mercy , and the continual influences and supports of Heaven ; to withdraw our appetites from things below , to correct the vanities and insolencies of an impertinent spirit , to abate the extravagancies of the flesh , to put our carnal lusts into fetters and disability , to remember us of our state of pilgrimage , that this is our way and our stage of trouble and banishment , and that Heaven is our Countrey : for so Sickness is the trial of our Patience , a fire to purge us , an instructer to teach us , a bridle to restrain us , and a state inferring great necessities of union and adhesions unto God. And as upon these grounds we have the same reason to accept sickness at the hands of God , as to receive Physick from a Physician ; so it is argument of excellent Grace to give God hearty thanks in our Disease , and to accept it chearfully , and with spiritual joy . 17. Some persons create to themselves excuses of discontent , and quarrel not with the pain , but the ill consequents of Sickness , It makes them troublesome to their friends ; and consider not that their friends are bound to accept the trouble , as themselves to accept the sickness ; that to tend the sick is at that time allotted for the portion of their work , and that Charity receives it as a duty , and makes that duty to be a pleasure . And however , if our friends account us a burthen , let us also accept that circumstance of affliction to our selves with the same resignation and indifferency as we entertain its occasion , the Sickness it self ; and pray to God to enkindle a flame of Charity in their breasts , and to make them compensation for the charge and trouble we put them to ; and then the care is at an end . But others excuse their discontent with a more religious colour , and call the disease their trouble and affliction , because it impedes their other parts of Duty ; they cannot preach , or study , or do exteriour assistences of Charity and Alms , or acts of Repentance and Mortification . But it were well if we could let God proportion out our work , and set our task ; let him chuse what vertues we shall specially exercise : and when the will of God determines us , it is more excellent to endure afflictions with patience , equanimity and thankfulness , than to do actions of the most pompous Religion , and laborious or expensive Charity ; not only because there is a deliciousness in actions of Religion and choice , which is more agreeable to our spirit than the toleration of sickness can be , which hath great reward , but no present pleasure ; but also because our suffering and our imployment is consecrated to us when God chuses it , and there is then no mixture of imperfection or secular interest , as there may be in other actions even of an excellent Religion , when our selves are the chusers . And let us also remember , that God hath not so much need of thy works , as thou hast of Patience , Humility , and Resignation . S. Paul was far a more considerable person than thou canst be , and yet it pleased God to shut him in prison for two years , and in that intervall God secured and promoted the work of the Gospel : and although 〈◊〉 was an excellent Minister , yet God laid a sickness upon him , and even in his disease gave him work enough to do , though not of his own chusing . And therefore fear it not but the ends of Religion or Duty will well enough proceed without thy health ; and thy own eternal interest , when God so pleases , shall better be served by Sickness , and the Vertues which it occasions , than by the opportunities of Health , and an ambulatory active Charity . 18. When thou art resigned to God , use fair and appointed means for thy Recovery ; trust not in thy spirit upon any instrument of health ; as thou art willing to be disposed by God , so look 〈◊〉 for any event upon the stock of any other cause or principle ; be ruled by the Physician and the people appointed to tend thee , that thou neither become troublesome to them , nor give any sign of impatience or a peevish spirit . But this advice only means , that thou do not disobey them out of any evil principle ; and yet if Reason be thy guide to chuse any other aid , or sollow any other counsel , use it temperately , prudently , and charitably . It is not intended for a Duty , that thou shouldst drink Oil in stead of Wine , if thy Minister reach it to thee , as did Saint Bernard ; nor that thou shouldst accept a Cake tempered with Linseed-oil in stead of Oil of Olives , as did F. Stephen , mentioned by 〈◊〉 : but that thou tolerate the defects of thy servants , and accept the evil accidents of thy disease , or the unsuccessfulness of thy Physician 's care , as descending on thee from the hands of God. Asa was noted in Scripture , that in his sickness he sought not to the Lord , but to the Physicians . Lewis the XI . of France was then the miserablest person in his Kingdom , when he made himself their servant , courting them with great pensions and rewards , attending to their Rules as Oracles , and from their mouths waited for the sentence of life or death . We are , in these great accidents , especially to look upon God as the disposer of the events , which he very often disposes contrary to the expectation we may have of probable causes ; and sometimes without Physick we recover , and with Physick and excellent applications we grow worse and worse ; and God it is that makes the remedies unprosperous . In all these and all other accidents , if we take care that the sickness of the Body derive not it self into the Soul , nor the pains of one procure impatience of the other , we shall alleviate the burthen , and make it supportable and profitable . And certain it is , if men knew well to bear their sicknesses , humbly towards God , charitably towards our Ministers , and chearfully in themselves , there were no greater advantage in the world to be received than upon a sick bed ; and that alone hath in it the benefits of a Church , of a religious Assembly , of the works of Charity and labour . And since our Soul 's eternal well-being depends upon the Charities and Providence and Veracity of God , and we have nothing to show for it but his word and Goodness , and that is infinitely enough ; it is but reason we be not more nice and scrupulous about the usage and accommodation of our Body : if we accept a at God's hand sadness and driness of affection and spiritual desertion patiently and with indifferency , it is unhandsome to express our selves less satisfied in the accidents about our body . 19. But if the Sickness proceed to Death , it is a new charge upon our spirits , and God calls for a final and intire Resignation into his hands . And to a person who was of humble affections , and in his life-time of a mortified spirit , accustomed to bear the yoke of the Lord , this is easie , because he looks upon Death not only as the certain condition of Nature , but as a necessary (b) transition to a state of Blessedness , as the determination of his sickness , the period of humane inselicities , the last change of condition , the beginning of a new , strange , and excellent life , a security against sin , a freedom from the importunities of a Tempter , from the tyranny of an imperious Lust , from the rebellion of Concupiscence , from the disturbances and tempests of the Irascible faculty , and from the fondness and childishness of the Concupiscible ; and ( S. Ambrose says well ) the trouble of this life and the dangers are so many , that in respect of them Death is a remedy , and a fair proper object of desires . And we finde that many Saints have prayed for death , that they might not see the Persecutions and great miseries incumbent upon the Church : and if the desire be not out of Impatience , but of Charity , and with resignation , there is no reason to reprove it . Elias prayed that God would take his life , that he might not see the evils of Ahab and Jezebel , and their vexatious intendments against the Prophets of the Lord. And S. Austin , upon the Incursion of the Vandals into Africa , called his Clergy together , and at their Chapter told them , he had prayed to God either to deliver his People from the present calamity , or grant them patience to bear it , or that he would take him out of the world , that he might not see the miseries of his Diocese ; adding , that God had granted him the last : and he presently fell sick , and died in the siege of his own Hippo. And if Death in many cases be desirable , and for many reasons , it is always to be submitted to , when God calls . And as it is always a misery to fear death , so it is very often a sin , or the effect of sin . If our love to the world hath fastened our affections here , it is a direct sin : and this is by the son of Sirach noted to be the case of rich and great personages ; How bitter , O death , is thy remembrance to a man that is at rest in his possessions ! But if it be a fear to perish in the ruines of Eternity , they are not to blame for fearing , but that their own ill lives have procured the fear . And yet there are persons in the state of Grace , but because they are in great imperfection , have such lawful fears of Death and of entring upon an uncertain Sentence , which must stand eternally irreversible , be it good or bad , that they may with piety and care enough pray David's prayer , O spare me a little , that I may recover my strength , before I go hence , and be no more seen . But in this and in all other cases Death must be accepted without murmur , though without fear it cannot . A man may pray to be delivered from it ; and yet if God will not grant it , he must not go as one hal'd to execution : but if with all his imperfect fears he shall throw himself upon God , and accept his sentence as righteous , whether it speak life or death , it is an act of so great excellency , that it may equal the good actions of many succeeding and surviving days ; and peradventure a longer life will be yet more imperfect , and that God therefore puts a period to it , that thou mayest be taken into a condition more certain , though less eminent . However , let not the fears of Nature , or the fear of Reason , or the fears of Humility become accidentally criminal by a murmur or a pertinacious contesting against the event , which we cannot hinder , but ought to accept by an election secondary , rational and pious , and upon supposition that God will not alter the sentence passed upon thy temporal life ; always remembring , that in Christian Philosophy Death hath in it an excellency of which the Angels are not capable . For by the necessity of our Nature we are made capable of dying for the Holy Jesus : and next to the privilege of that act , is our willingness to die at his command , which turns necessity into vertue , and nature into grace , and grace to glory . 20. When the sick person is thus disposed , let him begin to trim his wedding-garment , and dress his Lamp with the repetition of acts of Repentance , perpetually praying to God for pardon of his sins , representing to himself the horror of them , the multitude , the obliquity , being helped by arguments apt to excite Contrition , by repetition of penitential Psalms and holy Prayers ; and he may , by accepting and humbly receiving his sickness at God's hand , transmit it into the condition of an act or effect of 〈◊〉 , acknowledging himself by sin to have deserved and procured it , and praying that the punishment of his crimes may be here , and not reserved for the state of Separation , and for ever . 21. But above all single acts of this exercise , we are concerned to see that nothing of other mens Goods stick to us , but let us shake it off as we would a burning coal 〈◊〉 our flesh ; for it will destroy us , it will carry a curse with us , and leave a curse behind us . Those who by thy means or importunity have become vicious , exhort to Repentance and holy life ; those whom thou hast cozened into crimes , restore to a right understanding ; those who are by violence and interest led captive by thee to any undecency , restore to their liberty , and encourage to the prosecution of holiness ; discover and confess thy fraud and unlawful arts , cease thy violence , and give as many advantages to Vertue as thou hast done to Viciousness . Make recompence for bodily wrongs , such as are wounds , dismembrings and other disabilities : restore every man ( as much as thou canst ) to that good condition from which thou hast removed him ; restore his Fame , give back his Goods , return the Pawn , release 〈◊〉 , and take off all unjust invasions or surprises of his Estate , pay Debts , satisfie for thy fraud and injustice as far as thou canst , and as thou canst , and as soon ; or this alone is weight enough , no less than a Mil-stone about thy Neck . But if the dying man be of God , and in the state of Grace , that is , if he have lived a holy life , repented seasonably , and have led a just , sober and religious conversation in any acceptable degree , it is to be supposed he hath no great account to make for unpretended injuries and unjust detentions : for if he had detained the goods of his neighbour fraudulently or violently without amends , when it is in his power and opportunity to restore , he is not the man we suppose him in this present Question : and although in all cases he is bound to restore according to his ability , yet the act is less excellent when it is compelled , and so it seems to be , if he have continued the injustice till he is forced to quit the purchace . However , if it be not done till then , let it be provided for then . And that I press this duty to pious persons at this time , is only to oblige them to a diligent scrutiny concerning the lesser omissions of this duty in the matter of fame , or lesser debts , or spiritual restitution ; or that those unevennesses of account which were but of late transaction may now be regulated ; and that whatsoever is undone in this matter , from what principle soever it proceeds , whether of sin , or only of forgetfulness , or of imperfection , may now be made as exact as we can , and are obliged ; and that those excuses which made it reasonable and lawful to defer Restitution , as want of opportunity , clearness of ability , and accidental inconvenience , be now laid aside , and the action be done or provided for in the midst of all objections and inconvenient circumstances , rather than to omit it , and hazard to perform it . 22. Hither also I reckon resolutions and forward purposes of emendation and greater severity , in case God return to us hopes of life ; which therefore must be re-inforced , that we may serve the ends of God , and understand all his purposes , and make use of every opportunity ; every sickness laid upon us being with a design of drawing us nearer to God ; and even holy purposes are good actions of the Spirit , and Principles of Religion : and though alone they cannot do the work of Grace , or change the state , when they are ineffectual , that is , when either we will not bring them into act , or that God will not let us ; yet to a Man already in the state of Grace they are the additions of something good , and are like blowing of coals , which although it can put no life into a dead coal , yet it makes a live coal shine brighter , and burn clearer , and adds to it some accidental degrees of heat . 23. Having thus disposed himself to the peace of God , let him make peace with all those in whom he knows or suspects any minutes of anger , or malice , or displeasure towards him , submitting himself to them with humility whom he unworthily hath displeased , asking pardon of them who say they are displeased , and offering pardon to them that have displeased him ; and then let him crave the peace of Holy Church . For it is all this while to be supposed that he hath used the assistence and prayers , the counsel and the advices of a spiritual man , and that to this purpose he hath opened to him the state of his whole life , and made him to understand what emendations of his faults he hath made , what acts of Repentance he hath done , how lived after his fall and reparation , and that he hath submitted all that he did or undid to the discerning of a holy man , whose office it is to guide his Soul in this agony and last offices . All men cannot have the blessing of a wise and learned Minister , and some die where they can have none at all : yet it were a safer course to do as much of this as we can , and to a competent person , if we can ; if we cannot , then to the best we have , according as we judge it to be of spiritual advantage to us : for in this conjuncture of accidents it concerns us to be sure , if we may , and not to be deceived , where we can avoid it ; because we shall never return to life to do this work again . And if after this entercourse with a Spiritual guide we be reconciled by the solemn prayer of the Church , the prayer of Absolution , it will be of great advantage to us ; we depart with our Father's blessing , we die in the actual Communion of the Church , we hear the sentence of God applied after the manner of men , and the promise of Pardon made circumstantiate , material , present , and operative upon our spirits , and have our portion of the promise which is recorded by S. James , that if the Elders of the Church pray over a sick person fervently and effectually , ( add solemnly ) his sins shall be forgiven him , ( that is , supposing him to be in a capacity to receive it ) because such prayers of such a man are very prevalent . 24. All this is in a spiritual sense washing the hands in innocency , and then let him go to the altar : let him not for any excuse less than impossibility omit to receive the holy Sacrament ; which the Father 's assembled in the great Nicene Council have taught all the Christian world to call the most necessary provisions for our last journey ; which is the memory of that Death by which we hope for life ; which is the seed of Immortality and Resurrection of our bodies ; which unites our spirit to Christ ; which is a great defensative against the hostilities of the Devil ; which is the most solemn Prayer of the Church , united and made acceptable by the Sacrifice of Christ , which is then represented and exhibited to God ; which is the great instrument of spiritual increase and the growth of Grace ; which is duty and reward , food and Physick , health and pleasure , deletery and cordial , prayer and thanksgiving , an union of mysteries , the marriage of the Soul , and the perfection of all the Rites of Christianity : dying with the holy Sacrament in us is a going to God with Christ in our arms , and interposing him between us and his angry sentence . But then we must be sure that we have done all the duty , without which we cannot communicate worthily . For else Satan comes in the place of Christ , and it is a horrour not less than infinite to appear before God's Tribunal possessed in our Souls with the spirit of darkness . True it is , that by many Laws of the Church the Bishop and the Minister are bound to give the holy Eucharist to every person who in the article or apparent danger of death desires it , provided that he hath submitted himself to the imposition and counsels of the Bishop or Guide of his Soul , that , in case he recovers , he may be brought to the peace of God and his Church by such steps and degrees of Repentance by which other publick sinners are reconciled . But to this gentleness of Discipline and easiness of Administration those excellent persons who made the Canons thought themselves compelled by the rigour of the 〈◊〉 : and because they admitted not lapsed persons to the peace of the Church upon any terms , though never so great , so publick , or so penal a Repentance ; therefore these not onely remitted them to the exercise and station of Penitents , but also to the Communion . But the Fathers of the Council of Eliberis denied this favour to persons who after Baptism were Idolaters ; either intending this as a great argument to affright persons from so great a crime , or else believing that it was unpardonable after Baptism , a contradiction to that state which we entred into by Baptism and the Covenant Evangelical . However , I desire all learned persons to observe it , and the less learned also to make use of it , that those more ancient Councils of the Church which commanded the holy Communion to be given to dying persons , meant only such which , according to the custome of the Church , were under the conditions of Repentance , that is , such to whom punishment and Discipline of divers years were injoyned ; and if it happened they died in the intervall , before the expiration of their time of reconciliation , then they admitted them to the Communion . Which describes to us the doctrine of those Ages when Religion was purer , and Discipline more severe , and holy life secured by rules of excellent Government ; that those only were fit to come to that Feast who before their last sickness had finished the Repentance of many years , * or at least had undertaken it . I cannot say it was so always , and in all Churches ; for as the Disciples grew slack , or mens perswasions had variety , so they were more ready to grant Repentance as well as Absolution to dying persons : but it was otherwise in the best times , and with severer Prelates . And certainly it were great charity to deny the Communion to persons who have lived viciously till their death ; provided it be by competent authority , and done sincerely , prudently ; and without temporal interest : to other persons , who have lived good lives , or repented of their bad , though less perfectly , it ought not to be denied , and they less ought to neglect it . 25. But as every man must put himself , so also he must put his house in order , make his Will , if he have an Estate to dispose of ; and in that he must be careful to do Justice to every man , and Charity to the poor , according as God hath enabled him : and though Charity is then very late , if it begins not earlier ; yet if this be but an act of an ancient habit , it is still more perfect , as it succeeds in time , and superadds to the former stock . And among other acts of Duty let it be remembred , that it is excellent Charity to leave our Will and desires clear , plain and determinate , that contention and Law-suits may be prevented by the explicate declaration of the Legacies . At last and in all instances and periods of our following days let the former good acts be renewed ; let God be praised for all his Graces and Blessings of our life , let him be intreated for Pardon of our sins , let acts of Love and Contrition , of Hope , of Joy , of Humility be the work of every day which God still permits us , always remembring to ask remission for those sins we remember not . And if the condition of our sickness permits it , let our last breath expire with an act of Love ; that it may begin the Charities of Eternity , and , like a Taper burnt to its lowest base , it may go out with a great emission of light , leaving a sweet smell behind us to perfume our Coffin ; and that these lights , newly made brighter or trimmed up in our sickness , may shine about our Herse , that they may become arguments of a pious sadness to our friends , ( as the charitable Coats which Dorcas made were to the widows ) and exemplar to all those who observed , or shall hear of , our holy life and religious death . But if it shall happen that the disease be productive of evil accidents , as a disturbed phancy , a weakned understanding , wild discoursings , or any deprivation of the use of Reason , it concerns the sick persons , in the happy intervalls of a quiet untroubled spirit , to pray earnestly to God that nothing may pass from him in the rages of a Fever or worse distemper which may less become his duty , or give scandal , or cause trouble to the persons in attendance : and if he shall also renounce and disclaim all such evil words which his disease may speak , not himself , he shall do the duty of a Christian and a prudent person . And after these 〈◊〉 , he may with Piety and confidence resign his Soul into the hands of God , to be deposited in holy receptacles till the day of restitution of all things ; and in the mean time with a quiet spirit descend into that state which is the lot of Caesars , and where all Kings and Conquerours have laid aside their glories . The PRAYER . O Eternal and Holy Jesus , who by Death hast overcome Death , and by thy Passion hast taken out its sting , and made it to become one of the gates of Heaven , and an entrance to Felicity ; have mercy upon me now and at the hour of my death : let thy Grace accompany me all the days of my life , that I may by a holy Conversation , and an habitual performance of my Duty , wait for the coming of our Lord , and be ready to enter with thee at whatsoever hour thou shalt come . Lord , let not my death be in any sence unprovided , nor untimely , nor hasty , but after the common manner of men , having in it nothing extraordinary , but an extraordinary Piety , and the manifestation of a great and miraculous Mercy . Let my Senses and Understanding be preserved intire till the last of my days , and grant that I may die the death of the righteous , having first discharged all my obligations of justice , leaving none miserable and unprovided in my departure ; but be thou the portion of all my friends and relatives , and let thy blessing descend upon their heads , and abide there , till they shall meet me in the bosom of our Lord. Preserve me ever in the communion and peace of the Church ; and bless my Death bed with the opportunity of a holy and a spiritual Guide , with the assistence and guard of Angels , with the perception of the holy Sacrament , with Patience and dereliction of my own 〈◊〉 , with a strong Faith , and a firm and humble Hope , with just measures of Repentance , and great treasures of Charity to thee my God , and to all the world ; that my Soul in the arms of the Holy Jesus may be deposited with safety and joy , there to expect the revelation of thy Day , and then to partake the glories of thy Kingdom , O Eternal and Holy Jesus . Amen . Considerations upon the Crucifixion of the Holy JESUS . He beareth his Cross Ioh : 19. 16. 17. And they took Iesus and lead him away : 17. And he bearing his Cross went forth into a place called the place of a Scult ; which is called in y e Hebrew , Golgotha . They Erect the Crucifixe . Ioh : 3. 14. 15. And as Moses lifted up the Serpent in y e wilderness , even so must y e Son of man be lifted up . 15. That whosoever believeth on him should not perish , but haue eternall life . 1. WHen the Sentence of Death pronounced against the Lord was to be put in execution , the Souldiers pulled off the Robe of mockery , the scarlet Mantle , which in jest they put upon him , and put on his own garments . But , as Origen observes , the Evangelist mentioned not that they took off the Crown of thorns ; what might serve their interest they pursue , but nothing of remission or mercy to the afflicted Son of man : but so it became the King of Sufferings ; not to lay aside his Imperial thorns , till they were changed into Diadems of Glory . But now Abel is led forth by his brother to be slain . A gay spectacle to satisfie impious eyes , who would not stay behind , but attended and waited upon the hangman to see the Catastrophe of this bloudy Tragedy . But when Piety looks on , she beholds a glorious mystery . Sin laughed to see the King of Heaven and Earth , and the great lover of Souls , in stead of the Scepter of his Kingdom to bear a Tree of 〈◊〉 and shame . But Plety wept tears of pity , and knew they would melt into joy , when she should behold that Cross which loaded the shoulders of her Lord afterward sit upon the Scepters , and be engraved and signed upon the Foreheads of Kings . 2. It cannot be thought but the Ministers of Jewish malice used all the circumstances of affliction which in any case were accustomed towards malefactors and persons to be crucified , and therefore it was that in some old Figures we see our Blessed Lord described with a Table appendent to the fringe of his garment , set full of nails and pointed iron ; for so sometimes they afflicted persons condemned to that kind of Death , and S. Cyprian affirms that Christ did stick to the wood that he carried , being galled with the iron at his heels , and nailed even before his Crucifixion . But this and the other accidents of his journey and their malice so crushed his wounded , tender and virginal body , that they were forced to lay the load upon a Cyrenian , fearing that he should die with less shame and smart than they intended him . But so he was pleased to take man unto his aid , not only to represent his own need and the dolorousness of his Passion , but to consign the duty unto man , that we must enter into a 〈◊〉 of Christ's sufferings , taking up the Cross of Martyrdom when God requires us , enduring affronts , being patient under affliction , loving them that hate us , and being benefactors to our enemies , abstaining from sensual and intemperate delight , forbidding to our selves lawful festivities and recreations of our weariness , when we have an end of the spirit to serve upon the ruines of the bodie 's strength , mortifying our desires , breaking our own will , not seeking our selves , being entirely resigned to God. These are the Cross , and the Nails , and the Spear , and the Whip , and all the instruments of a Christian's Passion . And we may consider , that every man in this world shall in some sence or other bear a Cross , few men escape it , and it is not well with them that do : but they only bear it well that 〈◊〉 Christ , and tread in his steps , and bear it for his sake , and walk as he walked ; and he that follows his own desires , when he meets with a cross there , ( as it is certain enough he will ) bears the cross of his Concupiscence , and that hath no fellowship with the Cross of Christ. By the Precept of bearing the Cross we are not tied to pull evil upon our selves , that we may imitate our Lord in nothing but in being afflicted ; or to personate the punitive exercises of Mortification and severe Abstinencies which were eminent in some Saints , and to which they had special assistances , as others had the gift of Chastity , and for which they had special reason , and , as they apprehended , some great necessities : but it is required that we bear our own Cross , so said our dearest Lord. For when the Cross of Christ is laid upon us , and we are called to Martyrdom , then it is our own , because God made it to be our portion : and when by the necessities of our spirit and the rebellion of our body we need exteriour mortifications and acts of self-denial : then also it is our own cross , because our needs have made it so ; and so it is when God sends us sickness or any other calamity : what-ever is either an effect of our ghostly needs , or the condition of our temporal estate , it calls for our sufferance , and patience , and equanimity ; for therefore Christ hath suffered for us , ( saith S. Peter ) leaving us an example , that we should follow his steps , who bore his Cross as long as he could , and when he could no longer , he murmured not , but sank under it ; and then he was content to receive such aid , not which he chose himself , but such as was assigned him . 3. Jesus was led out of the gates of Jerusalem , that he might become the sacrifice for persons without the pale , even for all the world : And the daughters of Jerusalem followed him with pious tears till they came to Calvary , a place difficult in the ascent , eminent and apt for the publication of shame , a hill of death and dead bones , polluted and impure , and there beheld him stript naked , who cloaths the field with flowers , and all the world with robes , and the whole globe with the canopy of Heaven , and so dress'd , that now every circumstance was a triumph : By his Disgrace he trampled upon our Pride ; by his Poverty and nakedness he triumphed over our Covetousness and love of riches ; and by his Pains chastised the Delicacies of our flesh , and broke in pieces the fetters of Concupiscence . For as soon as Adam was clothed he quitted Paradise ; and Jesus was made naked , that he might bring us in again . And we also must be despoil'd of all our exteriour adherencies , that we may pass through the regions of duty and divine love to a society of blessed spirits , and a clarified , immortal , and beatified estate . 4. There they nailed Jesus with four nails , fixed his Cross in the ground , which with its fall into the place of its station gave infinite torture by so violent a concussion of the body of our Lord , which rested upon nothing but four great wounds ; where he was designed to suffer a long and lingring torment . For Crucifixion , as it was an excellent pain , sharp and passionate , so it was not of quick effect towards taking away the life . S. Andrew was two whole days upon the Cross ; and some Martyrs have upon the Cross been rather starved and devoured with birds , than killed with the proper torment of the tree . But Jesus took all his Passion with a voluntary susception , God heightning it to the great degrees of torment supernaturally ; and he laid down his life voluntarily , when his Father's wrath was totally appeased towards mankind . 5. Some have phansied that Christ was pleased to take something from every condition of which Man ever was or shall be possessed ; taking Immunity from sin from Adam's state of Innocence , Punishment and misery from the state of Adam fallen , the fulness of Grace from the state of Renovation , and perfect Contemplation of the Divinity and beatifick joys from the state of Comprehension and the blessedness of Heaven ; meaning , that the Humanity of our Blessed Saviour did in the sharpest agony of his Passion behold the face of God , and communicate in glory . But I consider that , although the two Natures of Christ were knit by a mysterious union into one Person , yet the Natures still retain their incommunicable properties . Christ as God is not subject to sufferings , as a man he is the subject of miseries ; as God he is eternal , as man , mortal and commensurable by time ; as God , the supreme Law-giver , as man , most humble and obedient to the Law : and therefore that the Humane nature was united to the Divine , it does not infer that it must in all instances partake of the Divine felicities , which in God are essential , to man communicated without necessity , and by an arbitrary dispensation . Add to this , that some vertues and excellencies were in the Soul of Christ which could not consist with the state of glorified and beatified persons ; such as are Humility , Poverty of spirit , Hope , Holy desires ; all which , having their seat in the Soul , suppose even in the supremest 〈◊〉 a state of pilgrimage , that is , a condition which is imperfect , and in order to something beyond its present . For therefore Christ ought to suffer , ( saith our Blessed Lord himself ) and so enter into his glory . And S. Paul affirms , that we see Jesus made a little lower than the Angels , for the suffering of death , 〈◊〉 with glory and honour . And again , Christ humbled himself , and became obedient unto death , even the death of the Cross : Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him , and given him a Name above every name . Thus his present life was a state of merit and work , and as a reward of it he was crowned with glory and immortality , his Name was exalted , his Kingdom glorified , he was made the Lord of all the Creatures , the first-fruits of the Resurrection , the exemplar of glory , and the Prince and Head of the Catholick Church : and because this was his recompence , and the fruits of his Humility and Obedience , it is certain it was not a necessary consequence and a natural efflux of the personal union of the Godhead with the Humanity . This I discourse to this purpose , that we may not in our esteem lessen the suffering of our dearest Lord by thinking he had the supports of actual Glory in the midst of all his Sufferings . For there is no one minute or ray of Glory but its fruition does outweigh and make us insensible of the greatest calamities , and the spirit of pain , which can be extracted from all the infelicities of this world . True it is , that the greatest beauties in this world are receptive of an allay of sorrow , and nothing can have pleasure in all capacities . The most beautious feathers of the birds of Paradise , the Estrich , or the Peacock , if put into our throat , are not there so pleasant as to the eye : But the beatifick joys of the least glory of Heaven take away all pain , wipe away all tears from our eyes ; and it is not possible that at the same instant the Soul of Jesus should be ravished with Glory , and yet abated with pains grievous and 〈◊〉 . On the other side , some say that the Soul of Jesus upon the Cross suffered the pains of Hell , and all the torments of the damned , and that without such sufferings it is not imaginable he should pay the price which God's wrath should demand of us . But the same that reproves the one does also reprehend the other ; for the Hope that was the support of the Soul of Jesus , as it confesses an imperfection that is not consistent with the state of Glory , so it excludes the Despair that is the torment proper to accursed souls . Our dearest Lord suffered the whole condition of Humanity , Sin only excepted , and freed us from Hell with suffering those sad pains , and merited Heaven for his own Humanity , as the Head , and all faithful people , as the Members of his mystical Body . And therefore his life here was only a state of pilgrimage , not at all trimmed with beatifick glories . Much less was he ever in the state of Hell , or upon the Cross felt the formal misery and spirit of torment which is the 〈◊〉 of damned spirits ; because it was impossible Christ should despair , and without Despair it is impossible there should be a Hell. But this is highly probable , that in the intension of degrees and present anguish the Soul of our Lord might feel a greater load of wrath than is incumbent in every instant upon perishing souls . For all the sadness which may be imagined to be in Hell consists in acts produced from principles that cannot surpass the force of humane or Angelical nature ; but the pain which our Blessed Lord endured for the expiation of our sins was an issue of an united and concentred anger , was received into the heart of God and Man , and was commensurate to the whole latitude of the Grace , Patience and Charity of the Word incarnate . The Crucisixion . Mark : 15 : 25. Erat autem Hora tertia & crucifixerunt eum . Mark. 15 : 25. And is was the third houre & they crucified him . The takeing down from the Cross. Luk. 23 : 50 And there was a man named Ioseph , a Counsellour & he was a good man & a lust ( y e same had not consented to y e counsell & deed of them . 52. This man went unto Pilate & begged y e Body of Iesus . 53 And he took it down & wrapped it in linen , & layd it in a Sepulehre , that was hewn in stone wherein never man before was layd . 6. And now behold the Priest and the Sacrifice of all the world laid upon the Altar of the Cross , bleeding , and tortured , and dying , to reconcile his Father to us : and he was arrayed with ornaments more glorious than the robes of Aaron . The Crown of Thorns was his Mitre , the Cross his Pastoral staffe , the Nails piercing his hands were in stead of Rings , the ancient ornament of Priests , and his flesh rased and checker'd with blew and bloud in stead of the parti-coloured Robe . But as this object calls for our Devotion , our Love and Eucharist to our dearest Lord ; so it must needs irreconcile us to Sin , which in the eye of all the world brought so great shame and pain and amazement upon the Son of God , when he only became engaged by a charitable substitution of himself in our place ; and therefore we are assured , by the demonstration of sense and experience , it will bring death and all imaginable miseries as the just expresses of God's indignation and hatred : for to this we may apply the words of our Lord in the prediction of miseries to Jerusalem , If this be done in the green tree , what shall be done in the dry ? For it is certain , Christ infinitely pleased his Father even by becoming the person made 〈◊〉 in estimate of Law ; and yet so great Charity of our Lord , and the so great love and pleasure of his Father , exempted him not from suffering pains intolerable : and much less shall those escape who provoke and displease God , and despise so great Salvation , which the Holy Jesus hath wrought with the expence of bloud and so precious a life . 7. But here we see a great representation and testimony of the Divine Justice , who was so angry with sin , who had so severely threatned it , who does so essentially hate it , that he would not spare his only Son , when he became a conjunct person , relative to the guilt by undertaking the charges of our Nature . For although God hath set down in holy Scripture the order of his Justice , and the manner of its manifestation , that one Soul shall not perish for the sins of another ; yet this is meant for Justice and for Mercy too , that is , he will not curse the Son for the Father's fault , or in any relation whatsoever substitute one person for another to make him involuntarily guilty : But when this shall be desired by a person that cannot finally perish , and does a mercy to the exempt persons , and is a voluntary act of the suscipient , and shall in the event also redound to an infinite good , it is no deflection from the Divine Justice to excuse many by the affliction of one , who also for that very suffering shall have infinite compensation . We see that for the sin of Cham all his posterity were accursed : the Subjects of David died with the Plague , because their Prince numbred the people : Idolatry is punished in the children of the fourth generation : Saul's seven sons were hanged for breaking the League of Gibeon ; and Ahab's sin was punished in his posterity , he escaping , and the evil was brought upon his house in his son's days . In all these cases the evil descended upon persons in near relation to the sinner , and was a punishment to him and a misery to these , and were either chastisements also of their own sins , or if they were not , they served other ends of Providence , and led the afflicted innocent to a condition of recompence accidentally procured by that infliction . But if for such relation's sake and oeconomical and political conjunction , as between Prince and People , the evil may be transmitted from one to another , much rather is it just , when by contract a competent and conjunct person undertakes to quit his relative . Thus when the Hand steals , the Back is whipt ; and an evil Eye is punished with a hungry Belly . Treason causes the whole Family to be miserable ; and a Sacrilegious Grandfather hath sent a Locust to devour the increase of the Nephews . 8. But in our case it is a voluntary contract , and therefore no Injustice ; all parties are voluntary . God is the supreme Lord , and his actions are the measure of Justice : we , who had deserved the punishment , had great reason to desire a Redeemer : and yet Christ , who was to pay the ransome , was more desirous of it than we were , for we asked it not before it was promised and undertaken . But thus we see that Sureties pay the obligation of the principal Debtor , and the Pledges of Contracts have been by the best and wisest Nations slain when the Articles have been broken : The Thessalians slew 250 Pledges ; the Romans 300 of the Volsci , and threw the Tarentines from the Tarpeian rock . And that it may appear Christ was a person in all sences competent to do this for us , himself * testifies that he had power over his own life , to take it up , or lay it down . And therefore as there can be nothing against the most exact justice and reason of Laws and punishments ; so it magnifies the Divine Mercy , who removes the punishment from us who of necessity must have sunk under it , and yet makes us to adore his Severity , who would not forgive us without punishing his Son for us ; to consign unto us his perfect hatred against Sin , to conserve the sacredness of his Laws , and to imprint upon us great characters of fear and love . The famous Locrian Zaleucus made a Law , that all Adulterers should lose both their eyes : his son was first unhappily surprised in the crime ; and his Father , to keep a temper between the piety and soft spirit of a Parent , and the justice and severity of a Judge , put out one of his own eyes , and one of his Sons . So God did with us ; he made some abatement , that is , as to the person with whom he was angry , but inflicted his anger upon our Redeemer , whom he essentially loved , to secure the dignity of his Sanctions and the sacredness of Obedience ; so marrying Justice and Mercy by the intervening of a commutation . Thus David escaped by the death of his Son , God chusing that penalty for the expiation : and Cimon offered himself to prison , to purchase the liberty of his Father Miltiades . It was a filial duty in Cimon , and yet the Law was satisfied . And both these concurred in our great Redeemer . For God , who was the sole Arbitrator , so disposed it , and the eternal Son of God submitted to this way of expiating our crimes , and became an argument of faith and belief of the great Article of Remission of sins , and other its appendent causes and effects and adjuncts ; it being wrought by a visible and notorious Passion . It was made an encouragement of Hope ; for he that spared not his own Son to reconcile us , will with him give all things else to us so reconciled : and a great endearment of our Duty and Love , as it was a demonstration of his . And in all the changes and traverses of our life he is made to us a great example of all excellent actions and all patient sufferings . 9. In the midst of two Thieves three long hours the holy Jesus hung clothed with pain , agony and dishonour , all of them so eminent and vast , that he who could not but hope , whose Soul was enchased with Divinity , and dwelt in the bosom of God , and in the Cabinet of the mysterious Trinity , yet had a cloud of misery so thick and black drawn before him , that he complained as if God had forsaken him : but this was the pillar of cloud which conducted Israel into Canaan . And as God behind the Cloud supported the Holy Jesus , and stood ready to receive him into the union of his Glories ; so his Soul in that great desertion had internal comforts proceeding from consideration of all those excellent persons which should be adopted into the fellowship of his Sufferings , which should imitate his Graces , which should communicate his Glories . And we follow this Cloud to our Country , having Christ for our Guide : and though he trode the way , leaning upon the Cross , which like the staffe of Egypt pierced his hands ; yet it is to us a comfort and support , pleasant to our spirits as the sweetest Canes , strong as the pillars of the earth , and made apt for our use by having been born and made smooth by the hands of our Elder Brother . 10. In the midst of all his torments Jesus only made one Prayer of sorrow to represent his sad condition to his Father ; but no accent of murmur , no syllable of anger against his enemies : In stead of that he sent up a holy , charitable and effective Prayer for their forgiveness , and by that Prayer obtained of God that within 55 days 8000 of his enemies were converted . So potent is the prayer of Charity , that it prevails above the malice of men , turning the arts of Satan into the designs of God ; and when malice occasions the Prayer , the Prayer becomes an antidote to malice . And by this instance our Blessed Lord consigned that Duty to us which in his Sermons he had preached , That we should forgive our enemies , and pray for them : and by so doing our selves are freed from the stings of anger , and the storms of a revengeful spirit ; and we oftentimes procure servants to God friends to our selves , and heirs to the Kingdom of Heaven . 11. Of the two Thieves that were crucified together with our Lord , the one blasphemed ; the other had at that time the greatest Piety in the world , except that of the Blessed Virgin , and particularly had such a Faith , that all the Ages of the Church could never shew the like . For when he saw Christ in the same condemnation with himself , crucisied by the Romans , accused and scorned by the Jews , forsaken by his own Apostles , a dying distressed Man , doing at that time no Miracles to attest his Divinity or Innocence ; yet then he confesses him to be a Lord , and a King , and his Saviour : He confessed his own shame and unworthiness , he submitted to the death of the Cross , and , by his voluntary acceptation and tacite volition of it , made it equivalent to as great a punishment of his own susception ; he shewed an incomparable modesty , begging but for a remembrance only , he knew himself so sinful , he durst ask no more ; he reproved the other Thief for Blasphemy ; he confessed the world to come , and owned Christ publickly , he prayed to him , he hoped in him , and pitied him , shewing an excellent Patience in this sad condition . And in this I consider , that besides the excellency of some of these acts , and the goodness of all , the like occasion for so exemplar Faith never can occur ; and until all these things shall in these circumstances meet in any one man , he must not hope for so safe an Exit after an evil life 〈◊〉 the confidence of this example . But now Christ had the key of Paradise in his hand , and God blessed the good Thief with this opportunity of letting him in , who at another time might have waited longer , and been tied to harder conditions . And indeed it is very probable that he was much advantaged by the intervening accident of dying at the same time with Christ ; there being a natural compassion produced in us towards the partners of our miseries . For Christ was not void of humane passions , though he had in them no imperfection or irregularity , and therefore might be invited by the society of misery , the rather to admit him to participate his joys ; and S. Paul proves him to be a merciful high Priest , because he was touched with a feeling of our infirmities : the first expression of which was to this blessed Thief ; Christ and he together sate at the Supper of bitter herbs , and Christ payed his symbol , promising that he should that day be together with him in Paradise . 12. By the Cross of Christ stood the Holy Virgin Mother , upon whom old Simeon's Prophecy was now verified : for now she felt a sword passing through her very soul : she stood without clamour and womanish noises , sad , silent , and with a modest grief , deep as the waters of the abysse , but smooth as the face of a pool , full of Love , and Patience , and Sorrow , and Hope . Now she was put to it to make use of all those excellent discourses her Holy Son had used to build up her spirit , and fortifie it against this day . Now she felt the blessings and strengths of Faith , and she passed from the griefs of the Passion to the expectation of the Resurrection , and she rested in this Death as in a sad remedy ; for she knew it reconciled God with all the World. But her Hope drew a veil before her Sorrow ; and though her Grief was great enough to swallow her up , yet her Love was greater , and did swallow up her grief . But the Sun also had a veil upon his face , and taught us to draw a curtain before the Passion , which would be the most artificial expression of its greatness , whilest by silence and wonder we confess it great beyond our expression , or , which is all one , great as the burthen and baseness of our sins . And with this veil drawn before the face of Jesus let us suppose him at the gates of Paradise , calling with his last words in a loud voice to have them opened , that the King of glory might come in . The PRAYER . O Holy Jesus , who for our sakes didst suffer incomparable anguish and pains commensurate to thy Love , and our Miseries , which were infinite , that thou mightest purchase for 〈◊〉 blessings upon Earth , and an inheritance in Heaven ; dispose us by Love , Thankfulness , Humility and Obedience , to receive all the benefit of thy Passion , granting unto us and thy whole Church remission of all our sins , integrity of mind , health of body , competent maintenance , peace in our days , a temperate air , fruitfulness of the earth , unity and integrity of Faith , extirpation of Heresies , reconcilements of Schisms , destruction of all wicked counsels intended against us ; and bind the hands of Rapine and Sacriledge , that they may not destroy the vintage , and root up the Vine it self . Multiply thy Blessings upon us , sweetest Jesus , increase in us true Religion , sincere and actual devotion in our Prayers , Patience in troubles , and whatsoever is necessary to our Soul's health , or conducing to thy Glory . Amen . II. O Dearest Saviour , I adore thy mercies and thy incomparable love expressed in thy so voluntary susception and affectionate suffering such horrid and sad Tortures , which cannot be remembred without a sad compassion ; the waters of bitterness entred into thy Soul , and the storms of Death and thy Father's anger broke thee all in pieces : and what shall I do , who by my sins have so tormented my dearest Lord ? what Contrition can be great enough , what tears sufficiently expressive , what hatred and detestation of my crimes can be equal and commensurate to those sad accidents which they have produced ? Pity me , O Lord , pity me , dearest God , turn those thy merciful eyes towards me , O most merciful Redeemer ; for my sins are great , like unto thy Passion , full of sorrow and shame , and a burthen too great for me to bear . Lord , who hast done so much for me , now only speak the word , and thy servant shall be whole : Let thy Wounds heal me , thy Vertues amend me , thy Death quicken me ; that I in this life suffering the cross of a sad and salutary Repentance , in the union and merits of thy 〈◊〉 and Passion , may die with thee , and rest with thee , and rise again with thee , and live with thee for ever in the possession of thy Glories , O dearest Saviour Jesus . Amen . SECT . XVI . Of the Resurrection and Ascension of JESUS . The Burial of Iesus . Mat 27 57 When the even was come there came a rich man of Arimathea , named Jo seph , who also himself was Jesus Disciple , he went to Pilate , & beggd the body of Jesus . Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered . And when Ioseph had taken the body , he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth , & layd it in his own new tomb , which he had hewen out in y e rock . The Resurrection of Iesus . Mat 28 2 And behold there was a great earthquake : for the Angel of the Lord descended from heaven & came & rolled back y e stone from the doore , and sate upon it And for feare of him the keepers did shake , & became as dead men . And the Angel sayd unto the woman . Fear not ye , for I know , that ye seek Iesus , that was crucified . He is not here for he is Risen , as he sayd . 1. WHile it was yet early in the morning , upon the first day of the week , Mary Magdalen and Mary the mother of James and Salome brought sweet spices to the Sepulchre , that they might again embalm the Holy Body ; ( for the rites of Embalming among the Hebrews used to last forty days ) and their love was not satisfied with what Joseph had done . They therefore hastned to the grave ; and after they had expended their money , and bought the spices , then begin to consider , who shall remove the stone : but yet they still go on , and their love answers the objection , not knowing how it should be done , but yet resolving to go through all the difficulties ; but never remember or take care to pass the guards of Souldiers . But when they came to the Sepulchre , they found the Guard affrighted and removed , and the stone rolled away ; for there had a little before their arrival been a great Earthquake , and an Angel descending from Heaven rolled away the stone , and sate upon it ; and for fear of him the guards about the tomb became astonished with fear , and were like dead men : and some of them ran to the High Priests , and told them what happened . But they now resolving to make their iniquity safe and unquestionable by a new crime , hire the Souldiers to tell an incredible and a weak fable , that his Disciples came by night and stole him away : Against which accident the wit of man could give no more security than themselves had made . The women entred into the Sepulchre , and missing the body of Jesus , Mary Magdalen ran to the eleven Apostles , complaining that the body of our Lord was not to be found . Then Peter and John ran as fast as they could to see : for the unexpectedness of the relation , the wonder of the story and the sadness of the person moved some affections in them , which were kindled by the first principles and sparks of Faith , but were not made actual and definite , because the Faith was not raised to a flame : they looked into the Sepulchre , and finding not the body there , they returned . By this time Mary Magdalen was come back , and the women who stayed weeping for their Lord's body saw two Angels sitting in white , the one at the head , and the other at the 〈◊〉 ; at which unexpected sight they trembled , and bowed themselves : but an Angel bid them not to fear , telling them that Jesus of Nazareth , who was crucified , was also risen , and was not there , and called to mind what Jesus had told them in Galilee concerning his Crucifixion , and Resurrection the third day . 2. And Mary Magdalen turned her self back , and saw Jesus ; but supposing him to be the Gardiner , she said to him , Sir , if thou have born him hence , tell me where thou hast laid him , and I will take him away . But Jesus said unto her , Mary . Then she knew his voice , and with ecstasie of joy and wonder was ready to have crushed his feet with her imbraces : but he commanded her not to touch him , but go to his Erethren , and say , I ascend unto my Father , and to your Father , to my God , and your God. Mary departed with satisfaction beyond the joys of a victory or a full vintage , and told these things to the Apostles : but the narration seem'd to them as talk of abused and phantastick persons . About the same time Jesus also appeared unto Simon Peter . Towards the declining of the day , two of his Disciples going to Emmans sad , and discoursing of the late occurrences , Jesus puts himself into their company , and upbraids their incredulity , and expounds the Scriptures , that Christ ought to suffer , and rise again the third day , and in the breaking of bread disappeared ; and so was known to them by vanishing away , whom present they knew not . And instantly they hasten to Jerusalem , and told the Apostles what had happened . 3. And while they were there , that is , the same day at evening , when the Apostles were assembled all save Thomas , secretly for fear of the Jews , the doors being shut , Jesus came and stood in the midst of them . They were exceedingly troubled , supposing it had been a Spirit . But Jesus confuted them by the Philosophy of their senses , by feeling his 〈◊〉 and bones , which spirits have not . For he gave them his benediction , shewing them his hands and his feet . At which sight they rejoyced with exceeding joy , and began to be restored to their indefinite hopes of some future felicity by the returns of their Lord to life : and there he first breathed on them , giving them the holy Ghost , and performing the promise twice made before his death , the promise of the Keys , or of binding and loosing , saying , Whose soever sins ye remit , they are remitted to them ; and whose soever sins ye retain , they are retained . And that was the second part of Clerical power with which Jesus instructed his Disciples , in order to their great Commission of Preaching and Government 〈◊〉 . These things were told to Thomas , but he believed not , and resolved against the belief of it , unless he might put his finger into his hands , and his hand into his side . Jesus therefore on the Octaves of his Resurrection appeared again to the Apostles met together , and makes demonstration to Thomas , in conviction and reproof of his unbelief , promising a special benediction to all succeeding Ages of the Church ; for they are such who saw not , and yet have believed . 4. But Jesus at his early appearing had sent an order by the women , that the Disciples should go into 〈◊〉 ; and they did so after a few days . And Simon Peter being there went a fishing , and six other of the Apostles with him , to the Sea of Tiberias , where they laboured all night , and caught nothing . Towards the morning Jesus appeared to them , and bad them cast the net on the right side of the ship ; which they did , and inclosed an hundred and fifty three great fishes : by which prodigious draught John the beloved Disciple perceived it was the Lord. At which instant Peter threw himself into the Sea , and went to Jesus ; and when the rest were come to shore , they din'd with broiled fish . After dinner Jesus , taking care for those scattered sheep which were dispersed over the face of the earth , that he might gather them into one Sheepfold under one 〈◊〉 , asked Peter , Simon son of Jonas , lovest thou me more than these ? Peter answered , Yea , Lord , thou that knowest all things knowest that I love thee . Then Jesus said unto him , Feed my Lambs . And Jesus asked him the same question , and gave him the same Precept the second time , and the third time : for it was a considerable and a weighty imployment , upon which Jesus was willing to spend all his endearments and stock of affections that Peter owed him , even upon the care of his little Flock . And after the intrusting of this charge to him , he told him , that the reward he should have in this world should be a sharp and an honourable Martyrdom ; and withall checks at Peter's curiosity in busying himself about the temporal accidents of other men , and enquiring what should become of John the beloved Disciple . Jesus answered his question with some sharpness of reprehension , and no satisfaction ; If I will that he tarry till I come , what is that to thee ? Then they phansied that he should not die : But they were mistaken , for the intimation was expounded and verified by S. John's surviving the destruction of Jerusalem ; for after the attempts of persecutors , and the miraculous escape of prepared torments , he died a natural death in a good old age . 5. After this , Jesus having appointed a solemn meeting for all the Brethren that could be collected from the dispersion , and named a certain mountain in 〈◊〉 , appeared to five hundred Brethren at once ; and this was his most publick and solemn manifestation : and while some doubted , Jesus came according to the designation , and spake to the eleven , sent them to preach to all the world Repentance and Remission of sins in his Name , promising to be with them to the end of the world . He appeared also unto James , but at what time is uncertain ; save that there is something concerning it in the Gospel of S. Matthew which the Nazarens of 〈◊〉 used , and which it is likely themselves added out of report ; for there is nothing of it in our Greek Copies . The words are these : When the Lord had given the linen in which he was wrapped to the servant of the High Priest , he went and appeared unto James . For James had vowed , after he received the Lord's Supper , that he would eat no bread till he saw the Lord risen from the grave . Then the Lord called for bread , he blessed it and brake it , and gave it to James the Just , and said , My Brother , eat bread , for the Son of man is risen from the sleep of death . So that by this it should seem to be done upon the day of the Resurrection . But the relation of it by S. Paul puts it between the appearance which he made to the five hundred , and that last to the Apostles when he was to ascend into Heaven . Last of all , when the Apostles were at dinner , he appeared to them , upbraiding their incredulity : and then he opened their understanding , that they might discern the sence of Scripture , and again commanded them to preach the Gospel to all the world , giving them power to do Miracles , to cast out Devils , to cure 〈◊〉 ; and instituted the Sacrament of Baptism , which he commanded should together with the Sermons of the Gospel be administred to all Nations in the Name of the Father , and of the Son , and of the Holy Ghost . Then he led them into Judaea , and they came to Bethany , and from thence to the mount Olivet ; and he commanded them to stay in Jerusalem , till the Holy Ghost , the promise of the Father , should descend upon them , which should be accomplished in few days ; and then they should know the times , and the seasons , and all things necessary for their ministration and service , and propagation of the Gospel . And while he discoursed many things concerning the Kingdom , behold a Cloud came and parted Jesus from them , and carried him in their sight up into Heaven , where he sits at the right hand of God blessed for ever . Amen . 6. While his Apostles stood gazing up to Heaven , two Angels appeared to them , and told them , that Jesus should come in like manner as he was taken away , viz. with glory and majesty , and in the clouds , and with the ministry of Angels . Amen . Come , Lord JESUS ; come quickly . Ad SECT . XVI . Considerations upon the Accidents happening in the intervall after the Death of the Holy JESUS , untill his Resurrection . Jesus and Mary in the Garden . Joh. 20. 14. 15. 16. Mary turning about saw Jesus standing & knew not y t it was Jesus , Jesus saith , woman , whom seekest thou ? Shee supposing him to be the garidner , saith . sir , if thou have born him hence , tell me , etc. Jesus saith unto her , Mary : she turned her self , and saith unto him , Rabboni , which is Master . Jesus saith unto her , touch me not for , etc. Mary Magdalen came and told the desciples , that she had seen the Lord. Our Lords Ascension . Acts. 1. 9. And when he had spoken these things , while they beheld , he was taken up , & a Cloud received him out of their sight . 10. And while they stedfastly looked toward heaven , behold two men stood by them in white apparell . 11. Which also said , this same Iesus shall so come , as you have seen him go into heaven . 1. THE Holy Jesus promised to the blessed Thief , that he should that day be with him in Paradise ; which therefore was certainly a place or state of Blessedness , because it was a promise ; and in the society of Jesus , whose penal and afflictive part of his work of Redemption was finished upon the Cross. Our Blessed Lord did not promise he should that day be with him in his Kingdom , for that day it was not opened , and the everlasting doors of those interiour recesses were to be shut till after the Resurrection , that himself was to ascend thither , and make way for all his servants to enter , in the same method in which he went before us . Our Blessed Lord descended into Hell , saith the Creed of the Apostles , from the Sermon of Saint Peter , as he from the words of David , that is , into the state of Separation and common receptacle of Spirits , according to the style of Scripture . But the name of [ Hell ] is no-where in Scripture an appellative of the Kingdom of Christ , of the place of final and supreme Glory . But concerning the verification of our Lord's promise to the beatified Thief , and his own state of Separation , we must take what light we can from Scripture , and what we can from the Doctrine of the Primitive Church . (a) S. Paul had two great Revelations ; he was rapt up into Paradise ; and he was rapt up into the third Heaven : and these he calls visions & revelations , not one , but divers : for Paradise is distinguished from the Heaven of the blessed , being it self a receptacle of holy Souls , made illustrious with visitation of Angels , and happy by being a repository for such spirits who at the day of Judgment shall go forth into eternal glory . In the interim Christ hath trod all the paths before us , and this also we must pass through to arrive at the Courts of Heaven . Justin Martyr said it was the doctrine of heretical persons to say that the Souls of the Blessed instantly upon the separation from their Bodies enter into the highest Heaven . And (a) Irenaeus makes Heaven and the intermediate receptacle of Souls to be distinct places : both blessed , but hugely differing in degrees . (b) Tertullian is dogmatical in the assertion , that till the voice of the great Archangel be heard , and as long as Christ sits at the right hand of his Father making intercession for the Church , so long blessed Souls must expect the assembling of their brethren , the great Congregation of the Church , that they may all pass from their outer courts into the inward tabernacle , the Holy of Holies , to the Throne of God. And as it is certain that no Soul could enter into glory before our Lord 〈◊〉 , by whom we hope to have access : so it is most agreeable to the proportion 〈◊〉 the mysteries of our Redemption , that we believe the entrance into Glory to have been made by our Lord at his glorious Ascension , and that his Soul went not thither before 〈◊〉 , to come back again , to be contracted into the span of Humanity , and dwell forty days in his body upon earth . But that he should return from Paradise , that is , from the common receptacle of departed Spirits who died in the love of God , to earth again , had in it no lessening of his condition , since himself in mercy called back Lazarus from thence , and some others also returned to live a life of grace , which in all senses is less than the least of glories . Sufficient it is to us , that all holy Souls departing go into the hands , that is , into the custody , of our Lord ; that (a) they rest from their labours ; that their works shall follow them , and overtake them too , at the day of Judgment ; that they are happy presently ; that they are visited by Angels ; (b) that God sends , as he pleases , excellent irradiations and types of glory to entertain them in their mansions ; that their condition is secured : but (c) the crown of 〈◊〉 is laid up against the great day of Judgment , and then to be produced and given to S. Paul , and to all that love the coming of our Lord ; that is , to all who either here in duty , or in their receptacles , with joy and certain hope long for the revelation of that day . At the day of Judgment Christ will (d) send the Angels , and they shall gather together the elect from the four winds ; and all the refuse of men , evil persons , they shall throw into everlasting burning . Then our Blessed Lord shall call to the elect to enter into the Kingdom , and reject the cursed into the portion of Devils ; for whom the fire is but now prepared in the intervall . For (e) we must all appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ , ( saith S. Paul ) that every man may receive in his body according as he hath done , whether it be good or evil . Out of the body the reception of the reward is not . And therefore (f) S. Peter affirms , that God hath delivered the evil Angels into chains of darkness , to be reserved unto Judgment . And (g) S. Jude saith , that the Angels which kept not their first faith , but left their first habitation , he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the Judgment of the great day . And therefore the (h) Devils expostulated with our Blessed Saviour , Art thou come to torment us before the time ? And the same also he does to evil men , (i) reserving the unjust unto the day of Judgment to be punished . For since the actions which are to be judg'd are the actions of the whole man , so also must be the Judicature . And our Blessed Saviour intimated this to his Apostles ; (k) In my Father's house are many mansions : but I go to prepare a place for you . And if I go away , I will come again , and take you unto me ; that where I am , there ye may be also . At Christ's Second coming this is to be performed . Many Outer courts , many different places or different states there may be ; and yet there is a place whither holy Souls shall arrive at last , which was not then ready for us , and was not to be entred into until the entrance of our Lord had made the preparation : and that is , certainly , the highest Heaven , called by S. Paul the third Heaven ; because the other receptacles were ready , and full of holy Souls , Patriarchs and Prophets and holy men of God ; concerning whom * S. Paul affirms expresly , that the Fathers received not the Promises : God having provided some better thing for us , that they without us should not be made perfect : Therefore certain it is that their condition was a state of imperfection , and yet they were placed in Paradise , in Abraham's bosom ; and thither Christ went , and the blessed Thief attended him . And then it was that Christ made their condition better : for though still it be a place of relation in order to something beyond it , yet the term and object of their hope is changed : they sate in the regions of darkness , expecting that great Promise made to Adam and the Patriarchs , the Promise of the Messias ; but when he that was promised came , he preached to the spirits in Prison , he communicated to them the Mysteries of the Gospel , the Secrets of the Kingdom , the things hidden from eternal Ages , and taught them to look up to the glories purchased by his Passion , and made the term of their expectation be his Second coming , and the objects of their hope the glories of the beatifick vision . And although the state of Separation is sometimes in Scripture called 〈◊〉 , and sometimes 〈◊〉 , ( for these words in Scripture are of large significations ; ) yet it is never called the third 〈◊〉 , nor the Hell of the damned : for although concerning it nothing is clearly revealed , or what is their portion till the day of Judgment ; yet it is intimated in a Parable , that between good and evil spirits even in the state of Separation there is distance of place : certain it is there is great distance of condition ; and as the holy Souls in their regions of light are full of love , joy , hope , and longing for the coming of the great Day , so the accursed do expect it with an insupportable amazement , and are presently tormented with apprehensions of the future . Happy are they that through Paradise pass into the Kingdom , who from their highest hope pass to the 〈◊〉 Charity , from the state of a blessed Separation to the Mercies and * gentle Sentence of the day of Judgment , which S. Paul prayed to God to grant 〈◊〉 ; and more explicitely for the Thessalonians , ‖ that their whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus . And I pray God to grant the same to me , and all faithful people whatsoever . 2. As soon as the Lord had given up his spirit into the hands of God , the veil of the Temple was rent , the Angels Guardians of the place deserted it , the Rites of Moses were laid open , and the inclosures of the Tabernacle were dispark'd , the earth trembled , the graves were opened , and all the old world and the old Religion were so shaken towards their first Chaos , that if God had not supported the one , and reserved the other for an honourable burial , the earth had left to support her children , and the Synagogue had been thrown out to an inglorious exposition and contempt . But yet in these symbols these were changed from their first condition , and passed into a new dominion ; all old things passed away , and all things became new ; the Earth and the Heavens were reckoned as a new creation , they passed into another kingdom , under Christ their Lord ; and as before the creatures were servants of humane necessities , they now become servants of election , and in order to the ends of Grace , as before of Nature ; Christ having now the power to dispose of them in order to his Kingdom , and by the administration of his own Wisdom . And at the instant of these accidents , God so determined the perswasions of men , that they referred these Prodigies of the honour to Christ , and took them as testimonies of that truth for the affirmation of which the High Priest had condemned our dearest Lord : and although the heart of the Priest rent not , even then when rocks did tear in pieces ; yet the people , who saw the Passion , 〈◊〉 their breasts , and returned , and confessed Christ. 3. The graves of the dead were opened at the Death , but the dead boies of the Saints that slept arose not till the Resurrection of our Lord ; for he was the first fruits , and they followed him as instant witnesses , to publish the Resurrection of their Head , which it is possible they declared to those to whom they appeared in the Holy City . And amongst these , the curiosity or pious credulity of some have supposed Adam and Eve , Abraham , Isaac and Jacob , who therefore were 〈◊〉 to be buried in the Land of Promise , as having some intimation or hope that they might be partakers of the earliest glories of the Messias , in whose 〈◊〉 and distant expectation they lived and died . And this calling up of company from their graves did publish to all the world , not only that the Lord himself was risen , according to his so 〈◊〉 and repeated predictions , but that he meant * to raise up all his servants , and that all who believe in him should be partakers of the Resurrection . 4. When the souldiers observed that Jesus was dead , out of spite and impotent ineffective malice , one of them pierced his holy side with a spear ; and the rock being smitten it gushed out with water and 〈◊〉 , streaming forth two Sacraments to refresh the Church , and opening a gate that all his brethren might enter in , and dwell in the heart of God. And so great a love had our Lord , that he suffered his heart to be opened , to shew , as Eve was formed from the side of Adam , so was the Church to be from the side of her Lord , receiving from thence life and spiritual nutriment ; which he ministred in so great abundance , and suffered himself to be pierced , that all his bloud did stream over us , until he made the fountain dry , and reserved nothing of that by which he knew his Church was to live , and move , and have her being . Thus the stream of Bloud issued out to become a fountain for the Sacrament of the Chalice , and Water gushed out to fill the Fonts of Baptism and Repentance . The Bloud , being the testimony of the Divine Love , calls upon us to die for his love , when he requires it ; and the noise of the Water calls upon us to 〈◊〉 our spirits , and present our Conscience to Christ holy and pure , without spot or wrinkle . The Bloud running upon us , makes us to be of the cognation and family of God ; and the Water quenches the flames of Hell , and the fires of Concupiscence . 5. The friends and Disciples of the Holy Jesus , having devoutly composed his Body to Burial , anointed it , washed it , and condited it with spices and perfumes , laid it in a Sepulchre hewen from a rock in a Garden ; which ( saith 〈◊〉 ) was therefore done , to represent , that we were by this death returned to Paradise , and the Gardens of pleasures and Divine favours , from whence by the prevarication of Adam man was expelled . Here he finished the work of his Passion , as he had begun it in a Garden ; and the place of sepulchre , being a Rock , serves the ends of pious succeeding Ages : for the place remains in all Changes of government , of Wars , of Earthquakes and ruder accidents , to this day , as a 〈◊〉 of the Sepulchre of our dearest Lord , as a sensible and proper confirmation of the perswasions of some persons , and as an entertainment of their pious phancy and religious affections . 6. But now it was that in the dark and undiscerned mansions there was a scene of the greatest joy and the 〈◊〉 horrour represented , which yet was known since the first falling of the morning stars . Those holy souls whom the Prophet Zechary calls prisoners of hope , 〈◊〉 in the lake where there is no water , that is , no constant stream of joy to refresh their present condition , ( yet supported with certain showers and gracious visitations from God , and illuminations of their hope ) now that they saw their Redeemer come to change their condition , and to improve it into the neighbourhoods of glory and clearer revelations , must needs have the joy of intelligent and beatified understandings , of redeemed captives , of men forgiven after the sentence of death , of men satisfied after a tedious expectation , enjoying and seeing their Lord , whom for so many Ages they had expected . But the accursed spirits , seeing the darkness of their prison shine with a new light , and their Empire invaded , and their retirements of horrour discovered , wondered how a man durst venture thither , or if he were a GOD , how he should come to die . But the Holy Jesus was like that body of light , receiving into himself the reflexion of all the lesser rays of joy which the Patriarchs felt , and being united to his 〈◊〉 of felicity apprehended it yet more glorious . He now felt the effects of his bitter Passion to return upon him in Comforts ; every hour of which was abundant recompence for three hours Passion upon the Cross , and became to us a great precedent , to invite us to a toleration of the acts of Repentance , Mortification , and Martyrdom , and that in times of suffering we live upon the stock and expence of Faith , as remembring that 〈◊〉 few moments of infelicity are infinitely paid with every minute of glory , and yet that the glory which is certainly consequent is so lasting and perpetual , that it were enough in a lower joy to make amends by its continuation of eternity . And let us but call to mind what thoughts we shall have when we die , or are dead , how we shall then without prejudice consider , that if we had done our duty , the trouble and the affliction would now be past , and nothing remain but pleasures and felicities eternal , and how infinitely happy we shall then be if we have done our duty , and how miserable if not ; all the pleasures of sin disappearing , and nothing surviving but a certain and everlasting torment . Let us carry alway the same thoughts with us which must certainly then intervene , and we shall meet the Holy Jesus , and partake of his joys , which over-flowed his holy Soul when he first entred into the possession of those excellent fruits and effects of his Passion . 7. When the third day was come , the Soul of Jesus returned from Paradise , and the visitation of separate spirits , and re-entred into his holy Body , which he by his Divine power did redintegrate , filling his veins with bloud , healing all the wounds , excepting those five of his hands , feet and side , which he reserved as Trophies of his victory , and argument of his Passion . And as he had comforted the Souls of the Fathers with the presence of his Spirit ; so now he saw it to be time to bring comfort to his Holy Mother , to re-establish the tottering Faith of his Disciples , to verifie his Promise , to make demonstration of his Divinity , to lay some superstructures of his Church upon the foundation of his former Sermons , to instruct them in the mysteries of his Kingdom , to prepare them for the reception of the Holy Ghost : and as he had in his state of Separation triumphed over Hell , so in his Resurrection he set his foot upon Death , and brought it under his dominion ; so that although it was not yet destroyed , yet it is made his subject : it hath as yet the condition of the Gibeonites , who were not banished out of the land , but they were made drawers of water and bewers of wood ; so is Death made instrumental to Christ's Kingdom , but it abides still , and shall till the day of Judgment , but shall serve the ends of our Lord , and promote the interests of Eternity , and do benefit to the Church . 8. And it is considerable , that our Blessed Lord having told them that after three days he would rise again , yet he shortened the time as much as was possible , that he might verifie his own prediction , and yet make his absence the less troublesome ; he rises early in the morning the first day of the week : for so our dearest Lord abbreviates the days of our sorrow , and lengthens the years of our consolation ; for he knows that a day of sorrow seems a year , and a year of joy passes like a day ; and therefore God lessens the one , and 〈◊〉 the other , to make this perceived , and that supportable . Now the Temple which the Jews destroyed God raised up in six and thirty hours : but this second Temple was more glorious than the first ; for now it was clothed with robes of glory , with clarity , agility , and immortality : and though , like Moses descending from the mount , he wore a veil , that the greatness of his splendor might not render him unapt for conversation with his servants ; yet the holy Scripture affirms that he was now no more to see corruption ; meaning , that now he was separate from the passibility and affections of humane bodies , and could suffer S. Thomas to thrust his hand into the wound of his side , and his singer into the holes of his hands , without any grief or smart . 9. But although the graciousness and care of the Lord had prevented all diligence , and satisfied all desires , returning to life before the most forward faith could expect him ; yet there were three Maries went to the grave so early , that they prevented the rising of the Sun , and though with great obedience they stayed till the end of the Sabbath , yet , as soon as that was done , they had other parts of duty and affection , which called with greatest importunity to be speedily satisfied . And if Obedience had not bound the feet of Love , they had gone the day before ; but they became to us admirable patterns of Obedience to the Divine Commandments . For though Love were stronger than death , yet Obedience was stronger than Love , and made a rare dispute in the spirits of those holy Women , in which the flesh and the spirit were not the litigants , but the spirit and the spirit ; and they resisted each other as the Angel-guardian of the Jews resisted the tutelar Angel of Persia , each striving who should with most love and zeal perform their charge , and God determined . And so he did here too . For the Law of the Sabbath was then a Divine Commandment ; and although piety to the dead , and to such a dead , was ready to force their choice to do violence to their will , bearing them up on wings of desire to the grave of the LORD , yet at last they reconciled Love with Obedience . For they had been taught that Love is best expressed in keeping of the Divine Commandments . But now they were at liberty ; and sure enough they made use of its first minute : and going so early to seek Christ , they were sure they should find him . 10. The Angels descended Guardians of the Sepulchre ; for God sent his guards too , and they affrighted the Watch appointed by Pilate and the Priests : but when the women came , they spake like comforters , full of sweetness and consolation , laying aside their affrighting glories , as knowing it is the will of their Lord , that they should minister good to them that love him . But a conversation with Angels could not satisfie them who came to look for the Lord of the Angels , and found him not : and when the Lord was pleased to appear to Mary Magdalen , she was so swallowed up with love and sorrow , that she entred into her joy , and perceived it not ; she saw the Lord , and knew him not . For so , from the closets of darkness they that immediately stare upon the Sun perceive not the beauties of the light , and feel nothing but amazement . But the voice of the Lord opened her eyes , and she knew him , and worshipped him , but was denied to touch him , and commanded to tell the Apostles : for therefore God ministers to us comforts and revelations , not that we may dwell in the sensible fruition of them our selves alone , but that we communicate the grace to others . But when the other women were returned and saw the Lord , then they were all together admitted to the embracement , and to kiss the feet of Jesus . For God hath his opportunities and periods , which at another time he denies ; and we must then rejoyce in it , when he vouchsafes it , and submit to his Divine will , when he denies it . 11. These good women had the first fruits of the apparition : for their forward love and the passion of their Religion made greater haste to entertain a Grace , and was a greater endearment of their persons to our Lord , than a more sober , reserved , and less active spirit . This is more safe , but that is religious ; this goes to God by the way of understanding , that by the will ; this is supported by discourse , that by passions ; this is the sobriety of the Apostles , the other was the zeal of the holy women : and because a strong fancy and an earnest passion sixed upon holy objects are the most active and forward instruments of Devotion , as Devotion is of Love , therefore we find God hath made great expressions of his acceptance of such dispositions . And women , and less knowing persons , and tender dispositions , and pliant natures , will make up a greater number in Heaven , than the severe and wary and enquiring people , who sometimes love because they believe , and believe because they can demonstrate , but never believe because they love . When a great Understanding and a great Affection meet together , it makes a Saint great like an Apostle ; but they do not well who make abatement of their religious passions by the severity of their Understanding . It is no matter by which we are brought to Christ , so we love him and obey him ; but if the production admit of 〈◊〉 , that instrument is the most excellent which produces the greatest love : and 〈◊〉 discourse and a sober spirit be in it self the best , yet we do not always suffer that to be a parent of as great Religion as the good women make their fancy , their softness , and their passion . 12. Our Blessed Lord appeared next to Simon : and though he and John ran forthtogether , and S. John outran Simon , although Simon Peter had denied and forsworn his Lord , and S. John never did , and followed him to his Passion and his death ; yet Peter had the savour of seeing Jesus first . Which some Spiritual persons understand as a testimony , that penitent 〈◊〉 have accidental eminences and priviledges sometimes 〈◊〉 to them beyond the temporal graces of the just and innocent , as being such who not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against the remanent and inherent evils even of repented sins , and their aptnesses to relapse ; but also because those who are true Penitents , who understand the infiniteness of the Divine mercy , and that for a sinner to pass from death to 〈◊〉 , from the state of sin into pardon and the state of Grace , is a greater gift , and a more excellent and improbable mutation , than for a just man to be taken into glory , out of gratitude to God , and indearment 〈◊〉 so great a change , added to a fear of returning to such danger and misery , will re-enforce all their industry , and double their study , and 〈◊〉 more diligently , and watch more carefully , and redeem the 〈◊〉 , and make amends for their omissions , and oppose a good to the former evils , beside the duties of the 〈◊〉 imployment ; and then , commonly , the life of a holy Penitent is more holy , active , zealous , and impatient of Vice , and more rapacious of Vertue and holy actions , and arises to greater 〈◊〉 of Sanctity , than the even and moderate affections of just persons , who ( as our Blessed Saviour's expression is ) 〈◊〉 no Repentance , that is , no change of state , nothing but a perseverance , and an improvement of degrees . There is more joy in heaven before the Angels of God over 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that 〈◊〉 , than 〈◊〉 ninety nine just persons that need it not : for , where sin hath abounded , there doth grace super abound ; and that makes joy in Heaven . 13. The Holy Jesus having received the affections of his most passionate Disciples , the women and S. 〈◊〉 , puts himself upon the way into the company of two good men going to Emmaus with troubled spirits and a reeling faith , shaking all its upper building , but leaving some of its foundation firm . To them the Lord discourses of the necessity of the Death and Resurrection of the 〈◊〉 , and taught them not to take estimate of the counsels of God by the designs and proportions of man : for God by ways contrary to humane judgment brings to pass the purposes of his eternal Providence . The glories of Christ were not made pompous by humane circumstances ; his Kingdom was spiritual : he was to enter into Felicities through the gates of Death ; he refused to do Miracles before 〈◊〉 , and yet did them before the people ; he confuted his accusers by silence , and did not descend from the Cross , when they offered to believe in him , if he would , but 〈◊〉 them to be perswaded by greater arguments of his power , the miraculous circumstances of his Death , and the glories of his Resurrection ; and by walking in the secret paths of Divine election hath commanded us to adore his footsteps , to admire and revere his Wisdom , to be satisfied with all the events of Providence , and to rejoyce in him , if by Afflictions he makes us holy , if by Persecutions he supports and enlarges his Church , if by Death he brings us to life ; so we arrive at the communion of his Felicities , we must let him chuse the way ; it being sufficient that he is our guide , and our support , and our exceeding great reward . For therefore Christ preached to the two Disciples going to 〈◊〉 the way of the Cross , and the necessity of that passage , that the wisdom of God might be glorified , and the conjectures of man ashamed . But whilest his discourse lasted , they knew him not ; but in the breaking of bread he discovered himself . For he turned their meal into a Sacrament , and their darkness to light ; and having to his Sermon added the Sacrament , opened all their discerning faculties , the eyes of their body , and their understanding too ; to represent to us , that when we are blessed with the opportunities of both those instruments , we want no exteriour assistence to guide us in the way to the knowing and enjoying of our Lord. 14. But the Apparitions which Jesus made were all upon the design of laying the foundation of all Christian Graces ; for the begetting and establishing Faith , and an active Confidence in their persons , and building them up on the great fundamentals of the Religion . And therefore he appointed a general meeting upon a mountain in Galilee , that the number of witnesses might not only disseminate the same , but establish the Article of the Resurrection ; for upon that are built all the hopes of a Christian ; and if the dead rise not , then are we of all men most miserable , in quitting the present possessions , and entertaining injuries and affronts without hopes of reparation . But we lay two gages in several repositories ; the Body in the bosome of the earth , the Soul in the 〈◊〉 of God : and as we here live by Faith , and lay them down with hope ; so the 〈◊〉 is a restitution of them both , and a state of re-union . And therefore although the glory of our spirits without the body were joy great enough to make compensation for mere than the troubles of all the world ; yet because one shall not be glorified without the other , they being of themselves incomplete substances , and God having revealed nothing clearly concerning actual and complete felicities till the day of Judgment , when it is promised our bodies shall rise ; therefore it is that the Resurrection is the great Article upon which we rely , and which Christ took so much care to prove and ascertain to so many persons , because if that should be disbelieved with which all our felicities are to be received , we have nothing to establish our Faith , or entertain our Hope , or satisfie our desires , or make retribution for that state of secular inconveniences in which , by the necessities of our nature and the humility and patience of our Religion , we are engaged . 15. But I consider that holy Scripture onely instructs us concerning the life of this world and the life of the Resurrection , the life of Grace and the life of Glory , both in the body , that is , a life of the whole man ; and whatsoever is spoken of the Soul , considers it as an essential part of man , relating to his whole constitution , not as it is of it self an intellectual and separate substance ; for all its actions which are separate and removed from the body are relative and incomplete . Now because the Soul is an incomplete substance , and created in relation to the Body , and is but a part of the whole man , if the Body were as eternal and incorruptible as the Soul , yet the separation of the one from the other would be as now it is , that which we call natural death ; and supposing that God should preserve the Body for ever , or restore it at the day of Judgment to its full substance and perfect organs , yet the man would be dead for ever , if the Soul for ever should continue separate from the Body . So that the other life , that is , the state of Resurrection , is a re-uniting Soul and Body . And although in a Philosophical sence the Resurrection , is of the Body , that is , a restitution of our flesh and bloud and bones , and is called Resurrection as the entrance into the state of Resurrection may have the denomination of the whole ; yet in the sence of Scripture the Resurrection is the restitution of our life , the renovation of the whole man , the state of Re-union ; and untill that be , the man is not , but he is dead , and onely his essential parts are deposited and laid up in trust : and therefore whatsoever the Soul does or perceives in its incomplete condition , is but to it as embalming and honourable funerals to the Body , and a safe monument to preserve it in order to a living again ; and the felicities of the intervall are wholly in order to the next life . And therefore if there were to be no Resurrection , as these intermedial joys should not be at all ; so , as they are , they are but relative and incomplete : and therefore all our hopes , all our felicities depend upon the Resurrection ; without it we should never be persons , men or women ; and then the state of Separation could be nothing but a phantasm , trees ever in blossome , never bearing fruit , corn for ever in the blade , eggs always in the shell , a hope eternal , never to pass into fruition , that is , for ever to be deluded , for ever to be miserable . And therefore it was an elegant expression of S. Paul , Our life is hid with Christ in God ; that is , our life is passed into custody , the dust of our body is numbred , and the Spirit is refreshed , visited and preserved in celestial mansions : but it is not properly called a Life ; for all this while the man is dead , and shall then live when Christ produces this hidden life at the great day of restitution . But our faith of all this Article is well wrapt up in the words of S. John : Beloved , now we are the Sons of God , and it doth not yet appear what we shall be ; but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him , for we shall see him as he is . The middle state is not it which Scripture hath propounded to our Faith , or to our Hope ; the reward is then when Christ shall appear : but in the mean time the Soul can converse with God and with Angels , just as the holy Prophets did in their Dreams , in which they received great degrees of favour and revelation . But this is not to be reckoned any more than an entrance or a waiting for the state of our Felicity . And since the glories of Heaven is the great fruit of Election , we may consider that the Body is not predestinate , nor the Soul , alone , but the whole Man ; and until the parts embrace again in an essential complexion , it cannot be expected either of them should receive the portion of the predestinate . But the article and the event of future things is rarely set in order by Saint Paul ; But ye are come into the mount Sion , and to the City of the living God , the heavenly Jerusalem , and to an innumerable company of Angels , To the general assembly and Church of the first born , which are written in heaven , and to God the Judge of all , ( and then follows , after this general assembly , after the Judge of all appears , [ to the spirits of just men made perfect , ] that is , re-united to their bodies , and entring into glory . The beginning of the contrary Opinion brought some new practices and appendent perswasions into the Church , or at least promoted them much . For those Doctors who , receding from the Primitive belief of this Article , taught that the glories of Heaven are fully communicated to the Souls before the day of Judgment , did also upon that stock teach the Invocation of Saints , whom they believed to be received into glory , and insensibly also brought in the opinion of Purgatory , that the less perfect Souls might be glorified in the time that they assigned them . But the safer opinion and more agreeable to Piety is that which I have now described from Scripture and the purest Ages of the Church . 16. When Jesus appeared to the Apostles , he gave them his Peace for a Benediction , and when he departed , he left them Peace for a Legacy , and gave them , according to two former promises , the power of making Peace , and reconciling Souls to God by a ministerial act ; so conveying his Father's mercy , which himself procured by his Passion , and actuates by his Intercession and the giving of his Grace , that he might comply with our infirmities , and minister to our needs by instruments even and proportionate to our selves ; making our brethren the conduits of his Grace , that the excellent effect of the Spirit might not descend upon us , as the Law upon Mount Sinai , in expresses of greatness and terrour , but in earthen vessels , and images of infirmity : so God manifesting his power in the smalness of the instrument , and descending to our needs , not only in giving the grace of Pardon , but also in the manner of its ministration . And I meditate upon the greatness of this Mercy , by comparing this Grace of God , and the blessing of the Judgment and Sentence we receive at the hand of the Church , with the Judgment which God makes at the hour of death upon them who have despised this mercy , and neglected all the other parts of their duty . The one is a Judgment of mercy , the other of vengeance : In the one the Devil is the Accuser , and Heaven and earth bear witness ; in the other the penitent sinner accuses himself : In that the sinner gets a pardon , in the other he finds no remedy : In that all his good deeds are remembred and returned , and his sins are blotted out ; in the other all his evil deeds are represented with horrour and a sting , and remain for ever : In the first the sinner changes his state for a state of Grace , and only smarts in some temporal austerities and acts of exteriour mortification ; in the second his temporal estate is changed to an eternity of pain : In the first the sinner suffers the shame of one man or one society , which is sweetned by consolation , and homilies of mercy and health ; in the latter all his sins are laid open before all the world , and himself confounded in eternal amazement and confusions : In the judgment of the Church the sinner is honoured by all for returning to the bosome of his Mother , and the embraces of his heavenly Father ; in the judgment of vengeance he is laughed at by God , and mocked by accursed spirits , and perishes without pity : In this he is prayed for by none , helped by none , comforted by none , and he makes himself a companion of Devils to everlasting ages ; but in the judgment of Repentance and Tribunal of the Church the penitent sinner is prayed for by a whole army of militant Saints , and causes joy to all the Church triumphant . And to establish this Tribunal in the Church , and to transmit pardon to penitent sinners , and a salutary judgment upon the person and the crime , and to appoint Physicians and Guardians of the Soul , was one of the designs and mercies of the Resurrection of Jesus . And let not any Christian man either by false opinion , or an unbelieving spirit , or an incurious apprehension , undervalue or neglect this ministery , which Christ hath so sacredly and solemnly established . Happy is he that dashes his sins against the rock upon which the Church is built , that the Church gathering up the planks and fragments of the shipwreck , and the shivers of the broken heart , may re-unite them , pouring Oil into the wounds made by the blows of sin , and restoring with meekness , gentleness , care , counsel , and authority , persons overtaken in a fault . For that act of Ministery is not ineffectual which God hath promised shall be ratified in Heaven ; and that Authority is not contemptible which the Holy Jesus conveyed by breathing upon his Church the Holy Ghost . But Christ intended that those whom he had made Guides of our Souls , and Judges of our Consciences in order to counsel and ministerial pardon , should also be used by us in all cases of our Souls , and that we go to Heaven the way he hath appointed , that is , by offices and ministeries Ecclesiastical . 17. When our Blessed Lord had so confirmed the Faith of the Church and appointed an Ecclesiastical Ministery , he had but one work more to do upon earth , and that was the Institution of the holy Sacrament of Baptism , which he ordained as a solemn Initiation and mysterious Profession of the Faith upon which the Church is built ; making it a solemn Publication of our Profession , the rite of Stipulation or entring Covenant with our Lord , the solemnity of the Paction Evangelical , in which we undertake to be Disciples to the Holy Jesus , that is , to believe his Doctrine , to fear his Threatnings , to rely upon his Promises , and to obey his Commandments all the days of our life : and he for his part actually performs much , and promises more ; he takes off all the guilt of our preceding days , purging our Souls , and making them clean as in the day of innocence ; promising withall , that if we perform our undertaking , and remain in the state in which he now puts us , he will continually assist us with his * Spirit , prevent and attend us with his Grace , he will deliver us from the power of the Devil , he will keep our Souls in merciful , joyful and safe custody till the great Day of the Lord , he will then raise our Bodies from the Grave , he will make them to be spiritual and immortal , he will re-unite them to our Souls , and beatifie both Bodies and Souls in his own Kingdom , admitting them into eternal and unspeakable glories . All which that he might verifie and prepare respectively , in the presence of his Disciples he ascended into the bosome of God , and the eternal comprehensions of celestial Glory . The PRAYER . O Holy and Eternal Jesus , who hast overcome Death , and triumphed over all the powers of Hell , Darkness , Sin , and the Grave , manifesting the truth of thy Promises , the power of thy Divinity , the majesty of thy Person , the rewards of thy Glory , and the mercies and excellent designs of thy Evangelical Kingdom , by thy glorious and powerful Resurrection ; preserve my Soul from eternal death , and make me to rise from the death of Sin , and to live the life of Grace , loving thy Perfections , adoring thy Mercy , pursuing the interest of thy Kingdom , being united to the Church under thee our Head , conforming to thy holy Laws , established in Faith , entertained and confirmed with a modest , humble , and certain Hope , and sanctified by Charity ; that I engraving thee in my heart , and submitting to thee in my spirit , and imitating thee in thy glorious example , may be partaker of thy Resurrection , which is my hope and my desire , the support of my Faith , the object of my Joy , and the strength of my Confidence . In thee , Holy Jesus , do I trust : I confess thy Faith , I believe all that thou hast taught ; I desire to perform all thy injunctions and my own undertaking : my Soul is in thy hand , do thou support and guide it , and pity my infirmities ; and when thou shalt reveal thy great Day , shew to me the mercies and effects of thy Advocation and Intercession and Redemption . Thou shalt answer for me , O Lord my God ; for in thee have I trusted , let me never be confounded . Thou art just , thou 〈◊〉 merciful , thou art gracious and compassionate , thou hast done miracles and prodigies of favour to me and all the world . Let not those great actions and sufferings be ineffective , but make me capable and receptive of thy Mercies , and then I am certain to receive them . I am thine , O save me ; thou art mine , O Holy Jesus , O dwell with me for ever , and let me dwell with thee , adoring and praising the eternal glories of God the Father , Son , and Holy Ghost . Amen . THE END . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . THE TABLE OF The Life of CHRIST . Where are more Numbers than one , the first Number denotes the Page , the latter , the Number of the Section . A. ABsolution of dying Persons of what benefit 407. 23. Whether to be given to all that desire it 408. 24. Acceptable Year of the Lord , what it means 186. 22. Actions of Jesus confuted his Accusers 390. 2. Acts of Vertue to be done by sick and dying Persons 405 , 406. 19 , 20. Accusation of Criminals not to be aggravated odiously 393. 8. It ought to be onely for purposes of Charity ibid. Accusation of innocent persons ought to be born patiently by the innocent 393. 9. Accusation of Jesus 352. 24. Adam buried in Golgotha 354. 31. Adoption of Sons 316. 7. Advent of our Lord must be entertained with joy 156. 3. Adultery made more criminal under the Gospel than under the Law 249. 37 , &c. Adultery of the eyes 250. 36. Adrian the Emperour built a Temple to Venus and Adonis in the place of Christ's Birth 14. 6. Agony of Jesus in the Garden 350. 20. Agesilaus was more commended for his modesty and obedience than for his prosperous good Conduct 50. 25. Albes or white garments wore by the Church , and why 393. 9 , 10. Alms intended for a defensative against Covetousness 258. 1. Ordinarily to be according to our ability ibid. Sometimes beyond , in what cases ibid. Necessities of all indigent people are the object of our Alms 259. 3. Manner of Alms an office of Christian prudence ibid. The two Altars in Solomon's Temple , what they did represent 83. 4. Ambitious seeking Ecclesiastical Dignities very criminal 96. 2. Ambition is an affliction to him that hath it 69 , 70. 6. Amorous young man cured of his Vanity by a Stratagem 273. 2. Angels ministred at the Birth of Jesus 14. 4. Angels invited Shepherds to see the new-born Prince 26. 4. Angels multiplied into a Quire to sing Gloria Patri at the Birth of Christ 26. 5. Angels taught the Church the Christian Hymn ibid. That the Star appearing to the Wise men was an Angel , the Opinion of the Greeks 27. 8. They rejoyced greatly when Mankind was redeemed 29. 1. They that fell not admitted to Repentance , and why 198. 2. Are appointed to observe them that fast piously 274. 3. One of them comforted Jesus 385. 5. In what manner ibid. One of them rolled the Stone from the Grave of Jesus 419. 1. They were Guardians of the Sepulchre 427. 10. Anger forbidden in the 6. Commandment 245. 28. In what cases allowable ibid. Rules and measures of a lawful anger 246. 31. How long to abide 245. 30. That of the Heart forbidden ib. 27. Remedies against it 248. 35. Annas chief of the Sanhedrim 351. 23. He sent Jesus to Caiaphas ibid. Anniversaries of Christ's Nativity , Resurrection and Ascension to be religiously observed 243. 24 , 26. Of Saints ibid. Anna the Prophetess received Christ as a reward to her long Fasting and Prayer 36. 5. & 53. 6. Mark Antony , to stir the Peoples affections , presented the Body of Caesar 56. 9. Antichrist's pretence not furthered but hindred by his Miracles 280. 11. Apostasy from Christianity unpardonable ; in what sence true 201. 10 , 11. Apostles chosen by Christ 290. 5. Sent to preach by two and two ibid. Rejoyce at their power over Devils 203. 17. Who saw the Transfiguration , saw also the Agony 383. 2. Apocryphal Miracles feigned of Christ's younger years 153. 8. Arsenius sad and troubled upon his Death-bed 402. 11. Arms not to be taken up against our Prince for Religion 492. 11. Ascension of Jesus into Heaven 421. 5. Attention to our Prayers . Vid. Prayers . S. Augustine entred into the Tomb of Caesar 114. 36. Authority of Ecclesiastical Censures 430. 16. Of the Contempt of Authority in smaller Impositions 46. 20 , 21. Augustus Caesar refused to be called Lord about the time of Christ's Nativity 25. 2. B. BAlaam's Prophecy of Christ's Star 27. 8. His Prayer explicated 303. 14. Babes of Bethlehem had the Reward of Martyrs 72. 11. Baptism sanctifies the worthy Suscipient 97. 4. Baptism is the only state , wherein our sins in this life are declared to be fully and absolutely pardoned 314. 3. In it all our sins are forgiven 199. 7. To it Faith and Repentance are necessary Preparatories ibid. It is necessary before the Reception of the Eucharist 349. 16. & 374. 12. Ordained by Christ 431. 17. what it operates and signifies ibid. Vide Disc. of Baptism 106. Baptism not onely pardons for the present , but puts into a lasting state of easier pardon for the future 203. 17. S. Barbara to Execution miraculously veil'd 394. 10. Basil recalled from Exile for his reverent and grave saying his Offices 178. 13. Prayed for Head-ach 85. 9. The Baptist's Character of himself 151. 1. His Death , and the occasion 169. 5. His Death revenged 169. 6. Beginners in Religion to be ruled by an experienced Guide 109 , 110. 22. They have a conditional certainty of Salvation 316. 7. Beginnings of Evil to be resisted 111. 26. Birth of Christ illustrated with Miracles 25. 1. It s place turned to a Church 14. 6. Peace universal at his Birth 25. 3. It was signified to Jews and Gentiles in the persons of Shepherds and Wise-men 31. 1. & 34. 12. Whether Saints enjoy the Beatifick Vision before the day of Judgment 423. 1. & 429. 15. Binding Jesus with Cords with circumstances of cruelty 387. 10. Blasphemy falsly charged upon Jesus 325. 23. Bloudy sweat of Christ what it did then effect , and what it did then prefigure 385. 6. Blessings of the Gospel 429. 16. Assurance of Blessing made to them who are or do , where or what God commands 68. 3. Breasts that are drie , a curse 22. Bramble of Judaea an emblem of Anger 245. 30. Buffeting of Jesus foretold by a Sibyl . 389 , 390. 1. C. CAmbyses sent the AEthiopian King a box of Nard 291. 9. Care for our Families how far to regard the future 258. 2. Ceadwalla's Vow 270. 20. Gentarion of the Iron Legion comes to Christ 291. 7. Charity makes us partake of the Joys and Sufferings of all Christians 29. 2. It is the measure of our own Peace 29 , 30. 5. Charity of Christians converted Pachomius 79. 2. It is consistent with repeating our own right 256. 9. It is part of the definition of Christian Faith 161. 5 , 6. Charity of Christians greater than civil Relations 158. 8. Is the last of graces 171. 5. Being exercised toward Christ's Servants is accepted as done to Christ 189. 4. It must increase with our Wealth 258. 2. S. Chad pray'd for others in stormy times 340. 7. Chastity wittily represented by Libanius 111. 27. Easier to die for it than to live with it 230. 15. Chastity of the Mind , of the Eyes , of all the Members , enjoyned 249. 38. It abstains from all undecencies ibid. Caiaphas prophesied and determined the Death of Jesus 345. 2. He rent his Cloaths against the Law 352. 25. Casual and contingent Causes cut off the life of a Sinner 308. 24. Certainty of Salvation 313. per tot . Cheap Offering not accepted , when a better may be given 177. 12. Christ chose to do all the Ministeries of Religion 96. 1. His Passion in every minute was sufficient for Reconcilement of all the World 1. Exh. 3. The surplusage for example ibid. Christ paid mere for our Obedience than our Pardon 1. Exh. 3. He for himself merited the exaltation of his Humanity , his Name , his Kingdom , &c. 413. 5. How and to what purposes he overcame Death 426. 7. He is our Pattern 2. Exh. 7. How far imitable by us 4. Exh. 11. His Sufferings of value infinite 1. Exh. 3. He honoured Virginity and Marriage in the choice of his Mother ibid. He manifested his power in the instances of Mercy 5. Exh. 11. & 278. 2. He is to be followed in the like proportion as he followed his Father V. 11. 5. Exh. 11. His Life easie , compliant and imitable 9. 4. & IV. 8 , 9. It helps us to its own imitation 3 , 4. Exh. 8 , 9. ibid. His Life is imitable by Practice and Religion VI. Exh. 15 , 16. He is God and Man 16. 6. He was first revealed to poor men 30. 6. By his Humility , his Poverty and uneasiness fought against the Lust of the Flesh , of the Eyes , and the pride of Life 30. 8. He put himself to pain to be reckoned among Sinners 37. 3. He was redeemed at first , and sold at last , for an ignoble price 52. 3. He is best relished by them who least relish worldly things 53. 5. He is a Physician and a Law-giver 249. 36. His servants are most honourable 253. 5. He did no Miracles before 30 years of age 154. 6 , 8. He entertains five Disciples ibid. He is to be sought for in his Ordinances 156. 4. He ejected the Merchants out of the Temple 169. 2. He mingled no Injury with his Zeal 170. 4. He Baptized Peter onely 181. 1. He ends the Samaritan's Qu. about the place of Worship 182. 4. He made a Covenant of Faith and Repentance 200. 9. This Covenant is consigned in Baptism ibid. His Miracles were greater than any man did before him 277. 2. His Passion cured our Miseries 411. 2. He was viator , not comprehensor , in his Passion 413. 5. His Prayer for his Enemies was effectual 416. 10. He first ascended into Heaven 419. 1. His side streamed forth two Sacraments 426. 4. He raised the Widow's son to life 291. 7. He shewed the power of a God with the infirmities of a Man 387. 9. Crowned with thorns 395. 11. His Commission to Peter 419. 4. & 420. 4. He is our Advocate for actions relative to him 360. 8 , 9. A King 28. 13. A Star was his evidence ibid. Christians ought to be exemplary in their Lives 231. 1. Their Righteousness to exceed the Pharisaical 232 , 233. Christian prudence 157. 6. Christian simplicity 157. 6. They for the most part chuse not their Religion 160. 1. They are to be like Children 325. 15. Christian Liberty not to be betrayed 331. 8. Christianity an easie Yoak 295. 1. More pleasant than Sin ibid. More natural ibid. & vide Praes . Not so troublesome as sin 297. It is the way of peace 299. 7. Of Content ibid. & 300. Of Riches and of long life 302. 13 , 14. & seq . Of Health ibid. Of Wisdom 308. 27. Children of God exposed to Temptations 98. 7 , 8. Church deserves great Revenues , but needs them not 70. 8 , 9. Her endowments are of advantage to the People ibid. Dangerous for the Church to be Rich in Temporal possessions ibid. Church ought to be more apt to remit of Temporal rights than others ibid. Church-Tribunal to be of great mercy 430. 16. Compared with God's Tribunal ibid. It is impregnable against Hell-gates 321. 9. Built upon the Confession of Peter ibid. Churches built upon Mount Tabor 322. 11. They are Holy Places , to what sence , and to what purposes 172. How to be used 176. 11. Church in Paradise called the presence of God 175. 7. The residence of Angels ibid. 8. Their best ornament is the holiness of worshippers 178. 14. They are desecrated by Vice ibid. Circumcision an earnest of the Passion 36. 1. Not declared to be remissive of original sin ibid. Circumcision of Christ served many purposes 37. 2. It was an act of Obedience ibid. Complying with customes of civility sometimes a Temptation 108. 16. Company-keeping to be avoided as it can ibid. Communion of Saints profitable and pleasant 75. Comforts more necessary to 〈◊〉 Converts 33. 9. Clergie's duty under the Parable of a Steward 326. 26. Covetousness its fruits 361. 10. 390. Confession to a Minister of Religion 218. 51. Contrition alone not sufficient for Pardon ibid. Consecration of the Eucharist mysterious 369. 2. Cure of Souls a dangerous and grave Imployment 96. 2. D. DEscription of Jesus by way of Meditation and Mystery 16. 5 , 6. Decalogue expounded 231. Death happening untimely doth not always consign to Damnation 336. Preparation to Death 397. & seq . It comes by all accidents ibid. Deaths sudden and rare ibid. Death-bed Repentance too late 339. 5. ( Vide Repentance ) It is desirable 405. 19. How far it may be prayed against ibid. To be submitted to in all cases ibid. Death of Man sanctified and conquered by Christ's Death 426. 7. & 405. 19. Dying persons how to be treated and assisted 400. 6. Devils confessed Christ 290. 4. That the Devil had the managing of the Roman Empire , was the Opinion of some Wise-men 100. 14. One deaf and dumb ejected 321. 7. He furnishes evil persons with apt instruments 361. 10. How they did appear to Jesus in the Desart 95. 7. They are impotent in their malice 100. Can hurt no Soul without its consent ibid. 13. The Tribute of the Didrachm . 322. 13. Diligence in our Calling accepted , though our Calling be mean 32. Dispensations not to be accepted too freely 37. Disobedience to God in great and small instances compared 44. 12 , 13. Disobedience to GOD and Man compared 46. A deliberate choice of the smallest disobedience in its formality is destructive , though in the matter it be otherwise pardonable . 44. 12. Defence of our selves permitted 252. 2. Not against our Prince ibid. Defence of our innocence in Judgment permitted 252. Dove descending on Christ was mysterious 97. 5. Doubting the issue of our Prayers , in what sense lawful 267. 15. Duels unlawful 253. 5. & seq . Doubting in an Article , how to be cured 400. 8. Despair , how to be cured . 401. 10. E. EGyptian Idols fell to the Ground at Christ's coming thither 67. 9. In AEgypt Christ dwelt in a Garden of Balsam ibid. Egyptians worshipped an Infant in a Cradle , and a Virgin in a Bed ibid. Envy reproved by the example of Angels 29. 2. Envy spiritual 360. 9. Eat for necessity , not delight 87. 15. Eli's Family short-lived 308. 24. Cured by Repentance ibid. Election what it signifies in Scripture 313. 2. It depends upon Duty 314. uncertain to us ibid. Ecclesiastical Regiment how differing from Secular 323. 14. Ecclesiastical power verified in Heaven 323. 16. Ecclesiastical persons bound to communicate often 379. 18. Ecclesiastical Persons are to imitate Christ in Meekness , Innocence , Suffering 393. 8 , 9. Ecclesiastical Judicatories compared with the Divine 430. Earnest of the Spirit what it signifies 316. 7. Eclipse of the Sun at the Passion was miraculous 355. 34. Enemies occasion to us of much good 386. 8. Erring persons how to be treated 188. 2. & 10. 7. Evil counsels come to nought 85. 2. Though they succeed , it is not Prosperity ibid. Elizabeth carried her Son the Baptist into the Wilderness 77. 1. She died after 40 days ibid. Example of Preachers is the best Sermon 78. 5. & 364. 4. Examples of Divine Judgments 338. 5. Esau's Repentance 391. 7. Excuses from frequent communion not valid 379. 20. Evenness and moderation of a religious state most necessary for young beginners , and safest for all men 407 , 408. Expences unnecessary to be cut off and spent in Alms. 252. 2. F. FAlse witness highly criminal 250. 40. Familiarity with God , what it should signifie 33. 26. Faith described 160. 2. Charity is part of its constitution ibid. However it be produced , whether it be proved or not , it is sufficient 157. 7. & 162. 1. Pref. 28. Faith of ignorant and knowing men compared 160. 1 , 2. Faith of Christians how it differs from that of Devils 163. 7. Excellencies and effects of Faith 163. 9. & seq . The marks of a truly Christian Faith ibid. Vide Disc. of Faith per tot . Fasting before the Sacrament 272. 1. Degrees , Manner , and Rules of Fasting 274. & 275. It is no duty of it self , but in order to certain ends 272. 1. Why Jesus fasted Forty Dayes 128. 9. Vide Disc. of Fasting per tot . Fear hallowed by Christ's fear 384. 3. It is the first of Graces 171. 5. Farewell-Sermon made by Jesus 350. 19. Flaminius condemned to Death for wanton Cruelty 168. 5. Fornication against the Law of God in all Ages 249. 37. Permitted to Strangers among the Jews ibid. Forgiving Injuries a Christian duty . 252. G. GAdara built by Pompey 184. 15. Full of Sepulchres and Witches ibid. Gabriel ministers to the exaltation of his inferiours 3. 4. Galilaeans , why slain by Pilate , and what they were 326. 27. Garden , why chosen for the place of the Agony 364. & 383. 2. Gentleness a duty of Christians 323. 16. Giacchetus of Geneva his Death in the midst of his Lust 338. 5. God , his Gifts effects of Predestination 156. 5. Those Gifts how to be prayed for 261 , 264. Consideration of his Presence a good remedy against Temptations 112. 29. The Vision of God preserveth the Blessed Souls from Sin ibid. 30. GOD's method in bringing us to him , and treating us after 32. 4. He gives his Servants more than they look for 155. He gives more Grace to them that use the first well ibid. & 32. 6. He rejoyces in his own works of mercy 187. 1. And in ours 227. 13. He requires not always the greatest degree of Vertue 234. 11. He is never wanting in necessaries to us 32. He changeth his purpose of the death of a Man for several reasons 308. 24. He works his ends by unlikely means 427. GOD certainly supports those in their necessities , who are doing his work 68. 3. Gold , and Frankincense , and Myrrhe , what signification they had in the gift of the Magi 34. 11. & 28. 12. Grace , it helps our Faculties , but creates no new ones 31. 2. It works severally at several times 32. Being refused it hardens our Hearts 387. 369. Government supported by Christianity 68. 7. Gospel and the Law , how they differ 193. 3. & 296. & 232. 3. H. HAsty persons and actions always unreasonable , sometimes criminal 15. 1. Herod mock'd by the Magi 65. 1. & 84. 1. His stratagem to surprize all the male children 66. The cause why he slew Zecharias 66. 5. Caesar's saying concerning him 66. 3. He felt the Divine vengeance 67. 6. His Malice near his Death defeated 67. 7. He pretended Religion to his secret design 68. 1. He slew 14000 Infants 66. 4. Fear of the Child Jesus proceeded from his mistake 70. 7. The Tetrarch overthrown by the King of Arabia 169. 6. His reception of Christ 352. 26. Is careless of inquiring after Christ 393. 9. Herodians , what they were 290. 3. Herodias Daughter beheaded with Ice 169. 6. She and Herod banished ibid. Heron the Monk abused with an illusion 61. 23. Herminigilda refused to communicate with an Arian Bishop 188. 2. Hereticks served their ends of Heresie upon Women , upon whom also they served their Lust 189. 5. Heroical actions of Repentance at our Death-bed more prevalent than any other hope then left 217. 49. Health promised and consigned in the Gospel by Miracles and by an ordinary Ministery 304. 15 , 16. There were two High-Priests , the one President of the Rites of the Temple , the other of the great Council 351. 23. Honour done to us to be returned to God 9. 6. It is due to what the Supreme power separates from common usages 172. 3. How it is to be estimated 253. 5. Honourable and Sacred all one 173. S. Hilarion a great Faster 273. 2. S. Hierom's advice concerning Fasting ibid. Holy Ghost descending upon Jesus at his Baptism 94. 3. Holiness of Religious places 172. It is a great preservative of Life 302. 13. Hope , of Salvation encreases according to degrees of holy walking 315. Necessary in our Prayers 267. House of John Mark consecrated into a Church 174. 5. Hosanna , what it signifies 347. 6. Onely sung to God ibid. Humane Nature by the Incarnation exalted above the Angels 3. Humane infirmity to be pitied , not to be upbraided 384. Humility , of Jesus 14. The surest way to Heaven 37. Of the Baptist 68. It makes good men more honourable 186. Its excellencies 302. 11 , 12. & 367. Its Properties and Acts 364. & seq . Humility of the young Mar. of Castilion 367. 9. Hunger after Righteousness 373. 11. Hunger and Thirst spiritual , how they differ ibid. Its Acts and Reward ibid. Husbands converted by their Wives 189. 3. J. JAirus begs help of Jesus for his Daughter 185. 20. His Daughter restored to Life 186. 21. Jesus , discoursing wonderfully with the Doctors 75. 1. He wrought in the Carpenter's Trade before and after Joseph's death 76. 6. Baptized by John 93. 1. Attended by good Angels in the Wilderness 95. Was angry when the Devil tempted him to dishonour God 95. 8. & 101. 15. He slept in a Storm 184. 14. Preached the first Year in peace 186. 22. Appeared several times after his Resurrection 419. He was known in the breaking of Bread ibid. He had but two days of Triumph all his Life 359. 5. And they both allayed with Sorrow ibid. & 360. He was used inhospitably at Jerusalem ibid. Infinitely loving 360. He received all his Disciples with a Kiss 386. 8. Civil to his Enemies , and beneficial to his Friends ibid. He was stripp'd naked , and why 394. 10. He came eating and drinking , and why 291. He invites all to him ibid. The Pharisees report him mad 291. He refused to be made a King 319. 1. Transfigured 322. 13. He shamed the Accusers of the Adulteress 324. 20. He teaches his Disciples to pray the second time 326. 26. Refuses to judge a Title of Land ibid. Blesseth 〈◊〉 327. 30. The Price of him 349. 14. All his great Actions in his Life had a mixture of Divinity and Humanity 387. 9. He was not compelled to bear the transverse Beam of the Cross 354. 30. He wept for Lazarus 345. And over Jerusalem 347. 7. Answered the Pharisees concerning Tribute to Caesar 347. 10. Prayed against the bitter Cup 450. 20. Smitten upon the Face 351. Accused of Blasphemy before the High-Priest ibid. Of Treason bëfore Pilate 352. 26. Nailed with Four Nails 354. 31. Provided for his Mother after his Death 355. 33. Recited the two and twentieth Psalm , or part of it , upon the Cross ibid. He felt the first Recompence of his Sorrows in the state of Separation 426. At the Resurrection he did redintegrate all his Body but the five Wounds ibid. He arose with a glorified Body 427. But veil'd with a Cloud of common Appearance ibid. Jewish Women hoped to be the Mother of the Messias 2. 5. Jews looked to be justified by external Innocence 243. 26. They were scrupulous in Rites , careless of Moral Duties 392. 7. Could not put any Man to Death at Easter 352. 26. They eat not till the Solemnities of their Festival is over 272. 1. Jezabel pretended Religion to her design of Murther and Theft 68. 1. Illusions come often in likeness of Visions 61. 23. Sins of Infirmity explicated 105. 10. & seq . Intentions , though good , excuse not evil Actions 107. 13. Incontinence destroys the Spirit of Government 189. 5. Instruments weak and unlikely used by GOD to great purposes 197. Incarnation of Jesus instrumental to God's Glory and our Peace 31. Inevitable Infirmities consistent with a state of Grace 207. Injuries great and little to be forgiven 252. Intention of Spirit , how necessary in our Prayers 267. 17. Images , their Lawfulness or unlawfulness considered 237. 16. Admitted into the Church with difficulty and by degrees 237. 16. Images of Jupiter and Diana Cyndias did ridiculous and weak Miracles 279. 7. Imprisonment sanctified by the binding of Jesus 387. Ingratitude of Judas 360. 9. John the Baptist , his Life and Death 66. 5. & 77. & 78. and 79. & 93. & 292. 18. His Baptism 93. Whether the form of it were in the Name of Christ to come ibid. Joyes spiritual increase by communication 156. 3. Joyes of Eternity recompense all our Sorrowes in every instant of their fruition 426. Joyes sudden and violent are to be allayed by reflexion on the vilest of our Sins 196. 7. John Patriarch of Alexandria appeased the anger of Patricius 245. 30. Innocence is security against evil Actions 10. Justice of GOD in punishing Jesus cleared 415. 7 , 8. Several degrees of Justification answerable to several degrees of Faith 162. 7. Judgment of Life and Death is to be only by the supreme Power , or his Deputy 253. A Jew condemned of Idolatry for throwing stones ( though in detestation ) at the Idol of Mercury 354. 32. Judging our Brother , how far prohibited 260. 5. Judas's name written in Heaven , and blotted 〈◊〉 again 313. 1. His manner of death 352. 25. Ingrateful 360. 8. He valued the Ointment at the same rate he sold his Lord 361. 11. He enjoyed his Money not Ten Hours 386. 7. Julian desired , but could not be a Magician 361. 10. Judgment of GOD upon Sinners , their causes and manner 336. 1. & seq . Judgments National 340. 8. Not easily understood by Men 339. 5. Joseph of Arimath . embalmed the Body of Jesus 356. 38. Whether Judas received the Holy Sacrament . 375. 13. K. KIng and Church have the same Friends and Enemies 336. Kingdom of Christ not of this World 352. What it is 392. 8. Kingdom of God what 263. 5. Kingdom of Grace and Glory ibid. A King came to Jesus in behalf of his Son 182. 6. Kings specially to be prayed for 365. 13. King's Enemies how to be prayed against ibid. To Kill the assaulting Person in what cases lawful . 253. 3. L. LAws evil make a National Sin 341. 10. Law of Nature , Vide Pref. per tot . & 20. 7. Laws of Man to be obeyed , but not always to be thought most reasonable 42. 7. & 48. 21. Laws of God and Man in respect of the greatness of the subject matter compared 46. & 49. Laws of Men bind not to Death or an insufferable Calamity , rather than not to break them 48. 21. Laws of Superiours not to be too freely disputed by Subjects 49. 23. Laws of order to be observed even when the first reason ceases 52. 1. It is not safe to do all that is lawful 45. 15 , 16. Law and Gospel , how differ 194. 3. & 232. 3. & 295. S. Paul often by a Fiction of Person speaks of himself not as in the state of Regeneration under the Gospel , but as under the imperfections of the Law 104. 8. Law of Nature perfected by Christianity Pref. Law of Moses a Law of Works , how 232. Law of Jesus a Law of the Spirit , and not of Works , in what sence ibid. Law-Suits to be managed charitably 256. When lawful to be undertaken ibid. Lazarus restored to Life 345. 2. Leonigildus kill'd his Daughter for not communicating with the Arians 188. 2. Leven of Herod , what 321. 8. Lepers cured 324. 18. Sent to the Priest ibid. Unthankful ibid. The Levantine Churches afflicted , the cause uncertain 338. 4. S. Laurence his Gridiron less hot than his Love 358. 2. 7. 〈◊〉 . 17. Life of Man cut off for Sin 303. & 305. It hath several periods ibid. & 274. Good life necessary to make our Prayers acceptable 266. 13. A comparison between a Life in Solitude , and in Society 80. 5. Lord's Supper the greatest of Christian Rites 369. It manifests God's Power 371. 4. His Wisdome and his Charity 371. 5 , 6. It is a Sacrament of Union 371. 5 , 6. A Sacrament and a Sacrifice , in what sence 372. 7. As it is an act of the Ecclesiastical Officer , of what efficacy 373. 8. It is expressed in mysterious words , when the value is recited 373. Not to be administred to vicious persons 374. 12. Whether persons vicious under suspicion only are to be deprived of it 376. 13. How to be received 377. 15. What deportment to be used after it 378. 17. To be received by dying Persons 407. 23. Of what benefit it is to them ibid. Love and Obedience Duties of the first Commandment 234. 8. Love and Obedience reconciled 427. 9. Love of God , its extension 234. 9. It s intension ibid. n. 11. Love the fulfilling of the Law , explicated 233. 5. It consists in latitude 236. 13. It must exclude all affection to sin ibid. 14. Signs of true love to God 236. 14. Love to God with all our hearts possible , and in what sence ibid. Love of God and love of money compared 361. 11. Lord's Day by what authority to be observed 244. 24. And how ibid. Lucian's Cynick an Hypocrite 366. 7. Likeness to God being desired at first ruined us , now restores us 364. 3. Lying in that degree is criminal as it is injurious . 250. 40. M. MArriage , honoured by Christ's presence and the first Miracle 154. Hallowed to a Mystery 158. 8. Marriage-breakers are more criminal now than under Moses's Law 158. The smaller undecencies must be prevented or deprecated Of Martyrdom 229. 18. Magi at the sight of Christ's Poverty renounce the World , and retire into Philosophy 28. 13. Mary , a Virgin alwayes 14. & 2. An excellent Personage 2 , 3. & 8. She conceived Jesus without Sin , and brought him forth without Pain 13. Her joy at the Prophecies concerning her Son attempered with Predictions of his Passion 30. 4. Full of Fears , when she lost Jesus 73. 1. She went to the Temple to pray , and there found him ibid. Full of Piety in Her countenance and deportment 113. 32. She converted many to thoughts of Chastity by her countenance and aspect ibid. Mary Magdalen's Story 377. 9. & 360. 5. & 391. 9. & 346. 5. & 349. 13. Mary's Choice preferred 326. 26. Mark for sook Jesus upon a Scandal taken , but was reduced by S. Peter 320. 3. Malchus an Idumaean Slave smote Jesus on the Face 389. 1. Meditation described 54. It turns the understanding into spirit 55. Its Parts , Actions , manner of Exercise , Fruits and Effects Disc. 3. per tot . 54. Men ought not to run into the Ministery , till they are called 99. 3. Ordinary Means and Ministeries are to be used when they are to be had , whereof the Star appearing to the Wise men was an emblem 33. 6. VVhat is signified by the Inheritance of the Earth in the reward of Meekness 224. 9. The Parts , Actions and Reward of Meekness ibid. Mortification described , its Parts , Actions , Rules , Designs and Benefits 82. Master of the Feast , his Office among the Jews 152. 5. Mercy , a mark of Predestination 227. To be expressed in Affections and Actions ibid. Its Object , Acts , Reward ibid. Merope's answer to Polyphontes 254. 6. A Mason's withered hand cured by Jesus 290. 3. Members of Christ ought not to be soft and nice 393. 9. Miseries of this Life not always tokens of precedent Sin 325. & 326. Miracles of Christ and his Apostles weakly imitated by the Devil 279. 〈◊〉 . Greater than the pretences of their Enemies 280. 10. Which were done by Christ were primarily for conviction of the Jewes , those by the Apostles for the Gentiles 279. 6. Vide 277. Were confirmed by Prophecies of Jesus ibid. Mount Olivet the place of the Romans first Incamping 347. 7. Mourning a duty , its Acts , Duty , Reward 223. Multitudes fed by Christ 319. & 321. 7. N. NAme of God put into H. places , in what sence 172. 1. Name of Jesus , its mysteriousness explicated 39. 8. It s excellency and efficacy ibid. Good Name to be sought after 367. Names of some of the LXXII 325. 24. Names of some that were supposed to rise after the Passion of Jesus 425. 3. Good Nature an Instrument of Vertue 91. 24. Nard pistick poured upon Jesus's Head and Feet 346. 5. & 361. 11. Natural to love God when we understand him 296. 3. Natures of Christ communicated in Effects 387. 9. National Sins and Judgements 340. 8. Their Cure ibid. Necessity to Sin laid upon no Man 105. 9. Necessity to be obeyed before positive Constitutions 289. Necessity of Holy Living 204. 〈◊〉 . Necessities of our selves and other men in several manner to be prayed for 265. 12. Nicodemus his 〈◊〉 with Jesus 167. New Creation at the Passion 431. Nero first among the Romans 〈◊〉 with Nard 291. 9. Nursing Children a duty of Mothers . 19. O. OAths forbidden , and how 240. Oaths 〈◊〉 Judicature , if contradictory , not to be admitted 241. Oaths promissory not to be exacted by Princes but in great necessity 240. Vide Swearing Obedience to God and Man , its Parts , Actions , Necessity , Definition and Constitution 41. & 224. & 205. Obedience in small instances stated 44. 12 , 13. Obedience to GOD our only security for defence and provisions 68. 3. Obedience of Jesus to his Parents 72. Obedience and Love 〈◊〉 in the holy Women , and how reconciled 427. 9. Occasions of Sin to be avoided 110. 24. Offending Hand or Eye to be cut off or pull'd out 323. 17. Ordinary means of Salvation to be pursued 32. 5. Original Sin disputed to evil purposes 37. Considered and stated in order to Practice 38. 4. Opinion of our selves ought to be small and true 365. 5. It was the Duke of Candia's Harbinger 365. 6. In what mean opinion of our selves consists ibid. Oswy's Vow 270. 19. Outward 〈◊〉 addes reverence to Religion 177. 12. P. PAradise distinct from Heaven 424. 1. Place of GOD's special appearance in Paradise 175. 7. Patriarchs why desirous to be 〈◊〉 in the Land of Promise 425. 3. Pardon of Sins by Christ is most properly of Sins committed before Baptism 193. Pardon of Sins after Baptism how consigned 200. & 201. It is more uncertain and difficult ibid. It is less and to fewer purposes 204. Alwayes imperfect after Baptism ibid. It is by Parts ibid. Possibility of Pardon hath a period in this life 210. Patrons to present able persons to their Benefices 194. 2. How far lawful to prefer their Kindred ibid. Parents in order of Nature next to God 244. 25. Duty to Parents the band of Republicks ibid. What it consists of ibid. Passion of Jesus 355. & 412. Passions sanctified by Jesus 384. 3. Paschal Rites representative of moral Duties 364. Patience to be preserved by Innocents accused 393. And in Sickness 404. 17. Paul calling himself the greatest Sinner , in what sence he understood it 264. 8. He hoped for Salvation more confidently towards his end 317. 9. Palms cut down for the Reception of Jesus 347. Persecution an earnest of future Bliss 229. 18. It is lawful to fly it 290. & 69. 4. Not , to fight against it 70. The Duty of Suffering explicated 229. 18. Peacefulness . its Acts and Reward 228. 17. Peace 〈◊〉 from God by Christ 29. 5. Personal Priviledges not to be insisted upon so much as strict Duty 37. Personal Infirmity of Princes excuses not our Disobedience 46. Person of a Man first accepted , and then his Gift , in what sence true 33. Parental Piety of the Virgin Mary 15. Person of Christ of great excellency 15. Presentation of Jesus the only Present that was commensurate to God's excellency 52. Poverty of Christ's Birth in many circumstances 15. Christ chose his Portion among the poor of this World 52. 3. Poverty better than Riches ibid. & 222. 3. No shame to be poor ibid. & 29. & 15. 4. Christ was revealed first to poor Men 29. Poverty of Spirit described 222. Its Parts , Acts and Offices ibid. Peter for want of Faith ready to drown 320. Providence of God provides Bread for us It unites causes disparate in one event 13. Providence of GOD disposes evil Men to evil events 66. And good Men to good , secretly , but certainly ibid. It is wholly to be relied upon for provisions and defence 67. & 71. & 99. It supplies all our needs 358. & 361. & 371. Sometimes it shortens Man's life 264. 307. 22. S. Paphnutius converted a Harlot by the argument of the Divine Presence 113. 32. Plato's reproof of Diogenes 112. 30. Preachers ought to be of good Example 79. 2. Ambitious seeking of Prelacy hath been the Pest of the Church 96. 2. For liberty of Prophesying 187. 2. & 233. 18. Presbyters have no power by Divine right to reject from the Communion those that present themselves , and desire to receive it 376. 13. Passions , if violent , though for God , are irregular 10. & 270. Publick and private Devotions compared 75. 2. Presence of God an Antidote against Temptations 168. 29. Publication to be made of the Divine Excellencies 9. Prosperity dangerous ; how to be managed ibid. Podavivus his imitation of Wenceslaus 4. Exh. 10. Prodigies of Greatness and Goodness in Christ's Person 16. Prayer the easiest and most pleasant Duty , and yet we are averse from it , and why 83. A great Remedy against Temptation 115. 37. It must be joyned with our own endeavour ibid. Its Definition , Conditions , Matter , Manner , Efficacy , Excellency , Rules 267. Lord's Prayer explicated 267. Mental and Vocal Prayer compared 271. 23. Presumption in dying persons carefully to be distinguished from Confidence 403. 15. Means of curing it ibid. Presumption upon false Opinions in Religion how to be cured 402. Physicians to be obeyed in Sickness , or suffered , how far 404. 18. Predestination to be searched for in the Books of Scripture and Conscience 313. It is God's great Secret , not to be inquired into curiously ibid. It was revealed to the Apostles concerning their own particulars , and how ibid. It was conditional ibid. The ground of true Joy 223. 17. To be estimated above Priviledges ibid. Phavorinus his Discourse concerning enquiring into Fortunes 313. 2. Preparation to the Lord's Supper 374. 11. Of two sorts , viz. of Necessity , and of Ornament 365. A Duty of unlimited time ibid. Preparation to Death no other but a holy Life 397. 1. Parables 292. 10. & 326. 25. & 323. & 345. Pilate's usage and deportment towards Jesus 395. & 352. 26. He broke the Jewish and Tiberian Law in the Execution of Jesus 352. 28. Sent to Rome by Vitellius 395. 12. Banished to Vienna ibid. Killed himself ibid. Prayer of Jesus in the Garden made excellent by all the requisites of Prayer 384. 4. Prelates are Shepherds and Fishers 330. Their Duty and Qualifications ibid. & 153. Pride incident to spiritual Persons 100. & 88. Gifts extraordinary ought not to make us proud 156. Promise to God , and Swearing by him in the matter of Vows , is all one 269. 20. Promises made to single Graces not effectual , but in conjunction with all parts of our Duty 218. Promises Temporal do also belong to the Gospel 302. Pierre Calceon condemned the Pucelle of France 337. 4. Peter rebuked for fighting 322. 21. Rebuked the saying of his Lord concerning the Passion 321. 10. He was sharply reproved for it ibid. & 358. 2. He received the power of the Keys for himself and his Successors in the Apostolate 322. & 324. Denied his Master 351. 23. Repented ibid. & 391. Prophets must avoid suspicion of Incontinence 189. 4. Prophecy of Jesus 349. Prudence of a Christian described 156. Piety an excellent disposition to justifying Faith 190. Publican an Office of Honour among the Romans 185. 18. Hated by the Jews and Greeks ibid. Prejudice an enemy to Religion 189. It brings a Curse ibid. Publick fame a Rule of Honour 172. Purity Evangelical described 228. It s Act and Reward ibid. Q. QUarrel between Jews and Samaritans 182. The ground of it ibid. Question of Original Sin stated in order to Practice 38. 4. & 296. 3. Questions . Whether we are bound to suffer Death or Imprisonment , rather than break a Humane Law 47. 21. Whether Christ did truly or in appearance onely increase in Wisdome 74. 5. Whether is more advantage to Piety , a retired and contemplative , or a publick and active Life 80. 5 , 6. Whether way of serving God is better , the way of 〈◊〉 or the way of Affections 42. 8. & 424. 11. Whether Faith of Ignorant persons produced by insufficient Arguments be acceptable 157. 7. & 159. Whether purposes of good Life upon our Death-bed can be 〈◊〉 212. 39. How long time must Repentance of an evil Life begin before our Death 217. 48. Whether we be always bound to do absolutely the best thing 234. 11. Whether it be lawful for Christians to swear 238. 18. Whether it be lawful to swear by a Creature in such cases , wherein it is permitted to swear by God 241. 23. Whether a Virgin may not kill a Ravisher 255. 7. Whether it be lawful to pray for Revenge 257. 10. Whether it be lawful for Christians to go to Law , and in what cases 255. 8. Whether actual Intention in our Prayers be simply necessary 267. 16. Whether is better , Publick or Private Prayer 270. 22. & 75. Whether is better , Vocal or Mental Prayer 270. 23. Whether a Christian ought to be , or can be , in this Life ordinarily certain of Salvation 313. Whether a thing in its own nature indifferent is to be thrown off , if it have been abused to Superstition 330. 6. Whether it be lawful to fight a Dùell 253. 5 , 6 , &c. Whether men be to be kept from receiving the Sacrament for private Sins 376. 13. Whether is better , to communicate often , or seldom 378. 18. Whether a Death-bed Penitent after a wicked Life is to be absolved , if he desires it 403. 13. Whether the same Person is to be communicated 407. 23. Whether Christ was in the state of Comprehension during his Passion 413. & 414. Whether Christ suffered the pains of Hell upon the Cross ibid. How the Divine Justice could consist with Punishing the innocent Jesus 415. 7 , 8. Whether Saints enjoy the 〈◊〉 Vision before the Day of Judgment 423. & 429. 15. R. RAshness an enemy to good Counsels and happy Events 11. Religion as excellent in its silent Affections , as in its exteriour Actions 4. & 30. Religion , its Comforts and Refreshments 58. When necessary ibid. Not greedily to be sought after 100. 11 , 12. Vide Spiritual Sadness . Religion pretended to evil purposes 66. 1. It is a publick Vertue 75. It observes the smallest things 272. It s Pretence does not hallow every Action 170. Religion of Holy Places 171. In differing Religions how the parties are to deme an themselves 187. Ministers of Religion to be content , if their Labours be not successful 195. They are to have a Calling from the Church 196. Ought to live well ibid. Religion of a Christian purifies and reigns in the Soul 232. 3. It best serves our Temporal ends 303. Not to be neglected upon pretence of Charity 346. Affections of Religion are estimated by their own Excellency , not by the Donative , so it be our best 360. 8. Religious Actions to be submitted to the Conduct of spiritual Guides 48. A religious person left a Vision to obey his Orders 49. 25. Religious Actions to be repeated often by Sick and Dying persons 406. Rebellion against Prince and Priest more severely punished than Murmurers against GOD 50. 26. Repentance necessary to humane nature 198. The ends of its Institution 198. Revealed first by Christ as a Law 199. Not allowed in the Law of Moses for greater Crimes ibid. Repentance and Faith the two hands to apprehend Christ ibid. After Baptism not so clearly expressed to be accepted , nor upon the same terms as before 199. & 201. It is a collection of holy Duties 210. The extirpation of all vicious Habits 210. Described ibid. It is not meerly a Sorrow 211. 36. Nor meerly a Purpose 212. Too late upon our Death-bed 214. Publick Repentance must use the instruments of the Church 218. Must begin immediately after Sin 391. & 398. Promoted by the Devil , when it is too late 392. 7. Repentance of Esau ibid. Repentance accidentally may have advantages beyond Innocence 391. Repenting often , and sinning often , and 〈◊〉 changing , is a sign of an ill condition 106. Revenues not to be greedily sought for by Ecclesiasticks 71. 9. They are dangerous to all men ib. That the Roman Empire was permitted to the power and management of the Devil , the opinion of some 100. 14. How the Righteousness of Christians must exceed the Righteousness of Pharisees 233. Revenge forbidden 245. & 253. Praef. n. 40. Recidivation or Relapse into a state of sin unpardonable , and how 156. Reproachful Language prohibited 247. Reprehension of evil Persons may be in Language properly expressive of the Crime ibid. Resisting evil in what sence lawful 225. Reverence of posture to be used in Prayer 271. 23. Remedies against Anger 248. 35. Repetition of Prayers 270. Relations secular must be quitted for Religion , in what sence 320. They must not hinder Religious Duties 236. Reformation begins ill , if it begins with Sacrilege 171. 5. Reward propounded in the beginning and end of Christian Duties 222. It makes the labour easie 295. 1. Restitution to the state of Grace is divisible , and by parts 314. Restitution made by Zacchaeus 346. 4. Resurrection proved and described by Jesus 348. 11. All Relations of Kindred or 〈◊〉 cease then ibid. Resurrection of Jesus 393. Given for a sign 160. & 279. It is the support of Christianity 428. Resignation of himself to be made by a dying or sick person 405. 17. Rich men less disposed for reception of Christianity 29. Riches are surest and to best purposes obtained by Christianity 301. 10. Rites of Burial among the Jewes lasted Fourty days . 419. S. SArabaitae great Mortifiers , but not obedient 49. 24. Sacrilege a robbing of God 52. Saints to inherit the Earth , in what sence 224. 9. Sacraments ineffectual without the conjunction of something moral 97. They operate by way of Prayers ibid. Sacrament of the Lord's Supper instituted 349. 17. It s manner ibid. To be received Fasting 272. Of the Presence of Christ's Body in it 370. 3. Sabbath of the Jewes abolished 327. 28. & 243. 25. Primitive Christians kept both the Sabbath and the Lord's Day 243. 24. Second Sabbath after the first , what it means 290. 2. Sabbatick pool streamed onely upon the Sabbath 327. 28. Salome presented John Baptist's Head to her Mother 169. She was killed with Ice ibid. Samaritans were Schismaticks 182. 3. They hated the Jewes ibid. They were cast in their Appeal to Ptolemy ibid. Samaritan 〈◊〉 , a Concubine after the death of her fifth Husband 187. 1. Scandal cannot be given by any thing that is our Duty 328. & 334. 13. Sin of Scandal , and the indiscretion of Scandal 330. 6. Scandalous persons who 328. & 334. 13. No Man can say that himself is scandalized 333. 10. The Rules , Measure and Judgement of Scandal 328. Between a Friend and an Enemy how we are to doe in the question of Scandal 334. 12. Scandal how to be avoided in making and executing Laws 334. 14. State of Separation 423. & 429. 15. The Pool of Siloam 325. 21. Scorn must not be cast upon our calamitous Brother 339. Secular Persons tied to a frequent Communion 379. 19. Secular and Spiritual Objects their difference 380. 21. Serapion's Reproof of a young proud Monk 366. 7. Sepulchre of Jesus sealed 501. 39. Sermon of Christ upon the Mount 183. 11. His Farewell-Sermon 350. 19. Severity to our selves and Gentleness to others , a Duty 324. 17. Sensuality . Vide Temptations Simon' s name changed 151. 2. His Wifes Mother cured 184. 12. Simeon Stylites commended for Obedience 49. 24. Simon Magus brought a new Sin into the world 104. 6. Sins of Infirmity . Vide 〈◊〉 Sins small in themselves are made great when they come by design 44. 12. When they are acted by deliberation ibid. When they are often repeated and not interrupted by Repentance ibid. 13. When they are 〈◊〉 45. 14. Sin pleasant at the first , bitter in the end 159. It carries a whip with it 170. They are forgiven when the Punishment is remitted 184. After Pardon they may return in guilt 211. It is more troublesome than Vertue is 297. 4. Not cared for , unless it be difficult 299. 6. It shortens our lives naturally 305. 19. It made Jesus weep 359. To be accounted as great Blemishes to our selves as we account them to others 365. 6. Sinners Prayers not heard , in what sence 266. 13. Sinners in need are to be relieved 258. Sinners are Fools 310. 28. State of Sin totally opposed to the Mercies of the Covenant 200. Sin against the Holy Ghost , what it is 201. 10. Simplicity of Spirit , a Christian Duty 157. Shame of Lust more violent to Nature than the Severities of Continence 295. The good Shepherd 325. Shepherds by Night watchful had a Revclation of Christ 29. Spiritual Shepherds must be watchful ibid. Spiritual Sadness is often a Mercy , and a Grace 236. When otherwise 160. Spiritual persons apt to be tempted to Pride 86 , & 100. Spiritual Mourning 224. Spiritual Pleasures distinguished from Temporal 191. Spiritual good things how to be prayed for 266. & 262. Spiritual 〈◊〉 360. 8. Spirit makes Religion 〈◊〉 295. It is the earnest of Salvation 316. Spirit of Adoption ibid. It is quenched by some ibid. Spirit is 〈◊〉 to be offered to God 176. Solemnities of Christ's Kingdom 392. Souldiers plunged Jesus into the Brook Cedron 388. 11. They pierced his Side 355. They mock and beat Him 351. & 353. They cover his Face at his Attachment 351. They fell to the ground at the glory of his Person ibid. Sun's Eclipse at the Passion , miraculous 354. Stones of the Temple , of what bigness 348. 12. Star at Christ's Birth moved irregularly 27. 9. That the Star appearing to the Wise Men was an Angel , the Opinion of the Greeks 27. 8. Swine kept by the Jews , and why 194 Statue of Brass erected by the Woman cured of her Bloudy issue 185. 20. Success of our endeavours depends on God 196. 5. Sudden Joys are dangerous 196. 7. Schism to be avoided in the Occasions 194. Swearing in common Talk a great Crime 304. By Creatures , forbidden ibid. Suits at Law , with what Cautions permitted 264. Syrophoenician importunate with Jesus for her Daughter 321. 6. Solomon's Porch a fragment of the first Temple 327. 29. Sweat of Christ in the Agony , as great as drops of Bloud . 350. 20. & 385. 6. T. TAble with Nails fastned to Christ's Garment when he bore the Cross 413. 2. Teachers of others should be exemplary 33. & 79. They should learn first of their Superiours 75. Not to make too much haste into the Imployment 79. Teresa à Jesu , her Vow 235. 22. Temporal Priviledges inferiour to Spiritual 292. Temporal good things how to be prayed for 261. Temptation not alwayes a sign of immortification 91. Not to be voluntarily entred into 91. & 110. Not alwayes an argument of GOD's Disfavour 97. & 361. It is every Man's Lot 105. Not alwayes to be removed by Prayer 102. The several manners of Temptation ibid. Remedies against it 112. 29. & seq . 1. Consideration , 1. Of the Presence of God 112. 29. 1. Consideration , 2. Of Death 114. 34. 2. Prayer 115. 37. Temple of Jerusalem , how many High-Priests it had in Succession 303. 14. Transmigration of Souls maintained by the Pharisees 321. 8. Tribute to be paid 347. Traitor discovered by a Sop 350. Trinity meeting at the 〈◊〉 of our Blessed Lord by some manners of exteriour Communication 94. 3. Triumphant riding of Jesus 359. 4. Thief upon the Cross pardoned , and in what sence 200. 8. An excellent Penitent 354. 32. Themistocles appeased King Admetus by 〈◊〉 his Son to his sight 372. 7. Thomas's Infidelity 420. 3. Tongue-murther 247. V. VAin Repetitions in Prayer to be avoided 270. Value of the Silver pieces Judas had 349. 14. Value of Jesus in this World was always at a low rate 57. 4. Vespasian upon the Prophecies concerning the Messias 〈◊〉 himself into hopes of the Empire 25. 2. Vinegar and Gall offered to Jesus 355. 35. Virginity preserred before Marriage 327. Vertue is honourable 301. 11. Productive of 〈◊〉 299. 7. More pleasant than Vice 69. 6. The holy Virgin incouraged Joseph of Arimathea to a publick Confession of Jesus 356. 38. She caused Ministers to take her Son's Body from the Cross 356. Full of sorrow at the Passion 356. 37. She was saluted Blessed by a Capernaite 292. 12. Vice a great Spender 301. 9. It 〈◊〉 from Vertue sometimes but in one nice degree 45. 15. Why we are more prone to Vice than Vertue 37. 4. A Virgin shut her self up twelve Years in a Sepulchre to cure her Temptation 114. 34. Vicious persons not to be admitted to the Sacrament 374. 12. Unitive way of Religion to be practised with caution 60. 20. Vows are a good instance of Importunity in Prayer 270. 20. To be made with much caution and prudence ibid. Uncleanness of Body and Spirit forbidden to Christians 249 W. WAter-pots among the Jews at Feasts , and why 152. 7. Way to Heaven narrow , in what sence 297. Washing the Feet an hospitable civility to Strangers 350. 16. Washing the Disciples Feet ib. Wandring thoughts in Prayer to be prayed against 268. Watchfulness designed in the Parable of the ten Virgins 348. Want cannot be , where God undertakes the Provision 77. Wenceslaus King of Bohemia led his Servant by a vigorous example 4. Exh. 10. Widows two Mites accepted 348. Widowhood harder to preserve Continence than Virginity 86. Wise-mens expectation lessened at the sight of the Babe lying in a Stable 28. But not 〈◊〉 ibid. They publickly consess him 33. Wilderness chosen by Christ , he was not involuntarily driven by the evil Spirit 95. Works of Religion upon our Death-bed , after a pious Life , are of great concernment 403. Women must be lovers of Privacy 9. Instrumental to Conversion of Men 182. 3. To Heresie 189. 5. Not to be conversed withall too freely by Spiritual persons ibid. They 〈◊〉 Religious Friendships with Apostles and Bishops ibid. 6. Cautions concerning Conversation with Women ibid. They ministred to Christ 293. 17. Go early to the Sepulchre 419. Will for the Deed accepted , how to be understood 213. 41. Will of God is to be chosen before our own 247. & 267. World to be refused when the Devil offers it 100. Wine mixed with Myrrhe offered to Jesus 353. Y. YOak of Christianity easie 295. Yoak of Moses and Yoak of Sin broken by Christ 295. 1. Z. ZEal of Elias not imitable by us 324. 18. Zeal of Prayer of great efficacy 269. 18. It discomposed Moses and Elisha 85. 8. Zacchaeus his Repentance 346. 4. Zebedee's Sons Petition ibid. Zechary slain by Herod , and why 66. 5. His Bloud left a Tincture in the Pavement for a long while after . ibid. The End of the TABLE . ERRATA . PAge 85. Line 13. for Consulted by three things , read Consulted by three Kings . Antiquitates Apostolicae : OR , THE LIVES , ACTS and MARTYRDOMS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES OF OUR SAVIOUR . To which are added The Lives of the two EVANGELISTS , SS . MARK and LVKE . By WILLIAM CAVE , D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to his MAJESTY . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Euseb. H. Eccl. lib. 1. cap. 10. pag. 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Chrysost. Praesat . in Epist. ad Philem. pag. 1733. LONDON , Printed by R. Norton , for R. Royston , Bookseller to his most Sacred Majesty , at the Angel in Amen-Corner , 1675. TO THE READER . IT will not , I suppose , seem improbable to the Reader , when I tell him , with how much reluctancy and unwillingness I set upon this undertaking . Besides the disadvantage of having this piece annexed to the Elaborate Book of that excellent Prelate , so great a Master both of Learning and Language , I was intimately conscious to mine own unfitness for such a Work at any time , much more when clogg'd with many habitual Infirmities and Distempers . I considered the difficulty of the thing it self , perhaps not capable of being well managed by a much better Ten than mine ; few of the Ancient Monuments of the Church being extant , and little of this nature in those few that are . Indeed I could not but think it reasonable , that all possible honour should be done to those , that first Preached the Gospel of peace , and brought glad tidings of good things , that it was fit men should be taught how much they were obliged to those excellent Persons , who were willing at so dear a rate to plant Christianity in the World , who they were , and what was that Piety and that Patience , that Charity and that Zeal , which made them to be reverenc'd while they liv'd , and their Memories ever since to be honourably celebrated through the World , infinitely beyond the glories of Alexander , and the triumphs of a Pompey or a Caesar. But then how this should be done out of those few imperfect Memoires , that have escaped the general shipwrack of Church-Antiquities , and much more by so rude and unskilful a hand as mine , appear'd , I confess , a very difficult task , and next door to impossible . These , with some other considerations , made me a long time obstinately resolve against it , till being overcome by importunity , I yielded to do it , as I was able , and as the nature of the thing would bear . THAT which I primarily designed to my self , was to draw down the History of the New Testament especially from our Lord's death , to enquire into the first Originals and Plantations of the Christian Church by the Ministery of the Apostles , the success of their Doctrine , the power and conviction of their Miracles , their infinite Labours and hardships , and the dreadful Sufferings which they underwent ; to consider in what instances of Piety and Vertue they ministred to our imitation , and served the purposes of Religion and an Holy Life . Indeed the accounts that are left us of these things are very short and inconsiderable , sufficient possibly to excite the appetite , not to allay the hunger of an importunate Enquirer into these matters . A consideration that might give us just occasion to lament the irreparable loss of those Primitive Records , which the injury of time hath deprived us of , the substance being gone , and little left us but the shell and carcass . Had we the Writings of Papias Bishop of Hierapolis , and Scholar , says Irenaeus , to S. John , ( wherein , as himself tells us , he set down what he had learnt from those who had familiarly conversed with the Apostles , the sayings and discourses of Andrew and Peter , of Philip and Thomas , &c. ) Had we the Ancient Commentaries of Hegesippus , Clemens Alexandrinus his Institutions , Africanus his Chronography , and some others , the Reader might expect more intire and particular relations . But alas ! these are long since perish'd , and little besides the names of them transmitted to us . Nor should we have had most of that little that is left us , had not the commendable care and industry of Eusebius preserv'd it to us . And if he complain'd in his time ( when those Writings were extant ) that towards the composing of his History he had only some few particular accounts here and there left by the Ancients of their times ; what cause have we to complain , when even those little portions have been ravish'd from us ? So that he that would build a work of this nature , must look upon himself as condemn'd to a kind of Egyptian Task , to make Brick without Straw , at least to pick it up where he can find it , though after all it amounts to a very slender parcel . Which as it greatly hinders the beauty and completeness of the structure , so does it exceedingly multiply the labour and difficulty . For by this means I have been forc'd to gather up those little fragments of Antiquity , that lie dispers'd in the Writings of the Ancients , thrown some into this corner , and others into that : which I have at length put together , like the pieces of a broken Statue , that it might have at least some kind of resemblance of the person , whom it designs to represent . HAD I thought good to have traded in idle and frivolous Authors , Abdias Babylonius , the Passions of Peter and Paul , Joachim Perionius , Peter de Natalibus , and such like , I might have presented the Reader with a larger , not a better account . But besides the averseness of my nature to falshoods and trifles , especially in matters wherein the honour of the Christian Religion is concern'd , I knew the World to be wiser at this time of day , than to be imposed upon by Pious frauds , and cheated with Ecclesiastical Romances , and Legendary Reports . For this reason I have more fully and particularly insisted upon the Lives of the two first Apostles , so great a part of them being secur'd by an unquestionable Authority , and have presented the larger portions of the Sacred History , many times to very minute circumstances of action . And I presume the wise and judicious Reader will not blame me , for chusing rather to enlarge upon a story , which I knew to be infallibly true , than to treat him with those , which there was cause enough to conclude to be certainly false . THE Reader will easily discern , that the Authors I make use of are not all of the same rank and size . Some of them are Divinely inspir'd , whose Authority is Sacred , and their reports rendred not only credible , but unquestionable , by that infallible and unerring Spirit that presided over them . Others such , of whose faith and testimony , especially in matters of fact , there is no just cause to doubt , I mean the genuine Writings of the Ancient Fathers , or those , which though unduly assign'd to this or that particular Father , are yet generally allowed to be Ancient , and their credit not to be despis'd , because their proper Parent is not certainly known . Next these come the Writers of the middle and later Ages of the Church , who though below the former in point of credit , have yet some particular advantages that recommend them to us . Such I account Symeon Metaphrastes , Nicephorus Callistus , the Menaea and Menologies of the Greek Church , &c. wherein though we meet with many vain and improbable stories , yet may we also rationally expect some real and substantial accounts of things , especially seeing they had the advantage of many Ancient and Ecclesiastick Writings , extant in their times , which to us are utterly lost . Though even these too I have never called in , but in the want of more Ancient and Authentick Writers . As for others , if any passages occur either in themselves of doubtful and suspected credit , or borrowed from spurious and uncertain Authors , they are always introduced or dismissed with some kind of censure or remark , that the most easie and credulous Reader may know what to trust to , and not fear being secretly surpriz'd into a belief of doubtful and fabulous reports . And now after all I am sufficiently sensible , how lank and thin this Account is , nor can the Reader be less satisfied with it , than I am my self ; and I have only this piece of justice and charity to beg of him , that he would suspend his censure , till he has taken a little pains to enquire into the state of the Times and Things I Write of : And then however he may challenge my prudence in undertaking it ; he will not , I hope , see reason to charge me with want of care and faithfulness in the pursuance of it . THE CONTENTS . THE Introduction . The Life of S. Peter . SECT . I. Of S. Peter , from his Birth , till his first coming to Christ. Page 1. SECT . II. Of S. Peter , from his first coming to Christ , till his being call'd to be a Disciple . p. 6. SECT . III. Of S. Peter , from his Election to the Apostolate , till the confession which he made of Christ. p. 8. SECT . IV. Of S. Peter , from the time of his Confession , till our Lord's last Passeover . p. 11. SECT . V. Of S. Peter , from the last Passeover , till the Death of Christ. p. 15. SECT . VI. Of S. Peter , from Christ's Resurrection , till his Ascension . p. 19. SECT . VII . S. Peter's Acts , from our Lord's Ascension , till the dispersion of the Church . p. 22. SECT . VIII . Of S. Peter's Acts from the dispersion of the Church at Jerusalem , till his contest with S. Paul at Antioch . p. 28. SECT . IX . Of S. Peter's Acts , from the End of the Sacred story , till his Martyrdom . p. 33. SECT . X. The Character of his Person and Temper , and an account of his Writings . p. 37. SECT . XI . An Enquiry into S. Peter's going to Rome . p. 41. The Life of S. Paul. SECT . I. Of S. Paul , from his Birth , till his Conversion . Pag. 45. SECT . II. Of S. Paul , from his Conversion , till the Council at Jerusalem . p. 50. SECT . III. Of S. Paul , from the time of the Synod at Jerusalem , till his departure from Athens . P. 55. SECT . IV. Of S. Paul's Acts at Corinth and Ephesus . p. 62. SECT . V. S. Paul's Acts , from his departure from Ephesus , till his Arraignment before Felix . p. 67. SECT . VI. Of S. Paul , from his first Trial before Felix , till his coming to Rome . p. 72. SECT . VII . S. Paul's Acts , from his coming to Rome , till his Martyrdom . p. 76. SECT . VIII . The description of his Person and Temper , together with an account of his Writings . p. 82. SECT . IX . The principal Controversies that exercised the Church in his time . p. 88. The Life of S. Andrew . P. 99. The Life of S. James the Great . P. 105. The Life of S. John. P. 113. The Life of S. Philip. P. 123. The Life of S. Bartholomew . P. 127. The Life of S. Matthew . P. 131. The Life of S. Thomas . P. 137. The Life of S. James the Less . P. 143. The Life of S. Simon the Zealot . P. 149. The Life of S. Jude . P. 153. The Life of S. Matthias . P. 157. The Life of S. Mark the Evangelist . P. 161. The Life of S. Luke the Evangelist . P. 167. Diptycha Apostolica , Or , an Enumeration of the Apostles , and their Successors for the first three hundred years in the five great Churches said to have been founded by them . pag. 171. IMPRIMATUR . THO. TOMKYNS . Ex AEd. Lambeth . Feb. 25. 1674. THE INTRODUCTION . Christs faithfulness in appointing Officers in his Church . The dignity of the Apostles above the rest . The importance of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The nature of the Apostolick Office considered . Respect had in founding it to the custom among the Jews . Their Apostoli , who . The number of the Apostles limited . Why twelve , the several conjectures of the Ancients . Their immediate election . Their work wherein it consisted . The Universality of their Commission . Apostolical Churches , what . How soon the Apostles propagated Christianity through the World. An argument for the Divinity of the Christian Religion inferr'd thence . The power conveyed to the Apostles , equally given to all . Peter's superiority over the rest disprov'd both from Scripture and Antiquity . The Apostles how qualified for their Mission . Immediately taught the Doctrine they delivered . Infallibly secur'd from Error in delivering it . Their constant and familiar converse with their Master . Furnished with a power of working Miracles . The great evidence of it to prove a Divine Doctrine . Miraculous powers conferr'd upon the Apostles particularly considered . Prophecy , what , and when it ceas'd . The gift of discerning Spirits . The gift of Tongues . The gift of Interpretation . The unreasonable practice of the Church of Rome in keeping the Scripture and Divine Worship in an Unknown Tongue . The gift of Healing : Greatly advantageous to Christianity . How long it lasted . Power of Immediately inflicting corporal punishments ; and the great benefit of it in those times . The Apostles enabled to confer miraculous powers upon others . The Duration of the Apostolical Office. What in it extraordinary , what ordinary . Bishops in what sence styled Apostles . I. JESUS CHRIST , the great Apostle and High Priest of our Profession , being appointed by God to be the Supreme Ruler and Governour of his Church , was , like Moses , faithful in all his house : but with this honourable advantage , that Moses was faithful as a Servant , Christ as a Son over his own house , which he erected , established and governed with all possible care and diligence . Nor could he give a greater instance either of his fidelity towards God , or his love and kindness to the Souls of men , than that after he had purchas'd a Family to himself , and could now no longer upon earth manage its interests in his own person , he would not return back to Heaven , till he had constituted several Orders of Officers in his Church , who might superintend and conduct its affairs ; and according to the various circumstances of its state , administer to the needs and exigencies of his Family . Accordingly therefore he gave some Apostles , and some Prophets , and some Evangelists , and some Pastors and Teachers , for the perfecting of the Saints , for the work of the Ministery , for the edifying of the body of Christ ; till we all come into the unity of the faith , and of the knowledge of the Son of God , unto a perfect man , unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. The first and prime Class of Officers is that of Apostles : God hath set some in the Church , first Apostles , then secondarily Prophets , &c. First Apostles , as far in office as honour before the rest , their election more immediate , their commission more large and comprehensive , the powers and priviledges where with they were furnished greater and more honourable : Prophecy , the gift of Miracles , and expelling Daemons , the order of Pastors and Teachers were all spiritual powers , and ensigns of great authority , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , says * Chrysostom , but the Apostolick eminency is far greater than all these , which therefore he calls a spiritual Consulship , an Apostle having as great preheminence above all other officers in the Church , as the Consul had above all other Magistrates in Rome . These Apostles were a few select persons whom our Lord chose out of the rest , to devolve part of the Government upon their shoulders , and to depute for the first planting and setling Christianity in the World : He chose twelve , whom he named Apostles : of whose Lives and Acts being to give an Historical account in the following work , it may not possibly be unuseful to premise some general remarks concerning them , not respecting this or that particular person , but of a general relation to the whole , wherein we shall especially take notice of the importance of the word , the nature of the imployment , the fitness and qualification of the persons , and the duration and continuance of the Office. II. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or sent , is among ancient Writers applied either to things , actions , or persons . To things ; thus those Dimissory letters that were granted to such who appeal'd from an Inferiour to a Superiour Judicature , were in the language of the * Roman Laws usually called Apostoli : thus a Packet-boat was styled , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , because sent up and down for advice and dispatch of business : thus though in somewhat a different sence , the lesson taken out of the Epistles is in the Ancient Greek ‖ Liturgies called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , because usually taken out of the Apostles Writings . Sometimes it is applied to actions , and so imports no more than mission , or the very act of sending ; thus the setting out a Fleet , or a Naval expedition was wont to be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so * Suidas tells us , that as the persons designed for the care and management of the Fleet were called ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so the very sending sorth of the Ships themselves , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , were styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Lastly , what principally falls under our present consideration , it is applied to persons , and so imports no more than a messenger , a person sent upon some special errand , for the discharge of some peculiar affair in his name that sent him . Thus Epaphroditus is called the Apostle or Messenger of the Philippians , when sent by them to S. Paul at Rome : thus Titus and his companions are styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Messengers of the Churches . So our Lord , he that is sent , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , an Apostle or Messenger is not greater than him that sent him . This then being the common notion of the word , our Lord fixes it to a particular use , applying it to those select persons , whom he had made choice of to act by that peculiar authority and commission , which he had deriv'd upon them . Twelve , whom he also named Apostles ; that is , Commissioners , those who were to be Embassadors for Christ , to be sent up and down the World in his name , to plant the Faith , to govern and superintend the Church at present , and by their wise and prudent settlement of affairs , to provide for the future exigencies of the Church . III. The next thing then to be considered is the nature of their Office , and under this enquiry we shall make these following remarks . First , it is not to be doubted but that our Lord in founding this Office had some respect to the state of things in the Jewish Church , I mean not only in general , that there should be superiour and subordinate Officers , as there were superiour and inferiour Orders under the Mosaic dispensation ; but that herein he had an eye to some usage and custom common among them . Now amongst the Jews as all Messengers were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or Apostles , so were they wont to dispatch some with peculiar letters of authority and Commission , whereby they acted as Proxies and Deputies of those that sent them , thence their Proverb , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every man's Apostle is as himself , that is , whatever he does is look'd upon to be as firm and valid , as if the person himself had done it . Thus when Saul was sent by the Sanhedrim to Damascus to apprehend the Jewish converts , he was furnished with letters from the High Priest , enabling him to act as his Commissary in that matter . Indeed * Epiphanius tells us of a sort of persons called Apostles , who were Assessors and Counsellors to the Jewish Patriarch , constantly attending upon him to advise him in matters pertaining to the Law , and sent by him ( as ‖ he intimates ) sometimes to inspect and reform the manners of the Priests and Jewish Clergy , and the irregularities of Country-Synagogues , with commission to gather the Tenths and First-fruits due in all the Provinces under his jurisdiction . Such Apostles we find mention'd both by * Julian the Emperor in an Epistle to the Jews , and in a Law of the Emperor ‖ Honorius , imploy'd by the Patriarch to gather once a year the Aurum Coronarium or Crown-Gold , a Tribute annually paid by them to the Roman Emperors . But these Apostles could not under that notion be extant in our Saviour's time ; though sure we are there was then something like it , * Philo the Jew more than once mentioning the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sacred messengers annually sent to collect the holy treasure paid by way of First-fruits , and to carry it to the Temple at Jerusalem . However our Lord in conformity to the general custom of those times , of appointing Apostles or Messengers , as their Proxies and Deputies to act in their names , call'd and denominated those Apostles , whom he peculiarly chose to represent his person , to communicate his mind and will to the World , and to act as Embassadors or Commissioners in his room and stead . IV. Secondly , We observe that the persons thus deputed by our Saviour were not left uncertain , but reduced to a fixed definite number , confin'd to the just number of Twelve : he ordained twelve that they should be with him . A number that seems to carry something of mystery and peculiar design in it , as appears in that the Apostles were so careful upon the fall of Judas immediately to supply it . The Fathers are very wide and different in their conjectures about the reason of it . * S. Augustine thinks our Lord herein had respect to the four quarters of the World , which were to be called by the preaching of the Gospel , which being multiplied by three ( to denote the Trinity , in whose name they were to be called ) make Twelve . ‖ Tertullian will have them typified by the twelve fountains in Elim , the Apostles being sent out to water and refresh the dry thirsty World with the knowledge of the truth ; by the twelve precious stones in Aaron's breast-plate , to illuminate the Church , the garment which Christ our great High Priest has put on ; by the twelve stones which Joshua chose out of Jordan to lay up within the Ark of the Testament , respecting the firmness and solidity of the Apostles Faith , their being chosen by the true Jesus or Joshua at their Baptism in Jordan , and their being admitted in the inner Sanctuary of his Covenant . By others we are told that it was shadowed out by the twelve Spies taken out of every Tribe , and sent to discover the Land of Promise : or by the twelve gates of the City in Ezekiel's vision ; or by the twelve Bells appendant to Aaron's garment , * their sound going out into all the World , and their words unto the ends of the Earth . But it were endless , and to very little purpose to reckon up all the conjectures of this nature , there being scarce any one number of Twelve mentioned in the Scripture , which is not by some of the Ancients adapted and applied to this of the Twelve Apostles , wherein an ordinary fancy might easily enough pick out a mystery . That which seems to put in the most rational plea is , that our Lord pitched upon this number , in conformity either to the twelve Patriarchs as founders of the twelve Tribes of Israel , or to the twelve 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or chief heads ; as standing Rulers of those Tribes among the Jews , as we shall afterwards possibly more particularly * remark . Thirdly , these Apostles were immediately called and sent by Christ himself , elected out of the body of his Disciples and followers , and receiv'd their Commission from his own mouth . Indeed Matthias was not one of the first election , being taken in upon Judas his Apostasie after our Lord's Ascension into Heaven . But besides that he had been one of the seventy Disciples , called and sent out by our Saviour , that extraordinary declaration of the Divine will and pleasure that appeared in determining his election , was in a manner equivalent to the first election . As for S. Paul , he was not one of the Twelve , taken in as a supernumerary Apostle , but yet an Apostle as well as they , and that not of men , neither by man , but by Jesus Christ , as he pleads his own cause against the insinuations of those Impostors who traduced him as an Apostle only at the second hand ; whereas he was immediately call'd by Christ as well as they , and in a more extraordinary manner ; they were called by him , while he was yet in his state of meanness and humiliation , he , when Christ was now advanced upon the Throne , and appeared to him encircled with those glorious emanations of brightness and majesty , which he was not able to endure . V. Fourthly , The main work and imployment of these Apostles was to preach the Gospel , to establish Christianity , and to govern the Church that was to be founded , as Christ's immediate Deputies and Vicegerents : they were to instruct men in the doctrines of the Gospel , to disciple the World , and to baptize and initiate men into the Faith of Christ ; to constitute and ordain Guides and Ministers of Religion , persons peculiarly set apart for holy ministrations , to censure and punish obstinate and contumacious offenders , to compose and over-rule disorders and divisions , to command or countermand as occasion was , being vested with an extraordinary authority and power of disposing things for the edification of the Church . This Office the Apostles never exercised in its full extent and latitude during Christ's residence upon Earth ; for though upon their election he sent them forth to Preach and to Baptize , yet this was only a narrow and temporary imployment , and they quickly returned to their private stations , the main power being still executed and administred by Christ himself , the complete exercise whereof was not actually devolved upon them , till he was ready to leave the World : for then it was that he told them , as my father hath sent me , even so send I you ; receive ye the Holy Ghost ; whose soever sins ye remit , they are remitted , and whose soever sins ye retain , they are retained . Whereby he conferr'd in some proportion the same authority upon them , which he himself had derived from his Father . Fisthly , This Commission given to the Apostles was unlimited and universal , not only in respect of power , as enabling them to discharge all acts of Religion relating either to Ministry or Government , but in respect of place , not confining them to this or that particular Province , but leaving them the whole World as their Diocese to Preach in , they being destinati Nationibus Magistri , in * Tertullian's phrase , designed to be the Masters and Instructors of all Nations : so runs their Commission , ‖ Go ye into all the World , and preach the Gospel to every creature , that is , to all men , the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Evangelist answering to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 amongst the Jews , to all creatures , whereby they used to denote all men in general , but especially the Gentiles in opposition to the Jews . Indeed while our Saviour lived , the Apostolical ministry extended no further than Judaea ; but he being gone to Heaven , the partition-wall was broken down , and their way was open into all places and Countries . And herein how admirably did the Christian Oeconomy transcend the Jewish dispensation ! The preaching of the Prophets like the * light that comes in at the window , was confin'd only to the house of Israel , while the doctrine of the Gospel preached by the Apostles was like the light of the Sun in the Firmament , that diffused its beams , and propagated its heat and influence into all quarters of the World ; their sound going out into all the Earth , and their words unto the ends of the World. It 's true , for the more prudent and orderly management of things they are generally said by the Ancients to have divided the World into so many quarters and portions , to which they were severally to betake themselves ; Peter to Pontus , Galatia , Cappadocia , &c. S. John to Asia , S. Andrew to Scythia , &c. But they did not strictly tye themselves to those particular Provinces that were assigned to them ; but as occasion was , made excursions into other parts ; though for the main they had a more peculiar inspection over those parts that were allotted to them ; usually residing at some principal City of the Province , as S. John at Ephesus , S. Philip at Hierapolis , &c. whence they might have a more convenient prospect of affairs round about them , and hence it was that these places more peculiarly got the title of Apostolical Churches , because first planted , or eminently watered and cultivated by some Apostle , Matrices & Originales Fidei , as * Tertullian calls them , Mother-Churches , and the Originals of the Faith , because here the Christian doctrine was first sown , and hence planted and propagated to the Countries round about , Ecclesias apud unamquamque civitatem condiderunt , à quibus traducem fidei & semina doctrinae , caeterae exinde Ecclesiae mutuatae sunt , as his own words are . VI. In pursuance of this general Commission we find the Apostles not long after our Lord's Ascension traversing almost all parts of the then known World ; S. Andrew in Scythia and those Northern Countries , S. Thomas and Bartholomew in India , S. Simon and S. Mark in Afric , Egypt , and the parts of Libya and Mauritania , S. Paul , and probably Peter and some others in the farthest Regions of the West : And all this done in the space of less than forty years , viz. before the destruction of the Jewish State by Titus and the Roman Army . For so our Lord had expresly foretold , that the Gospel of the Kingdom should be preached in all the World for a witness unto all Nations , before the end came , that is , the end of the Jewish State , which the Apostles a little before had called the end of the World , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the shutting up or consummation of the Age , the putting a final period to that present State and dispensation that the Jews were under . And indeed strange it is to consider , that in so few years these Evangelical Messengers should overrun all Countries ; with what an incredible swiftness did the Christian Faith like lightning pierce from East to West , and diffuse it self over all quarters of the World , and that not only unassisted by any secular advantages , but in defiance of the most fierce and potent opposition , which every where set it self against it ? 'T is true the impostures of Muhammed in a very little time gained a great part of the East . But besides that this was not comparable to the universal spreading of Christianity , his doctrine was calculated on purpose to gratifie mens lusts , and especially to comply with the loose and wanton manners of the East , and , which is above all , had the sword to hew out its way before it : and we know how ready even without force in all changes and revolutions of the world , the conquered have been to follow the Religion of the Conquerors . Whereas the Apostles had no visible advantages , nay , had all the enraged powers of the world to contend against them . And yet in despite of all went on in triumph , and quickly made their way into those places , where for so many Ages no other conquest ever came ; those parts of Britain ( as * Tertullian observes ) which were unconquerable and unapproachable by the power of the Roman Armies , submitting their necks to the yoke of Christ. A mighty evidence ( as he there argues ) of Christ's Divinity , and that he was the true Messiah . And indeed no reasonable account can be given of the strange and successful progress of the Christian Religion in those first Ages of it , but that it was the birth of Heaven , and had a Divine and Invisible power going along with it to succeed and prosper it . * S. Chrysoslom discourses this argument at large , some of whose elegant reasonings I shall here transcribe . He tells the Gentile ( with whom he was disputing ) that he would not prove Christ's Deity by a demonstration from Heaven , by his Creation of the World , his great and stupendious miracles , his raising the dead , curing the blind , expelling Devils ; nor from the mighty promises of a future state , and the resurrection of the dead ( which an Infidel might easily not only question , but deny ) but from what was sufficiently evident and 〈◊〉 to the meanest Idiot , his planting and propagating Christianity in the World. For it is not ( says he ) in the power of a mere man , in so short a time to encircle the World , to compass Sea and Land , and in matters of so great importance to rescue mankind from the slavery of absurd and unreasonable customs , and the powerful tyranny of evil habits : and these not Romans only , but Persians , and the most barbarous Nations of the world . A reformation which he wrought not by force and the power of the sword ; nor by pouring into the world numerous Legions and Armies : but by a few inconsiderable men ( no more at first than Eleven ) a company of obscure and mean , simple and illiterate , poor and helpless , naked and unarmed persons , who had scarce a shooe to tread on , or a coat to cover them . And yet by these he perswaded so great a part of mankind to be able freely to reason , not only of things of the present , but of a future state ; to renounce the Laws of their Country , and throw off those ancient and inveterate customs , which had taken root for so many Ages , and planted others in their room ; and reduced men from those easie ways , whereinto they were hurried , into the more rugged and difficult paths of vertue . All which he did , while he had to contend with opposite powers , and when he himself had undergone the most ignominious death , even the death of the Cross. Afterwards he addresses himself to the Jew , and discourses with him much after the same rate . Consider ( says * he ) and bethink thy self , what it is in so short a time to fill the whole world with so many famous Churches , to convert so many Nations to the Faith , to prevail with men to forsake the Religion of their Country , to root up their rites and customs , to shake off the Empire of lust and pleasure , and the Laws of vice like dust ; to abolish and abominate their Temples and their Altars , their Idols and their Sacrifices , their profane and impious Festivals as dirt and dung ; and instead hereof to set up Christian Altars in all places , among the Romans , Persians , Scythians , Moors and Indians ; and not there only , but in the Countries beyond this World of ours . For even the British Islands that lie beyond the Ocean , and those that are in 〈◊〉 , have felt the power of the Christian Faith ; Churches and Altars being erected there to the service of Christ. A matter truly great and admirable , and which would clearly have demonstrated a Divine and Supereminent Power , although there had been no opposition in the case , but that all things had run on calmly and smoothly , to think that in so few years the Christian Faith should be able to reclaim the whole World from its vicious customs , and to win them over to other manners , more laborious and difficult , repugnant both to their native inclinations , and to the Laws and principles of their education , and such as oblig'd them to a more strict and accurate course of life ; and these persons not one or two , not twenty or an hundred , but in a manner all mankind : and this brought about by no better instruments than a few rude and unlearned , private and unknown tradesmen , who had neither estate nor reputation , learning nor eloquence , kindred nor Country to recommend them to the world ; a few Fishermen and Tent-makers , and whom distinguished by their Language as well as their Religion , the rest of the world scorn'd as barbarous . And yet these were the men , by whom our Lord built up his Church , and extended it from one end of the world unto the other . Other considerations there are with which the Father does urge and illustrate this argument , which I forbear to insist on in this place . VII . Sixthly , The power and authority convey'd by this Commission to the Apostles , was equally conferr'd upon all of them . They were all chosen at the same time , all equally impowred to Preach and Baptize , all equally intrusted with the power of binding and loosing , all invested with the same mission , and all equally furnished with the same gifts and powers of the Holy Ghost . Indeed the Advocates of the Church of Rome do with a mighty zeal and fierceness contend for S. Peter's being Head and Prince of the Apostles , advanced by Christ to a supremacy and prerogative not only above , but over the rest of the Apostles ; and not without reason , the fortunes of that Church being concerned in the supremacy of S. Peter . No wonder therefore they ransack all corners , press and force in whatever may but seem to give countenance to it . Witness those thin and miserable shifts , which Bellarmine calls arguments , to prove and make it good ; so utterly devoid of all rational conviction , so unable to justifie themselves to sober and considering men , that a man would think they had been contrived for no other purpose , than to cheat sools , and make wise men laugh . And the truth is , nothing with me more shakes the reputation of the wisdom of that learned man , than his making use of such weak and trifling arguments in so important and concerning an Article , so vital and essential to the constitution of that Church . As when he argues Peter's * superiority from the mere changing of his name , ( for what 's this to supremacy ? besides that it was not done to him alone , the same being done to James and John ) from his being first reckoned up in the Catalogue of Apostles , his walking with Christ upon the water , his paying tribute for his Master and himself , his being commanded to let down the Net , and Christ's teaching in Peter's ship , ( and this ship must denote the Church , and Peter's being owner of it , entitle him to be supreme Ruler and Governour of the Church , so Bellarmine in terms as plain as he could well express it ) from Christ's first washing Peter's feet ( though the story recorded by the Evangelist says no such thing ) and his foretelling only his death : all which and many more prerogatives of S. Peter , to the number of no less than XXVIII . are summoned in to give in evidence in this cause ; and many of these too drawn out of Apocryphal and supposititious Authors , and not only uncertain , but absurd and fabulous : and yet upon such arguments as these do they found his paramount authority . A plain evidence of a desperate and sinking cause , when such twigs must be laid hold on to support and keep it above water . Had they suffered Peter to be content with a primacy of Order ( which his age and gravity seemed to challenge for him ) no wise and peaceable man would have denied it , as being a thing ordinarily practised among equals , and necessary to the well governing a society : but when nothing but a primacy of Power will serve the turn , as if the rest of the Apostles had been inferiour to him , this may by no means be granted , as being expresly contrary to the positive determination of our Saviour , when the Apostles were contending about this very thing , which of them should be accounted the greatest , he thus quickly decides the case , The Kings of the Gentiles exercise Lordship over them , and they that are great , exercise authority upon them . But ye shall not be so : but whosover will be great among you , let him be your Minister , and whosoever will be chief among you , let him be your Servant . Than which nothing could have been more peremptorily spoken , to rebuke this naughty spirit of preheminence . Nor do we ever find S. Peter himself laying claim to any such power , or the Apostles giving him the least shadow of it . In the whole course of his affairs there are no intimations of this matter ; in his Epistle he styles himself but their fellow-Presbyter , and expresly forbids the governours of the Church to Lord it over God's heritage . When dispatched by the rest of the Apostles upon a message to Samaria , he never disputes their authority to do it ; when accused by them for going in unto the Gentiles , does he stand upon his prerogative ? no , but submissively apologizes for himself ; nay , when smartly reprov'd by S. Paul at Antioch ( when , if ever , his credit lay at stake ) do we find him excepting against it as an affront to his supremacy , and a sawcy controlling his superiour ? surely the quite contrary ; he quietly submitted to the reproof , as one that was sensible how justly he had 〈◊〉 it . Nor can it be supposed but that S. Paul would have carried it towards him with a greater reverence , had any such peculiar soveraignty been then known to the World. How confidently does S. Paul assert himself to be no whit inferiour to the chiefest Apostles , not to Peter himself ? the Gospel of the uncircumcision being committed to him , as that of the circumcision was to Peter . Is Peter oft named first among the Apostles ? elsewhere others , sometimes James , sometimes Paul and Apollos , are placed before him . Did Christ honour him with some singular commendations ? an honourable elogium conveys no super-eminent power and soveraignty . Was he dear to Christ ? we know another , that was the beloved Disciple . So little warrant is there to exalt one above the rest , where Christ made all alike . (u) If from Scripture we descend to the ancient Writers of the Church ; we shall find that though the Fathers bestow very great and honourable Titles upon Peter ; yet they give the same , or what are equivalent to others of the Apostles . * Hesychius stiles S. James the Great , the Brother of our Lord , the Commander of the new Jerusalem , the Prince of Priests , the Exarch or chief of the Apostles , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the top or crown amongst the heads , the great light amongst the Lamps , the most illustrious and resplendent amongst the stars : 't was Peter that preach'd , but 't was James that made the determination , &c. Of S. Andrew he gives this encomium , (y) that he was the sacerdotal Trumpet , the first born of the Apostolick Quire , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the prime and firm Pillar of the Church , Peter before Peter , the foundation of the foundation , the first fruits of the beginning . Peter and John are said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , equally honourable , by S. Cyril (z) with his whole Synod of Alexandria . S. John ( says (a) Chrysostom ) was Christ's beloved , the Pillar of all the Churches in the world , who had the Keys of Heaven , drank of his Lords cup , was wash'd with his Baptism , and with confidence lay in his bosome . And of (b) S. Paul he tells us , that he was the most excellent of all men , the Teacher of the world , the Bridegroom of Christ , the Planter of the Church , the wise Master-builder , greater than the Apostles , and much more to the same purpose . Elsewhere he says , (c) that the care of the whole world was committed to him , that nothing could be more noble or illustrious , yea that ( his Miracles considered ) he was more excellent than Kings themselves . And a little after (d) he calls him the tongue of the earth , the light of the Churches , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the foundation of the faith , the pillar and ground of truth . And in a discourse on purpose , wherein he compares Peter and Paul together , he makes them of equal esteem and vertue ; (e) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What greater than Peter ? What equal to Paul ? a Blessed pair ! 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , who had the Souls of the whole world committed to their charge . But instances of this nature were endless and infinite . If the Fathers at any time style Peter , Prince of the Apostles , they mean no more by it , than the best and purest Latine writers mean by princeps , the first or chief person of the number , more considerable than the rest , either for his age or zeal . Thus (f) Eusebius tells us , Peter was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the prolocutor of all the rest , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the greatness and generosity of his mind , that is , in (g) Chrysostome's language , he was the mouth and chief of the Apostles , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because eager and forward at every turn , and ready to answer those questions which were put to others . In short , as he had no Prerogative above the rest , besides his being the Chair-man and President of the Assembly , so was it granted to him upon no other considerations , than those of his age , zeal , and gravity , for which he was more eminent than the rest . VIII . We proceed next to enquire into the fitness and qualification of the Persons commissionated for this employment ; and we shall finde them admirably qualified to discharge it , if we consider this following account . First , They immediately received the Doctrine of the Gospel from the mouth of Christ himself ; he intended them for Legati à latere , his peculiar Embassaders to the World , and therefore furnished them with instructions from his own mouth ; and in order hereunto he train'd them up for some years under his own Discipline and institution : he made them to understand the mysteries of the Kingdom of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , when to others it was not given ; treated them with the affection of a Father , and the freedom and familiarity of a friend . Henceforth I call you not servants , for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doth , but I have called you friends : for all things that I have heard of my Father , I have made known unto you . They heard all his Sermons , were privy both to his publick and private discourses ; what he preach'd abroad , he expounded to them at home ; he gradually instructed them in the knowledge of Divine things , and imparted to them the notions and mysteries of the Gospel , not all at once , but as they were able to bear them . By which means they were sufficiently capable of giving a satisfactory account of that doctrine to others , which had been so immediately , so frequently communicated to themselves . Secondly , They were insallibly secured from error in delivering the Doctrins and Principles of Christianity : for though they were not absolutely priviledg'd from failures and miscarriages in their lives , ( these being of more personal and private consideration ) yet were they infallible in their Doctrine , this being a matter whereupon the salvation and eternal interests of men did depend . And for this end they had the spirit of truth promised to them , who should guide them into all truth . Under the conduct of this unerring Guide they all steer'd the same course , taught and spake the same things , though at different times , and in distant places : and for what was consign'd to writing , all Scripture was given by inspiration of God , and the holy men spake not , but as they were moved by the Holy Ghost . Hence that exact and admirable harmony that is in all their writings and relations , as being all equally dictated by the same spirit of truth . Thirdly , They had been eye-witnesses of all the material passages of our Saviour's life , continually conversant with him from the commencing of his publick ministery , till his ascension into heaven ; they had survey'd all his actions , seen all his miracles , observ'd the whole method of his conversation , and some of them attended him in his most private solitudes and retirements . And this could not but be a very rational satisfaction to the minds of men , when the publishers of the Gospel solemnly declared to the world , that they reported nothing concerning our Saviour , but what they had seen with their own eyes , and of the truth whereof they were as competent Judges , as the acutest Philosopher in the world . Nor could there be any just 〈◊〉 to suspect that they impos'd upon men in what they delivered ; for besides their naked plainness and simplicity in all other passages of their lives , they chearfully submitted to the most exquisire hardships , tortures , and sufferings meerly to attest the truth of what they published to the World. Next to the evidence of our own senses , no testimony is more valid and forcible , than his who relates what himself has seen . Upon this account our Lord told his Apostles , that they should be witnesses to him both in Judaea and Samaria , and to the uttermost parts of the earth . And so necessary a qualification of an Apostle was this thought to be , that it was almost the only condition propounded in the choice of a new Apostle after the fall of Judas : Wherefore ( says Peter ) of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went 〈◊〉 and out among us , beginning from the Baptism of John , unto the same day that he was taken up from us , must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his 〈◊〉 . Accordingly we find the Apostles constantly making use of this argument as the most rational evidence to convince those whom they had to deal with . We are witnesses of all things which Jesus did both in the Land of the Jews , and in Jerusalem , whom they slew and hanged on a tree : Him God raised up the third day , and shewed him openly , not to all the people , but unto witnesses , chosen 〈◊〉 of God , even to us , who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead : And he commanded us to preach unto the people , and to testifie that it is he that is ordained of God to be Judge of the quick and dead . Thus S. John after the same way of arguing appeals to sensible demonstration , That which was from the beginning , which we have heard , which we have seen with our eyes , which we have look'd upon , and our hands have handled of the word of life : ( For the life was manifested , and we have seen it and bear witness , and shew unto you that cternal life which was with the Father , and was manifested unto us ) That which we have seen and heard , declare we unto you , that ye also may have fellowship with us . This , to name no more , S. Peter thought a sufficient vindication of the Apostolical doctrine from the suspicion of forgery and imposture , We have not followed cunningly devised fables , when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ , but were eye-witnesses of his majesty . God had frequently given testimony to the divinity of our blessed Saviour , by visible manifestations and appearances from Heaven , and particularly by an audible voice , This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased . Now this Voice which came from Heaven ( says he ) we heard , when we were with him in the holy Mount. IX . Fourthly , The Apostles were invested with a power of working Miracles , as the readiest means to procure their Religion a firm belief and entertainment in the minds of men . For Miracles are the great confirmation of the truth of any doctrine , and the most rational evidence of a divine commission . For seeing God only can create , and controll the Laws of nature , produce something out of nothing , and call things that are not , as if they were , give eyes to them that were born blind , raise the dead , &c. things plainly beyond all possible powers of nature ; no man that believes the wisdom and goodness of an infinite being , can suppose that this God of truth should affix his seal to a lye , or communicate this power to any that would abuse it , to confirm and countenance delusions and impostures . Nicodemus his reasoning was very plain and convictive , when he concludes that Christ must needs be a teacher come from God , for that no man could do those Miracles that he did , except God were with him . The force of which argument lies here , that nothing but a Divine power can work Miracles , and that Almighty God cannot be supposed miraculously to assist any but those , whom he himself sends upon his own errand . The stupid and barbarous Lycaonians , when they beheld the Man who had been a Cripple from his Mothers womb , cured by S. Paul in an instant only with the speaking of a word , saw that there was something in it more than humane , and therefore concluded that the Gods were come down to them in the likeness of men . Upon this account * S. Paul reckons Miracles among the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the signs and evidences of an Apostle , whom therefore (h) Chrysostom brings in elegantly pleading for himself , that though he could not shew as the signs of his Priesthood and Ministry , long Robes , and gaudy Vestments , with Bells sounding at their borders , as the Aaronical Priests did of old ; though he had no golden Crowns or holy Mitres , yet could he produce what was infinitely more venerable and regardable than all these , unquestionable Signs and Miracles : he came not with Altars and Oblations , with a number of strange and symbolick Rites ; but what was greater , raised the dead cast out Devils , cured the blind , healed the lame , making the Gentiles obedient by word and deed , thorough many signs and wonders wrought by the power of the spirit of God. These were the things that clearly shewed that their mission and ministry was not from men , nor taken up of their own heads , but that they acted herein by a Divine warrant and authority . That therefore it might plainly appear to the World , that they did not falsify in what they said , or deliver any more than God had given them in commission , he enabled them to do strange and miraculous operations , bearing them witness both with signs and wonders , and with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost . This was a power put into the first draught of their commission , when confined only to the Cities of Israel ; As ye go , preach , saying , The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand ; Heal the sick , cleanse the lepers , raise the dead , cast out Devils , freely you have received , freely give : but more fully confirmed upon them , when our Lord went to Heaven , then he told them , that these signs should follow them that believe , that in his Name they should cast out Devils , and speak with new tongues ; that they should take up serpents , and if they drank any deadly thing it should not hurt them , that they should lay hands on the sick and they should recover : And the event was accordingly , for they went forth , and preached every where , the Lord working with them , and confirming the word with signs following . When Paul and Barnabas came up to the Council at Jerusalem , this was one of the first things they gave an account of , all the multitude keeping silence , while they declared what miracles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by them . Thus the very shadow of Peter as he passed by cured the sick : thus God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul : so that from his body were brought unto the sick , handkerchiefs , or aprons , and the diseases departed from them , and the evil spirits went out of them . So that besides the innate characters of Divinity which the Christian religion brought along with it , containing nothing but what was highly reasonable , and very becoming God to reveal ; it had the highest external evidence that any Religion was capable of , the attestation of great and unquestionable Miracles , done not once or twice , not privately and in corners , not before a few simple and credulous persons , but frequently and at every turn , publickly and in places of the most solemn concourse , before the wisest and most judicious enquirers , and this power of miracles continued not only during the Apostles time , but for some Ages after . X. But because besides Miracles in general , the Scripture takes particular notice of many gifts and powers of the Holy Ghost conferred upon the Apostles and first Preachers of the Gospel , it may not be amiss to consider some of the chiefest and most material of them , as we find them enumerated by the Apostle , only premising this observation , that though these gifts were distinctly distributed to persons of an inferiour order , so that one had this , and another that , yet were they all conferr'd upon the Apostles , and doubtless in larger proportions than upon the rest . First , we take notice of the gift of Prophecy , a clear evidence of divine inspiration , and an extraordinary mission , the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy . It had been for many Ages the signal and honourable priviledge of the Jewish Church , and that the Christian Oeconomy might challenge as sacred regards from men , and that it might appear that God had not withdrawn his Spirit from his Church in this new state of things , it was revived under the dispensation of the Gospel , according to that famous prophecy of Joel exactly accomplished ( as Peter told the Jews ) upon the day of 〈◊〉 , when the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost were so plentifully shed upon the Apostles and Primitive Christians ; This is that which was spoken by the Prophet Joel , It shall come to pass in the last days ( saith God ) I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh , and your Sons and your Daughters shall 〈◊〉 , and your young Men shall see 〈◊〉 , and your old Men shall dream Dreams ; and on my servants , and on my Hand-maidens I will pour out in those days of my spirit , and they shall prophesie . It lay in general in revealing and making known to others the mind of God , but discovered it self in particular instances ; partly in forctelling things to come , and what should certainly happen in after-times : a thing set beyond the reach of any finite understanding ; for though such effects as depend upon natural agents , or moral and political causes , may be foreseen by studious and considering persons , yet the knowledge of futurities , things purely contingent , that meerly depend upon mens choice , and their mutable and uncertain wills , can only fall under his view , who at once beholds things past , present , and to come . Now this was conferred upon the Apostles and some of the first Christians , as appears from many instances in the History of the Apostolick Acts , and we find the Apostles writings frequently interspersed with prophetical predictions concerning the great apostasie from the 〈◊〉 , the universal corruption and degeneracy of manners , the rise of particular heresies , the coming of Antichrist , and several other things which the spirit said 〈◊〉 should come to pass in the latter times ; besides that S. John's whole Book of Revelation is almost intirely made up of prophecies concerning the future state and condition of the Church . Sometimes by this spirit of prophecy God declared things that were of present concernment to the exigences of the Church , as when he signified to them that they should set apart Paul and Barnabas for the conversion of the Gentiles , and many times immediately designed particular persons to be Pastors and Governours of the Church . Thus we read of the gift that was given to Timothy by prophecy , with the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery , that is , his Ordination , to which he was particularly pointed out by some prophetick designation . But the main use of this prophetick gift in those times was to explain some of the more difficult and particular parts of the Christian doctrine , especially to expound and apply the ancient prophecies concerning the 〈◊〉 and his Kingdom in their publick Assemblies ; whence the gift of prophecy is explained by understanding all mysteries , and all knowledge , that is , the most dark and difficult places of Scripture , the types and figures , the ceremonies and prophecies of the Old Testament . And thus we are commonly to understand those words , Prophets , and prophecying , that so familiarly occur in the New Testament . Having 〈◊〉 differing according to the grace that is given to us , whether prophesie , let us prophecy according to the proportion of faith , that is , expound Scripture according to the generally-received principles of Faith and Life . So the Apostle elsewhere prescribing Rules for the decent and orderly managing of Divine worship in their publick Assemblies , let the Prophets ( says he ) speak two or three ( that is , at the same Assembly ) and let the other judge ; and if while any is thus expounding , another has a Divine 〈◊〉 , whereby he is more particularly enabled to explain some difficult and emergent passage , let the first hold his peace : for ye may all , all that have this gift , prophesie one by one , that so thus orderly proceeding , all may learn , and all may be comforted . Nor can the 〈◊〉 pretend that this interruption is an unseasonable check to his revelation , seeing he may command himself ; for though among the Gentiles the prophetick and 〈◊〉 impulse did so violently press upon the inspired Person , that he could not govern himself , yet in the Church of God the spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets , may be so ruled and restrained by them , as to make way for others . This order of Christian Prophets considered as a distinct Ministery by it self is constantly placed next to the Apostolical Office , and is frequently by Saint Paul preferred before any other spiritual Gifts then bestowed upon the Church . When this spirit of Prophecy ceased in the Christian Church , we cannot certainly finde . It continued some competent time beyond the Apostolick Age. ( (i) ) Justin Martyr expresly tells Trypho the Jew , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the gifts of Prophecy are even yet extant among us ; an argument , as he there tells him , that those things which had of old been the great Priviledges of their Church , were now translated into the Christian Church . And ( (k) ) 〈◊〉 speaking of a Revelation made to one Alcibiades , who lived about the time of Irenaeus , adds , that the Divine Grace had not withdrawn its Presence from the Church , but that they still had the Holy Ghost as their Councellor to direct them . XI . Secondly , They had the gift of discerning spirits , whereby they were enabled to discover the truth or falshood of mens pretences , whether their gifts were real or counterfeit , and their persons truly inspired or not . For many men acted only by diabolical impulses , might entitle themselves to Divine inspirations , and others might be imposed upon by their delusions , and mistake their dreams and fancies for the Spirits dictates and revelations ; or might so subtilly and artificially counterfeit revelations , that they might with most pass for currant , especially in those times when these supernatural gifts were so common and ordinary ; and our Lord himself had 〈◊〉 told them that false Prophets would arise , and that many would confidently plead for themselves before him , that they had prophesied in his name . That therefore the Church might not be imposed upon , God was pleased to endue the Apostles , and it may be some others , with an immediate faculty of discerning the Chaffe from the Wheat , true from false Prophets ; nay , to know when the true Prophets delivered the revelations of the Spirit , and when they expressed only their own conceptions . This was a mighty priviledge , but yet seems to me to have extended farther , to judge of the sincerity or hypocrisie of mens hearts in the profession of Religion , that so bad men being discovered , suitable censures and punishments might be passed upon them , and others cautioned to avoid them . Thus Peter at first sight discovered Ananias and Saphira , and the rotten hypocrisie of their intentions , before there was any external evidence in the case ; and told Simon Magus , though baptized before upon his embracing Christianity , that his heart was not right in the sight of God , for I perceive ( says he ) that thou art in the gall of bitterness , and in the bond of iniquity . Thirdly , the Apostles had the gift of Tongues , furnished with variety of utterance , able to speak on a sudden several languages which they had never learnt , as occasion was administred , and the exigences of persons and Nations with whom they conversed , did require . For the 〈◊〉 being principally designed to convert the world , and to plant Christianity in all Countries and Nations ; it was absolutely necessary that they should be able readily to express their minds in the Languages of those Countries to which they addressed themselves : seeing otherwise it would have been a work of time and difficulty , and not consistent with the term of the Apostles lives , had they been first to learn the different Languages of those Nations , before they could have preached the Gospel to them . Hence this gift was diffused upon the Apostles in larger measures and proportions than upon other men ; I speak with Tongues more than you all , says S. Paul ; that is , than all the gifted persons in the Church of Corinth . Our Lord had told the Apostles before his departure from them , that they should be endued with power from on high , which upon the day of Pentecost was particularly made good in this instance , when in a moment they were enabled to speak almost all the Languages of the then known World , and this as a specimen and first-fruits of the rest of those miraculous powers that were conferr'd upon them . XII . A fourth gift was that of Interpretation , or unfolding to others what had been delivered in an unknown tongue . For the Christian Assemblies in those days were frequently made up of men of different Nations , and who could not understand what the Apostles or others had spoken to the Congregation ; this God supplied by this gift of interpretation , enabling some to interpret what others did not understand , and to speak it to them in their own native language . S. Paul largely discourses the necessity of this gift in order to the instructing and edifying of the Church , seeing without it their meetings could be no better than the Assembly at Babel after the confusion of Languages , where one man must needs be a Barbarian to another , and all the praying and preaching of the Minister of the Assembly be to many altogether fruitless and unprofitable , and no better than a speaking into the Air. What 's the speaking though with the tongue of Angels to them that do not understand it ? How can the Idiot and unlearned say Amen , who understands not the language of him that giveth thanks ? The duty may be done with admirable quaintness and accuracy , but what 's he the better , from whom 't is lock'd up in an unknown tongue ? A consideration that made the Apostle solemnly profess , that he had rather speak five words in the Church with his understanding , that by his voice he may teach others also , than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue . Therefore if any man speak in an unknown tongue , let it be but by two , or at most by three , and let one interpret what the rest have spoken : but if there be no interpreter , none present able to do this , let him keep silence in the Church , and speak to himself and to God. A man that impartially reads this discourse of the Apostle , may wonder how the Church of Rome in defiance of it can so openly practise , so confidently defend their Bible and Divine Services in an unknown tongue , so flatly repugnant to the dictates of common reason , the usage of the first Christian Church , and these plain Apostolical commands . But this is not the only instance wherein that Church has departed both from Scripture , Reason , and the practice of the first and purest Ages of Christianity . Indeed there is some cause why they are so zealous to keep both Scripture and their Divine Worship in a strange Language , lest by reading the one the people should become wise enough to discover the gross errors and corruptions of the other . Fifthly , The Apostles had the gift of Healing , of curing diseases without the arts of Physick ; the most inveterate distempers being equally removable by an Almighty power , and vanishing at their speaking of a word . This begot an extraordinary veneration for them and their Religion among the common sort of men , who , as they are strongliest moved with sensible effects , so are most taken with those miracles that are beneficial to the life of man. Hence the infinite Cures done in every place , God mercifully providing that the Body should partake with the Soul in the advantages of the Gospel , the cure of the one ushering in many times the conversion of the other . This gift was very common in those early days , bestowed not upon the Apostles only , but the ordinary Governours of the Church , who were wont to lay their hands upon the sick , and sometimes to anoint them with oil ( a symbolick rite in use among the Jews , to denote the grace of God ) and to pray over , and for them in the name of the Lord Jesus , whereby upon a hearty confession and forsaking of their sins , both health and pardon were at once bestowed upon them . How long this gift , with its appendant ceremony of Unction lasted in the Church , is not easie to determine ; that it was in use in * Tertullian's time , we learn from the instance he gives us of Proculus a Christian , who cured the Emperor Severus , by anointing him with oil ; for which the Emperor had him in great honour , and kept him with him at Court all his life ; it afterwards vanishing by degrees , as all other miraculous powers , as Christianity gain'd firm sooting in the World. As for Extreme 〈◊〉 , so generally maintained and practised in the Church of Rome , nay , and by them made a Sacrament , I doubt it will receive very little countenance from this Primitive usage . Indeed could they as easily restore sick men to health , as they can anoint them with oil , I think no body would contradict them ; but till they can pretend to the one , I think it unreasonable they should use the other . The best is , though founding it upon this Apostolical practice , they have turn'd it to a quite contrary purpose , instead of recovering men to life and health , to dispose and fit them for dying , when all hopes of life are taken from them . XIII . Sixthly , The Apostles were invested with a power of immediately inflicting corporal punishments upon great and notorious sinners ; and this probably is that which he means by his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , operations of powers , or working miracles , which surely cannot be meant of miracles in general , being reckoned up amongst the particular gifts of the Holy Ghost , nor is there any other to which it can with equal probability refer . A power to inflict diseases upon the body , as when S. Paul struck Elymas the Sorcerer with blindness , and sometimes extending to the loss of life it self , as in the sad instance of Ananias and Saphira . This was the Virga Apostolica , the Rod ( mentioned by S. Paul ) which the Apostles held and shak'd over scandalous and insolent offenders , and sometimes laid upon them : What will ye ? shall I come to you with a rod ? or in love , and the spirit of meekness ? Where , observe ( says * Chrysostom ) how the Apostle tempers his discourse ; the love and meekness , and his desire to know , argued care and kindness ; but the rod spake dread and terror : a Rod of severity and punishment , and which sometimes mortally chastised the offender . Elsewhere he frequently gives intimations of this power , when he has to deal with stubborn and incorrigible persons ; Having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience , when your obedience is fulfilled ; for though I should boast something more of our authority ( which the Lord hath given us for edification , and not for your destruction ) I should not be ashamed ; that I may not seem as if I would terrifie you by letters . And he again puts them in mind of it at the close of his Epistle , I told you before , and foretell you as if I were present the second time , and being absent now I write to them which heretofore have sinned , and to all others , that if I come again I will not spare . But he hop'd these smart warnings would supersede all further severity against them ; Therefore I write these things being absent , lest being present I should use sharpness , according to the power which the Lord hath given me to edification , and not to destruction . Of this nature was the delivering over persons unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh , the chastising the body by some present pain or sickness , that the spirit might be saved by being brought to a seasonable repentance . Thus he dealt with Hymeneus and Alexander , who had made shipwrack of Faith and a good Conscience , he delivered them unto Satan , that they might learn not to blaspheme . Nothing being more usual in those times than for 〈◊〉 excommunicate , and cut off from the body of the Church , to be presently arrested by Satan , 〈◊〉 the common Serjeant and Executioner , and by him either actually possessed , or tormented in their bodies by some diseases which he brought upon them . And indeed this severe discipline was no more than necessary in those times , when Christianity was wholly destitute of any civil or coercive power , to beget and keep up a due reverence and regard to the sentence and determinations of the Church , and to secure the Laws of Religion , and the holy censures from being sleighted by every bold and contumacious offender . And this effect we find it had after the dreadful instance of 〈◊〉 and Saphira , Great fear came upon all the Church , and upon as many as heard these things . To what has been said concerning these Apostolical gifts , let me further observe , That they had not only these gifts residing in themselves , but a power to bestow them upon others , so that by imposition of hands or upon hearing and embracing the Apostle's doctrine , and being baptized into the Christian Faith , they could confer these miraculous powers upon persons thus qualifisied to receive them , whereby they were in a moment enabled to speak divers Languages , to Prophecy , to Interpret , and do other miracles to the admiration and astonishment of all that heard and saw them . A priviledge peculiar to the Apostles ; for we do not find that any inferiour Order of gifted persons were intrusted with it . And therefore as * Chrysostom well observes , though Philip the Deacon wrought great miracles at Samaria , to the conversion of many , yea to the conviction of Simon Magus himself , yet the Holy Ghost fell upon none of them , only they were baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus : till Peter and John came down to them , who having prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost , they laid their hands upon them , and they received the Holy Ghost . Which when the Magician beheld , he offered the Apostles money to enable him , that on whom soever he laid his hands , he might derive these miraculous powers upon them . XIV . Having seen how sitly furnished the Apostles were for the execution of their Office , let us in the last place enquire into its duration and continuance . And here it must be considered , that in the Apostolical Office there was something extraordinary , and something ordinary . What was 〈◊〉 was their immediate Commission derived from the mouth of Christ himself , their unlimited charge to preach the Gospel up and down the World , without being tied to any particular places ; the supernatural and miraculous powers conferr'd upon them as Apostles ; their infallible guidance in delivering the doctrines of the Gospel ; and these all expired and determined with their persons . The standing and perpetual part of it was to teach and instruct the people in the duties and principles of Religion , to administer the Sacraments , to constitute Guides and 〈◊〉 , and to exercise the discipline and government of the Church : and in these they are succeeded by the ordinary Rulers and Ecclesiastick Guides , who were to superintend and discharge the affairs and offices of the Church , to the end of the World. Whence it is that Bishops and Governours came to be styled Apostles , as being their successors in ordinary ; for so they frequently are in the writings of the Church . Thus Timothy , who was Bishop of Ephesus , is called an (a) Apostle ; Clemens of Rome , Clemens the (b) Apostle ; S. Mark Bishop of Alexandria , by (c) 〈◊〉 styled both an Apostle and Evangelist ; Ignatius , a Bishop and (d) Apostle . A title that continued in after Ages , especially given to those that were the first planters or restorers of Christianity in any Country . In the Coptick Kalendar , published by (e) Mr. Selden , the VII th day of the month Baschnes , answering to our Second of May , is dedicated to the memory of S. Athanasius the Apostle . Acacius and Paulus in their (f) Letter to Epiphanius , style him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a new Apostle and Preacher : and (g) Sidonius Apollinaris writing to Lupus Bishop of Troyes in France , speaks of the honour due to his eminent Apostleship . An observation which it were easie enough to confirm by abundant instances , were it either doubtful in it self , or necessary to my purpose , but being neither , I forbear . Joan. Euchait . Metropolitae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. 70. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THE LIFE OF S. PETER . S. PETER . He was crucified at Rome with his head downwards , and Buried in the Vatican there . S. Hierom. after he had planted a Christian Church first at Antioch and afterwards at Rome . S. Peter's Martyrdom . Ioh. 21. 18. 19. Verily verily I say unto thee when thou wast young thou girdedst thy self & walkedst whither thou wouldst but when thou shalt be old thou shalt stretch forth thy hands & another shall gird thee & carry thee whither thou wouldst not . This spake he signifying by what death he should glorify God SECT . I. Of S. Peter from his Birth till his First coming to Christ. Bethsaida S. Peter's Birth-place : Its dignity of old , and fate at this day . The time of his Birth enquired into . Some Errors noted concerning it . His names ; Cephas , the imposing of it notes no Superiority over the rest of the Apostles . The custom of Popes assuming a new Name at their Election to the Papacy , whence . His kindred and relations ; whether He or Andrew the elder Brother . His Trade and way of life what , before his coming to Christ. The Sea of Galilee , and the conveniency of it . The meanness and obscurity of his Trade . The remarkable appearances of the Divine Providence in propagating Christianity in the World by mean and unlikely Instruments . THE Land of Palestine was , at and before , the coming of our Blessed Saviour , distinguished into three several Provinces , Judaea , Samaria , and Galilee . This last was divided into the Upper , and the Lower . In the Upper , called also Galilee of the Gentiles , within the division anciently belonging to the Tribe of Nephthali , stood Bethsaida , formerly an obscure and inconsiderable Village , till lately reedified and enlarged by * Philip the Tetrarch , by him advanced to the place and title of a City , replenished with inhabitants , and fortified with power and strength ; and in honour of Julia the daughter of Augustus Caesar , by him styled Julias . Situate it was upon the banks of the Sea of Galilee , and had a Wilderness on the other side , thence called the Desart of Bethsaida , whither our Saviour used often to retire , the privacies and solitudes of the place advantageously ministring to Divine contemplations . But Bethsaida was not so remarkable for this adjoyning Wilderness , as it self was memorable for a worse sort of Barrenness , Ingratitude and Unprofitableness under the influences of Christ's Sermons and Miracles , thence severely upbraided by him , and threatned with one of his deepest woes , Woe unto thee Chorazin , woe unto thee Bethsaida , &c. A woe that it seems stuck close to it , for whatever it was at this time , * one who surveyed it in the last Age tells us , that it was shrunk again into a very mean and small Village , consisting only of a few cottages of Moores and wild Arabs ; and later travellers have since assured us , that even these are dwindled away into one poor cottage at this day . So fatally does sin undermine the greatest , the goodliest places ; so certainly does God's Word take place , and not one lot a either of his promises or threatnings fall to the ground . Next to the honour that was done it by our Saviour's presence , who living most in these parts frequently resorted hither , it had nothing greater to recommend it to the notice of posterity , than that ( besides some other of the Apostles ) it was the Birth-place of S. Peter ; a person how inconsiderable soever in his private fortunes , yet of great note and eminency , as one of the prime Embassadors of the Son of God , to whom both Sacred and Ecclesiastical stories give , though not a superiority , a precedency in the Colledge of Apostles . 2. THE particular time of his Birth cannot be recovered , no probable footsteps or intimations being left of it : in the general we may conclude him at least Ten years elder than his Master ; his married condition , and setled course of life at his first coming to Christ , and that authority and respect which the gravity of his person procured him amongst the rest of the Apostles , can speak him no less : but for any thing more particular and positive in this matter , I see no reason to affirm . Indeed might we trust the account , which one ( who pretends to calculate his Nativity with ostentation enough ) has given of it , we are told that he was born three years before the Blessed Virgin , and just XVII . before the Incarnation of our Saviour . But let us view his account . Nat. est Ann. ab Orbe Cond . 4034 à Diluvio 2378 V. G. 734 Ann. Oct. August . 8 à 10 ejus consul . 24 à pugna Actiac . 12 An. Herodis Reg. 20 ante B. Virg. 3 ante Chr. nat . 17 When I met with such a pompous train of Epocha's , the least I expected was truth and certainty . This computation he grounds upon the date of S. Peter's death , placed ( as * elsewhere he tells us ) by Bellarmine in the LXXXVI . year of his Age ; so that recounting from the year of Christ LXIX . when Peter is commonly said to have suffered , he runs up his Age to his Birth , and spreads it out into so many several dates . But alas , all is built upon a sandy bottom . For besides his mistake about the year of the World , few of his dates hold due correspondence . But the worst of it is , that after all this , * Bellarmine ( upon whose single testimony all this fine fabrick is erected ) says no such thing , but only supposes , merely for arguments sake , that S. Peter might very well be LXXXVI . ( 't is erroneously printed LXXVI . ) years old at the time of his Martyrdom . So far will confidence , or ignorance , or both carry men aside , if it could be a mistake , and not rather a bold imposing upon the World. But of this enough , and perhaps more than it deserves . 3. BEING circumcised according to the Rites of the Mosaic Law , the name given him at his circumcision was Simon or Symeon , a name common amongst the Jews , especially in their latter times . This was afterwards by our Saviour not abolished , but additioned with the title of Cephas , which in Syriack ( the vulgar Language of the Jéws at that time ) signifying a stone or rock , was thence derived into the Greek , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and by us , Peter : so far was * Hesychius out , when rendring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , an Expounder or Interpreter , probably deriving it from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifies to explain and interpret . By this new imposition our Lord seemed to denote the firmness and constancy of his Faith , and his vigorous activity in building up the Church , as a spiritual house upon the the true rock , the living and corner-stone , chosen of God and precious , as S. Peter himself expresses it . Nor can our Saviour be understood to have hereby conferred upon him any peculiar Supremacy or Sovereignty above , much less over the rest of the Apostles ; for in respect of the great trusts committed to them , and their being sent to plant Christianity in the World , they are all equally stiled Foundations : nor is it accountable either to Scripture , or reason to suppose , that by this Name our Lord should design the person of Peter to be that very rock , upon which his Church was to be built . In a fond imitation * of this new name given to S. Peter , those who pretend to be his Successors in the See of Rome , usually lay by their own , and assume a new name upon their advancement to the Apostolick Chair , it being one of the first questions ‖ which the Cardinals put to the new-elected Pope , by what name he will please to be called . This custome first began about the Year 844 , when Peter di Bocca-Porco ( or Swines-mouth ) being chosen Pope , changed his name into Sergins the Second : probably not so much to avoid the uncomeliness of his own name , as if unbefitting the dignity of his place ( for this being but his Paternal name would after have been no part of his Pontifical stile and title ) as out of a mighty reverence to S. Peter , accounting himself not worthy to bear his name ; though it was his own baptismal name . Certain it is that none of the Bishops of that See ever assumed S. Peter's name , and some who have had it as their Christian name before , have laid it aside upon their election to the Papacy . But to return to our Apostle . 4. HIS Father was Jonah , probably a Fisherman of Bethsaida , for the sacred story takes no further notice of him , than by the bare mention of his Name ; and I believe there had been no great danger of mistake , though * Metaphrastes had not told us , that it was not Jonas the Prophet , who came out of the Belly of the Whale . Brother he was to S. Andrew the Apostle , and some question there is amongst the Ancients which was the elder Brother . ‖ Epiphanius ( probably from some Tradition current in his time ) clearly adjudges it to S. Andrew , herein universally followed by those of the Church of Rome , that the precedency given to S. Peter may not seem to be put upon the account of his Seniority . But to him we may oppose the authority of * S. Chrysostome , a Person equal both in time and credit , who expresly says , that though Andrew came later into life than Peter , yet he first brought him to the knowledge of the Gospel : which Baronius against all pretence of reason would understand of his entring into eternal life . Besides (a) S. Hierom , (b) Cassian , (c) Bede , and others , are for S. Peter being elder Brother , expresly ascribing it to his Age , that he rather than any other , was President of the Colledge of Apostles . However it was , it sounds not a little to the honour of their Father , ( as of Zebedee also in the like case ) that of but twelve Apostles two of his Sons were taken into the number . In his Youth he was brought up to Fishing , which we may guess to have been the staple-trade of Bethsaida , ( which hence probably borrowed its name , signifying an house or habitation of Fishing , though others render it by Hunting ; the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equally bearing either ) much advantaged herein by the Neighbourhood of the Lake of Gennesareth ( on whose banks it stood ) 〈◊〉 also the Sea of Galilee , and the Sea of Tiberias , according to the mode of the Hebrew language , wherein all greater confluences of Waters are called Seas . Of this Lake the Jews have a saying , * that of all the seven Seas which God created , he made choice of none but the Sea of Gennesareth : which however intended by them , is true only in this respect , that our blessed Saviour made choice of it , to honour it with the frequency of his presence , and the power of his miraculous operations . In length it was an hundred furlongs , ‖ and about XI over ; the Water of it pure and clear , sweet and most fit to drink ; stored it was with several sorts of Fish , and those different both in kind and taste from those in other places . Here it was that Peter closely followed the exercise of his calling ; from whence it seems he afterwards removed to Capernaum , ( probably upon his marriage , at least frequently resided there ) for there we meet with his House , and there we find him paying Tribute : an House , over which * Nicephorus tells us , that Helen the Mother of Constantine erected a beautiful Church to the honour of S. Peter . This place was equally advantageous for the managery of his Trade , standing upon the Influx of Jordan into the Sea of Galilee , and where he might as well reap the fruits of an honest and industrious diligence . A mean , I confess , it was , and a more servile course of life , as which besides the great pains and labour it required , exposed him to all the injuries of wind and weather , to the storms of the Sea , the darkness and tempestousness of the Night , and all to make a very small return . An imployment , whose restless troubles , constant hardships , frequent dangers , and amazing horrours are ( for the satisfaction of the learned Reader ) thus elegantly described by one , whose Poems may be justly stiled Golden Verses , receiving from the Emperour Antoninus a piece of Gold for every Verse . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But meanness is no bar in God's way , the poor , if virtuous , are as dear to Heaven , as the wealthy and the honourable , equally alike to him , with whom there is no respect of persons . Nay our Lord seemed to cast a peculiar honour upon this profession , when afterwards calling him and some others of the same Trade from catching of Fish , to be ( as he told them ) Fishers of men . 5. AND here we may justly reflect upon the wise and admirable methods of the Divine providence , which in planting and propagating the Christian Religion in the World , made choice of such mean and unlikely instruments , that he should hide these things from the wise and prudent , and reveal them unto babes , men that had not been educated in the Academy , and the Schools of Learning , but brought up to a Trade , to catch Fish , and mend Nets ; most of the Apostles being taken from the meanest Trades , and all of them ( S. Paul excepted ) unfurnished of all arts of learning , and the advantages of liberal and ingenuous education : and yet these were the men that were designed to run down the World , and to overturn the learning of the prudent . Certainly had humane wisdome been to manage the business , it would have taken quite other measures , and chosen out the profoundest Rabbins , the acutest Philosophers , the smoothest Orators , such as would have been most likely by strength of reason and arts of rhetorick to have triumph'd over the minds of men , to grapple with the stubberness of the Jews , and baffle the finer notions and speculations of the Greeks . We find that those Sects of Philosophy that gain'd most credit in the Heathen-world , did it this way , by their eminency in some Arts and Sciences , whereby they recommended themselves to the acceptance of the wiser and more ingenious part of mankind . * Julian the Apostate thinks it a reasonable exception against the Jewish Prophets , that they were incompetent messengers and interpreters of the Divine will , because they had not their minds cleared and purged , by passing through the Circle of polite arts and learning . Why , now this is the wonder of it , that the first Preachers of the Gospel should be such rude unlearned men , and yet so suddainly , so powerfully prevail over the learned World , and conquer so many , who had the greatest parts and abilities , and the strongest prejudices against it , to the simplicity of the Gospel . When Celsus objected that the Apostles were but a company of mean and illiterate persons , sorry Mariners and Fishermen , * Origen quickly returns upon him with this answer , That hence 't was plainly evident , that they taught Christianity by a Divine power , when such persons were able with such an uncontrouled success to subdue men to the obedience of the Word ; for that they had no eloquent tongues , no subtle and discursive heads , none of the refin'd and rhetorical Arts of Greece to conquer the minds of men . For my part ( says he ‖ in another place ) I verily believe that the Holy Jesus purposely made use of such Preachers of his Doctrine , that there might be no suspicion , that they came instructed with Arts of Sophistry , but that it might be clearly manifest to all the World , that there was no crafty design in it , and that they had a Divine power going along with them , which was more efficacious , than the greatest volubility of expression , or ornaments of speech , or the artifices which were used in the Graecian compositions . Had it not been for this Divine power that upheld it ( as he * elsewhere argues ) the Christian Religion , must needs have sunk under those weighty pressures that lay upon it , having not only to contend with the potent opposition of the Senate , Emperors , People , and the whole power of the Roman Empire , but to conflict with those home-bred wants and necessities , wherewith its own professors were oppressed and burdened . 6. IT could not but greatly vindicate the Apostles from all suspicion of forgery and imposture in the thoughts of sober and unbyassed persons , to see their Doctrine readily entertained by men of the most discerning and inquisitive minds . Had they dealt only with the rude and the simple , the idiot and the unlearned , there might have been some pretence to suspect , that they lay in wait to deceive , and designed to impose upon the World by crafty and insinuative arts and methods . But alas they had other persons to deal with , men of the acutest wits , and most profound abilities , the wisest Philosophers , and most subtle disputants , able to weigh an argument with the greatest accuracy , and to decline the force of the strongest reasonings , and who had their parts edg'd with the keenest prejudices of education , and a mighty veneration for the Religion of their Country , a Religion that for so many Ages had governed the World , and taken firm possession of the minds of men . And yet notwithstanding all these disadvantages these plain men conquered the wise and the learned , and brought them over to that Doctrine that was despised and scorned , opposed and persecuted , and that had nothing but its own native excellency to recommend it : A clear evidence that there was something in it beyond the craft and power of men . Is not this ( says an elegant * Apologist , making his address to the Heathens ) enough to make you believe and entertain it , to consider that in so short a time it has diffused it self over the whole World , civilized the most barbarous Nations , softned the roughest and most intractable tempers , that the greatest Wits and Scholars , Orators , Grammarians , Rhetoricians , Lawyers , Physicians , and Philosophers have quitted their formerly dear and beloved sentiments , and heartily embraced the Precepts and Doctrines of the Gospel ? Upon this account ‖ Theodoret does with no less truth than elegancy insult and triumph over the Heathens : He tells them that whoever would be at the pains to compare the best Law-makers either amongst the Greeks or Romans , with our Fishermen and Publicans , would soon perceive what a Divine vertue and efficacy there was in them above all others , whereby they did not only conquer their neighbours , not only the Greeks and Romans , but brought over the most barbarous Nations to a compliance with the Laws of the Gospel , and that not by force of Arms , not by numerous bands of Souldiers , not by methods of torture and cruelty , but by meek perswasives , and a convincing the World of the excellency and usefulness of those Laws which they propounded to them . A thing which the wisest and best men of the Heathen-world could never do , to make their dogmata and institutions universally obtain , nay that Plato himself could never by all his plausible and insinuative arts make his Laws to be entertained by his own dear Athenians . He farther shews them , that the Laws published by our Fishermen and Tentmakers could never be abolished ( like those made by the best amongst them ) by the policies of Caius , the power of Claudius , the cruelties of Nero , or any of the succeding Emperors , but still they went on conquering and to conquer , and made Millions both of Men and Women willing to embrace flames , and to encounter Death in its most horrid shapes , rather than dis-own and forsake them : whereof he calls to witness those many Churches and Monuments every where erected to the memory of Christian Martyrs , no less to the honour than advantage of those Cities and Countries , and in some sence to all Mankind . 7. THE summe of the Discourse is , in the Apostles words , that God chose the foolish things of the world to confound the wise , the weak to confound those that are mighty , the base things of the world , things most vitified and despised , yea and things which are not , to bring to nought things that are . These were the things , these the Persons , whom God sent upon this errand to silence the Wise , the Scribe , and the Disputer of this World , and to make foolish the wisdome of this world . For though the Jews required a sign , and the Greeks sought after wisdome , though the preaching a crucified Saviour was a scandal to the Jewes , and foolishness to the learned 〈◊〉 , yet by this foolishness of preaching God was pleased to save them that believed : and in the event made it appear that the foolishness of God is wiser than men , and the weakness of God stronger than men . That so the honour of all might intirely redound to himself ; so the Apostle concludes , that no Flesh should glory in his presence , but that he that glorieth , should glory in the Lord. SECT . II. Of S. Peter from his first coming to Christ , till his being call'd to be a Disciple . Peter , before his coming to Christ , 〈◊〉 Disciple ( probably ) of John the Baptist. His first approaches to Christ. Our Lord's communication with him . His return to his Trade . Christ's entring into Peter's Ship , and preaching to the people at the Sea of Galilee . The 〈◊〉 draught of Fishes . Peter's great astonishment at this evidence of our Lord's Divinity . His call to be a Disciple . Christ's return to Capernaum , and healing Peter's Mother-in-Law . THOUGH we find not whether Peter before his coming to Christ was engag'd in any of the particular Sects at this time in the Jewish Church , yet is it greatly probable , that he was one of the Disciples of John the Baptist. For first , 't is certain that his brother Andrew was so , and we can hardly think , these two brothers should draw contrary ways , or that he who was so ready to bring his brother the early tidings of the Messiah , that the Sun of righteousness was already risen in those parts , should not be as solicitous to bring him under the discipline and influences of John the Baptist , the Day-star that went before him . Secondly , Peter's forwardness and curiosity at the first news of Christ's appearing , to come to him , and converse with him , shew that his expectations had been awakened , and some light in this matter conveyed to him by the preaching and ministry of John , who was the voice of one crying in the wilderness , Prepare ye the way of the Lord , make his paths streight , shewing them who it was that was coming after him . 2. HIS first acquaintance with Christ commenced in this manner . The Blessed Jesus having for thirty years passed through the solitudes of a private life , had lately been baptized in Jordan , and there publickly owned to be the Son of God by the 〈◊〉 solemn attestations that Heaven could give him , whereupon he was immediately 〈◊〉 into the wilderness to a personal contest with the Devil for forty days together . So natural is it to the enemy of mankind to malign our happiness , and to seek to blast our joys , when we are under the highest instances of the Divine grace and favour . His enemy being conquered in three set battels , and fled , he returned hence , and came down to Bethabara beyond Jordan , where John was baptizing his Proselytes , and endeavouring to satisfie the Jews , who had sent to him curiously to enquire concerning this new Messiah that appeared among them . Upon the great testimony which the Baptist gave him , and his pointing to our Lord then passing by him ; two of John's disciples who were then with him presently followed after Christ , one of which was Andrew , Simon' s brother . It was towards Evening when they came , and therefore probably stayed with him all night , during which Andrew had opportunity to inform himself , and to satisfie his most scrupulous enquiries . Early the next morning ( if not that very evening ) he hastned to acquaint his brother Simon with these glad tidings . 'T is not enough to be good and happy alone ; Religion is a communicative principle , that like the circles in the water , delights to multiply it self , and to diffuse its influences round about it , and especially upon those , whom nature has placed nearest to us . He tells him , they had found the long-look'd for Messiah , him whom Moses and the Prophets had so signally foretold , and whom all the devout and pious of that Nation had so long expected . 3. SIMON ( one of those who look'd for the Kingdom of God , and waited for redemption in Israel ) ravished with this joyful news , and impatient of delay , presently follows his brother to the place : whither he was no sooner come , but our Lord to give him an evidence of his Divinity , salutes him at first 〈◊〉 by name , tells him what , and who he was , both as to his name and kindred , what title should be given him , that that he should be call'd Cephas , or Peter ; a name which he afterwards actually conferr'd upon him . What passed further between them , and whether these two brothers henceforward personally attended our Saviour's motions in the number of his Disciples , the Sacred Story leaves us in the dark . It seems probable , that they stay'd with him for some time , till they were instructed in the first rudiments of his doctrine , and by his leave departed home . For it 's reasonable to suppose , that our Lord being unwilling , at this time especially , to awaken the jealousies of the State by a numerous retinue , might dismiss his Disciples for some time , and Peter and Andrew amongst the rest , who hereupon returned home to the exercise of their calling , where he found them afterwards . 4. IT was now somewhat more than a year , since our Lord having entred upon the publick stage of action , constantly went about doing good , healing the sick , and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom , residing usually at 〈◊〉 , and the parts about it , where by the constancy of his preaching , and the reputation of his miracles , his fame spread about all those Countries ; by means whereof multitudes of people from all parts flock'd to him , greedily desirous to become his Auditors . And what wonder if the parch'd and barren Earth thirsted for the showers of Heaven ? It hapned that our Lord retiring out of the City , to enjoy the privacies of contemplation upon the banks of the Sea of Galilee , it was not long before the multitude found him out ; to avoid the crowd and press whereof he step'd into a Ship or Fisher-Boat , that lay near to the shore , which belonged to Peter , who together with his companions after a tedious and unsuccessful night , were gone a-shore to wash and dry their Nets . He who might have commanded , was yet pleased to intreat Peter ( who by this time was returned into his Ship ) to put a little from the shore . Here being sate , he taught the people , who stood along upon the shore to hear him . Sermon ended , he resolv'd to seal up his doctrine with a miracle , that the people might be the more effectually convinced , that he was a Teacher come from God. To this purpose , he bad Simon lanch out further , and cast his Net into the Sea : Simon tells him , they had don 't already , that they had been fishing all the last night , but in vain ; and if they could not succeed then ( the most proper season for that imployment ) there was less hope to speed now , it being probably about Noon . But because where God commands , it is not for any to argue , but obey ; at our Lord's instance he let down the Net , which immediately inclosed so great a multitude of Fishes , that the Net began to break , and they were forced to call to their partners , who were in a Ship hard by them , to come in to their assistence . A draught so great , that it loaded both their Boats , and that so full , that it endangered their sinking before they could get safe to shore : An instance , wherein our Saviour gave an ocular demonstration , that , as Messiah , God had put all things under his feet , not only Fowls of the Air , but the Fish of the Sea , and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the Seas . 5. AMAZ'D they were all at this miraculous draught of Fishes , whereupon Simon in an 〈◊〉 of admiration , and a mixture of humility and fear , threw himself at the feet of Christ , and pray'd him to depart from him , as a vile and a sinful person . So evident were the appearances of Divinity in this miracle , that he was over-powred and dazled with its brightness and lustre , and reflecting upon himself , could not but think himself unworthy the presence of so great a person , so immediately sent from God ; and considering his own state ( Conscience being hereby more sensibly awakened ) was afraid , that the Divine vengeance might pursue and overtake him . But our Lord to abate the 〈◊〉 of his fears , assures him that this miracle was not done to amaze and terrifie him , but to strengthen and confirm his Faith ; that now he had nobler work and imployment for him ; instead of catching Fish , he should , by perswading men to the obedience of the Gospel , catch the Souls of men : And accordingly commanded him and his brother to follow him : ( the same command which presently after he gave to the two Sons of 〈◊〉 . ) The word was no sooner spoken , and they landed , but disposing their concerns in the hands of friends ( as we may presume prudent and reasonable men would ) they immediately left all , and followed him ; and from this time Peter and the rest became his constant and inseparable Disciples , living under the rules of his Discipline and Institutions . 6. FROM hence they returned to 〈◊〉 , where our Lord entring into Simon' s house ( the place in all likelihood where he was wont to lodge during his residence in that City ) found his Mother-in-law visited with a violent Fever . No priviledges afford an exemption from the ordinary Laws of humane Nature ; Christ under her roof did not protect this Woman from the assaults and invasions of a Fever : Lord , behold , he whom thou lovest is sick , as they said concerning Lazarus . Here a fresh opportunity offered it self to Christ of exerting his Divine Power . No sooner was he told of it , but he came to her bed-side , rebuked the Paroxysms , commanded the Fever to be gone , and taking her by the hand to lift her up , in a moment restored her to perfect health , and ability to return to the business of her Family , all cures being equally easie to Omnipotence . SECT . III. Of S. Peter from his Election to the Apostolate , till the Confession which he made of Christ. The Election of the Apostles ; and our Lord 's solemn preparation for it . The Powers and Commission given to them . Why Twelve chosen . Peter the first in order , not power . The Apostles when and by whom Baptized . The Tradition of Euodius of Peter's being immediately Baptized by Christ , rejected , and its authorities proved in sufficient . Three of the Apostles more intimately conversant with our Saviour . Peter's being with Christ at the raising Jairus his Daughter . His walking with Christ upon the Sea. The creatures at God's command act contrary to their natural Inclinations . The weakness of Peter's Faith. Christ's power in commanding down the storm , an evidence of his Divinity . Many Disciples desert our Saviour's preaching . Peter's prosession of constancy in the name of the rest of the Apostles . OUR Lord being now to elect some peculiar persons , as his immediate Vicegerents upon Earth , to whose care and trust he might commit the building up of his Church , and the planting that Religion in the World , for which he himself came down from Heaven ; In order to it he privately over-night withdrew himself into a solitary Mountain ( commonly called the Mount of Christ , from his frequent repairing thither , though some of the Ancients will have it to be Mount Tabor ) there to make his solemn address to Heaven for a prosperous success on so great a work . Herein leaving an excellent copy and precedent to the Governours of his Church , how to proceed in setting apart persons to so weighty and difficult an employment . Upon this Mountain we may conceive there was an Oratory or place of prayer ( probably intimated by S. Luke's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for such Proseucha's or houses of Prayer , usually uncovered , and standing in the fields , the Jews had in several places ) wherein our Lord continued all night , not in one continued and intire act of devotion , but probably by intervals , and repeated returns of duty . 2. EARLY the next morning his Disciples came to him , out of whom he made choice of Twelve to be his Apostles , that they might be the constant attendants upon his person , to hear his Discourses , and be Eye-witnesses of his Miracles ; to be always conversant with him while he was upon Earth , and afterwards to be sent abroad up and down the World to carry on that work which he himself had begun ; whom therefore he invested with the power of working Miracles , which was more completely conferr'd upon them after his Ascension into Heaven . Passing by the several fancies and conjectures of the Ancients , why our Saviour pitch'd upon the just number of Twelve ; ( whereof before ) it may deserve to be considered , whether our Lord being now to appoint the Supreme Officers and Governours of his Church , which the Apostle styles the Commonwealth of Israel , might not herein have a more peculiar allusion to the twelve Patriarchs , as founders of their several Tribes , or to the constant Heads and Rulers of those twelve Tribes of which the body of the Jewish Nation did consist : Especially since he himself seems elsewhere to give countenance to it , when he tells the Apostles that when the Son of man shall sit on the Throne of his Glory , that is , be gone back to Heaven , and have taken full possession of his Evangelical Kingdom , which principally commenc'd from his Resurrection , that then they also should sit upon twelve Thrones , judging the twelve Tribes of Israel , that is , they should have great powers and authorities in the Church , such as the power of the Keys , and other Rights of Spiritual Judicature and Sovereignty , answerable in some proportion to the power and dignity which the Heads and Rulers of the twelve Tribes of Israel did enjoy . 3. IN the enumeration of these twelve Apostles , all the Evangelists constantly place S. Peter in the front ; and S. Matthew expresly tells us , that he was the first , that is , he was the first that was called to be an Apostle : his Age also and the gravity of his person more particularly qualifying him for a Primacy of Order amongst the rest of the Apostles , as that without which no society of men can be managed or maintained . 〈◊〉 than this , as none will deny him , so more than this , neither Scripture nor 〈◊〉 antiquity do allow him . And now it was , that our Lord actually conferr'd that 〈◊〉 upon him , which before he had promised him , Simon he surnamed Peter . It 〈◊〉 here be enquired , when , and by whom the Apostles were baptized . That they were is unquestionable , being themselves appointed to confer it upon others ; but when , or how , the Scripture is altogether silent . * Nicephorus from no worse an Author , as he pretends , than Euodius , next 〈◊〉 S. Peter's immediate successor in the 〈◊〉 of Autioch , tells us , That of all the Apostles Christ baptized none but Peter with his own hands ; that Peter baptized Andrew , and the two sons of 〈◊〉 , and they the rest of the Apostles . This , if so , would greatly make for the honour of S. Peter . But , alas ! his authority is not only suspicious , but 〈◊〉 , in a manner deserted by S. Peter's best friends , and the strongest champions of his cause : Baronius himself , however 〈◊〉 * willing to make use of him , elsewhere ‖ confessing that this Epistle of 〈◊〉 is altogether unknown to any of the Ancients . As for the testimony of Clemens Alexandrinus , which to the same purpose he quotes out of Sophronius , ( though not Sophronius , but * Johannes Moschus , as is notoriously known , be the Author of that Book ) besides , that it is delivered upon an uncertain report , pretended to have been alledged in a discourse between one Dionysius Bishop of Ascalon and his Clergy , out of a Book of Clemens , not now extant ; his Authors are much alike , that is , of no great value and authority . 4. AMONGST these Apostles , our Lord chose a Triumvirate , Peter and the two sons of Zebedee to be his more intimate companions , whom he admitted more familiarly than the rest , unto all the more secret passages and transactions of his Life . The first instance of which was on this occasion . Jairus , a Ruler of the Synagogue , had a daughter desperately sick , whose disease having baffled all the arts of Physick , was 〈◊〉 curable by the immediate agency of the God of Nature . He therefore in all humility addresses himself to our Saviour ; which he had no sooner done , but servants 〈◊〉 post to tell him , that it was in vain to trouble our Lord , for that his daughter was dead . Christ bids him not despond , if his Faith held out , there was no danger . And 〈◊〉 none to follow him , but Peter , James , and John , goes along with him to the house ; where he was derided by the sorrowful friends , and neighbours , for telling them that she was not perfectly dead . But our Lord entering in , with the commanding efficacy of two words , restor'd her at once both to life and perfect health . 5. OUR Lord after this preached many Sermons , and wrought many Miracles : amongst which , none more remarkable , than his feeding a multitude of five thousand men , besides women and children , with but five Loaves , and two Fishes ; of which , nevertheless , twelve Baskets of sragments were taken up . Which being done , and the multitude dismissed , he commanded the Apostles to take Ship , it being now near night , and to cross over to Capernaum , whilest he himself , as his manner was , retired to a neighbouring mountain , to dispose himself to Prayer and Contemplation . The Apostles were 〈◊〉 got into the middle of the Sea , when on a sudden a violent Storm and Tempest began to arise , whereby they were brought into present danger of their lives . Our Saviour , who knew how the case stood with them , and how much they laboured under infinite pains and fears , having himself caused this Tempest , for the greater trial of their Faith , a little before morning ( for so long they remained in this imminent danger ) immediately conveyed himself upon the Sea , where the Waves received him , being proud to carry their Master . He who refused to 〈◊〉 the Devil , when tempting him to throw himself down from the Pinnacle of the Temple , did here commit himself to a boisterous & instable Element , and that in a violent Storm , walking upon the water , as if it had been dry ground . But that infinite power that made and supports the World , as it gave rules to all particular beings , so can when it please countermand the Laws of their Creation , and make them act contrary to their natural inclinations . If God say the word , the Sun will stand still in the middle of the Heavens ; if Go back , 't will retrocede , as upon the Dial of Ahaz : if he command it , the Heavens will become as Brass , and the Earth as Iron , and that for three years and an half together , as in the case of 〈◊〉 's prayer ; if he say to the Sea Divide , 't will run upon heaps , and become on both sides as firm as a wall of Marble . Nothing can be more natural , than for the fire to burn , and yet at God's command it will forget its nature , and become a screen and a fence to the three Children in the Babylonian Furnace . What heavier than Iron , or more natural than for gravity to tend downwards ? and yet when God will have it , Iron shall float like Cork on the top of the water . The proud and raging Sea that naturally refuses to bear the bodies of men while alive , became here as firm as Brass , when commanded to wait upon , and do homage to the God of Nature . Our Lord walking towards the Ship , as if he had an intention to pass by it , he was espied by them , who presently thought it to be the Apparition of a Spirit . Hereupon they were seiz'd with great terror and consternation , and their fears in all likelihood heightned by the vulgar opinion , that they are evil Spirits that chuse rather to appear in the night than by day . While they were in this agony , our Lord taking compassion on them , calls to them , and bids them not be afraid , for that it was no other than he himself . Peter ( the eagerness of whose temper carried him forward to all bold and resolute undertakings ) intreated our Lord , that if it was he , he might have leave to come upon the water to him . Having received his orders , he went out of the Ship , and walked upon the Sea to meet his Master . But when he found the wind to bear hard against him , and the waves to rise round about him , whereby probably the sight of Christ was intercepted , he began to be afraid , and the higher his fears arose , the lower his Faith began to sink , and together with that , his body to sink under water : whereupon in a passionate fright he cried out to our Lord to help him , who , reaching out his arm , took him by the hand , and set him again upon the top of the water , with this gentle reproof , O thou of little Faith , wherefore didst thou doubt ? It being the weakness of our Faith that makes the influences of the Divine power and goodness to have no better effect upon us . Being come to the Ship , they took them in , where our Lord no sooner arrived , but the winds and waves observing their duty to their Sovereign Lord , and having done the errand which they came upon , mannerly departed , and vanished away , and the Ship in an instant was at the shore . All that were in the Ship being strangely astonished at this Miracle , and fully convinced of the Divinity of his person , came and did homage to him , with this confession , Of a truth thou art the Son of God. After which they went ashore , and landed in the Country of Genezareth , and there more fully acknowledged him before all the people . 6. THE next day great multitudes flocking after him , he entred into a Synagogue at Capernaum , and taking occasion from the late Miracle of the loaves , which he had wrought amongst them , he began to discourse concerning himself , as the true Manna , and the Bread that came down from Heaven ; largely opening to them many of the more sublime and Spiritual mysteries , and the necessary and important duties of the Gospel . Hereupon a great part of his Auditory , who had hitherto followed him , finding their understandings gravelled with these difficult and uncommon Notions , and that the duties he required were likely to grate hard upon them , and perceiving now that he was not the Messiah they took him for , whose Kingdom should consist in an external Grandeur and plenty , but was to be managed and transacted in a more inward and Spiritual way ; hereupon fairly left him in open field , and henceforth quite turned their backs upon him . Whereupon our Lord turning about to his Apostles , asked them whether they also would go away from him ? Peter ( spokes-man generally for all the rest ) answered , whither should they go , to mend and better their condition ? should they return back to Moses ? Alas ! he laid a yoke upon them , which neither they nor their Fathers were able to bear . Should they go to the Scribes and Pharisees ? they would feed them with Stones instead of Bread , obtrude humane Traditions upon them for Divine dictates and Commands . Should they betake themselves to the Philosophers amongst the Gentiles ? they were miserably blind and short-sighted in their Notions of things , and their sentiments and opinions not only different from , but contrary to one another . No , 't was he only had the words of Eternal life , whose doctrine could instruct them in the plain way to Heaven ; that they had fully assented to what both John and he had said concerning himself , that they were fully perswaded both from the efficacy of his Sermons , which they heard , and the powerful conviction of his Miracles , which they had seen , that he was the Son of the living God , the true Messiah and Saviour of the World. But notwithstanding this fair and plausible testimony , he tells them , that they were not all of this mind , that there was a Satan amongst them , one that was moved by the spirit and impulse , and that acted according to the rules and interest of the Devil : intimating Judas who should betray him . So hard is it to meet with a body of so just and pure a constitution , wherein some rotten member or distempered part is not to be found . SECT . IV. Of S. Peter from the time of his Confession , till our Lord's last Passover . Our Saviour's Journy with his Apostles to Caesarea . The Opinions of the People concerning Him. Peter's eminent Confession of Christ , and our Lord 's great commendation of it . Thou art Peter , and upon this Rock , &c. The Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven how given . The advantage the Church of Rome makes of these passages . This confession made by Peter in the name of the rest , and by others before him . No personal priviledge intended to S. Peter : the same things elsewhere promised to the other Apostles . Our 〈◊〉 discourse concerning his 〈◊〉 . Peter's unseasonable zeal in disswading him from it , and our Lord 's severe rebuking him . Christ's Transfiguration , and the glory of it : Peter how affected with it . Peter's paying Tribute for Christ and himself . This Tribute , what . Our Saviour's discourse upon it . Offending brethren how oft to be forgiven . The young man commanded to sell all . What compensation made to the followers of Christ. Our Lord 's triumphant entrance into Jerusalem . Preparation made to keep the Passover . 1. IT was some time since our Saviour had kept his third Passover at Jerusalem , when he directed his Journy towards Caesarea Philippi , where by the way having like a lawful Master of his Family first prayed with his Aposlles , he began to ask them ( having been more than two Years publickly conversant amongst them ) what the world thought concerning him . They answered , that the Opinions of Men about him were various and different ; that some took him for John the Baptist , lately risen from the dead , between whose Doctrine , Discipline , and way of life , in the main there was so great a Correspondence . That others thought he was Elias ; probably judging so , from the gravity of his Person , freedom of his Preaching , the fame and reputation of his Miracles , especially since the Scriptures assured them he was not dead , but taken up into Heaven ; and had so expresly foretold , that he should return back again . That others look'd upon him as the Prophet Jeremiah alive again , of whose return the Jewes had great expectations , in so much that some of them thought the Soul of Jeremias was re-inspired into 〈◊〉 . Or if not thus , at least that he was one of the more eminent of the ancient Prophets , or that the Souls of some of these Persons had been breathed into him ; The Doctrine of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or Transmigration of Souls first broached and propagated by Pythagoras , being at this time current amongst the Jews , and owned by the Pharisees as one of their prime Notions and Principles . 2. THIS Account not 〈◊〉 , our Lord comes closer and nearer to them ; tells them , It was no wonder if the common People were divided into these wild thoughts concerning him : but since they had been always with him , had been hearers of his Sermons , and Spectators of his Miracles , he enquired , what they themselves thought of him . Peter , ever forward to return an Answer , and therefore by the Fathers frequently stiled The Mouth of the Apostles , * told him in the name of the rest , That he was the Messiah , The Son of the living God , promised of old in the Law and the Prophets , heartily desired and looked for by all good men , anointed and set apart by God to be the King , Priest , and Prophet of his People . To this excellent and comprehensive confession of Peter's , Our Lord returns this great Eulogie and Commendation ; Blessed art thou Simon Bar Jonah , Flesh and Blood hath not revealed it unto thee , but my Father which is in Heaven : That is , this Faith which thou hast now confessed is not humane , contrived by Man's wit , or built upon his testimony , but upon those Notions and Principles which I was sent by God to reveal to the World , and those mighty and solemn attestations , which he has given from Heaven to the truth both of my Person and my Doctrine . And because thou hast so freely made this Confession , therefore I also say unto thee , that thou art Peter , and upon this Rock I will build my Church , and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it : That is , that as thy Name signifies a Stone or Rock , such shalt thou thy self be , firm , solid , and immoveable , in building of the Church , which shall be so orderly erected by thy care and diligence , and so firmly founded upon that faith which thou hast now confessed , that all the assaults and attempts which the powers of Hell can make against it , shall not be able to overturn it . Moreover I will give unto thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven , and whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth , shall be bound in Heaven , and whatsoever thou shalt loose on Earth , shall be loosed in Heaven : That is , thou shalt have that spiritual authority and power within the Church , whereby as with Keys thou shalt be able to shut and lock out obstinate and impenitent sinners , and upon their repentance to unlock the door , and take them in again : And what thou shalt thus regularly do , shall be own'd in the Court above , and ratified by God in Heaven . 3. UPON these several passages , the Champions of the Church of Rome , mainly build the unlimited Supremacy and Infallibility of the Bishops of that See ; with how much truth , and how little reason , it is not my present purpose to discuss . It may suffice here to remark , that though this place does very much tend to exalt the honour of Saint Peter , yet is there nothing herein personal and peculiar to him alone , as distinct from , and preserred above the rest of the Apostles . Does he here make confession of Christ's being the Son of God ? Yet , besides that herein he spake but the sence of all the rest , this was no more than what others had said as well as he , yea besore he was so much as call'd to be a Disciple . Thus Nathanael at his first coming to Christ expresly told him , Rabbi , thou art the Son of God , Thou art the King of Israel . Does our Lord here stile him a Rock ? All the Apostles are elsewhere equally called Foundations , yea said to be the Twelve Foundations , upon which the Wall of the new Jerusalem , that is , the Evangelical Church is 〈◊〉 ; and sometimes others of them besides Peter are called Pillars , as they have relation to the Church already built . Does Christ here promise the Keys to Peter ? that is , Power of Governing , and of exercising Church-censures , and of absolving penitent sinners ? The very same is elsewhere promised to all the Apostles , and almost in the very same termes and words . If thine offending Brother , prove obstinate , tell it unto the Church ; but , if he neglect to hear the Church , let him be unto thee as an Heathen and a Publican . Verily I say unto you , whatsoever ye shall bind on Earth , shall be bound in Heaven , and whatsoever ye shall loose on Earth , shall be loosed in Heaven . And elsewhere , when ready to leave the World , he tells them , As my Father hath sent me , even so send I you : whose soever sins ye remit , they are remitted unto them ; and whose soever sins ye retain , they are retained . By all which it is evident , that our Lord did not here give any personal prerogative to S. Peter , as Universal Pastor and Head of the Christian Church , much less to those who were to be his Successors in the See of Rome ; But that as he made this Confession in the name of the rest of the Apostles , so what was here promised unto him , was equally intended unto all . Nor did the more considering and judicious part of the Fathers ( however giving a mighty reverence to S. Peter ) ever understand it in any other sence . Sure I am , that * Origen tells us , that every true Christian that makes this confession with the same Spirit and Integrity which S. Peter did , shall have the same blessing and commendation from Christ conferr'd upon him . 4. THE Holy Jesus knowing the time of his Passion to draw on , began to prepare the minds of his Apostles against that fatal Hour ; telling them what hard and bitter things he should suffer at Jerusalem , what affronts and indignities he must undergo , and be at last put to death with all the arts of torture and disgrace , by the Decree of the Jewish Sanhedrim . Peter , whom our Lord had infinitely incouraged and indeared to him , by the great things which he had lately said concerning him , so that his spirits were now afloat , and his passions ready to over-run the banks , not able to endure a thought that so much evil should befall his Master , broke out into an over-confident and unseasonable interruption of him : He took him and began to rebuke him , saying , Be it far from thee , Lord , this shall not be unto thee . Besides his great kindness and affection to his Master , the minds of the Apostles were not yet throughly purged from the hopes and expectations of a glorious reign of the Messiah , so that Peter could not but look upon these sufferings as unbecoming and inconsistent with the state and dignity of the Son of God. And therefore thought good to advise his Lord , to take care of himself , and while there was time to prevent and avoid them . This , our Lord , who valued the redemption os Mankind infinitely before his own ease and safety , resented at so high a rate , that he returned upon him with this tart and stinging reproof , Get thee behind me Satan ; The very same treatment which he once gave to the Devil himself , when he made that insolent proposal to him , To fall down and worship him : though in Satan it was the result of pure malice and hatred ; in Peter only an error of love , and great regard . However our Lord could not but look upon it as mischievous and diabolical counsel , prompted and promoted by the great Adversary of Mankind . A way therefore , says Christ , with thy hellish and pernicious counsel , Thou art an offence unto me , in seeking to oppose and undermine that great design , for which I purposely came down from 〈◊〉 : In this thou savourest not the things of God , but those that be of men , in suggesting to me those little shifts and arts of safety and self-preservation , which humane prudence , and the love of mens own selves are wont to dictate to them . By which , though we may learn Peter's mighty kindness to our Saviour , yet that herein he did not take his measures right . A plain evidence that his infallibility had not yet taken place . 5. About a week after this , our Saviour being to receive a Type and Specimen of his future 〈◊〉 , took with him his three more intimate Apostles , Peter , and the two sons of Zebedee , and went up into a very high mountain , which the Ancients generally conceive to have been Mount Thabor , a round and very high mountain , situate in the plains of Galilce . And now was even literally fulfilled what the Psalmist had spoken , Tabor and Hermon shall rejoyce in thy Name : for what greater joy and triumph , than to be peculiarly chosen to be the holy Mount , whereon our Lord in so eminent a manner received from God the Father , honour and glory , and made such magnificent displays of his Divine power and Majesty ? For while they were here earnestly imployed in Prayer , ( as seldom did our Lord enter upon any eminent action , but he first made his address to Heaven ) he was suddenly transformed into another manner of appearance ; such a lustre and radiancy darted from his face , that the Sun it self shines not brighter at Noon-day ; such beams of light reflected from his garments , as out-did the light it self that was round about them , so exceeding pure and white , that the Snow might blush to compare with it ; nor could the Fullers art purifie any thing into half that whiteness : an evident and sensible representation of the glory of that state , wherein the just shall walk in white , and shine as the Sun in the Kingdom of the Father . During this Heavenly scene , there appeared Moses and Elias , ( who , as the Jews say , shall come together ) clothed with all the brightness and majesty of a glorified state , familiarly conversing with him , and discoursing of the death and sufferings which he was shortly to undergo , and his departure into Heaven . Behold here together the three greatest persons that ever were the Ministers of Heaven : Moses , under God , the Instituter and promulgator of the Law ; Elias the great reformer of it , when under its deepest degeneracy and corruption ; and the blessed Jesus the Son of God , who came to take away what was weak and imperfect , and to introduce a more manly and rational institution , and to communicate the last Revelation which God would make of his mind to the World. Peter and the two Apostles that were with him , were in the mean time fallen asleep , heavy through want of natural rest , ( it being probably night when this was done ) or else over-powred with these extraordinary appearances , which the frailty and weakness of their present state could not bear , were fallen into a Trance . But now awaking , were strangely surprised to behold our Lord surrounded with so much glory , and those two great persons conversing with him , knowing who they were , probably by some particular marks and signatures that were upon them , or else by immediate revelation , or from the discourse which passed betwixt Christ and them , or possibly from some communication which they themselves might have with them . While these Heavenly guests were about to depart , Peter in a great rapture and ecstasie of mind addressed himself to our Saviour , telling him how infinitely they were pleased and delighted with their being there ; and to that purpose desiring his leave , that they might erect three Tabernacles , one for him , one for Moses , and one for Elias . While he was thus saying , a bright cloud suddenly over-shadowed , and wrapt them up : out of which came a voice , This is my beloved Son , in whom I am well pleased , hear ye him : which when the Apostles heard , and saw the cloud coming over them , they were seised with a great consternation , and fell upon their faces to the ground , whom our Lord gently touched , bade them arise and disband their fears : whereupon looking up , they saw none but their Master , the rest having vanished and disappeared . In memory of these great transactions , * Bede tells us , that in pursuance of S. Peter's petition about the three Tabernacles , there were afterwards three Churches built upon the top of this Mountain , which in after times were had in great veneration , which might possibly give some foundation to 〈◊〉 report which * one makes , that in his time there were shew'd the ruines of those three Tabernacles , which were built according to S. Peter's desire . 6. After this , our Lord and his Apostle's having travelled through Galilce , the gatherers of the Tribute-money came to Peter , and asked him , whether his Master was not obliged to pay the Tribute , which God , under the Mosaick Law , commanded to be yearly paid by every Jew above Twenty years old , to the use of the Temple , which so continued to the times of Vespatian , under whom the Temple being destroyed , it was by him transferred to the use of the Capitol at Rome , being to the value of half a Shekel , or Fifteen pence of our money . To this question of theirs , Peter positively answers , yes ; knowing his Master would never be backward , either to give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's , or to God the things that are God's . Peter going into the house to give an account to his Master , and to know his mind concerning it , Christ prevented him with this question , What thinkest thou , Simon , of whom do 〈◊〉 Kings exact Tribute , of their own Children and Family , or from other people ? Peter answered , Not from their own Servants , and Family , but from Strangers . To which our Lord presently replied , That then according to his own argument and opinion , both he himself , as being the Son of God , and they whom he had taken to be his Menial and Domestick 〈◊〉 , were free from this Tax of Head-money , yearly to be paid to God. But rather than give offence , by seeming to despise the Temple , and to undervalue that Authority that had setled this Tribute , he resolves to put himself to the expence and charges of a Miracle , and therefore commanded Peter to go to the Sea , and 〈◊〉 up the first Fish which came to his Hook , in whose mouth he should find a piece of money ( a Stater , in value a Shekel or half a Crown ) which he took and gave to the Collectors , both for his Master and himself . 7. OUR Lord after this , discoursing to them , how to carry themselves towards their offending Brethren , Peter being desirous to be more particularly informed in this matter , asked our Saviour , How oft a man was obliged to forgive his Brother , in case of offence and trespass , whether seven times were not enough ? He told him , That upon his Neighbours repentance , he was not only bound to do it seven times , but until seventy times seven , that is , he must be indulgent to him , as oft as the offender returns and begs it , and heartily professes his sorrow and repentance . Which he further illustrates by a plain and excellent Parable , and thence draws this Conclusion , That the same measures , either of compassion or cruelty , which men show to their fellow Brethren , they themselves shall meet with at the hands of God , the Supreme Ruler and Justiciary of the World. It was not long after when a brisk young man addressed himself to our Saviour , to know of him , by what methods he might best attain Eternal life . Our Lord , to humble his confidence , bade him sell his Estate , and give it to the poor ; and putting himself under his discipline , he should have a much better treasure in Heaven . The man was rich , and liked not the counsel , nor was he willing to purchase happiness at such a rate ; & accordingly went away under great sorrow and discontent . Upon which Christ takes occasion to let them know , how hardly those men would get to Heaven , who build their comfort and happiness upon the plenty and abundance of these outward things . Peter taking hold of this opportunity , ask'd , What return they themselves should make , who had quitted and renounced whatever they had for his sake and service ? Our Saviour answers , that no man should be a loser by his service ; that , for their parts , they should be recompenced with far greater priviledges ; and that whoever should forsake houses or lands , kindred and relations , out of love to him , and his Religion , should enjoy them again with infinite advantages in this World , if consistent with the circumstances of their state , and those troubles and persecutions which would necessarily arise from the profession of the Gospel : however , they should have what would make infinite amends for all ; Eternal life in the other World. 8. OUR Saviour in order to his last fatal journey to Jerusalem , that he might the better comply with the prophecy that went before of him , sent two of his Apostles , who in all probability were Peter and John , with an Authoritative Commission to fetch him an Asse to ride on , ( he had none of his own ; he who was rich , for our sakes made himself poor ; he lived upon charity all his life , had neither an Asse to ride on , nor an House where to lay his head , no nor after his death a Tomb to lie in , but what the charity of others provided for him ) whereon being mounted , and attended with the festivities of the people , he set forward in his journey ; wherein there appears an admirable mixture of humility and Majesty : The Asse he rode on became the meanness and meekness of a Prophet ; but his arbitrary Commission for the fetching it , and the ready obedience of its owners , spake the prerogative of a King : The Palms born before him , the Garments strew'd in his way , and the joyful Hosannahs and Acclamations of the people , proclaim at once both the Majesty of a Prince , and the Triumph of a Saviour . For such expressions of joy we find were usual in publick and festival solemnities ; thus the * Historian describing the Emperor Commodus his triumphant return to Rome , tells us , that the Senate and whole people of Rome , to testifie their mighty kindness and veneration for him , came out of the City to meet him , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , carrying Palms and Laurels along with them , and throwing about all sorts of Flowers that were then in season . In this manner our Lord being entred the City , he soon after retired to Bethany , whence he dispatched Peter and John , to make preparation for the Passeover ; giving them instructions where he would have it kept . Accordingly they found the person whom he had described to them , whom they followed home to his house . Whether this was the house of John the Evangelist ( as Nicephorus tells us ) situate near Mount Sion , or of Simon the Leper , or of Nicodemus , or of Joseph of Arimathea , as others severally conjecture , seeing none of the Evangelists have thought fit to tells us , it may not become us curiously to enquire . SECT . V. Of S. Peter from the last Passeover , till the death of Christ. The Passeover celebrated by our Lord and his Apostles . His washing their feet . Peter's imprudent modesty . The mystery and meaning of the action . The Traitor , who . The Lord's Supper instituted . Peter's confident promise of suffering with and for Christ. Our Lord's dislike of his confidence , and foretelling his denial . Their going to the Mount of Olives . Peter renews his resolution . His 〈◊〉 zeal and affection . Our Saviour's Passion , why begun in a Garden . The bitterness of his Ante-passion . The drowziness of Peter , and the two sons of Zebedee . Our Lord 's great candor towards them , and what it ought to teach us . Christ's apprehension , and Peter's bold attempt upon Malchus . Christ deserted by the Apostles . Peter's following his Master to the High-Priests Hall , and thrice denying him , with Oaths and Imprecations . The Galilean dialect , what . The Cock-crowing , and Peter's repentance upon it . ALL things being now prepared , our Saviour with his Apostles comes down for the celebration of the Passcover . And being entred into the house , they all orderly took their places . Our Lord , who had always taught them by his practice , no less than by his doctrine , did now particularly design to teach them humility and charity by his own example . And that the instance might be the greater , he underwent the meanest offices of the Ministery : towards the end therefore of the Paschal Supper , he arose from the Table , and laying aside his upper garment ( which , according to the fashion of those Eastern Countries , being long , was unfit for action ) and himself taking a Towel , and pouring water into a Bason , he began to wash all the Apostles feet ; not disdaining those of Judas himself . Coming to Peter , he would by no means admit an instance of so much condescension . What ? the Master do this to the Servant ? the Son of God to so vile a sinner ? This made him a second time refuse it , Thou shalt never wash my feet . But our Lord soon corrects his imprudent modesty , by telling him , That if he wash'd him not , he could have no part with him : Insinuating the mystery of this action , which was to denote Remission of sin , and the purifying vertue of the Spirit of Christ to be poured upon all true Christians . Peter satisfied with this answer , soon altered his resolution , Lord , not my feet only , but also my hands , and my head . If the case be so , let me be wash'd all over , rather than come short of my portion in thee . This being done , he returned again to the Table , and acquainted them with the meaning and tendency of this mystical action , and what force it ought to have upon them towards one another . The washing it self denoted their inward and Spiritual cleansing by the Bloud and Spirit of Christ , symbolically typified and 〈◊〉 by all the washings and Baptisms of the Mosaick Institution : The washing of the feet respected our intire sanctification in our whole Spirit , Soul and Body , no part being to be left impure . And then , that all this should be done by so great a person , their Lord and Master , preached to their very senses a Sermon of the greatest humility and condescension , and taught them how little reason they had to boggle at the meanest offices of kindness and charity towards others , when he himself had stoop'd to solow an abasure towards them . And now he began more immediately to reflect upon his sufferings , and upon him , who was to be the occasion of them ; telling them that one of them would be the Traitor to betray him . Whereat they were strangely troubled , and every one began to suspect himself , till Peter ( whose love and care for his Master commonly made him start sooner than the rest ) made signs to S. John , who lay in our Saviour's bosom , to ask him particularly who it was ? which our Saviour presently did , by making them understand , that it was Judas Iscariot , who not long after left the company . 2. AND now our Lord began the Institution of his Supper , that great solemn Institution which he was resolved to leave behind him , to be constantly celebrated in all Ages of the Church , as the standing monument of his love in dying for mankind . For now he told them , that he himself must leave them , and that whither he went , they could not come . Peter , not well understanding what he meant , asked him whither it was that he was going ? Our Lord replied , It was to that place , whither he could not now follow him : but that he should do it afterwards : intimating the Martyrdom he was to undergo for the sake of Christ. To which Peter answered , that he knew no reason why he might not follow him , seeing that if it was even to the laying down of his life for his sake , he was most ready and resolved to do it . Our Lord liked not this over-confident presumption , and therefore told him , they were great things which he promised , but that he took not the true measures of his own strength , nor espied the snares and designs of Satan , who desired no better an occasion than this , to sift and winnow them . But that he had prayed to Heaven for him , That his faith might not fail : by which means being strengthened himself , he should be obliged to strengthen and confirm his brethren . And whereas he so confidently assured him , that he was ready to go along with him , not only into prison , but even to death it self ; our Lord plainly told him , That not withstanding all his confident and generous resolutions , before the Cock crowed twice , that is , before three of the Clock in the morning , he would that very night three several times deny his Master . With which answer our Lord wisely rebuked his confidence , and taught him ( had he understood the lesson ) not to trust to his own strength , but intirely to depend upon him , who is able to keep us from salling . Withall insinuating , that though by his sin he would justly forseit the Divine grace and favour , yet upon his repentance he should be restored to the honour of the Apostolate , as a certain evidence of the Divine goodness and indulgence to him . 3. HAVING sung an Hymn , and concluded the whole affair , he left the house where all these things had been transacted , and went with his Apostles unto the Mount of Olives : where he again put them in mind how much they would be offended at those things which he was now to suffer ; and Peter again renewed his resolute and undaunted promise of suffering , and dying with him ; yea , out of an excessive confidence told him , That though all the rest should for sake and deny him , yet would not 〈◊〉 deny him . How far will zeal and an 〈◊〉 affection transport even a good man into vanity and presumption ! Peter questions others , but never doubts himself . So natural is self-love , so apt are we to take the fairest measures of our selves . Nay , though our Lord had but a little before , once and again reproved this vain humour , yet does he still , not only persist , but grow up in it . So hardly are we brought to espy our own faults , or to be so throughly convinced of them , as to correct and reform them . This confidence of his inspired all the rest with a mighty courage , all the Apostles likewise assuring him of their constant and unshaken adhering to him . Our Lord returning the same answer to Peter which he had done before . From hence they went down into the Village of Gethsemane , where , leaving the rest of the Apostles , he accompanied with none but Peter , James , and John , retired into a neighbouring Garden , ( whither , * 〈◊〉 tells us , Christians even in his time were wont to come solemnly to offer up their Prayers to Heaven , and where , as the ‖ Arabian Geographer informs us , a fair and stately Church was built to the honour of the Virgin Mary ) to enter upon the Ante-scene of the fatal Tragedy that was now approaching ; it bearing a very fit proportion ( as some of the * Fathers have observed ) that as the first Adam fell and ruin'd mankind in a Garden , so a Garden should be the place where the second Adam should begin his Passion , in order to the Redemption of the World. Gardens , which to us are places of repose and pleasure , and scenes of divertisement and delight , were to our Lord a school of Temptation , a Theatre of great horrors and sufferings , and the first approaches of the hour of darkness . 4. HERE it was that the Blessed Jesus laboured under the bitterest Agony that could fall upon humane Nature , which the holy Story describes by words sufficiently expressive of the higest grief and sorrow , he was afraid , sorrowful , and very heavy , yea , his Soul was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , exceeding sorrowful , and that even unto death , he was fore amazed , and very heavy , he was troubled , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , his Soul was shaken with a vehement commotion ; yea , he was in an Agony , a word by which the Greeks are wont to represent the greatest conflicts and anxieties . The effect of all which was , that he prayed more earnestly , offering up prayers and supplications with strong cries and tears , as the Apostle expounds it , and sweat , as it were , great drops of bloud falling to the ground . What this bloudy sweat was , and how far natural or extraordinary , I am not now concerned to enquire . Certain it is , it was a plain evidence of the most intense grief and sadness : for if an extreme fear or trouble will many times cast us into a cold sweat , how great must be the commotion and conflict of our Saviour's mind , which could force open the pores of his body , lock'd up by the coldness of the night , and make not drops of sweat , but great drops , or ( as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies ) clods of bloud to issue from them . While our Lord was thus contending with these Ante-Passions , the three Apostles , whom he had left at some distance from him , being tired out with watching , and disposed by the silence of the Night , were fallen fast asleep . Our Lord , who had made three several addresses unto Heaven , that if it might consist with his Father's will , this bitter Cup might pass from him , ( expressing herein the harmless and innocent desires of humane Nature , which always studies its own preservation ) between each of them came to visit the Apostles , and calling to Peter , asked him . Whether they could not watch with him one hour ? advising them to watch and pray , that they enter'd not into temptation , adding this Argument , That the spirit indeed was willing , but that the flesh was weak , and that therefore there was the more need that they should stand upon their guard . Observe here the incomparable sweetness , the generous candor of our blessed Saviour , to pass so charitable a censure upon an action , from whence malice and ill-nature might have drawn monsters and prodigies , and have represented it black as the shades of darkness . The request which our Lord made to these Apostles , was infinitely reasonable , to watch with him in this bitter Agony , their company at least being some refreshment to one , under such sad fatal circumstances ; and this but for a little time , one hour , it would soon be over , and then they might freely consult their own ease and safety : 'T was their dear Lord and Master , whom they now were to attend upon , ready to lay down his life for them , sweating already under the first skirmishes of his sufferings , and expecting every moment when all the powers of darkness would fall upon him . But all these considerations were drown'd in a profound security , the men were fast asleep , and though often awakened and told of it , regarded it not , as if nothing but ease and softness had been then to be dream'd of . An action that look'd like the most prodigious ingratitude , and the highest unconcernedness for their Lord and Master , and which one would have thought had argued a very great coldness and indifferency of affection towards him . But he would not set it upon the Tenters , nor stretch it to what it might easily have been drawn to : he imputes it not to their unthankfulness , or want of affection , nor to their carelesness of what became of him , but merely to their infirmity and the weakness of their bodily temper , himself making the excuse , when they could make none for themselves , the spirit indeed is willing , but the flesh is weak . Hereby teaching us , to put the most candid and favourable construction upon those actions of others , which are capable of various interpretations , and rather with the Bee to suck honey , than with the Spider to draw poison from them . His last Prayer being ended , he came to them , and told them with a gentle rebuke , That now they might sleep on if they pleased , that the hour was at hand , that he should be betrayed , and delivered into the hands of men . 5. WHILE he was thus discoursing to them , a Band of Souldiers sent from the High Priests , with the Traitor Judas to conduct and direct them , rush'd into the Garden , and seised upon him : which when the Apostles saw , they asked him whether they should attempt his rescue . Peter ( whose ungovernable zeal put him upon all dangerous undertakings ) without staying for an answer , drew his Sword , and espying one more busie than the rest in laying hold upon our Saviour , which was Malchus ( who , though carrying Kingship in his name , was but Servant to the High Priest ) struck at him , with an intention to dispatch him : but God over-ruling the stroak , it only cut off his right Ear. Our Lord liked not this wild and unwarrantable zeal , and therefore intreated their patience , whilest he miraculously healed the Wound . And turning to Peter , bad him put up his Sword again ; told him , that they who unwarrantably use the Sword , should themselves perish by it ; that there was no need of these violent and extravagant courses ; that if he had a mind to be rid of his Keepers , he could ask his Father , who would presently send more than twelve Legions of Angels to his rescue and deliverance : But he must drink the Cup which his Father had put into his hand : for how else should the Scriptures be fulfilled , which had expresly foretold , That these things must be ? Whereupon , all the Apostles forsook him , and fled from him ; and they who before in their promises were as bold as Lions , now it came to it like fearful and timorous Hares ran away from him : Peter and John , though staying last with him , yet followed the same way with the rest , preferring their own safety , before the concernments of their Master . 6. NO sooner was he apprehended by the Souldiers , and brought out of the Garden , but he was immediately posted from one Tribunal to another , brought first to Annas , then carried to Caiaphas , where the Jewish Sanhedrim met together in order to his Trial and Condemnation . Peter having a little recovered himself , and gotten loose from his fears , probably encouraged by his Companion S. John , returns back to seek his Master : And finding them leading him to the High Priest's Hall , followed afar off , to see what would be the event and issue . But coming to the Door , could get no admittance , till one of the Disciples who was acquainted there , went out and perswaded the Servant , who kept the Door , to let him in . Being let into the Hall , where the Servants and Officers stood round the Fire , Peter also came thither to warm himself , where being espied by the Servant-maid that let him in , and earnestly looking upon him , she charged him with being one of Christ's Disciples ; which Peter publickly denied before all the Company , positively affirming , that he knew him not ; And presently withdrew himself into the Porch , where he heard the Cock crow : An intimation which one would have thought should have awakened his Conscience into a quick sense of his duty , and the promise he had made unto his Master . In the Porch , another of the Maids set upon him , charging him that he also was one of them that had been with Jesus of Nazareth : which Peter stoutly denyed , saying , that he knew not Christ ; and the better to gain their belief to what he said , ratified it with an Oath . So natural is it for one sin to draw on another . 7. ABOUT an Hour after , he was a third time set upon , by a Servant of the High Priest , Malchus his Kinsman , whose Ear Peter had lately cut off : By him he was charged to be one of Christ's Disciples ; Yea , that his very speech betrayed him to be a Galilean . For the Galileans , though they did not speak a different language , had yet a different Dialect , using a more confused and barbarous , a broader and more unpolished way of pronunciation than the rest of the Jews ; whereby they were easily distinguishable in their speaking from other men : abundant instances whereof there are extant in the Talmud at this day . Nay , not only gave this evidence , but added , that he himself had seen him with Jesus in the Garden . Peter still resolutely denied the matter , and to add the highest accomplishment to his sin , ratified it not only with an Oath , but a solemn Curse and execration , that he was not the person , that he knew not the man. 'T is but a very weak excuse , which * S. Ambrose , and some others make for this Act of Peter's , in saying , I knew not the Man. He did well ( says he ) to deny him to be Man , whom he knew to be God. ‖ S. Hierom takes notice of this pious and well-meant excuse made for Peter , though out of modesty he conceals the name of its Authors , but yet justly censures it as trifling and frivolous , and which to excuse Man from folly , would charge God with falshood : for if he did not deny him , then our Lord was out , when he said , that , that Night he should thrice deny him , that is , his Person , and not only his humanity . Certainly the best Apology that can be made for Peter is , that he quickly repented of this great sin , for no sooner had he done it , but the Cock crew again ; at which intimation our Saviour turn'd about , and earnestly looked upon him : a glance that quickly pierced him to the Heart , and brought to his remembrance , what our Lord had once and again foretold him of , how foully and shamefully he should deny him : whereupon not being able to contain his sorrow , he ran out of Doors to give it vent , and wept bitterly , passionately bewailing his folly , and the aggravations of his sin ; thereby indeavouring to make some reparation for his fault , and recover himself into the favour of Heaven , and to prevent the execution of Divine Justice , by taking a severe revenge upon himself : by these penitential tears he endeavoured to wash off his guilt : as indeed Repentance is the next step to Innocence . SECT . VI. Of S. Peter from Christ ' s Resurrection till his Ascension . Our Lord's care to acquaint Peter with his Resurrection . His going to the Sepulchre . Christ's appearance to Peter , when , and the Reasons of it : The Apostles Journey into Galilee : Christ's appearing to them at the Sea of Tiberias ; His being discovered by the great draught of Fishes . Christ's questioning Peter's love , and why . Feed my Sheep , commended to Peter , imports no peculiar supereminent power and soveraignty . Peter's death and sufferings foretold . Our Lord takes his last leave of the Apostles at Bethany . His Ascension into Heaven . The Chappel of the Ascension . The Apostles joy at their Lord's Exaltation . 1. WHAT became of Peter after his late Prevarication , whether he followed our Saviour through the several stages of his Trial , and personally attended , as a Mourner at the Funerals of his Master , we have no account left upon Record . No doubt he stayed at Jerusalem , and probably with S. John , together with whom we first find him mentioned , when both setting forwards to the Sepulchre : which was in this manner . Early on that Morning , whereon our Lord was to return from the Grave , Mary Magdalen , and some other devout and pious Women brought Spices and Ointments , with a design to Imbalm the Body of our crucified Lord. Coming to the Sepulchre at Sun-rising , and finding the Door open , they entred in , where they were suddainly 〈◊〉 by an Angel , who told them , that Jesus was risen , and bad them go and 〈◊〉 his Apostles , and particularly Peter , that he was returned from the dead ; and that he would go before them into Galilee , where they should meet with him . Hereupon they returned back , and acquainted the Apostles with what had passed , who beheld the story as the product of a weak frighted fancy . But Peter and John presently hastned towards the Garden ; John being the younger and nimbler , out-ran his Companion , and came first thither , where he only looked , but entred not in , either out of fear in himself , or a great Reverence to our Saviour . Peter , though behind in space , was before in zeal , and being elder and more considerate , came and resolutely entred in , where they found nothing but the Linnen Clothes lying together in one place , and the Napkin that was about his Head wrapped together in another ; which being disposed with so much care and order , shewed ( what was falsly suggested by the Jewes ) that our Saviour's Body was not taken away by Thieves , who are wont more to consult their escape , than how to leave things orderly disposed behind them . 2. THE same Day about Noon we may suppose it was , that our Lord himself appeared alone to Peter ; being assured of the thing , though not so precisely of the time . That he did so , S. Paul expresly tells us ; and so did the Apostles the two Disciples that came from Emmaus , The Lord is risen , and had appeared unto Simon : which probably intimates , that it was before his appearing to those two Disciples . And indeed we cannot but think that our Lord would hasten the manifestation of himself to him , as compassionating his case , being overwhelmed with sorrow for the late shameful denial of his Master : and was therefore willing in the first place to honour him with his presence , at once to confirm him in the Article of his Resurrection , and to let him see , that he was restored to the place which before he had in his grace and favour . S. Paul mentioning his several appearances after his Resurrection , seems to make this the first of them , That he was seen of Cephas . Not that it was simply the first , for he first appeared to the Women . But as * 〈◊〉 observes , it was the first , that was made to men . He was first seen by him who most desired to see him . He also adds several probable conjectures , why our Lord first discovered himself to Peter : As , that it required a more than ordinary firmness and resolution of mind , to be able to bear such a sight : For they who beheld him after others had seen him , and had heard their frequent Testimonies and Reports , had had their Faith greatly prepared and encouraged to entertain it ; But he who was to be honoured with the first appearance had need of a bigger , and more undaunted faith , lest he should be over-born , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , with such a strange and unwonted sight : That Peter was the first that had made a signal confession of his Master , and therefore it was fit and reasonable , that he should first see him alive after his Resurrection : That Peter had lately denied his Lord , the grief whereof lay hard upon him , that therefore our Saviour was willing to administer some consolation to him , and as soon as might be to let him see , that he had not cast him off ; like the kind Samaritan , he made haste to help him , and to pour Oile into his wounded Conscience . 3. SOME time after this , the Apostles began to resolve upon their journy into Galilee , as he himself had commanded them . If it be inquired why they went no sooner , seeing this was the first message and intimation , they had received from him ; ‖ S. Ambrose his resolution seems very rational , that our Lord indeed had commanded them to go thither , but that their fears for some time kept them at home ; not being as yet fully satisfied in the truth of his Resurrection , till our Lord by often appearing to them , had confirmed their minds , and put the case beyond all dispute . They went , as we may suppose , in several Companies , lest going all in one Body , they should awaken the power and malice of their enemies , and alarm the care and vigilancy of the state , which by reason of the Noise that our Saviour's Trial and Execution had made up and down the City and Country , was yet full of jealousies and fears . We find Peter , Thomas , Nathanael , and the two Sons of 〈◊〉 , and two more of the Disciples arrived at some Town about the Sea of Tiberias : Where , the Providence of God guiding the Instance of their imployment , Peter accompanied with the rest , returns to his old Trade of Fishing . They laboured all Night , but caught nothing . Early in the Morning a grave Person , probably in the habit of a Traveller , presents himself upon the shore : And calling to them , asked them whether they had any meat : When they told him , No ; He advised them to cast the Net on the right side of the Ship , that so the Miracle might not seem to be the effect of chance , and they should not fail to speed . They did so , and the Net presently inclosed so great a draught , that they were scarce able to drag it a shore . S. John amazed with the strangeness of the matter , told 〈◊〉 that surely this must be the Lord , whom the Winds and the Sea , and all the Inhabitants of that watry Region were so ready to obey . Peter's zeal presently took fire , not withstanding the coldness of the Season , and impatient of the least moments being kept from the company of his dear Lord and Master , without any consideration of the danger to which he exposed himself , he girt his Fishers Coat about him , and throwing himself into the Sea , swam to shore , not being able to stay till the Ship could arrive , which came presently after . Landing , they found a Fire ready made , and Fish laid upon it , either immediately created by his Divine power , or which came to the shore of its own accord , and offered it self to his hand . Which notwithstanding , he commands them to bring of the Fish which they had lately caught , and prepare it for their Dinner , He himself dining with them ; both that he might give them an instance of mutual love and fellowship , and also assure them of the truth of his humane nature , since his return from the dead . 4. DINNER being ended , our Lord more particularly addressed himself to Peter ; urging him to the utmost diligence in his care of Souls : and because he knew , that nothing but a mighty love to himself could carry him through the troubles and hazards of so dangerous and difficult an imployment ; an imployment attended with all the impediments , which either the perversness of men , or the malice and subtilty of the Devil could cast in the way to hinder it ; therefore he first enquired of him , whether he loved him more than the rest of the Apostles , herein mildly reproving his former over-confident resolution , that though all the rest should deny him , yet would not he deny him . Peter modestly replyed , not censuring others , much less preferring himself before them , that our Lord knew the integrity of his affection towards him . This Question he put three several times to Peter , who as often returned the same Answer : It being but just and reasonable , that he who by a threefold denial had given so much cause to question , should now by a threefold consession * give more than ordinary assurance of his sincere affection to his Master . Peter was a little troubled at this frequent questioning of his love , and therefore more expresly appeals to our Lord's omnisciency , that He who knew all things , must needs know that he loved him . To each of these confessions our Lord added this signal trial of his affection ; then , Feed my sheep , that is , faithfully instruct and teach them , carefully rule and guide them , perswade , not compel them , feed , not fleece , nor kill them . And so 't is plain S. Peter himself understood it , by the charge which he gives to the Guides and Rulers of the Church , that they should feed the Flock of God , taking the over-sight thereof , not by constraint , but willingly , not for filthy 〈◊〉 but of a ready mind : Neither as being Lords over God's heritage , but as examples to the slock . But that by feeding Christ's Sheep and Lambs , here commended to S. Peter , should be meant an universal and uncontrollable Monarchy and Dominion over the whole Christian Church , and that over the Apostles themselves and their Successors in ordinary , and this power and supremacy solely invested in S. Peter , and those who were to succeed him in the See of Rome , is so wild an inference , and such a melting down words to run into any shape , as could never with any face have been offered , or been possible to have been imposed upon the belief of mankind , if men had not first subdued their reason to their interest , and captivated both to an implicite faith and a blind obedience . For granting that our Lord here addressed his speech only unto Peter , yet the very same power in equivalent terms is elsewhere indifferently granted to all the Apostles , and in some measure to the ordinary Pastors and Governours of the Church : As when our Lord told them , That all power was given him in Heaven and in Earth , by vertue whereof they should go teach and baptize all Nations , and preach the Gospel to every Creature : That they should feed God's slock , Rule well , inspect and watch ever those over whom they had the Authority and the Rule . Words of as large and more express signification , than those which were here spoken to S. Peter . 5. OUR Lord having thus engaged Peter to a chearful compliance with the dangers that might attend the discharge and execution of his Office , now particularly intimates to him what that fate was that should attend him : telling him , that though when he was young he girt himself , lived at his own pleasure , and went whither he pleased ; yet when he was old , he should stretch forth his hands , and another should gird and bind him , and lead him whither he had no mind to go : intimating , as the Evangelist tells us , by what death he should glorifie God , that is , by Crucifixion , the Martyrdom which he afterward underwent . And then rising up , commanded him to follow him ; by this bodily attendance mystically implying his conformity to the death of Christ , that he should follow him in dying for the truth and testimony of the Gospel . It was not long after , that our Lord appeared to them to take his last farewell of them , when leading them out unto Bethany , a little Village upon the Mount of Olives , he briefly told them , That they were the persons , whom he had chosen to be the witnesses both of his Death and Resurrection ; a testimony which they should bear to him in all parts of the World : In order to which he would after his Ascension pour out his Spirit upon them in larger measures , than they had hitherto received , that they might be the better fortified to grapple with that violent rage and sury , wherewith both Men and Devils would endeavour to oppose them ; and that in the mean time they should return to Jerusalem , and stay till these miraculous powers were from on high conferred upon them . His discourse being ended , laying his hands upon them , he gave them his solemn blessing ; which done , he was immediately taken from them , and being attended with a glorious guard and train of Angels , was received up into Heaven . * Antiquity tells us , that in the place where he last trod upon the rock , the impression of his feet did remain , which could never afterwards be fill'd up or impaired , over which Helena , mother of the Great Constantine , afterwards built a little Chappel , called the Chappel of the Ascension ; in the floor whereof upon a whitish kind of stone , modern ‖ Travellers tell us , that the impression of his Foot is shewed at this day ; but 't is that of his right foot only , the other being taken away by the Turks , and as 't is said , kept in the Temple at Jerusalem . Our Lord being thus taken from them , the Apostles were filled with a greater sense of his glory and majesty , than while he was wont familiarly to converse with them ; and having performed their solemn adorations to him , returned back to Jerusalem , waiting for the promise of the Holy Ghost , which was shortly after conferred upon them . They worshipped him , and returned to Jerusalem with great joy . They who lately were overwhelmed with sorrow at the very mention of their Lord's departure from them , entertained it now with joy and triumph , being fully satisfied of his glorious advancement at God's right hand , and of that particular care and providence which they were sure he would exercise towards them , in pursuance of those great trusts he had committed to them . SECT . VII . S. Peter's Acts , from our Lord's Ascension , till the Dispersion of the Church . The Apostles return to Jerusalem . The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or upper-room where they assembled , what . Peter declares the necessity of a new Apostles being chosen in the room of Judas . The promise of the Holy Ghost made good upon the day of Pentecost . The Spirit descended in the likeness of siery cloven tongues , and why . The greatness of the Miracle . Peter's vindication of the Apostles from the standers of the Jews , and proving Christ to be the promised Messiah . Great numbers converted by his Sermon . His going up to the Temple . What their stated hours of Prayer . His curing the impotent Cripple there , and discourse to the Jews upon it . What numbers converted by him . Peter and John seised , and cast into Prison . Brought before the Sanhedrim , and their resolute carriage there . Their refusing to obey , when commanded not to preach Christ. The great security the Christian Religion provides sor subjection to Magistrates in all lawful instances of Obedience . The great severity used by Peter towards Ananias and Saphira . The great Miracles wrought by him . Again cast into Prison , and delivered by an Angel. Their appearing before the Sanhedrim ; and deliverance , by the prudent counsels of Gamaliel . 1. THE Holy Jesus being gone to Heaven , the Apostles began to act according to the Power and Commission he had left with them . In order whereunto , the first thing they did after his Ascension , was to fill up the vacancy in their Colledge , lately made by the unhappy fall and Apostasie of Judas . To which end no sooner were they returned to Jerusalem , but they went 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , into an upper-room . Where this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was , whether in the house of S. John , or of Mary John-Mark's mother , or in some of the out-rooms belonging to the Temple , ( for the Temple had over the Cloisters several Chambers for the service of the Priests and Levites , and as Repositories , where the consecrated Vessels and Utensils of the Temple were laid up , though it be not probable , that the Jews , and especially the Priests would suffer the Apostles and their company to be so near the Temple ) I stand not to enquire . 'T is certain that the Jews usually had their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , private Oratories in the upper parts of their houses , called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for the more private exercises of their devotions . Thus Daniel had his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , his upper-Chamber ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the LXX render it ) whither he was wont to retire to pray to his God : and * Benjamin the Jew tells us , that in his time ( Ann. Chr. 1172. ) the Jews at Babylon were wont to pray both in their Synagogues , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and in that ancient upper-room of Daniel , which the Prophet himself built . Such an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or upper-Chamber , was that wherein S. Paul preached at Troas : and such probably this , where the Apostles were now met together , and in all likelihood the same , where our Lord had lately kept the Passeover , where the Apostles and the Church were assembled on the day of Pentecost , and which was then the usual place of their Religious Assemblies , as we have elsewhere observed more at * large . Here the Church being met , to the number of about CXX , Peter , as President of the Assembly , put them in mind , that Judas , one of our Lord's Apostles , being betrayed by his own covetous and insatiable mind , had lately fallen from the honour of his place and ministery : that this was no more than what the Prophet had long since foretold should come to pass , and that the rule and oversight in the Church , which had been committed unto him , should be devolved upon another : that therefore it was highly necessary , that one should be substituted in his room , and especially such a one as had been familiarly conversant with our Saviour , from first to last , that so he might be a competent witness both of his doctrine and miracles , his life and death , but especially of his Resurrection from the dead . For seeing no evidence is so valid and satisfactory , as the testimony of an eye-witness , the Apostles all along mainly insisted upon this , that they delivered no other things concerning our Saviour to the World , than what they themselves had seen and heard . And seeing his rising from the dead was a principle likely to meet with a great deal of opposition , and which would hardliest gain belief and entertainment with the minds of men , therefore they principally urg'd this at every turn , that they were eye-witnesses of his Resurrection , that they had seen , felt , eaten , and familiarly conversed with him after his return from the Grave . That therefore such an Apostle might be chosen , two Candidates were proposed , Joseph called Barsabas , and Matthias . And having prayed , that the Divine Providence would immediately guide and direct the choice , they cast lots , and the lot fell upon Matthias , who was accordingly admitted into the number of the twelve Apostles . 2. FIFTY days since the last Passeover being now run out , made way for the Feast of Pentecost . At what time the great promise of the Holy Ghost was fully made good unto them . The Christian Assembly being met together , for the publick services of their Worship , on a sudden a sound , like that of a mighty wind , rush'd in upon them ; representing the powerful efficacy of that Divine Spirit , that was now to be communicated to them : After which there appeared little flames of fire , which in the fashion of Cloven Tongues , not only descended , but sate upon each of them , probably to note their perpetual enjoyment of this gift upon all occasions , that when necessary , they should never be without it ; not like the Prophetick gifts of old , which were conferred but sparingly , and only at some particular times and seasons . As the seventy Elders prophesied and ceased not , but it was only at such times as the Spirit came down and rested upon them . Hereupon they were all immediately filled with the Holy Ghost , which enabled them in an instant to speak several Languages , which they had never learn't , and probably never heard of , together with other miraculous gifts and powers . Thus as the confounding of Languages became a curse to the old World , separating men from all mutual offices of kindness and commerce , rendring one part of mankind Barbarians to another : so here the multiplying several Languages became a blessing , being intended as the means to bring men of all Nations into the unity of the saith , and of the knowledge of the Son of God , into the fellowship of that Religion , that would banish discords , cement differences , and unite mens hearts in the bond of peace . The report of so sudden and strange an action presently spread it self into all corners of the City , and there being at that time at Jerusalem multitudes of Jewish Proselytes , Devout men out of every Nation under Heaven , Parthians , Medes , Elamites ( or Persians ) the dwellers in Mesopotamia and Judaea , Gappadocia , Pontus , and Asia minor , from Phrygia and Pamphylia , from Egypt and the parts of Libya and Cyrene , from Rome , from Crete , from Arabia , Jews and Proselytes ( probably drawn thither by the general report and expectation which had spread it self over all the * Eastern parts , and in a manner over all places of the Roman Empire , of the Jewish Messiah , that about this time should be born at Jerusalem ) they no sooner heard of it , but universally flocked to this Christian Assembly : where they were amazed to hear these Galileans speaking to them in their own native Languages , so various , so vastly different from one another . And it could not but exceedingly encrease the wonder to reflect upon the meanness and inconsiderableness of the persons , neither assisted by natural parts , nor polished by education , nor improved by use and custom : which three things Philosophers require to render a man accurate and extraordinary in any art or discipline , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , says Plutarch ; Natural disposition without institution is blind , instruction without a genius and disposition is defective , and exercise without both is lame and imperfect . Whereas these Disciples had not one of these to set them off ; their parts were mean , below the rate of the common people , the Galileans being generally accounted the rudest and most stupid of the whole Jewish Nation ; their education had been no higher than to catch Fish , and to mend Nets ; nor had they been used to plead causes , or to deliver themselves before great Assemblies ; but spoke on a sudden , not premeditated discourses , not idle stories , or wild roving fancies , but the great and admirable works of God , and the mysteries of the Gospel beyond humane apprehensions to find out , and this delivered in almost all the Languages of the then known World. Men were severally affected with it , according to their different tempers and apprehensions . Some admiring , and not knowing what to think on 't , others deriding it , said , that it was nothing else but the wild raving effect of drunkenness and 〈◊〉 . At so wild a rate are men of prophane minds wont to talk , when they take upon them to pass their censure in the things of God. 3. HEREUPON the Apostles rose up , and Peter in the name of the rest , took this occasion of discoursing to them : He told them , that this scandalous slander proceeded from the spirit of 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 ; that their censure was as uncharitable , as it was unreasonable ; that they that are drunken , are drunk in the night ; that it was against nature and custom for men to be in drink so soon , too early for such a suspicion to take place , it being now but about nine of the clock , the hour for Morning Prayer , till when men even of ordinary sobriety and devotion on Festival days were wont to fast . That these extraordinary and miraculous passages were but the accomplishment of an ancient prophecy , the fulfilling of what God had expresly foretold should come to pass in the times of the Messiah ; that Jesus of Nazareth had evidently approv'd himself to be the Messiah sent from God by many unquestionable miracles , of which they themselves had been eye-witnesses : And though by God's permission , who had determined by this means to bring about the Salvation of mankind , they had wickedly crucified and slain him , yet that God had raised him from the dead : That it was not possible he should be holden always under the dominion of the Grave ; nor was it consistent with the justice and goodness of God , and especially with those Divine predictions which had expresly foretold he should rise again from the dead : David having more particularly foretold , That his 〈◊〉 should rest in hope , that God would not leave his Soul in Hell , neither suffer his holy one to see corruption ; but would make known to him the ways of life : That this prophecy could not be meant concerning David himself , by whom it was spoken , he having many Ages since been turn'd to ashes , his body resolv'd into rottenness and putrefaction , his Tomb yet visible among them , from whence he never did return ; that therefore it must needs have been prophetically spoken concerning Christ , having never been truly fulfill'd in any but him , who both died , and was risen again , whereof they were witnesses . Yea , that he was not only risen from the dead , but ascended into Heaven , and according to David's prediction , State down on God's right hand , until he made his Enemies his foot-stool : which could not be primarily meant of David , he never having yet bodily ascended into Heaven ; that therefore the whole house of Israel ought to believe , and take notice , that this very Jesus , whom they had crucified , was the person whom God had appointed to be the Messiah and the Saviour of his Church . 4. THIS discourse in every part of it , like so many daggers , pierc'd them to the heart ; who thereupon cried out to Peter and his Brethren to know what they should do . Peter told them , that there was no other way , than by an hearty and sincere repentance , and a being baptized into the Religion of this crucified Saviour , to 〈◊〉 their guilt , to obtain pardon of sin , and the gifts and benefits of the Holy Ghost . That upon these terms the promises of the new Covenant , which was ratified by the death of Christ , did belong to them , and their children , and to all that should effectually believe and embrace the Gospel : Further pressing and perswading them by doing thus , to save themselves from that unavoidable ruine and destruction , which this wicked and untoward generation of obstinate unbelieving Jews were shortly to be exposed to . The effects of his preaching were strange and wonderful : as many as believed , were baptized : there being that day added to the Church no less than three thousand souls . A quick and plentiful harvest ; the late sufferings of our Saviour , as yet fresh bleeding in their memories , the present miraculous powers of the Holy Ghost , that appeared upon them , the zeal of his Auditors , though heretofore misplaced and misguided , and above all , the efficacy of Divine grace , contributing to this numerous conversion . 5. THOUGH the converting so vast a multitude might justly challenge a place amongst the greatest miracles , yet the Apostles began now more particularly to exercise their miraculous power . Peter and John going up to the Temple , about three of the clock in the afternoon , towards the conclusion of one of the solemn hours of prayer , ( for the Jews divided their day into four greater hours , each quarter containing three lesser under it , three of which were publick and stated times of prayer , instituted ( say they ) by the three great Patriarchs of their Nation ; the first from six of the clock in the morning till nine , called hence the third hour of the day , instituted by Abraham , this was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or morning prayer : the second from nine till twelve , called the sixth hour , and this hour of prayer ordain'd by Isaac , this was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or mid-day prayer : the third from twelve till three in the afternoon , called the ninth hour , appointed by Jacob , called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or evening prayer ; and at this hour it was that these two Apostles went up to the Temple , where ) they found a poor impotent Cripple , who , though above forty years old , had been lame from his Birth , lying at the beautiful Gate of the Temple , and asking an Alms of them . Peter earnestly looking on him , told him , he had no money to give him , but that he would give him that which was a great deal better , restore him to his health ; and lifting him up by the hand , commanded him in the Name of Jesus of Nazareth to rise up and walk . The word was no sooner said , than the thing was done : Immediately the Nerves and Sinews were inlarged , and the Joynts returned to their proper use . The man standing up went into the Temple walking , leaping , and praising God. The beholding so suddain and extraordinary a Cure begot great admiration in the minds of the People , whose curiosity drew them to the Apostles to see those who had been the Authors of it . Which Peter taking notice of , began to discourse to them to this effect ; That there was no reason they should wonder at them , as if by their own skill and art they had wrought this Cure , it being intirely done in the Name of their crucified Master , by the Power of that very Christ , that Holy and Just Person , whom they themselves had denyed and delivered up to Pilate , and preferred a Rebel and a Murtherer before him , when his Judge was resolved to acquit him : and that though they had put him to death , yet that they were witnesses that God had raised him up again , and that He was gone to Heaven , where he must remain till the times of the General Restitution : That he presumed that this in them , as also in their Rulers , was in a great measure the effect of ignorance , and the not being throughly convinced of the Greatness and Divinity of his Person ; which yet God made use of for the bringing about his Wife and Righteous Designs , the accomplishing of what he had foretold concerning Christ's Person and Sufferings , by Moses and Samuel , and all the holy Prophets which had been 〈◊〉 the World began : That therefore it was now high time for them to repent , and turn to God , that their great wickedness might be expiated , and that when Christ should shortly come in Judgment upon the Jewish Nation , it might be a time of comfort and refreshing to them , what would be of vengeance and destruction to other men : that they were the peculiar persons , to whom the blessings of the promises did primarily appertain , and unto whom God in the first place sent his Son , that he might derive his blessing upon them by turning them away from their iniquities . While Peter was thus discoursing to the People in one place , we may suppose that John was preaching to them in another ; and the success was answerable . The Apostles cast out the seed , and God immediately gave the increase . There being by this means no 〈◊〉 than Five Thousand brought over to the Faith : though'tis possible the whole Body of Believers might be comprehended in that Number . 6. WHILE the Apostles were thus Preaching , the Priests and Sadducees ( who particularly appeared in this business , as being enemies to all tumults , or what ever might disturb their present ease and quiet , the only portion of happiness they expected ; besides that they hated Christianity , because so expresly asserting the Resurrection ) being vexed to hear this Doctrine vented amongst the People , intimated to the Magistrate , that this Concourse might probably tend to an Uproar and Insurrection : Whereupon they came with the Captain of the Temple ( Commander of the Tower of 〈◊〉 , which stood close by , on the North side of the Temple , wherein was a Roman Garrison to prevent or suppress , especially at Festival times , Popular Tumults and Uproars ) who seized on the Apostles , and put them into Prison . The next Day they were convented before the Jewish Sanhedrim ; and being asked by what Power and Authority they had done this ; Peter resolutely answered , That as to the Cure done to this impotent Person , Be it known to them and all the Jews , that it was perfectly wrought in the Name of that Jesus of Nazareth , whom they themselves had crucified , and God had raised from the dead , and whom , though they had thrown him by as waste and rubbish , yet God had made head of the corner ; and that there was no other way , wherein they , or others , could expect salvation , but by this crucified Saviour . Great was the boldness of the Apostles , admired by the Sanhedrim it self , in this matter ; especially if we consider , that this probably was the very Court that had so lately sentenced and condemned their Master , and being fleshed in such sanguinary proceedings , had no other way but to go on and justifie one cruelty with another : that the Apostles did not say these things in corners , and behind the curtain , but to their very faces , and that in the open Court of Judicature , and before all the People : That the Apostles had not been used to plead in such publick places nor had been polished with the Arts of education , but were ignorant unlearned men , known not to be versed in the study of the Jewish Law. 7. THE Council ( which all this while had beheld them with a kind of wonder , and now remembred that they had been the companions and attendants of the late crucisied Jesus ) commanded them to withdraw , and debated amongst themselves what they should do with them . The Miracle they could not deny , the fact being so plain and evident , and therefore resolved strictly to charge them , that they should Preach no more in the Name of Jesus . Being called in again , they acquainted them with the Resolution of the Council , to which Peter and John replyed , That they could by no means yield obedience to it , appealing to themselves , whether it was not more sit , that they should obey God , rather than them : And that they could not but testifie what they had seen and heard . Nor did they in this answer make any undue reflection upon the power of the Magistrates , and the obedience due to them , it being a ruled 〈◊〉 by the first dictates of reason , and the common vote and suffrage of Mankind , that Parents and Governours are not to be obeyed , when their commands interfere with the obligations under which we stand to a superiour power . All authority is originally derived from God , and our duty to him may not be superseded by the Laws of any Authority deriving from him : and even Socrates himself in a parallel instance , when perswaded to leave off his excellent way of institution and instructing youth , and to comply with the humour of his Athenian Judges to save his life , returned this answer , that indeed he loved and honoured the Athenians ; but yet resolved to obey God , rather than them . An answer almost the same both in substance and words , with that which was here given by our Apostles . In all other cases where the Laws of the Magistrate did not interfere with the commands of Christ , none more loyal , more compliant than they . As indeed no Religion in the World ever secured the interests of Civil authority like the Religion of the Gospel . It positively charges every soul of what rank or condition soever to be subject to the higher powers , as a Divine ordinance and institution , and that not for wrath only , but for conscience sake ; it puts men in mind to be subject to Principalities and Powers , and to obey Magistrates , to submit to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake , both to the King as supreme , and unto Governours as unto them that are sent by him : for so it the will of God. So far is it from allowing us to violate their persons , that it suffers us not boldly to censure their actions , to revile the gods , despise 〈◊〉 , and speak evil of Dignities , or to vilifie and injure them so much , as by a dishonourable thought ; commanding us when we cannot obey to suffer the most rigorous penalties imposed upon us with calmness , and to possess our souls in patience . Thus when these two Apostles were shortly after again summoned before the Council , commanded no more to Preach the Christian Doctrine , and to be scourged for what they had done already , though they could not obey the one , they chearfully submitted to the other without any peevish or tart reflections , but went away rejoycing . But what the carriage of Christians was in this matter in the first and best ages of the Gospel , we have in another place sufficiently discovered to the World. We may not withhold our obedience , till the Magistrate invades God's Throne , and countermands his authority , and may then appeal to the sence of Mankind , whether it be not most reasonable that Gods authority should first take place , as the Apostles here appealed to their very Judges themselves . Nor do we find that the Sanhedrim did except against the Plea. At least whatever they thought , yet not daring to punish them for fear of the People , they only threatned them , and let them go : vvho thereupon presently return'd to the rest of the Apostles and Believers . 8. The Church exceedingly multiplied by these means : And that so great a Company ( most whereof were poor ) might be maintained , they generally sold their Estates , and brought the Money to the Apostles , to be by them deposited in one common Treasury , and thence distributed according to the several exigencies of the Church : which gave occasion to this dreadful Instance . Ananias and his Wife Saphira having taken upon them the profession of the Gospel , according to the free and generous spirit of those times , had consecrated and devoted their Estate to the honour of God , and the necessities of the Church . And accordingly sold their Possessions , and turned them into Money . But as they were willing to gain the reputation of charitable Persons , so were they loth wholly to cast themselves upon the Divine providence , by letting go all at once , and therefore privately with-held part of what they had devoted , and bringing the rest , laid it at the Apostles feet : hoping herein they might deceive the Apostles , though immediately guided by the Spirit of God. But Peter at his first coming in treated Ananias with these sharp inquiries ; Why he would suffer Satan to fill his heart with so big a wickedness , as by keeping back part of his estate , to think to deceive the Holy Ghost ? That before it was sold , it was wholly at his own disposure ; and after , it was perfectly in his own power fully to have performed his vow : So that it was capable of no other interpretation , than that herein he had not only abused and injured men , but mocked God , and , what in him lay , lyed to , and cheated the Holy Ghost ; who , he knew , was privy to the most secret thoughts and purposes of his heart . This vvas no sooner said , but suddenly to the great terror and amazement of all that vvere present , Ananias vvas arrested vvith a stroke from Heaven , and fell dovvn dead to the ground . Not long after his Wife came in , vvhom Peter entertained vvith the same severe reproofs , vvherevvith he had done her Husband , adding , that the like sad fate and doom should immediately seize upon her , who thereupon dropt down dead : As she had been Copartner with him in the Sin , becoming sharer with him in the punishment . An Instance of great severity , filling all that heard of it with fear and terror , and became a seasonable prevention of that hypocrisie and dissimulation , wherewith many might possibly think to have imposed upon the Church . 9. THIS severe Case being extraordinary , the Apostles usually exerted their power in such Miracles as were more useful and beneficial to the World : Curing all manner of Diseases , and dispossessing Devils : In so much that they brought the Sick into the Streets , and laid them upon Beds and Couches , that at least Peter's shadow , as he passed by , might come upon them . These astonishing Miracles could not but mightily contribute to the propagation of the Gospel , and convince the World that the Apostles were more considerable Persons , than they took them for , poverty and meanness being no bar to true worth and greatness . And methinks * Erasmus his reflection here is not unseasonable ; that no honour or soveraignty , no power or dignity was comparable to this glory of the Apostle ; that the things of Christ , though in another way , were more noble and excellent , than any thing that this World could afford . And therefore he tells us , that when he beheld the state and magnificence wherewith Pope Julius the Second appeared first at Bononia , and then at Rome , equalling the triumphs of a Pompey , or a Caesar ; he could not but think how much all this was below the greatness and majesty of S. Peter , who converted the World , not by Power or Armies , not by Engines , or 〈◊〉 of pomp and grandeur , but by faith in the power of Christ , and drew it to the admiration of himself : and the same state ( says he ) would no doubt attend the Apostles Successours , were they Men of the same temper and holiness of life . The Jewish Rulers alarm'd with this News , and awakened with the growing numbers of the Church , sent to apprehend the Apostles , and cast them into Prison . But God who is never wanting to his own cause , sent that Night an Angel from Heaven to open the Prison doors , commanding them to repair to the Temple , and to the exercise of their Ministery . Which they did early in the Morning , and there taught the People . How unsuccessful are the projects of the wisest Statesmen , when God frowns upon them ! how little do any counsels against Heaven prosper ! In vain is it to shut the doors , where God is resolved to open them ; the firmest Bars , the strongest Chains cannot hold , where once God has designed and decreed our liberty . The Officers returning the next Morning , found the Prison shut and guarded , but the Prisoners gone : Wherewith they acquainted the Council , who much wondred at it : but being told where the Apostles were , they sent to bring them withóut any noise or violence before the Sanhedrim : where the High Priest asked them , how they durst go on to propagate that Doctrine which they had so strictly commanded them not to preach ? Peter in the name of the rest told them , That they must in this case obey God rather than men : That though they had so barbarously and contumeliously treated the Lord Jesus , yet that God had raised him up , and exalted him to be a Prince and a Saviour to give both repentance and remission of sins : That they were witnesses of these things , and so were those Miraculous Powers which the Holy Ghost conferred upon all true Christians . Vexed was the Council with this Answer , and began to consider how to cut them off . But Gamaliel , a grave and learned Senator , having commanded the Apostles to withdraw , bad the Council take heed what they did to them ; putting them in mind , that several persons had heretofore raised parties and factions , and drawn vast Numbers after them ; but that they had miscarried , and they and their designs come to nought : that therefore they should do well to let these men alone : that if their doctrines and designs were meerly humane , they would in time of themselves fall to the ground ; but if they were of God , it was not all their power and policies would be able to defeat and overturn them : and that they themselves would herein appear to oppose the counsels and designs of Heaven . With this prudent and rational advice they were satisfied ; and having commanded the Apostles to be scourged , and charged them no more to preach this doctrine , restored them to their liberty . Who notwithstanding this charge and threatning returned home in a kind of triumph , that they were accounted worthy to suffer in so good a cause , and to undergo shame and reproach for the sake of so good a Master . Nor could all the hard usage they met with from men discourage them in their duty to God , or make them less zealous and diligent both publickly and privately to preach Christ in every place . SECT . VIII . Of S. Peter's Acts , from the Dispersion of the Church at Jerusalem , till his contest with S. Paul at Antioch . The great care of the Divine Providence over the Church . Peter dispatched by the Apostles to confirm the Church newly planted at Samaria . His 〈◊〉 and silencing Simon Magus there . His going to Lydda , and curing AEneas . His raising Dorcas at Joppa . The 〈◊〉 of all sorts of Creatures presented to him , to prepare him for the conversion of the Gentiles . His going to Cornelius , and declaring God's readiness to receive the Gentiles into the Church . The Baptizing Cornelius and his Family . Peter censured by the Jews for conversing with the Gentiles . The mighty prejudices of the Jews against the Gentiles noted out of Heathen Writers . Peter cast into prison by Herod Agrippa : miraculously delivered by an Angel. His discourse in the Synod at Jerusalem , that the Gentiles might be received without being put under the obligation of the Law of Moses . His unworthy compliance with the Jews at Antioch in opposition to the Gentiles . Severely checked and resisted by S. Paul. The ill use Porphyry makes of this difference . The conceit of some that it was not Peter the Apostle , but one of the Seventy . 1. THE Church had been hitherto tossed with gentle storms , but now a more violent tempest overtook it , which began in the Proto-Martyr Stephen , and was more vigorously carried on afterwards ; by occasion whereof the Disciples were dispersed . And God , who always brings good out of evil , hereby provided , that the Gospel should not be confin'd only to Jerusalem . Hitherto the Church had been crowded up within the City-walls , and the Religion had crept up and down in private corners ; but the professors of it being now dispersed abroad by the malice and cruelty of their enemies , carried Christianity along with them , and propagated it into the neighbour-Countries , accomplishing hereby an ancient prophecy , That out of Sion should go forth the Law , and the 〈◊〉 of the Lord from Jerusalem . Thus God over-rules the malice of men , and makes intended poison to become food , or physick . That Divine Providence that governs the World , more particularly superintends the affairs and interests of his Church , so that no weapon 〈◊〉 against Israel shall prosper ; curses shall be turned into blessings , and that become an eminent means to enlarge and propagate the Gospel , which they designed as the only way to suppress and stifle it . Amongst those that were scattered , Philip the Deacon was driven down unto Samaria , where he preached the Gospel , and confirmed his preaching by many miraculous cures , and dispossessing Devils . In this City there was one Simon , who by Magick Arts and Diabolical Sorceries sought to advance himself into a great fame and reputation with the people , insomuch that they generally beheld him as the great power of God , for so the * Ancients tell us , he used to style himself , giving out himself to be the first and chiefest Deity , the Father , who is God over all , that is , that he was that which in every Nation was accounted the supreme Deity . This man hearing the Sermons , and beholding the Miracles that were done by Philip , gave up himself amongst the number of believers , and was baptized with them . The Apostles , who yet remained at Jerusalem , having heard of the great success of Philip's ministery at Samaria , thought good to send some of their number to his assistance . And accordingly deputed Peter and John , who came thither . Where having prayed for , and laid their hands upon these new converts , they presently received the Holy Ghost . Simon the Magician observing , that by laying on of the Apostle's hands , miraculous gifts were conferred upon men , offered them a considerable summ of money to invest him with this power , that on whom he laid his hands they might receive the Holy Ghost . Peter perceiving his rotten and insincere intentions , rejected his impious motion with scorn and detestation : Thy money perish with thee . He told him that his heart was naught and hypocritical ; that he could have no share nor portion in so great a priviledge ; that it more concerned him to repent of so great a wickedness , and sincerely seek to God , that so the thought of his heart might be forgiven him ; for that he perceived that he had a very vicious and corrupt temper and constitution of mind , and was as yet bound up under a very wretched and miserable state , displeasing to God , and dangerous to himself . The Conscience of the man was a little startled with this , and he prayed the Apostles to intercede with Heaven , that God would pardon his sin , and that none of these things might fall upon him . But how little cure this wrought upon him , we shall find elsewhere , when we shall again meet with him afterwards . The Apostles having thus confirmed the Church at Samaria , and preached up and down in the Villages thereabouts , returned back to Jerusalem , to joyn their counsel and assistance to the rest of the Apostles . 2. THE storm , though violent , being at length blown over , the Church injoyed a time of great calmness and serenity : during which Peter went out to visit the Churches lately planted in those parts by those Disciples who had been dispersed by the persecution at Jerusalem . Coming down to Lydda , the first thing he did was to work a cure upon one AEneas , who being crippl'd with the Palsie , had layn bed-rid for eight years together . Peter coming to him , bad him in the name of Christ to arise , and the man was immediately restored to perfect health . A miracle that was not confined only to his person , for being known abroad generally brought over the inhabitants of that place . The fame of this miracle having flown to Joppa , a Sea-port Town , some six miles thence ; the Christians there presently sent for Peter upon this occasion . Tabitha , whose Greek name was Dorcas , a woman venerable for her piety and diffusive charity , was newly dead , to the great lamentation of all good men , and much more to the loss of the poor that had been relieved by her . Peter coming to the house , found her dressed up for her Funeral solemnity , and compassed about with the sorrowful Widows , who shewed the Coats and Garments wherewith she had clothed them , the badges of her charitable liberality . Peter shutting all out , kneeled down and prayed , and then turning him to the body , commanded her to arise , and lifting her up by the hand , presented her in 〈◊〉 health to her friends , and those that were about her : by which he confirmed many , and converted more to the Faith. After which he staid some considerable time at Joppa , lodging in the house of Simon a Tanner . 3. WHILE he abode in this City , retiring one morning to the house-top to pray , ( as the Jews frequently did , having thence a free and open prospect towards Jerusalem and the Temple ) it being now near Noon , which was the conclusion of one of their stated times of Prayer , he found himself hungry , and called for meat : but while it was preparing he himself fell into a Trance , wherein were presented to him a large sheet let down from Heaven , containing all sorts of Creatures , clean and unclean ; a voice at the same time calling to him , that he should rise , kill freely , and indifferently 〈◊〉 upon them ; Peter tenacious as yet of the Rites and Institutions of the Mosaick Law , rejoyn'd , That he could not do it , having never eaten any thing that was common or unclean . To which the voice replied , That what God had cleansed he should not account or call common . Which being done thrice , the vessel was again taken up into Heaven , and the Vision presently disappeared . By this symbolick representment , though Peter at present knew not what to make of it , God was teaching him a new lesson , and preparing him to go upon an Errand and Embassy , which the Spirit at the same time expresly commanded him to undertake . While he was in this doubtful posture of mind , three messengers knock'd at the door , enquiring for him , from whom he received this account : That Cornelius a Roman , Captain of a Band of Italian Souldiers at Caesarea , a person of great Piety and Religion ( being a Proselyte of the Gate , who though not observing an exact conformity to the Rites of the Mosaick Law , did yet maintain some general correspondence with it , & lived under the obligation of the seven Precepts of the Sons of Noah ) had by an immediate command from God sent for him . The next day Peter accompanied with some of the Brethren , went along with them , and the day after they came to Caesarea . Against whose arrival Cornelius had summoned his friends and kindred to his house . Peter arriving , Cornelius ( who was affected with a mighty reverence for so great a person ) fell at his feet , and worshipped him : a way of address frequent in those Eastern Countries towards Princes and great men , but by the Greeks and Romans appropriated as a peculiar honour to the Gods. Peter rejecting the honour , as due only to God , entred into the house , where he first made his Apology to the company , that though they could not but know , that it was not lawful for a Jew to 〈◊〉 in the duties of Religion with those of another Nation , yet that now God had taught him another lesson . And then proceeded particularly to enquire the reason of Cornelius his sending for him . Whereupon Cornelius told him , That four days since , being conversant in the duties of Fasting and Prayer , an Angel had appeared to him , and told him , that his Prayers and Alms were come up for a memorial before God , that he should send to Joppa for one Simon Peter , who lodged in a Tanners house by the Sea side , who should further make known his mind to him ; that accordingly he had sent , and being now come , they were there met to hear what he had to say to them . Where we see , that though God sent an Angel to Cornelius to acquaint him with his will , yet the Angel was only to direct him to the Apostle for instruction in the Faith ; which no doubt was done , partly that God might put the greater honour upon an institution , that was likely to meet with contempt and scorn enough from the World ; partly to let us see , that we are not to expect extraordinary and miraculous ways of teaching and information , where God affords ordinary means . 4. HEREUPON Peter began this discourse , that by comparing things it was now plain and evident , that the partition-wall was broken down ; that God had no longer a particular kindness for Nations or Persons ; that it was not the Nation , but the Religion ; not the outward quality of the man , but the inward temper of the mind that recommends men to God ; that the devout and the pious , the righteous and the good man , whereever he be , is equally dear to Heaven ; that God has as much respect for a just and a vertuous person in the Wilds of Scythia , as upon Mount Sion : that the reconciling and making peace between God and Man by Jesus Christ , was the Doctrine published by the Prophets of old , and of late , since the times of John , preached through Galilee and Judaea , viz. that God had anointed and consecrated Jesus of Nazareth with Divine Powers and Graces , in the exercise whereof he constantly went about to do good to men : that they had seen all he had done amongst the Jews , whom though they had slain and crucified , yet that God had raised him again the third day , and had openly show'd him to his Apostles and followers , whom he had chosen to be his peculiar witnesses , and whom to that end he had admitted to eat and drink with him after his Resurrection , commanding them to preach the Gospel to mankind , and to 〈◊〉 that he was the person whom God had ordained to be the great Judge of the World : that all the Prophets with one consent bore witness of him : that this Jesus is he , in whose Name whosoever believes , should certainly receive remission of sins . While Peter was thus preaching to them , the Holy Ghost fell upon a great part of his Auditory , enabling them to speak several Languages , and therein to magnifie the giver of them . Whereat the 〈◊〉 , who came along with Peter , did sufficiently wonder , to see that the gifts of the Holy Ghost should be poured upon the Gentiles . Peter seeing this , told the company that he knew no reason why these persons should not be baptized , having received the Holy Ghost as well as they ; and accordingly commanded them to be baptized . For whose further confirmation he staid some time longer with them . This act of Peter's made a great noise among the Apostles and Brethren at Jerusalem , who being lately converted from their Judaism , were as yet zealous for the Religion of their Country , and therefore severely charged Peter at his return for his too familiar conversing with the Gentiles . See here the powerful prejudice of education . The Jews had for several Ages conceived a radicated and inveterate prejudice against the Gentiles . Indeed the Law of Moses commanded them to be peculiarly kind to their own Nation ; and the Rites and Institutions of their Religion , and the peculiar form of their Commonwealth made them different from the fashion of other Countries : a separation which in after-times they drew into a narrower compass . Besides they were mightily 〈◊〉 up with their external priviledges , that they were the seed of Abraham , the people whom God had peculiarly chosen for himself , above all other Nations of the World , and therefore with a lofty scorn proudly rejected the Gentiles as Dogs and Reprobates , utterly refusing to shew them any office of common kindness and converse . We find the Heathens frequently charging them with this rudeness and inhumanity . * Juvenal accuses them , that they would not shew a Traveller the right way , nor give give him a draught of water , if he were not of their Religion . ‖ Tacitus tells us , that they had adversus omnes alios hostile odium , a bitter hatred of all other people : * Haman represented them to Ahasuerus as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. A people that would never kindly mix and correspond with any other , as different in their Manners , as in their Laws and Religion from other Nations . The friends of Antiochus ( as the ‖ Historian reports ) charged them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , That they alone of all others were the most unsociable people under Heaven ; that they held no converse or correspondence with any other , but accounted them as their mortal enemies ; that they would not eat or drink with men of another Nation , no nor so much as wish well to them , their Ancestors having leavened them with an hatred of all mankind . This was their humour ; and that the 〈◊〉 herein did not wrong them , is sufficiently evident from their ordinary practice , and is openly avowed by their own * writings . Nay , at their first coming over to Christianity , though one great design of it was to soften the manners of men , and to oblige them to a more extensive and universal charity , yet could they hardly quit this common prejudice , quarrelling with Peter for no other reason , but that he had eaten and drunken with the Gentiles : insomuch that he was forced to Apologize for himself , and to justifie his actions as immediately done by Divine warrant and authority . And then , no sooner had he given them a naked and impartial account of the whole transaction , from first to last , but they presently turned their 〈◊〉 against him , into thanks to God , that he had granted to the Gentiles also Repentance unto life . 5. IT was now about the end of Caligula's Reign , when Peter having finished his visitation of the new planted Churches , was returned unto Jerusalem . Not long after Herod Agrippa , Grand child to Herod the great , having attained the Kingdom , the better to ingratiate himself with the people , had lately put S. James to death . And finding that this gratified the Vulgar , resolved to send Peter the same way after him . In order whereunto he apprehended him , cast him into prison , and set strong guards to watch him : the Church in the mean time being very instant and importunate with Heaven for his life and safety . The night before his intended execution , God purposely sent an Angel from Heaven , who coming to the Prison , found him fast asleep between two of his Keepers . So soft and secure a pillow is a good Conscience , even in the confines of death , and the greatest danger . The Angel raised him up , knock'd off his Chains , bad him gird on his Garments , and follow him . He did so , and having passed the first and second Watch , and entred through the Iron-Gate into the City ( which opened to them of its own accord ) after having passed through one Street more , the Angel departed from him . By this time Peter came to himself , and perceived that it was no Vision , but a reality that had hapned to him . Whereupon he came to Marie's house , where the Church were met together at Prayer for him . Knocking at the door , the Maid , who came to let him in , perceiving 't was his voice , ran back to tell them , that Peter was at the door . Which they at first looked upon as nothing , but the effect of fright or fancy , but she still affirming it , they concluded that it was his Angel , or some peculiar messenger sent from him . The door being open , they were strangely amazed at the sight of him : but he briefly told them the manner of his deliverance , and charging them to acquaint the Brethren with it , presently withdrew into another place . 'T is easie to imagine what a bustle and a stir there was the next morning among the Keepers of the Prison , with whom Herod was so much displeased , that he commanded them to be put to death . 6. SOME time after this it hapned , that a controversie arising between the Jewish and the Gentile Converts , about the observation of the Mosaick Law , the minds of men were exceedingly disquieted and disturbed with it ; the Jews zealously contending for Circumcision , and the observance of the Ceremonial Law to be joyn'd with the belief and profession of the Gospel , as equally necessary to Salvation . To compose this difference , the best expedient that could be thought on , was to call a General Council of the Apostles and Brethren , to meet together at Jerusalem , which was done accordingly , and the case throughly scanned and canvassed . At last Peter stood up , and acquainted the Synod , that God having made choice of him among all the Apostles , to be the first that preached the Gospel to the Gentiles ; God who was best able to judge of the hearts of men , had born witness to them , that they were accepted of him , by giving them his Holy Spirit as well as he had done to the Jews ; having put no difference between the one and the other . That therefore it was a tempting and a provoking God , to put a 〈◊〉 upon the necks of the Disciples , which neither they themselves nor their Fathers were able to bear : there being ground enough to believe , that the Gentiles as well as the Jews should be saved by the grace of the Gospel . After some other of the Apostles had declared their judgments in the case , it was unanimously decreed , that except the temporary observance of some few particular things , equally convenient both for Jew and Gentile , no other burden should be imposed upon them . And so the decrees of the Council being drawn up into a Synodical Epistle , were sent abroad to the several Churches , for allaying the heats and controversies that had been raised about this matter . 7. PETER a while after the celebration of this Council , left Jerusalem , and came down to Antioch , where using the liberty which the Gospel had given him , he familiarly ate and conversed with the Gentile Converts , accounting them , now that the partition-wall was broken down , no longer strangers and foreigners , but fellow-Citizens with the Saints , and of the houshold of God : This he had been taught by the Vision of the sheet let down from Heaven ; this had been lately decreed , and he himself had promoted and subscribed it , in the Synod at Jerusalem : this he had before practised towards Cornelius and his Family , and justified the action to the satisfaction of his accusers ; and this he had here freely and innocently done at Antioch , till some of the Jewish Brethren coming thither , for fear of offending and displeasing them , he withdrew his converse with the Gentiles , as if it had been unlawful for him to hold Communion with uncircumcised persons , when yet he knew , and was fully satisfied , that our Lord had wholly removed all difference , and broken down the Wall of separation between Jew and Gentile . In which affair , as he himself acted against the light of own mind and judgment , condemning what he had approved , and destroying what he had before built up , so hereby he confirmed the Jewish zealots in their inveterate error , cast infinite scruples into the minds of the Gentiles , filling their Consciences with fears and dissatisfactions , reviving the old feuds and prejudices between Jew & Gentile ; by which means many others were ensnared , yea , the whole number of Jewish Converts followed his example , separating themselves from the company of the Gentile Christians . Yea , so far did it spread , that Barnabas himself was carried away with the stream and torrent of this unwarrantable practice . S. Paul , who was at this time come to Antioch , unto whom Peter gave the right hand of fellowship , acknowledging his Apostleship of the Circumcision , observing these evil and unevangelical actings , resolutely withstood Peter to the face , and publickly reproved him as a person worthy to be blamed for his gross prevarication in this matter ; severely expostulating and reasoning with him , that he who was himself a Jew , and thereby under a more immediate obligation to the Mosaick Law , should cast off that Yoke himself , and yet endeavour to impose it upon the Gentiles , who were not in the least under any obligation to it . A smart , but an impartial charge ; and indeed so remarkable was this carriage of S. Paul towards our Apostle , that though it set things right for the present , yet it made some noise abroad in the World. Yea , * Porphyry himself , that acute and subtil enemy of Christianity , makes use of it as an argument against them both : charging the one with error and falshood , and the other with rudeness and incivility ; and that the whole was but a compact of forgery and deceit , while the Princes of the Church did thus fall out among themselves . And so sensible were some of this in the first Ages of Christianity , that rather than such a dishonour and disgrace , as they accounted it , should be reflected upon Peter ; they tell * us of two several Cephas's , one the Apostle , the other one of the seventy Disciples ; and that it was the last of those , that was guilty of this prevarication , and whom S. Paul so vigorously resisted and reproved at Antioch . But for this plausible and well-meant Evasion the Champions of the Romish Church conn them no great thanks at this day . Nay , S. Hierom long since fully confuted it in his Notes upon this place . SECT . IX . Of S. Peter's Acts from the End of the Sacred Story till his Martyrdom . Peter's story prosecuted out of Ecclesiastical Writers . His planting of a Church , and an Episcopal Sea at Antioch ; when said to be . His first Journey to Rome , and the 〈◊〉 it brought to the Roman Empire . His preaching in other places , and return to Rome . His encounter with Simon Magus . The impostures of the Magician . His familiarity with the Emperours , and the great honours said to be done to him . Of his Statue , and Inscription at Rome . Peter's victory over him by raising one from the Dead . Simon attempting to fly is by Peter's Prayers hindred , falls down , and dies . Nero's displeasure against Peter , whence . His being cast into Prison . His flight thence , and being brought back by Christ appearing to him . Crucified with his head downwards , and why . The place of his Martyrdom , and Burial . The original and greatness of S. Peter's Church in Rome . His Episcopal Chair pretended to be still kept there . HITHER TO in drawing of the Life of this great Apostle , we have had an infallible Guide to conduct and lead us : But the sacred story breaking off here , forces us to look abroad , and to pick up what Memoires the Ancients have left us in this matter : which we shall for the main digest according to the order , wherein Baronius , and other Ecclesiastick Writers have disposed the series of S. Peter's Life : Reserving what is justly questionable , to a more particular examination afterward . And that we may present the account more intire and perfect , we must step back a little in point of time , that so we may go forward with greater advantage . We are to know therefore , that during the time of peace and calmness which the Church enjoyed after Saul's Persecution , when S. Peter went down to visit the Churches , he is said to have gone to Antioch , where great Numbers of Jews inhabited , and there to have planted the Christian faith . That he founded a Church here , * 〈◊〉 expresly tells us , and by ‖ others it is said , that he himself was the first Bishop of this See. Sure I am that * S. Chrysostom reckons it one of the greatest honours of that City , that S. Peter staid so long there , and that the Bishops of it succeeded him in that See. The care and precedency of this Church he had between Six and Seven Years . Not that he staid there all that time , but that having ordered and disposed things to the best advantage , he returned to other affairs and exigencies of the Church : confirming the new Plantations , bringing in Cornelius and his Family , and in him the first fruits of the Gentiles conversion to the faith of Christ. After which he returned unto Jerusalem , where he was imprisoned by Herod , and miraculously delivered by an Angel sent from Heaven . 2. WHAT became of Peter after his deliverance out of Prison , is not certainly known : probably he might preach in some parts a little further distant from Judaea , as we are told * he did at 〈◊〉 , and in the Countries thereabouts ( though , I confess , the evidence to me is not convincing . ) After this he resolved upon a Journey to Rome ; where most agree he arrived about the Second Year of the Emperor Claudius . ‖ Orosius tells us , that coming to Rome , he brought prosperity along with him to that City : For besides several other extraordinary advantages which at that time hapned to it , this was not the least observable , that Camillus Scribonianus Governor of Dalmatia , soliciting the Army to rebell against the Emperor , the Eagles , their Military Standard , remained so fast in the Ground , that no power , nor strength was able to pluck them up . With which unusual accident the minds of the Souldiers were surprized and startled , and turning their Swords against the Author of the sedition , continued firm and loyal in their obedience . Whereby a dangerous Rebellion was prevented , likely enough otherwise to have broken out . This he ascribes to S. Peter's coming to Rome , and the first Plantation of the Christian faith in that City . Heaven beginning more particularly to smile upon that place at his first coming thither . 'T is not to be doubted , but that at his first arrival , he disposed himself amongst the Jews his Country-men , who ever since the time of Augustus , had dwelt in the Region beyond Tybur . But when afterwards he began to preach to the Gentiles , he was forced to change his Lodging , and was taken in by one Pudens , a Senator lately converted to the Faith. Here he closely plyed his main office and imployment , to establish Christianity in that place . Here we are told * he met with Philo the Jew , lately come on his second Embassy unto Rome , in the behalf of his Countrymen at Alexandria , and to have contracted an intimate friendship and acquaintance with him . And now it was , says ‖ Baronius , that Peter being mindful of the Churches which he had founded in Pontus , Galatia , Cappadocia , Bithynia , and Asia the less , wrote his first Epistle to them , which he probably infers hence , that S. Mark being yet with him at the time of the date of this Epistle , it must be written at least some time this Year , for that now it was that S. Mark was sent to preach and propagate the Faith in Egypt . Next to the planting Religion at Rome , he took care to propagate it in the Western parts . And to that end ( if we may believe one * of those that pretend to be his Successors ) he sent abroad Disciples into several Provinces . That so their sound might go into all the Earth , and their words into the ends of the World. 3. IT hapned that after S. Peter had been several Years at Rome , Claudius the Emperor taking advantage of some seditions and tumults raised by the Jews , by a publick Edict ‖ banished them out of Rome . In the Number of whom S. Peter ( they say ) departed thence , and returned back to Jerusalem , where he was present at that great Apostolical Synod , of which before . After this we are left under great uncertainties , how he disposed of himself for many Years . Confident we may be , that he was not idle , but spent his time sometimes in preaching in the Eastern parts , sometimes in other parts of the World , as in * Africk , Sicily , Italy , and other places . And here it may not be amiss to insert a claim in behalf of our own Country . Eusebius telling us ( as ‖ Metaphrastes reports it ) that Peter was not only in these Western parts , but particularly that he was a long time in Britain , where he converted many Nations to the Faith. But we had better be without the honour of S. Peter's company , than build the story upon so sandy a foundation : Metaphrastes his Authority being of so little value in this case , that it is slighted by the more learned and moderate Writers of the Church of Rome . But where-ever it was , that S. Peter imployed his time , towards the latter part of Nero's Reign , he returned to Rome : where he found the minds of People strangely bewitched and hardned against the embracing of the Christian Religion by the subtilties and Magick arts of Simon Magus , whom ( as we have before related ) he had formerly baffled at Samaria . This Simon was born at * Gitton , a Village of Samaria , bred up in the Arts of Sorcery and Divination , and by the help of the Diabolical powers performed many strange feats of wonder and activity . Insomuch that People generally looked upon him as some great Deity come down from Heaven . But being discovered and confounded by Peter at Samaria , he left the East and fled to Rome . Where by Witchcraft and Sorceries he insinuated himself into the favour of the People , and at last became very acceptable to the Emperours themselves , insomuch that no honour and veneration was too great for him . ‖ Justin Martyr assures us , that he was honoured as a Deity that a Statue was erected to him in the Insula Tyberina between two Bridges with this Inscription , SIMONI DEO SANCTO : To Simon the holy God : that the Samaritans generally , and very many of other Nations did own and worship him as the chief principal Deity . I know the credit of this Inscription is shrewdly shaken by some later Antiquaries , who tell us , that the good Father being a Greek might easily mistake in a Latin Inscription , or be imposed upon by others ; and that the true Inscription was SEMONI SANGO DEO FIDIO , &c. such an Inscription being in the last Age dug up in the Tyberine Island , and there preserved to this day . It is not impossible but this might be the foundation of the story . But sure I am , that it is not only reported by the Martyr , who was himself a Samaritan , and lived but in the next Age , but by others almost of the same time (a) Irenaeus , (b) Tertullian , and by others (c) after them . It further deserves to be considered , that J. Martyr was a person of great learning and gravity , inquisitive about matters of this nature , at this time at Rome , where he was capable fully to satisfie himself in the truth of things , that he presented this Apology to the Emperor and the Senate of Rome , to whom he would be careful what he said , and who as they knew whether it was true or no , so if false , could not but ill resent to be so boldly imposed upon by so notorious a fable . But be it as it will , he was highly in favour both with the People , and their Emperors ; especially Nero , who was the Great Patron of Magicians , * and all who maintained secret ways of commerce with the infernal powers . With him ‖ S. Peter thought fit in the first place to encounter , and to undeceive the People , by discovering the impostures and delusions of that wretched man. 4. THAT he did so , is generally affirmed by the Ancient Fathers , * who tell us of ome particular Instances , wherein he baffled and confounded him . But because the 〈◊〉 is more intirely drawn up by ‖ Hegesippus the younger , an Author contemporary with S. Ambrose , if not ( which is most probable ) S. Ambrose himself , we shall from him 〈◊〉 the summary of the story . There was at this time at Rome an eminent young Gentleman , and a Kinsman of the Emperors , lately dead . The fame which Peter had for raising persons to life , perswaded his friends that he might be called . Others also prevailing that Simon the Magician might be sent for . Simon glad of the occasion to magnifie himself before the People , propounded to Peter , that if he raised the Gentleman unto life , then Peter , who had so injuriously provoked the great power of God , ( as he stiled himself ) should lose his life : But if Peter prevailed , he himself would submit to the same fate and sentence . Peter accepted the termes , and Simon began his Charmes and Inchantments : Whereat the dead Gentleman seemed to move his hand . The People that stood by , presently cryed out , that he was alive , and that he talked with Simon , and began to sall foul upon Peter , for daring to oppose himself against so great a power . The Apostle intreated their patience , told them , that all this was but a phantasm and appearance , that if Simon was but taken from the Bed-side , all this pageantry would quickly vanish . Who being accordingly removed , the Body remained without the least sign of motion . Peter standing at a good distance from the Bed , silently made his address to Heaven , and then before them all commanded the young Gentleman in the Name of the Lord Jesus to arise : who immediately did so , spoke , walked , and ate and was by Peter restored to his Mother . The People who saw this , suddenly changed their opinions , and fell upon the Magician with an intent to stone him . But Peter begged his life , and told them , that it would be a sufficient punishment to him , to live and see that in despite of all his power and malice , the Kingdom of Christ should increase and flourish . The Magician was inwardly tormented with this defeat and vext to see the triumph of the Apostle , and therefore mustering up all his powers , summoned the People , told them that he was offended at the Galileans , whose Protector and Guardian he had been , and therefore set them a Day , when he promised that they should see him fly up into Heaven . At the time appointed he went up to the Mount of the Capitol , and throwing himself from the top of the Rock , began his flight . A sight which the People entertained with great wonder and veneration , affirming that this must be the power of God , and not of man. Peter standing in the Croud , prayed to our Lord , that the People might be undeceived , and that the vanity of the Impostor might be discovered in such a way , that he himself might be sensible of it . Immediately the Wings which he had made himself , began to fail him , and he fell to the ground , miserably bruised and wounded with the fall : Whence being carried into a neighbouring Village , he soon after dyed . This is the story , for the particular circumstances whereof , the Feader must rely upon the credit of my Author , the thing in general being sufficiently acknowledged by most ancient Writers . This contest of Peter's with Simon Magus is placed by Eusebius under the Reign of Claudius , but by the generality both of ancient and later Authors , it is referred to the Reign of Nero. 5. SUCH was the end of this miserable and unhappy Man. Which no sooner came to the ears of the Emperor , to whom by wicked artifices he had indeared himself , but it became an occasion of hastning Peter's ruine . The Emperor probably had before been displeased with Peter , not only upon the account of the general disagreement and inconformity of his Religion , but because he had so strictly pressed temperance and chastity , and reclaimed so many Women in Rome from a dissolute and vicious life , thereby crossing that wanton and lascivious temper , to which that Prince was so immoderate a slave and vassal . And being now by his means robbed of his dear favorite and companion , he resolved upon revenge , commanded Peter ( as also S. Paul , who was at this time at Rome ) to be apprehended , and cast into the Mamertine Prison : * where they spent their time in the exercises of Religion , and especially in Preaching to the Prisoners , and those who resorted to them . And here we may suppose it was ( if not a little before ) that Peter wrote his second 〈◊〉 to the dispersed Jews , wherein he indeavours to confirm them in the belief and practice of Christianity , and to fortifie them against those poysonous and pernicious principles and practices , which even then began to break in upon the Christian Church . 6. NERO returning from Achaia , and entring Rome with a great deal of pomp and triumph , resolved now the Apostles should fall as a Victim and Sacrifice to his cruelty and revenge . While the fatal stroke was daily expected , the Christians in Rome did by daily prayers and importunities solicite ‖ S. Peter , to make an escape , and to reserve himself to the uses and services of the Church . This at first he rejected , as what would ill reflect upon his courage and constancy , and argue him to be afraid of those sufferings for Christ , to which he himself had so often perswaded others . But the prayers and the tears of the People overcame him , and made him yield . Accordingly the next Night having prayed with , and taken his farewell of the Brethren , he got over the Prison-wall , and coming to the City-Gate , he is there said to have met with our Lord , who was just entring into the City . Peter asked him , Lord , whither art thou going ? from whom he presently received this answer , I am come to Rome , to be crucified a second time . By which answer , Peter apprehended himself to be reproved , and that our Lord meant it of his death , that he was to be recrucified in his Servant . Whereupon he went back to the Prison , and delivered himself into the hands of his Keepers , shewing himself most ready and chearful to acquiesce in the will of God. And we are told * that in the stone , whereon our Lord stood while he talked with Peter , he left the impression of his Feet , which stone has been ever since preserved as a very sacred Relique , and after several translations was at length fixed in the Church of S. Sebastian the Martyr , where it is kept and visited with great expressions of reverence and devotion at this day . Before his suffering he was no question scourged , according to the manner of the Romans , who were wont first to whip those Malefactors , who were adjudged to the most severe and capital punishments : Having saluted his Brethren , and especially having taken his last farewell of S. Paul , he was brought out of the Prison , and led to the top of the Vatican Mount , near to Tybur , the place designed for his Execution . The death he was adjudged to was crucifixion , as of all others accounted the most shameful , so the most severe and terrible . But he intreated the favour of the Officers , that he might not be crucified in the ordinary way , ‖ but might suffer with his Head downwards , and his Feet up to Heaven , affirming that he was unworthy to suffer in the same posture wherein his Lord had suffered before him . Happy man ( as * Chrysostom glosses ) to be set in the readiest posture of travelling from Earth to Heaven . His Body being taken from the Cross , is said , to have been imbalmed by Marcellinus the Presbyter after the Jewish manner , and was then buried in the Vatican , near the Triumphal way . Over his Grave a small Church ‖ was soon after erected , which being destroyed by Heliogabalus , his Body was removed to the Coemetery in the Appian way , two Miles from Rome : where it remained till the time of Pope Cornelius , who re-conveyed it to the Vatican , where it rested somewhat obscurely until the Reign of Constantine , who out of the mighty reverence which he had for the Christian Religion , caused many Churches to be built at Rome , but especially rebuilt and inlarged the Vatican to the honour of S. Peter . In the doing whereof Himself is said to have been the first that began to dig the Foundation , and to have carried thence twelve Baskets of Rubbish with his own hands , in honour , as it should seem , of the twelve Apostles . He infinitely inriched the Church with Gifts and Ornaments , which in every Age increased in 〈◊〉 and Riches , till it is become one of the wonders of the World at this day . Of whose glories , stateliness , and beauty , and those many venerable Monuments of antiquity that are in it , they who desire to know more , may be plentifully satisfied by Onuphrius . Only one amongst the rest must not be forgotten : there being kept that very wooden Chair , wherein S. Peter sat when he was at Rome , by the onely touching whereof many Miracles are said to be performed . But surely * Baronius his wisdome and gravity were from home , when speaking of this Chair , and fearing that Heretiques would imagine , that it might be rotten in so long a time , he tells us , that it 's no wonder that this Chair should be preserved so long , when Eusebius affirms , that the wooden Chair of S. James Bishop of Jerusalem was extant in the time of Constantine . But the Cardinal it seems forgot to consider , that there is some difference between three , and sixteen hundred Years . But of this enough . S. Peter was crucified according to the common computation in the Year of Christ , sixty nine , and the 13th . ( or as Eusebius , the 14th . ) of Nero , how truly may be inquired afterwards . SECT . X. The Character of his Person and Temper : and an Account of his Writings . The description of S. Peter's person . An account of his Temper . A natural fervor and eagerness predominant in him . Fierceness and animosity peculiarly remarkable in the Galileans . The abatements of his Zeal and courage . His humility and lowliness of mind . His great love to , and zeal for Christ. His constancy and resolution in confessing Christ. His faithfulness and diligence in his Office. His Writings genuine and supposititious . His first Epistle ; what the design of it . What meant by Babylon , whence it was dated . His second Epistle a long time questioned , and why , Difference in the style no considerable objection . Grotius his conceit of its being written by Symeon Bishop of Jerusalem , exploded . A concurrence of circumstances to entitle S. Peter to it . 〈◊〉 things in it referred to , which he had preached at Rome , particularly the destruction of Jerusalem . Written but a little before his death . The spurious Writings attributed to him , mentioned by the Ancients . His Acts. Gospel . Petri Praedicatio . His Apocalypse . Judicium Petri . Peter's married relation . His Wife the companion of his Travels . Her Martyrdom . His Daughter 〈◊〉 . 1. HAVING run through the current History of S. Peter's Life , it may not be amiss in the next place to survey a little his Person and Temper . His Body ( if we may believe the description given of him by * Nicephorus ) was somewhat slender , of a middle size , but rather inclining to tallness , his complexion very pale , and almost white : The hair of his Head and Beard curl'd and thick , but withall short ; though ‖ S. Hierom tells us out of Clemens his Periods , that he was Bald , which probably might be in his declining age ; his Eyes black , but speckt with red , which * Baronius will have to proceed from his frequent weeping ; his Eye-brows thin , or none at all ; his Nose long , but rather broad and flat than sharp ; such was the Case and out-side . Let us next look inwards , and view the Jewel that was within . Take him as a Man , and there seems to have been a natural eagerness predominant in his Temper , which as a Whetstone sharpned his Soul for all bold and generous undertakings . It was this in a great measure that made him so forward to speak , and to return answers , sometimes before he had well considered them . It was this made him expose his person to the most eminent danger , promise those great things in behalf of his Master , and resolutely draw his Sword in his quarrel against a whole Band of Souldiers , and wound the High-Priests Servant ; and possibly he had attempted greater matters , had not our Lord restrained , and taken him off by that seasonable check that he gave him . 2. THIS Temper he owed in a great measure to the Genius and nature of his Country , of which * Josephus gives this true character , That it naturally bred in men a certain fierceness and animosity , whereby they were fearlesly carried out upon any action , and in all things shew'd a great strength and courage both of mind and body . The Galileans ( says he ) being 〈◊〉 from their childhood , the men being as seldom overtaken with cowardize , as their Country with want of men . And yet notwithstanding this , his fervor and fierceness had its intervals ; there being some times when the Paroxysms of his heat and courage did intermit , and the man was surprised and betrayed by his own fears . Witness his passionate crying out , when he was upon the Sea in danger of his life , and his fearful deserting his Master in the Garden , but especially his carriage in the High-Priests Hall , when the confident charge of a sorry Maid made him sink so far beneath himself , and not withstanding his great and resolute promises so shamefully deny his Master , and that with curses and imprecations . But he was in danger , and passion prevailed over his understanding , and fear betrayed the succours which reason offered , and being intent upon nothing but the present safety of his life , he heeded not what he did , when he 〈◊〉 his Master , to save himself ; so dangerous is it to be left to our selves , and to have our natural passions let loose upon us . 3. CONSIDER him as a Disciple and a Christian , and we shall find him exemplary in the great instances of Religion . Singular his Humility , and the lowliness of mind . With what a passionate earnestness upon the conviction of a Miracle , did he beg of our Saviour to depart from him : accounting himself not worthy , that the Son of God should come near so vile a sinner . When our Lord by that wonderful condescension stoopt to wash his Apostles feet , he could by no means be perswaded to admit it , not thinking it sit , that so great a person should submit himself to so servile an office towards so mean a person as himself ; nor could he be induced to accept it , till our Lord was in a manner forced to threaten him into obedience . When Cornelius heightned in his apprehensions of him by an immediate command from God concerning him , would have entertained him with expressions of more than ordinary honour and veneration ; so far was he from complying with it , that he plainly told him , he was no other than such a man as himself . With how much candor and modesty does he treat the inferiour Rulers and Ministers of the Church . He , upon whom Antiquity heaps so many honourable titles , stiling himself no other than their fellow-Presbyter . Admirable his love to , and zeal for his Master , which he thought he could never express at too high a rate : for his sake venturing on the greatest dangers , and exposing himself to the most imminent hazards of his life . 'T was in his quarrel that he drew his Sword against a Band of Souldiers , and an armed multitude ; and 't was love to his Master drew him into that imprudent advice , that he should seek to save himself , and avoid those sufferings that were coming upon him , that made him promise and engage so deep , to suffer and die with him . Great was his forwardness in owning Christ to be the Messiah and Son of God ; which drew from our Lord that honourable Encomium , Blessed art thou Simon Bar Jonah . But greater his courage and constancy in confessing Christ before his most inveterate enemies , especially after he had recovered himself of his fall . With how much plainness did he tell the Jews at every turn to their very faces , that they were the Murderers and Crucifiers of the Lord of Glory . Nay , with what an undaunted courage , with what an Heroick greatness of mind , did he tell that very Sanhedrim , that had sentenced and condemned him , that they were guilty of his murder , and that they could never be saved any other way , than by this very Jesus , whom they had crucified and put to death . 4. LASTLY , let us reflect upon him as an Apostle , as a Pastor and Guide of Souls . And so we find him faithful and diligent in his office , with an infinite zeal endeavouring to instruct the ignorant , reduce the erroneous , to strengthen the weak , and confirm the strong , to reclaim the vicious , and turn Souls to righteousness . We find him taking all opportunities of preaching to the people , converting many thousands at once . How many voiages and travels did he undergo ? with how unconquerable a patience did he endure all conflicts and trials , and surmount all difficulties and oppositions , that he might plant and propagate the Christian Faith ? Not thinking much to lay down his own life , to promote and further it . Nor did he only do his duty himself , but as one of the prime Superintendents of the Church , and as one that was sensible of the value and the worth of Souls , he was careful to put others in mind of theirs , earnestly pressing and perswading the Pastors and Governours of it , To feed the flock of God , To take upon them the Rule and Inspection of it freely and willingly , not out of a sinister end , merely of gaining advantages to themselves , but out of a sincere design of doing good to Souls ; that they would treat them mildly and gently , and be themselves examples of Piety and Religion to them , as the best way to make their Ministery successful and effectual . And because he could not be always present to teach and warn men , he ceased not by Letters to stir up their minds to the remembrance and practice of what they had been taught . A course , he tells them , which he was resolved to hold as long as he lived , as thinking it meet while he was in this Tabernacle , to stir them up , by putting them in mind of these things , that so they might be able after his decease , to have them always in remembrance . And this may lead us to the consideration of those Writings , which he left behind him for the benefit of the Church . 5. NOW the Writings that entitle themselves to this Apostle , were either genuine , or supposititious . The genuine Writings are his two Epistles , which make up part of the Sacred Canon . For the first of them , no certain account can be had when it was written . Though Baronius and most Writers commonly assign it to the year of Christ Forty Four. But this cannot be , Peter not being at Rome ( from whence it is supposed to have been written ) at that time , as we shall see anon . He wrote it to the Jewish Converts , dispersed through Pontus , Galatia , and the Countries thereabouts , chiefly upon the occasion of that persecution , which had been raised at Jerusalem . And accordingly the main design of it , is to confirm and comfort them under their present sufferings and persecutions , and to direct and instruct them how to carry themselves in the several states and relations , both of the Civil , and the Christian life . For the place whence it was written , 't is expresly dated from Babylon . But what , or where this Babylon is , is not so easie to determine . Some think it was Babylon in Egypt , and probably 〈◊〉 ; and that there Peter preached the Gospel . Others will have it to have been Babylon the Ancient Metropolis of Assyria , and where great numbers of Jews dwelt ever since the times of their Captivities . But we need not send Peter on so long an Errand , if we embrace the Notion of a Learned * man , who by Babylon will figuratively understand Jerusalem , no longer now the holy City , but a kind of spiritual Babylon , in which the Church of God did at this time groan under great servitude and captivity . And this Notion of the Word he endeavours to make good , by calling in to his assistance two of the Ancient * Fathers , who so understand that of the Prophet , We have healed Babylon , but she was not healed . Where the Prophet ( say they ) by Babylon means Jerusalem , as differing nothing from the wickedness of the Nations , nor conforming it self to the Law of God. But generally the Writers of the Romish Church , and the more moderate of the Reformed party , acquiescing herein in the Judgment of Antiquity , by Babylon understand Rome . And so 't is plain S. John calls it in his Revelation , either from its conformity in power and greatness to that ancient City , or from that great Idolatry which at this time reign'd in Rome . And so we may suppose S. Peter to have written it from Rome , not long after his coming thither , though the precise time be not exactly known . 6. AS for the Second Epistle , it was not accounted of old of equal value and authority with the First , and therefore for some Ages not taken into the Sacred Canon , as is expresly affirmed by * 〈◊〉 , and many of the Ancients before him . The Ancient Syriack Church did not receive it , and accordingly it is not to be found in their ancient ‖ Copies of the New Testament . Yea , those of that Church at this day do not own it as Canonical , but only read it privately , as we do the Apocryphal Books . The greatest * exception that I can find against it , was the difference of its style from the other Epistle ; and therefore it was presumed , that they were not both written by the same hand . But S. 〈◊〉 , who tells us the objection , does ‖ elsewhere himself return the answer , That the difference in the style and manner of writing might very well arise from hence , that S. Peter according to his different circumstances , and the necessity of affairs , was forced to use several Amanuenses and Interpreters ; sometimes S. Mark , and after his departure some other person , which might justly occasion a difference in the style and character of these 〈◊〉 . Not to say , that the same person may vastly alter and vary his style according to the times when , or the persons to whom , or the subjects about which he writes , or the temper and disposition he is in at the time of writing , or the care that is used in doing it . Who sees not the vast difference of Jeremie's writing in his Prophecy , and in his Book of Lamentations ? between S. John's in his Gospel , his 〈◊〉 , and Apocalypse ? How oft does S. Paul alter his style in several of his Epistles , in some more lofty and elegant , in others more rough and harsh ? Besides hundreds of instances that might be given both in Ecclesiastical and Foreign Writers , too obvious to need insisting on in this place . The Learned * Grotius will have this Epistle to have been written by Symeon , S. James his immediate Successor in the Bishoprick of Jerusalem , and that the word [ Peter ] was inserted into the Title by another hand . But as a Judicious * person of our own observes , these were but his Posthume Annotations , published by others , and no doubt never intended as the deliberate result of that great man's Judgment : especially since he himself tacitly acknowledges , that all Copies extant at this day read the Title and Inscription , as it is in our Books . And indeed there is a concurrence of circumstances to prove S. Peter to be the Author of it . It bears his name in the Front and Title , yea , somewhat more expresly than the former , which has only one , this , both his Names . There 's a passage in it , that cannot well relate to any but him . When he tells us , that he was present with Christ in the holy Mount , When he received from God the Father honour , and glory ; Where he heard the voice which came from Heaven , from the excellent glory , This is my Beloved Son , in whom I am well pleased . This evidently refers to Christs Tranfiguration , where none were present , but Peter , and the two Sons of Zebedee , neither of which were ever thought of to be the Author of this Epistle . Besides , that there is an admirable consent and agreement in many passages between these two Epistles , as it were easie to show in particular instances . Add to this , that S. Jude speaking of the Scoffers who should come in the last time , walking after their own ungodly lusts , cites this as that which had been before spoken by the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ : wherein he plainly quotes the words of this Second Epistle of Peter , affirming , That there should come in the last days scoffers , walking after their own lusts . And that this does agree to Peter , will further appear by this , that he tells us of these Scoffers , that should come in the last days , that is , before the destruction of Jerusalem ( as that phrase is often used in the New Testament ) that they should say , Where is the promise of his coming ? Which clearly respects their making light of those threatnings of our Lord , whereby he had foretold , that he would shortly come in Judgment for the destruction of Jerusalem , and the Jewish Nation . This he now puts them in mind of , as what probably he had before told them of 〈◊〉 vocc , when he was amongst them . For so we find he did elsewhere . Lactantius assuring us , That amongst many strange and wonderful things which Peter and Paul preached at Rome , and lest upon Record , this was one , That within a short time God would send a Prince , who should destroy the Jews , and lay their Cities level with the ground , straitly besiege them , destroy them with Famine , so that they should feed upon one another : That their Wives and Daughters should be ravished , and their Childrens brains dasht out before their faces ; that all things should be laid waste by Fire and Sword , and themselves perpetually banished from their own Countrey ; and this for their insolent and merciless usage of the innocent and dear Son of God. All which , as he observes , came to pass soon after their death , when 〈◊〉 came upon the Jews , and extinguished both their Name and Nation . And what Peter here foretold at Rome , we need not question but he had done before to those Jews , to whom he wrote this Epistle . Wherein he especially antidotes them against those corrupt and poisonous principles , wherewith many , and especially the followers of Simon Magus began to insect the Church of Christ. And this but a little time before his death , as appears from that passage in it , where he tells them , That he knew he must shortly put off his earthly Tabernacle . 7. BESIDES these Divine Epistles , there were other supposititious writings which in the first Ages were fathered upon S. Peter . Such was the Book called his Acts , mentioned by * Origen , ‖ Eusebius , and others , but rejected by them . Such was his Gospel , which probably at first was nothing else but the Gospel written by S. Mark , dictated to him ( as is generally thought ) by S. Peter ; and therefore as * S. 〈◊〉 tells us , said to be his . Though in the next Age there appeared a Book under that Title , mentioned by ‖ Serapion Bishop of Antioch , and by him at 〈◊〉 suffered to be read in the Church , but afterwards upon a more careful perusal of it , he rejected it as Apocryphal , as it was by others after him . Another was the Book stiled , His Preaching , mentioned and quoted both by * Clemens Alexandrinus , and by ‖ Origen , but not acknowledged by them to be Genuine : Nay , expresly said to have been forged by Hereticks , by an ancient (a) Author contemporary with S. Cyprian . The next was his Apocalypse , or Revelation , rejected , as (b) Sozomen tells us , by the 〈◊〉 as Spurious , but yet read in some Churches in Palestine in his time . The last was the Book called , His Judgment , which probably was the same with that called * Hermes , or Pastor , a Book of good use and esteem in the first times of Christianity , and which , as ‖ Eusebius tells us , was not only frequently cited by the Ancients , but also publickly read in Churches . 8. WE shall conclude this Section by considering Peter with respect to his several Relations : That he was married , is unquestionable , the Sacred History mentioning his Wives Mother : his Wife ( might we believe * Metaphrastes ) being the Daughter of Aristobulus , Brother to Barnabas the Apostle . And though ‖ S. Hierom would perswade us , that he left her behind him , together with his Nets , when he forsook all to follow Christ ; yet we know that Father too well , to be over-confident upon his word in a case of Marriage or Single life , wherein he is not over-scrupulous sometimes to strain a point , to make his opinion more fair and plausible . The best is , we have an infallible Authority which plainly intimates the contrary , the testimony of S. Paul , who tells us of Cephas , that he led about a Wife , a Sister , along with him , who for the most part mutually cohabited & lived together , for ought that can be proved to the contrary . * Clemens Alexandrinus gives us this account , though he tells us not the time or place , That Peter seeing his Wife going towards Martyrdom , exceedingly rejoyced that she was called to so great an honour , and that she was now returning home , encouraging and earnestly exhorting her , and calling her by her Name , bad her to be mindful of our Lord. Such ( says he ) was the Wedlock of that blessed couple , and the perfect disposition and agreement in those things that were dearest to them . By her he is said to have had a * Daughter , called Petronilla ( ‖ Metaphrastes adds a Son ) how truly I know not . This only is certain , that * S. Clemens of Alexandria reckons Peter for one of the Apostles that was Married and had Children . And surely he who was so good a man , and so good an Apostle , was as good in the relation both of an Husband and a Father . SECT . XI . An Enquiry into S. Peter's going to Rome . Peter's being at Rome granted in general . The account of it given by Baronius and the Writers of that Church rejected , and disproved . No foundation for it in the History of the Apostolick Acts. No mention of it in S. Paul's Epistle to the Romans . No news of his being there , at S. Paul's coming to Rome , nor intimation of any such thing in the several Epistles which S. Paul wrote from thence . S. Peter's first being at Rome inconsistent with the time of the Apostolical Synod at Jerusalem . And with an Ancient Tradition , that the Apostles were commanded to stay Twelve years in Judaea after Christ's death . Apassage out of Clemens Alexandrinus noted and corrected to that purpose . Difference among the 〈◊〉 of the Romish Church in their Accounts . Peter's being XXV . years Bishop of Rome , no solid foundation for it in Antiquity . The Planting and Governing that Church equally attributed to Peter and Paul. S. Peter when ( probably ) came to Rome . Different dates of his Martyrdom assigned by the Ancients . A probable account given of it . 1. THOUGH it be not my purpose to swim against the Stream and Current of Antiquity , in denying S. Peter to have been at Rome , an Assertion easilier perplexed and intangled , than confuted and disproved ; yet may we grant the main , without doing any great service to that Church , there being evidence enough to every impartial and considering man , to spoil that smooth and plausible Scheme of Times , which 〈◊〉 and the Writers of that Church have drawn with so much care and diligence . And in order to this we shall first enquire , whether that Account which Bellarmine and Baronius give us of Peter's being at Rome be tolerably reconcileable with the History of the Apostles Acts recorded by S. Luke , which will be best done by briefly presenting S. Peter's Acts in their just Series and order of Time , and then seeing what countenance and foundation their Account can receive from hence . 2. AFTER our Lord's Ascension , we find Peter , for the first year at least , staying with the rest of the Apostles at Jerusalem . In the next year he was sent , together with S. John , by the command of the Apostles , to Samaria , to preach the Gospel to that City , and the parts about it . About three years after S. Paul meets him at Jerusalem , with whom he staid some time . In the two following years he visited the late planted Churches , preached at Lydda and Joppa , where having tarried many days , he thence removed to 〈◊〉 , where he preached to , and baptized Cornelius and his Family . Whence after some time he returned to Jerusalem , where he probably staid , till cast into prison by Herod , and delivered by the Angel. After which we hear no more of him , till three or four years after we find him in the Council at Jerusalem . After which he had the contest with S. Paul at Antioch . And thence forward the Sacred Story is altogether silent in this matter . So that in all this time , we find not the least footstep of any intimation that he went to Rome . This * Baronius well foresaw , and therefore once and again inserts this caution , that S. Luke did not design to record all the Apostles Acts , and that he has omitted many things which were done by Peter . Which surely no man ever intended to deny . But then that he should omit a matter of such vast moment and importance to the whole Christian World , that not one 〈◊〉 should be said of a Church planted by Peter at Rome ; a Church that was to be Paramount , the seat of all Spiritual Power and Infallibility , and to which all other Churches were to vail and do homage ; nay , that he should not so much as mention that ever he was there , and yet all this said to be done within the time he designed to write of , is by no means reasonable to suppose . Especially considering , that S. Luke records many of his journeys and travels , and his preaching at several places , of far less consequence and concernment . Nor let this be thought the worse of , because a negative Argument , since it carries so much rational evidence along with it , that any man who is not plainly byassed by Interest , will be satisfied with it . 3. BUT let us proceed a little further to enquire , whether we can meet any probable footsteps afterwards . About the year Fifty three , towards the end of Claudins his Reign S. Paul is thought to have writ his Epistle to the Church at Rome , wherein he spends the greatest part of one Chapter in saluting particular persons that were there ; amongst whom it might reasonably have been expected , that S. Peter should have had the first place . And supposing with * Baronius , that Peter at this time might be absent from the City , preaching the Gospel in some parts in the 〈◊〉 , yet we are not sure that S. Paul knew of this , and if he did , it is strange that in so large an Epistle , wherein he had occasion enough , there should be neither direct nor indirect mention of him , or of any Church there founded by him . Nay , S. Paul himself intimates , what an earnest desire he had to come thither , that he might impart unto them some spiritual gists , to the end they might be established in the Faith , for which there could have been no such apparent cause had Peter been there so lately , and so long before him . Well , S. Paul himself not many years after is sent to Rome , Ann. Chr. LVI . or as Eusebius , LVII . ( though Barontus makes it two years after ) about the second year of Nero ; when he comes thither , does he go to sojourn with Peter , as 't is likely he would , had he been there ? No , but dwelt by himself in his own hired house . No sooner was he come , but he called the chief of the Jews together , acquainted them with the cause and end of his coming , explains the doctrine of Christianity , which when they rejected , he tells them , That henceforth the Salvation of God was sent unto the Gentiles who would hear it , to whom he would now address himself . Which seems to intimate , that however some few of the Gentiles might have been brought over , yet that no such harvest had been made before his coming , as might reasonably have been expected from S. Peter s having been so many years amongst them . Within the two first years after S. Paul s coming to Rome , he wrote Epistles to several Churches , to the Colossians , Fphesians , Philippians , and one to Philemon , in none whereof there is the least mention of S. Peter , or from whence the least probability can be derived , that he had been there . In that to the Colossians , he tells them , that of the Jews at Rome , he had had no other fellow-workers unto the Kingdom of God , which had been a comfort unto him , save only Aristarchus , Marcus , and Jesus who was called Justus , which evidently excludes S. Peter . And in that to Timothy , which Baronius consesses to have been written a little before his Martyrdom , ( though probably it was written the same time with the rest above mentioned ) he tells him , That at his first answer at Rome , no man stood with him , but that all men for sook him . Which we can hardly believe S. Peter would have done , had he then been there . He further tells him , That only Luke was with him , that Crescens was gone to this place , Titus to that , and Tychicus left at another . Strange ! that if Peter was at this time gone from Rome , S. Paul should take no notice of it as well as the rest . Was he so inconsiderable a person , as not to be worth the remembring ? or his errand of so small importance , as not to deserve a place in S. Paul's account , as well as that of Crescens to Galatia , or of Titus to Dalmatia ? Surely , the true reason was , that S. Peter as yet had not been at Rome , and so there could be no foundation for it . 4. IT were no hard matter , further to demonstrate the inconsistency of that Account which Bellarmine and Baronius give us of Peter's being at Rome , from the time of the Apostolical Synod at Jerusalem . For if S. Paul went up to that Council Fourteen years after his own Conversion , as he plainly intimates ; and that he himself was converted Ann. XXXV . somewhat less than two years after the death of Christ , then it plainly appears , that this Council was holden Ann. XLVIII . in the sixth year of Claudius , if not somewhat sooner , for S. Paul's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does not necessarily imply , that Fourteen years were completely past , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying circa , as well as post , but that it was near about that time . This being granted ( and if it be not , it is easie to make it good ) then three things amongst others will follow from it . First , That whereas , according to * Bellarmine and ‖ Baronius , S. Peter after his first coming to Rome ( which they place Ann. XLIV . and the second of Claudius ) was seven years before he returned thence to the Council at Jerusalem , they are strangely out in their story , there being but three , or at most four years between his going thither , and the celebration of that Council . Secondly , That when they tell * us , that S. Peter's leaving Rome to come to the Council , was upon the occasion of the decree of Claudius , banishing all Jews out of the City , this can no ways be . For * Orosius does not onely 〈◊〉 , but prove it from Josephus , that Claudius his Decree was published in the Ninth Year of his Reign , or Ann. Chr. LI. Three Years at least after the Celebration of the Council . Thirdly , That when ‖ Baronius tells us , that the Reason why Peter went to Rome after the breaking up of the Synod , was because Claudius was now dead , he not daring to go before for fear of the Decree , this can be no reason at all , the Council being ended at least Three Years before that Decree took place : so that he might 〈◊〉 have gone thither without the least danger from it . It might further be shewed ( if it were necessary ) that the account which even they themselves give us , is not very consistent with it self . So fatally does a bad cause draw Men whether they will or no into Errours and Mistakes . 5. THE truth is , the learned Men of that Church are not well agreed among themselves , to give in their verdict in this case . And indeed , how should they , when the thing it self affords no solid foundation for it ? Onuphrius a man of great learning and industry in all matters of antiquity , and who ( as the * writer of Baronius his life insorms us ) designed before Baronius to write the History of the Church , goes a way by himself , in assigning the time of S. Peter's founding his See both at Antioch and ‖ Rome . For finding by the account of the sacred story , that Peter did not leave 〈◊〉 for the Ten first Years after our Lord's Aseension , and consequently could not in that time erect his See at Antioch ; he affirms , that he went first to Rome , whence returning to the Council at Jerusalem , he thence went to Antioch , where he remained Seven Years , till the Death of Claudius , and having spent almost the whole Reign of Nero in several parts of Europe , returned in the last of Nero's Reign to Rome , and there dyed . An opinion , for which he is sufficiently chastised by * Baronius , and others of that Party . And here I cannot but remarque the ingenuity ( for the learning sufficiently commends it self ) of ‖ Monsieur l'alois , who freely confesses the mistake of Baronius , Petavius , &c. in making Peter go to Rome , Ann. XLIV . the Second Year of Claudius , when as it is plain ( says he ) from the History of the Acts , that Peter went not out of Judaea and Syria , till the Death of Herod , Claudii Ann. IV. Two whole Years after . Consonant to which , as he observes , is what Apollonius , a Writer of the Second Century , reports from a Tradition current in his time , that the Apostles did not depart asunder till the Twelfth Year after Christ's Ascension , our Lord himself having so commanded them . In confirmation whereof , let me add a passage that I meet with in Clemens of ‖ Alexandria , where from S. Peter he records this Speech of our Saviour to his Apostles , spoken probably either a little before his Death , or after his Resurrection . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . If any Israelite shall repent , and believe in God through my Name , his sins shall be forgiven him after twelve years . Go ye into the World , lest any should say , we have not heard . This passage , as ordinarily pointed in all Editions that I have seen , is scarce capable of any tolerable sence : for what 's the meaning , of a penitent Israelite's being pardoned after twelve years ? It is therefore probable , yea certain with me , that the stop ought to be after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 joyned to the following clause , and then the sence will run clear and smooth ; If any Jew shall repent , and believe the Gospel , he shall be pardoned ; but after twelve years go ye into all the World , that none may pretend that they have not heard the sound of the Gospel . The Apostles were first to Preach the Gospel to the Jews for some considerable time , Twelve Years after Christ's Ascension , in and about Judaea , and then to betake themselves to the Provinces of the Gentile-World , to make known to them the glad tidings of Salvation ; exactly answerable to the Tradition mentioned by Apollonius . Besides , the Chronicon Alexandrinum tells us , that Peter came not to Rome till the Seventh Year of Claudius , Ann. Christi XLIX . So little certainty can there be of any matter , wherein there is no truth . Nay , the samo excellent Men before * mentioned does not stick elsewhere to profess , he wonders at Baronius , that he should make Peter come from Rome , banished thence by Claudius his Edict , to the Synod at Jerusalem , the same Year , viz. Ann. Claudii 9. a thing absolutely inconsistent with that story of the Apostles Acts , recorded by S. Luke , wherein there is the space of no less than Three Years from the time of that Synod , to the Decree of Claudius . It being evident , what he observes , that after the celebration of that Council , S. Paul went back to Antioch , afterwards into Syria and Cilicia to Preach the Gospel ; thence into Phrygia , Galatia and Mysia ; from whence he went into Macedonia , and first Preached at Philippi , then at Thessalonica and Beraea , afterwards stay'd some consider time at Athens , and last of all went to Corinth , where he met with Aquila and Priscilla , lately come from Italy , banished Rome with the rest of the Jews , by the Decree of Claudius : all which by an easie and reasonable computation can take up no less than Three Years at least . 6. THAT which caused Baronius to split upon so many Rocks , was not so much want of seeing them , which a Man of his parts and industry could not but in a great measure see , as the unhappy necessity of defending those 〈◊〉 principles which he had undertaken to maintain . For being to make good Peter's five and twenty years presidency over the Church of Rome , he was forced to confound times , and dislocate stories , that he might bring all his ends together . What foundation this story of Peter's being five and twenty years Bishop of Rome , has in antiquity , I find not , unless it sprang from hence , that 〈◊〉 places Peter's coming to Rome in the Second Year of Claudius , and his Martyrdom in the Fourteenth of Nero , between which there is the just space of five and twenty years . Whence those that came after concluded , that he sate Bishop there all that time . It cannot be denied , but that in S. Hierom's Translation it is expresly said , that he continued five and twenty years Bishop of that City . But then it is as evident , that this was his own addition , who probably set things down as the report went in his time , no such thing being to be found in the Greek Copy of * Eusebius . Nor indeed does he ever there or else-where positively affirm S. Peter to have been Bishop of Rome , but only that he preached the Gospel there . And expresly ‖ affirms , that he and S. Paul being dead , Linus was the first Bishop of Rome . To which I may add , that when the Ancients speak of the Bishops of Rome , and the first Originals of that Church , they equally attribute the founding , and the Episcopacy and Government of it to Peter and Paul , making the one as much concerned in it as the other . Thus * Epiphanius reckoning up the Bishops of that See , places Peter and Paul in the front , as the first Bishops of Rome , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Peter and Paul Apostles became the first Bishops of Rome , then Linus , &c. And again a little after , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the succession of the Bishops of Rome was in this manner , Peter and Paul , Linus , Cletus , &c. And ‖ Egesippus speaking of their coming to Rome , equally says of them , that they were Doctores Christianorum , sublimes operibus , clari magisterio , the Instructors of the Christians , admirable for miracles , and renowned for their authority . However granting not only that he was there , but that he was Bishop , and that for five and twenty years together , yet what would this make for the unlimited Soveraignty and Universality of that Church , unless a better evidence than Feed my sheep could be produced for its uncontroulable Supremacy and Dominion over the whole Christian World ? 7. THE summe is this , granting what none that has any reverence for Antiquity will deny , that S. Peter was at Rome , he probably came thither some few Years before his death , joyned with , and assisted S. Paul in Preaching of the Gospel , and then both sealed the Testimony of it with their Bloud . The date of his Death is differently assigned by the Ancients . * Eusebius places it Ann. LXIX . in the Fourteenth of Nero , ‖ Epiphanius in the Twelfth . That which seems to me most probable is , that it was in the Tenth , or the Year LXV . which I thus compute : Nero's burning of Rome is placed by * Tacitus , under the Consulship of C. Lecanius , and M. Licinius , about the Month of July , that is , Ann. Chr. LXIV . This act procured him the infinite hatred and clamours of the People , which having in vain endeavoured several ways to remove and pacifie , he at last resolved upon this project , to derive the Odium upon the Christians , whom therefore both to appease the Gods , and please the People , he condemned as guilty of the fact , and caused to be executed with all manner of acute and exquisite Tortures . This Persecution we may suppose began about the end of that , or the beginning of the following Year . And under this Persecution , I doubt not , it was that S. Peter suffered , and changed Earth for Heaven . The End of S. Peter's Life . THE LIFE OF S. PAUL . S. PAUL . He was beheaded by the command of Nero the Roman Emperour . Place this to the Epistle for the Conversion of S. Paul. St. Paul's Conversion . Act. 9. 3. 4. And as he journied he came near to Damascus & suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven & he fell to the earth & heard a voice saying unto him Saul Saul &c. Ver. 7 And the men which journied with him stood speechless hearing a voice but seeing no man. SECT . I. Of S. PAUL , from his Birth till his Conversion . S. Paul , why placed next Peter . Tarsus the place of his Birth ; an University , and a Roman Corporation . His Parents of the old stock of Israel ; descended of the Tribe of Benjamin . Jacob's Prophecy applied to him by the Ancients . His Names ; Saul , whence ; Paul , when assumed , and why . His Education in the Schools of Tarsus , and in the Trade of Tent-making . The Custom of the Jews in bringing up their Youth to Manual Trades . His study of the Law under the Tutorage of Gamaliel . This Gamaliel , who . Why said to have been a Christian. Sitting at the feet of their Masters the posture of learners . His joyning himself to the Sect of the Pharisees . An Enquiry into the Temper and Manners of that Sect. The fiery Zeal and Activity of his Temper . His being engaged in Stephen's Martyrdom . His violent persecution of the Church . His journey to Damascus . His Conversion by the way , and the manner of it . His blindness . His rapture into the third Heaven , when ( probably . ) His sight restored . His being Baptized , and preaching Christ. THOUGH S. Paul was none of the Twelve Apostles , yet had he the honour of being an Apostle extraordinary , and to be immediately called in a way peculiar to himself . He justly deserves a place next S. Peter ; for as in their lives they were pleasant and lovely , so in their death they were not divided : especially if it be true , that they both suffered not only for the same cause , but at the same time , as well as place . S. Paul was born at Tarsus , the Metropolis of Cilicia ; a City infinitely rich and populous , and what contributed more to the fame and honour of it , an Academy , furnished with Schools of Learning , where the Scholars so closely plied their Studies , that as * Strabo informs us , they excelled in all Arts of polite Learning and Philosophy those of other places , yea , even of Alexandria , and Athens it self ; and that even Rome was beholden to it for many of its best Professors . It was a Roman Municipium , or free Corporation , invested with many Franchises and Priviledges by Julius Caesar , and Augustus , who granted to the Inhabitants of it the honours and immunities of Citizens of Rome . In which respect S. Paul owned and asserted it as the priviledge of his Birth-right , that he was a Roman , and thereby free from being bound or beaten . True it is , that * S. Hierom ( followed herein by ‖ one , who himself travelled in these parts ) makes him born at Gischalis , a well fortified Town in Judaea , which being besieged and taken by the Roman Army , his Parents fled away with him and dwelt at Tarsus . But besides that this contradicts S. Paul , who expresly affirms , that he was born at Tarsus , there needs no more to confute this opinion , than that * S. Hierom elsewhere slights it as a fabulous report . 2. HIS Parents were Jews , and that of the Ancient stock , not entering in by the Gate of proselytism , but originally descended from that Nation , which surely he means , when he says , That he was an Hebrew of the Hebrews , either because both his Parents were Jews , or rather , that all his Ancestors had been so . They belonged to the Tribe of Benjamin , whose Founder was the youngest son of the old Patriarch Jacob , who thus prophesied of him . Benjamin shall raven as a Wolf , in the morning he shall devour the prey , and at night he shall divide the spoil . This prophetical character * Tertullian , and others after him will have to be accomplished in our Apostle . As a ravening Wolf in the morning devouring the prey , that is , as a persecutor of the Churches , in the first part of his life destroying the flock of God : In the evening dividing the spoil , that is , in his declining and reduced age , as Doctor of the Nations , feeding and distributing to Christ's sheep . 3. WE find him described by two names in Scripture , one Hebrew , and the other Latin ; probably referring both to his Jewish and Roman capacity and relation . The one , Saul , a name frequent and common in the Tribe of Benjamin ever since the first King of Israel , who was of that name , was chosen out of that Tribe . In memory whereof they were wont to give their Children this name at their Circumcision . His other was , Paul , assumed by him , as some think , at his Conversion , to denote his humility ; as others , in memory of his converting Sergius Paulus the Roman Governour , in imitation of the Generals and Emperors of Rome , who were wont from the places and Nations that they conquered , to assume the name , as an additional honour and title to themselves , as Scipio Africanus , Caesar Germanicus , Parthicus , Sarmaticus , &c. But this seems no way consistent with the great humility of this Apostle . More probable therefore it is , what * Origen thinks , That he had a double name given him at his Circumcision ; Saul , relating to his Jewish original ; and Paul , referring to the Roman Corporation , where he was born . And this the Scripture seems to favour , when it says , Saul , who also is called Paul. Or if it was taken up by him afterwards , it was probably done at his Conversion , according to the custom and manner of the Hebrews , who used many times upon solemn and eminent occasions , especially upon their entering upon a more strict and religious course of life , to change their names , and assume one which they had not before . 4. IN his Youth he was brought up in the Schools of Tarsus , fully instructed in all the liberal Arts and Sciences , whereby he became admirably acquainted with foreign and external Authors . Together with which he was brought up to a particular Trade and course of life ; according to the great Maxim and principle of the Jews , That , * He who teaches not his son a Trade , teaches him to be a Thief . They thought it not only fit , but a necessary part of Education , for their wisest and most learned Rabbins to be brought up to a manual Trade , whereby , if occasion was , he might be able to maintain himself . Hence ( as ‖ Drusius observes ) nothing more common in their writings , than to have them denominated from their callings , Rabbi Jose the Tanner , Rabbi Jochanan the Shoomaker , Rabbi Juda the Baker , &c. A custom taken up by the Christians , especially the ‖ Monks and Asceticks of the Primitive times , who together with their strict profession and almost incredible exercises of devotion , each took upon him a particular Trade , whereat he daily wrought , and by his own hand-labour maintained himself . And this course of life the Jews were very careful should be free from all suspicion of scandal . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( as they call * it ) a clean , that is , honest Trade , being wont to say , That he was happy that had his Parents imployed in an honest and commendable Calling ; as he was miserable , who saw them conversant in any sordid and dishonest 〈◊〉 of life . The Trade our Apostle was put to , was that of Tent-making , whereat he wrought , for some particular reasons , even after his calling to the Apostolate . An honest , but mean course of life , and as * Chrysostom observes , an argument that his Parents were not of the nobler and better rank ; however , it was an useful and gainful Trade , especially in those war-like Countries , where Armies had such frequent use of Tents . 5. HAVING run through the whole circle of the Sciences , and laid the sure foundations of humane Learning at Tarsus ; he was by his Parents sent to Jerusalem , to be perfected in the study of the Law , and put under the Tutorage of Rabban Gamaliel . This Gamaliel was the son of Rabban Symeon ( probably presumed to be the same Symeon that came into the Temple , and took Christ into his arms ) President of the Court of the Sanhedrim : he was a Doctor of the Law , a person of great wisdom and prudence , and head at that time of one of the Families of the Schools at Jerusalem . A man of chief eminency and authority in the Jewish Sanhedrim , and President of it at that very time when our Blessed Saviour was brought before it . He lived to a great age , and was buried by 〈◊〉 the proselyte , Author of the Chaldee Paraphrase ( one who 〈◊〉 loved and honoured him ) at his own vast expence and charge . He it was that made that wise and excellent speech in the Sanhedrim , in favour of the Apostles and their Religion . Nay , he himself is * said ( though I know not why ) to have been a Christian , and his sitting amongst the Senators to have been conniv'd at by the Apostles , that he might be the better friend to their affairs . ‖ Chrysippus , 〈◊〉 of the Church of Jerusalem adds , that he was brothers son to 〈◊〉 , together with whom he and his son Abib were baptized by Peter and John. This account he derives from Lucian , a Presbyter also of that Church under John Patriarch of Jerusalem , who in an Epistle of his still extant , tells us , that he had this , together with some other things , communicated to him in a Vision by Gamaliel himself . Which if true , no better evidence could be desired in this matter . At the feet of this Gamaliel , 8. Paul tells us , he was brought up , alluding to the custom of the Jewish Masters , who were wont to sit , while their Disciples and Scholars stood at their feet . Which honorary custom continued till the death of this Gamaliel , and was then left off . Their own * Talmud telling us , That since old Rabban Gamaliel died , the honour of the Law was perished , 〈◊〉 and Pharisaism were destroyed : which the Gloss thus explains , That whilest he lived , men were sound , and studied the Law standing ; but he being dead , weakness crept into the World , and they were forced to sit . 6. UNDER the Tuition of this great Master S. Paul was Educated in the knowledge of the Law , wherein he made such quick and vast improvements , that he soon out-stript his fellow-Disciples . Amongst the various Sects at that time in the Jewish Church , he was especially Educated in the Principles and Institutions of the Pharisees : Of which Sect was both his Father and his Master , whereof he became a most earnest and zealous professor . This being , as himself tells us , the strictest Sect of their Religion . For the understanding whereof , it may not be 〈◊〉 a little to enquire into the Temper and Manners of this Sect. * Josephus , though himself a Pharisee , gives this character of them , That they were a crafty and subtil generation of men , and so perverse even to Princes themselves , that they would not fear many times openly to affront and oppose them . And so far had they ‖ insinuated themselves into the affections and estimations of the populacy , that their good or ill word was enough to make , or blast any one with the people , who would implicitly believe them , let their report be never so false or malicious . And therefore Alexander 〈◊〉 , when he lay a dying , wisely advised his Queen by all means to comply with them , and to seem to Govern by their counsel and direction , affirming , that this had been the greatest cause of his fatal miscarriage , and that which had derived the odium of the Nation upon him , that he had offended this sort of men . Certain it is , that they were infinitely proud and insolent , surly and ill-natured , that they hated all mankind but themselves , & censured whoever would not be of their way , as a Villain and a Reprobate : greatly zealous to gather 〈◊〉 to their party , not to make them more religious , but more fierce and cruel , more carping and censorious , more heady and high-minded , in short , twofold more the children of the Devil , than they were before . All Religion and kindness was confined within the bounds of their own party , and the first principles wherewith they inspired their new converts were , That none but they were the godly party , and that all other persons were slaves and sons of the Earth : and therefore especially endeavoured to inspire them with a mighty zeal and fierceness against all that differed from them , so that if any one did but speak a good word of our Saviour , he should be presently excommunicated and cast out , persecuted and devoted to the death . To this end they were wont , not only to separate , but 〈◊〉 themselves from the herd and community , by some peculiar notes and badges of distinction ; such as their long Robes , broad 〈◊〉 , and their large Fringes and Borders of their Garments , whereby they made themselves known from the rest of men . These dogged and ill-natured principles , together with their seditious , unnatural , unjust , unmerciful , and uncharitable behaviour , which otherwise would have made them stink above-ground in the nostrils of men , they sought to palliate and 〈◊〉 over with a more than ordinary pretence and profession of Religion : but were especially active and diligent in what cost them little , the outward instances of Religion , such duties especially as did more immediately refer to God , as frequent fasting , and praying , which they did very often , and very long , with demure and mortified looks , in a whining and an affected tone , and this almost in every corner of the streets : and indeed so contrived the scheme of their Religion , that what they did , might appear above ground , where they might be seen of men to the best advantage . 7. THOUGH this seems to have been the general temper and disposition of the party , yet doubtless there were some amongst them of better and honester principles than the rest . In which number we have just reason to reckon our Apostle : who yet was deeply leavened with the active and fiery genius of the Sect ; not able to brook any opposite party in Religion , especially if late and novel . Insomuch that when the Jews were resolved to do execution upon Stephen , he stood by and kept the cloaths of them that did it . Whether he was any further engaged in the death of this innocent and good man , we do not find . However this was enough loudly to proclaim his approbation and consent . And therefore elsewhere we find him indicting himself for this fact , and pleading guilty . When the blood of thy Martyr Stephen was shed , I also was standing by , and consenting unto his death , and kept the raiment of them that slew him . God chiefly inspects the heart , and if the vote be passed there , writes the man guilty , though he stir no farther . 'T is easie to murder another by a silent wish , or a passionate desire . In all moral actions God values the will for the deed , and reckons the man a companion in the sin , who , though possibly he may never actually joyn in it , does yet inwardly applaud and like it . The storm thus begun , encreased a pace , and a violent persecution began to arise , which miserably afflicted and dispersed the Christians at Jerusalem . In which our Apostle was a prime Agent and Minister , raging about in all parts with a mad and ungovernable zeal , searching out the Saints , beating them in the Synagogues , compelling many to blaspheme , imprisoning others , and procuring them to be put to death . Indeed he was a kind of Inquisitor 〈◊〉 pravitatis to the High-Priest , by whom he was imployed to hunt and find out these upstart 〈◊〉 , who preached against the Law of Moses , and the Traditions of the Fathers . Accordingly having made strange havock at Jerusalem , he addressed himself to the Sanhedrim , and there took out a Warrant and Commission to go down and ransack the Synagogues at Damascus . How eternally infatiable is fury and a misguided zeal ! how restless and unwearied in its designs of cruelty ! it had already 〈◊〉 harassed the poor Christians at Jerusalem , but not content to have vexed them there , and to have driven them thence , it persecuted them unto strange Cities , following them even to Damascus it self , whither many of these persecuted Christians had 〈◊〉 for shelter , resolving to bring up those whom he found there to Jerusalem , in order to their punishment and execution . For the Jewish Sanhedrim had not only power of seising and scourging offenders against their Law within the bounds of their own Country , but by the connivence and favour of the Romans , might send into other Countries , where there were any Synagogues that acknowledged a dependence in Religious matters upon the Council at Jerusalem , to apprehend them ; as here they sent Paul to Damascus to fetch up what Christians he could find , to be arraigned and sentenced at Jerusalem . 8. BUT God who had designed him for work of another nature , and separated him from his Mothers womb to the preaching of the Gospel , stopt him in his journey . For while he was together with his company travelling on the Road , not far from Damascus , on a sudden a gleam of light beyond the splendor and brightness of the Sun , was darted from Heaven upon them , whereat being strangely amazed and confounded , they all fell to the ground , a voice calling to him , Saul , Saul , why persecutest thou me ? To which he replied , Lord , who art thou ? Who told him , That he was Jesus whom he persecuted , that what was done to the members was done to the head , that it was hard for him to kick against the pricks , that he now appeared to him , to make choice of him for a Minister , and a 〈◊〉 of what he had now seen , and should after hear ; that he would stand by him , and preserve him , and make him a great instrument in the conversion of the Gentile World. This said , He asked our Lord , what he would have him to do ? who bad him go into the City , where he should receive his Answer . S. Paul's companions , who had been present at this transaction , heard the voice , but saw not him that spoke to him : though elsewhere the Apostle himself affirms , that they saw the light , but heard not the voice of him that spake , that is , they heard a confused sound , but not a distinct and articulate voice ; or , more probably , being ignorant of the Hebrew Language , wherein our Lord spake to S. Paul , they heard the words , but knew not the sence and the meaning of them . 9. S. PAUL by this time was gotten up , but though he found his feet , yet he had lost his eyes , being stricken blind with the Extraordinary brightness of the light , and was accordingly led by his companions into Damascus . In which condition he there remained fasting three days together . At this time , we may probably suppose it was , that he had that vision and ecstasie , wherein he was taken up into the third Heaven , where he saw and heard things great and unutterable , and was fully instructed in the mysteries of the Gospel , and hence expresly affirms , that he was not taught the Gospel which he preached by man , but by the Revelation of Jesus Christ. There was at this time at Damascus one Ananias , a very devout and religious man , ( one of the seventy Disciples , as the Ancients inform us , and probably the first planter of the Christian Church in this City ) and though a Christian , yet of great reputation amongst all the Jews . To him our Lord appeared , commanding him to go into such a street , and to such an house , and there enquire for one Saul of Tarsus , who was now at Prayer , and had seen him in a Vision coming to him , to lay his hands upon him , that 〈◊〉 might receive his sight . Ananias startled at the name of the man , having heard of his bloudy temper and practises , and upon what errand he was now come down to the City . But our Lord to take off his fears , told him , that he mistook the man , that he had now taken him to be a chosen vessel , to preach the Gospel both to Jews and Gentiles , and before the greatest Potentates upon Earth , acquainting him with what great things he should both do and suffer for his sake , what chains and imprisonments , what racks and scourges , what hunger and thirst , what shipwracks and death , he should undergo . Upon this Ananias went , laid his hands upon him , told him that our Lord had sent him to him , that he might receive his sight , and be filled with the Holy Ghost , which was no sooner done , but thick films like scales fell from his eyes , and his sight returned . And the next thing he did was to be baptized , and solemnly initiated into the Christian Faith. After which he joyned himself to the Disciples of that place , to the equal joy and wonder of the Church : that the Wolf should so soon lay down its fierceness , and put on the meek nature of a Lamb ; that he who had lately been so virulent a persecutor , should now become not a professor only , but a preacher of that Faith , which before he had routed and destroyed . SECT . II. Of S. Paul , from his Conversion , till the Council at Jerusalem . S. Paul's leaving Damascus , and why . His Three Years Ministry in Arabia . His return to Damascus . The greatness of that City . The design of the Jews to surprize S. Paul , and the manner of his escape . His coming to Jerusalem , and converse with Peter and James . His departure thence . The Disciples first stiled Christians 〈◊〉 Antioch . This when done , and by whom . The solemnity of it . The importance of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , what . S. Paul's Journey to Jerusalem with contributions . His voyage to Cyprus , and planting Christianity there . The opposition made by Elymas , and his severe punishment . The Proconsuls conversion . His preaching to the Jews at Antioch of Pisidia . His curing a Cripple at Lystra ; and discourse to the people about their Idolatry . The Apostles way of arguing noted ; and his discourse concerning the Being and Providence of God illustrated . His confirming the Churches in the Faith. The controversie at Antioch ; and S. Paul's account of it in the Synod at Jerusalem . SAINT Paul staid not long at Damascus after his Conversion , but having received an immediate intimation from Heaven , probably in the Ecstasie wherein he was caught up thither , he waited for no other counsel or direction in the case , lest he should seem to derive his Mission and Authority from Men , and being not disobedient to the Heavenly Vision , he presently retired out of the City ; and the sooner probably , to decline the Odium of the Jews , and the effects of that rage and malice , which he was sure would pursue and follow him . He withdrew into the parts of Arabia , where he spent the first fruits of his Ministery , Preaching up and down for three Years together . After which he returned back to Damascus , Preached openly in the Synagogues , and convinced the Jews of Christ's Messiah-ship , and the truth of his Religion . Angry and inraged hereat , they resolved his Ruine , which they knew no better way to effect , than by exasperating and incensing the Civil powers against him . Damascus was a place , not more venerable for its Antiquity , if not built by , at least it gave title to Abraham's steward , hence called , Eliezer of Damascus , than it was considerable for its strength , stateliness and scituation : it was the noblest City of all Syria ( as * Justin of old , and the Arabian ‖ Geographer has since informed us , and the Prophet Isaiah before both calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the head of Syria ) seated in a most healthful Air , in a most fruitful Soyl , watered with most pleasant Fountains and Rivers , rich in Merchandize , adorned with stately Buildings , goodly and magnificent Temples , and fortified with strong Guards and Garrisons : in all which respects * Julian calls it the Holy and great Damascus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Eye of the whole East . Scituate it was between Libanus and Mount Hermon , and though properly belonging to Syria , yet Arabiae retro deputabatur ( as ‖ Tertullian tells us ) was in after times reckoned to Arabia . Accordingly at this time it was under the Government of Aretas ( Father-in-law to Herod the Tetrarch ) King of Arabia Petraea , a Prince tributary to the Roman Empire . By him there was an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or Governour , who had Jurisdiction over the whole Syria Damascena , placed over it , who kept constant residence in the City , as a place of very great importance . To him the Jews made their address , with crafty and cunning insinuations perswading him to apprehend S. Paul , possibly under the notion of a Spy , there being War at this time between the Romans , and that King. Hereupon the Gates were shut , and extraordinary Guards set , and all Engines that could be laid to take him . But the Disciples to prevent their cruel designs , at Night put him into a Basket , and let him down over the City-wall . And the place , we are * told , is still shewed to Travellers , not far from the Gate , thence called S. Paul's Gate at this day . 2. HAVING thus made his escape , he set forwards for Jerusalem , where when he arrived , he addressed himself to the Church . But they knowing the former temper and principles of the Man , universally shunn'd his company ; till Barnabas brought him to Peter , who was not yet cast into Prison , and to James , our Lord's Brother , Bishop of Jerusalem , acquainting them with the manner of his conversion , and by them he was familiarly entertained . Here he staid fifteen days , preaching Christ , and confuting the Hellenist Jews with a mighty courage and resolution . But snares were here again laid to intrap him , as malice can as well cease to be , as to be restless and active . Whereupon he was warned by God in a Vision , that his Testimony would not find acceptance in that place , that therefore he should leave it , and betake himself to the Gentiles . Accordingly being conducted by the Brethren to Caesarea , he set saile for Tarsus , his Native City , from whence not long after he was fetched by Barnabas to Antioch , to assist him in propagating Christianity in that place . In which imployment they continued there a whole Year . And now it was that the Disciples of the Religion were at this place first called Christians ; according to the manner of all other Institutions , who were wont to take their denominations from the first Authors and Founders of them . Before this they were usually stiled ‖ Nazarens , as being the Disciples and followers of Jesus of Nazareth , a Name by which the Jews in scorn call them to this day , with the same intent that the Gentiles of old used to call them Galileans . The name of Nazarenes was hence-forward fixed upon those Jewish converts , who mixed the Law and the Gospel , and compounded a Religion out of Judaism and Christianity . The fixing this honourable Name upon the Disciples of the crucified Jesus was done at Antioch ( as an ancient * Historian informs us ) about the beginning of Claudius his Reign , Ten Years after Christ's Ascension ; nay , he further adds , that Euodius lately ordained Bishop of that place was the person that imposed this name upon them , stiling them Christians , who before were called Nazarenes and Galilaeans , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as my Authors words are . I may not omit , what a learned ‖ Man has observed , that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used by S. Luke ( they were called ) implies the thing to have been done by some publick and solemn act and declaration of the whole Church , such being the use of the word in the Imperial Edicts and proclamations of those times , the Emperors being said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to stile themselves , when they publickly proclaimed by what titles they would be called . When any Province submitted it self to the Roman Empire , the Emperor was wont by publick Edict 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to entitle himself to the Government and Jurisdiction of it , and the People to several great priviledges and immunities . In a grateful sense whereof the People usually made this time the solemn date of their common Epocha or computation . Thus ( as the forementioned * Historian informs us ) it was in the particular case of Antioch , and thence their publick AEra was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Ascription of the People of Antioch . Such being the general acception of the word , S. Luke ( who was himself a Native of this City ) makes use of it to express that solemn declaration , whereby the Disciples of the Religion entitled themselves to the Name of Christians . 3. IT happened about this time that a terrible Famine , foretold by Agabus , afflicted several parts of the Roman Empire , but especially Judaea : The consideration whereof made the Christians at Antioch compassionate the case of their suffering Brethren , and accordingly raised considerable contributions for their relief and succour , which they sent to Jerusalem by Barnabas and Paul , who having dispatched their Errand in that City , went back to Antioch . Where while they were joyning in the publick exercises of their Religion , it was revealed to them by the H. Ghost , that they should set apart Paul and Barnabas to preach the Gospel in other places . Which was done accordingly , and they by Prayer , Fasting and Imposition of Hands immediately deputed for that service . Hence they departed to Seleucia , and thence sailed to Cyprus , where at Salamis , a great City in that Island , they Preached in the Synagogues of the Jews . Hence they removed to Paphos , the residence of Sergius Paulus the Proconsul of the Island , a Man of great wisdom and prudence , but miserably seduced by the wicked Artifices of Barjesus a Jewish Impostor , who called himself Elymas , or the Magician , vehemently opposed the Apostles , and kept the Proconsul from embracing of the Faith. Nay , ‖ one who pretends to be ancient enough to know it , seems to intimate , that he not only spake , but wrote against S. Paul's Doctrine , and the Faith of Christ. However , the Proconsul calls for the Apostles , and S. Paul first takes Elymas to task , and having severely checked him for his malicious opposing of the truth , told him , that the Divine Vengeance was now ready to seize upon him . Upon which he was immediately struck blind . The Vengeance of God observing herein a kind of just proportion , that he should be punished with the loss of his Bodily eyes , who had so wilfully and maliciously shut the eyes of his mind against the light of the Gospel , and had indeavoured to keep not only himself , but others under so much blindness and darkness . This Miracle turned the Scale with the Proconsul , and quickly brought him over a Convert to the Faith. 4. AFTER this success in Cyprus , he went to Perga in Pamphilia , where taking Titus along with him in the room of Mark , who was returned to Jerusalem , they went to Antioch the Metropolis of Pisidia . Where entring into the Jewish Synagogue on the Sabbath Day , after some Sections of the Law were read , they were invited by the Rulers of the Synagogue to discourse a little to the People . Which S. Paul did in a large and eloquent Sermon , wherein he put them in mind of the many great and particular blessings which God had heaped upon the Jewes , from the first Originals of that Nation ; that he had crowned them all with the sending of his Son , to be the Messiah and the Saviour , that though the Jewes had ignorantly crucified this just , innocent Person , yet that God according to his own predictions had raised him up from the dead , that through Him they preached forgiveness of sins , and that by Him alone it was that Men , if ever , must be justified and acquitted from that Guilt and Condemnation , which all the pompous Ceremonies , and Ministeries of the Mosaic Law could never do away : That therefore they should do well to take heed lest by their opposing this way of Salvation , they should bring upon themselves that prophetical curse , which God had threatned to the Jews of old for their great contumacy and neglect . This Sermon wanted not its due effects . The 〈◊〉 - Jewes desired the Apostles to discourse again to them of this matter the next Sabbath Day , the Apostles also perswading them to continue firm in the belief of these things . The Day was no sooner come , but the whole City almost flocked to be their Auditors , which when the Jewes saw , acted by a spirit of envy , they began to blaspheme , and to contradict the Apostles , who nothing daunted , told them that our Lord had charged them first to preach the Gospel to the Jews , which since they so obstinately rejected , they were now to address themselves to the Gentiles , who hearing this exceedingly rejoyced at the good news , and magnified the Word of God , and as many of them as were thus prepared and disposed towards eternal life , heartily closed with it and embraced it ; the Apostles preaching not there only , but through the whole Country round about . The Jews more exasperated than before , resolved to be rid of their company , and to that end perswaded some of the more devout and honourable Women , to deal with their Husbands , Persons of prime rank and quality in the City , by whose means they were driven out of those parts . Whereat Paul and Barnabas shaking off the dust of their Feet , as a Testimony against their ingratitude and infidelity , departed from them . 5. THE next place they went to was Iconium , where at first they found kind entertainment , and good success , God setting a Seal to their Doctrine by the Testimony of his Miracles . But here the Jewish malice began again to ferment , exciting the People to sedition and a mutiny against them . Insomuch that hearing of a 〈◊〉 to stone them , they seasonably withdrew to Lystra : where they first made their way by a miraculous cure . For S. Paul seeing an impotent Cripple that had been lame from his Mothers Womb , cured him with the speaking of a word . The People who beheld the Miracle , had so much natural Logick , as to infer , that there was a Divinity in the thing , though mistaking the Author , they applied it to the Instruments , crying out , That the Gods in humane shape were come down from Heaven ; Paul as being chief Speaker , they termed Mercury , the God of speech and eloquence ; Barnabas by reason of his Age and gravity , they called Jupiter , the Father of their Gods ; accordingly the Syriac Interpreter here renders Jupiter by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord , or Soveraign of the Gods. The fame of this being spread over the City , the Priest of Jupiter brought Oxen , dressed up with Garlands after the Gentile Rites , to the House where the Apostles were , to do Sacrifice to them . Which they no sooner understood , but in detestation of those undue honours offered to them , they rent their clothes , and told them that they were Men of the same make and temper , of the same passions and infirmities with themselves , that the design of their Preaching was to convert them from these vain Idolatries and superstitions , to the worship of the true God , the great Parent of the World , who though heretofore he had left Men to themselves , to go on in their own ways of Idolatrous worship , yet had he given sufficient evidence of himself in the constant returns of a gracious and benign providence in crowning the Year with fruitful Seasons , and other acts of common kindness and bounty to Mankind . 6. A SHORT discourse , but very rational and convictive , which it may not be amiss a little more particularly to consider , and the method which the Apostle uses to convince these blind Idolaters . He proves Divine honours to be due to God alone , as the Sovereign Being of the World , and that there is such a Supreme infinite Being , he argues from his Works both of Creation and Providence . Creation , He is the living God that made Heaven , and Earth , the Sea , and all things that are therein . Providence , He left not himself without witness , in that he did good , and gave rain from Heaven , and fruitful seasons , filling our hearts with food and gladness . Than which no argument can be more apt and proper to work upon the minds of men . That which may be known of God is manifest to the Gentiles , for God hath shewed it unto them . For the invisible things of him from the Creation of the world , even his eternal power and Godhead , are clearly seen and understood by the things that are made : It being impossible impartially to survey the several parts of the Creation , and not see in every place evident footsteps of an infinite wisdom , power , and goodness . Who can look up unto the Heavens , and not there discern and Almighty wisdom , beautifully garnishing those upper Regions , distinguishing the circuits , and perpetuating the motions of the Heavenly lights ? placing the Sun in the middle of the Heavens , that he might equally dispence and communicate his light and heat to all parts of the World , and not burn the Earth with the too near approach of his seorching beams : by which means the Creatures are refreshed and cheared , the Earth impregnated with fruits and flowers by the benign influence of a vital heat , and the vicissitudes and seasons of the year regularly distinguished by their constant and orderly revolutions . Whence are the great Orbs of Heaven kept in continual motion , always going in the same tract , but because there 's a Superiour power that keeps these great wheels a going ? Who is it that poises the ballancings of the Clouds ; that divides a water-course for the overflowing of waters , and a way for the lightning of the Thunder ? Who can bind the sweet influences of Pleiades , or loose the bands of Orion ? Or who can bring forth Mazaroth in his season , or guide Arcturus with his sons ? Do these come by chance ? or by the secret appointment of infinite wisdom ? Who can consider the admirable thinness and purity of the Air , its immediate subserviency to the great ends of the Creation , its being the treasury of vital breath to all living Creatures , without which the next moment must put a period to our days , and not reflect upon that Divine wisdom that contrivedit ? If we come down upon the Earth , there we discover a Divine providence , supporting it with the pillars of an invisible power , stretching the North over the empty space , and hanging the Earth upon nothing ; filling it with great variety of admirable and useful Creatures , and maintaining them all according to their kinds at his own cost and charges . 'T is he that clothes the Grass with a delightful verdure , that crowns the Year with his loving kindness , and makes the Valleys stand thick with corn ; that causes the Grass to grow for the Cattel , and Herb for the service of Man , that he may bring forth food out of the Earth ; and Wine that maketh glad the heart of man , and Oil to make his face to shine , and Bread which strengthneth man's heart ; that beautifies the Lilies that neither toil nor spin , and that with a glory that out-shines Solomon in all his pomp and grandeur . From Land let us ship our observations to Sea , and there we may descry the wise effects of infinite understanding : A wide Ocean fitly disposed for the mutual commerce and correspondence of one part of mankind with another ; filled with great and admirable Fishes , and enriched with the treasures of 〈◊〉 deep . What but an Almighty arm can shut in the Sea with doors , bind it by a 〈◊〉 tual decree that it cannot pass , and tye up its wild raging waves with no stronger 〈◊〉 dage than ropes of Sand ? Who but he commands the storm , and stills the 〈◊〉 and brings the Mariner , when at his wits-end , in the midst of the greatest dangers , to his desired Haven ? They that go down to the Sea in ships , and do business in great waters ; these see the works of the Lord , and his wonders in the deep . So impossible is it for a man to stand in any part of the Creation , wherein he may not discern evidences enough of an infinitely wise , gracious and Omnipotent Being . Thus much I thought good to add , to illustrate the Apostles argument ; whence he strongly infers , that 't is very reasonable , that we should worship and adore this great Creator and Benefactor , and not transfer the honours due to him alone upon men of frail and sinful passions , and much less upon dumb Idols , unable either to make or to help themselves . An argument , which though very plain and plausible , and adapted to the meanest understandings , yet was all little enough to restrain the people from offering Sacrifice to them . But how soon was the wind turned into another corner ? The old spirit of the Jews did still haunt and pursue them : Who coming from Antioch and 〈◊〉 , exasperated and stirred up the multitude . And they who just before accounted them as Gods , used them now worse , not only than ordinary men , but slaves . For in a mighty rage they fall upon S. Paul , stone him , as they thought , dead , and then drag him out of the City : Whither the Christians of that place coming , probably to interr him , he suddenly revived , and rose up amongst them , and the next day went thence to Derbe . 7. HERE they preached the Gospel , and then returned to Lystra , 〈◊〉 , and Antioch of Pisidia , confirming the Christians of those places in the belief and profession of Christianity , earnestly perswading them to persevere , and not be discouraged with those troubles and persecutions which they must expect would attend the profession of the Gospel . And that all this might succeed the better , with fasting and prayer they ordained Governours and Pastors in every Church , and having recommended them to the grace of God , departed from them . From hence they passed through Pisidia and thence came to Pamphilia , and having preached to the people at Perga , they went down to Attalia . And thus having at this time finished the whole circuit of their Ministery , they returned back to Antioch in Syria , the place whence they had first set out . Here they acquainted the Church with the various transactions and successes of their travels , and how great a door had hereby been opened to the conversion of the Gentile World. 8. WHILE S. Paul staid at Antioch there arose that famous controversie about the observation of the Mosaic Rites , set on foot and brought in by some Jewish Converts that came down thither , whereby great disturbances and distractions were made in the minds of the people . For the composing whereof the Church of Antioch resolved to send Paul and Barnabas to consult with the Apostles and Church at Jerusalem . In their way thither , they declared to the Brethren , as they went along , what success they had had in the conversion of the Gentiles . Being come to Jerusalem , they first addressed themselves to Peter , James , and John , the pillars and principal persons in that place : By whom they were kindly entertained , and admitted to the right hand of fellowship . And perceiving by the account which S. Paul gave them , that the Gospel of the uncircumcision was committed to him , as that of the circumcision was to Peter ; they ratified it by compact and agreement , that Peter should preach to the Jews , and Paul unto the Gentiles . Hereupon a Council was summoned , wherein Peter having declared his sence of things , Paul and Barnabas acquainted them what great things God by their Ministery had done among the Gentiles . A plain evidence , that though uncircumcised , they were accepted by God as well as the Jews with all their legal Rites and Priviledges . The issue of the debate was , That the Gentiles were not under the obligation of the Law of Moses , and that therefore some persons of their own should be joyned with Paul and Barnabas , to carry the Canons and decrees of the Council down to Antioch , for their fuller satisfaction in this matter . But of this affair we shall give the Reader a more distinct and particular account in another place . SECT . III. Of S. Paul , from the time of the Synod at Jerusalem , till his departure from Athens . S. Paul's carrying the Apostolick Decree to Antioch . His 〈◊〉 with Peter . The dissention between him and Barnabas . His Travels to confirm the new-planted Churches . The conversion of Lydia at Philippi . The Jewish Proseuchae , what ; the frequency of them in all places . The dispossessing of a Pythonesse . S. Paul's imprisonment and ill usage at Philippi . The great provision made by the Roman Laws for the security of its Subjects . His preaching at Thessalonica and Beraea . His going to Athens . The fame of that place . His doctrine opposed by the Stoicks and Epicureans , and why . The great 〈◊〉 and Superstition of that City . The Altar to the Unknown God. This Unknown God , who . The Superstition of the Jews in concealing the name of God. This imitated by the Gentiles . Their general Forms of 〈◊〉 their Deities noted . The particular occasion of these Altars at Athens , whence . S. Paul's discourse to the Philosophers in the Areopagus concerning the Divine Being and Providence . The different entertainment of his Doctrine . Dionysius the Areopagite , who . His Learning , Conversion , and being made Bishop of Athens . The difference between him and S. Denys of Paris . The Books published under his name . 1. SAINT Paul and his Companions having received the Decretal Epistle , returned back to 〈◊〉 ; where they had not been long before Peter came thither to them . And according to the Decree of the Council freely and inoffensively conversed with the Gentiles : Till some of the Jews coming down thither from Jerusalem , he withdrew his converse , as if it were a thing unwarrantable and unlawful . By which means the minds of many were dissatisfied , and their Consciences very much ensnared . Whereat S. Paul being exceedingly troubled , publickly rebuked him for it , and that as the case required , with great sharpness and severity . It was not long after , that S. Paul and 〈◊〉 resolved upon visiting the Churches , which they had lately planted among the Gentiles . To which end Barnabas determined to take his cousin Mark along with them . This , Paul would by no means agree to , he having deserted them in their former journey : A little spark , which yet kindled a great feud and dissention between these two good men , and arose to that height , that in some discontent they parted from each other . So natural is it for the best of men sometimes to indulge an unwarrantable passion , and so far to espouse the interest of a private and particular humour , as rather to hazard the great Law of Charity , and violate the bands of friendship , than to recede from it . The effect was , Barnabas taking his Nephew , went for Cyprus , his native Country , S. Paul made choice of Silas , and the success of his undertaking being first recommended to the Divine care and goodness , they set forwards on their journey . 2. THEIR first passage was into Syria and Cilicia , confirming the Churches as they went along . And to that end 〈◊〉 with them Copies of the Synodical Decrees , lately ordained in the Council at Jerusalem . Hence we may suppose it was that he set 〈◊〉 for Crete , where he preached and propagated Christianity , and constituted Titus to be the first Bishop and Pastor of that Island , whom he left there , to settle and dispose those affairs , which the shortness of his own stay in those parts would not suffer him to do . Hence he returned back unto Cilicia , and came to Lystra , where he found Timothy , whose Father was a Greek , his Mother a Jewish convert , by whom he had been brought up under all the advantages of a pious and religious education , and especially an incomparable skill and dexterity in the holy Scriptures . S. Paul designing him for the companion of his travels , and a special instrument in the Ministery of the Gospel , and knowing that his being uncircumcised would be a mighty prejudice in the opinion and estimation of the Jews , caused him to be circumcised ; being willing in lawful and indifferent matters ( such was Circumcision now become ) to accommodate himself to mens humors and apprehensions for the saving of their Souls . 3. FROM hence with his company he passed through Phrygia , and the Country of Galatia , where he was entertained by them with as mighty a kindness and veneration , as if he had been an Angel immediately sent from Heaven . And being by Revelation forbidden to go into Asia , by a second Vision he was commanded to direct his journey for Macedonia . And here it was that S. Luke joyned himself to his company , and became ever after his inseparable companion . Sailing from Troas , they arrived at the Island Samothracia , and thence to 〈◊〉 , from whence they went to Philippi , the chief City of that part of Macedonia , and a Roman Colony : where he staid some considerable time to plant the Christian Faith , and where his Ministery had more particular success on Lydia , a Purple-seller , born at 〈◊〉 , baptized together with her whole Family ; and with her the Apostle sojourned during his residence in that place . A little without this City there was a Proseucha , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Syriac renders it , an Oratory , or house of Prayer , whereto the Apostle and his company used frequently to retire , for the exercise of their Religion , and for preaching the Gospel to 〈◊〉 that resorted thither . The Jews had 〈◊〉 sorts of places for their publick worship : The Temple at Jerusalem , which was like the Cathedral , or Mother-Church , where all Sacrifices and Oblations were 〈◊〉 , and where all Males were bound three times a-year personally to pay their devotions : Their Synagogues ( many whereof they had almost in every place , not unlike our Parochial Churches ) where the Scriptures were read and expounded , and the people taught their duty . Moses of old time hath in every City them that preach him , being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath-day . And then they had their 〈◊〉 ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Philo sometimes calls them ) or 〈◊〉 , which were like Chappels of Ease to the Temple and the 〈◊〉 , whither the people were wont to come solemnly to offer up their Prayers to Heaven . They were built ( as * 〈◊〉 informs us ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , without the City , in the open Air and uncovered , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , being large spacious places , after the manner of Fora , or Market-places , and these they called 〈◊〉 . And that the Jews and Samaritans had such places of Devotion , he proves from this very place at Philippi , where S. Paul preached . For they had them not in Judaea only , but even at Rome it self , where Tiberius ( as * Philo tells 〈◊〉 the Emperor ) suffered the Jews to inhabit the Transtiberin Region , and undisturbedly to 〈◊〉 according to the Rites of their Institutions , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 to have their Proseucha's , and to meet in them , especially upon their holy Sabbaths , that they might be familiarly instructed in the Laws and Religion of their Country . Such they had also in other places , especially where they had not , or were not suffered to have Synagogues for their publick worship . But to return . 4. AS they were going to this Oratory , they were often followed by a Pythonesse , a Maid-servant , acted by a spirit of Divination , who openly cried out , That these men were the servants of the most high God , who came to shew the way of Salvation to the World. So easily can Heaven extort a Testimony from the mouth of Hell. But S. Paul , to shew how little he needed Satan to be his witness , commanded the Daemon to come out , which immediately left her . The evil Spirit thus thrown out of possession , presently raised a storm against the Apostles ; for the Masters of the Damsel , who used by her Diabolical arts to raise great advantages to themselves , being sensible that now their gainful Trade was spoil'd , resolved to be revenged on them that had spoiled it . Accordingly they laid hold upon them , and drag'd them before the Seat of Judicature , insinuating to the Governours , that these men were Jews , and sought to introduce different customs and ways of worship , contrary to the Laws of the Roman Empire . The Magistrates and People were soon agreed , the one to give Sentence , the other to set upon the Execution . In fine , they were stript , beaten , and then commanded to be thrown into Prison ; and the Jaylor charged to keep them with all possible care and strictness . Who to make sure of his charge , thrust them into the Inner-Dungeon , and made their feet fast in the Stocks . But a good man can turn a Prison into a Chappel , and make a den of Thieves to be an house of Prayer . Our feet cannot be bound so fast to the Earth , but that still our hearts may mount up to Heaven . At midnight the Apostles were over-heard by their fellow-prisoners , praying , and singing Hymns to God. But after the still voice came the Tempest . An Earthquake suddenly 〈◊〉 the foundations of the Prison , the Doors 〈◊〉 open , and their Chains fell off . The Jaylor awaking with this amazing accident , concluded with himself , that the Prisoners were fled , and to prevent the Sentence of publick Justice , was going to lay violent hands upon himself , which S. Paul espying , called out to him to hold his hand , and told him they were all there : Who thereupon came in to them with a greater Earthquake in his own Conscience , and falling down before them , asked them , What he should do to be saved ? They told him there was no other way of Salvation for him or his , than an hearty and sincere embracing of the Faith of Christ. What a happy change does Christianity make in the minds of men ! How plain does it smooth the roughest tempers , and instill the sweetest principles of civility and good nature ! He who but a little before had tyrannized over the Apostles with the most merciless and cruel usage , began now to treat them with all the arts of kindness and charity , bringing them out of the Dungeon , and washing their stripes and wounds , and being more fully instructed in the principles of Christianity , was , together with his whole Family , immediately baptized by them . Early in the morning the Magistrates sent Officers privately to release them : Which the Apostles refused , telling them , That they were not only innocent persons , but Romans ; that they had been illegally condemned & beaten , that therefore their delivery should be as publick , as the injury , and an open vindication of their innocency , and that they themselves , that had sent them thither , should fetch them thence ; for the Roman Government was very tender of the lives and liberties of its own subjects , those especially that were free Denizens of Rome , every injury offered to a Roman being look'd upon as an affront against the Majesty of the whole people of Rome . Such a one might not be beaten ; but to be 〈◊〉 , or bound , without being first legally heard and tried , was not only against the Roman , but the Laws of all Nations : * and the more publick any injury was , the greater was its aggravation , & the Laws required a more strict and solemn reparation . S. Paul who was a Roman , and very well understood the Laws and priviledges of Rome , insisted upon this , to the great startling and affrighting of the Magistrates , who sensible of their error , came to the Prison , and intreated them to depart . Whereupon going to Lydia's house , and having saluted and encouraged the Brethren , they departed from that place . 5. LEAVING Philippi , they came next to Thessalonica , the Metropolis of Macedonia ; where Paul , according to his custom , presently went to the Jewish Synagogue , for three Sabbath-days , reasoning and disputing with them , proving from the predictions of the Old Testament , that the 〈◊〉 was to suffer , and to rise again , and that the blessed Jesus was this Messiah . Great numbers , especially of religious Proselytes , were converted by his preaching : while like the Sun that melts wax , but hardens clay , it wrought a quite contrary effect in the unbelieving Jews , who presently ser themselves to blow up the City into a tumult and an uproar , and missing S. Paul ( who had withdrawn himself ) they fell foul upon Jason , in whose house he lodged ; representing to the Magistrates , that they were enemies to Caesar , and sought to undermine the peace and prosperity of the Roman Empire . At night Paul and Silas were conducted by the Brethren to Beraea . Where going to the Synagogue , they found the people of a more noble and generous , a more pliable and ingenuous temper , ready to entertain the Christian doctrine , but yet not willing to take it merely upon the Apostles word , till they had first compared his preaching with what the Scriptures say of the Messiah and his Doctrine . And the success was answerable , in those great numbers that came over to them . But the Jewish malice pursued them still , for hearing at Thessalonica , what entertainment they had found in this place , they presently came down , to exasperate and stir up the people . To avoid which , S. Paul leaving Silas and Timothy behind him , thought good to withdraw himself from that place . 6. FROM Beraea he went to Athens , one of the most renowned Cities in the World , excelling all others ( says an Ancient * Historian ) in Antiquity , Humanity , and Learning : Indeed it was the great seat of Arts and Learning , and as ‖ Cicero will have it , the fountain whence Civility , Learning , Religion , Arts and Laws were derived into all other Nations . So universally flocked to by all that had but the least kindness for the Muses , or good Manners , that he who had not seen Athens , was accounted a Block ; he who having seen it , was not in love with it , a dull stupid Asse ; and he who after he had seen it , could be willing to leave it , fit for nothing but to be a Pack-Horse . Here among the several Sects of Philosophers , he had more particular contests with the 〈◊〉 and Epicureans , who beyond all the rest seemed enemies to Christianity . The Epicureans , because they found their pleasant and jovial humour , and their loose and exorbitant course of life , so much checked and controlled by the strict and severe precepts of Christ , and that Christianity so plainly and positively asserted a Divine providence , that governs the World , and that will adjudge to men suitable rewards and punishments in another World. The Stoicks on the other hand , though pretending to principles of great and uncommon rigour and severity , and such as had nearest affinity to the doctrines of the Christian Religion , yet found themselves aggrieved with it : That meek and humble temper of mind , that modesty and self-denial , which the Gospel so earnestly recommends to us , and so strictly requires of us , being so directly contrary to the immoderate pride and ambition of that Sect , who beyond all proportions of reason were not ashamed to make their wise man equal to , and in some things to exceed God himself . 7. WHILE S. Paul staid at Athens in expectation of Silas and Timothy to come to him , he went up and down to take a more curious view and survey of the City ; which he found miserably overgrown with Superstition and Idolatry . As indeed Athens was noted by all their own writers for far greater numbers of Deities and Idols than all Greece besides . They were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 * Strabo notes : Not more sond of strangers and novelties in other things , than forward to comply with novelties in Religion , ready to entertain any foreign Deities and Rites of worship ; no Divinity that was elsewhere adored , coming amiss to them . Whence Athens is by ‖ one of their own Orators stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the great Summ and Center of Piety and Religion : And he there aggravates the impiety of Epicurus , in speaking unworthily and irreverently of the Gods , from the place where he did it ; at Athens , a place so pious , so devoted to them . Indeed herein justly commendable , that they could not brook the least dishonourable reflexion upon any Deity , and therefore * Apollonius Tyanaeus tells Timasion , that the safest way was to speak well of all the Gods , and especially at Athens , where Altars were dedicated even to Unknown Gods. And so S. Paul here found it , for among the several Shrines and places of Worship and Devotion , he took more particular notice of one Altar inscribd To the Unknown God. The intire Inscription , whereof the Apostle quotes only part of the last words , is thought to have been this . TO the Gods of Asia , Europe , and Africa , to the strange and UNKNOWN GOD. Saint * Hierom represents it in the same manner , onely makes it Gods in the plural number , which because , says he , S. Paul needed not , he only cited it in the singular . Which surely he affirms without any just ground and warrant : though it cannot be denied , but that Heathen Writers make frequent mention of the Altars of unknown Gods , that were at Athens , as there want not others who speak of some erected there to an unknown God. This Notion the Athenians might probably borrow from the Hebrews , who had the Name of God in great secrecy and veneration . This being one of the Titles given him by the Prophet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a hidden God , or a God that hides himself . Sure I am that ‖ Justin Martyr tells us , that one of the principal names given to God by some of the Heathens , was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , one altogether hidden . Hence the Egyptians probably derived their great God Ammon , or more truly Amun , which signifies occult , or hidden . Accordingly in this passage of S. Paul the Syriac Interpreter renders it , the Altar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the hidden God. The Jews were infinitely superstitious in concealing the Name of God , not thinking it lawful ordinarily to pronounce it . This made the Gentiles , strangers at best both to the Language and Religion of the Jews , at a great loss by what Name to call him , only stiling him in general an uncertain , unspeakable , invisible Deity ; whence * Caligula in his ranting Oration to the Jewes , told them , that wretches as they were , though they refused to own him , whom all others had confessed to be a Deity , yet they could worship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , their own nameless God. And hence the Gentiles derived their custom of keeping secret the name of their Gods ; Thus (a) Plutarch tells us of the Tutelar Deity of Rome , that it was not lawful to name it , or so much as to enquire what Sex it was of , whether God or Goddess ; and that for once revealing it , Valerius Soranus ; though Tribune of the People , came to an untimely end , and was crucified , the vilest and most dishonourable kind of death . Whereof among other reasons he assigns this , that by concealing the Author of their publick safety , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , not he only , but all the other Gods might have due honour and worship paid to them . Hence in their publick adorations , after the Invocation of particular Deities , they were wont to add some more general and comprehensive form , as when Cicero had been making his address to most of their particular Gods , he concludes with a * Caeteros item Deos , Deasque omnes imploro atque obtestor . Usually the form was , DII DEAEQUE OMNES. The reason whereof was this , that not being assured many times what that peculiar Deity was , that was proper to their purpose , or what numbers of Gods there were in the World , they would not 〈◊〉 or offend any , by seeming to neglect and pass them by . And this ‖ Chrysostome thinks to have been particularly designed in the erection of this Athenian Altar , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they were afraid lest there might be some other Deity ( besides those whom they particularly worshipped ) as yet unknown to them , though honoured and adored elsewhere , and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for the more security , they dedicated an Altar to the unknown God. As for the particular occasion of erecting theso Altars at Athens ( omitting that of Pans appearing to Philippides , mentioned by Occumenius ) the most probable seems to be this . When a great Plague raged at * Athens , and several means had been attempted for the removal of it , they were advised by 〈◊〉 the Philosopher , to build an Altar , and dedicate it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to the proper and peculiar Deity , to whom it did appertain , be he what he would . A course which proving successful , no doubt gave occasion to them by way of gratitude to erect more shrines to this unknown God. And accordingly Laertius , who lived long after S. Paul's time , tells us that there were such nameless Altars ( he means such as were not inscribed to any particular Deity ) in and about Athens in his days , as Monuments of that eminent deliverance . 7. BUT whatever the particular cause might be , hence it was that S. Paul took occasion , to discourse of the true , but to them unknown God. For the Philosophers had before treated him with a great deal of scorn and derision , asking what that idle and prating fellow had to say to them ? Others looking upon him as a propagater of new and strange Gods , because he preached to them Jesus and Anastasis or the Resurrection , which they looked upon as two upstart Deities ; lately come into the World. Hereupon they brought him to the place , where stood the famous Senate-house of the Areopagites , and according to the Athenian humour , which altogether delighted in curious novelties , running up and down the 〈◊〉 , and places of publick concourse to see any strange accident , or hear any new report ( a vice which their own great * Orator long since taxed them with ) they asked him , what that new and strange Doctrine was , which he preached to them ? Whereupon , in a neat and elegant discourse he began to tell them , he had observed how much they were over-run with superstition , that their zeal for Religion was indeed generous and commendable , but which miserably over-shot its due measures and proportions ; that he had taken notice of an Altar among them Inscribed , To the unknown God , and therefore in compassion to their blind and misguided zeal , he would declare unto them the Deity which they ignorantly worshipped ; and that this was no other , than the great God , the Creator of all things , the Supreme Governor and Ruler of the World , who was incapable of being confined within any Temple or humane Fabrick : That no Image could be made as a proper Instrument to represent him ; that he needed no Gifts or Sacrifices , being himself the Fountain , from whence Life , Breath , and all other blessings were derived to particular Beings : That from one common original he had made the whole Race of Mankind , and had wisely fixed and determined the times and bounds of their habitation : And all to this end , that Men might be the stronglier obliged to seek after him , and sincerely to serve and worship him . A duty which they might easily attain to ( though otherwise sunk into the deepest degeneracy , and over-spread with the grossest darkness ) he every where affording such palpable evidences of his own being and providence , that he seemed to stand near , and touch us ; It being intirely from him , that we derive our life , motion , and subsistence . A thing acknowledged even by their own Poct , that We also are his Off-spring . If therefore God was our Creator , it was highly unreasonable , to think that we could make any Image or Representation of Him : That it was too long already , that the Divine patience had born with the manners of Men , and suffered them to go on in their blind Idolatries , that now he expected a general repentance and reformation from the World , especially having by the publishing of his Gospel put out of all dispute the case of a future judgment , and particularly appointed the Holy Jesus to be the Person that should sentence and judge the World : By whose Resurrection he had given sufficient evidence and assurance of it . No sooner had he mentioned the Resurrection , but some of the Philosophers ( no doubt Epicureans , who were wont to laugh at the notion of a future state ) mocked and derided him , others more gravely answered , that they would hear him again concerning this matter . But his discourse however scorned and slighted , did not wholly want its desired effect , and that upon some of the greatest quality and rank among them . In the number of whom was Dionysius one of the grave Senators and Judges of the Areopagus , and Damaris whom the Ancients * not improbably make his Wife . 8. THIS Dionysius was bred at Athens , in all the learned Arts and Sciences ; at sive and twenty Years of Age , he is said to have travelled into Egypt , to perfect himself in the study of Astrology , for which that Nation had the credit and renown . Here beholding the miraculous Eclipse that was at the time of our Saviour's Passion , he concluded that some great accident must needs be coming upon the World. Returning to Athens , he became one of the Senators of the Arcopagus , disputed with S. Paul , and was by him converted from his Errours and Idolatry ; and being thoroughly instructed , was by him ( as the * Ancients inform us ) made the first Bishop of Athens . As for ‖ those that tell us , that he went afterwards into France by the direction of Clemens of Rome , planted Christianity at , and became Bishop of Paris , of his suffering Martyrdom there under Domitian , his carrying his Head for the space of two Miles in his Hand , after it had been cut off , and the rest of his Miracles done before , and after his Death , I have as little leisure to enquire into them , as I have faith to believe them . Indeed the foundation of all is justly denied , viz. that ever he was there , a thing never heard of till the times of Charles the Great , though since that , Volumes have been written of this controversie both heretofore , and of later times , among which J. Sirmondus the Jesuit , and Monsieur Launoy , one of the learned Doctors of the Sorbon , have unanswerably proved the Athenian and Parisian Dionysius to be distinct Persons . For the Books that go under his name , M. Daillé has sufficiently evinced them to 〈◊〉 of a date many Hundred Years younger than S. Denys , though I doubt not but they may claim a greater Antiquity , than what he allows them . But whoever was their Author , I am sure Suidas has over-stretched the praise of them beyond all proportion , when he gives them this character , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that whoever considers the elegancy of his discourses , and the profoundness of his notions and speculations , must needs conclude that they are not the issue of any humane understanding , but of some Divine and Immaterial Power . But to return to our Apostle . SECT . IV. Of S. Paul's Acts at Corinth and Ephesus . S. Paul's arrival at Corinth . The opposition made by the Jews . The success of his Preaching upon others . His first Epistle to the Thessalonians , when written . His Arraignment before Gallio . The second Epistle to the Thessalonians , and the design of it . S. Paul's voyage to Jerusalem . His coming to Ephesus . Disciples baptized into John's Baptism . S. Paul's preaching at Ephesus , and the Miracles wrought by him . Ephesus noted for the study of Magick . Jews eminently versed in Charms and Inchantments . The Original of the Mystery , whence pretended to have been derived . The ill attempt of the Sons of Sceva to dipossess Daemons in the name of Christ. S. Paul's doctrine greatly successful upon this sort of men . Books of Magick forbidden by the Roman Laws . S. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians , why , and when written . Diana's Temple at Ephesus , and its great stateliness and magnificence . The mutiny against S. Paul raised by Demetrius , and his party . S. Paul's first Fpistle to the Corinthians , upon what occasion written . His Epistle to Titus . Apollonius Tyanaeus , whether at Ephesus at the same time with S. Paul. His Miracles pretended to be done in that City . 1. AFTER his departure from Athens , he went to Corinth , the Metropolis of Greece , and the residence of the Proconsul of Achaia : where he found Aquila and Priscilla lately come from Italy , banished out of Rome by the Decree of Claudius : And they being of the same trade and profession , wherein he had been educated in his youth , he wrought together with them , lest he should be unnecessarily burdensom unto any , which for the same reason he did in some other places . Hither , after some time , Silas and Timothy came to him . In the Synagogue he frequently disputed with the Jews and Proselytes , reasoning and proving , that Jesus was the true Messiah . They , according to the nature of the men , made head and opposed him , and what they could not conquer by argument and sorce of reason , they endeavoured to carry by noise and clamour , mixed with blasphemies and revilings , the last refuges of an impotent and baffled cause . Whereat to testifie his resentment , he shook his Garments , and told them , since he saw them resolved to pull down vengeance and destruction upon their own heads , he for his part was guiltless and innocent , and would henceforth address himself unto the Gentiles . Accordingly he left them , and went into the house of Justus , a religious Proselyte , where by his preaching and the many miracles which he wrought , he converted great numbers to the Faith. Amongst which were Crispus , the chief Ruler of the Synagogue , Gaius , and Stephanus , who together with their Families embraced the doctrine of the Gospel , and were baptized into the Christian Faith. But the constant returns of malice and ingratitude are enough to tire the largest charity , and cool the most generous resolution : therefore that the Apostle might not be discouraged by the restless attempts and machinations of his enemies , our Lord appeared to him in a Vision , told him that not withstanding the bad success he had hitherto met with , there was a great harvest to be gathered in that place , that he should not be afraid of his enemies , but go on to preach confidently and securely , for that he himself would stand by him and preserve him . 2. ABOUT this time , as is most probable , he wrote his first Epistle to the Thessalonians , Silas and Timothy being lately returned from thence , and having done the message for which he had sent them thither . The main design of the Epistle , is to confirm them in the belief of the Christian Religion , and that they would persevere in it , notwithstanding all the afflictions and persecutions , which he had told them would ensue upon their profession of the Gospel , and to instruct them in the main duties of a Christian and Religious life . While the Apostle was thus imployed , the malice of the Jews was no less at work against him , and universally combining together , they brought him before Gallio the Proconsul of the Province , elder Brother to the famous Seneca : Before him they accused the Apostle as an Innovator in Religion , that sought to introduce a new way of worship , contrary to what was established by the Jewish Law , and permitted by the Roman Powers : The Apostle was ready to have pleaded his own cause , but the Proconsul told them , that had it been a matter of right or wrong , that had faln under the cognizance of the Civil Judicature , it had been very fit and reasonable that he should have heard and determined the case , but since the controversie was only concerning the punctilio's and niceties of their Religion , it was very improper for him to be a Judge in such matters . And when they still clamoured about it , he threw out their Indictment , and commanded his officers to drive them out of Court. Whereupon some of the Towns men seised upon Sosthenes , one of the Rulers of the Jewish Consistory , a man active and busie in this Insurrection , and beat him even before the Court of Judicature , the Proconsul not at all concerning himself about it . A year and an half S. Paul continued in this place , and before his departure thence , wrote his second Epistle to the Thessalonians , to supply the want of his coming to them , which in his former he had resolved on , and for which , in a manner , he had engaged his promise . In this therefore he endeavours again to confirm their minds in the truth of the Gospel , and that they would not be shaken with those troubles which the wicked unbelieving Jews would not cease to create them ; a lost and undone race of men , and whom the Divine vengeance was ready finally to overtake . And because some passages in his 〈◊〉 Letter , relating to this destruction , had been mis-understood , as if this day of the Lord were just then at hand , he rectifies those mistakes , and shews what must precede our Lord's coming unto Judgment . 3. S. 〈◊〉 having thus fully planted and cultivated the Church at Corinth , resolved now for Syria . And taking along with him Aquila and Priscilla , at Cenchrea , the Port and Harbour of Corinth , Aquila ( for of him it is certainly to be understood ) shaved his head , in performance of a Nazarite-Vow he had formerly made , the time whereof was now run out . In his passage into Syria he came to Ephesus , where he preached a while in the Synagogue of the Jews . And though desired to stay with them , yet having resolved to be at Jerusalem at the Passeover ( probably that he might have the fitter opportunity to meet his friends , and preach the Gospel to those vast numbers that usually 〈◊〉 to that great solemnity ) he promised , that in his return he would come again to them . Sailing thence , he landed at Caesarca , and thence went up to Jerusalem , where having visited the Church , and kept the Feast , he went down to Antioch . Here having staid some time , he traversed the Countries of Galatia , and Phrygia , confirming , as he went , the new-converted Christians , and so came to 〈◊〉 , where finding certain Christian Disciples , he enquired of them , whether , since their conversion , they had received the miraculous gifts and powers of the Holy Ghost . They told him , that the Doctrine which they had received had nothing in it of that nature , nor had they ever heard that any such extraordinary Spirit had of late been bestowed upon the Church . Hereupon he further enquired , unto what they had been baptized ( the Christian Baptism being administred in the name of the Holy Ghost ? ) They answered , they had received no more than John's Baptism ; which though it 〈◊〉 them to repentance , yet did explicitly speak nothing of the Holy Ghost , or its gists and powers . To this the Apostle replied , That though John's Baptism did openly oblige to nothing but Repentance , yet that it did implicitly acknowledge the whole Doctrine concerning Christ and the Holy Ghost . Whereto they assenting , were solemnly initiated by Christian Baptism , and the Apostle laying his hands upon them , they immediately received the Holy Ghost , in the gift of Tongues , Prophecy , and other miraculous powers conferred upon them . 4. AFTER this he 〈◊〉 into the Jewish Synagogues , where for the first three months he contended and disputed with the Jews , endeavouring with great earnestness and resolution to convince them of the truth of those things that concerned the Christian Religion . But when instead of success , he met with nothing but refractoriness and infidelity , he left the Synagogue , and taking those with him whom he had converted , instructed them , and others that resorted to him , in the School of one Tyrannus , a place where Scholars were wont to be educated and instructed . In this manner he continued for two years together : In which time the Jews and Proselytes of the whole 〈◊〉 Asia had opportunity of having the Gospel preached to them . And because Miracles are the clearest evidence of a Divine commission , and the most immediate Credentials of Heaven , those which do nearliest affect our senses , and consequently have the strongest influence upon our minds , therefore God was pleased to ratifie the doctrine which S. Paul delivered by great and miraculous operations ; and those of somewhat a more peculiar and extraordinary nature . Insomuch that he did not only heal those that came to him , but if Napkins or Handkerchiefs were but touched by him , and applied unto the sick , their diseases immediately vanished , and the Daemons and evil Spirits departed out of those that were possessed by them . 5. EPHESUS , above all other places in the World , was noted of old for the study of Magick , and all secret and hidden Arts , whence the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so often spoken of by the Ancients , which were certain obscure and mystical Spells and Charms , by which they endeavoured to heal Diseases , and drive away evil Spirits , and do things beyond the reach and apprehensions of common people . Besides other professors of this black Art , there were at this time at Ephesus certain Jews , who dealt in the arts of 〈◊〉 and Incantation ; a craft and mystery which * Josephus affirms to have been derived from Solomon ; who , he tells us , did not only find it out , but composed forms of Exorcism and Inchantment , whereby to cure diseases , and expel Daemons , so as they should never return again ; and adds , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , That this Art was still in force among the Jews : Instances whereof , he tells us , he himself had seen , having beheld one Eleazar a Jew , in the presence of 〈◊〉 , his Sons , and the great Officers of his Army , curing Daemoniacks , by holding a ring to their nose , under whose Seal was hid the root of a certain Plant , prescribed by Solomon , at the scent whereof the Daemon presently took leave and was gone , the Patient falling to the ground , while the Exorcist , by mentioning Solomon , and reciting some Charms made by him , stood over him , and charged the evil Spirit never to return . And to let them see that he was really gone , he commanded the Daemon as he went out to overturn a cup full of water , which he had caused to be set in the room before them . In the number of these Conjurers now at Ephesus , there were the seven Sons of 〈◊〉 , one of the chief heads of the Families of the Priests , who seeing what great things were done by calling over Daemoniacks the name of Christ , attempted themselves to do the like , Conjuring the evil Spirit in the name of that Jesus , whom Paul preached , to depart . But the stubborn Laemon would not obey the warrant , telling them , he knew who Jesus and Paul were , but did not understand what authority they had to use his name . And not content with this , forced the Daemoniack violently to fall upon them , to tear their clothes , and wound their bodies , scarce suffering them to escape with the safety of their lives . An accident that begot great terror in the minds of men , and became the occasion of converting many to the Faith , who came to the Apostle , and confessed the former course and manner of their lives . Several also , who had traded in curious Arts , and the mysterious methods of Spells and Charms , freely brought their Books of Magick Rites ( whose price , had they been to be sold , according to the rates which men who dealt in those cursed mysteries put upon them , would have amounted to the value of above One thousand Five hundred pounds ) and openly burnt them before the people , themselves adjudging them to those flames , to which they were condemned by the Laws of the Empire . For so we find the * Roman Laws prohibiting any to keep Books of Magick Arts , and that where any such were found , their Goods should be forfeited , the Books publickly burned , the persons banished , and if of a meaner rank , beheaded . These Books the penitent converts did of their own accord 〈◊〉 to the fire , not tempted to spare them either by their former love to them , or the present price and value of them . With so mighty an efficacy did the Gospel prevail over the minds of men . 6. ABOUT this time it was that the Apostle writ his Epistle to the Galatians . For he had heard , that since his departure , corrupt opinions had got in amongst them about the necessary observation of the legal Rites , and that several Impostors were crept into that Church , who knew no better way to undermine the Doctrine he had planted there , than by vilifying his person , slighting him as an Apostle only at the second hand , not to be compared with Peter , James and John , who had familiarly conversed with Christ in the days of his flesh , 〈◊〉 been immediately deputed by him . In this Epistle therefore he reproves them with some necessary smartness and severity , that they had been so soon led out of that right way , wherein he had set them , and had so easily suffered themselves to be imposed upon by the crasty artifices of seducers . He vindicates the honour of his Apostolate , and the immediate receiving his Commission from Christ , wherein he shews , that he came not behind the very best of those Apostles . He largely refutes those Judaical opinions , that had tainted and infected them , and in the conclusion instructs them in the rules and duties of an holy life . While the Apostle thus staid at Ephesus , he resolved with himself to pass through 〈◊〉 and Achaia , thence to Jerusalem , and so to Rome . But for the present altered his resolution , and continued still at Ephesus . 7. DURING his stay in this place , an accident happened , that involved him in great trouble and danger . 〈◊〉 above all the Cities of the East was renowned for the famous Temple of Diana , one of the stateliest Temples of the World. It was ( as * Pliny tells us ) the very wonder of magnificence , built at the common charges of all Asia properly 〈◊〉 called , 220 Years ( elsewhere ‖ he says 400 ) in building , which we are to understand of its successive rebuildings and reparations , being often wasted and destroyed . It was 425 Foot long , 220 broad , supported by 127 Pillars , 60 Foot high ; for its antiquity it was in some degree before the times of Bacchus , equal to the Reign of the Amazons , ( by whom it is generally said to have been first built ) as the * Ephesian Embassadors told Tiberius , till by degrees it grew up into that greatness and splendor , that it was generally reckoned one of the seven wonders of the World. But that which gave the greatest same and reputation to it , was an Image of Diana kept there , made of no very costly materials , but which the crasty Priests perswaded the People was beyond any humane artifice or contrivement , and that it was immediately formed by Jupiter , and dropt down from Heaven , having first killed , or banished the Artists that made it ( as ‖ Suidas informs us ) that the cheat might not be discovered , by which means they drew not Ephesus only , but the whole World into a mighty veneration of it . Besides there were within this Temple multitudes of Silver Cabinets , or Chappelets , little Shrines , made in fashion of the Temple , wherein was placed the Image of Diana . For the making of these holy shrines , great numbers of Silver-smiths were imployed and maintained , among whom one Demetrius was a Leading-man , who foreseeing that if the Christian Religion still got ground , their gainful Trade would soon come to nothing , presently called together the Men of his Profession , especially those whom he himself set on work , told them , that now their welfare and livelihood were concerned , and that the fortunes of their Wives and Children lay at stake , that it was plain that this Paul had perverted City and Country , and perswaded the People that the Images , which they made and worshipped , were no real Gods ; by which means their Trade was not only like to fall to the ground , but also the honour and magnificence of the great Goddess Diana , whom not Asia only , but the whole Word did worship and adore . Inraged with this discourse , they cryed out with one voice , that Great was Diana of the 〈◊〉 . The whole City was presently in an uproar , and seising upon two of S. Paul's Companions , hurried them into the Theatre , probably with a design to have cast them to the wild Beasts . S. Paul hearing of their danger , would have ventured himself among them , had not the Christians , nay , some even of the Gentile Priests , Governors of the popular Games and Sports , earnestly disswaded him from it ; well knowing that the People were resolved , if they could meet with him , to throw him to the wild Beasts , that were kept there for the disport and pleasure of the People . And this doubtless he means , when elsewhere he tells us , that he fought with Beasts at Ephesus , probably intending what the People designed , though he did not actually suffer ; though the brutish rage , the savage and inhumane manners of this People did sufficiently deserve that the censure and character should be fixed upon themselves . 8. GREAT was the confusion of the Multitude , the major-part not knowing the reason of the Concourse . In which distraction Alexander a Jewish Convert being thrust forward by the Jewes , to be questioned and examined about this matter , he would accordingly have made his Apologie to the People , intending no doubt to clear himself by casting the whole blame upon S. Paul ; This being very probably that Alexander the Copper-smith , of whom our Apostle elsewhere complains , that he did him much evil , and greatly withstood his 〈◊〉 , and whom he delivered over unto Satan for his Apostasie , for blaspheming Christ , and reproaching Christianity . But the Multitude perceiving him to be a Jew , and thereby suspecting him to be one of S. Paul's Associates , began to raise an out-cry for near two Hours together , wherein nothing could be heard , but Great is Diana of the Ephesians . The noise being a little over , the Recorder , a discreet and prudent Man , came out and calmly told them , That it was sufficiently known to all the World , what a mighty honour and veneration the City of Ephesus had for the great Goddess Diana , and the famous Image which fell from Heaven , that therefore there needed not this stir to vindicate and assert it : That they had seized Persons , who were not guilty either of Sacriledge , or Blasphemy towards their Goddess ; that if Demetrius and his Company had any just charge against them , the Courts were sitting , and they might prefer their Indictment : or if the Controversie were about any other matter , it might be referred to such a proper Judicature , as the Law appoints for the determination of such cases : That therefore they should do well to be quiet , having done more already than they could answer , if called in question , ( as 't is like they would ) there being no cause sufficient to justifie that days riotous Assembly . With which prudent discourse , he appeased and dismissed the Multitude . 9. IT was about this time that S. Paul heard of some disturbance in the Church at Corinth , hatched and fomented by a pack of false heretical Teachers , crept in among them , who indeavoured to draw them into Parties and Factions , by perswading one Party to be for Peter , another for Paul , a third for Apollos , as if the main of Religion consisted in being of this or that Denomination , or in a warm active zeal to decry and oppose whoever is not of our narrow Sect. 'T is a very weak and slender claim , when a Man holds his Religion by no better a title , than that he has joyned himself to this Man's Church , or that Man's Congregation , and is zealously earnest to maintain and promote it , to be childishly and passionately clamorous for one Man's mode and way of administration , or for some particular humour or opinion , as if Religion lay in nice and curious disputes , or in separating from our Brethren , and not rather in righteousness , peace , and joy in the Holy Ghost . By this means Schisms and Factions broke into the Corinthian Church , whereby many wild and extravagant Opinions , and some of them such as undermined the fundamental Articles of Christianity , were planted , and had taken root there . As the envious Man never fishes more successfully than in troubled Waters . To cure these Distempers S. Paul ( who had received an Account of all this by Letters which Apollos , and some others had brought to him from the Church of Corinth ) writes his first Epistle to them . Wherein he smartly reproves them for their Schisms and Parties , conjures them to peace and unity , corrects those gross corruptions that were introduced among them , and particularly resolves those many cases and controversies , wherein they had requested his advice and counsel . Shortly after Apollos designing to go for Crete , by him and Zenas S. Paul sends his Epistle to Titus , whom he had made Bishop of that Island , and had left there for the propagating of the Gospel . Herein he fully instructs him in the execution of his Office , how to carry himself , and what directions he should give to others , to all particular ranks and relations of men , especially those who were to be advanced to places of Office and Authority in the Church . 10. A LITTLE before S. Paul's departure from Ephesus , we may not improbably suppose , that Apollonius Tyaneus , the famous Philosopher and Magician of the Heathen World ( a Man remarkable for the strictness of his manners , and his sober and regular course of life , but especially for the great Miracles said to have been done by him ; whom therefore the Heathens generally set up as the great Corrival of our Saviour ; though some of his own party , and particularly * Euphratus the Philosopher , who lived with him at the same time at Rome , accused him for doing his strange feats by Magick ) came to Ephesus . The enemy of Mankind , probably designing to obstruct the propagation of Christianity , by setting up one who by the Arts of Magick might , at least in the Vogue and estimation of the People , equal , or eclipse the Miracles of S. Paul. Certain it is , if we compare times and actions set down by the ‖ Writer of his Life , we shall find that he came hither about the beginning of Nero's Reign , and he particularly sets down the strange things that were done by him , especially his clearing the City of a grievous Plague , for which the People of Ephesus had him in such veneration , that they erected a Statue to him as to a particular Deity , and did divine honour to it . But whether this was before S. Paul's going thence , I will not take upon me to determine ; though it seems most probable to have been done afterwards . SECT . V. S. Paul's Acts , from his departure from Ephesus , till his Arraignment before Foelix . S. Paul's journey into Macedonia . His preaching as far as Illyricum , and return into Greece . His second 〈◊〉 to the Corinthians , and what the design of it . His first Epistle to Timothy . His Epistle to the Romans whence written , and with what design . S. Paul's preaching at Troas , and raising Eutychus . His summoning the Asian Bishops to Myletus , and pathetical discourse to them . His stay at Caesarea with Philip the Deacon . The Churches passionate disswading him from going to Jerusalem . His coming to Jerusalem , and compliance with the indifferent Rites of the Mosaick Law , and why . The tumults raised against him by the Jews , and his rescue by the Roman Captain . His asserting his Roman freedom . His carriage before the Sanhedrim . The difference between the Pharisees and Sadducees about him . The Jews conspiracy against his life discovered . His being sent unto Caesarea . 1. IT was not long after the tumult at Ephesus , when S. Paul having called the Church together , and constituted Timothy Bishop of that place , took his leave , and departed by 〈◊〉 for Macedonia . And at this time it was , that , as he himself tells us , he preached the Gospel round about unto Illyricum , since called Sclavonia , some parts of Macedonia bordering on that Province . From Macedonia he returned back unto Greece , where he abode three months , and met with Titus , lately come with great contributions 〈◊〉 the Church at Corinth . By whose example he stirr'd up the liberality of the Macedonians , who very freely , and somewhat beyond their ability contributed to the poor Christians at Jerusalem . From Titus he had an account of the present state of the Church at Corinth ; and by him at his return , together with S. Luke , he sent his second Epistle to them . Wherein he endeavours to set right what his former Epistle had not yet effected , to vindicate his Apostleship from that contempt and scorn , and himself from those slanders and aspersions , which the seducers , who had found themselves lasht by his first Epistle , had cast upon him , together with some other particular cases relating to them . Much about the same time he writ his first Epistle to Timothy , whom he had left at Ephesus , wherein at large he counsels him , how to carry himself in the discharge of that great place and authority in the Church , which he had committed to him ; instructs him in the particular qualifications of those whom he should make choice of , to be Bishops and Ministers in the Church . How to order the Deaconesses , and to instruct Servants , warning him withall of that pestilent generation of hereticks and seducers , that would arise in the Church . During his three months stay in Greece , he went to Corinth , whence he wrote his famous Epistle to the Romans , which he sent by Phoebe , a Deaconess of the Church of Cenchrea , nigh Corinth : wherein his main design is fully to state and determine the great controversie between the Jews and Gentiles , about the obligation of the Rites and Ceremonies of the Jewish Law , and those main and material Doctrines of Christianity , which did depend upon it , such as of Christian liberty , the use of indifferent things , &c. And which is the main end of all Religion , instructs them in , and presses them to the duties of an holy and good life , such as the Christian Doctrine does naturally tend to oblige men to . 2. S. PAUL being now resolved for Syria , to convey the contributions to the Brethren at Jerusalem , was a while diverted from that resolution , by a design he was told of which the Jews had to kill and rob him by the way . Whereupon he went back into Macedonia , and so came to Philippi , and thence went to Troas , where having staid a week , on the Lords-day the Church met together to receive the holy Sacrament . Here S. Paul preached to them , and continued his discourse till midnight , the longer probably , being the next day to depart from them . The length of his discourse , and the time of the night had caused some of his Auditors to be overtaken with sleep and drowsiness , among whom a young man called 〈◊〉 being fast asleep , fell down from the third story , and was taken up dead , but whom S. Paul presently restored to life and health . How indefatigable was the industry of our Apostle ! how close did he tread in his Masters steps , who went about doing good ! He compassed Sea and Land , preached and wrought miracles whereever he came . In every place like a wise Master-builder , he either laid a foundation , or raised the superstructure . He was instant in season and out of season , and spared not his pains , either night or day , that he might do good to the Souls of men . The night being thus spent in holy exercises , S. Paul in the morning took his leave , and went on foot to 〈◊〉 , a Sea-port Town , whither he had sent his company by Sea. Thence they set sail to 〈◊〉 , from thence to Samos , and having staid some little time at Trogyllium , the next day came to Myletus , not so much as putting in at Ephesus , because the Apostle was resolved , if possible , to be at Jerusalem at the Feast of Pentecost . 3. AT Myletus he sent to Ephesus , to summon the Bishops and Governours of the Church , who being come , he put them in mind with what uprightness and integrity , with what affection and humility , with how great trouble and danger , with how much faithfulness to their Souls he had been conversant among them , and had preached the Gospel to them , ever since his first coming into those parts : That he had not failed to acquaint them both publickly and privately with whatever might be useful and profitable to them , urging both upon Jews and Gentiles repentance and reformation of life , and an hearty entertainment of the Faith of Christ : That now he was resolved to go to Jerusalem , where he did not know what particular sufferings would befall him , more than this , That it had been foretold him in every place by those who were indued with the Prophetical gifts of the Holy Ghost , that afflictions and imprisonment would attend him there : But that he was not troubled at this , no nor unwilling to lay down his life , so he might but successfully preach the Gospel , and faithfully serve his Lord in that place and station wherein he had set him : That he knew that henceforth they should see his face no more , but that this was his encouragement and satisfaction , that they themselves could bear him witness , that he had not by concealing from them any parts of the Christian Doctrine , betray'd their Souls : That as for themselves , whom God had made Bishops and Pastors of his Church , they should be careful to feed , guide and direct those Christians under their inspection , and be infinitely tender of the good of Souls , for whose redemption Christ laid down his own life : That all the care they could use was no more than necessary , it being certain , that after his departure , Heretical Teachers would break in among them , and endanger the ruine of mens Souls ; nay , that even among themselves , there would some arise , who by subtil and crasty methods , by corrupt and pernicious Doctrines would gain Proselytes to their party , and thereby make Rents and Schisms in the Church : That therefore they should watch , remembring with what tears and sorrow , he had 〈◊〉 three years together warned them of these things : That now he recommended them to the Divine care and goodness , and to the rules and instructions of the Gospel , which if adhered to , would certainly dispose and perfect them for that state of happiness , which God had prepared for good men in Heaven . In short , that he had all a long dealt faithfully and uprightly with them , they might know from hence , that in all his preaching he had had no crafty or covetous designs upon any man's Estate or Riches , having ( as themselves could witness ) industriously laboured with his own hands , and by his own work maintained both himself and his company : Herein leaving them an example , what pains they ought to take to support the weak , and relieve the poor , rather than to be themselves chargeable unto others ; according to that incomparable saying of our Saviour ( which surely S. Paul had received from some of those that had conversed with him in the days of his flesh ) It is more blessed to give , than to receive . This Concio ad Clerum , or 〈◊〉 - Sermon being ended , the Apostle kneeled down , and concluded all with Prayer . Which done , they all melted into tears , and with the greatest expressions of sorrow attended him to the Ship , though that which made the deepest impression upon their minds was , that he had told them , That they should 〈◊〉 his face no more . 4. DEPARTING from Myletus , they arrived at Coos , thence came to Rhodes , thence to Patara , thence to Tyre ; where meeting with some Christians , he was advised by those among them , who had the gift of Prophecy , that he should not go up to Jerusalem : with them he staid a week , and then going all together to the shore , he kneeled down and prayed with them , and having mutually embraced one another , he went on board , and came to 〈◊〉 , where only saluting the Brethren , they came next day unto Caesarea . Here they lodged in the house of Philip the Evangelist , one of the seven Deacons that were at first set apart by the Apostles , who had four Virgin-daughters , all endued with the gift of prophecy . During their stay in this place , Agabus a Christian Prophet came down hither from Judaea , who taking Paul's girdle , bound with it his own hands and feet , telling them , that by this external Symbol the Holy Ghost did signifie and declare , that S. Paul should be thus serv'd by the Jews at 〈◊〉 , and be by them delivered over into the hands of the Gentiles . Whereupon they all passionately besought him , that he would divert his course to some other place . The Apostle ask'd them , what they meant , by these compassionate disswasives to add more affliction to his sorrow ; that he was willing and resolved not only to be imprisoned , but , if need were , to die at Jerusalem for the sake of Christ and his Religion . Finding his resolution fixed and immoveable , they importuned him no further , but left the event to the Divine will and pleasure . All things being in readiness , they set forwards on their journey , and being come to Jerusalem , were kindly and joyfully entertained by the Christians there . 5. THE next day after their arrival , S. Paul and his company went to the house of S. James the Apostle , where the rest of the Bishops and Governours of the Church were met together ; after mutual salutations , he gave them a particular account with what success God had blessed him in propagating Christianity among the Gentiles , for which they all heartily blessed God , but withall told him , that he was now come to a place , where there were many thousands of Jewish converts , who all retained a mighty zeal and veneration for the Law of Moses , and who had been informed of him , that he taught the Jews , whom he had converted , in every place , to renounce Circumcision , and the Ceremonies of the Law : That as soon as the multitude heard of his arrival , they would come together to see how he behaved himself in this matter ; and therefore to prevent so much disturbance , it was advisable , that there being four men there at that time , who were to accomplish a Vow ( probably not the 〈◊〉 - vow , but some other , which they had made for deliverance from sickness , or some other eminent danger and distress ; for so * Josephus tells us , they were wont to do in such cases , and before they came to offer the accustomed Sacrifices , to abstain for some time from Wine , and to shave their heads ) he would joyn himself to them , perform the usual Rites and Ceremonies with them , and provide such Sacrifices for them , as the Law required in that case , and that in discharge of their Vow , they might shave their heads . Whereby it would appear , that the reports which were spread concerning him were false and groundless , and that he himself did still observe the Rites and Orders of the Mosaical Institution : That as for the Gentile converts they required no such observances at their hands , nor expected any thing more from them in these indifferent matters , than what had been before determined by the Apostolical Synod in that place . S. Paul ( who in such things was willing to become all things to all men , that he might gain the more ) consented to the counsel which they gave him , and taking the persons along with him to the Temple , told the 〈◊〉 , that the time of a Vow which they had made being now run out , and having purified themselves , as the nature of the case required , they were come to make their offerings according to the Law. 6. THE seven days wherein those Sacrifices were to be offered being now almost 〈◊〉 , some Jews that were come from 〈◊〉 ( where , probably , they had opposed S. Paul ) now finding him in the Temple , began to raise a tumult and uproar , and laying hold of him , called out to the rest of the Jews for their assistance : Telling them , that this was the fellow , that every where vented Doctrines 〈◊〉 to the prerogative of the Jewish Nation , destructive to the Institutions of the Law , and to the purity of that place , which he had prophaned by bringing in uncircumcised Greeks into it : Positively concluding , that because they had seen Trophimus a Gentile convert of Ephesus with him in the City , therefore he had brought him also into the Temple . So apt is malice to make any premises , from whence it may infer its own conclusion . Hereupon the whole City was presently in an uproar , and seising upon him , they dragged him out of the Temple , the doors being presently shut against him . Nor had they failed there to have put a period to all his troubles , had not 〈◊〉 Lysias , Commander of the Roman Garrison in the Tower of Antonia , come in with some Souldiers to his rescue and deliverance , and supposing him to be a more than an ordinary Malefactor , commanded a double chain to be put upon him , though as yet altogether ignorant , either who he , or what his crime was , and wherein he could receive little satisfaction from the clamorous multitude , who called for nothing but his death , following the cry with such crouds and numbers , that the Souldiers were forced to take him into their arms , to secure him from the present rage and violence of the people . As they were going up into the Castle , S. Paul asked the Governour , whether he might have the liberty to speak to him , who finding him to speak Greek enquired of him , whether he was not that Egyptian , which a few Years before had raised a Sedition in 〈◊〉 , and headed a party of Four Thousand debauched and profligate wretches . The Apostle replied , that he was a Jew of Tarsus , a Free-man of a rich and honourable City , and therefore begg'd of him , that he might have leave to speak to the People . Which the Captain readily granted , and standing near the Door of the Castle , and making signs that they would hold their peace , he began to address himself to them in the Hebrew Language : which when they heard , they became a little more calm and quiet , while he discoursed to them to this effect . 7. HE gave them an account of himself from his Birth , of his education in his youth , of the mighty zeal which he had for the Rites and Customes of their Religion , and with what a passionate earnestness he persecuted and put to death all the Christians that he met with , whereof the High Priest and the Sanhedrim could be sufficient witnesses . He next gave them an intire and punctual relation of the way and manner of his conversion , and how that he had received an immediate command from God himself to depart Jerusalem , and preach unto the Gentiles . At this word the patience of the Jews could hold no longer , but they unanimously cried out , to have him put to death . it not being fit that such a Villain should live upon the Earth . And the more to express their fury , they threw off their Clothes , and cast dust into the Air , as if they immediately designed to stone him . To avoid which , the Captain of the Guard commanded him to be brought within the Castle , and that he should be examined by whipping , till he confessed the reason of so much rage against him . While the Lictor was binding him in order to it , he asked the Centurion that stood by , whether they could justifie the scourging a Citizen of Rome , and that before any sentence legally passed upon him . This the Centurion presently intimated to the Governor of the Castle , bidding him have a care what he did , for the Prisoner was a Roman . Whereat the Governor himself came , and asked him , whether he was a free Denizon of Rome ? and being told that he was , he replied , that it was a great priviledge , a priviledge which he himself had purchased at a considerable rate . To whom S. Paul answered , that it was his Birth right , and the priviledge of the place where he was born and bred . Hereupon they gave over their design of whipping him , the Commander himself being a little startled , that he had bound and chained a Denizon of Rome . 8. THE next Day the Governor commanded his Chains to be knock'd off , and that he might throughly satisfie himself in the matter , commanded the Sanhedrim to meet , and brought down Paul before them : where being set before the Council , he told them , that in all passages of his life he had been careful to act according to the severest rules and conscience of his duty . Men and Brethren , I have lived in all good conscience before God untill this day . Behold here the great security of a good man , and what invisible supports innocency affords under the greatest danger . With how generous a confidence does vertue and honesty guard the breast of a good man ! as indeed nothing else can lay a firm basis and foundation for satisfaction and tranquillity , when any misery or calamity does overtake us . Religion and a good conscience beget peace and a Heaven in the Man's bosome beyond the power of the little accidents of this World to ruffle and discompose . Whence * Seneca compares the mind of a wise and a good man to the state of the upper Region , which is always serene and calm . The High-Priest Ananias being offended at the holy and ingenuous freedom of our Apostle , as if by asserting his own innocency , he had reproached the justice of their Tribunal , commanded those that stood next him , to strike him in the Face ; whereto the Apostle tartly replied , That GOD would smite him , Hypocrite as he was , who under a pretence of doing Justice had illegally commanded him to be punished , before the Law condemned him for a Malefactor . Whereupon they that stood by asked him , how he durst thus affront so sacred and venerable a Person as Gods High Priest ? He calmly returned , That he did not know [ or own ] Ananias to be an High Priest [ of God's appointment . ] However being a Person in Authority , it was not lawful to revile him , God himself having commanded , that no man should speak evil of the Ruler of the People . The Apostle , who as he never laid aside the innocency of the Dove , so knew how , when occasion was , to make use of the wisdom of the Serpent , perceiving the Council to consist partly of Sadduces , and partly of Pharisees , openly told them , that he was a Pharisee , and the Son of a Pharisee , and that the main thing he was questioned for , was his belief of a future Resurrection . This quickly divided the Council , the Pharisees being zealous Patrons of that Article , and the Sadducees as stifly denying , that there is either Angel ( that is , of a spiritual and immortal nature , really subsisting of it self , for otherwise they cannot be supposed to have utterly denied all sorts of Angels , seeing they own'd the Pentateuch , wherein there is frequent mention of them ) or Spirit , or that humane Souls do exist in a separate state , and consequently that there is no Resurrection . Presently the Doctors of the Law , who were Pharisees , stood up to acquit him , affirming he had done nothing amiss , that it was possible he had received some intimation from Heaven by an Angel , or the revelation of the H. Spirit , and if so , then in opposing his Doctrine , they might fight against God himself . 9. GREAT were the dissentions in the Council about this matter , in so much that the Governor fearing S. Paul would be torn in pieces , commanded the Souldiers to take him from the Bar , and return him back into the Castle . That night to comfort him after all his frights , and fears , God was pleased to appear to him in a vision , incouraging him to constancy and resolution , assuring him that as he had born witness to his cause at Jerusalem , so in despite of all his enemies he should live to bear his testimony even at Rome it self . The next Morning the Jews , who could as well cease to be , as to be mischievous and malicious , finding that these dilatory proceedings were not like to do the work , resolved upon a quicker dispatch . To which end above Forty of them entred into a wicked confederacy , which they ratified by Oath and Execration , never to eat or drink till they had killed him : and having acquainted the Sanhedrim with their design , they intreated them to importune the Governor , that he might again the next day be brought down before them , under pretence of a more strict trial of his case , and that they themselves would lye in ambush by the way , and not fail to dispatch him . But that Divine providence that peculiarly superintends the safety of good men , disappoints the devices of the crafty . The design was discovered to S. Paul by a Nephew of his , and by him imparted to the Governor , who immediately commanded two Parties of Foot and Horse , to be ready by Nine of the Clock that Night , and provision to be made for S. Paul's carriage to Foelix the Roman Governor of that Province : To whom also he wrote , signifying whom he had sent , how the Jews had used him , and that his enemies also should appear before him to manage the charge and accusation . Accordingly he was by Night conducted to Antipatris , and afterwards to Caesarea , where the Letters being delivered to Foelix , the Apostle was presented to him : and finding that he belonged to the Province of Cilicia , he told him , that as soon as his Accusers were arrived he should have an hearing , commanding him in the mean time to be secured in the place called Herod's Hall. SECT . VI. Of S. Paul , from his first Trial before Foelix , till his coming to Rome . S. Paul impleaded before Foelix by Tertullus the Jewish Advocate . His charge of Sedition , Heresie , and Prophanation of the Temple . S. Paul's reply to the several parts of the charge . His second Hearing before Foelix and Drusilla . His smart and impartial Reasonings . Foelix his great injustice and oppression : His Luxury and Intemperance , Bribery and Covetousness . S. Paul's Arraignment before Festus , Foelix his Successor , at Caesarea . His Appeal to Caesar. The nature and manner of those Appeals . He is again brought before Festus and Agrippa . His vindication of himself , and the goodness of his cause . His being acquitted by his Judges of any Capital crime . His Voyage to Rome . The trouble and danger of it . Their Shipwrack , and being cast upon the Island Melita . Their courteous entertainment by the Barbarians , and their different censure of S. Paul. The civil usage of the Governour , and his Conversion to Christianity . S. Paul met and conducted by Christians to Rome . 1. NOT many days after down comes Ananias the High Priest , with some others of the Sanhedrim to Caesarea , accompanied with Tertullus their Advocate , who in a short but neat speech , set off with all the flattering and insinuating arts of Eloquence , began to implead our Apostle , charging him with Sedition , Heresie , and the Prophanation of the Temple : That they would have saved him the trouble of this Hearing , by judging him according to their own Law , had not Lysias the Commander violently taken him from them , and sent both him and them down thither . To all which the Jews that were with him gave in their Vote and Testimony . S. Paul having leave from Foelix to defend himself , and having told him , how much he was satisfied that he was to plead before one , who for so many years had been Governour of that Nation , distinctly answered to the several parts of the Charge . 2. AND first for Sedition , he point-blank denied it , affirming that they found him behaving himself quietly and peaceably in the Temple , not so much as disputing there , nor stirring up the people either in the Synagogues , or any other place of the City . And though this was plausibly pretended by them , yet were they never able to make it good . As for the charge of Heresie , that he was a ringleader of the Sect of the Nazarenes , he ingenuously acknowledged , that after the way which they counted Heresie , so he worshipped God , the same way in substance wherein all the Patriarchs of the Jewish Nation had worshipped God before him , taking nothing into his Creed , but what the Authentick writings of the Jems themselves did own and justifie : That he firmly believed , what the better part of themselves were ready to grant , another Life , and a future Resurrection : In the hope and expectation whereof he was careful to live unblameable , and conscientiously to do his duty both to God and men . As for the third part of the Charge , his Prophaning of the Temple , he shews how little foundation there was for it , that the design of his coming to Jerusalem was to bring charitable contributions to his distressed Brethren , that he was indeed in the Temple , but not as some Asiatick Jews falsely suggested , either with tumult or with multitude , but only purifying himself according to the rites and customs of the Mosaick Law : And that if any would affirm the contrary , they should come now into open Court , and make it good . Nay , that he appealed to those of the Sanhedrim that were there present , whether he had not been acquitted by their own great Council at Jerusalem , where nothing of moment had been laid to his charge , except by them of the Sadducean party , who quarrelled with him only for asserting the Doctrine of the Resurrection . Foelix having thus heard both parties argue , refused to make any final determination in the case , till he had more fully advised about it , and spoken with Lysias , Commander of the Garrison , who was best able to give an account of the Sedition and the Tumult ; commanding in the mean time that S. Paul should be under guard , but yet in so free a custody , that none of his friends should be hindred from visiting him , or performing any office of kindness and friendship to him . 3. IT was not long after this before his Wife Drusilla ( a Jewess , Daughter of the elder Herod , and whom Tacitus , I fear by a mistake for his former Wife Drusilla , Daughter to Juba King of Mauritania , makes Niece to Anthony and Cleopatra ) came to him to Caesarea . Who being present , he sent for S. Paul to appear before them , and gave him leave to discourse concerning the doctrine of Christianity . In his discourse he took occasion particularly to insist upon the great obligation , which the Laws of Christ lay upon men to Justice and Righteousness toward one another , to Sobriety and Chastity both towards themselves and others , withall urging that severe and impartial account , that must be given in the Judgment of the other World , wherein men shall be arraigned for all the actions of their past life , and be eternally punished or rewarded according to their works . A discourse wisely adapted by the Apostle to Foelix his state and temper . But corrosives are very uneasie to a guilty mind : Men naturally hate that which brings their sins to their remembrance , and sharpens the sting of a violated conscience . The Prince was so netled with the Apostles reasonings , that he fell a trembling , and caused the Apostle to break off abruptly , telling him , he would hear the rest at some other season . And good reason there was that Foelix his conscience should be sensibly alarmed with these reflexions , being a man notoriously infamous for rapine and violence . * Tacitus tells us of him , that he made his will the Law of his Government , practising all manner of cruelty and injustice . And then for incontinency , he was given over to luxury and debauchery , for the compassing whereof he serupled not to violate all Laws both of God and Man. Whereof this very Wife Drusilla was a famous * instance . For being married by her Brother to Azis King of the Emisenes , Foelix , who had heard of her incomparable beauty , by the help of Simon the Magician , a Jew of Cyprus , ravished her from her Husbands bed , and in defiance of all law and right , kept her for his own Wife . To these qualities he had added bribery and covetousness , and therefore frequently sent for S. Paul to discourse with him , expecting that he should have given him a considerable summ for his release ; and the rather probably , because he had heard that S. Paul had lately brought up great summs of money to Jerusalem . But finding no offers made , either by the Apostle or his friends , he kept him prisoner for two years together , so long as himself continued Procurator of that Nation , when being displaced by Nero , he left S. Paul still in prison , on purpose to 〈◊〉 the Jews , and engage them to speak better of him after his departure from them . 4. TO him succeeded Portius Festus in the Procuratorship of the Province , at whose first coming to Jerusalem , the High-Priest and Sanhedrim presently began to prefer to him an Indictment against S. Paul , desiring , that in order to his Trial , he might be sent for up from Caesarea , designing under this pretence that some Assassinates should lie in the way to murder him . Festus told them , that he himself was going shortly for Caesarea , and that if they had any thing against S. Paul , they should come down thither and accuse him . Accordingly being come to Caesarea , and sitting in open Judicature , the Jews began to renew the Charge which they had heretofore brought against S. Paul : Of all which he cleared himself , they not being able to make any proof against him . However Festus being willing to oblige the Jews in the entrance upon his Government , asked him , whether he would go up and be tried before him at Jerusalem ? The Apostle well understanding the consequences of that proposal , told him that he was a Roman , and therefore ought to be judged by their Laws , that he stood now at Caesar's own Judgment-seat ( as indeed what was done by the Emperor's Procurator in any Province , the * Law reckoned as done by the Emperor himself ) and though he should submit to the Jewish Tribunal , yet he himself saw , that they had nothing which they could prove against him ; that if he had done any thing which really deserved capital punishment , he was willing to undergo it ; but if not , he ought not to be delivered over to his enemies , who were before-hand resolved to take away his life . However as the safest course , he solemnly made his appeal to the Roman Emperor , who should judge between them . Whereupon Festus advising with the Jewish Sanhedrim , received his appeal , and told him he should go to Caesar. This way of appealing was frequent amongst the Romans , introduced to defend and secure the lives and fortunes of the populacy from the unjust incroachments , and over-rigorous severities of the Magistrates , whereby it was lawful in cases of oppression to appeal to the people for redress and rescue , a thing more than once and again setled by the Sanction of the Valerian Laws . These * appeals were wont to be made in writing , by Appellatory Libels given in , wherein was contained an account of the Appellant , the person against whom , and from whose Sentence he did appeal . But where the case was done in open Court , it was enough for the Criminal verbally to declare , that he did appeal : In great and weighty cases appeals were made to the Prince himself , and that not only at Rome , but in the Provinces of the Empire , all Proconsuls and Governours of Provinces being strictly * forbidden to execute , scourge , bind , or put any badge of servility upon a Citizen , or any that had the priviledge of a Citizen of Rome , who had made his appeal , or any ways to hinder him from going thither , to obtain justice at the hands of the Emperor , who had as much regard to the liberty of his Subjects ( says the Law it self ) as they could have of their good will and obedience to him . And this was exactly S. Paul's case , who knowing that he should have no fair and equitable dealing at the hands of the Governour , when once he came to be swayed by the Jews , his sworn and inveterate enemies , appealed from him to the Emperor , the reason why Festus durst not deny his demand , it being a priviledge so often , so plainly setled and confirmed by the Roman Laws . 5. SOME time after King Agrippa , who succeeded Herod in the Tetrarchate of 〈◊〉 , and his Sister Bernice came to Caesarea , to make a visit to the new-come Governour . To him Festus gave an account of S. Paul , and the great stir and trouble that had been made about him , and how for his safety and vindication he had immediately appealed to Caesar. Agrippa was very desirous to see and hear him , and accordingly the next day the King and his Sister accompanied with Festus the Governour , and other persons of quality , came into the Court with a pompous and magnificent retinue , where the prisoner was brought forth before him . Festus having acquainted the King and the Assembly , how much he had been solicited by the Jews both at Caesarea and Jorusalem , concerning the prisoner at the Bar , that as a notorious Malefactor he might be put to death , but that having found him guilty of no capital crime , and the prisoner himself having appealed to Caesar , he was resolved to send him to Rome , but yet was willing to have his case again discussed before Agrippa , that so he might be furnished with some material instructions to send along with him , since it was very absurd to send a prisoner , without signifying what crimes were charged upon him . 6. HEREUPON Agrippa told the Apostle , he had liberty to make his own defence . To whom , after silence made , he particularly addressed his speech ; he tells him in the first place what a happiness he had , that he was to plead before one so exactly versed in all the rites and customs , the questions and the controversies of the Jewish Law , that the Jews themselves knew what had been the course and manner of his life , how he had been educated under the Institutions of the Pharisces , the strictest Sect of the whole Jewish Religion , and had been particularly disquieted and arraigned for what had been the constant belief of all their Fathers , what was sufficiently credible in it self , and plainly enough revealed in the Scripture , the Resurrection of the dead . He next gave him an account with what a bitter and implacable zeal he had formerly persecuted Christianity , told him the whole story and method of his conversion , and that in compliance with a particular Vision from Heaven , he had preached repentance and reformation of life first to the Jews , and then after to the Gentiles : That it was for no other things than these that the Jews apprehended him in the Temple , and designed to murder him ; but being rescued and upheld by a Divine power , he continued in this testimony to this day , asserting nothing but what was perfectly agreeable to Moses and the Prophets , who had plainly foretold that the Messiah should both be put to death , and rise again , and by his doctrine enlighten both the Jewish and the Gentile World. While he was thus discoursing , Festus openly cried out , that he talked like a mad-man , that his over-much study had put him besides himself . The Apostle calmly replied , he was far from being transported with idle and distracted humours , that he 〈◊〉 nothing but what was most true and real in it self , and what very well became that grave sober Auditory . And then again addressing himself to Agrippa , told him , that these things having been open and publick , he could not but be acquainted with them , that he was confident that he believed the Prophets , and must needs therefore know that those Prophecies were fulfilled in Christ. Hereat Agrippa replied , That he had in some degree perswaded him to embrace the Christian Faith. To which the Apostle returned , that he heartily prayed , that not only he , but the whole Auditory were , not only in some measure , but altogether , though not prisoners , yet as much Christians as he himself was . This done , the King and the Governour , and the rest of the Council withdrew a-while , to confer privately about this matter . And finding by the accusations brought against him , that he was not guilty by the Roman Laws of any 〈◊〉 offence , no nor of any that deserved so much as imprisonment , Agrippa told 〈◊〉 , that he might have been released , if he had not appealed unto Caesar. for the Appeal being once made , the Judge had then no power either to absolve or condemn , the cause being intirely reserved to the cognizance of that Superior , to whom the Criminal had appealed . 7. IT was now finally resolved that S. Paul should be sent to Rome : in order whereunto he was , with some other Prisoners of remarque , committed to the charge of Julius , Commander of a Company belonging to the Legion of Augustùs ; accompanied in this Voyage by S. Luke , Aristarchus , 〈◊〉 , & some others . In September , Ann. Chr. LVI . or as others , LVII . they went on board a Ship of 〈◊〉 , and sailed to Sidon , where the Captain civilly gave the Apostle leave to go a-shoar to visit his Friends , and refresh himself : Hence to Cyprus , till they came to the Fair-Havens , a place near Myra , a City of Lysia . Here , Winter growing on , and S. Paul foreseeing it would be a dangerous Voyage , perswaded them to put in , and winter . But the Captain preferring the judgment of the Master of the Ship , and especially because of the incommodiousness of the Harbour , resolved , if possible , to reach Phoenice , a Port of Crete , and to winter there . But it was not long before they found themselves disappointed of their hopes : For the calm southerly Gale that blew before , suddainly changed into a stormy and blustring North-East Wind , which so bore down all before it , that they were forced to let the ship drive at the pleasure of the Wind ; but as much as might be , to prevent splitting , or running a-ground , they threw out a great part of their Lading , and the Tackle of the Ship. Fourteen Days they remained in this desperate and uncomfortable condition , neither Sun nor Stars appearing for a great part of the time ; the Apostle putting them in mind how ill-advised they were in not taking his counsel : Howbeit they should be of good chear , for that that God whom he served and worshipped , had the last Night purposely sent an Angel from Heaven , to let him know , that notwithstanding the present danger they were in , yet that he should be brought safe before Nero ; that they should be shipwrack'd indeed , and cast upon an Island , but that for his sake God had spared all in the Ship , not one whereof should miscarry , and that he did not doubt , but that it would accordingly come to pass . On the fourteenth Night upon sounding they found themselves nigh some Coast ; and therefore to avoid Rocks , thought good to come to an Anchor , till the Morning might give them better information . In the mean time the Sea-men ( who best understood the danger ) were preparing to get into the Skiff , to save themselves : which S. Paul espying , told the Captain , that unless they all staid in the Ship , none could be safe : whereupon the Souldiers cut the Ropes , and let the Skiff fall off into the Sea. Between this and day-break the Apostle advised them to eat and refresh themselves , having all this time kept no ordinary and regular Meals , assuring them they should all escape . Himself first taking Bread , and having blessed God for it before them all , the rest followed his example , and chearfully sell to their Meat : which done , they lightned the Ship of what remained , and endeavoured to put into a Creek , which they discovered not far off . But falling into a place where two Seas met , the fore-part of the Ship ran a-ground , while the hinder-part was beaten in pieces with the violence of the Waves . Awakened with the danger they were in , the Souldiers cried out to kill the Prisoners , to prevent their escape : which the Captain , desirous to save S. Paul , and probably in confidence of what he had told them , refused to do ; commanding , that every one should shift for himself : the issue was , that part by swimming , part on planks , part on pieces of the broken Ship , they all , to the number of two hundred threescore and sixteen ( the whole number in the Ship ) got safe to shore . 8. THE Island upon which they were cast was Melita ( now Malta ) situate in the Libyan Sea between Syracuse and Africk . Here they found civility among Barbarians , and the plain acknowledgments of a Divine justice written among the naked and untutored notions of Mens minds . The People treated them with great humanity , entertaining them with all necessary accommodations ; but while S. Paul was throwing sticks upon the Fire , a Viper dislodged by the heat , came out of the wood , and fastned on his hand . This the People no sooner espyed , but presently concluded , that surely he was some notorious Murderer , whom though the Divine vengeance had suffered to escape the Hue-and-cry of the Sea , yet had it only reserved him for a more publick and solemn execution . But when they saw him shake it off into the Fire , and not presently swell , and drop down , they changed their opinions , and concluded him to be some God. So easily are light and credulous minds transported from one extreme to another . Not far off lived Publius , a Man of great Estate and Authority , and ( as we may probably guess from an Inscription found there , and set down by Grotius , wherein the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is reckoned amongst the Roman Offices ) Governor of the Island , by him they were courteously entertained three Days at his own charge , and his Father lying at that time sick of a Feaver and a Dysentery , S. Paul went in , and having prayed , and laid his hands upon him , healed him ; as he did also many of the Inhabitants , who by this Miracle were encouraged to bring their diseased to him : whereby great honours were heaped upon him , and both he and his company furnished with provisions necessary for the rest of their Voyage . Nay Publius himself is said by * some to have been hereby converted to the Faith , and by S. Paul to have been constituted Bishop of the Island , and that this was he that succeeded S. Denys the Areopagite in the See of Athens , and was afterwards crowned with Martyrdom . 9. AFTER three Months stay in this Island , they went a-board the Castor and Pollux , a Ship of Alexandria , bound for Italy . At Syracuse they put in , and staid three Days ; thence sailed to Rhegium , and so to Puteoli , where they landed , and finding some Christians there , staid a week with them , and then set forward in their Journey to Rome . The Christians at Rome having heard of their arrival , several of them came part of the way to meet them , some as far as the Three Taverns , a place thirty three Miles from Rome , others as far as Appii Forum , fifty one Miles distant thence . Great was their mutual salutation , and the encouragement which the Apostle received by it , glad no doubt to see that Christians found so much liberty at Rome . By them he was conducted in a kind of triumph into the City , where when they were arrived , the rest of the Prisoners were delivered over to the Captain of the Guard , and by him disposed in the common Gaol , while S. Paul ( probably at Julius his request and recommendation ) was permitted to stay in a private House , only with a Souldier to secure and guard him . SECT . VII . S. Paul's Acts , from his coming to Rome , till his Martyrdom . S. Paul's summoning the chief of the Jews at Rome , and his discourse to them . Their resractoriness and infidelity . His first hearing before Nero. The success of his Preaching . Poppaea Sabina Nero's Concubine one of his Converts . Tacitus his character of her . Onesimus converted by S. Paul at Rome , and sent back with an Epistle to Philemon his Master . The great obligation which Christianity lays upon Servants to diligence and sidelity in their duty . The rigorous and arbitrary power of Masters over Servants by the Roman Laws . This mitigated by the Laws of the Gospel . S. Paul's Epistle to the Philippians , upon what occasion sent . His Epistle to the Ephesians , and another to the Colossians . His second Epistle to Timothy written ( probably ) at his first being at Rome . The Epistle to the Hebrews by whom written ; and in what Language . The aim and design of it . S. Paul's Preaching the Gospel in the West , and in what parts of it . His return to Rome , when . His imprisonment under Nero , and why . His being beheaded . Milk instead of blood said to flow from his body . Different Accounts of the time of his suffering . His burial where , and the great Church erected to his memory . 1. THE first thing S. Paul did after he came to Rome , was to summon the Heads of the Jewish Consistory there , whom he acquainted with the cause and manner of his coming , that though he had been guilty of no violation of the Law of their Religion , yet had he been delivered by the Jews into the hands of the Roman Governours , who would have acquitted him once and again as innocent of any capital offence , but by the perversness of the Jews he was forced , not with an intention to charge his own Nation ( already sufficiently odious to the Romans ) but only to vindicate and clear himself , to make his Appeal to Caesar ; that being come , he had sent for them , to let them know , that it was for his constant asserting the Resurrection , the hope of all true 〈◊〉 , that he was bound with that Chain which they saw upon him . The Jews replied , that they had received no advice concerning him , nor had any of the Nation that came from Judaea , brought any Charge against him : only for the Religion which he had espoused , they desired to be a little better informed about it , it being every where decried both by Jew and Gentile . Accordingly upon a day appointed he discoursed to them from morning to night concerning the Religion and Doctrine of the holy Jesus , proving from the promises and predictions of the Old Testament , that he was the true Messiah . His discourse succeeded not with all alike , some being convinced , others persisted in their infidelity : And as they were departing in some discontent at each other , the Apostle told them , it was now too plain , God had accomplished upon them the prophetical curse , of being left to their own wilful hardness and impenitency , to be blind at noon-day , and to run themselves against all means and methods into irrecoverable ruine : That since the case was thus with them , they must expect , that henceforth he should turn his preaching to the Gentiles , who would be most ready to entertain , what they had so scornfully rejected , the glad tidings of the Gospel . 2. IT was not , probably , long after this , that he was brought to his first hearing before the Emperor , where those friends , whom he most expected should stand by him , plainly deserted him , afraid it seems of appearing in so ticklish a cause before so unreasonable a Judge , who governed himself by no other measures , than the brutish and extravagant pleasure of his lust or humour . But God stood by him , and encouraged him ; as indeed Divine consolations are many times then nearest to us , when humane assistances are farthest from us . This cowardise of theirs the Apostle had a charity large enough to cover , heartily praying , that it might not be brought in against them in the Accounts of the great Day . Two years he dwelt at Rome in an house which he hired for his own use , wherein he constantly imployed himself in preaching and writing for the good of the Church . He preached daily , without interruption , to all that came to him , and with good success , yea , even upon some of the better rank and quality , and those belonging to the Court it self . Among which the Roman * Martyrologie reckons Torpes , an Officer of prime note in Nero's Palace , and afterwards a Martyr for the Faith ; and Chrysostom ( if ‖ Baronius cite him right ) tells us of Nero's Cup-bearer , and one of his Concubines , supposed by some to have been Poppaea Sabina , of whom * Tacitus gives this character , that she wanted nothing to render her one of the most accomplished Ladies in the World , but a chast and a vertuous mind : And I know not how far it may seem to countenance her conversion , at least inclination to a better Religion than that of Paganism , that ‖ Josephus styles her a pious woman , and tells us that she effectually solicited the cause of the Jews with her Husband Nero ; and what favours Josephus himself received from her at Rome , he relates in his own life . 3. AMONGST others of our Apostle's Converts at Rome was Onesimus , who had formerly been servant to Philemon , a person of eminency in Colosse ; but had run away from his Master , and taken things of some value with him . Having rambled as far as Rome , he was now converted by S. Paul , and by him returned with recommendatory Letters to Philemon his Master , to beg his pardon , and that he might be received into favour , being now of a much better temper , more faithful and diligent , and useful to his Master than he had been before : As indeed Christianity where 't is heartily entertained , makes men good in all relations , no Laws being so wisely contrived for the peace and happiness of the World , as the Laws of the Gospel , as may appear by this particular case of servants ; what admirable rules , what severe Laws does it lay upon them for the discharge of their duties ! it commands them to honour their Masters as their Superiors , and to take heed of making their authority light and cheap by familiar and contemptible thoughts and carriages , to obey them in all honest and lawful things , and that not with eye-service as men-pleasers , but in singleness of heart as unto God ; that they be faithful to the trust committed to them , and manage their Masters interest with as much care and conscience as if it were their own ; that they entertain their reproofs , counsels , corrections with all silence and sobriety , not returning any rude surly answers ; and this carriage to be observed , not only to Masters of a mild and gentle , but of a cross and peevish disposition , that whatever they do , they do it heartily , not as to men only , but to the Lord ; knowing that of the Lord they shall receive the reward of the inheritance , for that they serve the Lord Christ. Imbued with these excellent principles , Onesimus is again returned unto his Master ; for Christian Religion , though it improve mens tempers , does not cancel their relations , it teaches them to abide in their callings , and not to despise their Masters , because they are Erethren , but rather do them service , because they are faithful . And being thus improved , S. Paul the more confidently beg'd his pardon . And indeed had not Philemon been a Christian , and by the principles of his Religion both disposed and obliged to mildness and mercy , there had been great reason why S. Paul should be thus importunate with him for Onesimus his pardon , the case of servants in those days being very hard , for all Masters were looked upon as having an unlimited power over their Servants , and that not only by the * Roman , but by the Laws of all Nations , whereby without asking the Magistrate's leave , or any publick and formal trial , they might adjudge and condemn them to what work or punishment they pleased , even to the taking away of life it self . But the severity and exorbitancy of this power was afterwards somewhat curb'd by the Laws of succeeding Emperors , especially after the Empire submitted it self to Christianity , which makes better provision for persons in that capacity and relation , and in case of unjust and over-rigorous usage , enables them to appeal to a more righteous and impartial Tribunal , where Master and Servant shall both stand upon even ground , where he that doth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done ; and there is no respect of persons . 4. THE Christians at Philippi having heard of S. Paul's imprisonment at Rome , and not knowing what straits he might be reduced to , raised a contribution for him , and sent it by Epaphroditus their Bishop , who was now come to Rome , where he shortly after fell dangerously sick : But being recovered , and upon the point to return , by him S. Paul sent his Epistle to the Philippians , wherein he gives them some account of the state of affairs at Rome , gratefully acknowledges their kindness to him , and warns them of those dangerous opinions , which the Judaizing Teachers began to vent among them . The Apostle had heretofore for some years liv'd at Ephesus , and perfectly understood the state and condition of that place ; and therefore now by Tychicus writes his Epistle to the Ephesians , endeavouring to countermine the principles and practices both of Jews and Gentiles , to confirm them in the belief and obedience of the Christian doctrine , to represent the infinite riches of the Divine goodness in admitting the Gentile world to the unsearchable treasures of Christianity , especially pressing them to express the life and spirit of it in the general duties of Religion , and in the duties of their particular relations . Much about the same time , or a little after , he wrote his Epistle to the Colossians , where he had never been , and sent it by Epaphras , who for some time had been his fellow-prisoner at Rome . The design of it is for the greatest part the same with that to the Ephesians , to settle and confirm them in the Faith of the Gospel , against the errors both of Judaism , and the superstitious observances of the Heathen World , some whereof had taken root amongst them . 5. IT is not improbable but that about this , or rather some considerable time before , S. Paul wrote his second Epistle to Timothy . I know Eusebius , and the Ancients , and most Moderns after them , will have it written a little before his Martyrdom , induced thereunto by that passage in it , that he was then ready to be offered , and that the time of his departure was at hand . But surely it 's most reasonable to think , that it was written at his first being at Rome , and that at his first coming thither , presently after his Trial before Nero. Accordingly the passage before mentioned may import no more , than that he was in imminent danger of his life , and had received the sentence of death in himself , not hoping to escape out of the paws of Nero : But that God had delivered him out of the mouth of the Lion , i. e. the great danger he was in at his coming thither : Which exactly agrees to his case at his first being at Rome , but cannot be reconciled with his last coming thither ; together with many more circumstances in this Epistle , which render it next door to certain . In it he appoints Timothy shortly to come to him , who accordingly came , whose name is joyned together with his in the front of several Epistles , to the Philippians , Colossians , and to Philemon . The only thing that can be levelled against this is , that in this Epistle to Timothy , he tells him , that he had sent Tychicus to Ephesus , by whom 't is plain that the Epistles to the Ephesians and Philippians were dispatched , and that therefore this to Timothy must be written after them . But I see no inconvenience to affirm , that Tychicus might come to Rome presently after S. Paul's arrival there , be by him immediately sent back to Ephesus upon some emergent affair of that Church ; and after his return to Rome be sent with those two Epistles . The design of the Epistle was to excite the holy man to a mighty zeal and diligence , care and fidelity in his office , and to antidote the people against those poisonous principles that in those parts especially began to debauch the minds of men . 6. AS for the Epistle to the Hebrews , 't is very uncertain when , or whence , and ( for some Ages doubted ) by whom 't was written . * Eusebius tells us , 't was not received by many , because rejected by the Church of Rome , as none of S. Paul's genuine Epistles . ‖ Origen affirms the style and phrase of it to be more fine and elegant , and to contain in it a richer vein of purer Greek , than is usually found in S. Paul's Epistles ; as every one that is able to judge of a style , must needs confess : That the sentences indeed are grave and weighty , and such as breath the Spirit and Majesty of an Apostle : That therefore 't was his judgment , that the matter contained in it had been dictated by some Apostle , but that it had been put into phrase , form , and order by some other person that did attend upon him : That if any Church owned it for S. Paul's , they were not to be condemned , it not being without reason by the Ancients ascribed to him ; though God only knew who was the true Author of it . He further tells us , that report had handed it down to his time , that it had been composed partly by Clemens of Rome , partly by Luke the Evangelist . * Tertullian adds , that it was writ by Barnabas . What seems most likely in such variety of opinions is , that S. Paul originally wrote it in Hebrew , it being to be sent to the Jews his Country-men , and by some other person , probably S. Luke , or Clemens Romanus translated into Greek : Especially since both ‖ Eusebius and * S. Hierom observed of old such a great affinity both in style and sence between this and Clement's Epistle to the Corinthians , as thence positively to conclude him to be the Translator of it . 'T was written , as we may conjecture , a little after he was restored to his liberty , and probably while he was yet in some parts of Italy , whence he dates his salutations . The main design of it is to magnifie Christ and the Religion of the Gospel , above Moses and the Jewish Oeconomy and Ministration , that by this means he might the better 〈◊〉 and confirm the convert-Jews in the firm belief and profession of Christianity , notwithstanding those sufferings and persecutions that came upon them , endeavouring throughout to arm and 〈◊〉 them against Apostasie from that noble and excellent Religion , wherein they had so happily engaged themselves . And great need there was for the Apostle severely to urge them to it , heavy persecutions both from Jews and Gentiles pressing in upon them on every side , besides those trains of specious and plausible 〈◊〉 that were laid to reduce them to their Ancient Institutions . Hence the Apostle calls Apostasie the sin which did so easily beset them , to which there were such frequent temptations , and into which they were so prone to be betrayed in those suffering times . And the more to deter them from it , he once and again sets before them the dreadful state and condition of Apostates , those who having been once enlightned , and baptized into the Christian Faith , tasted the promises of the Gospel , and been made partakers of the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost , those powers which in the world to come , or this new state of things were to be conferred upon the Church , if after all this these men fall away , and renounce Christianity , it 's very hard , and even impossible to renew them again unto repentance . For by this means they trod under foot , and crucified the Son of God afresh , and put him to an open shame , prophaned the bloud of the Covenant , and did despite to the Spirit of Grace . So that to sin thus wilfully after they had received the knowledge of the truth , there could remain for them no more sacrifice for sins , nothing but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which should devour these adversaries . And a searful thing it was in such circumstances to fall into the hands of the living God , who had particularly said of this sort of sinners , that if any man drew back , his soul should have no pleasure in him . Hence it is , that every where in this Epistle he mixes exhortations to this purpose , that they would give earnest heed to the things which they had heard , lest at any time they should let them slip , that they would hold fast the confidence , and the rejoycing of the hope firm unto the end , and beware lest by an evil heart of unbelief they departed from the living God ; that they would labour to enter into his 〈◊〉 , lest any man fall after the example of unbelief ; that leaving the first principles of the doctrine of Christ , they would go on to perfection , shewing diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end , not being slothful , but followers of them , who through faith and patience inherit the promises ; that they would hold fast the profession of the faith without wavering , not forsaking the assembling of themselves together ( as the manner of some was ) nor cast away their confidence , which had great recompence of reward ; that they had need of patience , that after they had done the will of God , they might receive the promise ; that they would not be of them who drew back unto perdition , but of them that believed to the saving of the Soul ; that being encompassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses , who with the most unconquerable constancy and resolution had all holden on in the way to Heaven , they would lay aside every weight , and the sin which did so easily beset them , and run with patience the race that was set before them , especially looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of their faith , who endured the cross , and despised the shame , that therefore they should consider him that endured such 〈◊〉 of sinners against himself , lest they should be wearied and faint in their minds , for that they had not yet resisted unto blood , striving against sin ; looking diligently lest any man should fail of the grace of God , lest any root of bitterness springing up should trouble them , and thereby many be defiled . By all which , and much more that might be observed to this purpose , it is evident , what our Apostles great design was in this excellent Epistle . 7. OUR Apostle being now after two Years custody perfectly restored to liberty , remembred that he was the Apostle of the Gentiles , and had therefore a larger Diocese than Rome , and accordingly prepared himself for a greater Circuit , though which way he directed his course , is not absolutely certain . By some he is said to have returned back into Greece , and the parts of Asia , upon no other ground that I know of , than a few intimations in some of his Epistles that he intended to do so . By others he is thought to have preached both in the Eastern and Western parts , which is not inconsistent with the time he had after his departure from Rome . But of the latter we have better evidence . Sure I am an Author beyond all exception , S. Paul's contemporary and Fellow-labourer , I mean * Clemens , in his famous Epistle to the Corinthians expresly tells us , that being a Preacher both in the East and West , he taught righteousness to the whole World , and went to the utmost bounds of the West . Which makes me the more wonder at the confidence of ‖ one ( otherwise a Man of great parts and learning ) who so peremptorily denies that ever our Apostle preached in the West , meerly because there are no Monuments left in Primitive Antiquity of any particular Churches there founded by him . As if all the particular passages of his life , done at so vast a distance must needs have been recorded , or those records have come down to us , when it is so notoriously known , that almost all the Writings and Monuments of those first Ages of Christianity are long since perished : or as if we were not sufficiently assured of the thing in general , though not of what particularly he did there . Probable it is , that he went into Spain , a thing which himself tells us he had formerly once and again resolved on . Certain it is that the * Ancients do generally assert it , without seeming in the least to doubt of it . Theodoret and others tell us , that he preached not only in Spain , but that he went to other Nations , and brought the Gospel into the Isles of the Sea , by which he undoubtedly means Britain , and therefore elsewhere reckons the Gauls and Britains among the Nations , which the Apostles , and particularly the Tent-maker perswaded to embrace the Law of Christ. Nor is he the only Man that has said it , ‖ others having given in their testimony and suffrage in this case . 8. TO what other parts of the World S. Paul preached the Gospel , we find no certain foot-steps in Antiquity , nor any further mention of him , till his return to Rome , which probably was about the Eighth or Ninth Year of Nero's Reign . Here he met with Peter , and was together with him thrown into Prison , no doubt in the general Persecution raised against the Christians , under the pretence that they had fir'd the City . Besides the general , we may reasonably suppose there were particular causes of his Imprisonment . Some of the Ancients make him engaged with Peter in procuring the fall of Simon Magus , and that that derived the Emperor's fury and rage upon him . * S. Chrysostome gives us this account ; that having converted one of Nero's Concubines , a Woman of whom he was infinitely fond , and reduced her to a life of great strictness and chastity , so that now she wholly refused to comply with his wanton and impure embraces ; the Emperor stormed hereat , calling the Apostle a Villain and Impostor , a wretched perverter and debaucher of others , giving order that he should be cast into Prison , and when he still persisted to perswade the Lady to continue her chast and pious resolutions , commanding him to be put to death . 9. HOW long he remained in Prison is not certainly known ; at last his Execution was resolved on ; what his preparatory treatment was , whether scourged as Malefactors were wont to be in order to their death , we find not . As a Roman Citizen by the Valerian and the Porcian Law he was exempted from it : Though by the Law of the XII . Tables notorious Malefactors , condemned by the Centuriate Assemblies , were first to be scourged , and then put to death : and Baronius tells us that in the Church of S. Mary beyond the Bridge in Rome , the Pillars are yet extant , to which both Peter and Paul are said to have been bound and scourged . As he was led to Execution , he is said to have converted three of the Souldiers that were sent to conduct and guard him , who within few days after by the Emperours command became Martyrs for the Faith. Being come to the place , which was the Aquae Salviae , three Miles from Rome , after some solemn preparation , he chearfully gave his Neck to the fatal stroke . As a Roman he might not be put upon the Cross , too infamous a Death for any but the worst of Slaves and Malefactors , and therefore was beheaded , accounted a more noble kind of Death among the Romans , fit for Persons of better Quality , and more ingenuous Education : And from this Instrument of his Execution the custom , no doubt , first arose , that in all Pictures and Images of this Apostle , he is constantly represented with a Sword in his right hand . Tradition reports ( justified herein by the suffrage of many of the * Fathers ) that when he was beheaded , a Liquor more like Milk than Blood flowed from his Veins , and spirted upon the Clothes of his Executioner ; and had I list or leisure for such things , I might entertain the Reader with the little glosses that are made upon it . S. Chrysostom adds , that it became a means of converting his Executioner , and many more to the Faith ; and that the Apostle suffered in the sixty eighth Year of his Age. Some question there is whether he suffered at the same time with Peter , many of the * Ancients positively affirm , that both suffered on the same Day , and Year : but ‖ others though allowing the same Day , tell us that S. Paul suffered not till the Year after ; nay some interpose the distance of several Years . A Manuscript * writer of the Lives and Travels of Peter and Paul , brought amongst other venerable Monuments of Antiquity out of Greece , will have Paul to have suffered no less than five Years after Peter , which he justifies by the authority of no less than Justin Martyr , and Irenaeus . But what credit is to be given to this nameless Author , I see not , and therefore lay no weight upon it , nor think it fit to be put into the balance with the testimonies of the Ancients . Certainly if he suffered not at the very same time with Peter , it could not be long after , not above a Year at most . The best is , which of them soever started first , they both came at last to the same end of the race , to those Palms and Crowns , which are reserved for all good Men in Heaven , but most eminently for the Martyrs of the Christian Faith. 10. HE was buried in the Via Ostiensis , about two Miles from Rome , over whose Grave about the Year CCCXVIII . * Constantine the Great , at the instance of Pope Sylvester , built a stately Church , within a Farme which Lucina a noble Christian Matron of Rome had long before setled upon that Church . He adorned it with an hundred of the best Marble columns , and beautified it with the most exquisit workmanship ; the many rich gifts and endowments which he bestowed upon it being particularly set down in the Life of Sylvester . This Church as too narrow and little for the honour of so great an Apostle , 〈◊〉 , or rather Theodosius the Emperor ( the one but finishing what the other began ) by a * Rescript directed to Sallustius Praefect of the City , caused to be taken down , and a larger and more noble Church to be built in the room of it : Further beautified ( as appears from an ancient ‖ Inscription ) by Placidia the Empress , at the perswasion of Leo , Bishop of Rome . What other additions of Wealth , Honour , or stateliness it has received since , concerns not me to enquire . SECT . VIII . The Description of his Person and Temper , together with an Account of his Writings . The Person of S. Paul described . His infirm constitution . His natural endowments . His ingenuous Education , and admirable skill in humane Learning and Sciences . The Divine temper of his mind . His singular humility and condescension . His temperance and sobriety , and contempt of the World. Whether he lived a married or a single life . His great kindness and compassion . His charity to mens Bodies and Souls . His mighty zeal for Religion . His admirable industry and diligence in his Office. His unconquerable Patience : The many great troubles he underwent . His constancy and fidelity in the profession of Christianity . His Writings . His style and way of Writing , what . S. Hierom's bold censure of it . The perplexedness and obscurity of his Discourses , whence . The account given of it by the Ancients . The Order of his Epistles , what . Placed not according to the time when , but the dignity of Persons or Places to which they were written . The 〈◊〉 at the end of them , of what value . The writings fathered upon S. Paul. His 〈◊〉 A third Epistle to the Corinthians . The Epistle to the Laodiceans . His 〈◊〉 His Acts. The Epistles between him and Seneca . 1. THOUGH we have drawn S. Paul at large , in the account we have given of his Life , yet may it be of use , to represent him in little , in a brief account of his Person , Parts , and those Graces and Vertues , for which he was more peculiarly eminent and remarkable . For his Person , we find it thus * described . He was low and little of stature , and somewhat stooping , his complexion fair , his countenance grave , his head small , his eyes carrying a kind of beauty and sweetness in them , his eye-brows a little hanging over , his nose long , but gracefully bending , his beard thick , and like the hair on his head , mixed with grey hairs . Somewhat of this description may be learnt from ‖ Lucian , when in the person of Trypho , one of S. Paul's disciples , he calls him by way of derision , the high-nosed bald-pated Galilean , that was caught up through the Air unto the third Heaven , where he learnt great and excellent things . That he was very low , himself plainly intimates , when he tells us , they were wont to say of him , that his bodily presence was weak , and his speech contemptible ; in which respect he is styled by * Chrysostom , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man three cubits [ or a little more than four foot ] high , and yet tall enough to reach Heaven . He seems to have enjoyed no very firm and athletick constitution , being often subject to distempers ; ‖ S. Hierom particularly reports , that he was frequently afflicted with the head-ach , and that this was thought by many to have been the thorn in the flesh , the messenger of Satan sent to buffet him , and that probably he intended some such thing by the temptation in his flesh , which he elsewhere speaks of : Which however it may in general signifie those afflictions that came upon him , yet does it primarily denote those diseases and infirmities that he was obnoxious to . 2. BUT how mean soever the Cabinet was , there was a treasure within more precious and valuable , as will appear , if we survey the accomplishments of his mind . For his natural abilities and endowments , he seems to have had a clear and solid judgment , quick invention , a prompt and ready memory ; all which were abundantly improved by Art , and the advantages of a more liberal Education . The Schools of Tarsus had sharpned his discursive faculty by Logick , and the Arts of reasoning , instructed him in the Institutions of Philosophy , and enriched him with the furniture of all kinds of humane Learning . This gave him great advantage above others , and ever raised him to a mighty reputation for Parts and Learning ; insomuch that * S. Chrysostom tells us of a dispute between a Christian and a Heathen , wherein the Christian endeavoured to prove against the Gentile , that S. Paul was more Learned and Eloquent than Plato himself . How well he was versed , not only in the Law of Moses , and the writings of the Prophets , but even in Classick and Foreign writers , he has left us sufficicient ground to conclude , from those excellent sayings , which here and there 〈◊〉 quotes out of Heathen Authors . Which as at once it shews , that 't is not unlawful to bring the spoils of Egypt into the service of the Sanctuary , and to make use of the advantages of Foreign studies and humane literature to Divine and excellent purposes , so does it argue his being greatly conversant in the paths of humane Learning , which upon every occasion he could so readily command . Indeed he seemed to have been furnished out on purpose to be the Doctor of the Gentiles , to contend with , and 〈◊〉 the grave and the wise , the acute and the subtil , the sage and the learned of the Heathen World , and to wound them ( as Julian's word was ) with arrows drawn out of their own Quiver . Though we do not find , that in his disputes with the Gentiles he made much use of Learning and Philosophy ; it being more agreeable to the designs of the Gospel , to confound the wisdom and learning of the World by the plain doctrine of the Cross. 3. THESE were great accomplishments , and yet but a shadow to that Divine temper of mind that was in him , which discovered it self through the whole course and method of his life . He was humble to the lowest step of abasure and condescension , none ever thinking better of others , or more meanly of himself . And though when he had to deal with envious and malicious adversaries , who by vilifying his person , sought to obstruct his ministry , he knew how to magnifie his office , and to let them know , that he was no whit inferior to the very chiefest Apostles ; yet out of this case he constantly declared to all the World , that he looked upon himself as an Abortive , and an untimely Birth , as the least of the Apostles , not meet to be called an Apostle ; and as if this were not enough , he makes a word on purpose to express his humility , stiling himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , less than the least of all Saints , yea , the very chief of sinners . How freely , and that at every turn does he confess what he was before his conversion , a Blasphemer , a Persecutor , and Injurious both to God and Men ? Though honoured with peculiar Acts of the highest grace and favour , taken up to an immediate converse with God in Heaven , yet did not this swell him with a supercilious lostiness over the rest of his brethren : Intrusted he was with great power and authority in the Church , but never affected dominion over men's Faith , nor any other place , than to be an helper of their joy , nor ever made use of his power , but to the edification , not destruction of any . How studiously did he decline all honours and commendations that were heaped upon him ? When some in the Church of Corinth cried him up beyond all measures , and under the patronage of his name began to set up for a party , he severely rebuked them , told them , that it was Christ , not he , that was crucified for them , that they had not been baptized into his name , which he was so far from , that he did not remember that he had baptized 〈◊〉 three or four of them , and was heartily glad he had baptized no more , 〈◊〉 a foundation might have been laid for that suspicion ; that this Paul , whom they so much extolled , was no more than a minister of Christ , whom our Lord had appointed to plant and build up his Church . 4. GREAT was his temperance and sobriety , so far from going beyond the bounds of regularity , that he abridged himself of the conveniencies of lawful and necessary accommodations ; frequent his hungrings and thirstings , not constrained only , but voluntary ; it 's probably thought that he very rarely drank any Wine ; certain , that by abstinence and mortification he kept under and subdued his body , reducing the extravagancy of the sensual appetites to a perfect subjection to the laws of Reason . By this means he easily got above the World , and its charms and frowns , had his mind continually conversant in Heaven , his thoughts were fixed there , his desires always ascending thither , what he taught others , he practised himself , his conversation was in Heaven , and his desires were to depart , and to be with Christ ; this World did neither arrest his affections , nor disturb his fears , he was not taken with its applause , nor frighted with its threatnings ; he studied not to please men , nor valued the censures and judgments which they passed upon him ; he was not greedy of a great estate , or titles of honour , or rich presents from men , not seeking theirs , but them ; food and raiment was his bill of fare , and more than this he never cared for ; accounting , that the less he was clogged with these things , the lighter he should march to Heaven , especially travelling through a World over-run with troubles and persecutions . Upon this account it 's probable he kept himself always within a single life , though there want not some of the Ancients who expresly reckon him in the number of the married Apostles , as * Clemens Alexandrinus , ‖ Ignatius , and some others . 'T is true that passage is not to be found in the genuine Epistle of Ignatius , but yet is extant in all those that are owned and published by the Church of Rome , though they have not been wanting to banish it out of the World , having expunged S. Paul's name out of some ancient Manuscripts , as the learned Bishop * Usher has to their shame sufficiently discovered to the World. But for the main of the question we can readily grant it , the Scripture seeming most to favour it , that though he asserted his power and liberty to marry as well as the rest , yet that he lived always a single life . 5. HIS kindness and charity was truly admirable , he had a compassionate tenderness for the poor , and a quick sense of the wants of others : To what Church soever he came , it was one of his first cares , to make provision for the poor , and to stir up the bounty of the rich and the wealthy , nay , himself worked often with his own hands , not only to maintain himself , but to help and relieve them . But infinitely greater was his charity to the Souls of men , fearing no dangers , refusing no labours , going through good and evil report , that he might gain men over to the knowledge of the truth , reduce them out of the crooked paths of vice and idolatry , and set them in the right way to eternal life . Nay , so insatiable his thirst after the good of Souls , that he affirms , that rather than his Country-men the Jews should miscarry by not believing and entertaining the Gospel , he could be content , nay wished , that himself might be accursed from Christ for their sake , i. e. that he might be anathematized and cut off from the Church of Christ , and not only lose the honour of the Apostolate , but be reckoned in the number of the abject and execrable persons , such as those are who are separated from the communion of the Church . An instance of so large and passionate a charity , that lest it might not find room in mens belief , he ushered it in with this solemn appeal , and attestation , that he said the truth in Christ , and lied not , his conscience bearing him witness in the Holy Ghost . And as he was infinitely solicitous to gain men over to the best Religion in the World , so was he not less careful to keep them from being seduced from it , ready to suspect every thing that might corrupt their minds from the simplicity that is in Christ. I am jealous over you with a godly jealousie , as he told the Church of Corinth : An affection of all others the most active and vigilant , and which is wont to inspire men with the most passionate care and concernment for the good of those , for whom we have the highest measures of love and kindness . Nor was his charity to men greater than his zeal for God , endeavouring with all his might to promote the honour of his Master . Indeed zeal seems to have had a deep foundation in the natural forwardness of his temper . How exceedingly zealous was he , while in the Jews Religion , of the Traditions of his Fathers , how earnest to vindicate and assert the Divinity of the Mosaick dispensation , and to persecute all of a contrary way , even to rage and madness . And when afterwards turned into a right 〈◊〉 , it ran with as swift a current ; carrying him out against all opposition to ruine the kingdom and the powers of darkness , to beat down idolatry , and to plant the World with right apprehensions of God , and the true notions of Religion . When at Athens he saw them so much overgrown with the grossest superstition and idolatry , giving the honour that was alone due to God to Statues and Images , his zeal began to ferment , and to boil up into 〈◊〉 of indignation , and he could not but let them know the resentments of his mind , and how much herein they dishonoured God , the great Parent and Maker of the World. 6. THIS zeal must needs put him upon a mighty diligence and industry in the execution of his office , warning , reproving , intreating , perswading , preaching in season , and out of season , by night , and by day , by Sea and Land ; no pains too much to be taken , no dangers too great to be overcome . For five and thirty years after his Conversion , he 〈◊〉 staid long in one place , from Jerusalem , through Arabia , 〈◊〉 , Greece , round about to Illyricum , to Rome , and even to the utmost bounds of the Western-world , fully preaching the Gospel of Christ : Running ( says S. Hierom ) from Ocean to Ocean , like the Sun in the Heavens , of which 't is said , His going forth is from the end of the Heaven , and his circuit unto the ends of it ; sooner wanting ground to tread on , than a desire to propagate the Faith of Christ. * 〈◊〉 compares him to a Bird in the Air , that in a few years flew round the World : Isidore the * Pelusiot to a winged husbandman , that flew from place to place to cultivate the World with the most excellent rules and institutions of life . And while the other Apostles did as 't were chuse this or that particular Province , as the main sphere of their ministry , S. Paul over-ran the whole World to its utmost bounds and corners , planting all places where he came with the Divine doctrines of the Gospel . Nor in this course was he tired out with the dangers and difficulties that he met with , the troubles and oppositions that were raised against him . All which did but reflect the greater lustre upon his patience , whereof indeed ( as * Clement observes ) he became 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a most eminent pattern and exemplar , enduring the biggest troubles and persecutions with a patience triumphant and unconquerable . As will easily appear , if we take but a survey of what trials and sufferings he underwent , some part whereof are briefly summed up by himself : In labours abundant , in stripes above measure , in prisons frequent , in deaths oft ; thrice beaten with rods , once stoned , thrice suffered shipwrack , a night and a day in the deep : In journeyings often , in perils of waters , in perils of robbers , in perils by his own Country-men , in perils by the Heathen , in perils in the City , in perils in the Wilderness , in perils in the Sea , in perils among false Brethren ; in weariness , in painfulness , in watchings often , in hunger and thirst ; in fastings often , in cold and nakedness : And besides these things that were without , that which daily came upon him , the care of all the Churches . An account , though very great , yet far short of what he endured , and wherein , as * 〈◊〉 observes , he does 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , modestly keep himself within his measures ; for had he taken the liberty fully to have enlarged himself , he might have filled hundreds of Martyrologies with his sufferings . A thousand times was his life at stake , in every suffering he was a Martyr , and what fell but in parcels upon others , came all upon him , while they skirmished only with single parties , he had the whole Army of sufferings to contend with . All which he generously underwent with a Soul as calm and serene as the morning-Sun , no spite or rage , no fury or storms could ruffle and discompose his spirit : Nay , those sufferings , which would have broken the back of an ordinary patience , did but make him rise up with the greater eagerness and resolution for the doing of his duty . 7. HIS patience will yet further appear from the consideration of another , the last of those vertues we shall take notice of in him , his constancy and fidelity in the discharge of his place , and in the profession of Religion . Could the powers and policies of Men and Devils , spite and oppositions , torments and threatnings have been able to baffle him out of that Religion wherein he had engaged himself , he must have sunk under them , and left his station . But his Soul was steel'd with a courage and resolution that was impenetrable , and which no temptation either from hopes or fears could make any more impression upon , than an arrow can , that 's shot against a wall of marble . He wanted not solicitation on either hand , both from Jews and Gentiles , and questionless might in some degree have made his own terms , would he have been false to his trust , and have quitted that way , that was then every-where spoken against . But alas ! these things weighed little with our Apostle , who counted not 〈◊〉 life to be dear unto him , so that he might finish his course with joy , and the ministry which he had received of the Lord Jesus : And therefore when under the sentence of death in his own apprehension , could triumphingly say , I have fought a good fight , I have finished my course , I have kept the Faith : and so indeed he did , kept it inviolably , undauntedly to the last minute of his life . The summ is , He was a man , in whom the Divine life did eminently manifest and display it self ; he lived piously and devoutly , soberly and temperately , justly and righteously , carefull alway to keep a conscience void of offence both towards God and Men. This he tells us was his support under suffering , this the foundation of his confidence towards God , and his firm hopes of happiness in another World ; This is our rejoycing , the testimony of our conscience , that in simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our conversation in the World. 8. IT is not the least instance of his care and fidelity in his office , that he did not only preach and plant Christianity in all places whither he came , but what he could not personally do , he supplied by writing . XIV . Epistles he 〈◊〉 upon record , by which he was not only instrumental in propagating Christian Religion at first , but has been useful to the World ever since in all Ages of the Church . We have all along in the History of his life taken particular notice of them in their due place and order : We shall here only make some general observations and remarks upon them , and that as to the stile and way wherein they are written , their Order , and the Subscriptions that are added to them . For the Apostle's stile and manner of writing it is plain and simple , and though not set off with the elaborate artifices , and affected additionals of humane eloquence , yet grave and majestical , and that by the confession of his very enemies , his Letters ( say they ) are weighty and powerful . Nor are there wanting in them some strains of Rhetorick , which sufficiently testifie his ability that way , had he made it any part of his study and design . Indeed * S. Hierom is sometimes too rude and bold in his censures of S. Paul's stile and character . He tells us , that being an Hebrew of the Hebrews , and admirably skill'd in the Language of his Nation , he was greatly defective in the Greek Tongue , ( though a late great ‖ Critick is of another mind , affirming him to have been as well , or better skill'd in Greek , than in Hebrew , or in Syriac ) wherein he could not sufficiently express his conceptions in a way becoming the majesty of his sence and the matter he delivered , nor transmit the elegancy of his Native Tongue into another Language : that hence he became obscure and intricate in his expressions , guilty many times of solecisms , and scarce tolerable syntax , and that therefore 't was not his humility , but the truth of the thing that made him say , that he came not with the excellency of speech , but in the power of God. A censure from any other than S. Hierom that would have been justly wondred at , but we know the liberty that he takes to censure any , though the reverence due to so great an Apostle might , one would think , have challenged a more modest censure at his hands . However * elsewhere he cries him up as a great Master of composition , that as oft as he heard him , he seemed to hear not words , but thunder , that in all his citations he made use of the most prudent artifices , using simple words , and which seemed to carry nothing but plainness along with them , but which way soever a Man turned , breathed force and thunder : He seems intangled in his cause , but catches all that comes near him ; turns his back , as if intending to fly , when 't is only that he may overcome . 9. SAINT Peter long since observed , that in Paul's Epistles there were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , some things hard to be understood : which surely is not altogether owing to the profoundness of his sence , and the mysteriousness of the subject that he treats of , but in some degree to his manner of expression ; his frequent Hebraisms , ( common to him with all the Holy Writers of the New Testament ) his peculiar forms and ways of speech , his often inserting Jewish Opinions , and yet but tacitly touching them , his using 〈◊〉 words in a new and uncommon sence ; but above all , his frequent and abrupt transitions , suddainly starting aside from one thing to another , whereby his Reader is left at a loss , not knowing which way to follow him , not a little contributing to the perplex'd obscurity os his discourses . * Irenaeus took notice of old , that S. Paul makes frequent use of these Hyperbata , by reason of the swiftness of his arguings , and the great fervour and impetus that was in him , leaving many times the designed srame and texture of his discourse , not bringing in what should have immediately connected the sence and order , till some distance after : which indeed to Men of a more nice and delicate temper , and who will not give themselves leave patiently to trace out his reasonings , must needs create some obscurity . Origen and S. Hierom sometimes observe , that besides this he uses many of his Native phrases of the Cilician dialect , which being in a great measure forraign and exotick to the ordinary Greek , introduces a kind of strangeness into his discourse , and renders it less intelligible . ‖ Epiphanius tells us , that by these methods he acted like a skilful Archer , hitting the mark , before his adversaries were aware of it ; by words misplaced making the frame of his discourse seem obscure and intangled , while in it self it was not only most true ; but elaborate , and not difficult to be understood ; that to careless and trifling Readers it might sometimes seem dissonant and incoherent , but to them that are diligent , and will take their reason along with them , it would appear full of truth , and to be disposed with great care and order . 10. AS for the order of these Epistles , we have already given a particular account of the times when , and the places whence they were written . That which is here considerable , is the Order according to which they are disposed in the sacred Canon . Certain it is that they are not plac'd according to the just order of time , wherein they were written , the two Epistles to the Thessalonians being on all hands agreed to have been first written , though set almost last in order . Most probable therefore it is , that they were plac'd according to the dignity of those to whom they were sent : the reason , why those to whole Churches have the precedency of those to particular persons : and among those to Churches , that to the Romans had the first place and rank assigned to it , because of the majesty of the Imperial City , and the eminency and honourable respect which that Church derived thence : and whether the same reason do not hold in others , though I will not positively assert , yet I think none will over-confidently deny . The last enquiry concerns the subscriptions added to the end of these Epistles ; which , were they authentick , would determine some doubts concerning the time and place of their writing . But alas , they are of no just value and authority , not the same in all Copies , different in the Syriac and Arabic Versions , nay wholly wanting in some ancient Greek Copies of the New Testament ; and were doubtless at first added at best upon probable conjectures . When at any time they truly represent the place whence , or the Person by whom the Epistle was sent , 't is not that they are to be relied upon in it , but because the thing is either intimated or expressed in the body of the Epistle . I shall add no more but this observation , that S. Paul was wont to subscribe every Epistle with his own hand , which is my token in every Epistle ; so I write . Which was done ( says * one of the Ancients ) to prevent impostures , that his Epistles might not be interpolated and corrupted , and that if any vented Epistles under his name , the cheat might be discovered by the Apostles own hand not being to them : And this brings me to the last consideration that shall conclude this Chapter . 11. THAT there were some even in the most early Ages of Christianity , who took upon them ( for what ends I stand not now to enquire ) to write Books , and publish them under the name of some Apostle , is notoriously known to any , though but never so little conversant in Church-Antiquities . Herein S. Paul had his part and share , several supposititious Writings being fathered and thrust upon him . We find a Gospel ascribed by some of the Ancients to him , which surely arose from no other cause , than that in some of his Epistles he makes mention of my Gospel . Which as * S. Hierom observes , can be meant of no other than the Gospel of S. Luke , his constant Attendant , and from whom he chiefly derived his intelligence . If he wrote another Epistle to the Corinthians , precedent to those two extant at this Day , as he seems to imply in a passage in his first Epistle , I have wrote unto you in an Epistle , not to keep company , &c. a passage not conveniently appliable to any part either in that or the other Epistle , nay a Verse or two after the first Epistle is directly opposed to it ; all that can be said in the case is , that it long since perished , the Divine providence not seeing it necessary to be preserved for the service of the Church . Frequent mention there is also of an Epistle of his to the Laodiceans , grounded upon a mistaken passage in the Epistle to the Colossians : but besides that the Apostle does not there speak of an Epistle written to the Laodiceans , but of one from them , * Tertullian tells us that by the Epistle to the Laodiceans is meant that to the Ephesians , and that Marcion the Heretick was the first that changed the title , and therefore in his enumeration of S. Paul's Epistles he omits that to the 〈◊〉 , for no other reason doubtless but that according to Marcion's opinion he had reckoned it up under the title of that to the Laodiceans . Which yet is more clear , if we consider that ‖ Epiphanius citing a place quoted by Marcion out of the Epistle to the Laodiceans , it is in the very same words found in that to the Ephesians at this Day . This Epistle is still extant , forged no doubt 〈◊〉 S. Hierem's time , * who tells us , that it was read by some , but yet exploded and rejected by all . Besides these there was his ‖ Revelation , call'd also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or his Ascension , grounded on his ecstasie or rapture into Heaven , first forged by the Cainian Hereticks , and in great use and estimation among the Gnosticks . * Sozomen tells us that this Apocalypse was owned by none of the Ancients , though much commended by some Monks in his time : and he further adds , that in the time of the Emperour Theodosius , it was said to have been found in an under-ground Chest of Marble in S. Paul's house at Tarsus , and that by a particular revelation . A story which upon enquiry he found to be as false , as the Book it self was forged and spurious . The Acts of S. Paul are mentioned both by ‖ Origen and * Eusebius , but not as Writings of approved and unquestionable credit and authority . The Epistles that are said to have passed between S. Paul and Seneca , how early soever they started in the Church , yet the falshood and fabulousness of them is now too notoriously known , to need any further account or description of them . SECT . IX . The principal Controversies that exercised the Church in his time . Simon Magus the Father of Hereticks . The wretched principles and practices of him and his followers . Their asserting Angel-worship ; and how countermin'd by S. Paul. Their holding it lawful to sacrifice to Idols , and abjure the Faith in times of persecution , discovered and opposed by S. Paul. Their maintaining an universal licence to sin . Their manners and opinions herein described by S. Paul in his Epistles . The great controversie of those times about the obligation of the Law of Mofes upon the Gentile Converts . The Original of it , whence . The mighty veneration which the Jews had for the Law of Moses . The true state of the Controversie , what . The Determination made in it by the Apostolick Synod at Jerusalem . Meats offered to Idols , what . Abstinence from Bloud , why enjoyned of old . Things strangled , why forbidden . Fornication commonly practised and accounted lawful among the Gentiles . The hire of the Harlot , what . How dedicated to their Deities among the Heathens . The main passages in S. Paul's Epistles concerning Justification and Salvation shewed to have respect to this Controversie . What meant by Law , and what by Faith in S. Paul's Epistles . The Persons whom he has to deal with in this Controversie , who . The Jew's strange doting upon Circumcision . The way and manner of the Apostles Reasoning in this Controversie considered . His chief Arguments shewed immediately to respect the case of the Jewish and Gentile Converts . No other controversie in those times , which his discourses could refer to . Two Consectaries 〈◊〉 this Discourse . I. That works of Evangelical Obedience are not opposed to Faith in Justification . What meant by works of Evangelical Obedience . This method of Justification excludes boasting , and intirely gives the glory to God. II. That the doctrines of S. Paul and S. James about Justification are fairly consistent with each other . These two Apostles shewed to pursue the same design . S. James his excellent Reasonings to that purpose . 1. THOUGH our Lord and his Apostles delivered the Christian Religion , especially as to the main and essential parts of it , in words as plain as words could express it , yet were there men of perverse and corrupt minds , and reprobate concerning the Faith , who from different causes , some ignorantly or wilfully mistaking the doctrines of Christianity , others to serve ill purposes and designs , began to introduce errors and unsound opinions into the Church , and to debauch the minds of men from the simplicity of the Gospel , hereby disquieting the thoughts , and alienating the affections of men , and disturbing the peace and order of the Church . The first Ring-leader of this Heretical crue was Simon Magus , who not being able to attain his ends of the Apostles , by getting a power to confer miraculous gifts , whereby he designed to greaten and enrich himself , resolved to be revenged of them , scattering the most poisonous tares among the good wheat that they had sown , bringing in the most pernicious principles , and as the natural consequent of that , patronizing the most debauched villainous practises , and this under a pretence of still being Christians . To enumerate the several Dogmata and damnable Heresies , first broached by Simon , and then vented and propagated by his disciples and followers , who though passing under different Titles , yet all centred at last in the name of Gnosticks , ( a term which we shall sometimes use for conveniency , though it took not place till after S. Paul's time ) were as endless , as 't is alien to my purpose . I shall only take notice of a few of more signal remark , and such as S. Paul in his Epistles does eminently reflect upon . 2. AMONGST the opinions and principles of Simon and his followers this was * one , That God did not create the World , that it was made by Angels , that Divine honours were due to them , and they to be adored as subordinate mediators between God and us . This our Apostle saw growing up apace , and struck betimes at the root , in that early caution he gave to the Colossians , to let no man beguile them in a voluntary humility , and worshipping of Angels , intruding into those things which he hath not seen , vainly puft up by his fleshly mind ; and not holding the head , i. e. hereby disclaiming Christ , the head of the Church . But notwithstanding this warning , this error still continued and spread it self in those parts for several Ages , till expresly condemned by the * 〈◊〉 Council . Nay , ‖ Theodoret tells us , that in his time there were still Oratories erected to the Archangel Michael in those places , wherein they were wont to meet and pray to Angels . Another Gnostick principle was , * that men might freely and indifferently eat what had been offered in sacrifice to Idols , yea , sacrifice to the Idol it self , it being lawful confidently to abjure the Faith in time of persecution . The first part whereof S. Paul does largely and frequently discuss up and down his Epistles ; the latter , wherein the sting and poison was more immediately couched , was craftily adapted to those times of suffering , and greedily swallowed by many , hereby drawn into Apostasie . Against this our Apostle antidotes the Christians , especially the Jewish Converts , among whom the Gnosticks had mixed themselves , that they would not suffer themselves to be drawn aside by an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God : That notwithstanding sufferings and persecutions they would hold fast the profession of the Faith without wavering , not forsaking the assembling of themselves together , as the manner of some is ( the Gnostick Hereticks ) remembring how severely God has threatned Apostates , that if any man draw back , his Soul shall have no pleasure in him , and what a fearful thing it is thus to fall into the hands of the living God. 3. BUT besides this , Simon and his followers made the gate yet wider , maintaining an universal licence to sin , * that men were free to do whatever they had a mind to , that to press the observance of good works was a bondage inconsistent with the liberty of the Gospel ; that so men did but believe in him , and his dear Helen , they had no reason to regard Law or Prophets , but might do what they pleased , they should be saved by his grace , and not according to good works . Irenaeus adds ( what a man would easily have inferred , had he never been told it ) that they lived in all lust and filthiness ; as indeed whoever will take the pains to peruse the account that is given of them , will find that they wallowed in the most horrible and unheard of bestialities . These persons S. Paul does as particularly describe , as if he had named them , having once and again with tears warned the Philippians of them , that they were enemies of the Cross of Christ , whose end is destruction , whose God is their belly , and whose glory is in their shame , who mind earthly things . And elsewhere to the same effect , that they would mark them that caused divisions and offences , contrary to the doctrine which they had learned , and avoid them ; for they that were such , served not our Lord Jesus Christ , but their own belly , by good words and fair speeches deceiving the hearts of the simple . This I doubt not he had in his eye , when he gave those Caveats to the Ephesians , that fornication , and all uncleanness , and inordinate desires should not be once named amongst them , as became Saints , nor filthiness , nor unclean talking ; being assured by the Christian doctrine , that no whoremonger , nor unclean person , &c. could be saved : that therefore they should let no man deceive them with vain words ; these being the very things for which the wrath of God came upon the children of disobedience , and accordingly it concerned them not to be partakers with them . Plainly intimating , that this impure Gnostick-crue ( whose doctrines and practices he does here no less truly than lively represent ) had begun by crafty and insinuative arts to screw it self into the Church of Ephesus , cheating the people with subtil and flattering insinuations , probably perswading them that these things were but indifferent , and a part of that Christian liberty , wherein the Gospel had instated them . By these and such like principles and practices ( many whereof might be reckoned up ) they corrupted the Faith of Christians , distracted the peace of the Church , stained and defiled the honour and purity of the best Religion in the World. 4. BUT the greatest and most famous Controversie that of all others in those times exercised the Christian Church , was concerning the obligation that Christians were under to observe the Law of Moses as necessary to their Justification and Salvation . Which because a matter of so much importance , and which takes up so great a part of S. Paul's Epistles , and the clearing whereof will reflect a great light upon them , we shall consider more at large : In order whereunto three things especially are to be enquired after , the true 〈◊〉 of the Controversie , what the Apostles determined in this matter , and what respect the most material passages in S. Paul's Epistles about Justification and Salvation bear to this Controversie . First we shall enquire into the true state and nature of the Controversie ; and for this we are to know , that when Christianity was published to the World , it mainly prevailed among the Jews , they being generally the first Converts to the Faith. But having been brought up in a mighty reverence and veneration for the Mosaick Institutions , and looking upon that Oeconomy as immediately contrived by God himself , delivered by Angels , setled by their great Master Moses , received with the most solemn and sensible 〈◊〉 of Divine power and majesty , ratified by miracles , and entertained by all their forefathers as the peculiar prerogative of that Nation for so many Ages and Generations , they could not easily be brought off from it , or behold the Gospel but with an evil eye , as an enemy that came to supplant and undermine this ancient and excellent Institution . Nay , those of them that were prevailed upon by the convictive power and evidence of the Gospel , to embrace the Christian Religion , yet could not get over the prejudice of education , but must still continue their observance of those legal rites and customs , wherein they had been brought up . And not content with this , they began magisterially to impose them upon others , even all the Gentile Converts , as that without which they could never be accepted by God in this , or rewarded by him in another World. This controversie was first started at Antioch , a place not more remarkable for its own greatness , than the vast numbers of Jews that dwelt there , enjoying great immunities granted them by the Kings of Syria . For after that Antiochus Epiphanes had destroyed 〈◊〉 , and laid waste the Temple , the Jews generally flocked hither , where they were courteously entertained by his successors , the spoils of the Temple restored to them for the enriching and adorning of their Synagogue , and they made equally with the Greeks free-men of that City . By which means their numbers encreased daily , partly by the resort of others from Judaea , partly by a numerous conversion of Proselytes , whom they gained over to their Religion . Accordingly Christianity at its first setting out found a very successful entertainment in this place . And hither it was that some of the Jewish Converts being come down from Jerusalem , taught the Christians , that unless they observed Circumcision , and the whole Law of Moses , they could not be saved . Paul and Barnabas then at Antioch , observing the ill influence that this had upon the minds of men ( disturbing many at present , and causing the Apostasie of some afterwards ) began vigorously to oppose this growing error ; but not able to conjure down this Spirit , that had been raised up , they were dispatched by the Church at Antioch to consult the Apostles and Governours at Jerusalem about this matter : Whither being come , they found the quarrel espoused among others by some Converts of the Sect of the Pharisees ( of all others the most zealous assertors of the Mosaick rites ) stifly maintaining , that besides the Gospel or the Christian Religion , it was necessary for all Converts , whether Jews or Gentiles , to keep to Circumcision , and the Law of Moses . So that the state of the controversie between the Orthodox , and these JudaiZing Christians was plainly this , Whether Circumcision and the observation of the Mosaick Law , or , only the belief and practice of Christianity be necessary to Salvation ? The latter part of the question was maintained by the Apostles , the former asserted by the Judaizing Zelots , making the Law of Moses equally necessary with the Law of Christ ; and no doubt pretending that whatever these men might preach at Antioch , yet the Apostles were of another mind ; whose sentence and resolution it was therefore thought necessary should be immediately known . 5. WE are then next to consider what determination the Apostostolick Synod at Jerusalem made of this matter . For a Council of the Apostles and Rulers being immediately convened , and the question by Paul and Barnabas brought before them , the case was canvassed and debated on all hands , and at last it was resolved upon by their unanimous sentence and suffrage , that the Gentile Converts were under no obligation to the Jewish Law , that God had abundantly declared his acceptance of them , though strangers to the Mosaical Oeconomy , that they were sufficiently secured of their happiness and salvation by the grace of the Gospel , wherein they might be justified and saved without Circumcision or legal Ceremonies , a yoke from which Christ had now set us free . But because the Apostles did not think it prudent in these circumstances , too much to stir the exasperated humour of the Jews ( lest by straining the string too high at first , they should endanger their revolting from the Faith ) theresore they thought of some indulgence in the case , S. James then Bishop of Jerusalem , and probably President of the Council , propounding this expedient , that for the present the Gentile Converts should so far only comply with the humour of the Jews , as to abstain from meats offered to Idols , from bloud , from things strangled , and from fornication . Let us a little more distinctly survey the ingredients of this imposition . Meats offered to Idols , or as S. James in his discourse stiles them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the pollutions of Idols , the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly denoting the meats that were polluted by being consecrated to the Idol . Thus we read of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( as the LXX render it ) polluted bread upon God's Altar , i. e. such probably as had been before offered to Idols . So that these meats offered to the Idols were parts of those Sacrifices which the Heathens offered to their Gods , of the remaining portions whereof they usually made a Feast in the Idol-Temple , inviting their friends thither , and sometimes their Christian friends to come along with them . This God had particularly forbidden the Jews by the Law of Moses , Thou shalt worship no other God : lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land , and go a whoring after their Gods , and do sacrifice unto their Gods , and one call thee , and thou eat of his sacrifice . And the not observing this prohibition cost the Jews dear , when invited by the Moabites to the Sacrifices of their Gods , they did eat with them , and bowed down to their Gods. Sometimes these remaining portions were sold for common use in the Shambles , and bought by Christians . Both which gave great offence to the zealous Jews , who looked upon it as a participation in the Idolatries of the Heathen : Of both which our Apostle discourses elsewhere at large , pressing Christians to abstain from Idolatry , both as to the Idol-feasts , and the remainders of 〈◊〉 Sacrifice : From the former as more immediately unlawful , from the latter , the Sacrificial meats sold in the Shambles , as giving offence to weak and undiscerning Christians . For though in it self an Idol was nothing in the world , and consequently no honour could be done it by eating what was offered to it , yet was it more prudent and reasonable to abstain , partly because flesh-meats have no peculiar excellency in them to commend us to God ; partly because all men were not alike instructed in the knowledge of their liberty , their minds easily puzled , and their consciences intangled , the Gentiles by this means hardned in their idolatrous practises , weak brethren offended ; besides , though these things were in their own nature indifferent , and in a mans own power to do , or to let alone , yet was it not convenient to make our liberty a snare to others , and to venture upon what was lawful , when it was plainly unedifying and inexpedient . From blood : This God forbad of old , and that some time before the giving of the Law by Moses , that they should not eat the flesh with the bloud , which was the life thereof . The mystery of which prohibition was , to instruct men in the duties of mercy and tenderness even to brute beasts , but ( as appears from what sollows after ) primarily designed by God as a solemn fence and bar against murther , and the effusion of humane bloud . A Law afterwards renewed upon the Jews , and inserted into the body of the Mosaick precepts . From things strangled : that is , that they should abstain from eating of those Beasts that died without letting bloud , where the bloud 〈◊〉 not throughly drained from them ; a prohibition grounded upon the reason of the former , and indeed was greatly abominable to the Jews , being so expresly sorbidden in their Law. But it was not more offensive to the Jews , than acceptable to the * Gentiles , who were wont with great art and care to strangle living Creatures , that they might stew or dress them with their bloud in them , as a point of curious and exquisite delicacy . This and the foregoing prohibition , abstinence from bloud , died not with the Apostles , nor were buried with other Jewish rites , but were inviolably observed for several Ages in the Christian Church , as we have elsewhere observed from the Writers of those times . Lastly , From Fornication : This was a thing commonly practised in the Heathen World , who generally beheld simple Fornication as no * sin , and that it was lawful for persons , not engaged in wedlock , to make use of women that exposed themselves . A custom justly offensive to the Jews , and therefore to cure two evils at once , the Apostles here solemnly declare against it . Not that they thought it a thing indifferent , as the rest of the prohibited rites were , 〈◊〉 it is forbidden by the natural Law ( as contrary to that chastness and modesty , that order and comeliness which God has planted in the minds of men ) but they joyned it in the same Class with them , because the Gentiles looked upon it as a thing lawful and indifferent . It had been expresly forbidden by the Mosaick Law , There shall be no Whore of the daughters of Israel ; and because the Heathens had generally thrown down this fence and bar set by the Law of nature , it was here again repaired by the first planters of Christianity , as by S. Paul elsewhere , Ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus ; for this is the will of God , even your Sanctification , that you should abstain from fornication : That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour , not in the lust of concupiscence , even as the Gentiles which know not God. Though after all I must confess my self inclinable to imbrace 〈◊〉 his ingenious conjecture , that by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , fornication , we are here to understand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the harlots hire , or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the offering which those persons were wont to make . For among the Gentiles nothing was more usual , than for the common women , that prostituted themselves to lewd embraces ( those especially that attended at the Temples of Venus ) to dedicate some part of their gain , and present it to the Gods. * Athanasius has a passage very express to this purpose . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The women of old were wont to sit in the Idol-Temples of Phoenicia , and to dedicate the gain which they got by the prostitution of their bodies as a kind of first-fruits to the Deities of the place ; supposing that by fornication they should pacifie their Goddess , and by this means render her favourable and propitious to them . Where 't is plain he uses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or fornication , in this very sence , for that gain or reward of it , which they consecrated to their Gods. Some such thing Solomon had in his eye , when he brings in the Harlot thus courting the young man , I have peace-offerings with me , this day have I paid my Vows . These presents were either made in specie , the very mony thus unrighteously gotten , or in 〈◊〉 bought with it , and offered at the Temple , the remainders whereof were taken and sold among the ordinary sacrificial portions . This as it holds the nearest correspondence with the rest of the rites here sorbidden , so could it not chuse but be a mighty scandal to the Jews , it being so particularly prohibited in their Law , Thou shalt not bring the hire of an Whore into the house of the Lord thy God for any Vow , for it is an abomination to the Lord. 6. THESE prohibitions here laid upon the Gentiles , were by the Apostles intended only for a temporary compliance with the Jewish Converts , till they could by degrees be brought off from their stiffness and obstinacy , and then the reason of the thing ceasing , the obligation to it must needs cease and fail . Nay , we may observe that even while the Apostolical decree lasted in its greatest force and power , in those places where there were few or no Jewish Converts , the Apostle did not stick to give leave , that except in case of scandal , any kind of meats , even the portions of the Idol - 〈◊〉 might be indifferently bought and taken by Christians as well as Heathens . These were all which in order to the satisfaction of the Jews , and for the present peace of the Church the Apostles thought necessary to require of the Converted Gentiles , but that for all the rest they were perfectly free from legal observances , obliged only to the commands of Christianity . So that the Apostolical decision that was made of this matter was this , That ( besides the temporary observation of those few indifferent rites before mentioned ) the belief and practice of the Christian Religion was perfectly sufficient to Salvation , without Circumcision , and the observation of the Mosaick Law. This Synodical determination allayed the controversie for a while , being joyfully received by the Gentile Christians . But alas , the Jewish zeal began again to ferment and spread it self , they could not with any patience endure to see their beloved Moses deserted , and those venerable Institutions trodden down , and therefore laboured to keep up their credit , and still to assert them as necessary to Salvation . Than which nothing created S. Paul greater trouble at every turn , being forced to contend against these Judaizing teachers almost in every Church where he came , as appears by that great part that they bear in all his Epistles , especially that to the Romans , and Galatians , where this leaven had most diffused it self , whom the better to undeceive , he discourses at large of the nature and institution , the end and design , the antiquating and abolishing of that Mosaick Covenant , which these men laid so much stress and weight upon . 7. HENCE then we pass to the third thing considerable for the clearing of this matter , which is to shew , that the main passages in S. Paul's Epistles , concerning Justification and Salvation , have an immediate reference to this controversie . But before we enter upon that , something must necessarily be premised for the explicating some terms and phrases frequently used by our Apostle in this question , these two especially , what he means by Law , and what by Faith. By Law then 't is plain he usually understands the Jewish Law , which was a complex body of Laws , containing moral , ceremonial and judicial precepts , each of which had its use and office as a great instrument of duty : The Judicial Laws being peculiar Statutes accommodated to the state of the Jew's Commonwealth , as all civil constitutions restrained men from the external acts of sin : The Ceremonial Laws came somewhat nearer , and besides their Typical relation to the Evangelical state , by external and symbolical representments signified and exhibited that spiritual impurity , from which men were to abstain : The Moral Laws , founded in the natural notions of mens minds concerning good and evil , directly urged men to duty , and prohibited their prevarications . These three made up the intire Code and Pandects of the Jewish Statutes ; all which our Apostle comprehends under the general notion of the Law , and not the moral Law singly and separately considered , in which sence it never appears that the Jews expected justification and salvation by it , nay rather , that they looked for it meerly from the observance of the ritual and ceremonial Law : so that the moral Law is no further considered by him in this question , than as it made up a part of the Mosaical constitution , of that National and Political Covenant , which God made with the Jews at Mount Sinai . Hence the Apostle all along in his discourses constantly opposes the Law and the Gospel , and the observation of the one to the belief and practice of the other , which surely he would not have done , had he simply intended the moral Law , it being more expresly incorporated into the Gospel , than ever it was into the Law of Moses . And that the Apostle does thus oppose the Law and Gospel , might be made evident from the continued series of his discourses ; but a few places shall suffice . By what Law ( says the Apostle ) is boasting excluded ? by the Law of works : i. e. by the Mosaic Law , in whose peculiar priviledges and prerogatives the Jews did strangely flatter and pride themselves ? Nay , but by the Law of Faith : i. e. by the Gospel , or the Evangelical way of God's dealing with us . And elsewhere giving an account of this very controversie between the Jewish and Gentile Converts , he first opposes their Persons , Jews by nature , and sinners of the Gentiles , and then infers , that a man is not justified by the works of the Law , by those legal observances , whereby the Jews expected to be justified , but by the faith of Christ , by a hearty belief of , and 〈◊〉 with that way , which Christ has introduced , for by the works of the Law , by legal obedience , no flesh , neither Jew , nor Gentile , shall now be justified . Fain would I learn , whether you received the spirit by the works of the Law , or by the hearing of Faith , that is , whether you became partakers of the miraculous powers of the Holy Ghost , while you continued under the legal dispensation , or since you embraced the Gospel , and the faith of Christ : and speaking afterwards of the state of the Jews 〈◊〉 the revelation of the Gospel , says he , before saith came , we were kept under the Law , i. e. before the Gospel came , we were kept under the Discipline of the legal Oeconomy , shut up unto the faith , reserved for the discovery of the Evangelical dispensation , which should afterwards [ in its due time ] be revealed to the World. This in the following Chapter he discourses more at large . Tell me ye that desire to be under the Law , i. e. Ye Jews that so fondly dote upon the legal state , Do ye not hear the Law ? i. e. Understand what your own Law does so clearly intimate ? and then goes on to unriddle what was wrapt up in the famous Allegory of Abraham's two Sons by his two Wives . The one , Ishmael , born of Hagar , the Bond-woman , who denoted the Jewish Covenant made at Mount Sinai , which according to the representation of her condition was a servile state : The other Isaac , born of Sarah , the Free-woman , was the Son of the promise , denoting Jerusalem that is above , and is free , the mother of us all ; i. e. The state and covenant of the Gospel , whereby all Christians , as the spiritual children of Abraham , are set free from the bondage of the Mosaic dispensation . By all which it is evident , that by Law and the works of the Law , in this controversie , the Apostle understands the Law of Moses , and that obedience which the legal dispensation required at their hands . 8. WE are secondly to enquire , what the Apostle means by Faith ; and he commonly uses it two ways . 1. More generally for the Gospel , or that Evangelical way of justification and salvation , which Christ has brought in , in opposition to Circumcision , and the observation of those Rites , by which the Jews expected to be justified : and this is plain from the preceding opposition , where Faith , as denoting the Gospel , is frequently opposed to the Law of Moses . 2. Faith is taken more particularly for a practical belief , or such an assent to the Evangelical revelation as produces a sincere obedience to the Laws of it , and indeed as concerned in this matter is usually taken not for this or that single vertue , but for the intire condition of the New Covenant , as comprehending all that duty that it requires of us : than which nothing can be more plain and evident ; In Christ Jesus , i. e. under the Gospel , neither Circumcision availeth any thing , nor Uncircumcision ; 't is all one to Justification whether a Man be circumcised or no ; What then ? but Faith , which worketh by love ; which afterwards he explains thus , In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing , nor uncircumcision , but a new creature , a renewed and divine temper of mind , and a new course and state of life . And lest all this 〈◊〉 not be thought plain enough , he elsewhere tells us , that circumcision is nothing , and uncircumcision is nothing ; but the keeping the Commandments of God. From which places there needs no skill to infer , that that Faith whereby we are justified , contains in it a new disposition and state both of heart and life , and an observation of the Laws of Christ ; in which respect the Apostle does in the very same Verse expound believing , by obeying of the Gospel . Such he assures us was that very Faith by which Abraham was justified , who against all probabilities of reason believed in God's promise , he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief , but was strong , &c. that is , he so firmly believed what God had promised , that he gave him the glory of his truth and faithfulness , his infinite power and ability to do all things . And how did he that ? by acting suitably in a way of intire resignation , and sincere obedience to the divine will and pleasure : so the Apostle elsewhere more expresly , by Faith he obeyed , and went out , not knowing whither he went. This Faith ( he tells us ) was imputed to Abraham for righteousness , that is , God by vertue of the New Covenant made in Christ was graciously pleased to look upon this obedience ( though in it self imperfect ) as that for which he accounted him , and would deal with him as a just and a righteous Man. And upon this account we find Abraham's faith opposed to a perfect and unsinning obedience , for thus the Apostle tells us , that Abraham was justified by faith , in opposition to his being justified by such an absolute and compleat obedience , as might have enabled him to challenge the reward by the strict Laws of Justice : whereas now his being pardoned and accepted by God in the way of a mean and imperfect obedience , it could not claim impunity , much less a reward , but must be intirely owing to the Divine grace and favour . 9. HAVING thus cleared our way , by restoring these words to their genuine and native sence , we come to shew , how the Apostle in his discourses does all along refer to the Original controversie between the Jewish and Gentile-Converts , whether Justification was by the observation of the Mosaic Law , or by the belief and practice of the Gospel : and this will appear , if we consider the persons that he has to deal with , the way and manner of his arguing , and that there was then no other controversie on foot , to which these passages could refer . The Persons whom he had to deal with , were chiefly of two sorts , pure Jews , and Jewish Converts . Pure Jews were those that kept themselves wholly to the Legal Oeconomy , and expected to be justified and saved in no other way , than the observation of the Law of Moses . Indeed they laid a more peculiar stress upon Circumcision , because this having been added as the Seal of that Covenant which God made with Abraham , and the discriminating badge whereby they were to be distinguished from all other Nations , they looked upon it as having a special efficacy in it to recommend them to the divine acceptance . Accordingly we find in their Writings that they make this the main Basis and Foundation of their hope and confidence towards God. For they tell us , that the Precept of Circumcision is greater than all the rest , and equivalent to the whole Law , that the reason why God hears the Prayers of the Israelites , but not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Gentiles or Christians , is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the vertue and merit of Circumcision ; yea that so great is the power and efficacy of the Law of Circumcision , that no man that is circumcised shall go to * Hell. Nay according to the idle and 〈◊〉 humour of these ‖ Men , they fetch down Abraham from the Seat of the Blessed , and place him as Porter at the Gates of Hell , upon no other errand than to keep circumcised Persons from entring into that miserable place . However nothing is more evident , than that Circumcision was the Fort and Sanctuary wherein they ordinarily placed their security , and accordingly we find S. Paul frequently disputing against circumcision , as virtually comprizing , in their notion , the keeping of the whole Jewish Law. Besides , to these literal impositions of the Law of Moses , the Pharisees had added many vain Traditions and several superstitious usages of their own contrivance , in the observance whereof the People plac'd not a little confidence , as to that righteousness upon which they hoped to stand clear with Heaven . Against all these our Apostle argues , and sometimes by arguments peculiar to them alone . Jewish Converts were those , who having embraced the Christian Religion , did yet out of a veneration to their ancient Rites , make the observance of them equally necessary with the belief and practice of Christianity both to themselves and others . These last were the Persons , who as they first started the controversie , so were those against whom the Apostle mainly opposed himself , endeavouring to dismount their pretences , and to beat down their Opinions level with the ground . 10. THIS will yet further appear from the way and manner of the Apostles arguing , which plainly respects this controversie , and will be best seen in some particular instances of his reasonings . And first , he argues , that this way of justification urged by Jews and Jewish Converts was inconsistent with the goodness of God , and his universal kindness to Mankind , being so narrow and limited , that it excluded the far greatest part of the World : Thus in the three first Chapters of his Epistle to the Romans having proved at large that the whole World , both Jew and Gentile were under a state of guilt , and consequently liable to the divine sentence and condemnation , he comes next to enquire by what means they may be delivered from this state of vengeance , and shews that it could not be by legal observances , but that now there was a way of righteousness or justification declared by Christ in the Gospel ( intimated also in the Old Testament ) extending to all , both Jews and Gentiles , whereby God with respect to the satisfaction and expiation of Christ is ready freely to pardon and justifie , all penitent believers : That therefore there was a way revealed in the Gospel , whereby a man might be justified , without being beholden to the rites of the Jewish Law , otherwise it would argue that God had very little care of the greatest part of men . Is he God of the Jews only ? is he not also of the Gentiles ? Yes , of the Gentiles also : Seeing it is one God , which shall 〈◊〉 the Circumcision by Faith , and the uncircumcision through Faith , Jew and Gentile in the same Evangelical way . The force of which argument lies in this , That that cannot be necessary to our Justification , which excludes the greatest part of mankind from all possibility of being justified ( and this justification by the Mosaick Law plainly does ) a thing by no means consistent with God's universal love and kindness to his Creatures . Hence the Apostle magnifies the grace of the Gospel , that it has broken down the partition-wall , and made way for all Nations to come in , that now there is neither Greek nor Jew , Circumcision nor uncircumcision , Barbarian nor 〈◊〉 , no difference in this respect , but all one in Christ Jesus , all equally admitted to terms of pardon and justification , in every Nation he that feareth God , and worketh righteousness being accepted with him . 11. SECONDLY , He argues , that this Jewish way of Justification could not be indispensably necessary , in that it had not been the constant way whereby good men in all Ages had been justified and accepted with Heaven . This he eminently proves from the instance of Abraham , whom the Scripture sets forth as the Father of the faithful , and the great Exemplar of that way , wherein all his spiritual seed , all true Believers were to be justified : Now of him 't is evident , that he was justified and accepted with God upon his practical belief of God's power and promise , before ever Circumcision , and much more before the rest of the Mosaick Institution was in being . Cometh this blessedness then upon the Circumcision only , or upon the uncircumcision also ? For we say that Faith was reckoned unto Abraham for righteousness . How was it then reckoned , when he was in Circumcision , or in uncircumcision ? Not in Circumcision , but in uncircumcision . And he received the sign of Circumcision , a seal of the righteousness of the faith , which he had being yet uncircumcised , &c. The meaning whereof is plainly this , That pardon of sin cannot be entailed upon the way of the Mosaick Law , it being evident , that Abraham was justified and approved of God , before he was Circumcised , which was only added as a seal of the Covenant between God and him , and a testimony of that acceptance with God , which he had obtained before . And this way of God's dealing with Abraham , and in him with all his spiritual children , the legal Institution could not make void , it being impossible that that dispensation which came so long after should disannul the Covenant which God had made with Abraham and his spiritual seed CCCCXXX . years before . Upon this account , as the Apostle observes , the Scripture sets forth Abraham as the great type and pattern of Justification , as the Father of all them that believe , though they be not Circumcised , that righteousness might be imputed to them also , and the father of Circumcision , to them who are not of the Circumcision only , but also walk in the steps of the Faith of our Father Abraham , which he had being yet uncircumcised . They therefore that are of Faith , the same are the children of Abraham : And the Scripture foreseeing that God would justifie the Heathen through Faith , preached before the Gospel ( this Evangelical way of justifying ) unto Abraham , saying , In thee shall all Nations be blessed , So then they which be of Faith , who believe and obey , as Abraham did , shall be blessed , pardoned and saved , with faithful Abraham . It might further be demonstrated that this has ever been God's method of dealing with mankind , our Apostle in the eleventh Chapter to the Hebrews , proving all along by particular instances , that it was by such a Faith as this , without any relation to the Law of Moses , that good men were justified and accepted with God in all Ages of the World. 12. THIRDLY , He argues against this Jewish way of Justification from the deficiency and imperfection of the Mosaick Oeconomy , not able to justifie and save sinners . 〈◊〉 , as not able to assist those that were under it with sufficient aids to perform what it required of them , This the Law could not do , for that it was weak through the flesh , till God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful 〈◊〉 , to enable us , that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us , who walk not after the flesh , but after the Spirit . And indeed could the Law have given life , verily righteousness should have been by the Law : But alas ! the Scripture having concluded all mankind , Jew and Gentile , under sin , and consequently incapable of being justified upon terms of perfect and intire obedience , there is now no other way but this , That the promise by the Faith of Christ be given to all them that believe , i. e. this Evangelical method of justifying sincere believers . Besides , the Jewish Oeconomy was deficient in pardoning sin , and procuring the grace and favour of God , it could only awaken the knowledge of sin , not remove the guilt of it : It was not possible that the blood of Bulls and Goats should take away sin ; all the 〈◊〉 of the Mosaick Law were no further available for the pardon of sin , than merely as they were founded in , and had respect to that great sacrifice and expiation , which was to be made for the sins of mankind by the death of the Son of God. The Priests , though they daily ministred , and oftentimes offered the same sacrifices , yet could they never take away sins : No , that was reserved for a better and a higher sacrifice , even that of our Lord himself , who after he had offered one sacrifice for sins , for ever sat down on the right hand of God , having completed that , which the repeated sacrifices of the Law could never effect . So that all men being under guilt , and no justification , where there was no remission , the Jewish Oeconomy being in it self unable to pardon , was incapable to justifie . This S. Paul elsewhere declared in an open Assembly before Jews and Gentiles ; Be it known unto you , men and brethren , that through this man [ Christ Jesus ] is preached unto you forgiveness of sins : And by him all that believe are justified from all things , from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses . 13. FOURTHLY , He proves that Justification by the Mosaick Law could not stand with the death of Christ , the necessity of whose death and sufferings it did plainly evacuate and take away . For if righteousness come by the Law , then Christ is dead in vain : If the Mosaical performances be still necessary to our Justification , then certainly it was to very little purpose , and altogether unbecoming the wisdom and goodness of God , to send his own Son into the World , to do so much for us , and to suffer such exquisite pains and tortures . Nay , he tells them , that while they persisted in this fond obstinate opinion , all that Christ had done and suffered could be of no advantage to them . Stand fast in the liberty , wherewith Christ has made us free , and be not again intangled in the yoke of bondage , the bondage and servitude of the Mosaick rites ; Behold 〈◊〉 Paul solemnly say unto you , That if you be Circumcised , Christ shall profit you nothing : For I testifie again to every man that is Circumcised , that he is a debtor to do the whole Law ; Christ is become of none effect to you ; whosoever of you are justified by the Law , ye are fallen from grace . The summ of which argument is , That whoever lay the stress of their Justification upon Circumcision , and the observances of the Law , do thereby declare themselves to be under an obligation of perfect obedience to all that the Law requires of them , and accordingly supersede the vertue and efficacy of Christ's death , and disclaim all right and title to the grace and favour of the Gospel . For since Christ's death is abundantly sufficient to attain its ends , whoever takes in another , plainly renounces that , and rests upon that of his own chusing . By these ways of reasoning 't is evident what the Apostle drives at in all his discourses about this matter : More might have been observed , had I not thought , that these are sufficient to render his design , especially to the unprejudiced and impartial , obvious and plain enough . 14. LASTLY , That S. Paul's discourses about Justification and Salvation do immediately refer to the controversie between the Orthodox and Judaizing Christians , appears hence , that there was no other controversie then on foot , but concerning the way of Justification , whether it was by the observation of the Law of Moses , or only of the Gospel and the Law of Christ. For we must needs suppose , that the Apostle wrote with a primary respect to the present state of things , and so as they whom he had to deal with might , and could not but understand him : Which yet would have been impossible for them to have done , had he intended them for the controversies which have since been bandied with so much zeal and fierceness , and to give countenance to those many nice and subtil propositions , those curious and elaborate schemes which some men in these later Ages have drawn of these matters . 15. FROM the whole discourse two Consectaries especially plainly follow . I. Consect . That works of Evangelical obedience are not opposed to Faith in Justification . By works of Evangelical obedience I mean such Christian duties , as are the fruits , not of our own power and strength , but God's Spirit , done by the assistance of his grace . And that these are not opposed to Faith , is undeniably evident , in that ( as we observed before ) Faith as including the new nature , and the keeping God's commands , is made the usual condition of Justification . Nor can it be otherwise , when other graces and vertues of the Christian life are made the terms of pardon and acceptance with Heaven , and of our title to the merits of Christ's death , and the great promise of eternal life . Thus Repentance , which is not so much a single Act , as a complex body of Christian duties , Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ , for the remission of sins , and ye shall receive the Holy Ghost ; Repent and be converted , that your sins may be blotted out . So Charity and forgiveness of others , Forgive , if ye have ought against any , that your Father also which is in Heaven may forgive you your trespasses : For if ye forgive men their trespasses , your heavenly Father also will forgive you : But if ye forgive not men their trespasses , neither will your Father forgive yours . Sometimes Evangelical obedience in general ; God is no respecter of persons , but in every Nation , he that feareth him , and worketh righteousness is accepted with him . If we walk in the light , as God is in the light , we have fellowship one with another , and the bloud of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin . What priviledge then has Faith above other graces in this matter ? are we justified by Faith ? We are pardoned and accepted with God upon our repentance , charity , and other acts of Evangelical obedience . Is Faith opposed to the works of the Mosaick Law in Justification ? so are works of Evangelical obedience ; Circumcision is nothing , and uncircumcision is nothing , but the keeping of the Commandments of God. Does Faith give glory to God , and set the crown upon his head ? Works of Evangelical obedience are equally the effects of Divine grace , both preventing and assisting of us , and indeed are not so much our works , as his : So that the glory of all must needs be intirely resolved into the grace of God , nor can any man in such circumstances with the least pretence of reason lay claim to merit , or boast of his own archievements . Hence the Apostle magnifies the Evangelical method of Justification above that of 〈◊〉 Law , that it wholly excludes all proud 〈◊〉 upon our selves ; Where is 〈◊〉 then ? it is excluded . By what Law ? of works ? Nay , but by the Law of Faith. The Mosaical Oeconomy fostered men up in proud and high thoughts of themselves , they looked upon themselves as a peculiar people , honoured above all other Nations of the World , the seed of Abraham , invested with mighty priviledges , & c. whereas the Gospel proceeding upon other principles , takes away all foundations of pride , by acknowledging our acceptance with God , and the power whereby we are enabled to make good the terms and conditions of it , to be the mere result of the Divine grace and mercy , and that the whole scheme of our Salvation , as it was the contrivance of the Divine wisdom , so is the purchase of the merit and satisfaction of our crucified Saviour . Nor is Faith it self less than other graces an act of Evangelical obedience , and if separated from them , is of no moment or value in the accounts of Heaven : Though I have all Faith , and have no Charity , I am nothing . All Faith , be it of what kind soever . To this may be added , that no tolerable account can be given , why that which is on all hands granted to be the condition of our Salvation ( such is Evangelical obedience ) should not be the condition of our Justification : And at the great day Christians shall be acquitted or condemned according as in this World they have fulfilled or neglected the conditions of the Gospel : The decretory sentence of absolution that shall then be passed upon good men , shall be nothing but a publick and solemn declaration of that private sentence of Justification that was passed upon them in this World ; so that upon the same terms that they are justified now , they shall be justified and acquitted then , and upon the same terms that they shall then be judged and acquitted , they are justified now , viz. an hearty belief , and a sincere obedience to the Gospel . From all which , I hope , 't is evident , that when S. Paul denies men to be justified by the works of the Law ; by works he either means works done before conversion , and by the strength of mens natural powers , such as enabled them to pride and boast themselves , or ( which mostwhat includes the other ) the works of the Mosaick Law. And indeed though the controversies on foot in those times did not plainly determine his reasonings that way , yet the considerations which we have now suggested , sufficiently shew that they could not be meant in any other sence . 16. CONSECT . II. That the doctrines of S. Paul and S. James about Justification are fairly consistent with each other . For seeing S. Paul's design in excluding works from Justification , was only to deny the works of the Jewish Law , or those that were wrought by our own strength , and in asserting that in opposition to such works we are justified by Faith , he meant no more than that either we are justified in an Evangelical way , or more particularly by Faith intended a practical belief , including Evangelical obedience : And seeing on the other hand S. James in affirming that we are justified by works , and not by Faith only ; by works means no more than Evangelical obedience , in opposition to a naked and an empty Faith ; these two are so far from quarrelling , that they mutually embrace each other , and both in the main pursue the same design . And indeed if any disagreement seem between them , 't is most reasonable that S. Paul should be expounded by S. James , not only because his propositions are so express and positive , and not justly liable to ambiguity , but because he wrote some competent time after the other , and consequently as he perfectly understood his meaning , so he was capable to countermine those ill principles , which some men had built upon S. Paul's assertions . For 't is evident from several passages in S. Paul's Epistles , that even then many began to mistake his doctrine , and from his assertions about Justification by Faith , and not by works , to infer propositions that might serve the purposes of a bad life ; They slanderously reported him to say , that we might do evil , that good might come ; that we might continue in sin , that the grace of the Gospel might the more abound : They thought that so long as they did but believe the Gospel in the naked notion and speculation of it , it was enough to recommend them to the favour of God , and to serve all the purposes of Justification and Salvation , however they shaped and steered their lives . Against these men 't is beyond all question plain , that S. James levels his Epistle , to batter down the growing doctrines of Libertinism and Prophaneness , to shew the insufficiency of a naked Faith , and an empty profession of Religion , that 't is not enough to recommend us to the Divine acceptance , and to justifie us in the sight of Heaven , barely to believe the Gospel , unless we really obey and practise it ; that a Faith destitute of this Evangelical obedience is fruitless and unprofitable to Salvation ; that 't is by these works that Faith must appear to be vital and sincere ; that not only Rahab , but Abraham the Father of the faithful , was justified not by a bare belief of God's promise , but an 〈◊〉 obedience to God's command , in the ready offer of his Son , whereby it appears that his Faith and Obedience did cooperate and conspire together , to render him capable of God's favour and approbation , and that herein the Scripture was fulfilled , which saith , That Abraham believed God , and it was imputed to him for righteousness , ( whence by the way nothing can be clearer , than that both these Apostles intend the same thing by Faith in the case of Abraham's Justification , and its being imputed to him for 〈◊〉 , viz. a practical belief and obedience to the commands of God ) that it follows hence , that Faith is not of it self sufficient to justifie and make us acceptable to God , unless a proportionable Obedience be joyned with it ; without which Faith serves no more to these ends and purposes , than a Body destitute of the Soul to animate and enliven it , is capable to exercise the functions and offices of the natural life . His meaning in short being nothing else , than that good works , or Evangelical obedience is , according to the Divine appointment , the condition of the Gospel-Covenant , without which 't is in vain for any to hope for that pardon which Christ hath purchased , and the favour of God , which is necessary to Eternal Life . The End of S. Paul's Life . THE LIFE OF S. ANDREW . St. ANDREW . He was fastened to a Cross since distinguished by his name by y e Proconsul at Patrae a City of Achaia , from which he preached severall dayes to y e Spectators . S. Hierom. Baron . Nov : 29. St. Andrew's Crucifixion . Matth. 23. 34. Behold I send unto you prophets and wisemen and scribes , & some of them ye shall kill and crucifie , & some of them shall ye scurge in your synagogues , and persecute them from Cyty to City . The Sacred History sparing in the Acts of the succeeding Apostles , and why . S. Andrew's Birth-place , Kindred , and way of Life . John the Baptist's Ministry and Discipline , S. Andrew educated under his Institution . His coming to Christ , and 〈◊〉 to be a Disciple . His Election to the Apostolate . The Province assigned for his Ministry . In what places he chiesly preached . His barbarous usage at Sinope . His planting Christianity at Byzantium , and ordaining Stachys Bishop there . His travails in Greece , and preaching at Patrae in Achaia . His arraignment before the Proconsul , and resolute defence of the Christian Religion . The Proconsul's displeasure against him , whence . An account of his Martyrdom . His preparatory sufferings , and crucifixion . On what kind of Cross he suffered . The Miracles reported to be done by his Body . It s translation to Constantinople . The great Encomium given of him by one of the Ancients . 1. THE Sacred Story , which has hitherto been very large and copious in describing the Acts of the two first Apostles , is henceforward very sparing in its accounts , giving us only now and then a few oblique and accidental remarques concerning the rest , and some of them no further mentioned , than the meer recording of their Names . For what reasons it pleased the Divine wisdom and providence , that no more of their Acts should be consigned to Writing by the Pen-men of the Holy story , is to us unknown . Probably , it might be thought convenient , that no more account should be given of the first plantations of Christianity in the World , than what concerned Judaea , and the Neighbour-countries , at least the most eminent places of the Roman Empire , that so the truth of the Prophetical Predictions might appear , which had foretold , that the Law of the Messiah should come forth from Sion , and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem . Besides , that a particular relation of the Acts of so many 〈◊〉 , done in so many several Countries , might have swell'd the Holy Volumes into too great a bulk , and rendred them less serviceable and accommodate to the ordinary use of Christians . Among the Apostles that succeed we first take notice of S. Andrew . He was born at Bethsaida , a City of Galilee , standing upon the banks of the Lake of Gennesareth , Son to John or Jonas a Fisherman of that Town ; Brother he was to Simon Peter , but whether Elder or Younger , the Ancients do not clearly decide , though the major part intimate him to have been the younger Brother , there being only the single authorlty of Epiphanius on the other side , as we have formerly noted . He was brought up to his Father's Trade , whereat he laboured , till our Lord called him from catching Fish , to be a Fisher of men , for which he was fitted by some preparatory Institutions , even before his coming unto Christ. 2. JOHN the Baptist was lately risen in the Jewish Church , a Person whom for the efficacy and impartiality of his Doctrine , and the extraordinary strictness and austerities of his Life , the Jews generally had in great veneration . He trained up his Proselytes under the Discipline of Repentance , and by urging upon them a severe change and reformation of life , prepared them to entertain the Doctrine of the Messiah , whose approach , he told them , was now near at hand , representing to them the greatness of his Person , and the importance of the design that he was come upon . Besides the multitudes that promiscuously flock'd to the Baptists discourses , he had according to the manner of the Jewish Masters some peculiar and select Disciples , who more constantly attended upon his Lectures , and for the most part waited upon his Person . In the number of these was our Apostle , who was then with him about Jordan , when our Saviour , who some time since had been baptized , came that way : upon whose approach the Baptist told them , that this was the 〈◊〉 , the great Person whom he had so 〈◊〉 spoken of , to usher in whose appearing his whole Ministry was but subservient , that this was the Lamb of God , the true Sacrifice that was to expiate the sins of Mankind . Upon this testimony Andrew and another Disciple ( probably S. John ) follow our Saviour to the place of his abode . Upon which account he is generally by the Fathers and ancient Writers stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or the first called Disciple ; though in a strict sence he was not so ; for though he was the first of the Disciples that came to Christ , yet was he not called till afterwards . After some converse with him , Andrew goes to acquaint his Brother Simon , and both together came to Christ. Long they stayed not with him , but returned to their own home , and to the exercise of their calling , wherein they were imployed , when somewhat more than a Year after our Lord passing through Galilee , found them 〈◊〉 upon the Sea of Tiberias , where he fully satisfied them of the Greatness and Divinity of his Person by the convictive evidence of that miraculous draught of Fishes , which they took at his command . And now he told them he had other work for them to do , that they should no longer deal in Fish , but with Men , whom they should catch with the efficacy and influence of that Doctrine , that he was come to deliver to the World ; commanding them to follow him , as his immediate Disciples and Attendants , who accordingly left all and followed him . Shortly after S. Andrew together with the rest was called to the Office and Honour of the Apostolate , made choice of to be one of those that were to be Christ's immediate Vice-gerents for planting and propagating the Christian Church . Little else is particularly recorded of him in the Sacred story , being comprehended in the general account of the rest of the Apostles . 3. AFTER our Lord's Ascension into Heaven , and that the Holy 〈◊〉 had in its miraculous powers been plentifully shed upon the Apostles , to fit them for the great errand they were to go upon , to root out prophaneness and idolatry , and to subdue the World to the Doctrine of the Gospel , it is generally affirmed by the Ancients , that the Apostles agreed among themselves ( by lot , say * some ) probably not without the special guidance and direction of the Holy Ghost , what parts of the World they should severally take . In this division S. Andrew had Scythia , and the Neighbouring Countries primarily allotted him for his ‖ Province . First then he travelled through Cappadocia , Galatia , and Bithynia , and instructed them in the Faith of Christ , pasling all along the Euxin Sea ( formerly called ‖ Axenus , from the barbarous and inhospitable temper of the People thereabouts , who were wont to sacrifice strangers , and of their skulls to make Cups to drink in in their Feasts and Banquets ) and so into the solitudes of Scythia . An ancient * Author ( though whence deriving his intelligence I know not ) gives us a more particular account of his travails and transactions in these parts . He tells us , that he first came to 〈◊〉 , where being entertained by a Jew , he went into the Synagogue ; discoursed to them concerning Christ , and from the prophecies of the Old Testament proved him to be the Messiah , and the Saviour of the World. Having here converted and baptized many , ordered their publick Meeting , and ordained them Priests , he went next to 〈◊〉 , a maritime City upon the 〈◊〉 Sea , whence after many other places he came to Nice , where he staid two Years , Preaching and working Miracles with great success : thence to Nicomedia , and so to 〈◊〉 , whence sailing through the Propontis he came by the Euxin Sea to Heraclea , and from thence to Amastris : in all which places he met with great difficulties and discouragements , but overcame all with an invincible patience and resolution . He next came to Sinope , a City scituate upon the same Sea , a place famous both for the birth and burial of the great King Mithridates ; here , as my Author reports from the Ancients ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) he met with his Brother Peter , with whom he staid a considerable time at this place : as a Monument whereof he tells us , that the Chairs made of white stone wherein they were wont to sit while they taught the People , were still extant , and commonly shewed in his time . The Inhabitants of this City were most Jews , who partly through zeal for their Religion , partly through the barbarousness of their manners , were quickly exasperated against the Apostle , and contriving together attempted to burn the House , wherein he sojourned : however they treated him with all the instances of savage cruelty , throwing him to the ground , stamping upon him with their 〈◊〉 , pulling and dragging him from place to place , some beating him with Clubs , others pelting him with stones , and some the better to satisfie their revenge , biting off his Flesh with their Teeth ; till apprehending they had fully dispatched him , they cast him out of the City . But he miraculously recovered , and publickly returned into the City , whereby and by some other Miracles , which he wrought amongst them , he reduced many to a better mind , converting them to the Faith. Departing hence , he went again to Amynsus , and then to Trapezus , thence to 〈◊〉 ; and to Samosata ( the birth-place of the witty but impious Lucian ) where having baffled the acute and wise Philosophers , he purposed to return to Jerusalem . Whence after some time he betook himself to his former Provinces , travailing to the Country of the Abasgi , where at Sebastople , 〈◊〉 upon the Eastern shore of the Euxin Sea , between the 〈◊〉 of the Rivers Phasis and Apsarus , he successfully Preached the Gospel to the Inhabitants of that City . Hence he removed into the Country of the Zecchi , and the Bosphorani , part of the 〈◊〉 Scythia or Sarmatia , but finding the Inhabitants very barbarous and intractable , he staid not long among them , only at Cherson , or Chersonesus , a great and populous City within the Bosphorus , he continued some time , instructing and confirming them in the Faith. Hence taking Ship he sailed cross the Sea to 〈◊〉 , to encourage and confirm the Churches which he had lately planted in those parts , and here he ordained Philologus , formerly one of S. Paul's Disciples , Bishop of that City . 4. HENCE he came to Byzantium ( since called Constantinople ) where he instructed them in the knowledge of the Christian Religion , founded a Church for Divine worship , and ordained Stachys ( whom S. Paul calls his beloved Stachys ) first Bishop of that place . * Baronius indeed is unwilling to believe this , desirous to engross the honour of it to S. Peter , whom he will have to have been the first Planter of Christianity in these parts . But besides that Baronius his authority is very slight and insignificant in this case ( as we have before noted in S. Peter's life ) this matter is expresly asserted not only by Nicephorus ‖ Callistus , but by another * Nicephorus Patriarch of Constantinople , and who therefore may be presumed 〈◊〉 in his Predecessors in that See. Banished out of the City by him , who at that time usurped the Government , he fled to 〈◊〉 , a place near at hand , where he preached the Gospel for two Years together with good success , converting great Numbers to the Faith. After this he travelled over Thrace , Macedonia , Thessaly , Achaia : ‖ Nazianzen adds Epyrus , in all which places for many Years he preached and propagated Christianity , and confirmed the Doctrine that he taught with great signs and miracles : at last he came to Patrae a City of Achaia , where he gave his last and great testimony to it , I mean , laid down his own Life to ratifie and ensure it : in describing whose Martyrdom , we shall for the main follow the account that is given us in the Acts of his * Passion , pretended to have been written by the Presbyters and Deacons of Achaia , present at his Martyrdom ; which , though I dare not with some assert to be the genuine work of those persons , yet can it not be denied to be of considerable antiquity , being mentioned by ‖ Philastrius , who flourished Ann. 380. and were no doubt written long before his time . The summ of it is this . 5. AEGEAS , Proconsul of Achaia , came at this time to Patrae , where observing that multitudes were fallen off from Paganism , and had embraced Christianity , he endeavoured by all arts both of favour and cruelty to reduce the people to their old Idolatries . To him the Apostle resolutely makes his address , calmly puts him in mind , that he being but a judge of men should own and revere him , who was the supreme and impartial Judge of all , that he should give him that Divine honour that was due to him , and leave off the impieties of his false Heathen-worship . The Proconsul derided him as an Innovator in Religion , a propagator of that superstition , whose Author the Jews had infamously put to death upon a Cross. Hereat the Apostle took occasion to discourse to him of the infinite love and kindness of our Lord , who came into the World to purchase the Salvation of mankind , and for that end did not disdain to die upon the Cross. To whom the Proconsul answered , that he might perswade them so , that would believe him ; for his part , if he did not comply with him in doing sacrifice to the Gods , he would cause him to suffer upon that Cross , which he had so much extolled and magnified . S. Andrew replied , That he did sacrifice every day to God , the only true and omnipotent Being , not with fumes and bloudy offerings , but in the sacrifice of the immaculate Lamb of God. The issue was , the Apostle was committed to prison , whereat the people were so enraged , that it had broken out into a mutiny , had not the Apostle restrained them , perswading them to imitate the mildness and patience of our meek humble Saviour , and not to hinder him from that crown of Martyrdom that now waited for him . 6. THE next day he was again brought before the Proconsul , who perswaded him that he would not foolishly destroy himself , but live and enjoy with him the pleasures of this life . The Apostle told him , that he should have with him eternal joys , if renouncing his execrable idolatries , he would heartily entertain Christianity , which he had hitherto so successfully preached amongst them . That , answered the Proconsul , is the very reason , why I am so earnest with you to sacrifice to the Gods , that those whom you have every where seduced , may by your example be brought to return back to that ancient Religion , which they have forsaken : Otherwise I 'le cause you with exquisites tortures to be crucified . The Apostle replied , That now he saw it was in vain any longer to deal with him , a person incapable of sober counsels , and hardned in his own blindness and folly ; that as for himself , he might do his worst , and if he had one torment greater than another , he might heap that upon him : The greater constancy he shewed in his sufferings for Christ , the more acceptable he should be to his Lord and Master . AEgeas could now hold no longer , but passed the sentence of death upon him ; and * Nicephorus gives us some more particular account of the Proconsul's displeasure and rage against him , which was , that amongst others he had converted his wife Maximilla , and his brother Stratocles to the Christian Faith , having cured them of desperate distempers that had seised upon them . 7. THE Proconsul first commanded him to be scourged , seven Lictors successively whipping his naked body ; and seeing his invincible patience and constancy , commanded him to be crucified , but not to be fastned to the Cross with Nails , but Cords , that so his death might be more lingring and tedious . As he was led to execution , to which he went with a chearful and composed mind , the people cried out , that he was an innocent and good man , and unjustly condemned to die . Being come within sight of the Cross , he saluted it with this kind of address , That he had long desired and expected this happy hour , that the Cross had been consecrated by the body of Christ hanging on it , and adorned with his members as with so many inestimable Jewels , that he came joyfull and triumphing to it , that it might receive him as a disciple and follower of him , who once hung upon it , and be the means to carry him safe unto his Master , having been the instrument upon which his Master had redeemed him . Having prayed , and exhorted the people to constancy and perseverance in that Religion which he had delivered to them , he was fastned to the Cross , whereon he hung two days , teaching and instructing the people all the time , and when great importunities in the mean while were used to the Proconsul to spare his life , he earnestly begged of our Lord , that he might at this time depart and seal the truth of his Religion with his bloud . God heard his prayer , and he immediately expired on the last of November , though in what year no certain account can be recovered . 8. THERE seems to have been something peculiar in that Cross that was the instrument of his martyrdom , commonly affirmed to have been a Cross decussate , two pieces of Timber crossing each other in the middle , in the form of the letter X , hence usually known by the name of S. Andrew's Cross ; though there want not * those , who affirm him to have been crucified upon an Olive Tree . His body being taken down and embalmed , was decently and honourably interred by Maximilla , a Lady of great quality and estate , and whom Nicephorus , I know not upon what ground , makes wise to the Proconsul . As for that report of ‖ Gregory Bishop of Tours , that on the Anniversary day of his Martyrdom , there was wont to flow from S. Andrew's Tomb a most fragrant and precious oyl , which according to its quantity denoted the scarceness or plenty of the following year ; and that the sick being anointed with this oyl , were restored to their former health , I leave to the Readers discretion , to believe what he please of it . For my part , if any ground of truth in the story , I believe it no more , than that it was an exhalation and sweating sorth at some times of those rich costly perfumes and ointments , wherewith his Body was embalmed after his crucisixion . Though I must confess this conjecture to be impossible , if it be true what my Author adds , that some years the oyl burst out in such plenty , that the stream arose to the middle of the Church . His Body was afterwards , by Constantine the * Great , solemnly removed to Constantinople , and buried in the great Church , which he had built to the honour of the Apostles : Which being taken down some hundred years after by ‖ Justinian the Emperor in order to its reparation , the Body was found in a wooden-Coffin , and again reposed in its proper place . 9. I SHALL conclude the History of this Apostle with that Encomiastick Character , which one of the * Ancients gives of him . S. Andrew was the first-born of the Apostolick Quire , the main and prime pillar of the Church , a rock before the rock ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) the foundation of that foundation , the first-fruits of the beginning , a caller of others before he was called himself ; he preached that Gospel that was not yet believed or entertained , revealed and made known that life to his brother , which he had not yet perfectly learn'd himself . So great treasures did that one question bring him , Master where dwellest thou ? which he soon perceived by the answer given him , and which he deeply pondered in his mind , come and see . How art thou become a Prophet ? whence thus Divinely skilful ? what is it that thou thus soundest in Peter's ears ? [ We have found him , &c. ] why dost thou attempt to compass him , whom thou canst not comprehend ? how can he be found , who is Omnipresent ? But he knew well what he said : We have found him , whom Adam lost , whom Eve injured , whom the clouds of sin have hidden from us , and whom our transgressions had hitherto made a stranger to us , &c. So that of all our Lord's Apostles S. Andrew had thus far the honour to be the first Preacher of the Gospel . The End of S. Andrew's Life . THE LIFE OF S. JAMES the Great . St. Iames Major He being the Son of Zebedee was at the Command of Herod beheaded at Hierusalem . Ad. 122 St. James the Great his Martyrdom . Act. 12. 1 , 2. About that time Herod the King streched forth his hands to vex certain of the Church . And he killed James the brother of John with y e sword . S. James , why surnamed the Great . His Country and kindred . His alliance to Christ. His Trade and way of Life . Our Lord brought up to a Manual Trade . The quick reparteé of a Christian Schoolmaster to Libanius . His being called to be a Disciple , and great readiness to follow Christ. His election to the Apostolick Office , and peculiar favours from Christ. Why our Lord chose some few of the Apostles to be witnesses of the more private passages of his life . The imposition of a new name at his election to the Apostleship . He and his Brother stiled Boanerges , and why . The Zeal and activity of their temper . Their ambition to sit on Christ's right and left hand in his Kingdom , and confident promise of suffering . This ill resented by the rest . Our Lord's discourse concerning the nature of the Evangelical state . Where he preached after Christ's Ascension . The story of his going into Spain exploded . Herod Agrippa in favour with the Roman Emperors . The character of his temper . His zeal for the Law of Moses . His condemning S. James to death . The sudden conversion of his Accuser , as he was led to Martyrdom . Their being beheaded . The Divine Justice that pursued Herod . His grandeur and arrogance at Caesarea . His miserable death . The story of the Translation of S. James his Corps to Compostella in Spain , and the Miracles said to be done there . 1. SAINT James surnamed the Great , either because of his Age , being much elder than the other , or for some peculiar honours and favours which our Lord conferred upon him , was by Country a Galilean , born , probably , either at Gapernaum , or Bethsaida , being one of Simon Peter's Partners in the Trade of Fishing . He was the Son of Zebdai , or Zebedee , ( and probably the same whom the Jews mention in their Talmud , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rabbi James or Jacob the Son of Zebedee ) a Fisherman , and the many servants which he kept for that imployment ( a circumstance not taken notice of in any other ) speak him a man of some more considerable note in that Trade and way of life ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Nicephorus notes . His Mother's name was Mary , surnamed Salome , called first Taviphilja , says an ancient Arabick * writer ; the Daughter , as is most probable , not Wife of Cleopas , Sister to Mary the Mother of our Lord ; not her own Sister properly so called ( the Blessed Virgin being in all likelihood an only Daughter ) but Cousin-german , stiled her Sister , according to the mode and custom of the Jews , who were wont to call all such near relations by the names of Brothers and Sisters ; and in this respect he had the honour of a near relation to our Lord himself . His education was in the Trade of Fishing ; no imployment is base , that 's honest and industrious , nor can it be thought mean and dishonourable to him , when it is remembred , that our Lord himself , the Son of God , stoop'd so low , as not only to become the [ reputed ] Son of a Carpenter , but during the retirements of his private life , to work himself at his Father's Trade , not devoting himself merely to contemplations , nor withdrawing from all useful society with the World , and hiding himself in the solitudes of an Anchoret , but busying himself in an active course of life , working at the Trade of a Carpenter , and particularly ( as one of the * Ancients tells us ) making Ploughs and Yokes . And this the sacred History does not only plainly intimate , but it is generally asserted by the Ancient writers of the ‖ Church : A thing so notorious , that the Heathens used to object it as a reproach to Christianity . Thence that smart and acute * reparteé which a Christian School-master made to Libanius the famous Orator at Antioch , when upon Julian's expedition into Persia ( where he was killed ) he asked in scorn , what the Carpenters Son was now a doing . The Christian replied with salt enough , That the great Artificer of the World , whom he scoffingly called the Carpenter's Son , was making a coffin for his Master Julian ; the news of whose death was brought soon after . But this only by the way . 2. S. JAMES applied himself to his Father's Trade , not discouraged with the meanness , not sinking under the difficulties of it ; and , as usually the blessings of Heaven meet men in the way of an honest and industrious diligence , it was in the exercise of this calling , when our Saviour passing by the Sea of Galilee , saw him and his brother in the Ship , and called them to be his Disciples . A Divine power went along with the word , which they no sooner heard , but chearfully complied with it , immediately leaving all to follow him . They did not stay to dispute his commands , to argue the probability of his promise , solicitously to enquire into the minute consequences of the undertaking , what troubles and hazards might attend this new employment , but readily delivered up themselves to whatever services he should appoint them . And the chearfulness of their obedience is yet further considerable , that they left their aged Father in the Ship behind them . For elsewhere we find others excusing themselves from an immediate attendance upon Christ , upon pretence that they must go bury their Father , or take their leave of their kindred at home . No such slight and trivial pretences could stop the resolution of our Apostles , who broke through these considerations , and quitted their present interests and relations . Say not it was unnaturally done of them to desert their Father , an aged person , and in some measure unable to help himself . For , besides that they left servants with him to attend him , it is not cruelty to our Earthly , but obedience to our Heavenly Father , to leave the one , that we may comply with the call and summons of the other . It was the triumph of Abraham's Faith , when God called him to leave his kindred and his Father's house , to go out , and sojourn in a foreign Country , not knowing whither he went. Nor can we doubt but that Zebedee himself would have gone along with them , had not his Age given him a Supersedeas from such an active and ambulatory course of life . But though they left him at this time , it 's very reasonable to suppose , that they took care to instruct him in the doctrine of the Messiah , and to acquaint him with the glad tidings of Salvation , especially since we find their Mother Salome so hearty a friend to , so constant a follower of our Saviour : But this ( if we may believe the account which one gives of it ) was after her Husbands decease , who próbably lived not long after , dying before the time of our Saviour's Passion . 3. IT was not long after this , that he was called from the station of an ordinary Disciple , to the Apostolical Office , and not only so , but honoured with some peculiar acts of favour beyond most of the Apostles , being one of the three , whom our Lord usually made choice of to admit to the more intimate transactions of his life , from which the others were excluded . Thus with Peter and his Brother John he was taken to the miraculous raising of Jairus his Daughter ; admitted to Christ's glorious transfiguration upon the Mount , and the discourses that there passed between him and the two great Ministers of Heaven ; taken along with him into the Garden , to be a Spectator of those bitter Agonies , which the Holy Jesus was to undergo as the preparatory sufferings to his Passion . What were the reasons of our Lord 's admitting these three Apostles to these more special acts of favour than the rest , is not easie to determine : though surely our Lord , who governed all his actions by Principles of the highest prudence and reason , did it for wise and proper ends ; whether it was that he designed these three to be more solemn and peculiar witnesses of some particular passages of his life , than the other Apostles , or that they would be more eminently useful and serviceable in some parts of the Apostolick Office , or that hereby he would the better prepare and encourage them against suffering , as intending them for some more eminent kinds of Martyrdom or suffering , than the rest were to undergo . 4. NOR was it the least instance of that particular honour which our Lord conferr'd upon these three Apostles , that at his calling them to the Apostolat he gave them the addition of a new Name and Title . A thing not unusual of old , for God to impose a new Name upon Persons , when designing them for some great and peculiar services and employments ; thus he did to Abraham and Jacob. Nay the thing was customary among the Gentiles , as had we no other instances , might appear from those which the Scripture gives us , of Pharaoh's giving a new name to Joseph , when advancing him to be Vice-Roy of Egypt . 〈◊〉 to Daniel ; &c. Thus did our Lord in the Election of these three Apostles , Simon he sirnamed Peter , James the Son of Zebedee , and John his Brother he sirnamed Boanerges , which is , the Sons of Thunder . What our Lord particularly intended in this Title , is easier to conjecture , than certainly to determine ; some think it was given them upon the account of their being present in the Mount , when a voice came out of the Cloud , and said , This is my beloved Son , &c. The like whereto when the People heard at another time , they cried out , that it Thundred . But besides that this account is in it self very slender and inconsiderable , if so , then the title must equally have belonged to Peter , who was then present with them . Others think it was upon the account of their loud , bold and resolute preaching Christianity to the World , fearing no threatnings , daunted with no oppositions , but going on to thunder in the Ears of the secure sleepy World , rouzing and awakening the consciences of Men with the earnestness and vehemency of their Preaching , as Thunder , which is called God's Voice , powerfully shakes the natural World , and breaks in pieces the 〈◊〉 of Lebanon : Or , if it relate to the Doctrines they delivered , it may signifie their teaching the great mysteries and speculations of the Gospel in a profounder strain than the rest ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Theophylact notes ; which how true it might be of our S. James , the Scripture is wholly silent ; but was certainly verified of his Brother John , whose Gospel is so full of the more sublime notions and mysteries of the Gospel , concerning Christ's Deity , eternal prae-existence , &c. that he is generally affirmed by the Ancients , not so much to speak , as thunder . Probably the expression may denote no more , than that in general they were to be prime and eminent Ministers in this new scene and state of things , the introducing of the Gospel or Evangelical dispensation , being called a Voice shaking the Heavens and the Earth , and so is exactly correspondent to the native importance of the Word , signifying an Earth-quake , or a vehement commotion that makes a noise like to Thunder . 5. HOWEVER it was , our Lord , I doubt not , herein had respect to the furious and resolute disposition of those two Brothers , who seem to have been of a more fierce and fiery temper than the rest of the Apostles : whereof we have this memorable instance . Our Lord being resolved upon his Journy to Jerusalem , sent some of his Disciples as Harbingers to prepare his way , who coming to a Village of Samaria , were uncivilly rejected , and refused entertainment ; probably , because of that old and inveterate quarrel that was between the Samaritans and the Jews , and more especially at this time , because our Saviour seemed to slight Mount Gerizim ( where was their staple and solemn place of worship ) by passing it by , to go worship at Jerusalem ; the reason in all likelihood why they denied him those common courtesies and conveniences due to all Travellers . This piece of rudeness and inhumanity was presently so deeply resented by S. James , and his Brother , that they came to their Master to know , whether as Elias did of old , they might not pray down Fire from Heaven to consume these barbarous and inhospitable People . So apt are Men for every trifle to call upon Heaven , to Minister to the extravagancies of their own impotent and unreasonable passions . But our Lord rebukes their zeal , tells them they quite mistook the case , that this was not the frame and temper of his Disciples and Followers , the nature and design of that Evangelical dispensation , that he was come to set on foot in the World , which was a more pure and perfect , a more mild and gentle Institution , than what was under the Old Testament in the times of Moses and Elias , The Son of Man being come not to destroy mens lives , but to save them . 6. THE Holy Jesus not long after set forwards in his Journy to Jerusalem in order to his crucifixion , and the better to prepare the minds of his Apostles for his death and departure from them , he told them what he was to suffer , and yet that after all he should rise again . They , whose minds were yet big with expectations of a temporal power and monarchy , understood not well the meaning of his discourses to them . However S. James and his Brother supposing the Resurrection that he spoke of , would be the time , when his Power and Greatness would commence , prompted their Mother Salome to put up a Petition for them . She , presuming probably on her relation to Christ , and knowing that our Saviour had promised his Apostles , that when he was come into his Kingdom , they should sit upon twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel ; and that he had already honoured her two Sons with an intimate familiarity , after leave modestly asked for her address , begg'd of him , that when he took possession of his Kingdom , her two Sons James and John might have the principal places of honour and dignity next his own Person , the one sitting on his right hand , and the other on his left , as the Heads of Judah and Joseph had the first places among the Rulers of the Tribes in the Jewish Nation . Our Lord directing his discourse to the two Apostles , at whose suggestion he knew their Mother had made this address , told them , they quite mistook the nature of his Kingdom , which consisted not in external grandeur and soveraignty , but in an inward life and power , wherein the highest place would be to take the greatest pains , and to undergo the heaviest troubles and sufferings ; that they should do well to consider , whether they were able to endure , what he was to undergo , to drink of that bitter Cup which he was to drink of , and to go through that Baptism , wherein he was shortly to be baptized in his own blood . Our Apostles were not yet cured of their ambitious humour , but either not understanding the force of our Saviour's reasonings , or too confidently presuming upon their own strength , answered , that they could do all this . But he , the goodness of whose nature ever made him put the best and most candid interpretation upon mens words and actions , yea even those of his greatest enemies , did not take the advantage of their hasty and inconsiderate reply , to treat them with sharp and quick reproofs , but mildly owning their forwardness to suffer , told them , that as for sufferings , they should indeed suffer as well as he ( and so we accordingly find they did , S. James after all dying a violent death , S. John enduring great miseries and torments , and might we believe Chrysostom and Theophylact , Martyrdom it self , though others nearer to those times assure us , he died a natural death ) but for any peculiar honour or dignity he would not by an absolute and peremptory favour of his own dispose it any otherwise , than according to those rules and instructions which he had received of his Father . The rest of the Apostles were offended with this ambitious request of the Sons of Zebedee ; but our Lord to calm their passions , discoursed to them of the nature of the Evangelick state , that it was not here , as in the Kingdoms and seignteuries of this World , where the great ones receive homage and fealty from those that are under them , but that in his service humility was the way to honour , that who ever took most pains , and did most good , would be the greatest Person , pre-eminence being here to be measured by industry and diligence , and a ready condescension to the meanest offices that might be subservient to the Souls of Men , and that this was no more than what he sufficiently taught them by his own Example , being come into the World , not to be served himself with any pompous circumstances of state and splendor , but to serve others , and to lay down his life for the redemption of Mankind . With which discourse the storm blew over , and their exorbitant passions began on all hands to be allayed and pacified . 7. WHAT became of S. James after our Saviour's Ascension , we have no certain account either from Sacred , or Ecclesiastick stories . * Sophronius tells us , that he preached to the dispersed Jews , which surely he means of that dispersion that was made of the Jewish Converts after the death of Stephen . The Spanish writers generally contend , that having preached the Gospel up and down 〈◊〉 and Samaria , after the death of Stephen he came to these Western parts , and particularly into Spain ( some add Britain and * Ircland ) where he planted Christianity , and appointed some select Disciples to perfect what he had begun , and then returned back to Jerusalem . Of this are no footsteps in any Ancient writers , earlier than the middle Ages of the Church , when 't is mentioned by * Isidore , the Breviary of ‖ Toledo , an Arabick Book of * Anastasius , Patriarch of Antioch , concerning the Passions of the 〈◊〉 , and some others after them . Nay , ‖ Baronius himself , though endeavouring to render the account as smooth and plausible as he could , and to remove what objections lay against it ; yet after all confesses , he did it only to shew , that the thing was not impossible , nor to be accounted such a monstrous and extravagant Fable , as some men made it to be , as indeed elsewhere he plainly and peremptorily both denies and disproves it . He could not but see , that the shortness of this Apostle's Life , the Apostles continuing all in one intire body at Jerusalem , even after the dispersing of the other Christians , probably not going out of the bounds of 〈◊〉 for many years after our Lord's Ascension , could not comport with so tedious and difficult a voyage , and the time which he must necessarily spend in those parts : And therefore 't is 〈◊〉 to confine his ministry to Judaea , and the parts thereabouts , and to seek for him at Jerusalem , where we are sure to find him . 8. HEROD Agrippa , son of Aristobulus , and Grandchild of Herod the Great ( under whom Christ was born ) had been in great favour with the late Emperor Caligula , but much more with his successor Claudius , who confirmed his predecessors grant , with the addition of Judaea , Samaria , and Abylene , the remaining portions of his Grandfathers dominions . Claudius being setled in the Empire , over comes Herod from Rome to take possession , and to manage the affairs of his new acquired Kingdom . A Prince noble and generous , prudent and politick , throughly versed in all the arts of Courtship , able to oblige enemies , and to 〈◊〉 or decline the displeasure of the Emperor , ( witness his subtil and cunning insinuations to Caligula , when he commanded the Jews to account him a * God ) he was one that knew , let the wind blow which way it would , how to gain the point he aimed at , of a courteous and affable demeanour , but withall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a mighty zealot for the Jewish Religion , and a most accurate observer of the Mosaick Law , keeping himself free from all legal impurities , and suffering no day to pass over his head , in which he himself was not present at sacrifice . Being desirous in the entrance upon his sovereignty to insinuate himself into the favour of the populacy , and led no less by his own zealous inclination , he saw no better way , than to fall heavy upon the Christians , a sort of men , whom he knew the Jews infinitely hated , as a novel and an upstart Sect , whose Religion proclaimed open desiance to the Mosaick Institutions . Hereupon he began to raise a persecution , but alas , the commonalty were too mean a sacrifice to fall as the only victim to his zeal and popular designs , he must have a fatter and more honourable sacrifice . It was not long before S. James his stirring and active temper , his bold reproving of the Jews , and vigorous contending for the truth and excellency of the Christian Religion , rendred him a sit object for his turn . Him he commands to be apprehended , cast into prison , and sentence of death to be passed upon him . As he was led forth to the place of * Martyrdom , the Souldier or Officer that had guarded him to the Tribunal , or rather his Accuser ( and so ‖ Suidas expresly tells us it was ) having been convinced by that mighty courage and constancy which S. James shewed at the time of his trial , repented of what he done , came and fell down at the Apostle's feet , and heartily begged pardon for what he said against him . The holy man , after a little surprise at the thing , raised him up , embraced and kissed him , Peace ( said he ) my son , peace be to thee , and the pardon of thy faults . Whereupon before them all he publickly professed himself to be a Christian , and so both were beheaded at the same time . Thus fell S. James , the Apostolick Proto-Martyr , the first of that number that gained the Crown , chearfully taking that cup , which he had long since told his Lord he was most ready to drink of . 9. BUT the Divine vengeance , that never sleeps , suffered not the death of this innocent and righteous man to pass long unrevenged ; of which , though S. Luke gives us but a short account , yet * Josephus , who might himself remember it , being a youth at that time of seven or eight years of age , sets down the story with its particular circumstances , agreeing almost exactly with the Sacred Historian . Shortly after S. James his Martyrdom , Herod removed to Caesarea , being resolved to make war upon the neighbouring Tyrians and Sidonians : While he was here , he proclaimed solemn sights and Festival entertainments to be held in honour of Caesar , to which there flocked a great confluence of all the Nobility thereabouts . Early in the morning on the second day he came with great state into the Theatre , to make an Oration to the people , being clothed in a Robe all over curiously wrought with silver , which encountring with the beams of the rising Sun , reflected such a lustre upon the eyes of the people ( who make sensible appearances the only true measures of greatness ) as begot an equal wonder and veneration in them , crying out ( prompted no doubt by flatterers , who began the cry ) that it was some Deity which they beheld , and that he who spake to them must be something above the ordinary standard of humanity . This impious applause Herod received without any token of dislike , or sense of that injury that was hereby done to the supreme Being of the World. But a sudden accident changed the scene , and turned the Gomick part into a black fatal Tragedy . Looking up , he espied an Owle sitting upon a rope over his head ( as probably also he did an Angel , for so S. Luke mentions it ) which he presently beheld as the fatal messenger of his death , as heretofore it had been of his prosperity and success . An incurable melancholy immediately seised upon his mind , as exquisite torments did upon his bowels , caused without question by those 〈◊〉 S. Luke speaks of , which immediately fed and preyed upon him . Behold , said he , turning to those about him , the Deity you admired , and your selves evidently convinced of flattery and falshood ; see me here by the Laws of Fate condemned to die , whom just now you stiled immortal . Being removed into the Palace , his pains still encreased upon him , and though the people mourned and wept , fasted and prayed for his life and health , yet his acute torments got the upper hand , and after five days put a period to his life . But to return to S. James . 10. BEING put to death , his Body is said to have taken a second voyage into Spain , where we are with confidence enough told it rests at this day . Indeed I meet with a very formal account of its translation thither , written ( says the Publisher ) above DC . years since , by a Monk of the Abby of La-Fleury in * France : The summ whereof is this : The Apostles at Jerusalem designing Ctesiphon for Spain , ordained him Bishop , and others being joyned to his assistance , they took the Body of S. James , and went on board a Ship without Oars , without a Pilot , or any to steer and conduct their voyage , trusting only to the merits of that Apostle , whose remains they carried along with them . In seven days they arrived at a Port in Spain , where landing , the Corps was suddenly taken from them , and with great appearances of an extraordinary light from Heaven , conveyed they knew not whither , to the place of its interment . The men you may imagine were exceedingly troubled , that so great a treasure should be ravished from them ; but upon their prayers and tears they were conducted by an Angel to the place where the Apostle was buried , twelve miles from the Sea. Here they addressed themselves to a rich Noble Matron , called Luparia , who had a great Estate in those parts , but a severe Idolatress , begging of her , that they might have leave to intomb the bones of the holy Apostle within her jurisdiction . She entertained them with contempt and scorn , with curses and execrations , bidding them go and ask leave of the King of the Country . They did so , but were by him treated with all the instances of rage and fury , and pursued by him , till himself perished in the attempt . They returned back to their Gallaecian Matron , whom by many miracles , and especially the destroying a Dragon that miserably infested those parts , they at last made Convert to the Faith , who thereupon commanded her Images to be broken , the Altars to be demolished , and her own Idol-Temple , being cleansed and purged , to be dedicated to the honour of S. James , by which means Christianity mightily prevailed , and triumphed over Idolatry in all those Countries . This is the summ of the Account , call it Romance or History , which I do not desire to impose any further upon the Readers faith , than he shall find himself disposed to believe it . I add no more , than that his Body was afterwards translated from Iria Flavia ( the place of its first repose ) to Compostella : Though a Learned * person will have it to have been but one and the same place , and that after the story of S. James had gotten some footing in the belief of men , it began to be called ad Jacobum Apostolum , thence in after-times Giacomo 〈◊〉 , which was at last jumbled into Compostella ; where it were to tire both the Reader and my self , to tell him with what solemn veneration , and incredible miracles reported to be done here , this Apostle's reliques are worshipped at this day : Whence ‖ Baronius calls it the great store-house of Miracles lying open to the whole World , and wisely confesses it one of the best arguments to prove , that his Body was translated thither . And I should not scruple to be of his mind , could I be assured that such Miracles were truly done there . The End of the Life of S. James the Great . THE LIFE OF S. JOHN . S. IOHN Evangelist . Having lived to a great age , he died at Ephesus 68 years after our Lords Passion , and was Buried neere that City . Baron . S t John put into a Cauldron of boyling oyl . Joh. 21. 21 , 32. Peter sait , Lord , what shall this man do ? Jesus saith unto hun . if I will that he tarry till I come , what is that to thee ? 1 Pet. 4. 12. Think it not strange concerning I fiery trial that is to try you , as though some strange thing hapned to you . His kindred and relations ; whether eminent for Nobility . The peculiar favours conferred upon him by our Saviour . His lying in our Lord's Bosom . His attending at the crucifixion . Our Lord 's committing the Blessed Virgin to his care . The great intimacy between him and Peter . How long he resided at Jerusalem . Asia his Apostolical Province . His planting Christianity there , and in other parts of the East . His being sent prisoner to Rome , and being put into a Caldron of boiling Oil by the command of Domitian . His banishment into Patmos . Transportation , what kind of punishment . Capitis Diminutio what . His writing the Apocalypse there . The tradition of his hand wherewith he wrote it , being still kept there . His return to Ephesus , and governing the affairs of that Province . His great Age , and Death . The fancy of his being still alive , whence derived by the Ancients . The Tradition of his going alive into his Grave , and sleeping there . Several counterfeits pretending themselves to be S. John. His Celibacy ; whether he was ever married . His humility . His admirable love and charity , and hearty recommending it to the last . His charity to mens Souls . His endangering himself to reclaim 〈◊〉 debauched young man. His singular vigilancy against Hereticks and Seducers . His publick disowning Cerinthus his company , Cerinthus , who , and what his principles . The Heresie of Ebion , what . Nicolaitans , who ; whence their Original . An account of Nicolas the Deacon's separating from his Wife . The vile principles and practises of his pretended followers . S. John's writings . His Revelation . Dionysius Alexandrinus his judgment concerning it , and its Author . Asserted and proved to be S. John's . The ground of doubting , what . His Gospel when and where written . The solemn 〈◊〉 , and causes moving him to undertake it . The subject of it sublime and mysterious . Admired and cited by Heathen Philosophers . It s Translation into Hebrew . His first Epistle , and the design of it . His two other Epistles to whom written , and why not admitted of old . His 〈◊〉 and way of writing considered . The great Encomium given of his writings by the ancient Fathers . 1. SAINT John was a Galilean , the Son of Zebedee and Salome , younger Brother to S. James , together with whom he was brought up in the Trade of Fishing . * S. 〈◊〉 makes him remarkable upon the account of his Nobility , whereby he became acquainted with the High-Priest , and resolutely ventured himself amongst the Jews at our Saviour's Trial , prevailed to introduce Peter into the Hall , was the only Apostle that attended our Lord at his Crucifixion , and afterwards durst own his Mother , and keep her at his own house . But the nobility of his Family , and especially that it should be such as to procure him so much respect from persons of the highest rank and quality , seems not reconcileable with the meanness of his Father's Trade , and the privacy of his fortunes . And for his acquaintance with the High-Priest , I should rather put it upon some other account , especially if it be true what * Nicephorus relates , That he had lately sold his Estate left him by his Father in Galilee to Annas the High-Priest , and had therewith purchased a fair house at Jerusalem , about Mount Sion , whence he became acquainted with him . Before his coming to Christ , he seems for some time to have been Disciple to John the Baptist , being probably that other disciple that was with Andrew , when they left the Baptist to follow our Saviour , so particularly does he relate all circumstances of that transaction , though modestly , as in other parts of his Gospel , concealing his own name . He was at the same time with his Brother called by our Lord both to the Discipleship and Apostolate , by far the youngest of all the Apostles , as the Ancients generally affirm , and his great Age seems to evince , living near LXX . years after our Saviour's suffering . 2. THERE is not much said concerning him in the 〈◊〉 story , more than what is recorded of him in conjunction with his Brother James , which we have already remarked in his life . He was peculiarly dear to his Lord and Master , being the Disciple whom Jesus loved , that is , treated with more freedom and familiarity than the rest . And indeed he was not only one of the Three , whom our Saviour made partakers of the private passages of his life , but had some instances of a more particular kindness and favour conferred upon him . Witness his lying in our Saviour's bosom at the Paschal Supper , it being the custom of those times to lie along at meals upon Couches , so that the second lay with his head in the bosom of him that was before him ; this honourable place was not given to any of the Aged , but reserved for our Apostle : Nay , when Peter was desirous to know , which of them our Saviour meant , when he told them that one of them should betray him , and durst not himself propound the question , he made use of S. John ( whose familiarity with him might best warrant such an enquiry ) to ask our Lord ; who thereupon made them understand , 't was Judas whom he designed by the Traitor . This favour our Apostle endeavoured in some measure to answer by returns of particular kindness and constancy to our Saviour , staying with him , when the rest deserted him . Indeed upon our Lord's first apprehension he fled after the other Apostles , it not being without some probabilities of reason , that the Ancients conceive him to have been that young man that followed after Christ ; having a linen cloath cast about his naked body , whom when the Officers laid hold upon , he left the linen cloath , and fled naked from them . This in all likelihood was that garment that he had cast about him at Supper ( for they had peculiar Vestments for that purpose ) and being extremely affected with the Treason , and our Lord 's approaching Passion , had forgot to put on his other garments , but followed him into the Garden in the same habit wherewith he arose from the Table , it being then night , and so less liable to be taken notice of either by himself or others . But though he 〈◊〉 at present to avoid that sudden violence that was offered to him , yet he soon recovered himself , and returned back to seek his Master , confidently entred into the High-Priests Hall , and followed our Lord through the several passages of his Trial , and at last waited upon him ( and for any thing we know , was the only Apostle that did so ) at his Execution , owning him , as well as being own'd by him , in the midst of arms and guards , and in the thickest crowds of his most inveterate enemies . Here it was that our Lord by his last Will and Testament made upon the Cross , appointed him Guardian of his own Mother , the Blessed Virgin ; When he saw his Mother , and the Disciple standing by whom he loved , he said unto his Mother , Woman , behold thy Son , see , here is one that shall supply my place , and be to thee instead of a Son , to love and honour thee , to provide and take care for thee : and to the Disciple he said , Behold thy Mother ; Her , whom thou shalt henceforth deal with , treat and observe with that duty and honourable regard , which the relation of an indulgent Mother challenges from a pious and obedient Son : whereupon he took her into his own House , her Husband Joseph being some time since dead , and made her a principal part of his charge and care . And certainly the Holy Jesus could not have given a more honourable testimony of his particular respect and kindness to S. John , than to commit his own Mother , whom of all earthly Relations he held most dear and valuable , to his trust and care , and to substitute him to supply that duty which he himself paid her while he was here below . 3. AT the first news of our Lord's return from the dead , he , accompanied with Peter , presently hasted to the Sepulchre . Indeed there seems to have been a mutual intimacy between these two Apostles more than the rest . 'T was to Peter that S. John gave the notice of Christ's appearing , when he came to them at the Sea of 〈◊〉 in the habit of a stranger ; and it was for John that Peter was so sollicitously inquisitive to know what should become of him . After Christ's Ascension , we find these two going up to the Temple at the Hour of Prayer , and miraculously healing the poor impotent Cripple ; both Preaching to the People , and both apprehended together by the Priests and 〈◊〉 , and thrown into Prison , and the next Day brought forth to plead their cause before the 〈◊〉 . These were the two chosen by the Apostles to send down to Samaria , to settle and confirm the Plantations which Philip had made in those Parts , where they confounded and baffled Simon the Magician , and set him in an hopeful way to repentance . To these S. Paul addressed himself , as those that seemed to be Pillars among the rest , who accordingly gave him the right hand of fellowship ; and confirmed his mission to the Gentiles . 4. IN the division of Provinces which the Apostles made among themselves , * Asia fell to his share , though he did not presently enter upon his charge , otherwise we must needs have heard of him in the account which S. Luke gives of S. Paul's several Journies into , and residence in those parts . Probable therefore it is , that he dwelt still in his own House at Jerusalem , at least till the death of the Blessed Virgin ( and this is plainly asserted by ‖ Nicephorus from the account of those Historians that were before him ) whose death ( says * 〈◊〉 ) hapned Ann. Chr. XLVIII . about Fifteen Years after our Lord's Ascension . Some time ( probably Years ) after her death he took his Journy into Asia , and industriously applied himself to the propagating Christianity , Preaching where the Gospel had not yet taken place , and confirming it where it was already planted . Many Churches of note and eminency were of his foundation , Smyrna , Pergamus , Thyatira , Sardis , Philadelphia , Laodicea , and others ; but his chief place of residence was at Ephesus , where S. Paul had many Years before setled a Church , and constituted Timothy Bishop of it . Nor can we suppose that he confined his Ministry meerly to Asia Minor , but that he Preached in other Parts of the East ; probably in Parthia , his first Epistle being anciently intitled to them ; and the * Jesuits in the relation of their success in those Parts , assure us that the Bassorae ( a People of India ) constantly affirm from a Tradition received from their Ancestors , that S. John Planted the Christian Faith there . 5. HAVING spent many Years in this imployment , he was at length accused to Domitian , who had begun a Persecution against the Christians , as an eminent assertor of Atheism and impiety , and a publick subverter of the Religion of the Empire . By his command the Proconsul of Asia sent him bound to ‖ Rome , where his treatment was , what might be expected from so bloody and barbarous a Prince ; he was cast into a Cauldron of boyling Oyl , or rather Oyl set on Fire . But that Divine Providence that secured the three Hebrew Captives in the flames of a burning Furnace , brought this 〈◊〉 Man safe out of this , one would have thought , unavoidable destruction . An instance of so signal preservation , as had been enough to perswade a considering Man , that there must be a Divinity in that Religion that had such mighty and solemn attestations . But Miracles themselves will not convince him , that 's fallen under an hard heart , and an injudicious mind . The cruel Emperor was not satisfied with this , but presently orders him to be banished and transported into an Island . This was accounted a kind of capital punishment , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , says * Pachymer , speaking of this very instance , where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not to be understood as extending to life , but loss of priviledge . Therefore this punishment in the ‖ Roman Laws is called Capitis 〈◊〉 ( and it was the second sort of it ) because the Person thus banished was disfranchised , and the City thereby lost an head . It succeeded in the room of that ancient punishment , Aqua & igni interdicere , to interdict a Person the use of Fire and Water , the two great and necessary conveniences of Man's life , whereby was tacitly implied , that he must for his own defence betake himself into banishment ; it being unlawful for any to accommodate him with Lodging or Diet , or any thing necessary to the support of life . This banishing into Islands was properly called Deportatio , and was the worst and severest kind of exile , whereby the criminal forfeited his Estate , and being bound and put on Ship-board was by publick Officers transported into some certain Island ( which none but the Emperor himself might assign ) there to be confined to perpetual banishment . The place of our S. John's banishment was not Ephesus , as * Chrysostome by a great mistake makes it , but Patmos , a disconsolate Island in the Archipelago , where he remained several Years , instructing the Inhabitants in the Faith of Christ. Here it was about the latter end of Domitian's Reign , ( as 〈◊〉 tells ‖ us ) that he wrote his Apocalypse or Book of Revelations , wherein by frequent Visions and Prophetical representments , he had a clear Scheme and Prospect of the state and condition of Christianity in the future Periods and Ages of the Church . Which certainly was not the least instance of that kindness and favour which our Lord particularly shew'd to this Apostle ; and it seemed very suitable at this time , that the goodness of God should over-power the malice of Men , and that he should be entertained with the more 〈◊〉 converses of Heaven , who was now cut off from all ordinary conversation and society with Men. In a Monastery of Caloires , or Greek Monks in this Island , they shew a dead Man's hand at this * day , the Nails of whose Fingers grow again as oft as they are paired ; which the Turks will have to be the hand of one of their Prophets , while the Greeks constantly affirm it to have been the hand of S. John , wherewith he wrote the Revelations . 6. DOMITIAN , whose prodigious wickednesses had rendred him infamous and burdensome to the World , being taken out of the way , Cocceius Nerva succeeded in the Empire , a prudent Man , and of a milder and more sober temper . He rescinded the odious Acts of his Predecessor , and by publick Edict recalled those from banishment , whom the fury of Domitian had sent thither . S. John taking the advantage of this general Indulgence , left Patmos , and returned into Asia , his ancient charge , but chiefly fixed his Seat at 〈◊〉 , the care and presidency whereof ( Timothy their Bishop having been lately martyr'd by the People for perswading them against their Heathen-Feasts and Sports , especially one called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , wherein was a mixture of debauchery and ‖ idolatry ) he took upon him , and by the assistance of seven Bishops governed that large spacious Diocese ; * Nicephorus adds , that he not only managed the affairs of the Church , ordered and disposed the Clergy , but erected Churches , which surely must be meant of Oratories , and little places for their solemn conventions , building Churches in the modern notion , not being consistent with the poverty and persecution of Christians in those early times . Here at the request of the Bishops of Asia he wrote his Gospel ( they are Authors of no credit and value , that make it written during his confinement in the Isle of Patmos ) with very solemn preparation , whereof more when we come to consider the Writings which he left behind him . 7. HE lived till the time of Trajan , about the beginning of whose Reign he departed this Life , very Aged , about the Ninety-eighth or Ninety-ninth Year of his Life , as is generally thought . * Chrysostome is very positive , that he was an Hundred Years old when he wrote his Gospel , and that he liv'd full Twenty Years after . The same is affirmed by ‖ Dorotheus , that he lived CXX . Years : which to me seems altogether improbable , seeing by this account he must be Fifty Years of Age when called to be an Apostle , a thing directly contrary to the whole consent and testimony of Antiquity , which makes him very young at the time of his calling to the Apostolick Office. He died ( says the * Arabian ) in the expectation of his blessedness , by which he means his quiet and peaceable departure , in opposition to a violent and bloody death . Indeed Theophylact , and others before him conceive him to have died a Martyr , upon no other ground , than what our Saviour told him and his Brother , that they should drink of the Cup , and be baptized with the Baptism wherewith he was baptized , which ‖ Chrysostom strictly understands of Martyrdom and a bloudy death . It was indeed literally verified in his brother James ; and for him , though , as * S. Hierom observes , he was not put to death , yet may he be truly stiled a Martyr , his being put into a vessel of boiling Oil , his many years banishment , and other sufferings in the cause of Christ , justly challenging that honourable title , though he did not actually lay down his life for the testimony of the Gospel , it being not want of good will either in him or his enemies , but the Divine Providence immediately over-ruling the powers of nature , that kept the malice of his enemies from its full execution . 8. OTHERS on the contrary are so far from admitting him to die a Martyr , that they question , nay , peremptorily deny that he ever died at all . The first Assertor , and that but obliquely , that I find of this opinion , was Hippolytus Bishop of Porto , and Scholar to Clemens of Alexandria , who ranks him in the same capacity with Enoch and Elias ; for speaking of the twofold coming of Christ , he tells * us , that his first coming in the flesh had John the Baptist for its forerunner , and his second to Judgment shall have Enoch , Elias , and S. John. ‖ Ephrem Patriarch of Antioch is more express , he tells us , there are three persons , answerable to the three dispensations of the word , yet in the body , Enoch , Elias , and S. John , Enoch before the Law , Elias under the Law , and S. John under the Gospel ; concerning which last , that he never died , he confirms both from Scripture and Tradition , and quotes S. Cyrill ( I suppose he means him of Alexandria ) as of the same opinion . The whole foundation upon which this Error is built , was that discourse that passed between our Lord and Peter concerning this Apostle : For Christ having told Peter what was to be his own fate , Peter enquires what should become of S. John , knowing him to be the Disciple whom Jesus loved ? Our Lord rebukes his curiosity , by asking him , what that concerned him , If I will that he 〈◊〉 till I come , what is that to thee ? This the Apostles misunderstood , and a report presently went out amongst them , That that Disciple should not die : Though S. John , who himself records the passage , inserts a caution , That Jesus did not say , he should not die , but only what if I will that he tarry till I come ? Which doubtless our Lord meant of his coming ( so often mentioned in the New Testament ) in Judgment upon the Jews , at the 〈◊〉 overthrow of Jerusalem , which S. John out-lived many years ; and which our Lord particularly intended when elsewhere he told them , Verily I say unto you , there be some standing here , which shall not taste of death , till they see the Son of man coming in his Kingdom . 9. FROM the same Original sprang the report , that he only lay sleeping in his Grave . The story was currant in S. Augustines days , from whom we receive this account , though possibly the Reader will smile at the conceit . He tells * us , 't was commonly reported and believed that S. John was not dead , but that he rested like a man asleep in his Grave at Ephesus , as plainly appeared from the dust sensibly boiling and bubling up , which they accounted to be nothing else but the continual motion of his breath . This report S. Augustine seems inclinable to believe , having received it , as he tells us , from very credible hands . He further adds out of some Apocryphal writings , what was generally known and reported , that when S. John , then in health , had caused his Grave to be dug and prepared , he laid himself down in it as in a Bed , and as they thought , only fell asleep . * Nicephorus relates the story more at large , from whom ( if it may be any pleasure to entertain the Reader with these things ) we shall give this account . S. John foreseeing his translation into Heaven , took the Presbyters and Ministers of the Church of Ephesus , and several of the Faithful , along with him out of the City , carried them unto a Cemetery near at hand , whither he himself was wont to retire to prayer , and very earnestly recommended the state of the Churches to God in prayer . Which being done , he commanded a Grave to be immediately dug , and having instructed them in the more recondite mysteries of Theologie , the most excellent precepts of a good life , concerning Faith , Hope , and especially Charity , confirmed them in the 〈◊〉 of Religion , commended them to the care and blessing of our Saviour , and solemnly taking his leave of them , he signed himself with the sign of the Cross , and before them all went down into the Grave ; strictly charging them , to put on the Grave-stone , and to make it fast , and the next day to come and open it , and take a view of it . They did so , and having opened the Sepulchre , found nothing there but the Grave clothes which he had left behind him . To all which let me add , while my hand is in these things , what * Ephrem relates , that from this Grave , wherein he rested so short a time , a kind of Sacred Oil or Unguent was wont to be gathered . Gregory of ‖ Tours says 't was Manna , which even in his time like flour was cast up from the Sepulohre , and was carried up and down the World for the curing of diseases . This report of our Apostles being yet alive , some men made use of to wild and phantastick purposes . * Beza tells us of an Impostor in his time ( whom Postellus , who vainly boasted that he had the Soul of Adam , was wont to call his Brother ) who publickly prosessed himself to be our S. John , and was afterwards burnt at Tholose in France . Nor was this any more than what was done in the more early Ages of Christianity . For ‖ Sulpitius Severus giving us an account of a young Spaniard that first professed himself to be Elias , and then Christ himself ; adds , That there was one at the same time in the East , who gave out himself to be S. John. So fast will Error , like circles in the water , multiply it self , and one mistaken place of Scripture give countenance to an hundred stories , that shall be built upon it . I have no more to add , but what we meet with in the * Arabick writer of his life , ( though it little agrees with the preceding passages ) who reports , that there were none present at his burial but his disciple Phogsir ( probably Proghor , or Prochorus , one of the seven Deacons , and generally said to have been S. John's companion and assistent ) whom he strictly charged never to discover his Sepulchre to any ; it may be for the same reason for which it is thought God concealed the body of Moses , to prevent the Idolatrous worshipping of his Reliques : And accordingly the Turks , who conceit him to be buried in the confines of Lydia , pay great honour and veneration to his Tomb. 10. S. JO H N seems always to have led a single life , and so the * Ancients tell us , nay , S. Ambrose positively ‖ affirms , that all the Apostles were married , except S. John and S. Paul. There want not indeed some , and especially the middle Writers of the * Church , who will have our Apostle to have been married , and that it was his marriage which our Lord was at in Cana of Galilee , invited thither upon the account of his consanguinity and alliance : But that being convinced by the Miracle of the Water turned into Wine , he immediately quitted his conjugal relation , and became one of our Lord's Disciples . But this , as 〈◊〉 himself confesses , is trifling , and the issue of fabulous invention , a thing wholly unknown to the Fathers and best Writers of the Church , and which not only has no just authority to support it , but arguments enough to beat it down . As for his natural temper , he seems ( as we have observed in his Brother's Life ) to have been of a more eager and resolute disposition , easily apt to be inflamed and provoked , which his reduced Age brought to a more staid and a calmer temper . He was polished by no study or arts of Learning , but what was wanting in that , was abundantly made up in the excellent temper and constitution of his mind , and that furniture of Divine graces , which he was adorned withall . His humility was admirable , studiously concealing his own worth and honour , in all his Epistles ( as * Eusebius long since observed ) he never puts down the honourable Titles of Apostle or Evangelist , but only stiles himself , and that too but sometimes , Presbyter , or Elder , alluding probably to his Age , as much as Office ; in his Gospel , when he speaks of the Disciple whom Jesus loved , he constantly conceals his own name , leaving the Reader to conjecture who was meant . Love and Charity he practised himself , and affectionately pressed upon others , our Lord 's great love to him seems to have inspired his Soul with a bigger and more generous charity than the rest : 'T is the great vein that runs through his writings , and especially his Epistles , where he urges it as the great and peculiar Law of Christianity , and without which all other pretences to Christian Religion are vain and frivolous , useless and insignificant . And this was his constant practice to his dying day . When Age and weakness grew upon him at * Ephesus , that he was no longer able to preach to them , he used at every publick meeting to be led to the Church , and say no more to them , than , Little children , love one another . And when his Auditors wearied with the constant repetition of the same thing , asked him why he always spoke the same , he answered , Because it was the command of our Lord , and that if they did nothing else , this alone was enough . 11. BUT the largest measures of his Charity he expressed in the mighty care that he shewed to the Souls of men , unweariedly spending himself in the service of the Gospel , travelling from East to West to leaven the World with the principles of that holy Religion which he was sent to propagate , patiently enduring all torments , breaking through all difficulties and discouragements , shunning no dangers , that he might do good to Souls , redeem mens minds from error and idolatry , and reduce them from the snares of a debauched and a vicious life . Witness one famous * instance . In his visitation of the Churches , near to Ephesus , he made choice of a young man , whom with a special charge for his instruction and education he committed to the Bishop of that place . The 〈◊〉 man undertook the charge , instructed his Pupil , and baptized him : And then thinking he might a little remit the reins of discipline , the youth made an ill use of his liberty , and was quickly debauched by bad companions , making himself Captain to a company of High-way men , the most loose , cruel , and profligate wretches of the Country . S. John at his return understanding this , and sharply reproving the negligence and unfaithfulness of his Tutor , resolved to find him out : And without any consideration of what danger he entred upon , in venturing himself upon persons of desperate fortunes , and forfeited consciences , he went to the mountains , where their usual haunt was ; and being here taken by the Sentinel , he desired to be brought before their Commander , who no sooner espied him coming towards him , but immediately fled . The aged Apostle followed after , but not able to overtake him , passionately intreated him to stay , promising him to undertake with God for his peace and pardon . He did so , and both melted into tears , and the Apostle having prayed with , and for him , returned him a true Penitent and Convert to the Church . This story we have elsewhere related more at large out of 〈◊〉 , as he does from Clemens Alexandrinus , since which that Tract it self of * Clemens is made publick to the World. 12. NOR was it the least instance of his care of the Church , and charity to the Souls of men , that he was so infinitely vigilant against Hereticks and Seducers , countermining their artifices , antidoting against the poison of their errors , and shunning all communion and conversation with their persons . * Going along with some of his friends at Ephesus to the Bath ( whither he used frequently to resort , and the ruines whereof of Porphyry not far from the place where stood the famous Temple of Diana , as a late ‖ eye-witness informs us , are still shewed at this day ) he enquired of the servant that waited there , who was within ; the servant told him , Cerinthus ( Epiphanius says it was Ebion , and 't is not improbable that they might be both there ; ) which the Apostle no sooner understood , but in great abhorrency he turned back , Let 's be gon my brethren ( said he ) and make haste from this place , lest the Bath wherein there is such an Heretick as Cerinthus , the great enemy of the truth , fall upon our heads . This account Irenaeus delivers from Polycarp , S. John's own Scholar and Disciple . This Cerinthus was a man of loose and pernicious principles , endeavouring to corrupt Christianity with many damnable * Errors . To make himself more considerable , he struck in with the Jewish Converts , and made a bustle in that great controversie at Jerusalem , about Circumcision and the observation of the Law of Moses . But his usual haunt was Asia , where amongst other things he openly denied Christ's Resurrection , affirmed the World to have been made by Angels , broaching unheard of Dogmata , and pretending them to have been communicated to him by Angels , venting Revelations composed by himself , as a great Apostle , affirming that after the Resurrection the reign of Christ would commence here upon Earth , and that men living again at Jerusalem , should for the space of a thousand years enjoy all manner of sensual pleasures and delights : hoping by this fools Paradise that he should tempt men of loose and brutish minds over to his party . Much of the same stamp was * Ebion ( though in some principles differing from him , as error agrees with it self as little as with truth ) who held that the holy Jesus was a mere , and a mean man , begotten by Joseph of Mary his Wife , and that the observance of the Mosaick Rites and Laws was necessary to Salvation : And because they saw S. Paul stand so full in their way , they reproached him as an Apostate from his Religion , and rejected his Epistles , owning none but S. Matthew's Gospel in Hebrew , having little or no value for the rest ; the Sabbath and Jewish Rites they observed with the Jews , and on the Lord's day celebrated the memory of our Lord's Resurrection , 〈◊〉 cording to the custom and practice of the Christians . 13. BESIDES these , there was another sort of Hereticks that infested the Church in S. John's time , the Nicolaitans , mentioned by him in his Revelation , and whose doctrine our Lord is with a particular Emphasis there said to hate ; indeed a most wretched and brutish Sect , generally supposed to derive their original from Nicolas , one of the seven Deacons , whom we read of 〈◊〉 the Acts , whereof Glemens of Alexandria gives this probable * account . This Nicolas having a beautiful Wife , and being reproved by the Apostles for being jealous of her , to shew how far he was from it , brought her forth , and gave any that would leave to marry her , affirming this to be suitable to that saying , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That we ought to abuse the flesh . This speech , he tell us , was ascribed to S. Matthias , who taught , That we must fight with the flesh and abuse it , and not allowing it any thing for pleasure , encrease the Soul by faith and knowledge . These words and actions of his , his disciples and followers misunderstanding , and perverting things to the worst sence imaginable , began to let loose the reins , and henceforwards to give themselves over to the greatest filthiness , the most shameless and impudent uncleanness , throwing down all inclosures , making the most promiscuous mixtures lawful , and pleasure the ultimate end and happiness of Man. Such were their principles , such their practices ; whereas Nicolas , their pretended Patron and Founder , was ( says Clemens ) a sober and a temperate Man , never making use of any but his own Wife , by whom he had one Son , and several Daughters , who all liv'd in perpetual Virginity . 14. THE last instance that we shall remark of our Apostles care for the good of the Church , is the Writings which he left to Posterity . Whereof the first in time , though plac'd last , is his Apocalypse or Book of Revelations , written while consined in Patmos . It was of old not only rejected by Hereticks , but controverted by many of the Fathers themselves . 〈◊〉 Bishop of * Alexandria has a very large discourse concerning it ; he tells us , that many plainly disowned this Book , not only for the matter , but the Author of it , as being neither Apostle , no nor any Holy or Ecclesiastical Person ; that Cerinthus prefixed S. John's name to it , to give the more plausible title to his Dream of Christ's Reign upon Earth , and that sensual and carnal state that should attend it : that for his part he durst not reject it , looking upon it as containing wise and admirable mysteries , though he could not fathom and 〈◊〉 them , that he did not measure them by his own line , nor condemn , but rather admire what he could not understand ; that he owned the Author to have been an holy , and divinely-inspired Person , but could not believe it to be S. John the Apostle and Evangelist , neither stile , matter , nor method agreeing with his other Writings ; that in this he frequently names himself , which he never does in any other ; that there were several Johns at that time , and two buried at Fphesus , the Apostle , and another , one of the Disciples that dwelt in Asia , but which the Author of his Book , he leaves uncertain . But though doubted of by some , it was entertained by the far greater part of the Ancients as the genuine work of our S. John. Nor could the setting down his Name be any reasonable exception , for whatever he might do in his other Writings , especially his Gospel , where it was less necessary , Historical matters depending not so much upon his authority , yet it was otherwise in Prophetick Revelations , where the Person of the Revealer adds great weight and moment , the reason why some of the Prophets under the Old Testament did so frequently set down their own Names . The diversity of the stile is of no considerable value in this case , it being no wonder , if in arguments so vastly different the same Person do not always observe the same tenor and way of writing ; whereof there want not instances in some others of the Apostolick Order . The truth is , all circumstances concur to intitle our Apostle to be the Author of it , his name frequently expressed , its being written in the Island Patmos ( a circumstance not competible to any but S. John ) his stiling himself their Brother and Companion in Tribulation , and in the Kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ , his writing particular Epistles to the seven Churches of Asia , all planted , or at least cultivated by him , the doctrine in it suitable to the Apostolick spirit and temper , evidently bearing witness in this case . That which seems to have given ground to doubt concerning both its Author and authority , was its being long before it was usually joyned with the other Books of the holy Canon : for containing in it some passages directly levell'd at Rome , the Seat of the Roman Empire , others which might be thought to symbolize with some Jewish dreams and 〈◊〉 , it might possibly seem fit to the prudence of those Times for a while to suppress it . Nor is the conjecture of a learned * Man to be despised , who thinks that it might be intrusted in the keeping of John the Presbyter , Scholar to our Apostle , whence probably the report might arise , that he , who was only the Keeper , was the Author of it . 15. HIS Gospel succeeds , written ( say ‖ some ) in Patmos , and published at Ephesus , but as * Irenaeus , and others more truly , written by him after his return to Ephesus ; composed at the earnest intreaty and sollicitation of the Asian Bishops , and Embassadors from several Churches , in order whereunto he first caused them to proclaim a general Fast , to seek the blessing of Heaven on so great and solemn an undertaking , which being done , he set about it . And if we may believe the report of Gregory Bishop of ‖ Tours , he tells us , that upon a Hill near Ephesus there was a Proseucha , or uncovered Oratory , whither our Apostle used often to retire for Prayer and Contemplation , and where he obtained of God , that it might not Rain in that Place , till he had finished his Gospel . Nay he adds , that even in his time , no shower or storm ever came upon it . Two causes especially contributed to the writing of it ; the one , that he might obviate the early heresies of those times , especially of Ebion , Cerinthus , and the rest of that crew , who began openly to deny Christ's Divinity , and that he had any existence before his Incarnation ; the reason why our Evangelist is so express and copious in that subject . ‖ The other was , that he might supply those passages of the Evangelical History , which the rest of the Sacred Writers had omitted . Collecting therefore the other three Evangelists , he first set to his Seal , ratifying the truth of them with his approbation and consent , and then added his own Gospel to the rest , principally insisting upon the Acts of Christ from the first commencing of his Ministery to the Death of John the Baptist , wherein the others are most defective , giving 〈◊〉 any account of the first Year of our Saviour's Ministry , which therefore he made up in very large and particular Narrations . He largely records ( as Nazianzen * observes ) our Saviour's discourses , but takes little notice of his Miracles , probably because so fully and particularly related by the rest . The subject of his writing is very sublime and mysterious , mainly designing to prove Christ's Divinity , eternal pre-existence , creating of the World , &c. Upon which account ‖ Theodoret stiles his Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a Theology which humane understandings can never fully penetrate and find out . Thence generally by the Ancients , he is resembled to an Eagle * , soaring aloft within the Clouds , whither the weak eye of Man was unable to follow him ; hence peculiarly honoured with the title of The Divine , as if due to none but him , at least to him in a more eminent and extraordinary manner . Nay the very Gentile-Philosophers themselves could not but admire his Writings : Witness ‖ Amelius the famous Platonist , and Regent of Porphyries School at Alexandria ; who quoting a passage out of the beginning of S. John's Gospel , sware by Jupiter , that this Barbarian ( so the proud Greeks counted and called all that differed from them ) had hit upon the right notion , when he affirmed , that the Word that made all things was in the beginning , and in place of prime dignity and authority with God , and was that God that created all things , in whom every thing that was made had according to its nature its life and being ; that he was incarnate , and clothed with a body , wherein he manifested the glory and magnificence of his nature ; that after his death , he returned to the repossession of Divinity , and became the same God , which he was before his assuming a body , and taking the humane nature and flesh upon him . I have no more to observe , but that his Gospel was afterwards translated into * Hebrew , and kept by the Jews , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among their secret Archives and Records in their Treasury at Tiberias ; where a Copy of it was found by one Joseph a Jew , afterwards converted , and whom 〈◊〉 the Great advanced to the honour of a Count of the Empire , who breaking open the Treasury , though he missed of mony , found 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Books beyond all Treasure , S. Matthew , and S. John's Gospels , and the Acts of the Apostles in Hebrew , the reading whereof greatly contributed towards his Conversion . 16. BESIDES these , our Apostle wrote three Epistles ; the first whereof is Catholick , calculated for all times and places , containing most excellent rules for the conduct of the Christian life , pressing to 〈◊〉 and purity of manners , and not to rest in a naked and empty profession of Religion , not to be led away with the crafty insinuations of Seducers , antidoting Men against the poyson of the Gnostick-principles and practices , to whom it is not to be doubted , but that the Apostle had a more particular respect in this Epistle . According to his wonted modesty he conceals his name , it being of more concernment with 〈◊〉 Men , what it is that is said , than who it is that says it . And this Epistle Eusebius tells ‖ us , was universally received , and never questioned by any ; anciently , as appears 〈◊〉 * S. Augustin , inscribed to the Parthians , though for what reason I am yet to learn , unless ( as we hinted before ) it was , because he himself had heretofore Preached in those Parts of the World. The other two Epistles are but short , and directed to particular Persons , the one a Lady of honourable Quality , the other the charitable and hospitable Gaius , so kind a friend , so courteous an entertainer of all indigent Christians . * These Epistles indeed were not of old admitted into the Canon , nor are owned by the Church in Syria at this Day , ascribed by many to the younger John , Disciple to our Apostle . But there is no just cause to question who was their Father , seeing both the Doctrine , phrase , and design of them do sufficiently challenge our Apostle for their Author . These are all the Books , wherein it pleased the Holy Spirit to make use of S. John for its Pen man and Secretary , in the composure whereof though his stile and character be not florid and elegant , yet is it grave and simple , short , and perspicuous . Dionysius of Alexandria tells us , that in his Gospel and first Epistle his phrase is more neat and elegant , there being an accuracy in the contexture both of words and matter , that runs through all the reasonings of his discourses ; but that in the Apocalypse the stile is nothing so pure and clear , being frequently mixed with more barbarous and improper phrases . Indeed his Greek generally abounds with Syriasms , his discourses many times abrupt , set off with frequent antitheses , connected with copulatives , passages often repeated , things at first more obscurely propounded , and which he is forced to enlighten with subsequent explications , words peculiar to himself , and phrases used in an uncommon sence . All which concur to render his way of writing less grateful , possibly , to the Masters of eloquence , and an elaborate curiosity . * S. Hierom observes , that in citing places out of the Old Testament , he more immediately translates from the Hebrew Original , studying to render things word for word ; for being an Hebrew of the Hebrews , admirably skill'd in the Language of his Country , it probably made him less exact in his Greek composures , wherein he had very little advantage , besides what was immediately communicated from above . But whatever was wanting in the politeness of his stile , was abundantly made up in the zeal of his temper , and the excellency and sublimity of his matter ; he truly answered his Name , Boanerges , spake and writ like a Son of Thunder . Whence it is that his Writings , but especially his Gospel , have such great and honourable things spoken of them by the Ancients . The Evangelical writings ( says ‖ S. Basil ) transcend the other parts of the Holy Volumes , in other parts God speaks to us by Servants , the Prophets ; but in the Gospels our Lord himself speaks to us , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but among all the Evangelical Preachers none like S. John the Son of Thunder for the sublimeness of his speech , and the heighth of his discourses beyond any Man's capacity duly to reach and comprehend . S. John as a true Son of Thunder ( says * Epiphanius ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by a certain greatness of speech peculiar to himself , does as it were out of the Clouds and the dark recesses of wisdome acquaint us with Divine Doctrines concerning the Son of God. To which let me add , what S. Cyril of ‖ Alexandria among other things says concerning him , that whoever looks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to the sublimity of his incomprehensible notions , the acumen and sharpness of his reason , and the quick inferences of his discourses constantly succeeding and following upon one another , must needs confess , that his Gospel perfectly exceeds all admiration . The End of S. John's Life . THE LIFE OF S. PHILIP . S t Philip After he had converted all Scythia he was at Hierapolis a City of Asia first crucified and then stoned to death Baron . May. 1o. St. Philip's Martyrdom . Act. 5. 30. Whom ye slew , & hanged on a tree . Matth. 10. 24 , 25. The disciple is not above his master , nor the servant above his Lord. It is enough for the disciple , that he be as his master , and the servant as his Lord. Galilee generally despised by the Jews , and why . The honour which our Lord put upon it . S. Andrew's birth-place . His being first called to be a Disciple , and the manner of it . An account of his ready obedience to Christ's call . What the 〈◊〉 relate concerning him considered . The discourse between our Lord and him concerning the knowledge of the Father . His preaching the Gospel in the upper Asia , and the happy effects of his Ministry . His coming to Hierapolis in Phrygia , and successful confutation of their Idolatries . The rage and fury of the Magistrates against him . His Martyrdom , Crucifixion , and Burial . His married condition . The confounding him with Philip the Deacon . The Gospel forged by the Gnosticks under his name . 1. OF all parts of Palestine Galilee seem to have passed under the greatest character of ignominy and reproach . The Country it self , because bordering upon the Idolatrous 〈◊〉 Nations , called Galilee of the Gentiles ; the people generally beheld as more rude and boisterous , more unpolished and barbarous than the rest , not remarkable either for Civility or Religion . The Galileans received him , having seen all the things that he did at Jerusalem at the Feast , for they also went up unto the Feast ; as if it had been a wonder , and a matter of very strange remark , to 〈◊〉 so much devotion in them as to attend the solemnity of the Passeover . Indeed both Jew and Gentile conspired in this , that they thought they could not fix a greater title of reproach upon our Saviour and his followers , than that of Galilean . Can any good thing come out of Nazareth ? a City in this Province , said Nathanael concerning Christ. Search and look ( say the Pharisees ) for out of Galilee ariseth no Prophet ; as if nothing but briers and thorns could grow in that soil . But there needs no more to confute this ill-natured opinion , than that our Lord not only made choice of it as the seat of his ordinary 〈◊〉 and retreat , but that hencehe chose those excellent persons , whom he made his Apostles , the great instruments to convert the World. Some of these we have already given an account of , and more are yet behind . 2. OF this number was S. Philip , born at Bethsaida , a Town near the Sea of Tiberias , the City of Andrew and Peter . Of his Parents and way of life the History of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no notice , though 〈◊〉 he was a Fisherman , the Trade general of that 〈◊〉 . He had the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 honour of being first called to the Discipleship , 〈◊〉 thus came to pass . Our Lord soon after his return from the wilderness having met with Andrew and his brother Peter , after some short discourse parted from them : And the very next day , as he was passing through Galilee , he found Philip , whom he presently commanded to follow him , the constant form which he used in making choice of his Disciples , and those that did inseparably attend upon him . So that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or prerogative of being first called , evidently belongs to Philip , he being the first-fruits of our Lord's Disciples . For though Andrew and Peter were the first that came to , and conversed with Christ , yet did they immediately return to their Trade again , and were not called to the Discipleship till above a whole year after , when John was cast into prison . * Clemens 〈◊〉 tells us , that it was Philip , to whom our Lord said ( when he would have excused himself at present , that he must go bury his Father ) Let the dead bury their dead , but follow 〈◊〉 me . But besides that he gives no account , whence he derived this intelligence , it is plainly inconsistent with the time of our Apostle's call , who was called to be a Disciple a long time before that speech and passage of our Saviour . It may seem justly strange that Philip should at first sight so readily comply with our Lord's command , and turn himself over into his service , having not yet seen any miracle , that might evince his 〈◊〉 - ship , and Divine Commission , nor probably so much as heard any tidings of his appearance ; and especially being a Galilean , and so of a more rustick and unyielding temper . But it cannot be doubted but that he was admirably versed in the writings of Moses and the Prophets . * Metaphrastes assures us ( though how he came to know it otherwise than by conjecture , I cannot imagine ) that from his childhood he had excellent education , that he frequently read over Moses his Books , and considered the Prophecies that related to our Saviour : And was no question awakened with the general expectations that were then on foot among the Jews ( the date of the Prophetick Scriptures concerning the time of Christ's coming being now run out ) that the 〈◊〉 would immediately appear . Add to this , that the Divine grace did more immediately accompany the command of Christ , to incline and dispose him to believe , that this person was that very 〈◊〉 that was to come . 3. NO sooner had Religion taken possession of his mind , but like an active principle it began to 〈◊〉 , and diffuse it self . A way he goes , and 〈◊〉 Nathanael , a person of note and eminency , acquaints him with the tidings of the new-found Messiah , and conducts him to him . So forward is a good man to draw and direct others in the same way to happiness with himself . After his call to the Apostleship much is not recorded of him in the Holy story : 'T was to him that our Saviour propounded the question , What they should do for so much bread in the wilderness , as would feed so vast a multitude , to which he answered , That so much was not easily to be had ; not considering , that to feed two or twenty thousand are equally 〈◊〉 to Almighty Power , when pleased to exert it self . 'T was to him that the Gentile Proselytes that came up to the Passeover addressed themselves , when desirous to see our Saviour , a person of whom they had heard so loud a fame . 'T was with him that our Lord had that discourse concerning himself a little before the last Paschal Supper . The holy and compassionate Jesus had been fortifying their minds with fit considerations against his departure from them , had told them , that he was going to prepare room for them in the Mansions of the Blessed , that he himself was the way , the truth , and the life , and that no man could come to the Father but by him , and that knowing him , they both knew and had seen the Father . Philip not duly understanding the force of our Saviour's reasonings , begged of him , that he would shew them the Father , and then this would abundantly convince and satisfie them . We can hardly suppose he should have such gross conceptions of the Deity , as to imagine the Father vested with a corporeal and visible nature ; but Christ having told them that they had seen him , and he knowing that God of old was wont frequently to appear in a visible shape , he only desired that he would 〈◊〉 himself to them by some such appearance . Our Lord gently reproved his ignorance , that aster so long attendance upon his instructions , he should not know , that he was the Image of his Father , the express characters of his infinite wisdom , power and goodness appearing in him , that he said and did nothing but by his Father's appointment , which if they did not believe , his miracles were a sufficient evidence : That therefore such demands were unnecessary and impertinent , and that it argued great weakness after more than three years education under his discipline and Institution to be so unskilful in those matters . God expects improvement according to mens opportunities , to be old 〈◊〉 ignorant in the School of Christ , deserves both reproach and punishment , 't is the character of very bad persons , that they are ever learning , but never come to the knowledge of the truth . 4. IN the distribution of the several Regions of the World made by the Apostles , though no mention be made by Origen or 〈◊〉 , what part fell to our Apostle , yet we are told by * others , that the Upper Asia was his Province ( the reason doubtless why he is said by many to have preached and planted Christianity in 〈◊〉 ) where he applied himself with an indefatigable diligence and industry to recover men out of the snare of the Devil , to the embracing and acknowledgment of the truth . By the constancy of his preaching , and the efficacy of his Miracles he gained numerous Converts , whom he baptized into the Christian Faith , at once curing both Souls and Bodies , their Souls of Error and Idolatry , their Bodies of infirmities and distempers , healing diseases , dispossessing Daemons , setling Churches , and appointing them Guides and Ministers of Religion . 5. HAVING for many years successfully managed his Apostolical Office in all those parts , he came in the last periods of his life to Hierapolis in Phrygia , a City rich and populous , but answering its name in its Idolatrous Devotions . Amongst the many vain and trifling Deities , to whom they payed religious adoration , was a Serpent or Dragon ( in memory no doubt of that infamous Act of Jupiter , who in the shape of a Dragon insinuated himself into the embraces of Proserpina , his own Daughter begot of Ceres , and whom these phrygians chiefly worshipped , as * Clemens Alexandrinus tells us , so little reason had ‖ Baronius to say that they worshipped no such God ) of a more prodigious bigness than the rest , which they worshipped with great and solemn veneration . S. Philip was troubled to see the people so wretchedly enslaved to error , and therefore continually solicited Heaven , till by prayer and calling upon the name of Christ , he had procured the death , or at least vanishing of this famed and beloved Serpent : Which done , he told them , how unbecoming it was to give Divine honours to such odious creatures , that God alone was to be worshipped as the great Parent of the World , who had made man at first after his own glorious Image , and when fallen from that innocent and happy state , had sent his own Son into the World to redeem him , who died , and rose from the dead , and shall come again at the last day , to raise men out of their Graves , and to sentence and reward them according to their works . The success was , that the people were ashamed of their fond Idolatry , and many broke loose from their chains of darkness , and ran over to Christianity . Whereupon the great enemy of mankind betook himself to his old methods , cruelty and persecution . The Magistrates of the City seise the Apostle , and having put him into prison , caused him to be severely whip'd and scourg'd . This preparatory cruelty passed , he was led to execution , and being bound , was hanged up by the neck against a pillar , though others tell us , that he was crucified . We are further told , that at his execution the Earth began suddenly to quake , and the ground whereon the people stood , to sink under them , which when they apprehended and bewailed as an evident act of Divine vengeance pursuing them for their sins , it as suddenly stopt , and went no further . The Apostle being dead , his body was taken down by S. Bartholomew , his fellow-sufferer , though not finally executed , and Mariamne , S. Philip's Sister , who is said to have been the constant companion of his travels , and decently buried , after which having confirmed the people in the Faith of Christ , they departed from them . 6. THAT S. Philip was married , is generally affirmed by the Antients ; * Clemens of Alexandria reckons him one of the married Apostles , and that he had Daughters , whom he disposed in marriage : ‖ Polycrates Bishop of Ephesus tell us , that Philip , one of the Twelve Apostles , died at 〈◊〉 , with two of his Daughters , who persevered in their Virginity , and that he had a third which died at 〈◊〉 . The truth is , the not careful distinguishing between Philip the Deacon ( who lived at Caesarea , and of whose four Virgin-daughters we read in the History of the Apostles Acts ) and our Apostle , has bred some confusion among the Ancients in this matter . But the account concerning them is greatly different ; sor as they differed in their Persons and Offices , the one a Deacon , the other an Apostle , so also in the number of their Children , four Daughters being ascribed to the one , while three only are attributed to the other . He was one of the Apostles who left no Sacred writings behind him , the greater part of the Apostles ( as * Ensebius observes ) having little leisure to write Books , being imployed in ministeries more immediately useful and subservient to the happiness of mankind : Though ‖ Epiphanius tells us , that the Gnosticks were wont to produce a Gospel forged under S. Philip's name , which they abused to the patronage of their horrible principles , and more brutish practises . The End of S. Philip's Life . THE LIFE OF S. BARTHOLOMEW . S. BARTHOLOMEW He was flea'd aliue by the command of a Barbarous King. Place this to the Collect for St. Bartholomews day . St. Bartholomew's Martyrdom . Rom. 8. 36 , 37. For thy sake we are killed all the daylong , we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter : But in all these things we are more then . Conquerours . The silence concerning this Apostle in the History of the Gospel . That he is the same with Nathanael , proved by many probable arguments . His title of Bar-Tholmai , whence . The School of the Tholmaeans . An objection against his being Nathanael answered . His descent and way of life . His first coming to Christ , and converse with him . In what parts of the world he planted the Christian Faith. His preaching in India , and leaving S. Matthew's Gospel there . His return to Hierapolis , and deliverance there from Crucifixion . His removal to Albanopolis in Armenia , and suffering Martyrdom there for the Faith of Christ. His being first flead alive , and then crucified . The fabulous Gospel attributed to him . 1. THAT S. Bartholomew was one of the Twelve Apostles , the Evangelical History is most express and clear , though it seems to take no further notice of him , than the bare mention of his name . Which doubtless gave the first occasion to many , both anciently and of later time , not without reason to suppose , that he lies concealed under some other name , and that this can be no other than Nathanael , one of the first Disciples that came to Christ. Accordingly we may observe , that as S. John never mentions Bartholomew in the number of the Apostles , so the other Evangelists never take notice of Nathanael , probably because the same person under two several names : And as in John , Philip and Nathanael are joyned together in their coming to Christ , so in the rest of the Evangelists Philip and Bartholomew are constantly put together without the least variation ; for no other reason , I conceive , than because as they were joyntly called to the Discipleship , so they are joyntly referred in the Apostolick Catalogue ; as afterwards we find them joynt-companions in the writings of the Church . But that which renders the thing most specious and probable is , that we find Nathanael particularly reckoned up with the other Apostles , to whom our Lord appeared at the Sea of Tiberias after his Resurrection , where there were together Simon Peter , and Thomas , and Nathanael of Gana in Galilee , and the two sons of Zebedee , and two other of his Disciples , who probably were Andrew and Philip. That by Disciples is here meant Apostles ; is evident , partly from the names of those that are reckoned up , partly because it is said , that this was the third time that Jesus appeared to his Disciples , it being plain that the two foregoing appearances were made to none but the Apostles . 2. HAD he been no more than an ordinary Disciple , I think no tolerable reason can be given , why in filling up the vacancy made by the death of Judas , he being so eminently qualified for the place , should not have been propounded as well as either Barsabas or Matthias , but that he was one of the Twelve already . Nor indeed is it reasonable to suppose , that Bartholomew should be his proper name , any more than Bar-Jona the proper name of Peter , importing no more than his relative capacity , either as a Son , or a Scholar . As a Son , it notes no more than his being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the son of Tholmai , a name not uncommon amongst the Jews , it being customary among them for the son thus to derive his name , so Bar-Jona , Bartimeus , the son of Timeus , &c. and to be usually called rather by this relative , than his own proper name , thus Joseph was called Barsabas , thus Barnabas constantly so stiled , though his right name was Joses . Or else it may relate to him as a Disciple of some particular Sect and Institution among the Jews , it being a custom for Scholars out of a great reverence for their Masters , or first Institutors of that way , to adopt their names , as Ben-Ezra , Benuziel , &c. And this will be much more evident , if the observation which * one makes be true ( which yet I will not contend for ) that as several Sects in the Jewish Church denominated themselves from some famous person of that Nation , the Essenes from Enosh , the Sadduces from Sadock , so there were others that called themselves Tholmaeans , from Thalmai , Scholar to Heber the ancient Master of the Hebrews , who was of the race or institution of the Enakim , who flourished in Debir and Hebron , with whom Abraham was confederate , that is , joyned himself to their society . And of this Order and Institution , he tells us , Nathanael seems to have been , hence called Bartholomew , the Son or Scholar of the Tholmaeans ; hence said to be an Israelite indeed , that is , one of the ancient race of the Schools and Societies of Israel . This , if so , would give us an account of his skill and ability in the Jewish Law , wherein he is generally supposed to have been a Doctor or Teacher . But which soever of these two accounts of his denomination shall find most favour with the Reader , either of them will serve my purpose , and reconcile the difference that seems to be between S. John and the other Evangelists about his name , the one stiling him by his proper name , the other by his relative and paternal title . To all this , if necessary , I might add the consent of Learned men , who have given in their suffrages in this matter , that it is but the same person under several * names . But hints of this may suffice . These arguments , I confess , are not so forcible and convictive as to command assent , but with all their circumstances considered , are suffioient to incline and sway any mans belief . The great and indeed only reason brought against it , is what * S. Augustine objected of old , that it is not probable that our Lord would chuse Nathanael , a Doctor of the Law , to be one of his Apostles , as designing to confound the wisdom of the World by the preaching of the Ideot and the unlearned . But this is no reason to him that considers , that this objection equally lies against S. Philip , for whose skill in the Law and Prophets there is as much evidence in the History of the Gospel , as for Nathanael's ; and much stronglier against S. Paul , than whom ( besides his abilities in all humane Learning ) there were few greater Masters in the Jewish Law. 3. THIS difficulty being cleared , we proceed to a more particular account of our Apostle . By some he is thought to have been a Syrian , of a noble extract , and to have derived his pedigree from the Ptolomies of Egypt , upon no other ground , I believe , than the more analogy and sound of the name . 'T is plain , that he , as the rest of the Apostles , was a Galilean , and of Nathanael we know it is particularly said , that he was of Gana in Galilee . The Scripture takes no notice of his Trade or way of life , though some circumstances might seem to intimate that he was a Fisherman , which Theoderet affirms of the Apostles in general , and another particularly reports of our Apostle . At his first coming to Christ ( supposing him still the same with Nathanael ) he was conducted by Philip , who told him that now they had found the long-look'd for Messiah , so oft foretold by Moses and the Prophets , Jesus of Nazareth , the son of Joseph : And when he objected that the Messiah could not be born at Nazareth , Philip bids him come and satisfie himself . At his first approach our Lord entertains him with this honourable character , that he was an Israelite indeed , a man of true simplicity and integrity ; as indeed his simplicity particularly appears in this , that when told of Jesus , he did not object against the meanness of his Original , the low condition of his Parents , the narrowness of their fortunes , but only against the place of his birth , which could not be Nazareth , the Prophets having peremptorily foretold , that the Messiah should be born at Bethlehem . By this therefore he appeared to be a true Israelite , one that waited for redemption in Israel , which from the date of the Scripture-predictions he was assured did now draw nigh . Surprized he was at our Lord's salutation , wondring how he should know him so well at first sight , whose face he had never seen before . But he was answered , that he had seen him while he was yet under the Fig-tree , before Philip called him . Convinc'd with this instance of our Lord's Divinity , he presently made this confession , That now he was sure , that Jesus was the promised Messiah , the Son of God , whom he had appointed to be the King and Governour of his Church . Our Saviour told him , that if upon this inducement he could believe him to be the Messiah , he should have far greater arguments to confirm his faith , yea , that ere long he should behold the Heavens opened to receive him thither , and the Angels visibly appearing to wait and attend upon him . 4. CONCERNING our Apostles travels up and down the World to propagate the Christian Faith , we shall present the Reader with a brief account , though we cannot warrant the exact order of them . That he went as far as India , is owned by all , which surely is meant of the hither India , or the part of it lying next to Asia ; * Socrates tells us , 't was the India bordering upon AEthiopia , meaning no doubt the Asian AEthiopia ( whereof we shall speak in the life of S. Thomas ) ‖ Sophronius calls it the Fortunate India , and tells us , that here he left behind him S. Matthew's Gospel , whereof * Ensebius gives a more particular relation : That when Pantaenus , a man famous for his skill in Philosophy , and especially the Institutions of the Stoicks , but much more for his hearty affection to Christianity , in a devout and zealous imitation of the Apostles , was inflamed with a desire to propagate the Christian Religion unto the Eastern Countries , he came as far as India it self . Here amongst some that yet retained the knowledge of Christ , he found S. Matthew's Gospel , written in Hebrew , left here ( as the tradition was ) by S. Bartholomew , one of the twelve Apostles , when he preached the Gospel to these Nations . 5. AFTER his labours in these parts of the World , he returned to the more Western and Northern parts of Asia . At Hieropolis in Phrygia we find him in company with S. Philip , instructing that place in the principles of Christianity , and convincing them of the folly of their blind Idolatries . Here by the enraged Magistrates he was at the same time with Philip designed for Martyrdom ; in order whereunto he was fastned upon the Cross , with an intent to dispatch him ; but upon a sudden conviction that the Divine Justice would revenge their death , he was taken down again and dismissed . Hence probably he went into Lycaonia , the people whereof * Chrysostom assures us , he instructed and trained up in the Christian discipline . His last remove was to Albanople in Armenia the ‖ Great ( the same no doubt which * Nicephorus calls Urbanople , a City of Cilicia ) a place miserably over-grown with Idolatry ; from which while he sought to reclaim the people , he was by the Governour of the place commanded to be crucified , which he chearfully underwent , comforting and confirming the Convert Gentiles to the last minute of his life . ‖ Some add , that he was crucified with his head downwards , others that he was flead , and his skin first taken off , which might consist well enough with his Crucifixion , excoriation being a punishment in use , not only in Egypt , but amongst the Persians , next neighbours to these Armenians ( as * Ammianus Marcellinus assures us , and ‖ Plutarch records a particular instance of Mesabates the Persian Eunuch first flead alive , and then crucified ) from whom they might easily borrow this piece of barbarous and inhumane cruelty . As for the several stages to which his Body removed after his death , first to Daras , a City in the borders of Persia , then to Liparis , one of the AEolian Islands , thence to Beneventum in Italy , and last of all to Rome , they that are fond of those things , and have better leisure , may enquire . Hereticks persecuted his memory after his death , no less than Heathens did his person while alive , by forging and fathering a fabulous Gospel upon his name , which , together with others of like stamp , * Gelasius Bishop of Rome justly branded as Apocryphal , altogether unworthy the name and patronage of an Apostle . The End of S. Bartholomew's Life . THE LIFE OF S. MATTHEW . S. MATHEW . S. Mathew the Apostle and Euangelist . preached the Gospel in AEthiopia and was there slayn with an Holbert Bed el Baron Sept. 21 St Mathew his Martyrdom . 1 Pet. 3. 14. If ye suffer for righteousnesse sake happy are ye , & be not afraid of their terrour , neither be ye troubled : His Birth-place and Kindred . His Trade , the Office of a Publican . The great dignity of this Office among the Romans . The honours done to Vespasian's Father for the faithful . discharge of it . This Office infamous among the Greeks , but especially the Jewes . What things concurr'd to render it odious and grievous to them . Their bitter abhorrency of this sort of men . S. Matthew's imployment wherein it particularly consisted . The Publican's Ticket what . S. Matthew's call , and his ready obedience . His inviting our Lord to Dinner . The Pharisees cavil , and our Saviour's answer . His Preaching in Judaea . His travails into Parthia , AEthiopia , &c. to propagate Christianity . The success of his Ministry . His Death . His singular contempt of the World. Gensured herein by Julian and Porphyry . His exemplary temperance and sobriety . His humility and modesty . Unreasonable to reproach Penitents with the vices of their former Life . His Gospel when and why written . Composed by him in Hebrew . The general consent of Antiquity herein . It s translation into Greek , when and by whom . The Hebrew Copy by whom owned and interpolated . Those now extant not the same with those mentioned in Antiquity . 1. SAINT Matthew , called also Levi , was , though a Roman Officer , an Hebrew of the Hebrews , ( both his Names speaking him purely of Jewish extract and Original ) and probably a Galilean , and whom I should have concluded born at , or near Capernaum , but that the Arabick * Writer of his life tells us , he was born at Nazareth , a City in the Tribe of Zebulun , famous for the habitation of Joseph and Mary , but especially the education and residence of our Blessed saviour , who though born at Bethlehem , was both conceiv'd and bred up here , where he lived the whole time of his private life , whence he derived the Title of Jesus of Nazareth . S. Matthew was the Son of Alpheus and Mary , Sister or Kinswoman to the Blessed Virgin ; in the same Arabick Author his Father is called 〈◊〉 , and his Mother Karutias , both originally descended of the Tribe of Issachar , nothing being more common among the Jews , than for the same Person to have several names , these latter probably express'd in Arabick according to their Jewtsh signification . His Trade or way of life was that of a Publican or Toll-gatherer to the 〈◊〉 ( which probably had been his Father's Trade , his Name denoting a Broker or Mony-changer ) an Office of bad report amongst the Jews . Indeed among the Romans it was accounted a place of power and credit , and honourable reputation , not ordinarily conferred upon any but Roman Knights ; insomuch that T. Fl. Sabinus , Father to the Emperor Vespasian , was the Publican of the Asian Provinces , an Office which he discharged so much to the content and satisfaction of the People , that they erected Statues to him with this Inscription , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * , To him that has well managed the Publican-Office . These Officers being sent into the Provinces to gather the Tributes , were wont to imploy the Natives under them , as Persons best skilled in the affairs and customes of their own Country . Two things especially concurred to render this Office odious to the Jews . First , that the Persons that managed it were usually covetous , and great Exactors ; for having themselves farmed the Customes of the Romans , they must gripe and scrape by all methods of Extortion , that they might be able both to pay their Rent , and to raise gain and advantage to themselves : which doubtless 〈◊〉 , the Chief of these Farmers , was sensible of , when after his Conversion , he offered four-fold restitution to any Man , from whom he had taken any thing by fraud and evil arts . And upon this account they became insamous , even among the Gentiles themselves , who commonly speak of them as Cheats , and Thieves , and publick Robbers , and worse members of a community , more voracious and destructive in a City , than wild Beasts in the Forest. The other thing that made the Jews so much detest them was , that this Tribute was not only a grievance to their Purses , but an affront to the liberty and freedom of their Nation ; for they looked upon themselves as a Free-born People , and that they had been immediately invested in this priviledge by God himself , and accordingly beheld this as a daily and standing instance of their slavery , which of all other things they could least endure , and which therefore betrayed them into so many unfortunate Rebellions against the Romans . Add to this , that these Publicans were not only obliged by the necessity of their Trade to have frequent dealing and converse with the Gentiles ( which the Jews held unlawful and abominable ) but that being Jews themselves they rigorously exacted these things of their Brethren , and thereby seemed to conspire with the Romans to entail perpetual slavery upon their own Nation . For though * Tertullian thought that none but Gentiles were imployed in this sordid office , yet the contrary is too evident to need any argument to prove it . 2. BY these means Publicans became so universally abhorred by the Jewish Nation , that it was accounted unlawful to do them any office of common kindness and courtesie , nay they held it no sin to couzen and over-reach a Publican , and that with the solemnity of an Oath ; they might not eat or drink , walk or travel with them ; they were looked upon as common Thieves and Robbers and Money received of them might not be put to the rest of a Man's Estate , it being presumed to have been gained by rapine and violence ; they were not admitted as Persons fit to give testimony and evidence in any cause : so infamous were they , as not only to be banished all communion in the matters of Divine Worship , but to be shunned in all affairs of civil society and commerce , as the Pests of their Country , Persons of an infectious converse , of as vile a Classe as Heathens themselves . Hence the common Proverb among them , Take not a Wife out of that Family , wherein there is a Publican , for they are all Publicans , that is , Thieves , Robbers , and wicked sinners . To this Proverbial usage our Lord alludes , when speaking of a contumacious sinner , whom neither private reproofs , nor the publick censures and admonitions of the Church can prevail upon , Let him be unto 〈◊〉 ( says he ) as an Heathen and a Publican ; as elsewhere Publicans and sinners are yoked together , as Persons of equal esteem and reputation . Of this Trade and Office was our S. Matthew , and it seems more particularly to have consisted in gathering the Customs of Commodities that came by the Sea of Galilee , and the Tribute which Passengers were to pay that went by Water ; a thing frequently mentioned in the Jewish writings , where we are also told of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Ticket , consisting of two greater Letters written in Paper , or some such matter , called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ticket or signature of the Publicans , which the Passenger had with him to certifie them on the other side the Water , that he had already paid the Toll or Custom : upon which account the Hebrew Gospel of S. Matthew published by Munster , renders Publican by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord of the Passage . For this purpose they kept their Office or Custom-house by the Sea-side , that they might be always near at hand ; and here it was ( as S. Mark intimates ) that Matthew had his Toll-booth , where He sate at the Receipt of Custome . 3. OUR Lord having lately cured a famous Paralytick , retired out of Capernaum to walk by the Sea-side , where he taught the People that flocked after him . Here he espied Matthew sitting in his Custom-office , whom he called to come and follow Him. The Man was rich , had a wealthy and a gainful Trade , a wise and prudent Person ( no fools being put into that Office ) and understood no doubt what it would cost him to comply with this new imployment , that he must exchange Wealth for Poverty , a Custom-house for a Prison , gainful Masters for a naked and despised Saviour . But he overlooked all these considerations , left all his Interests and Relations , to become our Lord's Disciple , and to embrace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( as * Chrysostom observes ) a more spiritual way of commerce and traffique . We cannot suppose that he was before wholly unacquainted with our Saviour's Person or Doctrine , especially living at Capernaum , the place of Christ's usual residence , where his Sermons and Miracles were so frequent , by which he could not but in some measure be prepared to receive the impressions , which our Saviour's call now made upon him . And to shew that he was not discontented at his change , nor apprehended himself a loser by this bargain , he entertained our Lord and his Disciples at a great Dinner in his House , whither he invited his Friends , especially those of his own Profession , piously hoping that they also might be caught by our Saviour's converse and company . The Pharisees , whose Eye was constantly evil , where another Man 's was good , and who would 〈◊〉 find or make occasions to snarle at him , began to suggest to his Disciples , that it was unbecoming so pure and holy a Person as their Master pretended himself to be , thus familiarly to converse with the worst of men , Publicans and sinners , Persons infamous to a Proverb . But he presently replied upon them , that they were the sick that needed the Physician , not the sound and healthy , that his company was most suitable , where the necessities of Souls did most require it , that God himself preferred acts of Mercy and Charity , especially in reclaiming sinners , and doing good to Souls , infinitely before all ritual observances , and the nice rules of Persons conversing with one another , and that the main design of his coming into the World was not to bring the righteous , or those who like themselves proudly conceited themselves to be so , and in a vain Opinion of their own strictness loftily scorned all Mankind besides , but sinners , modest , humble , self-convinced offenders , to repentance , and to reduce them to a better state and course of life . 4. AFTER his election to the Apostolate , he continued with the rest till our Lord's Ascension , and then for the first eight Years at least Preached up and down 〈◊〉 . After which being to betake himself to the Conversion of the Gentile-world , he was intreated by the Convert Jewes to commit to Writing the History of our Saviour's Life and Actions , and to leave it among them as the standing Record of what he had Preached to them ; which he did accordingly , and so composed his Gospel , whereof more in due place . Little certainty can be had what Travails he underwent for the advancement of the Christian Faith , so irrecoverably is truth lost in a crowd of Legendary stories . * AEthiopia is generally assigned as the Province of his Apostolical Ministry : ‖ Metaphrastes tells us , that he 〈◊〉 first into Parthia , and having successfully planted Christianity in those Parts , thence travailed into AEthiopia , that is , the Asiatick AEthiopia , lying near to India : here by Preaching and Miracles he mightily triumphed over error and Idolatry , convinced and converted Multitudes , ordained spiritual Guides and Pastors to confirm and build them up , and bring over others to the Faith , and then finished his own course . As for what is related by * Nicephorus of his going into the Country of the Cannibals , constituting Plato , one of his followers , Bishop of Myrmena , of Christ's appearing to him in the form of a beautiful Youth , and giving him a Wand , which he pitching into the ground , immediately it grew up into a Tree , of his strange converting the Prince of that Country , of his numerous Miracles , peaceable Death , and sumptuous Funerals , with abundance more of the same stamp and coin , they are justly to be reckoned amongst those fabulous reports , that have no Pillar nor ground either of truth or probability to support them . Most probable it is ( what an Ancient * Writer affirms ) that he suffered Martyrdom at Naddaber a City in AEthiopia , but by what kind of Death , is altogether uncertain . Whether this Naddaber be the same with Beschberi , where the Arabick * Writer of his Life affirms him to have suffered Martyrdom , let others enquire : he also adds , that he was buried Arthaganetu 〈◊〉 , but where that is , is to me unknown . ‖ Dorotheus makes him honourably buried at Hierapolis in Parthia , one of the first places to which he Preached the Gospel . 5. HE was a great instance of the power of Religion , how much a Man may be brought off to a better temper . If we reflect upon his circumstances while yet a stranger to Christ , we shall find that the World had very great advantages upon him . He was become Master of a plentiful Estate , engaged in a rich and a gainful Trade , supported by the power and favour of the Romans , prompted by covetous inclinations , and these confirmed by long habits and customs . And yet notwithstanding all this , no sooner did Christ call , but without the least scruple or dissatisfaction , he flung up all at once , and not only renounced ( as S. Basil * observes ) his gainful incomes , but ran an immediate hazard of the displeasure of his Masters that imployed him , for quitting their service , and leaving his accounts intangled and confused behind him . Had our Saviour been a mighty Prince , it had been no wonder , that he should run over to his service : but when he appeared under all the circumstances of meanness and disgrace , when he seemed to promise his followers nothing but misery and suffering in this life , and to propound no other rewards but the invisible encouragements of another World , his change in this case was the more strange and admirable . Indeed so admirable , that Porphyry and ‖ Julian ( two subtle and acute adversaries of the Christian Religion ) hence took occasion to charge him either with falshood , or with folly ; either that he gave not a true account of the thing ; or , that it was very weakly done of him , so hastily to follow any one that call'd him . But the Holy Jesus was no common Person , in all his commands there was somewhat more than ordinary . Indeed S. Hierom conceives that besides the Divinity that manifested it self in his Miracles , there was a Divine brightness and a kind of Majesty in our Saviour's looks , that at first sight was attractive enough to draw Persons after him . However his miraculous powers , that reflected a lustre from every quarter , and the efficacy of his Doctrine accompanied with the grace of God , made way for the summons that were sent our Apostle , and enabled him to conquer all oppositions that stood in the way to hinder him . 6. HIS contempt of the World further appeared in his exemplary temperance and abstemiousness from all the delights and pleasures , yea the ordinary conveniences and accommodations of it ; so far from indulging his appetite with nice and delicate curiosities , that he refused to gratifie it with lawful and ordinary provisions , eating no flesh , his usual Diet being nothing but Herbs , Roots , Seeds and * Berries . But what appeared most remarkable in him , and which though the least vertue in it self , is the greatest in a wise Man's esteem and value , was his humility , mean and modest in his own conceit , in honour preferring others before himself . Whereas the other Evangelists in describing the Apostles by pairs , constantly place him before Thomas , he modestly places him before himself . The rest of the Evangelists openly mention the honour of his Apostleship , but speak of his former sordid , dishonest , and disgraceful course of life , only under the name of Levi , while he himself sets it down , with all its circumstances , under his own proper and common name . Which as at once it commends his own candor and ingenuity , so it administers to us this not unuseful consideration , That the greatest sinners are not excluded the lines of Divine grace ; nor can any , if penitent , have just reason to despair , when Publicans and sinners are taken in . And as S. Matthew himself does freely and impartially record his own vile and dishonourable course of life , so the two other Evangelists though setting down the story , take notice of him only under another name ; to teach us to treat a penitent Brother with all modesty and tenderness . If a man repent ( say the Jews ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let no man say to him , remember thy former works ; which they explain not only concerning Israelites , but even strangers and Proselytes . It being against the rules of civility , as well as the Laws of Religion , when a Man hath repented , to upbraid and reproach him with the errors and follies ‖ of his past life . 7. THE last thing that calls for any remarks in the life of this Apostle is his Gospel , written at the intreaty of the Jewish Converts , and as Epiphanius tells * us , at the command of the Apostles , while he was yet in Palestine , about Eight Years after the death of Christ : though ‖ Nicephorus will have it to be written Fifteen Years after our Lord's Ascension , and * 〈◊〉 yet much wider , who seems to imply that it was written , while Peter and Paul Preached at Rome , which was not till near Thirty Years after . But most plain it is , that it must be written before the dispersion of the Apostles , seeing S. Bartholomew ( as we have noted in his Life ) took it along with him into India , and left it there . He wrote it in Hebrew , as primarily designing it for the use of his Country-men , and strange it is , that any should question its being originally written in that Language , when the thing is so universally and uncontroulably asserted by all Antiquity , not one that I know of , after the strictest enquiry I could make , dissenting in this matter , and who certainly had far greater opportunities of being satisfied in these things , than we can have at so great a distance . It was no doubt soon after translated into Greek , though by whom S. Hierom professes he could not tell ; * Theophylact says it was reported to have been done by S. John , but ‖ Athanasius more expresly attributes the Translation to S. James the less . The best is , it matters not much whether it was translated by an Apostle , or some Disciple , so long as the Apostles approved the Version , and that the Church has ever received the Greek Copy for 〈◊〉 , and reposed it in the Sacred Canon . 8. AFTER the Greek Translation was entertained , the Hebrew Copy was chiefly owned and used by the * 〈◊〉 , a middle Sect of Men between Jews and Christians ; with the Christians they believed in Christ , and embraced his Religion , with the Jews they adhered to the Rites and Ceremonies of the Mosaick Law , and hence this Gospel came to be stiled the Gospel according to the Hebrews , and the Gospel of the Nazarens . By them it was by degrees interpolated , several Passages of the Evangelical History , which they had heard either from the Apostles , or those who had familiarly conversed with them , being inserted , which the ancient Fathers frequently refer to in their Writings ; as by the ‖ Ebionites it was mutilated , and many things cut off , for the same reason for which the followers of Cerinthus , though making use of the greatest part of it , rejected the rest , because it made so much against them . This Hebrew Copy ( though whether exactly the same as it was written by S. Matthew , I will not say ) was found among other Books in the Treasury of the Jews at * Tiberias , by Joseph a Jew , and after his Conversion a Man of great honour and esteem in the time of Constantine ; another ‖ S. Hierom assures us was kept in the Library at Caesarea in his time , and another by the Nazarens at Beroea , from whom he had the liberty to transcribe it , and which he afterwards translated both into Greek and Latin , with this particular observation , that in quoting the Texts of the Old Testament , the Evangelist immediately follows the Hebrew , without taking notice of the Translation of the Septuagint . A Copy also of this Gospel was Ann. CCCCLXXXV . dug up and found in the Grave of Barnabas in Cyprus , transcribed with his own * hand . But these Copies are long since perished , and for those that have been since published to the World , both by Tile and Munster , were there no other argument , they too openly betray themselves by their barbarous and improper stile , not to be the genuine issue of that less corrupt and better Age. The End of S. Matthew's Life . THE LIFE OF S. THOMAS . St. Thomas . By the command of an Indian King he was thrust through with lances . Baron . Martyrolog . Dec. 21 St. Thomas his Martyrdom Joh. 11. 16. Thomas which is called Didunus said unto his fellow-desciples , Let us also goe , that we may die with him . The custom of the Jews to have both an Hebrew and a Roman name . S. Thomas his name the same in Syriack and Greek . His Country and Trade . His call to the Apostleship . His great affection to our Saviour . Christ's discourse with him concerning the way to Eternal life . His obstinate refusal to believe our Lord's Resurrection , and the unreasonableness of his Infidelity . Our Lord's convincing him by sensible demonstrations . S. Thomas his deputing Thaddaeus to Abgarus of Edessa . His Travels into Parthia , Media , Persia , &c. AEthiopia , what , and where situate . His coming into India , and the success of his Preaching there . An account of his Acts in India from the relation of the Portugals at their first coming thither . His converting the King of Malipur . The manner of his Martyrdom by the Brachmans . The Miracles said to be done at his Tomb. His Bones dug up by the Portugals . A Cross , and several Brass Tables with Inscriptions found there . An account of the Indian or S. Thomas Christians , their Number , State , Rites , and way of life . 1. IT was customary with the Jews , when travelling into foreign Countries , or familiarly conversing with the Greeks and Romans , to assume to themselves a Greek or a Latin name , of great affinity ; and sometimes of the very same signification with that of their own Country . Thus our Lord was called Christ , answering to his Hebrew title Mashiach , or the 〈◊〉 ; Simon stiled Peter according to that of Cephas , which our Lord put upon him : Tabitha called 〈◊〉 both signifying a Goat : Thus our S. Thomas according to the Syriack importance of his name , had the title of Didymus , which signifies a Twin . Thomas which is called Didymus . Accordingly the Syriack Version renders it , 〈◊〉 , which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thama , that is , a Twin : The not understanding whereof imposed upon Nonnus the Greek Paraphrast , who makes him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to have had two distinct names , — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it being but the same name expressed in different Languages . The History of the Gospel takes no particular notice either of the Country or Kindred of this Apostle . That he was a Jew is certain , and in all probability a Galilean : He was born ( if we may believe * Symeon Metaphrastes ) of very mean Parents , who brought him up to the trade of Fishing , but withall took care to give him a more useful education , instructing him in the knowledge of the Scriptures , whereby he learnt wisely to govern his life and manners . He was together with the rest called to the Apostleship , and not long after gave an eminent instance of his hearty willingness to undergo the saddest fate that might attend them . For when the rest of the Apostles disswaded our Saviour from going into Judaea ( whither he was now resolved for the raising his dear Lazarus lately dead ) left the Jews should stone him , as but a little before they had attempted it , S. Thomas desires them not to hinder Christ's journey thither , though it might cost their lives , Let us also go that we may die with him , probably concluding , that instead of raising Lazarus from the dead , they themselves should be sent with him to their own Graves . So that he made up in pious affections , what he seemed to want in the quickness and acumen of his understanding , not readily apprehending some of our Lord's discourses , nor over-forward to believe more than himself had seen . When the holy Jesus a little before his fatal sufferings had been speaking to them of the joys of Heaven , and had told them that he was going to prepare , that they might follow him , that they knew both the place whither he was going , and the way thither : Our Apostle replied , that they knew not whither he went , and much less the way that led to it . To which our Lord returns this short but satisfactory answer , That he was the true living way , the person whom the Father had sent into the World to shew men the paths of Eternal life , and that they could not miss of Heaven , if they did but keep to that way , which he had prescribed and chalked out before them . 2. OUR Lord being dead , 't is evident how much the Apostles were distracted between hopes and fears concerning his Resurrection , not yet fully satisfied about it : Which engaged him the sooner to hasten his appearance , that by the sensible manifestations of himself he might put the case beyond all possibilities of dispute . The very day whereon he arose he came into the house where they were , while for fear of the Jews the doors were yet fast shut about them , and gave them sufficient assurance that he was really risen from the dead . At this meeting S. Thomas was absent , having probably never recovered their company , since their last dispersion in the Garden , when every ones fears prompted him to consult his own safety . At his return they told him that their Lord had appeared to them ; but he obstinately refused to give credit to what they said , or to believe that it was he , presuming it rather a phantasm or mere apparition , unless he might see the very prints of the Nails , and feel the wounds in his hands and sides . A strange piece of infidelity ! Was this any more than what Moses and the Prophets had long since foretold ? had not our Lord frequently told them in plain terms that he must rise again the third day ? could he question the possibility of it , who had so often seen him do the greatest miracles ? was it reasonable to reject the testimony of so many eye-witnesses , ten to one against himself , and of whose fidelity he was assured ? or could he think that either themselves should be deceived , or that they would jest and trifle with him in so solemn and serious a matter ? A stubbornness that might have betrayed him into an eternal infidelity . But our compassionate Saviour would not take the advantage of the mans refractory unbelief , but on that day seven-night again came to them , as they were solemnly met at their devotions , and calling to Thomas , bad him look upon his hands , put his fingers into the prints of the Nails , and thrust his hand into the hole of his side , and satisfie his faith by a demonstration from sense . The man was quickly convinced of his error and obstinacy , confessing that he now acknowledged him to be his very Lord and Master , a God omnipotent , that was thus able to rescue himself from the powers of death . Our Lord replied no more , than that it was well he believed his own senses , but that it was a more noble and commendable act of Faith to acquiesce in a rational evidence , and to entertain the doctrines and relations of the Gospel upon such testimonies and assurances of the truth of things , as will satisfie a wise and sober man , though he did not see them with his own eyes . 3. THE Blessed Jesus being gone to Heaven , and having eminently given gifts and miraculous powers to the Apostles , S. Thomas moved thereto by some Divine intimation , is * said to have dispatched 〈◊〉 , one of the Seventy Disciples to Abgarus Toparch of Edessa , ( between whom and our Saviour the letters commonly said to have passed are still extant in 〈◊〉 ) whom he first cured of an inveterate distemper , and after converted him and his subjects to the Faith. The Apostolical Province assigned to S. Thomas ( as * Origen tells us ) was Parthia , after which ‖ Sophronius and others inform us , that he preached the Gospel to the Medes , Persians , Carmans , Hyrcani , Bactrians , and the neighbour Nations . In Persia , one of the * Ancients ( upon what ground I know not ) acquaints us , that he met with the Magi or Wise men , who came that long journey from the East to bring presents to our new-born Saviour , whom he baptized , and took along with him as his companions and assistents in the propagation of the Gospel . Hence he preached in and passed through * AEthiopia , that is , ( that we may a little clear this by the way ) the Asian AEthiopia , conterminous to , if not the same with Chaldaea , whence ‖ Tacitus does not only make the Jews descendents from the AEthiopians , as whose Ancestors came from Ur of the Chaldeans ; but * Hesychius makes the inhabitants of Zagrus , a mountain beyond Tygris , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a people of the AEthiopians ; this is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mentioned by Benjamin the Jew in his ‖ 〈◊〉 , the land of 〈◊〉 or AEthiopia , the inhabitants whereof are stiled by * Herodotus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the oriental AEthiopians , by way of distinction from those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , who lived South of AEgypt , and were under the same military Prefecture with the Arabians , under the command of Arsames , as the other were joyned with the Indians , and in the same place are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Asian AEthiopians . Having travelled through these Countries , he at last came to India . We are told by ‖ Nicephorus , that he was at first unwilling to venture himself into those Countries , fearing he should find their manners as rude and intractable as their faces were black and deformed , till encouraged by a Vision , that assured him of the Divine Presence to assist him . He travelled a great way into those Eastern Nations , as far as the Island Taprobane , since called Sumatra , and the Country of the Brachmans , preaching every where with all the arts of gentleness and mild * perswasives , not flying out into tart invectives , and surious heats against their idolatrous practises , but calmly instructing them in the principles of Christianity , by degrees perswading them to renounce their follies , knowing that confirmed habits must be cured by patience and long forbearing , by slow and gentle methods ; and by these means he wrought upon the people , and brought them over from the grossest errors and superstition to the hearty belief and entertainment of Religion . 4. IN want of better evidence from Antiquity , it may not be amiss to enquire , what account the Portugals in their first discoveries of these Countries , received of these matters , partly from ancient Monuments and Writings , partly from constant and uncontrolled Traditions , which the Christians whom they found in those parts , preserved amongst them . They tell * us , that S. Thomas came first to Socotora , an Island in the Arabian Sea , thence to Cranganor , where having converted many , he travelled further into the East , and having successfully preached the Gospel , returned back into the Kingdom of Cormandel , where at Malipur , the Metropolis of the Kingdom , not far from the influx of Ganges into the Gulph of Bengala , he began to erect a place for Divine worship , till prohibited by the Priests , and Sagamo , Prince of that Country . But upon the conviction of several 〈◊〉 the work went on , and the Sagamo himself embraced the Christian Faith , whose example was soon followed by great numbers of his friends and subjects . The Brachmans , who plainly perceived that this would certainly spoil their Trade , and in time extirpate the Religion of their Country , thought it high time to put a stop to this growing Novelism , and resolved in Council , that some way or other the Apostle must be put to death . There was a Tomb not far from the City , whither the Apostle was wont to retire to his solitudes and private devotions ; hither the Brachmans and their armed followers pursue the Apostle , and while he was intent at prayer , they first load him with darts and stones , till one of them coming nearer , ran him through with a Lance. His Body was taken up by his Disciples , and buried in the Church which he had lately built , and which was afterwards improved into a 〈◊〉 of great stateliness and magnificence . Gregory of * Tours relates many miracles done upon the annual solemnities of his Martyrdom , and one standing miracle , an account whereof , he tells us , he received from one Theodorus , who had himself been in that place , viz. that in the Temple where the Apostle was buried there hung a Lamp before his Tomb , which burnt perpetually , without Oil or any Fewel to feed and nourish it , the light whereof was never diminished , nor by wind or any other accident could be extinguished . But whether Travellers might not herein be imposed upon by the crafty 〈◊〉 of the Priests , or those who did attend the Church ; or if true , whether it might not be performed by art , I leave to others to enquire . Some will have his Body to have been afterwards translated to Edessa , a City in Mesopotamia , but the Christians in the East constantly affirm it to have remained in the place of his Martyrdom , where ( if we may believe ‖ relations ) it was after dug up with great cost and care at the command of Don Emmanuel Frea , Governour of the Coast of Cormandel , and together with it was found the Bones of the Sagamo , whom he had converted to the Faith. 5. WHILE Don Alsonso 〈◊〉 , one of the first Vice-Roys in India under John the Third , King of Portugal , resided in these parts , certain Brass Tables were brought to him , whose ancient Inscriptions could scarce be read , till at last by the help of a Jew , an excellent Antiquary , they were found to contain nothing but a donation made to S. Thomas , whereby the King , who then reign'd , granted to him a piece of ground for the building of a Church . They tell us also of a famous Cross found in S. Thomas his Chappel at Malipur , wherein was an unintelligible Inscription , which by a Learned Bramin ( whom they compelled to read and expound it ) gave an account to this effect , That Thomas a Divine person was sent into those Countries by the Son of God in the time of King Sagamo , to instruct them in the knowledge of the true God , that he built a Church , and performed admirable miracles , but at last while upon his knees at prayer was by a Brachman thrust through with a Spear ; and that that Cross stained with his bloud had been left as a memorial of these matters . An interpretation that was afterwards confirmed by another grave and learned Bramin , who expounded the Inscription to the very same effect . The judicious Reader will measure his belief of these things by the credit of the Reporters , and the rational probability of the things themselves , which for my part as I cannot certainly affirm to be true , so I will not utterly conclude them to be false . 6. FROM these first plantations of Christianity in the Eastern India's by our Apostle , there is said to have been a continued series and succession of Christians ( hence called S. Thomas-Christians ) in those parts unto this day . The Portugals at their first arrival here found them in great numbers in several places , no less , as some tell us , than fifteen or sixteen thousand Families . They are very poor , and their Churches generally mean and sordid , wherein they had no Images of Saints , nor any representations but that of the Cross ; they are governed in Spirituals by an High-Priest ( whom some make an Armenian Patriarch , of the Sect of Nestorius , but in truth is no other than the Patriarch of Muzal , the remainder , as is probable , of the ancient 〈◊〉 , and by some , though erroneously , stiled Babylon ) residing Northward in the Mountains , who , together with twelve Cardinals , two Patriarchs , and several Bishops , disposes of all affairs referring to Religion ; and to him all the Christians of the East yield subjection . They promiscuously admit all to the Holy Communion , which they receive under both kinds of Bread and Wine , though instead of Wine , which their Country affords not , making use of the juice of Raisons , steep'd one night in water , and then pressed forth . Children , unless in case of sickness , are not baptized till the fortieth day . At the death of Friends , their kindred and relations keep an eight days feast in memory of the departed . Every Lord's-day they have their publick Assemblies for prayer and preaching , their devotions being managed with great reverence and solemnity . Their Bible , at least the New Testament , is in the Syriack Language , to the study whereof the Preachers earnestly exhort the people . They observe the times of Advent and Lent , the Festivals of our Lord , and many of the Saints , those especially that relate to S. Thomas , the Dominica in Albis , or Sunday after Easter , in memory of the famous confession which S. Thomas on that day made of Christ , after he had been sensibly cured of his unbelief ; another on the first of July , celebrated not only by Christians , but by Moors and Pagans , the people who come to his Sepulchre on Pilgrimage carrying away a little of the red Earth of the place where he was interred , which they keep as an inestimable treasure , and 〈◊〉 it sovereign against diseases . They have a kind of Monasteries of the Religious , who live in great abstinence and chastity . Their Priests are shaven in fashion of a Cross , have leave to marry once , but denied a second time : No marriages to be dissolved but by death . These rites and customs they solemnly pretend to have derived from the very time of S. Thomas , and with the greatest care and diligence do observe them at this day . The End of S. Thomas's Life . THE LIFE OF S. JAMES the Less . S. IAMES . Minor. This Apostle being a Kinsman of our Lord and having Sale first Bishop of Hierusalem was cast down from the top of the Temple and after killed with a Fu●●ers club Baron . ●●● 1 o The Martyrdom of St. James y e lesse . Mauh . 23. 37. O Jerusalem , Jerusalem , thou that killest the prophets & stonest them which are sent unto thee . S. James the Less proved to be the same with him that was Bishop of Jerusalem . His Kindred and Relations . The Son of Joseph by a former Wife . The Brethren of our Lord , who . His Country what . Our Lord's appearance to him after his Resurrection . Invested in the See of Jerusalem by whom and why . His authority in the Synod at Jerusalem . His great diligence and fidelity in his Ministry . The conspiracy of his Enemies to take away his Life . His Discourse with the Scribes and Pharisees about the Messiah . His Martyrdom , and the manner of it . His Burial where . His Death resented by the Jews . His strictness in Religion . His Priesthood whence . His singular delight in Prayer , and efficacy in it . His great love and charity to Men. His admirable Humility . His Temperance according to the rules of the Nazarite - Order . The Love and respect of the People towards him . His Death an inlet to the destruction of the Jewish Nation . His Epistle when written . What the design and purpose of it . The Proto-evangelium ascribed to him . 1. BEFORE we can enter upon the Life of this Apostle , some difficulty must be cleared , relating to his Person . Doubted it has been by some , whether this was the same with that S. James that was Bishop of Jerusalem , three of this Name being presented to us , S. James the Great , this S. James the Less ( both Apostles ) and a third sirnamed the Just , distinct ( say they ) from the former and Bishop of Jerusalem . But this ( however pretending to some little countenance from antiquity ) is a very great mistake , and built upon a sandy bottom . For besides that the Scripture mentions no more than two of this Name , and both Apostles , nothing can be plainer , than that that S. James the Apostle , whom S. Paul calls our Lord's Brother , and reckons with Peter and John one of the Pillars of the Church , was the same that presided among the Apostles ( no doubt by vertue of his place , it being his Episcopal Chair ) and determined in the Synod at Jerusalem . Nor do either Clemens * Alexandrinus or 〈◊〉 out of him mention any more than two , S. James put to death by Herod , and S. James the Just , Bishop of Jerusalem , whom they expresly affirm to be the same with him whom S. Paul calls the Brother of our Lord. Once indeed ‖ 〈◊〉 makes our S. James one of the Seventy , though * elsewere quoting a place of Clemens of Alexandria , he numbers him with the Chief of the Apostles , and expresly distinguishes him from the Seventy Disciples . Nay S. * Hierom , though when representing the Opinion of others he stiles him the Thirteenth Apostle , yet ‖ elsewhere when speaking his own sence , sufficiently proves that there were but two , James the Son of 〈◊〉 , and the other the Son of Alphaeus , the one sirnamed the Greater , the other the Less . Besides that the main support of the other Opinion is built upon the authority of Clemens his Recognitions , a Book in doubtful cases of no esteem and value . 2. This doubt being removed , we proceed to the History of his Life . He was the Son ( as we may probably conjecture ) of Joseph ( afterwards Husband to the Blessed Virgin ) and his first Wife , whom S. * Hierom from Tradition stiles Escha , Hippolytus Bishop of Porto calls Salome ; and further adds , ‖ that she was the Daughter of Aggi , Brother to Zacharias , Father to John the Baptist. Hence reputed our Lord's Brother , in the same sence that he was reputed the Son of Joseph . Indeed we find several spoken of in the History of the Gospel , who were Christ's Brethren ; but in what sence , was controverted of old . S. Hierom , Chrysostom , and some others will have them so called , because the Sons of Mary , Cousin-german , or according to the custome of the Hebrew Language , Sister to the Virgin Mary . But * Eusebius , ‖ Epiphanius , and the far greater part of the Ancients ( from whom especially in matters of fact , we are not rashly to depart ) make them the Children of Joseph , by a former Wife . And this seems most genuine and natural , the Evangelists seeming very express and accurate in the account which they give of them : Is not this the Carpenter's Son ? Is not his Mother called Mary ? and his Brethren James , and Joses , and Simon , and Jude ? and his Sisters ( whose Names , says the foresaid Hippolytus , were Esther and Thamar ) are they not all with us , whence then hath this man these things ? By which it is plain , that the Jews understood these Persons not to be Christ's Kinsmen only , but his Brothers , the same Carpenter's Sons , having the same relation to him that Christ himself had : though indeed they had more , Christ being but his reputed , they his natural Sons . Upon this account the Blessed Virgin is sometimes called the Mother of James and Joses ; for so amongst the Women that attended at our Lord's Crucifixion , we find three eminently taken notice of , Mary Magdalen , Mary the Mother of James and Joses , and the Mother of Zebedees Children . Where by Mary the Mother of James and Joses , no other can be meant than the Virgin Mary : it not being reasonable to suppose that the Evangelists should omit the Blessed Virgin , who was certainly there ; and therefore S. John reckoning up the same Persons , expresly stiles her the Mother of Jesus . And though it is true she was but S. James his Mother-in-law , yet the Evangelists might chuse so to stile her , because commonly so called after Joseph's death ; and probably ( as Gregory of Nyssa thinks ) known by that Name all along , chusing that Title , that the Son of God , whom as a Virgin she had brought forth , might be better concealed , and less exposed to the malice of the envious Jews : nor is it any more wonder , that she should be esteemed and called the Mother of James , than that Joseph should be stiled and accounted the Father of Jesus . To which add , that ‖ Josephus eminently skilful in matters of Genealogy and descent , expresly says that our S. James was the Brother of Jesus Christ. One thing there is that may seem to lye against it , that he is called the Son of Alphaeus : But this may probably mean no more , than either that Joseph was so called by another Name ( it being frequent , yea almost constant among the Jews for the same Person to have two Names ) Quis unquam prohibuerit duobus vel tribus nominibus , hominem 〈◊〉 vocari ? as S. * Augustin speaks in a parallel case ; or ( as a learned ‖ Man conjectures ) it may relate to his being a Disciple of some particular Sect or Synagogue among the Jews , called Alphaeans , from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denoting a Family or Society of devout and learned Men of somewhat more eminency than the rest , there being , as he tells us , many such at this time among the Jews ; and in this probably S. James had entred himself , the great reputation of his Piety and strictness ; his Wisdom , Parts , and Learning rendring the conjecture above the censure of being trifling and contemptible . 3. OF the place of his Birth the Sacred story makes no mention . The Jewes in their * Talmud ( for doubtless they intend the same Person ) stile him more than once 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man of the Town of Sechania ; though where that was , I am not able to conjecture . What was his particular way and course of life before his being called to the Discipleship and Apostolate , we find no intimations of in the History of the Gospel , nor any distinct account concerning him during our Saviour's life . After the Resurrection he was honoured with a particular Appearance of our Lord to him , which though silently passed over by the Evangelists , is recorded by S. Paul , next to the manifesting himself to the Five Hundred Brethren at once , he was seen of James , which is by all understood of our Apostle . S. ‖ Hierom out of the Hebrew Gospel of the Nazarens ( wherein many passages are set down , omitted by the Evangelical Historians ) gives us a fuller relation of it , viz. that S. James had solemnly sworn that from the time that he had drank of the Cup at the Institution of the Supper , he would eat Bread no more , till he saw the Lord risen from the dead . Our Lord therefore being returned from the Grave , came and appeared to him , commanded Bread to be set before him , which he took , blessed , and brake , and gave to S. James , saying , Eat thy Bread , my Brother , for the Son of Man is truly risen from among them that sleep . After Christ's Ascension ( though I will not venture to determine the precise time ) he was chosen Bishop of Jerusalem , preferred before all the rest , for his near relation unto Christ , for this we find to have been the reason why they chose * Symeon to be his immediate Successor in that See , because he was after him our Lord's next Kinsman . A consideration that made Peter and the two Sons of Zebedee , though they had been peculiarly honoured by our Saviour , not to contend for this high and honourable ‖ Place , but freely chuse James the Just to be Bishop of it . This dignity is by some of the * Ancients said to have been conferred on him by Christ himself , constituting him Bishop at the time of his appearing to him . But it 's safest with others to understand it of its being done by the Apostles , or possibly by some particular intimation concerning it , which our Lord might leave behind him . 4. TO him we find S. Paul making his Address after his Conversion , by whom he was honoured with the right hand of fellowship : to him Peter sent the news of his miraculous deliverance out of Prison , Go shew these things unto James , and to the Brethren , that is , to the whole Church , and especially S. James the Bishop and Pastor of it . But he was principally active in the Synod at Jerusalem in the great controversie about the Mosaick Rites : for the case being opened by Peter , and further debated by Paul and Barnabas , at last stood up S. James to pass the final and decretory sentence , that the Gentile-Converts were not to be troubled with the bondage of the Jewish Yoke , only that for a present accommodation some few indifferent Rites should be observed ; ushering in the expedient with this positive conclusion , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , I thus judge or decide the matter , this is my sentence and determination . A circumstance the more considerable , because spoken at the same time when Peter was in Council , who produced no such intimation of his Authority . Had the Champions of the Church of Rome but such a passage for Peter's judiciary Authority and Power , it would no doubt have made a louder noise in the World , than , Thou art Peter , or , Feed my sheep . 5. HE administred his Province with all possible care and industry , omitting no part of a diligent and faithful Guide of Souls ; strengthning the weak , informing the ignorant , reducing the erroneous , reproving the obstinate , and by the constancy of his Preaching conquering the stubbornness of that perverse and refractory Generation that he had to deal with , many of the nobler and the better sort being brought over to a compliance with the Christian Faith. So careful , so successful in his charge , that he awakened the spite and malice of his Enemies to conspire his ruine : a sort of Men , of whom the Apostle has given too true a character , that they please not God , and are contrary to all men . Vexed they were to see that S. Paul by appealing to Caesar had escaped their hands : Malice is as greedy and insatiable as Hell it self , and therefore now turn their revenge upon S. James , which not being able to effect under Festus his Government , they more effectually attempted under the Procuratorship of Albinus his Successor , Ananus the Younger , then High-Priest , and of the Sect of the Sadducees , ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , says * Josephus , speaking of this very passage , of all others the most merciless and implacable Justicers ) resolving to dispatch him before the new Governor could arrive . To this end a Council is hastily summoned , and the Apostle with some others arraigned and condemned as Violators of the Law. But that the thing might be carried in a more plausible and popular way , they set the Scribes and Pharisees ( Crafts-masters in the arts of dissimulation ) at work to ensnare him : who coming to him , began by flattering insinuatious to set upon him . They tell him , that they all had a mighty confidence in him , and that the whole Nation as well as they gave him the testimony of a most just man , and one that was no respecter of Persons ; that therefore they desired he would correct the error and false Opinion which the People had of Jesus , whom they looked upon as the Messiah , and would take this opportunity of the universal confluence to the Paschal solemnity , to set them right in their notions about these things , and would to that end go up with them to the top of the Temple ; where he might be seen and heard by all . Being advantageously placed upon a Pinnacle or Wing of the Temple , they made this address to him . Tell us , O Justus , whom we have all the reason in the World to believe , that seeing the People are thus generally led away with the Doctrine of Jesus that was crucified , tell us , What is this Institution of the crucified Jesus ? To which the Apostle answered with an audible Voice ; Why do ye enquire of Jesus the Son of man ? he sits in Heaven on the right hand of the Majesty on high , and will come again in the Clouds of Heaven . The People below hearing it , glorified the blessed Jesus , and openly proclaimed Hosanna to the Son of David . The Scribes and Pharisees perceived now that they had over-shot themselves , and that instead of reclaiming , they had confirmed the People in their Error ; that there was no way left , but presently to dispatch him , that by his sad fate others might be warned not to believe him . Whereupon suddenly crying out , that Justus himself was seduced and become an Impostor , they threw him down from the Place where he stood . Though bruised , he was not killed by the fall , but recovered so much strength , as to get upon his Knees , and Pray to Heaven for them . Malice is of too bad a nature either to be pacified with kindness , or satisfied with cruelty : Jealousie is not more the rage of a Man , than Malice is the rage of the Devil , the very soul and spirit of the Apostate nature . Little portions of revenge do but inflame it , and serve to flesh it up into a fiercer violence . Vexed that they had not done his work , they fall afresh upon the poor remainders of his life ; and while he was yet at Prayer , and that a Rechabite who stood by ( which , says * Epiphanius , was Symeon , his Kinsman and Successor ) stept in and intreated them to spare him , a just and a righteous Man , and who was then praying for them , they began to load him with a showre of stones , till one more mercifully cruel than the rest with a Fullers Club beat out his Brains . Thus died this good Man in the XCVI . Year of his Age , and about XXIV . Years after Christ's Ascension into Heaven , ( as Epiphanius tells us ; ) being taken away to the great grief and regret of all good Men , yea of all sober and just Persons even amongst the Jews themselves ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as * Josephus himself confesses , speaking of this matter . He was buried ( says ‖ Gregory Bishop of Tours ) upon Mount Olivet , in a Tomb which he had built for himself , and wherein he had buried Zacharias , and old Simeon : which I am rather inclinable to believe , than what * Hegesippus reports , that he was buried near the Temple in the place of his Martyrdom , and that a Monument was there erected for him , which remained a long time after . For the Jews were not ordinarily wont to bury within the City , much less so near the Temple , and least of all would they suffer him , whom as a Blasphemer and Impostor they had so lately put to death . 6. HE was a Man of exemplary and extraordinary Piety and Devotion , educated under the strictest Rules and Institutions of Religion , a Priest ( as we may probably guess ) of the ancient Order of the Rechabites , or rather , as * Epiphanius conjectures , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , according to the most ancient order and form of Priesthood , when the Sacerdotal Office was the Prerogative of the first-born : and such was S. James the Eldest Son of Joseph , and thereby sanctified and set apart for it . Though whether this way of Priesthood at any time held under the Mosaick dispensation , we have no intimations in the holy story . But however he came by it , upon some such account it must be , that he had a priviledge ( which the ‖ Ancicnts say was peculiar to him , probably , because more frequently made use of by him than by any others ) to enter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not into the Sancta Sanstorum , or most holy of all , but the Sanctuary , or holy place , whither the Priests of the Aaronical Order might come . Prayer was his constant business and delight , he seemed to live upon it , and to trade in nothing but the frequent returns of converse with Heayen : and was therefore wont to retire alone into the Temple to pray , which he always performed kneeling and with the greatest reverence , till by his daily Devotions his knees were become as hard and brawny as a Camels . And he who has told us , that the effectual servent prayer of a righteous man availeth much , himself found it true by his own experience , Heaven lending a more immediate Ear to his Petitions , so that when in a time of great drought he prayed for Rain , the Heavens presently melted into fruitful showres . Nor was his Charity towards Men less than his Piety towards God , he did good to all , watched over Men's souls , and studied to advance thelr eternal interests ; his daily errand into the Temple was to pray for the happiness of the People , and that God would not severely reckon with them : he could forgive his fiercest enemies , and overcome evil with good : when thrown from the top of the Temple , he made use of all the breath he had left in him , only to send up this Petition to Heaven for the pardon of his Murderers , I beseech thee , O Lord God , Heavenly Father , forgive them , for they know not what they do . 7. HE was of a most meek humble temper , honouring what was excellent in others , concealing what was valuable in himself : the eminency of his relation , and the dignity of his place did not exalt him in lofty thoughts above the measures of his Brethren , industriously hiding whatever might set him up above the rest . Though he was our Lora's Brother , yet in the Inscription of his Epistle he stiles himself but the Servant of the Lord Jesus , not so much as giving himself the Title of an Apostle . His temperance was admirable , he wholly abstained from Flesh , and drank neither Wine nor strong Drink , nor ever used the Bath . His holy and mortified mind was content with the meanest accommodations , he went bare-foot , and never wore other than Linnen-garments . Indeed he lived after the strictest rules of the Nazarite-Order , and as the Miter , or Sacerdotal Plate ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the * Ancients call it ) which he wore upon his Head , evinced his Priesthood , which was rather after Melchisedeck's , or the Priesthood of the first-born , than the Aaronical Order , so his never shaving his Head , nor using Unguents , his Habit and Diet , and the great severity of his Life , shewed him to appertain to the NaZarite-Institution , to which he was holy ( says Hegesippus ) or consecrated from his Mother 's Womb. A Man of that Divine temper , that he was the love and wonder of his Age , and for the reputation of his holy and religious Life was universally stiled , 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 . Indced the safety and happiness of the Nation was reckoned to depend upon his Prayers and interest in Heaven , which gained him the honourable Title of Oblias or 〈◊〉 , the defence and fortress of the People ; as if when he was gone , their Garrisons would be dismantled , and their strength laid level with the ground . And so we find it was , when some few Years after his Death the Roman Army broke in upon them , and turned all into bloud and ruine . As what wonder if the judgments of God like a Flood come rowling in upon a Nation , when the Sluces are plucked up , and the Moses taken away that before stood in the Gap to keep them out ? Elisha died , and a Band of the Moabites invaded the Land. In short , he was the delight of all good Men , in so much favour and estimation with the People , that they used to flock after * him , and strive who should touch , though it were but the hem of his Garment ; his very Episcopal Chair , wherein he used to sit , being ( as ‖ Eusebius informs us ) carefully preserved , and having a kind of veneration paid to it , even unto his time : loved and honoured not by his friends only , but by his enemies , the * Jews in their Talmud mentioning James as a worker of Miracles in the Name of Jesus his Master ; yea the ‖ wisest of them looked upon his Martyrdom as the inlet to all those miseries and calamities that soon after flowed in upon them . Sure I am that * Josephus particularly reckons the Death of this S. James , as that which more immediately alarm'd the Divine vengeance , and hastned the universal ruine and destruction of that Nation . 8. HE wrote only one Epistle , probably not long before his Martyrdom , as appears by some passages in it relating to the near approaching ruine of the Jewish Nation . He directed it to the Jewish Converts , dispersed up and down those Eastern Countries , to comfort them under sufferings , and confirm them against Error . He saw a great degeneracy and declension of manners coming on , and that the purity of the Christian Faith began to be undermined by the loose doctrines and practices of the Gnosticks , who under a pretence of zeal for the legal rites generally mixed themselves with the Jews : he beheld Libertinism marching on a-pace , and the way to Heaven made soft and easie , Men declaiming against good works as useless and unnecessary , and asserted a naked belief of the Christian doctrine to be sufficient to salvation . Against these the Apostle opposes himself , presses Purity , Patience , and Charity , and all the Vertues of a good Life , and by undeniable Arguments evinces that that faith only that carries along with it obedience and an holy life can justifie us before God , and intitle us to eternal Life . Besides this Epistle , there is a kind of preparatory Gospel ascribed to him , published under the Name of 〈◊〉 , ( still extant at this Day ) containing the descent , birth and first Originals of Christ , and the Virgin Mary ; at the end whereof the Author pretends to have written it at a time , when Herod having raised a great tumult in Jerusalem , he was forced to retire into the Wilderness . But though in many things consistent enough with the History of the Gospels , yet has it ever been rejected as spurious and Apochryphal , forged in that licentious Age , when Men took the boldness to stamp any Writing with the Name of an Apostle . The End of the Life of S. James the Less . THE LIFE OF S. SIMON the Zealot . S SIMON S. Simon Zelotes preached in AEgypt Africa and Britaine and at length was crucified . Nic●ph . l. 2. c. 40. Baron . Oct. 28. St. Simon 's Martyrdom . Mauh . 10. 16. Behold I send you forth as sheep in y e midst of wol●es 1. Cor. 4. 9. God hath set forth US y e Apostles last , as it were men appointed to death , For we are made a spectacle to the world , and to Angels , and to men . His kindred . Whence stiled the Cananite , and the Zealot . An enquiry into the nature and temper , and original of the Sect of the Zealots among the Jews . An account of their wild and licentious practises . This no reflection upon our Apostle . In what parts of the World he Preached the Gospel . His planting Christianity in Africk . His removal into the West , and Preaching in Britain . His Martyrdom there . By whom said to have preached and suffered in Persia. The difference between him and Symeon Bishop of Jerusalem . 1. SAINT Simon the Apostle was , as some think , one of the four Brothers of our Saviour , Sons of Joseph by his former marriage , though no other evidence appear for it , but that there was a Simon one of the number ; too infirm a foundation to build any thing more upon than a mere conjecture . In the Catalogue of the Apostles he is stiled Simon the Cananite ; whence some , led by no other reason that I know of , than the bare sound of the name , have concluded him born at Cana in Galilee ; as for the same reason * others have made him the Bridegroom , at whose marriage our Lord was there present , when he honoured the solemnity with his first Miracle , turning Water into Wine . But this word has no relation to his Country , or the place from whence he borrowed his Original , as plainly descending from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifie Zeal , and denote a hot and sprightly temper : Therefore what some of the Evangelists call Cananite , others rendring the Hebrew by the Greek word stile , Simon Zelotes , or the Zealot : So called , not ( as * Nicephorus thinks ) from his burning zeal , and ardent affection to his Master , and his eager desire to advance his Religion in the World , but from his warm active temper , and zealous forwardness in some particular way and profession of Religion before his coming to our Saviour . 2. FOR the better understanding of this we are to know , that as there were several Sects and Parties among the Jews , so was there one , either a distinct Sect , or at least a branch of the Pharisees , called the Sect of the Zealots : They were mighty assertors of the honour of the Law , and the strictness and purity of Religion , assuming a liberty to themselves to question notorious offenders , without staying for the ordinary formalities of Law , nay , when they thought good , and as the case required , executing capital vengeance upon them : Thus when a blasphemer cursed God by the name of any Idol ( says * Maimonides ) the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Zealots that next met him might immediately kill him , without ever bringing him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before the Sanhedrim . They looked upon themselves as the successors of Phineas , who in a mighty passion for the honour of God , did immediate execution upon Zimri and 〈◊〉 . An act which was counted unto him for righteousness unto all posterities for evermore , and God so well pleased with it , that he made with him and his seed after him the covenant of an everlasting Priesthood , because he was zealous for his God , and made an attonement for Israel . In imitation whereof these men took upon them to execute judgment in extraordinary cases , and that not only by the connivance , but with the leave both of the Rulers and the People , till in after-times under a pretence of this , their zeal degenerated into all manner of licentiousness and wild extravagance , and they not only became the Pests of the Commonwealth at home , but opened the door for the Romans to break in upon them , to their final and irrecoverable ruine ; they were continually prompting the people to throw off the Roman yoke , and vindicate themselves into their native liberty , and when they had turned all things into hurry and confusion , themselves in the mean while fished in these troubled waters . Josephus gives a large account of them , and every where bewails them as the great plague of the Nation . He tells us of * them , that they scrupled not to rob any , to kill many of the prime Nobility , under pretence of holding correspondence with the Romans , and betraying the liberty of their Country , openly glorying that herein they were the benefactors and Saviours of the people . They abrogated the succession of ancient Families , thrusting obscure and ignoble persons into the High-Priests office , that so they might oblige the most infamous villains to their party ; and as if not content to injure men , they affronted Heaven , and proclaimed defiance to the Divinity it self , breaking into and prophaning the most holy place . Stiling themselves Zealots ( says he ) as if their undertakings were good and honourable , while they were greedy and emulous of the greatest wickednesses , and out-did the worst of men . Many attempts were made , especially by Annas the High-Priest , to reduce them to order and sobriety . But neither force of arms , nor fair and gentle methods could do any good upon them ; they held out , and went on in their violent proceedings , and joyning with the Idumeans , committed all manner of out-rage , slaying the High-Priests themselves . Nay , when Jerusalem was straitly besieged by the Roman Army , they ceased not to create tumults and factions within , and were indeed the main cause of the Jew 's ill success in that fatal war. 'T is probable , that all that went under the notion of this Sect were not of this wretched and ungovernable temper , but that some of them were of a better make , of a more sober and peaceable disposition : And as it is not to be doubted , but that our Simon was of this Sect in general , so there 's reason to believe he was of the better sort . However this makes no more reflexion upon his being called to the Apostleship , than it did for S. Matthew , who was before a Publican , or S. Paul's being a Pharisee , and so zealously persecuting the Church of God. 3. BEING invested in the Apostolical office , no further mention appears of him in the History of the Gospel . Continuing with the Apostles till their dispersion up and down the World , he then applied himself to the execution of his charge . He is * said to have directed his journey towards Egypt , thence to Cyrene , and Asrick ( this indeed ‖ Baronius is not willing to believe , being desirous that S. Peter should have the honour to be the first that planted Christianity in Africk ) and throughout Mauritania and all Libya , preaching the Gospel to those remote and barbarous Countries . Nor could the coldness of the Climate benumb his zeal , or hinder him from shipping himself and the Christian doctrine over to the Western Islands , yea , even to Britain it self . Here he preached , and wrought many miracles , and after infinite troubles and difficulties which he underwent ( if we may believe our Authors , whom , though Baronius in this case makes no great account of , yet never scruples freely to use their verdict and suffrage when they give in evidence to his purpose ) suffered Martyrdom for the Faith of Christ , as is not only affirmed by * Nicephorus and ‖ Dorotheus , but expresly owned in the Greek * Menologies , where we are told , that he went at last into Britain , and having enlightned the minds of many with the doctrine of the Gospel , was crucified by the Infidels , and buried there . 4. I KNOW indeed that there want not those who tell * us , that after his preaching the Gospel in Egypt , he went into Mesopotamia , where he met with S. Jude the Apostle , and together with him took his journey into Persia , where having gained a considerable harvest to the Christian Faith , they were both crowned with Martyrdom ; which Baronius himself confesses to be founded upon no better authority , than the Passions of the Apostles , a Book which at every turn he rejects as trifling and impertinent , as false and fabulous . But however , wide is the mistake of ‖ those who confound our Apostle with Symeon the son of Cleophas , successor to S. James the Just in the See of Jerusalem , who was crucified in the hundred and twentieth year of his Age , in the persecution under Trajan : The different character of their persons , and the account both of their Acts and Martyrdoms being sufficiently distinguished in the writings of the Church . The End of S. Simon' s Life . THE LIFE OF S. JUDE . St Jude . Maith . 15. 55. Is not this the Carpenter's son ? are not his brethren James , & Joses , & Simon , & JUDAS ? Luk. 6. 16. Judas the Brother of James . His Martyrdom . Having preached y e Gospel in Mesopotamia , he went into Persia , where after he had gained great numbers to Christianity , he suffered martyrdom . Martyrol . Rom. Oct. 28. The several names attributed to him in the Gospel . Thaddaeus , whence . The custom of the Jews to alter their names , when bearing affinity with the great name Jehova . The name Judas why distasteful to the Apostles . Lebbaeus , whence derived . His Parentage , and Relation to our Lord. The Question put by him to Christ. Whether the same with Thaddaeus sent to Edessa . In what places he preached . His death . His married condition . The story of his Grandchildren brought before Domitian . His Epistle , and why questioned of old . It s Canonicalness vindicated . The Book of Enoch , and what its authority . The contention between Michael and the Devil about Moses his Body , whence borrowed . S. Jude proved to be the Author of this Epistle . Grotius his conceit of its being written by a younger Jude , rejected . It s affinity with the second Epistle of S. Peter . The design of it . 1. THERE are three several names by which this Apostle is described in the History of the Gospel , Jude , Thaddaeus and Lebbaeus , it being usual in the holy Volumes for the same person to have more proper names than one . For the first , it was a name common amongst the Jews , recommended to them as being the name of one of the great Patriarchs of their Nation . This name he seems to have changed afterwards for Thaddaeus , a word springing from the same root , and of the very same import and signification , which might arise from a double cause : Partly from the superstitious veneration , which the Jews had for the name Jehova ( the Nomen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or name consisting of four letters ) which they held unlawful to be pronounced by any but the High-Priest , and not by him neither , but at the most solemn times . Hence it was , that when any man had a name , wherein there was the major part of the letters of this ineffable title ( and such was Jehudah or Juda ) they would not rashly pronounce it in common usage , but chose rather to mould it into another like it , and of the same importance , or that which had a near affinity and resemblance with it : Partly from a particular dislike of the name of Judas among the Apostles , the bloudy and treasonable practises of Judas Iscariot having rendred that name very odious and detestable to them . To prevent therefore all possibility of mistake , and that they might not confound the righteous with the wicked , S. Matthew and Mark never call him by this , but by some other name ; as no question for the same reason he both stiles himself , and is frequently called by others , Judas the brother of James ; and that this was one great design of it , the Evangelist plainly intimates , when speaking of him , he says , Judas , not Iscariot . For his name Lebbaeus , it seems to have been derived either from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an heart , whence S. Hierom renders it Corculum , probably to denote his wisdom and prudence , or else from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Lion , and therein to have respect to old Jacob's prophecy concerning Judah , That he should be as a Lion , an old Lion , and as a Lions whelp , which probably might have a main stroke in fastning this name upon S. Jude . From this Patriarchal prophecy , we are * told , that one of the Schools or Synagogues of Learned men among the Jews ( who to avoid confusion were wont to distinguish themselves by different appellations ) took occasion to denominate themselves Labii , as accounting themselves the Scholars and descendents of this Lion-like son of Jacob ; and that S. Jude was of this society , and because of his eminency among them retained the title of Labius , or as it was corruptly pronounced , Lebbaeus . I confess I should have thought the conjecture of a Learned * man very probable , that he might have derived this name from the place of his nativity , as being born at Lebba , a Town which , he tells us , ‖ Pliny speaks of in the Province of Galilee , not far from Carmel , but that it is not Lebba , but Jebba in all copies of Pliny that I have seen . But let the Reader please himself in which conjecture he likes best . 2. FOR his Descent and Parentage , he was of our Lord's kindred , * Nicephorus truly making him the son of Joseph , and brother to James Bishop of Jerusalem ; that there was a Jude one of the number is very evident , Are not his brethren James , and Joses , and Simon , and Judas ? which makes me the more to wonder at Scaliger , who so confidently denies that any of the Evangelists ever mention a Jude the brother of our Lord. S. Hierom seems often to confound him with Simon the Zealot , whose title he ascribes to him , though second thoughts set him right , as indeed common advertency could do no less , so plain is the account which the Evangelists give of this matter . When called to the Discipleship we find not , as not meeting with him , till we find him enumerated in the Catalogue of Apostles ; nor is any thing particularly recorded of him afterwards , more than one question that he propounded to our Saviour , who having told them what great things he and his Father would do , and what particular manifestations after his Resurrection he would make of himself to his sincere disciples and followers , S. Jude ( whose thoughts as well as the rest were taken up with the expectations of a temporal Kingdom of the Messiah ) not knowing how this could consist with the publick solemnity of that glorious state they looked for , asked him , what was the reason that he would manifest himself to them , and not to the World. Our Lord replied , that the World was not capable of these Divine manifestations , as being a stranger , and an enemy to what should fit them for fellowship with Heaven ; that they were only good men , persons of a Divine temper of mind , and religious observers of his Laws and Will , whom God would honour with these familiar converses , and admit to such particular acts of grace and favour . 3. * EUSEBIUS relates that soon after our Lord's Ascension S. Thomas dispatched Thaddaeus the Apostle to Abgarus Governour of Edessa , where he healed diseases , wrought miracles , expounded the doctrines of Christianity , and converted Abgarus and his people to the Faith : For all which pains when the Toparch offered him vast gifts and presents , he refused them with a noble scorn , telling him , they had little reason to receive from others , what they had freely relinquished and left themselves . A large account of this whole affair is extant in Eusebius , translated by him out of Syriack from the Records of the City of Edessa . This Thaddaeus ‖ S. Hierom expresly makes to be our S. Jude , though his bare authority is not in this case sufficient evidence ; especially since 〈◊〉 makes him no more than one of the seventy Disciples , which he would scarce have done , had he been one of the Twelve . He calls him indeed an Apostle , but that may imply no more than according to the large acception of the word , that he was a Disciple , a Companion , and an Assistent to them , as we know the Seventy eminently were . Nor is any thing more common in ancient Ecclesiastick Writers , than for the first planters and propagaters of Christian Religion in any Country to be honoured with the name and title of Apostles . But however this be , at his first setting out to preach the Gospel , he went up and down Judaea and 〈◊〉 , then through Samaria into Idumea , and to the Cities of Arabia , and the neighbour Countries , yea , to Syria and Mesopotamia . * Nicephorus adds , that he came at last to Edessa , where Abgarus was Governour , and where the other Thaddeus , one of the Seventy had been before him . Here he perfected what the other had begun , and having by his Sermons and Miracles established the Religion of our Saviour , died a peaceable and a quiet death ; though ‖ Dorotheus makes him slain at Berytus , and honourably buried there . By the almost general consent of the Writers of the Latin Church he is said to have travelled into Persia , where after great success in his Apostolical Ministry for many years , he was at last for his free and open reproving the superstitious rites and usages of the Magi cruelly put to death . 4. THAT he was one of the married Apostles sufficiently appears from his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or Grandsons mentioned by * 〈◊〉 , of whom Hegesippus gives this account . Domitian the Emperor , whose enormous wickednesses had awakened in him the quickest jealousies , and made him suspect every one that might look like a corrival in the Empire , had heard that there were some of the line of David , and Christ's kindred that did yet remain . Two Grandchildren of S. Jude the Brother of our Lord were brought before him : Having confessed that they were of the Race and posterity of David , he asked what possessions and estate they had : they told him that they had but a very few acres of land , out of the improvement whereof they both paid him Tribute , and maintained themselves with their own hard labour , as by the hardness and callousness of their hands ( which they then shewed him ) did appear . He then enquired of them concerning Christ , and the state of his Kingdom , what kind of Empire it was , and when and where it would commence . To which they replied , That his Kingdom was not of this World , nor of the Seigniories and Dominions of it , but Heavenly and Angelical , and would finally take place in the end of the World , when coming with great glory , he would judge the quick and the dead , and award all men recompences according to their works . The issue was , that looking upon the meanness and simplicity of the men as below his jealousies and fears , he dismissed them without any severity used against them ; who being now beheld not only as kinsmen , but as Martyrs of our Lord , were honoured by all , preferred to places of authority and government in the Church , and lived till the times of Trajan . 5. S. Jude left only one Epistle , of Catholick and universal concernment , inscribed at large to all Christians . It was some time before it met with general reception in the * Church , or was taken notice of . The Author indeed stiles not himself an Apostle , but no more does S. James , S. John , nor in some Epistles S. Paul himself . And why should he fare the worse for his humility , only for calling himself the servant of Christ , when he might have added not only Apostle , but the Brother of our Lord ? The best is , he has added what was equivalent , Jude the Brother of James , a character that can belong to none but our Apostle ; beside , that the Title of the Epistle , which is of great antiquity , runs thus , The general Epistle of Jude the Apostle . One great argument , as ‖ S. 〈◊〉 informs us , against the authority of this Epistle of old , was its quoting a passage out of an Apocryphal Book of Enoch . This Book called the Apocalypse of Enoch was very early extant in the Church , frequently mentioned , and passages cited out of it by 〈◊〉 , Tertullian , Clemens Alexandrinus , Origen , and others , some of whom accounted it little less than Canonical . But what if our Apostle had it not out of this Apocryphal Book , but from some prophecy currant from age to age , handed to him by common tradition , or immediately revealed to him by the Spirit of God ? But suppose it taken out of that Book going under Enoch's name , this makes nothing against the authority of the Epistle ; every thing , I hope , is not presently false , that 's contained in an Apocryphal and Uncanonical writing , nor does the taking a single testimony out of it any more infer the Apostles approbation of all the rest , than S. Paul's quoting a good sentence or two out of Menander , Aratus , and Epimenides , imply that he approved all the rest of the writings of those Heathen Poets . And indeed nothing could be more fit and proper than this way , if we consider that the Apostle in this Epistle chiesly argues against the Gnosticks , who mainly traded in such Traditionary and Apocryphal writings , and probably in this very Book of Enoch . The same account may be given of that other passage in this Epistle concerning the contention between Michael the Archangel and the Devil about the burial of Moses his Body , no where extant in the holy Records , supposed to have been taken out of a Jewish writing called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Dismission of Moses , mentioned by some of the Greek Fathers under the title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or the Ascension of Moses , in which this passage was upon record . Nor is it any more a wonder that S. Jude should do this , than that S. Paul should put down Jannes and Jambres for the two Magicians of Pharaoh that opposed Moses , which he must either derive from Tradition , or fetch out of some Uncanonical Author of those times , there being no mention of their names in Moses his relation of that matter . But be these passages whence they will , 't is enough to us , that the Spirit of God has made them Authentick , and consecrated them part of the holy Canon . 6. BEING thus satisfied in the Canonicalness of this Epistle , none but S. Jude could be the Author of it ; for who but he was the Brother of S. James ? a character by which he is described in the Evangelical story more than once . * Grotius indeed will needs have it written by a younger Jude , the fifteenth Bishop of Jerusalem , in the reign of Adrian ; and because he saw that that passage [ the Brother of James ] stood full in his way , he concludes without any shadow of reason , that it was added by some Transcriber . But is not this to make too bold with Sacred things ? is not this to indulge too great a liberty ? this once allowed , 't will soon open a door to the wildest and most extravagant conjectures , and no man shall know where to find sure-sooting for his Faith. But the Reader may remember what we have elsewhere observed concerning the Posthume Annotations of that learned man. Not to say that there are many things in this Epistle that evidently refer to the time of this Apostle , and imply it to have been written upon the same occasion , and about the same time with the second Epistle of Peter , between which and this there is a very great affinity both in words and matter , nay , there want not ‖ some that endeavour to prove this Epistle to have been written no less than twenty seven years before that of Peter , and that hence it was that Peter borrowed those passages that are so near a-kin to those in this Epistle . The design of the Epistle is to preserve Christians from the infection of Gnosticism , the loose and debauched principles vented by Simon Magus and his followers , whose wretched doctrines and practises he briefly and elegantly represents , perswading Christians heartily to contend for the Faith that had been delivered to them , and to avoid these pernicious Seducers as pests and fire-brands , not to communicate with them in their sins , lest they perished with them in that terrible vengeance that was ready to overtake them . The End of S. Jude's Life . THE LIFE OF S. MATTHIAS . S. MATHIAS . He preached the Gospell in Ethiopia , suffered Martyrdome and was buried there . S. Hierom. St. Matthias his Martyrdom . Hebr. 11 . 37. They were stoned , they were sawn asunder , they were tempted , were slain with the sword . S. Matthias one of the Seventy . Judas Iscariot , whence . A bad Minister nulls not the ends of his ministration . His worldly and covetous temper . His monstrous ingratitude . His betraying his Master , and the aggravations of the sin . The distraction and horror of his mind . The miserable state of an evil and guilty Conscience . His violent death . The election of a new Apostle : The Candidates , who . The Lot cast upon Matthias . His preaching the Gospel , and in what parts of the World. His Martyrdom when , where , and how . His Body whither translated . The Gospel and Traditions vented under his name . 1. SAINT Matthias not being an Apostle of the first Election , immediately called and chosen by our Saviour , particular remarks concerning him are not to be expected in the History of the Gospel . He was one of our Lord's Disciples ( and probably one of the Seventy ) that had attended on him the whole time of his publick Ministry , and after his death was elected into the Apostleship upon this occasion . Judas Iscariot ( so called , probably , from the place of his nativity , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man of Kerioth , a City anciently situate in the Tribe of Judah ) had been one of the Twelve , immediately called by Christ to be one of his intimate Disciples , equally impowered and commissioned with the rest to Preach and work Miracles , was numbred with them , and had obtained part of their Ministry : And yet all this while was a man of vile and corrupt designs , branded with no meaner a character , than Thief and Murderer . To let us see that there may be bad servants in Christ's own family , and that the wickedness of a Minister does not evacuate his Commission , nor render his Office useless and ineffectual . The unworthiness of the instrument hinders not the ends of the ministration : Seeing the efficacy of an ordinance depends not upon the quality of the person , but the Divine institution , and the blessing which God has entailed upon it . Judas preached Christ no doubt with zeal and fervency , and for any thing we know , with as much success as the rest of the Apostles ; and yet he was a bad man , a man acted by 〈◊〉 and mean designs , one that had prostituted Religion and the honour of his place to covetousness and evil arts . The love of money had so intirely possessed his thoughts , that his resolutions were bound for nothing but interest and advantage . But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare . This covetous temper betrayed him , as in the issue to the most fatal end , so to the most desperate attempt , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Origen calls the putting Christ to death , the most prodigious impiety that the Sun ever shone on , the betraying his innocent Lord into the hands of those , who he knew would treat him with all the circumstances of insolent scorn and cruelty . How little does kindness work upon a disingenuous mind ! It was not the honour of the place , to which when thousands of others were passed by , our Lord had called him , the admitting him into a free and intimate fellowship with his person , the taking him to be one of his peculiar domesticks and attendants , that could divert the wretch from his wicked purpose . He knew how desirous the great men of the Nation were to get Christ into their hands , especially at the time of the Passeover , that he might with the more publick disgrace 〈◊〉 sacrificed before all the people , and therefore bargains with them , and for no greater a summ than under four pounds , to betray the Lamb of God into the paws of these Wolves and Lions : In short , he heads the party , conducts the Officers , and sees him delivered into their hands . 2. BUT there 's an active principle in man's breast , that seldom suffers daring sinners to pass in quiet to their Graves : Awakened with the horror of the fact , conscience began to rouze and follow close , and the man was unable to bear up under the furious revenges of his own mind : As indeed all wilful and deliberate sins , and especially the guilt of bloud , are wont more sensibly to alarm the natural notions of our minds , and to excite in us the fears of some present vengeance that will seise upon us . And how intolerable are those scourges that lash us in this vital and tender part : The spirit of the man sinks under him , and all supports snap asunder : As what case or comfort can he enjoy , that carries a Vultur in his bosom , always gnawing and preying upon his heart ? Which made * Plutarch compare an evil Conscience to a Cancer in the breast , that perpetually gripes and stings the Soul with the pains of an intolerable repentance . Guilt is naturally troublesome and uneasie , it disturbs the peace and serenity of the mind , and fills the Soul with storms and thunder . ‖ Did ever any harden himself against God , and prosper ? And indeed how should he , when God has such a powerful and invisible executioner in his own bosom ? Whoever rebels against the Laws of his duty , and plainly affronts the dictates of his Conscience , does that moment bid adieu to all true repose and quiet , and expose himself to the severe resentments of a self-tormenting mind . And though by secret arts of wickedness he may be able possibly to drown and stifle the voice of it for a while , yet every little affliction or petty accident will be apt to awaken it into horror , and to let in terror like an armed man upon him . A torment infinitely beyond what the most ingenious Tyrants could ever contrive . Nothing so effectually invades our ease , as the reproaches of our own minds . The wrath of man may be endured , but the irruptions of Conscience are irresistible ; it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( as Chrysostom very elegantly stiles it ) to be choaked or strangled with an evil Conscience , which oft reduces the man to such distresses , as to make him chuse death rather than life . A sad instance of all which we have in this unhappy man : who being wearied with furious and melancholy reflexions upon what was past , threw back the wages of iniquity in open Court , and dispatched himself by a violent death : Vainly hoping to take sanctuary in the Grave , and that he should meet with that ease in another World which he could not find in this . He departed , and went and hanged himself , and falling down burst asunder , and his bowels gushed out : Leaving a memorable warning to all treacherous and ingrateful , to all greedy and covetous persons , not to let the World insinuate it self too far into them ; and indeed to all to watch and pray that they enter not into temptation . Our present state is slippery and insecure ; Let him that thinketh he 〈◊〉 , take heed lest he fall . What priviledges can be a sufficient fence , a foundation firm enough to rely upon , when the Miracles , Sermons , favours , and familiar converses of Christ himself could not secure one of the Apostles from so fatal an Apostasie ? 3. A VACANCY being thus made in the Colledge of Apostles , the first thing they did after their return from Mount Olivet , where our Lord took his leave of them , to S. John's house in Mount Sion ( the place , if we may believe * Nicephorus , where the Church met together ) was to fill up their number with a fit proper person . To which purpose Peter acqualnted them , that Judas , according to the prophetical prediction , being fallen from his ministry , it was necessary that another should be substituted in his room , one that had been a constant companion and disciple of the holy Jesus , and consequently capable of bearing witness to his life , death , and resurrection . Two were propounded in order to the choice , Joseph called Barsabas , and Justus ( whom some make the same with Joses one of the brothers of our Lord ) and Matthias , both duly qualified for the place . The way of election was by Lots , a way frequently used both among Jews and Gentiles for the determination of doubtful and difficult cases , and especially the chusing Judges and Magistrates : And this course the Apostles the rather took , because the Holy Ghost was not yet given , by whose immediate dictates and inspirations they were chiefly guided afterwards . And that the business might proceed with the greater regularity and success , they first solemnly make their address to Heaven , that the Omniscient Being that governed the World , and perfectly understood the tempers and dispositions of men , would immediately guide and direct the choice , and shew which of these two he would appoint to take that part of the Apostolick charge , from which Judas was so lately fallen . The Lots being put into the Urn , Matthias his name was drawn out , and thereby the Apostolate devolved upon him . 4. NOT long after the promised powers of the Holy Ghost were conferred upon the Apostles , to fit them for that great and difficult imployment , upon which they were sent : And among the rest S. Matthias betook himself to his Charge and Province . The first-fruits of his Ministry he spent in 〈◊〉 , where having reaped a considerable harvest , he betook himself to other Provinces . An * Author , I confess , of no great credit in these matters , tells us , that he preached the Gospel in Macedonia , where the Gentiles to make an experiment of his Faith and Integrity , gave him a poisonous and intoxicating potion , which he chearfully drunk off , in the name of Christ , without the least prejudice to himself ; and that when the same potion had deprived above two hundred and fifty of their sight , he laying his hands upon them , restored them to their sight : with a great deal more of the same stamp , which I have neither faith enough to believe , nor leisure enough to relate . The Greeks with more probability report him to have travelled Eastward , he came ( says ‖ Nicephorus ) into the first , ( says * Sophronius ) into the second AEthiopia , and in both , I believe , it is a mistake , either of the Authors or Transcribers , for Cappadocia , his residence being principally near the irruption of the River Apsarus , and the Haven Hyssus , both places in Cappadocia . Nor is there any AEthiopia nearer those places than that conterminous to Chaldaea , whereof before . And as for those that tell us , that he might well enough preach both in the Asian and African AEthiopia , and that both might be comprehended under that general name , as the Eastern and Western parts of the World were heretofore contained under the general title of the India's , it's a fancy without any other ground to stand on , 〈◊〉 their own bare conjecture . The place whither he came was very barbarous , and his usage was accordingly . For here meeting with a people of a fierce and intractable temper , he was treated by them with great rudeness and inhumanity , from whom after all his labours and sufferings , and a numerous conversion of men to Christianity , he obtained at last the crown of Martyrdom , Ann. Chr. LXI . or as others , LXIV . Little certainty can be retrieved concerning the manner of his death . * Dorotheus will have him to die at Sebastople , and to be buried there near the Temple of the Sun. An ancient ‖ Martyrologic reports him to have been seised by the Jews , and as a blasphemer to have been first stoned , and then beheaded . But the * Greek Offices , seconded herein by several ancient Breviaries , tell us that he was crucified , and that as Judas was hanged upon a Tree , so Matthias suffered upon a Cross. His Body is said to have been kept a long time at Jerusalem , thence thought by Helen the Mother of the Great Constantine to have been translated to Rome , where some parts of it are shewed with great veneration at this day . Though * others with as great eagerness , and probably as much truth , contend that his Reliques were brought to , and are still preserved at Triers in Germany , a controversie wherein I shall not concern my self . His memory is celebrated in the Greek Church August the IX . as appears not only from their Menologies , but from a Novel ‖ constitution of Manuel Comuenus , appointing what holy days should be kept in the Church , while the Western Churches keep February XXIV . sacred to his memory . Among many other Apocryphal writings attributed to the Apostles , there was a Gospel published under his name , mentioned by * Eusebius and the Ancients , and condemned with the rest by ‖ Gelasius Bishop of Rome , as it had been rejected by others before him : Under his name also there were extant Traditions , cited by a Clemens of Alexandria , from whence no question it was that the Nicolaitans borrowed that saying of his , which they abused to so vile and beastly purposes , as under the pretended patronage of his name and doctrines the Marcionites and b Valentinians defended some of their most absurd and impious opinions . The End of S. Matthias's Life . THE LIFE OF S. MARK the Evangelist . The Evangelist St. Mark. He having been the Coädiutor of St. Paul & St. Peter severally , at Alexandria planted & governd a Church and there by the violence of the Pagan multitude suffered Martyrdom . AD. 64. Baron : & Centur St. Mark 's Martyrdom . Hebr. 11. 35. Others were tortured , not accepting deliverance , that they might obtain a better resurrection . Of whom the world was not worthy . His Kindred , and distinction from others of the same Name . Whether one of the Seventy . His Conversion . His attendance upon Peter , and Preaching the Gospel in Italy , and at Rome . His planting Christianity at Alexandria , and great success there . An account of the Therapeutae ( mentioned by Philo ) and their excellent manners , rules , and way of Life . These proved not to have been Christians by several arguments . The Original of the mistake whence . S. Mark' s Preaching in the Parts of Africk . His return to Alexandria , and diligence in his Ministry . The manner of his Martyrdom . The time of it enquired into . The description of his Person . His Gospel when and where written , and why said to be Peter's . His great impartiality in his Relations . In what Language written . The Original whether extant at this Day . 1. SAINT Mark , though carrying something of Roman in his Name , probably assumed by him upon some great change , or accident of his Life , or which was not unusual among the Jews , when going into the European Provinces of the Roman Empire , taken up at his going for Italy and Rome , was doubtless born of Jewish Parents , originally descended of the Tribe of * Levi , and the Line of the Priesthood , and ( if ‖ Nicephorus say true ) Sister 's Son to Peter , though by others against all reason confounded with John sirnamed Mark the Son of Mary , and Mark Sisters Son to Barnabas . By the Ancients he is generally thought to have been one of the Seventy Disciples , and * Epiphanius expresly tells us , that he was one of those who taking exception at our Lord's discourse of cating his Flesh and drinking his Blood , went back and walked no more with him , but was seasonably reduced and reclaimed by Peter . But no foundation appears either for the one or for the other , nay ‖ Papias Bishop of Hierapolis , who lived near those times , positively affirms that he was no hearer nor follower of our Saviour . He was converted by some of the Apostles , and probably by S. Peter , who is said to have been his undertaker at his Baptism . ( if I understand 〈◊〉 . * aright ) for no other reason I suppose , than because he calls him his Son. Indeed he was his constant attendant in his Travails , supplying the place of an Amanuensis and Interpreter ; for though the Apostles were divinely inspired , and among other miraculous powers had the gift of Languages conferred upon them , yet was the interpretation of Tongues a gift more peculiar to some than others . This might probably be S. Mark' s Talent , in expounding S. Peter's Discourses , whether by word or writing , to those who understood not the Language wherein they were delivered . He accompanied him in his Apostolical progress , Preached the Gospel in ‖ Italy , and at Rome , where at the request of the Christians of those Parts he composed and wrote his Gospel . 2. BY Peter he was sent into Egypt to plant Christianity in those Parts , fixing his main residence at Alexandria , and the places thereabouts : where so great ( says * Eusebius ) was the success of his Ministry , that he converted Multitudes both of Men and Women , not only to the embracing of the Christian Religion , but to a more than ordinarily strict profession of it , insomuch that Philo wrote a Book of their peculiar Rites and way of Life , the only reason why S. ‖ Hierom reckons him among the Writers of the Church . Indeed Philo the Jew wrote a Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , extant at this day , wherein he speaks of a sort of Persons called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , who in many parts of the World , but especially in a pleasant place near the Maraeotick Lake in Egypt had formed themselves into Religious Societies , and gives a large account of their Rites and Customes , their strict , philosophical , and contemplative course of life . He tells * us of them , that when they first enter upon this way , they renounce all secular interests and imployments , and leaving their Estates to their Relations , retire into Groves and Gardens , and Places devoted to solitude and contemplation ; that they had their Houses or Colledges , not contiguous , that so being free from noise and tumult , they might the better minister to the designs of a contemplative life ; nor yet removed at too great a distance , that they might maintain mutual society , and be conveniently capable of helping and assisting one another . In each of these Houses there was an Oratory , call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , wherein they discharged the more secret and solemn Rites of their Religion ; divided in the middle with a Partition wall three or four Cubits high , the one apartment being for the Men , and the other for the Women : here they publickly met every Seventh day , where being set according to their seniority , and having composed themselves with great decency and reverence , the most aged Person among them , and best skilled in the Dogmata and Principles of their Institution came forth into the midst , gravely and soberly discoursing what might make the deepest impression upon their minds ; the rest attending with a profound silence , and only testifying their assent with the motion of their Eyes or Head. Their discourses were usually my stical and allegorical , seeking hidden sences under plain words , and of such an allegorical Philosophy consisted the Books of their Religion , left them by their Ancestors : The Law they compared to an Animal , the Letter of it resembling the Body , while the Soul of it lay in those abstruse and recondite notions , which the external veil and surface of the words concealed from vulgar understandings . He tells us also , that they took very little care of the Body , perfecting their minds by Precepts of Wisdom and Religion ; the day they intirely spent in Pious and Divine Meditations , in reading and expounding the Law and the Prophets , and the Holy Volumes of the ancient Founders of their Sect , and in singing Hymns to the honour of their Maker ; absolutely temperate and abstemious , neither eating nor drinking till Night , the only time they thought fit to refresh and regard the body , some of them out of an insatiable desire of growing in knowledge and vertue , fasting many days together . What Diet they had was very plain and simple , sufficient only to provide against hunger and thirst , a little Bread , Salt and Water being their constant bill of fare : their clothes were as mean as their food , designed only as a present security against cold and nakedness . And this not only the case of men , but of pious and devout Women that lived ( though separately ) among them ; that they religiously observed every Seventh Day , and especially the preparatory Week to the great solemnity , which they kept with all expressions of a more severe abstinence and devotion . This and much more he has in that Tract concerning them . 3. THESE excellent Persons 〈◊〉 peremptorily affirms to have been Christians , converted and brought under these admirable Rules and Institutions of Life by S. Mark at his coming hither , accommodating all passages to the Manners and Discipline of Christians : followed herein by * Epiphanius , ‖ Hierom , and others of old , as by a Baronius , and some others of later time : and this so far taken for granted , that b many have hence fetched the rise of Monasteries and Religious Orders among Christians . But whoever seriously and impartially considers Philo's account , will plainly find that he intends it of Jews and Professors of the Mosaick Religion , though whether Essenes , or of some other particular Sect among them , I stand not to determine . That they were not Christians , is evident , besides that Philo gives not the least intimation of it , partly because it is improbable that Philo being a Jew should give so great a character and commendation of Christians , so hateful to the Jews at that time in all places of the World ; partly , in that Philo speaks of them as an Institution of some considerable standing , whereas Christians had but lately appeared in the World , and were later come into Egypt ; partly , because many parts of Philo's account does no way suit with the state and manners of Christians at that time ; as that they withdrew themselves from publick converse , and all affairs of civil life , which Christians never did , but when forced by violent Persecutions , for ordinarily , as Justin Martyr and Tertullian tell us , they promiscuously dwelt in Towns and Cities , plowed their Lands , and followed their Trades , ate and drank , and were clothed and habited like other men . So when he says that besides the Books of Moses and the Prophets , they had the Writings of the Ancient Authours of their Sect and Institution ; this cannot be meant of Christians : for though Eusebius would understand it of the Writings of the Evangelists and Apostles , yet , besides that there were few of them published when Philo wrote this discourse , they were however of too late an edition to come under the character of ancient Authours . Not to say that some of their Rites and Customes were such , as the Christians of those days were meer strangers to , not taken up by the Christian Church till many Years , and some of them not till some Ages after . Nay some of them never used by any of the Primitive Christians ; such were , their religious dances , which they had at their Festival Solemnities , especially that great one which they held at the end of every Seven Weeks ; when their entertainment being ended , they all rose up , the Men in one Company , and the Women in another , dancing with various measures and motions , each Company singing Divine Hymns and Songs , and having a Precentor going before them , now one singing , and anon another , till in the conclusion they joyned in one common chorus , in imitation of the triumphant Song sung by Moses and the Israelites after their deliverance at the Red-Sea . To all which let me add , what a Learned * Man has observed , that the Essenes ( if Philo means them ) were great Physicians ( thence probably called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Healers , though ‖ Philo , who is apt to turn all things into Allegory , refers it only to their curing , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Souls of Men infected and over-run with difficult and desperate distempers , created by pleasures and extravagant appetites , and a long train of other lusts and passions ) * Josephus reporting of them , that they accurately study the Writings of the Ancients , excerping thence whatever is conducive either to Soul or Body ; and that for the curing of Diseases , they diligently enquired into the Vertues of Roots and Stones , that were most proper to drive away Distempers . An Account no ways agreeing with the Christians of those times , who miraculously cured Diseases without the Arts of Physick , or any other Preparations , than calling the Name of Christ over the afflicted Person . Doubtless that which led Euscbius into the mistake , was the conformity that he observed between the Christian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in and before his time , who entred upon a more strict and severe course of life , and these Therapeutae described by Philo , an ordinary fancy being able to draw a fair parallel between them , and so it was but removing them some Ages higher , and imagining them to have been converted and founded by S. Mark , and the work was done . Indeed it is not to be doubted , but that Persons educated under these excellent rules and methods of life , were more than ordinarily prepared for the reception of Christianity ( between which and their Principles and Rules of Life , there was so great an affinity and agreement ) which must needs render our Evangelists success great in those Parts , and open the way for men to come flocking over to the Faith. 4. S. MARK did not confine his Preaching to Alexandria , and the Oriental Parts of Egypt , but removed * Westmard to the Parts of Libya , going thorough the Countries of Marmarica , Pentapolis , and others thereabouts , where though the People were both barbarous in their manners , and idolatrous in their worship , yet by his Preaching and Miracles he made way for the entertainment of the Gospel , and left them not , till he had not only gained them to , but confirmed them in , the profession of it . Returning to Alexandria he preached freely , and ordered and disposed the affairs of the Church , and wisely provided for succession by constituting Governors and Pastors of it . But the restless enemy of the souls of Men would not long suffer him to be quiet : it was the time of Easter , at what time the great Solemnities of Scrapis hapned to be celebrated , when the minds of the People being excited to a passionate vindication of the honour of their Idol , broke in upon S. Mark , then engaged in the solemn celebration of Divine worship , and binding his Feet with Cords , dragged him through the streets and the most craggy places to the Bucelus , a Precipice near the Sea , and for that Night thrust him into Prison , where his Soul was by a Divine Vision erected and encouraged under the ruines of his shattered Body . Early the next Morning the Tragedy began again , dragging him about in the same manner , till his Flesh being raked off , and his Blood run out , his spirits failed , and he expired . But their malice died not with him , Metaphrastes adds that they burnt his Body , whose Bones and Ashes the Christians there decently intombed near the place where he was wont to Preach . His Body , at least the remains of it were afterwards with great pomp removed from Alexandria to Venice , where they are religiously honoured , and he adopted as the Tutelar Saint and Patron of that State , and one of the richest and stateliest Churches erected to his Memory , that the World can boast of at this Day . He suffered in the Month Pharmuthi , on the XXV . of April , though the certain Year of his Martyrdom is not precisely determined by the Ancients . * Kirstenius out of the Arabick Memoires of his Life says , it was in the Fourteenth or the last Year of Claudius ; S. ‖ Hierom places it in the Eighth of Nero. But extravagantly wide is * Dorotheus his computation , who makes him to suffer in the time of Trajan , with as much truth as ‖ Nicephorus on the other hand affirms him to have come into Egypt in the Reign of Tiberius . If in so great variety of Opinions I may interpose my conjecture , I should reckon him to have suffered about the end of Nero's Reign : For supposing him to have come with S. Peter to Rome about the Fifth or Sixth Year of Nero , he might thence be dispatched to Alexandria , and spend the residue of his Life and of that Emperor's Reign in planting Christianity in those parts of the World. Sure I am that * Irenaeus reports S. Mark to have out-lived Peter and Paul , and that after their decease he composed his Gospel out of those things which he had heard Peter preach . But whatever becomes of that , it is evident that Irenaeus supposed ( whose supposition certainly was not founded upon meer fancy and conjecture ) that S. Mark for some considerable time survived the Martyrdom of those two great Apostles . A passage that so troubled Christophorson ( one of those who in these later Ages first translated Eusebius into Latin ) because crossing the accounts of their Writers in this matter , that he chose rather to expunge the word , decease , and substitute another of a quite different sence , expresly contrary to the faith of all ancient Copies , and to the most ancient Version of Irenaeus it self . But to return . S. Mark as to his ‖ Person was of a middle size and stature , his Nose long , his Eye brows turning back , his Eyes graceful and amiable , his Head bald , his Beard prolix and gray , his Gate quick , the constitution of his Body strong and healthful . 5. HIS Gospel , the only Book he left behind him , was , as before we observed , written at the intreaty of the Converts at * Rome , who not content to have heard Peter preach , pressed S. Mark his Disciple , that he would commit to Writing an Historical account of what he had delivered to them : which he performed with no less faithfulness than brevity , all which S. Peter perused , ratified with his Authority , and commanded to be publickly read in their Religious Assemblies . And though , as we noted but now , Irenaeus seems to intimate that it was written after Peter's death : yet all that can be inferred hence will be , what in it self is a matter of no great moment and importance , that the Ancients were not agreed in assigning the exact time when the several Gospels were published to the World. It was frequently stiled S. Peter's Gospel , not so much because dictated by him to S. Mark , as because he principally composed it out of that account which S. Peter usually delivered in his Discourses to the People . Which probably is the reason of what * Chrysostome observes , that in his stile and manner of expression he delights to imitate S. Peter , representing much in a few words . Though he commonly reduces the story of our Saviour's Acts into a narrower compass than S. Matthew , yet want there not passages , which he relates more largely than he . The last Chapter of his Gospel , at least part of it , was ( as ‖ Hierom informs us ) wanting in all ancient Greek Copies , rejected upon pretence of some disagreement with the other Gospels , though , as he there shews , they are fairly consistent with each other . His great impartiality in his Relations appears from hence , that he is so far from concealing the shameful lapse and denial of Peter , his dear Tutor and Master , that he sets it down with some particular circumstances and aggravations , which the other Evangelists take no notice of . Some dispute has been made in what Language it was written , whether in Greek or Latin ; That which seems to give most countenance to the Latin Original , is the note that we find at the end of the Syriac Version of this Gospel , where it is said that Mark preached and declared his Holy Gospel at Rome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; in the Roman , or the Latin Tongue . An evidence that with me would almost carry the force of a demonstration , were I assured that this note is of equal value and authority with that Ancient Version , generally supposed to come very few Centuries short of the Apostolick Age. But we know how usual it is for such additions to be made by some later hand . And what credit is to be given to the subscriptions at the end of S. Paul's Epistles , we have shewed elsewhere . Besides , that it is not here said that he wrote , but that he Preached his Gospel at Rome in that Language . The Advocates of the Romish Church plead , that it 's very congruous and suitable , that it should at first be consigned to Writing in that Language , being principally designed for the use of the Christians at Rome . An objection that will easily vanish , when we consider , that as the Convert Jewes there understood very little Latin , so there were very few Romans that understood not Greek , it being ( as appears from the Writers of that Age ) the gentile and fashionable Language of those Times . Nor can any good reason be assigned , why it should be more inconvenient for S. Mark to write his Gospel in Greek for the use of the Romans , than that S. Paul should in the same Language write his Epistle to that Church . The Original Greek Copy , written with S. Mark' s own hand , is said to be extant at Venice at this Day . Written ( they tell us ) by him at Aquileia , and thence after many Hundreds of Years translated to Venice , where it is still preserved , though the Letters so worn out with length of time , that they are not capable of being read . A story which as I cannot absolutely disprove , so am I not very forward to believe , and that for more reasons , than I think worth while to insist on in this place . The End of S. Mark' s Life . THE LIFE OF S. LUKE the Evangelist . S. LUKE 2. COR. 8. 8. 19. The Brother , whose praise is in y e Gospel throughout all y e Churches : And not that onely , but who was also chosen of y e Churches to travell with us . St. Luke his Martyrdom . Col. 4. 14. Luke the beloved Physician . The brother whose Praise is in the Gospel . 2 Cor. 4. 11. We are delivered unto death for Jesus sake . Bearing in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus . Antioch S. Luke's birth-place . The fame and dignity of it . His learned and liberal education . His 〈◊〉 of Physick . His skill in Painting . S. Luke none of the Seventy , Converted , where , and by whom . His constant attendance upon S. Paul. In what parts he principally exercised his Ministry . The place , and manner of his Death . The translation of his Body to Constantinople . His Writings . Theophilus , who . His Gospel , where written , and upon what occasion . How fitted for it . The Acts of the Apostles written at Rome , and when . Why principally containing the Acts of S. Paul. This Book why publickly read just after Easter in the Primitive Church . S. Luke's polite and exact 〈◊〉 and way of writing above the rest . 1. SAINT Luke was born at Antioch , the Metropolis of Syria , a City celebrated for its extraordinary blessings and eminences , the pleasantness of its situation , the fertility of its soil , the riches of its Traffick , the wisdom of its Senate , the learning of its Professors , the civility and politeness of its Inhabitants , by the Pens of some of the greatest * Orators of their times : And yet above all these renowned for this one peculiar honour , that here it was that the Disciples were first called Christians . It was an University , replenished with Schools of learning , wherein were Professors of all Arts and Sciences . So that being born in the very lap of the Muses , he could not well miss of an ingenuous and liberal education , his natural parts meeting with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 great improvements . Nay , we are * told , that he studied not only at 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 in all the Schools both of Greece and Egypt , whereby he became accomplished in all parts of Learning and humane Sciences . Being thus furnished out with skill in all the preparatory Institutions of Philosophy , he more particularly applied himself to the study of Physick , for which the 〈◊〉 Academies weremost famous ; though they that hence infer the 〈◊〉 of his Birth and Fortunes , forget to 〈◊〉 , that this noble Art was in those times generally managed by persons of no better rank than servants : Upon which account a Learned ‖ man conceives S. Luke , though a Syrian by birth , to have been a servant at Rome , where he sometimes practised Physick , and whence being manumitted , he returned into his own Country , and probably continued his profession all his life , it being so fairly consistent with , and in many cases so subservient to the Ministry of the Gospel , and the care of Souls . Besides his abilities in Physick , he is said to have been very skilful in * Painting , and there are no less than three or four several pieces still in being , pretended to have been drawn with his own hand ; a tradition which ‖ Gretser the Jesuit sets himself with a great deal of pains , and to very little purpose to defend , though his Authors , either in respect of credit or antiquity , deserve very little esteem and value . Of more authority with me would be an ancient Inscription found in a Vault near the Church of S. Mary in Via lata at Rome , supposed to have been the place where S. Paul dwelt , wherein mention is made of a Picture of the B. Virgin , U NA EX VII . A B. LUCA DEPICTIS , being one of the seven painted by S. Luke . 2. HE was a Jewish Proselyte , 〈◊〉 abounding with men of that Nation , who had here their Synagogues and Schools of Education , so that we need not with * Theophylact send him to Jerusalem to be instructed in the study of the Law. As for that opinion of ‖ 〈◊〉 and others , that he was one of the Seventy Disciples , one of those that deserted our Lord for the unwelcome discourse he made to them , but recalled afterwards by S. Paul , I behold it as a story of the same coin and stamp with that of S. Mark' s leaving Christ upon the same occasion , and being reduced by Peter , and that the one was made to answer the other ; as upon no better ground it is * said that he was one of those two Disciples that were going to Emaus . For besides the silence of Scripture in the case , he himself plainly confesses , that he was not from the beginning an Eye-witness and minister of the Word . Most probable it is , that he was converted by S. Paul during his abode at Antioch , when as the Apostles of catchers of Fish were become fishers of men , so he of a Physician of the Body became a Physician of the Soul. This , Nicephorus will have to have been done at Thebes , the chief City of 〈◊〉 , about forty miles from Athens , though it appears not to me by any credible Author that ever S. Paul was there . He became ever after his inseparable companion and fellow-labourer in the ministry of the Gospel , especially after his going into Macedonia , from which time in recording the History of S. Paul's travels , he always speaks of himself in his own person . He followed him in all his dangers , was with him at his several arraignments at Jerusalem , accompanied him in his desperate voyage to Rome , where he still attended on him to serve his necessities , and supply those ministerial Offices , which the Apostle's 〈◊〉 would not 〈◊〉 him to undergo , and especially in carrying messages to those Churches where he had planted Christianity . This infinitely endeared him to S. Paul , who own'd him for his fellow-labourer , called him the beloved Physician , and the Brother whose praise is in the Gospel , throughout all the Churches , which the Ancients , and especially * Ignatius , apply to our Evangelist . 3. PROBABLE it is that he did not wholly leave S. Paul till he had finished his course , and crowned all with Martyrdom , though there are that tell ‖ us , that he left S. Paul at Rome , and returned back into the East , travelled into Egypt and the parts of Libya , preached the Gospel , wrought Miracles , converted multitudes , constituted Guides and Ministers of Religion , yea , that he himself took upon him the Episcopal charge of the City of Thebais . Epiphanius gives us this account , that he first preached in Dalmatia , and Galatia ( he reads it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in Gaul , or France , and peremptorily affirms , that they are all mistaken that say that it was Galatia where Crescens preached , though some think that himself in the mean while is under the most confident mistake ) then in Italy and Macedonia , where he spared no pains , declined no dangers that he might faithfully discharge the trust committed to him . The Ancients are not very well agreed , either about the time or manner of his death , some affirming him to die in Egypt , others in Greece , the * Roman Martyrologie in Bithynia , ‖ 〈◊〉 at Ephesus ; some make him die a natural , others a violent death . Indeed neither Eusebius nor S. Hierom take any notice of it : But * Nazianzen , ‖ Paulinus Bishop of Nola , and several other expresly assert his Martyrdom , whereof * Nicephorus gives this particular account , that coming into Greece he successfully preached , and baptized many Converts into the Christian Faith , till a party of Infidels making head against him , drew him to execution , and in want of a Cross whereon to dispatch him presently , hanged him upon an Olive-Tree , in the eightieth ( the eighty fourth says ‖ S. Hierom ) year of his age . * Kirstenius from an ancient Arabick writer , makes him to have suffered Martyrdom at Rome , which he thinks might probably be after S. Paul's first imprisonment there , and departure thence , when S. Luke being left behind as his deputy to supply his place , was shortly after put to death , the reason ( says he ) why he no longer continued his History of the Apostles Acts , which surely he would have done , had he lived any considerable time after S. Paul's departure . His Body afterwards , by the command of Constantine , or his Son Constantius , was solemnly removed to Constantinople , and buried in the great Church built to the memory of the Apostles . 4. TWO Books he wrote for the use of the Church , his Gospel , and the History of the Apostles Acts , both dedicated to Theophilus , which many of the * Ancients suppose to be but a feigned name , denoting no more than a lover of God , a title common to every Christian. While others with better reason conclude it the proper name of a particular person , especially since the stile of most excellent is attributed to him , the usual title and form of address in those times to Princes and great men . ‖ Theophylact stiles him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a man of Consular dignity , and probably a Prince ; the * Author of the Recognitions makes him a Nobleman of Antioch , converted by Peter , and who upon his conversion gave his house to the Church for the place of their publick and solemn meetings . We may probably suppose him to have been some Magistrate , whom S. Luke had converted and baptised , to whom he now dedicated these Books , not only as a testimony of honourable respect , but as a means of giving him further certainty and assurance of those things , wherein he had been instructed by him . For his Gospel , ‖ S. Hierom supposes it to have been written in Achaia during his travels with S. Paul in those parts , whose help he is generally said to have made use of in the composing of it , and that this the Apostle primarily intends when he so often speaks of his Gospel . But whatever assistance S. Paul might contribute towards it , we are sure the Evangelist himself tells us , that he derived his intelligence in these matters from those , who from the beginning had been eye-witnesses and Ministers of the Word . Nor does it in the least detract from the authority of his relations , that he himself was not present at the doing of them ; for if we consider who they were from whom he derived his accounts of things , Habuit utique authenticam paraturam , as * Tertullian speaks , he had a stock both of credit and intelligence sufficiently authentick to proceed upon , delivering nothing in his whole History but what he had immediately received from persons present at , and concerned in the things which he has lest upon record . The occasion of his writing it , is thought to have been partly to prevent those false and fabulous relations which even then began to be obtruded upon the World , partly , to supply what seemed wanting in those two Evangelists that wrote before him ; and the additions or larger explications of things are particularly enumerated by ‖ Irenaeus . He mainly insists upon what relates to Christ's Priestly Office , and though recording other parts of the Evangelical story , yet it ever is with a peculiar respect to his Priesthood . Upon which account the Ancients in accommodating the four Symbolical representments in the Prophets Vision to the four Evangelists , assigned the Oxe or 〈◊〉 to S. Luke . 5. His History of the Apostolick Acts was written no doubt at Rome , at the end of S. Paul's two years imprisonment there , with which he concludes his story ; it contains the Actions , and sometimes the sufferings of some principal Apostles , especially S. Paul ; for , besides that his activity in the cause of Christ made him bear a greater part both in doing and suffering , S. Luke was his constant attendant , an eye-witness of the whole carriage of his life , and privy to his most intimate transactions , and therefore capable of giving a more full and satisfactory account and relation of them ; seeing no evidence or testimony in matters of fact can be more rational and convictive , than his who reports nothing but what he has heard and seen . Among other things he gives us a particular account of those great miracles which the Apostles did for the confirmation of their doctrine . And this ( as * Chrysostom informs us ) was the reason why in the Primitive times the Book of the Acts , though containing those Actions of the Apostles that were done 〈◊〉 Pentecost were yet usually read in the Church before it , in the space between that and Easter , when as at all other times those parts of the Gospel were read which were proper to the season , it was ( says he ) because the Apostles miracles being the grand confirmation of the truth of Christ's Resurrection , and those Miracles recorded in that Book , it was therefore thought most proper to be read next to the feast of the Resurrection . In both these Books his way and manner of writing is exact and accurate , his stile polite and elegant , sublime and lofty , and yet clear and perspicuous , flowing with an easie and natural grace and sweetness , admirably accommodate to an historical design , all along expressing himself in a vein of purer Greek , than is to be found in the other writers of the holy Story . Indeed being born and bred at Antioch ( than which no place more famous for Oratory and Eloquence ) he could not but carry away a great share of the native genius of that place , though his stile is sometimes allayed with a tang of the Syriack and Hebrew dialect . It was observed of old ( as * S. Hierom tells us ) that his skill was greater in Greek than Hebrew , that therefore he always makes use of the Septuagint Translation , and refuses sometimes to render words , when the propriety of the Greek tongue will not bear it . In short , as an Historian , he was faithful in his relations , elegant in his writings ; as a Minister , careful and diligent for the good of Souls ; as a Christian , devout and pious : and who crowned all the rest with the laying down his life for the testimony of that Gospel , which he had both Preached and Published to the World. The End of S. Luke's Life . DIPTYCHA APOSTOLICA : OR , A Brief Enumeration and Account of the APOSTLES and their SUCCESSORS , FOR THE First Three Hundred Years in the Five great Churches , said to have been Founded by them , thence called by the Ancients , APOSTOLICAL CHURCHES , VIZ. Antioch , Rome , Jerusalem , Byzantium or Constantinople , and Alexandria . ANTIOCH . THIS I place first , partly because 't is generally acknowledged even by the Romish Writers , that a Church was founded here by S. Peter some considerable time before that at Rome ; partly because here it was that the Venerable name of Christians did first commence . In which respect the ‖ Fathers in the Council at Constantinople under Nectarius in their Synodicon to them at Rome stile the Church of Antioch , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The most Ancient , and truly Apostolical ; and * S. Chrysostom , The head of the whole World. The Succession of its Bishops till the time of Constantine ( which shall be the Boundary of this Catalogue ) was as followeth . I. S. Peter the Apostole ; who governed this Church at least 7. years . Nicephorus of Constantinople says Eleven . II. Euodius , who sat 23. years . In his time the Disciples were first called Christians at Antioch . III. Ignatius . After near 40. years Presidency over this Church he was carried out of Syria to Rome , and there thrown to wild Beasts in the Theatre , Ann. Chr. 110. Trajan 11. IV. Heron , he was Bishop 20. years : To him succeeded V. Cornelius , who kept the place 13. years , dying Ann. Chr. 142. VI. Eros , 26 , or as Eusebius , 24. years . VII . Theophilus , 13. a man of great Parts and Learning , many of his Works were extant in Eusebius his time , and some of them we still have at this day . VIII . Maximinus , 13. he dying , the next that was chosen was IX . Serapio , 25. many of his Works are mentioned by Eusebius and S. Hierom. To him succeeded X. Asclepiades , a man of great worth and eminency , and invincible constancy in the time of persecution ; he continued in this See 9. years . XI . Philetus , 8. XII . Zebinus , or Zebennus , he sat 6. years . XIII . Babylas , 13. after many conflicts and sufferings for the Faith , he received the crown of Martyrdom under Decius ; and commanded his Chains to be buried with him . XIV . Fabius , or as the Patriarch Nicephorus calls him , Flavius , possessed tho Chair 9. years . He was a little inclining towards Novatianism . XV. Demetrianus , he sat Bishop , says Nicephorus 4 , says Eusebius , 8. years . XVI . Paulus Samosatenus sat in the chair 8. years , when for his Unepiscopal manners and practices , his unsound Dogmata and principles , and especially his mean and unworthy opinions concerning our Saviour , he was condemned and deposed by a Synod at Antioch , whose Synodical determination is at large extant in 〈◊〉 . XVII . Domnus succeeded in the place of the deposed . He was son to Demetrian , Paulus his predecessor in that See ; constituted and ordained to the place by the Fathers of that Synod , who farther give him this honourable character , that he was a man indued with all Episcopal vertues and ornaments . Eusebius makes him to have sitten 6 , Nicephorus but 2. years . XVIII . Timaeus , he sat in the chair 10. years . XIX . Cyrillus , who presided over that Church in the account of Nicephorus 15 , of Eusebius 24. years . XX. Tyrannus , he sat 13. years ; in his time began the tenth Persecution under Dioclesian , which rag'd with great severity . XXI . Vitalis , 6. XXII . Philogonius , 5. succeeded by XXIII . Paulinus , or as Nicephorus calls him , Paulus , who after five years was deposed and driven out by the prevalency of the Arrian faction . XXIV . Eustathius , formerly Bishop of Beroea , a learned man , and of great note and eminency in the Council of Nice , the first general Council , summoned by the Great Constantine , after he had restored peace and prosperity to the Church . ROME . THE foundation of this Church is with just probabilities of reason by many of the Fathers equally attributed to Peter and Paul , the one as Apostle of the Circumcision preaching to the Jews , while the other probably as the Apostle of the Uncircumcision preached to the Gentiles . Its Bishops succeeded in this order . I. S. Peter and S. Paul , who both suffered Martyrdom under Nero. II. Linus , the son of Herculaneus , a Tuscan ; he is mentioned by S. Paul , he sat between 11. and 12. years . III. Cletus , or Anacletus , or Anencletus , supposed by many to be the same person , ( though others who reckon 〈◊〉 a Greek , born at Athens , make them distinct , whom yet we have left out , not being mentioned by 〈◊〉 ) a Roman , the son of AEmilianus , sat 9 , though others say but 2. years . IV. Clemens , a Roman , born in Mount Caelius , the son of Faustinus , near a kin , say some , to the Emperor : He was condemned to dig in the Marble-Quarries near the Euxin Sea , and by the command of Trajan with an Anchor about his neck thrown into the Sea. He was Bishop of Rome 9. years , and 4. months . V. Euarestus , by birth a Greek , but his Father a Jew of Bethlehem . He is said to have been crowned with Martyrdom the last year of Trajan , in the ninth of his Bishoprick , or as others , the thirteenth . VI. Alexander , a Roman , though young in years , was grave in his manners and conversation . He sat 10. years and 7. months , and died a Martyr . VII . Xystus , or Sixtus , a Roman , he was Martyred in the tenth year of his Bishoprick , and buried in the Vatican . VIII . Telesphorus , a Greek , succeeded ; Just in the Martyr flourished in his time . He died a Martyr , having sat 11. years , and 3. months ; 10. years , 8. months say others : and lies buried near S. Peter in the Vatican . IX . Hyginus , the son of an Athenian Philosopher was advanced to the Chair under Antoninus Pius : He sat 4. years ; Eusebius says 8. X. Pius , an Italian , born at Aquilcia , he died having been Bishop 11. years , and 4. months ; according to Eusebius , 15. years . XI . Anicetus , born in Syria : He is said after 9 , or as others , 11. years to have suffered Martydom , and was buried in the Via Appia in the Cemetery of Callistus . In his time Polycarp came to Rome . XII . 〈◊〉 , or as Nicephorus calls him , Soterichus , was a Campanian , the son of Concordius . There was an intercourse of Letters between him and Dionysius Bishop of Corinth . He died after he had sat 9. years , or as Eusebius reckons , 7. XIII . Eleutherius , born at Nicopolis in Greece . To him Lucius King of Britain sent a Letter and an Embassy . He sat 15. years , died Ann. Chr. 186. and lies buried in the Vatican . XIV . Victor , an African , the son of Felix , a man of a furious and intemperate spirit , as appeared in his passionate proceedings in the controversie about the observation of Easter . He was Bishop 10. years . Onuphrius assigns him 12. years , and one month . XV. Zephyrinus , a Roman , succeeded , and possessed the chair 8 , but as others , 18. years ; 20. says Onuphrius . A pious and learned man , but a little warping towards the Errors of Montanus . XVI . Callistus , or Calixtus , the son of Dòmitius , a Roman ; a prudent and modest man. He suffered much in the persecution under Alexander Severus , under whom he became a Martyr , being thrown into a Well by the procurement of Ulpian the great Lawyer , but severe enemy of Christians . He sat 6. years , or 5. as others , and one month ; and though he made a Cemetery , called after his own name , yet was he buried in that of Calepodius in the Appian way . XVII . Urbanus , the son of Pontianus , a Roman , after 4 , or as some , 6. years , he suffered martyrdom for the Faith : Eusebius has 5 , S. Hierom in his translation 9. He was buried in Pretextatus his Cemetery in the Appian way . XVIII . Pontianus , the son of Calphurnius , a Roman ; for his bold reproving the Roman Idolatry he was banished into the Island Sardinia , where he died ; he was Bishop about 3. or 4 , or as Eusebius , 5. years . XIX . Anteros , a Greek , the son of Romulus . He died by that he had kept his place one month , though others without reason make him to have lived in it many years , and was buried in the Cemetery of Callistus . XX. Fabianus , a Roman , he was unexpectedly chosen Bishop , while several others being in competition , a Pigeon suddenly descended , and sat upon his head , the great emblem of the Holy Spirit . He died a martyr after 14. years ; buried in the same place with his predecessor . XXI . Cornelius , a Roman , he opposed and condemned Novatian : frequent Letters passed between him and Cyprian . After somewhat more than two years he was first cruelly whipp'd , and then beheaded : buried in a Vault within the Grange of Lucina , near the Appian way . XXII . Lucius , a Roman , sat 2 , or as others , 3. years . He suffered martyrdom by the command of Valerian , and was buried in Callistus his Cemetery . XXIII . Stephanus , a Roman , the son of Julius : Great contests were between him and Cyprian about rebaptizing those who had been baptized by Hereticks . He was beheaded after he had sat about 2. or 3. years , though others say 7 ; and buried with his predecessor . XXIV . Xystus , a Greek , formerly a Philosopher of Athens . After 1 , or as other compute , 2. years , and 10. months he suffered martyrdom , Eusebius reckons it 8. years . XXV . Dionysius , of a Monk 〈◊〉 Bishop , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in the judgment of Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria , a truly learned and admirable person . The time of his Presidency is uncertainly assign'd , 6 , 9 , 10 , 11. Eusebius extends it to 12. years . XXVI . Felix , a Roman : In his time arose the Manichaean Heresie . He suffered about the fourth or fifth year of his Episcopacy , and lies buried in the Aurelian way , in a Cemetery of his own , two miles from Rome . XXVII . Eutychianus , a Tuscan , a man exceedingly careful of the burial of martyrs , after one years space was himself crowned with martyrdom : Eusebius allows him but 8. months , Onuphrius 8. years and 6. months . XXVIII . Caius , or as Eusebius calls him , Gaianus , a Dalmatian , kinsman to the Emperor Dioclesian , and in the persecution under him became a martyr . He sat 11. years , some say longer . 〈◊〉 , 15. years : He was beheaded and buried in Callistus his Cemetery . XXIX . Marcellinus , a Roman : Through fear of torment he did sacrifice to the gods ; but recovering himself , died a martyr , after he had sat 8 , or 9. years . He was beheaded , and buried in the Cemetery of Priscilla in the Salarian way . To him succeeded XXX . Marcellus , a Roman ; he was condemned by Maxentius the Tyrant to keep Beasts in a stable , which yet he performed with his prayers and exercises of devotion . He died after 5. years , and 6. months , and was buried in the Cemetery of Priscilla . XXXI . Eusebius , a Greek , the son of a Physician . He suffered much under the Tyranny of Maxentius . He sat 6. years say some , 4. say others , though Eusebius allows him but 7. months , Onuphrius 1. year , and 7. months ; he was buried in the Appian way near Callistus his Cemetery . XXXII . Miltiades , an African . He might be a Confessor under Maxentius , but could not be a martyr under Maximinus , as some report him . He sat 3. or 4 , though others assign him but 2. years : and was buried in the Cemetery of Callistus . XXXIII . Silvester , a Roman . He was elected into the place Ann. Chr. CCCXIV . fetch'd from the mountain Soracte , whither he had fled for fear of persecution . He was highly in favour with Constantine the Great . He sat 23 , Nicephorus says 28. years . JERUSALEM . THE Church of Jerusalem may in some sence be said to have been founded by our Lord himself , as it was for some time cultivated and improved by the Ministery of the whole Colledge of Apostles . The Bishops of it were as followeth . I. S. James the Less , the Brother of our Lord , by him , say some , immediately constituted Bishop , but as others more probably by the Apostles : He was thrown off the Temple , and knock'd on the head with a Fullers club . II. Symeon , the son of Cleopas , brother to Joseph , our Lord 's reputed Father . He sat in this chair 23. years , and suffered martyrdom in the reign of Trajan , in the one hundred and twentieth year of his Age. III. Justus succeeded in his room , and sat 6. years . IV. Zachaeus , or as Nicephorus the Patriarch calls him , Zacharias , 4. V. Tobias ; to him after 4. years succeeded VI. Benjamin : who sat 2. years . VII . John : who continued the same space . VIII . Matthias , or Matthaeus , 2. years . IX . Philippus , one year : next came X. Seneca , who sat 4. years . XI . Justus , 4. XII . Levi , or Lebes , 2. XIII . Ephrem , or Ephres , or as Epiphanius stiles him , Vaphres , 2. XIV . Joseph , 2. XV. Judas , 2. Most of these Bishops we may observe to have sat but a short time , following one another with a very quick succession . Which doubtless was in a great measure owing to the turbulent and unquiet humour of the Jewish Nation , frequently rebelling against the Roman powers , whereby they provoked them to fall heavy upon them , and cut off all that came in their way , making no distinction between Jews and Christians : as indeed they were all Jews , though differing in the Rites of their Religion . For hitherto the Bishops of Jerusalem had successively been of the Circumcision , the Church there having been intirely made up of Jewish converts . But Jerusalem being now utterly laid waste , and the Jews dispersed into all other Countries , the Gentiles were admitted not only into the body of that Church , but even into the Episcopal chair . The first whereof was XVI . Marcus , who sat 8. years . XVII . Cassianus , 8. XVIII . Publius , 5. XIX . Maximus , 4. XX. Julianus , 2. XXI . Caianus , 3. XXII . Symmachus , 2. XXIII . Caius , 3. XXIV . Julianus , 4. XXV . Elias , 2. I find not this Bishop mentioned by Eusebius ; but he is recorded by Nicephorus of Constantinople . XXVI . Capito , 4. XXVII . Maximus , 4. XXVIII . Antoninus , 5. XXIX . Valens , 3. XXX . Dulichianus , 2. XXXI . Narcissus , 4. He was a man of eminent piety , famous for the great miracles which he wrought : but not being able to bear the aspersions which some unjustly cast upon him ( though God signally and miraculously vindicated his innocency ) he left his Church , and retired into desarts and solitudes . In his absence was chosen XXXII . Dius , who sat 8. years . After him XXXIII . Germanio , 4. XXXIV . Gordius , 5. In his time Narcissus , as one from the dead , returned from his solitudes , and was importuned by the people again to take the government of the Church upon him ; being highly revercuced by them , both for his strict and Philosophical course of life , and the signal vengeance which God took of his accusers . And in this second administration he continued 10. years , suffering martyrdom when he was near 120. years old . To relieve the infirmities of his great Age , they took in to be his Colleague XXXV . Alexander , formerly Bishop in Cappadocia , who at that time had out of devotion taken a pilgrimage to Jerusalem ; the choice being extraordinarily designed by a particular revelation from Heaven . He was an eminent Confessor , and after having sat 15. years , died in prison under the Decian persecution . By him Origen was ordained Presbyter . He was a great Patron of Learning as well as Religion , a studious preserver of the Records of the Church . He erected a Library at Jerusalem , which he especially furnished with the Writings and Epistles of Ecclesiastical persons . And out of this treasury it was that Eusebius borrowed a great part of his materials for the composing of his History . XXXVI . Mazabanes , 9. years . XXXVII . Hymenaeus , 23. XXXVIII . Zabdas , 10. XXXIX . Hermon , 9. he was , as Eusebius tells us , the last Bishop of this See before that fatal persecution that rag'd even in his time . XL. Macarius , ordain'd Ann. Christ. CCCXV. He was present in the great Nicene Council . He sat , says Nicephorus of Constantinople , 20. years , but S. Hierom allows him a much longer time . BYZANTIUM , afterwards called CONSTANTINOPLE . THAT this Church was first founded by S. Andrew , we have shewed in his Life . The succession of its Bishops was as followeth . I. S. Andrew the Apostle . He was crucified at Patrae in 〈◊〉 . II. Stachys , whom S. Paul calls , his beloved Stachys , ordained Bishop by S. Andrew ; he sat 16. 〈◊〉 . III. Onesimus , 14. IV. Polycarpus , 17. V. Plutarchus , 16. VI. Sedecio , 9. VII . Diogenes , 15. Of the last three no mention is made in Nicephorus of Constantinople , but they are delivered by Nicephorus Callistus , lib. 8. c. 6. p. 540. VIII . Eleutherius , 7. IX . Felix , 5. X. Polycarpus , 17. XI . Athenodorus , 4. he erected a Church called Elea , afterwards much beautified and enlarged by Constantine the Great . XII . Euzoius , 16. though Nicephorus Callistus allow but 6. XIII . Laurentius , 11. years and 6. months . XIV . Alypius , 13. XV. Pertinax , a man of Consular dignity , he built another Church near the Sea-side , which he called , Peace . He sat 19. years , which Nicephorus Callistus reduces to 9. XVI . Olympianus , 11. XVII . Marcus , 13. XVIII . Cyriacus , or Cyrillianus , 16. XIX . Constantinus , 7. In the first year of his Bishoprick he built a Church in the North part of the City , which he dedicated to the honour of Euphemia the Martyr , who had suffered in that place . In this Oratory he spent the remainder of his life , quitting his Episcopal Chair to XX. Titus , who sat 35. years and 6. months , though Nicephorus Callistus makes it 37. years . After him came XXI . Dometius , brother ( as they tell us ) to the Emperor Probus , he was Bishop 21. years 6. months . XXII . Probus succeeded his Father Dometius , and sat 12. years . As after him XXIII . Metrophanes his brother , who governed that Church 10. years . And in his time it was that Constantine translated the Imperial Court hither , enlarged and adorned it , called it after his own name , and made it the seat of the Empire . XXIV . Alexander succeeded , a man of great piety and integrity , zealous and constant in maintaining the truth against the blasphemies of Arrius . He sat 23. years . ALEXANDRIA . THE foundations of this Church were laid , and a great part of its superstructure rais'd by S. Mark , who though 〈◊〉 strictly and properly an Apostle , yet being an Apostle at large , and immediately commissionated by S. Peter ; it justly obtained the honour of an Apostolical Church . Its Bishops and Governours are thus recorded . I. S. Mark the Evangelist , of whose travels and martyrdom we have spoken in his Life . Nicephorus of Constantinople makes him to sit two years . II. Anianus , charactered by Eusebius , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a man beloved of God , and admirable in all things . He ruled in that Throne 22. years . III. Avilius , 12 , or as Eusebius , 13. IV. 〈◊〉 , succeeded about the first year of Trajan ; he sat 10. years , according to Eusebius , 11. V. Primus , 12. VI. 〈◊〉 , or Justinus , 10. VII . Eumenes , 10 , or as Eusebius , 13. S. Hierom in his translation calls him Hymenaeus . VIII . Marcus or Marcianus , 13 , or as Eusebius , 10. IX . Celadion , 10 , but in Eusebius his computation , 14. X. Agrippinus , 14 , according to Eusebius , 12. XI . Julianus , 15 , though Eusebius allows but 10. XII . Demetrius , 21 , but Eusebius more truly makes him to have governed that Church no less than 43. years . He was a man of great zeal and piety , and underwent many troubles in the persecution at Alexandria . He was at first a great friend to Origen , but afterwards became his enemy , laying some irregularities to his charge : partly out of emulation at the great reputation which Origen had gained in the world ; partly , in that Origen had suffered 〈◊〉 to be ordained Presbyter by two other Bishops , Alexander Bishop of Jerusalem , and Theoctistus of Caesarea . XIII . Heraclas , a man of a Philosophical genius , and way of life . He was educated under the institution of Origen , and by him taken to be his Assistant in the School of the Catechumens , the whole government whereof he afterwards resigned to him ; and upon the death of Demetrius he was advanced to the government of that Church , the care whereof he took for 16. years ; though Nicephorus of Constantinople by a mistake , I suppose , for his predecessor , makes it 43. XIV . 〈◊〉 , 17. He was one of the most eminent Bishops of his time . He was one of Origen's Scholars , then preferr'd first Master of the Catechetical School at Alexandria , and afterwards Bishop of that See. In the persecution under Decius he was banished first to Taposiris , a little Town between Alexandria and Canopus ; then to Cephro , and other places in the Desarts of Libya . But a large account of his own and others sufferings , with many other transactions of those times , we have out of his own Letters , yet extant in Eusebius . He died in the Twelfth year of the Emperor Gallienus . XV. Maximus ; of a Presbyter he was made Bishop of Alexandria ; he sat in that Chair 18. years according to Eusebius his computation , though Nicephorus of Constantinople assign but 8. XVI . Theonas , 17 , or according to S. Hierom's Version of Eusebius , 19. To him succeeded XVII . Petrus , 12. He began his office three years before the last persecution . A man of infinite strictness and accuracy , and of indefatigable industry for the good of the Church . He suffered in the ninth year of the persecution , with the loss of his head , gaining the crown of Martyrdom . After whose death came in the prosperous and happy days of the Church , Constantine the Great turning the black and dismal scene of things into a state of calmness and serenity . XVIII . Achillas , 9 , though Nicephorus of Constantinople allows him but one year . By him Arius upon his submission was ordained Presbyter . XIX . Alexander , 23 , under him Arius began more openly to broach his Heresie at Alexandria , who was thereupon excommunicated and thrust out by Alexander , and shortly after condemn'd by the Fathers of the Council of Nice . ERRATA . 〈◊〉 . Pag. 15. line 17. read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. 22. l. 6. for silent , r. 〈◊〉 . p. 31. l. 24. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. 47. l. 51. for were , r. 〈◊〉 . Lives of the Apostles . Introduct . p. 7. l. 20. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Book , p. 2. l. 27. r. 〈◊〉 . p. 9. l. 12. dele 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. 11. l. 17. for lawful , r. careful . p. 32. l. 45. r. 〈◊〉 . p. 33. l. 15. for of , r. 〈◊〉 . p. 36. marg . over against l. 32. r. 〈◊〉 . p. 43. l. 54. r. Man. p. 84. l. 17. after , the , add 〈◊〉 , p. 87. l. 33. for This , add 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. 109. l. 52. after , he , add had . Some other literal mistakes the Reader , I hope , will amend . In the 〈◊〉 words these two letters , Daleth and Resh , are not sufficiently distinguished . FINIS . A Brief Catalogue of Books newly Printed and Reprinted for R. Royston , Bookseller to his Most Sacred Majesty . THE Works of the Reverend and Learned Henry Hammond , D. D. containing a Collection of Discourses chiefly Practical , with many Additions and Corrections from the Author' s own hand ; together with the Life of the Author , enlarged by the Reverend Dr. Fell , Dean of Christ-Church in Oxford . In large Folio . A Paraphrase and Annotations upon all the Books of the New Testament , Briefly explaining all the difficult Places thereof . The Fourth Edition corrected . By H. Hammond , D. D. In Folio . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Or , a Collection of Polemical Discourses addressed against the enemies of the Church of England , both Papists and Fanaticks , in large Folio , by Jer. Taylor , Chaplain in Ordinary to K. Charles the First of Blessed Memory , and late Lord Bishop of Down and Conner . The Second Part of the Practical Christian , consisting of Meditations and Psalms , illustrated with Notes , or Paraphrased ; relating to the Hours of Prayer , the ordinary Actions of Day and Night , and several Dispositions of Men. By R. Sherlock , D. D. Rector of Winwick . An Answer to a Book , Entituled , A Rational Compendious way to Convince without dispute all persons whatsoever dissenting from the true Religion ; by J. K. By Gilbert Burnet . In Octavo new . The Royal Martyr , and the Dutiful Subject , in two Sermons : By Gilbert Burnet . New. The Christian Sacrifice , a Treatise shewing the Necessity , End and Manner of Receiving the Holy Communion , &c. The Devout Christian instructed how to Pray and give Thanks to : or , a Book of Devotions for Families , &c. Both written by the Reverend S. Patrick , D. D. in 12. A Serious aud Compassionate Enquiry into the Causes of the present Neglect and Contempt of the Protestant Religion and Church of England , &c. Considerations concerning Comprehension , Toleration , and the Renouncing the Covenant . In Octavo , new . Animadversions upon a Book , Entituled , Fanaticism Fanatically imputed to the Catholick Church : by Dr. Stillingfleet , and the Imputation Refuted and Retorted by S. C. The Second Edition . By a Person of Honour . In Octavo . Reflections upon the Devotions of the Roman Church . With the Prayers , Hymns and Lessons themselves , taken out of their Authentick Authors . In Three Parts . In Octavo . Go in Peace . Containing some brief Directions for young Ministers , in their Visitation of the Sick. Useful for the People , in their state both of Health and Sickness . In 12. New. Conformity according to Canon Justified ; and the new way of Moderation Reproved : A Sermon Preached at Exon , in the Cathedral of S. Peter , at the Visitation of the Right Reverend Father in God , Anthony by Divine permission Lord Bishop of Exon. By William Gould . In Quarto . New. A Visitation Sermon preached in the Cathedral at Exon. By John Prince , Minister of the Gospel at S. Martins , Exon. A Sermon preached at the Oxfordshire-Feast , Novemb. 25. 1674. In the Church of S. Michael's Cornhill , London . By John Woolley , M. A. Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A63641-e460 In 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 16. Tom. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Notes for div A63641-e760 Lib. de 〈◊〉 . pag. 350. 〈◊〉 . XXVII . in Genes . Tom. 2. p. 285. Notes for div A63641-e1030 Heb. 1. 1 , 2. * Talm. Trast . Sanbedr . cap. Halce . & alibi . vid. Menass . Ben Isr. d● Resurrect . lib. 3. c. 3. & Concil . Quast . xxx . in Genes . Rom. 2. 14 , 15. Gen. 4. 6 , 7. Gem. Babyl . T● . Sanhedr . cap. 7. fol. 56. Maimond . Tr. Me lak . cap. 9. & al ●● passim ap . Judaeos . vid. Sel●en de Jur. N. & G. l. 1. c. 10. & de Synedr . Vol. 1. c. 2. p. 8. Job 31. 26 , 27 , 28. Job 1. 6. Job 31. 29 Job 31. 9 , 10 , 11. Vers. 5. 7. Chap. 24. 2 , 3 , 4 , & seq . Chap. 31. 11-28 . Gen. 9. 3 , 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Porphyr . de 〈◊〉 . lib. 1. Sect. 47. p. 39. 〈◊〉 . V. 5 , 6. 〈◊〉 . 17. 11. Gen 17. 9 , 10 , 11. * Talm. Tract . Jeban . 〈◊〉 . 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Mor. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 3. 〈◊〉 . 49. p. 506. Gen. 6. 2 , 3. Gen. 18. 19. Gen. 18. 2. Exod , 4. 31. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , XVIII , in 〈◊〉 . p. 173. Tom. 2. Gen. 15. 17. Psalm 20. 3. 〈◊〉 P. 〈◊〉 . in Gen. 4. Gen. 8. 20. Gen. 12. 7 , 8. 〈◊〉 . chap. 13. 4. 18. Gen. 21. 33. Judg 6. 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 13. Deut. 16. 21. 〈◊〉 . 13. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . LXX . Ita 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aliter 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 . 18. 1. * Antiquit. Jd. l. 1. c. 11. p. 19. * 〈◊〉 loc . 〈◊〉 . in 〈◊〉 Arboch . ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Hist. Ec. l. lit . 2. c. 4. p. 447. Gen. 4. 30 〈◊〉 Gen. 2. 3. 〈◊〉 , 19. 22. Exod. 24. 5. Gen. 49. 3. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fol. 71. col . 1. ap . Selden . de success . ad leg . Ebr. c. 5. p. 45. Heb. 12. 16. Gen. 3. 21. Levit. 7. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Homil. XVIII . in 〈◊〉 . p. 174. Heb. 11. 4. Gen. 4. 4 , 5. Antiquit. Jud. 〈◊〉 . 1. 〈◊〉 . 3. 〈◊〉 . 8. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Smeg . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 8. p. 226. & seqq . Gen. 4. 26. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 1. Sect. 1. ‖ Vid. ap . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . cit . p. 230. * Dionys. Voss. not . in 〈◊〉 . p. 4. 〈◊〉 . de Hist. Patr. 〈◊〉 . 6. p. 223. ‖ R. Eliez . Maas . Beres . 〈◊〉 . 22. ibid. Gen. 6. 2. * Elmacin . ap . 〈◊〉 . p. 233. Id. 〈◊〉 . p. 234. * Elmac. & Patric . apud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 supr . p. 235. Gen. 5. 〈◊〉 Heb. 11. 5 , 6. Gen. 5. 29. Gen. 6. 9. Antiqu. Jud. lib. 1. 〈◊〉 . 4. p. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Syria . p. 882. 〈◊〉 . 2. Genes . 11. 〈◊〉 . 7. 11. 5. 32. 10. 21. 〈◊〉 . & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 〈◊〉 . Antiq. Jud. l. 1. c. 7. p. 15. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. 8. 〈◊〉 Hotting . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . c. 8. p. 291. conser 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . part . 3. 〈◊〉 . 29. p. 421. Mor. 〈◊〉 . Part. 2 cap. 39. p. 301. Gen. 12. 5. Gen. 14. 14. Heb. 6. 13 , 14. 2 Pet. 2. 7 , 8. Gen. 24. 63. Gen. 26. 28 , 29. Antiq. Jul. lib. 1. 〈◊〉 . 19. p. 31. Gen. 49. 10. Heb. 7. 15. Heb. 7 3. 〈◊〉 . 12. in Hebr. p. 1838. Heb. 7. 4 , 5 , 6 , 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 . Ibid. Ver. 6. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Part. 3. cap. 22. p. 395. Anz. 〈◊〉 , de 〈◊〉 . Turcic . Epist. 1. p. 94. Phil. lib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 350. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Evangel . lib. 7. c. 6. 〈◊〉 . 304. Demonstrat . Evangel . lib. 1. cap. 5. & 6. p. 9 , 10. &c. & 〈◊〉 . supr . 〈◊〉 . Antiq. Jud. l. 2. c. 5. p. 56. R. Ellez . c. 48. apud Hotting . Smeg . Orient . c. 8. p. 402. 〈◊〉 . 5. 27. Ver. 24 , 25 , 26 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . l. 57. Heb. 12. 21. Deut. 4. 13. 〈◊〉 . 29. 1 Cor. 5. 7. 8. 〈◊〉 . 11. 1-10 . Rom. 15. 12. Rev. 4. 5. 〈◊〉 141. 2. Psalm 26. 6. Isa. 61. 1 , 2. Luke 4. 18. Heb. 10. 1. John 1. 17. Jom . cap. 4. fol. 39. ap . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. 218. 〈◊〉 . 33. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ap . 〈◊〉 . de 〈◊〉 . Div. c. 23. p. 338. R. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . de Num. 〈◊〉 . ap . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . lib. 2. c. 〈◊〉 . Exod. 28. 30. Numb . 27 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . de Vaticin . lib. 3. 〈◊〉 . 3. Hos. 3. 4. Joan. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . de 〈◊〉 & Thum. Edit . 〈◊〉 . 1670. 8. 〈◊〉 . Jom . cap. 7. Sect. 5. pag. 167. Dr. 〈◊〉 . H. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 3. 17. Vid. 〈◊〉 . Mor. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 2. cap. 45. p. 317. Exod. 33. 11. 〈◊〉 . 12. 6 , 7 , 8. Adv. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . XLVIII p. 176. Ibid. pag. 177. Nizz. p. 159. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Th. Phil. l. 2. c. 3. p. 564. 2 〈◊〉 , 19. 〈◊〉 . 2 Chron. 34. 3. 2 Chron. 36. 14. 〈◊〉 . Jud. lib. 12. c. 19. p. 425. Lib. 15. cap. 2. p. 512. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Jud. lib. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 958. Jos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Jud. l. 17. c. 8. p. 596. & de 〈◊〉 . Jud. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . c. 21. p 772. H. Eccl. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . c. 10. p. 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Jud. l. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. 872. Joseph . 〈◊〉 l 20. c. 8. pag. 698. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . cap. 1. Sect. 1. 2 , 3. p. 1. Jad Chozak . ex quo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prolixum 〈◊〉 Jos. 〈◊〉 . de 〈◊〉 . div . 〈◊〉 . 9. & 〈◊〉 . ubi varias 〈◊〉 de Legis 〈◊〉 origine & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Vid. Buxtorf . de 〈◊〉 . p. 222. & de Synag . Jud. cap. 3. 〈◊〉 . Thes. Phil. lib. 2. 〈◊〉 . 3. Mark 7. 2 , 3 ; & sequ . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Syn Jud. c 11. p. 236 Mark 7. 2 〈◊〉 . Vid. Lud. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Corban . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . in 〈◊〉 . 15. 5 〈◊〉 . in 〈◊〉 . Gemar . 〈◊〉 . p. 273. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . Phil. l. 1. c. 1 , Sect. 5 , p. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . R. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. 104. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Th. Phil. l. 1. c. 1. p. 27. 〈◊〉 . not . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. 147. 〈◊〉 . p. 6. Vid. Joseph . 〈◊〉 Jud. l. 18. c. 2 p. 617. & de 〈◊〉 Jud. l. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. 788. 〈◊〉 . Aboth . cap. 1. 〈◊〉 3. p. in . 1. Joseph . de 〈◊〉 . Jud. l. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. 788. 〈◊〉 . Jud. l. 18. c. 2. p. 617. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . lib. 5. 〈◊〉 . 17. p. 80. 〈◊〉 . Phil. lib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 liber . p. 876 , 877. Joseph . Antiq. Jud. l. 18. c. 2. p. 617. 〈◊〉 de 〈◊〉 . Jud. lib. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 785. & seqq . Col. 2. 18. 20 , 21 , 22 , 23. Comm. in Matth. 22. p. 66. Tom. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Matth. 16. 6. Mark 8. 15. Deut. 18. 〈◊〉 . 18 , 19. Psalm 22. 〈◊〉 . Psalm 16. 10. Psalm 68. 18. Psalm 110. 1. 〈◊〉 . 7. 14. -61. 1 , 2. -53. 1 , 2 , 3. &c. 〈◊〉 . 5. 2. Dan. 9 24 26 Mal. 3. 1. 〈◊〉 4. 5 , 6. 〈◊〉 . in Joan. 1. 15. 2 Kings 1. 8. Luk. 1. 80. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. 268. Maim . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . cap. 13. 〈◊〉 . Jac. Alting . 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . VII . ds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 25. p. 249. Numb . 15. 16. Ibid. Sect. 24. p. 248. Exod. 19. 10. Vid. R. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 87. col . 2. ibid. 〈◊〉 . 6. 2. Joh. 1. 25. Mark 1. 4. Antiquit. Jud. lib. 18. c. 7. p. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 David Part. 1. ad Ann. 770. Millen . 4. & 〈◊〉 . Templi secund . 〈◊〉 . 54. col . 4. Heb. 8. 6. 〈◊〉 . 1. 17. Acts 15. 10. Heb. 8. 6. 1 〈◊〉 2. 25. 2 Tim. 1. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 22. p. m. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . Sect. 23. ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Rom. 8 3. Heb. 7. 18. Isai. 44. 3. 4. 〈◊〉 . 36. 26. 27. 2 Cor. 3. 6. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 10 , 11. Joh. 14. 16. 17. Ephes. 4. 8. 〈◊〉 . 3. 6. 〈◊〉 7. 39. Rom. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Psal. 76. 1 , 2. Psal. 147. 19. 20. Act. 14. 16. E , hes . 2. 13. 1 Thes. 4. 5. 〈◊〉 16. 15. Rom. 10. 〈◊〉 . Tit. 2. 11. Cololl . 1. 13. 〈◊〉 . 3. 28. Act. 10. 35. 〈◊〉 . 56. 7. Psal. 122. 4. Joh. 4. 21-23 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. 755. 〈◊〉 . 17 7. 1 〈◊〉 9. 〈◊〉 . Gen. 17. 8. 〈◊〉 12 , 14. 〈◊〉 . 23 , 14. Exod. 21. 6. 1 Sam. 2. 36. Heb. 13. 20. Rev. 14. 6. Heb. 1. 1 , 2. Heb. 12. 28. Luke 11. 23. 24. Notes for div A63641-e27730 * — 〈…〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vis 〈◊〉 perit , si 〈…〉 Facere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Non in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & summa 〈◊〉 as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quem 〈◊〉 pudebunt . Lucan . 〈◊〉 . 8. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Epiph. Panar . l. 1. tom . 1. num . 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 magis 〈◊〉 cum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 penè 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 agit quam ut naturam collapsam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Erasm. in 11. 〈◊〉 . Mat. Ratio Dti 〈◊〉 est humanis rebus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est hominibus bene 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , si non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à summo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ad 〈◊〉 . 16. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist. de C●●● . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . de Diis , 3. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epict. 〈◊〉 . 38. * 〈◊〉 Somn. 〈◊〉 . Gen. 2. 24. Claudian , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . gurth . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eurip. Androm . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is praprium , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 parentum 〈◊〉 prius , qui 〈◊〉 de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 buerant 〈◊〉 , Philo , * Animus 〈◊〉 liberalitatis materiam , 〈◊〉 inter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Senec. de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prima 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . A. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 10. 23. * Num. 4. a Anual . 6. b In Gorgia , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * Lucian . in 〈◊〉 . " Rhadamanthus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Claudian . de Rufin . lib. 1. Rom. 7. 13. Rom. 5. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . De rep . l. 1. c. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. Odyss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A. Gel. l. 11. c. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Dial . 〈◊〉 . Tryph. * Rom. 1. 25 , 26 , &c. Rom. 1. 28 , &c. Ver. 25 , 26. 〈◊〉 . 2. 〈◊〉 . Gal. 3. 19. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Rom. 2. 14. 〈◊〉 . 10. 16 , 17. Polyd. Virg. 〈 ◊〉 〈◊〉 . l. 5. c. 8. Maxim. Tyr. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Apud Lactant , l. 7. c. 23. Just. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . ad Orthodox . ad qu. 83. Tertul. adv . 〈◊〉 . 2. 2. Maimon . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , l. 3. 〈◊〉 . 32. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tob. 4. 16. Dixit Mimus , Ab a●io exspectes alteri quod free●is . * Singulorum interess , si universi regantur . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Dividit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . l. 1. Sat. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , natis 〈◊〉 alma 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : hos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Virg. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . l. 7. c. 7. Rom. 7. 23. Ibid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 M. Anton , l. 9. Psal. 〈◊〉 12. 9. 1 Ep. Joh. 2. 7 , 8 — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sophocl . Oedip. — Hoc Reges habent 〈◊〉 & ingens , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dies , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — Senec. 〈◊〉 . — Mollissima corda Hamano 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Natura fatetur , 〈◊〉 lacrymas dedit ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pars optima sens●s Juven . Sat. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . Tyrius in 〈◊〉 An 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 injurid . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Menand . Eurip. Orest. * 〈…〉 regit ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concilia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , quae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 2 Cor. 4. 7. 1 Pet. 2. 9. Phil. 〈◊〉 . 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Arist. l. 6. Eth. cap. 7. Polynic . apud Eurip. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Arist , Ethic. l. 2. Notes for div A63641-e32850 〈◊〉 Pet. 2. 21. 2 Kings 3. 27. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. 〈◊〉 . Rom. 8. 29. Ibid. Rom. 13 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quis ? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : probat , imitatur , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 , Caenum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 animos 〈◊〉 abrupta 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 calamitate ducitis 〈◊〉 hominibus 〈◊〉 volentibus sacinorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exemplis . Julius Firmic . de Error . prof . Relig. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 optimus 〈…〉 est . Vellei . 〈◊〉 . — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — Eurip. Ion. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod aliquando factum 〈◊〉 . Exempla 〈◊〉 , qua jam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . S. Cyprian . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 4. 1 〈◊〉 . h 2. 6. 〈◊〉 . Ep. 11. 〈◊〉 , lib. 3. & 13. & Theognis de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 . Hoc 〈◊〉 S. 〈◊〉 1. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Narratur & piisci 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mero 〈◊〉 . Horat. Majorum & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Graei 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suas amicis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & alibi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quidem an 〈◊〉 : quid n. de 〈◊〉 curarent , quam 〈◊〉 tam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ? O 〈◊〉 Attica , O 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exemplum ! 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philosophus & Censor . Tertul. Apolog. c. 39. 1 Cor. 15. 49. Dictum 〈◊〉 Abbat . apud S. Bernardum in 〈◊〉 S. Mal. Lib. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 6. 21. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Notes for div A63641-e35060 * — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beato 〈◊〉 Matris babens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 honore , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 visa 〈…〉 . 〈◊〉 inter 〈◊〉 & Deum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prior 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nos 〈◊〉 , qui 〈◊〉 , ad 〈◊〉 Dei 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . S. Greg. * Quod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : quod si 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 alicujus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . S. Primasius . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . in Pythag. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 6. in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . in 1 Matth. S. 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 . * S. Bernard . — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sumit . 1 John 1. 9. Psal. 111. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philostr . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Appollon . l. 3. 〈◊〉 . 7. Non 〈◊〉 ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , sed 〈◊〉 ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 justifi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Ambros. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Euseb. l. 1. c. 6. Histor. Eccles. Anno scil . tertio Olympiad . 194. Caesare Augusto & Plautio Silano Coss. (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . S. Chrysost. hom . 8. in Matth. 〈◊〉 Suidam in verbo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dio. lib. 50. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Juxta propheticum illud , Isa. 33. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Sed hanc periodum Judaei erasirunt ex Hebraeo textu . Sic & Symm●●bus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my●●●● Bethlehem , sive Domus panis , indig●tatur . Vide Waddingum pag. 270. Ezek. 44. 2. Hab. 3. v. 4. In medio animalicum cognosceris . Sic Lxx. Vin. Beda de lotis sanctis , c. 8. S. Hieron . Epist. 48. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; Diphilus . 1 Cor. 16. 22. Col. 2. 3. * Quod si pudica 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Domum 〈◊〉 dulces 〈◊〉 : ( Sabina 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 solibus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) Non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Magis . &c. Hor. Epod. 2. Naturale 〈◊〉 : partim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Joseph . Orig. 16. 10. Apud A. 〈◊〉 l. 12. c. 1. Cant. 4. 5. (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — Si prohibes , furit in mammis , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Miscet , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Sammatth , 〈◊〉 . (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alimenta suis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bibunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Id. Obliter 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 elementis , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 patrem atque 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , magnam partem non natural's ille 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 civilis & opinabilis . Phavor . apud A. Gellium . * Nam Gracchorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 accepimus 〈◊〉 Matrem . Quint. l. 1. 〈◊〉 . 1. Protinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 factus , acrem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 curam impendat , ante omnia 〈◊〉 sit vitiosus serme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , si 〈◊〉 posset , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Quint. lib. 1. cap. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 . l. de 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Aristoph . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 proverb . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . unt 〈◊〉 tigres . Vir. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * Necessitat , 〈…〉 . Senec. Sueton. in vita , V. sp . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ciceron . de Divin . 〈◊〉 , 1. 6. 1. 22. Suidas in 〈◊〉 Verb. Augustus . Orosius . Esa. 11. 6. * 〈◊〉 to tempore , i. e. 〈◊〉 anno , quo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 composuit , 〈◊〉 est Christus ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pax 〈◊〉 famulata 〈◊〉 : in cujus ortu audientibus hominibus exsultantes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Gloria in 〈◊〉 Dro , & in 〈◊〉 a Pax , &c. P. Orosius . Num. 24. 17. Epiphan . in Expos. sid . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 8. * Et 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Timaeum Platonis . Leo 〈◊〉 : 4. de Epiphan . 〈◊〉 . Ambros. in 2. Lu. 6. Leo , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Theophil . in 〈◊〉 . 2. S. Bernard , in Serm. 2. de 〈◊〉 . * Phil. 4. 18. Psal. 141. 2. Revel . 5. 8. * 〈◊〉 . 8. 4. 〈◊〉 M. Dial. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Tertul. 〈◊〉 . 3. contra Marcion . c. 13. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ipsas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vas incrustare . 〈…〉 homo , illi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pinguis damus — Simplicior si 〈◊〉 — 〈…〉 planè 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . — 〈◊〉 Serm. 〈◊〉 1. 〈◊〉 3. Tit. 2. 11. 〈◊〉 intellectum qui 〈◊〉 signum . S. Leo , Ser. 1. de 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 AEschyl . Persis . * AEschyl . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Piaga 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 si 〈◊〉 puo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 , & in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 animisqus duri , Et 〈◊〉 suâ Bessi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 oves sacti , duce 〈◊〉 , gregantur Pacis in 〈◊〉 . Nox ubi quondam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Angelorum , Et 〈◊〉 Justus quibus ipse 〈◊〉 Vixit in autris . S. Paulinus in reditu 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . l. 9. c 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Porphyr . l. 4. de Non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 2. 3. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 2. 3. * 〈…〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Arist. 2. Top. c. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stob. 〈◊〉 . 250. * — 〈…〉 . Horat. 〈…〉 . l. 1. c. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 ep . Timoth. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 JESV 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈…〉 : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isa. 21. 11. in casu 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 H. John 4. 34. S. 〈◊〉 . episs . ad 〈◊〉 . Hispan . Idem in 19. Matth , 28. Fidelis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 moras , fugit 〈◊〉 , ignorat tarditatem , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , parat oculos visui , aures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 voci , manus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pedes : 〈◊〉 se colligit , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 colligat voluntatem . S. Bernard . Serm. de Obedient . Et barbaris 〈◊〉 servilis , 〈◊〉 exsequi Regium . Tacit. l. 6. Annal. Luke 16. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 parva , tamen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , si collecta 〈◊〉 nos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nos 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 grande peccatum , S. Aug. l. 50. 〈◊〉 . 50. 〈◊〉 lib. de Poenit. 〈◊〉 venialla si 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nostrum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ut à 〈◊〉 sponsi 〈◊〉 nos 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod non 〈◊〉 criminale dum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 25. sect . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. August . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 libidinum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Horat. Od. 18. l. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . ad 〈◊〉 . 1. 1 Pet. 13. 2. Heb. 13. 7. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ipsos imperium 〈…〉 . l. 3. Od. 1. Rom. 13. 1. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 3. 20 , 22. 〈◊〉 . 6. 5 , 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. x. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 os hominis liberi 〈…〉 assium 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 percusserat , jussit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 25 asses , 〈◊〉 pro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Tab. 〈◊〉 . A. Gel. l. 20. c. 1. Heb , 10. 25. Vide Par. 2. Dise . 10 , 〈◊〉 . 11. * Is 〈…〉 . l. 130. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in to 〈◊〉 est quod bonum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Sen. 〈◊〉 . 23. Collat. 18. c. 17. 〈…〉 . l. 1. c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . & 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . & 〈◊〉 . ad . A. D. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 20. & S. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . S 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 35. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . S. B 〈◊〉 D 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . c. 〈◊〉 . * 〈…〉 in 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 . A. 〈◊〉 . l. 9. 〈◊〉 . 13. 〈◊〉 . 7. 13. 1 Sam. 15. 23. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 Rodriquez in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; and Sir Thom as More against 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prima , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 conjugii sidem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Plin. l. 10. 〈◊〉 . 33. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athen. l. 4. Psal. 1. 2. Psal. 119. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 3. 〈◊〉 . * Serm. 1. de assumpt . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Psal. 50. 〈◊〉 * Acts 10. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Chapter 11. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 vidit 〈◊〉 dum 〈◊〉 averat . — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , atque 〈◊〉 toto sibi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — quod de Apolline dixit Lucanus . Qualis erat 〈◊〉 sive ecstasis Balaami , qui 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vidit , excidens , sed retectis oculis , Num. 24. 4 , 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 &c. ibid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato in Apol. 〈◊〉 dit 〈◊〉 ordinaria : sd Onuphrius in Fastis ait 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 post Christum natum 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . lib. 2. cap. 4. * 〈…〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . & 〈◊〉 Martyr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 . a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 23. in Evang. Matth. S. 〈◊〉 . homil . 〈◊〉 Humana Christi 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 . in 〈◊〉 Christi , Cyril . adv . 〈◊〉 . * In 〈◊〉 , cap. 8. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 2. 13. Euseb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . c. 20. S. Athanas. lib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Palladius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. 〈◊〉 . * Isa. 19. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Pallad . in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Heb. 13. 5 , 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dubia pro 〈◊〉 solent 〈◊〉 inere 〈◊〉 . Seneca Oedip. Hestis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Christum 〈◊〉 quid times ? Non 〈◊〉 terrestria Qui regna 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Qui 〈◊〉 duro saevus imperio regit , T 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , metus in authorem eadit , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 quae dixit Ammian . Marcel . l. 17. & Epistolas S. 〈◊〉 M. l. 4. 〈◊〉 . 32 , 34 , 36. & l. 6. 〈◊〉 . 30. l. 7. indict . 1. 〈◊〉 . 30. & Concil . Africanum , quo 〈◊〉 est Cael stinus Papa , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 , quae lucem simplicitatis & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 videre 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , videamur inducere . AEtas 〈◊〉 habills ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad coronam ; & ut appareret innocentes esse qui propter Christum 〈◊〉 , infantia innocens occisa est . S. Cyprian . Athenagoras dixit Infantes resurrectures , sed non ventures in judicium . Mark 6. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 privilegium 〈◊〉 , ut 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod publicâ lege 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dependitur . Leo De 〈◊〉 . 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Serm. A. Publica 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 privatis , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 devotio , 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unus est animus & 〈◊〉 sensus . Heb. 10. 25. Niceph , lib. 1. c. 14. S. Chrys. Hom. de Nativ . S. Jo. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * Gen. 21. 17. 1 King. 19. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 curvi setis 〈◊〉 cameli , Contra 〈◊〉 molles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 artus , As en 〈◊〉 graves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Paulinus . S. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . de S. Babyla . * Satiatis & expletis 〈◊〉 est carere quàm 〈◊〉 . Cicero de 〈◊〉 . In 〈…〉 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ‖ James 3. Petrus Cellensis , l. 4. 〈◊〉 . 12. In 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Ep. 4. * Non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Quint. Maxims pars 〈◊〉 sol litur , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Senec. S 〈◊〉 . Malum quod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , nemo arguit ; ubi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Euseb. hist. 11. 6. c. 3. Theod. l. 4. c. 23 , 24. 〈◊〉 est illi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qui omnem 〈◊〉 mundum 〈◊〉 quod quid m in terris 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hominum jure sociali , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Cicer. Somn. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , S. Basil. 〈◊〉 11. 13 〈◊〉 Tim. 6. 〈◊〉 2. Cor. 5. 6. Rom. 8. 13. O quàm 〈◊〉 res 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 super humana se 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Rom. 6. 7. 2 〈◊〉 . 3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 16 〈◊〉 . 2 Cor. 7. 4. Rom. 5. 3. Rom. 5. 3. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hierocl . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . S. 〈◊〉 . 〈…〉 . 〈◊〉 . 29 21. 1 Cor. 9. 27. Rom. 6. 4. Heb. 12. 1. 1 Pet. 2. 1. and 4. 1. Rom 7. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ad 〈◊〉 . Huic 〈◊〉 , vie 〈…〉 super , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . — De Catone dixit 〈◊〉 ; & de 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 rigidam in 〈◊〉 desc as 〈…〉 , 2 Sam. 23. 17. Apud Pal'ad . in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , à 〈◊〉 plura 〈◊〉 . Hor. Gal. 6. 17. 2 Cor. 4. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Fp. 20. 〈◊〉 l. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 22 , 〈◊〉 . Alex , 〈◊〉 . l. 2. c. 1. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 3. 5. 〈◊〉 8. Vt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈…〉 . Vt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ? * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 2. Heb. 13. 9. Rom. 14. 17. 1 〈◊〉 . 4. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 1. in 〈◊〉 . * 〈…〉 . Si 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 Disc. of 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 , Sotus , Scotus , &c. * Acts 19. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Quast . ad Orthod . 37. Dial. 〈◊〉 . advers . 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Clem. Constit. 〈◊〉 . 1. 7. c. 23. * Symbolum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Just. Mart. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ebion . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 3. 16. 〈◊〉 . 1. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 3. 22. Cap. 17. de gloria Martyr . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * In Pontifical Rom. * 〈◊〉 Cor. 10. 〈◊〉 . 2. 3. Gal. 3. 14. 27. 〈◊〉 Per. 3. 21. 〈◊〉 Cor. 12 7. 13. Matth. 3. 2 , 6. Justin , Mart , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . S. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 3. c. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈…〉 . 1. c. 1. 〈◊〉 . 5. 26. 〈◊〉 . 10. 32. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 3. 21. Rom. 6. 4. * Scil. in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 2. 1. Jam. 1. 2. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 3. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . in S. Bapt. S. Hie. on . in 4. cap. Matt. * 〈◊〉 , mi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , si 〈◊〉 unquam 〈…〉 , S. 〈◊〉 ad 〈◊〉 . 2 Cor. 12. 9. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Habet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quandam admonitio 〈◊〉 , quum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod 〈◊〉 . S. Chrysost. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dii quoque 〈◊〉 In 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Omne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Rom. 7. 19. 23 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Rom. 3. 7. Gal. 2 18. 1 Cor. 6. 12. & 10. 23 , 29 , 30. & 13. 2. Rom. 7. 8 , 11. 〈◊〉 22. verse 25. verse 23. Gal. 5. 24. Rom. 〈◊〉 . 6 , 12 , 14. Rom. 8. 2. Gal. 5. 17. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 7. 14. Rom. 8. 6. Rom. 5. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , without strength , that is , ungodly . Vide August . l. 2. c 17. de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & Anchir . 81. Gal. 5. 24. S. August . lib. de 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . c. 17. &c. 19. Vide 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 2 Sam. 6. cap. 6 , 7 , 8 , 9. vers . Rom. 9. 3. 〈◊〉 . 2. in Explicat . of the 〈◊〉 . 1. Com. Theod. l. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 quid 〈◊〉 omne malum mundique 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ex 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , genus , & 〈◊〉 , & vim , Quid sint , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Prud. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 21. 27. 〈…〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cadere ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . S. Aug. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Act. 17. 28. b Heb. 4. 13. c 〈◊〉 . 9 , 9. Jer. 23. 24. d Psal. 94. 9. e Psal. 139. 12. 〈◊〉 6. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Non n. 〈◊〉 ac studiis ut haberentur phils . sophi laberabant ; sed 〈◊〉 & tristitiam , & dissentientem à cater is habitum , pessimis meribus praetendebant . Quintil. l. 1. 〈◊〉 . Ambitio & 〈◊〉 & impotentia sienam desiderans ; sanabis ista , si 〈◊〉 . Sence . 〈◊〉 . 95. Magna vobis , si dissimular 〈◊〉 vultis , injecta 〈◊〉 probitatis , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 agitis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 judicis 〈◊〉 cernentis . Boeth . l. 5. Censol . presâ ult . Acts 17. 27. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aliquem habeat animus 〈…〉 . Quid prodest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deo. Senec. l. 1. ep . 15. * 〈…〉 lera simulac 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pudore & 〈◊〉 , suo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Tacit. 〈◊〉 . 6. 〈◊〉 . 51. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Sophocl . Tota philosophia nihil est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Plato . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈…〉 A. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 2. ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 , Phil. Dies 〈…〉 quod ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 , in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . S. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 102. Psal. 119. 109. Psal. 90. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 que 〈…〉 . l. 2. 〈◊〉 . 14. 〈…〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . Theog . In 〈◊〉 monach . Matth. 26. 41. * — His 〈…〉 . Hor. l. 2. 〈◊〉 . 18. * Lib. 3. 13. John 4. 14. 1 Pet. 3 21. 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 , imago in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 . S. Ambr. 1 Cor. 10. 1 , 2. (a) 〈◊〉 . de 〈◊〉 . c. 40 (b) 〈◊〉 . in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . S. 〈◊〉 . 2. 〈◊〉 1. (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , qui 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 4. 2. 〈…〉 . (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 9. 〈◊〉 . 1. (b) Acts 8. 16. Acts 2. 38. (c) Matth. 28. 19. Mat h. 28. 19. Mark 16. 16. John 3. 5. Gen 17. 14. S. Aug. 〈◊〉 . 46 , 59. Heb. 6. 1. S. August . 〈◊〉 . 2. 〈◊〉 . 1. de Cat. 〈◊〉 . Just. Martyr . Apol. 2. Acts 2. 47. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyril . Hierosol . 〈◊〉 . 2. * 1 Cor. 12. 13. ‖ Acts 13. 48. * John 3. 5. Titus 3. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Damasc. l. 4. Orth. fid . c. 10. Lib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. Lib 5. 〈◊〉 . Ezek. 36. 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Symb. 〈◊〉 . Lib. 1. c. 3. in 〈◊〉 . * Acts 22. 16. ‖ Eph. 5. 26. * Lib. 5. adv . 〈◊〉 . c. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gr. prov . Annon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , quia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ? Origen . 〈◊〉 15. in 〈…〉 & expiare vix 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 submersum est , & de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cum 〈◊〉 creditore transactum est . Ambros. lib. 1. 〈◊〉 7. de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Baptismo non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in mari 〈◊〉 . AEgyptios non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . S. Greg. M. l. 9. 〈◊〉 . 39. Arator l. 2. Hist. Apostol . Rev. 7. 14. 1 John 1. 7. 〈◊〉 22. 16. Tu. 3. 5. * 〈◊〉 John 5. 8. Heb 9 14. 〈◊〉 . 3. 4 , 5. Theodor. 〈◊〉 . de div . 〈◊〉 . cap. de Bapt. Lib. de 〈◊〉 c. 23. & 〈◊〉 . 124. in Joan. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 13. p. 487. Gal. 3. 26. Verse 29. Verse 27. Heb. 10. 16 , &c. 〈◊〉 19 &c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 29. 2 Pet. 1. 9. 〈◊〉 Par. 2. 〈◊〉 . 9. of Repentance , 〈◊〉 . 9. ad 31. Paul. Ep. 12. ad S●enum 1 Cor. 12. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 5. S. 〈◊〉 . de 〈◊〉 . S. c. 15. * 2 Cor. 1. 22. ‖ 〈◊〉 . 1. 13. Eph. 4. 30. John 6. 27. S. 〈◊〉 . Hieros 〈◊〉 . 3. S. 〈◊〉 . in 〈◊〉 . 28. 〈◊〉 . 10. 32. * 〈◊〉 4. 〈◊〉 . 6. 4. 1 John 2. 20. 〈◊〉 27. 1 John 3. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 13. a Rom. 6. 7. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch . b ib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . c 〈◊〉 . 5. d 〈◊〉 . 6. Vide Disc 9. of Repentance , n. 46. 〈◊〉 . 6. 3 , 5. Col. 2. 12. 〈◊〉 16. 16. 〈◊〉 . 3. 5. Niceph. 1. 7. c. 35. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 5. 〈◊〉 . 6. 〈◊〉 , lib. 7. 〈◊〉 . 7. Psal. 34. 7. Heb. 1. 14. Basil. Theod. Epiphan . Nazianz . Col. 2. 2. Cyril . 〈◊〉 . Dionyl . Areop . Aug. 〈◊〉 . 2. c. 13. contra Crescon . Gram. 〈◊〉 16. 16. Acts 2. 38. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 1 〈◊〉 . 3. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Res. 〈◊〉 . Ad 〈◊〉 . Jul. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 2. adv . Parm. Clem. Alex , lib. 1. 〈◊〉 . c. 6. Acts 10. 〈◊〉 . Aug. de moribus 〈◊〉 . Cath. l. 1. c. 35. Bern. Serm. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dom. Acts 8. 37. Acts 2. 38. Acts 3. 15. Matth. 9. 29. Mark 9. 23. Matth. 8. 13. * Matth. 9. 28. John 4. 50. John 6. 44. Mark 10. 15. 〈◊〉 17. 20. * 〈◊〉 21. Luke 18. 16. Luke 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; 1 〈◊〉 1. 2. 2 Thess. 1. 3. Rom. 8. 30. Eccles. 1. 15. * Sect. 25 , &c. 〈◊〉 . 17. 1 , &c. 〈◊〉 . 11. 13 , 15. 14. 16. Ron. 4. 11. 7 , 8. 3 , 5 , 12. Rom. 4. 11 , 13. 17 , 13. Gal. 3. 14. 29. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 1. 〈◊〉 . 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 3. 5. 〈◊〉 . 5. 17 , 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 4. Prosper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lib. 3. a lv . Pelag. Lib. 1. in initio . Lib. de Baptis . c. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈…〉 1 John 1. 〈◊〉 . Ep. a l 〈◊〉 , l. 3. ep . 8. S. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 . 9. Nisi quis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , non infantem , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Ambr. 〈◊〉 Abrah . Patrlib . 2. 〈◊〉 11. Lib. 2. c. 11. 〈◊〉 Abrah . 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 49. 22. Horat. l. b. 1. 8. at . 6. L. 2 c. 39. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Clementis . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . c. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 14. in 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 . 8. Hom. 8. in 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 . de 〈◊〉 , c. 39 , & 〈◊〉 . S. Cyprian . op . ad Fidum . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . c. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . l. 2. c. 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 40. 〈◊〉 S. 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it . 〈◊〉 . 52. 15. 1 〈◊〉 . 1. 2. Aqua 〈◊〉 . & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 anima 〈…〉 . m. 23. 〈◊〉 . 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Alex. Concil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 transcripsit & transmisit Eruditissimus vir , & linguarum orientallium 〈◊〉 gnarus , Du. 〈◊〉 , J. V. D. & Juris 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 publicus in Academia Dul 〈◊〉 apud Hi bernos , prosessor 〈◊〉 uarum Orientalium apud eosdem . Notes for div A63641-e74390 (a) John 1. 20 , 21. (b) V. 23. (c) V. 26. (d) V. 27. (e) V. 15 , 27 , 30. (f) Chap. 3. 30. (g) Matt. 3. 11. Joh 11. 29 , 36. V. 37 , 39. S. Aug. 〈◊〉 . 17. c. 1. in Joan. * 〈…〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . in 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Clem. Alex , 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 in exposit . general . Rev. 2. 10. 〈◊〉 . 5 6. Ch. 6. 15. 1 〈◊〉 . 7. 19. Gal. 5. 6. John 8. 39. Rom. 4. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . l. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * Rom. 16. 〈◊〉 . * 〈…〉 Rom. 1. 16 , 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. 〈◊〉 . Heb. 12. 2. Ibid. v. 1. 〈◊〉 4. Jam. 2. 20 , 26. Verse 21. Verse 23. Verse 22. (a) 1 Thess. 1 , 8 , 9. (b) Heb 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 2 Thess. 3. 2. (c) Col. 3. 6. (d) Gal. 5. 20. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 2. & 5. 6. 1 Tim. 5. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Apoc. 14. 12. 2 〈◊〉 . 3. 2. (a) 1 〈◊〉 5. 4. (b) Heb. 11. 33 (c) Acts 15. 9. Luke 18 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 12. 14. 〈◊〉 . 5. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , re 〈◊〉 non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quae in nobis est cum mortali compage 〈◊〉 . Ab his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : omnibus — uni autem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 animi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & ejus qui 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 capiatur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rerum illecebris . Phil. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Quis 〈◊〉 Div. haeres . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Credere in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , credendo diligere , 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 ire , & membris ejus 〈◊〉 . Gloss. ord . in Rom. 4. 2 Cor. 13. 5. Rom. 8. 10. Titus 3. 8. John 3. 36. * Montanistae , & cum bis Tertul. adv . Ma●●ion l. 4. c. 34. aiunt Philippum desconctum fuisse , & in●● probare satagunt secondas nuptiaes illicitas esse . Sed haec tam apertâ fraude , ut ag●ns adv . Catholices Tertulllianus abstineat abs sam iniqua recitatic●● Marioni autem Evangelicum neganti hoc obs●udere in facili erat . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . l. 5. 〈◊〉 , l 39. Plut. in 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . Jos. Ant. 〈◊〉 . 18. c. 7 lib. Hist. c. 20. G. n. 31. 32. Psal. 〈◊〉 . 34. 〈◊〉 . 22. 〈◊〉 , 20. 〈◊〉 . 1 〈◊〉 9. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Religiosum est quod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gel. l. 4. c. 9. (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Regum , Jul. 〈◊〉 apud 〈◊〉 . (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 ad crandum in 〈◊〉 loci 〈◊〉 : sit una communis 〈◊〉 , una mens , una sies in charitate & side 〈◊〉 in Christum Jesum ; quo 〈◊〉 est 〈◊〉 . Omnes velut unus quispiam ad Templum Dei concurrite , velut ad unum altare , ad unum Jesum Christum , &c. S. Ignat. ad Magnes . 1 Cor. 11. 22. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lucian , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 omnibus 〈…〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . l. 6. * Psal , 27 4 , 〈◊〉 , 6. Isa. 6. 1. Psal. 138. 1. 2. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , LXX . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Psal. 〈◊〉 . 17. 〈◊〉 16. in 〈◊〉 & de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . S. 〈◊〉 , in c. 1. 〈◊〉 . Non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quando 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Christus 〈◊〉 . R. Canutus in Leg. 〈◊〉 . c. 4. Angeli siquidem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 19. 30. Psal. 87. 2. Matth , 23. 17. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈…〉 an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈…〉 , in omne 〈…〉 non 〈◊〉 in 〈…〉 ? 〈◊〉 , de 〈◊〉 . c. 1. Con. Gang. c. 5. 1 Cor. 14. 25 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in 〈◊〉 . pl●bs devota veni , pérque haec 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Simplicius P. in expositione Ecclesiae S. Andreanae in Roma . Delicta Majorum im●●eritus l●●s , Romane , donec templa refeceris , AEdèsque labentes Deorum , & Foeda nigro simulachro ●●●o . Hor. l. 3. cd . 6. In pictatis notatur Zeno , qu●d dixerit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Et 〈◊〉 Gentium mos erat aras 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , nemoribus , & montium jugis , iò quò 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 includendos non esse dix●●ant . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Philo. * Quid cum tanto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sacerdotio 〈◊〉 convent●sque ageret . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . Gravitas honesta , diligentia attonita , cura solicita , apparitio devota , & processio modesta . Terr . de praescript . Confluunt ad Ecclesiam costâ celebri●ate , honestâ utriusque sexûs discretione . S. Aug. l. 2. c. 28. de Civit. Dei. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo legat . ad Caium . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idem . Quin demus id superis — Compositum jus s●sque animus , sanct●sque recessus Mentis , & incoctum generoso pectus honesto : Hec cedò ut admoveam templis , & ●arre litabo . Pers. Sat. 2. * 〈◊〉 gratiorem existimari qui delubris Deorum param 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , quàm qui 〈◊〉 carmen 〈◊〉 . Plin. Sec , Pan. Trajan . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Porphyr . de Non esu 〈◊〉 . l. 2. Optimus animus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . ( a ) Psal. 26. 6. ( b ) 1 Cor. 3. 17. Matth. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Eurhym . 〈◊〉 in Joan. Apud 〈◊〉 l. 2. c. 3. 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sacra 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad 〈◊〉 solos deducere verpos . Juv. 〈◊〉 . 14. Joseph , 〈◊〉 , l. 18. c. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joseph , de 〈◊〉 . Jud. l. 1. c 5. & l. 3. c. 2. & l. 5. c. 3. Epiph. contr . Eb. bares . 30. * Cod. Theod. de 〈◊〉 , Joseph . l. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Jud. 〈◊〉 . 33. 〈◊〉 Mare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 templi ad aquarum 〈◊〉 . * Cicero 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . l. 13. & in 〈◊〉 . pro Plancic . (a) 〈◊〉 ad Quint. Fratrem de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Asian . (b) Vita Publicanorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , impunita rapina , 〈◊〉 nullâ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , V. 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apud 〈◊〉 textum D. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dicti Parisim , 〈◊〉 proprio 〈◊〉 qui 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dicti Gabaim ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gabella . (a) Lib. 7. 〈◊〉 . c. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apud Sozomen . l. 5. c. 20. Johan . Damas. 〈◊〉 imagin . 〈◊〉 . 3. ex 〈◊〉 Johan . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ait , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philippo 〈◊〉 Trachonitidis 〈◊〉 , ut liceret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in memoriam 〈◊〉 beneficii . Mark 5. 26. 〈◊〉 8. 43. Lib. 4. 〈◊〉 Imagin . cap. 15. Epiphan . in Panar . lib. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 51. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 , adversus 〈◊〉 alios 〈◊〉 odium . Tacit. ‖ Quae nubis toties non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Offendor 〈◊〉 simpliciore 〈◊〉 . Martial . 〈◊〉 . 1 Pet. 2. 12. Tit. 3. 10. 2 Epjst. John 10. Irenae . l. 3. 〈◊〉 . 3. Euseb. l. 3. c. 13. Lib. 1. 〈◊〉 p. 3. 〈◊〉 . 5. de Jejun , decimi 〈◊〉 . Gregor . l. 3. dial . 3. 13. * 1 〈◊〉 . 14. 35 * Quam B. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 probat Baronius . John 5. 44. 〈◊〉 . 4. Hist. 〈◊〉 . 23. Lurida 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in corum 〈…〉 . Lucret. lib. 4. Lib. de Baptis . Simul & quod gaudes & quod times 〈◊〉 . Seneca . Gal. 3. 19. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . in 〈◊〉 . Act. 20. 21. Heb. 2. 16. Lev. 20. 10. Luke 24. 46. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & infrequens , 〈◊〉 dum sapientiae Consultus erro , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , atque 〈◊〉 cursus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Hor. l. 1. 〈◊〉 . 34. Rom. 6. 4. 1 Pet. 3. 21. Rom. 5. 1. 〈◊〉 3. 5. 7. Rom. 3. 26. Gal. 2. 16. Rom. 3. 24. 25 , 26. Vers. 28. Vers. 27. 1 Cor. 6. 11. 1 〈◊〉 . 1. 18. Mar. 1. 15. Act. 3. 19. Act. 2. 38. Mar. 16. 16. Eph. 5. 25 , 26 , 27. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Mart. Dial. cum 〈◊〉 . * Act. 8. 37. & 10. 47. & 16. 15 , 33. a Rom. 3. 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ratio 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 quos Dominus in 〈◊〉 , Mauh . 20. 〈◊〉 dimum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Ratio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non 〈◊〉 : 〈◊〉 nos conduxerat , vers . 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cui respondes Christus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyril . Hier of . Act. 3. 19. 〈◊〉 latio 〈◊〉 meruisset in fine de 〈◊〉 suo 〈◊〉 , non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 baptiz 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Tune enim baptizatus est , qui tune 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Cruce confessus est : 〈◊〉 enim , si in extremo 〈◊〉 hiatu 〈◊〉 , sanat & liberat in ablutione Baptismi . IBi 〈◊〉 qul , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , nunquam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cùm jam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , won sie 〈◊〉 acquirunt quod volunt . S. Aug. cap. Nullus de 〈◊〉 . dist . 7. Vide Part 3. Consid. of Crucifix , of Jesus . 1 Pet , 2. 24. Luk. 1. 73 , & 〈◊〉 . Tit. 2. 11 , 12. Vers. 13. 14. Rom. 6. 2 , 3 , 4. Ib. v. 6. * Vitia Catechumeno non 〈◊〉 fidell , imd & Polygamia ante 〈◊〉 sacerdotibus non 〈◊〉 obicem . S. 〈◊〉 in fin . Apol. 1. centra 〈◊〉 . S. Aug. de 〈◊〉 conjugali , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 agitur , non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Nam in Baptismo omnia peccata 〈◊〉 . Can. Apost . 17. Concil . Eliber . c. 30 , 31. 〈◊〉 post 〈◊〉 rursus 〈◊〉 igni destinatur : sicut & homo qui post 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Tertul. de Baptis . Nune 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aliam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , alios mores 〈◊〉 . Ante obitum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Pet. 1. 4. Verse 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Col. 1. 21 , 22 , 23. * 2 Pet. 1. 9. Heb. 12. 14 , 15. Heb. 10. 22. 〈◊〉 . 16 , 17. Heb. 10. 23 , 26. 2 Cor. 13. 5. Rom. 8. 10. Gal. 5. 24. 1 John 3. 9. Jam. 1. 18. Gal. 6. 1. James 5. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Can. Apost . 51. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . S. 〈◊〉 . Can. 〈◊〉 . * 1 Joh. 1. 9. Apocal. 2. 5. See Discourse 6. of Baptism . Heb. 6. 4 , 6. Heb. 10. 26 , 29. Quid igitur ? 〈◊〉 est 〈◊〉 ? Haud . quaquam : sed 〈◊〉 per novum 〈…〉 est ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apestolo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & renovationis 〈◊〉 sancti . Theophyl . in hunc locum . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Chrys. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . in 10. 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , sed jam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; sed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , quia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . lib. de 〈◊〉 . c. 7. Hujus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 . c. 9. Act. 8. 22 , 23. 〈◊〉 . 22 , 23 , 1 〈◊〉 2 , 1 , 2. 2 〈◊〉 . 2 , 20 , 21. 〈◊〉 amissos 〈◊〉 Lana resert 〈◊〉 fuco : Nee 〈◊〉 virtus , 〈◊〉 semel excidit . Curat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Hor. 〈◊〉 . 3. Od. 5. 2 Pet. 2. 14. 2 Sam. 12. 13 , 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sophoel . Psal. 32. 1 , 2. Rom. 4. 7. 1 John 1. 6 , 7. Rom. 13. 12 , 13 , 14. 1 Pet. 1. 15 , 14. 2 Pet. 3. 11. 1 John 3. 3. 1 Pet. 2. 1. Heb. 12. 1. 1 John 1. 5. 7. 2 Pet. 1. 4. Ibid. v. 5 , &c. Veri boni aviditas tuta est . Quid sit istud , interrogas , aut unde subeat ? dicam : ex bona conscientia , ex honestis consiliis , ex rectis actionibus , ex contemptra fortuitorum , ex placido vitae & continuo tenore unam prementis viam . Sen. ep . 23. * Verse 8 , 9. * Bonum ex 〈◊〉 causa , malum ex 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( qued 〈◊〉 Diodorum Siculum ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 dixit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈…〉 . Heb. 12. 14 , 15 , 16. 1 John 5. 16. Rom 6. 7. Esay 22 14. Gen. 31. 42. Matth. 18. 35. Rom. 11. 22. Verse 27. (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Acts 3. 19. Hnit 〈◊〉 promittitur 〈◊〉 remissio in seq . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (c) Matt. 12. 41 (d) 〈◊〉 . 3. 8. 〈◊〉 . 10. Ezek. 18. 27. Ezek. 33. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Polybius . Vide 〈◊〉 Clem. Alexan. 〈◊〉 . l. 2. ubi ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 6. 1. Apocal. 2. 5. Gal. 6. 1. Matth. 3. 8. 2 Pet. 1. 4. 5. 2 Cor. 7. 10. (a) Ro. 12. 2. * Tit. 3. 5. (b) Jam. 4. 8. (c) Gal. 5. 24. * Col. 3. 5. ‖ 1 Cor. 5. 7. (a) Eph. 5. 14. (b) Rom. 13. 13. (c) Joh. 3. 3. Rom. 13. 11. — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Eradenda Cupidinis Pravi sunt 〈◊〉 ; & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — Hor. l. 3. 〈◊〉 . 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hierocl . in Pythag. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 2. 〈◊〉 . — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hierocl . Nam 〈◊〉 qui ex 〈◊〉 propesisis in alia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nè transiliunt 〈◊〉 , sed 〈◊〉 quodam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 habere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pessunt , suspensi & vagi ? Seneca 〈◊〉 . * Gal. 6. 15. 5. 6. 〈◊〉 Cor. 7. 19. ‖ Gal. 6. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 9. Matatus — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ! ( quoties 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 videris 〈◊〉 ) Quae mens est 〈◊〉 , cur 〈◊〉 non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non redeunt 〈◊〉 ? Hor. lib. 4. Od. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Epict. c. 75. * Et quis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qui , quod ad sese 〈◊〉 , aquum censeat quenquam poenas dare ob tam rem quod arguatur male 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , opinor . — 〈◊〉 si henorem non 〈◊〉 est habere ob eam rem , quod 〈◊〉 facere 〈◊〉 quis dicit , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tamin ; 〈◊〉 tale 〈◊〉 , non quòd malè 〈◊〉 , sed quia 〈◊〉 dicuntur 〈◊〉 . Orat. M. Catonis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . apud A. Gellium , l. 7. c. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ex 〈◊〉 facto 〈◊〉 astimatio . D. dereg . Jur. * Matr. 13. 15. ex Isa. 6. 9 , 10. Mark 4. 12. Luke 8. 10. Joh. 12. 40. Acts 28. 27. Rom. 11. 8. Audies plorosque dicontes , A quinquagesimo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 annul 〈◊〉 me 〈◊〉 . Et 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ? Senec. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 2 Pet. 2. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de Repub. * Nequit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aut 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ex 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , si adversû 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . cap. 4. Ante 〈◊〉 curandum 〈◊〉 ut homo bene 〈◊〉 ; in senectute 〈◊〉 , ut 〈◊〉 moriatur . Seneca . O si compunct as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ante 〈◊〉 mutare , 〈◊〉 exspectare 〈◊〉 Fata 〈◊〉 — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; ergd 〈◊〉 spatium nobis dum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Dum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cl-mentia sese 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 plangamus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 licet , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Avit . Bis jam penè tibi consul 〈◊〉 irstat , Et numeras paucos vix iua vita dies . Mart. l. 1. ep . 16. Vide S. Ambros. l. 2. de 〈◊〉 . c. 1. & 11. S. Aug in l. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 41. S. Basil. orat . 4. S. Bernard , in parvis 〈◊〉 . ser. 38. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 temporis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Horat. l. 3. Od. 29. Vita 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , data est sine 〈◊〉 nobis Mutua , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 quod sit 〈◊〉 vitae spatium ? 〈◊〉 ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Qui ad illam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non longissimum 〈◊〉 , sed maximum . Senec. Malè vivunt qui 〈◊〉 vivere 〈◊〉 . Non 〈◊〉 stare paratus ad mortem , qui 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vivere . Quidam vivere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; quidam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quám 〈◊〉 . Senec. 〈◊〉 . 23. 〈◊〉 est locus solvendi aeris alieni . Serec . ibid. Mortem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hilaris 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qui 〈◊〉 ad 〈◊〉 diu 〈◊〉 . Idem ep . 30. — Qui 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 in serum tempus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Non potest stare paratus ad mortem qui 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Id 〈◊〉 est , ut 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Quidam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod 〈…〉 . Senec. 〈◊〉 . 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 victurum , 〈◊〉 dicis , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 istud , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vivis ? 〈◊〉 jam vivere , 〈◊〉 , serum 〈◊〉 : Ille sapit quisquis , 〈◊〉 , vixit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . l. 5. 〈◊〉 . 59. Non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quae 〈◊〉 negari ; Et solum hoc ducat , quod suit , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Non est , crede mihi , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Vivam . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vita est 〈◊〉 ; vive 〈◊〉 . l. 1. 〈◊〉 . 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutor . ibid. ex Aristotele . Rom. 2. 6 , 7 , 8 , 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 2. Jam. 5. 20. Tob. 4. 10. 1 〈◊〉 . 3. 3. Rom. 5. 5. 1 Tim. 4. 8. 〈◊〉 . 6. 1. Vide 〈◊〉 . of 〈◊〉 , Part 1. and 〈◊〉 . of 〈◊〉 , Part 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Luke 6. 20. 〈◊〉 24. Jam. 2. 6 , &c. 5. 1 , &c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 minùs 〈◊〉 quàm 〈◊〉 creditur , Aliâ 〈◊〉 ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Sen. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Timocr . 〈◊〉 . Vil nos in mare proximum 〈◊〉 & lapides , 〈◊〉 & inutile , Summi 〈◊〉 mali , 〈◊〉 . Hor. lib. 3. 〈◊〉 . 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 , l. 13. 〈◊〉 . Ju 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 dixit qui 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Lucan . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 nil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fortè minùs locuples uno 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sibi — Horat. Apocal. 3. 17. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rectè beatum : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nomen beati , qui 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 call . 〈…〉 , &c. Hor. lib. 4. Od. 9. 〈◊〉 regnes avidum domando Spiritum , 〈◊〉 si Libyam remotis Gadibus jung as , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Hor. l 2. Od. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , qui parvo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Hor. Matt. 11. 11. & 18. 4. Matt. 11. 5. Rom. 5. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * Jam : 1. 2 , 3. (a) 2 Cor. 〈◊〉 , 10. * 〈◊〉 . 4. 9. 10. Sic 〈…〉 ; & fit 〈◊〉 de 〈◊〉 culpae disciplina 〈◊〉 , S. Ambros. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. 〈◊〉 , in Psal. 33. 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pythag. Carm. aur . AEquam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; non 〈◊〉 in bonis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 li. Horat 〈◊〉 . l. 2. 〈◊〉 . 3. (a) 1 〈◊〉 . 3. 4. (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 〈…〉 . — ad Euse. — Non si 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & olim Sic 〈◊〉 — 〈…〉 . Hot. lib. 2. 〈◊〉 . 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quam qui maximè 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . l. 7. c. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Salva 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Comoed. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Psal. 17. 15. Col. 3. 12. 〈◊〉 enim sunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qui 〈◊〉 duram & quasi 〈◊〉 volum ; quae quidem 〈◊〉 cùm in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & bonis amici quasi 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apud M. T. 〈◊〉 , Gal. 6. 10. Rom. 5 7. Syrus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . s. d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Bona comparas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; & 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qui in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Deus est mortali juvare mortalem , atque haec est ad aeternitatem via . Sen. Psal. 24 , 3 , 4. 1 Tim. 1. 5. Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Jam. 3. 17. Phil. 4. 9. 1 Th 〈◊〉 . 5. 23. 2 〈◊〉 3. 16. Heb. 13. 20. 〈◊〉 . 8. 17. — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est , O 〈◊〉 , sequi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pam . Hor. lib. 3. Od. 25. C. 〈◊〉 de 〈◊〉 , Animas praelio 〈◊〉 suppliciis 〈◊〉 aeternas putant . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Non 〈◊〉 autem 〈◊〉 , qui 〈◊〉 non frangatur , eum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qui 〈◊〉 se à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , vinci à 〈◊〉 . Cic. de Offic. l. 1. Tertul. de 〈◊〉 . Hos 〈◊〉 , a falso damnati 〈◊〉 mortis . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sine 〈◊〉 datae , sine judice , 〈◊〉 Quaesitor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; ille 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Virg. 〈◊〉 . 6. * Athleta non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . cp . 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 olim 〈◊〉 haec 〈◊〉 ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Mar. 〈◊〉 S. Paulus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Phil. 2. 15. Rom. 3. 27. * Vide Considerat . of Christ's first Preaching , ● . 3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Amphiar . Apud . AEschyl . Jose hus 〈◊〉 Polybium , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dixit ob cogitatum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non 〈◊〉 nisi ob 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 2. 28 , 29 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — Optimus est qui 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Rom. 13. 10. * Luke 18. 20. * 〈◊〉 10. 19. 〈◊〉 . 19. 18. Rom. 13. 9. I. COMMAND . 〈◊〉 22 37. Mark 12. 30. Luke 10. 27. 2 Cor. 11. 7 , 8. 1 Cor. 7. 37. Histor. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Epict. 〈◊〉 . 75. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sophoc , 〈◊〉 . 1 King. 14. 8. 2 King. 23. 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de Gigant . Vido Exod . 34. 13. Deut. 4. 16. & 7. 5 , Numb . 33. 52. 〈◊〉 & Eeclesia & . Novemb. celebrat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 , qui , 〈…〉 , quàm Gentilibus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Sic. 〈 ◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Philo de 〈◊〉 . Prioribus 170. 〈◊〉 Templa quidem alificabant [ Romani , ] Simulacrum 〈…〉 per deteriorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Strab. l. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . * Gen. 48. 12. Gen. 23. 12. & 27 , 29 , & 42. 6. 1 Sam. 20. 41. 1 King. 1 , 16. III. COM. Apud Romanos sancitum est , ut si per Deum 〈◊〉 quis 〈◊〉 , ad Deum ipsum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , quem 〈◊〉 esse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Majestatis vindicem 〈◊〉 . L. 〈◊〉 , C. de rebus 〈◊〉 . & 〈◊〉 . Sinper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cum 〈◊〉 elogio , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Si duo 〈◊〉 , Sect. fin . de 〈◊〉 . Lysandir dixit 〈◊〉 uti posse pro suo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Plutarch . in Lysand. 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 ait , 〈◊〉 usos esse juramento 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Psal. 12. 2. Psal. 24. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo. Psal. 63. 11. 1 Sam. 20. 17. 〈◊〉 . 19. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Mart. l. 11. ep . 95. Ecco negat , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tonantis . Non 〈◊〉 , jura , 〈◊〉 , per 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 est , per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Vide Harmenopulum in 〈◊〉 . l. 5. c. 27. & Scalig. de Emend . temp . in append . libror. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Interp. in Hom. 〈◊〉 . lib. 6. hist. cap. 4. * Vide Ecclus. 23. 9 , 11 , 13. Dominus & Jacobus ideo prohibuer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 andum , non ut illud prorsus è rebus humanis 〈◊〉 , sed quia 〈◊〉 à 〈◊〉 non facilè jurando . S. August . ser. 28. de verbis Apost . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Rom 1. 9. 2 Cor. 11. 31. Gal. 1. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Basil. l. 〈◊〉 S 〈◊〉 . S. 〈◊〉 magnum humanae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 um ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Heb. 6. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , l. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sit . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . (a) 〈◊〉 . 5. 37. 〈…〉 sensum apud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Praetoris ex edicto 〈◊〉 . [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in omni 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non cogam . ] A. Gell. 〈◊〉 . 10. c. 15. Curtius lib. 7. * Qui non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pro Roscio . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo in 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. Iliad . l. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Qui per 〈◊〉 suam jurat , 〈…〉 jurat . 〈◊〉 . J. C. Concil . Chalc. c. 25. 2 King. 2. 2. 1 Cor. 15. 31. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 19. Per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sacra , 〈◊〉 caput . Matt. Deut. 30. 19. Isa. 1. 2. 〈◊〉 1. 2. S. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . ad Publicolam ; & l. 51. Duo patroni , 〈◊〉 . Si quis 〈◊〉 ; & l. Non 〈◊〉 , D. de 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . ad Seap. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dulce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 accingier 〈◊〉 . Virgil. l. 4. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 suos illam quondam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . IV. COM. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . ad 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . l. 7. c. 24. & lib 8. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . Canon 〈◊〉 . 65. & 〈◊〉 . in 〈◊〉 . Vide 〈◊〉 Synod . 〈◊〉 . Col. 2. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tacit. l. 3. Annal. his verbis : Quémne diem vacuum 〈◊〉 ? ubi inter sacra & 〈◊〉 , quo 〈◊〉 verbis etiam profanis 〈◊〉 mos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 inducantur . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in famulis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Cicer. de 〈◊〉 . l. 2. (a) Quippe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & jura 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nulla Relligio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sepem , 〈…〉 flu vio 〈◊〉 salubri . Virgil. apud Macrob. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . l. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 4. in Joan. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 observant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ad 〈◊〉 , ad 〈…〉 , quàm illo die in 〈◊〉 saltarent ? 〈◊〉 in Psal. 92. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . V. COM. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo 〈◊〉 D. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 avo , 〈◊〉 in 〈…〉 . Hor. 〈◊〉 . 2. od . 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 H 〈◊〉 . 〈…〉 . Cicer. 〈◊〉 . 3. 〈◊〉 . 15. 6. Mar. 7. 12. * 1 Tim. 5. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ( baeum . VI. COM. Lev. 24. 21. Num. 35. 16 , 17. Rom. 10. 3. 8. Hieron . epist. ad 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 lib. 2. de Ira , c. 4. Leontius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , c. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cur 〈…〉 . Horat. 〈◊〉 . 1. od . 16. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 2. 〈◊〉 . 〈…〉 . 〈◊〉 . Si 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Divinae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per gladium 〈◊〉 non 〈◊〉 . S. Greg. 〈◊〉 . 5. Moral . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c.. 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 ; i. e. non 〈◊〉 extra 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & extra modum . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 2. — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 me , 〈…〉 me 〈…〉 ? — A turpi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dissimilis sis . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — Deprensi non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fama 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . — Horat. Sat. 4. 〈◊〉 . 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fabricator descripsit ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est : si 〈◊〉 iram 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . (a) Ex quo factus sum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 me , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meum non 〈◊〉 , dixit S. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . (b) Melius 〈◊〉 est 〈…〉 probabils 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . S. Aug. ad 〈◊〉 . VII . COM. Vbi 〈…〉 est 〈◊〉 . Cassian . — Numquid ego à 〈◊〉 Magno 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , mea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ? Horat : 〈◊〉 . l. 1. 〈◊〉 . 2. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 , ad 〈◊〉 & ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Terentius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * Gen. 38. 14. Nihil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 philos , apud Plutarch . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Plato . Vt jam servaris 〈◊〉 corpus , adultera mens est : Omnibus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Ovid. 〈◊〉 est etiam sine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . VIII . COM. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sibi dirus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , niss causa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Horat. l. 2. Od. 2. (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 10. de 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. 〈◊〉 J. C. l. 〈◊〉 . D. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , D. de Verborum 〈◊〉 . IX . COM. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 4. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hesiod . l. 〈◊〉 . (a) Ephes. 4. 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sidi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Idem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . X. COM. Furtum 〈◊〉 sine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 solâ 〈◊〉 , atque 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 surtum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . A. Gell. l. 11. c. 18. Has 〈…〉 intra 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qui 〈◊〉 ullum , Facts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — 〈◊〉 . Dixit Xenocrates , Non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * Plutarchus 〈◊〉 multa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inimicos . " 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est quàm in 〈◊〉 — Oblatâ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inimicum , 〈◊〉 missum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est . Qui 〈◊〉 miseratur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indigenti , & filiis 〈◊〉 at familiae 〈◊〉 ipsorum 〈◊〉 operam suam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qui 〈◊〉 amat , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. 〈◊〉 cap. ex inim ; 〈◊〉 . Et Cicero dixit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 primum munus est , ut 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 injuriâ . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Exod. 21. 23. Levit. 24. 20. Deut. 19. 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vigor , 〈◊〉 publici 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 constituta , 〈◊〉 quisquam 〈◊〉 ipsi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ultionem . Honor. & Theod. in Cod. 〈◊〉 . Rom. 12. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sumitur 〈◊〉 generali pro omni 〈◊〉 . Rom. 12. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , sed ut 〈◊〉 non 〈◊〉 ; nisi si 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 magni hominis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Sen. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , non principis , ulciscar , dixit 〈◊〉 . Tacit. l. 3. Annal. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . Quis 〈◊〉 statuit unquam , aut cui concedi 〈◊〉 summo omnium periculo 〈◊〉 , ut 〈◊〉 jure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a quo 〈◊〉 ; sdicat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ? Cicero . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Menand . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; Timon . Phlias . 〈…〉 ; & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Qui 〈…〉 . 2. de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 32. 〈◊〉 . 5. 40. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈…〉 . 〈…〉 . * 〈…〉 . 〈◊〉 Cor. 6. 〈◊〉 , &c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cor. 6. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Vers. 12. Vers. 7. * 〈◊〉 qui 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; qui 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Tacit. Matth. 5 42. 6. 3. Luke 12. 33. 1 Tim. 6. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 convincitur , qui 〈◊〉 sibi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , dist . 42. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hor. l. 2. 〈◊〉 . 2. James 5. 2. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fur auferat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dederis , solas semper babebis 〈◊〉 . Martial . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 maximum incentivum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 compatiamur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quantum possumus , 〈◊〉 interdum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . S. Ambr. l. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 2 Thess. 3. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 39. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , vir Consularis , quum pal 〈◊〉 quidam 〈…〉 est , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 homini . A. Gell. l. 9. c. 2. — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Limine 〈…〉 , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & falso 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Juren . Satyr . 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Menand . Amititiam 〈◊〉 ad 〈◊〉 nostrum referemus , 〈◊〉 ad illius commoda quem diligimus , nonerit ista 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quadam utilltatum 〈◊〉 : Prata , & 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 diliguntur 〈◊〉 modo , 〈◊〉 strctus ex 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; Hominum charitas & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est . Cicer , de 〈◊〉 . Deor. l. 1. Qui 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 propriis offendat amicum 〈◊〉 , ignoscat 〈◊〉 illius : aquum i st 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Horat. l. 1. sat . 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proximum , 〈◊〉 ad 〈◊〉 locum 〈◊〉 . Prov. 〈◊〉 . — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sancimus iniquam ? Nam vitiis nemo sins 〈◊〉 ; optimus ille est Qui minimis urgetur . — Horat. ibid. 1 Cor. 3. 9. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Damasc. l. 3. Orthodox . sid . ‖ Qui singit sacros auro vel marmore vultus , Non facit ille D●●s : qui regat , ille facit . * 〈◊〉 ridet 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — Si tuito mala 〈◊〉 susurro 〈◊〉 — Pu'chra Laverna , D. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , da justum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & fraudibus 〈◊〉 nubem . Horat. * — Si 〈◊〉 vit , 〈◊〉 ipsis expendere Numinibus , quid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is ; Nam pro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quaque dabunt 〈◊〉 , Juvenal . 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 regantium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — Multa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( est . D sunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est , cui 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , qued 〈◊〉 est , manu . Hor. l. 3. od . 16. Oratio 〈◊〉 quantum substringitur verbis . tantum dissunditur sensibus . Tertull. Evangelii 〈◊〉 . Idem l. 〈◊〉 Orat. c. 1. Si 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pessumus quàm quod in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . S. Aug. 〈◊〉 . in Erem . Vir bonus 〈◊〉 D. i progenies . Senec. de Provident 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Menan . Hot donum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 donum , ut 〈◊〉 bominem vocet 〈◊〉 , Leo Ser. de Nativ . Matth. 23. 8. Ephes. 4. 6. * Nibil 〈◊〉 in insimis , qui Patrem 〈◊〉 incoeslis . Leo Ser. de Asens . * Colos. 1. 13. Revel . 1. 9. Matth. 13. 41. Luke 6. 20. Matth. 16. 28. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , quod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( 〈◊〉 S. 〈◊〉 ) 〈◊〉 [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : ] S. Lucas [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈…〉 Sordidus 〈◊〉 , Horat. l. 2. Od. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ab Jove donari 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Horat , ad 〈◊〉 , l. 2. F. p. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch . * 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . — Horat. l 2 Od. 16. — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ? Horat. l. 2. Od. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 longam : Jam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Et 〈◊〉 exilis 〈◊〉 . — Horat. l. 1. Od. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Conc. 〈◊〉 . 〈…〉 & diligi . Hugo de S. Victor . l. 2. 〈◊〉 , in 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. German . 〈◊〉 . C P. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — Pro jucundis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est 〈◊〉 homo quam 〈◊〉 . Nes , animorum 〈◊〉 & 〈…〉 : at 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qui 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Juven . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — 〈…〉 . Virg. 1 John 3. 21. James 5. 15. 〈◊〉 9 31. Psal. 66. 18. 1 〈◊〉 . 2. 8. 〈…〉 . Lam. 5. 〈◊〉 n. 〈◊〉 qui 〈◊〉 ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Gregor . Pastor . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Farre pio & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Hor. l. 3. Od. 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mar. 11. 24. James 1. 5 , 6. Chrysantio 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in vita Maximi . Signum futurae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quando 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad 〈◊〉 cum 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Cassian . Collat. 9. c. 32. Ecclus. 35. 17. Psal , 102. 17. Non in pluribus sint actus 〈◊〉 . Ecclus. 11. 10. Impar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad singula , dum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dividitur ad 〈◊〉 . S. Greg. Past. 1. p. c. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 puta , 〈◊〉 unum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nemo unum agit ; 〈◊〉 multiformes 〈◊〉 . Seneca . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 omnibus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . Inveni 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 , i. e. in 〈◊〉 ; quia quae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , quies explicat . S. Bernard . Serm. 1. in Cant. 〈◊〉 locus ingenio , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 carmine solo Vexant — Pectora nostra 〈◊〉 non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 opus , 〈◊〉 de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Sophocl , 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 12. 12. Quod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Luke 18. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Ohe jam desine 〈◊〉 , uxor , gratulando 〈◊〉 Tuam 〈◊〉 inventam gnatam : nisi illos 〈◊〉 ex ingenio 〈◊〉 , Vt nil 〈◊〉 intelligere nisi idem dictum est 〈◊〉 . Ter. Heaut . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Philem. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sophocl . 〈◊〉 . 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈…〉 . Solebant autem & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arboris ictu . Horat. l. 3. 〈◊〉 . 8. Non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — ad miser as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Nè Cypria 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Addant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 1d . l. 3. od . 29. 〈…〉 l. 11. Anu . * 〈◊〉 & 〈…〉 . S. Hieron . 〈◊〉 . 8. ad 〈◊〉 . 〈…〉 . 〈…〉 . Idem , 〈◊〉 S. Virgin. c. 14. ‖ Eccles. 5. v. 4. 5. Psal. 132. 1 , 2. Deut. 23. 21. Acts 18. 18. * 〈…〉 . — 〈…〉 . Hor. l. 2. od . 17. Nehem. 9. 5. Mark 11. 25. Luke 18 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plautarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vide S. Aug. l. 3. c. 5. de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 suis ornamentis pretiosis , Simplicis & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vestis , 〈…〉 ; Et 〈◊〉 sacram 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . S. Rosweld de Hon. 〈◊〉 . & de Otbon . Per universum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 observatur , 〈◊〉 , in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sacramenti , in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dominicum corpus 〈◊〉 quàm 〈◊〉 cibi . S. Aug. 〈◊〉 . 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , nisi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prandium vocare solet 〈◊〉 . Joseph , in vita 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 5. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apud 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 in cippo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . S. Cyp. 〈◊〉 junia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contra peccata saciunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , superbiam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 voluntatis 〈◊〉 ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . S. Leo , 〈◊〉 . 4. de Jejun . Saginantur 〈◊〉 qui 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , de Jejun . S. Hieron . in Vita S. Hilarion . 〈◊〉 cibus & 〈◊〉 semper 〈◊〉 triduana 〈◊〉 superant . S. Hieron . 〈◊〉 . 8. ad 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 . 2. 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can. Apost , 50. (b) 〈◊〉 . 5. de Jejun . Jejunium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , leves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . S. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . in vigil . S. 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , dixil S. Chrysost. (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 al re , 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad Dominum . 〈◊〉 . Acts 13. 1 , 2. Acts 14. 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Basil. Joel 2. 15. Levit. 23. 27 , &c. 〈◊〉 . 22. 12. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ph lo , 〈◊〉 de ipso 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , animum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 illa quae 〈◊〉 tristi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . de 〈◊〉 . c. 9. Baruch 2. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apud 〈◊〉 . Vnde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : & in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ezra 8. 21. Vid. Dan. 10. 12. Psa. 35. 13. Levit. 16. 29 , 30 , 31. Isa. 58. 3. * 〈…〉 . Lactant. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Ennodius in vita 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suis paginam quam 〈◊〉 , & quod liber 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signabat . Acts 10. 38. Joh. 20. 31. 10. 38. 5. 30. John 15. 24. Isai. 35. 4. 5. Matth. 11. 5. John 3. 2. Lib. 16. Hst. (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dixit 〈◊〉 apud Origen . (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 &c. verba Juliani apud Cyril . 〈◊〉 . 6. Spartianus in Adriano ; qui 〈◊〉 , Marium 〈◊〉 dixiss hac 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : per 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 19. Deut. 13. 1 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Notes for div A63641-e116350 John 5. 1 , &c. Iren. l. 2. c. 10. John 5. 19. &c. Suidas Voc. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Evangel . Naz. quod S. Hieron . 〈 ◊〉 〈◊〉 . in Gracum 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . advers . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 du 〈…〉 & 〈◊〉 , Omnibus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sedul . Dio hist. Rom. lib. 55. Isa. 35. 4. 5. Luke 7. — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Munda suis lacrymis redis , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Sedul . l. 3. 〈◊〉 . 〈 ◊〉 〈◊〉 . lib. 13. c. 3. Vide 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . l. 12. 〈◊〉 30. 〈◊〉 in Thalia . * Chap. 61. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 Discourse of Certainty of Salvation , Num. 3. 〈◊〉 incolumem 〈◊〉 , Sublatam ex oculis qu erimus invidi . Horat. 〈◊〉 . 3. 〈◊〉 . 24. 〈◊〉 . 11. 30. 1 John 5. 3 , 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Procop. Gothic . 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * Siquidem Leomdes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eum 〈◊〉 imbuit , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quoque & jam maximum Regem ab illa institutions puerili sunt 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . l. 1. c. 1 Wisd. 6. 12 , 13 , 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est facere ist a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 n. quiete 〈◊〉 est animi ? quid 〈◊〉 à laboriosius ? 〈◊〉 elementiâ remissius ? quid 〈◊〉 negotiosius ? Vacat 〈◊〉 , libido 〈◊〉 est . Omnium denique virtutum tutela facilior est ; vitia magno 〈◊〉 . Seneca . In 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 turpitudo ; cùm in rectè factis 〈◊〉 labor , 〈◊〉 honest 〈◊〉 . Muson . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 innocentiâ 〈◊〉 , quàm 〈◊〉 â. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . de orat . 〈◊〉 namque à nobis 〈◊〉 ( 〈◊〉 ) quid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a 〈…〉 , humilitatem , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , sanctitatem , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nos , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ? Salvian . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . S. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 domûs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , quòd malè 〈◊〉 Regumest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Horat. l. 4. od . 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 5. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . Malignum hunc 〈◊〉 hominem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Ego esse 〈◊〉 credo , cui placet 〈◊〉 . Matt. Ep. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Jac. 3. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Poli. 〈◊〉 M. Cato 〈◊〉 Aul. Gell. l. 13. c. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 egeo ; at ego 〈◊〉 , quia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Nique mala 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vulgus putat : 〈◊〉 qui 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ac 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; si illi gravem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tolerent , hi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Tacit. 〈◊〉 . l. 6. — 〈◊〉 ( fortuna ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , resigno 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 me involvo : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sine dote 〈◊〉 . Hor. l. 3. 〈◊〉 . 29. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * Non 〈…〉 Mentis , & cur at 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Hor. l. 2. 〈◊〉 . 16. 〈◊〉 fortem videris , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Senec. trag . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Zoroast . 1 Tim. 6. 10. 〈◊〉 perjura patris sides Consortem 〈◊〉 fallat & hespitem , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 improbae Crescunt divitiae , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quid semper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . l. 3. od . 24. — Vel dic , quid refer at intra Naturae fines viventi , jugera 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mille 〈◊〉 — Vt , tibi 〈◊〉 sit 〈◊〉 liquidi non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Vel cyatho ; & 〈◊〉 , Magno de flumine mallem , Quàm 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fonticulo tantundem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Plenior ut si quos delectet copia 〈◊〉 , Cum ripa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . At qui 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 ; limo Turbatam 〈◊〉 it aquam , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in undis . Horat. Serm. l. 〈◊〉 . Sat. 1. — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Soph. 〈◊〉 . * Aleam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ut cum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 jactu de libertate & de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Tacit . de mor. Germ. * Virtus repulsae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 honoribus ; 〈◊〉 sumit aut ponit 〈◊〉 Arbitrio popularis aurae . Horat. l. 3. od . 2. * Virtus laudatur , & alget . Juven . Praecipuam 〈◊〉 Majestatis curam 〈◊〉 prospicimus , religiouis indaginem ; 〈◊〉 si 〈◊〉 retinere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inceptis . Theod. & Valent. in Cod. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 providentia 〈◊〉 munus , ut 〈◊〉 magis juvarent . 〈◊〉 , l. 1. c. 12. Exod. 15. 26. Exod. 23. 25 , 26. Psal. 34. 12 , 13. Prov. 3. 7 , 8. Verse 16 , 18. Psal. 90. 10. Num. 23. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . Cicero in 〈◊〉 . 1. sic reddit ; Mors mea non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ut 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cum 〈◊〉 . Matt. 10. 39. 〈◊〉 . 6. 2 , 3. — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Philoct . 1 Tim. s 4. 8. Matt. 5. 3. &c. Verse 5. Psal. 37. 11. Matt. 4. 4. Deut. 8. 3. Jam. 5. 14 , 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 Dominus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sciamus esse , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 praemoriuntur in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , quòd in 〈◊〉 in aliena aetate 〈◊〉 ; dixit S. Hieron . Paulo 〈◊〉 vigeto & pio 〈◊〉 , l. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 8. Rom. 5. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . De 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apud Thu. cyd . 1 Thess. 3. 8. Psal. 37. 22. Prov. 10. 27. Psal. 34. 21. Prov. 19. 16. 1 Sam. 26. 10. 〈◊〉 omnia 〈…〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 incubuit 〈…〉 gradum . Horat. l. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 3. (a) In 〈◊〉 . 23. 〈◊〉 unitur Deo , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 per vim 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ultra limitatum 〈◊〉 . (b) Eubulus apud 〈◊〉 , l. 7. c. 1. 〈…〉 : Vnu n 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , qui 〈…〉 , &c. 〈…〉 . * Prov. 23. 29 , 30. 〈◊〉 102. 24. Isa. 57. 1. Lib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 1. Panar . 〈◊〉 . 6. Gen. 11. 28. Jer. 17. 11. (a) 2 〈◊〉 . 13. 20. (b) 1 〈◊〉 . 10. 13. (c) 2 〈◊〉 . 26. 19. ‖ 2 Kings 16. (d) 2 Chron. 21. 18. Jer. 28. 16. 1 Cor. 11. 30. Jndg. 5. 20. * Jer. 10. 2. Gentes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 luna 〈◊〉 reputabatur , unde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quintas 〈◊〉 suspectas habet . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 21. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 21. 〈◊〉 23. 1 〈◊〉 . 2. 33. Prov. 21. 21. 〈◊〉 sapientiam 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Lactan , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Sophoc . 〈…〉 futura prospectant . 〈◊〉 ad Constant filium . — Quis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ipsam 〈◊〉 si 〈◊〉 ? 〈◊〉 studiorum 〈…〉 Tacit. Vide Ciceron . 〈◊〉 . 2. Lact. l. 3. c. 27. 〈◊〉 . Virtusper 〈◊〉 non 〈◊〉 est , quoniam in 〈◊〉 , ut dixi , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ejus est . 〈◊〉 , c. 12. Aug. ep . 12. Ad Num. 17. Quod dixit Jesus 72 〈◊〉 . Lucae to . v. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 descripta 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , non tamen ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad munus Evangelicum & 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 . Alii autem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , sed 〈◊〉 gaudii 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 ; ex 〈◊〉 scil . & quando hoc 〈◊〉 , aut 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 autem verba significent , 〈◊〉 est Doctores 〈◊〉 non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 72 Discipulos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Ad scelus ab 〈◊〉 votis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Tacit. — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 debile vulgus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pallor & 〈◊〉 , Hine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Statins . * Futurum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . A. Gellius , l. 14 2 Tim. 2. 19. 〈◊〉 . 3. 21 , 22. 1 John 3 14. 1 Cor. 4. 4. Cum 〈◊〉 in 〈…〉 , Nihil 〈◊〉 sum , &c. q. d. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 me non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ait , 〈◊〉 quis 〈◊〉 ? S. 〈◊〉 . c. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 9. 1 , 2. * Beatus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dubitat . Rem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qui audacter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . S. Hieron . (a) Matth. 24. 13. Dan. 4. 27. (b) 1 Cor. 10. 12. (c) Rom. 11. 20. Jocl 2. 14. (d) 〈◊〉 . 2. 12. Acts 8. 22. (e) Rev. 3. 11. (f) Chap. 24. Rom. 11. 29. Rom. 8. 1. Rom. 11. 22. Rom. 8. 15. 1 John 4. 13. 2 Cor. 1. 22. & 〈◊〉 . 5. v. 5. Heb. 〈◊〉 — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; Is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — 1 Cor. 9. 27. Rom. 8. 38. 2 Tim. 4. 6 , 〈◊〉 Epiphan . Haeres . 51. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , c , 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aquis , 〈…〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Exod. 30. 〈◊〉 qui 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; qui fecit , 〈◊〉 . Tacit. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 debitorum qui solvendo non sunt , vid. I 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . & 6. & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 6. & A. 〈◊〉 , 1. 20. c. 1. qui 〈…〉 Gellius ) 〈…〉 ad 〈…〉 in leges 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Cod. Theod. l. 4. & 7. de exact . Epiphan , de vita & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . c. 7. Epiphan . Pan. l. 1. 〈◊〉 . 1. Euseb . l. 1. c. 12. Papias apud 〈◊〉 . l. 3. c. 33. Joseph . de 〈◊〉 Jud. l. 7. c. 24. 〈◊〉 Num. 3. Matth. 18. 7. Rom. 14. 1 Cor. 8. Galat. 2. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , contra 〈◊〉 & inanes ceremonias 〈◊〉 & popularis 〈◊〉 . 1 Cor. 8. 10 , 12 Rom. 14. 21. Matth. 5. 29. & 13. 57. Mark 14. 27 & 6. 3. & 4. 17. Luke 7. 23. John 16. 1. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 14. 1. 1 Cor. 8. 10 , 12 Gal. 23 , 4 , &c. Ad Num. 21. & 27. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Solon . Luke 13. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suae gladio , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 omntbus simul & 〈◊〉 censuram , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Salvian . * 〈◊〉 An 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 dixit 〈◊〉 , Digni 〈◊〉 trant in 〈…〉 ab 〈◊〉 vita , mundati castigatione sibi 〈◊〉 per mortem communem , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 . Idem ait S. Aug. l. 3. 〈◊〉 . 1. com . 〈◊〉 . & Cassian . * — 〈◊〉 qui 〈◊〉 sacrum Vulgâris arcanae , sub iisdem Sit trabibus , 〈◊〉 mecum Solvat phaselum : 〈◊〉 Di 〈◊〉 , Neglectus , incesto 〈◊〉 integrum . Hor. l. 3. ed. 2. Peudula dum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 capilli , Exspirans Eadit , & gelidâ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 D. cubat : 〈◊〉 sic pendunt crimina 〈◊〉 . Valerand . * 〈◊〉 . A. D. 1100. & 2024. 〈◊〉 . Fulgos. lib. 9. c. 12. Pana tamen praesens , cùm 〈◊〉 deponis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & crudum pavonem in balnea portas . 〈◊〉 subitae mortes atque 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Juven . Sat. 1. 〈◊〉 nimis 〈◊〉 habui , 〈◊〉 vapulo 〈◊〉 . Sic luiur juvenis culp 〈◊〉 dolore senis . — Ruit Arius alvo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cadens , 〈◊〉 peremptu ; Cum Juda 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , qui 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 curvatus obit : nec poena sequestrat Quos par culpa ligat , qui 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ab ore parant . Hic prodidit , ille diremis Sacrilega de 〈◊〉 . — 〈◊〉 . Christ. apud Baron . T. 3. ad ann . Christ. 336. 〈◊〉 . Gent. Anglor . l. 3. c. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inquinavere , & genus , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fluxit . Hor. l. 3. od . 6. Ezek. 14. 20. Deut. 17. 12. 19. 13. 19 21. 9 , 21. & 〈◊〉 . — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Judex , Et 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In 〈◊〉 : ex quo 〈◊〉 D os 〈◊〉 pactâ 〈◊〉 — Hor. l. 3. od . 3. 〈…〉 , but 〈…〉 . Hor. l. 3. 〈◊〉 . 6. * 〈◊〉 , id est , 〈◊〉 , corrupte , 〈◊〉 ex Latinis 〈◊〉 solent 〈◊〉 . Vide Erasm. in 14. Marci . 〈◊〉 . 〈 ◊〉 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pindar . vccat 〈◊〉 ramos , Olymp. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & coronarum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 de 〈◊〉 . H. b. N. T. c. 19. 〈◊〉 . 〈 ◊〉 〈◊〉 N. T. Joseph . de 〈◊〉 Jud. 1. 6. c. 3. 〈◊〉 . ad 〈◊〉 . l. 1. 〈◊〉 . 51. Lib. 14. 〈◊〉 . cap. 14. Elias 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Montanus in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * Matth. 27 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pro 〈◊〉 , per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 . Nam 〈◊〉 S. Augustini in 〈…〉 in 〈◊〉 . T. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ex 〈…〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & in N. T. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . apud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 11. Junii . Vide 〈◊〉 . in descript . 〈◊〉 . n. 6. Quidam ex 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ex 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . tam 〈◊〉 . Sic Philippus 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . S. Hieron . in c. 9. Matt. * I , Lictor , obnu●e caput Liberatoris Vrbis hujus . Livi. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Arse●●●s in Vitis Pp. * Euthym , in 26. 〈◊〉 . Codren in 〈◊〉 . Oecumen . in c. 1. 〈◊〉 . Juvencus hist. Evang. l. 4 〈◊〉 de 〈◊〉 Sanct. c. 4. S. Aug. tract . 114. in Joan. Cyril . in Joan. l. 12. c. 6. 〈◊〉 hom . 12. in Joan. Ambros . serm . 〈◊〉 Calend. Januar . l. 20. * 〈◊〉 . c. 8. Joseph . l. 16. c. 14. Idem in 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . in 〈◊〉 , c. 75. Dio Rom. 〈◊〉 . l. 57. Sub 〈◊〉 & Druso Coss. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est codex Epist. Sidonii , qui ait , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. C. Tiberiano triginta dierum vitam post sententiam 〈◊〉 . Lib. In 〈◊〉 , D. d. 〈◊〉 . Lib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . de accus . Lignum transversum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jesus , scil . Patibulum , ad locum ubi Crux , scil . lignum oblongum , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plautus , Patibulum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pictores 〈◊〉 pingunt Josum , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lignum scil . Lipsius tract , de supplicio 〈◊〉 . (a) Tertul. l. 2. contra Marcion . Origen . tract . 35. in Matth. Basil. in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 5. Athan , de Pass . & 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pp. unico 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in epist. 〈◊〉 Ephes. c. 5. & in c. 27. Matth. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Nonnus in Joan. (b) S. Aug. 〈◊〉 . 71. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Golgotha locus est 〈◊〉 . Calvaria quondam , Lingua paterna prior sic illum nomine dixit . Hit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 esse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 medium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — . (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . hist. l. 14. c. 13 Athenaeus l. 11. c. 30. Si calidum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Convenit , & 〈◊〉 sit sapor indè 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . l. 14. * Ego 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 primus qui in 〈…〉 bis pedes , bis 〈◊〉 . Plaut . 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lecta , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unâ , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 recitata , 〈◊〉 Provinciae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Apul. 1. l. 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 : 〈◊〉 . Vide Dionys . 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rab. R. Maimon . Origen . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . l. 2. 〈◊〉 . Apolog. Lucian . in actis sui Mart. August . ep . 80. ad 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 in vita 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cum dix 〈◊〉 , Aut Deus 〈◊〉 , aut 〈◊〉 compatitur : & hac de causa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aram 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quidam . Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 31. c. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 conglutinant vulnera . Tertul. de Spect. c. 25. 〈◊〉 & de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in morsus untorum , & spongias 〈◊〉 . S. Hieron . 〈◊〉 . 150. q. 8. 〈◊〉 Metaph. 〈◊〉 16. Octob. In hac ipsa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quadam buccarum inanitas est , quâ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 jugulo , spiritus 〈◊〉 . Plin. l. 11. c. 45. Vide Lactant. l. 1. c. 26. Cic. pro 〈◊〉 . * Philo de leg . special . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Metaphr . August . 15. Beda 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . cap. 2. Niceph. 〈◊〉 . 1. 〈◊〉 . 32. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 victorum , palmae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 es ; ergd Laetus obi , quoniam 〈◊〉 nisi victor 〈◊〉 . Ad Num. 16. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * Idcirco pides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & capui ; quia in lavandis pidibus , & 〈◊〉 est gestus humilitatis , & propinquior significatio charitatis , 〈◊〉 nos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suo a 〈◊〉 nostris . 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sub tam 〈◊〉 Dio ? S. Bernard . Matt. 11. 29. Turgidus bic 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sulphureas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Pers. Sat. 3. 〈…〉 patientia 〈◊〉 . S. Hier. S. Hier. in 〈◊〉 S. Anton. Ama nesciri & pro ●●hilo reputari . Gerson . Appetere de humilitale laudem humilitatis non est virtus , sed subversio . Quid enim perversum magi● aut indignius , quàm ut indè velu haberi melior , unde tibi videris deterior ? S. Bernard . Est qui nequiter humiliat si , & interiora ejus sunt plena dolo . Eccle● . 12. 11. Nil lascivius est Carisiano ; In Saturnalibus ambulat regatus . Matt. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( David , ) 〈◊〉 aut de his in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & non sunt , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 judicium 〈◊〉 at ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his 〈◊〉 quibus 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . S. Gieg. Acts 5. 41. 1 Cor. 10. 16. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & distributum 〈◊〉 corpus suum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est corpus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , id est , figura 〈◊〉 . Figura a , 〈◊〉 , non fuisset , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 corpus . 〈◊〉 . lib. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . cap. 40. 〈◊〉 si quicquid 〈◊〉 in os , in 〈◊〉 abit , & in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 cibus qui 〈◊〉 per verbum Dei 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Origen . in 15. cap. S. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Theod. Dial. 2. Idem disput . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christi Naturam conversum iri in Divinam , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . modo quo 〈◊〉 in corpus Christi , 〈◊〉 , Certè 〈◊〉 scil . 〈◊〉 , hoc est , 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. Our 〈◊〉 Saviour , who hath called 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 Bread and a Vine , hath also honoured the visible Signs with the title and 〈◊〉 of his Body and Bloud , not changing their Nature , but adding to Nature Grace . See the Dialog . called the Immoveable . 〈◊〉 quae suminus 〈◊〉 & Sanguinis Christi divina res est . 〈◊〉 quod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consortes 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 non 〈◊〉 esse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 natura 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 ; & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 Corporis & 〈◊〉 Christi in actione 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . P. Gelasius libr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 . Non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 panis , & poculum sanguis ; sed quòd 〈◊〉 corporis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Facundus . Si n. 〈◊〉 quandam 〈◊〉 non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quarum sunt sacramenta , omnino sacramenta non essent : ex 〈◊〉 a. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 actipiunt . 〈◊〉 S. Aug. 〈◊〉 . 23. 〈◊〉 contr . 〈◊〉 Manich. lib. 10. c. 2. Quod ob omnibus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in quo caro Christi post 〈◊〉 per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Apud Grauanum de Consecrat . dist . 2. c. 48. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 : virba : Sicut 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , qui 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est , suo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Corpus Christi , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 corporis Christi , 〈◊〉 viz. quod visibile , quod palpabile , 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ipsa 〈◊〉 carnis quae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Passio ; Mors , Crucifixio , non 〈…〉 quod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est . * Si 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vasa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est , in quibus non est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christi , sed mysterium corporis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mag's vasa corporis 〈◊〉 , &c. S. Chrysost. Opere imperf . in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 . ad Caesarium , in 〈◊〉 . Pp. 〈◊〉 . 1618. 〈…〉 illum sanctificante gratiâ , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quidem est ab 〈◊〉 Panis , dignus autem 〈◊〉 est 〈◊〉 Corporis appellations , 〈◊〉 natura Panis in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. 1 Cor. 10. 16 , 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non 〈◊〉 Panem esse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ut 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 corpus Domini , 〈◊〉 fiant unum participans & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 Caro. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 partem aliquam sibi 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 particips est . 2 Cor. 6. 1. * 〈◊〉 calix , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ad 〈…〉 & 〈◊〉 , ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , exsi 〈◊〉 . S. Cyp. di 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . John 6. 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 . 2. 〈◊〉 . ‖ 〈◊〉 . 1. 〈◊〉 . * Col. 3. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apud S. Ignat. ep . ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Optar . Milevit . 〈◊〉 . 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Joh. 6. 54. Qui 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in novissimo 〈◊〉 . Colos. 3. 3. S. Cyril . Alex. l. 4. in Joh. c. 14. Et Irenae . l. 4. c. 34. Sic & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 percipientia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non sunt 〈◊〉 , spim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * 〈…〉 . S. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . S. Ambros. Ser. 15. in Psal. 118. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homer . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 Cor. 11. 28 , 29. Concil . 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 3. S. 〈◊〉 . l. 2. de Bapt. c. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . S. 〈◊〉 . l. 6. c. 37. in Luc. 9. Vbique 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per 〈…〉 . in 〈◊〉 S. Ambros. Si Dux quispiam , si Consul ipse , si qui 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indigne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 si ipse pellere non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fieri ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dominicum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . S. 〈◊〉 . hom . 83. in 〈◊〉 . * Exta 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 omnia ; In 〈◊〉 Regis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 visum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 oscula . Phaedr . Jab . 80. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 5. Const. c. 16. ab Hilario ca. 30. in 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 l. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . c. 13. a Ruperto Hildebrand . Cenoman . & 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quenquam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consessum , aut in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seculari 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Judicio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 convictum . S. Aug. l. 50. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 50. S. Thomas 3. p. q. 81. a. 2. * 〈◊〉 . 15. 19. Synes . ep . 79. Theod. 〈◊〉 . l. 5. 36. 〈◊〉 . tom . 5. A. D. 425. Sect. 16. * Clem. Rom. l. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 20. Concil . Tolet. 1. c. 11. S. Aug , 〈◊〉 . 23 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . & 〈◊〉 . 107. & lib. 4. de 〈◊〉 . c. 10. ‖ 〈…〉 quàm 〈◊〉 : sed 〈◊〉 de iis 〈◊〉 quos 〈◊〉 & mortalia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Gennad . l. 3. de Eccl. 〈◊〉 . c. 53. 〈◊〉 olim actum est , cùm 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Philo. * Gennadius , c. 54. de Eccl. s. dogmat . Epist. 80. ad Lucinum . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vel jejunare semper , vel semper 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 Dominicum , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Domini , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. Idem . * Concil . Lat. De Sacram , l. 5. c. 4. 〈◊〉 accessum sola 〈◊〉 integrltas facit . S. Chrys. Joan. Gerson in Magnificat . 〈◊〉 in horto tanquam in 〈◊〉 . S. Chrys. 〈◊〉 laborem minuat 〈◊〉 se 〈◊〉 , Theophyl . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 22. 44. Extensius orabat , sic Latinus Interpres 〈◊〉 : Alii 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per [ 〈◊〉 . ] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , sed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quae 〈◊〉 non minuit 〈◊〉 magis auxit : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est ex 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . non 〈◊〉 doloris 〈◊〉 . Beda in Lucae 22. Cum 〈◊〉 , solamen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 solatur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Res miranda ! 〈◊〉 dans 〈◊〉 Rex à 〈◊〉 sumit 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 Anglus . * In c. 24. Mat. ‖ In 22. 〈◊〉 . Justin , 〈◊〉 . Dial , 〈◊〉 . Athan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 6. 〈◊〉 Beat. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Aug. 〈◊〉 . 6. 〈◊〉 . 5. de Consecr . 〈◊〉 . Hier. l. de 〈◊〉 . Heb. Iren. l. 4. 〈◊〉 31. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Idem aiunt Dionys. Alex , Aymonius , Epiphan , & 〈◊〉 . * Lib. 6. in 〈◊〉 . * O signum 〈◊〉 ! O 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 osculo incipitur 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 pacis 〈◊〉 pacis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Aug. 〈◊〉 . 12. ‖ Si 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 Domine , 〈◊〉 Amici 〈◊〉 , Qu 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Qui 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 ? Hondem . de Passione . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . S. Cyril . S. 〈◊〉 . S. 〈◊〉 , &c. Isai. 52. 6. * Simovit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 solum 〈◊〉 illud & opus salutis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Regnantis 〈◊〉 , & non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 opus est . S. Cyril . ‖ Dominum omnium 〈◊〉 , non arma , 〈◊〉 . S. Amb. in Lue 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 in via 〈◊〉 . Psal. 110. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 missus 〈◊〉 ab 〈◊〉 . Vida , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 2. 〈◊〉 . Isa. 50. 6. Micah 5. 1. * Lib. 4. 〈◊〉 . cap. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Victor in S. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . S. Hieron , in 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sua , ostendens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 manifestans , 〈◊〉 esse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Origen . 〈 ◊〉 〈◊〉 S. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . Capit. 〈◊〉 . 69. Ieo 〈◊〉 . 9. 〈◊〉 pass . Dom. & Euthym , in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Indè 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quòd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 jam condere 〈◊〉 , ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , dum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — Juvencus 〈◊〉 . 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Non 〈◊〉 Judas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , S. August . 〈 ◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . c. 17. In 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . S. Aug. 〈◊〉 . 15. in Joann . 〈◊〉 in his Dominus 〈…〉 ut 〈…〉 columna . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Prudent . 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 amor . Naz. in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . James 5. 14 , &c. * 〈◊〉 . 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . AEschyl . 〈◊〉 . Matt. 25. 13. — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Elosculus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Agam. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Quid quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lux 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Jam cras 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hos annoi , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Sat. 5. Quid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , nunquam homini 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 . Navita 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ultrà Caca 〈◊〉 aliunde 〈◊〉 : Miles 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Parthus & Italum Robur . Sod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Hor. l. 2. od . 13. * 〈◊〉 . Crom. l. 6. Volaterran . l. 4. c. 22. Cui nasci contigit , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quintil. Divésne , 〈◊〉 natus ab Inacho , Nil interest , an 〈◊〉 & infima 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , sub dio 〈◊〉 , Victima nil miserantis 〈◊〉 . Omnes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — Hor. l. 2. od . 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 l. 3. c. 51. Matthiol . in 〈◊〉 . (a) Plin. l. 7. c. 53. (b) 〈◊〉 . 1. 〈◊〉 . (c) Plut. & Gel. de illust . 〈◊〉 . (d) Cuspin . Lotus 〈◊〉 est , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Mart. 〈◊〉 . 6. 〈◊〉 . 18. 19 , &c. 〈◊〉 . 12. 〈◊〉 Evang. L. 5. 〈◊〉 . 15. hist. Gent. Anglor . * Biblioth . Ss. Pp. 〈◊〉 . 3. Matt. 25. 13. & 24. 42. Mark 13. 33. 2 Pet. 3. 10. — tecum priùs ergo volut● Haec animo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : galeatum ferò duelli Poenitetmdash ; Juven . Sat. 1. De traec●●●● S. Hieron . In hunc ferè 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Socrates , apud Platonem in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Non abs re 〈◊〉 crit 〈◊〉 morthundus , si 〈◊〉 de 〈◊〉 Fidei disserat & 〈◊〉 de siducia compertae verit : tis , at 〈◊〉 ( 〈◊〉 de Socrate dixit 〈◊〉 ) de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est : 〈◊〉 it . 〈◊〉 qua a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & ipsa moriatur . S. Aug. Serm. de 〈◊〉 Vide 〈◊〉 l. 50. bom l. 41. Egredere , anima , quid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 annis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & jam 〈◊〉 times ? S Hier , in vita 〈◊〉 . Va vita 〈◊〉 laudabili , si sine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eam . S. Aug. l. 9. Confess . 2 Chron. 〈◊〉 . 12. a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 15. Peto , 〈◊〉 , suspice coelum ; 〈◊〉 enim tibi vita 〈◊〉 , sed 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 , Dixit mater 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in vita Symphor . Serm. in c. 7. Jobi . (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Strabo lib. Hoc homo morte lucratur , nè malum 〈◊〉 esset . Naz. — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 AEschyl . 〈◊〉 . 1 King. 19. 4. In vita S. Aug. c. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 animum mortis terrore carentem , Qui sp 〈◊〉 vitae 〈◊〉 inter muner a 〈◊〉 Naturae , qui ferre queat quoseunque labores , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , cupiat 〈◊〉 — Juven . 〈◊〉 . 41. 1. 〈◊〉 sunt qui vitam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 corrum punt , kis qui 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . S. Greger . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jam. 6. 14. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Conc. Nicen. 〈◊〉 . 13. Concil . Nicen . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Conc. Ancyr . c. 6. 〈◊〉 . Aurelian . 2. c. 12. 〈◊〉 . Elib . 〈◊〉 . 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Concil . 〈◊〉 . c. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Conc. Anc. 〈◊〉 . 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qui in 〈…〉 vacuum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Conc , Aurel. 2. 〈◊〉 . 12. * Vide Concil . Eliber . c. 46. & 〈◊〉 . 69. — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vixisse beatum 〈◊〉 , & exacto contentus tempore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 conviva satur — Hor. 〈◊〉 . 1. S. Aug. 〈◊〉 . 119. in Joan. O 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod 〈…〉 , si 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Plaut , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈…〉 quod toleras , 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 . S. 〈◊〉 . de 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 16. 24. 〈◊〉 Pet. 2. 21. Heb. 13. 13. Athanas. de Pass . & 〈◊〉 Domini . — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — Nonn . Albigenses primi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 uno 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & Virginem Mariam monoculam ; 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 : sed 〈◊〉 prior 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est , & 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Lucas Tud . 〈◊〉 . 2. contra Albig . Luke 24. 26. 〈◊〉 vulg . 〈◊〉 . Heb. 2. 9. Philip. 2. 8 , 9. Deut. 14. 16. Ezek. 18. 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , &c. Livius . Vide l. Si quis 〈◊〉 D. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . & exhib . 〈◊〉 L. Si à 〈◊〉 , D. De sidejussoribus . * John 10. 10. Apud Diodorum Sicul. & 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Latro non simper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 M 〈◊〉 , qui 〈◊〉 ob 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aliquid contra 〈◊〉 Romanas secerat : alioqui vir suit non omnino malus . 〈◊〉 qui viderunt 〈◊〉 mortuos 〈◊〉 ; credidit 〈◊〉 qui videbat secum in ligno 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , quam non 〈◊〉 Christus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Discipulis suis. S. Aug Serm. 144. de 〈◊〉 . S. Ambros. l. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Gen. 50. Tacit. annal . l. 21. Aurora lucis ritulat , Coelum laudibus intonat , Mundus exsultans jubila , Gemens infernus ululat ; Cùm Rex ille fortissimus , Mortis consractis viribus , Pede conculcans Tartara , Solvit à poena miseres . Ille qui clausus lapid● Custoditur sub milite , Triumphans pompâ nobili , Victor surgit de funere . Hymn . Paschal , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & ex to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . (a) — Vbi duat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( Paulm , ) 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 raptum ; 〈◊〉 ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad paradisum . Methodius cont . Origen , apud 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Moses Barcephas , 〈◊〉 . de 〈◊〉 ; p. 4. 〈◊〉 . 7. Dial. adv . 〈◊〉 . (a) l. 5. c. 3. (b) L. 〈◊〉 Anima ; & de Praescript . Idem sentiunt Scriptor 〈◊〉 ad Orthod . q. 76. S. Greg. Naz. 〈◊〉 . 10. S. 〈◊〉 . hom . 15. in 〈◊〉 . S. Ambr. in 〈◊〉 , Cyrilli 〈◊〉 . Epiphan . 〈◊〉 . apud S. Hier. Theodoretus , Theophylactus , & 〈◊〉 . passim . (a) Revel . 14. 13. (b) Just. Mart. 75. inter quaest . 〈◊〉 ait , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 duci à morte ad Paradisum , ubi consuetudo & 〈◊〉 est Angelorum & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . (c) 2 Tim. 4. 8. (d) 〈◊〉 . 13. 41. & 24. 31. (e) 2 Cor. 5. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . & 〈◊〉 . (f) 2 Pet. 2. 4. (g) Jude 6. (h) 〈◊〉 . 8. 29 (i) 2 Pet. 2. 9. 〈◊〉 tamen quisquam 〈◊〉 animas post 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 judicari : Nam omnes in una 〈◊〉 ; custodia 〈◊〉 , donec 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 maximus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faciat examen . 〈◊〉 . l. 7. 〈◊〉 . 21. (k) Joh. 14. 2 , 3. Satiabor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Psal , 17. 15. * Heb. 11. 40. Irenae . l. 5. adv . Haeres . ad sin . Origen . 〈◊〉 . 7. in 〈◊〉 . Chrys. hom . 39. in 1 Cor. Theodoret. Theophylact. Oecumenius in 〈◊〉 . 11 , S. Aug. l. 1. 〈◊〉 . c. 14. Victorin . 〈◊〉 . in c. 6. Apoc , 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 Bono mortis , c. 10 , & 11. * 2 Tim. 1. 18. ‖ 1 Thesl. 5. 23. Vide 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , l 5 c. 6. adv . 〈◊〉 . ubi 〈◊〉 , absque unione corporis , 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 , beminem non 〈◊〉 . S. 〈◊〉 . l. 10. in Lucam . Euseb. Emiss . 〈◊〉 . 6. de 〈◊〉 . — tumulóque 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , resurgentes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sipulios . Prudent . 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . & Ch ys , hom . 88. in 27. 〈◊〉 . Zech. 9. 11 , 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Musonius apud A. Gellium l. 16. 〈◊〉 . 1. 〈…〉 . Luke 15. 7. Coloss. 3. 3. John 3. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 apud Sextum Empirie . Heb. 12 , 22 , 23. Mark 16. 16. Act. 2. 38. & 22. 16. Rom. 6. 3 , 4. 〈◊〉 . 4. 5 , &c. * Matt. 28. 20. 1 Cor. 12. 13. 〈◊〉 . 2. 12. Galat. 3. 17. 1 Per. 3. 21. Notes for div A63641-e169440 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Eccl. lib. 3. c. 39. p. 111. H. Eccl. lib. 1. c. 2. p. 4. Notes for div A63641-e170910 Eph. 4. 11 , 12 , 13. * Serm. de util . lection . S. Script . Tom. 8. Edit . Savil. p. 114. Luke 6 13. * 〈…〉 . 6. vid. L. 1●6 T● . 16 lib 50. & Paul. l. C. S●n 〈…〉 . 39. ‖ Vid Chrys. Lu●● in Ritual Gras. p. 68 * Suid , in voc . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ex D 〈…〉 h. vid. H●●●●●● Lex . in Dec. Rhet. Phil. 2. 25. 2 Cor. 8. 23. John 13. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb in Caien . MS. apud H●ns . 〈…〉 . in Luc. 6. * Haeros . 30. p. 60. ‖ Ibid. p. 63. * Epist. 25. p. 153. ‖ L. 14. C. T● . de Judaeis lib. 16. T●● . 8. * Lib. de 〈◊〉 , ad Caium , p. 1023. vid. p. 1035. ● . Mark 3. 15. * Serm. 3. in Psalm . 103. Col 1192. Tom. 8. vid. in Psalm . 59. Ce● . 603. ‖ Adv. 〈◊〉 . lib. 4. c. 13. p. 425. * J. Mart. dial . cum Tryph , p. 260. * See S. Peter's Life , Sect. 3. Num. 2. Gal. 1. 1. John 20. 21 , 22 , 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 115. 〈◊〉 . 8. Edit . Savil. * De praescript . Haerit . c. 20. p. 208. ‖ Mark 16. 15. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Macar . Homil. 14. p. 171. * Di praescript . Haeret. c. 21. p. 209. 〈◊〉 . c. 20. p. 208. Matth. 24. 14. Verse 3. * 〈◊〉 . Jud. c. 7 p. 189. * Lib. qued . Chr. 〈◊〉 Deus , c. 1. Tim. 5. p. 726. * Ibid. c. 11. p. 746. * 〈◊〉 Rom. Pontis . lib. 1. c. 17. 18. & siq . Matth. 20 , 25 , 26 , 27. Luke 22 , 24 , 25 , 26 , (u) Hic erant utique & ceteri Apostoli , quod fuit Petrus , pari consortio praediti . & honoris & pote ●●●● . Cyprian de unitat . Eccles . p. 180. * Orat. in S. Jac. ap 〈◊〉 . Cod. 〈◊〉 . Col. 1525. (y) 〈◊〉 . S. Thom. ibid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . col . 1488. (z) In Conc. Ephes. 〈◊〉 . Tom. 2. p. 209. (a) Prolog . in 〈◊〉 . p. 2. (b) De Pet. 〈◊〉 . Zeb . p. 378. Tom. 1. (c) In illud . sal . Aquil & 〈◊〉 . p. 218. 〈◊〉 5. (d) Ibid. p. 221. (e) 〈◊〉 . in Petr. & Paul. p. 261. Tom. 6. (f) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . l. 2. c. 14. p. 52. (g) In 〈◊〉 . c. 16. p. 483. Joh. 15. 15. Joh. 16. 13. Act. 1. 8. Act. 1. 21 , 22. Act. 10. 39 , 40 , &c. 1 Joh. 1. 1 , 2 , 3. 2 Pet. 1. 16 , 17. Joh. 3. 2. Act. 14. 10 , 11. * 2 Cor. 12 12. (h) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Chiysott . 〈◊〉 . 29. in 〈◊〉 . p. 302 , 303. Hebr. 2. 4. Matt. 10. 7 , 8. 〈◊〉 16. 17. 〈◊〉 . Act. 15. 12. Act. 19. 11 , 12. 1 Cor. 12. 9 , 10. Rev. 19. 10. Joel 2. 18 , 19. Act. 2. 16 , 17 , 〈◊〉 . 1 Cor. 18. 2. Rom. 12. 8. 1 Cor. 14. 29 , 30 , 31 , 32. (i) Dial , cum 〈◊〉 . p. 308. (k) H. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 5. 〈◊〉 . 3. p. 168. Act , 8 21 , 23. 1 Cor. 14 1 Cor. 14. Verse Verse Jam. 5. 14. 15 , 16. * Ad 〈◊〉 . c. 4. p. 〈◊〉 . 1 Cor. 12. 10. 1 Cor. 4. 21. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Chrysost . 〈◊〉 . 14. in 1. ad Corinth . p. 444. vid. 〈◊〉 . in loc , Tom. 9. p. 305. 2 Cor. 10. 6 , 8 , 9. Chap. 13. 2. Verse 10. 1 Cor. 5. 5. vid. 〈◊〉 . & 〈◊〉 . in loc . 1 Tim. 1. 20. Acts 5. 11. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 18. in Act. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . (a) 〈◊〉 H. Eccl. l. 3. c. 2. p. 24. (b) 〈◊〉 . Al. Strom. 〈◊〉 . 4. p 516. (c) H. Eccl. 〈◊〉 . 2. c. 24. p. 66. (d) 〈◊〉 . Encom . S. Ignat . p. 499. T. 〈◊〉 . (e) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . lib. 3. 〈◊〉 . 15. p. 398. (f) Praefix . 〈◊〉 . de 〈◊〉 . p. 1. (g) Lib. 6. Ep. 4. p. 147. 〈◊〉 . Ep. 7. p. 150. Notes for div A63641-e177070 * Joseph . Antiqu . Judaic . lib. 18. cap. 3. p. 618. Matth. 11. 21. * J. Co●ovic . Itiner . Hierosol . lib. 3. c. 8. p. 358 Surgel . de S. Petro cap. 1. * Ib. c. 49. * Bellarm. de Rom. Pontif. lib. 2. c. 9. col . 624. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hesych . in voc . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 2 , 4 , 5 , 6. Rev. 21. 14. * Pap Masson . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . in 〈◊〉 . 4. 〈◊〉 . 172. p. 2. ex 〈◊〉 . Vict. ‖ Sac. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Rom. Sect. 1. fol. 18. * Com. de Petr. & Paul. apud Sur. ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Jun. ‖ 〈◊〉 . 51. p. 192. * 〈◊〉 . de 〈◊〉 . Andr. quem 〈◊〉 Metaphrast . ap . 〈◊〉 potius , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 6. vid. Baron . not . ad Martyrol . Novemb. XXX . p. 737. (a) 〈◊〉 . lib. 1. adv . Jovin . p. 35. 〈◊〉 . 2. (b) Cassian . de Incarn . Dom. lib. 3. c. 12. p. 996. (c) Bed. Comment . in 〈◊〉 . 1. Joan. Tom. 5. * Midr. 〈◊〉 . sol . 41. ap . 〈◊〉 . Cent. 〈◊〉 . in Matth. c. 70. p. 131. ‖ Joseph . de Bell. Jud. l. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 860. Matth. 8. 14. — 17 24. * H. Eccl. lib. 8. c. 30. p. 596. Optian . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 d. non longe ab init . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Epist. pag. 541. Tom. 1. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . lib. 〈◊〉 . p. 47 , 48. ‖ lib. 3. p. 135. * lib. 1. p. 6. * Arnob. adv . Gent. lib. 2. p. 21. ‖ De Curand . Grac. 〈◊〉 . Serm. 9. de 〈◊〉 . p. 123. Ibid. p. 125. Ibid. p. 128. Ibid. p. 126. Ibid. p. 135. 1 Cor. 1. 27. 28. vers . 22 , 23 , 24 , 25. 〈◊〉 primi vocati sunt , 〈◊〉 Dominum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & illiterati 〈◊〉 ad pradicandum , ne 〈◊〉 credentium non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , sed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fieri putaretur . 〈◊〉 . comm . in Matth. c. 4. Tom. 9. p. 17. John 1. 37. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . sub 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . John 1. 42. 〈◊〉 . 4. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 5. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 8. 6 , 7 , 8. 〈◊〉 . 8. 14. Mark 1. 29. Luke 4. 38. John 11. 3. 〈◊〉 5. 12. 〈◊〉 . 10. 1. 〈◊〉 3. 14. Luke 6. 13. 〈◊〉 . 2. 12. Matth. 19. 28. Matth. 10. 2. Mark 3. 16. * Hist. 〈◊〉 . lib. 2. c. 3. p. 134. * 〈◊〉 An. 〈◊〉 . num . 40. ‖ 〈◊〉 An. 71. 〈◊〉 . 13. * Vid. Jo. Moschi Prat. Spir. 〈◊〉 . 176. Bibl. P. 〈◊〉 . L. 〈◊〉 . 2 p. 1133. Mark 5. 22. Matth. 14. 17. John 6. 24. 〈◊〉 8. 27. Matth. 16. 〈◊〉 . Luk. 9. 18. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 . 16 , 〈◊〉 . 483. Joh. 1. 49. Rev. 21. 14. 〈◊〉 . 2. 20. Gal. 2. 9. 〈◊〉 . 18. 17 , 18. Joh. . 20. 21-23 . * Comment . in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. 〈◊〉 . 1. 〈◊〉 . 2. Matth. 16. 21. 〈◊〉 8. 31. 〈◊〉 9. 22. Luk. 4. 8. Matth. 17. 1. 〈◊〉 9. 2. Luke 9. 28. 〈◊〉 89. 12. * 〈◊〉 Loc. Sanct. c. 17. * 〈◊〉 . à Bridenb . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sanct. vid. J. Cotovic . 〈◊〉 . lib. 3. c. 7 p. 355. Matth. 17. 24. Matth , 18. 21. Matth. 19. 16. 〈◊〉 10. 17. Luke 18. 18. Matth. 21. 1. * 〈◊〉 . lib. 1. in 〈◊〉 . Comm. p. 17. Matth. 26. 17. Mark 14. 12. Luke 22. 7. H. 〈◊〉 . lib. 1. 〈◊〉 . 28. p. 104. John 13. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Nonn . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . in 〈◊〉 . John 13. 36. 〈◊〉 22. 31. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Com. in Luc. 22. in Bibl. Pp. Gr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 2 p. 829. 〈◊〉 . 26. 30. Mark 14. 26. * De loc . Hebr. in 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 134. ‖ 〈◊〉 . Nub. Clim . 3. part . 5. p. 114. * Cyril . comment . in 〈◊〉 . 18. Tom. 4. 〈◊〉 . in 〈◊〉 . 18. Matth. 26. 57. Muk 14. 53. Luk. 22. 54. Joh. 18. 12. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deum . Ambr. in 〈◊〉 . 22. Tom. 5. p. 157. vid. 〈◊〉 . comment . in Matth. p. 328. ‖ Hieron . in 〈◊〉 . 26. p. 81. Tom. 9. vid. August . in Joan . Tract . lxvi . col . 417. Tom. 9. Mark 16. 1. Luk. 24. 12. Joh. 20. 2. 1 Cor. 15. 5. Luk. 24. 34. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . in . 1. ad Cor. 〈◊〉 . 15. Hom. 38. p. 666. Ibid. p. 667. ‖ 〈◊〉 . in Lut. 24. in fin . p. 170. Tom. 5. Joh. 21. 1. — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . in 〈◊〉 . Redditur 〈◊〉 trina trina Confessio , 〈◊〉 minus amori lingua serviat , quàm timori ; & plus 〈◊〉 elicuisse videatur mors 〈◊〉 , quàm vita 〈◊〉 , Aug. in 〈◊〉 . Tract . 123. col . 566. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . lib. 1. Ep. 103. p. 27. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 1 , 2 , 3. Acts'1 . 8. Luke 24. 49. * Paulin. Epist . 3. ad Sever . lib. 2. p. 130 Sulp. Sever. Hist. Sacr. lib ; 2. p. 145. 〈◊〉 . de l. c. Heb. in Act. App. p. 297. Tom. 3. ‖ J Cotovic . 〈◊〉 . lib. 2. c. 11. p. 271. vid. Sands 〈◊〉 . lib. 3. p. 156. Luke 24. 52. Dan̄ . 6. 10. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. 76. Acts 20. 8. * Prim. 〈◊〉 . Part 1. Ch. 6. 〈◊〉 . 126. Acts 1. 15. Acts 2. 1. Numb . 11. 25. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 toto vetus & 〈◊〉 opinio , 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tempore Judaea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Id de 〈◊〉 , &c. Sueton. in vit . Vespas . c. 4. p. 728. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Histor. l. 5. c. 13. p. 540. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Joseph . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. 1020. Acts 3. 〈◊〉 Vid. 〈◊〉 . in Act. 3. 1. Act. 4. 4. Act. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Muson . apud Siob . 〈◊〉 . 77. 〈◊〉 honor . & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. 458. 〈◊〉 pluribus 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 hac 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . in 〈◊〉 . apud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 11. p. 25. 〈◊〉 , Christ. Part. 3. 〈◊〉 . 4. Act. 5. 1. Act. 5. 12. * 〈◊〉 . in loc . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 1. c. 29. p. 163. Acts 8. 1. 〈◊〉 . 2. 3. * J. Mart. Apol. 2 p. 69. 〈◊〉 . 1. 〈◊〉 . 20. p. 115. 〈◊〉 . de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 1. 46. p. 219. Acts 9. 32. Acts 10. 9. Vas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Domini , & Spiritus Sanctus habitat in 〈◊〉 . Et 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & de Britannia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Regnum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intra vos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ad 〈◊〉 . p. 102. Tom. 1. Acts 11. 1. * Satyr . p. 439. ‖ 〈◊〉 . lib. 5. 〈◊〉 . 4 , 5. p. 535. * Ap. 〈◊〉 . Antiqu. Jud. lib. 〈◊〉 . c. 6. ‖ Diod. 〈◊〉 . lib. 34. apud 〈◊〉 . Cod. CCXLIV . Col. 1149. * Vid. 〈◊〉 , in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 12. & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 11. Acts 12. 1. Acts. 15. 1. Gal. 2. 11. * Apud Hieron . pr●oem . in Ep. ad Gal. p. 159. Tom. 9. * Hieron . Com. in Gal. 2. p. 168 * 〈◊〉 . ad 〈◊〉 . Chr. xliii . ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 ad 〈◊〉 . p. 168. T. 9. * 〈◊〉 . S. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. 503. Tom. 1. * Bar. ad An. Chr. xliv . Num. 12. vid. Epist. 〈◊〉 . ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . in V. 〈◊〉 . sub Men. 〈◊〉 . Tom. 4. pag. 24. ‖ 〈◊〉 . lib. 7. c. 6. sol . 296. & seq . * Euseb. H. Eccl. l. 2. c. 17. p. 53. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 script . 〈◊〉 . in Phil. p 270. ‖ ad An. 45. Num. 16. * 〈◊〉 . Ep. 1. ad Dic Eug. 〈◊〉 . Tom. 1. p. 751. ‖ Vid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 7. c. 6. fol. 297. * Vid. 〈◊〉 . Epist. 〈◊〉 supr . ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . & 〈◊〉 . ad 〈◊〉 29. Jun. Num. 23. vid. 〈◊〉 N. 10. ibid. * J. 〈◊〉 . Apol. 2. p. 69-91 . vid. Dial. cum 〈◊〉 . p. 349. ‖ Vbi supr . 〈◊〉 . 2. (a) 〈◊〉 . adv . 〈◊〉 . lib. 1. c. 20. p. 115. (b) 〈◊〉 . Apol. c. 13. p. 14. (c) Euseb. lib. 2. c. 14. p. 51. Aug. de 〈◊〉 . in Simon . Tom. 6. col . 13. 〈◊〉 . lib. 2. c. 14. pag. 154. * Vid. Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. 30. c. 2. p. 606. ‖ Euseb. Hist. Eccl. lib. 2. c. 14. pag. 51 , 52. * Damas. in vit . Petr. Conc. Tom. 1. Const. App. lib. 6. c. 8 , 9. p. 944. Arnob . adv . 〈◊〉 . lib. 2. p. 23. Epiph. 〈◊〉 . 21. p. 31. Sulp. 〈◊〉 . lib. 2. pag. 137. & 〈◊〉 . ‖ Higes . d. Excid . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 3. c. 2 p. 293. ‖ Vid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . in 〈◊〉 . Ep. lib. 5. p. 125. Tom. 〈◊〉 . * Vid. Martyr . Rom. ad 〈◊〉 14. 〈◊〉 . p. 165. ‖ Vid. Ambr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . & Heges . ib. p. 279. * Rom. 〈◊〉 . lib. 3. c. 21. N. 15. Tom. 1. pag. 292. ‖ 〈◊〉 . lib. 3. in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Eccles. lib. 3. c. 1. p. 71. 〈◊〉 . de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . in 〈◊〉 . p. 262. Heges . p. 279. 〈…〉 Prudent . Peristeph 〈◊〉 XI . in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . & Paul. * 〈◊〉 in Petr. & Paul. p. 267. T. 6. ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . de VII . Vrb B 〈◊〉 c. 4. p. 45 , &c. 〈◊〉 . supr . 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 Ann. 45. 〈◊〉 . 11. * Hist. 〈◊〉 . lib. 2. c 37. p. 195. ‖ Com. in Gal. 2. p. 164. T. 9. ex lib. dicto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * Ad An. 69. n. 31. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 Ham. 32. in Joan. p. 170. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . de 〈◊〉 Jud. lib. 3. c. 4. p. 833. 〈◊〉 Pet. 5. 3 , 4. 2 Pet. 1. 12 , 13 , 15. * L. Capell . 〈◊〉 . ad Hist. App. pag. 42. * Cyril . Alex. & 〈◊〉 . Gaz. in Esa. 53. Chap. 18. v. 2 , 10 , 21. * H. 〈◊〉 . l. 3. c. 3. p. 72. Orig. apud 〈◊〉 . l. b. 5. c. 16. p. 365. ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ad Epist. Syr. d se edit . * Hier. de script . Eccl in Petr. ‖ 〈◊〉 . 11. ad Hedib . 〈◊〉 . 3. p. 151. * Annot. in 2 〈◊〉 . 1. * Dr. Ham. in Argum. 〈◊〉 . 2 Pet. 1. 16 , 17 , 18. Jud. v. 17 , 18. 2 〈◊〉 . 3. 2 , 3. Lib. 4 c. 21. p. 422. Chap. 1. v. 14. * Orig. Tom. 20 in Joan. ‖ 〈◊〉 . lib. 3. c. 3. p. 〈◊〉 . * In Petro , ut 〈◊〉 . ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 6. c. 12. p. 213. * 〈◊〉 . lib. 〈◊〉 . p. 635. & in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ex 〈◊〉 . p 809. ‖ 〈◊〉 . Tom. 13. in 〈◊〉 . (a) D : 〈◊〉 . non 〈◊〉 . apud Cypr. p. 142. (b) H. Eccl. lib. 7. c 19. p. 735. * Vid. Russin . 〈◊〉 Symbol . inter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . T. 〈◊〉 . 4. p. 113. ‖ H. Eccl. lib. 3. c. 3. p. 72. * 〈◊〉 . de S. Petr. 〈◊〉 Sur. ad 〈◊〉 29 Jun. n. 2. ‖ Ep. ud Julian . Tom. 1. p. 207. 1 Cor. 95. Vid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . lit . 7. 〈◊〉 76. p. 2. * Strom. lib. 7. p. 736. * 〈◊〉 . ad An. 60. H 32. ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 . lib. 〈◊〉 . p. 448. * Ad 〈◊〉 . 39. num . 12. ad An. 34. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * Ad An. 58. 〈◊〉 . 51. Rom. 1. 10 , 11 , 12. Acts 28. 17. Chap. 4. 10 , 11. 2 Tim. 4. 16. Gal. 2. 1. * 〈◊〉 de Rom. Pontif. lib. 2. c. 6. Col. 615. ‖ Bar. ad An. 39. n. 15. * Ibid. & Bar. ad An. 51. n. 1 , 3. * Lib. 7. c. 〈◊〉 , fol. 297. p. 2. ‖ Ad An. 58 , n. 51. * Hier. Batnab , de vin . Bar. l. 1. c. 18. ‖ Onuphr . Annot . ad Plat. in nit . Petr. p. 9. & in 〈◊〉 . * Ad Ann. 39. N. 12. ‖ 〈◊〉 . ad 〈◊〉 . lib. 2. c. 16. ‖ Stromat . lib. 6. p. 636. * H. 〈◊〉 Annot . in Euseb. lib. 2. c. 18. p. 37. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . ad Num. 〈◊〉 . p. 204. ‖ H. Eccl. lib. 3. 〈◊〉 . 2. p. 71. * Contr. Carpocrat . 〈◊〉 . XXVII . p. 51. ‖ De 〈◊〉 . Jud. lib. 3. c. 2. p. 292. * Chron. p. 162. ‖ 〈◊〉 . 27. p. 51. * Annal. lib. 15. c. 38. 41. p. 316 , &c. Notes for div A63641-e201660 * Geograph . lib. 14. p. 463. Act. 22. 25 , 26 * De Script , Eccl. in Paul. ‖ Bellon . Ob. scr v. lib. 2 c. 99. p. 366. * Com. in Philem p. 263. Tom. 9. * Adv. Marc. lib. 5. c. 1. p. 461 Gen. 49. 27. * Praefat. in F●p ad Rom. fol. 132. Tom. 3. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Talm. Tract . Kidduseh . c. 1. ap . Buxtorf , in voc . ‖ Annot. in Act. 18. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ‖ Epith. 80. p. 451. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 supr . Acts 18. 3. * De 〈◊〉 S. Paul. Tim. 5. p. 512. Acts 22. 3. & 5. 34. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . lib. 1. p. 16. 17. ‖ Ap. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . CIXXI . Col. 384. 〈…〉 ad 3. Aug. p. 31. & Bar. ad Ann. 415. * 〈◊〉 . c. 9. 〈◊〉 . 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Hor. H. in 〈◊〉 . 13. 2 Gal. 1. 14. * Antiq. Jud. lib. 17. cap. 3. p. 585. ‖ Id 〈◊〉 . lib. 13 c. 23. p. 463 Acts 22. 20. Acts 9. 1. Gal. 1. 15. Acts 22. 9. 2 Cor. 12. 1. Gal. 1. 10 , 11. Gal. 1. 17. 18. Act. 9. 23. 2 Cor. 11. 32 , 33. * Just. lib. 36. 1. 2. p. 425. ‖ 〈◊〉 . Nub. Clim . 3. 〈◊〉 . 5. p. 116. 〈◊〉 . 7. 7. * Epist. XXIV . p. 145. ‖ Alv. Mart. 1. 3. 〈◊〉 . 13. p. 404. * G. 〈◊〉 . & J. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . c. 4. p. 11. Act. 9. 26. Gal. 1. 18 , 19. Act. 9. 30. Act. 11. 26. ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Eu 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 loc . Hebr. in voc . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * Joan. 〈◊〉 . in Chronol . MS. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , cit . 〈◊〉 Synedr . l. 1. c. 8. p. 226. vid. Suid. in voc . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ‖ J. Greg. 〈◊〉 . & obs . 〈◊〉 . 36. * J. 〈◊〉 . Chron. lib. 9. Act. 11. 27. Act. 13. 2. ‖ Dionys. 〈◊〉 . de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . c. 8. pag. 623. Act. 13. 13 , 14. Act. 14. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Arrian . 〈◊〉 . lib : 1. c. 16. p. 126. Acts 15. 1. Acts 15. 35. Acts 16. 6. Acts 15. 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . lib. 3. 〈◊〉 . 685. * Alv. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . LXXX . 〈◊〉 . 450. In 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ? Juvenal . 〈◊〉 . 3. v. 296. P 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Schol , ibid. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ad 〈◊〉 , p. 1014 Milites si 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ipsi in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , l 12. 〈◊〉 . de 〈◊〉 . & 〈◊〉 . hib . 〈◊〉 . T. 1. 3. Ista laus primum est majorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , qui 〈…〉 corpus omnium 〈◊〉 Romanorum 〈◊〉 libertatis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lex virgas ab omnium civium Rom. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . C. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de 〈◊〉 civium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . pro C. Rabir. p. 314. Tom. 2. * L. 7. ff . de 〈◊〉 . lib. 49. T. 〈◊〉 . 10. Acts 17 15. * C. Nep. 〈◊〉 vit . 〈◊〉 . c. 3 : p. 267. ‖ Orat. pro Flac. Tom. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 Comic . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . de vit . Grac. à 〈◊〉 . edit . cap. 3. p. 18. Tantum 〈◊〉 sua , quantum 〈◊〉 omnis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Est aliquid , quo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : ille naturae benesicio non timet , suo sapiens . Ecce res magna , babere 〈◊〉 hominis , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Sencc . Epist. 53. p. 131. 〈◊〉 S. 〈◊〉 dicere , Jovem plus non 〈◊〉 , quam bonum virum . Plura Jupiter 〈◊〉 , quae prastet hominibus : sed inter duos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est ni lior , qui locupletior . Jupiter quo 〈◊〉 virum bonum ? 〈◊〉 bonus est . 〈◊〉 nihilo se minoris astimat , quod virtutes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 breviore claudumur . Id. Epist. 73. p. 203. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Pausen , lib. 1. p. 42. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Id. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . in voc . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 438. — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Nonn . Dionys lib. 38. p. 542. * 〈◊〉 . lib. 10. pag. 325. ‖ Himer . Orat. in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . CCXLIII , col . 1086. * Philostr . de vit . 〈◊〉 . lib. 6. cap. 2. p. 262 & ex to , Suid. in vot . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . Schol. in Act. 17. pag. 137. * Com. in Tit. cap. 1. ad Paul. & Eustoch . p. 248. Tom. 9. Isai ; 45. 15. ‖ Paran . ad Graec. p. 37. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Plutarch . lib. de Isid. & Osir. p. 354. ‖ — deditae 〈◊〉 Incerti 〈◊〉 Dei , 〈◊〉 . Pharsal . lib. 2. incertum 〈◊〉 numon . 〈◊〉 Poll. in vit . Claud. c. 2. p. 800. 〈◊〉 mente sola , unumque 〈◊〉 intelligunt ; summum illud & 〈◊〉 , neque mutabile , neque 〈◊〉 . Tacit. Histor. lib. 〈◊〉 c. 5. p. 535. * Phil. de 〈◊〉 . ad Cal. p. 1041. (a) Quaest. Rom. p. 279. vid. Serv. ad illud Virgil. Georgic . lib. 1. Dii patrii indigites , &c. * In Verr. Actus . 7. p. 223. Pest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , transit ad generalitatem , nè quod numen 〈◊〉 , more 〈◊〉 , per quos ritu 〈◊〉 in omnibus sacris , post speciales 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad ipsum sactum , quod 〈◊〉 , necesse erat 〈◊〉 , generaliter omnia numina invocabantur . Serv. in illud Virgil , 〈◊〉 . lib. 1. 〈◊〉 Deaeque omnes . ‖ 〈◊〉 . 38. in Act. p. 705. * 〈◊〉 . lib. 1. in vit . 〈◊〉 p. 78. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 . Philip . 4. pag. 53. — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Schol. ibid. * Chrysoft . de Sacerdot . lib. 4. c. 7. p. 67. T. 4. Vid. inter alios Suid. in vic . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 Corinth . Episc. ap Euseb. lib. 3. c. 4. p. 74. lib. 4. c. 22. p. 144. ‖ Martyrium S. Dionys. per S. Metaphr . ap . Sur. ad diem 9. Octob Epist. Hisduin . Abb. & H uem . 〈◊〉 . item Passio ejus , altaque ib d. Niceph . lib. 2. c. 20. p. 167. Vbi 〈◊〉 . Acts 18. 1. Acts 18. 18. Acts 19. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suid. in 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Strom , l , 1. p. 305 , 306. * 〈◊〉 . Jud. lib 8. 〈◊〉 . 2. p. 257. 〈◊〉 . 19. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈…〉 7 d. ob . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1562 〈◊〉 . 10 s * Paul. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . lib 5. Sent. 21. Sect. 4 〈◊〉 . 23. 〈…〉 . * H. Natur. lib. 36. c. 14. p. 716. ‖ Lib. 16. c. 40. p. 336. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . in 〈◊〉 . Hymn . 2. p. 23. — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Perieg . 〈◊〉 . 829. * 〈◊〉 . Annal. lib. 3. c. 61. p. 117. ‖ Suid. in voc , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Tim. 4. 14. 1 〈◊〉 . 1. 20. * Euseb. lib. 4. contra Hierocl . p. 530. ad calc . Demonstr , Evang. ‖ Philostr . de vit . Apollon , Tyan . lib. 4. cap. 1. p. 159. &c. 12. p. 194. constr . lib. 5. Ibid. lib. 4 c. 3. p. 164. vid. Euseb. in Hierocl . lib. 4. ap . Philostr , p. 457. Acts 20. 1. Acts 20. 17. Acts 20. 1. Acts 21. 18. * 〈◊〉 B 〈◊〉 . Jud. lib. 2. c. 15. Act. 22. 1. 〈◊〉 virgis in medio sero 〈◊〉 Civis Romanut , cum interea nullus 〈◊〉 , nulla vox 〈◊〉 istius miseri 〈◊〉 , nisi hac , 〈◊〉 Romanus sum . Hac 〈◊〉 commemorationis Civitatis omnia verbera depulsurum 〈◊〉 . — O nomen dulce 〈◊〉 ! O jus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 civitatis ! O lex Porcia , 〈◊〉 Semproniae ! Ciccr. in Virr . lib. 7. Tim. 2. p 218. 〈◊〉 est vincire 〈◊〉 Romanum , scelus , terberare . ld . ib. p. 220. vid. supra Sict . Ill. Num. 4. Act. 23. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . M. Anton. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 7. sect . 28. p. 63. Justum & tenatem 〈◊〉 Virum , Non Civium ardor prava jubemium , Non vultus inst 〈◊〉 Tiranni M 〈◊〉 quatit solida : 〈◊〉 Auster 〈◊〉 inquieti turbidus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sulminantis magna Jovls manus . Si fractus illabatur orbis , Impavidum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Horat , Carm. l. 3. Od. 3. p. 154. * 〈◊〉 ille est plenus gandio , 〈◊〉 , & placidus , inconcussus , cum diis ex 〈◊〉 vivit : per dies noctesque sar & aequalis animi 〈◊〉 erecti & placentis sibi est . — . Talis est 〈◊〉 animus , qualis mundi 〈◊〉 super Lunam , semter illie serenum est : 〈◊〉 sim gaudio est . Gaudium bot non 〈◊〉 , nisiex virtutum conscientia . Senec. Epist. 59. p. 152. Hae Pauli verba Ananias & Apparitores sic 〈◊〉 , quasi excusares Paulus quod sibi in istis vialis 〈◊〉 nois satis in mentem 〈◊〉 , quicum sibires esset . Verum latentior sensus 〈◊〉 , non esse cum sacerdotem , aut principem 〈◊〉 , qui 〈◊〉 dignitates precio comparasset . Didicerat enim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gamalitle Paulus : Judicem qui honotis consequendi causa pecunias dederit , revera neque judicem este , neque honorandum , sed asini habendum loco , ut ect in Tisulo Talmudico dt Synedrio . Grot. in loc . Acts 24. 1. * Histor. lib. 5. c. 9. p. 538. vid. Annal. lib. 12. c. 54. p. 234. * Joseph . Antiquit . Jud. lib. 20. c. 5. p. 693. Acts 25. 1. * L. 1. ss . 〈◊〉 Ofsic . Procur . 〈◊〉 . lib. 1. 〈◊〉 . 19 * Leg. 1. Sect. 4. ss de Appellat . lib. 49 Tit. 1. 〈◊〉 . 2 & 3. ibid. * Ibid. 〈◊〉 . 25 , & 〈◊〉 7. ff . ad 〈◊〉 . Jul. 〈◊〉 public . lib. 48. 〈◊〉 . 6. Acts 26. 1. Act , 27. 1. Act. 28. 1. Annot. in loc . * Bar. ad 〈◊〉 . LVIII . 〈◊〉 . 173. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . martyr . ad 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . Feb. Martyr . Rom. ad 〈◊〉 21. Jan. Eusib. l. 4. c. 23. p. 143. 1 Tim. 4. 16. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 XVII . Maii p. 308. ‖ Ad 〈◊〉 . 59. 〈◊〉 . 9. vid. Chrysost. adv . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . lib. 〈◊〉 . c. 4. p. 361. * 〈◊〉 l 13. c. 45. p. 263. ‖ 〈◊〉 Jud. lib. 20. cap. 7. p. 697. 〈◊〉 vit . sua , p. 999. * L. 1. & 2. 〈◊〉 . de his , qui sui vel 〈◊〉 juris sunt , lib. 1. 〈◊〉 . 6. vid. 〈◊〉 . lib. 1. 〈◊〉 . 8. * Lib. 3. c. 3 p. 72. ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . lib. 6. c. 25. p. 227. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , c. 20. 〈◊〉 . 582. 〈◊〉 . Cl 〈◊〉 Alex. in lib. 〈◊〉 . apud 〈◊〉 . l. 6. 〈◊〉 14. p 215. ‖ Euseb. lib. 3. 38. p. 110. * 〈◊〉 . de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . in Clem. Cap. 13. 24. 〈◊〉 . 12. 1. Cap. 6. v. 4. 5 6 C. 10. v. 26 , 27 , 28 , 29. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Ep. ad Corinth . p. 8. ‖ L. Cappell . Append. ad Hist. App. p. 33. * Epiphan . Haeres . 27. p. 51. Chrysost. de Laud. Paul. p. 536. T. 5. C●●ill . Catech. 17. p. 457. Theod. in 2 Tim 4. 16. & in Psalm , 116 id . de cur . Graec , Affect . Serm. 9. p. 125. Rom. 15. 24-28 . ‖ Sopheon , Serm. de natali . App. Transit & Ortanum , vel quà facit insula porium Quasque Britannus habet terras atque ultima Thule . Venant . Fortun. de vit . Martin . lib. 3. non procul à fin . * Adv. vit . Monast. vituperat . lib. 1 c. 4. p. 361. Tom. 4. ad An. 69. n. 8. * Ambr. de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . & Pau. , 〈◊〉 , 68. p. 294. T. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Petr. & Paul. Tom. 6. p. 267. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ap , Euseb. l. 2 , c. 25. p. 〈◊〉 . Ambr. ib. 〈◊〉 . 66. p. 291. Max. 〈◊〉 . Hom. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . & Paul. p. 231. ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . in Pass . Petr. & Paul. Hymn , 12. p. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 App. 〈◊〉 . 2 , in sin . p. 700. Aug. de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 28. T. m. 10. col . 1225. 〈◊〉 . Turon . de glor . Martyr . lib. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. 35. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Apud . P. 〈◊〉 . not . in 〈◊〉 . Fp. ad Cor. ad p. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Metaphr . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ap . 〈◊〉 , ad 29. Jun. n. 23. p. 357. * Damas. Pontif . in vit . Sylv . st . 1. vid. Onuphr . de 7. Vrb. 〈◊〉 . 87. * Apud . Bar. ad An. 386. p. 527. 〈◊〉 Cod. Vatic . ‖ Ib. d. in Addend . ad Tom. 4. p. 12. * 〈◊〉 . H. Eccl. 〈◊〉 . 2. 〈◊〉 . 37. p. 196. ‖ 〈◊〉 . Tom. 2. p. 999. 2 Cor. 10. 10. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . & Paul. p. 265. Tom. 6. ‖ Com. in Gal. 4. p. 182. Tom. 9 〈◊〉 . 4. 14. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad 〈◊〉 . c. 〈◊〉 . Hom. 3. p. 349. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 1. p. 299. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 3. p. 448. ‖ Ignat. Ep. ad Philadelph . in Bibl. 〈◊〉 . Gr. L. T. 1. p. 23. 〈◊〉 . l. 3. c. 30. * 〈◊〉 . Not , in Ignat. Epist. ad Philadelph . 〈◊〉 . James his corrupt , of the Fath , Part. II. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 2 Cor. 11. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost. Homil. 23. in 2. ad 〈◊〉 . p. 899. * Lib. 3. c. 1. p. 223. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lib. 3. Epist. 176. ad 〈◊〉 . Diac. p. 285. * Epist. ad Cor. p. 8. 2 Cor. 11. 23. & 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . 25. in 2 ad Cor. p. 921. 2 Cor. 1. 12. 2 Cor. 10. 10. * Ad Algas . 〈◊〉 . 11. p. 169 T. 2. 〈◊〉 . 11. ad H dib . p. 151. ibid. in Eph. 3. Tom. 9. p. 216. com . in Gal. 3. p. 170. ibid. ‖ Salmas de 〈◊〉 . Part. 1. 〈◊〉 . 6. * Apol. adv . Jovin . T. 2. p. 106. 2 Pet. 3. 16. * Adv. Haer. lib. 3. 〈◊〉 . 7. p. 248. ‖ 〈◊〉 . 64. p. 239. 2 〈◊〉 . 3. 17. * Ambr. in 〈◊〉 . T. 5. p. 397. * De Script . 〈◊〉 . in Luc. 1 Cor. 5. 9. V. 11. Col : 4. 16. * Adv. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 5. 〈◊〉 . 11. p. 476. ib. c. 17. p. 481 ‖ 〈◊〉 . 42. adv . 〈◊〉 . p. 142. * De Script . Eccl. in Paulo . ‖ Epiph. Haeres . 38. p. 124. August . in Joan . Tract . 98. col . 488. * H. Eccl. l. 7. c. 19. p. 735. ‖ Orig. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . l. 1. c. 2. fol. 114. p. 2. * 〈◊〉 . lib. 3. c. 3. p. 72. * 〈◊〉 . l. 1. 〈◊〉 20. Epiph. 〈◊〉 . 21. 〈◊〉 . di 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . c. 33. p. 214 , &c. 46. p. 219. Aug. di 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . XXXIX , Col. 2. 18. * Can. 35. ‖ Theod. in 〈◊〉 . 2. * Orig adv . 〈◊〉 . lib 6. p. 282. Euseb. l. 4. c. 7. p. 120. Heb. 3. 12. Heb. 10. 23. 25 , 31 , 38. * 〈◊〉 . adv . H. 〈◊〉 . lib. 〈◊〉 . c. 20 p. 116. Phil. 3. 17 , 18. Rom. 16. 17 , 18. Eph. 5. 3. 4. &c. 〈◊〉 de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . l. 7. c. 21. p. 973. Acts 15. 1. Mat. 1. 7. Exod. 34. 14. 15. 〈◊〉 25. 2. 4 Gen. 9. 4. Lev. 17. 10 , 11 , 12 , &c. * Athen. D ipnos lib. 2 c. 24. p. 65. 〈◊〉 vid. Casaub. in 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . Christ. Part. 3. 〈◊〉 . 1. p. 230. * Vid. 〈◊〉 . pro Coelio Orat. 34. p. 503. 〈◊〉 . 2 , Terent. Adelph . Ac. 1. Sc. 2. p. 166. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . &c. 〈◊〉 . Comic . in 〈◊〉 . ap . Athen. 〈◊〉 . 13. 〈◊〉 . 3. p. 569. Vid. Leg. 〈◊〉 . 1. 6. 〈◊〉 . 5. p. 41. & 〈◊〉 . Comment . p. 474. 〈◊〉 . 23. 17. 1 〈◊〉 , 4. 2 , 3 , 4 , 5. * 〈◊〉 . adv . 〈◊〉 . pag. 27. Tom. 1. Prov. 7. 14. 〈◊〉 . 23. 〈◊〉 . Rom. 3. 27. 〈◊〉 . 2. 15 , 16. Gal. 3. 2. 5. V. 23. Gal. 4. 21. & 〈◊〉 . Gal. 5. 6. Gal. 6. 15. 1 Cor. 7. 19. Rom. 10. 16. Heb. 11. 8. Rom. 4. 22. Rom. 4. 〈◊〉 , 3 , &c. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cad Hakkem . ap . Buxtorf . F. praef . ad Syn. Jud. ‖ Syna● . Jud , c. 4. p. 87. Rom. 3. 20 , 21 , &c. Ga. 3. 28. Col. 3. 11. Rom. 4 9 , 10 , 11 , &c. Gal. 3. 17. Rom. 4. 11 , 12. 〈◊〉 . 3. 7. 8. 9. Rom. 8. 3 , 4. Heb. 10. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 11 , 12. Gal. 2. 21. Gal. 5. 1 , 2 , 3 , 4. Acts 2. 38. Acts 3. 17. Mark 11. 25 , 26. Matth. 6. 14 , 15. Acts 10. 34 , 35. 1 Joh. 1. 7. 1 Cor. 7. 〈◊〉 . Rom. 3. 27. 1 Cor. 13. 2. Rom. 3. 8. Rom. 6. 1. Vid. Chap. 2. v. 14 , 15. & 〈◊〉 . Notes for div A63641-e229510 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sub lit . 〈◊〉 . * Socr. H. Eccl. l. 1. c. 19. p. 50. ‖ Orig. in 〈◊〉 . l. 3. ap . 〈◊〉 . l. 3. 〈◊〉 . 1. p. 71. 〈◊〉 . H. 〈◊〉 . l. 2. c. 39. p. 199. ‖ 〈◊〉 . Geogr. l. 7. p. 206. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Andr. Apost . & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sub lit . 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 An. 44. N. 31. vid. ad An. 314. n. 94 , 95 , &c. ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . l. 2. c. 39. l. 5. c. 6. p. 540. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 , C. P. in 〈◊〉 , à 〈◊〉 . edit , p. 309. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Man. Grac. 〈◊〉 supr . ‖ 〈◊〉 . 25. p. 438. * Extant apud Sur. ad ditm 30. 〈◊〉 . p. 653. ‖ De 〈◊〉 . c. 89. * Lib. 2. 〈◊〉 . 39. p. 200. vid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ad 〈◊〉 30. Novemb. ubi 〈◊〉 babent . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 2. 〈◊〉 S. Andr. 〈◊〉 . 327. * 〈◊〉 . in S And. 〈◊〉 . 133. p. 120. 〈◊〉 Comment . MS. Gr. ap . Bar. Not. in Martyr . ad 30. Novemb. ‖ Di Glor. Martyr . hb. 1. 6. 31. pag. 37. * 〈◊〉 . adv . 〈◊〉 . p. 122. T. 2. ‖ 〈◊〉 . de 〈◊〉 . Justin. lib. 1. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . CCIXIX . Col. 1488. Notes for div A63641-e231820 Mark 1. 20. H. Eccl. lib. 2. c. 3. p. 135. * Apud Kirsten . de vit . Quat . Evangel . p. 47. John 19. 25. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . J. Mart. dial . cum Tryph. p. 316. Mark 6. 3. Matth 13. 55. ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Bas. Constit. Monast. c. 4. p. 764. Tom. 2. vid. Hilar. in Matth. Can. 14. * Theod. H. Eccl. l. 3. c. 18. p. 105. Luk. 9. 59. 61. Zachar. Chrysopol . Comm. in Concord . Evang. p. 111. Mark 3. 16 , 17. 〈◊〉 . Ccmm. in Marc. c. 3. p. 92. T. 9. Gaudent , 〈◊〉 . Tract 1. de Lect. Evang. seu , in ordine , 8. Matth. 17. 5. Joh. 12. 29. Filios Zebedaei Boanerges , hcc est , 〈◊〉 tonitrui vccat , 〈◊〉 divina corum praedicatio magnum 〈◊〉 & illustrem sonitum per terrarum Orbem datura crat . Vict. Anticch , comment . in Marc. cap. 2. Comment , in Marc. 3. p. 205. Heb. 12. 26. Hagg. 2. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tremere faciam . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seu 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Luk. 9. 54. 〈◊〉 . 20. 20. * 〈◊〉 . Hitron . de Script . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jacob. * Pseudo . 〈◊〉 . Chronic. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . H 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 8. c. 7. * 〈◊〉 vit . & obit , S S. 〈◊〉 Test. c. 72. ‖ Brev. Tol. 〈◊〉 . S. 〈◊〉 . ri . * Apud 〈◊〉 . de adv . Jac. in Hispan . c. 7. p. 11. sid ex side 〈◊〉 . ‖ In Not. ad Martyrol . ad 25. Jul p. 452. vid. Orat. Roder. A. 〈◊〉 . Tol. in 〈◊〉 . G. 〈◊〉 . ad decret . Gund . Tom. 4. Concil . p. 548 , 549. Ad Ann. DCCCXVI . Num. 69 , 70. Tom. 9. * Vid. Epist. 〈◊〉 ad 〈◊〉 Imp. ap . Phil. de Legat . ad 〈◊〉 . p. 1031. & seqq . ‖ Joseph . Antiquit . Jud. 〈◊〉 . 19. c. 7. p. 677. * Clem. Alex. Hypotyp . lib. 7. apud Euseb. 〈◊〉 . 2. c. 9. p. 46. ‖ Said . in voc . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 . Jud. lib. 19. cap. 7. p. 679. Hunc Josephi locum laudans 〈◊〉 , totam bubonis mentionem 〈◊〉 , jusque loco 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 substituit : 〈◊〉 quidem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mala side . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Comment . dt 〈◊〉 . S. Jacob. Apost . ap . Joan. a 〈◊〉 . Biblioth . Floriac . Part. 2 p. 183 , &c. * Is. 〈◊〉 . Observat . in 〈◊〉 . Mel. lib. 3. 〈◊〉 . 1. p. 231. ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Num. 72. Notes for div A63641-e235020 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 notus er at 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 insidias non 〈◊〉 , in tantum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 , & staret solus Apostolorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 salvatoris in sua 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Epitaph . Marcell . p. 119. T. 1. * H. Eccl. lib. 1. 〈◊〉 . 28. p. 104. vid. lib. 2. c. 3. p. 135. ubi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Caipha 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dicit . Mark 14. 51. Joh. 19. 26 , 27. * 〈◊〉 . l. 3. c. 1. p. 71. ‖ H. Eccl. lib. 2. c. 42. p. 206. * In Chron. 〈◊〉 . B 〈◊〉 . ad An. 48. N. 4. * 〈◊〉 . Jesuit , Ann. 1555. ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apostolicas , apud quas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apostolorum , &c. habes Romam , &c. ubi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Oleum 〈◊〉 demersus , nibil 〈◊〉 est , in Insulam relegatur . 〈◊〉 . de Praescript . 〈◊〉 . c. 36. p. 215. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 444. ‖ 1. 〈◊〉 . lib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 16. 〈◊〉 . 2. l. 2. & 4. ff , de 〈◊〉 . lib. 48. Tu. 19. L. 3 ad 〈◊〉 . Jul 〈◊〉 . ib. 〈◊〉 . 13. vid. L. 6. & 7. de 〈◊〉 . & Rel. ib. 〈◊〉 . 22. * Argum. E pist . ad 〈◊〉 . p. 1032. ‖ Adv. 〈◊〉 . lib. 5. c. 30. p. 485. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . lib. 2. c. 11. p. 205. Oros. lib. 7. c. 11. p. 303. 〈◊〉 . 2. ‖ 〈◊〉 . Timoth . apud 〈◊〉 . Cod. 254. Col. 1401. 1404. * Lib. 2. c. 42. p. 206. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Chrysost. Sum. de S. Joan. Ap. p. 505. T. 6. ‖ Synops. de Vit. & 〈◊〉 . App. Bibl. Pp. Tom. 3. p. 147. * Apud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vit. Quat . Evang. p. 52. ‖ Hom. 66. in 〈◊〉 . c. 20. p. 575. * Comm. in Matth. 20. p. 59. Tom. 9. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 summ . Mund. & Antichr . in Auctuar . Bibl. Pp. Gr. Lat. T. 2. p. 351. ‖ Apud 〈◊〉 . Cod. CCXXIX . Col. 797. John 21. 21 , 22 , 23. Matth. 16. 28. * Tract . 124. in Joan. Col. 569 Tom. 9. * H. Eccl. l. 2. c. 42. p. 208. * Apud Phot. ubi 〈◊〉 . p. 800 ‖ 〈◊〉 Glor. 〈◊〉 . lib. 1. cap. 30. pag. 36 * 〈◊〉 , in 〈◊〉 . c. 21. ‖ In vit . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 25 p. 213 * Apud 〈◊〉 . de vit . 〈◊〉 . Evangel . p. 52. * Epiph. 〈◊〉 . 78 p. 4 40. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . adv . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. 35. T. 2. ‖ 〈◊〉 . Comm. in 2 Cor. 11. T. 5. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . in Joan. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Comm. in Joan. lib. 2. in sin . 〈◊〉 . in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 3. p. 120. * 〈◊〉 . Comm. in 〈◊〉 . 6 ; ad Galat. 〈◊〉 . 9. p. 200. * 〈◊〉 . H. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 3. c. 23. p. 92. Prim. Christ. Part. 3. ch . 2. p. 248. * Orat. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . in Auctuar . 〈◊〉 . Pp. Gr. L. à Er. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 1672. Part. 1. p. 185. 〈◊〉 . 42. * 〈◊〉 . adv . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 3. c. 3. p. 233. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 3. 〈◊〉 . 28 p. 100 Epiph. Haeres . 30. p. 69. ‖ Th. Smith . 〈◊〉 . de VII . Asia 〈◊〉 . p. 159. * Epiphan . Hares . 28. p. 53. 〈◊〉 apud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 3. 〈◊〉 . 28 p. 100. * 〈◊〉 . ib. p. 99. Rev. 2 15. * 〈◊〉 . lib. 3. p. 436. 〈◊〉 3 seb . 〈◊〉 . 3. 〈◊〉 . 29. p. 101. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . H. 〈◊〉 . lib. 7. c. 25. p. 272. &c. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . in Cap. 1. Joan. ‖ 〈◊〉 . de vit . App. in 〈◊〉 . Pp. T. 3. p. 147. * Iren. adv . 〈◊〉 . lib. 3. 〈◊〉 . 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . in Math. Tom. 9. & de script . 〈◊〉 . in Joan. ‖ De glor . 〈◊〉 . lib. l. cap. 30. pag. 37. ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Eccl. lib. 3. c. 24. p. 95. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. 〈◊〉 . 41. p. 102. ‖ Comm. in 〈◊〉 , c. 47. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sublimitate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dei vidit , & 〈◊〉 proprio 〈◊〉 reseravit . Transeendit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 virtutes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 angelos , & verbum in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vidit . Ambr. praef . 〈◊〉 . in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 5. p. 5. ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Amel. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . lib. 11. p. 540. vid. Theodor. 〈◊〉 Cxr. Graec. 〈◊〉 . Serm. 2. p. 33. * Epiph. adv . Ebinn . 〈◊〉 . XXX . p. 60. ibid. pag. 61. ‖ Lib. 7. c. 25. p. 276. * Quest. Evang. lib. 2. c. 39. Col. 353. vid. Possid . Indic . Oper. August . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 supr . &c. 26. Huron . de 〈◊〉 . Ecel . in Joan. * Comm. in cap. 12. Zathar . 〈◊〉 . 178. Tom. 6. ‖ Homil. 16. p. 502. Tom. 1. * 〈◊〉 . 73. adv . 〈◊〉 . p. 363. ‖ 〈◊〉 . in Joan p. 8. Notes for div A63641-e240520 John 4. 45. 〈◊〉 1. 46. John 7. 52. John 1. 44. * 〈◊〉 . 3. p. 436. * Apud Sur. ad 〈◊〉 1. 〈◊〉 Tom. 4. 〈◊〉 6. 5. John 12. 22. John 14. 8. 2 Tim. 3. 〈◊〉 . * S. 〈◊〉 , Comm. de S. Philip. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ad 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , H. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 2 , c. 39. p. 200. 〈◊〉 . & 〈◊〉 . ibid. * 〈◊〉 . ad Gent. p. 11. ‖ Ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 3. * 〈◊〉 . lib. 3. p. 448. ‖ Ap. 〈◊〉 . H. Eccl. lib. 3. c. 31. p. 102. vid. Doroth . 〈◊〉 . de vit . & mort . App. B. Pp. Tom. 3. p. 148. Acts 21. 8 , 9. * Lib. 3. cap. 24. p. 94. ‖ Adv. Gnost . Haris . 26. p. 46 Notes for div A63641-e242080 John 21. 1 , 2. Ib. v. 14. * Boldut . de Eccles. post Leg. c. 7 , p. 45. vid. de Eccl , a●● Leg. lib. 2. c. 8. * Rupert . Tuit . Comm. in Joan. 1. ●anser . Concord . c. 17. Onuphr . in Fa● . Salmer . Trast . 18. Tom. 4. Moniac . Orig-Sacr . Part. 2. p. 18. Dr. H. Annot. in Job . 1. aliique . * Tract . VII . in Joau . Col. 68. Tom. 9. & in Psalm . LXV . Col. 671. Tom. 8 〈◊〉 1 , 45. * H. Eccl. lib. 1. c. 19. p. 50. ‖ Apud Hier. de Script . Eccl. in Barthol . * H. 〈◊〉 . lib. 5. c. 10. p. 175. * 〈◊〉 , in SS , XII . App. p. 269. T. 6. ‖ Sophron. ap . Hieron . in Barth . * Lib. 2. c 39. p. 201. vid. Metaphr , ad Aug. 24. ‖ Hippol , de App. ap . Bar. in Not. ad Martyr , ad Aug. 25. Isid. de SS . 〈◊〉 T. c. 77. * Am. Mar. lib. 23. ‖ In vit . 〈◊〉 , p. 1019 Vid. 〈◊〉 . Turon , de glor . Martyr . lib. 1. 〈◊〉 . 34. p. 46. * Decret . Part. 1. Distinct. 15. 〈◊〉 . 3. Sect. Caterum . Notes for div A63641-e244260 * 〈◊〉 Kirsten . Vit. 4. Evangel . p , 22. * 〈◊〉 . in vit . Vespas . 〈◊〉 . 1. p. 722. Luk. 19. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 Comic . apud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vit . 〈◊〉 . cap. 4. p. 29. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . apud Stob. 〈◊〉 . 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. 31. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 7. p. 561. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 18. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Lex in 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 9. 9. Mark 2. 13. 14. Luk. 5. 27 , 28 , 29. * Homil. 11. 〈◊〉 1. ad 〈◊〉 . p. 419. * Sur. l. 〈◊〉 . c. 19. p. 50. ‖ Apud Sur. ad 〈◊〉 . 21. 〈◊〉 . Vol. 3. p 217. * H. Eecl . lib , 2. c. 41. p. 203. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 India 〈◊〉 : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naddaber a'ta 〈◊〉 . Ven. Fortun. de Senat. Cur. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . lib. 7. p. 〈◊〉 . * Vbi supr . p. 30. 〈◊〉 . p. 31. ‖ Synops. de vit . & mort . App. in Bibl. Pp. Tom. 3. p. 148. * Reg. 〈◊〉 disput . Interrog . VIII . pag. 545. 〈◊〉 . 2. ‖ Ap. 〈◊〉 . in Matth. 9. p. 26. 〈◊〉 . 9. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . lib. 2. c. 1. p. 148. Cateri 〈◊〉 in conjunctione nominum , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & postea Thomom : 〈◊〉 verò & post 〈◊〉 se 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abundavit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 . Hieron . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. c. 10. p. 29. T. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nec 〈◊〉 nomen 〈◊〉 : ne 〈…〉 . ibid. ‖ Bava 〈◊〉 fol. 58. 2. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. 185. ‖ H. Eccl. lib. 2. c. 45. p. 213. * Adv. 〈◊〉 . lib. 3. c. 1. p. 229. 〈◊〉 ap . 〈◊〉 . l. 3. c. 39. p. 113. 〈◊〉 . l. 3. c. 1. p. 229. Origen , Exposit. in 〈◊〉 . l. 5. ap . Enseb. 〈◊〉 . 6. c. 25. p. 226. 〈◊〉 . Synops. S. Script . p. 493. Cyrill . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 14. p. 341. Epiphan . 〈◊〉 . 29. p. 59. 〈◊〉 . 51. p. 185. 〈◊〉 . Homil . 1. in Matth. p. 4. 〈◊〉 . de Script . Eccl. in Math. 〈◊〉 . in 4. 〈◊〉 . ad Dam. Tom. 3. p. 30. & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . August . de 〈◊〉 . Evang. lib. 1. c. 2. col . 372. 〈◊〉 . Synops. de vit . App. p. 148. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . lib. 8. Arabs quidam in vit . MS. 〈◊〉 apud 〈◊〉 . de vit . Quat , Evangel . 〈◊〉 . 10. p. 29. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad 〈◊〉 . Evangel . S. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arabs , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ad id . Evangel . * 〈◊〉 . Comment . in 〈◊〉 . pag. 2. ‖ Synops. S. Script . p. 493. * Epiph. 〈◊〉 . 29. p. 59. ‖ Epiph. 〈◊〉 . 40. p. 64. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 27. p. 54. * 〈◊〉 . ib. 〈◊〉 . XXX . p. 61. vid. p. 60. ‖ 〈◊〉 Script . Eccl. in 〈◊〉 . * Theodor. Lect. Collect an . lib. 2. non longe ab init . p. 184. Notes for div A63641-e247060 Nonn . Panop . in Joan. c. 11. * Apud Sur. ad diem 21. Decemb. n. 2. John 11. 16. John 14. 5. John 20. 19. * 〈◊〉 . lib. 〈◊〉 . c. 13. p. 32. & lib. 2. c. 1. p. 39. * Lib. 3. in Gen. ap . Euseb. lib. 3. c. 1. p. 71. 〈◊〉 . lib. 1. c. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . lib. 9 p. 101. fac . 2. ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . de Script . in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 9. * Auth. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . in 〈◊〉 . ap . 〈◊〉 . Hom. 2 p. 776. * 〈◊〉 . Serm. in XII . App. T. 6. p. 269 ‖ 〈◊〉 . lib. 5. c. 2 p. 534. * 〈◊〉 . in 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ‖ 〈◊〉 . D. 〈◊〉 . Tud . p. 98. * Lib. 7. c 69. 70. p. 408. ‖ H. 〈◊〉 . l. 2. c. 40. p. 201. * S. Metaphr . ad 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 8 , 9. * Mass. H 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . lib. 2. p. 85. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Martyr . lib. 1. cap. 32. p. 41. ‖ 〈◊〉 . ib. lib. 8. p. 363. 〈◊〉 . de reb . 〈◊〉 . lib. 3. p. 120. 〈◊〉 . ibid. p. 119. & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 2. p. 88. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Navig . 〈◊〉 Relat. Nov. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 134. Notes for div A63641-e249500 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Clem. Al. 〈◊〉 . lib. 7. ap . 〈◊〉 . lib. 2. c. 1. p. 38. ‖ H. 〈◊〉 . lib. 1. c. 12. p. 31. * Lib. 2. 〈◊〉 . 1. p. 38. * 〈◊〉 . in Isai. cap. 17. p. 60. T. 5. ‖ 〈◊〉 . Helvid . T. 2. p. 10. * 〈◊〉 . in Math. 12. p. 38. T. 9. ‖ Ap. 〈◊〉 . lib. 2. 〈◊〉 . 3. p. 135. * H. Eccl. lib. 2. c. 1. p. 38. ‖ Contr. Cerinth . 〈◊〉 . XXVIII . p. 55. Contr. Naz. 〈◊〉 XXIX . p. 56. & contr . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . lxxviii . p. 438 , 439. Greg. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Christ. 〈◊〉 . II. p. 844. Tom. 2. Math 13. 55 , 56 〈◊〉 . 27. 56. 〈◊〉 14. 40. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Gregor . 〈◊〉 . loc . supr . laud. Joh. 19. 25. Vbi supr . ‖ 〈◊〉 , Jud. l. 20. c. 8. p. 698. Matth. 10. 3. * 〈◊〉 Consens . 〈◊〉 . lib. 〈◊〉 . c. 28. col . 432. ‖ Bolduc . de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . c. 7. p. 47. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . & Abod . 〈◊〉 cap. 2. & 〈◊〉 En 〈◊〉 . vid. Chr. 〈◊〉 . Hist. 〈◊〉 . p. 394. 1 Cor. 15. 7. ‖ 〈◊〉 Script . Eccles. in Jacob . min. * 〈◊〉 . apud Euseb. lib. 4. c. 22. p. 142. ‖ 〈◊〉 . Al. 〈◊〉 . l. 6. ap . 〈◊〉 . l. 2. c. 1. p. 38. * Phot. Epist. 117. ad Theodos. Monach p. 158. Theophyl . in 1. ad Cor. 15. 7. vid. Euseb. l. 7. c. 19. p. 265. Gal. 1. 19. 2 9. Act. 12. 17. Act. 15. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 33. in Act. p. 676. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Presb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . in Jac. apud Phot. Ced . CLXXV . col . 1525. Eusib. lib. 2. c. 23. p. 64. ld . ib. p. 63. * Josephus Antiquit . Jud. lib. 20. c. 8. p. 698. 〈◊〉 . Comment . lib. 5. 〈◊〉 Euseb. lib. 2. 〈◊〉 . 23. p. 64 * 〈◊〉 . 78. p. 441. Epiph. ibid. * Antiquit. Jud. lib. 20. c. 8. p. 698. ‖ De glor . 〈◊〉 . lib. 1. c. 27. pag. 33. * Ap. Eusib. lib. 2. c. 23. p. 65 * Contr. Nazar . Haeres . XXIX . p. 56. ‖ 〈◊〉 . apud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . c. laudat . p. 63. Epiph . ibid. 〈◊〉 . 5. 17. Epiph. Haeres . 78. p. 441. * Epiph. Haeres . 29. p. 56. ex Clem. Al. & Euseb. & haeres . 78. p. 441. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 N. Fullerus 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Miscellan . 〈◊〉 . lib. 3 c. 1. 2 King. 13. 20. * 〈◊〉 . Com. in c. 1. ad Gal , p. 165. T. 9. ‖ H. Eccl. lib. 7. c. 19. p. 265. * Vid. supr . num . 3. ‖ Euseb. l. 2. c. 23. p. 65. * Verba 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Euseb. loc , laudat . Notes for div A63641-e253020 Matth. 10. 4 , Mark 3. 18. * Niceph. H. Eccl. lib. 8. 〈◊〉 . 30 p. 596. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 H , Eccl. lib. 2. c. 40. p. 202. Luke 6. 15. Acts 1. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 Idolol . cap. 2. Sect. 12. pag. 19. Psalm 106. 30 Numb . 25. 11. 13. * 〈◊〉 Bell Jnd. lib. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 871. & 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . supra laudat . ‖ Ad Ann. 44. n. 38. Vbi supra . * 〈◊〉 . ib. ‖ Doroth , in Synops. de vit . App. p. 148. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ad diem X. Maii. * Vid. Breviar . Roman . ad diem 28. Octobr. & Martyrol . Rom. ad eund . diem & 〈◊〉 . Not. ibid. vid. illum ad Ann. 68. 〈◊〉 . 7. ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . de Script . Eccl. in Simone . Isidor . de 〈◊〉 . & 〈◊〉 . SS . 〈◊〉 T. cap. 83. Notes for div A63641-e254380 John 14. 22. * Boldur . 〈◊〉 Eccl. post leg . cap. 7. p. 47. 48. * 〈◊〉 . H. 〈◊〉 . in 〈◊〉 . p. 147. ‖ Hist. Nat. lib. 5. 〈◊〉 . 19. * H. 〈◊〉 . lib. 2. 〈◊〉 . 40. p. 202. Matth. 13. 55. Animadv . in Euseb. 〈◊〉 . ad Num. MMCXII . p. 205. * H. 〈◊〉 . lib. 1. 〈◊〉 . 13 . p. 32 ‖ Commint . in Matth. 〈◊〉 . 10. * 〈◊〉 . H. Eccl. l. 2. 〈◊〉 . 40. p. 202. ‖ Synops. de 〈◊〉 . & 〈◊〉 . App. in Bibl. Pp. 〈◊〉 . 3. p. 148. * Apud . Euseb. lib. 3 . c . 20 . p. 89. * 〈◊〉 . lib. 2. c 23 . p. 66. & lib. 3 . c . 25. ‖ 〈◊〉 Script . Eccl. in 〈◊〉 . Scio 〈◊〉 Enoch , quae hune 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dedit , non recipi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , quia 〈◊〉 in Armarium Judaicum 〈◊〉 . Opinor non 〈◊〉 illam 〈◊〉 Cataclysmum 〈◊〉 , post 〈◊〉 casum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , salvam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Si ista ratio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. Sid cum Enoch 〈◊〉 Scriptura 〈◊〉 de Domino 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nobis quidem nihil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est , quod 〈◊〉 ad nos . A Judais 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 videri 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qua 〈◊〉 sonant . Eo 〈◊〉 quod 〈◊〉 apud Judam Apostolum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . de Cult . 〈◊〉 . lib. 1 . c . 3 . p. 151. Vid. 〈◊〉 . Comment . in Tit. c. 1. p. 249. T. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( cujus 〈◊〉 meminu in Epistola Apostolus Judas ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cum Diabolo disputans de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ait Diabolo , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 causam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 . Origen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. 〈◊〉 . 2. sol . 142. p. 2. * 〈◊〉 . in 〈◊〉 . Epist. Jud. ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epist. Jud. p. 106. ad 〈◊〉 lib. 〈◊〉 Eccl. post leg . Notes for div A63641-e256540 Contr. Cels. lib. 4. p. 175. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. 476. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pythag. in aur . carm . in quem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inter alia Hierecles , optima prorsus & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . in Aur. Carm. p. 165. ‖ Job 9 , 4. * H. Ecd. l. 2. c. 1. p. 131. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Sanct. lib. 3. c. 149. ‖ H. Eccl. l. 2. c. 40. p. 203. * Ap. 〈◊〉 , de Script . Eccl. in 〈◊〉 . * Synops. de vit . App. in Bibl. Pp. Tom. 3. p. 148. ‖ Colon. Impress . 1490. ad Febr. 24. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grator . ad 〈◊〉 IX . August . apud Bolland . de vit . SS . ad Febr. XXIV . Tom. 3. p. 433. * Vid. Cbr. 〈◊〉 . Annal , 〈◊〉 . lib. 2. p. 658. & 〈…〉 . cit . p. 435. ‖ 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 . Gr. Rom. lib. 2. p. 161. * H. 〈◊〉 . l. 3 c. 25 p. 97. Orig. in Luc. Homil. 10. Ambr. praf . in Luc. Tom. 5. p. 7. ‖ 〈◊〉 . Part. 1. Dist. 15. cap. 〈◊〉 . Rom. Sect. 〈◊〉 . a 〈◊〉 . lib. 2. p. 380. ibid. lib. 3. p. 436. b 〈◊〉 . lib. 7. p. 765. Notes for div A63641-e258130 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . in Marc Tom. 9. p. 87. ‖ H. Eccl. l. 2 : c. 43. p. 209. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. 186. ‖ Apud 〈◊〉 . l. 3. c. 39. p. 113. * 〈◊〉 discipulus , & in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Isid. de 〈◊〉 . & 〈◊〉 . S S. c. 84. p. 542. ‖ Naz. 〈◊〉 . 25. p. 438. * H. 〈◊〉 . lib. 2. c. 16. p. 53. ‖ 〈◊〉 Script . 〈◊〉 . in 〈◊〉 . * Phil. lib. de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. 891 , 892 , & 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 . XXIX . p. 57. ‖ De Script . in 〈◊〉 . a Ad Ann. 64. 〈◊〉 . 11. b 〈◊〉 . H. Eccl. lib. 1. c. 12. p. 419. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Monach . lib. 2. c. 5. p. 12. Phil. ibid. p. 901. 902. * N. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . lib. 1. cap 3. ‖ Lib. supr . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. 889. * De Bill . 〈◊〉 . lib. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. 786. * S. Martyr . S. 〈◊〉 . apud Sur. ad 〈◊〉 25. Apr. 〈◊〉 . Diac. Laudat . S. Marc. ib. 〈◊〉 . 8. 〈◊〉 . H. 〈◊〉 . l. 2. c. 43. p. 209. Id. ibid. Vid. vit . 〈◊〉 MS. 〈◊〉 script . ap . 〈◊〉 . p. 37. * Vbi 〈◊〉 . ‖ De Script . Eccles. in 〈◊〉 * Synops. de vit . & morl . App. in Bibl. Pp. Tom. 3. p. 148. col . 2. ‖ Lib. 2. c. 43. p. 209. * Adv. 〈◊〉 . lib. 3. c. 1. pag. 229. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ap . Euseb. lib. 5. c. 8. p. 172. ‖ 〈◊〉 . ibid. n. 10. 〈◊〉 . ib. p. 210. * 〈◊〉 . Al. Hypotyp . lib. 6. ap . Euseb. l. 2. c. 15. p. 53. Papias ib. l. 3. c. 39. p. 113. Vid. Pap. 〈◊〉 . supr . citat . * Homil. 3. in 〈◊〉 . p. 30. ‖ Ad Hedib . 〈◊〉 . 3. p. 143. 〈◊〉 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Homil. 86. 〈◊〉 Matth. p. 719. 〈◊〉 . à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . in Marc. 〈◊〉 . 562. Notes for div A63641-e260790 * Dion . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 47. de 〈◊〉 . Liban . Orat. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Encom . 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 17. 〈◊〉 Pop , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 198. 〈◊〉 . 1. * S. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sur. ad 〈◊〉 18. 〈◊〉 . p. 289. ‖ Grot. 〈◊〉 . in Luc. 1. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 2. 〈◊〉 . 43. ‖ 〈◊〉 . non manus . & a S. Luca 〈◊〉 . c. 18. & 19. p. 354. Rom. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Part. 2. c. 46. 〈◊〉 . 10. p. 188. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . in Luc. p. 293. ‖ 〈◊〉 . 51. p. 188. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prius , 〈…〉 . p. 39. 〈◊〉 1. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Acts 16. 10. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. 44. ‖ 〈◊〉 ubi 〈◊〉 n. 11. 〈◊〉 supra . * 〈◊〉 xviii . 〈◊〉 p. 645. ‖ 〈◊〉 vit . & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Bibl. Pp. Tom. 3. p. 148. * 〈◊〉 1. in Julian . p. 76. ‖ Epist. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 138. * Lib. 2. c. 43. p. 210. ‖ 〈◊〉 Script . 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 Quat . Evangel . p. 45. * Drig 〈◊〉 1. in Lus. fol. 94. Ambros. in 〈◊〉 1. p. 9. T. 5. 〈◊〉 . Epiph. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 186. ‖ 〈◊〉 in Luc. p. 293. * Lib. 10. 〈◊〉 fin . 〈◊〉 . 120. ‖ 〈◊〉 , in 〈◊〉 . Tom. 9. * Adv. Matt. lib. 4. c. 〈◊〉 . 414 ‖ Adv. 〈◊〉 . lib. 3. c. 14 , p. 272. * Sum. 73. Cur. Act. App. 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 . Tom. 〈◊〉 * Comm. in c. 6. Esai . p. 30. T. 5. ibid. in c. 28. p. 118. Epist. ad Damas . p. 124. T. 3. Notes for div A63641-e262990 ‖ Ap. Theod. H. Eccles. lib. 5. c. 9. p. 151. * Homil. 3. ad Pop. Am. Tom. 1. p. 40. 
A63844	----	Ductor dubitantium, or, The rule of conscience in all her generall measures serving as a great instrument for the determination of cases of conscience : in four books / by Jeremy Taylor ... Ductor dubitantium Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. 1660 Approx. 4512 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 591 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-12 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A63844 Wing T324 ESTC R20123 12291449 ocm 12291449 58903 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A63844) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 58903) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 195:4-5) Ductor dubitantium, or, The rule of conscience in all her generall measures serving as a great instrument for the determination of cases of conscience : in four books / by Jeremy Taylor ... Ductor dubitantium Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. 2 v. : port. Printed by James Flesher for Richard Royston ..., London : 1660. "Of humane laws, the 3rd. book" and "Of nature and causes of good and evil, the 4th book" each has special t.p. and separate pagination. First ed. Cf. NUC pre-1956. Published later as: The rule of conscience. Reproduction of original in Huntington Library (books 1 and 2), Harvard University Library (books 3 and 4). Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. 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Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Conscience -- Early works to 1800. Casuistry -- Early works to 1800. Christian ethics -- Early works to 1800. 2005-02 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-03 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-04 Judith Siefring Sampled and proofread 2005-04 Judith Siefring Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion DUCTOR DUBITANTIUM or The RULE of CONSCIENCE In lumine tuc , Domine , videbimus , lumen . DVCTOR DVBITANTIVM , OR THE RULE OF CONSCIENCE In all her generall measures ; Serving as a great Instrument for the determination of CASES of CONSCIENCE . In Four Books . By JEREMY TAYLOR , D. D. Prov. 14. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . LONDON , Printed by James Flesher , for Richard Royston at the Angel in Ivy-lane , 1660. TO THE MOST SACRED MAJESTY OF CHARLES II. KING of GREAT BRITAINE , FRANCE and IRELAND , Defender of the Faith , &c. Great Sir , THE circles of the Divine Providence turn themselves upon the affairs of the world so , that every spondel of the wheels may mark out those Vertues which we are then to exercise ; and every new event in the Oeconomy of God is God's finger to point out to us by what instances he will be served . We have been sorely smitten and for a long time ; for ( that I may use the words of the Prophet ) Alas , for that day was great , so that none was like it , it was even the time of Jacob's trouble ; and then , Faith and Patience , and all the passive Graces of Religion were in their own season . But since God hath left off to smite us with an iron rod , and hath once more said unto these Nations , They shall serve the Lord their God , and David their King whom I have raised up unto them ; Now our duty stands on the Sunny side ; it is our work to rejoice in God and in God's Anointed , and to be glad , and worthily to accept of our Prosperity is all our business : for so good a God we serve , that he hath made it our Duty to be happy , and we cannot please him unless we be infinitely pleased our selves . It was impossible to live without our King ; but as Slaves live , that is , such who are civilly dead , and persons condemn'd to metalls : we lived to the lusts and insolency of others , but not at all to our selves , to our own Civil or Religious comforts . But now our joys are mere and unmixt ; for that we may doe our duty and have our reward at once , God hath sent your Majesty amongst us , that we may feel the pleasures of Obedience , and reap the fruits of that Government which God loves and uses , which He hath constituted and adorned , which He hath restored to us by a conjugation of miracles , by the work of his hand and the light of his countenance , by changing the hearts of Men , and scattering the people that delight in War , by infatuating their Counsels and breaking their Cords asunder ; that is , which He himself hath wrought amongst us by himself alone , and therefore will bless and will never interrupt : only we must be carefull never to provoke him any more by our Vnthankfulness and infidel Apostasie . But now , Great Sir , be pleas'd to give me leave in the throngs of those that rejoice to see the goodness of God to his servant Job , in imitation of them who presented him with , everyman , an ear-ring of Gold , and a piece of Silver , or a Lambe * , to bring also my Offering , the signification of my joy . For though it be but two Books which like the Widows two mites make up but a contemptible Summe ; yet because it is all I have , your Majesty may be pleased to accept : and so much the rather , because it is also an expression of that part of the duty of my Calling which hath fallen to my share . For your Majesty , like the King in the Gospel , hath been in a far Country , and some of your Citizens sent after you , and said , Nolumus hunc regnare ; but God hath caused you to return and reign : and if your Majesty should by that example call us to render an account of our Talents , I can only say , that amongst those many Excellent persons who have greatly improv'd theirs , I was willing to negotiate and to labour . What fruit will from hence accrue to Souls is wholly in the hands of God : but this semination and culture was much wanting in the Reformed Churches . For though in all things else the Goodness of God hath made us to abound , and our Cup to run over ; yet our labours have been hitherto unimploied in the description of the Rules of Conscience and Casuistical Theology . In which because I have now made some attempt , if the production be not unworthy , I am sure it is not improper to lay it at the feet of your Majesty . For your Majesty being by God appointed Custos utriusque Tabulae , since like Moses you are from God descended to us with the two Tables of the Law in your hand , and that you will best govern by the arguments and compulsory of Conscience , and this alone is the greatest firmament of Obedience ; whatsoever can be the measure of Conscience est res Fisci , is part of your own propriety , and enters into your Exchequer . Be pleased therefore , Gracious Sir , to accept this instance of my duty to God , to your Majesty , and to your Great Charge , the Church of England . There are in it many things intended for the service , but nothing to disserve any of these great interests . Those Cases that concern the Power and Offices of Ecclesiastical Superiors and Supreme , were ( though in another manner ) long since done by the incomparable Mr Hooker , and the learned Archbishop of Spalato : but their labours were unhappily lost , and never saw the light . And though I cannot attain to the strength of these Champions of David and Guardians of the Temple ; yet since their portion of work is fallen into my hand , I have heartily endeavoured to supply that loss ; though with no other event , but as charitable passengers by their little , but well-meaning , alms repair the breaches of his fortune who was greatly undone by War or Fire . But therefore I humbly beg your Majesties pardon in all things where my weaknesses make me to despair of your more Gracious acceptance : and here I am therefore to be confident , because your Mercy is , as your Majesty , this day in her exaltation , and is felt by all your Subjects ; and therefore humbly to be hoped for by Great Sir , Your Majesties most dutifull and most obedient Subject Jeremy Taylor . THE PREFACE . THE Reformation of Religion in the Western Churches hath been so violently , so laboriously , so universally oppos'd by Evil Spirits and Evil Men , by willfulness and ignorance , by prejudice and interest , by error and partiality ; and it self also hath been done so imperfectly in some places , and so unskilfully in some others , because the thick and long-incumbent darkness had made it impossible to behold the whole Light in all its splendour ; that it was found to be work enough for the Ministers of Religion to convince the Gain-sayers , to oppose their witty arts by the advantageous representment of wise truths , so to keep the people from their temptations . But since there were not found many able to doe this but such which had other cures to attend , the conduct of souls in their publick and private charges , and the consequent necessity of preaching and catechising , visiting the sick , and their publick daily offices ; it was the less wonder that in the Reformed Churches there hath been so great a scarcity of Books of Cases of Conscience : though it is not to be denied but the careless and needless neglect of receiving private Confessions hath been too great a cause of our not providing materials apt for so pious and useful a ministration . But besides this , it is certain that there was a necessity of labouring to other purposes then formerly : and this necessity was present and urgent ; and the hearts and heads of men ran to quench that fire , & left the government of the house more loosely , till they could discern whether the house would be burnt or no by the flames of contention which then brake out : only this duty was supplied by excellent preachings , by private conferences , by admonitions and answers given when some more pious and religious persons came to Confessions , and as they were upon particular occasions requir'd and invited . But for any publick provisions of books of Casuistical Theology , we were almost wholly unprovided , and , like the children of Israel in the days of Saul and Jonathan , we were forc'd to go down to the forges of the Philistims to sharpen every man his Share and his Coulter , his Axe and his Mattock . We had Swords and Spears of our own , enough for defence , and more then enough for disputation : but in this more necessary part of the Conduct of Consciences we did receive our answers from abroad , till we found that our old needs were sometimes very ill supplied , and new necessities did every day arise . Some of the Lutherans have indeed done something in this kind which is well ; Balduinus , Bidenbachius , Dedekanus , Konig , and the Abbreviator of Gerard : Some essays also have been made by others ; Alstedius , Amesius , Perkins , and the late Eloquent and Reverend Bishop of Norwich . But yet our needs remain ; and we cannot be well supplied out of the Roman store-houses : for though there the staple is , and very many excellent things expos'd to view ; yet we have found the Merchants to be deceivers , and the wares too often falsified . For 1. if we consider what heaps of prodigious propositions and rules of Conscience their Doctors have given us , we shall soon perceive that there are so many boxes of poison in their Repositories under the same paintings and specious titles , that as it will be impossible for every man to distinguish their ministeries of health from the methods of death ; so it will be unsafe for any man to venture indiscriminately . For who can safely trust that guide that teaches him , [ a That it is no deadly sin to steal , or privately against his will and without his knowledge to take a thing from him who is ready to give it if he were ask'd , but will not endure to have it taken without asking ; That it is no theft * privately to take a thing that is not great from our Father ; b that he who sees an innocent punish'd for what himself hath done , he in the mean time who did it , holding his peace , is not bound to restitution ; c That he who falls into fornication , if he goes to confession , may the same day in which he did fornicate receive the Communion ; That Communion is Manducation , and therefore requires not attention ; That he who being in deadly sin receives the H. Communion commits but one sin , viz. that against the dignity of the Sacrament ; and that the omission of confession is no distinct sin , meaning , amongst them who believe confession to be of Divine institution ? ] As bad or worse are those affirmatives and doctrines of repentance . [ A dying man is not tied to be contrite for his sins ; but confession and attrition are sufficient : ] and that we may know what is meant by attrition , we are told [ it is a sorrow for temporal evil , disgrace or loss of health , sent by God as a punishment , or feared to be sent ; ] this alone is enough for Salvation , if the dying man do but confess to the Priest , though he have liv'd wickedly all his life-time . And that we need not think the matter of confession to be too great a burden , we are told , [ He that examines his Conscience before confession , sins if he be too diligent and carefull . ] But as for the precept of having a contrite and a broken heart [ It binds not but in the article or danger of death : nor then , but when we cannot have the Sacrament of penance . ] To these may be added those contradictions of severity for the securing of a holy life : that [ If a man purpose at the present to sin no more , though at the same time he believes he shall sin again , ( that is , that he will break his purpose , ) yet that purpose is good enough : That it is not very certain whether he that hath attrition does receive grace , though he does not formally resolve to sin no more : ] meaning , that it is probable , that it is not necessary to make any such resolution of leaving their sin ; they are not certain it is so , nor certain that it is otherwise ; that is , they find no Commandment for these things : It may be they are counsell'd and advis'd in Scripture , but that is no great matter ; for [ It is no sin not to correspond with the Divine inspirations exhorting us to Counsels . ] Adde to these , that [ To detract from our Neighbours fame before a consciencious , silent and a good Man , is no deadly sin : To dispense with our vows in a year of Jubile is valid , though the condition of obtaining that Jubilee be not performed . ] Thus men amongst them have leave to sin , and the may live in it as long as their life lasts without repentance ; and that repentance in the sum of affairs is nothing but to call to the Priest to absolve them ; provided you be sorrowfull for the evil you feel or fear God will send on you : but contrition , or sorrow proceeding from the love of God is not at all necessary ; [ neither is it necessary that our sorrow be thought to be contrition ; neither is it necessary that attrition should goe before confession , but will serve if it be sometime after ; and if you confess none but venial sins , it is sufficient if you be sorrowfull for one of them ; and the case is the same for mortal sins formerly confessed . ] But I am ashamed of this heap of sad stories : If I should amass together what themselves have collected in their books , it would look like a libel : but who is pleased with variety of such sores may enter into the Hospitals themselves , and walk and look til he be weary . 2. But not only with the evil matter of their propositions ; but we have reason to be offended with the strange manner of their answerings . I shall not need to instance in that kind of argument which is but too frequent among those who prevail more by their authority then their reason , of proving propositions by similitudes and analogies . I remember that Gregory Sayr saies that all the Precepts of the Moral Law are to be reduc'd to the Decalogue ; because as all natural things are reduc'd to ten Praediments , so it is expedient that all kinds of vertues & vice be reduc'd to the ten Commandments . And Bessaeus infers seven Sacraments from the number of the Planets , and the seven ears of full corn in Egypt , & seven water-pots changed into wine ( though there were but six , ) because as the wine fill'd six water-pots , so the Sacrament of the Eucharist fills the other six , and it self makes the seventh ; and that therefore peradventure the Sacraments are called Vessels of grace . But this I look upon as a want of better arguments in a weak cause , manag'd by careless and confident persons ; and note it only as a fault , that the Guides of Consciences should speak many things when they can prove but few . 3. That which I suppose to be of greatest Consideration is , that the Casuists of the Roman Church take these things for resolution and answer to questions of Conscience which are spoken by an authority that is not sufficient ; and they admit of Canons , and the Epistles of Popes for authentick warranties , which are suspicious whether ever they were written by them to whose authority only they do pretend ; and they quote sayings of the old Doctors , which are contradicted by others of equal learning and reputation , and all cited in their own Canon Law ; and have not any sufficient means to ascertain themselves what is binding in very many cases argued in their Canons , and Decretal epistles , and Bulls of Popes . Nay they must needs be at a loss in their conduct of Consciences , especially in all inquiries and articles of faith , when they chuse such foundations , which themselves know to be weak and tottering ; and yet lay the greatest load upon such foundations , and tie the Conscience with the hardest ligature , where it is certain they can give no security . For it is not agreed in the Church of Rome , neither can they tell upon whose authority they may finally rely : they cannot tell who is the visible Head of the Church : for they are not sure the Pope is ; because a Council may be superior to him , and whether it be or no it is not resolved : And therefore either they must change their Principle , and rely only upon Scriptures and right Reason and Universal Testimonies , or give no answer to the Conscience in very many cases of the greatest concernment ; for by all other measures their questions are indeterminable . But the authority of man they make to be their foundation : and yet if their allegations were allowed to be good argument , it would serve them but to very few purposes , since the Doctors , whose affirmative is the decision of the Case , are so infinitely divided . 4. This to me , and to very many wise men , looks like a very great Objection : but I find that they who are most concerned in it account it none ; For the Roman Casuists profess it ; and yet do not suppose that the Consequent of this should be , that the case is difficult , and the men not to be relied upon , and the Conscience to be otherwise informed , and that we ought to walk the more warily , but therefore the Conscience is at liberty , and the question in order to practice hath no difficulty ; hard in the case , but easie in the action ; for by this means they entertain all interests , and comply with all perswasions , and send none away Unsatisfied . For Uncertain answers make with them no Uncertain resolution ; for they teach us , that in such cases we may follow either part : and therefore they studiously keep up this Academical or rather Sceptick Theology , Alii aiunt , alii negant ; utrumque probabile . And upon this account , although with greatest severity they bind on mens perswasions the doctrines of meats and carnal ordinances , yet they have left them loose enough when it comes to the Conscience , so loose that the precept is become ridiculous : for what can it be otherwise , when they teach , that the Fast is not broken by drinking of water or wine , nay though we eate something that our drink may not hurt us ; nor the usual collation at night if it be taken in the morning ; nor if the Butler or the Cook lick his fingers ; nor if we eat egs or milk-meats , so it be not in the holy time of Lent ; nor if after dinner awhile you eate something at the entreaty of a friend ; nor if you upon a reasonable cause eate before your time ? in all these cases you eat and fast at the same time . All these things are derivatives from the contrary opinions of some easy , gentle Doctors ; and the effect of this stratagem is seen in things of greater consequence . For [ we are free from our vow , or from a Commandement , if it be a probable opinion of the Doctors that we are free ; ] and [ it is probable , if it be the opinion of one grave Doctor : ] That is , in effect , plainly , If it be probable [ in the doctrine , ] it is certain [ in practice ; ] and it is probable if any one of their Doctors says it . 5. And the mischief of this is further yet discernible , if we consider that they determine their greatest and most Mysterious cases oftentimes by no other argument but the saying of some few of their Writers . I shall give but one instance of it ; but it shall be something remarkable . The question was , Whether the Pope can dispense in the law of God ? The inquiry is not concerning a dish of whey , but of a considerable affair ; upon which the right or the wrong of many thousand Consciences amongst them do depend . It is answered [ That one opinion of the Catholicks says , that the Pope can dispense in all things of the Law of God , excepting the articles of faith . ] The proof is this , So Panormitan speaks , in cap. proposuit , de concess . praebend , n. 20. citing Innocentius in cap. cum ad Monasterium , de statu Monachorum ; where he saies , that without cause the Pope cannot dispense in things of Divine right ; intimating that with cause he may . And the same is the opinion of Felinus in cap. Quae in Eccles. de const . n. 19 , & 20. where amongst other things he saith , that the Pope when he hath cause can change the usual form of baptisme , and make it lawfull to baptize in the Name of the Trinity , which he reports out of Innocentius cap. 1. de baptis . in fine num . 11. Yea the same Felinus is bold to affirm in cap. 1. de const . n. 23. that the Pope with one word can create a Priest , without any other solemnity , saying , Be thou a Priest ; which he reports out of Innocentius in cap. 1. Sacra Unct. The same Felinus adds further that the Pope with his word alone can make a Bishop ; and he cites Angelus in l. 2. C. de crim . Sacrilegii ; & in l. 1. C. de Sententiam passis . The same sentence is held by Decius , consil . 112. n 3. in fine ; & in dict . cap. Quae in Eccles. n. 25. & seq . aliàs n. 44 , & 45. in Novis . Allegantur etiam alii Juristae in cap. 2. de translat . Episcopi ; & in l. Manumissiones . ff . de just . & jure ; & in l. 2. C. de servit . &c. Here is a rare way of probation : for these allegations are not only a testimonial that these Catholick authors are of that opinion ; but it is intended to represent , that this opinion is not against the Catholick faith ; that Popes and great Lawyers are of it ; and therefore that it is safe , & it may be followed , or be let alone : but yet this is sufficient to determine the doubting Conscience of a subject , or to be propounded to him as that on which he may with security and indemnity rely . The thing is affirm'd by Felinus , and for this he quotes Innocentius ; and the same is the opinion of Decius , and for this opinion divers other Lawyers are alleged . Now when this or the like happens to be in a question of so great Concernment as this , it is such a dry story , such an improbable proof , so unsatisfying an answer to the Conscience , that the great determination of all those questions and practices which can depend upon so Universall an article as this , and a warranty to doe actions which their adversaries say are abhorrent from the law of Nature and common honestly , shall in their finall resort rest upon the saying of one or two persons , who having boldly spoken a foolish thing , have passed without condemnation by those Superiors for whose interest they have been bold to tell so great a lie . In Conclusion , the effect of these Uncertain principles and Unsteady Conduct of questions is this ; that though by violence and force they have constrain'd and thrust their Churches into an Union of faith , like beasts into a pound , yet they have made their cases of Conscience and the actions of their lives Unstable as the face of the Waters , and Unmeasurable as the dimensions of the Moon : by which means their Confessors shall be enabled to answer according to every mans humor , and no man shall depart sad from their Penitential chairs , and themselves shall take or give leave to any thing : concerning which I refer the Reader to the books and letters written by their parties of Port-royal , and to their own weak answers and vindications . If I were willing by accusing others to get reputation to my own , or the Undertakings of any of our perswasion or communion , I could give very many instances of their Unjustice and partialities in determining matters and questions of justice which concern the Church and their Ecclesiastical persons ; as if what was just amongst the reprobates of the laity were hard measure if done to an Ecclesiastick , and that there were two sorts of justice , the one for Seculars & the other for Church-men ; of which their own books * give but too many instances . I could also remark that the Monks and Friers are iniquiores in Matrimonium , and make inquiries into Matrimonial causes with an impure curiosity , and make answers sometimes with spite and envy , sometimes with licentiousnesse ; that their distinction of Sins Mortal and Venial hath intricated and confounded almost all the Certainty & answers of Moral Theology : but nothing of this is fitted to my intention , which is only to make it evident that it was necessary that Cases of Conscience should be written over a new , and established upon better principles , and proceed in more sober and satisfying methods : nothing being more requisite then that we should all be instructed , and throughly prepared to every good work ; that we should have a conscience void of offence both towards God and towards man ; that we should be able to separate the vile from the precious , and know what to chuse and what to avoid ; that we may have our senses exercised to discern between good and evil , that we may not call good evil , or evil good . For since obedience is the love of God , and to doe well is the life of religion , and the end of faith is the death of sin and the life of righteousnesse ; nothing is more necessary then that we be rightly informed in all morall notices ; because in these things an Error leads on to evil actions , to the choice of sin , and the expresse displeasure of God ; otherwise then it happens in speculation and ineffective notices and schoole-questions . And indeed upon this consideration I was alwaies confident , that though the questions of the Schoole were nice and subtle , difficult and very often good for nothing ; yet that in Moral Theology I should have found so perfect an accord , so easie determination of questions , that it would have been harder to find out questions then answers ; and the great difficulty in books of this subject would be to put the great number of inquiries into order and method . I was not deceived in the ground & reason of my conjecture ; because I knew that in promptu & facili est aeternitas , God had made the way to heaven plain and simple , and what was necessary did ly open , and the lines of duty were to be read by every eye , or heard and learn'd by all understandings ; and therefore it is certain that all practical truths are to be found out without much contention and dispute , because Justice and obedience to God in all morall conversation is Natural to us , just as Logick and discourse is . But when I came to look a little nearer , I found that Men were willing enough to be tied up to believe the Unactive propositions of the Doctors , but would keep a liberty of pleasing themselves in matters of life and conversation : in the former they would easily be govern'd by leading Men ; but in the latter they would not obey God himself , and without great regret would not be confin'd to strictnesse and severity in their Cases of Conscience . Some would ; but many would not . They that would , gave laws unto themselves , and they could easily be Governed ; but they that would not , were ready to trample upon their yoke , if it were made gentle and easie for their neck . But this was the least part of the evil . For besides this , Moral Theology was made a trade for the house , and an art of the Schools : and as nothing is more easie then Natural Logick , and yet nothing harder then Sophistical , so it is in Moral Theology ; what God had made plain , Men have intricated ; and the easie Commandement is wrapped up in uneasie learning ; and by the new methods , a Simple and Uncrafty Man cannot be wise unto salvation ; which is but small comfort to him that stands in the place of the Idiot and Unlearned . Sometimes a severe Commandement is expounded by the sense of ease and liberty , and the liberty is established in Rule ; but because the Rule is not true in some hundreds of cases , a conscientious Man does not know how to make use of it : and if the Commandement be kept close to the sense of strictnesse and severity , there are so many outlets and escapes found out , that few men think themselves obliged . * Thus in the Rule [ Spoliatum ante omnia restituendum ] which is an excellent measure of Conscience in many cases , and certainly can have no direct abatement in the duty , and the party obliged can only be relieved by equity in the manner of doing it ; yet of this plain and easie Rule , Gabrielius brings no lesse then threescore and ten limitations : and to make all questions of that Nature and the Rule of Conscience infinite and indeterminable , Menochius hath seven hundred ninety and eight questions concerning Possession ; and who is sufficient for these things ? * There is a Rule amongst the Lawyers which very much relates to the Conscience of those men who are engaged in suits and sentences of Law in all Countries which are rul'd by the Civil law , In quolibet actu requiritur citatio . Of this Rule Porcius brings an hundred and sixteen ampliations , and an hundred and four and twenty limitations . Maranta enumerates forty cases in which [ A Negative ought to be proved : ] and Socinus sets down eight hundred and two fallencies ( that 's the word of the law ) concerning the contestation of suits and actions at law . Many more might be reckoned even in the interpreters of the Civil law , and in the measures we derive from thence . But if any man thinks it better in the Canon law , which is supposed to be as great a rule of our Conscience in the matter of Religion as the other is of Justice ; I shall only say , that the very title of the Canon law was Concordantia Discordantiarum , a tying of contradictions together in one string : and when you begin to look into the interpreters of the Decretum , which is the best part of the Canon law , Simoncellus tells us that the word Decretum hath five and twenty significations . So that there is a wood before your doores , and a labyrinth within the wood , and locks and barrs to every door within that labyrinth ; and after all we are like to meet with Unskilfull guides ; and yet of all things in the world , in these things an error is the most intolerable . But thus the Enemy of Mankind hath prevailed upon us while we were earnest in disputations about things less concerning : Then he was watchfull and busie to interweave evil and uncertain principles into our Moral institutions , to intangle what was plain , to divide what was simple , to make an art of what was written in the tables of our hearts with the finger of God. When a Gentleman was commending Dr. Fisher Bishop of Rochester his great pains in the confutation of Luther's books , the wise Prelate said heartily , that he wish'd he had spent all that time in prayer and meditation which he threw away upon such useless wranglings . For that was the wisdom of the Ancients . Antiqua Sapientia nihil aliud quam facienda & vitanda praecepit : Et tunc meliores erant viri . Postquam docti prodierunt , boni desunt . Simplex enim illa & aperta virtus in obscuram & solertem scientiam versa est ; docemurque disputare , non vivere . Our fore-Fathers taught their children what to do and what to avoid ; and then Men were better . But when Men did strive to become learned , they did not care so much to become good ; they then were taught to dispute rather then to live . To this purpose I understand that excellent saying of Solomon , Of making many books there is no end , and much study is a weariness of the flesh . Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter . Fear God and keep his Commandements ; for this is the whole duty of man. Meaning , that books which serve to any other purpose are a laborious vanity , consumptive of our time and health to no purpose : nothing else being to any purpose but such things as teach us to fear God , and how to keep his Commandements . All books , and all learning which ministers to this end , partakes of the goodnesse of the end ; but that which promotes it not , is not to be regarded : and therefore the Chaldee Paraphrast reades these words into an advise of making many books tending to holinesse . Fili mi , monitus esto ut facias libros sapientiae plurimos , adeò ut non sit finis ; & ut studeas verbis Legis , conspiciasque defatigationem carnis . Make books of wisdom very many , and study in the words of the Law till thou mayest see the wearinesse of thy flesh . Beata aetas quae in vita hominum regenda totam disputandi rationem posuit , Blessed are the times in which men learn to dispute well that they may live the better . And truly it were much to be wished that men would doe so now ; endeavouring to teach the waies of Godlinesse in sincerity ; to shew to men the right paths of Salvation ; to describe the right and plain measures of Simplicity , Christian Charity , Chastity , Temperance and Justice ; to unwind the intanglements of Art , and to strip Moral Theology of all its Visors ; to detract all the falshoods and hypocrisies of crafty men ; to confute all the false principles of evil Teachers , who by uncertain and deceitfull grounds teach men to walk confidently upon trap-doors and pit-falls , and preach doctrines so dangerous and false , that if their Disciples should live according to the consequents of such doctrines , without doubt they must perish everlastingly . It is a great work and too heavy for one mans shoulders ; but some body must begin ; and yet no man ever would , if he can be affrighted with the consideration of any difficulty in the world . But I have laid aside all considerations of my self , and with an intire dependence upon God for help , I have begun an institution of Morall Theology , and established it upon such principles and instruments of probation which every man allows , and better then which we have none imparted to us . I affirm nothing but upon grounds of Scripture , or Universall Tradition , or right Reason discernable by every disinterest person , where the questions are of great concern , and can admit these probations : Where they cannot , I take the next best ; the laws of wise Commonwealths and the sayings of wise men , the results of fame and the Proverbs of the Ancient , the Precedents of holy persons and the great examples of Saints . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . He that is well instructed will require in every kind of argument and disputation no other proof or subtilty then the subject matter will bear . For it were ridiculous for a Mathematician to goe about to perswade with eloquence , or an Orator to pretend to demonstrations . But Morall Theology is a collective Body of all wisdome , whereof some things are demonstrable and many are probable , and other things are better then their contraries ; and they are to be proved accordingly , every thing in its proportion and capacity . And therefore here I make use of all the Brocardics , or rules of interpreters ; that is , not only what is established regularly in law , but what is concluded wise and reasonable by the best interpreters . Socinus , Duennas , Azo , Gabrielius , Damasus , and divers other great Lawyers attempted this way in the interpretation of the Civil and Canon law . I intermeddle not in the question , whether they did well or ill , but leave the contest as it lies between Duarenus and Balduinus who blame them , and Wesenbech and Gribaldus who are their confident Advocates . But in the discourses of Conscience , whatsoever is right reason , though taken from any faculty or science , is also of use and efficacy . Because whatever can guide the actions or discourses , or be the businesse or the conduct of any man , does belong to Conscience and its measures ; and what is true in any Science ; is true in Conscience . I do not say that what is true or allowed in humane laws is also true or allowed in the Divine ; because though God does justly and wisely , yet men doe not alwaies so ; and what is true in Sciences is not alwaies understood to be true in Civil laws . Qualis causa , talis effectus , saith the Philosopher , The cause and the effect are of the same nature . But the Lawyer saies , this is not alwaies true . For Manumission , which is a cause of liberty , is of the Civil law and positive institution ; but Liberty , which is the effect of it , is of the law of Nature . Now although the Philosopher understands his Rule of Natural causes and effects , or those causes which are artificial , but operate by the way of Nature , and intends it not at all to be perswasive in matters of positive and legal institution ; yet this truth and all other truths must prevail in Conscience , because they are emanations from the fountain of truth ; from whence nothing can derive that is not alwaies true , and in all senses true where they are intended to perswade or teach . But then the truths of Philosophy must be used in the measures of Conscience by the intentions of Philosophy , and not be carried on to a disparate matter , and without cause be indifferently applied , the same words to things of another nature . * There is a Rule in Philosophy , Incorporalia sunt individua : from hence Ho●●oman argues , Therefore Dominion , Heritage , Ususfructus , or the use of a thing by him that is not the Lord , are individual , because they are incorporeal . Now this will deceive him that trusts upon it : not because what is true in one place is not true alwaies and every where ; but because these words applied to other matters , and the words signifying other intentions , they abuse the unwary hearer , but instruct not . But because the questions of Conscience doe relate to all matters , therefore to these all Arts and Sciences do minister . Res fisci est ubicunque natat , Whatsoever swims upon any water belongs to this Exchequer ; that is , saith S. Austin , Christianus Domini sui esse intelligit , ubicunque invenerit veritatem , If it be truth , wheresoever it be found , the Christian knows it is his Lords goods : and therefore I have prov'd and adorn'd some truths with the wise sayings of Philosophers and Poets , ut Deo serviat quicquid puer utile didici , that , according to the expression of the same Saint , whatsoever being a child I learned which can profit , may be brought in to serve and pay homage to God. But still they are to be understood according to the sense and meaning of their proper Art where they dwell . And though there is great need of skill in all those Sciences from whence we derive notices in order to the conduct of Conscience ; and that it will be hard for any man to pretend to be Master of all those things which must be us'd in these discourses ; yet I who will not pretend to that , have yet taken as good a course as I could to inform my self , though not in the whole System of every art in the whole circle which I have here occasionally us'd , yet I have been carefull to understand those few things which I have thence drawn in as auxiliaries : and lest I should yet fail , I have taken another course by way of caution and defence , that I may be right and sure in the reflexe , if I had cause to doubt of any thing in the direct notice . For I have propounded to my self general measures to be as boundaries to the determination of doubts and the answer of questions ; which so long as I do observe , my error will be very innocent , if any happens . For 1. In hard and intricate questions I take that which is easie and intelligible , and concerning which it will be easie to judge whether it be right or wrong . 2. In odious things , and matters of burden and envy , I take that part which is least , unlesse there be evident reason to the contrary . 3. In favours I alwaies chuse the largest sense , when any one is bettered by that sense , and no man is the worse . 4. In things and questions relating to men I give those answers that take away scruples , and bring peace and a quiet mind . 5. In things relating to God I alwaies chuse to speak that thing which to him is most honourable . 6. In matters of duty I alwaies chuse that which is most holy . 7. In doubts I chuse what is safest . 8. In probabilities I prefer that which is the more reasonable , never allowing to any one a leave of chusing that which is confessedly the lesse reasonable in the whole conjunction of circumstances and relative considerations . Upon the account of these principles I hope to serve God and the good of Souls . For these being the points of my compasse , which way soever I sail , I shall not suffer shipwrack : and if at anytime I goe about , which I have avoided as much as my infirmities will permit , yet at last , and in the whole , I arrive where I ought to be . For indeed in this whole affair I have proceeded with great fear ; as knowing that he who writes Cases of Conscience , does in a manner give lawes to all that do believe him : and no man perswades more vehemently then he that tells you , This , God forbids ; This , God commands ; and therefore I knew that to be mistaken here was very evil , and might do much evil ; but to be carelesse , or prejudicate , or partiall , or flattering , or oppressive with severity , or unsafe with gentleness , was criminal in the cause as well as mischievous in the event : and the greatest security which I have that I have not spoken unsafely in any mans case , is because I have prayed much , and laboured much that I might not at all minister to error or schisme , to folly or vanity , but to the glory of God , and to the good of Souls : and I have so determined every Case that I have here presented , as I my self would practise , as I would account at the day of judgment , through the mercies of God in Jesus Christ , and the integrity and simplicity of my Conscience : and therefore I desire that my Reader will use the same caution and ingenuity before he condemns any conclusion , and consider , that as in these things it was impossible to please every man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so I design'd to please no man but as he is a lover of truth , and a lover of his own soul. The style that I here use is according as it happens , sometimes plain , sometimes closer : the things which I bring are sometimes new , and sometimes old ; they are difficult and they are easie ; sometimes adorn'd with cases , and the cases specificated in stories , and sometimes in stead of a story I recite an apologue , and disguise a true narrative with other names , that I may not discover the person whose case I discourse of : and in all things I mind the matter ; and suppose truth alone and reason and the piety of the decision to be the best ornament ; and indeed sometimes the thing it self will not be handled otherwise . Ornari res ipsa negat , contenta doceri . I was here to speak to the Understanding , not to winne the affections ; to convince , not to exhort : and where I had no certainty in a case , or that the parts of a question were too violently contended for , without sufficient evidence on either side , I have not been very forward to give my final sentence ; but my opinion and my reason ; Per verbum FORTE respondent saepe periti . And yet I hope that in some cases it will be found , that though I am not fierce , positive and decretory , yet the case it self is sufficiently declared , so that he who hath occasion to use it , may upon those accounts determine himself . For the Modesty of him that teaches is not alwaies an argument that he is uncertain in his proposition . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith Ulpian . When the Antients said , I suppose , I think , It seems , they did not alwaies mean that they were uncertain ; but they sometimes intended it for a modest , but a direct affirmative : and so I doe in some few Cases where there is great reason on one side , and a great prejudice on the other : I give my reasons , and lay down the Case and all its allays , and leave it to prevail without my sentence by its own strength . And for this I hope no man will be offended at me : if he be , it is because I was not willing to offend him ; but I was desirous to instruct , to comfort , to determin and to establish him that needs . I have studiously avoided all questions that are curious and unprofitable ; such , I mean , which are only trials of witt , but neither ministers of Justice nor Religion . Such was that which was brought before the Lawyers and all the learned men of Athens , with great noises to little purpose . A Gentleman of Aegina dying left three daughters . The one was beauteous and wanton ; the second a lover of wine and gay pleasures ; and the third a good spinster , and a great follower of Country houswifry . He made the Mother of these daughters to be his Heir upon this condition , that she should divide all his estate between his daughters equally ; but in such a manner , that what they received they should neither possesse nor enjoy , and as soon as ever they had quitted their portions they should pay each of them to their Mother ten thousand Philippics . The Mother runs to Athens , consults the Lawyers and Philosophers how this Will should be fulfilled ; but they know not , as supposing one part to crosse another , and altogether to be impossible ; for if the whole estate be divided amongst them , how is it that they shall not enjoy it ? and if they do not , how shall they pay their Mother her assignment ? The Mother therefore finding no help there , contrives it thus her self . To the pretty wanton she gives rich clothes , smooth Eunuchs , soft beds , sweet perfumes , silver lavatories , and all things which she suppos'd might please her lust , and consume her portion . To the drinking girle she provides vessels of rich wines , a house well furnished , and all things fitted for expensive entertainments . But to the Country houswife , a good farm , plowmen and a great stock , many horses and some cows , some Men-servants and a great many Maidens , a kennel of hounds and a few swine ; supposing this was no very probable way for her to thrive , but the likeliest way to do her Husbands will ; because the lust of the first , and the thirst and debauchery of the second , and the ill-contrived stock of the third would consume all their portions . But all this while she considered not how when they grew poor , she should receive her share . But at last , a wiser Man then was in the Schools of Athens advis'd her thus ; Give to the Drunken maiden the rich garments , the jewels and the Eunuchs ; and because she loves them not , she will sell them all for old wines of Chios : To the Wanton give fields and cattel , oxen and ploughs , hinds and swine ; and she will quickly sell them that she may entertain her Lovers : But if you give vessels of wine to the Country girl , she knows not what to doe with them , and therefore will sell them to the Merchant for ready money . Thus shall neither of them enjoy their portion ; but by selling it , they shall be enabled to pay the money to their Mother . This was a Riddle , rather then a Case of Law of Conscience ; and so are many others , which I therefore resolved to lay aside , and trouble no mans Conscience or head with them ; as supposing that the answer of the dul Diodorus mention'd in the Greek Epigram is sufficient for such curiosities , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. It is so , or it is not so ; it must be done this way , or some other ; the thing in question is yours , or some bodies else : but make the Judge your friend , and I will warrant your cause , provided it be just ; but look you to that . A slight answer to an intricate and useless question is a fit cover for such a dish ; a cabbage leaf is good enough to cover a pot of mushromes : but I have taken a shorter way , and laid them all aside ; remembring the saying of Frier John Annias to Nicolaus de Lyra ; Testimonium Dei lucidum est , nec egent literae Divinae plicis , The things of God are plain and easie : and therefore I have rejected every thing that is not usefull and intelligible ; chusing only to make such inquiries by which we may become better , and promoted in something of our duty ; Quid sumus , & quidnam victuri gignimur , ordo Quis datus , aut metae quam mollis flexus , & unde , Quis modus argento , quid fas optare , quid asper Utile nummus habet , patriae , charísque propinquis Quantum elargiri deceat , quem te Deus esse Jussit , & humanâ quâ parte locatus es in re : viz. That we may be taught how to know what God requires of us , instructed to salvation , and fitted to every good work . But now I shall desire that he who reads my Book will not expect this Book to be a collective body of particular Cases of Conscience ; for I find that they are infinite , and my life is not so ; and I shall never live to write them all , or to understand them all : and if I should write some and not all , I should profit I know not whom , and doe good but to a very few , and that by chance too ; and it may be that their cases being changed by circumstances would not be fitted by my indefinite answers . I therefore resolved upon another way ; which although No Man before me hath trod in writing Cases of Conscience , yet I cannot say it is new ; for I took my pattern from Tribonianus the Lawyer , who out of the lawes of the old Romans collected some choice Rules which give answer to very many Cases that happen . And after I had considered and tried many others , I found this most reasonable , most usefull and most comprehensive of all matters relating to my present Undertaking . For I intend here to offer to the world a General instrument of Morall Theology , by the rules and measures of which , the guides of Souls may determine the particulars that shall be brought before them ; and those who love to inquire , may also find their duty so described , that unlesse their duties be complicated with Laws , and civil Customes , and secular interests , men that are wise may guide themselves in all their proportions of Conscience : but if their case be indeed involved , they need the conduct of a Spiritual Guide to untie the intrigue , and state the question , and applie the respective Rules to the several parts of it ; for though I have set them down all in their proper places relating to their severall matters , yet when a question requires the reason of many Rules , it is not every hand that can applie them : Men will for ever need a living guide ; and a wise Guide of Souls will by some of these Rules be enabled to answer most Cases that shall occur . For although I have not given answers to every doubt ; yet have I told what we are to doe when any doubt arises ; I have conducted the doubting Conscience by such Rules which in all doubts will declare her duty : and therefore if the matter of the doubt be in the reception of the Sacrament of the Eucharist , or in wearing cloths , or in eating , the Rule is the same and applicable to every matter . I have not disputed whether Sumptuary lawes be actually obligatory to us in England or Ireland ; but I have told by what measures we shall know concerning all laws , whether they be obligatory or no , in any place , and to every person . I have not expounded all the laws of God , but I have told by what rules they are to be expounded and understood . But because these Rules have influence upon all particulars , I have by way of instance and illustration determined very many special Cases : and I was a little curious to chuse such which are the matter of our usual inquiries ; and have been very studious to draw in to particular Scrutiny most of the principal and noblest questions of Christendom which could relate to the matter of my Rule ; provided that they were practicall and did minister to good manners ; having that of Lactantius in my mind , Non tam de rebus humanis bene meretur qui scientiam bene dicendi affert , quam qui piè & innocenter docet vivere . He best deserves of mankind who teaches men to live well rather then to talk well : and therefore the wiser Greeks preferred Philosophers before Orators . Illi enim rectè vivendi Doctores sunt existimandi , quod est longe praestabilius . It is better to be a Doctor of good life , then of eloquent or learned speaking : for there are but few who are capable of eloquence , but to live well is the duty of all : and I have alwaies been pleased with the saying of Jupiter to Pallas in the apologue , when he kissed her cheek for chusing the fruitfull Olive . — Nam quod facimus , id nisi utile est , Stulta omnis atque inanis inde est gloria ; unlesse it does good & makes us better , it is not worth the using : and therefore it hath been no small part of my labour not only to doe what was necessary , but to lay aside what was uselesse and unfit , at least what I thought so . In this manner by the Divine assistance I have described a Rule of Conscience : in the performance of which I shall make no excuses for my own infirmities , or to guard my self from the censure of the Curious or the Scorners . I have with all humility and simplicity desired to serve God , and to minister to his Church , and I hope he will accept me : and for the rest , I have laid it all at his most holy feet , and therefore will take no further care concerning my self in it . Only I am desirous that now I have attempted to describe a General Rule , they who find it defective would be pleased to make this more perfect by adding their own Symbol ; which is much easier then to erect that building which needs but some addition to make it usefull to all its purposes and intentions . But if any man , like a bird sitting upon a tree , shall foul the fruit and dishonour it , that it may be unfit for food , I shall be sorrowfull for him that does so , and troubled , that the good which I intended to every one , should be lost to any one . But I shall have the Prophet's comfort if I have done my duty in righteousnesse and humility : though I labour in vain and spend my strength for nought , yet surely my judgment is with the Lord , and my work is with my God. I know not whether I shall live to adde Matter to this Form , that is , to write a particular explication of all the precepts of Christian Religion ; which will be a full design of all special cases and questions of Conscience measurable by this General Rule . If I doe not , I hope God will excite some other to doe it ; but whoever does it , he will doe it with so much the more profit , by how much he does dispute the lesse : and I remember that Socrates and Sozomen tell that Aelius the Heretick was counted an Atheist propter eristicum loquendi & disputandi modum , because he taught no part of religion but he minc'd it into questions and chop'd it into Aristotle's Logick . The simple and rational way of teaching God's Commandements as it is most easie , so it is most usefull ; and all the cases that will occur will the most easily be answered by him that considers and tell in what Cases they bind , and in what they bind not : which is the duty of him that explicates , and may be delivered by way of plain rule and easie commentary . But this I shall advertise ; That the Preachers may retrench infinite numbers of Cases of Conscience if they will more earnestly preach and exhort to simplicity and love ; for the want of these is the great multiplier of Cases . Men do not serve God with honesty and heartinesse , and they do not love him greatly ; but stand upon tearms with him , and study how much is lawfull , how far they may goe , and which is their utmost step of lawfull , being afraid to doe more for God and for their Souls then is simply and indispensably necessary ; and oftentimes they tie religion and their own lusts together , and the one intangles the other , and both are made lesse discernible , and lesse practicable . * But the good Man understands the things of God ; not only because God's Spirit by secret immissions of light does properly instruct him ; but because he hath a way of determining his Cases of Conscience which will never fail him . For if the question be put to him whether it be fit for him to give a shilling to the poor ; he answers that it is not only fit , but necessary to doe so much at least , and to make it sure , he will give two : and in matter of duty he takes to himself the greater share ; in privileges and divisions of right , he is content with the least : and in questions of priority and dignity he alwaies prevails by cession , and ever is Superior by sitting lowest , and gets his will , first by chusing what God wills , and then what his neighbour imposes or desires . But when Men have no love to God , and desire but just to save their Souls , and weigh grains and scruples , and give to God no more then they must needs , they shall multiply Cases of Consciences to a number which no books will contain , and to a difficulty that no learning can answer . The multiplication also of Laws and Ceremonies of Religion does exceedingly multiply questions of practice ; and there were among the Jews by reason of their numerous rites many more then were at first among the Christians . For we find the Apostles only exhorting to humility , to piety towards parents , to obedience to Magistrates , to charity and justice ; and the Christians who meant well understood well , and needed no books of Conscience but the Rule , and the Commandement . But when Error crept in , Truth became difficult and hard to be understood : and when the Rituals of the Church and her laws became numerous , then Religion was hard to be practised : and when Men set up new interests , then the laws of Conscience were so many , that as the laws of the old Romans ; — verba minantia fixo Aere legebantur — which at first were nailed in a brasse-plate upon a wall , became at last so numerous and filled so many volumes , that their very Compendium made a large Digest ; so are these , too many to be considered , or perfectly to be understood ; and therefore either they must be cut off by simplicity and an honest heart , and contempt of the world , and our duty must look for no measures but love and the lines of the easie Commandement , or else we can have no peace and no security . But with these there is not only collateral security , but very often a direct wisdom . Because he that endeavours to keep a good Conscience and hath an honest mind , besides that he will enquire after his duty sufficiently , he will be able to tell very much of it himself : for God will assist him , and cause that his own mind shall tell him more then seven Watchmen that fit in a tower ; and if he misse , he is next to an excuse , and God is ready to pardon him : and therefore in what sect of Christianity soever any man is ingaged , if he have an honest heart , and a good Conscience , though he be in darknesse , he will find his way out , or grope his way within ; he shall be guided , or he shall be pardon'd ; God will pity him , and find some way for his remedy ; and if it be necessary , will bring him out . But however it comes to passe , yet now that the inquiries of Conscience are so extreamly numerous , Men may be pleased to observe that Theology is not every mans trade ; and that it requires more wisdom and ability to take care of Souls , then those Men who now-adays run under the formidable burden of the Preachers office can bring from the places of their education and first imploiment . Which thing I doe not observe that by it I might bring reputation to the office of the Clergy ; for God is their portion and lot , and as he hath given them work enough , so he hath given them honour enough , though the world despise them : but I speak it for their sakes who doe what they ought not , and undertake what they cannot perform ; and consequently doe more hurt to themselves and others then possibly they imagine ; which it were better they should amend , then be put to answer for it before Him who loves Souls better then he loved his life , and therefore would not intrust them to the conduct of such persons , who have need to be taught the plain things of salvation , and learn to doe justice and charity , and the proper things of a holy religion . Concerning my self I shall make no request to my Reader , but that he will charitably believe I mean well , and have done my best . If any Man be troubled that he hath expected this Nothing so long ; I cannot make him other answer , but that I am afraid it is now too soon ; and I blesse God that I had abilities of health and leisure now at last to finish it : but I should have been much longer , if God had not by the piety of one of his Servants provided for me a comfortable retirement and opportunity of leisure : which if I have improved to God's glory , or to the comfort and institution of any one , He and I both have our ends , and God will have his Glory ; and that 's a good Conclusion , and to that I humbly dedicate my Book . From my Study in Portmore in Kilultagh , October 5. 1659. A TABLE Of the TITLES of the Chapters , and the Rules of the FIRST BOOK . Of COnscience , the kinds of it , and the generall Rules of conducting them . CHAP. I. The Rule of Conscience in general . RULE . 1. Conscience is the mind of a man , governed by a Rule , and measured by the proportions of good and evil in order to practice . Pag. 1. 2. The Duty and Offices of Conscience are to dictate and to testifie or bear witness , to accuse or excuse , to loose or bind . 11 3. Be carefull that Prejudice or Passion , Fancy and Affection , Error or Illusion , be not mistaken for Conscience . 26 4. The Conscience of a Vitious man is an Evil Judge and an imperfect rule . 30 5. All Consciences are to walk by the same rule , and that which is just to one is so to all in the like Circumstances . 32 6. In Conscience that which is first is truest , easiest and most usefull . 34 7. Conscience by its several habitudes and relations and tendencies toward its proper object is divided into several kinds . 35 CHAP. II. Of the Right or Sure Conscience . 1. A Right Conscience is that which guides our actions by right and proportion'd means to a right end . 38 2. In a right Conscience the practical judgment , that is the last determination to an action , ought to be sure and evident . 38 3. The practical judgment of a right Conscience is alwaies agreeable to the speculative determination of the understanding . 40 4. A Judgment of Nature or Inclination is not sufficient to make a sure Conscience . 62 5. When two motives concur to the determination of an action , whereof one is vertuous and the other secular , a Right Conscience is not prejudic'd by the mixture . 64 6. An argument not sufficient nor competent , though it do perswade us to a thing in it self good , is not the ground of a right , nor a sufficient warrant for a sure Conscience . 73 7. A Conscience determined by the counsil of wise men , even against its own inclinations , may be sure and right . 80 8. He that sins against a right and a sure Conscience , what ever the instance be , commits a great sin , but not a double one . 81 9. The goodnesse of an object is not made by Conscience , but is accepted , declared and published by it , and made personally obligatory . 95 CHAP. III. Of the Confident or erroneous Conscience . 1. AN erroneous Conscience commands us to doe what we ought to omit , or to omit what we ought to doe , or to doe it otherwise then we should . 99 2. An erroneous Conscience binds us to Obedience , but not so as a right Conscience does . 102 3. A Conscience erring vincibly or culpably is an unavoidable cause of sin , whether it be resisted or complied with . 109 4. It is a greater sin to doe a good action against our Conscience , then to doe an evil action in obedience to it . 111 5. It is not lawfull to delight in an evil action ( after the discovery of our error ) which we did innocently in our erroneous Conscience . 112 6. An innocent or invincibly erring Conscience is to be obeyed even against the known Commandements of a Superiour . 113 7. The Error of an abused Conscience ought to be reformed sometimes by the command of the Will , but ordinarily by a contrary reason . 116 8. The Error of a Conscience is not alwaies to be opened to the erring person by the Guides of Souls , or any other charitable adviser . 117 CHAP. IV. Of the Probable or thinking Conscience . 1. A Probable Conscience is an imperfect assent to an uncertain proposition , in which one part is indeed clearly and fully chosen , but with an explicit or implicit notice that the contrary is also fairly eligible . 119 2. A Conscience that is at first and in its own nature probable may be made certain by accumulation of many probabilities operating the same perswasion . 124 3. Of two Opinions equally probable upon the account of their proper reasons , one may be safer then another . 144 4. An Opinion that is speculatively probable is not alwaies practically the same . 144 5. The greater probability destroys the less . 146 6. When two Opinions seem equally probable the last determination is to be made by accidents , circumstances and collateral inducements . 150 7. It is not lawfull to change our practicall sentence about the same object , while the same probability remains . 154 8. An Opinion relying upon very slender probability is not to be followed , except in the cases of great necessity or great charity . 154 9. Multitude of Authors is not ever the most probable inducement , nor doth it in all cases make a safe and sure Conscience . 156 10. In following the Authority of men , no rule can be antecedently given for the choice of the persons , but the choice is wholly to be conducted by prudence and according to the subject matter . 162 11. He that hath given assent to one part of a probable opinion , may lawfully depose that Conscience and that opinion upon confidence of the sentence of another . 168 12. He that enquires of several Doctors , untill he find one answering according to his mind , cannot by that enquiry make his Conscience safe ; but according to the subject matter , and other circumstances he may . 171 13. He that is asked concerning a case that is on either side probable , may answer against his own opinion if the contrary be probable , or more safe , or more expedient , or more favourable . 172 14. When the Guide of Souls is of a different opinion from his charge or penitent , he is not bound to exact conformity to his own opinion that is but probable , but may proceed according to the Conscience of the Penitent . 173 15. The sentence and arbitrement of a prudent and good man , though it be of it self but probable , yet is more then a probable warranty to actions otherwise undeterminable . ibid. CHAP. V. Of a Doubtfull Conscience . 1. A Doubtfull Conscience assents to neither side of the question , and brings no direct obligation . 174 2. A negative doubt neither binds to action nor inquiry nor repentance , but it binds only to caution and observance . 175 3. A privative doubt cannot of it self hinder a man from acting what he is moved to by an extrinsick argument or inducement that is in it self prudent or innocent . 177 4. In doubts of right or Law we are alwaies bound to enquire : but in doubts of fact not alwaies . 178 5. In doubts the safer part is to be chosen . 180 6. It is lawfull for the Conscience to proceed to action against a doubt that is merely speculative . 184 7. Every dictate and judgment of the Conscience , though it be little and less material , is sufficient , and may be made use of for the deposition of a doubt . 187 8. When two precepts contrary to each other meet together about the same question , that is to be preferred which binds most . 188 CHAP. VI. Of the Scrupulous Conscience . 1. A Scruple is a great trouble of mind proceeding from a little motive and a great indisposition , by which the Conscience , though sufficiently determined by proper arguments , dares not proceed to action , or if it does , it cannot rest . 208 2. A Conscience sufficiently instructed by its proper ●●guments of perswasion may without sin proceed to action against the Scruple , and its weaker arguments or stronger tremblings . 213 3. He that is troubled with scruples ought to relie upon the judgment of a prudent Guide . ibid. 4. When a Doubt is resolved in the entrance of an action , we must judge of our action afterwards by the same measures as before ; for he that changes his measures , turns his doubt into a Scruple . ibid. 5. A Scrupulous Conscience is to be cured by remedies proper to the disease and to the man. 215 SECOND BOOK . Of Divine Laws , and all Collaterall Obligations . CHAP. I. Of the Law of Nature in Generall . 1. THE Law of Nature is the Universall Law of the world , or the Law of Mankind , concerning common necessities , to which we are inclined by Nature , invited by consent , prompted by reason ; but is bound upon us only by the commands of God. 220 2. The Law of Nature is the foundation of all Laws , and the measure of their obligation . 243 3. The first or greatest band of the Law of Nature is fear of punishment . 244 4. The second band of Vertue is Love , and its proper and consequent deliciousness . 247 5. The Imperfection of some provisions in civil Laws are supplied by the natural obligation remaining upon persons civily incapable . 251 6. Sins against the Law of Nature are greater or less , not by that proportion , but by the greatness of the matter , and the evil consequent or the malice of the Sinner . 258 7. Actions which are forbidden by the Law of Nature either for defect of power , or for the incapacity of the matter , are not only unlawfull but also void . 260 8. When an act is forbidden by the Law of Nature for the turpitude and undecency that it hath in the matter of the Action , the Act is also void when the turpitude remains or hath a perpetual cause . 262 9. The Law of Nature can be dispensed with by the Divine power . 263 10. The Law of Nature cannot be dispensed with by any Humane power . 269 11. That the Obligation to a naturall Law does cease in any particular , is not to the presumed in every one , but is to be declared by the publick voice . 274 12. The Exactness of naturall Laws is capable of interpretation , and may be allayed by Equity and Piety and Necessity . 275 CHAP. II. Of the Law of Nature as it is drawn up in the Christian Law. 1. WHen the Law of Jesus Christ was established , the Old Testament or the Law of Moses did no longer oblige the Conscience . 275 2. The Ceremoniall Law of Moses is wholly void . 280 3. The Judicial Law of Moses is annull'd or abrogated , and retains no obliging power either in whole or in part over any Christian Prince , Commonwealth or person . 286 4. The ten Commandments of Moses , commonly called the Morall Law , is not a perfect Digest of the Law of Nature . 318 5. All the Explications of the Morall Law that are found in the Prophets and other H. writers of the Old Testament are to be accounted as parts of the Morall Law , and equally oblige the Conscience . 323 6. Every thing in the Decalogue is not obligatory to Christians , is not a part of the Morall Law or Naturall . 324 The measures of difference to discern between Morall precepts and precepts not Morall in all the Laws of God. 367 7. There is no state of men or things but is to be guided by the proportion of some Rule or Precept in the Christian Law. 372 CHAP. III. Of the Interpretation and Obligation of the Laws of JESUS CHRIST . 1. IN Negative precepts the Affirmatives are commanded , and in the Affirmative commandments the Negative are included . 389 2. When a Negative and an Affirmative seem opposite in any sense , the Affirmative is to be expounded by the Negative , not the Negative by the Affirmative . 395 3. In the Affirmative and Negative precepts of Christ , not only what is in the words of the Commandment , but whatsoever is symbolicall or alike , is equally forbidden or commanded . 396 4. When any thing is forbidden by the Laws of Jesus Christ , all those things are forbidden also which follow from that forbidden action , or for whose sake it was forbidden . 402 5. The Laws of Jesus Christ are the measures of the Spirit , and are alwaies to be extended to a spiritual signification . 404 Whatsoever is an Elicit or Imperate Act of vertue , whether it be acted by the soul or by the body , is an act of spiritual religion . 408 All acts of vertue are to be preferred before the Instruments of it ; and that which exercises it before that which signifies it ; and the inward Act before the outward . 410 6. The Imperate Acts or outward expressions of one Commandement must not contradict the Elicit Acts of another . 411 7. When any thing is forbidden by the Laws of Christ , all those things also by which we come to that sin are understood to be by the same Law forbidden . 414 8. The Suppositive Propositions with the supervening advices of our B. Saviour are alwaies equivalent to matter of Duty , and are by Interpretation a Commandement . 417 9. The Institution of a Rite or Sacrament by our B. Saviour is a direct Law , and passes a proper obligation in its whole integrity . 420 10. If the sense of a Law be dubious , we are sometimes to expound it by Liberty , sometimes by Restraint . 432 11. The positive Laws of Jesus Christ cannot be dispensed with by any Humane power . 440 12. Not every thing that is in the Doctrines and Sermons of Jesus Christ was intended to bind as a Law or Commandement . 448 13. Some things may be used in the service of God which are not commanded in any Law , nor explicitly commended in any doctrine of Jesus Christ. 454 14. The Christian Law both of Faith and Manners is fully contained in the H. Scriptures , and from thence only can the Conscience have divine warrant and authority . 472 15. In the Law of Christ there is no precept that ministers wholy to the Law of Moses , but for a time only and less principally . 519 16. The Laws of Jesus Christ are to be interpreted to the Sense of a present Obedience according to the subject matter . 520 17. Because the Laws of Jesus Christ were delivered in Sermons to a single person or a definite number of hearers , we are curiously to enquire and wisely to understand when those persons were only personally concerned , and when they were representatives of the whole Church . 540 18. Evangelicall Laws given to one concerning the duty of another do in that very relation concern them both , but in differing degrees . 546 19. Custome is no sufficient Interpreter of the Laws of Jesus Christ. 548 20. The measure of perfection and obedience required of Christians is greater then that of the Jews even in morall duties common to them and us . 554 THE SECOND VOLVME . THIRD BOOK . Of Humane Laws , &c. CHAP. I. Of Humane Laws in general . 1. THE Conscience is properly and directly , actively and passively under pains of sin and punishment obliged to obey the Laws of men . 3 Rules whereby to conjecture at the gravity or lessening of the Sin of disobedience to humane Laws . 2. Humane Laws doe not oblige the Conscience to an active obedience , when there is an imminent danger , or an intolerable or very grievous evil in the obedience . 26 3. The Laws of our Superiour that are not just and good do not bind the Conscience . 32 4. A Law that is founded on a false presumption does not oblige the Conscience . 37 5. Humane Laws do bind the Conscience to or from an act in secret as well as in publick . 40 6. Humane Laws before sufficient promulgation do not oblige the Conscience . 44 7. That a Law should oblige the Conscience does not depend upon the acceptation of the Law by the people . 46 8. Humane Laws of indifferent matter do not oblige the Conscience of the Subjects out of the Dominions of the Superiour . 49 9. Obedience to Laws is to be paid according to what is commanded , not according to what is best . 51 CHAP. II. Of Laws Penall and Tributary . 1. IT is lawfull for Christian Magistrates to make Penall Laws not only pecuniary and of restraint , but of loss of member and life it self . 53 2. Penall do sometimes oblige the guilty person to the suffering the punishment even before the sentence and declaration of the Judge . 59. In what cases the Criminall is to be his own Executioner . 63. Signes by which we may judge when the Criminall is condemned ipso facto . 67 3. Penalties imposed by the Judge must be suffered and submitted to , but may not after such sentence be inflicted by the hands of the condemned . 71 4. He that hath suffered the punishment is not discharged in Conscience , unless he also repent of the disobedience . 79 5. It is not lawfull for a guilty person to defend himself by calumny or a lye , from the penalty of the Law , though it be the sentence of death . 82 6. It is not lawfull for private Christians without publick authority to punish malefactors , but they may require it of the Magistrate in some cases . 107 7. It is not lawfull to punish one for the offence of another merely and wholly . 117 8. The Laws of Tribute are Morall Laws and not Penall , except it be by accident ; and therefore do oblige the Conscience to an active obedience . 124 9. The Laws of tribute have the same conditions , causes , powers and measures with other Laws of government . 125 10. Tribute and custome , which are due , are to ●e paid , whether they be demanded or no. 127 CHAP. III. Of Kings , Princes and all Supreme Civill Powers , and their Laws in Speciall . 1. THE Supreme power in every Republic is universal , absolute and unlimited . 130 2. The Supreme power is superior to the Civill Laws , but not wholy free from them . 138 3. It is not lawfull for Subjects to rebell or to take up arms against the Supreme power of the Nation , upon any pretence whatsoever . 149. 4. The Supreme civil power is also supreme Governour over all persons and in all Causes Ecclesiasticall . 160 5. Kings have a legislative power in the affairs of Religion and the Church . 174 6. The Supreme civil power hath a power of coercion over every person in the whole Order Ecclesiasticall . 178 7. The Supreme civil power hath Jurisdiction in causes not only Ecclesiasticall but Internal and Spirituall . 199 8. The Supreme civil power is to govern in causes Ecclesiasticall by the means and measures of Christ's institution , that is by the assistance and ministeries of Ecclesiastical persons . 207 CHAP. IV. Of the power of the Church in Canons and Censures , with their obligations and powers over the Conscience . 1. THE whole power which Christ hath left in ordinary to his Church is merely spiritual . 211 2. The Church hath power to make Laws , and to give Commands obliging the Conscience , that is , tying the Subject to obedience under the penalty of committing or incurring the Divine displeasure . 220 3. The Church hath power to make laws in all things of necessary duty by a direct power and a divine authority . 224 4. The Church hath power to make Laws in such things which are helps and apt ministeries and advantages of necessary duty . 226 The Rule [ The Accessory follows the nature of the Principall ] explicated . 227 5. When the Canons or Rules of Ecclesiasticall Rulers are confirmed by the Supreme civill power , they oblige the Conscience by a double obligation . 234 § . II. Of Censures Ecclesiasticall . 6. Kings and Princes are tied by the ties of religion , not of power , to keep the Laws of the Church . 237 7. It is not lawfull for the Ecclesiasticall power to excommunicate Christian Princes or the supreme civil power . 240 8. Ecclesiastical censures are to be inflicted by the consent and concurrence of the supreme civil power . 247 9. Excommunication inflicted upon a light cause binds externally but not internally : but if it be inflicted upon an unjust cause it binds not at all . 255 10. It is not lawfull to communicate with those whom the Church hath by a just sentence excommunicated . 260 § . III. Of Canons Ecclesiastical . 11. The Canons of the Apostles which are of order and externall government do oblige the Conscience by being accepted in severall Churches , not by their first establishment . 266 12. All those ritualls which were taught to the Apostles concerning ministeries , which were of divine institution , do oblige all Christendome to their observation . 269 13. In the Rules which the Apostles gave to the Churches in things indifferent , the Church hath a liberty , but it is not to be used but for great reason , great necessity , and for the edification of their people committed to their charge . 272 14. The Canons of the antient Generall & Provinciall Councils are then laws to the Conscience when they are bound upon us by the authority of the respective Governours of Churches . 285 15. The Laudable customs of the Catholick Church which are in present observation do oblige the Conscience of all Christians . 287 16. The Decrees and Canons of the Bishops of Rome oblige the Conscience of none but his own subjects . 298 § . IV. Of the matter and conditions of Ecclesiasticall Laws required to the obligation of Conscience . 17. Ecclesiasticall Laws that are merely such cannot be universall and perpetuall . 301 18. Ecclesiasticall Laws of ceremonies and externall observances do not bind the Conscience beyond the cases of contempt and scandall . 313 19. Ecclesiasticall Laws must be charitable and easie ; and when they are not , they oblige not . 315 20. Ecclesiasticall Laws must ever promote the service of God and the good of Souls , but must never put a snare or stumbling-block to Consciences . 323 § . V. Of Ecclesiasticall Laws of Faith. 21. The Catholick Church is a witness of Faith and a record of all necessary truths ; but not the Mistress and Ruler of our Creed , that is , cannot make any laws of Faith. 350 22. The Decrees of Generall Councils are of great use in the conduct of Conscience , but not the proper measure or last determination of matters of belief . 353 23. Subscription to articles and forms of conf●ssion in any Particular Church is wholly of Politicall consideration . 356 CHAP. V. Of Laws Domestick , or the power which Fathers of Families have to bind the Consciences of their Relatives . 1. CHildren are bound to obey the Laws and Commandments of their Parents in all things Domesticall , and in all actions personall relating to the familie , or done within it . 359 2. Fathers have a power to chastise their offending children , but not a power of life and death . 364 3. A Father hath power over the goods and persons of his children so as to be maintained by them . 366 4. The Fathers power doe● not extend to matter of Religion and perswasions of Faith. 369 5. The Fathers power over the children can remit an injury done to them without their leave or consent . 371 6. A Fathers authority cannot abide after his death , but the Sons piety to his Father must and may pass upon him some indirect obligations . 372 7. Neither the Fathers authority nor his Sons piety can oblige them to do an action against the Laws of God , or of the Fathers , or our just superiours . 374 8. It is not lawfull for Children to enter into any lasting course of life against the will or approbation of their Fathers or parents . 378 CHAP. VI. Of the Interpretation , Diminution and Abrogation of Humane Laws . § . I. Of Equity . 1. WHen the Letter of the Law is burdensome and unjust , the meaning and charity of the Law does only oblige the Conscience . 398 § . II. Of Judiciall Interpretation . 2. When the power that made the Law does interpret the Law , the Interpretation is authenticall , and obliges the Conscience as much as the Law , and can release the bond of Conscience so far as the Interpretation extends as much as if the Law were abrogated . 407 § . III. A contrary or ceasing reason . 3 . A Law made for a particular reason , when the reason wholly ceases , does no longer oblige the Conscience . 411 § . IV. Dispensation . 4 . The Legislator hath authority to dispense in his own Laws for any cause that himself prudently shall judge to be reasonable , so that no distinct interest be prejudic'd or injur'd . 423 § . V. Commutation . 5 . The same power that can dispense can also commute a Duty : and as in the first it eases , so in the latter it binds the Conscience . 426 § . VI. Contrary Customes . 6 . A Custome can interpret a Law , but can never abrogate it without the consent of the supreme power . 427 § . VII . Abrogation . 7. Abrogation of a Law by a competent , that is , the Supreme power , may be just and reasonable , though the Law it self be neither unreasonable nor unjust . 431 FOURTH BOOK . Of the Nature and Causes of Good and Evil. CHAP. I. Of the Efficient Causes of all Humane Actions good or evil . § . I. Of Choice and Election voluntary and involuntary . 1. AN action is neither good nor evil , unless it be voluntary and chosen . 437 2. The virtuall and interpretative consent of the will is imputed to Good or Evil. 455 Rules of conducting our Sports and Recreations . 473 3. The Act of the will alone , although no externall action or event do follow , is imputed to Good or Evil by God and men . 480 4. An Involuntary effect proceeding form a voluntary cause is imputed to the Agent as if it were voluntary and directly chosen . 489 § . II. Of the Diminutions of voluntary Actions ; and first of Ignorance , and its influence into the morality of Humane Actions . 5. Nothing is good or bad but what we know , or concerning which we can deliberate . 493 6. Ignorance does alwaies excuse the fact , or diminish the malignity of it , or change the kind or nature of the Sin. 500 § . III. Of Fear and Violence , and how these can make an action Involuntary . 7. Fear that makes our reason useless , and suffers us not to consider , leaves the actions it produces free from crime , even though it self be culpable . 511 CHAP. II. Of the Finall cause of Humane actions , and its influence or causality of Good and Evil. 1. IN every good Action the means and the end must be Symbolicall ; so that a good Action done for an evil end , and an evil Action done for a good end , are alike Criminall . 517 2. To do an action of it self lawfull for temporall regards , for ends of profit , pleasure , or honour , is not unlawfull , except it be accidentally . 520 3. The end and intention of a Law is under the Commandement as much as the Action it self commanded in order to the end . 525 A Table of Questions solemnly handled and under distinct Titles . 1. WHether it be in any case , or in what case it is lawfull to chuse the Conclusion before the Premisses . Pag. 28 2. Whether one may believe a Proposition which he cannot prove . ibid. 3. Whether the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be corrupted . 31. n. 2. 4. How far the Conscience may be corrupted . 31. n. 3 5. Of what use RIGHT REASON ought to be in religion . 42. n. 8 6. Whether they that enter into H. Orders are bound principally to design the glory of God. 65 7. Whether it be lawfull to perswade a man to believe a truth by arguments which himself judges insufficient . 73 8. Whether it be lawfull for a good end for preachers to affright men with Panick terrors , and to create fears that have no ground ; as to tell them , If they be liars their faces will be deformed . 78. n. 12 9. Whether a Judge must give sentence according to the evidence of those witnesses whom he knows false , or according to his Conscience , though contrary to a legal process . 82. n. 5. 10. Whether a false and abused Conscience can oblige us to pursue the error . 102. n. 3 11. Whether obedience to a Conscience erring vincibly or culpably be a double sin in the action and the principle . 12. A Discourse to prove that the RELIGION of JESUS CHRIST is from God. 124 13. Whether it be lawfull to severall persons to use probable arguments contradictory to one another for ends in themselves lawfull . 154 14. How the Ignorant and vulgar people shall proceed , when the Teachers are divided in opinion . 159 15. When the Authority of Divines is to be followed , when that of Lawyers . 165 16. Whether it be lawfull to advise , determine or petition another to a lesser sin , that thereby he may avoid a greater . 189 17. Whether it be lawfull for a wife that she may live with some degree of comfort to connive at her Husbands stolen pleasures , and what is the Womans duty , and most prudent course in this case . 190 LIB . II. 18. Whether a will not sufficiently ratified according to the Civil Law be valid to the injury of any of the Legatees . 254 19. Whether we under the Gospel are still bound to abstain from blood and things strangled . 281 20. Whether the Judiciall Law of mutuall abstinence in the daies of womens separation obliges Christians . 287 21. Whether Cosen-Germans may marry one another . 301 22. Whether it be against the Law of Nations to doe so . 309 23. Whether it be lawfull to make a picture or Image of God. 331 24. Whether it be lawfull for Christians to worship God by an Image . 337 25. How we are to celebrate the Lords day . 363 26. Whether it is lawfull for a Prince to permit any thing for the publick necessities of the people , which is forbidden by the Laws of Jesus Christ. 374 27. Of the measures of War by Christ's Law. 377 28. Whether the precedents of the Old Testament are a Law to them that go to war. 380 29. Of the Negative measures of Examples in the Old Testament . ibid. 30. Of the Example of Christ. 383 31. Of the use of Examples in the Old and New Testament . 386 32. Of the Positive measures of Examples , and which may be safely followed . 387 33. Why the Law of Moses consisted of Negatives all but one . ibid. 34. In what cases the stricter sense of the Laws of Christ is to be followed . 432 35. When the Laws of Christ are to be expounded to a sense of ease and liberty . 433 36. Who are truly and innocently weak and to be complied with . 437 37. What are the notes of difference between counsels and commands Evangelicall . 452 38. Whether we are to require from Scripture a warrant for every action we doe in common life . 454 39. Whether in matters of religion we may use any thing for which we have no express word in Scripture . 457 40. Of Will-worship . ibid. 41. What voluntary or uncommanded actions are lawful or commendable . 459 42. Whether there be any , or what are those rules by which we may discern tradition . 493 43. Whether or no and how far a Negative argument from Scripture is to prevail . 501 44. Whether there may be any new Articles of Faith , or that the Creed of the Church may so increase that what was sufficient to salvation in one age cannot serve in another . 508 45. At what time precisely is every sinner bound to repent of his Sins , so that if he does not repent at that time , he commits a new sin . 523 46. Whether a man is bound to repent not only the first time , but every time he thinks of his Sin. 537 47. Whether the Customs of Jews or Gentiles or indifferently of many nations be a just presumption , that the thing so practis'd is agreeable to the Law of Nature , or is any waies to be suppos'd to be consonant to the will of God. 551 LIB . III. 48. Whether the Laws of Men oblige the Conscience . p. 3. 49. Of Christian Liberty . 17 50. The difference of Divine and Humane Laws in their obligation . 23 51. Whether Humane Laws can command or forbid inward actions . 41 52. Whether it be lawfull to kill ones self to prevent a cruell death inflicted by his Enemies . 72 53. Whether in suffering the punishment annexed to penall Laws the Conscience is discharged without repentance . 79 54. Whether it can in any case be lawfull to tell a lie . 83 55. Whether it be lawfull to use restrictions and mentall reservations , so that what we utter is false , but joined with something within does integrate a truth and make up an answer . 97 56. Whether it be lawfull to equivocate or use words of doubtfull signification with a purpose to deceive , or knowing that they will deceive , and in what case it is so . 100 57. Whether it be lawfull by false signs , by actions and pretences of action to deceive others for any good end , and in what cases it is so . 104 58. Whether it be lawfull for a Christian to require of the Magistrate that his offending Brother may be punished . 114 59. Whether it be lawfull for the supreme Prince or Magistrate to aliene his Princely rights , or to give away any parts of his Kingdome . 137 60. Whether a Prince is subject to the Laws which he makes . 138 61. What Laws they are from which a Prince is freed ; what is the right or prerogative of the Supreme Power . 145 62. Whether it be lawfull for Subjects to take up arms against the Supreme power . 150 63. In what sense the service of God is to be preferred before every thing else . 180 64. Which are to be preferred , and which are better , things spirituall or temporall . 183 65. Whether are to be preferred , Spirituall or temporall persons . 186 66. Whether the eminency of the spirituall calling , and the consequent prelation of spirituall persons can exempt them from secular coercion , and make them superiour to Princes . 188 67. Whether is to be obeyed , the Prince or the Bishop , if they command contrary things . 191 68. Whether in the civill affairs and causes of the Ecclesiasticall power and persons the presumption ought to lie for the King or for the Church . 198 69. Whether the supreme Civill power hath authority to convene and dissolve Synods Ecclesiasticall . 203 70. Whether the Supreme Civill power hath a power of externall judgment in matters of faith . 205 71. Whether the Guides of Souls have a proper and spirituall power to enjoin Penances or Ecclesiasticall Satisfactions to a Prince that hath sinned publickly . 244 72. Of the Lent Fast & the weekly fasting . 273 73. The Lent Fast is not a Tradition or Canon Apostolicall . 275 74. Whether Ecclesiastical Laws may be perpetuall . 303 75. What persons are tied to the observation of Ecclesiasticall fasts , and in what cases . 317 76. Of Musick in Churches . 329 77. Of the Marriage of Bishops and Priests . 332 78. Whether it can be lawfull to subscribe what he does not believe to be true . 358 79. Whether it be lawfull for children to enter into any religious vow or state without the consent of their Parents . 378 80. Whether they may lawfully marry without or against their parents consent . 381 81. Of Exemption from the power of Fathers . 390 82. Whether if the Grand-father be alive and the Son in his power , it be sufficient to legitimate the marriage of the Son , if the Grand-father consent , though the Father be not asked . 391 83. Whether if the Parents have consented and authorized the treaty of marriage , till the affections of the children are irrevocably engaged , and afterwards recall their consent , the children are bound to obey their Parents . 392 84. Whether Mothers have the same authority ever their children as their Fathers have . 393 85. VVhether the power of Parents is such that they can compell a Son or Daughter to marry whom or when they will. 394 86. Whether the Law obliges no more , when its reason ceaseth . 411 87. Whether in some case the Subject is so quitted from the obligation of the Law that he may use his liberty without asking the will of the Superior . 417 88. Whether the obligation of the Law doth extend it self to all cases that have the same or an equall reason , though the case be not comprehended directly in the Law. 419 89. Whether it be a just and prudent cause to take a thing quite away because it has been abused . 432 90. Whether every action of our life ought to be directed by a right Conscience , or a well-perswaded will : Or , Are not some Actions , not only in their whole kind , but in their Circumstances and Limitations also , merely indifferent ? 444 91. Whether is it necessary that for the doing of good we have an express act of volition ? that is , May not the will be indifferent , though the actions are not ? 450 92. Upon whom doth the greater portion of the guilt lie , upon him that commands a sin , or him that sins in obedience ? 458 93. How farre it can be lawfull to permit a sin . 464 94. Whether to make and provide the instruments which usually minister to sin , makes us also guilty . 467 95. Whether it be lawfull to play at Cards or Dice . 469 96. Whether the Sin of the Action be distinct from that of the Affection . 481 97. Of the identity and diversity respectively of actions internall and externall , and the multiplication of sins by them . 483 98. What degrees of guiltiness are contracted by the beginnings and desires of wickedness which are imperfect and unfinished . 486 99. Whether a mad man may be punished for a fact he did in his health . 491 100. Of what things a man may be innocently ignorant , and what not . 494 101. What diligence is necessary that our ignorance may be innocent . 496 102. What is a probable ignorance . 497 103. Whether drunkennesse does excuse , or extenuate , or aggravate the crimes which it occasions . 505 104. What morality is in those actions which are done by a man that is abused into ignorance by the fraud of another . 509 105. Whether it be lawfull to serve God for any end less then himself , for riches , honour , &c. 523 106. In what sense it is true that God must be served purely for his own sake , and vertue pursued for vertues sake . 524 QUESTIONS more briefly handled . 1. WHether a man can be wholly without Conscience . lib. 1. cap. 1. rul . 1. n. 5. 2. From whence Conscience hath the power to torment a man. l. 1. c. 1. r. 2. n. 18. p. 20. 3. Why is the Conscience more afraid in some sins then others ? l. 1. c. 1. r. 2. n. 21. p. 21. 4. Whether Ecclesiasticks ever ought to leave one Church for another . l. 1. c. 1. r. 5. n. 23. p. 69. 5. Whether it be lawfull to use argumenta ad hominem . l. 1. c. 2. r. 6. n. 10. p. 75. 6. Whether a Conscience invincibly erring is to be obeyed against the known commands of our Superiour . l. 1. c. 3. r. 6. p. 114. 7. Whether the Error of a Conscience may be laid down upon an argument less probable then that which first produced the error . l. 1. c. 3. r. 7. n. 2. p. 116. 8. Whether a morall demonstration be a sufficient ground of certainty in duties . l. 1. c. 4. r. 2. n. 2. p. 121. 9. Whether when two probable opinions are practically compared , it is lawfull to reject that which is more probable . l. 1. c. 4. r. 5. n. 3. p. 148. 10. VVhether when two opinions seem equally probable , the understanding ought to chuse neither . l. 1. c. 4. r. 6. n. 1. p. 150. 11. Whether the lesser evil in respect of the greater hath the nature of good , and whether it may be lawfully chosen , if necessity force to chuse one . l. 1. c. 5. r. 8. n. 25. p. 199. 12. Whether the Christian Law be a collected body of the Laws of Nature . l. 2. c. 1. r. 1. n. 40. p. 235. 13. Whether it be lawfull to serve God with intuition of reward . l. 2. c. 1. r. 4. n. 9. p. 250. 14. Whether the Divine power can dispense with the Law of Nature . l. 2. c. 1. r. 9. p. 263. 15. How God dispenseth with his Laws . l. 2. c. 1. r. 9. n. 3. p. 264. 16. What Laws of Nature can be dispensed with . l. 2. c. 1. r. 9. n. 10. p. 267. 17. Whether it be rightly said , Per Jus Gentium & Civile aliquid detrahitur de Jure Naturali . l. 2. c. 1. r. 10. n. 2. p. 269. 18. Whether the Pope can dispense with the Law of Nature . l. 2. c. 1. r. 10. n. 9. p. 271. 19. Whether Abraham were brother to Sarah . l. 2. c. 2. r. 3. n. 31. p. 300 , 305. 20. What is meant Levit. xviii . 6. by , None of you ; and , Near of kin to you . l. 2. c. 2. r. 3. n. 36 , 39. p. 302. 21. Whether Christ gave any new precepts which were not in the Mosaicall Digest . 319. 22. Whether that which we call the second Commandment be a distinct Commandment , or an explication only of the first . 325. 23. Whether it is well to divide the tenth Commandment into two . 327. 24. Whether it be lawfull to make an image . 330. 25. Whether Spirituall persons should be exempt from Secular Jurisdiction . l. 2. c. 2. r. 6. n. 67. p. 368. 26. Whether an example out of the Old Testament be sufficient warrant for us . l. 2. c. 2. r. 7. n. 26. p. 380. 27. Whether in the Law of Moses , the Affirmative Laws are included in the Negative . l. 2. c. 3. r. 1. n. 7. p. 391. 28. Whether the Arguments of an old Heretick new made use of still increase the account of the first sin . l. 2. c. 3. r. 4. n. 6. p. 404. 29. Whether marriage be an universall Commandment . l. 2. c. 3. r. 9. n. 2. p. 420. 30. Whether the Lords Supper be to be administred to all in both kinds . l. 2. c. 3. r. 9. n. 5. p. 421. 31. Whether in the Holy Eucharist whole Christ be received under each kind . l. 2. c. 3. r. 9. n. 26. p. 427. 32. Whether the blood is received in the Bread by concomitance . l. 2. c. 3. r. 9. n. 26. p. 429. 33. Whether a power of dispensing with the positive laws of Christ be intrusted with any man or society of men , to the Pope or any other . l. 2. c. 3. r. 11. n. 6. p. 441. 34. Whether it be lawfull to break the vow and bonds of marriage to enter into a religious house . l. 2. c. 3. r. 11. n. 9. p. 443. 35. Whether a Supplie of duty is to be made in any case , or , whether it be not better in some cases to doe something of the duty then nothing when we cannot doe all . l. 2. c. 3. r. 11. n. 17. p. 446. 36. Whether it be as great a sin to teach for necessary doctrines the prohibitions of men as the injunctions . l. 2. c. 3. r. 13. n. 20. p. 463. 37. What Superstition is . l. 2. c. 3. r. 13. n. 26. p. 466. 38. Whether the Sacrifice of Abel was will-worship . l. 2. c. 3. r. 13. n. 27. p. 467. 39. Whether whatsoever is taught us by naturall reason is bound upon us by a naturall law . l. 2. c. 3. r. 13. n. 28. p. 467. & c. 1. r. 1. n. 30. p. 230. 40. Whether the Holy Scriptures contain the whole will of God. l. 2. c. 3. r. 14. n. 2. p. 473. 41. What is the use of Traditions . l. 2. c. 3. r. 14. n. 13. p. 483. 42. Whether Tradition after the consignation of the Canon of Scriptures be of any use in Questions of Faith or manners . l. 2. c. 3. r. 14. n. 23. p. 487. 43. Whether Traditions can be proved out of Scripture . l. 2. c. 3. r. 14. n. 38. p. 494. 44. Whether the belief of the Catholick Church is a sufficient argument to prove a Tradition to be Apostolicall . l. 2. c. 3. r. 14. n. 39. p. 495. 45. Whether a Council or the Doctors of the Church can give sufficient Authority to Tradition . l. 2. c. 3. r. 14. n. 42. p. 499. 46. What Authority an uninterrupted Succession from Apostolicall men can give to a Tradition . l. 2. c. 3. r. 14. n. 43. p. 500. 47. Whether it be lawfull to defer Baptisme till near death . l. 2. c. 3. r. 16. n. 1. p. 521. 48. Whether a man be bound to weep as often as he thinks of his sin . l. 2. c. 3. r. 16. n. 36. p. 539. 49. Whether the Bishop that ordeins , or he that is ordeined , or they that chuse do sin , if the Bishop be unfit . l. 2. c. 3. r. 18. n. 1. p. 547. 50. Whether Christian Liberty extend to the freeing from all humane Laws made concerning ceremonies . l. 3. c. 1. r. 1. n. 28. p. 18. 51. Whether Humane Laws bind to their observation with the danger of life . l. 3. c. 1. r. 2. n. 2. p. 27. 52. Whether a Law that binds under pain of mortall sin does also bind to obedience though death attend it . l. 3. c. 1. r. 2. n. 10. p. 28. 53. When the Supreme power can bind to the observation of his Laws though with danger of death . l. 3. c. 1. r. 2. n. 12. p. 29. 54. Whether Laws have their binding power from the consent of the people . l. 3. c. 1. r. 7. n. 5. p. 47. 55. Whether when a Law is refused by the greater part of the people , single persons are excused . l. 3. c. 1. r. 7. n. 9. p. 49. 56. Whether for a lawfull Magistrate to put a malefactor to death flagrante crimine be against charity . l. 3. c. 2. r. 1. n. 4. p. 54. 57. VVhether a liee may be told to another for the benefit of a third person . l. 3. c. 2. r. 5. n. 12. p. 87. 58. Whether a lie may be told to save ones good name and prevent disgrace . l. 3. c. 2. r. 5. n. 17. p. 92. 59. VVhether a Generall may tell a lye and use stratagems . l. 3. c. 2. r. 5. n. 19. p. 93. 60. Whether a Prince is to be accounted a private person , when he proceeds not according to the sentence and methods of Law. l. 3. c. 2. r. 6. n. 11. p. 111. 61. Whether Judiciall duells are lawfull . l. 3. c. 2. r. 6. n. 12. p. 112. 62. Whether it be lawfull for Christians to goe to law one with another . l. 3. c. 2. r. 6. n. 18. p. 115. 63. Whether it be lawfull to punish one for another of persons conjoined by Contract . l. 3. c. 2. r. 7. n. 5. p. 118. 64. Whether it be lawfull to imprison or torment insolvent Debtors . l. 3. c. 2. r. 7. n. 5. p. 118. 65. Whether persons affianced by Nature may be lawfully punished one for another . l. 3. c. 2. r. 7. n. 11. p. 121. 66. Whether persons affianced by Crime may be punished one for another . l. 3. c. 2. r. 7. n. 12. p. 122. 67. Whether it be unlawfull to deny tribute on pretence it is unjust . l. 3. c. 2. r. 10. n. 3. p. 128. 68. What the Bishops are to doe , if the Civill power forbid that any invocation of the H. Ghost be made in the publick Liturgies . l. 3. c. 3. r. 6. n. 29. p. 196. 69. Whether it be lawfull for the Spirituall power by spirituall censures to punish those actions which the Civil power permits . l. 3. c. 3. r. 6. n. 32. p. 197. 70. How to know which is the Accessory and which the Principall . l. 3. c. 4. r. 4. n. 6. p. 227. 71. In what sense the Accessory does follow the nature of the Principall . l. 3. c. 4. r. 4. n. 12. p. 229. 72. Whether the Bishops can give Laws which properly and immediately bind the transgressors under sin . l. 3. c. 4. r. 4. n. 23. p. 233. 73. In what cases Excommunication may be lawfully inflicted . l. 3. c. 4. r. 9. n. 6. p. 257. 74. VVhether such sentences in Law as declare a man Excommunicate ipso facto be unlawfull . l. 3. c. 4. r. 9. n. 11 , 12. p. 259. 75. VVhat is meant by that word of our Saviours , teaching for doctrines the Commandments of men . l. 3. c. 4. r. 17. n. 8. p. 303. 76. VVhether Bishops and Priests may marry after Ordination . l. 3. c. 4. r. 20. n. 24. p. 343. 77. When the Law expresly names the punishment , whether there can be any relief by Equity or Interpretation . l. 3. c. 6. r. 1. n. 17. p. 406. 78. VVhether a Custome can abrogate a Law. l. 3. c. 6. r. 6. n. 4 , 5 , 6 , 7. p. 429. 79. VVhèther the VVill be free in it's actions . l. 4. c. 1. r. 1. n. 2 , 3. p. 440. First Volume Contains BOOK FIRST , OF CONSCIENCE IN GENERAL , viz. the Right , Confident or Erroneous , Probable or Thinking , Doubtfull and Scrupulous Conscience . ( Page 1. SECOND BOOK , OF LAWS DIVINE , viz. the Laws of Nature , Moses and Christ , and all Collateral Obligations . ( pag. 220. Second Volume Contains BOOK THIRD , OF HUMANE LAWS , Their Obligation and Relaxation , and of the Collaterall , Indirect and Accidental bands of Conscience . ( pag. 1. BOOK FOURTH , OF THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF GOOD And EVIL , Their Limits and Circumstances , Aggravations and Diminutions . ( pag. 437. NON MAGNA LOQVIMVR . SED VIVIMVS ▪ NIHIL OPINIONIS GRATIA . OMNIA CONSCENTIAE FACIAM DVCTOR DVBITANTIVM , OR , The Rule of Conscience . THE FIRST BOOK . Of Conscience , the kindes of it , and the general Rules of conducting them . CHAP. I. The Rule of Conscience in general . RULE 1. Conscience is the minde of a Man governed by a Rule , and measured by the proportions of good and evil , in order to practice ; viz. to conduct all our relations , and all our entercourse between God , our Neighbours , and our Selves : that is , in all moral actions . GOD governs the world by several attributes and emanations from himself . The nature of things is supported by his power , the events of things are ordered by his providence , and the actions of reasonable creatures are governed by Laws , and these Laws are put into a mans soul or minde as into a Treasury or Repository : some in his very nature , some by after actions , by education and positive sanction , by learning and custome : so that it was well said of S. Bernard , Conscientia candor est lucis aeternae , & speculum sine macula Dei Majestatis , & imago bonitatis illius . Conscience is the brightness and splendor of the eternal light , a spotless mirror of the Divine Majesty , and the image of the goodness of God. It is higher which Tatianus said of Conscience , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Conscience is God unto us ; which saying he had from Menander , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and it had in it this truth , That God who is every where in several manners , hath the appellative of his own attributes and effects in the several manners of his presence . Jupiter est quodcunque vides , quocunque moveris . That providence which governs all the world is nothing else but God present by his providence : and God is in our hearts by his Laws : he rules in us by his Substitu●e our conscience . God sits there and gives us laws ; and as God said to Moses , I have made thee a God to Pharaoh , that is , to give him Laws , and to minister in the exec●tion of those Laws , and to inflict angry sentences upon him ; so hath God done to us . He hath given us Conscience to be in Gods stead to us , to give us Laws , and to exact obedience to those Laws , to punish them that prevaricate , and to reward the obedient . And therefore Conscience is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The Houshold Guardian , The Domestick God , The Spirit or Angel of the place : and when we call god to witness , we onely mean , that our conscience is right , and that God and Gods Vicar , our conscience knows it . So Lactantius : Meminerit Deum se habere testem , id est , ut ego arbitror , mentem suam , quâ nihil homini dedit Deus ipse divinius . Let him remember that he hath God for his witness , that is , as I suppose , his mind ; then which God hath given to man nothing that is more divine . In summe , It is the image of God ; and as in the mysterious Trinity , we adore the will , memory and understanding , and Theology contemplates three persons in the analogies , proportions and correspondencies of them : so in this also we see plainly that Conscience is that likeness of God in which he was pleased to make man. For although conscience be primarly founded in the understanding , as it is the Lawgiver , and Dictator ; and the rule and dominion of conscience fundatur in intellectu , is established in the understanding part ; yet it is also Memory , when it accuses or excuses , when it makes joyful and sorrowful ; and there is in it some mixture of will , as I shall discourse in the sequel ; so that conscience is a result of all , of Understanding , Will , and Memory . But these high and great expressions are better in the Spirit then in the letter ; they have in them some●hing of institution , and some●hing of design , they tell us that Conscience is a guard and a guide , a rule and a law set over us by God , and they are spoken to m●ke us afraid to sin against our conscience , because by so doing we sin against God ; he having put a double bridle upon us , society and solitude , that is , company , and our selves , or rather , God and Man ; it being now impossible for us to sin in any circumstances , but we shall have a reprover : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Hierocles said well ; that neith●r company may g●ve countena●ce or excuse to sin , or solitariness may give confidence or warranty ; for ●s we are ashamed to sin in company , so we ought to fear our conscience , which is Gods Watchman and Intelligencer . To which purpose it was soberly spoken of Tertullian , Conscientia optima testis Divinitatis ; our conscience is the best argument in the world to prove there is a God : For conscience is Gods deputy ; and the inferiour must suppose a superiour ; and God and our conscience are like relative terms , it not being imaginable why some persons in some cases should be am●z'd and troubled in their minds for their having done a secret turp●tude , o● cruelty ; but that conscience is present with a message from God , and the men feel inward causes of fear , when they are secure from without ; that is , they are forc'd to fear God , when they are safe from men . And it is impossible that any man should be an Atheist , if he have any conscience : and for this reason it is , there have been so few Atheists in the world , because it is so hard for men to lose their conscience wholly . Quest. SOme dispute whether it be possible or no for any man to be totally without conscience . Tertullians sentence in this article is this , Potest obumbrari quia non est Deus : extingui non potest quia à Deo est . It is not God , and therefore may be clouded : but it is from God , and therefore cannot be destroyed . But I know a man may wholly lose the use of his reason ; some men are mad , and some are natural fools , and some are sots , and stupid ; such men as these lose their conscience , as they lose their reason : and as some mad men may have a fancy that there is no Sun ; so some fools may say there is no God ; and as they can believe that , so they can lose their conscience , and believe this . But as he that hath reason or his eyes cannot deny but there is such a thing as the Sun , so neither can he that hath conscience deny there is a God. For as the Sun is present by his light which we see daily , so is God by our conscience which we feel continually : we feel one as certainly as the other . But it is to be observed , that conscience is sometimes taken for the practical intellective faculty ; so we say the law of nature , and the fear of God is written in the conscience of every man. 2. Sometimes it is taken for the habitual perswasion and belief of the principles written there ; so we say , He is a good man , and makes conscience of his ways . And thus we also say , and it is true , that a wicked person is of a profligate and lost conscience . He hath no conscience in him . That is , he hath lost the habit , or that usual perswasion and recourse to conscience by which good men govern their actions . 3. Or the word conscience is used effectively , for any single operation and action of conscience : so we speak of particulars , I make a conscience of taking up arms in this cause . Of the first and last acceptation of the word Conscience , there is no doubt ; for the last may , and the first can never be lost : But for the second , it may be lost more or less , as any other habit can ; though this with more difficulty then any thing else , because it is founded so immediately in nature , and is so exercised in all the actions and entercourses of our life , and is so assisted by the grace of God , that it is next to impossible to lose the habit intirely ; and that faculty that shall to eternal ages doe the offices which are the last , and such as suppose some preceding actions , I mean to torment and afflict them for not having obeyed the former acts of dictate and command , cannot be supposed to die in the principle , when it shall be eternal in the emanation ; for the worm shall never die . For , that men doe things against their conscience , is no otherwise then as they doe things against their reason ; but a man may as well cease to be a man , as to be wholly without conscience . For the drunkard will be sober , and his conscience will be awake next morning : This is a perpetual pulse , and though it may be interrupted , yet if the man be alive , it will beat before he dies ; and so long as we beleeve a God , so long our conscience will at least teach us , if it does not also smite us : But as God sometimes lets a man go on in sin and does not punish him , so does conscience ; but in this case , unless the man be smitten and awakened before he dies , both God & the conscience reserve their wrath to be inflicted in hell . It is one and the same thing ; Gods wrath , and an evil guilty conscience : For by the same hand by which God gives his law , by the same he punishes them that transgress the law . God gave the old law by the ministery of Angels , and when the people broke it , he sent evil angels among them ; now God gives us a law in our consciences , and there he hath established the penalty ; This is the worm that never dies ; let it be trod upon never so much here , it will turn again . It cannot die here , and it shall be alive for ever . But by explicating the parts of the Rule , we shall the best understand the Nature , Use , and Offices of Conscience . Conscience is the minde of a Man — When God sent the B. Jesus into the world to perfect all righteousness , and to teach the world all his Fathers will , it was said , and done , I will give my laws in your hearts , and in your mindes will I write them ; that is , you shall be governed by the law of natural and essential equity and reason , by that law which is put into every mans nature : and besides this , whatsoever else shall be superinduc'd shall be written in your minds by the Spirit , who shall write all the laws of Christianity in the Tables of your consciences . He shall make you to understand them , to perceive their relish , to remember them because you love them , and because you need them , and cannot be happy without them : he shall call them to your minde , and inspire new arguments and inducements to their observation , and make it all as naturall to us , as what we were born with . Our minde being thus furnished with a holy Rule , and conducted by a divine Guide , is called Conscience ; and is the same thing which in Scripture is sometimes called , The heart * ; there being in the Hebrew tongue , no proper word for Conscience , but in stead of it they use the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the heart ; Oftententimes also thine own heart knoweth , that is , thy conscience knoweth , that thou they self hast cursed others : so in the New Testament , Beloved , if our hearts condemne us not , then have we peace towards God ; viz. If in our own consciences we are not condemned . Sometimes it is called Spirit * , the third ingredient of the constitution of a Christian ; the Spirit , distinct from Soul and Body . For as our Body shall be spiritual in the resurrection , therefore because all its offices shall intirely minister to the spirit , and converse with spirits , so may that part of the soul which is wholly furnished , taught and conducted by the spirit of grace , and whose work it is wholly to serve the spirit , by a just proportion of reason be called the Spirit . This is that which is affirmed by S. Paul , The word of God sharper then a two edged sword , dividing the soul and the spirit ; that is , the soul is the spirit separated by the word of God , instructed by it , and by relation to it , is called , the spirit . And this is the sense of Origen , Testimonio sanè conscientiae uti Apostolus dicit eos qui descriptam continent in cordibus legem , &c. The Apostle says , that they use the testimony of conscience , who have the law written in their hearts . Hence it is necessary to enquire what that is which the Apostle cals conscience , whether it be any other substance then the heart or soul ? For of this it is otherwhere said , that it reprehends , but is not reprehended , and that it judges a man , but it self is judged of no man : as John saith , If our conscience condemne us not , then have we confidence towards God. And again , Paul himself saith in another place , Our glorying is this , even the testimony of our conscience ; because therefore I see so great a liberty of it , that in good things it is always glad and rejoyces , but in evil things it is not reproved , but reproves and corrects the soul it self to which it does adhere : I doe suppose that this is the very spirit which by the Apostle is said to be with the soul , as a paedagogue and social Governour , that it may admonish the soul of better things , and chastise her for her faults and reprove her : Because no man knows the things of a man but the spirit of a man which is in him ; and that is the spirit of our conscience , concerning which , he saith , That spirit gives testimony to our spirit . So far Origen . Thus , Conscience is the Minde , and God writing his laws in our mindes is , informing our conscience , and furnishing it with laws and rules , and measures , and it is called by S. Paul , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the law of the minde ; and though it is once made a distinct thing from the minde ( as in those words , Their mindes and consciences are defiled ) yet it happens in this word as in divers others , that it is sometimes taken largely , sometimes specifically and more determinately : The minde is all the whole understanding part , it is the memory ; so Peter called to minde the word that Jesus spake , that is , he remembred it . It is , the signification or meaning , the purpose or resolution . No man knoweth the minde of the spirit , but the spirit . It is the discursive or reasoning part ; Mary cast in her minde what manner of salutation this should be . It is the assenting and determining part ; let every man be fully perswaded in his own minde : and it is also taken for Conscience , or that Treasure of rules which are in order to practice . And therefore when S. Paul intended to express the anger of God punishing evil men with evil consciences and false perswasions in order to criminal actions and evil worshippings , he said , God gave them over 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to a reprobate minde , that is , to a conscience evil perswaded , furnished with false practical principles ; but the return to holiness , and the improvement of a holy conscience is called , a being renewed in the spirit of our minde , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the renovation of the minde . Now there are two ways by which God reigns in the minde of a man , 1. Faith , and 2. Conscience . Faith contains all the treasures of Divine knowledge and speculation . Conscience is the treasury of divine Commandements and rules in practical things . Faith tells us why ; Conscience tells us what we are to doe . Faith is the measure of our perswasions ; Conscience is the measure of our actions . And as Faith is a gift of God , so is Conscience ; that is , as the understanding of a man is taught by the Spirit of God in Scripture , what to beleeve , how to distinguish truth from errors ; so is the Conscience instructed to distinguish good and evil , how to please God , how to doe justice and charity to our neighbour , and how to treat our selves ; so that when the revelations of Christ and the Commandements of God are fully recorded in our mindes , then we are perfectly instructed to every good work . Governed by a Rule — S. Bernard comparing the Conscience to a house , says it stands upon seven pillars . 1. Good will. 2. Memory of Gods benefits . 3. A clean heart . 4. A free spirit . 5. A right soul. 6. A devout minde . 7. An enlightned reason . These indeed are some of them the fruits and effects , some of them are the annexes and appendages of a good conscience , but not the foundations or pillars upon which Conscience is built . For as for the first Good will. Conscience relies not at all upon the will directly . For though a Conscience is good , or bad , pure or impure ; and so the Doctors of Mystick Theology divide and handle it , yet a conscience is not made so by the will , formally , but by the understanding . For that is a good conscience , which is rightly taught in the word of life ; that is impure and defiled , which hath entertained evil and ungodly principles ; such is theirs , who follow false lights , evil teachers , men of corrupt minds . For the conscience is a Judge and a Guide , a Monitor and a Witness , which are offices of the knowing , not of the choosing faculty . Spiritum correctorem , & paedagogum animae , so Origen a calls it . The instructor of the soul , the spirit , the corrector . Naturale judicatorium , or naturalis vis judicandi , so S. Basil. The natural power of judging , or natures judgement seat . Lucem intellectus nostri , so Damascen cals it , The light of our understanding . The conscience does accuse or excuse a man before God , which the will cannot . If it could , we should all stand upright at doomesday , or at least those would be acquitted , who fain would doe well , but miss , who do the things they love not , and love those they doe not ; that is , they who strive to enter in , but shall not be able . But to accuse or excuse is the office of a faculty which can neither will nor choose , that is , of the conscience ; which is properly a record , a book , and a judgement seat . But I said , Conscience relies not upon the will [ directly ] yet it cannot be denied , but the will hath force upon the conscience collaterally and indirectly . For the evil will perverts the understanding , and makes it beleeve false principles ; deceiving and being deceived is the lot of false Prophets ; and they that are given over to beleeve a lie , will live in a lie , and doe actions relative to that false doctrine which evil manners first perswaded and introduc'd . For although it cannot be that Hereticks should sin in the article against the actual light of their consciences , because he that wittingly and willingly sins against a known truth is not properly a Heretick but a Blasphemer , and sins against the Holy Ghost ; and he that sees a Heretick run to the stake or to the gallows , or the Donatist kill himself , or the Circumcellian break his own neck with as much confidence to bear witness to his heresie , as any of the blessed Martyrs to give testimony to Christianity it self , cannot but think he heartily beleeves , what so willingly he dies for ; yet either hereticks do sin voluntarily , and so● distinguish from simple errors , or else they are the same thing , and either every simple error is damnable , or no heresie . It must therefore be observed , that The will of man is cause of its actions either mediately or immediately . Some are the next products of our will ; such are Pride , Ambition , Prejudice , and these blinde the understanding , and make an evil and a corrupted conscience , making it an incompetent judge of truth and error , good and evil . So that the corruption of conscience in a heretick is voluntary in the principle , but miserable and involuntary in the product ; it may proceed from the will efficiently , but it is formally a depravation of the understanding . And therefore our wils also must be humble and apt , and desirous to learn , and willing to obey . Obedite & intelligetis , by humility and obedience we shall be best instructed . Not that by this means the conscience shall receive direct aids , but because by this means it will be left in its own aptnesses and dispositions , and when it is not hindred , the word of God will enter and dwel upon the conscience . And in this sense it is that some say that [ Conscience is the inclination and propension of the will corresponding to practical knowledge ] Will and Conscience are like the cognati sensus , the Touch and the Tast ; or the Teeth and the Eares , affected and assisted by some common objects , whose effect is united in matter and some reall events , and distinguished by their formalities , or metaphysical beings . 2. Memory of Gods benefits , Is indeed a good ingagement to make us dutiful , and so may incline the will ; but it hath no other force upon the conscience but that it re-minds us of a special obligation to thankfulness , which is a new and proper tie of duty ; but it works onely by a principle that is already in the conscience , viz. that we are specially oblig'd to our gracious lords ; and the obedience that is due to God as our lord doubles upon us by love and zeal when we remember him to be our bountiful Patron , and our gracious Father . 3. A clean heart , May be an effect and emanation from a holy Conscience ; but conscience in it self may be either good or bad , or it may be good when the heart is not clean , as it is in all the worst men who actually sin against conscience , doing that which conscience forbids them . In these men the principles are holy , the instruction perfect , the law remaining , the perswasions uncancell'd ; but against all this torrent , there is a whirlwinde of passions and filthy resolutions , and wilfulness , which corrupt the heart , while as yet the head is uncorrupted in the direct rules of conscience . But yet sometimes a clean conscience and a clean heart are the same ; and a good conscience is taken for holiness , so S. Paul uses the word , holding faith and a good conscience , which some having put away have made shipwrack , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so Clemens Alexandrinus explicates the place ; they have by infidelity polluted their divine and holy conscience : but S. Paul seems to argue otherwise , and that they laying aside a good conscience fell into infidelity ; their hearts and conscience were first corrupted , and then they turn'd hereticks . But this sense of a good conscience is that which in Mystick Divinity is more properly handled , in which sense also it is sometimes used in the law . Idem est conscientia quod vir bonus intrinsecè , said Ungarellus a out of Baldus b ; and from thence Aretine c gathered this conclusion , that if any thing be committed to the conscience of any one , they must stand to his determination & ab eâ appellari non potest ; there lies no appeal , quia vir bonus pro quo sumitur conscientia non potest mentiri & falsum dicere vel judicare . A good man , for whom the word conscience is used , cannot lie , or give a false judgement or testimony : of this sort of conscience it is said by Ben Sirach , Bonam substantiam habet cui non est peccatum in conscientiâ . It is a mans wealth to have no sin in our conscience . But in our present and future discourses , the word conscience is understood in the Philosophical sense , not in the Mystical , that is , not for the conscience as it is invested with the accidents of good or bad , but as it abstracts from both , but is capable of either . 4. A free spirit , Is the blessing and effect of an obedient will to a well instructed conscience , and more properly and peculiarly to the grace of chastity , to honesty and simplicity ; a slavish , t●morous , a childish and a trifling spirit being the punishment inflicted upon David before he repented of his fact with Bathsheba . But there is also a freedom which is properly the privilege , or the affection of conscience , and is of great usefulness to all its nobler operations ; and that is , a being clear from prejudice and prepossession , a pursuing of truths with holy purposes , an inquiring after them with a single eye , not infected with any sickness or unreasonableness . This is the same thing with that which he distinctly cals [ A right soul ] To this is appendant also , that the conscience cannot be constrained , it is of it self a free spirit , and is subject to no commands , but those of reason and religion . God onely is the Lord of our conscience , and the conscience is not to subject it self any more to the Empire of sin , to the law of Moses , to a servile spirit , but to the laws of God alone , and the obedience of Jesus , willingly , chearfully , and in all instances , whether the Commandement be conveyed by the holy Jesus , or by his Vicegerents . But of this I shall afterwards give particular accounts . 5. A devout minde , May procure more light to the conscience , and assistances from the spirit of wisdome in cases of difficulty , and is a good remedy against a doubting and a scrupulous conscience ; but this is but indirect , and by the intermission of other more immediate and proper entercourses . 6. But the last is perfectly the foundation of conscience . An enlightned Reason . To which if we adde what S. Bernard before cals a right soul , that is , an honest heart , full of simplicity and hearty attention , and ready assent , we have all that by which the conscience is informed and reformed , instructed and preserved in its just measures , strengths , and relations . For the Rule of Conscience is all that notice of things and rules by which God would have good and evil to be measured , that is , the will of God communicated to us by any means , by reason , and by enlightning , that is , natural and instructed . So that conscience is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it is principled by creation , and it is instructed or illuminated in the regeneration . For God being the fountain of all good , and good being nothing but a conformity to him , or to his will , what measures he makes , are to limit us . No man can make measures of good and evil , any more then he can make the good it self . Men sometimes give the instance in which the good is measured ; but the measure it self is the will of God. For therefore it is good to obey humane laws , because it is Gods will we should ; and although the man makes the law to which we are to give obedience , yet that is not the rule . The rule is the Commandement of God , for by it obedience is made a duty . Measured by the proportions of good and evil — That is , of that which God hath declared to be good or evil respectively , the conscience is to be informed . God hath taken care that his laws shall be published to all his subjects , he hath written them where they must needs read them , not in tables of stone or phylacteries on the forehead , but in a secret Table : The conscience or minde of a man is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the preserver of the Court Rols of heaven . But I added this clause , to the former of [ a Rule ] because the express line of Gods rule is not the adequate measure of conscience : but there are analogies and proportions , and commensurations of things with things , which make the measure full and equal . For he does not always keep a good conscienee who keeps onely the words of a Divine law , but the proportions also and the reasons of it , the similitudes and correspondencies in like instances , are the measures of conscience . The whole measure and rule of conscience , The law of God , or Gods will , signified to us by nature , or revelation , and by the several manners and times and parts of its communication it hath obtained several names . The law of Nature . * The consent of Nations . * Right Reason . * The Decalogue . * The Sermon of Christ. * The Canons of the Apostles . * The laws Ecclesiastical and Civil of Princes and Governours . * Fame , or the publick reputation of things , expressed by Proverbs and other instances and measures of publick honesty . This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so Euripides cals it , all the rule that teaches us good or evil . These being the full measures of right and wrong , of lawful and unlawful , will be the Rule of Conscience , and the subject of the present Books . In order to practice — In this , conscience differs from knowledge , which is in order to speculation , and ineffective notices . And it differs from faith , because although faith is also in order to practice , yet not directly and immediately : it is a collection of propositions , the belief of which makes it necessary to live well , and reasonable and chosen . But before the propositions of faith pass into action , they must be transmitted through another principle , and that is conscience . That Jesus Christ is the Son of God , and our Lord , and our Master , is a proposition of faith , and from thence if we pass on to practice , we first take in another proposition ; If he be our lord , where is his fear ? and this is a sentence , or virtual proposition of conscience . And from hence we may understand the full meaning of the word [ Conscience . ] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and Conscientia , and so our English word Conscience have in them Science or Knowledge : the seat of it is the Understanding , the act of it is Knowing , but there must be a knowing of more together . Hugo de S. Victore says , that Conscientia est cordis scientia , Conscience is the knowledge of the heart . It is so , but certainly this was not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and original of the word . But there is truth in the following period . Cor noscit se & alia . Quando autem se noscit appellatur conscientia , quando praeter se , alia noscit , appellatur scientia . Knowledge hath for its object any thing without ; but when the heart knows it self , then it is conscience . So it is used in Authors sacred and prophane . Nihil mihi conscius sum , saith S. Paul ; I know nothing by my self ; ut alios lateas , tute tibi conscius eris : and — hic murus aheneus esto , Nil conscire sibi — so Cicero to Marcus Rutilius uses it ; Cùm & mihi conscius essem quanti te facerem ; When I my self was conscious to my self how much I did value thee . But this acception of the word conscience is true , but not full and adequate ; for it onely signifies conscience as it is a Witness , not as a Guide . Therefore it is more reasonable which Aquinas and the Schoolmen generally use : that conscience is a conjunction of the universal practical law with the particular moral action : and so it is scientia cum rebus facti , and then it takes in that which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or the general repository of moral principles or measures of good , and the particular cases as reduced to practice . Such as was the case of S. Peter when he denied his Lord : He knew that he ought not to have done it , and his conscience being sufficiently taught his duty to his Lord , he also knew that he had done it , and then there followed a remorse , a biting , or gnawing of his spirit , grief , and shame , and a consequent weeping : when all these acts meet together , it is the full process of conscience . 1. The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the first act of conscience , S. Hierome cals Scintillam conscientiae , the spark or fire put into the heart of man. 2. The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which is specifically called conscience of the deed done , is the bringing fuel to this fire . 3. And when they are thus laid together , they will either shine or burn , acquit or condemne . But this complication of acts is conscience . The first is Science , practical science ; but annex the second : or it and the third , and then it is conscience . When Davids heart smote him , that is , upon his adultery and murder , his conscience thus discours'd . Adultery and Murder are high violations of the Divine Law , they provoke God to anger , without whom I cannot live , whose anger is worse then death . This is practical knowledge , or the principles of conscience ; but the following acts made it up into conscience . For he remembred that he had betrayed Uriah and humbled Bathsheba , and then he begs of God for pardon ; standing condemn'd in his own breast , he hopes to be forgiven by Gods sentence . But the whole process of conscience is in two practical Syllogisms , in which the method is ever this . The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Repository of practical principles begins , and where that leaves , the conscience or the witness and Judge of moral actions begins , like Jacob laying hold upon his elder brothers heel . The first is this : Whatsoever is injurious ought not to be done , But to commit adultery is injurious , Therefore it ought not to be done : This is the Rule of conscience , or the first act of conscience as it is a Rule and a Guide , and is taken for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or practical repository . But when an action is done or about to be done , conscience takes the conclusion of the former Syllogism , and applies it to her particular case . Adultery ought not to be done , This action I go about , or which I have done , is adultery , Therefore it ought not to be done , or to have been done . This is the full proceeding of this Court ; after which many consequent solemnities and actions do pass , of sentence , and preparatory torments and execution . But this I am to admonish , that although this which I have thus defin'd , is the proper and full sence of the word Conscience according to art and proper acceptation , yet in Scripture it is used indifferently for an act of conscience , or any of its parts , and does not always signify in its latitude and integrity , but yet it all tends to the same signification ; and though the name be given to the faculty , to the habit , to the act , to the object , to the effect , to every emanation from the minde in things practical , yet still it supposes the same thing : viz. that conscience is the guide of all our moral actions ; and by giving the name to so many acts and parts and effluxes from it , it warrants the definition of it when it is united in its own proper and integral constitution . To conduct all our relations and entercourses between God , our Neighbours and our Selves ; that is , in all moral actions . This is the final cause of conscience : and by this it is distinguished from prudence , which is also a practical knowledge and reduc'd to particular and circumstantiate actions . But 1. Prudence consists in the things of the world , or relative to the world ; Conscience in the things of God , or relating to him . 2. Prudence is about affairs as they are of advantage or disadvantage : conscience is imployed about them as they are honest or dishonest . 3. Prudence regards the circumstances of actions whether moral or civil : conscience only regards moral actions in their substance or essential proprieties . 4. Prudence intends to doe actions dexterously and prosperously : conscience is to conduct them justly and according to the Commandement . 5. There are many actions in which prudence is all at all concerned as being wholly indifferent to this or that for matter of advantage ; but there is no action but must pass under the file and censure of Conscience ; for if we can suppose any action in all its circumstances to be wholly indifferent to good or bad ; yet none is so to lawful or unlawful , the very indifferent , being therefore lawful because it is indifferent , and therefore to be considered by conscience , either actually or habitually : For in this sense even our natural actions in their time and place , are also moral , and where they are not primarily moral , yet they come under conscience , as being permitted , and innocent ; but where ever they are relative to another person , they put on some more degrees of morality , and are of proper cognisance in this Court. Qui didicit patriae quid debeat , & quid amicis : Quo sit amore parens , quo Frater amandus , & Hospes : Quid sit Conscripti , quid Judicis officium : quae Partes in bellum missi Ducis : ille profectò Reddere personae scit convenientiae cuique . That is the full effect of conscience , to conduct all our relations , all our moral actions . RULE 2. The duty and offices of Conscience are to dictate , and to testify or bear witness ; to accuse or excuse ; to loose or binde . THE first and last are the direct acts and offices of Conscience : the o●her are reflex or consequent actions , but direct offices . The first act which is , To dictate Is of that which Divines call the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or the phylactery , the keeper of the records of the laws , and by it we are taught our duty : God having written it in our hearts by Nature and by the Spirit , leaves it there , ever plac'd before the eye of conscience as S. Bernara cals it ) to be read and used for directions in all cases of dispute , or question or action : this is that which S. Paul cals the work of the law written in our hearts , and therefore it is , that to sin against our conscience is so totally inexcusable , and according to the degree of that violence which is done against the conscience , puts on degrees . For conscience dictates whatsoever it is perswaded of , and will not suffer a man to do otherwise then it suggests and tels us : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Achilles of Hector when he was violently angry with him ; I would my conscience would give me leave to eat thy very flesh . It s universal dictates are ever the most certain , and those are the first principles of justice and religion ; and whatsoever else can be infallibly and immediately inferr'd from thence , are her dictates also , but not primely and directly , but transmitted by the hands of reason . The same reason also there is in clear revelation . For whatsoever is put into the conscience immediately by God , is plac'd there to the same purpose , and with the same efficiency and perswasion as is all that which is natural . And the conscience properly dictates nothing else , but prime natural reason , and immediate revelation ; whatsoever ●●es after these two , is reach'd forth to us by two hands , one whereof alone is ministred by conscience . The reason is this : Because all that law by which God governs is written in our hearts , put there by God immediately , that is antecedently to all our actions , because it is that by which all our actions are to be guided , even our discoursings and arguings are to be guided by conscience , if the argument be moral : now the ways by which God speaks to us immediately , are onely Nature and the Spirit : Nature is that principle which taught all men from the beginning until now ; all that prime practical reason which is perfective of humane nature , and in which all mankinde agrees . Either the perfections , or the renovations , or the superadditions to this are taught us by the Holy Spirit , and all this being written in the conscience by the finger of God is brought forth upon all occasions of action ; and whatsoever is done against any thing so plac'd , is directly and violently against the conscience ; but when from thence reason spins a longer thred , and draws it out from the clue of natural principles or express revelation , that also returns upon the conscience and is plac'd there as light upon a wall , but not as the stones that are there : but yet whatever is done against that light is also against conscience but not so as the other . Just as it is in nature and accident . To eat poison , and filthiness is against every mans health and stomack ; but if by an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a propriety of temper or an evil habit , or accidental inordination , wine , or fish makes a man sick , then these are against his nature too , but not so as poison is , or stones . Whatever comes into the conscience primarily , or consequently ▪ right or wrong , is brought forth upon occasion of action , and is part of her dictate : but as a man speaks some things of his own knowledge , some things by hearsay ; so does conscience , somethings she tels from God and her self , some things from reason and her self , or other accidental notices : Those and these do integrate and complete her sermons , but they have several influence and obligation according to their proper efficiency . But of this I shall give f●ll accounts in the second Book . To testifie . Conscience bears witness of our actions ; so S. Paul , their conscience bearing witness : and in this sense , conscience is a practical memory . For as the practical knowledge , or notices subjected in the understanding make the understanding to be conscience ; so the actions of our life recorded in the memory and brought forth to practical judgements , change the memory also into conscience . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Man differing from brute beasts by the use of reason , it is not likely he should be a stranger to his own actions as the beasts are , but that the evil which is done should be recalled to their minde with the signification of some displeasure . So Polybius discourses of the reason and the manner of conscience . Every knowing faculty is the seat of conscience . and the same faculty when it is furnished with speculative notions retains its natural and proper name of Understanding , or Memory ; but as the same is instructed with notices in order to judgements practical , so it takes the Christian name of Conscience , The Voltitive or choosing faculty cannot , but the intellectual may . And this is that Book which at Doomsday shall be brought forth and laid open to all the world . The Memory chang'd into Conscience preserves the notices of some things , and shall be reminded of others , and shall doe that work intirely and perfectly , which now it does imperfectly and by parts , according to the words of S. Paul , Then shall we know as we are known , that is , as God knows us now , so then shall we see and know our selves . Nullum theatrum virtuti conscientiâ majus , shall then be highly verified . Our conscience will be the great Scene or Theatre upon which shall be represented all our actions good and bad . It is Gods Book , the Book of life or death . According to the words of S. Bernard , Ex his quae scripta erunt in libris nostris judicabimur : & ideò scribi debent secundùm exemplar libri vitae , & si sic scripti non sunt , saltem corrigendi sunt . We shall be judged by that which is written in our own books ( the books of conscience ) and therefore they ought to be written according to the copy of the book of life ; and if they be not so written , yet they ought to be so corrected . Consequently to these the conscience does Accuse or Excuse . So S. Paul joyns them as consequent to the former ; Their conscience bearing witness , and their thoughts in the mean time accusing or excusing one another . Si optimorum consiliorum atque factorum testis in omni vita nobis conscientia fuerit , sine ullo metu summa cum honestate vivemus . If our conscience be the witness that in our life we do good deeds , and follow sober counsels , we shall live in great honesty and without fear . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Hierocles , God hath constituted a most righteous and domestick Judge , the Conscience and right Reason ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Every man ought most of all to fear himself , because it is impossible but we should know what we have done amiss , and it concerns us also to make righteous judgement , for we cannot escape our selves . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Isocrates . Etsi à caeteris silentium est , tamen ipse sibimet censcius est posse se meritò increpari , so Apuleius renders it . Though others hold their peace , yet there is one within that will not . Nec facile est placidam ac pacatam degere vitam , Qui violat factis communia foedera pacis : Etsi fallit enim Divum genus , Humanúmque ; Perpetuò tamen id fore clam diffidere debet . It is hard to be concealed from God and man too , and although we think our selves safe for a while , yet we have something within that tels us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he that does any thing is espied , and cannot doe it privately . Quîcum in tenebris ? was the old Proverb ; Who was with you in the dark ? And therefore it was that Epicurus affirm'd it to be impossible for a man to be concealed always . Upon the mistake of which he was accused by Plutarch and others , to have supposed it lawful to doe any injustice secretly ; whereas his design was to obstruct that gate of iniquity , and to make men beleeve that even that sin which was committed most secretly , would some time or other be discovered and brought to punishment ; all which is to be done by the ex raregular events of providence , and the certain accusations and discoveries of Conscience . For Conscience is the Looking-glass of the soul , so it was called by Pe●ipha●●s in Plautus ; Non oris causâ modò homines aequum fuit Sibi habere speculum , ubi os contemplarent suum ; Sed qui perspicere possent cor sapientiae : Igitur perspicere possent ut cordis copiam Ubi id inspexissent , cogitarent postea Vitam ut vixissent olim in adolescentia . And a man looking into his Conscience , instructed with the word of God , its proper rule , is by S. James compar'd to a man beholding his natural face in a glass ; and that the Apostle describes Conscience in that similitude , is to be gathered from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , verbum insitum , the ingraffed word , the word of God written in our hearts , which who so looks on , and compares his actions with his rule , may see what he is : but he that neglects this word and follows not this rule , did indeed see his face , but hath forgotten what manner of man he was , that is , what he was fram'd in the works of the new Creation , when he was newly form'd and created unto righteousness and true holiness . This accusation and watchfulness , and vocal , clamorous guards of Conscience are in perpetual attendance , and though they may sleep , yet they are quickly awakened , and make the evil man restless . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Epicurus , which is very well rendred by Seneca , Ideo non prodest latentibus , quòd latendi etiamsi felicitatem habeant , fiduciam non habent . They that live unjustly , always live miserably and fearfully ; because although their crime be secret , yet they cannot be confident that it shall be so : meaning , that because their conscience does accuse them , they perceive they are discovered , and previous to an eye , which what effect it will have in the publication of the crime here and hereafter , is not matter of knowledge , but cannot choose but be matter of fear for ever . — fiet adulter Publicus , & poenas metuet quascunque mariti Irati debent , nec erit felicior astro Martis , ut in laqueos nunquam incidat — If any chance makes the fact private , yet no providence or watchfulness can give security , because within there dwels a principle of fear that can never die , till repentance kills it . And therefore Chilon in Laërtius said upon this account , that loss is rather to be chosen then filthy gain ; because that loss brings sorrow but once , but injustice brings a perpetual fear and pain . Anne magìs Siculi gemuerunt aera juvenci , Et magìs auratis pendens laquearibus ensis Purpureas subter cervices terruit ? Imus , Imus praecipites , quam si sibi dicat , & intus Palleat infelix quod proxima nesciat Uxor . The wife that lies by his side knows not at what the guilty man looks pale , but something that is within the bosome knows ; and no pompousness of condition can secure the man , and no witty cruelty can equal the torment . For that also , although it be not directly the office of conscience , yet it is the act and effect of conscience ; when it self is injur'd , it will never let any thing else be quiet . To loose or binde , Is the reflex act of conscience . Upon viewing the records , or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Legislative part of conscience , it binds to duty ; upon viewing the act , it binds to punishment , or consigns to comfort ; and in both regards it is called by Origen , affectuum corrector , atque animae paedagogus , the corrector of the affections , and the teacher of the soul. Which kinde of similitude Epictetus in Stobaeus followed also , Parentes pueros nos paedagogo tradiderunt , qui ubique observaret ne laederemur , Deus autem clam viros insitae conscientiae custodiendos tradidit ; quae quidem custodia nequaquam contemnenda est . As our parents have delivered us to a guardian who did watch lest we did or suffered mischief ; so hath God committed us to the custody of our conscience that is planted within us ; and this custody is at no hand to be neglected . The binding to duty is so an effect of conscience , that is cannot be separated from it ; but the binding to punishment is an act of conscience also as it is a Judge , and is intended to affright a sinner , and to punishment : but it is such a punishment as is the beginning of hell torments , and unless the wound be cured will never end till eternity it self shall go into a grave : Illo nocens se damnat quo peccat die , the same day that a man sins , on the same day he is condem'd ; and when Menelaus in the Tragedy did ask , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; what disease kill'd poor O●estes ? he was answer'd , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , His disease was nothing but an evil conscience ; he had done vile things , and had an amazed spirit that distracted him , and so he died . Curas ultrices Virgil cals the wounds of an evil conscience , Revenging cares . Nihil est miserius quàm animus hominis conscius , said he in the Comedy ; nothing is more miserable then an evil conscience , and the being pain'd with it , is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to be choked or strangled with an evil conscience ; by S ▪ Chrysostome ( who in his 22. Homily upon the first Epistle to the Corinthians , speaks much and excellently to the same purpose ; ) and there are some that fancy that this was the cause of Judas death ; The horrors of his conscience were such that his spirits were confounded , and restless , and uneasy ; and striving to go from their prison stopp'd at the gates of emanation , and stifled him . It did that , or as bad ; it either choak'd him , or brought him to a haltar , as it hath done many besides him . And although I may truly say as he did , Non mihi si linguae centum — Omnia poenarum percurrere nomina possem , no tongue is able to express the evils which are felt by a troubled conscience , or a wounded spirit , yet the heads of them are visible and notorious to all men . 1. The first is that which Nazianzen cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , accusations and vexings of a man when he is in misery ; then when he needs most comfort , he shall by his evil conscience be most disquieted . A sickness awakes a dull sleeping conscience , and when it is awaken'd it will make that the man shall not sleep . So Antiochus when his Lieutenant Lysias was beaten by the Jews , he fell sick with grief , and then his conscience upbraided him ; but now ( said he ) I remember the evils that I did at Jerusalem ; quia invenerunt me mala ista , so the Latin Bible reads it ; because these evils now have found me out . For when a man is prosperous , it is easie for him to stop the mouth of conscience , to bribe or to abuse it , to fill it with noise , and to divert it with business , to outvie it with temporal gayeties , or to be flattered into weak opinions and sentences ; but when a man is smitten of God , and devested of all the outsides and hypocrisies of sin , and that conscience is disintangled from its fetters and foolish pretensions , then it speaks its own sense , it ever speaks loudest when the man is poor , or sick , or miserable . This was well explicated by S. Ambrose , Dum sumus in quadam delinquendi libidine , nebulis quibusdam conscientiae mens obducitur , nè videat eorum quae concupiscit deformitatem . Sed cùm omnis nebula transierit , gravia tormenta exercentur in quodam malè conscii secretario . A man is sometimes so surpris'd with the false fires and glarings of temptation , that he cannot see the secret turpitude and deformity . But when the cloud and vail is off , then comes the tormentor from within : — acuúntque metum mortalibus agris , Si quando lethum horrificum , morbósque Deûm Rex Molitur , meritas aut bello territat urbes . Then the calamity swels , and conscience increases the trouble , when God sends warre , or sickness , or death . It was Sauls case , when he lost that fatal battel in which the Ark was taken , he called to the Amalekite , Sta super me & interfice me , fall upon me and slay me ; quoniam tenent me angustiae , I am in a great straìt . He was indeed ; for his son was slain , and his army routed , and his enemies were round about : But then conscience stept in and told him of the evil that he had done in causing fourscore of the Lords Priests to be slain ; and therefore Abulensis reads the words thus , Fall upon me and slay me , quoniam tenent me or ae vestimenti Sacerdotalis , I am intangled in the fringes of the Priests garments . Videbatur sibi Saul quòd propinquus morti videret Sacerdotes Dei accusantes eum in judicio coram Deo. He thought he saw the Priests of the Lord accusing him before God. And this hath been an old opinion of the world , that in the days of their calamity wicked persons are accus'd by those whom they have injur'd . Not much unlike to which is that of Plato , describing the torments of wicked souls , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , They roar and cry out . Some calling on them whom they kill'd , some on those they have calumniated ; and calling they pray them whom they have injured to give them pardon . Then every bush is a wild beast , and every shadow is a ghost , and every gloworm is a dead mans candle , and every lantern is a spirit . — pallidúmque visâ Matris lampade respicit Neronem . When Nero was distressed , he saw his mothers tapor and grew pale with it . 2. The second effect is shame , which conscience never fails to inflict secretly , there being a secret turpitude and baseness in sin , which cannot be better express'd then by its opposition and contradiction to conscience . Conscience when it is right makes a man bold ; qui ambulat simpliciter , ambulat confidenter , he that walks honestly , walks confidently , because he hath innocence and he hath reason on his side . But he that sins , sins against reason , in which the honour and the nobleness of a man does consist ; and therefore shame must needs come in the destitution of them . For as by reason men naturally rule , so when they are fallen from it , unless by some accidental courages they be supported , they fall into the stare of slaves and sneaking people . And upon this account it was that Plato said , Si scirem Deos mihi condonaturos , & homines ignoraturos , adhuc peccare erubescerem propter solam peccati turpitudinem . If I were sure God would pardon me , and men would not know my sin , yet I should be ashamed to sin , because of its essential baseness : The Mistresses of our vile affections are so ugly , we cannot endure to kiss them but through a vail ; either the vail of excuse , or pretence , or darkness ; something to hide their ugliness ; and yet even these also are so thin that the filthiness and shame is not hid . Bona conscientia turbam advocat , mala autem in solitudine anxia atque sollicita est , said Seneca . An evil conscience is asham'd of light , and afraid of darkness ; and therefore nothing can secure it . But being asham'd before Judges , and assemblies , it flies from them into solitudes , and when it is there , the shame is chang'd into fear , and therefore from thence it runs abroad into societies of merry criminals , and drinking sanctuaries , which is nothing but a shutting the eyes , and hiding the head , while the body is exposed to a more certain danger . It cannot be avoided , it was and is and will eternal●y be true , Perjurii poena Divina exitium , humana dedecus esto . Which S Paul perfectly renders , The things whereof ye are now ashamed ; the end of these things is death . Death is the punishment which God inflicts , and shame is that which comes from man. 3. There is another effect which cannot be well told by him that feels it , or by him that sees it , what it is ; because it is a thing without limit and without order . It is a distraction of minde , indeterminate , divided thoughts , flying every thing , and pursuing nothing . It was the case of Nebuchadnezzar , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , his thoughts troubled him . Varios vultus , disparilésque sensus ; like the Sophisters who in their pursuit of vainglory displeased the people , and were hissed from their Pulpits ; nothing could amaze them more ; they were troubled like men of a disturbed conscience . The reason , is , they are fallen into an evil condition which they did not expect ; they are abus'd in their hopes , they are fallen into a sad state of things , but they know not yet what it is , nor where they are , nor whither it will bear them , nor how to get out of it . This indeed is commonly the first part of the great evil ; shame goes along with the sin , in the very acting it , but as soon as it is acted , then begins this confusion , — nefas tandem incipiunt sentire peractis Criminibus — they thought of nothing but pleasure before , but as soon as they have finished , then they begin to tast the wormwood and the colliquintida ; perfecto demum scelere , magnitudo ejus intellecta est , said Tacitus . While they were doing it , they thought it little , or they thought it none , because their fancy and their passion rul'd ; but when that is satisfied and burst with a filthy plethory , then they understand how great their sin is , but are distracted in their thoughts , for they understand not how great their calamity shall be . Occultum quatìente animum tortore flagellum , the secret tormentor shakes the minde , and dissolves it into indiscrimination and confusion . The man is like one taken in a lie , or surpris'd in a shameful act of lust , or theft ; at first he knows not what to say , or think , or do , and his spirits huddle together , and fain would go some where , but they know not whither , and doe something , but they know not what . This confusion and first amazement of the conscience in some vile natures , and baser persons proceeds to impudence , and hardness of face . — frontémque à crimine sumunt . when they are discover'd they rub their foreheads hard , and consider it cannot be worse , and therefore in their way they make the best of it ; that is , they will not submit to the judgement of conscience , nor suffer her infliction , but take the fortune of the Banditi , or of an outlaw , rather then by the rule of subjects suffer the penalty of the Law , and the severity of the Judge . But Conscience hath no hand in this , and whatsoever of this nature happens , it is in despite of conscience ; and if it proceeds upon that method , it goes on to obstinacy , hardness of heart , a resolution never to repent , a hatred of God , and reprobation . For if conscience be permitted to do its work , this confusion when it comes to be stated , and that the man hath time to consider , it passes on to fear ; and that is properly the next effect . 4. An evil or a guilty conscience is dispos'd for fear , shame and fear cannot be far asunder : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Sin makes us asham'd before men , and afraid of God : an evil conscience makes man a coward , timorous as a child in a Churchporch at midnight ; it makes the strongest men to tremble like to keepers of the house of an old mans Tabernacle . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Menander , No strength of body , no confidence of spirit is a defensative against an evil conscience which will intimidate the courage of the most perfect Warriour . Qui terret , plus iste timet , sors ista tyrannis Convenit , invideant claris , fortésque trucident , Muniti gladiis vivant , septíque venenis Ancipites habeant arces , trepidíque minentur . So Claudian describes the state of Tyrants and injurious persons , they do evil and fear worse , they oppress brave men , and are afraid of mean fellows ; they are encompassed with swords , and dwell amongst poysons , they have towers with back doors and many outlets , and they threaten much , but themselves are most afraid . We read of Belteshazzar , his knees beat against each other upon the arrest made on him by the hand on the wall , which wrote the sentence of God in a strange character , because he would not reade the writing in his conscience . This fear is very great and very lasting even in this world : and is rarely well describ'd by Lucretius : Cerberus & Furiae — — neque sunt usquam , neque possunt esse profectò : Sed metus in vitâ poenarum pro malefactis Est insignibus insignis ; scelerísque luela Carcer , & horribilis de saxo jacta deorsum , Verbera , Carnifices , robur , pix , lumina , taedae , Quae tamen etsi absunt , & mens sibi conscia facti Praemetuens adhibet stimulos , torretque flagellis ; Which description of the evil and intollerable pains and fears of conscience is exceeded by the Author of the wisdome of Solomon , Indisciplinatae animae erraverunt . That is the ground of their misery ; The souls were refractory to discipline , and have erred . They oppress the holy Nation . The effect was , they became Prisoners of darkness , and fettered with the bands of a long night ; fugitive perp●tuae providentiae ●acuerunt , they became outlaws from the divine providence . And while they supposed to lie had in their secret sins , they were scattered under ● dark vail of forgetfulness ; paventes horrendè , & cum admiratione nimia perturbati , they did fear horribly , and disturbed with a wonderful amazement . For neither might the corner that held them keep them from fear , but a sound descending did trouble them ; & personae tristes apparentes pavorem illis praestabant , sad appar●tions did affright them ; a fire appeared to them very formidable ; & timore percussi ejus quae non videbatur faciei ; they were affrighted with the apprehensions of what they saw not : and all the way in that excellent description , there is nothing but fear , and affrightment , horrid amazement and confusion ; pleni timore , and tremebund : peribant , full of fear , and they perished trembling ; and then follows the philosophy and rational account of all this . Frequenter enim praeoccupant pessima redarguente conscientiâ . When their conscience reproves them , they are prepossess'd with fearful expectations . For wickedness condemn'd by her own witness is very timorous . Cùm enim sit timida nequitia , dat testimonium condemnata : Conscience gives witness and gives sentence , and when wickedness is condemn'd it is full of affrightment . For fear is praesumptionis adjutorium , the allay of confidence and praesumption , and the promoter of its own apprehensions , and betrays the succours that reason yeelds . For indeed in this case , no reason can dispute a man out of his misery , for there is nothing left to comfort the conscience , so long as it is devested of its innocence . The Prophet Jeremy instances this in the case of Pashur who oppressed the Prophets of the Lord , putting them in Prison and forbidding them to preach in the name of the Lord : Thy name shall be no more called Pashur but Magor Missabib , [ that is , fear round about ] for I will make thee a terror unto thy self . This fear of its own nature is apt to increase , for indeed it may be infinite . Nec videt intereà quis terminus esse malorum Possit , nec quae sit poenarum denique finis : Atque eadem metuunt magis , haec nè in morte gravescant . Hinc Acherusia fit stultorum denique vita . He that fears in this case , knows not the greatness and measure of the evil which he fears ; it may arrive to infinite , and it may be any thing , and it may be every thing , and therefore there is , 5. An appendant perpetuity and restlesness ; a man of an evil conscience is never at quiet . Impietas enim malum infinitum est , quod nunquam extingui potest , said Philo : He is put to so many shifts to excuse his crime before men , and cannot excuse it to God or to himself , and then he is forc'd to use arts of forgetfulness , that he may not remember his sorrow ; he runs to weakness for excuse , and to sin for a comfort , and to the methods and paths of hell for sanctuary , and rols himself in his uneasy chains of fire , and changes from side to side upon his gridiron till the flesh drop from the bones on every side . This is the Poets vultur , Immortale jecur tundens , faecundáque poenis Viscera , rimatúrque epulis , habitátque sub alto Pectore , nec fibris requies datur ulla renatis . It gnaws perpetually , and consumes not , being like the fire of hell , it does never devour , but torments for ever . 6. This fear and torment , which is inflicted by conscience does not only increase at our death , but after death is the beginning of hell . For these are the fire of hell ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , I am tormented in this flame , so said Dives when he was in torments ; that is , he had the torments of an evil conscience , for hell it self is not to be opened till the day of judgement ; but the sharpest pain is usually expressed by fire , and particularly the troubles of minde are so signified . Urit animum meum ; This burns , that is , this exceedingly troubles my minde ; and uro hominem in the Comedy , I vex him sufficiently , I burn him ; loris non ureris , thou art not tormented with scourgings . Poena autem vehemens , & multò saevior illis Quos & Caeditius gravis invenit , & Rhadamanthus , Nocte diéque suum gestare in pectore testem . This is a part of hell fire , the smoke of it ascends night and day ; and it is a preparatory to the horrible sentence of Doomsday , as the being tormented in prison is , to the day of condemnation and execution . The conscience in the state of separation does accuse perpetually , and with an insupportable amazement fears the revelation of the day of the Lord. Et cum fateri Furia jusserit verum , Cogente clamet conscientiá scripsi . The fury within will compel him to confess , and then he is prepared for the horrible sentence , as they who upon the rack accuse themselves , and then they are carried to execution . Menippus in Lucian says that the souls of them that are dead are accused by the shadows of their bodies . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and these he says are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 worthy of belief , because they are always present , and never parted from the bodies ; meaning that a mans conscience which is inseparable as a shadow , is a strong accuser and a perfect witness : and this will never leave them till it carries them to hell , and then the fear is chang'd into despair , and indignation , and hatred of God , and eternal blasphemy . This is the full progress of an evil conscience , in its acts of binding . Quest. BUT if it be inquired by what instrument conscience does thus torment a man , and take vengeance of him for his sins , whether it hath a proper efficiency in it self , and that it gives torment , as it understands , by an exercise of some natural power ; * or whether it be by an act of God inflicting it , * or by opinion and fancy , * by being perswaded of some future events which shall be certainly consequent to the sin , or by Religion and belief , * or lastly by deception and meer illusion , and upon being affrighted with bugbears ? I answer , That it does or may afflict a man by all these . For its nature is to be inquisitive and busie , querulous and complaining ; and to doe so is as natural to it , as for a man to be grieved when any thing troubles him . But because men have a thousand little arts to stifle the voice of conscience , or at least that themselves may not hear it ; God oftentimes awakens a man by a sudden dash of thunder and lightning , and makes the conscience sick , and troublesome ; just as upon other accidents a man is made sad , or hardned , or impudent , or foolish , or restless : and sometimes every dream , or sad story that the man hath heard , the flying of birds , and the hissing of serpents , or the fall of waters , or the beating of a watch , or the noise of a cricket , or a superstitious tale , is suffered to doe the man a mischief and to increase his fear . — Ergo exercentur poenis , veterúmque malorum Supplicia expendunt . This the Poets and Priests expressed by their Adrastea , Nemesis , Minos , Aeacus and Rhadamanth , not that these things were real , — neque sunt usquam , neque possunt esse profectò , said one of them ; but yet to their pains and fears they gave names , and they put on persons , and a phantastick cause may have a real event , and therefore must come from some further principle : and if an evil man be affrighted with a meteor or a bird , by the chattering of swallows ( like the young Greek in Plutarch ) or by his own shadow ( as Orestes was ) it is no sign that the fear is vain , but that God is the Author of conscience , and will beyond the powers of nature , and the arts of concealment set up a Tribunal , and a Gibbet , and a Rack in the Court of Conscience . And therefore we finde this evil threatned by God to fall upon sinners . They that are left alive of you in the land of your captivity , I will send fainting in their hearts , in the land of their enemy , and the sound of a leaf shall chace them : and again The Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart , and failing of eyes , and sorrow of minde , and thy life shall hang in doubt before thee , and thou shalt fear day and night , and shalt have no assurance of thy life : and this very fear ends in death it self ; it is a mortal fear sometimes ; for when the Prophet Isaiah had told concerning Jerusalem , Thy slain men are not slain with the sword , nor dead in battle ; to the inquiry of those who ask how then were they slain ? the answer is made by a learned gloss upon the place , Homines hi non expectato adventu hostis , velut transfossi exanimantur metu : They were dead with fear , slain with the affrightments of their own conscience , as if they were transfixed by the spear of their enemies . Quid ergo nos à Diis immortalibus divinitùs expectemus , nisi errationibus finem faciamus , said Q. Metellus in A. Gellius : There is no avoiding punishment , unless we will avoid sin ; since even a shadow as well as substances may become a Nemesis , when it is let loose by God , and conducted by conscience . But the great instrument of bringing this to pass is that certainty of perswasion which is natural in all men , and is taught to all men , and is in the sanction of all laws expresly affirmed by God , that evil shall be to them that doe evil ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , He that dishonours God shall not escape punishment : both in this life , Ultrix Erinnys impio dignum parat Lethum Tyranno — and after this life , for so they reckon'd , that Adulterers , Rebels , and Traytors should be kept in prisons in fearful expectation of horrid pains ; Quíque ob adulterium caesi , quíque arma secuti Impia , nec veriti Dominorum fallere dextras , Inclusi poenam expectant — all this is our conscience , which in this kind of actions and events , is nothing but the certain expectation and fear of the Divine vengeance . Quest. BUT then why is the conscience more afraid in some sins then in others , since in sins of the greatest malignity we finde great difference of fear and apprehension , when because they are of extreme malignity there can be no difference in their demerit ? I answer ; Although all sins be damnable , yet not onely in the several degrees of sin , but in the highest of all there is great difference ; partly proceeding from the Divine threatnings , partly from fame and opinion , partly from other causes . For 1. there are some sins which are called peccata clamantia , crying sins ; that is , such which cry aloud for vengeance ; such which God not onely hath specially threatned with horrid plagues , but such which doe seldome escape vengeance in this life , but for their particular mischief are hedged about with thorns lest by their frequency they become intolerable . Such are Sacrilege , Oppression of widows and Orphans , Murder , Sodomy , and the like● Now if any man fals into any of these crimes , he sees an Angel with a sword drawn stand before him ; he remembers the angry words of God , and cals to minde that so few have escaped a severe judgement here , that Gods anger did converse with men , and was cloth'd with our circumstances , and walk'd round about us ; and less then all this is enough to scare an evil conscience . But 2. there are some certain defensatives and natural guards which God hath plac'd in men against some sins ; such as are a natural abhorrency against unnatural lusts . A natural pity against Murder , and Oppression : the double hedge of sacredness and religion against Sacrilege . He therefore that commits any of these sins does so much violence to those defensatives , which were plac'd either in or upon his heart , that such an act is a natural disease , and vexes the conscience not onely by a moral but by a natural instrument . 3. There are in these crying sins certain accidents and appendages of horror which are apt to amaze a mans minde : as in Murder there is the circumstance and state of death , which when a man sees and sees alone , and sees that himself hath acted , it must needs affright him ; since naturally most men abhorre to be alone with a dead corpse ; so also in Oppression of widows , a man mee●s with so many sad spectacles , and hears so many groans , and clamorous complaints , such importunities , and such prayers , and such fearful cursings , and perpetual weepings , that if a man were to use any artifice to trouble a mans spirit , he could not dress his Scene with more advantage . 4. Fame hath a great influence into this effect , and there cannot easily be a great shame amongst men , but there must be a great fear of vengeance from God ; and the shame does but antidate the Divine anger , and the man feels himself entring into it , when he is enwrapped within the other . A man committing a foul sin , which hath a special dishonour and singular disreputation among men , is like a wolf espied amongst the sheep : The outcry and noises among the shepherds make him flie for his life , when he hears a vengeance comming . And besides in this case , it is a great matter that he perceives all the world hates him for his crime , and that which every one decries must needs be very hateful and formidable , and prepar'd for trouble . 5. It cannot be denied , but Opinion also hath some hand in this affair ; and some men are affrighted from their cradle in some instances , and permitted or conniv'd at in others ; and the fears of childhood are not shaken from the conscience in old age : as we see the perswasions of childhood in moral actions are permanent , so is the fear and hope which were the sanction and establishment of those perswasions . Education and Society , and Country Customes , and States of life , and the Religion or Sect of the mans professing , have influence into their portions of this effect . The consequent of this discourse is this ; That we cannot take any direct accounts of the greatness or horror of a sin by the affrightment of conscience . For it is with the affrightments of conscience as it is in temporal judgements ; sometimes they come not at all , and when they doe , they come irregularly , and when they doe not , the man does not escape . But in some sins God does strike more frequently then in others , and in some sins men usually are more affrighted then in others . The outward judgement and the inward fear are intended to be deleteries of the sin , and instruments of repentance ; but as some great sins escape the rod of God in this life , so are such sinners oftentimes free from great affrightments . But as he who is not smitten of God , yet knows that he is always liable to Gods anger , and if he repents not , it will certainly fall upon him hereafter : so it is in conscience , he that fears not , hath never the less cause to fear , but oftentimes a greater , and therefore is to suspect and alter his condition , as being of a deep and secret danger : and he that does fear , must alter his condition , as being highly troublesome . But in both cases , conscience does the work of a Monitor and a Judge . In some cases , conscience is like an eloquent and a fair spoken Judge , which declaims not against the criminal , but condemnes him justly : In others , the Judge is more angry , and affrights the prisoner more , but the event is the same . For in those sins where the conscience affrights , and in those in which she affrights not , supposing the sins equal but of differing natures , there is no other difference ; but that conscience is a Clock , which in one man strikes aloud and gives warning , and in another the hand points silently to the figure , but strikes not ; but by this he may as surely see what the other hears , viz. that his hours pass away , and death hastens , and after death comes judgement . But by the measures of binding , we may judge of the loosing , or absolution , which is part of the judgement of conscience , and this is the greatest pleasure in the world . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . a good conscience is the most certain , clearest , and undisturbed felicity . Lectulus respersus floribus bona est conscientia , bonis refect a operibus . No bed so soft , no flowers so sweet , so florid and delicious as a good conscience , in which springs all that is delectable , all that may sustain and recreate our spirits . Nullâ re tam laetari soleo quàm officiorum meorum conscienti● . I am pleased in nothing so much as in the remembrances and conscience of my duty , said Cicero . Upon this pillow and on this bed , Christ slept soundly in a storm , and S. Peter in Prison so fast that the brightness of an Angel could not awake him , or make him to rise up without a blow on his side . This refreshed the sorrows of Hezekiah when he was smitten with the plague , and not only brought pleasure for what was past , and so doubled the good of it , Vivere bis vitâ posse priore frui ; but it also added something to the number of his years , Ampliat aetatis spacium sibi vir bonus — And this made Paul and Silas sing in Prison and in an Earthquake ; and that I may summe up all the good things in the world , I borrow the expression of S. Bernard , Bona conscientia non solùm sufficit ad solatium sed etiam ad coronam : It is here a perpetual comfort , it will be hereafter an eternal crown . 25. This very thing Epicurus observ'd wisely , and in his great design for pleasure commended Justice as the surest instrument to procure it . So Antiphon , Conscium esse sibi in vitâ nullius criminis , multum voluptatis parit : and Cato in Cicero , Conscientia benè actae vitae multorúmque benefactorum recordatio jucundissima est : Nothing is a greater pleasure then a good conscience ; for there is peace and no disturbance ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : Quietness is the best fruit , and that grows onely upon the tree in the midst of Paradise , upon the stock of a holy Heart or Conscience . Onely care is to be taken , that boldness be not mistaken for peace , and hardness of heart for a good conscience . It is easie to observe the difference , and no man can be innocently abused in this affair . Peace is the fruit of a holy conscience . But no man can say , I am at peace , therefore I have a holy conscience . But , I have lived innocently , or I walk carefully with my God , and I have examined my conscience severely , and that accuses me not ; therefore this peace is a holy peace , and no illusion . A man may argue thus : I am in health , and therefore the sleep I take is natural and healthful . But not thus : I am heavy to sleep , therefore I am in health , for his dulness may be a lethargy . A man may be quiet , because he inquires not , or because he understands not , or because he cares not , or because he is abused in the notices of his condition . But the true peace of conscience is thus to be discerned . Signs of true peace . 1. Peace of conscience is a rest after a severe inquiry . When Hezekiah was upon his deathbed as he supposed , he examined his state of life , and found it had been innocent in the great lines and periods of it ; and he was justly confident . 2. Peace of conscience can never be in wicked persons , of notorious evil lives . It is a fruit of holiness , and therefore what quietness soever is in persons of evil lives , it is to be attributed to any other cause , rather than innocence ; and therefore is to be called any thing rather than just peace . The adulterous woman eateth and wipeth her mouth , and saith , I have done no wickedness . And Pilate washed his hands , when he was dipping them in the most innocent , the best and purest bloud of the world . But S. Paul had peace , because he really had fought a good fight . And it is but a fond way to ask a sign how to discern , when the Sun shines . If the Sun shines we may easily perceive it , and then the beams we see are the Sunbeams ; but it is not a sure argument to say , I see a light , therefore the Sun shines ; for he may espy onely a tallow candle , or a gloworm . 3. That rest which is onely in the days of prosperity , is not a just and a holy peace , but that which is in the days of sorrow and affliction . The noise and madness of wine , the transportations of prosperity , the forgetfulness of riches , and the voice of flatterers outcry conscience , and put it to silence ; and there is no reason to commend a womans silence and modesty when her mouth is stop'd . But in the days of sorrow , then conscience is vocal , and her muffler is off ; — Invigilant animo , scelerísque patrati Supplicium exercent curae , tunc plurima versat Pessimus in dubiis augur timor — and then a man naturally searches every where for comfort ; and if his heart then condemnes him not , it is great oddes but it is a holy peace . 4. Peace of minde is not to be used as a sign that God hath pardoned our sins , but is onely of use in questions of particular fact . What evils have I done ? what good have I done ? The peace that comes after this examination is holy and good . But if I have peace in these particulars , then have I peace towards God also , as to these particulars : But whether I have pardon for other sins which I have committed , is another consideration , and is always more uncertain . But even here also a peace of conscience is a blessing that is given to all holy penitents more or less , at some time or other , according as their repentance proceeds , and their hope is exercised : But it is not to be judged of by sense , and ease , but by its proper causes : It never comes but after fear , and labour , and prayers , and watchfulness , and assiduity ; and then what succeeds is a blessing , and a fair indication of a bigger . 5. True peace of conscience is always joyned with a holy fear ; a fear to offend , and a fear of the Divine displeasure for what we have offended ; and the reason is , because all peace that is so allayed is a peace after enquiry , a peace obtained by just instruments , relying upon proper grounds ; it is rational , and holy , and humble ; neither carelesness , nor presumption is in it . 6. True peace of conscience relies not upon popular noises , and is not a sleep procured by the tongues of flatterers , or opinions of men , but is a peace from within , relying upon God and its own just measures . It is an excellent discourse which Seneca hath , Est aliquando gratus qui ingratus videtur , quae mala interpres opinio in contrarium deducit . Hic quid aliud sequitur , quàm ipsam conscientiam quae etiam obruta delectat , quae concioni ac samae reclamat , & in se omnia reponit , & cùm ingentem ex altera parte turbam contra sentientium aspexit , non numerat suffragia , sed unâ sententiâ vincit ? Some men are thankful , who yet seem unthankful , being wronged by evil interpretation . But such a man what else does he follow but his conscience , which pleases him , though it be overborn with slander , and when she sees a multitude of men that think otherwise , she regards not , nor reckons suffrages by the poll , but is victorious by her single sentence ? But the excellency and great effect of this peace he afterwards describes : Si verò bonam fidem perfidiae suppliciis affici videt , non descendit è fastigio , sed supra poenam suam consistit . Habeo inquit quod volui , quod petii . Non poenitet , nec poenitebit : nec ullâ iniquitate me eò fortuna perducet , ut hanc vocem audiam , Quid mihi volui ? Quid mihi nunc prodest bona voluntas ? prodest & in equuleo , prodest & in igne , qui si singulis membris admoveatur , & paul●tim unum corpus circumeat ; licèt ipsum corpus plenum bonâ conscientiâ stillet , placebit ìllì ìgnis per quem bona fides collucebit . A good conscience loses nothing of its confidence and peace for all the tortures of the world . The rack , the fire shall not make it to repent and say , what have I purchas'd ? But its excellency and integrity shall be resplendent in the very flames . And this is the meaning of the Proverb used by the Levantines , Heaven and Hell are seated in the heart of man. As his conscience is , so he is happy , or extremely miserable . What other men say of us , is no more then what other men dream of us , said S. Gregory Nazìanzene ; It is our conscience that accuses or condemnes to all real events and purposes . And now all this is nothing but a perswasion partly natural , partly habitual , of this proposition which all the Nations , and all the men in the world have always entertained as the band of all their Religion , and private transactions of justice and decency , Deum Remuneratorem esse , that God is a just Rewarder of all actions . I summe up the premises in the words of the Orator ; Magna vis est conscientiae , Judices , & magna in utramque partem : ut neque timeant qui nihil commiserint , & poenam semper ante oculos versari putent , qui peccarint . On either side conscience is mighty and powerful , to secure the innocent , and to afflict the criminal . But beyond these offices now described , Conscience does sometimes only [ Counsell ] a thing to be done ; that is , according to its instruction , so it ministers to holiness . If God hath put a law into our minds , conscience will force 〈◊〉 ●●●nce , or make us to suffer for our disobedience ; but if a proposition tending to holiness and its advantages be intrusted to the conduct of conscience , then it presses it by all its proper inducements , by which it was laid up there , and leaves the spirit of a man to his liberty ; but if it be not followed , it upbraids our weaknesses , and chides our follies , and reproves our despi●●● holy degrees , and greater excellencies of glory laid up for loving and willing spirits . Such as is that of Clemens Alexandrinus in the matter of an Evangelical Counsel ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , He that does so and so , sins not ; for he is not forbidden by the law of the Gospel ; but yet he fals short of the perfection that is designed and propounded to voluntary and obedient persons . To summe up this . When S. Paul had reproved the endless genealogies of the Gnosticks and Platonists , making c●rcles of the same things , or of divers whose difference they understood not ; as Intelligence , Fear , Majesty , Foundation , Wisdome , Magnificence , Mercy , Victory , Kingdome , Foundation , God , and such unintelligible stuff which would make fools stare , and wise men at a loss ; he subjoyns a short , but a more discernible genealogy , and conjugation of things to our purpose . The end of the Commandement is love out of a pure heart , and a good conscience , and faith unfeigned : that is , out of an unfeigned faith proceeds a good conscience ; that is , abstinence from sin ; and from thence comes purity of heart , or a separation from the trifling regards of the world , and all affections to sin ; and these all end in charity : that is , in peace , and joy , and the fruition and love of God , in Unions and Contemplations in the bosome of Eternity . So that faith is the first mover in the understanding part , and the next is conscience , and they both purify the heart from false perswasions , and evil affections ; and then they joyn to the production of love and of felicity . Thus farre is the Nature and Offices of Conscience : It will concern us next , to consider by what General measures we are to treat our Conscience that it may be useful to us in all the intentions of it , and in the designs of God. RULE 3. Be careful that prejudice or passion , fancy and affection , error or illusion , be not mistaken for Conscience . NOthing is more usual , then to pretend Conscience to all the actions of men which are publick , and whose nature cannot be concealed . If arms be taken up in a violent warre ; inquire of both sides , why they ingage on that part respectively ? they answer , because of their Conscience . Ask a Schismatick why he refuses to joyn in the Communion of the Church ? he tels you , it is against his Conscience : And the disobedient refuse to submit to Laws ; and they also in many cases pretend Conscience . Nay , some men suspect their brother of a crime and are perswaded ( as they say ) in Conscience that he did it : and their Conscience tels them that Titius did steal their goods , or that Caia 〈◊〉 an adulteress . And so Suspicion , and Jealousie , and Disobedience , and Rebellion are become Conscience ; in which there is neither knowledge , nor revelation , nor truth , nor charity , nor reason , nor religion . Quod volumus sanctum est , was the Proverb of Tichonius and the Donatists . Nemo suae mentis motus non aestimat aequos , Quódque volunt homines se bene velle putant . Every mans way seems right in his own eyes ; and what they think is not against Conscience , they think or pretend to think , it is an effect of Conscience , and so their fond perswasions and fancies are made sacred , and Conscience is pretended , and themselves and every man else is abused . But in these cases and the like , men have found a sweetness in it to serve their ends upon Religion , and because Conscience is the Religious Understanding , or the Minde of a man as it stands dres'd in and for Religion , they think that some sacredness or authority passes upon their passion or design , if they call it Conscience . But by this Rule it is intended that we should observe the strict measures of Conscience . For an illusion may make a Conscience , that is , may oblige by its directive and compulsive power . Conscience is like a King whose power and authority is regular , whatsoever counsel he follows . And although he may command fond things , being abused by flatterers , or mis-information , yet the commandement issues from a just authority , and therefore equally passes into a Law ; so it is in Conscience . If error , or passion dictates the King is mis-informed , but the inferiors are bound to obey ; and we may no more disobey our Conscience commanding of evil things , then we may disobey our King injoyning things imprudent and inconvenient . But therefore this Rule gives caution to observe the information and inducement , and if we can discern the abuse , then the evil is avoided . For this Governour [ Conscience ] is tied to Laws , as Kings are to the Laws of God and Nations , to Justice and Charity ; and a mans Conscience cannot be malicious : his Will may , but if the error be discovered , the Conscience , that is , the practical understanding cannot . For it is impossible for a man to beleeve what himselfe finds to be an error : and when we perceive our Conscience to be misguided , the deception is at an end . And therefore to make up this Rule complete , we ought to be strict and united to our rule , for by that onely we can be guided , and by the proportions to it we can discern right and wrong , when we walk safely , and when we walk by false fires . Concerning which , besides the direct survey of the rule and action , and the comparing each other , we may in cases of doubt and suspicion be helped by the following measures . Advices for the practice of the former Rule . 1. We are to suspect our Conscience to be mis-informed when we are not willing to inquire into the particulars . He that searches , desires to finde , and so farre takes the right course ; for truth can never hurt a man , though it may prejudice his vice , and his affected folly . In the inquiries after truth , every man should have a travellers indifferency , wholly careless whether this or that be the right way , so he may finde it . For we are not to choose the way because it looks fair , but because it leads surely . And to this purpose , the most hearty and particular inquest is most prudent and effective . But we are afraid of truth when we will not enquire , that is , when the truth is against our interest or passion , our lust or folly , that is , seemingly against us , in the present indisposition of our affairs . 2. He that resolves upon the conclusion before the premises , inquiring into particulars to confirm his opinion at aventures , not to shake it if it be false , or to establish it onely in case it be true , unless he be defended by chance , is sure to mistake , or at least can never be sure whether he does or no. This is to be understood in all cases to be so unless the particular unknown be secured by a general that is known . He that beleeves Christs advocation and intercession for us in heaven upon the stock of Scripture , cannot be prejudic'd by this rule , although in the inquiries of probation , and arguments of the doctrine , he resolve to beleeve nothing that shall make against his Conclusion ; because he is ascertain'd by a proposition that cannot fail him . The reason of this exception is this , because in all discourses which are not perfectly demonstrative , there is one lame supporter , which must be help'd out by the better leg ; and the weaker part does its office well enough , if it can bring us to a place where we may rest our selves and rely . He that cannot choose for himself , hath chosen well enough if he can choose one that can choose for him ; and when he hath , he may prudently rely upon such a person in all particulars , where he himself cannot judge , and the other can , or he thinks he can , and cannot well know the contrary . It is easier to judge of the general lines of duty , then of minutes and particulars : and Travellers that are not well skill'd in all the little turnings of the ways , may confidently rely upon a Guide whom they choose out of the natives of the place ; and if he understands the coast of the Country , he may well harden his face against any vile person that goes about wittily to perswade him he must goe the contrary way , though he cannot answer his arguments to the contrary . A man may prudently and piously hold a conclusion which he cannot defend against a witty adversary , if he have one strong hold upon which he may rely for the whole question ; because he derives his conclusion from the best ground he hath , and takes the wisest course he can , and uses the best means he can get , and chooses the safest ways that are in his power . No man is bound to do better then his best . 3. Illusion cannot be distinguished from Conscience , if in our search we take a wrong course and use incompetent instruments . He that will choose to follow the multitude which easily erres , rather then the wise Guides of souls ; and a man that is his partner in the Question rather then him that is dis-interess'd , and them that speak by chance , rather then them who have studied the Question , and a man of another Profession , rather then him whose office and imployment it is to answer , hath no reason to be confident he shall be well instructed . John Nider tels an apologue well enough to this purpose : Two brethren travelling together , whereof one was esteemed wise , and the other little better then a fool , came to a place where the way parted . The foolish brother espying one of them to be fair and pleasant , and the other dirty and uneaven , would needs go that way , though his wiser brother told him , that in all reason that must needs be the wrong way ; but he followed his own eyes , not his brothers reason : and his brother being more kinde then wise , though against his reason , followed his foolish brother ; they went on till they fell into the hands of theeves , who robb'd them and imprisoned them , till they could redeem themselves with a summe of money . These brothers accuse each other before the King as author of each others evil . The wiser complained that his brother would not obey him , though he was known to be wiser , and spake reason . The other complain'd of him for following him that was a fool , affirming that he would have return'd back if he had seen his wise brother confident , and to have followed his own reason . The King condemn'd them both ; the fool because he did not follow the direction of the wise , and the wise because he did follow the wilfulness of the fool . So will God deal with us at the day of Judgement in the scrutinies of Conscience . If appetite refuses to follow reason , and reason does not refuse to follow appetite , they have both of them taken incompetent courses , and shall perish together . It was wisely said of Brutus to Cicero , Malo tuum judicium , quàm ex alter a parte omnium istorum . Tu enim à certo sensu & vero judicas de nobis , quod isti nè faciant , summâ mal●volentiâ & livore impediuntur . I preferre thy judgement singly , before all theirs , because thou judgest by intuition of the thing ; they cannot doe that , being hindred by envy and ill will. The particulars of reducing this advice to practice in all speciall cases , I shall afterwards enumerate ; for the present , I say this onely , that a man may consent to an evil authority , and rest in a false perswasion , and be conducted by an abused conscience , so long as the Legislative Reason is not conjoyn'd to the Judge Conscience , that is , while by unapt instruments we suffer our perswasions to be determined . 4. That determination is to be suspected that does apparently serve an interest , and but obscurely serve a pious end , Utile quod nobis do tibi consilium , when that appears , and nothing else appears , the resolution or councel is to be considered warily before it be pursued . It is a great allay to the confidence of the bold talkers in the Church of Rome , and hinders their gain and market of proselytes from among the wise and pious very much ; that most of their propositions for which they contend so earnestly against the other parts of Christendome , do evidently serve the ends of covetousness and ambition , of power and riches , and therefore stand vehemently suspected of design and art , rather then of piety or truth of the article , or designs upon heaven . I instance in the Popes power over Princes and all the world ; his power of dispensation ; the exemption of the Clergy from jurisdiction of secular Princes ; the doctrine of Purgatory and Indulgencies , by which once the Friers were set awork to raise a portion for a Lady , the Neece of Pope Leo the tenth ; the doctrine of Transubstantiation , by the effects and consequence of which , the Priests are made greater then Angels , and next to God ; and so is also that heap of doctrines , by the particulars of which the Ecclesiastical power is far advanced beyond the authority of any warrant from Scripture , and is made highly instrumental for procuring absolute obedience to the Papacy . In these things every man with half an eye can see the temporal advantage ; but how piety and truth shall thrive in the mean while , no eye hath yet been so illuminate as to perceive . It was the advice of Ben Sirach , Consult not with a woman touching her of whom she is jealous , neither with a coward in matters of warre , nor with a Merchant concerning exchange , nor with a buyer of selling , nor with an envious man of thankfulness , nor with an unmerciful man touching kindness , nor with the slothful for any work , nor with the hireling for a year of finishing work , nor with an idle servant of much business ; hearken not unto these in any matter of counsel . These will counsel by their interest , not for thy advantage . But it is possible that both truth and interest may be conjoyn'd ; and when a Priest preaches to the people the necessity of paying Tithes , where they are by Law appointed , or when a poor man pleads for charity , or a man in debt urges the excellency of forgetfulness ; the truth which they discourse of , cannot be prejudiced by their proper concernments . For if the proposition serves the ends in Religion , in providing for their personal necessities , their need makes the instances still the more religious , and the things may otherwise be proved . But when the end of piety is obscure , or the truth of the proposition is uncertain , then observe the biass ; and if the mans zeal be bigger then the certainty of the proposition , it is to be estimated by the interest , and to be used accordingly . But this is not to prejudice him that gives the counsel , for although the Counsel is to be suspected , yet the man is not , unless by some other indications he betray himself . For he may be heartily and innocently perswaded of the thing he counsels , and the more easily and aptly beleeve that against which himself did less watch , because he quickly perceiv'd it could not be against himself . Adde to this , the Counsel is the less to be suspected if it be ask'd , then if it be offer'd . But this is a consideration of Prudence , not of Conscience directly . 5. If the proposition serve or maintain a vice , or lessen a vertue , it is certainly not Conscience , but error and abuse ; because no truth of God can serve Gods Enemy directly , or by its own force and perswasion . But this is to be understood onely in case , the answer does directly minister to sin , not if it does so onely accidentally . Q. Furius is married to Valeria , but she being fierce and imperious , quarrelsome and loud , and he peevish and fretful , turns her away that he might have peace and live in patience . But being admonished by Hortensius the Orator to take her again , he asked counsel of the Priests , and they advise him to receive her . He answers , that then he cannot live innocently , but in a perpetual state of temptation , in which he daily fals . The Priest replies , that it is his own fault ; let him learn patience , and prudence ; for his fault in this instance is no warranty to make him neglect a duty in another ; and he answered rightly . If he had counsell'd him to drink intemperately to make him forget his sorrow , or to break her bones to make her silent , or to keep company with harlots to vex her into compliance , his counsel had ministred directly to sin , and might not be received . 6. Besides the evidence of the thing , and a direct conformity to the Rule , to be judg'd by every sober person , or by himself in his wits , there is ordinarily no other collateral assurance , but an honest hearty endevour in our proportion , to make as wise inquiries as we can , and to get the best helps which are to be had by us , and to obey the best we doe make use of . To which ( because a deception may tacitly creep upon our very simplicity ) if we adde a hearty prayer , we shall certainly be guided thorough the labyrinth , and secured against our selves , and our own secret follies . This is the counsel of the son of Sirach ; Above all this ; pray to the most high , that he will direct thy way in truth . RULE 4. The Conscience of a vicious man is an evil Judge , and an imperfect Rule . THat I mean the Superiour and Inferiour part of Conscience , is therefore plain , because the Rule notes how the acts of Conscience may be made invalid both as it is a Ruler , and as it is a Judge . But according to the several offices this truth hath some variety . 1. The superiour part of Conscience , or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 repository of practical principles ( which for use and brevity sake , I shall call the phylactery ) or the Keeper of Records ; that is , that part which contains in it all the natural and reasonable principles of good actions , ( such as are , God is to be worshipped , Doe to others as they should doe to thee , The pledge is to be restored , By doing harm to others thou must not procure thy own good , and the like ) is always a certain and regular Judge in the prime principles of reason and religion , so long as a man is in his wits , and hath the natural use of reason . For those things which are first imprinted , which are universal principles , which are consented to by all men without a Teacher , those which Aristotle cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , those are always the last removed , and never without the greatest violence and perturbation in the world . But it is possible for a man to forget his Name and his Nature : a Lycanthropy made Nebuchadnezar to doe so , and a Fever made a learned Greek doe so : but so long as a mans reason is whole , not destroyed by its proper disease ; that is , so long as a man hath the use of reason , and can and will discourse , so long his conscience will teach him the general precepts of duty ; for they are imprinted in his nature , and there is nothing natural to the soul , if reason be not ; and no reason is , unless its first principles be , and those first principles are most provided for , which are the most perfective of a man , and necessary to his well being , and those are such which concern the entercourse between God and Man , and between men in the first and greatest lines of their society . The very opening of this chain is a sufficient proof , it is not necessary to intricate it by offering more testimony . 2. But then these general principles are either to be considered as they are habitually incumbent on the minde , or as actually applied to practice . In the former sense they can never be totally extinguished , for they are natural and will return when ever a man ceases from suffering his greatest violence ; and those violences which are so destructive of nature as this must be , that makes a man forget his being , will fall off upon every accident and change . Difficile est personam diu sustinere . But then when these principles come to be applied to practice , a strong vice and a malicious heart can draw a veil over them , that they shall not then appear to disorder the sensual resolution . A short madness , and a violent passion , or a fit of drunkenness , can make a man securely sin by incogitancy , even when the action is in the matter of an universal principle . No man can be brought to that pass , as to beleeve that God ought not to be honoured ; but supposing there is a God , it is unavoidable , that this God must be honoured : but a transient and unnatural violence intervening in a particular case , suspends the application of that principle , and makes the man not to consider his Rule ; and there he omits to worship and honour this God in many particulars to which the principle is applicable . But this Discourse is coincident with that Question , Whether Conscience may be totally lost ? of which I have already given accounts . That and this will give light to each other . 3. But further , there are also some principles which are indeed naturally known , that is , by principles of natural reason : but because they are not the immediate principles of our creation and proper being , they have the same truth , and the same seat , and the same certainty ; but not the same prime evidence , and connaturality to the soul ; and therefore these may be lost , or obscured to all purposes of usefulness , and their contradictories may be admitted into the rule of Conscience . Of this nature , I reckon , that Fornication , violent and craf●y contracts with many arts of deception , and overreaching our Brother , theft , in●●st in some kindes , drunkenness , and the like , are to be avoided . For concerning these , it is certain that some whole Nations have so abused their Conscience by evil manners , that the Law in their minde hath been cancell'd , and these things have pass'd for lawful . And to this day , that Duels may be fought by private persons and authority , is a thing so practised by a whole sort of men , that it is beleev'd , and the practice , and the beleef of the lawfulness of it are interchangeably daughter and mother to each other . These are such of whom the Apostle speaks , they are given over to beleeve a lie , they are delivered to a reprobate minde . And this often happens , and particularly in those cases wherein one sin is inferr'd by another naturally , or morally , or by withdrawing of the Divine grace . 4. Wherever the Superiour or the Ruling part of Conscience is an imperfect Rule ; in the same cases the Inferior is an evil Judge , that is , acquits the criminal , or condemnes the innocent , calling good evil , and evil good : which is to be understood when the perswasion of the erring conscience is permanent and hearty , not sudden , and by the rapid violence of a passion ; for in this case the conscience condemnes as soon as that is acted , to which before the action it was cousened and betrayed : but it proceeds onely in abiding and lasting errors . And this is the cause why so many orders of persons continue in a course of sin with delight , and uninterrupted pleasure , thinking Rebellion to be a just defence , Sacrilege a lawful title , while other men that are otherwise and justly perswaded wonder at their peace , and hate their practices . Our blessed Lord foretold concerning the Persecutors of the Church , that they should think they did God good service . But such men have an evil portion , they sing in the fire , and go dancing to their graves , and sleep on till they be awakened in hell . And on the other side , this is because of superstition , and scruples , and sometimes of despairing and unreasonable fears , when the Conscience is abused by thinking that to be a sin , which is none . RULE 5. All Consciences are to walk by the same Rule , and that which is just to one , is so to all , in the like circumstances . IF all men were governed by the same Laws , and had the same interest , and the same degrees of understanding , they would perceive the truth of this Conclusion . But men are infinitely differenced by their own acts and relations , by their Understandings and proper Oeconomy , by their superinduc'd differences and orders , by interest and mistake , by ignorance and malice , by sects and deceptions . And this makes that two men may be damned for doing two contradictories : as a Jew may perish for not keeping of his Sabbath , and a Christian for keeping it ; an Iconoclast for breaking images , and another for worshipping them : for eating , and for not eating ; for receiving the holy Communion , and for not receiving it ; for comming to Church , or staying at home . But this variety is not directly of Gods making , but of Mans. God commands us to walk by the same rule , and to this end , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to be of the same minde ; and this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the exactness of our Conscience ; which precept were impossible to be observed , if there were not one rule , and this rule also very easy . For some men have but a small portion of reason and discretion , and they cannot help it ; and yet the precept is incumbent upon them all alike ; and therefore as the rule is one , so it is plain and easy , and written in every mans heart ; and as every mans reason is the same thing , so is every mans conscience ; and this comes to be altered , just as that . Neither is the unity of the Rule prejudic'd by the infinite difference of cases . For as a river springing from the mountains of the East is tempted by the levels of the ground and the uneasiness of its passage , to make some turns backward toward its head , even while it intends Westward ; so are the cases of Conscience branch'd out into instances , sometimes of contrary proceedings , who are to be determin'd to cross effects , but still upon the same account . For in all things of the world the obligation is uniform , and it is of the same perswasion . The case is this : Autolycus robb'd the gardens of Trebonius , and ask'd him forgiveness and had it . But when Trebonius was chosen Consul , and Autolycus robb'd him again , and was taken by others , and as a theef brought before him , he ask'd forgiveness again ; but Trebonius condemn'd him to the Gallies : for he who being a private man was bound to forgive a repenting trespasser , being a Magistrate was bound not to forgive him ; and both these were upon the same account . A man may forgive an injury done to himself , because it is his own right , and he may alone meddle in it ; but an injury done to the Common-wealth , She onely could forgive , not her Minister . So , He that fasted upon a Saturday in Ionia or Smyrna was a Schismatick ; and so was he who did not fast at Milan or Rome upon the same day , both upon the same reason ; Cùm fueris Romae , Romano vivito more , Cùm fueris alibi , vivito sicut ibi . because he was to conform to the custome of Smyrna , as well as to that of Milan , in the respective Diocesses . To kill a man in some cases defiles a land ; in others it cleanses it , and puts away bloud from the people : and it was plain in the case of circumcision . S. Paul did it , and did it not ; both because he ought , and because he ought not ; and all upon the same account and law of charity . And therefore all inquiries , and all contentions , and questions should be relations to the Rule , and be tried by nothing but a plain measure of Justice and Religion , and not stand or fall by relations to separate propositions and distinct regards . For that is one and easy ; these are infinite , uncertain , and contradictory . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It is a very great cause of mischief not to be able to deduce general propositions , and fit them to particular cases , said Arrianus . But because all men cannot , therefore there will be an eternal necessity of spiritual guides , whose imployment , and the business of their life must be to make themselves able respondere de jure , to answer in matters of law , and they also must be truly informed in the matters of fact . RULE 6. In Conscience that which is first is truest , easiest , and most useful . THere are some practices , which at the first sight , and by the very name and nature of the things themselves , seem as directly unreasonable and against a Commandement , as any other thing of the foulest reproach ; and yet object the sin to the owners , and they will tell so many fine stories , and struggle , and distinguish , and state the question in a new manner , and chop it into fragments , and disguise the whole affair , that they do not onely content and beleeve themselves , but also lessen the confidence of the adversary , and make a plain rule an uneasy lesson . I instance in the question of images , the making of some of which , and the worshipping of any , does at the first sight as plainly dash against the second Commandement , as adultery does against the sixth . But if you examine the practice of the Roman Church , and estimate them by the more wary determination of the Article in Trent , and weigh it by the distinctions and laborious devices of its Patrons , and beleeve their pretences and shews , it must needs be that you will abate something of the reproof ; and yet all the while the worship of images goes forward : and if you lay the Commandement over against the devices and distinctions , it will not be easy to tell what the Commandement does mean ; and yet because it was given to the meanest understandings , and was fitted for them , either the Conscience is left without a clear rule , or that sense is to be followed which stands nearest the light , that which is next to the natural and proper sense of the words . For it is certain God put no disguises upon his own Commandements , and the words are meant plainly and heartily ; and the further you remove from their first sense , the more you have lost the purpose of your rule . In matters of conscience , that is the best sense which every wise man takes in before he hath sullied his understanding with the disguises of sophisters , and interessed persons ; for then they speak without prejudice and art , that is , so as they should speak , who intend to guide wise men , and all men . But this is to be understood otherwise , when the first sense of the words hath in its letter a prejudice open and easy to be seen ; such as is that of putting out the right eie , or cutting off the hand . The face is a vizor and a metaphor , and the heart of it onely is the Commandement , and that is to be understood by the measures of this rule , that is , the prime and most natural signification is the best , that which is of nearest correspondency to the metaphor and the design of the Speaker , and the occasion and matter of the discourse . But in all things where the precept is given in the proper style of laws , and the vail is off , and the words are plain , he that takes the first sense is the likeliest to be well guided . If a war be commenced between a King and his People , he that is willing to reade his duty , may see it in the words of Christ and of three Apostles , and it is easy to know our duty ; but when we are ingaged against our Prince , it is certain we are hugely put to it to make it lawful , and when our conscience must struggle for its rule , it is not so well as when it takes that which lies easy before us . Truth is easy , error is intricate and hard . If none but witty men could understand their duty , the ignorant and ideot could not be saved ; but in the event of things it will be sound , that this mans Conscience was better guided while simplicity held the taper , then by all the false fires of art , and witty distinctions . Qui ambulat simpliciter , ambulat confidenter , saith Solomon . It is safer to walk upon plain ground , then with tricks and devices to dance upon the ropes . RULE 7. Conscience by its several habitudes and relations , or tendencies toward its proper object , is divided into several kindes . COnscience in respect of its information , or as it relates to its object , taken materially , and in the nature of the thing , is either True or False , Right or Wrong . True when it is rightly informed , and proceeds justly . False when it is deceived . Between these as participating of either extreme , stands the probable Conscience ; which if we consider as it relates to its object , is sometimes right , and sometimes wrong , and so may be reduc'd to either , according as it is in the event of things . For in two contradictories which are both probable , as if one be , both are , if one part be true , the other is false ; and the conscience of the several men holding the opposite parts , must be so too , that is , right and wrong , deceiv'd and not deceiv'd respectively . The division then of Conscience in respect of its object is tripartite . For in all questions , if notice can be certainly had , he that gets the notice , hath a True Conscience : He that misses it , hath a False or Erring Conscience . But if the notices that can be had be uncertain , imperfectly revealed , or weakly transmitted , or understood by halfs , or not well represented ; because the understanding cannot be sure , the conscience can be but probable . But according as the understanding is fortunate , or the man wise and diligent , and honest enough to take the right side of the probability , so the conscience takes its place in the Extreme , and is reduc'd to Right or Wrong accordingly . But to be Right or Wrong , is wholly extrinsecal to the formal obligation of Conscience , as it is a Judge and a Guide , and to the consequent duty of the Man. For an erring conscience binds as much as the right conscience , directly and immediately , and collaterally more ; that is , the man who hath an erring conscience is tied to more and other duties , then he that is in the right . The conscience binds because it is heartily perswaded , not because it is truly informed ; not because it is right , but because it thinks so . It does indeed concern the duty of Conscience , and its felicity , to see that it be rightly instructed , but as to the consequence of the action , it is all one : this must follow whatsoever goes before . And therefore although it concerns the man as much as his felicity , and all his hopes comes to , to take care that his conscience be not abused in the matter of duty ; yet a Right and a Wrong conscience are not made distinct Guides and different Judges . Since therefore we are to consider and treat of Conscience , as it is the Guide of our actions , and Judge of our persons , we are to take it in other aspects , then by a direct face towards its object ; the relation to which alone , cannot diversify its kinde , so much as to become an universal Rule to us in all cases and emergencies . Now because intellectual habits imployed about the same general object , have no way to make them of different natures , but by their formal tendencies , and different manners of being affected with the same object ; we are in order to the perfect division and assignation of the kinds of conscience , to consider the Right Conscience , either as it is Sure , or as it is onely Confident , but not Sure. For an Erring conscience and the Unerring are the same Judge , and the same Guide , as to the Authority , and Perswasion , and as to the effect upon the person : but yet they differ infinitely in their Rule ; and the persons under their conduct differ as much in their state and condition . But our Conscience is not a good Guide unless we be truly informed and know it . For if we be truly informed and know it not , it is an uncertain and an imperfect Guide . But if we be confident and yet deceived , the uncertainty and haesitation is taken off , but we are still very miserable . For we are like an erring Traveller , who being out of the way , and thinking himself right , spurs his horse and runs full speed : he that comes behinde , is nearer to his journeys end . That therefore is the first kinde of Conscience ; The Right Sure Conscience ; and this alone is fit to be our Guide ; but this alone is not our Judge . 2. Opposite to this is the Confident or Erring Conscience ; that is , such which indeed is mis-informed , but yet assents to its object with the same confidence as does the Right and Sure ; but yet upon differing grounds , motives , and inducements : which because they are always criminal , although the assent is peremptory and confident , yet the deception is voluntary and vicious in its cause ; and therefore the present confidence cannot warrant the action , it onely makes the sinner bold . So that these two differ in their manner of entring into the assent ; the one entring by the door , the other by the breaches of the wall . Good will , and Bad , Vertue and Vice , Duty and Sin , keeping the several keys of the perswasion and consent . This Erring Conscience I therefore affirm to be always Voluntary and Vicious in its principle , because all Gods laws are plain in all matter of necessary duty : and when all men are to be guided , learned and unlearned , the Rule is plain and easy , because it is necessary it should be so . But therefore if there happen any invincible ignorance , or involuntary deception , it is there where the Rule is not plain , and then the Matter is but probable , and then the Conscience is according . And this makes the third kinde of Conscience , in respect of the different manner of being affected with the object . 3. The Probable Conscience is made by that manner of assent to the object , which is indeed without fear , but not without imperfection . The thing it self is of that nature , that it cannot properly make faith or certainty of adherence ; and the understanding considers it as it is represented without any prejudice or prepossession ; and then the thing must be beleeved as it deserves and no more : but because it does not deserve a full assent , it hath but an imperfect one ; but it is perfect enough in its kinde , that is , it is as much as it ought to be , as much as the thing deserves . These are all the kinds of Conscience that are perfect . 4. But sometimes the state and acts of conscience are imperfect ; as the vision of an evil eye , or the motion of a broken arm , or the act of an imperfect or abused understanding : so the conscience in some cases is carried to its object but with an imperfect assent , and operates with a lame and deficient principle : and the causes of it are the vicious or abused affections , accidents or incidents to the Conscience . Sometimes it happens that the arguments of both the sides in a question seem so indifferent , that the conscience being affrighted and abused by fear and weakness dares not determine , and consequently dares not doe any thing ; and if it be constrain'd to act , it is determin'd from without , not by it self , but by accidents and perswasion , by importunity or force , by interest or fear : and what ever the ingredient be , yet when it does act , it acts with fear , because it reflects upon it self , and considers it hath no warrant , and therefore whatever it does becomes a sin . This is the calamity of a doubting Conscience . * This doubting does not always proceed from the equality of the parts of the question , but sometimes wholly from want of knowing any thing of it : as if we were put to declare whether there were more men or women in the world ? whether the number of the starres were even or odde ? sometimes from inconsideration , sometimes from surprise , sometimes from confusion and disease ; but from what principle soever it be , there is always some fear in it . This Conscience can neither be a good Guide , nor a good Judge : we cannot doe any thing by its conduct , nor be judg'd by it ; for all that can be done before or after it , is not by it , but by the suppletories of the perfect conscience . 5. A less degree of this evil , is that which by the Masters of moral Theology is called , The scrupulous Conscience , which is not a distinct kinde of conscience as is usually supposed , but differs from the doubting Conscience only in the degrees of the evil . The doubt is less , and the fear is not so violent as to make it unlawful to doe any thing : something of the doubt is taken off , and the man can proceed to action without sin , but not without trouble ; he is uneasy and timorous even when he is most innocent ; and the causes of this , are not onely portions of the same weaknesses which cause the doubting Conscience ; but sometimes Superstition , and Melancholy , and Pusillanimity and mean opinions of God are ingredients into this imperfect assent : and in such cases , although the scrupulous man may act without sin , and produce his part of the determination , yet his scruple is not innocent , but sometimes criminal , but always calamitous . This is like a mote in the eye , but a doubt is like a beam . This Conscience may be a right Guide , but dares not be a Judge : it is like a Guide in the dark that knows the way , but fears every bush ; and because he may erre , thinks he does . The effect of this imperfection is nothing but a heartless and uncomfortable proceeding in our duty , and what else the Devil can make of it , by heightning the evil and abusing the man , who sits upon a sure foundation , but dares not trust it : he cannot rely upon that , which yet he cannot disbeleeve . 6. There are some other affections of Conscience , and accidental appendages ; but because they doe not vary the manner of its being affected with its proper object , they cannot diversity Conscience into several kinds , as it is a Guide and Judge of Humane actions . But because they have no direct influence upon our souls , and relate not to duty , but are to be conducted by rules of the other kinds , I shall here onely enumerate their kinds , and permit to Preachers to discourse of their natures , and collateral obligations to duty , of their remedies and assistances , their advantages and disadvantages respectively . These also are five : 1. The tender Conscience . 2. The hardned or obdurate . 3. The quiet . 4. The restless or disturbed . 5. And lastly , The perverse Conscience . Concerning which , I shall at present say this onely : That the two first are seated principally in the Will , but have a mixture of Conscience , as Docibility hath of Understanding . The two next are seated in the fancy , or the affections , and are not properly plac'd in the Conscience , any more then love or desire ; but yet from Conscience they have their birth . And for the last , it is a heap of irregular principles , and irregular defects , and is the same in Conscience , as deformìty is in the body , or peevishness in the affections . CHAP. II. Of the Right or Sure Conscience . RULE 1. A right Conscience is that which guides our actions by right and proportion'd means to a right end . THE end is , Gods glory , or any honest purpose of Justice or Religion , Charity or Civil conversation . Whatsoever is good for us , or our neighbours , in any sense perfective of our being as God purposed it , all that is our end . The means ought to be such as are apt instruments to procure it . If a man intends to live a severe life , and to attend Religion , his End is just and fair , and so far his Conscience is right : but if his Conscience suggest to him , that he to obtain his end should erect Colleges of Women ; and in the midst of Feasts , and Songs , and Society , he should Preach the Melancholy Lectures of the Cross , it is not right ; because the end is reach'd at by a contrary hand . But when it tels him , that to obtain continence he must fast and pray , watch diligently , and observe prudently , labour and read , and deny his appetite in its daily attempts upon him , then it is a right Conscience . For a right Conscience is nothing but right Reason reduc'd to practise , and conducting Moral actions . Now all that right Reason can be defin'd by , is the propounding a good end , and good means to the end . RULE 2. In a right Conscience , the practical judgement , that is , the last determination to an action , ought to be sure and evident . THIS is plain in all the great lines of duty , in actions determinable by the prime principles of natural Reason , or Divine revelation ; but it is true also in all actions conducted by a right and perfect Conscience . This relies upon all that account on which it is forbidden to doe actions of danger , or doubt , lest we perish in the danger , which are to be handled in their proper place . But for the present we are to observe , that in the question of actions , whose rule is not notorious and primely evident , there is or may be a double judgement . The first judges the thing probable by reason of the differing opinions of men wise and pious ; but in this there is a fear or suspicion of the contrary , and therefore in the direct act nothing is certain . 2. But there is also a reflex act of judgement ; which upon consideration that it is certain that a probable action may lawfully be done ; or else , that that which is but probable in the nature of the thing ( so farre as we perceive it ) may yet by the superadding of some circumstances , and prudential considerations , or by equity , or necessity become more then probable in the particular ; although ( I say ) the Conscience be uncertain in the direct act , yet it may be certain , right , and determin'd in the reflex and second act of judgement ; and if it be , it is innocent and safe , it is that which we call the Right-sure Conscience . For in moral things there cannot ordinarily be a demonstrative , or Mathematical certainty ; and in Morality we call that certain , that is , a thing to be followed and chosen , which oftentimes is but very highly probable ; and many things doe not attain that degree ; and therefore , because it is very often impossible , it is certainly not necessary that the direct judgement should be sure and evident in all cases . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Science is of those things which can be demonstrated ; but prudence [ and conscience ] of things which are thus , or may be otherwise . But if it be not supplied in the reflex and second act of judgement , so that the conscience be either certain in the object , or in the act , the whole progress is a danger , and the product is criminal ; the conscience is doubtful , and the action is a sin . It is in this as is usually taught concerning the Divine knowledge of things contingent ; which although they are in their own nature fallible and contingent , yet are known certainly and infallibly by God , and according to the nature of the things , even beyond what they are in their natural , proper , and next causes : and there is a rare , and secret expression of Christs incarnation used by S. Paul [ in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily ] that is , the manner is contrary to the thing ; the Godhead that is wholly incorp●real dwels in him corporally . After the like manner of signification is the present certainty I speak of . If it be not certain in the object , it must be certain in the faculty , that is , at least it must be a certain perswasion , though of an uncertain article : and we must be certain and fully perswaded that the thing may be done by us lawfully , though whether the thing it self be lawful , is at most but highly probable . So that in effect it comes but to this : The knowledge that is here required , is but the fulness of perswasion , which is and ought to be in a Right Conscience : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , I know and am perswaded in the Lord Jesus ; so S. Paul. Our knowledge here , which is but in part , must yet be a full confidence for the matters of duty . The Conclusions then are these : 1. There must be a certainty of adherence in the actions of a right Conscience . 2. It must also for the matter of it too , at least be on the right side of the probability . The conscience must be confident , and it must also have reason enough so to be ; or at least , so much as can secure the confidence from illusion ; although possibly the Confidence may be greater then the Evidence , and the Conclusion bigger then the Premises . Thus the good simple man that about the time of the Nicene Councel confuted the stubborn and subtle Philosopher by a confident saying over his Creed : and the holy and innocent ideot , or plain easy people of the Laity , that cannot prove Christianity by any demonstrations , but by that of a holy life , and obedience unto death ; they beleeve it so , that they put all their hopes upon it , and will most willingly prove it again by dying for it , if God shall call them . This is one of the excellencies of faith ; and in all cases where the mercies of God have conducted the man into the right , it is not subject to illusion . But for that particular , I mean , that we be in the right , we are to take all that care which God hath put into our power ; of which I have already said something , and shall give fuller accounts in its proper place . RULE 3. The practical judgement of a right Conscience is always agreeable to the speculative determination of the Understanding . THIS Rule is intended against those whose understanding is right in the proposition , and yet declines in the application ; it is true in thesi , but not in hypothesi ; it is not true when it comes to be their case : and so it is in all that sin against their conscience , and use little arts to evade the clamor of the sin . They are right in the rule , and crooked in the measuring ; whose folly is apparent in this , because they deny in particular what they affirm in the general ; and it is true in all , but not in some . David was redargued wittily by Nathan upon this account ; he laid the case in a remote Scene : Tìtius , or Sempronius , a certain rich man , I know not who , some body or other robb'd the poor man of his Ewe lamb . Therefore said David he shall die who ever he be . Yea , but you are the man : what then ? shall he die still ? This is a new arrest ; it could not be denied , his own mouth had already given the sentence . And this is an usual , but a most effective Art to make the conscience right in the particular , by propounding the case separate from its own circumstances , and then to remove it to its own place is no hard matter . It was an ingenious device of Erasistratus the Physician , of which Appian tells : When yong Antiochus almost died for love of Stratonica his Father Seleucus his Wife , the Physician told the passionate and indulgent Father , that his son was sick of a disease , which he had indeed discovered , but found it also to be incurable . Seleucus with sorrow asking what it was ? Erasistratus answered , He loves my wife . But then the old Kings hopes began to revive , and he turn'd wooer in the behalf of his son , begging of the Physician who was his Counsellor and his friend , for pity sake , for friendship and humanity to give his wife in exchange or redemption for the yong Kings life . Erasistratus replied , Sir you ask a thing too unreasonable and great ; and though you are his Father , your self would not do it , if it were your own case ; and therefore why should I ? when Seleucus swore by all his Country gods that he would doe it as willingly as he would live ; Erasistratus drew the curtain of the device , and applied it to him , by telling , that the cure of his son depended upon his giving the Queen Stratonica to him , which he did ; and afterwords made it as lawful as he could , by a Law postnate to that insolent example , and confirm'd it by military suffrages . In all cases we are to consider the rule , not the relation ; the law , not the person : for if it be one thing in the proposition , and another in the assumption , it must be false in one place or the other , and then the Conscience is but an ill Guide , and an ill Judge . This rule is not to extend to the exception of particular cases ; nor to take away privileges , pardons , equity . For that which is fast in the proposition , may become loose in the particular by many intervening causes , of which I am to give account in its due place . For the present , this is certain , that , Whatsoever particular is of the same account with the general , not separate , or let loose by that hand which first bound it , is to be estimated as the general . But this Rule is to goe further also . For hitherto , I have called the act of particular Conscience directing to a single and circumstantiate action by the name of Practical judgement : and the general dictate of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or Phylactery , or upper Conscience , teaching the kinds of good actions , by the name of Speculative judgement . But the rule also is true , and so to be understood , when practical and speculative are taken in their first and proper sense . If in Philosophy we discourse that the True God , being a Spirit without shape or figure , cannot be represented by an image ; although this be onely a speculation , and demonstrable in natural Philosophy , and no rule of Conscience ; yet when Conscience is to make a judgement concerning the picturing of God the Father , it must not determine practically against that speculation . * That an idol is nothing , is demonstrable in Metaphysicks ; and therefore that we are to make nothing of it , is a practical truth : and although the first proposition be not directly plac'd in the upper region of conscience , but is one of the prime Metaphysical propositions , not properly Theological , according to those words of S. Paul , Concerning things sacrific'd to idols , we know 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that we all have knowledge ; and we know that an idol is nothing in the world ; meaning , that this knowledge needs no revelation to attest it ; we by our own reason and principles of demonstration know that ; yet , the lower , or particular practical Conscience must never determine against that extrinsecal , and therefore ( as to Conscience ) accidental measure . For whatsoever is true in one Science , is true also in another , and when we have wisely speculated concerning the dimensions of bodies , their circumscriptions , the acts of sense , the certainty of their healthful perceptions , the commensuration of a place and a body : we must not esteem these to be unconcerning propositions , if ever we come to use them in Divinity : and therefore we must not worship that which our senses tell us to be a thing below worship ; nor beleeve that infinite which we see measured ; nor esteem that greater then the heavens which I see and feel goes into my mouth . If Philosophy gives a skin , Divinity does not flea it off : and truth cannot be contrary to truth ; and God would not in Nature teach us any thing to misguide us in the regions of Grace . The Caution for conducting this proposition is onely this : That we be as sure of our speculation , as of any other rule which we ordinarily follow ; and that we do not take vain Philosophy , for true speculations . He that guides his conscience by a principle of Zeno's Philosophy , because he hath been bred in the Sto●cal sect , and resolves to understand his Religion to the sense of his Masters Theoremes , does ill . The Christian Religion suffered much prejudice at first by the weak disputings of the Greeks ; and they would not admit a Religion against the Academy , or the Cynicks , or the Athenian Schools ; and the Christian Schools drew some of their articles thorough the limbecks of Plato's Philosophy , and to this day the relish remains upon some of them . And Baronius complains of Origen , that , In Paganorum commentis enutritus , eaque propagare in animo habens , divinas se utique Scripturas interpretari simulavit : ut hoc modo nefariam doctrinam suam sacrarum liter arum monumentis malignè admiscens , Paganicum & Manich●icum errorem suum atque Arrianam vesaniam induceret . He mingled the Gentile Philosophy with Christian Religion , and by analogy to that , expounded this , and how many Disciples he had , all the world knows . Nay not onely from the doctrine , but from the practises and rites of the Pagan Religion , many Christians did derive their rites , and they in time gave authority and birth to some docrines , Vigilias anniversarias habes apud Suetonium . Lustralem aquam , aspersionem sepulchrorum , lumina in iisdem parare , Sabbatho lucernam accendere , cereos in populum distribuere . The staff , the ring , the Mitre , and many other customes , some good , some onely tolerable , the Christians took from the Gentiles ; and what effect it might have , and what influence it hath had in some doctrines , is too notorious to dissemble . Thomas Aquìnas did a little change the Scene , and blended Aristotle so with School Divinity , that something of the purity was lost , while much of our Religion was exacted and conducted by the rules of a mistaken Philosophy . But if their speculations had been right , Christianity would at first have entred without reproof , as being the most reasonable Religion of the world , and most consonant to the wisest and most sublime speculations ; and it would also have continued pure , if it had been still drawn from the fountains of our Saviour thorough the limbecks of the Evangelists and Apostles , without the mixture of the salt waters of that Philosophy , which every Physician and witty man now adays thinks he hath reason and observation enough easily to reprove . But men have resolved to verify their Sect rather then the truth ; but if of this particular we be careful , we must then also verify every speculation in all things where it can relate to practice , and is not altered by circumstances . As a appendage , and for the fuller explication of this Rule , it is a worthy inquiry which is by some men made , concerning the use of our reason in our Religion . For some men finding reason to be that guide which God hath given us , and concreated with us , know that Religion which is superinduc'd , and comes after it , cannot prejudice that noblest part of this Creation . But then , because some articles which are said to be of faith , cannot be made to appear consonant to their reason , they stick to this , and let that go . Here is a just cause of complaint . But therefore others say , that reason is a good guide in things reasonable and humane , but our reason is blinde in things Divine , and therefore is of little or no use in Religion . Here we are to beleeve , not to dispute . There are on both sides fair pretences , which when we have examined , we may finde what part of truth each side aims at , and joyn them both in practise . They that speak against reason , speak thus . 1. There is to every state and to every part of man given a proportionable light to guide him in that way where he ought , and is appointed to walk . In the darknesses of this world , and in the actions of common life , the Sun and Moon in their proper seasons are to give us light : In the actions of humane entercourse , and the notions tending to it , reason is our eye , and to it are notices proportion'd , down from nature and experience , even from all the principles with which our rational faculties usually doe converse . But because a man is design'd to the knowledge of God , and of things spiritual , there must spring a new light from heaven , and he must have new capacities , and new illuminations ; that is , new eyes , and a new light : For here the eye of Reason is too weak , and the natural man is not capable of the things of the Spirit , because they are spiritually discerned . Faith is the eye , and the Holy Spirit gives the light , and the word of God is the lantern , and the spiritual not the rational man can perceive the things of God. Secreta Dei , Deo meo , & filiis domus ejus . God and Gods secret ones onely know Gods secrets . 2. And therefore we finde in Holy Scripture that to obey God , and to love him , is the way to understand the mysteries of the kingdome . Obedite & intelligetis , If ye will obey , then shall ye understand : and it was a rare saying of our blessed Saviour , and is of great use and confidence to all who inquire after the truth of God , in the midst of these sad divisions of Christendome ; If any man will doe his will he shall know whether the doctrine be of God or no. It is not fineness of discourse , nor the sharpness of arguments , or the witty rencontres of disputing men that can penetrate into the mysteries of faith : the poor humble man that prays , and inquires simply , and listens attentively , and sucks in greedily , and obeys diligently , he is the man that shall know the minde of the Spirit . And therefore S. Paul observes that the Sermons of the Cross were foolishness to the Greeks ; and consequently , by way of upbraiding , he inquires , Where is the wise man , where is the Scribe , where is the disputer of the world ? God hath made the wisdome of the world foolishness ; that is , God hath confounded reason , that faith may come in her place . 3. For there are some things in our Religion so mysterious , that they are above all our reason ; and well may we admire but cannot understand them : and therefore the Spirit of God is sent into the world to bring our understanding into the obedience of Christ ; we must obey and not enquire , and every proud thought must be submitted to him who is the wisdome of the Father , who hath in the holy Scriptures taught us all his Fathers will. 4. And therefore as to this nothing can be added from the stock of nature , or principles of naturall reason , so if it did need a supply , reason could ill doe it . For the object of our faith must be certain and infallible ; but no mans reason is so , and therefore to put new wine into broken bottles is no gain , or real advantage ; and although right reason is not to be gainsaid , yet what is right reason is so uncertain , that in the midst of all disputes , every man pretends to it , but who hath it no man can tell , and therefore it cannot be a guide or measure of faith . 5. But above all , if we will pretend to reason in Religion , we have but one great reason that we can be obliged to ; and that is , to beleeve that whatsoever God hath said is true : so that our biggest reason in Religion , is to submit our reason , that is , not to use our reason in particular inquiries , but to captivate it in the whole . And if there be any particular inquiries , let them seem what they will to my reason it matters not ; I am to follow God , not man ; I may be deceived by my self , but never by God. It is therefore sufficient to me that it is in the Scriptures . I will inquire no further . This therefore is a concluding argument ; This is in Scripture , therefore this is true : and this is against Scripture , therefore it is absurd , and unreasonable . 6. After all , experience is our competent guide warning to us : For we see when witty men use their reason against God that gave it , they in pursuit of reason go beyond Religion ; and when by reason they look for God , they miss him ; for he is not to be found but by faith , which when they dispute for , they finde not ; because she is built and perswaded by other mediums , then all Schools of Philosophy to this day have taught . And it was because of reason , that the Religion of Jesus was so long oppos'd and hinder'd to possess the world . The Philosophers would use their reason , and their reason would not admit this new Religion : and therefore S. Paul being to remove every stone that hindered , bad them to beware of vain Philosophy ; which does not distniguish one kinde of Philosophy from another , but marks all Philosophy . It is all vain , when the enquiries are into religious mysteries . 7. For is it not certain that some principles of reason are against some principles of faith and Scripture ? and it is but reason , that we should hear reason where ever we finde it ; and yet we are to have no entercourse with Devils , though we were sure they would tell us of hidden treasures , or secrets of Philosophy : and upon this account it is that all Genethliacal predictions , and Judicial Astrology is decried by all religious persons ; for though there be great pretensions of reason and art , yet they being against religion and revelation are intolerable . In these and the like cases , reason must put on her muffler , and we must be wholly conducted by revelation . These are the pretences against the use of reason in questions of Religion ; concerning which the same account may be given , as is by the Pyrrhonians and Scepticks concerning their arguments against the certainty of sciences . These reasons are like Physick , which if it uncertainly purges out the Humor , it most certainly purges out it self : and these arguments either cannot prevail against the use of reason in Religion , or if they doe , they prevail against themselves : For either it is against Religion to rely upon reason in Religion , or it is not : If it be not , then reason may without danger to Religion be safely relied upon in all such enquiries . But if it be against Religion to rely upon reason , then certainly these reasons intended to prove it so , are not to be relied upon ; or else this is no question of Religion . For if this be a question of Religion , why are so many reasons us'd in it ? If it be no question of Religion , then we may for all these reasons to the contrary , still use our reason in Religion without prejudice to it . And if these reasons conclude right , then we may for these reasons sake trust the proposition which says , that in Religion reason is to be us'd ; but if these reasons doe not conclude right , then there is no danger , but that reason may still be us'd , these arguments to the contrary notwithstanding . But there is more in it then so . This foregoing discourse , or to the like purpose , is used by two sorts of persons ; The one is by those , who in destitution of particular arguments , make their last recourse unto authority of men . For by how much more they press their own peremptory affirmative , by so much the less will they endure your reasons and arguments for the negative . But to these men I shall onely say , Let God be true , and every man a liar : and therefore if we trust men concerning God , we doe not trust God concerning men ; that is , if we speak of God as men please , we doe not think of men as God hath taught us ; viz. That they are weak , and that they are liars : and they who have by artifices , and little devices , acquir'd to themselves a reputation , take the less care for proving what they say , by how much the greater credulity that is , by which men have given themselves up to be possess'd by others . And if I would have my saying to prevail whether it be right or wrong , I shall the less endure that any man should use his own reason against me . And this is one of the great evils for which the Church of Rome hath given Christendome a great cause to complain of her , who not onely presses men to beleeve or to submit to what she says upon her own authority , without enduring them to examine whether she says true or no , but also requires as great an assent to what she cannot prove , as to what she can ; requiring an adherence not less then the greatest , even to those things which she onely pretends to be able to prove by prudential motives . Indeed in these cases if they can obtain of men to bring their faith , they are safe ; but to come accompanied with their reason too , that is dangerous . The other sort of men , is of those who doe the same thing under another cover ; for they not having obtain'd the advantages of Union or Government , cannot pretend to a privileged authority , but resolving to obtrude their fancies upon the world , and yet not being able to prove what they say , pretend the Spirit of God to be the author of all their theoremes . If they could prove him to be their author , the thing were at an end , and all the world were bound to lay their necks under that pleasant yoke ; but because they cannot prove any thing , therefore it is that they pretend the Spirit for every thing : and if the noise of so sacred a Name will perswade you , you are within the snare ; if it will not , you are within their hatred . But it is impossible that these men can prevail , because there are so many of them ; It is as if there were twenty Mountebanks in the Piazza , and all saying they had the onely Antidote in the world for Poison ; and that what was not theirs , was not at all , and yet all pretend severally . For all men cannot have the Spirit , unless all men speak the same thing : It were possible that even in Union they might be deceivers ; but in Division they cannot be right ; and therefore since all these men pretend the Spirit , and yet all speak severall things and contradictory , they doe well to desire of us not to use our reason , for if we doe , they can never hope to prevail ; if we doe not , they may perswade , as they meet with fools , that were not possess'd before . Between these two there is a third that pretends to no authority on one hand , nor Enthusiasm on the other ; but offers to prove what he says , but desires not his arguments to be examined by reason , upon pretence that he urges Scripture ; that is in effect , he must interpret it ; but your reason shall not be judge whether he says right or wrong : for if you judge his interpretation , he says you judge of his argument , and make reason Umpire in questions of faith : and thus his sect is continued , and the systemes of Divinity rely upon a certain number of propositions from generation to generation , and the Scholar shall be no wiser then his Master for ever ; because he is taught to examine the doctrines of his Master by his Masters arguments , and by no other . In effect , they all agree in this , they would rule all the world by Religion , and they would have no body wiser then themselves , but be fools and slaves , till their turn come to use others as bad as they have been used themselves : and therefore as the wolves offered peace to the sheep upon condition they would put away their dogs ; so doe these men allow us to be Christians and Disciples , if we will lay aside our reason , which is that guard of our souls , whereby alone we can be defended against their tyrannies and pretensions . That I may therefore speak close to the enquiry , I premise these considerations : 1. It is a weak and a trifling principle , which supposes faith and reason to be opposite : For faith is but one way , by which our reason is instructed , and acquires the proper notices of things . For our reason or understanding apprehends things three several ways : The first is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or the first notices of things abstract , of principles and the primò intelligibilia ; such as are , The whole is greater then the half of the whole ; Good is to be chosen ; God is to be loved : Nothing can be and not be at the same time ; for these are objects of the simple understanding , congenite notices , concreated with the understanding . The second is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or discourse , that is , such consequents and emanations which the understanding draws from her first principles . And the third is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , such things which the understanding assents to upon the report , testimony , and affirmation of others , viz. by arguments extrinsecal to the nature of the thing , and by collateral and indirect principles . For example , I naturally know that an idol or a false God is nothing ; this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or the act of abstract and immaterial reason . From hence I inferre , that an idol is not to be worshipped : This my reason knows by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or illation and inference , from the first principle . But therefore that all monuments of idolatry are to be destroyed was known to the Jews by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for it was not primely known , nor by the direct force of any thing that was primely known ; but I know it from God by the testimony of Moses , into the notice of which I am brought by collateral arguments , by tradition , by miracle , by voices from heaven , and the like . 2. These three ways of knowing , are in all faculties sacred and prophane : for faith and reason doe not divide Theology and Philosophy , but in every Science reason hath notices all these ways . For in natural Philosophy there are prime principles , and there are conclusions drawn from thence , and propositions which we beleeve from the authority of Plato , or Socrates , or Aristotle ; and so it is in Theology ; for every thing in Scripture is not in the divided sense , a matter of faith : That the Sun is to rule the day , the Moon and the Stars to govern the night , I see and feel ; That God is good , that he is one , are prime principles : that nothing but good is to be spoken of this good God , reason draws by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or discourse and illation : but that this good God will chastise his sons and servants , and that afflictions sent upon us are the issues of his goodness , or that this one God , is also three in person , this is known by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or by beleef ; for it is not a prime truth , nor yet naturally inferred from a prime truth , but told by God , and therefore is an object of faith ; reason knows it by testimony , and by indirect and collateral probations . 3. Reason knows all things as they are to be known , and enters into its notices by instruments fitted to the nature of things . Our stock of principles is more limited then our stock of words ; and as there are more things then words , so there are more ways of knowing , then by principles direct and natural . Now as God teaches us many things by natural principles , many by experience , many at first , many more in time ; some by the rules of one faculty , some by the rules of another ; so there are some things which descend upon us immediately from heaven , and they communicate with no principle , with no matter , with no conclusion here below . Now as in the other things we must come to notices of things , by deriving them from their proper fountains ; so must we doe in these . He that should goe to revelation to prove that nine and nine makes eighteen , would be a fool ; and he would be no less , that goes about to prove a Trinity of persons by natural reason . Every thing must be derived from its own fountain . But because these things which are derivatives from heaven , and communicate not at all with principles of Philosophy , or Geometry , yet have their proper fountains , and these fountains are too high for us to search into their bottome , we must plainly take all emanations from them , just as they descend . For in this case , all that is to be done , is to enquire from whence they come . If they come from natural principles , I search for them by direct arguments : If they come from higher , I search for them by indirect arguments ; that is , I enquire onely for matter of fact , whether they come thence or no. But here my reason is set on work ; first , I enquire into the testimony or ways of probation , if they be worth beleeving in what they say , my reason sucks it in . As if I be told that God said [ there are three and one in heaven ] I ask , who said it ? is he credible , why ? If I finde that all things satisfy my reason , I beleeve him saying that God said so ; and then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or faith enters . I beleeve the thing also , not because I can prove it directly , for I cannot , but I can prove it indirectly ; testimony and authority is my argument , and that is sufficient . The Apostles entred into much of their faith by their senses , they saw many articles of their Creed ; but as they which saw and beleeved were blessed , so they which see not , but are argued and disputed into their faith , and beleeve what they finde reasonable to beleeve , shall have the reward of their faith , while they wisely follow their reason . 4. Now in all this , here is no difference in my reason , save that as it does not prove a Geometrical proposition by moral Philosophy , so neither does it prove a revelation by a natural argument , but into one and the other it enters by principles proper to the inquisition ; and faith and reason are not opposed at all . Faith and natural reason are several things , and Arithmetical and Moral reasons are as differing , but it is reason that carries me to objects of faith , and faith is my reason so disposed , so used , so instructed . The result of these propositions is this one : That into the greatest mysteriousness of our Religion , and the deepest articles of faith we enter by our reason : Not that we can prove every one of them by natural reason , for to say that , were as vain , as to say we ought to prove them by Arithmetick or Rules of Musick ; but whosoever beleeves wisely and not by chance , enters into his faith by the hand of reason ; that is , he hath causes and reasons why he beleeves . He indeed that hath reasons insufficient and incompetent , beleeves indeed not wisely , but for some reason or other he does it ; but he that hath none , does not beleeve at all : For the understanding is a rational faculty , and therefore every act of the understanding is an act of the rational faculty , and that is an act of reason ; as vision is of the visive faculty : And faith , which is an act or habit of the understanding consenting to certain propositions for the authority of the speaker , is also as much an act of reason , as to discourse in a proposition of Aristotle . For faith assenting to a proposition for a reason drawn à testimonio , is as very a discourse , as to assent to a proposition for a reason drawn from the nature of things . It is not less an act of reason , because it uses another topick . And all this is plain and certain , when we discourse of faith formally in its proper and natural capacity , that is , as it is a reception of propositions à testimonie . Indeed if we consider faith as it is a habit infused by God , and by Gods holy Spirit , so there is something more in it then thus : For so , faith is a vital principle , a magazine of secret truths , which we could never have found out by natural reason , that is , by all that reason which is born with us , and by all that reason that grows with us , and by all secular experiences and conversations with the world ; but of such things which God onely teaches , by ways supernatural and divine . Now here is the close and secret of the Question , Whether or no faith in this sense , and materially taken , be contrary to our worldly or natural reason , or whether is any or all the propositions of faith to be exacted , interpreted , and understood according to this reason materially taken ? that is , are not our reasons which we rightly follow in natural Philosophy , in Metaphysicks , in other Arts and Sciences , sometimes contrary to faith ? and if they be , whether shall be followed ? or can it in any sense be an article of faith , if it be contrary to right reason ? I answer to this , by several propositions . 1. Right Reason ( meaning our right reason , or humane reason ) is not the affirmative or positive measure of things Divine , or of articles and mysteries of faith ; and the reasons are plain : 1. Because many of them depend upon the free will of God , for which , till he gives us reasons , we are to be still and silent , admiring the secret , and adoring the wisdome , and expecting till the curtain be drawn , or till Elias come and tell us all things . But he that will inquire and pry into the reason of the Mystery , and because he cannot perceive it , will disbeleeve the thing , or undervalue it , and say it is not at all , because he does not understand the reason of it , and why it should be so , may as well say that his Prince does not raise an Army in time of peace , because he doe not know a reason why he should ; or that God never did suffer a brave Prince to die ignobly , because it was a thousand pities he should . There is a ragione di stato , and a ragione di regno , and a ragione di cielo , after which none but fools will inquire , and none but the humble shall ever finde . Who can tell why the Devil , who is a wise and intelligent creature , should so spitefully , and for no end but for mischief , tempt so many souls to ruine , when he knows it can doe him no good , no pleasure , but phantastick ? or who can tell why he should be delighted in a pleasure that can be nothing but phantastick , when he knows things by intuition , not by phantasm , and hath no low conceit of things as we have ? or why he should doe so many things against God , whom he knows he cannot hurt , and against souls , whose ruine cannot adde one moment of pleasure to him ? and if it makes any change , it is infinitely to the worse : That these things are so , our Religion tels us ; but our reason cannot reach it why it is so , or how : Whose reason can give an account why , or understand it to be reasonable , that God should permit evil for good ends , when he hates that evil , and can produce that good without that evil ? and yet that he does so we are taught by our Religion : Whose reason can make it intelligible , that God who delights not in the death of a sinner , but he and his Christ , and all their Angels rejoyce infinitely in the salvation of a sinner , yet that he should not cause that every sinner should be saved , working in him a mighty and a prevailing grace , without which grace he shall not in the event of things be saved , and yet this grace is wholly his own production . — Omnipotens hominem cùm gratia salvat Ipsa suum consummat opus , cui tempus agendì Semper adest quae gesta velit , non moribus illi Fit mora , non causis anceps suspenditur ullis . Why does not he work in us all to will and to doe , not onely that we can will , but that we shall will ? for if the actual willing be any thing , it is his creation ; we can create nothing , we cannot will unless he effect it in us , and why he does not doe that which so well pleases him , and for the want of the doing of which he is so displeased , and yet he alone is to doe it some way or other ; humane reason cannot give a wise or a probable account . Nam priùs immites populos urbésque rebelles , Vincente obstantes animos pietate , subegìt ; Non hoc consilio tantùm hortatúque benigno Suadens atque docens , quasi normam legis haberet Gratia , sed mutans intus mentem atque reformans , Vásque novum ex fracto fingens , virtute creandi . Non istud monitus legis , non verba prophetae , Non praestata sibi praestat natura , sed unus Quod fecit reficit . Percurrat Apostolus orbem , Praedicet , hortetur , plantet , riget , increpet , instet , Quáque viam verbo reseratam invenerit , intret ; Ut tamen his studiis auditor promoveatur Non doctor neque discipulus , sed gratia sola Efficit — Where is the wise Discourser , that can tell how it can be , that God foreknows certainly what I shall doe ten years hence , and yet it is free to me at that time , to will or not to will , to doe or not to doe that thing ? Where is the discerning Searcher of secrets , that can give the reason why God should determine for so many ages before , that Judas should betray Christ , and yet that God should kill him eternally for effecting the Divine purpose , and fore-determined counsel ? Well may we wonder that God should wash a soul with water , and with bread and wine nourish us up to immortality , and make real impresses upon our spirits by the bloud of the vine , and the kidneys of wheat ; but who can tell why he should choose such mean instruments to effect such glorious promises ? since even the greatest things of this world had not been disproportionable instruments to such effects , nor yet too great for our understanding ; and that we are fain to stoop to make these mean elements be even with our faith , and with our understanding . Who can divine , and give us the cause , or understand the reason , why God should give us so great rewards for such nothings , and yet damne men for such insignificant mischiefs , for thoughts , for words , for secret wishes , that effect no evil abroad , but onely might have done , or it may be were resolved to be unactive ? For if the goodness of God be so overflowing in some cases , we in our reason should not expect , that in such a great goodness , there should be so great an aptness to destroy men greatly for little things : and if all mankinde should joyn in search , it could never be told , why God should adjudge the Heathen or the Israelites to an eternal hell , of which he never gave them warning , nor created fears great enough , to produce caution equal to their danger ; and who can give a reason why for temporal and transient actions of sin , the world is to expect never ceasing torments in hell to eternal ages ? That these things are thus , we are taught in Scripture , but here our reason is not instructed to tell why or how ; and therefore our reason is not the positive measure of mysteries , and we must beleeve what we can not understand . Thus are they to be blamed , who make intricacies and circles in mysterious articles , because they cannot wade thorough them ; it is not to be understood why God should send his holy Son from his bosome to redeem us , to pay our price ; nor to be told why God should exact a price of himself for his own creature ; nor to be made intelligible to us , why he who loved us so well , as to send his Son to save us , should at the same time so hate us , as to resolve to damne us , unless his Son should come and save us . But the Socinians who conclude that this was not thus , because they know not how it can be thus , are highly to be reproved for their excess in the inquiries of reason , not where she is not a competent Judge , but where she is not competently instructed ; and that is the second reason . 2. The reason of man is a right Judge always when she is truly informed ; but in many things she knows nothing but the face of the article : the mysteries of faith are oftentimes like Cherubims heads placed over the Propitiatory , where you may see a clear and a bright face and golden wings , but there is no body to be handled ; there is light and splendor upon the brow , but you may not grasp it ; and though you see the revelation clear , and the article plain , yet the reason of it we cannot see at all ; that is , the whole knowledge which we can have here is dark and obscure ; We see as in a glass darkly , saith S. Paul , that is , we can see what , but not why , and what we doe see is the least part of that which does not appear ; but in these cases our understanding is to submit , and wholly to be obedient , but not to inquire further . Delicata est illa obedientia quae causas quaerit . If the understanding will not consent to a revelation , until it see a reason of the proposition , it does not obey at all , for it will not submit , till it cannot choose . In these cases , Reason and Religion are like Leah and Rachel : Reason is fruitful indeed , and brings forth the first-born , but she is blear-ey'd , and oftentimes knows not the secrets of her Lord ; but Rachel produces two children , Faith and Piety , and Obedience is Midwife to them both , and Modesty is the Nurse . From hence it follows , that we cannot safely conclude thus , This is agreeable to right reason , therefore this is so in Scripture , or in the counsel of God ; not that one reason can be against another , when all things are equal , but that the state of things , and of discourses is imperfect ; and though it be right reason in such a constitution of affairs , yet it is not so in others ; that a man may repel force by force , is right reason , and a natural right , but yet it follows not , that it can be lawful for a private Christian to doe it , or that Christ hath not forbidden us to strike him that strikes us : The reason of the difference is this ; In nature it is just that it be so , because we are permitted onely to natures provisions , and she hath made us equal , and the condition of all men indifferent ; and therefore we have the same power over another , that he hath over us ; besides , we will doe it naturally , and till a Law forbad it , it could not be amiss , and there was no reason in nature to restrain it , but much to warrant it . But since the Law of God hath forbidden it , he hath made other provisions for our indempnity , and where he permits us to be defenceless ( as in cases of Martyrdome and the like ) he hath promised a reward to make infinite amends : So that we may repel force by force , says Nature , we may not , says Christ , and yet they are not two contradictory propositions . For nature says we may , when otherwise we have no security , and no reward for suffering ; but Christ hath given both the defence of Laws and Authority , and the reward of heaven , and therefore in this case it is reasonable . And thus we cannot conclude , This man is a wicked man because he is afflicted , or his cause is evil because it does not thrive ; although it be right reason , that good men ought to be happy and prosperous ; because although reason says right in it , yet no reason can wisely conclude , that therefore so it should be in this world , when faith and reason too tell us it may be better hereafter . The result is this , every thing that is above our understanding , is not therefore to be suspected or disbeleeved , neither is any thing to be admitted that is against Scripture , though it be agreeable to right reason , until all information is brought in , by which the sentence is to be made . For as it happens in dreams and madness , where the argument is good , and the discourse reasonable oftentimes ; but because it is inferred from weak phantasms , and trifling and imperfect notices of things , and obscure apprehensions , therefore it is not onely desultorious and light , but insignificant , and farre from ministring to knowledge : so it is in our reason as to matters of Religion , it argues well and wisely , but because it is from trifling , or false , or uncertain principles , and unsure information , it oftentimes is but a witty nothing : reason is an excellent limbeck , and will extract rare quintessences , but if you put in nothing but mushromes , or eggeshels , or the juice of coloquintida , or the filthy gingran , you must expect productions accordingly , useless or unpleasant , dangerous or damnable . 2. Although right reason is not the positive and affirmative measure of any article , yet it is the negative measure of every one . So that , whatsoever is contradictory to right reason , is at no hand to be admitted as a mystery of faith , and this is certain upon an infinite account . 1. Because nothing can be true and false at the same time , otherwise it would follow that there could be two truths contrary to each other : for if the affirmative be true , and the negative true too , then the affirmative is true and is not true , which were a perfect contradiction , and we were bound to beleeve a lie , and hate a truth ; and yet at the same time , obey what we hate , and consent to what we disbeleeve : No man can serve two such Masters . 2. Out of truth nothing can follow but truth ; whatsoever therefore is truth , this is therefore safe to be followed , because no error can be the product of it . It follows therefore , that by beleeving one truth , no man can be tied to disbeleeve another . Whatsoever therefore is contrary to right reason , or to a certain truth in any faculty , cannot be a truth , for one truth is not contrary to another : if therefore any proposition be said to be the doctrine of Scripture , and confessed to be against right reason , it is certainly not the doctrine of Scripture , because it cannot be true , and yet be against what is true . 3. All truths are emanations and derivatives from God , and therefore whatsoever is contrary to any truth , in any faculty whatsoever , is against the truth of God , and God cannot be contrary to himself ; for as God is one , so truth is one ; for truth is Gods eldest daughter , and so like himself , that God may as well be multiplied , as abstracted truth . 4. And for this reason God does not onely prove our Religion , and Jesus Christ prove his Mission by Miracles , by Holiness , by verification of Prophecies , and prediction of future Contingencies , and voices from heaven , and apparition of Angels , and Resurrection from the grave , and fulfilling all that was said of him by the Prophets , that our faith might enter into us by discourse , and dwell by love , and be nursed and supported by reason : but also God is pleased to verify his own proceedings , and his own propositions , by discourses meerly like ours , when we speak according to right reason . Thus God convinces the peevish people that spake evil of him , by arguing concerning the justice of his ways , and exposes his proceedings to be argued by the same measures and proportions by which he judges us , and we judge one another . 5. For indeed how can it be possibly otherwise ? how can we confess God to be just if we understand it not ? but how can we understand him so , but by the measures of justice ? and how shall we know that , if there be two Justices , one that we know , and one that we know not , one contrary to another ? if they be contrary , they are not justice ; for justice can be no more opposed by justice , then truth to truth : if they be not contrary , then that which we understand to be just in us , is just in God , and that which is just once , is just for ever in the same case , and circumstances : and indeed how is it that we are in all things of excellency and vertue to be like God , and to be meek like Christ , to be humble as he is humble , and to be pure like God , to be just after his example , to be merciful as our heavenly Father is merciful ? If there is but one Mercy , and one Justice , and one Meekness , then the measure of these , and the reason is eternally the same . If there be two , either they are not essential to God , or else not imitable by us : And then how can we glorify God , and speak honour of his Name , and exalt his justice , and magnify his truth , and sincerity , and simplicity , if truth , and simplicity , and justice , and mercy in him is not that thing which we understand , and which we are to imitate ? To give an example . I have promised to give my friend a 100. pounds on the Calends of March : The day comes , and he expects the donative ; but I send him answer , that I did promise so by an open promise and signification , and I had an inclination to doe so ; but I have also a secret will to keep my money , and instead of that to give him a 100. blows upon his back : if he reproaches me for an unjust and a false person ; I have nothing to answer , for I beleeve he would hardly take it for good paiment to be answered with a distinction , and told ; I have two wils , an open , and a secret will , and they are contrary to each other : he would tell me that I were a false person for having two wills , and those two wills were indeed but one , nothing but a will to deceive and abuse him . Now this is reason , right reason , the reason of all the world , the measure of all mankinde , the measure that God hath given us to understand , and to walk , to live , and to practise by . And we cannot understand what is meant by hypocrisy , and dissembling , if to speak one thing and not to mean it , be not that hypocrisy . Now put case God should call us to give him the glory of his justice and sincerity , of the truth of his promises , and the equity of his ways , and should tell us . That we perish by our own fault , and if we will die , it is because we will , not because we must ; because we choose it , not because he forces us ; for he calls us , and offers us life and salvation , and gives us powers , and time and advantages , and desires it really , and endevours it passionately , and effects it materially , so farre as it concerns his portion : This is a certain evidence of his truth and justice ; But if we can reply and say , It is true , O God , that thou dost call us , but dost never intend we should come , that thy open will is loving and plausible , but thy secret will is cruell , decretory and destructive to us whom thou hast reprobated ; that thy open will is ineffective , but thy secret will onely is operative , and productive of a material event , and therefore although we are taught to say , Thou art just , and true in all thy sayings , yet certainly it is not that justice which thou hast commanded us to imitate and practise , it is not that sincerity which we can safely use to one another , and therefore either we men are not just when we think we are , or else thou art not just who doest and speakest contrary things , or else there are two contrary things which may be called justice . For let it be considered as to the present instance ; God cannot have two wills , it is against the unity of God , and the simplicity of God. If there were two Divine wills , there were two Gods ; and if it be one will , then it cannot at the same time will contrary things ; and if it does not , then when God says one thing , and yet he wills it not , it is because he onely wills to say it , and not to doe it ; and if to say this thing of the good , the just , the true , the righteous Judge of all the world be not blasphemy , I know not what is . The purpose of this instance is to exemplify , that in all vertues and excellencies there is a perfect unity : and because all is originally and essentially in God , and from him derived to us , and all our good , our mercy , our truth , our justice is but an imitation of his , it follows demonstratively , that what is unjust in men , and what is falshood in our entercourses , is therefore false or unjust , because it is contrary to the eternal pattern : and therefore whatsoever our reason does rightly call unjust , or hypocrisy , or falshood must needs be infinitely farre from God ; and those propositions which asperse God with any thing of this nature , are so farre from being the word of God , or an article of faith , or a mystery of religion , that it is blasphemous and false , hateful to God and good men . In these things there is the greater certainty , because there is the less variety and no mystery ; these things which in God we adore as Attributes , being the lines of our Duty , the limits and scores we are to walk by ; therefore as our reason is here best instructed , so it cannot easily be deceived , and we can better tell what is right reason in these things , then in questions not so immediately relative to duty and morality . But yet this Rule also holds in every thing where reason is , or can be right ; but with some little difference of expression , but generally thus : 1. Whatsoever right reason says cannot be done , we cannot pretend from Scripture , that it belongs to Gods Almightiness to doe it ; it is no part of the Divine Omnipotency , to doe things contradictory ; for that is not to be done which is not , and it is no part of power to doe that which is not an act or effect of power . Now in every contradictory , one part is a non-entity , a nothing , and therefore by power cannot be produced ; and to suppose it producible or possible to be effected by an Almighty power , is to suppose an Almighty power to be no power , or to doe that which is not the effect of power . But I need say no more of this , for all men grant it , and all sects and varieties of Christians indevour to clear their articles from inferring contradictions , as implicitely confessing , that it cannot be true to which any thing that is true is contradictory . Onely some men are forced by their interest and opinions to say , that although to humane reason some of their articles seem to have in them contradictions , yet it is the defect of their reason , and their faith is the more excellent , by how much reason is more at a loss . So doe the Lutherans about the Ubiquity of Christs body , and the Papists about Transubstantiation , and the Calvinists about absolute Reprobation , as being resolved upon the propositions , though heaven and earth confute them . For if men can be safe from argument with such a little artifice as this , then no error can be confuted , then there is nothing so absurd but may be maintained , and a mans reason is useless in inquiry and in probation ; and ( which is to me very considerable ) no man can in any article be a heretick or sin against his conscience . For to speak against the words of Scripture , is not directly against our conscience , there are many ways to escape , by interpretation or authority ; but to profess an article against our reason , is immediately against our conscience ; for reason and conscience dwell under the same roof , and eat the same portions of meat , and drink the same chalice : The authority of Scripture is superinduced , but right reason is the eternal word of God ; The kingdome of God that is within us ; and the best portions of Scripture , even the Law of Jesus Christ , which in moral things is the eternal law of Nature , is written in our hearts , is reason , and that wisdome to which we cannot choose but assent , and therefore in whatsoever he goes against his reason , he must needs goe against his conscience , because he goes against that , by which he supposes God did intend to govern him , reason not having been placed in us as a snare and a temptation , but as a light and a starre to lead us by day and night . It is no wonder that men maintain absurd propositions , who will not hear great reason against them , but are willing to take excuses and pretences for the justification of them . 2. This is not to be understood , as if God could doe nothing but what we can with our reason comprehend or know how . For God can doe every thing , but we cannot understand every thing : and therefore infinite things there are , or may be , which our reason cannot master ; they are above our understanding , but are to be entertained by faith . It is not to be said or beleeved that God can doe what right reason says cannot be : but it must be said and beleeved that God can doe those things to which our understanding cannot by all its powers ministred here below , attain . For since God is omnipotent , unless we were omniscient , we could not understand all that he can doe ; but although we know but little , yet we know some propositions which are truths taught us by God , and they are the measures whereby we are to speak and beleeve concerning the works of God. For it is to be considered , whatsoever is above our understanding , is not against it : supra and secundùm may consist together in several degrees : Thus we understand the Divine power of working miracles , and we beleeve and know God hath done many : and although we know not how our dead bones shall live again , yet our reason tels us , that it is within the power of God to effect it ; and therefore our faith need not be troubled to beleeve it . But if a thing be against our understanding , it is against the work of God , and against a truth of God , and therefore is no part , and it can be no effect of the Divine power : Many things in nature are above our understanding , and no wonder if many things in grace are so too ; The peace of God passeth all understanding , yet we feel something of it , and hope for more , and long for all , and beleeve what we yet cannot perceive . But I consider further : There are some things in reason which are certainly true , and some things which reason does infallibly condemne : our blessed Saviours argument was certain , A spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye perceive me to have ; therefore I am no spirit : and S. Johns argument was certain , That which we have seen with our eyes , and heard with our ears , and which our hands have handled of the word of life , that we preach , that is , we are to beleeve what we see and hear and feel ; and as this is true in the whole Religion , so it is true in every article of it . If right sense and right reason tell us clearly , that is , tell us so that there is no absurdness , or contradiction , or unreasonableness in it , we are to beleeve it , as we are to beleeve God ; and if an Angel from heaven should tell us any thing against these propositions , I doe not doubt but we would reject him . Now if we inquire what things are certainly true or false ; I must answer that in the first place I reckon , prime principles and contradictions . In the next place , those things which are manifestly absurd : but if it be asked further , which things are manifestly absurd , and what it is to be manifestly absurd ? there can no more answer be given to this , then to him who asks , how shall I know whether I am in light or in darkness ? If therefore it be possible for men to dote in such things as these , their reason is useless in its greatest force and highest powers : It must therefore be certain , that if the parts of a contradiction , or a right reason be put in bar against a proposition , it must not pretend to be an article of faith ; and to pretend Gods omnipotency against it , is to pretend his power against his truth . God can deliver us from our enemies , when to humane reason it seems impossible , that is , when we are destitute of all natural help , and proper causes and probabilities of escape , by what we see or feel ; that is , when it is impossible to men , it may be possible with God ; but then the faith which beleeves that God can doe it , is also very right reason : and if we hope he will doe it , there is more then faith in it , but there is nothing in it beyond reason , except love also be there . The result is this : 1. Our reason is below many of the works , and below all the power of God , and therefore cannot perceive all that God hath , or can , or will doe , no more then an Owl can stare upon the body of the Sun , or tel us what strange things are in that immense globe of fire . But when any thing that is possible is revealed , reason can consent ; but if reason cannot consent to it when it is told of it , then it is nothing , it hath no being , it hath no possibility ; whatsoever is in our understanding is in being : for that which is not , is not intelligible , and to what reason cannot consent , in that no being can be supposed . 2. Not onely what is impossible to reason is possible in faith , but if any thing be really absurd or unreasonable , that is , against some truth , in which humane reason is really instructed , that is a sufficient presumption against a proposition , that it cannot be an article of faith . For even this very thing ( I mean ) an avoiding of an absurdity , or an inconvenience , is the onely measure and rule of interpreting very many places of Scripture . For why does not every Christian pull out his right eye , or cut off his hand , and leg , that he might enter into heaven halt and blinde ? why doe not we beleeve that Christ is a door , and a vine , and a stone , since these things are dogmatically affirmed in Scripture ? but that we expound Scriptures as we confute them who deny principles , by declaring that such senses , or opinions introduce evil and foolish consequents , against some other truth in some faculty or other in which humane reason is rightly taught . Now the measure and the limit of this , is that very thing which is the reason of this , and all the preceding discourse , One truth cannot be against another ; if therefore your opinion or interpretation be against a truth , it is false , and no part of faith . A commandement cannot be against a revelation , a privilege cannot be against a promise , a threatning cannot mean against an article , a right cannot be against a duty ; for all reason , and all right , and all truth , and all faith , and all commandements are from God , and therefore partake of his unity and his simplicity . 3. This is to be enlarged with this advice , that in all questions of the sense of Scripture , the ordinary way is to be presumed before the extraordinary , and if the plain way be possible , and reasonable , and useful , and the extraordinary of no other use , but to make wonder and strangeness to the beleef of the understanding , we are to presume for that , and to let this alone , because that hath the advantage of reason , it being more reasonable that God will keep the methods of his own creation , and bring us to him by ways with which we are acquainted , and by which we can better understand our way to him , then that he will doe a miracle to no purpose , and without necessity ; God never doing any thing for the ostentation , but very many things for the manifestation of his power , for his wisdome and his power declare each other , and in every thing where he shews his mightiness , he also shews his wisdome , that is , he never does any thing without great reason . And therefore the Romans doctrine of the holy Sacrament suffers an intolerable prejudice , because it supposes daily heaps and conjugations of miracles , wholly to no purpose ; since the real body can be taken by them to whom it does not good ; and all the good can be conveyed to us , though the body be onely taken in a spiritual sense ; all the good being conveyed by moral instruments , and to spiritual effect ; and therefore the ordinary way , and the sense which the Church of England gives , is infinitely to be preferred , because it supposes no violences and effects of miracles , no cramps and convulsions to reason : and a man may receive the holy Sacrament , and discourse of all its effects , and mysteriousnesses , though he doe not talk like a mad man , or a man going out of his wits , and a stranger to all the Reason and Philosophy of the world ; and therefore it is remarkable , that there is in our faith no article , but what is possible to be effected by the ordinary power of God ; That a Virgin should conceive is so possible to Gods power , that is possible in nature say the Arabians ; but however , he that made the Virgin out of nothing , can make her produce something out of something : and for the resurrection of the dead , it is certainly less then the Creation , and it is like that which we see every year , in the resurrection of plants and dead corn , and is in many degrees imitable by Art , which can out of ashes raise a flower . And for all the other articles of our Creed , they are so far from being miraculous and strange to reason , that the greatest wonder is , that our beleef is so simple and facile , and that we shall receive so great and prodigious events hereafter , by instruments so fitted to the weakest capacities of men here below . Indeed some men have so scorn'd the simplicity of the Gospel , that because they thought it honourable to have every thing strange and unintelligible , they have put in devices and dreams of miracles of their own , and have so explicated them , that as without many miracles they could not be verified , so without one , they can hardly be understood . That which is easy to reason , and most intelligible , is more like the plainness , and truth , and innocence , and wisdome of the Gospel , then that which is bones to Philosophy , and iron to the teeth of babes . But this is to be practised with caution ; for every mans reason is not right , and every mans reason is not to be trusted : and therefore , 4. As absurd foolish things are not to be obtruded , under the pretence of being mysteries , so neither must mistaken Philosophy , and false notices of things be pretended for reason . There are mistakes on all hands , some Christians explicate their mysteries , and mince them into so many minutes , and niceties , and speak of them more then they are taught , more then is said in the Scriptures , or the first Creeds , that the article which in its own simplicity was indeed mysterious , and not to be comprehended by our dark and less instructed reason , but yet was not impossible to be beleeved , is made impossible to be understood by the appendages , and exposed to scorn and violences by hereticks and misbeleevers ; so is the Incarnation of the Son of God , the mysterious Trinity , the presence of Christ in the holy Sacrament . For so long as the mysteries are signified in simple , wise , and general terms , reason can espy no particular impossibilities in them : but when men will explicate what they cannot understand , and intricate what they pretend to explicate , and superinduce new clauses to the article , and by entring within the cloud , doe less see the light , they finde reason amazed , where she could easily have submitted , and clouds brought upon the main article , and many times the body it self is supposed to be a phantasm , because of its tinsel and fairy dressing : and on the other side , he that would examine an article of faith , by a proposition in Philosophy , must be careful that his Philosophy be as right as he pretends . For as it will be hard to expect , that right reason should submit to a false article , upon pretence it is revealed , so it will be as hard to distrust an article , because it is against a false proposition , which I was taught in those Schools of learning who speak things by custome , or by chance , or because they are taught , and because they are not suffered to be examined . Whoever offers at a reproof of reason , must be sure that he is right in the article , and that must be upon the strength of stronger reason ; and he that offers by reason to reprove a pretended article , must be sure his reason must be greater then the reverence of that pretension . And therefore holy Scriptures command us in those cases to such purposes , as not onely teach us what to doe in it , but also confirm the main inquiry ; for therefore we are commanded to try all things : Suppose that be meant that we try them by Scriptures ; how can we so try them , but by comparing line with line , by considering the consequents of every pretence , the analogy of faith , the measures of justice , the laws of nature , essential right , and prime principles ? and all this is nothing but by making our faith the limit of our reason , in matters of duty to God ; and reason the minister of faith , and things that concern our duty . The same is intended by those other words of another Apostle , Beloved , beleeve not every spirit , but try if the spirits be of God ; how can this be tried ? by Scripture ? yea ; but how if the Question be of the sense of Scripture , as it is generally at this day ? Then it must be tried by something extrinsecal to the Question , and whasoever you can call to judgement , reason must still be your Sollicitor and your Advocate and your Judge ; onely reason is not always the Law , sometimes it is , for so our blessed Saviour was pleased to say , Why of your selves doe you not judge that which is reasonable ? for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is used , that which is fitting and consonant to reason ; and in proportion to this it was , that so much of the Religion of Jesus was clothed with Parables , as if the theoremes and propositions themselves were clothed with flesh and bloud , and conversed after the manner of men , to whom reason is the Law , and the Rule , the Guide and the Judge , the measure of good and evil for this life , and for that which is to come . The consequent is this : He that says thus , This doctrine is against the word of God , and therefore it is absurd and against reason , may as it fals out say true ; but his proposition will be of no use , because reason is before revelation , and that this is revealed by God , must be proved by reason . But , He that says , This is absurd , or this is against reason , therefore this is against the word of God , if he says true in the antecedent , says true in the consequent , and the argument is useful in the whole , it being the best way to interpret difficult Scriptures , and to establish right senses , and to confute confident heresies . For when both sides agree that these are the words of God , and the question of faith is concerning the meaning of the words , nothing is an article of faith , or a part of the religion , but what can be proved by reasons to be the sense and intentions of God. Reason is never to be pretended against the clear sense of Scripture , because by reason it is that we came to perceive that to be the clear sense of Scripture . And against Reason , reason cannot be pretended ; but against the words of Scripture produced in a question , there may be great cause to bring reason ; for nothing seems plainer then those words of S. James , Above all things my brethren , swear not at all ; and yet reason interposes and tels us , that plain words must not be understood against plain reason and plain necessity : For if oaths before Magistrates were not permitted and allowed , it were necessary to examine all men by torture ; and yet neither so could they so well be secured of truth as they can by swearing . What is more plain then the words of S. Paul ? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , mortify or kill your members , that are upon the earth ; and yet reason tels us , that we must not hurt or destroy one limb , and where ever the effect would be intolerable , there the sense is still unreasonable ; and therefore not a part of faith , so long as it is an enemy to reason , which is the elder sister , and the guide and guardian of the yonger . For as when the Tables of the Law were broken by Moses , God would make no new ones , but bade Moses provide some stones of his own , and he would write them over : so it is in our Religion , when God with the finger of his Spirit , writes the Religion and the Laws of Jesus Christ , he writes them in the tables of our reason , that is , in the tables of our hearts . Homo cordatus , a wise , rational man , sober , and humble , and discursive hath the best faith , but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( as S. Paul cals them ) the unreasonable , they are such who have no faith , 2 Thess. 3. 2. For the Christian Religion is called by S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a reasonable worship ; and the word of God is called by S. Peter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the reasonable and uncrafty milk ; it is full of reason , but it hath no tricks , it is rational , but not crafty , it is wise and holy : And he that pretends there are some things in our Religion , which right reason cannot digest and admit , makes it impossible to reduce Atheists , or to convert Jews and Heathens But if reason invites them in , reason can entertain them all the day . And now to the arguments brought against the use of reason ; thē answers may easily be gathered from the premises : To the first I answer , That reason is the eye of the soul in all things , natural , moral and religious ; and faith is the light of that eye , in things pertaining to God ; for it is true , that naturall reason cannot teach us the things of God , that is , reason instructed onely by this world , which S. Paul cals the natural man , cannot discern the things of the Spirit , for they are spiritually discerned : that is , that they are taught and perceived by the aids of Gods Spirit , by revelation and divine assistances and grace : but though natural reason cannot , yet it is false to say that reason cannot ; for reason illuminated can perceive the things of God ; that is , when reason is taught in that faculty , under that Master , and by those rules which are proper for spiritual things , then reason can doe all its intentions . To the second I answer , that therefore humility and piety are the best dispositions , to the understanding the secrets of the Gospel : 1. Because these doe remove those prejudices and obstructions which are bars and fetters to reason ; and the humble man does best understand , because the proud man will not inquire , or he will not labour , or he will not understand any proposition that makes it necessary for him to lay aside his imployment or his vanity , his interest or his vice . 2. These are indeed excellent dispositions to understanding , the best moral instruments , but not the best natural : If you are to dispute against a Heathen , a good reason will sooner convince him then an humble thought ; If you be to convert a Jew , an argument from the old Prophets is better to him then three or four acts of a gracious comportment . 3. Sometimes by way of blessing and reward . God gives understanding to good persons , which to the evil he denies , but this which effects any thing by way of Divine blessing , is not to be supposed the best natural instrument . Thus the Divines say that the fire of hell shall torment souls , tanquam instrumentum Divinae voluntatis , as the instrument in the hand of a voluntary , and almighty agent , but not as a thing apportioned properly to such an event , for the worm of conscience is more apt to that purpose . 4. And when we compare man with man , so it is true that the pious man should be sooner instructed then the impious , caeteris paribus , but if we compare discourse and piety , reason & humility , they excel each other in their several kinds , as wooll is better then a diamond , and yet a diamond is to be preferred before a bag of wool ; they operate to the same purpose of understanding in several manners : And whereas it is said in the argument , that the doctrine of the Cross was foolishness to the Greeks , it is true , but nothing to the present question . For therefore it was foolishness to them , because they had not been taught in the secrets of God , they were not instructed how God would by a way so contrary to flesh and bloud , cause the spirits of just men to be made perfect . And they who were wise by Plato's Philosophy , and onely well skill'd in Aristotle , could doe nothing in the Schools of Jesus , because they were not instructed in those truths by which such proceedings were to be measured ; but still , reason is the great wheel , though according as the motion was intended , new weights must be proportioned accordingly . The third objection presses upon the point of duty , and because the Scripture requires obedience of understanding , and submitting our most imperious faculties , therefore reason is to be excluded : To this I answer , that we must submit our understanding to God , is very true , but that is onely when God speaks . But because we heard him not , and are onely told that God did speak , our reason must examine whether it be fit to beleeve them that tell us so ; for some men have spoken falsly , and we have great reason to beleeve God , when all the reason in the world commands us to suspect the offerings of some men : and although we ought for the greatest reasons submit to God , yet we must judge and discern the sayings of God , from the pretences of men ; and how that can be done without using out reason in the inquiries of Religion is not yet discovered , but for the obedience of understanding , it consists in these particulars . The particulars in which obedience of Understanding consists . 1. That we submit to God onely and not to man ; that is , to God where ever it appears reasonable to be beleeved that he hath spoken , but never to man unless he hath authority from reason or religion to command our conformity . 2. That those things which by the abuse and pretence of reason are passed into a fictitious and usurped authority , make no part of our Religion ; for because we are commanded to submit our understanding to God , therefore we must call no man Master upon earth ; therefore it is certain that we must not beleeve the reports or opinions of men against a revelation of God. He that communicates with holy bread onely , and gives not the chalice to all Gods people that require the holy Communion , does openly adhere to a fond custome and authority of abused men , and leaves the express , clearest , undeniable institution of God. 3. When reason and revelation seem to disagree , let us so order our selves that so long as we beleeve this to be a revelation , no pretence of reason may change our beleef from it : if right or sufficient reason can perswade us that this is not a revelation , well and good ; but if reason leaves us in the actual perswasion that it is so , we must force our reason to comply with this , since no reason does force us to quit this wholly ; and if we cannot quit our reason or satisfie it , let us carry our selves with modesty , and confess the revelation , though with profession of our ignorance and unskilfulness to reconcile the two litigants . 4. That whatsoever is clearly and plainly told us , we obey it , and rest in it , and not measure it by the rules of folly and weak Philosophy , or the sayings of men in which error may be ingredient ; but when things are unequal , that is , when we can doubt concerning our reason , and cannot doubt concerning the revelation , we make no question but preferre this before that . 5. That in particular inquiries , we so order our selves as to make this the general measure , that we never doe violence to the word of God , or suspect that , but resolve rather to call our selves liars , then that Religion should receive detriment ; and rather quit our arguments then hazard an article ; that is , that when all things are equal , we rather preferre the pretence of revelation , then the pretences of reason , for the reverence of that and the suspicion of this . Beyond this we can doe no more . To the fourth I answer , that it is true , reason is fallible , or rather to speak properly , ratiocination , or the using of reason is subject to abuse and deception ; for reason it self is not fallible : but if reason , that is , reasonings be fallible , so are the pretences of revelation subject to abuse ; and what are we now the nearer ? Some reasons are but probable , and some are certain and confessed , and so it is in the sense of Scriptures , some are plain and need no interpreter , no discourse , no art , no reasonings to draw out their sense ; but many are intricate and obscure , secret and mysterious ; and to use a fallible reasoning to draw out an obscure and uncertain sense of Scripture , is sometimes the best way we have , and then we must make the best of it we can : but the use of reasoning is not onely to finde out truth the best we can , but sometimes we are as sure of it ; as of light ; but then and always our reason ( such as it is ) must lead us into such proportions of faith as they can : according as our reason or motives are , so ordinary is the degree our faith . To the fifth I need give no other answer but this , that it confesses the main question : For if this be the greatest reason in the world , God hath said it , therefore it is true , it follows , that all our faith relies upon this one reason ; but because this reason is of no use to us till the minor proposition be proved , and that it appear that God hath said it , and that in the inquiry after that , we are to use all our reason ; the consequent is , that in the first and last , reason lends legs of faith , and nothing can be wisely beleeved , but what can by some rational inducement be proved . As for the last proposition in the objection , This is against Scripture , therefore it is absurd and unreasonable , I have already made it appear to be an imprudent and useless affirmative . The sixth Objection complains of them that by weak reasonings lose their Religion , but this is nothing against right reasoning : For because Mountebanks and old women kill men by vile Physick , therefore is it true , that the wise discourses of Physicians cannot minister to health ? half-witted people talk against God , and make objections against Religion , and themselves have not wit or will enough to answer them and they intending to make reason to be the positive and affirmative measure of Religion , are wholly mistaken , and abuse themselves and others . 2. We are not to exact every thing in Religion according to our weak reasonings ; but whatsoever is certain in reason , Religion cannot contradict that ; but what is uncertain , or imperfect , Religion oftentimes does instruct and amend it . But there are many mysteries of Religion contrary to reason , corrupted with evil manners , and many are contrary to reason , corrupted with false propositions ; now these men make objections , which upon their own principles they can never answer : but that which seems impossible to vicious persons is reason to good men , and that which children and fools cannot answer , amongst wise men hath no difficulty ; and the ignorant , and the unstable , wrest some Scriptures to their own damnation : but concerning the new Atheists that pretend to wit , it is not their reason , but their want of reason that makes them such , for if either they had more learning , or did beleeve themselves to have less , they could never be Atheists . To the last I answer , that it is reason we should hear reason whereever we finde it , if there be no greater evil brought by the teacher then he can bring good ; But if an heretick preaches good things , it is not always lawful to hear them , unless when we are out of danger of his abuses also . And thus truth from the devil may be heard , if we were out of his danger ; but because he tels truth to evil purposes , and makes wise sayings to become craft , it is not safe to hear him . 2. But besides this , although it is lawful to beleeve a truth which the devil tels us , yet it is not lawful to goe to School to the devil , or to make inquiries of him , because he that does so , makes him his Master , and gives something of Gods portion to Gods enemy . As for Judicial Astrology and Genethliacal predictions , for my part I therefore reprove them , not because their reason is against Religion , for certainly it cannot be ; but because I think they have not reason enough in what they say ; they goe upon weak principles which they cannot prove ; they reduce them to practice by impossible mediums : they draw conclusions with artless and unskilful heads , they argue about things with which they have little conversation , they cannot makes scientifical progress in their profession , but out of greediness to doe something ; they usually , at least are justly suspected to take in auxiliaries from the spirits of Darkness ; they have always spoken uncertainty , and most part falsly ; and have always lived scandalously in their profession : they have by all Religions been cried down , trusted by none but fools , and superstitious people ; and therefore although the art may be very lawful , if the starres were upon the earth , or the men were in heaven , if they had skill in what they profess , and reason in all their pretences , and after all that their principles were certain , and that the starres did really signify future events , and that those events were not overruled by every thing in heaven and in earth , by God , and by our own will and wisdome , yet because here is so little reason , and less certainty , and nothing but confidence and illusion , therefore it is that Religion permits them not ; and it is not the reason in this art , that is against Religion , but the folly or the knavery of it , and the dangerous and horrid consequents , which they feel that run a whoring after such Idols of imagination . RULE 4. A judgement of nature , or inclination , is not sufficient to make a sure Conscience . BEcause this Rule is of good use , not onely for making judgement concerning the states of some men , but also in order to many practices , it will not be lost labour to consider , that there are three degrees of practical judgement . The first is called an inclination , or the first natural consonancy between the faculty or disposition of man , and some certain actions . All men are naturally pitiful in some degree , unless their nature be lame and imperfect : As we say all men naturally can see , and it is true , if they have good eyes : so all men naturally are pitiful , unless they have no bowels : But some more , some less . And therefore there is in their natures a conveniency , or agreeing between their dispositions and acts of charity . In the first or lowest sort there is an aptness to it . 2. In the sweeter and better natures there is a virtual charity . 3. But in those that consider and choose , and observe the Commandement , or the proportions of right reason , there is in these onely a formal , deliberative , compound or practical judgement . Now concerning the first sort , that is , the natural disposition or first propensity , it is but a remote disposition towards a right conscience and a practical judgement ; because it may be rescinded , or diverted by a thousand accidents , and is nothing else but a relique of the shipwrack which Adam and all the world have made , and may pass into nothing as suddenly as it came . He that sees two Cocks fight , though he have no interest in either , will assist one of them at least by an ineffective pity and desire : but this passes no further then to natural effects , or the changes or affections of a load-stone ; it may produce something in nature , but nothing in manners . Concerning the second , that is , a virtual judgement , that is , a natural inclination passing forth into habit or custome , and delight in the actions of some vertues ; it is certain that it is one part of the grace of God , and a more promoted and immediate disposition to the vertue of its kinde then the former . Some men are naturally very merciful , and some are abstemious , and some are continent : and these in the course of their life take in every argument and accidental motive , and the disposition swells , and the nature is confirm'd . But still it is but nature . The man , it may be , is chast , because he hates the immodesty of those addresses which prepare to uncleanness ; or he loves his quiet , or fears the accidents of his Enemy-crime ; or there was a terror infus'd into him by the sight of a sad spectacle , the evil reward of an adulterous person . — quosdam moechos dum Mugilis intrat . Concerning this kinde of virtual judgement or confirm'd nature , I have two things to say : 1. That this virtual judgement can produce love or hatred to certain objects , ineffective complacencies or disrelishes respectively , proper antipathies and aversations from a whole kinde of objects ; such as was that hatred that Tamerlan had to Zercon , or some men to Cats . And thus much we cannot deny to be produc'd by the operation and simple apprehension of our senses by pictures and all impressions of fancy : Cum opinamur difficile aliquid aut terribile statim compatimur . Secundùm imaginem autem similiter nos habemus . We finde effects and impresses according to the very images of things we see , and by their prime apprehensions ; and therefore much rather may these actus imperati , or more natural and proper effects and affections of will be entertain'd or produc'd respectively . Men at first sight fall in love with women , and that against their reason and resolution , and counsel , and interest , and they cannot help it ; and so they may doe with some actions of virtue . And as in the first case they are rather miserable then vicious ; so in this they are rather fortunate then vertuous : and they may be commended as we praise a fair face , or a strong arm , an athletick health , or a good constitution ; and it is indeed a very good disposition and a facilitation of a vertuous choice . But , 2. This virtual judgement , which is nothing but nature confirm'd by accidents , is not a state of good by which a man is acceptable to God. Neither is it a sufficient principle of a good life , nor indeed of the actions of its own kinde . 1. Not of good life , because it may be in a single instance ; and it can never be in all . The man that is good natur'd , that is , naturally meek , and loving , goes the furthest upon this account ; but without the conjunction of other vertues it is a great way off from that good state whither naturally it can but tend and incline : and we see some good things are made to serve some evil ; and by temperance , and a moderate diet , some preserve their health , that they may not preserve their chastity : and they may be habitually proud , because they are naturally chast : and then this chastity is no virtue , but a disposition and an aptness onely . In this sense that of S. James may be affirmed , He that offends in one , is guilty of all ; that is , if his inclinations , and his accidentally acquird habits be such as to admit a mixture , they are not genuine and gracious : such are these that are the effects of a nature fitted towards a particular virtue . It must be a higher principle that makes an intire piety ; nature and the habits growing upon her stock , cannot doe it . Alexander was a continent Prince , and the captive beauties of Persia were secur'd by it in their Honours ; but by rage he destroyed his friend , and by drunkenness he destroyed himself . 2. But neither is this virtual judgement a sufficient principle of the actions of its own kinde ; for this natural strength is nothing but an uneasiness and unaptness to suffer by common temptations ; but place the man where he can be tempted , and this good disposition secures him not , because there may be something in nature bigger then it . It remains then , that to the constitution of a Right and Sure Conscience , there is requir'd a formal judgement , that is , a deliberation of the understanding , and a choice of the wi●l , that being instructed , and this inclined by the grace of God : tantóque laudabilior munificentia nostra fore videbatur , quòd ad illam non impetu quodam sed consilio trahebamur , said Secundus : then it is right and good , then when it is not violent , necessary , or natural , but when it is chosen . This makes a Right and Sure Conscience , because the grace of God hath an universal influence into all the course of our actions . For he that said , Doe not kill , said also , Doe not steal : and if he obeys in one instance , for that reason must obey in all , or be condemn'd by himself , and then the Conscience is right in the principle and fountain , though defil'd in the issue and emanation . For he that is condemn'd by his own Conscience , hath the law written and the characters still fair , legible , and read ; but then the fault is in something else ; the will is corrupted . The summe is this : It is not enough that the Conscience be taught by nature , but it must be taught by God , conducted by reason , made operative by discourse , assisted by choice , instructed by laws and sober principles : and then it is Right , and it may be Sure. RULE 5. When two motives concurre to the determination of an action , whereof one is vertuous , and the other secular , a Right Conscience is not prejudic'd by that mixture . HE that fasts to punish himself for his sins , and at the same time intends his health , though it will be very often impossible for him to tell himself which was the final and prevailing motive and ingredient into the perswasion , yet it is no detriment to his conscience ; the religious motive alone did suffice to make it to be an act of a good conscience ; and if the mix●ure of the other could change this , it could not be lawful to use , or in any degree to be perswaded by the promises of those temporal blessings which are reco●ded in both Testaments , and to which there is a natural desire , and proper inclination . But this also is with some difference . 2. If the secular ingredient be the stronger , it is in the same degree as it prevails over the vertuous or religious , a diminution of the worthiness of the action ; but if it be a secular blessing under a promise , it does not alter the whole kinde of the action . The reason is this : Because whatever God hath promised , is therefore desirable and good , because he hath promised it , or he hath promised it because it is of it self good , and useful to us ; and therefore whatever we may innocently desire , we may innocently intend : but if it be mingled with a religious and spiritual interest , it ought not to sit down in the highest place , because a more worthy is there present , lest we be found to be passionate for the things of this life , and indifferent for God and for Religion . 3. If the secular or temporal ingredient be not under a promise , and yet be the prime and chief motive , the whole case is altered : the conscience is not right , it is natural inclination , not conscience , it is sense or interest , not duty . * He that gives alms with a purpose to please his Prince , who is charitable and religious , although his purpose be innocent , yet because it is an end which God hath not encouraged by propounding it as a reward of charity the whole deliberation is turn'd to be a secular action , and passes without a reward . Our blessed Saviour hath by an instance of his own , determin'd this case . When thou makest a feast call not the rich , who can make thee recompence , but call the poor , and thou shalt have reward in heaven . To call the rich to a feast is no sin , but to call them is to lose the reward of charity , by changing the whole nature of the action from charity to civility , from Religion to prudence . And this hath not other exception or variety in it , but when the mixture is of a thing that is so purely natural , that it is also necessary : Thus to eat upon a festival day to satisfy a long hunger , to be honestly imployed to get a living , doe not cease to be religious , though that which is temporal be the first and the greatest cause of the action or undertaking . But the reason of this difference ( if any be apprehended ) is because this natural end is also a duty , and tacitly under a promise . Quest. IT is usually requir'd , that all that enter into the holy Offices of the Ministery should so primely and principally design the glory of God , that all other considerations should scarce be ingredients into the resolution , and yet if it be inquired how far this is obligatory , and observe how little it is attended to in the first preparations to the Order , the very needs of most men will make the Question material . But I answer to the Question , in proportion to the sense of the present Rule . 1. Where ever a religious act by Gods appointment may serve a temporal end and a spiritual , to attend either is lawful ; but it is still more excellent , by how much preference and greater zeal , we more serve the more excellent . Therefore although it be better to undertake the sacred function wholly for ends spiritual , yet it is lawful to enter into it with an actual design to make that calling the means of our natural and necessary support . The reason is : Because it is lawfull to intend what God hath offered and propounded . The end which God hath made , cannot be evil , and therefore it cannot be evil to choose that instrument to that end , which by Gods appointment is to minister to that end . Now since God hath ordained that they who preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel , it cannot be unlawful to design that in order to this . 2. If our temporal support and maintenance be the first and immediate design , it makes not the whole undertaking to be unlawful . For all callings , and all states , and all actions , are to be directed or done to the glory of God ; according to that saying of S. Paul , Whether ye eat or drink , or whatsoever ye doe , all to the glory of God : and that one calling should be more for Gods glory then another , is by reason of the matter and imployment ; but in every one , for its portion still , Gods glory must be the principal , and yet no man questions but it is lawful for any man to bring his son up to the most gainful trade , if in other things there be no objection : and therefore why this may not be the first moving consideration in the susception of , or designation to the calling Ecclesiastical , cannot have any reason in the nature of the thing : For if in all things Gods glory must be the principal end , and yet in some Callings the temporal advantage is the first mover , then it may be so in all ; the intention of Gods glory notwithstanding : for if it hinders not in that , it hinders not in this . But yet , 3. It is a great imperfection actually to think of nothing but the temporal advantages , of which God hath in that Calling made provisions ; but I say , it is not always a sin to make them the first mover in the designing the person to that Calling . But therefore this is onely tolerable in those persons , who at great distance design the Calling ; as when they first study to make themselves capable of it , then it is tolerable , because they are bound to provide for themselves in all just ways , and standing at so great distances from it , cannot behold the beauties which are in interiori demo ; the duty which is on them , is to doe that which is their proper work , that is , to fit themselves with abilities and skill to conduct it , and therefore their intention must be fitted accordingly , and move by the most powerful and prevailing motive , so it be lawful . He that applies himself to learn letters , hath an intention proportionable to his person and capacity when he first enters , and as he grows in powers , so must he also in purposes ; so that as he passes on to perfection , he may also have intentions more noble and more perfect : and a man in any Calling may first design to serve that end that stands next him , and yet when he is possest of that , look on further to the intention of the thing , and its own utmost capacity . But therefore , 4. Whoever does actually enter into Orders , must take care that his principal end be the glory of God , and the good of souls . The reasons are these : 1. Because no man is fit for that Office , but he that is spiritual in his person , as well as his Office : he must be a despiser of the world , a light to others , an example to the flock , a great denier of himself , of a celestial minde , he must minde heavenly things ; with which dispositions it cannot consist , that he who is called to the lot of God , should place his chief affections in secular advantages . 2. This is that of which the Apostle was a glorious precedent , We seek not yours , but you ; for the Parents lay up for the children , not children for their Parents : meaning , that between the spiritual and the natural paternity , there is so much proportion , that when it is for the good of the children , they must all quit their temporal advantages ; but because this is to be done for the spiritual , it follows , this must be chief . And this I suppose is also enjoyned by another Apostle , Feeding the flock of God , not for filthy lucre sake , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , but of a prompt , ready minde ; a minde moved by intrinsick arguments of fair design , not drawn by the outward cords of vanity and gain . 3. The work of the Calling being principally and immediately for the good of souls , and for the glory of God , it cannot be pursued as the nature of the work requires , if that be not principally intended , which is principally to be procured ; All that which is necessary in order to it must also be taken care of : Thus the Ministers of Religion may attend their health , and must look to their necessary support , and may defend themselves against all impediments of their offices in just and proportionable ways : but because all these have further purposes , although they standing nearest may be first regarded by an actual care , at some times , and in some circumstances , and by actual attention ; yet habitually , and principally , and constantly , the glory of God , and the good of souls must be in the heart , and in the purpose of every action . But the principality and preheminence of this intention is no otherwise to be judged of , either by our selves or others , then by these following significations . 1. No man can in any sense principally , that is , as he ought , intend the good of souls , who enters into the sacred Ministery without those just measures of preparation and disposition , which are required by the Church , and the nature of the thing it self ; that is , that he be well instructed in the holy Scriptures , and be fit to teach , to exhort , to reprove . For he who undertakes a work which can serve Gods ends and his own in several capacities , and is not sufficiently instructed to serve the ends of God , it is apparent that what he undertakes is for his own end . 2. His intentions cannot be right , who by any indirect arts does enter , for that which does not begin at God , cannot be for God : Non enim ambitione , vel pretio , sed probatae vitae & disciplinarum testimonio , ad honoris & Sacerdotii insignia oportet promoveri , said the Emperour Theodosius . He therefore who symoniacally enters , fixes his eye and heart upon that which he values to be worth money , not upon the spiritual imployment , between which and money there can be no more proportion , then between contemplation and a cartrope ; they are not things of the same nature ; and he that comes into the field with an Elephant , cannot be supposed to intend to hunt a hare : neither can he be supposed to intend principally the ministery of souls , who comes to that office instructed onely with a bag of money . 3. He may be supposed principally to intend the Ministery of souls , and in it the glory of God , who so attends to the execution of his office , that it doe really and sufficiently minister to the thing . For since the Calling is by God really designed to that end , and if the Ministers be not wanting to themselves , they are sufficiently enabled and assisted to that purpose ; he that zealously and wisely ministers in the office , hath given a most real testimony of his fair intention , because he does that thing so as those intentions onely can be effected . The thing it self is sufficient for the end if God blesses it ; he therefore that does the thing , does actuate the intention of God , and sanctifies his own : But this is to be understood with the addition of the following caution . 4. He may be confident that his intentions for Gods glory and the good of souls are right and principal , who so conjoyns his other lesser ends with the conduct of the greater , that they shall always be made to give place to the greater . That is , who still pursues the interest of souls , and the work of his Ministery , when the hopes of maintenance , or honour , or secular regards doe fail . For he that for carnal or secular regards will either quit or neglect his Ministery , it is certain , his carnal or secular ends were his chief motive and incentive in the work . It was the case of Demas who was S. Pauls Minister and work-fellow in the service of the Gospel , but he left him , because he loved the present world ; concerning which , it is to be considered , that this lapse and recession of Demas from the assistances of S. Paul , did not proceed from that love of the wo●ld which S. John speaks of , and is criminal , and forbidden to all Christians , which whosoever hath , the love of the Father dwels not in him , but is to be understood of such a love , which to other Christians is not unlawful , but was in those times especially ) inconsistent with the duty of Evangelists , in those great necessities of the Church : Demas was a good man , but weak in his spirit , and too secular in his relations , but he returned to his station , and did the work of an Evangelist , a while after , as appears in the Epistle to the Colossians and Philemon ; but for the present he was too blame . For he would secure his relations and his interests with too great a caution and diligence , and leave the other , to attend this . Such as now adays is too great case of our estates , secular negotiations , merchandizes , civil imployments , not ministring directly unto Religion , and the advantages of its ministration . For our great King the Lord Jesus , hath given to all Christians some imployment , but to some more , to some less , and in their own proportion they must give a return : and in a Minister of the Gospel , every inordination of carefulness , and every excess of attendance to secular affairs , and every unnecessary avocation from , o● neglect of his great work is criminal , and many things are excesses in them , which are not in others , because the Ministerial office requires more attendance and conversation with spiritual things , then that of others . 5. If ever the Minister of holy things , for hope or fear , for gain or interest descit his station , when he is persecuted , or when he is not persecuted , it is too much to be presumed , that he did not begin for God , who for man will quit Gods service . They that wander till they finde a rich seat , doe all that they doe for the riches of the place , not for the employment : Si non ubi sed●as locus est , est ubi ambules , said he in the Comedy ; the calling of these men is not fixed but ambulatory : and if that which fixes them be temporal advantages , then that which moved them principally is not spiritual employment . For it is considerable , that if it be unlawful to undertake the holy Calling , without a Divine vocation to it , then to forsake it without a Divine permission must be criminal . He that calls to come , calls to continue , where the need is lasting , and the office perpetual . But to leave the Calling when the revenue is gone , to quit the Altar when it hath no offering , to let the souls wander , when they bring no gifts , is to despise the Religion , and to love onely the fat of the sacrifices : For the Altar indeed does sanctify the gift , but not the gift the Altar ; and he hath but a light opinion of an eternal Crown of glory , or thinks God but an ill paymaster , that will not doe him service upon the stock of his promises , and will not feed the flock , though he have no other reward but to be feasted in the eternal Supper of the Lamb : Who are hirelings , but they who fly when the Wolf comes ? and woe be to that Evangelist who upon any secular regard neglects to preach the Gospel ; woe be to him , to whom it shall be said at the day of Judgement , I was hungry , and my flock was hungry , and ye fed neither it nor me . But this is to be understood with these liberties : 1. That it be no prejudice to those Ecclesiasticks , who in time of Persecution , doe so attend to their Ministeries , that no material part of it be omitted , or slightly performed , and yet take from it such portions of time as are necessary for their labour , or support by any just and honest imployment . Thus S. Paul wrought in the Trade of a Tent-maker , because he would not be a burthen to the Church of Corinth ; and when the Church is stripp'd naked of her robes , and the bread of proposition are stollen from her table by Souldiers , there is no peradventure but the Ecclesiastical offices are so to be attended to , that the natural duty and necessity be not neglected . 2. That it be no prejudice to Ecclesiasticks in the days of peace or war , to change their station from Bishoprick to Bishoprick , from Church to Church , where God , or the Church , where Charity or Necessity , where Prudence or Obedience calls . Indeed it hath been fiercely taught , that Ecclesiasticks ought never , and upon no pretence to desert their Church , and goe to another any more then a man may forsake his wife ; and for this a Decretal of P. Euaristus is pretended , and is recorded in the Canon Law. c. Sicut vir . Can. 7. q. 1. Sicut vir non debet adulterare uxorem suam , it a nec Episcopus Ecclesiam suam , ut illam dimittat ad quam fuit sacratus : and therefore when Eusebius the Bishop of Caesarea was called to be Bishop of Antioch , he refused it pertinaciously , and for it was highly commended by the Emperour ; and S. Hierome in his Epistle to Oceanus tels , In Nicaenâ Synodo à Patribus decretum est , nè de alia in aliam Ecclesiam Episcopus transferatur , n● virginalis pauperculae societate contemptâ ditioris adulterae quaerat amplexus . Something indeed like it was decreed by the fifteenth and sixteenth Canons of the Nicene Councel ; and it was an usual punishment amongst the holy Primitives , Careat Cathedrâ propriâ qui ambit alienam . But these things though they be true and right , yet are not a contradictory to the present case . For , 1. Euaristus ( it is clear ) forbad translations and removes from Church to Church , ambitus causâ , for ambition or covetousness , and therefore it is by him expresly permitted in their proper cases and limits ; that is , [ in inevitabili necessitate , aut Apostolicâ , vel regulari mutatione ] when there is inevitable necessity , or the command and authority of a superiour power : and yet upon perusal of the Decree I finde , that Euaristus his intent was , that a Bishop should not thrust his Church from him by way of divorce , and excommunication , and take another , as appears not onely by the corresponding part of the Decree , viz. That neither must the Church take in another Bishop or Husband upon him to whom already she is espoused ; but by the expression used in the beginning of it , dimittere Ecclesiam Episcopus non debet ; and it is compared to the adultery of a man that puts away his wife , and marries another ; and also it appears more yet by the gloss , which seems to render the same sense of it , and wholly discourses of the unlawfulness to excommunicate a Church or a City , lest the innocent should suffer with the criminal : for when a Church is excommunicated , though all those persons die upon whom the sentence fell , yet the Church is the same under other persons their successors , and therefore all the way it does injustice , by involving the new arising innocents , and at last is wholly unjust by including all and onely innocent persons . But which way soever this Decree be understood , it comes not home to a prohibition of our case . 2. As for Eusebius , it is a clear case he imposed upon the good Emperour , who knew not the secret cause of Eusebius his denial to remove from Caesarea to Antioch . For he having engaged the Emperour before time to write in his behalf , that he might be permitted to enjoy that Bishoprick , was not willing to seem guilty of levity and easiness of change . But that was not all , he was a secret favourer of the Arrians , and therefore was unwilling to goe to that Church where his predecessor Eustathius had been famous for opposing that pest . 3. To that of S. Jerome out of the Nicene Council , I answer , That the prohibition is onely of such , as without authority , upon their own head , for their own evil purposes , and with injury to their own Churches did it : and of covetousness it is , that S. Jerome notes and reproves the practice : To despise our charge because it is poor , is to love the money more then the souls , and therefore this is not to be done by any one of his own choice ; but if it be done by the command or election of our Superiour , it is to be presumed it is for the advantage of the Church in matter of direct reason , or collateral assistance , and therefore hath in it no cause of reproof . And to this purpose the whole affair is very excellently stated by the 14. Canon of the Apostles ; A Bishop must not leave his own Parish or Diocess , and invade that of another man , nisi forte quis cum rationabili causa compellatur , tanquam qui possit , ibidem constitutus plus lucri conferre , & in causa religionis aliquid profectûs prospicere . If there be a reasonable cause he may ; and the cause is reasonable , if by going he may doe more good , or advantage to Religion : but of this he is not to be Judge himself , but must be judged by his Superiours ; & hoc non à semetipso pertentet , sed multorum Episcoporum judicio , & maxima supplicatione perficiat ; he must not doe it on his own head , but by the sentence and desire of the Bishops . There needs no more to be added to this , but that if a greater revenue be annexed to another charge , and that it be in rem Ecclesiae , that the more worthy person should be advanced thither , to enable his better ministeries by those secular assistances which our infirmity needs , there is nothing to be said against it , but that if he be the man he is taken for , he knows how to use those advantages to Gods glory , and the good of souls , and the services of the Church ; and if he does so , his intentions are to be presumed pure and holy , because the good of souls is the principal . Upon the supposition of these causes , we finde that the practice of the ancient Bishops and Clerks in their translations was approved . Origen did first serve God in the Church of Alexandria , afterwards he went to Caesarea , to Antioch , to Tyre , and S. Gregory Nazianzen changed his Episcopal See eight times . Nay the Apostles themselves did so : S. Peter was first Bishop of Antioch , afterwards of Rome : and the necessity and utility of the Churches called S. Paul to an ambulatory Government and Episcopacy , though at last he also was fixed at Rome , and he removed Timothy and Titus from Church to Church as the need and uses of the Church required . But in this , our call must be from God , or from our Superiours , not from levity or pride , covetousness , or negligence . Concerning which , who please further to be satisfied , may read S. Athanasius his Epistle to Dracontius , of old ; and of late , Chytraeus in Epistolis p 150. & 678. and Conradus Porta in his Formalia . This onely ; If every man were indispensably tied to abide where he is first called to minister , then it were not lawful for an inferiour Minister to desire the good work of a Bishop ; which because it is not to be administred in the same place or charge , according to the universal discipline of the Church for very many ages , must suppose that there can be a reasonable cause to change our charges , because the Apostle commends that desire which supposes that change . These being the limits and measures of the Rule , it would be very good if we were able to discern concerning the secrets of our intentions , and the causes of actions . It is true , that because men confound their actions and deliberations , it will be impossible to tell in many cases what motive is the principal ingredient . Sed ut tunc communibus magis commodis quam privatae jactantiae studebamus , quum intentionem , effectúmque muneris nostri vellemus intelligi ; ita nunc in ratione edendi , veremur nè fortè non aliorum utilitatibus , sed propriae laudi servisse videamur . It is hard for a wise and a gallant man , who does publick actions of greatest worthiness deserving honour , to tell certainly whether he is more pleased in the honours that men doe him , or in the knowledge that he hath done them benefits . But yet in very many cases , we may at least guess probably which is the prevailing ingredient , by these following measures ; besides those which I have noted and applied to the special case of undertaking the calling Ecclesiastical . Signes of difference , whereby we may in a mixt and complicated intention , discern which is the principal ingredient . 1. Whatsoever came in after the determination was made , though it adde much the greater confidence , and makes the resolution sharper and more active , yet it is not to be reckoned as the prevailing ingredient ; for though it adde degrees , yet the whose determination was perfected before . The widow Fulvia was oppressed by Attillius ; she complains to Secundus the Lawyer . He considers whether he should be Advocate for his friend Attilius , or for the oppressed Fulvia ; and at last determines on the side of piety and charity , and resolves to releeve the Widow , but with some abatement of his spirit and confidence , because it is against his friend : but Charity prevails . As he goes to Court he meets with Caninius , who gloriously commends the advocation , and by superadding that spurre made his diffidence and imperfect resolution , confident and clear . In this case the whole action is to be attributed to Piety , not to the love of Fame ; for this onely added some moments , but that made the determination . 2. When the determination is almost made , and wants some weight to finish it , whatsoever then supervenes and casts the scales , is not to be accounted the prevailing ingredient , but that which made most in the suspension and time of deliberation , and brought it forward . It is like buying and selling : not the last Maravidis that was stood upon was the greatest argument of parting with the goods ; but that farthing added to the bigger summe , made it bigge enough : and a childs finger may thrust a load forward , which being haled by mighty men stands still for want of a little assistance . 3. That is the prevailing ingredient in the determination which is most valued , not which most pleases ; that which is rationally preferred , not that which delights the senses . If the man had rather lose the sensual then , the intellectual good , though in that his fancy is more delighted , yet this is the stronger , and greater in the Divine acceptance , though possibly in nature it be less active , because less pleasing to those faculties , which whether we will or no , will be very much concerned in all the entercourses of this life . * He that keeps a festival in gratitude and spiritual joy to doe God glory , and to give him thanks , and in the preparation to the action is hugely pleas'd by considering the musick , the company , the festivity and innocent refreshments , and in his fancy , leaps at this but his resolution walks on by that , hath not spoil'd the regularity of his Conscience by the intertexture of the sensual with the spiritual , so long as it remains innocent . For though this flames brightest , yet the other burns hottest , and will last longer then the other . But of this there is no other sign , but that first we be infinitely careful to prescribe measures and limits to the secular joy , that it may be perfectly subordinate to , and complying with the spiritual and religious : and secondly , if we are willing to suppress the light flame , rather then extinguish the solid fire . 4. Then the holy and pious ingredient is overpowred by the mixture of the secular , when an instrument toward the end is chosen more proportionable to this , then to that . Caecilius to doe a real not a phantastick benefit to his Tenants , erected a Library in his Villa , and promised a yearly revenue for their childrens education , and nobler institution : And thus farre judgement ought to be made , that he intended piety rather then fame ; for to his fame , Plays and Spectacles would ( as the Roman humour then was ) have served better : but when in the acting his resolution he prais'd that his pious purpose , and told them he did it for a pious , not a vainglorious end , however the intention might be right , this publication was not right : But , when he appointed that anniversary orations should be made in the praise of his pious foundation , he a little too openly discovered what was the bigger wheel in that motion . For he that serves a secret piety by a publick Panegyrick , disorders the piety by dismantling the secret : it may still be piety , but it will be lessen'd by the publication ; though this publication be no otherwise criminal , then because it is vain . Meminimus quanto majore animo honestatis fructus in conscientia quàm in fama reponatur . Sequi enim gloria non appeti debet : nec si casu aliquo non sequatur , idcirco quod gloriam meruit minus pulchrum est : Hi verò qui benefacta suae verbis adornant , non ideò praedicare quia fecerint , sed ut praedicarent , fecisse creduntur ; which is the very thing which I affirm in this particular . If the intermediate or consequent actions serve the collateral or secular end , most visibly it is to be supposed , that this was the greater motive , and had too great an influence into the deliberation . But because the heart of man is so intricate , trifling , and various , in most cases it must be sufficient for us to know , that if the mixture be innocent , the whole deliberation is secur'd in the kinde of it , and for degrees we must doe as well as we can . But on the other side , if the secular end mixt with the spiritual , and religious , the just and the honest , be unlawful , and yet intended , though in a less degree , though but accidentally and by an after consent ; the conscience is neither sure nor right , but is dishonour'd and defil'd : for the whole deliberation is made criminal by mingling with forbidden purposes . He that takes up arms under his Prince in a just warre , and at the same time intends revenge against his private enemy , casually engag'd on the adverse party , loses the reward of his obedience , and changes it for the devillish pleasures of revenge . Concerning the measure and conduct of our intentions , there are some other things to be said , but because they are extrinsecal to the chief purpose of this Rule , they are properly to be considered under their own head . RULE 6. An argument not sufficient nor competent , though it doe perswade us to a thing in it self good , is not the ground of a right , nor a sufficient warrant for a sure Conscience . HE that goes to publick Prayers because it is the custome , or communicates at Easter to avoid a censure , hath done an act in it self good , but his motive was neither competent , nor sufficient to make the action religious , or to manifest and declare the Conscience to be sure and right . For Conscience is the repository of practical reasons : and as in civil actions , we count him a fool who wears clothes onely because they cost him nothing , or walks because he would see his shadow move upon the wall : so it is in moral . When the reason in incompetent , the action is by chance , neither prudent , nor chosen , alterable by a trifle , tending to a cheap end , proceeding by a regardless motion : and Conscience might as well be seated in the fancy , or in the foot , as in the understanding , if its nature and proper design were not to be conducted with reasons proportionable to such actions which tend to an end perfective of man , and productive of felicity . This Rule is so to be understood , that it be not requir'd of all men to have reasons equally good for the same determinations , but sufficient and reasonable in themselves , and apt to lead them in their proper capacities and dispositions , that is , reasons proportionable to that kinde of things in which the determination is instanc'd , viz. a religious reason for an action of Religion ; a prudent reason for a civil action : but if it be in its proper kinde , it is sufficient if it be probable , provided always , that it makes a sure minde , and a full perswasion . He that beleeves Christian Religion , because the men are charitable and chast , and so taught to be , and commanded by the Religion , is brought into a good place by a single taper ; but he came in by no false light , and he is there where he ought to be . He did not see the way in so brightly as S. Paul did , who was conducted in by an Angel from heaven , with a bright flame in his hand ; but he made shift to see his way in : and because the light that guided him came from heaven , his conscience was rightly instructed , and if it perswaded him heartily , his conscience is as sure as it is right . Quest. Upon the account and consequence of this Rule it is proper to inquire , Whether it be lawful , and ingenuous to goe about to perswade a man to the beleef of a true proposition , by arguments with which himself is not perswaded , and which he beleeves are not sufficient ? The case is this : Girolami a learned Priest of Ferrara , finds that many of his Parishioners are infected with Judaism , by reason of their conversation with the Jewish Merchants . He studies the Jewish Books to discover the weakness of their arguments , and to convince them upon their own grounds . But finding his Parishioners mov'd onely by popular arguments , and not capable of understanding the secrets of the old Prophets , the Synchronisms , nor the computation of Daniels weeks , the infinite heaps of reasons by which Christianity stands firm in defiance of all pretensions to the contrary ; sees it necessary to perswade them by things as easy as those are by which they were abus'd . But then he considers ; If they were by error led into error , it is not fit that by error also they should be led out of it into truth : for God needs not to be served with a lie , and evil must not be done that good may be thence procured . But if I goe by a false argument to cozen them into truth , I tell a lie to recover them from a lie , and it is a disparagement to the cause of God , that it must be supported by the Devil . But having discours'd thus farre , he considers further ; Every argument which I am able to answer , I know cannot conclude in the question ; for if it be to be answered , it is at most but a specious outside of reason ; and he that knows this , or beleeves it so , either must not use that instrument of perswasion , or if he does , he must resolve to abuse the mans understanding before he can set it right : and this he beleeves to be against the honour of truth , and the rules of charity , and the simplicity and ingenuity of the spirit of a Christian. To this Question I answer by several Propositions . 1. It is not lawful to tell a lie for God and for truth ; because God will not be served by that which he hates , and there are no defects in truth which need such violent remedies . Therefore Girolami might not to perswade his Judaizing Parishoners tell them a tale of a Vision , or pretend a Tradition which is not , or falsify a Record , because these are direct arts of the Devil , this is a doing evil for a good end : and every single lie is equally hated by God , and where there is a difference , it is made by complication , or the mixing of something else with the lie : and because God hath created and communicated to mankinde , not onely sufficient but a bundant justifications of whatsoever he hath commanded us to beleeve , therefore he hates infinitely to have his glorious Oeconomy of faith and truth to be disordered and discomposed by the productions of hell . For every lie is of the Devil . 2. It is lawful to use an argument cui potest subesse falsum , such which I know is not certain , but yet I actually beleeve it to be true . That is though the argument be not demonstrative but probable onely , yet I may safely use it , if I beleeve my self to be on the right side of the probability . For a real truth , and a supposed truth are all one as to the innocence of my purposes . And he that knows how little certainty there is in humane discourses , and how we know in part , and prophesie in part , and that of every thing whereof we know a little , we are ignorant in much more , must either be content with such proportions as the things will bear , or as himself can get , or else he must never seek to alter or to perswade any man to be of his opinion . For the greatest part of discourses that are in the whole world , is nothing but a heap of probable inducements , plausibilities , and witty entertainments : and the throng of notices is not unlike the accidents of a battel , in which every man tels a new tale , something that he saw , mingled with a great many things which he saw not , his eyes and his fear joyning together equally in the instruction and the illusion , these make up the stories . And in the observation of things , there is infinitely more variety then in faces , and in the contingencies of the world . Let ten thousand men read the same Books , and they shall all make several uses , draw several notes , and understand them to several effects and purposes . Knowledge is infinite , and out of this infinity every one snatches some things real , and some images of things ; and there are so many cognoscitive faculties above and below , and powers ministring to knowledge , and all these have so many ways of being abused , or hindred , and of being imperfect ; and the degrees of imperfection , positive , and privative , and negative , are also themselves absolutely so infinite , that to arrive at probabilities in most thinges is no small progression . But we must be content to make use of that , both for our selves and others . Upon this account we may quote Scriptures to those senses which they can well serve in a question , and in which they are us'd by learned men , though we suppose the principal intention be of a different thing , so it be nor contrary . For all learned men know that in Scripture many sayings are full of potential significations , besides what are on the face of the words , or in the heart of the design : and therefore although we may not alledge Scriptures in a sense contrary to what we beleeve it meant ; yet to any thing besides its first meaning , we may , if the analogy will bear it ; and if by learned men it be so used , that is in effect , because for ought we know it may be so indeed . 3. If a man suppose his arguments sufficient and competent to perswade , though they be neither fitting to perswade , nor at all sufficient , he may yet lawfully use them . For in this case though himself be deceived , yet because it is upon the strength of those arguments he relies , he can be tied to use no better then he hath : And since his conscience is heartily perswaded , though it be in error , yet that which follows that perswasion is innocent ( if it be not mingled with design ) though it may be that which went before was not so . 4. In the perswasion of a truth , it is lawful to use such arguments whose strength is wholly made prevailing by the weakness of him that is to be perswaded . Such as are arguments ad hominem , that is , proportionable to the doctrines , customes , usages , beleef , and credulity of the man. The reasons are these : 1. Because ignorant persons are not capable of such arguments as may demonstrate the question ; and he that goes about to draw a child to him , may pull him by the long sleeve of his coat , and need not to hire a yoke of Oxen. 2. That which will demonstrate a truth to one person , possibly will never move another . Because our reason does not consist in a Mathematical point : and the heart of reason , that vital and most sensible part , in which onely it can be conquered fairly , is an ambulatory essence , and not fixed ; it wanders up and down like a floating Iland , or like that which we call the life bloud ; and it is not often very easy to hit that white by which onely our reason is brought to perfect assent : and this needs no other proof but our daily experience , and common notices of things . That which at one time is not regarded , at another time is a prevailing motive ; and I have observed that a discourse at one time hath been lightly regarded , or been onely pleasing to the ear , which a year or two after hath made great impressions of piety upon the spirit of the hearers . And therefore , that I can answer the argument , it is not enough to make me think it necessary to lay it aside or to despise it ; there may be something in him that hears me , that can make the argument to become perfect and effectual ; and the want of that it may be in me , makes me apt to slight it . And besides that some pretended answers are illusions rather then solutions it may be , that beyond my answer , a wiser man may make a reply , and confirm the argument so as I know not : and therefore if it be truth you perswade , it were altogether as good , and I am sure much more easy to let the man you perswade , enter at the first and broadest gate of the true proposition , then after having pass'd thorough a great many turnings and labyrinths , at last come but to the same place where he might first have entred . There are some witty men that can answer any thing ; but suppose they could not , yet it would be impossible that men should be tied in all cases to speak nothing but demonstrations . 3. Some men are to be wrought upon not by direct argument , but by artifices and back blows ; they are easy enough to beleeve the truth , if they could ; and therefore you must , to perswade them , remove their prejudices and prepossessions ; and to this purpose , it will not be necessary to bring those things which are proper to the question , but things accidental and extrinsecal . They who were prejudic'd at our blessed Saviour because he was of Galilee , needed no other argument to make them to beleeve in him , but to confute that foolish Proverb , Out of Galilee comes no good : and yet he that from thence thinks the question of his being the Messias sufficiently concluded , is very farre from understanding the effect and powers of argument . 4. The hindrances of beleef are seated in several faculties , in our fancy , in our will , in our appetite : now in these cases there is no way to perswade , but by arguing so as to prevail with that faculty . If any man should say that our blessed Saviour is not yet come in the flesh , upon a foolish fancy that he beleeves not , that God would honour such a wicked nation with so great a glory , as that the Saviour of the world should be born of them ; he needs no argument to perswade him to be a Christian , but by having it prov'd to him , that it was not onely likely , but really so , and necessary it should be so , not onely for the verification of the Prophecies of him , but for divers congruities in the nature and circumstances of things . Here the argument is to confute the fancy onely , not the reason . 5. Sometimes the judgement is right , but the affections are perverse ; and then , not demonstrations , but popular arguments are not onely lawful , but useful , and sufficient . For reasons of abstracted speculation move not the lower man. Make the people in love with your proposition , and cause them to hate the contrary , and you have done all that they are capable of . When some Divines in Germany were forced for their own defence to gain the people to their party , they disputed against the absolute decree of reprobation , by telling them that their Adversaries doctrine did teach that God did drag the pretty children from their Mothers breasts , and throw many of them into the eternal portion of Devils : This mov'd the women , who follow reason as far as they can be made in love with it , and their understanding is oftentimes more then in their heart then in their head . And there are thousands of people , men and women , who beleeve upon no other account then this , neither can they be taught otherwise . When S. Paul would perswade the Jews to reason , and from laying violent hands upon him ; he was not to attempt it by offering undeniably to prove that he did well by going to the Gentiles , since God had rejected the Jews , excepting a remnant onely : but he perswaded them by telling them he did nothing against the Law of Moses and the Temple . 6. There are some fondnesses , and strange adherencies to trifles in most people , humors of the Nation , love of the advantage of their families , relations to sects , or dignities , natural sympathies and antipathies , in a correspondency to which , all those arguments which are dress'd , are like to prevail , and cannot otherwise doe it . For when a mans understanding is mingled with interest , his arguments must have something of this , or else they will never stirre that : and therefore all our arguments cannot be freed from such allays . 7. In all the discourses of men , not onely Orators , but Philosophers , and even in their severest discourses , all the good and all the wise men of the world heap together many arguments , who yet cannot suppose them all certain ; but yet they therefore innocently use them , because as there are several capacities of men to be dealt withal ; so there are several notices of things ; and that may be highly concluding , which it may be is not well represented , and therefore not fancied or observed by him that uses it ; and to another it becomes effective because he does . 8. The holy Spirit of God himself in his entercourses with men is pleas'd to descend to our capacities , and to use arguments taken from our own principles , and which prevail more by silencing us , rather then demonstrating the thing . Thus S. Paul in his arguments for the Resurrection uses this ; If Christ be not risen , then is our preaching vain , and your faith is also vain . There are some , even too many now adays , and many more then , who would have granted both the antecedent and the consequent ; but because the Corinthians disavowed the consequent , they were forced to admit the antecedent . And at last , thousands of persons could never be drawn from their error , if we might not make use of arguments , weak like their capacities , and more proportionable to their Understanding then to the Question . There are two Cautions to be added to make the Rule perfect : 1. That if the Disciple relying upon his Masters authority , more then his own ability to judge , ask the Doctor , whether upon his knowledge and faith that argument does evict the question ; if the Doctor himself does not beleeve it , he must then put no more force upon it by his affirmation and authority then he thinks it does in nature bear ; but must give prudent accounts of the whole question in compliance to the present necessity of the demander . Of the same consideration it is , when a question being disputed between two parties , the standers by expect the truest and most proper account of things . In this case , all openness and ingenuity is to be used according to our own sense of things , not according to what may comply with any mans weakness ; and the not doing so is want of ingenuity , and the worthiness of Christian charity , and a perfect deceiving them who expect and desire such things as ought to be finally relied upon . 2. In all arguments which are to prevail by the weakness , or advantages taken from the man , he that goes about to perswade , must not say any thing that he knows to be false ; but he must comply and twist about the mans weakness , so as to be innocent all the way . Let him take him that is weak and wrap him in swadling clothes , but not encompass him with snakes : But yet this hath one loose and permission that may be used . 3. It is lawful for a man in perswading another to a truth , to make use of a false proposition , which he that is to be perswaded already doth beleeve : that is , a man may justly dispute upon the supposition , not upon the concession and granting of an error . Thus S. Paul disputed with the Corinthians , and to induce them into a beleef of the resurrection , made use of a foolish custome among them in use , of being baptized for the dead . For the Christian Church hath but two Sacrments , Baptism and the Lords Supper ; at the beginning some of the Christians used Baptism , and in succeeding ages , they used to celebrate the Lords Supper for the dead , and doe to this day in the Church of Rome . Upon this fond custome of theirs , S. Paul thus argues : If there be no resurrection , then it is to no purpose that you are baptized for the dead ; but that is to purpose ( as you suppose ) therefore there is a resurrection . Thus prayer for the dead , and invocation of Saints , according to the principles taught in the Primitive Church , might have been made use of against each other . If all men are imperfect till the day of Judgement , and till then enter not into heaven , then you cannot with confidence make prayers to them , who for ought you know , need your help more : But if all that die well , that is , if all that die in the Lord doe instantly enjoy the Beatifical vision , and so are in a condition to be prayed to , then they need not to be prayed for . As for the middle place , they in those ages knew no such thing , as men have since dream'd of . As God in some cases makes use of a prepared wickedness , though he infers none , much less does he make any to be necessary and unavoidable ; so may good men and wise make use of a prepared error , a falshood already beleev'd ; but they must neither teach , nor betray any one into it . The objections mentioned in the state of this question , are already answered in the stating the propositions . But now arises another question , and the solution will follow upon the same grounds . Quest. WHether it be lawful for a good end for Preachers to affright men with Panick terrors , and to create fears that have no ground ; as to tell them if they be liars , their faces will be deformed ; if they be perjur'd , the devil will haunt them in visible shapes ; if they be sacrilegious , they shall have the leprosy ; or any thing whereby weak and ignorant people can be most wrought upon ? I answer briefly : 1. There are terrors enough in the new Testament to affright any man from his sins , who can be wrought upon by fear : and if all that Moses and the Prophets say , and all that Christ and his Apostles published be not sufficient , then nothing can be . For I am sure , nothing can be a greater , or more formidable evil then hell ; and no terrors can bring greater affrightment , then those which are the proper portion of the damned . But the measures of the permission and liberty that can be used , are these : 1. A Preacher or Governour may affright those that are under them , and deterre them from sin , by threatning them with any thing which probably may happen . So he may denounce a curse upon the estate of sacrilegious persons , robbers of Churches , oppressors of Priests , and Widows , and Orphans ; and particularly , whatsoever the Widow or Orphan in the bitterness of their souls doe pray , may happen upon such evil persons ; or what the Church in the instruments of donation have expressed : as , to die childless ; to be afflicted with the gout ; to have an ambulatory life , the fortune of a penny , since for that he forsakes God and his religion ; a distracted minde or fancy , or any thing of this nature . For since the curses of this life and of the other are indefinitely threatned to all sinners , and some particularly to certain sins , as want is to the deteiners of Tithes , a wandring fortune to Church-robbers ; it is not unreasonable , and therefore it is lawful to make use of such particulars as are most likely to be effective upon the conscience of sinners . 2. It is lawful to affright men with the threatning of any thing that is possible to happen in the ordinary effects of providence . For every sin is against an infinite God , and his anger is sometimes the greatest , and can produce what evil he please ; and he uses to arm all his creatures against sinners , and sometimes strikes a stroke with his own hand , and creates a prodigy of example to perpetuate a fear upon men to all ages . But this is to be admitted with these Cautions : 1. It must be done so as to be limited within those ways which need not suppose a miracle to have them effected . Thus to threaten a sinner in England , that if he prophanes the holy Sacrament , a Tigre shall meet him in the Church-yard and tear him , is so improbable and unreasonable , that it is therefore not to be done , lest the authority , and the counsel , and the threatning become ridiculous : but we have warrant to threaten him with diseases , and sharp sicknesses , and temporal death ; and the warrant is deriv'd from a precedent in Scripture , Gods dealing with the Corinthian Communicants . 2. He who thus intends to disswade , must in prudence be careful that he be not too decretory and determinate in the particular ; but either wholly instance in general threatnings , or with exceptive and cautious terms in the particular ; as , Take heed lest such an evil happen : or , It is likely it may , and we have no security for a minute against it ; and so God hath done to others . 3. Let these be onely threatnings , not prophesies , lest the whole dispensation become contemptible ; and therefore let all such threatnings be understood with a provision , that if such things doe not happen , the man hath not escaped Gods anger , but is reserv'd for worse . God walketh upon the face of the waters , and his footsteps are not seen ; but however , evil is the portion of the sinner . 3. In all those threatnings which are according to the analogy of the Gospel , or the state of things and persons with which we have entercourse , we may take all that liberty that can by apt instruments concurre to the work of God ; dressing them with circumstances of terror and affrightment , and representing spiritual events by metaphors , apologues and instances of nature . Thus our blessed Lord expressing the torments of hell , signifies the greatness of them by such things which in nature are most terrible ; as brimstone and fire , the worm of conscience , weeping and wailing , and gnashing of teeth . But this I say must ever be kept within the limits of analogy to what is reveal'd , and must not make excursions to extraregular and ridiculous significations . Such as is the fancy of some Divines in the Romane Church , and particularly of Cornelius à lapide , that the souls of the damned shall be roll'd up in bundles like a heap and involv'd circles of snakes , and in hell shall sink down like a stone into the bottomeless pit , falling still downward for ever and ever . This is not well ; but let the expressions be according to the proportions of what is reveal'd . The Divines in several ages have taken great liberty in this affair , which I know no reason to reprove , if some of their tragical expressions did not , or were not apt to pass into dogmatical affirmatives , and opinions of reality in such inventions . 4. If any extraregular example hath ever happened , that may be made use of to affright men from the same or the like sins , and so pass into a regular warning . Thus , though it but once happened , that God punished rebellion by causing the earth to open and swallow up the Rebels against their Prince and Priest , Moses and Aaron , that is , it is but once recorded in holy Scripture ; yet God hath the same power now , and the same anger against Rebellion ; and as he can , so we are not sure that he will not oftentimes doe the same . Whatsoever hath happ'ned and can happen , we ought to fear lest in the like cases it should happen . And therefore this is a proper instrument of a just fear , and apt rightly to minister to a sure and a right Conscience . 5. If any prodigy of accident and judgement hath happened , though it be possible it may be done for the manifestation of the Divine glory , yet because it is ten thousand to one , but it is because of sin too ; this may be made use of to affright sinners , although there be no indication for what sin that judgement happened . Thus the ruine of the Greek Monarchy finished upon the day of Pentecost : the fearful and prodigious swallowing up the Cities of the Colossians and Laodiceans ; the burning Towns and Villages by eruption of fire from mountains ; the sudden cataracts of water breaking from the Indian hills ; the sudden deaths and madness of many people ; the horrible ruine and desolation of families and kingdomes , may be indifferently used and propounded to all sorts of persons , where there is need of such violent courses : and provided that they be charitably and prudently applied , may effect fear and caution in some sinners , who otherwise would be too ready for gaieties and unsafe liberties . 6. To children and fools , and all those whose understanding is but a little better , it hath been in all ages practised , that they be affrighted with Mormoes and Bugbears , that they may be cozen'd into good . But this is therefore permitted , because other things which are real , certain , or probable , cannot be understood or perceiv'd by them : and therefore these things are not to be permitted , where it can well be otherwise . If it cannot , it is fit that their understandings should be conducted thither where they ought to goe , and by such iustruments as can be useful . RULE 7. A Conscience determin'd by the counsel of wise men , even against its own inclinations , may be sure and right . FOR in many cases the counsel of wise men is the best argument ; and if the conscience was first inclined by a weaker , every change to a better is a degree of certainty : In this case , to persist in the first inclination of conscience , is obstinacy , not constancy : But on the other side , to change our first perswasion when it is well built , for the counsel of men of another perswasion , though wiser then our selves , is levity , not humility . This Rule is practicable onely in such cases where the Conscience observes the weakness of its first inducement , or justly suspects it , and hath not reason so much to suspect the sentence of wiser men . How it is further to be reduc'd to practice , is more properly to be considered in the third Chapter , and thither I referre it . RULE 8. He that sins against a right and a sure Conscience , whatever the instance be , commits a great sin , but not a double one . HIS sin is indeed the greater , because it is less excusable and more bold . For the more light there is in a regular understanding , the more malice there is in an irregular will. If I had not come to them ( said Christ ) they had not had sin ; but now have they no cover for their sin : that is , because they are sufficiently taught their duty . It is not an aggravation of sin , barely to say , it was done against our conscience : for all sins are so , either directly or indirectly , mediately or immediately , in the principle or in the emanat on . But thus ; the more sure and confident the conscience is , the sin receives the greater degree . It is an aggravation of it , that it was done against a clear light , and a full understanding , and a perfect , contrary determination . But even then it does not make it to be a distinct sin . Whatsoever is not of faith is sin ( said the Apostle ) but he did not say it was two . It is a transcendent passing upon every sinful action , that it is against a known law , and a contrary reason and perswasion ; but if this could make the act to be doubly irregular , by the same reason , every substance must be two , viz. by having a being , and a substantial being . And the proper reason of this is , because the conscience obliges and ties us by the band of the Commandement , the same individual band , and no other . The conscience is therefore against the act , because the Commandement is against it ; the Conscience being Gods remembrancer , the record , and the register of the Law. A theef does not sin against the Law and the Judge severally ; neither does the Magistrate punish him one way , and the Law another . The conscience hath no law of its own , but the law of God is the Rule of it . Therefore where there is but one obligation to the duty , there can be but one deformity in the prevarication . But , In sins where there is a double formality , there indeed in one action there may be two sins , because there is a double law : as he that kills his Father sins twice , he is impious and unjust ; he breaks the laws of piety and justice ; he sins against the fifth and the sixth Commandements at once ; he is a murderer , and he is ungrateful , and he is impious . But in sins of a single nature there is but a single relation . For the Conscience and the Law is the Rule and the Parchment ; and he that sins against the one , therefore also sins against the other , because they both terminate but one relation . But although he does not commit two sins , yet he commits one great one , there being nothing that can render an action culpable or imputable in the measures of justice , but its being a deviation from , or a contradiction to the Rule . It is against my conscience , that is , against my illuminated and instructed reason , therefore it is a sin : this is a demonstration , because it is against God , and against my self ; against my reason , and his illumination ; and that is , against all bands Divine and Humane . Quest. BUT then what shall a Judge doe , who knows the witnesses in a criminal cause to have sworn falsly ? The case is this : Conopus a Spartan Judge , walking abroad near the gardens of Onesicritus , espies him killing of his slave Asotus ; who to palliate the fact , himself accuses another of his servants [ Orgilus ] and compell'd some to swear it as he affirm'd . The process was made , advocates entertain'd by Onesicritus , and the poor Orgilus convict by testimony and legal proof . Conopus the Judge knows the whole process to be injurious , but knows not what to doe , because he remembers that he is bound to judge according to allegation and proof , and yet to doe justice and judgement , which in this case is impossible . He therefore inquires for an expedient , or a peremptory resolution on either hand : Since he offends against the Laws of Sparta , the order of law and his own life , if he acquits one who is legally convicted ; and yet if he condemnes him whom he knows to be innocent , he sins against God , and Nature , and against his own Conscience . That a Judge not onely may , but is oblig'd to proceed according to the process of Law , and not to his own private Conscience , is confidently affirmed by Aquinas , by his Master , and by his Scholars , and of late defended earnestly by Didacus Covaruvias a learned man indeed and a great Lawyer ; and they doe it upon this account : 1. For there is a double person or capacity in a Judge ; He is a private person , and hath special obligations and duties incumbent upon him in that capacity ; and his conscience hath a proper information , and gives him laws , and hath no superiour but God : and as he is such an one , he must proceed upon the notices and perswasions of his Conscience , guided by its own measures . But as he is a Judge , he is to doe the office of a Judge , and to receive information by witnesses and solemnities of Law , and is not to bring his own private conscience to become the publick measure . Not Attilius Regulus , but the Consul must give sentence : and since he is bound to receive his information from witnesses , as they prove , so the Law presumes ; whose Minister because he is , if there be any fault , it is in the Law , not in the Judge , and in this case , the Judge does not goe against his conscience , because by oath he is bound to goe according to Law. He indeed goes against his private knowledge ; but that does not give Law to a Judge , whose knowledge is to be guided by other instruments . * And it is here as in case of execution of sentences , which is another ministery of Law. Ordinarius tenetur obsequi Delegato , etsi sciat sententiam illam injustam , exequi nihilominùs tenetur eandem , said Innocentius III. The Executioner is not to refuse his office , though he know the Judge to have condemned an innocent ; for else he might be his Judges Judge , and that not for himself alone , but also for the publick interest . For if an Executioner upon his perswasion that the Judge did proceed unjustly against the life of an innocent , shall refuse to put him to death , he judges the sentence of the Judge over again , and declares publickly against it , and denies to the Commonwealth the effect of his duty : so does a Judge , if he acquits him whom the Law condemnes , upon the account of his private knowledge . * It is like speaking oracles against publick authority from a private spirit . * Which thing if it were permitted , the whole order and frame of Judicatures would be altered , and a door opened for a private and an arbitrary proceeding : and the Judge if he were not just , might defame all witnesses , and acquit any criminal , and transferre the fault to an innocent and unsuspected , and so really doe that which he but pretends to avoid . * And the case would be the same , if he were a man confident and opionative . For he might seem to himself to be as sure of his own reason , as of his own sense ; and his conscience might be as effectively determined by his argument as by his eyes ; and then by the same reason he might think himself bound to judge against the sentence of the Law according to his own perswasion , as to judge against the forms of Law , and proceedings of the Court according to his own sense . * And therefore not onely in Civil but in the Ecclesiastical Courts we finde it practised otherwise : and a Priest may not refuse to communicate him whom he knows to have been absolved upon a false allegation , and unworthily ; but must administer Sacraments to him according to the publick voice , not to his own private notice : for it would be intolerable , if that which is just in publick should be rescinded by a private pretence , whether materially just or no ; not onely because there are other measures of the publick and private , and that to have that overborn by this would destroy all Government ; but because if this private pretence be admitted , it may as well be falsly as truly pretended : And therefore since real justice by this means cannot be secured , and that unless it were , nothing could make amends for the publick disorder , it follows that the publick order must be kept , and the private notice laid aside . * For the Judge lays aside the affections of a man , when he goes to the seat of judgement ; and he lays aside his own reason , and submits to the reason of the Law ; and his own will , relinquishing that to satisfy the Law ; and therefore he must bring nothing of a private man with him , but his own abilities fitted for the publick . * And let no man in this case pretend to a zeal for truth and righteousness ; for since in Judicatures , legal or seeming truth is all that can be secured , and with this the Laws are satisfied , we are sure we may proceed upon the testimony of concurring witnesses , because they doe speak legal truth , and that being a proportionable conduct to legal persons , is a perfect rule for the conscience of a Judge ; according to the words of our blessed Saviour quoted out of Moses Law , It is written in your Law , The testimony of two men is true , that is , it is to be accepted as if it were true , and proceedings are to be accordingly . In pursuance and verification of this , are those words of S. Ambrose , Bonus Judex nihil ex arbitrio suo facit , & domesticae proposito voluntatis , sed juxta leges & jura pronunciat , scitis juris obtemperat , non indulget propriae voluntati , nihil paratum & meditatum domo defert , sed sicut audit , ità judicat . A good Judge does nothing of his will , or the purpose of his private choice , but pronounces according to Laws and publick right , he obeys the sanctions of the Law , giving no way to his own will , he brings nothing from home prepared and deliberated , but as he hears , so he judges . This testimony is of the more value , because S. Ambrose had been a Judge and a Ruler himself in Civil affairs , and therefore spake according to the sense of those excellent Laws , which almost all the civil world have since admitted . * And the thing is confessed in the parallel cases : For a Judge may not proceed upon the evidence of an instrument which he hath privately perused , if it be not produc'd in Court , though he by that could be inabled to doe justice to the oppressed party ; for he does not know it as a Judge , but as a private man ; and though that be a distinction without a real difference of subject , yet in effect it means , that the Laws doe not permit a Judge to take notice of any private information , which might prove an inlet to all manner of violence and robbery . * And therefore if a Priest hearing the Confession of Caius , understands that Titius was the complice of Caius his crime , he may not refuse to absolve Titius , though he doe not confess the fact in which he took part with Caius ; because he is to proceed by the method of that Court where he sits Judge . For private and personal notice is not sufficient . * And if I doe privately know that my neighbour is excommunicate , I am not bound to refuse him my society , till I know it legally ; and therefore much less may a Judge doe a publick act upon private notice , when we may not doe even a private act referring to Law without a publick notice . * And all this is confirm'd by the authority of Ulpian , Veritas rerum erroribus gestarum non vitiatur , & ideo Praeses provinciae id sequatur quod convenit eum ex fide eorum quae probabuntur . The truth of things is not prejudic'd by errors in matters of fact : and therefore let the President of the Province follow that which is fitting for him , proceeding by the faith of those things which shall be proved . * For since no man must judge by his own private authority , he must not judge by his own private knowledge . * And to what purpose shall be call in witnesses to give him publick information , if when they have done so , he by his private may reject the publick ? But if after all this you inquire what shall become of the Judge as a man , and what of his private conscience ? these men answer ; That the Judge must use what ingenious and fair artifices he can to save the innocent , or to doe justice according to truth , but yet so as he may not prevaricate the duty of a Judge : he may use the prudence of a friend and a private man : let him by various and witty interrogatories , in which he may be helped by the advantage of his private knowing the secret , make ways to entrap the false witnesses , as Daniel did to the two Elders in the case of Susanna : or let him referre the cause to the supreme power , or resign his office , or make a deputation to another , or reprieve the injur'd man , or leave a private way for him to escape , or use his power of interpretation , or finde some way to elude the unjust hand of justice , which in this case does him wrong by doing right . But if none of these ways , nor any other like them can preserve the innocent man , or the Judges private conscience , he must doe justice according to Law , standing upright as a publick person , but not stooping to particulars , or twisting himself by his private notices . This is the summe of what is or can be said in this opinion ; and though they speak probably and well , yet I answer otherwise , and I suppose , for reasons very considerable . Therefore , To the Question I answer , That a Judge in this case may not doe any publick act against his private conscience ; he may not condemne an innocent whom he knows to be so , though he be prov'd criminal by false witnesses . And my reasons are these : 1. Innocentem & justum non occides ( said God ) to slay an innocent person is absolutely and indispensably evil . Upon which ground I argue ; That which is in its own nature essentially and absolutely evil , may not be done for any good , for any pretence , for any necessity , nor by any command of man. Since therefore in the present case , the man is supposed innocent , he ought not to be delivered to death for any end in the world ; nor by any authority , much less for the preservation of the forms of Courts , or to prevent a possible evil that may accidentally and by abuse arise ; especially since the Question here is not matter of prudence or policy , but of justice and conscience ; nor yet of the publick interest , but of the Judges duty ; nor at all , what the Laws actually doe constitute and appoint , but what the Judge may really practise . Now , in all cases , if a man dies , it must be by the merit of the cause , or for some publick end . The first is not suppos'd in this question , because the man is supposed innocent ; and if the latter be pretended , it is an open profession of doing evil that good may come of it . And if it be answered , that this is true , if the man did appear to be innocent , but in Law he appears otherwise . I reply , that it is true , to the Law he does so , but not to the Judge ; and therefore though the Law can condemne him , yet she cannot doe it by that Judge . He must not doe it , because it being by an unavoidable defect , or error , that the Law may doe it , and if the Law could be rightly informed , she would not , she could not doe it , it follows that the Judge who is rightly informed can no more doe it then the Law it self , if she had the same information . 2. To judge according to forms and processes of Law , is but of humane positive right and constitution ; for the Law may command a Judge to proceed according to his own knowledge , if she will trust him and his knowledge : and in all arbitrary Courts it is so ; and in the supreme power it is always so , if it be absolute . But not to condemne the innocent , is of Divine and eternal right , and therefore cannot be prejudic'd by that which only is humane . And indeed if we look into the nature and causes of things , we shall finde , that the reason why Judges are tied to forms and processes of Laws , to testimonies and judicial proofs , is , because the Judge is supposed not to know the matters brought before him , till they appear in the forms of Law. For if a Judge did know mens hearts , and the secrets of things and causes , supposing him to be honest , he were the fittest person in the world to be a Judge , and can proceed summarily , and needs no witnesses . But this is the way of the Divine judgement , who proceeds upon his own knowledge , though for the declaration of his justice to men , he sometimes seems to use processes , and measures of humane inquiry ; as in the case of Sodome , and the like . And in proportion , if God should reveal to a Judge the truth of every cause that lies before him , I think no man doubts , but he might safely proceed to judgement upon that account . This was the case of Daniel and Susanna . For she was convicted and proved guilty by concurrent witnesses ; God revealed the truth to Daniel , and he arrested judgement upon that account . Upon exam●nation of the witnesses he findes them disagree in the circumstances ; but this was no legal conviction of their falshood in the main ; but it was therefore sufficient , because Daniel came in the manner of a Prophet , and knew the truth from God , not by forms of Law. Now it matters not ( as to the justice of the proceeding ) which way the truth be known ; for the way of receiving it is but extrinsecal to the main question : and as Daniel being made Judge by God , might not have consented to the death of Susanna , though not onely the two Elders , but ten more had sworn that they had seen Susanna sin : so neither can a Judge , to whom God by some special act of providence in behalf of truth and innocence hath made known the matter , proceed to sentence against that knowledge , which he by Divine dispensation hath received . 3. If a King or Senate , or any supreme power receive testimony of a matter of fact concerning any of their Council , whom they know to be innocent ; as if it be legally proved that Sempronius robb'd a man upon the Kalends of March , a hundred miles from the place where the King or Senate saw him sitting all that day ; that they may not deliver him to death appears therefore because they being accountable to none but God , must judge by his measures , that is , so as to preserve the innocent , and not by those measures which mens necessity , and imperfection , and weaknesses have made regularly necessary . But that which is regularly necessary , may irregularly , and by accident in some cases be unjust , and in those , the supreme power must make provisions where it can , and it can when it knows the truth of the particular . For since the Legislative power can dispense in the administration of its own Laws upon particular necessities , or charity upon the affirmation and petition of him that needs it : much more must it dispense with the forms of proceedings in a case of such necessity , and justice , and charity , and that upon their own knowledges . The affirmation of the argument is , that Princes and Senates may , and must doe this ; that it is necessary , and therefore also just in them to doe so . The consequent of the argument is this : That therefore if private Judges may not doe so , it is because they have no authority to doe so , but are compell'd by their Princes to proceed by forms : and if this be all , it declares the necessity of such proceedings to be onely upon mans authority ; and so , though by Law he may be bound to doe so , yet our inquiry being what he is tied to doe in conscience , the Law cannot prevail above conscience , the subordinate above the superiour , there being in this case , a knowledge of the fact , and the law of God for the right . 4. For the case is this ; God says , Thou shalt not slay the innocent , and the Judge does certainly know , that the accused man is truly innocent : The conclusion is , therefore this man must not die . Against this , the argument opposed is this : Humane authority says , Thou shalt slay him that is convicted of a fault , whether by true or false witnesses : Here are witnesses which doe convict him , and I know them to be false : The conclusion is , Therefore this man must die . Which of these two arguments ought to prevail , I think needs not much inquiry . 5. And what if Titius be accused for killing Regulus , whom the Consul at that time hath living in his house , or hath lately sent abroad ; would not all the world hoot at him , if he should deliver Titius to the Tormentors for killing the man whom the Judge knows to be at home , it may be dressing of his dinner , or abroad gathering his rents ? But if this be so absurd ( as it is indeed extremely ) it follows that he may use his private knowledge against a false testimony that is publick . Or how if he sees the fact done before him in the Court ? a purse cut , or a stone thrown at his brother Judge , as it happened at Ludlow not many years since ? The Judge proceeded to sentence upon intuition of the fact , and stayed not for the solemnities of Law. Or put case that there be depositions offered on both sides , for and against the innocent , either directly , or indirectly . If in this case the Judges private knowledge may determine for either , it follows that his private knowledge can be admitted as the instrument of justice ; and if it may , it must : for nothing can hinder him to doe it , but because he may not . But that he may , appears in the now alledged instances . 6. Adrianus puts another case , in which it is also without contradiction evident that private notice is to be preferred before publick solemnity where there is an error in this and none in that . The case I choose to express in this narrative . Viretta a naughty woman pretends to be wife to Coloro an Italian Gentleman , and brings a Priest and witnesses whom she had suborned , to prove the marriage . The Judge gives sentence for Viretta , and commands Coloro to pay the duties of a husband to her , and to use her as a wife . He knows the contrary , and that he is husband to Vittoria Morisini , and therefore pays her all his duty , and neglects the other ; and he is bound to it , because no mans error or malice can alter the Laws of God , and from paying that duty which he knows is due by the Laws of God , he cannot be excused by any formal error arising in the administration of the Laws of man. The same is the Judges case . For if the Law commands him to doe an act against a known private duty , he is so to follow the duty he knows he ows to God in preserving the innocent , as Coloro is bound to preserve his duty to his wife , and the Judge may no more commit murder then Coloro may commit adultery ; but neither of them can be rescued but by their private conscience , therefore they may use that . And there is no escape in this instance , because the Subject is as much bound to submit to the sentence of the Law , as the Judge is to the forms of it ; and that which secures one , secures both . 7. The evils that may be consequent to the strict adherence to the forms and proofs of Law against the Judges conscience may be so great as to be intolerable , and much greater then can be supposed to be consequent to the following a certain unsolemne truth . And there is no man , but put the case so as himself and his party may be involved in ruine by false witness , and he will grant that himself is by all means to be preserved . Put case a whole order of the Clergy , of Monks , of Lawyers , should be accused falsly and oppressed by evil men , as the Knights Templars were accused fiercely , and so were the Religious in Henry the eighths time : If the King had known that the Monks , and the Pope had known that the Templars had been innocent , no man ought to have perswaded them to condemne the guiltless . For if the King had proceeded against them to confiscation , making use of his advantage gotten by the sin of vile men , the effect had been , that he would rather have gotten money by a lie , then have done justice to the oppressed according to his conscience . And indeed because it is not to be supposed but all the world would have given sentence for themselves in their own case , it is to be supposed that the contrary opinion is but the sentence of men in prosperity , or of unexperienced Scholars who care not what load they put upon others to verify their own opinion . And what Christian will not condemne Pilate for condemning the most holy Jesus , according to the testimonies of his false accusers , and against his own conscience ? And let the case be put , that the witnesses had agreed , and proved foul things against the unspotted Lamb of God , and made all clear in forms of Law , and that Pilate had known the Lord to be innocent and injur'd , could the water in the basin have washed him clean , if he had against his conscience in compliance with the solemne perjurers have condemn'd him who was purer then the Angels ? In this case the effect had been intolerable , for which no pretence of necessity , or legal formalities could have made recompence . 8. A Law founded upon presumption binds not in the Court of Conscience , when the presumption is found to be an error . The Law presumes that the heir entring upon an estate , if he makes not an Inventory , does it to conceal the goods and defraud the Creditors . But if an heir does so by negligence or ignorance , or an impertinent fear , or upon ill counsel , or be betrayed to doe so ; If the Creditor knows that the goods are not sufficient , he may not in conscience take the advantage the Law gives him , but is bound to doe charity and justice by the measures of his private knowledge , and not by the measures of the Law to doe violence and oppression , which was the thing in question . 9. To the verification of the sentence of death upon an accused person there are required , 1. A reality of the Crime . 2. A power in the Judge . 3. And equity in the Law. Now if divers men should swear that the Judge hath a competent power , nay though they threaten him with death if he does not , yet he may not exercise any such power , which himself privately knows that he hath not . So also if he knows the fact does not deserve death , though men swear it , or a higher power declare it , or another competent Judge affirm it , yet a Judge must not consent to it , if himself knows it to be unjust . And I have read of an excellent Prince , who because he did consent to the forms and processes of Law made by his Senate against the bravest of his Subjects , against his own conscience and knowledge , repented of it all the days of his life , and was not pardon'd for it till the day of his death ; and the first confidence he had of pardon was upon the account of S. Pauls words , He that is dead is justified from sins . But then , since the defect of either of these two makes it unlawful for a Judge to proceed according to the forms of Law , and ties him to follow his conscience even against allegation and proof , much more must it be so if there be no reality of fact in the accused party ; because in the destitution of this , the Laws themselves have no power , and therefore they can give none to a Judge their Minister . Justis lex non est posita ; The Law was not made for the innocent , but to defend them , and therefore hath no power to destroy them ; and then the Judge can have none , and so cannot in that case be tied to proceed according to formalities , and therefore must proceed according to his conscience , or not at all . For , 10. If a Law were made that a Judge should be bound to condemne an innocent person , though he knows him to be so , and to be accused by calumny , and supplanted by perjury , it were an unjust Law , as all men ( that I know of ) grant , and indeed must grant . For it were a Law made to incourage perjurers and oppressors , to discourage innocence : a Law made against the intention of Laws , which is , to defend the right , and punish the wrong doer : it were a Law disabling the Judge to rescue the oppressed , and a Law expresly disowning the cause of the afflicted : and if any Judge should undertake his office upon such terms , he should openly profess that if the case happened , he would doe against his conscience . And all Laws going the best way they can to finde out truth , would never disable a Judge to make use of it when he had found it out , and assisted the inquiry of the Laws by a fortunate discovery . For the examining of witnesses being but a means to finde out truth , cannot possibly be so adhered to , as to be preferred before the end to which it is design'd , that were as if a man should rather love to seek then finde . Since therefore no Law ever was , or can be so unreasonable as to decree that a Judge shall not in such a case directly relieve the innocent , but proceed to his condemnation , it follows that he can have no obligation to doe so , and then the obligation of his conscience can upon no pretence be declined . The Law does not intend to oblige the Judge in that case , because no Law can be made expresly to doe so ; He therefore being free from the Law in that case , stands bound to his private conscience , without excuse . Nay , the Canon Law expresly enjoyns that a Judge should give sentence according to his own conscience , as appears in c. 1. de re Judic . in 6. & in clem , 1. § . verùm de haeret . 11. Suppose a Judge should suborn false witnesses against an innocent ; either he is bound not to proceed according to allegation and proof , but according to his secret conscience , or else he is bound to goe on in his crime , and effect that which he had maliciously designed . For it is not enough that he is bound to disingage the witnesses and take off the subornation : for suppose the persons already appearing will not cease , lest they should be sham'd and ruin'd , but will take confidence from their crime , and perseverance from their publication , then there is no remedy for the innocent , neither can the Judge rescue him from himself , nor give over sinning , unless he proceed by his private certain measures , and not by those which are false and publick . For to say he may be sorry for his fault and yet proceed in it , is to make him an hypocrite : if he confesses that he subor●d the witnesses , and yet proceed to condemne the innocent , he is ridiculous , and makes the Law put on the face of tyranny and unreasonable violence and oppression . So that either he must goe on and sin to the end without remedy , or he must be admitted to proceed by his private conscience , and that in his case would be justice and penitence besides . 12. Lastly , all Laws being intended for the good of the Subjects , are bound not onely to comply with their ordinary cases by ordinary provisions , but for their accidental needs by the extraordinary . And so we finde it , that all Laws yeeld in particulars , when the Law is injurious in the special cases , and this is the ground of all Chancery , because summum jus , summa injuria ; and Solomon advised well , Noli esse justus nimiùm , be not over righteous ; and the j●stice of God being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , gentleness and favour , equity and mercy , ours is best when we follow the best precedent ; now since no case is more favourable then the present , the Laws are unjust that will not bend and stoop to the miseries of the oppressed ; and therefore the Judge having no hindrance , he is tied by a double band to releeve the oppressed innocent , by his direct sentence ( where it can be admitted ) or by his open declaration , and quantum in se est , but at no hand to consent to his condemnation . I conclude therefore with that rule of the Canon Law , Melius est scandalum nasci quàm ut veritas deseratur ; It is better that a scandal should be suffered , and an offence done to the forms and methods of judicial proceedings , then that truth should be betrayed and forsaken ; and what was said in the prophecie concerning our blessed Saviour , Non secundùm auditum aurium arguet , he shall not reprove according as he hears , but according as he knows , is also true of Judges in this case ; they doe judge most perfectly when in truth and in defence of the innocent , they follow the pattern of the Divine judgement and not the imperfection of the humane , that is , they are to judge by the eyes , not by the eares ; Segniùs irritant animos demissa per aures Quàm quae sunt oculis commissa fidelibus — That is a sure sentence that can rely upon ocular demonstration ; for our eyes are a better guard of innocence then the tongues of Sycophants , and our consciences are surer informers then the forms of Law ; and since no Law hath declar'd against it , the conscience is at perfect liberty ; and yet if it were not , we are certain it is better to obey God then men ; the conscience is no mans servant , it is Gods onely . Conscience is Gods Angel : Grieve not the Angel lest he smite thee , doe nothing against him , lest he forsake thee . Viro bono fixum in omni vita est , transversum unguem à recta conscientia non discedere , said Cicero ; Every good man is perfectly resolved not to depart from his right conscience a hairs bredth during his whole life . And now to the pretences which are made on the other side , there will be the less need of a reply , if we consider that they onely prove that a Judge is tied to observe the forms of judicial process , and to proceed according to allegation and proof , ordinarily and regularly , as supposing that this is the best ordinary way of information , as it is most certainly . But as the Law , using the best she hath , would not yet refuse a Prophet from heaven , or a miracle to bring truth from her retirements , or her vail , so neither will she refuse any better way that can be offered ; but whatever the Law would doe , yet the question now being concerning the Judge , it is certain that the Judge in the case now put , hath a surer way of evidence ; and therefore as the Law , if she had a surer way of evidence , ought not to goe against so clear a light , so neither can the Judge . And the arguments onely proceeding upon the usual suppositions conclude that regularly Judges must doe as usually they can doe , that is , proceed according to proof , because they can have no better way , but they cannot be drawn to this extraregular and rare contingency . For though most men are brought in upon suspicion or private accusation , yet the Apostle says that some mens sins are manifest , going before unto judgement : and when this happens , the Judge must not goe in inquest after what he sees . And the same arguments may as well be urged against all dispensations and remissions , against favour and Chancery , and destroy all equity , and all Religion , as to destroy all conscience when it is certain and infallible . But I shall say something to the particulars . 1. It is true that a Judge hath a double capacity , and he hath offices proportionable ; some as a man , some as Judge ; that is , he hath some natural and essential obligations , some which are superinduc'd upon his office . And therefore I refuse to use this distinction as it is commonly used , and so made more subject to mistake and abuse . In this case the Judge is not to be considered as a publick man , and a private man ; for private is as much superinduc'd as publick ; and all his other relations are as much to yeeld to his essential duty , as that of a Judge : such as are the relation of a Husband , of a Father , of a Tutor , of a Master ; and amongst these , the more private is often tied to yeeld to the more publick . But therefore in this case the Judge is to be considered as a Judge and as a Man ; and in this case the duties are sometimes disparate , but never contrary ; and when there is a dispute , the superinduc'd must yeeld to that which is original ; for whatsoever is his duty as a man , the Judge may not prevaricate ; for it is the man that is the Judge , in the man that office is subjected , and the office of a Judge is bound upon him by the conscience of the man. If the Judge had two consciences , and two real persons , then it were to be granted that they were to be served and attended to in their several callings ; but it is not so , they are but two persons in fiction of Law , but materially , and to all real events , the same : it is the same conscience ministring to divers duties : And therefore as the Judge is always that man , so his conscience is the conscience of that man ; and because as a man he must not goe against his conscience , so when that man is a Judge he must not goe against the mans conscience , for the Judge is still that man rul'd by that conscience . The essential duty of a man cannot by any superinduc'd formality be dispensed with . Now to goe according to our conscience and knowledge is the essential rule and duty of a man , which he cannot put off by being a Judge . The new office superinduces new obligations , but none contrary , no more then he can cease being a man by being a Judge . Certè prior anima quam litera , & prior sermo quàm liber , & prior sensus quàm stylus , & prior homo quàm philosophus & poëta : He is first a Man , and then a Philosopher , a Poet , or a Judge ; and that which is first cannot be prejudic'd by what is superinduc'd . And if the Judge goe against the conscience of the man , pretending to doe according to the conscience of the Judge , the man shall be damned , and where the Judge shall then appear any child can tell . If the Bishop of Bayeux as Earl of Kent will rebel against his Prince , the Earl of Kent shall lose his head , though the Bishop of Bayeux may plead his Clergy . For in this there is a great mistake . To be a man and to be a Judge are not to be compar'd as two distinct capacities of equal consideration . To be a Bishop and to be a Judge are properly such , and have distinct measures ; but to be a man is the subject of the two capacities , and cannot be laid aside as either of the other may ; and therefore the distinction is vain and sophistical , and if it could be admitted in Metaphysicks ( in which yet , it appears to have an error ) yet it can never be suffered to pass to real events . This being the ground of all the contrary opinion , and being found false , the superstructure must also fall to the ground . To the special cases this I answer : 2. An Executioner may not refuse to doe his office though the Judge hath given an unjust sentence : it is true onely when the matter is dubious , or not known , or intolerable . But if the Judge commands the Hangman to flay a Prophet alive , or to crucify Christ , or to strike his King thorough with a sword , I doubt not but the adversaries themselves will think he is not obliged to obey . Indeed this ought not easily to be drawn into a rule , lest such people turn it into a pretence . But if the Executioner be sure , and the matter be notorious and such as cannot deceive him , his hand ought not to be upon an innocent . For as Receivers are to Thieves , so are Executioners to unjust Judges . When the fact is notorious , and the injustice evident , then it is such as all men can see it ; and then , as if there were no Receivers there would be no Thieves ; so if there were no Executioners of unjust sentences , the Judge would be apt to reverse his sentence . 3. Now whereas it is pretended that if a private notice were admitted against publick evidence , it were like a private spirit against a publick article , and would open a way to every pretension , it would dissolve the forms of judicatures , and introduce many evils : I answer , that if all this were true , and that for this there could be no remedy , nor yet any recompence in the special cases , it would follow that the Law were prudent if it did refuse to admit such a proceeding , unless she had some reason to trust the Judge : But this were nothing to the Judge . For the Law therefore refuses his testimony , because she hath that which she presumes is better , and because she not knowing the secret follows the best way she hath . But the Judge knows the secret , and he is not deceived , and he does not make pretences , for the case supposes him to speak according to his conscience ; and therefore although tht Law in prudence does not beleeve him , yet he cannot but beleeve himself , and therefore in duty to God must proceed accordingly , or must not proceed at all . 4. Neither is this like a private spirit against a publick article ; because this conscience of the Judge does not impose upon the publick , who hath power to admit or to refuse his sentence ; but it is onely for himself , and although his conscience ought not to be the publick measure , yet it ought to be his own . I doe not doubt but the Law may goe against the Judges conscience , but the Judge himself may not goe against his own . 5. And this we see verified in the matter of a private evidence ; for though the Judge hath seen it in a chamber , yet he must not judge by it in the Court , the Law will not suffer him to doe so ; but yet for himself he may so farre make use of it , as to be perswaded in his conscience , and to understand on which side the right stands , and to favour it in all the ways that are permitted him . But the case here being not matter of life and death , the Law hath power to dispose of estates , and the conscience of the Judge is not obliged to take more care of a mans money or land then himself does , but it can be ●bl●ged to take care of mens lives when the injured person is not able . A man may give away his estate , but he may not give his life away ; and therefore he may lose his estate by such ways , by which he ought not to be permitted to lose his life . Adde to this , that a Judge having seen an Instrument in private which could much clear the cause depending , may not upon that account proceed to sentence , because it may be the adverse party can give an answer to it , and make it invalid ; whereas in matters of fact of which the Judge ●s conscious there is no uncertainty , nor fallibility . And lastly , the suffering party in the question of money or lands suffers no inconvenience , but what is outweighed to the publick by the order of justice and solemnities of Law ▪ and the man that loses to day for want of producing his evidence , may produce it to morrow and recover it . But in matter of life and death , nothing can m●ke recompence to the oppressed innocent , and if he suffers to day , he cannot plead an error in the indictment to morrow . For these and many other considerations the case is wholly different . 6. By some of these things we may also answer to the instance of a confident and opinionative Judge . He may not preferre his private opinion before the sentence of the Law , and bring it into open judgement . 1. Because he himself may be deceived in his opinion , and his confidence is no argument that he is not deceived . 2. Because if the sentence and decree of the Law be less reasonable , yet the Judge without sin may proceed to it , because the more reasonable is not in his choice , and the less reasonable is not absolutely and simply unjust . 3. In matters of prudence and civil government there is no demonstration of reason , but the Legislative power may determine for the publick interest as is presently apprehended , and may refuse the better counsel , and yet doe well enough ; for that which is simply the better is not in these cases necessary ; and in such things a mans reason ought not to be so confident , as he is of what he sees , or what is matter of faith ; and therefore in these onely he is to be guided by his own , in the other he must proceed by the publick measures . And as in all things not demonstratively certain or evident the Executioner is bound to obey the Judge ; so is the Judge bound to obey the Law ; and the presumption will lie for the Law against the Judge , as it will lie for the Judge against the Officer . 4. And yet after all , I doe not doubt but if a Judges conscience were effectively determin'd against a Law , and that he did beleeve it to be unjust and unlawful , he ought to follow his conscience . As if a Judge did beleeve it to be a sin to put a man to death for stealing 13. d. ob . he might not condemne such a theef to the Gallows . And he is not excused by saying , It is not the Judge but the Law that does amiss . For if the Judge beleeve the Law to be unjust , he makes himself a partner in the injustice by ministring to an unjust Law against his conscience . For not onely he that commands evil to be done is guilty , but he that obeys such a command . In this case , either the Judge must lay aside his opinion or his office , for his conscience must not be laid aside . 7. The instance of a Priest and an excommunicate person unworthily absolved will no way conclude this Question . 1. Because the case is infinitely differing between condemning an innocent , and acquitting the guilty . If any man pretends he is satisfied in conscience that the accused person is criminal , though it cannot be legally proved , yet there is no wrong done , if the accused man be let free ; an inconvenience there may be , but the Judge must not be permitted to destroy by his private conscience , against or without legal conviction , because the evil may be intolerable if it be permitted , and the injustice may be frequent and unsufferable ; but if it be denied , there may sometimes happen an inconvenience by permitting a Criminal to live , but there can be no injustice done . It may have excuse , and it may have reason , and it may have necessity that a Judge refuse to consent to the death of an innocent , but that he should against his conscience kill him can have no warrant ; and if he be not innocent , there may be reason to let him alone , but none to condemne him if he be . Conscience can oblige a Judge to an unsolemne absolution , but not to an illegal and unsolemne condemnation . This should have been considered in the Earl of Straffords Case . The Law hath power to forgive the criminal , but not to punish the guiltless . And therefore if a man be absolved when he deserved it not , we may suppose him pardoned , and the private Priest is not his Judge in that case . For to refuse to communicate him is an act of publick Judicature , and to absolve him is an act of the same power , and therefore must be dispensed by authority , not by usurpation , that is , by the publick sentence , not by the private Minister , since to give the holy Communion to such a person is not against any essential duty of a Christian. And therefore if the Priest knows him unworthy to communicate , he may separate him so farre as he hath power to separate him , that is , by the word of his proper Ministery : let him admonish him to abstain , represent his insufficiency , threaten him with the danger ; but if he will despise all this , the private Priest hath no more to doe , but to pray and weep for him , and leave him to God and the Church . But of this I am to speak more largely in its proper place . 8. As for the case of the Priest hearing Confessions , though he finde Titius accused by Caius , yet if Titius does not accuse himself , Titius is rather to be beleeved in his own case then Caius in another mans . Because in this entercourse every man is so concern'd to doe his duty , that every man is to be beleeved for himself and against himself , because if he speaks false himself onely is the loser . 2. Caius accusing Titius may for ought the Confessor knows tell a lie and abuse him , and therefore he cannot pretend knowledge and conscience against Titius ; and so this comes not home to the present case which supposes the Judge to know the accused person to be innocent . 3. This argument supposes that a man cannot be absolved unless he enumerate all his sins to the Priest , which being in many cases false ( as I have shewn otherwhere ) that which relies upon it can signify nothing . 9. Last of all , although the Judge must lay aside his affections and his will , and his opinion when he sits upon the seat of judgement , because these are no good measures of Judicature , nor ought to have immediate influence upon the sentence ; yet he cannot lay aside his knowledge , and if he lay aside his conscience he will make but an ill Judge . 2. And yet the Judge must lay his affections and his will aside never but when they tempt him to injustice . For a Judge must not cease to be merciful when it does not make him unjust ; nor need he cease to please himself , so long as he is pleased to doe right : these if they doe hurt indeed must be left off , else not ; and therefore it cannot with any colour from hence be pretended that he must lay aside his knowledge when it is the onely way by which he can doe good . 10. To the authority of S. Ambrose , what I have already said is a sufficient answer . For he speaks of a Judges office regularly and usually , not what he is to doe in cases extraordinary , and such as is the present question . But he that said . Sicut audit , ita judicat , would no less have said , Sicut videt , ita judicat . The seeing of his eyes is as sure a measure as the hearing of his ears . 11. As for the words of Ulpian I will give no other answer , then that Panormitan and Covaruvias who urge them , and who are concerned to make the most of them , doe yet confess that they make as much against them as for them ; and that they say true , will appear to any ordinary understanding that considers them . 12. For although no Judge must doe acts of a private authority , yet he may as well use his own private knowledge , as he may use the private knowledge of the witnesses ; for their knowledge is as private as the Judges , till it be brought into open Court , and when his is brought thither , it is as publick as theirs ; but however from the authority to the knowledge to argue is a plain paralogism ; for the Prince who armed him with publick authority , did not furnish him with a commission of knowledge , but supposed that to be induced by other ways . 13. And therefore the Judge may when he hath called witnesses reject them upon his own certain knowledge , as well as use arts of discovery , or any other collateral ways to secure the innocent . For it may as well be inquired concerning the Judges using his knowledge to the infatuating or discovering the falshood of the evil witnesses as to the rejecting them . For if he must absolutely take all for granted which they say , then he must use no arts to invalidate their testimony ; but if he may doe that , he may doe the other , and yet the calling in of witnesses may be to many good purposes , and by the collision of contraries light may arise , and from falshood also truth may be produced like a fair child from a foul mother . And after all , though this question is not to be determined on either side by authorities , yet because amongst the writers of Cases of Conscience very many rely much upon the testimony of Authors , I think it not amiss to say that this sense of the question which I defend was the sentence of many eminent Divines and Lawyers , particularly , Nicolaus Lyra , Adrianus , Angelus , Navarre , Hostiensis , Calderinus , Panormitan , Martinus , Johannes Arboraeus , Oldendorp , Corrasius , Lessius , Bresser and divers other ; and therefore besides the strength of the reasons , I walk the more confidently by having such good company . To conclude : All those advises of prudence which are given by the adverse party in this affair as expedients for the Judges to proceed by in such cases , I am ready to admit if they will secure their conscience and the life of the innocent oppressed . But if they will not , but that the Judge must give sentence for Law or for Conscience , the case to me seems very clear . God is greater then our Conscience , but our Conscience is greater then any thing besides . Fiat jus & pereat mundus , said S. Austin , adhaec imagine nè nature veritas obumbretur curandum . For images and forms of things , the natural and substantial truth of things may not be lost or prejudic'd . Let justice be done whatsoever be the event . Accipere personam improbi non est bonum , ut pervertas justum in judicio . It is not good to receive the person of a wicked man , thereby to overthrow the righteous in his cause . RULE 9. The goodness of an object is not made by Conscience , but is accepted , declared , and published by it , and made personally obligatory . NO object can have its denomination from the judgement of reason , save onely that from thence it may be said to be understood to be good , to be declar'd , to be consented to ; all which supposes the object to be good , or to be so apprehended . Just as an emerald is green before the eye perceives it so : and if the object were not in it self good , then the reason were deceiv'd in consenting to it , and a deceiver in publishing it . This is true in respect of the material , fundamental , and proper goodness of the object ; for this it hath independently of the conscience : and the rectitude of the conscience is dependent on this , and consequent to the perception of it . But yet there is a formal , extrinsecal , and relative goodness passed upon an object by the conscience , by whose perswasion although an evil object doe not become naturally good , yet it becomes personally necessary ; and in the same proportion a good object may become evil . The purpose of this is to remonstrate that we must rather look to the rule then to the present perswasion ; first taking care that our conscience be truly informed , before it be suffered to pass a sentence ; and it is not enough that our conscience tels us thus , unless God hath told the conscience . But yet if the conscience does declare , it ingages us , whether it be right or wrong . But this hath in it some variety . 1. The goodness of an act depends upon the goodness of an object , that is , upon its conformity to a rational nature and the commands of God. For all acts of will and understanding are of themselves indefinite and undetermined till the relation to an object be considered , but they become good or bad when they choose or refuse that which is good or bad respectively . To will to doe an act of theft is bad , because theft it self is so : to be willing to commit an act of adultery is evil , because all adultery is evil : and on the other side , to be willing to doe an act of justice , is therefore good because justice it self is good . And therefore Aristotle defines justice by a habitude or relation to its object . It is voluntas dandi suum cuique , a will of giving to every one that which is their due . And therefore our conscience , because it is to receive its information from the rule by which every action is made good or bad , and its motion from the object , is bound to take in that onely which is really and truly good , and without sin or error cannot doe otherwise . 2. Although conscience is bound to proceed this way , yet sometimes the younger the elder brother by the heel , or gets out before him , and the act gets before the object by indirect means . For though all things should be thought good because they are good , yet some things are made good because they are thought so ; and the conscience looking out upon its object finds error dress'd up in the shape of truth , and takes it in , and adopts it into the portion of truth . And though it can never be made really and naturally good , yet by being supposed so by the conscience , it is sometimes accepted so by God. 3. Although the rule by which good and bad is measured , be in it self perfect , yet it is not always perfectly received by us . Good is proportionable to Reason ; and as there is probabiliter verum , so there is probabiliter bonum , a probable good , as well as a probable truth : and in the inquest after this , we often shew a trick of humanity , even to be pitifully deceived ; and although when it is so , it is an allay of the good it intends , yet it does not wholly destroy it : God in his goodness accepting at our hands for good , what we really and innocently suppose to be so . Just like the Country fellow that gave a handful of water to his Prince ; he thought it a fine thing , and so it was accepted . For when the action and the rule are to be made even , if either of them comply and stoop , the equality is made . God indeed requires the service of all our faculties , but calls for no exact measures of any but the will. For the acts of the will are perfect in their kinde , but our understanding is imperfect , therefore this may finde an excuse , but that never . 4. Upon this account it is that though the goodness or badness of an act depends upon the quality of the object regularly and naturally , yet the acts become irregularly or accidentally good or bad by the conscience , because the conscience changes the object ; that is , the act is good by the object really good , or so apprehended . The object always changes or constitutes the act , but the conscience changing the object immediately , hath a mediate influence upon the act also , and denominates it to be such as in the event it proves . But then in what degrees , and to what events this change is made is of more intricate consideration . What changes can be made in moral actions by the perswasion and force of Conscience . 1. Whatsoever is absolutely and indispensably necessary to be done , and commanded by God expresly , cannot be changed by Conscience into an evil , or into that which is unnecessary . Because in such cases where the rule is plain , easy , and fitted to the conscience , all ignorance is voluntary , and spoils the consequent act , but never can legitimate it . And the same reason is for things plainly and expresly forbidden , as adultery , murder , sacrilege , and the like ; they can never become good by any act of Conscience . And therefore in such cases it often happened that God did declare his judgement to be contrary to the opinion which men had of themselves and of their actions . Somtimes men live contrary to their profession ; they profess the worship of God , but deny him in their hearts , even when they least think they doe . Thus the Israelites having constrain'd Aaron to make a golden Calf proclaim'd a feast , To morrow is a feast unto Jehovah ; but God says of them , They offered sacrifice to Devils and not to God. And so it was with their children after them , who killed and persecuted the Apostles and servants of Jesus , and thought they did God good service . He that fals down before an idol , and thinks to doe honour to the Lord ; or robs a Temple , and thinks it is for Religion , must stand or fall , not by his own fancy , but by sentence of God , and the rule of his Law ; Protestatio contra factum is invalid in Law. To strike a mans eye out , and say he did it in sport ; to kill his brother , and think it is well done , because done to prevent his sin , though it may be thought charity by the man , yet it is murder before God. 2. Where the rule is obscure , or the application full of variety or the duty so intricate that the conscience may inculpably erre , there the object can be changed by conscience , and the acts adopted into a good or an evil portion by that influence . He that thinks it unlawful to give money to a poor Turk , hath made it to become unlawful to him , though of it self it seems to be a pious act . So also it is in the uncertain application of a certain proposition . It is certainly unlawful to commit adultery ; but if Jacob supposes he lies with Rachel , and she prove to be Leah , his conscience hath not chang'd the rule , but it hath chang'd the object and the act : The object becomes his own by adoption , and the act is regular by the integrity of the will. This is that which is affirm'd by the Apostle , I know and am perswaded in the Lord Jesus , that there is nothing unclean of it self , but he that thinketh it is unclean , to him it is unclean . This instance is in a case in which they might easily be mistaken , and innocently abused by reason of the prepossession of their mindes by Moses Law ; and therefore in such cases the conscience rules . They who beleeve themselves married , may mutually demand and pay their duty : But if they be not married , it is fornication or adultery ( as it happens . ) But if Conscience says they are married , it is not adultery , but an act of duty , because the same conscience that declares for the marriage , obliges also to pay their duty , as a matter of necessity . Where ever the understanding is wrong , and the will is wholly right , the action is accepted , and the error pardoned . 3. When the act is materially evil , the conscience adopting it into a good portion , that is , beleeving it to be good , does not make a perfect change , but leaves an allay in the several degrees of its perswasion . For it is impossible that a right conscience and a wrong should have no difference in the effect , especially if there be any thing criminal or faulty in the cause of the error . When two men take up arms in a differing cause , as suppose one for his Prince , and the other against him ; though they be both heartily perswaded , and act according to Conscience , yet they doe not equally doe well or ill . The one shall be accepted , and it may be , the other pardoned , or excused in various degrees . But this which needs a pardon for one thing , is not in the whole constitution of it , good for any thing , nor can it be accepted to reward . 4. If the conscience dictate a thing to be necessary , the thing is become necessay , and at no hand to be declined . This was it which S. Paul said , He that is circumcised is a debtor of the whole Law ; meaning , that though Christ had broken the yoke of Moses , yet if conscience did take up one end of it , and bound it upon it self ; the other end would be dragg'd after it , and by the act of conscience become necessary . If a man inquires , whether he is bound to say his prayers kneeling , or whether he may doe it standing , or lying , or leaning ; if his conscience be perswaded that he must doe it kneeling , it is necessary he should doe so , and he may not doe it in his bed : Because the Conscience is a Law-giver , and hath authority over the man , and ought to prevail , when the contrary part is onely , That they may doe otherwise . For whether this part be true or false , the matter is not so great , because there is no danger if a man doe not make use of a liberty that is just : He can let it alone and doe well enough ; and therefore to follow the other part which is supposed necessary , must needs be his safest way . But if the Question be , whether it be necessary to keep a Holy day , or necessary to let it alone ; there if the Conscience determine that for necessary to be done , which is necessary to be let alone , the man is indeed bound to follow his conscience , but he cannot escape a sin . For conscience makes no essential alterations in the thing , though it makes personal obligations to the man ; and if it be an evil superstition to keep a holy day , it cannot be made lawful , because the conscience mistaking calls it necessary . And if this were otherwise , it were not a pin matter what a man thought , for his thinking so becomes his law , and every man may doe what is right in his own eyes . And therefore God was pleased expresly to declare it , that if a Prophet did mislead the people , both he and they should perish ; and our blessed Saviour signified the same thing in a Parabolical expression , If the blinde lead the blinde , they both fall into the ditch . But in this case there is a fault somewhere , and the man smarts under the Tyranny , not the Empire of his Conscience ; for Conscience can have no proper authority against the Law of God. In this case that which the conscience falsly calls necessary , becomes so relatively and personally ( that is , he thinks so , and cannot innocently goe in the right way , so long as his guide conducts him in the wrong , and yet cannot innocently follow his guide because she does abuse him ) but in it self , or in the Divine acceptation , it onely passes for a bonum , something there is in it that is good , and that God may regard ; there is a praeparatio animi , a willingness to obey . 5. If the Conscience being mistaken in a question , whether an action be good or no , calls that good which is nothing but indifferent ; the Conscience alters it not , it is still but lawful ; but neither necessary nor good , but relatively and collaterally : The person may be pitied , and have a gift given him in acknowledgement , but the thing it self cannot expect it . When the Lords of the Philistins , that they might deprecate the Divine judgements offered to God golden Mice and Emerods , the thing it self was not at all agreeable to the way by which God chose to be worshipped ; but their conscience told them it was good , it therefore became lawful to them , but not good in it self ; and God who is the Father of mankinde saw their heart , and that they meant it for good , and he was pleased to take it so . But the Conscience ( I say ) cannot make it good . For to be good or bad is wholly another consideration then to be necessary or not necessary . This distinction is relative to persons , and therefore can be made by Conscience in the sense above allowed . But good and bad is an abstract consideration , and relates to the materiality of the object , and is before the act of Conscience , not after . 6. If the Conscience being mistaken calls a thing lawful , which is not so in the Rule , or Law of God , there the Conscience neither makes an alteration in the thing , nor passes an obligation upon the person . Eleonora de Ferrante was married to a Spanish Gentleman , who first used her ill , then left her worse . After some years she is courted by Andrea Philippi her Countriman , to marry him . She inquires whether she may or no , and is told by some whom she ought not easily to have beleeved , that she may ; and so she does . But being told by her Confessor of her sin and shame , she pretends that she did it bono animo , her conscience was perswaded she might doe it , and therefore hopes to be excused or pardoned . He answers her ; That her conscience could not make that lawful which God had forbidden , and therefore she ought not to pretend conscience ; for though her conscience did say it was lawful , she was not bound to follow it ; because thought she must doe nothing that is unlawful , yet she is not tied to doe every thing that is lawful : and though her conscience can give her a Law , yet it cannot give her a Privilege . She is bound to doe what her conscience says is necessary , though it be deceived , and if she does not , she sins against her conscience , which can never be permitted or excused . But if her conscience tells her onely it is lawful so to doe ; if she does not doe the thing which her conscience permits , she offends it not , because though it allows , yet it does not command it . If therefore she does it , and there be an error in the conscience , the sin is as great as the error , great as the matter it self ; as if the fact materially be adultery , it is also morally so , and the perswasion of the conscience does not excuse it from being such . The reason is plain ; For since the conscience when she allows does not command , if the person chooses that thing which materially is a sin , it is in pursuance of her own desires , not in obedience to her conscience . It is Lust more then Conscience . * But yet whereas she says she hopes for pardon in this case , there is no question but she may . For she sinn'd as S. Paul did in persecuting the Church ; he did it ignorantly and so did she . Here onely was the difference ; he was nearer to pardon then she ; because he thought he was bound to doe so , and therefore could not resist his conscience so perswaded : she onely thought she might doe it , and therefore might have chosen . The conscience hath power in obligations and necessities , but not so much , nor so often in permissions . CHAP. III. Of the Confident , or Erroneous Conscience . RULE 1. An Erroneous Conscience commands us to doe what we ought to omit ; or to omit what we ought to doe , or to doe it otherwise then we should . IN this there is no other difficulty but in the last clause . For when our blessed Lord had propounded an instance of perfection , he that not onely obeyes the counsel , but thinks it to be a Commandement , and necessary to be done in all times and persons , enters into an error at the gate of Zeal , and at the same place le ts out the excellency of his love . Christ hath recommended renunciation of the world , spiritual castration for the kingdome of God , dying for our Enemies , &c. he that in zeal , with charity and prudence follows these advices will finde his reward swell high ; but he whose zealous desire to grow towards perfection , shall so determine his practice , as that by degrees he shall think these counsels individually necessary , hath abused his conscience , laid a snare for others , put fetters upon Christian liberty , and is passed into that state of doing it , that though he entred first by love , he is gone beyond it , and changed it into fear , and scruple , and superstition : he is at last got so farre that he would not doe it at all if he durst doe otherwise ; and he dares not , because his love was zealous , and his zeal was imprudent , and his imprudence was a furious snare , and the passion of a mighty folly . But an erroneous conscience is generally abused by two manners of proceeding . 1. By a true application of a false proposition : Thus , Whatsoever is done against my Conscience is a sin . But to allow of Magistrates is against my Conscience . Therefore it is certainly a sin that they be allowed . The first proposition is not true , unless it be understood of him onely , against whose conscience it is done , and then it is always true , either absolutely , or relatively , originally , or accidentally . But if it be intended to conclude , that because it is against my conscience to allow them , therefore it is simply unlawful , or unlawful to every one else , this is a Paralogism , and makes an erring conscience . Or secondly , the conscience is abused , and made erroneous by a false application of a true proposition . Whatsoever is forbidden by God is a sin . But every oath is forbidden by God. Therefore every oath is a sin . Every thing here is true but the conclusion . The second proposition is true , but not universally . For S. James saying , Swear not at all , forbids all kinds of oaths materially : that is , in that sense in which any is forbidden , in the same all are forbidden . Without just authority and occasion it is not lawful to swear By God , therefore without such authority , neither is it lawful to swear by a creature . So that his words mean thus ; Except in such a case swear not at all , that is , not with any kinde of oath ; for unless that case occurres to warrant it , this or that oath is criminal as well as any : that is , it is no excuse in common talk to say , it was but a slight oath , for you must not swear at all , viz. in such circumstances . The causes of error , are 1. Ignorance , either of right or fact . For no other division of ignorance can concern the relation of an erring conscience . For although a man is otherwise concerned in ignorance if it be vincible , otherwise if it be invincible , yet his will is concerned in that directly , and his conscience but collaterally and indirectly . 2. Fear whether it be pusillanimous , or superstitious , that is , whether it begin upon religion , or upon natural imbecillity , they alike abuse the conscience . Ignorance makes it erroneous , but takes not away its confidence , but oftentimes increases it : fear makes it erroneous too , and though it begins in doubting , it ends in a silly choice , which grows to as much confidence as it can , so much as to establish the error . 3. To this usually is reduc'd a morose humility and abjection of minde , which because it looks pitifully and simply , some men in charity think it laudable : so Antoninus particularly ; and it is the same that S. Gregory recommends , Bonarum quippe mentium est , ibi etiam aliquo modo culpas suas agnoscere , ubi culpa non est . It is the sign of a good minde to accuse themselves of a fault when there is none . Which if it relates to the present affairs is dangerous and illusive . For if the question be in a Case of conscience , and the conscience be determined upon its proper grounds innocently and right , there to acknowledge a fault in the conscience or determination , is to make the Rule it self crooked , to introduce eternal scruples and irresolution , to disturb our own peace , and a device to snatch at a reward by thrusting it from us , and to think to please God by telling of a lie . But if the saying relates to all the whole action in all its conjugation of circumstances and appendages , then it may consist with humility and prudence both , to suspect a fault where there is none ; to fear lest we have erred by excess of degrees in passion , or by remisness and slackness of action , or by obliquity of intention , or intertexture of some undecency , or weariness , or sensuality , or complacency , and phantastick deliciousness , or something secret , and we know not what : But even in this case , we may best follow S. Pauls expedient and manner of expression , Nihil mihi conscius sum , I am guilty of nothing , my heart smites me not , yet I am not hereby justified , for God is greater then my conscience : I may for ought I know have done something amiss , or my duty not well , but as I cannot accuse my self , so neither can I acquit my self , but referre my self to Gods equal and merciful sentence . What goes beyond this may abuse the conscience , not onely by a secret scruple , but by an evil principle and false conclusions : and this , although it looks like modesty , and seems contrary to confidence , and therefore cannot be so well reduc'd to this kinde of conscience , but to the doubting , or the scrupulous ; yet I have chosen to place it here , for the reason above mentioned . * It looks in at the door with a trembling eye , but being thrust in , it becomes bold . It is like a fire-stick which in the hand of a child being gently mov'd , gives a volatile and unfixed light , but being more strongly turn'd about by a swift circular motion , it becomes a constant wheel of fire : or like a bashful sinner sneaking to his lust , till he be discovered , and then he is impudent and hardned . And there are very many wise men who tremble in their determinations , and not being able clearly to resolve , fall upon one part by chance , or interest , or passion , and then they are forc'd for their peace sake to put on an accidental hardness , and a voluntary , not a natural confidence . But this confidence is commonly peevish , impatient , and proud , hating all contradiction and contradictors ; because it was onely an art to sleep , and to avoid the first trouble , and therefore hates every thing that brings them forth from their phantastick securities . Other causes of an erroneous conscience here usually are assigned but inartificially I suppose , and not of present concernment or relation . Such as are the subtraction of the Divine aids , Gods leaving a man , and giving him over 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and to beleeve a lie ; perplexity , or irresolution , self-love , pride , prejudice , and passion ; perit enim omne judicium cùm res transierit in affectum , quìa affectus obscurat intellectum nè rectè judicet , said Seneca . When affection sits Judge , there reason and truth are seldome admitted to plead , or if they are , yet they cannot prevail . Impedit ira animum nè possit cernere verum . But these are no otherwise causes of an erroneous conscience , but as they are causes of ignorance , or deception ; for in this case I reckon them to be but one ; an error being nothing else but an ignorance of truth , which whether it be culpable or inculpable , and at what gate it enters , is of another disquisition , and shall be reserved to its proper place . RULE 2. An erroneous Conscience binds us to obedience , but not so as a right Conscience does . THE object can move the will no otherwise then as it is propounded by the understanding . If it be propounded as evil , the will that chooses it under that formality is criminal and malicious . If it be propounded as good , the will that rejects it so propounded despises good ; for it is so to the will , if it be so to the understanding , which is the Judge and the immediate rule of all humane actions . And he that does a good thing while he beleeves it to be evil , does choose the evil , and refuse the good ; for he does therefore because he beleeves it evil , or though he thinks it so , and therefore is equally disposed to choose a real evil ; for that this is not so , is but extrinsecal and accidental to his choice . If this were not thus , but that it were possible to be otherwise , then we might suppose that a man might doe a thing reasonably , for which he ha●h no reason ; and an humane action without the natural process of humanity , that is , to choose by chance , and unnaturally , to choose for a reason that he hath not , and a good that appears not , which is like beholding of a thing that he sees not . The Jew thinks it is his duty to be circumcised , and to keep the Sabbath . While in this error he is confident , by what argument can he be mov'd to omit it ? If you give him reasons , you seek to cure his error , and to alter his perswasion ; but while this perswasion is not altered , how can he be mov'd to omit it ? If you give him no reasons , you desire him to omit it because he thinks he ought not , and to doe an action because it seems unreasonable , and follow your opinion because he beleeves it false ; that is , to obey you because he ought not , which is a way not possible to prevail with a wise man , or with a fool ; how it may work with any sort of madness , I know not . But against this Rule , some contend earnestly , in particular Guilielmus Parisiensis , and some that follow him , saying it is impossible that an erring or a lying conscience should oblige a man to follow i● . The thing hath great influence upon our whole life , and therefore is worth a strict survey . Quest. WHether a false and an abused Conscience can oblige us to pursue the error ? That it cannot these reasons are or may be pretended . 1. * Because it seems to be absurd to say , that when the error it self is not a sin at all , or but a little one , that it can be a great sin to follow a mans own humour against that error ; If a man should doe according to his error , it could at most be but a small sin , and therefore to goe against it cannot be greater . For the error can oblige no higher , then its own nature , as rivers cannot arise above their fountains . 2. But it is a more material consideration ; If an erring conscience obliges us to follow it , then some men are bound to persecute the Church , and the high Priests sinned not in crucifying Christ ; and the zealots of the Jews did well in afflicting the Apostles and Disciples of Jesus , because they did it ignorantly , and by the dictate of an erring Conscience ; and S. Paul says of himself befo●e his conversion , I my self thought I ought to doe many things against the Name of the Lord Jesus ; and yet he sinned in following his erring conscience ; and therefore certainly could not be bound to it . In pursuance of which , 3. S. Bernard argues thus ; To follow truth is always good ; but if by the conscience we can be bound to follow error , and that in that case it is not good to follow truth ; that is , If a good may become evil by the sentence of an erring conscience , and so great an evil as it supposes it to be , then by the same reason that which is evil , may by the like sentence become good , and so great a good as it is supposed ; and then may a man be chast for committing adultery , and charitable for committing murder , and religious for worshipping idols , and pious to his Parents in denying to relieve them from the Corban ; all which consequents being intolerable , the antecedent which infers them , must needs be false . 4. It is true indeed , the conscience is our Guide and our Lawgiver , our Judge and our Rule ; but it is not our Lord , nor in the present case is it an authentick record , but a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a heap of lies and errors , and therefore cannot be a true guide , and we are not tied to follow any leader to hell . Better it is in this case to follow the conscience of a wiser and a better man then my self , it being more reasonable that we be tied to follow his right , then our own wrong conscience . 5. For if still we were bound to follow our abused conscience , then we were bound to impossibilities , for then either we were not at all bound to follow God , or if we were , and yet bound to follow our conscience against God , we were bound at the same time to doe , and not to doe the same thing ; to serve two Masters , which our blessed Saviour said , No man can doe . 6. But therefore in this case God must be obeyed and not Man ; it being impious to say that the law of our conscience should derogate from , or wholly evacuate the Law of God , by which alone we ought to be governed . For if this law of conscience takes away the obligation of the Divine Law , or if the Divine Law take away the obligation of conscience when it erres , then they must cease respectively ; and the event will be this , that as long as Gods Law binds us ( which is for ever ) the law of an erring conscience cannot binde us . 7. And there are in this , great proportions of reason . For if the will be bound to lay down all its rods and axes , all the ensigns of Empire at the foot of the throne of God , doing or refusing by the command of God against its own inclination , it will not be imagined that the conscience , that is , the practical understanding hath any such privilege indulged to it , that it can be exempt from the jurisdiction of God , or that it can oblige in defiance of his Laws . 8. For it is certain , conscience is Gods creature , bound to its Lord and Maker by all the rights of duty and perfect subordination , and therefore cannot prejudice the right and power of its Lord ; and no wise man obeys the orders of a Magistrate against the express Law of his King ; or the orders of a Captain against the command of his General ; and therefore neither of conscience which is Gods messenger , against the purpose of the message with which God intrusted it . However , it is better to obey God then man ; to follow the Law of God then to goe against it ; to doe that which we should , rather then that which we should not . 9. And there can be no more necessity upon us to follow our conscience teaching us , then our conscience binding us ; and yet if a contract that is vicious be made , or an oath that is unlawful be uttered , the obligations of conscience cease , because they are against the Law of God ; and how then can conscience against this Law of God in any sense pass an obligation ? But this rather , that as we are bound not to commit a crime , so not to follow an error and a lie . 10. For it is impossible that our opinion , or falsly perswaded conscience should make any alteration in the thing ; If it was evil in it self , it is so still ; and my thinking that Mercury is not poyson , nor Hellebore purgative , cannot make an Antidote and deletery against them , if I have upon that confidence taken them into my stomach ; and the Sun is bigger then the Earth , though I foolishly think it no wider then a Bushel . And therefore in such cases the conscience can have no power , and can binde us to nothing but to lay our error down . Because as to him that is in error , it were madness to bid him erre more ; so to him that hath an erring conscience , it were equally evil to bid him pursue , and actuate and consummate his error ; which yet he were bound to doe , if an erring conscience could binde him . 11. Lastly if an erring conscience binds us to obedience , it either binds us by its own independent , ingenite power , or by a power deriv'd from God. If by a power deriv'd from God , then God commands us to beleeve a lie , to commit a sin , to run after false fires and illusions , which to affirm , seems to be blasphemy ; but if it binds us by its own power , then our conscience can make Gods Law to become unlawful to us , and we shall be stronger then God , and a mans self becomes his own rule ; and he that is deceiv'd by a false opinion is a Lawgiver to himself , and error shall be the measure of good and evil . These are the arguments which are used by several persons respectively in verification of the opinion of Parisiensis , which I have not onely heap'd here together , but added some and improved the rest , that by the collision of these with their answers , the truth might be made more useful and evident ; and divers collateral things incident to the main question might be spoken of ; and those arguments remain valid which I brought for the affirmative in the first and second paragraphs of this Rule . To the first therefore I answer : 1. That it is not the error that binds us to follow it , but the conscience in error ; and therefore although the error can have no force greater then its own nature and proper energy , yet our conscience can binde beyond the force of error . As if a General commands a Souldier to turn to the right hand under pain of death ; if he mistaking turn to the left , the event is greater then can be effected by the intentional relations of right or left hand , but depends upon the reason , and the command , the power and empire of the General . 2. To the second , I answer , That it follows not , because the erring conscience binds , therefore the obedience is not a sin . For such is or may be the infelicity of an abused conscience , that if it goes forward , it enters into folly , if it resists , it enters into madness , if it flies , it dashes its head against a wall , or falls from a rock , if it flies not , it is torn in peeces by a Bear ; and the very instances make it clear ; the Rulers of the Jews and S. Paul were both called to repent of that which they did in obedience to their erring conscience , which cannot legitimate impiety , but onely make the one or the other instance to be unavoidable . 3. To that which S. Bernard objects , the answer is easy upon another account ; for conscience may make a good thing evil to it , because besides the goodness of the object to make an action lawful there is required the faith and perswasion of the Agent ; and if this be wanting , as it is in an erring conscience that beleeves not the goodness of it , the action is evil , by reason of the destitution of an integral part . For , Bonum ex integra causa , malum ex qualibet particulari , and by the same reason , conscience cannot make an evil thing good , because besides the perswasion of conscience , there is required the goodness of the object , which if it be wanting , one ingredient cannot make it good , all must enter into the constitution of good , though the want of one is enough to spoil it . 4. To the fourth I answer , That because the conscience is in error , and the principle within it is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a false record , therefore it is true , that we are not absolutely tied to follow its conduct , but we are tied to lay the error aside , that we may follow it in streight ways ; but in the present constitution of affairs it is miserable , and because we must follow our leader , that is , all that can goe before us ; we doe goe to hell , or to mischief , not that we are by God bound to do this , but only to doe that ; and it is by our own fault that we are bound to fall into an evil portion , God binds us to follow our conscience , we spoil it by some folly or other , and then we follow it ; the evil appendage is our own , the Law by which God bound us was holy . Nature requires of us to drink at our meals : But if we have corrupted all our beaurage , we must drink unwholsome draughts , but yet nature did not binde us to this misfortune . 5. And therefore the answer to the next objection provides us of a remedy against the former . We are bound absolutely to follow the Law of God ; but we are bound to follow the contrary law of conscience erring , conditionally and by accident , that is , because we have made our rule crooked which God had made streight . For to be absolutely and irrespectively bound to follow God , and yet respectively and by accident to be bound to follow the contrary conscience , are not incompossibilities , or the parts of a contradiction , because they are not ad idem , not in the same regards . But then , since it is impossible that both these should be actually followed , therefore God does not command us to follow our conscience and not to follow it at the same time , but to follow our conscience , and to lay aside the error , and then both parts are reconcil'd ; for God and the conscience are but accidentally opposed , and God commanding us to follow our conscience ; took care that at the same time we should follow God too , and therefore God taught our conscience , but when we get other teachers , we make it impossible to obey God. Let us submit our conscience to God , that is , lay aside our error , and then God and Conscience are not two Masters , but one , that is , God ; and Conscience is his Deputy and subordinate . And in order to this , it is not ill advised in the fourth objection , to follow the right conscience of a wiser man ; to doe so is a good expedient for the laying down our error ; but it is not directly obligatory , so long as the error is confident ; for I must not follow a wiser man in his right , if I beleeve him to be in the wrong , and if I beleeve him to be in the right , and he really be so , then I have laid aside my error , and indeed to doe this is our duty ; but this cannot be done till the error be discovered , till then I must follow my own conscience , not the conscience of another man. 6. To the sixth I answer , That the law of Conscience cannot derogate from the Law of God , when they are placed in the eye of reason over against each other ; that is , when the Conscience sees the Law of God , no law , no perswasion , no humor , no opinion can derogate from it . But an erring confident conscience beleeves that it follows God when it does not . So that the law of God hath here a double effect . The Law of God apprehended by the Conscience binds him to action : But the Law of God real and proper binds the man to lay aside his error . For he that goes against the matter and the instance of the Law of God , does yet at the same time obey the sanction and authority , because he proceeds to action in obedience to , and in reverence of the Law of God. The wife of Amphitruo was kinde to her lord , when she entertain'd Jupiter in his semblance ; and for Sosia's sake Mercury was made much of : and because the error is dress'd like truth , for truths sake we hugge and entertain the error . So here . The Law of God is not despised , much less evacuated by following the dictate of Conscience , because it is for the sake of Gods Law that this conscience is followed . And therefore since by accident they are made opposite ; the event of it cannot be that one must cease , for both may and must stand , but nothing must cease but the error . 7. And therefore although the will must cease from its own pleasure , when Gods will is known to be clear against it , yet the understanding must not cease from that which it supposes to be the will of God , till the error be discovered , but when it is , then it must as much cease from its own ways as the will must , for every understanding as well as every proud will , must be submitted to the obedience of Jesus . 8. For Conscience being Gods creature , and his subordinate , cannot possibly prejudice the rights of God , for as soon as Gods right appears , and his Laws are read , conscience doth and must obey ; but this hinders not but that conscience must be heard when she pretends the Law of God for her warrant , so long as it is not known but that she says true . 9. For it is in this as it is in contracts and oaths , so long as they seem lawful they must be observed , and must not be rescinded until it be discovered that they are against the Law of God , and so it is with the dictates of an erring conscience . 10. And the reason is plain , because conscience does not make a real change in extreme objects ( as I have formerly discoursed ) the things are good or bad by their proportions to Gods Law , and remain so , whatever the conscience thinks : But yet they put on vizors and shapes , and introduce accidental obligations by error . Indeed the error brings in no direct obligation but that it be discovered and laid down : but so neither can it hinder but that Conscience shall still retain the power that God hath given it directly and principally ; that is , that it be the Mans rule and guide . For the fallacy that runs thorough all the objections is this , that the Erring Conscience is in its obligation considered as erring . Now it does not binde , as Erring , but as Conscience ; that is , not by its Error , but by its Nature , and the power of God , as being the reporter and record of his commands . Against which , he that bids our conscience to proceed indeed gives ill counsel . He that counsels a man to follow his erring conscience , invites him to folly ; he tells him he is in error , and bids him not lay it down . But he that advises him to follow his conscience , though it happens in the truth of things that his conscience be in error , meddles not at all in the countenancing the error , but in the power of conscience . 11. For all the obligation which our conscience passes on us is derivative from God , and God commands us to follow our conscience , but yet he commands us not to sin ; because his commanding us to follow our conscience supposes our conscience instructed by the word of God and right reason , and God had appointed sufficient means it should be ; but that conscience offers a sin to the obedience is wholly the mans fault , and besides the intention of God. God hath not made us to sin , but hath committed us to the conduct of Conscience , which by prevaricating its instructions hath betrayed us . By this it appears what manner of obligation is pass'd upon us by an erring Conscience ; the Conscience always hath the same commission as being the same faculty , the same guide : but because it self is bound to the Laws of God and right reason , so farre as it follows them , so farre it binds . But because when it is in error , it also pretends them , by them it still binds , till the illusion be discovered . Durandus expressed this by a distinction of words , in which himself onely made the difference . Ligat , sed non obligat . So he . That is , it hath not the same power that is in a right conscience . But it binds us so that we cannot proceed to good . A right Conscience directly and finally binds us to the action it self : An erring Conscience cannot doe that , because the action it offers is criminal , but it makes us take that in stead of what it ought to binde us to : That is , it hath the same authority , but an evil exercise of it ; The formal obligation is the same , but when it comes to be instanc'd , it binds us to that in which it hath no power . For though it hath power over us , yet it hath no direct power in that particular matter . Cordubensis and Vasquez contradict this expression of Durandus , affirming that an erring conscience does ligare & obligare ; I cannot well translate the words into a distinction , but their meaning is this , that we are not bound positively to follow the error , but yet so that we must not doe the contrary . Which indeed is the same thing ; and they going to reprove Durandus his distinction that hath no difference , they doe it by a contradiction that hath in it no opposition . For to say that an erring conscience does so binde us that we must not contradict it , is to say that it positively binds us to follow it . For if it commands us to follow it , and we must not goe against that command , is it not notorious and evident that we must positively follow it ? But for the establishing the measures of obedience in the present case , these following rules are the best proportions . The measures of obedience due to an erring Conscience . 1. If an erring conscience commands a thing that is of it self indifferent , we are bound to follow it , and we may doe it without sin . Because if it be indifferent , it is therefore lawful , and it cannot cease in it self to be lawful , by being supposed to be necessary . Indeed if a Governour commands us to doe a thing indifferent , and says it is necessary , we may not doe it under that compliance ; that is , we may not betray our Christian liberty , and accept that as simply necessary which Christ hath left under liberty . We must doe the thing , but not own the necessity . But if an erring conscience bid us doe an indifferent , and represent it as a necessary action , though it may be a sin to beleeve it necessary , yet it is no sin to doe the action . For nothing that supervenes can alter the nature of the thing , and a new personal necessity introduc'd by an erring conscience , by making it seem necessary to him , changes it not from being lawful in it self . But then it inferres this also , that as it may be done without sin , so without a sin it cannot be left undone : Because the error hath made it personally necessary , and the truth of God hath made it lawful really . 2. If an erring conscience dictate a thing to be good which is not good , not to follow that dictate , and not to doe that thing is no sin . Because every good is not necessary , and it may be good or seem so , and yet to omit it in certain circumstances , may be equally good or better . 3. If an erring conscience affirm that which is good , or which is indifferent , to be evil and vicious ; as if it says , it is a sin to spit upon the pavement of a Church , or that it is superstition to serve the poor in an Hospital , it is no sin to omit that indifferent or that commendable action ; because here is no command of God to countermand the resolution of conscience , and therefore the error may become a snare and a hindrance , but no direct cause of sin ; because such actions in themselves not being necessary , it cannot be criminal upon a less reason to omit them . * But upon the same account it is a sin to do them , because they are not of faith , and the conscience being perswaded against them , they are sins . For any deficiency of a necessary ingredient makes a sin . 4. If an erring conscience say that such an action is lawful onely , when of it self it is good and laudable , we sin not if we doe it , or if we doe it not . For in this case neither is there any direct obligation from God , nor any indirect obligation from Conscience , and therefore the man is wholly permitted to his liberty : although it may be a pious action to pray kneeling on the ground with bare knees , or prostrate on our faces , yet if conscience says it is in no sense laudable , but that it is lawful onely , we may safely doe it ; but then there is no other effect of such an action , then there is of scratching a mans head with one finger , and it cannot be commendable in him to doe an action in which he beleeves there is no worthiness . 5. If an erring conscience commands what is simply evil , or forbids to doe that which is absolutely commanded , the man sins whether he obeys , or obeys not . In one case he sins against his Rule , and in the other against his Guide : and any one miscarriage is enough to introduce a sin . But this will be the matter of the next Rule . The use of these Rules is not at all effective upon erring consciences , while the error remains : for the advices supposing the error are not applicable to them who will not suppose themselves in error . But they are applicable to consciences recovered from their error , and are useful in the conduct of their repentance , because they describe the respective measures of sin and innocence , and what obligations of sorrow and amends are left behinde when the error is gone . To these may be added those Rules which I have already given , concerning the changes which can be made in moral actions , by the perswasion and force of Conscience , Chap. 2. Rule 9. RULE 3. A Conscience erring vincibly or culpably is an unavoidable cause of sin , whether it be resisted , or complied with . WHEN the error proceeds of malice or negligence , the man is guilty according to the venome of the ingredient ; there is a sin in the principle , and this leads to an action materially evil . He that makes assemblies against his Prelate , and thinks he may lawfully doe it , does an action for which by the Laws he is punishable ; but to God he is to answer besides the action , for the sin that led him to that error . Quest. BUT if it be inquired , whether that also be a sin which is an obedience to his Conscience , that is , whether the instance of the action be a sin , beside the malice of the principle , and so every such action become a double sin ? I answer , that it is according as the instance is . 1. If it be against a prime principle , in which we are naturally , or any way greatly instructed , then the error is culpable in that manner that it remains voluntary all the way ; and then not only the introduction or first principle , but the effect also is a sin . The man hath onely put a blinde before his eyes , and in every reflex action it is discovered , and he knows it habitually all the way . * And therefore in this case the conscience ought not to be obeyed . For the Conscience is but imperfect and equivocal , violent and artificial . It is perswaded in the act , and convinced of the evil in the habit or reflex act , and is no otherwise deceived , then a man is blinde that wears a hood upon his eye . 2. If the Conscience be possessed with a damnable error , and in a great matter , and this possession is a dereliction and a punishment from God for other crimes , it is no matter whether we call the consequent action a sin or no. For the man is in a state of reprobation , and the whole order of things and actions in that state are criminal formally or equivalently . His prayers are an abomination ; and if so , then the actions that are materially evil , are much worse , and in estimation , are prosecutions of the state of sin . Of this sort are they that are given over to beleeve a lye ; all the consequent actions are sins , just as the envies and blasphemies of damned people are sins , or as the acts of Devils are imputed : they are consigned to death , and all the consequent actions are symbolical ; and it will be always so , unless they can return to a state of repentance . 3. If the Conscience be abused in a deduction , consequence , or less certain proposition , by evil arts and prejudice , by interest and partiality , there is so much evil in the whole determination , as there was in the introducing cause of the error , and no more . For if the action consequent to the perswasion were also a sin , then it ought not to be done ; but because in this case the conscience ought to be obeyed , though in the whole affair there is a sin , and it is unavoidable , yet the sin is antecedent to the action and determination , but no proper appendage or qualification of it . And since the object in the present case transmits honesty and equity into the action , not according to what it is in the thing , but according to what it is in reason , it must needs be that we are obliged according to what we finde it to be in Conscience . For in this case we know not what it is in it self , and therefore by it we cannot be guided to choose or to refuse ; but because we must be guided by something , it must be wholly by opinion and conscience . 4. If the Conscience be weakly and innocently misguided , there is no sin either in the error , or in the consequent action . Because no man is bound to doe better then his best ; and if he hath no sin in the principle of his error , it is certain he did his best , that is , he did all his duty , and then to proceed by the best light he hath , is agreeable to right reason and to Religion . Upon the ground of these Conclusions we may easily inferre , that though an erring conscience is to be followed ( as it is above explained ) and yet that God also is intirely to be followed , and that therefore a man by accident , and by his own fault may be intangled in nervis testiculorum Leviathan ( as S. Gregories expression is out of Job ) in the infoldings of sin and Sathan , and cannot escape innocently so long as he remains in that condition ; yet because he need not remain in that condition but either by suspecting himself , or being admonished by another , by inquiry and by prayer he may lay his error down , it follows that to obey God never hath an unavoidable dilemma , and never is impossible so long as the man is in a state and possibility of repentance . Because every error that infers an action that is formally as well as materially sinful , not onely ought but may also be deposed or laid down , because in such cases no man is invincibly abused . No man can ever be in that condition , that to love God shall become a sin to him ; because no man can really be ignorant , or properly entertain this opinion , that it is a sin to love God ; that rebellion is lawful ; that adultery is no sin ; that it can be lawful to strike a Prince for justice ; or to break a Commandement to preserve the interest of a Sect ; that a man may rob God in zeal against idolatry and images . These things are so plainly taught , that an error in these cannot choose but be malicious . But when the error is in such cases where either it is invincible and irremediable , or where weakness pleads excuse , the action is in that degree innocent in which the error is unavoidable . And if it could be otherwise , then a case might happen in which by the Laws of God a man could be bound to that which is intrinsecally evil , and then God and not man were the Author of the sin . The summe is this . God is Supreme , and Conscience is his Vicegerent and Subordinate . Now it is a certain , that the Law of an inferiour cannot binde against the command of a Superiour when it is known . But when the Superiour communicates the notices of his will by that inferiour , and no otherwise ; the subject is to obey that inferiour , and in so doing he obeys both . But the Vicegerent is to answer for the misinformation , and the Conscience for its error , according to the degree of its being culpable . RULE 4. It is greater sin to doe a good action against our Conscience , then to doe an evil action in obedience to it . THIS Rule concerns degrees onely , but is useful in the conducting some actions of repentance ; and it is to be understood to be true onely in equal cases , and when there is no circumstance aggravating one part . Frier Clement the Jacobine thinks erroneously , that it is lawful to kill his King. The poor Damoiselle Faucette thinks it unlawful to spit in the Church : but it happened that one day she did it against her conscience ; and the Frier with his conscience and a long knife killed the King. If the question be here , who sinn'd most , the disparity is next to infinite , and the poor woman was to be chidden for doing against her conscience , and the other to be hang'd for doing according to his . Because the Friers error could not be invincible and inculpable , hers might ; and in such questions , the effect of which is of so high concernment , because the errors in them are supreme and dangers , the inquisition ought to be very great where there can be difficulty , and therefore the negligence is always intolerable , and it is malicious where the discovery is easy , as it is in these cases . And therefore in so different materials the case can no way be equal , because in one there is a greater light , a more ready grace , a perfect instruction , an evident provision , and open restraint , and a ready Commandement . But when the effect of the Questions are equal and not differenced by accidents , the rule is certain upon this reason : Because a sin done against knowledge , is greater then a sin done ignorantly . He that sins against his conscience , sins against all his knowledge in that particular . But if he sins against a Commandement , which he knows not to be such , he sins ignorantly , and therefore the more excusably . But I found mercy ( saith S. Paul ) for I did it ignorantly in unbeleef . Upon this account it comes to be the same kinde , and the same degree of crime to sin against an erring , and to sin against a right Conscience in the same instances . He that omits to hear Divine service on a Festival when he hath no reasonable impediment , and he who omits it upon a Common day , which he erroneously supposes to be a Festival , hath equally prevaricated the Law of the Church , and the analogy of the Commandement of God on which this of the Church is founded , they being equally against his rule by which he is to walk , and this error hath no influence upon the will , or choice , but is wholly extrinsecal to it . But this is to be understood in errors of fact , and such as are inculpable , and have no effect , and make no change in the will. And therefore in our penitentiall sorrows and expiations we need not be curious to make a difference of them which have the same formal malice ; and if we be taught to make any , it may have this evil consequence in it , that we may love our ignorance , and flatter our selves in our irregularities , which we think will not be so severly imputed , by reason of the error . If this be a great crime to disobey our Conscience teaching us righteous and true propositions , it is on the other side also very great to suffer our Conscience to be so misled , that a good action shall become criminal by such mistaking ; so that besides the departing from our Rule which is equal in both , they have their own superadded evil to weigh against each other . RULE 5. It is not lawful to delight in an evil action ( after the discovery of our error ) which we did innocently in an erroneous Conscience . THE case is this ; Quintus Hortensius received a forg'd Will of Minutius from some Haeredipetae or Testamentary cheaters , and because they offered to verify it , and to give him a share , he defended the forgery and possessed his part ; but when he afterwards perceived the cheat , and yet detained the purchase , he grew infamous : It was innocent till he knew it , but then it was criminal . He should not have pleased himself in it , because he should have restor'd it . But in this there is no question . But when the possession or purchase may lawfully remain , there is some difference in the decision of the question . Spurinna striking a Stag , involuntarily and unwittingly kils his brother , and becomes rich by the inheritance . Here the man must separate the effect from its relation , and so proceed : The inheritance was a blessing , the accident was a misfortune ; and if he may not rejoyce in that , he may not give thanks for it , but as for a cross . But if he pleases himself in the way of his entrance to it , he had a minde ready to have kill'd his brother if he durst , or at least did secretly wish him dead , that he might openly have his living . In this there is no great difficulty to make the separation . God strikes a man with blindness , and gives him a good memory ; he sighs for that , and rejoyces for this . A little Metaphysicks makes this abstraction . 2. But concerning the act when it is discovered to have been evil , he is to have no other complacency , but because he did it ignorantly . He that suffers nocturnal pollution , if he finds a remedy by it , is to rejoyce that himself suffered it involuntarily , that is , he may rejoyce that he did not sin ; and of the innocence of the joy , he can have no other testimony but by his hating the act in all cases in which it is a sin , and refusing to doe it . But the French woman whom Myl. Montaigne speaks of , who having suffered a rape by divers Souldiers , gave God thanks that without sin she had enjoyed pleasure , had a criminal joy , and delighted in the action , for the voluntary entertainment of which she onely wanted an excuse . 3. If we consider the whole conjunction of things together , the evil act with the advantageous effect , we are to be indifferent to joy and sorrow , that is , to doe neither directly , but to look on it as an effect of the Divine providence bringing good out of evil , and to fear lest a joy in the whole should entitle us too nearly to the sin by the relation of an after act and approbation ; or lest we be so greedy of the effect that we be too ready to entertain the like upon terms equally evil , but less fortunate . 4. This is also to be understood onely in such cases , in which we are not oblig'd to restitution . For if we rejoyce in that effect which we ought to destroy , we recal the sin from the transient action , and make it dwell with the possession , and then the first involuntary error becomes a chosen rapine . 5. If the action was onely materially , and therefore innocently , an error against a humane Law , and turns to our secular advantage , we are more at liberty to rejoyce and please our selves in the advantage . Because humane Laws make no action intrinsecally and essentially evil , but onely relatively and extrinsecally . And therefore the danger is not so great of polluting the conscience by the contact and mingling of the affections with the forbidden action . He that eats flesh in Lent in those places and circumstances where it is forbidden , and did not remember it was Lent , or did not know it , and by so doing , refreshes himself well , and does advantage to his health , may not be accused easily if he delights in the whole action , as it joyns the error and the advantage . For besides the former reason , this also is considerable ; that humane Laws not being so wise and excellent as Divine Laws doe bend more easily and readily , that they may comply with the ends of charity and gentleness , and have in them a more apt dispensation , and almost offer themselves to goe away , when a greater good comes in their room . But of this in its due place . 6. In actions materially evil against the Divine Laws , if the event cannot be clearly separated from the irregularity , the first innocent error is by the after pleasure turned into a direct sin . Cneius Carbo lay with Laelia unwittingly , supposing her to be his wife Posthumia , but afterwards having discovered the error was pleased in the mistake , because he by the arts of fancy did by an after thought represent to himself the change and the variety , and then he was adulterous . For to be pleased in the mistake which brings no advantage separable from the sin , is directly to choose the sin for the advantage sake ; and this was Carbo's case . RULE 6. An innocent , or invincibly erring Conscience is to be obeyed even against the known Commandement of our Superiours . AGainst this S. Bernard seems to argue earnestly ; Si tantopere vitanda sunt scandala parvulorum , quantò ampliùs praelatorum , quos sibi Deus coaequare quodammodo in utroque dignatur , dum sibimet imputat & illorum reverentiam & contemptum ? &c. If with so great caution we must be careful that we doe not offend any of Gods little ones , how much more must we be curious to avoid giving offence to great ones , to our Superiours , whom God seems in some manner to make equal to himself , while the reverence or the contempt that is done to them , he takes unto himself ; saying , He that heareth you , heareth me , and he that despiseth you , despiseth me . But if you say , that men may be deceived in their inquest after the will of God , and may deceive others in reporting it ; what is that to thee who knowest not that they are deceived ? especially since from Scriptures thou art taught , That the lips of the Priest shall preserve knowledge , and they shall require the Law at his mouth , because he is the Angel of the Lord of Hosts . To which discourse of S. Bernard , the following consideration may adde some moment ; and the discussing them , may give light to the inquiry . 2. For in things indifferent the command of the Superiour must needs be accounted the will of God ; for although our Superiours are executioners of the Divine Laws , yet because they have also a Legislative power , they who can alter nothing in things commanded or forbiddden by God , must have a power to command or to forbid respectively in things indifferent or not at all . And therefore in such things our conscience is bound to obey . 3. And if conscience be pretended against it , it is an error and ought to be laid down , for to follow this erring conscience ingages us in sin all the way . 4. But as he that submits his understanding to the obedience of Jesus , pleases God most , even when he does it in defiance of all arguments and temptations to the contrary , which though he cannot answer , yet he resolves to follow Christ ; so he does best who though his conscience pretend reasons against it , will yet lay aside those reasons that he may submit to his superiors . 5. For it is a great crime by rebelling against or slighting the command of our Rulers , to give offence to whole societies of men ; * and there can be no greater contempt done to them , then by undervaluing their judgement to preferre our own ; and therefore the Prophet pronounces woe to them who are wise in their own eyes . 6. But let a Subject be never so wise , he ought not to judge his Superiour , or to condemne his sentence ; and therefore he must be judged by it , and not by his own erring conscience . 7. For as he who hath made a vow of obedience , hath devested himself of all pretences of contradicting what shall be imposed ; and if his conscience shall check him in the instance , he ought to look upon it as a temptation and use it accordingly ; so must it be also in every Subject , who by the Laws of God is as much tied to obey his Superiour , as he can be by any Law which he puts upon himself . The effect of these suggestions is this , that in things where the Law of God hath not declared positively , an erring conscience is not to be attended to , but the Law of the Superiour , and his sentence must be the guide of his Conscience . To this discourse I answer in short , That it is all very true ; that the lawful Superiours are Gods Vicegerents appointed over us in things pertaining to God , so as to be Executioners of the Divine Laws ; and besides this , to make Laws in things indifferent and pertaining to men ; That all contempt done to them is done to God ; That it is scandalous to refuse obedience to them ; That he is a proud man who says he is wiser then his Superiours ; and he is intolerable that preferres his private folly before the publick wisdome : And therefore it is well inferred , that the error of an abused conscience ought to be laid down , and though he cannot in particular answer the arguments which trouble him , yet if he have reason to beleeve that though the arguments be too hard for him , yet that the Superiours command is innocent ; it were well if he would lay aside those arguments and adhere to authority ; yet all this touches not the secret of the Question . For , He that compares the law of Conscience , with the law of the Superiour , compares the law of God and the law of man ; and the question is not whether a man should follow his Superiour , or follow himself , but whether God or Man be to be obeyed , whether the Superiour or the Supreme be to be attended to ? The reason of this is , because the Conscience stands bound by the supposed Law of God , which being superiour to all the law of Man , must rather be obeyed ; and therefore although the arguments conclude rightly that an erring conscience disobeying his Superiours lawful command does sin greatly , yet they cannot conclude that he avoids sin by obeying against his conscience . For his condition is indeed perplexed , and he can no way avoid sin , but by laying his error aside first , and then obeying . And since he sins whether he obeys his Superiours just command , or the unjust command of his conscience , the inquiry is , in this sad conjunction of things , by what hand he must be smitten , on which side he must fall , that he may fall the easier ? To this the Rule answers , That his erring conscience must be obeyed rather , because he is perswaded that God speaks there , and is not perswaded that God speaks by his Superiour . Now though in this he be deceived , yet he that will not goe there where he thinks God is , and leave that where he thinks God is not , does uncertainly goe towards God , but does certainly forsake him , as much as lies in him . For , It is to the Conscience all one as if the Law of God were really upon it , if it be thought it is . Idem est esse & apparere in this case , and therefore the erring conscience is to be attended to , because the will and the affections are for God , though the judgement hath mistaken a gloworm for the Sun. But this is to be understood onely , when the conscience erres innocently and unavoidably , which it can never doe in the precepts of nature , and brightest revelation . But if the Conscience does erre vincibly , that is , with an actual fault , and an imperfect , artificial resolution , such a one , as a good man will not , and a wise man need not have , his present perswasion excuses him not from a double sin , for breaking a double duty . For he is bound to correct his error , and to perform the precepts of his Superiour , and if he does not , his sin is more then that which was in the vicious cause of his misperswasion , as I shewed in the explication of the former Rules . But according as the ignorance and error approaches towards pity , lessening or excusing , so the sin also declines . He that thinks it is not lawful at all to take up arms at the command of his Prince in an unjust , or a dubious cause , sins if he does what he thinks so unlawful , and he commits no sin in disobeying , that onely excepted which entred into his misperswasion , which is greater or less , or next to none at all , according as was the cause of his error , which in the whole constitution of affairs , he could not well avoid . But he that is foolishly perswaded that all Government is unlawful and Antichristian , is bound to lay his error down , and besides the vicious cause of his error , he sins in the evil effect of it , though his imperfect , equivocal conscience calls on him to the contrary , yet he sins if he does not obey , because in such notorious and evident propositions an error is not onely malicious in the principle , but voluntary all the way ; and therefore may easily , and must certainly be laid aside in every period of determination . Whatsoever Cases are between these , partake of the extremes according to their proper reason and relation . RULE 7. The error of an abused Conscience ought to be reformed , sometimes by the command of the will , but ordinarily by a contrary reason . 1. IF the error did begin upon a probable reason , it cannot be reformed but by a reason seeming equal to it , because a less reason hath not naturally the same efficacy with a greater , and to assent to a less probability against a greater is to doe against reason , against all that by which this lesser reason is outweighed . For in this case the will can have no influence , which not being a cognoscitive and discoursing faculty , must be determined by its own motives when it is not determined by reason , that is , by the motives of understanding . Now the motives of will when it is not moved by right reason , are pleasure and profit , ambition and revenge , partiality and pride , chance or humor ; and how these principles can disabuse a conscience is very hard to understand , how readily and certainly they doe abuse it , is not hard . Whether the starres be even or odde ? whether the soul be generated , or created and infused ? whether it be lawful to fight or rail against a Prince , what hath the Will to doe with it ? If the will meddles , and makes the resolution , it shall be determined , not as it is best , but as it falls out by chance , or by evil , or by vain inducements . For in the will there is no argument good but reason ; I mean both in the matter of nature and of grace , that is , reason chang'd into a motive , and an instrument of perswasion from whatsoever inducing principle . 2. * Some have affirmed that the error of a conscience may fairly be deposed upon any probable argument though of less perswasion ; which if it could be admitted , would give leave for a man to choose his side as he pleases , because in all moral things as dressed with circumstances it is very easy to finde some degrees of probability , but very difficult to finde a case against which nothing can be disputed . And therefore if it happens that a man be better perswaded of his error then of the contrary truth , that truth cannot be chosen wisely , nor the error honestly deposed , because it is done against the way of a man , not absolutely , but comparatively against reason . 3. If the reason on both sides seems equally probable , the will may determine by any of its proper motives that are honest ; any prudent interest , any fair compliance , any custome , in case these happen to be on the right side . When the arguments seem equal , the understanding or conscience cannot determine . It must either be a chance , and a special providence of God , or a particular grace that casts us on the right side . But whatsoever it be that then determines us to the right , if of it self it be innocent , it is in that case an effect of Gods grace , and an apt instrument of a right Conscience . 4. When the conscience is erroneous , and the error unreasonable , commenc'd wholly upon interest , trifling regards , or vicious principles , the error may be deposed honestly , though there be no reason thought of to the contrary , besides the discovery of the first abuse . The will in this case is enough . Volo servare animam meam , said one ; I will , I am resolved to save my own soul. A man may and ought to hate the evil principle of his error , and decline it upon the stock of indignation , which in this case is a part of repentance . And this insinuates the reason of this discourse . For , Repentance is founded principally in the will , and whatsoever a man is to leave upon the stock of repentance , he may doe it wholly upon the stock of his will , informed , or inclin'd by general propositions , without any cognisance of the particulars of the present Question . Eratosthenes comming amongst the Persian Magi , and observing their looser customes of marrying their sisters and their mothers , falls in love with his half sister Lampra and marries her . A while after perceiving that he entred upon this action upon no other account but lust , and fancy , and compliance with the impurer Magi , began to hate his act for the evil inducement , and threw away her and his folly together . This he might doe without any further reasonings about the indecency of the mixture , by perceiving that a crime or a folly stood at the entrance and invited him to an evil lodging . He that begins without reason , hath reason enough to leave off , by perceiving he had no reason to begin ; and in this case the will is the great agent , which therefore here is no ill principle , because it leaves the error upon the stock of grace and repentance . 5. If the will entertained the error without any reason at all , as oftentimes it does , it knows not why ; she may also depose it honestly without any reason relating to the particular , upon this general , that it could not make the action to be conscientious to have it done without any inducement . But then the taking up the contrary truth upon as little reason is innocent , because it happens to be on the right side ; but it is not Vertue nor Conscience till it be perswaded by something that is a fit inducement either in the general , or in the particular . RULE 8. The error of a Conscience is not always to be opened to the erring person by the Guides of souls , or any other charitable adviser . IF the error began with a sin , and still dwells there upon the same stock , or if it be productive of a sin , it is always to be discovered , though the greatest temporal inconvenience were certainly consequent to the discovery . Because a man must not be suffered to lie in sin , no not a minute , if he can be recovered or rescued from it ; and no temporal advantage or disadvantage can be considerable in this case , which is the case of soul. An error that is vincible is all the way criminal and must not be permitted . 2. If the error be invincible and innocent or pitiable in the cause , and yet ends in an intolerable event , and the effect be a crime or a great danger to souls , the error must be discovered by them that can . The Novatians erred in the matter of Repentance : The inducing cause of their error was an over active zeal , and too wary a tenderness in avoiding scandal and judging concerning it . God served the ends of his glory by the occasion of that error , for he uses to bring good out of every evil ; and the Church under a better article grew as wary as the Novatians , as watchful against scandal , as severe against lapsed persons . Now although in this case , the error was from an innocent cause , yet because it landed them upon a course of discipline , and perswasion that was not innocent , they were not to be permitted in their error , though the dissolut on of the error might or would have occasioned the remission of discipline . For their doctrine of repentance was dishonourable to the mercies of God , and instrument of despair , a rendring the power of the Keys and the Ministery of the order Ecclesiastical in a manner wholly useless , and would if it were pursued to its just consequents have hindred repenting sinners to revert to the folds of the Church ; and therefore for the accidental good which God brought , or which was likely to have come from that error or the innocence of its principle , it was not to be conceal'd , but reprov'd and destroyed because it dwelt in sin . He that beleeves that repentance to be sufficient , which hath in it nothing but sorrow for what is past , and a present purpose without amendment really in the future , upon no pretence is to be complied withall in the palliation of his error , because the consequent of his error is such a danger , or such a state of sin , for which nothing can make amends . 3. If the error be invincible , and the consequent of the perswasion be consistent with the state of grace , the error must be opened or not opened , according to prudent considerations relating to the person and his state of affairs . So that the error must rather be suffered then a grievous scandal , or an intolerable , or a very great inconvenience . To this purpose Comitolus says it was determined by a Congregation of learned and prudent persons in answer to a strange and a rare case happening in Venice ; A Gentleman ignorantly did lie with his Mother ; she knew it , but intended it not , till for her curiosity and in her search whether her son intended it to her maid , she was surprised and gotten with child : She perceiving her shame and sorrow hasten , sent her son to travel for many years ; and he returned not till his Mothers female birth was grown to be a handsome pretty Maiden . At his return he espies a sweet fac'd girl in the house , likes her , loves her , and intends to marry her . His mother conjured him by all that was sacred and profane that he should not , saying , she was a beggers child , whom for pities sake she rescued from the streets and beggery , and that he should not by dishonouring his family make her to die with sorrow . The Gentlemans affections were strong , and not to be mastered , and he married his own sister and his own daughter . But now the bitings of the Mothers conscience were intolerable and to her Cofessor she discovered the whole business within a year or two after this prodigious marriage , and asked whether she were bound to reveal the case to her son and daughter , who now liv'd in love and sweetness of society , innocently , though with secret misfortune which they felt not . It was concluded negatively , she was not to reveal it , lest she bring an intolerable misery in the place of that which to them was no sin ; or lest upon notice of the error they might be tempted by their mutual endearment and their common children , to cohabite in despight of the case , and so change that into a known sin , which before was an unknown calamity ; and by this state of the answer , they were permitted to their innocence , and the children to their inheritance , and all under the protection of a harmless , though erring and mistaken conscience . 4. If it be doubtful whether more good or hurt may be consequent to the discovery , it is better to conceal it . Because it is more tolerable to have a good omitted , then to have an evil done . That may sometimes be lawful , this can never ; and a known evil that is not a sin , is rather to be admitted then an unknown , which no man can tell whether it will arrive . But in this , the prudence of a good and a wise man is to be his onely guide , and Gods glory his onely measure and the publick good , and the greater concernments of the interessed be chiefly regarded . CHAP. IV. Of the Probable or Thinking Conscience . RULE 1. A probable Conscience is an imperfect assent to an uncertain proposition , in which one part is indeed clearly and fully chosen , but with an explicit , or implicit notice that the contrary is also fairly eligible . A Probable Conscience dwells so between the Sure and the Doubtful that it partakes something of both . For a sure Conscience may begin upon a probable inducement , but is made sure either by an assent to the Conclusion , stronger then the premises will inferre , or by a reflex act , or some other collateral hardness and adventitious confidence , and therefore the probable is distinguished from that by the imperfection of the assent . But because in that respect it approaches to the doubtful , and in that is alike , it is differenced from this by the determination . For a doubtful conscience considers the probabilities on each side , and dares not choose , and cannot . But the probable does choose , though it considers that in the thing it self there can be no certainty . And from them both it is distinguished by the intervening of the Will. For in the sure Conscience the Will works not at all , because it is wholly conducted by the understanding , and its proper motives . In the doubtful the Will cannot interpose by reason of fear and an uncertain spirit ; but in the probable it can intervene , not directly , but collaterally and indirectly , because the motives of the probable conscience are not always sufficient to make the conclusion without something of the Will applied to extrinsecal motives which reflect also upon the understanding ; and yet in this conscience there is no fear , and therefore the Will can here be obeyed , which in the first needs not , in the last it cannot . For it is remarkable , that a probable conscience though it be in speculation uncertain , yet it may be practically certain , that is , he that beleeves his opinion to be probable , cannot but think that it is possible he may be in an actual error , but yet he may know that it is innocent to doe that for which he hath a probable reason : for though in all these cases he may choose that which is the wrong part , yet he proceeds as safely as if he had chosen right , for if it were not safe to doe that which is onely probable , then nothing could be done till something were demonstrated ; and then in moral Theology we should often stand still and suspend our act , but seldome doe any thing ; nay sometimes 〈…〉 act nor suspend , it being but probable that either is to be 〈…〉 sometimes it happens what Aristotle said , that false things are 〈…〉 then true , as it is to all them who are innocently and in● 〈…〉 ; and in this case , if probability were not a sufficient convicti●● 〈…〉 such persons could not honestly consent to truth . * For even 〈…〉 disagree in their sentences of truth and error , and after a great search , 〈◊〉 doe they discover one single truth unto just measures of confidence ; 〈◊〉 therefore no other law could be exacted for humane actions , then an opinion honestly entred into and a probable conscience . And it is remarkable that Cicero saith that the word Arbitror is verbum consideratissimum , & the old Romans were reserv'd and cautious in the decrees of Judges , and the forms of their oath began with arbitor although they gave testimony of things whereof they were eye witnesses ; and the words which their Praetors did use in their sentences , was fecisse videtur , or non videtur . He that observeth the winds shall not sow , and he that watcheth the clouds shall never reap ; which means , that if we start at every objection , and think nothing safe but what is certain , and nothing certain but what can be demonstrated , that man is over wise and over just , and by his too curious search misses what he inquires for . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , That is well enough prov'd , that is prov'd according to the subject matter . For there is not the same exactness to be look'd for in all disciplines , any more then in all manufactures . But in those things which are honest and just , and which concern the publick , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , there is so much dissention and deception that things are good or bad not by themselves , but as they are in law ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . He is well instructed who expects that manner of proof for things , which the nature of the things will bear , said Aristotle . And in moral things , it is sufficient that a thing is judged true and certain , though by an uncertain argument ; and the opinion may be practically certain , when the knowledge of it is in speculation onely probable . It hath two sorts of motives , intrinsecal and extrinsecal . That is reason , this is authority , and both of them have great considerations in order to practice , of which I am to give account in the following Rules . RULE 2. A Conscience that is at first , and in its own nature probable , may be made certain by accumulation of many probabilities operating the same perswasion . EVery probable argument hath in it something of perswasion and proof , and although it cannot produce evidence and intire conviction to a wise and a discerning spirit , yet it can effect all that it ought ; and although , if the Will list , or if passions rule , the understanding shall be made stubborn against it , and reject it easily ; yet if nothing be put in barre against it , it may bring a man to adhere to it beyond the evidence . But in some cases there are a whole army of little people , heaps of probable inducements which the understanding amasses together , and from every side gathers all that can give light and motion to the article in question , it draws auxiliaries from every thing , fights with every weapon , and by all means pursues the victory ; it joyns line to line , and precept to precept , reason to reason , and reason to authority ; the sayings of wise men with the proverbs of the people ; consent of talkers , and the arguings of disputers ; the nature of the thing , and the reasonableness of its expectations ; the capacities and possibilities of men , and of accidents ; the purposes and designs , the usefulness , and rewards ; and by what all agents are and ought to be moved ; customes are mingled with laws , and decencies with consideration of profit ; the understanding considers the present state and heap of circumstances , and by prudence weighs every thing in its own ballance ; it considers the consequent of the opinion it intends to establish , and well weighs the inconvenience of the contrary . But from the obscurity and insufficiency of these particulars , there cannot come a perfect light ; if a little black be mingled with white , the product must have something of every influence that can be communicated from its principle , or material constitution ; and ten thousand millions of uncertains cannot make one certain . In this case the understanding comes not to any certainty by the energy of the motives and direct arguments of probability , or by the first effort and impresses of their strength , but by a particular reflexion which it makes upon the heap , and by a secondary discoursing extracted from the whole , as being therefore convinced , because it beleeves it to be impossible that so many considerations , that no way conspire either in matter or design , should agree in the production of a lie . It is not likely that so many beams of light should issue from the chambers of heaven for no other reason but to lead us into a precipice . Probable arguments and prudential motives are the great hinges of humane actions , for as a Pope once said , It is but a little wit that governs the world ; and the uncertainty of arguments is the great cause of contingency in events ; but as uncertain as most counsels are , yet all the great transactions of the affairs of the world are resolved on and acted by them ; by suspicions and fears and probable apprehensions infinite evils are prevented ; and it is not therefore likely to be an error by which so perpetually so many good things are procured and effected . For it were a disparagement to the wise providence of God , and a lessening the rare Oeconomy of the Divine Government that he should permit almost all the world , and all reiglements , the varieties of event , and all the changes of Kingdomes , and all counsels and deliberations , to be conducted by moral demonstrations , and to be under the power of probabilities , and yet that these should be deceitful and false . Neither is it to be imagined that God should permit wise men , and good , men that on purpose place their reason in indifference , that abate of their heats and quench their own extravagant fires , men that wipe away all clouds and mists from their eyes , that they may see clearly , men that search as they ought to do , for things that they are bound to finde , things that they are commanded to search , and upon which even all their interests depends , and yet inquiring after the end whither they are directed , and by what means it is to be acquired that these men should be inevitably abused by their own reason , by the best reason they have ; and that when concerning the thing which cannot be demonstrated by proper and physical arguments , yet we are to enter into a perswasion so great , that for the verification of it men must venture their lives and their souls ; I say , if this kinde of proof be not sufficient to effect all this , and sufficiently to assure such men , and competently to affirm and strengthen such resolutions , salvation and damnation must be by chance , or , which is worse , it must be impossible to be well , but when it cannot choose to be otherwise ; and this I say is not to be imagined that God wil or does permit , since all these entercourses so much concern Gods glory and our eternal interest . The main events of heaven and hell doe in some regards depend , as to us , upon our faith , whose objects are represented with such lights from God and right reason as are sufficient to perswade , not to demonstrate ; they are such which leave something to us of choice and love , and every proposition of Scripture though it be as sure , yet it is not so evident as the principles of Geometry ; and the Spirit of God effects his purposes with an influence as soft and placid as the warmth of the Sun , while a physical demonstration blows hard and high as the Northwind ; indeed a man must use rudeness if he does not quit his garment at so loud a call , but we are more willing to part with it when the Sun gently requires us : so is a moral demonstration , it is so humane , so perswasive , so complying with the nature and infirmities of man , with the actions of his life and his manner of operation , that it seems to have been created on purpose for the needs and uses of man in this life , for vertue and for hopes , for faith and for charity , to make us to beleeve by love , and to love by beleeving , for in heaven they that see and love , cannot choose but love , and see , and comprehend ; for it is a reward and fils all their faculties , and is not possessed by us , but it self possesses us ; In this world where we are to doe something our selves , though all by the grace of God , that which we doe of our selves is nothing else but to work as we our selves can , which indeed happens to be in propositions , as it is in the love of God , this cannot fail us , but we may fail of it , and so are the sentences of Religion , infallible in themselves , but we may be deceived , while by a fallible way we proceed to infallible notices , for nothing else could indear our labour and our love , our search and our obedience ; and therefore this must be sufficient and acceptable , if we doe what we can : But then this also will secure our confidence , and in the noises of Christendome when disputing fellows say their brother is damned for not beleeving them , we need not to regard any such noises , if we proceed prudently as we can , and honestly as we ought , probable motives of our understanding are our sufficient conduct , and then we have this warrant , Brethren , if our hearts condemne us not , 〈◊〉 3. 21. then have we peace towards God. And God would never have inspired his Church with prudence , or made any such vertue , if the things which were put under the conduct of it , that is , probabilities , were not instrumental to the service of God , and to the verification of all its just and proper productions . Probable arguments are like little starres , every one of which will be useless as to our conduct and enlightening , but when they are tyed together by order and vicinity , by the finger of God and the hand of an Angel , they make a Constellation , and are not onely powerful in their influence , but like a bright Angel to guide and to enlighten our way . And although the light is not great as the light of the Sun or Moon , yet Mariners sail by their conduct ; and though with trepidation and some danger , yet very regularly they enter into the haven . This heap of probable inducements , is not of power as a Mathematical and Physical demonstration , which is in discourse as the Sun is in heaven , but it makes a Milky and a white path , visible enough to walk securely . And next to these tapers of effective reason , drawn from the nature and from the events , and the accidents and the expectations and experiences of things , stands the grandeur of a long and united authority : The understanding thus reasoning , That it is not credible that this thing should have escaped the wiser heads of all the great personages in the world , who stood at the chairs of Princes , or sate in the Rulers chair , and should onely appear to two or three bold , illiterate , or vicious persons , ruled by lusts , and overruled by evil habits ; but in this we have the same security and the same confidence that timorous persons have in the dark ; they are pleased and can see what is and what is not , if there be a candle , but in the dark they are less fearful if they be in company . This way of arguing some are pleased to call a moral demonstration , not that it can make a proposition clear and bright , and quit from clouds and obscurity , as a natural demonstration can , for I may in this case use Aristotles saying , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Things of this nature may be very true , but are not very evident ; but it can produce the same effect , that is , it can lead into truth , not with as much brightness , but with as much certainty and infallibility in the event of things . For a man may as prosperously and certainly arrive at his journeys end though but conducted by him that went the way but once before him , as if he had a straight path walled in on both sides ; so may we finde truth as certainly by probabilities , as by demonstrations : we are not so sure that we finde it , but it is oftentimes as surely found . And if the heap arrive at that which we call a moral demonstration , it is as certain that no moral demonstration can be opposed against it , as that no natural demonstration can be brought in contradiction to a natural . For the understanding cannot call any thing a moral demonstration , till by considering the particulars on both sides , the reasonableness of one , and the unreasonableness of the other , with a cold sent , and liberty of spirit , and an unbyassed Will , it hath passed the sentence for the truth ; and since in this case all the opposition is between strength and power on one side , and weakness and pretence on the other , it is impossible that the opposite parts should be demonstrations or seem so to the same man. And this appears by this also , that some propositions which are onely proved by a conjugation of probable inducements , have yet obtained as certain and as regular events as a natural demonstration , and are beleeved equally , constantly , and perpetually by all wise men , and the understanding does regularly receive the same impression , and give the same assent , and for ever draws forth the same conclusions when it is not abused with differing prejudices and preoccupations , when its liberty and powers are not infeebled with customes , examples and contrary breeding , while it is not brib'd by interest , or hurried away by passion . Of this I shall choose to give one instance , which as it is of the greatest concernment in the world in it self , so the gay impieties and bold wits of the world who are witty against none more then God and Gods wisdome , have made it now to be but too seasonable , and that is , that the Religion of Jesus Christ , or The Christian Religion is from God ; concerning which I will not now pretend to bring in all the particulars whereby each part of it can be verified , but by heaping together such heads of probabilities which are or may be the cause of an infinite perswasion , and this I had rather choose to doe for these reasons : 1. Because many men excellently learned have already discoursed largely of the truth of Christianity , and approved by a direct and close congression with other Religions , by examination of the contrary pretences , refutation of their arguments , answering their objections , and have by direct force so farre prevailed , that all the reason of the world appears to stand on the Christian side : and for me to doe it now , as there is no just occasion ministred by this argument , so neither can it be useful and necessary . 2. In that way of arguing , every man that is an adversary can answer one argument , and some can reprove many , and none can prevail singly to posses all the understanding , and to fill all the corners of consideration , but in a moral demonstration that can be supplied . 3. In the other way an adversary supposes himself to prevail when he can answer the arguments singly , and the discourses in that method are like the servants sent singly to gather fruits of the Husbandmen , they killed them as fast as they came , and a man may kill a whole Kingdome over , if the opponents come by single persons ; but a moral demonstration is like an Army which can lose single persons and yet prevail , but yet cannot be beaten unless it be beaten all . 4. The few little things that Atheistical persons prate against the holy Jesus and his most excellent Religion , are infinitely outweighed by the multitude and variety of things to be said for it ; and let the others stand ( as if they meet with persons that cannot answer them ) yet they are sure this greater ought to prevail , because it possesses all the corners of reason , and meets with every instance , and complies with the manner of a man , and is fitted to the nature of things , and complies with the Will , and perswades the understanding , and is a guard against the tricks of Sophisters , and does not onely effect its purpose by direct influence , but is secured by reflexion upon it self , and does more by its indirect strength , and by a back blow , then by its first operations ; and therefore , This instance and this way of argument may be of more use to those persons who cannot so dispute , but that they are apt to be abused by little things , by talkings and imperfect arguings ; it may be a defensative against trifling objections , and the impious pratings of the nequam ingeniosi the witty fools , while the men are armed by love and prudence and wise securities to stand with confidence and piety against talkings and intrigues of danger ; for by this way best , Wisdome is justified of all her children . An instance of Moral demonstration , or a conjugation of probabilities , proving that the Religion of Jesus Christ is from God. THis discourse of all the disputables in the world , shall require the fewest things to be granted ; even nothing but what was evident , even nothing but the very subject of the Question , viz. That there was such a man as Jesus Christ , that he pretended such things and taught such doctrines : for he that will prove these things to be from God , must be allowed that they were from something or other . But this postulate I doe not ask for need , but for orders sake and Art ; for what the histories of that Age reported as a publick affair , as one of the most eminent transactions of the world , that which made so much noise , which caused so many changes , which occasioned so many warres , which divided so many hearts , which altered so many families , which procured so many deaths , which obtained so many Laws in favour , and suffered so many Rescripts in the disfavour of its self ; that which was not done in a corner , but was 33. years and more in acting ; which caused so many Sects , and was opposed by so much Art , and so much power that it might not grow , which filled the world with noise , which effected such great changes in the bodies of men by curing the diseased , and smiting the contumacious or the hypocrites , which drew so many eyes , and fill'd so many tongues , and imployed so many pens , and was the care and the question of the whole world at that time , and immediately after ; that which was consigned by publick acts and records of Courts , which was in the Books of friends and enemies , which came accompanied and remarked with eclipses and stars and prodigies of heaven and earth , that which the Jews even in spite and against their wills confessed , and which the witty adversaries intending to overthrow , could never so much as challenge of want of truth in the matter of fact and story ; that which they who are infinitely concerned that it should not be beleeved , or more , that it had never been , doe yet onely labour to make to appear not to have been Divine : Certainly , this thing is so certain that it was , that the defenders of it need not account it a kindness to have it presupposed ; for never was any story in the world that had so many degrees of credibility , as the story of the person , life and death of Jesus Christ : And if he had not been a true Prophet , yet that he was in the world , and said and did such things cannot be denied ; for even concerning Mahomet we make no question but he was in the world , and led a great part of mankinde after him , and what was less proved we infinitely beleeve ; and what all men say , and no man denies , and was notorious in it self , of this we may make further inquiries whether it was all that which it pretended , for that it did make pretences and was in the world , needs no more probation . But now whether Jesus Christ was sent from God and delivered the Will of God , we are to take accounts from all the things of the world which were on him , or about him , or from him . Consider first his person : he was foretold by all the Prophets : He , I say , for that appears by the event , and the correspondencies of their sayings to his person : he was described by infallible characterisms which did fit him , and did never fit any but him ; for when he was born , then was the fulness of time , and the Messias was expected at the time when Jesus did appear , which gave occasion to many of the godly then to wait for him , and to hope to live till the time of his revelation : and they did so , and with a spirit of Prophecie which their own nation did confess and honour , glorified God at the revelation : and the most excellent and devout persons that were conspicuous for their piety did then rejoyce in him , and confess him ; and the expectation of him at that time was so publick and famous , that it gave occasion to divers Impostors to abuse the credulity of the people in pretending to be the Messias ; but not onely the predictions of the time , and the perfect Synchronisms did point him out , but at his birth a strange starre appeared , which guided certain Levantine Princes and Sages to the inquiry after him ; a strange starre which had an irregular place and an irregular motion , that came by design , and acted by counsel , the counsel of the Almighty Guide , it moved from place to place , till it stood just over the house where the Babe did sleep ; a starre of which the Heathen knew much , who knew nothing of him ; a starre which Chalcidius affirmed to have signified the descent of God for the salvation of man ; a starre that guided the wise Chaldees to worship him with gifts ( as the same disciple of Plato does affirm , and ) as the holy Scriptures deliver ; and this starre could be no secret ; It troubled all the Country ; It put Herod upon strange arts of security for his Kingdome , it effected a sad tragedy accidentally , for it occasioned the death of all the little Babes in the City , and voisinage of Bethlehem : But the birth of this young child which was thus glorified by a starre , was also signified by an Angel , and was effected by the holy Spirit of God , in a manner which was in it self supernatural ; a Virgin was his Mother , and God was his Father , and his beginning was miraculous ; and this matter of his birth of a Virgin was proved to an interested and jealous person , even to Joseph the supposed father of Jesus , it was affirmed publickly by all his family , and by all his disciples , and published in the middest of all his enemies , who by no artifice could reprove it , a matter so famous , that when it was urged as an argument to prove Jesus to be the Messias , by the force of a Prophecie in Isaiah [ A Virgin shall conceive a Son ] they who obstinately refused to admit him , did not deny the matter of fact , but denied that it was so meant by the Prophet , which if it were true , can onely prove that Jesus was more excellent then was foretold by the Prophets , but that there was nothing less in him then was to be in the Messias ; it was a matter so famous that the Arabian Physicians who can affirm no such things of their Mahomet , and yet not being able to deny it to be true of the holy Jesus , endevour to elevate and lessen the thing , by saying , It is not wholly beyond the force of nature , that a Virgin should conceive , so that it was on all hands undeniable , that the Mother of Jesus was a Virgin , a Mother without a Man. This is that Jesus at whose presence before he was born , a babe in his mothers belly also did leap for joy , who was also a person extraordinary himself , conceived in his mothers old age , after a long barrenness , signified by an Angel in the Temple , to his father officiating his Priestly Office , who was also struck dumb for his not present beleeving : all the people saw it , and all his kindred were witnesses of his restitution , and he was named by the Angel , and his Office declared to be the fore-runner of the holy Jesus ; and this also was foretold by one of the old Prophets ; for the whole story of this Divine person is a chain of providence and wonder , every link of which is a verification of a Prophecie , and all of it is that thing which from Adam to the birth of Jesus was pointed at and hinted by all the Prophets , whose words in him passed perfectly into the event . This is that Jesus who as he was born without a Father , so he was learned without a Master , he was a Man without age , a Doctor in a Childs garment , disputing in the Sanctuary at 12. years old . He was a sojourner in Egypt , because the poor Babe born of an indigent Mother was a formidable rival to a potent King , and this fear could not come from the design of the infant , but must needs arise from the illustriousness of the birth , and the Prophecies of the child , and the sayings of the learned , and the journey of the Wise men , and the decrees of God ; this journey and the return were both managed by the conduct of an Angel and a Divine dream , for to the Son of God all the Angels did rejoyce to minister . This blessed Person made thus excellent by his Father , and glorious by miraculous consignations , and illustrious by the ministery of heavenly spirits , and proclaimed to Mary and to Joseph by two Angels , to the Shepherds by a multitude of the heavenly Host , to the Wise men by a Prophecie and by a Star , to the Jews by the Shepherds , to the Gentiles by the three Wise men , to Herod by the Doctors of the Law , and to himself perfectly known by the inchasing his humane nature in the bosome and heart of God , and by the fulness of the Spirit of God , was yet pleased for 30. years together to live an humble , a laborious , a chast and a devout , a regular and an even , a wise and an exemplar , a pious and an obscure life , without complaint , without sin , without design of fame , or grandeur of spirit , till the time came that the clefts of the rock were to open , and the Diamond give its lustre , and be worn in the Diademes of Kings , and then this person was wholly admirable ; for he was ushered into the world by the voice of a loud Crier in the wilderness , a person austere and wise , of a strange life , full of holiness and full of hardness , and a great Preacher of righteousness , a man beleeved by all the people that he came from God , one who in his own nation gathered disciples publickly , and ( which amongst them was a great matter ) he was the Doctor of a new institution , and baptized all the Country , yet this man so great , so rever'd , so followed , so listned to by King and people , by Doctors and by ideots , by Pharisees and Sadduces , this man Preached Jesus to the people , pointed out the Lamb of God , told that he must increase , and himself from all that fame must retire to give him place ; he received him to baptism after having with duty and modesty declared his own unworthiness to give , but rather a worthiness to receive baptism from the holy hands of Jesus ; but at the solemnity God sent down the holy Spirit upon his holy Son , and by a voice from heaven , a voice of thunder ( and God was in that voice ) declared that this was his Son , and that he was delighted in him . This voyce from heaven was such , so evident , so certain a conviction of what it did intend to prove , so known and accepted as the way of Divine revelation under the second Temple , that at that time every man that desired a sign honestly , would have been satisfied with such a voyce ; it being the testimony by which God made all extraordinaries to be credible to his people from the days of Ezra , to the death of the Nation ; and that there was such a voice , not onely then , but divers times after , was as certain , and made as evident as things of that nature can ordinarily be made . For it being a matter of fact , cannot be supposed infinite , but limited to time and place , heard by a certain number of persons , and was as a clap of thunder upon ordinary accounts , which could be heard but by those who were within the sphere of its own activity ; and reported by those to others , who are to give testimony as testimonies are required , which are credible under the test of two or three disinterested , honest , and true men , and though this was done in the presence of more , and oftner then once , yet it was a divine testimony but at first , but is to be conveyed by the means of men ; and as God thundred from heaven at the giving of the Law , though that he did so , we have notice onely from the Books of Moses received from the Jewish Nation ; so he did in the days of the Baptist , and so he did to Peter , James , and John , and so he did in the presence of the Pharisees and many of the common people ; and as it is not to be supposed that all these would joyn their divided interests , for and against themselves for the verification of a lye , so if they would have done it , they could not have done it without reproof of their own parties , who would have been glad by the discovery onely to disgrace the whole story ; but if the report of honest and just men so reputed , may be questioned for matter of fact , or may not be accounted sufficient to make faith when there is no pretence of men to the contrary , besides that we can have no story transmitted to us , no records kept , no acts of Courts , no narratives of the days of old , no traditions of our Fathers ; so there could not be left in nature any usual instrument whereby God could after the manner of men declare his own will to us , but either we should never know the will of heaven upon earth , or it must be that God must not onely tell it once but always , and not onely always to some men , but always to all men ; and then as there would be no use of history , or the honesty of men , and their faithfulness in telling any act of God in declaration of his will , so there would be perpetual necessity of miracles , and we could not serve God directly with our understanding , for there would be no such thing as faith , that is , of assent without conviction of understanding , and we could not please God with beleeving , because there would be in it nothing of the will , nothing of love and choyce ; and that faith which is , would be like that of Thomas , to beleeve what we see or hear , and God should not at all govern upon earth unless he did continually come himself : for thus , all Government , all Teachers , all Apostles , all Messengers would be needless , because they could not shew to the eye what they told to the ears of men ; And it might as well be disbeleeved in all Courts and by all Princes , that this was not the letter of a Prince , or the act of a man , or the writing of his hand , and so all humane entercourse must cease , and all senses but the eye be useless as to this affair , or else to the ear all voyces must be strangers but the principal , if I say , no reports shall make faith : But it is certain , that when these voyces were sent from heaven and heard upon earth they prevailed amongst many that heard them not , and disciples were multiplied upon such accounts , or else it must be that none that did hear them could be beleeved by any of their friends and neighbours ; for if they were , the voyce was as effective at the reflex and rebound as in the direct emission , and could prevail with them that beleeved their brother or their friend , as certainly as with them that beleeved their own ears and eyes . I need not speak of the vast numbers of miracles which he wrought ; miracles which were not more demonstrations of his power then of his mercy ; for they had nothing of pompousness and ostentation , but infinitely of charity and mercy , and that permanent and lasting and often : he opened the eyes of the blinde , he made the crooked straight , he made the weak strong , he cured fevers with the touch of his hand , and an issue of blood with the hem of his garment , and sore eyes with the spittle of his mouth and the clay of the earth ; he multiplied the loaves and fishes , he raised the dead to life , a young maiden , the widows son of Naim , and Lazarus , and cast out Devils by the word of his mouth , which he could never doe but by the power of God. For Satan does not cast out Satan , nor a house fight against it self , if it means to stand long , and the Devil could not help Jesus , because the holy Jesus taught men virtue , called them from the worshipping Devils , taught them to resist the Devil , to lay aside all those abominable idolatries by which the Devil doth rule in the hearts of men : he taught men to love God , to fly from temptations to sin , to hate and avoid all those things of which the Devil is guilty , for Christianity forbids pride , envy , malice , lying , and yet affirms that the Devil is proud , envious , malicious , and the Father of lies ; and therefore where ever Christianity prevails , the Devil is not worshipped , and therefore he that can think that a man without the power of God could overturn the Devils principles , cross his designs , weaken his strengths , baffle him in his policies , befool him and turn him out of possession , & make him open his own mouth against himself as he did often , and confess himself conquered by Jesus and tormented , as the Oracle did to Augustus Caesar , and the Devil to Jesus himself , he I say , that thinks a meer man can doe this , knows not the weaknesses of a man , nor the power of an Angel ; but he that thinks this could be done by compact , and by consent of the Devil , must think him to be an Intelligence without understanding , a power without force , a fool and a sot to assist a power against himself , and to persecute the power he did assist , to stirre up the world to destroy the Christians , whose Master and Lord he did assist to destroy himself ; and when we read that Porphyrius an Heathen , a professed enemy to Christianity , did say , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that since Jesus was worshipped , the gods could help no man , that is , the gods which they worshipped ; the poor baffled enervated Daemons : He must either think that the Devils are as foolish as they are weak , or else that they did nothing towards this declination of their power ; and therefore that they suffer it by a power higher then themselves , that is , by the power of God in the hand of Jesus . But besides that God gave testimony from heaven concerning him ; he also gave this testimony of himself to have come from God , because that he did Gods will ; for he that is a good man and lives by the Laws of God and of his Nation , a life innocent and simple , prudent and wise , holy and spotless , unreproved and unsuspected , he is certainly by all wise men said in a good sense to be the son of God , but he who does well and speaks well , and calls all men to glorify and serve God , and serves no ends but of holiness and charity , of wisdome of hearts and reformat on of manners , this man carries great authority in his sayings , and ought to prevail with good men in good things , for good ends , which is all that is here required . But his nature was so sweet , his manners so humble , his words so wise and composed , his comportment so grave and winning , his answers so seasonable , his questions so deep , his reproof so severe and charitable , his pity so great and merciful , his preachings so full of reason and holiness , of weight and authority , his conversation so useful and beneficent , his poverty great but his alms frequen● , his family so holy and religious , his and their imployment so profitable , his meekness so incomparable , his passions without difference , save onely where zeal or pity carried him on to worthy and apt expressions a person that never laughed , but often wept in a sense of the calamities of others ; he loved every man and hated no man , he gave counsel to the doubtful , and instructed the ignorant , he bound up the broken hearts , and strengthened the feeble knees , he releeved the poor , and converted the sinners , he despised none that came to him for releef , and as for those that did not he went to them ; he took all occasions of mercy that were offered him , and went abroad for more ; he spent his days in Preaching and healing , and his nights in Prayers and conversation with God , he was obedient to Laws and subject to Princes , though he was the Prince of Judaea in right of his Mother , and of all the world in right of his Father ; the people followed him , but he made no conventions , and when they were made . he suffered no tumults , when they would have made him a King he withdrew himself , when he knew they would put him to death he offered himself ; he knew mens hearts , and conversed secretly , and gave answer to their thoughts and prevented their questions : he would work a miracle rather then give offence , and yet suffer every offence rather then see God his Father dishonoured , he exactly kept the Law of Moses , to which he came to put a period , and yet chose to signify his purpose onely by doing acts of mercy upon their Sabbath , doing nothing which they could call a breach of a Commandement , but healing sick people , a charity which themselves would doe to beasts , and yet they were angry at him for doing it to their brethren : In all his life , and in all his conversation with his Nation , he was innocent as an Angel of light , and when by the greatness of his worth , and the severity of his doctrine , and the charity of his miracles , and the noises of the people , and his immense fame in all that part of the world , and the multitude of his disciples and the authority of his Sermons , and his free reproof of their hypocrisy , and his discovery of their false doctrines and weak traditions , he had branded the reputation of the vicious rulers of the people , and they resolved to put him to death , they who had the biggest malice in the world , and the weakest accusations were forced to supply their want of articles against him by making truth to be his fault ; and his office to be his cr●me , and his open con●ession of what was asked him to be his article of condemnation , and yet after all this they could not perswade the competent Judge to condemne him , or to finde him guilty of any fault , and therefore they were forced to threaten him with Caesars name , against whom then they would pretend him to be an enemy , though in their charge they neither proved , nor indeed laid it against him , and yet to whatsoever they objected he made no return , but his silence and his innocence were remarkable and evident , without labour and reply , and needed no more argument then the Sun needs an advocate to prove that he is the brightest starre in the firmament . Well , so it was , they crucified him , and when they did they did as much put out the eye of heaven as destroy the Son of God ; for when with an incomparable sweetness , and a patience exemplar to all ages of sufferers , he endured affronts , examinations , scorns , insolencies of rude ungentle Tradesmen , cruel whippings , injurious , unjust and unreasonable usages from those whom he obliged by all the arts of endearment and offers of the biggest kindness , at last he went to death as to the work which God appointed him that he might become the worlds sacrifice , and the great example of holiness , and the instance of representing by what way the world was to be made happy [ even by sufferings and so entring into heaven ] that he might ( I say ) become the Saviour of his Enemies , and the elder Brother to his friends , and the Lord of Glory , and the fountain of its emanation . Then it was that God gave new testimonies from heaven ; The Sun was eclipsed all the while he was upon the Cross , and yet the Moon was in the full ; that is , he lost his light , not because any thing in nature did invest him , but because the God of nature ( as a Heathen at that very time confessed , who yet saw nothing of this sad iniquity ) did suffer . The rocks did rend , the ve●l of the Temple divided of it self and opened the inclosures , and disparked the Sanctuary , and made it pervious to the Gentiles eye ; the dead arose , and appeared in Jerusalem to their friends , the Centurion and divers of the people smote their hearts , and were by these strange indications convinced that he was the Son of God. His garments were parted , and lots cast upon his inward coat , they gave him vinegar and gall to drink , they brake not a bone of him , but they pierced his side with a spear , looking upon him whom they had pierced ; according to the Prophecies of him , which were so clear and descended to minutes and circumstances of his passion , that there was nothing left by which they could doubt whether this were he or no who was to come into the world : But after all this , that all might be finally verified and no scruple left , after three days burial , a great stone being rolled to the face of the grave , and the stone sealed , and a guard of Souldiers placed about it , he arose from the grave , and for forty days together conversed with his followers and Disciples , and beyond all suspicion was seen of 500. Brethren at once , which is a number too great to give their consent and testimony to a lye , and it being so publickly and confidently affirmed at the very time it was done , and for ever after urged by all Christians , used as the most mighty demonstration , proclaimed , preached , talked of , even upbraided to the gainsayers , affirmed by eye-witnesses , perswaded to the kinred and friends and the relatives and companions of all those 500. persons who were eye-witnesses , it is infinitely removed from a reasonable suspicion ; and at the end of those days was taken up into heaven in the sight of many of them , as Elias was in the presence of Elisha . Now he of whom all these things are true , must needs be more then a meer man , and that they were true was affirmed by very many eye-witnesses , men who were innocent , plain men , men that had no bad ends to serve , men that looked for no preferment by the thing in this life ; men to whom their Master told they were to expect not Crowns and Scepters , not praise of men or wealthy possessions , not power and ease , but a voluntary casting away care and attendance upon secular affairs that they might attend their Ministery ; poverty and prisons , trouble and vexation persecution and labour , whippings and banishment , bonds and death , and for a reward they must stay till a good day came , but that was not to be at all in this world ; and when the day of restitution and recompence should come , they should never know till it came , but upon the hope of this and the faith of Jesus , and the word of God so taught , so consigned , they must rely wholly and for ever . Now let it be considered . how could matters of fact be proved better ? and how could this be anything , but such as to rely upon matters of fact ? what greater certainty can we have of any thing that was ever done which we saw not , or heard not , but by the report of wise and honest persons ? especially since they were such whose life and breeding was so far from ambition and pompousness that as they could not naturally and reasonably hope for any great number of Proselytes , so the same that could be hop'd for amongst them , as it must be a matter of their own procuring , and consequently uncertain , so it must needs be very inconsiderable , not fit to outweigh the danger and the loss , nor yet at all valuable by them whose education and pretences were against it ? These we have plentifully . But if these men are numerous and united , it is more . Then we have more ; For so many did affirm these things which they saw and heard , that thousands of people were convinced of the truth of them : But then if these men offer their oath , it is yet more , but yet not so much as we have , for they sealed those things with their blood ; they gave their life for a testimony ; and what reward can any man expect , if he gives his life for a lye ? who shall make him recompence , or what can tempt him to doe it knowingly ? but after all , it is to be remembred , that as God hates lying , so he hates incredulity ; as we must not beleeve a lye , so neither stop up our eyes and ears against truth ; and what we doe every minute of our lives in matters of little and of great concernment , if we refuse to doe in our Religion which yet is to be conducted as other humane affairs are , by humane instruments and arguments of perswasion proper to the nature of the thing , it is an obstinacy that is as contrary to humane reason as it is to Divine faith . These things relate to the person of the holy Jesus , and prove sufficiently that it was extraordinary , that it was divine , that God was with him , that his power wrought in him ; and therefore that it was his will which Jesus taught , and God signed . But then if nothing of all this had been , yet even the doctrine it self proves it self Divine and to come from God. For it is a Doctrine perfective of humane nature , that teaches us to love God and to love one another , to hurt no man , and to doe good to every man , it propines to us the noblest , the highest , and the bravest pleasures of the world ; the joys of charity , the rest of innocence , the peace of quiet spirits , the wealth of beneficence , and forbids us onely to be beasts and to be Devils , it allows all that God and nature intended , and onely restrains the excrescencies of nature , and forbids us to take pleasure in that which is the onely entertainment of Devils , in murders and revenges , malice and spiteful words and actions ; it permits corporal pleasures where they can best minister to health and societies , to conservation of families and honour of Communities , it teaches men to keep their words that themselves may be secured in all their just interests , and to doe good to others that good may be done to them ; it forbids biting one another that we may not be devoured by one another ; and commands obedience to superiours , that we may not be ruined in confusions ; it combines Governments , and confirms all good Laws , and makes peace , and opposes and prevents warres where they are not just , and where they are not necessary . It is a Religion that is life and spirit , not consisting in ceremonies and external amusements , but in the services of the heart , and the real fruit of lips and hands , that is , of good words and good deeds , it bids us to doe that to God which is agreeable to his excellencies , that is , worship him with the best thing we have , and make all things else minister to it ; it bids us doe that to our neighbour , by which he may be better : it is the perfection of the natural Law , and agreeable to our natural necessities , and promotes our natural ends and designs : it does not destroy reason , but instructs it in very many things , and complies with it in all , it hath in it both heat and light , and is not more effectual then it is beauteous ; it promises every thing that we can desire , and yet promises nothing but what it does effect ; it proclaims warie against all vices , and generally does command every vertue ; it teaches us with ease to mortify those affections which reason durst scarce reprove , because she hath not strength enough to conquer , and it does create in us those vertues which reason of her self never knew , and after they are known , could never approve sufficiently : it is a doctrine in which nothing is superfluous or burdensome , nor yet is there any thing wanting which can procure happiness to mankinde , or by which God can be glorified : and if wisdome , and mercy , and justice , and simplicity , and holiness , and purity , and meekness , and contentedness , and charity , be images of God and rays of Divinity , then that Doctrine in which all these shine so gloriously , and in which nothing else is ingredient must needs be from God ; and that all this is true in the Doctrine of Jesus needs no other probation but the reading the words . For that the words of Jesus are contained in the Gospels , that is , in the writings of them , who were eye-witnesses and ear-witnesses of the actions and Sermons of Jesus , is not at all to be doubted ; for in every sect we beleeve their own records of Doctrine and institution ; for it is madness to suppose the Christians to pretend to be servants of the Laws of Jesus , and yet to make a Law of their own which he made not : no man doubts but that the Alcoran is the Law of Mahomet , that the old Testament contains the Religion of the Jews ; and the authority of these Books is proved by all the arguments of the Religion , for all the arguments perswading to the Religion are intended to prove no other then is contained in those Books ; and these having been for 1500. years and more , received absolutely by all Christian assemblies , if any man shall offer to make a question of their authority , he must declare his reasons , for the disciples of the Religion have sufficient presumption , security and possession , till they can be reasonably disturb'd ; but that now they can never be is infinitely certain , because we have a long , immemorial , universal tradition that these Books were written in those times , by those men whose Names they bear , they were accepted by all Churches at the very first notice , except some few of the later , which were first received by some Churches , and then consented to by all , they were acknowledged by the same , and by the next age for genuine , their authority published , their words cited , appeals made to them in all questions of Religion , because it was known and confessed that they wrote nothing but that they knew , so that they were not deceived ; and to say they would lie must be made to appear by something extrinsecal to this inquiry , and was never so much as plausibly pretended by any Adversaries , and it being a matter of another mans will , must be declared by actions , or not at all . But besides the men that wrote them were to be beleeved because they did Miracles , they wrote Prophecies , which are verified by the event , persons were cured at their Sepulchres , a thing so famous that it was confessed even by the enemies of the Religion : and after all , that which the world ought to rely upon , is the wisdome and the providence and the goodness of God ; all which it concerned to take care that the Religion , which himself so adorned and proved by miracles and mighty signs , should not be lost , nor any false writings be obtruded in stead of true , lest without our fault the will of God become impossible to be obeyed . But to return to the thing : All those excellent things which singly did make famous so many sects of Philosophers , and remarked so many Princes of their sects , all them united , and many more which their eyes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dark and dim could not see , are heaped together in this systeme of wisdome and holiness . Here are plain precepts full of deepest mystery ; here are the measures of holiness and approaches to God describ'd ; obedience and conformity , mortification of the body , and elevations of the spirit , abstractions from earth , and Arts of society and union with heaven , degrees of excellencies , and tendences to perfection , imitations of God , and conversations with him ; these are the heights and descents , upon the plain grounds of natural reason , and natural religion , for there is nothing commanded but what our reason by nature ought to choose , and yet nothing of natural reason taught but what is heightned and made more perfect by the Spirit of God ; and when there is any thing in the Religion , that is against flesh and blood , it is onely when flesh and blood is against us , and against reason , when flesh and blood either would hinder us from great felicity , or bring us into great misery : To conclude , it is such a Law , that nothing can hinder men to receive and entertain , but a pertinacious baseness and love to vice , and none can receive it but those who resolve to be good and excellent ; and if the holy Jesus had come into the world with less splendor of power and mighty demonstrations , yet even the excellency of what he taught , makes him alone fit to be the Master of the world . But then let us consider what this excellent person did effect , and with what instruments he brought so great things to pass . He was to put a period to the Rites of Moses , and the Religion of the Temple ; of which the Jews were zealous even unto pertinacy ; to reform the manner of all mankinde , to confound the wisdome of the Greeks , to break in peeces the power of the Devil , to destroy the worship of all false Gods , to pull down their Oracles , and change their Laws , and by principles wise and holy to reform the false discourses of the world . But see what was to be taught , A Trinity in the Unity of the Godhead , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is the Christian Arithmetick , Three are one and one are three , so Lucian in his Philopatris , or some other derides the Christian Doctrine ; See their Philosophy , Ex nihilo nihil fit . No : Ex nihilo omnia , all things are made of nothing ; and a Man-God and a God-Man , the same person finite and infinite , born in time , and yet from all eternity the Son of God , but yet born of a Woman , and she a Maid , but yet a Mother ; resurrection of the dead , reunion of soul and body ; this was part of the Christian Physicks or their natural Philosophy . But then certainly their moral was easy and delicious . It is so indeed , but not to flesh and blood , whose appetites it pretends to regulate or to destroy , to restrain or else to mortify : fasting and penance , and humility , loving our enemies , restitution of injuries , and self-denial , and taking up the Cross , and losing all our goods , and giving our life for Jesus : As the other was hard to beleeve , so this is as hard to doe . But for whom and under whose conduct was all this to be beleeved , and all this to be done , and all this to be suffered ? surely for some glorious and mighty Prince , whose splendor as far outshines the Romane Empire as the jewels of Cleopatra out-shined the swadling clothes of the Babe at Bethlehem . No it was not so neither . For all this was for Jesus whom his followers preached ; a poor Babe born in a stable , the son of a Carpenter , cradled in a cratch , swadled in poor clouts ; it was for him whom they indeed call'd a God , but yet whom all the world knew , and they themselves said , was whip'd at a post , nailed to a Cross ; he fell under the malice of the Jews his Countrymen , and the power of his Romane Lords , a cheap and a pitiful sacrifice without beauty and without splendor . The design is great , but does not yet seem possible ; But therefore let us see what instruments the Holy Jesus chose to effect these so mighty changes , to perswade so many propositions , to endear so great sufferings , to overcome so great enemies , to master so many impossibilities which this Doctrine and this Law from this Master were sure to meet withall . Here , here it is that the Divinity of the power is proclaimed . When a man goes to warre he raises as great an Army as he can to out-number his Enemy , but when God fights , three hundred men that lap like a dogge are sufficient ; nay one word can dissolve the greatest army . He that means to effect any thing must have means of his own proportionable , and if they be not , he must fail , or derive them from the mighty . See then with what instruments the holy Jesus sets upon this great reformation of the world . Twelve men of obscure and poor birth , of contemptible Trades and quality , without learning , without breeding ; these men were sent into the midst of a knowing and wise world to dispute with the most famous Philosophers of Greece , to out-wit all the learning of Athens , to out-preach all the Roman Orators ; to introduce into a newly setled Empire , which would be impatient of novelties and change , such a change as must destroy all their Temples , or remove thence all their gods : against which change all the zeal of the world , and all the passions , and all the seeming pretences which they could make , must needs be violently opposed a change that introduced new Laws , and caused them to reverse the old , to change that Religion under which their Fathers long did prosper , and under which the Romane Empire obtained so great a grandeur , for a Religion which in appearance was silly and humble , meek and peaceable , not apt indeed to doe harm , but exposing men to all the harm in the world , abating their courage , bl●nting their swords , teaching peace and unactiveness , and making the Souldiers arms in a manner useless , and untying their military girdle ; a Religion which contradicted their reasons of State , and erected new Judicatories , and made the Romane Courts to be silent and without causes ; a Religion that gave countenance to the poor and pitiful ( but in a time when riches were adored , & ambition esteemed the greatest nobleness , and pleasure thought to be the chiefest good ) it brought no peculiar blessing to the rich or mighty , unless they would become poor and humble in some reall sense or other ; a Religion that would change the face of things , and would also pierce into the secrets of the soul , and unravel all the intrigues of hearts , and reform all evil manners , and break vile habits into gentleness and counsel : that such a Religion in such a time , preached by such mean persons , should triumph over the Philosophy of the world , and the arguments of the subtle , and the Sermons of the eloquent , and the power of Princes , and the interest of States , and the inclinations of nature , and the blindness of zeal , and the force of custome , and the pleasures of sin , and the busie Arts of the Devil , that is , against wit , and power , and money , and Religion , and wilfulness , and fame , and Empire , which are all the things in the world that can make a thing impossible ; this I say could not be by the proper force of such instruments ; for no man can 〈…〉 palm , nor govern wise Empires with Diagrams . It were impudence to send a footman to command Caesar to lay down his arms , to d●sband h●s legions and throw himself into Tyber , or keep a Tavern nex● to Pompeys Theatre ; but if a sober man shall stand alone unarm'd , undefended , or unprovided , and shall tell that he will make the Sun stand still , or remove a mountain , or reduce Xerxes his Army to the scantling of a single Troop , he that beleeves he will and can doe this , must beleeve he does it by a higher power thee he can yet perceive , and so it was in the present transaction . For that the holy Jesus made invisible powers to doe him visible honours , that his Apostles hunted the Daemons from their Tripods , their Navels , their Dens , their hollow Pipes , their Temples , and their Altars , that he made the Oracles silent , as Lucian , Porphyrie Celsus , , and other Heathens confess ; that against the order of new things , which let them be never so profitable or good doe yet suffer reproach and cannot prevail unless they commence in a time of advantage and favour , yet that this should flourish like the Palm by pressure , grow glorious by opposition , thrive by persecution , and was demonstrated by objections , argues a higher cause then the immediate instrument ; now how this higher cause did intervene is visible and notorious : The Apostles were not learned , but the holy Jesus promised that he would send down wisdome from above , from the Father of spirits ; they had no power , but they should be invested with power from on high they were ignorant and timorous , but he would make them learned and confident , and so he did : he promised that in a few days he would send the holy Ghost upon them , and he did so , after ten days they felt and saw glorious immission from heaven , lights of movable fire sitting upon their heads , and that light did illuminate their hearts , and the mighty rushing winde inspired them with a power of speaking divers languages , and brought to their remembrances all that Jesus did and taught , and made them wise to conduct souls , and bold to venture , and prudent to advise , and powerful to doe miracles , and w●●y to convince gainsayers , and hugely instructed in the Scriptures , and gave them the spirit of Government , and the spirit of Prophecy . This thing was so publick that at the first notice of it three thousand souls were converted on that very day , at the very time when it was done ; for it was certainly a visible demonstration of an invisible power , that ignorant persons who were never taught , should in an instant speak all the Languages of the Romane Empire ; and indeed this thing was so necessary to be so , and so certain that it was so , so publick and so evident , and so reasonable , and so useful , that it is not easy to say whether it was the indication of a greater power , or a greater wisdome ; and now the means was proportionable enough to the biggest end ; without learning they could not confute the learned world ; but therefore God became their Teacher : without power they could not break the Devils violence , but therefore God gave them power ; without courage they could not contest against all the violence of the Jews and Gentiles ; but therefore God was their strength and gave them fortitude ; without great caution and providence they could not avoid the traps of crafty Persecutors , but therefore God gave them caution , and made them provident , and as Besaleel and Aholiab received the spirit of God , the spirit of understanding to enable them to work excellently in the Tabernacle , so had the Apostles to make them wise for the work of God and the Ministeries of this Diviner Tabernacle , which God pitched , not man. Immediately upon this , the Apostles to make a fulness of demonstration and an undeniable conviction gave the spirit to others also , to Jews and Gentiles and to the men of Samaria , and they spake with Tongues and prophesied , then they preached to all Nations , and endured all persecutions , and cured all diseases , and raised the dead to life , and were brought before Tribunals , and confessed the Name of Jesus , and convinced the blasphemous Jews out of their own Prophets , and not onely prevailed upon women and weak men , but even upon the bravest and wisest . All the disciples of John the Baptist , the Nazarens and Ebionites , Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea , Sergius the President , Dionysius an Athenian Judge , and Polycarpus , Justinus and Irenaus , Athenagoras and Origen , Tertullian and Clemens of Alexandria , who could not be such fools as upon a matter not certainly true but probably false , to unravel their former principles , and to change their liberty for a Prison , wealth for poverty , honour for disreputation , life for death , if by such exchange they had not been secured of truth and holiness and the will of God. But above all these was Saul , a bold and a witty , a zealous and learned young man , who going with Letters to persecute the Christians of Damascus , was by a light from heaven called from his furious march , reproved by Gods Angel for persecuting the cause of Jesus , was sent to the City , baptized by a Christian Minister , instructed and sent abroad , and he became the prodigy of the world for learning and zeal , for preaching and writing , for labour and sufference , for government and wisdome ; he was admitted to see the holy Jesus after the Lord was taken into heaven , he was taken up into Paradise , he conversed with Angels , he saw unspeakable rayes of glory , and besides that himself said it , who had no reason to lie , who would get nothing by it here but a conjugation of troubles , and who should get nothing by it hereafter if it were false ; besides this I say , that he did all those acts of zeal and obedience for the promotion of the Religion does demonstrate he had reason extraordinary for so sudden a change , so strange a labour , so frequent and incomparable sufferings : and therefore as he did and suffered so much upon such glorious motives , so he spared not to publish it to all the world , he spake it to Kings and Princes , he told it to the envious Jews ; he had partners of his journey who were witnesses of the miraculous accident , and in his publication he urged the notoriousness of the fact , as a thing not feigned , not private , but done at noon day under the Test of competent persons , and it was a thing that proved it self , for it was effective of a present , a great , and a permanent change . But now it is no new wonder but a pursuance of the same conjugation of great and Divine things , that the Fame and Religion of Jesus was with so incredible a swiftness scattered over the face of the habitable world , from one end of the earth unto the other ; it filled all Asia immediately , it passed presently to Europe , and to the furthest Africans , and all the way it went it told nothing but an holy and an humble story , that he who came to bring it into the world , died an ignominious death , and yet this death did not take away their courage , but added much : for they could not fear death for that Master , whom they knew to have for their sakes suffered death , and came to life again . But now infinite numbers of persons of all sexes , and all ages , and all Countries came in to the Holy Crucifix , and he that was crucified in the reign of Tiberius , was in the time of Nero , even in Rome it self , and in Nero's family by many persons esteem'd for a God ; and it was upon publick record that he was so acknowledged ; and this was by a Christian , Justin Martyr , urged to the Senate , and to the Emperours themselves , who if it had been otherwise could easily have confuted the bold allegation of the Christian , who yet did die for that Jesus who was so speedily reputed for a God ; the Cross was worn upon brests , printed in the air , drawn upon fore-heads , carried on banners , put upon crowns Imperial ; and yet the Christians were sought for to punishments , and exquisite punishments sought forth for them ; their goods were confiscate , their names o●ious , prisons were their houses , and so many kinds of tortures invented for them that Domitius Ulpianus hath spent seven Books in describing the variety of tortures the poor Christian was put to at his first appearing ▪ and yet in despite of all this , and ten thousand other objections and impossibilities , whatsoever was for them made the Religion grow , and whatsoever was against them made it grow ; if they had peace , the Religion was prosperous , if they had persecution , it was still prosperous : if Princes favoured them the world came in because the Christians lived holily ; if Princes were incensed , the world came in because the Christians died bravely . They sought for death with greediness , they desired to be grinded in the teeth of Lions , and with joy they beheld the wheels and the bended trees , the racks and the gibbets , the fires and the burning irons , which were like the chair of Elias to them , instruments to carry them to heaven , into the bosome of their beloved Jesus . Who would not acknowledge the Divinity of this person , and the excellency of this institution , that should see infants to weary the hands of Hangmen for the testimony of Jesus ? and wise men preach this doctrine for no other visible reward , but shame and death , poverty and banishment ? and Hangmen converted by the blood of Martyrs springing upon their faces which their impious hands and cords have strained through their flesh ? who would not have confessed the honour of Jesus , when he should see miracles done at the Tombs of Martyrs , and Devils tremble at the mention of the name of Jesus , and the world running to the honour of the poor Nazaren , and Kings and Queens kissing the feet of the poor servants of Jesus ? Could a Jew Fisherman and a Publican effect all this for the son of a poor Maiden of Judaea ? can we suppose all the world , or so great a part of mankinde can consent by chance , or suffer such changes for nothing ? or for any thing less then this ? The son of the poor Maiden was the son of God , and the Fishermen spake by a Divine spirit , and they catched the world with holiness and miracles , with wisdome and power bigger then the strength of all the Roman Legions . And what can be added to all this , but this thing alone to prove the Divinity of Jesus ? He is a God , or at least is taught by God who can foretel future contingencies ; and so did the holy Jesus , and so did his Disciples . Our blessed Lord while he was alive foretold that after his death his Religion should flourish more then when he was alive : He foretold Persecutions to his Disciples ; he foretold the mission of the holy Ghost to be in a very few days after his Ascension , which within ten days came to pass ; he prophesied that the fact of Mary Magdalen in anointing the head and feet of her Lord , should be publick and known as the Gospel it self , and spoken of in the same place ; he foretold the destruction of Jerusalem and the signs of its approach , and that it should be by Warre , and particularly after the manner of Prophets symbolically , nam'd the Nation should doe it ; pointing out the Roman Eagles , he foretold his death , and the manner of it , and plainly before-hand published his Resurrection , and told them it should be the sign to that generation , viz. the great argument to prove him to be the Christ , he prophesied that there should arise false Christs after him , and it came to pass to the extreme great calamity of the Nation ; and lastly , he foretold that his beloved Disciple S. John should tarry upon the earth till his coming again , that is , to his coming to Judgement upon Jerusalem ; and that his Religion should be preached to the Gentiles , that it should be scattered over all the world , and be received by all Nations , that it should stay upon the face of the earth till his last coming to judge all the world , and that the gates of hell should not be able to prevail against his Church ; which Prophecie is made good thus long , till this day , and is as a continual argument to justify the Divinity of the Author : The continuance of the Religion helps to continue it , for it proves that it came from God , who fore old that it should continue ; and therefore it must continue because it came from God , and therefore it came from God because it does and shall for ever continue according to the word of the holy Jesus . But after our blessed Lord was entred into glory , the disciples also were Prophets ; Agabus foretold the dearth that was to be in the Romane Empire in the days of Claudius Caesar , and that S. Paul should be bound at Jerusalem ; S. Paul foretold the entring in of Hereticks into Asia after his departure ; and he and S. Peter and S. Jude and generally the rest of the Apostles had two great predictions , which they used not onely as a verification of the doctrine of Jesus , but as a means to strengthen the hearts of the Disciples who were so broken with persecution : The one was , that there should arise a Sect of vile men who should be enemies to Religion and Government , and cause a great Apostacy , which happened notoriously in the Sect of the Gnosticks , which those three Apostles and S. John notoriously and plainly doe describe : And the other was , that although the Jewish Nation did m●ghtily oppose the Religion , it should be but for a while , for they should be destroyed in a short time , and their Nation made extremely miserable ; but for the Christians , if they would fly from Jerusalem and goe to Pella , there should not a hair of their head perish : the verification of this Prophecie the Christians extremely long'd for and wondred it staid so long , and began to be troubled at the delay , and suspected all was not well , when the great proof of their Religion was not verified ; and while they were in thoughts of heart concerning it , the sad Catalysis did come , and swept away 1100000. of the Nation and from that day forward the Nation was broken in peeces with intolerable calamities , they are scattered over the face of the earth , and are a vagabond Nation , but yet like oyle in a vessel of wine , broken into bubbles but kept in their own circles , and they shall never be an united people till they are servants of the holy Jesus ; but shall remain without Priest or Temple , without Altar or Sacrifice , without City or Country , without the land of Promise , or the promise of a blessing , till our Jesus is their high Priest and the Shepherd to gather them into his fold : And this very thing is a mighty demonstration against the Jews by their own Prophets , for when Isaiah and Jeremiah , and Malachi had Prophesied the rejection of the Jews and the calling of the Gentiles , and the change of the old Law , and the introduction of a new by the Messias , that this was he , was therefore certain , because he taught the world a new Law and presently after the publication of this , the old was abrogate , and not onely went into desuetude , but into a total abolition among all the world ; and for those of the remnant of the scattered Jews who obstinately blaspheme , the Law is become impossible to them , and they placed in such circumstances that they need not dispute concerning its obligation ; for it being external and corporal , ritual and at last made also local , when the circumstances are impossible , the Law that was wholly ceremonial and circumstantial must needs pass away , and when they have lost their Priesthood , they cannot retain the Law , as no man takes care to have his beard shaved when his head is off . And it is a wonder to consider how the anger of God is gone out upon that miserable people , and that so great a blindness is fallen upon them , it being evident and notorious , that the old Testament was nothing but a shadow and umbrage of the new , that the Prophecies of that are plainly ver●fied in this ; that all the predictions of the Messias are most undeniably accomplished in the person of Jesus Christ , so that they cannot with any plausibleness or colour be turned any other way , and be applied to any other person , although the Jews make illiterate allegations , and prodigious dreams , by which they have fool'd themselves for 1600. years together , and still hope without reason , and are confident without revelation , and pursue a shadow while they quit the glorious ●ody ; while in the mean time the Christian prays for his conversion , and is at rest in the truth of Jesus , and hath certain unexpressible confidencies and internal lights , clarities of the holy Spirit of God , and loves to the holy Jesus produc'd in his soul , that he will die when he cannot dispute , and is satisfied and he knows not how , and is sure by comforts , and comforted by the excellency of his beleef , which speaks nothing but holiness , and light and reason , and peace and satisfactions infinite , because he is sure that all the world can be happy if they would live by the Religion of Jesus , and that neither societies of men nor single persons can have felicity but by this , and that therefore God who so decrees to make men happy , hath also decreed that it shall for ever be upon the face of the earth , till the earth it self shall be no more . Amen . Now if against this vast heap of things any man shall but confront the pretences of any other Religion , and see how they fail both of reason and holiness , of wonder and Divinity , how they enter by force , and are kept up by humane interests , how ignorant and unholy , how unlearned and pitiful are their pretences , the darknesses of these must adde great eminency to the brightness of that . For the Jews Religion which came from heaven is therefore not now to be practised , because it did come from heaven , and was to expire into the Christian , it being nothing but the image of this perfection ; and the Jews needed no other argument but this , that God hath made theirs impossible now to be done , for he that ties to Ceremonies and outward usages , Temples and Altars , Sacrifices and Priests , troublesome and expensive rites and figures of future signification , means that there should be an abode and fixt dwelling , for these are not to be done by an ambulatory people ; and therefore since God hath scattered the people into atomes and crumbs of society , without Temple or Priest , without Sacrifice or Altar , without Urim or Thummim , without Prophet or Vision , even communicating with them no way but by ordinary providence , it is but too evident , that God hath nothing to doe with them in the matter of that Religion , but that it is expired , and no way obligatory to them or pleasing to him which is become impossible to be acted ; whereas the Christian Religion is as eternal as the soul of a man , and can no more cease then our spirits can die , and can worship upon mountains and caves , in fields and Churches , in peace and warre , in solitude and society , in persecution and in Sun-shine , by night and by day , and be solemnized by Clergy and Laity in the essential parts of it , and is the perfection of the soul , and the highest reason of man , and the glorification of God. But for the Heathen religions it is evidently to be seen , that they are nothing but an abuse of the natural inclination which all men have to worship a God , whom because they know not , they guess at in the dark ; for that they know there is and ought to be something that hath the care and providence of their affairs . But the body of their Religion is nothing but little arts of Governments , and stratagems of Princes and devices to secure the Government of new Usurpers , or to make obedience to the Laws sure , by being sacred , and to make the yoke that was not natural , pleasant by something that is . But yet for the whole body of it who sees not that their worshippings could not be sacred , because they were done by something that is impure , they appeased their gods with adul●eries and impure mixtures , by such things which Cato was ashamed to see , by gluttonous eatings of flesh , and impious drinkings , and they did litare in humano sanguine , they sacrificed men and women and children to their D●mons , as is notorious in the rites of Bacchus Omesta amongst the Greeks , and of Jupiter , to whom a Greek and a Greekess , a Galatian and a Galatess were yearly offered ; in the answers of the Oracles to Calchas as appears in Homer and Virgil ; who sees not that crimes were warranted by the example of their immortal gods , and that what did dishonour themselves , they sang to the honour of their gods , whom they affirmed to be passionate and proud , jealous and revengefull , amorous and lustfull , fearfull and impatient , drunken and sleepy , weary and wounded , that the Religions were made lasting by policy and force , by ignorance , and the force of custome , by the preferring an inveterate error , and loving of a quiet and prosperous evil , by the arguments of pleasure , and the correspondencies of sensuality , by the fraud of Oracles , and the patronage of vices , and because they feared every change as an Earthquake , as supposing overturnings of their old error to be the eversion of their well established Governments : and it had been ordinarily impossible that ever Christianity should have entred , if the nature and excellency of it had not been such as to enter like rain into a fleece of wooll , or the Sun into a window without noise or violence , without emotion and disordering the political constitution , without causing trouble to any man but what his own ignorance or peevishness was pleased to spin out of his own bowels , but did establish Governments , secure obedience , made the Laws firm , and the persons of Princes to be sacred ; it did not oppose force by force , nor strike Princes for Justice ; it defended it self against enemies by patience , and overcame them by kindness , it was the great instrument of God to demonstrate his power in our weaknesses , and to doe good to Mankinde by the imitation of his excellent goodness . Lastly , he that considers concerning the Religion and person of Mahomet , that he was a vicious person , lustful and tyrannical , that he propounded incredible and ridiculous propositions to his Disciples , that it entred by the sword , by blood and violence , by murder and robbery , that it propounds sensual rewards and allures to compliance by bribing our basest lusts , that it conserves it self by the same means it entred ; that it is unlearned and foolish , against reason , and the discourses of all wise men , that it did no miracles and made false Prophecies : in short , that in the person that founded it , in the article it perswades in the manner of prevailing , in the reward it offers it is unholy and foolish and rude ; it must needs appear to be void of all pretence , and that no man of reason can ever be fairly perswaded by arguments , that it is the daughter of God and came down from heaven . Since therefore there is so nothing to be said for any other Religion , and so very much for Christianity , every one of whose pretences can be proved as well as the things themselves doe require , and as all the world expects such things should be proved ; it follows that the holy Jesus is the Son of God , that his Religion is commanded by God , and is that way by which he will be worshipped and honoured , and that there is no other name under heaven by which we can be saved , but onely by the name of the Lord Jesus . He that puts his soul upon this cannot perish neither can he be reproved who hath so much reason and argument 〈◊〉 his Religion . Sit anima mea cum Christianis ; I pray God my soul may be n●●bred amongst the Christians . THIS 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have here brought as an instance of moral demonstration , not onely to doe honour to my dearest Lord , by speaking true and great things of his Name , and indevouring to advance and esta●●lish his Kingdom● , but to represent in order to the first in●ention , that a heap of probabilities may in some cases make a sure Conscience ; for as Ciecro says , Probable id est , 〈◊〉 habet in se quandam similitudinem , sive id falsum est , sive verum . For 〈◊〉 is not in the thing properly , for every thing is true or false in it self , and even false things may have the face and the likeness of truth , and cozen even w●se persons . It was said of Bias in Diogenes Laertius , Orator summus & 〈◊〉 , sed in bonam causam dicendi vim omnem exercuit , he could speak excell●ntly , but then he spake best when he had an ill cause . This Lactantius 〈…〉 malitiam , a cunning and an eloquent malice . But then as falshood many put on the face of truth , so may truth also look like it self ; and indeed every truth that men preach in Religions is at least probable , that is , there is so much to be said for it , that wise and good men may be perswaded into every truth ; an● the cause that it is onely probable is by reason of our want of knowledge of things ; but if it so happen that there is much to be said for the truth , and little or nothing against it , then it is a moral demonstration , that is , it ought to perswade firmly , and upon it we may rest confidently . This onely I am to admonish , that our assent in these cases is not to be greater then the force of the premises , and therefore the Church of Rome offering to prove all her Religion as it distinguishes from the other divisions of Christians , onely by some prudential motives , or probable inducements , and yet requiring that all her disciples should beleeve it with Divine and infallible faith , as certainly as we beleeve a Mathematical demonstration , does unjustly require brick where she gives no straw , and builds a tower upon a bu●rush , and confesses that her interest is stronger then her argument , and that where by direct proof she cannot prevail , she by little arts would affright the understanding . For to give a perfect assent to probable inducements can neither be reasonable nor possible for considering persons , unless these conditions be in it . The Requisites or Conditions of a Moral demonstration for the assuring our Conscience . 1. That the thing be the most probable to us in our present condition : For there are summities and principalities of probation proportionable to the ages and capacities of men and women . A little thing determines a weak person ; and children beleeve infinitely whatsoever is told to them by their Parents or Tutors , because they have nothing to contest against it . For in all probable discourses , there is an allay and abatement of perswasion by the opposition of argument to argument , but they who have nothing to oppose , and have no reason to suspect , must give themselves up wholly to it ; and then every thing that comes is equally the highest , because it fully and finally must prevail . But then that which prevails in infancy seems childish and ridiculous in our youth and then we are concluded by some pretences and pretty ●span , ●which for want of experience we think very well of ; and we can then doe no more ; that is a demonstration to us , which must determine us , and these little things must then doe it , because somthing must be done , and we must doe it as wisely as we may , but no man is bound to be wiser then he can . As the thing seems , either in its ownlight or in our position , so we are to g●ve our assent unto it . 2. A heap of probable in lucements ought to prevail , as being then a moral demonstration when the thing is not capable of a natural ; for then probabilities ought to prevail , when they are the best argument we have . For if any man shall argue thus ; It is not probable that God would leave his Church without sufficient means to end controversies , and since a living in●●llible Judge is the most effective to this purpose , it is therefore to be presumed and relied upon that God hath done so . This argument ought not to prevail as a moral demonstration ; for though there are some semblances and appearances of reason in it , Nihil enim est tam incredibile quod non dicendo fiat probabile , said Cicero in his Paradoxes , there is nothing so incredible , but something may be said for it , and a witty man may make it plausible , yet there are certainties against it . For God hath said expresly , that every man is a liar , and therefore we are commanded to call no man Master upon earth , and the nature of 〈◊〉 is weak , and his understanding trifling , and every thing abuses him , and every man that is wise sees his own ignorance , and he that is not wise is easily deceived , and they who have pretended to be infallible have spoken pi●iful things , and fallen into strange errors , and cannot be guarded from shame without a whole legion of artifices and distinctions , and therefore it is certain that no man is infallible ; and where the contrary is certain , the probable prete●ce is but a fallacy and an art of illusion . 3. There can be no moral demonstration against the word of God , or divi●e revelation . He that should flatter himself with thinking the pains of hell sh●l●not be eternal , because it is not agreeable to the goodness of God to inflict a never ceasing pain for a sudden and transient pleasure , and that there can be no proportion between finite and infinite , and yet God who is the foun●●n of justice will observe proportions ; ( or if there could be ten thousand more little things said to perswade a sinning man into confidences of an end of torment ) ye● he would finde himself dece●ved , for all would be light when put into the ballance against these words of our blessed Saviour [ Where the worm never dies , and the fire never goeth out . ] 4. Where there is great probability on both sides , there neither of them can pretend to be a moral demonstration , or directly to secure the conscience : For contradictions can never be demonstrated ; and if one says true , the other is a fair pretender , but a foul deceiver ; and therefore in this case the conscience is to be secured indirectly and collaterally by the diligence of search , the honesty of its intention , the heartiness of its assent , the infirmity of the searcher , and the unavoidableness of his mistake . 5. The certainty of a moral demonstration must rely upon some certain rule , to which as to a centre , all the little and great probabilities like the lines of a circumference must turn ; and when there is nothing in the matter of the question , then the conscience hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one great axiom to rely upon , and that is , that God is just , and God is good , and requires no greater probation then he hath en●bled us to finde . 6. In probable inducements , God requires onely such an assent as can be effective of our duty and obedience , such a one as we will rely upon to real events , such as Merchants have when they venture their goods to Sea upon reasonable hopes of becoming rich , or Armies fight battles in hope of victory , relying upon the strength they have as probable to prevail ; and if any article of our Religion be so proved to us as that we will reduce it to practice , own all its consequences , live according to it , and in the pursuance of it hope for Gods mercy and acceptance , it is an assent as great as the thing will bear , and yet as much as our duty will require ; for in these cases no man is wise but he whose ears and heart is open to hear the instructions of any man who is wiser and better then himself . 7. Rules of prudence are never to be accepted against a rule of Logick , or Reason , and strict discourses . I remember that Bellarmine going to prove Purgatory from the words of our blessed Saviour , It shall not be forgiven him in this world , nor in the world to come ; argues thus , If this shall not be forgiven in the world to come , then it implies that some sins are there forgiven , and therefore there is a Purgatory ; because in heaven there are no sins , and in hell there are none forgiven . This ( says he ) concludes not by the rule of Logicians , but it does by the rule of prudence . Now this to all wise men must needs appear to be an egregious prevarication even of common sense ; for if the rules of Logick be true , then it is not prudence , but imprudence that contradicts them , unless it be prudence to tell or to beleeve a lye . For the use of prudence is to draw from conjectures a safe and a wise conclusion when there are no certain rules to guide us . But against the certain rule it is folly that declares , not prudence ; and besides that this conjecture of Bellarmine is wholly against the design of Christ , who intended there onely to say , that the sin against the holy Ghost should never be pardoned ; it fails also in the main inquiry , for although there are no sins in heaven , and in hell none are forgiven , yet at the day of Judgement all the sins of the penitent shall be forgiven and acquitted with a blessed sentence : but besides this , the manner of expression is such as may with prudence be expounded , and yet to no such purpose as he dreams . For if I should say , Aristobulus was taken away , that neither in this life , nor after his death , his eyes might see the destruction of the Temple , does it follow by the rule of prudence , therefore some people can see in their grave , or in the state of separation with their bodily eyes ? But as to the main inquiry , what is to be the measure of prudence ? For some confident people think themselves very prudent , and that they say well and wisely , when others wiser then they know they talk like fools , and because no established reason can be contradicted by a prudent conjecture , it is certain that this prudence of Bellarmine was a hard shift to get an argument for nothing , and that no prudential motives are to be valued because any man cals them so , but because they doe rely upon some sure foundation , and draw obscure lines from a resolved truth . For it is not a prudential motive , unless it can finally rest upon reason , or revelation , or experience , or something that is not contradicted by any thing surer then it self . RULE 3. Of two opinions equally probable , upon the account of their proper reasons , one may be safer then another . THat is more probable which hath fairer reasons , that is more safe that is furthest distant from a sin : and although this be always considerable in the matter of prudence , and in the whole conjunction of affairs , yet it is not always a proper ingredient in the question . The Abbat of Lerins hath the Patronage of some Ecclesiastical preferments in the neighbourhood ; He for affection preferres to one of them an ignorant and a vicious Clerk. But afterwards being troubled in conscience inquires if he be not bound to restitution . He is answered , No ; because it is in the matter of distributive justice , which binds not to repair that which is past , any other ways but by repentance to God and provisions for the future : yet he being perplexed , and unsatisfied , does restore so much fruits to the next worthy Incumbent , as the former unworthy Clerk did eat . This was the surer course , and it procured peace to him ; but the contrary was the more probable answer . It is safer to restore all gains of Usury ; but it is more probable that a man is not oblig'd to it . In which cases the advantage lies not on that side that is more probable , but on that which is more safe , as in these sentences that oblige to restitution . For although either part avoids a formal sin , yet the safer side also perswades to an action that is materially good , such as restitution is ; but not to restore , although in these cases it may be innocent , yet in no sense can it of it self be laudable . To which also in these cases it may be added , that on the safer side there is a physical , or natural and proper certainty that we sin not : on the other , though there is a greater probability that there is no obligation , yet at most it can make but some degrees of moral certainty . But how farre this course is to be chosen and pursued , or how farre the other is to be preferr'd , will afterwards be disputed . RULE . 4. An opinion that is speculatively probable , is not always practically the same . IN a right and sure conscience the speculative and the practical judgement are always united , as I have before * explicated ; but in opinions that are but probable the case is contrary . It is speculation probable , that it is lawful to baptize in the Name of the Lord Jesus ; but yet he that shall doe this practically , does improbably and unreasonably . If the opinion of the Primitive Christians had been probable that it is lawful to communicate infants , yet it were at no hand fitting to be done in the present constitution of affairs ; and it were highly useful if men would consider this effectually ; and not from every tolerable opinion instantly run to an unreasonable and intolerable practice . For a ●peculation considers the nature of things abstractedly from circumstances physically or me●aphysically , and yet when it comes to be reduc'd to practice , what in the head was innocent will upon the hand become troublesome and criminal . If there were nothing in it but the disorder of the novelty or the disturbance of mens minds in a matter that is but probable , it were highly enough to reprove this folly . Every mans imperfect discourse or half reasons are neither fit to govern the actions of others or himself . * Suppose it probable ( which the Greek Church beleeves ) that the Consecration of the blessed Eucharist is not made by the words of institution , but by the prayers of the holy man that ministers , the Bishop or the Priest ; yet when this is reduc'd to practice , and that a man shall omit the words of institution or consecration , his practice is more to be reproved then his opinion could be possibly allowed . * Some think Churches not to be more sacred then other places ; what degree of probability soever this can have , yet it is a huge degree of folly to act this opinion , and to choose a Barn to pray in , when a Church may be had . For there are in actions besides the proper ingredients of their intrinsecal lawfulness or consonancy to reason , a great many outsides and adherencies that are considerable beyond the speculation . The want of this consideration hath done much evil in many ages ; and amongst us nothing hath been more usual then to dispute concerning a rite or Sacramental , or a constitution whether it be necessary , and whether the contrary be not lawful ; and if it be found probably so as the inquirers would have it , immediately they reduc'd it to practice , and caused disorder and scandal , schism and uncharitableness amongst men while they thought that Christian liberty could not be preserved in the understanding , unless they disorder all things by a practical conclusion . Videas quosdam quibus sua libertas non videtur consistere , nisi per esum carnium die Ver●is in ejus possessionem venerint ; Calvin complains with reason . It is a strange folly that men will not think they have possession of Christian liberty , unless they break all Laws and all customs , as if men could not prove things to be indifferent , and not obligatory , unless they certainly omit them . Christian liberty consists in the head , not in the hand ; and when we know we are free from the bondage , we may yet doe the work ; and when our gracious Lord hath knock'd our fetters off , we may yet think it too fit to doe what his Stewards command us in order to his services . It is free to us to eat or to abstain , to contain or to marry ; but he that onely marries because he would triumph and brag of his freedome , may get an imperious Mistress instead o● a gentle Master . By the Laws of Christian liberty indifferent things are permitted to my choyce , and I am not under their power ; but no Christian liberty says that I am free from the power of a man , though I be from the power of the thing ; and although in speculation , this last was sufficient to be considered , yet when the opinion comes to be reduc'd to practice , the other also ought to have been thought upon . And besides this , it is a strange pertness and boldness of spirit , so to trust every fancy of my own , as to put the greatest interest upon it ; so to be in love with every opinion , and trifling conceit , as to value it beyond the peace of the Church , and the wiser Customes of the world , or the Laws and practices of a wise and well instructed community of men . Nothing can make recompence for a certain change but a certain truth , with apparent usefulness in order to charity , piety , or institution . These instances are in the matter of Religion ; it may also happen thus 〈◊〉 the matter of justice . When Lamech perceiv'd something stirre in a bush it was very probable it was a wild beast ; but when he came to reduce his opinion to practice , he shot at it and kill'd a man. And in the matter of justice there is a proper reason for this rule : Because in matters of right or wrong , possession is not to be altered without certainty , and therefore neither can I seize upon my goods in another mans hand , unless I be sure they are mine , though I were not otherwise restrain'd by humane Laws ; neither may I expose any thing to danger , of which I am not certainly Master . This also is with great caution to be observ'd in the matter of chastity . Although it may be true that in many cases such or such aspects or approximations may be lawful ; that is , those things so farre as they are considered have no dissonancy from reason : yet he that shall reduce this opinion to practice must also remember that he is to deal with flesh and blood , which will take fire , not onely from permissions , but from prohibitions and restraints , and will pass instantly from lawful to unlawful : and although this may not be a sin in consideration and discourse but is to be acquitted by the sentence of the Schools and Pulpit , yet when it comes to be view'd and laid before the judgement in the Court of conscience , and as it was cloth'd with circumstances it will be found , that when it came to be practised , other parts or senses were imployed which cannot make such separations , but doe something else . But if it be ask'd , To what purpose it can be that any man should inquire of the lawfulness of such actions which whether they be lawful or unlawful , yet may not be done ? I answer , That the inquiry is necessary for the direct avoiding a sin in the proper matter of the instance ; For he that never inquires , sins for want of inquiry , and despises his soul because he takes no care that it be rightly informed ; but if he inquires , and be answer'd that the opinion is false , or the action criminal , he finds by the answer that it was worth his pains to ask , because by it he is taught to avoid a sin : But then , besides the question of lawful or unlawful , there are further inquiries to be made concerning fitting and unfitting , offensive , or complying , safe or dangerous , abstractedly or in relation ; for many things which are lawful in themselves become very bad to him that does them , and to him that suffers them . RULE 5. The greater probability destroys the less . THat is , it is not lawful directly to choose an opinion that seems less probable , before that which is more probable ; I say , directly ; for if the less probable be more safe , it becomes accidentally more eligible ; of which I have already * given account , and shall adde something afterward * . But without this accident , the degrees of safety are left to follow the degrees of probability . For when the safety does not depend upon the matter , it must depend upon the reasons of the inducement ; and because the safety must increase consequently to the probability , it is against charity to omit that which is safer , and to choose that which is less safe . For it is not in moral things as it is in natural ; where a less sweet is still sweet , though not so sweet as that which is more : and the flowers of Trefoile are pleasant , though honey be farre more pleasant ; and Phaedon may be wise , though he be not so wise as Plato : because there are degrees of intension and remission in these qualities : and if we look upon two probable propositions , and consider them naturally , they are both consonant to reason in their apparencies , though in several degrees . So that if Sempronius choose a less probable , before he hath learn'd what is more probable , he hath done well and sefely . But when the two probables are compar'd , to reject that which is more probable is to doe 1. Unnaturally : 2. and Unreasonably : 3. and Imprudently . 1. Unnaturally . In matters proposed to the will , the will may choose a less good , and reject the greater ; and though it is most commonly a great imperfection to doe so , yet it is many times innocent , because it is in the choice of the will to which it is propounded , and no Commandement laid upon it . But in matters of opinion and intellectual notices , where there is no liberty , there is a necessity of following the natural proportions , that is , that the stronger efficient upon the same suscipient should produce the more certain and regular effect . To think or to opine is not free ( said Aristotle ) and yet he that chooses the less probable , omitting that which is more , makes the determination by his Will , not by his Understanding ; and therefore it is not an honest act or judgement of Conscience , but a production of the Will. 2. It is Unreasonable . Because in all those degrees of reasonableness in which the less probable is excelled by that which is more probable , a man does wholly proceed without and against that reason ; and why does he choose the less probable ? I doe not ask why he chooses the less probable opinion , that I mean which is so in it self ; for he may doe that because it seems more reasonable , or he knows nothing else : but I ask why he proceeds according to a less probable conscience ? that is , why does he choose that which he beleeves to be less probable ? for what reason does he choose that for which he hath the least reason ? If there be no reason to choose that rather then the other , then it is an unreasonable thing to doe so . If there be a reason which is not in the other , or which is not excelled or equalled by it , then the case is altered , and this is not the less probable , but equally or more . But supposing it less probable , it is a contradiction to say a man can reasonably choose it . For if he could , there must be some greater reason in that which hath less reason ; something there must be in it whereby it can be preferred , or be more eligible , which is directly against the supposition and state of the question . The unreasonableness of this we may also perceive by the necessities of mankinde , which are served by the more probable , and disserv'd by that which is less . For thus Judges are bound for the interest of all parties , and the reasonableness of the thing to judge on that side where the sentence is most probable : And the Physitian in prescribing medicines must not choose that which he least confides in , and reject that which he rather trusts . And why doe all the world in their Assemblies take that sentence which is chosen by the greater part ? but because that is presumed more probable , and that which is so , ought to be followed ; and why it ought not to be so in matters of our soul is not easily to be told , unless our conscience may be governed by will rather then by reason , or that the interest of souls is wholly inconsiderable . 3. It is also imprudent : A man that beleeves a less probable , is light of heart , he is incurious of his danger , and does not use those means in order to his great end which himself judges the most reasonable , effective , and expedient . He does as Rehoboam did , who rejected the wiser counsel of the Seniors , and chose the less likely sentence of the young Gallants , and does against the advice of all those rules which are prescrib'd us in prudent choice ; and if no man ever advised another to choose that which is less reasonable , he that does so , does against the wisdome and the interest of all the wise men in the world . 4. After all this it is not honest to doe it . For in two probables onely one of them is true , and which that is , he can onely take the best way of the best reason to finde out ; and it is impossible he should beleeve that which to him seems less likely , to be the more likely ; and therefore so farre as is in him he chooses that which is false , and voluntarily abuses his conscience , which , besides the folly of it , is also criminal and malicious . This doctrine thus delivered was the opinion of the ancient Casuists , Angelus , Sylvester , Cordubensis , Cajetan , and some others ; but fiercely opposed by the later , who are bold and confident to say that their opinion is the common and more received , and it relies upon these reasons ; 1. Because if it were unlawful to follow the less probable and to leave the greater , it is because there is danger in so doing , and no man ought to expose himself to a danger of sinning : but this pretence is nothing ; for by the consent of all sides it is lawful to follow the more probable though it be less safe ; and therefore all danger of sinning is not under pain of sin to be avoided . 2. The people are not tied to greater severity in their practices , then the Doctors are in their Sermons and discourses , nor yet so much ; because in these an error is an evil principle , and apt to be of mischievous effect and dissemination , whereas an error in practice , because it is singular and circumstantiate , is also personal and limited . But the Doctors may lawfully teach an opinion less probable if they be moved to it by the authority of some more eminent person . 3. It is confessed to be lawful to follow the opinion that is more probable , but that it is lawful to leave the more probable and to follow the less ( say they ) is the more common and received opinion , and therefore also more probable ; and therefore this opinion may be chosen and pursued , and then because we may follow that opinion which is more probable , we may follow that which is less , because it is more probable that we may . These Objections I answer : 1. That the danger of sinning is not the onely reason why we may not follow the less probable opinion ; for it is not always unlawful to expose our selves to a danger of sinning , for sometimes it is necessary that we endure a noble trial , and resist openly , and oppose an enemy , which cannot be done without danger , but is often without sin ; but to leave the more probable for the less is not onely a danger of sinning , but a sin directly , and beyond a danger ; and if it were not more then a meer danger , it could not be a sin . For besides that this hath danger , it is a most unreasonable , and a most unnatural thing , against the designs of God , and the proper effects of reason . But besides , this way of arguing is neither good in Logick nor in Conscience . He that can answer one of my arguments , does not presently overthrow my proposition , and it is not safe to venture upon an action , because the contrary relies upon one weak legge . But then as to the instance in this argument , I answer , He that follows the more probable , though it be less safe , does not expose himself to any danger at all of sinning , because though he does not follow his greatest fears , yet he follows his greatest reason , and in that he is sometimes safest though he perceives it not : However , there is in this case no danger that is imputable to the man that follows the best reason he hath . But this excuses not him who follows that which seems to him to have in it less reason ; for unless it be by some other intervening accident which may alter the case ( of which I shall afterwards give account ) the less probable opinion hath in it a direct danger , and therefore to choose it , is ordinarily against charity , and in some degree against conscience it self . 2. To the second I answer , That both Doctors and the People , though they may safely follow the less probable opinion , yet they may never directly follow a less probable Conscience : that is , though a probable opinion is a sufficient guide of conscience , and it is sufficient both for publication and for practice that it is so ; and therefore that we are not strictly tied to make a curious search into the two probables which excels others in the degrees of reason , lest there should arise eternal scruples , perpetual restlesness and dissatisfaction in the minds of men ; yet when of two probables there is an actual perswasion that this is more , and that is less , neither may the Doctors teach , nor any man follow the less , because here it is not the better opinion , but the better conscience that is despised . It may happen that what I beleeve more probable , is indeed less ; and therefore it must be admitted to be safe 〈◊〉 follow the less probable opinion , if it happen to stand on the fairest side of conscience , that is , that it be better thought of then it deserves ; but for the same reason it is also certain that we must follow that which we think the more probable opinion , whether it be so or no , because this is to be done , not for the opinion , but for conscience sake . And whereas it is said in the Objection , that a Doctor may lawfully teach an opinion less probable , if he be mov'd to it by the authority of some more eminent person , that is as much as to say , when the opinion which intrinsecally , or at least in his private judgement seems less probable , becomes extrinsecally the more probable , he may follow either , of which in this Chapter I am yet to give a more particular account ; but it no way rifles the present doctrine . Onely this I adde , If it were lawful and safe to follow the less probable opinion , and reject the greater , then in such questions which are onely determined by authority , and sentences of wise men , it were lawful to choose any thing that any one of them permits , and every probable Doctor may rescind all the Laws in Christendome , and expound all the precepts of the Gospel in easy senses , and change discipline into liberty , and confound interests , and arm Rebels against their Princes , and flocks against their Shepherds and Prelates , and set up Altar against Altar , and mingle all things sacred and profane . Because if any one says it is lawful , all that have a minde to doe evil things may choose him for their guide , and his opinion for their warranty . 3. To the third , I answer , that the opinion which is more common is not always the more probable , for it may be false and heretical ; and if at any times it seems more probable , it is because men understand little or nothing of it . But then if it were so , yet this opinion which is lately taught by the modern Casuists , is not the more common , simply and absolutely ; it was once the less common , and whether it be so now or no , it is hard to tell ; but admit it be so , yet the community and popularity of opinion is but a degree of extrinsecal probability , and is apt to perswade onely in the destitution of other arguments , which because they are not wanting in this question , the trick in the objection appears trifling . RULE 6. When two opinions seem equally probable , the last determination is to be made by accidents , circumstances , and collateral inducements . IN the matter of this Rule it is variously disputed ; some affirming that the Understanding must for ever remain suspended , and the action wholly omitted , as in the case of a doubting Conscience . * Others give leave to choose either part , as a man please , making the Will to determine the Understanding . The first cannot be true , because while they both seem equally consonant to reason , it cannot be dishonest to choose that which to me seems reasonable ; and therefore the understanding may choose practically . They are like two things equally good , which alike move the Will , and the choosing of the one is not a refusing the other , when they cannot be both enjoyed : but like the taking one peece of gold , and letting the other that is as good alone : and the action is determined by its own exercise , not by an antecedent reason . * But neither can it be in all cases and question that the determination can be totally omitted ; as if the question be whether this ought to be done , or ought to be let alone , and both of them seem equally probable ; so also if the question be whether it may be done or may be let alone : In these cases it is certain one part must be chosen , for the very suspending the act is not a suspending of the choyce , the not doing it is a compliance with one of the probabilities . The lazy fellow in the apologue that told his Father he lay in bed in the morning , to hear labour and idleness dispute whether it were best to rise or to lie still , though he thought their arguments equally probable , yet he did not suspend his act , but without determining he put the sentence of idleness in execution ; and so it must be in all questions of general inquiry concerning lawful , or unlawful , necessary , or not necessary , the equal probability cannot inferre a suspension or an equal non-compliance . But neither can the second be true ; for the Will must not alone be admitted an arbitrator in this affair ; for besides that it is of dangerous consequence to choose an opinion because we will , it is also unnatural , the Will being no ingredient into the actions of understanding . The Will may cause the understanding to apply a general proposition to a particular case , and produce a practical judgement by that general measure without particular arguments in the question apportioned to the proper matter , as I before discoursed . But when the understanding is wholly at dispute about the proper arguments of two propositions , if the will interposes , the error that happens , if the conclusion falls on the wrong side , is without excuse , because it is chosen ; and the truth is not so safe and useful , because it came by an incompetent instrument , by that which was indifferent to this truth or the other . Indeed if there be no other way to determine the question , the Will must doe it , because there is no avoiding it ; but if there be any other way , this must not be taken ; but ordinarily there is . The third way therefore is this ; The determination may be made by any thing that can be added to either side in genere rationis . As the action that is prepar'd stands more ready for my circumstances ; that which does me less violence , that which is more proportionable to any of those events which in prudence are to me considerable . It is indifferent whether Paula Romana give her alms to the poor of Nicopolis , or to the poor dwelling near the Monastery of Bethlehem ; but because these dwelt nearer , and were more fitted for her circumstances , this was enough to turn the scales and make the determination . It is like putting on that garment that is nearest me , not this rather then the other ; nor yet this because I will , but this because it is here . The use of this Rule is , to prevent a probable conscience to become doubtful , and yet ( as much as may be ) to avoid the interposition of the Will in the practical judgements of Conscience . This Rule is to be enlarged with this addition ; That if the conscience by reason of the equal probability of two opinions so standing without any determining and deciding circumstances and accidents cannot decree on any side neither by intrinsecal nor extrinsecal means , that is , neither by proper arguments , nor collateral inducements , no action ought to follow , but the case of which the question is , if it can be , ought to be omitted , as in the case of a doubting conscience , which though as I shewed before , cannot happen when the question is general of lawful or unlawful , necessary , or unnecessary , yet it may happen in particular cases , as whether this thing be lawful , or that , whether this is to be done , or the other . It may happen that neither of them ought , and in the present supposition neither of them can ; that is , if the man suffers his dispute to pass into a doubt . In other cases a man may safely take any course which he finds probable , equally disputed , uncertain in it self , contrarily determined by Doctors disputing with fair arguments . For in this case malice is no ingredient ; and if interest be , it is therefore lawful , because it is an extrinsecal motive , apt and reasonable to be considered , and chosen , and pursued by fair means , if the interest it self have no foulness in it . But of all the external motives that can have influence in the determination of a sentence between two probabilities , a relation to piety is the greatest . He that chooses this because it is most pious , chooses his opinion out of consideration , and by the inducement of the love of God. That which causes more honour to God , that which happily ingages men in holy living , that which is the most charitable , and the most useful , that is to be preferred . But this is to be conducted with these cautions : 1. That the disposition to piety or charity be not made to contest an apparent truth . It is hugely charitable to some men , if it could be made true , to say that God is merciful to all sinners and at all times ; and it is ten thousand pities to see a man made to despair upon his deathbed upon the consideration of his past evil life ; but this consideration must not therefore be pretended against the indispensable plain necessity of a holy life , since it is plainly revealed , that without the pursuing of peace with all men , and holiness , no man shall see God. 2. If both the probabilities be backed and seconded by their proper relations to piety , to take one of them is not a competent way to determine the probability ; but it must be wholly conducted by the efficacy of its proper reasons , or by some appendage in which one prevails above the other , when one opinion is valued because it is apt to make men fear , and not to be presumptuous ; and another , because it is apt to make men hope , and never to despair , the ballance is equal , and must be turned by neither of these . Scotus and Durandus , Gabriel and Almain , Medina and some few others taught , That the death of Christ did not make satisfaction to God for the sins of the whole world , by the way of perfect and exact justice , but by Gods gracious acceptance of it , and stipulation for it . This opinion does indeed advance the honour of Gods mercy , but the contrary advances the dignity of Christs suffering ; and therefore it must be disputed and determined by some other instruments of perswasion . God the Father is on one side , and God the Son on the other , and though he who honours one , honours both , yet he that preferres one may seem also to disparage both . 3. The relation to piety , and the advantages which come to it by the opinion must not be phantastick , and relying upon a weak opinion and fond perswasion , but upon true reason , or real effects . It is a common opinion among the Ancients , that Anna the Mother of the blessed Virgin Mother of God had been married to three husbands successively , and that the blessed Virgin was the second wife of Joseph ; they who think that the second and third marriages are less perfect then the first , think it more pious to embrace the other opinions , viz. that Anna was married to none but Joachim , and that Joseph was onely married to the holy Virgin Mary : But because this is to take measures of things which God hath not given us , and to reckon purities and impurities by their own fancies , not by reason and revelation from God , therefore this phantastick relation to piety is not weight enough to carry the question along with it . In other cases the Rule holds : And by these measures our conscience can be supported in a storm , and be nourished and feasted every day , viz. if we take care ; 1. That we avoid every thing that we know to be a sin , whether it be reproached by its natural impurity and unreasonableness , or without any note of turpitude it be directly restrained by a Law. 2. That we fly every appearance of evil , or likeness of sin . 1 Thessal . 4. 22. 3. That we fly every occasion , or danger of sin . Matth. 26. 58 , 69 , 70. and 1 Cor. 7. 5. 4. That we avoid all society , or communication with sin , or giving countenance , and maintenance to it . By these measures and analogies if we limit our Cases of Conscience , we cannot be abused into danger and dishonour . RULE 7. It is not lawful to change our practical sentence about the same object , while the same probability remains . A Man may change his opinion as he sees cause , or alter the practice upon a new emergent reason ; but when all things are equal without and within , a change is not to be made by the man , except it be in such cases in which no law , or vow , or duty , or the interest of a third is concerned ; that is , unless the actions be indifferent in themselves , or innocent in their circumstances , and so not properly considerable in the fears of conscience , in which cases a mans liberty is not to be prejudiced . This stating of the Rule does intimate the proper reasons of it , as appears in the following instances ; Juan a Priest of Messina having fasted upon the Vespers of a Holy day , towards the middle of the night hath a great desire to eat flesh ; he dwelling by the great Church , observed that the Clocks in the Neighbourhood differed half an hour : He watches the first Clock that struck midnight , and as soon as it had sounded , he eat his meat , because then he concluded that the Ecclesiastical fasting day was expired , and that therefore it was then lawful by the Laws of his Church to eat flesh . But being to consecrate the blessed Eucharist the next morning , and obliged to a natural fast before the celebration of the holy Sacrament , he chang'd his computation , and reckon'd the day to begin by the later Clock ; so that the first day ended half an hour before the next day began , and he broke his fast because the Eve was past , and yet he accounted that he was fasting , because the Holy day was not begun . This was to cozen the Law , and if it be translated to more material instances , the evil of it will be more apparent , but in this , the unreasonableness is as visible . * The like is the case of a Gentleman living in the Neighbourhood of Rome . Baptista Colonna happened to be in Rome on the three and twentieth of August , which is usually the Eve of S. Bartholomew , but there it is kept on the twenty fourth day ; he refused to fast on the ordinary day of the Vigils as he used to doe , because in Rome where he then was , the custome was otherwise ; he eat his meals , and resolved to keep it the next day , but on the morrow being very hungry and desirous of flesh , he chang'd his sentence , and went out of Rome to the Neighbourhood , and kept the feast of S. Bartholomew without the Eves . This is to elude the duty , and to run away from the severity of the Law , by trifling with the letter . If the Case be not complicated with a Law , yet it is often infolded with the interest of a third Person , and then is not to be changed , but remains invariable . Maevius promised to Sertorius to give him a servant , either Ephodius or Taranta , but resolves to give him Taranta ; immediately after the resolution Ephodius dies , and Maevius tels his friend he is disobliged , because he hath but one , and resolves not to part with Taranta , and it was in his liberty to give him either , and because he will not aSSign his part in this , it is wholly lost in the other ; but this is unfriendly and unjust . To this sort of instance is to be reduced a caution against fraudulency in the matter of Vows . Vitellescus vows to fast upon the last of February , but changing his minde , beleeves he may commute his Fasting for Alms ; he resolves to break his fast and to give a ducket to the poor . But when he had new dined , he discourses the question again , and thinks it unlawful to commute , and that he is bound to pay his vow in kinde ; but the fast is broken , and yet if he refuses upon this new inquest to pay his commutation , he is a deceiver of his own soul. For in the present case , if to commute were not lawful , yet it is certain he is not disobliged ; and therefore he is to pay his commutation , because it was decree● in the time of a probable conscience ; and not being in it self unlawful , though it be now supposed to be insufficient , yet it is to be accounted for , upon the stock of the first resolution of the conscience , because the state of things is not intire ; and advantages are not to be taken against Religion from the account and stock of our errors or delusions ; and if after this , the conscience be not at rest , it is to be quieted by other actions of repentance and amends . Quest. BUT here also is to be inquired , Whether a man may to several persons , to serve distinct ends , in themselves lawful and honest , discourse of and perswade both the parts of a probability respectively ? Titius wooes Orestilla for his wife ; she being sickly , and fearful lest she shall have no children , declines it ; he to perswade her , tells her it is very likely she will , and that it will cure her indisposition . But the interest of Titius is to have no children , as being already well stored , and therefore is disswaded by them that have power over him , not to marry Orestilla . He to answer their importunity tells them , it is very likely Orestilla will be barren , and upon that account he marries her because she is sickly , and unlikely to become a Mother . The Question is , Whether this be lawful ? I answer , 1. If he be actually perswaded of that part of the probability when he urges it , and be changed into the other when he perswades the other , there is no question but it is as lawful to say both as one ; for they are single affirmatives or negatives , and the time is but accidental to his perswasion ; yesterday this , and to morrow its contrary are alike , while in both or each of them his perswasion is hearty and sincere . 2. If Titius urges both parts severally , and yet remains actually perswaded but of one of them , he may urge them as probable in themselves , disputable , and of indifferent argument and inducement , for so they are . But , 3. He must not imprint them by the efficacy of his own authority and opinion , nor speak that as certain which is at most but probable , and to him seems false ; for so to doe is against ingenuity and Christian sincerity ; it is to make a lie put on the face of truth and become a craft ; it is not honest nor noble , nor agreeing to the spirit of a Christian , and is a direct deception on one side , and an indirect prosecution of a lawful end . RULE 8. An opinion relying upon very slender probability is not to be followed , except in the cases of great necessity , or great charity . THAT it is not ordinarily to be followed is therefore certain , because it cannot be supposed , but that its contradictory hath greater probability , and either he that follows this trifle is light of beleef , or unreasonable in his choice , or his reason is to him , but as eyes to an Owl or Bat , half-sighted and imperfect ; and at the best , no fit motive to the Will. And if it could be lawful to follow every degree of probability , it were perfectly in any mans choice to do , almost what he pleased , especially if he meets with an ill counsellor and a witty advocate . For at this rate all marriages may be dissolved , all vices excused upon pretence of some little probable necessity ; and drunkenness will be entertained as Physick , and fornication as a thing allowed by some vicious persons whose wit is better then their manners ; and all books of Conscience shall become patrons or indices of sins , and teach men what they pretend against , and there shall be no such thing as checks of Conscience , because few men sin without some excuse , and it were no excuse unless it were mingled with some little probabilities ; and there were in very many cases , no rule for conscience but a witty inventer of pretty little inducements , which rather then a man shall want , his enemy will supply to him out of his magazine of fallacies . 2. But that there are some cases in which it is to be permitted is therefore certain , because it may be necessary in some circumstances to doe so , and in these cases the former impediments cannot intervene , because the causes of necessity or great charity occurring but seldome destroy all power or pretence of an easy deception . Anna Murrana was married to her near kinsman Thomaso Grillo , but supposed him not to be so near . It was afterwards discovered to her that the propinquity was so great that the marriage was null and invalid : while this trouble was upon her , there happily comes a discreet old woman who tells her , that though it be true that Grillo's Father was supposed to have lien with her Mother , and that her self was born of that conjunction , yet she her self being private to the transaction did put another woman into the place of Murrana's Mother , and that her Mother was also deceived in the same manner ; and though they thought they enjoyed each other , yet they were both cozened into more chast embraces . Now upon this the question arises , whether or no Murrana may safely rely upon so slight a testimony as the saying of this woman , in a matter of so great difficulty and concernment . Here the case is favourable . Murrana is passionately endeared to Grillo , and besides her love hath a tender conscience , and if her marriage be separated , dies at both ends of the evil , both for the evil conjunct●on , and for the sad separation . This therefore is to be presumed security enough for her to continue in her state . Like to this is that of a woman in Brescia . Her husband had been contracted to a woman of Panormo , Per verba de praesenti ; she taking her pleasure upon the Sea , is with her company surprised by a Turks man of Warre , and is reported , first to have been defloured , and then kill'd . When the sorrow for this accident had boyld down , the Gentleman marries a Maid of Brescia , and lives with her some years ; after which she hears that his first Spouse was not kill'd , but alive and in sorrow in the Isle of Malta , and therefore that her self liv'd in a state of adultery , because not she , but the woman in Malta was the true wife to her husband . In this agony of spirit a Mariner comes to her house and secretly tells her , that this woman was indeed at Malta , but lately dead , and so the impediment was removed . The question now arises , whether upon the taking away this impediment , it be required that the persons already engaged should contract anew ? That a new contract is necessary , is universally beleeved , and is almost certain ( as in its proper place will be made to appear ) for the contrary opinion is affirm'd but by a very few , and relies but upon trifling motives , requiring onely the consent of either of the parties as sufficient for renewing of the contract . But this being but a slender probability ought not to govern her ; she must contract anew by the consent of her husband as well as by her own act . But now the difficulty arises ; for her husband is a vicious man , and hates her , and is weary of her , and wishes her dead ; and if she discover the impediment of their marriage , and that it is now taken away , and therefore requires him to recontract himself , that the marriage which was innocently begun , may be firm in the progression , and legally valid , and in conscience ; she hath great reason to beleeve that he will take advantage of it , and refuse to joyn in a new contract . In this case therefore , because it is necessary she should some way or other be releeved , it is lawful for her to follow that little probability of opinion which says , that the consent of one is sufficient for the renovation of the contract . And in this case all the former inconveniences mentioned before doe cease : and this is a case of favour , in behalf of an innocent marriage , and in favour of the legitimation of children , and will prevent much evil to them b●th . So that although this case hath but few degrees of probability from its proper and intrinsecal causes , yet by extrinsecal and collateral appendages it is grown favourable , and charitable , and reasonable : it is almost necessary , and therefore hath more then the little probabilities of its own account . One case more happens in which a small probability may be pursued , viz. when the understanding hath not time to consider deeply , and handle the question on all sides ; then that which first offers it self , though but mean and weak , yet if it be not against a strange argument at the same time presented , it may suffice to determine the action ; for in case the determination prove to be on the wrong side , yet the ignorance is involuntary and unchosen . These Rules are concerning a Conscience that is probable by intrinsecal motives , that is , by reason , whether the reason be direct or collateral . But because the conscience is also probably moved in very many cases , by Authority , which is an extrinsecal motive , this is also to be guided and conducted . RULE 9. Multitude of Authors is not ever the most probable inducement , nor doth it in all cases make a safe and probable Conscience . FOllowing a multitude is sometimes like the grazing or running of an heard , Non quo cundum est , sed quo itur , not where men ought but where they use to goe : and therefore Justinian in compiling of the body of the Romane Laws , took that which was most reasonable , not that which was most followed ; Sed neque ex multitudine Authorum quod melius & aequius est judicabile : cùm possit unius forsan , & deterioris sententia multos & majores aliqua in parte superare . The sentence of one , and of a meaner man may sometimes outweigh the sayings of a multitude of greater persons . Nam testibus se , non testimoniis crediturum rescripsit Imperator . Sometimes one witness is better then twenty testimonies ; that is , one man , good and pious , prudent and disinteress'd , can give a surer sentence then many men more crafty , and less honest . And in the Nicene Council when the Bishops were purposing to dissolve the Priests marriages , Paphnutius did not follow the common vote , but gave them good reason for his single opinion , and they all followed him . This Rule is true , and to be practised in the following cases : 1. When against the common opinion there is a strong , or a very probable reason , then the common opinion is not the more probable . Because a reason is an intrinsecal , proper and apportioned motive to the conscience , but humane authority , or citation of consenting Authors is but an extrinsecal , accidental and presumptive inducement , and a meere suppletory in the destitution of reason : and therefore Socrates said , Veritatem in disputando , non ex teste aliquo , sed ex argumento esse ponderandam ; Truth is to be weighed by argument not by testimony , and it is never otherwise but when men are ruled by prejudice , or want reason to rule them in that particular . Tantum opinio praejudicata poterat , ut etiam sine ratione valeret authoritas , said Cicero . And this is to be extended to all sorts of Authors that are not Canonical , or Divine . Meum propositum est antiquos legere , probare singula , retinere quae bona sunt , & à fide Ecclesiae Catholicae non recedere , said S. Hierom. My purpose is to read the Fathers , to try all things , to retain that onely which is good , and never to depart from the faith of the Catholick Church , that is , from the Creeds , which all Christendome professes . And at another time when himself ask'd leave , in discourse with S. Austin , Patiaris me cum talibus errare , Suffer me to goe along with such great men , though to an error , it would not be permitted , but reason was chosen and the authority neglected . And this course all men have followed when they pleased , and knew they might and ought . 2. When the multitude of Doctors are reducible to a single , or an inconsiderable principle and beginning . Thus an opinion entertained by a whole family and order of Clerks , while they either generally doe follow , or think themselves bound to follow the leading man in their own order , is to be reckoned but as a single opinion . The Millenary opinion was driven to a head in Papias ; the condemning unbaptized infants , in S. Austin , or S. Ambrose ; and therefore their numerous followers are not to be reckoned into the account . For if they that follow consider it not , the case is evident ; if they doe , then their reaso●● are to be weighed , not their authority . 3. When it is notorious that there is , or may be a deception in that number , by reason of some evil ingredient in the production of the opinion ; as if it be certain that the opinion was taken up because it serves an interest , the same men having been on the other side when their interest was there . That it is lawful to put hereticks , or disagreeing persons to death , is generally taught by the followers of Calvin and Beza where they doe prevail : and yet no man that lives under them hath warrant to rely upon their authority in this question , because it is onely where and when they have power , themselves having spoken against it in the days of their minority and under persecution . Under the same consideration it is , if there be any other reason against the men , not relating to their manners , but to their manner of entring or continuing in the perswasion . 4. But when these cautions are provided for , the multitude of Authors hath a presumptive authority , that is , when there is no reason against the thing , nor against the men , we may presume upon the multitude of learned men in their proper faculty , that what they teach is good and innocent , and we may proceed to action accordingly . It can never make a Conscience sure , but it may be innocent , because it is probable ; but he that relies upon authority alone is governed by chance . Because , if the more be against him , he is prejudic'd by multitude ; if the fewer be against him , yet they may be the wisest : and whether they be or not , yet a tooth-drawer may sometimes speak a better reason ; and one may carry it against multitudes , and neither one nor the other can justly induce a beleef unless they have considered all things ; and if I can tell who hath done so , I am my self as well able to answer as they : for he that can judge who speaks best reason , or who is most fit to be trusted in the particular , must be able in himself to consider the particulars by which that judgement is to be made ; if he can and does , he hath reason within him , and needs not follow low authority alone ; if he cannot , then he is governed by chance , and must be in the right , or in the wrong according as it happens . For in many cases both sides have many advocates and abettors , and no man can tell who hath most , and each side says that their opinion is the most commonly received . In Venice there is a Law that any man may kill his Father if he be banished ; some affirm this also to be lawful where such a Law is in force , and they affirm this to be the common opinion . Julius Clarius says that it is the common opinion , that though there be such a Law , yet that it is unlawful to doe it . It is commonly affirmed that it is lawful for such a banished person to defend himself , and if he can in his own defence to kill the invader . It is also a common opinion that this is as unlawful as for a condemn'd man to kill his Executioner , because no Warre can be just on both sides . It is very commonly taught , that it is lawful by fraud , by surprise , by treason , to slay the Banditi . It is also very commonly taught that this is absolutely unlawful . * Sometimes that which was the common opinion an age agoe , is now rarely maintained but by a few persons . It was a common opinion in Tertullians time , that the souls departed are in outer Courts expecting the revelation of the day of the Lord ; in the time of P. Leo , and Venerable Bede , and after , it was a common opinion that they were taken into the inner Courts of heaven . * Sometimes the place diversifies the opinion . In Germany and France , the Romanists worship the Cross with a religious worship of the lowest kinde of their own distinction ; but in Spain they worship it with that which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or the highest kinde ; and this is commonly done in the several Countries respectively . When this , or any thing like this shall happen , unless by reason men be determined , they may draw lots for their opinion . But since the better part is not always the greater , it is left to me to choose which I will ; and it is ten to one but I call the men of my own communion or my own acquaintance , The best ; and it is certain I cannot judge of those with whom I doe not converse . For these and many other concurrent causes , the proceeding is inartificial and casual , and fit to lead the ignorant , but not the learned : and concerning the ignorant he can so little skill to choose his authority , that he must lie under that where he dwels , and where his fortune hath placed him . If he goes any whither else he hath no excuse , because he hath no sufficient inducement ; and where a man cannot goe alone , it is best for him to sit still where Gods providence hath placed him , and follow the Guides provided by the Laws of his Country where he was born , or where he lives : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Conform your self to the Laws of the People with whom you must abide . This is the most proper way to conduct the ignorant in their cases of conscience in which themselves have no skill . They must beleeve one , and if they have a better way to proceed , let them pursue it : if they have not , this is certainly safe , because it is their best ; and no man is tied to make use of better then he hath . And if they could fall into error , yet it could not be imputed to them with justice , while bonâ fide they fall into heresy , and are honestly betrayed . This onely is to be added : They must make it as good as they can by inquiry ( according to their circumstances , opportunities , and possibilities ) and by prayers , and by innocent and honest purposes , for these onely will secure our way , by means of Gods providing . In this case there is no irregularity , because it is the best obedience which can be expressed by subordinate and weak understandings , and there is in it no danger , because the piety , and the prayers of the man will obtain Gods blessing upon his innocent well meaning soul. It was well said of Hesiod , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . He is the best and wisest man who in himself knows what he ought to doe , discerning what is best , and seeing unto the end of things . He also is good , who obeys the sayings of wise men , that counsel well ; but he is a fool who not being able to advise or determine himself , refuses to be conducted by others . Here onely are the evils to be complained of . In some places there are a great many articles put into their publick confessions , and a great many teachers of unnecessary propositions , and a great many idle and impertinent guides , who multiply questions lest themselves should seem useless ; and amongst men , there are many orders , and families , and societies , all which are desirous to advance themselves , and to get disciples and reputation ; and on the other side , there are very many that are idle , and rather willing to trust others , then to be troubled themselves ; and many choose Teachers for interest , and some have mens persons in admiration because of advantage ; and Princes have designs of State , and they would have Religion minister to them , and there are a great many Ecclesiastical Laws made , and some of these pass into dogmaticall propositions , and they teach for doctrines the Commandements of men ; and there are very many sects of men , and confident fools , who use to overvalue their trifles , and teach them for necessary truths , and in all this incertainty of things , men are in the dark , and Religion is become an art of wrangling ; and the writers of Controversies are oftentimes abused themselves , and oftner doe abuse others ; and therefore men are taught certain little rules to grope by , and walk in Seas and upon Rocks . But the things themselves are oftentimes so indifferent , and the reasons of either side so none at all , or so inconsiderable , that it comes to pass that the testimony of Doctors is the guide that men choose ( as they list ) to follow● who because they teach contrary things , cannot be followed by their authority , and for reason , sometimes themselves have none , sometimes their disciples have not leisure to examine them , or judgement to discern them . Quest. HEre therefore is to be inquired , How shall the ignorant and vulgar people proceed in such cases where their Teachers are divided ? 1. I answer , that in most cases it is best for them to let them alone , and let them be divided still , and to follow them in those things where they doe agree ; but if it be in such cases where they must declare or act on one side , let them take that which they think to be the safest , or the most pious , the most charitable , and the most useful ; that so by collateral considerations they may determine that which by the authority seems equal and indeterminable . The collateral considerations are commonly these : 1. That which is more agreeable to the letter of Scripture . 2. That which does most agree with the purpose and design of it . 3. That which Saints have practised . 4. That which whole Nations have approved . 5. That which is agreeable to common life . 6. That which is best for the publick . 7. That which is most for the glory of God , for the reputation of his Name , and agreeing with his attributes . 8. That which is more holy . 9. That which gives least confidence to sin and sinners . 10. That which is most charitable to others . 11. That which will give least offence . 12. And ( in destitution of all things else ) that which is most useful to our selves . All these are good considerations , and some of them intervene in most cases , and can be considered by most men . But where nothing of these can be interwoven in the sentence , but that the authority of the Teacher is the onely thing that can be considered , the following measures are to be added . 2. The authority of one man wise and good , that is , who is generally so reputed , is a probable argument , and a sufficient guide to ignorant persons in doubtful matters , where there is no clear or known revelation to the contrary . When it is his best , there is no disputing whether it be good or no ; onely in this case , he is so farre to suspend his consent , till his guide hath considered , or answered deliberately ; for if his guide vomit out answers , it is better to refuse it , till it be digested better . This hath been highly abused in some places , and permissions have been given or taken to doe acts of vile impiety , or horrible danger , where by interest they were perswaded , and being desirous for some pretence to legitimate the act , or to invite their conscience to it , they have been content with the opinion of one probable Doctor . Such was he whose testimony being required in a matter of right concerning his College , swore to a thing as of his certain knowlege , of which he had no certain knowledge , but a probable conjecture ; onely because he had read or been told that one Doctor said it was lawful so to doe . This is to suborn a sentence and to betray a conscience , for the sentence of one Doctor is onely a good or a tolerable guide , when there is no better guide for us , and no reason against us ; that is , it is to be used onely when it is the best , but not when it is the worst . 3. But if divers men equally wise and good speak variously in the question , and that the inquirer cannot be indifferent to both , but must resolve upon one , he is first to follow his Parish Priest , rather then a stranger in the article , who is equal in all things else ; his own Confessor , his own Bishop , or the Laws and Customs of his own Country : because next to reason , comes in place that which in order of things is next to it ; that is , the proper advantages of the man , that is , learning and piety ; and next to them succeed the accidental advantages of the man , that is , his authority and legal preheminence . There is no other reason for these things , but that which is in the proper and natural order of things : This is the natural method of perswasion direct and indirect . 4. Where it can certainly be told that it is the more common , there the community of the opinion hath the advantage , and is in the same circumstances still to be preferred , because where reason is not clear and manifest , there we are to goe after it , where it is more justly to be presumed . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Euripides , it is good when good things are attested by many witnesses . O 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Aristotle , that which seems so to all men , this we say , is as it seems ; and so it is in proportion from some to many , from many to all . The summe of all these things is this : 1. God is to be preferred before man. 2. Our own reason before the sayings of others . 3. Many before few . 4. A few before one . 5. Our superiours , or persons in just authority over us , before private persons , caeteris paribus . 6. Our own before strangers . 7. Wise men before the ignorant . 8. The godly and well meaning , and well reputed , before men of indifferent or worse lives . That is , they must doe as well and wisely as they can , and no man is obliged to doe better . Onely this is to be observed ; That in this case it is not necessary that truth should be found , but it is highly necessary it should be searched for . It may be it cannot be hit , but it must be aymed at . And therefore they ( who are concerned ) are not to be troubled and amazed at the variety of opinions that are in the world ; There must be heresies , that is , sects are differing opinions , that they who are faithful may be approved . Now they can be approved in nothing but what is in their power , that is , diligence to inquire , and honesty in consenting ; both which may very well be , and yet the man be mistaken in his particular sentence , in a matter not simply necessary , not plainly revealed . There is but one thing more that concerns his duty , and that is , that in all his choices he preferre the interest of peace and of obedience ; for it ought to be a very great cause that shall warrant his dissent from the authority which is appointed over him . Such causes may be , but the unskill'd multitude ( of whom we now treat ) seldome finde those causes , and seldome are able to judge of them , and therefore this Rule is certain . Whoever blows a trumpet , and makes a separation from the publick , they who follow his authority , and know not , or understand not a sufficient reason for the doing it , they are highly inexcusable upon this account , because they following the less probable authority , have no excuse for the matter of their sin ; and therefore if it happen to be schisme or rebellion , or disobedience , or heresy in the subject matter , it is in the very form of it , so imputed to the consenting person . For though great reason may be stronger then authority , yet no private authority is greater then the publick . But of this I shall have further occasion to discourse in its proper place . Although this is the best , and therefore a sufficient advice for the ignorant , yet for the learned and the wise , there are other considerations to be added . 1. They who are to teach others may not rely upon single testimonies , or the slight probability of one Doctors opinion . This is true ordinarily and regularly , because such persons are supposed more at leisure , more instructed , better able to inquire , and to rely finally upon such single and weak supports , is to doe the work of the Lord negligently . 2. If the opinion be probable upon the account of a more general reception , and be the more common , and allowed by wise and good men , they who are learned , and are to teach others , may lawfully follow the opinion without examining the reasons for which it is by those wise men entertained . For the work of learning and inquiry is so large and of immense extension , that it is impossible all men should perfectly inquire of all things . But some especially attend to one thing , some to another ; and where men have best considered , they consider for themselves and for others too , and themselves are help'd by those others , in the proper matter of their consideration . A mans life is too short , and his abilities less , and it may be his leisure is least of all , and unable so to consider all that is fit to be beleeved and taught , that it will be necessary we should help one another ; and the great Teachers and Doctors in several instances may ordinarily be relied upon without danger and inconvenience . 3. But if it happens that by circumstances and accidents the particular question be drawn out into a new inquiry ; if a new doubt arise , or a scandal be feared , or the division of mens minds in the new inquest , then the reasons must be inquired into and the authority is not sufficient . 1. Because the authority is by the new doubt made less probable , and is part of the question , and therefore ought not to be presumed right in its own case . 2. Because the duty of Teachers is by this accident determined to this speciall inquiry , and call'd from their unactive rest , and implicit beleef ; because the inquirers upon this new account will be determined by nothing but by that reason that shall pretend strongest ; and therefore they who are thus call'd upon , can no other ways give answer to them that ask . It was the universal doctrine of the Church of God for many ages , even for fourteen Centuries of years , that Episcopacy is of Divine , or Apostolical institution : It was a sufficient warranty for a Parish Priest to teach that doctrine to his Parishioners , because he found it taught every where , and questioned no where . But when afterwards this long prescribing truth came to be questioned , and reasons and Scriptures pretended and offered against it , and a schism likely to be commenc'd upon it , it is not sufficient then to rely upon the bare word of those excellent men who are able to prove it ( as it is supposed , ) but they who are to teach others must first be instructed themselves in the particular arguments of probation ; that according to the precepts Apostolical , they may render a reason of the hope that is in them , and may be able both to exhort and to convince the gain-sayers ; who because they expresly decline the authority , and the weight of testimony , cannot be convinced but by reason , and the way of their own proceeding . RULE 10. In following the authority of men , no Rule can be antecedently given for the choice of the persons , but the choice is wholly to be conducted by prudence , and according to the subject matter . ANcient Writers are more venerable : Modern Writers are more knowing : They might be better Witnesses , but these are better Judges . Antiquity did teach the Millenary opinion , and that Infants were to be communicated ; that without baptism they were damn'd to the flames of hell ; that Angels are corporeal ; that the souls of Saints did not see God before Doomesday ; that sins once pardoned did return again upon case of relapse ; that persons baptized by hereticks were to be re-baptized , and they expounded Scripture in places innumerable , otherwise then they are at this day by men of all perswasions ; and therefore no company of men will consent that in all cases the Fathers are rather to be followed then their Successors . They liv'd in the infancy of Christianity , and we in the elder ages ; they practised more and knew less , we know more and practise less ; passion is for younger years , and for beginning of things , wisdome is by experience , and age , and progression . They were highly to be valued , because in more imperfect notices they had the more perfect piety : we are highly to be reproved , that in better discourses we have a most imperfect life , and an unactive Religion : They in their Cases of Conscience took the safest part , but the Moderns have chosen the most probable . * It was the opinion of the Ancient Divines and Lawyers , that every man is bound to make restitution of all that which he gains by play , by Cards and Dice , and all such sports as are forbidden by humane Laws . The modern Casuists indeed doe often reprove the whole process , and condemne the Gamesters in most circumstances , but doe not beleeve them tied to restitution , but to penance onely . The first is the safer and the severer way , but the later hath greater reasons , as will appear in its own place . All contracts of Usury were generally condemn'd in the foregoing ages of the Church : of late , not onely the Merchant , but the Priest , and the Frier puts out money to increase , and think themselves innocent : and although commonly it happens that our ignorance and fears represent one opinion to be safe , when the other is more reasonable ; yet because men will be fearful , and very often are ignorant and idle in their inquiries , there will still remain this advantage to either side , that one is wiser , and the other in his ignorance is the more secure because he does more then he needs . And therefore it often happens that though we call the ancient Writers , Fathers , yet we use them like children , and think our selves Men rather then them , which is affirmed by some , but in effect practised by every man when he pleases . But if any one shall choose the later Writers , he must first choose his interest and his side ; I mean if he chooses to follow any upon their authority or reputation without consideration of their reasons , then he must first choose his side , for he can never choose his side by the men , because most Authors are of it themselves by interest . But because all probability is wholly derived from reason , every authority hath its degree of probability according as it can be presumed or known to rely upon reason . Now in this both the Ancients and the Moderns excel each other respectively . The Ancients were nearer to the fountains Apostolical , their stream was less pudled , their thred was not fine but plain and strong , they were troubled with fewer heresies ; they were not so wittily mistaken as we have been since ; they had better and more firm tradition , they had pass'd through fewer changes , and had been blended with fewer interests ; they were united under one Prince , and consequently were not forc'd to bend their doctrines to the hostile and opposite designs of fighting , and crafty Kings ; their questions were concerning the biggest articles of Religion , and therefore such in which they could have more certainty and less deception ; their piety was great , their devotion high and pregnant , their discipline regular and sincere , their lives honest , their hearts simple , their zeal was for souls , and the blood of the Martyrs made the Church irriguous , and the Church was then a garden of the fairest flowers , it did daily germinate with blessings from heaven , and Saints sprung up , and one Saint could know more of the secrets of Christs Kingdom , the mysteriousnesses of godly wisdome then a hundred disputing Sophisters ; and above all , the Church of Rome was then holy and Orthodox , humble and charitable , her authority dwelt in the house of its birth , that is , in the advantages of an excellent faith and an holy life ; to which the advantages of an accidental authority being added by the Imperial seat , she was made able to doe all the good she desired , and she desired all that she ought ; and the greatness of this advantage we can best judge by feeling those sad effects which have made Christendome to groan , since the Pope became a temporal Prince , and hath possess'd the rights of some Kings , and hath invaded more , and pretends to all , and is become the great Fable , and the great Comet of Christendome , useless and supreme , high and good for nothing in respect of what he was at first , and still might have been , if he had severely judged the interest of Jesus Christ to have been his own . But then on the other side , the modern Writers have considered all the arguments and reasons of the Ancients ; they can more easily adde then their Fathers could finde out ; They can retain their perfect issues , and leave the other upon their hands ; and what was begun in conjecture , can either be brought to knowledge , or remanded into the lot and portion of deceptions . Omnibus enim hic locus feliciter se dedit , & qui praecesserunt non praeripuisse mihi videntur quae dici poterant , sed aperuisse . Conditio optima ultimi est , said Seneca . They who went before us , have not prevented us , but opened a door that we may enter into the recesses of truth : He that comes last hath the best advantage in the inquiry . Multum egerunt qui ante nos fuerunt , sed non peregerunt , multum adhuc restat operis , multúmque restabit , nec ulli nato post mille secula praecludetur occasio aliquid adhuc adjiciendi . They who went before us have done wisely and well in their generations , but they have not done all ; much work remains behinde , and he that lives a thousand ages hence , shall not complain that there are no hidden truths fit for him to inquire after . There are more worlds to conquer : Multa dies , variúsque labor mutabilis aevi Retulit in melius — Every day brings a new light , and by hearty and wise labour we improve what our Fathers espied when they peep'd through the crevises . Every art , every manufacture was improved , Venimus ad summum fortunae , pingimus atque Psallimus , & luctamur Achivis doctiùs unct is . The Romanes out did the Greeks , even in things which they were taught in Athens , or on their hils of sport . But to proceed in the comparing the ages : These later ages have more heresies , but the former had more dangerous ; and although the Primitive pie●y was high and exemplary , yet the effect of that was , that in matters of practice they were more to be followed , but not in questions of speculation ; these later ages are indeed diseased like children that have the Rickets , but their upper parts doe swell , and their heads are bigger , sagaciores in dogmate , nequiores in fide , and if they could be abstracted from the mixtures of interest , and the ingagement of their party , they are in many things better able to teach the people then the Ancients : That is , they are best able to guide , but not always safest to be followed . If all circumstances were equal , that is , if the later ages were united , and governed , and dis●interest , there is no question but they are the best instructors ; there is certainly more certain notice of things , and better expositions of Scriptures now then formerly , but because he that is to rely upon the authority of his guide , cannot choose by reasons , he can hardly tell now where to finde them upon that account . There is more gold now then before , but it is more allayed in the running , or so hidden in heaps of tinsel , that when men are best pleased , now adays they are most commonly cozened . If a man will take the middle ages , he may if he will , and that is all that can be said in it ; for there can be no reason for it , but much against it . Ego sanè veteres veneror , & tantis Nominibus semper assurgo . Verùm inter externa aetatem esse scio , omniáque non esse apud Majores meliora . I for my part doe more reverence the Ancients , and use to rise up and bow my head to such reverend names , as S. Irenaeus , S. Cyprian , Origen , S. Hierome , S. Austin ; but I reckon age amongst things that are without , it enters not into the constitution of truth ; and this I know , that amongst these Ancients , not all their sayings are the best . And on the other side , although Antiquity is a gentle prejudice , and hath some authority , though no certainty or infallibility ; so I know that novelty is a harder prejudice , and brings along with it no authority , but yet it is not a certain condemnation . Quòd si tam Graecis novitas invisa fuisset Quàm est nobis , quid nunc esset vetus , aut quid haberet Quod legeret , tererétque vicissim publicus usus . If our Fathers in Religion had refused every exposition of Scripture that was new , we should by this time have had nothing old ; But in this case what Martial said of friendships , we may say of truths : Nec me , quòd novus sum tibi , recuses : Omnes hoc veteres tui sodales fuerunt . Tu tantùm inspice qui novus paratur An possit fieri vetus sodalis . Refuse nothing onely because it is new . For that which pretends to age now , was once in infancy ; onely see if this new thing be fit to be entertained , and kept till it be old ; That is , as the thing is in it self , not as it is in age , so it is to be valued , and so also are the men ; for in this , as in all the other , the subject matter will help forward to the choice of a guide . 1. The analogy of faith . 2. The piety of a proposition . 3. The safety of it , and its immunity from sin ; these are right measures to guess at an article , but these are more intrinsecal , and sometimes so difficult , that they cannot be made use of but by those who can judge of reason , and less need to be conducted by authority . But for these other who are wholly to be led by the power and sentence of their guide , besides what hath been already advised . 4. The faculty and profession of men is much to be regarded , as that we trust Divines in matters proper to their cognisance , and Lawyers in their faculty ; which advice is to be conducted by these measures . When the Authority of Divines is to be preferred , when that of Lawyers . 1. The whole duty of a Christian consists in the laws of Faith or Religion , of Sobriety , and of Justice ; and it is so great a work , that it is no more then needs that all the orders of wise and learned men should conduct and minister to it . But some portions of our duty are personal , and some are relative , some are private , and some are publick ; some are limited by the Laws of God onely , and some also by the Laws of men ; some are directed by nature , some by use and experience ; and to some of these portions contemplative men can give best assistances , and the men of the world , and business can give best help in the other necessities . Now because Divines are therefore in many degrees separate from an active life , that they may with leisure attend to the conduct of things spiritual , and are chosen as the Ministers of mercy , and the great reconcilers of the world , and therefore are forbidden to intermeddle in questions of blood : and because the affairs of the world in many instances are so intangled , so unconducing to the affairs of the spirit , so stubborn that they are hardly to be manag'd by a meek person , carried on by so much violence , that they are not to be rescued from being injurious but by a violence that is greater but more just ; and because the interests of men are complicated and difficult , defended by customs , preserved in records , secur'd by sentences of Judges , and yet admit variety by so many accidents , circumstances , and considerations , as will require the attendance of one whole sort of men , and of all men in the world Divines are the least fit to be imployed in such troubles and contracts , such violences . and oppositions , and yet they are so necessary , that without them the government of the world would be infinitely disordered , it is requisite that these should be permitted to a distinct profession . In particular matters of justice ordinarily and regularly Lawyers are the most competent Judges : In matters of Religion and Sobriety , the office of Divines is so wholly or principally imployed , that it ought to be chosen for our guide . 2. In matters of Justice which are to be conducted by general Rules , Theology is the best Conductress ; and the Lawyers skill is but subservient and ministring . The reason for both is the same , because all the general measures of justice are the Laws of God , and therefore cognoscible by the Ministers of Religion ; but because these general measures , like a great river into little streams , are deduced into little rivulets and particularities by the laws and customes , by the sentences and agreements of men , therefore they must slip from the hands of the spiritual man to the prudent and secular . The Divine can condemne all injustice , murder , incest , injurious dealing ; but whether all homicide be murder , all marriage of kindred be incest , or taking that which another man possesses be injustice , must be determined by Laws , and the learned in them ; and though Divines may rule all these cases as well as any of the long Robe , yet it is by their prudence and skill in Law , not by the proper notices of Theology . 3. But justice is like a knife , and hath a back and an edge , and there is a letter and a spirit in all Laws , and justice is self is to be conducted with piety , and there are modalities , and measures , and manners of doing or suffering in humane entercourses ; and many things are just which are not necessary , and there are excesses and rigours in justice which are to be moderated , and there are evil and intangling circumstances which make several instances to justle one another ; and one must be serv'd first , and another must stay its season ; and in paying money there is an ordo ad animam , and justice is to be done for Gods sake , and at some times , and in some circumstances for charities sake ; and the Law compels to pay him first that requires first ; but in conscience , justice is oftentimes to be administred with other measures : so that as prudence sometimes must be called to counsel in the conduct of piety , so must piety oftentimes lead in justice , and justice it self must be sanctified by the word of God and prayer , and will then goe on towards heaven , when both Robes like Paranymphs attending a Virgin in the solemnities of her marriage , help to lead and to adorn her . 4. Sometimes Humane Laws and Divine stand face to face and oppose each other , not onely in the direct sanction ( which does not often happen ) but very often in the execution . Sometimes obedience to a humane Law will destroy charity , sometimes justice is against piety , sometimes piety seems less consistent with Religion . The Church is poor , our Parents are necessitous , the fabricks of the Houses of Prayer are ruinous , and we are not able to make supplies to all these ; Here what is just , and what is duty , not the Law , but Theology will determine . I owe Sempronius a small summe of money ; it happens that he comes to demand it when the gatherers of Gabels are present to demand an equal summe for Taxes ; here I am to ask my Confessor , not my Lawyer whether of the two must be serv'd , since I cannot pay both : and in this case the Ministers of Religion are the guards and defensatives of her interest : Concerning which for the present , I onely insert this Caution ; That when Religion and Justice are in contest , the Ministers of Religion are not always bound to give sentence on the side of Religion , but to consider which is the more necessary , and where the present duty stands ; for sometimes it is absolutely necessary to doe justice , and actions of particular Religion must attend their season . But then even justice turns into Religion , and when it does so , Theology must conduct her into action . 5. When the question concerns an interest , relative to either faculty , it is hard choosing the authority on either part , for one judges for it self , and the other against his adversary ; that is , in effect they are both Judges in their own cause . It is notorious in the Church of Rome , where the Canonists say , That a Canon Lawyer is to be preferr'd before a Divine in elections to Bishopricks ; but you must think , the Divines say that themselves are farre the fitter . The Canonists say that Praedial tithes are due by Divine right . The Divines say they are onely due by positive constitution . The secret of that is , because most of the Divines that write books are Monks and Friers , and such which are no friends to Parishes , that the Pope may be allowed to have power to take tithes from the Parish Priests , and give them to the Monasteries ; which he could not doe , if by Divine right they were annexed to their proper Cures . Amongst us the tables are turn'd , and the Lawyers take the Friers part , and the Divines generally affirm the Divine right of tithes . Concerning which it is to be considered , that though the authority of either part is not of it self sufficient to determine a doubting person , and where interest is apparent , the person perswading loses much of his authority , yet the proposition it self ought not to lose any thing . The interest appearing is no more warrant to disbeleeve the proposition , then it is to beleeve it . In this case there is interest on both sides , and therefore as to that the case is indifferent . The way to proceed is to consider the proper instruments of perswasion , and because a truth is not the worse for serving his ends that teaches it , I am to attend to his arguments without any prejudice . But if I am not able to judge of the reasons , but must be led by authority , the presumption lies for the Divines , I am to beleeve them rather then the Lawyers in such questions , because there is some Religion in doing so , and a relation to God , for whose sake it is , that I choose to obey their proposition . 6. Where by the favour of Princes or Common-wealths any matters of Justice are reserved to Ecclesiastical cognisance , in those affairs the authority of Divines is to be preferr'd before that of Lawyers , because the personal capacities of the men being equal in all things , the Divines are exercised in the same matters , and therefore are both concern'd and able , instructed and engaged , and though the Lawyers are to be supposed honest , and just , and wise , yet all that also is to be supposed in Divines , with some advantages of Religion , and tenderness which is bred in them by their perpetual conversation with the things of God. But in all things he comes the nearest to a sure way of being guided , who does his best and with greatest honesty of heart , and simplicity of pious desires to be truly informed . It was well said of Socrates , An placeant Deo quae feci , nescio ; hoc certò scio , me sedulò hoc egisse ut placerent . The things which I have done , whether they please God or no , I know not ; but this I know assuredly , that I did earnestly desire , and diligently take care that they might please him . If the question be concerning other divisions of men , as of Schoolmen and Casuists , Criticks or Preachers , the answer can be no other , but that in all faculties relating to any parts of Religion , as there are very wise men , and very weak men , so there are some to be preferr'd in each faculty , if we could finde out who they are : but this praelation is relative to the men , not to the faculty , if they were rightly handled . For the several faculties are nothing but the proper portion of matter assign'd to the consideration of an order of men , in a proper method ; but the great end is the same , onely the means of perswading the same truth is different . But in the Church of Rome they are made several Trades , and have distinct principles , and serve special and disunited ends and interests ; and therefore which of them is to be preferr'd , as to the making a probable opinion is just to be answered , as if we should ask which is best of feathers or wooll ; they both of them have their excellencies in order to warmth , and yet if you offer to swallow them down , they will infallibly choke you . RULE 11. He that hath given assent to one part of a probable opinion , may lawfully depose that Conscience , and that opinion upon confidence of the sentence of another . THE Curate of S. Martin being sent for to doe his last offices to a dying man , finds him speechless , but yet giving signs of his penitence , as beating his breasts , weeping and groaning , holding up his hands , and looking pitifully , and in a penitent posture : The Curate having read it , disputed whether such a person may be absolved , concerning whose repentance he can have no other testimony but mute signs , which may be produced by other causes , and finding arguments on both sides , consents to the negative as probable ; and yet finding learned persons there who are of another opinion , lays aside the practices of his own opinion , and in compliance with the other , absolves the sick man. One that was present , and understood the whole process , inquires whether he did well or no , as supposing that to doe against his own opinion is to doe against his conscience ; and a mans own conscience is more to him then ten watchmen that keep a city . In answer to this , it is to be considered there is a double consent to a proposition , the one is direct , the other a reflex ; the first is directly terminated upon the honesty or dishonesty of the object , the other upon the manner of it , and modality . For instance , the Curate does not directly consent to that part of the question which he hath chosen , as that which he will finally rely upon , but he consents to it onely as a thing that is probable ; If he were fully perswaded of the article as a thing certain , or as necessary ( though of it self it be not so ) or if he thinks it is not to be altered , then to doe against his opinion were to doe against his conscience , because the opinion were pass'd the region of speculation , and ineffective notion , and is become a rule and immediate measure of action . But because he beleeves it onely probable , that is such , in which he is not certain ; but may be deceived , and may use liberty , he may as well choose that part of the probability which derives from the reputation and abilities of other men , as well as that which proceeds from considerations of those little intrinsick arguments which mov'd his assent lightly like a breath upon the waters , or the smile of an undiscerning infant . His own opinion is well enough concerning the honesty of the object , but yet he that chooses the other part may make an honest election ; for his own opinion reflecting upon it self , not going beyond the stage of uncertainty and probability does openly challenge its own right of choosing another part ; the conscience is no ways intangled and determined , but so chooses that it may choose again , if she sees cause for it , a cause in the particular case , which she espied not in the abstracted question . For he may prudently suppose that in what he is not certainly perswaded , another may be wiser and know more , and can judge surer : and if he have reason to think so , it may be a greater reason then that is by which himself did choose his own opinion and part of the probability ; and he may have reason to think meanly of himself , and he may remember sad stories of his frequent deception , and be conscious of his own unaptness to pass an honest unbiassed sentence , and hath no reason to trust himself in matters of proper interest or relation . This Rule hath no other variety in it but that it be managed by these Cautions . 1. That the man upon whom we rely , be neither ignorant nor vicious , so farre as we can judge , and so farre as relates to the present question , that is , that he be a person fit to be a guide of others . 2. That relying on others proceed not out of idleness , and impatience to inquire our selves . 3. That the opinion of the other be not chosen because it better serves my ends or humour , but upon the preceding grounds of humility and mean opinion of my self , and great opinion of the other . 4. That it be onely against his own probable perswasion so known , so considered , not against a sure conscience ; that is , that it be in such a matter , in which the assent is but imperfect , and relying upon unsure inducements . For then he may as honestly trust the others prudence as his own weakness , the others leisure and consideration , as his own want of time and aptnesses to consider : and since the actions of most men in the world are conducted by the wit of others in very many things , and of all men in some things , it cannot be imprudence to take a guide to direct the conscience in what it is not sufficiently instructed by its own provisions . If the entercourse happen between the superior and the inferior , the liberty of changing our part of the probability is confirmed by a want of liberty to dissent . The subject may change his opinion , because he must obey where ever it is possible that he should ; and that is in this cases in which it is not onely true that the opinion is probable in it self , but that it and its contrary be both apprehended as probably true , and safely practicable . For then there is no excuse to the man , and the conscience of the article cannot be pretended against the conscience of obedience ; and if it be lawful to obey , it is necessary to obey . Hoc amo quod possum quâlibet vire viâ , every man loves his liberty , but this liberty does ingage our obedience ; we might not obey our superior if God had ingaged us in the contrary ; but we may , when we are perswaded that the contrary opinion is probable , that is , conformable to reason , and fit enough to guide him that is not finally determined in his conscience to the contrary . For if it could be otherwise , then there were nothing to be given to authority ; for in equal probabilities , it is likely if I choose one part , I am determined by a little thing , by a trifle , by a chance , by a humour ; and if I be weighed down by never such a trifle , yet I am determined to the choice of one side , and it will be but an evil portion to authority , if it cannot be permitted to outweigh a humour , and a chance ; an ignorant confidence , or a vain presumption : and although it will be hard sometimes for a man to be convinced of the vanity of his argument , yet when his opinion is not onely speculatively but practically probable , that is , when it is considered onely as probable , and the contrary altogether , or almost as well thought of , the arguments of the present perswasion are confessed to be but little , because they neither perswade , nor abuse beyond a probability ; and therefore in this case to out-face authority , is without pretence , as much as it is without warrant . And this is affirmed by S. Austin in the case of Souldiers under a King , taking pay in a cause which either is just , or that they are not sure it is unjust . Ergo vir justus si fortè etiam sub Rege homine sacrilego militet , rectè potest illo jubente bellare , si vice pacis ordinem servans , quod sibi jubetur , vel non esse contra Dei praeceptum certum est , vel utrum sit , certum non est . But if the entercourse happen between a Physitian and a Patient , it is made to differ . For 1. A Physitian may not leave a certain way , and take an uncertain in the question of life or health ; In matters of meer opinion , the very perswasion and probability of assent is warrant enough for the man , and the effect is innocent ; but when so great an interest is ingaged , the man becomes faster bound by the stricter ties of charity . It was a complaint that Pliny made of Physicians in his time , Discunt periculis nostris , & experientiam per mortes agunt , medicóque tantùm occidisse impunitas summa est . It is hard that a Physician should grow wiser at no cheaper rate then the deaths of many Patients . Now to doe the thing directly is intolerable , but to doe that which is not our best , and which is not safe , when we have by us that which is safe , and which we know is useful , is directly against charity , and justice , and prudence , and the faithfulness of a good man. But 2. When a Physician hath no better , he may take that course which is probable , for that is his best ; he cannot be required to more , and he is excused , because he is required to minister . And this is yet more certain , if the sick person shall die without Physick ; but it is a venture whether the medicament may prevail for his cure or no. For then all the hazard is on the favourable side , and if it fails , the event is no worse ; and it is charity to offer at a Cure that is uncertainly good , but is certainly not evil . 3. When the opinions are on both sides probable , he may take that which is in any sense safer , or in any degree , or by any means more probable , that is , for the community of the opinion , or the advantage it hath by the learning and reputation of them that hold it : so that he may leave his own opinion which is overcome by the greater argument , or the greater authority of another , though both the authority be less then that which binds , and the argument less then that which is certain . RULE 12. He that inquires of several Doctors until he finde one answering according to his minde , cannot by that inquiry make his Conscience safe ; but according to the subject matter , and other circumstances he may . SAint Paul remarks the folly of such men who heap up Teachers of their own , that is , such who preach what they desire , and declare things lawful which God never made so ; and he that hath entertained an opinion , and is in love with it , and will seek out for a kinde and an indulgent nurse for it , cannot ordinarily be the more secure for the opinion of his guide , because the intrinsick motive of his assent is not his guide , but his own purposes and predisposing thoughts and resolutions ; and the getting of a learned man to say so , is but an artifice to quiet the spirit , and make it rest in the deception if it so happens to be . This determination from without may possibly adde a phantastick peace , but no moment to the honesty of the perswasion or conscience , because the conscience was not ready to rely upon the authority , but resolved to goe somewhere else for an authority , if here it could not be had : and therefore the conscience could not be made probable by the authority , because the resolution of the conscience was antecedent to it . This is true ordinarily and regularly , and there are usually many appendant deceptions ; as an impatient desire to have that true which I desire , a willingness to be deceived , a resolution to bring our ends about , a consequent using means of being pleased and cozened , a concealing some circumstances , and a false stating of the question , which is an infallible sign of an evil conscience , and a minde resolved upon the conclusion , desirous of a security , or sleepy quietness , and incurious of truth . But yet there are some cases in which this changing of guides and inquiries is not onely innocent , but an instrument of a just confidence . 1. When the inquirer hath very probable inducements for his opinion , and remains really unsatisfied in the answers and accounts of the first Doctors . 2. When he hath an indifferency to any part that may appear true , but it falls out that nothing does seem true to him but what he hath already entertained . 3. When the assent to our own proposition is determined , so as to avoid a real doubt or perplexity , but yet a scruple remains , that is , some little degrees of confidence are wanting , which cannot be better supplied then by an extrinsecal argument , the authority of a wise man. 4. When the inquiring person is under a weakness and temptation , and wants some to apply his own notices to him , and to make them operative and perswasive upon his spirit ; as it happens to very many men always , and to all men sometimes . 5. When the case is favourable and apt for pity and releef , as in the dangers of despair , then the inquirer not onely may , but ought to goe till he finde a person that can speak comfort to him upon true grounds of Scripture and revelation . 6. When the purpose of the inquirer is to be landed upon any virtue , and pious state of life or design , he may receive his incouragement and final determination from him whom he chooses for his opinion sake , and conformity to his own pious intentions . The reason of these exceptions is this : Because the matter being just , favourable , and innocent , the man goes right , and by being confirmed in his way , receives no detriment to his soul or his duty ; and because they are tendencies to duty , it is to be presumed that the inquirer intends honestly and piously : and now since the way is secure , and the person well intending , if the instrument of establishing this good course were very incompetent , it might be an imperfection in nature , but not in morality . RULE 13. He that is asked concerning a case that is on either side probable , may answer against his own opinion , if the contrary be probable and more safe , or more expedient and favourable . THE reason is , because he that holds an opinion which himself beleeves onely to be probable , knows also there is no necessity in counselling it to another , because it is not certainly true ; and ●he may rather counsel the contrary to another then follow it himself , because himself is already determined , which the other is not , but is indifferent . But why he should rather doe so then counsel his own opinion , there is no reason in the thing , but something relating to the person inquiring ; as if the opinion which he maintains not , be more agreeable with the others circumstances and necessities . Codrus inquires if he be tied to restitution of all the fruits of a field which he held in a dubious title . The Curate thinks it to be a probable opinion , that he is bound ; but because Codrus is poor , or apt to break the bridle of Religion if it holds him too hard , he may counsel him according to the opinion of them that affirm that he is not bound to restitution . If he be asked what his own opinion is , he must not speak contrary to it : But when the question onely is asked in order to a resolution , he may point to goe that way where by his own sentence he may be safe , and by reason of the others necessities he may be more advantaged . The reason of this is , because when two opinions are equally probable , the scales are turn'd by piety , or charity , or any good thing that is of collateral regard , and therefore makes a greater degree of artificial probability , and is in such cases sufficient for determination . For in direct reason the case is equal , and in the indirect there is great advantage on the side of charity , or accidental necessity , or compliance with any fair and just interest . Christian Religion is the best natur'd institution in the world . The like case it is , when the opinion of the Curate is such , that the inquirer will probably abuse it to licenciousness and evil mistake ; for then the Curate may prudently conceal his own sentence , and borrow his brothers candle to light a person that is in danger . RULE 14. When the guide of souls is of a different opinion from his charge or penitent , he is not bound to exact conformity to his own opinion that is but probable , but may proceed according to the conscience of the penitent . THat is , supposing the opinion of the penitent to be probable , and that he did the action bonâ fide , and as an act commendable , or permitted ; he is not to be troubled with what is past , lest that be turned into a scruple which was no sin , and lest the Curate judge unrighteous judgement , and prescribe afflictions for that for which God shall never call him to judgement ; for in this case it is , that no man can be the judge of another mans conscience . But if the opinion of the penitent be certainly false , or the parent , or protector , or the occasion of a sin , the guide of his soul must not comply at all with it , but discover the error and the danger . He that kills his brother because he is zealous in another opinion , and thinks he does God good service , must not be permitted in his erring conscience , and criminal perswasion ; for the matter hath altered the case , and in the relations of duty , the error is always vincible , and therefore intolerable : and therefore Lombard's Mother upon her death-bed was admonished to confess her sin in having three children by illegal mixtures , though she was foolishly perswaded it was no sin , because her sons did prove to be such excellent persons , and instruments of Divine glory . RULE 15. The sentence and arbitrement of a prudent and good man , though it be of it self but probable , yet is more then a probable warranty to actions otherwise undeterminable . SIcut vir prudens eam definierit , is the great measure which Aristotle and all the moral Philosophers assign to very many cases and questions . If two cases that seem equally probable , have in them different degrees of safety , that the safest is to be chosen is certain ; but oftentimes the sentence and opinion of a good man is the onely rule by which we judge concerning safety . * When piety and religion are in competition for our present attendance , sometimes piety to our Parents is to be preferr'd , sometimes an action of religion in its own season ; but what portion of our services is to be allowed to the one and the other is sicut vir prudens definierit , according as a good and a prudent man shall determine . * To bury the dead is good , to releeve the living poor is ordinarily better ; but yet there was a time in which there was a proper season for that , and not for this ; and our blessed Saviour commended Maries devotion and choice in so doing , but when we also may doe one or the other , depends upon circumstances and accidents which are not immediately the subject of Laws , but of prudent consideration . * Humane Laws binde the conscience of their Subjects , but yet give place to just and charitable causes ; but which are competent and sufficient is not expresly and minutely declared , but is to be defined by the moderation and prudence of a good man. * That we are to be careful in the conduct of our temporal affairs , in paying of our debts , in making provisions for our children is certain and confessed : but besides the general measures and limits of carefulness described by our blessed Saviour , our earnestness of prosecution , our acts of provision and labour are to be esteemed regular or irregular by the sentence of a wise and a good man. The significations of love to our children and nearest relatives , the measures of compliance with the fashions of the world , the degrees of ornament or neglect in clothing , intention of our actions and passions , and the●r degrees , the use and necessities and pretences for omissions in good things , and generally all the accidental appendages of action are determinable onely this way ; and a probability is enough to determine us ; but that this is the way of introducing the probability is upon this reason ; because next to the provision of Laws , stands the man who is obedient to Laws and understands them , and next to the reason of the Law , stands the analogy and proportion of those Laws ; and therefore this is the next best to the Laws , it stands nearest to reason , is the best guide that is left us , and therefore a proper measure of conscience in the destitution of that which is most proper . There are many other Rules concerning the exercise of a probable Conscience , in the cases and questions of Kings and Priests , of Advocates and Judges , in matters of Sacraments and Government , which are to be referred to the place of their proper matter ; but this is also to be determined by the Rules here assigned , and have no particular consideration , except what meerly relates to the matter . CHAP. V. Of a doubtful Conscience . RULE 1. A doubtful Conscience assents to neither side of the question , and brings no direct obligation . THE Conscience being in its proper operations positive and practical ; when it is neither , it is not properly and directly conscience ; and because it binds to obedience by its determination and assent , and its consequent inclining the will , when the understanding is not determined , nor the will inclined , there can no action follow , but a total suspension of action is its proper consequent . But upon this there is onely a reflex act of Conscience and Understanding ; for by considering that our conscience is doubtful , and indeterminable , we are obliged to suspend our action ; but then this is the act , not of a doubtful , but of a right conscience , because in this we are certain , and right , and determined : so that a doubtful conscience is but an aequivocal and improper conscicence ; like an unresolved will , or an artist with his hands bound behinde him : that is , the man hath a conscience , but it is then in chains and fetters , and he wears a hood upon his eye , and his arm in a string , and is onely to be taught how to cut the knot , and to doe some little things of advantage , or security to his intermedial state of impediment ; but a doubtful conscience can be no rule of humane actions . But yet some collateral and indirect obligations are pass'd upon the man by that state of infelicity , according to the nature of the doubt . In order to which , doubts are considered , either as relating to the Law , or as relating to matters of fact , viz. whether such a thing be lawful or not ? or whether I did such an action or no , by which I am bound to restitution or repentance ? Doubts also are Negative , or Positive , that is , they are still upon us because there is no means to determine the understanding ; as no man can ever be resolved whether the number of the starres be even or odde ; when is the precise minute in which a man first comes to the use of reason ; and this is called a Negative doubt . The Positive enters by the indifferency of the arguments , and their equal weight on both sides : as if it be doubted whether the souls departed enjoy the beatifick vision before the day of Judgement ? whether Residence on a Benefice be an indispensable precept , or in what cases it obliges not ? whether Ecclesiastical persons be bound by justice or by charity to give all that they can prudently spare to the poor ? These are positive doubts , because there are many arguments on eithe side . The Negative doubt is either Metaphysical or Moral , or it is onely a Suspicion ; that is , these are several degrees of such a doubt , for the determination of which there is no sufficient instrument . Lastly , sometimes a doubt is placed onely in the understanding , without any other effect but the trouble of thoughts ; and then for methods sake , and right understanding of the rules of practice , it is called a speculative doubt . Sometimes this doubt passes on to the conscience , and hath influence upon the action or event ; so as to be an impediment to it , or the spoil of it , that is , so as to cause that it shall not be done , or if it be done that it becomes a sin : and this is called a practical doubt . According to these distinctions the following Rules are useful in order to practice . RULE 2. A negative doubt neither binds to action , nor inquiry , nor repentance ; but it binds onely to caution and observance . 1. THat it binds not to action ] I affirm upon the same ground , by which the same is affirmed concerning all doubting consciences . It binds from action ; for whatsoever is done with a doubting conscience ( that is , without faith , or fulness of perswasion that it is lawful to doe it ) is a sin . S. Paul gave us the Rule , Whatsoever is not of faith is sin . Quod dubitas nè feceris , said Cicero . For if we doe it with a doubting conscience , we doe it without our Rule , which is the dictate of our conscience , and since no action is indifferent between lawful and unlawful ( though between good and bad there may ) to doe without our Rule of lawful and permitted it to doe against it , even that which is not permitted , and therefore is unlawful . Adde to this , 2. He that does not know whether it be lawful or no , does that which he is not sure but it may be forbidden by God , and displeasing to him ; and to doe that which I know not but may grieve my friend , or trouble him , cannot consent with my love to him ; and therefore every act of a doubting conscience is against charity . In the question of lawful or unlawful , not to know it to be lawful , is to enter upon it with a minde willing to admit the unlawful ; it is all one to be in the dark , as to be without a candle or a starre , and either of them is as bad , as full of ignorance and obscurity , as if we shut our eyes , or put the candle out . When therefore it happens that our conscience doubts whether such an act be a sin or no , a good man will be sure not to sin ; but in that case , and while the doubt remains , he can have no security , but by not doing it . 2. It binds not to inquiry ] because there is no competent means to finde out a resolution ; for that is the state of the Question , that is the definition of a Negative doubt . Fabiola doubts whether in her childhood she did never take Gods name in vain ; and although she be bound to inquire in all the reasonable and remembred parts of her life , because of them she may finde some records , and in that case the doubt is not negative ; yet of the state of childhood she cannot be obliged to make inquiry , because there was then no Law , no Register , no Court kept , no judgement , no choice ; that is , she cannot be obliged to an effect that is impossible , and to an act that is to no purpose . 3. It binds not to repentance . ] In case she fears exceedingly , supposing this still to be a Negative doubt , that is , such a one , for the proper resolution of which there are no competent arguments or instruments . Fabiola not knowing whether she did or no , and it being impossible afterwards to finde it out , Fabiola i● not tied to ask forgiveness for the blasphemies of her childhood : For no obligation can come from what is not , or cannot be known . This is to be understood to be true of that sort of Negative doubt which it called Metaphysical , when there is no possibility of knowing ; as it is impossible to know what little prety phantasm made us to smile when we hanged upon our Mothers breasts ; and the doubt is onely founded upon the possibility that the thing might have been , though now it be impossible to finde out whether it was or no. It is possible that being a child I might laugh at Scripture , or mock an Apostle ; but if this could bring an obligation to an act of repentance , then the same obligation passes upon all men in all actions and periods of their lives , for all things , and in all cases in which they doe not remember all , or did not observe every circumstance , or did not consider every minute , or weigh every degree . For in every thing there is a possibility that I might have done something very ill . But there is a Negative doubt which is called Morally negative ; that is , when there is no way of being readily and clearly determined , but yet the doubt is founded upon some light conjecture , and no more . I was tempted , or I had an opportunity , or an evil thought came cross me , and I know my own infirmity ; and this according to the degrees of the conjecture can oblige us to a general and conditional repentance ; thus , if I did amiss , God of his mercy impute it not unto me . I know not , my conscience does not accuse me , ( so S. Paul ) but I am not hereby justified ; God is greater then my conscience . But this , set the words of S. John , and they will determine the case : If our hearts condemne us not , then have we peace towards God ; that is , the doubt in this matter ought to be laid down , if our hearts doe not pass sentence against us ; but not so wholly but that we may provide against a danger not actually felt : We ought to be peaceful , but not too confident , when there is any probability of error and deception . The peace is warranted by S. John , the wariness is exemplified in S. Paul. 4. It does binde to caution and observance . ] Every thing does so , where either there is a danger , or any is suspected , or any is possible , or any ever was : and therefore , for this there needs no peculiar reason , onely according to the approach of the negative doubt to any degrees of its being positive ; that is , to a probability that it is as we doubt , the observance ought to be stricter , and the caution more severe , which happens in that imperfect kinde of imperfection , in suspicion , which is but the image of doubting . For there is yet another sort of doubting , which may be called a privative doubt . Titius is invited to eat with one of another communion . First he checks at it , but because he knows no reason against it , nor indeed did ever dispute , or hear the question disputed , whether it be lawful or no , he goes . The question is , whether he did well or no ? Concerning which the case is evident , that whatsoever is not of faith is sin , that is , if it be not done with a perswasion that it is lawful . But if a man be perswaded that he may lawfully doe any thing against which he knows no Law , no Commandement , no Reason ; this is not a doubting conscience , but a probable , and therefore need not to abate the action . * But if this also turn into a doubt , the case is altered . For he that thinks he may not doe it , or doubts whether he may or no doe a thing for which he hath no command , or no positive and affirmative warrant , and that it is no sufficient reason or warrant for the doing it that he knows nothing against it , unless he also have something for it ; this man thus perswaded or abused , may not proceed to action . For in this case he hath nothing for it , and one great thing against it , even this proposition , That a thing is not to be done in such a case , which is the case of a privative doubt . But for the thing it self , the next Rule gives an account of it . RULE 3. A privative doubt cannot of it self hinder a man from acting what he is moved to by an extrinsick argument , or inducement that is in it self prudent or innocent . IT cannot of it self hinder ] that is , abstracting from the circumstance of accidental doubting or not doubting . The reason is , because there being no Law against it by which he is actually ruled , and no reason appearing in defiance of it , that is , there being no intrinsecal disswasive , the conscience is onely left to be conducted or perswaded by the extrinsecal . For all actions are left indifferent till by a superinduced Law they are restrained ; which superinduced Law wants its publication , if inculpably I have no notice of it in my conscience . But this is to be allowed with this caution : That this entring upon actions against which we know no reason or law , be not sudden , and violent , and careless , like the rushing of an horse into a battel without consideration ; but that we consider according to our strength , and to our time , whether there be any reasons for or against the act in question , and if we finde none , let us make none ; that is , let us not by our unreasonable and impertinent doubting place a snare for our own feet , there where none is placed by the prohibition . 2. If it be a matter that concerns the interest of another , let us always be the more wary , and remember , if there be nothing against it , there must be something for it , either in the matter , or in the manner , either in justice , or in charity , or at least by the securities of the safer part , by which , if we finde no reward , yet we are sure to finde indemnity . This whole advice is of great use in the circumstances of the duty that concerns the married pairs ; in which the Doctors of Cases of Conscience have spoken what they please , and in many things wholly by chance or fancy ; and the holy state of marriage ought to be rescued from many of their snares and intricacies by which they have troubled it , as well appear when I shall speak to the Rules of that affair . RULE 4. In doubts of Right , or Law , we are always bound to inquire ; but in doubts of fact not always . THE reason is , because ignorance of our duty is always a sin , and therefore when we are in a perceiv'd , discernable state of danger , he that refuses to inquire after his duty , does not desire to doe it . In matters of fact we are bound ordinarily to inquire , because we must not be ignorant of the state of our consciences , and what obligation ●here is to restitution , or repentance . which the more particular it is , the more perfect it is . But this I say , that though ordinarily it be true that we are obliged , yet in some cases it may happen that it is safer to trust the event of things with a general repentance , then that the conscience of some men be tempted with a particular notice of the fact . 1. This happens in those that are weak-hearted , soft , and apt to every impression in too deep a regard . A Castilian Gentleman being newly recovered from the sad effects of a melancholy spirit , and an affrighting conscience , and being entertained by some that waited on him with sports and innocent pastimes to divert his scaring thoughts ; he with his company shot many arrows in a publick field at rovers : at that time there was a man kill'd , whether by his arrows or no , he knew not , and is forbidden to inquire ; and his case had in it reason enough to warrant the advice : The knowledge of it could not have done him so much good , as it would have done him hurt ; and it was better he should be permitted to a doubting then to a despairing conscience , as in his case it was too likely to have happened . It is better to be suspected then to be seen . 2. This also is so to be advised , when the inquiry into the doubt of fact may be prejudicial to a third person . A Priest going to the West-Indies by misfortune wounds one of his company , whom with much trouble and sorrow , he leaves to be cured of his hurt , but passes on to his voyage , which he finished at a huge distance from the place of his misfortune . The Merchants come the next year that way , and he is unwilling to inquire concerning his sick friend ; desirous he was to know good of him , but infinitely fearful lest he be dead : Consulting therefore with his superiour in the case , was directed not to inquire , upon this account ; because if the man were dead the Priest would be irregular , and a whole Parish unprovided for , and left without rites and Sacraments , and publick offices , which then and there could not easily be supplied . But in matters of right or duty inquiry must be made , ever , when the question is of the lawfulness or unlawfulness of what is to be done ; because we enter upon danger , and despise our own safety , and are careless of our duty , and not zealous for God , nor yet subjects of Conscience , or of the Spirit of God , if we doe not well inquire of an action we are to doe , whether it be good or bad . But when the act is done , and done with an actual perswasion that it was lawful , the conscience of that person is not easily to be disturbed , which is to be understood with these cautions : 1. When the question was probable on either side , and at the time of acting , was chosen with its just measures and provisions ; then although the complice or partner of the act doe change his opinion , and think himself bound to repent , yet he is not bound to trouble the other . Anthony a Gentleman of Parma being in love with Maria de Rupe , being moved with great interests of his person , and a great necessity , consummates his marriage before publication , they both of them being perswaded that it is lawful . He afterwards changes his opinion , thinks it a sin , and repents and begs pardon , but being also in doubt whether he ought to tell his wife of it , was advised to the contrary , upon this amongst many other concurrent reasons , because what was innocently done , cannot be condemned in that in which it was innocent : for the man himself ought to be sorrowful for his being deceived ( if he thinks he was ) but he cannot be tied to repent of the act , which supposing his then present perswasion was lawful , because done according to probable conscience : and therefore much less ought he to disturb the peace of his wife , whose perswasion remains the same as at first . What was not a sin at first , cannot in that individual act become a sin afterwards . 2. This is also to be understood , when the act leaves no evil effect , or hath done no hurt to a third person ; but if it doe , then my peace is not to be bought at the expence of anothers evil . No man is to be made better or left so , by anothers detriment ; and therefore if a child were begotten in that unripe and hasty consummation , and that child should be declared bastard , then the peace is to be disturbed , and the inquiry on all hands to be curious and busy , because in all such cases there is something of duty for the future concerned in it ; sometimes restitution , but always repentance in particular . 3. This is also true when the fact that is past is not introductive of more and new instances ; for if it was the wrong side of the probability which was chosen , and the same kinde of action is to return often , there the conscience though heartily perswaded , must be awakened from its security by him that beleeves it to be a sin that was done , and then the interested party must inquire ; the reason of this is , because this concerns the future , and all the world when they enter upon action must inquire anew when they have reason to doubt anew , and they may be call'd upon , and must be better informed by them that can and are concerned . For the honour of God and the interest of his service is in this case concerned , which in the other is not , when it onely relates to a single and a past action , which was then lawful , and therefore will not afterwards be imputed . 4. When the person interested does of himself doubt whether the past act was lawful or not , and desires to be satisfied , and that there will be no evil effect in the alteration of his perswasion , then it is fit he be complied with in that which he judges to be for the interest of his soul , for this is certainly the better ; the other way of concealing and not inquiring being onely permitted in some cases , and with so many cautions and reservations as are before expressed . RULE 5. In doubts the safer part is to be chosen . WHen the Conscience is doubtful , neither part can be chosen till the doubt be laid down ; but to choose the safer part is an extrinsecal means instrumental to the deposition of the doubt , and changing the conscience from doubtful to probable . This Rule therefore does properly belong to the probable conscience : for that the conscience is positively doubtful is but accidental to the question and appendant to the person . For the reasons on either side make the conscience probable , unless fear , or some other accident make the man not able to rest on either side . For in matters of conscience it is as hard to finde a case so equally probable that a man shall finde nothing without , or within to determine him , as it is to finde that which the Philosophers call , Temperamentum ad pondus , a constitution so equal that no part shall excel the other . For if there were nothing in the things to distinguish them , yet in the man there is a natural propensity which will make him love one sort of arguments more then another . What can be more indifferent then to see two dogges fight ? and yet no man sees their cruelty , but he wishes better to one then to another : and although no opinions are so very even , yet if they were , the man hath an acquisite , or else a natural biass , or something of contingency that will determine him : and if the conscience remains undetermined , so that he may not , or dare not venture upon either part , it is certainly a disease , or a direct infirmity . And because such persons can doe nothing at all till their doubtful is changed into a probable conscience , this discourse must relate to that conscience that is probable , though in compliance with the usual ways of speaking , I have placed it here . 1. The Rule therefore is to be understood to be good advice , but not necessary in all cases . For when the contrary opinion is the more probable , and this the more safe , to doe this is a prudent compliance , either with a timorous or with an ignorant conscience ; it is always an effect of piety , and a strong will to good , but very often an effect of a weak understanding , ; that is , such an one which is inclined to scruple , and dares not trust the truth of his proposition , or God with his soul in the pursuance of it . And indeed sometimes there is in this some little suspicion of the event of things which must needs reflect upon the goodness of God , under whom we fancy we cannot be so safe by pursuing that rule and guide that he hath given us , that is , the best reason , and the fairest inducement , as we may be by relying upon the sureness of the matter . Indeed we our selves are so wholly immerged in matter that we are conducted by it , and its relations in very many things : But we may as well rely upon formalities and spiritual securities ( if we understood them ) as upon the material ; and it is as safe to rely upon the surer side of reason as upon the surer side of the thing . Now that which is the more probable hath the same advantage in constituting a conscience formally safe , as the other less probable but surer side hath for the making the conscience safe materially . 2. If the conscience be probable , and so evenly weighed that the determinanation on either side is difficult , then the safer side is ordinarily to be chosen , because that helps to outweigh and determine the scale ; that is , when reason and the proper motives of the question are not sufficient to determine it , let auxiliaries be taken from without , and if the conscience be not made securer by its rule , let it be made safe by the material . It is just as the building of an house If the Architect be not wise and knowing how to secure the fabrick by rule of art , and advantages of complication , and the contexture of parts , let him support it with pillars great and massy ; for if the other be wanting , these will sustain the roof sure enough , but with some rudeness in the thing , and imperfection in the whole . 3. If to that which is the surer side there be a great inconvenience consequent , the avoiding of that inconvenience being laid on the opposite even part , will outweigh the consideration of the safety . Quintus Milo commands his servant Anfidius whom he had taken for the teaching Grammar and Rhetorick to his children , that he would learn the Trade of a Shoo-maker . Anfidius doubts whether his Master Q. Milo hath power to command him to doe that which was no part of the imployment for which he was entertained , and yet because the thing is of it self lawful and honest , he considers it is the safest course for him to obey , for certainly in so doing he sins not ; and thus farre he is bound , and was in the right . But if to learn that mean Trade will dishonour and disable him , make him a fool and contemptible , and ruine his hopes and his interests when he leaves the service of Milo , the servant is not tied to follow that which is more safe , but that which is more charitable and prudent ; In dubiis juris tutior pars sequenda est , & obedire teneor , si commodè possim , was the rule : because the reason abstractedly considered makes the question safe on either side , as the determination happens ; and the avoiding an intolerable inconvenience is as considerable as the accidental security , and in many cases more complying with charity , because in a question in which the conscience is probable there is a great safety without taking in the advantage of a safe matter , by the proper efficacy and influence of the reason making a probable and an honest conscience ; but then when the safety is provided for fairly otherways , and for the most part sufficiently , and the inconvenience on the other side is not provided for ; in all such cases we must leave that which is materially sure , for the choice of that which in its formality is equally sure , and in its matter more charitable . A little child came to my door for alms , of whom I was told he was run from his Mothers house and his own honest imployment ; but in his wandring he was almost starv'd : I found that if I releeved him , he would not return to his Mother , if I did not releeve him , he would not be able . I considered that indeed his souls interests were more to be regarded and secured then his body , and his sin rather to be prevented then his sickness , and therefore not to releeve him seem'd at first the greater charity . But when I weighed against these considerations , that his sin is uncertain , and future , and arbitrary , but his need is certain , and present , and natural ; that he may choose whether he will sin or no , but cannot in the present case choose whether he will perish or no ; that if he be not releeved he dies in his sin , but many things may intervene to reform his vicious inclination ; that the natural necessity is extreme , but that he will sin is no way necessary , and hath in it no degrees of unavoidable necessity ; and above all , that if he abuses my releef to evil purposes which I intended not , it is his fault , not mine , but the question being concerding my duty not his , and that to releeve him is my duty and not his , and that therefore if I doe not releeve him , the sin is also mine and not his ; and that by bidding of him to doe his duty I acquit my self on one side , but by bidding him to be warm and fed , I cannot be acquitted on the other , I took that side which was at least equally sure and certainly more charitable . This also happens in the matter of justice very often . It is the surer side in many cases to restore , and is a testimony of an honest minde , that to secure its eternal interest , will quit the temporal . But if to restore will undoe a man , and the case is indifferent , or at least probable that he is not bound , then it is not necessary to restore , though to restore be the surer side ; and if the interest of a third person , as of wife , or children , be also involved in the question , then the inquiring person is bound not to restore . Because in the present case there is a certain uncharitableness , and but an uncertain justice , that is , a duty certainly omitted , for the securing of another that is not certain . 4. When the more probable is also the more safe , there is no question but the safer is to be chosen . For so , the conscience is made the more sure both materially and formally ; that is , by the better reason , and the more advantageous matter , and he that does otherwise , exposes himself to an evident danger of sinning , having nothing to out ballance either the direct reason , or the accidental safety . 5. Sometimes it happens that what is safe in one regard , is dangerous in another , and on each side of the probability there is a danger and a safety . Vittoria Columbina a Venetian Lady was married to five Magnifico's successively ; and they all being dead , and she left very rich , young , and tempted to a sixth marriage , advises with her Confessor whether or no she may lawfully doe it ? he tels her that it is not onely probable , but certain that she may ; but it were better if she kept her Widdowhood , and after so much sense of mortality retire to Religion . But that he may determine her case with more certainty she tels him , she had once resolved with her self to live a Widow , but finds she shall not be free from temptation in that state , and desires him to tell her if she may lawfully marry , notwithstanding that resolution , which now to be something altered , he perceives by her question . * He answers , that it is the surest course to determine for chastity and abstinence , her state of Widowhood being more certainly pleasing then the other . But then she hints her temptation , and asks if some sure course is not to be taken for her being secured in that point too ? * This arrests his thoughts upon a new consideration , but the result is this : 1. When there are two securities to be provided for , one of the thing , and the other of the person ; that of the person is first to be provided for . It is the safer part of the question to determine on the side of chastity , or virginity , or widdowhood , but this may be the unsafer side to the person , who if he suffers temptation is to be provided for by that answer which gives him remedy and ease . 2. But if it happens that there is danger on either side to the person , that is the surer side which provides against that temptation which is strongest and most imminent , and which if it prevails is of the worst consequence . 3. This is also to be understood in those cases when temporal life is offered in question against the danger of a sin . Michael Verinus a yong Gentleman of Spain , by reason of his living a single life was press'd with so great inconvenience that he fell into a lingring and dangerous sickness . The Physicians advise him to use his remedy , though he be not married , and being it was in order to his health , which was not else to be recovered , they presumed it lawful , or did not care whether it were or no , but however they advise him to it . He doubts of it , and dares not be uncharitable and die for want of remedy , if he might have it , and yet dares not commit an act of uncleanness ; but finding on either hand a sin threatning him , and if he flies from a Lion he meets a Bear , or is told that a Bear is in the way : he at last flies from the evil beast that stood before him , and chooses that way which was evidently the safest , not to his health , but to his salvation ; not to his body , but his soul , and chose rather to die , then to doe that which he was certainly perswaded to be a sin , and of the other he was not so sure . Sola Venus potuit lento succurrere morbo , Nè se pollueret , malùit ille mori , In other things , the prudence of a guide must be his onely Rule . The summe is this : 1. If the doubt be equal and the danger equal , the doubt must be laid aside , or there can be no action consequent : and for the danger , if you choose one , you may choose either , for there is no difference ; a dagger or a sword is all one to him that must die by one . 2. If the doubt be unequal and the danger equal , the resolution must be on that side where there is the most confidence , that is , where the less cause of doubting is apprehended ; as if I have but enough to give one alms , and I see two ready to perish , and I can releeve but one ; the danger is equal , for pasce fame morientem , si non pavisti , occidisti , said S. Ambrose , but one is my friend , and the other is a stranger ; in this case the doubt is unequal , and I ought to preferre my friend . 3. If the danger be unequal , and the doubt equal , the resolution must be made in compliance with our safety . For there is nothing to weigh down in the doubt , yet there is something to weigh down in th●●●nger , and that is sufficient . 4. If the doubt be unequal , and the danger unequal , there we must take the least danger ▪ though on the least side of the probability , because there can no degree of sin be consented to ; and therefore when by our own fault or infelicity we must be forced to fall upon one , we must take the less , by the same reason for which we are to refuse all that we can . Maevius Caligarius a Roman Gentleman and newly converted to Christianity , observes that his friend Agricola was pursued by his enemies unto death , and was by them asked concerning him whether he were in his house or no. He knew he was , but knows also that if he confesses it he shall die . He doubts whether it be lawful to lie to save his friends life or no , and cannot resolve whether it be or no , but inclines rather to think it is not lawful . But he considers if it be lawful , then he is guilty of his friends death , who refused to save him at an innocent charge . But if it be not lawful , he does but tell an officious lie , so long as the doubt remains , he must rather venture upon an uncertain sin in the officious lie , then the uncertain but greater sin of homicide . These are the cases in which the danger is on both sides . 5. But if there be danger on one side onely , and a doubt on both sides , there is no question but that side is to be chosen where there is no danger ; unless the doubt on one side be contemptible and inconsiderable , and the other not so . RULE 6. It is lawful for the Conscience to proceed to action against a doubt that is meerly speculative . IN a sure Conscience the speculative and the practical are the same in certain consequence , as I have already proved in its own place ; but in a doubting Conscience the case is differing . For though it be ordinarily true here also that he that doubts speculatively does also doubt practically ; as if he doubts concerning all usurarious contracts , whether it be lawful or no to use any , he doubts also concerning this which himself uses , if it be usurarious . But because there may intervene a special case , and that which is true in general may be altered in the particular , it may happen that he may be certain and determined in the particular when he is not so in the general ; that is , when the case is special , by privilege , or exemption , or the ceasing of the reason , or by any other special case he may think himself acquitted , when yet the action is culpable in its whole kinde . But by a speculative doubt sometimes is meant not the general , but the question abstracted from circumstances ; and in this it sometimes happens that though the conscience doubt concerning the question , yet it does not doubt concerning the practice . Titius is possessed of a field on which he entred by inheritance , and wholly without fraud and violence ; but yet upon some supervening notices he afterwards doubts whether the field be his own by a just title ; but because he is informed by his Confessor and others on whom he does and may rely , that possession is a collateral title , and that what he so possesses h●● may still dwell upon till it be certain that it is not his own ; he rests at quiet in his minde , because possession is stronger then his doubt , though it cannot prevail against demonstration . Mary of Rhemes the wife of a Souldier is told by his Captain that her husband was kill'd at the battel of Pavy ; after her year of mourning was expired she marries again to a Citizen of Rhemes , and cohabites with him two year ; after which she is told that her first husband escaped to Tarentum , and there lives in obscurity . Upon this she doubts whether the Citizen be really her husband or no ; yet living with him he demands her to pay her conjugal duty , she inquires whether during this doubt she may or no ; and is answered affirmatively upon the same grounds : The Citizen is in possession of the marriage , and this is not to be disturbed by a doubt , but by a certainty , especially since the doubt is but a speculative doubt , not a practical . For it is no good argument to say , I doubt whether this man be my husband or no , therefore if I consent to him I commit adultery ; for the presumption lying upon the possessor , though his title be dubious , yet his possession is not , and either of them both are to have a portion in the effect , and therefore the certain possession in a dubious title is to be preferred before a dubious title without possession , and therefore this kinde of doubt ought not to hinder the effect of the present duty . For in this case it is not true ; The antecedent is doubtful , therefore so is the consequent . Fo● as out of falshood truth may come , so out of doubts may come certainty . I see a great way off Father Grimaldi moving his lips ; I suppose he is disputing , whom yet I was told not to be alive . I argue thus : He disputes , therefore he is not dead . The consequent is certain , but the antecedent doubtful ; so it is in the present case . I doubt whether this woman be and ought to be my wife , but because she is legally so and so reputed and in possession , I doe inferre that therefore I must pay my duty to her , till it be certain that she is not my wife . For though I doubt of the person whether or no she be my wife , yet I am certain , or I may be certain of this , that he that approaches to her who is in possession of marriage may doe it lawfully ; he onely does fornicate who approaches to her of whom I am certain that she is not my wife . But if of this proposition also I doubt , the doubt is practical , and I may not doe it , till by some means the doubt be resolved or laid aside . But so long as it is a question speculative , the action may be determinate and lawful , and introduced upon many accounts . For the fuller manifestation of which secret , because it is of great concernment , and hath influence upon the conscience in many great actions and entercourse of humane society , it is remarkable that we cannot argue thus ; This man is not bonae fidei possessor , a possessor by a just faith , therefore he possesses it malâ fide , by an unjust : So neither does this follow , This man possesses it not with an evil faith , therefore he possesses it with a good faith . It does neither way follow negatively . But this consequence is good ; He is a possessor by a good faith , therefore he does not possess it by an evil . Or , he is a possessor by an evil faith , therefore he does not possess it by a good ; it follows either way affirmatively . The reason of the difference is this ; If it be good it cannot be bad , and if it be bad it cannot be good ; if it be one , it cannot be the other , but it may happen that it may be neither good nor bad , for there is a medium or a third between good and bad faith or honesty of possession ; and this consists in a speculative doubt , by which the possessor doubts whether that which is in his hands be in his right , or belongs to him or to another ; and that he who so doubts hath neither good nor bad faith is expressed by the gloss in l. 1. C. de acq . poss . gl . in l. 2. ff . pro solut . & gl . in l. 3. § . generalitèr ff . de acq . poss . The consequent of which is this , That because that he who so doubts is not bonae fidei possessor , therefore he cannot from thence begin to prescribe or to acquire a just title , because of the rule of the Law , Quod ab initio non valuit , progressu temporis valere non debet , and it cannot by time get strength to walk which enters into the world without feet ; now the doubting conscience is but a lame supporter . But yet because such a conscience which onely hath this speculative doubt is not malae fidei possessor , therefore he may lawfully still retain the possession till the contrary be evicted . There is this onely to be added , that although prescription or other ways of just title cannot begin with a doubting conscience , yet if it entred with a throughly perswaded conscience , it may goe on though it be disquieted by a supervening doubt . The reason is , because it having lawful Parents of its birth and first production , cannot be kill'd and destroyed by a suit at Law , it began well , and therefore had just principles of its progression ; and whatsoever hath the first advantage of just and reasonable , is always to be so presum'd till the contrary be proved ; a doubt therefore may make the man unquiet , and tie him to inquire , but cannot interrupt the possession or the beginning and growing title . Besides the reason , this sentence is confirm'd by the concurring testimonies of Bartolus , Imola , Sylvester , Felinus , Balbus , and Johannes Hannibal , under their titles de praescriptionibus & usucapionibus . There are some accidental hardnesses to the conscience which are innocent , and because besides the even measures of good and evil by lawful ▪ and unlawful , there are some paths chalked out to us by necessities , by conveniences , by presumptions , by securities , and other indefinite aims at things which can sometimes weigh down the best of our imperfect conjectures in some obsure cases , we may as well walk by the light of the starres , and better too , then to walk qui●e in the dark ; and not onely the Sun is appointed to rule the day , but there are the Moon and the Stars to govern the night : plain and easy Rules make a sure conscience , but the doubtful and the dark must be content with a less light . For , unlearned men are oftentimes beset with the arguments of a talking man , which they cannot answer , but create a speculative doubt , and such as destroys all the certainty of evidence which they had ; but if they should not stick to their own conclusion in despight of all the objections , by a certainty of adhesion , they might be disturbed in every thing , and confident in nothing , and might if they met with a Heretick be fool'd out of their Religion , and quit the most material parts of their beleef . And even the learned have in many articles a presumptive assent to their propositions ; and if they be made to doubt in their understanding by the opposition of an adversary , they are not instantly to change their practice , but to inquire further . For if after every such doubting their practice must be insecure or criminal , they might be forc'd to a lightness greater then that of the Egyptian Priests : and some men can beleeve well , and dispute ill , but yet their faith must not change at the argument of every Sophister . In these cases the practice is made secure by a collateral light , and he is defended from change by reputation , and custome , by fear of scandal , and the tie of Laws , and by many other indirect instruments of determination , which although they cannot out-wit the crntrary arguments , yet they ought to outweigh the doubt , and guide the will , and rule the conscience in such cases . There is nothing but a weak man may doubt of , but if he be well , he must not change his foot , till it be made certain to him that he is deceived ; let him consider what he please , and determine at leisure ; let him be swift to hear , but slow to speak , and slower yet in declaring by his action and changed course , that his doubt hath prevailed upon him . I knew a Scholler once who was a man of a quick apprehension , and easy to receive an objection , who when he read the Romane Doctors was very much of their opinion , and as much against them when he read their adversaries , but kept himself to the Religion of his Country , concerning which at all times he remembred that there were rare arguments and answers respectively , though he could not then think upon them . * There are temptations of faith and opinion , and they are to be resisted sometimes by indirect ways of proceeding , and artifices of the spirit ; and sometimes men in sickness are afflicted with doubting and trembling consciences , but yet are supported onely with general remembrances , they consider that there are comforts , and excellent promises , and instruments of hope , and wise and holy sayings by which they were nursed up to that height of strength , that they are now able to fight in the dark : If the speculative doubting conscience should always prevail in practice , the ignorant might be abused and miserable in all things , and the learned in most . RULE 7. Every dictate and judgement of the Conscience , though it be little and less material , is sufficient and may be made use of for the deposition of a doubt . EVery little reason is not sufficient to guide the will , or to make an honest or a probable Conscience , as I have proved in the foregoing Chapter * ; but in a doubting conscience , that is , where there are seemingly great reasons of either side , and the conscience not able to determine between them , but hangs like a needle between two load-stones , and can goe to neither , because it equally inclines to both ; there it is , that any little dictate that can come on one side and turn the scale is to be admitted to counsel and to action ; for a doubt is a disease in conscience , like an irresolution in action , and is therefore to be removed at any just rate , and any excuse taken rather then have it permitted . For even to wash in Jordan may cure a leprosy , and a glass of wine may ease the infirmities of the stomack and he is too ceremonious in the matter of life and death , that stands upon puntilio's with nature , and will not be cured but by rich medicines . For in a doubting conscience the immediate cure is not to choose right , that is the remedy in an erring conscience ; but when the disease or evil , is doubting , or suspension , the remedy is determination ; and to effect this , whatsoever is sufficient may be chosen and used . Every conscience that proceeds probably , proceeds honestly , unless by a greater probability it be engaged against the less ; now to make a conscience that is probable , yet even more probable , a little advantage is sufficient ; which is to be understood with these cautions : 1. When the doubt is equal and the danger alike on either side , then a smaller supersaetation of argument will doe the work , that is , cure the doubting ; for though a little argument is not alone a ground for the action of a wise man , yet a little overplus of reason will take off this calamity of irresolution and trepidation ; it is not enough to out weigh any danger , but it can with the portion of the equal measures which stand on its own side , by its little weight cast the ballance . 2. This is not so easily to be admitted when the judgement of the man is discernably and perceivably little and not to be trusted , for then the superaddition that is made by him to any part of the doubt may be as wholly inconsiderable as the doubt it self is troublesome ; and though this may make the doubt to be laid aside , as it will also determine such a man in the whole traverse of the question , yet it is the worst remedy of the doubt , and an insufficient introduction of the probability . In this case the doubt is to be laid aside by the advice and authority of some person fit to lead him , rather then by the confidence of his own little superadded impertinency . For indeed it is not good to have the sacredness of a conscience governed by weakness and contingency . 3. When the doubting person is inconstant , let him not speedily act what he lightly determines by the sudden intervening humor ; for he that changes quickly , judges lightly , but fancies strongly , and acts passionately , and repents speedily and often ; therefore let such a man when he perceives his own infirmity stop at the gates of action , lest the laying down one doubt , multiply many , and he become more miserable in his remedy then in his sickness . In pursuance of this Rule it is to be taken care of that fear be not mistaken for doubt ; for there is oftentimes a doubt no where but in the Will , and the more slender and weak the judgement is , oftentimes the fear is greater ; and sometimes they fear because they fear , and not because they have reason ; when therefore the doubt does not rely upon such a reason as can be formed into an argument and discourse , but is an unreasonable trouble , and an infinite nothing ; the doubt ought directly to be laid aside , for it is no way considerable , but onely that it is a considerable trouble . RULE 8. VVhen two precepts contrary to each other meet together about the same question , that is to be preferred which binds most . THIS Rule we learn from the eighth Councel of Toledo , Ubi periculi necessitas compulerit , id debemus resolvere quod minori nexu noscitur obligari . Quid autem ex his levius , quídve sit gravius , pietatis acumine investigemus . The Councel instances in the keeping wicked oaths and promises , where though the instance be mistaken , and that in the matter of wicked promises the case is not perplexed , and it is no sin to break them , but a sin to keep them ; yet upon supposition that the conscience is doubtful whether it be lawful to break them , and whether it be lawful to keep them , and fears a sin on either side , the Councel hath given a right answer , the evil that is least is to be chosen . Etenim dum perjurare compellimur , creatorem quidem offendimus , sed nos tantummodo maculamus . Cùm verò noxia promissa complemus , & Dei jussa superbè contemnimus , & proximis impiâ crudelitate nocemus , & nos ipsos crudeliori gladio trucidamus . He that having sworn to doe an evil turn breaks his oath , offends God by putting his name to a lie and a villany , and he pollutes his own soul : But he that keeps his oath when he hath so sworn , despises the Commandements of God , and hurts his neighbour with an impious cruelty , and destroys himself with a worse . ] On this side therefore there being the more and worse evils then on the other , we must decline furthest from this . For if all evil is to be avoided , then all degrees of evil are ; and when we cannot avoid as much as we should , we must avoid as much as we can . We must choose none directly , but when we are forced upon some by our own infelicity or fault , it is the best remedy for the Gangrene that we lose our arm or legge , and he that is in the fatal necessity , no otherwise can be permitted to choose a sin , then he is supposed to be desirous to be cut of the stone , when upon any terms he resolves he never will or can endure the torments of the disease . The great reason of this rule is that which was given by Aristotle , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the less evil in respect of the greater evil is to be accounted good ; because the less evil is rather to he chosen then the greater ; and what is in any sense eligible is in some sense good , and that which is more eligible is a greater good . But it seems something harder to inquire concerning this case when it relates to others : for so it uses to be asked ; Quest. WHether it be lawful to advise , to counsel , to petition , to determine , to make use of the doubt of another , or his necessity , or perplexity , and to call upon him to doe that which is a sin ? The case is this ; Pollio an intemperate and wanton young man falls into adulteries and unnatural lusts ; his friend Publius Asinius advises him , not so , but if he will not leave his vileness , better it is to satisfy his lust by single fornication , and the less harmful complications : Et quas Euphrates , & quas mihi mittit Orontes Me capiant , nolo furta pudica thori . whether or no Publius does well or no in giving this advice , is the question ? The reasons of doubting are these : * Because he that advises evil is guilty of the sin which he procures ; and he that any way consents or induces another to sin , shall be partner in the punishment . To this answer , That in the whole entercourse there are to be considered the formal sin , the material part of the action , and the degrees of the obliquity . The formal part , or the sinfulness cannot , must not be countenanced , or assisted at all , directly or indirectly ; and in the present case it is so farre from being countenanced , that it is reduced to as little a proportion as it can , as near to a destruction as the present necessity or perplexity will permit , and it is out of hatred to the obliquity or sinfulness that this lesser way is propounded . Pilate seeing the Jews resolved to doe a spight to the holy and most innocent Jesus , propounded to them a lesser way then murdering him ; I will scourge him , and let him goe . Pilates conscience was not perplexed , though his interest was , and therefore there was no necessity for him to doe either , and neither ought he to have propounded the lesser evil , which it may be themselves did not design : indeed if they were resolved to doe one , he might have perswaded the less , not absolutely ( for nothing could have made that lawful ) but comparatively , that is , rather that then the other , if ye will doe one . 2. But for the material part of the action , if it be already prepared , and the malice known and declared , it is lawful to propound a less instance of the sin without perswading to it ; which is to be understood with these cautions : 1. That it be onely with a purpose of hindring a greater . 2. When the lesser cannot be hindred , but at least so much must be done by way of redemption . As if Caius resolves to ravish a Matron to satisfy his lust , it is lawful to divert his lust upon a common prostitute , who sells her soul for bread ; because her malice is always ready and watches for an opportunity , and sins no less if she wants opportunity which she thirsts after ▪ 3. That it be ever without the prejudice of a third person : As if one of the Banditi intends to kill one man , and this happens to be offered to a publick and a brave man , it is not lawful to point out his sword to the striking of a meaner person to save the other , because though in respect of the effect it be a less evil , yet it is a direct uncharitableness to a third , which can receive no warrant or legitimation by the intention of the propounder ; for although he intends that a less evil be done for the publick , yet he intends a greater evil to the particular . 4. That it be in a case certainly known where the malice is apparent and declared , and the matter prepared : for thus we see that God who sees the hearts of men , diverts their prepared malice upon some special matter which serves the ends of his providence , and verifies the prophecies of God , and so brings his designs to effect , and a certain event by contingent or voluntary instruments . But we may no further imitate this , then we can attain to little portions of the knowledge of mens private and particular purposes . 3. But as for the degrees of the obliquity or irregularity , it is certain , none is to be perswaded or assisted directly , but suffered in the whole , and perswaded in the instance by way of remedy against the greater and more intolerable . Thus Moses permitted divorces , that the Jews might not commit open and frequent adulteries , or kill their wives when they grew weary of them . Thus an inconvenience is suffered rather then a mischief shall be introduced : and some fooleries and weak usages are suffered in some Churches , rather then by reforming them , make the ignorant people think all Religion is indifferent : and if all the people of the Greek Church did perceive that any of their old customes were fit to be rescinded , they would upon the same easiness quit their whole Religion and turn Turks . And though an error is not to be permitted in any Church when it can be peaceably amended , and when it cannot it is , as often as it can be , peaceably to be discouraged ; yet when the necessity is great , and the evil feared is certain , and felt and is intolerable ; it is a sad necessity , but no man can help it , and therefore it must be as it may , the lesser error is to be endured till it can be remedied , with a remedy that is not worse then the disease . Quest. UPon this occasion , and for the reducing the Rule to practice , and to regulate a case which now adays happens too frequently ; it is not amiss to inquire concerning the necessities of women married to adulterous and morose vile-natur'd husbands ; Whether it be lawful for a wife out of a desire to live with some degree of a tolerable comfort , to connive at her husbands stollen pleasures , and to permit him quietly to enjoy his folly ? and what is a womans duty , and what were her most prudent course , and manner of deportment ? Some of great reputation in the Church of God both of old and later times put a speedy period to this inquiry , and absolutely condemne it as unlawful for a man or woman to live with their husband or wife respectively , if either of them be notoriously guilty of adultery . Of this opinion was S. Hierom , saying that a man is sub maledictione si adulteram retineat , he is under a curse if he retains an adulteress in his embraces . And S. Chrysostom ; Sicut crudelis & iniquus est qui castam dimittit , sic fatuus & iniquus qui retinet meretricem . Patronus enim turpitudinis est qui celat crimen Uxoris . As he is cruel and unjust who puts a chast wise from him , so he is unjust and a fool that keeps a harlot . For he is a Patron of his wives turpitude . who conceals his wives adultery . And this they prove out of Solomon ; Qui tenet adulteram stultus est ; almost the words which S. Chrysostom uses . He is a fool that keeps an adulteress : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is in the Greek LXX . He is an ungodly man. And of the same opinion was Bucer in the last age , who for his opinion brings two arguments which are not contemptible . The first is taken from Deuter. 24. 4. where God enjoyns that if a man puts away his wife , he must at no hand receive her again , quia ipsa polluta est , she is defiled , meaning if any man else hath lien with her : and if this be a good reason , it will conclude stronger , that if she have committed adultery , she may not be entertained because in that case she is much more polluted , and where the reason of the Commandement does intervene , there also the obligation does goe along . But the other is yet more considerable ; For if God commanded that the adulteress should be stoned to death , certainly he much rather intended she should be turn'd out of doors . * To which I adde this consideration ; That since an adulterer is made one flesh with the Harlot with whom he mingles impure embraces , it follows that he hath dissolved the union which he had with his wife , or she with her husband ; for he cannot be one with his wife , and one with the Harlot , and yet he be one in himself and they two , for that is a perfect contradiction ; for that which is one with two , is not one but two . Now for a woman to lie with a man , or a man with a woman , between whom there is not a just and legitimate union , seems to be an unjust and illegitimate uniting , and therefore it cannot be lawful to lie with an adulterer who is one with an Harlot . Before I come to the resolution of the Question , I must describe how much these arguments doe prove and inferre ; because though they doe not prove so much as their Contrivers doe intend , yet they doe something towards the whole Question . 1. The words of S. Hierome inferre nothing but this , That to live with a Harlot is a great calamity and a horrible curse , and it cannot indeed tend towards a blessing , or end well , or be at all endured , if it be not intended to purposes beyond the proper effect of that calamity . He that is smitten with a leprosy , or he that is hanged upon a tree is accursed ; but if the leprosy makes a man run to God or to Christ , or the man that dies upon a tree does confess and glorify God , and by his death intends to doe so , the Leper shall be presented pure before the throne of Grace , and he that hangs upon the tree does die with Christ , and shall reign with him for ever . 2. And the design expressed in the words of S. Chrysostome doe verify this commentary upon the words of S. Hierome . For S. Chrysostome charging not onely infelicity ( as the other does ) but folly and cruelty upon him who retains a Harlot ; gives this reason , because he is a Patron of his wives turpitude if he conceals it ; meaning it , if he conceals it out of carelesness and positive neglect , or which is worse , out of interest , or base designs : All wise and good men in the world condemn the fact of Cato , who did lend his wife Martia , a virtuous and a chast Matron to his friend Hortensius : He that conceals his wives crime with an unwillingness to reform it , or a pleasure in the sin , or the fruits of it , is his wives betrayer and murderer ; nay , he is an adulterer to his own wife . But these words cannot be true in all cases , for he that conceals her shame , lest the discovery should make her impudent and harden her face , he is no patron of the sin , but a careful guardian watching lest she should commit a worse . And this also is the meaning of the words of Solomon ; for although they are not at all in our Bibles , because they are not found in the Hebrew text , yet the words which are found in the Greek LXX . and in the Vulgar Latin , and which were certainly in the Bibles which S. Hierome and S. Chrysostome did use , and which were the cause and original of their opinion , have in them this sense ; That as he who expels a good woman thrusts good from his house , so he that does not thrust an evil woman thence , an adulteress , he is a fool ; meaning if he connives at her wickedness , or unless he have somthing to sweeten the sufferance , or some pious purposes to sanctify his action . But if it were absolutely unlawful , then the adulteress were a person of a desperate fortune , irremediable and irrecoverable , uncapable of mercy , or repentance ; or if she were , yet her husbands charity and forgiveness might by no means be instrumental to it ; and yet S. Paul in a case that was extremely bad , even in the case of infidelity , Quî scis mulier an virum sis lucratura ? What knowest thou O woman whether thou mayest gain thy husband ? * But the arguments of Bucer being intended directly against the lawfulness of retaining an adulteress , or living with an adulterous husband , are to have distinct answers . For although where a commandement is given with a reason , where ever the same reason is , it does not always follow that there is the same obligation , because although God is sometimes pleased to give a reason for the precept , yet the reason did not binde without the precept , but the precept does binde without a reason , which demonstrates that the obligation proceeds wholly from the authority of God , and not from the reason ( as I intend to shew more largely in its proper place ) yet besides this I say , the reason is not rightly rendred in the usual Translations : Non poterit prior maritus recipere , quia polluta est ; The first husband may not receive her , because she is defiled : for the words in the Hebrew are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which doe not signify [ because she is polluted , but quia facta est polluere se , because she is made to defile her self ; ] meaning that because her first husband had thrust her out and offered her to be humbled by him that would , he being the cause of that pollution hath lost all right to her , and the privilege of restitution : and then this case refers not to a simple adultery , but to him who betrays or exposes his wife to adultery ; & indeed such a person might not in Moses Law receive her again : and this was the case of Cato and Socrates who were very free in lending their wives , as a man lends an utensil . As for the case of lapidation , it is true , the woman if she were legally convicted was to die ; but the husband was not bound to accuse her , he might pardon her if he pleased , and conceal the fact ; he might pardon her for his share as Christ did the woman taken in adultery ; or put her away privately as Joseph upon a mistake intended to doe to the blessed Virgin Mother : but that it is therefore unlawful to retain her whom his soul loves , whom he would fain convert , whom he desires and hopes to reform , or that God did intend the good man should not use any of his charity and kindness to any such purpose is not at all to be concluded by these arguments . Now as to the last , the adulterous man is one with the Harlot , but this union is not a natural union , but a spiritual and legal , as appears by the effect of second and third marriages ; for one person can no more be one naturally with two or three successively , then he can be one with many at one time ; and when the Patriarchs were married to divers women at once , they were not naturally one with them all , but legally they were ; that is , they were conjoyned in holy bands , and were to very many purposes to be reckoned but as one . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Clemens . They were one person by union of affection , they had one bed , one purse , one interest , community of children , communication of bodies , equal rights , as to the power of marriage , the same band of duty , tied by the same mystery . Now he or she that commits adultery breaks this union , and divides or imparts some of the rights due to each other to an impure person , and they become one flesh in an impure mixture . Now because he or she that first breaks this union loses their own right by invading or giving away anothers , therefore the offending person may be put away and refused in their petition of right , which they have lost by doing wrong . But the adultery hath not so united the offending persons , but that the union can , and may better be broke , and the erring party reduced to his rule and to his right . For it is but a legal , and it is a spiritual or intellectual union , which is to be done not by material but by moral instruments which can eternally return , and be effective when they doe . The way then being thus farre made straight , I answer ; That it is not onely lawful , but may have in it great piety and great charity for a woman still to cohabite with an adulterous husband . The lawfulness appears , in that there is no prohibition by a Divine Commandement , no natural uncleanness in it ; and this appears as all other negative pretences can , even by evacuating the pretences made to the contrary . Of this opinion was S. Basil , who also made a Canon for it , and commanded it to be done in his Church , as appears in his Epistle to Amphilochius 1. Can. 9. & 21. The same also was the sentence of S. Austin to Pollentius , and in his Book de adulterinis conjugiis : and of P. Pelagius in his Epistle to Melleus his Subdeacon . But they it seems went against the general stream , for they were not onely forc'd to dispute it , but also to limit the question and the permission . For David received his wife Michol who had liv'd with another man ; and S. Paul advises the wife to be reconciled to her husband ; and Christ forgave the woman taken in adultery , and God not onely is ready to forgive , but calls and invites his Church to return to his love though she hath been an adulteress , and committed fornication against him : but therefore so may a man , but it ought onely to be done in case the sinning person does repent : onely S. Basil is for the living still with the adulterer though he wallow in his sin ; but does not think it fit the man should be tied to doe so to his adulterous wife . That he or she respectively may if they will still live with the sinning person , needs no other proof but this , that the innocent being also the injured person may forgive the injury done to them ; and that it may have in it great piety and great charity is certain upon the same account on which it can be piety and charity to suffer injuries , to be patient , to have a long-suffering spirit , to exhort , to intreat , to bring the sinner to repentance , to convert a soul , to save a sinner from the evil of his way . But this is to be practiced with the following measures and cautions : 1. The innocent person must not be bound to doe this , because the union being dissolved , the criminal hath lost his right , and therefore if the other use their liberty , they doe no wrong ; and although it may be good charity in many instances to doe it , yet because there is no direct obligation in any , and there may be great uncharitableness to ones self as the case may happen , no ones liberty is to be prejudiced in this particular , but they are to be exhorted to all instances of charity ; ever remembring that saying of God by the Prophet , The Lord God of Israel saith , he hateth putting away . 2. The innocent person may lawfully retain the criminal , though he or she have no other end or purpose in it , but the love of the person , or the retaining of their own rights temporal , or any other thing that is in it self honest and lawful : and the reason is , because the fault of the one is not to prejudice the other ; and it is misery enough to be injured in their direct relation , and not that this injury compel them to receive another . If Titius be an adulterer , his wife Caia hath not lost her power over his body , or her interest in his family or fortune . 3. This is to last as long as there is any hopes of repentance , and the repentance is to be procured and endevoured by all direct means , and by all the indirect means which are ministred to the innocent person by the power and advantages which his or her innocence gives over the guiltiness of the other : Such as are , reproving his fault , denying conjugal rights , delating the person , bringing him or her to private shame , procuring reproof from spiritual superiors , or natural relatives , and indeed any thing that can be prudent , and by which the offender can be made better , and will not be made worse . 4. If there be no hopes of repentance , yet still the innocent person may use their own right , not onely because there may be possibilities and real consequent events when we have no hopes ; and S. Pauls question , Quî scis ô mulier ? how knowest thou O woman whether thou shalt gain thy husband ? may still have place , not onely I say for this reason , but for the foregoing ; the innocent person does not lose his or her right , and therefore may still possess what otherwise she might quit ; and his incontinence does not oblige her to be exposed to the danger of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or ustulation , nor to be reproached with the noises of divorce , nor offered to an actual poverty , or dereliction , or to become an actual widow before death . 5. If the retaining the adulteress be actually scandalous , the Church in that case hath been more restrained in her permission , and hath commanded the innocent person to put the offending woman away : and therefore the Fathers in the Councel of Eliberis refused to give the Communion to a Clergy man even at the last , if he did not statim projicere instantly expel from his house his wife whom he knew to commit adultery : And in the Councel of Neo-Caesarea he was to be deposed from his dignity in the same case ; the reason is given by the Councel of Eliberis , Nè ab his , qui exemplum bonae conversationis esse debent , videantur magisteria scelerum procedere ; lest their houses which ought to be the examples of piety and chastity , become the precedents and warranty of uncleanness . This is nothing else but a pursuance of the Canon Apostolical , requiring that Bishops and Deacons should be such who rule their own houses well ; for if they cannot doe that , it is not easy to be supposed they can well rule the Church of God : and though a good man may have an evil wife , and such a one whom no prudence can govern ; yet if she be an adulteress , he can put her away , though he cannot govern her : and indeed all such reproaches ought to be infinitely removed from the houses of those , whose lives and whose Governments ought to be exemplar . Oportet suspicionem abesse à Caesaris domo . Princes and Prelates ought not to have any thing under their roof so nearly relating to them , that can justly be suspected . But this is matter of decency and fittingness , not of indispensable necessity . 6. The innocent person must not directly by any compliance , cohabitation , or indulgence give countenance or incouragement to the impurity or crimes of the offending relative , for nothing can make it tolerable or lawful to promote a sin , or any ways directly to cooperate toward it . This is a species lenocinii , a being a bawd to the uncleanness of that person whom with our lives we ought to rescue from that damnation if we could . And therefore if the woman finds her husband grow worse by her toleration and sufferance , she is to goe off from it by such degrees as are on this side the extreme remedy , which I reckoned before in the third caution ; and if nothing else hinder , it is not onely excusable , but hugely charitable , and in a very great degree commendable to be divorc'd . For she uses her own power , and therefore sins not , and does it when nothing else can prevail , and therefore she is not rash , or light and inquisitive after new relations , and she does it that she may not patronize or increase his sin , and therefore is charitable to his better interest . 7. But if his or her compliance and cohabitation does accidentally make the offending party worse , yet if it be besides the intention , and against the purpose , and contrary to the endevours of the innocent ; he or she in that case is not tied to relinquish their right and their advantages in the present possession or cohabitation . 1. Because concerning accidental events , against which we labour , no man is to give account . 2. Because of this accidental event , the offending person is the onely author , and the innocent is not to suffer for his sin . 3. If the innocent person were tied to depart , then it were at any time in the power of the adulterer or adulteress to be divorced from the innocent , because he growing worse by the others being good can oblige the other to quit him of the burden which he hates . 4. Because to depart in that case is no remedy . Because he that is vile , may grow worse by contrary causes ; and as wicked men are made presumptuous by mercies , and hardned by judgements , and whether they be punished or not punished , from both they take occasion to persevere , so may an adulterer , or an adulteress , by being sweetly used , or by being harshly . All that can be of duty and necessity in this case , is that the innocent person with all prudent advice and caution doe not by any direct act incourage the crime , or connive at it when it can be help'd , or commend it when it cannot , or refuse to use any fair or any just instrument of curing the leper ; and for the rest , let them pray earnestly , frequently , humbly , and leave the event to God. It is lawful to permit or suffer an evil whith I cannot help , and by that permission retain my own rights , or prevent my own wrongs ; but it is at no hand lawful for any interest spiritual or temporal to doe an evil , or to set it directly forward . Thus some Common-wealths permit fornication and publick stews , to pre●●●t the horrid consequents of the lusts of their young men , which when they cannot cure , they seek to lessen and divert ; and though there be in the whole , many evil appendages , and a great fault in Government , and many evil and avoidable necessities introduced or supposed ; yet so farre as this intention is considered , if it were not avoidable or remediable by the severity of Laws , and the wisdome of discourses , and the excellencies of Religion , it were the onely charity that were left , and an after game of Conscience and Religion ; sad and fatal to those whose folly inferres it , but all that is left that can be done for God and for souls . But yet this thing in all the circumstances is not to be done at all , because it is asnare to many who have no such necessities , who are otherwise curable , who enter into the temptation , because it is made ready to their hand ; and it is a high scandal to the Laws and to the Religion of a Country , where such vile nests of impurity are suffered ; and the necessity is but phantastick , accidental , and inferr'd by evil customes , or some secular interest , or weaker regard ; for there is no necessity that men must either debauch Matrons or be fornicators ; let them marry , for that is the remedy which God hath appointed , and he knows best how to satisfy and provide for all the needs of mankinde . But it is objected . The Laws of Italy forbid the younger brothers of great families to marry . * That is it , which I said , men make necessities of their own , and then finde ways to satisfy them which therefore cannot be warranted by that necessity , because that necessity is of their own procuring , not from God , nor for him . For this is the case ; An evil is to be cured , and a greater prevented ; God hath appointed marriage for a remedy , the civil power forbids it to some persons , who for want of that must fornicate , or doe worse . To prevent the worse they provide them of opportunities of doing the less ? But what remedy is there for the less ? That is not thought of ; for marriage is inconvenient to younger families ; but it is very convenient for their souls , and they also would be provided for , as being no contemptible interest . Here therefore , if they would alter the necessities which worldly interest introduced , if they would preferre souls before the greatness of families , heaven before a Marquisate in Sardinia , and would esteem it more honour to a house to have chastity preserv'd rather then wealth and an intire inheritance , the weak pretences of excuse for Stews would be hissed off from the face of all Christian Countries ; for if fornication be a remedy against unnatural lusts , it is just as being poysoned is an antidote against hanging , but certainly there is a better : Innocence or pardon will prevent it with more advantage , and so will marriage doe to the worse evils of lust ; unless no health is considerable which is not effected by a Witch , and ease is to be despised if it be brought with a blessing . * But if any one can pretend that marriage will not secure the Italians or hot Spaniards from attempting intolerable vilenesses ( besides that fornication will doe less , as having in it no more of natural remedy , and not so much by way of blessing ) in this case , the wheel or the gallies , hard labour and the mines , the rods and axes must pare off the luxury . * This therefore is the result , as to this particular instance . In the questions of greater or less uncleannesses , permissions are not to be made by publick authority , for the reasons before named : but there may be particular necessities in single instances which will run into present evil , for which no remedy can be provided ; and then it is lawful to divert the malice upon a less matter , when it cannot be taken off intirely : For thus righteous * Lot offered his daughters to the impure Sodomites , to redeem the strangers from the violation intended them , and to hinder his Citizens from breaking the laws of ●●ture and Hospitality , which ( if they were not always ) yet they were of greater obligation then the restraints of simple fornication . And to this purpose is that of S. Chrysostome who to a man that is accustomed to swear , and cannot avoid it , advises that he should rather swear by his head then by God. I doe not , I confess , like the instance , both because it is in some cases worse to swear by a Creature then by the Creator ; it is an honour done to him to swear by him , though to doe it triflingly is such an honour done to him , as superstition is , an honour that angers him ; and 2. also because , he that can pretend his swearing to be unavoidable , does say so , because he does swear when he cannot deliberate ; & if he does not consider , he can never make use of his advice to doe one rather then another ; for no man can choose that cannot consider , but as for the prime intention of the advice , that the least evil is to be chosen , or advised , it is without question safe and prudent . * Of the same purpose are these words of S. Austin , Si decrevisti homicidium aut adulterium facere , adulterium committe non homicidium . If thou wilt murder or commit adultery , doe this , not that ; that is , rather this then that . But neither here am I pleased with the instance , because , when any man can lawfully be diverted to a less sin , it must be in the same kinde ; because the same lust cannot be filled with a differing object ; and if the temptation be such that it can be taken off wholly from that Scene , and chang'd to a differing and disparate matter , he can as well be turn'd to something that is innocent as to some other distinct vice ; that is , he may for all his temptation . From unnatural lusts to natural , from the greater kinde to the less , from adultery to fornication , from fornication to trifling amours , and Platonick fooleries ; from murder to a blow , from a blow to an angry word ; these are proper diminutions which are in a direct order to the retrenching of the sin : but from murder to adultery a man is not to be diverted , because this is not a direct lessening of the degrees of sin , but a changing it into equal ; or if it be not , yet the malice is more extended , if not intended , and the man is directly tempted to be a Devil upon a new score , for it must be a new malice that must change him ; but still , the advice is in its main design safe and innocent . * But of the same minde is S. Gregory affirming it to be good advice that when of two sins one must be chosen , that the least be it , but his proof of it is not to be suffered ; for so ( saith he ) for the avoiding fornication S. Pa●● ▪ permits marriage ; which saying of his without great violence to the words and charity to the man can never be reconciled with the truth of Scriptures ▪ the honour of marriage , but as for the main advice it is well and agreeable to right reason . But besides the cautions already given num . 4. relating to the material part of sin , the whole affair is to be conducted with these provisions : 1. No man may use this course , by ingaging in a present lesser evil , to seek to prevent a greater that is to come : the reason is , because this is a securing of evil , it is an assurance and a certain gain to the interest of sin , and this certainly may outweigh the greater degree of an uncertain evil ; and there are many acts of providence which may intervene and prevent the future evil , which therefore is not to be prevented by a present evil though less mischievous , because possibly it may be hindred at a cheaper rate ; and no little evil is to be done , but when either it self or a greater is unavoidable , which happens not ( for ought we know ) in the present case ; for before to morrow the man may die , or his affections to sin may die , or he may be sick , or scar'd , and to put it off as long as we can , is one kinde of diminution and lessening of the sin , which is the thing here consulted of . 2. Care must be taken , that by this means no mans sin be promoted , no mans eternal interest be lessened , no evil be done that we could not ought to forbid and hinder ; and that of this we have a moral certainty , or at least no probable cause to doubt : The reason is , because if we put any mans soul to hazard , by procuring a less damnation to an evil person , the evil we doe is greater then our good ; and we venture one mischief , for the venture or hopes of lessening another . Quintus Milvius being in love with the wife of Muraena , and she with him , Milvius resolves to kill his wife Virginia , and run away with the wife of Muraena , or force her from him , he acquaints his freed man Priscus Calvus with his purpose , but he to divert his purpose of murder and adultery perswades his Patron Milvius rather to lie with Muraena's rather to lie with Muraena's wife now , then to doe such things of hazard and evil voice , and dishonour : and his advice was charitable and prevailed ; for though the adultery was future , yet the intended murder was present , and the evil was lessened as much as it could , and no man prejudiced , but the life of one sav'd . But if he beleeves that by this act Virginia will be so exasperated that she will turn adulteress in revenge , or kill her husband ; this is not to be advised upon the foregoing reason . If a rich Usurer refuses to give an alms to a strav'd person , he may be advised rather to lend him some money upon interest , then suffer him to die for want of bread : but if I beleeve , or probably suppose or suspect that another man will be confirm'd in the uncharitableness , and think because I advise him to this , he does well in it , and will live and die in this opinion , then I may not at the charge of another mans soul , doe the other wicked person that small advantage , which is less then can countervail the other evil . 3. He that advises the lesser evil for the avoiding of a greater , must not advise any thing so to serve his own interest or humor , as that he shall in any sense be delighted with the evil , because so he becomes guilty of the others sin , and then he cannot doe a thing lawfully , if it asperses him with guilt ; and he may not serve anothers need with his own evil joyes ; and the interest of souls is not set forward when one dies to make another less sick . But besides this , the question here being whether it be lawful to advise a less evil for avoiding of a greater , though it be affirm'd to be so , when it is wholly for the avoiding the greater ; yet it cannot be lawful to give such advice to serve my own lower ends : Nothing but the former can legitimate such an advice , and therefore this latter cannot . 4. No man must make use of this course himself ; for though it be lawful to divert a greater evil by advising the less to others , yet I may not my self choose a less , that I may not choose a greater ; for if this could be lawful , it would be in the power of any man to sin what sin he pleased , and to threaten his conscience into a leave ; for if he should resolve he would either kill the father , or lie with the daughter ; be unnatural in his lusts , or loose in his entertainments , he might legitimate every lesser sin for fear of the greater . But therefore it is certain , that when he can choose either , he must choose none , for nothing can make it lawful , directly to choose any , even the least evil . But when it so happens that the conscience is doubtful and perplex'd , and that in this sad conjunction of evil and weak thoughts , it seems unavoidable but that one must be chosen , we may then incline to that which hath least danger , and least mischief . And this advice was given by the Chancellor of Paris : Si sub electione proponuntur duo mala , cave neutrum eligas : Nam in malis quid est eligendum ? At verò si culpâ nostrâ eò recidimus ut necesse sit alterum ex peccatis fieri , minus est acceptandum ; quia jam in comparatione deterioris , sortitur boni , secundum quid , rationem . No sin is to be chosen when both can be avoided , but when they cannot , the least is to be suffered . But when this comes to be another mans case that he will not avoid both , though he sins in choosing any , yet he that advises him rather to take the less does not sin . He that chooses the less , sins less , but yet sins , because he should choose none at all ; but he that advises him to choose the less , sins not at all , because he hinders all sin as much as he can . 5. He that advises a less sin for the prevention of a greater , must see that it be directly less , and certainly so ; it must be in the same matter and kinde , and in a less degree , because he can no other ways be certain that he hath done any good at all , and may doe a greater evil . For in degrees of sin the case is clear when the matter or instance is the same ; but if it be specifically different , or in the whole kinde , all question of degrees is infinitely uncertain , and therefore the rule is not without danger practicable in such cases . But of this I have already given some accounts in the fifth number of this Rule . But because all this discourse relies upon this main ground , that the lesser evil in respect of the greater hath the nature of good , and therefore is to be preferred ; or ( which is all one ) the avoiding of the greater evil is directly a good , and the suffering the less evil is better then suffering the other , yet because it is but comparatively good , it is positively evil ; here it is to be inquired , Whether this can be lawful , or is it not a prevaricating of the Apostles rule , That evil is not to be done that good may come of it ? and whether this may be done in any case , and by what cautions it can be permitted or made legitimate ? This inquiry hath great uses in the whole life of men , and therefore is not unworthy a stricter search . And first as to the present Rule , it is certain , that this permission is not a doing evil that good may come of it : 1. Because no evil is at all permitted when all can be avoided . 2. Because no man is to act this Rule in his own person , upon whom he may and ought to have a power of perswasion and effort sufficient to cause himself to decline all evil . 3. It is onely permitted to be advised to others by such persons who hate all sin , and have neither pleasure nor interest in any . 4. It is not a giving leave to any sin , but an hindring as much as can be hindred . It is not a doing any thing at all of kindness to any thing but to the man. It is like that permission which the sons of Israel gave to the remnant of the Canaanites , to live in the land because they could not destroy them all . They kill'd as many as they could , and it was not kindness but necessity that left those few alive . And the thing was not ill expressed by Petrarch , Duobus aut pluribus ex malis minus malum eligendum esse non video , cùm minus malum haud dubiè malum sit , qualiter mali electio sit laudanda . Itaque rectiùs dici reor , majora mala majori studio vitanda , ut si vitari cuncta non possunt , minora faciliùs tolerentur , non electione , sed patientiâ , aequanimitate , modestiâ . Of two evils the least is not to be chosen , since that the less evil is without all doubt an evil . Thus therefore I suppose we ought to say ; The greater evils are with greater care to be avoided , that if all cannot be declined , the less may be better tolerated , not by choice , but by patience . Now though it be not lawful to doe evil for a good end , yet it is lawful to suffer evil to avoid a greater , and to make the best of it that we can ; which was the counsel which Cicero says he received from learned men , Non solùm ex malis minima oportere eligere , sed etiam excerpere ex iis ipsis si quid inesset boni . But to the thing it self , there can be no dispute but that it is highly unlawful to doe evil for a good end ; S. Pauls words are decretory and passionate in the thing : He calls it slander , or blasphemy that they reported it of him that he should say , It was lawful to doe evil that good might come of it ; he also affirms that though the greatness of the sins of the Jews or Gentiles did magnify the greatness of the Divine mercy , yet they whose sins accidentally thus serv'd the glorification of God , their damnation was just . Though this be clear and certain , yet I doubt not but all the world does evil that good may come of it ; and though all men are of S. Pauls opinion , yet all men doe not blame themselves when they doe against it . I will therefore first represent the matters of fact , and then consider of the allays or excuses to which men pretend in their private accounts or publick answers , and so separate the certain from the uncertain , and establish the proper measures of the proposition . For first if we look in Scripture , we shall finde that divers eminently holy have serv'd God by strange violences of fact , and for his glory have laid hold upon instruments not fit to be handled , but such which would have cut the hands of a Christian , if they had been drawn through them . David gave order to Hushai to enrol himself in the rebel party , and to deal falsly with Absol●m , that he might doe good to David ; and indeed so doe all spies , which if they were not necessary , would not be used in all Armies ; and if they be , yet they doe that which honest men would scruple at . * Elias the Prophet that he might bring the people from idolatry , caused a sacrifice to Baal to be made , and the idol to be invocated , which of it self was simply and absolutely evil ; and Jehu ( though a much worse man ) yet proclaimed an assembly for Baal , and both of them did it that they might destroy the Priests of Baal , and dishonour the idol , and doe honour to God , and both did well : * and for ought appears so did the ten men of Shechem who to redeem their lives from the fury of Ishmael discovered the secret treasures of the Nation : * and amongst the Christians some women , particularly Pelagia and her daughters have drowned themselves to prevent the worse evil of being defloured . * And is it not necessary in all Governments that by violence peace should be established , and by great examples of an intolerable justice others should be made afraid . * For so doe all Princes knowingly procure their rights by doing wrong ; for in all warres the innocent must suffer that the guilty may be punished : And besides that all great examples have in them something of iniquity ; it were not easy to have discipline in private Governments , or coercitive power in Laws , if in some cases some evil were not to be permitted to be done for the procuring some good . For suppose Corippus hath an obstinate servant , so perverse that like the sides of Elephants his very soul grows hard by stripes , and that Corippus knows this , yet if he have other servants who will be corrupted by the impunity of this , he may , he must doe evil to the obstinate , and ruine his soul for the preserving the others . * And indeed if we consider how sad , how intolerable an evil it is that a malefactor is snatch'd from his scene of evil and vile actions , and hurried to hell with his sins about him ; and that for the onely reason of doing good to others , and preserving the publick interest , it will seem necessary that this interest be preserved , and therefore that the other instrument be imployed ; * for it is natural enough that as truth comes from falsehood , so should good from evil , it is not an accidental or contingent product , but sometimes natural and proper ; and as God brings good out of evil by his almighty power , so doe good men by the nature of the thing ; and then the intermedial evil to a wise and religious person is like unhandsome and ill tasted physick , it is against nature in the taking and in its operating , but for the preservation of nature in the effect and consequent ; so are some evils against Religion but useful for its advancement . * And this very similitude supplies many particulars of the same nature . For thus we make children vain-glorious that they may love noble things ; and who can govern prudently and wisely that resolves never to be angry ? and to be angry so as to doe the work of government ; though it be not bigger then the measures of the Governour , yet they exceed the measures of the Man. * Thus for Physick it is affirmed to be lawful for a man to be drunk : * And Cardinal Tolet allows of voluntary desires of pollution when without it we cannot have our health ; and yet to desire such pollution without such a good purpose is certainly criminal , and if for the interest of health evil may be done , much more for Religion and effects of holiness . * But thus I said , it must happen in publick Governments : The Christians that dwell in China , Japan , and in the Indies cannot transact their affairs with the Heathens without oaths , and therefore they make them swear by their own false gods , by the names of their idols and devils , which onely they think binding , and neither could there be any security of faith to Princes or to Subjects , that is , in the publick or private entercourse without it , and yet without question as to swear by Devils and false Deities is a high crime , to so require or to procure it is a great sin , and yet it is done for necessity . The Romans would not trust the Jews that would swear by the Temple of Jupiter : Ecce negas , jurásque mihi per Templa Tonantis , Non credo , jura verpe per Anchialum . no trust was given unless they swore by the God whom they feared , and so it is in the case of others ; and what is necessary , it were very strange if it might not be permitted . * And what else can be the meaning of dispensations , but that a thing which is otherwise unlawful is made good by its ministring to a good end ; that is , it is lawful to doe evil , to break a Law , and leave is given to doe so , when it is necessary , or when it is charitable . Upon this account it is that prescription does transferre a right , and confirms the putative and presumed , in defiance of the legal and proper , and this is for no other reason but to prevent uncertainties in title , and eternal contentions , which is a certain doing injury to the right owner , that good may be procured , or evil prevented . * When a man is in extreme necessity , the distinctions of dominion doe cease ; and when David and his Souldiers were hungry , they eat the Shew bread which God forbad to all but the Priests ; and so did the Apostles to satisfy their hunger break the Sabbath by pulling and rubbing the ears of ●orn ; * and in the defence of a mans own life it is lawful to kill another : which is certainly a doing evil for a good end : and if it be said , that this is not a doing evil , because the end makes it not to be evil , this is a plain confessing the question against the words of S. Paul ; for if the good end makes that to be lawful , which of it self without that end is unlawful , then we may conclude against S. Paul , that it is good to doe evil that good may come ; that is , it is ch●nged by the end and by the design . * And upon an equal stock of necessity it is , that all Princes think themselves excused , if by inferring a warre they goe to lessen their growing neighbours ; but this is a doing wrong to prevent a mischief , as the birds in Plutarch , that beat the Cuckow for fear that in time she should become a Hawk . * And this is certain in the matters of omission , though to omit a duty be simply evil , yet when it is necessary , it is also lawful , and when it is charitable it is lawful : Thus religion yeelds to charity , and charity to justice , and justice it self to necessity , and a man is not bound to pay his debts , when to doe so will take from him his natural support . * And it is thus also in commissions ; who will not tell a harmless lie to save the life of his friend , of his child , of himself , of a good and a brave man ? and to govern children and fools by saying false things , no man makes a scruple : and Physicians are commended if with a witty lie they can cozen melancholick and hypochondriacal men into a cure . Thus the man of Athens , who phansied if he should make water he should drown the city , was cured by his Physicians ingenious fiction that the city was on fire , and defiring him to quench it with his urine , lest water should be wanting in that great necessity , struck his fancy luckily , and prevailed upon him to doe that which no direct perswasion could effect . Thus Hercules de Saxoniâ having committed to his charge a melancholick man , who supposing himself to be the Prophet Elias would needs fast forty days , dress'd a fellow like an Angel , who pretending that he brought him meat from heaven , prevail'd upon him to receive both food and Physick . This lie was charitable , and if it was not therefore innocent , then some charity can be criminal ; but if it was innocent , it was made so wholly by the good end , which sanctified the evil instrument . * Thus also Judges exact oaths from contradicting parts , though they know that one is perjured , but yet he proceeds by such means to guess at truth , and satisfy the solemnities of Law. * And when the Judges themselves are corrupt , we think it fit to give them bribes to make them doe justice , who otherwise would for bribes doe injustice ; and yet we suppose we are no more to be reproved then they are who pay interest money to the Usurers and Bankers whom yet themselves beleeve to sin . But bribery is a sin , and bribery in a wrong cause is two or three ; and therefore let the cause be what it will , it is no way tolerable but that it is for a good end . * Thus we venture into danger to serve worthy designs ; some read heretical Books to be able to confute them ; and some venture into persecutions which they could avoid , because they would not weaken the hands of such who cannot avoid it ; and yet to goe to danger is not safe , and therefore against charity , and therefore sin , and yet it is for charity and faith even when it is against one of them . * And last of all , all men doe , and they beleeve they may make addresses to a Tyrant for justice , and though he sits on the Bench by wrong , yet we stoop to his purple , and kiss his rods and axes when we desire to be defended from the oppression of a lesser Tyrant ; and if this be not a doing evil that good may come of it , then it is no evil to make another doe an act of usurped power , or to bend to a power which destroys that to which we are bound by the oath of God. These instances I have not brought in opposition of the Apostles rule , or that I think any man else pretends any of these in defiance of it , but to represent that either a great part of mankinde does it when they least think of it , or that some things which seem evil are not so ; and that I may describe the measures of these things , and establish the case of Conscience upon its just limits and rule . 1. Therefore it is to be observed , that the facts of men living under a Law , are not to be measured by Laws of a differing Government , and therefore if the facts of worthy men were exemplary ( of which in its proper place I am to give accounts ) yet the facts of Saints in the old Testament would not be safe examples to us in the New ; and therefore we may not doe that which Hushai did , for he did well , that is , against nothing of the Law under which he stood ; but if the simplicity and ingenuity of our Law gives us other measures ; the effect will be , that Hushai did not doe evil for a good end , but did well to a good purpose . And as to the thing it self , it is very likely that it is lawful to abuse his credulity , whose life I may lawfully take ; the cautions and limits of which permission belong not to this present inquiry . 2. The rules of warre , and the measures of publick interest are not to be estimated by private measures , and therefore because this is unlawful in private entercourses , it must not be concluded to be evil in the publick . For humane affairs are so intricate and intangled , our Rules so imperfect , so many necessities supervene , and our power is so limited , and our knowledge so little , and our provisions so short sighted , that those things which are in private evils may be publick goods : and therefore in this question , the evil and the good are to be in the same kinde ; a private evil is not to be done for the procuring of a private good , but for a publick it may : not that evil may be done for any thing ; but that here it is not evil , when it is measured by the publick standard . For since God is the fountain of Government , he also gives authority to all such propositions which are necessary means of its support , not to all which pretend to it , or which are inferr'd by folly or ambition , but which are really such . Warre cannot be made as a man corrects his child , with even degrees of anger , and a just number of stripes , and equalities of punishment both to the person and to the offence ; and Kings are in the place of God who strikes whole Nations and Towns and Villages ; and warre is the rod of God in the hands of Princes , but the evils which are intermedial to the greater purposes of a just warre are such which are unavoidable in themselves , and besides the intentions of good Kings ; and therefore in such cases , though much evil is suffered because it is unavoidable , yet none is done of choice , and that makes not against the Rule . For , 3. In many of the instances objected , the evils which are the ways of procuring good , are not evils in morality but in nature ; and then it is lawful , when there is no malice in the design , to prevent the sin , or to doe a good office by a shrewd turn . Thus I may pull my friend out of a pool by a strained arm , and save his life by putting his arm out of joynt ; and this is a doing evil materially , with a pious purpose , that is without malice , and for a good end , and that is innocent and charitable , when it is unavoidable , but it is not to be chosen , and done with delight , or evil intent , or perfect election : to doe evil to a man in this case is besides the mans intention , it is accidental also to the whole event , it is not so much as giving unpleasing Physick , not so much as imposing cupping glasses and using sacrifications ; for this is voluntary and chosen for a good end , because the good cannot else well be procured , and yet it is chosen upon those terms by the Patient . Upon this account a man may give his life for his friend , or wish himself dead ; and S. Paul wish'd himself accursed for his brethren , and Moses desired to be blotted out of the book of life in zeal for the people of God ; and yet all this is a very great charity , because though a man may not doe evil , yet he may suffer evil for a good end ; he may not procure it , but he may undergoe it : and after all , the doing of a natural or physical evil may be permitted when there is no motive but charity , for then it is in no sense forbidden ; sometimes necessary and unavoidable , but no ways evil or criminal ; and if it be , it becomes so by accident , or by the intertexture of some other ingredient . 4. When the evils are subordinate or relative , the less may be done to prevent the greater , though they be not in the same matter ; as a child may be beaten to prevent a sin , an offender smitten to make him diligent : for these actions , though they are in the accounts of evil things , yet have no intrinsecal irregularity , but wholly depend upon the end ; But because commonly evil things are done to evil purposes , and with irregular measures , they have an ill name , but they can be changed when the end is made straight , and the measures temperate . Every thing that is not intrinsecally evil , if it be directed to a good end , is good , unless it be spoiled by some intervening accident . 5. Some things are evils properly and naturally , some by accident , some by our own faults , some by the faults of others . An action may be innocent as from me , and yet a very great evil by the fault of others : A malefactor put to death , it may be perishes eternally ; if he does , it is his own fault , the Laws are innocent when they smite him for the good of others ; and th●s is not a doing evil that good may come of it ; for in things not essentially and unalterably evil , good and evil are in relations , and though the smiting some sinners produce a very evil effect , yet it is only to be imputed to its own cause : There is a good and an evil in many things , & God and the Devil have their share of the thing , and so have several persons , according as they intend , and as they operate : and in this case , the Laws intend good , and doe that which is good , that is , they punish a Malefactor , but of the accidental damnation , the sinner that suffers onely , is the onely cause ; and therefore in this , and many like cases of publike transaction there is no evil done for a good end . Thus if any man who is to take an oath be wicked and false , the Law may exact the oath because that is good , but the Law it self may use a false oath if the man will swear it , but then the falseness is the mans that swears , not the Laws that exacts it . For to many products there are many concurrent causes , which are not integral , but have each their share ; and when causes are not integral , the portion of effect is to be applied onely by the intention of the agent , and the proportion and order to the end : Indeed if the whole effect were to be imputed intirely to every concurring agent ( as in murder every man is principal and integral ) then in many of the fore alledged cases , evil were done for a good end , but then it could not be lawful so to doe , but the actions are therefore innocent to some agents , because they doe nothing of it but the good share , that which they ought to doe ; and that which spoils it , comes in at another door . 6. Some Laws of God are such that their rectitude is so perfect , the holiness so intire , the usefulness so universal , the instance so fitted for all cases , and the Oeconomy of it so handsome and wise that it never interferes with any other duty , is never complicated with contradicting matter , or cross interests ; now these are such which no case can alter , which no man may prevaricate , or if they doe they are such which no measure can extenuate , which no end can sanctify : and these are either Laws of general reason , and common sanction ; or spiritual instances , and abstracted from matter . Thus no man may blaspheme God at any time or for any end , or in any degree ; and in these cases it was rightly said in the objections , that if the end can change the instrument , then it is not evil to doe any thing for a good end , because the end makes the evil to be good . But then in other cases , where the instances are material , tied up with the accidents of chance , made changeable by relations , tied in several parts by several duties , fill'd with various capacities , there the good and the evil are like colours of a doves neck , differing by several aspects and postures , there abstractions are to be made , and separations of part from part , of capacity from capacity ; and when every man provides concerning his share of influence into the effect all is well , and if one fails , it may be evil is done to the whole production , but it is not imputed to them who took care of their own proportions . * But in such kinds of actions , the limits and measures are extrinsecal and accidental , and the goodness is not essential , natural , and original ; and therefore the whole receives variety by necessities , and by charity . For whatsoever can be necessary by a necessity of Gods making , that is lawful : and I may serve any greater necessity by any thing that is less necessary , when both necessities cannot be served . Thus Davids eating the Shew-bread , and the Apostles eating corn on the Sabbath , serv'd a greater need then could have been secur'd by superstitious or importune abstinence . In positive and temporary commands there is no obligation but when they consist with higher duties ; Actus imperati unius virtutis non debent praejudicare actibus elicitis alterius . The proper and natural actions of one virtue are ever to be preferr'd before the instrumental acts of another . As an act of temperance must be preferr'd before a posture in worshipping ; charity before fasting , or before ceremonies : that is , the more necessary before the less . It is more necessary to save the life of a man , then to say my prayers at any one time , and therefore I may leave my prayers in the midst , and run to save a man from drowning . This is a thing which cannot stay , the other can . For in all such precepts of affirmative duty , there is a secret condition annexed , and they oblige not when they cross a negative . And it is certain there could be no usefulness of knowing the degrees of good or evil , if it were not for prelation and election of one before another : To what purpose were it that we are told , Obedience is better then sacrifice , but that we should neglect one and doe the other when both cannot stand together ? and this order of degrees is the full ground of dispensations when they can be allowed in divine Commandements : but in humane dispensations there is another , even the want of foresight , the imperfection of the Laws themselves which cannot provide for all cases before-hand , as Gods Laws can ; and therefore to dispense with a Subject in a humane Law is not a doing evil for a good end ; for to break an humane Law is not intrinsecally an evil , though no express leave be given , as the case may happen : but when leave is given , as it is in dispensations , then there is no evil at all . And something like this , is that other case of prescriptions , which does indeed transferre a right from a right owner , as it may happen , but this is a doing good and not evil , for it is a preferring a certain possession before an uncertain right ; or it is a doing a greater good , that is a prelation of a title which hath more evidence , and publick advantage then the other . Besides , it is done by publick consent , in which , because every particular is included , there is no evil done , but much is prevented . 7. In actions the material part is to be distinguished from the formality , the work from the affection : That may be wholly indifferent , when this may be wholly criminal . He that drinks till he vomits , by the Physicians advice , gives none of his affection to the pleasure of any thing forbidden , he takes it as he takes a potion or pills , which may have the same effect with drink . But when the material part cannot be done without the sense of pleasure which is forbidden , then the end cannot sanctify it : and therefore although to drink much for Physick may be lawful , yet pollution may not be desired for health , because that cannot be done or suffered without an unlawful pleasure ; and so also will drinking for health become vicious , if in the acting of the material part , any part of our affections be stolen away , and the pleasure of the excess be delighted in . 8. He that makes use of the matter of a sin already prepared to which he gives no consent , and which he cannot help , does not doe evil for a good end . Thus the Prophet called on the Priests of Baal to doe what they used to doe , that they might never doe so again : He was no way the cause of a sin , but of its circumstances and adjuncts , that it be done here and now , and this is not against the Apostles rule ; time and place are no sins , and make none unless frequency be added to the time , and holiness to a place , and then they may adde degrees or new instances to the sin ; but when neither of these is procured or injured respectively , it is lawful to glorify God by using the prepared sin to good purposes . When a Judge is ready to receive money upon any terms , out of this evil we may bring good , and cause him to doe a good thing rather then a bad ; he does neither well , but that is his own fault ; but to give money is a thing indifferent , and to give it for that end which is good , makes it better : and bribery is a word of an ill sound when it means an evil thing , but when it means well we may finde a better word for it , or mean well by this : though concerning the particular it is not amongst men esteemed certain that it is lawful to give money to a Judge : Sed si dedi ( says Ulpian ) ut secundum me in bonâ causâ Judex pronunciaret , est quidem relatum condictioni locum esse : sed hic quoque crimen contrahit . Judicem enim corrumpere videtur : & non ita pridem Imperator noster constituit litem eum perdere . Whether it be lawful or no is to be inquired in another place ; but as to the present inquiry , if it be lawful , I have accounted for it already ; if it be not , it is not to be done , no not for justice sake . For in this case we no way consent to the evil , but endevour to bring good out of that evil which is already in being . Thus we run to a Tyrant power for justice , he will govern whether we will or no , the sin will be acted and continued upon his own account ; but when the evil matter is thus made ready , we may reap as much good by it as we can bring out of it ; and in this sense is that true and applicable to the present which is urged in the objection , That as truth may come from falshood , so may evil from good ; when an ill gotten power is apt either to justice or injustice , we may draw justice from it , and then we doe good without cooperating to the evil : that is , we onely doe determine an indifferent agent to the better part : The manner of getting the power is wholly extrinsecal to the ministration of it : That is wholly the fault of the Usurper , but this which is our own act is wholly innocent . If Nero sets Rome on fire , I doe no hurt if I warm by the heat , and walk by the light of it ; but if I laugh at the flames , or give a fagot to it , I am guilty . And thus the Christians use the Heathens oaths for their own security ; the oath is good , and so farre it is desired ; that the oath is by a false god is the Heathens fault ; this is effected by these , but the other is onely desired by them : This therefore is not a doing evil for a good end ; it is a desiring of good , and a using the evil matter which is of anothers procuring . 9. There are some actions criminal and forbidden in certain States onely , as to kill a man is a sin , a private man may not doe it ; but the same man when he comes to be a publick Magistrate may doe it : A private man also may not doe it when he is in the relation and protection of civil society , because in that , the Laws are his guards , and the publick Judges are his defensatives ; but if a man sets on me by violence , and so puts himself into a state of warre , he by going from the limits of civil society , takes off the restraint which that society put upon me , and I am returned to the liberties of nature ; and there is by all Laws a power given a man to defend himself , by Laws , if he can , and if he cannot , then by himself and the means of nature ; and therefore to kill him that would kill me , is not to doe evil for a good end , for the thing is permitted , and therefore not intrinsecally evil , and whatsoever is not so , may be accidentally good . 10. Some of the instances are such which are disallowed by most men ; so to tell a lie for a good end is unlawful , upon supposition that a lie is intrinsecally evil ; concerning which the account must be reserved for its own place : for the present , it is certainly unlawful to lie for any end , if that supposition be true ; but if lying be onely forbidden for its uncharitableness or injustice , that is , for its effects , then when the end is good , the instrument is tolerable . By these measures all the instances objected can be measured and secured , and by these the Rule it self must be conducted . What cannot be excused upon one of these , is wholly to be reproved as being a direct prevaricating the Apostles Rule . The summe is this ; Whatsoever is forbidden by the Law under which we stand , and being weighed by its own measures is found evil ; that is , in a matter certainly forbidden , not for any outward and accidental reason , but for its natural or essential contrariety to reason and the Law of God , that may not be done , or procured for any end whatsoever . For every such thing is intrinsecally and essentially evil , it is evil without change or variety , without condition or circumstance , and therefore cannot be made good by any such thing . What is evil in some circumstances may be good in others , and what is condemned for a bad effect , by a good one may be hallowed , but if it be bad of it self , it can never be good , till there come a cause as great to change its nature , as to make it : the cruelty of a mans habit or his choice can be turn'd , but a viper will for ever have a venome in his tooth . But this Rule is also to be extended to cases that are duplicate , and relate to two persons . As if two persons affirm or promise contraries ; the first upon a presumptive power and authority over the other , and this other upon firm resolution , and by an intire power over him or her self ; though I am bound to hinder his promise from passing into fallacy and deception as much as I can , yet I must rather secure my own . The reason is , because he who had no power over me , could not promise but with a tacite condition ; and though he were guilty of temerity and an interpretative breach of promise , yet if the other fails , he is directly and properly guilty . This is still more evident if a Father promises his daughter to Titius before witnesses , presuming that his daughter who is a widow will yet be ruled by him , though she be at her own dispose ; but his daughter hath solemnly sworn and contracted her self to Sempronius : The daughter must be more careful not to break her oath and contract , then by verifying her Fathers promise keep him from a lie ; and this was the case of Acontius and Cydippe in Ovid , Promisit pater hanc , haec adjuravit amanti : Ille homines , haec est testificata Deam . Hic metuit mendax , sed & haec perjura vocari , Num dubitas hic sit major , an ille metus ? This case may be varied by accidents intervening , as if the daughter be under her Fathers power , she hath none of her own to contract or swear ; but in an equal power and circumstances , the greater care must be to avoid the greater crime . These Cautions are all which I think necessary for the conducting of a doubting Conscience ( that is , a conscience undetermined ) in its danger and infirmity : but concerning the matter of doubts , that is indeed , all cases of Conscience , they are to be handled under their proper matter . Concerning interpretation of doubts to the better part , obedience to superiours in a doubtful matter , favourable and easy interpretation of Laws for the deposition of a doubt , though I was tempted to have given accounts in this place , yet I have chosen to referre them to their own places , where by the method and rules of art they ought to stand , and where the Reader will expect them . But concerning the cure of a doubting Conscience , this is all that I am to adde to the foregoing Rules : A doubtful Conscience is no guide of humane actions , but a disease , and is to be cured by prayer and prudent advices , and the proper instruments of resolution and reasonable determinations ; but for those things which are called doubts , and the resolution of which is the best way to cure the infirmity of conscience , they must be derived from their several heads and categories . For these discourses or advices of Conscience in general , are intended but as directions how to take our Physick , and what order to observe in diebus custodiae ; but the determining of the several doubts , is like preparing and administring the Medicines which consist of very many ingredients . CHAP. VI. Of the Scrupulous Conscience . RULE 1. A Scruple is a great trouble of minde proceeding from a little motive , and a great indisposition , by which the conscience though sufficiently determined by proper arguments , dares not proceed to action , or if it doe , it cannot rest . QUI nimis emungit , elicit sanguinem , said Solomon ; too violent blowing draws bloud from the nose ; that is , an inquiry after determination , and searching into little corners , and measuring actions by atomes and unnatural measures , and being over righteous , is the way not to govern , but to disorder our Conscience . That it is a great trouble , is a daily experiment and a sad sight : Some persons dare not eat for fear of gluttony , they fear that they shall sleep too much , and that keeps them waking , and troubles their heads more , and then their scruples increase . If they be single persons , they fear that every temptation is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that burning which the Apostle so carefully would have us to avoid , and then that it is better to marry then to suffer it ; and if they think to marry , they dare not for fear they be accounted neglecters of the glory of God which they think is better promoted by not touching a woman . When they are married they are afraid to doe their duty , for fear it be secretly an indulgence to the flesh , and be to be suspected of carnality , and yet they dare not omit it , for fear they should be unjust , and yet they fear that the very fearing it to be unclean should be a sin , and suspect that if they doe not fear so , it is too great a sign they adhere to Nature more then to the Spirit . * They repent when they have not sinn'd , and accuse themselves without form or matter ; their virtues make them tremble , and in their innocence they are afraid ; they at no hand would sin , and know not on which hand to avoid it : and if they venture in , as the flying ●ersians over the river Strymon , the ice will not bear them , or they cannot stand for slipping , and think every step a danger , and every progression a crime , and beleeve themselves drowned when they are yet ashore . Scruple sometimes signifies all manner of vexation of the minde ; so Cicero pro Sext. Roscio uses it , Hunc mihi scrupulum ex animo evelle , qui me dies noctésque stimulat ac pungit . Take this scruple out of my minde which pricks and goads me night and day . So also in S. Hieromes Bible 1 Regum 25. Non erit tibi in singultum & scrupulum cordis quòd effuderis sanguinem innoxium . It shall not be to thee a cause of grief and scruple of heart that thou hast shed innocent bloud : But in the present discourse it hath a more limited signification , and according to the use of Divines and Canonists , means an unquietness and restlesness of minde in things done or to be done , after the doubts of conscience are determined and ended . Intolerabilem perturbationem Seneca calls it , a fear of doing every thing that is innocent , and an aptness to doe every thing that can be suggested , — nuda ac tremebunda cruentis Irrepet genibus si candida jusserit Ino. * Scruple is a little stone in the foot , if you set it upon the ground it hurts you , if you hold it up you cannot goe forward ; it is a trouble where the trouble is over , a doubt when doubts are resolved ; it is a little party behinde a hedge when the main army is broken and the field cleared , and when the conscience is instructed in its way , and girt for action , a light trifling reason , or an absurd fear hinders it from beginning the journey , or proceeding in the way , or resting at the journeys end . Very often it hath no reason at all for its inducement , but proceeds from indisposition of body , pusillanimity , melancholly , a troubled head , sleepless nights , the society of the timorous from solitariness , ignorance , or unseasoned imprudent notices of things , indigested learning , strong fancy and weak judgement ; from any thing that may abuse the reason into irresolution and restlesness . It is indeed a direct walking in the dark , where we see nothing to affright us , but we fancy many things , and the phantasms produced in the lower regions of fancy , and nursed by folly , and born upon the arms of fear doe trouble us . But if reason be its parent , then it is born in the twilight , and the mother is so little that the daughter is a fly with a short head and a long sting , enough to trouble a wise man , but not enough to satisfy the appetite of a little bird . The reason of a scruple is ever as obscure as the light of a Gloworm , not fit to govern any action , and yet is suffered to stand in the midst of all its enemies , and like the flies of Egypt vex and trouble the whole Army . This disease is most frequent in women , and monastick persons , in the sickly and timorous , and is often procured by excess in religious exercises , in austerities and disciplines , indiscreet fastings and pernoctations in prayer , multitude of humane Laws , variety of opinions , the impertinent talk and writings of men that are busily idle : the enemy of mankinde by the weaknesses of the body and understanding enervating the strengths of the spirit , and making Religion strike it self upon the face by the palsies , and weak tremblings of its own fingers . William of Osency was a devout man , and read two or three Books of Religion and devotion very often , and being pleased with the entertainment of his time , resolved to spend so many hours every day in reading them , as he had read over those books several times ; that is , three hours every day . In a short time he had read over the books three times more , and began to think that his resolution might be expounded to signify in a current sense , and that it was to be extended to the future times of his reading , and that now he was to spend six hours every day in reading those books , because he had now read them over six times . * He presently considered that in half so long time more by the proportion of this scruple he must be tied to twelve hours every day , and therefore that this scruple was unreasonable ; that he intended no such thing when he made his resolution , and therefore that he could not be tied : he knew that a resolution does not binde a mans self in things whose reason does vary , and where our liberty is intire , and where no interest of a third person is concerned . He was sure that this scruple would make that sense of the resolution be impossible at last , and all the way vexatious and intolerable ; he had no leisure to actuate this sense of the words , and by higher obligations he was faster tied to other duties : he remembred also that now the profit of those good books was receiv'd already and grew less , and now became chang'd into a trouble and an inconvenience , and he was sure he could imploy his time better : and yet after all this heap of prudent and religious considerations , his thoughts revolv'd in a restless circle , and made him fear he knew not what . He was sure he was not oblig'd , and yet durst not trust it ; he knew his rule , and had light enough to walk by it , but was as fearful to walk in the day as children are in the night . * Well! being weary of his trouble , he tells his story , receives advice to proceed according to the sence of his reason , not to the murmurs of his scruple ; he applies himself accordingly . But then he enters into new fears ; for he rests in this , that he is not oblig'd to multiply his readings , but begins to think that he must doe some equal good thing in commutation of the duty , for though that particular instance become intolerable and impossible , yet he tied himself to perform that which he beleev'd to be a good thing , and though he was deceived in the particular , yet he was right in the general , and therefore that for the particular he must make an exchange . He does so ; but as he is doing it , he starts , and begins to think that every commutation being intended for ease , is in some sense or other a lessening of his duty , a diminution of his spiritual interest , and a note of infirmity ; and then also fears , that in judging concerning the matter of his commutation he shall be remiss and partial . * Now he considers that he ought to consult with his Superiors ; and as he is going to doe so , he begins to think that his superior did once chide him for his scruple , and that now much more he will doe it , and therefore will rather seek to abolish the opinion of obligation then change it into another burthen ; and since he knows this before hand , he fears lest it shall be expounded to be in him an artifice to get himself eased or chidden out of his duty , and cozened from his obligation . * What shall the man doe ? He dares not trust himself ; and if he goes to another , he thinks that this will the more condemne him ; he suspects himself , but this other renders him justly to be suspected by himself and others too . * Well! he goes to God and prays him to direct him ; but then he considers that Gods graces are given to us working together with Gods Spirit , and he fears the work will not be done for him because he fails in his own part of cooperating ; and concerning this he thinks he hath no scruple , but ce●tain causes of fear . * After a great tumbling of thoughts and sorrows he begins to beleeve that this scrupulousness of conscience is a temptation , and a punishment of his sins , and then he heaps up all that ever he did , and all that he did not , and all that he might have done , and seek●ng for remedy grows infinitely worse , till God at last pitying the innocence and trouble of the man made the evil to sink down with its own weight , and like a sorrow that breaks the sleep , at last growing big , loads the spirits , and bringing back the sleep that it had driven away , cures it self by the greatness of its own affliction . In this case , the Religion is not so great as the affliction . But because a scruple is a fear , or a light reason against a stronger and a sufficiently determined understanding , it can bring no other work to the conscience , but that it get it self eased of the trouble , which is to be done by the following Rules . RULE 2. A Conscience sufficiently instructed by its proper arguments of perswasion , may without sin proceed to action against the scruple and its weaker arguings or stronger tremblings . THIS is the best remedy that is in nature and reason . S. Bernard preached rerely well , and was applauded , but the Devil offering to him the temptation of vain-glory , he in his resisting it , began to think that he had better leave off to preach then begin to be proud ; but instantly the Holy Spirit of God discovered to him the deception , and the Devils artifice who would at any rate have him leave off to preach ; and he answered , I neither began for thee , nor for thee will I leave off . This is a right course in the matter of scruple : proceed to action ; and as the reason or the fear in the scruple was not inducement enough to begin , so neither to leave off . Against a doubting conscience a man may not work , but against a scrupulous he may . For a scrupulous conscience does not take away the proper determination of the understanding ; but it is like a woman handling of a frog or a chicken , which all their friends tell them can doe them no hurt , and they are convinced in reason that they cannot , they beleeve it and know it , and yet when they take the little creature into their hands they shreek , and sometimes hold fast and finde their fears confuted , and sometimes they let goe , and finde their reason useless . Valerius of Hippo being used always to fast till high noon of festivals , falls into an ilness of stomack , and is advised to eat something in the morning ; all the reason of the world that is considerable and pressing , tells him he may doe it lawfully , but because he hath not been used to it , and good people in health doe not doe it , he is fearful to doe that which others doe not , that need it not ; this is a slight ground , and with it perfectly may stand his practical determination of conscience that it is lawful for him ; which final determination , because it is the next and immediate rule of actions cannot be impeded by that which suffers this perswasion still to remain , because the doing onely against such a perswasion can onely be a sin , for that onely is the transgression of the immediate Law ; to doe conformably to such determination is to doe it with faith ; and if the scruple can lessen it , yet it onely makes the man the weaker , but cannot destroy the assent . Adde to this , that since scruples doe sometimes make men mad , doe detriment to our health , make Religion a burden , introduce a weariness of spirit and tediousness , it cannot be a sin to stop all this evil , and directly to throw away the scruple and proceed to contrary actions . But this is to be understood onely , when the scruple is such that it leaves the conscience practically determined . For if the scruple prevails upon his weakness so farre as to rifle the better reasons , the conscience loses its rule and its security , and the scruple passes into a doubt , and the Law into a consultation , and the judgement into opinion , and the conscience into an undiscerning , undetermined faculty . Hither is to be reduced the case of a perplexed conscience ; that is , when men think that which part soever of the contradiction they choose , they sin ; for though that be impossible to wise men , yet all men are not wise ; and if it were impossible in the thing , yet it is certainly possible upon the distempers of some men : and because a man hath contrary reasonings and divided principles within , as our blessed Lord had a natural desire not to die , and yet a reasonable and a holy spiritual desire to submit to his Fathers will , and if he please , to die ; so hath every man desires to please an appetite , or secure an interest of secular designs , and a reason to serve the interest of his spirit in spiritual designs : But although in our blessed Lord the appetites of nature were innocent and obedient , and the spirit always got a clear victory , and the flesh resisted not , yet in us it is not so ; and sometimes spiritual complications doe disturb the question , and make the temporal end seem religious or pious ; and the contrary pretence is pious too , and yet a duty will be omitted which way soever be chosen , or a sin committed as is supposed ; here the case seems hard . * It is certain that there is no such case in the world , that it is necessary for a man to sin which part soever he takes , and unless it be his own fault he cannot think so ; but some men are wilde in their reasonings , and erre in circles , and cannot untie the knots themselves have knit . Some are weary , and many are involved , and more are foolish ; and it is as possible for a man to be a fool in one proposition as in another , and therefore his error may be this , that which part soever he chooses he shall sin ; what is to be done here is the Question ? The case is this ; Pratinus a Romane Souldier turns Christian , and having taken his military Sacrament before , and still continuing the imployment , he is commanded to put to death certain criminals , which he undertakes , because he is bound to it by his oath . Going to the execution he finds they were condemned for being Christians ; then he starts , remembring his Sacrament or oath on one side , and his faith on the other ; that is , his Religion on both ; by which he is bound neither to be perjured , nor to kill his Brethren : The Question is not how he might expedite his doubt , and secure his conscience by choosing the surer part , but what he is to doe , this perplexity remaining , that is , he not being able to lay aside either part of the doubt ; for his question is not whether of the two he shall doe , but is perswaded that to doe either is a high crime . 1. Concerning this , it is evident , that if the cases be equal , and the event not to be distinguished by him in the greatness of its consequent or malice of it , it is indifferent to him which he chooses ; and therefore there can be no Rule given which he must take , unless he could be convinced of one that it is lawful , and the other unlawful ; but in his case that not being to be done , he ought to know that in this case he sins not if he takes either , because all sin is with liberty and choice , at least with complacency ; but his error is an infelicity and no sin , if he neither chooses it , nor delights in it , which in the present case he is supposed not to doe . 2. But if in the event of the actions and parts of choice there be a real or apprehended difference , he is bound to choose that part which he beleeves to be the less sin ; this being a justification of his will , the best that can be in t●● present case ; but if he chooses that which is of worse event , he hath nothing to excuse it . RULE 3. He that is troubled with scruples , ought to rely upon the judgement of a prudent Guide . THE reason is , because his own understanding is troubled and restless , and yet his reason determined ; and therefore he can but use the best way of cure , which in his particular is to follow an understanding that is equally determined as is his own , and yet not so diseased . Adde to this , that God hath appointed spiritual persons , Guides of souls , whose office is to direct and comfort , to give peace and conduct , to refresh the weary , and to strengthen the weak , to confirm the strong , and instruct the doubtful ; and therefore to use their advice is that proper remedy which God hath appointed . * And it hath also in it this advantage , that there is in it humility of understanding , a not relying on our own wisdome , which by way of blessing and disposition will obtain of God that we be directed . Consule bonos , prudentésque viros , & acquiesce eis , was an old advice , and derived from Solomon and Tobit ; lean not on thy own understanding ; but ask counsel of all that are wise , and despise not any counsel that is profitable . RULE 4. When a doubt is resolved in the entrance of an action , we must judge of our action afterwards by the same measures as before ; for he that changes his measures , turns his doubt into a scruple . THE reason of the Rule is this , That which is sufficient for satisfaction before , is sufficient for peace afterwards . A Christian in the Diocese of Salamis being faint in his stomack before the reception of the holy Sacrament , disputes whether he may take a cordial or a glass of wine . Upon inquiry he is told , That to receive the holy Sacrament virgine salivâ , fasting is a custome of the Church later then the times of the Apostles , as appears by the Corinthian usages mentioned by S. Paul ; that it having no authority but custome , no sanction but a pious fancy , and a little proportion and analogy of reverence , it ought to yeeld to the elicite acts of charity : Upon this account he being satisfied , drinks a little , is well , and communicates with health , and joy , and holiness . But afterwards reflecting upon what he had done , he begins to fear he had not done well ; that he had done against the customes of the Church , that it was at least infirmity in him , and upon what account with God that should be , which in his own most gentle sentence was at least , infirmity , he knew not ; and twenty other little things he thought of , which signified nothing , but did somethi●● , they meant no good , but did great evil : and finding himself got into a ne●●●le calls for help , but is told that he must get out of it by the same way that he came in , and that which was the sufficient cause of his doing the action , was sufficient also for the justification of it , and let him confront the reasons which introduc'd the action against these flies and little pretensions which disturb his minde , and he shall finde that he hath reason to be ashamed of debauching and prostituting his understanding to such trifles and images of argument : For let a man look to his grounds when he begins to act , and when he hath acted , let him remember that he did his duty , and give God thanks . For if any just cause appear for which he ought to reprove his former determination ; that just cause can have no influence upon what is past , if the first proceeding was probable , and reasonable , and dis-interest . He knows something which he did not know before ; and for the time to come is to walk by this newly kindled taper , but if he in the first instance walked by all the light he had , he is not tied to walk it over again : for as God will not of a child exact the prudence and cautions of a man , but in every age expects a duty answerable to the abilities of it ; so it is in all the stages of our reason , and growing understanding . According to what we have , and not according to what we have not we shall give accounts . This is intended to prove that if we proceed probably , we are not tied to sorrow and repentance , though afterwards we finde a greater reason to the contrary ; but this concludes more in the present question of scruple , in which the greater probability goes before , and the less comes after . But the Rule is to be managed with these Cautions : 1. Take heed that in the beginning we doe not mistake our desires to have it done , for a sufficient warrant that it may . For if we enter in at a wrong door , or at the windows , we must goe back , and cannot own that entrance which was like a Theef , or that action which was done with more craft then prudence . 2. Be not too easy in the arguments of probation . For although in actions concerning our eternal interest , God expects no more of us but that we should walk by the measures of a man ; yet we doe not perform our duty if we act by the measures of a child or a fool . If we could doe no better , the action might be more reprovable then the man ; but if we could consider better and wiser then when we reflect afterwards upon what we did before , and finde a fault or a sin , a negligence or an avoidable error in the principle , we cannot from thence bring rest and confidence to our consciences . 3. Separate your question as much as you can from interest , that your determination and inquiry be pure ; and if more arguments occurre afterwards then did in the first inquiry , remember that it was well enough at first , if it was probable enough ; and for the rest , pray to God to accept you , if you did well and wisely , and to pardon you in what was done amiss , or negligently , or imperfectly . RULE 5. A scrupulous Conscience is to be cured by remedies proper to the disease , and remedies proper to the man. THat is , there are some advices which are directly intended for the lessening the scruple , and some others which take away the scruple by curing the man , and taking off his distemperature . Those which are directly intended against the scruple , besides the Rules before described , are these : Remedies against the Scruple . 1. Let the afflicted and disquiet man often meditate of the infinite goodness of God , and how his justice is equity , and his jndgements are in mercy ; that he judges us by what we heartily endevour , but does not put our infelicities into our accounts of sins . 2. Let him be instructed that all Laws Divine and Humane are desirous of sweet and merciful interpretations , and that of themselves they love to yeeld to necessity and to charity ; and that severity and exactness of measures is not onely contrary to the goodness , but to the justice of God , who therefore will pity us because we are made of dust , and are a lump of folly and unavoidable infirmities ; and by the same justice by which God is eternally angry withthe fallen Angels , by the same justice he is not finally angry with man for his first follies , and pities all his unavoidable evils . 3. Let it be remembred that charity is the fulfilling the Law , and by the degrees of it a man tends to perfection , and not by forms and tittles of the letter , and apices of the handwriting of ordinances . And that if he loves God and does his best , and concerning the doing his best make the same judgements real and material , that he does of the other actions of his life , he certainly does all that can belong to him , and all that which can be wise and safe . He that acts according to the reason of a man , ought to have the confidences of a man , for no other confidence can be reasonable . That is charity that we doe carefully and wisely , and follow the best we can . 4. Let it be considered that to incline to the scruple , and neglect the stronger reason that stands against it , is to take the worse end , it is to doe that which must seem worse ; and then it may be remembred , that if the man is afraid and troubled with the trifle , with the scruple , when he hath stronger reason to secure him , if he yeelds to the scruple and neglects the stronger reason , the neglect of that will run upon him like a torrent and a whirlewind , and the scruple , or the bulrush will not support his building . 5. Since the very design of the Euangelical Covenant is , that our duty be demanded , and our sins accounted for , according to the measures of a man , and not by the proportions of an Angel ; and that all our infirmities and ignorances , and unavoidable prejudices are taken into account , beside the infinite remissions on Gods part , it will follow that by this goodness of God and a moral diligence , and a good heart we are secured , but we can never be secured by our own measures . For let us weigh never so exactly , we may miss some granes or scruples , but to snatch greedily at the little overrunning dust of the ballance , and to throw away the massive ingots that sunk the scales down , is the greatest folly in the world . 6. The lines of duty are set down so clear and legible , are so agreeable to reason , so demonstrable upon their proper principles , are so easy and plain , that we need not run into corners , and sneaking by-lanes to finde it out : If by little undiscerned minutes we were to stand or fall , though now there are but few that shall be saved , yet but a few of those few should escape eternal death . The counsels of God are not like the Oracles of Apollo , double in their sense , intricate in their expression , secret in their meaning , deceitful in their measures , and otherwise in the event then they could be in their expectation . But the word of God in the lines of duty is open as the face of heaven , bright as the Moon , healthful as the Suns influence ; and this is certainly true , that when a thing becomes obscure , though it may oblige us to a prudent search , yet it binds us not under a guilt , but onely so farre as it is or may be plainly understood . But in the case of a scrupulous conscience , it is not the thing so much that troubles the minde , as the indisposition of the part , the man hath a vicious tenderness ; it is melancholy and fear , and as very accident can trouble the miserable , so every fancy can affright the timorous ; the chiefest remedies therefore must be by applications to the man , to cure his distemper , and then the scruple will work no more then its own activity will enable it , and that is but little and inconsiderable . Advices to the scrupulous man. 1. The case of the scrupulous man is so full of variety , or uncertainty rather that it is as easy to govern chance , and to give rules to contingency as to him . In all other cases there is a measure and a limit , and therefore a remedy can be proportioned to it ; but in this , fear is the disease , and that alone is infinite ; and as it commences oftentimes without cause , so it proceeds without limit . For by what reason it entred in , by the same it may grow ; that is , without any cause at all it may increase for ever . * But for the remedy , this is considerable ; That the worse it is , the better it may be remedied , if we could consider . For when fear is grown so bigge that it is unreasonable , the cure is ready and plain , that it must be laid aside because it is intolerable , and it may because it is unreasonable . When it comes from a just cause , that just cause is usually the limit of it : but when it is vast and infinite it hath no cause , but weaknesse , and it appears enough in the instances ; for the scrupulous man fears concerning those things where he ought to be most confident ; he fears that God is angry with him for not doing his duty , and yet he does whatsoever he can learn to be his duty . * This is a complication of evils , as melancholy is of diseases . The scrupulous man is timorous , and sad , and uneasy , and he knows not why . As the melancholy man muses long , and to no purpose , he thinks much , but thinks of nothing ; so the scrupulous man fears exceedingly , but he knows not what nor why . It is a Religious melancholy , and when it appears to be a disease and a temptation , there needs no more argument against its entertainment . We must rudely throw it away . 2. He that is vexed with scruples , must fly to God by prayer and fasting , that this lunacy and spirit of illusion which sometimes throws him into the fire , and sometimes into the water may be ejected , and the Spirit of God , and the Spirit of wisdome may come in substitution according to the promise so often recorded in the holy Scriptures . 3. Let the scrupulous man change the tremblings of his spirit to a more considerable object , and be sure if he fears little things , let him fear great things greatly , every known sin let him be sure to avoid , little or great , for by this purity he shall see God , and the things of God , peace and truth , and the honesty of his heart will bear him out from the mischief , if not quit from the trouble of the scruple : * at no hand let it be endured that he should think this disease or vicious tenderness in spirit is able to excuse him from his duty in greater things . Some scruple at an innocent ceremony , and against all conviction and armes of reason will be troubled and will not understand ; this is very bad , but it is worse that he should think himself the more godly man for being thus troubled and diseased , and that upon this account he shall fall out with Government and despise it , this man nurses his scruple till it proves his death , and instead of curing a bile , dies with a cancer , and is like a man that hath strained his foot and keeps his bed for ease , but by lying there long falls into a lipothymie , and that bears him to his grave . 4. Let the scrupulous man avoid all excess in mortifications and corporal austerities , because there are apt to trouble the body , and consequently to disorder the minde , and by the prevailing fond perswasions of the world they usually produce great opinions of sanctity and ignorant confidences of G●ds favour , and by spending the religion of the man in exterior significations make him apt to take his measures from imperfect notices , and then his religion shall be scruple and impertinency , full of trouble , but good and profitable for little or nothing . Admiratione digna sunt ( saith Cardan ) quae per jejunium hoc modo contingunt : somnia , superstitio , contemptus tormentorum , mortis desiderium , obstinata opinio , insania : jejunium naturalitèr praeparat ad haec omnia . It is wonderful to consider what strange products there are of fasting : Dreams superstition , contempt of torments , desire of death , obstinacy in opinion , and madness . To all these , fasting does naturally prepare us : and concerning S. Hilarion it is reported by S. Hierome , Ita attenuatus fuit jejunio & vigiliis in tantum exeso corpore ut ossibus vix haerebat : unde nocte infantum vagitus , balatus pecorum , mugitus boum , voces & ludibria daemonum , &c. that he was so lean and dried with fasting and watching , that his flesh did scarce cleave to his bone : Then his desires and capacity of sleep went away , and for want of sleep he must needs grow light headed , and then the illusions of the Devil were prepared and certain to prevail ; then his brains crowed , and he heard in the desert children crying , sheep bleating , bulls lowing , and ratling of chains , and all the phantastick noises raised by the Devil . Much to the same purpose is by S. Athanasius reported of S. Anthony . It was this excess that made S. Hierome so scrupulous in reading of Tullies Orations ; it was not an Angel , but his own dreams that whipp'd him for making and reading good Latin and good sense . After long fasting it was that S. Gulslach of Crowald fought with the Devil , and such irregular austerities have been in all ages of superstition , the great instrument of Satan by which his illusions became Oracles , and religion was changed into superstition , and the fear of God into timorousness , and inquiry into scruple . 5. Let the scrupulous man interest himself in as few questions of intricate dispute , and minute disquisition as he can ; they that answer fewest , doe commonly trouble themselves with most . Curious questions may puzzle every man , but they can profit no man , they are a certain disturbance , they are rebels in the kingdome of the inner man , they are just the same things in speculation which scruples are in practice , and therefore because notice properly tends and directs to action , the increase of them will multiply these . Avoid them therefore , for not these , but things practical are the hinges of immortality ; but the other break the peace of the superior faculties , they trouble the understanding and afflict the conscience and profit , or instruct no man. 6. He that would cure his scrupulousness must take care that his Religion be as near as he can to the measures and usages of common life . When S. Anthony was troubled with a scrupulous conscience , which so amaz'd him , that he thought it was impossible for him ever to arrive at heaven , an Angel came to him in the likeness of a Hermit , or rather an Hermit spake to him like an Angel and said , Nunc paululum laborando manibus , nunc genibus flexis orando , deinde corpus reficiendo , pòst quiescendo , & rursus iterum operando , Antoni , sic fac tu & salvus eris . Sometimes labour with thy hands , then fall on thy knees and pray , then refresh thy body , then sometimes rest , and then labour again ; and so thou shalt be saved . Let us take care that our Religion be like our life , not done like pictures , taken when we are dressed curiously , but looking as the actions of our life are dressed , that is , so as things can be constantly done , that is , that it be dressed with the usual circumstances , imitating the examples , and following the usages of the best and the most prudent persons of his communion ; striving 〈◊〉 nothing to be singular , not doing violence to any thing of nature , unless it be an instrument or a temptation to a vice . For some men mortify their natures rather then their vicious inclinations or their evil habits , and so make Religion to be a burden , a snare , and an enemy . For in scrupulous , that is , in melancholy persons nature is to be cherished in every thing where there is no danger , that is , where she is not petulant and troublesome . Such men have more need of something to repair their house , then to lessen it . 7. Let the scrupulous man take care that he make no vows of any lasting imployment . For the disease that is already within , and this new matter from without will certainly make new cases of Conscience , and new fears and scruples upon the manner , and degrees , and circumstances of performance . Therefore what ever good thing they intend , let them doe it when they can , when it is pleasant , when it is convenient , and always reserve their liberty . For besides that to doe otherwise must needs multiply scruples , it is also more pleasing to God that we make our services to be every day chosen , then after one general choice of them , to have the particulars done and hated . 8. But that I may summe up many particulars in one . The scrupulous man must avoid those companies , and those imployments , and those books from whence the clouds arise , especially the books of ineffective and phantastick notion , such as are Legends of Saints , ridiculously and weakly invented , furnished out for Idea's , not for actions of common life , with dreams and false propositions ; for the scrupulous and fearful will easily be troubled , if they finde themselves fall short of those fine images of virtue which some men describe , that they might make a fine picture , but like nobody . Such also are the Books of mystical Theology , which have in them the most high , the most troublesome , and the most mysterious nothings in the world , and little better then the effluxes of a religious madness . * 9. Let the scrupulous man endevour to reduce his body into a fair temper , * and ●nkindle in his minde a great love and high opinions of God and Gods mercy , and by proper arts produce joy in God , and rejoycings in the Spirit ; * let him pursue the purgative way of religion , fight against and extirpate all vicious habits and evil customes , doe the actions of virtue frequently and constantly , but without noise and outcries , without affectation and singularity ; that religion is best which is incorporated with the actions and common traverses of our life ; and as there will be some foolish actions , so there will be matter for repentance ; let this humble us , but not amaze us and distract us . 10. Let all persons who are or use to be thus troubled with flies , and impertinencies of reason and conscience be carefully and wisely instructed in those practical propositions which are the general lines of life , which are the axiomes of Christian Philosophy , which like the rules of Law have great influence in many virtues , and have great effect towards perfection . For the more severe the rules are , the more apt they are to be the matter of scruple when they are not understood in their just measures . Such as are , It is the part of a good minde to acknowledge a fault where there is none . * Not to goe forward is to goe backward . * He that loves danger shall perish in danger . * Hold that which is certain , and let goe that which is uncertain . There are many more , of which I am to give accounts in the next Book , and from thence the scrupulous may derive assistances . Concerning the matter of scruples , I on purpose decline the considering of it here , because either every thing or nothing of it is to be handled : A scruple may arise in the doing of every duty , in the remembrance of every action ; and to stop one gap , when the evil may enter in at 500. I did suppose not to be worth my labour . I therefore reserve every thing to its own place , being content here to give the measures and rules of conscience in its several kinds , and differing affections , that is , in all its proper capacities which can relate to action . OF THE RVLE OF CONSCIENCE . viz. The Laws Divine and Humane , And All collateral Obligations . THE SECOND BOOK . CHAP. I. Of the Law of Nature in general . RULE 1. The Law of Nature is the Universal Law of the world , or the Law of mankinde , concerning common necessities to which we are inclined by Nature , invited by consent , prompted by reason , but is bound upon us onely by the commands of God. ΕΣτω 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said the Apostolical constitution ; Be careful to understand what is the Law natural , and what is superinduc'd upon it . The counsel , abating the authority and reverence of them that said it , is of great reasonableness . For all men talk of the law of Nature , and all agree that there is such a material law which some way or other is of the highest obligation ; but because there are no Digests or Tables of this law , men have not onely differ'd about the number of them , and the instances themselves , but about the manner of drawing them forth , and making the observation : whereas if the law of Nature were such a thing as it is supposed generally , these differences would be as strange and impossible , as that men should disagree about what is black , or what is yellow , or that they should dispute concerning rules to signify when they desire , or when they hope , or when they love . The purpose of the present intendment will not suffer me to make large disputes about it , but to observe all that is to be drawn from it in order to Conscience and its obligation . The Law of Nature ] Jus naturae , and Lex naturae are usually confounded by Divines and Lawyers , but to very ill purposes , and to the confusion and indistinction of all the notices of them . The right of nature , or Jus naturae is no Law , and the law of nature is no natural right . The right of nature is a perfect and universal liberty to doe whatsoever can secure me or please me . For the appetites that are prime , original , and natural , doe design us towards their satisfaction , and were a continual torment , and in vain , if they were not in order to their rest , contentedness and perfection . Whatsoever we naturally desire , naturally we are permitted to . For natures are equal , and the capacities are the same , and the desires alike ; and it were a contradiction to say that naturally we are restrained from any thing to which we naturally tend . Therefore to save my own life , I can kill another , or twenty , or a hundred , or take from his hands to please my self , if it happens in my circumstances and power ; and so for eating , and drinking , and pleasures . If I can desire , I may possess or enjoy it : this is , The right of nature . Jus naturae , by jus or right , understanding not a collated or legal right , positive or determined , but a negative right , that is , such a right as every man hath without a Law , and such as that by which the stones in the streets are mine or yours ; by a right that is negative , because they are nullius in bonis , they are appropriate to no man , and may be mine ; that is , I may take them up and carry them to my bed of turf , where the natural , wild , or untutored man does sit . But this is not the Law of nature , nor passes any obligation at all . And indeed nature her self makes not a Law : Nec natura potest justo secernere iniquum , and this opinion Carneades did express , but rudely , and was for it noted by Lactantius . He said there was no law of nature . But the Christians who for many ages have followed the School of Aristotle , have been tender in suffering such expressions , and have been great promoters of Aristotles doctrine concerning the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the natural Law. But indeed Aristotle himself in this was various and indetermined . For in his Ethicks he affirms that some think the natural law to be [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] unalterable , and of the same force every where , as fire burns here and in Persia : and yet he himself makes it notable , and that it is not the same among all Nations ; for so he in his Rhetoricks says , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that some doe Divine [ not demonstrate ] that some things are just or unjust by nature , without any Covenant or Society ; intimating , that without a covenant or contract tacite or explicite , there can be no Law : and if it depends upon contract , it must be variable as necessity , and contingency together ; and so he affirms , That there is nothing so naturally just but it is variable ; and although the right hand is in most men the strongest , yet in some the left hand is . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Distributive justice is by proportion , and therefore it is variable ; and in general he affirms of all justice , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , justice is in proportion and relation . For justice is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a relative excellency , and therefore must suppose society , and a paction or covenant . For a man cannot be unjust to himself or to his own goods which are absolutely in his power . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and therefore Justice , I mean that universal virtue that contains all else within it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , is a virtue that hath its being from something superinduc'd upon nature . Justice is natural , as all virtues are , that is , reasonable and perfective of our nature , and introductive of well-being : But nature alone hath not injoyn'd it originally , any more then matrimonial chastity was a natural law , which could not be at all before Eve was created , and yet our nature was perfect before . Justum nihil est non constitutâ lege , nothing is just or unjust of it self , until some Law of God or man does supervene ; and the Scepticks generally , and amongst the Dogmaticks Aristippus said , that nothing is just by nature , but onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by law and custome ; which in what sense it is to be admitted , I shall explicate in the following periods . — is the universal law of the World. ] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so Aristotle calls it [ The law of mankinde ] Commune omnium hominum us ; so Justinian ; which is not to be understood of all men in all things absolutely , but especially of all wise or civil Nations that communicate with each other . Lucretius restrains it to neighbours , Tunc & amicitiam coeperunt jungere habentes Finitima inter se nec laedere , nec violare . But many Nations have thought , and some think so still , that they may hurt stranger people , the possessors of farre distant Countries , barbarous and savage people : The Romans who were the wisest of all Nations did so . — si quis sinus abditus ultra , Siqua foret tellus quae fulvum mitteret aurum Hostis erat — All people whom they call'd barbarous , or whom they found rich were their enemies . But there are some laws of Nature which belong to all absolutely , to whom any notice of the true God and of good manners is arrived ; particularly those which belong to common religion : But in the laws of justice , the law of nature is more restrained , because it does not onely , like the laws of religion , suppose some communications of command from God , but some entercourse with man ; and therefore are obligatory , or extended in proportion to the proximity and communication . But the law taken in its integrity , or according to its formal reason , is the law of all mankinde ; for all men in all things are bound to it . Concerning some common necessities ] This describes the matter and body of natural Laws . For there is nothing by which the laws are denominated natural more then by this , that they are provisions made for the natural necessities of mankinde ; such are , To doe as we would be done to : To perform covenants : To secure messengers of peace and Arbitrators : To be thankful to our Benefactors , and the like : without these a man cannot receive any good , nor be safe from evil . By this relation , and interchanging reason , it is therefore necessary that these laws should be distinguished from all others , because these and their like proceed from the same principle , are restrained by the same penalties , written in the same tables , have the same necessity , and doe suppose something super added to our nature ; and therefore that these and their like are natural , and the others are not , must be by relation to the subject matter . For in these cases and the like , when that which is profitable is made just , then that which is natural is made a law ; that is , when the law tends to the same end whither nature tends , when the faculty or appetite is provided for by obedience to a law , then the law is called natural . For since all good and just laws are profitable , they are laws Civil or Religions , or Natural according as they serve the end of the Commonwealth , or of the Religion , or of Nature . This is evident in the Code of the Mosaick law , where all laws being established by God under the same Prince , could have no difference but by their subject matter ; and when they did lie in one body , to separate one from the other by proper appellatives was not easy , but by their manner of doing benefit , and their material relations . To which we are inclined by nature ] That which is usually called the law of Nature is of it self nothing else but convenientia cum naturâ rationali , a consonancy to natural reason and being . Some in drawing the Tables of the natural law , estimate those onely to be natural laws which are concerning appetites and actions common to man and beast . Jus naturale est quod natura omnia animalia docuit , said Ulpian . That is the law of nature which is by nature taught not onely to men , but even to beasts , for they also are under her power , — Magnis agitant sub legibus aevum . The same definition is also given by Aquinas , and many Lawyers after Justinian , and almost all Divines after Aquinas ; but Laurentius Valla will at no hand endure it , Nam jus naturale dicere quod natura omnia animalia docuit , ridiculum ; it is ridiculous to affirm that to be the law of nature , which nature teaches to all living creatures ; such as are , conjunction of sexes for conservation of the kinde , nursing and educating children , abstinence from some certain mixtures and copulations , abhorring the conjunction of some very near persons . Concerning which it is therefore certain , that though the matter of these laws is hugely agreeable to nature , and some of them are afterwards made into laws , and for their matter sake and early sanction are justly called natural ( as I have otherwhere discoursed ) yet they are made laws in nature onely dispositivè , that is , by nature they are made Candidates of laws , they are prepar'd by nature , but compleated by God in other ways then by our nature and creation . The reason is , because that which is natural is one , but these laws admit variety ; and amongst wise Nations in several cases have and have not obligation . The Religious , and the Priests , and wise men among the Persians did not account themselves bound by all these , as I shall discourse in the following numbers ; and yet they were then to be reckoned amongst the wisest men in the world , because of their great Empire and Government , which , by reason of their great necessities and communications with mankinde , cannot be done without its proportion of wisdome . But if nature did make these into a law , that is , if it comes by creation , and from thence also the penalty and coercion is derived ( for without these there is no law ) then it were impossible the wise Persians should think it commendable to doe that which others called abominable , since in all those things in which they doe a thing which they call unlawful , they as other men felt an equal sharpness and pungency of conscience . But that I may speak closer to the particular , That a thing is common to men and beasts is no indication of a law of nature , but onely of a common necessity , instinct , or inclination respectively . For they doe it without a law , and therefore so may we , unless something else besides nature makes it a law to us ; for nature or natural desire in them and in us is the same , but this desire is in them where a law cannot be , and therefore in us also it may be without a law . Beasts doe all that they can doe , and can love , and are no more capable of law then of reason ; and if they have instincts and inclinations , it is no otherwise then their appetites to meat , concerning which nature hath determined all , but without proper obligation : and all those discourses concerning the abstinence of beasts , their gratitude , their hospitality , their fidelity , their chastity and marriages , are just like the discourses of those that would make them reasonable . More certain and true is that which was said of old , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Fishes and birds and beasts eat one another , because they have no justice or laws amongst them , said Hesiod ; and the like is in Homer , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . and therefore although it is a good popular argument which is used against unnatural conjunctions which is in the Greek Epigram , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. Abstain from such impurities , for the very beasts preserve their natural customs and conjunctions inviolate ; yet this is an infinitely uncertain and fallacious way of estimating any particular laws of nature , because it may as well be said to be against the law of nature to be drunk , as to be incestuous , upon this account , because Cows will drink no more then to quench their thirst : and although in the law of Moses , beasts were put to death if they were instrumental in bestiality or murder , yet this was in poenam Domini , or a matter of dominion over beasts ; and the word poena or punishment was improper and no otherwise to be understood then that of Suidas in his story of Nicon ; whose statue when an envious person had whipp'd , to disgrace his memory , because in the Greek games he had won 1400. crowns , the statue fell upon his head and crushed him to death . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . His sons accused the statue as guilty of murder , and the Thasians threw it into the Sea ; for so was the law of Draco the Athenian , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to banish every thing that kill'd a man , though it were wood , stones , or hatchets as you may see in Demosthenes . These things were tragical detestations and emblematical prosecutions of the crime ; but the men were wiser then to beleeve it really a punishment to inanimate things . The same is true of beasts in their proportion , whose cruelty , savageness , or violent revenges is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Origen calls it , it is like pravity or wickedness . This thing is so much the more considerable , because it is of use against the pretences and scruples of some persons in things where they ought to be confident . S. Hierom says that beasts when they are impregnated abstain from coition till the production of their young , and that this they doe by the law of nature ; now upon this account to impose a law upon mankinde to doe so too , is weak and dangerous . But yet not onely he a , but Origen b , S. Ambrose c , and Sedulius d , doe argue to the same purpose upon that very ground ; most weakly and dangerously exposing married persons to the greater dangers of fornication , and depriving them of all the endearments of society , not considering that those creatures , and those men whose custome was otherwise , or laws different , had vagam libidinem , or the evil remedy of Polygamy . Beasts indeed are so ordered by nature , but without a law ; as there is no law for Lions to eat flesh , or Oxengrass , but yet naturally they doe it . A beast may be cruel or lustful , or monstrous and prodigious in the satisfaction of his appetites ; but not injurious , or the breaker of any sanction , or laws of justice . There may be damnum sine injuria facientis datum , says the law , and it is instanc'd in beasts . Neque enim potest animal injuriam fecisse dici , quod sensu caret . A beast that hath no sense ( that is , no reason ) no sense or perception of lawful or unlawful cannot be said to doe an injury , and therefore is not capable of punishment , because he is incapable of a law . So Justin Martyr , or who ever is the author of the Questions and answers plac'd in his works ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It is unreasonable to exact of beasts the obliquity of their actions , because they have no reason ; it is therefore as unreasonable to make the law of nature to be something common to them and us . If it be replied , that the Lawyers and Philosophers mean onely that these material instances which are common to them and us are the particulars of the law of Nature , and though they be not a law to them , yet the same things which they doe naturally , are natural to us , and a law besides , that is , the natural law : Besides that this is not usually said by them , we are then never the nearer to know what is the law of Nature by this description of it , for all things which they and we doe are not pretended to be laws ; as eating and sleeping ; and therefore by what measure any other thing should be a law to us because they and we doe it , is not signified by this definition , or any explication of it . Let us then try the other measures which are usual . Invited by consent ] The consent of Nations , that is , publick fame amongst all or the wisest Nations is a great signification of decency or undecency , and a probable indication of the law of nature . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — It is not a vain noise when many Nations joyn their voices in the attestation or detestation of an action ; and it looks as if it were deriv'd from some common principle , which seems either to be Nature , or Contract ; and then as in the first case they are reasonable , so in the second they are directly obligatory . Quod apud multos unum invenitur , non est erratum sed traditum , said Tertullian : like that of Heraclitus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , if it seems so to the communities of mankinde , it is genuine , and natural , and without illusion . Now this is true up to many degrees of probability ; and yet it is rather an index of a permission of nature , then of a natural obligation ; it tels us rather what we may doe , then what we must , it being more probable that all nations will not consent to an unnatural thing , that is , will not doe violence to nature , then that whatsoever they commonly act should be a necessary law , and the measures of nature , or the indication of her sanctions ; and yet it is still more probable that the consent of Nations is more fit to be used as a corroberative to a perswasion or a kinde of actions , then as the prime motive or introduction . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Aristotle ; and argumentum est veritatis aliquid omnibus videri , said Seneca ; it is a great strengthening and a powerful prevailing argument to have all men consent to our opinions and propositions . But it is in many moral instances as it is in the universal opinion which all mankinde hath concerning jewels , where they consent no man knows how , or why : And no man can give a rational account why so great value should be set upon a Diamond , but because it looks prettily and is lasting : and so there are in nature decencies and lasting proportions in moral instances between the conscience and the action ; but yet as there is no proper and effective usefulness in Diamonds towards the life of man , so neither is there in many instances in which the consent of mankinde is very general . And therefore this is very farre short of a law , and is no certain token of a permissive right of nature , much less of a law or obligation . For , 1. Whole Empires have been established and United by violence , and have laws given to them , and they receiv'd them in pursuance of the Conquerors interest , and their educations have been form'd accordingly . Ninus form'd the Assyrian Monarchy , and his son was flattered into the reputation of a God , and all the Nations under that Scepter consented to the worship of Belus ; and all the Nations with whom these men conversed , imitated the manners of the Princeps populus , and in their banquets , the most modest of their women used to strip themselves stark naked , and it was counted no undecency , but she was rude and uncivil that did not . 2. There are some Nations so wholly barbarous and bruitish in their manners , that from their consent we can gather nothing but thorns and wild briers : They are the words of Porphyry , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , from whom we must not learn to bely and abuse the fair inclinations and sentences of humane nature . And therefore if we goe to account by the consent of Nations , we must thrust out all wild , savage , barbarous , and untaught people , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Michael Psellus . We must into the account of the law of Nations take them onely who are subject to Laws , the well manner'd people onely , but then this also will be an infinite uncertainty . For , 3. All Nations to the Greeks were barbarous ; to the Romans also all Nations but the Greeks and themselves : and to the Jews all were Heathens , which to them signified the same thing or worse . 4. And then which are those Nations whom we shall call Moratiores , wise and well manner'd people , for this will depend upon our own customes ; if they be like our customes , our laws , and manners of living then we approve them , else we condemne them . 5. But then let us remember also that civility and fair customs were but in a narrow circle , till the Greeks and Romans beat the world into better manners . Aristotle says , that in his time in the Kingdomes of Pontus , which were very near to Greece , divers Nations were eaters of mans flesh , such as were the Achaeans and Heniochans , and divers amongst the Mediterraneans were worse then they . 6. The greatest part of the world were undiscovered till this last age , and amongst them the Jus Gen tium was to sacrifice one another to Daemons ; for all the old Navigations were by Maritime Towns , and the inlands either were left alone in their own wilder manners , or it is not known what civilities they had . So that the Jus Gentium must needs have been an uncertain thing , variable and by chance , growing by accidents , and introduc'd by violence , and therefore could not be the measure of the law of Nature . 7. Adde to these that the several Nations of the world had customes of their own , which commencing upon uncertain principles , have been derived to their posterity , and retained with a religious fancy ; becoming natural and proportionable to their fancies and their fears , and they would rather die then doe an act of violence to them , and beleev'd it to be the greatest impiety in the world to break them . Herodotus tells a full instance of this in a triall made by Darius to the Indians and Greeks . He ask'd the Greeks what they would take to doe as the Indians did who eat their dead Parents and friends and accounted it the most honourable burial ; they answered , They would not doe at it any price . And when he as'kd the Indians upon what conditions they would be induc'd to burn the bodies of their Fathers , and not to eat them , they desired him not to speak to them of any such horrid impiety as to burn their Fathers careasses , and to deny to them the honour of a natural burial in the bowels of their dear children . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Custome is the Genius or spirit of a mans actions , and introduces a nature , a facility , a delight , and religion it self . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Custome is as nature , and that to which we are accustomed is like that which we were born . For that which is often is next to that which is always . It is nature which is always , that is custome which is frequent : It is possible that nature in many things should be altered , and it is very difficult that custome should in any thing ; we have seen and heard it in a great instance in a few ages last past . For when some of the reformed Doctors by their private authority did twice attempt it , and the Church of Rome did twelve times publickly endevour it , to get the Greeks to forsake the customes of their Churches , and to reform themselves by their copy , they were all repulsed ; and if the Greek Prelates should take the people off from their old customes , besides that the great Turk would doe them a mischief for complying with the Western Christians his Enemies , the people themselves would indanger all their Religion and turn Turks , if they once did learn that their old customes were not necessary Religion : and therefore they chose to stick secure in their Religion though allayed with some errors , then for the purchase of a less necessary truth endanger the whole Religion by taking the people off from their Jura Gentis , the customs of their Nation . 8. Some Nations doe refuse to admit of some of those Laws which others call the laws of Nature , and such which ineed were given to all the Nations of the world . — Non foedera legum Ulla colunt , placidas aut jura tenentia mentes . and excepting the care of children , to which by natural likeness and endearments we love to be oblig'd , and so less stand in need to be tied to it by a law , excepting this I say , to which beasts also doe as well as we , some wise persons have observ'd that in all things else we are at liberty , that is , naturally tied to no law . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . But the instances will make greater indication of this any mans affirmative . The Idumaeans are Theeves and Murderers , and will not beleeve that they doe amiss : The manner of their Nation is to live very much upon robbery , and plundring Merchants : and in Homers time there was a Nation of Pirates : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said the Scholiast upon Homers Odysses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . They thought it no disparagement to steal , but an honourable and a glorious thing ; and it is worse now , and hath been growing so ever since Nimrods time . Men account it lawful to kill and steal , if they doe it by Nations , by Companies , and Armies , and Navies : and Cato had reason to complain , Fures privatorum furtorum in nervo atque in compedibus aetatem agunt , fures publici in auro atque in purpurâ ; and particularly A. Gellius tells of the Egyptians that they allow of thefts ; and the wiser Lacedemonians , a sober and a severe people , taught their young men to steal without covetousness ; so they pretended , not to enrich themselves , but to incourage them to fight the bet●er by plundring well . Pomponius Mela tells of the Augitae , a Nation in Africa whose custome it was that every bride should be prostitute to all commers the first night , and she who had entertain'd most , was most honoured : and Solinus tells of the Garamantici that they know no marriages , and therefore children onely own their Mothers , for they can hardly guess at their Fathers ; and indeed the old world did doe fuch vile things , contracted such base customes , so delighted in wickedness , that as they highly provoked God to anger , so they left it impossible to judge of the laws of nature by the consent of Nations . Propertius complains severely of this popular impiety . Sed postquam tellus scelere est imbuta nefando , Justitiamque omnes cupidâ de mente fugarunt , Perfudêre manus fraterno sanguine fratres , Destitit extinctos natus lugere Parentes , Optavit genitor primaevi funera nati , Liber ut innuptae potiretur flore Novercae : Ignaro mater substernens se impia nato , Impia non verita est Divos scelerare penates , Omnia fanda , nefanda malo permista furore Justificam nobis mentem avertêre Deorum . The whole earth grew so impure and degenerous , that they drave justice from them as their Enemy ; brothers wash'd their hands in their brothers bloud ; the sons mourn'd not at their Fathers funeral ; and the Father wish'd the death of his eldest son , that he might lie with his sons wife ; the Mothers would steal secretly into the embraces of their sons ; and they feared not to break the laws of Hospitality , or Custome , or Nature , or of Societies . Now from hence it will be impossible to derive our customes , and so to suppose them to be laws of Nature , which are openly destructive of justice . And upon this last instance it appears that the saying of Polybius will be of no use to us in this question ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . That for the laws of Nature we must seek amongst them that live according to nature , not amongst them whose natures are deprav'd by custome ; since as Andronicus of Rhodes was wont to say , He lies not that says honey is sweet , though a sick man refuses it as bitter and unpleasant ; so is the law of Nature per●ect and immutable in those Nations who are endued with a sound minde and a sober judgement . This indeed is true , but how this can be reduc'd to practice , will be found inexplicable , and the thing it self impossible : since the Lacedaemonians the wisest and severest amongst all Commonwealths permitted such natural injustices , and would breed children upon their own wives by strangers that they might have a good and a handsome breed . 9. Some Tyrants have made Laws to serve their lusts , or their necessities , and these things have come into Customes , and Laws of Nations , and sometimes have been suppressed , or spent in desuetude . It was the case of Soleucus , who in the necessity of his son Antiochus gave him his own wise , and made it a Law for the future , which thing either was instantly disgrac'd and rejected , or else S. Paul had not heard , or had not taken notice of ; for he thought it such a fornication as was not so much as named amongst the Gentiles that one should have his Fathers wife : indeed it was not named inter cordatiores , or those with whom he had conversed ; but in Syria and in the Pontick Kingdome before his time , it had been named and practiced and pass'd into a Law ; and yet that Kingdome consisted of two and twenty Nations of distinct languages . There was another instance like it spoken of by Cicero , that a woman married her daughters husband , which exactly was the same undecency and incestuous approach . Nubit genero Socrus , auspicibus nullis , nullis authoribus , funestis omininibus . O mulieris scelus incredible & praeter hanc unam in omni vita inauditum . Something like S. Pauls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but yet sometimes it was done , and not onely before his time , but long after this monition also , as it was in the case of Antonius Caracalla : Matrem duxit Uxorem ; od parricidium junxit incestum : So Spartianus . Now concerning these things , how can any man from hence take an estimate of the law of Nature ; for this cannot be of the law of Nature which hath in it so unreasonable and unnatural complications ; and yet by what rule shall we judge of natures Law , since the wisest persons , even Socrates and Cato did such things which they thought fit , and we call unreasonable , for they gave their wives to their friends , as a man lends his beast for his neighbours use . 10. There are some Nations so used to a rude unmannerly pride and fierceness , that all civility seems softness and effeminacy . To this purpose is that which Tacitus reports of the son of Phraates the Parthian , who being bred up with Tiberius and efform'd into the Romane civilities was by the Prince 〈◊〉 friend sent to the Kingdome of Parthia ; but in the young Gentleman 〈◊〉 there were presently observed easiness of access , a fair civil deportment and affability ; obvia comitas : But these virtues being unknown to the Parthians were nova vitia ; and because they were unknown to their Ancestors , perinde odium pravis & honestis , the good and the bad amongst them did equally detest them . 11. Some Nations have left their good Customes and taken up bad , and have chang'd their natural reason into unnatural follies , and the basest sins have been very general ; and when God warned the Jews to take heed of the manners of their neighbour Nations , he enumerates vile lusts which were the national customs for which God affirms that he ejected them from their habitations . 12. Lastly , there is no consent among nations in their Customs , nor ever was until a higher principle made a law and tied it on with penalties ; such as were conquest , necessity , contract , reputation , decrees of Princes , or the laws of God , or of a Religion . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and neither Nation with Nation , nor Man with Man , nor a Man with himself does long agree . Indeed there are some propositions which all the world agrees upon , such as are , the immortality of the soul , and that there is a God. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The Greek and the Barbarian , the Epirot and the Maritime , the wise and the unwise agree in the beleef and profession of a God : but when these things come to manners and customes , they differ infinitely ; and as they anciently chose several gods , so they did not agree in the manner of worshipping their gods ; some they worshipped by praises , and some by railing , some by giving sacrifice , some by throwing stones ; and so it was in other things . Some were observant of their Parents , and some knock'd them on the head with clubs when they came to a certain age , as is to be seen in Aelian ; and even in the taking care and educating their children , in which nature seems most to have made a law , and signified it with the consent of Nations , yet even in this also there was variety , and no universal law naturally established . For some nursed their children , and some did not ; sometimes they were left to their Mothers without any provision made by their Fathers ; sometimes the Fathers took them from their Mothers , but however , yet this cannot be properly derived from a Jus Gentium , for if it be a right or a law at all , it is a lex singulorum , it belongs to single persons and to families , and is common to man and beast , and hath a necessity in nature , as it is necessary to eat or sleep , and is as necessary to families as the other are to single persons , but where there is a necessity , there needs no law , and cannot properly be any . From all which I conclude that the Jus Gentium , the law of Nations is no indication of the law of Nature ; neither indeed is there any Jus Gentium collectively at all , but onely the distinct laws of several Nations ; and therefore it is to be taken distributively ; for they are united onely by contract , or imitation , by fear , or neighbourhood , or necessity , or any other accident which I have mentioned . And in those things in which they have agreed tacitely , or expresly , they have no obligation but what they bring upon themselves , as penalties , forfeitures , obloquies , and the like ; which they as easily shake off when they have power , and when it is for their profit ; and we see it in those who have killed Heralds or Ministers of peace and of Religion ; which we say commonly is against the law of Nations ; that is , it is against the custome of them , because to doe so is to no purpose , a spleenish ineffective malice ; and therefore although of no usefulness , and consequently seldome done ; yet it hath been sometimes , and no punishment follows , and therefore it is no law . Now that this opinion may not wholly seem new , I finde something of it affirmed by Constantinus Harmenopulus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The law of Nations is that which one or more Nations use ; and he instances in not marrying their nearest kinred , amongst the Greeks and Saurae [ Sarmatae ( I suppose ) ] or else to marry them as the Persians use . But this onely , where it happens that Nations doe consent in great proportions , it confirms our assent to the law , and publishes its being natural , in case that of it self it be so . Prompted by reason . ] Cicero defines the law of Nature to be , Vera ratio naturae congruens , diffusa in omnes , constans , sempiterna : That right reason which is consonant to nature , which is in every one always and the same , that is the law of Nature : So he , and from him Lactantius ; but that is not exactly true . Right reason is the instrument of using the law of Nature , and is that by which together with the Conscience ( which is also reason ) we are determined to a choice and prosecution of it our selves , or to a willingness of obeying the obliging power . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Reason entertains the Divine laws ( of nature ) and so is made a most vigilant Judge , said Hierocles . This is that which distinguishes us from beasts , and makes us capable of Laws . — Separat haec nos A grege mutorum , atque ideò venerabile soli Sortiti ingenium , divinorúmque capaces , Atque exercendis , capiendísque artibus apti , Sensum à coelesti demissum traximus arce . * But reason is not the law , or its measure ; neither can any man be sure , that any thing is a law of Nature , because it seems to him hugely reasonable , neither if it be so indeed , is it therefore a law . For it is very reasonable that every man should choose his own wife , because his interest is the greatest : * That every man should suffer as much evil as he does ; * That a man be not punished for evils that he cannot help ; * That every man should suffer for his own fault , and no man for the fault of another ; and yet these are not laws in all places where they are reasonable . Pythagoras in Laertius said that which was very reasonable . Plantae mansuetae non nocendum , veluti neque animali quod non noceat hominibus . A man may not hurt a gentle and a sweet plant , much less , a harmless and a profitable beast . Truly , it is unreasonable a man should , but if he does , he breaks no law by the meer doing such an action . For reason can demonstrate , and it can perswade and invite , but not compel any thing but assent , not obedience , and therefore it is no law . But besides this , Reason is such a boxe of Quicksilver that it abides no where ; it dwells in no setled mansion ; it is like a doves neck , or a changeable Taffata ; it looks to me otherwise then to you who doe not stand in the same light that I doe : and if we inquire after the law of Nature by the rules of our reason , we shall be uncertain as the discourses of the people , or the dreams of disturbed fancies . For some having ( as Lucian calls it ) weighed reasons in a pair of scales thought them so even , that they concluded no truth to be in the reasonings of men ; or if there be , they knew not on which side it stood , and then it is , as if it were not at all ; these were the Scepticks : and when Varro reckoned two hundred eighty eight opinions concerning the cheefest good or end of mankinde , that were entertained by the wisest and most learned part of mankinde , it is not likely that these wise men should any more agree about the intricate ways and turnings that lead thither , when they so little could agree about the journeys end , which all agreed could have in it no variety , but must be one , and ought to stand fair in the eyes of all men , and to invite the industry of all mankinde to the pursuit of it . And it is certain , that the basest of things have been by some men thought so reasonable , that they really chose it , and propounded it to others . And this is the less wonder , when we consider that in defiance of all the consenting reasons , and faith of all the Nations of the world , some few single persons , wittier then folly , but not so wise as Reason or religion should say that there is no God : such were Diagoras Milesius , Theodorus Cyrenaicus , Protagoras ; and it is thought , Lucian also : But they that think so , must also consequently beleeve that nothing is dishonest that they can doe in private , or with impunity . * Some have beleeved that there is nothing in it selfe just , but what is profitable : So did Carneades ( whom I before noted out of Lactantius ) and so did Aristippus . Now here it is not sufficient to say , that in this inquest after the law of nature by the proportions of reason , we must exclude all unreasonable , bruitish , and monstrous persons . For first the question will returne , who those are which are unreasonable , and we are not to reject the opinion upon pretence it is unreasonable , unless we first know some certain measures of reason : Now we cannot take our measures of reason from Nature ; or if we doe we cannot take the measures of Nature from reason , that is , if we call men unreasonable because they speak Unnatural things , then it must be certain that what is natural or unnatural is known some other way then by the proportions of reason ; for the reason being misliked for its disproportion to Nature , the laws of nature must be foreknown , and therefore are not to be proved by that which comes after : besides this ( I say ) the wisest of Men in their profession , and such as were no fools in their persons , so far as can appear by all their other discourses , have beleeved the worst of crimes to be innocent , and to have in them no natural dishonesty . Theodorus allowed of Sacrilege , and so do thousands who at this day call themselves Christians : Plato allowed adultery , and community of wives ; so did Socrates and Cato . Zeno and Chrysippus approved of incest , and so did the Persians : So that we may well say as Socrates to Phaedon ; when we hear the name of Silver or Iron all men that speak the same language understand the same thing : but when we speak of good and evil , we are distracted into various apprehensions and differ from each other and from our selves : we say as Pilate said of truth , What is truth ? we cannot tell what is true and what is good and what is evil ; and every man makes his own opinions to be laws of nature , if his persuasion be strong and violent . Tertullian complain'd that the old Philosophers did so : leges naturae opiniones suas facit [ Philosophia . ] And yet it is without all peradventure that all lawes which are commonly called Natural are most reasonable , they are perfective of Nature , unitive of Societies , necessary to common life , and therefore most agreeable to reason . But if you make an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of these , and reckon backward , you cannot wisely and demonstratively reckon from reason , or consent or natural inclinations up to natural laws . But the last clause of the Rule finishes this whole question , [ Bound upon us by the Command of God ] For when God made man a free agent , he by nature gave him power to do all that he could desire : and all that is Jus naturale , a natural right or power : and it needs no instances ; for it is every thing he could desire in eating and drinking and pleasures and rule and possession : but the law was superinduc'd upon this . Right is liberty , but law is a fetter ; Nature is free to every thing which it naturally desires 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Dio Chrysostomus : That 's the right of nature , to be free , to be subject to no law , to do absolutely whatsoever Pleases us . This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( as the law calls it ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . A natural liberty permitting us to do what we list , Libertati proprium est sic vivere ut velis , said Cicero de Offic. lib. 1. It is not liberty unless you live as you please : but servitude is not by nature , therefore liberty is . l. 5. D. de statu hominum . Instit. de jure personarum § . & libertas . For where na-nature hath an appetite , and proper tendency , it cannot deny to it self satisfaction ; whatsoever therefore is a law and a restraint to it , must needs be superinduc'd upon it : which nature her self cannot be supposed to be willing to doe ; and nothing had power to doe but God onely who is the Lord of Nature . — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It was God that gave justice to Mankinde : he made justice by his sanction : This was expressely the sentence of Cicero speaking of the law of nature : Est recta ratio à Numine Deorum tracta , imperans honesta & prohibens contraria : and again , Lex vera atque princeps apta ad jubendum & ad vitandum ratio est recta summi Jovis . The law of nature is a transcript of the wisdome and will of God written in the tables of our minds , not an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a product of experience , but written with the finger of God , first in the tables of our hearts . But those tables we like Moses brake with letting them fall out of our hands , upon occasion of the evil manners of the world : but God wrought them again for us , as he did for Moses by his spirit , in all the ages of the world , more or less , by arts of instruction and secret insinuation , by all the waies proportioned to a reasonable nature ; till from an inclination it came to a firme persuasion and so to a law : God , in this , ruling in our hearts somthing after the manner by which he reigns in heaven , even by significations of what is fit , by inspirations and congenite notices , by natural necessities : but this thing was yet no law till God also had signifi'd it to Men , after the manner of men , that is , by discourse and humane Communications , by something that taught them , and obliged them . The sense of this is , that religion is the first and greatest bond of laws , and necessity is the next : For though many times it prevails more then religion , yet it is not alwaies incumbent , and that which is necessary to society , is inconvenient in some cases , and when power comes in , and need goes out , there is nothing which can make or continue the law : and it were impossible that all the world should acknowledge any lawgiver but God ; for nothing else could be greater then all mankind , nor be trusted in all cases , nor fear'd but he alone . And therefore the heathen Princes when they gave their lawes , gave them in the Name of a Deity . So Numa , Lycurgus , and others ; which was not a designe to scare fools and credulous people , but in some instances ( excepting onely that they nam'd a false God ) was a real truth ; that is , in all those things which commanded natural justice , honesty and decencies : for these were really the lawes of the true God. For the law of Nature is nothing but the law of God given to Mankinde for the conservation of his Nature and the promotion of his perfective end . A law of which a man sees a reason and feels a necessity : God is the lawgiver . Practical reason or conscience is the record , but revelation and expresse declaring it , was the first publication and emission of it , and till then it had not all the solemnities of law , though it was pass'd in the Court , and decreed and recorded . And this is the perfect meaning of those words of S. Paul [ but for the law I had not known sin ] that is , although by natural reason and the customes of the world I had or might have reasons to dislike many actions ; yet till the law declar'd it I could not call any thing a sin , and if S. Paul could not , neither could the Gentiles : their Nature was alike , and S. Paul had advantage in education , and yet his nature could not instruct him in the Names and differences of good and evil ; therefore neither could the Gentiles know it meerly by Nature . But yet a man may become a law unto himself : So S. Paul observes of the Gentiles who not having a law doe by Nature the things contain'd in the law , and so become a law unto themselves . So does every man who beleeves any thing to be necessary , though it be not so ; yet he becomes a law to himself , because by his conscience and persuasion he makes to himself a law or obligation : much more might the Gentiles do so ; in whose Nature the aptnesses to justice and disposition to laws were concreated with their understandings . Well might they become a law unto themselves in these natural instances ; for if opinion can make a law to our selves in an unlawful matter , much more may it doe so in a matter that is so agreeable to our Nature , so sitting , so useful , so prepared to become a law , that it wants onely the life of authority , sanction and publication : but though the Gentiles became a law unto themselves , by this means : yet their Natural reason was not yet fram'd into a law , till Gods authority , either by his express declaration , or by the conscience of the man , that is , directly or indirectly did intervene : testimonium reddente conscientiâ , so S. Paul , their conscience bearing witness : for either God published these lawes by express declaration and voices , or else by imprinting upon the Conscience such fears and opinions that pass'd upon the man the reverence and obligation of Lawes . In both these there was variety : though in the latter there was amongst the better sort of men a more regular and universal influence and effect : and although it is very probable that all the measures of justice and natural lawes of honesty were expressly published to the Patriarchs of the great families of the world , yet when some of the posterity lost their tradition , these laws were maintain'd by more imperfect relations , and kept up by fears and secret opinions which the spirit of God who is never wanting to men in things necessary , was pleas'd in his love to Mankinde to put into the hearts of men , that men might be governed by instruments which would not fail . Thus S. Hierome a affirmes that Pharaoh knew his sins by the law of Nature : and of this it was that Tertullian b affirmed ; ante legem Moysi scriptam in tabulis lapideis , legem fuisse contendo non scriptam , quae naturaliter intelligebatur & à patribus custodiebatur : Nam unde Noë justus inventus est si non illum naturalis legis justitia praecedebat ? Unde Abraam amicus Dei deputatus , si non de aequitate & justitia legis hujus Naturalis ? by this the Fathers liv'd , by this Noah was found just , and Abraham the friend of God : for this though not written in Tables of stone , yet it was written in the tables of their hearts ; that is , it was by God so imprinted in their Consciences that they were by it sufficiently instructed how to walk and please God ; and this is that which was said by Antigonus in Sophocles , and which Apollonius did use against the edict of Nero. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . This is a thing which neither heaven nor hell hath taught by any new or express sanction : For God hath given us other laws . But never did I think that thy commands could ever prevail so , that it could be possible that thou being a mortal man should prevaricate the unwritten and potent laws of God. For these laws are not of to day or yesterday , but they are eternal , and their principle is secret , and from within . And therefore Philo saies , the law of nature is a law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 engraven in an immortal Understanding by an immortal nature . In this whole affair , God is as the Sun , and the Conscience as the Eye : or else God or some Angel from him being the intellectus agens did informe our reason , supplying the place of Natural faculties and being a continuall Monitor ( as the Jews generally beleeve , and some Christians , especially about three or four ages since : ) which Adam de Marisco was wont to call Helias his Crow : something slying from heaven with provisions for our needs . And the Gloss. and Gulielmus Parisiensis , and before them Maimonides , from whom I suppose they had it , affirme this to be the meaning of David in the fourth Psalme , Offer the sacrifice of righteousness ; it follows , Quis monstrabit ? Who will shew us any good ? who will tell us what is justice , and declare the measures of good and evil ? He answers , Signatum est super nos lumen vultûs tui Domine , thou hast consign'd the light of thy Countenance upon us , ut scilicet ( as it is in another Psalme ) in lumine tuo videamus lumen , that in thy light we may see light . The effect of all which is this onely , That God is our lawgiver , and hath made our hearts to be the Tables of the laws of nature , that they might alwaies be there under our eye , legible and clear . It is not a law for being plac'd there ; but God first made or decreed it to be a law , and then plac'd it there for use , and promulgation : and although very many men , and nations had no entercourse with God as a lawgiver but what they have by the means of their conscience , that is , they never heard God speak , had no prophets , no revelation , and have forgot the tradition of their fathers ; yet when God by ways undiscernible hath written a proposition there , and that the Man does beleeve any thing to be good or evil : it is true that God is his lawgiver , because he onely is Lord of his Conscience : but it is also true : that he becomes a law unto himselfe : that is , he becomes oblig'd to God by the act of his own conscience ; and however it be that his conscience be wrought upon , though by a fancy or a fear , a sad sight , or a casuall discourse , if it works the conscience into the notice and obedience of a natural law , the meaner the instrument is , the greater is the efficacy of the principal agent . The putting it into the conscience is a sufficient promulgation of the law , however that be done ; but nature alone never does it : The express voice of God , tradition , prophets , contract , providence , education and all sorts of influence from God , and entercourse with man have their portion in this effect . And when wise men say , this is naturally understood ; it must mean thus , naturally men find it reasonable , but not naturally to be a law : naturally they consent to it , but not naturally find it out , or naturally we may be instructed but not naturally bound : but when God changes science into conscience , then he makes that which is reasonable to become a law . But first or last , this way or another , it became a law onely by the authority and proper sanction of God ; God is the author of our Nature and made a law fit for it , and sent the principles of that law together with it , not that whatsoever is in nature or reason is therefore a law because it is reasonable or because it is natural : but that God took so much of prime reason as would make us good and happy , and established it into a law ; which became and was called the law of Nature both because 1. These laws are in Materta Naturali : that is , concerning the good which refers to the prime necessities of Nature ; and also because 2. being Divine in respect of the authour , the principles of this law are natural in respect of the time of their institution being together with our nature : though they were drawn out by God severally in several periods of the world , who made them laws actually by his command , which in nature are so onely by disposition . This latter reason is given by Alphonsus à Castro and by Wesenbech : the former is insinuated by Mynsinger defining the law of Nature to be quod natura , adeoque Deus ipse omnes homines in Creatione , prima quaedam praecepta & formulas honestatis docuit . But the latter of them I say is true onely of such as are the prime laws or rather rules of nature , and the general measures of vertue and vice . But as for the particular laws of Nature ( which onely are properly to be call'd laws ) we are to look for no other systeme or collective body of them , but the expresse declared laws of God which concerne morality , that is , all that are given to all Mankinde without relation to any one period , such is the moral law of the Jewes : and such is the religion of the Christians ; that less perfect , this more perfect and intire : for these in their several proportions are such which are generally for all mankind ; and upon this account it is affirm'd by Gratian , Jus naturale esse , quod in lege & Evangelio continetur , The law of Nature is that which is contain'd in the Law , and the Gospel : which saying he had from Isidore . It is necessary that this be rightly understood , because it establishes many certainties in the matter of Conscience , and eases us of the trouble of finding out a particular systeme of Natural laws , the inquiry after which hath caused many disputes in the world , and produc'd no certainty , It is all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as the Platonists call it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the word of God is the law , a right rule or sentence , and divine law , a law that is the distribution of the mind of God ; and under this come all the precepts of Christianity : which was well summ'd up by him who gave this account of the religion , and the religious that are of it , saying they are homines conspirantes in communem utilitatem ; and that they mutually make and give 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Symbols and Sacraments to each other , that none shall doe or receive injury : men conspiring for the good of others : or as the Romane souldier was told , They are men whose profession is to doe hurt to no man , and to do good to every man : and this is the integral designe of the law of Nature so far as it can relate to humane entercourse . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . So Christ is called by S. Peter and the Greek Fathers , he is the word of the Father and the law ; and it is remarkable , this word or law of the Father was the instrument of teaching mankind in all periods of the world . He taught the law of Nature to all men , and renew'd it , and made several manifestations and manners , and at last appear'd in the forme of a man , and made a perfect body of it to last as long as our nature last , and as long as this world , and his kingdome abides . When God spake to Adam , to the Patriarchs , to the Prophets , still he spake by Christ , who was the Angel of the old Testament , and the Mediator of the New. He is therefore Verbum Patris ; by him he signified his laws and righteous commandements , and the law was given 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in the hands , that is , by the ministery , of the Mediator , who is one : that is Jesus Christ ; and this Tertullian affirmes . Christus semper egit in Dei Patris Nomine . Ipse ab initio conversatus est , & congressus cum Patriarchis & Prophetis : and again , Christus ad colloquia semper descendit , ab Adam usque ad Patriarchas & Prophetas , in visione , in somno , in speculo , in aenigmate , ordinem suum praestruens ab initio semper : & Deus internis cum hominibus conversatus est ; non alius quàm semo qui caro erat futurus . Christ in all ages spake to Men in the person of his Father , being from the beginning the word of the Father , which was to be incarnate . The same also is to be read in Justin Martyr against Tryphon the Jew . Christ therefore was the preacher of this righteousness , and at last revealed all his Fathers will , which should never receive any further addition , diminution or alteration . The Novellae constitutiones , the inlargements and explications made by our Blessed Lord , together with the repetition of the old , that is , the Christian law , is the perfect Code and Digest of the Natural law . For they all rely upon the fundamental relations between God and us , and the natural entercourse betwen Man and Man , and the Original necessities and perfective appetites of our own Nature . But here it will be necessary to clear that great objection which will be pretended against this doctrine . For since Christian religion is new in respect of Nature , and superinduc'd some things upon Nature , and rescinded some of her rights , and restrain'd her liberty ; it will seem impossible that Christian religion should be a collected body of the laws of Nature ; because the law of Nature is prime and eternal ; which Christian religion seems not to be : Now to this I answer 1. That it is evident that all that which any men call the laws of Na●ure is actually conteined in the books of the new Testament . S. Austin , H●●o de S. Victore , and Alexander say the law of Nature hath but these two precepts , 1 Doe as you will be done to ; and 2 Doe not that which you would not have done to your self : Isidore reckons into the laws of Nature , 1 Conjunction of male and female , 2 Education and 3 Succession of children ; 4 Common possessions and 5 Common liberty , and 6 Acquisition of things in air , earth , and sea : 7 Restoring the thing that is intrusted , 8 Repelling force by force . These are rights of Nature , and natural states or actions , but not laws . There are some laws concerning these things , but they also are in the New Testament . Cicero reckon'd , 1 Religion , 2 Piety , 3 Thankfulness , 4 Vindication of injuries , 5 Observance of Superiors , 6 To speak truth . The lawyers reckon otherwise . The laws of Nature are these , 1 To worship God , 2 To live honestly , 3 To obey superiors ; Kings , Parents , &c. 4 To hurt no man , 5 To give every one their own , 6 Common use of things as far as it may be ; and where it may not , then 7 Dominion and 8 Propriety enter , 9 To take away evil doers from among men . And if we observe but the precepts of Nature ( for they had no other light which we know of ) which are reckoned by Hesiod , Pythagoras , Theognis , Phocylides , Epictetus , Cato , Publianus , and Seneca , we shall finde that they reckon many minute counsels which are deriv'd from naturall Principles , but yet stand far off of from the fountain : and some which they derive from the rights of Nature , not from her laws , but indeed are directly contrary . — Semper tibi proximus esto . So Cato , and Qui simulat verbis , nec corde est fidus amicus ; Tu quoque fac simules , sic ars deluditur arte . And that of Cicero , vindicationem esse honestam , revenge is justice . By their own reason men took their aim at the precepts and laws of Nature , but their reason being imperfect and abused it was not likely they could be exact : none but the wisedome of the Father could doe it perfectly . Thus they can never agree in their enumeration of the Natural laws : But it is certain that so many of these as are laws , and bound upon us by God , are set down in the Scriptures of the New Testament . For it is not a law of Nature unless God have commanded it to us in or by or with Nature and natural reason . Now it is certain that Christ told us all his fathers will : and the Apostles taught all that to the Church which Christ taught to them : and therefore what is not in their doctrine is not in natures law , that is , it is no part of the law of God : and if it be certain that he that lives according to the law of Christ does please God and doe all his duty ; then it follows that either there is no such thing as that which we call the law of Nature , and no obligation from thence , and no measures of good and evil there ; or if there be , it is also part of the Christian mans duty , and express'd and taught by the Master and Lord of the Christians . All that is essentially good , is there ; all that by which the World can be made happy , is there : all that which concernes every mans duty , is there ; all the instruments of felicity , and the conveyance of our great hopes is there , and what other potentiality there can be in the law of Nature , then what I have reckon'd now , I neither have been taught by any man else , neither can I my self imagine , or understand . Here are the general propositions which are the forme , and make the honesty and the justice of all the particular laws of Nature ; and what is not there provided for by special provision , or by general reason and analogy , is wholly permitted to humanelaws and contracts , or to liberty and indifferency , that is , where the laws of nature cease , there the rights of nature returne . 2. But secondly , to the objection I answer , that it will be but weakness , to thinke that all the instances of the law of Nature , must be as prime as Nature herself : for they neither are so prime , nor so lasting , but are alterable by God and by Men , and may be made more , or fewer , or other . This may seem new , and indeed is unusual in the manner of speaking : but the case is evident and Empirically certain . For when God commanded Abraham to kill his son ; the Israelites to rob the Egyptians and to run away with their goods ; he gave them a commandement to break an instance of the natural Law ; and he made it necessary that Cain should marry with his Sister : and all those laws of Nature which did suppose liberty and indistinction of possessions are wholly altered when Dominion , and Servitude , and propriety , came into the world : and the laws of nature which are in peace are not obligatory to other persons in the time of war. For the laws of nature are in many instances relative to certain states : and therefore in their instances and particulars are as alterable as the states themselves , but the reasons indeed on which they doe relie ( supposing the same or equal circumstances and the matter unchang'd ) are eternal and unalterable as the Constitution of Nature . But therefore it was unwarily said of the learn'd Hugo Grotius , and of divers others before him , that God cannot change the law of Nature . For as S. Paul said of the priesthood ; that it being chang'd , there must of necessity be a change also of the law , so it is in the law of Nature ; the matter of it being chang'd , there must of necessity also be a change in the law : for although the essential reason may be the same in chang'd instances yet that hinders not but the law may justly by affirm'd to be alterable ; just as the law was under the several priesthoods , in both which the obligation is the same , and so is the relation to God , and the Natural religion . * Thus when rivers are common it is lawful for any man to fish , and unlawful for my neighbor to forbid me , but when rivers are inclosed and made proper , it is unlawful for me to fish , and lawful for the proprietary to forbid me ; before the inclosure it was just to doe that thing , which afterward is unjust ; and this is as much a change of a particular law as can be imagined . * If it be meant , that while the propriety remains , or the state , the law introduc'd upon that state is unalterable : then there is no more said of the law of Nature then of any positive law of God , or the wise law of any Prince ; which are not to be altered as long as the same case and the same necessity remains ; and it would be to no purpose to affirme so of the law of Nature ; for the sence of it would be , that while things remain as God established them , they are unalterable . But if God can disannull the obligation by taking away the matter of the law , or the necessity or the reasonableness , or the obligation ( and all this he can doe one way or other ) it is not safe nor true to say , God cannot alter the law of Nature . * He chang'd the matter in suffering liberty to pass into servitude , * he made necessity in one instance , I mean , in the matter of incest in the case of Cain , and afterwards took it away : * he took away the reasonableness of the sanction by changing the case in the subduction or mutation of the matter , * and he took off the obligation in the case of Abraham and of the Israelites robbing their Neighbors . And therefore the Christian laws superinducing some excellencies and perfections upon humane Nature , and laying restraint upon the first Natural laws , that is , upon such which before this last period of the world were laws of Nature , is no hard thing to be understood . God in it used but his own right . And I suppose it will be found to be unreasonable to expound the precepts of the Religion by the former measures of Nature while she was less perfect , less instructed : but this rather ; the former instances of the Natural law are pass'd into the Christian precepts , and the Natural instance is chang'd , and the law alterd in it's material part ; the formality of it remaining upon the supposition of a greater reason . Thus to repell force by force is a right of Nature ; and afterwards it was passed into a law that Men might doe it ; that is , God expressly gave them leave ; and although it be not properly a law which neither forbids nor commands but onely gives a leave , yet when God had forbidden men to doe violence , and to establish this law the rather , gave leave , to any man that could , to punish his unjust Enemy that attempted to doe him mischiefe , it may be call'd a law , in the lesser sence , that is , a decree of the Court of Heaven by which this became lawful . * Though this was pass'd into a law in the manner now explicated , yet it was with some restraints ; which yet were not so great but they left a great liberty which was sufficient security against violence . The restraint which God superinduc'd upon this Right or Nature was but moderamen inculpatae tutelae , it left men defended sufficiently against injuries though it permitted us to be tried in some lesser instances and unavoidable accidents . But now although Christianity hath proceeded in the first method of God , and restrain'd it yet more , and forbids us to strike him that strikes us , we are not to force this precept into a sense consisting with the former liberty which we call the law of Nature ; but was at first onely a right of Nature or a permissive law , but not obligatory ; and afterwards suffer'd some restraints : for that which suffer'd some , may suffer more : and as the right of nature was for its being restraind recompenc'd in the provisions of laws , and by the hands of justice , taking it from the private into the publike hand : so may this right of nature when it is wholly taken from us be recompenc'd by Gods taking the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the power of avenging our quarrels into his hands . This right of nature being now almost wholly taken from us , part of it is taken up to God , and part of it is deposited in the hands of the civil power , but we have none of it ; onely by Christ's laws and graces our nature is more perfect , and morality is set forward , and justice and all our rights are secured ; but yet the law is changed . * The like may be said in divers other instances , as I shall discourse in their several places : here it is sufficient to have given the first hint of it , and demonstrated the certainty and reasonableness of it , which ( as appears by the instances ) although it be especially and frequently true in the Jus naturae or the permissive law of nature , and in those not onely God but men also may make an alteration ; yet even in those laws which are directly obligatory , the power of God who made them cannot be denyed to be equal in the alteration : And indeed he that can annull nature , can also at least alter her laws , which are consequent to Nature and intended onely for her preservation . The case seems to be the same with eating and drinking which God hath made necessary for our life , as justice is to societies : but as he can take away the necessity from this person at this time to eat and can supply it otherwise : so he can also conserve humane society in the mutation of cases and extraordinary contingencies as well as in the ordinary effects of justice . Indeed God cannot doe an unjust thing ; because whatsoever he wills or does is therefore just because he will and does it ; but his will being the measure of justice , and his providence the disposer of all those events and states of things to which the instances of Justice can relate : when he wills an extraordinary case and hath chang'd the terme of the relation , then he hath made that instance which before was unjust , now to become just ; and so hath not chang'd justice into unjustice , but the denomination of the whole action concerning which the law was made , is alterd from unjust to just , or on the contrary . It is not to be suppos'd that the whole law of Nature can be alter'd as long as our Nature is the same ; any more then the fashion of our garments can be generally alter'd as long as our body is of this shape : and therefore it is not to be thought that he that makes a doublet shall ever make three sleeves unless a man have three armes , or a glove with six fingers for him that hath but five , but many particular laws of Nature suffer variety and alteration , according to the changes that are in our Nature and in our Necessities , or by any Measure of Man or Men which God shall superinduce . Duo cùm idem faciunt saepe , ut possis dicere Hoc licet impunè facere huic , illi non licet ; Non quod dissimilis res est , sed is qui facit . The rule of Nature is always the same ; yet one may doe what another may not , and sometimes that is lawful which at another is criminal ; not because the measure is changeable , but the thing measured suffers variety . So that in effect the sence and extent of truth in this question is this ; That although as long as this world lasts and men in it , the law of Nature cannot be abrogated , because it is that law which is fram'd proportionable to Mans Nature ; yet it may be derogated , that is , lessen'd , or inlarg'd in instances , chang'd in the integrity of many of it's particulars made , relative to several states and new necessities ; and this is that which in true speaking does affirme that the laws of Nature may be chang'd . For although there are some propositions and decrees so General that they are in their Nature applicable to all variety of things , and therefore cannot be chang'd : yet they are rather the foundation of laws then laws themselves : because a law must be mixt with a Material part , it must be a direction of actions , and a bond upon persons which does suppose many things that can be changed : And therefore although the propositions upon which the reasonableness and justice of the law does depend , serves to the contrary instances by analogy , and common influence , yet the law being material does not , and therefore is alterable . But of this I shall give a fuller account in the ninth and tenth rules of this Chapter . For the present , I observe , The want of considering this , hath made difficulty in this question and errors in many . Every natural proposition is not a law : but those antecedent propositions , by the proportions of which laws stand or fall , are the measures of laws . They are rules , not laws : and indeed the rules of Nature are Eternal and Unalterable : that is , all those Natural and reasonable propositions which are dictates of prime reason , and abstract from all persons and all states and all relations : such as are God is to be honour'd : Justice is to be done : Contracts are to be affirm'd : Reason is to be obeyed : Good is to be followed : Evil to be eschewed . These are the common measures of all laws , and all actions : but these are made laws when they are prescrib'd to persons , and applied to matter : and when they are , because that matter can have variety , the law also can , though the rule cannot . That we are to restore all that was intrusted to us , is a Natural law deriv'd from the rule of doing justice : but this may be derogated and prejudic'd without sin . For prescription transfers the possession and disobliges the fiduciary from restitution . By the law of Nature relying upon the rule of performing contracts , clandestine marriages are valid and firme : but yet some Churches , particularly the Church of Rome in the Councell of Trent hath pronounc'd some marriages void which by the Rule of Nature , and afterwards by a law were rate and legal ; particularly , clandestine marriages , and marriages not clandestine by the ingress of one of the parties into Religion , as is to be seen in the eighth Session . By the law of Nature a testimony under two or three witnesses may stand , but in the case of the accusation of a Cardinal Deacon in Rome they require the concurrence of seven and twenty , of a Cardinal Priest sixty four , of a Cardinal Bishop seventy and two , and in England one shall serve the turne , if it be for the King. In Codicils the civil law requires five witnesses . In testaments there must be seven : when a controversy is concerning the eminency and prelation of excellent persons , fifteen are demanded . But if these things may be prejudic'd by men , much more may they be alter'd by God. But this extends it self a little further . For in some of these instances , that which is a law of Nature becomes so inconvenient as to doe much evil , and then it is to be estimated by a new Rule ; and therefore the whole law is chang'd when it comes to have a new measure , and the analogy of a New reason . Upon the account of these premises it follows , that it is but a weak distinction to affirme some things to be forbidden by God because they are Unlawful : and some to be unlawful because they are forbidden . For this last part of the distinction takes in all that is unlawful in the world , and therefore the other is a dead member and may be lopp'd off . So Ocham affirmes against the more common sentence of the Schooles ( as his manner is ) nullus est actus malus nisi quatenus à Deo prohibitus est , & qui non possit fieri bonus si à Deo praecipiatur & è converso : Every thing is good or bad according as it is commanded or forbidden by God , and no otherwise . For nothing is Unlawful antecedently to Gods commandement . Sin is a transgression of some law , and this law must be made by a Superior , and there is no Superior but who depends on God , and therefore his law is its measure . There are some things good which God hath not commanded ; but then they are such which he hath commended by counsels , or analogies and proportions . But whatsoever is a sin , is so therefore because it is forbidden , and without such a prohibition , although it might be Unreasonable , yet it cannot be criminal or unjust . Since therefore all measures of good and evil in the entercourses of Men wholly rely upon the law of God , and are consequent to his will , although it can never be that we can have leave to be Unjust , or Unchast , that is , to doe against a law in being with all its circumstances , yet the law may be so changed that the whole action which was forbidden may become permitted , and innocent , and that which was permitted may become Criminal . I instance in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or the conjunction of the neerest kindred , which once was lawful and ever since is become Criminal . The purpose of this discourse is this , that we look no further for tables of the law of Nature , but take in onely those precepts which bind us Christians under Christ our lawgiver who hath revealed to us all his Fathers will. All the laws of Christ concerning moral actions are the laws of Nature : and all the laws of Nature which any wise Nation ever reckoned either are taken away by God , or else are commanded by Christ. So that Christianity is a perfect Systeme of all the laws of Nature , and of all the will of God , that is , of all the obligatory will ; of all the Commandements . In those things where Christianity hath not interpos'd , we are left to our Natural liberty , or a Jus permissivum , a permission , except where we have restrain'd our selves by contract or dedition . RULE 2. The law of Nature is the foundation of all laws and the measure of their obligation . FOR all good laws , and all justice hath the same reasonableness , the same rules and measures , and are therefore good because they are profitable , and are therefore just because they are measured by the common analogies and proportions : and are therefore necessary because they are bound upon us by God mediately or immediately . And therefore Cicero defin'd vertue to be perfecta & ad summum perducta natura , or Habitus animi naturae modo rationi consentaneus , The perfection of Nature , or a habit of mind agreeing to Natural reason . But more expressly and full in his third book de legibus : lex est justorum injustorúmque distinctio ad illam antiquissimam & rerum omnium principem expressa Naturam , ad quam leges hominum diriguntur , quae supplicio improbos afficiunt , & defendunt & tuentur bonos . A law is the distinction of good and bad , of just and unjust , expressed or fitted to Nature , which is the first and the prince of all , and to which humane laws are directed for the punishment of evil doers , and the defence of the good . And it is evident in all the moral precepts of Christianity : all which are so agreeable to a mans felicity and state of things to which a man is design'd both here and hereafter , that a man cannot be happy without them : and therefore they all rely upon some prime natural reason , which reason although possibly some or all of it was discovered to us by revelation and the wise proper discourses of the religion , and was not generally known to men before Christ , yet the reasons are nothing but consonancies to our state and being , introductive of felicity , perfective of our Nature , wise and prudent and noble , and such which abstracting from the rewards hereafter , are infinitely eligible and to be preferred for temporal regards before their contraries . Adde to th●s , they are such which some few the wisest of the Heathens did teach by natural reason , for ought we know . And there is a proportion of this truth also in all the wise laws of Common-wealths . The reasons of which are nothing but the proportions of Nature , and the prime propositions of Justice , common Utility and Natural necessity . And therefore supposing that every civil constitution supplies the Material part or the instance , every civil law is nothing but a particular of the natural law in respect of its formality , reasonableness and obligation . And all laws of manners are laws of Nature : for there can be but one justice , and the same honesty and common utility in the world , and as a particular reason is conteined in the Universal , so is the particular profit in the publike , saluti civium prospexit quâ intelligebat contineri suam , said Torquatus in Cicero , and so it is in laws . In the observation of the laws of Nature the good of every society and every private person is compris'd : and there is no other difference in it , but that in every civil constitution there is something superadded ; not to the reasonableness or justice , but it is invested with a body of action and circumstances . Jus civile neque in totum à Naturali ac Gentium jure recedere , neque per omnia ei servire ; adeò ut cùm juri communi aliquid additur vel detrahitur , jus proprium , id est , civile efficiatur , said Justinian : The civil law neither does wholly recede from the law of Nature and Nations , neither does it wholly serve it : for when any thing is added or detracted from the Natural law it becomes the Civ●l : and another , leges positivae repetunt Jus Nature quum leges sive pactiones quae sunt Jura attingunt utilitatem & scopum Naturae ; The positive laws of a Common-wealth repeat the law of Nature , when laws and covenants doe promote the profit and this design of Nature . But from hence it follows that the law of Nature is the onely rule and measure of all laws , and superinduc'd laws of God and Man are but instances of obedienne in those General precepts of Nature : and since the law of Christianity contains in it all the law of Nature ; and is now the onely law that can oblige us primarily , and others in vertue of it : it is the prime and adequate rule and measure of Conscience , and the explication of all its precepts will be a full institution of the Conscience : to which purpose that saying of Laelius in Cicero is very pertinent : viros bonos appellandos esse putamus qui assequuntur quantum homines possunt Naturam optimam rectè vivendi Ducem . Nature is the best guide and measure of living well : and they who exactly observe her measures as far as Men can , are to be called Good Men. RULE 3. The first and greatest band of the law of Nature is fear of punishment . I Have already spoken of this as it is the act and effect of Conscience : here I am to speak of it more abstractedly , and as it self hath effect upon humane actions ; there as it is the Minister of the Judge : here as it is the Sanction of the law , Omne malum aut timore aut pudore Natura suffudit , said Tertullian . Fear and shame are the waiters and handmaids of every sin which Nature hath provided for it . And indeed fear is the band of all laws . For although there is a pravity in the Nature of injustice which natural reason hates , proceeding partly from the deficiency from the perfective end of Nature and societies , which is injustice ; partly from the consequent obloquy and disreputation which all wise men and all talking people put upon it ( for they that doe it themselves speak ill of it in others ) yet this is but a little . This is a part of the punishment of the breach of the Natural law ; but not strong enough to make a firme obligation . Now in all laws there must be some penalty annexed , the fear of which may be able to restrain men from doing against the law : which cannot be unlesse the evil be greater then the benefit or pleasure of the praevarication can be : and therefore it is , that God establishing this law hath appointed a Court within us , a severe judge who will not spare , a wise discerner who will not be deceived , an exact remembrancer which never forgets any thing that can doe the greatest mischiefs , a just witness who will not be suborn'd , and is conscious and privy to all that which he is to judge ; and the same also is the executioner of the delinquent and sinning people . The stings of Conscience and fear of the Divine vengeance , is this evil which Naturally restrains us : it is the greatest restraint , because it is the greatest of evils , and it is Unavoidable , and it is Natural . I will not adde it is lawful to abstain from evil for fear of punishment , but it is necessary , and it is Natural , and that is more ; and this is it which Epicurus taught , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; which although Plutarch seems angry at , was well enough spoken by him ; meaning that it is a fear not of temporal discovery and civil punishment which is onely appointed to restrain evil actions , but a fear of those evils whose apprehension God hath made necessary and congenite with the Nature of Man ; fear of Gods displeasure , and the destruction of our Nature and felicities relying upon that Natural love of our selves and desire of our own preservation , without which a man cannot be suppos'd sufficiently provided with principles of necessary being and providence . There is another kind of fear of punishment , that is , a fear of those auxiliary punishments which Princes and Republikes have superadded to the breakers of Natural laws , which is in some men who are despisers of all the evils which are threatned hereafter : Such as was that of Thrasymachus in Plato . Nihil esse melius quàm facere injuriam neque poenas dare , nihil pejus quàm pati nec posse Ulcisci ; medio autem modo se habere Justitiam , cùm quis nec facit nec patitur , quod ut fiat , esse optabile ; sed nempe imbecillibus quorum proinde interest pacisci aut servare pacta , non autem valentioribus , qui si viri fuerint ac sapuerint , nullatenus pactum de injuria non inferenda accipendave sint inituri . Nothing is better then to doe injury without punishment : nothing worse then to suffer mischief and to be able to doe none again . In the midst of these is justice , which neither does injury , nor receives any , which is much to be desired ; but by whom ? By none but by weak people . For the stronger , if they be valiant and wise will never enter into Covenants concerning not doing or receiving injury . * According to this doctrine , there should be nothing of it self just or unjust , and if there were , it were not to be regarded , but so long as justice were profitable , and injustice troublesome and dangerous . And therefore strong men or crafty might in many cases be exempt from contracts and from doing justice , and would neither doe right , nor take wrong . Against this it is that all wise men in the world doe speak , Vos autem nisi ad populares auras inanésque rumores recta facere nescitis ; & relictâ conscientiae virtutísque praestantiâ de alienis praemia sermunculis cogitatis , said Boetius in indignation against all those who took accounts of themselves by publike noises not by the testimonies of a just Conscience , that is , who fear man but doe not fear God. And to doe good out of fear of punishment ( in this sence ) is to doe good no longer then I am observed , and no longer then I am constrained : from both which because very many men are very often freed , and all men sometimes , there would be no habit , no will , no love of justice in the world ; that is , there would be no vertue of justice , but single actions as it could happen . This would introduce horrid tyrannies , while Princes and Generals having power in their hands might do all things as they pleased , and have no measure but their own private : and all mens conditions under them would be always precarious and arbitrary , and most commonly intolerable : And therefore this fear is the characterisme of evil persons , Oderunt peccare mali formidine poenae . and against such civil laws are made : Justis lex non est posita , saith S. Paul , the law is not made for the righteous , but for the wicked . If the sons of Israel had continued pious as Abraham , Isaac , and Jacob were , the law should not have been given to them as it was upon Mount Sinai ; but the necessities of men brought a law upon them , and that law a punishment , while good men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Zenocrates in Laertius said of the Philosophers ; they doe it Sponte suâ , veterísque Dei se more tenentes . for the love of God ; by choice and delight in the actions of vertue they doe excellent things , Plúsque ibi boni mores valent quàm alibi bonae leges , as Tacitus said of the old Germanes . Good manners prevail'd more then good Laws . Thus did the Patriarchs , and therefore they needed not a law . Vetustissimi mortalium nullâ adhuc malâ libidine , sine pretio , sine scelere , eóque si●● poena & coercitionibus agebant : neque praemiis opus erat , cùm honesta suopte ingenio peterentur : & ubi nihil contra morem cuperent , nihil permetum vetabantur . Our forefathers desir'd nothing against honesty and justice and therefore were not forbidden any thing by the instrument of fear . But therefore the civil and positive law is not made for all those men who have other restraints ; that is , for good men who are mov'd by better principles ; but because these things that are better are despis'd by the vitious and the Tyrants , oppressors and the impudent , the civil power hath taken a sword to transfixe the Criminal and to kill the Crime . And therefore Epicurus in Stobaeus said not amiss : laws were made for wise men , not for fear they should doe ill , but lest they should suffer evil from the Unjust . And yet even the wise and the good men have a fear in them which is an instrument of justice and religion ; but it is a fear of God , not of the secular Judge , it is a fear that is Natural , a fear produc'd from the congenite notices of things , and the fear of doing a base thing ; a fear to be a fool , and an evil person . Mi natura dedit leges à sanguine ductas Ne possem melior Judicis esse metu . said Cornelia in Propertius : a good man will abstain from all Unrighteous things , though he be sure that no man should hear or see any thing of it , that is , though there were no laws , and superinduc'd punishments in republikes : and all this upon the account of such a fear which a good man ought to have ; a fear of being a base person or doing vile things : — Imposito tenerae custode puellae Nil agis : ingenio quaeque tuenda suo est . Siqua metu dempto casta est , ea denique casta est ; Quae quia non liceat , non facit , illa facit . That chastity is the Noblest which is not constrain'd by spies and severity , by laws and jealousie : when the mind is secretly restrain'd , then the virtue is secur'd . * Cicero puts a case to Torquatus : Si te amicus tuus moriens rogaverit ut haereditatem reddas suae filiae , nec usquam id scripserit , ut scripsit Fadius , nec cuiquam dixerit , quid facies ? Aruncanus dies and leaves his inheritance to his daughter Posthumia , and intrusts his friend Torquatus with it , but privately , without witness , without consignation of tables : will Torquatus who is a Feoffee in private trust restore this to the child when she shall be capable ? Yes ; Torquatus will , and Epicurus will , and yet Cicero had scarce a good word for him , whom he hath fondly disgrac'd during all ages of the world , weakly and Unjustly : but the account he gives of it is pertinent to the rule : Nónne intelligis eò majorem esse vim naturae , quod ipsi vos qui omnia ad vestrum commodum , & ut ipsi dicitis ad voluptatem referatis , tamen ea faciatis quibus appareat , non voluptatem vos , sed officium sequi , plúsque naturam rectam , quàm pravam rationem valere . Nature is more prevalent then interest : and sober men though they pretend to doe things for their real advantage and pleasure , yet follow their duty rather then either pleasure or profit , and right nature rather then evil principles . The reason of this is , because Nature carries fear and reverence in the retinue of all her laws , and the evils which are consequent to the breach of Natural laws are really , and by wise men so understood to be greater mischiefs then the want of profit , or the missing of pleasure , or the feeling the rods and axes of the Prince . If there were no more in a crime then the disorder of Nature , the very unnaturalness it self were a very great matter , S. Basil said well , ad omnia quae descripta à nobis , à Deo praecepta sunt , consequenda , naturales ab ipso facultates accepimus . God hath given to virtues , Natural Organs , or bodily instruments ; as to mercy he appointed bowels , eyes for pity , hands for relief ; and the proper imployment of these is so perfective of a mans condition ( according to their proportion ) that not to employ them according to the purpose of Nature is a disease , a Natural trouble ; just as it is to trumpet with our mouth which was intended for eating and drinking and gentler breathings . It is punishment enough to doe an Unnatural and a base action , it puts our soul and it's faculties from their centre , and the ways of perfection . And this is fully observed by Seneca : Male de nobis actum erat quòd multa scelera legem & Judicem effugiunt , & scripta supplicia , nisi illa naturalia & gravia de praesentibus solverent & in locum patientiae timor cederet . Mankind were in an ill state of provisions , if those wickednesses which escape the law and the Judge , did not suffer the more grievous inflictions of natural punishment and fear came into the place of patience ; still , fear is the bridle : but it is an honest fear , a fear of God and of natural disorders and inconvenience . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Clemens of Alexandria calls it a righteousness not produced by laws and the sword , fear and interest , but from the love of God , and something that is within : There is a fear , but it is such a fear as still leaves the love to vertue , and secures it in privacies and enjoynes the habit and constant practice of it : a fear that is complicated with a Natural love of our own preservation , and is constant , and measur'd by God , and in the Natural limit cannot be extravagant ; a fear that acknowledges Gods Omniscience , and his Omnipresence , and his eternal justice : and this was the sence of that of Sophocles . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Doe nothing basely and secretly ; for times Father sees and hears all things , and time will discover it , and truth shall be the daughter of time , and that which is done in secret shall be spoken upon the tops of houses : so both the Christian and the Heathen are conjoyn'd in the several expressions of the same great truth . This fear is deposited in Conscience , and is begotten and kept by this proposition that God is a rewarder of all men according to their works . Consequent to this is the love of Vertue . RULE 4. The second band of vertue is love , and its proper and consequent deliciousness . THis is not wholly Natural , but in much of it is Empirical , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proceeding from the grace of God , and the experience of the deliciousness and rewards of vertue , and the excellency of a greater hope which does entertain our spirits in the outer courts of pleasant expectations : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as both Aristotle and Xenocrates did speak . It is the effect of Philosophy and Religion , of vertuous and severe institutions to doe that for love and without constraint , which fools , and vitious , and weak persons doe for fear of laws . Now this , I say , is not Natural , that is , although it be agreeable to Nature , yet not primarily introduc'd by it , without a Tutor , because Nature forbids injustice , but does not command justice , but secondarily and by accident and upon supposition of other contingencies . To doe injustice is alwaies a sin but not to doe a justice is not alwaies . For a man may depose the person of a Judge , or a trustee , or a delegate ; but they who habitually doe justice , find the rewards of reputation , and the ease of being freed from the torments of an evil Conscience which is a delicacy , like the being eased of the horrid gripes of the colick ; and so insensibly grow in love with justice , that they think they love justice for justice sake . Ipsa sui merces erat & sine vindice praeda . Concerning which it is fit we consider a little least it become the occasion of Scruples and nice opinions . Antigonus Sochaeus an old Jew was fam'd for saying , Be not servants who serve their Lord that they may receive a reward from him ; but be such who serve him without consideration of wages , or recompences , and let the fear of God be upon you : Baithus and Sadoc his Disciples , from whom the sect of the Saduces did spring , not well understanding him , took occasion from hence to deny the Resurrection and rewards after this life . And indeed such sayings as these are easily abused ; and when some men speak Great things , and others beleeve as much of it as they Understand , but understand it not all , they make Sects and divide their Schools , and ignorance and faction keep the doors and sit in the chairs sometimes . It is impossible a man should doe Great things , or suffer nobly without consideration of a reward ; and since much of vertue consists in suffering evil things , vertue of her self is not a beatitude , but the way to one . He does things like a fool , who does it for no end : and if he does not choose a good end , he is worse : and vertue herself would in many instances be unreasonable if for no material consideration we should undertake her drudgery : and therefore S. Austin said well , Sublatis aeternis praemiis & poenis verum staturum à partibus Epicuri : Sensual pleasures were highly eligible , and not vertuous sufferings , if in this life onely we had hope . But if it be accounted the top of vertue to love vertue for vertues sake , and without intuition of the reward ; many times good men observing that themselves are encouraged by all Gods promises to obedience and patience , and that in Martyrdome there is no Natural or sensitive pleasure , and that it cannot be lov'd for it self , but wholly for its reward , will find themselves put into fear where no fear is , and that a nequam humilitas an unworthy opinion of their duty shall affright their peace and holy confidence . Peregrinus the Philosopher in A. Gellius express'd this love of vertue for it self , thus ; Etiamsi Dii atque homines ignoraturi forent ; to doe good though neither God nor Men should know of it : but as this is impossible in fact , so it is in speculation ; for there were no such thing as vertue , if it were not relative and directed to God or Man : But yet the thing which they mean is very good . Good men love vertue for vertues sake , that is , they act it and love it , they doe it with so habitual and confirm'd elections and complacency that many times they have no actual intuition to the reward ; they forget this , they are so taken with that ; like a man that chooses a wife upon many considerations , as portion , family , hopes and beauty ; yet when he hath convers'd long with her and finds her amiable and fruitful , obedient and wise : he forgets all other considerations , and loves her person for her own perfections , but will not quit all his other interests . The difference is best understood by variety of Motions . Some Motions cannot be continued unless some agent or other do continually urge them ; but they are violent and unnatural : others are perfective and lov'd , and they will continue and encrease by their own principle if they be not hindred . This is the love of vertue , that is , fear , or it may be hope ; save that hope is a thing between both , and is compounded of both , and is more commendable then fear . But to love vertue for it self , is nothing else , but to love it directly and plainly ; he that loves it onely for the reward , and is not by the reward brought to love the thing , loves not this at all but loves something else : but he that loves it at all , sees good in it , because he finds good by it , and therefore loves it self , now , whatever was the first incentive : and the woodden arch may be taken away when that of marble is concentred . 2. Vir fortis & justus… . in summa voluptate est & periculo suo fruitur , When a good man laies before him the price and redemption of his mortality , the liberty of his Country , the safety of his friends , he is hugely pleas'd and delights in , and enjoies his danger . But if he feels not this pleasure , yet without trembling and uncertainty he will dare to die , facere recte piéque contentus ; and if you tell him this reputation which he gets of his Citizens will die almost as soon as he shall die ; he answers , all those things are without the nature and consideration of my work : Ego ipsum contemplor , hoc esse honestum scio : I look upon the work it self and find it honest , and that 's enough ; meaning secretly ; that though these outward rewards were pared off , yet there are secret pleasures which will follow and stick close to vertue , as the shadow does to the body , and this good men must consider , because they feel it , and that is part of the reward . 3. They are pleased with the vertue it self , and their soul is as much delighted with it , and as naturally as the eye with beauteous colours , or the throat with Unctuous juices , or the tongue with moist sweetnesses , For God hath made vertue proportionable to all the noble ends , and worthy desires of mankind , and the proper instrument of his felicity : and all its beauties , and all its works , and all its effects , and all that for which it can be loved is part of the reward . And therefore to say a man can love vertue for vertues sake and without consideration of the reward , is to say , a man can love vertue without any reason and inducement , without any argument to move his affections . 4. For there can be but two causes of amability in the world , Perfection and Usefulness , that Beauty and Profit ; that in the thing it self , this as it relates to me : Now he that saies , a man may love vertue for its own sake without consideration of the reward , saies no more then that a man may love a flower which he never hopes to smell of ; that is , he may admire and commend it , and love to look on it , and just so he may doe to vertue . But if he desires either , it is because it is profitable or useful to him , and hath something that will delight him , it cannot else possibly be desir'd . Now to love vertue in the first sence is rather Praise then love an act of Understanding rather then of the Will , and its object is properly the perfections of the flower or the vertue respectively : But when it comes to be desired , that is , lov'd with a relation to my self , it hath for its object other perfections , those things that please , and that delight me , and that is nothing but part of the reward or all of it . The question being thus explicated , it follows , that to love vertue for vertues sake , is so far from being the honour of a good and perfect man , that it is the character of an evil man , if it goes no further . For it amounts to nothing but this that the understanding is convinc'd of the worthiness of it , — video meliora probóque . — it is that which S. Paul calls a delighting in the law after the inner man. * But it is a Relative , Material , Practical love of vertue that makes a good man ; and the proper inducement of that is also Relative , Material and Practical . Est profecto Deus qui quae nos gerimus Auditque & videt . Bene m●renti , bene profuerit , Male merenti par erit : said the Comedian , God hath so endeared justice and vertue to us , that he hearing and seeing all things , gives good things to them that doe good things ; but he will be even with the evil man. 5. Lastly , To love vertue for vertues sake , is to love it without consideration of humane rewards , praise of men honours , riches , rest , power , and the like , which indeed are the hinges of most mens actions . Cura quid expediat , prior est quàm quid sit honestum , Et cum fortuna státque cadítque fides . Nec facile invenies multis de millibus unum , Virtutem pretium qui putet esse sui . Ipse decor recti , facti si praemia desint , Non movet , & gratis poenitet esse probum . Nil nisi quod prodest charum est . Now he that is a good man and loves vertue vertuously , does not love it principally for these secular regards ; but without such low expectations , and without apprehension of the angry sentence of the laws ; but this does not exclude the intuition of the Divine reward from having an influence into the most perfect love of vertue ; for this is intrinsecal to the sanction and the Nature of the law ; the other is extrinsecal and accidental . The first is such a reward as is the perfection of the work ; for glory is the perfection of Grace ; and he that serves God for hope of glory , loves goodness for goodness sake ; for he pursues the interest of goodness that he may be fill'd with goodness ; he serves God here that he may serve him hereafter ; he does it well that he may doe it better ; a little while that he may doe it over again for ever and ever . Nothing else can be a loving vertue for vertues sake ; this is the greatest perfection and the most reasonable and practicable sence of doing it . * And if the rewards of vertue were not the great practical inducement of good mens love to goodness , all the promises of the Gospel were to no purpose in relation to the faith of good men , and therefore the greatest and the best part of faith it self would be useless : for there is no purpose or end of faith of the promises but to enable our obedience by the Credibility and expectation of such promises to doe our duty . Now that even good men , even the best men , even all men have an habitual regard to it , besides that it is impossible to be otherwise ( for he that plowes does plow in hope ) and will easily be understood to be so by them who know the causes and nature of things ; it appears also in the instance of as good a man as any story reports of ; even Moses who despised to be called the son of Pharaohs daughter , because he had an eye to the recompence of reward : and by the instance of all those brave persons whom S. Paul enumerates in the eleventh Chapter to the Hebrews ; who all died in faith not having received the promises ; but they look'd for better , even such as were to come ; and beyond all this ; Our Blessed Lord himself , despis'd shame and endured the Cross ; but it was for the glory that was set before him . For it is the first and the Greatest article of the Gentiles Creed , Every one that comes to God must beleeve that God is , and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him . The summe is this ; Although in Nature herself , and in the Conscience relating to her , there is a Court punitive and a fear of God , yet the expectation of reward is rather put into us , than born with us , and reveal'd , rather then Natural ; and therefore the expectation of good is the second band of Natural laws , but extrinsecal and adventitious , communicated to us by revelation , and by grace . RULE 5. The imperfection of some provisions in civil laws are supplied by the Natural obligation remaining upon persons civilly incapable . 〈…〉 WHen laws make provision of cases 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in as many things as they can foresee , or feel , and yet some things will emerge which cannot be foreseen , and some contrary reasons will arise ; many times there is no care taken for some things and some persons by any constitutions of Man. Here Nature as the common Parent of all justice and necessary obligations , takes the case into her protection . This happens in many cases : 1. Humane laws give measures of things and persons which fit most men without a sensible error , but some it does not . Young persons are at a certain age declar'd capable of making profitable contracts ; at another age of making contracts that are hazardous , and they must stand to them , though they be mischievous . At one age they may marry ; at another they may contract a debt ; at another they may make a Testament ; at another they may be punished with Capital inflictions . But in some persons the malice is earlier and the wit more pregnant , and the sense of their advantages brisk enough : and therefore the contracts which they can make ; and the actions which they doe , and the part which they choose is really made , or done , or chosen ; but they not bound to stand to it , by the civil law : and yet if they can choose they are naturally obliged . Both of them are necessary : The civil law cannot provide but by common measures Quos ultrà citráque nequit consistere rectum . all their rules are made by as common a measure as they can , and they are the best rules that have the fewest exceptions : the best Carpenters make the fewest chips : but some there must be . But then it is necessary that Nature should provide , by single provisions in all the single exceptions ; for it is necessary it should be done , and she onely can doe it . She can doe it because Nature hath provided an instructed , a judging and a discerning Conscience , and the person that contracts or receives a benefit , can bind himself to man as soon as he can bind himself to God ; because the laws of God bind all our contracts with men . That is , plainly thus , God's laws provide not onely for general cases but also for particular circumstances ; and of every thing God and Gods vicegerent , Conscience , can take accounts ; and therefore this abundance supplies the others defect ; the perfection of God makes up the breaches of the imperfection of Man. Which rule is to be understood both of things and persons . For all our duty is onely an obedience to God : and every one that can hope or fear is bound to this obedience ; therefore there can be no gap here : God hath in every thing shut up every person that can use reason , by some instrument or other . And therefore Cicero said well , Si regnante Tarquinio nulla fuisset Romae scripta lex de stupris tamen contra illam legem sempiternam Sextus Tarquinius vim Lucretiae Tricipitini filiae attulit : erat enim ratio profecta a rerum Natura , & ad rectè faciendum impellens , atque à delicto avocans . There was no civil constitution against rapes , but Tarquin ought not to have done it ; for there was an eternal law against it . For right reason proceeding from Nature drives us on to good and calls us off from evil . That is , he could not but know it was ill , and against reason , and against every thing by which he ought to be governed ; and even to the Heathen God was not wanting , but bound these laws upon them by reason , and inclination , and necessity , and fame , and example , and contract , and hope , and fear , and by secret waies which we know not of . He made some inclinations and some reason to become laws , that Mankind might not live like beasts and birds of prey : in all cases , and in all times , and to all persons he became a Lord and a Lawgiver some way or other . Young persons of twelve or fourteen years old can be sav'd or damn'd , they can love or hate , they can Understand yea and nay , they can doe a good turne or a shrewd , they can lead a blind man right or wrong , they can bear true or false witness : and although the civil laws out of care least their easiness be abused by crafty people , make them secure from it by nulling the contract , that the deceiving person may not reap the harvest of his fraud , yet there are very many cases in which the Minor receives advantage , or at least no wrong , and though it was fit he should be secured , it was not fit he should be enabled to doe a mischief to another , ut levamen his , aliis sit onus , as S. Paul in a like case , that they be eased and others burdened . For although the other Contractor be sufficiently warned to take heed of the Minor , yet there may be need in it , or charity , friendship or Confidence ; all or any of which if they might be deceived the Minor would suffer often , but the other Contractor but once . Therefore as the Civil law secures them from harme , so the law of Nature binds them to doe none , but to stand to such contracts in which they have advantage or equality , and in which they were not abus'd . * The time when they come to be oblig'd is the time when they come to the use of reason * when they understand their duty * when a prudent man judges them fit to be contracted with * when they can use fraud to others * when they can consider whether they be bound or no : these are the best marks and signatures of the time , and declare the obligation in all cases where there is no deception evident . 2. Sometimes both parties can contract : but because they doing it without witnesses , may recede from it , either consentigly or against the will of one of them , the positive constitution of Man intending to provide against this inconvenience hath cut the civil tie in peeces and refuses to verifie the contract , besides that it cannot legally be proved . In this case Nature relieves the oppressed party , and supplies the easiness of the civil band , and strains that hard which the others let loose . And this happens in clandestine contracts : against which in the matter of marriage all Christian Countries have made severe edicts : but in case they be done , in some places they are pronounced valid , in some places declared Null . Where they are nulled , Nature is defeated in making provisions and the parties are warranted to doe a mischief . For if Mauritius and Cluviena contract marriage ; and Mauritius repent his bargain where shall Cluviena be reliev'd ? The law of the Church forbids it , and will punish her for doing it if she complains . The Civil law takes no notice of it , for it cannot be legally prov'd : and the law of Nature is barr'd out , if it be declar'd Null ; and then there is nothing left to hold him . It is the case of the Church of Rome who in the eighth Session of the Councel of Trent declares all clandestine contracts to be null , and their mixtures to be fornication and uncleanness . But they have overacted their zeal against a temporal inconvenience , and burn their house to roast an egge ; they destroy a law of Nature by a law of the Church ; against the former practices , counsels and resolutions , even of their own Church . * For if those contracts are in themselves naturally valid and not forbidden by God , then they cannot rescind them : if they be not naturally valid , since they were alwaies positively forbidden , why were they esteemed valid for so many ages ? For till that Councel they were so , but finding that the former prohibitions were not strong enough , they took this course to break them all in pieces : And out of desire to prevent an accidental evil , they made it more ready to be done . For it was before but feared lest they should recede : but yet if they did , they were esteem'd adulterers if they married again : and they themselves knew when they were precontracted ; and therefore stood convicted and pinch'd in their own Consciences so long as the old laws remain'd , and men did not receive warrants to break the most sacred bands in the world : but by this nullifying the contract , they have not onely leave to goe off , but are commanded ; and if they be weary of this , they may contract with another , and there is nothing to hinder them , if Nature does not . This Nullity therefore is a vehement remedy that destroies the patient ; besides that it is against the law of Nature . The laws may forbid it to be done ; but if it be , they cannot rescind it ; because the civil constitution is less then the Natural , and convenience is less then Conscience , and man is infinitely less then God. 3. Some pretend to doe a greater good , and to doe it , break a contract justly made : and if the civil constitution allowes it , the law of Nature r●claimes , and releeves the injur'd person . This was the case of the Pharisees who denied to releeve their Parents out of zeal to fill the Treasure of the Temple , and thought that their voluntary religion excus'd from their Natural duty . The Church of Rome gives leave to either of the persons who are married solemnly , and contracted rightly to recede from their vow and enter into religion , and declares the marriage separate and broken . Here Nature calls upon the obliged party , and ought to prevail above any other pretence ; it being first in possession and faster in obligation : and if it be naturally an evil to break a lawful contract made without fraud , and which is in our power to keep ; then it ought not to be done for any good in the world . 4. Hither also are to be reduc'd , obligations by Unsolemne stipulations , by command of Parents , by intermination of curses , by meer delict amongst persons , against whom lies no civil action , as of servants to their Lords , sons to their Fathers : concerning which proper accounts are to be given in their own places . Here onely they are to be noted in the general observation of cases in which the law of Nature hath made an obligation , when the civil power could not , or would not , or did against it . But it is proper to discusse a difficult question which intervenes upon this rule . The case is this ; By the law of Nature every man hath power to make a Testament of his own Goods : But the civil law requires conditions of every Testator that the Testament shall be ratified by so many witnesses , or else it shall be invalid . Sempronius dying leaves Caius his heir , and gives but a small portion to his son Porcius , but declares this by an Unsolemne Testament . The like may happen in all donations and actions to which any solemnities of law are required . Quest. THe question is , Whether the Estate be due to Caius by the law of Nature , or is not Porcius the son to be releeved by the civil Constitution which makes the Unsolemne Testament to be invalid ? To this it is commonly answer'd , That to make a Testament is not a law of Nature , but a right onely , which as a man may himself relinquish , so may the publike laws restrain for the publike good : for there being so many frauds in pretended Testaments it is necessary that provisions should be made to prevent the infinite evils that may happen . Now whatsoever is necessary , is also just ; if the necessity be publike , real , and unavoidable by other means : and if it be just , the publike power hath sufficient authority to restrain any mans right for every mans good . 2. Every sentence of the Judge in a clear case that binds in law , does also bind in Conscience ; but if the Judge of civil actions did know that Sempronius really did appoint the stranger Caius his Heir , yet by the law he were bound to declare for the son Porcius , and that the real unsolemne Will of Sempronius were to be accounted nothing : So that although the Law were made to prevent fraud , yet even when there is no fraud , and the Judge knowes there is none , yet the Unsolemne Testament is to be declar'd invalid by the law : which law because it is just , and for a just cause , and by a competent Authority , must bind in Conscience by the force of the words of S. Paul ; Let every soul be subject to the higher powers . And therefore if the law be good and the Judge just in giving the inheritance from Caius to Porcius , certainly Caius must needs be unjust if he detains it . 3. And this very thing is consented to in the Canons of the Church , which are usually fram'd , and ever to be presum'd ( ubì contrarium non constat ) to be more agreeable to the measures of Conscience ; and yet in the Canon law , a Testament fram'd and sign'd in the presence of two witnesses is not good , unless the Parish Priest be present ; and that no man can lawfully detain a legacy upon the Warrant of such a Will. 4. For since every act of man consists of the potestative and elective faculties , if either will be wanting , or power , the act is invalid . It is not therefore enough though the will be manifest and confessed ; for if the man have no power , his will is ineffective . But this opinion though relying upon fair probabilities and great authority , is not to be assented to as it lies , but with great caution and provisions . For a right of Nature cannot be taken away by a civil power , intirely , and habitually , but onely quoad exercitium actûs ; the exercise of the act of that right may indeed be impeded for great reasons and to prevent great evils , since therefore the power of making Testaments is a Natural right , and is wholly suspended in its act to prevent frauds in Unsolemne Testaments , where the case is evident and no fraud at all , although the civil law is still valid because it being established upon a general cause , though it fails in a particular it does not fail in the General , and therefore still is rate and firme ; yet because it does fail in the particular where that is known , there is a port open for Chancery , for considerations of piety , and religion . And therefore although in the case put , Porcius who is the natural Heir of Sempronius , is to take the advantage of the civil law against Caius ; yet if Sempronius had made an Unsolemne Testament in behalf of his Natural Heir , that ought to have stood in the Court of Conscience . My reason is , because in the law of Nature , Porcius the son hath as much Natural right to inherit , as Sempronius the Father hath to make a Testament ; and therefore although an Unsolemne Testament shall not be sufficient to interrupt a Natural succession , because the rights of Nature on either hand are equal ; yet the civil power can restrain his right when there is nothing complicated with it : for his own consent is involved in the publike constitution , and he may consent to the diminution of his own right , when no duty is infringed , that is , in those things where onely his own rights are concerned . When therefore any thing of the law of Nature is twisted with the right of Nature , there is an obligation past which the civil constitution cannot annull . As if Sempronius command his son in an Unsolemne Testament , in private and without witnesses to give such a legacy to Titius his Nephew ; although Titius cannot challenge it by vertue of that Testament , yet the son is bound to pay it by the law of Nature : for Civil constitutions have effect upon a meer right , but none against a duty of Nature : and therefore although the Testament of Sempronius shall not pass into legal , external , judicial warranty , yet it binds the son , and is valid as to him by the law of Nature and Conscience . And this was rarely well affirmed by Pliny : Hoc si jus aspicias , irritum ; si defuncti voluntatem , ratum & firmum est ; mihi autem defuncti voluntas ( vereor quam in partem Jurisconsulti quod dicturus sum accipiant ) antiquior jure est . If we regard the civil law such Testaments are invalid ; yet if we regard the will of the Testator it is firme : but though I know not how the Lawyers will take it , yet to me the will of the dead is to be prefer'd before the law : and more fully yet to Antonianus ; Tu quidem pro certa tua diligentia admones me , codicillos Attiliani , qui me ex parte instituit haeredem , pro non scriptis habendos , quia non sunt confirmati Testamento , quod jus nec mihi quidem ignotum est , cùm sit iis etiam notum qui nihil aliud sciunt . Sed ego propriam quandam legem mihi dixi , ut defunctorum voluntates , etiam si jura deficerent , quasi perfectas tuerer . Constat enim codicìllos istos Attiliani Manuscriptos : licèt ergo non sint confirmati Testamento , à me tamen ut confirmati observabuntur . Every one that knowes any thing knowes that in law Unsolemne Testaments are invalid : but I have another law of my own , if I know it was really the will of the Dead , I will verifie it though it want the solemnity of law : and this also was affirmed by Innocentius , saying , Electionem quae juri naturae consentit , licèt non serventur , juris solennitates tenere . cap. Quod sicut : de election . And there is great reason and great piety in this sense of the question ; For when a duty is any waies concerned , there is something owing to God which no humane power can or ought to prejudice . For it is in Testaments where any duty of any one is engaged , as it is in contracts of marriage to which every one that can choose is capable of being naturally obliged : now the relative of the obligation cannot in humane Courts claim either the advantage of an Unsolemne Testament , or Unsolemne and clandestine Contract , yet the relative who is oblig'd to duty cannot be so quitted : and therefore the Father can oblige a son in duty to perform an Unsolemn Testament ; and every contracted person is bound to perform privately what the other cannot challenge publikely : and this is not obscurely intimated by the law : L. hac consultissimâ C. detestam . Ex imperfecto autem Testamento voluntatem tenere defuncti non volumus , nisi inter solos liberos à parentibus utriusque sexus , viz. nisi liberi in sola dividenda haereditate voluntatem habeant patris , saith the Gloss. And for the confirmation of all this , it is remarkeable that they who affirme an Unsolemne Testament to be utterly invalid , and that the law of Nature is no remedy in this case , yet affirme that it is of force in the matter of piety ; as in donations to Churches , the poor , and pious uses , as appears in Imola , Ananus , Antonius Rubeus , Covarruvias and others : which concession of theirs could not be reasonable or consistent with their opinion , but that it is made so by the foregoing considerations ; which certainly are the best medium to reconcile duty and prudence , the laws Natural and Civil , the right of a man with the Government of a Commonwealth , and to state the question between the two parties who earnestly dispute it to contrary purposes . For although the question is probably disputed on both sides : yet there are no either hand instances in which the solemnity of the law does , and does not oblige respectively : which shewes that the probability is on either hand right and true ; and the thing as it lies in the middle hath nothing certain or resolv'd ; but is true or false as it partakes of differing reasons . Now the reason of the whole is ; because the solemnity of law is wholly to be regarded where there is not a bigger obligation ; where God hath not bound , and Man hath bound , Man is to be obeyed : but where God hath bound directly , there God is to be obeyed whatever be pretended by Men : but if God hath onely bound indirectly and collaterally , as if it be a case favourable and pious , there the solemnity of law which is against it , is not to prevail ; but yet is to prevail in the behalf and prosecution of it . Thus if a Pupil makes a contract in his minority to his ruine , or signal detriment : he is to be releeved by the advantage of the civil law which makes his contract invalid , because the person is declar'd incompetent ; and he may lawfully take his remedy ; and is not bound by the law of Nature to verifie it : because he being less naturally capable to contract , the other is by the law of Nature bound not to doe him injury , and take unequal advantages when every man hath equal right : and therefore if he does prevaricate the Natural law of justice which is equality , he also may lose the privilege which the others action pass'd unto him ; for the civil law declaring that Minors shall not be prejudic'd , makes up that justice or equality which Nature intends . For the Minor with his less portion of Understanding , and the defensative and retreat given him by the civil law is made equal to the Contractor who is perfect in his Natural capacity . Equality must be done and had . And this is one way of inferring it . Another way is , If the Minor receives advantage by the bargain ; then there is equality ; for the want of his Natural capacity is supplyed by the advantageous matter , and therefore such contracts are valid though the one of the Contractors be legally incapable . But 3. If the bargain give some advantage on either side , the Minor must not take the advantage offer'd him by the civil law to himself , unless he allow to the other his share of advantage in the bargain : for otherwise there is inequality . But 4. Neither one nor the other is to be done , nor the Contract to be rescinded if the person was Naturally capable , that is , unless it be apparent by the Consciousness of his own weakness , or the iniquity and folly of the contract that he was less in Nature then the other ; and therefore in this case the civil law rescinding the Contract of the Minor does declare that he is incapable naturally as well as civilly : and the Civil constitution does no way interfere with the Natural , but Ministers to it ; making the natural instance even with the Natural reason : for this being alwaies alike , from the first to the last , the instance growing from imperfection to perfection , must in the progression be defended and supplied and be fitted to the other . But in General ; the Rule is true which Panormitan affirmes in prosecution of what I have now disputed ; Quando jus civile aliquid disponit contrà jus Naturae , standum est juri Naturae : and in particular to this very instance of Unsolemne Testaments P. Alexander 3. being asked whether according to the custome that was in the Diocess of Ostia a Will could be valid which was not attested by seven or five witnesses at least , gave in answer , cap. cum esses . de testatales leges à Divina lege & Sanctorum Patrum institutis & à generali Ecclesiae consuetudine esse alienas ; & ideo standum esse contra illas juri Naturali , secundùm quod in ore duorum aut trium stat omne verbum . Which words of his I onely admit so far as they are agreeable to the former measures and limitation . For that a word is true under the test of two or three witnesses is not a prohibitive law or command of Nature ; but it was urg'd by our B. Saviour to the Jews as a thing admitted in their law , and it is agreeable to the law of Nature ; but yet not so , but that a greater caution may be in some cases introduc'd by the civil constitution , as I affirm'd above * : viz. when the innocent and equal state of Nature to which such simplicity or small duplicate of testimonies were sufficient , becomes chang'd by frauds and artifices of evil men , or new necessities are introduc'd which Nature did not foresee and therefore did not provide for , but God hath provided for them by other means , even by a power given to the Civil Magistrate . Lastly , to make up the measures and cautions of this discourse compleat , it is to be added ; that when the civil laws annull an Unsolemne Contract or Testament : it is meant , that such are to be declar'd null when they come into judgement ; not that the action , or translation of any dominion , inheritance or legacy is ipso facto void : and therefore he that is possess'd of any such is not tied to make voluntary restitution , or to reveal the nullity of the donation , but to depart from it , when he is requir'd by law : for he hath the advantage of a Natural right or power in the donour , and that being first must stand till it be rescinded by a competent power ; for the whole question being but probable on either side , the possessour or the Donee hath the advantage till a stronger then he comes and takes away that in which he trusted . RULE 6. Sins against the laws of Nature are greater or less , not by that proportion , but by the greatness of the matter , and the evil consequent , or the malice of the sinner . THis rule is intended to remedy a great error that is in the World and prevails very much to the abuse of Mens perswasions in many cases of Conscience ; viz. that all sins which are Unnatural are the worst : and to be a sin against Nature is the highest aggravation of it in the world : which if it were true in thesi , yet because when it comes to be reduc'd to practice it is wrap'd up in uncertain notices , it ought to be more warily handled . For when Men have first laid huge loads of declamations upon all Natural rights , and Natural wrongs , and then endeavour'd to draw forth a collective body of Natural laws , and they have done it by chance or as they please , they have put it within their own powers to make what things they list as execrable as murder or blasphemy ; without any other reason , but that they have called them Unnatural sins . Concerning which these things are considerable : 1. All sins against Nature are no more the most detestable then all sins against God : because if the Kind of sins , or the General reason or object of its irregularity were all that were considerable in this , nothing could be the aggravation of a sin more then this , that it were against God. Now because all sins are against God , and yet amongst them there is difference , the greatness of this appellative is not the onely thing that is considerable . But this is , that as all sins are against God , so all are against Nature , some way or other : and the reason that concludes against every sin is that reason that is common to all wise men ; and therefore it must be also Natural : I doe not mean , taught us without the help of revelation or institution , but such as all men when they are taught , find to be really , and in the Nature of things so constituted , to be reasonable . All voluntary pollutions are sins against Nature ; because they are satisfactions of lust in waies otherwise then Nature intended : but they are not all of them worse then adultery or fornication . For although all such pollutions are besides natures provisions and order : yet some of them are more single evils then fornication ; which although it be against Nature too , because it dishonours the body , yet it is by Name forbidden in the Commandement , which some of the others are not , but come in by consequence and attendance : and fornication includes the crime of two , which the other does not alwaies ; and it is acted with more vile circumstances and follies , and loss of time , and other foul appendages . It is said to be against Nature to approach a woman during her Natural separations . But if it be a sin ( which I shall consider in its due place ) yet it is of the smallest consequence and malignity ; so that for a sin to be against Nature , does onely denote its material part , or the body of it ; but does not alwaies superinfuse a venome and special malignity , or greatness of crime into it , above other sins . But it is according as the instance is . * Every sin against the duty we owe to our parents is Unnatural : but they have their heightnings and diminutions from other accounts , and in this they have variety . * And it is observable that there were some laws made concerning some of these and the like instances in the judicial law of Moses : but none in the Moral : and therefore that the irregularity in some of these cases though it hath met with a foul appellative , yet is to be estimated by more certain proportions then such casual appellations . 2. The breach of a Commandement is a surer rule to judge of sins then the doing against a Natural reason . For there are many things which are Unreasonable which are not Unlawful : and some things which are in some circumstances reasonable , but yet in the law forbidden and irregular : such are all those things which are permitted for the hardness of our hearts . So was Polygamy to the Patriarchs , and to the Jewes . So is the breach of laws by an Universal deficiency of the people ; which though it be infinitely Unlawful , yet for the Unreasonableness in punishing all , it becomes permitted to all . Therefore to estimate the goodness or badness of an action by its being reasonable or unreasonable is infinitely fallacious , unless we take in other measures . It is unreasonable that a man should marry when he is fourscore yeers old , but it is not unlawful . It is unreasonable for an old man to marry a young maiden , but I find no sin in it . Nothing is more against Nature then to marry June and December ; and it is Unnatural to make productions by the mixture of an horse and an ass ; and yet it is done without scruple . But in these and the like cases , the Commandement and nothing else is the measure of right and wrong . 3. When the Measure of the Commandement is observed , the degree of the sin is not to be deriv'd from the greatness nor smalness of its Unreasonableness in its own Nature , nor yet by its contradicting a prime or a secondary reason . The reason of the first is , because there are no degrees of reason in the Nature of things . Reason is an indivisible thing , simple as the Understanding ; and it onely receives increase by numbers , or by complication with matter and relations . It is as Unreasonable to think a thought against God , as to kill a man. It is as Unreasonable and Unnatural to speak against experience , as against a necessary proposition : against a truth in Mathematicks , as against a truth in Scripture ; and in the proper natural reason of things there can be no difference in degrees , for a truth increases not , neither can it decrease . * The reason of the second is , because that a reason is prime or secondary is accidental to the case of Conscience , or to the efficacy of its persuasion . For before contracts were made or dominions distinguish'd , it was a prime truth that such things as every one seiz'd on were his own by the priority of title . It was a secondary truth , that every one was to be permitted to his right for which he hath contracted , and which is in his possession . Now these reasons are prime or consequent according to the state of things to which they are fitted , but the reason from thence receives no increment , nor the fact any alteration . And this is also true whether the reason be known to us with or without a teacher . For the highest truths of God are such as are communicated by revelation ; and it is all one whether God teaches us by Nature or by Grace , by discourse or by experience . There is this onely difference , that in such truths which are taught , some men can have an excuse because all are not alike instructed in them ; but in those things which are borne with us , or are consented to as soon as spoken , it cannot be supposed but all men ( that are not fools ) know them ; and therefore they can have no pretence of ignorance in such cases : So that sins against prime or secondary truths , against truths Original or Consequent truths born or taught doe not differ in the nature of the things , but may cause an accidentall difference in the person , and may take from him the excuse of ignorance , and so make the man more sinful , but not the action in it self and in its own Nature worse . RULE 7. Actions which are forbidden by the law of Nature either for defect of power , or for the incapacity of the matter , are not onely unlawful but also void . THIS is true in contracts , and acts of donation , in vowes and dedition , and all rely upon the same reason . He that cannot give , and he that cannot be given cannot contract or be contracted with . Titius intends to marry Cornelia's servant , because he desires to have children , and to live comfortably with the wife of his youth . He does so ; and in their first access he finds her whom he thought to be a woman , to be an Eunuch ; and therefore not a person capable of making such a contract : she did ill in contracting , but she hath done nothing at all besides that ill , for the contract is void by the incapacity of the person . Upon this account the Lawyers amongst the causes of the Nullities of marriage reckon Error personae , the mistake of the person ; though certainly this is not to be extended beyond the meer incapacities of Nature , if we speak of Natural nullities . Thus if I contract with Millenia whom I suppose to be a Lady , and she proves to be a servant , or of mean extraction , though if she did deceive me she did ill in it ; yet if she could naturally verifie that contract , that is , doe all the offices of a wife , the contract is not naturally void ; whether it be void upon a civil account is not here to be enquired : but by the law of Nature it is void , onely if by nature it cannot be consummate . For by a civil inconvenience or mistake the contracts of Nature cannot be Naturally invalid ; because that is after Nature and of another consideration , and of a different matter . For that a mans wife should be rich , or free , is no more of the necessity of the contract of Marriage , then it is that she should be good natur'd , or healthful : with this onely difference , that if a man contracts upon certain conditions , the contract is void if the conditions be not verified ; and for those things which are present and actual he can contract , but not for what is future , contingent and potential . A man may contract with a maiden to take her for his wife if she be free , or if she have such a portion ; but not upon condition that she shall be healthful for seven years . Because whatever condition can be stipulated for must be actual before consummation of the Marriage : afterwards it is for better or worse : the want of any such condition is not so great an evil to the man as it is to the woman to be left after she is dishonour'd . So that if it be a thing which can be contracted for , and be actually contracted for , in the destitution of the condition the contract is void . But if there be no such express stipulation made , there is nothing can be made a nullity by nature , but that which is a natural incapacity : and therefore if a Gentleman contracts with a slave whom he thinks to be a free woman , with a bastard whom he thinks to be legitimate , with a begger whom he thinks to be a great Heiress , the contract is Naturally valid ; because there is in it all the Natural capacity ; if she be a woman , if she can be a wife , and can be his , there is no more requir'd to a verification of the contract in the law of Nature . By the way I desire to be observed that to separate or disannull a contract is not the same thing with declaring it to be null of it self or from the beginning . The reason why I insert this here is lest the explication of the Rule seem infirme upon the account of other instances : For if a man marries a woman whom he took for a maid and she proves not to be so , by the Mosaick law she was to be separated by death or divorce : but this is not a nullity : but a divorce may be for that cause which was in being before the marriage as well as for the same reason after . The other natural cause of invalidity is when the contract is made by him who had no power naturally to make it . This happens in case of precontracts . Spurius Fescennius woes a Greek Virgin , and obtaining her consent contracts himself to her , and promises to marry her within a certain limited time . But before the expiration of that time Publius Niger dies , and leave his widow young and rich and noble ; which advantages Fescennius observing , growes in love with them and in a short time quits his pretty Greek , and marries the rich Roman Lady . But being troubled in Conscience about the fact inquires what he hath done , and what he ought to doe : and he was answer'd thus , If he was married to the Greek , he must return to her if she will receive him , and quit his new lady ; because he was not a person capable to contract with her being married to another : a dead man may as well marry as that an Husband can marry to another , and quit that which had possess'd all his former power . For in all moral actions there must be a substantial , potestative principle that must have a proportion'd power to the effect ; a thing cannot be done without a cause and principle in morality , any more then in Nature . If a woman goes about to consecrate the holy Sacrament , it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it is an ineffective hand , she sins for attempting it , and cannot doe it afterwards ; and it were wiser and truer if men would think the same thing of their giving baptisme , unless they will confess that to baptize children is a meer natural and secular action to which Natural powers are sufficient ; or that women have received Spiritual powers to doe it ; and that whether a Priest , or a Woman does it is no difference , but matter of order onely . If an effect be spiritu●● , the agent must be so too , if the effect be gracious and precarious , so must t●● active cause ; Thus it is in contracts , and donations , which cannot be done without the power of him that does it . But he who hath already given away his power , hath none to act withall : he cannot doe one action twice . But this is to be understood onely after the actual cession of the power and active principle ; not after promises but after possession . Therefore if Fescennius was onely contracted or promised for the future though he sin'd grievously in afterwards contracting with the other , yet it is valid . For a promise take● not away our dominion in a thing , but obliges us to use it in a certain manner ▪ Bartolus appoints his Cosen Ancharanus to be his Proctor at a Synod , and promises that he will not revoke the deputation : but afterwards does ; he is a breaker of promise ; but the revocation is good . So it is in Testaments , and so in promises . For if after promise we have no right in the thing which we have promis'd , then we have no power to performe it ; but if we have a right , then the after act is valid , because it hath a natural potestative cause ; but if the power be past from us , as if Fescennius were married to the Greek , he had not himself to give ; for as he in the Comedy said of servants . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The man hath not power over his own body , but the Master hath ; so hath the wife over the Husband , and therefore he hath nothing now to give , and if he does , he does nothing ; the man loses his honesty , but the wife does not lose her right . But of the instance I am to speak in its own place . Here onely I am to consider the general Rule and its reason . RULE 8. When an act is forbidden by the law of Nature for the turpitude and undecency that it hath in the matter of the Action , the act is also void when the turpitude remains or hath a perpetual cause . HE that contracts a marriage with his Fathers wife , or any marriage , in which every illicite act is a new sin , hath not onely sin'd in making the contract , but the marriage is void by the law of Nature ; and the reason is , because no man can bind himself to sin ; so that here also there is a defect of power : no man can bind himself against God ; and the law of Nature whose prime rule is to doe good and to eschew evil cannot verifie an act which prevaricates her greatest principle . Nature cannot give leave to sin against Nature ; it were a contradiction : for then the same thing should be according to Nature and not according ; and this is expressly affirm'd in the law ; Quod leges prohibent , si perpetuam causam servaturum est , cessat obligatio : ut si sororem sibi nupturam aliquis stipuletur . He that promises to marry his sister is not bound to verifie it , and if he have done it he is bound to quit her , because every act of conjunction with her is incestuous , and a state of sin cannot be consented to , nor verified by Nature who is an essential enemy to it . This is to be understood onely in things forbidden by the law of Nature , the Eternal law of God , or his positive temporary law ; but is not true in things forbidden onely by men : the reason of them both is , because no man hath power to contract against a Divine law : but if he have contracted against a humane law ; his contract is established by a Divine law , and is greater then the humane ; where the Divine does not intervene by some collateral interest . The law of the Church of Rome forbids some persons to contract marriage ; and yet if they doe the contract is valid ; because the persons being Naturally or by Divine law capable of contracting , they onely sin'd who entred against law or leave , but they sin'd then onely ; for the after actions being no sins , cannot be invalidated . And yet if the contract be made against a Divine law , it is not invalid , unless the Divine law have a perpetual influence upon the state , or renewed actions . If a Jew did buy and sell upon the Sabbath he sin'd against a Divine law ; but his contract is valid . He that contracts with a woman of fornicatitions and lies with her for a price , hath sin'd in so doing , but is bound to pay her the price of her lust : because nothing here is against the Divine law but the fornication ; but the contract being extrinsecal to the Nature of the sin , is not made null by that sin : but that which is intrinsecally evil , is for ever so , and therefore must be broken in pieces . In all other cases , whatsoever is forbidden by the law of Nature is a sin if it be done , but it is valid and effective to all purposes of that law . It is against the law of Nature to take a great price for a trifle , but if it be contracted for it must be paid . If a theef makes me promise to pay him 20 l. the next day ; though he sin'd against a Natural law in doing me that violence , and exacting of me that promise , yet the stipulation must stand . The summe is this ; Where ever there is power , and will , and in the permanent effect consonancy to the prime measures of Nature , there the actions are valid , though they entred at the wrong door . But , He that wants power , let his will be never so strong , it effects nothing without : it is just like the King that commanded the waves of the Sea not to come to the foot of his chair ; they came for all his will to the contrary . He that wants will , wants also an integral part of the constitution of the act , and does nothing . But when he hath a Natural and legal power , and an effective will , yet if the whole state or the after-actions dwell in sin , it cannot be permitted by Nature , but must be turned out of doors . RULE 9. The law of Nature can be dispensed with , by the Divine power . I Am willing publikely to acknowledge that I was alwaies since I understood it , a very great enemy to all those questions of the School which inquire into the power of God : as whether by Gods absolute power a body can be in two places : whether God can give leave to a man to sin : and very many there are of them to as little purpose . But yet here I am willing to speak in the like manner of expression , because the consequent and effect of it goes not to a direct inquiry concerning the Divine power , for it intends to remonstrate that because Gods does actually dispense in his own law , this prime law of God , or the law of Nature is nothing else but the express and declar'd will of God in matters proportionable to right reason and the nature of Man. But in order to the present inquiry ; it is to be observed that Gods dispensation is otherwise then Mans dispensation ; 1. God is the supreme Lawgiver , and hath immediate power and influence over laws , and can cancell these , and impose those , new or old as he please . By this power it is that he can relaxe to particular persons their personal obligation quoad hic & nunc & sic ; and if he does , the law still remaining in its force and power to other persons and in other cases , this is properly dispensation . 2. God is the supreme Lord , and can transfer dominions and take away Kingdomes , and give them to whom he please ; and when he makes such changes , if he commands any one to be his Minister in such translations , he does legitimate all those violences by which those changes are to be effected : and this also is a dispensation ; but improperly . 3. God also is the supreme Judge , and can punish and exauthorate whom he please , and substitute others in their room ; and when he does so by command and express declaration of his will ; then also he dispenses in those obligations of justice , or obedience , or duty respectively , by which the successor or substitute , or Minister was hindred from doing that which before the command was a sin , but now is none : and this also is another manner of dispensation . Some Doctors of the law are resolved to call nothing Dispensation , but the first of these : and the other under another name shall signifie the same thing ; but say they , He onely dispenses who does take off the obligation directly , by his legislative power without using his judicative and potestative , he who does it as an act of direct jurisdiction , not as a Lord , or a Judge , but as a Lawgiver : Now say they , God does never as a Lawgiver cancel or abrogate any law of Nature : but as a Lord he transfers rights , and as a Judge he may use what instruments he please in executing his Sentence , and so by subtracting or changing the matter of the laws of Nature , he changes the whole action . To these things I make this reply . 1. That this is doing the same thing under another manner of speaking , for when it is inquired whether the law of Nature is dispensable ; the meaning is , whether or no that which is forbidden by the law of Nature may in certain cases be done without sin : but we mean not to enquire whether or no this change of actions from unlawful to lawful be that which the Lawyers in their words of art and as they define it call Dispensation : for in matters of Conscience , it is pedantry to dispute concerning the formes and termes of art : which Men to make their Nothings seem learning dress up into order and methods , like the dressings and paintings of people that have no beauty of their own : but here the inquiry is and ought to be more material in order to practice and cases of Conscience . For if I may by God be permitted to do that , which by the law of Nature I am not permitted , then I am dispensed with in the law of Nature , that is , a leave is given to me to doe what otherwise I might not . 2. That the doing of this by any of the forenamed instruments or waies is a dispensation and so really to be called , appears in the instances of all laws . For if it be pretended that the Pope can dispense in the matter of vowes , or a Prince in the matter of mariages ; which are rate and firm by the law of nature ; he cannot doe it by direct jurisdiction or by annulling the law which is greater then either King or Bishop : for when a dispensation is given in these instances , it is not given but when there is cause : and when there is cause the matter is chang'd ; and though the law remains , yet in a changed matter the obligation is taken off ; and this is that which all the world calls dispensation , and so it is in the present question ; when God changes the matter or the case is pityable , or some greater end of God is to be served , that is , when there is cause , God dispenses , that is , takes off the obligation . Here onely is the difference , 3. In Divine dispensations God makes the cause ; for his laws are so wise , so prudent , so fitted for all needs and persons and all cases that there is no def●illance or new arising case which God did not foresee : but because he hath ends of providence , of justice , of goodness or power to serve , he often introduces new causes of things , and then he gives leave to men to finish his designes by instruments which without such leave would be unlawful . But in Humane dispensations the cause is prepared before hand , not by the Lawgiver , but by accident and unavoidable defect : for without cause dispensations are not to be granted ; but in both the dispensation is not without the changing of the matter , that is , without altering the case . God does not give leave to any man to break a Natural law , as long as he keeps that Natural law in its own force and reason ; and neither does a Prince or Bishop give leave to any Subject to break any of his Laws when there is no need ; for the first would be a contradiction , and the second a plain ruine of his power , and a contempt to his lawes : Therefore in the summe of affairs it is all one ; and because actions generally forbidden by the law of Nature may by God be commanded to be done , and then are made lawful by a temporary command , which he made unlawful by Nature or first sanction ; this is a direct dispensing with single persons in the law of Nature . And to say it is not a dispensation , because God does not doe it by an act of simple jurisdiction , but by the intertexture of his dominative and Judicial power , is nothing but to say that God having made a law agreeable to reason , will not doe against that reason which himself made , till he introduces a higher , or another . For while all things remain as was foreseen or intended in the law , both divine and humane laws are indispensable , that is , neither God in his providence , nor Men in the administration of justice and government doe at all relaxe their law . If it be said , a King can doe it by his absolute power , though it be unjust : I confess this God cannot doe , because he can doe no wrong : but if God does it , his very doing it makes it just : and this a King cannot doe . But if the question be of matter of power , abstracting from considerations of just or unjust ; there is no pe●adventure but God can doe in his own law , as much as any Prince can doe in his . When the matter is chang'd , the Divine law is as changable as the humane , with this onely difference , that to change the matter of a Divine Natural law , is like the changing of the order of Nature ; sometimes it is done by Miracle ▪ and so is the law also chang'd , by extraordinary dispensation ; but this although it can happen as often as God please , yet it does happen but seldome as a Miracle ; But in humane laws it can and does often happen , and therefore they are to be dispensed with frequently : and sometimes the case can so wholly alter , and the face of things be so intirely new , and the inconvenience so intolerable that the whole law must pass away into desuetude and nullity ; which can never happen in the Divine Natural law ; because the reason of it is as eternal as Nature herself ; and can onely be interrupted by rare contingencies of Gods procuring , as the order of Nature is by Miracle ; but will revert , because Nature will return into her own channel , and her laws into their proper obligation . 4. But now to the matter of fact that God hath dispensed not onely by subtraction or alteration of the matter , but by direct jurisdiction , that is , as he is a Judge , and a Lord , and a Lawgiver even in all the waies in which dispensations can be made appears in several instances . 1. That the marriage of one Man and one Woman is by the law of Nature , appears by the institution of marriage , and by Christs revocation of it to the first sanction . It was so from the beginning : and if any thing be a law of Nature , that is one by the consent of all men : and yet Moses permitted divorces , and God and Moses his servant permitted Polygamy when there was no necessity , no change of the matter or of case , but only that men had a mind to it . For if the conjunction of male and female was established in singulari conjugio at the first , when there might be a greater necessity of multiplying wives for the peopling the world , then as the world grew more populous the necessity could less be pretended ; therefore this must be an act of pure jurisdiction : the causes of exception or dispensation grew less when the dispensation was more frequent , and therefore it was onely a direct act of jurisdiction . Though I confess that to distinguish dominion from jurisdiction , and the power of a Judge from that of a Lawgiver , I mean when both are supreme , and the power of a Lord from them both , is a distinction without real difference : for as he is our Lord he gives us laws and judges us by those laws : and therefore nothing is Material in this inquiry , but whether the action can pass from unlawful to lawful ; though because the Lawyers and other Schools of learning use to speak their Shibboleth , I thought it not amiss to endeavour to be understood by them in their own way . So again , That brother and sister should not marry is suppos'd to be a law of Nature : but yet God dispens'd with it in the case of Cain and his sister : and this he did as a Lord or as a Lawgiver ; he made it necessary to be so , and yet it was not necessary he should make it so ; for he could have created twenty men and twenty women as well as one : But that which is incest in others was not so in him ; but there was no signal act of dominion or of Judicature in this , but it was the act of a free Agent ; and done because God would doe so ; whether this be jurisdiction or dominion , let who can determine . 2. But in some things God did dispense by changing the matter , using that which men are pleas'd to call the right of Dominion . Thus God did dispense with Abraham in the matter of the sixt Commandement ; God commanded him to kill his Son , and he obeyed , that is , resolved to doe it , and will'd that , which in others would be wilful murder . Now God was Lord of Isaac's life , and might take it away himself , and therefore it was just : but when he gave Abraham command to doe it , he did not doe it but by dispensing with him , in that Commandement : It is true that God by his dominion made the cause for the dispensation ; but yet it was a direct dispensation ; and it is just as if God should by his dominion resolve to take away the lives of the men in a whole Nation , and should give leave to all mankinde to kill all that people as fast as they could meet them , or when they had a minde to it : And this was the case of the sons of Israel , who had leave to kill the Canaanites and their neighbours . God dispensed with them in the matter of the sixth and eighth Commandements : for it is not enough to say , That God as Lord of lives , and fortunes , had devested them of their rights , and permitted them to others : for that is not enough , that God as Lord hath taken away the lives and liberties and possessions of any man , or community of Men : for that act of dominion is not enough to warrant any man to execute the Divine decree ; Nay though God hath decreed and declar'd it concerning a crime that it shall be capital , yet a man must have more then this to make it lawful to put that man to death . He must be a Minister of the Divine jurisdiction ; he must have a power intrusted to him from God , and a Commission to execute the Divine Sentence ; and from hence it follows undeniably , that since the delegate power is a delegate jurisdiction and without this a man may not put a Capital offender to death ; that therefore the supreme power from whence the delegation is commissionated is also a power of jurisdiction ; and therefore if the words of their own Art are true , this leave given to doe that which without that leave were a sin against the law of Nature , is properly and truly a Dispensation . 3. The third way of dispensing is by applying the power of a Judge to a certain person or community , and by way of punishment to take from him what cannot be taken from him but by a superior power , or by the Supreme ; Thus we are commanded by the law of Nature to give nourishment and to make provisions for our children ; but if children prove rebellious and unnatural ; God can command us to neglect that duty , and to expose them to the contingencies of fortune . It is by the law of Nature commanded to us to love and honour our Parents ; to be loving and kind to our children : but if Parents inticed their children to idolatry , their children might lay their hands upon them and stone them to death . * It is a command and a prime rule of the law of Nature that we should doe as we would be done to : but even in this original rule and great sanction God did dispense with the Israelites , for they might not exact upon one another by Usury : but to strangers they might ; what they hated to have done to themselves they were willing and expressly permitted to doe to others . In these and the like cases , although an act of dominion or judgement might intervene , yet that 's not enough to warrant the irregular action ; there must be an act of jurisdiction besides , that is , if God commands it or by express declaration warrants it , then it may be done . Thus God as a Judge and being angry with David intended to punish him by suffering his Concubines to be humbled by his son in the face of all Israel , but though he did it justly ; yet because Absalom had no command or warrant to doe what God threatned he was criminal . But Jeroboam and Jehu had commissions for what they did , though of it self it was otherwise violent , unjust , rebellious and unnatural , and therefore did need the same authority to legitimate it , by which it became unlawful . God often punishes a Prince by the rebellion of his Subjects God is just in doing it ; but he hates the instruments , and will punish them with a fearful destruction unless they doe repent , in this case nothing can warrant the Subjects to strike , but an express command of God. Thus I conceive the thing it self is clear and certain ; but for the extension of this , the case is yet in question , and it is much disputed amongst them that admit this rule in any sense , how many laws of Nature can be dispensed with : for if all , then the consequents will be intolerable ; if not all , by what are they separated since they all seem to be established by the bands of Eternal reason . * Some say that the precepts of the second Table are dispensable , but not the first ; But that is uncertain , or rather certainly false ; for if God did please he might be worshipped by the interposition of an image ; or if he essentially should hate that as indeed in very many periods of the world he hath severely forbidden it ; yet the second Commandement and the fourth have suffer'd alteration and in some parts of them are exstinguished . * Others say that the Negative precepts are indispensable ; but not the affirmative . But this is not true ; not onely because every Negative is complicated with an affirmative ; and every affirmative hath a Negative in the armes of it , but because all the precepts of the second Table , the first onely excepted , are Negative ; and yet God can dispense with all of them as I have already prov'd . But though it be hard to tell how far this dispensation and Oeconomy can reach , and to what particulars it can extend , because Gods waies are unsearchable , and his power not to be understood by us ; yet since our Blessed Saviour hath made up a perfect Systeme of the Natural law , and hath obtained to himself an everlasting kingdome , so that his law must last as long as the world lasts , and by it God will governe mankinde for ever ; by the eternal reasonableness and proportions of this law we can tell what is indispensable and what not : and the measure by which alone we can guess at it is this , Every matter from whence the ratio debiti , or cause of the obligation can be taken is dispensable . Now because God is supreme over all his creatures , and can change all their affairs , and can also choose the manner of his own worship , therefore in these things he can dispense . But in that essential duty which his creatures owe to him the case is different ; for though God can exact more or fewer instances of affirmative duty , these or others , yet there cannot be an alteration of the main relation ; and of the intrinsick duty , and the intercourse of the soul with God in the matter of the principal affections there can be no dispensation . It is eternally and indispensably necessary that we love God : and it were a contradiction that either God should command us to hate him , or that we could obey him if he did . For obedience is love ; and therefore if we obey'd God commanding us to hate him , we should love him in hating him , and obey him by our disobedience . Now if it be inquir'd to what purposes of Conscience all this inquiry can minister ; the answer to the inquiry will reduce it to practice ; for the proper corollaries of this determination of the question are these . 1. That our duty to God is supreme ; it is onely due to him ; it cannot be lessen'd , and ought not upon any pretence to be extinguished ; because his will is the onely measure of our obedience ; and whatsoever is in Nature , is so holy for God and for Gods service , that it ought to bend , and decline from its own inclination to all the compliances in the world which can please God. Our reason , our Nature , our affections , our interest , our piety , our religion are and ought to be Gods subjects perfectly ; and that which they desire , and that which we doe , hath in it no good , no worthiness but what it derives from the Divine law and will. 2. That in the Sanction of the Divine laws the reason obliges more then the letter : For since the change of the reason is the ground of all mutation and dispensation in laws , it is certain that the reason and the authority , that in the thing , this in God , are the soul and the spirit of the law : and though this must not be used so as to neglect the law when we fancy a reason , yet when the letter and the reason are in opposition , this is to be preferr'd before that . If the reason ceases it is not enough of warrant to neglect the law ; unless a contrary reason arises , and that God cannot be served by obedience in that instance , but when the case is not onely otherwise but contrary to what it was before ; let the design of God be so observ'd as that the letter be obeyed in that analogy and proportion . It is a Natural law that we should not deceive our neighbour : because his interest and right is equal to any mans else : but if God have commanded me to kill him , and I cannot by force get him into my hand , I may deceive him whom God hath commanded me to kill ; if without such a snare I cannot obey the command of God. But this is but seldom practicable , because the reasons in all Natural laws are so fixt and twisted with the accidents of every mans life , that they cannot alter but by Miracle , or by an express command of God ; and therefore we must in the use of this Rule , wholly attend upon the express voice of God. 3. It hence also will follow , that if an Angel from Heaven , or any Prophet , or dreamer of dreams , any teacher and pretendedly illuminate person shall teach or perswade to any act against any natural law , that is , against any thing which is so reasonable and necessary that it is bound upon our Natures by the spirit of God and the light of our reason , he is not to be heard : for until God changes his own establishments , and turns the order of things into new methods & dispositions , the natural obligations are sacred & inviolable . 4. From the former discourses it will follow , that the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament are the light of our eyes , and the intire guide of our Consciences in all our great lines of duty ; because there our Blessed Lord hath perfectly registred all the natural and essential obligations of Men to God and to one another : and that in these things no man can or ought to be prejudic'd ; in these things no man is to have a fear , but to act with confidence and diligence : and that concerning the event of these things no man is to have any jealousies ; because since all the precepts of Christ are perfective of our Nature , they are instruments of all that felicity of which we can be capable , and by these we shall receive all the good we can hope for : and that , since God hath by his holy Son declar'd this will of his to be lasting , and never more to be changed by any succeeding law-giver , we must rest here , and know that no power less then God can change any thing of this , and that by this law we shall stand or fall in the eternal scrutiny . RULE X. The law of Nature cannot be dispensed with by any humane power . THe reason is , 1. Because Nature and her laws have both the same Author , and are relative to each other ; and these as necessary to the support and improvement of humane Nature , as nourishment to the support of humane bodies : and as no man can create new appetites , or make hay or stones to be our nourishment ; so neither can he make that our Nature should be maintain'd in its well-being without these laws . 2. The laws of Nature being bound upon us by the law of God , cannot be dispensed withall , unless by a power equal or the same , or superior to that which made the Sanction : but that cannot be at all ; therefore neither can they be dispensed with at all , unless it be by God himself . 3. Natural laws are all the dictates of Natural reason ; and he that dispenses with the law , must have power to alter the reason : which because it can never be done but by superinducing something upon Nature greater then her own natural need , and none can doe this but God , therefore none but he can dispense . But because wise men have publikely said it , Per jus Gentium & Civile aliquid detrahitur de jure Naturali , By the law of Nations and the Civil laws something may be diminished from the law of Nature ; it is to be considered what truth they could signifie by those words : for unless by some instances of case they had seen it lawfull , it is not to be suppos'd it could have been by so wise persons made sacred . But the following measures are its limit . 1. Whatsoever is forbidden by the Natural law cannot be permitted by the Civil ; because where the highest power hath interpos'd , there the inferior and subordinate hath no authority : for all it hath being from the Superior , it cannot be suppos'd it can prejudice that from whence it hath all its being ; for if it could be otherwise , then either the inferior must be above the supreme , or the supreme must submit it self to what is under it . 2. Whatsoever is commanded by the law of Nature cannot be forbidden by the Civil law ; for God who is here the Law-giver is to be heard ; and he sets up no authority against himself , nor gives any man leave to disobey him . These relie upon the same reasons , and are describ'd above . 3. That which the law of Nature hath permitted , and no more , may be made up into a civil law , or it may be forbidden , according to that rule in the law , Quod licitum est ex superveniente causa mutatur , That which is onely lawful by a supervening cause may be chang'd . For rights are before laws in time and Nature ; and are onely such licences as are left when there are no laws . Commands and prohibitions of Nature not being the matter of Civil laws , unless it be by way of corroboration ; there can no laws be made in a Natural matter unless there be restraints or continued permissions of their first rights . For that which in morality we call indifferent , in Nature we call a right : that is , something that is permitted me to doe or to use as I see cause for , is a thing upon which no restraint is made ; that is , there is no law concerning it : but therefore the Civil law may restrain it , because the liberty and its use may doe mischief , and there is no law hinders it to be dispos'd by men . For if I may by my private power or interest use any of it or deny my self the use of it , much more may the Civil power doe it . I might not doe it my self , if any law of God had forbidden me ; but if no law of God hath forbidden , what can hinder but that the civil power may order it ? Such are Natural liberty , community , powers of revenge , of taking any thing , of killing any man that injures me . 4. That which is confirm'd by the law of Nature , may by the civil power be altered and dispensed with : which happens in two cases . 1. When the obligation supposes a foregoing act of the will , and is arbitrary in one of the terms of relation . Titius owes 1000 l. to Caius ; and by the essential or Natural laws of justice is bound to pay him : but because this supposes a private right in Caius , upon whom there is no restraint but he may use it , or let it alone ; therefore Caius being at his liberty may refuse to use his power of demanding the money of Titius , and forgive it him ; and if he doe , Titius , although bound by the Natural law to pay him , is by the private power of Caius dispensed with . Because in obligations as in arguments , if there be one leg that can fail , the conclusion is infirm . If one part can be loosed , the continuity of the whole is dissolved . 2. The other case is like this , When the obligation is upon a condition , if the condition of it self fails or be annulled by any just power or interest , the obligation which was introduc'd by the law of Nature can be rescinded or dispensed with : for Nature binds and loses according to the capacity of the things . It passes a temporal band upon temporal reasons & necessities , & an Eternal band upon that whose reason can never fail , and where the necessity is indeterminable . And if a Natural law could bind longer then that reason lasts for which it did bind , then a Natural law could be unreasonable , which is a contradiction . But then if the law does not bind in this case beyond the condition , then it is but improperly to be called a dispensation when it is relaxed : but it is usual to call it so , and it is well enough ; for it means this great direction to Conscience , that though the law of God be eternal , yet it 's obligation may cease in the foregoing cases : For even Judges are said to dispense by interpreting the law , and applying that interpretation to particulars . 5. The civil law can extrinsecally change the Natural law . For things may be alter'd or cease by an intrinsick or by an extrinsick cause . A Father ceases to be a Father when he dies , & he ceases to be a Father if all his children die : this alteration is by an extrinsecal cause ; but to all effects and purposes it is the same as to the present case . Now although Nature cannot die , as Species doe not perish ; yet Nature may change , as individuals may die : that is , if the matter of the law be subtracted , or so changed that it is to be governed with another portion of reason , then the law also must cease as to that particular . For as in the body of Man there is great variety of accidents & mutability of matter , but all that variety is governed by the various flexures of the same reason , which remains unchanged in all the complications and twistings about the accidents , & is the same though working otherwise : so it is in the laws of Nature , whose reason and obligation remains unchanged , even when it is made to comply with changing instances ; but then it cannot but be said to change , ever as Eternity it self hath successive parts by its coexistence with variety of times . Trebonianus swears to pay homage and acknowledgment for his Villa of Ramola , and the Royalties of Panizza , to his Landlord Calander and to his Heirs for ever : by the laws of Nature he is now oblig'd ; but if Calander and his heirs be dead , or the land and possessions be alien'd , or swallowed up by an Earthquake , or drown'd in the sea , the law of Nature cannot bind him to that which is not , the matter of the obligation is subtracted , and therefore he is disoblig'd . The summe is this : When Natural and prime laws are in prime & Natural instances whose matter is unchangeable , there the law of Nature cannot be prejudic'd by any but by the Lord of Nature : and the reason of this is no other but the necessity and constitution of Nature . God hath made it so , and it is so to be served , so to be provided for ; and the law is a portion of the eternal law , an image of the Divine wisdome , as the soul is the image of the Divine Nature . But when the Natural laws are in a matter that can be prejudic'd , and doe presuppose contract , cession , condition , particular states , or any act of will , whose cause is not perpetual , the law binds by the condition of the matter ; and the eternal law goes from its own matter as the immortal soul does from the body . Thus we say that Gods gifts are without repentance , and his love never fails , & his promises are for ever ; and yet God does take away his gifts , & does repent of his loving kindnesses , & takes away his love , and will not give what he had promised : but it is not because he changes in himself , but the correlative of his actions and promises are changed . So that now upon this account the whole question and practice about the Popes power in dispensing in the Natural law will appear to be a horrible folly without any pretence of reason ; and the thing by its chiefest Patrons seems not at all to be understood . For since the rules of Nature are unalterable and Eternal , the laws being fram'd upon those rules complicated with matter , and persons , and events , is also eternal , excepting onely where the matter is or can be changed . Now if the matter be in prime instances , as the conjunction of Sexes , relation of Parents and children , &c. the law is the same for ever ; onely this , if the matter by a miracle or extraordinary act of God be changed , by the same power the law is to be changed : but as we say rivers and seas run for ever , and yet Jordan was open'd , and so was the Red sea , and the perpetual course of the Sun and Moon was once stop'd , but it reverted when the extraordinary case was past ; so it is in the law of Nature , which in the prime instances and Natural matter is as unalterable as the course of the Sun and Seas . But 2. Sometimes the matter changes alone , or is chang'd to our hand , as in conditional contracts ; and in this case the law ceases , and the obligation goes off as to that particular . But 3. Sometimes the matter is changeable by the will of the interested persons , and by none else but themselves , and they who have over them the power which themselves have ; such as God , and under him , the supreme humane power , their own princes . Now to apply this to the Question of the Popes power in giving dispensations , I consider that 1. To establish his power upon any words of Scripture , is to pretend that his power of dispensing is an act of jurisdiction and direct authority , that is , that he hath commission to doe it with or without reason or cause founded in the thing it self , but onely because he will ; & he that does so , saies he can doe more then ( as many of the most learned Romane Doctors say ) God can doe : for he dispenses in the law of Nature in no case but when he changes the matter , in the prime or second instances of Nature respectively , which when the Pope can doe he also may pretend to a commission of being Lord of Nature : But it is certain that for this there are no words of Scripture . But 2ly , If this power of dispensing be such as supposes the matter already changed , that is , that there is a just cause , which is of it self sufficient , but is not so to him who is concern'd , till it be competently declared , then all the dispute will be reduc'd to this , whether he be the most probable Doctor : for to expound when a Natural obligation ceases , is not an act of power but of wisdome ; & that the Pope is the wisest man , or the onely wise man , it is also certain that there are no words of Scripture to affirm it . But besides this in cases of this nature , there needs no dispensation , for the law ceases of its self ; as in contracts made upon condition , when the condition is not performed . In humane laws where the subject is bound more by the authority then the matter of laws , the law may still be obligatory after the ceasing of the reason or matter of the law ; and so there may be need of dispensation : but we speak here of laws bound on us by God and Nature , in which the very ceasing of the matter of it self dispenses with the law . But 3ly , If it be yet more then this , and that in a changeable matter , I mean in things that are not prime instances of Nature and of lasting necessity , but in humane contracts , promises , laws and vows , which depend upon the pleasure and choice of men , but yet are corroborated by the law of Nature , he pretends to a power of altering the case so to make way for dispensation ; then the pretence reaches to this , that the Pope must be Lord of actions and fortunes , and the wills of others and the contracts of men ; that is , in effect , that no contract shall be valid unless he please ; and no man shall chuse for himself , or if he does he needs not stand to it ; and no man can have a right transfer'd to him by a contract , but it can be rescinded against the will of the interested person : and if he can have any such power to doe thus much mischief , then justice will be the most contingent thing in the world ; and the question will not be a question of Theology , but of Empire , & temporal regard : and therefore for this no words of Scripture can be pretended , because no words of Scripture of the New Testament ever did transfer an Empire , or temporal power to a spiritual person for a spiritual reason : so that this will be a question of war , not of peace and religion . To which I adde this by way of provision ; That although supreme Princes have in some cases power to rescind contracts of their subjects and Parents of their children ; yet this is onely in their own circuits , done by mutual consent , in case of publick necessity or utility , of which by reason and the laws they are made competent Judges : which the Pope also may have in his temporal dominions as well as any other Prince : but this is not dispensation but the annulling of contracts or promises ; it makes them not to be at all , not to cease after they have a being , which is the Nature of dispensation , of which we now inquire . But the matter of this question and the particular instance as it relates to the Bishop of Rome is of another consideration . 6. The civil law can adde to the law of Nature ; not onely new obligations by affixing temporal penalties ; but by requiring new circumstances to corroborate and consummate an action : not that the civil law of a Prince or Republick can annull any thing which nature hath confirm'd , but it can hinder it from passing into a civil and publike warranty . Thus a clandestine contract is valid by the law of Nature ; and in the Court of Conscience there are witnesses and Judges and executioners and laws and penalties to exact the performance of it : But when the civil or Ecclesiastick law hath commanded that in all contracts of marriage there should be witnesses , it must mean , that the contract shall not be acknowledged for legitimate unless there be ; and therefore that the contract must be solemnly publish'd before it be civilly firme . No civil power can so enjoyne witnesses as that if the contract be made without witnesses it shall not be obligatory in Conscience . For this obligation is before the civil law , and is bound by that power by which the civil power hath a being . But the civil power which cannot annull the act of Nature and Conscience , can superinduce something upon it . It cannot make the contractors to goe back from what they have done , but to proceed to something more , that what was firme in the inward may be confirm'd in the outward Court. By our laws the clandestine contract is civilly null before publication ; but in our religion we beleeve it obligatory in Conscience , and ●hat it must come into publication . But by the laws of Rome the whole contract is nullified , and the persons disoblig'd , and the marriage after consummation i● dissolv'd . This is against the law of Nature , but the other is a provision for it by additional security , that is , a taking care that the contracts of Nature may not be denied . For the confirmation of a Natural contract nothing is necessary but a Natural capacity not hindred by the Lord of Nature . Whatsoever therefore is superinduc'd upon Nature cannot disannul that to which all things competently necessary are ingredient , a condition brought in by a lesse power cannot invalidate that which before that condition was valid : but as civil powers derive their authority from Natural laws and reason , so to these they must minister , and they may doe it by addition and superfetation ; but they may not violate them by irritation . RULE 11. That the obligation to a Natural law does cease in any particular , is not to be presum'd by every one , but is to be declared by the publike voice . THIS depends upon the foregoing discourses and is Consequent to them . For the severall dispensations in the law of Nature being wrought by the change of their subject matter , the rule can never be chang'd ; because that is eternal and is abstract from matter ; but the law may be dispens'd with , because that is twisted with matter which is not eternal . But then , because the several matters of laws can be chang'd by several powers respectively , that power which alters the matter , and consequently dispenses with the law , must by some evidence or other make the change apparent . If God by his power alters the case , and dispenses in the law , he also is to declare it : because he must doe more ; for he must give expressly a leave to doe proportionable actions : he having bound us to the law of Nature , leaves us so till he tells us otherwise : and the same also is the case if the matter be chang'd by man : for by the law of Nature we being bound to obey laws and performe contracts , must remain so bound till he that holds the other end of the string lets it goe or tells us it is untied : because he hath an interest in it , which must not depend upon the reason of another ; but upon that which is common to both . For although we all agree that every rule of Nature is unalterable , and every law is to be observed , yet in every thing where a change can be pretended , every mans reason is equal ; and therefore is not to be made use of in relation to others . For we all agree that theft is evil ; but whether this action or this detention be theft , mens reasons oftentimes cannot agree : and since every mans reason hath the same power and the same privilege , no mans single reason can determine , because there is no reason why yours more then mine . But therefore it is that there must be some common reason to declare the case , and the man to be at liberty , and the law to be loose . This hath no other variety in it , but this , that although the publike voice must declare concerning those instances that concerne that matter of laws Natural which is in her keeping , as God is to doe in those in which onely he hath immediate power ; yet every private man can declare the obligation of a natural law to be lose when he holds one end of the string : If by a Natural law Caius be tied to doe me an act of kindness and Justice , it is my right ; and as long as I will demand it , I hold the band of the Natural law in my hand : but if I let it goe , and will quit my right , the obligation is off , because the matter is substracted . The reason of all is the same . No man is a good Judge in his own case where there is the interest of another twisted with it : and it is unequal that my reason should governe my neighbours interest ; or that his should governe mine : this would be an equal mischief , and therefore something indifferent to both must turne the ballance that there may be equal justice and equal provision . But if a man will quit his right there is no wrong done . He can sufficiently declare his own will and acts of kindness , and then the law that combines with the matter , takes the same lot . RULE 12. The exactness of Natural laws is capable of interpretation , and may be allayed by equity , and piety , and necessity . WHatsoever can be dispensed withall , is either dispensed with by an absolute power of jurisdiction , or for some cause in the nature of the thing : and if the laws of Nature can cease to oblige without reason , but by the will and the command of the Supreme , of God himself , much more may the same will and power doe it when there is also a reason : and if there be a reason to take off the obligation wholly in some particulars , then much rather may there be a cause to take off some part of the exactness upon a proportionable cause ; If it may be dispensed with , it may also be interpreted by equity ; for this is less then that in the same kind . Every man is bound to restore his neighbours goods when they are demanded ; but if he calls for his sword to kill a man withall ; there is equity in this case , and I am not guilty of the breach of the Natural law if I refuse to deliver him the sword when he is so violent and passionate . To pay debts is a Natural law ; but if a rich man calls for a sum of money which is his due , and I by paying him to day shall be undone , and he by staying till next week shall not be undone , I doe not break the law of Nature if I detain the money a little longer and offer him satisfaction for the wrong , if he have received any . I promised my brother to see him upon the Ides of March ; in my journey to him I broke my leg : now though I by the Natural law am bound to performe promises ; and it is possible that for all my broken leg , I might get to him by the time , yet there is equity in it and piety that I forbear to goe with so great an inconvenience . Surgam ad sponsalia quia promisi , quamvis non concoxerim , sed non si febricitavero : subest enim tacita exceptio , si potero , si debebo : said Seneca . There is an equity and a reasonableness in all these things . Effice ut idem status sit cùm exigitur , qui fuit cùm promitterem , If the case be when I am to performe as it was when I promis'd , then I am bound pro rata portione ; that is , 1. If it become impossible , I am wholly disoblig'd . 2. If it become accidentally Unlawful ; I am dispensed with . 3. If it become intolerably inconvenient , I am in equity to be relieved . For in these cases it is no breach of promise , but I am just if I desire to doe it , and in the degree in which I am disabled , in the same I am to be pitied . Destituere levitas non erit , si aliquid intervenerit novi . Eadem mihi omnia praesta , & idem sum . It is not levity when I am the same , but my powers and possibilities are chang'd or lessened . But this is to be understood and practis'd with these limitations : 1. Not every change of case can excuse or lessen , or alter the obligation , but such a change as makes the person pityable , or the thing more vexatious to the doer , then it could be of advantage to the other . 2. If the cause does not continue , the first equity does not disannul the obligation , but defers it onely , and it returnes when the cause ceases . 3. The obliged person as he is not wholly disoblig'd for the time , so neither for the thing it self ; for if it be matter of interest , though without violation of Natures law it may be deferred , and does not bind the man to a guilt , yet it does to a new duty , the duty of giving satisfaction to him who suffered injury : for since in the law of Nature all mens rights are equal , it is unnatural and unjust that to one there should be remission and ease and to the other a burden . For no man is to be better by the hurt and injury of another . 4. If the cause be less , or if it be more , it ought not to be done unless an interpretative leave be justly or reasonably presum'd . In a great matter every man is presum'd so charitable as to be willing to comply with his Brothers need or sad accident . But if it be less , then the interpretative leave must be presum'd upon the stock of friendship or experience , or something upon which wise men usually relie . Onely in this case , the presumption ought to be less confident , and more wary . This rule is to be understood principally in matters of justice , and relative entercourses : for in matters of religion and sobriety the case is different : because in Natural religion and natural measures of sobriety which are founded in prima natura in the very constitution of mans soul and body , in the first laws of God , and the Original Oeconomy of the body ; the matter is almost as unalterable as the Rule . CHAP. II. Of the Law of Nature , or of all Man-kinde , As it is commanded , digested , and perfected , By our Supreme Lawgiver JESVS CHRIST . viz. Of the Christian law , the great Rule of Conscience . RULE 1. When the law of Jesus Christ was established , the old Testament , or the law of Moses did no longer oblige the Conscience . THE Doctors of the Jews say that at the command of a Prophet , that is , of one that works miracles , it is lawful to break any Commandement , that onely excepted , which is concerning the worship of one God. Thus at the command of Joshua the children of Israel brake the precept of the Sabbath at Jericho , and Samuel and Elias offer'd sacrifice in places otherwise then the law appointed , and the Priests in the Temple did kill beasts and labour'd upon the Sabbath and yet were blameless : and Circumcisio pellit Sabbatum , was their own Proverbe , on the Sabbath they circumcis'd their infants ; and the Prophet Jeremie was author to the Jewes in secunda domo , that is , after they were taken captive that they should change their computation by moneths , and not begin with Nisan . For God being the supreme Lawgiver hath power over his own laws ; as being a Creator he hath over his own creation : He that gave being can take it away : and the law may be changed though God cannot . For God is immutable in his attributes , but his works have variety , and can change every day ; as light and darkness succeed each other , and summer and winter , and health and sickness , and life and death , and perfect and imperfect ; and he that commanded all men not to kill , might give a commandement to Abraham that he should kill his son , and when he had established the law of Moses , it was in his power , without any imputation or shadow of change to give the world a New law , and a better . To this purpose our Blessed Lord was indued with power from on high to give a new law ; for he was a great Prophet , and did many and mighty miracles , and advanc'd the Spiritual worship of the only true God ; and brought men from childish and imperfect usages , to the Natural , Spiritual , Manly and Perfective manner of worshipping God ; and therefore it was necessary that a change should be made : for in Moses law the rites were troublesome and imperfect , chargeable and useless , not able to wash away sins , nor to perfect the Spirits of the Saints ; it exhibited nothing substantial , but by shadows pointed at the substance to be revealed afterwards : it was fitted to the weakness of imperfect people , and in some very great instances was exceeded by the lives and piety of some excellent persons , as Moses and David , who by humility , meekness , forgiveness and charity did acts of piety beyond the precepts of the law , and many did not divorce their wives , and yet by their law , all were permitted to doe it : for it might be said of Moses as by the lawgiver of whom Origen speaks , who being asked if he had given to his Citizens the best laws ; he answer'd , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not absolutely the best , but the best he could , considering the incapacity and averseness of his citizens : so did Moses ; he gave a better law then ever was before , and the best which that people and the state of things could then bear : but it was but for a time , and the very Nature of the law required a better to succeed it , and therefore he that came and gave a better was not to be rejected , because he disannul'd the worse : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; If other lawgivers ( saith Porphiry ) regarding that middle kind of life which is said to be according to Nature , and to those things of which men are capable , who esteem things good or evil by proportions of the body , have given laws Symbolical , yet what hurt does he , that brings in better ? 1. For first it is certain , God himself did permit some things in Moses law which himself had no pleasure in : I instance in the matter of divorces , of which God by the Prophet sayd , I hate putting away . 2. The promises of Moses law , in which the whole obedience was established and for which it was exacted were wholly temporal and related to this life ; and when the Prophets and holy men of the Nation began to speak openly of resurrection from the dead , and a life to come , it was an open proclamation of the imperfection and change of that law by which nothing of that was promised and nothing at all spoken of by which Mankind should by obeying God arrive to that felicity which all wise men did suppose God did design to him . 3. Although good things for this life were promised by the law of Moses yet toward the end and expiration of it , the Nation suffer'd a new dispensation of things ; and the godly men were often persecuted , and the whole Nation continually baffled , and subdued by him that would ; by the Assyrians , and Chaldaeans , by the Persians and by Antiochus , by the Syrians and the Romans , and therefore it was necessary they should expect some better Covenant which should be verified in the letter , and make recompence for the calamities which their best men here did suffer . 4. The laws of Moses were such which were not of things naturally and originally good , but which did relate to time and place and person , but it was a law without which many ages of the world did live , and after it was established it did onely bind that people ; for neither did Moses persuade his Father in law Jethro to receive that law , neither did the Prophet Jonas persuade it to the Ninevites , nor the Prophets ever reprove the not observing it , in the Assyrians , or Egyptians , the Idumeans and Moabites , the Tyrians and Sidonians , or any of their Neighbours , whose vices they oftentimes reprov'd severely ; and the best men of the first and second world ; Abel and Enoch , Noah and Melchisedec , Sem and Job , Abraham and Isaac , Jacob and Joseph knew nothing of it , and yet were deare to God : But if the law had consisted of essential , prime and Natural rectitudes , it had been alwayes and every where ; and if it consist not of such , it is not fit to be lasting , but it self calls for a change when all the body and Digest of laws excepting some few that were before that law and shall be for ever , either were experiments of their obedience , or significations of some moral duty implyed in the external ritual , or compliances with a present necessity , and to draw them far from imitation of the vile customes of the Nations , or were types and shadows of something to come thereafter . 5. The law of Moses was a Covenant of works , and stipulated for exact obedience , which because no man could perform , and yet for great crimes committed under Moses law there was there no promise of pardon , no solemnity or perfect means of expiation , by the Nature of things and the necessity of the world , and the goodness of God a change was to be expected . 6. That their law and Covenant should be changed was foretold by the Prophets ; particularly by the Prophet Jeremiah , I will make a new Covenant with you in those daies , and in your minds will I write it : and when God had often expressed his dislike of sacrifices , in which yet the greatest part of the legal service was established , God does also declare what that is which he desires instead of it ; even no other then the Christian law , that we should give to every one their due , and walk humbly with God ; that they should obey him , and give him the sacrifice of a contrite and a broken heart : and if this be not a sufficient indication of the will of God for the abolition of the Mosaick law , then let this be added which was prophecyed by Daniel , The Messias shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease . 7. It was prophecyed * that in the dayes of the Messias the Gentiles also should be the people of God ; but therefore they were to be governed by a New law , for Moses law was given to one people , had in it rites of difference and separation of themselves from all the world , and related to solemnities which could not be performed but in a certain place , and a definite succession and family ; which things being the wall of partition and separation because Christ hath taken away or confounded in an inseparable mixture and confusion , God hath proclaim'd to the Jewes that Moses law is not that instance of obedience in which he will be any longer glorified . From these premises the pretence of the Jewes for the Eternity of Moses law will be easily answered . For whereas they say that God called it , an Everlasting Covenant : it is certain that even amongst the Jewes , the word Everlasting did not always signifie infinitely , but to a certain definite period . For the law relating to the land of their possession , in which God promised to them an Everlasting inheritance ; as their possession of the land is Everlasting , so is the Covenant , and they expir'd together : for all the demonstrations of the Spirit of God , all the miracles of Christ and his Apostles , all the sermons of the Gospel , all the arguments which were taken from their own books could not persuade them to relinquish Moses law and adhere to Christ : and therefore when all things else did fail , God was pleased to give them a demonstration which should not fail ; he made it impossible for them to keep Moses law ; for he broke their law and their Nation in peices . But as to the word [ Everlasting ] and [ Eternal ] it was usual with them to signifie but to the end of a life , or of a family , and therefore much rather of a Nation . The band of marriage is Eternal , but it dies with either of the relatives : and the Oath of Allegiance is for ever , but that for ever is as mortal as the Prince . Thus also in Moses law , The servant whose eare was boared should serve for ever . that was but till the yeer of Jubilce : and Hannah carried up her son to the Temple when he was weaned that he might abide there for ever : Thus the Priesthood of Phinehas was said to be for ever ; but God who said that he and his posterity should walk before the Lord for ever , did put a period unto it in Eli. But besides this , it is observable that the law and Covenant of Moses according to the manner of speaking of that and other Nations is used to distinguish it from the more temporary commands which God gave to persons and to families , and to the Nation it self in the wilderness , which were to expire as it were with the business of the day , but this was to be for ever , even as long as they enjoyed a being in the land of their Covenant : for thus we distinguish the laws of peace from the orders of warre : those are perpetual to distinguish from the temporality of these . These Arguments are relative to the Jewes and are intended to prove the abrogation of Moses law , against them . But to Christians , I shall alledge the words and reasons of the New Testament , so farre as the thing it self relates to Conscience . For not onely the Jewes of old , but divers Christian Bishops of Jerusalem , fifteen in immediate succession , did plow with an Oxe and an Asse , and were circumcised ; the Converted Pharisees , the Ebionites , the Cherinthians and the Nazaraei still did beleeve that Moses law did oblige the Conscience : and amongst us there are or have been a great many Old Testament Divines whose Doctrine and manner of talk , and arguments , and practices have too much squinted toward Moses . But against all such practices or pretences I produce the decree of the Apostles at Jerusalem in the question of Circumcision : the abrogation of which disannuls the whole law : for I Paul say unto you , if ye be circumcised ye are debtors to keep the whole law : therefore by a parity of reason , we are not debtors to keep the law , when that great Sacrament and Sanction of the law is annul'd . To this purpose are those frequent discourses of the Holy Scriptures of the new Testament : The law and the Prophets were until John ; since that time the Kingdom of God is preached : where the two terms of the Law and the Gospel are expressly described ; Iohn the Baptist being the common term between them both , so that now we are not under the law , but under grace ; we are dead to the law , and that band being separate , we are married to a new Husband , even to Christ : who is also our High priest , after the order of Melchisedek , not after the order of Aaron ; but then the Priesthood being changed there is made of necessity a change also of the law ; for this was not to last but till Christs coming , for the law was given but till the seed should come : till then we were under the law as under a School-master , but when faith came , we are no longer under this paedagogy ; it was but until the time appointed of the Father : and to this purpose S. Paul spends a great part of the Epistles to the Romanes and Galatians . For one of the great benefits which we receive by the coming of Christ is that we are now treated with by a covenant of faith , that is , of grace and pardon , of repentance and sincere endevours , the covenant of Moses being a prosecution of the covenant of works , can no longer oblige , and therefore neither can the law ; for the law and the Covenant were the constitutive parts of that whole entercourse , they were the whole relation , and this is that which S. Iohn said , The law came by Moses , but grace and truth came by Iesus Christ : and ever since he was made our Lord and our King ▪ he is our Lawgiver and we are his Subjects , till the day of Judgement in which he shall give up the Kingdom to his Father . But the greatest difficulty is behind : For not all Moses law is disannul'd , for some is injoyned by Christ ; and some is of Eternal obligation ; and such the Decalogue seems to be : the next inquiry therefore is , what part of Moses law is annul'd by Christ. To this I answer by parts . RULE 2. The Ceremonial law of Moses is wholly void . FOR this is that hand writing of ordinances which Christ nailed to his Cross , and concerning this we have an express command recorded by the Apostle , Let no man judge you in meat or in drink , or in respect of an Holyday , or of the New moon , or of the Sabbath dayes : and concerning the difference of meats not only their own Doctors say , the precept of Moses is not obligatory any where but in Palestine , but they have forgot the meaning of the names of some of them , or at least dispute it , which is not likely they would so strangely have lost , if the obligation also had not been remov'd . But as to us the case is confessed : for all the arguments before alleaged proceed of this part of the Mosaick law , if of any , this being chiefly made up of umbrages , figures , and imperfect services , relative to place and time , to families and separate persons , such which every change of Government could hinder , and which in the conflict and concussion with other laws did ever give place , even in that time when they were otherwise obligatory , which could not cleanse the conscience , nor take away sins ; but were a burden made to teach something else , like letters written upon little cubes , or given as appellatives to slaves that the children who were waited on by them might learn the Alphabet ; but else they were a trouble to no real perfective purpose of our Spirits . Quest. I Know but of one difficulty which this thing can meet with , and that is made by the scrupulous inquiries of some tender or curious persons who suppose the difference of meats not to be so wholly taken away , but that still under the lawes of the Gospel we are bound to abstain from blood and from things strangled ; pretending for this scruple , the Canon of the Apostles at Jerusalem : which injoyns this abstinence , and reckons it amongst the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , things necessary : and this was for a long time used and observed strictly by the Christians : of which we have testimony from that law of Leo the Emperor , where having forbidden the use of blood stuff'd in the Entrailes of beasts , he affirmes that in the old law , and in the Gospel it was alwaies esteemed impious to eat it . And this was not onely for the present , and for compliance with the Jewes that by the observance of some common rites the Gentile converts might unite with the beleeving Jewes into one common Church , but they suppos'd something of Natural reason and decency to be in it ; and the obligation to be eternal , as being a part of that law which God gave to Adam , or at least to Noah after the floud ; for they who use to eat or drink bloud are apt to degenerate into ferity and cruelty and easiness of revenge ; and if Origen's fancy had been true , it had been very material ; for he suppos'd that the Devils were fed with bloud : but however , certain it is that the Church did for divers ages most religiously abstain from bloud ; and it was the great argument by which the Primitive Christians did confute the calumnies of the Heathens imputing to them the drinking of humane bloud : they could not be suppos'd to doe that , who so religiously abstain'd from the bloud of beasts , as we find it argued in Tertullian a , Minutius b , and Eusebius c , who also tells of Biblis that she rather would die then eat bloud in a pudding : and in the Canons commonly called Apostolical d it is forbidden to a Clergy man to eat bloud , under pain of deposition , to a lay man under excommunication : which law was mention'd and suppos'd obligatory in the second Canon of the Councel of Gangra ; and long after by the Canon of the Councel in Trullo ; by the Councel of Wormes under Ludovicus Pius cap. 65. by Pope Zechary in his epistle to Boniface ; and from hence the penitential books had warrant enough to impose Canonical Penances upon them that did tast this forbidden dish : and that they did so is known and confess'd , But to the Question and inquiry , I answer , 1. That the abstinence from bloud is not a law of Nature or of Eternal rectitude as appears , first in that it was not at all impos'd upon the old world ; but for a special reason given to the posterity of Noah to be as a bar to the ferity and inhumane blood-thirstiness of which the old Giants were guilty , and possibly others might afterwards . For the Jewes reckon but six precepts given to Adam and his posterity after the fall . The first against strange worship . The second of the worshipping the true God. The third of the administration of justice . The fourth of disclosing nakedness , or a prohibition of uncleanness . The fifth against shedding bloud . The sixth against theft : and indeed here are the heads of all Natural laws ; but because the old world grew cruel to beasts , and the Gyants were degenerated into a perfect ferity , and liv'd on bloud ; therefore it pleas'd God to superadde this to Noah , that they should not eat blood ; that is , that they should not eat the flesh of beasts that were alive ; that is , flesh with the bloud : and it is not to be despised that the drinking of bloud is not forbidden ; but the eating onely : meaning that the blood was not the main intention of the prohibition ; but living flesh , that is , flesh so long as the bloud runs from it : flesh with the life thereof , that is , with the bloud : so run the words of the Commandement ; and therefore the Doctors of the Jews express'd it by the not tearing a member of any live creature : which precept was the mounds of cruelty , God so restraining them from cruelty even to beasts , lest they might learne to practise it upon men . For God sometimes places some laws for defensatives to others , and by removing men afar off from impiety he secures their more essential duty . 2. But even this very precept is by all the world taught to yeeld to necessity and to charity , and cruelty to beasts is innocent when it is charity to men : and therefore though we doe not eat them , yet we cut living pigeons in halfs and apply them to the feet of men in fevers , and we rip the bellies of sheep , of horses , of oxen , to put into them the side of a Paralytick ; and although to rude people and ignorant , such acts of security were useful , yet to Christians it is a disparagement to their most excellent institution , and the powers and prevalencies of Gods spirit , to think they are not upon better accounts secur'd in their essential duty . The Jews were defended from idolatry by a prohibition even of making and having images : but he is but a weak Christian who cannot see pictures without danger of giving them worship . 3. The secret is explicated by God in the place where he made the law : it was first a direct design to introduce mercy into the world , by taking care even of beasts : and secondly it was an outerguard against the crime of homicide : and Irenaeus , Tertullian , S. Cyprian and S. Ambrose expound the meaning of the whole affair to be nothing else but a prohibition of homicide : for as God would have men be gentle to beasts a , so if beasts did kill a man , it should be exacted of them b : neither the mans dominion over the beast could warrant his cruelty over them , nor the want of reason in beasts bring immunity if they kill'd a man , and the consequent and purpose of both these is express'd , vers . 6. whoso sheddeth mans bloud , by man shall his bloud be shed ; and all this put together is a demonstration how dear lives are to God ; even the life of beasts is in one sense sacred : for even then when they were given to Man for food , yet the life was not ; they must first be dead before they might be eaten : but therefore the life of Man was sacred in all senses , and should be required of man and beast . But that God doth even take care for Oxen , in the matter of life , appears in this prohibition , flesh with the life thereof ye shall not eat ; that is , you shall not devour the flesh even while it is alive ; for the bloud is the life thereof ; that is , when the bloud is gone you may eat , till then it is presumed to be alive . Now there can be no other meaning of the reason : for if blood were here directly prohibited to be taken and drunk or eaten , this reason could not have concluded it , [ because it is the life , therefore you may not eat it ] being no better an argument then this ; you may not eat the heart of a beast , for it is the life thereof ; but the other meaning is proper , ye shall not eat flesh with the bloud which is the life thereof , that is , so long as the bloud runs , so long ye must not eat ; for so long it is alive : and a beast may be killed but not devour'd alive . So that the prohibition of bloud is not direct in the precept , but accidental , blood is forbidden as it is the sign of life and the vehiculum of the Spirits , the instruments of life ; and so long as it runs so long the life abides ordinarily ; and therefore Zonaras in his notes upon the Councel of Gangra expounds the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or bloud suppos'd in that Canon as unlawful to be eaten or drunk , by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , blood diligently or fast running or following the wound , and thick ; that is , as I suppose , blood digested , to distinguish it from serum sanguinis or the warry bloud that is seen in beasts after they have bled , that they might not have scruple in minutes and little superstitions : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , without active blood , so Balsamo : and it is not impertinent to the main inquiry that it be observed that the Jews use [ life ] instead of bloud , and so does the Vulgar Latin , that we might the easier understand the meaning to be of life , or living bloud . But then this is nothing to eating the bloud when the beast is certainly dead : and therefore it is observable that they who did make a scruple of eating bloud did not all of them make a scruple of eating things strangled in which the bloud remained : and therefore in some copies of the Apostolical decree mention'd Acts 15. the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or strangled is left out ; and S. Austin observes that in his time in Africa the Christians did not severely abstain from things strangled . For if the case were the same between bloud running and bloud setled and dead , then the reason of the Commandement were nothing or not intelligible ; and besides it would breed eternal scruples : since in the very killing of beasts there will some bloud remain , and in the neck pieces and some veins every body hath observed some bloud remaining even after the effusion by the knife . 4. This could not be a law of Nature , because not mention'd by Christ in all his law , which I have already prov'd to be a perfect Digest of the Natural law : onely that sense of it which I have now given , is involv'd in a law of Nature , and consequently enjoined by Christ , viz. under the precepts of mercy , according to that saying of the wise man , a good man will be merciful to his beast : and the Athenians put a boy to death because he took delight to prick out the eies of birds and so let them flie for his pastime , as supposing that he who exercised his cruelty upon birds being a boy , would in time destroy men too . 5. Upon the account of this interpretation we are to distinguish the material part from the formal ; the bloud as it is such a substance from the bloud as it is alive : just as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are to be differenc'd : for to eat the meat when it is sold in the shambles is a thing indifferent , said S. Paul , though it was offered to idols ; but this very meat might not be eaten in the Temples , nor any where under that formality , as S. Paul there discourses : and therefore what the Apostles in their letter to the Churches call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , S. James in the decision of the question calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pollutions of idols that is , all communications in their idolatrous portions and services , and so it is for bloud , abstain from life bloud , or bloud that runs while the beast is dying , that is , devour not the flesh while the beast is alive , be not cruel and unmerciful to your beast : but if blood be taken in its own materiality when the beast is dead , it may be eaten as other things , without scruple : they being both in the same sense as in the same obligation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . There is a letter and a spirit in both of them . 6. One thing only I shall adde to make this appear to have been relative , temporal and ceremonial ; and that is , that when God was pleas'd to continue the command to the sons of Israel in Moses law , he changed the reason , onely reciting the old reason for which it was imposed to the posterity of Noah , and superadding a new one as relating to themselves : For the life of the flesh is in the bloud , and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your soules ; for it is the bloud that maketh an atonement for the Soule . So that to the bloud there was superadded a new sacredness and religion , it was typical of the great sacrifice upon the Cross , the bloud of which was an holy thing , and it was also instrumental to their sacrifices and solennities of their present religion : and therefore this ritual is to cease after that the great sacrifice is offer'd and the great effusion of bloud is past . But as they had a new reason , so also had they a new injunction , and they were interdicted the eating of any thing strangled ; which they taking to be a pursuance of the precept given to Noah , were the more zealous of it ; and lest their zeal might be offended , the first Christians in their societies thought fit to abstain from it . But this ever had a less obligation then the former , and neither of them had in their letter any Natural obligation : but the latter was introduc'd wholly upon the Levitical account : and therefore did cease with it . 7. After this so plain and certain commentary upon this precept I shall the less need to make use of those other true observations made by other learned persons : as that this Canon was made for a temporary compliance of the Gentile Proselytes with the Jewish converts , that this was not a command to abstain from bloud , or strangled , but a declaration onely that they were not obliged to circumcision ; but they already having observed the other things , it was declared they need go no further : that whereas these things were said to be necessary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the meaning of the word is not absolute but relative ; for it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to have a thing under some necessary condition , and so it happened to them to whom the Apostles wrote ; for they were Gentile Proselytes before they were Christians , and so were tyed to observe the seven precepts of Noah , before the Jewes would converse with them , and therefore that this did not conce●ne the Gentiles after they were an intire Church : for although it did while the separation lasted , and that there were two Bishops in some great Churches as in Rome and Ephesus : yet when the Church was of Gentiles onely , or conversed not with Jewes , this could not relate to them . That bloud should be forbidden in the formality of meat is infinitely against the Analogy of the Gospel : The decretory and dogmatical words of Christ being , that nothing which enters into the mouth desiles a man : and the words of S. Paul are permissive and preceptive , Whatsoever is sold in the shambles , eat , asking no question for Conscience sake . For meat commendeth us not to God ; for neither if we eat are we the better , neither if we eat no are we the worse : and the Kingdome of God consisteth not in meat and drink , but in righteousness , and peace , and joy in the Holy Ghost . The result is this , that bloud as it is a meat cannot be suppos'd here to be directly forbidden as Naturally unlawlful , or essentially evil , or of a proper turpitude : but if the Apostles had forbidden the very eating of bloud as meat , it must be supposed to be a temporary and relative command which might expire by the ceasing of the reason , and did expire by desuetude ; but since it was not so , but a permitting the Gentile Proselytes and incouraging them for present reasons to abstain from running or life bloud in the sense above explicated , according to the sense of the Jewish Doctors and their Disciples , it no way can oblige Christians to abstain from bloud when it is dead , and alter'd , and not relative to that evil which was intended to be forbidden by God to Noah , and was afterwards continued to the Jewes . I end this with the words of Tertullian , Claves macelli tibi tradidit , permittens esui omnia ad constituendam idolothytorum exceptionem . God hath given to us the keyes of the shambles , onely he hath forbidden the pollution of idols : in all other things you have your liberty of eating . I am onely now to give an account of the reasons of the Ancient Churches , why so pertinaciously and so long they refus'd to eat boyl'd bloud , or any thing of that Nature , But for that it is the less wonder when we consider that they found it injoyned by all the Churches where the Jewes were mingled , and the necessity lasted in some places till the Apostles were dead , and the Churches were persecuted : and then men use to be zealous in little things , and curious observers of letters ; and when the succeeding ages had found the precedents of Martyrs zealous in that instance , it is no wonder if they thought the Article sufficiently recommended to them . 2. But if we list to observe that the Pythagorean Philosophers were then very busy and interested in the persuasions of Men and Sects , and Pythagoras and Plato and Socrates had great Names amongst the leading Christians , it is no wonder if in the percolation something of the relish should remain , especially having a warrant so plausible to persuade , and so easy to mistake as this decretal of the Apostles , and the example of the Ancients living in that time which the Heathens called the Golden age , Nam vetus illa aetas non polluit ora cruore . Single life , and abstinence from certain meats , and refusing of bloud , and severity of Discipline , and daies of abstinence were sometimes persuaded , sometimes promoted , sometimes urg'd , sometimes made more necessary , by the Montanists , the Essens , the Manichees , the Novatians , the Encratites , the Pythagoreans , and the very Heathen themselves , when because they would pretend severity it became fit that the Christians should not be or seem inferior to them in selfdenial , Discipline and austerities . But I shall make no more conjectures in this matter , since if the Church at that time did injoyn it , the Canon was to be obeyed , and it may be in some places it was practis'd upon that stock ; upon any other just ground , it could not , as I have already prov'd . Onely this ; it cannot be denied but in the Westerne Church where this decree and the consequent Custome was quickly worne out , though it lasted longer even to this day in the Greek Church , and Balsamo inveighs against the Latines for their carelesness in this Article ; yet there were some intervals in which by chance this decree did prevail ; but it was when the Bishops of Rome were so ignorant that they could not distinguish the Old Testament from the New , but in some particulars did Judaize . I instance in Pope Zechary before mention'd ; who in his decretal to Boniface the Arch-Bishop of Mentz is very curious to warne him to forbid all Christians with whom he had to doe , they should abstain from some certain sorts of birds , as jack-dawes , crowes and storks ; but especially that Christians should eat no hares , nor bevers , nor wild-horses : and the Councel of Wormes determin'd something to the like purpose , not much wiser ; but what was decreed then was long before reprov'd by S. Austin , affirming that if any Christian made a scruple of eating strangled birds in whom the bloud remain'd , he was derided by the rest : and that this thing which was useful in the infancy of the Church should be obtruded upon her in her strength , is as if we should persuade strong men to live upon milk because their tender Mothers gave it them as the best nourishment of their infancy . This thing being cleared I know no other difficulty concerning the choice of meats in particular , or the retention of the Ceremonial law in general , or in any of its instances , but what will more properly be handled under other titles . RULE 3. The Judicial law of Moses is annul'd , or abrogated , and retains no obliging power either in whole or in part over any Christian Prince , Commonwealth , or Person . EIther the Judicial was wholly civil , or it was part of the Religion . If it was wholly secular and civil , it goes away with that Commonwealth to whom it was given ; if it was part of the religion it goes away with the Temple , with the lawgivers authority by cession to the greater , with the priesthood , with the Covenant of works , with the revelation and reign of the Messias : and though the instances of this law proceeding from the wisest Lawgiver are good guides to Princes and Common-wealths where the same reasons are applicable in like circumstances of things and in equal capacities of the Subjects , yet it is wholly without obligation . In the Judicial law theft was not punished with death , but with the restitution of four-fold ; and unless the necessities of a Republick shall inforce it , it were consonant to the design of Christian religion , the interest of Souls , their value , and pity , that a life should not be set in ballance over against a sheep or a cup. In the Judicial law of Moses Adultery was punished with death ; but it will not be prudent for a Common wealth to write after this Copy unless they have as great reason and the same necessity , and the same effect be likely to be consequent ; it was highly fitting there , where it was so necessary to preserve the Genealogies , and where every family had honours and inheritances and expectations of its own , and one whole tribe expected in each house the revelation of the Messias , and where the crime of Adultery was infinitely more inexcusable by the permission of divorces and Polygamy then it can with us . But with us and so in every Nation , many considerations ought to be ingredient into the constitution of a capital Law : but they have their liberty , and are onely tied up with the rules and analogies of the Christian law : onely the judicial law of Moses is not to be pretended as an example and rule to us because it came from a Divine principle ; unless every thing else fit it by which the proportions were made in that Common-wealth ; for although God made Aprons for Adam and Eve , it would not be a comely fashion for the Gallants of our age and Countries . But concerning this who desires to see long and full discourses , I refer him to Guilielmus Zepperus de legibus Mosaicis , and the Preface of Calvin the Lawyer to his Themis Hebraeo-Romana . But the thing in general is confess'd , and the arguments now alledged make it certain : but then why it should not be so in every particular when it is confessed to be so in the General , I doe not understand ; since there are no exceptions or reservations of any particular in the New law ; the law of Christianity . But in two great instances this Article hath difficulty ; the one is 1. The approach of a man to his wife during her usual terme of separation . 2. The other is concerning the degrees of kinred hindring marriage ; both which being taken express care of in the Judicial law , and yet nothing at all said of them in the laws of Christ , are yet suppos'd to be as obligatory to Christians now , as to the Jewes of old . Of these I shall now give because they are of great use in the Rule of Conscience , and with much unquietness and noise talk'd of , and Consciences afflicted with prejudices and authority , with great names and little reasons . Quest. WHether the Judicial law of mutual abstinence in the dayes of Womens separation obliges Christian pairs ? The Judicial law declar'd it to be twice poenal . Once it onely inferr'd a legal Uncleanness for seven days . Levit. 15. 24. But in the 20. Levit. 18. It is made Capital to them both ; they shall be both cut off from the people . From hence , Aquinas , Alexander of Ales , Bonaventure , and Scotus affirme it to be a mortal sin for a husband then to approach to her : Paludanus and Cajetan deny it ; and amongst the Casuists it is with great difference affirmd or denyed but with very trifling pretences , as if they were to give laws , and not to informe Consciences upon just grounds of reason or religion . They who suppose it to be unlawful affirme this law to be ceremonial , judicial and Moral . It is ceremonial because it inferr'd a legal impurity ; or separation for seven days . It is judicial by its appendant sentence of death , and a Capital infliction . It is moral , because it is against charity as being hurtful to the child in case any be begotten by such approaches . The whole ceremoniality of it is confessedly gone ; but the punishment of it in the Judicial law being capital they urge it as an argument that it is moral . So that the whole weight lies upon this . That which was by the law of God punish'd with death , was more then a meer ceremony , and must contain in it some Natural obliquity and turpitude . And in this case we need not to go far in our inquiry after it ; for it is because of the great uncharitableness , as being a cause of monstrous productions , or leprosies and filthy diseases in the children : and as the former of these two signifies its morality ; so this does formally constitute it : and this is confirmed by the words annexed to the prohibition : For the nations committed all these things , therefore I abhorred them : amongst which , this in the question being enumerated , it will follow more then probably , that since this thing was imputed to the Heathens who were not under Moses law , it must be imputed because it was a violation of the law of Nature . To these things I answer ; 1. That the punishment of all such approaches under Moses law with death , was no argument of any Natural turpitude and obliquity in the approach . For then circumcision would be necessary by a Natural law , because every soul that was not circumcis'd was also to be cut off from his people . But if for this reason it were onely to be concluded unlawful , then since this reason is taken away , and it is by no law of God punishable , nor yet by any law of man , it follows that now it cannot be called a Mortal or a Great sin , to which no mortal punishment is annexed nor indeed any at all . 2. But neither was it just thus in the law of Moses . For by the law of Moses it was nothing but a legal impurity , a separation from the Temple and publike sacrifices and some sorts of commerce for seven dayes ; and thus much was also impos'd upon the woman though she was lock'd up and convers'd with no man even for her Natural accident : and if by the gravity or levity of a punishment we may make conjectures of the greatness of a sin ( of which I shall in the third book give accounts ) then it would follow that every such approach was nothing but a breach of a legal rite or ceremony , since it was punished onely with a legal separation , which also was equally upon every innocent woman in that period . * Yea , but besides this it was made Capital . I answer , that could not be , if the case were the same ; for two punishments are not in laws inflicted upon the same offence , directly and primarily : and therefore Radulphus Flaviacensis supposes here to be a direct contradiction in the letter of these two laws ; and that they are to be reconcil'd by spiritual significations in which onely they are obligatory to us under the Gospel ; but I doe not very well understand what he would have , nor any ground of his conjecture , but am content it is not material , since he confesses that the very letter oblig'd the Israelites , which how it is possible , and yet be contradictory , I shall never understand . * Hugo Cardinalis saies that the first of these punishments was on him who did it ignorantly ; but it was Capital onely to him who did it knowingly and voluntarily . But this is not probable ; for then it would be in effect so that the man might only contract a legal impurity ; and the woman be sure to die for it : Enimvero durâ lege hîc agunt mulieres : for although the man could often say truly , and might always pretend that he did it ignorantly , yet the woman could not : for it is not likely that she should with much probability at any time say she did it ignorantly , and since it cannot be but by a rare contingency , it is not likely to be the subject matter of a regular law , and provided for by a daily and perpetual provision ; especially , since that case is already provided for in other periods , as being sufficiently included under them that by chance touch a woman so polluted : and therefore this does not reconcile the difficulty : but since it must be confess'd that on the woman ( at least ordinarily ) both these laws must have effect , and yet the woman cannot easily and ordinarily be suppos'd to be ignorant in such a case so as to need a law ( for laws use not to be made for rare contingencies ) it follows that this distinction is not sufficient to reconcile the difficulty . But Lyra and Abulensis have a better , saying that the legal impurity was the punishment onely when the fact was private : but it was Capital when it was brought before the Judge : and truly for this there was great reason . For since the woman also was to die , it is not to be supposed that she would accuse her Husband and condemn her self , and such things use not to be done publikely ; it is therefore to be supposed that who ever did doe this so as to be delated for it and convicted must doe it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the hand of pride , in contempt and despight of Moses law ; for which as S. Paul witnesses , a man was to die without mercy . * But now from hence I infer , that since the contempt and open despight of the law onely was Capital , it was not any natural turpitude that deserv'd that calamity ; it was nothing but a legal uncleanness , which every child had that did but touch her finger . But then for the next argument with which the greatest noise is made , and every little Philosopher can with the strength of it put laws upon others and restraints upon mens freed Consciences ; I answer first upon supposition that it were true and real , yet it does not prove the unlawfulness of such addresses . For if the man and woman have a right to each other respectively , there is no injury done by using their own right . Nemo damnum facit , nisi qui id facit quod facere jus non habet , saith the law . But that is not the presc●t care , for the married pair use but their own rights which God hath indulg'd . And therefore Paulus the Lawyer from the sentence of Labeo hath defin'd , that no man can be hindred from diverting the water running through his own grounds , and spending it there , though it be apparent that his Neighbour receives detriment to whom that water would have descended . I know this may be altered by laws Customes and Covenants , but there is no essential injustice in it , if loss comes to another by my using my own right . To which I onely adde this one thing , because I am not determining a Title of law in open court , but writing Rules of Conscience : that though every such interception of water , or other using of our right to our Neighbours wrong be not properly injustice , yet unless he have just cause to use it , it is unlawful to doe so , because it is Uncharitable ; because then he does it with a purpose to doe his Neighbour injury . And so it is in this case ; If any man or woman in such approaches intend hurt to the child , as hoping the child might not live , or if either of them design'd that the child should by such means become hated , or neglected in provisions , and another preferred , then I doubt not but to pronounce all such mixtures impious and abominable : and to this sense those words of S. Austin in this article are to be expounded : Per talem legem in Levitico positam non Naturam damnari , sed concipiendae prolis noxiam prohiberi . The thing it self is not Naturally impure ; but it is forbidden that hurt should be intended or procur'd to the child : for although in the instance of Paulus , above reckon'd the injury is certain , and the person definite and known to whom it is done , and in the present question both the event at the worst is but uncertain , and the person to be injur'd not yet in being , and therefore the case is much more favourable here then there , yet when this case does happen , there can be no excuse for it , because it is the act of an evil mind , and an uncharitable Spirit . 2. Upon supposition that this allegation were true , yet it follows not that all such approaches were unlawful : as appears in the case of a leprous wife with whom that it is lawful to have congress is so certain that it is told as an heroick story of Dominicus Catalusius a Prince of Lesbos that he did usually converse with his wife that was a leper , as still knowing it to be his own flesh , which no man hates : but if with a Leper ( whose issue is as certain to be leprous , as in the other case to be any way diseased ) it be lawful , the effect notwithstanding ; then the argument ought not to infer a prohibition , or conclude it to be unlawful . The same also is the case of both men and women in all haereditary diseases , and in any diseases which are resident in any principal part with any of which if either of them be infected , it is ( if this reason be good ) equally unlawful for them to beget children , or to use the remedy which God hath given them against uncleanness . If it be answered that there is difference in the case , because the present question being of short , frequent and periodical separations , the married persons may expect Natures leasure who will in a short time return them to their usual liberties : but if they have a leprosie , that goes not off , but abides : and therefore either a child must be gotten with that danger , or not at all ; and since it is better for a child to be born a leper , or subject to leprosie then not to be at all ; in this case there is indeed charity in some sense , but no uncharitableness in any to the child ; and there is a necessity also on the parents part . The same also is the case of a consumption , or any haereditary disease : but in the monethly separations there is no such need ; because the abstinence is but short , and though a child be not then begotten , he loses not his being , as in the other cases . To this I reply ; that the difference of case pretended is not sufficient , 1. because , a consumption or a leprosie are no such incurable diseases but that for the preventing of Uncharitableness , and sad effects upon the child , they may expect Natures time ; and if it be said , that there is , or may be danger of fornication in so long abstinence ; I answer , so there may be in the shorter , and is certainly to some persons ; and if the danger be an excuse and can legitimate the congression even where there is hazard to have a diseased child begotten , in one case , then so it is in the other . For where there is the same cause in the same suscipient , there also will be the same effect : so that at least thus much will be gotten ; that if there be a need , in the time of a short separation , then it is lawful ; and if it can upon this account be innocent , it is certain that it is not naturally criminal . 2. Suppose even this affection or accident abides on the wife , as on the woman in the Gospel who after twelve years sufferance was cured by the touch of our Saviours garment ; then there is the same necessity as in an abiding leprosy , consumption , or hereditary disease , and yet in the Mosaick law those permanent emanations were to be observed by abstinence as much as the Natural and transient ; by which it is certainly proclaimed to be wholly a legal rite ; because if this can abide , and during its abode an approach be not permitted , although the Jewes were releeved by divorces and Polygamie , and concubinate , and so might suffer the law ; ye● Christians who are bound to an individual bed , will find a necessity , which if it were not provided for by a Natural permission , the case of some men would be intolerable and oftentimes sin be unavoidable , and that which by accident may be lawful and necessary , certainly is not essentially evil : for if it could , then he who is the Author of such necessity , would also necessarily inferre that evil , and so be Author of that too , which is impossible to be true of God , the fountain of Eternal goodness . But I adde also this consideration ; that even in the Mosaick law such congressions were permitted after child-birth . For the legal impurity lasted but seven days upon the birth of a Man-child [ according to the dayes of the separation for her infirmity shall she be Unclean ] that is , for seven days she shall have the same law upon her as in her usual period , but no longer : for that which is added [ Levit. 12. 4. ] that she shall then continue in the bloud of her purifying three and thirty dayes ; it is not for abstinence from her husband , but from entring into the Tabernacle , and from touching holy things : so that the uncleanness being determin'd five weeks before her purification was complete , must be in order to contact or to nothing . But although upon supposition the allegation were true , yet the reason of it concludes not , yea the argument is infinitely the worse , since the supposition is false , and the Allegation is not true . For besides that the popular haeresies of Physick and Philosophy are now rarely confuted and reprov'd by the wise Physicians of these later ages , who have improved their faculty as much as any of the Schools of learning have done theirs , and the old sayings of Philosophers in this matter are found to be weak , and at the best but uncertain ; the great experience of the world is an infinite reproof to them who say that by such congressions leprous or monstrous children are produced : for the world would have been long since very full of them if such evil effects were naturally consequent to those meetings . S. Hierome was the first who brought this pretension into the Christian Schools ; ( so far as I can learn ; ) afterwards the School-men got it by the end , and the affirmative hath pass'd ever since almost without examination . But the Schoolmen generally affirme ( being taught to speak so by Aquinas ) that it is partly ceremonial , partly moral , and that in this onely it is obligatory , ex damno quod sequitur ex prole ; which because it hath no ground to support it must fall into the common lot of fancies and errors when their weakness is discover'd . For although those Physicians which say that this natural emanation is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or cleansing , doe beleeve that with the principles of generation there may in such times be something minus salubre intermingled ; yet besides that these are oppos'd by all them who say it is nothing but a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or evacuation ; both the one and the other are found to be imperfect , by the new observations and experiments made by a learned Man who finds that neither one or other can be the material part of Natures secret fabrick . But however , whether he says true or no , since things are so infinitely uncertain , and man is made secretly and fashioned in secreto terrae , these uncertain disputes are but a weak foundation of a pretence for a moral duty . To the last objection : That God abhorred the Nation for [ all these things ] and amongst them this is reckoned ; and therefore there was in this some Natural impurity , for by no other law were they bound , and they could not be found to be transgressors against any other : I answer ; that [ all these things ] are to be taken Concretè & Confusè , all indiscriminately in an heap , not all by singular distribution ; as appears ( besides this in question ) by the instance of marriage in certain degrees ; which the servants of God did use , and yet God delighted in them ; for Abraham married his Fathers daughter , and yet this was reckoned amongst their Catalogues of crimes , and so also in the case of the Brothers wife , which is there reckon'd , yet we know it was permitted and enjoined in the case of heiresses being childless widdows : but when this thing was by God inserted into the Digest of their laws and made Capital , it happened to be mingled with other prohibitions which were of things against the laws of Nature . But to this objection I shall speak again in the question of Cosin Germans num . 36. and 37. of this Rule . The arguments now appearing to be invalid , I answer to the question 1. That this abstinence was a Mosaick law , partly ceremonial , partly judicial , but in no degree Moral . 2. That the abrogation of Moses law does inferre the nullifying of this , and hath broken the band in pieces . 3. That the band which tyed this law upon the Jewes was fear of death and fear of a legal impurity : which fears being banished , and no new one introduc'd by our Lawgiver , we are not under restraint : and if we will be careful to observe all that is commanded us in Christs law , it will be work enough , though we bind not on mens shoulders unnecssary burdens . 4. It is a part of the spirit of bondage to be subject to ordinances ; but God will now be served by a more spiritual Religion , and to abstain as in the present instance and to think it is a part of Gods service , is superstition ; it is to worship him with an instance that he hath not chosen , or commended : and therefore it is remarkable that when S. Paul gave order to married paires , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Defraud not one another ; he onely gives this exception , except it be by consent for a time , that ye may give your selves to fasting and prayer ; and come together again , that Sathan tempt you not , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for your want of power and command over your desires and necessities . Abstinence in order to special religion is allowed and commended , and that by consent , and that but for a sudden occasion , and that so short , that it may not become an occasion of Satans temptations : whatsoever is over and besides this may be upon the account of Moses , but not of Christ and Christianity . 5. I speak this onely to take off a snare from mens Consciences , laid for the unwary by unskilful Masters of Assemblies so that all I say of it , is , that it may be done lawfully . 6. But that which does onely recommend it , is , where there is necessity that it be done . 7. It is sufficient though the necessity be not absolute , if it be onely ordinary and probable : for if this were not so , instead of allaying stormes and appeasing Scruples and breaking Snares , they would be increased and multiplied : for it will be a hard thing in most cases of that Nature to say that the necessity is absolute . 8. But since there is in such congressions a Natural abhorrency amongst most persons , and a Natural impurity ; if that which invites to it , be not at lest a probable necessity , it must be a great undecency and violence of a wanton Spirit . 9. It must alwaies be without scandal and reproach . For even among the Jews it was onely a legal impurity if done without scandal , but if with contumacy and owning of it , it came to outface the modesty and authority of the law , then it became deadly : and so it may now if that which is not of good report , be done and offered to the report of all them which can condemne the folly and impurity , but cannot judge of the necessity or the cause ; and the fact by becoming scandalous is criminal , as much as when it is done without a probable necessity , and onely upon lustful consideration . Some in their answers to this inquiry , make a distinction of the persons ; affirming it in this case to be unlawful to ask , but lawful to pay a duty if it be demanded . But if it be Naturally unlawful it is then inexcusable in both : For neither must the one tempt to an unlawful act , nor the other consent to it : and there can be no obligation to pay that debt which no man can lawfully demand . Neither of them hath a right against Gods law ; and therefore the case is equal in them both . He or she that complies does actually promote the sin , as well as the other that invites and therefore in Moses law they were equally criminal and punished with death . * But if it be not Naturally unlawful ( as it appears it is not ) then it may as well be demanded , as yeelded to ; when there is a probable necessity ; but concerning that , the passive party is to beleeve the other ; for if it be known to be otherwise , he or she that consents , does consent to an act which is made unlawful by evil circumstances . Of the prohibition of marriage in certain degrees . But the next inquiry concerning an instance in the Judicial law is yet of greater concernment ; For all those degrees , in which Moses law hath forbidden marriages , are supposed by very many now adayes that they are still to be observed with the same distance and sacredness , affirming because it was a law of God with the appendage of severe penalties to the transgressors it does still oblige us Christians . This question was strangely toss'd up and down upon the occasion of Henry the eighth's divorce from Queen Katherine the relict of his brother Prince Arthur ; and according as the interest of Princes uses to doe , it very much imployed and divided the pens of learned men ; who upon that occasion gave too great testimony with how great weaknesses men that have a Biasse doe determine questions , and with how great a force a King that is rich and powerful can make his own determinations . For though Christendome was then much divided , yet before then there was almost a general consent upon this proposition , that the Levitical degrees doe not by any law of God b●nd Christians to their observation . I know but of one Schoolman that dissents ; I mean Paludanus ; or if there be any more I am sure they are but very few , Vel duo vel nemo . — but the other opinion Defendit numerus , junctaeque Umbone Phalanges . But abstracting from all interests , and relative considerations , I shall give as full accounts of this as I can , because the questions of degrees and the matters and cases of incest are not so perfectly stated as the greatness of the matter and the necessities of the world require ; and besides this , it is at this day a great question amongst all men , Whether Brothers and Sisters children , or Cosen Germans may lawfully marry ? which question supposes that not onely the Levitical degrees are still thought obligatory , but even all those other degrees which by a parity of reason can be reduc'd to those measures . I shall therefore give an account of the sentence of all laws in this great question , which can be suppos'd to oblige us . Of Parents and Children . Concerning this , I suppose it to be evident that Nature hath been as free in her liberties , as in her gifts , open-handed enough to all ; save onely that she hath forbidden Parents and children , Higher and lower in the direct line for ever to marry . Just as Rivers cannot return to their fountains , nor Evenings back again to their own mornings from whence they set out , nor yesterday be recalled and begin again to morrow . The Course and order of Nature is against it ; and for a child to marry the parent is for to day to marry yesterday , a going back in Nature . — illum , illum sacris adhibete nefastis — qui semet in ortus Vertit , & indignae regerit sua pignora Matri . To which may be added this other sufficient Natural reason . That if a Son marries his Mother , she who is in Authority greater by right of geniture , becomes minor in Matrimonio less upon the same material account upon which she became greater ; and the duty and reverence of a Mother cannot be paid to her by him who is her Husband : which I find well intimated by Phaedra to Hippolitus , Matris superbum est Nomen , & potens nimis . It is a contradiction of rights that the same person should be the superior Mother , and the inferior wife : whith hath also some proportion between a Father and a Daughter , as being undecent that she from him should claim the rights of a wife , to whom she owes the duty of a Father . Besides these , there is a Natural abhorrency of such mixtures : Contra pudorem esse said Paulus the Lawyer ; it is against Natural modesty : which was rarely verified in the tryal which the Emperor Claudius made ( wittily and judiciously , like that of Solomon upon the two harlots ) upon a wicked woman who called him ( who indeed was her son ) a stranger , a begger , the son of another woman , and supposititious , that so she might defeat him of his Fathers inheritance . The Emperor espying her Malice , and suspecting her machination found out this tryal : If he be not your son , yet because he is young and handsome , rich and possess'd of the inheritance , the title of which you would snatch from him , you shall marry him , and so possess him and the inheritance too . She though desperately base , refus'd that offer , and though she was unnaturally malicious , yet would not be unnaturally incestuours ; and chose to suffer the shame of discovery rather then the horrors of such a mixture . But all this was not sufficient to make it to become a Natural law , without the authority of God intervening . This made it to be excellenty reasonable to be established into a law , and therefore God did so , and declar'd it , and did not trust mans reason alone with the conduct of it : but then it became an Eternal law when God made it so : and that was at the very first bringing of a wife to Adam . For this cause shall a man leave his father and his Mother , ( said God by his servant Moses declaring to us what God then made to be a law ) and shall cleave unto his wife , and they shall be one flesh . This could not on both sides concerne Adam , who had no Natural Father and Mother , and therefore was a law given to all that should be born from him ; when they took a wife or husband respectively , they must forsake Father and Mother , for between them and their children there could be no such intercourse intervening : and so the Jewes particularly Rabbi Selomoh expounds the place , and it was necessary this should then be declared , for as yet the marriage of Brother and Sister was not forbidden saith the Gemara Sanhedrin ; and in obedience to this because Adam had no other , he laid aside the love of Earth and Rain , of which he was produc'd , said Isaac Abravanel : and by this , they usually reconcile the seeming difference between these words and the fifth commandement . A man shall leave his Father and Mother : and yet , he must honour his Father and Mother : he must never leave to honour them ; but when he intends to marry , he must forsake all thoughts of contracting with either of them . Now the Mother and the wise being the opposite termes in the progression , he must leave one , and adhere or be united to the other , it must needs be that dereliction or forsaking , or going from the Mother , not relating to Honour but to the Marriage , means that the child must abstain and depart from all thoughts of such conjunction . A mother is not less to be lov'd , less to be honour'd after marriage then before ; and therefore in no sense relating to this is she to be forsaken , therefore it must be in the other : and this , our Blessed Saviour recorded also in his law , where whatsoever is not sufficiently found , cannot pretend to be a law of Nature ; as I have already prov'd . And now this being established and recorded as a law of Nature in that way onely that is competent , the disagreeing sentences of some men , and the contrary practices of Nations is no argument against it . Indeed I said in the first Chapter , that the consent of Nations is not sufficient to establish a Natural law ; for God onely makes the sanction , but when he hath made it and declar'd it , the disagreeing practices of great portions of the world cannot annul the establishment . It is not sufficient to prove it to be a Natural law because wise people consent to it ; but if God have made it so , it is a Natural law though half the world dissents : and therefore we are not in this affair to be mov'd at all , if wise men should in any age affirme the marriages of Sons and Mothers to be lawful . * So Diogenes and Chrysippus affirm'd upon a ridiculous conceit that Cocks and Hens did not abhor it . Against which impertinent argument , although it were sufficient to oppose the Narrative which Aristotle makes of a Camel , and the Scythian horse who brake his own neck out of detestation of his own act to which he was cousen'd by his keeper ; for Ferae quoque ipsae Veneris evitant nefas Generísque leges inscius servat pudor . yet it is better to set down this reasonable proposition ; That a thing is against the law of Nature when ( being forbidden by God ) it is unnatural to Men , though it were not against the Nature of Beasts . But as the authority of these Men is inconsiderable and their argument trifling , so also the disagreeing practice of some Nations in this particular is wholly to be despised . — Gentes tamen esse feruntur , In quibus & nato Genetrix , & nata Parenti Jungitur — The Assyrians , the Medes and Persians , especially the most honour'd Persons amongst them , their Kings and their Magi did use it frequently , Nam Magus ex matre & Gnato nascatur oportet . But the Original and cause of this horrible and unnatural custome we can so reduce to its first principle that there can remain no suspicion but that they did prevaricate the law of Nature . For when Nimrod had married his Mother Semiramis , and presently introduc'd the Worship of Fire , making that to be the Assyrians and Persians God , he was gratified by the Devil . For ( as Saidus Batricides the Patriarch of Alexandria reports ) the Devil out of the fire spake to his first Priest that none should officiate in his rites , unless he would first lie with his Mother , his Sister , and his daughter . And Sham the Priest ( for that was the name of the Beast ) did so , and so together with his Prince became an Authentick president to all generations of degenerous brutes : and was imitated by all that Empire . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . But what Xenophon said of the Persians is also true of all the Nations together , who were debauched by their laws and accursed customes ; Non eò minus jus esse quia à Persis contemnebatur . It is still the law of Nature though prevaricated by the Persians and their subjects and friends . For when any thing appears to be so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to most and to the uncorrupted Nations and to them who live according to Natural reason it is a great presumption it is indeed a Natural law ; and is so finally if a command of God hath interven'd in that instance : for by the Divine appointment it is made a law , and by the matter , order and use of it , it is Natural . But for the rest to whom these things seem'd otherwise then God and Nature did decree : they were abused by none but they their own lusts ; they were as a punishment of their vilest sins given over 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to unnatural , to dishonourable , and unreasonable desire , — Cui fas implere Parentem Quid rear esse nefas ? But this was the product of their idolatry and some other basenesses : of the first S. Paul is witness , that as a consequent of their forsaking the true God they were given over to Unnatural lusts : and Lucan observes the latter of the Parthians , — epulis vesana meróque Regia , non ullos exceptos legibus horret Concubitus — Now what is the effect of superinduc'd crimes and follies is most contrary to Nature , and it were unnatural to suspect that she had not made sufficient provisions in this prime case , upon pretence , because some unnatural persons have spoil'd and defac'd or neglected her laws . One thing by the by I shall insert . I find Socrates noted by some that he said there is in the marriage of of Parents and children nothing to be reprov'd but the disparity of age . But this is a mistake ; for though he brought that incompetent reason against it , yet for other causes he abhorr'd it : accounting it to be a law established by God and Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. That Parents and children should abhor such marriages . For God and all the world , Heaven and earth doe so : insomuch that a Roman Philosopher was in his dream warned not to bury the corps of a Persian who had married his Mother . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The Earth who is the common Mother of all , will not receive into her womb him that defil'd the Womb of his Mother : and the story says , that the ground spued out the corps of such a one that had been buried : And Virgil affirmes that in hell there are torments prepar'd for him Qui thalamum invasit Natae , vetitósque Hymenaeos . who pollutes his Daughters bed , and defiles himself with such forbidden Entertainments . Of Brothers and Sisters . 2. But though Nature forbids this , yet the other relations are forbidden upon other accounts . Nothing else is against the prime laws of Nature , but a conjunction in the right ascending and descending line . The marriage of Brothers and Sisters was at first necessary ; and so the world was peopled : all the world are sons and daughters descending from the first marriages of Brother and Sister . But concerning this that I may speak clearly , let it be observed that although the world does generally condemn all such and the like Marriages under the title of Incestuous , yet that is not properly expressed , and leaves us to seek for the just grounds of reproof to many sorts of unlawful marriages , and some others are condemn'd by too great a censure . The word Incest is not a Scripture word , but wholly Heathen ; and signfied amongst them all unchast and forbidden marriages , such which were not hallowed by law and honour ; an inauspicious conjunction sine cesto Veneris , in which their Goddess of Love was not President ; marriages made without her girdle , and so Ungirt , Unbless'd . This word being taken into the civil law got a signification to be appropriate to it ; for there were three degrees of unlawful marriages . Damnatae , Incestae , and Nefariae . Damnatae nuptiae are such which the law forbids upon Political considerations ; such as are between the Tutour or Guardian and the Orphan or Pupil , between a Servant and his Mistress , between a Freed-man and his Patroness , and such was in the law of Moses between the High priest and a Widow ; and in Christianity between a Priest and a Harlot , and between any man and her whom he defil'd by Adultery while her first husband was alive , all Marriages with Virgins professed and vowed . There is in these so much unreasonableness of being permitted , that by the law they stood condemned , and had legal punishments and notes of infamy proportionable . * Incestae nuptiae are defin'd in the law to be coitio consanguineorum vel affinium ; the conjunction of Kinred or Allyes , meaning , in those instances which are by law forbidden : and these are forbidden upon differing considerations from the former , viz. for their neerness of bloud and relation which the laws would have disseminated more or less : for their approach to unnatural marriages , for outward guards to the laws of Nature , for publike honesty , and compliance with the customes of their Neighbours , of the same interest or the same religion , or for necessary entercourse . But because unskilful persons or unwary have called Unnatural mixtures by the name of incestuous , as incestuous Lot , and the incestuous Corinthian , therefore whatever any law calls incest , they think they have reason to condemn equally to those abominable con●unctions . But neither ought incest to be condemn'd with a hatred equal to what is due to these ; neither ought these to be called incest : for in true speaking these are not Incestae nuptiae , but Nefariae , and Naturae contrariae , wicked or abominable , and contrary to Nature : for although the law sometimes calls those mixtures which are between Kinred by the title of Nefariae , or Impious , yet it is to be understood onely of that Kinred which is by the law of God and Nature forbidden to marry : so the Glosse in authentic . de incest . nupt . affirmes , so Archidiaconus , Johannes Andrens , Covarruvias and the best Lawyers : and the word is derived from the usage of it in the best Authors : Ferae quoque ipsae veneris evitant Nefas ; the conjunction of Parents and children is nefas veneris , and the marriages nefarious . Now of this deep tincture none are , excepting marriages in the right ascending and descending line . The marriages of Brothers and Sisters is incestuous , and the worst degree of it : and so forbidden by the laws of all civil Nations ; but therefore they are unlawful onely because forbidden by positive laws ; but because the prohibition is not at all in the laws of Christ , therefore it cannot be accounted against the prime law of Nature , of which that is a perfect Systeme . Not that it can in any case of present concernment or possibility become lawful , or for any reason be dispensed withall by any power of man ; for it is next to an unnatural mixture , it hath in it something of confusion , and blending the very first parting 's of Nature , it is of infinite vile report , intolerably scandalous , and universally forbidden . But though this be enough , yet this is all : Michael of Ephesus * saies that at the first these marriages were indifferent , but made unlawful by a superinduc'd prohibition . And indeed if they had been unnatural , they could not have been necessary . For it is not imaginable that God who could with the same facility have created a thousand men and as many women , as one , would have built up mankind by that which is contrary to Humane Nature : and therefore we find that among the wisest Nations some whom they esteemed their bravest men did this . Cimon the son of Miltiades married his , Sister Elpinice , non magis amore quàm patrio more ductus , said Aemilius Probus , not onely led by love but by his Countries custome . So Archetolis the son of the brave Themistocles married his sister Mnasiptolema . Alexander the son of Pyrrhus King of Epirus married his sister Olympias , Mithridates married his sister Laodice , Artemisia was sister and wife to Mausolus King of Caria , so was Sophrosyna to Dionysius of Syracuse , Eurydice to Ptolemaeus Philopater , Cleopatra to Ptolemaeus Physcon , Arsinoe to Ptolemaeus Philadelphus whom when Sotades had reprov'd upon that account saying , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he imprison'd him . But I need not bring particular instances of Egyptians : for Diodorus Siculus affirmes that they all esteem'd it lawful , and Dion Prusaeensis saies that all the Barbarians did so . But all the Greeks did so too , having learnt it from their first Princes , whom after ages had turn'd into Gods , — Dii nempe suas habuere sorores Ut Saturnus Opim junctam sibi sanguine , junxit Oceanus Tethyn , Junonem Rector Olympi . Though I suppose that this is but a fabulous narrative in imitation of the story of Cain and Abel , as appears by their tale of Jupiter and Prometheus ; which is well noted by the observator upon the Mythologies of Natalis Comes under the title of Jupiter . But that which moves me more then all this is the answer which Thamar gave to her Brother Amnon : Now therefore speak unto the King , for surely he will not withhold me from thee , and yet she was his Fathers daughter , his sister by the Paternal line : and Abraham told the King of Gerar concerning Sarah his wife ; and yet indeed she is my Sister , she is the daughter of my Father but not the daughter of my Mother , that is , the daughter of Terah as was generally suppos'd , of which I shall yet give further accounts . * Now it is not to be supposed that either Abraham before or David after the law would have done or permitted any thing against the law of Nature : and if it was against a positive law , as it hapned in the case of Amon and David , the marriage might be v●lid though forbidden and the persons be excused upon some other account , which is not proper here to be considered . But I again renew what I said before , this d●scourse is not intended so much as secretly to imply that it can now at all be or be made lawful , or is at any hand to be indured . For the marriage of Brother and sister is against a secondary law of Nature ; that is , it stands next to the Natural prohibition and is against a Natural reason , though not against a prime Natural law . Every reason indeed is not a sufficient indication of a law , nor a Natural reason of a Natural law ; but when the reason is essential to Nature or consign'd by God , then it is : and as a reason approaches neerer to this , so the action is more or less Natural or Unnatural : and this is the case of Brother and Sister . For the reverence which is due to Parents hath its place here also propter recentem admodum parentum in liberis imaginem ; and therefore it is with greater reason forbidden : and if it were not , the whole world might be filled with early adulteries . For the Dearnesses of Brother and Sister , their cohabitation , their likeness of Nature and manners , if they were not made holy and separate by a law would easily change into Marital loves , but their age and choice would be prevented by their too early caresses : and then since many Brothers might have the same kindness to one Sister , or might have but one amongst them all , the mischief would be horrible and infinite . Dulcia fraterno sub nomine furta tegemus : Est mihi libertas tecum secreta loquendi : Et damus amplexus , & jungimus oscula coram , Quantum est quod desit ? For these and other accounts , which God best knew , he was pleas'd to forbid the Marriage of Brothers and Sisters : This law the Jewes say , God gave to Adam under the title De non revelanda turpitudine ; but yet so , that it was not to be of force till Mankind were multiplied : but then it took place as men did please . But this they say upon what ground they please ; for it is highly improbable that the law of Nature should be allowed years of probation , or that it should be a prime law of Nature , which the Nature of things and the constitution of the world did make necessary to be broken . But because God did afterwards make it into a law and there is now very great reason that it should be a law , and the reason is Natural , and will be perpetual , and all Christian Nations , and all that have any form'd religion have agreed to prohibite such marriages ; He that shall doe so unreasonably , and as things now stand , so unnaturally and so foolishly as either to doe it , or teach it , must be of no religion , and of no people , and of no reason , and of no modesty . Of Mothers in law , and their Husbands Children . That the marriage of these is not against the law of Nature S. Austin does expressly affirme in his questions upon Leviticus ; saying that there is forbidden the discovering his Fathers nakedness ; but this is not to be understood of the Father while he is alive , for that is forbidden in the prohibition of Adultery ; Sed ibi prohibetur Matrimonium contrahi cum illis quas seclusâ lege licet Uxores ducere ; marriage is there forbidden to be made with them with whom otherwise it were lawful to contract : But for this there can be no no reasonable and fair pretence . For a Mother in law and a Mother are all one in the estimation of all the laws of the world , and therefore were alike in the prohibition : and the contrary was never done but by them who had no pretence for it , but quod libet licet ; whatsoever a man hath a mind to doe that he may doe : for this was the argument which Phaedra courts Hippolytus withall . Nec quia privigno videar coitura noverca Terruerint animos nomina vana tuos . Ista vetus pietas aevomoritura futuro Rustica Saturno regna tenente fuit . Jupiter esse pium statuit quodcunque juvaret ; Et fas omne facit fratre marita soror . The impiety of their Gods seemed to be their warrant , and their pleasure was all theit reason , their appetite was their argument . But this we find sufficiently condemned by S. Paul , it is a fornication which is not so much as named amongst the Gentiles , that one should have his Fathers wife . Cajetan supposes that this Corinthian did lie with her while his Father was alive ; because the Apostle calls her not the widow , but the wife of his Father . I am of his opinion , but not for that reason ; because that expression he uses not so much to describe the person as to aggravate the crime : but that it was in his Fathers life time I am induc'd to beleeve by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , fornication , which though it be often used for adultery , yet I find it not us'd for nuptiae nefariae , or that which is usually called incest . But however , that which S. Paul notes here and so highly abominates is not the adultery , but the impiety of it ; not that it was a wife , but his Fathers wife ; and therefore although even so it were a high crime and of a deep tincture , yet the unnaturalness and the scandal of it S. Paul here condemnes : It was the same that Antiochus did to Stratonice the wife of his father Seleucus , and that which Reuben did to the Concubine of his Father Iacob ; a thing so hateful to all Nature that the very naming of it is a condemnation ; and therefore is all one with the prime Natural law of prohibition of the conjunction of Parents and Children : for she that is one flesh with my Father , is as neer to me as my Father , and that 's as neer as my own Mother ; as neer I mean in estimation of the law , though not in the accounts of Nature , and therefore though it be a crime of a less turpitude , yet it is equally forbidden and is against the law of Nature , not directly , but by interpretation . Of Uncles and Nieces . Now if the neerest of kin in the collateral line were not forbidden by a law of Nature , much less are they primely unlawful that are further off . The Ascending and Descending line cannot marry , but are forbidden by God in the law of Nature : So Mothers in law and their Husbands children : And Brothers and Sisters are by the laws of all the world , and for very great reason forbidden , but not by the law of Nature . But for all other degrees of Kinred it is unlawful for them to marry interchangeably when and where they are forbidden by a positive law , but not else ; and therefore the marriages of Uncles and Nieces , or Aunts and Nephews become unlawful as the laws of our superiors supervening make it so , but was not so from the beginning , and is not so by any law of Christ. In the Civil law of the Romans it was lawful for the Uncle to marry the Brothers daughter , and this continued by the space of 250 years from the dayes of Claudius to the reign of Constantine or thereabouts : and though this began among the Romanes upon the occasion of Claudius his marrying Agrippina , yet himself affirmes ( as Tacitus makes him to speak ) Nova nobis in Fratrum filias conjugia , sed aliis Gentibus solennia , nec lege ullâ prohibita . Indeed it is new to us but to other Nations usual and lawful : and the newness of it scar'd Domitian so that he refus'd it ; and not many did practise it ; onely I find that a poor obscure Libertine T. Alledius Severus did it , as Suetonius observes : but it was made lawful by the Civil law , and allowed in the rules of Ulpian ; and when Nerva had repeal'd the law , Heraclius reduc'd it again and gave the same permissions . But that which moves me more is that it was the practice of the Jews , the family of Abraham , and the Councel of the wise men to doe so , as Ben Maimon the famous Jew reports . In monitis sapientum habetur ut in uxorem ducat quis ante alias , neptem ex sorore , seu ex fratre neptem , juxta id quod dicitur , a carne tua nè te abscondas : And Josephus does suppose that when Abraham said of Sarah , she is my Sister the daughter of my Father , the truth it , she was his Fathers Grandchild , that is , the Daughter of Abrahams brother : for unless it had been a known thing in that Nation that Abraham's family would not have married their German Sisters , it could have been no security to Abraham to pretend her to be so : for she might be his wife and his sister too , unless such marriages had been unlawful and rejected . But then when Abraham was reprov'd for his lie , he help'd the matter out with a device ; she was his Fathers daughter , that is , by the usual idiome of that family , the child of his Father descending by his brother : and this was S. Austin's opinion , Nam qui maximè propinqui erant solebant fratres & sorores appellari , and Cicero calls his Cosen Lucius , Brother ; so Lot is called Abrahams Brother , though he was but the son of his Brother Haran , just as neer as his wife Sarah was to him , whom for the like reason he called Sister . But of this I shall yet give a farther account . But whether Josephus said true or no , Abraham said true , that 's certain ; either she was his half Sister or his Brothers daughter ; either of which is forbidden in Leviticus ; and this sufficiently declares that they have their unlawfulness from a positive law , not from any law of Nature . If it were needful to instance in any other great examples of such marriages , it were very easie to doe it . Amram the Father of Moses married his Aunt as some suppose , Diomedes and Iphidamas among the Greeks married their Mothers Sisters , and Alcinous took to wife Arete his Brothers daughter . Andromede was promised to her Uncle Phineus . One of the Herods married his Brothers daughter , and yet was not ( so fas as we find ) reproved for it ; and he gave his own daughter to his Brother Pherotas ; and some suppose this to be the case of Othniel in the dayes , and under the conduct of Joshuah . For the words in the story are these , [ And Othniel the son of Kenaz , the Brother of Caleb took it : and he gave him Achsah his daughter to wife : but of this I shall give a particular account : for this being against the law of Moses by which they were bound , was not to be supposed easily to have been done by so piouspersons : but all that I contend for , is , that it was not unlawful before the law of Moses : against these marriages there was no opus scriptum in cordibus , no law of Nature , but they became unlawful upon another account , and therefore it was unlawful to them onely to whom that account was to be reckon'd . Of the marriage of Cosen Germans . From the premises it will abundantly follow , that no person ought to be affrighted with the pretences of any fierce and misperswaded person that the marriage of Cosen Germans is against the law of Nature : and in this case a man need least of all to fear ; for the law of Nature is a known and evident thing , it is notorious and felt , and if any man shall need to be told what is against Natural reason which is the matter out of which all Natural laws are fram'd , he may as well have need to be reminded when he is hungry or thirsty . For although some persons have got a trick to scare their Proselytes from a practise to which they have no mind , by telling them it is against the law of Nature , when they can prove it upon no other account to be unlawful , so making the law of Nature to be a sanctuary of ignorance and an artifice to serve their end , just as the pretence of occult qualities is in natural Philosophy ; yet concerning the law of Nature , it being imprinted in our hearts , explicated by Christianity , relying upon plain , prime , Natural reason , a man may as much need to be told when himself does a thing against his own will , as when he does against his own reason and his own Nature . Onely it is certain that when education and our Countrey Customes have from the beginning possessed our understandings and our practices , so that we never saw any other usage of things or heard talk of any other , it looks as if it came from Nature and were something of her establishment : So S. Paul to the Corinthians , does not even Nature her self teach that it is a shame for a man to wear long hair ? That is , even in Nature there is the signification of some difference in that matter , which custome hath established into a law : but in such cases as these , a wise man can easily distinguish words from things , and appearances from firm establishments . But that the law of Nature hath nothing to doe in the marriage of Cosen Germans , save onely that she hath left them to their liberty , appears from all the premises , which in this instance as being farther remov'd must needs conclude stronger then in their own . But then in the next place if the inquiry be made what it is in the judicial law of Moses , which is the main of our present inquiry ; supposing the judicial law of Moses could in any of its instances oblige Christians , yet Cosen Germans were still free to marry : for I doe not so much as find it pretended by any one to be there forbidden , except S. Ambrose , who disputing fiercely against Paternus for marrying his son to his Granchild by another venter , that is , so as the young Gentleman was Uncle to his wife , in anger against that , saies that by the law of God ( meaning in Leviticus ) Cosen Germans are forbidden to marry , much more ( saies he ) Uncle and Niece : Qui enim leviora astringit , graviora non solvit sed alligat . He that binds to the less , does not untie the greater . But the event of this , is , onely that S. Ambrose is by all learned men condemn'd for an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a slip in his memory : and men ought to be wary lest great names abuse them by opinion and mistaken zeal . But the law is this , Levit. 18. 6. None of you shall approach to any that is neer akin to him , to uncover their Nakedness , I am the Lord. Here the Questions use to be , 1. What is meant by [ None of you ? ] 2. What is intended by [ Neer of Kin to you ? ] None of you ] Vir vir non accedet : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Lxx. A man , a man shall not approach ; so it is in the Hebrew : that is , say the Rabbins , the Jew and the Gentile shall not . I shall not contend for it , or against it . I suppose it may well be admitted that potentially all mankind was included , that is , all who were borne to Israel , or adopted by being Proselytes were bound to this law , Jews and Gentiles too when they became Jews in religion , but that it included others that conversed not with the Nation , that were strangers to their laws , is as if we should say the Parthians were to be judg'd by the Gallick laws , or the Persians guided by the Greeks . But the purpose of them who would introduce this sense , is , that it might be intimated that these degrees here mention'd were forbidden by the law of Nature , and consequently obliging all Christendome : the contrary whereof because it appears from the premises , I shall onely adde , that no Nation of old did observe all these laws , and that there was never any sufficient argument to inforce upon us their obligation , and because it must needs remain to us as it was before the law , if they were not obliged then neither are we . But this I suppose they might be , and some of them were oblig'd by special laws before the collection and publication of the body of Moses law . For as the law of Christ is a collection and perfect explication of the law of Nature and essential reason : So Moses law was a collection of all the wise and prudent laws by which God govern'd those Nations and those ages which were before Moses . Thus the law of the Sabbath was one great member of this collective body of the Mosaick law ; but it was given before the solemnities of Mount Sinai . The law that the Brother should raise up seed unto his Brother who dyed without issue , was also given to that family before the publication of it by Moses as appears in the story of Judah and Thamars quarrel about Onan and the rest . And thus also I suppose that all or most of these laws of marriage were given to the nations of the East and South , descending upon them by the tradition of their fore-fathers ; from God derived to Adam in part , and in part to Noah , and something of it to other Patriarchs and eminent persons , and at last by the commandement of God united into a Digest by Moses . And upon this account it is that God said that the Canaanites had polluted themselves in all these things , and therefore the land did spue them out , which although it cannot infer that these laws did Naturally oblige , as I have already discoursed * yet that they were by some means or other bound upon them is probably enough , though in this matter there be no certainty . But in this there is ; For that all mankind was not bound by all these laws of consanguinity and affinity appears in all the foregoing instances : and the marriages of the Patriarchs must conclude them to be as impious as the Canaanites in theirs , or else that these laws did not oblige all Mankind : and if not from the beginning , then not now : if these laws were not natural , they are not Christian , which also will further appear in the sequel . 2. But there will be more consideration upon the second Quaere ; what is meant by [ Neer of Kin to you ? ] Our English is not sufficiently ex pressive of the full sense of it . The Latin is something neerer to the Hebrew , Vir vir non accedet ad propinquitatem carnis suae ; to the neerness of his flesh , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or as other books 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ad domesticam carnis suae , to her that is so neer of Kin , that they usually dwell in the same house , that is , Parents and Children Brothers and Sisters , or our Parents Brothers and Sisters . In these cases there being ever the same account of consanguinity and affinity ; this rule takes in all that is there forbidden . But it is highly observable that there is great difference between Propinqui and Cognati . God never forbad to marry our Kinred , but he forbad to marry the neerness of our flesh . Which Phrase when we rightly understand this whole question will be quickly at an end . For [ Neer of Kin ] is an indefinite word and may signifie as uncertainly as [ great ] and [ little ] doe : nothing of it self determinately , but what you will comparatively to others : and it may be extended to all generations of mankind where any records are kept , as among the Jews they were : from Judah to Joseph the espoused of the B. Virgin , from Benjamin to Michol , from Levi to Heli : and thus it is in great proportion amongst the Spaniards and Welch , and in all Nations in their greater and more noble families . The Welch doe to this day esteem him neer of Kin to them whom the English doe not : and since we see the prohibition of marriage with Kinred hath been extended sometimes , and sometimes contracted , it is necessary that all Lawgivers doe express what is meant by their indefinite terms . Hemingius gives a rule for this as neer as can be drawn from the words and the thing . Propinquitas carnis ( saies he ) quae me sine intervallo attingit . That is , she that is next to me , none intervening between the stock and me : That is , the propinquity or neerness of my flesh above me is my Mother , below me is my Daughter , on the side , is my Sister , This is all : with this addition the these are not to be uncover'd for they own sake ; thy own immediate relation they are : All else which are forbidden are forbidden for the sakes of these : for my Mothers or my Fathers , my Sons or my Daughters , my Brothers or my Sisters sake ; onely reckon the accounts of affinity to be the same : affinitates namque cum extraneis novas pariunt Conjunctiones hominum , non minores illis quae è sanguine venerunt : said Philo. Affinity makes conjunctions and relations equal to those of Consanguinity : and therefore thou must not uncover that Nakedness which is thine own in another person of blood or affinity , or else is thy Fathers or thy Mothers , thy Brothers or thy Sisters , they Sons or thy Daughters nakedness . This is all that can be pretended to be forbidden by vertue of these words [ Neer of Kin ] or [ The neerness of thy flesh . ] And this we find expressed in the case of the high Priests mourning : The High Priest might not be defiled for the dead among his people , but for his kin that is neer unto him , he may ; for his Mother and for his Father , and for his Son and for his Daughter , and for his Brother , and for his Virgin Sister . This is the propinquitas carnis , she that is immediatly born of the same flesh that I am born of , or she out of whose flesh I am born , or she that is born out of my flesh , is this [ Neer of Kin. ] There is no other propinquity but these , all else are remov'd ; and when a bar does intervene , all the rest are or may be accounted Kinred , but not neer of Kin , not the neernes of my flesh , which only is here forbidden . Onely this more : That since the prime Natural law does forbid the marriage of the ascending and descending line , that is , Fathers and children , and so consequently and by a stronger reason , Grandchildren , and downwards for ever in descent ; God was pleased to set a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a bar and a hedge round about this to keep men off , far off from it , that if men would be impious they might not at first come to the highest step : and therefore as God plac'd the prohibition of Brother and Sister under , so on the side of it he forbad the marriage of Uncles and Aunts : for they are thy Fathers or thy Mothers neer Kin , they are to them the propinquitas carnis ; therefore for the reverence of Father and Mother the Jews were bidden to keep of one step more , for the last step of lawful is soon pass'd over into the first step of unlawful , and therefore God was pleas'd to set them further off . And the Christian Divines and Lawyers well understanding this , express the prohibition to this sense ; that Uncles and Aunts are not to be married , because they are loco Parentis , they are quasi Parentes , images of Fathers and Mothers , for the reverence of which , the marriage of our Uncles and Aunts respectively are forbidden . * This is just as it was forbidden to the Jews to make an image ; which thing could not have any Moral or Natural obliquity ; but it was set as a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a guard and a hedge to keep them off from worshipping them , The case is the same here : For the Jews were as apt to comply with the Egyptians and Canaanites in their incestuous mixtures , as in their idolatrous worshippings ; but therefore the hedges were plac'd before them both . But half an eye may see the different accounts upon which in this place there was pass'd an equal prohibition . But besides all this , what better determination can we have of these indefinite words of [ Neer of kin ] or [ the neerness of thy flesh ] ( for those are the words in the Hebrew , so they are to be rendred ) then the express particulars made by God himself in that very place ; where none are reckon'd in the equal collateral line , but Brothers and Sisters and their affines or allies , their Husbands and wives respectively ; none in the Unequal collateral line , but Uncles and Aunts and their allies ; in the ascending and descending line , Fathers and Mothers , their children and their Grandchildren with their allies ; in all which there is nothing at all that concerns Cosen Germans , neither upon any thing of this account can they be suppos'd to be forbidden , or to be the neerness of our flesh . But if any scrupulous person shall inquire further and suspect that some degrees or persons are forbidden to marry that are not here expressed , but included by a parity of reason , as it happens in another instance : for it is not forbidden to marry our Mothers Brothers wife ; but because here it is made unlawful to marry Fathers Brothers wife , it is to be concluded also for the other , there being the same degree and the same reason . I answer to this by parts ; 1. It is very likely that it is so intended that in equal cases there is an equal prohibition ; but it cannot certainly be concluded and relied upon that it is so . 1. Because upon this account cases of fear and scruple might very much be multiplied to no purpose . For I remember that Fagius reckons out of the books of the Rabbins twenty persons forbidden to marry , which yet are not reckon'd in Leviticus . 2. Because of the rule of the law . l. Mutus 43. D. de procur . Quòd lege prohibitoriâ non vetitum est , permissum intelligitur . In negative precepts that which is not forbidden , is presumed to be allowed . And to adde more out of fear is either to be wiser then the Lawgiver , or to suspect him to be apt to quarrel by unknown measures , and secret rules of interpretation . 3. Because I find that amongst wise Nations the same degree does not alwaies admit the same prohibition . To marry my Fathers Sister was forbidden , and it was not forbidden to marry my Brothers daughter , but it was sometimes practis'd amongst the Hebrews ; and they give this reason for it ; because young men daily frequenting the houses of their Grandfathers and Grandmothers converse with their Aunts , and are therefore forbidden to marry lest such conversation should become their snare : but to the houses of their Brethren their address is not so frequent , their conversation more separate , and their interest and expectations less , and therefore to marry the daughters of their Brother might with more safety be permitted because there is less temptation . Thus by the laws given to the sons of Noah , the Jews observe that it was permitted to marry the Sister by the Fathers side , but not our Sister by the Mother . It was Abraham's case ; for as Saidus Batricides the Patriarch of Alexandria about 700 yeers since in his Ecclesiastical Annals tells out of the Monuments of the East : Thare begat Abraham of his first wife Jona , and she being dead he married Tehevitha , and of her begat Abraham's wife : and this is it which he said , [ she is the daughter of my Father , but not the daughter of my Mother : ] from whence they suppose this not to be permitted , and that the other was ; for so R. Jarchi glosses those words of Abraham now quoted : Quoniam inter gentes ratio consanguinitatis Paternae neutiquam habebatur : because among the Gentiles ( meaning , by the law of Nature , or the law given to Noah ) there was little or no account made of Kinred by the Fathers side in the matter of marriages . * So amongst the Romans after the time of Claudius , it was permitted to marry the Brothers daughter , but not the Sisters daughter , as appears in the rules of Ulpian , but the reason of this particular instance I confess I cannot learn , I onely observ'd it to this purpose that amongst wise Nations , the same degree hath not the same prohibition . But I am willing enough to admit it with these cautions . 1. That there be not onely the same degree but the same reason : For as Ulpian well observes in his rules : In quarto [ gradu ] permittitur [ connubium ] extra eas personas quae parentum liberoúmque locum habent : therefore saies he they adde that the Great Aunt by the Fathers and by the Mothers side , and the Sisters neece may not be married quamvìs quarto gradu sint , although they are in the fourth degree : because the prohibition is not alwaies for the neerness or for the degree , but for the proper reason ; and if you could suppose a woman to live to see six generations of her line , yet it is unlawful for her to marry that sixth degree of Nephews , and not unlawful to marry the first degree of Cosens . 2. In the descending line the case is otherwise then in the equal line . Here the further off the persons are the less reason still there is they should be forbidden : but in the descending line the further the persons are remov'd the greater cause there is they should be forbidden : therefore there is no comparison between the cognation of Uncles and their Neeces , and the cognation of Cosens in the equal lines : because the reason distinguishes them , not the Kinred or neerness to the common Parent . 3. It is true which is affirmed in the law , In pari Cognationis gradu , par idémque jus statuatur : when the Cognation is the same , the law is so too ; that is , If it be measured in the same kind of Cognation : ascending compar'd to ascending , equal collateral to equal collateral , unequal to unequal ; for when the comparison is of things in the same order ; then not onely the degree but the reason is most commonly the same too , and that is principally to be regarded . But though I am willing enough to admit this rule with these cautions , yet many others will not , nor think it reasonable that any thing should be supposed to be forbidden in the Levitical law , but what is there set down , excepting the descent of children in which it is not easy to prevaricate beyond the degrees forbidden expressly , if a man had a mind to it ; and it was never heard of , that a marriage was thought of between a woman and her Great Grandfather : and they give this reason why they limit themselves to the degrees expressed . Because unless God had intended there a perfect enumeration of all the persons forbidden to contract marriages mutually , it cannot be imagined why he should be pleas'd to repeat some degrees twice which are equally forbidden in the several instances : for if the parity of cognation were to be the measure , then those degrees which are twice repeated might without such repetition have better been reduc'd to the Rule , under which they were sufficiently prohibited . 2. But whether it be , or be not so , yet it can no way reach to the case of Cosen Germans : For there is in Leviticus no degree equally neer that is forbidden , except of such persons which are in the place of Parents , who are prohibited upon another account . But that which ought to put it past all question that the marriage of Cosen Germans was not prohibited by the Levitical law either expressly or by consequence and parity of reason , is this : Because it was practis'd by holy men both before and after the law , and so ordered to be done by God himself . In the law there are no words against it , no reason against it express'd or intimated in a parity of prohibition given to something else , and it was frequently practis'd amongst persons of a known religion , and was by God given in command to some persons to doe it ; therefore nothing is more certainly warranted , excepting onely express Commandements . The particulars I relate to in Scripture are these ; Jacob married his Cosen German Rachel the daughter of his Uncle Laban . Amram the Father of Moses begat him of his Cosen German Jochabed . That she was his Aunt is commonly supposed , but the Lxx and the Vulgar Latin report her to be his Aunts daughter , though by the stile of the Hebrewes she was called his Aunt : just as Chanameel is called in some books the Uncle of the Prophet Jeremy , when he was really his Uncles Son ; and so the Vulgar Latin Bibles read it ; and Loth was called brother by Abraham when he was his Brothers Son. * Caleb having promised his Daughter Achsah to him that should take Kirjath-Sepher , she fell to Othniel the Son of Kenaz Calebs Brother ; so Pagnine and Arias Montanus read it [ Filio Kenaz Fratris Caleb ] meaning Kenaz to be Calebs Brother : So that Othniel and Achsah were Brothers children ; for it cannot be supposed that Othniel was Calebs Brother and so was Uncle to Achsah ; for that being forbidden in the law of Moses under which Othniel and Achsah lived was not a thing so likely to be done , and consented to by Caleb ; as I have already noted . But the matter was made more notorious in the case of Zelophehads daughters ; who because they were heiresses were commanded to marry their kinred ; and they married their Fathers Brothers sons . This was a special case , but therefore it was a special command ; and what was in all cases lawful was made in this case necessary . For if the woman was an Heiress she was to pleasure her own family rather then strangers . And this was not onely amongst the Jews but amongst the Greeks and Latines , as appears by that of the Comedy Lex est ut orbae , qui sunt genere proximi Iis nubant , & illos ducere eadem haec lex jubet . If the woman was without children ( adde also ) and without a Father , that is , if her Father be dead , the next of kinred was bound to marry her : and therefore when Aeschylus calls the marriage of certain Cosen Germans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 marriages which the law forbids , and affirms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the family is staind by it : the Scholiast addes that therefore these marriages are unlawful because the Fathers were alive ; and so it was not unlawful upon the stock of kinred ; but because the maid was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Heiress and might not marry without her Fathers leave . This woman was called among the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a woman determin'd by law , and already judg'd to such a marriage ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and to them that were so , it was not free to marry any one , they must marry their Kinred Hic meus amicus illi genere est proximus , Huic leges cogunt Nubere hanc — And we find in the old Civil law that one Cassia was declar'd inheretrix upon condition , Si Consobrino nupsisset : if she did marry her Cosen German . l. 2. C. de instit . & subst . and Papinian l. 23. & 24. D. de ritu nuptiarum affirms , conditionem illam , si consobrinam duxeris , haereditatis institutioni utiliter adjici posse ; it is a legal and fair condition and may be the limit of an inheritance that the Heiress be bound to marry her Cosen German . And this in some measure was the case of Ruth whom Boaz Great Granfather to King David did marry by the right of a Kinsman . Now it is true ( saith he ) that I am thy neer Kinsman , howbeit there is a Kinsman neerer then I : which Kinsman because he refus'd to marry Ruth , Boaz took her to wife , and she became a mother in the line of the Messias ; for Christ came out of her loines according to the flesh . Into which line because this Argument hath led me , I offer it to consideration as the last and greatest example of the lawfulness and holiness of such marriages under the law of Moses , and as a warranty to all ages of the Christians ; The B. Virgin Mary the Mother of our most B. Saviour was married to her Cosen German ( as was supposed upon this reason : ) For her husband Joseph was the son of Heli ( saith S. Luke ) that is , the legal son of Heli , for Jacob begat him ( saith S. Mathew ) Now Heli and Jacob were Brethren the sons of Matthan who was Grandfather to Joseph and Mary ; for unless by the cognation of Joseph and Mary the same genealogy had serv'd for them both , the reckoning of the Genealogy of Joseph could not have proved Jesus to have descended from David . But if this instance should fail , and that their consanguinity ( for they were Cosens ) did stand at further distances ; yet there are examples and reasons and authentick presidents already reckon'd enow to warrant us in this inquiry . By all which it appears what was the state of these marriages under the law of Moses , and yet all the scruple at which weak persons start or stumble , is derived from that Sanction in Leviticus , which in despite of all reason and all precedents and all observations whatsoever , they will needs suppose to be a Natural and moral law , so making eleven Commandements : for certain it is that the ten Commandements was to the Jews the sum of their Moral law : in which , since some things that were ceremonial were inserted , it is not likely that any thing that was moral should be omitted . In the ten words of Moses there was nothing less then their whole Moral law , though something more there was : but this of forbidding Cosens to marry was no where put : If it had been put in Leviticus it was but National and temporary : for I have proved it was not against the law of Nature which permitted neerer relatives then Cosen Germans to marry : I have also proved that the Sanction of Moses did onely oblige Jews and Proselytes : That if they had oblig'd all , yet Cosen Germans are not there expressly forbidden , and if they be not there expressly forbidden they are not forbidden at all ; but in case that other degrees of equal distance and reason were there forbidden , though not expressed , yet this of Cosen Germans is not by any consequence or intimation of that forbidden , because no degree is there forbidden which can involve this , but it hath a special case of its own in which this is not at all concerned , and all this I strengthned with examples greater then all exception . It remains now that we descend to the Christian law , and enquire whether our great Master and Lawgiver Jesus Christ hath forbidden Cosen Germans to marry ? But this is soon at an end , for Christ spake nothing at all concerning marriage but one sentence which reduc'd it to the first state of Nature , save onely that he left us in all things bound by the laws of Nations and our just superiors , of which two last I shall give account in the following periods . But of that which Christ said the sum is this onely : For this cause shall a man leave Father and Mother and cleave to his wife , and they two shall be one flesh . By which words he did establish all that was Natural and Moral in this affair . [ A man shall leave Father and Mother ] by these words are forbidden the marriage of Parents and children . [ He shall cleave to his wife ] by this is forbidden concubitus masculorum . [ His wife ] by this is forbidden adultery or the lying with another mans wife , and extra-nuptial pollutions . [ Erunt duo ] They two , by that is forbidden Polygamy , [ In carnem unam ] shall be one flesh , by this is forbidden bestiality or the abuse of Caro aliena , the flesh of several Species ; which are all the unlawful and unnatural lusts forbidden by God in the law of Nature , and that which was afterwards given to all mankind , and inserted in the Levitical law as the consummation and main design of the other prohibitions which were but like hedges and outer guards to these . There is in the New Testament onely one law more which can relate to this question of marriages [ Provide things honest in the sight of all men ] and [ Follow after things which are of good report ] That is , Whatsoever is against publike honesty , the law of Nations , the common sense of Mankind , that is not to be done by Christians , though of the instance there be no special prohibition in the laws of Jesus Christ : and Modestinus the Lawyer said well , In nuptiis non solum quod liceat , sed etiam quid honestum sit , semper est respiciendum . Concerning which lest there be a mistake in it , I premise this caution in general , that we doe not take false or weak estimates of Publike fame and honesty . Nothing but the laws of God and Men or the universal sentence of that part of mankind with whom we any waies converse is the measure of publike honesty . Thus for a Bishop to ride on hunting in his Pontificals , or for a Priest to keep an alehouse is against publike honesty : of the same nature are , for a woman to paint her face , or to goe in mans apparel . But when a thing is disputed on both sides by good and learned Men , to doe either is not against publike honesty . That 's a certain rule ; for when a thing is called good and honest by wise and good Men , the question is divided , and therefore cannot be united against either of them . * Upon this account S. Paul reprov'd the incestuous Corinthian because he had done a fact which was not so much as nam'd , that is , approv'd amongst the Gentiles , that one should have his Fathers Wife . Caracalla indeed did it afterwards , and it was before his time done in the family of Seleucus ; but these were insolent examples , ever disallowed by the Romans and all the Nations within their circuit : and consequently the Greeks had long before S. Pauls time been more restrain'd in their too great licentiousness of marriages . And when the custome of this thing had procur'd a licence for it amongst the Scots , S. Margaret , wife to Malcome III. their King did reduce the contrary law of Nations , and forbad a son to marry his fathers wife , or a Brother to marry his Brothers widow . Beyond this the New Testament having nothing , if we reduce this to the present question we must consider whether the marriage of Cosen Germans be against publike honesty or good report , that is , whether it be condemn'd by the law of Nations and the prevailing sentences or practise of wise men . Concerning this , I find that Plutarch speaking of the ancient laws and usages of the Romans in marrying their Kinred , saies it was a practice before it was a law : and there happened to be a case of a good man who had a great advantage by marrying his Cosen German : upon occasion of which the people made a law that it should be permitted to any one to doe it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Now this was very ancient ; and before this law for it I find no law against it , onely if Claudius in Tacitus said true they were diu ignorata , no notice of them , or but seldom examples . Concerning which discourse though men are pleas'd to talk as serves their turnes , yet it is very certain that the elder the times were , the more liberty there was of marrying their Kinred . However there was an early law for it and none against it , that I find ; and when it began to be considered , tempore addito percrebuerunt said Tacitus , they in time grew frequent . In the Oration of Sp. Ligustinus in Livy there is this clause , Pater mihi Lxorem fratris sui filiam dedit : My Father gave to me wife his own Brothers daughter : and Quintilian mourning for the immature death of his Son , affirms that he was design'd to be son in law to his Uncle . So Cicero pro Cluentio saies that his Sister married Melinus her Cosen German : and Augustus Cesar gave his daughter Julia to Marcellus the son of his Sister Octavia . The brave Brutus who was the example of a rare moral man and a noble Patriot was married to Portia the daughter of his wise Uncle Cato ; and that incomparable Prince Marcus Antonius the Philosopher and Emperor was married to his neerest Cosen Annia Faustina ; she was his Cosen German . But thus it was at the beginning ; and thus it was at the ending of the Roman state and Empire . At the beginning ; the two daughters of Servius Tullius were married to their Cosen Germans Lucius and Aruns , the Nephews of Priscus Tarquinius , Livy indeed saies it was not certain whether these young Gentlemen were Uncles or Cosen Germans to their wives ; that is , whether they were sons or Nephews to Tarquinius Priscus , but Dionysius Halicarnasseus contends earnestly that they were Nephews . Toward the declination of the Roman period and state we find that Constantius the Emperor gave his Sister to her cosen Julianus . These and all the foregoing examples of the wisest , of the best , of the most holy Persons , Patriarchs , and Kings , Consuls and Philosophers , Law-givers and Saints ; the practice and customes of the greatest and most civil Nations are infinitely sufficient to dash in pieces this weak pretence ( if any should make use of it ) that the marriage of Cosen Germans is against publike honesty , and so consequently not of good report ; For that which God never forbad , but sometimes did actually command , which the Patriarchs did practise , which the church of the Jews never scrupled at , but alwaies were accustomed to it , which wise men and good men have done without reproof : which was admitted by the law of Nations ; and is no where contradicted in Scripture , which records many authentick precedents of such marriages , in all reason ought to be of good report . And certainly nothing hath done dishonour and so lessen'd the fame and good opinion of such marriages , as the very making a question concerning its lawfulness , and making a scruple even after the question is well determin'd . To be suspected , lessens the fame of any man or any thing . The doing justice to this article will doe it reputation enough . If we now shall inquire how the civil law of the Romans did determine of these marriages we shall be helped much in the cure of the former fear . For if the law of the Romans allowed it , that law which had so many brave and wise composers , and which so many Nations allowed of and practis'd , and still do in very many Kingdomes and Republikes , we have no reason to think it can be of ill report . But concerning this the matter is not very disputable , it is notorious that the Civil law did allow it . l. 1. § duorum inst . de nupt . l. 3. & l. non solum . § 1. D. de ritu nupt . l. C. de inst . & subst . * Paulus the Lawyer said ; Si Nepotem ex filio & neptem ex altero filio in potestate habeam nuptias inter eos me solo authore contrahi posse Pomponius scribit , & verum est : and Antontnus the Emperor said , Non videri potest sub specie turpium nuptiarum viduitatem tibi induxisse cum te filio sororis suae consobrino tuo , probabili consilio Matrimonio jungere vol●erit : I need in this say no more . It was alwaies permitted in the Greek and Roman Laws , till the time of Theodosius , who being over-ruled by S. Ambrose , forbad it by an express law ; tantum pudori tribuens continentiae ut consobrinorum nuptias vetuerit tanquam sororum , said Aurelius Victor ; he thought it more nice and modest if he should inlarge the Laws and restrain what was not restrain'd before : But this as it arose suddenly , so as suddenly was extinguish'd ; for it was abrogated by Arcadius and Honorius his sons , whose constitution to this purpose is in Justinian l. celebrandis C. de nuptiis , in which these words are remarkeable , [ Revocatâ prisci juris authoritate , restincísque calumniarum fomentis , matrimonium inter Consobrinos habeatur ] The law that forbad them was occasioned and fomented by calumnies ; which being dispersed , the authority of the Ancient law was recalled . This onely I am to admonish ; That in the Theodosian Code the law of these Emperors seems to say otherwise , as is to be seen under the titles of [ si nuptiae ex rescript . petant : & de incestis nuptiis . ] But the forgery is notorious enough . For when Alaric King of the Goths had commanded his Subject Arrianus the Lawyer to make a Breviary of the Code , he fitted those laws to the Customes of his own Countrey , and so abus'd the law of Arcadius and Honorius , as appears plainly by comparing those constitutions which pass'd under the fingers of Arrianus , with those which under the same Rubricks are in the Code of Justinian . For in this there is not one word spoken of the marriage of Cosen Germans under those Titles . And as he hath done in the Breviary of the Theodosian Code , so he hath done in the Epitome of Caius institutions ( he , or some such fellow as bad ) and made the civil law as he pleased expressly against the known Sanction of all the old law of the Braver Romans . * The same also was done by Theophilus who recited this law according to the manners of his own time , and recites the law of Justinian exactly contrary to Justinian's sence by clapping a perfect Negative to his direct affirmative . But Curtius the Latin interpreter of Theophilus hath set it right again according to the true intent of the Civil law . But it may be I doe not well to trouble the Question with these little things , when the great lines of duty are so plain and legible : and concerning this we have a full testimony from S. Austin ; who having observed that in his time Cosen Germans did not often marry : Experti sumus ( saies he ) in conjugiis consobrinorum etiam nostris temporibus … .. quàm rarò per mores fiebat , quod fieri per leges licebat , quia id nec Divina prohibuit , & nondum prohibuer at lex humana . That is , for Cos●n Germans to marry was neither prohibited by the laws of God nor man : and so we have a testimony beyond exception concerning the Civil law , and the law of God , and the law of the Church till his time . Now if it be objected that he saies it was done but seldome , it is no wonder . S. Ambrose and Theodosius a little before that time had caused some restraint and made the matter uneasy and besides this ; If any man could observe concerning any one sort of persons how seldom they marry , that is , how few examples any one man can observe of any degree though never so distant , this will appear but light , as the dew upon a flower , or the down of a thistle . It is lawful for a Father and his Son to marry a widow and her daughter ; and for two Brothers to marry two Sisters ; and no man questions any thing so it : but quàm rarò hoc per mores fiat ; how many examples can any one man reckon ? Can he tell so many in one age and of his own notice , as to make them up a multitude ? and yet this would be but a weak argument against it ; and not worth a further consideration . That which is to be inquired next into is the Canon law ; and that indeed does forbid it : but how , and to what purpose , and with what obligation will not be wholly useless to consider . 1. In the very first Canons of the Church ( excepting onely that one fram'd in the Councel of Jerusalem Acts 15. ) which are commonly called the Canons of the Apostles there is a caution against incestuous marriages , but the instances are onely , [ He that marries two Sisters , or his Brothers Widow , or Daughter . ] The penalty is , He may not be received into Holy Orders : but for the matter of Cosen Germans it was not forbidden : Until S. Austins time and thereabouts it was true that Nondum prohibuerat lex humana , Divina nunquam : Gods law had never , and till then mans law had not forbidden it , that is , it was then in all senses lawful : and in the Synod of Paris almost six hundred years after Christ , those are defined to be unlawful marriages quae contra praeceptum Domini contrahuntur , which are against the Divine law ; None else ; amongst which the present case is not to be suspected : and in the old Canons of the Church all the prohibited instances were compris'd in these verses , which was their Authentick Table : Nata , Soror , Neptis , Matertera , Fratris & Uxor , Et Patris Conjux , Mater , Privigna , Noverca , Uxorlsque Soror , Privigni Nata , Nurúsque , Atque Soror Patris , conjungi lege vetantur . But in some assemblies of the Bishops about this time , a little before or a little after , the manners of the Nations being spoil'd with warres , rudeness and Barbarisme , they contracted incestuous marriages : and it was therefore thought fit that as the marriage of Uncles and Nieces were forbidden as a hedge to keep them farther off from Father and Mother , Son or Daughter , so this of Cosen Germans was set as a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or an outward Court to keep them from marrying Brother and Sister . And therefore Harmenopulus saies they were forbidden by the laws of the Greeks . And it was amongst them no more then was highly needful for a reason which every one knows . But both there and in the Latin Church , when the prohibition of Cosens marriage is joind in the same decree with the marrying of Sisters , the cause is rendred too suspicious . * And yet there was an external cause that had influence upon these Sanctions of the Church . The Goths then prevaild by the sword , and the Church to comply with the Conquerour was forward to receive this law from them : for the Goths had it before the Romans , and it is very probable that those barbarous people were the great presidents and introducers of the prohibition . 2. These laws were made by time and accidents , and were extended or contracted as it pleased the Popes of Rome , who ( as one observes ▪ ) were for a long time iniquiores & invidi in maritos , apt and easie to make all restraints upon marriages . If it were seasonable and fit it were not useless to observe many instances out of the Canon law to this purpose . But I forbear , that which I now observe , is , that the prohibition amongst them began with Cosen Germans then it went to the third and fourth degrees ; then to seven , then to four again , sometime to six , as in the Synod at Cabaillon ; sometimes usque dum generatio agnoscitur , aut memoria retinetur , as long as any memory of kinred remains , and that will be very far in Wales where they reckon eight degrees and special names of Kinred after Cosen Germans , and then Kin for ever , and truly these Canonists proceed as reasonably as their Principles would admit . For if Cognation or Consagu●nity was the hindrance of marriage , where ever they could reckon that , they had some pretence to forbid marriage : but if they onely forbad it upon the accounts of Nature , or by the precedent of the Divine law given to Moses they were to stop there where Nature stop'd , or the Divine law . But that they would not , as knowing it to be an easie thing to make laws at the charge of other mens trouble . 3. The reasons why the Projectors of the Canon law did forbid to the fourth or to the seventh degree , were as fit a cover for this dish as could be imagined . They that were for four gave this grave reason for it . There are four humors in the body of a man to which because the four degrees of consanguinity doe answer , it is proportionable to Nature to forbid the marriage of Cosens to the fourth degree . Nay more ; there are four Elements ; Ergo , To which it may be added , that there are upon a mans hand four fingers and a thumb . The thumb is the stirps or common Parent ; and to the end of the four fingers , that is , the four generations of Kinred we ought not to marry , because the life of a man is but a span long . There are also four quarters of the world ; and indeed so there are of every thing in it , if we please , and therefore abstain at least till the fourth degree be past . Others who are graver and wiser ( particularly Bonaventure ) observe cunningly , that besides the four humours of the body , there are three faculties of the Soul , which being joined together make seven , and they point out to us that men are to abstain till the seventh generation . These reasons such as they are , they therefore were content withall , because they had no better : yet upon the strength of these they were bold even against the sense of almost all mankind to forbid these degrees to marry . 4. When the Canonists appointed what degrees of Kinred they would have restrain'd from mutual marriage , they took their precedent and measure from the Civil law , making this their standard , that so long as by the Civil law inheritances did descend , so long by the Canon law it should not be permitted to kinred to marry : and upon this account they forbad marriage to the seventh degree , because so farr the laws appointed inheritances to descend . Now that this is a weak and a false ground appears , because inheritances descend even to the tenth degree : and yet suppose it otherwise : yet the Popes and other compilers of the Canons overshoot their mark extremely : because while they forbidding marriages to the seventh degree pretended to follow some proportions and usages of the Civil law , do yet reckon the degrees otherwise then the Civil law does , and consequently doe forbid marriage to the fifteenth civil degree exclusively . For whereas by the Canon law so far as either of the persons is distant from the Common Parent , so far he is distant from the other in the equal line : so that by this computation Cosen Germans are distant in the second degree and no more . But by the Civil law there are accounted so many degrees as there are persons besides the Common Parent , so that in this computation Cosen Germans are distant in the fourth degree ; and consequently the seventh Canonical degree is the fourteenth civil degree , the unequalness and unreasonableness of which , all Lawyers will deride . The same is in proportion to be said of their later reduction of the Canonical prohibition to the fourth degree inclusively . 5. These laws gathered by the Roman Canonists are not now , nor ever were they , obligatory but by the consent of the People , and the allowance of Princes . For Bishops in their meer spiritual impresses have no proper legislative power , were Princes are Christian : and if the Prince please he may inlarge or restrain their power , so that he make no intrenchment on the Divine law , and doe what is useful and profitable , Fac legi tuae sepem , said the Jews : it makes the law firm if you put a hedge about it ; and where viler people who had no fear of God were apt to marry Sisters or Aunts , it was not ill to prohibit something that was lawful , lest they should run into what is unlawful . But this is matter of prudence onely and ought to be separated from the question of lawful or unlawful . But then when the Prince does not bind , the Subjects are free . Honesta & justa esse quae Regi placent , & regno utilia . Those things which please the King and are profitable to the Kingdome are honest and just . It was truly said but ill applyed by Antiochus Seleucus . 6. These laws are neither allowed by the Prince , nor by the Ecclesiastical state in England , and because they were useless and burdensome they were laid aside ; for they were but drains for money and levies of rents ; for even under the Pope the way was , and is now , open enough to Cosen Germans if they have gold enough to purchase the lead . And so it was when the Civil law was tun'd to the aire of the Canon law and both to the manners of the Goths . Cosens might marry with a dispensation from the Prince ; a form of which is to be seen in Cassiodore . But this is one of the many blessings of the Protestant religion that we are not tied to pay money for leave to doe a lawful action ; so that as the Jewes were wont to say , He that hath married a wife that is too neer of Kinred , let him turn Proselyte and then she is not of Kin to him , I may in some sense use in the contest between our laws and those of the Roman Churches : He that hath or desires to marry a wife of his kindred which is not to neer by Gods law but is by the Popes law , let him become a Protestant , and then though nothing can be allowed to him which God hath forbidden , yet that leave which God hath given him , Man shall not take away . 7. If it were at all considerable what is done by the Canon law , there is a new device brought in of spiritual kinred ; and marriages forbidden to be between such as answer at the Font for the same child ; that is , if we value the Roman Canons , all Mankind are in perpetual snare , and that to no purpose . 8. But as for the present inquiry it is considerable that the Canon law it self does not pretend it to be against the Divine law , but does it wholly upon other accounts , as I have already instanc'd ; and this appears in the epistle of Rabanus to Cardinal Humbert . Quod Pontifices usque ad sextum vel septimum gradum conjugium prohibent , magis ex consuetudine humana quam ex lege Divina cos praecepisse credendum . The Canons did not intend to signifie it to be against the law of God for Cosens to marry in the degrees forbidden by the Canon law . 9. And after all , the laws of England doe expressly allow it ; as is to be seen in the tables of marriage set up in Churches usually , and in the Statute of 32 of Henry 8. chapter 38. And it is observable that in England they were allowed to doe it ever since they were Christians , unless they were Papists . For till Pope Gregories time and Augustine the Monk ( though Christianity had been here almost 500 yeers before it was us'd by the Britains : and P. Gregory did not think it fit that Augustin should put a restraint upon them ( as is to be seen in the British Councels collected by that learned and good man Sr Henry Spelman ) but it was no little interest and power , which the Popes afterwards procured in the families of Princes and other great personages by giving leave to them to marry their neer relatives ; and their posterity for their own sakes would in all likelyhood preserve that power to which ( as things then went ) they did owe their legitimation . Although I have pass'd thorough all laws that can oblige us , in this present inquiry ; yet because the chief disquisition is concerning the Natural law , and whether or no any prohibition can from thence descend upon the marriage of Cosen Germans is the main question ; it will be proper here to adde one topick more , that is , the Prudence or reasonableness of the thing . Concerning which it is observable , that whoever shall goe about to assign the proper reasons why certain degrees are forbidden to marry by the law of God , will by experience find it to be too hard for his head : and Rabbi Menahen Racanatensis observed , Quod ad rationem attinet interdictorum incesti , Magistri traditionum de ea nihil certi acceperunt . The Masters of traditions have received no certain account of those reasons for which God forbad incestuous mixtures : Indeed if we could find out the prime and proper reason ; then by proportions to it we could better understand how far the prohibitions were to be extended . But this is to be despair'd of . But yet Men have ventur'd to give such reasons as they could , which how far they are applicable to the present question shall be considered . 1. That Kinred ought not to marry is therefore decreed , nè emulatio fiat in eadem domo , saies one . The same degree of Kinred will be apt to love the same man , and so emulation will arise . * Well suppose that : But if it does ; the marrying one of them will determine all the rest , and quiet the strife . But because this proves too much , it proves nothing at all . For upon the same account , a young man should not marry in a family where there are many daughters , nè aemulatio fiat in eadem domo to avoid emulation and competition . 2. Cosens would do better not to marry ( saies another ) nè habeat duas necessitudines una persona ; that one person may not be a double Relative : for so names will be confounded and the same person shall be Father and Cosen to his own child . * But what if he be ? and what if a King be both a Lord over and a Son under his own Mother ? what if a man be a Father and a Judge , a Brother in law and a Natural Brother , as when two Brothers marry two Sisters ? The more relations and necessitudes there are , it is so much the better , and a twofold Cord is not easily broken . 3. It were well that Cosens might not marry , that by their Kinred they might be defended from the injury of their Husbands , in case they should need it . * Well suppose this too : yet , 1 This does not at all concern the Man , for he will not need a defence by his Kinred against his wife . 2 For the woman , unless she marries all her kinred , the other may be a defence against the violence of one whom she does marry ; and will be more likely to prevail in the defence against a Kinsman , then against a stranger . 3 But if a woman be brought to that pass , her Cosen shall doe her little advantage against her Husband ; for such defences doe but exasperate and make eternal animosities : but the laws are the best defences . 4 If the Cosen will be a sure defence against the Husbands injury : then if the Cosen be married to her , he will be sure to do her no injury . For he that will doe evil himself , is but an ill security to be ingag'd against another , and he that will prevaricate in the duty of a Husband , will hardly secure the peace of the woman by the duty of a Kinsman . 4. S. Austins scruple is this . Inest nescio quomodo humanae verecundiae quidam naturale ac laudabile ut cui debet causa propinquitatis verecundum honorem ab ea contineat quamvis gener atricem tamen libidinem . There is in the Modesty of Mankind something that is Natural and laudable ; by which they abstain from congression with them to whom they own the honor of Reverence and modest bashfulness . This indeed is a good account where the modesty of Nature does really make restraints and owes duty and reverence : and therefore is one of the most proper and Natural reasons against the marriage of Parents and children , and is by the allowance of some proportions extended to Brother and Sister : but if it be sent out one step further , you can never stop it more , but it shall go as far as any man please to fancy : therefore let it stop where God and Nature hath fix'd its first bounds ; and let not the pretence of a Natural reason or instinct , carry us whether Nature never did intend ; for it is certain she gave larger commissions , however the fears , or the scruples , or the interest of some men have made them to speak otherwise : and I remember concerning Cicero who somtimes speaks against the marriage of Cosens , that it is but too reasonable to suppose he did it to remove suspicion from himself ; it having been objected against him by Q. Fusius Calenus in Dio that he was too kind and amorous to his own daughter . Filia matris pellex tibi jucundior atque obsequentior quàm parenti par est ; So unequal , so uncertain a way it is to trust the sayings of a man , when so frequently the mans opinion is not caused by his reason , but by a secret interest . 5. Pope Gregory in his Epistle to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury tries another way : Experimento didicimus ex tali conjugio sobolem non posse succrescere . If Cosen Germans marry they will have no children . But the good man did not remember that the whole Nation of the Jews came from the marriage of the two Cosen Germans of Jacob , Rachel and Leah ; and although by this discourse it seems it was an usuall practice to doe it ; for from the practice onely he could pretend to an observation of this event ; yet as to the event of the thing it self ; it is a very great experience which the world hath , by which his observation is confuted . 6. But the best reason given against the convenience of it ; for none pretends higher ; is , that it were better if Cosen Germans should not intermarry propter multiplicandas affinitates , as S. Austin expresses it , ut conjugiis augeant necessitudines , that so they might scatter friendships and relations in more families for the dissemination and extension of charity . For Cosens being already united and loving , it were well by marriage to endear others which are not so loving , not so united . Of this every one makes use that is pleas'd to disswade these marriages . But to this I answer , 1 That suppose this were well and without objection as to the material part , yet this does no waies prove it unlawful , and indeed is not by the contrivers of it intended it should : as appears in Philo and Plutarch from whom S. Chrysostom and S. Austin did borrow it . 2 There may be one inconvenience in it , and yet many conveniences and advantages which may outweigh that one ; and that there are so , will appear in the sequel . 3 This very reason when Philo the Jew had urg'd in general for the scattering friendships and not limiting alliances to one family , he addes , Quod respiciens Moyses alias etiam multas propinquorum nuptias vetuit : Meaning that this argument is sufficiently provided for by the restraints that Moses made , and if we marry out of those limits , the friendship is enough scattered . For beyond Brother and Sister , Uncles and Nieces , the relation is far enough off to be receptive of and to need the renovation or the arrests of friendship . 7. It were well if Cosen Germans did not marry lest by reason of their usual familiarity , converse and natural kindness , fornications should be secretly procured ; it being too ready for Natural love to degenerate into lust . I answer that therefore let them marry as the remedy . For it were a hard thing that Cosens who doe converse and are apt to love should by Men be fobidden to marry , when by God they are not . For this aptness to love being left upon them , together with their frequent conversation is a snare ; which because God knew he permitted them to their remedy ; and if men doe not they will find that their prohibition of marriage will not be a sufficient security against fornication . For Brothers and Sisters where the danger is still greater , God hath put a bar of a positive law , and Nature hath put the bar of a Natural reason and congruity and the laws of all Mankind have put a bar of publike honesty and penalties , and all these are sufficient to secure them against the temptation : and this was observed by a wise man long since in this very instance : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The Father is not in love with the Daughter ; nor a Brother with his S●ster : the reason is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , fear and the laws are restraint enough for this love : but because to Cosens this bar is not set , the greater propensity they have to love , the more need there is they should be permitted to marry . * And this very thing was observed by Rabanus in his Epistle to Humbert . Hujusmodi prohibitiones adulterii occasionem praebere ; such laws of Restraint are occasions of Adultery and therefore he infers from thence , Bonum esse ut praetermissis illis prohibitionibus legis Divinae servetur constitutio . It were good if standing in the measures of the Divine law , we should lay a snare for no mans foot by putting fetters upon his liberty , without just cause , but not without great danger . I know of no more reasons pretended against this affair ; I think these are all ; and I am sure they are the most considerable . But then on the other side , although it were hard to require any more reason for the marriage of Cosen Germans , then we doe for any other marriage , that is , that we love the person , that she be vertuous and fitted for our condition , yet I say ex abundanti , that there are conveniences and advantages which are not contemptible , not yet are so readily to be found in the marriage of other persons . 1. There is the advantage of a great and most perfect parity of condition that is regularly to be expected . There is no upbraiding of Kinred , greatness or weakness of fortune occasion'd by the difference of elder or younger Brother ; ( for this being in all families is not a reproach to any ) and here is the greatest probability of a similitude of passions , humors and affections , and they that have experience in oeconomical affairs know that these things are not contemptible . 2. It is observable that when God intended to bless a family and a Nation , there he permitted , and in some cases commanded the marriage of Cosen Germans , as in the families of Israel . And although it was lawful for one tribe to marry into another , as appears in David who married Saul's daughter of the tribe of Benjamin ; and the Benjamitish families were restored by the intermarriages of the other tribes after that sad war about the Levits concubine ; and Hillel the Pharisee was of the tribe of Benjamin by his Father , and of Judah by his Mother , yet this was done so seldome , that it was almost thought not lawful ; but the most general practice was to marry in their own neerer Kinred , in their own tribe . 3. In the case of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Heiresses it was commanded both in the Hebrew and in the Attick laws that Cosen Germans should marry , lest the inheritance should goe from the family ; of which I have already given an account ; but now I onely observe the reasonableness and advantage . S. Austin's [ largiùs sparge amicitias ] is nothing ; for when any considerable advantage is to be done , certainly our own are to to be preferred before strangers . And the same also is true in proportion , when any one of the family is passionately and to pious purposes in love with his Cosen . 4. In the case of an Aunts Daughter to be married to her Cosen by her Mothers Brother , there is this advantage to be gotten to the female side ; she preserves her Fathers name in her own issue , which she had lost in her own person and marriage . 5. In the accidents of houshold conversation , and in the satieties of a Husbands love , the stock of Kinred comes in by way of auxiliary forces to establish a declining or tempted love : and they understood this well , who made it an objection against the marriage of Kinred , lest the love being upon two accounts should be too violent , as Aristotle in the second book of his Politicks , seems to intimate . But I suppose that they who are concerned in such marriages , will not fear the objection ; but they have reason to value the advantage . — dum pietas geminato crescit amore while the marital love is supported with the cognation . 6. S. Augustins argument is to me highly considerable . Fuit antiquis patribus religiosae curae , ne ipsa propinquitas se paulatim propaginum ordinibus dirimens longius abiret , & propinquitas esse desisteret , eam nondum longè positum rursus matrimonii vinculo colligare , & quodammodo revocare fugientem . The dearness of Kinred will quickly wear out , and Cosens will too soon grow strangers , therefore the Patriarchs had a religious care to recall the propinquity which was dividing and separating too fast ; and as it were , to bind it by the ties of marriage , and recall it when it was flying away . And indeed there is no greater stability to a family , no greater band to conjugal affections then the marriage of Cosens . I should now speak no more to this question , but that I have often met with a trifling objection concerning which I could never find any reasonable pretence , or ground of probability to warrant it . Second Cosens may not marry , but are expressly forbidden , therefore much rather first Cosens though they be not nam'd . To this I answer that I never knew the marriage of second Cosens forbidden , but by them who at the same time forbad the marriage of the first : and indeed I have searched and cannot fixe my eye upon any thing that I can imagine to be the ground of the fancy : therefore I can say no more to it ; but that the law of God does not forbid either , nor the laws of our Church or State , nor the laws of Nature or Nations , or right reason , but these marriages have advantages in all these . And we find that Isaac married his second Cosen , and that was more for it then ever could be said against it . Abraham was careful and Rebeccah was careful that their children respectively should marry within their own Kinred : for it so was design'd because those families were to be greatly and specially blessed ; and they called one another into the participation of it . I conclude this question with as much warranty to the marriage of Cosen Germans as can derive from the Premises ; they may without scruple own it , and say Viderit amplexûs aliquis laudabimur ambo . I know no other pretences of any instance obliging Christians , derived onely from the Judicial law . These two doe not oblige ; and therefore the Rule is true in its direct affirmation . RULE 4. The ten Commandements of Moses , commonly called the Moral law , is not a perfect digest of the law of Nature . THE Jews in their Cabala say that the law of God was made before the creation of the World two thousand yeers and written in black burnt letters on the back side of a bright shining fire ; according to that of David , Thy word is a lanthern unto my feet , and a light unto my paths . Their meaning is , ( for under Phantastick expressions they sometimes intended to represent a material truth ) that the Decalogue or their Systeme of Moral precepts was nothing but an express or the Tables of the law of Nature ; long before Moses time given and practis'd by their Fathers . But this was not a perfect Systeme ; it was the best that ever was since Adam brake the Tables of the Natural law and let sin and weak principles into the world ; and it was sufficient in the present constitution of the world ; but even this also was but like a Paedagogue to bring us to Christ. In the Scholes of Moses they practised the first rudiments of perfection ; but Christ was the last and therefore the most perfect Lawgiver ; and they that did commence under Moses the servant of God , were to proceed under Jesus Christ the son of God : and therefore the Apostle calls Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : and if we will acknowledge Christ to be our lawgiver , and the Gospel to be his law , called in the New Testament , The law of liberty , a Royal law ; then we must expect that our duty shall be further extended then to a conformity in our lives to the ten words of Moses . I doe not here intend a dispute whether Christ hath given us laws of which neither before Moses nor since there are no footsteps in the Old Testament ; for I think there are none such , but in the letter or in the analogy they were taught and recommended before : but this I say ; that some excellencies and perfections of morality were by Christ superadded in the very instances of the Decalogue ; these also were bound upon us with greater severity , are indeared to us by special promises , and we by proper aides are inabled to their performance ; and the old commandements are explicated by new commentaries , and are made to be laws in new instances to which by Moses they were not obliged ; and some of those excellent sayings which are respersed in the old Testament , and which are the dawnings of the Evangelical light , are now part of that body of light which derives from the Son of righteousness : insomuch that a commandement which was given of old , was given again in new manner , and to new purposes , and in more eminent degrees ; and therefore is also called a new commandement . Thus the conversation Evangelical is called an old Commandement and a new one . So that in the whole this will amount to the same thing as if they were new Commandements . I will not therefore trouble this article with those artificial Nothings ; or endeavour to force any man to say Christ hath given us new Commandements ; but this I suppose to be very evident ; That we are by Jesus Christ oblig'd to doe many things to which the law of Moses did not oblige the sons of Israel : but whether this was by a new Imposition , or a new explication of the old , it matters not , save that some men will be humor'd in their own manner of speaking . I give an instance ; The Christians are obliged to love their Brethren , and their Neighbours : The Jews were so too : but Christ commanded us to love those whom the Jews did not call Brethren or Neighbours ; even all that have the same Nature , even all that are in calamity . For to the question ask'd by the Pharisees , and who is our Neighbour ? Christ answer'd by the Parable of him that fell among the Thieves : He that is in need is our neighbour . The Jews understood this to mean nothing but one of the same Nation or Religion , the rest they hated . Here then is a new duty ; to which the Jews in the same latitude and in the same expressions were not bound by the Decalogue ; and this is as much as a new Commandement : for it is new to me if it imposes a new duty . So if God forbids incest : and by it onely means the conjunction of Parents and children , if afterwards he commands us to abstain from Brother and Sister , Uncles and Aunts ; this is a new law under the old words . The Jews might hate their enemies ; but Christians have none , that is , they have none whom they are to repute such by a legal account . The seven Nations in Palestine were legally and properly to be accounted Enemies ; but to Christians all are to be esteemed as Brethren in some account or other ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , To a good man no man is enemy : So that by alteration of the subject matter , the old law is become new , that is , we have a new law . Lex vetus amorem docet in proximos , nova in extraneos . The old law teaches love to Neighbours , the new to strangers , that is , to such whom the Jews called so ; but yet the Christians are to treat as Neighbours . For that is a duty to us which was not so to them ; and we may perish for omitting that , to which they were not obliged so much as under the pain of a legal impurity . But not onely in the object of our duty ; but in the expression and signification of action Christ is a New lawgiver . They and we are bound to love our Brethren ; but the precept of love did not bind them to what we are bound : We must die for our Brethren ; and of this we have an express commandement , which it is certain they had not ; and no sign of it in their Moral law . And it is not the same words , but the same intension of duty that makes the same law . The Jews were bound to love their wives ; but an easiness of divorce did consist with that duty exacted by that law , but it will not doe so in ours . Now as in moral actions a degree alters the kind ; so it is in laws ; for every new degree of duty that is requir'd supposes a new authority or a new Sanction to inferre it ; for the same law does not in one age directly permit an action , and in another forbid it ; it does not reward that person which in another it will condemne . But I adde other instances . If Repentance be a precept , and not onely a privilege ; it is certain that in the Gospel there is a precept which was not permitted , much less injoin'd ; for this obedience supposes Christ to be our Redeemer in Nature before he is our lawgiver , and therefore that it could be no part of their Moral law . But Repentance is not properly and primarily a law of Nature ; for though it was the first action of religion that we find was done in the world , yet it is such a one as supposes Nature lapsed ; and therefore at the most can be but adopted into the law of Nature : but yet because it is as much a part of the law of Nature , as Restitution is a part of Natural Justice , this instance is not altogether an improper illustration of this Rule . But there are also many things for which provisions are made in the law of Nature ; for which there is no caution in the Decalogue . I instance in the matter of incest ; and if any man will reduce it to the fifth Commandement , it is certain he must then suppose , onely the mixture of parents and children to be , and that of Brother and Sister not to be incestuous ; for these cannot come under the Title of Father and Mother ; and if it be refer'd to the seventh Commandement it will be as improper as to suppose jeering to be forbidden in the sixth . I could adde that there being but two affirmative precepts in the Decalogue , there is no caution against sins of omission in any other instances . I will not instance in those precepts which relate to our B. Lord himself , and are superinduc'd by Christianity upon the law of Nature ; such as are [ faith in Jesus Christ , hope of eternal life , fraternal correption , avoiding scandal , custody of the tongue in many instances , the Sacraments , to stand fast in Christian liberty , searching the Scriptures , humility , mortification , bearing the infirmities of the weak ] and many more ; all which proclaime Christ to be our lawgiver ; but doe not properly denore the imperfection of the Decalogue as it is a Systeme of the laws of Nature . But I adde from the very stock of Nature many others . For though by the Decalogue we are forbidden to doe evil , yet we are not commanded to doe good : and that is a material consideration ; and cannot by way of reduction be brought hither : because they are wholly different things , and are the effects of several reasons , and to be incouraged by distinct promises or immunities respectively , and are not consequent to each other . For the sons of Israel and all the world are bound to doe evil to no man , but are not bound to doe good to every man : The first is possible , the second is not : and the Jews never understood that they were bound to give almes by the sixth Commandement : and in Nature the obligation to doe good is upon a positive account ; as the obligation it self is . Of the same Nature is Gratitude , readiness to help a man in need , to keep a secret intrusted to us , to performe promises : all which are of greater concernment to mankind then to be intrusted onely to analogies , uncertain inferences and secret corollaries , and yet for these there is no provision made in the ten commandements . Neither can this measure of the Decalogue be reprov'd by saying that all these laws of Nature , and all the laws of Christ may be reduc'd to the Decalogue . I know it is said so very commonly , and the Casuists doe commonly use that Method , that the explication of the Decalogue be the Summe of all their Moral Theology ; but how insufficiently , the foregoing instances doe sufficiently demonstrate : and therefore how inartificially will also appear in the violence and convulsions that must needs be used to draw all these dissonancies into one center . I remember that Tertullian ( I suppose to try his wit ) finds all the Decalogue in the Commandement which God gave to Adam to abstain from the forbidden fruit . In hac enim lege Adae data omnia praecepta condita recognoscimus , quae postea pullulaverunt data per Mosen . And just so may all the laws of Nature and of Christ be found in the Decalogue , as the Decalogue can be found in the precept given to Adam : but then also they might be found in the first Commandement of the Decalogue , and then what need had there been of ten ? It is therefore more then probable that this was intended as a digest of all those moral laws in which God would expect and exact their obedience ; leaving the perfection and consummation of all unto the time of the Gospel : God intending by several portions of the Eternal or Natural law to bring the world to that perfection from whence Mankind by sin did fall ; and by Christ to inlarge this Natural law to a similitude and conformity to God himself as far as our infirmities can bear . It was very well said of Tertullian , Intelligimus Dei legem etiam ante Moysen ; nec in Oreb tantum , aut in Sina & in Eremo primum , sed antiquiorem , primum in Paradyso , post Patriarchis , atque ita ex Judaeis certis temporibus reformatam : ut non jam ad Moysi legem ita attendamus , quasi ad principalem legem , sed ad subsequentem quam certo tempore Deus & gentibus exhibuit , & repromissa per Prophetas in melius reformavit . The law of God was before Moses , neither given in Horeb nor in Sinai , in the wilderness [ nor in the land ] but first given in Paradise ; afterwards to the Patriarchs , and then being reformed it was given to the Jews : so that we are not to look after Moses law as the principal , but to the law that comes after the law of Moses , which being promised by the Prophets God in the fulness of time gave unto the Gentiles in the times of reformation . The effects of this Rule in order to Conscience are these : 1. That we acknowledge Christ to be our Lord and Master , our lawgiver and our Teacher . 2. That we understand the ten Commandements according to his Commentary . 3. That the Customes , explications , glosses , and usages of the Jews may not be the limit of our practice . 4. That we expect not justification by our conformity to the Decalogue . 5. That we endeavour to goe on to perfection ; not according to the pattern which Moses , but which Christ shewed in the Mount. 6. That we doe not reckon any Systeme of the Natural law , but the books of the New Testament . 7. That we doe not esteem it sufficient for us to live according to Nature ( as the expression is commonly used ) but that we live according to Grace , that is , the measures of reformed Nature . For in this sense these words of Justin Martyr are true and useful , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , To live according to Nature is the ornament or praise of one that is yet an Unbeliever : meaning that the Disciples of Jesus must doe more . For according as the world growes in age , so also it is instructed in wise notices ; and it must pass on to glory by all the measures and progressions of grace ; and all that law by which we live in all the periods of the world is nothing else but the several degrees and promotions of the law of Nature . For children are governed by one measure and young men by another , and old men still by a more perfect ; and yet the whole is nothing else but right reason drawn into laws , and that which fits our Nature bound upon us by the decree of God : some laws fit our Natures as they are common to us and beasts : some fit us as we are next to Angels ; and some fit us as we are design'd to immortality , and the fruition of God : and the laws of Nature do grow as our Natures doe . And as we see is in matters of speculation , those principles enter into us , or are drawn from their hidden places , in our age of which we had no sign in our youth ; and when we are children we admire at those things and call those discourses deep and excellent which when we are grown up we are asham'd of as being ignorant and pitiful . So it is in our manners , and so it is in our practical notices ; they all grow till they arrive at their state and period : but because the Eternal laws of God , that is , those laws which are not fi●ted to times and persons and relations , but to the Nature of man , that is , to all Mankind , intend to bring us to God and to all that perfection of which we are capable ; therefore it is that they also must increase according to the growth of Nature : when therefore the Nature of man was rude and in its infancy , God drew out of the Eternal fountain but a few of these Natural laws : but he still superadded more as the world did need them , and at the last by his Son , who by his incarnation hath adorn'd our Nature with a robe of glory , hath drawn out all those by which we are to converse with God and men in the best and greatest Entercourses : that he might enable our Nature to dispositions proper and immediate to a state of glory . Not but that they all were potentially in the bowels of the great Commandements ; but that God did not by any Prophets or Law-givers draw them all forth , till the great day of reformation , at the Revelation of the Son of God. But in this the sentence of Irenaeus is wise and full . Consummata vitae praecepta in utroque Testamento cùm sint eadem , eundem ostenderunt Deum qui particularia quidem praecepta apta utrisque praeceptis , sed eminentiora & summa , sine quibus salvari non potest , in utroque eadem suasit . The precepts of perfect life are the same in both Testaments , and doe demonstrate the same God of both ; who indeed hath given severally several instances of Commandements ; but the more eminent and the chief , without which salvation is not to be had , are the same in Both. Meaning , that there are the same general lines of Religion , and of Justice in the old and in the new ; but the special and particular precepts are severally instanc'd by Christ and Moses . RULE 5. All the explications of the Moral law which are found in the Prophets and other holy writers of the Old Testament , are to be accounted as parts of the Moral law , and equally obliging the Conscience . HE that will explicate the Mosaick law according to the perfections of the Gospel , does expound the words of a child by the Senses and deepest policies of a witty man. I have seen some parts of Virgil chang'd into impure Fescennines ; and I have also seen them chang'd into the sense and stile of the Gospel ; but Virgil intended neither , though his words were capable of both ; and yet the way to understand Virgil is by the Commentaries of men of his own time , or Nation , or learned in the language and customes of the Romans . So it is in the Decalogue of Moses . If Christians understand it by all the severities and inlarged notices of the Gospel , they accuse their own Commentary as too large , or the practice of the Jews who never obeyed them at that rate ; and therefore all those wilde reductions of all good and bad to that measure is of no good use , but it is full of error , and may have some ill effects ; of which I have already given caution : but then because they may be explicated and can admit a commentary , as all laws doe beyond their letter ; there is nothing more reasonable , then that the commentaries or additional explications of their own Prophets and Holy men , and the usages of their Nation be taken into the sacredness of the text and the limits of the Commandement . Thus when God had said , Thou shalt doe no murder ; when Moses in another place addes these words , Thou shalt not hate thy Brother in thy heart ; nor be mindful of an injury : this is to be supposed to be intended by God in the Commandement ; and to be a just commentary to the text , and therefore part of the Moral law . When they were commanded to worship the God of Israel and no other : this was to be understood according to Davids commentary ; and when he had composed forms of prayer to God , to pray to him was to be suppos'd to be a duty of the Commandement . God commanded that they should honour Father and Mother , which appellative when Moses and the Holy Writers of the Old Testament had given to Princes and Magistrates , and had in another place expressly commanded obedience to them , it is tohe supposed that this is an explication of the fifth Commandement . This also is to be extended further , and by the sayings of the Prophets they could understand what things were permitted by Moses , which yet God loved not : and that the Commandement had a further purpose then their usages would endure : and though ( as our Blessed Lord afterward express'd ) Moses permitted divorces for the hardness of their heart ; yet that from the beginning it was not so , and that greater piety was intended in the Commandement they were sufficiently taught by the Gloss which God himself inserted and published by the Prophet Hosea , I hate putting away . In this and all other cases the Natural reasonableness of things , Natural justice , and Essential piety , and the first institution of them were the best indications of these effects which such sayings of the Prophets and other Holy Men ought to have in the enlargement of the Moral law , or restraint of privileges and liberties . The use of this Rule in order to the Government of Conscience is to describe of what usefulness in our religion , and what influence in our lives is the Old Testament ; all the Moral precepts which are particulars of the Natural law or universal Reason are either explications of the Decalogue or precepts Evangelical , by which the old Prophets did prepare the way of our Lord , and make his paths strait . It is the same religion theirs and ours as to the Moral part : intending glory to the same God by the same principles of prime reason , differing onely in the clarity and obscurity of the promises or Motives of Obed●ence , and in the particular instances of the general laws , and in the degrees of duties spiritual : but in both , God intended to bring Mankind to Eternal glories by religion or the Spiritual worshippings of one God , by justice and sobriety , that is , by such waies as Naturally we need for our Natural and perfective being even in this World. Now in these things the Prophets are preachers of righteousness , and we may refresh our souls at those rivulets springing from the wells of life , but we must fill and bath our selves in fontibus salvatoris in the fountains of our Blessed Saviour : for he hath anointed our heads , prepar'd a table for us , and made our cup to overflow and of his fulness we have all received , Grace for Grace . But this is at no hand to be extended to those prohibitions or reprehensions of their prevarications of any of the signal precepts of religion , by which as themselves were distinguish'd from other Nations , so God would be glorified in them . For sometimes the Prophets represented the anger of God in a ceremonial instance : when either they sin'd with a high hand in that instance , that is , with despite and contempt of the Divine Commandement , or when the Ceremony had a mixture of morality , or when it was one of the distinctions of the Nation , and consignation of them to be the people of God. But this will be reduc'd to practice by the next Rule . RULE 6. Every thing in the Decalogue is not obligatory to Christians , is not a portion of the Moral or Natural law . WHen Moses deliver'd the ten Commandements to the people , he did not tell them in order which was second , which was fifth : and upon this account they have been severally divided as men did please to fancy . I shall not clog these annotations with enumerating the several waies of dividing them ; but that which relates to the present inquiry is whether or no the prohibition of graven images be a portion of the first Commandement ; so as that nothing is intended but that it be a part or explication of that : and that it contain in it onely the duty of confessing one God , and entertaining no other Deity viz. so that images become not an idol , or the final object of our worship as a God ; and therefore that images are onely forbidden as Dii alieni , not as the representations of this one God , and they are capable of any worship but that which is proper to God : or else it is a distinct Commandement ; and forbids the having , or making , and worshipping any images with any kind of religious worship . These are the several effects which are design'd by the differing divisions of the first Table ; I will not now examine whether they certainly follow from their premises and presuppositions ; but consider what is right , and what follows from thence in order to the integrating The Rule of Conscience . That those two first Commandements are but one was the doctrine of Philo the Jew ( at lest it is said so ) who making the Preface to be a distinct Commandement ; reckons this to be the second ; Deos sculptiles non facies tibi , nec facies omne abhominamentum Solis & Lunae , nec omnium quae sunt supra terram , nec eorum quae repunt in aquis , Ego sum Deus Dominus tuus Zelotes , &c. And the same was followed by Athanasius , This book hath these ten Commandements in Tables ; The first is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am the Lord thy God : The second , thou shalt not make an idol to thy self , nor the likeness of any thing : and this division was usual in S. Cyrils time who brings in Julian thus accounting them . I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt : The second after this : Non erunt tibi Dii alieni praeter me , non facies tibi simulacrum , &c. and the same way is followed by S. Jerome and Hesychius : These make the introduction to be one of the Commandements ; and those which we call the first and the second to be the second onely . Of the same opinion as to the uniting of these two is Clemens Alexandrinus ; and S. Austin , Et revera quod dictum est , Non erunt tibi Dii alieni , hoc ipsum perfectiùs explicatur , cùm prohibentur colenda figmenta . The prohibition of images is a more perfect explication of those words , Thou shalt have no other Gods but me . To the same sense Ven. Bede a , S. Bernard , b , the [ Ordinary Gloss , Lyra , Hugo Cardinalis ] Lombard , the Church of Rome , and almost all the Lutheran Churches do divide the Decalogue . On the other side these are made to be two distinct Commandements by the Chaldee Paraphrast ( in c. 20. Exod. ) and by Josephus ; Primum praeceptum Deum esse unum , & hunc solum colendum . Secundum , nullius animalis simulachrum adorandum . And these are followed by Origen , Gregory Nazianzen [ S. Ambrose , and S. Hierom * ] even against his opinion express'd in another place , S. Chrysostom , S. Austin , or whosoever is the Author of the Questions of the old and New Testaments , Sulpitius Severus , Zonaras ; and admitted as probable by Ven. Bede : but followed earnestly by all the Churches that follow Calvin ; and by the other Protestants not Lutherans . In this great contrariety of opinion that which I choose to follow is the way of the Church of England , which as it hath the greater and more certain authority from Antiquity , so it hath much the greater reasonableness . For when God had commanded the worship of himself alone excluding all false Gods : In the next words he was pleas'd also to forbid them to worship him in that manner by which all the Gods of the Nations were worshipped , which was , by images : insomuch that their images were called Gods , not that they thought them so ; but that the worshipping of false Gods , and worshipping by images were by the idolaters ever join'd . Now this being a different thing from the other : one regarding the object , the other the manner of worship it is highly reasonable to beleeve that they make two Commandements . 2. God would not be worshipped by an image , because none could be made o● him ; and therefore it is remarkable that God did duplicate his caution against images of him , by adding this reason to his precept , Remember that ye saw no shape , but onely heard a voice : which as it was a direct design of God that they might not make an image of him , and so worship him as the idolaters did their false Gods , so it did indirectly at least intimate to them , that God would be worshipped in spirit and truth , that is , not with a lying image : as every image of ●im ●●ust needs be : for it can have no truth when a finite body represents an infinite Spirit . And this is most likely to be thus : because this being a certain digest of the law of Nature , in it the Natural Religion and worship of God was to be commanded , and therefore that it should be spiritual and true , that is , not with false imaginations and corporal representment , was to be the matter of a Commandement . 3. Since the first Table did so descend to particulars as by a distinct precept to appoint the day of his worship : it is not unlikely that the essential and Natural manner of doing it should also be distinctly provided for , since the circumstantial was : but that could not be at all , if it was a portion of the first Commandement : for then the sense of it must be according to the first intention , that images should not become our Gods. 4. The Heathens did not suppose their images to be their Gods , but representments of their Gods , and therefore it is not so likely that God should by way of caution so explicate the first Commandement ; when there was no danger of doing any such thing ; unless they should be stark mad , or fools and without understanding . 5. When God forbad them to make and worship the likeness of any thing in heaven and earth ; he sufficiently declar'd that his meaning was to forbid that manner of worshipping not that Object ; for by saying it was the likeness of something it declar'd that this likeness could not be the Object of their worshipping ; for because it is the image of a thing , therefore it is not the thing they worship'd ; and it cannot be suppos'd of a man that he can make the image of the Sun to be his God , when he makes that image of the Sun , because he thinks the Sun is the most excellent thing . When therefore in the first Commandement he had forbidden them to acknowledge the Sun , or any thing else but himself to be God ; In the next he forbids the worshipping himself or any thing else by an image . But of this I shall speak more afterwards ; because it relates to the moral duty . But I observe that all those Modernes who confound these two Commandements have not that pretence which the Ancients had ; and have quitted all that by which such confusion could have been in any sence tolerable . For Philo and those Ancients who followed him ; reckon the first Commandement to be ; [ I am the Lord thy God , &c. ] by which God would be acknowledged to be the Lord : and the second did forbid any other besides him . So that there might be some appearance of reason to make the first Commandement affirmative , and the second Negative ; The first to declare who is God ; The second to forbid Polytheisme , The first to declare his Entity ; the second to publish his Unity : The first to ingage their duty to him who had so lately endear'd them by freedom from captivity : The second to forbid the adopting the Gods of the Nations with whom they were not to converse . I confess that these reasons are not sufficient ; for they multiply where there is no need ; and make a division without difference ; and leave all those periods which are about images to be of no use , no signification ; and concerning their own practice and religion in the matter of images , though it is certain they wholly deriv'd it from the Commandement , yet they take no notice of any warrant at all deriv'd from thence ; but supposing that they did make the division for these reasons , and that these reasons were good , yet all the Modernes quit all this pretension ; and allow but three Commandements to the first Table , and divide the second into seven ; to effect which they make two Commandements against Concupiscence : concerning which I will not say they might have reckon'd more according to the multiplication of the objects ; four as well as two : but this I say , as it is wholly without necessity , and very destitute of any probability ; so it is done against the very order of words . For although Moses in Deuteronomy reckons the Concupiscence of the wife first , yet in Exodus , which is the copy of the Decalogue as it was given , Moses reckons the Concupiscence of the house first : So that the ninth Commandement lies in the body of the tenth ; and the tenth lies part of it before the ninth , and part of it after : which is a prejudice against it greater then can be outweigh'd by any or all the pretences which are or can be made for it : especially since by the opinions of the Roman Doctors , these two cannot as they lie here make two objects : for to covet another mans wife , is the same as to covet another mans servant , that is , as a possession ; for multitude of wives was great riches , and the peculiar of Princes , as appears in Nathans upbraiding David , and the case of Solomon : but to covet the wife propter libidinem is forbidden by the seventh Commandement , as the Roman Doctors teach , and under that they handle it . Therefore the wife , and the servant and the beast of another man being here forbidden to be desir'd as matter of Covetousness make but one object , and consequently but one Commandement : and if because a difference can be fancied , the wife and the house make two objects : then the servant makes a third : for a house differs from a wife no more then a servant from a house , the use of these is as different as of those and can make as distinct objects of appetite and desire ; and therefore either they all must make but one Commandement , or they must make more then two . But the Church of Rome and the Lutherans have several interests , for other reasons they have none in so doing . The Church of Rome confounds the two Commandements , lest the worshipping of images should appear to be forbidden . For if it be a distinct Commandement which forbids the worship of images ; then because all false objects of worship are sufficiently forbidden in the first ; it will not be a competent answer to say , we doe not worship images as Gods , we doe not make idols of them ; for to worship any thing as God is not forbidden in the second Commandement , but in the first : but therefore lest the second Commandement should signifie nothing , it follows , that the taking of images into religion , or the worshipping God whether true or false by an image is there forbidden . But if these two Commandements were one , then they suppose , that this of forbidding images being a pursuance of the prohibition of having any other Gods , expounds it self onely to mean , the making images to be God , which because they doe not ; they hope to stand upright in the Scrutiny concerning this Commandement . But to this I return this account : That although it be certain that if these Commandements be divided , it will follow that this manner of Religion by image-worship , is particularly forbidden as a false manner of worshipping and consequently is upon no pretence to be introduc'd into religion ; yet if we should suppose them to be but one Commandement , it will not follow that images are not forbidden to be us'd in religious worshippings . For if God forbad them to make Deos sculptiles , Engraven Gods , that is , to worship such Gods as may be depicted or engraven , such as the Sun and Moon , Apis and Jupiter ; the oxe of Egypt or the fire of Persia ; then by the same reason we conclude that Deus sculptilis is no God , and therefore to make the God of Israel to be a God depicted or engraven does dishonour and depress him to the manner of an idol . For therefore in the Decalogue recited by Philo and in the sense of all the Ancients ; the reason against making an engraven God is , Ego sum Deus tuus Zelotes , I am thy God , I am thy Jealous God ; that is , I who cannot be represented by such vanities , I am thy God , but they are not , who can . * Adde to this ; that since the Doctors of the Roman Church make the Decalogue to be the fountain of all Moral Theology and by that method describe all cases of Conscience ; it is necessary that they take into the body and obligation of every Commandement not onely what is express'd in the letter and first signification , but the Species , the relations , the similitudes , the occasions , any thing that is like the prohibition , and concerning which we cannot tell whether it be or no ; and upon this account if they can retain images or think to honour God by the use and worshipping of them ; they may be confident of any thing , and may as well use some pollutions of the flesh , as such pollutions of idols . But there is also more in it then thus . For although it is usually supposed by learned persons , that Philo the Jew , Athanasius , S. Hierom , and S. Austin are of opinion that the two Commandements are not to be divided , but are all one : yet if we look into their sayings we shall find them to have other effects then they suppose . For they making the Preface to be the first Commandement , [ I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt ] doe suppose that the object of Religion and Divine worship is sufficiently declar'd in that they think the same of that as all other men doe of the following words : [ Thou shalt have no otber Gods but me ] viz. That God proposing himself as their God , whom onely they were to worship , did by that sufficiently exclude the worship of all false Gods , or giving Divine worship to any thing besides himself : So that when the object is sufficiently provided for as it is in the first Commandement however it be computed , the former arguments will return upon them , and it will be most probable that the next provision be made for the manner of the Divine worship ; and then the use of images in religion and the Religious worship of them will be by a necessary and immediate consequent forbidden : for the forbidding Deos sculptiles : forbids not onely other Gods ; but forbids them with that reason and demonstration . They that can be ingraven or painted are no Gods , and therefore images and false Gods are equally forbidden , where ever an image is join'd to a God , there is a false God , or no true God : for an image and the true God are inconsistent . So that where ever there are two Commandements before that of taking Gods Name in vain , as it is amongst all the Ancients ( Clemens Alexandrinus onely excepted ) there it is most likely that the first provides for the object of Divine worship affirmatively , and the second for the manner negatively : and the effect of this will be , that they are in their Division of the Decalogue almost wholly destitute of authority or warrant from the Ancients , for they all make four Commandements in the first Table , at least ; The Jews usually indeed did reckon five : taking in that of honouring our Parents , but they alwayes made that of the Sabbath to be the fourth ; by all which it must needs be , that they must lie under the same objection which they would fain avoid : and though they confound those two which we usually now reckon the two first ; yet because the Jews and ancient Christians who reckon'd otherwise did account one Commandement to the same purpose as we reckon the first ; that which follows can never be prov'd to mean any thing but a prohibition of that manner of Divine worship by images ; for it implies that to worship God by an image , is to worship an idol : an image of God when it is worshipped is an idol , for neither can the true God have an image , neither will he be worshipped by an image . Now though this will not at all concerne the images of Saints , but onely the worship of God by an image , yet even this also when they think this image worship shall be a worshipping and honouring of God indirectly , and an act pleasing to him , will come under this Commandement , as certainly and more apparently then fornication or intemperance shall come under the sixth or seventh ; whither their Doctors usually reduce them . This thing more I am willing to adde concerning the division of the Decalogue : That when the Ancients did reckon the preface or introduction to be the first Commandement ; it is not certain that they put the words of [ Thou shalt have no other Gods but me ] to the Second : For as for Philo , he does not recite them at all , but reckons the second otherwise then it is in Moses books , and it is not certain how he thought in this question to him that well considers his copy of the Decalogue . For he thus begins [ I am the Lord thy God who brought thee out of the land of Egypt . Thou shalt not make any graven Gods to thy self : nor any abhomination of Sun and Moon : nor of any thing that is on the earth , or that creeps in the waters : I am thy Lord , the jealous God , &c. ] Now in this which is first and which is second is plain enough though Philo does not number them : but whether the words of that which we call the first Commandement , by him are understood in the first or in the second does not hence appear . But then for S. Athanasius whom the adversaries reckon theirs , the case is yet clearer against them : for [ I am the Lord thy God ] he reckons to be the first , omitting all that which follows until the second Commandement : but the second he plainly and perfectly reckons as we doe , [ Thou shalt not make to thy self an idol , or graven image , nor the likeness of any thing ] So that it is probable , He begins the first Commandement with the Preface : but it is certain he reckons the second as we doe . S. Hierome and S. Austin are pretended for them ▪ but they also testifie against them , and against themselves by an uncertain and contradictory sentence ( as I have shewed : ) indeed the Apostate Julian is much more for them and does confound those which we call the two Commandements , but yet reckons one before them , just as Philo : so that excepting Julian there will be found in antiquity , Vel duo vel nemo , scarce one or two that is on their side . However against them there is a great authority and very great probabilities of reason : of which in the following periods , I shall adde a more full account : In the mean time as the Church of Rome is destitute of any just ground of their manner of dividing the Ten Commandements , so they will find it will not serve that interest they have design'd . But then for the Lutheran Churches they have indeed as little reason for their division , and a much less interest and necessity to serve and to provide for . They therefore thrust the second into the first : lest it should be Unlawful to make , or to have Pictures or images ; for they still keep them in their Churches , and are fearful to be aspersed with a crime forbidden in the second Commandement ; they keep them I say , but for Memory onely , not for worship or direct Religion . But in this they are more afraid then hurt . For suppose the second Commandement to be distinct and wholly against images and their worship ; yet every thing in the Commandement is not Moral , though the Commandement it self be . For God was pleas'd to appoint such temporary instruments of a Moral duty as were fitted to the necessities of that people ; but such instruments were but like temporary supporters ; plac'd there but till the building could stand alone . But whether this clause of having or making images be refer'd to the first or to the second Commandement , it is all one . If to the first , it means that therefore they are not to be made by them , lest they become the object of Divine worship . If to the second , then they were not to be made lest they become instruments of a false manner of the Divine worship : but in both , the prohibition is but Relative , as appears in the Parallel places of Levit. 19. v. 4. But especially Levit. 26. v. 1. Ye shall make ye no idols , nor graven image , neither rear ye up a standing image , neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land [ to bow down unto it ] for I am the Lord your God : by which it is plain that the prohibition is not terminated on the image but referring to religion ; and is of the same Nature as the forbidding them to converse with idolaters , or to make marriages with them ; which God himself express'd to be lest they learn their evil customs ; and all the reason of the world tells us , that such clauses whose whole reason is relative and instrumental , may be supplied by other instruments , and the reason of them or their necessity may cease , and consequently there can be no part of a Natural law , whose reason without a Miracle and the change of Nature can never alter . So that this fear of theirs being useless , they may without prejudice and interest follow that which is more reasonable . And this was sufficiently indicated by the act and words of God himself who gave order for the brazen serpent to be made , and the images or rather Hieroglyphicks * of Cherubim to be set over the propitiatory ; which it is not to be supposed he would have done if it had been against his own Eternal law : He suffered them not to worship them ; but to make them ; to show that this was not against the Moral part of the Commandement , though that was : and the Ark could endure the five golden Mice and the five golden hemorrhoids because though they were images yet they were not idols , that is , were not intended for worship : but because Dagon was , it fell before the Ark ; that could not be suffer'd : and in Solomon's Temple beside the pomegranates and other imagery , there were twelve brasen bulls ; but they were not intended for worship , and therefore it was free to the Jews to use them or not : but the calves of Dan and Bethel because they were fusiles Dei , graven images us'd in Divine worship were an abhomination : and upon the shekel of the Sanctuary was impress'd the image of Aarons rod and a pot of Manna , or thurible : it was lawful while there was no danger of worshipping them . This then is the first instance of the Rule : The having or making of images though it be forbidden to the Jews in the second Commandement , yet it is not unlawful to Christians . But of this I shall say more in the following periods . Now concerning the Religion of images , that is , worshipping God by them directly or indirectly ; whether that be lawful to Christians ; although I have sufficiently declar'd the negative already , by reproving the great ground of that practice , I mean , the thrusting the two Commandements together , and have proved that they ought not to be so confounded ; or if they ought , yet that the worship of images is not concluded from thence to be lawful or permitted , yet I hope it will be neither useless nor unpleasant if I determine this case upon its proper grounds , in these two inquiries ? 1. Whether it be lawful to make a Picture or image of God ? 2. Whether it be lawful to worship God by a picture ? Quest. WHether it be lawful to make a picture or image of God ? I answer negatively : and that upon the plain words of God in Deuteronomy which upon the account of the fifth Rule are to be accounted as an explication of the Moral law , and therefore obligatory to Christians : as relating to the matter of the Commandement , giving a Natural reason for a Natural duty , and pursuing that with argument which before he had established with authority , and writing that in the Tables of the heart which at first he deliver'd to Moses in Tables of stone . Take ye therefore good heed unto your selves , for ye saw no manner of similitude , in the day when the Lord spake unto you in mount Horeb out of the midst of the fire : lest ye corrupt your selves and make you a graven image , the similitude of any figure , the likeness of male or female , &c. Now why did God so earnestly remind them that they saw no image , but because he would not have them make any of him . And this is frequently press'd by God in that manner which shewes it not onely to be impious to doe it against his Commandement , but foolish and impossible and against all Natural reason . To whom will ye liken God ? or what likeness will ye compare unto him ? said God by the Prophet . Meaning that there is none , there can be none , and you may as well measure Eternity with a span , and graspe an infinite in the palm of your hand , as draw the circles and depict him that hath no colour or figure , no parts nor body , no accidents nor visibility . And this S. Paul argued out of Aratus . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . We are his ofspring : that is , we are made after his image and similitude ; Christ is the Prototype , and we are efformed after his image who is the first-born of all Creatures : Man is made after the likeness of God ; Not man in his body ; but Man in his soul , in his will and powers of choice , in his understanding and powers of discerning , in his memory , and powers of recording , and he that cannot make the image of a will , or by a graven image represent the understanding of a man , must never hope to make any thing like God : there is no way to doe that , but to make a man ; and that although it be but an imperfect image of God , yet an image it is , and the best that is upon the earth . But now from hence the Apostle argues , Forasmuch then as we are the ofspring of God , we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold , or silver , or stone graven by art , and mans device : If the invisible , inexpressible part of man is the image of God , and we are his sons by Creation expressing in our Souls some little things of his infinite perfection , it cannot be supposed that this image can make an image like God ; and if it cannot be like him ; it is not to be made for him ; for nothing is more unlike him then a lie . The Athenians were dull people and knew not how to answer S. Pauls argument ; but we are now adaies taught to escape from this . For it is said , that it is true ; Gods essence cannot be depicted or engraven ; but such representations by which he hath been pleas'd to communicate notices of himself , can as well be describ'd with a pencil as with a Pen , and as well set down so that ideots may read and understand as well as the learned Clerks . Now because God was pleas'd to appear to Daniel like the Ancient of dayes , and the Holy Ghost in the shape of a Dove , and Christ in the form of a man , these representations may be depicted and describ'd by images without disparagement to the Divinity of God. To these I give these answers ; First the vision of Daniel seeing the ancient of daies , tells of no shape , nothing like an old man : but by that Phrase did seem to signifie the Eternal God ; he tells of a head and hair like pure wooll , that is , pure and white , one of the Synonyma of light or brightness , like that of his garment , like snow ; his wheels were a burning fire , his throne a fiery flame ; that is in effect , when Daniel was asleep he had a vision or Phantasme in his head : where he had a representment of the Eternal God , in a circumfusion and a great union of light and glory , which he when he was awake express'd by metaphors imperfectly telling , what phantasme that was in which he perceiv'd the representment and communication of God ; that is , he there set down the shadow of a dream of a bright shining cloud : for the metaphor is a shadow , and his vision was a dream , and what he dreamt he saw was but the investiture of God ; like as when God by his Angel went in a cloud of fire before the sons of Israel , nay , not so much , for that was really so , this but a Prophetick extasie in his sleep : the images of which are but very unfit to establish a part of Divine worship , and an article of practice , against Natural reason and the letter of a Commandement . But , 2. I demand , whether did Daniel see the eternal God then or no ? If he did not , then at the most it was but an angel of light in the place of God : and then this can never inferre the lawfulness of making any image of God , for it was onely Gods Angel , or a globe of glory instead of God and not God that appear'd in his own person . But if it be said he did see God , it apparently contradicts the Scripture : No man hath seen God at any time : and again , The eternal God whom no man hath seen or can see . The issue then is this , Daniel did not see God the Father , neither could he : Therefore God the Father was not represented to him by any visible species : therefore neither can we by any help or authority from this dream . And it is not sufficient to say , that though Daniel did not see Gods essence , yet he saw the representment : for he did not see any representment of God ; he did not see God by any thing that express'd his person : for as for essences , no man can see the essence of a Bee , or a Bird : but sees it by some proper representment , but yet by that representment he properly and truly sees the bird : but Daniel did no way see Gods person or Nature , not so much as by any phantasme or image : an Angel of light , or the brightness of an Angel he might dream of in the extasie : but in no sense could he be said to see God , except onely by his Angel or Embassador . So that when it is said , No man can see God , it cannot be meant , that Gods essence can not be seen ; for this had said no great matter : for no essence can be seen , but it must mean that God dwells in an inaccessible light whither no man can approach out of which he will send no emissions of representment or visibility ; for if he had so done at any time , or would doe at all ; it were not true , that no man had seen him , or could see him : for if he had communicated himself personally in any representment or visibility , then he had been seen , and in that instance and at that time he were not the invisible God. 3. Suppose Daniels vision had been of God himself ; yet as it was done to him by special ●avour so it was for a special purpose ; it was for a design of Prophecy and to declare future events in the matters of warre and peace ; not to establish a practice prejudicial to a Commandement : and it is strange that a vision or nights dream express'd by way of rapture and clouds of Metaphor , communicated to one man , signifying uncertainly , told imperfectly after the manner of raptures and prophetick extasies , intended to very distant purposes , never so extended by his own Nation or us'd to any such end , should yet prevail with Christians ( who are or ought to be infinitely remov'd from such a childish Religion , and baby tricks ) more then an express Commandement , and Natural and essential reason , and the practise both of all the Jews and the best Christians . There is nothing in the world though never so bad , but by witty and resolved men may have more colours laid upon it to set it out , then this can from this pretension . 4. The vision it self if it were express'd in picture as it is set down , would be a most strange production of art , and a horrid representation of Nature ; and unless something were suppos'd which is not express'd , it would be a strange new Nothing . For [ the Ancient of dayes ] does by no violence signifie an old man ; for it being a representment of Eternity , is the worst of all express'd by an old man ; for that which is old is ready to van●sh away ; and nothing is more contrary to eternity . Again , here is no mention of the appearance of a man. There is indeed mention of a head , but neither of Man nor beast , bird nor fly express'd : and hair like pure wool , but in what it is like excepting onely the purity is not told , nor can be imagined : after this there is nothing but a throne of flames and wheels of fire , and all this together would make a strange image , a Metaphor to express eternity , a head of I know not what light without substance , visibility without a figure , a top without a bottom , the whiteness of wool instead of the substance of hair , and a seat upon wheels and all in flames and fire : that it should ever enter into the head or heart of an instructed man to think that the great , the immense , the invisible , the infinite God of heaven , that fills heaven and earth and hell should be represented in image or picture by such a thing , by such a nothing is as strange and prodigious as the combination of all the daughters of fear and sleep and ignorance , 5. After this vision of Daniel it was in the Church of the Jews esteemed as unlawful as ever to make an image of God ; and by this the primitive Christians did not beleeve a warrant or confidence could be taken to doe any thing of that Nature : and they that now adaies think otherwise have a new understanding and a new religion , defying a Commandement and walking by a dream ; and are such whom a precept cannot draw , but they follow what they understand not , and what was not intended to conduct their religion , but to signifie onely the events and great changes of the world . 6. If because mention is made of the Antient of dayes in Daniel , it were lawful to picture God like an old man ; we might as well make a door and say it is Christ , or a vine and call it our Master , or a thief and call it the day of judgement : a Metaphorical or Mystical expression may be the vail of a mysterious truth , but cannot pass into a sign and signification of it : it self may become an hieroglyphick when it is painted , but not an image which is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the most proper representation of any thing that can be seen and is not present . They that paint a child to signifie Eternity doe it better then they who by an old man signifie him that can be no older to morrow then he was yesterday . But by this I onely intend to note the imprudence and undecency of the thing : the unlawfulness is upon other accounts which I have reckon'd . Concerning the humanity of our B. Saviour , that being a creature he might be depicted , I mean it was naturally capable of it : it was the great instrument of many actions , it convers'd with mankind above thirty years together , it was the subject of great changes , and the matter of a long story , and the conduit of many excellent instructions , and therefore might without all question be described as well as Cesar's or Meletius , Marc Anthony or the Kings of the Gentiles . It might be done : and the question being here onely of the making or having of it , abstractedly from all other appendages or collateral considerations , I need say no more of it under this title ; but that it is neither impious nor unreasonable of it self to have or to make the picture or image of Christs Humanity , or rather of his humane Body . For against this there is neither reason nor religion , and if it be made accidentally unlawful that is not of present consideration . But for the usual image of the Holy Ghost in the forme of a dove the pretence is great and fairer ; no less then the words of Scripture . For in this instance that reason ceases for which God did prohibite the making of his image ; for here they did not onely hear a voice , but also they saw a shape ; for the Holy Ghost descended in the likeness of a dove : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : in a bodily shape . So S. Luke . To this I answer , that the Holy Ghost did not appear in the shape of a dove at all ; but the dove mention'd in the story relates only to the manner of his descending , and hovering over Christ. And this 1. appears by the words in S. Matthew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , He saw the Spirit of God [ descending like a dove ] that is , as doves use to descend , hovering and overshadowing of him . 2. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifies an imperfect resemblance , or a limited similitude , does not inferre the direct shape of a dove ; but something of it ; the motion or the quantity , the hovering or the lighting , like that of his appearance on the day of Pentecost ; cloven tongues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as it were of fire ; that is , something of it ; to shine it may be but not to burn ; to appear bright but not to move . 3. This appears yet more plainly in the words of S. Luke , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The Holy Ghost did descend in a bodily shape ; as a dove upon him : where the [ bodily shape ] cannot mean the bodily shape of a dove , for then it must have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as of a dove , like that of the Acts , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; but it must wholly be referred to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : he descended as a dove uses to doe : but then for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the bodily shape , it was nothing but a body of light ; the greatest visibility , called by the Apostle , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the excellent Glory : which indeed was the usual investiture of Gods messengers in their appearances and visibilities : and that there appear'd a fire in Jordan at that time , Justin Martyr against Tryphon the Jew affirmes expressly . 4. That this similitude was relative to the motion or the manner of a doves descent is so much the more probable because this acceptation and understanding of it is more agreeable to the design and purpose of the Holy Ghost's descending . For by [ flying ] the Jews did use in their Symbolical Theology to signifie , a Divine influxe or inspiration saith Rabbi Jaccai upon the ninth of Daniel : This descent therefore of the Holy Ghost in the manner of a doves flight signifies the gift of the spirit of God to his holy Son ; who received him not by measures but the fulness of him : and from his fulness we all receive our portions . I cannot deny but that amongst learned men there is great difference of apprehension concerning it ; and the generality of men without examining it suppose the H. Ghost to have descended being invested with the direct shape of a Dove [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so Justin Martyr : for he expresses the words otherwise then all the four Evangelists ; they all say , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , meaning as a Dove descends ; he changes the case and makes it to be the shape or forme of a Dove : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so Origen calls it ▪ the Phantasme or appearance of a bird ; yet I will for the present suppose it so ; because the ancients did generally beleeve so : but then I answer to the objection ; That 1. although the Ancients did suppose it so ; yet in the sixth Councel , that at Constantinople Can. 83. it is expressly forbidden to depict Christ like a Lamb , or the Holy Spirit like a Dove . 2. Suppose the fancy of the Ancients to have some reality in it ; yet it amounted to no more then this , It was nothing but a light or fire effigiated into such a resemblance ; or like a bright cloud which represents strange figures imperfectly , any thing according to the heart or fancy of them that behold it ; and therefore is not so imitable as if it were a direct and proper appearance : So the Gospel of the Nazarens expresses it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Presently a great light did shine round about the place ; and their apprehension of a dazeling light in such a resemblance is but an ill warrant to make a standing figure and proper imagery . 2. Tertullian supposes it was really and properly a very Dove indeed : and if so , the whole business is at an end : for any Dove may be pictured ; but the Holy Ghost must not be pictur'd in that shape , though his errand and design was ministred to by a Dove . 3. And that indeed is the proper and full solution of this objection . Supposing that the shape of a Dove did appear , yet this no way represented him , or was to be used as a sign of him ; and therefore it is observable when God had told the Baptist how he should know the Messias , and that the Holy Ghost should consign and signifie him , he makes no mention of a Dove ; but of descending onely : not onely plainly intimating that the mention of a Dove was for the similitude of Motion not of shape , but also to signifie that the Holy Ghost himself was not at all to be represented as a Dove . But then if there was the shape of a Dove , as the Ancients suppose , it looks downwards not upwards ; and was ● Symbol not to signifie any thing of the Divinity , or the personality of the Holy Spirit ; but to signifie something in Christ , or in Christs body the Church , to represent the excellency and sweetness of Christ and of the Church , his perfection and our duty , the state of his institution and of our religion , and so they who thus teach of the apparition of a Dove , express the Symbol . The Dove was to represent that great meekness which was in Christ , and which he would insert into his institution as no small part of a Christians duty : which our B. Saviour was pleas'd also to express in the same similitude , [ be as harmless as Doves . ] Philo saies that in the Jewes Discipline a Dove signifies Wisedome . that is , a good , a wise , a Gentile , and Debonaire comportment , not the severity of retirement and a Philosophical life , but of a civil , sweet , and obliging conversation . Some say that this Dove did relate to that Dove which signified to Noah by an olive branch of peace that God was again reconcil'd to the world ; and so did it please God to use the like Symbol when he would signifie that reconcilement which was by Christ to be effected , and of which the other was but a weak representment , and type , or figure . The world was now also to be renewed at the appearance of this Dove . But because this no way relates to the person or the Nature of the H. Ghost , it can no way hence be inferred that the H. Ghost may be represented by an image . This apparition if it was at all was Symbolical of something below , not representative of any thing above : and in that sence and to that purpose I doe not doubt but it may be lawful to make a picture of the dove that was seen , if I say , it was at all ; and of the fiery tongues sitting upon the Apostles ; for these were not representative of the Nature or person of the Holy Ghost but descriptive of the impression that from the Holy Gost was made upon them : and of this Nature is the expression of the Baptist. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire ; that is , from his baptisme , or by his immission you shall receive graces and gifts whose effect is properly express'd by fire , which also shall be its Symbol . And after all this ; if it should please God any person of the Blessed and most holy Trinity should appear in any visible shape ; that shape might be depicted ; of that shape an image might be made ; I mean , it might naturally ; it might if it were done for lawful ends , and unless a Commandement were to the contrary ; and therefore so long as God keeps himself within the secret recesses of his sanctuary , and the Majesty of his invisibility , so long it is plain he intends the very first sense and words of his Commandement : but if he should cancel the great reason of his Commandement ; and make that by an act of his own to become possible which in the Nature of things is impossible , that is , that an image can be made of God ; I should beleeve that God did intend to dispense in that part of the Commandement , and declare that he intended it onely for a temporary band : For if the reason of the commandement were taken away ; either the Commandement also ceases to oblige ; or must be bound upon us by another reason , or a new Sanction , or at lest a new declaration ; or else it would follow that then his visible appearance would become a snare to mankind . But because yet he hath not yet appear'd visibly and hath by no figure or idea represented the Godhead ; and that it is a truth which must last as long as Christian Religion lasts , that No man can see God , therefore it follows that it is at no hand lawful to make an image of God or relating to the Divinity . If a Dove be made it must not be intended to represent the Holy Ghost , * for besides that no Dove did appear , nor shape of a Dove , yet if it did , it related not to the person of the Holy Ghost , but to the impression made upon the person on whom the light descended : and if the figure of the crucifixe be made , or of Jesus in the flesh ; it is wholly relative to the Creature , not to him as God ; for that is impious , and unreasonable and impossible to be done in any Natural proportion . And the like also is to be said of those expressions in Scripture , of the hand of God , his eye , his arme ; which words although they are written yet they cannot , ought not to be painted : I doe not doubt but it is lawful to paint or ingrave an eye or a hand ; but not an eye or hand of God , that is , we may not intend to represent God by such sculpture or picture ; because the Scripture does not speak them to that end ; that by them we may conceive any thing of God ; for as Hesselius well notes , these and other like expressions are intended to represent some action of God : such as is that of Psal. 78. aliàs 77. vers . 65. who brings in God , excitatum tanquam dormientem , tanquam potentem crapulatum à circo : awaken'd out of sleep , and as a gyant refresh'd [ filled , gorged , ] with wine : by which if any man shall represent God in picture , his saying , it may as well be painted as written , will not acquit him from insufferable impiety . Now this which I have discoursed is evidently according to the doctrine and practice both of the Jews and primitive Christians . Concerning the Jews Tacitus saies of them Mente solâ , unúmque numen intelligunt : profanos , qui Deum imagines mortalibus materiis in species hominum effingunt . They acknowledge but one Deity , whom they understand in their mind onely : esteeming all them to be profane who efforme the images of their Gods of corruptible matter into the shapes of men . And the testimony of S. Clemens of Alexandria is very full to this purpose : Deum ex Mosis Disciplina nec hominis effigie , nec ullâ aliâ re repraesentari , God by the law Moses was not to be represented in the shape of a man or any other figure : and for the Christians that they also understood themselves to be bound by the same law to the same religious abstaining from making images of God is openly and generally taught by the Doctors of the Christian Church for the four first ages together ; as without scruple appears in the express words of Origen a , Tertullian b , Eusebius c , Athanasius d , S. Hierom e , S. Austin f , Theodoret g , Damascen h , and the Synod of Constantinople as is reported in the sixth action of the second Nicene Councel : the sense of all which together with his own Polydore Virgil i thus represents ; Cùm Deus ubique praesens sit , nihil à principio post homines natos stultius visum est , quàm ejus simulacrum pingere , Since the world began never was any thing more foolish then to picture God who is present every where : for this is ( according to the sharp reproof of the Apostle ) to change the glory of the incorruptible God , into the similitude 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 k , so it is in the Greek ; into the similitude of an image of a corruptible man , and of birds and beasts , &c. then which words nothing can be plainer to condemn the picturing God : a thing which the very Heathens did abhominate , Sed nulla effigies , simulachráque nota Deorum , Majestate locum & sacro implevere timore , said Silius Italicus of the Temple of Cadiz ; they had no images , no pictures of the Gods , but the house was fill'd with Majesty and a holy fear . And this they did not of ignorance , nor of custom ; but out of reason and wise discourse . When Seneca intreated his friend Lucilius to make himself worthy of God , he tells him how : Finget autem non auro , non argento : non potest ex hac materia imago Dei fingi similis : Not with gold and silver ; for of these an image like to God can never be made . And therefore Tacitus saies of the Germans , that they nec cohibere parietibus Deos , nec in ullā humani oris speciem assimilare exagnitione coelestium arbitrantur , They think they doe not know the nature of the Gods , if they should thrust them into walls , or depict them in the resemblance of a Man or woman ; Nullum simulacrum finxisse antiquitatem , said Macrobius ; The old world never made an image ( meaning of God ) Quia summus Deus natáque ex eo mens , sicut ultra animam ita supra naturam sunt , quò nihil fas est de fabulis pervenire ; because the supreme God , and the mind that is borne of him , as it is beyond our Soul so it is beyond all Nature , and it is not fit that fables and fictions should be addressed to him , Nulla auri effigies , nulla commissa metalla . Forma Dei mentes habitare & pectore gaudet . God dwells in minds and hearts of good men , not in images and metals . The next question is of greater effect , and though the answer of it must needs be concluded from the former , yet because it hath some considerations of its own and proper arguments it is worth a short inquiry . Quest. Whether it be lawful for Christians to worship God by an image ? Concerning which the best ground of resolution is the Commandement ; which it is certain the Church of the Jews did understand so , that they accounted it idolatry to worship God in any image whatsoever ; Thus the Israelites were idolaters when they made the golden calf , for so they proclaim'd , These are thy Gods ô Israel who brought thee out of the land of Egypt : and to morrow is a solemnity of Jehovah ; said Aaron . The calf they intended as an image of their God and by it they intended to worship him , which is not improbable saies Bellarmine ; which is certainly true said Ferus : and which is affirm'd by the Spirit of God ; they chang'd their glory into the similitude of a calf that eateth hay : that is , they represented God who was their glory , by a golden calf ; And concerning Micah though his Mother made an image , yet that it was for the worshipping of the God of Israel appears in all the story ; for upon this account he hoped that the Lord would bless him , he took a Levite for his Priest , he asked councel of the Lord ; yet these also he called his Gods which were but the images of God , by which it appears he was an idolater because he worshipped the true God by an image , which he had forbidden . The same was the case of Gideon who made a Covenant with them that God should be their King , yet he made an Ephod ; that is , instituted a forbidden service to him ; which thing became a snare to his house ; and being a prevarication of this Commandement , was in its Nature an idolatrous worship ; and yet it was but a superstitious or false worship of the true God : And this is affirm'd by the Christian Doctors . Non vult Deus in lapidibus coli , said S. Ambrose , God will not be worshipped in stones or graven images : and S. Austin affirmes that God in this Commandement did prohibit , nè quis colat ullam imaginem Dei nisi unam eandem quae cum ipso est Christus : that we should worship no image of God but him that is the lively image of his person , that is , Jesus Christ : and this is so affirmd by all the Fathers , so confirm'd by the doctrine and practice of the Church , so adher'd to by all the Doctors of the Jews , that Vasquez finds himself constrain'd to confess , clarè deducitur , non licuisse tum verum Deum in aliqua imagine venerari : it is clearly consequent , that then it was not lawful to worship the true God in any image or representment . But it is said , that though it was not then , yet now it is : for that was only a temporary precept , relative to the Jews because of their proneness to idolatry . So Catharinas affimes , totum hoc praeceptum esse positivum , non morale . This whole Commandement is positive , not moral : for however something related to the Jews , yet by this Commandement is onely forbidden to worship the images of false Gods , or the image of the true God with Divine worship . Against this I have many things to say , 1. That idolatry is a sin against the law of Nature , or of prime religion ; therefore whatsoever was idolatry in the Jews , is the same sin in the Christians . Indeed in the Intercourses between Man and Man , though the relative duty be bound upon us by the Commandement of God , yet the instances can be altered by humane authority and consent ; as new kinds of incest ; several instances of Murder , of treason and the like ; but where not onely the law but the instances also are of Gods appointment ; what is once is alwayes , unless God change the particular , which he never did in the present question . One case there is in which the particulars even of the present article can vanish : viz. when a particular is commanded apparently for a transient reason , and hath in it no essential reason no Natural rectitude ; but the worshipping of God by an image is against Natural reason as I have proved by the unlawfulness and unreasonableness of making an image of God and shall further prove in the sequel ; therefore although by reason of the Jews proneness to direct and prime idolatry the Commandement put new and accidental necessities ( I mean the not having or making any pictures ) yet the prohibition of worshipping God by an image having a Natural and essential rectitude and conformity to the Simplicity of a Natural and to the Spirituality of the Christian religion , it cannot be changed as the fancies or the interests of Men shall require , and of this besides the apparent reasonableness of the thing we have an express testimony from Origen . Caeterum Christiani homines & Judaei sibi temperant ab his propter illud legis , Dominum Deum timebis … Item propter illud , Non erunt tibi Dii alieni praeter me , & non facies tibi ipsi simulacrum , &c. aliáque multa his similia quae adeo nos prohibent ab aris & simulacris , ut etiam emori jubeant citiùs quàm contaminemus nostram de Deo fidem talibus impietatibus . Both Christians and Jews abstain from these [ worshippings ] because the law saies ; thou shalt have no other Gods but me : And thou shalt not make to thy self any Graven image , and for many other things like these ; which so severely restrain us from altars and images , that they command us to die rather then to pollute our faith of God with such impieties . The sum of which is , that Christians as well as Jews understood themselves bound equally by this Commandement ; and they were to suffer death rather then image-worship . 2. To worship false Gods , or to give Divine honour to an image which is not God , is all one kind of formal idolatry ; they may differ Materially , as the worshipping of Silver does from bowing the head to Gold ; but they are formally the same thing ; for it is a making that to be our God which is no God ; and this is sufficiently forbidden in the first Commandement : Now since there are more sins against that Commandement then one ; let us suppose that the two first ( as we reckon them ) are but one : yet the next must be that which is forbidden in the explication ; that is , to worship the true God with a false image ; it is making God to be like an idol by representing him in the same cheap impossible way ; by using him like the false Gods , by making his image to become an idol ; by giving him a forbidden , hated worship , by honouring him with a lie ; all which if they be not great violations of the Commandement to which they doe belong ; then there is but one kind of sin there forbidden , and this is an act of so great simplicity and incommunicability that it hath neither Brother nor Sister , Mother nor Daughter , Kiff nor Kin , analogy nor correspondencies , addresses nor degrees : If it have not , why are so many particulars reduc'd to this Commandement by all Casuists , friends or foes in this Article : If it have , this superstitious and forbidden worship being here nam'd in the Commandement , and standing next to the prime idolatry , must at lest have the degree of the same obliquity . 3. He that makes an image of God and worships it ; gives it the worship of God , whom it represents , or a different . If he gives a different and consequently a less worship he does not worship God in the image ; but his worship such as it is is terminated on the image ; and then comes not into this inquiry : it is no more then loving a bird for Lesbia's sake , or valewing a pendant for her sake that gave it me ; and this may be a civil valuation , and is to be estimated according to its excess or temper . But if by the image I mean to worship God ; then I joyn them together in the act of adoration , and make them the same integral object : but then I give to both the same worship ; and therefore unless they can both be united into an identity , I must needs give Divine worship to that which is no God ; which is direct idolatry . If an image of God pass the worship , which I give unto God , then it goes first to the image , then to God ; therefore it must needs be the same : for that which passes from the image to God must not be less then what is fit to be given to God : But if it be the same ; then it ought not at all to pass upon that : If it be less then Divine it must not be given to God ; if it be not less , it must not pass upon that which is not God. If it be less , it is impiety when it is offer'd to the Prototype , if it be the same and not less , it is idolatry when it is offerd to the image . But I need not make use of both parts of the dilemma ; for it is certain that every relative worship must be the same in the middle and the end ; and it is confessed by most of those who worship God and his Christ and his Saints by images , that the same honour is given to both . Eundem honorem deberi imagini & exemplari saies Almain : ac proinde imagines S. Trinitatis , Christi , & Crucis cultu latriae adorandas esse : The images of the Trinity , of Christ , and of the Cross are to be ador'd with Divine worship . The same is the opinion of Alensis , Aquinas , Bonaventure , Albertus , Richardus , Capreolus , Cajetan , Coster , Valentia , the Jesuits of Colen , Triers and Mentz : who approved Costers opinion ; and indeed generally of all the Roman Schooles , if we may beleeve a great Man amongst them ; Constans est Theologorum Sententia , imaginem eodem honore & cultu honorari & coli quo colitur id cujus est imago , said Azorius : and he supposes this to be the mind of the Councel of Trent , and insinuated by the second Nicene , and certainly he was in the right . For though the Councel of Trent us'd much caution in their expression of this invidious article , and express'd no particular honour , but that due honour and worship be given to them ; yet when at the latter end of the decree it approves the Second Nicene Councel and refers to that in the Article ; it is plain that the Councel of Trent intended such honour and worship to be due , as the Councel of Francfurt said was not due ; neither is it to be imagined they durst contradict so constant an opinion , or openly recede from their great Aquinas . They have amongst them many fine devices , to make this seem what it is not ; but that which is sufficient is this , that no distinction , no artifice will file the harshness off from this : for whereas the great thing that they say is this , that this worship being not for the image but for Gods sake pass'd through the image ; does not give Divine honours to the image . But I reply : Is it a Divine honour that is given to the image or no : is it the same that is given to God ; or is it another ? If it be the same then though it be not for the image , but for God , yet it is for God that the Divine worship is given to the image ; that is , it is for Gods sake that what is due to God alone is given to that which is not God ; that is , for Gods sake they commit idolatry . But if it be not the same , then how doe they worship God by the image ? Idem est motus ad imaginem & exemplar ; saies Aristotle , and upon this account they suppose what is done to the image accrues to God ; but then as they must take care that nothing be given to God that is less then himself , I mean that he be not worshipped with less then a Divine worship ; so they may also remember , that by one motion and act of worship they cannot give less to the image then they doe to God ; whatsoever is less then another is not the same with another : if therefore the worship given to the image be in any sense less then that which is given to God , then it is not the same : if it be not the same , then by the same motion , by the same act of worship there are two kinds of worship given : which is a contradiction , that one should be two : and also evacuates their great pretence of the reasonableness or possibility of doing worship to God by an image ; because upon this account the same does not pass at once to both . 4. A good man is more an image of God then any Painter or Engraver can make : but if we give Divine honours to a good Man it were idolatry : therefore much more if we give it to an image . I use this instance to take off the trifle of worship Relative , and worship Terminative ; for if we should offer sacrifice to a man , build temples and altars to him over against his doors , burn lamps , make vowes , appoint Holy daies , processions , Letanies , institute fraternities , give him the appellatives of honour which we usually ascribe to God , it would not serve our turnes to say ; we doe it to God whose image this man is , and we intend the honor to God finally ; there it rests , it onely passes thorough the good man , to be united to the glories of God ; it were idolatry without all contradiction . I find that acts of humility have been done to the poor for Christs sake ; and the actions were refer'd to Christ just as all other acts of charity and almes use to be ; but if Divine honour be done to them it is so far from being entertaind by God as the correlative of that worship , that it is a dishonour to him ; he being curious of his own peculiar , and having given no warrant no instance that can amount to any thing of that Nature , and he will be worshipped as Plato's expression is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; in that way ( not that we chuse , but ) that he best likes . He that will pass worship to God by the mediation and interposition of a creature , must doe it by using that creature in all the endearments and regards for Gods sake of which it is capable . Thus by reverencing the Grey head and rising up to him , we doe honour to the great Father of Men and Angels : by releeving the poor we doe honour to Christ ; but neither is Christ honour'd by us if we have a rich present to a King for Christs sake , or call a poor begger , My Lord : but when for Gods sake we pass those regards to several estates of Men which are the best usages which prudently they can re-require , then the good we doe to them , whether it be honour or releef , relates to God : But for Gods sake to give Divine honours to a man ; is as if to honour the Master we made his servant equal ; or out of reverence to the body we should wear the shoo upon our head : and this argument must needs conclude against the worshippers of images ; for although Vasquez , and I think he alone of all the world , owns the worst that this Argument can infer , and thinks it lawful to give Divine worship relatively or transitively to a man ; yet when that whole Church excuses their worshipping of Saints by saying they give onely such veneration to them as is proportion'd to them , not Latria but Dulia , that is , not Divine worship in any Sense , for so they would be understood to speak and doe ; it must needs be certain , that this argument is not to be answer'd , nor yet to be outfac'd . However , this is certain ; that when the Arrians who beleeved Christ to be a meer creature , though they could not deny but that ( according to the express words of Scripture ) he was the express and bright image of his Fathers glory , yet because they gave to Christ Divine honours for his relation sake to his Father the Eternal God they were by the Fathers of the Church expressly call'd idolaters , as is to be seen in the first , third and fourth Orations of S. Athanasius against the Arrians and in S. Cyril in Joh. l. 9. c. 41. and divers other places : and whatever Vasquez or any man else is pleas'd to think of it ; yet S. John was twice rejected by an Angel when he would have given Divine honour to him : when he would haue worshipped him : and yet that Angel represented God , and was the servant of Jesus . And upon this account we may worship every Creature ; every fly , every Tulip , even the Onyons of Egypt ; for every plant is more an image of God then a dead peece of Mettal , or Marble can be Praesentémque refert quaelibet herba Deum . And it is in images as it is in the matter of Oaths , ●f which our B. Saviour said that he that swears by Heaven , or by the Earth , by the Temple , or by the Gold , it is all a case : it all alike refers to God and does him dishonour if the matter be vain or false ; so it is in images : every creature of God represents him and is capable of transmitting honour to him , as a woodden image : and yet because the best images of God are not susceptive of Divine honours so much as by relation , much less shall the worse images : and if it be idolatry to give such to a man , though with an intuition upon God : to doe so to a dead image which hath less likeness to God cannot be put of by a distinction , and a vain imagination . * I will not aggravate the evil practices or Doctrines which are in the Church of Rome , concerning this Question , but it is obvious to observe , that although this distinction of relative and terminative is invented by superstitious persons to make the question hard , and to themselves greater opportunity of quieting the Scruples of tender persons : yet they doe give , and openly profess to give Divine honours to that which is no God , which I thus demonstrate . The Cross on which Christ sufferd is but a creature : but to the image of this they give a relative Divine honor , therefore to the Exemplar , which is that Cross whereof the other are but images , they terminate the Divine honour . So Jacobus Almain in the words a little before quoted : The same honour is owing to the image and the Exemplar ; and therefore the images of the Trinity , and of Christ , and OF THE CROSS are to be ador'd with the worship of Latria ; [ that is , Divine . ] To this purpose is that clause in the Pontifical published by the authority of Clement the eighth ; Crux legati quia debetur ei Latria , erit à dextris . The Legats Cross must be on the right hand ; because Latria or Divine Honour is due to it . Now this being the image can challenge but this D●vine honour relatively ; but the Cross that Helena found at Jerusalem was the Exemplar , therefore to that the Divine worship is due ultimatè & terminativè , it rests there ; which is as down right idolatry as can be defin'd . But Aquinas proves it ought to be so by this Argument , That in which we place the hope of our salvation to that we exhibit the worship of Latria , or Divine worship : but in the Cross we place the hope of our salvation , for so the Church sings , O Crux Ave spes Unica Hoc passionis tempore : Auge piis justitiam , Reísque dona veniam . All hail O Cross who art our onely hope in this time of our suffering : Increase the righteousness of the righteous , and give pardon to the guilty . I could adde many more things to the same purpose ; but because I Intend not an accusation of any one , but institution to every one that needs it ; I shall onely observe that this distinction is us'd with them as Miracles and the gift of tongues was ; not for them that beleeve , but for them that beleeve not : so is this , for strangers , and them that make objections , not for the obedient that worship images and break the Commandement : for they must or may doe more then give a relative worship : but yet because it concernes us and them , I adde this observation . 5. That if Divine worship , or Latria be in any sense given to an image , no distinction can save it ha●●less : For if it be given at all , it is not chang'd in kind , by being alter'd in circumstance . It is that kind of worship which all the world understands to be proper to God ; now whether it be for it self or for any other thing , is nothing but an inquiry for what cause this incommunicable worship is communicated to them ; that is , a looking after the cause of a thing , which no cause can legitimate , and whether this be proper or improper , yet still it is idolatry in one of the senses ; whether it be direct or indirect , it still gives but an appellative and specificates the idolatry : for that which in its whole Nature is unlawful , and unnatural , cannot be lawful in a certain respect . Idololatrae dicuntur qui simulachris eam servitutem exhibent quae debetur Deo , said S. Austin : He who gives that to an image which is due to God is an idolater : But he who answers that he does that thing but in this or this manner , confesses the thing done and tells you how : but if the manner destroyes the thing , then it is not the same worship ; and then what need the distinction of the manner which must suppose the same matter ; but if the manner does not destroy the thing , then for all the distinctions it is idolatry . 6. I consider that in the first Commandement where Atheisme and Polytheisme , and Allotheisme are forbidden directly and principally , and whatever is like it , or even with , or under it ; the preface or the reason of it is express'd by God ; [ I am the Lord thy God. ] plainly declaring that whatsoever is introduc'd against that Commandement is also against that reason : God is not our God , if we acknowledge none , or if we accept of many , or any other ; so that by this precept and upon this account , idolatry in the object is forbidden . But in the next precept , or ( if it be the same with this ) in the next periods of this Commandement , there is another thing forbidden upon another reason : Thou shalt not worship any graven image , for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God , meaning that as his being our God infers that none else must be made our God or have Divine honours done to it ; so the superaddition of this attribute and appellative of God , that as he is our God , so also he is a jealous God , in this very matter of Entercourse with us , infers that we must not onely doe what he bids , but also in his own way , the thing and the manner too are taken care of . And if he had in the second precept onely forbidden Divine worship to be given to any artifice or to any Creature ; the proper reason for it had been [ for I am the Lord thy God ] but when to other words he puts another reason , it is certain it must mean something new and not signified in the first periods : But then , because the worshipping of any image of God with Divine worship for the sake of the Exemplar is that which is neerest and likest the manner of the Gentiles ; and does insensibly steal the heart of man away , and depresses our great thoughts of the Eternal immense God into the circumscription of an image , and draws the mind from spiritual to material entercourses , and therefore does by immediate consequence lessen the honour of God and the propriety of the Divine worship , that all this should be forbidden is justly inferred from the reason ; for of these things no better reason in the world can be given , then that God is a jealous God ; and will not have his honour directly or indirectly given to any thing to whom himself is not pleas'd expressly to impart it ; and therefore there is a Natural proportion in the reason to the prohibition : for since it is usual in Scripture to call idolatry by the name of fornication or adultery : God is pleased here also to forbid that manner of worship which he accounts adulterous , and declares he will not endure it because he is jealous : and let it be imagined , what can be the effect of that reason ? something special must be apportion'd to it , lest it be to no purpose : but that images be not taken for very God , that they may not finally and for themselves receive Divine honour is the effect of the first reason , and of the first precept : whatsoever is next to this , must be what is also next express'd , that is , Not that images be not worshipped for God ; but that in the worshipping the true God which is commanded in the first period , we doe not bow the head and knee before images which is forbidden in the second periods : And if men were in their proportion as jealous of their duty and of avoiding Gods anger and escaping the Divine judgements , and of preserving their Eternal interest , as God is of his Honour ; they would never so much intricate their duty , and brande the Commandement , and doe that which is so much against the letter of it , and against the doctrine of that Church to whom the law was given , and against so much reason ; and for the doing of which they are forc'd to use so much violence of answer , such convulsions of distinction : a jealous Man will not endure such comportments in his wife ; for the justification of which she is so hardly put to it , that she must have half a dozen answers before she can please her self , or think that she does well ; and which after all , will look but like pitiful excuses . But above all excuses it would seem the worst , if she should say I doe admit another man but not as my Husband , but with a less regard and another sort of complication then I use to him ; and that which I doe I doe it for his sake , he is so like him that he is his very picture ; and he is his very great friend , and what I do , is for that very regard . A jealous man would hardly take this for satisfaction . And if it be consider'd that there is nothing so clear but something may be said against it , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every word can be contradicted by a word ; and then how many presumptions , how many reasons , how many express words , how many ages , and how many religions doe joyn in the condemnation of worshipping God by an image ; it may very well be concluded that our jealous God will not endure half so much disobedience , wilful ignorance and obstinacy in such persons as against so much reason and religion and for so few and trifling pretences will worship God and his Christ by images against the words of his own Commandement . 7. If it be inquired how an image can be an idol ; the answer must be ; by giving to it Divine worship , or something that is due and proper to God : Now whoever knowes it to be an image of a thing , if he have any use of reason , if he be not a changeling , beleeves better of the Exemplar then of the image ; and knowes that the worship sticks not in the image : he cannot worship it for it self , but for something to which it relates , or for something that adheres to it , or is deriv'd upon it ; still the honour goes beyond the Natural or artificial image . The image hath no worth of its own beyond the art or Nature ; and can be estimated , but as Silver , or Marble , or Carved ; and therefore no religion passes upon it for its own sake : Since therefore whatsoever passes on it is for the sake of that which it represents ; an image that is understood to be an image can never be made an idol ; or if it can it must be by having the worship of God pass'd thorough it to God ; it must be by being the analogical , the improper , the transitive , the relative ( or what shall I call it ) object of Divine worship . Now that this consideration may have its effect , I shall not need to say that an idol and an image is all one ; though that be true in Grammar ; and Erasmus said that S. Ambrose knew no difference between them , but that every image ( made for religion ) is an idol ; and that he himself saw no difference : but because the Church in some ages hath suppos'd a difference ; I shall also allow it : but find all the danger of any such allowance taken away by the instance of the brazen Serpent which did pass under both Notions , for it was a meer image or representment of a Serpent and the commemoration of Gods delivering his people from them : but when it came to be us'd in a religious worship then it was an idol ; permitted when it was a bare image , but broken when it pass'd into an idol . An image or an dol doe not differ in themselves but by use and custome of speaking : the Church calling it an image so long as it is used lawfully : but it is an idol when it is us'd unlawfully , that is in plain speaking , an image is lawful to be made or kept for some purposes , but not for other . It is lawful for story , for memory of an absent friend or valued person that is away , for the moving an affection , for ornament and the beauty of a place ; but it is not lawful to have them , not lawful to make them with designes of ministring to religion or the service and worship of God : which I choose to express in the words of the Author of the famous books under the name of Charles the Great , Nos imagines in basilicis positas , idola non nuncupamus ; sed nè idola nuncupentur , adorare & colere eas recusamus . We doe not call all images by the name of idols , but lest they become idols we refuse to worship them . But yet this I adde , that although in the use of the two Greek words , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and of the Latine , idolum and imago , Men have troubled themselves with finding material differences ; yet although it might be of some use in inquiring the meaning of the Ancient Doctors of the Church in the question of images , yet it will be wholly impertinent as to the Commandement . For God forbidding images used the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies properly a graven image ; and because there were more sorts besides this , God was pleas'd to forbid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the LXX render by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the likeness of any thing ; and it conteins sculptile , fusile , ductile , conflatile , that is , all sorts of representations , flat or extant , painted or carved ; and the force of this word can be eluded by no distinction . But then as to the meaning of these words in the use of the Ancient Doctors , this is certain : that although about the time of the Second Nicene Councel , this distinction of idolum and imago was brought into the Christian Church , yet it was then new , and forc'd , made to serve the ends of new opinions , not of Truth : for in Tertullian's time there was nothing of it , as appears by his words in his book de idololatria . c. 3. Ad hoc necessaria est vocabuli interpretatio : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Graecè formam sonat ; ab eo per diminutivum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deductum aequè apud nos formulam fecit . Igitur omnis forma , vel formula idolum se dici exposcit : éstque idololatria , omnis circa omne idolum famulatus & servitus . Every image ( meaning , of God ) is an idol , and all worship and service about them is idolatry . This is plain , and short . And that once for all I may make it clear , that an idol and an image was all one in the sense of the word and of the Ancient Church it is undeniably so used in Cicero lib 1. de fin . bonor . & mal . Imagines quae idola nominant , quorum incursione non solum videamus sed etiam cogitemus , &c. and for the Church S. Chrysostome is an authentick witness , for he calls the pictures by which they then adorn'd their houses by the names of idols , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , we trim our houses , placing every where idols and pictures . Upon this account we may understand the meaning of the primitive Fathers who would not endure that a picture should be made , or kept , who condemn'd the art it self , as deceving and adulterous , who said that God forbad the very trade it self : So Tertullian , Jam verò ipsum opus personarum quaero an Deo placeat qui omnem similitudinem vetat fieri , quanto magis imaginis suae ? Can the making visors please God who hath forbidden all similitudes or images and pictures to be made , and how much more any image of himself ? Nobis enim est apertè vetitum artem fallacem exercere ; said S. Clement speaking of pictures and images , the very art is forbidden to Christians . The same is affirmed by Origen , and long after by S. Chrysostome ; but Tertullian said , that the Divel brought painting and carving into the world ; and addes , Toto mundo ejusmodi artibus interdixit servis Dei , that God hath forbidden to all his servants in all the world to use such arts . But they are to be understood by their own words spoken when they had the same reason and less heat ; for that the very making of images was forbidden by God by way of caution onely and provision , not for any turpitude or unreasonableness in the thing , but for the danger which then was pregnant themselves affirme : Similitudinem vetans fieri omnium… . ostendit & causas , idololatriae sc. substantiam cohibentes : subjicit enim non adorabitis ea , &c. So Tertullian . To the same purpose is that of Origen ; speaking of the Jews , There was no painter or statuary admitted into their cities , their laws driving away all this kind of people , ne qua occasio praeberetur hominibus crassis , neve animi eorum à Dei cultu avocarentur ad res terrenas per hujusmodi illecebras : lest any occasion should be given to rude people of drawing their minds from the pure worship of God to earthly things . Now if this sense was also in the Commandement , it is certain that this was but temporary ; and therefore could change : and that it was changeable appears in this that God by a Divine Spirit assisted Bezaleel and Aholiab in the like curious arts ; and by other instances which I have already reckon'd * : Now this sense and severity might perpetually oblige the Jews ; because during the whole abode of their Synagogue there was almost an equal danger by their perpetual conversation with idolatrous Nations : and therefore it was very well said of Tertullian in the matter of the brazen Serpent , If thou regardest the law , thou hast Gods law , Make not the likeness of any thing : But if thou considerest that afterwards Moses did command them to make the likeness of a Serpent , doe thou also imitate Moses , and against the law make no likeness , unless God also give thee a Commandement as he did Moses . Meaning that the singular example was no prejudice to the law : Exceptio firmat regulam in non exceptis : This part of the Commancement was by God dispens'd within that instance and in a few more ; but these few confirm the rule in all things and instances , besides themselves , for they say , that without Gods leave we may not break this Commandement . In Tertullian's time this very necessity did still abide , and therefore they had the same zeal against images and whatsoever gave substance to idolatry ; that 's Tertullian's phrase for Painters and Statuaries . But then this also is to be added : That all those instances in the Old Testament of the brazen Serpent , the bulls , the Pomegranats , the Cherubims , the curious works of Bezaleel , are not to be us'd as arguments against the morality of the second Commandement : because there single causes , and had their special warrant or approbation respectively from the same fountain whence the prohibition came , at least let them prevail no further then they ought ; let them mean no more then they say , and let us goe no further then the examples : by which we find images made , for other uses , but not for worship : and therefore the Commandement may be moral in all the periods of it , this onely excepted which relates to the making of them . But when we consider further that Solomon caus'd Golden Lyons to be made about his throne and the Jews imprinted images on their money , and in Christs time they us'd the images of Cesar on their Coin , and found no reprover for so doing , this showes that there was something in the Commandement that was not moral ; I mean the prohibition of making or having any images : For to these things we find no command of God , no dispensation , no allowance positive : but the immunity of reason and the indemnity of not being reproved , and therefore for so much as concernes the making or having pictures and images we are at liberty without the warranty of an express Commandement from God : The reason of the difference is this , The first instances ( excepting that of the brazen serpent which because it was to be instrumental in a miraculous blessing must suppose a Divine Commandement ; like a Sacrament or Sacramental ) were of images us'd in the Tabernacle or Temple , and so came within the verge of Religion ; and for their likeness to the main superstition might not be ventur'd upon without special leave or approbation : and therefore God gave command for the images of the Tabernacle , and by his Majestatick presence in the Temple approv'd all that was there . Upon what confidence Solomon ventur'd upon it ; and whether he had a command or no I find not recorded , but ex post facto we find it approved . But for the other images which related wholly to civil use ; right reason and the common notices of things was their sufficient warrant ; while they could have no end in disobedience , no temptation to it , no reward for it ; when it did not contradict any Natural or Religious reason ; there was no danger of idolatry , no semblance of Superstition . So that the result is this ; The Jews were forbidden to make or have any images ; and this was because of their danger : but this was no moral law . But the very making and having them for worship is forbidden as the thing it self is . Just as adultery and wanton looks are forbidden in the same Commandement , and are acts of the same sin ; so is worshipping and having them for worship , it is that which S. Paul calls in the matter of uncleanness , Making provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof . Making images and pictures to this end , is providing for the flesh : For this also is fornication and spiritual whoredom . And as we may look upon a woman ; and be innocent ; so we doe not look upon her for lust : so may we have or make pictures and images , ; but for worship we may not : and in this sense of the words even this period of the Commandement is also moral ; and obliges us as much as the Jewes : but if those words did abstractedly and without their relation bind the Jews ; it did never bind us but by way of caution and prudence ; that is , when we are in the same dangers as were the Israelites , in the rudeness and infancy of their Church especially . * And this we find in Tertullian ; that when he had affirm'd the very art of painting and engraving to be unlawful ; to them who enquire what then shall the poor men doe who have no other means to get their living ; he answers ; let them paint tables and cupboards , and remove their art from danger of religion to necessary and fit provisions for life ; let them doe things as like as they were enabled by their art ; so they were unlike the violations of religion ; and therefore the Church celebrates on the eighth of November the memory of Claudius Nicostratus and their fellows who chose to die rather then make images for the Heathen Temples ; they were excellent statuaries , but better Christians . By which it is plain that he means the very art as it ministred to idolatry ; for abstracting from that ministery and that danger it was lawful enough , Qui fingit sacros auro vel marmore vultus , Non facit ille Deos ; qui colit ille facit . He that worships the image he makes it an idol ; and he that designes any assistance to the idolatry , or knowingly ministers to it , he adopts himself into a partnership of the crime . To which purpose was that of Tertullian , Facio ( scil . imagines ) sed non colo : quasi ob aliam causam colere non audeat , nisi ob quam & facere non debeat , scilicet ob Dei essentiam utrobique : imò tu colis , qui facis ut coli possint . He answers the objection of them that say , I make images , but I doe not worship them : as if ( saies he ) there were any reason forbidding thee to worship them ; but the same for which thou oughtest not to make them ; I mean , the Omnipresence of God. Nay thou worshippest them , who makest them that they may be worshipped . But in all other senses the making a picture , is not making an idol ; and therefore that severe sense of the Commandement though as it is most probable it did oblige the Jews , and all persons in equal danger ; yet because the reason may cease , and the danger be secur'd , when it is ceas'd , the obligation also is null ; and therefore though that was in the Commandement ; yet it is no part of its morality ; but that excepted , every other clause is moral and Eternal . 8. And all this is perfectly consenting to the analogy of the Gospel which is a spiritual worship , unclothed of bodily ceremonies , strip'd naked of beggarly rudiments , even those which God had commanded in the Old law ; Christ placed but two mysterious ceremonies in the place of all the shadowes of Moses : and since Christianity hath shak'd off that body and outsides of religion , that law of a carnal commandement , that we might serve God in spirit and truth , that is , proportionable to his perfections , it cannot be imagined that this spiritual religion which worships God in praises and love , in charity and almes , in faith and hope , in contemplation and humility , in self-denial and separations from all corporal adherencies that are not necessary , and that are not Natural , I say it cannot be imagined that this spiritual religion should put on a phantastick body , which as much as it can separates from a real : that Christianity should make a Vizor for God , who hath no body , and give that to him which the Heathens gave to their Devils ; Daemoniis corpora contulerunt ; they gave a body to their Daemons saies Tertullian , when they made images to them ; that he who under the law of carnal ordinances could not endure an image , should yet be pleas'd with it under the pure and spiritual institution of the Gospel . A Christian must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 worship God with genuine and proper worshippings , that is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the pure and only worship of the Soul. Now if the Ceremonials of Moses were contrary to this spirituality , and therefore was taken away by the Gospel : it cannot be imagined that images which are more contrary to a spiritual worship , should be let in by Christ , when they were shut out by Moses . * To this purpose they are excellent words which were spoken by Clemens Alexandrinus . Moses many ages before made a law that there should be no graven , no molten , no painted image or likeness of a thing made amongst them , that we should not attend sensible things , but pass to those which are perceiv'd by the understanding onely . For the daily custome of seeing him ( in effigie ) makes that the Majesty of God becomes vile and contemptible , and by material Substances ( Gross images ) to worship that essence , which is onely discerned by the mind , is by the sense to undervalue the Eternal mind . 9. And upon these accounts we find that the Christians were great haters of image-worship , and even of images themselves : and did deride the heathen follies , who in the midst of their witty disputations and wise discourses of God , did so unman themselves and baffle their own reason as to worship this invisible God by looking upon a contemptible image . To this purpose Origen discourses wisely ; God hath chosen the folly of the world , those amongst the Christians whose lives were most simple , modest , and more pure then that of the Philosophers , that he might put to shame those wise men who blush not to speak to liveless trunks as if they were Gods or images of the Gods. For what sober Man does not easily discerne him who after his excellent and Philosophical discourses of God or of the Gods , does presently look upon images , and offers prayers to them , or by the beholding them as some conspicuous sign , strives to lift up his mind to the imagination of an intelligible Deity ? But the Christian though but unlearned yet he beleeves verily that the whole world is the temple of God , and he prayes in every place , shutting his bodily eyes , but lifting up the eyes of his mind… . and being rap'd as it were beyond this world , he makes his prayers to God for great things . This is the advantage , the Spirituality and devotion of the Christian. Concerning which it were easy to bring many ancient Testimonies ; which whoever is desirous to see , may find them frequently in the Fathers of the four first ages : but especially in Irenaeus . l. 1. cont . haer . c. 34. Origen . l. 7. contr . Cels. Tertull. de idol . c. 5. and de coron mil. and de Spectac . c. 23. Clemens Rom. Recogn . l. 5. and Clem. Alex. strom . 1 , & 5. S. Chrysost. in Synod . 7. Act. 6. and in 1 Cor. 8. Epiph. haer . 29. Amphiloch . apud Syn. 7. action . ead . Optatus l. 3. contr . Donat. S. Ambrose ep . 31. ad Valent. S. Austin in Psal. 113. all which speak of this Article so as needs no commentary , and admits of no evasion , decretorily and dogmatically and zealously . Now against this heap of plain testimonies there is not any one cleer sentence and dogmatical proposition to be brought ; and if there could be brought forty particular instances of a contrary practice , though there are not three to be had in pure antiquity and in authentic testimony , yet it could not in any degree abate the certainty of this doctrine : because the Doctors of those ages say that where ever there is any such thing , it is unlawful . Epiphanius did rend in peeces the veil at Anablatha neer Bethlehem , because it had in it the picture of a man ; and this is so notorious that Alfonsus à Castro calls him an Iconoclast : but Epiphanius gives this account of it to the Bishop of Jerusalem , Contrà authoritatem Scripturarum esse ut in Christi Ecclesia hominis pendeat imago ; and , istiusmodi vela contra religionem nostram veniunt : It is against the authority of the Scriptures , it is against our religion that the image of a man , that such veiles should be in the Church : and Lactantius as plainly , Dubium non est quin religio nulla sit , ubicunque simulachrum est ; where an image is , it is certain there is no Religion : and S. Austin answers all pretensions to the contrary which can readily be drawn from Antiquity . I know ( saies he ) many that are worshippers of pictures but such as neither know nor exhibit the force of their Profession , but they are such who are superstitious in their very religion , such which the Church would condemn , and daily seek to correct like evil children . This being the doctrine of the Primitive Church ; if a contrary practice comes in , it is certain it is by corruption of faith and manners . The Temples of Gods and the images of Gods they had in equal detestation : not that they hated publike places of worship ; but Templa , non Ecclesias , or Dominicas ; for we must know that in the language of the Fathers by Temples they did mean such as the Gentiles had ; such as the Holy Scriptures call the place of Micah's images ; [ an house of Gods ] according to that famous saying of Isidore : Templi nulla ratio quod non coronat simulachrum : It is no Temple that is without an image , and it is no Church that hath one according to the Primitive Christian doctrine : and it was remarkeable what is told by Aelius Lampridius in the life of Alexander Severus , that when Adrian the Emperour had commanded Churches to be built without images , it was supposed he intended them for the service on Christ : then which there needs no greater or cleerer instance of the doctrine and practice of the Holy Primitives . But the best and most perfect account that can be given of the Christian religion in this article , is by the Ecclesiastical laws . The Councel of Eliberis in Spain made a Canon : placuit picturas in Ecclesia esse non debere nè quod colitur aut adoratur in parietibus depingatur . Pictures must not be in Churches , lest that which is worshipped or adored be painted upon the walls . From which plain place Bellarmine , Perron , Binius and divers others take great pains to escape : it matters not how , as to the question of Conscience ; it is sufficient what Agobardus Bishop of Lyons above 800 years agoe saies in this very particular . Now error is so grown , and is perspicuous that they approach neer the heresy of the Anthropomorphites and worsh●p images , and put their hope in them , the cause of which error is , that faith is departed from mens hearts , and they put their confidence in what they see . But as when we see Souldiers arm'd ▪ or Husbandmen plowing or mowing or gathering grapes in picture , or the pictures of huntsmen pursuing their game , or of Fishermen throwing their nets , we doe not hope to receive from them a Mullet , or a Moneths pay , handfuls of barley or clusters of grapes : So if we see winged Angels painted , Apostles preaching , Martyrs dying , we are not to expect any aid or good from the images we see , because they can neither doe good nor hurt . Therefore for the abolishing of this s●perstition , rectè ab Orthodoxis Patribus definitum est , it was rightly defin'd by the Orthodox Fathers that pictures ought not to be in Churches lest that which is worshipped ( viz. God or his Christ ) be painted upon their walls . To the same purpose the Fathers of the fourth Councel at Constantinople did quote the words of Epiphanius as we learn from the acts of the second Nicene Councel , in these words . Take heed to your selves and hold the traditions which ye have received , decline not to the right hand or to the left : and remember my belowed sons that ye bring not images into the Churches , nor into the Coemeteries of the Saints : but by remembrance place God in your hearts . To the same purpose was it decreed by another Synod at Constantinople of 338 Bishops , under Constantius Copronymus ; forbidding all use of images in Churches or out of them : and so much of their decree as forbad the worship of images was followed by Charles the Great , and the learned men of that age , and confirm'd by the Synod at Franckfurt where the Bishops of Italy , France and Germany were called by the Emperour to that purpose . To these if we adde the Councel of Mentz , and the second Councel of Sens * , who commanded populum moneri nè imagines adoret , that the people should be warned that they doe not worship images ; we have testimony enough of the Christian doctrine and usages of the best Men , and the best times . Concerning the Christian doctrine ; I suppose my self to have said enough in this Article . But besides the premises there is something peculiar to be superadded which concernes both Jews and Gentiles , and the uninstructed Laity of the Christians . 1. Concerning the Jewes I have already made it appear that their religion was perfectly against images : But I have two things to adde which relate to them : First that in the disputations between the Jewes and Christian Doctors in the Primitive Church , they never objected against the Christians that they either had images or did worship them : as is evident to them that read the conference between Justin Martyr and Tryphon ; and in the book which Tertullian wrote against the Jewes , and in diverse other rencontres ; in which the Jew was forward to object all that he could asperse the Christian withall , and he on the other side as ready to defend his cause . But not one word in any of them of objection against the Christians in the matter of images , which is an evident argument , that the use of images was not as yet known to the Church of the first ages . 2. For when the doctrine and manners of the Christians began to be sullied and degenerate ; and she who was a pure Virgin and dear to Christ began to fornicate with strange imaginations ; the Jew instantly became clamorous and troublesome in the Article ; profess'd himself to be scandaliz'd at the whole religion , and in all disputations was sure to lay it in the Christians dish . There was a famous Dialogue written a little before the time of the seventh Synod in which a Jew is brought in , thus speaking to the Christian ; Scandalizer in vos Christiani quia imagines adoratis : Scriptura quippe ubique praecipit non facere quenquam sibi sculptile , vel omnem similitudinem . I am offended at you Christians because ye worship images ; whereas the Scripture every where commands that no man should make to himself any graven image or the likeness of any thing . Of the same accusation Leontius Bishop of Cyprus takes notice in his Apology against the Jews : and that the Jews make great noises with this accusation of the Christians , and put very much upon it , we may see in the Epistle of Ludovicus Carretus , and the Catechetical Dialogues of Fabianus Fiogus . * But this observation is very remarkable out of the Jewish Talmud : For in the first part of it which they call the Misna there is not one word of declamation or reproof against Christians in the matter of images ( as hath been long since observed by learned Men : ) for this was made about two hundred years after Christ , in all which time the Christians did hate images as much as the Jews did . But in the Gemara Babylonicum which is the second part of the Talmud that is of authority amongst them , which was finished about five hundred years after Christ , at which time also images began to be receiv'd in Churches : there and in all the Commentaries of the Rabbins published in the tenth or eleventh age , the Jews call the Christian Churches 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beth havoda zara The house of idolatry : and it will be impossible that ever they can become Christians so long as they see images worshipped in our Churches : and the second Commandement left out of the Catechismes of those with whom especially they doe converse . That which I am to say concerning Heathens is this : That it is impossible that those Christians who worship images of God should distinguish their manner of worshipping the true God from the manner by which the Heathens worshipped their Gods. For they did not suppose their images to be Gods , and therefore they would laugh at the Christians if they had nothing else to say against them but that God is not a stone , or Mettal polished by the Ingravers tool . Thus Arnobius brings in the Gentiles speaking , Neque nos aera , neque auri argentíque materias quibus signa confiunt , Deos esse & religiosa decernimus esse Numina , sed eos ipsos in his colimus , quos dedicatio infert sacra , &c. we doe not think the gold , or the brass , or the silver , of which we make our images to be Gods : but in these images we worship them . Hoc Deus est quod imago docet , sed non Deus ipsa , Hoc videas , sed mente colas quod cernis in ipsa . The image is not God , but represents him : your eye upon the image and your mind upon God. Quis enim alius est nisi si sit planè fatuus , qui haec Deos esse putet , non autem Deorum donaria & simulachra : None but fools ( said Celsus ) will call them God , which are but images of the Gods : and it is very pertinent which Lucian told the Matron , who took it ill that she was complemented too high and compar'd in beauty to the Goddesses ; I never did ( saies he ) Fair Lady , compare you to the Goddesses , but with their images made by the best workmen of stone , or brass , or ivory . And I doe not think it impious to compare things with men , if those things are made by Men , unless you will suppose that Phidias made Minerva , or that to be the Heavenly Venus which a great many yeers agoe Praxiteles made at Cnidus . But take heed , for it is an undecent thing to think such things of the Gods , whose true representations ( as I suppose ) no Humane industry can make . The same is to be seen in Athenagoras a , in Arnobius b , in Lactantius c S. Austin d , and divers others . Signa ad Junonis sospitae cruore manaver ; , Said Livy e ; The signs ( meaning the images in Juno's Temple ) did drop bloud : and Clemens Romanus f brings in the Heathens saying , We worship visible images to the Honour of the invisible God ; and they could sometimes laugh at their Gods whom their Priests expos'd to worship , and yet themselves knew them to have been a plum-tree . Olim truncus eram ficulnus , inutile lignum , Cùm faber incertus , scamnum facerétne Priapum Maluit esse Deum : Deus indè ego furum , aviúmque Maxima formido — It was a great question amongst the Carpenters whether this wood should be a God or a stool : now they that talk'd thus , knew what that was which their Mystick persons call'd a God : they were sure they could be but images of them . So that these Christians who worship God by an image , although they otherwise sin against the first Commandement then Heathens doe , who worship false Gods ; yet they sin equally against the second Commandement , and by images transmit worship to their God respectively . I doe not doubt but the ruder among the Heathens did suppose the very image to be their God , or that their God did dwell in their Temple , and in their image , or that a Divine power was communicated to it ; Ut pueri infantes credunt signa omnia ahena Vivere , & esse homines , & sic isti omnia ficta Vera putant : credunt signis cor esse in ahenis . for some are such very children as to think the woodden Poppet to be a woodman : and therefore when the Prophets discoursed against them in the matter of images they called them wood and stone , Gold and Silver , and represented the folly of putting trust in things that had no life , which themselves plac'd there , which Cats did sit upon and birds build their nests in : but either by these arguments they did reprove those fools amongst them who did suppose them to be Gods indeed ( who also sinn'd directly against the first Commandement , and committed idolatry in the object of their worship ) or those better Spirits and wiser heads among them , who though they derided that folly , yet they put their trust in the images , as supposing them invested with power from their God , and that by them he would doe them benefit . 3. Now how far differing this is from the practice of Christians in some times and places , we may guess by the complaints made by learned men , particularly by Cassander , and Polydore Virgil , and Hesselius the Regius Professor at Lovain ; but without the aid of their testimony , it is plain by their publick and authoriz'd treatment of their images , they consecrate their images , they hope in them , they expect gifts and graces from them , they clothe them and crown them , they erect Altars and Temples to them , they kiss them and bow their head and knee before them , they light up tapers and lamps to them , which is a direct consumptive sacrifice , & reliquam observationem circà eas similiter ut gentes faciunt ; they doe to their images as the Heathens doe to theirs ; they are the words of Irenaeus by which he reproves the folly of some that had got the pictures of Christ and Pythagoras and other eminent persons : but that which is most to be reproved and can be less excus'd is their prayers and forms of dedicating their golden or woodden images ; Sanctifie ô God this form of the B. Virgin , that it may bring saving help to thy faithful people , that thunders and lightnings may be driven away the sooner , that immoderate rains or flouds , and civil warrs or the invasion of Heathens may at the presence of this be suppressed . As bad or worse are in the Pontifical in the dedication of an image of the Cross , and of S. John , and at the hallowing the Agnus Dei. Now these things are as bad as can be ; and yet done to images ( I doe not doubt ) for their sakes whom they represent ; but yet with some regard to the image it self , for so they valew our Lady of Hales , our Lady of Walsingham , of Loretto , of Sichem , Aspricollis , Prurietana , Ardilleriana , more then our Lady of Nostredame , or Florence , or S. Denis . Now when the relatives of one terme do differ , it is for themselves that the difference is , not for the correlative which is still the same : and here for the common people to discern the niceties and the intricate nothings that their learned Men have devis'd to put a Vizor upon this folly ; is so impossible that it will not be easie to make them understand the termes though a learned man were by them at every cringe they make . They cannot tell whether the worship be to the image or the exemplar ; which is prime and which is secondary ; they cannot distinguish of Latria , and dulia , and Hyperdulia , nor can they skill in proper or improper worship , mediate and immediate , univocal , equivocal , and analogical , nor say how much is for this , and how much for that , or which is simple and which is allayed , which is absolute and which is reductive . And although men in the Schools , and when they have nothing to doe but to make distinctions which no body can understand , can separate word from word , form from matter , real from notional , the shadow from the body , a dream from a vision , the skin from the flesh , and the flesh from the bone , yet when they come to action and clothe their theoremes with a body of circumstances , he that attends the present business of devotion and desire , will not find himself able or at leasure then to distinguish curiously ; and therefore it was well said of Hesselius of Lovain ; Images were brought into use for the sake of the Laity , and now for their sakes they are to be remov'd again , lest they give divine worship to the image , or fall into the heresie of the Anthropomorphites ; ( he might have added ) or lest by worshipping God by an image they commit the sin of superstition and idolatry , breaking the second Commandement . For the same folly which in the Heathens was reprov'd by the Primitive Christians , the same is done now adayes by Christians to their images . I shall conclude this with a story out of an Italian who wrote commentaries of the affairs of India : when the poor Barbarians of Nova Hispania in the Kingdome of Mexico had one day of a sudden found their idols taken down and broken , they sent four principal persons of their country to Alfonsus Zuasus the licentiate who had commanded it ; they complaining of the injury suppos'd also , and told him , they did beleeve it to be done without his consent or knowledge , as knowing that the Christians had idols and images of their own , whom they valued , and ador'd and worship'd : and looking up and espying the image of S. Sebastian whom Alfonsus had in great veneration hanging by his bed side , they pointed at him with their finger saying , the same regard which he had to the image of S. Sebastian , the same they had to theirs . The Governour being troubled with this quick and not barbarous discourse ; turn'd him about a little , and at last told them , that the Christians did not worship images for their own sakes , but as they represented holy persons dwelling in heavenly places : and to demonstrate that , took down the images of S. Sebastian , and broke it in pieces . They replyed that it was just so with them ; and that they were not so stupid to worship the images for their own regards ; but as they represented the Sun and Moon and all the lights of heaven . Alfonsus being yet more troubled , was forc'd to change the state of the question : by saying that the object was differing though the manner was not , that the Christians did by their images pass honour to the great Creator of the world , but they did it to creatures , to evil Spirits , and false Gods : which was indeed very true , but it was a removing the question from the second Commandement to the first : For although in relation to the first the Heathens have the worst of it ; yet as to the second these Christians and the poor Indians were equal : and the wit of man cannot tell how they differ . But I shall adde this , that though it be impossible to know how the worship of God by an image should come into the world ; unless it be as Tertullian said of the very art of making images , that it came from the Divel ; yet it is observable that it never prevail'd any where but in a degenerating people . The Jews at first were pure worshippers of the God of their Fathers , but at any time when Sathan stood at their right hand and made Israel to sin , then they would play the fool with images . In the purest times of Christianity they kept themselves clean from images ; but as they grew worse , so they brought in Superstition , and worship of images , and so it was amongst the Heathens too . While they kept themselves to the principles of their institution and tradition which they had from the Patriarchs of Nations who had been taught by God , and liv'd according to Nature ; they worshipped God simply and purely . Si Deus est animus — Hic tibi praecipuè pura sit mente colendus . a pure and immaterial substance is dishonour'd by any worship but that of a pure and a holy mind ; and the ancientest Romans for 170 yeers together worship'd without an image , said Varro ; who addes this judgement of his own , quod si adhuc mansisset castius Dii observarentur : if the same had been still observed ; the Gods had been more purely , more chastly worshipped . The word which Varro uses is very proper and according to the stile of Scripture which calls idolatrous worshippings by the name of fornication . But Varro addes this reason . Qui primi simulachra Deorum populis posuerunt eos civitatibus suis & metum dempsisse , & errorem addidisse . The introduction of images brought in error and cast out fear , Stultè verebor ipse cum faciam Deos. if I worship what I make , I will not fear what I worship . Well and wisely did he suppose ( said S. Austin ) that the greatness of their Gods might soon become despicable by the foolishness of images : and it might reasonably prevail against the old superstition , to suppose that he who governed all the world ought to be worshipped without an image . The same testimony we have in Plutarch in the life of Numa . The Gods had houses and cells but no images , as supposing it to be impious to express the greatest things by the basest ; and knowing that there is no other way of coming to God but by the mind . From hence I inferre that neither God nor Nature , neither reason nor religion brought images into the worship of God ; but it was the invention of superstitious men , or rather of the enemy of Mankind that he might draw the heart of man from contemplation of the invisible and depress it to low phantasmes and sensible adherences , to diminish the fear of God , and to produce confidencies in dead substances cloth'd with accidents of art ; to amuse the foolish , and to entertain the weakest part of him that is wiser , and that religion might be capable of tricks and illusions which could not happen to immaterial and Spiritual worshippings . But that all the reason of the world is against it ; may be the rather presum'd because although the patrons of images offer at some reasons for the use of images in story and ornament and instruction ; yet no man pretends to any reasonableness of worshipping God by a image , or giving Gods due to an image : Some of them say that the same worship passes from the image unto God , and therefore it is lawful , and God is not dishonoured : but upon no reasonable account can it be said , that therefore it is good , that it pleases God , that it promotes his honour , that it is without danger ; and however any man may intend to pass the relative honour that way , yet no man hath any warrant that God will accept it , or that he will endure it , that way ; that he will receive his sacrifices most readily when they are first wash'd ( shall I call it ? or fould ' ) in the Borborus , by the pollutions and abhominations of images : for that they are called so in Scripture is evident ; but they are never commended there , not one good word of them is there recorded : but of the worship of them nothing but prohibition and execration and foul appellatives . There is no necessity of it , no advantage by it , no man is help'd by it , no command , no licence , no promise , no Scripture for it ; all the religions that ever God did institute are expressly against it , and to summe up all , it is against the law of Nature : of which I need no other witnesses but the testimony of all those wise personages who affirme the two Tables of Moses to be moral in every precept excepting that of the Sabbath , and to be of the law of Nature . So Irenaeus expressly : So Tertullian , S. Cyprian , Origen , S. Augustine , and generally all antiquity . The summe of all I express in the words of S. Paul , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . God is not worshipped with mens hands , that is ▪ with the productions of art and imagination . I conclude that the second Commandement is a Moral and Natural precept in the whole body and constitution of it ; if the first words of it be relative to the last ; that is , if the prohibition of making images be understood so as to include an order to their worship : but if these words be made to be a distinct period ; then that period was onely obligatory to the Jews : and to Christians in equal danger , and under the same reason ; and therefore can also pass away with the reason which was but temporary , transient and accidental : all the rest retaining their prime , Natural , and essential obligation . Of the Jewish Sabbath , and the Lords day . There is one instance more in which the Rule is more apparently verified ; which I mention'd a little above : and that is the precept of the Sabbath : which God instituted for many reasons . 1. To be a perpetual memorial of the Creation , and that God might be glorified in the works of his hands by the religion of that day . 2. To preserve the memory of their deliverance from the captivity of Egypt , Deuter. 5. 14. and upon the same account to doe ease and remission 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to servants reasonable and unreasonable . R. Moses Ben Maimon in his Moreh Nebochim affirmes that the end of the Sabbath is , Septimam vitae partem homini praestare liberam , & vacuam à labore & defatigatione , tum conservare & confirmare memoriam , & fidem Creationis Mundi , that we should spend the seventh part of our life in ease and rest ; and preserve the faith and memory of the Article of the worlds creation , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . because upon the seventh day all things were finish'd : and therefore according to that of Linus cited by Eusebius , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The seventh day is the day of the worlds Nativity , or the feast of its birth , it is the chiefest and most perfect of dayes . 3. S. Austin hath another fancy ; and he intends to offer at no higher rate : Dici probabiliter potest , observandum Sabbathum Judae is fuisse praeceptum in umbra futuri quae spiritualem requiem figuraret , quam Deus exemplo hujus quietis suae fidelibus bona opera facientibus arcanâ significatione pollicebatur . It may be said probably that the precept of the Sabbath to the Jews was a type and shadow of that Spiritual rest which God by his example did by a secret signification promise to the faithful that did good works . I acknowledge that there is a fair proportion in the sign and in the thing signified ; but whether this was so intended by God , or so understood by the Jewes is but probabiliter dictum , a probable conjecture taken onely from the Natural similitude of the things . But allowing this : the consequent of all will be ; that what was for temporary reasons established cannot pass an eternal obligation . Concerning which it is to be observed that those are to be called temporary or transient reasons , not onely when the thing ceases to have a being ; such as those laws which were to separate the Jews from the Gentiles , and those which related to the tabernacle , or the land of their dwelling , or the manner of their sacrifice , or their addresses to their chief city ; for these cease by subtraction of the matter and the natural abolition of the material cause ; because the wall of partition is taken down ; and the law of Ceremonies is abolished , and the people are exterminated from their Country , and their sacrifices are ceas'd , and their City is destroyed , and their temple burnt : but that reason also is transient and temporal , which in a like instance passes into a greater of the same kind . Thus the deliverance of Israel from the Egyptian bondage , though being a matter of fact it is eternally true that it was once done , yet it is a temporary transient reason because all Gods people now rejoice in a greater deliverance and from a bondage that was infinitely worse ; from the slavery of sin , and the powers of Hell. And thus also the great reason of the Sabbath , I mean Gods rest from the works of the Creation is a temporary transient reason ; because there is now a new Creation ; vetera transierunt , old things are pass'd away and all things are become new ; and the Gospel is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a new Creation , and our Natures are regenerated and reform'd and made with new principles of a new life to higher ends then before ; and therefore ; though the work of Gods creation is to be remembred and God to be glorified by us in his works , yet when there is a greater reason , the solemnity must relate to that , and the lesser duty can be well served by that day which can also minister to the greater . And therefore we find that something of this very reason is drawn into the observation of the Lords day , or the first day of the week , by Justine Martyr , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . We celebrate conventions or assemblies commonly upon the Sunday , because it is the first day in which God separated the light from the darkness and made the world , and on the same day Jesus Christ our Saviour arose from the dead . The first of these looks more like an excuse then a just reason ; for if any thing of the Creation were made the cause of a Sabbath , it ought to be the end not the beginning ; it ought to be the rest not the first part of the work ; it ought to be that which God assign'd , not which man should take by way of after justification . But in the precept of the Sabbath there are two great things . One was the rest , the other the religion of the day . The rest was in remembrance of their deliverance from Egypt ; and therefore they kept their first Sabbatick rest upon the very day in which their redemption was completed , that is , as soon as ever Pharaoh and his host were overthrown in the Red sea ; and this because it was external , ritual , National , relative and temporary , abus'd by superstition , and typical of something to come , without all contradiction is so perfectly ceremonial and consequently abrogated , that there can be no greater wonder then to see some Christians such superstitious observers of the rest of that day , that they equal even the greatest follies of the Jews ; who as Munster out of the Rabbins observes , thought it unlawful to put an apple to the fire to be roasted upon that day , and would not pour wine upon Mustardseed , nor take a clove of garlick from its skin and eat it , nor thought it lawful to pursue a skipping flea , nor to kill any creeping thing that had variety of sexes , nor to climb a tree lest they break a bough , nor by singing to still the crying of a child , nor to play upon the harp , nor by walking on the grass pluck up a leaf with the shooe . These trifles as they were such which even the Jew was no waies oblig'd to , so they are infinitely against Christian liberty and the analogy and wisedome of the Religion . But the Jews say that Enoch and Noah , Abraham and Jacob kept a festival to God , a memorial of the Creation . If so , yet we find no rest observed by them , nor any intermission of their journeys ; but it is reasonable to beleeve that by some portions of their time they did specially serve God , as well as by some actions of their life , and some portions of their estate : and to this it is not improbable that Moses did relate when to the words in Deuteronomy ; Remember to keep the day of the Sabbaths to sanctifie it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , according as the Lord thy God had commanded thee , meaning , at the beginning of the world : But in this part of the precept there was nothing of rest , but much of holiness and proper sanctification . Now concerning this the resolutions will be easie ; That God should be serv'd and glorified by us is a part of Natural and essential religion : this cannot be done with nothing ; there must be bodies , and gifts and places and time to doe it in : The Patriarchs did bind themselves or were bound by God to certain circumstances ; for that which is indefinite and unlimited , shall neither be done constantly nor regularly : but since the day of the creations ending was afterwards made the rule of fixing a day , it is also probable that that also was the limit and rule for the Patriarchs religious solemnity : This indeed is denyed by S. Irenaeus and Tertullian and some others , affirming that the Patriarchs who kept no Sabbath were yet pleasing to God , but because certainly it was so to the Jews , upon a reason which though it can be involv'd in greater , yet it cannot totally be forgotten ; it is more then probable that the religion of the day must never be forgotten ; but God must have a portion of our time for his service , and the blessing which they were both in and before the law , to commemorate , must also by implication or else expressly be remembred . Upon this or some equal account the Primitive Christians did keep the Sabbath of the Jews ; not onely for their complyance with the Jews till the distinction were confess'd and notorious ; but because the moral Religion which was serv'd by that day was not brought into the religion of the Lords day as yet ; therefore the Christians for a long time together did keep their conventions upon the Sabbath , in which some portions of the law were read * : and this continued till the time of the Laodicean Councel ; which also took care that the reading of the Gospels should be mingled with their reading of the law : which was in a manner the first publick reasonable essay of uniting the religion of both dayes into one . At first they kept both dayes with this onely difference that though they kept the Sabbath , yet it was after the Christian , that is , after the spiritual manner : in these exuberancies and flouds of religion which overflow'd their channels , one day of solemnity was not enough : but besides that they by their Sabbath meetings had entercourse with the Jews in order to their conversion , and the Jewish Christians in order to the establishment of their religion , they were glad of all occasions to glorifie God : but they did it without any opinion of essential obligation ; and without the Jewish rest , and upon the account of Christian reasons . Of this custome of theirs we find testimony in Ignatius , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . That was their way of observation of the Sabbath . Let every one of us keep the Sabbath Spiritually , delighting in the meditation of the law not in the ease of the body , wondring at the works of God , not in indulging to delicious banquets , and softer drinkings or dancings that doe not better the Understanding . So that they kept the Sabbath not as did the Jews ; who as Munster affirm'd suppos'd it to be a keeping of the Sabbath if they wore better clothes , or , eat more meat , or drank the richest wines : Idleness and luxury , and pride are the worst ceremonies of the religion of the Sabbath : the proper imployment of that day is religion , which the Jews , and from them some of the most ancient Christians signified by [ meditation of the law . ] But then he addes ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . After they have kept the Sabbath let every one that loves Christ keep the day of the Lord : the day of the memorial of his resurrection ; which is the Queen and the Supreme of all other daies : and without further testimony we find it affirmd in general by Balsamo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The Sabbath day and the Lords day were almost in all things made equal by the Holy Fathers and some of them called them Brethren : so Gregory Nyssen ; some , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so Asterius , an excellent combination or yoke of the Sabbath and the Lords day : and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so the Canon of the Apostles , the feast daies which Zonaras well explicates to the present Sense , but the Constitutions of S. Clement ( which is indeed an ancient book ) gives the fullest account of it ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Let the Sabbath and the Lords day be kept festival ; that , because it is the memorial of the Creation , this of the resurrection : and therefore whereas it is in the Commandement ; sixe dayes shalt thou labour , &c. he saies , that servants are to labour but five daies : and upon this account it was in the Greek Church especially , and is to this day forbidden to fast upon the Sabbath and the Lords day . The effect of which consideration is this ; that the Lords day did not succeed in the place of the Sabbath ; but the Sabbath was wholly abrogated , and the Lords day was meerly of Ecclesiastical institution . It was not introduc'd by vertue of the fourth Commandement ; because they for almost three hundred yeers together kept that day which was in that Commandement ; but they did it also without any opinion of prime obligation , and therefore they did not suppose it moral . But there was together with the observation of the day a peece of natural religion which was consequently Moral ; that is , a separation of some time for the glorification of God and the commemoration of his benefits : not that it can be reasonably thought that the assignation of a definite time can be a moral duty , or that an indefinite time can be the matter of a Commandement : and therefore I suppose it to be unreasonable to say , that although the seventh day is not moral : yet that one day is , or at least that some time be separate is moral ; for that one day in seven should be separate can have no natural , essential and congenite reason , any more then one in ten , or one in six ; for as it does not naturally follow that because God ceased from the Creation on the seventh day , therefore we must keep that holy-day , so neither could we have known it without revelation , and therefore what follows from hence must be by positive constitution : Now if it be said that it is moral that some time be set apart for Gods service : I say it is true , that it is necessary , naturally necessary that it be so , but this cannot be the matter of a special Commandement ; because it being naturally necessary that God should be solemnly worshipped this must suppose a time to doe it in , as a natural circumstance , and needs not a Commandement ; which is sufficiently and unavoidably included in the first Commandement , in which we are bound to serve God with religion . The fourth Commandement enjoin'd a definite time , but that was ceremonial and abrogated : but an indefinite time is not a duty of this Commandement , but suppos'd in that which commands us to worship God. For we may as well worship God and doe no action , as worship him in no time . The definite time here nam'd is taken away , and the indefinite time cannot be a distinct duty , but yet in imitation of the reasonableness and piety of that law , and in commemoration of a greater benefit then was there remembred , a day of more solemne Religion was us'd by the Christian Church ; for as on the the Jewish Sabbath they remembred the Creation and their redemption from Egypt : so on the Lords day they commemorated the works of God , and their redemption from Sin , Hell and the Grave : but the first reason was to yeeld to the second ; as the light of a lesser star falls into the glories of the Sun , and though it be there yet it makes no show , because a bigger beauty fills up all the corners of the eyes and admiration : and now the Lords day hath taken into it self all the Religion but not the Rest of the Sabbath ; that is , it is a day of solemn worshipping of God and of remembring his blessings , but not of rest save onely as a vacancy from other things is necessary for our observation of this : because as the Italians say , Io non pua cantare & portare la Croce , I cannot sing and carry the Cross too ; a man cannot at once attend to two things of contrary observation . That we are free from the observation of the Sabbath S. Paul expressly affirmes ; adding this reason , feasts , new moons , and Sabbath daies , and meats and drinks are but the shadow of things to come , but the body is of Christ : Where by the way let it be observ'd that upon the occasion of this and some other like expressions the Christians have suppos'd that all the rites of Moses were types and figures of something in Christianity , and that some mystery of ours must correspond to some rite of theirs : this fancy makes some impertinencies in the discourses of wise men , and amuses and entertains the Understandings of many with little images of things which were never intended , and hath too often a very great influence into doctrines : whereas here the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 [ The shadow of things to come ] means , a shadow in respect of the things to come , that is , if these rituals be compared to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , those things which were to come , they are but very shadows , and nothings : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or shadow signifies not in relation but in opposition to Corpus . The shadow , that is , a religion consisting but in rituals and exterior solemnities ; but Christianity is the body , that is , that durable , permanent , true and substantial religion which is fit for all men , and to abide for all ages : And therefore Hesychius by Corpus Christi in this place understands the word of doctrine : that is , a religion which consists in wise notion , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in truth , not in external rituals that signified nothing of themselves , but something by institution . Others by [ the body of Christ ] here , understand the Christian Church : in which sense the word is us'd by S. Paul to the Corinthians ; and in this very place it means so if the words be read as some Greek copies doe , that is , with conjunction and reference to the next verse : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. Let no man make a gain of you who are the body of Christ. However that S. Paul affirms the customs of the Pythagoreans in abstinence from flesh and wine ; and of the Jews in their feasts and Sabbaths to be no fit matters in which men are to be judg'd , that is , for the not observing of which they are to be condemned , but to be shadows and umbrages , not substantial parts of religion , is evident by the antithesis however it be understood : but in order to other purposes I observed here that he does not mean they are types and figures ; for the Pythagorean vanities did never pretend to this , but they and the other too are but shadows , empty and unprofitable in respect of the religion which Christ brought into the world . They were ineffective and insignificative ; but onely present Entertainments of their obedience , and divertisements and fixings of their thoughts apt to wander to the Gentile Customes ; but nothing of Natural religion . Now although the primitive Christians did also meet publikely upon the Jewish Sabbaths , yet that they did it not by vertue of the fourth Commandement appears because they affirm'd it to be ceremonial and no part of the Moral law , as is to be seen in Irenaeus , Tertullian , Origen , S. Cyprian and others before quoted : numb . 41. And in the Councel of Laodicea the observation of the Jewish Sabbath which till that time had continued amongst Christians was expressly forbidden : Non oportet Christianos Judaizare & in Sabbato vacare , sed operari eos in eadem die , Dominicam praeponendo eidem diei . Si hoc eis placet , vacent tanquam Christiani , Quòd si inventi fuerint Judaizare , anathema sint . Christians must not keep the rest of the Sabbath , but work upon that day , preferring the Lords day before it . If they will rest on that day let them rest as Christians ; but if they rest as Jews let them be accursed : that is , if they will keep the day holy , let them sanctifie it as Christians should sanctifie their day , that is , onely with such a rest as ministers to the opportunities of religion , not so as to make the rest to be the religion of the day . The Jewish Sabbath being abrogated ; the Christian liberty like the Sun after the dispersion of the clouds appear'd in its full splendor ; and then the divisions of dayes ceas'd , and one day was not more holy then another , as S. Paul disputes in his epistle to the Galatians , and from him S. Hierom ; and when S. Paul reprov'd the Corinthians for going to law before the unbeleevers , who kept their Court-dayes upon the first day of the week , he would not have omitted to reprove them by so great and weighty a circumstance as the prophaning the Lords day ; in case it had been then a Holy day , either of Divine or Apostolical institution : for when afterward it grew into an Ecclesiastical law , and either by law or custome was observed together with the Jewish Sabbath , Constantine made a favourable edict that the Christians should not be impleaded on those two festivals . Of which I onely make use to this purpose , that among the Gentiles these were law-daies ; and therefore the Corinthians must needs have been prophaners of that day by their law-suits , and therefore have been upon that account obnoxious to the Apostolical rod ; if the day had then in any sense of authority been esteemed holy . But although there was no holiness in any day ; yet they thought it fit to remember the great blessings of God which were done upon certain dayes . An action cannot be separated from time ; it must be done some day or other , and most properly upon the Anniversary , or the monethly , or weekly minds , but yet this they did with so great indifferency of observation , that it cannot look less then that there was a providence in it . For although all the Christian Church that kept the Sunday festival , did it and profess'd to doe it in remembrance of the Resurrection of our Lord , yet that the day of its memory was not more holy then any day , and was not of necessary observation ; it appears by the Easterne Churches and all the Disciples of S. John who kept the feast of the Resurrection of our Lord , I mean the Anniversary , the Great , the prime feast , and that which was the measure of all the rest , not upon that day of the week on which Christ did rise , but one the day of the full Moon , when ever it should happen . Now this must needs be a demonstration , that the day of the resurrection was not holy by Divine or Apostolical institution : The memory of the blessing was to be eternal ; and though the returning day was the fittest circumstance , yet that was without obligation ; for if the principal was mutable , then the less principal could not be fix'd , and this was well observed by S. Austin ; Hoc in iis culpat Apostolus , & in omnibus qui serviunt Creaturae potius quàm Creatori . Nam nos quoque & Dominicam diem & Pascha solenniter celebramus ; sed quia intelligimus quò pertineant , non tempora observamus , sed quae illis significantur temporibus . He first esteemed it to be a serving the Creature more then the Creator to observe any day as of divine institution ; but then if it be objected that we also observe the Lords day and the feast of Easter ; he answers , It is not the day we keep , but we remember the things done upon that day . For the day is indifferent , and hath no obligation . God himself declar'd his dislike of the Religion or difference of daies , by an Evangelical Prophet : and what God the Father did then sufficiently declare , his Holy Son finished upon the Cross ; and his Apostles published in their Sermons : onely such dayes are better circumstanc'd , but not better daies . The same is affirm'd by S. Hierome upon the fourth chapter the Galatians . But now that we are under no Divine law or Apostolical Canon , concerning the Lords day ; we may with the more safety inquire concerning the Religion with which it was accidentally invested . S. Cyprian and S. Austin suppose that because Circumcision was commanded to be on the eighth day , it did typically represent the Lords day , which is the eighth from the Creation : The Councel of Foro-Julium saith , that Isaiah prophecyed of this day ; and that the Jewish Sabbath was the type of this day , was the doctrine of the Fathers in the Councel of Matiscon . This is the day which the Lord hath made ; said the Psalmist , as he is expounded by Arnobius and divers other : Exultemus & laetemur in eo , qui à lumìne vero nostras tenebras fugaturus illuxit ; nos ergo constituamus diem Dominicam in frequentationibus usque ad cornua altaris . Let us rejoice and be glad in it , because the Sun of righteousness dispersing the clouds of darkness hath on this day shin'd upon us : Let us therefore keep the Lords day in solemn assemblies even unto the hornes of the altar . Upon this day Christ finish'd the work of our redemption which was greater then the cessation from creating the world ; on this day he rose again for our justification , and therefore this is called by S. Ignatius The Queen of daies ; upon this day Christ twice appear'd to his Apostles after the resurrection ; upon this day S. Paul appointed the collection for the poor , and consequently enjoin'd or suppos'd the assemblies to be upon this day : upon this day the Holy Ghost descended upon the Apostles ; and on this day S. Peter preach'd that operative Sermon which won three thousand Souls to the Religion : on this day S. John was in extasie and saw strange revelations : so that it is true what Justin Martyr said , Our B. Lord himself changed this day ; that is , by annulling the Sabbath and by his resurrection and excellent appearances and illustrations upon that day ; not by precept , but by indigitation and remarking that day by signal actions and an heap of blessings ; so that it is no wonder that S. Cyprian and S. Leo , S. Ignatius and S. Austin , the Councels of Laodicea , Matiscon and Foro-Julium , of Palestine and Paris speak so much of the advantages and prerogatives of this day , the celebration of which was so early in the Christian Church that it was , though without necessary obligation , or a law , observed in all ages and in all Churches . It is true that Socrates said ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; It was the purpose of the Apostles to make no laws concerning Festival dayes : but it is also very probable what one said ; that it descends from Apostolical institution , Servatâ tamen libertate Christianâ , that is , the Apostles did upon the Lords day often meet , break bread , and celebrate the memory of Christ ; and by their practice recommended the day as the most fitted for their Synaxes or Conventions ; but they made no law , imposed no necessity , but left the Church to her Christian Liberty , and yet ( that I may use the words of the Fathers in the Councel of Matiscon ) justum est ut hanc diem celebremus per quam facti sumus quod non fuimus , It is fit we celebrate this day because of the blessing of the resurrection happening on this day by which we became that which before we were not . Quest. AND now if it be inquired how we are to celebrate this day ? I answer ; That we are sufficiently instructed by those words of the Laodicean Councel ; vacent tanquam Christiani : there is a certain rule and measure by which Christians keep their Festivals . The Jewish manner was a perfect rest : The Christian manner is an excellent religion and devotion ; but no rest excepting such a rest as ministers to religion : Abstinence from such works , which if we attend to , we cannot attend to the religion that is commanded , is essentially necessary , when the keeping of the day religiously and solemnly becomes necessary . There are also some corporal works which are proper celebrations of the day , or permitted in all religions upon their Festivals : such as are acts of publike or private benefit : works of necessity , little things , and unavoidable ; which are sometimes express'd in this verse , Parva , necessarium , res publica , res pia fratri . Among the old Romans in their most solemn festivals some things were specially permitted , Quippe etiam fest is quaedam exercere diebus Fas & jura sinunt : rivos deducere nulla Religio vetuit , segeti praetendere sepem , Insidias avibus molirì , incendere vepres , Balantúmque gregem fluvio mersare salubri . It was lawful to turn the water lest it might do mischief , or that it might doe good ; to stop a gap in a hedge , to prevent a trespass , to lay snares for birds , to water the cattel , to burne weeds : and no religion forbids things of this Nature . But besides the laws and practices of Heathens in the Natural religion and observation of festivals ; we may be instructed by the same religion amongst the Jews and Christians : Reading and meditating the law was the relgion of the Jews upon their feasts and Sabbaths : Moses of old hath them that preach him in every city being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day ; said S. James . They met 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Philo calls their Synagogues , and they heard Moses and the Prophets read and expounded : there they did all the actions of Natural religion ; there they taught piety and holiness , justice and government , Oeconomical and Political affairs ; and the measures of things good and bad and indifferent ; and though in their Synagogues the exposition and meditation of the law was their principal imployment ; yet in their Tabernacle and in their Temple which were their places of worship , they offer'd sacrifice and sang hymnes and praises and glorifications of God. This was the duty and the Religion of their Sabbath ; not as it was a special separate feast ; but because this was the imployment fitted for all spiritual and religious feasts whatsoever . Sancta dies oritur , linguísque animíaque favete , Hoc dicenda bono sunt bona verba die . All holy dayes are dayes design'd for holy offices , for the celebration of the Divine name and the Divine Attributes ; for charitable and holy discourses . That rest which God superadded , being onely commemorative of their deliverance from the Egyptian servitude , was not moral , nor perpetual ; it could be dispensed with at the Command of a Prophet ; it was dispens'd with at the Command of Joshuah , it was broken at the siege of Jericho , it alwaies yeelded when it clash'd with the duty of any other Commandement ; it was not observ'd by the Priests in the Temple , nor in the stalls by the Herds-man , nor in the house by the major domo ; but they did lead the oxe to water , and circumcis'd a Son ; that is , it yeelded to charity and to religion , not onely to a moral duty but to a Ceremonial ; and therefore could not oblige us : But that which remain'd was imitable , the natural religion which was us'd upon the Jewish festivals was fit also for the Holy dayes of Christians . And this also plainly was the practice of the Christians , and bound upon them by the command of their Superiors . 1. It was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Ignatius expressly affirmes ; the rest of the body is no essential duty of the Christian festivals : that was a Judaical rite ; but the Christian is bound to labour , even upon that day ; saies that holy Martyr : for then there had been no positive inhibition . And the Primitive Christians did all manner of works upon the Lords day ; even in the times of persecution when they are the strict est observers of all the Divine Commandements : but in this they knew there was none : and therefore when Constantine the Emperor had made an edict against working upon the Lords day ; yet the excepts and still permitted all agriculture or labours of the Husbandman whatsoever : for God regardeth not outward cessation from works more upon one day then another , as S. Epiphanius disputes well against the Ebionites and Manichees . Thus far was well enough when the Question was concerning the sense and extent of a Divine Commandement ; labour is a Natural duty , but to sit still or not to labour upon a whole day is no whereby God bound upon Christians . 2. It was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so the same Father : The meditation and exercise of the word of God , and admiring the works of God , that was the work of Christian festivals : and that they might attend this , they were commanded to abstain from servile works more or less , these or others respectively in several times and places . This we find in Justin Martyr speaking of the Christian Sabbath and Synaxes ; the Citizens and Countrymen are assembled together , and first are read the Scriptures of the Prophets and Apostles ; then the Priest or President makes a Sermon or exhortation to them to practice what they heard read , then all goe to prayers , after this they receive the Holy Eucharist , then they give almes to the poor . This is the manner of the Christian festivity . Now what cessation from the secular workes is necessary in order to the actions of religion ; all that we may suppose to be accidentally the duty also of the day . To this purpose is that saying of S. Gregory ; Dominico die á labore terreno cessandum est , atque omni modo orationibus insistendum , ut si quid negligentiae per sex dies agitur per Diem resurrectionis Dominicae precibus expietur . On the Lords day we must cease from worldly labour , and by all means persevere in prayer : that whatsoever in the six dayes was done amiss may be expiated by the prayers of the seventh , the day of the Lords rerection . In the Synod at Tours in France ; the Religion of this day was also strictly injoin'd . Oportet Christianos in laude Dei & gratiarum actione usque ad vesperam perseverare . Christians must persevere in praising God and giving thanks to his holy Name untill the Evening : that is , untill the Evening song be finished , for then the Ecclesiastical solemnity is over : They who were tied to this long office , could less be permitted to doe any secular business , and according as the piety of the Church increased , so the prohibitions of labour were the more strict ; for that which was wholly relative must increase and diminish according to the diminution or inlargement of the correspondent . Constantine forbad all labour but the labours of Husbandry : but affirmes the Lords day to be the fittest for dressing or setting of Vines , and sowing Corne. Leo and Anthemius Emperors forbad all publick pleasures , vexatious suites or actions , arrests , and law-daies , appearances in Courts , advocations and legal solemnities on the Lords day . The third Councel of Orleans permitted waggons , and horses and oxen to travel upon Sundaies , but forbad all husbandry that the men might come to Church . In an old Synod held at Oxford I find that on the Lords day Conceduntur opera carrucarum & agriculturae ; and I find the like in an old injunction of Queen Elisabeth , Corn may be carried on Sundaies when the Harvest is unseasonable and hazardous . In these things there was variety ; sometimes more sometimes less was permitted . Sometimes fairs and markets , sometimes none : In which that which we are to rely upon is this ; 1. That because it was a day of Religion ; onely such things were to be attended to , which did not hinder that solemnity which was the publick religion of the day . 2. Nothing at all to be admitted which was directly an Enemy to religion , or no friend . Of the first I have already produc'd sufficient witness . Of the second there is the less doubt , not onely because Natural reason does abhorre all irreligious actions especially upon a day of religion ; but because all the pious men and law givers of the Christian Church have made complaints and restraints respectively of all criminal or scandalous actions upon that day . Witness S. Ignatius in his Epistle to the Magnesians , Tertullian apolog . c. 42. S. Gregory in his Epistle to Augustin Arch-bishop of Canturbury ; and S. Augustin Bishop of Hippo , in his 64 Epistle to Aurelius ; the 23 Canon of the Councel of Toledo , the edict of Leo and Anthemius , all which complain of and forbid the evil usages of the prophaner men who spend the Lords day , which by the Church of God and in imitation of God himself and in celebration of the greatest Mystery of our redemption was appointed for the solemn service of God , in riotous eating and immoderate drinkings , vain feastings , and wanton dancings , Enterludes and Songs , as if they intended to verifie the scoff of Rutilius , Septima quaeque dies turpi damnata Veterno , Ut delassati turpis imago Dei. and that the rest of the day did represent God to have been weary , but therefore was designed for wine and the licentiousness of his servants . 3. The rest of the day was so wholly for the ends of religion , so meerly relative to the publick services of the Church , so nothing of the proper and absolute duty of the day , that the Fathers of the Church affirme it to be better to work then upon that day to be idle and do nothing . So S. Austin expressly ; meliùs faceret … . in agro suo aliquid utile quam si in agro otiosus existeret : & meliùs faeminae eorum die Sabbati lanam facerent quàm quae totâ die in neomeniis suis publicè saltarent . To doe something that is profitable in the field is better then to sit there idle , and to spin is beter then to dance . 4. In those places where the offices of the Church are not expensive of the whole day , it is lawful to doe ( upon just cause ) any work that is not forbidden by our Superiors , or scandalous to our Brethren ; in those portions of the day which are unimployed : and to deny this is called perverseness and contrary to faith , cap. perven . de Consecr . dist . 3. Quidam perversi Spiritûs homines pravainter vos aliqua , & Sanctae fidei adversa seminarunt , ità ut die Sabbati aliquid operari prohiberent . They that forbid all manner of work as unlawful by Divine law upon the Sabbath are praedicatores Antichristi , preachers of Antichrist : for he when he comes ( saies S. Gregory ) diem Sabbathi atque Dominicum ab omni faciet opere custodiri : shall forbid all working upon the Sabbath and the Lords day . 5. The Lords day being set apart by the Church for Religion ought to be so imployed as the laws of the Church enjoin ; and no otherwise ; and although it were an act of piety ( not onely to attend to publick offices , but even ) to attend to especial and more frequent private devotions on that day then others , yet this is without all obligation from the Church ; concerning whose intention to oblige we can no waies presume but by her words and laws when she hath declar'd her self . 6. The question concerning particular works , or permitted recreations is wholly useless and trifling : for quod lege prohibitoriâ vetitum non est , permissum intelligitur , saies the law : all that is permitted which in the Negative precept is not forbidden : but as for some persons to give themselves great liberties of sport on that day is neither pious nor prudent ; so to deny some to others is neither just nor charitable . The plowman sits still in the Church and the Priest labours ; and the wearied man is permitted to his refreshment , and others not permitted because they need it not ; and there is no violation of any Commandement of God , even when there is a prophanation of the day indulged upon pious and worthy considerations . I end this with the words of Gerson : Quilibet eo die abstineat ab omni labore aut mercatione aut alio quovis laborioso opere secundum ritum & consuetudinem patriae , quam consuetudinem Praelatus Spiritualis illius loci cognoscens non prohibet ; quòd si aliqua super tali consuetudine dubietas occurrat , consulat superiores : Upon the Lords day we are to abstain from all merchandizes or other laborious work according to the Custome and law of the Country : provided that the Bishop knowing of any such custome doe not condemne it : and if there be any doubt concerning it , let him inquire of his Superiors . In all these cases , Custome and the Lawes , the analogy of the Commandement , and the designes of piety , Christian liberty , and Christian Charity are the best measures of determination . I have now done with the two great exceptions which are in the Decalogue , and are not parts of the Moral law . All the rest are Natural precepts of Eternal obligation ; and are now also made Christian by being repeated and renewed by Christ , and not onely left in their prime , Natural necessity , but as they are expounded into new instances of duty , so they put on new degrees of obligation . As a supplement to this Rule , and in explication of many emergent Questions concerning the Matter of the Divine Laws , and their respective obligations , it will be useful to enumerate the signs and characteristicks by which we can without error discerne which Precepts are Moral , and which are not : for this is a good and a general instrument and Rule of Conscience and useful in many particulars . The measures of difference to discerne between Moral precepts and precepts not moral in the all laws of God. 1. All Moral laws are such whose prime and immediate Measures are Natural reason : but of precepts not Moral the reasons may be oeconomical or Political , some emergency of state or accident , a reason that passes away or that is introduc'd by a special blessing or a special caution , a personal danger , or the accidents of conversation . That we should obey our Parents is a Moral law . This we know , because for this we naturally and by our very Creation , and without a Tutour have many reasons , and see great necessities and find abundant usefulness . For whoever is in need cannot be releeved but upon such conditions as they who are to releeve them will impose upon them : Love and obedience are but gratitude and necessity ; because all children are imperfect and helpless persons ; living upon the love and care of Parents and Nurses : they derive their Natures and their birth , their education and maintenance from them , that is , they owe to them all that for which any Man can be obeyed and loved ; they have on them all the marks and endearments of love and fear ; they are in respect of their children useful and powerful , better in themselves , and beneficial to their descendants ; and therefore the Regal power is founded upon the Paternal . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And unless where God did speak by express voice , he never did speak more plainly , or give power to one man over another so plainly as to Parents over their Children ; their power is the fountain of all other , and the measure of all other ; it hath in it the end and usefulness of all Government , it hath love and it hath caution , it is for the good of the Subjects ; and though it keeps the honour in it self yet the advantage ever passeth on to others : And then if we consider that children are a part of their Parents , that the Parents are bless'd and curs'd in them , that there is in them toward their children a Natural affection , that the little image of immortality in which Men desir'd to last for ever is supplied to them by succession , which preserves their Name and Memory ; that Parents are more wise , and more powerful , and before in time , and useful in all regards ; that children cannot at first understand , nor doe , nor speak ; that therefore Naturally they must be in the possession of them that can ; that no man will quit his interest without just reason ; and these reasons of Subjection being prime and Natural , and some of them lasting , and all of them leaving an obligation and indearment behind them , they cannot pass away without leaving indelible impressions ; it must necessarily and Naturally follow that children must pay to their Parents the duties of love and obedience , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It is the voice of Nature : He that honours his Parents is dear to God. * Now when there is so much prime and Natural reason : or if there be but any one that is so , which by Nature we are taught , it is Gods mark upon an Eternal precept : and whatsoever God hath commanded that is Naturally reasonable , that is , if it be Naturally known , or if it be a reason that is not relative to t●mes and persons , a reason that will not pass away with the changes of the world ; a reason that injoines a thing that is perfective of our Nature , and which cannot be supplyed by something else ; all that is to be confessed to be a part of the Moral law . But on the other side if we take the instances of circumcision , and enquire whether this can be an Eternal law ; besides the waies of discovering this by the lines and measures of revelation , we can also tell by the causes of its injunction : it was appointed as a mark of a family , a separation of a people from other Nations , the seal of a temporary Covenant , a violence to Nature , not Naturally apt to signifie or to effect any thing beyond the wound made by the sharp stone , a rite for which no Natural reason can be given ; and therefore it was never written in our hearts , but given in tables that could perish . 2. That of which no reason can be given is not a moral precept . Because all Moral laws being also Natural are perfective of humane Nature , and are compliances with our Natural needs , and with our Natural and measur'd appetites ; they are such in which all mankind feels a benefit ; and where he sees his way ; they are and have been found out by the Heathen , drawn into their digests of Laws ; and there was never any law pretended to be Moral , but they that did pretend it , offer'd at a reason for it , deriv'd from the fountains of Nature . For every Moral law being Natural ; either it must be Naturally consonant to the understanding , or onely to the Natural desires : If to the understanding ; then there is a discernible reason ; if onely to the desires ; then the measure might be this , that whatsoever we Naturally desire shall become a Natural duty ; which if it could be admitted , would inferre all the mischiefs and disorders of the world . Upon this account all Sacraments and Sacramentals are excluded from being moral laws because they depending wholly upon Divine institution , whose reasons are very often secret and unrevealed , we can neither Naturally know , nor Naturally consent to them , and therefore can stand bound to them no longer then to the expiration of that period for which they were invented . 3. The consequents of Natural reason are no indications of a Moral Commandement . For Moral laws are few , and founded upon prime reason , such as appears so to all discerning persons ; but when once men begin to argue , and that their art or observation is also to be relyed upon ; it is so often deceived and alwaies so fallible , that Gods wisedome and goodness would never put our Eternal interest upon the disputations of men . It is said by some men to be of the law of Nature that Spiritual persons should be exempt from secular jurisdiction ; but because they inferre this from some proportions of Nature , the Natural distinction of Spiritual and Temporal , by two or three remote and uncertain consequences , it is to be despised ; though we had not 1. so many precedents in the Old Testament to the contrary , and 2. the example of our Blessed Lord , who being the head of all Spiritual power was yet subject to the Civil Magistrate ; and 3. the express words of S. Paul speaking of the secular Magistrate ; and commanding every Soul to be subject to them ; that is , Priests and Monks , Apostles and Evangelists and Prophets ( as S. Chrysostome thence argues , ) and all this 4. besides the Notoriety of the thing it self ; Spirituality being a capacity superadded to persons , who by a former that is a Natural duty are subordinate to secular superiours . But besides all this ; If the deduction of Consequents shall be the measure of Moral duties , then the wittiest disputant shall be the Lawgiver , and Logick will be the Legislative ; and there will be no term or end of multiplication of laws : for since all truth depends upon the prime and Eternal truth , and can be deriv'd from thence and return thither again , all actions whatsoever that can be in any sense good or useful will be in all senses necessary and matter of duty . There is a chain of truths , and every thing follows from every thing if we could find it out : but that cannot be the measure of laws ; for besides that a thing is reasonable , there must be a Divine Commandement ; and if a good reason alone is not sufficient to make a Moral law , a bad one is not sufficient to declare it . That all who are oblig'd by a law should at least by interpretation consent to it , is said by many to be of the law of Nature ; yet this is so far from being a Moral Commandement , that in some very great Communities of Men , the Clergy who are not the ignoblest part of the people have no vote in making laws , nor power to chuse their representatives . Indeed it is very reasonable and full of equity that all states of men who are fit to choose for others , should at least be admitted to choose for themselves ; yet because this relies not upon any prime Natural reason that necessarily infers it ; but is to be trusted to two or three consequences and deductions , men have leave to use their power , and may choose whether they will in this thing use the absolute power of a Prince , or the more compliant poster of a Father . This is better , but that is not evidently against a moral Commandement . 4. A law that invades the right of Nature is not alwaies the breach of a Moral Commandement : By the law of Nature no man is bound to accuse himself , but because it is not against the law of Nature if he does , and onely against a privilege or right of Nature , 1 . the complicated necessities of Men , 2 . the imperfection of humane Notices , 3 . and the violence of suspition , 4 . and the dangers of a third person , 5 . or the interest of the Republick , 6 . or the Concernes of a Prince may make it reasonable that a Man be ask'd concerning himself ; and tyed to give right answers . A Natural right is no indication of a Moral law . But of this I have already spoken upon another occasion . 5 Every Consonancy to Natural Reason is not the sufficient proof of a Moral law : For as we say in Natural Philosophy ; that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Things Natural and things according to Nature are not all one : It is according to Nature that they who have the yellow jaundies should look of a yellow colour : but this is not a Natural affection , but praeternatural all the way : So it is in Moral instances , it is consonant to Nature that we should not boile a Kid in her mothers Milk , but this makes no moral law , for it is not against a Natural law if we doe . * There are some little rationalities and proportions and correspondencies of Nature which are well and decent and pretty , but are not great enough to establish a Commandement , or to become the measure of eternal life and death . Nothing less then the value of a Man , or the concernment of a man is the subject of Moral laws , and God having given to a man reason to live justly and usefully , soberly and religiously , having made these reasonable and matters of Conscience by a prime inscription , hath by such prime reasons relating to God or man bound upon us all Moral laws . Man onely is capable of laws , and therefore to man onely under God can Moral laws be relative . 6. When God gives a law and addes a reason for it ; it is not alwaies the sign fication of a Moral law though the reason be in it self Eternal , unless the reason it self be proper , relating to the Nature of the thing , and not matter of Empire . For example , when God commanded the people of Israel to give the first born to him or to redeem it , he addes this reason , I am the Lord : Now although this reason be eternal , yet it is not a proper reason for this ; but a reason by which he does or might injoin all Commandements : and it is also matter of Empire and Dominion , by which he can remonstrate his absolute supreme Legislative power , which is reason sufficient for our obedience , but yet it is extrinsecal to the Nature of the precept , and therefore upon this account it cannot be called Moral , whose reason is alwaies Natural , proper and immediate . But yet even this very reason although it is a matter of Empire , yet when it is put to a Commandement as a proper reason and refers to the matter of the law , it is certain token of Morality : for thus this is the preface or thereason affixed to the first Commandement ; and something like it is in the second : For here when God saies , I am the Lord ; it is a proper , Natural , essential reason inferring that therefore we must have no other Gods , nor to any other thing that is not God give Divine honour . 7. When God in the old Testament did threaten the Heathens or punish them for any fact , it was not a sufficient argument to conclude that fact to be done against a Moral Commandement ; unless other things also concurred to the demonstration . This I made to appear in the instance of some marriages : and it relies upon this reason ; because the Nations were oblig'd by the precepts of Noah , all the instances or particulars of which were not Eternal in their obligation . 8. All the instances or pursuances of a Moral law , are not as Moral or necessary as their fountain ; but that Moral law is onely to be instanc'd in those great lines of duty , which are nam'd or apparently design'd in the letter or Analogy of the law . That those who minister at the Altar should be partakers of the Altar is a Moral law , and a part of natural and essential justice and religion : in pursuance of this , the Priests did eat of the sacrifice ; and were maintain'd by tithes and offerings ; and thus this Moral law amongst them was instanc'd and obeyed : but though these were the waies in which the Jews did obey a Moral law ; yet these instances are not Moral and Eternal ; because the Commandement can be performed without them : and though the Oxe be muzled when he treads out the Corne , yet if he eats his fill before and after his work there is no breach of the Commandement . Thus also it is commanded that we should rise up to the Grey head ; which is a pursuance of the fifth Commandement , but yet this expression of reverence to old Men , is neither necessary at all times nor yet to be done by all persons : another expression may doe all the duty that is intended , and he that with civil circumstances gives an almes to an old beggar hath done more regard to him then he that gives him a complement : For although Moral Commandements are sometimes signified with the investiture of circumstances or particular instances , yet because great reason is their measure , prime , natural , essential and Concreated reason , it is easie to make the separation . 9. The strong , violent and firme persuasions of Conscience in single persons , or in some communities of Men is not a sufficient indication of a Moral law . The weak Brother of whom S. Paul speaks durst not eat flesh , but thought it an impiety next to unpardonable , but he was abused : and there are at this day some persons , some thousands of persons against whose Conscience it is to dresse meat upon the Lords day , or to use an innocent permitted recreation : Now when such an opinion makes a Sect , and this Sect gets firme confidents and zealous defenders , in a little time it will dwell upon the Conscience as if it were a Native there , whereas it is but a pitiful inmate and ought to be turned out of doors . 10. The consonant practices of Heathens in a matter not expressly commanded by God to them , is no argument that what they did in that instance was by the light of Nature , or a duty of a Moral Commandement . The Heathens paid tithes to Hercules , they kept the seventh day sacred , they forbad their holy persons to make second marriages ; but it will be too great an easiness upon this account to suppose these to be matter of Essential duty : not onely because ( as Tertullian observes ) the Devil was willing to imitate the serity or customes and rites of Gods Church , to make his own assemblies the more venerable , Symbolical , alluring and persuasive ; but because the Nations to whom God commanded tithes , Sabbaths and the like , had entercourse with many others , and were famous in the world by blessing and Miracles , by the laws and Oracles of God , by excelent Government and the best learnings : The Phoenicians conveyed many Hebrew customs into Greece and some learned persons went to School in Palestine and taught their own Nation some mysteriousnesses which themselves learnd under the Jewish Doctours : and when the Judaizing Christians did pertinaciously retain circumcision ; they might upon this ground have pretended it to be consonant to the law of Nature ; because even the Gentiles , the Egyptians , the Arabians , all the Nations that descended from Ishmael and Esau , and divers other nations their neighbours did use it . But , Consent is no argument , when it is nothing but imitation . 11. The appendant penalty of temporal death imposed by God Almighty upon the breakers of a law , does not prove that law to be of eternal obligation . I instance in the gathering sticks upon the Sabbath , the omitting Circumcision , the approaching a wife in diebus pollutionis ; all which were made sacred by the greatest penalty , but yet had not the greatest obligation , they were not Moral . 12. When two laws are in conflict and contest and call for an impossible obedience , one must yeeld to the other ; but that which must yeeld is not moral and Eternal . The observation of the Sabbath , and doing acts of charity did often enterfere in the actions and occurrences of our Blessed Saviours life ; but the Sabbath was alwaies made to yeeld to charity . Thus Sacrifice and mercy , the outward work and the inward , the letter and the Spirit doe often make contrary pretensions ; but sacrifice , and the outward work , and the letter are to yeeld and to comply , and therefore are but the expressions or instances , or significations of a Moral duty ; but of themselves have no morality . This holds in all instances and hath no exception . 13. By the not considering of these measures a great part of Mankind have been deceiv'd ; but they could onely be secured by the first ; which because it is also possible to be mistaken in the application , by reason of the miscarriages and confidence of some men ; therefore the last resort of all Moral laws is to the Scriptures of the new Testament ; in which whatsoever is commanded to all Mankind is either moral in its Nature or is so by adoption ; which last clause I put in , by reason of the Sacraments , and some glorious appendages of Morality , and heroical acts of charity commanded by Christ : the observation of which although it be not moral , or of prime Natural necessity , yet because they are commanded by Christ whose law is to oblige us as long as the Sun and Moon endures : to us Christians and to all to whom the notice of them does arrive , it is all one in respect of our duty , and hath no real difference in the event of things . But if from the old Testament Men will ( as it is very often attempted in several instances ) endeavour to describe the measures of Moral laws , the former cautions are of necessary observation . RULE 7. There is no state of Men or things but is to be guided by the proportion of some Rule or precept in the Christian law . THat is , where there is no law to restrain us , we may doe what we please ; but where we are tyed up to rules and measures , we have no Lawgiver or fountain of religion but God , who in these last daies hath spoken to us onely by his Son , who as he is supreme in all things , so he is every way allsufficient , and as by him onely we can be sav'd , so by him onely and by his Spirit we must be govern'd . To this purpose we beleeve that he hath taught us all his Fathers will : He is the Author and finisher of our faith ; and therefore to him and to an obedience to him we must bring our understanding : we pray that his will may be done here as it is in heaven ; and therefore he is perfectly to rule our wills here , for we are sure he does rule all above : we have no lawgiver but him , no rule but his will ; no revelation of his will but in his word : and besides this we have no certain place where we can set our foot . The laws of the Jews were either for them and their Proselytes alone , or were adopted into the Christian Code ; right reason gives measures of things , but of it self makes no laws unless it be conducted by a competent authority ; The Prophets were either expounders of Moses law , or preachers Evangelical ; that is either they call'd to obedience in things not Moral , or if they did , they onely spake the Sermons of the Gospel ; and whatsoever was excellent in all the world was but a derivation from the wisedome of the Eternal Father ; and all this was united into a Systeme of Holy precepts at the appearing of the Eternal Son : and since there is no name under heaven by which we can be saved but onely the Name of Jesus , and he saves us not onely by procuring pardon for them , but by turning us from our iniquities , by efforming us anew , by reforming whatsoever was amiss in manners and persuasion , by conforming us to the similitude of the Holiness and perfections of God , and bring us to glory by the waies and methods of Grace , that is , never leaves us till our graces are perfect and even with Eternal felicities , it follows that we must goe to him , that he must teach us and guide us , that he must governe us and persuade us , that his laws must be our measures , his wisedome must be our star , his promises our aimes , and we may as well say there can be two principles as that besides him there can be any eternal and supreme lawgiver . One is more then all the numbers of the world . And if we look into the Nature of his Lawes we shall handle this truth as the people on mount Sinai did see thunder : all excellencies have as perfect Unity as any one hath ; and there can be but one justice , and it is the same grace of mercy which dwells in the bowels of all the good men and women in the world , and of temperance there can be but one general measure , and unchastity is a certain prevarication of one excellency that is known to all the world ; and as for religion since there is but one God , and he is to be worshipped as himself pleas'd , and to convey his blessings to us by what Mediator and by what instruments himself shall elect ; there can be in these things no variety , unless there be a plain deficiency in the means of the Divine appointment . All the duty of Mankind is in Religion , justice and sobriety ; and in all these things God by Jesus Christ hath given us many laws , and besides them he hath given us no other , we have but one Lord , and therefore but one Lawgiver and measure of justice : we have but one faith , and therefore but one Religion ; we have but one Baptisme , or solemnity of renunciation of the flesh , the world and the Devil , and therefore but one Rule for our comportment ; one measure of Sobriety according to the Unity of our Nature , which being made after the image of God , is one as God is one . If therefore our Blessed Lord be a perfect Lawgiver , his law alone must be the measure of our duty and obedience ; but if he be not a perfect Lawgiver , whither shall we goe to understand the will of God ? Master whither shall we goe ? for thou hast the words of eternal life , said S. Peter ; there 's the question and the answer too , and they together make the argument a demonstration . For if we can obtain Eternal life by the words of Christ , then they contain in them the whole will of God ; for he that fails in one is imperfect and loses all : and therefore in the words of Christ there is a perfect provision for an intire obedience , because they are a sufficient way to life Eternal . The effect of this Consideration is ; that all the measures of Good and Evil must be taken by the Evangelical lines : Nothing is to be condemn'd which Christ permits , and nothing is to be permitted which he condemnes . For this is the great prerogative and perfection of Christs law above that of Moses ; some things by Moses were permitted for necessity , and because of the hardness of their hearts , thus divorces and Polygamy became legally innocent , because a perfect law was too hard for that people , and like a yoke upon a young Oxe would have galled them , not subdued them ; and if he had strain'd too hard , the silver cords of Discipline would have been first broken and then despised . But when Christ came he gave perfect laws , and more perfect graces ; he made the capacities of his obedience larger , and fitted the law and the Subject by even and Natural and gracious proportions ; and permitted nothing which his Father lov'd not ; and now every plant that God hath not planted must be rooted up : and therefore this law must needs be absolute , and alone , and unalterable , and perfect , and for ever : and this appears infinitely upon this account ; that although our Nature is such that it will alwaies be growing in this world towards perfection , and therefore that it is imperfect , and our obedience will be imperfect : yet even this Christ does not allow or positively permit ; but commands us to be perfect , that is , to goe on towards it , to allow nothing to our selves either of crime or of suspicion , to be perfect in our desires , to be restless in our endeavours , to be assiduous in our prayers , never to think we have comprehended , never to say it is enough : and if our Blessed Master does not allow of any imperfection of degrees ▪ but thrusts the most imperfect forwards to perfection it must be certain that in his provisions and his laws there can be no imperfection , but he hath taken care for all things on which eternity depends , and in which God is to be glorified and obeyed . And therefore in no case can it be allowed to any man , or to any company of Men to doe any thing which is not there permitted . Quest. UPon the account of this Rule it is to be inquired whether it can be lawful for a Prince or Republick to permit any thing for the publick necessities of the people which is forbidden by the laws of Jesus Christ. To this I answer a distinction : That if the Question be whether in any cases there may be actual impunity ; there is no peradventure but there may , for sometimes it is necessary , as when a multitude sins , for then the remedy is much worse then the disease , and to cut off all would effect , ut nemo sit quem peccasse poeniteat ; there would be justice without discipline , and Government without Subjects , and a cure without Remedy : And therefore it is that Princes in the Mutinies of armies or in the rebellion of their people use to cut off the heads of offenders , or Decimate the Legions , as Cesar and Germanicus did : but if it be part of the people though a considerable part , and the action highly Criminal , we find great examples that executions have been done by Subjects , by the innocent part , and then all the offenders suffer'd : Thus it happened in the mutiny of Caecina's Legions and their defection to the Ubii ; The innocent part cut off all the rebels : and thus it was commanded by Moses who punished all them who worshipped the golden Calf by the sword of the Levites , he set every mans hand against his Brother , and none of the Criminals did escape . But sometimes it is impossible to punish all ; and very often the evil would be more then the good . For in all penal laws and inflictions although there be much of Vindictive justice , yet this justice is but a handmaid to Government and Correction . When revenge is not also discipline , then it is no Government , unless Tyranny be the name of it . So that in such cases , it may be lawful to spare some who need it indeed but deserve it not . But if by impunity be meant a legal impunity ; it must either mean that a law shall warrant the action , or that it shall before hand promise indemnity : if it warrant the action , which the Evangelical law hath forbidden , it is like the laws of Omri , it is statutum non bonum , and erects a Government against the law of Christ : if it condemnes the action but promises indemnity , it disparages it self , and confesses its own weakness : but as the first can never be lawful ; so neither can the second ever be made so but with these Cautions . Cautions to be observed in Civil permissions of an unlawful act or state : 1. That the thing so permitted , be in the present constitution of affairs necessary ; and yet will not be without the evil appendage . Thus it is necessary that in all communities of Men there be borrowing and lending ; but if it cannot be without usury , the Commonwealth might promise not to punish it ; though of it self it were uncharitable and consequently unlawful . For it is either lawful ; or else it is unlawful for being against Justice or or against Charity . If it be against Justice , the Common-wealth , by permitting it , makes it just : for as it is in the oeconomy of the world , the decree of God doth establish the vicissitudes of day and night for ever : but the Sun by looking on a point not onely signifies but also makes the little portions of time and divides them into hours ; but Men comming with their little arts and instruments make them to be understood , and so become the Suns interpreters : so it is in the matter of justice , whose great return and firme establishments are made by God , and some rules given for the great measures of it ; and we from his laws know just and unjust as we understand day and night : but the laws of Princes , and the contracts of men like the Sun , make the little measures and divide the great proportions into minutes of justice and fair entercourse ; and the Divines and Lawyers goe yet lower , and they become expounders of those measures , and set up dials and instruments of notice by which we understand the proportion and obligations of the law , and the lines of Justice : just and unjust we love or bate respectively by our warrant from God ; and from him also we are taught to make the General lines of it ; as Do what you would be done to , restore the pledge , hurt no man , rob not your neighbour of his rights , make no fraudulent contracts , no unjust bargains : but then what are his rights , and what are not , what is fraudulent and what is fair , in what he hath power , in what he hath none , is to be determin'd by the laws of Men : So that if a Commonwealth permits an usurarious exchange or contract , it is not unjust , because the laws are the particular measures of justice and contracts , and therefore may well promise impunity where she makes innocence ( as to the matter of justice . ) * But if usury be Unlawful because it is uncharitable : then when it becomes necessary it is also charitable comparatively ; and as to charity no man by the laws of God is to be compelled ( because it is not charity if it be compelled ; for God accepts not an unwilling giver , and it is not charity but an act of obedience and political duty when by laws men are constrain'd to make levies for the poor ; ) so much less can they be compelled to measures and degrees of charity ; and if to lend upon usury be better then not to lend at all , it is in some sense a charity to doe so : and if it be when it will not be otherwise , there is no question but the Prince that allows indemnity , is not to be damnifi'd himself . I instanc'd in this , but in all things else where there is the same reason there is the same conclusion . 2. Impunity may be promised to any thing forbidden by the law of Christ , if it be in such cases in which the Subject matter is disputable and uncertain whether it be so or no ; then it may . Thus it happens in questions of religion , in which it is certain there are many resolutions against the truth of God ; but yet they may be permitted , because when they are probably disputed , no man is fit to punish the error , but he who is certain and can make it appear so to others , that himself is not deceived . 3. Whatsoever is against the law of Christ in any instance may not be directly permitted for the obtaining a greater good , but may for the avoiding of a greater evil which is otherwise indeclinable . If a Prince be perfectly persuaded that the suffering the doctrine of Transubstantiation is against the laws and words of Christ it may not be suffered , though the parties interested promise to pay all the Gabels of the Nation and raise an army to defend it : but if a rebellion cannot otherwise be appeased it is lawful ; not onely upon many other accounts which are appendant to the Subject matter , but because when two evils are before me , neither of which is of my procuring , I am innocent if I suffer either , and I am prudent if I choose the least , and I am guilty of no crime because I am but a suffering person : but if I doe it to obtain a greater good , I choose the evil directly , because I am not forc'd to pursue the greater good ; I can be without it ; and although I may chose the least evil because I cannot avoid that or a greater ; yet when the Question is , whether I shall permit an evil or lose an advantage , I may escape all evil , at no greater price then by loosing that advantage : so that here is no excuse because there is no necessity ; and in matters of duty , no good can make recompence for doing any evil : but the suffering of a greater evil is highly paid for by the avoiding of a greater . 4. When any such evil against the laws of Christ is permitted , the evil it self must be so reproved , that the forced impunity may not give so much incouragement to the crime as the censure must abate . The reason is , because no evil must be done at any price ; and we must rather lose our life then cause our Brother to offend ; and if each man is bound to this , then every man is bound to it . But because impunity is the greatest incouragement to sin , and next to the pleasure or interest of it , is the greatest temptation ; care must be taken that what serves the interest of the Republick , may not deceive the interest of Soules ; and this being the greatest ought infinitely to be preferred ; and therefore unless something be directly done that may be sufficient security against the probable danger , no interest of the Common-wealth is to be serv'd against it ; because none is sufficient to be put in ballance against one Soule . 5. This impunity ( especially if it be in the matter of sobriety ) must not be perpetual , but for a time onely , and must be rescinded at the first opportunity . Thus S. Austin when he complain'd of the infinite number of ceremonies which loaded the Church and made her condition more intolerable then that of the Jews under the Levitical yoke , addes this withall , that this was no longer to be tolerated then till there was a possibility to reforme . And when S. Gregory had sent Augustin the Monke to convert the Saxons , he gave him advice not to presse them at first too passionately to quit their undecent marriages , which by their long Customes and the interest of their families they would be too apt to hold too pertinaciously and with inconvenience , but afterwards it would be done . 6. Till the impunity can be taken away , it were an act of prudence and piety , and ( in many cases ) of duty , to discountenance the sin by collateral and indirect punishments : Thus the old Romans confin'd their lupanaria to the outer part of the city ; It was a Summaenium , and their impure women had a name of disgrace , and a yellow veile was their cognisance : and so the Jews are us'd in some places : but thus we find that S. Paul and the Apostles tolerated those Christians which from among their own Nation gave up their Names to Christ ; who yet were Polygamists , or which was equivalent , had married a second wife their first being living and divorc'd , but although this could not well be avoided , lest they should be vex'd into Apostacy , and their Judaical hardness of heart was not yet interated sufficiently by the softer and sweeter Sermons of the Gospel ; but yet to represent their dislike of such marriages which they were forc'd to tolerate they forbad such persons to be taken into their Clergy , so punishing such persons by a privation of honour whom they could not punish by a direct infliction of censures , or separation from their wives . 7. In all such tolerations of evil , the secular interest must be apparently separate and declar'd to stand far off from any thing of the Religion ; and the Consciences permitted to stand or fall under them , who are to take care of them and answer for them ; the permission by the civil power is not to rescue them from the Ecclesiastical rod : for it being a matter of civil interest is not to derive any countenance from religion , so much as accidentally ; for no powers of Man can forbid the servants of Christ to preach his law , to declare his will , and to get Subjects to his Kingdome , and to turn sinners from the error of their way : if they doe , they must not be obeyed , but God must , and if they die for it they are well enough . But now against the doctrine of the Rule many things may be objected ; for there seem many things and great cases to be for which the laws of the holy Jesus have made no provision . I instance in a very great one , That is , the whole state of warre , and all the great cases and incidents of it . For since it is disputable whether Christianity allowes of warre , and it is not disputable but very certain that it speaks nothing of it expressly , neither gives any cautions concerning it in particular , it will seem to be a casus omissus in the law . To this there may be many considerations offered . Of the measures of warre by Christs law . 1. If it be said that all warre is unlawful , against the analogy and against many express lines of our religion ; it is indeed a short way of answering this difficulty , but will involve the whole Christian world in many more ; but of this in the following numbers I shall give accounts . 2. If it be said that Christianity leaves that matter of warre wholly to be conducted by the laws of Nature and Nations : we shall find that this will intangle the whole inquiry , but we shall never come to any certainty . For if the Christian law be ( as I have proved ) a perfect digest of the Natural law ; to say the affairs of warre are to be conducted by the laws of Nature is not to put them from being determin'd by the Christian law , because they are the same ; and if in the law of Christ there be no rules of warre , neither can there be any in Nature . But besides this , if the laws of Nature which concerne warre be not set down in the Gospel and writings of the new Testament , but that we be sent to look for them in the tables of our own hearts in which some things are disordered by passion , and many more are written there by interest , and some by custome , and others by education , and amongst men these are the authors of contrary inscriptions ; we shall find the law of Nature a strange thing by that time we have drawn it from thence onely , and look'd over it to find some rules of war , whose whole being is very much against the excellent and perfective laws of Nature . 3. If it be said that Warre is to be conducted by the measures of peace ; we speak what is impossible to be true : for inter arma silent leges , not onely because the sword is licentious and impudent ; but because the cases of peace and warre are wholly different . 4. If it be said that right reason must be the measures ; I answer , that if right reason could be heard possibly , there would be no warre at all : and since one part begins the warre against , reason it is not likely that he for any reason that can be urg'd shall lose his advantage . But besides this who shall be judge ? whose reason shall rule ? whose arguments shall prevail ? and will he who is minor in causa be minor in praelio , be who hath the worst at the dispute yeeld also in the fight ? and are not the pugnacissimi the fighting men such as will hear and understand the least reason ? 5. Some will have the law of Nations to be the measure of warre ; and possibly it might if there were a Digest of them , and a compulsory to inforce them ; but there being neither , they are uncertain what they are , and are admitted with variety and by accident , and they shall oblige strangers when the men are conquered ; and Subjects by the will of the Prince , that is , the measures of warre shall be the edicts of any single General and nothing else . In the midst of these oppositions it will be hard to find something certain : but that which can most be relied upon is this . * That Christian Religion hath made no particular provisions for the conduct of warre under a proper title , because it hath so comm●nded all the actions of men , hath so ordered the religion , so taken care that men shall be just , and doe no wrong , hath given laws so perfect rules so excellent , threatnings so severe , promises so glorious that there can be nothing wa●ting towards the peace and felicity of mankind , but the wills of men . If men be subjects of Christs law , they can never goe to warre with each other ; but when they are out of the state of laws and peace , they fall into the state of warre ; which being contrary to peace , is also without all laws . So that the injurious person is not to inquire how to conduct his warre , for he is gone beyond all law ; into a state of things where laws are of no value : but for the injur'd person he is just so to comport himself as he can ; having one measure of action , and another of defence . For his defence : it is not to be measured by laws , but by privileges : that is , things being gone beyond the laws of Nature : he is left to his natural powers and defences ; and is to doe this without any other limit , but that he defend himself and his relatives and drive away the injury . That is , there being no law of God to forbid him to defend himself he is at his liberty which Naturally every man hath : Hoc & ratio doctis , & necessitas barbaris , & mos gentibus , & feris Natura ipsa praescripsit , ut omnem semper vim , quacunque ope possent , à corpore , à capite , à vita sua propulsarent . The learned are taught by reason , the barbarous nations by necessity , the civil by custom , the very beasts also by Nature , to defend their head , their body , their life from all injury by all means . For God hath no where forbidden that a man shall be defended , Armáque in armatos sumere jura sinunt ; we may put on armour to defend us against an armed malice : he hath indeed forbidden private revenges , because those are intrusted to the laws and publick persons ; but when a single person is injur'd he can defend himself or crave the patronage of Princes and the laws ; but when publick interests are violated , when Kingdomes and Communities of Men and Princes are injur'd , there is no law to defend them ; and therefore it must be force : for force is the defensative of all laws : and when all laws are injur'd , there can be no way to reduce men to reason , but by making them feele the evils of Unreasonableness . If this were not so then all Commonwealths were in a worse state of affairs then single persons : for Princes are to defend each single person ; and the laws are to secure them ; but if the laws themselves be not defended , no single person can be ; and if they could , much rather should all . Whatsoever is absolutely necessary is certainly lawful , and since Christ hath no where forbidden Kings to defend themselves and their people against violence ; in this case there is no law at all to be considered ; since there is a right of Nature which no law of God hath restrained ; and by that right all men are equal ; and therefore if they be not safe from injury it is their own fault or their own unhappiness ; they may if they will , and if they can : and they have no measures in this but that they take care they be defended , and quit from the danger and no more . The Jus naturae , the rights and liberties , the equalities and privileges of Nature are the warrant of the defence , or rather there needs no warrant , where there is no law at all : But this right of Nature is the measure of the defence , we may be defended as much as we need . But then if it be inquired , what is the measure of actions which must be done in the conduct of the defence by the injur'd Prince or Republick , and how shall they be measur'd if Christ in his laws hath made no provisions and describ'd no rules ? I answer , That the measures of action in publick are no other then the measures of the private ; the same Rule of justice is to be between Princes and between Private persons : they also must doe as they would be done to ; they must keep covenants , perform their words , hurt no innocent person whom they can preserve , and yet preserve themselves , they must keep themselves within the limits of a just defence : and as in private contentions and repetitions of our right we must look after justice , but doe nothing against charity , we must defend our rights , but doe the adversary no wrong , and by no vexatitious measures secure our own interest , and destroy his just right , in an unnecessary conduct of our own , so it is with Princes : He that is injur'd may drive away the injury , he may fight against invaders , he may divert the warre if it be necessary ; but he may not destory the innocent with the guilty , the peacable Countrymen with the fighting Souldiers : and nothing can legitimate that but an absolute necessity that is , it must not be done at all when it can be understood and when it can be avoided : and there is no direct action of warre but it is to be rul'd by necessity , and justice and charity , and in these there is no variety of the rule , and no change except what is made by the Subject matter , which must be made to combine with the measures of justice and charity by the instruments of reason and customs and publike fame , and all the measures of wise and good Men. Warrs are so to be manag'd as private contentions are ; and there are the same rules for both , that is , when they are equals : but if it be a warre betwixt Subject and Superior , it is on the Princes part to be conducted as other acts of publick justice : when a single executioner can punish offenders , that is enough ; if one cannot , more must ; for it is every mans interest that the injurious should be punished ; and he that can raise the Country Troops by law , to assist the executions of justice , may raise all the Troops of his Kingdome to doe the same duty when there is a greater necessity : But for the Subjects who take up armes against their Superior , there is no answer to be given by what measures they must conduct their armes , there is no measure at all for them , but one , to lay them down and never to take them up again . For it can not be expected that a wise and a holy lawgiver should give rules for the Banditi to manage their violences , or the Circassians how to conduct their plunder and their robberies : Christ never gave any laws concerning rebels , but obedience and repentance : and for just warres , that is , the defensive warres of Princes ( for there is no other just but what is defensive directly or by a just equivalency ) Christ hath given no other laws but the same by which single persons in their contentions or differences are to be conducted : and thus also S. John the Baptist gave the same measures to the Souldiers which contain every mans duty ; Doe violence to no man , and be content with your wages . For warre is but the contention of many : and as it is in social contracts which are to be governed by the same justice as private Merchandise ; so it is in social contentions : for in this case , two and two thousand make no difference in the rule , but much in the circumstances of the matter . Quest. BUT upon this instance it is seasonable to inquire whether the precedents of the old Testament be so imitable by them that goe to warre , that they can pass into a law , or if not , yet whether they are safe or no ? The question though instanc'd in the matter of warre , yet is of use in all affairs whatsoever ; because there are divers portions of mankind , 1. who think every thing is imitable which they find done in the Scriptures , and 2. nothing safe or warrantable that is not : These being their measures of right and wrong have great influence into the questions of Conscience , and therefore are to be established upon certain rules . Of the Negative measures of examples in the Old Testament . 1. Therefore it is evident that not every thing done in the old Testament is a warrant for us : I instance in all the injustices and violences , rapines , and open prevarications of Natural rights , concerning which there needs no further disquisition ; but we are to keep our selves to the rule ; that is , to Gods measures not to mans , non quà itur , sed quà eundum ; and we must not follow a multitude to doe evil , Argumentum pessimi turba est . Quaeramus quid optimè factum sit , non quid usitatissimum ; & quid nos in possessione felicitatis aeternae constituat , non quid vulgo veritatis pessimo interpreti probatum sit . The croud is the worst argument in the world : let us inquire not what is most usual but what is most excellent ; let us look after those things which may place us in the bosome of beatitude , not those which can tune with the common voices which are the worst interpreters of truth in the whole world : and therefore that some persons were recorded in the Scriptures is no hallowing of the fact , but serves other ends of the Spirit of God. But in this there is no question . 2. The actions of good men in Scriptures are not a competent warrant for our imitation ; not onely when they are reproved , but even when they are set down without censure . The reasons are plain , 1. Because all the stories of the Bible are not intended to be Sermons : and the word of God is useful for doctrine , for reproof , for exhortation and for information ; not every comma and period for every one of these purposes ; for they are contrary : but in the whole there is enough to make the man of God perfect and readily instructed to every good work , to every holy purpose . Therefore as we must not imitate the adultery and murder of David , which are expressly condemned , so neither may we dissemble madness as he did at Gath , not perswade another to tell a lie for us , as he did to Jonathan , that he should say he was gone to Bethlehem , when he went but into the fields , and to pretend sacrifice , when it was a very flight . 2. Because every man is a liar , and therefore unless himself walks regularly he can be no rule to us . 3 3. Every servant of God was bound up by severe measures , and by his rule he was to take account of his own actions , and therefore so are we of his . 4 4. There were in the old Testament greater latitudes of permission then there are to us : Polygamy was permitted for the hardness of their hearts , but it is severely forbidden to us ; and though without a censure we find Jacob to be husband to two sisters at once ; yet this cannot warrant us who are conducted by a more excellent Spirit , taught by a more perfect institution , governed by a severer law under the last and Supreme Lawgiver of Mankind : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said S. Chrisostom : we Christians ought to shew a greater vertue and more eminent Sanctity ; because we have received abundance of the Spirit of God and Christs comming is a mighty gift : and if we should derive our warranties from the examples of the old Testament , it were all one as if from the licences of warre we should take patterne for our comportment in the daies of peace and laws , or from children learne what were the measures of a man. 5 5. Because sometimes the actions of good men were in them innocent because done before a law was given to them ; but the Symbolical actions by a supervening law afterwards became criminal . Thus although the drunkenness of Noah is remark'd without a black character , and plainly told without a censure , it cannot legitimate drunkenness in us , because he was not by any positive law bound from a freer use of wine , directly by proper provision ; but we are . 6 6. Because the actions of holy men in Scripture are complicated , and when they are propounded as examples , and the whole action described , there is something good and something bad ; or something naturally good , and something peculiar and personally good which cannot pass into example . Thus when S. Paul speaks of Gideon and Jephthah , Samson and David , Deborah and Baruch , who thorough faith subdued kingdomes ; here their subduing Kingdomes by invasion and hostility is not propounded as imitable ; but their faith onely , and therefore let us follow their faith but not their fighting : and carry the faith to Heathen Countries but not armes . So when the fact of Razis is propounded as glorious and great when he kill'd himself to avoid Nicanor , the whole action is not imitable , but onely so much of it as was pious and prudent ; and the other is to be prais'd as being the choice of a lesser evil , or is to be left to its excuse , as being necessary and unavoidable . 3. The actions of men in the old Testament though attested and brought to effect by the providence of God , is no warrant for our practice nor can they make an authentick precedent . I instance in the fact of Jeroboam , who rebelled against the house of Solomon ; although God was the author of that change , and by his providence dispos'd of the event , yet Jeroboam had rules to have gone by , which if he had observed God would by other means have brought his purposes to pass ; and Jeroboam should not have become a prodigy and a proverb of impiety . For a man is circumscrib'd in all his waies by the providence of God just as he is in a ship : for although the man may walk freely upon the decks , or pass up and down in the little continent ; yet he must be carried whither the ship bears him : A man hath nothing free but his will , and that indeed is guided by laws and reasons , but although by this he walks freely ; yet the Divine providence is the ship , and God is the Pilot , and the contingencies of the world are sometimes like the fierce windes which carry the whole event of things whither God pleases : So that this event is no part of the measure of the will : that hath a motion of its own which depends not upon events and rare contingencies , or the order of secret providence : and therefore this which could not commend his action cannot warrant our imitation . 4. Actions done in the old Testament though by a command of God doe not warrant us or become justificable precedents without such as express command as they had : if the command was special and personal , the obedience was just so limited ; and could not pass beyond the person . Thus Jehu took up armes against the house of Ahab by the command of God ; who intended to punish him severely . But we may not lift up our hand against our Prince though he be wicked ; unless God give us such an express Commandement : For nothing is imitable but what is good : but in this there was nothing good but the obedience ; and therefore nothing can legitimate it but a Commandement . 5. Actions of good men if done upon a violent cause , or a great necessity are not imitable unless it be in an equal case and a like necessity . David when he was hungry went into the Priests house and took the bread which was onely lawful for the Priests to eat , and to this example Christ appeals ; but it was in a like case in a case of necessity and charity , He that does the same thing must have the same reason , or he will not have the same innocence . 6. Examples in matters of war are ever the most dangerous precedents : not onely because men are then most violent and unreasonable , but because the rules of warre are least describ'd ; and the necessities are contingent and many , and the reason of the action depending upon heaps of circumstances ( of which peradventure no notice is recorded ) can less be understood ; and after all this , because most commonly they are unreasonable and unmerciful . That David made the people of the Ammonites to pass under Saws and harrows of iron is not safely imitable by Christian Souldiers ; because it had so much cruelty , which either must be criminal or have an extraordinary legitimation , which it is certain Christian Princes cannot have unless it be by a rare contingency , and a new revelation , to which they can never reasonbly pretend . But that they may drive out an invading army , that they may kill them that resist , that they may by warre defend the publick rights in which all the private are involved , they may safely take for their warrant ; the example of Abraham fighting in behalf of the King of Sodom ; the act of Melchisedek in blessing God for the success of that battel ; the warres of the Judges and of David , because these were just and necessary by special command , or necessary defence , faith was the great instrument , and Gods blessing gave them prosperity ; they were against no law , and the like cases God hath not since restrained , and therefore we of our selves being left to the rights of our Nature , and unconfin'd by the laws of God , proceed prudently when we have the confidence of such great examples ; against which the interest of no law is publickly , the interest of no vertue is secretly ingaged . 7. When a law is changed , the Examples which acted in proportion to that law lose all manner of influence and causality , and cannot produce a just imitation . Among the Jews it was lawful for a private person to transfixe his Brother or his Father if either of them tempted him to idolatry ; and in a cause of God they might doe publick justice by a private hand . All the actions of their Zealots done in such instances are no examples to Christians : because when that Priesthood was chang'd , the law was chang'd , and then the Nature of the action pass'd from lawful to unlawful ; and therefore could not be imitated . He that is to write Greek must not transcribe it by the Hebrew Alphabet , and when the copy is altered , the transcript must also receive variety and specifick difference . Thus the Disciples of our Lord would fain have done as Elias did ; but Christ told them that he was not imitable in that , by telling them the spirit which is the principle or great instrument of action was wholly changed . It was not safe for them to doe as Elias did , because they were to doe as Christ commanded . Thus we find in the old Testament King Solomon dedicating and consecrating of a Temple , it was a new case , and he was an extraordinary person , and the Christian Church hath transcribed that copy so farre as to dedicate and consecrate Churches or Temples to the service of God , but she does it by the ministery of Bishops who are amongst us the precedents of prayer , and have those special assistances and Emanations of the holy Spirit upon their order which Solomon had in his own person and much more ; and therefore though the act is exemplar , yet it is not imitable as to the person officiating : because to doe so is not properly the effect either of power or of office ; but being to be done in the way of prayer is by the reason of the thing it self ; and the constitution of the Church appropriate to the Presidents of Religion . Of the Example of Christ. 8. In the new Testament we have so many , so cleer , so perfect rules , that we have no need of examples to instruct us or to warrant our practices ; but examples to encourage and to lead us on in the obedience of those rules . We have but one Great Example ; Jesus Christ ; who living in perfect obedience to his Father , did also give us perfect instruction how we should doe so too in our proportion . But then how far Christ is imitable , and ought to be imitated by us is best declared in this short rule . In whatsoever he gave us a Commandement , in that onely we are bound to imitate him : but in whatsoever he propounded to us as excellent , and in whatsoever he did Symbolically to it , in all that also we may imitate him . This rule establishes the whole case of Conscience in this affair . Because our Blessed Saviour being an extraordinary person was to doe some extraordinary things , in which either we cannot , or we ought not to imitate him . He fasted fourty daies , we cannot : He whip'd the buyers and sellers out of the Temple , we may not without the authority of a publick person : He overthrew the Tables of the Merchants , but the young man in Portugal who being transported with zeal and ignorance beat the chalice and the Sacrament out of the Priests hand out of passion against his idolatrous service ( as he understood it ) had a sad event of his folly amongst men ; and what reward of his zeal he found with God is very uncertain . But whatsoever he taught to mankind , of that also he became a glorious example : but by the Sermons onely we are instructed , by the example incouraged : for admonetur omnis aetas fieri posse quod aliquando factum est : we see it possible to be done what Christ commanded us to doe , and then did , that we might follow his steps . But his example in these things makes up no part of our Rule , because it is perfect without them : Here our rule is perfect , and so is our example ; but because Christ did some things beyond our rule , and past our measures , and things of personal vertue and obligation , therefore we are to look upon Christ as imitable just as his life was measur'd by the laws he gave us , where they are , even there we also must endeavour to be so . * There is this onely to be added : That in the prosecution of his obedience to his heavenly Father ; he sometimes did action in gradu heroico , of great excellency ; which although they are highly imitable , yet they pass no obligation upon us but that we endeavour to tread in his steps , and to climb up to his degrees , and to desire his perfections . * That these pass upon us no other obligation appears because they are sometimes impossible to be attain'd to ; and they are the highest and the best , and therefore are not direct matter of duty , which belongs to all , to the highest and to the lowest . * But that these do pass upon us an obligation to endeavour to attain them , and of labour towards them in our circumstances , appears in the greatest instance of all , the highest obedience , even that which was unto death ; for therefore Christ hath suffered for us , leaving an example to us , that we might follow his steps : that is , when he had given his Church precepts and propounded to them rewards of suffering : he also was pleas'd to give us the greatest example as a commentary upon his own text ; declaring that the Commandement did extend to the greatest instance ; and that we should do as he did , obediens factus usque ad mortem , he was obedient even unto death ; and so must we when God requires it in particular . * And that this is our duty , and that the obligation reaches thus farre , is certain upon the interest of love ; for we must love him who is our Lord and our God ; we must love him with all our heart and with all our powers ; and therefore endeavour to be like him : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The greatest honor we can doe to God and Gods law , is to understand God and to become like to him . For every one imitates that which he loves . Religiosissimus culturest imitari , said Lactantius , that 's an excellent instance of the Divine worship , to endeavour to become like to the Holy Jesus . 9. But this is to be reduc'd to practice so as that 1. The duty be certainly imitated ; and 2. The degree of duty aim'd at ; 3. And the instance be chosen with prudence and liberty . Thus when we find that Christ did spend whole nights in prayer ; the duty here recommended is earnestness and diligence in prayer . In this we must imitate our Blessed Lord ; because his rule and his example make 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , an excellent confederation and society . But then to doe it with that vehemence and earnestness , that degree of diligence , is a rare perfection which we can onely tend to in this life , but we must doe what moral diligence we can : And as for the instance and particularities of duty and devotion , we are yet at greater liberty , for we are not oblig'd to pernoctation in praier , so we pray earnestly and assiduously , which is the duty , and endeavour to doe it like Christ , which is the passion of the duty , and the degree of love , and the way of perfection ; but that it be in the night , or in the day is but the circumstance of the duty , nothing of the Nature , nothing directly of the advantage of it ; and is to be wholly conducted by prudence and consideration of accidents . 10. Afterall this ; as Christ must be imitated in all matter of duty ; and is imitable in degrees of duty ; and that for the circumstances of it we are wholly at liberty : so also it is in matters of his own ordinance and institution in which the Religion is to be obeyed , the design is to be observ'd and promoted , the essentials of the observation to be infallibly retain'd ; but in the incidencies , and collateral adherencies which are nothing to the Nature of the rite , nor at all appertain to the religion , there is no obligation , no advantage , no love , no duty in imitating the practice of our Blessed Saviour . Thus to celebrate the Blessed Sacrament of the Lords Supper with bread and wine , to doe it in remembrance of his death , to doe it as he commanded , in obedience to him , to receive it à praesidentium manu , from the hands of the Presidents of Religion , is matter of duty , and matter of love , and matter of obedience ; but to suppose we are bound so to imitate the actions and circumstances of the actions of Christ , as that it is duty or necessity that we take it in unleavened bread , to mingle water with wine , to receive it in wines of Judaea , to receive it lying or leaning on a bed , to take it after Supper , is so farre from being matter of love or duty , and a commendable imitation of Christ , that it is mimical and theatrical , trifling and superstitious , a snare to Consciences , and a contempt of religion ; it is a worshipping of God with circumstances in stead of formes , and formes in stead of substances , it is like burning mushromes upon the altar , and a converting dreams into a mystery ; It is flattery , not love , when we follow our Lord in those things in which he neither gave command , nor did any thing of Religion or excellence , that is , in which he neither propounded himself imitable , nor to be obeyed . For what worthiness was there in it that Christ did eat this Supper at Supper time ; or that when he did institute this he was at his other Supper , and did as the fashion of the Countrey was at his supper ? what religion was there in it that he drank the wine of his own Countrey ? and what ceremony or mystery was it if according to the usages of Sober persons he put water into his wine for his ordinary beuvrage ? and how could these become matters of Religion or imitation , when they were onely the incidencies and investitures of the ordinary actions of life and conversation ? and in these things the interest of Religion is conducted competently by common reason . He that follows the vices of his Prince does like the man that worship'd Mercury by throwing stones at him ; and he serves him with a mischief , and to please his vitious Prince thrusts him forward to Eternal ruine . But he that to humour him carries his neck aside , or shrugs his shoulders in the same manner , or holds his knife at dinner by his pattern , is a flatterer ; but he onely loves his Prince and is a worthy servant , who fights bravely if his Prince be valiant , and loves worthy things by his example , and obeyes his laws and celebrates his fame and promotes his interest , and does those things in imitation , for which his Lord is excellent and illustrious in al the world . But because against a Rule no example is a competent warrant ; and if the example be according to the Rule , it is not the example , but the Rule that is the measure of our action ; therefore it is fit to inquire of what use it can be to look after the examples either of the old or new Testament ; and if it be at all , since the former measures are not safe , to inquire which are . In which inquiries we are not to consider concerning examples whose practices are warranted by rules ; for in them as there is no scruple , so neither is there any usefulness save onely that they put the rule into activity , and ferment the spirit of a man ; and are to the lives of men , as exhortation is to doctrine ; they thrust him forward to action , whose understanding and Conscience was preingag'd . Of the use of examples in the 〈◊〉 and new Testament . But then if it be inquir'd , What use examples are of beyond the collateral incouragement to action , and which are safe to be followed ? I answer , 1. That in cases extraordinary , where there is no rule , or none that is direct or applicable with certain proportions to the present case , then we are to look for example , and they are next to the rule the best measures to walk by . But this is of no use in any matter where God hath given a law ; but may serve the ends of humane inquiry in matters of decency and personal proportions , when men are permitted to themselves and their entercourse with others . For the measures of humane actions are either the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , That which is holy , and that which is just ; and of this our Blessed Lord hath given full rules and measures : or else the measure is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , That which is worthy and becomming such a person : and because laws doe not ever descend to such minuits , the practices and examples of imitable and exemplary persons is the auxiliary of laws . But this is coincident to that of fame and reputation , thus if it be inquired in the daies of persecution , whether is be fit to fly or to abide the worst ; although we are by all general rules unlimited and unconstrain'd , and so the question of lawful or unlawful will cease , yet because it may be a Question of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , we may look about and see what such men as we are and ought to be , have done : Shall such a man as I fly ? said the brave Eleazar : he did not , and so made up the Rule by becomming a worthy precedent . 2. In complicated questions when liberty and necessity are mingled together , Rule and example together make the measures . Thus if it be inquired how we are to comport our selves towards our King , and what are the measures of our duty towards a Tyrant or a violent injurious Prince : the rule is plain , we must not strike Princes for justice ; and we must not hurt the Lords anointed , nor revile the Ruler of the people : but if we inquire further concerning the extension of a just defence , the Example of David is of great use to us , who not onely comported himself by the laws of God and Natural essential reason ; but his heart smote him for that he had cut off the lap of Sauls garment : and by his example kept us so far within the moderation of necessary defence , that he allowed not any exorbitancy beyond it though it was harmless and without mischief . 3. In the use of privileges , favours and dispensations where it is evident that there is no rule , because the particular is untied from the ligatures of the law ; it is of great concernment that we take in the limits of the best examples . And in this we have the precedent of our Blessed Saviour to be our guide : For when in the question of Gabels or tribute-money , he had made it appear that himself was by peculiar privilege and personal right , free ; yet that he might not doe any thing which men would give an ill name to , he would not make use of his right , but of his reason , and rather doe himself an injury , then an offence to others . This is of great use in all the like inquiries : because it gave probation that it is better to depart from our right , then from our charity : and that privileges are then best made use of , when they are us'd to edification . 4. In all matters of doubt , when the case seems equal to the Conscience on either hand , so that the Conscience cannot determine , there the examples of wise and good men are of great use to cast the ballance and to determine the action : for to an equal Scale every grane that is added will be sufficient to make the determination . If it be disputed whether it be lawful to relie upon the memory of our good works , and make them as an argument of confidence in God ; and the rules of conduct seem antinomies , and when we think Gods goodness and justice is warrant for the affirmative , and yet the rules and precepts of humility bear us to the Negative ; between these two , if they stand on equal termes , the Example of Hezekiah is sufficient to make the determination . 5. The greatest use of examples is in the interpretation of laws : when the letter is equivocal , and the sence secret , or the degrees of action not determin'd ; then the practice of good men is the best external measure we can take : for they are like sententiae judicatae in the law : the sentences of Judges and the precedents in the like cases , by which the wisest men doe often make their determinations . Thus the example of David in dividing the spoil between them that fought and them that guarded the stuff , as being a sentence in a question of equity , became a precedent in the armies of Israel for ever after . These are the uses we may make of Examples in Holy Scriptures and Ecclesiastick writers ; which uses are helps to our weakness , but no arguments of the imperfection of Christs law ; for all these uses are such which suppose us unable to make use of our rule , as in the case of a doubting Conscience , or not to understand it , as in case of interpretation ; or else are concerning such things which are not direct matter of duty , but come in by way of collateral obligation : as in matter of decency and personal proportions ; for which although examples may applie them , yet the laws of Christ have given us the General measures . But then since there is this use to be made of them , and the actions of men in Scripture are upon so many accounts as I before reckoned inimitable and unfit precedents : the next inquiry is , What are the positive measures by which we may know what examples are imitable and fit to be proceeded in . The positive measures of example , and which may be safely followed ? 1. In this the answer hath but little difficulty not onely because of the Cautions already given in the Negative measures , but because the inquiry is after examples in cases where the Rule is not cleer and evident , not understood , or not relied upon ; and they being in some sense us'd onely in the destitution of a rule , may with the less scruple be followed , because if there be no rule cleer enough to guide the action , neither will there be any to reprove the example Therefore that which remains is this ; 2. That example is safe , whose action is warranted by Gods blessing . Thus the piety of the Egyptian Midwives was imitable , in that they refus'd to kill the Lords people at the command of Pharaoh ; for it is said , Therefore God did build them houses , it was mingled with an officious lie , but that was but accidental to their action and no part of its constitution , and therefore not relative to the reward : but whatsoever God saies he rewards with a blessing , that in equal circumstances may be safely imitated . I doe not say whatsoever is blessed or is prosperous , is imitable : for it may be prosperous and yet unblessed in one regard and accursed in another , or successeful to day and blasted to morrow , or splendid in this world and damned in the next ; or permitted for the trial of Gods servants , or the extinction of their sins , or the very thriving of it may be the biggest curse , and nurse up the sin into its monstrous ugliness , and is no other but like the tumor of an Ulcer , it swells indeed and grows very great , but it is a sore all the way and is a contradiction to prosperity ; and sin never thrives unless it be in the most Catachrestical and improper way of speaking in the world : but I say when it is said or plainly enough signified in Scripture that God did bless the man for so doing ; that for which he was blessed , that I say is onely imitable . * And on the other side though an action be describ'd in story without its mark of good or bad , it is a great condemnanation of the action if the event was intolerable and the proper production was a mischief : and thus was the drunkenness of Lot condemned , because incest was the product , and of Noah , because shame and slavery were the two daughters of it . 3. Because in these examples for which there is no perfect rule the concernment is not a direct but a collateral duty , not matter of direct obedience , but fame and reputation , that things honest in the sight of all men be provided ; therefore such examples onely are to be followed which are of good report . A man shall not be called a just person if he invades his neighbours rights , and carries warre to dispossess a people that live in peace , upon pretence because we find in Scripture that Nimrod did so ; because he was an infamous person : but when Joshuah kept the Gibeonites alive because though he was deceiv'd by them yet he swore to them , and yet did make them to be slaves to his people ; he is very imitable both in one part and in the other , and we may not break our words upon pretence we were deceived , but yet we may doe all that we can justly doe for the interest of our relatives : and all this can well depend upon the example of Joshuah because his fame is intire and illustrious he is accounted a good and a brave man. 4. We must be careful to distinguish the examples of things lawful from the examples of things good and just : and alwaies imitate these , but with caution follow those 〈◊〉 not onely because what was lawful in the old Testament is not alwaies so in the New , but that what is lawful at all times , at some times is not fit to be done . But then , let every example be fitted to the question : If the inquiry be whether this action be holy or no ? an example that declares it lawful does not answer that question , but if it be ask'd whether it be lawful , the example proving it to be holy does conclude the other more strongly . 5. When evident signs of piety like veins of Silver in the grosser earth are mingled with the example , it adds many degrees of warranty to the determination . Thus our B. Saviour in his apology made for his Disciple appeald to the example of David eating the bread of proposition : it was indeed an argument to them depending upon the fame of the Patriarch , but yet our B. Saviour knew there was in it great charity and lines of piety to his hungry followers when David neglected a ceremony that he might doe a charity and releeve a necessity , and therefore Christ did it not because David did it , but because he might : Davids action was not Christs warrant , but the piety of the thing was warrant to them both . And indeed this is the right use of examples : by the advantage of the mans fame they may reprove an adversary , but by the great lines of piety mingled with the body of the action they may become a precedent for our imitation . I have now given accounts concerning that principle ( mention'd num . 25. ) which affirms [ every thing to be imitable if done and described in the Scripture ] unless it be signally forbidden . Concerning the other [ That nothing is safe or warrantable that is not ] I reserve it for its proper place . CHAP. III. Of the Interpretation and Obligation of the Laws of JESVS CHRIST . RULE 1. In Negative precepts the Affirmatives are commanded , and in the Affirmative commandements the Negatives are included . NOT he that gives the law onely , but he who authoritatively expounds the law becomes to us a 〈◊〉 ●giver : and all who beleeve in God and in Jesus Christ confess themselves Subjects of the Christian Laws ; but all doe not obey alike , who confess themselves equally bound , and are equally desirous to obey : because men by new or false or imperfect interpretation of laws become a law unto themselves or others , giving them measures which our Blessed Lord never intended : and yet an error in these things is far more dangerous then in a thousand others in which men make greater noises . I shall therefore indeavor to describe plain and rational measures of interpretation , that we may walk securely . It is observable that in the Decalogue and so in the whole law of Moses there are more negative Precepts then affirmative . The Jewish Doctours say that there are sixe hundred and thirteen precepts given by Moses , according to the number of letters in the Decalogue which are sixe hundred and thirteen But of these 348. are affirmative according to the number of the joints of a mans body : but 365. are Negative according to the number of the daies of the yeer : but to omit these impertinent and aiery observations of the Jews it ministers some useful and material considerations , that in the Decalogue all the Moral precepts one onely excepted , are Negative ( for that of the Sabbath is the caput ceremoniarum : ) But that of obedience to our Superiours is onely positive and affirmative : The reasons were these , by which also we can understand the usefulness of the observation . 1. Because this being the first great reformation of the world was to proceed by the measures of Nature ; from imperfection to growth : from the beginnings of Religion to its greater excellencies : but in Nature the first step of our progression is to abstain from evil ; Virtus est vitium fugere , & sapientia prima Stultitiâ caruisse . — and therefore the face of the Commandement was covered with the robe of discipline , and God would so secure their services that they should not displease get him ; but the excellencies of holiness by which he was to be indear'd to mankind were especially the glories of Christ , not the horns of Moses , the perfections of Evangelical Sanctity , not of the beginnings of the law . 2. The great Sanction of the law was fear of punishment ; and therefore God chose to represent his law to them in Negatives , that according to the endearment so might be the obedience : Now to abstain from evil is the proper effect of fear , but to doe good for fear of punishment is as improper as to threaten a man into love . Fear is the bridle of servants and boys , love is the spurre of brave and good men . Non furtum feci , nec fugi , si mihi dicat Servus , habes pretium , loris non ureris , aio : Non hominem occidi , non pasces in cruce corvos . That 's the dialogue of Masters and Servants . If you be a thief you shall be condemned to the mill ; if you be a murderer , you shall be broken upon the wheel ; but if you abstain from such crimes , your reward shall be , you shall escape the furca : since therefore the spirit of the law was the spirit of fear and of bondage , God did transact his Covenant with them in negative measures . 3. The law of Moses was a pursuance of the Covenant of works ; and since it had in it very little beside the Umbrages of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sweet yoke of the Gospel , it did stipulate for exact measures : but therefore the precepts were negative that the obedience might be the more possible , and the injunction the neerer to paternal : for it is much more possible to abstain from sins of commission then from sins of omission : So that , Optimus est qui minimis urgetur , is the best measure of obedience to the Mosaick law : he is the good Man who cannot be accused to have done what the law forbids , he who hath done the fewest evils , not he who does the most good : and thus also the Pharisees understood their duty : and they were not reprov'd by our blessed Lord , for understanding the Negative precepts by the rules of abstinence and a Negative duty ; but because they understood their Negative duty onely by the measures of the letter , not of the intention and Spirit of the law : and 2. because when they had been by the Commentaries of the Prophets and other holy men instructed in some Evangelical measures and more perfect intendments , secretly at first design'd by God , and so expounded by the Prophets by way of Evangelical preparation ; yet they would still adhere to the old and first understandings of the law ; because they lov'd some sins which ( as they had known ) were forbidden by those Negative precepts if they would have opend their hearts to understand them as they should . 4. That the fifth Commandement is affirmative in the midst of all the Commandements that are Negative , hath a peculiar reason , but nothing against the former discourse : for it being a Sanction of obedience to our Superiours under God , is to be expressed in actions and external significations ; Not onely because these onely can doe benefit , service and advantages to our Parents and Princes , but because of nothing else can they be judges : Men take no cognisance of thoughts and secret purposes ; but of outward significations ; and therefore the precept was to be affirmative , that is , preceptive of outward actions . 2. There is in children toward their Parents so much natural love and so much fear , and they are so long under their power and the needs of minority , that it will very rarely happen that children can despise their parents or curse them : their own interest , and their own passions , and their own affairs will secure the negative measures of that Commandement ; and therefore the world was in this instance dispos'd to receive greater degrees of injunction and a higher Commandement : Nature in this instance doing the same office for them as the whole law did in the other ; that is , it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Schoolmaster to bring them to Christ : and if they had been as much disposed for the entertainment of the rare and excellent affirmative Commandements of Christ in the matter of chastity and charity and meekness and humility as in the matter of duty to their Parents , there would have been less need of the interposition and interval of the law of Moses before the comming of Christ. And these observations are verified by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or corresponding part : for the precepts of Christ are positive and affirmative , as appears in his Sermon on the Mount , which is the Summary of his Law , in which when he expounded the Negative commands of Moses , he still superadded an affirmative of his own : So that it will be nothing but matter of speculation to discourse whether or no in the law of Moses , the affirmatives were included in the Negatives ; it is certain the Pharisees did not understand them so ; and they are not alwaies involved in the nature of each other , and the promises of the law were not sufficient to incourage the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the doing of good works , though the fear was enough to restrain the evil : but that which concerns the Conscience is that which now is evident and palpable : In the laws of Jesus Christ the negative and affirmative are but correlatives ; opposita relativa , and doe inferre each other . Thus we find it expressed often Whoso looketh on a woman to lust , hath committed adultery : that was our Blessed Lords commentary on the sixth Commandement which was negative ; but he addes ; If thy right eye offend thee pluck it out . So again , Resist not evil , that 's the negative precept , but Christ adds , If any man sues thee at the law and takes thy coat , let him have thy cloak also . So in the matter of oaths , Christ said , Swear not at all : for he still added a more severe negative to the Negative of the Law ; but then he addes his own affirmative : Let your communication be yea , yea , nay , nay ; that is , let it be plain and simple , meek and positive , easie and ingenuous . Thus our Blessed Lord did in his recitation and exposition of the Moral Commandements deliver'd by Moses ; in the interpretation and inlargement of which although it was proper to declare a Negative ; by a Negative ; yet he would follow his own method and design , and superadde his own affirmative ; and when he was doing the office of a Lawgiver rather then of a Prophet and expounder of the old law , there his words were positive and affirmative . Witness the eight Beatitudes ; the precepts of charity and humility , of giving and forgiving , of fasting and prayer , and many others : but because in the doing all this , he made large discourses and gave laws and exhortations , precepts and reasons , promises and threatnings in complication and mutual consequences ; therefore we are without further inquiry sufficiently instructed that our duty is now intended to be complete , and as we must abstain from all evil , so we must doe all the good we can . But this is to be understood with its proper caution . For we say in Logick , ad Negationem non sempter sequitur affirmatio oppositi : every Negative does not presently inferre every contrary affirmative , as a matter of duty . It follows well , Thou shalt not forswear thy self , but thou shalt pay to the Lord thy vewes , but it does not follow , that therefore thou shalt make vows : So in these also there is no consequence of obligation . Thou shalt not take from thy Neighbour what is his ; therefore thou shalt give to thy Neighbour . Thou must take from none , therefore thou must give to all : Thou must not give false testimony ; therefore thou must tell all the truth thou knowest : Thou mayest not give wrong judgement , therefore you must give right ; for it may so happen that you need not give any at all : These instances point out to us the measures of affirmatives which follow from the contrary Negations . Thus : 1. Affirmative duty follows from the Negative ; not in contraries but in contradictories . To make a vow and break a vow are contraries ; and therefore it follows not , because I must not break a vow therefore I must make one : but to break a vow and not to break it are contradictories , and therefore if one be forbidden the other is commanded ; and if the Commandement be expressed in Negatives ; Thou shalt not break thy vows , the affirmative is in the bosome of it , therefore thou shalt keep them : because , unless this part of the contradiction be done , the other is , and therefore it is not enough , that we doe nothing expressly against the instance of the vow ; but we must also understand our selves oblig'd to the performance of it according to the first intention . The reason of this is , because between two contraries there can be a third thing of a disparate Nature ; not at all included or concluded by either part , either by inference or by opposition . 2. From a Negative an affirmative is not alwaies inferr'd in a particular instance : We must not be uncharitable in any instance ; but it follows not that by vertue of this Commandement , therefore we must be charitable , or doe our almes in every instance : for every man is not bound to redeem captives , or to visit prisoners : the reason is , because uncharitableness and visiting prisoners are not opposed in their whole matter and nature ; but the Commandement which is contrary to uncharitableness can be obeyed according to all its intention although it be not instanc'd in that particular . But this is to be added ; that when by accidents and circumstances and the efficacy of some other Commandement we are called upon to this instance ; then that this be done is by vertue even of the negative , by the prohibition of uncharitableness , because when we are determin'd to an instance , the Sanction of the whole Commandement is incumbent on it ; and will not be satisfied without it ; but in other cases it is indifferent , and is obeyed by any instance that is fitted to our circumstances and to our powers . It is like a mans stomach , which of it self is indifferent to any good meat , but when by a particular 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or accident it requires this and nothing else , it must either have this or it will fast : So are affirmative laws ; though they oblige to every instance , and are indifferent to any that we can and may , yet sometimes we are determin'd to this and no other , and then the whole force of the law is upon it . But else , ordinarily it is true ; that the universal negative infers onely the indefinite affirmative ; not the particular : The Universal is onely inferd by the consequence , the particular by accidents and circumstances . 3. From a Negative law the affirmative is inferr'd but not in the same degree of duty and necessity . It is not so great a sin if we neglect an act of charity , or an opportunity of doing glory to God , as if we doe an act of uncharitableness , or positively dishonour God. The reason is , because sins of omission are less then sins of commission , because negligence is not so bad as malice , and of omission sometimes there is no evil cause , but a meer negative or unavoidable inadvertency ; but of a sin of commission , the cause is alwaies positive , and therefore alwaies intolerable . 4. The affirmative which is inferr'd by the Negative law of Christ is not absolute and unlimited like the Negative , but modificated and limited by its proper and extrinsick measures . We must in no case and for no regard hinder our innocent Neighbour from doing his necessary work , but it does not follow , that therefore we must alwaies set his work forward , and lend him oxen to plough his land : for it is in no case lawful to doe evil , but in many cases it is lawful not to do good : that is , there is something more required to specificate a positive act besides the consequence of a Negative law : For although the body of an action is there commanded , yet because the body of the action must be invested with circumstances , they also must have their proper causes , or they cannot have a direct necessity . Never turne thy face from any poor man , is a negative precept : to which the affirmative of Christ doth rightly correspond , Give to every one that asks : Now although the Negative is universally to be observ'd in its own just sense , Ut nè aversemur à paupere ; that is , that we deny not to be charitable to him ; yet when this comes to be specificated by positive actions , the Commandement is not the onely measure ; but some conditions are requir'd of him that is to receive ; and some of him that is to give : for for to him that will not work when he can , we are not to give ; and he that needs it for himself is not oblig'd to part with it to his Brother ; supposing their needs are equal or not extreme . To this purpose is that known rule , that Negative precepts oblige alwaies , and to an actual obedience in all times : but affirmative although they alwaies oblige , yet they can be obeyed but in their own season . So that although every Negative precept is infinite and hath no limit ; yet the affirmative have extrinsick measures and positions of their own , something to make them laws to me and you , though the consequence of the negative is sufficient to make them to be laws to all Mankind . So that although Negative precepts may be the mother of affirmatives , yet the child is but a dwarf and not like the Mother ; and besides that it is exposed to be nursed by chance and by circumstances , by strangers and all the measures of contingency . 5. When affirmatives are included in , and inferred from the Negatives , the proportion of them is not positive but comparative : Thus when our Blessed Lord had given Commandement , Resist not evil , That is , we should not doe evil for evil : the affirmative which is properly consequent from this , is , Doe good for evil : and this is obliging according to the former measures : but when you inquire further into the proportions , and ask after the instances , which our B. Saviour made , we shall find that their obligation is not positive but comparative : If a man strike thee on thy cheek , turn the other also , that is , rather then revenge thy self for one jnjury , receive another : and rather then vexe him who forces thee to goe a mile , goe with him two mile : not that Christ intends you should offer to doe thy self a shrewd turne , or invite another ; nor that thou shouldst suffer it , if thou canst fairly avoid it : but that thou shouldest choose rather to suffer two evils , then doe one . But this is especially to be reduc'd to practice in matters of Councel rather then Precept ; that is , when the affirmative inferr'd from the Negative is matter of perfection rather then positive necessity ; then the comparative proportion is a duty ; but the absolute proportion and measure is but Councel . To oblige an Enemy and doe him acts of favour and benefit is an excellency of charity : for which Christians shall receive a glorious reward : but this is a Councel of perfection , which if upon probable reasons , and fairly inducing circumstances it be omitted , a man shall give no answer for : but when the case is so , that it must be that I must either take revenge of him , or else rescue him from that revenge by an act of kindness , by a labour of love , or an expence of charity , then this becomes a duty ; for in comparative measures every affirmative is at least obligatory : that is , we must rather be at any trouble , or expence to doe an affirmative , then prevaricate a Negative Commandement . But then as to the other part of the Rule ; that [ in the affirmative Commandement the Negative is included ; ] there is no other difficulty but this , that caution be had that the negative be oppos'd to the affirma●ive in relation to the same Subject : for because we are bound to love our friends therefore we must not hate them ; but it follows not ( as the Pharisees did falsely comment on this text ) Because we must love our friends therefore we must hate our enemies ; for these two are not oppos'd as affirmative and negative in the same subject ; but as two affirmatives relating to Subjects that are divers . But this is sometimes not to be understood of the precise Commandement it self , but of the appendages ; I mean the promises and threatnings : for though it follows , we must doe good to our Neighbour ; therefore we must doe no evil to him : yet it does not follow , Doe this and live , therefore if ye doe not doe it ye shall die : the reason of that is this , because there are some things encouraged with excellent rewards , the negatives of which are permitted to us with impunity : Thus it is said by our blessed Saviour , When thou makest a feast , invite the poor , and thou shalt have recompence in heaven ; but then if we doe not invite the poor it does not follow that we shall be punished in Hell ; but we shall not have that recompence which the Hospitable man shall have : So that to invite the poor is an affirmative precept ; but in this the Negative included is not ; [ Thou shalt not invite the rich ] or if thou doest thou shalt be punished : but that [ it is not so excellent a thing , it is not so incouraged by the proposition of an eternal reward ; ] but expires in a temporal interest : So that the Negative included relates to the reward , not to the precept , and means this onely : if thou doest not invite the poor thou shalt not have any reward in heaven ; for feasting and making entertainments . But the sign of this is , 1. when the precept is onely in the particular instance of a general commandement ; as this of inviting the poor is of alms or charity : or else 2. When it is matter of Councel and not of express precept : then the Negative is not directly included in the preceptive words , but in the reward that is appendant . Lastly , when it is said that in the affirmative precepts the Negatives are included ; the word [ Negative ] is to be understood in the Moral sence ; that is , so as to include the privatives also : Thus when we are commanded to love our Brother , it is not onely forbidden to us to hate him ; but we are also commanded not to omit to express our love by Symbolical actions : for not onely contrarieties and repugnancies to the duty of the Commandement ; but even omissions also are forbidden : and this is highly to be regarded in the matters of charity ; which toward Enemies we use to estimate by our not cursing him , our not hurting him , our not being revenged on him : these indeed are proper instances of the Negative included ; but the privatives also are to be considered ; for not loving him is hating him ; our refusing to doe him kindness , our not praying for him , our unaptness to doe him good offices , our remembring and reporting his injustice , our refusing to converse with him and denying him the comforts of our Society , when without danger or injury to our selves we may converse ; is a prevaricating the Negative or privative measures of the Commandement . RULE 2. When a Negative and an Affirmative seem opposite in any sence , the Affirmative is to be expounded by the Negative , not the Negative by the Affirmative . THus are those various expressions of our Blessed Saviour to be considered and understood . Unless ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his bloud , ye have no life in you : and yet our Blessed Lord saies , He that eateth the flesh of the Son of man hath life abiding in him . Now to them who suppose these words to relate to the Sacramental manducation , the question is , Whether or no it be necessary to drink the bloud in specie as well as to eat the flesh ? because of the exclusive Negative requiring both under the forfeiture of eternal life ; or shall it suffice to receive the flesh onely , because life is promised to to be in him who eats the flesh , in that place no mention being made of drinking the bloud . To this the answer is made by this Rule ; the Negative cannot be lessened by the Affirmative , because a Negative can have no degrees as an Affirmative can ; and if the Affirmative were in this case sufficient , when the Negative is express to require more , then the Affirmative were directly contrary to the Negative : but on the other side , though the Affirmative requires less then the Negative , there is no contradiction . 1. Because in matters of duty whatsoever is any where requir'd is every where suppos'd ; and no interpretation can lessen it from what it is in its whole integrity . 2. Because all our duty is not every where repeated , but the not repeating it in any place cannot annull the obligation in that place where it is expressly requir'd . 3. Because a threatning in all laws is of more force and efficacy then a promise ; and therefore when under a threatning more is requir'd , the promise that is affix'd to a part of it must be understood by the analogy and promise to that threatning , because one thing is enough to destroy us , but one thing is not enough to preserve us , Bonum ex integra causa , malum ex qualibet particulari . 4. Because it is ordinary in Scripture to give the promise to every part of duty ▪ which yet shall never be paid to that alone : thus to purity , to poverty of Spirit , to mercy , to faith , to almes , to patience , to hope , the promises of blessedness are given ; but although it is said , the pure in heart shall see God ; and the poor in spirit shall have the Kingdom , and they that quit houses and lands for Christs sake shall receive the reward of the other world ; yet unless all that is requir'd be put together in the duty , nothing of the reward shall be given to the person . Every part of an exclusive negative is an indispensable duty ; but every affirmative that is incouraged by a promise does not contain a whole duty , but a part of duty , which by being Symbolical to the whole is incouraged as every other part is , but is not paid but in an intire payment , to an intire obedience . This also is true when in the affirmative more is put then in the Negative , for even then the Negative is the strict measure of the Commandement , and the limit of its absolute necessity and exaction . He that beleeveth and is baptized shall be saved , but he that beleeveth not shall be damned . Here the negative is the utmost limit ; the necesse esse is describ'd in that ; the bene esse , and the ordinary expectation in the other : by which we are thus to understand this and such other expressions , that the Negative contains the indispensable duty , and supposes an obligation that nothing can excuse in persons capable ; but the Affirmative that supposes more is yet for that which is over and above content with a less necessity , and admits of easier dispensation : For it containing all that is expected is like a Summum jus which though by the method of laws it is often expressed that obedience may be invited as forward as it can , yet the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the abatement is in the Negative ; that 's the lowest , and therefore it is bound up with the penalty . For to the highest duty the reward is promised , and it is more then enough to pay it , but the punishment is threatned by lower measures : God abates much before he smites ; and though he will reward every good we doe , yet every good that is omitted is not punished with death . But this is to be understood when the good is of that Nature that it may be omitted upon a probable cause , or without malice ; or without the direct prevarication of an express Commandement . For many good things are wholly put to us upon the account of hope and promises , and not of Commandements , and obedience : though in these also God makes what abatements he please : but we are to make none at all . RULE 3. In the Affirmative and Negative precepts of Christ , not onely what is in the words of the Commandement , but whatsoever is Symbolical or alike , is equally forbidden or commanded . WHen S. Paul had enumerated the works of the flesh , and had put into the Catalogue most of those crimes which are commonly nam'd in laws and fame and the manners of men ; he adds , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and those things which are like to these . For 1. there are some things which are too bad to name , such were the impurities of the Tribades , Fellatrices , Dranci , Pathici , Paedicatores , of which the Apostle saies , it is a shame even to name such things as are done of them in secret : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that 's the general word which the Apostle uses for them all , dishonourable lusts : Now when all unnatural lusts are forbidden , all mixtures but what are hallowed by marriage , the order of Nature , it is no part of the perfection of the law , to name the species of impurity , and the circumstances of that vileness which gets new names as men please to undoe themselves by tricks and artifices of shame . 2. There are some sins which are like new diseases , vile and infectious in one yeer , or in one age which were never heard of before , and die with reproach and are never heard of again . That a woman should grow to that impudence as to marry her adulterer in the same town where her husband was living , and a Prince , was so rare a contingency , that though it was once done in Rome , yet no law was needful to prevent it : and there needed no law to forbid a man to marry a boy ; yet Nero did marry Sporus , and he married Doryphorus , whom Tacitus calls Pythagoras : but this was no less a sin , because it was not the express vocal contradiction of a law ; it was against a law that nam'd it not . 3. There are some sins which Nature and the publick manners of the world doe so condemne , that they need no special mention in the laws . No law forbids us to eat mans flesh , and yet all the civil part of mankind hate and condemne them that doe it ; and those Egyptians who did Deperire desunctarum cadavera , fall in love with the dead bodies which they did anoint , were condemned by the voice of all the world , without the charges of an express law ; and all that read the Narratives of the Gnostick impurities , how they did in the impurest sense , Litare in sanguine femineo , and make their Eucharist of matter of abhomination , have enough of prime reason and common notices of laws and things to condemn their vileness , though they never study the question or inquire which Commandement they prevaricate . 4. There are some sins like others that are nam'd ; which are not distinct kinds , but like the monsters of Africa produc'd by heterogeneous mixtures , or equivocal generation : Thus to geld a child to make him have a good voice is so like cruelty , and the unmercifulness of homicide or mutilation , and is such a curiosity of voluptuousness and sensuality , that though it wants a name to signifie its whole sinfulness , yet it must stand condemned though there be no text against it describ'd expressly in the Tables of the law . To give money for Ecclesiastical preferments is so like the sin of Simon Magus , that it hath obtain'd his name and his reproach , and yet it is not the same crime ; but upon the account of S. Pauls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Similitude , it hath the same condemnation . Thus Polygamy is like adultery , and marrying after divorce ( except onely in the case of fornication ) is like Polygamie . Concerning which things , there is one measure in general , and some other more particular . 1. In Generall . * The likeness of things to those which are expressly forbidden is not to be estimated by formes and outsides , and material resemblances , but by the intrinsick irregularity and reason of the prohibition . To kill a wife or daughter taken in Adultery even in those Countries where by the laws it is permitted , looks as like murder , as killing can : but because the laws allow the interested man to be the executioner , it is the publick hand not the private that takes the vengeance : and therefore they are not alike in a culpable similitude . But on the other side , to take my goods whereever I find them looks like justice ; but because of justice a man is not to be Judge and executioner in his own case , and this thing is in many cases forbidden by the laws , this is against justice ; for it is not enough that it is his own ; for although it is justum , a just thing to take my own , yet to doe it from a thief by private authority where it is forbidden by the publick , is justum injustè factum , a just thing done after an unjust manner . But if there be a likeness of injustice , a prevarication of the same reason , an equal injury , then not the letter of the law , but the reason and the spirit of it is its condemnation . Par pari referre , to give back the good I have borrowed is one of the great lines of Justice ; and upon this account we are bound to pay debts , to performe contracts , to make equal returnes of valuable considerations , and whatever is against this is against justice . But then because acts of kindness are the transition of a good from one to another , and although it is without a bargain , yet it is not without an obligation ingratitude comes under the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it is so like injustice that it is the worse for it . It is expressly commanded that we should provide for our children according to our powers : and therefore they that expose them are worse then infidels and have denyed the faith : but then to deny to nurse their own children ( unless it be upon a just and a reasonable cause , upon charity or necessity ) is so like exposing them , that it must stand as reprobate under the sentence of the same Commandement . 2. But the particular measures of this Rule are these : watsoever is of the same specification is of the same obligation and necessity . But if men would be ingenuous and worthy in giving sentences of their actions and understanding the measures of their duty , there could be no difficulty in this . For men are easie enough to consent to a General rule , but they will not suffer their own case to be concerned in it : and they understand the particulars too fast , when it is the interest of their Brother , but if it be their own they know nothing of it . It is written , Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God , and all the world consented to the law since the promulgation : but yet many nations and many ages of Christendome did admit the tryals of rights by duels , and of innocency by fire Ordeal : which was as direct a tempting of God as any thing next to desperation it self : and by this is sufficiently reprov'd . If the labourer be worthy of his hire , then so is the Priest : if the Priest of the old Law , then also the minister of the Gospel : which particular I choose to instance in , that by occasion of it I may give caution against that which causes errour in the application of this measure and sense of laws unto the Conscience . For because all actions are invested and varied with many circumstances , they who are concern'd in a particular with which they are willing to escape , think every new circumstance to be a warrant great enough to exempt him from the general rule . Thus if a rule was given in the law of Moses , they who would not have it drawn into consequence in the Gospel ; observe that differing circumstance of the divers laws : and think it answer enough to say , it was so in the Law , but what is that to the Gospel ? Now this answer is onely true when the law and the Gospel have contrary measures in the same instance ; that is , when the instance did not onely relate to the law of Moses , but is against the analogy of the Gospel . Thus , no unclean thing was to come into the presence of the Lord : and therefore the leper or the polluted in profluvio sanguinis or seminis might not come into the Temple ; but then if we argue ; this is much more true in the Gospel which is a state of greater purity then the law ; we can conclude nothing : because the measures of legal and Evangelical purity are wholly differing ; and therefore here the relation to the several states and laws is considerable and makes a material difference : But when there is nothing in one that appropriates it to it self , and nothing in the other that excludes it , then the circumstance and relation alters nothing of the proposition : and so it is in the matter of maintenance for the Evangelical Minister . But no circumstance can alter the question , unless it be a material ingredient in the very constitution of it , and changes the reason of the former usage . Thus when by the Commandement we are tied to give every one their own , if the owner be a madman , and in his fury demands his sword ; although this particular be a specification of the General rule , yet it is altered by a circumstance which changes the reason of the law , or supposes it changed . * So when David brought his men to eat Shew bread in the dayes of need , the Priest ask'd if the young men had abstain'd from their wives ; saying , That then they might : but he that shall argue from hence , that no man can receive the Sacramental bread but he that hath been continent in that instance , may be surely enough answered by telling him that such contacts did sometimes and to some purposes contract legal impurities , but not Evangelical , in which onely the purity of the Spirit is requir'd , or if also corporal were requir'd , yet such approaches under the protection of marriage are declar'd to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as great a purity as chastity its self , of which this is one kind . But when there is no cause of change of the ingredient in the article ; if it be of the same Nature , though differing in extrinsecal or unconcerning circumstances , it is by way of specification included in the Rule , and is to be conducted by its measures . 3. Whatsoever is equivalent to the instance of the law , is also within its Sanction and constitution : By [ equivalent ] ( speaking Morally not Logically ) I mean that which is inferr'd from the greater to the less affirmatively : or 2. from the less to the greater Negatively : or 3. from that which is equal to it both affirmatively and negatively . For thus laws are extended on all hands : The same law that forbids murder , forbids cruel thoughts and violent anger , whatsoever tempts to murder or is the beginning of it , or is in the Natural progression towards it . So on the other side , the law commands us to obey our Superiours ( meaning the Spiritual ) the same law though it there names them not , does more strongly command us to obey Princes : for they also are ov●● us and watch for the good of our souls , and must give an account for them . Thus if Husbands must give honour to their wives , then wives must give honour much rather to their Husbands . If you may not steal out of my house you must not spoil my goods in them , much less may you fire my house and burne my goods too : if you must be faithful in little things , much more in greater things : if you must give your life for God , much rather must you give your goods : if you must not defile a Temple much less must you dishonour your bodies . This also is to be extended to the proportionable obligation of Correlatives . For if the Relative be bound by the laws of Christ , then so also is the correlative , which Rule hath no exception but an explication of it is sufficient . For either the duty of relatives is equal , or unequal in degrees , and it is either in the same instance or in divers . If the instances be divers , they are in all cases expressed competently in the new Testament ; as the duty that Husbands and Wives , that Children and Parents , that Masters and Servants , that Princes and Subjects owe to each other respectively , and they need not to be conducted by involution and consequence , for their duties are describ'd in distinct lines . But if the duty and instances be in the same kind but differ in degrees ; then the measure of the degrees is to be conducted by proportion to the difference of persons by publick honesty and the sayings of wise and good men and the common usages of the best , and the measures of reason . But if they be the same in kind and degree ; then the rnle and measure of one is the rule and measure of both , though one onely be named in the law . And this is of use not onely in the equal instances of unequal relatives , but in all the instances of equals ; as in Friendships , Societies , Guilds , Colleges , Exchanges , Traffiques and the like . There must be care taken that according to S. Pauls rule , there must not be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ease , remission and advantage to one , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 trouble , burden and disadvantage to the other ; but in relations that are equal , the duty and the expression must be so too ; ever with this caution , that , If the duty be the same between Relatives it cannot follow that the privileges are the same . The husband & wife are equally obliged in the duties of love and justice : but they have not equal powers , neither can the woman put away the man , as the Man can the woman . For though man and woman are pares in conjugio , tyed to an equal love and an equal duty , yet they have not an equal power , nor an equal liberty , in government and divorces they are not equal . But upon the account of this Rule the Christians have a most certain demonstration of the unlawfulness of Polygamy or of having many wives at once : For our Blessed Saviour said , He that puts away his wife unless it be for fornication , and marries another committeth adultery : therefore he much more is an adulterer who marries mother when his wife is not put away , and hath not committed fornication . But in this and the like cases we are to proceed by the measures of reason , and the common usages of laws . 1. A law drawn from a law must be evidently and apparently in the bowels of it before such extraction , or else it must not be obtruded as the Sentence and intendment of the Lawgiver ; Obey them that have the rule over you ] is a plain Commandement : But if you infer therefore in all things that they say , deny your own reason , and submit your understanding ; this follows not , because we are commanded to obey them onely in such things where they ought to rule over us , but that is not in our understandings , over which God alone is the Ruler , and those whom he hath sent are rational and authoriz'd Guides , they have power to teach and power to exhort , they are to doe any thing that can inform us and invite us to good ; and we must follow them in all wayes that lead us to God : and that they doe we are to beleeve untill we have reason to beleeve the contrary : but because beyond these measures the law neither said nor meant any thing , therefore the obligation extends not so farre . 2. Whatsoever is not in the letter of the law is then understood to be intended by the law when it is drawn from thence by a prime and immediate Consequence ; in which there is no violence , nor artificial chains , nor devices of wit and labour . For laws ought to be but few , and they love not to be multiplyed without apparent necessity , and he that makes more then Christ intended , laies a snare for his own foot , and is cosen'd by his own argument : Christ commanded us that we should doe our alms and prayers in secret : from hence it follows , that all solemnities of pride , and all the dressings and adornements of our prayers design'd for vanity and publication are criminal : and under this prohibition comes all acts of proper specification . But then if I argue from hence further and say , Therefore it is not lawful to appoint publick assemblies for prayer ; or if it be yet it is not lawful to appear to men to be passionate and devout : and further yet , that private prayer is better then publick , and therefore that it is to be preferr'd before the publick , and therefore yet that we may safely neglect the assembling of our selves together for prayer , I argue foolishly , and cannot impose a necessity of obedience upon any . The law warrants me to goe no further but within sight of it : If I goe one step from her words , I am within the call of her voice : and my obedience can well be exacted , where it can be well proved , but never else . * It is in laws as it is in articles of beleef , to which we are oblig'd primarily , and afterwards to every thing that is certainly and immediatly drawn from thence . But if you goe beyond one consequence , there are so many certain but indiscernible fallibilities , so many intriques of fancy in the disputer , and so much unaptness in the hearer , that it is tenne to one they either doe not understand one another , or doe not understand the article , and so it is in laws ; so long as we goe on in the strait line of its letter and known intention we commit no error , or can soon be reproved if we doe : but if we once double a point , we presently lose sight of the law : as appears in the instance now given in the precept of [ praying in secret : ] against which it is no objection to say , the consequents were not rightly deduced from the words of that precept . For I grant it ; it is true they are not ; but then I say it is also tenne to one but it will be so in any instance that shall be made fruitful with anfractuous and involv'd consequences : for that is it that I say : A mans reason is to be suspected when he goes a great way from this Rule ; and we by our Logick shall become but ill Lawgivers . Whatsoever can certainly and truly be deduc'd from a law does as certainly oblige us as the instance that is nam'd , or the first specification of it , or the direct consequent ; if it could be made as evident as it is certain : but because it cannot , therefore it can oblige but in the degree of its clarity and manifestation , for that is to the remote instance , the same as publication is to the Commandement it self . But the precepts or laws of Christ are like the Radix Prosapiae , the Grand Parent of a Family ; from whom the direct descendants are for ever to be reckon'd to the Kinred in the strait and proper line : but when once it goes to the transverse and collateral , they not onely have no title to the inheritance , but every remove is a step to the loosing the cognation and relation to the chief house . 3. In drawing consequent duties from express laws the first presumption is for piety and the honour of God ; that is , if the obligation be no evident , yet if it be evident that such obedience is for the honour of God , it is more probably to be suppos'd that that consequent was intended by the law of God , whom it so apparently serves . But where this or the like material ingredient is not , we are to presume for our liberty rather then for the multiplication of laws ; because that is charity and prudence , and both of them are very considerable in the constitution and interpretation of a law : But this is more full in the next rule . RULE 4. When any thing is forbidden , by the Laws of Jesus Christ , all those things are forbidden also which follow from that forbidden action , and for whose sake it was forbidden . 1. THIS Rule is of use in all laws , and is expressed to the same caution both in the Code of the Civil law , and in the Decretals , and the reason of it is , because the laws of any lawgiver being the effects of his greatest wisedome are designed to the best end , and are intended onely to operate towards and to effect that end : to this purpose laws are made to prevent evils , and though the evils are not alwaies named , yet against them it is that the laws are cautionary and provi●ionary ; so that the evil is much more forbidden then that which brings it , or leads it in : because sometimes the evil instrument may be destitute of its evil effect , and therefore is in many degrees innocent and harmless , but if the evil be introduc'd it is all that which the laws were afraid of . And therefore Aristotle said right ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we are to consider the end of every Republick , for they choose all things in order to their end ; and the laws are made for publick defence , security , and profit , so it is in Religion and the laws of God. When we give almes we are commanded not to blow a Trumpet , so being warned against pride ; but if without that instance or signification we be really proud , or value our selves upon that account , or despise our Brother as less holy , or oppress the Fatherless and Widdow , though without that pretence of holiness and the advantages of hypocrisy , they are greater Breakers of the Commandements then by their fond and fantastick proclamations of their charity . Thus we find in S. Paul an express prohibition , that we should not make provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof ; that is , that we doe not take in great stowage of meat and drink , or use arts of sharpning the desire , or caressing the fancy to make the pleasures brisk and active , and the sense quick and pleased : but some there are that make temperance the instrument of pleasure , and the minister of Sensuality , and can be most pleased when they take the least care : and some mind the pleasures so as they will not tarry for the instruments or need them not ; in these and the like cases if there were no distinct prohibition of that evil effect , yet it were sufficiently prohibited in the prohibition of the instrument . But because most of the evil effects of evil instruments are expressly and by name forbidden in the New Testament , this Rule is of use principally in the aggravation and condemnation of sin ; and it means that every judgement and every evil we suffer which we were fortold of , and which is a foreseen effect of such an action ; is to be imputed to us ; and besides the direct sin we are also guilty of uncharitableness by doing that which we know will hurt us . God in the forbidding the sin commands us also to preserve our selves , and besides the sin is angry at the very death . This Rule hath two limitations ; 1. It is not to be understood of events contingent and accidental ; but either natural and proper , or foretold and threatned , or at least usual and noted . He that maliciously sowes false doctrine in the Church is answerable not onely for the Heresie but for the mischief that he intends , or is willing it should produce ; but if another man to spite him or to hinder his fame shall set up a contrary Heresy , although this was the spawn of the first toad , yet because it was an equivocal production it shall be no otherwise imputed but to reproach him amongst men , to reprove his folly , and to be an argument of a speedy repentance . But 1. Whatsoever effect is natural to a forbidden action is directly upon the same account . Thus , whosoever divides the Church , to him are imputed all the evil effects of Schisme which are its natural productions . If an imperious foolish woman by a continual inquietude , by her evil nature and a vexatious spirit so disturbe her husbands quiet and the ease of his soule and the comforts of his life that he also loose his health , she is not onely guilty of the violation of the laws of love and duty and meekness by which she is bound to God and to her husband , but is guilty of murder , or high injuriousness and uncharitableness according to the degree of the mischief which she sees impressed and growing upon him . 2. Whatsoever event is foretold and threatned all that also is imputed to him that does the forbidden action to which it is threatned ; and he is directly felo de se who by lust brings upon himself the rottenness of life far worse then the putrefaction of the grave , and he is a perfect prodigal of his fortune who by committing Sacrilege invites the worme and calls a spirit of unthriftiness and consumption to his estate ; and he that grieves the Spirit of God and causes him to depart is guilty of that beggery and baseness of Spirit with which such evil usages of the holy spirit of God are often punished . For as God forbad some sins not onely for their own sakes , but that others which are their foul issues might be strangled in the womb ; So he forbad all sins and laid direct and collateral restraints upon them , that man might not be unhappy , and extremely miserable . As therefore he who by one sin introduces another is guilty of both ; so he who brings any evil which God graciously intended should not fall upon us , to him that evil is to be imputed , and that evil also does either directly or accidentally according to the nature of the Subject matter increase his guilt . 3. If an evil effect be not either natural , or threatned , yet if it happens ordinarily and be noted , it is to be imputed to him who does that evil and forbidden action which does inferre it . The reason is because he wilfully sins against the purpose of the law , who will not prevent that evil which the law intendeth to prevent , and makes the law void and illusory , that is , destitute of its effect , and perfectly in vain as to that intention . Thus it is observed that the Fathers or the Mothers curse destroies the pleasures of a sin , and the gayety of a fortune , and the prosperity of an offending child : He therefore that shall doe a forbidden action which shall bring such a curse upon himself is not onely justly punished and is to impute that to himself perfectly and alone , but if upon his account evil descend upon his posterity or relatives , he is guilty of that evil and is a direct sinner in their punishment . 2. The other limitation which I am to interpose is this ; That the evil effects of an evil action are imputed but in proportion to the will and actual understanding , beyond the sphere of which whatsoever does happen , it is collateral and accidental both to the intention and to the time . A mans action hath a proper life of its own , and it leaves a permanent effect , or is productive of the same by a continuing emanation , this if it be foreseen , and considered and chosen is as imputable as if it were present , or immediate . But because a man can see but so farre , and hath a limited effluxe and impression by all his actions , he is not to be judged or condemned by any thing that shall happen beyond that proper extension ; and if some Polonians or Transylvanians , English or French make ill use of the arguments of Arius it is not to be supposed that it shall be put upon Arius his account at the day of judgement , and that his or any mans damnation shall increase upon such accounts , which as they are beyond the intention of the man , or the efficacy of his action , so also beyond the distance of his prevision . But for this that rule which is neerest to exactness is this , No effect which happens after a mans death is imputable to him as a new sin . So far as it was actually intended and design'd in his life time , or foreseen and not reversed so far it is imputed upon the stock of the present malice , not of the future event ; his own act and his own intention for the present , and his actual design of the future are sufficient load upon him ; but then because his act and his actual design could not live after his death , therefore nothing beyond the life of the man can be a new sin : because as he cannot actually or habitually will that event , so neither can he rescind it ; If he cannot will it in any sense , it can in no sense be imputed , but if it could be willed , then it may also be refused and rescinded , which because it is impossible , therefore the increase of evil stands not at his door that occasion'd it , and cannot either will it any more or hinder it . This is that which is meant by our B. Saviour ; The night comes when no man worketh , and whatsoever is beyond the line of life is also beyond the line of worketh , and therefore cannot increase or begin upon a new score , when the whole stock is spent . Lastly , that which proves all this , does also further explicate the Rule : Whatsoever event depends upon the will of another is so contingent in respect of him that first set the evil on work , that it is no longer upon his account then he actually or habitually desires it or indeavours : because now the evil hath a new cause and every emergent event is upon such a cause as cannot be , forc'd or indeed produc'd by any thing besides it self : and therefore to it self onely it is to be imputed , excepting where the malice of the first agent hath an actual or intended influxe into the second . RULE 5. The laws of Jesus Christ are the measures of the Spirit , and are alwaies to be extended to a Spiritual signification . IT was a fair Character that was given of the Christians , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . They obey the laws appointed for them , and by the piety and charity of their lives , excell even the measure of the laws themselves : For by what instance soever God would be glorified and by what charity soever our Brother can be releeved , and by what justice societies are established and continued , in all that they exercise themselves according to their whole power , and would do more if they could , and sometimes doe more then they are required : and oftentimes with better circumstances then are exacted , and alwaies with a mind more ready then their hand . Humane laws can exact but the outward action ; they neither can command the understanding , nor judge the will , because they cannot secure that nor discern this : and without these two their interest is well enough preserved . He that paies my money though it be against his will does me justice and is quit before the King , and if he dissembles , yet if he gives me good words , I cannot implead him of calumny or slander . Thus the Pharisees understood the law of Moses , and called him innocent whom the laws could not charge ; but therefore Christ calls them to new accounts . He that offers a pure lamb to God may dishonour him with a foul thought : and no sacrifice is pure by the skin and colour but by the heart and hand of him that presents it . Acts of external religion are publications of the Divine honours , but the heart does onely pay them : for there it is that God does sit judge alone ; and though he hath given us bodies to converse below with a material world ; yet Gods Temple is in heaven in the intellectual world , ; and the Spirit of a man is the Sacrifice , and his purest thoughts are Oblations , and holy purposes are the best presents , and the crucifixion of our passions is the best imm●●tion , the onely beasts of sacrifice , and the Cross of Christ is the altar , and his passion is the salt of all our sacrifices , and his intercession makes the swee● perfume , and so atonement is made by the bloud of the Lamb , and we are accepted in our services , and our wills are crowned with the rewards of a holy obedience : If our hearts be right , our services will never be wanting , or rejected , and although our hearts can supply the want of external power , yet it is certain that nothing can supply the want of our hearts , and of good affections ; these must be intire ; for they are Gods peculiar portion , and therefore must not be divided . Plutarch tells of Apollodorus that he dreamd he was taken by the Scythians , flea'd alive and then cut in pieces and thrown in a bo●●ing caldron , where his heart leapt forth into the midst of all the little portions of flesh and told them , I am the cause of all this evil : It was something like that saying of S. Bernard , Nihil ardet in inferno nisi propria voluntas ; Nothing burnes i● the Eternal flames of hell , but a mans heart , nothing but his will : for from the heart proceed evil thoughts , adulteries , &c. said our Blessed Saviour●● but therefore God requires the heart , that is , that the principle of actions be secured , and the principalis Domus the chief house where God loves to dwell and reign be kept without theeves and murderers . * This then is the first sense of the Rule ; That our obedience which Christ exacts is a sincere obedience of the will , and is not satisfied with the outward work . He that gives almes to the poor , and curses them in his heart : He that entertains an Apostle in the name of an Apostle , and grutches the expences of his dyet is neither charitable nor hospitable , and shall neither have the reward of an Apostle nor a Brother . In vain it is to wash a goblet if you mean to put into it nothing but the dead lees and vappe of wine ; and a fair tomb of amber was too beauteous and rich an inclosure for Martials viper and his fly . Introrsum turpes , speciosae pelle decora . But this is a caution against Hypocrisy in the Moral sense of the words , but the legal sense of the Rule is , that in all laws , the first intention is , that God be served with the will and the affections ; and that these be never separated from the outward work . 2. But it is also meant that the whole design of the laws of Jesus Christ is to be perfective of the Spirit , and his Religion is a Spiritual service ; that is , permanent and unalterable , vertuous and useful , Natural and holy , not relative to time and place , or any material circumstances , nor integrated by corporal services ; The effect of which is this . 1. The body of the Christian services does wholly consist of Natural religion , that is , such services whereby we can glorifie God and represent our own needs ; that is , prayers and Eucharists , acts of love and fear , faith and hope , love of God and love of our Neighbour , which are all those things by by which we can be like God : by which we can doe good , and by which we can receive any : and excepting the Sacraments whose effect is Spiritual , and the sense mysterious , and the rites easie , and the number the smallest of all , there is in the digest of the Christian law no Commandement of any external rite or ceremony . 2. As it intends wholly an exclusion of the Mosaick ceremonies , so it will not admit a body of new and superinduc'd ceremonies : for they are or may be as much against the analogy of the Spiritual law of Christ , as the other . The Ceremonies of the Christian services must be no part of the religion ; but either must be the circumstances of the Religion , or the imperate acts of some vertue : The Christian must be in a place when he praies , and that place may be determin'd , and thither he must goe , and yet he may goe any whither else , his action is finite and must be done in time , and that time may be appointed him , and then he must doe it at that time , and yet he may doe it at any time else : If he be commanded by his Superiours to pray kneeling , he must kneel at the appointment of the law ; and yet he may in his own devotions at another time fall upon his face or pray standing . * But the Christian and the Mosaick ceremonies thus differ : 1. The Mosaick rites were appointed by God ; the Christian onely by Men. 2. Consequently they are necessary parts of the Religion , these are not . 3. The Mosaick Ceremonies did oblige every where ; the Christian onely in publick . 4. They were integral parts of the Religion ; these are but circumstances and investitures of the Religious actions . 4. These are to be done with liberty ; but the Jews were in bondage under theirs . 5. Ours are alterable , theirs lasting as their Religion . 6. Theirs were many and burdensome , ours ought to be few ; of the number of which our Superiours are to judge by charity , and the Nature and common notices of things , and the analogy of the liberty and laws of Christianity . But although there are no publickly described measures before-hand by which Princes or Prelates shall appoint the number of their ceremonies ; yet there is in reason and common voices sufficient to reprove the folly of him who because he would have his body decently vested shall wear five and twenty cloaks : stola & tunica ; something for warmth and something for Ornament does well ; but she that wears so many adornements on her and girdle , that it is the work of half a day to dress her , is a servant of the tiar of her own head ; and thinks neither her Soul nor her body , but her clothes to be the principal . By this I intend to reproove the infinite number of Ceremonies in the Roman Church ; they are describ'd in a great book in folio , Quem mea vix totum Bibliotheca capit . my purse will not reach to buy it : but it is too like the impertinency of the buisily idle women I now mentiond : and although by such means Religion is made pompous and apt to allure them that admire gay nothings , and fine prettinesses ; yet then it also spends their religious passions and wonder in that which effects nothing upon the Soule . It is certain that actions of religion must be fitted with all those things which minister to decent and grave and orderly and solemn action : but they must be no more but a just investiture or the religious action ; and every thing can distract us in our prayers , and all the arts of watchfulness and caution are too little to fixe our intentions on them , and therefore whatsoever can become a proper entertainment of the mind , can also be a diversion of the devotion and a hindrance to the prayer . The sum is this ; Ceremonies may be the accidents of worship but nothing of the substance . this they were among the Jews , that they may be amongst the Christians , Time and place for the action : Habite and posture for the men ; that 's all that religion needs , whatsoever else is grave and decent , and whatsoever else is orderly is not to be rejected : but if it be not these , it is not to be imposed : and when they become numerous or grievous they are to be removed by the same lawful hand that brought them in . 3. In the Christian law all purities and impurities are Spiritual ; and the soul contracts no religious charge without her own act : He that touches a dead body though he does not wash , may lift up pure hands in prayer ; but if his Soul be unclean , no water , no ceremony will wash him pure without repentance : O nimium faciles qui tristia crimina caedis Tolli fluminea posse putatis aqua . It had been well if in all ages this had been considered , and particularly in the matter of marriage : for when single life was preferred before the married for the accidental advantages to piety ( especially in times of persecution ) which might be injoyed there rather then here , some from thence extended their declamation further , and drawing in all the auxiliaries from the old law , began to preferre single life before marriage , as being a state of greater purity , and then by little they went on thinking marriage to be less pure till at last they beleeved it to be a state of carnality ; and with the persuasions of men effected by such discourses were also mingled the discourses of Hereticks who directly condemn'd marriage , and that which descended from this mixture of doctrines some false , and the others not true , was a less honourable opinion of that holy institution on which God founded the first blessing of Mankind ; and which Christ hath consecrated into a mystery , and the Holy Spirit hath sanctified by the word of G●d and prayer , and which is the seminary of the Church , and that nursery from whence the Kingdome of heaven is peopled . But if marriage be lawful , then he that lives in that state as he should , contracts no impurities , but is capable of any holy ministery , and receptive of any Sacrament , and fit for any imployment , and capable of any office , and worthy of any dignity . Let them who have reason and experience to verifie their affirmative speak all the great things of single life that can be said of it , and they may say much ; for the advantages are many which are in a single life , and in a private state , and an unactive condition , and a small fortune , and retirement ; but then although every one of these hath some ; yet a publick state , and an active life , and a full fortune , and publick offices , and a married life have also advantages of their own , and blessings and vertues appropriate ; and in all God may be equally served , according as the men are , and the advantages neglected or improved . But that which I insist upon is , that to be rich is no sin , and to be a person●s ●s no crime , and to be marryed is no imparity : and therefore to suspect a disproportion between this state , and Spiritual actions or offices , is a jealousie whose parent is heresie , and pride and interest are its nurses . Fornication is uncleanness , and concubinate and voluntary pollutions , and unnatural lusts are uncleanness and makes us unworthy to approach either to the Altar or to the railes , but marriage that fills heaven makes no man unfit for Churches or holy offices . Upon this account I am also to take away those scruples which have been thrown into mens Consciences by some indiscreet persons , concerning involuntary pollutions ; concerning which we find many absurd stories of Friers , and of pretended temptations and spites of the Devil to hinder them from receiving the Holy Sacrament by procuring such accidents to them before the solemnity : which persuasion was wholly upon this account that the Spirit could be polluted by something that is without ; and that the accidents of the body could defile the Soul and this and the like were the accidents that could doe it . In which cases it is without all peradventure true , that if the Soul consented not before or after , neither Nature , nor Natures enemy are to be taken into the accounts of just dispositions or indispositions to Spiritual ministeries ; if we serve God with our whole mind , and with all our heart , and doe what we can that is good , and avoid all evil that we can avoid , we can not be prejudic'd by what we cannot avoid . 4. Although the Spirituality of the Gospel excludes all shadows of ceremonies , and all bodily rites from being of the Substance of religion ; yet this Spirituality does not exclude the ministery and service of the body : for the worship of the body may also be Spiritual : to worship God with our bodies is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a reasonable , and therefore a Spiritual worship . Thus when the eyes are lift up in prayer , when the bowels yerne with pity , when the hands are extended to fill the poor mans basket , the body serves the Spirit , and the Spirit serves God , and all is a Spiritual religion . But because a bodily religion such as was that of the Jews cannot be a Spiritual religion such as must be that of the Christians , and yet the service of the body is also a part of the ministery of the Spirit ; the Rule which can determine our Conscience in the instances of this article is this : Whatsoever is an elicite or imperate act of vertue whether it be acted by the Soul or by the body is an act of Spiritual religion . For in vertues there is a body and a foul ; and all transient actions , or ad extra have something of materiality in them which must be ministred to by the body . For therefore our Blessed Lord hath commanded mortification of our bodies , that our bodies may become Spiritual ; and as acts of understanding are ministred to by material Phantasms , so are the most spiritual acts of vertue , the love and the fear of God by sad spectacles , and gracious accidents , by feeling good and suffering evil ; and as the actions of discerning sensitive objects are direct products of the Soul , but yet have for every one of the faculties a proper Organ in the body : So have the vertues of a Christian ; they are acts and habits of a sanctified Soul , but to some the hand does cooperate , to some the eyes , and to some all the body , that as the graces of the Soul are commencements and dispositions to glory ; so these spiritual ministeries of the body may nourish it and dispose the body to its perfect spirituality in the resurrection of the just . But then these ministeries of the body , are then onely to be adjudged a spiritual service ; when the soul and the body make but one intire agent , just as when the Soul sees by the eye , we say the eye sees ; because that seeing is the action or passion of the Soul , which uses that Organ in her operation : so when the act of the body and Soul is but one and the same product of Religion , it is the Soul and the Spirit which is the principal agent , and from thence the action must be denominated to be Spiritual . But as when the eye is made to twinkle and look spritefully , or amorously , or is propos'd as a peece of beauty and does something of its own , but no Natural and proper ministery of the Soul , it is the instrument of vice or vanity and not of the Soul : so it is in the services of the body , if the body of our services be not the product of the Soul , and the imperate act of some vertue , or the proper specifick act of some grace , it can never be a part of the Religion . S. Paul hath given us perfect measures in this inquiry , To give our body to be burned , to give all our goods to the poor , to have all faith , are but the bodies and outsides or material parts of our Religion , and are good for nothing : but when all these proceed from charity , that is , from a willing , a loving Spirit , from a heart that is right to God , that is desirous to please him , then faith justifies , and giving gifts to the poor is true almes , and giving our bodies to the fire is a holy Martyrdome : and in this sense , dressing bodies to their burial is an act of a Spiritual grace , to adorn places of prayer , to build them and fit them for the service of God , is an act of Spiritual Religion , to minister to the poor , to dress children , to make them clean , to teach them their Catechismes , though bodily ministeries , are yet actions of the Spiritual Religion of a Christian. But from this , those things onely are excluded , which either are not the direct productions of a sanctified soul , or proper and prudent ministeries to some vertue . 5. The Spirituality of the laws of Jesus Christ have yet one effect more : In all contrasts or interfering of laws , or Senses of the laws , the spiritual Sense is to be preferr'd , the spiritual action is to be chosen . By which it is not meant that ever there can be a dispute between the act of the mind and an act of the body ; because as no man , and no thing can hinder the soul from willing or understanding , from loving or hating , from fearing or slighting , from valuing or neglecting its proper object : So the act of the body which is to minister to the Soul cannot stand in contradiction to that to which in the very nature of the thing it is subordinate : But the meaning is , when laws are to be expounded , that sense is to be chosen which more relates to an act of Grace , then that which is nothing but an external ministery : Thus , if the question be between the beautifying of a Chappel , or the rescuing of the poor from famine , although that might be an act of spiritual Religion , when Religion requires that specification of an act ; yet becaus that hath less of the spirit in it then the other , and is nor requir'd in the presence of the other : this is to be adjudged the more spiritual ; because it is the more holy . If the question be between keeping of a Holy day , or doing charitable releefs to necessitous people , Christ in the instance of the Sabbath hath taught us to preferre Charity before external ministeries ; obedience before Sacrifice , mercy before Oblations ; and did not onely make way for the taking off all mere bodily rites , but also for the expounding his own laws to the more spiritual sense , that is , to the complyance with the most excellent and useful grace . So also for the exposition of laws express'd by material significations : as cutting off the hand , plucking out the right eye , eating the flesh of Christ , drinking his bloud , the flesh , that is , carnal commentaries profit nothing : but these words are Spirit and Life : that is , they are neither to be understood nor practis'd in the material but Spiritual Sense . But as to the general conduct of the Conscience in all these inquiries , the Rule is this : All acts of vertue are to be preferred before the instruments of it : and that which exercises it , before that which signifies it ; and inward acts before the outward . Thus when fasting is appointed in order to prayer , and yet both cannot be together , ( for that by fasting we are disabled to pray ) there it is , that prayer must be preferred and fasting let alone . If corporal austerities be undertaken for mortification of a rebellious body ; if they hinder the body in the direct ministeries to the Soul in other cases , and become uncharitable , charity is to take place , and the austerities may be supplyed by something else . Now this Rule hath in it no exception nor variety but this : that it is to be understood in instances of corporal and spiritual acts that are of a disparate Nature , and but onely accidentally subordinate , as fasting to prayer , keeping Holy-daies for the special ministeries of Religion , lyings upon the ground to chastity , and the like : but in the actions external which are proper exercises of a vertue , the external which is directly , naturally or by institution subordinate to the internal must never be omitted upon pretence of preferring the internal ; because they never can contradict one another , as it never can be disputed whether the Soul or the eye shall see ; for the Soul sees by the eye and cannot see without it ; and it may so happen in the external acts of Vertue ministring to the internal ; as in some cases a man is not charitable , unless he extends his hand to the poor , or lifts him out of a ditch , or guide him in the way . This instance and sense of the Rule we learn from S. James : If a Brother or a Sister be naked and destitute of daily food , and one of you say unto them , Be ye warmed and filled , notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body , What doth it profit ? That is , it is in vain to pretend internal charity without the external : in many cases it cannot be without it , and when it can , it is because there is no object for the act , or no possibility to doe it , and then the internal is to be done not by way of preference to the external , but in destitution of it and supply . But this will be yet further explicated in the following Rule . RULE 6. The imperate acts or outward expressions of the Vertue of one Commandement , must not contradict the elicite acts of another . BY imperate acts I mean such which are commanded to be done by the interest of any vertue whatsoever , not proper to the vertues but such as may minister to it , or signifie it : Thus to deny the impure sollicitations of an unchast person is a proper , an elicite act of the vertue of chastity ; but to lie upon the ground , to wear an hairen shirt , to use disciplines , to roll our naked body upon thornes , to sleep in snowes are imperate acts , that is , such which the vertue may chuse and exercise for its own advantage and interest ; but such which are not necessary to any man in particular , not to most men in the General ; useful indeed in some cases but not necessary in any . To eat and drink sparingly and so as may minister to health and Religion is directly , that is , a proper and elicite act of temperance : but if a man spares to eat that he may have wherewithall to pay his debts , it is an imperate act of Justice , if to make himself healthful and strong to warre , it is an act of fortitude : the terms being so explicated , the measures of the Rule are these following particulars . The elicite acts of several vertues can never be contrary to each other : as an act of Religion is never against an act of charity : chastity is never against justice , temperance is never against piety . The effect of which proposition is this , that one ought not to be pretended against another , and no piety to Parents can engage us to be drunk for their sakes , no pretence of Religion can make it lawful to neglect the care of our children , and to this purpose was that excellent precept of the Son of Sirach , Let not the reverence of any man cause thee to sin ; it is no good manners to comply with our Superiours against our Supreme , and there is a time and a place for every vertue : but no time nor place , no cause or opportunity of doing against any . * It may so happen that the external actions of several vertues cannot consist , as sometimes I cannot pay the Gabel to the Prince ; and the offering to the Priest ; I cannot feed my child and the poor that begs ; I cannot at some times tell truth and yet preserve the life of my Brother . Now when the two external elicite acts of vertue are inconsistent , the one must of necessity give place : the Rules of which are to be given more properly in another place * : but that which for the present I am to say , is this , that although the outward act cannot at all times be exercised and so must in certain cases be omitted , yet in no case can it be lawful for the interest of one vertue to doe against another . 2. The imperate acts of one vertue may contradict the imperate or instrumental and ministring acts of another : as fasting when it is commanded by Religion may be against the advice of our Physitian , whom to observe it is sometimes a precept of prudence , sometimes of charity . Religion commands us sometimes to feast , and at the same time our charity bids us save our expence , that the poor may be fed the more plentifully . The reason of this is because all the imperate acts of vertue are external and must depend upon something from without : which because it can unavoidably be hindred , it must needs also be , that it may inculpably be omitted . But then the Rule is this ; Because all imperate acts of vertue , are nothing in themselves but wholly in relation to the vertue ; that imperate act which ministers to that vertue which is then to be preferred , must also be preferred : The reason is plain : The accessory must follow the nature of the principal : and therefore if we must now preferre the vertue , we must also preferre the instrument . The case is this ; Don Antonio Licente of Portugal according to the Portuguese and Spanish vanity , lov'd to see his wife painted ; and one evening commanded her to appear with him so disguis'd at a Masque : she having notice that a young Gentleman who was passionately in love with her would be there , and knowing that it would enflame his passion if she were so adorn'd , inquires of her Confessor by what means she should restrain the folly of that , Inamorato , and receives this amongst other advices , that at no hand she should appear before him with any Artificial handsomeness : If she obeyes her Husbands humor at that meeting , she does hurt to a Soul , and gives fuell to an impure flame which already is too big : If she does not obey him in that instance , her Husband will lose the pleasure of his fancy . But because she finds there is no other evil will be consequent to her omission , but that her Husband shall want a little Phantastick pleasure ; and the consequent of her obeying him would be ( for ought she knew ) that God might lose a Soul : she chose to doe an act ministring to Spiritual charity and the chastity of her Brother , rather then an act that could be instrumental to nothing but the aiery pleasure of her Husband : though otherwise she had been bound to signifie her obedience to him by any thing that had been lawful . But in this there is some variety , and ought to be some caution : For although the principal vertue is to be preferred not onely in it self or in its proper and elicite acts , but also in its imperate and instrumental ; yet this is to be understood to be true , when the instruments are in equal order to their respective vertues , or when there is no considerable difference . For if the action in question ministring to the less principal vertue doe very much promote it , and the other which is instrumental to the more principal doe it but an inconsiderable advantage ; the ministery of the less principal is in that case to be preferr'd ; the reason is , because by this omission of an inconsiderable instrument the present duty is not hindred ; but the service of God is advantaged in the other , because it is able to effect something that is confiderable toward the service of God , which the other is not . The case is this ; I knew a brave man who by a conspiracy of evil persons was condemn'd to die : He having of a long time us'd to fast till the morning office was completed , because he found fasting to be practis'd by Antiquity , and by Holy persons in their more solemn offices , and thinking it might or did him some advantage in order to the bettering of his prayer ; did think to doe so in the morning before his Execution . But then on the other side he considered that if he fasted he should suffer a great diminution of Spirits , and possibly might be suspected of pusillanimity if he did suffer a natural lipothymy , and therefore could not tell what he should doe . He was sure that to acquit himself before God in his duty was much to be preferr'd before the other of appearing brave and hardy before men , and therefore that his private prayers were more to be regarded then his publick confidence ; and therefore was chusing to fast : but then he reflected on the actions instrumental again , and considered that his abstinence from a little meat would bring but a very little and inconsiderable advantage to his prayers , but his eating would very much strengthen his heart and doe him a very considerable advantage that way , he chose this , because the other could easily be supplyed by the intenseness of his Spirit , his zeal , and his present necessity , but this could not but by Natural supplies and supportations of the strengths of the body . But in the like cases , prudence and the conduct of a good guide is the best security to him that inquires with an honest heart and pure intention ; and then the determination is best , and the Conscience is safest when both can be reconciled : but when they cannot , the former measures are to be observed . 3. Those actions which can onely signifie or serve the interest of vertue by way of collateral advantage and indirect ministery must ever give place when they hinder the proper acts of any vertue whatsoever . Fasting must never be used when to fast is against charity : because charity is directly commanded , but fasting is relative to something else , and is not commanded for it self . Now in those things which are of a disparate Nature , a principal is ever to be preferred before an instrument , and an act of duty before an act of prudence , and necessity before convenience . 4. But in things subordinate , that is , when the outward act is an elicite act of vertue , and truely subordinate to the internal , there can be no contradiction of one to the other ; but the outward act and the inward must be both performed ; that is , neither of them must be pretended in objection to the other ; for they cannot hinder each other ; but the outward can be hindered onely by something from without , but the inward by nothing . So that in order to Conscience , the Rule is this ; He that does an inward and elicite act of vertue , will certainly if it be in his power , doe the outward elicite act : that is , the hand will move at the command of the Will , and the foot will goe if it be commanded , and if the Soul be charitable the hand will be apt to minister . For it is not well within , unless it be well without ; that is , unless the vertue express it self in outward action where it can . And on the other side ; an outward elicite act of vertue can never goe alone , unless it be the product of a good heart and of an inward elicite act , it is the imperate act of pride , or ambition , or a vitious fear , or covetousness , or something criminal , but neither the imperate nor the elicite act of any vertue whatsoever . 5. Though the words of Art here used be not common , yet the practice of these Rules in the Questions of Conscience will not be difficult if we shall but with some diligence observe but the difference of external actions , and be able to discerne what outward actions are the elicite or proper , and which are the imperate and instrumental acts of vertue ; because these being to give place to other acts by the events and constitution of their own nature , and the other never but when they are hindred from without , our duty will be easy when we once understand of what nature the outward action is . The Rule therefore for the direction of our Conscience in this affair is this ; Those actions which either are commanded by name and in particular , or by direct and proper consequence from the General , they are the elicite and proper actions of a vertue . Thus to give almes is a proper and elicite act of charity : to condemne the Criminal is a proper act of justice : To speak well of all men behind their backs , so farre as we can with truth , is an elicite act of equity . But whatever is of that nature that it can be done innocently and yet not be an act of vertue properly , that onely is instrumental to a vertue , and is an imperate action . Thus to invite rich men to a feast may be done prudently and without Scruple , but he that does so and no more shall have no reward in heaven for it : but yet to invite rich men to a banquet may minister to friendships or peace , or it may obtain releef to a poor oppressed Brother , and then it may be a good instrument of that vertue to which by accident or the personal intention of the man ( not the Natural order or intention of the thing ) it does minister . * By the serious observation of this difference of acts we may be guided in many cases of Conscience and in the interpretation of some of the Laws of our Religion . RULE 7. When any thing is forbidden by the Lawes of Christ , all those things also by which we come to that Sin are understood to be forbidden by the same Law. IN this there is one great difference between Positive and Negative laws . When any thing is commanded or enjoined , to take or use any instrument to it is left to our choice , and is matter of prudence and not duty : As when we are commanded to mortifie the lusts of the body : we are not commanded to lie upon the ground , or to masticate Rhubarb , or to goe barefoot , or to put on S. Francis his girdle upon the bare body : as we find these actions aptly instrumental to the duty , and fitted to the person , so we may use them : but if the fear of Hell , or the hopes of Heaven can mortify us sufficiently to all the purposes of the Spirit , or if he who is married be not tempted , or he who is unmarried be by Nature abstinent , or by disease and imperfection , these instruments are out of use , as to these purposes . For here nothing is under command but the duty it self ; aud if by any good instrument it be done , it is all one as to the law . * But in Negative precepts the case is otherwise : for the crime is not onely to be abstained from , but every instrument of it , every path that leads to it , whatsoever can begin or promote it : and the reason is , because all these things are of the same nature with the sin ; and therefore although every thing that is or may be good is not commanded , yet every evil is forbidden . O●e flye can spoil a pot of Ointment : But this we are plainly taught by our Blessed Saviours Sermon in the Mount ; where he expounded the precepts of the Ancients , not only to signifie the outward act , but the inward desire : and in this our Blessed Masters law is much more perfect then the Digest of Moses ; for although there also God forbad Concupiscence ; yet it was onely instanc'd in the matter of Covetousness ; and was not extended to the other instances of duty ; but in Christs law , Non concupisces is the apex juris , it is the Conservatory and the last duty of every Commandement Nam scelus intra se tantum qui cogitat ullum Facti crimen habet . — He that thinks a lustful thought hath broken a Commandement ; and if the eye be full of Adultery , or the mouth be impure , or the hand be unclean , the whole man is polluted before God , and stands guilty of the breach of the main law . Exercetur , atque aperitur opere nequitia , non incipit . The deed tells the heart , and opens the shop of crimes , but they begin in the heart , and end in the outward work . But in this there is no difficulty : for God being Lord of all our faculties , and the searcher of hearts , and the judge of our thoughts , he must be served by all , and he searches that he may judge all , and judges that he may punish or reward all . But the Rule is onely thus to be limited : that in those sinnes whose being criminal is wholly relative to persons with whom we converse ; every thought is not a sin unless that thought also be relative . As he sins not that thinks a lie , if he resolves not to abuse any body with it , and a man may love to please himself with false news , and put on a fantastick confidence and persuasion of the truth of what he would fain have to be true ; though to his reason it seem improbable . In this there is some folly , but no malice : but to lie is a relative action ; and if he have but a thought or purpose to abuse the credulity of any one , then that thought or purpose is a lie ; that is , it is of the same nature with a lie , and therefore of the same condemnation . The case is the same in all things which are forbidden onely because they are uncharitable or unjust to my Brother , but are permitted when they are otherwise . 2. But the intention of the Rule is more : For it means that all the addresses and preparations to Criminal and forbidden actions are also forbidden . Thus because Christ gave a law against fornication he hath also forbidden us to tempt any one to it by words , or by wanton gestures , or lascivious dressings , and she fornicates that paints her face with idle purposes . 3. It is also meant concerning temptations to a forbidden instance ; for they also are forbidden in the prohibition of the crime : which is to be understood with these Cautions : 1. If the temptation be in a Natural and direct order to the Sin , it is forbidden , where the sin is . Thus because lusts of the flesh are prohibited , it is also our duty , that we doe not make provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts of it . Eating high , and drinking deep are actions of uncleanness , as well as of intemperance : and in the same proportion also is every thing that ministers directly to the lusts of the lower belly though in a less degree ; as lying soft , studying the palate , arts of pleasure and provocation , inticing gestures : with this Caution ; 2. If the effect be observed in these less and lower instances then they are directly criminal : for whatsoever did bring a sin and is still entertain'd knowingly and choosingly , is ( at least by interpretation ) chosen for the sins sake : but at first and before the observation it may enter upon another account ; which if it be criminal , to that these instances are to be reckoned , and not to that sin to which they minister unknowingly . 3. Every temptation is then certainly to be reckoned as a sin when it is procured by our own act ; whether the temptation ministers to the sin directly or accidentally : for if we chose it , it can have no excuse : tute quod intristi tibi comedendum est : and unless the man be surprised , his chosing of an instrument to sin withal , is not for the sake of the instrument , but for its relation : and this is true , although the usual effect does not follow the instrument . For there is sometimes a fantastick pleasure in the remembrances of sin , in the approaches of it , in our addresses to it : * and there are some men who dare not act the foul crime , who yet love to look upon its fair face ; and they drive out sin as Abraham did Ismael with an unwilling willingness ( God knows ) and therefore give it bread and water abroad though no entertainment at home and they look after it , and are pleased with the stories of it , and love to see the place of its acting , Hic locus , haec eadem sub qua requiescimus arbor Scit quibus ingemui curis , quibus ignibus arsi . And they roll it in their minds : now they that goe but thus farre and love to tempt themselves by walking upon the brink of the river , and delight themselves in viewing the instrument of their sin , though they use it no further , they have given demonstration of their love of sin when they make so much of its Proxy . * But there are others who have great experience of the vanity of all sin and the emptiness and dissatisfaction that is in its fruition , and know as soon as ever they have enjoyed it , it is gone , and that there is more pleasure in the expectation then in the possession ; and therefore they had rather goe towards it then arrive thither ; and love the temptation better then the sin : These men sin with an excellent Philosophy and wittiness of sinning ; They love to woe alwayes and not to enjoy , ever to be hungry and sitting down to dinner , but are afraid to have their desires filled , but if we consider what the secret of it is , and that there is in these men an immense love to sin , and a perfect adhesion to the pleasure of it , and that they refuse to enter lest they should quickly pass thorough , and they are unwilling to tast it , lest they should eat no more , and would not enjoy , because they will not be weary of it ; and will deny any thing to themselves even that which they most love , lest for a while they should loath their beloved sin ; we shall see reason enough to affirme these men to be the greatest breakers of the Laws of Jesus Christ ; though they onely tempt themselves , and handle the instruments of sin , and although these instruments serve nothing but the temptation , and the temptation does not serve the sin , whether in its own nature it is design'd . 4. If the temptation be involuntary , then it is not imputed : and yet this is to be understood with this provision ; that it be neither chosen directly , nor by interpretation ; that is , that it be not entred into by carelessness , or confidence , or choice . If it be by choice , then it is directly against that law of Christ which forbids that sin whither the temptation leads ; but if it enter by carelessnesse or confidence , it belongs not to this Rule ; for although every such temptation is against the laws of Christ , yet they are not under the same law by which the effect is prohibited , but unlawful because they are against Christian prudence and Christian charity . RULE 8. The suppositive propositions with the supervening advices of our Blessed Saviour are alwaies equivalent to matter of duty , and are by interpretation a Commandement . THIS Rule is intended as an explication of the precepts of prayer , alms , and fasting : all which our Blessed Saviour in his Sermon upon the Mount expressed by way of supposition ; which way of expression although it be not a positive and legal expression of a Commandement , yet it either supposes a preceding law , or a confirm'd practice , or at least that those to whom such words are directed are willing and loving and obedient people , understanding the intimations and secret significations of the Divine pleasure . When ye give almes , doe not blow a Trumpet , said our Blessed Saviour . When ye pray stand not in the corners of the streets , when you fast doe not disfigure your faces . Now concerning prayer and alms there is no difficulty , because our Blessed Lord and his Apostles have often repeated the will of God in express Commandements concerning them , but because of fasting he hath said much less , and nothing at all but these suppositive words , and a prophecy that his Disciples should fast in the daies of the Bridegrooms absence , and a declaration of the blessed effects of fasting ; this hath a proper inquiry and a special difficulty , whether or no these words have the force of a Commandement . Concerning which we may take an estimate , by those other expressions of our Lawgiver concerning almes ; which we without further scrutiny know to be Commandements , because in other places they are positively expressed : and therefore if we can find it so concerning fasting , this inquiry will be at an end . Now concerning this I will not onely observe that the three great heads and Representatives of the law , the Prophets , and the Gospel , Christ , Moses and Elias , who were concentred and inwrapped in one glory upon mount Tabor were an equal example of fasting , which in their own persons by a Miracle was consigned to be an example and an exhortation to fasting to all ages of Religion , and each of them fasting fourty dayes upon great occasions told to them who have ears to hear , what their duty is in all the great accidents of their life : but that which is very material to the present inquiry is , that this supposition of our Blessed Lord , [ When ye fast ] was spoken to a people who made it a great part of their Religion to fast , who plac'd some portions of holiness in it , who had received the influence of their greatest , their best , their most imitable examples for religious fasting ; and the impression of many Commandements not onely relative to themselves as bound by such a law , but as being under the conduct of Religion in general . Such was the precept of the Prophet Joel , Thus saith the Lord turn ye even to me , with all your heart , with fasting and with weeping and with mourning . Now whatever the Prophets said that related to Religion abstractedly , or morality , all that is Evangelical ( as I proved formerly in this Book : ) * Besides there was an universal solemn practice of this exercise , under Joshua at Ai , under the Judges at Gibeah , under Samuel at Mizpah , under David at Hebron ; fasts frequently proclamed , frequently instituted ; at the preaching of Jeremy and Daniel , of Joel and Zechary ; before the captivity , under it , and after it ; in the dayes of sorrow and in the dayes of danger , in their religion solemn and unsolemn , after they had sinned and when they were punished , at Jerusalem among the Jews and at Niniveh amongst the Gentiles : Now because it is certain that all this could not be confin'd to the special Religion of the Jews , but was an expression and apt signification and instrument of a Natural religion our B. Saviour needed not renew this and efforme it over again into the same shape , but had reason to suppose the world would proceed in an instance whose nature could not receive a new reason and consequent change in the whole . This heap of considerations relates to that state of things in which our Blessed Saviour found this Religious exercise at his comming . Now if we consider what our Blessed Savior did to it in the Gospel ; we shall perceive he intended to leave it no less then he found it : for first , he lik'd it and approv'd it , he allowed a time to it , a portion of that by which God will be serv'd ; and he that gave us time onely to serve him and in that to serve our selves , would not allow any time to that by which he was no way served . 2. We cannot tell why Christ should presuppose that a thing was to be done , which God did not require to be done : such things Christ used to reprove , not to recommend , to destroy not to adorne by the superfetation of a new Commandement . 3. These words he speaks to his Disciples in the promulgation of his own doctrine , in his sermon upon the Mount , which is the great institution and Sanction of the Evangelical doctrine , and therefore left it recommended and bound upon them by a new ligature , even by an adoption into the Everlasting Covenant . 4. He represents it equally with those other of prayer and almes , which in this excellent digest of laws he no otherwise recommends , but as supposing men sufficiently ingaged to the practice of these duties : when ye pray enter into your chamber , and when ye pray say Our Father , and when ye fast , be sincere and humble . 5. He that presupposes does also establish ; because then one part of the duty is a postulate and a ground for the superstructure of another ; and is sufficiently declar'd by its parallels in the usual style of Scripture . My Son when thou servest the Lord prepare thy soul for temptation , So the Sonne of Syrach : and again , When thou hearest forgive : and again , When thou art afflicted call upon him , which formes of expression suppose a perfect persuasion and accepted practice of the duty ; and is more then a conditional Hypothetick : Si jejunatis hath in it more contingency , but Cùm jejunatis is an expression of confidence and is gone beyond a doubt . 6. That exercise which Christ orders and disposes , which he reformes and purges from all evils superinduc'd appendage is certainly dress'd for the Temple and for the service of God ; now this of fasting Christ reforms from its being abus'd as he did prayer and almes ; and therefore left it in the first intention of God and of a Natural Religion to be a service of God , like that of bowing the head , or going to worship in the houses of prayer . To this duty he promises a reward : Our heavenly Father that seeth thy fasting in secret shall reward thee openly : that is , its being private shall not hinder it from being rewarded ; for God sees it , and likes it , and loves it , and will reward it . Now for confirmation of all this , and that this was to this purpose so understood by the Disciples and followers of our Lord : S. Paul was in fastings often ; and this was a characteristick note of the Ministers of the Gospel In all things approving our selves as the Ministers of God in much patience… . in watchings , in fastings : and when Paul and Barnabas were ordained Apostles of the Uncircumcision , they fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them and so sent them away ; and esteemed this duty so sacred , that S. Paul permitted married persons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to appoint vacant times from their endearments that they may give themselves to fasting and prayer : and the Primitive Christians were Generally such Asceticks in this instance of fasting , that the Ecclesiastical story is full of strange Narratives of their prodigious fastings . Lastly , fasting is an act of many vertues : it is an elicite and proper act of temperance , and of repentance , aud of humiliation , and of mortification of the flesh with its affections and lusts ; it is an imperate and instrumental act ministring to prayer , and is called a service of God : So the good old Prophetess served God night and day in fasting and prayer : and that which serves God , and ministers so much to religion , and exercises so many graces , and was practis'd by the faithful in both Testaments , and was part of the Religion of both Jews and Gentiles , and was the great solemnity and publication of repentance , and part of a Natural religion , and an indearment of the Divine mercy and pitty ; that which was alwaies accounted an instrument of impetration or a prevailing prayer ; which Christ recommended and presupposed , and adorned with a cautionary precept and taught the manner of its observation , and to which he made promises , and told the world that his Heavenly Father will reward it ; certainly this can be no less then a duty of the Evangelical or Christian Religion . But yet although it be a duty , yet it is of a Nature and obligation different from other instances . When it relates to Repentance , it is just a duty , as redeeming captives is commanded under the precept of mercy : that is , it is the specification or positive exercise and act of an affirmative duty : it is a duty in it self , that is , an act whereby God can be served ; but it becomes obligatory to the man by other measures , by accidental necessities and personal capacities , in time and place , by publick authority and private resolution . Not that a man cannot be said to be a true penitent unless he be a faster : but that fasting is a proper , apt , natural , usual , approved expression , and an exercise of repentance : it is more fitted to the capacities of men , and usages of Religion then any other outward act , it hath some Natural and many collateral advantages more then other significations of it ; and it is like bowing the head or knee in prayer , and is to repentance the same outwardly as sorrow is inwardly , and it is properly the penance or repentance of the body , which because it hath sinned must also be afflicted , according to that of S. James , Be afflicted , and mourn and weep , let your laughter be turned to mourning , and your joy to heaviness : Humble your selves in the sight of the Lord : that is , repent ye of your sins : for all these expressions signifie but this one duty , and this great exercise and signification of it is so much a duty in the General , that it cannot be omitted without good reason , nor then neither unless it be supplied by something else , in its just time and circumstances . In order to other ends fasting is to be chosen and preferred before instruments less apt , less useful , less religious , that is indeed , before the imperate and ministring acts of any kind whatsoever ; for it is the best in many respects and remains such unless it be altered by the incoveniences or healthlesness of the person . RULE 9. The institution of a Rite or Sacrament by our Blessed Saviour is a direct law , and passes a proper obligation in its whole integrity . THIS Rule can relate but to one instance ; that of the Holy Sacrament of Christs body and bloud ; for although Christ did institute two Sacraments , yet that of Baptisme was under the form of an express Commandement , and therefore for its observation needs not the auxiliaries of this Rule . But in the other Sacrament the institution was by actions , and intimations of duty , and relative precepts , and suppositions of action ; as quoties feceritis , and the like . Now whether this doe amount to a Commandement or no , is the inquiry ; and though the question about the half Communion be otherwise determinable , yet by no instrument so certain and immediate as this . In order therefore to the Rule of Conscience in this instance I consider , that an institution of a thing , or state of life by God , and by his Christ is to be distinguished from the manner of that thing so instituted . When a thing is instituted by God it does not equal an universal Commandement ; but obtains the force of a precept according to the Subject matter and to its appendant relations . Thus when God instituted marriage , he did not by that institution oblige every single person to marry : for some were Eunuchs from their Mothers wombs , and some were made Eunuchs by men ; and some make themselves Eunuchs for religious and severe ends , or advantages of retirement and an untroubled life . But by this institution ( say the Doctours of the Jews ) every man was at first obliged , and so they are still , if they have Natural needs or natural temptations ; But because the institution was relative to the publick necessities of Mankind , and the personal needs of a man , therefore it was not an universal or unlimited Commandement ; but onely so farre as it did min●ster to the necessary end , so farre it was a necessary Commandement . It was not instituted for Eunuchs ; but for whom it was instituted , to them it was a remedy against sin , and the support of the world , and the original of Families , and the seminary of the Church , and the endearment of friendships , and the parent of societies , and untill the necessities of the world were abated , and the needs of single persons were diverted , or broken in pieces by the discipline of a new institution , it was esteemed infamous , and it was punishable not to marry . But then if we consider the manner of this thing so instituted , it is certainly a perfect , unalterable , and universal Commandement . For although every man in every circumstance be not by vertue of the institution oblig'd to marry ; yet if he does marry , by the institution he is tied up strictly that at no hand he must prevaricate the measures and limits of the institution . He that marries must marry by that Rule and by no other . He must marry one woman onely while she is alive : he must leave Father and Mother and adhere to her , he must treat her with charity and honour , he must use her by the limits of Nature and sobriety , he must make her the Mother of his family , he must make her serve no desire but what is Natural , and so in every thing is he limited to the first institution . The reason is , because a Divine institution is the whole cause , and the intire beginning , and the onely warranty and legitimation of the state or of the action : and therefore whatsoever is otherwise then the institution , is not from God , but from ourselves : So that although the institution does not oblige us in all cases to doe the thing at all ; yet in all cases it obliges us to doe it in the manner it is appointed : and in this sense the word is used in good Authors . Nam is quanquam tri●nnium nutricibus dederit , tamen ab illis quoque jam formandam quàm optimis institutis mentem infantium judicat , said Quintilian . The understanding even of infants is from the very beginning with the best institutions : that is , with the best laws and precepts of manners . Institutiones sunt praeceptiones quibus instituuntur & docentur homines , said Laurentius Valla : the precepts by which men are taught what to doe are called institutions : so Quintilian inscrib'd his books , de institutione oratoria , and Lactanius wrote Institutions ; that is , Commentaries on the precepts and laws of Christianity . But it hath in it this peculiarity of signification , that the word [ institution ] does signifie properly Rules and precepts of manners ; properly the measures of practice , or Rules teaching us what we are oblig'd to doe . So that institution does not directly signifie a Commandement , but it supposes the persons obliged , onely it superaddes the manner and measures of obedience . Cùm ad literas non pertineat aetas , quae ad mores jam pertinet , &c. saies Quintilian ; since that age is not capable of letters , but is capable of manners , they are to be efform'd by the best and noblest institutions . And thus it is in the matter of the Sacrament as it is in the matter of marriage . All men are not alwaies obl●g'd to receive the Sacrament ; for the institution of it being in order to certain ends , and in the recipients certain capacities and conditions requir'd by way of disposition , there can be but a relative and therefore a limited Commandement of its reception : but to them who do receiv it , the institution is a perfect indispensable Commandement for the manner in all the essential parts , that is , in all which were intended in the institution . Now whence I argue , Whatsoever is a part of Christs institution of the Sacrament is for ever obligatory to all that receive it . But the Sacrament in both kinds is a part of the institution of the Sacrament , Therefore , It must for ever oblige all that communicate or receive it . The first proposition relies upon the nature of Divine institutions , which giving all the authority and warranty to the whole action , all its moral being and legitimation , must be the measure of all the natural being , or else it is not of God , but of man. Indignum dicit esse Domino qui aliter mysterium celebrat , quàm ab eo traditum est . Non enim potest devotus esse qui aliter praesumit quàm datum est ab Authore , saith S. Ambrose . S. Paul saith , he is unworthy of the Lord who celebrates the mystery otherwise then it was delivered by him . He cannot be devout who presumes otherwise then it was given by the Author : and to this purpose are those severe words of the Apostle , Si quis Evangelizaverit praeter quod accepistis , if any man preach any other Gospel then what ye have received , let him be Anathema , that is , from Christ we have received it , and so as we receiv'd it , so we deliver it , and so it must descend upon you without the superfetation of any new doctrine . And indeed how is it possible to pretend a tradition from Christ by the hands of his Apostles , and the ministery of the Church if we celebrate it otherwise then Chr●st deliver'd it ? Religion nostrae congruit , & timori , & ipsi 〈◊〉 , & officio Sacerdotii nostri custodire traditiones Dominicae veritatem . Et quod priut videtur apud quosdam erratum , Domino monente corrigere , ut cum in claritate sua & majestate coelesti venire coeperit , inveniat nos tenere quod monuit , observare quod decuit , facere quod fecit ; they are the excellent words of S. Cyprian , and perfectly conclusive in this Article . For there were some who out of an impertinent pretension of sobriety would not use wine , but water in the Sacrament ; the instrument by which S. Cyprian confutes their folly , is a recourse to the institution . See , how did Christ deliver it : inventmur non observari à nobis quod mandatum est , nisi eadem qua Dominus fecit , nos quoque faciamus . Unless we doe what Christ did , we doe not observe what he commanded ; plainly implying that the institution it self was a Commandement : we must hold what he admonished , we must observe what he taught , we must doe what he did . Not every thing done at the time of the institution , but everything of it . For ( saies he ) Christ did institute it after Supper , but we in the morning . But every thing by which he did signifie what he did exhibite , and exhibite what he did promise , every such thing was a part of the institution , and cannot be changed . And therefore S. Paul when he instructs the Corinthians in the mystery of the holy Eucharist , uses no demonstration of the Rites but this . I have received this of the Lord : and This I have delivered unto you , other things I will set in order when I come ; That is , whatsoever I did not receive from the Lord Jesus ; whatsoever was not of his institu●ion , I have power to dispose of ; but not of any thing which he appointed . Now there is no peradventure , but the Apostles understood this institution to be a Commandement , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Justin Martyr . speaking of the distribution of the Bread and Wine , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to every one that was present , he saies that the Apostles did deliver that Jesus so commanded them . * For what Commandement have we to consecrate in bread and wine ? What precept is there that the consecration should be by a Priest ? Nothing but the institution . For if it be said that Christ added the preceptive words of [ Hoc facite , ] This doe in remembrance of me . I reply , He did so . But [ Hoc facite ] is no Commandement of it self , but when it is joined with , in mei commemorationem , in remembrance of me ; That is , when ye remember me , then doe thus : So S. Paul more expressly , This doe as often as ye drink it in remembrance of me . Therefore Hoc facite will be but ill expounded to be a Commandement for the Priests consecration , unless it borrow all its force from the whole institution : for it plainly saies onely this ; when ye remember me , then doe this which ye see me doe . But hoc facite does not signifie any particular Commandement , but that which is relative to the whole action ; and all the discourses of Mankind , can never extract any other signification . But 2. The Apostles receiv'd an express Commandement ; Drink ye all of this . If therefore Christ instituted the Sacrament for the whole Church , and that they were the representatives of the whole body of Christ , then all the whole Church when they communicate , are bound by the Commandement to receive the Chalice . But if they did not represent the whole Church , then where shall we find a warranty that the people may receive at all ? For if they receiv'd onely in the capacity of Clergy men , then the institution extends no further ; and it is as much sacrilege for the people to eat and drink the Symbols as to offer at the consecration . But if they receiv'd in the capacity of Christians onely , then they receiv'd the Commandement of drinking in the chalice , for themselves and for all Christians . And indeed the Apostles were not then Priests . True , say they of the Church of Rome , they were not ; but James Payva a Portuguese in the Councel of Trent talked merrily , and said that the Apostles as Laicks received the Bread , but then when Christ said , Hoc facite , this doe , he made them Priests ; and then gave them the Chalice as representatives of the Clergy , not of the people . But as merry a fancy as this seem'd then , it was found to be the best shift they had , and therefore upon better advice it was followed by Canisius , Suarez , Bellarmine , and divers others . But if this be stood upon , besides that it must be crusht to nothing by the preceding argument , the pretence it self crosses their own devices . For if it be said that the Apostles were made Priests by Hoc facite , spoken before the institution of the Chalice , then Hoc facite does not signifie , Offerte Sacrificium , and consequently cannot make them Priests , that is ( with them ) Sacrificers , For by their own doctrine to offer both kinds is necessary to its being a Sacrifice . Since therefore the first Hoc facite ( which indeed is the onely one mention'd by the Evangelists ) can but relate to the consecrating of the Bread , as the second ( mention'd by S. Paul ) does to the consecrating of the Chalice , either they are Priests without a power of Sacrifice , or the Sacrifice is compleat without the Chalice , or else they were not then made Priests when Christ first said , Hoc facite ; and if they were by the second : besides that a reason cannot be fancied why the same words should , and should not effect so differing changes , without difference in the voice , or in the action , or in the mystery , besides this I say , It is plain , that Christ reach'd the cup to them commanding them all to drink before he made them Priests , that is , they receiv'd the Chalice as representatives of the people : for being Laicks , at least till all that Ceremony was done , they did represent the people ; and consequently as such , receiv'd a Commandement to drink . Let them chuse by what part they will be reproved . Every one of these overthrows their new doctrine , and all of them cannot be escaped . * But let it be considered whether it be likely that Christ should at one time institute two Sacraments ( for they pretend Ordination to be as very a Sacrament as the Lords supper ) of so different Natures , and yet speak nothing of the use , or the reason , the benefit or the necessity of one of them ; nor tell them that he did so , nor explicate the mystery , nor distinguish the Rite , or the words , but leave it to be supposed or conjectured by the most imperfect and improbable construction in the world . But suppose it ; yet at least it must be confessed that the words which Christ us'd , and the same ritual , must in the Apostle ministery be able to effect the same grace : and if so , then a Priest hath power to ordain Priests ; for he hath power to say , Hoc facite , in all the same meanings which Christ had , when he us'd them : and if this be not accepted , yet at least a Bishop may ordain all the congregations Priests if he please , by saying of one Mass ; which are pretty fancies , and rare propositions in our Divinity . To which I adde this consideration that if our Blessed Lord did by those words of Hoc facite make his Disciples Priests , then they were Priests before the Lord himself ; for although he was designed for ever ; yet he was consecrated on the Cross , there he entred upon his Priestly office ; but officiates in that Office not on earth but in heaven , For if he were on earth he should not be a priest , saith S. Paul , therefore being consecrate on the Cross , he ascended into heaven to be there our priest for ever there making intercession for us . Now it were strange if the Apostles should be declar'd Priests before the Consecration , or first Sacerdotal action of their Lord ; or that they should be Priests without the power of the Keys , without the commission to baptize in the Name of the Father , Son , and Holy Ghost , for these were given afterwards . But this device is so very a dream , so groundless and aiery a phantasme , so weakly layed and imployed to such trifling purposes , that it needs no further an inquiry into it , it was raised to serve the end of this question , to answer an objection , and pretends no strength of its own , neither can it weaken that which hath ; and that it is indeed onely pretended for a shift , and intended to operate no further appears in this manifestly ; because if the Apostles did drink of the Chalice in the capacity of being Priests , then it ought to be followed at least so farre , and all the Priests that are present ought to receive the Chalice , which because they doe not in the Church of Rome , it is apparent they prevaricate the institution , and that they may exclude the Laity from the cup , they use their Clergy as bad , when themselves doe not officiate . 3. This trifling pretence being removed , it remains that the words of institution , Drink ye all of this , be also the words of a Commandement ; and although they were spoken to the Apostles onely , as being onely present , yet the precept must equally concerne all Christians and Disciples of Christ. Just like those of Watch and pray lest ye fall into temptation ; and unless ye be converted and become as little children , ye shall not enter into the Kingdome of God ; which were spoken onely in the presence of the Apostles : But as these precepts and moral Rules concerne all Christians ; soe doe the words of institution of the H. Sacrament and Commandement of [ Drink ye all of this ] For , Oportet coenam Dominicam esse communem , quia ille omnibus Discipulis suis qui aderant ▪ aequaliter tradidit Sacramenta , said S. Hierom. The Lords Supper is common to all , and so ought to be ; because our Lord did equally deliver it to all that were present : and upon this very account Durandus affirmes : In primitiva Ecclesia singulis diebus omnes qui celebrationi missarum intererant communicare solebant , eò quòd Apostoli omnes de calice biberunt , Domino dicente , Bibite ex eo omnes . In the Primitive Church all that were present did every day receive , because the Apostles did all drink of the Chalice , and the Lord said , Drink ye all of this . And this appears beyond all contradiction to have been so intended . So S. Ignatius ; there is one bread broken to all , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and one Chalice distributed to all , and there is no difference in this between the priest and the people , said S. Chrysostom ; and it is evident that S. Paul gives the same Commandement of drinking the Chalice , as of eating the Bread ; sixe times distinctly mentioning both the Symbols , and directing the Rule and the precepts of eating and drinking to all that are sanctified in Christ Jesus , even to all who are to examine themselves ; for let a man examine himself , and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup : and that it was so the custome of the Church , and their Doctrine that all are to receive the Chalice , that there was no Scruple made by the Church concerning it , we are fairly induc'd to a beleef ; by the addition made to the Greek text of 1 Cor. 10. 17. by the Vulgar Latin ; for whereas it is in the Greek [ we all partake of the same bread ] the Vulgar Latin addes [ & de uno Calice ] and of the same cup. This I the rather note because the Jesuits of Colein did use this for an argument of the half Communion ; because when S. Paul had spoken of the consecration he mentions breaking bread , and drinking the cup ; but when he speaks of sumption or participation , he onely mentions the bread , now supposing that : yet that defect is supplyed by the Vulgar Latin , the Author of which knowing the universal custome of the Church and the doctrine of it , supplyed that out of the sentence of the Church which is not in the Greek text . Though if it had not been yet the argument would have been just nothing , as being a conclusion drawn from a particular Negative in one place ; and against his custom in other places , and besides the institution . For the doctrine and practice of the Church is so notorious in this Article that in the Greek Church there was never any variety in it ; and to this day it is used as it was in the beginning and in all the intermedial Ages : and in the Latin Church for a thousand years it was not altered ; Nay to this day the Church of Rome sings in the Hymne upon Corpus Christi day , Dedit fragilibus corporis ferculum , Dedit & tristibus salutis poculum , Dicens , Accipite quod trado vasculum : Omnes ex eo bibite . He gave his body to be the food of the weak , and the Cup of salvation to the sorrowful , saying , Take this Vessel that I reach unto you , Drink ye a●l of this . Indeed it was often attempted to be chang'd upon the interest of divers Heresies and superstitious fancies , and rare emergencies . For , 1. It was attempted to be omitted in the time of S. Cyprian when some impertinent people would have water onely ; But not the Chalice of the Lords institution in the fruit of the vine : but these mens folly went not far , for being confuted and reprov ' by S. Cyprian in a letter to his Brother Caecilius , I find no mention of them afterwards . 2. It was attempted to be chang'd upon occasion of the Eremites , who comming but seldome to Church could but seldome receive the Chalice , but desiring more frequently to communicate , they carryed the consecrated bread with them into their cells , and when they had a mind to it , in that imperfect manner did imitate the Lords Supper . That they did so is certain , that they had no warrant for so doing is as certain ; and therefore their doing so can be no warrant to us to doe as they did , much less ought it to be pretended in justification of the denying the Chalice to the whole Laity , when the desire it and may have it . However this unwarrantable custome of the Eremites was taken away by the first Councel of Toledo in the year 390. and afterwards again forbidden in the year 500. by the Fathers met in Councel at Caesar Augusta . The words of the Councel of Toledo are these ; Si quis autem acceptam à Sacerdote Eucharistiam non sumpserit , velut sacrilegus propellatur : but this is fuller explicated in that of Caesar Augusta , Eucharistiae gratiam si quis probatur acceptam non consumpsisse in Ecclesia , anathema sit in perpetuum : so that under the pain of a perpetual curse , and under the crime of Sacrilege they were commanded to spend the Eucharistical Symbols in the Church ; and this took from them all pretence of the necessity in some case of not receiving the chalice . 3. In the time of P. Leo the first , the Manichees who abstained from wine as an abhomination , would yet thrust themselves into the societies of the faithful , and pretend to be right beleevers ; but S. Leo discover'd them by their not receiving the Chalice in the holy Eucharist ; and whereas they would have receiv'd in one kind onely , he calls it sacrilege ; and reproves them with the words of S. Paul ; Mark them which cause divisions amongst you , and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have received . This was about the year 449. 4. A while after , about the yeare 490. Some had gotten some superstitious fancy by the end ; and out of reverence to the Holy Sacrament , or some other device of their own , they thought it fit to abstain from the consecrated Chalice : but P. Gelasius made short work with them ; he condemn'd their superstition and gave sentence , Aut integra Sacramenta percipiant , aut ab integris arceantur , Either all or none : Drive them from the H. Bread , if they refuse the Sacrament of the Lords bloud . 5. The Church had sometime in extraordinaay cases , as in communicating infants or dying people , dipt the holy Bread into the Chalice , and so ministred the Sacrament : upon occasion of which some fell in love with the trick , and would have had it so in ordinary ministrations : we find it mention'd in the History of Serapion in Eusebius , and in S. Cyprian 4. de lapsis , & in Prosper● . But against this breach P. Julius oppos'd himself and stood in the gap , declaring it to be against the Divine order and Apostolical institutions , and contrary to the doctrine of the Gospel and of the Apostles and the custome of the Church ; and his words are remarkable to show from whence this Article is to be adjusted and determin'd : Non difficile hoc ab ipso fonte veritatis probatur , in qua ordinata ipsa Sacramentorum mysteria processerunt ; The very ordination or institution of the Sacrament is the fountain from whence we are to derive the truth in this inquiry . But when this Superstition was again reviv'd about the year 580. the now mention'd decree of P. Julius was repeated in the third Councel of Braccara , and all set right again according to the perpetual custome of the Church , and the institution of our B. Lord , and their pretence ( which was lest they should spill any thing of the holy Chalice ) laid aside as trifling and superstitious . 6. And yet after all these motions made by Hereticks and superstitious persons , and so many cautions , suppressions , and decrees against them ; about the year 920. the order of Cluniack Monks did communicate with the Bread dipt in the Chalice as Cassander reports : and about the yeer 1120. it was permitted in some Churches so to doe : For by this time the world was so rude and ignorant that they knew little of the mysteries of Religion , and car'd less ; so that for the danger of effusion of the holy wine they in some places chose that expedient : which although it was upon great reason condemned by P. Julius and the Councel of Braccara , yet it is a great argument that they still beleev'd it necessary to communicate under both Symbols . 7. But about the time that the School-men began to rule the chair , this danger of spilling the Chalice wrought so much in their wise heads that they began about the year 1250. in some Churches to leave out all use of the Chalice , excepting to the Priests and some Great men who would be careful not to spill . This was but in some Churches said Aquinas ; and it was permitted to all the Priests present , de quibus praesumitur quòd magis sint cauti : and to some Grandees of the people too for the same reason , as we find in Richard Middleton , Innocent the fourth , and Petrus de Tarantasia . 8. But by little and little the abuse went further , and grew confirm'd , and Miracles pretended and invented , as Alexander of Ales reports , to stop the outcries of certain Religious who were extremely troubled at the loss of the Chalice : and now at last it became the general custome of the Western Churches ; and it grew scandalous to desire it ; and it was established into a doctrine in the Councel of Constance , and the institution of Christ , and the custome of the Primitive Church were openly defied , taking notice of and so laid aside , and Anathema pronounced on them that should insist upon their right , or deny whole Christ to be under each kind in the Councel of Trent ; and so it abides at this day . The question being now reduc'd to this short issue ; whether under each kind whole Christ be received ; it is not unworthy a short inquiry , concerning the truth , and concerning the consequence of it . 1. For the truth . I consider that the effect of external rituals and ceremonials cannot be disputed Philosophically ; as we inquire into the portions of effect which every herb hath in an infusion ; but we are to take and use them in the simplicity of their institution ; leaving them under that secrecy of their own mysteriousness in which they were left in their first appointment and publication . The Apostle explicating the mysteries of our Religion , saith , that Christ was delivered ( meaning unto death ) for our sins , and was raised again for our justification ; and yet that we are justified by his bloud . Upon these accounts we can say that by Christs death and by his resurrection we are justified , and therefore we are to be partakers of both ; but because we are justified by faith in his bloud , it will at no hand follow , we may let alone our faith , or neglect to procure our part in his resurrection . So it is in the Symbols Eucharistical : supposing it had been said of the Bread , This is Christ , or This is the death of Christ , and the same said of the Chalice ; yet one alone is not sufficient to be received when both are instituted : for as all the mysteries of our redemption are effective to our pardon and salvation ; so are both the Symbols of the Eucharist to our reception of Christ ; and Baptisme or absolution may better be pretended to the exclusion of the whole Eucharist , then the sufficiency of bread to the exclusion of the Chalice ; for remission of sins is perfectly the grace of Baptisme ; and those sins return not , but in the case of Apostacy : but what is the effect of bread alone is no where told , but that it is the commemoration or remembrance of the broken body of Christ , and the communication of that body : But then the chalice is also the remembrance of Christs bloud powred forth , and the exhibition of that which is for the remission of sins : and how these two doe work that in us which we hope for , we know not , but that they work as mysteries and Sacraments doe work , but not as herbs , or natural agents , that we may beleeve . 2. I consider that when Christ appointed to the two Symbols two distinct significations , and that we beleeve that the Sacraments exhibite to worthy communicants what they represent to all , it must be certain that all Christ , that is , that all the benefits of Christ are not conveyed by each , which are conveyed by both , because , as they signifie so they exhihite ; but they do not each signifie what both together doe . The breaking of the body does not signifie the effusion of the bloud ; neither does the shedding of the bloud signifie the breaking the body : and to think that the reduplication of the Symbols is superfluous , is to charge Christ with impertinency ; and if it be not superfluous , then there is something of real advantage by both , that is not in each . I will not venture to assign to each their portion of effect : for what they have they have not naturally , but by Divine donation and appointment , and therefore I will not take notice that the same chalice is representative and effective of union and charity , ( though that is usual enough in societies and friendships , — Pylades , Marce , bibebat idem . ) but this I shall observe that the whole effect of the Sacrament is equally attributed to the worthy receiving the chalice as to that of the bread ; and therefore S. Remy caus'd these verses to be written on the chalice , Hauriat hinc populus vitam de sanguine sacro , Inflicto aeternus quem fudit vulnere Christus . let the people from hence draw live issuing from the wounds of Christ : now whatsoever effect is attributed to one is not in exclusion of the other : but in concomitance with it : and therefore as it would be a strange folly to dispute what benefit we receive by Christs flesh distinctly , and how much of our redemption is wrought by his bloud , and it could have no use and no certainty : so it would be as strange to say there is so much distinctly in the H. bread , so much in the wine ; and it is worse to attribute to one that which can be employed to exclude the other : and it is certain there can be nothing said of advantage that either one or the other hath ; and therefore the chalice may exclude the bread as well as the H. bread the chalice , both alike , that is , indeed neither . But it is to be observed that in this inquiry the question cannot be concerning the receiving Christ ; but of receiving the Sacraments of Christ , of his body and of his bloud . For we receive Christ in Baptisme , and we receive Christ by faith ; and yet nevertheless we are to receive the Sacraments of Christs body and bloud : and therefore suppose we did receive Christ in the Holy bread , yet that bread is but the Sacrament of his broken body ; and therefore we must also receive the Sacrament of his bloud spilt for us : or else we omit to receive the one half of the Sacrament : and if the question were onely about receiving Christ , we might pretend the whole Sacrament to be needless , because a spiritual communion , and faith alone will do that work , but yet faith alone , or the Spiritual communion does not give us the Sacrament , nor obey Christ in this instance , nor commemorate and represent his death , which is the duty here inquir'd of , and here enjoin'd . And therefore the dream of the Church of Rome that he that receives the body , receives also the bloud , because by concomitance , the bloud is received in the body , is neither true nor pertinent to this question . Not true , because the Eucharist being the Sacrament of the Lords death , that is , of his body broken , and his bloud powred forth , the taking of the Sacrament of the body does not by concomitance include the bloud ; because the body is here Sacramentally represented as slain and separate from bloud : and that is so notorious that some superstitious persons A. D. 490. refus'd the Chalice , because ( said they ) the body of Christ represented in the holy Sacrament exangue est , it is without bloud ; but now the Romanists refuse the Chalice because the body is not without bloud : they were both amiss , for it is true the body is represented Sacramentally as killed , and therefore without bloud , which had ran out at the wounds ; and therefore concomitance is an idle and an impertinent dream : but although the body is without bloud in his death ; yet because the effusion of the bloud is also Sacramentally to be represented , therefore they should not omit the Chalice . But as to them of the Roman Church ; if the bloud be in the body by Concomitance , and therefore they who receive the body receive also the bloud ; then they who sacrifice the body do also sacrifice the bloud ; and then it will be no more necessary to celebrate in both kinds then to communicate in both , and indeed though the Roman Schools will not endure that the sacrifice ( as they call it ) or the consecration should be in one kind , yet Volaterranus saies that P. Innocent the eighth gave leave to the Norvegians to sacrifice in bread onely : certain it is the Priest may as well doe so , as the people receive in one kind , for the people doe in their manner as much celebrate the death of Christ as the Priest , nor he alone , nor they alone , but the whole action is the due celebration however the argument of concomitance concludes equally : against the celebration in both kinds , as against the participation ; and why the Priest should be oblig'd to drink the chalice and cannot be excus'd by Concomitance , and yet the people are not oblig'd , but are excus'd by that pretension , abating the reasons of interest , cannot easily be imagined . Certain it is they had other thoughts in the Councel of Turon ; for when they considered the necessities of sick and dying people , they appointed the consecrated bread to be sopp'd in the consecrated Chalice ; adding this reason , Ut veraciter Presbyter dicere possit , Corpus & Sanguis Domini nostri Jesu Christi proficiat tibi in remissionem peccatorum & vitam aeternam : that the Priest may say truly , The body and bloud of our Lord Jesus Christ be profitable unto you for the remission of your sins and unto life eternal . If they had then understood the device of Concomitance , they would have known that the Priest might have said so truly , without sopping the H. Bread in the chalice : but the good Fathers had not yet learn'd the new Metaphysicks . 2. Now for the consequenee of this pretension ; I consider that let the thing be as true as the interested persons would have it ; yet it is not well that we should dispute against a Divine institution upon a pretence of our vain arguings . The Apostles with great simplicity took in both kinds at that time in which onely the device of concomitance was or could be true , for then when they receiv'd it the bloud was in the body of Christ ; but it was Sacramental of the bloud to be powred out the next day ; however they obeyed with simplicity and without inquiry , and never feared spilling , nor argued , nor sought excuses ; such simplicity would equally become us : and as to the usefulness of receiving in both kinds , although it will ill becom any man to argue concerning the usefulness of a Divine institution , & to pretend excuses against Christ , upon the account of a Philosophy of their own invention , is very much unlike the spirit of humility and wisedome and obedience which ought to be the investiture of a Christians heart and the tiar of his head , yet I observe that even in this particular the disadvantage is not little . For if receiving the Sacrament be of any advantage to souls , then it is certain he that does not receive it is a loser ; and yet he that does not receive the Chalice does not receive the Sacrament , but a peece of it onely ; Now in Sacraments half is as good as none : as he who should onely dip a child in pure water , and yet not invocate the Trinity should doe nothing at all with his half Baptisme ; so it is certain that the effect of a Sacrament is not imparted by a half Communion . And therefore Alexander of Ales said well , Sumpto hoc Sacramento dignè in utraque specie major est effectus unius corporis mystici cum capite , quàm sumpto sub altera : and in another place he saies to receive under both kinds is majoris meriti tum ratione augmentationis devotionis , tum ratione fidei dilatationis actualis , tum ratione sumptionis completioris : it is of greater merit or value , there is a greater mystical Union between the head and the members , a greater increase of devotion , a larger and more actual extent of faith , and a more compleat Sacramental reception of Christ himself . To the same purpose there are good things spoken in Albertus Magnus a , and in Thomas Aquinas b , Bonaventure c , and Petrus de Palude d , and divers others , all agreeing that one alone does not make a Sacrament , but a peece of one , and that there is advantage by both kinds which is not to be had in one : which advantage if it be spiritual ( as it is , if it be at all ) then he that robs the people of a spiritual good which our Blessed Lord hath designed for them and left unto them , is sacrilegious and prophane ; it is uncharitable and it is impious . I say it is impious . For it is not to be despised that our B. Lord gave this Sacrament as his last will and Testament ; and though he gave it in his body and bloud , yet he expressed onely the New testament in his bloud ; and for any Church to violate the Testament of our B. Lord , however men may make no great matter of it ; yet it will receive a punishment according as God sets a value upon it ; and he that shall pluck one seal from a Testament , and say that one is as good as two , when two were put to it by the Testator , cannot be excus'd by saying it was nothing but a formality and a ceremony . Gods ceremonies are bound upon us by Gods Commandement ; and what he hath made to be a sign , does signifie and exhibit too : and as the brasen serpent though it was but a type or shadow of the H. Crucifixe ; yet did real cures ; so can the Symbols and Sacraments of the crucifixion being hallowed by the Divine institution , and confirmed by his power ; and therefore a violation here is not to be called onely a question in a ceremony ; it is a substantial part of the Christian religion , it is the sanction of the New Testament , the last will of our dying Lord. Now if it be but a mans testament , saith S. Paul , yet no man disannulleth or addeth thereto : and therefore to disannul or lessen a portion of the Testament of the Son of God must needs be a high impiety . Testamentum quia individuum est pro parte agnosci & pro parte repudiari non possit , saies the law , L. 7. jus nostr . D. de reg . iur . If you pudiate a part of the will , you must renounce it all ; If you permit not to the people the bloud of Christ , you hinder them from having a part in the death of Christ , so far as lies in you . Adde to this ; that this Holy mystery being acknowledged by all to be the most mysterious solemnity of the religion , and by the Church of Rome affirm'd to be a proper sacrifice , and so contended for ; it would be remembred that our B. Saviour did adapt , and fit this rite to the usages and customes both of Jews and Gentiles ; amongst whom laws , and societies , and contracts and sacrifices were made solemn by effusion and drinking of bloud ; and instead of bloud ( amongst the more civil Nations ) they drink wine ; and by that were suppos'd partakers even of the bloud of the Sacrifice . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( saies Philo ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . To be drunk , viz. in the Greek hath its name from their drinking wine after their sacrifices : and with this Custome among the Gentiles , and with the Paschal ceremonie of this nature amongst the Jews our Blessed Lord complying looses the wisedome and prudence of it ; if the Priest shall sacrifice , and the people drink none of the bloud of the sacrifice , or that which ritually and Sacramentally represents it . The covenant of the Gospel , the covenant which God made with us our Blessed Saviour established and ratified with bloud : Wine was made to represent and exhibite it : He therefore that takes this away , takes away the very Sacramentality of the mysterie , and without bloud there is no remission . For as he that gives bread and no water does not nourish the body but destroy it : so it is in the Blessed Sacrament : for ( that I may use S. Austins expression which Paschasius and Algerus in this Article did much insist upon ) Nec caro sine sanguine , nec sanguis sine carne jure communicatur . Totus enim homo ex duabus constans substantiis redimitur , & ideo carne simul & sanguine saginatur . Neither the flesh without the bloud , nor the bloud without the flesh is rightly communicated . For the whole man consisting of two substances is redeem'd , and therefore nourish'd both with the flesh and the bloud . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It is not now as it was in the old Test●ment ▪ where the Priest eat one portion , the Prince another , and the people another ; here it is alike to all , the same body and the same chalice is to all . I end this inquiry with the saying of S. Cyprian , Si ne unum quidem ex minimis mandatis legis solvere debet , multo minus ex his magn● mandatis pertinentibus ad ipsum Dominicae passionis & nostrae redemptionis Sacramentum fas● est ullum infringere , vel humanâ traditione mutare . If it be not permitted to break one of the least Commandements of the Law , much less is it to be endured , to break any one , or by humane tradition to change any belonging to the Sacrament of our Lords passion and of our redemption : and therefore if ever any Sect or any single person was guilty of the charge , it is highly to be imputed to the Church of Rome , that they teach for doctrine the Commandements of men ; and make the Commandement of God of none effect by their tradition . RULE 10. If the sence of a Law be dubious , we are sometimes to expound it by Liberty , sometimes by Restraint . ALthough all he Laws of Jesus Christ are so legible in the sense intended that all good men being plac'd in their proper circumstances conducted by the Divine providence , making use of all their prepared and ready instruments can certainly read the prime intention and design of God , yet because some laws are so combin'd with matter and twisted with material cases , so intricated by the accidents of men and the investiture of actions , that they cast a cloud upon the light of Gods word , and a veil upon the Guide of our lives ; and because the sense of words doe change , and very often words cannot be equal with things , it comes to pass that the laws are capable of differing senses ; when therefore any thing of this Nature happens ; the first sense of the words is either to be inlarged or restrained according to the following measures . In what cases the stricter sense of the laws of Christ is to be followed . 1. When the duty enjoined by the law is in deliberation , and is to be done , we are to use restraint , and take the severer sense of the Law. The reason is because that is the surer way , and hath in it no inconvenience or impossibility ; but being it is the matter of choice , in all deliberation for the future we must give sentence for God , and for the interest of Religion This when it is commanded we should judge our selves that we be not iudged of the Lord ; in the inquiry which every peni●ent man makes concerning the extension of the duty of judging our selves , , if the question be whether judging our selves means onely to condemne our selves for having sinned , and to confess our selves justly lyable to the Divine judgment ; or does it also mean , to punish our selves , and by putting our own sentence against our sin into a severe execution of that sentence upon our selves by corporal inflictions ; he that can no otherwise be determin'd in the question , can safely proceed by chosing the severer side : for there is no loss in it , no omission , it contains all that any man can think to be required , and therefore hath in it prudence and charity , caution and regard , to God and to himself . 2. This is not to be understood onely in case there is a doubt no otherwise to be resolved but by the collateral advantage of the surer side ; but this severer sense of the law is of it self most reasonable to be chosen , as being the intended sense and design of the Lawgiver , who certainly puts no positive measures to his own laws of love and duty . For since the great design of the law is such a perfect on which must for ever be growing in this world , and can never here arrive to its state and period , that sense which sets us most forward is the most intended ; and therefore this way is not onely to quiet the doubt , but to governe and to rule the Conscience : This is not onely the surer way , but the onely way that is directly intended . It is agreeable to the measures of charity , or the love of God , which is to have no other bounds , but even the best we can in the measures of God and the infirmities and capacities of man. 3. In the interpretation of the laws of Christ , the strict sense is to be followed when the laws relate to God and to religion , and contain in them direct matter of piety and glorifications of God , or charity to our Neighbour , because in them the further we goe , the neerer we are to God , and we are not at all to be stopp'd in that progression till we are at our journeys end , till we are in the state of comprehension . To this purpose are those words of Ben-Sirach , When you glorifie the Lord , exalt him as much as you can , for even yet will he farre exceed , and when you exalt him put forth all your strength , and be not weary , for you can never goe farre enough . Who hath seen him that he might tell us , and who can magnifie him as he is ? There are hid greater things yet then these be , for we have seen but a few of his works , meaning , that although we cannot glorifie God sufficiently for the works of power and mercy which we see and feel , yet because there are very many works which we see not , and infinite numbers and seas of glories above the clouds , which we perceive not and cannot understand , the onely measures of Religion and the love of God which we are to take , is to pray continually , to love God alwayes , to serve him without end , to be zealous beyond all measures , excepting those of duty and prudence , to be religious without a limit , alwaies to desire , alwaies to endeavour , never to rest as long as we can work , never to give over as long as any thing is unfinish'd , and consequent or Symbolical to all this , that in all disputes of Religion we chuse the sense of love , not of weariness , that we doe not contend for the lesser measures , but strive in all our faculties and desire beyond their strength , and propound Christ for our precedent , and heaven for our reward , and infinity for our measures toward which we are to set forth by our active and quick endeavour , and to which we are to reach by our constancy and desires , our love and the divine acceptance . When the lawes of Christ are to be expounded to a sense of ease and liberty ? If to the sense of the duty there be a collateral and indirect burden and evil appendage , and the alleviating of that burden is to be an ingredient into the interpretation of the law , and the direct duty is to be done in such measures as may doe the most good with suffering the least evil . This happens in two cases : 1. If the strict and severer sense of the law be too great for the state and strength of the man , that is , if it be apt to make him despair , to make him throw away his burden : to make him tire , to be weary of , and to hate religion , his infirmities are to be pitied , and the severest sense of the law is not to be exacted of him . Apices juris non sunt jus , say the Lawyers : The little punctilios and minutes of law are not law ; because if our duty be extended to every little tittle of duty it were necessary that our observation and attendance should be as particular and punctual ; but because that cannot alwaies be actual and intent , particular and incumbent , those things which insensibly pass by the observation of a diligent watchful person , doe also inculpably passe by the man. But of this I have already given accounts in another place * . For the present I further consider , that charity being the great end of the law , and every law being a design of making a man happy , every Commandement of God is then best understood when it is made to doe most good , and rescued from being an occasion of evil . The Government of Jesus Christ is most paternal and serene : his Rod is not heavy , his Commandements are not grievous , his bands are not snares ; but they are holiness , and they are liberty , they are glory to God , and good will towards men . But this at no hand means that any material or integral part of duty can be omitted , and the omission indulg'd in complyance with any mans infirmity or danger , for the law is to be our measure , our weaknesses cannot be the measure of the integrity of the law ; That infirmity by which we omit any part of du●y is a sta●e of sin ; and God who knew all our infirmities and possibilities or impossibilities of obedience , complyed sufficiently in the Sanction of the law , and impos'd no more burden then was even with our powers , and therefore for what remains we must stoop our shoulder and bear the burden which Gods wisedome made reasona●le and tolerable , and our necessity and interest makes unavoidable , and love will make easie and delectable . But the burden which can be lessen'd is the burden of degrees of intension or any thing which consists not in a mathematical point , but is capable of growth : whatsoever is of such a nature as is alwaies to increase in this life , in that such abatements may be made as will fit the person and the state ; and no man is to be quarreld at for degrees in the beginn●ngs , or in the first progressions of his piety , only he is to be invited on by proper and fair inducements , and if he stands still alwaies as he is to be suspected for want of love , so he is to be warned of his danger , and thrust forward by the memory of the best examples . Thus it may not upon any terms be permitted to any weak person to doe an act of injustice , to blaspheme God , to reproach his Father , to be wanton , he may not be allowed to slander his Brother , to neglect his children , to despise his wife , to part from her because he is weary of her , for fear the not indulging any thing of this nature to him should provoke him to anger against the Religion . We may not give easie answers in cases of Conscience , or promise heaven to them that live evil lives , for fear that our severity should make them forsake our Communion and go to the Roman Church ; that is , we must not allow any man to do one evil to hinder him from another , or give leave to him to break one Commandement that we may preserve another . But of this I have already given more particular account * . That which at present I intend is , that no sin or omission of duty is to be permitted , no law of Christ is to be expounded to comply with us against God , but when a less severe sense is within the limits of duty , that our weaknesses are to be complyed withall is affirm'd as being most charitable and necessary . Thus if i● be inquired whether our sorrow for our sins ought to be punitive and vindictive , sharp and sensible as the perception of any temporal evil , as the sorrow of a Mother for the death of her onely child this being a question of degrees which cannot consist in an indivisible point , is never limited and determinate ; any degree that can consist with the main duty may be permitted to him whose necessity requires such indulgence ; and if he be sorrowful in such a degree as to move him to pray passionately and perseveringly for pardon , to beget in him a wise and a wary caution against temptation , to produce in him hatred against sin , and dereliction of it , a war and a victory , the death of sin , and the life of righteousness , the penitent is not to be prejudic'd by the degree of his sorrow , or the thickness of its edge , and the Commandement is so to be expounded , as to secure the duty and secure the man too : and if he be told that a less degree of sorrow then the supreme will not serve his turne , and that the Commandement is to be expounded in the greatest and severest measures , he that finds this impossible to him , will let it all alone , for as good never a whit as never the better ; but then , he that tells him so , hath laid a snare for his Brothers foot , and binds upon his shoulder a burden too heavy for him . For to what purpose can we imagine that there should be a latitude in the Commandement , and yet no use to be made of the least degree ? and if God cherishes the babes in Christ , and is pleas'd in every step of our progression , then it is certain that they who are but babes are to be treated accordingly , and the Commandement is to be acted by the proportions of the man. * But then if the question be concerning the integrity of the Repentance , he that is troubled at heart because he is told that a resolution to leave sin is not enough , that without restitution there is no repentance ; he that will kick at Religion because it requires all the duties which integrate the Commandement , is not to be complyed with , nor permitted to his folly . * I have read of a Gentleman who being on his deathbed and his Confessor searching and dressing of his wounded Soul , was found to be oblig'd to make restitution of a considerable summe of Money , with the diminution of his estate . His Confessor found him desirous to be sav'd , a lover of his religion , and yet to have a kindness for his estate , which he desir'd might be intirely transmitted to his beloved Heir : he would serve God with all his heart , and repented him of his sin , of his rapine and injustice , he begg'd for pardon passionately , he humbly hop'd for mercy , he resolv'd in case he did recover , to live strictly , to love God , to reverence his Priests , to be charitable to the poor ▪ but to make restitution he found impossible to him , and he hop'd the Commandement would not require it of him , and desir'd to be releeved by an e●sy and a favourable interpretation , for it is ten thousand pities so many good actions and good purposes should be in vain , but it is worse , infinitely worse ▪ if the man should perish . What should the Confessor doe in this case ? shall not the man be releeved ; and his piety be accepted ? or shall the rigor and severity of the Confessor , and his scrupulous fears and impertinent niceness cast away a Soul either in future misery , or present discomfort ; neither one ●or other was to be done ; and the good man was onely to consider what God had made necessary , not what the vices of his penitent and his present follies should make so . Well! the Priest insists upon his first resolution , Non dimittitur peccatum nisi restituatur ablatum : The sick man could have no ease by the loss of a duty . The poor Clinick desires the Confessor to deal with his Son and try if he could be made willing that his Father might goe to Heaven at the charge of his Son , which when he had attempted , he was answer'd with extreme rudenesses and injurious language ; which caused great trouble to the Priest and to the dying Father . At last the religious man found out this device , telling his penitent , that unless by corporal penances the●e could be made satisfaction in exchange for restitution he knew no hopes , but because the profit of the estate which was oblig'd to restitution was to descend upon the Son , he thought something might be hop'd if by way of commutation the Son would hold his finger in a burning candle for a quarter of an hour . The glad Father being overjoyed at this loophole of eternity , this glimpse of heaven , and the certain retaining of the whole estate , called to his Son , t●●d him the condition and the advantages to them both , making no question but he would gladly undertake the penance . But the Son with indignation replyed he would not endure so much torture to save the whole estate . To which the Priest espying his advantage made this quick return to the Old man , Sir , if your Son will not for a quarter of an hour endure the pains of a burning finger to save your Soul , will you to save a portion of the estate for him endure the flames of Hell to eternal ages ? The unreasonableness of the odds , and the ungratefulness of the Son , and the importunity of the Priest , and the fear of Hell , and the indispensable necessity of restitution awakened the old Man from his lethargy , and he bowed himself to the Rule , made restitution , and had hopes of pardon and present comfort . 2. The other case in which the law is to be expounded to the sense of ease and liberty is when the question is concerning outward actions , or the crust and outsides of Religion . For the Christian Religion being wholly Spiritual , and being ministred to by bodily exercises , and they being but significations of the inward , not at all pleasing to God for themselves , but as they edifie , instruct , or doe advantages to men , they are in all cases to be exacted , but in such proportions as can consist with charity , which is the life of Religion : and therefore if a Soul be in danger to be tempted , or overburden'd with a bodily exercise if there be hazard that all Religion will be hated , and that the man will break the yoke if he be pinched in his skin , it is better to secure the great and internal pr●nciple of obedience , then the external instance and expression . This Caution is of use in the injunction of fasting daies , and external acts of mortification , which are indeed effects of the laws of Christ , but the measures of these laws are to be such as consist with the great end of the laws , that is , mercy and internal Religion . And the great reason of this is ; because all external actions are really such as without our fault they may be hindred ; there may be some accidents and causes by which they shall not be at all , and there may be many more by which they may be eas'd and lessen'd . An external accident , or a corporal infirmity is to be complyed withall in the matter of external m●nisteries ; that is , when there is mercy in it : and so must every vertue and inward grace , because it is for the interest of Religion . Now what must be permitted in the action ought to be so in the sentence , and that is the meaning of the law which is either commanded to the strong or indulged to the weak . Adde to this , that outward actions of Religion are for the weak , not for the strong ; they are to minister to weakness and infirmities , and by bodily expressions to invite forward , to entertain , to ferment , to endear the spirit of a man to the purposes of God ; but even the body it self shall be spiritual , and it is intended that it shall wholly minister to God in spiritual services hereafter . In the mean time , by outward acts it does something Symbolical , or at least expressive of the inward duty . But therefore if the external doe disserve the Spirit of God by oppressing the spirit of the man ; that whose Nature and institution is wholly instrumental must be made to comply with the end ; and therefore must stand there when it is apt to minister to it , but must goe away if it hinders it . 3. In the interpretation of the laws of Christ to a sense of ease and liberty , there must be no limits and lessenings describ'd beforehand ; or in general ; because any such proceeding would not onely be destitute of that reason which warrants it in some cases , but would evacuate the great purpose of the law in all : that is , it would be more then what is necessary to comply with new and accidental necessities , and to others it would be less then what is intended in the law , it would either tye the weak to impossibilities , or give leave to the strong to be negligent and unprofitable ; it would command too much or permit too much ; it would either hold the bridle too hard , or break it all in peeces . But the interpretation and ease must be as accidental as the cause that inforces it , or the need that invites it ; that is , every law of Christ intends that we should obey it in the perfection , that we should do it in the best way we can ; and every man must doe so ; but because all cannot doe alike , every mans best is alike in the event , but not in the action ; and therefore the law which is made for man must mean no more then every man can doe ; but because no man is to be supposed to be in disorder and weakness , till he be found to be so , therefore beforehand no complyance or easie interpretation is to be made of the degrees of duty . 4. No laws of Christ are to suffer diminution of interpretation in the degrees to persons that make themselves weak , that they may bear but a little burden : but the gentler sentence and sence of laws is to be applyed to ease the weary and the afflicted , him that desires much and can doe but little ; to him that loves God and loves religion ; to him that endeavours heartily , and inquires diligently , and means honestly ; to him that hath every thing but strength , and wants nothing but growth and time , and good circumstances and the prosperities of piety . The best indications of which state of persons are these : Who are truly and innocently weak and to be complyed with ? 1. They are to be complyed with who are new beginners in religion , or the uninstructed ; they who want strengths not by reason of any habitual sin , but by the nature of beginnings and new changes ; for none can more innocently pretend to a forbearance and sufferance , then those who have the weakness of infancy . But I added also that the uninstructed have the same pretension , for according as their degrees of ignorance are , so are the degrees of their excusable infirmity . But then by uninstructed is onely meant such who have not heard , or could not learn ; not such who are ever learning and never sufficiently taught ; that is , such who love to hear but not to be doers of the word , such who are perverse and immorigerous , such who serve a humor or an interest , an opinion or a peevish Sect in their learning . For there are some who have spent much time in the inquiries of religion , whom if you call ignorant they suppose themselves injur'd ; and yet will require the privileges and complyances of the weak : these men trouble others , and therefore are not to be eas'd themselves ; their weakness of state is the impotency of passion , and therefore they must not rejoice in that by which they make others griev'd . 2. They are to be complyed with according to the foregoing measures who in all things where they know and can , doe their hearty endeavours , and make no abatement to themselves , but with diligence and sincerity prosecute their duty . For this diligence and sincerity is a competent Testimony that the principle of their necessity is not evil but innocent and unavoidable . Whatsoever is not an effect of idleness or peevishness may come in upon a fair , but alwaies comes in upon a pityable account ; and therefore is that Subject which is capable of all that case of rigour and severity which the wise Masters of assemblies and interpreters of the Divine laws doe allow to any persons in any cases . 3. The last sign of Subjects capable of ease is infirmity of body ; and that is a certain disposition to all the mercies and remissions of the law in such cases as relate to the body and are instanc'd in external ministeries . To which also is to be referred disability of estate in duties of exteriour charity ; which are to be exacted according to the proportions of mens civil power , taking in the needs of their persons and of their relations , their calling and their quality , and that God intends it should be so appears in this ; because all outward duties are so enjoin'd that they can be supplyed , and the internal grace instanc'd in other actions , of which there are so many kinds that some or other can be done by every one ; and yet there is so great variety that no man or but very few men can doe all . I instance in the several waies of mortification , viz. by fastings , by watchings and pernoctations in prayer , lyings on the ground , by toleration and patience , laborious gestures of the body in prayer , standing with arms extended , long kneelings on the bare ground , suffering contradiction and affronts , lessenings and undervaluings , peevish and cross accidents , denying our selves lawful pleasures , refusing a pleasant morsel , leaving society and meetings of friends , and very many things of the like Nature ; by any of which the body may be mortified and the Soul disciplin'd : or the outward act may be supplyed by an active and intense love which can doe every thing of duty : So also it is in alms , which some doe by giving money to the poor ; some by comforting the afflicted , some by givi●g silver and gold , others which have it not , doe yet doe greater things : but since it matters not what it is we are able to doe , so that we do but what we are able , it matters not how the grace be instanc'd , so that by all the instances we can , we doe minister to the grace , it follows , that the law can be made to bend in any thing of the external instance so that the inward grace be not neglected ; but therefore it is certain that because every thing of matter can by matter be hindred ; and a string or a chain of Iron can hinder all the duty of the hand and foot , God who imposes and exacts nothing that is impossible , is contented that the obedience of the Spirit be secured , and the body must obey the law as well as it can . But there are some other considerations to be added to the main Rule . 5. When the action is already done , and that there is no further deliberation concerning the direct duty , yet the law is not at all to be eased and lessened , if there be a deliberation concerning the collateral and accidental duty of Repentance : and this is upon the same reasons as the first limitation of the rule . for when a duty is to be done , and a deliberation to be had , we are in perfect choice , and therefore we are to answer for God and for Religion , and this is all one , whether the inquiry be made in the matter of inocence or repentance , that is , in the preventing of a sin or curing of it . For we are in all things tyed to as great a care of our duty after we have once broken it as before ; and in some things to a greater ; and repentance is nothing but a new beginning of our duty , a going from our error , and a recovery of our loss , and a restitution of our health , and a being put into the same estate from whence we were fallen ; so that at least all the same severities are to be used in repentance , as great a rigor of sentence , as strict a caution , as careful a walking , as humble and universal an obedience , besides the sorrow and the relative parts of duty which come in upon the account of our sin . 6. But if the inquiry be made after the sin is done , and that there is no deliberation concerning any present or future duty , but concerning the hopes or state of pardon , then we may hope that God will be easie to give us pardon , according to the gentlest sense and measures of the law . For this , provided it be not brought into evil example in the measures of duty afterwards , can have in it no danger : it is matter of hope , and therefore keeps a man from despair ; but because it is but matter of hope , therefore it is not apt to abuse him into presumption , and if it be mistaken in the measures of the law , yet it makes it up upon the account of Gods mercy , and it will be all one ; either it is Gods mercy in making an easie sense of the law , or Gods mercy in giving an easie sentence on the man , or Gods mercy in easing and taking off the punishment , and that will be all one as to the event , and therefore will be a sufficient warrant for our hope , because it will some way or other come to pass as we hope . It is all alike whether we be saved because God will exact no more of us , or because though he did exact more by his law yet he will pardon so much the more in the sentence : But this is of use onely to them who are tempted to despair , or oppressed by too violent fears ; and it relies upon all the lines of the Divine mercy , and upon all the arguments of comfort by which declining hopes use to be supported : and since we our selves by observing our incurable infirmities espy some necessities of having the law read in the easier sense , we doe in the event of things find that we have a need of pardon greater then we could think we should in the heats of our first conversion and the fervors of our newly returning piety ; and therefore God does not onely see much more reason to pity us upon the same account ; but upon divers others , some whereof we know and some we know not ; but therefore we can hope for more then we yet see in the lines of Revelation , and possibly we may receive in many cases better measure then we yet hope for : but whoever makes this hope to lessen his duty will find himself ashamed in his hope ; for no hope is reasonable but that which quickens our piety , and hastens and perfects our repentance , and purifies the Soul , and engages all the powers of action , and ends in the love of God , and in a holy life . 7. There are many other things to be added by way of assistance to them who are pressed with the burden of a law severely apprehended , or unequally applyed , or not rightly understood ; but the summe of them is this . 1. If the sense be hidden or dubious , doe nothing till the cloud be off , and the doubt be removed . 2. If the law be indifferent to two senses , take that which is most pious and most holy . 3. If it be between two , but not perfectly indifferent , follow that which is most probable . 4. Doe after the custome and common usages of the best and wisest men . 5. Doe with the most , and speak with the least . 6. Ever bend thy determination to comply with the analogy of faith , and the common measures of good life , and the glorifications and honour of God , and the utility of our Neighbour . 7. Then chose thy part of obedience , and doe it cheerfully and confidently , with a great industry and a full persuasion . 8. After the action is done enter into no new disputes whether it was lawful or no , unless it be upon new instances and new arguments , relating to what is to come , and not troubling thy self with that which with prudence and deliberation thou didst ( as things were then represented ) well and wisely chose . RULE 11. The positive laws of Jesus Christ cannot be dispensed with by any humane power . I Have already in this book given account of the indispensability of the Natural laws which are the main constituent parts of the Evangelical : but there are some positive laws whose reason is not natural nor eternal , which yet Christ hath superinduc'd ; concerning which there is great question made whether they be dispensable by humane power . Now concerning these I say that all laws given by Christ are now made for ever to be obligatory , and he is the King of heaven and earth , the Head and Prince of the Catholick Church , and therefore hath supreme power , and he is the wonderful Councellour , the everlasting Father , the Prince of Peace , and his wisedome is supreme , he is the wisedome of the Father , and therefore he hath made his laws so wisely , so agreeably to the powers and accidents of mankind that they can be observed by all men and all waies , where he hath pass'd an obligation . Now because every dispensation of laws must needs suppose an infirmity or imperfection in the law or an infirmity in the man , that is , that either the law did inferre inconvenience which was not foreseen , or was unavoidable ; or else the law meets with the changes of mankind with which it is not made in the sanction to comply , and therefore must be forc'd to yeeld to the needs of the man ▪ and stand aside till that necessity be past : it follows that in the laws of the H. Jesus there is no dispensation ; because there is in the law no infirmity and no incapacity in the man : for every man can alwaies obey all that which Christ commanded and exacted : I mean he hath no natural impotency to do any act that Christ hath requir'd , and he can never be hindred from doing of his duty . And this appears in this , because God hath appointed a harbour whether every vessel can put in when he meets with storms and contrary winds abroad : and when we are commanded by a persecuter not to obey God , we cannot be forc'd to comply with the evil man ; for we can be secure against him by suffering what he pleases , and therefore disobedience to a law of Christ cannot be made necessary by any external violence : I mean every internal act is not in it self impedible by outward violence : and the externall act which is made necessary can be secur'd by a resolution to obey God rather then men . 2. But there are some external actions and instances of a Commandement which may accidentally become impossible by subtraction of the material part ; so for want of water a child cannot be baptized ; for want of wine or bread we cannot communicate ; which indeed is true , but doe not inferre that therefore there is a power of dispensing left in any man or company of men ; because in such cases there is no law , and therefore no need of dispensation ; For affirmative precepts in which onely there can be an external impediment doe not oblige but in their proper circumstances and possibilities : and thus it is even in human laws . No law obliges beyond our power ; and although it be necessary sometimes to get a dispensation even in such cases , to rescue our selves from the malice or the carelessness , the ignorance or the contrary interests of the ministers of justice , who goe by the words of the law , and are not competent or nor instructed judges in the matter of necessity or excuse , yet there is no such need in the laws of God. For God is alwaies just and alwaies wise , he knows when we can and when we cannot , and therefore as he cannot be deceived by ignorance , so neither can he oppress any man by injustice , and we need not have leave to let a thing alone , which we cannot doe if we would never so fain ; and if we cannot obey , we need not require of God a warrant under his hand or an act of indemnity ; for which his justice and his goodness , his wisedome and his very Nature are infinite security : and therefore it cannot be necessary to the Church that a power of dispensing should be intrusted to Men , in such cases where we cannot suppose the law of God to bind . That 's our best security that we need no dispensation . 3. In external actions and instances of vertue or of obedience to a Commandement of Jesus Christ where ever there can be a hinderance , if the obligation does remain , the instance that is hindred can be supplyed with another of the same kind . Thus releeving the poor hungry man , can be hindred by my own poverty and present need , but I can visit him that is sick , though I cannot feed the hungry , or I can give him bread when I cannot give him a cloak ; and therefore there can need no dispensation when the Commandement if it be hindred in one instance can as perfectly and to all the intentions of our lawgiver be performed in another . 4. In external actions which can be hindred and which cannot be supplyed by the variety of the instances in the same kind , yet if the obligation remains , they may be supplyed with the internal act , and with the spiritual . Thus if we cannot receive actual baptisme , the desire of it is accepted , and he that communicates spiritually , that is , by faith and charity , by inward devotion and hearty desire , is not guilty of the breach of the Commandement if he does not communicate sacramentally , being unavoidably and inculpably hindred . For whatsoever is not in our power , cannot be under a 〈◊〉 , and where we doe not consent to the breach of a Commandement , we cannot be exposed to the punishment . This is the voice of all the world , and ●●●s is natural reason , and the ground of justice , without which there can be no Government but what is Tyrannical and unreasonable . These things being notorious and confess'd the consequents are these : 1. That there is no necessity that a power of dispensing in the positive laws of Christ should be intrusted to any man , or to any society . Because the law needs it not , and the Subjects need it not : and he that dispenses must either doe it when there is cause , or when there is none . If he dispenses when there is no cause , he makes himself superiour to the power of God by exercising dominion over his laws : If he dispenses when there is cause , he dispenses when there is no need . For if the Subject can obey , he must obey , and man cannot untie what God hath bound : but if he cannot obey , he is not bound , and therefore needs not be untyed : he may as well go about to unbend a strait line , or to number that which is not , as to dispense in a law , to which in such cases God exacts no obedience . * Panormitan affirms that the Pope hath power to dispense in all the laws of God , except in the Articles of faith ; and to this purpose he cites Innocentius in c. Cum ad Monasterium , de statu Monachorum . * Felinus affirmes that the Pope can change the form of Baptisme , and that he can with one word , and without all solemnity consecrate a Priest , and that he can by his word alone make a Bishop : and though these pretenses are insolent and strange , yet in fact he does as much as this comes to : for the Pope gives leave sometimes to a mere Priest to give confirmation , which by divine right is onely belonging to Bishops by their own confession : That the Blessed Eucharist is to be consecrated in both kinds is certainly of Divine right ; and so confessed by the Church of Rome : but the Pope hath actually dispensed in this article and given leave to some to consecrate in bread onely , and particularly to the Norvegians a dispensation was given by Innocent the eighth , as I have already noted out of Volaterranus . There are some learned men amongst them who speak in this question with less scandal , but almost with the same intentions and effects . Some of their Divines , particularly the Bishop of the Canaries , saies that the Pope hath not power to dispense in the whole , or in all the laws of God , but in some onely ; namely where the observation of the law is impeditiva majoris boni , a hindrance or obstruction to a greater Spiritual good ; as it may happen in oaths and vows : and ( Sanchez addes ) in the consecration of the Blessed Sacrament in both kinds : in these , say they , the Pope can dispense : But where the observation of the laws in the particular brings no evil , or inconvenience , and does never hinder a greater good , there the laws are indispensable ; such as are Confession , Baptisme , using a set form of words in the ministration of the Sacraments . So that the meaning is , the Pope never wants a power to doe it , if there be not wanting an excuse to colour it , and then in effect the Divines agree with the Lawyers ; for since the power of dispensing is given in words indefinite and without specification of particulars ( if it be given at all ; ) the authority must be unlimited as to the person , and can be limited onely by the incapacity of the matter ; and if there could be any inconvenience in any law , there might be a dispensation in it : So that the Divines and the Lawyers differ onely in the instances ; which if we should consider , or if any great interest could be serv'd by any , there can be no doubt but it would be found a sufficient cause of dispensation . So that this is but to cozen mankind with a distinction to no purpose ; and to affirme that the Pope cannot dispense in such things which yeeld no man any good or profit : such as is the using a set forme of words in Baptisme , or the like ; and they may at an easie rate pretend the Popes power to be limited , when they onely restrain him from violating a Divine law , when either the observation of it is for his own advantage , as in Confession ( meaning to a Priest ) or when it serves the interest of no man to have it changed , as in the formes of Sacraments . But then , that I may speak to the other part ; to say that the Pope may dispense in a Divine law when the particular observation does hinder a greater spiritual good , and that this is a sufficient cause is a proposition in al things false , and in some cases , even in those where they instance , very dangerous . It is false , because if a man can by his own act be oblig'd to doe a thing which yet is impeditive of a greater temporal good , then God can by his law oblige his obedience , though accidentally it hinder a greater spiritual good . Now if a man have promised , he must keep it though it were to his own hindrance , said David ; and a man may not break his oath though the keeping of it hinder him from many spiritual comforts and advantages ; nay a man may neglect a spiritual advantage for a temporal necessity ; and in the Bohemian warres , the King had better been at the head of his Troops , then at a Sermon when Prague was taken . * But I consider ( for that is also very material ) that it is dangerous . For whenmen to justifie a pretence or to verifie an action or to usurpe a power shall pretend that there is on the other side a greater Spiritual good they may very easily deceive others , because either voluntarily or involuntarily they deceive themselves , for when God hath given a Commandement , who can say that to let it alone can doe more good to a mans Soul then to keep it ? I instance in a particular which is of great interest with them . If a man have vowed to a woman to marry her , and contracted himself to her per verba de praesenti ; she according to her duty loves him passionately , hath marryed her very Soul to him , and her heart is bound up in his : but he changes his mind , and enters into religion : but stops at the very gate and asks who shall warrant him for the breach of his faith and vows to his Spouse ? The Pope answers he will ; and though by the law of God he be tyed to that woman , yet because the keeping of that vow would hinder him from doing God better service in religion this is a sufficient cause for him to dispense with his vow . This then is the case concerning which I inquire : 1. How does it appear that to enter into a monastery is absolutely a greater Spiritual good then to live chastly with the wife of his love and vows ? 2. I inquire whether to break a mans vow be not of it self ( abstracting from all extrinsecal pretensions and collateral inducements ) a very great sin ? and if there were not a great good to follow the breach of it , I demand whether could the Pope dispense or give leave to any man to doe it ? If he could , then it is plain he can give leave to a man to doe a very great evil ; for without the accidentally consequent good , it is confessed to be very evil to break our lawful vows . But if he cannot dispense with his vow unless some great good were to follow upon the breach of it , then it is cleer he can give leave to a man to doe evil that good may come of it . For if without such a reason or such a consequent good the Pope could not dipense , then the consequent good does legitimate the dispensation , and either an evil act done for a good end is lawful and becomes good , or else the Pope plainly gives him leave to doe that which is still remaining evil , for a good end : either of which is intolerable , and equally against the Apostles Rule , which is also a rule of natural religion and reason : No man must doe evil for a good end . * But then , 3. who can assure me that an act of religion is better then an act of justice ? or that God will be served by doing my wife an injury ? or that he will accept of me a new vow which is perfectly a breaking of an old ? or that by our vows to our wives we are not as much obliged to God as by our Monastical vows before our Abbot ? or that marriage is not as great an act of religion if wisely and holily undertaken ( as it ought to be ) as the taking the habit of S. Francis ? or that I can be capable of giving my self to religion when I have given the right and power of my self away to another ? or that I may not as well steal from a man to give alms to the poor , as wrong my wife to give my self to a Cloyster ? or that he can ever give himself to religion , who breaks the religion of vows and promises , of justice and honour , of faith and the Sacramental mystery that he may goe into religion ? or that my retirement in a cloister , and doing all that is these intended can make recompence for making my wife miserable , and it may be desperate and calamitous all her life time ? Can God be delighted with my prayers which I offer to him in a cloister , when it may be at the same time my injur'd Spouse is praying to God to doe her justice and to avenge my perjuries upon my guilty head , and it may be , cries loud to God and weeps and curses night and day ? who can tell which is better , or which is worse ? For marriage and single life of themselves are indifferent to piety or impiety , they may be us'd well , or abus'd to evil purposes ; but if they take their estimate by the event , no man can beforehand tell which would have been the greater spiritual good . But suppose it as you list , yet , I consider that when God saies that obedience is better then Sacrifice , he hath plainly told us that no pretence of Religion , or of a greater spiritual good can legitimate vow-breach , or disobedience to a divine Commandement : and therefore either the Pope must dispense in all laws of Christ , and without all reason , that is , by his absolute authority and supereminency over the law and the power that established it , or else he cannot dispense at all ; for there is no reason that can legitimate our disobedience . But then if we consider the Authority it self , the considerations will be very material . No man pretends to a power of dispensing in the law of God but the Pope onely ; and he onely upon pretence of the words spoken to S. Peter , Whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven . Now did ever any of the Apostles or Apostolical men suppose that S. Peter could in any case dispense with vow-breach , or the violation of a lawful oath ? Was not all that power which was then promis'd to him wholly relative to the matter of Fraternal correption ? and was it not equally given to the Apostles ? for either it was never perform'd to S. Peter , or else it was alike promised and perform'd to all the Apostles in the donation of the Spirit , and of the power of binding , and the words of Christ to them before and after his resurrection : so that by certain consequence of this , either all the successours of the Apostles have the same power , or none of the Successours of S. Peter . Or if the Successours of S. Peter onely , why not his successors at Antioch as well as his Suceessors at Rome ? since it is certain that he was at Antioch , but is not so certain that he was at all at Rome , for those things that Ulrichus Velenus saies against it in a Tractate on purpose on that Subject and published by Goldastus in his third Tome are not inconsiderable allegations & arguments for the Negative , but I shall give account of that inquiry in some of the following pages . And yet suppose he was , yet it is as likely , that is , as certain as the other ; that after the Martyrdom of S. Peter and S. Paul there were two Bishops or Popes of Rome ; as it is conjectur'd by the different Catalogues of the first successions , and by their differing Presidencies or Episcopacies , one being over the Circumcision and the other over the Uncircumcision ( if I say they were at all , concerning which I have no occasion to interpose my sentence . ) But if either this gift was give in common to all the Apostles , or if it was given personally to S. Peter , or if it means onely the power of Discipline over sinners and penitent persons , or if it does not mean to destroy all justice and humane contracts , to rescind all the laws of God and man , to make Christs laws Subject to Christs Minister , and Christs Kingdome to be the Popes inheritance and possession , in alto Dominio , if those words of Christ to S. Peter are so to be understood as that his Subjects and servants shall still be left in those rights which he hath given and confirm'd and sanctified , then it follows undeniably that S. Peter's power of the keys is not to be a pick lock of the laws of his Master , but to bind men to the performance of them , or to the punishment of breaking them , and if by those words of [ Whatsoever thou shalt loose ] it be permitted to loose and untie the band of oaths and vows , then they may also mean a power of loosing any mans life , or any mans right , or any mans word , or any mans oath , or any mans obligation solemn , or unsolemn , when he hath really an interest or reason so to doe , of which reason himself onely can be the warrantable Judge : which things because they are unsufferably unreasonable , that pretence which inferrs such evils and such impieties must be also unsufferable and impossible . I conclude therefore with this distinction . There is a proper dispensation , that is , such a dispensation as supposes the obligation remaining upon that person who is to be dispensed with : but no man or society of men can in this sense dispense with any law of Christ. But there is a dispensation improperly so called , which does not suppose a remanent obligation , and therefore pretends not to take away any , but supposes onely a doubt remaining whether the law does by Gods intention oblige or no ? He that hath skill and authority , and reason to declare that in such special cases God intended not to oblige the Conscience , hath taken away the doubt , and made that to become lawful which without such a declaration by reason of the remaining doubt was not so . This is properly an interpretation ; but because it hath the same effect upon the man which the other hath directly upon the law , therefore by Divines and Lawyers it is sometimes also called a Dispensation , but improperly . But the other Consequent arising from the first observations which I made upon this Rule is this ; That as there is no necessity that there should be any dispensation in the laws of Jesus Christ ; so in those cases where there may be an improper dispensation , that is , an interpretation or declaration that the law in this case does not bind at all , no man must by way of equity or condescention and expedient appoint any thing that the law permits not , or declare that a part of the law may be us'd ; when the whole is in the institution . For example ; The Norvegians complaind that they could very seldom get any wine into their Country , and when it did come it was almost vinegar or vappe ; He who had reason and authority might then certainly have declar'd that the precept of consecrating did not oblige , when they had not matter with which they were to doe it ; because no good law obliges to impossibilities , But then no man of his own head might interpose an expedient , and say , though you have no wine to consecrate and celebrate with all , yet you may doe it in ale or meath ; nor yet might he warrant an imperfect consecration and allow that the Priests should celebrate with bread onely . The reason is because all institutions Sacramental , and positive laws depend not upon the Nature of the things themselves , according to the extension or diminution of which our obedience might be measur'd ; but they depend wholly on the will of the lawgiver , and the will of the Supreme , being actually limited to this specification , this manner , this matter , this institution ; whatsoever comes besides it hath no foundation in the will of the Legislator , and therefore can have no warrant or authority . That it be obeyed or not obeyed is all the question and all the variety . If it can be obeyed it must , if it cannot it must be let alone . The right Mother that appeard before Solomon demanded her child ; half of her own was offered ; but that was not it which would doe her any good , neither would she have been pleas'd with a whole bolster of goats hair , or with a perfect image of her child , or with a living lamb ; it was her own child which she demanded : So it is in the Divine institution , whatsoever God wills that we must attend to : and therefore whatsoever depends upon a divine law or institution , whatsoever is appointed instrumental to the signification of a mystery , or to the collation of a grace or a power , he that does anything of his own head , either must be a despiser of Gods will , or must supose himself the author of a grace , or else to doe nothing at all in what he does , because all his obedience and all the blessing of his obedience depends upon the will of God which ought alwaies to be obeyed when it can , and when it cannot , nothing can supply it because the reason of it cannot be understood , for who can tell why God would have the death of his Son celebrated by Bread and wine ? why by both the Symbols ? why by such ? and therefore no proportions can be made , and if they could , yet they cannot be warranted . This Rule is not onely to be understood concerning the express positive laws and institutions of our Blessed Lawgiver , but even those which are included within those laws , or are necessary appendages to those institutions are to be obeyed , and can neither be dispensed withall nor diverted by any suppletory or expedient . Thus to the law of representing and commemorating the death of our dearest Lord by the celebration of his last supper it is necessarily appendant and included that we should com worthily prepared , lest that which is holy be given to Dogs , and holy things be handled unholily . In this case there can be no dispensation ; and although the Curates of souls having the key of knowledge and understanding to divide the word of God rightly , have power and warrant to tell what measures and degrees of preparation are just and holy ; yet they cannot give any dispensation in any just and requir'd degree , nor by their sentence effect that a less degree then God requires in the appendant law can be sufficient to any man , neither can any human authority commute a duty that God requires ; and when he demands repentance no man can dispense with him that is to communicate , or give him leave to give almes in stead of repentance . But if in the duty of preparation God had involv'd the duty of confession to a Priest : this might have in some cases been wholly let alone : that is , in case there were no Priest to be had but one , who were to consecrate and who could not attend to hear my confessions : And the reason is , because in case of the destitution of any material or necessary constituent part of the duty , there is no need of equity or interpretation , because the subject matter of degrees of heightnings and diminutions being taken away , there can be no consideration of the manner or the degrees superstructed . When any condition intrinsecally and in the nature of the thing included in an affirmative precept is destituent or wanting , the duty it self falls without interpretation . Lastly ; This Rule is to be understood also much more concerning the Negative precepts of the Religion : because there can be no hindrance to the duties of a Negative precept ; every man can let any thing alone ; and he cannot be forc'd from his silence or his omission ; for he can sit still and die ; violence can hinder an action , but cannot effect it or express it : and therefore here is no place for interpretation much less for dispensation , neither can it be supplyed by any action or by any omission whatsoever . But upon the matter of this second Consequent remark'd above [ numb . 14. ] it is to be inquired whether in no case a supply of duty is to be made ? or whether or no it is not better in some cases , that is , when we are hindred from doing the duty commanded , to doe something when we cannot doe all ; or are we tyed to doe nothing when we are innocently hindred from doing of the whole duty ? When we may be admitted to doe part of our duty , and when to supply it by something else . 1. Negative precepts have no parts of duty , no degrees of obedience , but consist in a Mathematical point ; or rather in that which is not so much ; for it consists in that which can neither be numbred nor weighed . No man can goe a step from the severest measure of a Negative Commandement ; if a man doe but in his thought goe against it , or in one single instance doe what is forbidden , or but begin to doe it , he is intirely guilty . He that breaks one is guilty of all said S. James ; it is meant of negative precepts ; and then it is true in every sense relating to every single precept , and to the whole body of the Negative Commandements . He that breaks one hath broken the band of all ; and he that does sin in any instance or imaginary degree against a Negative hath done the whole sin that is in that Commandement forbidden . 2. All positive precepts that depend upon the meer will of the Lawgiver ( as I have already discourted ) admit no degrees , nor suppletory and commutation : because in such laws we see nothing beyond the words of the law and the first meaning and the nam'd instance ; and therefore it is that in individuo which God points at ; it is that in which he will make the tryal of our obedience ; it is that in which he will so perfectly be obeyed , that he will not be disputed with , or inquir'd of why and how , but just according to the measures there set down ; So , and no more , and no less , and no otherwise . For when the will of the Lawgiver is all the reason , the first instance of the law is all the measures , and there can be no product but what is just set down . No parity of reason can inferre any thing else , because there is no reason but the will of God ; to which nothing can be equal , because his will can be but one . If any man should argue thus ; Christ hath commanded us to celebrate his death by blessing and communicating in bread and wine ; this being plainly his purpose ; and I finding it impossible to get wine , consider that water came out of his side as well as bloud , and therefore water will represent his death as well as wine ; for wine is but like bloud , and water is more then like it self ; and therefore I obey him better , when in the letter I cannot obey him ; He I say that should argue thus , takes wrong measures ; for it is not here to be inquired which is most agreeable to our reason , but which complies with Gods will , for that is all the reason we are to inquire after . 3. In natural laws and obligations depending upon true and proper reason drawn from the nature of things ; there we must doe what we can , and if we cannot doe all that is at first intended , yet it is secondarily intended that we should doe what we can . The reason is , because there is a natural cause of the duty , which like the light of the Sun is communicated in several degrees according as it can be received ; and therefore whatever partakes of that reason is also a duty of that Commandement . Thus it is a duty of natural and essential religion that we should worship God with all the faculties of the soul , with all the actions of the body , with all the degrees of intension , with all the instances and parts of extension : For God is the Lord of all ; he expects all , and he deserves all , and will reward all ; and every thing is design'd in order to his service and glorification : and therefore every part of all this is equally commanded , equally requir'd ; and is Symbolical to the whole ; and therefore in the impossibility of the performance of any one , the whole Commandement is equally promoted by another ; and when we cannot bow the knee yet we can incline the head , and when we cannot give , we can forgive , and if we have not silver and gold , we can pay them in prayers and blessings ; and if we cannot goe with our Brother two mile , we can ( it may be ) go one , or one half ; let us goe as farre as we can , and doe all that is in our power and in our circumstances . For since our duty here can grow , and every instance does according to its portion doe in its own time and measures the whole work of the Commandement , and God accepts us in every step of the progression , that is , in all degrees ; for he breaks not the bruised reed , and he quenches not the smoaking flaxe ; it follows , that though we are not tyed to doe all , even that which is beyond our powers ; yet we must doe what we can towards it ; even a part of the Commandement may in such cases be accepted for our whole duty . 4. In external actions which are instances of a Natural or Moral duty , if there be any variety , one may supply the other ; if there be but one , it can be supplyed by the internal onely and spiritual . But the internal can never be hindred , and can never be chang'd or supplyed by any thing else ; it is capable of no suppletory , but of degrees it is : and if we cannot love God as well as Mary Magdalen lov'd him , let us love him so as to obey him alwaies , and so as to superadded degrees of increment to our love , and to our obedience ; but for this or that expression it must be as it can , and when it can , it must be this or another ; but if it can be neither upon the hand , it must be all that is intended upon the heart ; and as the body helps the Soul in the ministeries of her duty ; so the Soul supplies the body in the essentialities of it and indispensable obedience . RULE 12. Not every thing that is in the Sermons and Doctrine of Jesus Christ was intended to bind as a law or Commandement . EVery thing that is spoken by our Blessed Saviour is to be plac'd in that order of things where himself was pleas'd to put it . Whatsoever he propounded to us under the Sanction of love , and by the invitation of a great reward , that is so to be understood as that it may not become a snare , by being supposed in all cases , and to all persons to be a law . For laws are established by fear and love too , that is , by p●om●ses and threatnings ; and nothing is to be esteemed a law of Christ but such things which if we doe not observe we shall die , or incurre the Divine displeasure in any instance or degree . But there are some things in the Sermons of Christ which are recommended to the diligence and love of men ; such things whether men must tend and grow . Thus it is required that we should love God with all our heart ; which is indeed a Commandement and the first and the chiefest : but because it hath an infinite sense , and is capable of degrees beyond all the actualit●es of any man whatsoever , therefore it is incouraged and invited further by a reward that will be greater then all the work that any man can doe . But yet there is also the minimum morale in it , that is , that degree of love and duty , less then which is by interpretation no love , no duty at all ; and that is , that we so love God , that 1. we love nothing against him , 2. that we love nothing more then him , 3. that we love nothing equal to him , 4. that we love nothing disparately and distinctly from him , but in subordination to him ; that is , so as to be apt to yeeld and submit to his love , and comply with our duty . Now then , here must this law begin , it is a Commandement to all persons , and at all times to do thus much ; and this being a general law of which all other laws are but instances and specifications , the same thing is in all the particular laws which is in the General : there is in every one of them a minimum morale , a legal sense of duty , which if we prevaricate or goe less then it , we are transgressours : but then there is also a latitude of duty , or a sense of Love and Evangelical increase , which is a further pursuance of the duty of the Commandement ; but is not directly the law , but the love ; to which God hath appointed no measures of greatness but hath invited as forward as the man can goe . For it is considerable that since Negative precepts include their affirmatives , and Affirmatives also doe inferre the Negatives ( as I have already discoursed ) and yet they have differing measures and proportions , and that the form of words and signes Negative or Affirmative , are not the sufficient indication of the precepts , we can best be instructed by this measure ; There is in every Commandement a negative part and an affirmative : The Negative is the first , the least and the lowest sense of the law and the degree of duty ; and this is obligatory to all persons and cannot be lessened by excuse , or hindred by disability , or excus'd by ignorance , neither is it to stay its time or to wait for circumstances ; but obliges all men indifferently . I doe not say that this is alwaies expressed by negative forms of law or language , but is by interpretation Negative ; it operates or obliges as doe the Negatives . For when we are commanded to love our Neighbour as our self ; the least measure of this law , the legal or Negative part of it is , that we should not doe him injury : that we shall not doe to him , what we would not have done to our selves . He that does not in this sense love his Neighbour as himself , hath broken the Commandement ; he hath done that which he should not doe ; he hath done that which he cannot justifie ; he hath done that which was forbidden : for every going less then the first sense of the law , then the lowest sense of duty , is the commission of a sin , a doing against a prohibition . But then there are further degrees of duty then the first and lowest ; which are the affirmative measures , that is , a doing excellent actions and instances of the Commandements , a doing the Commandement with love and excellency , a progression in the exercise and methods of that piety ; the degrees of which because they are affirmative therefore thy oblige but in certain circumstances ; and are under no law absolutely , but they grow in the face of the Sun , and pass on to perfection by heat and light , by love and zeal , by hope and by reward . Now concerning these degrees it is that I affirme that every thing is to be plac'd in that order of things where Christ left it : and he that measures other men by his own stature , and exacts of children the wisedome of old men , and requires of babes in Christ the strengths and degrees of experienc'd Prelates , he addes to the laws of Christ , that is , he ties where Christ hath not tyed ; he condemnes where Christ does not condemne . It is not a law that every man should in all the stages of his progression be equally perfect , the nature of things hath several stages , and passes by steps to the varieties of glory . For so laws and Counsels differ , as first and last , as beginning and perfection , as reward and punishment , as that which is simply necessary , and that which is highly advantagious ; they differ not in their whole kind ; for they are onely the differing degrees of the same duty . He that does a Counsel Evangelical does not do more then his duty , but does his duty better : He that does it in a less degree shall have a less reward , but he shall not perish if he does obey the just and prime or least measures of the law . Let no man therefore impose upon his brother the heights and summities of perfection , under pain of damnation or any fearful Evangelical threatning ; because these are to be invited onely by love and reward , and by promises only are bound upon us , not by threatnings . The want of the observing of this , hath caus'd impertinent disputes and animosities in men , and great misunderstandings in this question . For it is a great error to think that everything spoken in Christs Sermons is a law , or that all the progressions and degrees of Christian duty are bound upon us by penalties as all laws are . The Commandements are made laws to us wholly by threatnings ; for when we shall receive a crown of righteousness in heaven , that is , by way of gift , meerly gratuitous , but the pains of the damned are due to them by their merit and by the measures of justice , and therefore it is remarkable that our Blessed Saviour said , when ye have done all that ye are commanded , ye are unprofitable servants ; that is , the strict measures of the laws or the Commandements given to you are such which if ye doe not observe ye shall die according to the sentence of the law ; but if ye doe , ye are yet unprofitable ; ye have not deserved the good things are laid up for loving Souls : but therefore towards that we must superadde the degrees of progression and growth in grace , the emanations of love and zeal , the methods of perfection and imitation of Christ. For by the first measures we escape hell ; but by the progressions of love onely and the increase of duty , through the mercies of God in Christ we arrive at heaven . Not that he that escapes hell may in any case fail of heaven ; but that whosoever does obey the Commandement in the first and least sense , will in his proportion grow on towards perfection . For he fails in the first , and does not doe that worthily , who if he have time does not goe on to the second . But yet neither are there Counsels of perfection left wholly to our liberty so as that they have nothing of the law in them ; for they are pursuances of the law ; and of the same nature , though not directly of the same necessity ; but collaterally and accidentally they are . For although God follows the course and nature of things , and therefore does not disallow any state of duty that is within his own measures ; because there must be a first before there can be a second , and the beginning must be esteemed good or else we ought not to pursue it and make it more in the same kind ; yet because God is pleased to observe the order of nature in his graciousness , we must doe so too in the measures of our duty ; Nature must begin imperfectly , and God is pleas'd with it , because himself hath so order'd it ; but the nature of things that begin and are not perfect , cannot stand still . God is pleas'd well enough with the least or the Negative measure of the law ; because that is the first or the beginning of all ; but we must not alwaies be beginning but pass on to perfection , and it is perfection all the way , because it is the proper and the natural method of the grace to be growing : every degree of growth is not the perfection of glory ; but neither is it the absolute perfection of grace , but it is the relative perfection of it : justas corne and flowers are perfectly what they ought to be when in their several moneths they are arrived to their proper stages : but if they doe not still grow till they be fit for harvest , they wither and die and are good for nothing : he that does not goe from strength to strength , from vertue to vertue , from one degree of grace to another , he is not at all in the methods of life , but enters into the portion of thornes , and wither'd flowers , fit for excision and for burning . Therefore 1. No man must in the keeping the Commandements of Christ set himself a limit of duty ; hither will I come and no further : for the tree that does not grow is not alive , unless it already have all the growth it can have : and there is in these things thus much of a law : Evangelical counsels are thus far necessary , that although in them , that is , in the degrees of duty , there are no certain measures describ'd ; yet we are oblig'd to proceed from beginnings to perfection . 2. Although every man must impose upon himself this care that he so doe his duty that he doe adde new degrees to every grace ; yet he is not to be prejudic'd by any man else , nor sentenc'd by determin'd measures of another mans appointment : God hath nam'd none , but intends all ; and therefore we cannot give certain sentence upon our Brother since God hath describ'd no measures ; but intends that all , whither no man can perfectly arrive here ; and therefore it is supplyed by God hereafter . 2. But the Rule is to be understood in great instances as well as in great degrees of duty ; For there are in the Sermons of Christ some instances of duties which although they are pursuances of laws and duty , yet in their own material , natural being are not laws , but both in the degree implyed , and in the instance expressed are Councels Evangelical ; to which we are invited by great rewards , but not oblig'd to them under the proper penalties of the law . Such are making our selves Eunuchs for the Kingdome of heaven , selling all and giving it to the poor . The duties and laws here signified are chastity , charity , contempt of the world , zeal for the propagation of the Gospel : The vertues themselves are direct duties and under laws and punishment , but that we be charitable to the degree of giving all away , or that we act our chastity by a perpetual coelibate are not laws ; but for the outward expression we are wholly at our liberty ; and for the degree of the inward grace , we are to be still pressing forwards towards it , we being obliged to doe so by the nature of the thing , by the excellency of the reward , by the exhortations of the Gospel , by the example of good men , by our love to God , by our desires of happiness , and by the degrees of glory . Thus S. Paul took no wages of the Corinthian Churches ; it was an act of an excellent prudence , and great charity , but it was not by the force of a general law , for no man else was bound to it , neither was he ; for he did not do so to other Churches ; but he pursued two or three graces to excelent measures and degrees ; he became exemplary to others , useful to that Church , and did advantage the affairs of Religion : and though possibly he might , and so may we , by some concurring circumstances be pointed out to this very instance and signification of his duty , yet this very instance , and all of the same nature are Councels Evangelical ; that is , not imposed upon us by a law , and under a threatning ; but left to our liberty that we may express freely , what we are necessarily oblig'd to doe in the kind , and to pursue forwards to degrees of perfection . These therefore are the Characteristick notes and measures to distinguish a Counsel Evangelical from the laws and Commandements of Jesus Christ. The notes of difference between Counsels and Commandements Evangelical . 1. Where there is no Negative expressed not involved , there it cannot be a law ; but it is a Counsel Evangelical . For in every law there is a degree of duty so necessary , that every thing less then it , is a direct act or state of sin , and therefore if the law be affirmative the Negative is included , and is the sanction of the main duty . Honour thy Father and Mother , that is a law : for the lowest step of the duty there enjoined is bound upon us by this Negative , thou shalt not curse thy Father or Mother ; or , thou shalt not deny to give them maintenance . Thou shalt not dishonour them , not slight , not undervalue , not reproach , not upbraid , not be rude or disobedient to them : when ever such a Negative is included , that is the indication of a law . But in Counsels Evangelical , there is nothing but what is affirmative . There are some who make themselves Eunuchs for the kingdome of heaven : that is the intimation of a religious act or state : but the Sanction of it is nothing that is negative , but this onely ; He that hath ears to hear let him hear , and Qui potest capere capiat : He that can receive it let him receive it : and he that hath power over his will , and hath so decreed in his heart , does well . In Commandements it is [ He that does the duty , does well ; He that does not , does ill : ] but in Counsels it is ; [ He that does not , may doe well : but he that does , does better : ] as S. Paul discourses in the question of marriage ; in which instance it is observable that the comparison of Coelibate and marriage is not in the question of chastity , but in the question of religion , one is not a better chastity then the other . Marriage is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an undefiled state ; and nothing can be cleaner then that which is not at all unclean ; but the advantages of coelibate above marriage as they are accidental and contingent , so they are relative to times and persons and states , and external ministeries ; For to be made an Eunuch for the Kingdom of heaven , is the same that S. Paul means by , the unmarryed careth for the things of the Lord ; that is , in these times of trouble and persecution , they who are not entangled in the affairs of a houshold , can better travail from place to place in the ministeries of the Gospel , they can better attend to the present necessities of the Church , which are called the things of the Lord ; or the affairs of the Kingdome of heaven : but at no hand does it mean that the state of single life is of it self a Counsel Evangelical , or a further degree of chastity ; but of an advantageous ministery to the propagation of the Gospel . But be it so , or be it otherwise ; yet it is a Counsel and no law , because it hath no Negative part in its constitution , or next appendage . 2. When the action or state is propounded to us onely upon the account of reward , and there is no penalty annexed , then it is a Counsel and no law : for there is no legislative power where there is no coercitive ; and it is but a precarious Government , where the lawgiver cannot make the Subject either doe good or suffer evil : and therefore the Jus gladii and the merum Imperium are all one : and he that makes a law and does not compell the involuntary does but petition the Subject to obey , and must be content he shall doe it when he hath a mind to it . But therefore as soon as men made laws , and liv'd in communities , they made swords to coerce the private , and warres to restrain the publick irregularities of the world . — dehinc absistere bello , Oppida coeperunt munire , & condere leges , Nè quis fur esset , neu latro , neu quis adulter . For it was impossible to preserve justice , or to defend the innocent , or to make obedience to laws if the Consuls lay aside their rods and axes : and so it is in the Divine laws ; the Divine power and the Divine wisedome makes the Divine laws , and fear is the first Sanction of them : it is the beginning of all our wisedome ; and all humane power being an imitation of and emanation from the Divine power is in the summe of affairs nothing but this , habere potestatem gladii ad animadvertendum in facinorosos homines , and therefore we conclude it to be no law , to the breaking of which no penalty is annexed : and therefore it was free to S. Paul to take or not to take wages of the Corinthian Church ; for if he had taken it , it had been nothing but the making of his glorying void ; that is , he could not have had the pleasure of obliging them by an uncommanded instance and act of kindness . Hope and reward is the endearment of Counsels ; fear and punishment are the ligatures of laws . 3. In Counsels sometimes the contrary is very evil : Thus to be industrious and holy , zealous and prudent in the offices Ecclesiastical , and to take holy orders in the daies of persecution and discouragement , is an instance of love ( I doubt not ) very pleasing and acceptable to God , and yet he that suffers himself to be discouraged from that particular employment , and to divert to some other instance in which he may well serve God , may remain very innocent or excusable : But those in the Primitive Church who so fear'd the persecution or the imployment that they cut off their thumbs or ears to make themselves canonically incapable , were highly culpable ; because he that does an act contrary to the design of a Counsel Evangelical , is an enemy to the vertue and the grace of the intendment : He that onely lets it alone does not indeed venture for the greater reward , but he may pursue the same vertue in another instance or in a less degree , but yet so as may be accepted . He that is diverted by his fear and danger , and dares not venture , hath a pityable but in many cases an innocent infirmity : but he that does against it , hath an inexcusable passion ; and is so much more blameable then the other , by how much a fierce enemy is worse then a cold friend , or a Neuter more tolerable then he that stands in open hostility and defiance . But in laws , not onely the contrary , but even the privative is also criminal ; for not onely he that oppresses the poor is guilty of the breach of charity , but he that does not releeve them ; because there is in laws an affirmative and a negative part ; and both of them have obligation ; so that in laws both omissions and commissions are sins , but where nothing is faulty but a contrariety or hostility , and that the omission is innocent , there it is only a Counsel . 4. In internal actions there is properly and directly no Counsel , but a law onely : Counsels of perfections are commonly the great and more advantageous prosecutions of an internal grace or vertue : but the inward cannot be hindred by any thing from without , and therefore is capable of all increase and all instances onely upon the account of love ; the greatest degree of which is not greater then the Commandement : and yet the least degree if it be sincere is even with the Commandement : because it is according to the capacity and greatness of the Man. But the inward grace in all its degrees is under a law or Commandement , not that the highest is necessary at all times , and to every person ; but that we put no positive barrs or periods to it at any time , but love as much as we can to day , and as much as we can to morrow , and still the duty and the words to have a current sense : and [ as much as we can ] must signifie still more and more ; now the using of direct and indirect min●steries for the increasing of the inward grace , this I say because it hath in it materiality and an external part , and is directly subjicible to the proper Empire of the will , this may be the matter of Counsel in the more eminent and zealous instances , but the inward grace directly is not . To be just consists in an indivisible point , and therefore it is alwaies a law , but if to signifie and act our justice we give that which is due , and a great deal more to make it quite sure , this is the matter of Counsel ; for it is the external prosecution of the inward grace , and although this hath no degrees , yet that hath ; and therefore that hath liberty and choice , whereas in this there is nothing but duty and necessity . RULE 13. Some things may be used in the service of God which are not commanded in any Law , nor explicitely commended in any doctrine of Jesus Christ. THIS Rule is intended to regulate the Conscience in all those questions which scrupulous and superstitious people make in their inquiries for warranties from Scripture in every action they doe ; and in the use of such actions in the service of God , for which particulars because they have no word , they think they have no warrant , and that the actions are superstitious . The inquiry then hath two parts ; 1. Whether we are to require from Scripture a warrant for every action we doe , in common life ? 2. Whether we may not doe or use any thing in religion , concerning which we have no express word in Scripture , and no Commandement at all ? 1. Concerning the first the inquiry is but short , because there is no difficulty it but what is made by ignorance and jealousie ; and it can be answer'd and made evident by common sense and the perpetual experience and the Natural necessity of things . For the laws of Jesus Christ were intended to regulate humane actions in the great lines of Religion , justice and sobriety , in which as there are infinite particulars which are to be conducted by reason and by analogy to the laws and Rules given by Jesus Christ ; so it is certain that as the general lines and rules are to be understood by reason how far they doe oblige , so by the same we can know where they doe not . But we shall quickly come to issue in this affair . For if for every thing there is a law or an advice ; let them that think so find it out and follow it . If there be not for everything such provision , their own needs will yet become their lawgiver and force them to do it without a law . Whether a man shall speak French or English ? whether baptised persons are to be dipt all over the body , or will it suffice that the head be plunged ? whether thrice or once ? whether in water of the spring , or the water of the pool ? whether a man shall marry , or abstain ? whether eat flesh or herbs ; choose Titius , or Caius for my friend ; be a Scholar or a Merchant ; a Physician or a Lawyer ; drink wine or ale ; take Physick for prevention , or let it alone ; give to his Servant a great pension , or a competent ; what can the Holy Scriptures have to doe with any thing of these , or any thing of like Nature and indifferency ? For by nature all things are indulged to our use and liberty ; and they so remain till God by a supervening law hath made restraints in some instances to become matter of obedience to him , and of order and usefulness to the world ; but therefore where the law does not restrain , we are still free as the Elements , and may move as freely and indifferently as the atomes in the eye of the Sun. * And there is infinite difference between law and lawful , indeed there is nothing that is a law to our Consciences but what is bound upon us by God , and consign'd in holy Scripture ( as I shall in the next Rule demonstrate ) but therefore every thing else is permitted , or lawful , that is , not by law restrain'd : liberty is before restraint ; and till the fetters are put upon us we are under no law and no necessity , but what is natural . * But if there can be any natural necessities , we cannot choose but obey them , and for these there needs no law or warrant from Scripture . No Master needs to tell us or to give us signs to know when we are hungry or athirst ; and there can be as little need that a lawgiver should give us a comand to eat when we are in great necessity so to doe . * Every thing is to be permitted to its own cause and proper principle ; Nature and her needs are sufficient to cause us to do that which is for her preservation ; right reason and experience are competent warrant and instruction to conduct our affairs of liberty and common life ; but the matter and design of laws is Honestè vivere , alterum non laedere , suum cuique tribuere ; or as it is more perfectly describ'd by the Apostle , that we should live a godly , a righteous , a sober life ; and beyond these there needs no law : when nature is sufficient Jesus Christ does not interpose , and unlesse it be where reason is defective or violently abus'd , we cannot need laws of self-preservation , for that is the sanction and great band and indearment of all laws : and therefore there is no express law against self-murder in all the new Testament ; onely it is there and every where else by supposition ; and the laws take care to forbid that , as they take care of fools and madmen , men that have no use or benefit of their reason or of their natural necessities and inclinations must be taken under the protection of others ; but else when a man is in his wits , or in his reason , he is defended in many things , and instructed in more without the help or need of laws : nay it was need and reason that first introduced laws ; for no law , but necessity and right reason taught the first ages , Dispersos trahere in populum , migrare vetusto De nemore , & proavis habitare , & linquere sylvas , Aedificare domos , laribus conjungere nostris Tectum aliud , tutos vicino limine somnos Ut collata daret fiducia . Protegere armis Lapsum , aut ingenti nutantem vulnere civem . Communi dare signa tuba , defendier iisdem Turribus , atque una portarum clave teneri . to meet and dwell in communities , to make covenants and laws , to establish equal measures , to doe benefit interchangeably , to drive away publick injuries by common armes , to join houses that they may sleep more safe : and since laws were not the first inducers of these great transactions , it is certain they need not now to inforce them , or become our warrant to do that without which we cannot be what we cannot chuse but desire to be . But if nothing were to be done but what we have Scripture for , either commanding or commending , it were certain that with a less hyperbole then S. John us'd , the world could not contain the book , which should be written ; and yet in such infinite numbers of laws and sentences no man could be directed competently because his Rule and guide would be too big , and every man in the inquiry after lawful and unlawful would bejust so enlightned as he that must for ever remain blind unless he take the Sun in his hand to search into all the corners of darkness , no candlestick would hold him , and no eye could use him . But supposing that in all things we are to be guided by Scripture , then from thence also let us inquire for a conduct or determination even in this inquiry ; whether we may not doe any thing without a warrant from Scripture ? and the result will be that if we must not doe any thing without the warrant of Scripture ; then we must not for every thing look in Scripture for a warrant ; because we have from Scripture sufficient instruction that we should not be so foolish and importune as to require from thence a warrant for such things in which we are by other instruments competently instructed , or left at perfect liberty . Thus S. Paul affirmes , All things are lawful for me ; he speaks of meats and drinks , and things left in liberty concerning which because there is no law , and if there had been one under Moses , it was taken away by Christ , it is certain that every thing was lawful , because there was no law forbidding it : and when S. Paul said , This speak I , not the Lord ; he that did according to that speaking , did according to his own liberty , not according to the word of the Lord ; and S. Pauls saying in that manner is so far from being a warranty to us from Christ ; that because he said true , therefore we are certain he had no warranty from Christ , nothing but his own reasonable conjecture . * But when our Blessed Saviour said and why of your selves doe ye not judge what is right ? he plainly enough said that to our own reason and judgement many things are permitted , which are not conducted by laws or express declarations of God. Adde to this that because it is certain in all Theology , that whatsoever is not of faith is sin , that is , whatsoever is done against our actual persuasion becomes to us a sin , though of it self it were not ; and that we can become a law unto our selves , by vows and promises , and voluntary engagements and opinions , it follows that those things which of themselves inferre no duty , and have in them nothing but a collateral and accidental necessity , are permitted to us to doe as we please , and are in their own nature indifferent , and may be so also in use and exercise : and if we take that which is the less perfect part in a Counsel Evangelical , it must needs be such a thing as is neither commanded nor commended , for nothing of it is commanded at all ; and that which is commended is the more not the less perfect part ; and yet that we may doe that less perfect part , of which there is neither a Commandement , nor a commendation but a permission only appears at large in S. Pauls discourse concerning Virginity and Marriage 1 Corinth . 7. 6 , 37. But a permission is nothing but a not prohibiting , and that is lawful which is not unlawful , and every thing may be done that is not forbidden : and there are very many things which are not forbidden , nor commanded ; and therefore they are onely lawful and no more . But the case in short is this ; In Scripture there are many laws and precepts of holiness , there are many prohibitions and severe cautions against impiety : and there are many excellent measures of good and evil , of perfect and imperfect : * whatsoever is good , we are oblig'd to pursue ; * whatsoever is forbidden must be declin'd ; * whatsoever is laudable must be lov'd , and followed after . Now if all that we are to doe can come under one of these measures , when we see it , there is nothing more for us to doe but to conform our actions accordingly . But if there be many things which cannot be fitted by these measures , and yet cannot be let alone ; it will be a kind of madnesse to stand still , and to be useless to our selves and to all the world , because we have not a command or a warrant to legitimate an action which no Lawgiver ever made unlawful . But this folly is not gone far abroad into the world ; for the number of mad-men is not many , though possibly the number of the very wise is less : but that which is of difficulty is this , Quest. Whether in matters of religion we have that liberty as in matters of common life ? or whether is not every thing of religion determined by the Lawes of Jesus Christ , or may we choose something to worship God withall , concerning which he hath neither given us Commandement or intimation of his pleasure ? Of Will-Worship . To this I answer by several Propositions . 1. All favour is so wholly arbitrary , that whatsoever is an act of favour , is also an effect of choice and perfectly voluntary . Since therefore that God accepts any thing from us is not at all depending upon the merit of the work , or the natural proportion of it to God , or that it can adde any moments of felicity to him , it must be so wholly depending upon the will of God that it must have its being and abiding onely from thence . He that shall appoint with what God shall be worshipped , must appoint what that is by which he shall be pleased ; which because it is unreasonable to suppose , it must follow that all the integral , constituent parts of religion , all the fundamentals and essentials of the Divine worship cannot be warranted to us by nature , but are primarily communicated to us by revelation . Deum sic colere oportet quomodo ipse se colendum praecepit , said S. Austin . Who can tell what can please God , but God himself ? for to be pleased , is to have something that is agreeable to our wills and our desires : now of Gods will there can be no signification but Gods word or declaration ; and therefore by nothing can he be worship'd , but by what himself hath declar'd that he is well pleas'd with : and therefore when he sent his Eternal Son into the world , and he was to be the great Mediator between God and Man , the great instrument of reconciling us to God , the Great Angel that was to present all our prayers , the onely beloved by whom all that we were to doe would be accepted , God was pleased with voices from Heaven and mighty demonstrations of the Spirit to tell all the world that by him he would be reconcil'd , in him he would be worship'd , through him he would be invocated , for his sake he would accept us , under him he would be obeyed , in his instances and Commandments he would be lov'd and serv'd ; saying , This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased . 2. Now it matters not by what means God does convey the notices of his pleasure ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in sundry wayes and in sundry manners God manifests his will unto the world : so we know it to be his will , it matters not whether by nature or by revelation , by intuitive and direct notices , or by argument or consequent deduction , by Scripture , or by tradition , we come to know what he requires and what is good in his eyes ; onely we must not doe it of our own head . To worship God is an act of obedience and of duty , and therefore must suppose a Commandement ; and is not of our choice , save onely that we must chuse to obey . Of this God forewarn'd his people : He gave them a Law , and commanded them to obey that intirely , without addition or diminution ; neither more nor less then it , [ whatsoever I command you , observe to doe it ; thou shalt not adde thereto nor diminish from it ] and again , [ ye shall not doe after all the things that we doe here this day , every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes ] that is , This is your Law that is given by God ; make no lawes to your selves or to one another , beyond the measures and limits of what I have given you : nothing but this is to be the measure of your obedience and of the Divine pleasure . So that in the Old Testament there is an express prohibition of any worship of their own chusing ; all is unlawful , but what God hath chosen and declar'd . 3. In the New Testament we are still under the same charge ; and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Will-worship is a word of an ill sound amongst Christians most generally , meaning thereby the same thing which God forbad in Deuteronomy , viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as the Lxx. expresses it , when every man does that ( not which God commands , or loves ) but which men upon their own fancies and inventions think good , that which seems good in their own eyes , or as our Blessed Saviour more fully , teaching for doctrines the traditions , the injunctions or Commandements , of Men : the instance declares the meaning . The Pharisees did use to wash their hands before meat , cleanse the outside of cups and dishes , they wash'd when they came from the judgment hall ; and these they commanded men to doe , saying that by such things God was worshipped and well pleas'd . So that these two together , and indeed each of them severally , is will-worship in the culpable sense . He that sayes an action which God hath not commanded is of it self necessary , and he that sayes God is rightly worshipped by an act or ceremony concerning which himself hath no way express'd his pleasure , is superstitious , or a will-worshipper . The first sins against charity ; the second against religion : The first sins directly against his neighbour ; the second against God : The first layes a snare for his neighbours foot ; the second cuts off a Dogs neck and presents it to God : The first is a violation of Christian liberty ; the other accuses Christs law of imperfection . So that thus far we are certain , 1. That nothing is necessary but what is commanded by God. 2. Nothing is pleasing to God in religion that is meerly of humane invention . 3. That the commandements of men cannot become doctrines of God , that is , no direct parts of the religion , no rule or measures of conscience . But because there are many actions which are not under command , by which God in all ages hath been served and delighted , and yet may as truly be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or will-worship as any thing else , and the name is general and indefinite , and may signifie a new religion , or a free will-offering , an uncommanded general or an uncommanded particular , that is , in a good sense , or in a bad , we must make a more particular separation of one from the other , and not call every thing superstitious that is in any sense a will-worship , but onely that which is really and distinctly forbidden , not that which can be signified by such a word which sometimes means that which is laudable , sometimes that which is culpable ● Therefore , What Voluntary or Uncommanded actions are Lawful or Commendable . 1. Those things which men doe , or teach to be done by a probable interpretation of what is doubtful or ambiguous , are not will-worship in the culpable sense . God said to the Jewes that they should rest or keep a Sabbath upon the seventh day . How far this rest was to be extended , was to be taught and impressed not by the law , but by the interpretation of it ; and therefore when the Doctors of the Jewes had rationally and authoritatively determin'd how far a Sabbath-daies journey was to extend , they who strictly would observe that measure which God describ'd not , but the Doctors did interpret , all that while were not to be blam'd , or put off with a quis requisivit ? who hath requir'd these things at your hands ? ] for they were all that while in the pursuance and in the understanding of a Commandement . But when the Jew in Synesius who was the pilot of a ship , let go the helm in the even of his Sabbath , and did lye still till the next even , and refus'd to guide the ship though in danger of shipwrack , he was a superstitious foole , and did not expound but prevaricate the Commandement . * This is to be extended to all probable interpretations so far , that if the determination happen to be on the side of error , yet the consequent action is not superstitious if the error it self be not Criminal . Thus when the Fathers of the primitive Church did expound the sixth chapter of S. Johns Gospel of sacramental manducation ; though they erred in the exposition , yet they thought they serv'd God in giving the Holy Communion to Infants : and though that was not a worship which God had appointed , yet it was not superstition , because it was ( or for ought we know was ) an innocent interpretation of the doubtful words of a Commandement . From good nothing but good can proceed , and from an innocent principle nothing but what is innocent in the effect . In fine , Whatsoever is an interpretation of a Commandement is but the way of understanding Gods wil , not an obtruding of our owne ; alwayes provided the interpretation be probable , and that the glosse doe not corrupt the text . 2. Whatsoever is an equal and reasonable definition or determination of what God hath left in our powers , is not an act of a culpable will-worship or Superstition . Thus it is permitted to us to chuse the office of a Bishop , or to let it alone ; to be a Minister of the Gospel , or not to be a Minister . If a man shall suppose that by his own abilities , his inclination , the request of his friends , the desires of the people ; and the approbation of the Church , he is called by God to this Ministery , that he should please God in so doing , and glorify his Name , although he hath no command or law for so doing , but is still at his liberty , yet if he will determine himself to this service , he is not superstitious or a will-worshipper in this his voluntary and chosen service , because he determines by his power and the liberty that God gives him , to a service which in the general is pleasing to God ; so that it is but voluntary in his person , the thing it self is of Divine institution . 3. Whatsoever is done by prudent Counsel about those things which belong to piety and charity , is not will-worship or superstition . Thus when there is a Commandement to worship God with our body ; if we bow the head , if we prostrate our selves on the ground , or fall flat on our face , if we travail up and down for the service of God , even to weariness and diminution of our strengths , if we give our bodies to be burned , though in these things there is no Commandement , yet neither is there superstition , though we designe them to the service of God , because that which we doe voluntarily is but the appendage , or the circumstance , or the instance of that which is not voluntary but imposed by God. 4. Every instance that is Uncommanded if it be the act or exercise of what is commanded , is both of Gods choosing and of mans , it is voluntary and it is imposed ; this in the general , that in the particular . Upon this account , the voluntary institution of the Rechabites in drinking no wine and building no houses , but dwelling in Tents , was pleasing to God ; because although he no where requir'd that instance at their hands , yet because it was an act or state of that obedience to their Father Jonadab which was injoyn'd in the fifth Commandement , God lov'd the thing , and rewarded the men . So David powr'd upon the ground the waters of Bethlehem which were the price of the young mens lives ; he powred them forth unto the Lord : and though it was an Uncommanded instance , yet it was an excellent act , because it was a self denial and an act of mortification . The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the abundant expressions of the duty contained in the Law , though they be greater then the instances of the Law , are but the zeale of God , and of religion ; the advantages of lawes , and the enlargements of a loving and obedient heart . Charity is a duty , and a great part of our Religion . He then that builds almes-houses , or erects hospitals , or mends high wayes , or repairs bridges , or makes rivers navigable , or serves the poor , or dresses children , or makes meat for the poor , cannot ( though he intends these for Religion ) be accused for will-worship ; because the lawes doe not descend often to particulars , but leave them to the conduct of reason and choice , custome and necessity , the usages of society and the needs of the world . That we should be thankful to God , is a precept of natural and essential religion ; that we should serve God with portions of our time , is so too : But that this day , or to morrow , that one day in a week , or two , that we should keep the anniversary of a blessing , or the same day of the week , or the return of the moneth , is an act of our will and choice ; it is the worship of the will , but yet of reason too and right religion . Thus the Jewes kept the feast of Purim , the feast of the fourth , the fifth , the seventh , the tenth moneth , the feast of the dedication of the Altar ; and Christ observ'd what the Maccabees did institute : and as it was an act of piety and duty in the Jewes to keep these feasts , so it was not a will-worship or superstition in the Maccabees to appoint it , because it was a pursuance of a general Commandement by symbolical but uncommanded instances . Thus it is commanded to all men to pray : but when Abraham first instituted morning prayer ; and Isaac appointed in his family the Evening prayer , and Daniel prayed three times a-day , and David seven times , and the Church kept her Canonical houres , Nocturnal and Diurnal Offices , and some Churches instituted an Office of forty houres , and a continual course of prayer , and Solomon the perpetual ministery of the Levites , these all doe and did respectively actions which were not nam'd in the Commandement ; but yet they willingly and choosingly offer'd a willing but an acceptable sacrifice , because the instance was a daughter of the law , incouraged by the same reward , serving to the same end , warranted by the same reason , adorn'd with the same piety , eligible for the same usefulness , amiable for the same excellency , and though not commanded in the same tables , yet certainly pleasing to him who as he gave us lawes for our rule , so he gives us his Spirit for our Guide , and our Reason as his Minister . 5. Whatsoever is aptly and truly instrumental to any act of vertue or grace , though it be no where signified in the law of God , or in our religion , is not will-worship in the culpable sense . I remember to have read that S. Benedict was invited to break his fast in a Vineyard : he intending to accept the invitation betook himself presently to prayer ; adding these words , Cursed is he who first eates before he prayes . This religion also the Jewes observ'd in their solemn dayes ; and therefore wondred and were offended at the Disciples of Christ because that early in the morning of the Sabbath they eate the ears of corn . This and any other of the like nature may be superadded to the words of the law , but are no criminal will-worship , because they are within the verge and limits of it ; they serve to the ministeries of the chief house . Thus we doe not finde that David had receiv'd a Commandement to build a Temple ; but yet the prophet Nathan told him from God , that he did well because it was in his heart to build it : It was therefore acceptable to God because it ministred to that duty and religion in which God had signified his pleasure . Thus the Jewes serv'd God in building Synagogues or places of prayer besides their Temple ; because they were to pray besides their solemn times , and therefore it was well if they had less solemn places . So Abraham pleased God in separating the tenth of his possessions for the service and honour of God ; and Jacob pleased the Lord of Heaven and Earth by introducing the religion of Vowes ; which indeed was no new religion , but two or three excellencies of vertue and religion dress'd up with order and solemne advantages , and made to minister to the glorification of God. Thus fasting serves religion ; and to appoint fasting daies is an act of religion and of the worship of God , not directly , but by way of instrument and ministery . To double our care , to intend our zeale , to enlarge our expence in the adorning and beautifying of Churches is also an act of religion or of the worship of God ; because it does naturally signify or express one vertue , and does prudently minister to another ; it serves religion , and signifies my love . 6. To abstain from the use of privileges and liberties though it be no where commanded , yet it is alwaies in it self lawful , and may be an act of vertue or religion if it be designed to the purposes of religion or charity . Thus S. Paul said he would never eat flesh while he did live rather then cause his brother to offend : and he did this with a purpose to serve God in so doing , and yet it was lawful to have eaten , and he was no where directly commanded to have abstained ; and though in some cases it became a duty , yet when he extended it or was ready to have extended it to uncommanded instances or degrees , he went not back in his religion by going forwards in his will. Thus not to be too free in using or requiring dispensations , is a good handmaid to piety or charity , and is let into the kingdome of heaven , by being of the family and retinue of the Kings daughters , the glorious graces of the Spirit of God. Thus also to deny to our selves the use of things lawful in meat and drink and pleasure , with a design of being exemplar to others and drawing them to sober counsels , the doing more then we are commanded , that we be not tempted at any time to doe lesse , the standing a great way off from sin , the changing our course and circumstances of life that we may not lose or lessen our state of the Divine grace and favour , these are by adoption and the right of cognation accepted as pursuances of our duty and obedience to the Divine Commandement . 7. Whatsoever is proportionable to the reason of any Commandement and is a moral representation of any duty , the observation of that cannot of it self be superstitious . For this we have a competent warranty from those words of God by the prophet Nathan to David . Thou shalt not build a house to the honour of my Name , because thou art a man of blood . In prosecution of this word of God , and of the reasonableness of it , it is very warrantable that the Church of God forbids Bishops and Priests to give sentence in a cause of blood ; because in one case God did declare it unfit that he who was a man of blood should be imployed in the building of a house to God. Upon this account all Undecencies , all unfitting usages and disproportionate states or accidents are thrust out of religion . A Priest may not be a fidler , a Bishop must not be a shoomaker , a Judge must religiously abstain from such things as disgrace his authority , or make his person and his ministery contemptible ; and such observances are very far from being superstitious , though they be under no expresse Commandement . 8. All voluntary services , when they are observed in the sense and to the purposes of perfection , are so farre from being displeasing to God , that the more uncommanded instances and degrees of external duty and signification we use , the more we please God. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Spiritual men doe their actions with much passion and holy zeale , and give testimony of it by expressing it in the uncommanded instances . And Socrates speaking of certain Church offices and rituals of religion , sayes , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Since no man hath concerning this thing any written Commandement , it is clear that the Apostles permitted it to the choice of every one , that every one may doe good not by necessity and feare ] but by love and choice . Such were the free will-offerings among the Jewes , which alwaies might expect a speciall reward , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Those things which are in the tables of the Commandement shall be rewarded , but those which are more then these shall have a greater ; the reason is , because they proceed from a greater intension of the inward grace : and although the measures of the Commandement were therefore less because they were to fit all capacities ; yet they who goe farther , shew that they are nearer to the perfections of grace then the first and lowest measures of the Commandement , and therefore are dispos'd to receive a reward greater then they shall have who are the least in the Kingdome of Heaven . But of this I have already given accounts in the foregoing rule , and * otherwhere . 9. The circumstance of a religious action may be undertaken or impos'd civilly without being superstitious . As to worship God is a duty which can never be a superstitious will-worship , so to worship God by bowing the head or knee towards the East or West is a circumstance of this religious worship ; and of this there may be lawes made , and the circumstance be determin'd , and the whole action so clothed and vested , that even the very circumstance is in some sense religious , but in no sense superstitious ; for some way or other it must be done , and every mans act is determin'd when it is vested with circumstances , and if a private will may determine it , so may a publick law , and that without fault : but of this in the sequel . 10. The summe is this : Though the instance , the act or state be uncommanded , yet it is not a culpable will-worship , if either it be a probable interpretation of a Divine Commandement , or the use of what is permitted , or the circumstance or appendage to a vertue , or the particular specification of a general law , or is in order to a grace instrumental & ministring to it , or be the defalcation or the not using of our own rights , or be a thing that is good in the nature of the thing , and a more perfect prosecution of a law or grace , that is , if it be a part or a relative of a law : if a law be the foundation , whatsoever is built upon it , growes up towards Heaven , and shall have no part in the evil rewards of superstition . But that what of it self is innocent or laudable may not be spoil'd by evil appendages , it is necessary that we observe the following cautions . 1. Whatsoever any man does in an uncommanded instance , it must be done with liberty and freedome of conscience ; that is , it must not be pressed to other men as a law which to our selves is onely an act of love , or an instrument of a vertue , or the appendage and relative of a grace . It must , I say , be done with liberty of conscience , that is , without imposing it as of it self necessary , or a part of the service of God : and so it was anciently in the matter of worship towards the East : for though generally the Christians did worship toward the East , yet in Antioch they worshipped toward the West . But when they begin to have opinions concerning the circumstance , and think that abstracting from the order or the accidental advantage , there is some religion in the thing it self , then it passes fromwhat it ought to what it ought not , and by degrees proves folly and dreames . For then it comes to be a Doctrine and injunction of men . when that is taught to be necessary which God hath left at liberty , and taken from it all proper necessity ; it then changes into superstition and injustice ; for it is an invading the rights of God and the rights of man ; it gives a law to him that is as free as our selves , and usurps a power of making lawes of conscience , which is onely Gods subject and Gods peculiar . Dogmatizing and Censoriousnesse makes a will-worship to be indeed superstition . In prosecution of this it is to be added , It is as great a sin to teach for doctrines the prohibitions of Men , as the injunctions and commandements ; to say that we may not doe what is lawful , as that it is necessary to doe that which is onely permitted , or is commended . He that imposes on mens conscience an affirmative or a negative that God hath not imposed , is equally injurious , and equally superstitious ; and we can no more serve or please God in abstaining from what is innocent , then we can by doing what he hath not commanded . He that thinks he serves God by looking to the East when he prayes , and believes all men and at all times to be oblig'd to doe so , is a superstitious man : but he who believes this to be superstition , and therefore turns from the East , and believes it also to be necessary that he do not look that way , is equally guilty of the same folly ; and is like a traveller that so long goes from the East , that he comes to it by his long progression in the circle . If by the law of God it be not sinful , or if by the law of God it be not necessary , no doctrines of men can make it so : to call good evil , or evil good , is equally hateful to God : and as every man is bound to preserve his liberty that a yoke be not imposed upon his conscience , and he be tied to do what God hath left free ; so he is oblig'd to take care that he be not hindred , but still that he may doe it if he will. That this no way relates to humane laws I shall afterwards discourse : I now onely speak of imposition upon mens understandings , not upon their wills or outward act . He that sayes that without a surplice we cannot pray to God acceptably , and he that sayes we cannot well pray with it , are both to blame ; but if a positive law of our superiour intervenes , that 's another consideration : for , quaedam quae licent , tempore & loco mutato non licent , said Seneca ; and so on the contrary , that may be lawful or unlawful , necessary or unnecessary , accidentally , which is not so in its own nature and the intentions of God. 2. Whatsoever pretends to lawfulness or praise by being an instrument of a vertue and the minister of a law , must be an apt instrument , naturally , rationally , prudently , or by institution such as may doe what is pretended . Thus although in order to prayer I may very well fast , to alleviate the body & make the spirit more active & untroubl'd ; yet against a day of prayer I will not throw all the goods out of my house , that my dining-room may look more like a Chappel , or the sight of worldly goods may not be in my eye at the instant of my devotion : because as this is an uncommanded instance , so it is a foolish and an unreasonable instrument . The instrument must be such as is commonly used by wise and good men in the like cases , or something that hath a natural proportion and efficacy to the effect . 3. Whatsoever pretends to be a service of God in an uncommanded instance , by being the specification of a general command , or the instance of a grace , must be naturally and univocally such , not equivocally and by pretension onely : of which the best sign is this , If it be against any one commandement directly or by consequent , it cannot acceptably pursue or be the instance of any other . Thus when the Gnosticks abused their Disciples by a pretense of humility , telling them that they ought by the mediation of Angels to present their prayers to God the Father , and not by the Son of God , it being too great a presumption to use his name and an immediate address to him ( as S. Chrysostome , Theophylact , and O Ecumenius report of them ) this was a culpable will-worship , because the relation it pretended to humility was equivocal and spurious , it was expresly against an article of faith * and a Divine Commandement . So did the Pythagoreans in their pretensions to mortification ; they commanded to abstain from marriages , from flesh , from fish , as unclean , and ministeries of sin , and productions of the Devil . Both these the Apostle reproves in his epistle to the Colossians ; and therefore condemns all things of the same unreason ableness . 4. All uncommanded instances of piety must be represented by their own proper qualities , effect and worthiness ; that is , if all their worth be relative , they must not be taught as things of an absolute excellency , or if it be a matter of abstinence from any thing that is permitted , and that abstinence be by reason of danger or temptation , error or scandal , it must not be pressed as abstinence from a thing that is simply unlawful , or the duty simply necessary . Thus the Encratites and Manichees were superstitious persons , besides their heresie ; because although they might lawfully have abstain'd from all ordinary use of wine , in order to temperance and severe sobriety , yet when they began to say , that such abstinence was necessary , and all wine was an abomination , they pass'd into a direct superstition , and a criminal wil-worship . While the Novatians denied to reconcile some sort of lapsed criminals , they did it for discipline and for the interests of a holy life , they did no more then divers parts of the Church of God did ; but when that discipline , which once was useful , became now to be intolerable , and that which was onely matter of Government became also matter of doctrine , then they did that which our blessed Saviour reproved in the Pharisees , they taught for doctrines the injunctions of men , and made their wil-worship to be superstition . 5. When any uncommanded instance relative to a Commandement is to be performed , it ought to be done temperately and according to its own proportion and usefulness : for if a greater zeal invites us to the action , we must not give the reins and liberty to that zeal , and suffer it to pass on as far as it naturally can ; but as far as piously and prudently it ought . He that gives alms to the poor , may upon the stock of the same vertue spare all vain or less necessary expence and be a good husband to the poor , and highly please God with these uncommanded instances of duty : but then he must not prosecute them beyond the reason of his own affairs , to the ruine of his relations , to the danger of temptation . To pray is good ; to keep the continual sacrifice of morning and evening devotions is an excellent specification of the duty of [ pray continually : ] now he that prayes more frequently does still better , but there is a period beyond which the multiplication and intension of the duty is not to extend . For although to pray nine times is more then is describ'd in any diurnal or nocturnal office ; yet if a man shall pray nine and twenty times , and prosecute the excess to all degrees which he naturally can , and morally cannot , that is , ought not , his will-worship degenerates into superstition ; because it goes beyond the natural and rational measures , which though they may be enlarged by the passions of Religion , yet must not pass beyond the periods of reason , and usurp the places of other duties civil and religious . If these measures be observ'd , the voluntary and uncommanded actions of religion , either by their cognation to the laws , or adoption into obedience , become acceptable to God , and by being a voluntary worship , or an act of religion proceeding from the will of man , that is , from his love and from his desires to please God , are highly rewardable : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said S. Paul , If I doe this thing with a voluntary act or free choice , then I have a reward . And that no man may be affrighted with those words of God to the Jews , who hath requir'd these things at your hands ? as if every thing were to be condemned concerning which God could say , Quis requisivit ? meaning , that he never had given a commandement to have it done ; it is considerable , that God speaks not of voluntary , but of commanded services ; he instances in such things which himself had requir'd at their hands , their sacrifices of bulls and goats , their new moons and solemn assemblies , their sabbaths and oblations : but because they were not done with that piety & holiness as God intended , God takes no delight in the outward services : so that this condemns the unholy keeping of a law , that is , observing the body , not the spirit of religion ; but at no hand does God reject voluntary significations of a commanded duty , which proceed from a well-instructed and more loving spirit , as appears in the case of vows and free-will-offerings in the Law ; which although they were will-worshippings , or voluntary services , and therefore the matter of them was not commanded , yet the religion was approved . And if it be objected that these were not will-worshippings because they were recommended by God in general ; I reply , Though they were recommended , yet they were left to the liberty and choice of our will , and if that recommendation of them be sufficient to sanctifie such voluntary religion , then we are safe in this whole question ; for so did our blessed Saviour in the Gospel , as his Father did in the Law , Qui potest capere capiat ; and he that hath ears to hear , let him hear ; and so saith S. Paul , He that standeth fast in his heart , that is , hath perfectly resolved and is of a constant temper , having no necessity , but hath power over his own will , and hath judged in his heart that he will keep his virgin , doth well . But the ground of all is this ; all voluntary acts of worship or religion are therefore acceptable quia fundamentum habent in lege Divina , Gods law is the ground of them ; that 's the Canon , and these will-worshippings are but the Descant upon the plain-song : some way or other they have their authority and ground from the law of God ; For VVhatsoever hath its whole foundation in a persuasion that is meerly humane , and no waies relies upon the Law or the expressed will of God , that is will-worship in the criminal sense , that is , it is superstition . So the vulgar Latine and Erasmus render the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or will-worship ; and they both signifie the same thing , when will-worship is so defin'd : but if it be defin'd by [ a religious passion or excess in uncommanded instances relating to , or being founded in the Law and will of God , ] then will-worship signifies nothing but what is good , and what is better ; it is a free-will-offering 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , like the institution under which S. Paul was educated , the strictest and exactest sect of the religion , and they that live accordingly , are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the voluntary and most willing subjects of the law . So that although concerning some instances it can be said , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , this is directly a commandement ; and concerning others , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , this is a vertuous or a right action of my choice ; yet these are no otherwise oppos'd then as in and super , for the one are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the order and constitution of the commandement , the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( as S. Chrysostome expresses it ) are above the commandement , yet all are in the same form or category : it is within the same limits & of the same nature , and to the same ends , and by the same rule , and of the same holinesse , and by a greater love ; that 's all the difference : and thus it was from the beginning of the world , in all institutions and in all religions , which God ever lov'd . I onely instance in the first ages and generations of mankinde , because in them there is pretended some difficulty to the question . Abel offer'd sacrifice to God , and so did Cain ; and in the dayes of Enoch men began to call upon the name of the Lord ; * and a priesthood was instituted in every family , and the Major-domo was the Priest , and God was worshipped by consumptive oblations : and to this they were prompted by natural reason , and for it there was no command of God. a So S. Chrysostome , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Abel was not taught of any one , neither had he receiv'd a law concerning the oblation of first-fruits ; but of himself and moved by his Conscience he offer'd that sacrifice : and b the Author of the answers ad Orthodoxos in the workes of Justin Martyr affirmes , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , They who offer'd to God before the law the sacrifice of beasts did not dee 〈◊〉 by a Divine Commandement , though God by accep 〈◊〉 gave testimony that the person who offered it was 〈◊〉 to him . What these instances doe effect or per 〈◊〉 we shall see in the sequal ; in the mean time I ob 〈◊〉 that they are by men of differing perswasions us'd to contrary pur 〈◊〉 Some there are that suppose it to be in the power of men to ap 〈◊〉 new instances and manners of religion , and to invent distinct matters ●●ormes of Divine worship ; and they suppose that by these instances they are warranted to say , that we may in religion doe whatsoever by Natural reason we are prompted to ; for Abel and Cain and Enoch did their services upon no other account . Others that suspect every thing to be superstitious that is uncommanded , and believe all sorts of will-worship to be criminal , say , that if Abel did this wholy by his natural reason and religion , then this religion being by the law of Nature was also a command of God ; so that still it was done by the force of a law , for a law of Nature being a law of God , whatsoever is done by that is necessary , not will-worship , or an act of choice and a voluntary religion . Now these men divide the truth between them . For it is not true that whatsoever is taught us by Natural reason , is bound upon us by a Natural law : which proposition although I have already prov'd competently , yet I shall not omit to adde some things here to the illustration of it , as being very material to the present question and rule of Conscience . Socinus the lawyer affirm'd Reason to be the Natural law , by which men are inclin'd first , and then determin'd to that which is agreeable to reason . But this cannot be true , least we should be constrain'd to affirme that God hath left the government of the world to an uncertain and imperfect guide ; for nothing so differs as the reasonings of men , and a man may doe according to his reason , and yet doe very ill . Sicut omnis citharoedi opus est citharam pulsare , periti verò ac probè docti rectè pulsare : sic hominis cujuscunque est agere cum ratione , probi verò hominis est rectè cum ratione operari . So Aristotle . It is the work of every Musician to play upon his instrument ; but to play well requires art and skil : so every man does according to reason ; but to doe righteous things , and according to right reason , must suppose a wise and a good man. The consequent of this is , that reason is not the natural law , but reason when it is rightly taught , well ordered , truly instructed , perfectly commanded ; the law is it that binds us to operate according to right reason , and commands us we should not decline from it . He that does according to the natural law , or the law of God , does not , cannot doe amisse : but when reason alone is his warrant and his guide , he shall not alwaies find out what is pleasing to God. And it will be to no purpose to say , that not every mans reason , but right reason shall be the law . For every man thinks his own reason right , and whole nations differ in the assignation and opinions of right reason ; and who shall be Judge of all , but God , and he that is the Judge must also be the law-giver , else it will a be sad story for us to come under his Judgement , by whose lawes and measures we were not wholly directed . If God had commanded the Priests pectoral to be set with rubies , and had given no instrument of discerning his meaning but our eyes , a red crystal or stained glasse would have pass'd in stead of rubies : But by other measures then by seeing we are to distinguish the precious stone from a bright counterfeit . As our eyes are to the distinction of visible objects , so is our reason to spiritual , the instrument of judging , but not alone ; but as reason helps our eyes , so does revelation informe our reason ; and we have no law till by revelation or some specifick communication of his pleasure God hath declar'd and made a law . * Now all the law of God which we call natural is reason , that is , so agreeable to natural and congenit reason , that the law is in the matter of it written in our hearts before it is made to be a law . Lex est Naturae vis , & ratio prudentis , juris atque injuriae regula . So Cicero lib. 1. de leg . But though all the law of Nature be reason ; yet whatsoever is reason is not presently a law of Nature . And therefore that I may return to the instances we are discoursing of , it followes not that although Abel and Cain and Enoch did doe some actions of religion by the dictate of natural reason , that therefore they did it by the law of nature : for every good act that any man can doe is agreeable to right reason ; but every act we doe is not by a law , as appears in all the instances I have given in the explication and commentaries on these two last rules . Secondly , On the other side it is not true , that we may doe it in religion whatsoever we are prompted to by natural reason . For although natural reason teaches us that God is to be lov'd , and God is to be worshipped , that is , it tells us he is our supreme , we his creatures and his servants ; we had our being from him , and we still depend upon him , and he is the end of all who is the beginning of all , and therefore whatsoever came from him must also tend to him ; and whosoever made every thing , must needs make every thing for himself , for he being the fountain of perfection , nothing could be good but what is from , and for , and by , and to that fountain , and therefore that every thing must in it's way honour and serve and glorify him : now I say , although all this is taught us by natural reason , by this reason we are taught that God must be worshipped ; yet that cannot tell us how God will be worshipped . Natural reason can tell us what is our obligation , because it can discourse of our nature and production , our relation and minority ; but Natural reason cannot tell us by what instances God will be pleas'd with us , or prevail'd with to doe us new benefits ; because no natural reason can informe us of the will of God , till himself hath declar'd that will. Natural reason tels us we are to obey God ; but Natural reason cannot tell us in what positive commandements God will be obeyed , till he declares what he will command us to doe and observe . So though by Nature we are taught that we must worship God ; yet by what significations of duty , and by what actions of religion this is to be done , depends upon such a cause as nothing but it self can manifest and publish . And this is apparent in the religion of the old world , the religion of sacrifices and consumptive oblations ; which it is certain themselves did not choose by natural reason , but they were taught and injoyn'd by God : for that it is no part of a natural religion to kill beasts , and offer to God Wine and Fat , is evident by the nature of the things themselves , the cause of their institution , and the matter of fact , that is the evidence that they came in by positive constitution . For blood was anciently the sanction of lawes and Covenants , Sanctio à Sanguine say the Grammarians ; because the sanction or establishment of lawes was it which bound the life of man to the law , and therefore when the law was broken , the life or the blood was forfeited : bt then as in Covenants , in which sometimes the wilder people did drink blood , the gentler and more civil did drink wine , the blood of the grape ; so in the forfeiture of lawes they also gave the blood of beasts in exchange for their own . Now that this was lesse then what was due is certain , and therefore it must suppose remission and grace , a favourable and a gracious acceptation ; which because it is voluntary and arbitrary in God , less then his due , and more then our merit , no natural reason can teach us to appease God with sacrifices . It is indeed agreeable to reason that blood should be pour'd forth , when the life is to be paied , because the blood is the life ; but that one life should redeem another , that the blood of a beast should be taken in exchange for the life of a man , that no reason naturally can teach us . Ego verò destinavi ●um vobis in altari ad expiationem faciendam pro animis vestris : nam sangui● est qui pro anima expiationem facit , said God by Moses . The life of the flesh is in the blood ; and I have given it to you upon the Altar to make an atonement for your Souls : for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the Soule : according to which are those words of S. Paul , without shedding of blood there is no remission ; meaning that in the Law , all expiation of sins was by sacrifices , to which Christ by the sacrifice of himself put a period . But all this Religion of sacrifices , was ( I say ) by Gods appointment ; Ego verò destinavi , so said God , I have design'd or decreed it : but that this was no part of a law of nature , or of prime , essential reason appears in this , * 1. Because God confin'd it among the Jewes to the family of Aaron , and that onely in the land of their own inheritance , the land of promise ; which could no more be done in a natural religion then the Sun can be confin'd to a village-Chappel . * 2. Because God did express oftentimes that he took no delight in Sacrifices of Beasts ; as appears in Psalm 40. and Psal. 50. and Psal. 51. Isai. 1. Jerem. 7. Hosea 6. Micah 6. * 3. Because he tells us in opposition to sacrifices and external rites , what that is which is the natural and essential religion in which he does delight ; the sacrifice of prayer and thanksgiving , a broken and a contrite heart ; that we should walk in the way he hath appointed ; that we should doe justice and judgment , and walk humbly with our God : He desires mercy and not sacrifice , and the knowledge of God more then burnt-offerings . 4. Because Gabriel the Archangel foretold that the Messias should make the daily sacrifice to cease . 5. Because for above 1600. years God hath suffered that nation to whom he gave the law of sacrifices to be without Temple , or Priest , or Altar , and therefore without Sacrifice . But then if we inquire why God gave the law of sacrifices , and was so long pleas'd with it ; the reasons are evident and confess'd . 1. Sacrifices were types of that great oblation which was made upon the altar of the Crosse. 2. It was an expiation which was next in kind to the real forfeiture of our own lives : it was blood for blood , a life for a life , a lesse for a greater ; it was that which might make us confesse Gods severity against sin , though not feel it ; it was enough to make us hate the sin , but not to sink under it ; it was sufficient for a fine , but so as to preserve the stake ; it was a manuduction to the great sacrifice , but suppletory of the great losse and forfeiture ; it was enough to glorify God , and by it to save our selves ; it was insufficient in it self , but accepted in the great sacrifice ; it was enough in shadow , when the substance was so certainly to succeed . 3. It was given the Jewes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as the Author of the Apostolical constitutions affirmes , that being loaden with the expence of sacrifices to one God , they might not be greedy upon the same terms to run after many : and therefore the same Author affirmes , before their golden calfe and other idolatries , Sacrifices were not commanded to the Jewes , but perswaded onely ; recommended , and left unto their liberty . By which we are at last brought to this truth , That it was taught by God to Adam , and by him taught to his posterity , that they should in their several manners worship God by giving to him something of all that he had given us ; and therefore something of our time , and something of our goods : and as that was to be spent in praises and celebration of his name , so these were to be given in consumptive offerings ; but the manner and the measure was left to choice , and taught by superadded reasons and positive lawes : and in this sense are those words to be understood which above I cited out of Justin Martyr and S. Chrysostom . To this purpose Aquinas cites the glosse upon the second of the Colossians , saying , Ante tempus legis justos per interiorem instinctum instructos fuisse de modo colendi Deum , quos alii sequebantur ; postmodum verò exterioribus praeceptis circa hoc homines fuisse instructos , quae praeterire pestiferum est . Before the Law the righteous had a certain instinct by which they were taught how to worship God , to wit in the actions of internal religion ; but afterwards they were instructed by outward precepts . That is , the natural religion consisting in praiers & praises , in submitting our understandings and subjecting our wills , in these things the wise Patriarchs were instructed by right reason and the natural duty of Men to God : but as for all external religions , in these things they had a Teacher and a guide ; of these things they were to doe nothing of their own heads . In whatsoever is from within there can be no Will-worship , for all that the Soul can doe is Gods right ; and no act of faith or hope in God , no charity , no degree of charity , or confidence , or desire to please him can be superstitious . But because in outward actions there may be undecent expressions or unapt ministeries , or instances not relative to a law of God or a Councel Evangelical , there may be irregularity and obliquity , or direct excesse , or imprudent expressions , therefore they needed Masters and Teachers , but their great teacher was God. Deum docuisse Adam cultum divinum quo ejus benevolentiam recuperaret quam per peccatum transgressionis amiserat ; ipsumque docuisse filios suos dare Deo decimas & primitias , said Hugo de S. Victore . God taught Adam how to worship him , and by what means to recover his favour , from which he by transgression fell ( the same also is affirmed by S. Athanasius * : ) but that which he addes , that Adam taught his children to give first-fruits and tenths , I know not upon what authority he affirmes it . Indeed Josephus seemes to say something against it : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , God is not pleas'd so much in oblation of such things which the greediness and violence of man forces from the Earth , such as are corne and fruits ; but is more pleas'd with that which comes of it self naturally and easily , such as are cattel and sheep . And therefore he supposes God rejected Cain and accepted Abel , because Cain brought fruits which were procur'd by labour and tillage ; but Abel offered sheep , which came by the easy methods and pleasing ministeries of Nature . It is certain Josephus said not true , and had no warrant for his affirmative : but that which his discourse does morally intimate is very right , that the things of mans invention please not God ; but that which comes from him we must give him again , and serve him by what he hath given us , and our religion must be of such things as come to us from God : it must be obedience or compliance ; it must be something of meer love , or something of love mingled with obedience : it is certain it was so in the instance of Abel . And this appears in those words of S. Paul , By faith Abel offer'd sacrifice : it was not therefore done by choice of his own head ; but by the obedience of faith , which supposes revelation and the command or declaration of the will of God. And concerning this , in the traditions and writings of the Easterlings , we find this story . In the beginning of mankind , when Eve for the peopling of the world was by God so bless'd in the production of Children that she alwaies had twins before the birth of Seth , and the twins were ever male and female , that they might interchangeably marry , ne gens sit unius aetatis populus virorum , lest mankinde should expire in one generation ; Adam being taught by God did not allow the twins to marry , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , whom nature her self by their divided birth had separated and divided ; but appointed that Cain should marry the twin-sister of Abel , and Abel should marry Azron the twin-sister of Cain : But Cain thought his own twin-sister the more beautifull , and resolved to marry her . Adam therefore wished them to inquire of God by sacrifice ; which they did : and because Cains sacrifice was rejected , and his hopes made void , and his desire not consented to , he kill'd his Brother Abel ; whose twin-sister afterwards fell to the portion of Seth , who had none of his owne . Upon this occasion sacrifices were first offered . Now whether God taught the religion of it first to Adam , or immediately to Cain and Abel , yet it is certain from the Apostle ( upon whom we may relie , though upon the tradition of the Easterlings we may not ) that Abel did his religion from the principle of faith ; and therefore that manner of worshipping God did not consist onely in manners , but in supernatural mystery ; that is , all External formes of worshipping are no parts of moral duty , but depend upon divine institution and divine acceptance : and although any external rite that is founded upon a natural rule of vertue may be accepted into religion , when that vertue is a law ; yet nothing must be presented to God but what himself hath chosen some way or other . Superstitio est quando traditioni humanae Religionis nomen applicatur , said the Glosse [ in Coloss. 2. ] when any tradition or invention of man is called Religion , the proper name of it is superstition ; that is , when any thing is brought into Religion and is it self made to be a worship of God , it is a will-worship in the Criminal sense . Hanc video sapientissimorum fuisse sententiam , legem neque hominum ingeniis excogitatam , neque scitum aliquod esse populorum , sed aeternum quiddam , quod universum mundum regeret , imperandi prohibendique sapientia . Ita principem legem illam , & ultimam mentem esse dicebant omnia ratione aut cogentis aut vetantis Dei , said Cicero . Neither the wit of man , nor the consent of the people is a competent warranty for any prime law ; for law is an eternal thing , fit to governe the world , it is the wisdome of God commanding or forbidding . Reason indeed is the aptness , the disposition , the capacity and matter of the eternal law ; but the life and forme of it is the command of God. Every plant which my Heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up . Some plants arise from seed , some from slips and suckers , some are grafted , and some inoculated ; and all these will grow , and bring forth pleasing fruit ; but if it growes wild , that is , of its own accord , the fruit is fit for nothing , and the tree is fit for burning . RULE XIV . The Christian law both of Faith and Manners is fully contained in the Holy Scriptures ; and from thence onely can the Conscience have divine Warrant and Authority . OF the perfection and fulness of the Christian law I have already given accounts ; but where this law is recorded , and that the Holy Scriptures are the perfect and onely Digest of it , is the matter of the present Rule , which is of great use in the Rule of Conscience ; because if we know not where our Rule is to be found , and if there can be several Tables of the law pretended , our obedience must be by chance or our own choice , that is , it cannot be obedience , which must be voluntary in the submission , and therefore cannot be chance , and it must be determin'd by the superior , and therefore cannot be our own antecedent choice , but what is chosen for us . That the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament doe contain the whole will and law of God is affirmed by the primitive Fathers , and by all the reformed Churches ; that the Scriptures are not a perfect Rule of Faith and manners , but that Tradition is to be added to make it a full repository of the Divine will , is affirmed by the Church of Rome . For the establishing of the truth in this great rule and directory of Conscience , I shall first shew , as matter of fact , that the Church of God in all the first and best ages , when tradition could be more certain , and assent to it might be more reasonable , did nevertheless take the Holy Scriptures for their onely rule of faith and manners . 2. Next , I shall shew what use there was of Traditions . 3. That the topick of traditions , after the consignation of the Canon of Scripture , was not onely of little use in any thing , but false in many things , and therefore unsafe in all questions ; and as the world grew older , traditions grew more uncertain , and the argument from tradition was intolerably worse . 1. That the first ages of the Church did appeale to Scripture in all their questions , I appeale to these testimonies . S. Clemens of Alexandria hath these excellent words , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , It is not fit that we should simply attend to the affirmatives of men , for our Nay may be as good as their Yea. But if the thing be matter of faith , and not of opinion onely , let us not stay for a testimony of man , but confirme our question by the word of God ; which is the most certain of all , or is indeed rather the onely demonstration . Now that there may be no starting-hole from these words of the Saint , I onely adde this , that it is plain from the whole order of his discourse that he speakes onely of the word of God written . For the words before are these , Doe they take away all demonstration , or doe they affirme that there is any ? I suppose they will grant there is some ; unless they have lost their senses . But if there be any demonstration , it is necessary that we make inquiry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and from the Scriptures to learne demonstratively . And a litle after he addes , they that imploy their time about the best things , never give over their searching after truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , untill from the Scriptures they have got a demonstration . He speakes against the Gnosticks , who pretended to secret traditions from I know not who : against them he advises Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to wax old in the Scriptures , thence to seek for demonstrations , and by that rule to frame our lives . S. Basil in his Ethics definit . 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , whatsoever is done or said ought to be confirmed by the testimony of the Divinely-inspired Scripture ; both for the ful perswasion of the good , as also for the condemnation of the evil : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , every thing that belongs to faith and manners , not every indifferent thing , but every thing of duty ; not every thing of a man , but every thing of a Christian ; not things of natural life , but of the supernatural . Which sense of his words clearly excludes the necessity of tradition , and yet intends not to exclude either liberty , or humane lawes , or the conduct of prudence . 5. To the like purpose is that of Origen : Debemus ergo ad testimonium verborum quae proferimus in doctrina , proferre sensum scripturae , quasi confirmantem quem exponimus sensum , we ought to bring Scripture for the confirmation of our exposition : which words of his are very considerable to those who are earnest for our admittance of traditive interpretation of Scriptures . Concerning which in passing by ( because it will be nothing to the main inquiry , which is not how Scripture is to be understood , but whether being rightly understood it be a sufficient rule of faith and manners ) I shall give this account : That besides there are ( I mean in matters of faith , not in matters ritual and of government ) no such traditive commentaries ; there being no greater variety and difference amongst the ancient and modern writers commonly and respectively in any thing than in their expositions of Scripture ; no where so great liberty , no where so little agreement ; besides this , I say , that they are in commentaries of Scripture to be lookt upon as so many single persons , because there was no publick authentick commentary any where , no assemblies in order to any such expositions , no tradition pretended for the sense of controverted places ; but they us'd right reason , the analogy of faith , the sense of the words , and the notice of the originals , and so they expounded certainly or probably according as it hapned , according to that of S. Athanasius Sunt verò etiam multi Sanctorum Magistrorum libri in quos si quis incurrat assequetur quodammodo scripturarum interpretationem , There are many bookes of the holy Doctors , upon which if one chance to light , he may in some measure attain to the interpretation of the Scriptures . But when they ( according to Origens way here described ) confirmed an exposition of one place by the doctrine of another , then and then onely they thought they had the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Scripture-demonstration , and a matter of faith and of necessary belief , and that this was the duty of the Christian Doctors , Origen does expressly affirme . Afterwards , as Pauls custome is he would verify from the holy Scriptures what he had said ; so also giving an example to the Doctors of the Church , that what they speak to the people should not be of their own sense , but confirmed by divine testimonies : For if he , such and so great an Apostle , did not suppose his own authority sufficient warrant to his sayings , unless he make it appear that what he sayes is written in the Law and the Prophets : how much more ought we little ones observe this , that we doe not bring forth ours , but the sentences of the holy Spirit , viz. from Scripture ; for that was the practice of S. Paul , whom he in this place for that very thing propounds as imitable . And in pursuance of this example and advice , S. Cyril expresses himself perfectly , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 attend not to my inventions ; for you may possibly be deceiv'd : but trust no words , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , unless thou doest learne it from the Divine Scriptures . And more fully yet he speaks in another place ; speaking of faith in the H. Trinity he advises them to retain that zeale in their mind , which by heads , or summaries is already lightly expounded to you , but if God grant , shall according to my strength be demonstrated to you by Scripture , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . For it behoves us not to deliver so much as the least thing of the holy mysteries of faith without the Divine Scriptures , nor to be moved with probable discourses . Neither give credit to me speaking , unless what is spoken be demonstrated by the holy Scriptures : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for that is the security of our faith which is deriv'd not from witty inventions , but from the demonstration of divine Scriptures . Omne quod loquimur debemus affirmare de scripturis Sanctis , said S Hierome , Every thing that we speak we must prove it from the holy Scriptures ; not every thing absolutely but every thing of religion , every thing of faith and manners : and if all this be not in the Scriptures , it can have no just authority . Hoc quia de scripturis authoritatem non habet eâdem facilitate contemnitur quâ probatur , If it have not its warrant from Scripture , it may with as much ease be despis'd as it was offered . Where though S. Hierom speakes of a particular question , viz. whether Zecharias the son of Barachias were the Father of John the Baptist ; yet it could not have been applied to this particular if it had not been true in the general , That every thing of religion may be rejected that is not prov'd from Scripture . But this is expressly affirm'd by S. Chrysostome ; Nam si quid dicitur absque Scripturâ auditorum cogitatio claudicat , &c. If any thing be spoken without Scripture the thought of the hearers is lame ; sometimes inclining to assent , sometimes declining ; sometimes rejecting the opinion as frivolous , sometimes receiving it as probable : but when a testimony of the Divine voice proceedes from Scripture , it confirmes the speech of him that speakes , and the mind of him that heares . And upon this account it was that S. Cyril of Alexandria , being to dispute with Theodoret concerning some mysterious questions of Religion , refus'd to conferre but from the fountains of Scripture . It became him ( saies he ) being exercis'd in Scriptures , since his desire was to conferre with me about divine mysteryes , to speak with us onely out of the Holy Scriptures , and so to frame his discourse as becomes holy things . And I should wonder if Theodoret should doe otherwise : for he himself brings in the orthodox Christian saying to Eranistes , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tell not me of your logismes and syllogismes : I rely upon Scripture alone . In which short sentence he makes provision against all devices of mans inventing ; but he establishes a remedy and an affirmative that is equally strong against all pretension of traditions besides Scripture , by saying that Scripture alone is the ground of his confidence , the argument of his perswasion in matters of Religion . But S. Austin establishes the same sufficient and onely rule of Scripture , and by way of instance excludes the Authority of Councels . Sed nunc nec ego Nicenum nec tu debes Ariminense tanquam praejudicaturus proferre Concilium . Neque ego hujus authoritate neque tu illius detineris : Scripturarum authoritatibus , non quorumcunque propriis , sed utrisque communibus testibus , res cum re , causa cum causa , ratio cum ratione concertet , I ought not to urge the Nicene Council , nor you that of Ariminum ; as prejudging the question on either side . But let the causes be confronted , argument against argument , matter against matter , thing against thing by the authorities of Scripture , which are the witnesses common to us both . By which words , if S. Austins affirmative can prevaile , it is certain that nothing ought to be pretended for argument but Scripture in matters of Religion . For if a General Council , which is the best witness of tradition , the best expounder of Scripture , the best determiner of a question , is not a competent measure of determination , then certainly nothing else can pretend to it , nothing but Scripture . And if it be replied , that this is onely affirm'd by him in case that two Councils are or seem contrary : I answer that if Councils can be or seem contrary , so that wise and good men cannot competently insist upon their testimony , it is certain a man may be deceived , or cannot justly be determin'd by any topick but the words and consequences of Scripture ; and if this be the onely probation , then it is sufficient , that 's certain . But that will be a distinct consideration . In the mean time that which I intend to perswade by these testimonies , is that the Fathers of the primitive Church did in all their mysterious inquiries of religion , in all matters of faith and manners , admit no argument but what was deriv'd from Scripture . * 2. Next to this and like it is , that the primitive Doctors did confute all heresies from Scripture ; which could no way be done , but that because Rectum est index sui & obliqui , that which is straight will demonstrate its own straightness and the crookednesse of that which is crooked . Scripture must be a rule of all religion and all faith , and therefore sufficient to reprove all vice and every heresy . So Tertullian discourses , Aufer haereticis quae cum Ethnicis sapiunt , ut de Scripturis solis quaestiones suas sistant , Take from hereticks their Ethnic learning , that they may dispute their questions out of Scripture onely . To this purpose Origen brings in the precedent of our Blessed Lord , from Scriptures confuting the heresy of the Sadducees about the Resurrection . As Christ did , sic facient & Christi imitatores exemplis Scripturarum , quibus oportet secundum sanam doctrinam omnem vocem obmutescere Pharaonis , So will the followers of Christ doe by the examples of Scriptures , which will put to silence every voice of Pharaoh ; that is , every doctrine of the adversaries . Plainer yet are those excellent words of S. Athanasius , speaking but of a small part of Scripture , even so much as was sufficient to prove the articles of the Nicene Creed : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he sayes , That faith which the Fathers confessed at Nice , according to the Holy Scriptures , was sufficient to reprove all [ heretical ] impiety , and to establish our Religion or faith in Christ. And therefore S. Chrysostome compares the Scriptures to a doore : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 … . , For they lead us to God , and open to us the knowledge of God , and keep hereticks from entring in . The metaphor is dogmatical and plain enough without a commentary . The Scripture must be the port at which every article of faith must goe forth , and by which every heresy can be kept from the fold of Christ. Quae ignoramus ex ea discimus . So Theodoret . Whatsoever we are ignorant of , we learn from thence . Nihil est quod nequeat Scripturis dissolvi . So Theophylact. There is no difficulty but may be untied by the Scriptures . The Author of the imperfect work upon S. Matthew , usually attributed to S. Chrysostome , discourses pertinently and extreme fully to this article . Then [ when ye shall see the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place ] that is , when ye shall see impious heresy , which is the army of Antichrist , standing in the holy places of the Church , in that time [ he which is in Judaea let him flee to the mountains , ] that is , they who are in Christianity , let them run to the Scriptures . And why does he command all Christians in that time to run to the Scriptures ? Because ever since heresy did infest those Churches , there can be no proof of true Christianity , nor any other refuge for Christians who would know the truth of faith , but that of the Divine Scripture . And a little after , Now by no meanes can he that desires , come to know which is the true Church of Christ , but onely by the Scriptures… . Our Lord therefore knowing that there would be so great a confusion in the last dayes , commands that all Christians who would be established in the truth of faith should flye to nothing but to the Scriptures . These words in some editions of the works of S. Chrysostome are scratch'd out by a Roman hand , to the regret of some of his own party , and the shame of them that suffered it or are pleased with it . All that I shall say to the book is this , that it is very often urg'd by the greatest patrons of tradition to serve their ends in many other questions , and therefore cannot be rejected upon pretence of not being S. Chrysostom's ; much lesse upon pretence that it was written or interpolated by an Arrian ; because the Arrians call'd for Scripture in the use of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but for the thing it self they offer'd to be tried by tradition : and so did the Catholicks , as it hapned , or as the peevishness of their adversaries , or the advantages of the question did prompt them ; but the Catholicks and the Arrians never did differ upon the question of the sufficiency of Scripture . But as for the book , it is liber doctus & minimè spernendus , saies Bellarmine ; and so is this testimony : and the rather because it is perfectly agreeing with the doctrine of the other Fathers . So S. Augustine , Contra insidiosos errores ●●us vol●it ponere firmamentum in Scripturis , contra quas nullus audet l●qui qui quoquo modo se vult videri Christianum , Against treacherous e●●ors God would place our strength in the Scriptures ; against which none that would any way seem a Christian dares to speak . And a little after he addes this example . When Christ offered himself to Thomas to be handled , non illi suffecit nisi de Scripturis confirmaret cor credentium , Christ thought 〈◊〉 not enough unless out of the Scriptures he had confirmed the heart of the believers : prospiciebat enim nos futuros , He foresaw that we should come after : For if they therefore believed because they held and handled him , what doe we ? Christ is ascended into heaven , not to return but at the end of the world that he may judge the quick and the dead : whence shall ●e bel●●ve but by that by which he confirm'd them who handled him ? He opened unto them the Scriptures ] The Scriptures therefore are the great repository and the great security of faith . They are also the great and the onely deletery of heresies . So Justus Orgilitanus expounds that of the Canticles [ take the little foxes ] that is , convincite haereticos eorúmque versutias sanctarum Scripturarum concludite testimoniis ; convince hereticks , and restrain their subtleties and crafts with the testimonies of Holy Scriptures . And thus in fact the Fathers did conclude against the Gnosticks , the Valentinians , the Marcionites , the Manichees , the Photinians , the Arrians , the Novatians , Eutichians , Eunomians , Nestorians , Macedonians , and all the pests of Christendome . Hos percussit gladius . The word of God is sharper then a two-edged sword ; and the magazines of Scripture were the armories of the Church . 3. The Fathers did reject whatsoever was offered as an article of faith or a Rule of manners , that was not in , or could not be proved from Scriptures . So Tertullian , Sed quoniam unum aliquod attigimus vacuae observationis , non pigebit caetera quoque denotare , quibus meritò vanitas exprobranda est , siquidem sine ullius aut Dominici aut Apostolici praecepti authoritate fiunt . Hujusmodi enim non religioni , sed superstitioni deputantur , affectata & coacta , & curiosi potius quam rationalis officii . If you cannot shew the authority of a divine or Apostolical praecept , your office is not religion , but superstition , not a reasonable service , but curiosity , coaction or affectation . Pamelius suppos'd these words to be very dangerous against Ecclesiastical Traditions . They are indeed against all such traditions as either were meere matters of fact without command , or were postnate to the dayes of the Apostles , of which nature are almost all now in reputation and practice amongst the Romanists . But more ful yet and explicative of the former are those other words of Tertullian against Hermogenes : Whether all things were made of praeexisting matter , I have no where read , let the schoole of Hermogenes shew where it is written . Si non est scriptum , timeat Vae illud adjicientibus aut detrahentibus destinatum , If it be not written , let him fear the curse of them that adde or detract to or from what is written in the Scriptures . But S. Basil is yet more decretory : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , It is a manifest defection from the faith , and a conviction of pride , either to reject any thing of what is written , or to introduce any thing that is not . And therefore in pursuance of this great truth and measure of conscience , he gives this rule , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Whatsoever is without Scripture , not dervi'd from thence , is not of faith , and therefore is a sin : and therefore every such thing S. Austin accurses ; Siquis sive de Christo , sive de ejus Ecclesia , sive de quacunque alia re quae pertinet ad fidem vitámque nostram , non dicam si nos , sed , quod Paulus adjecit , si Angelus de coelo vobis annunciaverit praeterquam quod in Scripturis legalibus & Evangelicis accepistis , anathema sit , If any of us I will not say , but if any Angel ( for that S. Paul added ) shall say any thing of Christ or of his Church or of any other thing pertaining to faith and our life , except what we have received from the Scriptures of the Law and the Gospels , let him be Anathema . Scripturis non loquentibus quis loquetur ? If the Scriptures speak not , who will speak ? said S. Prosper . All things which are delivered to us by the Law and the Prophets and the Apostles we receive , acknowledge and confesse , neither doe we inquire after any thing else : For it cannot be that beside those things which are divinely spoken by the divine oracles of the Old and New Testament , we should say or at all think any thing of God. So S. Cyril . These Fathers speak dogmatically , generally and peremptorily : nothing but what is in Scripture ; nothing of God , nothing of Christ , nothing of his Church , nothing of any thing else . Adde to these , that by their doctrine of the sufficiency and sole use and necessity of Scripture in matters of Religion they doe exclude by name every thing that pretends against Scripture . So Theophilus Alexandrinus ; Daemonici spiritûs est instinctis sophismata humanarum mentium sequi , & aliquid extra Scripturarum authoritatem sequi , It is the instinct of the Devil to follow the inventions of mens minds , and to follow any thing without the authority of the Scriptures . No devise , no wit , no argument or invention of man is to be admitted into religion ; nothing but Scriptures : but neither may traditions be received . Quae absque authoritate & testimoniis Scripturarum quasi traditione Apostolicâ sponte reperiunt & confingunt , percutit gladius . So S. Hierome . These things which they feign as if they were traditions Apostolical , the sword shall smite , if they be without authority and testimonies from Scripture . And so S. Basil to the Question , Whether new converts are to be accustomed to the Scriptures ; he answers , It is fit that every one should out of the Holy Scriptures learn what is for his use ; yea it is necessary , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , both for the full certainty of godliness , and also that they may not be accustomed to humane traditions . Where it is observable , he calls all humane traditions that are not in Scripture ; for if there were any divine traditions which are not in Scripture , he ought to have advis'd the learning of them besides Scripture , for the avoiding of traditions which are not divine : but the Scripture being sufficient for all , whatsoever is besides it is humane , and to be rejected . I summe up this particular with an excellent discourse of the same Saint to the same purpose : He asks a question , Whether it be lawful or profitable to any one to permit himself to doe or to speak what himself thinkes right , without the testimony of the Holy Scriptures . He answers ( after the quotation of many places of Scripture ) Who therefore is so mad , that of himself he dare so much as in thought to conceive any thing , seeing he wants the Holy and good Spirit for his guide , that he may be directed both in minde , in word and in action into the way of truth , or that he would remain blind without our Lord Jesus Christ who is the Sun of righteousness , & c ? But because of those things which are disputed amongst us some are determin'd by the Commandement of God in holy Scripture , others are passed over in silence ; as for those things which are written , there is absolutely no power at all given to any one , either to doe any of those things which are forbidden , or to omit any of those things which are commanded : since our Lord hath at once denounc'd and said , Thou shalt keep the word which I command thee this day , thou shalt not adde to it , nor take from it . For a fearful judgment is expected and a burning fire to devour them who dare any such thing . But as for those things which are pass'd over in silence , the Apostle Paul hath appointed us a rule , saying , All things are lawful to me , but all things are not expedient ; all things are lawful , but all things doe not edify : Let no man seek to please himself , but every one anothers good . So that it is altogether necessary to be subject to God according to his Commandement . The summe is this , Nothing is matter of duty either in word or deed , in faith or manners , but what is written in the Scriptures : whatsoever is not written there it is left to our liberty , and we are to use it as all indifferent things are to be us'd , that is , with liberty and with charity . Now if concerning such things as these there be any traditions , it matters not ; they are no part of our religion , but to be receiv'd like lawes of man , or customes , of which account is to be given in the proper place . 4. The Fathers of the Church did affirme the Holy Scriptures to be a sufficient and a perfect rule of faith and manners . Adoro Scripturae plenitudinem , said Tertullian , quae mihi & factorem manifestat & facta . I adore the fulness of Scripture , which declares God and Gods works . His instance is in one article , but that without the rest can be no fulness ; as Virgils Georgics cannot be full , because he tells a few things well of Bees and tillage . But I will not chuse any authorities concerning which I need to argue ; there are enough that are extremely plain , affirmative and concluding . I instance in Irenaeus . Credere haec talia debemus Deo qui & nos fecit , rectissimè scientes qui Scripturae quidem perfectae sunt , quippe à verbo Dei & Spiritu ejus dictae , We know assuredly that the Scriptures are perfect , for they are the word of God , and spoken by the spirit of God. But therefore he advises , Legite diligentius id quod ab Apostolis est Evangelium nobis datum , & legite diligentius Prophetas , & invenietis universam actionē , & omnem doctrinam , & omnem passionem Domini nostri praedicatam in ipsis , Read the Gospel which the Apostles left us more diligently , read the Prophets more diligently , and you shall finde declar'd in them all the doctrine of Christ , all his action & all his passion . By [ universam actionem ] he means his life indefinitely , and in general : and certainly the New Testament needs nothing to its being a perfect Rule , when it contains all Christs doctrine , and all his story , viz. so far as concerns us . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Constantine the Emperor . The Evangelical books , and those of the Apostles , and the orcales of the old Prophets , doe evidently teach us to believe those things which we ought to believe concerning that which is divine . And therefore S. Athanasius , or whoever is the Author of the Exhortation to the Monkes , Cura in canonicis ponenda est salubriter monumentis , non quod Apocrypha praesertim ignorata debeamus dānare , sed quod ad scientiam Dei digestam Canonis seriem putemus posse sufficere : Be careful in reading the Canonical Scriptures ; not that the apocryphal ( especially before they are known ) ought to be rejected , but that we suppose the Canon is sufficient [ to the knowledge of God. ] The same with Constantines 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that which is concerning God ; that is , the religion . But more full is that short sentence of S. Athanasius , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The holy and divinely-inspir'd Scriptures are in themselves sufficient for the preaching or enunciation of the truth . To the same purpose are the words of S. Chrysostome ; If there be need to learn any thing , or to be ignorant of any thing , thence we learn ; if we would reprove falshood , thence we draw ; if any thing be wanting to correction , to castigation , to comfort , and that we ought to get it , from thence we learn it . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Look for no other teacher , thou hast the oracles of God : none teaches thee like them . He that uses not the Scriptures , but comes into the fold of Christ some other way , that is , appoints a way to himself which the law [ of God ] hath not established , he is a thief . For the Scriptures are like a most strong gate , and keep out hereticks from entring , and make us alltogether sure of all things whatsoever we will : [ of all things ] that is , of all things of religion ; for that is the subject of the discourse , and explicitely delivered by him in another place . Quicquid quaeritur ad salutem totum jam adimpletum est in Scripturis , In the Scriptures fully there is whatsoever is look'd for unto Salvation . And this is so express'd in an excellent place of S. Austin , In iis quae apertè in Scripturis posita sunt inveniuntur illa omnia quae continent fidem moresque vivendi , spem scil , atque charitatem . More fully yet was that of Abbat Odilo of the Cluniac order , Omnis ratio quâ vel Deum vel nos cognoscimus , divinis libris continetur , In those things which are openly or plainly placed in the Scriptures all things are to be found which contain faith , and the manners of life , viz. hope and charity : every me asure or manner by which we know God or our selves is contain'd in the divine books . What can be more plain or more affirmative ? But S. Austin sayes the same thing over and over ; Legite sacram scripturam in qua quid tenendū & quid fugiendum sit plenè invenietis , Read the holy Scriptures ; in which ye shall [ perfectly , or ] fully find what is to be held , what is to be avoided . And again , Sancta Scriptura nostrae doctrinae regulam figit , The Holy Scripture fixes or limits the rule of our doctrine . In hoc volumine cuncta quae aedificant , omnia quae erudiunt , scripta continentur , faith S. Gregory Bp. of Rome , In this volume whatsoever can instruct us , whatsoever can edify us is contained . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said S. Damascen ; All things delivered to us by the Law and the Prophets , the Apostles and Evangelists , we receive and know and reverence , looking for nothing beyond these . And to bring in any thing that is a stranger to Scripture Theodoret calls it an extinguishing of the Spirit ; something contrary to that duty whereby we are oblig'd to stirre up the grace of God we have received . * For the Church of Christ dwells in and possesses assemblies in all the world being joyn'd by the unity of the Spirit , and hath cities of the Law and the Prophets , of the Gospel and Apostles , she departs not out of her own bounds , that is , from the Holy Scriptures , but retains her first possession . So S. Hierome . And in his commentary on Psal. 86. ( if he be the Author of it , as Rupertus affirmes , ) expounding those words , Dominus narrabit in Scriptura populorum & principum horum qui fuerunt in ea , he sayes , [ Et principum ] hoc est Apostolorum & Evangelist arum : [ horum qui fuerunt in ea ] videte quid dicat , Qui fuerunt , non qui sunt , ut exceptis Apostolis , quodcunque aliud postea dicitur , abscindatur , non habeat postea autoritatem . Quam vis ergo Sanctus sit aliquis post Apostolos , quamvis disertus sit , non habet autoritatem , quoniam Dominus narrat in Scriptura populorum & principum qui fuerunt in ea . The Princes of the people ] that is , the Apostles and Evangelists : [ of them which have been in her ] which have been , not which are in her ; that excepting what the Apostles say , every thing after them may be cut off , it hath after them no authority . For if there be any wise man , any Saint after the Apostles , he hath no authority ; because our Lord saith in the Scripture or writing of the princes that have been in her . Sufficit Divina Scriptura ad faciendū eos qui in illa educati sunt sapientes , & probatissimos , & sufficientissimam habentes intelligentiam ; indigemusque ad hoc prorsus nihil externis Magistris . So S. Cyril of Alexandria . The divine Scripture is sufficient to make them who are educated in it wise and most approv'd and having a most sufficient understanding , and be sides this we need no external Masters . To the same purpose is that of Anastasius of Antioch , Quòd quae silentio praeteriit Scriptura divina non sint scrutanda , perspicuum : Omnia enim quae faciunt ad nostrā utilitatem dispensavit & administravit Spiritus sanctus : It is manifest that those things are not to be inquir'd into which the Scripture hath pass'd over with silence . For the holy Spirit hath dispensed to us and administred all things which conduce unto our profit . Quicquid est de verbo Dei , quicquid sciri vel praedicari oportet , de Incarnatione , de vera Divinitate & Humanitate filii Dei , duobus ita continetur Testamentis , ut extra haec nihil sit quod annunciari debeat aut credi . Totum in his comprehenditur coeleste oraculum , quod tam firmiter scire debemus , ut extra haec audire neque hominem nobis liceat , neque Angelum . Whatsoever is of the word of God , whatsoever ought to be known or preached of the Incarnation , of the true Divinity and Humanity of the Son of God , is so contain'd in both the Testaments , that besides these there is nothing that may be believ'd or preach'd . All the whole celestial oracle is comprehended in these , which we must so firmely believe , that besides these it is not lawful for us to hear either Man or Angel : and indeed it were not to be imagin'd how the Scripture should be a Canon or Rule to Christians , if it were so imperfect that it did not contain the measures of faith and manners . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Varinus , A Rule or Canon is an unerring measure , which at no hand can receive addition or suffer diminution . And S. Basil reproved the heretick Eunomius for folly besides his false doctrine , because that he affirm'd tradition of the Fathers to be the Gnomon or Canon of faith , and yet said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that it wanted some additament to make it exact ; one part contradicts the other . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith S. Chrysostome , If anything be put to it , or taken from it , it ceases to be a Canon . And therefore Scriptures are not the Christian Canon , they are not Canonical , if they need to be supplied by traditions . The same is also affirmed by Oecumenius , and the very words of Chrysostome are transcrib'd by Theophylact . 5. Whatsoever Christ taught to his Apostles by his Sermons and by his Spirit , all that the Apostles taught to the Church , and set it down in writing . This we learn from S. Irenaeus , Non per alios dispositionem salutis nostrae cognovimus quàm per eos per quos Evangelium pervenit ad nos , quod quidem hinc praeconiaverunt , postea verò per Dei voluntatem in Scripturis nobis tradiderunt , fundamentum & columnam fidei nostrae futurum . We have known the Oeconomy of our salvation by no other but by those by whom the Gospel came to us ; which truly they then preach'd , but afterwards by the will of God deliver'd to us in the Scriptures , which was to be the pillar and ground to our faith : ] viz. what the Church was afterwards to minister , the Scriptures did consigne , and both of them were pillars and grounds of faith , the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Scriptures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Church by way of Ministery , the Scriptures by their Authority . To this purpose are those words of S. Austin , Cum multa fecisset Dominus Jesus , non omnia scripta sunt , sicut idem ipse sanctus Evangelista testatur , multa Dominum & dixisse & fecisse quae scripta non sunt : electa sunt autem quae scriberentur quae saluti credentium sufficere videbantur . Our Lord Jesus did doe many things which are not written ; and the Holy Evangelist does witness that he both did and spake many things which are not written : but those things which were seen to suffice to the salvation of believers were chosen to be written . And therefore S. Austin and Optatus compare the Scriptures to the Will of the Testator : concerning his goods the kinred may strive , one affirming this , and another that ; but proferte tabulas , shew the Will , peruse the writings ; then the Judge listens , the Advocates are silent , the people are in suspence , the litigants wait : let The testators words be read , that must end all contention . Now this Will was therefore consign'd in writing , that when our Testator was gone from us we might not doubt concerning his Legacies and his Commandments . The same is by Nicephorus particularly affirm'd of S. Paul , Quae praesens oratione suâ dilucidè docuerat , eadem per compendium absens in memoriam revocans per epistolas dedit . The things which he plainly and explicitely preach'd , he being absent , to recal into their memory what he had delivered , set them down in his Epistles as in a summary . And S. Peter having ( as appeares in his Epistle ) promised to doe something to put them in mind after his decease ( meaning to remind them of the doctrine delivered ) caused S. Mark to write his Gospel . Thus I have sufficiently demonstrated the Rule so far as this topick can extend ; that is by matter of fact , and the doctrine of the Church . For if Tradition be regardable , then that the Scriptures are a sufficient and a perfect Rule of Faith and Manners is competently prov'd by that which our adversaries in this question pretend to regard : but if Tradition be not considerable , then the Scriptures alone are ; and there is indeed no Tradition so clear , so regular , so unreprovable as those which are concerning Scripture . That these books are Scripture , that is , the written word of God , and that the written word of God is all that we have of Gods will , is universally delivered by the Christian , and of that which of late is question'd I have given a specimen : for if the concurrent testimony of so many Fathers cannot perswade this article , then the topick of Tradition will be wholly useless in all questions ; but if they can , as indeed they ought in this question , then we are fix'd upon this great rule of Conscience ; the Holy Scriptures are the great Rule of Conscience both in doctrines of Faith , and in doctrines of Manners . 2. The next inquiry is what use there is of Traditions , and if they cannot be a part of the Rule , what aides doe they bring to the Conscience in faith or manners . 1. To this I answer , that Tradition is of great use for the conveying of this great Rule of Conscience , the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament . For when I affirm that the Holy Scriptures are a perfect rule of faith and manners , that is , that they contain all the word of God ; it is to be understood , that it is a rule , a perfect rule to them who believe them to be the word of God. For the question is not whether Scriptures be a Rule , but whether they be a perfect Rule : not whether they be the word of God , but whether they be all the word of God that is of necessity to be preach'd to the Church . So that the Traditions concerning Scripture it self , being extrinsecal to Scripture , are also extrinsecal to the question : and supposing that Tradition were the onely instrument of conveying Scripture to us ; yet that Tradition must not , cannot possibly be any part of the question , for Scripture must be suppos'd as deliver'd to us and accepted for the word of God , before we can inquire whether this Scripture so delivered be all the word of God or no. And indeed Tradition of Scripture is the hand that reaches forth this repository of the Divine word , but it self is not directly any part of it ; it ministers to the will of God , but is no part of the matter of it : and therefore the common pretence for the necessity of Tradition besides Scripture ( because by universal Tradition we understand these to be the books of Scripture ) will come to nothing ; because the question of the plenitude of Scripture is after the admission of that tradition which reports Scripture to us to be the word of God : but it matters not how or why we believe it , whether by universal or particular Tradition , whether because my Priest tells me so or my Father , whether I am brought into it by reason or by education , by demonstrative or by probable inducements : if it be believed heartily it is sufficient ; and then it is that we affirme the Scriptures so believ'd to be the word of God , to be a perfect Rule of all that we are to think or speak or doe in order to Salvation . 2. Besides this , to inquire of what use traditions are is to no purpose for us , for there is no tradition of any doctrine of Faith or Rule of life but what is in Scripture ; but if there were , Traditions would be of the same use as Scripture is , if the tradition were from Christ and his Apostles , and were as certain , as universal , as credible as that is by which we are told that Scripture is the word of God. For the word which is now written was first delivered , that which is now Scripture was at first tradition ; and because it was afterwards call'd so , it hath been made use of by these persons , who , knowing that the change of words in descending Ages is least discerned by mankind , and that from words which are fewer then things most advantages can be made by them who love every thing better then truth , have pretended every saying of the Scripture and Fathers , in which Tradition is us'd , to be a competent argument of the imperfection of Scripture , and of the necessity of a supply to be made by tradition . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Tradition , is any way of communicating the notice of a thing to us : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , I have delivered to you that Christ died for our sins . But this tradition is also in Scripture : so S. Paul addes that Christ died for our sins , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the Scriptures ; and he commands the Thessalonians to preserve the traditions which they had learned from his mouth or from his hand , from his preaching or his writings : and this use of the word continued in the Church for divers Ages , even till all traditions that were not in Scripture were lost , or made uncertain . Si ergo aut Evangelio praecipitur , aut in Apostolorum epistolis aut actibus continetur… . observetur divina haec & sancta traditio . So S. Cyprian . If this be commanded in the Gospel , or be contained in the Epistles or Acts of the Apostles , let this Divine and holy tradition be observed . Such was that which S. Basil calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the tradition of baptisme , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Our Lord himself having delivered or given the order in the tradition of baptisme . And S. Irenaeus calls it a tradition Apostolical , Christum accepisse calicem , & dixisse sanguinem suum esse , &c. That Christ tooke the cup , and said it was his blood ; and that the Barbarians did diligently keep the tradition , Credentes in unum Deum & in Christum qui natus est ex Virgine , believing in one God and in Christ who was born of a Virgin. Such traditions as these the whole Church had before the consignation of Scripture-Canon , and she retain'd them better by help of the Scriptures . Tradition is a giving or delivering of it ; and so long as it is a tradition of God , it is well enough : but if it comes to be your traditions , there is in them nothing of Divinity , nothing of that authority which is to prescribe in faith and holiness . So that in short the thing is this ; If God by his Son or by his Apostles , or any way else , hath taught his Church , there is no disputing of it , let it be made appear that it is a tradition of God , whether written or unwritten , it matters not . If it cannot be made to appear , then idem est non esse & non apparere , it is not obliging to us : we cannot follow the light of a candle that is hid in a dark lanthorn , or thrust into a bushel . But that there is nothing of Faith and manners which the Church of God ever did hold necessary , or ought to have held necessary , but what is in the Scriptures , I have already largely prov'd , and shall in the consequents illustrate with other collateral lights . In the mean time it ought to be known that in the first ages of the Church the Fathers disputing with Hereticks did oftentimes urge against them the constant and universal tradition of the Church ▪ and it was for these reasons . 1. Because the Hereticks denied the Scriptures : so did the Manichees reject the four Gospels ; Ebion received onely S. Matthews Gospel , Cerinthus onely S. Mark , Marcion onely S. Luke , and not all of that , Valentinus none but S. John , but the Alogi received all but that ; Cerdo , Cherinthus , Tatianus and Manichaeus rejected the acts of the Apostles ; the Ebionites all S. Pauls Epistles ; the Church of Rome for a long time rejected the Epistle to the Hebrews , so did Marcion ; others also refus'd to admit the Epistles of S. James and S. Jude , the second of S. Peter , the second and third of S. John , as we learn from a Eusebius and S. b Hierom. Now to such men as these , and in all the interval till the whole Canon was consign'd and accepted , it was of great use to alledge Tradition , especially because the doctrine of the Scriptures was intirely and holily preach'd in all the Apostolical Churches , and by the known and universally preached doctrines they could very well refute the blasphemies of wicked and heretical persons ▪ But in all this here is no objection , for all this tradition was nothing else but the doctrine of the holy Scriptures . 2. The hereticks did rely upon this topick for advantage , and would be tried by Tradition ; as hoping because there were in several Churches contrary customes , there might be differing doctrines , or they might plausibly be pretended ; and therefore the Fathers had reason to urge tradition , and to wrest it from their hands , who would fain have us'd it ill . Thus did the Carpocratians in Irenaeus , When they are reprov'd from Scripture , they accuse the Scriptures , as if they were not right , as if they had no authority , as if from them truth could not be found by them that know not tradition : For they affirme that Jesus spake some things in mystery to his Disciples apart , and that they requir'd that they might deliver them to the worthy , and to them that would assent to them . Upon this pretence Arte●● expos'd his errors , saith Eusebius , and Papias introduc'd the Millenary heresy ; and by tradition the Arians would be tried , and S. Basil was by them challeng'd in an appeal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to custome or tradition and by this Eunomius did suppose he had prevail'd ; and S. Austin affirm●● that all the most foolish hereticks pretend for their most senseless figments those words of our Blessed Saviour [ I have yet many things to say unto you , but ye cannot beare them now . ] And to this purpose was that which the Basilidians did affirme , that the mysteries of their sect were no things of publike notice , but conveyed in secret . Now to such as these there were 〈◊〉 two wayes of confutation : one was , which they most insisted upon , that the Holy Scriptures were a perfect rule of faith and manners , and that there was no need of any other tradition ; the other , that the traditions which they pretended were false , and that the contrary was the doctrine which all the Churches of God did preach alwaies . Now thus far Tradition was useful to be pleaded ; that is , though the hereticks would not admit the doctrine of Christianity as it was consign'd in Scripture , yet they might be convinc'd that this was the doctrine of Christianity because it was also preach'd by all Bishops and confess'd by all Churches . But in all these contests the Fathers did not pretend to prove by Tradition what they could not prove by Scripture ; but the same things were preach'd which were written , and no other articles of Faith , no other rules and measures of good life : onely because they did not consent in the authority of one instrument , they ought to be convinc'd by the other . 3. There is yet one use more of Traditions , but it is in Rituals , and in such instances concerning which S. Paul wrote to the Corinthians these words [ The rest will I set in order when I come . ] Such are , 1. The observation of the Lords day , solemnly once a year , and lesse solemnly once a week , that is , the feast of Easter , and the weekly Sunday ; 2. The Government of the Church by Bishops , which is consign'd to us by a tradition greater then some books of Scripture , and as great as that of the Lords day : and that so notorious , that thunder is not more heard then this is seen in all the monuments of Antiquity ; 3. Offices Ecclesiastical to be said and done by Ecclesiastical persons : such as are the publick Prayers of the Church , the consecration of the blessed Eucharist , the blessing of the Married paires and joyning them in the holy and mysterious rite of Marriage , the consecration of Bishops by Bishops onely , and of Priests by Bishops and Presbyters , though for this last there is not so universal tradition , that every where requiring the imposition of the Bishops hand , and but in some places requiring the assistance of the Presbyters . These three are the most Universal and Apostolical traditions , which although they also have great grounds in Scripture , yet because the universal practice and doctrine of the Church of God in all Ages and in all Churches primitive is infinitely evident and notorious , less liable to exception , and an apt Commentary upon the certain but less evident places of Scripture , therefore these may be plac'd under the protection of universal Tradition ; for they really have it beyond all exception . And although in these the Scripture is sufficient to all wise and good men , to all that are willing to learn and obey , and not desirous to make Sects and noises ; yet because all men are not wise and good & dis-interess'd , Tradition in these things is to Scripture as a Burning-glass to the Sun , it receives its raies in a point , and unites their strength , and makes them burn as well as shine , that is , it makes them doe that which in their own nature they are apt to doe , and from doing which they are onely hindered accidentally . By these instances it is evident that we ought not to refuse Tradition when it is universal , nor yet believe that in any thing of great concernment , though it be but matter of rite and government , the Scripture is defective ; for in these things we admit Tradition to be the Commentary , but Scripture to be the Text : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Irenaeus in Eusebius expresses it , all must be agreeable to Scripture . And although a tradition so absolutely universal as these , were a warranty greater then any objection can be against them , and were to be admitted though they had not express authority in Scripture , as all these have ; yet that even these things also are in Scripture , is a very great argument of the perfection of it . For all other things the Scripture is abundant , and whatever else is to be us'd in the Externals and appendages of Religion the authority of the Church is a sufficient warranty , as I shall prove in it's proper place . But if in these Externals there be a tradition , according to the degree of it's antiquity and universality , so it puts on degrees of reasonableness , and may be us'd by any Age of the Church : and if there be nothing supervening that alters the case , it is better then any thing that is new ; if it be equally fit , it is not equally good , but much better . This is all use which is by wise and good men made of Traditions , and all the use which can justly be made by any man ; and besides the premisses this will be yet further apparent , That although there are some universal practices which ever were and still are in all Churches , which are excellent significations of the meaning of these Scriptures , where the practices are less clearly injoyn'd , yet there are no traditive Doctrines distinct from what are consign'd in Scripture . And this I shall represent in the third particular which I promised to give account of , viz. That the topick of Tradition , after the consignation of the Canon of Scripture , was not onely of little use in any question of Faith or Manners , but falsely pretended for many things , and is unsafe in all questions of present concernment . In order to the proof of this , I divide the great heap of Traditions , which are shovel'd together by the Church of Rome , into three little heaps : 1. of things necessary or matters of Faith , 2. of things impertinent to the Faith and unnecessary , 3. of things false . The Traditions of things necessary , are the Trinity of Persons , the consubstantiality of the Eternal Son of God with his Father , the Baptisme of infants , the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son , and Original sin , that the Father was not begotten , that the Holy Ghost is God , and to be invocated , that Baptisme is not to be reiterated , that in Christ there are two natures and one person . Now that these be appertaining to the Faith , I easily grant ; but that the truth of these articles and so much of them as is certain or necessary is also in Scripture , I appeal to all the books of the Fathers , and of all moderns who doe assert them by testimonies from Scripture . Quicquid sciri vel praedicari oportet de Incarnatione , de vera Divinitate atque humanitate filii Dei , duobus ita continetur Testamentis , ut extra haec nihil sit quod annunciari debet aut credi , said Rupertus Abbas , as I before quoted him . All the mysteries of Christs nature and person , of his humanity and Divinity are clearly set down in both Testaments . But they are not clearly reported in Tradition : the Fathers having sometimes spoken in these articles more in the Arian then in the Catholick style , say Hosius , Gordon , Huntly , Gretser , Tanner , Perron and Fisher. By Scriptures therefore the Church confuted the Arians , the Eutychians , the Nestorians , the Monothelites , the Photinians and the Sabellians . The other articles are also * evidently in the words of Scripture or in the first consequences and deductions . And when we observe the men of the Church of Rome going about with great pretensions to confirme all their articles by Scriptures , they plainly invalidate all pretence of necessity of Traditions . If they say that all the articles of Trent are not to be found in Scripture , let them confess it plainly , and then goe look out for proselytes . If they say there are Scriptures for all their articles , then Scripture is sufficient , or else their faith is not . For all these I before reckoned , it is certain both they and we have from Scripture many proofs , and if there were not , I believe Tradition would faile us very much ; for the heresies which oppugned them were very early , and they also had customes and pretences of customes to prescribe for their false doctrines ; as I shall make appear in the following periods . There are also traditions pretended of things which are not necessary , such as are the Fast of Lent , Godfathers and Godmothers in baptisme , the mixture of wine and water in the Eucharistical chalice , the keeping of Easter upon the first day of the week , trine immersion in baptisme , the Apostles Creed , prayer for the dead , the wednesday and the friday Fast , Unction of sick people , Canon of the Scripture , the formes of Sacraments , and the perpetual Virginity of the Virgin Mary . Now that these are not Divine traditions nor Apostolical appears by the destitution of their proper proof . They are Ecclesiastical traditions and of several ages , and some of them of very great antiquity ; but of what obligation they are I shall account in the Chapter of [ Lawes Ecclesiastical . ] In the mean time they neither are of the necessity of faith , or the essential duty of Christian religion : and therefore as a Christian can goe to heaven without the observation of them in certain circumstances , so is the Scripture a perfect Canon without giving rules concerning them at all . But then as for others , there are indeed a great many pretended to be traditions , but they are false articles , or wicked practices , or uncertain sentences at the best . I reckon some of those which the Roman Church obtrudes : such as are invocation of Saints and Angels , adoration of them , and worshipping of Images , the doctrine of Purgatory , prayer in an Unknown tongue , the Popes power to depose Kings , and to absolve from lawful and rate oaths , the picturing of God the Father and the holy Trinity , the half Communion , the doctrine and practice of Indulgences , Canon of the Masse , the doctrine of proper sacrifice in the Mass , Monastical profession , the single life of Priests and Bishops . Now these are so far from being Apostolical traditions , that they are some of them apparently false , some of them expressly against Scripture , and others confessedly new , and either but of yesterday , or , like the issues of the people , born where and when no man can tell . Concerning Indulgences , Antoninus the famous Arch-Bishop of Florence , sayes that we have nothing expressly recited in holy Scripture , nor are they found at all in the writings of the ancient Doctors . The half-communion is by the Council of Constance affirmed to be different from the institution of Christ and the practice of the primitive Church . Concerning invocation of Saints , Cum scriberentur Scripturae nondum coeperateusus vovendi Sanctis . * Bellarmine confesses that in the age in which the Scriptures were written , the use of making vowes to Saints was not begun ; and a Cardinal Perron excludes the next ages from having any hand in the invocation of them . Et quant aux autheurs plus proche du siecle apostolique , encore qu'il ne se trouve pas de vestiges de ceste coustume &c. In the authours more near the Apostolical age no footsteps of this custome can be found . Concerning making an image of the Father or of the Holy Trinity Baronius cites an Epistle of Gregory the second , An. Dom. 726. in which he gives a reason why the Church did not make any picture of the Father ; which forces him to confess that the beginning of the custome of painting the Father and the Holy Ghost postea usu venit in Ecclesia , came into use afterward in the Church . The doctrine of Purgatory is not onely expressly against Scripture , saying , Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord , even so saith the Spirit , that they rest from their labours ; but it is also certain that it was not so ancient as the Canon of the Roman Mass , the age of which no man can tel any more then they can tell the age of a flock of sheep , or a company of men and children together ; for one piece is old , and another is late , and another of a middle age . But the prayer which in the Canon is for the Dead , supposes that they are not in Purgatory ; but prayes for them which are asleep in rest and quietness . I shall not instance in any more , because I shall in other places meet with the rest : but these are a sufficient indication how the Church hath been abused by the pretence of tradition , and that a bold man may in private confidently tell his parishioner that any doctrine is a Tradition ; and he is the more likely to prevail because he cannot be confuted by his undiscerning hearer , since so great parts and so many Ages of the Church have been told of things that they were traditions Apostolical , when the articles themselves are neither old nor true . Is it imaginable by a man of ordinary understanding , or that hath heard any thing of antiquity , that the Apostles should command their followers to worship the reliques of S. James , or S. Stephen ; or that S. Peter did ever give leave to a man that had sworn , to goe from his oath , and not to doe what he had sworn he would ? Is it likely that S. Peter or S. Paul should leave secret instructions with S. Clement or S. Linus that they might depose Kings lawfully when it was in their power , and when Kings did disagree in opinion from them ? Is there any instance , or precept , or line , or doctrine , or history that ever any Apostle or Apostolical man consecrated the Holy Communion where there was none to communicate ? It was never heard that a Communion could be single , till the Catholick Church came to signify the Roman : and yet if Scripture will not prove these things , Tradition must . The experience and the infinite unreasonableness of these things does sufficiently give a man warning of attending to such new traditions , or admitting the topick in any new dispute , it having been so old a cheat : and after the Canon of Scripture was full , and after that almost the whole Church had been abus'd by the tradition of Papias in the Millenary opinion , which for 300. years of the best and first antiquity prevailed , all the world should be wiser then to rely upon that which might introduce an error , but which Truth could never need , it being abundantly provided for in Scripture . Sometimes men have been wiser , and when a Tradition Apostolical hath been confidently pretended , they would as confidently lay it aside , when it was not in Scripture . Clemens Alexandrinus reckons many traditions Apostolical ; but no man regards them . Who believes that the Greeks were sav'd by their Philosophy , or that the Apostles preach'd to dead Infidels , and then raised them to life , although these were by S. Clement affirm'd to have been traditions Apostolical ? Did the world ever the more believe that a Council might not be called but by the authority and sentence of the Bishop of Rome , though Marcellus was so bold to say it was a Canon Apostolical ? And after S. Hierom had said these words , praecepta majorum Apostolicas traditiones quisque existimat , that what their Fathers commanded , all men were wont to call them Traditions Apostolical ; no man had reason to rely upon any thing which by any one or two or three of the Fathers was called Tradition Apostolical , unless the thing it self were also notorious or proved by some other evidence . But this topick of Tradition is infinitely uncertain , and therefore if it be pretended new , it can be of no use in any of our questions . For if in the primitive Church Tradition was claimed by the opposite parties of a question , who can be sure of it now ? Artemon pretended it to be an Apostolical tradition that Christ was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a meer man , and the Nicene Fathers prov'd it was not so , but much rather the contrary : but that Topick would not prevail for either side . In the question of Rebaptization of persons baptized by Hereticks , both sides pretended Tradition ; so they did in that impertinent , but ( as they then made it ) great question of the time of keeping Easter . Clemens Alexandrinus said it was an Apostolical Tradition that Christ preached but one year ; but Irenaeus said it was an Apostolical Tradition that Christ was about fifty years old when he died , and consequently that he preach'd almost twenty years . But if they who were almost at the fountain were uncertain of the Rivers head ; how shall we know it who dwell where the waters are ready to unbosome themselves into the Ocean ? And to pretend an Apostolical Tradition in matters of Faith , now that the books of the Fathers have been lost , and yet there are a very great many to be read for the proving of Tradition , that is , that there are too many and too few , that in the losse of some of them possibly we have lost that light which would have confuted the present pretences of Tradition , & the remaining part have passed through the limbecs and strainers of Hereticks and Monkes and ignorants and interested persons , and have passed through the corrections and deturpations and mistakes of transcribers , ( a trade of men who wrote books that they might eat bread , not to promote a truth ) and that they have been disorder'd by Zeal and Faction and expurgatory Indices , and that men have been diligent to make the Fathers seem of their side , and that Hereticks have taken the Fathers names and published books under false titles , and therefore have stampt and stain'd the Current ; is just as if a Tartar should offer to prove himself to have descended from the family of King David , upon pretence that the Jewes mingled with their Nation , and that they did use to be great keepers of their genealogies . But after all this , the question of Tradition is wholly useless in the questions between the Church of Rome and the other parts of Christendome . Not onely because there are many Churches of differing rites and differing doctrines from the Roman , who yet pretend a Succession and Tradition of their customes and doctrines per tempus immemoriale , they know not when they began , and for ought they know they came from the Apostles , and they are willing to believe it , and no man amongst them questions it , and all affirm it ; particularly the Greek Church , the Russians , the Abyssines : but also because those articles which they dispute with the other Churches of the West cannot be prov'd by Tradition universal , as infinitely appears in those pittiful endeavours and attempts which they use to perswade them to be such ; which if they did not sometimes confute themselves , the Reader may find confuted every where by their learned adversaries . Therefore although the perfection of Scripture be abundantly prov'd , yet if it were not , Tradition will but make it less certain , and therefore not more perfect . For besides that nuncupative records are like diagrams in sand and figures efform'd in aire , volatile and soon disordered , and that by the words and practice of God , and all the world , what is intended to last was therefore written , as appears in very many places in Scripture , [ & therefore Job calls out , O that my words were now written , O that they were printed in a book , that they were ingraven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever : upon which words the Greek Catena sayes , He drawes a similitude from them who put those things in writing which they very greatly desire should remain to the longest posterity ] and that the very nature of things is such , that a Tradition is infinitely better preserved in writing then in speaking , and besides all those very many weak and uncertain and false Traditions with which several Men , and several Ages , and several Churches have abus'd others , or been abus'd themselves ; I instance in two great things , by the one of which we may see how easily the Church may be imposed upon in the matter of Tradition ; and by the other , how easily those men impose upon themselves whose faith hath a temporal bias and divertisement . The first is , That very many Epistles of Popes , viz. from S. Clement to S. Gregory , that is , for above 500. years , were imposed upon the Church as the genuine writings of those excellent men who govern'd the Church of Rome in all her persecutions and hardnesses ; and of these Epistles the present Church of Rome makes very great use to many purposes , and yet no imposture could be greater then this . For 1. they are patched up of several arguments and materials not at all agreeing with the Ages in which they were pretended to be written , but are snatch'd from the writings of other men and latter times . 2. They were invented after S. Hieroms time , as appears in the citation of the testimonies of Scripture from S. Hieroms translation , and the Author cited S. Hieroms version of the Hebrew Psalter . 3. They were not known in Rome for eight Ages together : which were a strange thing that the records of Rome should have no copies of the Epistles of so many of the Bishops of Rome . 4. They are infinitely false in their Chronology , and he that invented them put the years of false Consuls to their date , as Baronius himself confesses quite reckoning otherwise : and in the Epistles of the whole five & fourty , the decrees of Councils and the words of Ecclesiastical writers are cited , who yet were not at all in their ages , but wrote after the death of those Popes who are pretended to have quoted them , or something is said that could not be done or said by them , or in their times . 5. They are written with the same style ; and therefore it is no more probable that they should be the genuine Epistles of so many Popes , then that so many men in several Ages should have the same features in their faces : but these Epistles say over the same things several times , even unto tediousness , and yet use the very same words without any differing expressions . 6. And sometimes these words were most intolerably barbarous , neither elegantly fine , nor elegantly plain , but Solecismes , impure words and the most rude expressions , not unlike the Friers Latine or the Epistolae obscurorum virorum . 7. None of the Ancient writers of the Church did ever cite any testimony from these Epistles for 800. years together , onely one part of one of the Epistles of S. Clement was mention'd by Ruffinus and the Council of Vase . 8. None of those who wrote histories Ecclesiastical , or of the Church-writers , made mention of them : but all that doe were above 830. years after the Incarnation of our Blessed Lord. 9. And all this beside the innumerable errors in the matter which have been observed by the Centuriators of Magdeburg , David Blondel and divers others . And a more notorious cheat could never have been imposed upon the world ; but that there are so many great notorieties of falshood , that it is hard to say which is greater , the falshood of the Pontifical Book , or the boldness of the Compiler . Now if so great a heap of Records can at once be clapp'd upon the credulity of men , and so boldly defended as it is by Turrian and Binius , and so greedily entertain'd as it is by the Roman Confidents , and so often cited as it is by the Roman Doctors , and yet have in it so many strange matters so disagreeing to Scripture , so weak , so impertinent , and sometimes so dangerous , there is very great reason to reject the topick of Traditions , which can be so easily forged , and sometimes rely upon no greater foundation then this , whose foundation is in water and sand , and falshood that is more unstable . The other thing is , that Hereticks and evil persons , to serve their ends , did not onely pretend things spoken by the Apostles and Apostolical and Primitive men , ( for that was easy ) but even pretended certain Books to be written by them , that under their venerable names they might recommend and advance their own heretical Opinions . Thus some false Apostles ( as Origen relates ) wrote an Epistle and sent it to the Church of Thessalonica under S. Pauls name , which much troubled the Thessalonians , and concerning which , when S. Paul had discovered the imposture , he gives them warning that they should not be troubled about any such Epistle , as if he had sent it . Thus there was a Book publish'd by an Asian Priest under S. Pauls name ( as S. Hierome reports ) containing the Vision of Paul and Tecla , and I know not what old tale of the baptizing Leo. Some or other made S. Clement an Eunomian , and Dionysius of Alexandria an Arrian , and Origen to be every thing , by interpolating their Books , or writing Books for them . Ruffinus tells that the Hereticks endeavoured to corrupt the Gospels : and that they did invent strange Acts of the Apostles , and make fine tales of their life and death , we need no better testimony then Tertullians instances in his Books against Marcion : and for this reason Origen gives caution , Oportet cautè considerare , ut nec omnia secreta quae feruntur nomine Sanctorum suscipiamus , We must warily consider , and not receive all those secret traditions which goe up and down under the names of Saints , [ viz. of the holy Apostles . ] And of the same nature is that famous cheat that usurps the name of Dionysius the Areopagite , called [ The Passion of Peter and Paul ] as who please may see in Laurentius Valla and Erasmus . And such is the Book of the same Passions attributed to Linus , which was invented so foolishly and carelesly that it contradicts the Scriptures most apparently ; as every one that reads it may without difficulty observe . Now the observation from these things is plain : In the matter of Traditions as they are now represented there is so much of humane failings , and so little of Divine certainty , they are often falsly pretended , and never truly proved , and if they should need to be proved , were therefore not to be accepted ; because no particular proofs can make them universal , and if they be not universal , of themselves they cannot be credible , but need something else to make them so ; they are ( whether true or false ) so absolutely now to no purpose , because it is too late to prove them now , and too late to need them , the Church having so long accepted and relied upon the Canon of Scripture , that we are plainly , and certainly , and necessarily devolv'd upon Scripture for the Canon of our Faith and lives . For though no man ought to reject Tradition if he did need it , and if he could have it , yet because he neither can want it ( because Scripture is a perfect Rule ) nor can have it ( because it cannot in any of our questions be prov'd ) we must rely upon what we have . It is in the matter of traditions as in the Epistle of S. Paul to Laodicea : if this or those were extant and sufficiently transmitted and consign'd to us , they would make up the Canon as well as those we have : but there is no such thing as the Laodicean Epistle , and there is no such thing as tradition of doctrines of Faith not contained in Scriptures . The Fathers that had them , or thought they had them , might call upon their Churches to make use of them ; but we that cannot have them , must use what we have ; and we have reason to give thanks to God that we have all that God intended to be our Rule . God gave us in Scripture all that was necessary ; it was a perfect Rule ; and yet if it had not , it must become so when we have no other . But upon the matter of this Argument , there are three Questions to be considered in order to Faith and Conscience . 1. Whether there be not any rules and general measures of discerning tradition , by which although tradition cannot be prov'd the natural way , that is , by its own light , evidence of fact and notoreity , yet we may be reasonably induc'd to beleeve that any particular is descended from tradition Apostolical , and consequently is to be taken in , to integrate the rule of Conscience ? 2. How farre a negative Argument from Scripture is valid , and obligatory to Conscience ? 3. Whether there may be any new Articles of Faith , or that the Creed of the Church may so increase , that what is sufficient to salvation in one Age cannot serve in another ? 1. Question is concerning the indirect ways of discerning Tradition . In vain it is to dispute whether traditions are to integrate the Canon of Scripture , when it cannot be made to appear that there are any such things as Apostolical traditions of doctrines not contained in Scripture . For since the succession in all the Chairs hath been either interrupted or disordered by warres or heresies , by interest or time , by design or by ignorance , by carelesness or inconsideration , by forgetfulness or unavoidable mistake , by having no necessity of tradition , and by not delivering any , it is in vain to dispute concerning the stability of atomes , which as of themselves they are volatile and unfixt , so they have no basis but the light aire : and so are traditions ; themselves are no argument , and there are no traditions ▪ they are no necessary or competent stabiliment of doctrine or manners , o● if they were , themselves have no stabiliment . For it is certain there can be no tradition receiv'd for Apostolical at a less rate then the rule of Vincentius Lirinensis . For to prove by Scripture that there are any traditions not written in Scripture is a trifling folly ; since there might be necessity of keeping traditions before all that which is necessary was set down in writing . So that all the pretensions taken from Scripture in behalf of traditions are absolutely to no purpose , unless it were there said , There are some things which we now preach to you which shall never be written ; keep them : but the naming of [ traditions ] in some Books of Scripture , and the recommending them in others , is no argument to us to inquire after them , or to rely upon them ; unless that which was delivered by Sermon was never to be delivered by writing , and that we knew it as certainly as that which is . * And the same is to be said of the sayings of Fathers who recommend traditions : for although the argument lessened every year , yet it was better then , then it can be now ; it could serve some uses then , it can serve none now ; it might in some instances be certain , and safe in many , but now it cannot be either , neither certain , nor safe , nor necessary , nor of any use at all : which having made to appear in the preceding numbers , it must follow that there can be no doctrinal traditions besides the matters of Scripture ; because there are none such recommended to the Church by the measures of Vincentius L●rinensis . There is no doctrine , no rule of Faith or Manners which is not in the Holy Scriptures , and yet which was believed always , and in all Churches , and of all men in those Churches . For although it is very probable that Vincentius by this rule intended to reprove the novelties and unusual doctrines which S. Austin by his great wit and great reputation had brought into the Church , contrary to the sentiments and doctrines of the Fathers which were before him ; yet it will perfectly serve to reprove all our late pretensions to traditions . For by this measure , we finde it not to be enough that a Doctrine hath been received for a thousand years together by the Catholick Church , reckoning from this period upwards ; unless it were also received by the Apostolical ages and Churches throughout the world , it is nothing : and if it were received by all the Apostolical Churches , and all good and wise men in those Churches , and so downwards ; whereever any Church failed , it was to their own prejudice , not to the prejudice of the doctrine ; for that was Apostolical which was from the beginning ; and whatsoever came after could not change what was so before ; and the interruption of an Apostolical truth , though for a thousand years together , cannot annul the obligation , or introduce the contrary . So that if we begin to account by this rule of Vincentius and goe backwards , it is nothing unless we goe back as farre as to the Apostles inclusively : but if we begin there , and make that clear , it matters not how little a way it descends : and therefore although it is an excellent rule to reprove vain and novel pretensions , yet there is nothing to be proved by it practicably ; for we need not walk along the banks and intrigues of Volga , if we can at first point to the fountain ; it is that whither the long progression did intend to lead us . If any thing fails in the principle it is good for nothing ; but if the tradition derive from the fountain , and the head be visible , though afterwards it ran under ground , it is well enough . For if a doctrine might invade the whole Church which was not preached by the Apostles , or if the doctrine might to many good and wise persons seem to have possessed the whole Church , that is , to be believed by all those that he knows , or hears of , or converses with , and yet not have been the doctrine of the Apostles ; it is certain that this universality , and any less then that which takes in the Apostles , can never be sufficient warranty for an article of Faith or a Rule of life , that is , the instance and obligation of a duty necessary to salvation . But how shall we know concerning any doctrine , whether it be a tradition Apostolical ? Here the Rule of Vincentius comes in . If it can be made to appear that all Churches and all Men did from the Apostles times down to the time of inquiry accept it as true , and report it from the Apostles , then it is to be so received and continued . Indeed a less series and succession will serve . For if we can be made sure that the Age next to the Apostles did universally receive it as from the Apostles , then we may not reject it . But what can make faith in this ? certainly nothing ; for there is no doctrine so delivered but what is in Scripture . Indeed some practices and rituals are , because the publick exercise and usages of the Church being united and notorious , publick and acted , might make the rite evident as light ; but in doctrines ( besides Scriptures ) we have not records enough to doe it : and therefore this general rule of Vincentius not being practicable , and the other lesser rules or conjectures rather being incompetent , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , we must remain as we are , and give God thanks for the treasures of Holy Scripture , and rejoyce and walk in the light of it . But let us try a little . The first Rule which is usually given is this ; That which the Catholick Church believes as an article of faith , which is not found in Scriptures , is to be believed to descend from Apostolical tradition . This Rule is false and in sufficient upon many accounts . 1. For if the Church can erre , then this Rule can have no firmament or foundation . If she cannot erre , then there is no need either of Scriptures or Tradition ; and there is no use of any other argument to prove the truth of an article or the Divinity of a truth , but the present belief and affirmation of the Church , for that is sufficient whether it be written or not written , whether it be delivered or not . But 2. Supposing the Church could not erre in matters of Faith , yet no man says but she may erre in matter of fact : but whether this thing was delivered by the Apostles is matter of fact ; and therefore though the Church were assisted so that she could not mistake her article , yet she may mistake her argument and instrument of probation : the conclusion may be true , and yet the premisses false ; and she might be taught by the Spirit , and not by the Apostles . 3. No man now knows what the Catholick Church does believe in any question of controversy ; for the Catholick Church is not to be spoken with , and being divided by Seas , and Nations , and interests and fears , and Tyrants , and poverty , and innumerable accidents , does ●ot declare her minde by any common instrument , and agrees in nothing but in the Apostles Creed , and the Books of Scripture ; and millions of Christians hear nothing of our controversies , and if they did , would not understand some of them . 4. There are thousands that doe believe such an article to be taught by the Catholick Church , and yet the Catholick Church with them is nothing but their own party ; for all that believe otherwise they are pleased to call Hereticks . So that this Rule may serve every party that is great , and every party that is little , if they will adde pride and contumacy to their article : and what would this Rule have signified amongst the Donatists , to whom all the world was heretick but themselves ? and what would it signify amongst those peevish little Sects that damne all the world but their own congregations ? even as little as it can to the Church of Rome , who are resolved to call no Church Catholick but their own . 5. The believing of such an article of faith could not be indication of a true Catholick , that is , of a true member of the Catholick Church ; because if the article is to be proved to be Apostolical by the present belief of the 〈…〉 , either the Catholick Church is the 〈…〉 we can never tell what the believes in a particular 〈…〉 nothing in the question , because i● is be a question , 〈…〉 Church is divided in her sense of it● or else the Catholick 〈…〉 or Church of Christians separate from the rest , and then 〈…〉 by other means be first known that she is the Catholick Church 〈…〉 accept her belie● to be an argument that the article is an 〈…〉 . Adde to this , that the Churches believing it , is not , 〈…〉 argument that the doctrine is Apostolical ; but on the 〈…〉 be prov'd to be Apostolical before it is to be admitted by the 〈◊〉 . And it it be answer'd , that so it was to those Churches 〈…〉 it first , but to us it ought to be sufficient that the Church 〈…〉 we ought therefore to conclude it to be Apostolical : I reply ▪ 〈…〉 is a it was at first prov'd to the Church to be Apostolical ; but 〈…〉 primitive Church would not receive the doctrine without such 〈…〉 sign that this was the right way of proceeding , and therefore 〈…〉 to be with us ▪ they would not receive any doctrine unless it were 〈…〉 come from the Apostles , and why should we ? and to say that 〈…〉 receiv'd it , we ought to suppose it to have been Apostolical , 〈…〉 to beg the question : for when we make a question whether the Church did well to receive this doctrine , we mean whether they did receiv●● it from the Apostles or no. And therefore to argue from their 〈…〉 , that it was Apostolical , is to answer my question by telling 〈…〉 to suppose that , and to make no question of it . But if this rule should prevail , we must believe things which even to affirm were impudent . The Church of Rome , calling her self the Catholick Church , affirms it to be Heresy to say that it is necessary to give the Communion under both 〈◊〉 to the Laity : but he that will from hence , though he believe that Church to be the Catholick , conclude that doctrine to be the Aposto lick , must have a great ignorance or too great a confidence . Nay this rule is in nothing more apparently confuted then in this instance ; for the C●non in the Council of Constance which establishes this for Catholick doctrine , by confessing it was otherwise instituted by Christ , and otherwise practis'd at the beginning , confesses it not to be Apostolick . So that upon this account it is obvious to conclude that either the universal Church can erre , or else the same thing can come and cannot come ●rom Tradition Apostolical . For the half-Communion is no where commanded in Scripture ; therefore either the Ancient Catholick Church did erre in commanding the whole Communion , or the , modern Catholick Church ( I mean the Roman , which pretends to the name ●oes erre in forbidding it ; or else , if neither does erre , then the Communion under both kinds did come and did not come from Tradition Apostolical . But 6. suppose it were agreed that one Congregation is the Catholick Church , and resolved upon which is that Congregation , yet if it be but a part of Christians , and that interested , it is not in the nature of the thing to inferre , that because this interested , divided part believers it , therefore the Apostles taught it : this Consequent is not in the bowels of that Antecedent , it cannot be prov'd by this argument : if it can be proved by revelation , that what the present Church believes , was a Tradition Apostolical , let it be shewn , and there 's an end of it . In the mean time this rule is not of it self certain , or fit to be the proof of what is uncertain , and therefore not a good rule , till it be proved by revelation . 7. It is evidently certain that what one Age believes as a necessary doctrine , another Age ( I mean of the Catholick Church ) did not believe for such ; and it is not sufficient for the making of a Catholick doctrine that it be ubique , believ'd every where , unless it be also semper & ab omnibus , alwayes and by all men . I instance in the Communicating of Infants , which was the doctrine of S. Austin and of Pope Innocentius , and prevail'd in the Church for 600. years ( saies Maldonat the Jesuit ) that it was necessary to the salvation of Infants , that they should receive the holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper . Now it is also as certain that for 600. years more , the Church which calls her self Catholick believ'd the contrary . Which of these can prove Apostolical Tradition ? For if it be objected that this was not the doctrine of the Catholick Church in those ages in which the most eminent Fathers did believe and practise it , besides that it is not probable that they would teach it to be necessary , and generally practise it in their Churches , if the matter had been nothing but their own opinion , and disputed by others ; I adde this also , that it was as much the doctrine of the Catholick Church , that it was necessary , as it is now , that it is not necessary : for it is certain the Holy Fathers did believe and teach and practise it , and the contrary was not disputed ; but now though it be condemned by some , it is still practis'd by very great parts of the Catholick Church , even by all the Greek Church , and by those vast numbers of Christians in Ethiopia . So that although no doctrinal Tradition is universally received but what is contained is Scriptures ; yet those that have been received as universally as any other matter of question is , have been and have not been believ'd by the Church in several ages : and therefore if this rule be good , they must prove that the same doctrine was and was not a Tradition Apostolical . 8. This Rule were good ( and then indeed onely ) if there were no way to make an opinion to be universally receiv'd but by derivation from the Apostles . But 1. there are some which say every Age hath new revelations : where this is believ'd it is apparent an opinion which the Apostles never heard of , may be adopted into the faith and universally received . But besides this are more wayes of entry for a popular error then any man can reckon or any experience can observe . 2. It is not impossible that some leading man may be credulous and apt to be imposed upon by Hereticks and Knaves ; but when he hath weakly received it , it shall proceed strongly upon his authority . The matter of Papias about the doctrine of the Chiliasts is notorious in this particular . 3. It is also very possible that what is found at first to be good , shall be earnestly press'd by a zealous man , and he may over-express himself , and consider not to what consequence it may afterwards be extended ; and then following ages may observe it , and make a Logical conclusion from a Rhetorical expression ; and then what onely good men had entertain'd when it was called useful , all men shall receive when it is called necessary ; and it is no great progression from what all men believe good , that some men should believe necessary , and from them others , and from others all men . It was thus in many degrees in the matter of Confession and Penance . 4. It is not very unlikely , certainly it is no way impossible , but that the reputation of some great man in the Church may prevail so far by our weaknesses and his own accidental advantages , that what no man at first questions , very many will afterwards believe , and they introduce more , and from more to most , and from most to all men , are no impossible progressions , if we consider how much mankind especially in Theology , have suffered the authority of a few men to prevail upon them . 5. Does not all the world see that zeal makes men impatient of contradiction , and that impatience makes them fierce in disputing , and fierce in fighting , and ready to persecute their enemies ? and what that Unity and Universality is which can be introduc'd by force , a great part of the world hath had two long an experience to be ignorant . 6. Beyond all this , a proposition may be suppos'd to follow from an Apostolical Tradition , and prevail very much upon that account ; and yet it would be hard to believe the Scholars deduction equally with the Masters Principle , and a probable inference from Tradition equal to the very affirmative of the Apostles . A man may argue , and argue well too , and yet the Conclusion will not be so evident as the Principle : but that it may equally prevail , is so certain , that no man can deny it but he that had never any testimony of the confidence of a disputing man , and the compliance of those who know not so well , or inquire not so strictly , or examine not suspiciously , or judge not wisely . 2. The next Rule which is pretended for the discovery of an Apostolical Tradition is this , That which the Universal Church observes , which none could appoint but God , and is not found in Scripture , it is necessary to say that it was delivered by Christ and his Apostles . This Rule must needs be false , because it does actually deceive them that rely upon it . Because their Church , which they will fondly suppose to be the Catholick , uses certain Sacramentals to conferre grace , ( which none could institute but Christ , who alone is the fountain of grace ) and the Holy Spirit to his servants : but yet to pretend that they are Traditions Apostolical were the greatest unreasonableness in the world . I instance in holy water , baptizing of bells , hallowing of agnus Dei's , roses , swords , hats , Chrisme and the like , which no man can fairely pretend to be Traditions Apostolical , but yet they are practis'd by all their Catholick Church , and they are of such things as no man but God could be the author of , if they were good for any thing ; but then to conclude from hence that they are Traditions Apostolical , were just as if one were to give a sign how to know whether lying were lawful or unlawful , and for the determination of this question should give this rule , Whatsoever mankind does universally which they ought not to doe without Gods law , that certainly they have a law from God to doe ; but all mankind are given to lying , and yet nothing can make it lawful to lye , unless there be a warranty or no prohibition from God to lie ; therefore certain it is that to lye descends from the authority of God. Indeed if the Catholick Church could not be uncharitable , if they could not sin against God , then it were certain , if they all did it , and it were not warranted in Scripture , it must be from God : but it does not follow , it would be by Tradition ; because it may be by the dictate of right reason , by natural principles , or it would be a thing indifferent ; but that it must be by Tradition , if it were not by Scripture , or by the Church , were as if we should say , if Laelaps be not a horse , or begotten by a Lyon , he must needs be a Bear : but these rules are like dead mens candles , they come from no certain cause , and signifie no determin'd effect , and whether they be at all , we are no surer then the reports of timorous or phantastick persons can make us . But this Rule differs not at all from the former , save onely , that speaks of doctrinal , and this of ritual Traditions : but both relying upon the same reason , and that reason failing ( as I have prov'd ) the propositions themselves doe fail . But then as to rites , it is notorious beyond a denyall , that some rites used in the Universal Church , which are also said to be such which none ought to appoint but God , were not delivered by the Apostles . I instance in the singularity of baptisme of Hereticks , which the whole Church now adheres to , and yet if this descended from Apostolical Tradition , it was more then S. Cyprian or the African Churches knew of , for they rebaptized Hereticks , and disputed it very earnestly , and lived in it very pertinaciously , and died in the opinion . 3. The third rule is , Whatsoever the Catholick Church hath kept in all ages by-gone , may rightly be believed to have descended from the Apostles , though it be such a thing which might have been instituted by the Church . This rule is the same with that of Lirinensis , of which I have already given account : and certainly in those things in which it can be made use of ( which are extremely few ) it is the best , and indeed the onely good one . But then this can relate onely to Rituals , not to matter of Doctrine ; for nothing of this can be of Ecclesiastical institution and appointment : it cannot be a doctrine of Faith unless it be of Divine Tradition ; for Christ is the Author and finisher of our Faith , which the Church is to preach and believe , not to enlarge or shorten , not to alter or diversify . But then as to Rituals , the keeping of Easter on the first day of the week by this rule cannot be prov'd to be an Apostolical Tradition ; because the Asian Churches kept it otherwise : and by this rule the keeping of Lent fast for 40. dayes will not be found to be an Apostolical Tradition ; because the observation of it was very full of variety , and some kept it 40. houres , some a day , some a week , as I shall afterwards in its proper place make to appear . But by this rule the distinction of Bishops and Presbyters is an Apostolical Tradition ( besides the Scriptures , by which it appears to be Divine ; ) by this the consecration of the Blessed Eucharist by Ecclesiastical persons , Bishops and Priests , is certainly a Tradition Apostolical ; by this the Lords day is deriv'd to us from the Apostles ; and by this the Baptisme of infants is much confirm'd unto the Church : and whatsoever can descend to us and be observed in this channel , there is no sufficient reason to deny it to be Apostolical : but then how far it can be obligatory to all Ages and to all Churches , will be another consideration ; it being on all hands confessed , that some Rituals which were observed in the Apostles times are with good cause and just authority laid aside by several Churches . But of this I shall give particular accounts . 4. When all the Doctors of the Church by common consent testify concerning any particular that it descends from Apostolical tradition , we are to hold it for such : whether they affirm this in all their writings , or together in a Council . To this Rule I answer , That where it would doe good there it is not practicable , and where it is practicable there it is not true . For it is indeed practicable that a Council may give testimony to a particular that it came from the Apostles ; but it does not follow that they are not deceived , for it never was , and it never will be that all the Doctors of the Church shall meet together in Council , and unless they doe , their testimony is not universal . But if all the Fathers should write in their Books that such a thing was delivered by the Apostles , unless it were evidently against Scripture or right reason , there could be no sufficient cause to disbelieve it ; and it were the best way we have of conveying and handing the tradition to us , next to the universal practice of the Church in her Rituals . But there is no such thing so conveyed to us : and therefore Bellarmine plays at small game with this Rule , and would fain have the world admit Tradition for Apostolical , if some Fathers of great name say so , and others that speak of the same thing contradict it not . But this is a plain begging that , when he cannot prove a thing to be Tradition Apostolical by a good argument and sufficient , we will be content to take it without proof , or at least to be content with such as he hath , and believe his own word for the rest , though he knowes nothing of it . If it failes or goes less then Omnibus , and Semper , and Ubique , which is Vincentius his measure , it cannot be warranted , and he that allowes it is more kind then wise . S. Basil proves the perpetual Virginity of the Blessed Virgin Mary by a Tradition that Zechary was slain by the Jewes between the Porch and the Altar for affirming her to be a Virgin after the birth of her most Holy Son : but S. Hierom sayes it is Apocryphorum somnium , a dream of Apocryphal persons . But it was a long time before the report of the Millenary Tradition was contradicted , and yet in that intervall in which many of the most eminent Fathers attested it to have descended from the Apostles , it was neither true nor safe to have believed it . But then as to the particular and more practicable part of this rule , That if a general Council affirmes it to be Tradition Apostolical it is so to be accepted , it is evidently fallacious and uncertain ; for the second Council of Nice affirm'd the veneration of Images to be an Apostolical Tradition : but it is so far from being true that it was so as they affirm'd , that not onely the Apostolical but divers of the following ages hated all Images , and did not think it lawful so much as to make them ; of which I have already given a large account in this book . 5. When the Apostolical Churches , which from the Apostles have had uninterrupted succession , doe witness concerning any thing that it is Apostolical tradition , it is to be admitted for such . This rule was good before the Chanels were mingled with impure waters entring in : It was used by Irenaeus , Tertullian , S. Augustine , and others ; and it was to them of great advantage . But although it was good drinking of Euphrates when it newly ran from the garden of Eden , yet when it began to mingle with the Borborus it was not good : and who durst have trusted this Rule when Dioscorus was Bishop of Alexandria , who yet was lineally descended from S. Mark ? And who durst have relied upon this Rule when Pope Julius absolved the Sabellian Hereticks , and communicated with Marcellus Ancyranus ? and when S. Basil complains of the Western Bishops , and particularly the Roman , quòd veritatem neque nôrunt , neque discere sustinent … cum iis qui veritatem ipsis annunciant contendentes , haeresin autem per se ipsos stabilientes : that they neither know the truth , nor care to learn it ; but they contend with them who tell them the truth , and by themselves establish heresy . Quia multi Principes & summi Pontifices & alii inferiores inventi sunt apostatasse à fide , propterea ecclcsia consistit in illis personis in quibus est notitia vera , & confessio fidei & veritatis . How can this rule guide any man when all the Apostolical Churches have fallen into error , and many Popes have been apostates from the Faith , and the Church consisted not of Prelates , but indifferently of all that believ'd and profess'd the truth which the Popes and Princes and Prelates did deny ? The Apostolical Church of Antioch is not ; and the Patriarchal Church of Alexandria is accus'd by the Latines of great errors ; and the Mother Church of Jerusalem hath no succession , but is buried in ruines ; and the Church of Rome is indeed splendid , but he that will take her word for Tradition is sure to admit many false ones , but not sure of any true , but such as she hath in common with all the Churches of the world . 44. I conclude therefore this question , that amongst those rules of discerning Traditions truly Apostolical from them that are but pretended such , there is no rule competent but one , which is scarcely practicable , which indeed transmits to the Church a few Rituals , but nothing of Faith or rule of good life ; and therefore it is to no purpose to look any where else for the Divine Rule of Conscience but in the pages of the Old and New Testament : they are sufficient , because they were intended by God to be our onely Rule ; and yet if God had intended Traditions to be taken in to integrate the Rule and to oblige our Conscience , it is certain that God intends it not now , because the Traditions are lost if there were any , and if they be now , they doe not appear , and therefore are to us as if they were not . II. Question . The second Question also does very nearly relate to Conscience and it's conduct . viz. Since the Scripture is the perfect Rule of Conscience , and contains in it all the will of God , whether or no , and how far is a negative argument from Scripture to prevail ? The resolution of this depends upon the premisses . For if Scripture be the intire Rule of Faith , and of Manners , that is , of the whole service and worship of God , then nothing is an article of Faith , nothing can command a moral action , that is not it's whole kind set down in Scripture . This I proved by direct testimonies of Tertullian , S. Basil , S. Austin , S. Cyril , Theophilus Alexandrinus and S. Hierome , in the * foregoing numbers . To which I adde these excellent words of S. Cyril of Jerusalem , speaking of the Jerusalem Creed , which he had recited and explicated and promis'd to prove from Scripture ; he gives this reason , Nam Divinorum sanctorumque fidei mysteriorum nihil , ne minimum quidem , absque Divinis Scripturis tradi debet , neque simplici probabilitate neque verborum ornatu traduci . Not the least part of the Divine and Holy mysteries of Faith must be delivered without the Divine Scriptures . Believe not me telling thee , unless I demonstrate what I say from the Divine Scripture . For the safety and conservation of our Faith relics upon the proof of the Divine Scriptures . But because there are some particulars and some variety in the practise of this rule , I am to consider it now to other purposes . 1. Nothing is necessary either to be believ'd or done unless it be in Scripture . Thus S. Gregory Nyssen argues , Ubinam dixit Deus in Evangeliis oportere credere in unum & solum verum Deum ? Non possent ostendere nisi habeant ipsi novum aliquod Evangelium . Quae n. ab antiquis per traditionem ad haec usque tempora in Ecclesiis leguntur , hanc vocem non continent quae dicat , oportere credere vel baptizare in unum solum verum Deum , quemadmodum isti autumant , sed in nomen Patris & Filii & Spiritus Sancti . I have I confess something wondred at the matter of this discourse . For either the Arrians have infinitely imposed upon us , and interpolated Scripture in a very material article ; or else S. Gregory forgot the 17. of S. John and the 3. verse ; or else he insisted onely upon the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for the same sense is in the place now cited . For if this be life eternal to know him the onely true God , and whom he hath sent Jesus Christ , then also to believe in them onely is life eternal , and then we are tied to believe in none else ; for we cannot believe in that we doe not know . Indeed the words are not there or any where else , that we ought to believe in [ God the Father ] him , the one , onely true God , &c. But certainly , if we are to know him onely , then onely to believe in him seems to be a very good consequent . But S. Basil therefore onely insisted upon the very words , and thought himself safe ( as indeed he was ) upon the reverse of another argument . For since the words oportere credere in unum solum verum Deum were not in S. John or any where else , he concluded the contrary sense from a very good argument : we are commanded to be baptized into the faith of Father , Son , and Holy Ghost , therefore we are to believe in three : and because the word [ believe ] was not set down expresly , where knowledge is confin'd to one or two , therefore it cannot be said that we are tied to believe onely in one or two : but because to believe in three can be inferr'd as a duty from another place , therefore it cannot be denied as a consequent from this ; and therefore he had reason to insist upon his negative argument . Thus S. Austin also argued , Pater enim solus nusquam legitur missus , The Father is never in Scripture said to be sent ; therefore no man must say it . So Epiphanius , Ipsa dictio non omnino cogit me de Filio Dei dicere : non enim indicavit Scriptura , neque quisquam Apostolorum meminit , neque Evangelium . The manner of speaking compels me not to understand it of the Son of God : For the Scripture hath not declared it ; neither the Gospel nor any of the Apostles hath made any mention of it . 2. A negative argument from the letter of Scripture is not good , if the contrary affirmative can be drawn by consequent from any part of it . Thus our Blessed Saviour confuting the Sadducees in the article of the Resurrection hath given us a warranty for this proceeding ; God is the God of Abraham , Isaac , and Jacob. These were the words of Scripture . But these directly would not doe the work . But therefore he argues from hence , God is not the God of the dead , but of the living : therefore these men are alive . That the Holy Ghost is God is no where said in Scripture ; that the Holy Ghost is to be invocated is no where commanded , nor any example of its being done recorded . It follows not therefore that he is not God , or that he is not to be invocated : and the reason is , because that he is God is a certain consequent from something that is expresly affirmed ; and therefore the negative argument is imperfect , and consequently , not concluding . Quae neque à Christianis dicuntur neque creduntur , neque ex consequente per ea quae apud nos certa sunt & concessa intelliguntur , &c. If Christians did never speak , nor believe any such thing , nor can they be drawn from the consequence of those things which are certain and granted amongst us , then indeed it is to be rejected from our Creed . Now amongst Christians this is believed as certain , that we may pray to him in whom we believe ; that we believe in him into the faith of whom we are baptized ; that we are commanded to be baptized into the belief and profession of the Father , Son , and Holy Ghost : from hence Christians doe know that they are to invocate the Holy Ghost . For S. Pauls argument is good , How shall we call on him on whom we have not believed ? therefore we may call on him if we believe on him : according to that Rule of reason , Negatio unius diversum affirmat , The denying of one is the affirmation of its contrary in the like matter . And something of this was used by Paschasius the Deacon : and the effect of it prevail'd upon the account of a negative from Scripture ; In nullis autem Canonicis libris , de quibus Symboli textus pendet , accepimus , quia in Ecclesiam credere sicut in Spiritum Sanctum Filiúmque debemus , We are taught in no Scripture ( from whence the Creed is deriv'd ) to believe in the Church , as we believe in the Son and in the Holy Ghost : and therefore we ought not to doe it ; but it being plain in the Creed , and consequently in the Scripture , that we must believe in the Holy Ghost , therefore also we may pray to him , and confess him to be God. To the same purpose S. Basil argues concerning the Holy Spirit ; Dignitate namque ipsâ secundum esse à Filio pietatis sermo fortassis tradit : naturâ verò tertiâ uti nec à Divinis Scripturis edocti sumus , nec ex antecedentibus possibile est consequenter colligi , That the Holy Spirit is of a nature distinct from the Father and the Son we neither are taught in Scripture , neither can it be drawn into consequence from any antecedent pretences . * 3. A negative argument of a word or an expression cannot be consequently deduc'd to the negation of the mystery signified by that word . The Arrians therefore argued weakly , Shew us in all the Scripture that the Son is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Consubstantial to the Father ; if you cannot , you ought not to affirm it . For we know God is one ; if therefore we finde in Scripture that the Son is true God , we know he must needs be of the same substance with his Father ; for two substances cannot make one God. So though the Blessed Virgin Mary be not in Scripture called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Mother of God , yet that she was the Mother of Jesus , and that Jesus Christ is God , and yet but one person , that we can prove from Scripture , and that is sufficient for the appellative : and if the Church of Rome could prove the mystery of Transubstantiation from Scripture , we would indulge to them the use of that word , or any other aptly to express the same thing . 4. A negative argument from Scripture is sufficient to prove an article not to be of necessary belief , but is not sufficient to prove it not to be true : because although the Scripture is the measure of Faith and of Manners , yet it is an adequate measure of all truth . The meaning of which rule takes in all truths of art , experience , of prudence , of tradition and common report . Thus although it be no where said in Scripture that our Blessed Saviour said , Nunquam laeti sitis nisi cum Fratrem vestrum in charitate videritis , Be never very merry but when you see your Brother in charity ; yet S. Hierome reports it of him , and it is a worthy saying , and therefore may very well be entertain'd , not onely as true and useful , but as from Christ. The Scripture no where says that the blessed Virgin was a Virgin perpetually to the day of her death : but as therefore it cannot be obtruded as an article of faith , yet there are a great many decencies and probabilities of the thing , besides the great consent of almost all the Church of God , which make it very fit to be entertain'd . There are some things which are piè credibilia , there is piety in the believing them : and in such cases it is not enough that there is nothing in Scripture to affirm it ; if there be any thing in any other topick , it is to be entertain'd according to the merit of the thing . 5. A negative argument from Scripture does not conclude in questions of fact : and therefore S. Hierome did not argue rightly , Quanquam excepto Apostolo non sit manifestè relatum de aliis Apostolis quod Uxores habuerint , & cum de uno scriptum sit ac de caeteris tacitum , intelligere debemiis , sine uxoribus eos fuisse , de quibus nihil tale Scriptura significat ; The Scripture names onely Peters wife , and does not say that any of the other Apostles were married , therefore we are to conclude that they were not . For besides that the allegation is not true , and S. Paul intimates that the other Apostles as well as Peter did lead about a Sister , a Wife ; and that from thence the Fathers did believe them all to have been married except S. John , and some also except S. Paul ; yet the argument is not good : for it may as well be concluded that S. Peter never had a child , or that Christ did never write but once when he wrote upon the ground , because the Scripture makes no mention of either . 6. When a negative argument may be had from Scripture for both the parts of the contradiction , nothing at all can be concluded thence , but it must be wholly argued from other topicks . The Scripture neither says that Christ did ever laugh , nor it does not say that he did never laugh ; therefore either of the contradicting parts may be equally inferr'd , that is truly neither . And indeed this is of it self a demonstration that in matters of fact and matters not necessary a negative argument from Scripture is of no use at all . 7. But when the question is of lawful or unlawful , then it is valid . If it be not in Scripture forbidden directly or by consequent then it is lawful ; it is not by God forbidden at all . And on the other side , if it be not there commanded it is not necessary . Lucentius thus argued in the Council of Chalcedon , Dioscorus Synodum ansus est facere sine authoritate sedis Apostolicae , quod nunquam licuit , nunquam factum est . That it was never done , proves not but it may be done ; but if it was never lawful to be done , then it was forbidden ; for whatsoever is not forbidden is not unlawful : but if it was not in Scripture forbidden , then aliquando licuit , it once was lawful , and therefore is always so , if we speak of the Divine Law ; and if Lucentius speaks of that , he ought to have considered it in the instance : but I suppose he means it of custome , or the Ecclesiastical Law ; and therefore I meddle not with the thing , onely I observe the method of his arguing . 8. An argument from the discourse of one single person omitting to affirm or deny a thing relating to that of which he did discourse , is no competent argument to prove that the thing it self omitted was not true : and therefore Ruffinus had but a weak argument against the traduction of the soul when he argued thus , Si anima quoque esset ex anima secundum illorum vanas opiniones , nunquam profecto hoc Adam praeterisset . Nam sicut os ex ossibus meis , & caro de carne mea dicebat , sic etiam anima ex anima mea dicere potuisset . Sed tantum hoc dixit quod sibi videlicet sciebat ablatum . Adam seeing his wife , said , this is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh , for he knew what was taken from him ; but he could have said , soul of my soul , if the soul had been deriv'd from him . This I say is no good argument , unless every one must be supposed when he says any thing to say all that is true , and all that he knows : so that Ruffinus in this particular defended a good cause with a broken sword . 9. But if that which is omitted in the discourse be pertinent and material to the inquiry , then it is a very good probability that that is not true that is not affirmed . When the Jews asked our Blessed Saviour , Why doe the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast often , but thy disciples fast not ? he gave an answer that related to the present state of things and circumstances at that time , and said nothing of their not fasting in the time of the Gospel : from which silence we may well conclude that there is nothing in the Religion disobliging Christs disciples from fasting ; if it had , it is very likely it would have been then expressed when there was so apt an occasion , and the answer had been imperfect without it . S. Hieromes was also very good , but not so certain as the other , against the tale of Leo baptized after his death , and the periods of Paul and Tecla ; Igitur periodos Pauli & Teclae & totam baptizati Leonis fabulam inter apocryphas Scripturas computamus . Quale enim est ut individuus comes Apostoli inter caeteras ejus res hoc solùm ignor ●verit ? It is not likely that S. Luke , who continually attended on S. Paul , observed all his actions , remark'd his miracles , describ'd his story , should omit things so strange , so considerable , if they had been true . The reason of these things is , Every thing is to be suspected false that does not derive from that fountain whence men justly expect it , and from whence it ought to flow . If you speak of any things that relates to God , you must look for it there where God hath manifested himself ; that is , in the Scriptures . If you speak of any humane act or ordinance , or story and matter of fact , you must look for it in its own spring and original , or goe the nearest to it you can . And thus the Bishops at the conference had with the Acephali , Hereticks who had Churches without Bishops , refused their allegations of the authority of Dionysius the Areopagite , upon this account , Illa testimonia quae vos Dionysii Areopagitae dicitis , unde potestis ostendere vera esse sicut suspicamini ? Si enim ejus essent , non potuissent latere Beatum Cyrillum . Quid autem de B. Cyrillo dico , quando & B. Athanasius , si pro certo scisset ejus fuisse , ante omnia in Niceno Concilio de Consubstantiali Trinitate eadem testimonia protulisset adversus Arii diversae substantiae blasphemias ? Si autem nullus ex Antiquis recordatus est ea , unde nunc potestis ostendere quia illius sunt , nescio . If neither S. Cyril , nor S. Athanasius , who were so diligent to inquire , so skilful in knowing , so concern'd that these Books should be the works of S. Dionys , did yet know nothing of them , and if amongst the Ancients they were not known , for you Moderns now to tell of Antiquity , what by them who then liv'd was not told , is a folly that can never gain credit amongst reasonable persons . Let every fruit proceed from its own root . We cannot say , because a thing is not in Scripture , therefore it is not at all ; but therefore it is nothing of Divine Religion . So it is also in things relating to the Ancient Church ; from thence onely can we derive any notice of their doctrine and of their practices . For if an article prevail'd in S. Austins time , it was no argument that therefore it was believ'd in S. Cyprians time : but a negative argument from any Age ought to prevail in reference to that Age ; and if there be in it nothing of Antiquity , no argument of the Moderns can prove it to be Ancient : and Baronius said well , Quod à recentiori Authore de rebus antiquis sine alicujus vetustioris authoritate profertur , contemnitur , What the Moderns say of the Ancients without warranty from themselves is to be despised . One thing onely I am to adde to this out of Vincentius Lirinensis , Quicquid vero ab Antiquo deinceps Uno praeter omnes , vel contra omnes Sanctos novum & inauditum subinduci senserit , id non ad religionem sed ad tentationem potiùs intelligat pertinere , If one of the Fathers say a thing , and the others say it not , but speak diversly or contrarily , that pertains not to Religion , but to temptation . I doubt not but he intended it against S. Austin , who spake things in the matter of Predestination , and the damnation of infants , and other appendant questions against the sense of all the Fathers that were before him ; one ( it may be ) or scarce one being excepted . And to the same purpose Tertullian argued against Marcion concerning a pretended Gospel of S. Paul , Etsi sub ipsius Pauli nomine Evangelium Marcion intulisset , non sufficeret ad fidem singularitas instrumenti destituta patrocinio Antecessorum . If you cannot bring testimony from the Fathers and Ancient Records , you must not receive it ; one alone is not to be trusted . He that affirms must prove ; to him that denies , a negative argument is sufficient . For to a mans belief a positive cause is required , but for his not believing , it is sufficient that he hath no cause . Thus S. Hierome argues well against the rebaptizing of converted Hereticks , Ad eos venio haereticos qui Evangelia laniaverunt… . quorum plurimi vivente adhuc Johanne Apostolo eruperunt , & tamen nullum eroum legimus rebaptizatum . Of all the Hereticks which appeared in S. Johns time , we never read of any that was rebaptiz'd : and therefore it is to be presumed they were not ; for a thing so considerable and so notorious , in all reason would have given some signs , and left some indications of it . But then it is to be observed , 10. A negative argument must not be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a partial or a broken piece of a medium . You cannot argue rightly thus , S. John in his Gospel speaks nothing of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper , therefore that Sacrament is no part of the doctrine of salvation . For three Evangelists had done it before him , and therefore he did not ; and a negative argument onely from one Gospel cannot conclude rightly concerning any article of the Religion . And this is very evident in matters of fact also . For if it be argued thus , We doe not finde in Scripture nor in the days of the Apostles any infant baptized ; therefore we conclude there was none . This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It is true , if there were no way else to finde it but the practice of the Apostles , the negative argument had been very good ; but we derive it from the force of Christs words of institution , and of his discourse with Nicodemus , and the analogy of Circumcision , and the practice of the Jews in baptizing their children , and many proprieties of Scripture , and the effect of the Sacrament , and the necessities of regeneration . S. Irenaeus his negative argument was good ; Quod neque Prophetae praedicaverunt , neque Dominus docuit , neque Apostoli tradiderunt , &c. If neither Moses nor the Prophets , Christ nor his Apostles have taught it , it is not to be received as any part of Christian doctrine . For this negative is integral & perfect . But S. Cyril of Alexandria disputed also well with his negative argument from Antiquity , Etenim nomen hoc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nullus unquam Ecclesiasticorum Doctorum repudiavit : qui autem illo subinde usi sunt , & multi reperiuntur , & maximè celebres . Many famous Doctors used this word , calling the Virgin Mary the Parent of God ; and none ever refused it ; therefore it may safely be used . If the negative argument from Scripture or Antiquity respectively can run thus , It was not condemn'd in Scripture or Antiquity , but it was used , therefore it is good ; the argument concludes rightly in relation to Scripture , and probably in relation to Antiquity . But if it be said onely , the Scripture condemnes it not , but neither does it approve it , then it cannot be concluded to be laudable , but onely not criminal . But if it be said of Antiquity , it was neither condemn'd nor us'd , it cannot be inferr'd from thence that it is either laudable or innocent . The reason is , because Scripture is the measure of lawful and unlawful , but the writings of the Doctors are not ; and these may be deficient , though that be full . 11. In the mysteries of Religion , and in things concerning God , a negative argument from Scripture ought to prevail both upon our faith and upon our inquiries , upon our belief and upon our modesty . For as S. Austin said well , De Deo etiam vera loqui periculosissimum , It is hard to talk many things of God : we had need have good warranty for what we say ; and therefore it is very fit we speak Scripture in the discourses of God. And thus S. Austin argued , Ideo nusquam scriptum est quod Deus Pater major sit Spiritu Sancto , vel Spiritus Sanctus sit minor Deo Patre : quia non sic assumpta est Creatura , in qua appareret Spiritus Sanctus , sicut assumptus est Filius hominis . Since it is no where written that the Father is greater then the Spirit , we ought not to say he is . But if it be objected that neither does the Scripture say , that he is not greater , it does not say that they are equal ; and therefore it will be hard to use a negative argument in such cases ; and how shall we know which part of the negative to follow ? I answer , it is very true according to the sixth proposition num . 52. but then in this case we must inquire for other words of Scripture by which we may be directed , and proceed accordingly , or inquire into the analogy of faith , or the measures of piety : but if there be nothing to determine to any side of the negative , we must say nothing ; and if there be , yet we must say but little , because the notice is not great . 12. Lastly , In matters of envy and burden , a Negative argument even in matter of fact ought to prevail , unless the contrary be proved by some other competent Topick . That the Clergy ought not to marry is no where affirmed in Scripture , and therefore it is permitted ; and because it is agreeable to Nature , and the Lawes of all republicks ▪ their marriage is also holy and pleasing to God. A burden must be directly imposed ; a man must not be frighted or scar'd into it . When our Blessed Saviour reproved the Pharisees for imposing heavy burdens , such which God impos'd not , he taught us the value of this argument ; ubi scriptum est ? shew us where it is written that this is displeasing to God : if it be no where forbidden , praesumitur pro libertate ; all men are as free as they were born . How this can be altered by the lawes of man will be afterwards consider'd . In the mean time God hath left us under no more restraints then are describ'd in Scripture . This argument S. Chrysostome urges against the necessitie of corporal afflictions to a contrite weeping penitent . Lacrymas Petri lego , Satisfactionem non lego . I read that S. Peter wept , I doe not read that he impos'd penances on himself . The argument were good from this place , if the case be not special , or if it be not altered by some other consideration . This is also to be extended to such negative arguments as are taken from matter of fact in accusations , and criminal proceedings : not that it can of it self be great enough to prevail , but that the case is so favourable , that every little thing ought to be strong enough . Thus S. Athanasius defended his Decessor Dionysius : Et prius eorum Authorem Dionysium per hoc voluit esse purgatum , atque ab Arianorum crimine alienum , quod ipse non sicut Arius cum viveret de impietate fuerat accusatus , aut de Episcopatu dejectus , neque velut haeresim defendens de Ecclesia , sicut ille , decesserit , sed in ejus permanserit unitate . Dionysius was not accused while he was alive , he was not thrown from his Bishoprick , he did not depart from the Church , but remain'd in her Communion ; and therefore he was no Arian . But arguments of this nature , when the medium is so limited , and the instance so particular , have their force onely by accident . For this and the like Negatives are good arguments when they are the best light in the question , that is , when nothing greater can be said against them , or when men are easy and willing to be perswaded ; as in the questions of burden and trouble all men ought . III. Question . Whether there may be any new articles of Faith : or that the Creed of the Church may so increase that what is sufficient to salvation in one age , cannot serve in another . If this Question were to be determin'd by witnesses , it were very easy to produce many worthy ones . Theodorus the Bp. of Rome in his Synodical Epistle to Paul the Patriarch of Constantinople thus concludes against the Monothelites , Sufficit nobis fides quam sancti Apostoli praedicaverunt , Concilia firmaverunt , & Patres consignaverunt , That faith which the Apostles preach'd , which the Councils have confirm'd , which the Fathers have consign'd , that faith is sufficient for us : Therefore nothing new can be superinduc'd . After the Apostles had done preaching , the Faith was ful and intire . It was so long before they died ; but after their death the instruments were seal'd and ratified , and there could be nothing put to them , but our obedience and consent . And therefore Victor Bp. of Carthage in his Synodical Epistle to Theodorus gives caution against any thing that is new . Vestrum est itaque , Frater Sanctissime , Canonica discretione solita contrariis Catholicae fidei obviare , nec permittere noviter dici quod patrum venerabilium authoritas omnino non censuit . You must not permit any thing to be newly said , which the authority of the venerable Fathers did not think fit . If therefore the Fathers did not say it was necessary to believe any other articles then what they put into their confessions of Faith ; he that sayes otherwise now is not to be suffer'd . Excellent therefore is the Counsel of S. Cyprian , As it happens when the pipes of an aquaeduct are broken or cut off , the water cannot run , but mend them and restore the water to it's course , and the whole city shall be refreshed from the fountains head : Quod & nunc facere oportet Dei sacerdotes , praecepta Divina servantes , ut si in aliquo nutaverit & vacillaverit veritas , ad originem Dominicam & Evangelicam & Apostolicam traditionem revertamur , & inde surgat actus nostri ratio , unde & ordo & origo surrexit . So must Gods Priests doe , keeping the Divine Commandements : if the truth be weakned or faile in any thing , let a recourse be made to the Original , to the fountain of Christ and his Apostles , to what hath been delivered in the Gospel ; that thither our faith may return from whence it did arise . From the simplicity , truth and ingenuity of this discourse it will plainly follow , that what was the faith at first , the same it is now and no other , Sicut erat in principio &c. As it was in the beginning , so it is now , and so it shall be for ever . For to what purpose can it be advis'd that in all questions of faith or new springs of error we should returne to the fountains of our Saviour and the first emanations of the Apostles , but because no Divine truth is warrantable but what they taught , no necessity is to be pretended but what they impos'd ? If it was their faith , it is and must be ours ; but ours it ought not to be , if it was not theirs . Now concerning this , there are very material considerations . 1. Whatsoever the Apostles taught we must equally believe , if we equally know it : but yet all that they taught is not equally necessary to be taught ; but onely so much as upon the knowledge of which good life is superstructed and our hopes of heaven depend . Whatsoever is in the Scripture is alike true , but whatsoever is there is not alike necessary , nor alike useful , nor alike easy to be understood . But whatsoever by reading or hearing or any other instrument we come to learn to be the truth of God , that we must believe : because no man disbelieves any such thing , but he disownes God. But here the question is not what we must believe when we know it to be the word of God , for that is every thing ; but how much we are bound to know , what must be taught to all Christians , how much their memory and their hearts must be charged withall . For the Faith of a Christian is not made up of every true proposition ; but of those things which are the foundation of our obedience to God in Jesus Christ , and the endearment of our duty , and the stabiliment of our hope . Faith , Hope , and Charity , are the fundamentum , paries & tectum , the foundation , the walls and the roofe of our building : Now this foundation is that necessary belief , without which nothing could subsist in our Religion . 2. This foundation was by Christ and his Apostles laid sure , but at first it was made but of a just latitude and eveness with the intended building . It was a little enlarged and paraphras'd by the Apostles and Apostolical men in their dayes ; the Faith of Christians was the most easy and plain , the most simple and wise thing in the world : it was wholly an art of living well , and believing in God through Jesus Christ. And what Seneca said of the wisdome of the old men in infant Rome , is very true of the Aborigenes in Christianity , in the first spring of our Religion ; Antiqua sapientia nihil aliud quam facienda & vitanda praecepit : & tum longè meliores erant viri : postquam docti prodierunt , desunt boni . The Ancient and primitive wisdome did onely command vertue , and prohibite vice ; and then men liv'd good lives : but when they became more learned they became less vertuous . Simplex erat ex simplici causa valetudo : multos morbos multa fercula fecerunt . The old world eat a simple and a natural diet , and they had a simple and a natural religion : but when variety of dishes were set upon the table , variety of diseases entred together with them . Now in what instance the simplicity of a Christian was at first exercised we find in S. Irenaeus . Melius itaque est nihil omnino scientem quempiam , ne quidem unam causam cujuslibet eorum quae facta sunt , cur factum , & credere Deo , & perseverare in ejus dilectione quae hominem vivificat , nec aliud inquirere ad scientiam nisi Jesum Christum filium Dei qui pro nobis crucifixus est , quam per quaestionum subtilitates & multiloquium in impietatem cadere . It is therefore better for a man to know absolutely nothing of the causes of things why any thing was done , [ and to believe in God , and to persevere in his love that makes a man to live , and to inquire after no knowledg but to know Jesus Christ the Son of God who was crucified for us ] then by subtile questions and multitude of words to fall into impiety . 3. If we observe the Creeds or Symbols of belief that are in the New Testament , we shall find them very short . Lord , I believe that thou art the Son of God who was to come into the world . That was Martha's Creed . Thou art Christ the Son of the living God. That was Peters Creed . We know and believe that thou art Christ the Son of the living God. That was the Creed of all the Apostles . This is life eternal , that they know thee the onely true God , and whom thou hast sent , Jesus Christ. That was the Creed which our Blessed Lord himself propounded . And again , I am the resurrection and the life : he that believeth in me , yea though he were dead , yet shall he live , and he that liveth and believeth in me shall not die for ever . That was the Catechisme that Christ made for Martha , and question'd her upon the article , Believest thou this ? And this belief was the end of the Gospel , and in sufficient perfect order to eternal life . For so S. John , These things are written , that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ , the Son of God , and that believing ye might have life through his Name . For this i● the word of Faith which we preach , namely , if you with the mouth confess Jesus to be the Lord , and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead , you shall be saved . That 's the Christians Creed . For I have resolved to know nothing amongst you , but Jesus Christ and him crucified ; that in us ye may learn not to be wise above that which is written , that ye may not be puffed up one for another , one against another . That was S. Paul's Creed , and that which he recommends to the Church of Rome , to prevent factions and Pride and Schisme . The same course he takes with the Corinthian Church ; I make known unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you , which ye have received , in which ye stand , and by which ye are sav'd , if ye hold what I deliver'd to you , &c. Well ; what is that Gospel by which they should be sav'd ? It was but this , That Christ died for our sins , that he was buried , that he rose again the third day , &c. So that the summe is this , The Gentiles Creed or the Creed in the natural law is that which S. Paul sets down in the Epistle to the Hebrews , Deum esse , & esse Remuneratorem , that God is , and that God is a rewarder . Adde to this the Christian Creed , that Jesus is the Lord , that he is the Christ of God , that he died for our sins , that he rose again from the dead ; and there is no question but he that believes this heartily , and confesses it constantly , and lives accordingly , shall be saved : we cannot be deceived ; it is so plainly , so certainly affirm'd in Scripture , that there is no place left for haesitation . For this is his praecept , that we believe in the Name of his Son Jesus Christ , and that we love one another . So S. John. This is his precept . True , and so there are many more : but why is this so signally remark'd , but because this is the fundamental precept , that upon which all the rest are superstructed ? that is the foundation of faith and manners , & he that keeps this Commandement shall never perish , For other foundation can no man lay then this which is laid , which is Jesus Christ. But if any man shall build upon this foundation , gold , silver , pretious stones , wood , hay , stubble , Every mans work shall be made manifest ; for that day shall declare it , because it is revealed in fire ; and every ones work the fire shall prove what it is . If any mans work which he hath superstructed shall remain , he shall receive a reward . But if any mans work shall be burned , he shall receive loss , yet himself shall be sav'd , but so as by fire . Nothing more plain , then that the believing in Jesus Christ is that fundamental article upon which every other proposition is but a superstructure , but it self alone with a good life is sufficient to Salvation . All other things are advantage or disadvantage according as they happen ; but Salvation depends not upon them . For every Spirit which confesseth Jesus Christ to have come in the flesh is of God , and whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God , God abideth in him , and he in God : and , Every one that believeth that Jesus is Christ is born of God : and , who is he that overcometh the world , but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God ? In proportion to this measure of faith , the Apostles preach'd the doctrine of faith . S. Peters first Sermon was , that Jesus is Christ , that he was crucified , and rose again from the dead : and they that believed this were presently baptized . His second Sermon was the same ; and then also he baptized Proselytes into that confession . And when the Eunuch had confessed that Jesus Christ is the Son of God , Philip presently baptized him . And it is observable , that when the Eunuch had desir'd baptisme , S. Philip told him , He might if he did believe : and was , when he made that confession ; intimating that this is the Christian Faith , which is the foundation of all his hope , and the condition of his baptisme , and therefore sufficient for his Salvation . For indeed that was the summe of all that Philip preached ; for it is said of him , that he preached things concerning the Kingdome of God , and the name of Jesus Christ. And this was the summe of all that S. Paul preached in the Synagogues and assemblies of the people , this he disputed for , this he prov'd laboriously ; that Jesus is Christ , that he is the Son of God , that he did , that he ought to suffer , and rise again the third day : and this was all that new doctrine for which the Athenians and other Greeks wondred at him , and he seem'd to them to be a setter forth of strange gods , because he preached Jesus and the resurrection . This was it into which the Jaylor and all his house were baptized ; this is it which was propounded to him as the onely and sufficient means of Salvation ; Believe in the Lord Jesus , and thou shalt be saved and all thine house . This thing was illustrated sometimes with other glorious things still promoting the faith and honour of Jesus , as that he ascended into heaven and shall be the Judge of all the world . But this was the whole faith ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the things which concerned the Kingdome of God , and the name of Jesus Christ , was the large circumference of the Christian faith . That is , such articles which represent God to be our Lord , and Jesus Christ to be his Son , the Saviour of the world , that he died for us , and rose again and was glorified and reigns over all the world , and shall be our Judge , and in the resurrection shall give us according to our works ; that in his name onely we shall be saved , that is , by faith and obedience in him , by the mercies of God revealed to the world in Jesus Christ : this is all which the Scripture calls necessary : this is that faith alone into which all the Church was baptized : which faith , when it was made alive by charity , was and is the faith by which the Just shall live . This excellent summary of Faith we find also but with a very little Paraphrase propounded as sufficient by S. Polycarp in that excellent Epistle of his to the Philippians , which S. Irenaeus so much commends , Fidei vestrae firmitas à principio usque nunc permanet , & sanctificatur in Domino Jesu Christo , This is the firmness of your faith from the beginning , which remains unto this day , and is sanctified in Jesus Christ. This S. Ignatius calls plenam de Christo cognitionem , a full knowledge concerning Christ : then he reckons the generation of the Son from God the Father before all worlds , his being born of the Virgin Mary , his holy life , his working miracles , his preaching one God even the Father , his passion and crucifixion , his death and resurrection , his ascension and sitting at the right hand of God , and that in the end of the world he shall rise again to judge the quick and the dead , and to give to every one according to their works . When he hath recited this , he addes , Haec qui planè cognorit & crediderit , beatus est , He that plainly knowes these things and believes them , is blessed . And in another Epistle , after the recitation of such another Creed , he addes , He that believes these things , is blessed that ever he was born . Justin Martyr affirmes expressly , that if any man should even then live according to the law of Moses ( I suppose he means the law of the ten Commandements ) so that he believes in Jesus Christ crucified , and acknowledge him for the Christ of God , to whom is given the judgment of all the world , he also shall possess the Eternal Kingdome . The same Creed in more words but no more articles is recited by S. Irenaeus in his second and third chapters of his first book , saying that the Church throughout all the world being planted by the Apostles to the ends of the Earth , and by their Disciples , hath received this faith . He of all the Prelates that is most powerful in speech cannot say any thing else : for no man is above his Master , and he that is weak in speaking cannot say less . For since the faith is one and the same , he that speaks much cannot say more , and he that speaks little must not say less . And afterwards speaking of some barbarous nations that had not the Scriptures , yet having this faith , which he there shortly recites , beginning with belief in God the Father , the maker of the world , and in Jesus Christ , repeating the usual articles of his being born of the Virgin Mary , his being the Son of God , his reconciling God and man , his suffering under Pontius Pilate , his rising again and being received into glory , and his last judgment : he addes , Hanc fidem qui sine literis crediderunt quantum ad sermonem nostrum Barbari sunt , quantum autem ad sententiam & consuetudinem & conversationem propter fidem , sapientissimi sunt & placent Deo , conversantes in omni justitia , castitate & sapientia , They who believe this faith are most wise in their sentence and custome and conversation through faith , and they please God , living in all justice , chastity and wisdome . Here were almost two Ages spent by this time , in which the most pestilent Heresies that ever did trouble the Church did arise , in which some of the Questions were talk'd of and disputed , and which afterwards by the zeal of some that overvalued their own forms of speaking pass'd into a faction ; and yet in all this time , and during all that necessity , there was no more added to the Christian Creed , no more articles for the condemnation of any new heresy : whatsoever was against this was against the faith ; but any thing else they reprov'd if it were false , but did not put any more into their Creed . And indeed they ought not . Regula quidem fidei una omnino est , sola immobilis & irreformabilis , Credendi scil in Unum Deum , &c. saith Tertullian ; The Rule of faith is altogether One , and immovable and unalterable . This law of faith remaining , other things may be inlarged according as the grace of God multiplies upon us . But for the faith it self here consign'd and summ'd up , the Epistle of Celestine to Nestorius is very affirmative and clear , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The faith or Creed delivered by the Apostles requires neither addition nor defalcation . Neque enim ulla extitit haeresis quae non hoc Symbolo damnari potuit , There was never any heresie but this Creed was sufficient for its condemnation , said the Catechism of the Archbishop of Triers . This faith passing into all the world was preserved with great sacredness and great simplicity , no Church varying from it at all : some indeed put some great things into it which were appendages to the former ; but the fullest and the most perfect were the Creeds of Jerusalem and Rome , that is , the same which the Greek and Latine Church use at this day . The first and the most simple forms were sufficient ; but these fuller forms being compiled by the Apostles themselves or Apostolical men , and that from the words of Scripture , made no great alteration : the first were not too little , and these were not too much . The first was the thing it self , which was of a declar'd sufficiency ; but when the Apostles were to frame an instrument of Confession , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a form of doctrine by way of art and method , they put in all that they directed by the Holy Spirit of God knew to contain the whole faith of a Christian. Now of this form so described , so delivered , so received , the Fathers of the Church affirm that it is intire and sufficient , and nothing is to be added to it . Ergo & cunctis credentibus quae continentur in praefato symbolo salus animarum & vita perpetua bonis actibus praeparatur , said the Author of the Epistle to S. James attributed to S. Clement , To all that believe those things contained in the foresaid Symbol or Creed , and doe good deeds , salvation of their souls and eternal life is prepared . And therefore this summary of faith was called , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Regula fidei , depositum , breve Evangelium , The form or exemplar of doctrine , the Canon , a description of sound words , the proportion or measure of Faith , the milky way , or the Introduction of Novices , the Elements of the beginning of the Oracles of God , the Repository of faith , the faith that was delivered to the Saints , the Rule of Faith , that which was intrusted to the Church , A short Gospel . These and divers other appellatives of the Creed were used by the ancient Doctors , most of them taken out of Scripture . For what the Scriptures did affirm of the whole Faith , that the Fathers did apply to this Creed , as believing it to contain all that was necessary . And as a grain of Mustard-seed in little contains in it many branches , so also this faith in a few words involves all the knowledge [ the necessary knowledge ] of the Old and New Testament , saith S. Cyril ; and therefore he calls this Creed , Traditionem Sanctae & Apostolicae fidei , The Tradition of the Holy and Apostolick Faith. Cordis signaculum , & nostrae militiae Sacramentum , so S. Ambrose calls it , The seal of our heart , and the Sacrament of our Warfare . S. Hierome yet more fully , The Symbol of our faith and of our hope , which being delivered by the Apostles is not written with paper and ink , but in the fleshy tables of our hearts , after the confession of the Trinity and Unity of the Church . Omne Christiani dogmatis Sacramentum carnis resurrectione concluditur ; The whole Sacrament of the Christian doctrine is concluded with the resurrection of the flesh to eternal life . Norma futurae praedicationis ; so Ruffinus calls it ; the rule of future preachings appointed by the Apostles ; & hanc credentibus esse regulam dandam statuunt , they appoint this to be given as a Rule to all believers : and again , This Creed was the token by which he should be known who did preach Christ truly according to the Rules of the Apostles ; the indication of their Faith and Unanimity . Comprehensio fidei nostrae atque perfectio , so S. Austin calls it . Virtus est Sacramenti , illuminatio animae , plenitudo Credentium , The illumination of the soul , the fulness of believers , the comprehension and the perfection of our faith . By this the knot of infidelity is untied , by this the gate of life is opened , by this the glory of our confession is manifested . It is tessera & signaculum quo inter Fideles perfidosque secernitur , said Maximus Taurinensis . Basis quaedam , & fundamentum immotum & inconcussum per universum orbem jactum : So S. Cyril of Alexandria . It is a badge and cognisance to distinguish the faithful from the perfidious ; an immovable foundation laid for all the world ; a Divine or Celestial armour , that all the opinions of Hereticks may be cut off with this sword alone ; So S. Leo Bishop of Rome . I could adde very many more to this purpose ; who please to require more , may see enough in Lucifer Calaritanus l. 2. ad Constantium , Paulinus Bishop of Nola ep . 1. ad Afrum , S. Austin his Book de Symbolo ad Catechumenos l. 1. c. 1. in Ruffinus his excellent exposition of the Creed , Eucherius Bishop of Lions in his first Homily upon the Creed , Petrus Chrysologus in his 62 Homily , Isidor of Sivil l. 6. originum c. 9. and in his Offices Ecclesiastical l. 1. c. 26. de Dominica palmarum , Rabanus Maurus l. 2. de instit . Clericorum cap. 56. the oration of Bernard Zane in the first Session of the Council of Lateran , in the discourse of the Greeks at the Council of Florence , Sess. 10. Cassianus de incarnatione Domini , Eusebius Gallieanus in his Homilies on the Creed published by Gaigneus Chancellor of Paris , in Venantius Fortunatus his explication of it ; and he may if he please adde the two Homilies which S. Chrysostome made upon the Creed , and the great Catechetical oration of S. Gregory Nyssen . Now to what purpose is all this ? The Apostles compil'd this form of words , all Churches received them , all Catechumens were baptized into this faith , in the Roman Church they recited it publickly before their immersion , to this salvation was promised ; this was the Sacrament of the Christian faith , the fulness of believers ; the characteristick of Christians , the sign of the Orthodox , the sword of all heresies and their sufficient reproof , the unity of belief , sufficient , full , immovable , unalterable ; and it is that and that alone in which all the Churches of the world doe at this day agree . It is true , that the Church of God did explicate two of the articles of this Creed , that of the second , and that of the third Person of the Holy Trinity ; the one at Nice , the other at Constantinople ; one against Arius , the other against Macedonius ; they did explicate , I say , but they added no new matter but what they supposed contain'd in the Apostolical Creed . And indeed the thing was very well done , if it had not been made an ill example ; they had reason for what they did , and were so near the Ages Apostolical that the explication was more likely to be agreeable to the Sermons Apostolical : But afterwards the case was alter'd , and that example was made use of to explicate the same Creed , till by explicating the old they have inserted new Articles . But all the while , it is consented to on all hands , that this onely faith is sufficient . What can certainly follow from these infallible Articles is as certainly true as the Articles themselves , but yet not so to be imposed , because it is not certain that this or this explication is right , that this consequent is well deduc'd ; or if it be certain to you , it is not so to me ; and besides it is more an instrument of schism then of peace , it can divide more then it can instruct , and it is plainly a recession from the simplicity of the Christian faith , by which simplicity both the learned and the ignorant are the more safe . Turbam non intelligendi vivacitas , sed credendi simplicitas tutissimam facit : and when once we come to have the pure streams pass through the limbecks of humane wit , where interest , and fancy , and error , and ignorance , and passion are intermingled , nothing can be so certain , though some things may be as true ; and therefore here the Church does rest , here she finds peace ; her faith is simple , easy and intelligible , free from temptation , and free from intrigues ; it is warranted by Scripture , composed and delivered by the Apostles , entertain'd by all the world : In these they doe agree , but in nothing else , but this and in their fountain , the plain words of Scripture . For all the rest , it is abundant to all excellent purposes . It can instruct the wise , and furnish the Guides of Souls with treasures of knowledge , and imploy the tongues and pens of the learned ; it can cause us to wonder at the immensity of the Divine wisdome , and the abyss of revelation : it is an excellent opportunity for the exercise of mutual charity in instructing and in forbearing one another , and of humility and patience and prayer to God to help our infirmities , and to enlighten us more and more in the knowledge of God. It is the great field of faith where she can enlarge her self ; but this is the house of faith where she dwels for ever in this world . So that for any other thing of the Religion it is to be believed so farre as it does appear to be the word of God ; and by accidents and circumstances becomes of the family or retinue of faith : but it is not necessary to be believed for it self , unless it be for something else it is not necessary at all . A man may be saved without knowing any thing else , without hearing of any thing , without inquiring after any thing , without believing any thing else , provided that in this faith he live a good life . But because sometimes a man is by the interests of a good life requir'd to know more , to inquire after more , and to learn more , therefore upon the stock of obedience more may be necessary ; but not upon the account of faith . So that if some men doe not reade the Scriptures , and study them , and search into the hidden things of God , they sin against justice or charity , but not against faith , if they retain all the articles of the Apostles Creed : and a man may be extremely to blame if he disbelieve many other things ; but it is because upon some evil account he disbelieves it , and so is guilty of that sin which is his evil principle , as of pride , ambition , lust , covetousness , idleness , fear or flattery ; but a man is not in any such case guilty of heresy . For heresy being directly opposed to faith , and faith being compleated in the Articles of the Christian Creed , it cannot be heresy unless it be a contradicting of one of those Articles in the words or in the sense , in the letter , or in the plain , visible , certain , and notorious explication of it . In the Apostolical Creed all the Christian world is competently instructed : in these things there is no dispute ; and if they be simply believ'd as they are plainly deliver'd , it is the better . But in every thing else , every man according to his calling and abilities is to grow as much as he can in knowledge ; that is , in edifying and practical knowledge : but in all things of speculation , he that believes what he sees cause for , as well and as wisely , as heartily and as honestly as he can , may be deceived , but cannot be a Heretick , nor hazard his salvation . Salus Ecclesiae non vertitur in istis . In simplicitate fides est , in fide justitia : nec Deus nos ad beatam vitam per difficiles quaestiones vocat : in expedito & facili nobis est aeternitas , said S. Hilary . Faith is in simplicity , and righteousness in faith ; neither does God call us to eternal life by hard questions . Eternity stands ready and easily prepar'd . For I consider , if any thing else were necessary to be believed unto salvation , this symbol could absolutely be of no use ; but if any thing be added to it and pretended also to be necessary , it cannot be entertained , unless they that adde it and impose it be infallible in their judgement , and competent in their authority : they must have authority equal to that of Christ , and wisdome equal to that of the Apostles . For the Apostles in this summary of faith , declar'd all that was at that time necessary ; and if any man else makes a new necessity he must claim Christs power , for he onely is our Law-giver : and if any declares a new necessity , that is not sufficient , unless he can also make it so , for declaring it supposes it to be so already ; and if it was so at first , the Apostles were to blame not to tell us of it ; and if it was not so at first , who made it so afterwards ? But it is infinitely necessary that for the matter of faith , necessary and sufficient faith , we rest here and goe not further . For if there can be any new necessities , then they may for ever increase , and the faith of a Christian shall be like the Moon , and no man can be sure that his faith shall not be reproved ; and there shall be innumerable questions about the authority of him that is to adde , of his skil , of his proceeding , of the particular article , of our own duty in inquiring , of our diligence , of our capacity , of the degrees of our care , of the competency of instruments , of chusing our side , of judging of questions : and he that cannot inquire diligently , and he that cannot judge wisely , and he that cannot discern spirits , and he that fears , and he that fears not shall all be in danger , and doubt , and scruple , and there shall be neither peace of minds nor Churches , as we see at this day in the sad divisions of Christendome ; and every man almost damnes all but his own sect ; and no man can tell who is in the right . Men dispute well on both sides ; and just and good and wise men are oppos'd to one another ; and every man seems confident , but few men have reason ; and there is no rest , and there can be none , but in this simplicity of belief which the Apostles recommended to all the world , and which all the world does still keep in despite of all their superinduc'd opinions and factions ; for they all retain this Creed , and they all believe it to be the summary of Faith. But the Church of Rome pretends to a power of appointing new Articles of Faith ; and for denying this , Pope Leo the 10th condemn'd Luther in his Bull added to the last Council in Lateran . For ad solam authoritatem summi Pontificis pertinet nova editio Symboli , A new edition of the Creed belongs to the sole authority of the Pope of Rome . So Aquinas : and Almain most expresly , The Popes of Rome by defining many things which before lay hid , Symbolum fidei augere consuevisse , are wont to enlarge the Creed . For Doctrina fidei admittit additionem in essentialibus , saith Salmeron , The doctrine of faith admits addition even in essential things . And in consequence to these expressions , they did adde the article of the Procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son , in a Synod at Gentilli in France ; and twelve Articles to the Creed in the Council of Trent , with the preface and postscript of the Athanasian Creed , damning all that doe not equally believe the Creed of Trent as the Creed of the Apostles . What effect and impress the declaration of any article by the Church hath or is to have upon the Conscience shall be discoursed under the title of Ecclesiastical lawes ; but that which is of present inquiry is , whether any thing can be of Divine faith in one age that was not so in the age of the Apostles : and concerning this it is that I say , that it is from the premisses evident that nothing can make any thing to be of Divine faith but our Bl. Lord himself , who is therefore called the Author and Finisher of our Faith ; he began it , and he made an end . The Apostles themselves could not doe it , they were onely Stewards and dispensers of the mysteries of God ; they did rightly divide the word of life , separating the necessary from that which was not so : so that their office in this particular was onely to declare what was necessary and what was not ; no man , and no society of men could doe this but themselves , for none but they could tell what value was to be set upon any proposition : they were to lay the foundation , and they did so , and they built wisely upon it ; but when they commanded that we should keep the foundation , they onely could tell us which was it , and they did so by their Sermons , preaching the same doctrine to the simple and the crafty , and by immuring the necessary doctrine in a form of words , and consigning it to all the Churches where they preach'd the Gospel . For we see that all the world is not able to tell us how much is necessary , and how much is not , if they once goe beside the Apostles Creed : and yet it was infinitely necessary that at first this should be told , because there were so many false Apostles , and every one pretended authority or illumination , and every one brought a new word and a new doctrine ; and the Apostles did not onely foresee that there would be , but did live to see and feel the heresies and the false doctrines obtruded upon the Church , and did profess it was necessary that such false doctrines should arise : and against all this that they should not provide an universal remedy , is at no hand credible , and yet there was none but the Creed ; this all the Church did make use of , and profess'd it to be that summary of Faith which was a sufficient declaration of all necessary faith , and a competent reproof of all heresies that should arise . But then that after all this any one should obtrude new propositions , not deducible from the Articles of the Creed , not in the bowels of any Article , neither actually express'd nor potentially included , and to impose these under pain of damnation , if this be not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which S. Paul said he had no power to doe , to have dominion or lordship over the faith , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to lord it over Gods heritage , which S. Peter forbad any man to doe , I confess I doe not understand the words , nor yet saw or ever read any man that did . I conclude this with those excellent words of Justinian which are in the Code , part of the Imperial law by which almost all the world was long governed : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , This right and irreprehensible faith ( speaking of the Apostolick Creed , part of which he there recites ) which the Holy Catholick and Apostolical Church of God does preach , can by no means receive any innovation or change . I conclude therefore this Question ; In our inquiries of faith no mans Conscience can be press'd with any Authority but of Christ enjoyning , and the Apostles declaring what is necessary . I adde also , that the Apostles have declar'd it in this form of words which they have often set down in their writings , and which they more largely described in their Symbol of Faith. For since , as Sixtus Senensis says , Omnes Orthodoxi Patres affirmant Symbolum ab ipsis Apostolis conditum , that all the Orthodox Fathers affirm the Creed to be made by the Apostles , and they all say this is a sufficient Rule of faith for all Christians ; here we ought to rest our heads and our hearts , and not to intricate our faith by more questions . For as Tertullian said well , Haec Regula à Christo , ut probabitur , instituta nullas habet apud nos quaestiones nisi quas haereses inferunt , & quae haereticos faciunt ; Hereticks make disputes , and disputes make Hereticks , but faith makes none . For if upon the faith of this Creed all the Church of God went to heaven , all I mean that liv'd good lives , I am sure Christ onely hath the keys of hell and heaven ; and no man can open or shut either , but according to his word and his law : so that to him that will make his way harder by putting more conditions to his salvation , and more articles to his Creed , I may use the words of S. Gregory Nazianzen , Tu quid salute majus quaeris ? gloriam nempe quae illic est & splendorem : mihi vero maximum est ut salver , & futura effugiam tormenta . Tu per viam incedis minimè tritam & incessu difficilem : ego verò per regiam , & quae multos salvavit , What dost thou seek greater then salvation ? ( meaning by nice inquiries and disputes of articles beyond the simple and plain faith of the Apostles Creed ) It may be thou lookest for glory and splendor here . It is enough for me , yea the greatest thing in the world , that I be saved and escape the torments that shall be hereafter . Thou goest a hard and an untroden path : I goe the Kings high-way , and that in which many have been saved . RULE XV. In the Law of Christ there is no precept that wholly ministers to the Law of Moses ; but for a time onely and less principally . THis Rule I received from S. Irenaeus ; and they are his words as near as I could translate them . In lege Christi non est ullum praeceptum veteri tantum legi inserviens , nisi ad horam & minus principaliter . For our Blessed Saviour descended like rain upon a fleece of wooll , and made no violent changes , but retain'd all the morality that he found amongst his Countrymen ; he made use of their propositions , spake their proverbs , united their ejaculations into a collect of his own , for almost every word of the Lords Prayer was taken from the writings of the pious men of their Nation ; he chang'd their rites into Sacraments , their customes into mysteries , their washings he made our Baptisme , their Paschal supper he converted into the Holy Eucharist : and still because he would be understood by them , he retain'd the Mosaick words when he deliver'd a Christian precept ; for he knew his Father would send his Holy Spirit to be an infallible interpreter ; and when the types of Moses pass'd into the substance of Christ , then the typical words also would be expounded in the senses of Evangelical duties . For indeed it is not reasonable to suppose that our Bl. Saviour , who came to fulfil the Law in his own person , and to abolish it in his Disciples , to change the customes of Moses , and to be an eternal law-giver in the instances of moral and essential natural rectitudes , would give a new Commandement to confirm an old precept which himself intended to extinguish . No man puts a piece of new cloth to an old garment , nor a new injunction to an abrogated law ; that is , no wise Master-builder holds up with one hand what he intends to pull down with both : it must therefore follow that whatever Christ did preach and affirme and exhort , was , although express'd in the words of the Law , yet wholly relative to the duty & signification of the Gospel . For that which S. Hilary said of all the words of Scripture , is particularly true in the sense now deliver'd of the Sermons of Christ : Sermo enim divinus secundum intelligentiae nostrae consuetudinem naturamque se temperat , communibus rerum vocabulis ad significationem doctrinae suae & institutionis aptatis . Nobis n. non sibi loquitur : atque ideo nostris utitur in loquendo . God speaks to us and not to himself ; and therefore he uses words fitting to our understandings . By common and usual expressions and such as were understood he express'd precepts and mysteries which otherwise were not to be understood . Thus when our Bl. Saviour delivers the precept of Charity and forgiveness he uses this expression , When thou bringest thy gift unto the Altar , and there remembrest that thou hast any thing against thy Brother , leave thy gift at the Altar , goe and be reconcil'd to thy Brother , and then come and offer thy gift . If Christ had said , When thou comest to the Lords supper and hast any thing against thy Brother , &c. he had not been understood : but because we know this is an Eternal precept , part of a moral & eternal excellency , a duty of Christianity and a portion of Christs institution , and we know that Christ pull'd down the Jewish altars and the sacrifice of beasts by the sacrifice of his Eternal Priesthood , and we also are sufficiently instructed by what instruments and by what ministeries the memory of that is conserv'd and the benefits of it conveyed ; therefore we also are sure that by these words Christ intended to command us to be at peace with our Brother and with our enemy , when we come to offer prayers and to celebrate the memorial of his Eternal sacrifice . So when our Bl. Saviour told the Parable of Dives and Lazarus , and intended to represent unto his Disciples that we are to expect Salvation by the ordinary ministeries of the Church , and not to expect it by the way of miracle and extraordinary dispensation ; he was pleas'd to say , They have Moses and the Prophets , let them hear them . This was all which could be said to them whose Scriptures were compleated in the writings of Moses and the Prophets : but when our great Master had by his H. Spirit and by his Apostles and Disciples perfected another instrument of salvation and repository of Divine truths , the proposition is to be inlarg'd to these . They have Christ and his Apostles , they have the Gospels and Epistles , let them hear them ; for if they will not hear and obey them speaking in the Scriptures , neither will they be converted though one arise from the dead , and appear to them in the terrible dresses of affrightment . When Christ whipp'd the buyers and sellers out of the Temple , and urg'd the words of the Prophet , My Fathers house shall be called the house of prayer to all Nations ; but ye have made it a den of theeves : although this was spoken to the Jewes , and of their Temple , yet Christ who knew this Temple was to be destroyed and not a stone left upon a stone , intended the piety of his Commandement should last longer then the dying Temple ; and therefore it is to be translated wholly to the Christian sense . And although he would not have the Temple prophan'd so long as it was standing and us'd for prayer and Divine service , ad horam , as S. Irenaeus his expression is ; even for an hour , taking care of that because it was a holy place : yet the sacredness and holy usage of the Temple was less principally intended ; but principally Christ regarded the Christian Oratories and separate places of devotion ; that where God by publick appointment and the lawes was to be worshipped , there the affairs of the world should not intrude by the interests of a private and a prophane Spirit . RULE XVI . The Lawes of Jesus Christ are to be interpreted to the sense of a present obedience according to their subject matter . THat which is true to day will be true to morrow ; and that which is in it's own nature good or necessary any day is good or necessary every day : and therefore there is no essential duty of the Religion but is to be the work of every day . To confess Gods glory , to be his subject , to love God , to be ready to doe him service , to live according to Nature and to the Gospel , to be chast , to be temperate , to be just , these are the imployment of all the periods of a Christians life . For the Moral law of the Religion is nothing but the moral law of Nature , ( as I have already proved * . ) Naturaliter lex nostra est lex pietatis , justitiae , fidei , simplicitatis , charitatis , optimeque instituta , said Cardan : and again , Christiani Jovem junctam habent cum Sole , illiusque diem colunt Dominicum : Sol a. significat justitiam & veritatem ; Christiana autem lex plus continet veritatis , & simpliciores reddit homines . The Christian Law is nothing else but a perfect institution of life and understanding , it makes men wise , and it makes them good ; it teaches wisdome , and it teaches justice ; it makes them wise and simple , that is , prudent and innocent , and there is no time of our life in which we are permitted to be otherwise . Those who in the primitive Church put off their Baptisme till the time of their death , knew that Baptisme was a profession of holiness , and an undertaking to keep the faith , and live according to the Commandements of Jesus Christ ; and that as soon as ever they were baptized , that is as soon as ever they had made profession to be Christs disciples , they were bound to keep all the Lawes of Christ : and therefore that they deferr'd their baptisme was so egregious a prevarication of their duty , that as in all reason it might ruine their hopes , so it proclaim'd their folly to all the world . For as soon as ever they were convinc'd in their understanding , they were oblig'd in their consciences . And although baptisme does publish the profession , and is like the forms and solemnities of law ; yet a man is bound to live the life of a Christian , as soon as ever he believes the doctrine and Commandements of Christianity ; for indeed he is oblig'd as soon as he can use reason , or hear reason . The first things a man can learn are some parts of Christianity ; not to hurt any one , to doe all that he can understand to be good ; that is , as soon as ever he begins to live like a rational creature , so soon he begins to live as Christ commanded : and since Baptisme ( as to this relation and intention of it ) is nothing else but the publication of our undertaking to doe that which in our very Nature and by the first and universal lawes of God to mankind we are obliged , to refuse to be baptized , or to defer it , is nothing but a refusing or deferring to own our natural obligation , a denying or not accepting the duty of living according to the law of Nature ; which deferring , as it must needs be the argument of an evil man , and an indication of unwillingness to live worthily , so it can serve really no prudent ends to which it can fallaciously pretend . For Christianity being in its moral part nothing but the perfection of the natural law , binds no more upon us then God did by the very reason of our Nature . By the Natural law we are bound to live in holiness and righteousness all the daies of our life , and so we are by the Christian law ; as appears in the song of Zechary and in very many other places : and therefore although when some of our time is elapsed and lost in carelesness and folly , the goodness of God will admit us to second Counsels , and the death of Christ and his intercession will make them acceptable ; yet Christianity obliges us to obedience as soon as the law of Nature does , and we must profess to live according to Christianity , as soon as we can live by the measures of the Natural law , and that is even in the very infancy of our reason ; and therefore Baptisme is not to be deferred longer : it may be sooner , because some little images of choice and reason , which must be conducted by the measures of Nature , appear even in infancy ; but it must not be deferred longer ; there is no excuse for that , because there can be no reason for so doing , unless where there is a necessity , and it can be no otherwise . The effects of this consideration are these . 1. All the negative precepts of Christs law are obligatory in all persons , and all periods , and all instances . Nunquam licuit , nunquam licebit ; it was and is and ever will be Unlawful to doe any action which God forbids to be done : and therefore to say I will be chast when I am old , I will be temperate when I am sick , I will be just when I am rich , I will be willing to restore when I die , is to measure eternity by time , and to number that which is not . In negatives there is neither number , nor weight , nor measure : and not to kill , not to blaspheme , not to commit adultery hath no time , and hath no proportion . 2. This is also true in the positive Commandements of Christ , in respect of the inward duty ; that is never to be deferred . The charity of almes , the devotion of prayer , piety to our parents , love of God , love of our neighbour , desires to doe justice ; these are not limited to times and opportunities . The habits of them and the dispositions to action , the readiness and the love must for ever be within ; because these are alwaies possible , and alwaies good , and alwaies necessary , and therefore cannot have accidental determinations from without , being workes of the inward Man , they depend onely upon the grace of God and the will of man ; and that never fails , if this does not , and therefore are alwayes possible unless we will not ; but they are alwayes necessary , whether we will or no. 3. The external actions of duty are determinable from without , and by things which are not in our power , and by things which will not happen alwaies and in some instances , by our own will and meer choice . Thus a man is bound actually to restore but in certain circumstances ; but to be ready and to love to doe it , he is alwayes bound . To say our prayers is limited by time and place , by occasions and emergent necessities , by use and custome , by lawes and examples : but to depend upon God , to expect all good from him , to glorify him , to worship him with all our heart , is not limited , but may be done in all the actions of our life , by actual application , or habitual intention , by secret purpose , or by open profession , by obedience and by love , or by the voice and hand . For to pray continually ] which is the precept of our Bl. Saviour , is obligatory in the very letter , in proportion to the natural possibilities and measure of a man ; that is , in all our actions we must glorify God , which is one of the parts of prayer , and we must endear his blessing , which is the other . But to kneel , or to speak , or actually to think a prayer , being the body of this duty and determinable by something from without , receives it's limit [ according to the subject matter ] that is , when we are commanded , and when we have need , and when we can , and in the proper season of it . This Rule is also otherwise explicated by distinguishing the affirmative precepts of Christ , into universal and particular . Particular precepts are to be acted onely in their proper determinations , in special times , and pertinent occasions , because they are always relative to time and place , or person ; they have a limited effect , and are but parts of a good life , and therefore cannot alone work out our salvation , but must give allowance of time and action to others , of the like particular and limited nature and effect . But this is otherwise in the universal and diffusive , or transcendent precepts of the Religion , though they be affirmative . He that shall say , that because to love God is an affirmative precept , that it is onely obligatory in certain accidents , and times , and cases , and that therefore we are not always bound to love God , by the impiety of his conclusion reproves the folly of his proposition . Neither is it sufficient to say that we are indeed always bound to the habitual love of God , but not always to the actual ; not always to doe an act of the love of God. For the love of God does not consist onely in the fancy or the passionate part , neither is it to be measured by the issues of any one faculty : and though we are not bound to the exercise of an act of passion , or intuition , or melting affection , that is , we are not always tied to a limited , particular , single effect of one grace , in all times ; yet we are bound to doe an act of love to God , when we are bound to doe any act at all ; for all our Religion , and all our obedience , and all our conversation is wholly to be conducted by the love of God : and although to love God be an affirmative Commandement , yet because it is a transcendent , or universal precept , and includes in it all those precepts , which by binding at several times , fill up all our time , and every of them being an act of obedience , is consequently an act and instance of our love to God , it follows , that there is no time in which we are not bound to love God ; and to exercise acts of this grace does not depend upon times and circumstances . Upon the accounts of this Rule it is very opportune , and certainly very useful , to inquire concerning the duty of Repentance ; for upon this article the whole question of late or death-bed Repentance will depend , and consequently the eternal felicity or infelicity of mankinde : and therefore I have reason to reckon this to be the greatest Case of Conscience in the whole world ; and it will appear so both in the event of the discourse , and in the event of things . Question . At what time precisely is every sinner bound to repent of his sins , so that if he does not repent at that time , he commits a new sin ? To this Question of At what time ] the Church of Rome answers , At what time soever ] For Repentance is as the precept of Baptism and Prayers . Neither this day nor to morrow precisely is it necessary to be baptized , but sometime or other ; and if we pray half an hour hence , it is as much obedience as if we fall upon our knees at the instant of the proclamation . Adde to this , that since repentance ( besides that it is an affirmative Commandement ) is also a punitive duty , it is generally agreed upon Neminem in conscientia donec condemnetur ad poenam exolvendam teneri , No man is bound to undergoe his punishment , till the instant that the Law determines him : and therefore when he is requir'd , when the day of humiliation comes , when there is danger that if it be not now done , it will not be done at all , then let the sinner look to it , then he must repent , it cannot be any longer put off . This is the doctrine of the Roman Schools , and of some others , which they have pursued to dangerous and horrid propositions . Scotus and his Scholars say a man is bound to repent upon Holidays , as upon Christmass , Whitsontide , or at Easter to be sure . But Sotus and Medina very confidently reprove this proposition as too severe , for this reason ; Because the Church having appointed many Holidays , yet when she explicates the doctrine of Repentance , she did suppose it to be sufficient to compel the sinner to repent once by the year : and although the end why the Festivals are ordain'd is the inward sanctification of the soul , haec tamen non est id quod per praeceptum de observatione festorum injungitur , this is not it which was enjoyn'd by the precept concerning festivals , saith Reginaldus . For the Church ( saith he ) commanded onely the means to this interiour holiness ; so that if you doe the outward work , it matters not ( as to the precept of the Church ) whether that end be acquired or no : you disobey the Church if you doe not hear Mass ; but though you be never the better , so you doe but hear Mass , she does not finde her self griev'd . By the way , it is observable that Scotus and the more severe part of them , which affirm a man to be bound to repent on every Holiday , doe not intend to say that by the law of God men are so bound , but by the law of the Church onely . Medina and the looser part deny the Church to have determin'd this affirmative and indefinite Commandement of Repentance to so much severity . But as to the law of God , they all pronounce a man to be free to repent once for all ; once he must , but when that once shall be God hath not set down : and since God left it at the greatest liberty , they doe not believe that the Church is so severe as some pretend , neither doe they think it fit she should ; but if they never repent till the article of death , they prevaricate no command of God. For [ Vera , atque adeo , ut expressit Navarrus in Enchir. cap. 1. n. 31. omnium communis sententia est , tempus in quo peccator conteri tenetur ( intellige per se , seu vi specialis praecepti de contritione à Deo dati ) esse imminentem articulum mortis naturalis , vel violentae ] So Reginaldus . The true and common opinion of all men is , that the time in which a sinner is bound to have contrition for his sins ( meaning in respect of any Divine Commandement ) is the article of imminent death , whether natural or violent . And in the mean time [ There is no precept commanding that a sinner should not persevere in enmity against God : there is no negative precept forbidding such a perseverance . Nay worse , if worse be possible , [ even to resolve to deferre our repentance [ velle poenitentiam differre , nolléque nisi ad aliquod tempus poenitere ] and to refuse to repent till such a day , is but a very little sin ( saith Sotus ; ) it is none at all ( saith Medina ) it is neither an act of impenitence , nor at all unlawful . These are sad stories to be told and maintained by Christian families , but therefore the more carefully to be look'd to , because it is concerning the summe of affairs , and an error here is worse then an over-sight in a day of battel : for repentance being the remedy for all the evils of our soul , if the remedy be ordered so as that it come too late , or deferr'd till the disease increase to an intolerable and an incurable evil , the state of our soul must needs be without remedy ; and that in our Philosophy is equivalent to desperation . But before I reprove these horrid doctrines , which so intirely and without dispute prevail in some Churches , I am to say two things . 1. If God hath left the time of our repentance and return so wholly without care and provision , though by the doctrine of some Romane Doctors the Church hath been more careful of it and more severe then God himself , yet neither the care of the Church , nor the ordinary provisions and arrests made by God can ever be sufficient to cause men to live well in any tolerable degree . For if God binds you onely to repent in the day of your death , or if he to hasten it will affright you with a popular judgement upon the neighbourhood , all those that escape the sickness , and all that have but little or no reason to fear it , and all those that can flie from it shall not repent , and indeed shall not be tied to it . And if we consider the event and impressions usually made upon our cities and villages by any popular judgement , we shall finde so very many to be unconcerned , that if this be the time of repentance , the duty will upon this account goe but slowly forward : very many shall have no need to doe it ; and none will doe it but they that have : and if the fear of imminent death be the onely period , we may easily perceive what ill provisions are made for repentance , when even dying men will hardly believe that they shall die yet , but hope for life , till their hopes and powers of working expire together . But then because it is pretended that the Church hath made better provisions , and tied all men to communicate at Easter , and consequently to repent by way of preparation to the Holy Communion ; I consider that the Church can onely tie them to the outward signification of repentance , as Confession , and the appendages of that entercourse ; and if they omit the inward and more spiritual and essential part of this great duty , they may for this sin as well as for all the other repent in the day of death , and that is sufficient for the performance of the Divine Commandement . And since the Church requires no more but a periodical and a ritual repentance , the repentance of a Christian will be like the Persian feast , which they call'd vitiorum interitum , the destruction of impiety ; upon the anniversary of which feast they kill'd all the venemous creatures they could finde , but they let them alone to swarm till that day came again : and that is the event of these ritual and anniversary repentances ; at a set time there is a declamation made against sin , and some significations of the evil of it express'd , but when the solemnity is over , it returns in all the material instances ; and there is no help for it in this doctrine , nor in the customes and usages of those Churches that entertain it . So that this doctrine must be acknowledged as a destroyer of good life : and though I know no artifices of escape from this , that are made use of , yet if there were , we are not to consider what is talk'd amongst Schoolmen to excuse the objection and to maintain the faction , but what is really and materially the event of it , as it is every day observed in the manners of men . The other thing which I was to say is this , that this doctrine of the Roman Schools , which is the common sentence of them all , cannot be directly confuted , unless we fall upon this proposition [ that a man is positively and directly bound to repent of his sin as soon as ever he hath committed it . ] For if there be not something in the nature of sin that must not be retain'd at all ; if there be not much in the anger of God that must not be endur'd at all ; if there be not obligations to the service of God that must not be put off at all ; if there be not great regards concerning the love of God without which we must not live at all ; and lastly , if there be not infinite dangers in our life , and that every putting our repentance off exposes it to the inexcusable danger of never having it done at all ; then it must follow that repentance obliges no otherwise then alms , or saying our prayers , it is to be done in its proper season : and the consequent of that will be , that so it be done at all , we are safe enough if it be done at any time ; and if you can deferre it till to morrow , you may also put it off till the next day , and so until you die . * And there is no avoiding it , as is evident to all rational and considering persons : for to morrow and to day are both alike as to the affirmative command ; and by Gods law we are not bound to it till the day of our death , if we be not bound to it every day . We must therefore chuse our proposition . Does God give us leave , if we have sinn'd , to dwell in it , to forget our danger , to neglect the wound that putrifies ? Is he pleased that we for whom he hath given his Son , we whom he hath adopted into his family and made members of Christ , we to whom he perpetually gives his grace , whom he invites by his promises , and calls by his Preachers every day , and affrights by his threatnings every hour , and incites by his Spirit , and makes restless by the daily emotions of an unquiet conscience ; that we whom he every day obliges , and no day neglects to doe something towards our amendment and salvation ; is he ( I say ) pleased that we should in despight or contempt of all this abide in his displeasure , and dwell in that state of evil things , that if on any hour of so many days and weeks and moneths and years we chance to die , we die again and die for ever ? Is this likely ? Does God so little value the services of our life , the vigor of our youth , the wisdome of our age , the activity of our health , the imployment of our faculties , the excellency of our dwelling with him ? Does he so little estimate the growth in grace , and the repetition of holy acts , the strength of our habits , and the firmness of our love , that he will be satisfied with an accidental repentance , a repentance that comes by chance , and is certain in nothing but that it certainly comes too late ? But if we may not deferre our repentance to the last , then we must not deferre it at all , we must not put it off one day : For if one , then twenty , if twenty , then twenty thousand ; there is no reason against one , but what is against all : but if we may not stay a thousand days , then not one hour ; and that is the thing I shall now contend for . 1. I remember an odde argument used by Reginaldus * to prove that a man is not bound to be contrite for his sins as soon as he remembers them ; because ( says he ) if he were , then it were but ill provided by God and the Church that Preachers should call upon men to confess their sins , to be sorrowful for them , and utterly to leave them : for there is no question but such discourses will often remind us of our sins ; and if we were then tied to repent , and did sin by not repenting , then such preachings would be the occasion of many sins , and the law would be an intolerable Commandement , and Christs yoke not to be endured ; because men doe not finde it so easy to repent upon every notice : so he . But this consideration turn'd with the right end forwards is an excellent argument to enforce the duty which I am now pressing of , a present actual repentance . For does God send Preachers who every day call upon us to repent , and does not God intend we should repent on that day he calls to doe it ? Doe the Prophets and Preachers of righteousness bid us repent next year ? Have they Commission to say , It were well and convenient if you would repent to day ; but you doe not sin if you stay till next year , or till you are old , or till you die ? To what purpose then doe they preach ? Does not God require our obedience ? Doe we not sin if the Preachers say well and right , and we doe it not ? Is there any one minute , any one day in which we may innocently stay from the service of God ? Let us think of that . Every day on which a sinner deferres his repentance , on that day he refuses to be Gods servant : and if God does command his service every day , then he every day sins on which he refuses . For unless God gives him leave to stay away , his very staying away is as much a sin as his going away , that is , his not repenting is a new sin . And if by way of Objection it be inquir'd , By what measures or rules of multiplication shall such sins be numbred ? whether by every day , and why not by every night , or why not by every hour , or every half hour ? I answer , that the question is captious and of no real use , but to serve instead of a temptation . But the answer is this ; 1. That the sin of not repenting increases by intension of degrees , as the perpetuity of an act of hatred against God. He that continues a whole day in such actual hostility and defiance increases his sin perpetually , not by the measures of wine and oile , or the strokes of the clock , but by spiritual and intentional measures ; he still more and more provokes God , and in the eternal scrutiny God will fit him with numbers and measures of a proportionable judgement . 2. The sin of not repenting is also multiplied by extension ; for every time a man does positively refuse to repent , every time a man is call'd upon or thinks of his duty and will not doe it , every such negative is a new sin , and a multiplication of his scores : and it may happen that every day that may become twenty sins , and in a short time rise to an intolerable height . 2. He that remembers he hath committed a sin , either remembers it with joy or with displeasure . If with displeasure , it is an act of repentance ; if with joy , it is a new sin ; or if it be with neither , the man does not consider at all . But if it abides there , the sin will be apt to repeat its own pleasures to the memory , to act them in the fancy , and so endear them to the heart : and it is certain that all active considerations declare on one side or other , either for the sin or against it ; and the Devil is not so backward at tempting , and the pleasure of the sin is not so unactive , but if ever it be thought upon without sorrow , it cannot easily be thought upon without some actual or potential delight : and therefore he that repents not , does sin anew . He that hath stoln is bound presently to restore if he can , and when it is in our hand it must also be in our heart to restore , and the evil must not be suffered so much as for an hour to dwell upon the injur'd person : so it is in the restitution of our hearts and our affections to God ; there is an injustice done to God all the way by our detaining of his rights , the injury is upon him , he complains that we will not come in , and is delighted if we come speedily . Restitution therefore must be made presently ; and for the satisfaction and amends for the wrong besides , God may longer expect , even till the day of its proper period . 3. Does not God every day send something of his grace upon us ? Does he not always knock at the door of our hearts , as long as the day of salvation lasts ? Does not he send his Spirit to invite , his arguments to perswade , and his mercies to endear us ? Would he have any thing of this lost ? Is it not a sin once to resist the Holy Spirit ? And he that remembers his sin , and knows it is an offence against God , and yet does not repent at that thought and that knowledge , does not he resist the Holy Spirit of God , so moving , so acting , so insinuating ? Is not every good Sermon a part of the grace of God ? Qui monet , quasi adjuvat , says the Comedy , he that counsels you , helps you : and can it be imagined that he that resists the grace of God twenty years is not a greater villain then he that stood against it but twenty moneths , and so on to twenty days , and twenty hours ? Peccatorem tanto sequitur districtior sententia quantò peccanti ei magna est patientia prorogata : & Divina severitas eò iniquum acriùs punit , quò diutiùs pertulit , saith S. Gregory . The longer God hath expected our repentance , the more angry he is if we doe not repent ; now Gods anger would not increase if our sin did not . But I consider , Must not a man repent of his resisting Gods grace , of his refusing to hear , of his not attending , of his neglecting the means of salvation ? And why all this , but that every delay is a quenching of the light of Gods Spirit , and every such quenching cannot be innocent ? And what can be expounded to be a contempt of God , if this be not ; that when God by his preventing , his exciting , his encouraging , his assisting grace invites us to repentance , we nevertheless refuse to mourn for our sins and to repent ? * This is the very argument which the Spirit of God himself uses , and therefore is not capable of reproof or confutation . Because I have called and ye refused , I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded : but ye have set at nought all my counsel , and would none of my reproof ; I will also laugh at your calamity , and mock when your fear cometh . Is not therefore every call to be regarded ? and consequently is not every refusing criminal ? and does not God call every day ? Put these things together , and the natural consequent of them is this , That he who sins & does not repent speedily , does at least sin twice , and every day of delay is a further provocation of the wrath of God. To this purpose are those excellent words of S. Paul , Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering , not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance ? That is , every action of Gods loving-kindness and forbearance of thee is an argument for , and an exhortation to repentance ; and the not making use of it is called by the Apostle , a despising of his goodness ; and the not repenting is on every day of delay a treasuring up of wrath : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Men waxe old and grow gray in their iniquity , while they think every day too short for their sin , and too soon for their repentance . But ( if I may have leave to complain ) it is a sad thing to see a man who is well instructed in Religion , able to give counsel to others , wise enough to conduct the affairs of his family , sober in his resolution concerning the things of this world , to see such a person come to Church every Festival , and hear the perpetual Sermons of the Gospel , the clamors of Gods Holy Spirit , the continual noise of Aarons bells ringing in his ears , a man that knows the danger of a sinner if he dies without pardon , that the wrath of God cannot be endured , and yet that without a timely and sufficient repentance it cannot be avoided ; to see such a man day after day sin against God , enter into all temptations , and fall under every one , and never think of his repentance , but unalterably resolve to venture for it , and for the acceptance of it at the last : for it is a venture whether he shall repent ; and if he does , it is yet a greater venture whether that repentance shall be accepted , because without all peradventure in that case it can never be perfected . But the evil of this will further appear in the next argument . 4. He that does not repent presently , as soon as he remembers and considers that he hath sinn'd , does certainly sin in that very procrastination , because he certainly exposes himself to a certain and unavoidable danger of committing other and new sins . And therefore I cannot but wonder at the assertors of the opposite doctrine , who observe this danger , and signify it publickly , and yet condemn such persons of imprudence onely but not of sin . The words of Reginaldus , and according to the sense of Navarre , are these , Ad quod tamen tempus poenitentiam differre esse salutem animae in magnum discrimen adducere patet per illud quod ex D. Augustino refertur in cap siquis : & cap. finali de poeniten . dist . 7. dubiam esse salutem illorum quos non ante sed post aegritudinem poenitet . Ratio verò esse potest quod in eo cernatur interpretativus contemptus Dei , qui saepius per gratias praevenientes illos excitat ac movet ad resipiscentiam , agendamque poenitentiam , conterendumve de suis peccatis : nihilominus non curant atque negligunt . He that defers his repentance brings his Soul into manifest and great danger , according to the doctrine of S. Austin ; for it is an interpretative contempt of God , who often excites them by his preventing graces to repent and to dee penance , and to be contrite for their sins , but they neglect it and care not . Now since thus much is observ'd and acknowledged , it is a strange violence to reason and to religion that it should not also be confessed to be the design and intention of God , he will and pleasure , the purpose of his grace and the Oeconomy of Heaven , the work of his Spirit and the meaning and interpretation of his Commandement , that we should repent presently . For when the question is concerning the sense and limit of an indefinite Commandement , what can be a better commentary to the law then the actions of God himself ? for he understands his own meaning best , and certainly by these things he hath very competently and sufficiently declar'd it . If it be objected that these actions of the Divine grace are not sufficient to declare it to be a sin not to doe it , whenever the grace of God prompts us to repent , because we find that the Spirit of God does use rare arts to invite us forward to such degrees of perfection and excellency , to which whoever arrives shall be greatly rewarded , but if a man falls short , he does not sin ; I reply , that the case is not the same in the matter of Counsel , and in the matter of a Commandement : For when the question is concerning the sense and signification , the definition and limit of that which is acknowledg'd to be a Commandement , the actions of the Divine grace signifying Gods pleasure and meaning , doe wholly relate to the Commandement ; when the thing is onely matter of Counsel , then the actions of the Divine grace relate to that , and are to be expounded accordingly . But thus they are alike ; that as God by his arguments and inducements , his assistances and aides declares that to doe the thing he counsels would be very pleasing to him ; so they declare that what he commands is to be done , that he intends the Commandement then to bind , that whenever the one is good , the other is necessary . But his pleasure which he signifies concerning a Counsel , does not mean like his pleasure concerning a Commandement ; but every thing according to the nature of the Subject Matter : for God having left the one under choice , and bound the other by a law , whatever signification of the mind of God comes after this must be relative to what he hath before established , and does not now alter , but onely expound now what his meaning was before . Since therefore the question here is to what precise time we are oblig'd in the precept of repentance , nothing is more reasonable then to conclude , that then God intended we should keep the precept , when he enables us , and exhorts and calls upon us to doe it , which because he by his grace and holy Spirit does every day , this declaration of God is the best Commentary upon his Commandement . But to return to the first purpose of this argument . He that knowes he hath sinn'd , and will not kill it by repentance , leaves the affections to sin remaining ; an aptness to be tempted , a relation to the Devil , a captivity to lust , and an impotency under his passion . For if sin be a cursed Serpent , if it leaves any venome upon the Spirit of the man , if by committing sin we are more apt to commit it still , he that hath sinn'd , and when he remembers it does not repent , keeps himself in the dispositions to sin , he dwells in the Temptation and the Neighbourhood : and because every thing that invites and directly tends to sin is symbolical and of the same Nature , the retaining of that very aptness by not repenting the old , must needs be a progression and going on in sin , and therefore a new sin by interpretation . And if we consider but the sad circumstances of those persons who wax old in carelesness and contempt of duty , how dead their Spirit is , how every day they grow more unwilling to repent , how habitual their perswasions are in the behalf of sin , how accidentally hard they grow , and by perceiving so long an impunity , and that things remain as they were 20. years agoe , and that though they sinn'd then , yet they are well still , and all the affrightments of the Preachers sermons are but loud noises and harmless thunder , they grow confident and still more careless ; we shall find that their Spirit is in declension , and is continually , and still further distant from the friendship of God. So sometimes we see a healthful body by the disorders of one intemperate meeting fallen into the beginnings of a sickness . The Man it may be does so no more ; but feeling his sickness tolerable , and under the command of reason , he refuses to take physick , and to throw out the evil principle which begins to ferment in the disordered body : but Nature being disturbed and lessened in her proper vigor , goes on in her usual methods as well as she can ; she goes forward , but she carries a load , which in a long progression growes intolerable , not by it's own weight , but by the diminution of Natures strengths . But when the evil is grown great , the Physitian is call'd for ; who espying the evil state of things is forc'd to reply , It is now very late , for nature is weak and the disease is strong . I shall doe what art can minister , but I fear that Nature is incapable of relief . So it is in the Soul ; the very deferring of taking Physick is an increasing of the disease . For every sin is Ulcus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it is an Ulcer and drawes all the humors thither for it's increase and nourishment : and that which is sore will swell , and all the waters will run to the hole in the bank , and every finger to the wound that smarts , and every eye to the thing we fear : and therefore it hath been observ'd by the wise guides of Souls , that those persons who defer their repentance to their old age , their repentance comes off the harder , their penitential actions are the worse , their zeal colder , their care more indifferent , their religion less , their fears are trifling , their love starke and cold , their confessions formal and imperfect , every thing amiss , nothing right : but no repentance can be that which God intends , unless it begins betimes . Vidi ego quod fuerat primò sanabile vulnus Dilatum longae damna tulisse morae . Any one disease if let alone , though there be no new sickness supervening , growes mortal by meer delay , and incurable for want of timely remedy . 5. Let us consider upon what account any man can defer his repentance and yet be innocent . It must either be because he loves his sin , or because he loves not God ; because he either despises the Divine justice , or presumes upon his mercy ; because he hath evil principles , or because he will not obey those which are good . It is positive impenitence , or it is privative ; it is hardness of heart , or it is effeminacy of life ; it is want of fear , or want of love : and whatsoever can come from any of these causes or beginnings can never be innocent . And therefore S. Ambrose his question was a good caution and a severe reproof . Quid enim est quod differas ? an ut plura peccata committas ? Why doe you defer your repentance ? is it because you would commit more sins ? That 's most likely . Sed quia delectat Veneris decerpere fructus , Dicimus assiduè , Cras quoque fiet idem . Interea tacitae serpunt in viscera flammae , Et mala radices altiùs arbor agit . He that sayes he will not repent of his lust to day , sayes in effect that he means to act it again to morrow ; for why else should he put his repentance farther off ? Quid juvat in longum causas producere morbi ? Cur dubium expectat cras hodierna salus ? If you really intend your cure , it is better to begin today then to morrow : and why should any man desire to be sick one day longer ? Whatever can be in it , it is a disease and a very sickness of it self . There can be no good excuse pretended for it . For if carelesness , if the neglect of holy things can ruine us ( as certainly a man may die with hunger as surely as by gulttony , by not eating at all as well as by eating too much , by omission as well as by commission ) it will follow that the not repenting is fatal and damnable , because every delay is a Not-repenting till that delay be gone . 6. The Scripture does every where call upon us for a speedy repentance . For God that commands us to pray every day , consequently commands us to repent every day . This argument ought to prevail even upon the adversaries account : For Navarre confesses , Extra tempus articuli mortis dantur casus in quibus peccator conteri tenetur per aliud , sive ex vi alicujus praecepti quod peccator ipse transgreditur , aliquid agens non contritus . When there is any distinct precept obliging to a duty which cannot be done by him that is not penitent , he that directly obliges to that other duty , does indirectly and consequently at that very time oblige to repentance . Thus when the Church obliges a Priest to consecrate and to communicate , because he who does so without repentance commits a deadly sin , the Church accidentally ties him at that time to repent . From these premisses I assume , that since God obliges us every day to pray , he also obliges us to doe that without which we cannot pray as God intends we should ▪ that is , to throw away all our affection to sin , to repent of it and to forsake it . For the prayer of a wicked man is an abomination to the Lord , said Solomon ; and we know that God heareth not sinners , said he in the Gospel , that is , those who having sinn'd have not yet repented , — Infelix infelicior ut sit , being unhappy in their hasty sin , but more unhappy in their slow repentance : but it is the prayer of the repenting man which God will hear ; & therefore our Blessed Saviour commanding us to pray and teaching us how , enjoynes us that we every day pray for the forgiveness of our trespasses ; as for our daily bread , so for our daily pardon : Panem nostrum da nobis hodie , Give us this day our proportion of bread ; and therefore also this day give us pardon ; for we must return to day : Hodie for bread , and hodie for forgiveness and amendment . So the Psalmist , and so the Apostle in his words , To day hear his voice and harden not your hearts ; not onely expressly commanding us not to defer our repentance one day , but plainly enough affirming that every such delay is an act of hardness of heart and obduration , and therefore a new sin superadded to the old . For although in Nature and Logick time consignifies , that is , it does the work of accidents and appendages and circumstances , yet in Theology it signifies and effects too ; time may signify a substantial duty , and effect a material pardon : but of all the parts of time we are principally concern'd in the present . But it is remarkable , that though [ Hodie , to day ] signifies the present time , yet the repentance which began yesterday , which took an earlier hodie , is better then that which begins to day : but that which staies till to morrow is the worst of all . Ille sapit quisquis , Posthume , vixit Heri . For Heri and Hodie , yesterday and to day , signifies Eternity : so it is said of Christ , Yesterday and to day , the same for ever . But Hodie and Cras , to day and to morrow , signifies but a little while . To day and to morrow I work , said Christ , that is , I work a little while ; and the third day , that is , very shortly or quickly , I shall make an end . That repentance is likely to prevail to a happy eternity which was yesterday and to day , but if it be deferred till tomorrow , it begins late and will not last so long . * To this purpose excellent are those words of Ben-Sirach , Make no tarrying to turn unto the Lord , and put not off from day to day : for suddenly shall the wrath of the Lord come forth , and in thy security thou shalt be destroyed . Meaning that every day of thy life may be the day of thy death , therefore take heed , and defer not untill death to be justified , for God oftentimes smites sinners in their confidence ; he strikes them in their security , in their very delay they are surpris'd , in their procrastination they shall loose their hopes , and the benefit and usefulness of to morrow . For what is vain man that he should resolve not to repent till Easter ? It may be at that very time he so resolves there is an impostume in his head or breast , or there is a popular disease abroad that kills in three daies , or to morrows dinner shall cause a surfeit , or that nights drinking shall inflame his blood into a feaver , or he is to ride a journey the next day and he shall fall from his horse and die , or a tile in the street shall dash his brains out ; and no man can reckon all the possibilities of his dying suddenly , nor the probabilities that his life will end very quickly . This question therefore may be determin'd without the intrigues of disputation . Let a man but believe that he is mortal , let him but confess himself to be a man , and subject to chance , and there is no more requir'd of him in this article , but the consequence of that confession . Nemo Deo credens non se sub verbis ejus corrigit nisi qui diu se putat esse victurum , saith S. Austin , Whosoever believes in God will presently amend his life at the command of God , unless he thinks he shall live long . But what if a man should live long ? is it so intolerable a thing to live vertuously when we are to live long , that the hopes of life shall serve to no other end but that sin may be continued and repeated , and repentance may be delayed ? That 's the worst conclusion in the world from such premisses . But however , he that considers that so many men and women die young , will have but little reason to conclude to so evil and dangerous purposes from so weak and contingent principles . When Theramenes came out from his friends house the roof and walls immediately fell down . The Athenians espying the circumstances of that safety , flock'd about him , congratulated his escape , and cried him up as a man dear unto the Gods for his so strange deliverance from the ruine . But he wisely answer'd , Nescitis , viri , ad quae tempora & pericula Jupiter me servare voluerit , Ye know not , O Athenians , to what evils I am reserved . He said true , for he that had escap'd the fall of a house in Athens , was in a little while condemn'd by the Ephori of Sparta to drink the cold and deadly hemlock ; he pass'd but from one opportunity of death unto another . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . No man can tell whether he shall live till to morrow : and to put off our repentance when it may be there is at the very instant the earnest of death in thy heart or bowels , a stone ready form'd , hardned and ripe in the Kidneies , and will before to morrow morning drop into the bladder , Mors latet in mediis abdita visceribus , Death is already plac'd in the stomach , or is gone into the belly , then , that is , in any case to defer repentance , is a great folly and a great uncharitableness , and a contempt of all the Divine revelations concerning heaven and hell . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , of all things in the world doe not trust to time . — Obrepit non intellecta senectus ; Nec revocare potes qui periere dies . In time there is nothing certain , but that a great part of our life slips away without observation , and that which is gone shall never come again ? These things although they are dress'd like the arguments of Orators , yet they doe materially and logically conclude , That if to be uncharitable be a sin , he that defers his repentance in so uncertain a life and so certaintly approaching death , must needs be a very great sinner upon that account , because he does not love himself , and therefore loves no body , but abides without charity . But our Bl. Saviour hath drawn this Caution into a direct precept , Agree with thine adversary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quickly : The hope of Eternity which now is in thy hand may else be lost for ever , and drop through thy fingers before to morrow morning . Quanto miser in periculo versaberis , quamque inopinati rerum casus te abripient ! Miserable man , thou art in extreme danger , and unlook'd for accidents may end thy talkings of repentance and make it impossible for ever . A man is subject to infinite numbers of chances ; and therefore that we may not rely upon the future or make delayes , let us make use of this argument , Whatsoever comes by chance , comes upon the sudden . But because this discourse is upon the grounds of Scripture , it is of great force what was by the Spirit of God threatned to the Angel of the Church of Ephesus ; Repent , for I will come unto thee quickly , and remove the Candlestick out of its place unless thou doest repent : that is , unless thou repent quickly , I will come quickly . Who knows how soon that may be to any man of us all ? and therefore it is great prudence and duty and charity to take care that his coming to us doe not prevent our return to him ; which thing can never be secur'd but by a present repentance . And if it be consider'd that many persons as good as we , as wise , as confident , as full of health , and as likely to live , have been snatch'd away when they least did think of it , with a death of sudden , that the deferring their repentance one day hath been their undoing for ever ; that if they had repented heartily , and chosen a good life clearly and resolvedly upon the day before their sudden arrest , it would have look'd like a design of grace and of election , and have rendred their condition hopeful ; we shall finde it very necessary that we doe not at all deferre our return , for this reason , because one hours stay may not onely by interpretation , but also in the real event of things , prove to be that which S. Austin call'd [ the sin against the Holy Ghost ] that is , final impenitence . For as he that dies young , dies as much as he that dies after a life of fourscore years ; so is that impenitence final under which a man is arrested under the infancy of his crime , as much as if after twenty years grace and expectation , the man be snatch'd from hence to die eternally . The evil is not so great , and the judgement is not so heavy , but as fatal and as irreversible as the decree of damnation upon the falling Angels . 7. When we see a man doe amiss we reprove him presently , we call him off from it at the very time , and every good man would fain have his unhappy friend or relative leave in the midst of his sin , and be sorry that he went so farr ; and if he have finish'd his sin , we require of him instantly to hate it , and ask pardon . This is upon the same account that God does it , because to continue in it , can be for no good ; to return instantly hath great advantages ; to abide there is danger , and a state of evil ; to chuse to abide there is an act of love to that evil state , and consequently a direct sin ; and not to repent when we are admonished , is a chusing to abide there : and when ever we remember and know and consider we have sinn'd , we are admonished by Gods Spirit and the principles of grace and of a holy Religion . So that from first to last it follows certainly , that without a new sin , we cannot remember that we have sinn'd unless then also we doe repent : and our aptness to call upon others to doe so is a great conviction that every man is oblig'd in his own particular to doe so . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Since we are all wise enough to give good counsel , it will reproach us if we are not conducted by the consequences of our own wise advices . It was long first , but at last S. Austin fell upon this way ; nothing could end his questions , or give rest unto his conscience , or life to his resolutions , or satisfaction to his reason , or definition to his uncertain thoughts , or a conclusion to his sin , but to understand the precept of repentance to oblige in the very present and at no time else . Differens dicebam modò , ecce modò , sine paululúm : sed modò & modò non habebat modum . He would anon , and he would next week , and he would against the next Communion ; but there was no end of this : and when he saw it , sub fico stravi me flens , quamdiu , quamdiu cras , & cras ? quare non modó ? quare non hâc horâ finis turpitudinis meae ? I wept and said , how long shall I say To morrow ? Why shall I not now by present repentance put an end to my crimes ? If not now , if not till to morrow , still there is the same reason for every time of your health , in which you can say to morrow . There is enough to determine us To day , but nothing that can determine us To morrow . If it be not necessary now , it is not necessary then , and never can be necessary till it be likely there will be no morrow-morning to our life . I conclude this argument in the words of the Latine Anthology , Converti ad rectos mores & vivere sanctè In Christo meditans , quod cupit acceleret . He that would live well and be Christs servant , must make haste , and instantly act what he knows he ought always to purpose , and more . To which purpose S. Eucherius gives this advice , which at first will seem strange , Propound to your self the example of the thief upon the Cross : Doe as he did . Yes , we are too ready to doe so , that is , to deferre our repentance to the last , being encouraged by his example and success . No : we doe not as he did , that is a great mistake . It is much to be wish'd that we would doe as he did in his repentance . How so ? S. Eucherius thus resolves the riddle , Ad consequendum fidem non fuit extrema illa hora , sed prima . He did not deferre his repentance and his faith unto the last ; but in the very first hour in which he knew Christ , in that very instant he did believe and was really converted : he confess'd Christ gloriously , and repented of his sins without hypocrisy : and if we doe so too , this question is at an end , and our repentance shall never be reproved . 8. He that hath sinn'd , and remembers that he hath sinn'd , and does not repent , does all that while abide in the wrath of God. God hates him in every minute of his delay . And can it consist with any Christian grace , with faith , or hope , or charity , with prudence or piety , with the love of God , or the love of our selves , to outstand the shock of thunder , to out-face the Canon , to dare the Divine anger , and to be careless and indifferent though he be hated by the fountain of love and goodness , to stand excommunicate from Heaven ? All this is beside the sin which he committed ; all this is the evil of his not repenting presently . Can a man consider that God hates him ; and care not though he does , and yet be innocent ? And if he does care , and yet will not remedy it , does not he then plainly despair , or despise it presumptuously ? and can he that does so be innocent ? When the little boy of Xylander saw a company of Thieves robbing his Fathers house , and carry away the rich Vessels , and ten Attick talents , he smil'd and whipt his Top. But when a child who was in their company stole his Top from him , he cried out and rais'd the neighbourhood . Sic sunt qui rident , nec cessant ludere , saevus Cum Satanas illis non peritura rapit . So is he that plays on and is merry when his Soul is in the possession of the Devil : for so is every Soul that hath sinn'd and hath not repented : he would not be so patient in the loss of his money , he would not trust his gold one hour in the possession of Thieves , nor venture himself two minutes in a Lions power ; but for his Soul he cares not though it stay moneths and years in a danger so great as would distract all the wits of mankinde , if they could understand it perfectly as it is . 9. If there were nothing else , but that so long as his sin is unrepented of , the man is in an unthriving condition , he cannot entertain Gods grace , he cannot hope for pardon , he cannot give God thanks for any spiritual blessing , he cannot love his word , he must not come to the holy Sacrament ; if ( I say ) there were nothing else in it but the meer wanting of those excellencies which were provided for him , it were an intolerable evil , for a man to be so long in the dark without fire and food , without health or holiness : but when he is all that while the object of the Divine anger , and the right-aiming thunderbolts are directed against his heart from the bow in the clouds , what madness and what impiety must it needs be to abide in this state of evil without fear and without love ! 10. The advice of S. Paul in the instance of anger hath something in it very pertinent to this article , Let not the Sun goe down upon your wrath ; that is , Doe not sleep till you have laid aside your evil thoughts : for many have quietly slept in sin , who with horror and amazement have awak'd in hell . But S. Pauls instance of anger is very material , and hath in it this consideration , That there are some principiant and mother-sins , pregnant with mischief , of a progressive nature , such sins which if they be let alone , will of themselves doe mischief ; if they be not kill'd they will strike ; like as Quick-silver , unless it be allayed with fasting spittle , or some other excellent art , can never fixe : now of these sins there is no question but a man is bound instantly to repent ; and there is no season for these , but all times are alike , and the first is duty . Now how many are thus is not easily told ; but it is easily told , that all are so of their own nature , or may be so by the Divine judgement , and therefore none of them are to be let alone at all . 11. The words of S. Austin which he intended for exhortation , are also argumentative in this question , Hodiernum habes in quo corrigaris , You have this day for your repentance . To morrow you have not . For God did not command him that liv'd in the time of Samuel to repent in the days of Moses ; that was long before him , and therefore was not his time : Neither did he command that Manasses should repent in the days of the Asmonaei ; they liv'd long after him , and therefore that could not be his time , or day of repentance . Every one hath a day of his own . But when we consider that God hath commanded us to repent , and yet hath given us no time but the present , we shall perceive evidently , that there is no time but the present in which he intended we should obey him . Against this there can be no objection ; for it is so in all other precepts whatsoever , unless there be something in the nature of the action that is determinable by circumstances and particularities : but in this there is nothing of relation to time and place ; it may be done at any time , and is of an absolute , irrespective nature , of universal influence , and of absolute necessity : and God could no more intend to morrow to be the proper season of repentance , then he could intend the five and twentieth Olympiad to be your day for it ; for the Commandement is present , and to morrow is not present ; and therefore unless we can suppose a Commandement , and no time given us with the Commandement for the performing it , we must suppose the present onely to be it . If to morrow does come , then when it is present , it is also the time of your repentance . By which it is infallibly certain , and must be confess'd so by all wise and rational persons that know the consequences of things , and the perswasion of propositions , that God in every present commands us to repent ; and therefore in every present in which we remember our sin and repent not , we offend God , we prevaricate his intentions , we sin against his mercies , and against his judgements , and against his Commandements . I end this with the plain advice of Alcimus Avitus ; Dum patulam Christi cunctis clementia sese Praebet , praeteritae plangamus crimina vitae , Poeniteatque olim negligenter temporis acti , Dum licet , & sano ingenióque animóque valemus . In which words , besides the good counsel , this argument is insinuated , That because we must repent even of the days of our negligence , and be sorry for all our mis-spent time , and weep for having stai'd so long from God , it follows that the very deferring of our repentance , our very neglecting of it is a direct sin , and increases the causes of repentance ; and therefore makes it the more necessary to begin the sooner , by how much we have stai'd the longer . Question II. As an appendage to this great Case of Conscience , it is an useful inquiry to ask , Whether a man is bound to repent , not onely the first time , but every time that he thinks of his sin . I answer , that he is ; but to several purposes , and in differing measures and significations . If he hath never repented , then upon the former accounts , every remembrance of his sin is a specification and limit to the indefinite and affirmative Commandement ; and the second thought of it , because the first not being attended to hath increased the score , and the time being so much the more spent , hath increased the necessity and the haste : and if the second be neglected , then the third still calls louder ; and every succeeding thought does not onely point us out the opportunity , and the still proceeding season of doing it , but it upbraids every preceding neglect , and presses the duty stronger by a bigger weight of the same growing arguments . For no man is safe but he that repents at least to day ; but he was wise that repented yesterday . And as it is in humane entercourse , he that hath done wrong , and runs presently to confess it , and offer amends , shall have easier terms of peace then he that stands out at law , and comes not in till he be compell'd : so it is in our returns to God ; the speedy penitent shall finde a ready and a prepared mercy , but he that stays longer will finde it harder , and if he stays to the last , it may be not at all . * But then if we have repented at the first monition or memory of sin , we must never any more be at peace with it : it will perpetually make claim , it will every day sollicite , it will break into a flame upon the breath of every temptation , it will betray thy weakness and abuse thy credulity , it will please thy fancy and abuse thy understanding , it will make thee sin again as formerly , or desire to sin , to fall willingly , or very hardly to stand ; & after all , if thou hast sinn'd thou art under a sad sentence , and canst not tell when thou shalt have a certain peace . So that whenever thou thinkest of thy sin thou hast reason to be displeased , for thou art always the worse for it ; always in danger , or always uncertain : thou hast always something to doe , or something to undoe ; something to pray for , and many things to pray against . But the particular causes of a perpetual repentance for our past sins are reducible to these two . 1. When ever we have sinn'd , and fallen into the Divine displeasure , we dwell for ever after in the dark : we are sure we have sinn'd , and Gods anger is plainly revealed against sinners : but we know not how farre this anger will extend , nor when it will break out , nor by what expressions it shall be signified , nor when it will goe off , nor at what degree of sorrow God will be appeased , nor how much industry shall be accepted , nor how many actions of infirmity shall be allowed ; nothing of this is revealed . But we are commanded to doe an indefinite duty , we are to have an unlimited watchfulness , we are called upon to have a perpetual caution , a duty that hath no limit , but all our time and all our possibilities ; and all the fruit of this is growing in the Paradise of God , and we shall not tast it till the day of the revelation of the righteous judgement of God. In the mean time we labour and fear , we fear and hope , we hope and are uncertain , we pray and cannot see what will be the event of things . Sometimes we are confident ; but that pertness comes it may be from the temper of the body , and we cannot easily be sure that it comes from God : and when we are cast down , it may be it is nothing but an effect of the spleen , or of some hypochondriacal propositions , or some peevish company , and all is well with us , better then we think it is ; but we are under the cloud , and , which is worst of all , we have always but too much reason to fear , and consequently to be grieved for the causes of all this darkness , and all this fear , and all this danger . 2. Besides all this , our sin is so long in dying , and we kill it with such lingring circumstances , and reprieve it so often , and it is often laid onely aside until the day of temptation , and our repentance is so frequently interrupted , or made good for nothing , and even in our weepings for sin we commit folly , that a man can never tell when he hath done , and when he is to begin again . For these reasons we finde it very necessary to hate our sin perpetually , and for ever to deplore our calamity in the Divine displeasure , to remember it with sorrow , and to strive against it with diligence . Our sins having made so great an alteration in our persons , and in the state of our affairs , we cannot be so little concerned as to think of them with indifference ; a sigh at least , or a tear will well become every thought ; a prayer for pardon , or an act of indignation against them ; a Domine miserere , or a Me miserum peccatorem ! Have mercy upon me , ô God , or , Miserable man that I am ! something of hope , or something of fear . Own it but as a cause of sorrow , or an instance of thy danger ; let it make thee more zealous or more patient ; troubled at what is past , or cautious for the time to come : and if at every thought of thy sin it be not easy to doe a positive act of repentance , yet the actions must be so frequent that the repentance be habitual ; ever in preparation , and ever apt for action ; seeking occasions of doing good , and omitting none ; praying and watching against all evil , and committing none . At this rate of repentance a man must always live , and in Gods time expect a freedome from sin , and a confirmation in grace . But then as to the main issue of the Question ; It is not intended that a man should every time weep when he thinks of his sins ; sometimes he must give thanks to God for his escape , and rejoyce in the memory of the divine mercies , and please himself in the promises of pardon , and doe acts of Eucharist and holy festivity . But even these acts of spiritual joy , if they indear our duty , they destroy our sin ; if they make us to love God , they make us to hate sin ; if they be acts of piety , they are acts of repentance . So that when it is said , at every thought of your sin you must doe something of repentance , if you doe any act at all , this is nothing else but a calling upon us for the particulars , and to pursue the methods of a good life . For repentance is the conversion of the whole man , an intire aversation from evil , and a full return to God ; and every action of amendment , every prayer for pardon , and every mortification of our desires , every observation and caution against danger , all actions of a holy fear , and every act of hope , even our almes and mercy to the poor , is a breaking off our sins , and therefore an action of repentance . So that if there can be any time of our life in which a sinner may not serve God and yet be innocent , then it may be allowed at some time to think of our sin and consider it , and yet not to doe an act of repentance ; but in no case else can it be allowed . So that by this discourse we have obtain'd all the significations of Hodie to day , and they all relate to repentance . For though it signifies the present time as to the beginning of this duty , yet it signifies our whole life after that beginning , that is our Hodie , to day , we must begin now and continue to doe the same work all our daies . Our repentance must begin this day by the computations of time , and it must not be put off one day , yet it must goe on by the measures of Eternity . As soon as ever and as long as ever we can say Hodie , it is to day , so soon and so long we must repent . This is as certain in Divinity as a demonstration in the Mathematicks . The summe is this ; If by repentance we mean nothing but sorrow , then it hath it's season , and does not bind alwaies to all times . But if by repentance we understand a change of life , to which sorrow is onely instrumental and preparatory , then it is our duty alwaies to repent . That is , if you doe any thing at all , it must be good : even to abide in goodness , to resolve not to sin , to love not to sin , to proceed or to abide in innocence by choice and by delight , by custome and resolution , are actions of an habitual repentance ; but repentance is never safe till it be habitual , but then also it is so much the more perfect , by how much it is the more actual . To conclude this inquiry , we must pray often , but we must repent alwaies : and it is in these affirmative precepts as it is in the matter of life and eating ; we must eat at certain times and definite seasons , but we must live continually . Repentance is the new life of a Christian ; and therefore we must no more ask when we are bound to repent , then when we are by nature requir'd to breath . The motion must return speedily , or we die with strangling . RULE XVII . Because the Lawes of Jesus Christ were delivered in Sermons to a single person , or a definite number of hearers , we are curiously to inquire and wisely to understand , when those persons were onely personally concerned , and when they were Representatives of the whole Church . THis Rule I learn from S. Austin , Erit igitur hoc in observationibus intelligendarum Scripturarum , ut sciamus alia omnibus communiter praecipi , alia singulis quibusque generibus personarum : ut non solùm ad universum statum valetudinis , sed etiam ad suam cujusque membri propriam infirmitatem medicina pertineat . Some things are given to all ; others but to a few ; and some commands were to single persons and single states : God having regard to the well-being of societies , and to the health even of every single Christian. That there is a necessity of making a distinction is certain , but how this distinction is to be made is very uncertain , and no measures have yet been described , and we are very much to seek for a certain path in this intricacy . If we doe not distinguish precept from precept , and persons from states of life , and states of life from communities of men , it will be very easy for witty men to bind burdens upon other mens shoulders with which they ought not to be press'd ; and it will be very ready for scrupulous persons to take loads upon themselves which appertain not to them ; and very many will dispute themselves out of their duty , and say , quid ad me ? I am not concerned here ; and the Conscience shall be unguided and undetermin'd while the lawes of order shall themselves lye undistinguish'd and undiscerned in confusion and indiscrimination . There must be care taken of this , or else cases of Conscience will extremely multiply to no purposes but those of danger and restless scruple . The best measures that I know are these ; 1. There are some precepts which are by all men confessed to be General , and some are every where known to be meerly Personal ; and by proportion to these we can be help'd to take account of others . When Abraham as a trial of his obedience was commanded to sacrifice his Son , this was alone a Commandement given to that man concerning that child , at that time , and to that purpose . So when he was commanded to forsake his Countrey and goe to Canaan , this was personal , and could not be drawn into example : and no man could think that if he should kill his Son , or leave his country , he should be rewarded for his obedience . For the Commandements given to persons are individuated as the persons themselves are , by time and place and circumstances , and a singular nature , a particular Soul : So is the Commandement also ; it is made circumstantiate by all that is in and about it : and the reason of a man and his observation is the competent and final judge of these things ; and no man is further required to look after significations of that which is notorious . Others also are as certainly and confessedly general ; such as were the ten Commandements to the Children of Israel ; they were given to all the people , proclaim'd to the whole nation , expressly spoken to them all , exacted of them all , and under the same reason , and upon the same conditions . Now here are some proportions by which we may guess at others . 2. For whatsoever related wholly to a person , or was determin'd by a circumstance , or was the relative of time , that passes no obligation beyond the limits and definitions of those circumstances . Upon this account all the Ceremonial and Judicial law of the Jewes have lost their obligation . The service that related to a Temple that is now destroyed , and was to be performed by a Priesthood that is expir'd , can no longer be a law of conscience . Thus the command which Christ gave that his Brethren should follow him into Galilee after the resurrection was wholly personal . The Apostles were commanded to untie another mans Asse , and without asking leave to bring him to Christ ; the command was wholly relating to that occasion , and gives no man warrant to take another mans goods for pious uses without his leave . Circumstances are to actions like hedges to the grounds , they divide and defend , and assign every mans portion . And in these cases ordinary prudence is a sufficient guide . 3. Whatsoever precept was given to many , if it was succeeded to by another that is inconsistent , or of a quite differing nature and circumstance , the former is by the latter declared to have been personal , relative , temporary and expir'd ; & nothing of it can be drawn into direct obligation . When our Blessed Saviour sent out the 72. Disciples by two and two , he commanded them to goe without sword or shooes or bag , and that they should not goe into the way of the Gentiles . That these Commandements were temporary and relative to that mission appears by the following mission after Christs resurrection ; by which they receiv'd command that they should goe into the way of the Gentiles , that they should teach all Nations . Therefore besides the special and nam'd permissions in this second legation , as that they might now wear a sword , that they might converse with Heathens , it is certain that those other clauses of command which were not expressly revok'd , are not obligatory by vertue of the first sanction and Commandement . And therefore if any man shall argue , Christ when he sent forth his Disciples to preach , commanded that they should not goe from house to house , but where they did first enter there to abide till the time of their permitted departure , therefore it is not lawful to change from one Church to another , from a less to a greater , from a poorer to a richer , will argue very incompetently and inartificially ; for all the Commandements then given were relative to that mission : and if any thing were inserted of an universal or perpetual obligation , it is to be attended to upon some other account , not upon the stock of this mission and it's relative precepts . 4. It is not enough to prove a precepts to be perpetual and general , that it is joyned with a body of precepts that are so , though there be no external mark of difference . Thus we find in the ten words of Moses one Commandement for resting upon the seventh day from the Creation ; it is there equally prescribed , but fortified with reasons and authority , more laboriously press'd , and without all external sign of difference to distinguish the temporary obligation of this from the perpetuity of the other ; and yet all the Christian Church esteem themselves bound by the other , but at liberty for this day . But then we understand our liberty by no external mark appendent to the Sanction , but by the natural signature of the thing . The nature of the precept was ceremonial and typical ; and though to serve God be moral and an Eternal duty , yet to serve him by resting upon that day , or upon any day , is not moral ; and it was not enjoyn'd in that Commandement at all that we should spend that day in the immediate service of God and offices of religion ; and it was declar'd by S. Paul to be a shadow of good things to come , and by our Bl. Lord it was declar'd to be of a yielding nature , and intended to give place to charity and other moral duties , even to religion it self , or the immediate service of God : for though the Commandement was a precept meerly of rest , and doing no labour was the sanctification of the day ; yet that the Priests in the Temple might worship God according to the rites of their religion , they were permitted to work , viz. to kill the beasts of sacrifice , which Christ call'd prophaning of the Sabbath , and in so doing he affirms them to have been blameless . From hence , that is , from the natural signature of the thing commanded , & from other collateral notices , we come to understand that in the heap of moral and Eternal precepts , a temporary , transient and relative did lie : and the reason why there was no difference made , or distinctive mark given in the Decalogue , is because there was no difference to be made by that Nation to whom they were given ; but as soon as that dispensation and period was to determine , then God gave us those marks and notes of distinction which I have enumerated , and which were sufficient to give us witness . So that if a whole body of Commandements be published , and it be apparent that most of them are general and eternal , we must conclude all to be so , untill we have a mark of difference , directly or collaterally , in the nature of the thing , or in our notices from God : but when we have any such sign , we are to follow it ; and the placing of the precept in other company is not a sufficient mark to conclude them all alike . Thus it was also in the first mission of the Disciples ( above spoken of ) in which the body of precepts was temporary and relative ; but yet when our Blessed Lord had inserted that clause [ freely ye have received , freely give ] we are not to conclude it to be temporary and onely relating to that mission , because it is plac'd in a body of relative Commandements : for there is in it something that is Spiritual , and of an eternal decency , rectitude and proportion ; and we are taught to separate this from the other by the reproof which fell upon Simon Magus , by the separate nature of Spiritual things , by the analogy of the Gospel , by the provisions which upon other accounts are made for the Clergy and the whole state Ecclesiastical , upon the stock of such propositions which provide so fully , that they cannot be tempted by necessity to suppose God left them to be supplied by Simoniacal entercourses . If there be nothing in the sanction of the Commandements or any where else that can distinguish them , we must conclude them alike ; but if there be any thing there or any where else that makes an indubitable or sufficient separation , the unity of place does not make an equal obligation . 5. When any thing is spoken by Christ to a single person , or a definite number of persons , which concerns a moral duty , or a perpetual rite of universal concernment , that single person , or that little congregation , are the representatives of the whole Church . Of this there can be no question ; 1. Because as to all moral precepts they are agreeing to the nature of man , and perfective of him in all his capacities ; and therefore such precepts must needs be as universal as the nature , and therefore to be extended beyond the persons of those few men . Now if it be inquir'd how we shall discern what is moral in the laws of God from what is not moral , we may be assisted in the inquiry by the proper measures of it which I have already described * . Those concern the matter of the Commandement ; here we inquire concerning the different relation of the Commandement when the sanction is the same with these which are of particular concernment ; that is , here we inquire by what other distinction besides the matter and nature of the thing we are to separate general precepts from personal , perpetual from temporal , moral from relative . And thus to inquire , is necessary in the interpretation of the laws of Jesus Christ ; because there are some precepts moral and eternal , which nevertheless are relative to particular states under the Gospel . But secondly , there are some precepts which are not moral , but yet they are perpetual and eternal , and concern every man and woman in the Christian Pale according to their proportion ; I mean the precepts concerning the Sacraments and other rituals of Christianity . In order therefore to these Evangelical concerns it is to be noted , That whatsoever concerns every one by the nature of the thing , though it was at first directed personally , yet it is of universal obligation . Thus we understand all Christians that have the use of reason , that is , which are capable of laws , and have capacities to doe an act of memory , and symbolical representment , to be obliged to receive the Holy Communion : because although the precept of [ Doe this , & Drink this ] was personally directed to the Apostles , yet there is nothing in the nature of the Communion that appropriates the rite to Ecclesiasticks ; but the Apostle explicates it as obliging all Christians , and it was ever so understood , and practic'd accordingly : all are equally concerned in the death of Christ , and therefore in the commemoration of it , and thanksgiving for it . Now thus farre is easy . But there are some interests that pretend some of the words to be proper to Ecclesiasticks , others common to the whole Church . I have already given account of the unreasonableness of the pretension in this Chapter * . But for the present I shall observe , that there being in this whole institution the greatest simplicity and unity of design that can be , the same form of words , a single Sacrament , the same address , no difference in the sanction , no variety or signs of variety in the appendages , in the parallel places , or in any discourse concerning it , to suppose here a difference , will so intricate this whole affair , that either men may imagine and dream of varieties when they please , and be or not be obliged as they list ; or else if there be a difference intended in it by our Law-giver , it will be as good as none at all , he having left no mark of the distinction , no shadow of different Commandements , under several representations . If the Apostles were onely representatives of the Ecclesiastical state when Christ said , [ Drink ye all of this ] then so they were when Christ said , [ This doe in remembrance of me : ] the consequent is this , that either all are bound to receive the Chalice , or none but the Clergy are tied to eat the holy bread ; for there is no difference in the manner of the Commandement ; and the precept hath not the head of a man , and the arm of a tree , and the foot of a mountain , but it is univocal , and simple , and proper , and if there be any difference , it must be discovered by some clear light from without : for there is nothing within of difference , and yet without we have nothing but a bold affirmative . 6. When the universal Church does suppose her self bound by any preceptive words , though they were directed to particular persons , yet they are to be understood to be of universal concernment . Now this relies not onely upon the stock of proper probability , viz. that such a multitude is the most competent interpreter of the difficulties in every Commandement ; but there is in the Church a publick and a holy Spirit , assisting her to guide , and warranting us to follow the measures of holiness by which she finds her self oblig'd . For besides that the questions of general practice are sooner understood , as being like corn sown upon the furrow , whereas questions of speculation are like metals in the heart of the earth , hard to be found out , and harder to be drawn forth ; besides this , no interest but that of heaven and the love of God can incline the Catholick Church to take upon her self the burden of a Commandement . If it were to decline a burden , there might be the more suspicion , though the weight of so great authority were sufficient to outweight any contrary probability ; but when she takes upon her the burden , and esteems her self obliged by a Commandement given to the Apostles or to the Pharisees , or to any single person among them , it is great necessity that enforces her , or great charity that invites her , or great prudence and caution for security that determines her , and therefore she is certainly to be followed . Upon this account we are determined in the foregoing instance : and because the Primitive Catholick Church did suppose her self bound by the words of institution of the Chalice in the Blessed Sacrament , therefore we can safely conclude the Apostles to be representatives of the whole Church . Ad bibendum omnes exhortantur qui volunt habere vitam , saith S. Austin , All are called upon to drink of the Chalice , if they mean to have life eternal . For indignum dicit esse Domino qui aliter mysterium celebrat quam ab eo traditum est , saith S. Ambrose ; as Christ delivered it to the Apostles , so it must be observed by all : and therefore Durandus affirms that all who were present did every day communicate of the cup because all the Apostles did so , our Lord saying , Drink ye all of this . For the Apostles were representatives , not of the Clergy consecrating ( for they then did not consecrate but communicate ) but of all that should be present . Nam quae Domini sunt non sunt hujus servi , non alterius , sed omnibus communia , saith S. Chrysostome , The precept of our Lord belonged not to this servant , nor to another , but to all . Now things that are of this nature , and thus represented , and thus accepted , become laws even by the very acceptation : and as S. Paul said of the Gentiles , that they having not the law become a law unto themselves ; and our conscience is sometimes by meer opinion a strict and a severe law-giver : when the Church accepts any precept as intended to her , ( if not directly , yet ) collaterally and by reflexion it passes an obligation ; and then it will be scandalous to disagree in manners from the custome and severe sentence of the Christians , and to dissent will be of evil report , and therefore at no hand to be done . 7. When a precept is addressed to particular persons , and yet hath a more full , useful , and illustrious understanding , if extended to the whole Church , there it is to be presumed it was so intended ; and those particular persons are representatives of the Church . S. Austin extends this Rule beyond precepts , even to priviledges and favours ; Quaedam dicuntur quae ad Apostolum Petrum propriè pertinere videantur , nec tamen habent illustrem intellectum nisi cum referuntur ad Ecclesiam , cujus ille agnoscitur in figura gestasse personam , propter primatum quem in discipulis habuit . Some things are spoken which seem to relate particularly to the Apostle Peter , but yet they are better understood when they are applied to the whole Church . But this must needs be true in Commandements ; for where nothing hinders it , the Commandement is supposed to be incumbent upon us ; and therefore when the Commandement is better understood , and hath a more noble and illustrious sense , that is , promotes the interest of any grace remarkably , there the particular address must mean a general obligation . 8. When any Commandement is personally addressed , and yet is inforced with the threatning of death eternal , that Commandement is of universal obligation . The reason is , because the Covenant of life and death is the same with all men ; and God is no respecter of persons , and therefore deals alike with all : and upon this account , the words which our Blessed Saviour spake to some few of the Jews upon occasion of the Galilean Massacre , and the ruine of the Tower of Siloam , had been a sufficient warning and Commandement to all men , though besides those words there had been in all the Scriptures of the New Testament no Commandement of repentance . Except ye repent , ye shall all likewise perish ] does mean that all the world should repent for the avoiding of the final and severest ●●dgements of God. But this Rule is to be understood onely in Commandements that are not relative to the differing states of men , but are of an absolute and indefinite nature . For where the Commandement is relative , and yet personally addressed or represented , there that person is the representative , not of all mankinde , but of that whole state and order . Thus when S. Paul said , There is a necessity laid upon me , and woe is unto me , if I doe not preach the Gospel , he was a representative of the whole order of the Cura●es of Souls . But when he said , I press forward to the mark of the price of the high calling , and if by any means I may comprehend , here he spake of his own person what is the duty incumbent upon all Christians , and he was a representative of the whole Church . 9. When any good action is personally recommended upon the proposition of reward , it does not always signify an universal Commandement ; but according as it was intended personally , so it signifies universally : that is , if it was a counsel to the person in the first address , it is a counsel to all men in the same circumstances ; if it was a Commandement to one , it was a Commandement to all . Thus when Christ said to the young man in the Gospel , Goe and sell what thou hast , and give to the poor , and thou shalt have treasure in heaven ; here the precept or the counsel is propounded under a promise : but because there is no threatning so much as implied , whether it be a command or no cannot be known from these words , nor from the appendant condition ; because that which is not under command may be excellently good , and therefore fit to be incouraged and invited forward . But whether it was a precept or a counsel , that young man , though alone spoken to , was not alone intended ; because the thing to which he was invited is an excellency and a spiritual worthiness in all men for ever that can and will receive it . RULE XVIII . Evangelical Lawes given to one concerning the duty of another doe in that very relation concern them both ; but in differing degrees . 1. THis Rule I learn from S. Paul , and it is of good use in cases of Conscience relating to some Evangelical lawes . [ Obey them that have the rule over you , and be subject ; for they watch for your Souls , as they which must give an account : that they may doe it with joy , and not with grief ; for that is unprofitable for you . ] Thus a Prelate or Curate of Souls is to take care that his Cure be chast and charitable , just and temperate , religious and orderly . He is bound that they be so , and they are more bound ; but each of them for their proportion : and the people are not onely bound to God to be so , but they are bound to their Bishop and Priest that they be so ; and not onely God will exact it of them , but their Prelate must , and they must give accounts of it to their superior , because he must to his supreme ; and if the people will not , they are not onely unchast or intemperate before God and their Bishop , but they are disobedient also . It is necessary that infants be baptized ; this I shall suppose here , because I have in * other places sufficiently ( as I suppose ) proved it . Upon this supposition , if the inquiry be upon whom the necessity is incumbent , it will be hard to say , upon Infants , because they are not capable of a law , nor of obedience ; and yet it is said to be necessary for them . If upon their parents , then certainly it is not necessary to the Infants ; because if what is necessary be wanting , they for whom it is necessary shall suffer : and therefore it will be impossible that the precept should belong to others , and the punishment or evil in not obeying belong to the children ; that is , that the salvation of infants should depend upon the good will or the diligence of any man whatsoever . Therefore if others be bound , it is necessary that they bring them , but it will not be necessary that they be brought ; that is , they who doe not bring them , but not they who are not brought shall suffer punishment . But therefore to answer this case , this rule is useful : It is necessary that the Parents or the Church should bring them to baptisme , and it is necessary that they be baptized ; and therefore both are bound , and the thing must not be omitted . The Parents are bound at first , and the Children as soon as they can be bound ; so that the precept leans upon two shoulders : if the first omit their share in their time , there is no evil consequent but what is upon themselves ; but when the children can chuse , and can come , they must supply their parents omission and provide for their own proper necessity . It is in this as in provisions ; at first they must be fed by the hand and care of others , and afterwards by their own labour and provisions ; but all the way they are under a necessity and a natural law of being provided for . * When S. Paul wrote to Timothy concerning the dispositions requir'd in those persons who were to be Bishops , it will not be very easy to say , of whom the defect of some of those conditions shall be requir'd . A Bishop must be the husband of one wife , that is , he must not marry while his first wife lives , though she be civilly dead , that is , whether divorc'd , or banished , or otherwise in separation . But what if he be married to two wives at once ? Many Christians were so at first ; many , I say , who were converted from Judaisme or Gentilisme , and yet were not compelled to put away either . If a Bishop be chosen that is a Polygamist , who sins ? that is , who is obliged by this precept ? Is the Bishop that ordains him , or the Prince or people that chuses him , or the Ecclesiastick himself that is so chosen ? The answer to this inquiry is by considering the nature of such a law , which the Italians call il mandato volante , a flying or ambulatory Commandement , in which the duty is divided , and several persons have several parts of the precept incumbent on them . He that chuses and he that ordains him are bound for their share , to take care that he be canonically capable ; but he that is so chosen is not bound to any thing but what is in his power ; that is , he is not oblig'd to put away her whom he hath legally married , and her whom without sin he can lawfully retain : but because that which is without sin , is not alwaies without reproach and obloquy , and that which may be innocent may sometimes not be laudable , and of a Clergy-man more may be requir'd then of another that is not so ; they who call him to the office are to take care of that , and he which is called is not charg'd with that . But then though he be not burdened with that which is innocent and at present out of his power , and such a person may be innocently chosen , when they who chuse him are not innocent ; yet when any thing of the will is ingredient on his part , he must take care of that himself . He may be chosen , but he must not ambire , not sue for it , nor thrust himself upon it ; for here begins his obligation : there can be no duty , but what is voluntary and can be chosen ; but when a man can chuse he can be oblig'd . I doe not here dispute how far and in what cases this law does oblige ; for of that I am to give account in the chapter of Ecclesiastical Lawes : but the present inquiry is , who are the persons concerned in the obligation . It was also taken care that a Bishop should not be a Novice : and yet S. Timothy was chosen a Bishop at the age of five and twenty years , and he was innocent , because it was the act of others , who came off from their obligation upon another account . But if he had desir'd it , or by power or fraction thrust himself upon the Church with that Canonical insufficiency , he had prevaricated the Canon Apostolical : for to so much of it he was bound ; but in what he was passive , he was not concerned , but others were . But this is to be limited in two particulars . 1. In what the Clerk is passive he is not oblig'd ; that is , in such matters and circumstances as are extrinsecal to his office , and matter of ornament and decency . Thus if he have been married to an infamous woman which he cannot now help ; if he be young , which he cannot at all help , but it will help it self in time ; if he have an evil and an unpleasant countenance , if he be deformed ; for these things and things of like nature , the chusers and ordainers are concerned ; but the Clerk may suffer himself to be chosen , the law notwithstanding . But if the Canonical impediment be such as hinders him from doing of his future duty , there he may not suffer himself to be chosen ; and if he be , he must refuse it . The reason of the difference is plain : because the Electors and Ordainers are concerned but till the Election is past ; but the Elected is concerned for ever after : therefore although there may be many worthinesses in the person to be chosen to outweigh the external insufficiency and incapacity , and if there be not , the Electors are concerned , because it is their office and their act , and they can hinder it , and therefore they onely are charg'd there ; yet for ever after the Elected is burden'd , and if he cannot doe this duty , he is a sinner all the way ; he is a Wolfe to the Revenue and a Butcher to the Flock . 2. Though in matters of decency and ornament the person to be chosen is not so obliged but that he may suffer himself to be chosen if he be otherwise capable , because those things which are not in his power are not in his duty , yet even for these things he also is oblig'd afterwards ; and he is bound not to doe that afterwards , which if it was done before , others were obliged not to chuse him . If a person was divorced before and married again , he may accept of a Bishoprick ; but if he doe so afterwards , he is guilty of the breach of the Commandement : for he must not goe back to that door where he might not enter , but then he is wholly oblig'd ; he alone , because then it is his own act , and he alone can hinder it . I say he must not goe back . But if he be thrust back to that door , where if he had stood at first he ought not to have been let in ; he is no more oblig'd at last then at first : he that does not govern his house well , and hath not his children in subjection , may not ( by the Apostles rule ) be chosen ; but when he is a Bishop , and fals into the calamity of having evil and rebellious children , this is no impediment to his office directly , and does not so much as indirectly pass upon him any irregularity . But then as to the rule it self , this instance is fit to explicate it . For Parents are tied to rule their Children , Masters to govern their Servants ; but Children are also oblig'd to be governable , and Servants must be obedient . For in relative duties every man must bear his own burden , and observe his own share of the Commandement . RULE XIX . Custome is no sufficient interpreter of the Lawes of Jesus Christ. TRuth and the Divine Commandements need no prescription , but have an intrinsick warrant , and a perpetual abode ; but that which is warranted by Custome , hath but an accidental obligation , and is of humane authority . The Lawes of Christ are wrought to be the parents of Custome ; but Custome cannot introduce a divine law or obligation : our Customes ought to be according to Christs Commandement ; but from our Customes we cannot conclude or inferre that this is the will or Commandement of Christ. This Rule is Tertullians . Veritati nemo praescribere potest , non spatium temporum , non patrocinia personarum , non privilegium regionum . Ex his enim fere conesutudo initium ab aliqua ignorantia vel simplicitate sortita , in usum per successionem corroborata ; & ita adversus veritatem vindicatur . Sed Dominus noster Christus Veritatem se , non Consuetudinem , cognominavit . Quodcunque adversus veritatem sapit hoc erit haresis , etiam vetus consuetudo . No man can prescribe to truth , that is , to any proposition or Commandement Evangelical . For Customes most commonly begin from ignorance or weakness , and in time get strength by use , till it prevail against right . But our Lord Christ does not call himself Custome , but Truth . Whatsoever is against Truth , though it be an old Custome , is Heresy , notwithstanding its long continuance . The purpose of this Rule is not to bar Custome from being of use in the exposition of the sense of a law or doctrine . For when it is certain that Christ gave the law , and it is uncertain what sense was intended to the law , Custome is very useful in the interpretation ; that is , the Customes of the first and best Ages of the Church : and then the longer the Custome did descend , still we have the more confidence , because we have all the wise and good men of so many Ages concurring in the interpretation and understanding of the law . Thus the Apostle gave the Church a Canon , that we should in all things give thanks : the Custome of the Ancient Church did in pursuance of this rule say a short prayer , and give thanks at the lighting up of Candles . The history of it I have from S. Basil. Visum est patribus nostris beneficium vespertini luminis non silentio suscipere , sed statim ut apparuit gratias agere , They said grace for their light as well as for their meat . This Custome was good ; for it was but the particular instance of a general duty . But then Custome is to be allowed but as one Topick , n●● as all : it is the best argument when we have no better ; but it is the most unartificial of all arguments ; and a competent reason to the contrary is much to be preferred before a great and long prescribing Custome . Both these propositions are severally affirm'd by the Fathers of the Church . The first by S. Austin in his Epistle to Casulanus , In his rebus de quibus nihil certi statuit Divina Scriptura , nobis populi Dei & olim justi , statuta Majorum pro lege tenenda sunt : & sicut praevaricatores legum Divinarum , it a contemptores consuetudinum Ecclesiasticarum coercendi sunt . The holy Catholick Church is certainly guided by the Spirit of God , and therefore where the question is concerning any thing that is not clear in Scripture , the Customes of the Catholick Church are not to be despised ; for it is to be presum'd ( where the contrary is not proved ) that she piously endeavours , and therefore is graciously assisted in the understanding of the will and Commandements of her Lord : and in this sense , Custome is the best interpreter , because there is no better , and no clearer light shining from any Angle . Custome can thus in cases of destitution of other Topics declare the meaning of a law ; but Custome of it self cannot be the interpreter of the will of Christ , or a sufficient warrant of a law , or immediately bind the Conscience as if it were a signification of the Divine pleasure : much less ought it to be oppos'd to any words of Scripture or right reason and proper arguments deriv'd from thence . And that is the other thing which I also said is taught us by the Fathers of the Church . So S. Cyprian , Frustra quidam qui ratione vincuntur consuetudinem nobis opponunt , quasi consuetudo major sit veritate , aut non fuerit in Spiritualibus sequendum si melius fuerit à S. Spiritu revelatum , In vain is custome oppos'd to reason , as if it were greater then truth : Not Custome , but that which is best , is to be followed by Spiritual persons , if any thing better then Custome be revealed by the Spirit of God. All good Customes are good warranties and encouragements ; but whether they be good or no is to be examin'd and prov'd by the Rule and by the Commandement : and therefore the custome it self is but an ill indication of the Commandement ; from whence it self is mark'd for good , or else is to be rejected as reprobate and good for nothing . Consuetudo authoritati cedat : pravum usum lex & ratio vincat : cum verò nec sacris canonibus nec humanis legibus consuetudo obviare monstratur , inconcussa servanda est , said Isidore , Let custome yeeld to authority , to law and to reason ; but when it agrees with the laws of God and of man , let it be kept inviolate . When Custome is consonant to some other instrument of probation , when it is apparently pious , and reasonable , and of the analogy of faith , it is an excellent corroborative and defensative of truth , and warrant to the conscience ; but when it stands alone , or hath an ill aspect upon other more reasonable and effective ways of perswasion , it is very suspicious and very dangerous , and is commonly a very ill sign of an ill cause , or of corrupted manners . Cedrenus tells that the Patriarch Abraham was wont to say that there is great difference between truth and custome ; that being very hard to be found , this , whether good or bad , being obvious to every eye : and which is worse , by following custome a man gets no comfort if it be in the right , and no great shame if it be in the wrong , because he relies not upon his own reason , but the judgement of old men that liv'd long agoe , who whether they judged wisely or foolishly must appear by some other way : but this he will finde , that it will be very hard to leave it , though it be never so foolish and ridiculous . Of what obligation in matters of practice , and of what perswasion in the inquiries of truth Ecclesiastical Customes are to be esteem'd , I shall afterwards discourse when I treat of Ecclesiastical Laws : but that which I would perswade for the present is , that the Customes and usages of the world are but an ill Commentary on the Commandements of our Blessed Lord. 1. Because evil is crept into most of the manners of men ; and then a custome is most likely to transmit her authority to that which ought to be destroyed . Inter causas malorum nostrorum , quod vivimus ad exempla , nec ratione componimur , sed consuetudine abducimur . Quod si pauci facerent , nolumus imitari : quum plures facere coeperunt , quasi honestius sit quia frequentius , sequimur , & recti apud nos locum tenet error , ubi publicus factus est . So Seneca complain'd . It is one great cause of our mischiefs , that we are not led by truth , but led away by custome ; as if a thing were the honester because it is frequent ; and error becomes truth when it is common and publick . Excellent therefore was that saying of Pope Nicolas the first , Parvus numerus non obest ubi pietas abundat : magnus non prodest ubi impietas regnat , If right and Religion be on our side , the smalness of our company is nothing : but a multitude cannot justify impiety . 2. Custome in moral practices becomes law to men by pressing upon their modesty , and by outfacing truth and piety ; so that unless the custome have warranty from the law , it hath the same effect against a law as for it ; and therefore in such cases is at no hand to be trusted , but at every hand to be suspected , lest it make it necessary that men become vicious . The customes of the German and neighbour Nations so expound the laws of Christ concerning temperance , that if by their measures it be defined , it looks so like intemperance , as milk to milk ; and the common customes of the world expound all the laws of the Blessed Jesus so as to be truly obligatory at no time but in the danger , or in the article of death : but certainly it is but an ill gloss that evacuates all the holy purposes of the Commandement ; and at the day of Judgement , when we shall see numberless numbers of the damned hurried to their sad sufferings , it will be but an ill apology to say , I did as all the world almost besides me , by whose customes I understood the laws of the Gospel to a sense of ease and gentleness , and not by the severity of a few morose Preachers . Poggius tells of a Neapolitan Shepherd , that against Easter going to Confession , he told his Confessor with a tender conscience and great sorrow of heart that he had broken the holy Fast of Lent , by chance indeed , but yet with some little pleasure ; for when he was pressing of a new Cheese , some of the whey start from the vessel and leap'd into his mouth , and so went into his stomack . The Priest smiling a little at the phantastick conscience of the man , ask'd him if he was guilty of nothing else . The Shepherd saying , he knew of nothing else that did or ought to trouble him ; his Confessor knowing the customes of those people upon the Mountains of Naples , ask'd him if he had never robb'd or kill'd any strangers passengers . O yes , replied the Shepherd , I have often been at that imploiment ; but that we doe every day , and always did so , and I hope that is no sin : but the cheese , the forbidden cheese stuck in his stomack , because every one did abominate such meat upon fasting-days : onely the custome of killing and stealing had hardned his heart and forehead till it was not perceiv'd . — dedit haec contagio labem , Et dabit in plures : sicut grex totus in agris Unius scabie cadit , & porrigine porci , Uváque conspecta livorem ducit ab uva . Evil manners begin from one evil man , or from one weak or vicious principle , and pass on to custome , and then to be vertuous is singularity , and it is full of envy ; and concerning the customes of the world it is ten to one if there be not some foulness in them . The advice therefore of S. Cyprian is a good compendium of this enquiry . Consuetudo quae apud quosdam irrepserat , impedire non debet quo minus veritas praevaleat & vineat ; nam consuetudo sine veritate vetustas erroris est : propter quod relicto errore sequamur veritatem ; scientes quod veritas vincit , veritas valet & invalescit in aeternum , & vivit & obtinet in secula seculorum . Custome ought not to prevail against any truth ; but Truth which is eternal will live and prevail for ever and ever . Custome without truth is but a prescription of falshood and irregularity . Question . Upon occasion of this argument it is seasonable , and of it self a very useful inquiry , Whether the Customes of Jews and Gentiles , or indefinitely of many Nations , be a just presumption that the thing so practic'd is agreeable to the law of Nature , or is any ways to be supposed to be consonant to the will of God. Answer . 12. To this , some of eminence in the Church of Rome answer affirmatively ; and are so farre from blushing , that many of their rites are derived from the customes of Heathens , that they own it as a thing reasonable , and prudent , and pious , according to the doctrine and practice of Gregory surnamed Thaumaturgus , who ( as S. Gregory Nyssen reports ) that he might allure the common people to the love of Christianity , gave way that those dances and solemne sports which they celebrated to the honour of their idols should be still retain'd , but diverted to the honour of the Saints departed : and Baronius supposes it to be no other then as the Israelites taking of the silver and brass from the AEgyptians , and imploying it in the service of the Tabernacle . And in particular , the custome of burning candles to the honour of the Virgin Mary he imputes to the same principle , and owns it to be of Heathenish extraction . The same also is in divers other instances avowed by a Polydore Virgil ; by Fauchet b in his Books of the Antiquities of France ; by du Choul , c Blondus d and Bellarmine , e who brings this as an argument for the doctrine of Purgatory , because the Jews , the Turks , and the Heathens did believe something of it ; it being very likely , that what almost all Nations consent in , derives from the natural light of reason which is common to all men : and upon this very thing Cardinal Perron f boasts in the behalf of the Service in an unknown tongue ; that not onely the Greeks , and many other Christian Churches , but even all Religions , the Persians and the Turks use it . This pretence therefore is fit to be considered . 1. Therefore I answer , That it is true that the Primitive Church did sometimes retain some ceremonies which the Heathens us'd ; but they were such ceremonies which had no relation to doctrine , but might be made apt for order and decent ministeries external . Such were the garments of the Priests , lights , girdles , fasts , vigils , processions , postures , festivals and the like : and they did it for good reason and with good effect ; that the people who were most of all amused with exteriour usages , finding many of their own customes adopted into Christianity , might with less prejudice attend to the doctrines of that perswasion which so readily complied in their common ceremonies . This did well enough at first , and was a prudent imitation of the practice of our great Master , who that the Jews might the easier pass under his discipline and institution , made the passage as short , and the difference as little as could be ; for since he would retain but two external ministeries in his whole institution , he took those rites to which the Jews had been accustomed ; onely he made their Baptisms Sacramental and effective of great purposes , and some of the Paschal rites he consecrated into highest mystery ; retaining apparent footsteps , or rather bodies of their Government and Discipline Ecclesiastical . And this proceeding we find own'd and justified by S. Austin against Faustus the Manichee , and S. Hierome against Vigilantius , and Ephraim Syrus of old ; and of later times by a Alcuinus , b Amalarius , and by c Gratian ; and who please to see it more largely pleaded for may read Mutius Pansa his Osculum Christianae & Ethnicae philosophiae , and Nicolaus Mont-Georgius de Mosaico jure enucleando : and that it may be reasonable from the services of such men from whom we justly abhorre to borrow some usages , is excellently discours'd of by Mr. Hooker in his fourth Book of Ecclesiastical Polity . But however this might fit the necessities and circumstances of the infant ages of the Church , yet they ought not to be done easily , but ever with very great caution . For though it serv'd a present turn , yet it made Christian Religion less simple and less pure ; but by becoming a miscellany it became worse and worse . It was or might be at the first a complying with the infirmities of the weak , a pursuance of S. Pauls advice so to doe ; but when these weak persons are sufficiently instructed in the Religion , and that to dissent is not infirmity , but peevishness and pride , or wilfulness , all compliance and condescension is no longer charity , but gives confidence to their error . For when the reasonable discourses of the Religion will not satisfy the supposed weak brother , he that complies with him confesses his the better way ; and when learned men follow the ignorant to superstition , they will no longer call it compliance and condescension , but duty , and necessity , and approbation . A good man will goe a little out of his road to reduce the wandring traveller ; but if he will not return , it will be an unreasonable compliance to goe along with him to the end of his wandring . And where there is any such danger ( as in most cases it is ) we have the example of God himself and his Commandement expresly given to the children of Israel , that they should abstain from all communion with the Gentiles their neighbours even in things indifferent ; and that they should destroy the very monuments and rituals , and the very materials of their Religion , lest by such a little compliance they be too farre tempted . And thus also they did sometime in the Primitive Church ; for Tertullian , because the Gentiles us'd in the services of their idols to sit down immediately after they had prayed , would not have the Christians doe so , though the ceremony of it self was wholly indifferent . And when many Christian Churches had taken some Gentile ceremonies into their Christmas solemnity , being occasioned by the Circumcision of Christ falling on the Calends of January , or New-years day , they were not onely forbidden in the Council of Auxerre , but the Church did particularly appoint private Letanies , processions , and austerities to be used for three days within the twelve of Christmas , ad calcandam Gentilium consuetudinem , to destroy and countermine the superstitious customes of the Heathen , which by the compliance and fondness of some Christians had dishonoured the excellency and innocency of the Christmas festivity ; as we finde noted by the Fathers of the Synod of Turi . Sometimes there had been reason to retain these things : but when in the days of Persecution some weak-hearted Christians did shelter themselves under the cover of such symbolical ceremonies , and escap'd the confession of Christianity by doing some things of like custome , or when the folly and levity of Christians by these instruments pass'd on to vanity or superstition , then the Church with care did forbid the retaining of Heathenish customes , which had been innocent but for such accidents . In these things the Church may use her liberty , so that all things be done to edification . 2. But if the customes and rites be such as are founded upon any point of doctrine , whatsoever it be that derives from Pagan customes must also be imputed to their doctrines ; and then to follow their customes , will be also to mingle the Religions , to blend light and darkness , and to joyn Christ with Belial . It had been a material objection which Faustus the Manichee made against the Catholicks , that they did remove the worship from idols , and give it to Saints and Martyrs . S. Austin , who was to answer the Objection , could not justify , but did deny the fact , as to that instance and some few others : for the custome of the Nations in such cases was no argument , but an objection . From these premisses it will appear to be but a weak pretence to say , that if many Nations and Religions agree in such a ceremony , or such an opinion , it will be suppos'd to come from the light of Nature . For there are not many propositions in all which Nature can teach ; and we should know but a very few things , if we did not goe to School to God , to Tutors , to experience , and to necessity . This pretence would not onely establish Purgatory , but the worship of Images , and the multitude of gods , and idololatrical services , and very many superstitions , and trifling observances , and confidences in dreams , and the sacrifice of beasts , and many things more then can well become or combine with Christianity . When not onely some Nations but all agree in a proposition , it is a good corroborative , a good second to our perswasions , but not a principal ; it gives advantage , but not establishment , ornament , but not foundation to a truth : which thing if it had been better observed by the Christians who from the Schools of Plato , Chrysippus , Aristotle and Epicurus came into the Schools of Christ , or from the Temples of Jupiter and Apollo into the services of the Church , Christianity had been more pure and unmingled then at this day we finde it . The ceremony of sprinkling Holy-water was a Heathenish rite , us'd in the sanctifications and lustrations of the Capitol , as Alexander ab Alexandro relates : but because this is not a ceremony of order or circumstance , but pretends to some real effect , and derives not from Christ or his Apostles , but from the Gentiles , and relies upon the doctrine of the effect of such ceremonies , it is not justifiable . Burning candles by dead bodies was innocent and useful to them that attended in the Vigils before interrement ; but when they took this from the custome of the Heathens , who thought those lights useful to the departed souls , they gave a demonstration by the event of things that they did not doe well : for the Christians also deriv'd a superstitious opinion along with the ceremony , and began to think that those lights did entertain the souls in those cemeteries ; and this produc'd the decree of the Council of Eliberis , that wax candles should not be burnt in the day time , lest the spirits of the dead be disturb'd . Now when any false principle is in the entry of the ceremony , or attends upon it , or any superstition be in the progress or in the end of it , any scandal , or any danger , such customes are not at all to be followed , such rituals are not to be imitated or transcribed : that is , No Custome is a warranty for any evil . RULE XX. The measure of perfection and obedience expected of Christians , is greater then that of the Jews , even in moral duties common to them and us . IT matters not whether Christs law have in it more precepts then were in the law of Moses : our work is set before us , and we are not concerned how much they had to doe ; and in most of the instances which are , or are said to be new Commandements , it may also be said of them as it was by the Apostle concerning Charity , This is a new Commandement , and this is an old Commandement ; there being , at least in most instances , an obligation upon them to doe what was of it self good and perfective of humane nature , and an imitation of the Eternal law of God , a conformity to the Divine perfections . This is true as to the material part : but then because that which was an old Commandement is also made a new Commandement , and established upon better promises , and endeared by new instances of an infinite love , and we our selves are enabled by many more excellent Graces , and the promise of the Holy Spirit is made to all that ask him ; it is infinitely reasonable to think , that because this new Commandement superadds nothing new in the matter , it must introduce something new at least in the manner , or measure of our obedience . They and we are both of us to pray ; but we are commanded to pray fervently , frequently , continually . They were to be charitable , and so are we : but they were tied to be so to their friends and to their neighbours , but we to our enemies ; and though in some instances they were tied to be so , yet we are bound in more ; more men are our Neighbours , and more are our Brethren , and more is our duty . They were to doe them no hurt ; but we must doe them good . They were to forgive upon submission and repentance ; but we must invite them to repentance , and we must offer pardon . They were to give bread to their needy Brother ; but we are in some cases to give him our lives . They were to love God with all their Souls , and with all their strength : and though we cannot doe more then this , yet we can doe more then they did ; for our strengths are more , our understandings are better instructed , our shield is stronger , and our breast-plate broader , and our armour of righteousness is of more proof then theirs was . Dares and Entellus did both contend with all their strength ; but because Entellus had much more then the other , he was the better champion . 1. This Rule does principally concern Christian Churches and Communities of men ; that their lawes be more holy , that the condition of the Subjects be more tolerable , that warres be not so easily commenc'd , that they be with more gentleness acted , that the lawes of Christ be inforc'd , that malefactors be not permitted , that vice be more discouraged , that nothing dishonourable to Religion be permitted , that the Kingdome of Christ in all capacities be advanced , that his Ministers be honour'd and maintain'd according to the excellency of the present Ministery and the relation to Christs Priesthood , that the publick and honorary Monuments of it be preserv'd , and vertue properly encouraged , and great publick care taken for the advantageous Ministery of Souls , which are the proper purchase of our Redeemer , that in all things Christ may be honour'd by us more then Moses was by them , and that God through Jesus Christ be more glorified then he was in the Levitical government . 2. This also concerns single persons ; that they certainly abstain from all those imperfections of duty which were either permitted in the Law , or introduc'd by the commentaries of their Doctors , or inferr'd by the general declination of their first piety , and the corruption of manners . The Jewes would not take usury of a needy Jew , but of a needy stranger they would : but we must consider them with a more equal eye ; we must be charitable to all ; for to a Christian no man that needs and asks him is a stranger , The Jewes had great liberty of divorces indulg'd to them ; a Christian hath not the same : but in that in which he is permitted , he is not to be too forward . 3. In matters of duty a Christian is to expound his obligation to the advantage of piety , to security of obedience , to the ease of his Brother , and the pressing upon himself ; that whatever be the event of his temporal affairs , he secure his Spiritual interest , and secure justice though to the loss of his money , and in all doubts determine for duty rather then for interest : the Jewes went not beyond the letter of the Commandement . 4. In the interior acts of vertue a Christian is to be more zealous , forward , operative and busy , frequent and fervent ; he must converse with God by a more renewed entercourse , give himself no limits , alwaies striving to goe forward , designing to himself no measure but infinite in the imitation of the perfections of God , and the excellencies of his most Holy Son. 5. In the exteriour acts of vertue Christians must according to their proportion be asham'd to be outdone by Jewes , not onely in what they did in obedience , but also in what they in good and prudent zeal for the law of Moses did expend or act . I say , what they did act in good and prudent zeal for their Law. Thus they adorn'd their Temple , freely gave contributions for it's support and ornament , lov'd all of their perswasion , endeavour'd to get proselytes ; and therefore are in these things not onely to be imitated , but to be outdone , because all this was a prudent and zealous prosecution of their duty . But when in zeal they did not onely love their own Sect , but hate and persecute and were uncivil to all of another perswasion , this was Zeal indeed ; but it was folly too and a work of the flesh , and therefore not to be imitated by Christians who are the servants of the Spirit . 6. Where Christians are left to their liberty in those instances in which the Jewes were bound , Christians ought freely to doe as much as they did by constraint and by necessity : for then properly we doe more then they , when we voluntarily chuse what was impos'd on them : it is not more work , but it is more love . Thus the Jewes were bound to pay tiths to the Levites ; we are commanded to maintain them honourably : but because tiths is not in the Commandement to us , we ought to supply the want of a Command by the abundance of love , and in this there is no abatement to be made but by what did concern the nation in some special relation , necessity or propriety . God was pleas'd to make the more ample provision for the tribe of Levi , because they had no inheritance amongst their brethren ; they had no portion in the division of the land . Now because the Christian Clergy have a capacity of lands and other provisions , there is not all the same reason in the quantity of their appartiment as was in the assignation of the Levitical portion . Now when any such thing can intervene and enter into consideration , it must be allowed for in the proportions of increase which are demanded of the Christian. The Jewes gave great contribution to the Temple ; but it was but one , and therefore it is not to be expected that every Christian Church in such a multitude should be adorn'd and rich like the Temple of Jerusalem . 7. Where Jewes and Christians are equally left to their liberty , it is infinitely reasonable & agreeable to the excellency of the Religion , that Christians should exceed the Jewes . Thus we find that at the erecting of the Tabernacle the Jewes brought silver and gold and other materials till they had too much , and the people were commanded to cease and bring no more . Now when an occasion as great in it self and more proportionable to the religion calls upon us for an offering and voluntary contribution , if the instance be in a matter as proportionable to the Gospel as that was to the law of Moses , the excellency of the religion and the dignity of the work and the degree of our grace and love require of us to be more ready and more liberal in equal proportions . 8. In those graces which are proper to the Gospel , that is , such which are the peculiar of Christians , literally and plainly exacted of us , and but obscurely insinuated , or collaterally and by the consequence of something else required of them , it cannot be but that the obedience which we owe should be more ready , the actions more frequent , the degrees more intense ; because every advantage in the Commandement hath no other end but to be an advance of our duty ; and what was obscurely commanded can be but dully paid ; while the Christians duty must be brisk and potent and voluntary and early and forward and intense , in proportion to greater mercies receiv'd , to a better law , to a more determin'd conscience to a clearer revelation , to more terrible threatnings , and to the better promises of the Gospel : all which are so many conjugations of aide , and instances of a mighty grace . And therefore Christians are to be more humble , more patient , more charitable , more bountiful , greater despisers of the world , greater Lords over all their passions , then the Jewes were oblig'd to be by the consequences of their law . 9. When this comes to be reduc'd to practice in any particular inquiry of Conscience , every Christian is not to measure his actions by proportion to the best , and the rare persons under the Mosaick law , in their best and heroick actions . For who can doe more then David did after he had procured the waters of Bethlehem to cool his intolerable thirst , but to deny his appetite , and refuse to drink the price of blood ? who can doe more then he did and would have done toward the building of the Temple ? who can give better testimony of duty to his Prince then he did to Saul ? who can with more valour and confidence fight the battels of the Lord ? who can with more care provide for the service of God , and the beauty and orderly ministeries of the Tabernacle ? who can with more devotion compose and sing hymnes to the honour of God ? In these and such as these David was exemplary ; and so was Moses for meekness , and Job for patience , and Manasses for repentance , and Abraham for faith , and Jacob for simplicity and ingenuity , and Enoch for devotion : these in their several periods before and under the Law were the great lights of their Ages , and set in eminent places to invite , forward the remiss piety of others , alluring them by the beauty of their flames to walk in their light and by their example . And it is well if Christians would doe as well as these rare personages in their several instances . But as some women are wiser then some men ; and yet men are the more understanding Sex , and have the prerogative of reason and of government : so though some persons of the old religions were better then many of the new ( of the religion of Jesus Christ ) yet the advantage and the increase must be in the Christian Church , which must produce some persons as exemplary in many graces as any of these hath been in any one . 10. But then as to single persons ; 1. Every man must observe those increases of duty which our Blessed Saviour either by way of new Sanction , or new interpretation , superadded to the old , in the Sermon upon the Mount. 2. Every man must doe in proportion to all the aides of the Spirit which the Gospel ministers , all that he can doe : which proportion if he observes , it will of it self amount to more then the usual rate of Moses law , because he hath more aides . 3. He must be infinitely remov'd from those sins to which they were propense , and which made God to remove them out of his sight ; such as were idolatry , the admitting of strange Gods , infidelity , obstinacy , hypocrisy , and sensual low appetites : because these were the crimes of an ignorant uninstructed people in respect of what the Christian is ; and for a Christian to be an idolater , or easily divorc'd , or incredulous , as they were , is therefore the more intolerable , because it is almost remov'd from his possibilities ; he can scarce be tempted to such things who knowes any thing of the doctrine of the Gospel . 4. There is no other positive measures of his duty , but that which can have no measure it self , and that is love ; and a Christian must therefore exceed the righteousness of the Subjects of Moses law , because they must doe all their works in faith and love : in faith , to make them accepted , though they be imperfect ; in love , to make them as perfect as they can be . Now he that loves will think every thing too little ; and he that thinks so will endeavour to doe more , and to doe it better : and Christians that have greater experience of God , and understand the nature of Charity , and doe all of them explicitely and articulately long after the glories of an Eternal love , and know that all increase of grace is a proceeding towards glory , need no other argument to inforce the duty , and no other measure to describe the duty of this Rule , but to reflect upon the state of his religion , the Commandements , the endearments , the aids , the example , the means : all which are well summ'd up by S. John , Beloved , we are the sons of God , and it does not yet appear what we shall be ; but we know that when he shall appear , we shall be like him ; for we shall see him as he is : And every man that hath this hope , purifieth himself as God is pure . That is , we are for the present children of God by adoption , seal'd with his Spirit , renewed by regeneration , justified by his grace , and invited forward by most glorious promises , greater then we can understand . Now he that considers this state of things , and hopes for that state of blessings , will proceed in duty and love toward the perfections of God , never giving over till he partake of the purities of God and his utmost glories . I adde no more but this , That in the measures of the practice of this Rule there is no difficulty , but what is made by the careless lives of Christians and their lazy and unholy principles . At the rate as Christians usually doe live , it is hard to know how and in what instances and in what degrees our obedience ought to be more humble and more diligent then that of Moses disciples . But they that love , will doe the thing , and so understand the Rule . Obedite , & intelligetis , Obey , and ye shall understand . Concerning the interpretation of the Laws of the most Holy Jesus , I know of no other material consideration here to be inserted . Onely there are several pretences of exterior and accidental means of understanding the Laws of Christ , which because they are deriv'd from the authority or from the discourses of men , they are more properly to be considered in the Rules concerning Humane Laws , which is the subject of the next Book , where the Reader may expect them . The end of the Second Book . DVCTOR DVBITANTIVM , OR The Rule of Conscience In all her generall measures ; Serving as a great Instrument for the determination of CASES of CONSCIENCE . The Second Volume , By JEREMY TAYLOR , D. D. Romans 13. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ecce agnus Dei gui tollit peccata Mundi LONDON , printed for R Roiston at the Angell in Iuy Iane. 1660. OF HUMANE LAWS , THEIR OBLIGATION , AND RELAXATION : AND OF The collateral , indirect , and accidental Bands of CONSCIENCE . The Third BOOK . LONDON ; Printed by J. Flesher for R. Royston . 1660. CHAP. I. Of Humane Laws in general ; and what Obligation they pass upon the Conscience . RULE I. The Conscience is properly and directly , actively and passively , under pains of sin and punishment , obliged to obey the Laws of men . THAT the Laws of God and Man are the great measures of right & wrong , of good and evil , of that which is to be followed and what is to be avoided in manners of men , and the entercourses of societies , is infinitely certain and universally confess'd . Since therefore Humane Laws are one moiety of the Rule and measure of Conscience , and that we are bound to obey our lawful Superiours in what they command , it is naturally consequent to this , that we acknowledge the conscience boun● , and that in Humane Laws as well as in Divine , though according to their several proportions , the conscience ought to be instructed . And indeed there is more need of Preachers in the matter of Divine Laws , and more need of wise and prudent Guides in the matter of Humane Laws . For the Laws of God are wiser and plainer , few and lasting , general and natural , perceiv'd by necessity , and understood by the easiest notices of things ; and therefore men have more need to be call'd upon to obey , then taught how ; and therefore here the Preachers office is most necessary and most requir'd . But Humane Laws are sometime intricate by weakness , sometimes by design , sometimes by an unavoidable necessity ; they are contingent , and remov'd farre from the experiences of most men ; they are many and particular , difficult and transient , various in their provisions , and alterable by many parts and many ways : and yet because the conscience is all the way oblig'd , she hath greater need of being conducted then in the other , where every wise man can better be a guide in the little intrigues , and every child can walk in the plain way . But our first inquiry is , Whether the conscience be oblig'd or no. For if Conscience be not , then nothing is concerned but Prudence , and care that a man be safe from the rods and axes : but then the world would quickly find that fear would be but a weak defence to her Laws ; which force , or wit , or custome , or riches would so much enervate , or so often evacuate . And therefore the greatest Case of Conscience in this whole matter is , Whether it be a matter of Conscience as well as of Prudence and security to obey the Laws of Man. And this question is so dubious and unresolv'd , that Cajetan and Henricus de Gandavs did suppose it fit to be determin'd by the Pope in Cathedra , as thinking it otherwise to be indeterminable . The reasons of doubting are these ; 1. Because God onely is Lord of Consciences , he onely can discern the secret that is there , and he onely can punish there ; and therefore to suppose any band upon conscience from Humane Laws , would be to devest God of his royalty : none but he who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the searcher of the heart and mind of man can give laws to it ; for none else can take cognisance , or give a compulsory . 2. The Conscience is seated in the understanding ( as I have already prov'd , ) but that is an imperious faculty that acknowledges no superiour but God ; because he onely being infallible , he onely can instruct and inform it rightly , none else can have power over it . For the understanding hath a proper way of being rul'd . The will is rul'd by Empire , but the understanding by doctrine ; that is govern'd by command , this by argument ; the will by power , the understanding by truth : now because God onely is truth , and every man a liar , God onely can rule the understanding , which is the Court of Conscience . 3. To submit the conscience to any law or power of man , is to betray our Christian liberty : For Christ having set us free from all the bondage even of that Law which God himself made and gave to Moses , he having alleviated the burden of rites and ceremonies , and left the Jews at liberty to be governed as they pleas'd themselves , would not take off the laws of God to impose upon us the laws of Men ; and there is no such thing as Christian liberty but a freedome from the law of Moses , and the law of carnal ordinances , and the laws of men ; for that which the Preachers speak of , a liberty from sin , and from hell , and the grave , 1. This is rather a deliverance then a liberty , a rescue from an evil of another nature , not a state of freedome and ease . 2. As many men have order'd their Theology , we are so farre from having a liberty from sin , that they have left us nothing else but a liberty to sin : and indeed we have no liberty or freedome from sin as long as we are alive , but we are always in warre and contention , which is worse then death ; and so many men are always captive under sin , and all men doe so often obey it , ( and his servants we are to whom we doe obey ) that we have little reason to boast of Christian liberty in that sense . 3. S. Paul using the word liberty , and speaking of the advantages of Christians in this , instances it onely in being freed from those ordinances of Moses , and the impositions which some Philosophers or some sects of men would bring upon the conscience . 4. Liberty from sin , or Christian liberty in this sense is nothing but a tropical expression , a metaphor and similitude , and therefore is not that real priviledge by which we were materially advantag'd upon the publication of the Gospel of Christ. The result of which considerations is , That all Christians are free men , servants of Christ , and of none else , it being an express Commandement , and that strengthned with a reason , Ye are bought with a price , be ye not the servants of men ; which at least must be understood of Conscience , and the mind of men . 4. For granting it to be lawful for men to make Laws , yet that these Laws cannot bind the conscience it appears plainly in this ; that whatever Laws of the Church are made concerning any rite or ceremony , let it be never so necessary or fitting that they be obeyed , yet the things doe not become intrinsecally necessary , and therefore are not to be thought so , lest , expresly against the Commandement of our Blessed Saviour , we teach for doctrines the commandements of men . To keep Holidays may be very good , so that we observe them to the Lord ; but he that thinks it necessary and a direct duty , wrongs his own conscience : which demonstrates that Conscience is free when every thing else is bound . You may fast when you are commanded by your Superiour , but you must not think that fasting is a part of the Divine Service ; that is , though man commands fasting , yet God does not : and then if man of himself does binde the conscience , he hath a power equal to God , and can make Divine Commandements : but if man cannot doe so , then the conscience is free , and not tied by humane Laws . 5. If humane Laws doe binde the conscience , then it is put into the power of man to save or damne his brother ; not directly , but upon the consequence of his obedience or disobedience , which is all that is done by the Laws of God ; and men shall have power to make more ways to the Devil , to make the strait way to heaven yet straiter , and the way to hell , which is already broad enough , yet wider and more receptive of miserable and perishing souls . 6. Christ is the Author and finisher of our faith , and so of every grace : that is , he onely can give it , and he onely can take it away . Since therefore that which makes a sin , destroys the grace , no humane authority can make an action to be a sin ; because no humane power can dispose of grace or take it away . 7. In the instance of civil power and civil Laws the case is more certain , for this reason ; because the civil power cannot remit sins , therefore neither can they bind to sin : and from hence it will follow , that supposing Ecclesiastical Laws doe bind the conscience , yet the civil cannot . But then as for the Ecclesiastical power and Laws , they also are as invalid upon another account , because the Church having no external compulsory , can onely bind in those things where God hath already bound ; and therefore can make no Laws of her own , but what are already made by a higher power , and consequently cannot bind to sin , but there where the conscience is already bound by God. And if the Church should inflict her censures for any thing that were not of it self a sin against God , as for not paying the fees of the Spiritual Court , for a poor mans working for his living upon a Holiday , the world would cry out of her ; which shews , that where God hath not bound the conscience , neither the Ecclesiastical nor the civil power can . 8. If humane Laws doe directly bind the conscience , then it is as great a sin to transgress a law of man , as to break a law of God ; with our bare foot to touch the ground within the Octaves of Easter , as to call our brother fool ; to eat flesh on Friday as great as to commit fornication : which consequent because it is intolerable , so also is the opinion that inferres it . The conclusion is , In Christ Jesus there is neither high nor low ; that is , Christian Religion hath no hand in this Heraldry of Secundum , sub , & supra ; but whatsoever difference of person , of order , and of Government is amongst us , is by agreement : it is , as S. Peter calls it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the ordinance of man ; and for mans sake it is to be obeyed : but the conscience is still at liberty where onely the commandement of man does intervene . This opinion is taught by Fernandus Vasquius a Spaniard , and he affirms that all the Gentlemen and common people of Spain ( the Scholars onely excepted ) are of this opinion : it was also taught by some of the Scholars of Calvin , and some Lutherans , by all the Anabaptists of Germany of late ; and that upon the strength of the first , the third and fourth argument ; and formerly by Jacobus Almain , and John Gerson , by Felinus , Cajetan , and Navarre , but they mean onely the civil Laws of Princes , upon the confidence of the sixth and something of the seventh argument ; all which I have thrust forward as farre as the nature of the question would bear , and added some more : which I have done , not that these arguments ought to prevail , but that by the examination of them this great question may have right done it , by being rightly stated , and fully cleared . First therefore to the main inquiry ; it is certain as an article of faith , as necessary as any other rule of manners , that every Subject is bound to obey the just Laws of his lawful Superiour , not onely under fear of punishment from man , but under pain of the Divine displeasure . 1. Because the power by which men make Laws is the power of God : By me Kings reign , and the Law-givers decree justice , says the Wisdome of God ; that is , the Son of God , the Wisdome of the Father , to whom he hath given all power in heaven and earth , he it is by whom , that is , by whose power and wisdome , Kings reign . For this is the wisdome , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which God possessed from the beginning . The Lxx reads it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , creavit , which God created from the beginning ; and this word the Arrians make use of to their evil purposes , but very weakly and against the faith of the original , where it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kanan possedit . This eternal Son of God , and the Wisdome of the Father , the King of Kings and the Lord of lords , is the original of all humane power , and this is nothing but a derivative from him . For power is given you of the Lord , and Soveraignty from the Highest ; and ye are ministers of his Kingdome . And S. Paul expresly and dogmatically affirms , There is no power but from God : the powers that be , are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power , resisteth the ordinance of God. So that the Legislative or supreme power is not the servant of the people , but the Minister , the Trustee and Representative of God. 2. The power of the Sword is onely from God ; for since no man is Lord of his own life , no man hath power to kill himself , neither hath he power to warrant any man else to doe it ; for what he may not doe himself , he cannot commission and impower any one else to doe . Vindicta mea , saith God , Vengeance is mine , I will repay : and it is Gods sword with which the Magistrate strikes ; and therefore Kings and Potentates are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Gods deputies and ministring officials , in his name to be the avengers of his wrath : and as Christ said to Pilate , Thou couldest have no power unless it were given thee from above , may be said to all just humanes Powers , It is given them from above , not from beneath , from God , not from the people . The consequent of which is this , If it be God that strikes and pays vengeance by the hand of the Magistrate , then it is God who is offended when the law of the Magistrate is violated ; for whoever strikes is the party injured ; and the Magistrate being Gods Minister , as he is the less principal in the justice done , so also in the injustice suffered . Dixit Deus quia Dii estis , It is God who hath said to the Magistrates that they are Gods ; that is , in the place of God : by his authority they strike , and he is the injured person : and therefore he who is so smitten by the sword of God , is a sinner against God , for he punishes none else . Patet culpa , ubi non latet poena . If God punishes , it is certain man hath sinn'd , said S. a Austin , and S. b Prosper . The one is the indication of the other . But the thing is expresly affirmed by the Scripture ; for having dogmatically and fully signified that all humane just power is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they being the several expressions of Solomon according to the Lxx , and of S. Paul in his own words , it is not content to leave us to find out the consequence of these , but literally affirms the main articles . So S. Peter , Be ye subject to every ordinance of man , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the Lords sake ; which S. Paul speaks yet more explicitely , Wherefore it is necessary that ye be subject , not onely for wrath , but also for conscience sake . Sicut Christo , as to Christ , so be obedient to your Masters , or temporal Lords ; so the same Apostle : that is , by the same necessity , for the same reason , to avoid the same punishment , to have the same reward , and by the force of the same Religion , and that you may not prevaricate the laws of God , or doe violence to your conscience . Nothing can adde light to these so clear words , they are bright as the Sun , certain as an article of faith , clear , easy and intelligible , according to the nature of universal Divine Commandements . S. c Chrysostom and c Theodoret urging these precepts , say , that we are not to obey out of courtesie , but of duty ; not out of liberality , but necessity ; that is , according to S. c Ambrose and S. Austin , the fearful pains of hell and eternal damnation attend them that disobey . d And this whole matter is infinitely demonstrated in this one consideration : The Laws of man doe so certainly bind the conscience , that they have a power of limiting and declaring , and making the particulars to become the Laws of God. For though the Divine Law forbids murder , yet the Law of man declares concerning the particular , that it is , or it is not murder , and by such declaration , by such leave or prohibition respectively makes it so . In Spain if a wronged husband or father kill the deprehended adulteress , it is no murder ; in England it is . For in Spain the husband or father is permitted to be Executioner , where notoreity is declared to be sufficient conviction : here they are not trusted with it ; and the Judge and the Executioner are persons vastly remov'd . If a Law e forbids me to take my own goods from a Thief , it is theft to doe it , but it is no theft if the Law permits f . It is incest for the Uncle to marry with his Niece : it is so where the Laws have made it so , but it is not so of it self , for it was not so always . Since therefore humane Laws can constitute an action in the habitude of a Divine Law , it is beyond all question , it does oblige the conscience . 2. This obligation is pass'd upon the conscience , and there is this necessity of obeying : not onely in case humane Laws be first given by God in thesi , or in hypothesi , that is , in words or in sense , in direct affirmation or just consequence , in substance or in analogy ; but though the matter of the Law be in its own nature wholly indifferent before the sanction and constitution . The first conclusion I intended against the Anabaptist , and this second against Gerson , Almain , and the dissenting Sectaries : and of the truth of it we have an instance in the person of S. Paul , who by his Apostolical authority gave an injunction which hath ever since been an Ecclesiastical Canon ; and yet he alone and not the Lord gave the word , That a believing wife or husband should not depart from their unbelieving correlative , if he or she respectively desir'd to stay . It was a matter in which Christ had not at all interpos'd , but S. Paul made it a law to the Christian Churches ; and whoever shall prevaricate it shall bear his burden . And indeed it were a vain thing to suppose that all humane Laws were derived from the law of Nature , or the Divine positive ; or that those which were not so derived could not be good and reasonable , and that the authority binding them were incompetent . For whatsoever is derived from the law of God cannot by men admit variety , nor suffer diminution , or goe into desuetude , or be extinguish'd by abrogation : and then it would follow that no King could command any thing but what was necessary before he commanded it ; and nothing could be a law to the Persians , but what also did oblige the Greeks ; and nothing could bind in the 125 Olympiad , but what was decreed before the days of Semiramis ; and there were no law but those of the Medes and Persians ; and there could be no provisions made for new necessities , and the Government of Commonwealths could never be improved by experience , and all Law-givers were as wise at first as ever they could be . All which are such foolish consequences , that it must be granted , that whatever humane Power can justly ordain , or prudently , or necessarily , or probably , all that is bound upon the conscience of the Subject certainly and to all events as the Laws of God himself . And therefore Plato said well , That before the Law is made , men may judge of it , but after the sanction , not at all : that is , it is so indifferent in its nature , that it is fit to be considered and disputed ; but when it is made a Law , there remains nothing but a necessary obedience . And to the same purpose Aristotle largely discourses ; for when he had divided the civil Law , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the natural and the constituted , he says , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The Law that is not natural , but decreed by man , in the beginning it matters not whether it be made or no ; but after it is made , it is a great matter whether it be kept or no. But this whole affair is put beyond all scruple by the words of the Apostle , Obey your Masters , not onely the good and gentle , but the morose and harsh ; that is , not onely if what he commands be in it self good and fitting , but if it be troublesome , and uneasy , and unnecessary ; any thing , so it be not unlawful : for every thing that God hath not forbidden , can be bound upon conscience by a lawful Superiour . Either therefore all humane Laws are nothing else but commentaries on Scripture or the natural Law , or else are wholly unnecessary , as being nothing but repetitions of the Divine laws : and there can be no new law made ; or if there can , it must bind the conscience : for all other things bind the conscience by themselves , and without humane constitution . If therefore any humane constitution , as such , can bind the conscience , it must be of such instances which either are derivatives from the law of Nature , or of things which before the law did not bind at all , that is , of things which in their own nature are indifferent . 3. That humane Laws bind the conscience does not depend upon the intention of the law-giver ; for when the arrow is shot out of the bow , it will hit or miss by its own force and order , not by the intention of the Archer : and no law-giver can make a law with a purpose not to oblige the conscience . In the reign of Queen Elizabeth this question was much talk'd of , and little understood ; and some discontented Recusants under the Government of the Church of England had so talk'd the lawes themselves out of countenance , that the legislative power durst scarce own the proper obligation of an Ecclesiastical , or of a law relating to any thing of religion ; insomuch that when the wisdome of the state thought fit to confirm the ancient lawes of Ecclesiastical fasts , they superadded this proviso , That if any one should affirm that these lawes were intended to bind the Conscience , he should be punish'd like the spreaders of false newes : and the jejunium Cecilianum , the Wednesday fast , was made without such obligation . Now this is plainly to them that understand it , a direct artifice to evacuate the whole law : for a law that is made without intention to bind the conscience is no law at all ; for besides that it is a plain giving leave to any man to break it that can doe it without observation , or can bribe the officers , or is bigger then the informers , or not easy to be punish'd , or that dwels alone , or that is himself a Minister of the law , besides this , I say , it is directly no law at all . For all humane power being deriv'd from God , and bound upon our consciences by his power , not by man , he that saies it shall not bind the Conscience , saies it shall be no law , it shall have no authority from God ; and then it hath none at all : and if it be not tied upon the Conscience , then to break it is no sin , and then to keep it is no duty : so that a law without such an intention is a contradiction ; it is a law which binds onely if we please , and we may obey when we have a mind to it ; and to so much we were tied before the constitution . ** But then if by such a declaration it was meant that to keep such fasting-daies was no part of a direct Commandement of God , that is , God had not requir'd them by himself immediately , and so it was ( abstracting from that law ) no duty Evangelical , it had been below the wisdome of the contrivers of it ; for no man pretends it , no man saies it , no man thinks it : and they might as well have declar'd that that law was none of the ten Commandements . 4. Though Humane lawes doe not bind the Conscience by the intention of the law-giver , but by the command of God , yet God does bind the law upon the Conscience according to the intention of the power that decrees it . For though a Father cannot command his Son to doe a lawful and fitting service , and by his intention make that the disobedient Son shall not sin against God , because he cannot make disobedience to be no sin ▪ yet by intending less obligation in the law , he makes the crime imputable in a less degree ; that is , the authority is the less despis'd , there is less evil consequent , the mischief is small , the inconvenience little . * And therefore the Doctors of the Canon law doe to very little purpose trouble this question with inquiries after signs , when the intention of the Law-giver is to bind to Mortal , when to Venial sins . For besides that the distinction it self is trifling according to their understanding of it ( of which I have given a large account in a Discourse on purpose ) and besides that the commands of Heathen Parents , and Masters , and Princes who knew nothing of that distinction ( if it had been right ) did nevertheless bind their Subjects to obedience under pain of sin ; besides these , I say , the law-giver does not at all make it a sin , or no sin : he onely intends it should be kept , and to that purpose binds it with penalties , and consequently and indirectly binds the Conscience : but God binds the Conscience properly and directly ; for the law is Divine in respect of the power and authority , but Humane in respect of the matter and the instance : and that is the meaning of these words put into the Rule . The conscience of man is by Gods law properly and directly bound to obey the lawes of Men ; not indirectly and by the consequence of some other duty , but by a Commandement and the purposed solemn declaration of his will in this affair . But this I shall more fully explicate in my answer to the opposite arguments . Now because although the law-givers intention does not directly make the disobedience to be sin or no sin , yet because indirectly it hath influence upon the action and the conscience of the subject , it is useful that I set down the Rules and Measures of the difference ; and how we may guess ( for it can be no more ) at the distinct obligations which from the diversities of humane lawes are passed upon the Conscience . Rules of distinction , or the measures by which we shall prudently conjecture at the gravity or lessening of the sin of disobedience to Humane Lawes . 1. He that breaks a law which is established upon great penalties , commits a great sin . Because it is regularly to be presumed that the supreme power puts much upon it , when he is so earnest for its observation . Rem quae culpâ caret , in damnum vocari non convenit , saith the Law , Cap. 2. de constit . If there be no fault there ought to be no punishment ; they are relatives , and correspond also in their very degree . Quis dubitaverit hoc esse sceleratius commissum quod est gravius vindicatum ? saith S. Austin , If the punishment was more grievous , the wickedness also was the more intolerable : ut juxta mensuram delicti sit & plagarum modus : that 's the measure of punitive justice , that the number of the stripes be according to the measure of the iniquity . And concerning those things where there is any doubt , the Subject is not to judge whether the law be very necessary or no ; but to judge concerning the intention and mind of the Superior , and whether he thinks it very necessary : For he knowes best , and by his knowledg and his authority is the most competent Judge . This Rule hath no exception , unless it be evident that the punishment is impos'd for terror , and to affright men from doing that for which it is not very fit they should be severely punish'd : as if a Prince should under pain of death forbid the hunting of a hare ; the greatness of the punishment neither makes nor declares the fact more criminal then it is in its own nature under a law that forbids it under a smaller punishment . But if the case be doubtful , whether the law be of great purposes and design , the greatness of the punishment in a prudent and temperate government is the best exterior indication . But if the punishment be light & trifling , the offence is so too ; for the legislative power can put no more weight upon it then it declares by punishment , but so much it does : and the Rule of Alfonsus à Castro is very useful here and in some other articles , Humana lex non magis gravat conscientias quam corpora . For Gods Law adding energy and Sanction to the constitutions of man , binds so far as the Prince or as the Prelate binds : and this is fully signified in the words and commission of Christ to his Church , Whatsoever ye shall bind on Earth , shall be bound in Heaven ; for there our Blessed Lord constituting a Government in his Church , as already there was in the world , though of another nature , and by compulsories external , and a proper jurisdiction ( from which the Spiritual differs , as I shall explicate in the fourth chapter of this book ) did promise to doe to them as to the Princes of the World ; that is , verify their ministery of Lawes and Judgments . He indeed appointed other manners of coercion , and a distinct administration ; but the power of giving lawes and judgments he gave then ; and he gave it as firmly as to the greatest Kings : that is , as he commands Subjects to obey their Princes , so also to obey their Spiritual Superiors ; as he will punish the rebellious and disobedient to Kings , so the disobedient to Bishops , and to Apostolical Prelates ; that is , according as every Superior can and intends to bind by his temporal or spiritual penalty , God will verify it and condemn the same person with an eternal . Since therefore Gods verification of humane lawes and judgments is after the Sanction and for it wholly , it must also be according to it . He that binds what man binds , binds so much and no more ; as therefore man intends the obligation , so God obliges the Conscience . 2. If the matter of humane lawes be great in it self , to prevaricate those lawes gives a proportion of greatness to the crime . 1. But this seldome happens but when a Divine law is complicated with the Civil ; such as the prohibition of publick stewes , the lawes for keeping daies of religion , the Lords day , Christmas , Ascension , and the Incarnation , the preserving the persons of them who minister to Religion sacred , the immunity and intemeration of Holy things as well as holy persons , the matters of Sacrilege , Simony , keeping of vowes , together with all specifications and humane instances of Divine Commandements , as that Children should not marry without their Parents consent , that marriages should not be co●summate before they be published . 2. To these also are to be added such lawes which in their own nature contribute much to the publick security or advantage : as that men should not in a City fire their own houses , nor cut the damme of the Sea upon their own ground , that they should not in times of peace fire a Beacon , nor tell false and disheartning news to an army ready to joyn battel , nor make false Musters when the Enemy is near . 3. Though the matter of the lawes be in it self light and trifling , yet if by reason of some present appendages , and visible or probable consequences it be great , the conscience is tied to obedience under a great crime . For a single souldier to fly from a battel is of it self no great matter , were it not for the evil example ; but because it may affright the next man and that may scare the rank , and the rank may disorder the company , and so proceed to an intolerable mischief , therefore the sin is great by the proportion to the evil it is likely and apt to produce . To carry corn abroad is no great matter of it self ; but when the price is great and the plenty is little , the mischief it does by accident is the measure of the sin . 2. * Of the same consideration it is , when an action of it self light and impertinent is made the matter of a great scandal . To kneel or to stand at the Holy Communion hath been severally used in divers Churches Ancient and Modern ; but when a law is made that we shall kneel , and if I doe not kneel he that observes will think I doe no reverence to Christs body and blood , and by my example will learn to despise it , the Conscience is burden'd with the sin of irreverence something , but very greatly with the sin of scandal . 3. When the thing of it self is indifferent , and yet the Custome of it is pass'd into superstition , or causes horror , or some notorious evil effect , the lawes that prohibit any such thing doe bind the conscience to obey under the pain of being guilty of the great evil that is introduc'd by it . To light up candles by dead bodies is as harmless as any thing ; but if it be prohibited for the avoiding of superstition to which it ministers in some weak persons , the disobedience hath its value not according to the action , but the evil intention to which it is suppos'd to contribute . Thus we find a title in the Canon law , de cadaveribus non exenterandis & in frusta concidendis ut ad alia loca transferantur : and it is forbidden under the pain of the greater excommunication , that bodies should be imbalmed , that is , unbowell'd and cut in pieces to be carried to other places of Sepulture remote from where they died . The thing in it self was innocent and warranted by the practice of whole nations , and had countenance from the examples of Jacob and Joseph ; but it did light into the observation of people that thought it cruel , unnatural and inhumane , and there that opinion , not the nature of the action , gave the weight and value to the disobedience . 4. When an action in it self indifferent is by the law expounded to signify a sin , though in it self it doe not , nor in the heart of him that does it , the disobedience to that law is an act of that sin , or at least of a scandal relative to it . Thus if a civil law , were made to forbid women to goe in mens cloths , as presuming them that did so were incontinent and wanton , she that disobeyed that law was really to be judged wanton , because she would doe that which the law so expounded ; and her crime was great , not according to the thing it self , but to the sense of the law ; she despises her own reputation , does that thing which the law , by which the best judgments are made , judges to be incontinence , and therefore she is justly to be condemned as an incontinent : and upon this account there was a law made ; and it is recited cap. si qua mulier , dist . 30. where women under pain of anathema are forbidden to appear in a mans habit ; where the gloss addes , scil . ob malum finem , if it be for an evil end , it is a sin proportionate to that evil end : and therefore when the law declares beforehand , that it shall be judged to be a Ministery to that evil end , the action is that sin which is so adjudged , & the conscience bound accordingly . But this caution hath one limitation , viz. though the law expounds such an action to be incontinence , and therefore ordinarily it is to be judged ; yet if it really be not so , but be done upon some great necessity or for some very good end , though till the publication & approbation of the cause , it be externally and legally dishonest , yet the conscience is clear : because in an action that is indifferent , and condemn'd onely for a presumptive end , when that presumption fails in the particular , and the indifferent action serves really to a pious , a charitable , or a necessary end , the action is made good , and therefore the Conscience is disoblig'd . For that which is really so , prevails over that which is but presumed so . Thus we find that S. Euphrosyna liv'd long in a Monastery of men ; and the Church which took cognisance of it , did , upon evidence of her piety and purity , after death declare her a Saint : and that S. Eugenia went in a mans habit [ to avoid the persecutors of Christianity for a while ] is told in the Menologion of the Greeks ; and her memory as of a Virgin and Martyr is celebrated in the Greek Church upon Christmas eve . And when Nonnus the Bishop of Edessa had converted S. Pelagia , who from a common curtezan became a glorious Saint , after the suffering of most severe penances in the mount Olivet , she estrang'd her self from all probabilities of temptation from vain men by living in a mans habit conceal'd all her life-time ; and the Church keeps her memorial in honour upon the 8th of October . 5. If the matter of humane Laws be in it self trifling and inconsiderable , yet if it meets with a people where it is esteem'd a crime , and the laws forbid it upon that account of a publick dis-estimation , it is to be presumed that the laws doe condemn it equally to the publick fame ; and therefore that the conscience is bound accordingly . Thus in the days of Clemens Alexandrinus the Christians thought it a very horrid thing to wear false hair ; and Calvo turpius est nihil comato , said Martial to Marinus , nothing is more deformed , nothing more unhandsome . Now though it be not so in it self , yet when the hearts of men are generally against it , as it was then ( though it be not so now ) if any law had prohibited the wearing of Perrukes , the conscience had been greatly obliged , for the law did lay much upon it , even as much as all the evil of the publick infamy did amount to . Thus to break a fasting-day which by custome hath been observed in a Church , is a matter of small account ; but if a law have forbidden it , and forbids it there where it is commonly accounted a very high impiety , though of it self it be not so , yet under such a law in such circumstances it becomes so , and is to be valued accordingly . And upon this account are those words of S. Chrysostome to be understood , Adveniente tempore jejunii , etiamsi quis millies urgeat , & infinita cruciet ; & cogat vinum delibare , aut aliquid aliud quod jejunii lege non est licitum gustare , patiendum potius esse , quam prohibitum tangere nutrimentum . It was accounted a great matter then to break an Ecclesiastical fast : and therefore when a law is supported by such an estimate , that law binds heavily ; and it will be a great sin to break it , unless there be a great cause to legitimate or excuse it . In such cases we must endure a great inconvenience rather then disobey . 6. Though the matter be little , yet if the Legislative power hath a particular eye and value upon it , however it be expressed , if such a value be known or observed , the smalness of the matter is no argument of the smalness of the sin . Thus also in the foregoing instance of Ecclesiastical Fasts are those words of S. Basil to be understood , saying , Non minus crimen esse violare jejunium Ecclesiasticum , quam militi abjicere scutum in bello , aut stationem deserere . Ecclesiasticall Fasts in his time were the cognisance of a Christian , his defence and guard ; and therefore not to keep them was as if a Souldier did throw away his shield in a day of battel , or desert his station . So the Prelates of the Church did then understand it , so they intended it . When a trifle is made a mark of union , as to wear a branch in warre , when the Superiour sets his heart upon it ; in this case the mind of the supreme becomes a law to his Subjects , in the former they become a law unto themselves . Sometimes a smal instance is made the trial of obedience ; and the Superiour hath a great authority , but a little diocese , or a few Subjects , or small occasions to rule in ; in these and the like cases , the smalness of the matter is not onely to be considered , but the interpretation and effort which the Superiour puts upon it . If he calls every such disobedience a contempt of his authority , and accounts it a dissolution of that community where he governs , or a great violence of order ; it is so in conscience , that is , to be valued beyond the matter . For he that takes a little piece of iron from an iron forge does no great harm ; but if he takes it from a lock or a chain , he disorders the whole contexture . 4. When an Ecclesiastical punishment is superadded to a civil law , or a civil punishment to an Ecclesiastical law , it is to be presumed that the law-giver puts much upon it , and therefore the conscience is obliged to obedience under a great sin . The reason is plain , because he can by no means better and more earnestly signify his purpose of obliging strongly then by using both the swords : he binds more strongly then all the terror of the civil punishment , who besides that , calls in the aids of Religion ; and that Prelate is passionately desirous to secure obedience to his laws , when besides the bands of God , he cals in to his help the cords of a man , and so secures it by all means . And therefore whatsoever is decreed under pain of solemn excommunication is therefore ordinarily presumed to be of great band unto the conscience , not onely by force of the first Rule * , because it is a great punishment ; but also because the civil power does verify that sentence , and inflicts some great temporal evil upon them that abide in contempt or disobedience to the orders and censures of the Church . 5. The preceptive or prohibitive words in humane Laws ordinarily are no sign of a greater obligation of the conscience ; that is , when the words of strict command are the usual style of the Court , as it is both in Civil and Ecclesiastick Courts . * 1. But if some laws are published with severe clauses of command , and others on purpose and by design with lesser and the more gentle , then the case is evident that there is a difference to be made also by the conscience . And this is in particular made use of by the Franciscans in the observation of the Rule of their Order . For , in Clementina , Exivi de paradiso , § Cum autem , De verborum significatione , it is determin'd that that part of the Rule of S. Francis which is established by preceptive or prohibitive words shall oblige the Friers Minors under a great sin , the rest not ; and this wholly upon the account of the different clauses of sanction and establishment . * 2. Another exception there is to this Rule , for when the preceptive or prohibitive clauses are reduplicated directly or by some solemn appendage , it is presumed that the conscience is highly bound . Such as are [ We strictly charge and command , we command in the vertue of obedience , upon your duty and allegeance , upon my blessing , as you will answer it at the dreadful day of Judgement , upon your oath , and such like ] And here the reason is plain , because the Superiour calls in to his aid the interest of some other vertue besides the obedience ; as justice or veracity , hope or fear , the helps of God immediately , or a proper appeal to some other great tie of conscience . 6. However the laws were established , yet according as they goe off , or goe less , or fall into desuetude or disobligation , so the band of conscience grows less , till it be quite eas'd by abrogation ; for the law binding by its establishment , and the conscience being bound by the life of the law , as the law dies the conscience is at ease : and by this Rule S. Paul largely proves the Christian Churches not to be obliged in conscience to observe the law of Moses , in the seventh Chapter to the Romanes . 7. The contempt of any law , be the matter never so trifling , be the Law-giver never so unconcerned , be the publick interest never so little , yet if it be law , and still in force , is a great sin , and lays a great load upon the conscience . Contemptus in omni specie mandatorum pari pondere gravis , & communiter damnabilis , saith S. Bernard , All contempt of laws , be the matter little or great , is highly damnable ; and the reason he subjoyns a while after , Convertit in crimen gravis rebellionis culpam levis transgressionis , Contempt makes the smallest transgression become a great rebellion . Because here it is not the violation of the law , but of the authority ; not the decree , but the power is undervalued , and ever accuses the Law-giver of want of wisdome , or supposes him to have no power . This is that which in Leviticus is express'd by [ Si spreveritis mandata mea , & anima vestra fastidierit judicia mea ] a contemning the commandement , and that your soul hate and loath the judgements . Such a thing as this , is a deletery to the whole Law , and tears the knot that ties the mantle upon the Princes shoulders : and this is acknowledged even by them who believe that humane Laws doe not oblige the conscience ; for they confess that the conscience is at least bound so farre that the law be not despis'd . Now then besides that this Rule is established not onely by its own reason but by concession , there is this advantage to be made of it ; That if the conscience be bound so farre that the law be not despis'd , then the conscience is bound so farre that the law be obeyed if it can ; that is , that it be always obeyed , unless there be a competent and sufficient or probable reason to the contrary . And therefore it is remarkable that God calls the not obeying of his laws , a despising and loathing them in their hearts : Si judicia mea exhorruerit anima vestra , ita ut non faciatis , If your soul so hate my judgements that ye doe them not ; that is properly to despise them : and so it is in humane Laws ; he that breaks them without cause despises them , for nothing else does make him not to obey . For this is a certain rule , Causlesly and contemptuously are all one . If therefore the adversaries in this Rule doe affirm that the conscience is bound to obey , unless there be reason to the contrary , then we agree together , and both with truth ; and if there be any difference afterwards , it is onely in assigning what reasons and what causes are sufficient . But if they mean that the conscience is onely bound not to despise the law , but may break the law when there is no reason for it , and if she does , commits no sin against God ; then by despising the law they must mean something that no Grammar and no Lexicon ever understood , and that none despises the law but he that rails upon it , and reviles it , or reproaches the authority directly ; for indirectly he reproaches the authority that despises the law , and he directly despises , that for no reason disobeys it : for if for no reason , then it is contempt , for else there can be no account given of the omission ; and nothing is a greater contempt then to esteem the law so inconsiderable as to be less then nothing . He that thinks it unlawful hath a reason , real or imaginary : but he that thinks it lawful , and yet will not obey , and hath no reason why he will not , does despise it infinitely . Some suppose that to break a law frequently or customarily is contempt : But to this I assent not , because there may be a lasting reason why the law is by custome broken : indeed , if there be no reason , then the greater the custome is , the greater is the contempt ; but if there be a reason , neither one omission nor twenty can be criminal . But in this particular I like well what is said by the Lawyers , Ex consuetudine indici prasumptionem contemptus , licet ipsa contemptus non sit . It is a very great presumption that whoever frequently breaks the law does despise it : and upon him that does so , the burden of proving that he does not , by proving his reason , is incumbent . These are the measures by which we shall account concerning the degrees of obligation of conscience to obey humane Laws . The use of them is this , That besides they are helps to alleviate the scruples or the doubts of conscience concerning the greatness of a sin in this instance , and in proportioning our repentance and amends ; they are also of great use both in the judging concerning the reasons of disobeying , that is , whether the reason be weighty enough to outweigh the impress and intention of the law , and also of judging what inconvenience is to be suffer'd to preserve our obedience respectively to any law . It now remains that for the confirmation of the truth and explication of the sense of this rule , the objections made be considered . To the first I answer , That to suppose humane lawes to bind the Conscience is so far from devesting God of his royalty , that it does very much establish it ; for it is a part of his Royalty to bind the Conscience , and therefore he that saies , that God does bind the Conscience to obey humane laws , makes no intrenchment upon that . For although humane laws doe bind the Conscience , yet it is not by vertue or formal energy of the civil power , but by the authority and power of God ; the King and the Bishop are but Christs deputies , and his power they exercise , by his power they rule , and to his Kingdome they minister . And therefore the civil power does not take cognizance of the Conscience , nor pretend a compulsory over it ; but God does , and does exercise it when he punishes the Soul eternally for contempt and rebellion against the Princes of the people . To the second , We are to consider , that when it is said that Humane lawes bind the Conscience , the meaning is , it ties us to duty , and we are guilty before God if we doe not obey man : and Conscience is not here taken in the physical or natural sense , for a practical understanding alone , but for the whole mind of man informed and commanded by God ; in which mind one of the Principles or laws of God written there is , that we should obey them that have the Rule over us : but besides this , this whole argument is a plain paralogisme ; for it supposes that because Humane laws are tied upon the Conscience , that they are tied by man , not by God ; which is against the true state of the Question : therefore if Conscience were wholly a habit or an act , or the faculty of understanding , and consequently in this last case subject to God alone who is truth , yet the truth remains unharm'd , for it is not man that rules in the Conscience , but God who commands it to obey man , for fear of Gods displeasure . Humane laws are but the material part in this obligation ; the authoritity and command of God give it life & force upon the Conscience : it is like the body prepar'd by the Father of the Country , into which God inspires a living and an operative principle . To the third the answer is easy and short : for granting all that is said , it not being material to the present inquiry whether it be true or no ; it is a part of Christian liberty that the Conscience be servant to none but Christ , and whatever be the matter of humane laws , if it be not also the matter of a Divine law , the Conscience is free from that matter of it self , because God being onely the Lord of Conscience , and he not having by his law established that matter , the Conscience is free as to that matter . But then when a just authority supervening hath made a law in that matter , though the Conscience was free from that matter , yet it is not free from that authority : not that the Conscience is a subject of that authority immediately and ultimately , but because God hath subjected it , and commanded it to obey . Of Christian Liberty . But for the fuller satisfaction of Conscience in this great article , it will not be amiss to give a full , but short account of the nature and pretences of Christian liberty . In order to which S. Peter explicates this article most excellently , saying , Be subject to every ordinance of man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for the Lord , that is , for his Commandement , and for the interest of his Kingdome , * and his power and his glory : for it is a portion of his kingdome , it is the deputation of his power ; and he is glorified by our obedience , when the princes of the world by seeing our ready subjection have no cause to speak evil of us ; which was the very argument which the * Apostle uses in this question . And therefore S. Peter ; who in this inquiry takes notice of our liberty , gives express caution , that though we be free from many fetters and hard services , yet we should not pretend Christian liberty as a cover for sedition and rebellion and disobedience , which he signally calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , we render it maliciousness : and if it be us'd to express the effects and evil consequents , it is very well ; but it relating here to the principle of the mischief , it is better rendred , * Craftiness , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , not making this Christian liberty a pretence and cover for your Craftiness : for they well knew the artifices of the Devil , and that he would endeavour to aliene the hearts of subjects from their Princes upon pretence of Christian liberty , and of heathen Princes from Christianity upon supposition it was no friend to government ; and so it fel out in the Gnosticks and Valentinians : but against these evils the Apostles by the Spirit of God and the doctrine of the Gospel made excellent provisions . For as S. Peter so also S. Paul us'd the same caution in this article : for having press'd upon the Galatians to insist upon their Christian liberty , and not to be brought under the yoak of Moses , lest they should stumble at the name of liberty , he charges them not to abuse it , not to extend it beyond its proper limit , not to use it as an occasion to the flesh ; and that it may be manifest where it was he intended to fix his rule , he instances in the matter of government , adding by way of explication , By love serve one another : that is , though you Christians be all free , yet there is a bond of charity , by which you are tied to the rules of government and service and subordination ; in these things if you pretend your liberty , it will be but an occasion to the flesh , and a dishonour to the Spirit . For our liberty is not a Carnal liberty , but it is a spiritual . If a slave be called to Christianity , he is the Lords freed-man , but not Mans , he is still a servant and commanded to abide in it , if in that state he be called . And it is an excellent Rule which is given by Calvin in this particular , We ought to account that by Christian liberty there is nothing gotten to us before men , but onely before God. And it is a horrible folly which abuses some men , they think that they loose their liberty unless they get possession of it by doing against that part which is forbidden : not considering that if the matter be indifferent , then they may as well doe that which is by man commanded , as doe the contrary , they are as free to one as to the other ; and therefore for civility , and for government , and for order , and for humanity sake , since they must use their liberty one way , let them doe it that way which will at least please God as well , and Man better . And for their Christian liberty , that is in the Spirit , and they need no other testimony but the Conscience it self : for the Conscience in this also is a thousand witnesses . And therefore truly and plainly the liberty that the Apostles speak of is but a freedome from the dominion of sin , and a freedome from the terrors and obligation of the Law : the first is a freedome of duty , the second a freedome of priviledge ; the first is a Commandement , the second a state of advantage ; that is but a working , this is completed ; that is design'd by Christ , this already wrought , and is the effect of Christs death , while the other is the product of his Spirit , and the business of the Kingdome of Grace . But let us see what is the proper and explicite effect of all this . 1. It is true that we are freed from sin , that is , we are asserted into the liberty of grace and pardon ; the band of sin is broken , and we may be rescued from the power and from the punishment of it : and what then ? S. James answers this inquiry , Whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty , must be a doer of the work , that is , of the righteousness evangelical ; and this man shall be blessed in his deed . For it is Christ who hath set us free ; but yet be servants of Christ : his Spirit hath made us free , and asserted us into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God ; therefore we are debters , not to the flesh , to live after the flesh , but we must live a spiritual life , for to doe so is to persist in our liberty ; it is entring upon that possession which God hath given us : but this is like the gift given to the sons of Israel ; all the land of Canaan was their portion , but they were to fight for it , and win it by degrees ; but it was long before they were in quiet possession , and so shall we when we are in the land of promise . 2. It is also true that we are freed from the curse of the law and the Spirit of bondage or servile fear , which was produc'd by the curses threatned to every transgressor without the abatements of infirmity & the allowances of repentance ; and we are adopted into a liberty of the sons of God , we can cry Abba Father , and God will use us not with the severe rights of a Lord , but with the sweetest measures of a Fathers government . And what then ? what is the effect of this liberty ? By the Spirit of God we cry Abba Father , by him we have this liberty , therefore we must live in the Spirit : for though we be not under fear , yet we are under love ; we are not under the curse of the Law , yet we are under the duty ; not under the coercive power of the first covenant , yet under the directive power of the Eternal Commandement . For the Spirit of God makes us sons , yet none are sons but such as are led by the Spirit ; and we are freed from the curse and condemnation of the law , but not unless we walk not after the Flesh , but after the Spirit . 3. It is also true that we are freed from the ceremonial law , the law of circumcision , of meats and drinks and carnal ordinances . And what then ? use it charitably , and take heed lest this liberty of yours become a stumbling-block to them that are weak . Some there are that extend this to a liberty from all things that are indifferent , as meats and garments , and daies , and ceremonies and the like . Now if they mean that we are not bound to these things by any law of God under the Gospel , it is very true ; that is , Christ gave us no Commandement concerning them . But if it be meant that these things are left so free that there can be no accidental and temporary obligation , rule or limit made concerning them , this is that I am now disputing against . But that this is no part of Christian liberty purchas'd by the blood of Christ , is evident , because things in their nature indifferent , that is , concerning which there was no Commandement given , were alwaies free , and to say otherwise were a contradiction in the terms ; and no drop of Christs blood could so vainly fall as to purchase for us what was done already by the nature of the thing . He onely rescinded the Laws of Moses concerning the instances commanded there ; that is , those which were not indifferent , as being positively commanded , he return'd to their own nature , to be us'd in another dispensation , to be dispos'd of in another government , in a distinct manner , to other purposes , or ( as occasion should serve ) to be wholly let alone . But although Christ broke the yoke of Moses , and so left the instances and matters there us'd to their own indifference ; yet he left it as indifferent to the Law-givers to make laws concerning them ; for he gave no commandement that they should always be left indifferent as to external usages . Under Moses they were tied upon the conscience by God himself , and therefore unchangeably during that whole period ; but now they are left to a temporary transient use and ministery , to doe good , or to promote order , or to combine government : and if Governors had not a freedome to use them in government , as well as private persons to use them if they would in their own persons , Christian liberty had been made for Subjects , and denied to Christian Princes and Christian Priests . 4. There is yet another liberty called the liberty of glory , or the glorious liberty of the children of God ; that is , the Redemption of our bodies from disease and pain , from death and corruption : but for this we must stay till the last adoption : For what Christ is by generation and proper inheritance , that we shall be by adoption if we belong to him . Now of Christ in his Resurrection it was said , Thou art my Son , this day have I begotten thee . That was the last generation or right of Sonship , to which when we are adopted we shall be partakers of the glory ; but that was at Christs Resurrection , and this shall be in ours . 5. Now here being in the days of the Apostles so much talk of liberty , and that in so many instances , and ( without question ) made the subject of many Sermons , and much Table-talk , and many disputes , and us'd as an argument to perswade strangers , and to comfort the faithful , and the Devil being so ready to make use of any prepared lust , or mistake , or ignorance , or fancy ; it could not be but many weak and many false persons did instantly dream of a temporal liberty , that Sons were free from the laws of Parents , Wives of Husbands , Servants of Masters , Subjects of Princes : the Apostles knowing how great a confusion this would be to all relations and states of men , and what an infinite reproach it would be to the Religion , stopt this avenue of mischief , and not onely dogmatically describ'd the duties of all inferiours , but took care also to doe it in those places where they had occasion to speak of Christian liberty , that there might be no pretence to doe evil . For Christianity neither could nor ought to have been received , if the Preachers of it had destroyed Governments . The effect of this discourse is plainly this , That Christian liberty does not warrant disobedience to humane Laws , or liberty from their obligation . Whereas therefore the Apostle says , Ye are bought with a price , be not ye the servants of men ; it is not to be understood of the conscience or mind of men , as the objection affirms , but onely is an advice of prudence , to the purpose of the preceding words in the 21. verse , If thou mayest be made free , use it rather : that is , since it is more convenient for the advantages of Religion , and the service of Christ , by the price of whose blood you are redeemed that ye may serve him all your days , therefore you who are free , be not easy to give or part with your liberty , but use your state of liberty for the advantage of the service of Christ ; for that nothing else is meant , appears in the words he immediately subjoyns , Brethren , let every man wherein he is called , therein abide with God : that is , your being the servants of men is not inconsistent with your service of God , nor that servitude incompossible with Christian liberty . But yet suppose that the interpretation us'd in the objection be right , and that , Be not ye the servants of men , is to be understood of the conscience or mind of man ; yet , save onely that it was not so intended by the Apostle , it can doe no harm to this Question : for the understanding and the mind may be free , when the hands are tied , and a man may have the liberty of opining and judging , when he may not have the liberty of acting , which is all is pretended to by the Empire of humane Laws . For as Origen excellently , This is nothing but an intellectual liberty , concerning which let a man contend in an intellectual and Evangelical manner , that is , by good arguments and the spirit of meekness , and there is no harm done . This is the whole summe of the doctrine of Christian liberty . Concerning which if any man desire to reade more words , and longer discourses , and some intrigues , he may please to see them in Driedo , who hath written three Books , and Belliolanus , who hath written twenty Books of Christian liberty . To the fourth I have already answered both in the beginning and end of the answer to the former , and it proves nothing but what is granted . For to use the same instance ; You may fast when you are commanded by your Superiour , but you must not think that fasting is a part of the Divine Service . It is true , it is no part of Divine Service , the fasting of it self is not , but the fasting in obedience is . For though man commands fasting now , or so , and God does not , yet God commands that we should obey those commands of men ; and then the conscience is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the conscience of God , or toward God , it is his subject and servant , and his liegeman : and yet at the same time the law of man pretends not to rule the conscience immediately , and therefore the conscience is free , and may judge the thing of it self to be no Divine Commandement ; but the will is not free , and the duty is bound upon that , when the understanding is at liberty . Errat enim si quis putat servitutem in totum hominem descendere ; pars enim melior excepta est . Corpora obnoxia sunt , & adscripta Dominis , mens sui juris est , said Seneca , and from him Aquinas . The whole man is not in subjection ; the body indeed is under Lords and Laws , but the mind is free as aire . To the fifth I answer , by denying the consequence of the argument . For though humane Laws doe bind the conscience , yet it follows not that it is put into the power of man to save or damne his brother ; because humane Laws bind the conscience , but not by force of humane authority precisely , or in it self , but by virtue of the Divine Commandement : and therefore a Prince cannot make a law and threaten damnation to the breakers of it , because he cannot inflict it ; but he may say , that he that breaks it will sin against God , and God will inflict damnation upon the rebellious and disobedient . But then whereas it is objected that this makes the broad way to hell broader , it is a meer scar-crow ; for God onely can inlarge or streighten this way efficiently and formally ; but objectivè & occasionaliter , by way of instance and occasion , by giving new laws to endear obedience in new instances when it is for the publick good , hath in it no inconvenience : every Minister of the Word and Sacraments ▪ by every invitation of his people to a more strict Religion , does make the damnation of the disobedient greater , and by every check of conscience , and by every opinion of our own we become a law unto our selves , and make the way of our conversation narrower ; and every offer of grace , and every call of the Spirit does adde moments to the eternal misery of them that doe resist ; and yet it were not well to be without them , for fear of that accidental evil . For it is to be considered that these aids , and all good Laws are intended for good to us , and will bring good to us if we obey ; but the very reward it self being offered , makes also our punishment just and reasonable if we refuse . Ex te tua perditio . The Law is not in fault , but the rebellious man ruines himself , who by occasion of the Law might have receiv'd an increase of glory if he had pleas'd . To the sixth the answer is given in the premisses : Humane authority does not make the action of disobedience to be a sin . It makes that the not compliance of the Subject is disobedience ; but it is the authority of God who makes disobedience to be a sin : and though no humane power can give or take grace away ; yet we may remember that we our selves throw away Gods grace , or abuse it , or neglect it , when we will not make use of it to the purposes of humility , charity and obedience , all which are concerned in our subordination to the Laws . The seventh objection hath two parts ; the one concerns the civil power , the other the power Ecclesiastical . Concerning the civil , it is affirm'd to be unreasonable that the power which cannot remit sins should bind to sin ; & therefore the civil power cannot bind the conscience , because it cannot remit the sin to which it binds . In which argument there are four terms , and therefore it is a perfect fallacy . For it is true that it is reasonable that the power which binds should als● loose : but that the civil power cannot loose in the same sense in which it can bind is false ; for the civil power can untie that which it hath tied , unless by tying be meant tying to one thing , and loosing be meant of another . The civil power binds to obey ; the same power can untie this band , by dispensing with the person or abrogating the Law. But when it is said , the civil power cannot remit the sin , therefore not bind to sin , it is a Sophism , because binding and loosing doe not signify in the same manner . For it does but accidentally bind to sin , and in the same manner it does also ease the conscience : it makes the Law to which God binds the conscience ; it takes off the Law , and from the conscience God takes off the obligation . But because it does not by it self bind the conscience , but occasions the conscience to be bound by God , therefore it hath nothing to doe to remit the sin , for that must be the act of God ; but the Law can loose what it bound , and where it bound , and as it bound , that is , not the sin , but the subject matter , the instance and the occasion . *** But now concerning the Ecclesiastical power , the objection says that it hath no power to make Laws , but such as are in the matter already decreed by God ; and therefore it does not bind but what God hath bound already ; and consequently hath of it self no power to bind the conscience . To this I answer , 1. that it is true , neither the Ecclesiastical nor the Civil power does by its innate authority oblige the conscience ; but both powers can make Laws , to the observation of which God doth oblige conscience . 2. It is an error to say that the Ecclesiastick power cannot make laws in things not decreed by God. For the supreme Civil power is also Ecclesiastical if it be Christian , and hath a power in the external regiment of the Church ; and therefore to make Laws in such parts and accidents of Government in which God hath left no special direction : and for the proper power of the Ecclesiasticks , that also extends beyond the giving commandements in matters of express duty commanded by God ; as I shall make appear in its own place . 3. If it were granted that the Church could not make Laws in things not decreed by God , yet when God hath decreed the thing , the Church can make Laws concerning the order of the things , the measure and the manner , the number and the weight , the adjuncts and the circumstances ; and that 's a field large enough for her to make Laws to oblige the conscience . And therefore although it were ridiculous and contemptible , injurious and uncharitable for the Church to pass her greatest censures upon persons that transgress bono animo , or through unavoidable infirmity , in small inconsiderable instances , circumstances and unconcerning forms of law and unconsider'd ceremonies ; yet the smallest thing may be plac'd so as to be of great concernment ; and when these things accidentally become great , the censures of the Church may be prudently and charitably inflicted . But what power the Church hath in making Laws will afterwards be considered in its place ; thus much was of present necessity for the answer of the objection . To the last there might be many answers given . It may suffice that the argument is expresly false ; for supposing that humane Laws doe directly bind the conscience , it does not follow that it is as great a sin to break the Laws of Man , as to violate the Laws of God : that it is a sin it does follow , but not that it is so great . For the law of God against idle words does oblige the conscience , but it does not therefore follow that it is as great a sin to talk idly as to kill a man. But this Sophism relies upon this false supposition , Th●● all things that bind the conscience doe bind in the same degree , to the same measures of iniquity . For if they doe not , then humane Lawes may bind the conscience , and yet they may be broken at an easier rate then the Commandements of God. 2. But then I adde , that this is according to the subject matter , and the evil consequent of the action . For suppose a Prince oppressed by a Rebel party , as Pompey was by Caesar ; Photinus that told the King of Egypt where he lay hid did a greater fault then if he had rail'd upon Pompey , expresly against the Commandement , thou shalt not speak evil of the Ruler of the people . To open the secrets of a King may be a greater sin , and doe more mischief , and proceed from greater malice then to call my brother Fool. For a Souldier to desert his station may be a greater crime then to steal a shilling . 3. And yet it cannot be denied , but that there is great difference between the Laws of God and the Laws of Man in their obligation . Concerning which , in order to many cases of conscience , it is fit that I give account . The difference of Divine and Humane laws in their obligation . 1. The law of God binds the Conscience immediately , and by the right of God ; the law of man binds the Conscience mediately , and by the interposition of the Divine authority : so that we must obey Man for Gods sake , and God for his own . 2. The laws of God bind the will and the understanding ; that is , we are bound to obey , and bound to think them good . But humane laws meddle not with the understanding ; for that 's a Prince , and can be governed as he can be perswaded , but subject to the empire of none but God : but the will is the subject of humane laws ; not onely that the will be bound to command the inferior faculties and members to obey and doe the work of the law , but of it self precisely it is bound : for it is not enough that we doe the outward works , but the will must be of it self obedient . Whatsoever ye doe , doe it heartily , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , doe it from your very Soul ; that is , cheerfully , willingly , without murmuring : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for ye doe it not to men , but to the Lord. 3. The Divine laws are lasting and perpetual ; but humane laws cease to bind the conscience , by desuetude , by contraition , by contrary reason , by intolerable inconvenience , by dispensation , and lastly by abrogation . 4. Divine laws oblige the Conscience not only to an active obedience , but to activity and earnestness to doe them , to seek opportunities , to omit none to doe them presently . Humane laws oblige to an active obedience , but not to a spontaneous offer , and ultroneous seeking of opportunities . It may be a sin , it is alwaies an infirmity , to seek for excuses and dispensations in Divine laws ; but it is lawful by all fair means to seek to be freed from the band of any humane law that is not of publick concernment , and is of private incommodity . A man may decline a burden of the law , or seek a priviledge and exemption . The Citizens of Rome were tied to keep guards in course , and doe other duties ; but he that had three children , had a right of exemption ; and he that hath none may lawfully desire and petition for the priviledge . The burden of a humane law may be thrust upon another , if it be done by just and charitable means ; but in the laws of God every man must bear his own burden chusingly and delightfully . 5. Humane laws onely consider the outward action , not the secret opinion ; you must obey Man , when at the same time without sin you may believe the law to be imprudent , or imperfect , or fit to be annull'd . But in the laws of God we must submit our most secret thoughts , and we must be sure so to obey humane laws , as we keep for God the prerogative of his : but though to God we must give account of our thoughts , yet humane laws meddle not with them at all . Cogitationis poenam nemo meretur , saith the law , ff . de poenis . 6. Humane laws oblige onely that they be not despis'd , that is , that they be not transgressed without a reasonable cause : but the laws of God must be obeyed in all cases ; and there is no cause to break them , and there can be no necessity upon us to commit a sin . In the obedience to humane laws we may suppose there was a weakness in the Sanction , they could not foresee the evil that was future , the inconveniences upon some men , the impossibilities of many , the intolerable burden upon others : and therefore although a reason is alwaies to be had when we doe not obey , and that a good one ; yet the reason and the goodness of it is not to be the greatest and the best , or to be exacted according to the strictest measures of necessity alone . For though the laws of God bind to obedience without dispute , without diminution , without excuse , and in all necessities and accidents that can supervene ; yet beyond that which is good , that which is equal and probable and profitable , humane laws doe not bind : but of this in the sequel . 7. He that despises the law of God , dies for it ; and he that neglects it is accounted to despise it : the not doing it is by interpretation a contempt of Gods law . He that despises humane laws , is also guilty before God : but he onely is accounted to despise it , that voluntarily and without reason disobeys . But he that out of the multitude of other affairs , or an incuriousness of Spirit , unknowingly or ignorantly neglects it by not thinking of it , is in most cases innocent before God ; but is tied to submit to the punishment if he be requir'd and deprehended . This onely is to be added , that a geat and a dissolute negligence even in humane laws is so far from excusing the breach of the law , that it doubles the guilt : Dissoluta negligentia prope dolum est , saith the law , ff . mandati , l. fidejussor , & ff . de action . & obligat . l. 1. § . Is quoque . A great negligence is accounted malice . 8. Ignorance of the laws of God excuses no man , because it is sufficiently revealed to every man ; and he is not onely bound to inquire much if there should be need , but there is also so clear a communication of them , that a little inquiry will serve the turn , and therefore no man is here excus'd by ignorance . But in the laws of man ignorance is easier pleaded , and does more excuse , and does unavoidably happen to many men in very many cases ; and they are less bound to inquire , and a less matter makes the ignorance probable and quit from malice : of all which a prudent and a good man is to be the Judge . 9. When Divine and humane laws are oppos'd , these must alwaies yield to those ; and without dispute God is to be obeyed rather then Man ; and although we must obey Man for God , we must never obey Man against God : and therefore it was excellently counsell'd by Ben-Sirach , Let not the reverence of any man cause thee to sin . 10. As a consequent to the former , all the Ministers of Justice are bound to be more severe in exacting obedience to Gods laws then to their own in an equal or like matter ; they must be easy in the matter of their own laws , and zealous for God : and this also does prove that where the effect , and the appendages and circumstances doe not alter it , it is in the whole a less sin to break a humane law then to break a Divine ; that is , although both are sins , yet in the nature of the action it is of a less degree of crime to break the law of our superior then of our supreme , of Man then of God. 11. Divine laws are impos'd upon the people ; but humane laws are impos'd indeed , but commonly by their consent , explicite or implicite , formal or interpretative , and without acceptation in a sweet regiment may indeed , but are not usually pass'd into the sanction and sacredness of laws . For the civil government is not absolute , and meer and supreme ; but in some sense , and to some purposes , and in some degrees , limited , conditional , precarious and mixt , full of need , and supported by them who are to be rul'd , who therefore are to be regarded . 12. Some adde this ; the Divine laws bind both in publick and in private , the humane in publick onely : that is , because humane laws take no cognisance of what is secret , therefore neither doe they of themselves bind in secret . But this although in speculation it hath some truth , yet when it is reduc'd to practice , the consideration is different . For though Mans laws know not what is in secret , & therefore cannot judge ; yet God , that binds humane laws upon our consciences , knows the most secret breach of laws , and he judges and discerns . But this hath some difficulties in it , and many very material considerations , & therefore is to be distinctly handled in some of the following pages . This onely for the present . When in private we can be excus'd or innocent before God ; in that private , & in those circumstances humane laws oblige not . But Gods laws equally oblige both in publick and private , respectively to the subject matter . Of themselves humane laws have nothing to doe with private actions ; that is , neither with the obligation , nor the notice . There are many other material differences between the laws of God and man , as to their obligation upon Conscience ; which I shall afterwards explicate upon the occasion of particular rules . The great summe of all is this , so far as relates to Conscience ; the law of God binds stronger , and in more cases then humane laws . A breach of a humane law is not so great a sin , nor is it so often a sin , as a breach of the Divine ; the advantage ●oth in the extension and the intension being ( as there is all reason it should ) on the part of God ; that God who is in all , may be above all . Thus they differ , but in order to the verification of the Rule , it is to be remembred that in the main obligation of Conscience they doe agree . The Divine law places things in the order of vertue and vice ; and the Sacraments are therefore good because they are appointed by Christ , our great Law-giver , and in the old law the eating of swines flesh was therefore evil because it was forbidden by the law of God. For all the goodness of Mans will consists in a conformity to the will of God , which is the great rule and measure of humane actions . And just so it is in humane laws according to their proportion and degree : when the law of the Church commands fasting , to doe so then is an act of temperance as well as o● obedience , and to disobey is gluttony ; and to wear cloth of gold is luxury when the law commands us to wear plain broad cloth . To give great gifts at marriages and feasts may be magnificence ; but if the law limits to a certain summe , to goe beyond is pride and prodigality . This is the work of God , though by the hands of Moses & Aaron : for it matters not by what means he effects his own purposes ; by himself , or by his power administred by second causes . The summe is this , which I represent in the words of S. Gregory Nazianzen , Submittamus nos tum Deo , tum aliis , tum iis qui Imperium in terra gerunt : Deo quidem omnibus de causis ; alii autem aliis propter charitatis foedus , principibus denique propter ordinem ; publicaeque disciplinae rationem . Let us submit our selves to God , to one another , and to Princes : to God for all the reason in the world ; to one another for charity's sake ; to Princes for order's sake , and the account of publick Government . But if we refuse to obey Man , God will punish us ; and if we refuse to obey God , even the Prince ought to punish us ; and both promote the interests of the same Kingdome . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith Justin Martyr , We pray you , O Kings and Princes , to punish them who are Christians onely in name , and doe not live according to the decrees of our Great Master : and then for their own interest this is his account , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We worship God alone , but in other things we gladly serve and obey you , confessing you to be the Kings and Princes of the people . I conclude this in the words of S. Bernard , Sive Deus , sive homo mandatum quodcunque tradiderit , pari profecto obsequendum est cura , pari reverentia deferendum , A law , whether given by God or by man , is to be observ'd by a like care and a like reverence ; alike in the kind , but not in the degree . * RULE II. Humane laws doe not oblige the Conscience to an active obedience , when there is an imminent danger of death , or an intolerable , or very grievous evil in the obedience . THis Rule is to be understood to be true regularly and ordinarily , and in laws purely humane ; that is , such which are not commentaries or defensatives of a natural and a Divine law . For if the forbidden action have in it any thing that is intrinsecally evil , then the action must not be done , though to save our lives : for no sin ought to be the price of our life , and we ought not to exchange an eternal life for a temporal . Here our Blessed Saviour's words are plain , Fear not them which can kill the body ; and what profit have you , if you gain the whole world and loose your own soule ? and it is better to goe into life maimed and blind , then having two feet or two eyes to goe into hell fire ; and God is to be obeyed rather then man ; and he that would save his life shall loose it ; and divers others to the same purpose . Now when any thing of this nature is the subject matter of a humane law directly , or if the violation of any thing of a Divine Commandement be the consequent of the breach of a humane law , then the humane law binds to its observation though with the loss of our lives . But the question here is concerning meer humane laws established in an indifferent matter ; and in this it is that the Rule affirms that humane laws doe not bind to their observation with the danger of life . The reasons are these ▪ 1. Because the end of such laws is onely the good and convenience of the lives of the Citizens . Omnibus à natura bene informatis insitum esse ut nemini parere velint , nisi utilitatis causa & legitimè imperanti , said Cicero , Nature her self teaches all wise men to obey Princes that govern by laws , and for the good of their Subjects . They therefore being wholly made to minister to the circumstances of life , must not by our lives be ministred unto ; nothing being more unnatural and unreasonable then that a man should be tied to part with his life for his convenience onely . It is not worth it , it is like burning a mans house to rost his egges . 2. Eye for eye , and tooth for tooth , and all that a man hath he will give for his life : it is indeed the voice of nature and of this world , there is no capacity to receive any good when our life is gone ; and therefore nothing of this world can make a man recompence for his life . That Law therefore that pretends to doe advantages to our life , if it shall also require our life for the securing such advantages , takes away more good then it pretends to give , and makes the substance less principal then the accessary . 3. If humane Laws doe admit of equity ( as it is confessed by all men ) there is no case so favourable as that of saving of our life : either then we are to suppose the Laws to be made of a rock , and to yeeld to nothing , but for ever to be a killing letter , and an instrument of the hardest bondage ; or else at least to be so compliant as to yeeld to her Citizens in the case of life and death . 4. All humane power is given to man for his good , not for his hurt ; for edification , not for destruction . But it very often happens , and it is so in most laws that are meerly humane , that the good of the particular law is not so great as the saving the life of one man ; and if such laws should not yeeld to the perservation of so precious a life , it were a law made for evil and not for good , a snare and no defence , an enemy and no guardian or friend . 5. Necessity is the band , and necessity is the solution of a law . Necessitas facit licitum quod aliàs licitum non est , saith Alexander ad l. si ex toto , ff . de legibus . To the same purpose is that of Seneca , Necessitas , magnum humanae imbecillitatis patrocinium , quicquid cogit , excusat , Necessity makes every thing lawful to which it does compel . But of all necessities that is the greatest which is the safety of our lives , and a rescue from death : this case therefore is greater then the band of humane Laws . 6. The laws of God in precepts purely affirmative doe not oblige to an actual obedience in the danger of death . That is , in such positive laws of God which doe not involve a negative , of an intrinsick malice against a law of nature or of prime rectitude , the laws of God intend not to oblige , when death shall be the reward of him that does obey . Thus the Maccabees brake the rest of the Sabbath to defend themselves against their enemies ; and the Priests for the uses of Religion , and the Disciples of Christ to satisfy their hunger ; and Christ was their Advocate . Thus David and his followers did eat the Shew-bread expresly against the commandement , but it was in his great need ; and Christ also was his Advocate and defended the fact : and if a probable necessity , that is a great charity and relief , which is but the avenue and the address of an extreme necessity , be a sufficient excuse from the actual observation of a law of God , positive and affirmative , much more shall an extreme necessity excuse from such a law , and therefore yet more strongly does it conclude against the pressure of a humane law in such cases . And therefore the Church hath declared that the Ecclesiastical laws of fasting doe not oblige in case of sickness or old age , or journey and great lassitude , cap. consilium de observatione jejunii : and thus also no man is bound to goe to Church on a festival to hear Divine Service when an enemy lies in wait to kill him : that is , the laws of the Church were intended for the good of the soul , and therefore not suffer'd to doe hurt to the body ; and as God affirms he will have mercy and not sacrifice , and therefore himself makes his own laws , that can yeeld at all , to yeeld to the occasions and calls of mercy : so does the Church in the imitation of God , whose laws and gentleness is our best measure ; not that every little excuse and trifling pretence can excuse , but the danger of death , or sickness , or some very great evil reasonably fear'd ; of which I shall by and by give an account . Although the Rule thus understood be certain and evident for these reasons , yet there are some adversaria or seeming oppositions very fit to be considered ; because although they doe not evacuate the intent of the Rule , yet they give limit and further explication to it . 1. Cajetan affirms every law that binds under pain of mortal sin , does also bind to obedience though death attend it ; and his reason is , because we must rather die then commit a sin : and therefore let the instance be what it will , if it ties to obedience by obliging the conscience , it is a sin to disobey , and rather then sin we must chuse to die . 2. * And that no man should question the power of the Superiour in obliging to suffer death , we find by the practice and consent of all the world that Princes can call their Subjects to battel , and command their Officers upon dangerous services , and the Souldiers are bound not to desert their station ; and the Master of the Ship was oblig'd to put to Sea in a storm when Caesar bade him . 3. * For since the law is intended for a publick good , the private interest ( be it never so great ) is not to be put in ballance against it . And therefore as it is in the Laws of God , and in the confession of faith , the brave sons of Eleazar did suffer death with torments rather then eat swines flesh , and the Martyrs gave their lives in a willing sacrifice rather then deny their faith : so in their proportion it must be in the laws of men , they must be kept up though we die for it . Melius est ut unus quàm Unitas , It is expedient that one man die for the people , one member for the whole body , rather one then the unity be dissolv'd , and the community ruin'd . To these things I answer , first , that the proposition of Cajetan is not true in its latitude . For whatever binds to obedience under pain of sin , does not intend to bind to obedience with the loss of our life under sin . It is true that we must rather die then sin ; but we doe not sin in not obeying , when he that obeys shall die for it ; and that being the question ought not to be presum'd by any opponent in prejudice of truth or probabilty . Humane laws bind to obedience , and Gods law annexes the penalty of sin ; but then Gods law coming in to second mans law , seconds it but in what it would oblige . But humane Laws doe not intend , regularly and in all cases to be obeyed with the loss of life or limb ; and when the Law does not sufficiently express such intention , we are to presume for liberty and mercy . * Now that which follows is true in some sense ; the publick is to be preferr'd before the private , and the supreme power can oblige the Subjects to suffer death or to venture their lives : but this cannot be in all cases . For if in all , then is the Magistrate the Lord of life and death , which is Gods peculiar ; but if he could in no case , then he were not the minister of life and death , which is communicated to the Magistrate . The inquiry therefore now is , since regularly he cannot , and yet extraordinarily the supreme power can tie on his laws upon our shoulders with the cords of death , in what cases this is true , and in what it fails . 1. When a Law is decreed by man with the appendage of a penalty of death for its sanction , it can bind to obedience though death be in it . For since the matter of the law is by the Legislative power valued at the price of our lives , and by accident the very keeping of it as well as the breaking is set at no less price , the evils of either side being equal , the presumption and advantage must be on the part of justice and the law , not for injustice , tyranny and disobedience . And so much the rather , because that the obedience should cause death is but rare and accidental , not foreseen , but seldome happening ; but the law threatning death to the disobedient is a regular , constant , observed , and declared provision : and therefore that which is for good , and regularly is established by the fear of death , is not to be put out of countenance by a contingent , rare and extraordinary fear , and which also is intended for evil ; for which in this case there could be no provision , and therefore there ought to be no regard . But this holds onely in case that death on either side be equally certain ; for if it be certain the obedient man shall die by the hand of a Tyrant , or an accident that is prepar'd , and it be likely he may escape from the hands of the law by concealment , or by the relief of equity or charity , then the natural right of self-preservation will be his apology ; this man despises not the law , but extricates himself as well as he can , and for a reason , which of all considerations meerly humane is the greatest . 2. When the Tyrant power threatens death to obedient Subjects , for no other end but that the Subject should contemn the law , then the Superiour can oblige us to obedience though we die for it . For it is in this as in those positive and affirmative laws of God , which although they yeeld to save the Subjects life , yet they will never yeeld in the corruption of the Subjects manners : that is , they yeeld in charity , but not to serve a Tyrants lust . And thus we understand the reason of the difference between the cession of the law of the Sabbath in the case of the Maccabees , and the not cession of the prohibition of swines-flesh in the case of the Jewish subjects . For the fear of death was equal to them both : if the Princes did not fight upon the Sabbath , they should be cut in pieces ; and if the Subjects did not eat swines-flesh , they should die with torments . But they preserv'd themselves , and these did not , and both were innocent . The reason of the difference is plainly this ; They that offer'd swines-flesh to these did it as enemies of the Religion ; they that fought with those upon the Sabbath did it as enemies of the Nation , onely they would take advantage by the prohibitions of the Religion . Now when death is threatned by the enemies of the Religion , it is with purpose to affront it , or destroy it ; and therefore if the Mother and her seven sons had complied , it had been a renouncing of their faith and their religion , and a contempt of their law ; which could not be supposed in the other case of the Princes , not onely because both the Princes and the Army could not be supposed to be despisers of the law , but also because that very breaking of the law , was with fighting in the defence of the law and the whole Nation . And so it is in humane Laws : The sacredness of the Authority may be established with our life ; and because to contemn them is always a sin , we must rather die then doe it , though the matter of it self be less and doe not require it . But this is also to be limited . For it is true that we must rather die then contemn the laws , but yet he that breaks them for no other reason then to save his life , is not a contemner of the law , for he hath great reason , and a great necessity ; and therefore it is not contempt , but is to be presum'd the contrary , therefore this is to be understood , when 1. Either the law expresly commands we should die rather then break it . Or 2. Hath declar'd that in such circumstances to comply shall be a contempt by interpretation . Or 3. When it is notorious that it is so intended by the Tyrant power : and 4. The Law-giver expresly requires our fortitude and resistance ; for unless it be in such cases , though the law can bind , yet it does not . The summe is this ; when death is likely to be the consequent of obedience by accident and the chance of things or the providence of God abstractly , then it is not to be expounded to be contempt . Because in such cases God tempts not . But when an enemy or a Tyrant power tempts with the fear of death , he does it in defiance of the law or the authority , and therefore here we must obey and die . And this distinction is very much to be regarded . For if a Prince or an Ecclesiastick Superiour make a Law , it is to be presumed that they doe it not ( for they have no interest to doe it ) in despite of chance to binde to obedience in the danger of death : and therefore it is a rack of their power to extend it to such a case . But they may have interest and publick necessity to exact this obedience when an opposite power threatens death , that they may destroy the Law. 3. The same also is the case of 1 Scandal , or 2 injury to Religion , or 3 the Confession of our faith , in all which cases we are oblig'd to die rather then break a positive law of God or Man. And this is that which S. Austin said , Satius est fame mori quam idolothytis vesci , It is better to di● with hunger , then to save our lives by eating things sacrificed to idols . That is , when the so doing is an interpretative renunciation of our religion , or the laws of our Superiour forbidding it , or is a scandal to a weak brother . And this is it that S. Paul said , I will eat no flesh as long as the world stands rather then cause my brother to offend . But in this there is no difficulty . 4. Humane Laws bind to their observation though with the danger of death , when that danger is either expresly in the law , or in the matter and instance of it annexed to the obedience . Thus the supreme Power can command the Curates of souls to attend a Cure in the time of the Plague , ●o goe to Sea in a storm , to stand in a breach for the defence of the Army . For in these cases he that hath power to doe it , hath expresly commanded it ; and to undergoe the danger of death is of the substance of the action and obedience , and is neither besides the intention nor the knowledge of the Law-giver : and therefore if the Law did not bind to obedience notwithstanding the danger of death , it were no law at all . For to a Prince commanding to goe to Sea in a storm , it is in vain to say it is a storm ; and that Souldier is a fool that tells his General he is afraid to die , when he sends him upon an honourable service . 5. But all these cases are to be provided so that they be in gravi materia , that the cause be great , and the necessity urgent , and the publick good concerned , for mens lives are not to be jested away : and though Scipio Major had power to carry his three hundred brave fellows ( that he so boasted of in Sicily ) to the African warre , yet he had no power to command them to run up the neighbouring Tower and leap headlong into the Sea for bravery and to shew his power . 6. One thing more is to be added . In those cases in which humane Laws doe oblige even in the danger of death , they doe not oblige but for their whole portion ; that is , when the whole end of the law is not destroyed or hazarded by the disobedience , but that the caution and end of the law may be secur'd and observ'd in all or in the greatest part ; a man may then by not observing the law , save his own life and be innocent . And this is the rule of Aquinas , and it is very reasonable , Quando est causa rationabilis , & non impeditur finis legis , not peccat mortaliter qui non observat legem , Upon a just cause a man may without a crime break a law , when by such transgression the end of the law is not hindred . As if a law be made that corn shall not be transported , because of an imminent famine , and for the preservation of the Citizens , if any man to save his life shall comply with an inevitable accident and necessity , and carry some abroad , his necessity is a just excuse , because he hath not destroyed the end of the law , since his proportion and lading causes no sensible detriment to the publick : and though every single man must not pretend that his single proportion will be no great matter ( because that is not sufficient unless there be a great necessity to doe it ; ) yet when there is such a necessity , it will suffice that he did it not but upon a violent need , and what he did was not a destruction to the end of the law ; and his example cannot have any evil effect of it self ; for other men cannot say , Why may not I as well as he ? Unless the necessity be as exemplary as the action , and unless they be in the like evident danger of death , they cannot pretend to the like impunity . They that are in no danger may not , but he that is may , when the Subjects safety can stand with the safety of the publick . For although the head may expose one member to loss and amputation to preserve the whole , yet when the whole can be safe without it , the member may preserve it self and refuse to be cut off : and nothing is greater then the safety of a part , but the safety of the whole . But the Rule affirms that not onely danger of death , but the avoyding of a very grievous and intolerable evil is sufficient to excuse disobedience to humane Laws from being a sin . But this is particularly to be considered in the following Rules . RULE III. The Laws of our Superiour that are not just and good , doe not oblige the Conscience . 1. LAws are publick mischiefs if they bind to injustice ; and therefore to establish any thing that is unjust or evil is against the nature of Laws , and the power of the Superiour , and the intendment of the Supreme . For God gives to no man power above or against himself . Now a Law is unjust upon many defects . 1. If it be made by an incompetent person , that is , one who hath no authority . Cajus and Sejus were fellow-servants to Ruricanus . Cajus commands Sejus to goe to plough . Sejus demands , quo jure ? And he was in the right . Cajus was the wiser man , and he was the older , and better imployed , but he was not his Lord. Par in parem imperium non habet , says the Law. 2. If it be made in an incompetent and undue matter . When Saul commanded the man of Amalek , Sta super me , & interfice me , Fall upon me and kill me ; he was indeed a Prince , but in that matter he could make no law , and therefore was not to be obeyed . And the Ancients tell that when Mercury was accus'd for the murder of Argus , though he pleaded that he did it by the command of Jupiter , yet the Gods did not acquit him : and though Marc Anthony did worse for his own revenge to kill Cicero , yet Pothinus did ill too when he kill'd the brave Pompey , though at the command of his Master Ptolemy . Antoni tamen est pejor quàm causa Pothini ; Hic facinus Domino praestitit , ille sibi . Anthony was infinitely to be condemn'd , and Pothinus not to be justified . And upon this account , every law made against Religion , or any thing of Divine sanction and commandement , is void , and cannot oblige the conscience . To which purpose who please , may read an excellent discourse of S. Bernard in his seventh Epistle which is to Adam the Monk. Upon this account a Thief cannot begin a prescription against the right of the just owner , because his theft being against the law of God , cannot begin a just title by the laws of men . Thus although the laws * permit a man to possess what by an unjust price or bargain he hath acquir'd , yet because this is unjust and uncharitable to deceive his neighbour , the injurious person is bound to restore , and is not indemnified before God by any warranty from the contrary civil law : Ye shall not lie , saith our Lord God , nor deceive every one his neighbour : and let no man defraud or circumvent his neighbour in bargaining , saith S. Paul. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said the old Attick law , from the voice of nature ; which Cicero well renders , tollendum esse ex rebus contrahendis omne mendacium , no lie must at all●be used in bargaining : and therefore the law of man to the contrary is invalid ; though I suppose the civil Law intends onely to barre an action in the outward Court , but not to give warrant to the conscience . 3. Humane laws may be unjust when a just power in a competent matter passes on to excess , and goes beyond it's bounds . He that excommunicates one that is not of his Diocess does not oblige the excommunicate person by the sentence : and Pilate had nothing to doe with the Holy Jesus till Herod had sent him back to him ; for to his jurisdiction he did belong . Thus if a Priest or a Bishop absolves a guilty person ▪ he binds himself , but looses not the other . For no excess of power produces any effect of law , or tie upon the Conscience . And to this purpose is that Rule of the law , Sententia non à suo Judice lata , nulla est : which is excellently rendred by S. Paul , What art thou , O man , who judgest another mans servant ? Upon this account , all humane laws prescribing to the Conscience , or giving bounds to the thoughts , are null . For in these things God onely is Judge , and all other Judicatories are incompetent : I say all other judicatories ; for as for sentences declaratory of a Divine law , that is not under this restraint . But of that in it 's own place . 4. Humane laws may be unjust , by a defect of the just and due end ; that is , when the law does not contribute to the publick advantage , but wholly to his private who made the law . If the law be apt to minister to the publick good , whatever the private interest and design of the Prince be , it may spoil the man but not the law . If a Prince espying the luxury of feasts and garments make sumptuary laws , and impose fines upon the transgressors , and does this onely to get the money , indeed he is not a good man ; but so long as the law is good , it does oblige the Conscience . The enemies of the memory of K. Henry 8. of England pretend that he annull'd the Popes authority in England onely upon designs of lust and revenge . Suppose this true ; yet as long as he did good , though for evil ends , it is the worse for him , but not for us ; but if the Prince does not , yet the law must intend the publick benefit : and that also is the duty of the Prince . Non prospectantes proprii jura commodi , sed consulentes patriae atque genti , said the Fathers of the eighth Council of Toledo . Kings must not look after their own profit , but make provisions for their country and their people . Officium est imperare , non regnum , To rule is not empire , but office , said Seneca ; and therefore the Greeks call Kings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saies Plutarch , that signifies persons appointed to take care and to defend the people . Tu civem patremque geras , tu consule cunctis , Non tibi , nec tua te moveant sed publica damna . Take care of the publick , not of thy particular , and let the common calamity move thee most : and since the power it self is designed for the publick good , the laws must be so too . And therefore when the law saies that a law ought to be a common precept ; that is , pro communi utilitate statutum , saies the gloss , that is , it must be for the common good . Conditur utilitatis gratiâ lex , saies Plato , every just law is made for the good of the people : and from him Marsilius Ficinus defines a law to be , a true manner of governing , which by profitable ways tends to the best end , that is , the publick good ; and Isidore saies , Lex erit omne quod ratione constiterit , duntaxat quod religioni congruat , quod disciplinae conveniat , quod saluti proficiat , A law is that which agrees with reason , that is consonant to religion , and accords with discipline , and is profitable and does good . And therefore if a Prince make a law which is for his own profit , and not for the publick good , he is a Tyrant ; and his laws have no sanction but fear , and noe tie at all upon the Conscience . And this is the doctrine of Aristotle , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A King and a Tyrant differ very much : A Tyrant considers his own profit ; a King the profit of his people : and under this consideration comes that Prince that laies grievous burthens upon his people . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those that take great summs from them they ought not , and those which they ought not , as Tyrants , destroyers of Cities and robbers of Temples , we doe not call them Covetous , but wicked , and impious , and unjust . And therefore they who doe such things by laws made on purpose , doe it by tyranny , and therefore not by law , or just authority , & consequently by none . In such cases we must suffer as it happens : but we may avoid the burden of the law , where we can peaceably and privately . For all such things as are against the good of the subjects , the law it self declares to be no law ; that is , to be more then the superior hath right or leave to doe . Nulla juris actio aut benignitas patitur ut quae salubriter pro hominum utilitate introducuntur , ea nos duriore interpretatione contra ipsorum commodum producamus ad severitatem , saies the law , l. nulla , ff . de legibus : No law , no charity suffers us to make that by interpretation hard and against their profit , for whose profit it was first decreed by a salutary sanction . And therefore it is observable that all laws doe infinitely decline all harsh senses , and are ambitious of gentle and benign interpretations ; which is in the whole world the greatest declaration that law-givers as they ought not , so they profess they doe not intend to grieve the subject by an unequal burden . It was a Princely saying of Trajan , when he put a sword upon the thigh of the Prefect of the Praetorian bands , Cape hunc , & si quidem rectè & ex utilitate omnium imperavero , pro me , sin aliter , contra me utere , Use this sword on my behalf if I govern rightly and to the publick benefit ; if not , use it against me . That was too much , but his purpose was excellent ; he knew it was his duty to rule by that measure onely ; beyond that his power was incompetent . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , He that does not so , is a King by fortune , but indeed a Tyrant , and any thing rather then a King. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saies Aristotle , For he pursues his own , not his peoples good : and that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the stain of Monarchy , that is , plainly Tyranny . Tiberius said well , Dixi & nunc & saepe alias , P. C. bonum & salutarem principem , quem vos tanta & tam libera potestate instruxistis , Senatui servire debere , & universis civibus ; saepe ac plerumque etiam singulis , neque id dixisse me poenitet . A good and a gentle Prince ought to serve the profit of his Nobility , his Senate and Citizens ; not onely all but each single Citizen , as there is occasion : and therefore Rudolphus of Austria was very angry with his Guards for hindring petitioners to come to him ; Let them come , saies he , for I was not made an Emperor to be shut up in a box . Sinite parv●los ad me venire saith our Bl. Lord , the King of Kings , and the Lord of Lords , Suffer my little ones to come unto me . But the reason and demonstration of all is contained in those words of Seneca , saying a Prince should think with himself , Ego ex omnibus mortalibus placui electusque sum qui Deorum vice in terris fungerer , I am chosen from the heap of mortals to stand in the place of God , to doe as he does ; that is , to doe all things justly , and to doe all things for the benefit of the people : now since the Prince hath his power from God , he can have no power to doe otherwise then God does . Admittere in animum totius reip . curam & populi fata suscipere , & oblitum quodammodo sui , gentibus vivere ; noctes omnes diesque perpeti solicitudinem , pro salute omnium cogitare . So Pliny describes the office of a Prince , to take care of the whole republick , to live to them not to himself ; daies and nights to suffer anxiety in thinking for the profit and welfare of all . This is the limit of a Princes power so far as he relates to Conscience . For beyond this the Conscience is not bound . The body is , and we must suffer patiently the evil which we cannot deprecate ; but laws that are made to purposes beyond these measures doe no waies oblige the Conscience . He is the Minister of God for thy good , saith S. Paul ; otherwise he is not Gods Minister , and hath to other purposes none of Gods authority , and therefore cannot oblige the Conscience to an active obedience in such where his power is incompetent to command . 5. Thus , when a law by the change of things or cases is become an enemy to the common good , it is not to be observed , saith Aquinas ; and he gives this instance : A law is made that in the time of sieges the gates of a City be alwaies kept shut ; but the guards are not tied to obey this law , when the citizens fly thither from the danger of the enemy : and so in all equal cases , concerning which this is the Rule . The Prince is to be presumed good and gentle ; and if he be not so , he is to be suppos'd so , and made so at least by fiction of law : whatsoever therefore case does happen in which the Citizens are grieved , it is to be supposed that it is besides the intention of the law , and was not in the prevision of the Prince ; but we are to rely upon this , That he who is good and gentle , and a Father of his Country , would , if he were here and observed this evil , untie the law , that he might not tie us to the evil : and because he is not here , but his will is here , the law with so much evil to us is not to be observed ; for his leave to break it is to be presumed . 6. Hither is to be reduced the injustice of unequal distributions ; such as is , a law forbidding beggers to goe from place to place to seek relief , when there is no relief at home ; the law of commanding every village or parish to provide for their poor , which indeed is piously and charitably intended , but because when it is reduc'd to practice it falls heavily upon some , and others touch it not with the top of their fingers , the law which was good in thesi , proves unjust in hypothesi , and therefore does not oblige the Conscience ; but they who are under it , may not onely seek relief by petition , but by avoiding it where they can piously and charitably , according to the measures by and by to be described . For it is the voice of natural justice and reason , which S. Paul urges to his charges , not that there should be ease to one and burden to another : this is against equity , as having in it so great disproportionate inequality . 7. Lastly , of the same consideration it is , that in the making laws of burden , there be equality and proportion between the burden and the cause of the imposition ; that the burden be not greater then the evil it intends to remedy , nor the remedy greater then the disease needs , nor yet greater then men can bare . For what is excessive in these case , is against the charity and justice of the Prince , and is matter of rapine and impiety , not of subsidy and prudent provisions : and therefore though it may oppress the subject , who hath no remedy but prayers and tears ; yet the Conscience is at liberty , and may procure remissions by any waies of peace and piety . But in the reducing of this to practice , these cautions are to be observed . 1. That though the conscience be free from all laws which are unjust upon any of these accounts , yet that the law be not disobeyed with the scandal and offence of others , it must be so done that none be taught to rebel , or evacuate the law upon pretences and little regards , nor that our duty and religion be evil spoken of , nor that the Superiour be made jealous and suspicious . When our Blessed Saviour had proved himself free from tribute , and that in conscience he was not bound to pay it , yet that he might not give offence , he submitted to the imposition . And this caution is given by all the Doctors , who follow Bartholus in it , capite 1. de constitutionibus . 2. The inconvenience of the republick must not be trifling and contemptible , but so great as must in the judgement of good and prudent men be a sufficient cause of annulling the law , so great as must reasonably outweigh the evil of material disobedience . And therefore in the injustice of unequal distributions , and imposition of taxes , we are not to complain for every little pressure , nor yet to weigh the proportions in gold-scales ; for it is a greater duty of charity that the Subject quietly bear a little load for peace sake and example and compliance , then it can be of duty in the Prince to make such exact , curious and Mathematical proportions . 3. The inconvenience and injutice must be certain , notorious , and relied upon , before it can be made use of to the breach of a law . For it is no warranty to disobey , that I fancy the law to be unjust : & therefore in this case the best security we can have is , that either it be so declared by the voice of all men , or the more sober accents of the wise men , or be evident in it self according to the strictest measures ; for where there is a doubtful case , the presumption always is for obedience , not against it : for although usually in doubts , the presumption is for liberty , yet that is either between private persons , or when the Superiour makes a doubt concerning his own laws , then he is to judge for liberty and ease ; but in our own cases , and in dispute with a law , the presumption is on behalf of the law , because ordinarily that is the greates interest , and the greatest reason . 4. When there is a favourable case for breaking a law , if we have time and opportunity we must ask leave of the Superiour . Because as that does honour to the Superiour , and gives value to the law ; so it is the greatest course of security , because it makes him Judge who onely can complain . But to this we are not oblig'd if the case be evident , or if the danger of evil be imminent and sudden , and there be no time or opportunity to require it : In these cases a leave is to be presumed , or else it need not , for the law does not oblige . 5. This is to be practis'd onely when the law is against the publick good . For if it be still consistent with the publick interest , though it be against the good of a particular person , the law hath left a power of dispensation in the appointed Ministers ; but a private person may not so easily break the law , at least he is tied to other conditions , and more caution , and a severer conduct ; of which I am to give account in the Chapter of the Diminution of Laws . But for the present , the difference is onely in speculation : for notwithstanding the personal inconvenience , the law does still bind the conscience of the Subjects in general ; but if it be against the publick emolument , then the law ceases , and it does not oblige . In the first case the particular is to be relieved by a way of his own ; of which I am afterwards to speak : but in this case the conscience is at liberty . Thus when the Church makes a law that upon a certain day the people shall meet in publick , and spend their day in fasting and prayer ; it is a good law , and may be for the publick good , though Petronia and Abbatilla be with child and cannot fast : All are bound , but from these the yoke may be lifted up for the present . But if a Church make a law that all the Clergy shall lose their livings and their office if they marry ; here there is a mischief to the publick , to a whole order of men ; and the law cannot doe so much good accidentally , as it directly does mischief . And the confession of Suarez upon another occasion , but in this very instance , is remarkable , Custodiam virginitatis esse opus supererogationis , quod necessariam non habet conjunctionem cum fine publici commodi ; & ergo non posse praecipi lege humana , That virginity should be kept is a work of supererogation , that hath no necessary conjunction with the end of any publick good ; and therefore cannot be enjoyn'd by a humane law . Either then the law of the Church of Rome forbidding the Clergy to marry , does not tie them to be Virgins , but gives them leave to fornicate ; or if it does tie them to a Virgins state , she makes a law which is not for the publick good , and therefore in which she hath no competent authority . This therefore is an unjust law , and does not oblige the conscience . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Polycarpus ; We are taught to give to Princes and the powers set over us by God such honour and obedience as may not hurt us . RULE IV. A law that is founded upon a false presumption , does not oblige the Conscience . THE case is this ; Francisco Biretti a Venetian Gentleman , full of amours , & us'd to vain and wanton addresses , courts Julia a Senators daughter , but with secret intent to abuse her and so to leave her . Marco Medici the Father of Julia by threats and harsh usages forces his daughter Julia to consent to a contract with Francisco : who perceiving himself surprised , and that the matter was pass'd further then he intended it , resolv'd to make the best of it , to make a contract , to lie with her , and so to leave her . He does so , surprises her in the careless hours of the day , and the nakedness of her soul , and with flatteries mingled with the affrighting name of her harsh Father , acts his intention , and then pursues it till he was weary of her , and then forsakes her . She complains , and desires remedy . The law declares their congress to be a marriage . But in the mean time Francisco pass'd into Sicily , and there married Antonia Peronetta a Sicilian Lady ; her he lov'd , intended to make her his wife , and did so . Now the law presumes that after contract , their congress did declare a marriage , cap. Is qui fidem , and cap. Tua nos , de sponsal . for it supposes and presumes a consent , and yet withal says if there was no consent , it was no marriage . Here Francisco is condemn'd by the presumption , and reliev'd in conscience . For if he did not lie with her affectu maritali , but onely intended to abuse her , he was indeed extremely impious and unjust ; but he made no marriage , for without mutual consent marriages are not made . Yet because of this , the law could no way judge but by outward significations , and ut plurimùm , for the most part it is so that contract and congress doe effect as well as signify a marriage , the law did well to declare in the behalf of Juliae : but Francisco , who knew that which the law could not know , was bound to make amends to Julia as well as he could , but to pursue the marriage of Anthonia and dwell with her . For the presumption upon which this law was founded was false ; the congress did not prove a marriage , for it was never intended : the presumption was probable , but fail'd in this instance , and therefore in this case did not oblige the conscience . Conscience is to be guided by presumptions when it hath no better guide ; but when it hath a certain truth to guide it , it is better then the best presumption or probability . * Besides this , when a law is made upon a supposition , and relies upon that alone , in case that should fail , it is to be presum'd that the Law-giver does not intend to bind . When the men of Aegina were at warre with the Athenians , they made it death by their law for any Athenian to be seen in their Country . But when Plato was made a slave and was carried thither by a storm , one of the Citizens sav'd his life by an artifice , and did it according to the intention of the law . For the law being founded upon a presumption that if an Athenian came thither , it was for evil to their Town , they could not suspect that Plato had such an evil intention , when they knew his case and his sad story ; and therefore ought to judge him quit from the burden of that law . Dom. Joseph of Carreras a Spaniard walking one night in Sivil , was taken by the Alcalde , and found to have arms about him , against the Law ; but carrying of him to prison they found at the end of that street a man newly murdered : the law presum'd him to be the murderer , as it does aptly suspect such persons who at unseasonable times walk arm'd : he was accus'd , but finding friends was acquitted for his life , but sentenc'd to maintain the widow and children of the dead man. He knew himself innocent , and therefore was not bound in conscience to maintain her , because the law relying upon a false presumption , was a dead letter , and could not bind . But that there be no error in the practice of this , we must distinguish of presumptions . One sort is in matter of fact , the other is upon presupposition of dangers usually arising : that is of justice , this of caution . The examples which I have already brought are all meer and unmixt presumptions of fact ; in which cases the rule does hold without exception . But in presumptions of caution it is otherwise . The law does irritate and evacuate the contracts of minors , because they being weak and indiscreet , it is presum'd that they doe it foolishly whatever they doe ; and it is fit that the laws should be their defensatives against the evils of their ignorance . But now some minors under sixteen years of age are of a ripe wit , and competent judgement , and have craft enough to make a bargain , to consider what they promise , and to beware of the artifices of evil men . But yet although the presumption of the law fails as to their particulars , yet their parents may annul their promises , their vows , and their professions , though the presumption of the law in their case doe fail . The reason of the difference is this : In presumptions of fact , if the truth of the fact fails , the whole foundation of the law does fail ; for the foundation is indivisible , and the law had no other support ; if any thing of it fails , it all fails . But in presumptions of caution , or of presupposition of danger which does usually happen , it is wholly otherwise ; for though it does fail in some instances , yet it is true in most , and that is sufficient to support a law , which looks after that which is most common , not after rare emergencies . And therefore the law in this case does not in proper speaking rely upon a presumption , but a certain judgement ; for it is certainly true that it is so most commonly ; and it is presum'd so of every particular : at least the law knows not how to distinguish them , and therefore is a just and a wise law , conducing to the publick benefit , and consequently is a good measure to the conscience . Onely this caution is to be inserted , That if a minor make a contract , as if a young man under 16 , or a maiden under 14 make a contract of marriage , although this is not valid in law till their years of consent be completed ; yet if they have a mature judgement otherwise then the law did presume them to have , they are tied in conscience to verify this contract , if all those conditions were observed which could make the act valid ●n the law of nature , because no civil law can evacuate a natural ; and where they are naturally able , they are by their own act under that law naturally oblig'd : but this , although it be an essential consideration as to conscience , yet it is wholly extrinsecal to this Rule . But there is one distinction more of use to the explication of this Rule . Laws founded upon presumption are either laws of favour or laws of duty . Those that are made in favour may be made use of onely when that supposition upon which it is founded is really true , but must not be us'd to the prejudice of any , whether it be true or false . And of this nature , or reducible to it , is the case that Cicero de Oratore speaks of . A Roman Citizen supposing his onely son to be dead , declares a kinsman to be his heir . The son afterwards appears ; and by a true presumption that if his Father had suppos'd him living , he would not have disinherited him , is reliev'd against a false presumption which suppos'd him dead . And it hath left a stain upon the honour of Davids justice and friendship with Jonathan , that when he had listned to the false information of Ziba against his friends son Mephibosheth ; and gave the land to the informer ; he yet upon a right notice of the cause restor'd but half . For this cause , say the Doctors of the Jews , God divided his Kingdome , and gave the bigger half from his Grandchild Rehoboam to his servant . But if the laws be matter of duty , and enjoyn something that is good or useful to the publick , whether the presumption be right or wrong , they doe oblige : and the reason is , because the presumption , whether it was in fact or in caution , yet it was not the whole foundation of the law ; or if it was alone built upon it at first , yet it is supported by other arguments strong enough to affirm the law . If a law were made in England , that whoever comes not to Divine Service in publick Churches should be punished by a mulct of 20 li. a moneth , the fine of Recusancy , upon a presumption that he that is absent is so indeed , this law were as much incumbent upon them that are not Recusants : for although the law was at first made upon that presumption , yet because otherwise it commands a very good act , which alone and without the presumption were a sufficient inducement to the law , the Conscience of those who are , and those who are not in the first presumption are equally oblig'd . RULE V. Humane laws doe bind the Conscience to or from an act in secret , as well as in pubick . SOme things are secret or private in their own nature , such as are onely the prerogative of God to judge of ; as the word of the mind , the thoughts of the heart , the desires and repudiations of the affections , the inclinations and tendencies to an object , love and hatred , the pleasures or displeasures of the fancy , acts of judgment and understanding . These God onely knowes , and he onely punishes . * Others are secret , but yet they are such onely by accident , and for want of proof : and these also are more or less ; for some are seen by one witness , and some by more ; and they that are seen , either are brought to judgment , or not . Now according to the parts of these distinctions , this Rule is in several manners to be verified . 1. Those actions which were done in secret , but under the observation of a few , when they are brought to judgement change their nature , and become publick , and therefore are equally under the power of the Law , as if they were done in the Market . For in the Law , that is called Notorious which is either declar'd in judgment , or prov'd by witnesses , or evident by the intuition of the fact . And that actions , in this sense at first secret , are subjicible to laws , is clear by the very examination of witnesses and the whole process of law . For the Judge takes notice of no other notoreity : if a Judge sees a thing done , he cannot punish it ; he must witness it , and another punish it . All that is notorious to the Judge must first be secret , and then publick ; that is made manifest or notorious by witnesses and sentences of Judges . 2. Some actions are secret , because they can be proved onely by one witness . Now it is true that in some cases one witness is sufficient , as in the case of treason ; or in case of confession , for his own witness against himself is as good as ten thousand : when it is so , it is manifestum as before , and therefore the same thing is to be affirmed of it . But if it be secret , so that it cannot be competently proved , it is true that the law does not punish it , but it fain would ; and therefore declares that the private action is a disobedience and transgression . 3. If the action be done wholly in secret , then indeed the criminal Judge takes no notice of it any more then a man abiding in the city does of his country house on fire before he knows of it ; but as one is an unknown calamity to the man , so the other is an unknown transgression of the law . For that the thing is known or unknown it alters the case as to the punishment , yet nothing at all as to the offence , the scandal onely excepted and the example . Now that the law does intend to forbid such actions , it appears by the acts of scrutiny , and the proceedings against such as come accidentally to be discover'd . If a suspicion doe arise or any probability , any fame or rumor , the law begins her process , somewhere by torture , somewhere by examination upon oath , and sometimes gives sentence upon conjectures . Now if to this it be replied , that this is the beginning of publication , and the law proceeds onely in proportion to its being publick ; I answer , that it is true , she can proceed no otherwise : and therefore if the question here had been whether secret actions were punishable by humane laws , I should have answer'd otherwise , and so the lawyers dispute it : but here the inquiry being whether the Conscience be oblig'd , I am to say that the publication of it does not make it to be a sin ; this reveals the action , & the law declares or makes it to be a sin ; for a man is not hanged for theft unless he be discover'd , but if he be , then it is for his theft he is punished , not for his discovery . The consequent of which is this ; that if the action be against the law , be it never so secret , it is a sin : and here is the advantage of the wisdome and Oeconomy of God in the verification of humane laws ; he confirms the laws of men , and he binds in heaven what they bind on earth , and he also knows in earth what is done in the most secret corner , and judges accordingly . 4. But as for those things which are secret in their own nature , such which are not onely not known , but not cognoscible by humane laws and judicatories , the case is much more difficult , it being generally taught by Divines that no humane laws have power to prescribe internal acts ; and consequently that whatever we think or wish , so we doe the thing that is commanded , the law of man is satisfied . Question . Whether humane laws can command or forbid inward acts . But having as well as I could consider'd the secret of this thing , I rest finally upon this account . It being certain and confessed that the laws of Man have power to constitute actions of themselves indifferent , into the order of vertue and vice , making that to be incest which before the law was not , and that to be theft which in other countries is lawful , and so in other instances ; if the law does change the action onely so as to make it meerly to be an instance of obedience or disobedience , then the law hath no power over internal actions : for man is not the Lord of Consciences and minds , and we are not tied to obey any man commanding an internal act ; his judicatory here is not competent , his authority is not sufficient . For it serves no end of the publick , and it hath no judicatory , no cognisance , and no interest : and it were as foolish as for a King to sit upon the strand and command the waters not to flow to his feet . * But if the law of man have chang'd an action not onely to an instance of obedience or disobedience , but plac'd it also in the order of some other vertue or vice , as by changing it to incest , or adultery , or chastity , or temperance respectively , then the law of man hath power over the Conscience even in the most secret act ; not directly , and by the energy of its own power , but indirectly , collaterally , and by accident , by reason of the laws of God. The reason is plain : because it is not lawful to commit adultery , or murder , or incest in our heart ; the law therefore that constitutes this action and makes it to be murder , does consequently oblige the Conscience not so much as to desire it . Voluntus facti origo est , quae ne tunc quidem liberatur quum aliquae difficultas perpetrationem intercepit . Ipsa enim sibi imputatur , nec excusari poterit per illam perficiendi infelicitatem operata quod suum fuerat : so Tertullian : The will is the original of action ; and is not free'd when she is hindred from doing what she would . Her own act is imputed to her ; for though no event succeeded , yet she did all her part . Thus in the Canon law Clementi● . 1. § verum de haereticis , the inquisitor of heretical pravity is excommunicate if either out of hatred or hope of gain he condemn the innocent , or for love and favour absolve the criminal : upon which the Gloss observes that the Superior can punish the sin of the heart , though it never proceed to action ; and to this Gloss Panormitan and Adrianus doe consent . Now if it be objected that here is an action external complicated with the internal , and that the law proceeds against that , not against this ; I answer , that it is certain the law cannot proceed to sentence against the internal , unless it be some way or in some degree publick : but that which I affirm is , that the law forbids the internal , or commands it , and that , in case the action be plac'd in the rank of vertue or vice distinct from the meer obedience or disobedience , and this is a pregnant instance of it ; for the condemning the innocent is therefore the more forbidden and the more condemned because it is presum'd to proceed from hatred . And therefore Cato argued well in behalf of the Rhodians , against whom it was mov'd in the Senate that a warre should be made , because they had some little light conjectures that they were not well affected to them ; and because some of the Rhodians had mov'd that they might help Perseus the King of Macedonia , in case peace could not be obtained for him : Cato made an oration in their behalf , affirming it to be unreasonable to punish them because they had a mind once to have made a warre . But this was therefore well said of Cato , because there was no proof that the Rhodians did intend it , and secretly or openly decree it . If they had intended it , it was penal , and when the intention had been prov'd , it might have been more reasonable to proceed to punish their breach of friendship . And this the Rhodians themselves confessed , that the Romans warr'd justly with Perseus for intending a warre against them ; but he so intended it , that he did something towards it ; but no City , no nation would destroy them who did nothing towards the evil which they secretly intended . Quis hoc statuit unquam , aut cui concedi sine summo omnium periculo potest , ut eum jure poterit occidere à quo metuisse se dicat ne ipse posterius occideretur ? said Cicero ; He indulges too much to his fear , and destroies the publick , that will kill any man whom he is pleas'd to fear , or say that he would first kill him . And the reason of that is , because there can be no sufficient proof of the secret thought , without it break forth at least into words and decrees and preparations . But Injuriam facit , qui facturus est , said Seneca . If it appears he was about to doe a mischief , he is guilty ; his secret was criminal : and that is it which is punished as often as it can . And this is more evident in the civil Law , l. si quis non dicam rapere , C. de Episcopis & Clericis . Where the very thought of ravishing a Virgin is punished . It is true , this thought was declared by the attempt or address to it : but because it was not consummate , it is evident that humane Laws bind to more then to or from the external action . The law that punishes the criminal before he hath acted the evil , punishes the internal principally : for in the address & first preparations nothing is done but the discovery of the thought ; but when the thought is so discovered , & the action is not done , if the man be punished , it is not for the action , but for the thought . And to this purpose is that of Cicero in his Oration pro T. Annio Milone , Nisi fortè quia perfecta res non est , non fuit punienda : perinde quasi exitus rerum , non hominum consilia , legibus vindicentur . Minus dolendum fuit , re non perfecta , sed puniendum certè nihilo minus . Not to punish the fault because the mischief was not done is as much as to say , that the laws are not avengers of evil purposes , but of evil events onely . Indeed if the mischief be not done , we grieve the less ; but if it was but intended , we punish it never the less . And to this Seneca in his controversies gives testimony , Scelera quoque , quamvis citra exitum subsederunt , puniuntur . The same with that of Periand●r , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , not onely those that doe , but those that would sin are to be punished . And to this sense all those laws which punish the affection , though the effect follows not , are to be understood , as Cap. pro humani , § . Sacri , de homicidio l. 6. & l. quisquis , C. ad legem Juliam majestatis ; & cap. 1. de schismaticis , § . omnem , l 6. & l. Fugitivus , ff . de verborum signif . l. Divus , ff . ad leg . Cornel. de Sicariis . But this is also further manifest in the differences of chance-medly , man-slaughter , and wilful murder ; where the action being wholly differenc'd by the thought of the heart , proves plainly that the thougts also are punish'd by humane Laws ever when they are manifest . And if the Divines and Lawyers would distinguish in this question the punishment from the crime , the Court external from the Court of Conscience , they would not erre in this article . For although a mans thoughts without some external action are not punished , because they are not known ; yet they could not be punished when they are known , if they were not punishable and criminal in themselves even against the laws of man. And therefore when Ulpian had said , Cogitationis poenam nemo patitur : Accursius addes , Si statum in finibus cogitationis est . No man can be punished for his thought ; that is , if it proceeds no further ; for then it is known to none but God. Upon this account we find sometimes in Laws , commands expresly enjoyning the internal action . Thus when the Council of Lateran had complained of some Clerks and Prelates that either wholly omitted their office , or said it negligently , it addes , Haec & similia sub poena suspensionis penitus inhibemus , districtè praecipientes in virtute obedientiae ut Divinum officium nocturnum pariter & diurnum , quantum eis dederit Deus , studiosè celebrent pariter & devoté : viz. that they say their office diligently and devoutly ; which because it is an act of the heart as well as of the outward man , it gives a clear evidence in this inquiry . But above all is that Novel of Justinian , which the late Greek Books have brought to light , it never having been noted by the Latine interpreters , in which the Emperour commanded that insolvent debtors who by misfortune , not by their crimes , were made poor , if they swore their insufficiency , were to be freed from all further trouble ; and the Creditors that refus'd to obey the edict should pay ten pound of gold ; and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for their meer thought of doing otherwise should be put to death . I end this with the saying of the Jewish Doctors , Quicquid sapientes vetant palàm fieri , id etiam in penetralibus vetitum est , Whatever the wise men forbid to be done in publick , the same must be understood to be forbidden in your closet . It was the saying of Rabbi Bachai . RULE VI. Humane Laws , before sufficient promulgation , doe not oblige the Conscience . AS the faults of Subjects are not cognoscible without publication : so neither are the wills of Princes . Leges sacratissimae quae constringunt hominum vitas intelligi ab hominibus debent , says the Law , l. leges , C. de legib . & constit . But in this there is no difficulty : all that is made is in the assignation of the sufficiency of the promulgation . A Spanish Lawyer , Selva , and he alone , so farre as I have heard or read , affirms the very solemn edition of it and declaration in the Court or Council to be sufficient . But as he speaks it wholly without reason , so he is to be rejected without farther trouble . Others require one proclamation in one or more places , according to the greatness of the Province or Jurisdiction ; but it can never be agreed positively how much is enough . Therefore so farre as our consciences can be concerned in it , these following propositions are certain , and they are sufficient . 1. It is not necessary that laws in their promulgation be so divulged , as that the notice of them reach every single subject . Not onely because in most laws all persons are not concerned , but also because it is morally impossible ; I mean in a great Province , where the laws are commonly of greatest concern , and the promulgation more to be regarded and more diligently endeavoured . For laws of men are not like the Sun , searching into all corners ; but as the law it self is such as regards that thing which happens most commonly , so the promulgation is of a symbolical nature , and can arrive but to most persons . 2. In all Princely and sweet Governments there must be such a publication of laws as must be fit to minister to the publick necessity and the publick duty , that laws be no snares , but piously intended , prudently conducted , sufficiently communicated , and reasonably exacted with abatement of all those deficiencies which are incident and unavoidable to mankind ; so that if what be in Council judg'd sufficient for promulgation , doe not prove so in the event of things , and in the Province , the defect be put upon the insufficient publication , not upon the account of disobedience . 3. Be the publication legally sufficient , or not sufficient , it is certain that the conscience is not tied by the law , till it be known . I doe not say but that the prevarication may be justly punish'd , because the law may be published as well as is morally possible , or prudently and civilly is requir'd , and yet some may inculpably be ignorant of it . But be it so or otherwise , it is impossible that they who know not of it can obey ; and if they cannot , they cannot be oblig'd : for that is no law , but madness , which obliges a man to that which is impossible . 4. The care and sufficiency of publication is wholly incumbent upon the Law-giver , not at all upon the Subject ; that is , the Subject is not bound to seek after the law , but onely to see that he doe not turn his ear from it , or studiously decline it , or endeavour to be ignorant . For a law , though it be for good to the publick , yet to the particular being a restraint upon our natural or political liberty respectively , no man is bound to seek his own fetters , or put the burden upon his own neck , but to wear it well when it is imposed : but to refuse to hear is the first act of disobedience ; but to hear is the first instance of obeying ; therefore till he hath heard , he is oblig'd to nothing . This hath no limitation or exception but this . If the Subject hath heard there is a law , he is bound to inquire after it , for then it is sufficiently publish'd : the Law-giver hath done his duty . But before he hath heard , it is to him as if it were not ; and that which is not cannot be numbred , cannot be accounted for . The first is sufficient to oblige him , he is bound because he knows , the will of the Law-giver hath bound him ; but then he must inquire for his own sake , for otherwise he cannot perform his obligation . 5. Although as to conscience the former measures are certain , yet the Legislator hath power to declare when the promulgation is sufficient for the nullifying of all contracts intervening , or evacuating priviledges , and changing all exteriour events of law ; because the being of all these depends upon the will of the Prince and of his law . Onely when this is reduc'd to practice , in the matter of contracts , if they were valid by the law of nature , he that did contract is oblig'd to stand to it , if the other requires it ; but if it be his own advantage , he is bound to quit it , if the other recedes and makes use of his advantage . For the law can tie him to suffer inconvenience for the publick interest , but not to doe any evil . Thus if Titius contract with Mavius to carry twenty Tun of wheat from Sicily to Rome , and before the contract a prohibition of such contracts was legally published , and yet he heard not of it ; he is bound to obey it : but if Mavius , who is like to be the gainer , stand upon his right of justice and natural consent , Titius must make him amends , but he must not transport the corn . But this is in case they be not both Subjects of the same Prince . And the reason of this is plain , because the stranger hath a natural right by justice and stipulation , but the Subject hath a law upon him ; therefore the other is not tied to quit that , but the Subject must obey this : not to doe an injury , for no law can oblige him to that ; but to suffer one that is tolerable and is outweighed by the publick advantage . But if they be both the Subjects of the same law , the law that forbids one to make the contract , does also by implication forbid the other to exact that which is illegal . So that although the law cannot disoblige Titius from verifying a contract that is valid in the law of nature ; yet Mavins can remit his right , and the law can tie him to that . This holds in all things where the parties can give consent to the invalidating of the contract . But sometimes they cannot , and then the rule of conscience is , standum est juri naturali , whatever was ratified by nature and religion must remain for ever . The Council of Trent makes a saw that all clandestine marriages shall be null : she publishes the law , and declares it from a certain time to be valid . A poor Vine-dresser in the Valtoline hears nothing of it , but gets the daughter of his Master the Farmer with child after contract per verba de praesenti . The law is urg'd upon him ; the parties are both threatned , and are in that fright willing to recede . But they were told by a prudent Confessor , that they could not consent to any such separation : and he told them truly . For in marriage there is a necessitude contracted by a law of nature , and not onely a mutual right transmitted to each other , but there is a band of Religion , a Sacramental tie , or relation that God hath joyn'd , and no man can put asunder . But until the contract is pass'd so farre as that it is become a marriage in the law and state of nature , the prohibition ought to prevail upon them . Lastly , in priviledges there is no difficulty , because the law is not bound to give any at all ; and therefore many restrain them at any time , without giving a reason . Thus if a law were made that all illegitimate children that were born after the death of the Emperour Maximilian should be uncapable of a Prebend or benefice in a Church ; he that heard not of the law might justly be put out after solemne investiture . For no man is injured , because he hath not a favour done him . RULE VII . That a law should oblige the Conscience , does not depend upon the acceptation of the Law by the people . THis Rule hath suffered great prejudice , not onely by the contrary opinion of the Civilians and Canonists , who in very great numbers oppose it , but by all persons almost who live under Governments Democratical , or doe not well consider the powers and consequents of government . But the case in short is this ; All Governments in the world did either begin right or wrong . If right , it was by Divine appointment , or by the multiplication of the posterity of a Patriarch , and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 increase of Paternal Government . This is the natural way , and this is founded upon natural reason , and a Divine Commandement . This hath in it no evil , and no question , and it is the just beginning of Monarchy , it produces no other Government . But if the Government comes not this way , it comes in wrong . Either from tumults , by necessity and evil experience being forc'd to permit and establish an order and government ; or directly by warre and violence ; or else in the destitution of a Governour when all are left to themselves , and none hath power over them , they may doe what they list , and order things as they please , and part with as much power as they think fit , and keep some to themselves , and confound all politick principles , and divide power , as two earnest disputants doe divide the truth when they have torn her in pieces , each part running away with that share that comes next his hand . Now from these beginnings of Governments several Republicks and Principalities have been established ; and when it hapned that any famous government entred the wrong way , they became exemplary to others in their policy and in their principles , and made their actions become rules to others . Thus it was that the Roman people , keeping the legislative power in their own hands , made Kings and Consuls and officers at their pleasure , but their consent was alwaies demanded when a law was to be made , as is affirmed by Asconius Pedianus in orationem pro C. Cornelio , and by Budaeus and Zasius in l. 2. ff . de origine juris . These laws were made in a convocation of the people in thirty Courts , and were called Curiatae , as is affirm'd by Suetonius in Augusto , and in Cicero in his epistles to Lentulus : they were also called Populares by Cicero in his orations . Now this people so largely reigning over the world , and being exemplary by their wisdome and their laws , did easily transmit this licence unto the people of most Nations , who needed but little teaching to bridle the power of their Princes , to which they were but too much tempted by that libido regnandi , that lust of empire which possesses the greatest part of the world ; and by their own strength , which they often made their Kings to feel , and would not lend to them in their needs but upon hard conditions . * Adde to all this , that many princes have been gentle and kind , and many wise , and would not put a bridle upon such an untam'd beast without their own consent ; not onely that they might obey more willingly , but lest they should not obey at all , as knowing it to be better that they should be rul'd as they please , then not at all . — Libertatis servaveris umbram Si quicquid jubeare velis — This phantastick liberty the people would seldome be without ; and they must have what they were resolv'd on ; for when they please , they are all Kings . Upon the account of these and some other causes it is come to pass that in many places laws have their binding power onely by the consent of the people ; in their tribes and Courts , or by their representatives , or by their manners and customes : and from hence from these sayings of some very wise men ; Lex nullam vim obligandi habet nisi ex more ; so Aristotle : and , Leges promulgatione constitui , firmari autem usu , saies Gratian : and the civil law most expressly , Ipsae leges nullâ aliâ causâ nos tenent quam quod judicio populi receptae sunt , The reception and approbation of the people is the onely firmament and Sanction of the law . Now that the civil law saies it , it was ex more Romanorum ; among the old Romans it alwaies was so : and Aristotle speaks at the rate of him who had been bred under the popular government of the Greeks , and therefore it is no wonder that any of them speaks so : but as for the words of Gratian , Laurentius and the Arch-Deacon expound them to mean that the laws receive from the use of the people firmitatem stabilitatis , non authoritatis ; that is , de facto they are made more firm and lasting by the consent and manners of the people , but not de jure more obliging ; according of that of Tertullian , Neque civis fideliter legi obsequitur ignorans quale sit quod ulciscitur lex . Nulla lex sibi soli conscientiam justitiae suae debet , sed eis à quibus obsequium expectat : caeterum suspecta lex est quae probari se non vult ; improba autem si non probata dominetur . A Citizen does not faithfully obey that law ( meaning of going to warre ) who knows not what that is which is to be punish'd . For that a law is just is owing in part to him that is to obey it . That law is to be suspected which will not indure a trial ; but if being tried it be rejected , it cannot prevail without injustice . Having now by this narrative laid open the secret and foundation of this opinion , and prevented the objections that can be made , the Rule is certain and easy . The consent of the people gives no authority to the law ; & therefore is no way necessary to the Sanction and constitution , save onely to prevent violence , rebellion and disobedience . But because I am not writing rules of policy , but rules of consciēce , I am to say , that if the legislative power be in the Prince , that is , if he be supreme , he is to decree the law ; but where-ever the authority be , that authority is derived from God , and is onely less then him : and although a horse sometime cannot be ruled without stroakings and meat and gentle usages , yet for all that his rider in his Master : and he that said , obey them that have the rule over you , and submit your selves to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake , whether to the King as to the supreme , &c. did not appoint the supreme to rule by a precarious power ; and if he who hath authority makes a just law , either the people are bound to accept the law , or they despise the authority . And indeed it is a contradiction in the terms , that a law be impos'd , and yet that it be no law of it self ; that is , that the effect of the cause should be a necessary condition in the cause it self ; and that it 's own work is nothing , unless what it does work give it force . It must be a law before they accept it , and if it be a law they are bound to accept it ; and therefore their accepting cannot make it a law . In popular governments the people have their suffrages in the legislative ; but then it is because they govern : but when they have not the legislative , he that hath it must not ask them leave to use it , when God hath given him power . They indeed who suppose Kings to be trustees and ministers of the people have some pretence ( if they suppos'd true ) to affirm the acceptation of the people to be necessary . But yet if they did suppose true , it were indeed a pretence but no more . For when the King is chosen , and is by the people ( that I may use the expression of Tiberius ) tantâ temque liberâ potestate instructus , invested with a Princely power , and the legislative ; he , by himself or by his Senate , according to the constitution of the province , is to make the law , and to punish them that break it , and not to ask them if they will please to obey it . Lex institutir cum promulgatur , saies the Authentick : and therefore whosoever does not obey , whether it be a single person or a multitude , they sin against God ; it is disobedience in a single person , and rebellion in the multitude . All which is true with the provisos of the former rules , that the laws be upon all their just accounts in all other things obligatory . This Rule does also fail in all arbitrary conventions and precarious governments ; in such which have no coercitive power but what is by voluntary concession ; such which can convene and dissolve at pleasure , as Colleges and Fraternities . For as they meet at pleasure , so they must be governed as they please ; their power comes not from God , but from man ; and their authority is equivocal . Some insert one case here , saying that if a law be refus'd by the greater part of the people , then single ●●sons are excus'd , because it is to be suppos'd that the Prince cares not 〈◊〉 single persons observe the law , since so little will serve no interest . But if this were true , yet there is in it so much caution to be us'd , so many provisos , and so much probability to the contrary , that it were as good that it were not true ; for it cannot give rest or peace to the Conscience . For 1. whether the Prince doe secretly give leave or no , is a presumption of infinite uncertainty . 2. The contrary may very well be suppos'd ; for he that is troubled at the rebellion of many will not give leave to one to disobey . 3. If these few single persons doe submit , they become good examples , and are confessors for the reputation of the Kings wisdome and authority . 4. What is evil in the whole is so in every particular ; because the people is but an aggregate body of single persons . 5. We must not follow a multitude to doe evil : and all rebellion is of that nature , that it is as the sin of witchcraft ; and who would be a witch because all the Country is so ? 6. He that partakes of other mens sins shall also partake of their punishment . Upon these accounts , I judge it very unsafe for any single person to resist a just law of a just superior , upon hope of escaping in the Croud . * But this Rule is onely true when the law is just and good for publick profit and usefulness of the people . For if it be an unreasonable law , it binds not as a law , but as by promise and contract ; that is , it does not bind by the sanction of the law , but the acceptation of the people . And so the ancient lawyers are to be understood ; Lex praecepti tollitur , si moribus utentium non recipitur , The obligation of the law is taken off , unless it be receiv'd into the manners of the Subjects . But the instance tells in what sense this is true . The Pope and Council cannot command continence to a certain sort of persons after promotion against their wills ; quia continentia est res quae potest persuaderi , imperari autem non , Because continence is a thing that may be perswaded , but not commanded . The matter of the law is to be order'd according to the measures of the third Rule ; but supposing that , this Rule is certain . RULE VIII . Humane laws of indifferent matter doe not oblige the Conscience of the Subjects out of the dominions of the Superior . EXtra territorium jus dicenti , non paretur , impune , is a famous saying in the Canon law , A man may safely disobey the law of his Prelate if he be out of the Diocess . And the reason is , because beyond his Diocess he hath no jurisdiction ; and beyond his jurisdiction a Prince hath no power . Lex est jus proprium civitatis , saith the law ; The law hath no power beyond it's own city . Thus anciently , in the Province of Canterbury the people did not fast upon S. Marks day ; but if they were within the Province of York they were tied to the common law , or custome of the Church besides . Thus also it is in maritime places , especially in places of publick Trade and Merchandize : if the several Subjects should keep the several Laws of their own Princes , it would cause great confusion and disorder upon the place of Trade ; and since it is certain that strangers must live by the laws of the Country where they sojourn , it is certain they are not tied to the laws of their own , because they may be contrary . 1. But this hath divers limitations . For 1. It does not hold in the substantial matters of religion , where the religions of the Country differ . It is not lawful for a Subject of England to goe to Mass in a forein Country ; not onely upon supposition that the office is suspicious or to be blam'd by the measures of the Divine Law , but if the laws of our Country have upon other prudent and just considerations forbidden it . The sons of the Church of England professing under the government Episcopal may not lawfully communicate in the Huguenot Churches with them that believe Episcopacy to be Antichristian or unlawful , because this does relate to the evil and detriment of those laws and that government and that authority under which we still are tied . But in the ceremonial and ritual part of religion , where the religion is the same , we are not tied abroad to our Country customes . A Subject of the Church of England may stand at the Holy Communion , or eat it in leavened bread , if he come into Protestant Countries that have any such custome : and the reason of this is , because the contrary would give scandal , to which our own laws neither doe nor can oblige abroad ; and if any be offended at our different ceremonies at home , he must look to it , we are not concerned in any thing , but to obey our Superiour , and quietly to render a reason to our brethren . 2. This Rule does not hold in such laws which are the specification of the Divine laws . Thus if a Subject of England should be in Spain , and there see his Daughter dishonoured , or his Wife consent to her shame , and take her in Adultery ; he may not kill her , though in Spain it be lawful for them to doe it . The reason is , because she is not a Subject of Spain , but hath an habituall relation to England , and therefore it is Murder if it be done by an English Subject . Concerning all his own Subjects , the Prince of the Countrey and the Legislative is to give limits to the indefinite lawes of God ; and the reason is that which S. Paul gives , because he who hath the rule over them is to give an account of their Souls . Every law therefore is to acquit or condemn herown Subjects : and therefore if a Spaniard does dishonour the bed of an English Subject in Spain , it is lawfull there to kill him ; because his own Princes law condemns him , and gives leave to the injur'd person to be Executioner . All these particulars rely upon the same reason . 3. This Rule does not hold , when though the Subject be abroad , yet the action does relate to his own Country . Thus it is not lawful abroad to coyn or counterfeit the money of his Country , to rail upon his Prince , to prejudice his Subjects , to violate his honour , to disgrace his Nation , to betray the secrets and discover the Counsels of his Prince . Because the evil done out of the territory being an injury to them within , is as if it were done within . When the dispute was between the Athenians and Thebans about their confines , and the parties stood at a little distance , disputing and wrangling about the breadth of an acre of ground , Timotheus shoots an arrow and kills a young Theban Gentleman . The Thebans demand that Timotheus be put to death by the laws of Athens , as being their Subject : they refuse to doe so , but deliver Timotheus to the Thebans , giving this reason , He shot the arrow within the Athenian limit , but it did the mischief within the territory of Thebes ; and where the evil is done , there and by them let the criminal be punish'd . Being abroad is no cuse in this case . If a Subject shoots an arrow into his own Country , though he bent his bow abroad , at home he shall find the string . 4. If the action be something to be done at home , the Subject abroad is bound to obey the summons of the law . When Henry the second of England commanded all Prelates and Curates to reside upon their Dioceses and charges , Thomas Becket of Canterbury was bound in conscience , though he was in France , to repair to his Province at home . The summe of all is this , A law does not oblige beyond the proper territory , unless it relate to the good or evil of it . For then it is done at home to all real events of nature , and to all intents and purposes of law . For if the law be affirmative , commanding something to be done at home , at home this omission is a sin : Qui non facit quod facere debet , videtur facere adversus ea quae non facit , saith the Law , The omission is a sin there where the action ought to have been done . But if the Law be nagative , Qui facit quod facere non debet , non videtur facere id quod facere jussus est . He that does what he is forbidden to doe is answerable to him who hath power to command him to doe it . This Rule thus explicated is firm ; and is to be extended to exempt or priviledged places , according to that saying of the Lawyers , Locus exemptus habetur pro extraneo , He that lives in an exempt place , lives abroad . By the proportions of this Rule it is easy to answer concerning strangers , whether they be bound by the Laws of the Nation where they pass or traffick . For in all things where they are not oblig'd by their own Prince , they are by the stranger , and that upon the same account ; for if they who are abroad are not ordinarily bound by the Laws of their Country ( except in the cases limited ) it is because the jurisdiction and dominion of their Prince goes not beyond his own land ; and in such cases the place is more then the person : but therefore it must goe so farre , and be the person what he will , yet in the territory he is under the law of that Prince . He is made so by that place . It is Lex terrae , the Law of the land in which he is : and in the peace of that he shall have peace , as God said to the Jews concerning the land of their Captivity . RULE IX . Obedience to Laws is to be paid according to what is commanded , not according to what is best . WHen Lacon was fighting prosperously , and had prevail'd very farre upon his enemies , it happened that a retreat was sounded just as he was lifting up his hand to smite a considerable person ; he turned his blow aside and went away , giving this reason to him that asked him why , It is better to obey then to kill an enemy . But when Crassus the Romane General sent to Athens to an Engineer a command to send him such a piece of timber towards the making of a battery , he sent him one which he suppos'd was better ; but his General caused him to be scourged for his diligence : and Torquatus Manlius being Consul commanded his son not to fight that day with the Enemy , but he espying a great advantage fought and beat him and won a glorious victory , for which he was crown'd with a triumphant lawrel , but for his disobedience lost his head . It is not good to be wiser then the laws ; and sometimes we understand not the secret reason of the Princes command , or the obedience may be better then a good turn , or a better counsel ; which is very often ill taken , unless it be requir'd . Corrumpi atque dissolvi officium omne imperantis ratus si quis ad id quod facere jussus est , non obsequio debito , sed consilio non desiderato respondeat , said Crassus in A. Gellius . Thus also it is in the observation of the Divine Commandements : when God hath declared his will , and limited our duty to circumstances and particulars , he will not be answered by doing that which we suppose is better . We must not be running after Sermons , when we should be labouring to provide meat for our family : for besides that it is direct disobedience in the case now put , there is also an error in the whole affair ; for that which we think is better then the Commandement , is not better : and this God declared in the case of Saul , Obedience is better then sacrifice . No work is better then that which God appoints . 3. This is to be understood so that it is not onely left to our liberty , but it is also rewardable , for the Subject to prevent a Commandement , and to excell the measures of the Law in the matter of a Commandement , when to doe so we know will be accepted , and is to the pleasure and use of the Prince . Thus Astyages preferr'd Chrysantas before Hystaspes , because he did not onely obey as Hystaspes did , but understood the mind of the Prince , and when he knew what would please him , did it of his own accord . But then this is upon the same account , it is obedience , onely it is early and it is forward . This also is to be added , that if the choice of the Subject differing from the command of the Prince be very prosperous and of great benefit , the Prince does commonly ex post facto allow the deed ; that is , he does not punish it . P. Crassus Mutius and T. Manlius did otherwise ; but they were severe and great examples . But when it is not punish'd , it is not because it does not deserve it , but because it is pardon'd : for if it should miscarry , it would not escape vengeance : and therefore though the prosperous event be lov'd , yet it came in at a wrong door , and the disobedience was criminal . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Masters are to command , but the province of servants is to obey , saith S. Chrysostome . This Rule is to be understood according to the intention , not according to the letter of the law ; for if the intention of it be that which is better , it is evident that is to be done which is better in the intention , not that which is commanded in the letter . But of this in the Chapter of interpretation of Laws . CHAP. II. Of Laws Penal and Tributary . RULE . I. It is lawful for Christian Magistrates to make penal Laws , not onely pecuniary and of restraint , but of loss of member and life it self . WHatsoever is neccessary is just ; that is , that must be done which cannot be avoided : and therefore the power of the Magistrate in punishing the transgressors of their laws of peace , and order , and interest , is infinitely just * ; for without a coercitive power there can be no government , and without government there can be no communities of men ; a herd of wolves is quieter and more at one then so many men , unless they all had one reason in them , or have one power over them . Ancus Rex primus Carcerem in Romano foro aedificavit , ad terrorem increscentis audaciae , says Livy . King Ancus seeing impiety grow bold , did erect a prison in the publick markets . When iniquity was like to grow great , then that was grown necessary . And it is observ'd that the Macedonians call Death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the Hebrew word DAN , which signifies a Judge , as intimating that Judges are appointed to give sentences upon criminals in life and death . And therefore God takes upon himself the title of a King and a Judge , of a Lord and Governour ; and gives to Kings and Judges the title of Gods , and to Bishops and Priests the style of Angels . But here I will suppose that Magistracy is an ordinance of God , having so many plain Scriptures for it ; and it being by S. Paul affirmed , that he beareth not the sword in vain , and that they who have done evil ought to fear ; and of himself he professed that if he had done ought worthy of death he did not refuse to die ; and a caution given by S. Peter , that Christians should take care that they doe not suffer as malefactors : and it being made a note of hereticks that they are Traytors , that they are murmurers , that they despise dominion , that they speak evil of dignities ; and that we are commanded to pray for Kings and all that are in authority , for this reason , because they are the appointed means that men should live a peaceable and a godly life ; for piety , and peace , and plenty too depend upon good Governments : and therefore Apollo Pythius told the Lacedemonian Embassadors that if they would not call home Plistonax their King from banishment and restore him to his right , they should be forc'd to till their ground with a silver Plough ; that is , they should have scarcity of corn in their own Cities , and be forc'd to buy their grain to relieve the famine of their Country : for so the event did expound the Oracle ; they grew poor and starv'd because they unjustly suffer'd their King to live in exile . Adde to these , that we are often commanded to obey them that have the rule over us ; to be subject to every ordinance of man ; that Rulers are not a terror to good works but to the evil , and many more to equal purposes . Neither ought the precept of charity and forgiveness , which Christ so often , so earnestly , so severely presses , evacuate the power of Princes . For the precept of forgiving offendors does not hinder parents from correcting their offending children ; nor Masters from chastising their rebellious servants ; nor the Church from excommunicating them that walk disorderly : these things rely upon plain Scriptures , and upon necessity , and experience ; and they doe evince thus much without any further dispute , that some punishment may stand with the precept of forgiveness ; or at least , if he who is injur'd may not punish without breach of charity , yet some one else may . And if it be permitted to the power of man to punish a criminal without breach of charity ; the power of the Magistrate must be without all question ; and that such a power can consist with charity there is no doubt , when we remember that the Apostles themselves and the primitive Churches did deliver great Criminals over to the power of Sathan to be buffeted , even to the destruction of the flesh , that their Souls might be sav'd in the day of the Lord. S Paul delivered Elymas to blindness , and S. Peter gave Ananias and Saphira to a corporal death . But the great Case of Conscience is this . Although all punishments less then death may like paternal corrections consist with charity ( for they may be disciplines and emendations ) yet in death there is no amendment ; and therefore to put a man to death flagrante crimine , before he hath mortified his sin , or made amends for it ; that is , before it is pardon'd , and consequently to send him to hell , is the most against charity in the world , and therefore no man hath power to doe it : for God never gave to any man a power to dispense justice to the breach of charity ; and that dispensation which sends a man to Hell , is not for edification , but for destruction . To this I answer , 1. That it is true that whatsoever is against charity is not the effect of justice ; for both of them are but imitations and transcripts of the Divine attributes and perfections , which cannot be contrary to each other . But when the faults and disorders of mankind have intangled their own and the publick affairs , they may make that necessary to them , which in the first order and intention of things was not to be endur'd . Thus we cut off a leg and an arm to save the whole body ; and the publick magistrate , who is appointed to defend every mans rights , must pull an honest mans house to the ground to save a town or a street : and peace is so dear , so good , that for the confirming and perpetuity of it , he may commence a warre which were otherwise intolerable . If therefore any evil comes by such ministeries of justice , they who introduc'd the necessity must thanke themselves . For it is necessary it should be so ; though it be but a suppositive and introduc'd necessity ; onely he that introduc'd it , is the cause of the evil ; not he that is to give the best remedy that he hath . 2. No man is to answer for an accidental effect that is consequent to his duty . In omni dispositione attenditur quod principaliter agitur , saies the law , l. si quis nec causam , ff . si certum petatur . I am to look to what is principally design'd , not what accidentally can happen . If I obey God , it is no matter who is offended . If I see that my neighbour will envy me for doing good , and his eye will be evil because I am good , I am not to omit the good , for fear his Soule perish ; when my good is rather apt to doe him good then evil : he is to answer for it , not I , for nothing that I doe makes him evil , he makes himself so by his own choice . There are many men that turn the grace of God into wantonness ; and abuse the long suffering and patience of God , and turn that into occasions of sin which God meant for the opportunities and endearments of repentance ; but if God should leave to be gracious to mankind in the same method , out of charity and compliance with the interest of the Souls of such miserable persons , as they would be never the better , so the other parts of mankind would be infinitely the worse . 3. It is true that Charity is the duty of every Christian ; but as all Christians are not to express it in the same manner , so there are some expressions of charity which may become some persons , and yet be the breach of anothers duty : and some may become our wishes which can never be reduc'd to act ; and because that is all we can doe , it is all we are oblig'd to doe . When Vertagus was condemn'd to die for killing the brother of Aruntius Priscus ; the poor Father of the condemned man came and beg'd for the life of his miserable son ; but Priscus out of the love of his murder'd brother beg'd with the same importunity that he might not escape ; and both their effects were the effects of charity . The charity of a Prelate and a Minister of religion is another thing then the charity of a Prince . A Mother signifies her love one way and a Father another ; she by fondness and tender usages , he by severe counsels and wise education ; and when the Minister of religion takes care concerning the Soul of the poor condemn'd man , the Prince takes care that he shall doe no more mischief , and increase his sad account with God. The Prince and the Prelate are both of them Curates of Souls and Ministers of Godliness ; but the Prince ministers by punishing the evil doer and rewarding the vertuous , and the Prelate by exhortation and doctrine , by reproof and by prayer , by Sacraments and discipline , by the key of power and the key of knowledg . The effect of this consideration is this ; that the magistrate by doing justice in the present case does not doe against charity ; because he does minister to charity in the capacity and proper obligation of a Magistrate , when he does his own work , which being ordain'd for good and not for evil , the office is then most charitable and most proper for him , when he ministers to charity in his own way that God hath appointed him . By his justice he ministers to the publick Good , and that is his office of charity . That is his work ; let others look to their share . 4. The cutting off of a Malefactor is some charity to his person , though a sad one ; for besides that it prevents many evils , and forces him to a speedy recollection , and a summary repentance , and intense acts of vertue by doubling his necessity ; it does also cause him to make amends to the law ; and that oftentimes stands him in great stead before the Tribunal of Gods justice ; paullum supplicii satis est Patri ; God is sometimes pleas'd to accept of a small punishment for a great offence ; and his anger many times goes not beyond a temporal death , and the cutting off some years of his life . 5. That which concerns the Magistrate is , that he be just and charitable too . Justice of it self is never against charity ; but some actions of suppos'd charity may be against justice . Therefore the Magistrate in that capacity is tied to no charity but the charity of justice , the mercies of the law ; that is , that he abate of the rigor as much as he can , that he make provisions for the Soul of the criminal such as are fit for his need , that if he can delay , he doe not precipitate executions . In what is more , the supreme , the law-giver is to take care , and to give as much leave to the ministers of justice as can consist with the publick interest . For here it is that there is use of that proposition , that all men are not tied to all the exterior kinds and expressions of charity , but as they are determin'd accidentally . It will not be suppos'd that the Judge is uncharitable if he doe not preach to the condemn'd criminal ; or if he doe not give him money after sentence , or visit him in prison , or goe to pray with him at the block ; these are not the portions of his duty : but as his justice requires him to condemne him ; so his charity exacts of him as Judge nothing but the mercies of the law . 6. That which is necessary to be done , is not against any mans duty , or any precept of Christianity . Now that some sorts of persons should be put to death is so necessary , that if it were not done it would be certainly , directly and immediately a very great uncharitableness ; and the Magistrate should even in this instance be more uncharitable then he can be suppos'd to be in putting the criminal to death . For a high-way thief and murderer if he be permitted does cut off many persons who little think of death ; and such as are innocent as to the Common-wealth , are yet very guilty before God : for whose Souls and the space of whose repentance there is but very ill provision made , if they may live who shall send many Souls to hell , by murdering such persons who did not watch and stand in readiness against the sad day of their sudden arrest . If all such persons were to be free from afflictive punishments , the common-wealth would be no society of peace , but a direct state of warre , a state most contrary to governments ; but if there were any other less then death , the gallies and the Mines , and the prisons would be nothing but nurseries of villains , which by their numbers would grow as dangerous as a herd of Wolves and Lions : and if ever they should break into a warre , like Spartacus and his rabble , who knows how many Souls should be sent to Hell for want of time to finish their repentance ? 7. If the condemn'd Criminal had never any time to repent , if he had never thrown away any opportunities of salvation , he had never come to that pass ; and if he have , who is bound to give him as much as he will need ? And if it be unlawful for a magistrate to put a criminal to death that hath not sufficiently repented , then no villain shall ever die by the publick hand of justice ; and the worse the man is , the longer he shall live , and the better he shall escape : for in this case , if he resolves privately that he never will repent , he hath blunted the edge of the sword , and weakned the arme of justice for ever that she shall never strike . 8. God hath given a commission to Magistrates which they must not prevaricate : if therefore a Criminal falls under the rods and axes of the Consuls who are Gods Ministers for good to them that doe well , and for evil to them that doe evil ; it is not the Magistrate who is to be blam'd , but the hand of God that is to be rever'd , who by this hand cuts him off , and it may be therefore thus cuts him off because he will give him no longer time . However the Magistrate is to look to his rule , not to rare , and accidental events ; which are onely in the power of the Divine providence and in the will of the Man to prevent . 9. No man can say that a condemn'd Criminal that makes the best use of his time after sentence , or after his just fears of it , or after the apprehension of the probabilities of it , shall certainly be damn'd for want of more time . For as no man knows just how much time is necessary ; so neither can he tell how deep the repentance of the Man is , nor yet how soon God will return to mercy . Therefore upon so great uncertainties , and the presumption and confidences relying upon such a secret , to omit a certain duty is no way allowable . It is true there are amongst some wise and pious persons great fears in this case ; but fear is very good when it is made use of to good purposes , to obstruct the course of sin , but not the course of justice . And some men fear in other cases very bad ; which yet ought not to be made use of to preserve the lives of Murderers . Some fear that all Papists shall be damned , and some say that all Protestants are in as bad condition ; and yet he that thinks so , would suppose the case too far extended if it might not be consistent , with charity to put ( for examples sake ) the gunpowder Traytors to death , till they had chang'd their religion . Whatsoever we fear , we are to give our brethren warning of it while it is time for them to consider ; but these doubtful disputes must not be us'd as artifices to evacuate the purposes and defensatives of laws . And since the Magistrates cannot know what the sentence of God concerning such persons shall be , they may hope well as readily as ill , and then there is no pretence to arrest the sentence beyond the prudent and charitable periods of the law . 10. No change in government , no alteration of laws , no publick sentences are to be made or alter'd upon the account of any secret Counsel of God ; but they are to proceed to issue upon the account of rules , and measures of choice , and upon that which is visible , or proved , that which is seen and heard , that which God commands and publick necessities require ; for otherwise there can be no rule , no orderly proceedings , no use of wise discourses , but chance and fear and irregular contingencies must overrule all things . 11. The Magistrate gives sentence against Criminals for single acts , not for vitious habits ; for concerning these he hath nothing to doe , and if the Criminal perish for these , it is onely chargeable upon his own account . But if by the hand of justice he dies for a single act ; the shorter time that is usually allowed to those that are appointed to die may be so sufficient that if the Criminal make full use of it , his case is not so desperate , as that the objection can prevail : for if there be nothing else to hinder him , it may be very well ; but if there be any thing else , that he and not the Magistrate was first to have considered ; for himself knew of it , the Magistrate did not . 12. Every man that lives under government knows the conditions of it , those publick laws , and the manners of execution ; and that he who is surpris'd in his sin by the Magistrate , shall be cut off like him who by a sudden sickness falls into the hands of God. It is a sudden death , which every man ought to have provided for ; onely in this case it is more certain , and to be expected : and he that knows this to be his condition , if he will despise the danger , when he falls into it , cannot complain of the justice of the law , but of his own folly which neglected life , and chose death and swift destruction . Though from these considerations it appears that the pretence of charity cannot evacuate that justice which hath given commission to all lawful Magistrates , and warrant to all capital sentences , and authority to all just warrs , in which it is more then probable many will be kill'd that are not very well prepared : yet this power of inflicting capital punishments must not be reduc'd to act in trifling instances , for the loss of a few shillings or for every disobedience to command ; it must not be done , but in the great and unavoidable necessities of the Common-wealth . For every Magistrate is also a Man ; and as he must not neglect the care and provisions of that , so neither the kindnesses and compassion of this . Nothing can make recompence for the life of a man , but the life of a better , or the lives of many , or a great good of the whole community . But when any of these is at stake , it is fit the innocent be secur'd by the condemnation of the Criminal . And this was excellently disputed by Cicero in his argument against Calenus upon this very question . Hoc interest inter meam sententiam & tuam : ego nolo quenquam civem committere ut morte multandus sit ; tu etiamsi commiserit , etiam conservandum putas . In corpore si quid ejusmodi est quod reliquo corpori noceat , uri secarique patiamur , ut membrorum aliquod potius quam totum corpus intereat . Sic in Reip. corpore ut totum salvum sit , quicquid est pestiferum amputetur . Dura vox ; multo illa durior : salvi sint improbi , deleantur innocentes , honesti , boni , tota Respublica . Cicero would have no Citizen deserve to die ; but Calenus would have none die though he did deserve it . But Cicero though it reason that as in the body natural we cut off an arm to save the whole , so in the body politick we doe the same , that nothing remain alive that will make the other die . It is a hard sentence : it is true , but this is a harder . Let the wicked be safe ; and let the innocent , the good , the just men , the whole common-wealth be destroyed . This we see is natural reason , but it is more then so ; it is also a natural law , express'd and established by God himself . He that sheddeth mans blood , in man , or by man , shall his blood be shed : which words are further explicated by the Chaldee Paraphrast , Qui effuderit sanguinem hominis cum testibus , juxta sententiam Judicum sanguis ejus fundetur , He that sheds the blood of man with witnesses , his blood shall be shed by the sentence of the Judge . For the Majesty of the supreme Prince or Judge . — justi Vim terroris habet , procul an propè , praesto vel absens : Semper terribilis , semper metuenda , suoque Plena vigore manet , nullique impunè premenda Creditur , & semper cunctis , & ubique timetur . said Guntherus with greater truth then elegance : he hath the force of a just terror in all places , at all times , and upon all persons . And in pursuance of this law all communities of men have comported themselves , as knowing themselves but Ministers of the Divine sentence ; and that which is the voice of all the world is the voice of nature , and the voice of God. The summe of these things I give in the words of S. Austin . Non ipse occidit qui ministerium debet jubenti , sicut adminiculum gladius est utenti . Ideo nequaquam contra hoc praeceptum fecerunt , quo dictum est , Non occides , qui Deo authore bella gesserunt , aut personam gerentes publicae potestatis , secundum ejus leges , hoc est , justissimae rationis imperium , sceleratos morte puniverunt . They who make just warrs , and those publick persons who according to the laws put malefactors to death , doe not break the Commandement which saies , Thou shalt not kill . For as the sword is not guilty of murder which is the instrument of just executions , so neither is the man that is the Minister of the Judge , nor the Judge who is the Minister of God ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , God Minister of revenge and anger : and by fear to restrain the malice of evil men , and to prevent mischief to the good , is the purpose of authority and the end of laws . So Isidore , Factae sunt leges ut earum metu humana coerceatur audacia , tutaque esset inter improbos innocentia , & in ipsis improbis formidato suplicio refraenaretur nocendi facultas . Fear is the beginning of wisdome , and fear is the extinction and remedy of folly ; and therefore the laws take care by the greatest fear , the fear of death , to prevent or suppress the greatest wickedness . RULE II. Penal laws doe sometimes oblige the guilty person to the suffering the punishment , even before the sentence and declaration of the Judge . THat this is true concerning Divine Laws is without peradventure : not onely because the power of God is supreme , meer , absolute , and eternal , and consequently can oblige to what , and by what measure , and in what manner , and to what purposes he please ; but also because we see it actually done in the laws and constitutions both Mosaical and Evangelical . He that strake out an eye or tooth from a servant was bound to give him his liberty : that is , as his servant was a loser , so must he that caused it ; the man lost his tooth , and the Master lost the man ; he gains his liberty that lost an eye . Now that this was to be done by the Master himself without compulsion from the Judge , is therefore more then probable , because God who intended remedy to the injur'd servant had not provided it , if he left the matter to the Judge , to whom the servant could have no recourse without his Master please ; and if he give him leave to goe , it is all one as doing of it himself , for he that gives leave that himself be compell'd , first chuses the things , and call is in aid from abroad to secure the thing at home . But therefore God bound the conscience of the man , tying him under pain of his own displeasure that the remedy be given , and the penalty suffered and pai'd under the proper sentence of the obliged criminal . To the same purpose was that law made for him that lies with a woman in the days of her separation , he shall be unclean until the evening ; Now that this was not to be inflicted by the Judge , but that the guilty person should himself be the executioner of the penalty , is therefore certain , because by another law concerning the same legal uncleanness it was decreed , that the fact shall be capital , that is , if it come before the Judge : of which I have already given account . Thus also God imposed upon him that eat of the holy things unwittingly , the burden of paying the like , & a fifth part besides for punishment of his negligence and want of caution . This himself was to bring , together with the price of redemption or expiation . Now this being done against his will , might also be done without the observation of any other ; and yet upon the discovery he was thus to act his own amends and penalty . And indeed the very expence of Sacrifices , to the bringing of which the criminals were sentenc'd by the law , is sufficient demonstration of this inquiry ; for it was no small burden to them , and diminution of their estates , to take long journeys , and bring fat beasts and burn them to the Lord ; but to this they themselves were tied , without injunction from the Priest , or sentence from the Judge . And this appears , because they were tied to a distinct punishment if the matter fell into the Judges hand : they were in case of theft to restore four-fold : But if they had sinn'd in this instance or in any other that men commit , they were bound to come and confess it , and shall recompence the trespass with the principal thereof , and adde a fifth part to him against whom they have trespassed . This the Jews call confessionem super peccato singulari , a special confession of a sin ; to which because the sinner was sentenc'd by the law , and had a lighter amends appointed him if he did it voluntary , but a much heavier if he came before the criminal Judge ; it follows plainly that God tied these delinquents to a voluntary or spontaneous susception of their punishment . It was indeed an alleviation of their punishment ; for the criminal was bound to confess ( say the Jewish Doctors ) and say when the beast goes to sacrifice , thinking as if he were going as the beast is , O Domine , ego reus sum mortis , ego commeruissem lapidari propter hoc peccatum , vel strangulari propter hanc praevaricationem , vel comburi propter hoc crimen , O Lord , I am guilty of death , I have deserv'd to be ston'd , or strangled , or burnt alive for this crime , according as the sin was : but his being the executioner of the Divine sentence in the lesser instance did prevent the more severe and intolerable condemnation . For indeed such is the mercy and dispensation of God : Gods law decrees evil to him that does evil : if we become executioners of the law of God and of his angry sentence , we prevent the greater anger of God ; according to that of S. Paul , judge your selves , brethren , that ye be not judged of the Lord. If we humble our selves , God will exalt us ; if we smite , he will spare ; if we repent , he will repent : but therefore in these cases between God and us it is so far from being a grievance , that we become executioners of the sentence decreed by law against us , that though it be an act of justice in God to oblige us to it , yet it is also a very great mercy . For as in the law of Moses , the spontaneous susception of the punishment did prevent the heavier hand of the Judge from falling on him ; so in the Evangelical law , it prevents the intolerable hand of God. So that in relation to the law of God it is an action of repentance ; and repentance being a penal or punitive duty , he that was tied to bring in his own oblation , to make his own amends , to confess willingly his sin , was in effect tied to nothing but to a voluntary repentance . And thus it is also in some proportion in humane laws . For by these premisses thus much is gain'd , that to oblige the criminal to a spontaneous suffering of the punishment appointed by the laws of a just superior is not naturally unjust , and it is not alwaies intolerable , and it may be very reasonable , and it may be a design of mercy , or at least a very apt ministery of justice : and therefore there can be no reasonable objection against it , but that upon just account , and in just measures , and for great reason , and by the proportions of equity it may be done in humane laws . For 1. Whatsoever is not against the law of Nature , nor the law of God , may be done or enjoyn'd to be done by the laws of Man ; for the power of Magistrates is the next great thing to God and Nature . Now concerning this , we have security not onely from the foregoing instances , but from the law of Christ concerning divorce upon the instance of adultery : the offending party looses his or her right respectively over the body of the other , and cannot lawfully demand conjugal rights . The injurious person may begge for pardon and restitution ; but is unjust if he require any thing as duty . The woman looses her rights of society , and the Man of superiority , in case they be adulterous ; and if they doe not quit their former rights , and sit down under their own burden , and minister the sentence of God by their own hands , they sin anew : every such demand or act of dominion is iniquity and injustice , it is an act of an incompetent power , and therefore , under pain of a new sin , they must not act under it . 2. A man can inflict punishment upon himself . Thus Zacheus in expiation of his sins offer'd half his goods to the poor , and restitution fourfold ; which was more then he did need ; for if his confession and restitution were spontaneous , he was tied onely to the principal , and the superaddition of a fifth part , as appears above . But he chose the punishment , even so much as the Judge himself could have inflicted . Thus we read of a Bishop in the primitive ages of the Church who , quia semel tactu foemineo sorduerat , because he had once fallen into uncleanness , shut himself up in a voluntary prison for nine years together : and many we read of who out of the Spirit of penance liv'd lives of great austerity , using rudenesses to their bodies ; by the pain of their bodies to expiate the sin of their Souls . Now whatsoever any man hath power to doe to himself ; that the law hath power to command him ; supposing a reason or a necessity in the law proportionably great to the injunction , and to be of it self a sufficient cause of the suffering . It is true a man may doe it to himself to please his humor , or for vain-glory , or out of melancholy . I doe not say he does well in so doing ; but that he hath power to doe it , without doing injury to any one : and if he does it to himself without cause , or without sufficient cause , he does no man wrong ; he does no more then he hath power to doe , alwaies provided he keeps within the limits of the sixth Commandement . Now although the law pretends not to this power of doing it without reason , because all the power of the law is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in relation to others , in commutative and distributive justice , and publick and private charities ; yet the same authority which any man hath over himself in order to private ends , the law hath over him in order to the publick ; because he is a part of the publick , and his own power over himself is in the publick , as every particular is in the universal . Nay the law hath a greater power then the man ; for a man hath not power over his own life , which the law hath ; so that whatever a man alone can doe , that the law can command him to doe : ( except it be in such things which are wholly by God left in a mans power , and are subjected to no laws of man , and commanded by no law of God ; as in the matter of single life , and other counsels Evangelical ) the same things ( I say ) though not for the same reasons . If therefore the man can upon himself inflict an evil which he hath deserved , the law can compel him , that is , she hath competent authority to doe it : and then he is bound in Conscience . 3. In matters favourable , and yet of great interest , we find that there are many events by the sentence of the law without the sentence of a Judge . Thus the right of Primogeniture is sufficient ordinarily to enter upon the inheritance without a solemn decree of Court ; and if we consider the reason of this , it will be of equal force in the present inquiry . For when matters are notorious , and the people willing , and it is every mans case , and there is a great necessity , and publick utility , it is sufficient when the rule is set ; every man knowes his part , and his way , and Judges are not necessary . But when men are to blame , and there are intrigues in causes , and men will snatch at what is none of their own , and they will not understand their duty , nor judge righteous judgements in things concerning themselves and their neighbours ; it is necessary that there be Judges and Advocates and all the inferior Ministers of laws , that where the law is intricate , and men cannot judge and discern aright , or when they are interested and will not , the law may be interpreted , and their duty explained , and every man righted that otherwise would be wrong'd . The sentence of the Judge is but accidentally necessary : for the law saying that the eldest Son is heir to an intestate Father , the case is plain , and who is the eldest Son is notorious , and he is willing enough to enter upon the inheritance ; and therefore besides the law in this case there needs no sentence of the Judge . Now the law is as plain in the condemnation of some crimes , and the assignation of some punishments . But because men are not willing to enter into punishment , and they are not tied publickly to accuse themselves , therefore there are Judges to give sentence , and executioners appointed . And this is well enough in some cases : but because there are some cases in which it is necessary that the laws be obeyed in private as well as in publick , and yet without penalties a law is but a dead hand and a broken cord ; the law annexes punishments , but is forc'd to trust the sinning hand to be the smiter , because the private action cannot be publickly punish'd , because not brought before the Judge . 4. Besides this , there are some actions of so evil effect as to the publick , that for detestations sake they are to be condemn'd as soon as done , hated as soon as nam'd , strangled as soon as born ; and when by such a sentence the act is represented so foul , the man stands more ready for repentance , and himself is made the instrument . It is like a plain case in which any man may be allowed to be a Judge : for modesty's sake and for humanity every man will condemn some sins ; even though themselves be the guilty persons . However the law takes the wisest course to give an universal sentence , that as the man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so he may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , self-accus'd , and self-condemn'd ; and not to expect the contingent discovery , and the long deferred solemnities of law . Some sins goe before unto judgment , saies the Apostle , and some follow after : that is , some are condemn'd ipso jure by the law , and the man does ipso facto incurre the penalty ; others stay for the sentence of the Judge . 5. In the Court of Conscience every man is his own accuser , and his own executioner ; and every penitent man is a Judge upon himself : God trusts man with the infliction of punishments and hard sentences upon himself for sin ; onely if man fails , God will judge him to worse purposes ; and so does the law . And as the impenitent people favour themselves to their own harm , for they sin against God even in their very forbearing to punish and to kill the sin : so doe the impenitent disobey the law by not being their own executioners of wrath : but in both cases the Conscience is oblig'd , The thing therefore is just , and reasonable , and useful . Now for the reducing of this to practice , and stating the cases of Conscience for the subject , as I have already done for the law-giver , I am to shew , 1. In what cases the Conscience of the subjects can be bound to inflict penalties upon themselves without the sentence of the Judge . 2. By what signs we shall know when the law does intend so to bind ; that is , when the sentence is given by the law , so that the sinner is ipso facto liable to punishment , and must voluntarily undergoe it . In what cases the Criminal is to be his own executioner . 1. When to the execution of the punishment appointed by the law there is no action requir'd on the part of the guilty person , the conscience is bound to submit to that sentence , and by a voluntary or willing submission verify the sentence , such as are excommunication , suspension , irregularity and the like . Thus if irregularity be ipso facto incurr'd , the offending person is bound in Conscience not to accept a benefice or execute an office to which by that censure he is made unhabile and unapt . If a law be made that whoever is a common swearer shall be ipso facto infamous , he that is guilty is bound in Conscience not to offer testimony in a cause of law ; but to be his own Judge and executioner of that sentence . But this is not true in all cases , but with the provision of the following measures . 2. If the law imposes a penalty to be incurred ipso facto , yet if the penalty be moderate , equal and tolerable , the Conscience is oblig'd to a voluntary susception of it , before the sentence of the Judge , although the sentence be not privative , but executive ; that is , though there be something to be acted by the guilty person upon himself . Thus if excommunication be incurred ipso facto , he that is guilty of the fact deserving it , & is fallen into the sentence , is not onely bound to submit to those estrangements and separations , those alienations of society and avoidings which he finds from the duty of others , but if by chance he be in a stranger place where they know not of it , and begin Divine service , he is bound in Conscience to goe away , to resign an Ecclesiastical benefice if he be possessed of one , and other things of the same necessity for the verification of the sentence : and the reason is , because every act of Communion or office is in his case a rebelling against the sentence of the law , the verification of which depends upon himself as much as upon others : for every such person is like a man that hath the plague , all men that know it avoid him ; but because all men doe not know it , he is bound in Conscience to avoid them , and in no case to run into their company , whether they know him , or know him not . Now because this does not oblige to all sorts of active executions of the sentence , the following measures are the limit of it . 3. The law does not oblige the guilty person to such active executions of the sentence which are meerly and intirely active ; that is , which doe not include a negative , or something contrary to the passive obedience . Thus if a Traitor be sentenc'd to a confiscation of goods , & this be ipso jure incurred ; the guilty person is not tied to carry all his goods to the publick treasure , but he is tied not to change , not to diminish , not to aliene , not to use them otherwise then the law permits ; because if he doe any thing of these he does something against the sentence of the law , which in his case is rebellion and disobedience . He may be truly passive and perfectly obedient to the sentence of the law without hiring porters or waggons to carry his goods away ; and the custome of the law requires it not : but if he does aliene his goods he hath not so much as the passive obedience . 4. In punishments corporal the laws doe not proceed without the sentence of the Judge ; except it be in the court of Conscience , which is voluntary and by choice . Thus no man is ipso jure condemn'd to be hang'd , or to be whipp'd , and no man is by any law bound to inflict such punishments on himself ; because there is a natural abhorrency in such actions , and it is that odious part of the law which is so much against nature and natural affection that none but the vilest part of mankind are put to doe it unto others : & therefore because the laws doe enjoyn no such thing , the inquiry is needless , whether in such cases the Conscience be oblig'd . But this is wholly depending upon the manners of men , and the present humors of the world . Amongst some nations it was otherwise ; and no question but it might be so , if by circumstances and the accidents of opinion and the conversation of the world the thing were not made intolerable . Plutarch tels of Teribasus , that being arrested by the officers of death he resisted with such a bravery as he us'd against the Kings enemies ; but being told that they were sent by the King , he presently reached forth his hands and offer'd them to the Lictors to be bound . But this was no great matter , it was necessary , and he that is condemn'd to die by a just authority , ows to it at least so much that he resist not , that he goe to death when he is called , that he lie down under the axe when he is commanded : So did Stilico at the command of his son in law , Honorius the Emperour . It was more which was done by the Lithuanians under Vitoldus their King , who was brother to that Vladislaus famous for a memorable battel against the Turks ; he commanded many to death , and they died without the Hang-man's hand , being the executioners of their King's laws upon themselves . And Sabellicus tels , that the Ethiopians , when their King sent a Messenger with the Ensigns of Death , they presently went home and died by their own hands . And this was accounted among them so sacred an obligation , that when a young timorous person thought to have fled , his mother took her girdle and strangled him , lest he should dishonour his family by disobeying the law out of fear of death . This was brave ; but some men cannot be willing to dye , and few can well suffer it : but therefore it is hard that any one should be compelled to doe it to himself . Therefore the laws of Christendome are wise and gentle ; and excepting that of the Lithuanian Prince , who is reported to have been a Tyrant , it is not enjoyned by any Prince or any law amongst us , that I know of . But this is not onely true in active executions , but in the passive penalties , which are very violent and extreme . Thus if a man were justly condemn'd to be immur'd and starv'd to death , he is tied to submit to it , as not to rebel , and by violence quit himself : but he is not tied so much as to the privative execution ; that is , he is not bound to abstain from meat , if it be brought to him . Thus we find in story , of the pious Persian Lady , who to her Father condemn'd to death by starving gave her breasts to suck , and preserv'd his life ; and he not at all made infamous by not dying ; but had his life given as the reward of his Daughters piety . 5. Condemn'd persons are not tied to put themselves to death , or cut off a member with their own hands , or doe execution , by doing any action , or abstaining from doing any thing , when such doing or abstaining is the sufficient , or the principal , or the immediate killing or dismembring . But to the under-ministeries they are ti'de , which cannot be done without them ; that is , they are tied so far to act , as without which they cannot suffer : and this is to be extended even to the principal and immediate act of killing , if they onely ordinarily can doe it . Thus a condemn'd Criminal is bound to go to execution , or suffer himself quietly to be carried ; to lie down under the Hangman's Axe , to ascend the Ladder : and it is a great undecency of dying , and directly criminal , which is frequent enough in France , and is reported of Marshal Biron , to fight with the Executioner , to snatch the Weapons from the Souldiers , to force the Officers to kill him , as a wild Bull or Lion is kill'd . * But a condemn'd man is also tied to drink his poyson , if that be appointed him by law ; for though this be the immediate act of killing , to which ordinarily condemn'd persons are not oblig'd , yet because it cannot well be done by an Executioner without his consent , or extreme violence , the guilty person is bound to drink it : the reason is , because the law must be obeyed , and at least a passive obedience is to be given to the severest of her sentences ; and the passiveness of a man is to be distinguish'd from the passiveness of a beast ; that which cannot be avoided , must be born well : and therefore if a man be banished , he must go away , and not be dragg'd ; and he that so resists the laws , that he forces her Ministers to hale the Criminal to death like an unwilling Swine , deserves the burial of an Asse or Dog. But this alwayes must suppose the laws to be just , and the power competent ; for else the suffering person may consider , whether the quiet submission to it be not a verification of the sentence , or of the authority , though even in such cases it is not the Hang-man that is unjust , or to be resisted , but the Judge or the laws ; and therefore they are to be protested or declar'd against ; for that is all which is left to be done by the oppressed person . 6. When the punishments are principally or meerly medicinal , the Conscience is bound to a voluntary execution of the sentence , if the law requires it . For then the laws are precepts of institution and discipline ; and they are intended as mercies to the man , as well as to the publick ; and of mercy every man may very well be Minister . It hath in it no undecency for a man to mingle his own severe potion , or let himself blood , or lance an Ulcer ; and there is no more in the medicinal punishments of the law . Thus the laws can command us to fast , to wear sackcloth upon the bare skin , to go barefoot , to watch all night upon a solemnity of expiation , to inflict disciplines , and the like ; and for these we are to expect no other process but the sentence of the law , no Judge but our Consciences , no Executioners but our selves . This relies upon the former reasons , and the meer authority of the law , and the nature of the thing free from all objections . 7. All sentences of law which declare a fact to be void , or a charge and expences to be lost , or a priviledge to cease , are presently obligatory to the Conscience . Irrita prorsus ex nunc , & vacua nunciamus , is usual in the stile of laws : & sit ipso jure irritum & inane ; & careat omni robore firmitatis , non obtineat vires ; let it be of no force , let it not prevail , let it be void , let him want all priviledge , all honour , dominion , action , or profit . For these and the like words , say the Logicians , have the force of an universal sign , and doe distribute the Noun that is governed by the Verb ; so they speak ; that is , it signifies and hath force in every particular , and in every period of time ; let it want force , that is , let it want all force , that is , be of no use at all ; careat is as much as omnino , penitus , prorsus careat . 8. But these particulars suffer one limitation . A man is not bound to suffer the penalty of the law before the sentence of the Judge , though the fact be sentenc'd and condemn'd ipso jure , if the fact be made publick , and brought before the Judge : Because he taking it into his cognisance , revokes the former obligation , by imposing a new ; by changing the method of the law , and lessening the expectation . Thus by the laws Ecclesiastical , which were antiently of force in England , and are not yet repeal'd , Not●rius percussor Clerici , he that openly or manifestly strikes a Bishop or Priest , is ipso jure excommunicate ; and to this sentence the guilty person is bound to submit : but in case he be brought before the Criminal Judge , and there be solemn process form'd , he may suspend his obedience to the law , because the Judge calls him to attend to the sentence of a man. 9. But yet this is also so to be understood to be true in all exceptis sententiis irritantibus , excepting sentences of the declaring actions to be null , or priviledges void . For in these cases , though the Judge doe take into his cognisance the particular fault , and give a declarative sentence of such a nullity and evacuation , yet the action does not begin to be null , or the priviledge to cease from the sentence of the Judge , but from the doing of the fault , and the sentence of the law : and therefore if a question arises , and the Judge declare in it , the nullity is onely confirm'd by the Judge , but it was so by the sentence of the law . Now the reason of the difference in the case of nullities and evacuations from other cases , is , because that which is not , hath no effect , and can produce no action ; and as a Citisen told the people of Athens , who upon the first news of Alexander's death would have rebelled , Stay ( sayes he ) make no hast ; for if he be dead to day , he will be dead to marrow : So if the Judge declare that such an action was null , it was null all the way ; if he sayes it be dead now as a punishment of the fault , it was dead as soon as the fault was done ; for it died by the hand of the law , not by the hand of the Judge . In other things the limitation is to be observed . 10. And this also holds , in case that it be upon any account necessary that the Judge give a declarative sentence : for sometimes in regard of others , the Judge must declare such a person excommunicate , or depriv'd , or silenc'd , or infamous , that they also may avoid him , or doe their respective duties . But although the guilty person be in conscience regularly oblig'd before that declarative sentence , it being nothing but a publication of what was in being before ; yet it being a favourable case , and the law not loving extremities and rigours of animadversion , it is to be presumed that the law gives leave to the guilty person to stay execution till publication . Because no man is bound directly to defame himself ; which he will hazard to doe , if he executes the sentence upon himself before the Judge calls others into testimony and observation of the sentence . But though the sentence may upon favourable conditions be retarded , it must at no hand be evacuated . Therefore if the Judge meddle not , the man is left to the sentence of the law . And it is in all these particulars to be remembred , that the law is a mute Judge , and the Judge is a speaking law . It is the saying of Cicero ; and from thence is to be concluded , that when the Judge hath spoken , he hath said no new thing , and he hath no new authority ; and therefore if the law hath clearly spoken before , she hath as much authority to bind where she intends to bind , as if she speaks by her Judges . These considerations and this whole question is of great use in order to some parts of repentance , and particularly of restitution . For if a law be made , that if a Clerk within twelve months after the collation of a Parish-Church be not ordain'd a Priest , he shall ipso jure forfeit his Ecclesiastical Benefice ; if he does not submit to the sentence , and recede from his Parish , he is tied in Conscience to make restitution of all the after profits which he receives or consumes . So that it hath real effect upon Consciences , and the material occurrences of men . But then for the reducing of it to practice , I am next to account by what signs we shall know when it is sententia lata à jure , when it is lata ab homine ; when it is lata , and when ferenda ; that is , when the Criminal is to attend the sentence of the Judge , and the solennities of law and execution by the appointed Officer ; and when he is to doe it himself , by his own act or positive submission upon the sentence of the law . Signs by which we may judge when the Criminal is condemn'd ipso facto . The surest measures are these . Those laws contain sententiam latam , and oblige the Criminal to a spontaneous susception of the punishment , when 1. the law expresly affirms , that the guilty person does ipso facto incurre the sentence without further process , or sentence of the Judge . 2. When the law sayes , that the Transgressor shall be bound in conscience to pay the fine , or suffer the punishment contain'd in the Sanction of the law : which thing because it is not usual in laws , lest I should seem to speak this to no purpose , I give an example out of the Spanish laws : for I finde in the laws of the Kingdome of Castile divers instances to this purpose ; particularly , after the assignation of the Secretaries fee , appointing how much he may receive for the instruments of grace which he makes , it is added , Jurent quod observabunt eaquae in pracedenti capitulo ordinata sunt , & quod non accipient munera , & quod solvent poenas si in eas inciderint , ad quas ex nunc eos condemnamus , ità ut sint obligati in foro conscientiae ad solvendum eas , absque hoc quod sint ad illas condemnati . And the same also is a little after decreed concerning Judges and publick Notaries , that they take nothing beyond their allowed fees and salaries ; and if they doe , they are to pay a certain fine . They are also to swear to observe that ordinance ; and in case they doe not , that they will pay the fines to which the law does then sentence them , that they be bound in Conscience to doe it without any further condemnation by the sentence of any man. Now the reason of this is , because the Conscience being intrusted and charg'd with the penalty , must suppose onely the duty and obligation of the man whose Conscience is charg'd . It were foolish to charge the Conscience , if the Conscience were not then intended to be bound to see to the execution : but that could not be , if the sentence of the Judge were to be expected ; for that is a work of time , and will be done without troubling the Conscience . Therefore the Conscience being made the Sheriff or the Witness with the charge of execution , supposes the whole affair to be his own private duty . 3. In censures Ecclesiastical it hath sometimes been the usage of the Legislator to impose a penalty , adding , that donec satisfecerit , untill such or such a thing be done , the Criminal shall not be absolved : and this also is an indication that the sentence is made by the law , and is ipso facto incurred by the Delinquent , because it leaves a secret tie upon his Conscience obliging him to doe it ; which were needless , if the Criminal Judge were to be intrusted with it , for he is otherwise sufficiently intrusted with compulsories to secure the executions . Of this nature is that Constitution of Innocentius 4. cap. Romana , § . procurationes , de censibus , lib. 6. describing the order for an Archbishop's visitation of his own , and the Dioceses of his Suffragan Bishops ; forbidding severely him or any of his followers to receive a fee , bribe , reward , or present , qualitercunque offeratur , under what pretence soever it be offer'd , lest he be found to seek that which is his own , not that which is of Jesus Christ ; adding , Quod si fuerit contrà praesumptum , recipiens maledictionem incurrat , à qua nunquam nisi duplum restituat liberetur , He that shall presume to doe otherwise , and receive any thing , shall incurre a curse , from which he shall never be absolved till he have restored it two-fold . This relies upon the former reason . 4. Panormitan gives this rule , That when a sentence is set down in the law in words of the present or preter tense , it concludes the sentence to be ipso facto incurred ; for whatsoever is ipso jure decreed , is ipso facto incurred : and of this decree , the present and past tenses ( saies the Abbat ) are sufficient indication . That is , if the words be damnatory ; [ as excommunicamus , anathemate innodamus , we doe deprive him of all rights and offices , &c. ] for if the Judge using the like words passes a sentence by virtue of those words , so does the law , there being the same reason , the same aurhority , the same purpose signified by the same form of words . But if the words be of the present or past time , and yet not immediately damnatory , they doe imply the sentence to be made afterwards ; as decernimus , definivimus , declaramus , and the like . But if these words signify onely ministerially , and not principally , that is , if they be joyned with other words in the present or past tense , then they declare the sentence past and ipso facto to be incurred ; as declaramus eum privatum dominio bonorum ; then the case is evident . 5. Of the same consideration it is when the sentence of the law is set down with the verb substantive Sum , of what tense soever , unless by a future participle his nature be altered . Thus if a law saies , he that is absent from his parish , without just cause to be approved by his Bishop , above six moneths , est , or erit infamis , is or shall be infamous ; the sentence is ipso jure lata , inferr'd by law , and ipso facto incurr'd ; because the verb annexes the punishment to the fact without further process . But if the verb be annexed to a future participle the case is altered ; the sentence is not to be undergone till the Judge have declared it . Now this relies upon the force of the words and the proper grammatical way of speaking , which is the best way of declaring the mind of a man , or the mind of the law ; unless where it is confessed that the law-giver did not intend , or use to speak properly or by grammar , but by rude custome . This note I have in A. Gellius , Verbum esse & erit , quando per se ponuntur , habent atque retinent tempus suum ; cum vero praeterito junguntur , vim temporis sui amittunt , & in praeteritum contendunt . If these words be not altered , they signify just by themselves ; est or erit excommunicatus , or infamis , signifies the punishment to begin as soon as the fact is done : but est excommunicandus , that is a future that relates to another time , and staies for the sentence of the Judge . But there must be something more to clear this . For if erit be the future tense , why shall it not as well signify sententiam ferendam , as est excommunicandus ; since the verb is to be left to his own time , as well as the present tense brought thither by a future participle ? Therefore to this I adde , that when the verb or participle does signify the action or ministery of some other person besides the law and the Criminal , then it shews that the declaration of the Judge is to be expected ; as in [ est excommunicandus ] that is , he is to be excommunicated , viz. by the sentence of his ordinary judge : but erit infamis , or erit excommunicatus , implies no mans action at all , but supposes the thing finish'd without any more to doe ; and then comes in the rule of Nigidius in A. Gellius before spoken of . Infamis signifies presently , that is , he shall be so from the doing of the crime ; and excommunicatus signifies present or past , and therefore by it the future tense shall be altered , and therefore the sentence presently incurred . But concerning this particular , who pleases to be Critical and curious in minutes may delight himself by seeing seventy five fallencies , and alterations of cases by the variety of tenses expressed in words of law , in Tiraquel in his excellent and large commentaries in L. Si unquam , C. De revocandis donationibus , in the interpretation of the word Revertatur . For my own part , I am content to assign such measures as are sure , plain , easy and intelligible . Nobis non licet esse tam disertis . 6. The sentence of the law does presently oblige the Conscience if it be expressed in adverbs of hasty or present time ; such as are confestim , illico , extunc , extemplo , presently , forthwith , from thence forward , and the like : for those who appoint the punishment to be incurred without any interval of time , in effect say that we are not to expect the dull and long protracted methods of Courts , and Judges , and commissions , and citations , and witnesses , and adjournments . Protinus , i. e. non expectato judiciorum ordine , say the Lawyers . Protinus ad regem cursum detorquet Hiarbas . Forthwith , that is , without the longer methods of the Court. Nec mora , continuò matris praecepta facessit . These words and their like have a present effect ; and therefore doe signify a present obligation of Conscience . Concerning the signification of which and the like words it is hard to say whether we are to be guided by the Lawyers or by the Grammarians . The Lawyers are the best witnesses of sentences , and precedents , and the usages and customes of laws ; and therefore can best tell how the laws are said to bind , and what sentences they are said to contain : and because by them we are to be judg'd in publick if questions doe arise , from them also we may take our rule in private . This seems reasonable : but on the other side , I find that Lawyers themselves say otherwise ; and I have seen Tiraquel much blamed for quoting Bartholus , Baldus , and Salicetus for the signification of the word [ Mox , by and by ] which is of use in this present rule : because though they were great Lawyers , yet they were no good Grammarians ; and therefore that in these cases , Erasmus and Calepine , Valla and Linacre , Cicero and Terence , Priscian and Donatus , were the most competent Judges . There is something on both sides which is to weigh down each other according as some other cosideration shall determine . But therefore as to the case of Conscience , I shall give a better and surer rule then either one or other , or both : and that is , 7. This being in matters of load and burden , by the consent of all men , the Conscience and the guilty person is to be favour'd as much as there can be cause for . Therefore whenever there is a dispute whether the sentence of the law must be incurr'd presently , or that the sentence of the Judge is to be expected ; the presumption is alwaies to be for ease , and for liberty , and favourable senses . Burdens are not to be impos'd upon Consciences without great evidence , and great necessity . If the Lawyers differ in their opinions concerning the sentence , whether it be already made , or is to be made by the Judge , let them first agree , and then let the Conscience doe as she sees reason . Thus if the word [ Mox , by and by ] be us'd in a sentence of law , because we find that in some very good Authors it signifies with some interval of time , ( as in Cicero , Discedo parumper à somniis , ad quae mox revertor ; & , praeteriit villam meam Curio , jussitque mihi nunciari se mox venturum ; ) therefore we may make use of it to our advantage , and suppose the Conscience of a delinquent at liberty from a spontaneous execution of a sentence of law , if for that sentence he have no other sign , but that the word Mox is used in the law . In poenis benignior est interpretatio facienda , In matters of punishment we are to take the easier part ; and that is , to stay from being punish'd as long as we can : and in proportion to this Panormitan gives this rule , When the words of the law signifiy the time past , or the time to come , we are to understand it in the more favourable sense ; and that it includes the sentence of the Judge , before which the Criminal is not oblig'd . And to this very purpose the words of infinite and indefinite signification are to be expounded : and this answers many cases of Conscience , and brings peace in more ; and the thing being reasonable , peaceful , and consonant to the common opinion of the Lawyers , ought to pass for a just conclusion and determination of Conscience . 8. After all , as there is ease to the Criminal , so there must be care of the law ; and therefore when a law imposes a punishment which would prove invalid , to no purpose and of no effect , unless it be of present force upon the committing of the fact , it is to be concluded , the law intends it for a sententia lata à jure , that it presently obliges the Conscience of the guilty person . The reason is , because it cannot be supposed that the law should doe a thing to no purpose , and therefore must intend so to oblige as that the sin be punished . If therefore to expect the sentence of the Judge would wholly evacuate the penalty , or make it insufficient to doe the purpose and intention of the law ; the sentence of the law must be suffered by the guilty person without the Judge . And this is true , however the words of law be used , whether in the past , present , or future time , whether simply or by reduplication , whether imperatively or infinitely : such are the penalties of infamy , irregularity , nullity of actions or contracts , especially if they be of such contracts which if they once prove valid , are so for ever , as in the contract of marriage . And therefore if a law be made that a man shall not marry her whom in her husbands life-time he had polluted ; this must be suppos'd to be meant of nullifying the contract before it is consummate ; that is , it is a sentence which the criminal must execute upon himself : for if he does not , but de facto marries the adulteress , and consummates the marriage , it will be too late to complain to the Judge ; for he cannot annul the contract afterwards . RULE III. Penalties impos'd by the Judge must be suffered and submitted to , but may not after such sentence be inflicted by the hands of the condemned . THE first part of this Rule hath in it but little difficulty : for there is onely in it this variety ; In all punishments that are tolerable , that is , all but death , dismembring , or intolerable and extremely disgraceful scourgings , and grievous and sickly imprisonments , we owe not onely obedience to the laws , but reverence and honour ; because whatsoever is less then these , may without sin , and without indecency , and without great violations of our Natural love and rights be inflicted and suffered . But the other evils are such as are intolerable in civil and natural account ; and every Creature declines death , and the addresses and preparations to it with so much earnestness , that it would be very unnatural and inhumane not to allow to condemn'd persons a civil and moral power of hating and declining death , and avoiding it in all means of natural capacity and opportunity . A man may , if he can , redeem his life with money , but he must not corrupt justice ; a man may run from Prison if he can , but to doe it he must not kill the Gaoler ; he may escape death , but he must not fight with the Ministers of justice ; he may run away , but he must not break his word ; that is , he may doe what is in his natural capacity to avoid these violences and extremities of nature , but nothing that is against a moral duty . Non peccat quisquam cum evitat supplicium , sed cum facit aliquid dignum supplicio ; He that avoids his punishment sins not , provided that in so doing he act nothing else worthy of punishment . So S. Austin . This relies also upon a tacit or implicit permission of law ; for in sentences given by Judges , and to be executed by the Ministers of law , the condemn'd person is not commanded , nor yet trusted with the execution , and it is wholly committed to Ministers of purpose : and therefore the law supposes the condemn'd person infinitely unwilling , and layes bars , restraints , guards and observators upon him ; from all which if he can escape , he hath done no more then what the law-giver suppos'd he was willing to doe , and from which he did not restrain him by laws , but by force . But if to fly from prison , or to decline any other sentence be expresly forbidden in the law , or if it be against his promise , or if a distinct penalty be annexed to such escapings , then it is plain that the law intends to oblige the Conscience , for the law cannot punish what is no sin ; it is in this case a transgression of the law , and therefore not lawfull . But because greater then death the law hath no punishment , it cannot but be lawfull for a condemn'd man to escape from prison if he can , because the law hath no punishment to establish a law against flying from prison after the sentence of death . And if it be said , that if a prisoner who flyes be taken , he hath more irons and more guards upon him , and worse usage in the prison , that is matter of caution , not punishment , at least not of law : for as for the Gaoler's spite and anger , his cruelty and revenge , himself alone is to give accounts . But now for the other part of the Rule there is some more difficulty ; which is caused by the great example of some great and little persons , who to prevent a death by the hand of their Enemies , with the additions of shame and torment , have laid violent hands upon themselves . So did Zeno and Chrysippus , Cleanthes and Empedocles , Euphrates the Philosopher and Demosthenes , Cato Uticensis and Porcius Latro , Aristarchus and Anaxagoras , Cornelius Rufus and Silius Italicus . The Indians esteem'd it the most glorious way of dying , as we find in * Strabo , a Olympiodorus , and b Porphyry : and Eusebius tels , that most of the Germans did use to hang themselves . And amongst the Romans they that , out of shame of being in debt , or impatience of grief , kill'd themselves , might make their Wils , and after death they stood ; manebant testamenta , pretium festinandi , saith c Tacitus , that was the price of their making hast . Plato discoursing of this question , said , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Peradventure a man must not doe violence to himself , for they say it is not lawfull . Upon this , Olympiodorus discoursing on these words , reckons five cases in which the Stoicks held it lawfull to kill themselves . 1. For publick good . 2. For private necessity , to avoid a Tyrant's snare . 3. In cases of natural madness . 4. When the body is intolerably afflicted . 5. and lastly . In extreme poverty . And the Greeks commended a Pythagorean woman , who being ask'd why she and her Sect did not eat beans , she said , she would rather eat them then tell : but being commanded by a Tyrant to eat them , she said , she would rather tell then eat them : but in fine she cut out her tongue , because she would neither tast nor tell . Thus Seneca tels of a Prisoner , that being to be expos'd to Beasts in the Theatre , he broke his neck in the spondels of the wheel upon which he was drawn to the spectacles ; and of another that dyed by a pertinacious holding of his breath . But that of Sampson , and Saul , and Razis , are also brought into example ; and are alledged to prove , that a man may a few hours or dayes hasten his death , if by so doing he takes the lighter part . S. Chrysostome tels of S. Pelagia ; Pelagia virgo quindecim annos nata sponte sibi necem maturavit . Parata quidem erat ad cruciatus tormentáque & omne suppliciorum genus perferendum : sed metuebat tamen ne virginitatis coronam perderet : Being a Virgin of fifteen years of age , of her own accord she hastned death unto her self : she was indeed ready to have suffered all sorts of most exquisit torments , but she was not willing to lose the Crown of her Virginity . Upon which fact of hers he thus discourses , Hence you may perceive , that the lust of the wicked Hang-men struck fear into Pelagia , and therefore from their injurious lust the Maiden remov'd and snatch'd her self : for if she might have kept the Crown of her Virginity , and receive the Crown of Martyrdome besides , she would not have refus'd the Judgement-seat ; but because it was altogether necessary to lose the one of them , she had a just cause by her own voluntary death to prevent so great an injury . And S. Ambrose writing to his Sister Marcellina , expresly commends those Virgin-Martyrs , who , to prevent their ravishments , did hasten their death by voluntary precipices , or drowning ; and particularly allows the fact of Pelagia . To which I adde also S. Hierome , who though he gives express testimony to the Rule , yet he excepts the case of Chastity ; Non est nostrum mortem arripere , sed illatam ab aliis libenter excipere : unde & in persecutionibus non licet propriâ perire manu , absque eo ubi castitas periclitatur , sed percutienti colla submittere , We must not snatch death with our own hands , but willingly receive it when it is impos'd by others : and therefore in persecutions we must not dye by our own hands , unless it be when our Chastity is in danger , — heu quanto melius vel cade peractâ Parcere Romano potnit fortuna pudori ? in other cases we must lay down our necks under him that strikes . And this seems reasonable , because as the Emperour said , Viris bonis metum istum [ pudicitiae amittendae ] majorem esse debere quam ipsius mortis , He that fears to lose his Chastity , fears more justly then he that fears to lose his Life . To this I answer , that the case is indeed very hard ; and every one in this is apt not onely to excuse , but to magnifie the great and glorious minds of those who to preserve their honour despis'd their life . And therefore when the Moscovites broke into Livonia , and in their sacking of the City Wenden us'd all manner of cruelties and barbarous immanities to men and women , filling all the streets and houses with blood and lust ; a great many of the Citizens running to the Castle , blew up themselves with their Wives and Children , to prevent those horrours and shames of lust which they abhorred more then death . Now Laurentius Muller , who tels the story , sayes , that although the Preachers of Riga did in their Pulpits condemn this act of the Women and Maidens : yet the other Livonians and the Moscovites themselves did not onely account it sad and pitiable , but excellent and admirable . And so the Author of the Books of Maccabees commends the fact of Razias as glorious and great : but yet this does not conclude it lawfull ; for it is upon no account lawfull for a man of his own accord to kill himself . S. Austin denies to him the praise of magnanimity ; Magis enim mens infirma deprehenditur , quae ferre non potest duram corporis sui sanitatem , vel stultam vulgi opinionem , It is not greatness , but littleness of spirit , it is either impatience or pride , that makes a man kill himself to avoid trouble to his body , or dishonour to his name amongst fools . I suppose he had it from Josephus , who excellently and earnestly proves it to be cowardise to lay violent hands upon our selves ; and both of them might have it from Aristotle , who will not allow it so much as to be brave and magnanimous for a man to kill himself for the avoiding of any evil , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , To dye that we may avoid poverty , the torments of love , or any evil affliction whatsoever , is not the part of a valiant man , but of a coward . Hostem cum fugeret , se Fannius ipse peremit . Hic rogo , non furor est , ne moriare mori ? Fannius being pursued by the Enemy , kill'd himself for fear . It may be cowardise to dye in some cases ; and to dye to preserve our Chastity , is to sin to avoid a sin , like Fannius his case of fear , — mortísque timorem Morte fugant , ultróque vocant venientia fata : or as S. Chrysostome's expression is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , To dye before the wound is given , and to leap into the sea for fear of shipwreck : It is to doe violence to our body to preserve it chast , to burn a Temple to prevent its being prophan'd . And therefore it is no just excuse to say the Virgin-Martyrs did it lest they should lose their Crown of Virginity : for though I shall not urge the example of Abraham , who rather ventur'd his Wives Chastity then his own life ; yet this I say , that she that loses it by violence is never the less a Virgin before God , but much more a Martyr . But then if any one can suppose it fit to be objected , that if they lost their Material Virginity , there was danger , lest while they were abus'd , they should also be tempted , and consent : I suppose it will be sufficient to answer , that a certain sin is not to be done to avoid an uncertain ; and yet further , that this could not be considerable in the case of the Martyrs : for besides that it is suppos'd that they were infinitely fortified by the grace of God , their austere ●●ves , and holy Habits , the rare discourses of their spiritual Guides , their expectations of particular Crowns , the great reputation and honour of Virgins , and the spirit of Chastity , which then very much prevail'd ; besides all this , I say , they had then ( particularly S. Pelagia , and the Virgins which S. Ambrose speaks of , had then ) the sentence of death not onely within them , but upon them ; and the immediate torments which they expected after ravishments , were a very competent mortification for any such fears . And therefore as we should call it cowardise or impatience for a man to kill himself that he may dye an easy death , and prevent the Hangman 's more cruel hands ; so it is a foolish and unreasonable caution , and a distrust of the sufficiency of the Divine grace , to rush violently to death ▪ lest we should be dishonour'd or tempted in another instance : and it is not bravery , but want of courage ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , It is softnesse and effeminacy by death to flie the labours of a sadder accident , saies Aristotle . But be it this or not this , it is certain it is something as bad . 1. It is directly against the Commandement : and it is not for nothing that in all the Canonical books we find no precept , no permission from God , saith S. Austin , ut vel adipiscendae ipsius immortalitatis , vel ullius carendi , cavendíque mali causâ nobismet ipsis necem inferamus . Nam & prohibitos nos esse intelligendum est , ubi Lex ait , Non occides : That either for the gaining of immortality it self , or for the avoiding of any evil we should kill our selves . It is something like this which Aristotle saies , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Those things which the decrees have appointed agreeable to vertue those are to goe for laws ; as for example , The Law does not command any man to kill himself , and because the law does not command , therefore it does forbid : that is , because the law commands no man ( though he be condemn'd ) to kill himself , therefore the law forbids him to doe it to himself ; the law will not make a man executioner even of her sentence , therefore she permits him not to execute his own . But S. Austin addes beyond this , For then we were forbidden to doe it , when God said , Thou shalt doe no Murder . And therefore it is observable that although God said , Thou shalt not bear false witnesse against thy Neighbour ; yet he did not in this Commandement adde that clause of [ contra proximum ] nor in that of adultery ; intimating that we must neither pollute nor destroy our own bodies any more then the body of our neighbour . 2. To prevent the hand of justice or of Tyranny in striking , is sometimes to prevent the hand of God in saving , and is an act of desperation against the hopes of a good man , and the goodness of God : for helpe may come in the interval . Caius the Emperor commanded some to be put to death , whom he presently after infinitely wish'd to have been alive ; the hast of the Executioners destroyed the men , more then the rage of the Prince : and it is all one if the man himself be hasty . And Pontanus tells that when Angelus Ronconius was accus'd to Pope Nicolas the fifth that he had given way to Aversus whom the Popes forces had enclosed , and gave leave to him to pass over Tiber , the Pope commanded him to be proceeded against according to law ; but when he rose in the morning , and told his Ministers he would more maturely consider the cause of Ronconius , they told him he was that very night put to death , which caus'd extreme grief to the Pope . Concerning a mans life all delay is little enough : and therefore for himself to hasten it is against prudence , and hope , and charity . 3. The argument of Lactantius is very good ; Si homicida nefarius est qui hominis extinctor est , eidem sceleri obstrictus est qui se necat , If he that kills another is a wicked homicide , so also is he that kills himself . Nay he is worse , said S. Chrysostom . And this besides that it relies upon the unlimited , indefinite Commandement , which must be understood universally but where God hath expresly set it limits ; and though he hath given leave to publick Magistrates to doe it , who therefore are not under that Commandement , yet because he hath not given leave to our selves to doe it to our selves , therefore we are under the Commandement : besides this , I say , it relies also upon this reason , that our love to our selves is the measure of charity to our neighbours ; and if we must not kill our neighbour because we must love him as our self , therefore neither must we kill our selves , for then we might also kill our neighbour , the reason and the measure , the standard and the proportion being taken away . 4. To put our selves to death without the Command of God or his lieutenant is impiety and rebellion against God ; it is a desertion of our military station , and a violation of the proprieties and peculiar rights of God , who only hath power over our lives , and gives it to whom he pleases : and to this purpose Cicero commends that saying of Pythagoras , nequis injussu Imperatoris , id est , Dei , de praesidio & statione vitae discedat ; God is our General , and he hath commanded to us our abode and station , which till he call us off must not be deserted : and the same doctrine he recites out of Plato , Piis omnibus retinendum esse animum in custodia corporis , nec injussu ejus à quo ille est datus ex hominum vita migrandum esse , ne munus humanum assignatum à Deo defugisse videamur . The reason is very good : God gave us our soul and fixt it in the prison of the body , tying it there to a certain portion of work , and therefore we must not without his leave goe forth , lest we run from our work that God hath commanded us . Josephus saies it is like a servants running away from his Masters service : Et serv●s quidem fugientes ulcisci justum creditur , quamvis nequam Dominos fugerint ; ipsi verò fugimus Deum & optimum Deum , impiè facere non videbimur ? If servants flie from their cruel Masters they are justly punished ; shall it not be accounted impiety to flie from our good God , our most gracious Master ? And therefore Brutus condemn'd the fact of Cato his Father-in-law , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , It was neither manly nor pious to sink under his fortune , and to flie away from those evils which he ought to have born nobly . And therefore the Hebrews called dying , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a dismission : Lord , now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace , said old Simeon ; Nunc dimittis . When God gives us our pass , then we must goe , but we must not offer it an hour before : he that does otherwise is , 1. ungrateful to God , by destroying the noblest of his works below ; 2. impious , by running from his service ; and 3. distrustful of his providence . Nisi Deus is , cujus hoc Templum est omne quod conspicis , istis te corporis custodiis liberaverit , in coelum aditus tibi patere non potest , said Cicero , Unlesse God open the gate for you , you can never pass from the prison of the body , and enter into Heaven . And the same is affirm'd by Hierocles , which I tell for the strangeness of it ; for he was a Stoick , yet against the opinion of his Sect , he spake on the behalf of reason and religion : And this is the Christian sense , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Said S. Gregory Nyssen , We must stand bound , till God untie us . 5. For a man to kill himself is against the law , and the voice , and the very prime inclination of Nature . Every thing will preserve it self : No man hateth his own flesh , but nourisheth and cherisheth it , saith the Apostle : and therefore generally all Nations , as taught by the voice of Nature , by the very first accents which she utters to all men , did abhor the laying violent hands upon our selves . When some of the old Romans hanged themselves to avoid the slavery that Tarquinius Superbus impos'd upon them of making publick draught-houses ; he commanded the dead bodies to be crucified , saies Servius . So did Ptolemy to the body of Cleomenes who had killed himself ; and Aristotle saies it was every where receiv'd , that the dead bodies of self-murderers should be disgrac'd some way or other ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by denying them burial : that was the usual way . So did the Milesians to their maidens who hang'd themselves , they expos'd their bodies to a publick spectacle : and Strabo tells that the Indian Priests and wise men blam'd the fact of Calanus , and that they hated those hasty deaths of impatient or proud persons . Alieno scelere quam meo mori malo , said King Darius , I had rather die by the wickedness of another , then by my own . 6. Aristotle saies that they who kill themselves [ hastening their own death before God or the publick commands them ] are injurious to the Commonwealth ; from whose service and profit they subtract themselves if they be innocent , and if they be criminal , they withdraw themselves from her justice : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , He that kills himself does wrong to the city ; and is after death disgrac'd as an unjust person to the publick . Now then to the examples and great precedents above mentioned I shall give this answer . 1. That Sampson is by all means to be excus'd , because S. Paul accounts him in the Catalogue of Saints who died in faith ; and therefore S. Austin saies he did it by a peculiar instinct and inspiration of the Spirit of God. But no man can tell whether he did or no : and therefore I like that better which Peter Martyr saies in this inquiry ; He did primarily and directly intend onely to kill the enemies of God , which was properly his work to which he was in his whole calling design'd by the Spirit of God ; but that he died himself in the ruine was his suffering , but not his design ; but like a Souldier fighting against his enemies at the command of his General undertakes the service though he knows he shall die for it . Thus doe the Mariners blow up themselves in a sea-fight when they can no otherwise destroy the enemy ; they doe it as Ministers of justi●e , and by command ; else they are not to be excused : and he that gives it must take care it be just and reasonable . Thus did the brave Eleazar Habaran the brother of Judas Maccabaeus : he supposing their grand enemy Antiochus to be upon a tower'd Elephant goes under the beast and kills him , who with his fall crush'd the brave Prince to death ; he intended not to kill himself , but to kill Antiochus he would venture himself or suffer death . 2. The fact of Saul is no just precedent , it looks like despaire : but the Hebrews say that it is not lawful for any man to die by his own hands , unless the prolongation of his life be a dishonour to God , and to a cause of religion ; and upon this account they excuse both Saul and Sampson , for they knew that if they should fall or abide respectively in the hands of scorners , the dishonour of their persons would disparage the religion , and reach to God. So they . But this is not right : for we onely are to take care of the laws of God , and of his glory in the waies of his own appointment ; for extraordinaries and rare contingencies , let him alone , he will secure his own glory . 3. For Razias , Lipsius saies it is a question whether it was well or ill done ; and who please to see it disputed may read Lucas Brugensis on one side and Nicolaus de Lyra upon the other . For my own part I at no hand believe it fit to be imitated ; but concerning what brave and glorious persons doe , and by what Spirit they acted , I am not willing to give hasty sentence : for there are many secrets which we know not ; but we are to follow our Rule , and not to trust any Spirit of which we are not sure it is from God. 4. But of that which is most difficult I have already spoken something ; but shall adde more : for it is a pitiable case that vertuous women , highly sensible of their honour , zealous for chastity , despisers of life , should not as well receive the reward of their suffering to preserve the interest of chastity , as of any other grace ; especially since they chuse death rather then shame , and would not willingly chuse either , but being forc'd , run to death for sanctuary . It is true , it is much to be pitied ; but that 's all : ac per hoc & quae se occiderunt , ne quicquam hujusmodi paterentur , quis humanus affectus eis nollet ignosci ? Every man ( saies S. Austin ) will pity , and be ready to excuse , or to wish pardon to such women who kill'd themselves to preserve their honour . Cicero tells of certain noble Virgins that threw themselves into pits to avoid the shame of their enemies lust : and S. Hierom tels of seven Milesian Virgins , who , to prevent the rudeness of the Gaules that destroyed all Asia , laid violent hands upon themselves . The Greek Epigram mentions them with honour , but tells but of three : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . They chose a sad death before a mixture with the lustful blood of the Galatians . And the Jews tell of a captive woman of their nation , who being in a ship and design'd to ravishment , ask'd her Husband if the bodies of them th●m that were drown'd in the sea should rise again : and when he had said they should , she leap'd into the Sea. And among the Christians that did so , there were many examples . Divers women of Antioch under Diocletian ; more under Chosroes the Persian ; Sophronia under Maxentius ; S. Pelagia before mention'd ; and divers others . These persons had great Advocates ; but I suppose it was upon the stock of pity and compassion that so much bravery should be thrown away upon a mistake : and therefore I find that S. Chrysostome , who commended this manner of death upon the account of chastity , yet is not constant to it , but blames it in his commentaries upon the Galatians : and the third Council of Orleans commanded that the oblations of them that died by the hands of justice should be received , Si tamen non ipsi sibi mortem probentur propriis manibus intulisse , alwaies provided that they did not prevent the hand of justice , that they did not lay violent hands upon themselves . I end this with the saying of Procopius , which is a just determination of the case in it self . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , A violent death , or a death hastned by our own hands , is a thing unprofitable , and full of foolish violence ; and since it wants prudent counsel , it is by wise men judged to be but the image and hypocrisie of valour and magnanimity . To which he addes , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , This also ought to be considered , that no man ought to be impious or ungratefull towards God. This is the definition of the case . But then as to the persons of them that did so , I have nothing to say but this , that they ought not to be drawn into example : but for the whole , it was modest and charitable which was decreed by the French Capitulars , Concerning him who hath kill'd himself , it is consider'd , that if any one out of pity or compassion will give alms for their souls ( so was the custome of those times ) let him give , and say prayers and psalms , but not celebrate the solemn sacrifice for them ; quia incomprehensibilia sunt judicia Dei , & profunditatem consilii ejus nemo potest investigare , Because the judgements of God are incomprehensible , and the depth of his counsels no man can fathom . This was more gentle then that of Virgil , Proxima deinde tenent moesti loca qui sibi lethum Insontes peperere manu , lucémque perosi Projecere animas , quam vellent aethere in alto Nunc & pauperiem , & duros perferre labores . He appointed a sad place in Hell for them that so cheaply out of impatience , or to avoid a great trouble , threw away their souls . Fain would they now return to light , and joyfully would change their present state with all the labours and shames which they with hasty death so earnestly declin'd . But he knew nothing of it , neither doe I , onely that it is not lawfull . But how they shall fare in the other World who upon such great accounts are tempted , is one of God's secrets , which the Great Day will manifest . If any man will be pleased to see more against it , he may find it in a S. Austin , b Hegesippus , c Nicephorus Blennidas , d Heliodorus , and divers others , well collected by Fabrot in his 5th Exercitation . RULE IV. He that hath suffered the punishment is not discharg'd in Conscience , unless he also repent of the disobedience . THis Rule is in effect the same with the first Rule of the first Chapter of this Book : but because it is usually discours'd of also under the head of Penal Laws , and there are many persons who , when they have broken the law , and have suffered punishment , think themselves discharg'd , and because it ministers some particularities of its own , I have therefore chosen distinctly to consider it . In this inquiry penal laws usually are distinguish'd into laws purely penal , and mix'd . 1. Laws purely penal are such which neither directly command , nor forbid , but impose a penalty upon him that does or omits an action respectively . So Moses to the Children of Israelxf , If a man shall steal an oxe or a sheep , and kill it or sell it , he shall restore five oxen for one oxe , and four sheep for one . 2. A mix'd penal law is when with the precept or prohibition the penalty is adjoyn'd : so said God , Ye shall not hurt the widow or the fatherless ; if ye hurt them , they shall cry unto me , and I will hear their cry , and my fury shall be kindled , and I will strike you with the sword , and your wives shall be widows , and your children fatherless . And of the same nature is that Canon of the Council of Agatho , We doe by a special order command all secular persons to hear the whole Divine Service upon the Lord's Day , so that the people presume not to go forth before the blessing of the Priest : but if any man shall presume to doe so , let him be publickly punish'd by the Bishop . 3. Other laws are purely moral , that is , preceptive without any penalty . This distinction Silvester derides as childish , and of no use ; but others deride him : but whatever use it can be of to other purposes , it is of little in this . For whether the penalty be annexed or no , it obliges to penalty * ; and therefore whether it be preceptive or no , it also obliges to duty : and we see it in ocular demonstration in divers of the Levitical and moral laws of God , which sometimes are set down in the stile of laws purely penal , and the same laws in other places are penal and prohibitive . 1. But why are punishments decreed in laws ? are they for the obedient , or for the disobedient ? for good men , or for bad ? Certainly , for them that doe not obey . Now they that obey not , doe well or ill , or it is indifferent whether they doe or no : if they doe well , they are to be rewarded , and not punished ; if the thing after the sanction be still indifferent , why shall he suffer evil that does none ? But the case is plain , that in all just Governments the punishment is decreed in the laws , that the law may be obeyed ; and unless it be equally good to the Prince that his Subjects obey or be punish'd , that is , unless it be all one to him whether they be happy and advantaged , or miserable and punished , and that he cares not whether the subject receives the good or the evil of the law , it cannot be suppos'd that when the subject is punished , the law is satisfied in its first intention . 2. Adde to this , If suffering the punishment does satisfie the law , then the Subject is not tied to obey for Conscience sake , but onely for wrath , expresly against the Apostle ; and then laws would quickly grow contemptible : for the great Flyes that break through the Cobweb-lawns of penal laws , would be both innocent and unconcerned ; innocent , as not being tied in Conscience , and unconcerned , as having many defensatives against the fine . 3. The saying therefore of S. Austin hath justly prevail'd , Omnis poena si justa est , peccati poena est , & supplicium nominatur , Every penalty is relative to an offence , and is called punishment . And there can be no reason given why in laws there are differing punishments assign'd , but that they be proportionable to the greatness of the fault . It follows therefore , that whoever is oblig'd to suffer the punishment of the law , doe ask God's pardon and the King 's , for having done a sin by which onely he could be oblig'd to punishment . Reatus or guilt , both in Divine laws and in humane , is an obligation to punishment : for reatus poenae and reatus culpae differ but as the right and left hand of a pillar ; it is the same thing in several aspects and situations . And Lucius Neratius was a fool , and a vile person ; and having an absurd humour of giving every man he met a box on the ear , he caused a servant to follow him with a bag of money , and caused him to pay him whom he had smitten XXV Asses , a certain summe which was by the law of the XII Tables impos'd upon him that did an injury : but consider'd not that 〈◊〉 that while he was a base and a trifling fool for doing injury to the Citizens . This Rule hold ▪ in all without exception : it seems indeed to fail in two cases , but it does not ; onely the account of them will explicate and confirm the Rule . 1. In actions which are not sins , but undecencies , or unaptnesses to a state or office and action , the evils that are appendant to them are also but quasi poenae , half punishments : such as is the irregularity that is incurred by a Judge that gives sentence in a cause of Blood ; he is incapable of entring into Holy Orders by the antient laws of the Church . A Butcher is made incapable of being of the Inquest of Life and Death : which incapacity is not directly a punishment , any more then it is a sin to be a Butcher ; but certain persons are without their fault declar'd unfit for certain states o● imployments . Now this confirms the Rule , for still the proportion is kept ; and if it be but like a fault , the consequent of it is but like a punishment . And if at any time these appendages are called punishments , it is by a Catachresis or an abuse of the word , and because of the similitude in the matter of it . So we say , the righteous are punished , that is , they suffer evil , for their own trial , or for the glory of God : and so it is in the Law , Sine culpa , nisi subsit causa , non est aliquis puniendus , No man is to be punished without his fault , unless there be cause for it : that is , no man is to suffer that evil , which in other cases is really a punishment , and in all cases looks like one . And from hence comes that known Rule , and by the same measure is to be understood , Etsi sine causa non potest infligi poena , potest tamen sine culpa . The word poena is taken improperly for any evil consequent or adjunct . 2. This seems to fail in laws that are conditional or conventional ; such as are when the Prince hath no intention to forbid or command any thing , but gives leave to doe it , but not unless you pay a fine . Thus if a Prince commands that none shall wear Spanish cloth , or ride upon a Mule , or go with a Coach & six Horses , under the forfeiture of a certain sum ; this sum is a punishment , and the action is a fault : but if the subjects shall ask leave to doe it , paying the sum , then it is a conditional or conventional law , and obliges not to obedience , but to pay the fine . For these laws are not prohibitive , but concessory ; and there is no sign to distinguish them from others , but the words of the law , the interpretation of the Judges , and the allowed practice of the subjects . Of the same consideration are all promises and vows and contracts which are made with a penalty annexed to the breakers . The interested person is first tied to keep his word : if he does not , he sins . But if he does sin he must therefore pay the penalty ; and if he does not , he sins twice . Haud scio ( saies Cicero ) an satis sit eum qui lacesserit , injuriae suae poenitere . It is not enough for him to repent of the injustice , but he must also pay his fine ; and yet that does not acquit him from the first fault , but prevents a second . He that so contracts is twice obliged , and the later fault is paid by the penalty , and the first fault by repentance and that together . RULE V. It is not lawfull for a guilty person to defend himself by calumny , or a lie , from the penalty of the law , though it be the sentence of death . ALL the wisdome of Mankind hath ever been busy in finding out and adorning Truth , as being that in which we are to endeavour to be like God , who is Truth essentially : and therefore Pythagoras in Aelian did say , that the two greatest and most excellent works that God gave to Mankind to doe , are the pursuits of Truth and Charity ; for these are excellencies for which God himself is glorious before Men and Angels . The Persian Magi say , that Oromagdes ( so they called the greatest of their Gods ) was in his body like light , and his soul was like truth ; and that therefore by truth we are like to God , but by a lye we are made mortal ( sayes Plato . ) Veritas , quomodo Sol illuminans colores , & album & nigrum ostendit , qualis sit unusquisque eorum , sic ipsa quoque refellit omnem sermonis probabilitatem ; merto à Graecis quoque acclamatum est , Principium magnae virtutis est Regina veritas , As the Sun gives light to us , and distinction to black and white , so does truth to speech ; and therefore the Greeks did rightly affirm , that Truth is the beginning of the great Vertue , that is , of perfection , or vertue Heroical , said S. Clement . This is true in all regards : but the question is , whether Truth can be practis'd at all times . For God speaks Truth because it is his nature , and he fears no man , and hath power directly to bring all his purposes to pass : but the affairs of men are full of intrigues , and their persons of infirmity , and their understandings of deception , and they have ends to serve which are just , and good , and necessary ; and yet they cannot be served by truth , but sometimes by errour and deception . And therefore the Antients described Pan , who was the son of Mercury , their God of speech , with the upper part like a man , and the lower part like a beast , rough , hairy and deformed ; not onely to signifie truth and falshood , and that truth is smooth , even and beauteous , and a lye is rough , ugly , deformed , and cloven-footed , ( quia mendacii multiplex divortium , sayes one ) but to represent , that in our superiour faculties , and our intercourse with the power above us , we must speak truth , but that in our conversation with men below it is necessary sometimes by a lye to advantage charity , by losing of a truth to save a life . Here then is the inquiry , 1. Whether it can in any case be lawfull to tell a lye . 2. Whether it be lawfull to use restrictions and mental reservations , so that what we speak , of it self is false , but joyned to something within is truth . 3. Whether and in what cases it is lawfull to equivocate , or use words of doubtfull signification with a purpose to deceive , or knowing that they will deceive . 4. Whether it be lawfull by actions and pretences of actions to deceive others for any end ; and in what cases it is so . Question I. Whether it can in any case be lawful to tell a lie . To this I answer , that the Holy Scriptures of the Old & New Testament doe indefinitely and severely forbid lying . A righteous man hateth lying , saith Solomon ; and Agur's prayer was , Remove from me vanity and lies . For the Lord will destroy them that speak lies . And our Blessed Saviour condemns it infinitely by declaring every lie to be of the Devil . When he speaketh a lie he speaketh of his own , for he is a lier and the Father of it . Lie not therefore one to another , saith S. Paul : For all liers shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone . Beyond these things nothing can be said for the condemnation of lying . But then lying is to be understood to be something said or written to the hurt of our neighbour , which cannot be understood otherwise then to differ from the mind of him that speaks . Mendacium esse petulanter , aut cupiditate nocendi aliud loqui , seu gestu significare , & aliud sentire : so Melanchthon : To lie is to deceive our neighbour to his hurt . For in this sense a lie is naturally and intrinsecally evil ; that is , to speak a lie to our neighbour is naturally evil . Not because it is different from an eternal truth , for every thing that differs from the Eternal truth is not therefore criminal for being spoken , that is , is not an evil lie : and a man may be a lier though he speaks that which does not differ from the Eternal truth ; for sometimes a man may speak that which is truth , and yet be a lier at the same time in the same thing . For he does not speak truly because the thing is true ; but he is a lier because he speaks it when he thinks it is false . That therefore is not the essence or formality of a lie . Vehementer errant qui tradunt orationis esse proprium significare verum necessarium , said Scaliger : A man may be a true man though he doe not alwaies speak truth . If he intends to profit and to instruct , to speak probably and usefully , to speak with a purpose to doe good & to doe no evil , though the words have not in them any necessary truth , yet they may be good words . Simonides and Plato say it is injustice and therefore evil : so does Cicero , and indeed so does the Holy Scripture , by including our neighbours right in our speaking truth ; it is contra proximum , it is against our neighbour ; for to himself no man can lie , and to God no man can lie , unless he be also an Atheistical person , and believes that God knows nothing that is hidden , and so is impious when he saies a lie . But a lie is an injury to our neighbour ; who because he knows not the secret , is to be told that in which he is concerned , and he that deceives him abuses him . For there is in mankind an universal contract implied in all their entercourses , and words being instituted to declare the mind , and for no other end , he that hears me speak hath a right in justice to be done him , that as far as I can what I speak be true ; for else he by words does not know your mind , and then as good and better not speak at all . Humanae aures verba nostra talia judicant , qualia foris sonant . Divina vero judicia talia esse audiunt , qualia ex intimis proferuntur . Though God judges of our words by the heart , yet Man judges of the heart by the words ; and therefore in justice we are bound to speak so as that our neighbour doe not loose his right which by our speaking we give him to the truth that is in our heart . And of a lie thus defin'd , which is injurious to our neighbour so long as his right to truth remains , it is that S. Austin affirms it to be simply unlawful , and that it can in no case be permitted , Nisi forte regulas quasdam daturus es quibus noverimus ubi oporteat mentiri , ubi non oporteat ; by way of confidence and irony : he condemus it all , unless peradventure ( sayes he ) you are able to give us rules when a man may lie , and when he may not . Quod non est bonum , nunquam erit bonum , that which is not innocent in it self , can never be made so . But vitia non sunt quibus rectè uti licet ; if it can in any case become good , it is not of its own nature evil : so that if a lye be unjust , it can never become lawfull ; but if it can be separate from injustice , then it may be innocent . Here then I consider , This right though it be regularly and commonly belonging to all men , yet it may be taken away by a Superior right supervening ; or it may be lost , or it may be hindred , or it may cease upon a greater reason . 1. Therefore upon this account it was lawful for the Children of Israel to borrow Jewels of the Egyptians , which supposes a promise of restitution , though they intended not to pay them back again : God gave them commandement so to spoil them , and the Egyptians were devested of their rights , and were to be us'd like enemies . 2. It is lawful to tell a lie to children or to mad-men , because they having no powers of judging , have no right to truth : but then the lie must be charitable and useful ; because they are defended by the laws from injury , and therefore must not have a lie told them that can doe them mischief . So that if a lie be told it must be such as is for their good ; for though they have no right to truth , yet they have right to defence and immunity : and an injurious lie told to a child or mad-man is a sin , not because it deceives him , but because it deceives him to his prejudice . Quintilian the great Master of children saies , Utilitatis eorum gratiâ multa fingimus , We feign many things to affright or allure Children to good , and from evil respectively . And so doe Physitians to their Patients , abusing the fancies of hypochondriacal and disordered persons into a will of being cured . Some will doe nothing without a warrant ; others are impatient of your converse unless you seem to believe them : and Physicians can never apply their remedies , unless they pretend warrants , or compliances , and use little arts of wit and cosenage . This and the like were so usual , so permitted to Physitians , that it grew to a Proverb , Mentiris ut medicus ; which yet was alwaies to be understood in the way of charity , and with honour to the profession . But this any Physitian may not doe , that is , not to every Patient : for if the man be wise and can chuse and can consider , he may not be cosen'd into his cure by the telling of a lie , because he is capable of reason , & therefore may chuse what he hath a mind to , and therefore to cosen him is to injure him ; & no man must commit a sin to doe a good turn to a man against his will. * And thus also in the case of Children : their Tutors or Parents may not tell them every lie ; they may not teach them lies and make them confident in vanities ; but for their good , govern them as they can be governed . Ut puerorum aetas improvida ludificetur , all the world consents , when it is for their improvement . And to this is reduc'd the permission of inventing a wittie fable , or telling a false story , to gain ground upon him that believes a false opinion , and cannot any other way so easily be confuted . Thus when two Eutychian Bishops , who believing that the two natures of Christ made but one , did consequently believe that the Divinity did die as well as the Humanity in the death of Christ , came to the Court of a Saracen Prince , he pretended great sorrow and conste●nation of mind at the receipt of some letters ; into the contents whereof when they with some curiosity inquired , the Prince with a seeming great sorrow told them he had receiv'd certain intelligence that the Archangel Gabriel was dead . They to comfort him told him certainly it could not be true ; and for their parts they did believe it to be impossible . O Fathers , said the Prince , you doe not believe it to be impossible that an Archangel should , when you affirm that the Divinity did die . Such a fiction as this no wise man reproves ; it is but like the supposing a false Proposition in disputation , that upon that false supposition a true Conclusion may be erected . 3. It is lawful to tell a lie to our neighbour by consent , provided the end be innocent or pious . Thus S. Chrysostom and S. Hierom say that S. Peter suffer'd himself to be reprov'd by S. Paul before the Gentiles for too much compliance with the Jews : not that he did it seriously , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he acted a part by consent to establish Christian liberty amongst the Gentiles . I doe not consent to the instance , because S. Paul tels it to the Galatians as a solemn story and a direct narrative , adding withall dogmatically , that S. Peter was to be blam'd : but the instance will serve rightly to illustrate this limitation of the Rule . But thus the parties in a warre may write exactly contrary to the truth ; when they are understood to what purpose , and when it is by consent . Because he who hath the right to truth hath quitted it , and his communication does serve the ends of society well enough , and his words , though they are not agreeable to his ordinary mind , yet they are made to be so by particular institution and designe . Thus in besieged places they write letters of confidence and great ostentation of the strengths which they have not ; when their parties have consented that they should doe so for their just advantages . 4. To tell a lie for charity , to save a mans life , the life of a friend , of a husband , of a Prince , of an useful and a publick person , hath not onely been done in all times , but commended by great and wise and good men . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , To tell a lie to save a life is no harm , said old Pisander . Thus the Egyptian midwives are commended because by their lie they sav'd the Israelitish infants . O magnum humanitatis ingenium ! O pium pro salute mendacium ! saies S. Austin of them : it was an excellent invention of kindness , and a pious lie for the safety of the innocents : and S. Ambrose and S. Jerome commend them so , that they suppos'd them to receive eternal rewards . The same was the case of Rahab ; to whom it should seem that Phinehas , who was one of the spies , had given instruction and made in her fair dispositions to tell a lie for their concealment . For when she had hidden Caleb , Phinehas said to her , Ego sum Sacerdos , Sacerdotes verò , quippe Angelorum similes , si volunt , aspectabiles sunt ; si nolunt , non cernuntur . But she made no use of that , but said directly they were gone away . Concerning which lie of hers S. Chrysostom cries out , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , O excellent lie ! O worthy deceit of her that did not betray the Divine persons , but did retain piety ! Thus we find S. Felix telling a lie to save his life from the Heathen Inquisitors . Felicem sitit impietas — Felicemque rogant , Felix ubi cernitur : & non Cernitur ipse , nec ipse vir est , cum sit propè , longè est . — persensit & ipse faventis Consilium Christi , ridensque rogantibus infit , Nescio Felicem quem quaeritis : ilicet illi Praetereunt ipsum ; discedit at ille plateâ , Illudente canes Domino frustratus hiantes . They ask'd where Felix was ; himself answer'd , that he knew not Felix whom they look'd for : and yet no man finds fault with this escape . Deceptio & mendacium semper aliàs mala res , tunc tantum sunt usui quando pro remedio sunt amicis curandis , aut ad vitandum apud hostes periculum ; they are the words of Celsus in Origen . A lie is otherwise evil , onely it is then useful when it is for remedy to cure the evils of our friends , or to avoid the evils from our enemies . The same almost with the expression of Clemens Alexandrinus , who allows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to lie when it is a remedy . So Lucian amongst the Heathens , Qui cum usus postulat mentiuntur , veniâ nimirum hi , imò laude plerique eorum digni sunt ; quicunque vel hostes fefellerunt , vel ad salutem tali quopiam pharmaco usi sunt in necessitatibus : They are not onely to be excus'd or pardon'd , but to be commended , that lie , when they use it as a remedy or a medicine in the danger or necessities of our friends ; where also the Scholiast does allows an officious lie . So we must use a lie , saies Cassian , quasi naturae ei insit hellebori , as a man uses hellebore : and he commends Archebius for deceiving some persons with a charitable lie . It is therefore no wonder if Pliny commends Arria the wife of Caecinna Paetus for so often lying to her sick husband in the concealment of the death of their beloved boy ; which she therefore hid lest the grief should extinguish her Husband . In short , S. Austin saies that all the Philosophers , as Plato , Xenophon , Lucian , the Lawyers , the Physicians , the Rhetoricians and Theologues did affirm that it was sometimes lawful to tell a lie ; that is , when it did good and no evil : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Proclus , For Charity is better then truth , and to save a mans life is better then a true story . The Archbishop of Tyre ( as I remember ) tells a story , that a malicious Saracen had secretly defiled one of the Mosques or places of worship which the Turks have in Jerusalem . The fact was imputed to the Christians , who generally denying it , but having no credit with their enemies , were all presently drag'd to the place of execution . Amongst them there was young man pious and noble , who seeing all his brethren in a sad condition and himself equally involved , by an officious and a charitable lie took the fact upon himself , and confess'd himself alone to be the doer of it , and that the rest knew nothing of it . Himself indeed was put to death with exquisite torments , but he sav'd the lives of all the rest ; who , I doubt not , believ'd that young man to have in heaven a great reward for his piety , and no reproof for his innocent and pious lie : for in memory of this noble act the Christians in Jerusalem once a year marched with palms in their hands into the City to perpetuate the memory of that deliverance . 5. Now this may be better admitted in case the charitable lye be told to him to whom the good accrues ; for then there is a leave justly presumed , and he that receives the good is willing to receive it with the loss of an useless or hurtfull truth , and therefore there is no injustice done : as he that takes his neighbour's goods , for which he hath reason to believe his neighbour willing , is no thief , nor the other a deceiver . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , sayes Andronicus Rhodius , He does indeed deceive , but he is no deceiver ; because not the cosening but the curing of his friend is the purpose of his false affirmative . And to this we suppose that every man is willing enough , and therefore not at all injur'd . And this reason was good in such charitable deceptions which are by implicit consent or leave justly presumed : so Darius Hystaspes in Herodotus , Ubi expedit mendacium dicere , dicatur ; nam idem optamus , & qui mendacium dicimus , & qui veritatem . Every man is willing enough to be deceived into his own advantage ; and therefore when it is so , in such things where the man is willing to receive advantage , there is no harm done , if he be deceiv'd that he may not be undone . He that is in danger of drowning is willing enough to be pull'd out of the water , though by the ears , or the hair of his head ; and we have reason to believe so in the present affair . Mendacium nemini noxium , sed alicui commodum , honestum esse , said Bishop Heliodorus in his Fair Ethiopian . He was indeed then writing a Romance , by which he intended to doe good and no harm , and therefore believ'd himself innocent . Upon this account the Apologues or Fables of Aesop , the Parables of wise men , and their dark sayings , the cases which Lawyers put , and the fictions of law , have their justification , Et prodesse solent , & delectare — They hurt no man , and doe good to every man ; they doe him profit , and they doe him pleasure . Exit in immensum foecunda licentia vatum , Obligat historicâ nec sua verba fide . Poets doe intend to teach , not to deceive , in their fictions , and therefore are allowed . 6. But if the lye be told to another for the preservation not of himself , but of a third person , then the case is more difficult , for here is no presumptive leave , but it is against the mind of the inquirer . Now concerning this , though it be allowed by very many of the antient Doctours of the Church , and by the wisest amongst the Heathens , and hath in it a very great charity ; yet I cannot see sufficient cause to allow it . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It is at no hand good to tell a lye : but when a truth brings an intolerable evil , it is pardonable , but not commendable ; so the Greek Tragedy : because it is of it self evil to lye to our neighbour . Not that every false proposition spoken knowingly is a sin ; but if it be spoken to deceive , and not to profit , it is spoken to the injury of him that hears , and is a sin because it is unjust , and therefore not to be done for any good ; and it is in this very instance in which S. Paul was angry at them who intimated that he told a lye for a good end : it may not be done , when to doe it is unjust or injurious . I approve therefore the opinion of S. Austin , I am sure it was one of his opinions , for in this question he had more then one ; Duo sunt genera mendaciorum in quibus non est magna culpa , sed tamen non sunt sine culpa , There are two sorts of lyes which have in them no great fault , but yet they are not innocent : the one is to lye in jest ; which is therefore not pernicious , because it does not deceive , for it is taken but for a jest : the other is to lye for the good of our neighbour ; which therefore is the less , because it hath something in it of good will. And Tertullian is of the same opinion , who reckons this of necessitate mentiri , to lye in the time of need , amongst the sins of daily incursion , or of an unavoidable infirmity . And S. Austin discourses it very well ; When it is ask'd whether a good man may lye or no , we ask not after him that belongs to Egypt , to Jericho , or to Babylon , or to the earthly Jerusalem which is in bondage with her children : but what is his office that belongs to the Mother of us all , that City that is from above ? and then we answer , that no lye is of the truth : but concerning the Citizens of this City it is written , that a lye was not found in their mouths . So that upon this account all those examples recorded in Scripture of great persons telling a lye in the time of the danger of themselves or others is no warrant , no argument of the lawfulness of it ; for they were under a looser law , but we under a more perfect and more excellent : and yet they did not doe well , and if we imitate them we doe worse . And therefore we find great examples of Christians and of Heathens , whose Charity was not cold , but their love of truth and righteousness was much warmer then in the former examples . S. Austin tels of Firmus Bishop of Tagasta , that when one who by evil chance had kill'd a man fled to him to be conceal'd from the avengers of blood ; to the inquirers he answer'd , Nec mentiri se posse , nec hominem prodere , He could neither lye , nor yet betray the man. For which answer and refusal the Bishop being brought before the Emperour , as a reward both of his charity and his truth , he obtain'd pardon for the man. And it was a great thing which Probus tels of Epaminondas , and Plutarch of Aristides , that they were so great and severe lovers of truth , that they would not lye so much as in jest . Indeed that was very well : and it is of greater obligation to Christians , to whom not onely purity and simplicity , ingenuity and sincerity is commanded , but all vain talking is forbidden . But the case is not so clear in the matter of difference , when it happens between a great charity and an unconcerning truth . For who would not save his Father's life , or the life of his King , or of a good Bishop and a Guide of Souls , at the charge of a harmless lye , from the rage of Persecutors and Tyrants ? God indeed in his providence hath so order'd the affairs of the world , that these cases seldome happen : but when any man is surpris'd or tried , unless he be sure that it is in that case a sin to tell a lye , he may be sure it is a very great sin to betray his Prince or Prelate , his Father or his Friend . Every man in that case would dispute hardly , rather then give up a good man to death . And if it be come to a dispute , and that it be doubtfull on either hand whether the lye in that case , or whether the betraying the man to death , be the sin , it is the safer way to determine for the charity then for the veracity ; because in case it be a sin to give him up , it is much a greater sin then to tell such a lye : and then comes in the rule , Caret peccato quod ex duobus minus est . The lye is the less evil , and therefore it is no sin when it is chosen to avoid that which for ought we know is the greater . But this is upon supposition that the case is doubtfull . * To which also must be added , that it must also suppose that it is just to save the man , or that we think it so : for to rescue a Malefactor , a Bandito , a Fugitive of law , hath in it no such obligation . But if it be just that the man be sav'd , that is a higher justice then the obligation of telling truth to the Persecutor ; to whom it is as great charity , if from him we take the power of doing evil , as it is justice to rescue the innocent . Now this , and the opinion of so many great men that allow it , and the favourable nature of the case , is enough at least to make this matter probable ; and if there be a doubt , it is enough to establish it : the question being uncertain , is enough to make the practice certain . And indeed if we consider things without the prejudice of easy and popular opinions , though it be said , that to tell truth is an act of justice ; yet this is not true in all propositions , but in such truths onely which concern a man for some real good to him , or for some imaginary good which hath no real evil . But when the telling of a truth will certainly be the cause of evil to a man , though he have right to truth , yet it must not be given to him to his harm : it is like the giving to a mad-man his own sword ; you had better give him a wooden dagger , though the other be his own . But in an unconcerning truth what interest can any man have that is worth preserving ? What wrong is done to me if I be told that Alexander dyed upon the floor , and not upon a feather-bed ? or that Pittacus his wife hurt her fingers when she threw down the table of meat before her husband's friends ? Truth is justice when it does good , when it serves the end of wisedome , or advantage , or real pleasure , or something that ought or may be desir'd ; and every truth is no more justice , then every restitution of a straw to the right owner is a duty . Be not over-righteous , sayes Salomon . In these things there is no question but the pretences of little justice ought to serve the great end of charity ; and much rather if the truth will doe no good , and will doe hurt to him that inquires , and more to him who is inquir'd after . The Persecutor hath a right to truth , but no right to be undone ; and therefore he is not wrong'd by that lye that saves him harmless in some measure , and his brother in more ; and if he be not wrong'd , then no man is : and then the lye that so well serves Charity , is not against Justice ; and unless every lye be intrinsecally evil and malicious , it hath in such cases no irregularity . And if it be objected , that we must not tell a lye for God , therefore much less for our Brother ; I answer , that it does not follow : for God needs not a lye , but our Brother does : and besides this , there can no service be pretended to be done to God by a lye , but it must be in the matter of justice or religion , in both which cases a lye is neither to be told for God nor our Brother ; but a real service may be done for our Brother by such a lye as sins neither against justice nor religion ; in which case onely I say it may seem to be allowable . But then from these premisses the truth in the instance of the Rule is established ; for it is not lawfull for a guilty prisoner to say Not guilty , when he is justly interrogated . Christianum non mentiri etiamsi moriatur ex tormentis , said Clemens Alexandrinus , A Christian will not lye , though to escape death with torments : For the law sayes , Thou shalt not kill ; and the law sayes , Thou shalt not lye : but the law it self does sometimes kill , but the law does never lye . For although it be said , that no man is bound to accuse himself , and indeed the laws of man doe not tie him to doe it : yet this hinders not the conclusion in this case ; for in the present case the man is accused already , and he is not called to be his own accuser , but to confess the fact if he be justly accused by the law : for why does the Judge ask , but to be answer'd truly ? For there being three wayes in law of proceeding to definitive sentence , 1. the notoreity of the fact , 2. the conviction by witnesses , and 3. the confession of the party ; in the destitution of the first , to prevent the trouble of the second , the law interrogates concerning the third ; and it is as in the case of Joshuah and Achan , My son , give glory unto the Lord , and confess thy fault . It is true , it is a favourable case ; and when a mans life is at stake , he hath brought himself into an evil necessity : but there is no excusing of a false denial , but it is certainly Criminal , and nothing can excuse it , unless the law should give leave to such persons to say what they would , which cannot be suppos'd in any good Government ; for then trials of Criminal causes between the Judge and the Thief would be like a match at fencing , and it is infinitely confuted by those laws which use to examine by scourgings or torture ; which whether it be lawfull or unlawfull , I doe not here determine , but I affirm to be a great testimony , that laws doe not love to be played withall , but when they ask soberly , intend to be answered truly . This is also to be extended to the case of Advocates , who in a good cause must not use evil arts . For we must not tell a lie for God , and therefore not for the interest of any moral vertue , nor for the defence of righteousness ; for a cavil or an injurious lie is out of the way to justice , and she must not be directly wronged that she may be indirectly righted . In the civil law it is permitted , that to avoid abuses and the injurious craft of the opposite party , the advocate of the right may use all arts that are not lies and falsity ; Nec videtur dolo fecisse qui fraudem excluserit , saies the law , l. Compater , § Titio , ff . de legat . secundo . He may be overthrown by art , so he be not by that which is false : sic ars deluditur arte . But in the case which the lawyers out of Baldus put , the question is evident . Agricola borrows of Sempronius five hundred pounds , and pays him at the day , but without witness : Sempronius sues him for the money : Agricola owes him none , but cannot prove the payment ; but yet may not when he is particularly interrogated , to save himself from injury , deny that ever the received any . He must confess the truth , though he pay the money again . Covaruvias affirms that he may in this case lawfully deny that ever he received any ; because he is not indebted , he received none that remains in his hand : and to other purposes the Judge cannot question him ; and if he does he is unjust , and therefore Agricola is not tied to answer rightly . But this is not well said nor well considered . For the Judge being competent may require him to answer ; and the intention of the question is not to know whether Agricola have paid the money yea or no ; but whether he borrowed it . For if he did , the Judge is afterward to inquire concerning the payment : and as Sempronius was tied to prove that , so is Agricola tied to prove this ; and a lie is not to be confuted by a lie , nor the error of Agricola in not taking witnesses or an acquittance to be supplied by a direct denial of a truth . * But if Sempronius have lent Agricola 500 li. whereof he hath received 200 li. if the Judge aske whether he ows him that sum which Sempronius demands , he may indefinitely and without more punctuality deny the debt , that is , of 500 li. saying that he owes it not : and if the law be such that the confession of one part intitles him to the whole , he may deny the whole to be due , in case he have paid a part . But with these two Cautions , 1. That if he be ask'd concerning a part , he answer to that as justly as he answers to the whole : 2. That he do not make use of this subterfuge to defraud Sempronius of what is due debt , but only to defend himself from the undue demand . These cautions being observed , he hath liberty so to defend his cause , because majori summae negative prolatae minorem nec naturaliter nec civiliter inesse , say the lawyers . A man by denying the whole does not deny the part , though he that affirms the whole affirms the part ; and therefore this defence is just because it is true . * But now if in a just cause the Advocate or party may not tell a lie ; I conclude that much less may he doe it in an unjust cause , and for the defence of wrong . But [ much less ] signifies nothing , for it may not at all be done in either ; and in pure , perfect negatives there can be no degrees . But in artifices and crafty entercourses there is some difference ; these may be used to defend a just cause that can no other way be defended ; but they may not be used to promote an evil cause ; because they of themselves though they be indifferent , yet not serving a good end but an evil , do therefore become evil . And therefore the Greek that denyed the depositum of his friend , and offered to swear at the Altar that he had restor'd it already , did not preserve his conscience and his oath by desiring his friend to hold the staffe in which he had secretly conveyed the money . It is true , he delivered it into his hand , desiring that he would hold it till he had sworn ; but that artifice was a plain cosenage , and it was prettily discovered : For the injur'd person in indignation at the perjury smote the staff upon the ground , and broke it , and espied the money . But that made all right indeed , though against the intention of the perjurer . Such like arts as these must not be us'd to doe a mischief : if they doe charity and justice , if they have not something to ligitimate them , they have very much to excuse them . 7. It is lawfull to doe otherwise then we have said , when the doing is better then the saying : if the saying were ill , there is no scruple of it ; for it ought not to be done , but the saying is to be repented of : not that the saying was a lie , for there is no way of making it good but by causing it to pass into a lie , that is , into vanity and nothing . But then , if the saying be less good , and the deed be contrary , and yet much better , the truth is not so much as the bounty ; and there is no injustice in the lie , because there is charity in the action , and a sufficient leave presum'd to be given by him that is concerned . Thus the Emperor that said he would cut off every one that pissed against the wall , being afterwards appeased and perswaded to mercy towards them that had done amiss , he expounded his words concerning dogs , and caused all the dogs in the Town to be kill'd . No man here was injur'd ; and it had been an importune adhering to a truth , and a cruel verification of his word , to have prefer'd his word before the lives of so many Citizens . 8. It is not lawfull to tell a lie to save our fame ; but we must rather accuse our selves then tell a lie , or commit any other sin . Nemo tenetur infamare se , is a rule universally admitted amongst the Casuists , No man is bound to discover his own shame . And upon this account they give leave to men to hide their sin , to leave their repentance imperfect , to tell a lie , to hazard the not doing of a known duty , to injure innocent persons . Thus when a man hath stolen goods , he is bound to restore , but not if it cannot be done without discovering his person , because no man is bound to disgrace himself . If an adulteress hath some children by her husband , others secretly by a stranger , she is bound not to suffer the legitimate to be injur'd by provisions for the other : this is true : but if she cannot prevent the injury to the legitimate without discovering her self to her husband , Non tenetur , She is not bound to defame self . If her husband examine her concerning it , she may hold her peace : but if that increases the suspicion , she hath no way to escape but by denying it ; for she is not oblig'd to betray or accuse her self . This is the doctrine of the Canonists and Masters of Conscience in the Church of Rome , which ( as yet ) are almost all that have written upon Cases . Navarre is the man whom I chuse for all the rest . Nemo tenetur restituere cum periculo famae consequentis virtutem moralem vel theologicam ; non famae partae in aliis rebus praeclaris , ut ingenio , divitiis , No man is bound to make restitution with the hazard of his fame consequent to a moral or theological vertue ; that is , if it will make him suspected not to be a good man : but if it will only hinder or hazard his reputation of wisdome or wealth or any thing of these natures , it hinders not . And again in the case of an adulteress , Peccavit , sed potest absolvi , licet taceat , & noceat patri putativo & haeredibus , quando timetur mors , vel amissio famae , &c. She hath sinn'd , but she may be absolved , though she hold her peace , and be injurious to the supposed Father , and wrong the heires ; that is , if she be in peril of her life , or fears the loss of her fame . To save a mans credit , an honest man , to whom it would be a great shame to begg , videtur posse clanculum necessaria surripere , may privately steale necessaries . So Diana . And if so , I do not doubt but he may also lie , and deny it to save his credit , if he be asked uncivilly concerning it . But this also the Doctors expresly affirm , that if Titius have disgrac'd Caius by punishing his secret shame to defame him , he is bound to make restitution of his good name , by denying what he said , that is , by telling of a lie , or by mental reservation ; and that 's all one , as I shall prove in the sequel . So Emonerius . Against these prodigies of doctrine I intend this paragraph . We must not commit a sin to save our life , much lesse to save our fame ; and indeed nothing does more deserve infamy then to tell a lie , nothing disgraces a man more : and if a lie be an injustice , then no end can save it harmeless . But then concerning our fame , we must rather let it goe , then let our duty goe . For though our fame is a tender part , and very valuable , yet our duty is more : although our fame is necessary for others , yet a good conscience is necessary to our selves : and he is cruel that neglects his own fame ; but he is more cruel that neglects his own soul : and therefore we may expose our good name to goe as God shall please , 1. When we ask counsel and remedy for our soul. 2. To avoid the sin of pride , and punish the vanities of our spirit . 3. To exercise and increase the grace of humility . 4. In humiliation and penance for our sins , when our fame is not necessary to others , that is , when we are not eminent and publick persons . 5. When we are tied to any express duty which is indispensably necessary , as restitution of fame or goods , and yet cannot be done without the publication of our person and our shame . 6. When for our own greater good or for the publick interest we are commanded by a just and competent authority . 7. And lastly , When we must either confess our sin or tell a lie , which is the thing now in question ; for we must rather suffer shame then doe things worthy of shame , rather be ashamed before men then be ashamed before God , that is , rather be disgrac'd then damn'd : for nothing needs a lie but a sin to hide it , and by a lie a sin is made two . 9. It is not lawfull to tell a lie in humility , or the confession of sins and accusation of our selves . Cum humilitatis causâ mentiris , si non eras peccator antequam mentireris , mentiendo efficer is quod evitâras , said S. Austin . He that lies in humility , and calls himself a sinner in that wherein he was innocent , hath made himself a sinner by his lying . And this was it which Abbat Zozimus wittily and piously replied ; For when he said he was the greatest sinner , and the vilest of men , to him that reprov'd him for saying so , and telling him that it was not truly said of him , because every one knew he serv'd God with great diligence and great sincerity , and therefore he ought to speak more truly of himself and more thankfully of God ; Zozimus replied , You say very well , I ought to speak truth of my self & thankfully of God ; but I am false and unthankful , but therefore I did say true , and not unthankfully . But we have truth enough to say of our selves to make us humble without saying what is false . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saies Aristotle ; to deny the good things that are in us , or to make them less , is dissembling . All pride is a lie ; but humility is truth : and therefore it is but a dissembling humility that lives upon the bread of deceit . Synesius Bp. of Ptolemais was a wise man and a great Philosopher . But when he was chosen Bshop he refus'd it passionately , & that his refusal might be accepted , declaim'd most bitterly against himself ; that he was a man given to gaming , from which a Bishop should be free as God himself ; that he did not believe that the world would ever perish ; that he did not assent to the article of the resurrection of the dead ; that being a Philosopher of the Stoical Sect , he was something given to lying ; that he was not popular in his opinions , but humorous and morose , secret and resolute ; that if he was forc'd to be a Bishop , he would then preach all his opinions . For all this Theophilus Bishop of Alexandria consecrated him Bishop , as knowing all this to be but stratagem and the arts of an odde phantastick humility . But it was ill done ; and Synesius had this punishment for his lying modesty , that he was believ'd by posterity to be so heathenish and unworthy , that that Church chose him Bishop onely upon hopes he would mend . So Evagrius and Nicephorus report . 10. In a just warre it is lawful to deceive the unjust enemy , but not to lie ; that is , by stratagems and semblances of motions , by amusements and intrigues of action , by ambushes and wit , by simulation or dissimulation , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by force or craft , openly or secretly , any way that you can , unless you promise the contrary : for it is in open warre , if the warre be just , lawful to doe justice upon the enemy all the waies we can ; craft is but the facilitation of the force ; and when it is a state of warre , there is nothing else to be look'd for . But if there be a treaty , or a contract , a promise or an agreement in any thing , that is a state of peace so farre , and introduces a law ; and then to tell a lie or to falsify does destroy peace and justice , and by breaking the law reduces things to the state of warre again . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , It is lawful to doe any thing to destroy your enemy ; that is , so long as you profess hostility : and therefore if you tell a false tale to him to deceive him , when you are fighting against him , he is a fool if he believes you , for then you intend to destroy him ; but you are not unjust , you are in a state of warre with him , and have no obligation upon you towards him . Thus Elisha told a lie to the Syrian army which came to apprehend him , This is not the City , and this is not the way : & this is approv'd and allowed by Plato and Xenophon , Homer and Pindar , Polybius and Thacydides , Plutarch and Lucian amongst the Greeks , Philo amongst the Jews ; and S. Chrysostom amongst the Christians saies , If you examine all the bravest Generals , you shall find their bravest trophies to be the production of fraud and craft . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and that they were more commended then such who did their work by fine force . Thus the causing false rumors to be spread amongst the enemies is an allowed stratagem in warre , neither ignoble nor unjust . Flaccus told that Aemilius had taken the enemies town , to dishearten the party he fought against : and Quinctius the Consul caus'd it to be spread abroad that the enemies on the right wing were fled . By such arts it is very usual to bring consternation to the hostile party : and he whom you may lawfully kill , you may as well deceive him into it , as force him into it ; you being no more oblig'd to tell him truth then to spare his life : for certainly of it self killing is as bad as lying ; but when you have no obligation or law to the contrary , and have not bound your self to the contrary , you may doe either . But this is at no hand to be done in matters of treaty or promise , either explicite or implicite , as in parties , and truces ; and therefore it was a foul stain upon Hannibal , that he professing open warre against the Romans did also profess it against faith and justice , keeping no word or promise if it was for his advantage to break it ; and the Trojans were troubled in conscience at their fallacious conducting of their warrs , not by stratagem , but by breaking their oaths and Covenants , — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c We fight with lying and breaking promises , which is unlawful to doe . For concerning this thing , that even in warre we are bound to keep faith & promise made to our enemies , it is certain & affirmed by almost all wise & good men of the world : Liquet etiam in bello fidem & justitiam servari oportere , nec ullum decorum oportere servari , si violetur fides , said S. Ambrose ; and he proves it by the example of Joshuah , who kept his promise which the Gibeonites got fraudulently from him . And the same is the sentence of S. Austin ; fides quando promittitur , etiam hosti servanda est , contra quem bellum geritur : and therefore when Nebuchadnezzar had conquered Zedechiah , and taken him into protection and peace upon his word and promise of fidelity , because he afterwards did privately sollicite the King of Egypt to fight against the King , he was put to death with greatest cruelty . And this is not onely true between those who are publick enemies , forreiners and strangers , and supreme in their respective dominions , which the law properly signifies under the word Hostes , l. quos nos , ff . de verborum signif . for this is without question ; and therefore all men condemn those that violate Embassadors , or that break the laws of truce ; and every one blames Titus Labienus for wounding Commius of Arras under the colour of parlee : but Attilius Regulus is commended for refusing to give his voice in the Senate so long as he was not discharged of his oath made to the Carthaginians . But this is also true , and our word and faith is sacred , when it is pass'd to all sorts of enemies , to Rebels , to Thieves , to civil Adversaries , to condemned persons , to Fugitive servants , such as Spartacus , Eunus and Athenio ; and the reason of all is the same . Inter quos juris alicujus communio est , inter eos obligationem contrahi , They that are under the same law are equally bound ; and whoever promise or treat , doe it at least by the law of Nature or Nations , which alike bind them who are free from any civil obligation . This is that which Triphoninus said , That if a thief intrusts any goods to the right owner , not knowing that they are his own , he is not oblig'd to restitution ; but every man else is , if he have promis'd , because they are none of his , and therefore he can be oblig'd to repay them : and for thieves and fugitives the people of Rome did treat with them , and send Embassadors ; and all that was bound upon them by that entercourse they kept religiously . And the same they did to condemned persons ; as appears in that famous case of Caius Rabirius , who was question'd for killing L. Apuleius Saturninus against the publick faith given him by the people , when he and his companions fled to the Capitol for immunity and a guard against the sentence of death which he had deserv'd . But all this is to be understood so , that the faith and word be given by him who hath power to verify it : but when A. Albinus made a peace with King Jugurtha , for which he had no commission , the Senate was not oblig'd to verify it ; and Camillus the Dictator broke the peace which the Romans had foolishly made with the Gaules ; and Scipio dissolv'd the contract which Masinissa and Sophonisba made without his leave , who had the power . In this there is onely caution to be had that there be no combination to deceive or rescind what is found to be disadvantageous , nor advantages taken by the change of hands . For if the Romans finding relief come , made Camillus Dictator that they might by pretence of his command break the peace , they did dishonourably and false ; but if he was Dictator before the peace , he had power , and he had reason . To this can be referr'd the case of two Italian Gentlemen . Guarino had injur'd Antonio de Imola ; but confess'd his fault , ask'd pardon , made amends : and then Antonio swore his peace and his forgiveness , and that his hand should never be upon him ; but in his heart bore him a secret grudge , and therefore smote him secretly , saying that Guarino was a Bandito , and therefore condemn'd by the laws . This is to make our promise the cover of a lie , and the laws to minister to crafty mischiefs . After a promise a man must not change his mind , and then make excuses . Renunciatio sui juris per poenitentiam revocari non potest , saith the law , l. pactum , ff . de pact . But deceiving the enemy by the stratagem of actions or words is not properly lying ; for this suppose a conversation of law or peace , trust or promise explicite or implicite . A lie is the deceiving of a trust or confidence , but in fighting there is none of that ; it is like wrastling and fencing , a design to make that part unarm'd where he may strike the surer : and of this S. Clemens of Alexandria affirms expressly concerning stratagems in warre , Haec omnia licebit efficere , vel persuadendo , vel cogendo , vel injuriam faciendo in iis ulciscendis quibus expedit , vel faciendo id quod justum est , vel mentiendo , vel vera dicendo , vel etiam simul utendo aliquibus eorum in eodem tempore . All these things it is lawful to bring to pass by perswasion , or by force , by doing injury or harm there where we are to doe revenge , by doing that which is just , or by telling that which is true , or by lying , or by doing any one or more of these together . Haec autem omnia , & quomodo oporteat uti unoquoque eorum , cum Graeci accepissent à Moyse , non parvam accepere utilitatem , When the Greeks receiv'd all these things from Moyses , and how they were to use any one and every one of these , they received no small advantage . In this case , all the prejudice which the Question is like to have , is in the meaning and evill sound of the word lying ; which because it is so hateful to God and man , casts a cloud upon any thing that it comes near : but lying ( which S. Basil calls extremam malitiae lineam , the extremity of malice , which S. Ephrem calls the Rust of conversation ) is indeed an enemy ; but in warre so it should be ; onely in peace and contracts , and civil conversation , it is intolerable . In warre it is no lie , but an engine of warre , against which the enemy is to stand upon his guard : and if a man may falsify a blow , much more may he falsify a word ; and no justice , no promise , no charity , no law restrains the stratagems in a just warre ; they which may be destroy'd , may be deceiv'd , and they may be deceiv'd by false actions , may by false words , if there be no collateral obligation or law to the contrary . A just man , saith S. Austin , is to take care of nothing but that his warre be just ; that is , by a just authority , and for a just reason . Cum autem justum bellum susceperit , utrùm apertâ , pugnâ , utrùm insidiis vincat , nihil ad justitiam interest , But if it be a just warre , it matters not as to the question of justice , whether he overcome by force or by deceit . Dolus & perfidia are extremely different — dolus an virtus quis in hoste requirat ? and , bonum esse dolum si quis adversus hostem latronemve machinetur , said Ulpian , Craft against a thief or enemy is good ; but not perfidiousness . Nullo discrimine virtutis ac doli prosperos omnes laudari debere bellorum eventus , said Ammianus Marcellinus . To bring warre to a happy end , you may use force or wit ; but at no hand break a promise , or be treacherous . He that desires to see more particulars to the same purpose , may , if he please , see a Lipsius his politicks , and b Adam Contzen , together with the excellent examples of great and wise personages in Polyaenus and Frontinus . 11. But this is not to be extended to a licence of telling a lie of the enemy in behalf of our own country , for fame and reputation , for noises and triumph ; and I remember that Poggius upon this account lost the reputation of a good historian . Dum patriam laudat , damnat dum Poggius hostem , Nec malus est civis , nece bonus historicus . He was a good Citizen , but an ill historiographer , that commended all the actions of the Florentines , and undervalued their enemies . 12. Princes may not lie for the interests and advantages of Government . Not in contracts , treaties , bargains , embassies and all the entercourses of peace and civil negotiation . For besides it is an argument of fear and infirmity to take sanctuary in the little subterfuges of craft when they are beaten from their own proper strengths , it is also a perfect destruction of government and the great bands of society and civil entercourse ; and if they be us'd to fail , no man can be confident of that affirmative which ought to be venerable and sacred up to the height of religion ; and therefore the Egyptian law press'd this affair well , Let all that break their word and oaths die for it ; because they are loaden with a double iniquity , & pietatem in Deos violant , & fidem inter homines tollunt , maximum vinculum societatis , They destroy piety and reverence towards God , and faith amongst men , which is the great ligature of society . And if Princes doe falsify their word and lie , their neighbours can have no entercourse with them but by violence and warre , and their subjects none but fear and chance . For Princes to lie is the greatest undecency in the world : and therefore Diodorus Siculus tells that the Egyptian Princes us'd to wear a golden chain mix'd and distinguish'd with curious stones , and they call'd it Truth ; meaning that nothing was a greater ornament to a Prince , nothing ought to be more sacred , or more remembred . Bodinus saies otherwise , and that Princes and Judges have leave , because sometimes they have necessity to lie ; and of the same opinion was Plato , provided it was done for the good of the people . But that which they mean is onely in affirmations and narratives , in adding confidences or producing fears , in making laws and establishing religions ; such as was that of Numa ; who when he had a mind to endear to the people those good laws which he had made , said that he receiv'd them from the Goddess Aegeria . This may be done against an enemy ; and if it be for the good of the people , it hath in it charity and some shew of prudence , but not to the bravery and magnanimity of a Prince : but however it be in this , it can never be permitted to violate a promise or a treaty , nor yet to tell false in a treaty , for that is against peace and against justice . When there is in it no harm , but all good , as in order to perswade the people to a duty , or to their benefit , they in a matters of publick life being like children in the affairs of their private , that is , when their need and incapacity of being otherwise governed requires it , they may be us'd as they can , according to that of the Persians , Sapientes dicunt quod mendacium beneficium faciens melius est vero exitium parturiente , When a lie does charity , it is better then an uncharitable and pernicious truth : alwaies supposing , that the lie which serves charity be not against justice ; but when it is in treaties , there a lie does not onely disgrace the sincerity of the prince that treates , but is of it self apt to hurt the other ; and therefore at no hand to be admitted . The next inquiry is concerning person Criminal , and so for others in proportion . Question II. Whether it be lawful to use restrictions and mental reservations , so that what we utter is false , but joyned to something within does integrate a truth , and make up a true answer . To this I answer , That this hath no distinct consideration of it's own ; but whether a mental reservation makes that to be true which would otherwise be a lie . For if it be still a lie , a criminal person may no more speak half truths then whole lies ; for that which is but the half of a true proposition , either signifies nothing , or is directly a lie . And upon this supposition , this question is just to be governed by the measures of the first ; and in the same cases in which it is lawful to tell a lie , in the same cases it is lawfull to use a mental reservation : for that which is lawful without it , is also lawful with it ; and the mental reservation does not save it harmless , if it be still a lie . That therefore is the question , Whether he that speaks a lie , and thinks the other part which makes it a true proposition , speaks truth yea or no. The case is this . When Campian was taken in England , he gave out that his name was Butler : the Magistrate inquires , and is so answered : he gives him his oath , and he swears that his name is so ; so much he said : but he added withall to himself , secretly , [ It is my name that I have borrowed , or my name for this time ] But that was not the question ; for he was ask'd that he might be known , and he answer'd that he might not be known . And he might as well have said , that is my name , and have added in his thought , not at all , or , Hoc est nomen meum , and in mind have added , falsum ; and then the case would have been too plain , and too contemptibly ridiculous : like the Sycophant in Plautus , Advenio ex Selencia , Macedonia , Asia atque Arabia : this was a lye ; but he turn'd aside and spake softly , quas ego neque oculis neque pedibus unquam usurpavi meis , and so he made up the matter ; but he was a lyar still : for let the whole be true , yet he speaks but half , and by that half deceives . All that he sayes is a lye , for the contradictory of it is true ; and it is concerning his answer , and the saying , that the question is . It is not inquired whether the man think a lye , but whether he speaks one ; and not what it is to himself , for no man can lye to himself , but what this is to him that asks , for to him he lyes . And suppose a man should write a proposition , and think the rest , to make it true , would not all the world say he wrote a lye ? What it is in writing , it is in speaking ; that which he speaks in the present case is a lye , and for that he is condemn'd . For if the words are a lye without a mental reservation , then they are so with it ; for this does not alter the words , nor the meaning of the words , nor the purpose of him that speaks them . And indeed this whole affair is infinitely unreasonable ; and the thinking one thing , and speaking it otherwise , is so far from making it to be true , that therefore it is a lye , because the words are not according to what is in our mind ; and it is a perverting the very end and institution of words , and evacuates the purpose of laws , and the end of oaths , making them not to be the end of questions , and the benefit of society , and all humane intercourse , and makes that none but fools can lye , none can lye but they which cannot dissemble , that is , they which cannot think one thing and speak another , they which cannot so much as think what is true , or what words would make it true . Certain it is , the Devil need not ever tell a lye , and yet serve all his ends . And besides all this , such a person gives the scandal of a lye , and produces the effect of a lye , and does intend the end of a lye , and it is the material part of a lye ; onely what the man ows to justice , he payes with thinking . But then I consider further , If the words spoken be of themselves a lye , and therefore he thinks it necessary by a secret supply of thought to new-mould it into truth ; to what purpose is that done ? that it may be no lye to himself ? or that it may be no lye before him to whom he speaks it ? As for himself , he is not concerned in it , but onely that he speak truth ; but the other is : and if it be a lye without that supplement , ( for therefore he supplyes it secretly ) then till it be supplyed and made up to him before whom he speaks it , it is a lye to him , to whom it ought to be a truth . If the man be bound to speak truth to the Magistrate , let him doe it ; but if he be not obliged , let him tell a direct lye , for this supplement is but a confessing in conscience that it is a lye ; and therefore there is no need of such a dissembling artifice ; there is more ingenuity in saying that they are not tied to tell truth : but he that tels a lye , and by his mental reservation sayes he tels a truth , tels two lyes , one practical , and the other in theory ; one to the Magistrate , and the other to himself . I doe not say that in all cases it is unlawfull to use mentall reservations , even in craftiness and escape . 1. S. Gregory hath a case in which he affirms it lawfull , Tyrannorum versutiam atque saevitiam quandoque esse piâ fraude deludendam , & objicienda eis quae credant , ut nocendi aditum non inveniant , To prevent and elude the craft and cruelty of Tyrants , they must sometimes be deluded by a pious cosenage ; and something must be impos'd upon their credulity , that their wayes of mischief may be obstructed . And then he addes , this is to be done so , ut caveatur culpa mendacii ; quod tunc bene perficitur , cum illud fit quod asseritur , sed quod sit sic dicitur , ut celetur ; quia ex parte dicitur , & ex parte reticetur : when there is nothing told that is false , but yet the matter is hid , because it is not all spoken . Indeed this is one kind of innocent doing it ; but this is lawfull to be done without great necessity , even for a probable reason : it is nothing but a concealing of some part of the truth , and a discovery of another part , even of so much as will serve our turn . But. 2. Restrictions conditional are lawfull to be us'd in our entercourses : that is , the affirmation or negation , the threatning or promising of a thing may be cum tacita conditione , with a condition concealed ; when that concealment is not intended for a snare , but is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , unusual dispensation , and is competently presumed , supposed or understood . Thus God commanded Jonah to preach against Nineveh , Yet fourty dayes and Nineveh shall be destroyed ; meaning , unless they did repent . Thus we may say , I will to morrow distribute my alms , and will give you a part , meaning , if you will come for it . So for affirmations : The Physician sayes to his Patient , [ you are but a dead man ; ] that is , unless some extraordinary blessing happen : [ you are in no danger ; ] meaning , if you will use the remedies prescribed . But in all these cases the condition must not be insolent , undiscerned , contrary to reasonable expectations , impossible ▪ or next to impossible : for if it be such which cannot be understood , the reservation is a snare , and the whole entercourse is a deception and a lye . 3. If the reservation be not purely mental , but is understood by accidents and circumstances , it is lawfull . The Shepherd of Cremona that was ask'd concerning the Flock he kept , whether those were his Sheep or no , answered confidently , that they were ; meaning secretly , not his own possession , but his own charge , and not his Neighbour Morone's Flock . He said true , though his thought made up the integrity of his true proposition , because it was not doubted , and he was not ask'd concerning the possession , as not being a likely man to be so wealthy . So the guide whom you ask upon the road , tels , you cannot goe out of your way , meaning , if you follow your plain directions , and be not wilfull , or careless , or asleep ; and yet he sayes truth , though he speaks but half , because he deceives none , and is understood by all . Thus the Prophet Isaiah said to Hezekiah when he was sick , Thou shalt dye and not live ; meaning , that the force of the disease is such as to be mortal , and so it stands in the order of Nature : and when afterwards he brought a more comfortable message , he was not thought a lyar in the first , because they understood his meaning , and the case came to be alter'd upon a higher account . 4. When things are true in several sense , the not explicating in what sense I mean the words is not a criminal reservation . Thus ou● Blessed Saviour affirmed , that himself did not know the precise day when himself should come to judge the World ; that is , as S. Austin , and generally the Christian Doctors say , as Man he did not know it , though being God he did know all things . But 1. this liberty is not to be us'd by inferiours , but by superiours onely ; 2. not by those that are interrogated , but by them which speak voluntarily ; 3. not by those which speak of duty , but which speak of grace and kindness : Because superiours , and the voluntary speakers , and they which out of kindness speak , are tied to no laws in this particular , but the measures of their own good will ; and the degrees of their kindness , of their instruction , of their communication , are wholly arbitrary : but the inferiours , the examined , the speakers out of duty and obligation , are tied to answer by other mens measures , by their exigencies , demands , understandings , and purposes ; and therefore must not doe any thing whereby that truth which they have right and interest to enquire after , may be hindred . The conclusion is this , in the words of S. Gregory , Sapientia justorum est , nil per ostensionem fingere , sensum verbis aperire , The wisedome of just men is to make no pretences for deception , but by words to open the secret of their heart . Question III. Whether it be lawfull to equivocate , or use words of doubtfull signification with a purpose to deceive , or knowing that they will deceive ; and in what cases it is so . To this I answer as to the former , Where it is lawfull to lye , it is lawfull to equivocate , which may be something less then a plain lye : but where it is not permitted to tell a lye , there the equivocation must be innocent , that is , not deceiving , nor intended that it should . And this is that which the Hebrews call , corde & corde loqui , to speak dissemblingly , labiis dolosis , with lips of deceit . For it is remarkable , that corde & corde signifies diligence and sincerity , when it means work or labour ; but it signifies falshood and craft , when it means speaking : for Nature hath given us two hands , and but one tongue ; and therefore a duplicate in labour is a double diligence , but in talking it is but a double fraud . Tacitus observes of Tiberius , Verba ejus obscura , suspensa , perplexa , eluctantia , in speciem composita , His words were obscure , broken , interrupted , perplex and intricate , striving and forc'd , and made for shew and pretences . Now if by artifices you deceive him that trusts you , and whom you ought not to deceive , it is but a lye dress'd in another way , and it is all one : For nec artificioso ingenio , nec simplici verbo oportet decipere quenquam , quia quolibet artis modo mentiatur . So that in solution of this question we are onely to consider what equivocal speeches may be us'd , that is , which of them are no lyes : for the rest , they are lawfull or unlawfull by the measures of the first question ; for sometimes equivocation is a lye , and equally destructive of civil entercourse . Duplex responsio habet effectum simplici● silentii . You had as good not speak at all , as speak equivocally ; for a double speech is as insignificant as a single silence . 1. It is lawfull upon a just cause of great charity or necessity to use in our answers and entercourses words of divers signification , though it does deceive him that asks . Thus Titius the Father of Caius hid his Father in a Tub , and to the Cut-throats that inquired for him to bloody purposes he answered Patren in doliolo latere : now that did not only signifie a little Tub , but a Hill near Rome , where the villains did suspect him to be , and were so diverted . Thus we read of a Greek that in the like case hid his Brother under a wood-pile ; and to the inquisitors answered that he did lie hid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , somewhere in the wood . Now in these cases where there is no obligation to tell the truth , any man may use the covers of truth ; especially when in this case it is not a lie : for an equivocation is like a dark-lanthorn ; if I have just reason to hold the dark side to you , you are to look to it , not I. If Christian simplicity be not concerned in it , nor any other grace indirectly , certain it is that truth is not concerned : For , In ambiguo sermone non utrumque dicimus , sed duntaxat quod volumus , said Paulus the Lawyer , l. 3. ff . de rebus dubiis . Now that part of the ambiguity which I intend it in , is true , I would never else use that way to save my conscience and to escape a lie ; so that if nothing else be concerned , truth is safe . But then care also must be taken that he who hath right to be answered , be not defeated without his own fault . For , 2. If I intend to deceive him , it must be such a person whom I have power to deceive ; some one that is a child , or a mad-man , or an incompetent person to judge for his own good , and one that no other way will be brought to doe himself good , one that is willing , or justly so presumed . For unless I have power or right to deceive him , I must not intend to deceive him by any act of mine directly . 3. If it be fit that he be deceived , though I have no right to doe it , let him deceive himself ; it must be by his own act ; to which I may indeed minister occasion by any fair and innocent means . It is fit that he who by violence and injury intends to doe mischief to innocent persons , be hindred from it ; and there is much good done if an innocent be rescued , and no harm done to the Tyrant if he be diverted , and no wrong or injustice if he doe deceive himself . Thus if he runs into error by a just and prudent concealment of some truth ; if he is apt to mistake my words out of a known and by me ●bserved weakness ; if his malice is apt to make him turn all ambiguous words into his own sense that will deceive him ; if I know he will listen to my whispers to another person , and watch my secret talk to others ; I am not bound to say what will inform him , but what will become my entercourse with the other : In all these and the like cases , if I use my own liberty , I doe no man injury . I am not bound to speak words of single signification : if it be sufficient to express my meaning , if it be in the nature and use of the words apt to signifie my mind , and to speak that which is true , let him that stands by look to it ; I doe all that I am oblig'd to doe by the interest of justice and truth . For in these cases , he that speaks does but minister occasion to him that is mistaken ; like him that represents artificial sights before the eye , or as the rain-bow in the clouds is occasion of a popular error that it is full of colours . 4. But then this must be so us'd , that the amphibology or equivocation be not insolent and strange , but such as is usual in forms of witty speech . For then he who uses them does no more deceive his hearer , then he that speaks obscurely or profoundly is the cause of error in the ignorant people . Thus if Caius promise to pay to Regulus an hundred Attick drachmes ; he is tied to doe it if he does owe it , else not : for if he owes none , he must pay none , and he did not promise to give him any thing . For if a meaning be clearly contained in the word spoken , it may be made use of to any just and reasonable advantage ; especially if that word ought or was likely to have been understood by the concerned hearer . But this may not be done in fraud and to the diminution of any mans rights . Asper buyes corn and linnen of Camillus who is newly come from Egypt : they agree together that Camillus shall receive ten talents ; but that he shall give him as a free gift halfe of it back again ; and call the ten talents the just price , and the telling it a just solution . If Asper sells his linnen by the proportion of the great price told over , he is a Cosener ; and uses the words of price , and payment , and gift , fraudulently : the amphibologie might have been us'd to ends of justice and reason , but not of knavery and oppression . 5. And this must also be upon just cause . For if a Magistrate sends to inquire for Titius , and the officers ask an Titius sit domi , if he be at home : to him we may not answer , Titius non est domi , he does not eat at home ; meaning the word est in a sense less usual , to deceive him in the more common , who ought not to be deceived at all : but to save a mans life from violence and injury it may be done . This way hath been sometimes used to vile purposes . Thus Cleomenes having made truce with his Enemies for thirty daies , us'd to plunder his Country in the night ; and Labeo having agreed to give up half his Navy to Antiochus , cut his ships in pieces and made them good for nothing . The like stories are told of Alexander , of the Locrians , of Otho Moguntinus . But it was a barbarous thing of Pericles , who promised safety to the Enemy if he would lay aside his iron , that is , their arms , as all the world understood it , and as the nature of the thing did signifie : when he had done so he fell upon the whole body of them and cut them in pieces , shewing for his excuse , the iron buttons that they had upon their Coats . Such frauds as these are intolerable in their event , and evil in their cause , and detested by all good and just men . To this purpose I remember a worthy story told by John Chokier , of a Spanish Governour of a Town in Millain who kept a Noble person prisoner with hard usage , and when his Lady came to petition for his liberty , promised to deliver her Husband to her if she would let him lie with her . The poor woman being wearied with his temptation and the evil usage of her Husband , consents and suffers it . When the Governour had obtained his lust , he would also satisfie his anger too ; and kills her Husband , and to verifie his promise , gives her Husband to the Lady , but newly murdered . The Lady complains of this , and tells her sad story to Gonzaga the Spanish General : he finds it to be truth , and made the Lady this amends . He commands the Governour to marry the Lady , that by his estate she might be recompenced for the dishonour : and then , the same day causes the Governour to loose his head to pay for his dishonourable falshood and bloody lie . It was a justice worthy of a great Prince ; and the reward was justly paied to such a cruel equivocation . This was subdolus congressus , a craftie treatie , quo nil turpius , said Antoninus the Emperor , nothing is baser and more dishonourable then it . Thus did Darius to the Noble Oebasus the Father of three brave Sons , and Xerxes to Pythius the Father of five ; they kill'd what they promised to leave with the Father , adding to their cruelty the reproach and scorn of cosenage . A man hath right to use what words he will according to the received use ; but he must not use them to evil purposes : and a man may goe a little from the more common use to that which is rare , so it be within the signification of the word , provided there be just cause ; that which hath good in it to some , and no injury to any . 6. There is between lying and equivocation this only difference , that this may upon less necessity and upon more causes be permitted then lying . For provided that these measures now described , which are the negative measures of lying , be observed ; if a man speaks doubtfull words and intends them in a true sense , he may use his liberty ; alwayes provided that he use it with care , and to the reputation of Christian simplicity . In arts and sciences , in jest and entercourses of wit , in trial of understandings and mystical teachings , in prudent concealments and arts of secrecy , equivocal words may be us'd with more freedome . Solvite Templum hoc , saies Christ , Dissolve this Temple , viz. of my body , and I will raise it up in three daies . So did that excellent Confessor in Eusebius , to Firmilianus asking of what Country he was , he answered , that Jerusalem was his Country ; Seorsim apud animum suum ita Divinitus philosophatus , privately in his mind speaking Divine mysteries , saies the Historian . This was well and innocent , because an equivocal speech hath a light side as well as a dark : it is true as well as false , and therefore it is in its own nature innocent ; and is only changed into a fault , when it is against justice and charity , under which simplicity is to be plac'd . Under these measures are to be reduced those little equivocations which are us'd sometimes in craft , but most commonly in wit ; such as are to answer by anagrams , so as to tell a true name but disguis'd by transposition of letters and syllables , or to give the signification of a name in other words . Thus if a man whose name is Dorotheus calls himself Theodorus , for Nicolaus , Laonicus , for Demonicus , Nicodemus ; it is an equivocation or an art of deception , but such as may be legitimated by the cause : but if the inquiry be in a serious matter , the answer must be serious and material , true , and significative to the purposes of law , and justice , and society . And therefore if Nicodemus had been interrogated by Pilate in a serious cause , he might not have said his name was Demonicus ; and the reason , is , because he might not have concealed it . But when it is lawfull to conceal it if we can , this is a just way of doing it ; for it is not lie in it self , and can be made to doe or to minister to that good which is intended . Thus in the book of Tobit we find that the Angel Raphael called himself Azarias the son of Ananias , which indeed is the name of his office , or the Rebus , the meaning of his present imployment , that is , Auxilium Domini , Filius nubis Domini , The aid of the Lord , Son of the Lords cloud ; meaning that he was sent from the Lord in a cloud or disguise to be an aid and a blessing to that religious family . And he that call'd Arsinoe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Juno's violet , kept all the letters of the name right , and complemented the Lady ingeniously . But these are better effects of wit then ministeries of justice ; and therefore are not to be used but upon great reasons , and by the former measures , when the matter is of concernment . Question IV. Whether it be lawful by false signes , by actions and pretences of actions , to deceive others for any good end : and in what cases it is so . To this question I answer in the words of Aquinas , because they are reasonable pious , Ad virtutem veritatis pertinet , ut quis talem se exhibeat exterius per signa exteriora qualis est ; ea autem non solum sunt verba , sed etiam factae : and a little after , Non refert autem utrum aliquis mentiatur verbo , vel quocunque alio facto , It is all one if a man lies , whether it be by word or by deed . A man may look a lie , and nod a lie , and smile a lie . But in this there is some variety : For 1. all dissembling from an evil principle and to evil purposes is criminal . For thus Tertullian declaims bitterly against those Ladies who ( saies he ) being taught by the Apostate Angels oculos circumducto nigrore fucare , & genas mendacio ruboris inficere , & mutare adulterinis coloribus crinem , & expugnare omnem oris & capitis veritatem , besmear their eye-brows with a black semicircle , and stain their cheeks with a lying red , and change the colour of their hair into an adulterous pretence , and drive away all the ingenuity and truth of their faces . And Clemens Alexandrinus is as severe against old men that with black-lead combes put a lie upon their heads ; and so disgrace their old age , which ought to be relied upon , believ'd and reverenc'd for truth . And it was well said of Archidamus to a man of Chios who did stain his white hairs with black and the imagery of youth , the man was hardly to be believ'd , when he had a lie in his heart , and bore a lie upon his head . These things proceeding from pride and vanity , and ministring to lust , or carried on with scandal , are not onely against humility and sobriety and chastity and charity , but against truth too ; because they are done with a purpose to deceive , and by deceit to serve those evil ends . To the same purpose was the fact of them of whom Dio Chrysostomus speaks , who knowing that men were in love with old Manuscripts , would put new ones into heaps of corn and make them look like old : such also are they who in Holland lately would exactly counterfeit old Meddals , to get a treble price beyond the value of the metal and the imagery . These things and all of the like nature are certainly unlawful , because they are against justice and charity . 2. But there are other kinds of counterfeits , such as are gildings of wood and brass , false stones , counterfeit diamonds , glass depicted like emeralds and rubies , a crust of marble drawn over a building of course stone ; these are onely for beauty and ornament , and of themselves minister to no evil , but are pleasant and useful : now though to sell these images of beauty for real be a great cheat ; yet to expose them to be seen as such , and every man be left to his liberty of thinking as he please , and being pleas'd as he can , is very innocent . 3. There is a third sort of lying or deceiving by signs not vocal : that is , the dissembling of a passion , such as that of which Seneca complains in the matter of Grief , which is the simplest of all passions ; but pretended by some without truth to purposes not good . Sibi tristes non sunt , & clariùs cum audiuntur gemunt , & taciti quietique dum secretum est , cum aliquos viderint in fletus novos excitantur . So did Gellia in the Epigram , Amissum non flet cum sola est Gellia Patrem : Si quis ad est , jussae prosiliunt lachrymae . They are full of tears in company , but in their retirements pleas'd well enough . Now things of this nature are indifferent ; but are good or bad according to the cause or the design . Mourn for the dead , saith Ben-Sirach , and that a day or two , lest thou be evil spoken of . That end is honest ; and therefore to mourn in solemnity is good , if we cannot mourn in passion : and the laws enjoyn to a man and woman respectively annum luctus , a year of solemn mourning ; all which time it is not suppos'd the passion should be troublesome and afflictive . Thus we find David pretending madness before Achish the King of Gath ; it was for his life : and we doe not find any of the ancient Doctors blaming the dissimulation . 4. But that which is here the principal inquiry is , whether signs not vocal , which have in them ambiguity , and may signify several things , may be us'd with a purpose to deceive . And to this the answer is the same with the former in the case of equivocation , with this onely difference ; That as there is some more liberty in the use of equivocal words , then of a simple lie ; so there is some more liberty yet in equivocal actions then in words , because there may be more reasons for such dubious actions then for dubious words , and they are not so near , so usual , * so intended significations of our mind , nor ministeries of entercourse and society . But where they are taken so , they are to be governed by the same rules ; save onely that a less necessity may be a sufficient legitimation of such dubious signs : concerning which , besides the analogy and proportion to the former rules , there is no other measure but the severities of a good and a prudent man taking into him the accounts of Christian simplicity and ingenuity . I have onely one thing to adde in order to practice . There is a liberty in the forecited cases there where there is a necessity , and where there is a great charity . For in these cases it is true what S. Chrysostom saies , Fraudis quidem magna vis modo ne fraudulento animo fiat : quam ipsam tum ne fraudem quidem nominandam putaverim , verum Oeconomiam quandam potius ac sapientiam artemque , quâ possis è mediis iisque imperviis desperatarum rerum angustiis difficultatibusque correctis & emendatis animi vitiit evadere . There is a great use of artifices in our words and actions when we are hard put to it in desperate cases and extremest difficulties , and then these arts are not indeed deceptions , but just escapes . But yet this I say , that it is not safe to use all our liberty ; because when it is practis'd freely , we oftentimes find our selves ill Judges of the necessity . And however it be , yet it is much more noble to suffer bravely then to escape from it by a doubtful way ; 1. for the love and honour of simplicity , 2. for the endeavours of perfection , 3. for the danger of sin , 4. for the peril of scandal . And it was bravely done of Augustus Caesar , who when he had promised ten thousand Sesterces to him that should bring Corocotta , a famous Spanish thief , alive into his presence ; Corocotta himself came and demanded the money , and had it , and he was spar'd besides : he escaped for his wit and confidence ; but had the money pro fide Caes●●is , according to the faith and nobleness of Casars justice : for he might have made use of the ambiguity of his words to have kept the money , and hang'd the thief ; but he thought it Nobler to doe all that he could be thought to have intended by his words . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saies Aristotle , The brave and magnanimous man does not sneak , but speaks truth and is confident . It cannot be denied what S. Clemens Alexandrinus said , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a good man will for the good of his neighbour doe something more then he would doe willingly and of his own accord ; yet when it is his own case , it is better to let goe his liberty then to run a hazard . Sarah did lie , and she was reproved by the Angel ; Abraham did so too , saies Tertullian , Saram sororem suam mentitus est , but he was reproved by Abimelech : Jacob did lie to his Father , but he is not commended for it ; and Rachel did dissemble , but she died in childbirth , and it was occasioned by that , say the Jewish Doctors : Simeon and Levi destroyed the Sichemites by a stratagem , but they troubled the house of Israel by it : Thamar deceived Judah , but she plai'd the harlot in deed as well as in words . And concerning those worthy persons mentioned in Scripture who did lie or dissemble , the Christian Doctors have been put to it to make apologies , and excuses , and justifications for them , and are not yet agreed how to doe it . S. Basil and S. Chrysostome are two examples of several proceedings . S. Basil alwaies bore his heart upon his hand , and shewed it to every one that was concerned . Saint Chrysostome used craft against the simple , and fraud against him that spoke all things in simplicity . Chrysostome was forced with laborious arts to excuse and justifie it , and did it hardly : But S. Basil had no scruple concerning his innocence ; what he had concerning his prudence and safety does not belong to the present question . But of this last particular I have given larger accounts in a Discourse on purpose . The conclusion is this , If a man speaks a direct down-right lie , he can very hardly be innocent : but if by intrigues of words and actions , per involucra verborum ( as Cicero calls it ) per orationem intortam ( as the Comedy ) by covers of words , and by crooked speeches , a man have entercourse , he had need be very witty to be innocent according to the Hebrew proverb , If a man have wit enough to give cross and involved answers , let him use it well ; if he knows not how to doe it well , let him hold his peace . It was but a sneaking evasion of S. Francis , when the pursuers after a murderer asked if the man came that way ; No , saith the Frier , thrusting his hand into his sleeve , he came not here . If a mans wit be not very ready and very clear , while he thinks himself wise , he may become a vain person . The Devil no question hath a great wit , and a ready answer ; yet when he was put to it at his Oracles , and durst not tell a down-right lie , and yet knew not what was truth many times , he was put to most pitifull shifts , and trifling equivocations , and arts of knavery ; which when they were discovered by events contrary to the meaning which was obvious for the inquirers to understand it made him much more contemptible and ridiculous then if he had said nothing , or confess'd his ignorance . But he that does speak , and is bound to speak , must speak according to the mind of him with whom he does converse , that is , so to converse , that by our fault he be not deceived against his right , against justice or against charity , and therefore he had better in all things speak plainly : for truth is the easiest to be told ; but no wit is sufficient for a crafty conversation . RULE VI. It is not lawfull for private Christians without publick authority to punish Malefactors , but they may require it of the Magistrate in some cases . IN the law of Nature it was permitted : but as the world grew older , and better experienc'd , and better instructed , it became unlawfull and forbidden ; in some places sooner , in some places later . The Ephori among the Lacedaemonians might kill Criminals extrajudicially ; and Nicolaus of Damascus relates , that amongst the Umbrians every man was the revenger of his own injuries : for till by laws men were defended , they by revenges and retaliation might drive away the injury as far as was necessary . But because when a man is in pain and grief he strikes unjustly and unequally , and judges incompetently , laws were made to restrain the first licence , and to put it into the hands of Princes onely , because they being common Fathers to their people , were most likely to doe justice equally and wisely . Iccirco enim judiciorum vigor jurisque publici tutela videtur in medio constituta , ne quisquam sibiipsi permittere valeat ultionem , said Honorius and Theodosius , That no man might avenge himself , Laws and Judges and Tribunals were appointed for publick justice . But for this , provisions at first could not be made so generally , but that some cases would happen , and some gaps be left open , which every man must stop , and provide for as well as he could . Thus we find that Phinehas , when he saw God was angry with the Sons of Israel about the matter of Moab , himself , to divert the anger that was already gone forth , smote Zimri , a Prince among the Simeonites , and his fair Mistris in his arms , and kill'd them in their Crimes . From his example many Zelots amongst the Jew took liberty to kill a man that sinn'd apparently . So Mattathias kill'd a Jew that offer'd sacrifice according to the manner of the Greeks ; and the People kill'd three hundred of their Countrymen upon the like account . But this quickly grew into excess and irregularity ; and therefore when our Blessed Lord was zealous for the honour of the Temple , he went no further but to use a little Whip to affright them from their prophaneness . And yet in some cases God permitted private persons to be Executioners ; as in case a Jew tempted his Child , or Brother , or Neighbour to Idolatry , the tempted person might kill him without delating him to the Judge : and in a cause of Blood , the next of kin might kill the Man-slayer if he overtook him before he took Sanctuary . But here the cases were such that the private person was not Judge , but by leave from God was Executioner upon the notoreity of the fact : for although for a dead person his nearest relation might with his own hand take vengeance ; yet if himself was wounded , he might not , but by the sentence of the Judge , say the Doctors of the Jews ; because he ought not to be Judge where he could hardly be moderate . In the Sea , and in desart places , where there can be no appeals to Judges , every man is Executioner of the sentence of the law of Nations . Thus we find that Julius Caesar pursued the Pirats in the Mediterranean and Adriatick Seas ; and because the Proconsul would not , he gather'd a sudden Navy and overtook them , and hang'd them upon the main-yards of their own Vessels . Thus the wild Arabs and Circassian Thieves , that live in vast places , and under no Government , being publick Enemies of Mankind , and under no laws , nor treaties or communications of peace , may be kill'd by every one that is injur'd and spoil'd by them , when he can doe it . To this agrees that of Tertullian , In publicos hostes omnis homo miles est ; and that of Democritus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , He that kils a thief and a robber with his own hand , or by command , or by consent , is innocent , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . But this is to be understood of the permission in the law of Nature . For in Christianity men are not easily permitted to touch blood ; not hastily to intermeddle in the causes of blood ; not to give sentence for the effusion of it : these things are to be done with caution , and a slow motion , and after a loud call , and upon a great necessity , because there are two great impediments : the one is the duty of Mercy , which is greatly requir'd and severely exacted of every Disciple of Christ ; and the other is , that there is a Soul at stake when blood is to be shed , and then they are told , that as they judge they shall be judged , as they measure it shall be measured to them again . And therefore Criminal Judges have a tender imployment , and very unsafe , unless they have the guards of a just Authority , and a great mercy , and an unavoidable necessity , and publick utility , and the fear of God alwayes before their eyes , and a great wisedome to conduct their greatest dangers . That which remains and is permitted in Christianity is , 1. The punishment of reprehension , of which every wise and good man may be judge and minister : for as S. Cyprian said that every Bishop is a Bishop of the Catholick Church , that is , whereever he chance to be , he must not suffer a Soul to perish if he can help it , but hath right every where to minister to the necessities of Souls , who are otherwise destitute , and every where to pray in private , to bless , to absolve dying persons , to supply the defects of a widow and desolate Church ; so every good man hath power to punish a base and vicious person by severe and wise animadversions of reproof . For a wise man is never a private man ( said Cicero ; ) and Nasica , and Cato , and Fabius , and Lollius were in authority like perpetual Consuls , alwayes in power over a vicious man. 2. It is not against the laws of Christianity , that Parents , and Tutors , and Masters , and Governors should punish Criminals , that is , such as are subject to them , and by such punishments as are permitted by law , and by such measures as are agreeable to the just and charitable ends * of their respective governments , and by the analogy and proportions of Christian mercy and clemency : in the execution of which punishments there need no other laws be given but what are dictated by the mind of a charitable , dispassionate and a good man. But then in these Governments there is more liberty then in any other but the supreme : for a personal injury done to a Father or a Tutor may be punish'd by the Father or Tutor respectively , and so also it may by the Supreme power , Cum dignitas authoritasque ejus in quem est peccatum tuenda est , ne praetermissa animadversio contemptum ejus pariat , & honorem levet , said Taurus the Philosopher in A. Gellius . An injury done to a Superiour is a contempt of his authority as well as injurious to his person ; and if it be not punish'd , will soon disorder the superiority . But then this must be wholly for emendation ; and though anger may be the instrument , yet charity must be both the measure and the end . 3. When the law hath pass'd a sentence , and given leave to any subject to be executioner , he that is injur'd may doe it . But this is to be understood in one case onely that concerns the Subject , and one that concerns the Prince . 1. For if the Prince commands that whoever finds such a person shall smite him to death if he can , every man is bound to it , if the law be just : as in the case of Treason , or deserting their military station , it hath sometimes been decreed . In reos Majestatis , against Traitors every man is a Souldier , sayes Tertullian , who affirms it also concerning all publick Enemies . 2. The other case , which relates to the advantage of the Subject , is , when the execution of the publick sentence is necessary to be done speedily for the prevention of future mischiefs . Thus Justinian gave leave to every man to kill the Souldiers that came to plunder ; for in that case there was no staying for solemnities of law , and the proceedings and method of Courts ; Melius enim est occurrere in tempore quam post exitū vindicare . Vestram igitur vobis permittimus ultionem , & quod serum est punire judicio , subjugamus edicto , ut nullus parcat militi , cui obviare telo oporteat ut latroni . This which the law cals a revenge is but a meer defence , it is a taking the mischief before it be intolerable ; and therefore this will be the more out of question : for certainly if some punishments are lawfull , all necessary defences are much more ; this onely excepted , that the degree of this is excessive and uncharitable , and therefore ought not to be done , but in those cases where the evil likely to be suffer'd by the innocent is intolerable , as if the plunder be the undoing of a man and his family , and will cause them to perish , or to be extremely miserable ; and therefor● Ulpian said well , Furem nocturnum si quis occiderit , ità demum impunè feret , si parcere ei sine periculo suo non poterit , Though the law permits a man to kill a Night-thief , yet he may not doe it if he can secure himsel● without it : but when to spare the Thief will be his own undoing , the● he may . For it is true which was said of old , Res omnes conditae famulantur vitae humanae ; And again , Nobilissimum est quod orbis habet humana vita . Nothing is fit to be put in ballance to the life of man ; and therefore when a man's life and a man's goods are compar'd abstractly , these are extremely out-weighed by that : and therefore for little and tolerable losses it were well if the laws would appoint lesser punishments then Death . But when it is consider'd , that a great loss makes a man and all his family live a miserable life , and men willingly venture their lives to save such great portions , the laws that put such thieves to death are very justifiable . And it is observable that when God in Moses law appointed a mulct of money upon thieves , it was supposed to be in such robberies where the thief was able to restore four-fold . Adde to this , that if our laws did provide that stollen goods should be restored , they would less need to give leave to the true man to kill the thief . But now that he is the more likely to be undone , because no restitution is to be made him , he may in the case of such great spoilings be better allowed to be the executioner of the sentence of the law to prevent his ruine , and to defend his right . But it were much better if he would not at all use this liberty . 4. But when the evil is past if the law permits the execution of her sentence to the injur'd person ; it is to be supposed that there is onely an indulgence to the grief of him that is wrong'd , and therefore if he kills the injurious man , he is indemnified in law , but not quitted in Conscience . Thus when the Civil law of old , L. Gracchus C. ad legem Juliam , de Adulteriis , and at this day the Spanish laws permit the wronged Husband to kill the adulterer , it is lawful ; that is , it is not against justice , and therefore the law cannot punish it : but because it is extremely against charity , his Confessor ought not to absolve him without repentance and amends ; for the Gospel does not approve it . The reason is , because if the injury be done , the execution is meerly revenge , without the mixture of any good thing to legitimate it . Now if the law does it by her ministers , it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , an example , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( as Demosthenes his expression is ) that others may be afraid , & not be tempted by impunity . But if the man does it by his private hand , there is in it less of observation and exemplarity ; or if there were not , yet there were less intended ; and therefore the private executing hand is not so innocent : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith the Apostle , we must not avenge our selves : this can hardly be reconcil'd with such executions . There is onely this allay in it , that if the wronged husband can no other way prevent his dishonour and his wives sin or continuance in it , if the law permits it to him , it may be suppos'd to be done for prevention , not for revenge ; and if it be so , as it is suppos'd , it hath many degrees of excuse , and some of lawful , but nothing commendable ; for nothing can reconcile it to charity , because ( as I observed before ) there is a soul in the way which ought strangely much to be regarded . Nay there are two Souls : for it was rarely said by Pythagoras , as Iamblichus relates , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it is better to suffer the injury then to kill the man : For after death there shall be a judgment ; he that did the wrong shall be punish'd , and he that spar'd him shall be rewarded . 5. But if the Criminal be of so desperate an impiety that he seems incorrigible , and of a long time hath seem'd so ( for that is the best way to prove him so ) then it is lawful for a private hand to be executioner of the publick sentence ; but he that is injur'd ought not to doe it . Not that it is murder , or directly unlawful in the precise action : but that it can hardly be quitted from revenge ; and it will be hard for any man to be so good as not to have just cause to suspect himself , if he be so bad , upon the meer permissions of law to thrust his hand into his brothers heart . Other persons may doe it out of zeal or love of their countries good . The Civil law gave leave exercendae publicae ultionis adversus latrones , desertoresque militiae , of executing the anger of the law against fugitive souldiers , and common robbers : he that had not been robbed by them might better doe it then he that had : for it being permitted pro quiete communi , for the publick peace , he is a good patriot that honestly and justly ministers to that end alone ; but he that hath suffer'd by them , had need be an Angel , if he does not spoil that good end by the mixture of revenge ; and if he be an Angel he will find a better imployment then to kill a man where it is not commanded , and where it is not necessary . 6. Some affirm that Princes are never to be reckoned to be private persons , when they proceed according to the sentence and meaning of the law , though they doe proceed brevi manu , as the style of the law is ; and doe not proceed by the methods and solemnities of law by reason of disability to doe it . Thus if a man grow too hard for the laws , the Prince must send Souldiers to him , not Serjeants , if the case be notorious and it be a publick sentence : and the Lord Mayor of London did strike Wat Tyler , though he was not convicted in law , nor sentenc'd by the Judges . Upon this account the King of France offered to defend the killing of the duke of Guise : concerning which I cannot give accounts , because there might be in it many secrets which I know not . But if there wanted nothing but solemnities of law , and there wanted power to suppress him by open force , and that it was just and necessary that he should die , and by law he was guilty of it , if there was any thing wanting which should have been done , he that died was the cause of it , and therefore to him it was to be imputed . But supposing what these men affirm to be true ; ( concerning which I shall affirm nothing ) yet this is very rarely to be practis'd , because it is seldome lawful , if ever it be , and not without the concurrence of very many particulars , and is very easily abused to extreme evil purposes ; as in that intolerable and inhumane massacre of Paris , which all generations of the world shall speak of with horror and the greatest detestation . But concerning the thing it self that which the lawyers say is this , Generale edictum accedente facti evidentiâ habet vim latae sententiae , when a law is clear , and the fact is evident , the sentence is already past : and therefore some of them are apt to say , To doe the same thing in a chamber is not murder , if it be justice when it is done upon a scaffold ; for the same demerit in the criminal and the same power in the Supreme is an equal cause and warranty of the execution . And since it is cheaper to imploy a Physitian then an army , and there is less prejudice done to the publick by such a course , since the State of Venice kills upon suspicion , and there are some things known which cannot be proved , and cannot be suffer'd , and since we see that solemnities of law , like thin aprons , discover more shame sometimes then they hide , and give more scandal then they remove ; these men are more confident then I am : for they dare warrant this course which I dare not . But he that will adventure upon this , must take care that it be done 1. by a competent authority , 2. upon a just cause , 3. for a great necessity , 4. according to the intent and meaning of the law ; 5. it must be in summo & mero Imperio , by one that is absolute and supreme ; 6. it must be upon notoreity of fact , 7. when there is no scruple of law , 8. and if after all this there be no scruple in conscience , 9. nor yet any other means of securing the publick , 10. and the thing have in it as great charity to the publick , as there is in it justice to the particular , 11. and that the warre be not justum bellum , that is , between supreme powers , 12. nor yet any treaty , or promise , faith or covenant to the contrary between the supreme and the inferior offending ; 13. nor yet there be a scandal of greater mischief then can be procured by the unsolemn proceeding ; 14. nor is done refragante judicio procerum , & sententiis juris prudentum , against the earnest advice of prudent and grave persons , which if it happen will arrest the resolution , and give check and consideration to the Conscience : then it is supposed by many that there may be reason enough to forbear what cannot be us'd , that is , the solemnities of law , which are the methods of peace , not to be expected in a state or time of warre . And by this time it will be so hard to doe it justly , that it will be better to let it alone . For after all these cautions and proviso's , it is not permitted to assasinate or privately to murder the Criminal , but to proceed by open force or by avowed manners of justice , though they be not solemn , and the common waies of peace ; that is , they must be owned in publick , and asserted by law , either antecedently or ex post-facto . An example of the first way is frequently seen in in France ; where the fugitives of law are proceeded against in their absence , and executed in effigie ; and in the states of Italy against the Banniti : and of the second way examples have been seen in the Manifesto's of some Princes when they have been put to such extrajudicial and private waies of animadversion . But these things happen not but in such places where Princes are more absolute , and less Christian , or that the Subject transgresses by power . 7. Upon the like account it hath in some ages of Christianity it self , but in many ages of Gentilisme , been permitted that by single duel men prove their innocence , and oppress the supposed Criminal : — puróque pióque duello Quaerendas res censeo — said one of the Roman Senators to Ancus Martius . Now concerning this I shall not need to say much ; because now long since all Christian Princes and States , & all Churches and Ecclesiastical persons have condemned it as a grievous crime , upon these two accounts : 1. Because it is a tempting God by waies which he hath never allowed , it is a lottery that he never gave warrant to : and upon this account it was that Pope Nicolas the first forbad the Emperor Lotharius to try his wives suspected chastity by the combat of two champions , cùm hoc & hujusmodi sectantes , Deum solummodo tentare videantur ; and to the same purpose Pope Celestine and some others did forbid it 2. Because the innocent person is expos'd to equal danger with the Criminal , and hath been oftentimes oppress'd ; as it happened in the case of William Ca●ur an armourer in Fleetstreet , who being by his servant John David falsely accused of treason , was yet slain in Smithfield by his perjur'd adversary : and then the people have accepted the event as a divine testimony , which in this case being to a lie and to the false part , must needs be infinitely dishonourable to God. But if it were not for these and some other evil appendages , and if the innocent person were sure to prevail , and the law made the private hand the minister of Justice , who onely can tell the secret , and therefore is the surest Judge , there is no peradventure it might as well be done by that hand as by any other . But this cannot be reduc'd to practice at all ; but in the whole conjunction of affairs is highly criminal and intolerable . In Spain we find that a duel was permitted between two eminent persons [ los infantes de lara , the Spaniards call them ] onely upon the accusation of an injury done to some Ladies , the daughters of Rodrigo de Bibar ; and the victory was gain'd by him that was innocent : and another by the men of Zamora in the case of the death of King Sanctus ; and quickly they found advocates and defenders . And Vasquius affirms it may as well be permitted by law , as that an injur'd Husband should kill the adulterer . But besides the reasons formerly alledged against such private executions of an uncertain sentence ; because they have no foundation in justice or charity , neither in publick or private good , they are deservedly banished from all Christian Countries . But this is to be understood onely of Judiciall Duels , whether Criminal or Civil ; for as for Duell extrajudiciall and private , it is so Unjust , so Uncharitable , and so Unreasonable , so much against all Laws of God and Man , so infinitely against the piety of him that survives it , so infinitely against the hopes of him that dies in it , that nothing can excuse it : but even Duels which are permitted by laws , ought not to be so , and are not permitted by religion ; excepting onely when the Duel is a compendium of war , and is designed to doe justice , and to prevent the greater issues of blood . Thus the Romans and Albans determin'd their wars by the fight of three Champions of each side ; and the Curiatii being subdued by Horatius Cocles , the City Alba came into subjection to Rome . David and Goliah fought for their respective Countries ; but the Duel did not determine it directly , but onely discourag'd the conquer'd party . Upon the same account Clodoveus the first Christian King of France offer'd to fight with Alaricus Prince of the West Goths ; nobilissimo pari fortunam utriusque gentis decretum in , said Paulus Aemilius : and Guicciardine tells that when the French and Italian armies were ready to joyn battel , the fortune of the day was committed to thirteen Champions on either part . Cambden reports that when the Saxons and Danes grew weary of the so great effusion of blood caused by their daily wars , misso in compendium bello , utriusque gentis fata Edmundo Anglorum & Canuto Danorum Regibus commissa fuerunt , qui singulari certamine de summa Imperii in hac insula depugnarunt . Edmund and Canutus fought in a little Island by Gloucester , and drew the war into a compendium , and sav'd the lives of their Subjects by hazarding their own . William Duke of Normandy offer'd this to Harold before the battail in Sussex : And King John of England to Lewis of France , by deputed Champions . And Richard the second of England challenged Charles the sixth of France concerning the title of the French Crown . And Pope Martin allowed the Duel between Charles of Anjou and Peter of Arragon to determine the question concerning the Kingdome of Sicily . These indeed are great Examples , and are then onely just when the wa● is just , and on that side onely on which it is just . Haec est necessitas quae bellum justificat ( saith Baldus ) cum ad bellum extremo loco confugitur , When the war is necessary and the case is extreme , the necessity makes it just , when the contrary evil is intolerable : and when things are come to this pass , then it is true what Bodinus saies , Non interest quo numero adversus hostes decernatur , It matters not by how few the war be ended . Such a Duel is a just war , as all war antiently was called a Duel , Graecia Barbariae lento collisa duello , All Greece and Barbary fought a duell ; it is duarum partium congressus , the contention of two armies as well as two single persons : and that the words are synonyma we find in Varro a , Festus b , Plautus c , and P. Merula d ; but concerning the thing it self , who please to see more instances and precedents , more arguments and verifications of it , may at his leisure find many particulars in Frisius e , Ayala f , Bocerus g , Alciat h , Bodinus i , Beuther k , and Albericus Gentilis l . I have now described the prohibitions of private executions , together with the cases in which they have been or may be permitted . The next Question is upon the latter part of the Rule . Whether it be lawfull for a Christian to require of the Magistrate that his offending Brother may be punished . If the injur'd person be design'd onely to punishment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , out of anger and a desire to be reveng'd , there is no question but it is infinitely Unlawfull . Render not evil for evil , and divers other prohibitive words of our Blessed Lord , cannot mean lesse then the forbidding of revenge , though obtain'd and desir'd from the hand of justice ; for although the Magistrate is bound to doe it , if requir'd , yet he that requires for vengeance sake is of an Unchristian spirit : and this was observed by Dion in Plutarch , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , To receive & require amends from the law is more just then that injury against which justice is required ; but it proceeds from the same weak principle ; and therefore it is fit for none but fools and weak persons : — quippe minuti Semper & infirmi est animi exiguíque voluptas Ultio : continuò sic collige , quod vindictâ Nemo magis gaudet quam femina — or rather it becomes not such persons ; for nothing can become them but to leave their folly and to grow wiser ; for it is caecus & irrationalis furor , as Lactantius calls it , inhumanum verbum est , saith Seneca , it is unreasonable , and inhumane , and brutish : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said the Jews of Alexandria , We are not delighted in taking revenge against our Enemies , because by the laws of God we are taught to have compassion on men . And therefore is this much more to be observed in Christianity , where we are all members one of another , united to Christ our head ; and therefore we should comport our selves as members of the same body : concerning which Cassiodore saies prettily , Quod si manus una casu aliquo fortè laedat alteram , illa quae laesa est non repercutit , nec se erigit in vindictam , If one hand strikes the other , it is not stricken again , neither doth the other think to be reveng'd ; as knowing it was too much that one was smitten . 2. It is lawfull for a Christian to require of the Magistrate to punish him that is injurious , if he justly fears a future and intolerable evil ; for then it is but a calling to the law for a just defence , without which the Magistrate should bear the sword in vain . Clemens Alexandrinus defines 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or punishment ( meaning that which is just , and in some cases reasonable to be requir'd ) to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a return of evil ( not for the vexing of the injurious , but ) for the relief or commodity of the complainer . But if it be that which Aristotle defin'd it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , f●r the satisfaction of him that punishes , that is , that he may have the pleasure of revenge , then it is intolerable . And therefore it must be alwaies provided that this appeal respect the future onely , and not that which is past ; for that is revenge , and this is caution and defence . 3. In all repetitions of our rights which are permitted to Christians before Christian Judges , it is not lawfull for Christians to take any thing for amends beyond the reall losse or diminution of good : for that is a retribution of evil , which at no hand is permitted to a Christian. The Jews might receive four-fold , Christians must be content with simple restitution of their loss and reall dammages . 4. Christians must not go to law but upon very great cause ; and therefore some of the Heathens , Musonius , Maximus Tyrius , and others , would not allow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , any amends at law for reproachfull or disgracefull words . And the Christians , who neither were nor ought to be behind them , desir'd not their Calumniators to be punished . So Justin Martyr , We will not those to be punished who doe calumniate us . Their own perverseness and ignorance of good things is enough already of calamity . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , A Christian is commanded by Christ our new Law-giver not to be revenged , no not a little . Abstinere à litibus etiam plusquam licet , said Cicero , We must abstain from suits of law , even far beyond our convenience : and in the Primitive Church they took all honest things for Commandements , and therefore did not think it lawfull at all to go to law ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith Justin Martyr of them , They doe not go to law with them that rob them . But that it is lawful , the publick necessities are a sufficient argument ; and yet men for want of charity make more necessities then needs : for if charity be preserv'd according to its worthiest measures , there would be no suits of law , but what are not to be avoided ; that is , there would be none for revenge , but some for remedy and relief . And this was that which * Musonius said , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , It is not ingenuous to be running to law upon every provocation though by reall injury : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Pythagoras , A wise man will neither revile his neighbour , nor sue him that does . For Good men ( said Metellus Numidicus ) will sooner take an injury then return one : and if we read the Sermon of Maximus Tyrius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; whether it may be permitted to a good man to return evil to the injurious ? it will soon put us either to shame , or at least to consider whether there be no command in our religion , of suffering injuries , of patience , of longanimity , of forgiveness , of doing good for evil ; and whether there be not rewards great enough to make amends for all our losses , and to reward all our charity ; and whether the things of this world cannot possibly be despised by a Christian ; and whether peace and forgivenesse doe not make us more like to God and to the Holy Jesus . Certainly if a Christian be reproach'd , rail'd at , spoil'd , beaten , mutilated , or in danger of death , if he bears it patiently and charitably , he may better say it then Achilles did in Homer , — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , I hope for this charity to be rewarded by God himself . If a man have relations , and necessities , and obligations by other collateral duties , he must in some cases , and in many more he may defend his goods by the protection of laws , and his life and limbs ; but in no case may he go to law to vex his Neighbour : and because all law-suits are vexatious , he may not go to law , unless to drive away an injury that is intolerable , and that is much greater then that which is brought upon the other . 5. When a Christian does appeal to Christian Judges for caution , or for repetition of his right , he must doe it without arts of vexation , but with the least trouble he can ; being unwilling his Neighbour should suffer any evil for what he hath done . Omnia priùs tentanda quam bello experiundum . He must trie all waies before he go to this ; and when he is in this , he must doe it with as little collateral trouble to his adversary at law as he can . To this belongs that of Ulpian , Non improbat praetor factum ejus qui tanti habuit re carere , ne propter eam saepiùs litigaret . Haec enim verecunda cogitatio ejus qui lites exsecratur non est vituperanda . A man must be modest and charitable in his necessary suits at law ; not too ready , not too greedy , not passionate , not revengeful : seeking to repair himself when he must needs , but not delighting in the breaches made upon his Neighbour . In order to this , it would prevent many evils , and determine many Cases of Conscience , or make them easie and few , if evil and rapacious Advocates that make a trade , not to minister to justice , but to heap up riches for themselves , were not permitted in Common-wealths to plead in behalf of vitious persons and manifest oppressors , and in causes notoriously unjust . Galeatius Sforza Duke of Millain being told of a witty Lawyer that was of evil imployment , a patron of any thing for money , imploying his wit to very evil purposes , sent for him , and told him that he owed his Painter a hundred Crowns , and was not willing to pay him ; and therefore asked him if he would defend his cause in case the Painter should require his money at law . The Advocate promised him largely , and would warrant his cause ; which when the Duke heard from his own mouth , he caused him to be hang'd . The action was severe , but strangely exemplary . I have nothing to doe with it , because I am not writing Politics , but Cases and Rules of Conscience : but I have mention'd it as a great reproof of all that which makes Causes & Suits of Law to be numerous ; which is a great sign of corruption of manners , if not of laws , in any place ; but amongst Christians it is a very great state of evil . And therefore Charles the ninth of France made an edict that whosoever began a suit at law should pay into the Finances two Crowns ; which if his cause were just he should lose , if it were unjust the law would sufficiently punish him besides : but even upon a just cause to go to law , is not the commendation of Christian justice , much lesse of charity , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Then charity is best preserved amongst Citizens , not when there are most decisions , of causes , but when the suits are fewest . RULE VII . It is not lawfull to punish one for the offence of another ; meerly , and wholly . QUod tute intristi , tibi comedendum est , said the Comedy , As you knead , so you must eat ; and he that eats sowre grapes , his teeth only shall be set on edge . This is the voice of Nature , of God , of rightreason , and all the laws , and all the sentences of all the wise men in the world ; and needs no farther argument to prove it . But there are in it some cases which need explication . 1. Concerning persons conjunct by Contract ; 2. In persons conjunct by Nature ; 3. In them which are conjunct by the society of Crime . For in all these one in punished for the fault of another ; but how far this can be just and lawfull , are usefull inquiries in order to the conduct of Conscience . 1. The first inquiry is concerning persons conjunct in Contract ; such as are Pledges in War , Sureties for Debt , Undertakers for appearance , and the like . Concerning Pledges in War , it hath been sometimes practised in warlike Nations , to put them to death when their parties have broke their promise . The Thessalians kill'd 250 , the Romans 300 of the Volsci ; and this they might doe by the law of Nations : that is , without infamy and reproach , or any supposed injustice : they did practise it on either side . But the thing it self is not lawfull by the law of God and Nature , unless the Pledges be equally guilty of the Crime . When Regulus was sent to Rome to get an exchange of prisoners , and himself upon his promise was engaged to release them , or to return himself ; when he perswaded the Romans not to release the African prisoners , the Carthaginians had reason to account him guilty as his Country . But when the Pledges are not , it is against the law of Nature to put to death the innocent . For either the Pledges are violently sent in caution against their wills , or with them . If against , then the wrong is apparent , and the injustice notorious . If with their will , it is to be considered , it is beyond their power ; for , nemo membrorum suorum Dominus videtur , saith the law , l. liber ff . ad legem Aquiliam : and therefore it is that in Criminal causes , where Corporal punishment is inflicted , no man is permitted to be Surety for another , but in Civil causes he may ; because no Surety may lawfully be put to death for the Principal , as is noted by the Gloss in cap. Cum homo 23. q. 5. The reason is plain ; He that is Surety for another can engage nothing of which he is not the Lord , and over which he hath no power ; and therefore he cannot lay his body , his life , or limb , at stake . No man hath power to engage his soul for the soul of another , that is , so as to pay his soul in case of forfeiture to acquit another ; for it is not his , it is anothers ; it is his who hath purchased it and is Lord over it , that is Christ : and so is our body redeemed by the blood of Christ , For ye are bought with a price , therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit , which are God's , saith the Apostle . Now this is so to be understood , not that one man may not feel the calamity which the sin of another can bring upon him ; but that the law cannot inflict Corporal punishment upon any relative , so as the Criminall shall escape , and the law be satisfied , as if the offending person had suffered . If a Father be a Traytor , the law may justly put him to death though the wife will die with sorrow . But the law cannot put the wife to death , or the son , and let the husband goe free . One relative may accidentally come into the society of anothers punishment , not only if they be partners of the Crime , but though one be innocent ; but one cannot pay it for the other and acquit him . This I say is to be understood in Corporal punishments . But in Pecuniary punishments the Case is otherwise . For a man is Lord of his money , and may give it away , and therefore may oblige it ; and he that is Surety for anothers debt , gives or lends it to him that is principally obliged ; and therefore it is just to take it , and the Surety hath power to doe it . But by the way it is observable , that the Surety can only oblige his money , or himself to the payment of his money : but when the Creditors had power to torment the insolvent Debtors , no man could give himself a Surety directly for that torment ; but by making himself a Debtor , he did by consequence make himself Criminal if he did not pay , and so might with as much justice be tormented as the principal Debtor . But the whole business is unreasonable as to this instance , and therefore the inquiry is soon at an end , and the case of conscience wholly different ; for in this particular it is not only unlawfull to punish the Surety with Corporal punishment , but even the Principal that is insolvent is to be let alone . If he fell into poverty by his prodigality , the law may punish that as she please ; or if he intends to defraud the Creditor , he may be punished , or constrained to pay : but if he fall into poverty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Justinian's expression is , by unavoidable accident , not by impious courses , it is against justice and charity to put him to trouble . Concerning which , though it be not pertinent to this rule , but here only very well occasioned , I shall give this short account , that at once I may be wholy quit of this particular . * In the laws of the XII Tables it was permitted to Creditors to imprison , to torment , to put their insolvent Debtors to death ; and if they were many of them they might cut the body in pieces , and every man goe away with his share . Nihil profecto immitius , nihil immanius , saies A. Gellius , nisi , ut reipsâ apparet , eo consilio tanta immanitas poenae denuntiata est , ne ad eam unquam perveniretur . It was an intolerable and cruel justice , and only therefore published in so great a terror , that it might never be put in execution : and indeed , as he observes , it was never practised . But addici nunc & vinciri multos videmus , saith he ; that was the next Cruelty : The Debtors were sold and all their goods ; even Kings , subject to the Roman Empire , were with their Crowns and Purple , their Scepter and Royal Ensignes , published by the Crier , and made slaves to pay their debts . The King of Cyprus was so used , as Cicero in his oration pro Sextio sadly complains . The dividing the body of the Debtor was chang'd into the dividing of his goods ; but this also was hatefull and complained of by wise and good men . Si funus id habendum sit quò non amici conveniant ad exequias cohonestandas , sed bonorum emptores ut Carnifices ad reliquias vitae lacerandas ac distrahendas , said Cicero : and Manlius most worthily , seeing a Roman led to prison like a slave for debt , cried out , Tum verò ego nequicquam hâc dextrâ Capitolium arcémque servaverim , si civem commilitonémque meum tanquam Gallis victoribus captum in servitutem ac vincula duci videam . To what purpose did I save the Capitol , if a citizen and my fellow-souldier shall for debt be made a slave as if he were taken prisoner by the Gaules ? and therefore he paid the debt and dismiss'd the prisoner . But because this was cruel and inhumane , when Paetilius and Papirius were Consuls , a law was made that all the goods and possessions of the Debtors should be obnoxious to the Creditors , but not his body ; but yet so that the Debtors did work for their Creditors , but not in chains : and this lasted till the lex Julia decreed ( in Augustus his time ) that the insolvent Debtors might quit all their goods , but neither suffer chains , nor slavery , nor doe labour for their Creditors : but the benefit of this law extended not to prodigal and vain persons , but to those only qui vi majore aliquâ fortunis evertebantur , ( that was their word ) who were undone by any great violence , by shipwrack , or fire , or any accident unavoidable . For as for others , they were delivered to the Capital Triumvirat and punished ad Columnam Meniam , that is , whipped extremely ; and this continued until the time of Gratian the Emperor , who decreed that such Debtors who were not eversi per vim majorem , should not receive any benefit by quitting all their goods ; but if they were less then their debt , ad redditionem debitae quantitatis congruâ atque dignissimâ suppliciorum acerbitate cogantur , they should be compelled by torment to pay a due proportion : and in this there might be severity ; but it had in it very much of Justice . But for the other part of it , of the intire cession of goods , and that the insolvent miserable Debtor should be exposed to starving , this had neither charity in it nor justice ; and therefore after much complaining , and attempts of ease , it was wholly taken away by the Emperors , Constantine , Gratian , and Justinian , Novel . 135. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It is infinitely unjust that he who is fallen into poverty without his fault should be constrained to live a shamefull life , without his daily bread , and the necessary provisions for his back : and then it was ordered that if the Debtor did ejurare bonam copiam , that is , swear that he had not goods sufficient to pay the debt , he should be free . This was made into a law long before the time of Gratian ; when Sylla was Dictator , Popilius demanded it , and it was decreed . But Tyrants usually make good laws , and after they are dead are so hated , that even their good laws are sometimes the less regarded : and so it happened in this particular ; in so much that Cicero spake against L. Flaccus for desiring to have Sylla's laws confirmed . But it soon expired through the power of the rich usurers , as we finde by the complaint of C. Manlius in Salust ; and even so long as the lex Popilia did prevail , yet they had ar●s to elude it : for though they could not bind the Debtors in publick prisons , yet they would detain them in their own houses ; and though it was a great and an illegal violence , yet the poore mans case is last of all heard , and commonly the Advocates and Judges have something else to doe . This is a perfect narrative of this affair ; in all which it is apparent that wise and good men did infinitely condemn the cruel and unjust usage of insolvent Debtors who were per vim majorem eversi , not poor by vice , but misfortune and the Divine providence . The violence and the injury is against natural justice and humanity , or that natural pity which God hath plac'd in the bowels of mankinde ; as appears by the endeavours of the wiser Romans to correct the cruelty of Creditors . But the Debtors , though by degrees eased , yet were not righted till Christianity made the laws , and saw justice and mercy done . S. Ambrose complain'd most bitterly of the Creditors in his time ; Vidi ego pauperem duci dum cogeretur solvere quod non habebat ; trahi ad carcerem quia vinum deesset ad mensam potentis ; deducere in auctionem filios suos ut ad tempus poenam differre possit : inventum fortè aliquem qui in illa necessitate subveniret , &c. I have seen a poor man compell'd to pay what he had not to pay ; and drag'd to prison because his creditor had not wine enough to drink ; and to deferre his punishment a while , forc'd to sell his sons at an outcry . Grandis culpa est , ( saith he ) si te sciente fidelis egeat , si scias eum sine sumptu esse , fame laborare , & non adjuves ; si sit in carcere , & poenis & suppliciis propter debitum aliquod justus excrucietur . It is a great fault , if when you know it , you suffer a faithfull man to want meat and provisions ; if a just or good man be in prison , and in chains or torments for debt . Now if persons not interested in the debt might not suffer such a thing to be and abide , much less might any Christian doe such a thing . If every man that could , was bound to take off the evil ; it is certain it was infinitely unlawfull to inflict or to lay it on : and therefore the remains of this barbarity and inhumanity amongst us does so little argue Christianity to be amongst us , that it plainly proves that our Religion hath not prevailed so far upon us as to take off our inhumanity . Of the same nature is that barbarous custome of arresting dead bodies , and denying them the natural rights of burial till a debt be paid . Ascelinus Fitz-Arthur arrested the body of William Duke of Normandy , Conqueror of England , upon something a like account . But S. Ambrose blames such unnatural cruelty , and derides the folly of it ; Quoties vidi à foeneratoribus teneri defunctos pro pignore , & negari tumulum dum foenus exposcitur ? Quibus ego acquiescens dixi , Tenete reum vestrum , & ne possit elabi , domum ducite ; claudite in cubiculo isto carnificibus duriores : quoniam quem vos tenetis , carcer non suscipit , exactor absolvit ; To them who seiz'd on dead bodies for their debt , I call'd out , Hold fast your Debtor , carry him home lest he run away , O ye that are more cruel then Hang-men . But of this sufficient : for whatsoever is against the law of Nature , to have nam'd it is to have reprov'd it . Onely there is one case in which if dead bodies be arrested for debt , I cannot so much complain of it ; and that is in the Customes of France , where they never imprison any alive for a Debt , unless he be expresly condemn'd to it by the sentence of the Judge , or contracted upon those terms with the Creditor : but when the man is dead they lay their claim , because they cannot hurt the man. This I finde in Gaspar Beatius , who cites these Verses for it out of Johannes Girardus , no ill Poet , but a good Lawyer . Heus principes , duodecim Tabulae inopem crudeliter Quae debitorem dissecant , Aut jura , mores publici , Quae carceribus illum miserè Et opprimunt & enecant , Nimis mihi , nimis displicent ; Qui Gallum habuit mos bonus Idem & verus probabitur Nimis mihi cuique & bono , Quo Creditores debita Petant sibi post funera . But I suppose he might speak this in jest , to represent the lenity of Frenchmen in not casting their Debtors into prison . But if a Debtor should , as Argiropilus , jesting at his death , make his rich friends the heirs of all his debts , it would spoil the jest . Now I return to the other inquiries of the Rule . The second inquiry is concerning persons conjunct by nature ; whether ( for example sake ) Sons or Nephews can be punish'd for the faults and offences of their Fathers and Grand-fathers . Concerning this , I find Paulus the Lawyer and Baldus speaking exact Antinomies . For Baldus in l. id quod pauperibus , qu. 9. C. de Episcopis & Clericis , affirms , Haeredem teneri ad poenam ad quam defunctus fuerat condemnatus , The heir of his father inherits his father's punishment : but Paulus in l. si poena , ff . de poenis , sayes expresly , Haeredem non teneri ad poenam defuncti , The heir is not bound to suffer the punishment of the dead . * But they are both in the right : for the Heir is not tied to suffer the corporal punishment to which his Father was condemn'd , because his Father had no dominion over his Son's body or his own ; but over his goods he hath , and therefore can transmit these with their proper burthen : and therefore the Heir is liable to pay the Fine to which his Father was sentenc'd , and to pay his Father's debts , and is liable to the same compulsion , with this onely caution , that if the Father be under torment or imprisonment for insolvency , the Son be no way oblig'd to that ; because whether the insolvency of the Father be by his fault or his misfortune , still the Son is not oblig'd : for as he is not bound by his Father's personal fault to suffer personal punishment , so neither for his misfortune can he be oblig'd beyond the suffering of a descending poverty . If his Father was insolvent by his Crime , the punishment was to go no further then the fault , and therefore no torment was intail'd : but if he were insolvent by misfortune , neither the Father nor the Son for that could deserve any further evil ; and if the Father transmitted no goods , no advantage to the Son , there is no reason he should transmit a burthen : Nemo fiat deterior per quem melior factus non est , sayes the Law. And therefore S. Ambrose complain'd of a sad sight he saw ; Vidi ego miserabile spectaculum , Liberos pro Paterno debito in auctionem deduci , & teneri calamitatis haeredes , qui non essent participes successionis , & hoc tam immane flagitium non erubescere Creditorem , I have seen Sons sold Slaves for their Fathers debt , from whom they were never like to receive an Inheritance ; and which is yet more strange , the Creditors were not asham'd of the impious Cruelty . But this is a rul'd case both in Divinity and Law. Nunquam unus pro alio potest poena corporis puniri , said Alexander of Hales , and Thomas Aquinas , No man can suffer corporal punishment in the place of another : the same with that in the law , l. Crimen ff . de poenis . And therefore of all things in the world , conjunction of Nature , which should be a means of endearment , and the most profitable communications , ought not to be an instrument of the communication of evil . Unius factum alteri qui nihil fecit non nocet , l. de pupillo , 5. § si plurium . ff . Nov. op . nunt . And again , Peccata suos teneant autores , nec ulterius progrediatur metus , quam reperiutur delictum , l. Sancimus , 22. C. de poenis . But it is expresly instanc'd in this matter of succession , Unusquisque ex suo admisso poenae subjiciatur , nec alieni criminis successor teneatur , The Son may succeed in his Father's burthens and misfortunes , but not in his crimes or corporal punishments . l. crimen , ff . eod . And this is the measure of the third inquiry . For they who are conjunct in crime , are equally obnoxious to punishment ; and therefore if one be punish'd for the fault of another , it is just to him that is punish'd , and mercy to them that are spar'd . For when all are criminal , all are liable to punishment , and sometimes all doe suffer . So did the Campanian Legion that rebell'd at Rhegium , and possess'd the Town for ten years ; they suffer'd every man , four thousand heads paid for it . So did the ninth Legion under Julius , and the tenth Legion under Augustus , every man was punish'd . For the rule of the law is , Quod à pluribus pro indiviso commissum est , singulos in solidum obligat , l. semper , § 2. ff . Quod vi aut cl . & l. item Mela , § 2. ff . ad legem Aquiliam . When every man consents to the whole crime , every man is wholly criminal . If ten thieves carry away a load of iron , every man is tied to the punishment of the whole . * But sometimes onely the Principals are punish'd . Thus at Capua seventy Princes of the Senate were put to death for rebelling against the Romans , and three hundred of the Nobility were imprison'd , and two hundred twenty five of the Sorani . And this way is often taken by Princes , and wise Generals , and Republicks , ut unde culpa orta esset ibi poena confisteret . And C. Decimus was heard with great applause , when in the case of the Rhodians he affirm'd , that the fault was not in the People , but in their Principals and Incendiaries ; meaning , it was not so in the People as in their Leaders . And in Tumults it often happens as it did at Ephesus , when S. Paul had almost been torn in pieces with the People : the greater part knew not why they were come together , but all were in the Tumult ; and in such cases it is justice that one be punish'd for many , a few for all : and therefore S. Ambrose did highly reprove Theodosius the Emperour for killing 7000 of the Thessalonians for a tumultuary rescuing a Criminal from the hand of the Magistrate , and killing the Governour and some great Officers in the sedition . * Sometimes the Criminals were decimated by lot , as appears in a Polybius , b Tacitus , c Plutarch , d Appian , e Dio , f Julius Capitolinus , who also mentions a centesimation . And the reason of this equity Cicero well discourses in his Oration pro Cluentio , ut metus , viz. ad omnes , poena ad paucos perveniret , That some may be punish'd , and all may be made to fear : for the Souldiers being made to fear the bigger fear of their Generals , would never fear the less fear of the Enemy , who does not strike so surely as the Executioner ; and therefore they might afterwards become good Men and good Citizens . But because in publick offences the cases may be different , they are by this measure reduc'd to reason . If the tumult or war be by the command of Magistrates , the People are to be affrighted , or admonish'd , but the Commanders onely are to be punish'd . Ne alieni admissi poenam luant quos nulla contingit culpa , l. ult . ff . de bon . Damnat . For the People are soon commanded by him that stands next above them . And therefore since to obey is like a duty , it is not easily to be reckon'd to a real crime , and the greatest punishment . But if the fault be done by the People without authority or excuse , but just as fire burns a house by chance , or water breaks a dam by its meer weight , then it is to be considered whether the Criminals be many or few : if few , they may all be punished without breach of equity , upon the account of the rule of the law , Quae poena delictis imposita est , si plures deliquerint , à singulis in solidum debetur , l. item Mela , ff . ad leg . Aquil. But if many were in the crime , then the rule of equity and the gentleness of the law is to take place , ut poenae interpretatione potius molliantur , quam exasperentur , leg . poen . ff . de poenis , a few should be punish'd for all the rest , ut supersint quos peccasse poeniteat . For it is of great avail for the publick interest , that as some be cut off , so some should remain alive , that they may repent . And in this sense is that of Lucan , — quicquid multis peccatur inultum est . Besides that it is evil to the Commonwealth to lose so many Subjects , it is also sometimes dangerous ; — sed illos Defendit numerus junctaeque umbone phalanges . The determination of these two particulars I learn from Cicero in his Oration pro Flacco , Vobis autem est confitendum , si consiliis Principum vestrae civitates reguntur , non multitudinis temeritate , optimatum consilio bellum ab istis civitatibus cum populo Romano esse susceptum . If the Nobles govern your Cities , then the Nobles made the war , and the People are innocent . Sin ille tum motus est temeritate imperitorum excitatus , patimini me delicta vulgi à publica causa separare , But if the Rabble did the fault , the City is not to be punish'd ; it is not a publick offence . Multitudo peccavit , sed non Universitas . For a Rabble does not make a City , a People , or a Republick : for to make this , it must be coetus qui jure aliquo continetur , l. metum . § animadvertendum . ff . quod met . caus . a multitude under government , and a legal head . But if both the Magistrates and the People be in the offence , culpa est penes paucos concitores vulgi , said C. Decimus ; it is better that the Ring-leaders and the Boutefeus should lye at stake , and feel the severity , while the other are instructed and preserved by the gentleness of laws and Princes . There are some other questions and cases of Conscience concerning penal laws ; but they can with more propriety be handled under other titles , and therefore I shall refer them to their several places . But for the likeness of the matter I have here subjoyned some Rules concerning the measures and obligations of Conscience in the matter and laws of Tribute . Of Laws of Tribute . RULE VIII . The laws of Tribute are moral laws , and not penal , except it be by accident ; and therefore doe oblige the Conscience to an active obedience . HIm to whom we pay tribute , we owe obedience to . It is S. Pauls argument to prove that we ought to obey the powers that are set over us , because to them we pay tribute ; which tribute is not introduc'd by Tyranny , but is part of that Oeconomy by which God governs the world , by his Deputies and lieutenants , the Kings and Princes of the earth . Nec quies gentium sine armis , nec arma sine stipendiis , nec stipendia sine tributis haberi possunt , said Tacitus . No peace without laws ; no laws without a coercitive power ; no power without guards and souldiers ; * no guards without pay : and that the souldiery may be paid , and the laws reverenc'd , and the power fear'd , and every mans right be secur'd , it is necessary that there be tribute . Ut sit ornamentum pacis , subsidium belli & nervus reip . tributum est pecunia populo imperata quae tributim à singulis proportione censûs exigebatur , said Varro . But besides this , the very paying tribute is the sign and publication of our subjection . It is a giving him that which is his own : for he that coyns the money , hath the power of the law , and this from the custome of the world for many ages . The Persians first imprinted the figure of their Prince upon their money , after them the Greeks : hence were those names of coin , the Darics , and Philippics ; for the money having the impress and figure of the Prince , the name & the value from the Prince , is a seisure and solemn investiture in the government of that people : and our Blessed Lord was pleased from hence to argue that therefore they ought to pay tribute to Caesar ; because what way soever he came first to it , Christ does not there dispute , but he was over them , and he protected them in peace , righted their causes , reliev'd their oppressions , stamped their money , gave value to that , and protection to them , and therefore they were bound to pay their tribute . It was res Caesaris , as he was pleas'd to call it , the things of Caesar ; it was due to him for the publick ministery of justice : and this is also urged by S. Paul , for they are Gods ministers , watching for this very thing , that is , for your good ; and therefore are to be maintained according to the dignity of that ministration . Now as we owe tribute to whom we owe obedience ; so we owe obedience to whom we owe tribute : that is , if he have authority to exact tribute , we are bound in Conscience to pay it . It is a law as much obliging the Conscience as any other . Numus or Nummus from Numa , say the Roman Criticks ; because King Numa first stamp'd money amongst them . But I suppose it is from a Greek fountain , Numus and Numisma from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and that saies Aristotle is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , from the law : for he that stamps money , gives the law ; and amongst others , and for the defence of all laws , this law of paying money to him by way of Tribute is obligatory . And the case does not differ by what name soever it be impos'd ; vectigal , tributum , census , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , were the words amongst the Greeks and Latines , and did signifie portions of money paid from lands , from merchandise , for heads , excisum quid , something that is cut off from the whole , for the preservation of the rest ; that 's excise money : but whatever the words be , S. Paul reckons them all to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , due debt ; and thefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith our Blessed Lord , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith S. Paul , restore , or pay it ; it is a debt due by the ordinance of God. It is all but tribute ; even the census or pole-money is tribute : so it is called by Ulpian , l. 3 ff . de Censibus , tributum capitis , the tribute of the head . The same use of the word I have observed out of Ammianus and Tertullian . This I the rather note , that I might represent the obligation to be all one by the law of God , though the imposition be odious and of ill name amongst the people , according to that saying of Tertullian , Si agri tributo onusti viliores , hominum capita stipendio censa ignobiliora , Fields under contribution are cheaper , and men under a tax are more ignoble . Angaria is another sort of tribute ; an imposition of work and upon the labours of the Subject . It is indeed the worst and the most vexatious ; but it is species tributi , a kind of tribute , and due by the laws of religion , where it is due by the laws of the nation : and therefore those persons are very regardless of their eternal interest , who think it lawful prize whatever they can take from the Custome-house ; whereas the paying of tribute is an instance of that obedience which is due to them that are set over us , not onely for wrath , but also for Conscience sake , and S. Paul never uses the word Conscience , but when it is the concern of a soul. It is S. Ambrose his observation , who also uses this argument , Magnum quidem est & spiritale documentum , quo Christiani viri sublimioribus potestatibus docentur esse subjecti , ne quis constitutionem terreni Regis putet esse solvendam . Si enim censum Dei filius solvit , quis tu tantus es qui non putes esse solvendum ? It is a great and a spiritual doctrine that Christians be subject to the higher powers . For if Christ paid tribute , what art thou , how great , how mighty , that thou thinkest thou art not oblig'd ? RULE IX . The laws of Tribute have the same conditions , causes , powers , and measures with other laws of Government . THis Rule requires that * the authority be supreme , that the cause be just , that the end be publick , that the good be general , that the people receive advantage . Which is to eb understood of tribute which is not penal , nor compensatory . For sometimes Tributes are impos'd upon a conquer'd people a as fetters upon a fugitive , to load him that he run away no more ; or to make amends for the charges of a war. If they were in fault , they must bear the punishment ; if they did the evil , they must suffer the evil ; that at the charge of the conquer'd themselves also shall enjoy peace . So Petilius said to the Gaules , b Nos , quanquam toties lacessiti , jure victoriae id solùm vobis addidimus quo pacem tueremur , You have provok'd us , and we have conquer'd you ; and yet have onely impos'd the punishment of so much tribute on you , that at your charge we will keep the peace , So concerning the Greeks c Cicero affirms that they ought to pay some part of their fruits that at their own expences they be restrain'd from undoing themselves by Civil wars . But then this is at the mercy and good will of the Conquerour ; for the tribute he imposes upon them as punishment , he is so the Lord of it , that however he dispose of it , it must be truly paid . And the same is the case of a tribute impos'd by way of fine upon a City or Society : the Supreme power is not bound to dispense that in publick uses ; and if he does not , yet the Subject is not at liberty in his Conscience whether he will pay it or no. For in this case it is not a law of manners but of Empire ; and is a private perquisite of the Prince , as the Prince himself can be a private person : which because it cannot be in any full sense or acceptation of a law , but in nature onely , so neither can the tribute be of so private emolument , but it will at least indirectly doe advantage to the Publick . In other tributes , such which are legall , publick , and universall , the tribute must be proportion'd to the necessity and cause of it ; it must be imployed in that end to which it was impos'd and paid , ( for that is a part of commutative justice ) it must be equally laid ; that is , as far as it can be prudently done , supposing the unavoidable errors in publick affairs in which so many particulars are to be considered ( for this is a part of distributive justice : ) and where there is a defailance in these , I mean a constant and notorious , there the Conscience is disoblig'd ( as far as the excess and injustice reaches ) just as it is from the obedience to other laws that are unjust ; of which I have given account , * in the third Rule of the first Chapter of this Book . But this I say is true in such tributes as are of publick and common use . For those which are for the expences and personall use of the Prince , if he spends them well or ill , the Subject is not concerned ; but onely that he pay it according to the law and custome . In these the Supreme power is a Supreme Lord , in the other he is but a supreme Steward and Dispenser . As the laws of tribute have their originall and their obligation , so they have their dissolution as other laws have , with this onely difference , that the laws of tribute , when the reason ceases , if they be continued by custome , are still obliging to the Subject , d it being reason enough that the Supreme power hath an advantage by it , which cannot be so personall but that it will , like the brightness of the Sun , reflect light and heat upon the Subject . Lastly , in the levying and imposing tribute , by the voice of most men , those things usually are excepted which are spent in our personall necessities . Whatsoever is for negotiation may pay , but not what is to be eaten and drank . This tribute nevertheless is paid in Spain , for it is that which they call , Alcavala ; and in Portugal , where it is called Sisa . I suppose it is the same with the Excise in England and the Low Countries ; and yet is much spoken against for these reasons , 1. Because it is too greàt an indication or likeness to slavery , and an uningenuous subjection to pay tribute for our meat and drink and the necessaries of life ; it is every day a compounding for our life , as if we were condemn'd persons , and were to live at a price , or die with hunger , unless by our money we buy our reprieve . 2. The other reason of the complaint made against this , is because by this means the poor and he that hath the greatest charge of children , and he that is the most hospitable to strangers and to the poor , shall pay the most , who yet of all men ought most to be eased . And upon these or the like reasons the Civil Law impos'd Gabels onely upon Merchandises for trade and gain and pleasure . And of this opinion are generally all the Canonists and most of the Civilians , and very many Divines : but when Scholars come to dispute the interest of Princes and the measures of their gain or necessities , they speak some things prettily , but to no great purpose . In these and all other Cases of this nature , Kings and Princes will doe what they please ; and it is fit they should , let us talk what we will , alwaies provided , that they remember they are to answer to God for their whole Government , and how they should be enabled to make this answer with joy , they are to consult with the laws of God , and of the land , and with their Subjects learned in them both : and that , above all men , Princes consider not alwaies what they may doe , but what is good ; and very often , what is best . * This onely . Tribute upon meat and drink is not of it self unjust ; but it is commonly made so : for whether the tribute be paid onely by the Merchant , as in Castile and England , or by the Merchant and him that spends them for his need , and not for his gain , as in Portugal ; yet still the poor man is the most burden'd in such cases : for the Merchant will sell the dearer , and then the evil falls upon the poor housekeeper , contrary to the intention of all good Princes ; which if they will take care to prevent , I know nothing to hinder them , but that by the same rules which they observe in making other laws they may take their liberty in this . RULE X. Tribute , and Customes which are due , are to be paid whether they be demanded or no. THis is but the result of the former discourses . For if a tribute be just , it is due debt , and to be paid as any other : and humane laws doe not onely make the paying tribute to be necessary in the vertue of obedience , for then unless the law expressed that it ought to be paid , though it be not particularly demanded , the subject not demanded were free ; but the laws place this obedience in the form and matter of its proper kind of vertue , it is justice to pay it , and that must not be omitted at all ; for our duty is not to depend upon the diligence of other men ; and if the Ministers of the Prince be negligent , yet we must not be unjust . This is true in Subjects and Natives ; but strangers are free , unless they be requir'd to pay : alwaies supposing , that they go in publick waies and with open address . For it is presumed that they are ignorant inculpably in the laws of the Countrey , and they are less oblig'd ; but therefore these defects are to be supplied by the care of them that are interested . But if they know it already , they are oblig'd as the Natives according to the laws , and must not pretend ignorance , in fraud and cosenage . But this also is to be understood of customes and tributes which are just . In which number those which are of an immemorial time and long use ever are to be presumed . Those which are newly impos'd , may better be considered whether they be or no , because they want that approbation which is given to the old . But whatsoever are unjust , doe not oblige to payment ; and the Merchant may use all just waies of escape , and concealment . He may not lie , nor forswear , nor deny them to be there when they are there , and he is ask'd ; but he may hide them , or go into secret waies : and if he be discover'd , he must suffer as they please , but his conscience is free . He that paies not tribute upon pretence that it is unjust , that is , it is impos'd by an incompetent authority , or in an undue manner , or unjust measure , must be sure that it is unjust , and not onely think so . For if he be deceiv'd , he does not erre with a good Conscience , unless he use all the diligence and ingenuous inquiries that he can . His ignorance must not , and cannot innocently prejudice the Princes rights . If therefore he inquire well and wisely , unless the injustice be very clear and certain , he will at most but doubt concerning it ; and if he does , the surer way is to pay it : but if he does not doubt , but is fully persuaded of the injustice , if he thinks true , he is innocent ; but if he thinks amiss , he is not onely guilty of a culpable ignorance , but of a criminall injustice . If the Subject does doubt , the presumption is for the advantage of the Prince , because he is the better person , and publick , and he is rather to be secur'd then the private and the inferiour . And therefore I wonder at those Lawyers and Divines that say otherwise , upon pretence that in dubiis melior est conditio possidentis , The possessor is to be preferr'd in doubtfull cases . For supposing this , yet the Prince is in the possession of law , and the Subject in possession of fact : the Prince is in possession of an actual right and law of demanding it , and therefore his condition is to be preferr'd . For in the practice of paying tribute , it is not sufficient cause of omitting to pay it , that the Subject doubts whether it be , or is not sure that it is just . For unless he be sure it is unjust it is sure that he is bound to pay . And therefore in this case , let no Merchant trust his own judgment , but the sentence of a wise spiritual Guide , or of Councel learned in the laws . One thing onely I advertise in order to practice : let no man think that because some subjects farm the Customs , and that the portion which is conceal'd does not lessen the incomes of the Prince , therefore it may be lawfull to hide from them all which they can hide . For the Farmer hath what he gets in the right of the Prince , and in his own right he hath nothing from the Subject , but from his Supreme ; who therefore is bound to defend that right , and to complain of that wrong : and the husbandmen in the Gospel who denied to pay to the Stewards of the King the fruits of the vineyard which in their Kings right were demanded of them , were thrown into outer darkness . But then , as S. John Baptist gave counsel , the Tribute-men and Farmers must exact no more then is appointed them ; nor yet in cruell and vexatious manners , nor with the exactest and utmost measures , but with such moderation as may be far from rapine . Tributorum & Fisci nunquam mala causa nisi sub bono principe , was an old saying , Whatsoever was demanded by the Tribute-Gatherers , it was all justice , whether it were right or wrong , unless the Prince were gentle and good . But the Vulture-like greediness and unconscionable , unchristian and avaritious proceedings which are too frequent amongst such men , have made the name of Exactors and * Publicans so infinitely , so intolerably hatefull . Curandum in primis , ne magna injuria fiat . Fortibus & miseris tollas licet omne quod usquam est Auri atque argenti , scutum gladiúmque relinques Et jacula & galeam , spoliatis arma supersunt . It is not good to provoke the valiant by making them poor and miserable ; for they that have not a cloak may have a sword : and by how much you make them the less considerable in peace , they are the more dangerous in war. And therefore covetous Princes are to themselves the greatest enemies , excepting onely their more covetous Exactors . CHAP. III. Of Kings , Princes , and all Supreme civil powers ; and their Laws in special . RULE I. The Supreme power in every Republick is universal , absolute , and unlimited . THAT in every Common-wealth there is a Supreme power is without all question : There is no government without superiority ; and where there is a Superior , there is a Supreme ; for he is so that hath none above him . It matters not whether this Supreme power be subjected in one or many , whether it be parted or united : the consideration of these is material as to the goodness or badness of a Government , but nothing to the power and absoluteness of it , nothing to the present Rule . And therefore it is but a weak and useless distinction when we speak of Kings and Princes , ( by them meaning the Supreme Power ) to say that some are absolute , some are limited in their power . For it is true that some Princes are so ; but then they are not the Supreme power . It is a contradiction to say that the Supreme power is limited , or restrain'd ; for that which restrains it is Superior to it , and therefore the other is not Supreme . And therefore Albericus Gentilis said well , That he doubted concerning the Kings of France and Spaine , whether they were Supreme Princes , because in the affairs of Religion they are subject to the Pope . He that hath the Supreme power is onely under God ; and to inquire concerning a King , whether he be tied to laws or conditions , is not properly an inquiry after his power , but after the exercise and dispensation of it . For though he may not alwaies use it , yet the Supreme power alwaies is absolute and unlimited , and can doe what he please . The difference of a Tyrant and a King or a gentle Prince being onely this , that a Tyrant uses his absolute power unreasonably and unjustly and ordinarily ; but a King uses it not but in cases extraordinary , for just and good ends : and if the Prince does not , some else must , who in that case is the Supreme . Sometimes the Consuls , sometimes the Dictators , sometimes the Senate did doe extraordinary acts of power ; but still they who did it had the Supreme power : and that is necessary , and inseparable from Government , that , I mean , which is Supreme : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Greeks call it ; Majestatem , the Latins : and be it in whom , or in how many it happens , that power can doe every thing of Government , and disposes of all things in order to it , and is accountable to no man. For suppose a King that hath power of the Militia , and his Senate of making laws , and his people by their Committees of raising money ; this power of making war , and laws , and levies is the Supreme power , and is that which can doe all things : and although one be accountable for moneys , & the other subject to laws , and two of them under the power of the sword , yet this is but the Majesty or Supremacy parted , and whether well or ill , I dispute not , yet when it is parted and when it is united , it is supreme , and it is all . That Government which Aristotle calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , seems ( saies he ) to be a Kingdome but yet subject to laws , but is not the Mistress of all ; and this is true in many European Governments : but there is another government where the Governour is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Lord of all , and but one person ; that 's the perfect Monarchy : which although it be incomparably the best , and like to that by which God governs the world , the first in the whole kind of Government , and therefore the measure of the rest , yet that is no greater power then is in every kind of Government ; for be it where it will , somewhere or other in all Government there must be a Supreme power , and that power is absolute and unlimited . Now this being thus stated , the Rule is clear , and the Jews exprest it by an odde device of theirs : for when their King died they tied his thumb so in the palm of his hand , that the wrinkles of the fist should , in a manner that might be fancied , represent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Almighty ; to denote that he was God's Vicegerent , and under him had the whole power of Government . He had had in his hand a power like to the power of God , but the other hand was open and had let it go . Now that this is true is apparent by all the same reasons by which the necessity of Government is proved . It is necessary that it should be so ; for there are some states of things for which nothing can provide but this absoluta potestas , Supreme and unlimited power ; as at Rome when the Gauls had almost possessed themselves of all , and in many cases of their appointing Dictators , and in sudden invasions , and in the inundation of tumults , and in all cases where laws are disabled to speak or act . Ne res publica aliquid detrimenti patiatur , That the publick should by all means be preserved , in the greatest necessity they can have , and that is the great end of power ; and either the Common-wealth is like a helpless Orphan exposed to chance and violence , and left without guards , or else she hath so much power as to use all means for her safety . If she have not a right to doe all that she naturally can , and is naturally necessary , she is deficient in the great end of Government ; and therefore it must be certain she hath absolute power : now whereever this is subjected , there it is habitually , there it is alwaies . I do not say it is alwaies there where it is sometimes actually administred ; but there it is habitually from whence it is concredited actually , and put into delegation and ministery : and this is the power that can doe all things of government ; and because it is supreme , and it is so alwaies , it cannot be at any time less in judgment , because it is greater in power ; that is , it is accountable to no man whatsoever it does . Qui Rex est , Regem , Maxime , non habeat . This Supreme power is commonly expressed by Potestas Regia , or Kingly Power , or power Imperial ; though when the Emperour was Lord of the world , to be a King in most places went much less : but because most Kings have been and are Supreme in their own Dominions , ( and they alwaies are so , and are so acknowledged , to whom their subjects are bound by the oaths of allegeance , and supremacy ) by this word we commonly mean the Supremacy or the Majesty . So Suetonius speaking of Caligula , saies he was very near speciem Principatus in Regnum convertere , to change the Government into a Kingdome , that is , to make it absolute and supreme : and this distinction Piso us'd concerning Germanicus , Principis Romanorum , non Parthorum Regis esse filium , meaning that the Parthian Kings were absolute , but the Roman Princes ruled with the Senate : and Caesar tells that Vercingetorix was put to death because he being but the Prince of the Gaules affected the Kingdome . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . So Dion described the power of a King , for that which they understood to be the Supreme power . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So the people in Aeschylus spake to their King , Thou art our City , our Commonwealth , above all Judicatories , thy Throne is sacred and immur'd as an Altar , and by thy suffrage , by thy own Will thou governest all things . This is the Jus Regium , this the Supreme power can doe , it can be no less then this in its own nature and appointment . So the power is described by Theophilus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , He hath given to the King all power over the people . So it is described by Livy , Reges non liberi solum impedimentis omnibus , sed Domini rerum temporúmque , trahunt consiliis cuncta , non sequuntur , Kings are not only free from all lets and incumbrances , but are Lords of times and things , they by their counsels draw all things after them , but follow not . The Greeks call this Supremacy , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a power to rule without danger of being call'd to account by men ; S. Ambrose calls it , Non ullis ad poenam vocari legibus , tutos imperii potestate , a power that is safe in its own circles , and can by no laws be call'd to punishment : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that 's Galens word , It is the chief or prime principality . — Toto liber in orbe Solus Caesar erit — The King alone is free ; all others are under Compulsories and Judges . But S. Peters phrase is better then all of them , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The King is the most eminent , the Defender of all , and above all ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith Suidas . The King or the Supreme hath the power of defence , the power of the Sword , and that commands all the rest : for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it signifies to be more then Conqueror . So the Grammarians . But in order to Conscience , Kings and Princes , I mean all Supreme powers , must distinguish potestatem Imperii ab officio Imperantis ; that is to be considered by Subjects , and this by Princes . Supreme Princes alwaies have an absolute power , but they may not alwaies use it . He that hath a Sword by him is not alwaies tied to use it , and he must cut his meat with a Knife . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saies Aristotle ; It is a Kingdome when it is by rule and measure , but if it be unlimited it is a Tyranny : that is , when affaires are capable of a law and order , the Supreme power must so conduct them , He must goe in that path where they stand ; but if they grow wild and irregular , he must goe out of his way to fetch them in again . But then it is also to be considered that the absolute power of the Prince is but an absolute power of government , not of possession ; it is a power of doing right , but not a power of doing wrong : and at the worst is but a power of doing private violences for the security of the publick . This power is excellently express'd in the Tables of the Royal law written to Vespasian ; Uti quaecunque ex usu reipublicae Majestate Divinarum , Humanarum , publicarum , privatarúmque rerum esse censebit , ei agere , facere , jus potestásque sit , uti Augusto fuit . Augustus Caesar was the most absolute Prince that ever rul'd the Roman people ; to him was granted , saith Alciat , to be free from laws , and all the necessity of laws , to be obnoxious to no law written , and to have all the power of Kings : and yet all that power was but to doe every thing which he should esteem to be usefull to the publick , and according to the Majesty of religion and all humane rights publick and private . And therefore he is Princeps Regni , but not Dominus , a Prince , not a Lord ; and the distinction is very material . For to be Lord , signifies more then the Supreme power of Government . Qui primi fuerunt Romae Principes , etsi poterant videri reverâ Domini , vitabant tamen valdè Domini Nomen , veluti contumeliam ac maledictum : non vitaturi si esset Nomen solius honoris , aut moderatae potestatis , saith Suetonius . The first Princes of Rome esteemed it a disgrace to be called Lords , because it was not a name of meer honour , or of a moderate power ; for if it had , they would not have declined it : but it means an absolute power to dispose of all lives and all possessions ; which is beyond the power of the King or Prince . He that is a King rules over a free people , but a Lord rules over slaves . Tacitus , according to the popular humor of the Romans , supposed the power of a King to be too great a violation of liberty ; but Domination or Lording it was intolerable . Principatus & libertas res sunt dissociabiles ; magis tamen sunt dissociabiles libertas & dominatio ; for to be the absolute Lord cannot consist either with freedome or propriety : and therefore Ovid prefers Augustus before Romulus in this very instance , for speaking to Romulus of Augustus , he saies , Tu Domini nomen , Principis ille tenet . Augustus is a Prince , a gentle Governour ; Romulus was a Lord , that is , something that no man loves , but every man serves and fears . This power is well expressed by S. Peters word of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a power not ministring to good , nor conducted by moderation . Maximum hoc regni bonum rati , Quod facta Domini cogitur populus sui Tam ferre quam laudare — When the people must suffer the will of their Imperious Lord and must commend it , that is , be a slave in their persons and their labours , their possessions and their understandings : that is more then a Prince or a gentle Lord will doe ; for then the word is good , when the Man is gentle , and the Power is moderate . But that which I intend to say is this , that the Supreme power of Government is at no hand a Supreme power , or an Arbitrary disposer of life and fortunes ; but according to law , or according to extreme necessity which is the greatest law of all . In the sense of Honour and of Moderate power the King is a Lord , but not in this sense of law . Qui pleno jure Dominus est , alienandi , dissipandi , disperdendi jus habet , saith the law , l. 7. C. de relig . l. sed etsi , lege 25. § . consuluit , ff . de haered . petit . By a Lord is meant he that hath power to dispose of the goods of the Vassals : and this a King or Prince hath not . This is not the Supreme power of Government . A King is not the Lord of his Kingdome , of the territories of his Subjects , quia dominium in solidum non possit esse duorum , saith Cujacius , There cannot be two absolute Lords of the same land ; The right owner is the Lord , not the right King. Aliter reipublicae sunt agri , aliter privatorum . Num quid dubium est , quin servus cum peculio Domini sit ? dat tamen Domino suo munus . Non enim ideo nihil habet servus , quia nihil est habiturus , si Dominus illum habere noluerit , said one ; The servant is within his Lords peculiar , but yet he can make a present to his Lord. If his Lord please , the servant shall have nothing ; but yet it follows not , that therefore he is possess'd of nothing . Now if this be true in Slaves , much more infinitely more is it in free Subjects ; for otherwise are my lands my own , otherwise they are the Princes . Jure civili omnia Regis sunt , ( saith Seneca ; ) & tamen illa quorum ad Regem pertinet universa possessio , in singulos Dominos descripta sunt , By the law all things are the King 's ; but even those things are divided into peculiars , and have private Lords . It is all the Princes lands , and he receives the tribute , and he receives the service and the duty of them all ; but the Lords receive the rents . The Athenians and the Thebans fight concerning the bounds of their territory ; & at the same time Polyaenus & Thysias are at law about dividing their shepherds walks in the same place . Sub optimo Rege , omnia Rex Imperio possidet , singuli dominio , The King governs all , but the Subjects possess all their own : for so Livy might buy his own Books of Dorus ; they were Dorus his Books , and Livy's too : and when a Lord receives his rent , the Tenant may call the lands his own . Some things are mine by possession , some by use ; some by title , some by incumbency ; one is the Author , and another is the Buyer ; one is an Artificer , and another the Merchant of the same thing ; and the King hath the power , but his Subjects have the propriety . Caesar omnia habet ; fiscus ejus privata tantum ac sua : & universa in Imperio ejus sunt , in patrimonio propria . That 's the sum of this inquiry . The King hath all , and yet he hath something of his own in his peculiar , and so have the Subjects . The effect of this consideration is this ; That the Supreme power must defend every mans right , but must usurp no mans . He may use every mans peculiar for the publick necessity , and in just and necessary Government , but no otherwise ; and what is out of any peculiar expended for the publick defence , must out of the general right be repaied for the private amends . Verum etsi nostra tempore necessitatis patriae conferre debeamus , tamen jure naturae congruit ut communis salus , communis utilitas , commune periculum , non unius duntaxat aut alterius , sed communibus impensis , jacturis , periculísque comparetur , said Cicero . A King is to govern all things ; but to possess nothing but what is his own . Only concerning the necessity , if the question be , who shall be Judge ; it is certain that it ought to be so notorious that every man might judge ; but he who is to provide against it , is certainly the only competent person , and hath the authority . For he that is to stand against the sudden need , ought to espy it . But if ever there be a dispute who shall judge of the Necessity , it is certain , the Necessity is not extreme ; and if it be not , yet it ought to be provided against when it is intolerable . Ahab had no right to take Naboths Vineyard ; but if the Syrian army had invaded Israel , Ahab might have put a Garrison in it , or destroyed the Vines , to have sav'd or serv'd his Army . And to this sense Lyra expounds the Jus Regium , the right of the King , describ'd by Samuel to the People of Israel : for ( saith he ) there is a double right ; the one in the dayes of necessity , and then all things are in his power so far as can truly serve that publick necessity : but when that necessity is over , that right is useless , and is intolerable . And by this means the different opinions of the Jewish Doctors may be reconcil'd . Rabbi Jose sayes , that whatsoever is here set down , it was lawfull for the King to doe . R. Juda sayes , that this description was onely to affright the People from persisting in their desire of a King. Both might say true ; for that it was not lawfull in ordinary Government to take the peculiar of the Subject , appears clearly in the case of Naboth . But that in extraordinary it is just , needs no other argument but because it is necessary : and it appears also in the case of David and Nabal , upon whom David would have done violence , because he sent him not Provisions for his Army out of his own peculiar . But it is considerable , that this Royal power describ'd by Samuel is no more then what is necessary to be habitually inherent in all Supreme powers ; this is potestas imperantis ; he may licitè facere in tempore necessitatis , legitimè semper , In time of need he may use it lawfully , but alwayes legitimately , that is , if he does , he onely abuses his power , but it is his own power which he abuses : for when Moses describ'd the usage and manner of a King , he did it by the measures of peace and piety , and the laws of natural justice and equity , with the superfetation of some positive constitutions which God commanded for that King , as part of the Judicial Law. But when Samuel describ'd the manner of their King , he describ'd the whole power in ordinary and extraordinary ; the power , I say , but not the office ▪ Moses describ'd the office , but not the power . I adde to this another consideration ; That whether all that the Hebrew King did or might doe was warranted by God or no , it matters not to us . For if it be no more then the necessary requisites of Supreme power to be us'd in time onely of necessity , we need not fear that this precedent can injure the rights of any People : but if there were in it something more then was good , it was certainly a peculiar of that People , who desir'd a King to rule over them as the neighbour Nations had ; right or wrong they stood not upon that ; and therefore Samuel describ'd to them what that was which they requir'd . It was no warranty to the King to doe so , but to the People to suffer it : but if it was ill , it was their own desire ; for so the neighbour Kings did govern , using too much of their power , and too little of their duty and office . And therefore God was angry with his People , not that they desir'd a King ; for God gave them three things in charge , say the Rabbins , which they should doe when they came into the Land of Promise , That they should blot out the name of Amalek , that they should chuse a King , that they should build a Temple . Therefore the chusing of a King was not it that offended God , but that they should desire that a King should reign over them in the manner as the Gentiles had : For they thought ( saith Josephus ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that all would be well if they had the same form of Government as the Nations had . Now their neighbour Nations were govern'd the most tyrannically , and the People serv'd the most sl●vishly in the whole World. — dociles servire Sabaeos , The Sabeans ( sayes Claudian ) were apt to serve : dociles ●erilem ferre manum Syros & Parthos , & omnes qui aut ad Orientem aut ad Meridiem sunt barbaros , said Julian , All the Syrians and Parthians , and all the Nations of the East and South , were us'd to slavery ; cont●ntos sub Regibus vivere Dominos imitantibus , their Kings were absolute Lords of possessions as well as of tribute and government ; and the People were ple●s'd to have it so : and the Israelites would follow their example . Ecce in hoc errarnat ( sayes a Jewish Doctor ) quod Israelitarum conditio non est . 〈…〉 Rex aliquis pro sua voluntate , ut Imperatores Gentilium , qui sanctum populis suis leges , quascunque animis concipiunt . Their errour was in 〈…〉 a King as the Gentiles had ; for their condition would not 〈◊〉 it that their King should make laws according to his own will and humour , as did their neighbour Kings , who were proud and barbarous , and counted easiness of access a lessening of Majestie , and would be bound by no measures but their own will : and therefore said God to Samuel , They have not rejected thee , but me ; that is , they would have a King , not such as I have commanded in my law , but such as they see among their Neighbours , who make laws themselves without me . And therefore although God commanded Samuel to hearken to them , and make them a King ; yet by terrours , like those on Mount Sinai , he first made them confess their fault , and therefore to submit to a King of God's chusing , who should reign by God's law . So that it is to no purpose that this place hath been so tortur'd by Interpreters , and pull'd in pieces by disputation ; while they contend on one side , that this was a description of the King's power , on the other , that it was a prediction of matter of fact : for it was neither one nor the other alone , but a description of the manner of the Heathen Kings ; and a representment of what it was which they ask'd , and what was like to be the effect of that power which they desir'd God would set over them : but the question of the extent and liberties of the Supreme power is no way concerned in it . For it matters not what the Eastern and Southern Kings did ; for they did that in ordinary , which is not to be done but in cases extraordinary ; they did that for pleasure , which was not to be done but for necessity . But as to the thing it self ; Nothing can be more certain , but that 1. In all Republicks , somewhere or other , there is a Supreme power . 2. That this power can doe all things of Government ; so that nothing is so great , but if it be necessary , it is just , and can be done : for if there were any time , and any case in which evil may happen , and no provisions may be made for it , in that case , and at that time it is an Anarchy , there is no Government at all . 3. That this Supreme power , being a power of Government , must also be a Conservator and great Minister of Justice ; and therefore must suppose every man's right to be distinct , and separate , and firm : and by consequence , that he hath nothing to doe with mens propriety , but to defend them in peace , and use them in war so as is necessary , that is , so as is unavoidable ; according to that saying of Maimonides , Potestatem habet Rex ordinandi mundum juxta id quod praesens hora postulat . There are some sudden accidents against which there are no regular provisions in laws ; but to provide for them at the instant by extraregular means , is within the power of the supreme . But in all this whole question the saying of Baldus is the best measure of the consciences of Princes : Clausula de plenitudine potestatis semper intelligitur de potestate bona & laudabili , The plenitude of power of all things in the world ought the least to be fear'd , because it never is to be us'd but for the greatest good . Upon the occasion of this discourse the Lawyers sometimes dispute , Whether it be lawful , and in the power of the Supreme Prince or Magistrate , to aliene or lessen his princely rights , or to give away any parts of his Kingdome . But to this the answer is easy . For 1. whatsoever is their right by just conquest , or is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in their private possession , they may aliene as any private person may his lands . Thus Solomon gave the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 twenty cities ( which his Father in law the King of Egypt had conquer'd and given him with his wife in dowry , and which himself had won ) to Hiram ▪ Alexander gave all his Kingdomes to his Princes that serv'd him in his warrs . Attalus gave Asia to the people of Rome ; Nicomedes gave Bithynia : the Father of Mithridates had Paphlagonia by gift : & in England it was said that Edward the Confessor gave England by Will to the bastard of Normandie : and divers of our Kings did in their Wills at least recommend a successor ; Edward the sixth did , but it came to nothing . But when the Donor or the Donee respectively can make it good , then it holds in law , and not otherwise ; for questions of this nature us'd to be determin'd by the sword , and not by discourses . 2. But yet this is certain , that where the Princes are trustees of the people , and elective , or where the right of succession is in a family by law or immemorial time , no Prince can prejudice his Heir , or the people that trusted him . Nothing is here to be done without consent , not onely because the alienation cannot be verified against consent [ in which case Charles the sixth of France desir'd his will might be confirm'd by the Nobles ; and the King of Macedonia went up and down to all the cities to recommend to them Antigonus whom he desir'd to make a king : ] but because in these cases , though Kings have the supreme power , yet they have it not pleno jure , by a fulness of dominion . It may be as Aristotle calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a full , supreme , absolute and intire principality ; yet by not being in full and intire private possession it is by all rights to be administred , but without wrong cannot be alien'd . Hottoman will by no means admit that in any case a Kingdome can be alien'd : because it is the case of persons as well as of things ; and they cannot be dispos'd of like slaves or beasts . But he consider'd not that subjection to Princes can best stand with personal liberty ; and this cannot well be secur'd without that : for where there is no civil government , every man that is stronger can make me a slave ; but by the power of a Prince I am defended in my liberty : and Hottomans objection must needs be invalid , unless there be no liberty but where there is no government . RULE II. The Supreme power is superior to the Civil laws , but not wholly free from them . THis Rule hath been thrust into great difficulty by the interests and mistakes of Princes and Subjects respectively . For it hath been disputed whether Princes be free or no from the laws of their kingdome ; and things of this nature when they once are question'd , are held more pertinaciously , and desir'd more greedily , and possess'd suspiciously , and conducted with jealousy , and look'd upon with envy or indignation . For the Prince , if it be but disputable , will yet conclude for his own interest ; and it is argument enough for him that it is so , because it is not certain that it is not so . And the subjects will upon the same account suppose the Prince bound to his laws , because they know nothing to the contrary ; and therefore they presume for the authority of the laws , as the Prince does for the immunity of his person . But then because it is question'd , the Prince , lest he loose it quite , will hold the faster ; and the people will snatch at it more impotently , lest they be slaves for ever . And therefore disputations in this case are not prudent or safe ; but precepts , and sermons , and great examples , and the sayings of wise men , and positive affirmations in those particulars that be manifest . Princeps legibus solutus est , said Justinian , The Prince is not tied to laws : for it seems impossible that he that hath power over the law , he that gave it being , and can give it a grave , should be less then that which hath no greatness but what it borrows from him . Indeed if the Prince had devested himself of his power when he made the law , he had been subject to it ; but then he could have no power to abrogate it : which because it is inseparable from the legislative power , it follows that the life of the law is in continual dependance from , and therefore in minority and under him ; and therefore the lawyers have a proverbial verse , Non est Rex legi , sed lex obnoxia Regi . For a law without a compulsory power is nothing but good counsel at the best ; and the supreme power cannot be compell'd : for he will not compel himself , he cannot ; he may be willing , but he can never force himself ; and to the supreme no man is superior , and therefore none else can compel him : therefore the Divines use to say , and so doe the Lawyers too , that Kings are subject to the directive power of the laws . The distinction I acknowledge , but believe it here to be to no purpose : for laws have no such power , and a directive power is no power ; for if it can onely direct , it is not a law , for a law obliges , and does not onely direct : and as for the meer matter of counsel , the Prince need not be at the charge of a law for that , his Counsellors , his Bishops , his Lawyers , his friends can doe that without a law . The same thing is usually said concerning just men . Justis lex non est posita , saith the Apostle , The law is not made for the righteous , but for the wicked : that is , the compulsory of laws is not at all designed for them that obey without compulsion . Not but that the just are under the power of laws , and the laws were made to command them the particulars and the instances of obedience ; and if they prevaricate , they shall feel it . But they are so willing to obey , and so love government and the vertues commanded by the laws , that the laws are of no use to good and just men , but to direct them to what is requir'd of them ; and so they are under that which is improperly call'd the Directive power of laws ; but Princes are not so . The Supreme power may if he will obey ; so may the just man : but this man must obey or he shall be punished , but not so the Prince . The laws of themselves may direct the Prince ; but it is because he will have it so : but they direct the just , because they have authority to command , and to punish , onely that the just will not let it come so far . It is but a shadow of liberty to say I am not under the compulsion , but the direction of laws : for such persons if they will not be directed shall be compell'd , and it is better to be willing then unwilling ; for call it what you will , you are commanded to doe it , and you must obey . Now this being the case of the just subject , and not the case of the Supreme power , whether just or unjust , it is clear that the Prince or supreme power is not subject to any power of the laws ; the law is no Commandement to the Prince , and whatsoever is nothing but counsel , is no law . And yet on the other side we find good Princes saying otherwise ; and they who are apt enough to advance their own power , yet confessing their power to be less then the law , that is , that themselves are bound to keep it : so said the Emperour , C. de legib . & constit . l. 4. Digna vox est Majestatis regnantis , legibus alligatum se Principem profiteri , It is a voice worthy of the Majesty of a Prince , to profess himself tied to his laws . Patere legem quam tu ipse tuleris , said the wise man ; Suffer the law which thou thy self hast made : the same with that of Pittacus , Pareto legi quisquis legem sanxeris . And the equity of this , besides that it is apparent , is also given in the law , l. 1. ff . de pactis . Nihil tam humanae fidei consentaneum est , quam ea quae placuerunt servari . If they have pleas'd the Prince in the sanction , let them also please him in the observation , for that 's agreeable to the faith and ingenuity of worthy persons . These things are but seemingly oppos'd , for both parts are true , and are to be reconcil'd by the following measures . 1. The Supreme power is not under the fear of the laws , but is to love the vertue and order that is there commanded . For there is a necessity introduc'd by publick honesty as well as by fear . And therefore the Greek Lawyers in their Commentaries upon that of the Institutions , that the Prince is free from laws , expound it to be meant of penal law ; that is , they cannot be punish'd for prevaricating , or for not keeping them : and Decianus said the same thing , Non quia iniqua liceant , sed quod non timore poena , sed amore justitiae : It is no more lawful for Princes to doe unjust things , then for their subjects ; but they are invited to doe worthy things , not because they are to fear the punishment of laws , but because they must love justice ; and there is that necessity for them to doe so , that there is of being great and honour'd . The laws of honesty , of fame and reputation , which amongst all good men are the guards of vertue , must endear it also to Kings : so Claudian to Theodosius , Tu licet extremoslatè dominere per Indos , Te Medus , te mollis Arabs , te Ceres adorent ; Si metuis , si prava cupis , si duceris irâ , Servitii patiêre jugum , tolerabis iniquas Interius leges : tunc omnia jure tenebis Cum poteris Rex esse tui : proclivior usus In pejora datur , suadetque licentia luxum , Illecebrisque effraena favet : tunc vivere castè Asperius , cum prompta Venus ; tunc durius irae Consulimus , cum poena patet : sed comprime mentem , Nec tibi quod liceat , sed quod fecisse decebit , Occurrat , mentemque domet respectus honesti . A King is not to consider the greatness of his power , but of his duty ; and not reckon upon his impunity , but his reputation * ; and because he does not fear the publick rods and axes , let him respect publick honesty : so Accursius affirms , Principem , etsi legibus solutus sit , honestatis tamen necessitate omnino teneri oportere : and this is the sentence of Decius and most Lawyers . But Honestas non videtur inferre necessitatem , say the Lawyers . This does not make it simply necessary ; but it perswades vehemently , and upon Princes whose honour is both conscience and interest too , it differs but little from it . For it makes that they ought to doe what is fit . But in Kings it is true what Muscornus Cyprius saies , Verbum illud [ debet ] non coactionem , sed rationalem quandam persuasionem denotare videtur . It is their duty , and they ought to doe it ; and that signifies every thing but compulsion . However a Prince is onely free from one compulsory which is upon his subjects : but is under many which touch not them . God enjoyns him a greater duty , and exacts it with greater severity , and will punish their delinquencies more sharply : potentes potenter , saith the Wisdome of Solomon , mighty men shall be mightily tormented ; and Tophet is prepared for the King. * Kings have a greater need in their affairs then the small fortunes of their subjects ; and therefore have need of a greater piety to secure so great a providence . They have more to loose , and therefore need a bigger caution to secure it ; they have more at stake to endear obedience : and since a King is but one person , and is strong onely by the obedience of his subjects , and that obedience is secur'd onely by love , and that love can no way be obtain●d but by beneficence and justice ; if he breaks these securities , he may have cause to consider that of Tacitus , Princeps unus est civium & senatus consensui impar , that one man against a multitude is nothing ; and that the Senate and the people are stronger , and need not fear him alone , but he alone may have cause to fear all them together * ; and that the sins of a Prince are often punished by the sins of the people . He can consider that he is to govern a multitude whom nothing can unite but an Almighty power ; that they are as contingent in their love and hatred , as chance it self ; that no fortune in a King is moderate ; that when it declines it oftentimes runs to extremity ; that he seldome hears truth , never meets with a bold and a wise reprover ; that he hath many flatterers , and but few friends ; that he hath great powers of doing evil , and temptations and opportunities alwaies ready ; that his very being superiour to laws leaves his Spirit infinitely unguarded and spoil'd of one of the greatest securities of vertue ; that impunity is a state of danger ; that when vertue is left onely under a Counsel and cold recommendation , and is not made necessary by laws , he had need have a great and a mighty vertue to make it necessary by love and choice ; and that such perfect vertues are but rarely obtain'd , and after a long practice ; that fear is the beginning of wisdome ; and therefore Princes are very much to seek in this particular , because they have nothing to begin with ; and to chuse vertue for love is not usual with beginners , but is the consummation of the most perfect : so that we may well pray , God help poor Kings , who if they doe vertuously must needs be infinitely dear to God , because it is so extremely difficult to be so , and nothing can make them so but two conjugations of miracles ; the excellencies of the Spirit of God , and the Spirit of a King. So that it is no priviledge to Kings that they are above the power of their laws ; it is their objection , and the evil of their state . Only it is necessary to others that these should dwell in danger : and as for their obedience to laws , it is not bound upon them by the same cord that ties the Subject , but by another ; it is not necessary for the same reasons , but it is by a greater necessity . 2. But then these supreme Compulsories being wholly conducted by the hand and providence of God , doe plainly tell us that the supreme Power is obliged to all the laws of God , to the laws of Nature and Christianity . A King hath no power to govern but according to Gods laws . For if he does , though he have no Compulsorie below , yet above there are enough , and to Gods laws the greatest Power on Earth is intirely subordinate . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The law is the supreme King of all , said Pindar . The same is also said by Chrysippus , by Aristotle , and divers others : and Plato affirms that destruction is imminent upon that City where the Magistrate governs the law , and not the law the Magistrate : and again , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The Prince that rules not by laws is nothing but a grievance to his Subjects . But that these great Persons mean the laws of God and Nature is explicitly plain in Plutarch , who having affirmed that the law must rule the Prince , adds by way of explanation , that it be that Jaw , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , not which is written in books or tables , but the law of reason that alwaies dwells within ; that law that alwaies is his guard , and never suffers the soul to be without a guide , that is the law that is superior to Princes . Some little instances of particulars of this law were decreed by Servius Tullus King of the Romans ; of which Tacitus saies , praecipuus Servius Tullus sanctor legum suit , queis etiam Reges obtemperarent ; he made laws of that Nature that even Kings themselves should obey them . For as Regum timendorum in proprios greges , So it is as true , Reges in ipsos imperium est Jovis ; As the people are Subjects of the Prince , so is the Prince of God ; they must obey their King , and their King must obey God : Concerning whose Law it was said to Domitian by Apollonius Tyanaeus , Haec mihi dicta sint de legibus , quas si tibi imperare non putaveris , ipse non imperabiis , If thou doest not think these laws ought to rule over thee , thou shalt not rule at all . Upon this account a Prince may not command his Subjects to fight in an unjust cause , according to that saying of S. Hierom , Cum Dominus carnis à Domino Spiritús adversum imperat , non est obediendum ; We must not obey the Rulers of this world , the Lords of our flesh , when they command any thing contrary to the laws of the God and Lord of all Spirits . The commands of Princes must be , as Tertullian saies , intra limites disciplinae , within the bounds of our religion ; and therefore the Athenians laugh'd at Stratocles for desiring them to make a law that whatsoever pleas'd King Demetrius should be the measure of piety to the Gods , and of justice amongst Men. Gods law is the measure of the Princes power ; not his will the measure of that : and therefore the Jews that were Souldiers under Alexander could by no tortures be compell'd to assist in the building of the temple of Belus in Babylon ; and the Thebaean legion under Julian the Apostate refused not to fight for their Prince against the Barbarians , and they refused not to die , but they refused to be executioners of the Martyrs that died in the cause of Christianity . But this is to be practised that the Princes just laws be not neglected upon the arrest of every fancy or foolish opinion . If it be certain that it is against the law of God , then we are safe in our disobedience . Idcirco Romanas leges contemnimus , ut jussa Divina servemus , said Sylvanus the Martyr , Because we are sure these Roman laws are against the Commandements of God , we easily despise them . But if we be not sure , but are in doubt whether the laws be just or no , we are to presume for the laws , and against our own fears . For nothing is at all of advantage due to the laws , if we preferre before them any opinion of our own which we confess uncertain ; and although we are not to doe any thing of which we doubt , yet in a doubt we are to obey laws , because there is a doubt on both sides : and as we fear the thing is unjust , so we have reason to fear the evil of disobedience , for we are sure that is evil ; and therefore we are to change the speculative doubt into an active judgment , and a practical resolution , and of two doubts take the surer part , and that is to obey ; because in such cases the evil , if there be any , is to be imputed to him that commands , not to him that obeys , who is not the Judge of his Prince , but his Servant . Servus herilis imperii non Censor est , sed Minister , said Seneca . They that are under authority are to obey , not to dispute . But of this I have given an account already in the first Book , Chap. 5. Rule 6. 3. But then concerning the civil laws of his Country we are to distinguish ; for some concern the People only , and some concern the Prince only , and some are common to both . Those that concern the People are such as require tribute , and labours , and manners of trade , their habits and dwelling . In these and all such the people are obliged and not the Prince : for the duties are either relative and concern their part only of the relation ; or else by the nature of the things themselves doe point out their duty , & in these things there is no question . For not the King but the people are to pay tribute , & the Kings lands are free , if they be in his own possession . 4. But there are some laws which concern the Prince alone , as all acts of grace , and ease to the people ; all that he hath been pleased to promise , the forms and laws of Government , and to whatsoever himself hath consented , by all those laws he is bound ; because in such cases as these it is true what Pliny said to Trajan in his Panegyric , In nostris , simili religione , ipse te legibus subjecisti , Caesar , quas nemo Principi scripsit ; sed tu nihil amplius vis tibi licere quam nobis . The Prince had not a law imposed upon him , but he became a law unto himself ; and when he hath bound himself there is the same necessity upon him as upon his Subjects . 5. Other laws yet doe concern both Prince and people ; such as are all contracts and bargains . Licet serviant aedes meae , ei tamen cum quo agitur non serviunt , quantum enim ad eum pertinet , liberas aedes habeo . l. 4. S● serv. vind . Although my house is bound to serve the publick necessity , yet in respect of him that contracts with me , my house is free . So also it is in the acquisition of new rights , the repetition of the old , and generally in all those things that are established by the law of Nature , or doe concern him personally , and not in the capacity of a King. Thus saith the law , In imperfecto testamento nec Imperatorem haereditatem vendicare posse saepe constitutum est , The Prince cannot be heir if the testament of the dead man be illegal . Sometimes and in some places , it may be , fewer witnesses will serve in the Princes case then in another mans , but then it is because fewer in his case are required by law ; but still the law is his measure as well as of his Subjects . 6. The great laws of the Kingdome doe oblige all Princes , though they be supreme . Such were those which were called the laws of the Medes and Persians ; whose Princes , although they were the most absolute and supreme , yet they were inferiour to those laws , as appears in the Book of Daniel . These are by way of eminence call'd Leges Regni , the Kingdomes laws . Such are the Golden Bull of the Empire ; the law Salic and the Pragmatical Sanction in France ; the Magna Charta and the Petition of Right in England ; and in other Countryes the like , as who please may particularly for Spain see in Mariana . This is confess'd by all , and it relies upon natural justice , the Prince having consented to it ; it is either sponsio Principis , or conditio regnandi ; he was admitted either upon that condition , or with it . 7. Whatsoever the Prince hath sworn to , to all that he is oblig'd not onely as a single Person , but as King : for though he be above the laws , yet he is not above himself , nor above his oath , because he is under God ; and he cannot dispense with his oath or promise in those circumstances and cases in which he is bound . And therefore although the Prince is above the laws , that is , in cases extraordinary and priviledg'd cases , and the matter of penalties ; yet he is so under all the laws of the Kingdome to which he hath sworn , that although he cannot be punish'd by them , yet he sins if he breaks them . Not that the law does binde him , for it cannot binde without a compulsory ; and against him the law hath no such power : but yet he is bound to the law , though not by it ; the obligation comes not from the law , but from other causes , from his promise , his oath , his contract , his religion , his reputation , his fear , his hopes , his interest , and especially from God himself . For it is carefully to be observed in this particular , that though a promise gives a man right to the thing which is promised , it does not alwayes give him a right over the person . A King is like him that promises a thing under a curse ; if he fails , the injur'd person is not to curse him , or to inflict the curse upon him , but that is to be permitted to God alone . And therefore if a King swears to his People to make no law without their consent , he is bound to perform his word ; but if he does not , God , and not they are to punish the perjury . The King's promise , or cession , or acts of grace doe never lessen or part his power , but they tie his person . An Act of Parliament in England , if it be made with a clause of perpetuity , that if an act should be made to rescind it it should be void , that first Act of it self is invalid . Clausulae deroganti si derogetur , valet ut posterius testamentum , ita posterior constitutio , say the Lawyers , Concerning which Cicero hath written an excellent epistle to Atticus , lib. 3. epist. ad Attic. epist. 24. It is as if a man should make a Will to annull all future Wils of his own ; it shews indeed that he had then a mind to have that to be his standing will : but how if his mind change ? Constantine made a law , that Widows and Orphans should not be cited to the Emperour's Court for judgement , or compelled to come , though he himself should command them : but yet if he did command them , that first rescript stood for nothing . Antiochus the third commanded the Magistrates not to obey him if he commanded any thing against the laws : but if he should command any such thing , it were not safe for them to urge himself against himself . The Roman Emperour bade his Officer use his Sword against him if he broke the laws : but this gave him no power over his Prince in case he had gone against the laws ; it is nothing but a confident promise , and an obligation of his honour and his conscience , of which God alone is the Superiour and the Guardian . The custome of supreme Princes swearing to govern by laws was very antient : we finde an example of it amongst the Gothish Kings in Cassiodore ; amongst the late Greek Emperours in Zonaras and Cedrenus . Anastasius the Emperour sware to observe the decrees of the Council of Chalcedon ; Adrian the Emperour sware that he would never punish a Senator but by the sentence of the Senate ; and Trajan having promised to rule with justice and clemency , consecrated his head and right hand to the anger of the Gods if he broke his word : and Plutarch tels , that the Kings of the Cossari sware to the Epirots , that they would govern according to the laws . And indeed abstracting from the oath and promise , Kings are bound by natural justice and equity to doe so : for they are not Kings unless they govern ; and they cannot expect obedience , unless they tell the measures by which they will be obeyed ; and these measures cannot be any thing but laws , which are at first the will of the Prince ; and when they are publish'd to the People , then they are laws , but not till they be established by rewards and punishments , which are the portion of the People good and bad . Now this is the natural way of all good Government , there is no other ; and to govern otherwise is as unnatural as to give Children meat at their ears , and hold looking-glasses at their elbows that they may see their face . If Kings be not bound to govern their People by their laws , why are they made ? by what else can they be governed ? by the will of the Prince ? The laws are so ; onely he hath declar'd his will , and made it certain and regular , and such as wise men can walk by , that the Prince may not govern as Fools govern , or as a Lion does , by chance , and violence , and unreasonable passions . Ea quae placuerunt , servanda , saith the law , l. 1. ff . de pactis . If this had not been the will of the Prince , it had been no law ; but being his will , let it be stood to : when the reason alters , let his will doe so too , and the law be chang'd , that the measures of right and wrong , of obedience and disobedience may be known . We have seen how Kings are bound ; the next inquiry is , how they are freed , and how they are superiour to laws . Antonius Augustinus sayes , that by the Lex Regia , or the Jus Regium , Kings , that is , the Supreme power , are onely freed from some laws : and this he gathers from the words of the Royal law written to Vespasian , Uti quibus legibus ne Augustus teneretur , iis Vespasianus solutus esset : quaeque ex quaque lege Augustum facere oportuit , ea omnia Vespasiano facere liceat , Where Augustus Caesar was free , Vespasian should be free : but those things which Augustus ought to doe , all those Vespasian might . The word liceat in his case was modestly put in ; not but that oportuit had been the better word to express his obligation , as well as the duty of Augustus : but it was therefore chosen to represent that to be expected from him , but could not be exacted ; it was his duty , but no compulsion lay near him : but certain it was , that the power of the People being devolv'd upon him ( for it had been a popular Government ) as the People were bound to the laws which themselves have made , so was the Prince . The People were , for there was none else to keep them : but therefore so was the Prince , for he had but the same power which the People formerly had when they were Supreme . But then that they were tied but to some laws , and not to others , is very true : but so , that he was tied to all those laws which were intended to oblige him directly , and indirectly to all the rest , that is , to govern the People by their measures onely . But now if we inquire from what laws they were freed , and what is the right of a King or the Supreme power more then of the People : I answer , 1. It consists in that which we in England call The King's Prerogative ; in the Civil Law the Lex Regia , or Vespasian's Tables ; by the Jews 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the statute or proper appointment of the King : the particulars of which are either described in the respective laws of every People , or are in their customes , or else is a power of doing every thing that he please that is not against the laws and customes of his People , without giving a reason . Cum lege antiquâ , quae Regia nuncupatur , omne jus omnísque potestas populi Romani in Imperatoriam translata sunt potestatem , saith the law . Amongst the Romans that was the Jus Regium , that the Prince could doe all that ever the People could : now what that was , we find in Dionysius , by the concession of Romulus , Populus Magistratus creanto , leges sciscunto , bella decernunto , The People might create Magistrates , make laws , and decree peace and war. That is the Right of Kings , or the Supreme power . * Guntherus hath summ'd them up from the laws and customes of the Empire , and some antient Italian Governments . Ac primum Ligures , super hoc à Rege rogati , Vectigal prorsus , cudendae jura monetae , Cumque molendinis telonia , flumina , pontes , Id quoque quod * Fodrum vulgari nomine dicunt , Et capitolicium certo sub tempore censum : Haec Ligures sacro tribuerunt omnia fisco . Haec & siqua pari fuerunt obnoxia juri , Praelati , proceres , missísque potentibus urbes Libera Romano reliquerunt omnia regno . But the Jus Regium , what it is in the consent of Nations , who please may see in Aristotle's Politicks lib. 3 , & 4. in Polybius lib. 6. Herodotus in Euterpe , in Halicarnassaus lib. 4 , 5 , 7. in Valerius Maximus l. 7. in Orat. quâ suadet concordiam patrum & plebis in fin . in Tacitus 4. Annal. in Suetonius in Tiberio c. 30. in Dion . lib. 53. and in the later Politicks , Fabius Albergatus , Zimara , Bodinus , Aretinus , and generally in the Commentators upon Aristotle . 2. It consists in the King's immunity from obligation to some solemnities of law to which his Subjects are oblig'd . Ratum esse actum , etiamsi actio non habeat plenam rectitudinem , dum jus non desit , say the Lawyers . Of which nature is that for which Aeneas Sylvius , afterwards Pope Pius the second , laugh'd at Henry the sixth of England , that his Publick Instruments had no Test but his own , and he wrote Teste meipso , Witness our self : in which the King doth imitate the King of Kings , of whom S. Austin sayes , Testem se dicit futurum , quia in judicio suo non indiget testibus . He swears by himself , because he hath none greater ; and is his own witness , because he needs no other : and it is enough that a King sayes it , because his word ought to be great and venerable , as his Power and his Majestie . And it was not onely in the matter of coercion , but of solemnities , true which Justinian said , Omnibus à nobis dictis Imperatoris excipiatur fortuna , cui & ipsas Deus leges subjecit , The fortune of the Emperour is to be excepted from the edge and from the forms of laws , because God himself hath made the laws subject to the Emperour . 3. The King is therefore solutus legibus , or free from laws , because he can give pardon to a Criminal condemn'd : for the Supreme power is not bound to his own laws so , but that upon just cause he can interpose between the sentence and the execution . This the Stoicks allowed not to any wise man , as supposing it to be against justice ; and to remit due punishment , is to doe what he ought not : for what is due is just , and what is against that is unjust . All which is very true , but nothing to the purpose . For it is true , that it is but just that Offenders should be punish'd ; it is due , that is , they are oblig'd to suffer it ; poena debita ex parte reorum , it is their debt , not the Kings ; they are oblig'd , not he : and yet it is just in him to take it , that is , he may : but he is not oblig'd in all cases to doe it . And in this also he is an Imitator of the Oeconomy of God , who , according to that of Lactantius , legem cum poneret non utique sibi ademit omnem potestatem , sed habet ignoscendi licentiam , God and the Vicegerent of God when they make laws have not exauctorated themselves : but as that law is an efflux of their authority , so it still remains within the same authority that they can pardon Offenders . Thus David pardon'd Shimei and Joab , and would fain have pardon'd Absalom , if the hand of Joab had not been too quick for him . And this cannot be denied to the Supreme power , because the exercise of this is one of the greatest vertues of a Prince : which was well observ'd by Pericles on his death-bed , when his weeping Friends about him praised , some of them his Eloquence , some his Courage , some his Victories , lifting up his head a little , Et quid hoc est ? ( saith he ) aut parva aut fortuita laudatis : at illud maximum omittitis , quod mea opera nemo pullam vestem sumperit . That he had no publick executions , that no man was put to wear Blacks for his Friends , was a clemency greater then all the praises of Eloquence , or a prosperous fortune . — Quisquis est placidè potens Dominusque vitae , servat innocuas manus , Et incrucentum mitis Imperium regit , Animoque parcit , longa permensus diu Permensus aevi spatia , vel Coelum petit , Vel laeta felix nemoris Elysii loca . But all the World commends Clemency , the gentle hand of a Prince , his unwillingness to kill , his readiness to save : for , Principi non minus turpia multa supplicia , quam Medico funera , Many executions are as great a dishonour in a Princes reign , as many funerals in a Physitians practice : and therefore Cassiodore saies that a good and a gentle Prince will sometimes pass the limits of equity that he may serve the ends of clemency ; quando sola est misericordia cui omnes virtutes cedere honorabiliter non recusant , for to mercy all other vertues count it honour to give place . And this Charls the 5th and Maximilian the second signified by their devise of an Eagle pearching upon a thunderbolt , with an Olive in her beak : and Nerva and Antoninus Pius impress'd upon their money a thunderbolt upon a pillow ; to signify that vindicative justice ought to sleep sometimes . * Now certainly this being so great an excellency in a Prince , is not greater then his power . Imperatori licet revocare sententiam , & reum mortis absolvere , & ipsi ignoscere ; quia non est subjectus legibus qui habet in potestate leges terrae , saith S. Austin . The Emperor , who can make laws , is not subject to laws , or so tied to them but that he may revoke his sentence and pardon a Criminal . This I say is part of his Royalty ; but is onely then to be practis'd when it can consist with the ends of government , that is , when the publick interest can be preserv'd , and the private injury some other way recompenc'd . These indeed are the general measures not of the Princes power , but of his exercising this power justly . 1. When the Criminal is a worthy person and can be beneficial to the Republick . Thus in the Low Countries a pardon in ordinary cases of felony is granted of course to him that can prove he hath invented some new art : and one lately sav'd his life by finding out a way exactly to counterfeit old medals . 2. If the person hath already deserv'd well of the publick . Thus Horatius Cocles was spar'd though he kill'd his sister , because he got honour and liberty and safety and dominion to Rome by killing the three brothers , the Curatii : and Solomon spar'd the life of Abiathar the High Priest , because he bore the Ark before David , and was afflicted in all his troubles . * 3. When the Criminal can be amended , & the case is hugely pitiable , and the fact not of greatest malignity . Thus oftentimes we see young men pardon'd , and the first fault lightly punish'd ; and because young Caesar was in the flower of his youth and a Princely boy , Sylla was more easily prevail'd with for his pardon . 4. If the fault be private , and not brought to publick courts , it is easily pardon'd , though delated by a private information , Conquiri ad judicium necesse non fuit : some things when they are made publick cannot be dismiss'd , but are not to be inquir'd after . It was the advice of Cicero to his Brother Quintus concerning a certain Criminal . But all this is upon supposition that the crime be not of greatest mischief , or foulest scandal and reproach ; for if it be , nothing can be taken in exchange for it ; a great vertue cannot make compensation for a very great crime : and this is particularly true of Treason , of which those words of Bartolus are to be understood , De offensionibus erga dominum non est compensatio ad servitia eidem impensa , The services done to a Lord cannot make satisfaction for a conspiracy against him . And therefore the Romans caus'd Manlius Capitolinus to be thrown headlong from that rock from whence he had thrown the Gauls when he sav'd the city . He produc'd the spoils of thirty enemies , forty donatives from Generals , two civic crowns , eight murals ; yet all would not save his life and get his pardon . But yet in these things the supreme power is so free from laws that it does these things irregularly ; Clementiam liberum habere arbitrium , said Seneca , Clemency hath a great liberty , and a free choice : but they are oblig'd onely to see that the publick be not prejudic'd , and that every private interest be secur'd by causing amends to be made to the injur'd person where it can ; and then it is true of every supreme Prince which Seneca advis'd Nero often to remember , Occidere contra legem nemo potest ; servare nemo praeter me , No man at all can put a man to death against the law ; and none can save except the Prince . 4. The supreme power is above the laws , * because he can dispense , * he can interpret them , * and he can abrogate them , * he can in time of necessity govern by the laws of reason without any written law , * and he is the Judge of the necessity . Thus the Kings of Israel had power over the judicial laws , though of the Divine sanction . For God forbad that the corps of a Malefactor should hang after sun-set upon the accursed tree ; but yet Maimonides saies that the King suspendit & relinquit suspensos diebus multis , he hangs them and leaves them hanging for many daies ; when it is necessary by such terror to affright the growing impiety of wicked men ; that is , when the case was such that the laws were capable of equity or interpretation . For this was not meerly an effect of his power , but of his reason too . It was a custome among the Jews to condemn but one person in one day , unless they were in the same crime , as the adulterer and the adulteress ; but the King might condemn many at once when it was for the interest of justice and the republick . Thus their King could by the prerogative of his Majesty proceed summarily , sit in judgment alone without assessors , condemn upon the testimony of one , and by the confession of the party ; which the Sanhedrim might not doe , but were tied to acquit him that confess'd the fact . Add to these , * the Supreme can in some cases be Judge and witness ; that is , can himself condemn a criminal for what himself onely saw him doe . He can also be Judge in his own case ; as if he be injur'd , rail'd upon , defrauded , or the like : all which are powers above the law , and here were to be nam'd for the understanding of the present Rule ; but how they are to be conducted is of distinct and special consideration , and to be reserved to their proper places . I end this whole inquiry with that of Statius , — quid enim terrisque poloque Parendi sine lege manet ? vice cuncta geruntur . Alternisque premunt propriis sub Regibus omnis Terra : premit felix Regum diademata Roma : Hanc ducibus fraenare datum , mox crescit in illos Imperium Superis — There is nothing in the earth but is under a law and tied to obedience : all the earth are under Kings , and the Kings are under the Romans , and the Romans under their Princes , and their Princes under God ; who rules them by his own laws , and binds them to rule by their Countries laws , and ties them to doe justice , and is pleased when they shew mercy . But as they are to doe justice by the sentence of the laws , so they must not shew mercy against law ; for even the prerogative of Kings is by law , and Kings are so far above their laws , as the laws themselves have given leave . For even the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the remission of the rigor of the law , the very Chancery and ease of laws is by law established . RULE III. It is not lawfull for Subjects to rebel , or to take up arms against the supreme Power of the Nation , upon any pretence whatsoever . WHen Nehemiah was deputed by Artaxerxes to be Governour of Judaea , and had commission to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple , the neighbour Kings that opposed him were enemies to Artaxerxes , because Nehemiah was lieutenant to the King. He that despiseth me , despiseth him that sent me , saith our Blessed Saviour . Senatus faciem secum attulerat , auctoritatem reipublicae , said Cicero of one that was deputed and sent from the Senate . He had the gravity of the Senate and the authority of the Commonwealth . Now this being true of the supreme Power in every Government , that it is potestas Dei vicaria , it is the Minister of God , appointed by him , set in his place , invested with a ray of his Majesty , intrusted with no Power but his , representing none but him , having received the Sword from his hand , the Power of life and death from his warranty ; it must needs follow that he who lifts up his hand against that supreme Person or Authority that God hath appointed over him is impious against God and fights against him . This the Apostle expresly affirms , and there needs no more words to prove the Rule , He that resists , resists the ordinance of God * . He does not say , he that does not obey is disobedient to God , for that is not true . Sometimes it is necessary not to obey , as it hapned to the captive Jews under Nabuchodonosor , and to the Apostles under their Princes ; they could not obey God and them too : and then the case of Conscience was soon resolved . But they that could not obey , could die ; they could goe into the fire , suffer scourgings and imprisonments , that was their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , their great Sanctuary ; which in behalf of the Christians Gregory Nazianzen thus expresses , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , I have but one remedy against all my evils , one way to victory , thanks be to Christ , I can die for him : that 's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to obey where they can , and where they cannot to be sure to lie down under the burden which they cannot carry . For though in some cases it is lawfull not to obey , yet in all cases it is necessary not to resist . I do not know any proposition in the world clearer and more certain in Christianity then this Rule , and therefore cannot recount any greater instance of humane infirmity then that some wise men should be abus'd into a contrary perswasion . But I see that interest and passion are alwaies the greatest arguments , where they are admitted . But I have an ill task to write Cases of Conscience , if such things as these shall be hard to be perswaded : for there are very few things in which any man is to hope for half so much conviction as in this article lies before him in every topick ; and if I should determine no cases but upon such mighty terms as can be afforded in this question , and are given , and yet we prevail not , I must never hope to doe any service to any interest of wisedome or peace , of justice or religion . And therefore I am clearly of opinion that no man who can think it lawful to fight against the supreme power of his Nation , can be fit to read Cases of Conscience ; for nothing can ever satisfie him whose Conscience is armour of proof against the plain and easy demonstrations of this question . But this question is of the same nature as all clear and necessary truths , never obscure but when it is disputed ; certain to all men and evident if they will use their own eyes ; but if they call for glasses of them that make a trade of it , it may chance not to prove so . But I will speak of it with all easiness and simplicity . 1. The Scripture is plain , Curse not the King , no not in thy thought : and , I counsel thee to keep the Kings Commandement , and that in regard of the oath of God — for he doth whatsoever pleaseth him . Where the word of a King is , there is power , and who may say unto him , What does thou ? Against him there is no rising up . There are many more excellent words in the Old Testament to this purpose ; but nothing can be plainer then these dogmatically to establish the doctrine of the Rule . No man can question him ; no man may rise up against him ; he hath power , he hath all power ; we are by the law or the oath of God bound to keep his Commandement ; and after all , we must not reproach him in our secret thoughts . No man needs this last precept but he that thinks the King is an evil man , or hath done wrong : but suppose he have , or that he is suppos'd to have , yet Curse him not , Doe not slight him , so it is in the Hebrew ; Regi ne detrahas , so it is in the Vulgar Latine , Disparage not the King : but the Chaldee paraphrase addes , Even in thy Conscience , in the secrets of thy heart speak not evil of the King , and in the closets of the chambers of thy house speak , not evil of the wise man ; for the Angel Raziel does every day from heaven cry out upon the mount of Horeb , and his voice passes into all the world : and Eliahu , the great Priest , flies in the aire of heaven like a winged Eagle , and tells the words which are spoken in corners by all the inhabitants of the earth . By the way I onely observe this , that we are forbidden to speak evil of the rich or the mighty man , the wise man , so the Chaldee calls him , that is , the Princely men of the world , the Magistrates and Nobles , whom S. Peter calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Captains or rulers sent by the King : of these we must say no evil in our private houses , lest a bird of the aire , lest that which hath wings , that is , lest the Angel that attends us orders it so as to pass into publication ; for the government of the other world reaches strangely even to us , and we speak not a word in vain , but by the Divine providence it is dispos'd to purposes that we understand not . But when he speaks of the King or the supreme , whom S. Peter calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , then it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , call him not accursed in thy heart , not so much as in thy thought ; which because it is only perceiv'd by God who is the searcher of the heart , it shews plainly that as Angels take care of the rich and the wise , the mighty and the Nobles , so Kings are the peculiar care of God , who is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords . But then ( to leave all curiosities ) if we may not speak or think reproachfully of the King , we may not doe that which is more and that which is worse : and I think there needs no more to be said . But it is as clear all the way . In the New Testament , sufficient are the excellent words of our Blessed Saviour , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to resist evil , that is , not to stand against it , not to oppose evil to evil ; which obliges all Christians that at least without the magistrate they cause no return of evil to the offending person ; that no man be his own avenger , for vengeance belongs to God , and he hath delegated that to none but to the supreme Magistrate , who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Gods minister to be a revenger of wrath under him . Now if no man must pay evil to his brother that hath injur'd him but by the hand of the supreme power , how can it be possible that it can be lawful to render evil for evil to the supreme power it self ? by whose hands shall that be done ? by none but by his Superior , who is God alone , who will take care to punish evil Kings sufficiently : onely we must not doe it ; we must not pray him to doe it ; for that is expressly against the words of Solomon , that 's cursing the King in our thought , and not at all to be done . But besides this there are many more things spoken by our Blessed Lord to determine us in this affair . Render to Cesar the things that are Cesars ; and to Pilate Christ said , Thou shouldest have no power over me unless it were given thee from above ; meaning that Cesars power , whose Deputy Pilate was , was deriv'd from God , and consequently that , except God , none is greater upon Earth then Cesar : and again , If my Kingdome were of this world , my servants would fight for me ; which plainly enough confirms the power of the Militia in the supreme Magistrate , Christ leaving it where he found it . But that there may be no dispute concerning these things , the Apostles , who are expounders of the words of Christ and the meaning of his Spirit , tell us plainly , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to be subject 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to supreme powers ; the same with S. Peter's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to the King as to the Supreme , that is to the King , if he be a King indeed , if he be the supreme ; to be subject to these powers , and not to resist , for these reasons . 1. Because this supreme power is ordain'd of God : 2. Because he that resists , resists God whose minister the Prince is : 3. Because God hath arm'd the powers which he ordain'd with a sword of power and revenge : 4. Because it is for our good that we submit to him ; for he is Gods minister for good , that is , for the publick good , under which thine is comprehended : 5. Because it is necessary ; the necessity being apparent in the nature of the thing and in the Commandement of God : 6. Because God hath bound our Conscience to it : 7. He hath tied this band upon us with fear also : and 8. lastly , because whoever does not obey where he may lawfully , and whosoever does in any case resist , shall receive damnation to himself both here and hereafter ; here upon the stock of fear , hereafter upon the account of conscience ; for both for fear and for Conscience we must obey in good things and lawful , & we must not resist in any . For indefinitely we are commanded not to resist , without any distinction reservation of case ; and Ubi lex non distinguit , nemo distinguere debet . He that will goe about to be wiser then the law , in equity will not be better then a fool . This therefore is the summe of S. Pauls discourse , Rom. 13. per totum . S. Paul was the Doctor of the Gentiles , S. Peter of the Jews : and therefore this doctrine is sufficiently con●ign'd to all the world : for S. Peter hath preach'd this doctrine as largely as S. Paul , Submit your selves to every ordinance of man , for the Lord , that is , for his sake , upon his Commandement and for his honour ; these ordinances being Gods ordinances , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they are ordain'd by God , all of them , the King principally , his captains & officers which he hath sent , in the next place . But him and his Ministers we must receive & honour and obey , & submit to them ; for it is Gods case & his Ministers ; God & his Ministers & Lieutenants , the King & his . He that despises him whom the King sends , despises the King ; and he that despises him whom God sends or makes his deputy , despises God. Submit therefore , for it is the will of God ; Submit , for this is well-doing ; Submit , for so we shall put to silence the ignorance of foolish men : Meaning that since the enemies of Christ are apt to speak evil things of you , glad would they be if they had cause to accuse you for not being obedient to government ; and some are ignorant and foolishly pretend the liberty and priviledges of Saints against the interests of obedience ; the mouths of these men must be stopp'd , and you must submit to Kings , that you may please God and confute the adversaries . Now the specification of this great duty and the particular case of Conscience follows ; Fear God , Honour the King : Servants be obedient to your Masters ; not onely to the good and gentle , but also to the froward . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for this is thank-worthy : and this is full to the question in hand . For the general precept which S. Peter gave is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , submit to every ordinance , to the King , to his Magistrates or deputies & captains , and lastly submit to the lowest of all dominions , even servants to their masters ; not onely to the good and gentle , but to the morose and harsh . Now if so to inferiour masters , whose dominion is no greater then their interest , & their interest is no greater then their price , and is still under the power of Kings ; much more to Kings or to the supreme power . * And indeed even subjection to Kings is the gentlest and most eligible kind of service . Then would my servants fight , said Christ , meaning it of the subjects of his Kingdome : and Livy cals populum Romanum servientem cum sub Regibus esset , they did serve their Kings . * And indeed as the Governments of the world then were , Kings were most absolute , and the people intirely subject , and far from liberty : and therefore this of servants might very well be a specification and a particular of their duty to Kings & Captains ; and whether it were or no , it is for the former argument [ from the less to the greater affirmatively ] infinitely certain that the same duty is due to Kings though harsh and cruel : for indeed there were then none else ; Nero was the supreme , and he was none of the best that ever wore purple . It were very easy to draw forth more arguments from Scripture to this purpose ; but I forbear to name more then this abundance which is contain'd in these now cited : but I shall not omit to observe that the Apostles did make use of that argument which I urg'd out of Solomon , that we are not to speak evil of the King ; from whence the unlawfulness of resisting is unanswerably concluded : for S. Jude giving the character of the worst of men and the basest of hereticks , reckons up in the bill of their particulars , that they despise dominion and speak evil of dignities ; which as it is an infallible mark of an evil person , so it is a using of a Prince worse then S. Michael the Archangel durst use the Devil ; against whom , because he was a Spirit of an higher order , though foully changed , he durst not bring a railing accusation , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a judgment or accusation with blasphemy in it : for all evil language of our Superior is no better then blasphemy ; He did blaspheme God and the King , was the crime pretended against Naboth . If from the plain words of Scripture we descend to the doctrine and practices of the Church of God , we shall find that all Christians when they were most of all tempted , when they were persecuted and oppress'd , kill'd and tormented , spoil'd of their goods , and cruelly and despitefully us'd , not onely did not rebel when they had power and numbers , but profess'd it to be unlawful . But this I shall draw into a compendium ; because it being but matter of fact , and the matter in Scripture being so plain that it needs no interpretation , the practice and doctrine of the Church , which is usually the best commentary , is now but of little use in a case so plain . But this also is as plain it self , and without any variety , dissent or interruption , universally agreed upon , universally practis'd and taught , that let the powers set over us be what they will , we must suffer it , and never right our selves . Tertullian boasts with confidence , that when Pescennius Niger in Syria , and Clodius Albinus in France and Britanny rebell'd against Septimius Severus a bloody and cruel Emperour , and pretended piety and publick good , yet none of the Christians joyn'd with either . The Theban legion in the 18th year of Diocletian suffer'd themselves to be cut in pieces every man , six thousand six hundred sixty and six in number , by Maximianus the Emperour ; no man in that great advantage of number and order and provocation lifting up their hands , except it were in prayer : of these Venantius Fortunatus hath left this Memorial , Queis positis gladiis sunt arma è dogmate Pauli , Nomine pro Christi dulcius esse mori . Pectore belligero poterant qui vincere ferro Invitant jugulis vulnera chara suis. They laid down their weapons and lift up their arms ; they prayed and died in order : and this they did according to the doctrine of S. Paul. But when Julian was Emperour , an apostate from his religion , a great persecutor of the Christians , and who by his cruelty ( as Nazianzen observes ) brought the commonwealth it self in danger , though his army did most consist of Christians , yet they had arms for him , but none against him , save onely that by prayers and tears they diverted many of his damnable counsels and designs . But the particulars are too many to recite what might be very pertinent to this question from Antiquity . I shall therefore serve the interest of it as to this topick by pointing out the writings of the ancient Doctors where they have given testimony to this great article of our religion , which who please may find in S. Clement constit . l. 7. c. 17. S. Irenaeus lib. 5. Advers . haeres . c. 20. Justin Martyr , Apolog. 2. ad Antonin . Imperatorem , Tertullian ad Scapulam , & Apolog. adv . Gent. cap. 30. S. Cyprian ad Demetrianum , Hosius apud Athanas. ad solitariam vitam agentes , Liberius ibid. S. Hilary ad Imperat. Constantium , S. Athanasius ad Antioch . quaest . 55. & Apolog. ad Constant. vide etiam factum Basilii in Monodia Nazianz. inter opuscula Basilii , Nazianzen . 2. orat . contr . Julian . Optatus Milevitanus lib. 3. contr . Parmen . S. Chrysostom . orat . 2. ad pop . Antioch . tom . 6. edit . Savil. * S. Ambrose Epist. 33. ad Marcellinam , S. Cyril . in Evang. Johan . l. 12. c. 36. S. Hieron . comment . in 2. Dan. S. Augustin . lib. 4. de civit . Dei , c. 33. & lib. 5. c. 21. & in Psalm . 124. * Anastasius P. epist. unic . ad Anastasium Imper. Symmachus P. ad eundem Anast. Imp. Leo P. ad Leonem Imperat. & epist. 13. ad Pulcheriam , S. Gregor . Mag. Epist. l. 7. ep . 1. After him succeeded ( Sabinianus being interpos'd for one year onely ) Boniface the third , who obtain'd of Phocas to be called universal Bishop : since when periit virtus Imperatorum , periit pietas Pontificum , saies one , the Kings lost their strength and the Bishops lost their piety ; yet in the descending ages God wanted not many worthy persons to give testimonies to this great truth and duty . Such were Stephen the sixth apud Baronium tom . 10. A. D. 885. n. 11. Gregorius Turonensis hist. lib. 5. cap. 1. Concil . Toletan . 5. can . 2. & Concilium Toletan . 6. c. 14. Fulgentius parallel . ad Thrasimundum Regem , Damascen . parallel . 1. c. 21. V. Bede , lib. 4. expos . in Samuel . Leo 4. cap. de capitulis , dist . 15. S. Bernard epist. 221. to Lewis le Gros : vide etiam epist. Walthrami Epis. Nanumberg . quae habetur in appendice Mariani Scoti . Now it is very observable that in the succession of about six Ages , in which the Holy Doctors of the Church gave such clear testimony of the necessity of obeying even the worst Princes , and many thousands of holy Christians sealed it with their blood , there was no opposition to it ; and none of any reputation , no man of learning did any thing against the interest or the honour of Princes , excepting onely ( so far as I have observed ) Lucifer Calaritanus , who indeed spake rude and unbeseeming words of Constantius the Arrian Emperor ; but that he may lessen nothing of the universal consent to this doctrine , S. Ambrose does lessen very much of his reputation , saying that through he was with the true believers banished for religion , yet he separated himself from their Communion . But in the next period , I mean after Gregory the Great , it was not unusual for the Bishops of Rome to stirre up subjects to rebel against their Princes , and from them came the first great declension and debauchery of the glory of Christian loyalty and subjection to their Princes ; witness those sad stories of P. Gregory the seventh , P. Urban and Paschal , who stirred up the Emperors Son against the Father . I speak it to this purpose , because it produc'd an excellent epistle from the Church-men of Liege in behalf of the Emperor and of their Bishop , who with his Chapter was excommunicated for adhering to his loyalty , and Robert Earl of Flanders commanded by the Pope to destroy him and all his Priests . But in behalf of Princes & the duty of subjection to them many excellent things were spoken , divers judgments of God fearfully falling upon rebellious people are recited , not onely in that Epistle of the Clergy of Liege , but in the life of Henry the 4 th , Emperor , in fasciculo rerum sciend . published at Colen . From all these Fathers and Ancient Authors now cited , magnum mundo documentum datum est ( that I may use the words of the Author of the book last cited ) a great instruction and caution is given to the whole world that no man rise up against his Prince . For all these Authors give clear and abundant testimony to these truths , That the power of the supreme Magistrate is immediately from God , * That it is subject to God alone , * That by him alone it is to be judged , * That he is the governor of all things and persons within his dominions , * That whosoever speaks reproachfully of him cannot be innocent , * That he that lifts up his hand against him strikes at the face of God , * That God hath confounded such persons that against the laws of God , and their own oaths , and the natural bonds of fidelity , have attempted to spoil their supreme Lords , That Herman and Egbert that did so were confounded for so doing , as though they had never been , That Rudolphus had his hand cut off and felt divers other of the divine judgments for this impiety . And this being the constant universal doctrine of the Church of God for 1200. years , and this derived from the plain , the express , the frequent sayings and Commandements of God in the Old and New Testament , declared by his Prophets and Apostles , and by his most holy Son himself , nothing can with greater certainty determine and conduct our Conscience then this Rule . For the confirmation of which I remember S. Bernard tells a pretty little story , in a Sermon upon these words of Christ , I am the Vine : Bene quidam Rex cùm percussus humanâ sagittâ , &c. It was well said of a King who being wounded with a barbed arrow , they that were about him desired he would suffer himself to be bound till the head were cut out , because the least motion irregular would endanger his life ; he answer'd , Regem ligari nullo modo decet , A King must at no hand be bound ; let the King be ever safe , but let his power be at liberty . I end this topick with the words of S. Austin and of the sixth Councel of Toledo , Non tribuamus dandi regni atque imperii potestatem nisi vero Deo , Let us attribute the power of giving the right of empire to none but to the true God alone . Ille unus verus Deus qui nec judicio nec adjutorio deserit genus humanum , quando velit & quantum voluit Romanis regnum dedit : qui dedit Assyriis , vel etiam Persis ; qui Mario , ipse Caio Caesari ; qui Augusto , ipse & Neroni ; qui Vespasiano , vel Patri vel Filio , suavissimis Imperatoribus , ipse & Domitiano crudelissimo ; & ne per singulos ire necesse sit , qui Constantino Christiano , ipse Apostatae Juliano . Hoc planè Deus Unus verus regit , & gubernat ut placet . The one true God , who never leavs mankind destitute of right and help , hath given a kingdome to the Romans , as long as he please and as much as he please . He that gave the supreme power to the Assyrians , he also gave it to the Persians . He that gave it to Marius a common Plebeian , gave it to Caius Caesar who was a Princely person . The same authority he gave to Nero that he gave to Augustus ; he gave as much power and Authority to the most cruel Domitian as he gave to Vespasian and to Titus the gentlest and the sweetest Princes ; and to be short , he gave the Authority to Constantine the Christian , and the same afterwards to Julian the Apostate : for this great affaire he rules and governs as he please . But all this is no more then what natural and necessary reason does teach all the world : Hanc Deus & melior litem natura diremit . For this which I have alleaged from the Fathers is properly a religious reason . It is Gods power which is in the supreme Magistrate , whether he be good or bad : therefore whoever rebels against him , rebels against the power and dispensation of God ; and to this there is nothing reasonable to be oppos'd . But then that which I am now to say is deriv'd to us by the reason that every man carries about him , by the very law of Nature . Naturam vero appello legem Omnipotentis Supremique Patris , quam prima ab origine rerum Cunctis imposuit rebus , jussitque teneri Inviolabiter . — By the law of Nature I mean the prime law of God which he unalterably impos'd upon all men in their first Creation , that by reason and wise discourses they should govern themselves in order to that end which is perfective of humane nature and society . The law of nature is the law of God which is reasonable and necessary to nature : now by this law or necessary reason we find it very fit that we should devest our selves of the practice and exercise of some rights and liberties which naturally we have . So Aristotle observes , Homines adductos ratione multa praeter mores & naturam agere , si aliter agi melius esse sibi persuaserint , Men doe somethings against their natural inclination , if by natural reason they find it best to doe so . Now Nature having permitted every man to defend himself as well as he can against violence , did by an early experience quickly perceive that few men had power enough to doe it against every violent man ; and therefore they drew into societies , gather'd their strength , and it was put into the hands of them who by a joyn'd strength could , and by promise and interest and duty would doe it : and by this means the societies had peace , and might live quietly . Now the natural consequent is this , that if all our power is united and intrusted to one head , we must not keep it in our hands . If the supreme power be the avenger , we must not meddle ; if he be Judge , we must submit , for else we are never the nearer to peace . For when we were so many single persons we were alwaies in warre , but by unity and government we come to peace : therefore whatever we could doe alone , we having put into the common stock , our natural right of defence is in the publick hand , and there it must remain for ever ; and we are to be defended by the laws , and they onely are now the ministeries of peace . This is S. Pauls argument , I exhort that prayers and supplications be made for all men ; for Kings and all that are in authority , that we may lead a quiet and a peaceable life in all godliness and honesty : plainly implying that the security and peace of societies depends upon the power and authority of Kings and persons in eminency and trust : for none must make warre but he that does it for all mens interest ; and therefore it is peace with all that are under government : but then that which is designed to keep peace must feel to warre from them whom it is designed to keep in peace , that they may not feel the evils of warre . It government be necessary , it is necessary that we should obey it ; if we must obey it , we must not judge it ; if we must not judge it , we may not endeavour to punish it : and there is nothing in the world a greater destruction to it 's own ends , then the resisting or rebelling against government ; because if we be above it , how are we subjects ? if subjects , how are we it's Judges ? if no Judges , how can we be avengers ? if no avengers , why are we not quiet and patient ? If we be not above , we are below ; and therefore there let us abide : but if we be above , then we are the supreme power ; and then it is all one . That which is said all this while concerns the subjects , and not the Supreme , to whom by our natural necessities , by a general contract of mankind , by the law of nations , by the command of God , and by the civil laws of all republicks the subject is bound , and does owe obedience and maintenance , and honour and peace . Generale pactum est societatis humanae obedire Regibus suis , said S. Austin , It is a covenant that all mankind have agreed in , to be obedient to their Kings . But all this is true : but since Kings are for defence and Justice , for good and not for evil , for edification and not for destruction , good Kings must be obeyed ; but what if they be evil and unjust , cruel and unreasonable enemies of their people , and enemies of mankind ? This is that I have been saying all this while , that let him be what he will , if he be the supreme , he is superior to me , and I have nothing to doe , but something to suffer ; let God take care , if he please , I shall be quickly remedied , till then I must doe as well as I can . For if there be any case in which the subjects may resist , who shall be Judge of that case ? can this case be evident and notorious ? and does it alwaies consist in indivisibili ? If it does not , then many things are like it , and who can secure that the subjects shall judge right ? For if they were infallible , yet who will engage that they will not doe amiss ? what warrantly have we against the ambition and the passion and the interest of the reformers of supreme powers ? And is it not better to suffer inconvenience from one then from every one that please ? But if you allow one case , you must allow as many as can be reduc'd to it ; and who is not witty enough against Governours , to find excuses enough to bring them down ? 2. What remedy is there is case the supreme power be ill administred ? will not any remedy bring greater evils then the particular injustices which are complain'd of ? It was well said of Xenophon , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , He that opposes his General and Prince , opposes his own safety . For consider , what order can be in a family , if the boys rule their Fathers and rebel against their command ? How shall the sick be cur'd , if they resist the advice and prescriptions of the Physicians ? And they that sail are like to suffer shipwrack , if the Boat swain and the Swabbers and the boys shall contradict the Master . So it is impossible that there can be safety in a common-wealth , if they who are appointed to obey shall offer to rule . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , For by nature it is necessary and profitable and order'd accordingly , that one should rule and the rest should be obedient . And therefore these wild cases are not to be pretended against that which natural reason and natural necessity have established . We cannot suppose a King that should endeavour to destroy his Kingdome . We may as well suppose a Father to kill his children , and that therefore in some cases it may be lawful for children to rebel against their Fathers , turn them out of doors , & , as they see occasion , cut their throats that the inheritance may be theirs . Whom can we suppose worse then Julian , then Domitian , then Nero ? and yet these Princes were obeyed , and did never proceed to the extremity of such desperate hostilities : Nay Nero , as bad as he was , yet when he was kill'd , was quickly miss'd ; for in a few moneths three Princes succeeded him , and there was more blood of the Citizens spilt in those few moneths then in Nero's fourteen year . And who please both for their pleasure and their instruction to read the Encomium of Nero written by the incomparable Cardan , shall find that the worst of Princes doe much more good then they doe harm . But , semper Corpori grave est Caput , the head alwaies akes , and is a burden to the shoulders , and we complain much of every little disorder . Put case a Prince by injustice doe violence to some of his subjects , what then ? Qui unum , qui plures occidit , non tamen reip . laesae reus est , sed caedis , said Seneca , It is not the killing of some Citizens that destroyes the Commonwealth : and there are not many Princes that proceed so far as to doe open and profess'd wrong to the lives of their subjects ; but many subjects have done violence , open and apparent , to the lives of their Princes , and yet the subjects are aptest to complain . Quis Princeps apud nos regnavit è Vi●ecomitum aut Sfortiadum familia quem non aliquis Civis noster etiam sine causa , sed solâ ambitione , ferro aggressus sit ? pauci certè , Which of our Princes of such and such a family hath not been set upon to be murder'd by some of their Subjects , without cause , but meekly out of ambition ? very few . And he that reads Hector Boethius his history of Scotland may say as much as Cardan , and for a longer time . Every man complains of Kings and Governours ; we love them not , and then every little thing makes him a Tyrant : but it is in this case as in the case of women ( saies Albericus Gentilis ) we cannot be without them , and yet we are not pleas'd when we are tied to them . * If any such thing could happen that a King had a mind to destroy his people , by whom should he doe it ? He alone can hardly doe it ; and he could hardly arm his people against themselves . But what should he get by it ? he cannot be so unreasonable : but suppose it , what then ? Oppression will make a wise man mad ( saith Solomon ) and there are some temptations bigger then a mans strength ; and this would be one of them , and the people would be vext into the sin of rebellion ; and then it may be , God would cut him off , and punish the people ; and here would be calamity enough in this whole entercourse , but nothing lawful . For we have nothing dearer to us then our lives and our religion ; but in both these cases we find whole armies of Christians dying quietly , and suffering persecution without murmur . * But it cannot be done , it cannot easily be suppos'd that an evil Prince should be otherwise then one that is cruel and unjust , and this to fall upon some persons : for let him be lustfull , he shall not ravish the Common-wealth ; and if he be bloody , his sword cannot cut off very great numbers ; and if he be covetous , he will not take away all mens estates : but if a warre be made against him , these evils will be very much more universal ; for the worst of Princes that ever was hath obliged a great many , and some will follow him out of duty , some for fear , some for honour , and some for hopes ; and then as there is no subject that complains of wrong but he hath under the government receiv'd more right then wrong , so there is none that goes to doe himself right , ( if that be all he intends , and not covetous and ambitious designs ) but in the forcing it he will find more wrong then right . 3. But I demand , Are there no persons from whom if we receive wrong we must not be avenged of them ? To a Christian it had been a more reasonable inquiry , whether there be any persons of whom we may be avenged . Certainly there are none of whom we may be avenged without the aid or leave of the publick power . But what if our Father doe us wrong ? may we strike him ? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to bear our Fathers unjust wrath was one of the precepts the young man of Eretria had learnt of Zeno : and what then if we be injur'd by the publick Father ? Magno animo Regis , velut parentis contumeliam tulit ; it was said of Lysimachus : & ut parentum sa●vitiam sic Patriae patiendo ac ferendo leniendam esse , said Livy . If we must bear with our Fathers , so also with our Princes . Vi regere Patriam aut Parentes , quanquam & possis , & delicta corrigas , importunum est , said Sallust , Though it were in your power , though you might reform some evils , yet to rule your Parents or your Prince by force is not reasonable . And it was an excellent saying which Cicero had from Plato . Tantum contendere in rep . oportet quantum probare tuis civibus possis , vim neque parenti neque patriae afferri oportere . Id enim Plato jubet , quem ego vehementer sequor : & qui hanc causam sibi fuisse ait reipublicae non attingendae , quod cum offendisset populum Atheniensem propè jam desipientem senectute , cumque eum nec persuadendo nec cogendo regi posse vidisset , cum persunderi posse dissideret , cogi f●● esse non arbitraretur , To contend and fight in a Common-wealth can never be approved by the Citizens : strive so much as you can justify : but you must offer force neither to your parents nor to your country , that is the supreme government of your Country . And when Plato saw the people of Athens almost doating with age , he despair'd of prevailing upon them by perswasion ; but yet to compel them by force he concluded to be impious . But can any man loose by patience ? hath it no reward ? or is there no degrees of Counsel in it ? that is , Is not some patience acceptable though it be not necessary ? shall it have no reward , if it be more then we are bound to ? If it shall be rewarded , though it be greater then is simply necessary , then it is certain , that whatever we suffer under evil Princes , to be quiet and peaceable is infinitely better then to resist : For that shall have a good reward ; this seldome misses an ill one . But if there be no counsel , no degree of uncommanded patience , then all patience is necessary ; for it is certain none is sinne : for Christ was glorified by suffering the greatest injuries , and his Martyrs have trodden the same way of the Cross ; and so must we if God calls us to it , if we will be his Disciples . 4. But again I consider , Does every subject that is a wicked man forfeit the right in his estate , otherwise then law appoints ? Is dominion founded in grace ? or is it founded in law and labour , in succession and purchase ? And is it not so in Princes ? with this onely difference , that their rights of government are derived from God immediately ; for none but he can give a power of life and death : can therefore any one take away what they did not give ? or can a supreme Prince loose it by vice , who did not get it by vertue , but by gift from God ? If a law were made to devest the Prince of his power in case of ill government , then he were not the man I mean , he is not supreme but subordinate , and did rule precariously , that is as long as his superior judges will give him leave . But for the supreme he is sacred and immured , just as the utmost orbs of heaven are uncircumscrib'd ; not that they are positively infinite , but because there is nothing beyond them : so is the supreme Magistrate , nothing is above him but God : and therefore in his case we may use the words of Livy , si quis adversus ea fecisset , nihil ultrà quam improbè factum adjecit lex , If he does any thing against reason and justice , there is no more to be said but that it was ill done . * But if he does not doe his duty , that 's no warranty for me not to doe mine ; and if obedience and patience be a duty , then the one is as necessary , and the other is more necessary when he does not doe what he ought . * And after all , the supreme power in every Christian republick hath no power to kill a subject without law , nor to spoil him of his goods . Therefore neither can a subject kill or exauthorate the supreme at all ; for there is no law to doe it : and if he be the supreme power , he is also law-giver , and therefore will make no such law against himself ; and if he did , he were neither wise nor just . Either then stop all pretences , or admit all . If you admit any case in which the subjects may fight against their Prince , you must admit every case that he will pretend who is the judge of one . But because Government is by God appointed to remedy the intolerable evils of confusion and the violence and tyranny of every strong villane , we must keep our selves there ; for if we take the sword , or the power , or the legislation , or the Judicature , or the impunity from the Supreme , we return to that state of evil from whence we were brought by government . For certain it is , all the personal mischiefs and injustices done by an evil Prince are infinitely more tolerable then the disorders of a violent remedy against him . If there be not a derniere resort , or a last appeal fixt somewhere , mischiefs will be infinite ; but the evils that come from that one place will soon be numbred , and easier suffered and cur'd . It were easie to adde here the sentences of the wise heathen to this very purpose ; for though religion speakes loudest in this article , yet nature her self is vocal enough : but I have remark'd some already occasionally , to the same sense with that of Tacitus , Imperatores bonos voto expetendos , qualescunque tolerandos : So the wiser Romans at last had learnt their duty . The same also was the sentence of the Greeks ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , We must patiently suffer the follies of our Rulers . So did the Persians , — quamvis crudelibus , aequè Paretur Dominis , Though the Lords be cruel , yet you must obey them as well as the gentle . But I am weary of so long telling a plain story . He that is not determined by these things , I suppose will desire to see no more . But if he does , he may please to see many more particulars in Barclay , in Grotius , in Monsieur de la Noüe , in Albericus Gentilis , in Scipio Gentilis , in Bishop Bilson , in Petrus Gregorius & Bodinus . I conclude , many supreme Princes have laid aside their kingdomes , and have exchang'd them for honour and religion ; and many subjects have laid aside their supreme Princes or Magistrates , and have exchanged them for liberty and justice . But the one got , and the other lost . They had real advantages ; and these had words in present , and repentance in reversion . RULE IV. The Supreme Civil Power is also Supreme Governour over all persons and in all causes Ecclesiastical . IF this Rule were not of great necessity for the conduct of Conscience , as being a measure of determining all questions concerning the Sanction of and obedience to all Ecclesiastical lawes , the duty of Bishops and Priests to their Princes , the necessity of their paying tribute , and discharging the burdens and relieving the necessities of the Republick , I should have been unwilling to have medled with it ; because it hath so fierce opposition from the bigots of two parties , the Guelphs and the Gibellines , from Rome and from Scotland , from S. Peter and S. Andrew , the Papist and the Presbyterian : and they have plac'd all their great interest and their greatest passions upon this question , and use not to be very kind to any man that shall at all oppose them . 2. From the Church of Rome we have many learned men , servants of the Pope , who affirm that all Government● Ecclesiastical belongs to him ; that he onely can make lawes of Religion , that in that he hath a compulsory over Kings , who are his subjects , dependant upon him , by him to be commanded in matters of religion ; to which all temporalties are so subordinate , that if not directly , ( as some of them say ) yet indirectly , as most of them say , in ordine ad Spirituale bonum , for the good of the Church and of religion he can dispose of them . The great defenders of this doctrine are a Bellarmine and b Baronius , c Harding and d Eudaemon Johannes , e Fevardentius and f Mariana , g Boucher and h Ficklerus , i Alexander Carerius and k D. Marta , l Doleman , and generally the Jesuits , and all the Canonists . On the other side , the Presbytery pretends mightily to the scepter of Jesus Christ , as the Pope does to the Keyes of S. Peter , and they will have all Kings submit to that ; as there is all the reason in the world they should : but by this scepter of Christ they mean their own classical meetings , and the Government that themselves have set up the other day ; to which the first inventer of it was at first forc'd pitifully to beg suffrages of allowance , and that it might be endur'd ; but as ill weeds use to doe , it quickly grew up to that height , that like the Bramble it would be King , and all the birds and beasts must come under the shadow of it . The great Masters of this invention after Calvin are m Beza , n Cartwright , o Lambertus Danaeus , p Gellius Snecanus , q Guil. Bucanus , r Hermannus Renecherus , s Buchanan , t Christopher Goodman , u Brutus Celta , w Francisc. Hottoman , the Author of the Book called Speculum tyrannidis Philippi Regis , x and the Dialogues of Philadelphus : and if any one would see more of these , he may find enough of them in the writings of that Excellent and Prudent Prelate Dr Bancroft Archbishop of Canterbury . Concerning the pretences of the Church of Rome , they are as invalid as can be wish●t . For although there are some overtures of Scripture made , as Tibi dabo claves , and Ecce duo gladii , and Pasce oves , which are strange arguments to considering persons to prove the Pope superiour to Kings , ( and concerning them I shall not need to use any argument , but set down the words of the Bishop of Maestricht in an excellent oration of his recorded by Aventine . Ambitiosi & superbi sunt qui illud Domini Deique nostri elogium , Quodcunque solveris super terram , &c. & quodcunque ligaveris erit ligatum , &c. perfrictâ fronte interpretando adulterant , suae libidini servire cogunt , & nobis ceu pueris , & omnium rerum imperitis , astu illudere student , They that expound such words of Christ to serve their pride or lust of Empire are impudent , and think us to be fools and children , and fit to be cosen'd and fool'd out of our senses : ) yet these were made no use of to any such purpose for many Ages after the Apostles death ; and therefore upon wiser accounts they cause this great article to rely upon some prudential motives , and some great precedents and examples . The particulars I shall consider in the following numbers : but that which here lies in my way is their great boast of the fact of Pope Zachary deposing Childeric King of France in the year 750 , and appointing Pepin the Kings Marshall to be King in his Room . Upon the warranty of this Example Gregory the 7th endeavour'd to justify his proceedings against the Emperour Henry 4th . Bellarmine will not endure with patience to hear that any one did this feat but the Pope onely ; and on all hands they contend mightily that it was he , and not the Nobles and people of France . They indeed were willing but they had no authority , therefore they appeal'd to him as the Ordinary Judge ; and he declared for Pepin , and God declared for that Judgement that it was according to his will : for the event was blessed , Pepin was prosperous , and his son Charles the Great grew a mighty Prince , and France a potent Empire , and Religion and the Church had great increment and more advantages then before or since . But when men judge of actions by the events , they onely shew themselves willing to be cosen'd by prosperity , and that they will endure nothing that hath affliction with it ; but so they become advocates for the greatest villanies , because they could never come to their greatnesse if they were unprosperous . And therefore there is no judging of lawful or unlawful by the event , till the last event be tried : and at the day of our death and at the day of Judgement , the event of things is the best argument and the best trial of right and wrong . But besides this , the folly of these men is infinitely seen in this very instance . For it is no wonder that the Church of Rome was prosperous and did thrive upon that change : Pepin and Pope Zachary helped one another and divided the spoil ; and Pepin and Charles having no warranty and reputation in that treasonable surprize of the Crown of France , but what they had from the opinion the world then had of the Bishop of Rome , it concern'd Charles to advance the Papacy , that the Papacy might support him . But by all that is before him in this world , a man knows not whether he be worthy of love or hatred , saith Solomon ; and a mans fortune is seen in his children : and therefore if the Popes servants would look a little further then their own advantages , they might have consider'd what is observed by Paulus Aemilius and Beneventus of Imola , that in the days of Charles the Great , who was son to Pepin , the Empire was divided ; ( which was the curse in which God punish'd Solomon in the person of Rehoboam ) that his son Ludovicus Pius was serv'd just as his Grandfather serv'd his Master the King , for his son Lotharius did most unnaturally rebel against him , depos'd him and thrust him into a cloister ; and that he himself felt the judgement of God , for himself also was depos'd , and succeeded to by Lewis the second , who was prosperous in nothing , but in every undertaking the wind blew in his face . His son was Ludovicus nihili , so they call'd him ; a cypher of a King , and stood for nothing . He indeed left an heire to the Crown : but he also was a man that had no heart , and his son had no head ; for Charles the Bald was an extreme pitiful coward , and Charles le gross was a fool . After these succeeded Arnulph , who was eaten up with lice , the sad disease of Herod ; and in his son Lewis the fourth that race was quite extinguish'd . And now if we judge of things by the event , have we not great reason even upon this account to suspect the fact of Zachary , ( though it was not his authority , but his consent and his confederacy with the Rebel ) to be extremely displeasing to Almighty God , when there was not one of his line but went away with a share of the Divine anger ? But such reasonings as these concern none but them who feel them ; they may suspect the thing , and better examine their confidences when they feel any extraordinary evils , which most commonly are the consequents of a great sin and a mighty displeasure . But others are to doe as they should have done at first , goe by rule , and not venture upon the thing to see what will become of it . * Being now quit of this by which they have made so much noise ; all their other little arguments will soon melt away when they come to be handled . But as for the other pretenders ( viz. those of the Presbytery , ) to a power superior to Kings in Ecclesiastical Government ; they have not yet proved themselves to have received from Christ any power at all , to govern in his Church ; and therefore much lesse by virtue of any such power to rule over Kings . I doe therefore suppose these Gentlemen not much concerned in this question , because they are uncapable of making claime ; not onely because Religion is no pretence to Regalities , and that Spiritual power is of a nature wholly different from the power of Kings ; but because if the Spiritual were to be above the Temporal , yet even then they are not the better . For they have not onely none of that Spiritual power which can pretend to Government , but it does not yet appear that they have any at all : and this relies upon the infinite demonstrations of Episcopal Government and power ; which being one of the words and works of Christ , must needs be as firme as heaven and earth . But if they be concern'd , they will be concluded . And first in general , it is necessary that the supreme power of Kings or States should be governors in Religion , or else they are but half Kings at the best , * for the affaires of Religion are one half of the interest of mankind : and therefore the laws of the XII Tables made provision for religion as well as for the publick interest . Jus triplex tabulae quod ter sanxêre quanternae Sacrum , Privatum , & populi commune quod usquam est . And this is so naturally and unalterably entail'd upon the supreme power , that when Attalus the King of the Pergamenians made the people of Rome his Heire with these words onely , Populus Rom. bonorum meorum haeres esto , Let the people of Rome be Heire of all my goods ; by [ His goods ] they understood , Divina Humanáque , publica & privata , saith Eutropius , & Florus , all power in things publick and private , Humane and Divine . For since Religion is that great intercourse between God and us , it is impossible to deny to him who stands next to God the care of that by which we approach nearest to him ; and this I learn'd from Justine . Jure ille à Diis proximus habetur per quem Deorum Majestas vindicatur , He is rightly plac'd next under God , by whom the Majesty of God is asserted . And therefore the Christians must alter their style , and no more say that the Prince is homo à Deo secundus , & solo Deo minor , ( which are the words of Tertullian ) next to God , and onely lesse then him , if between God and the Prince there is all that great distance and interval of the Government of Religion . He is the best and greatest person that rules the best and greatest interest : and it was rightly observed of S. Paul concerning controversies civil , for money or land , Set them to judge who are least esteemed amongst you ; for that is of the least concerne : but he that is Judge of life and death , that is , the Governour of bodies , and he that governs the greatest affaires of souls , he indeed ought to be of highest estimation . Bishops and Priests are the great Ministers of Religion , but Kings are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Rulers and Governours of it . And this is easy to distinguish . For as the Kings Judges and Councel learned in the Law minister law to the people , yet the King is the supreme judge in law ; and the Kings Captains and souldiers fight his battels , and yet he is summus Imperator , and the power of the Militia is his : so it is in religion , it must be ministred by persons ordained to the service , but govern'd by himself : He is not supreme unlesse he have all the power of Government . 2. The care of religion must needs belong to the supreme Magistrate , because religion is the great instrument of political happinesse : ad magnas Reip. utilitates retinetur religio in civitatibus , saith Cicero ; and unlesse he have power to manage and conduct it , and to take care it be rightly ordered , the supreme power hath not sufficient to defend his charges . If the Prince cannot conduct his Religion , he is a supreme Prince just as if he had not the militia ; or as if he were Judge of right but not of wrong ; or as if he could reward but not punish ; or as if he had cognisance but of one half of the causes of his people ; or as if he could rule at land but not at sea , or by night but not by day . But how if an enemy comes with a fleet against him , will he send a Brigade of horse to take a squadron of ships ? The case is just the same ; for if God breaks in upon a Nation for the evil administration of religion , how shall the Prince defend his people or answer to God for them ? And this is no inconsiderable necessity : For besices that justice and charity , and temperance and chastity , and doing good and avoiding evil are parts of religion , and yet great material parts of government and the laws , the experience of mankind and natural reason teaches us that nothing is so great a security or ruine to a State as the well or ill administration of Religion . Dii multa neglecti dederunt Hesperiae mala luctuose : and Cicero , Omnia prospera eveniunt colentibus deos , adversa spernentibus , The people that have care of Religion are prosperous , but unhappy when they are irreligious . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith Euripides ; and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Religion is the band of families , and a strong foundation to Common-wealths . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so Plutarch ; it is the ligature of all communities , and the firmament of lawes : the same with that of Synesius , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , First let religion be setled , because it is the strong Base and columne upon which a Kingdome does relie . And of this we have God himself a witnesse : Seek the Kingdome of heaven and the righteousnesse thereof in the first place , and all these things [ that is the necessaries of the world and of this life ] shall be added . For so saith the Apostle , Piety is profitable to all things , having the promise of the life that now is , and of that which is to come . And to this that of Homer rarely accords , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The sense of which is well enough rendred by that of Justinian , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that he would take care concerning Ecclesiastical government or the affaires of religion ; for if this be kept in peace , all the whole republick will be prosperously administred , reliqua nobis exuberabit politia . So it is rendred by one of our Saxon Kings . The very trees will bring their fruit in due season , and the sea will give her fish , and the earth shall give her increase , when Kings take care of justice and religion . * By religion Princes increase their Empire . So † Cicero affirmes of the Romans , non calliditate ac robore , sed pietate ac religione omnes gentes nationesque superavisse , They overcame all the Nations not by force or craft , but by piety and religion . To which purpose is that of Valerius Maximus , Non dubitaverunt sacris Imperia servire : ita se rerum humanarum futura regimen existimantia si Divinae potentiae bene atque constanter essent famulata , The Greatest Empires made no scruple of ministring to Religion , as believing that then they should most prosperously prevaile in the Governments of the world , if they well and constantly did service to the Divine Almighty power . Now this is not to be understood as if it meant that if a King were a good man and personally religious it would procure blessings for him and his people ; though that be true in some proportion of events : but it signifies that they should be religious Kings , that is , as such take care to defend , to promote , to conduct and to govern it to advantages and for the honour of God. And this observation is made by S. Austin in his epistle to Bonifacius . How doe Kings serve the Lord in fear , but by forbidding and by a religious severity punishing those things which are done against the Lords Commandements ? For otherwise does he serve him as a Man , otherwise as a King. As a man he serves him by living faithfully : But as a King he serves him by establishing laws , commanding righteousnesse , and forbidding the contrary . So did Hezekiah serve God by destroying the Groves and the idol Temples , and all those things which were built against the Commands of God. In the like manner King Josiah did serve God : and the King of Nineveh serv'd him by compelling all the city to serve the Lord. Thus King Darius serv'd God by delivering the idol to Daniel to be broken , and casting his enemies into the Lions den : and Nebuchadnezzar serv'd him by forbidding by a terrible law all his subjects to blaspheme . For in this , Kings serve the Lord as Kings , when they doe those things for his service which they cannot doe but as Kings . Now if religion be the great interest , the preserver , the enlarger of Kingdomes , it ought to be governed by the hands of these whose office it is to enlarge or to preserve them . For if the instrument be conducted by other hands , the event shall depend upon them , and then they , not Kings , shall be answerable for the felicity or infelicity of their Nations . And it was rarely well said of Plutarch , that a city might be as well built in the aire , without earth to stand upon , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as a republick can either be constituted or preserved without the support of religion . That supreme power therefore that hath no government of religion is defective in a necessary part of it's life and constitution . 3. The supremacy and conduct of religion is necessary to the supreme power , because without it he cannot in many cases govern his people . For besides that religion is the greatest band or laws , and conscience is the greatest endearment of obedience , * and a security for Princes in closets and retirements , and his best guard against treasons ; it is also that by which the common people can be carried to any great or good or evil designe . And therefore Livy observes of Numa , that to establish his Government he first setled religion , as supposing that nothing is more powerful to lead the people gently , or to drive them furiously , then to imprint in them the fear of God , or to scare them with religion . And therefore the Prince cannot rule without it : He is but the shadow of a King and the servant of his Priests ; and if they rule religion , they may also rule him . And that for two great causes . 1. Because the propositions and opinions of religion have and are directly intended to have great influence upon the whole life and all the actions of mankind . For how if the Ministers of religion preach the Stoical fate , and that all things that come to pass are unalterably predetermin'd , who need to care how he serves God , or how he serves his Prince ? Suetonius saies of Tiberius , that he was religionis negligentior , quippe persuasionis plenus cuncta fato agi , careless of religion , because he was fully perswaded that all things came by destiny . To what purpose are laws or punishments , rewards and dignities , prisons and axes , rods and Lictors , when it is injustice to punish a criminal for being unavoidably miserable ? and then all government is at an end when there can be no vertue nor vice , no justice nor injustice : for what is alike necessary , is equally just . But upon some such account as this Plato said that they are not to be suffered in a Common-wealth who said that God is the Author of evil . * And what are likely to be the effects of that perswasion which is a great ingredient in the religion of some men , [ That Dominion is founded in grace ; that evil Princes may be deposed ; that hereticks may be excommunicated , and their subjects absolved from the oath of their allegiance ; that faith is not to be kept with hereticks ; that it is lawful to tell a lie before a Magistrate , provided we think up the truth ; that Kings are but executioners of the decrees of the Presbytery ; that all things ought to be in common ? ] By such propositions as these it is easy to overthrow the state of any Common-wealth ; and how shall the Prince help himself , if he have not power to forbid these and the like dangerous doctrines ? A Common-wealth fram'd well by laws and a wise administration , can by any one of these be fram'd anew and overturn'd . It is therefore necessary that the Prince hold one end of this staff , lest himself be smitten on the head . 2. The other great cause is this , Because religion hath great influence upon persons as well as actions ; and if a false religion be set on foot , a religion that does not come from God , a religion that onely pretends God , but fears him not , they that conduct it can lead on the people to the most desperate villanies and machinations . We read in the life of Henry the third of England , that when he had promis'd any thing to his Nobility that he had no mind to perform , he would presently send to the Pope for a Bull of dispensation , and suppos'd himself acquitted : and who could suffer such a religion that destroyed the being of contracts and societies , or bear the evils consequent to such a religion ? And of the same nature , but something worse in the instance , is that which Arnaldus Ferronius tels of , that the Roman Lawyers answer'd to Ferdinandus Davalus , that at the command of the Pope he might take up arms against the Emperour Charls the fifth , his Prince , without any guilt of Treason . And it was yet very much worse which was done and said by the Pope John 22. against the Emperor Lewis the 4. Quod si nobis obtemperare detrectaverit , Patriarchis , Episcopis , cunctis Sacerdotibus , Principibus , Civitatibus imperamus ut eundem deserant , ac nobis parere cogant , Patriarchs and Princes , Bishops and Priests were not onely allowed , but commanded to forsake their Emperour , & to compel him to obey the Bishop of Rome . By these and much more it appears , the evil Ministers of a false religion have great powers of doing what they please : Nam faciunt animos humiles formidine Divûm , Depressosque premunt ad terram — They make the people absolute slaves , and lift them up again with boldness to doe mischief . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Plutarch , The rude people are easy and apt to superstition : and when they are in , they are ready for any violence . Superstitione qui est imbutus quietus esse non potest , said Cicero : they cannot be quiet when they have got a wild proposition by the end . And this is too much verified by the histories of almost all nations : for there is none but hath smarted deeply by the factions and hypocrisies of Religion . The Priests of Jupiter in the Island of Meroe did often send the people to kill their Kings . Eunus a Roman slave arm'd 60000 men upon pretence of a religious extasy and inspiration . Maricus in France did the like : so did an Egyptian in the time of Claudius the Emperor , mention'd by Josephus , who led after him 30000. men against the Romans . The two false Christs , the one in the time of Vespasian , the other under Hadrian , prevailed to the extreme ruine of their miserable country-men . Leo & the Turkish Annals tell us strange events & overthrows of Government brought to pass by the arts of religion in the hands of Elmahel and Chemin Mennal in Africa : the first taking the Kingdome of Morocco from Abraham their King , together with his life ; the other forcing the King of Fesse to yield unto him the Kingdome of Temesna . In Asia Shacoculis of the Persian Sect by his religion arm'd great numbers of men , and in three great battails overthrew the Turkish power , and put to hazard all their Empire . They that knew none of these stories did know others like them , and at least knew the force of religion to effect what changes pleased them who had the conduct of it ; and therefore all wise Princes , ancient and modern , took care to prevent the evil by such remedies and arts of government as were in their hands . Three remedies were found out ; two by men , and one by God. 1. The ancient governments of the world kept themselves and their people the religion of their nation , that which did comply with their government , that which they were sure would cause no disturbance , as being that which was a part of the Government , was bred up with it , and was her younger sister ; but of forraigne rights and strange and new religions they were infinitely impatient : by the prohibition and exclusion of which by their civil laws , as the supreme power secur'd the interest and peace of the republick , so it gave demonstration that the civil power was supreme also in the religion . Upon this account we find that Aristotle and A●axagoras were accused ; Socrates and Protagoras were condemn'd , for holding opinions and teaching contrary to the religion of their country , and it was usual with the Athenians so to proceed : so Josephus writes of them , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they did severely punish any man that speak but a word against the religion established by law . The Scythians also put Anacharsis to death for celebrating the feast of Bacchus by the Graecian rights — For these nations accounted their country gods to be entertain'd and endear'd by their country religion , and that they were displeas'd with any new ceremonies . * But this thing was most remarkable in the state of Rome . For this was one of the charges which they gave to the Aediles , Ne qui nisi Romani Dii neque alio more quam patrio colerentur . And Marcus Aemilius recited a Decree to this purpose , Ne quis in publico sacrove loco novo aut externo ritu sacrificaret . And this they made a solemn business of , saith Livy , quoties Patrum Avorumque aetate negotium Magistratibus datum est ut sacra externa fieri vetarent , In the daies of our Ancestors they often made laws forbidding any stranger rites ; but commanded that onely their own country gods should be worshipped , and that after their country manner . For this was enjoyned in the laws of the XII . Tables , Nemo separatim Deos cabessit . No man must have a religion of his own , but that which is appointed by laws . And upon this stock Claudius banished the Jews from Rome , and quite extinguish'd the superstition of the Druides , which Augustus Caesar had so often prohibited . But most full to this purpose is the Narrative which Dio makes of the counsel which Mecaenas gave to young Octavian , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Worship God alwaies and every where according to your Country Customs , and compel others so to doe : but hate and punish the bringers in of strange religions ; because they who bring in new Deities and formes of worship , they persuade men to receive other laws , and make leagues , Covenants , factions and confederacies . And therefore to prevent innovations in religion , the Romans often inquir'd after those who had books of strange religions , and when they found any they burn'd them ; as we find in Livy and Suetonius . They would not suffer the rites of religion to be publickly disputed : and Augustus would not have the Causes of the Rites of Ceres heard in open Court. And when Ptolemy of Egypt was press'd to hear the Controversy between the Jewes and the Samaritans concerning the Antiquity of their Religion , he would not admit any such dispute , till the Advocates would undertake their cause to be just upon the pain of death , so that they who were overcome in the cause should die for it ; and that they should use no arguments but those which were taken from the received laws of their Country , the law of Moses : they did so , and the advocates of the Samaritan party being overcome were put to death . For they knew that to introduce a new religion with fiercenesse and zeal would cause disturbances and commotions in the Common-wealth ; and none are so sharp , so dangerous and intestine as those which are stirred by religion . Pro aris & focis is the greatest of all contentions , for their Countrey religion and their Countrey dwellings : for their Altars and their hearths even old women and children will carry clubs and scalding water . * This caution therefore was also observ'd by Christian Princes . Justinian gave in charge to the Proconsul of Palaestine to prevent all popular tumults which from many causes use to disturb the Province , tum verò maximè ex diversitate religionum… . quandoquidem ut multos illic tumultus existere cernimus , neque leves horum eventus : but especially those that proceed from diversities of religion ; for this begets many tumults , and these usually sit very heavy upon the Common-wealth : the changes of religion being most commonly the most desperate paroxysmes that can happen in a sickly state . Which Leontinus Bp. of Antioch express'd prettily by an Emblem ; for stroaking of his old white head , he said , When this snow is dissolv'd , a great deal of dirty weather would follow : meaning when the old religion should be question'd and discountenanc'd , the new religions would bring nothing but trouble and unquietnesse . This course of forbidding new religions is certainly very prudent , & infinitely just and pious . Not that it is lawful for a Prince to persecute the religion of any other Nation , or the private opinion of any one within his owne ; but that he suffer none to be superinduc'd to his owne to the danger of peace and publick tranquillity . The persuasions of religion are not to be compell'd : but the disturbances by religion are to be restrained by the laws . And if any change upon just reason is to be made , let it be made by authority of the supreme : ut respublica salva sit ; that he may take care that peace and blessings may not goe away to give place to a new probleme . When it is in the Princes hands he can make it to comply with the publick laws , which he then does best of all when he makes it to become a law it self . But against the law no man is to be permitted to bring in new religions , excepting him onely who can change the law , and secure the peace . Beyond this no compulsion is to be us'd in religion : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said S. Clemens Alexandrinus , All religion must enter by exhortation ; for it is intended to beget a desire in our mind that is of the same cognation , a desire of the life that now is , and of that which is to come . The same with that of Theodoricus King of the Romans , Religionem imperare non possumus , quia nemo cogitur ut credat invitus : and Theobaldus writing to the Emperor Justinian argued well , Since God himself is pleas'd to permit many religions , we dare not by force impose any one ; for we remember to have read that we must sacrifice to God with a willing mind , not by the command of any one that compels . And therefore the old Romans , the Greeks , the Scythians , although they would admit no new religion amongst their own people , would permit to every Nation to retain their own ; by this practice of theirs declaring that religion is not to be forc'd abroad , nor chang'd at home , but that it was by the supreme power of the Republick to be conducted so as to comply with the interest of the Commonwealth . This was the first remedy against the evils of religious pretences ; which by being conducted in the hands of the Civil power shews that to be supreme even in the Questions of Religion . 2. The other which was found out by Men , is that they did take the priesthood into the hands of the supreme civil power ; and then they were sure that all was safe . The Egyptians chose their priests out of their Schools of learning , and their Kings out of their Colledges of Priests . The Kings of Aritia , a place not far from Alba , were also priests of Diana : The same is reported of the priests of Bellona , that they were the Kings of Cappodocia , saith Hirtius ; and the priests of Pantheon were supreme Judges of all causes , and conductors of all their warres . The Kings of Persia were alwayes consecrated to be Princes of the ceremonies , so was the King of Lacedaemon : and at this day the Kings of Malabar are also Bramenes or priests ; and it was a law amongst the Romans , Sacrorum omnium potestas sub Regibus esto , The power of religion and all holy things was to be under their Kings : and Virgil ever brings in his Prince Aeneas as president of the sacrifical rites ; and of something to the same purpose Ovid makes mention , Utque ea nunc certa est , ita Rex placare Superna Numina lanigerae conjuge debet ovis . The King with the sacrifice of a Ram was to appease the Gods. So did Romulus and Numa ; Romulus auspiciis , Numa sacris constitutis fundamenta jecerunt Romanae civitatis , said Cicero : they built Rome , and religion was the foundation of the city . And the same custome descended with the succeeding Kings , as Dionysius Halicarnassaeus reports , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , They had the government of all sacrifices and holy rites , and whatsoever was to be done to the Holy Gods , was done by them . When afterwards they separated the priesthood from the civil power , they appointed a sacrificing King to take care of the rites , but they kept him from all intermedling with civil affaires ; he might beare no office in the Common-wealth , nor have any imployment in the army , nor make an oration to the people , nor meddle with publick affaires : and yet besides this caution , the supreme Magistrate was Pontifex Maximus ; and although he did not usually handle the rites , yet when he pleas'd he made laws concerning the Religion , and punish'd the Augurs , and the Vestal virgins , and was superior to the Rex sacrorum , and the whole College of priests . But when the Common-wealth was changed into Monarchy , Augustus annexed the great Pontificate to the Imperial dignity , and it descended even to the Christian Emperors , who because it was an honourary title , and was nothing but a power of disposing religion , they at first refus'd it not : but upon this account it was that Tacitus said of the Roman Emperor , nunc Deûm munere summum Pontificem summum hominum esse , The greatest priest is also the greatest Prince . * Now this device of theirs would indeed doe their businesse , but it was more then was needfull . For though it were certain that religion in the hands of the supreme Magistrate should never disturb the publick ; yet it might be as sure if the Ministery were in other hands , and the Empire and conduct of it in their own . And that was Gods way . 3. For God hath instrusted Kings with the care of the Church , with the custody of both the Tables of his Law , with the defence of all the persons of his Empire ; and their charge is to preserve their people in all godlinesse and honesty , in peace and in tranquillity : and how this can be done without the supreme care and Government of religion is not easie to be understood . 4. But this appears in that Kings , that is , the supreme power of every Nation , are vicegerents of Christ , who is Head of the Church , and Heire of all things ; He ruleth with a rod of iron ; He is Prince of the Kings of the earth ; The onely potentate , King of Kings and Lord of lords ; To him is given all power in Heaven and Earth , and by him Kings reigne . So S. Athanasius , * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Christ taking his throne hath translated it & given it to holy Christian Kings to return them back to the house of Jacob. The Fathers of the Council of Ariminum writing to Constantius the Arrian Emperor , say to him , that by Christ he had his Empire given him ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , By him thou art appointed to reigne over all the world . And upon this account Liberius gave him this advice , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Fight not against him who hath given thee this Empire ; and in stead of thanksgivings , pay him not with dishonour . For the Prince being an Arrian and denying the Divinity of Christ , did dishonour the Prince of the Kings of the earth , who had deserved better at his hands . The consequent of this consideration is this , If Christ as the supreme King does rule his Church , and in this kingdome hath deputed the kings of the earth , and his vicars they are , then they are immediately under him in the Government of Christs Church . For Christ in Heaven is both King and Priest. As King he reigns over all the world for the glory of his Father and the good of his elect ; as Priest he intercedes for all mankind , and particularly for them who shall be heires of Salvation . Now in both these relations he hath on earth deputed certain persons to administer and to imitate his kingdome and priesthood respectively . For he governs all the world , but he does it by his Angel Ministers , and by Kings his deputies . He officiates in his priesthood himself , and in this he hath no deputy ; for he intercedes for us continually : but he hath appointed an order of holy and consecrated persons to imitate the offices of this priesthood , to minister the blessings of it to the people , to represent the death of the Crosse , to preach pardon of sins to the penitent , to reconcile lapsed and returning sinners , that is , to minister to the people all the blessings which he by the office of priesthood procures in Heaven for us . Now it is certain that he hath made deputies of his Kingdome ; for all power being given to him as the great King , there can be no Government upon earth but what he appoints . The Government is upon his shoulders , and all the earth is his inheritance , and therefore from him all just Government is deriv'd . Now it being manifest that he is the fountain of all Kingly power , it is also as manifest that all this power is delegated to the Kings of the earth ; for by me Kings reigne , saith the wisdome of God , and it is one of his most glorious appellatives , that he is Prince of the Kings of the earth ; and it is as certain that none of this kingly power was given to the ministers of religion , but expressly denied to them . The Kings of Nations exercise dominion ; that 's their province : but it shall not be so amongst you : But he that is greatest amongst you let him be your minister . That 's your state , you are ministers of the kingdome to other purposes , in other manners ; you doe your work by serving , by humility , by charity , by labours and compliance , by gentle treatments and the gentlest exhortations ; nothing of a King is to be in you , but the care : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for to joyne the kingdome and the priesthood Evangelical is to joyne in one band things of the most differing nature : for the name of Kings hath power and constraint , Rods and axes ; the name of priests and Apostles hath in it nothing but gentle manners and holy ministeries . Kings can compel ; the ministers of religion must intreat . They can kill ; but at the most these can but rebuke sharply . These can cut off from spiritual communion , and deny to give them mysteries that will hurt the wicked and the indispos'd ; but they can cut them off from life it self . Kings justly seek honours , wealth and dignity , and it is allowed them by laws and by necessity , and by their reason : But priests must not seek their owne , but only the things of Jesus Christ. They must indeed be maintain'd ; the oxe cannot labour if his mouth be musled : but though this be his maintenance it must be no part of his reward . Our blessed Saviours word is rendred by S. Matthew by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The Kings of the people doe rule Imperiously . This very word is also us'd by S. Peter , and forbidden to the elders of the Church , and to it is oppos'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to feed the flock like shepherds . The manner of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 us'd by S. Paul , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 us'd by S. Matthew and S. Peter , the exercising dominion is compulsion , and great riches : this is also forbidden to the Clergy , they must not doe any thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , not for profit to themselves , not with violence or imposing necessity upon others . The Ministers of religion are very considerable in this Kingdome of Christ , to promote and to advance it by holy preachings and holy ministrations : but it is true which was solemnly declar'd in Babylon to the prince of the Captives , officium ipsi non potestatem injungi , et ab eo die incipiendum ipsi servire omnibus ; their eminency is nothing but an eminency of service , it is the greatest ministery in the kingdome , but hath in it the least of Empire . But of this I shall have occasion to give a fuller account . For the present , that which the present argument intends to perswade is , that the Ministers of religion are onely officers under Christs priesthood , but subjects in his kingdome , which is administred by Angels and Christian princes in all the Imperial , in the defensive and coactive parts and powers of it . The Christian King or supreme magistrate can doe every thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Comatenus said , onely except the sacred Ministeries : which is the same which was said by the famous Bishop of Corduba , Hosius in Athanasius ; Neque igitur fas est nobis interris Imperium tenere , neque tu sacrorum et thymiamatum habes potestatem , Imperator , hoc est jus adolendi . The good Bishop was speaking of the fact of Ozias , who though he had power over the priests , yet had nothing to do to meddle with the rites of priesthood : It is not lawful for us to meddle with Empire or the rights of Government ; nor for thee , O Emperour , with the rites of incense . The summe is this , If Christ by his kingly power governs his Church , and Christian Kings are his Deputies , then they also are the Supreme under Christ of the whole Government of the Church . 5. So that now I shall not need to make use of the precedents of the Old Testament , nor recite how David order'd the courses of the Levites , the use of the bow in the Quire , the solemnities of publick service , nor how Solomon put Abiathar from the High-priesthood , nor how Jehu , nor Hezekiah , nor Josiah reform'd religion , pull'd down Idols , burnt the groves , destroyed the worship of Baal , reduc'd the religion of the God of Israel . This indeed is an excellent argument , because it was a time in which God gave his Priests more secular eminency and external advantages then ever he did since , and also because Christ chang'd nothing in the kingdomes of the earth ; he left them as he found them , onely he intended to make them ministers and portions of his kingdome ; and that they should live privately , and govern publickly by his measures , that is , by the justice and mercy Evangelical . But this argument I was the more willing to touch upon because the Church of England much relies upon it in this question , and excommunicates those who deny the Supreme civil power to have the same authority in causes Ecclesiastical , which the pious Kings of the Hebrews had over the Synagogue : But I find the ancient Doctors of the Church pressing much upon the former medium , That Christ hath specially intrusted his Church to Christian Princes . For , 6. Christ shall call Christian Kings to account for souls . Cognoscant Principes seculi Deo se debere rationem reddere propter Ecclesiam quam à Christo tuendam suscipiunt . Nam sive , augeatur pax & disciplina Ecclesiae per fideles Principes , sive solvatur , ille ab eis rationem exigit qui eorum potestati suam Ecclesiam credidit , said Isidore Hispalensis . Let the Princes of the world know that they must give an account to God for the Church which they have received from Christ into their Protection . For whether the peace and Discipline of the Church be encreased by faithful Princes , or whether it be dissolv'd , he who hath intrusted his Church to their power will exact an account from them . And therefore P. Leo to Leo the Emperor gave this advertisement , Debes incunctanter advertere Regiam potestatem tibi non solum ad mundi regimen , sed maximè ad Ecclesiae praesidium esse collatam , You must diligently remember that the supreme power is given to you not onely for the government of the world , but especially for the safety and defence of the Church . Now this defence not being onely the defence of guards , but of lawe ; not onely of persons , but especially of Religion , must needs inferre that Kings have something more to doe in the Church then the Court of Guards hath : he defends his subjects in the service of God ; he defends and promotes this service ; he is not to defend them if they disserve Christ , but to punish them , and of this he is Judge and Exactor : and therefore this defence declares his right and Empire . Ex quo Imperatores facti sunt Christiani res Ecclesiae ab ipsis dependisse : so Socrates expresses this question . Ever since the Emperors became Christian the affaires of the Church have depended upon them . They did so before , but they did not look after them : they had the power from Christ , but they wanted his grace : they owed duty to him , but they paied it not , because they had no love for him . And therefore Christ took what care he pleas'd , and supported it in persecution , and made it grow in despite of opposition : and when this he had done long enough to prove that the religion came from God , that it lost nothing by persecution , but that his servants loved him and died for him , then he called the Princes into the house of Jacob , and taught them how to administer his power to the purposes of his own designement . Hence come those expressions us'd often by Antiquity concerning Kings , calling them Vicarios Dei , verae religionis Rectores , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Deputies of God , Governours of true Religion , the Captains and Conductors of faith and Godlinesse ; ad quorum curam , de qua Deo rationem reddituri erant , res illa maximè pertinebat , For to their care Religion and the Church did belong , and concerning that care they were to give an account to God. Now if we descend to a consideration of the particular charges and offices of Kings in relation to the Church , it will not onely be a mighty verification of the Rule , but also will minister to the determination of many cases of Conscience concerning Kings and concerning the whole order Ecclesiastical . This I shall doe in the following Rules , which are but appendices to this . RULE V. Kings have a legislative power in the affaires of Religion and the Church . THis is expressely taught by S. Austin . In hoc Reges sicut eis divinitus praecipitur Deo serviunt in quantum Reges sunt , si in suo regno bona jubeant , mala prohibeant , non solùm quae pertinent ad humanam societatem , verùm etiam quae pertinent ad Divinam religionem , In this Kings in that capacity serve God according to the Divine Commandement , if in their respective kingdomes they command good things and forbid evil , not onely in relation to humane society , but in order to religion . The least part of this power is to permit the free exercise of it , and to remove all impediments , and to give it advantages of free assemblies , and competent maintenances and just rewards and publick encouragements . So Cyrus and Darius gave leave and guards and rescripts , warranty and provisions and command to the Jewes of the Captivity to build the Temple . So Constantine and Licinius did to the Christians to practise their religion . Thus Hezekiah and some other pious Kings of the Hebrews took away the offences of the people , the brazen serpent , the groves and images , the altar of Bethel , and the idolatrous services . And of these things there is little question ; for the Christian Princes by their Authority shut up the Temples of the Heathen Gods. That which is yet more considerable is , that by punishments they compel their Subjects to serve God and keep his Commandements . That which was observed of the Primitive Christians , that they tied themselves by oaths and Covenants to serve God , to doe justice , not to commit adultery , to hurt no man by word or deed , to doe good to every man they could , to assemble together to worship Christ , that Christian Princes are to secure by laws , that what men will not doe by choice , they may whether they will or no ; and this not onely in things relating to publick peace and the interest of the Republick , but in the immediate matters of religion : such as are laws against swearing , against Blasphemy , against drunkennesse and fornication and the like , in which the interest of souls is concerned , but not the interest of publick peace . Hoc jubent Imperatores quod jubet Christus ; and it is a great service to Christ that the fear of men be superadded ; because to wicked persons and such for whom the severity of laws was made , it often prevailes more then the fear of God. But that which is more then all this is , that besides those things in which God hath declar'd his will , the things of the Church , which are directly under no Commandement of God , are under the supreme power of Christian Princes . I need no other testimony for this but the laws themselves which they made , and to which Bishops and Priests were obedient and profess'd that they ought to be so . And this we find in the instance of divers Popes who in their epistles gave command to their Clergy to observe such laws which themselves had received from Imperial edicts . For there are divers laws which are by Gratian thrust into his collection which were the laws of Christian Princes . The Canon Judicantem . 13. q. 5. expressing the office of a Judge in the Cognisance of causes , attributed by Gratian to Pope Eleutherius , was a law made by the Emperor Constantine , l. 1. C. de Judic . C. Theodos. and so was that which was attributed to P. Fabian against accusers , Can. si quis iratus : it is in the Theodosian Code and was made by the same Prince . The Canons which goe under the names of a Sixtus and b Adrian and Fabian before cited of the same title were made by Gratian the sonne of Valentinian the Elder : c who also made the rescripts for restitution of Church-goods taken from Bishops when they were forc'd from their Sees , attributed to Pope Caius and Pope John. Theodosius the Emperour made the Canon qui ratione * for order in accusations , which yet is attributed to Pope Damasus , but is in the Theodosian Code : for thus the Popes easily became law-givers when they adopted into the Canon the laws of their Princes , which by their authority prevail'd beyond the memory of their first makers . The Canon Consanguineos , for separation of marriage within the prohibited degrees , was not the Popes , but made by Theodosius , as it is thought , at the instance of S. Ambrose : and Valentinian made the Canon Privilegia for confirmation of the privileges of the Church , which goes under the Name of Anacletus . I could reckon divers others , for indeed the volume of the Decrees is full of such constitutions which the Christian Emperors made , but they were either assumed by the Popes or imputed to them . But that the Popes as Ecclesiastics had no authority to make laws of Ecclesiastical affaires , but that the Emperors had , was sufficiently acknowledged by Pope Honorius . Imperator Justinianus decrevit ut Canones Patrum vim legum habere oporteat , That the Canons of the Fathers became a law in the Church , was by the constitution of the Emperor Justinian . For that was all the end both of the labours of warre and the Counsels of peace , ut veram Dei cultum orbis nostri plebs devota custodiat , said Theodosius and Honorius in their letters to Marcellinus : that our people may devoutly follow the true worship of God. Upon this account we find that Constantine , Anastasius and Justinian made laws concerning the expence and rites of sepulture . Gratian , Valentinian and Theodosius forbad dead corps to be interred within the memorials of Martyrs and Apostles . Honorius appointed the Number of Deanes in the Metropolis , and the Immunities of every Church . Leo and Anthemius forbad alienation of Church-lands . But what should I instance in particulars ? they that know not this are wholly strangers to the Civil law , particularly the first book of the Code , the Authentics , the Capitulars of the French Princes , the laws of the Goths and Vandals , and indeed of all the Christian Princes of the world . But the first titles of the Code , De summa Trinitate & fide Catholica , De sacrosanctis Ecclesiis , De Episcopis & Clericis , De Episcopali Audientia , De haereticis , Manichaeis , Samaritis , De Apostatis , and divers other are witnesses beyond exception . * Now in this there is no exception of matter . For whatsoever is under Government is also under the laws of Princes : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Justinian . Nothing comes amisse to the Prince , every thing is under the Royal cognisance . Constantine made laws concerning festivals , and appointed what labours might and what might not be done upon the Lords day ; and so did Leo the Emperour . Valentinian the Elder made a law that no Clergy-man should receive an inheritance by the will or gift of widdows and orphans , unlesse they were of the Kindred . S. † Ambrose complains heavily of the law , and so does S. * Hierome , but confesses it was just , and procur'd by the avarice of some Clergy-men who under cover of religion made a prey of the widdows . But this Decree was sent to Pope Damasus and publickly read in the Churches of Rome . And Honorius the Emperor made a law concerning the election of the Pope . Which two last instances I reckon to be very great , because at Rome now-a-daies they are intolerable . But if all these laws were made by Emperors onely by force , against right & justice , & beyond their just power , then we are never the nearer for this argument : & that it is so , Baronius is bold to affirm , who upon this title blames Justinian for medling with the affaires of the Church : for Quid Imperatori cum Ecclesia ? what hath the Emperor to doe with the Church ? we know who said it . And therefore a Synod at Rome under Symmachus abrogated a law made by Basilius a Deputy of King Odoacer in an assembly of Ecclesiastical persons , in the vacancy of the See Apostolick , upon the death of Simplicius . Now the law was a good law , it forbad the alienation of the goods of the Church ; yet because it was a law made by a laick , they thought fit to annul it . To these things I answer , that it matters not what Baronius says against Justinian , for Pope Hadrian the 4 th , who is much more to be credited , commends him , & propounds him as a great Example imitable by all Princes : and it was not Justinian alone , but very many other Princes both before and after Justinian : and therefore to ask what hath the Emperour to doe with the Church ? might become Donatus ( whose saying it was , and whom S. Austin confuted for saying so ) but it becomes not any man that loves truth and order . As for the Roman Synod under Symmachus , the matter was this . He would needs make himself head of a Synod without the Bishop , ( for he was lately dead ) and made a law with an Anathema for the Sanction , and would have it passe not for the law of the Prince , but for a law of the Church ; which because the Ecclesiastics had no reason to accept for such , when it was not so , they did annul it : talem legem viribus carere , nec posse inter Ecclesiastica ullo modo censeri , said Eulalius the Bp. of Syracuse in that Synod . * But that this makes nothing against the Prince his power of making laws , appears by the great submission which even the Bishops of Rome themselves made to the Imperial laws , even when they lik'd them , and when they lik'd them not . I instanc'd before in Damasus causing the law of Valentinian against Clergy-men receiving inheritances from widdows to be read in all the Churches of Rome . Pope Boniface consented to the law which Honorius the Emperor made about the election of the Pope , and was so far from repudiating an Ecclesiastical law made by the Prince , that he intreated him to make it . But that which is most material to this inquiry is , the obedience of S. Gregory the great to Mauritius the Emperor , who made a law that no Souldier should turn Monk without his leave . This S. Gregory esteem'd to be an impious law , he modestly admonished the Emperour of the irreligion of it . But Maurice neverthelesse commanded him to publish the law . The good Bishop knew his duty , obeyed the Prince , sent it up and down the Empire , and grave this account of it : Utrobique quae debui exolvi , qui Imperatori obedientiam prabui , & pro Deo quod sensi minimè tacui , I have done both my dutyes , I have declar'd my mind for God , and have paid my duty and obedience to the Emperour . Legibus tuis ipsi quoque parent Religionis Antistities , said Pope Gelasius to Anastasius the Emperor . Even the Bishops , the Ministers of Religion , obey thy laws . Now this is not for decency onely , & upon prudent considerations , but upon necessity and by the Divine authority : cognoscentes Imperium tibi supernâ dispositione collatum , as knowing that the Empire is given to thee by God. And therefore the great Prelates of the Church , when they desir'd a good law for the Churches advantage should be made , they presently address'd themselves to the Emperor , as to him who alone had the legislative power . I have already instanc'd in pope Boniface intreating Honorius to make a law concerning the election of the Pope . Sergius also Patriarch of Constantinople petition'd the Emperor Heraclius to publish a pragmatic sanction that no man should be admitted into the Clergy but into a dead place . * These things are so plain , that I may justly use the words of the Fathers of the 6th Council of Toledo , speaking of Chintillanus their King , Nefas est in dubium deducere ejus potestatem cui omnium gubernatio superno constat delegata judicio , It is impiety to call in question his power , to whom the Government of all is certainly deputed by the Divine Judgement . I therefore conclude this particular with the excellent words of Cardinal Cusanus . It becomes not any man to say that the most sacred Emperors , who for the good of the Republick did make many constitutions concerning the election of Bishops , collation of benefices , observation of religions , did erre . Nay , we have read that the Pope of Rome hath intreated them that they would publish laws concerning Divine worship , & for the publick good , and against sinners of the Clergy . And lest peradventure it be said that the strength of all these Constitutions did depend upon the approbation of the Authority Apostolical or Synodical [ viz. of the Pope or Council ] I will not insist upon this : although ( let me say this ) I have read and collected fourscore and six chapters of Ecclesiastical Rules of the Antient Emperors , which were to no purpose to insert here , and many other of Charles the Great and his successors , in which many dispositions or appointments are to be found concerning the Pope of Rome , and all Patriarchs , and the conservation of Bishops and others ; and yet I never read that ever any Pope was ask'd to approve those laws , or if his approbation did intervene , that upon that account the laws did bind . But it is read that some Popes of Rome have confess'd that they had those Imperial laws in veneration . And this thing is so true and so publickly known , that the French Embassadors openly told it in the Council of Trent , that the Kings of France , by the Example of Constantine , Theodosius , Valentinian , Justinian and other Christian Emperors , made many laws concerning holy things , and that these did not onely not displease the Roman Bishops , but they put many of them into their Canons : that the chiefest Authors of these laws , Charles the Great and Lewis the ninth , they thought worthy to be Canonis'd and declar'd Saints , and that the Bishops of France and the whole order Ecclesiastical have piously rul'd and govern'd the Gallican Church by the prescript of those Ecclesiastical laws which their Kings had made . RULE VI. The Supreme Civil Power hath a power of Coercion of every person in the whole Order Ecclesiastical . HE that sayes all must be subject , need not instance in particulars , and say that Titius and Sempronius , and the village Curate , and the Bishop of the Diocese must be subject . But yet because of the pretences of some , the Fathers of the Church have found it necessary to say , that even Ecclesiastics must be subject ; and that they are a part of the all . So S. Chrysostome explicating the words of S. Paul , saith [ But Paul gives us those reasons which command us of duty to obey the powers ; shewing that these things are commanded to all , not to Seculars only , but to Priests and Monks : which he shewes in the very beginning , when he saith , Let every soule be subject to the supereminent powers ; although thou beest an Apostle , or an Evangelist , or a Prophet . For this obedience or subjection ( be sure ) will not destroy thy piety . That S. Chrysostom here speaks of secular powers is evident in the whole Homily , and it appears also in the words here reported ; for he sayes that even an Apostle must be subject , who because he hath no Superior Ecclesiastical must be subject ( if at all ) to the Secular , or Supreme Civil power . And this place is so understood by S. Irenaeus lib. 1. cap. 24. S. Basil in Constit. monast . cap. 22. S. Ambrose upon this place , and S. Austin lib. de Catech. rud . c. 21. and contr . Parmen . l. 1. c. 7. who expressely derides those that expound the [ higher powers of S. Paul ] by Ecclesiastical honours . But this thing is evident by notoreity of fact . Theodoret tells of Eusebius Bishop of Samosata , that when the Imperial edict of banishing him from his See , and sending him into Thrace , was brought by a messenger in the twilight , he charg'd him to say nothing , lest the people should tear the officer in pieces . But the Bishop according to his custome went to evening prayer ; and then with one servant , with a book and a pillow went to the water side , took a boat and pass'd over to Zeugma . The people having soon miss'd their Bishop , followed him , found him out , would fain have brought him back ; but he refus'd , and told them is was the precept of the Apostle , to be obedient to the higher powers : and upon that he rested , and they return'd . And the same was the submission , and the same was the reason of S. Athanasius , as appears in his Apology to Constantius the Arrian Emperor ; and the same subjection was professed by Justin Martyr to Antoninus the Emperor , Nos solum Deum adoramus , et vobis in rebus aliis laeti inservimus , Imperatores ac Principes hominum profitentes , We onely worship God , in other things we chearfully serve you , as professing you to be Emperors and the Princes of mankind . Ego quidem jussioni subjectus , said S. Gregory to Mauritius , I am subject to command : and then it is certain , he was subject to punishment in case he disobeyed the command . Ad hoc potestas super omnes homines Dominorum meorum pietati coelitus data est . He had no more immunity then any man else , for from heaven a power is given to the Prince over all men . The effect of this instance and these words of Gregory is acknowledged by Espencaeus , Gregorius Magnus agnoscebat Imperatoribus concessum esse dominari Sacerdotibus , Gregory the Great acknowledged that to the Emperors it was granted to rule over the Priests . And the same was affirmed by Pope Honorius , Sancta Ecclesia legum saecularium non respuit famulatum quae aequitatis & justitiae vestigia imitantur , The Holy Church refuses not to obey secular lawes that are equal and just . But I undertook to evidence the truth of this Rule by matter of fact and authentic precedents . Constantine received the Libells which the Bishops at Nice had prepar'd one against another . He told them indeed that it was more fit for them to judge him , then he them , and therefore he burn'd the papers ; but this signified nothing but that it was a shame to them whose office was to reprove all sinners , to accuse one another of crimes before their Prince . But that this was nothing but a modest redargution of them appears , because he did upon their condemnation of Arrius banish him , and recalled him without their absolution of him . He banish'd Eusebius and Theognis , whom the Council had depos'd , and took cognisance of the cause between Athanasius and the Bishops his accusers ; that it might appear what he had said to the Prelates at Nice was but a modest reproof or a civil complement , for it was protestatio contra factum . If he said that , he said one thing and did another . * His son Constantius caus'd Stephen Bishop of Antioch to be convened in the palace upon the law de vi publica , and the lex Cornelia de sicariis . His lay-Judges heard him , found him guilty , and commanded the Bishops to depose him from his Bishoprick and expel him out of the Church . His brother Constans heard Narcissus of Cilicia , Marcus the Syrian , Theodore of Thrace and Maris of Chalcedon against Athanasius and Paul Bishop of Constantiople . Valentinian the Emperor set a fine upon the head of Chronopius the Bishop , and inflicted divers punishments upon the Bishops Ursicinus , Ruffus , Ursus and Gaudentius for making schismes to the disturbance of the publick peace . Gratian the Emperor depos'd Instantius , Salvianus and Priscillian from their bishopris and banish'd them , and afterwards recall'd them . Arcadius the Emperour heard S. Chrysostom's cause and banish'd him ; and Pope Innocent , who found fault because he gave wrong Judgment , yet blam'd him not for usurping of a right to judge him . Theodosius the yonger imprison'd Bishop Memnon and S. Cyril of Alexandria . Indeed the Prince was misinform'd by John of Antioch ; but when by the Great Ephesine council , he was rightly instructed , he condemn'd John of Antioch , and afterwards released the two Bishops at the great & passionate * petition and importunity of the Council of Ephesus . And when Ibas Bishop of Edessa had excommunicated some priests of his Diocese , they appeal'd to the Emperor and were heard . Theodoric King of Italy receiv'd accusations against Pope Symmachus , and sent Altinus a Bishop to be the visitor of that See , and afterwards remitted the matter to a synod . Justinus the Emperor gave judgment upon Dorotheus Bishop of Thessalonica for sedition and homicide . Justinian banish'd Julian the Bishop of Halicarnassus , Severus Bishop of Antioch , Peter of Apamea and Zoaras a Priest : but he also judged the cause of Pope Sylverius for certain treasonable letters ; and recalled him from banishment , but so that he should not be restor'd to his See , unlesse he were found innocent of the accusation . I could reckon very many more instances to the same purpose , but these are as good as more ; especially being but particulars of that power and just consequence of that authority which I have prov'd by the lawes of God and the confessions of the Church to be inherent in the Supreme power . I summe up this with the words of Balsamo . Quia statutum est nullum per alium injuriâ afficiendum , ipse Patriarcha ab Imperatore , qui Ecclesiae habet potestatis scientiam , judicabitur forte ut sacrilegus , vel malè de fide sentiens , vel alicujus criminis reus : Hoc enim judicialiter actum vidimus diversis temporibus , Because it is commanded that one man should not injure another , the Patriarch himself shall be judged of the Emperor , who hath cognisance over the power of the Church peradventure for sacrilege , or for heresy , or for the guilt of any other crime ; for we have divers times seen such judicial processes . And to the same purpose the seventh Canon of the first Council of Matiscon subjects the Clergy to the secular Judge in the causes of theft , witchcraft and murder ; and the Council of Toledo which is cited c. filiis 16. q. 7. does the like in the matter of robbery or cosenage . For either Clergy-men are not subjects , or they are bound by the lawes of their Prince . If they be not subjects , how come they free ? If they be subjects , where is their privilege ? or is the Spiritual calling of a nature so disparate and estrang'd from the Commonwealth , that it is no part of it ? or is it better then the Secular ? The questions are worthy inquiring after ; but the decision of them will take off many prejudices from this great measure of Conscience , concerning the fountain of humane lawes and Judicatories . But upon a closer view of the particulars it will be found that the whole matter is a mistake ; a false consequence drawn from a true estimate of religion : For all men grant that religion is the greatest excellency , that our soules are the biggest interest , that all our wealth is best imployed when it is spent in Gods service , that all things must yield to our duty to God : These are all very true , as every thing else is when it is truly understood ; but what then ? Therefore the ministers of religion are to be preferred before the ministers of policy ? Well , suppose that , for it is true that every thing is best in it's own place and time . But what ? therefore the ministers of religion are superior to Princes , whose Government & care , whose office and imployment is meerly temporall ? That will not follow ; nor this , Therefore the ministers of religion are in all things better ; nor this , Therefore they are in nothing inferior ; nor this , Therefore they are not subject to Civil Government , and civil punishments . But these things must be considered apart . I. Question . In what sense the service of God is to be preferr'd before every thing else . To this I answer , 1. That if the service of God be taken in a sense oppos'd to any other thing which is not the service of God , there is no peradventure but it is to be preferred before every thing ; for the question is no more then this , whether we ought to serve God , or not to serve him . For if that which is not Gods service comes in competition with that which is , if the first be preferr'd , God is directly despis'd . 2. If by the service of God is meant the vertue of religion express'd in externall action , as saying our Prayers , receiving the holy Sacrament , visiting Churches , sitting at the memorials of Martyrs , contemplation , fasting , silence , solitude , and the like , then it is as certain that the service of God in this sense is to be preferred before many things , but not before all things ; not before many things of our ordinary life , not before many things of civil society . For to keep a holy-day is a part of the service of God , but not to be preferred before bodily labour in our trade , if that labour be necessary for the feeding our family with daily bread . Contemplation is an excellent part of the Divine service ; but charitable actions are more useful . To heare a good Sermon is good ; but to snatch even an oxe out of a pit is to be preferr'd before it . This our Blessed Saviour taught us in those excellent words , I will have mercy and not sacrifice . For not onely the precise vertue of religion is the Divine service , though by propriety it hath obtain'd the name : but the doing all our duties , the works of our calling , all charitable ministeries , all useful trades , all the graces of the spirit expressed in actions and obedience , is the service of God , and of one it cannot be said , it is better then another ; for they shall all be requir'd in their season . For , 3. It is one thing to inquire which is in it self more excellent , and another thing to ask which we are to chuse ; one thing to say this is to be preferr'd in estimation , and another to say this is to be preferr'd in practice . Ecstasies and raptures and conversing with blessed spirits are certainly actions and passions respectively of greater eminency then dressing the sores of poor boyes in Hospitals ; and yet he that does this , serves Christ and does good , while he that followes after the others may fall into the delusions of the Devil . That which is best in it self is not best for me : it is best for the best state , but not for the state of men who dwell in imperfection . Strong meat is better then milk , but this is best for babes ; and therefore he would but ill consult to the good of his child who , because it is a princely boy , would feed him with bief and venison , wild boare and the juice of great fishes . Certainly a Jewel is better then a piece of frize ; and Gold is a more noble and perfect substance then barly : and yet frize and barly doe in their season more good then gold and Jewels , and are therefore much more eligible . For every thing is to be accounted of in it's own place and scene of eminency : the eye loves one best , and the tongue and palate , the throat and stomack love the other . But the understanding which considers both gives the value according to the degree of usefulnesse , and to the end of it's ministery . Now though our understanding can consider things in their own perfections , and proportion honour and value to them ; yet that which is better then honour , love and desire , union and fruition are due to those things most , which it may be we honour least . And therefore there are some parts of the service of God which are like meat and cloths , and some which are like gold and Jewels ; we value and admire these , but we are to chuse the other : that is , we preferre one in discourse , and the other in use ; we give better words to one , and better usages to the other . And therefore those parts of the Divine service which are most necessary , and doe most good to mankind , are to be chosen before those that look more splendidly , and in themselves import more perfection . The foundation of a house is better then the roof , though the roof be gilded ; and that part of the service of God which serves the needs of mankind most , is to be chosen before those which adorn him better : so that actions of high and precise religion may be the excellencies and perfections of a humane soul ; but the offices of civil governours , their keeping men in peace and justice , their affrighting them from vile impieties , may doe much more good to mankind , and more glory to God in the whole event of things . 4. But then if it be inquir'd whether is better , Prayers or Government , a Pulpit or a Court of Judicature ; I am to answer that they are both best in their time . The Pulpit rules on Sundays , the Court of Judicature all the week after . The Pulpit guides the Court , and the Court gives laws to the Pulpit . The Pulpit gives counsel to this , and this gives commands to that . But there is this difference , if the Pulpit says amisse we are not bound by it : but if the Court judges ill , we may complain , but we must submit . But then to inquire which is better , when they are both the servants of God , is to make a faction in the house of Unity ; and as there can be no good end served in it , so there can be no good ground of reason or revelation by which it can be determin'd . 5. If the question at last be , whether is to be preferr'd , the service of God , that is , an act of religion , or an act of civil life ; I answer , that ordinarily religion is to be preferr'd , when there can be a question reasonably ask'd which is to be chosen . That is , if it be indifferent as to the person , there is no indifference in the thing : for the religious act does more honour to God and more good to us . But it is because that where our life and time is empty of other duties , then and there is the time and proper season of religion . But if it be not indifferent to the man , but an act of life or civil calling be in it's season and appointment , then this is to be preferr'd before that . 6. Lastly , it is to be observed , that there are seasons ordinary and extraordinary in our services of God. Every thing in it's season is to be preferr'd : and therefore upon Festivals we are to goe to Church and to publick offices , upon other days to follow the works of our calling : and so prefer both in their time . But sometimes these ordinary seasons are invaded by extraordinary necessities , and then that must prevail which is most necessary in it's season , and the other must give place . Now because this happens often in the needs of our life , and not very often in the needs of Religion , therefore in cases of Natural or Political necessities , the things of the Commonwealth are to be preferr'd before the things of the Church ; that is , the service of God in charity before the service of God in the vertue of external religion : and the reason is , because this can stay , and the other cannot ; and this can be supplied with the internall , that is , the religion of the heart , but that cannot be supplied with the charity of the heart . Question II. Which are to be preferr'd , and which are better , things Spiritual or things temporal ? To this the Patrons of Ecclesiastic Monarchy give a ready answer out of S. Gregory Nazianzen , speaking to the Presidents . Nam vos quoque potestati meae meisque subselliis lex Christi subjicit . Imperium enim ipsi quoque gerimus , addo etiam praestantius ac perfectius ; nisi verò aequum est spiritum carni fasces submittere , & coelestia terrenis cedere , The law of Christ hath subjected you also that are civil Magistrates to my chaire . For we also have an Empire , yea a better and more perfect then yours , unlesse it be reasonable that the Spirit should submit to the Flesh , and heavenly things give place to earthly . For temporal things belong to the body , and spiritual things to the soul : by how much therefore the soul is above the body , by so much spiritual things are above the temporal . For a temporal end is and ought to be subordinate to a spiritual ; because temporal felicity is not the last end of man , but spiritual and eternal : this therefore being the greatest , ought to be ministred to by the cession of the temporal . To this I answer , that temporal things ought to yield to spiritual , if by spiritual things be meant the glory of God , and the good of souls , but not to every thing that is spiritual . For though it be a spiritual imployment to serve God in the communion of Saints , and the life of a man be a temporal thing ; yet a man is not bound to lose his life to goe to publick churches , but for his own souls salvation , for the promotion of religion and the honour of God he is . A man is very much better then a beast ; yet the life of a beast is better then the superfluous hair of a mans beard . The honour and reverent usage of Churches is a spiritual concern and a matter of religion ; and yet when an army is hard put to it , they may defend themselves by the walls and strength , and preserve their lives with an usage of the Church , which was never intended by the patron that built it , or the Bishop that consecrated it . When temporal life and eternal are compar'd , when the honour of God or the advantage of a man are set in opposition , when the salvation of a soul and the profit of trade are confronted , there is no peradventure but the temporal must give way to the spiritual . But when a temporal necessity and a spirituall advantage are compar'd , the advantage in the nature of the thing is overballanc'd by the degree of the necessity , and the greatnesse of the end : and it is better to sell the chalices of the Church , and minister to religion in glasse or wood , then to suffer a man to starve at the foot of the Altar . The consequent of this consideration is this , That although spiri●●al things are better then temporal , yet not every thing of spiritual nature or relation is to be preferr'd before all temporals . 2. Another consideration is this , that there is difference also in the degrees and measures of cession or yielding . Temporal things must yield , that is , we must so order our affaires that by them we serve God ; our money must goe forth in justice and charity , our time must yield up portions to religion , our persons must decline no labour for Gods service , and if ever there comes a contest between our duty and our profit , or our ease , or our advantage , we must by the losse of these secure our gaines and our interest in that . But this preferment of one before another does not consist in giving to one secular advantages before the other , temporal honours , and precedences in processions , in escutcheons and atchievements , but in doing the duty of that which is incumbent , and making the other minister to that which is more necessary . He that preferres religion before the world is not tied to bestow more money upon his chappel then upon his house . If God had chosen him one place of residence , and a Temple for his house and for the religion of the Nation , as he did among the Jews , there had been a great decency & duty of doing so upon many accounts ; for then the question had been between religion and irreligion , zeal and contempt , love of God and neglect ; and then the determination had been easy . But now since the whole end of internal Religion can be serv'd by giving to places of religion that adornment which may make the ministeries decent and fitted , and of advantage ; beyond this , when we come to a dispute between that which is in order to a spiritual end , and that which serves a temporal , more things are to come into consideration besides the dignity of the relation . 3. For it is yet further to be observed , that when it is said that all temporal things are subordinate to our Spiritual ends , the meaning is , that all the actions of our life , all that we are , and all that we have , must be directed actually or habitually to the great end of man , the glorification of God and the salvation of our souls ; because God hath ordain'd this whole life in order to that ; and therefore in the generality it is true that all temporal things are to minister to spiritual . But then this is to be added , that temporal things are not ordain'd to minister to spiritual intermedial things , such , I mean , which are not directly and in circumstances necessary . I must serve God with my substance ; therefore I must by my substance contribute to the just and appointed ministeries of religion : but it does not follow , that if the Church multiply Priests unnecessarily , and God hath multiplied my children naturally , that therefore I must let my children want to feed the numerous company of them that can minister spiritual things . The whole is subordinate to the whole , that is all our temporalities are given us to serve God with : but then they are given us also to serve our own needs that we may serve God ; but they are not any other ways subordinate , but to enable us to serve him , not to serve the particular spiritual end , unlesse it be by accident , that is , not unlesse we cannot serve God without it . 4. For temporal things and spiritual things have both the same supernatural end , that is , Gods glory and eternal felicity . And sometimes they severally tend to this end , and then they are to goe their own ways , and not to minister and be subordinate to each other . But sometimes they are to combine and to cooperate , and then temporal things must serve spiritual , and spiritual must serve the temporal . For example . The Temporal or Civil power hath for it's end publick tranquillity , that men may serve God in all Godlinesse and honesty . The Ecclesiastical power hath the same end : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Isidore Pelusiot . I shall not now consider the whole effect of this truth , but in order to the present say , that since both temporal and spiritual things minister to the same end , that is , salvation of mankind , they are distinct methods or instruments to that end , and of themselves are not in subordination to one another ; but as temporal things must serve spiritual when there is need , so must spiritual serve the temporal when they require it : The temporal power must defend religion , and religion must minister to the publick peace . The Prince must give advantages to the Ministers of religion ; and the Ministers of religion must pray for the Princes armies , his prosperity , his honour , and by preachings and holy arts must give bridles to the subjects , keeping them in duty by the means of Conscience . The Prince by laws and fear makes men just and temperate , chast and peaceable : The Priest does but the same thing by the word of his proper ministery . He that does it most effectually is the most happy : but he that will goe about to compare which does it most , and therefore is to be preferr'd , shall then hope to doe it prosperously when he can tell which side of the Aequinoctial hath most starres , or whether have most drops of water , the Northern or the Southern seas . The summe of this consideration is this , that although temporal things in their latitude are to serve spiritual ends , meaning the great end of the perfection of our Spirits : yet so must the intermedial spiritual things serve the same great end ; but the intermedial temporal and the intermedial spiritual are not subordinate to one another , unless it be by accident , and that may and often does happen on either side . But I must adde one thing more for explication ; and that is , that though all things of the world are to minister to the great end of souls , and consequently are subordinate to that great end ; yet it is ( that I may use S. Pauls expression in another case ) by reason of him that hath put all things under it : for this subordination is not natural , or by the nature of the thing , but by the wise Oeconomy and disposition of God ; who having appointed that all things shall be sanctified by the word of God and prayer , that Natural powers shall be heightened by grace , and shall passe into supernatural , and this world into another , hath by his own positive order dispos'd of temporal things and powers beyond their own intention . But otherwise , temporal things have an ultimate end of their own , terminating all their natural intention and design . Thus the end of the Mariners art is not the salvation of the souls of them that sail with him , but the safe landing of their persons and goods at the port : and he that makes statues hath for his end a perfect image . Indeed the man may have another end , to get reputation , to maintain his family , to breed up his children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord , and at last the salvation of his own soul , by doing things honest and profitable : but though these may be the ends of the man , yet they are not the ends of his Art ; and therefore his Art hath no natural subordination , because it hath no natural order to Eternal salvation . And this is the case of many Temporal things , especially Arts , offices , entercourses and Governments . Therefore supposing all that is said in the objection , that temporal felicity is not the last end of man , but spiritual and eternal , yet though it be not the end of a man , it may be the end of humane Government ; and by not being in a natural order to spiritual ends , though spiritual be a better thing , yet it follows not that it ought to take place of that , upon the account of its being better in another kind . The body indeed is subordinate to the soul , because it hath all its motion and operation and life from the soul , and in a natural conjunction and essential Union is it's appointed instrument : but Temporal things and Spiritual are not so conjoyned , and doe not naturally , but by accident minister to each other ; and therefore are made subject to each other alternately , when they are called to such accidental or supernatural Ministrations . Question III. Whether are to be preferr'd , Spiritual or Temporal persons ? How Spiritual things are to be preferr'd before Temporal I have already accounted ; but it is a consideration distinct from that , whether Spiritual persons be to be preferr'd before Temporal . For from things to persons it will not follow : and he that hath a better art is not always the better man ; and he that is imployed in the best concernments , hath not always the advantage of profession . There was a time in Rome when the Physicians were but servants , and had not the liberty of Romans ; but certainly it is a better trade then fighting : and yet then the souldiers were accounted the greater men . Herod the Sophister had a sonne that was a fool and could never learn the Alphabet , but he had two and twenty slaves that were wise fellows ; but the Master was the better man. But when the question is concerning the honour and dignity of persons , we are to remember that honor est in honorante : many men deserve honour that have the least of it , and it is as it is put upon us by others . To be honour'd is to have something put to them , it is nothing of their own . Therefore in this question there are two things to be ask'd : the one is , what Spiritual persons deserve ; the other is , what is given them . They may deserve more then they have , or they may have more then they deserve ; but whether either or neither happens , He that honours himself , his honour is nothing ; but he is honourable whom God or the King honours : and therefore spiritual persons ought to receive much , but to challenge none ; and above all things ought not to enter into comparison with them from whom all temporal honour is deriv'd . But when the question is concerning the prelation of Secular or Ecclesiastic persons , the best answer is given to it , When they strive to preferre one another in giving honour to each other . But I remember that the legates at Trent were horribly put to it to place the Orators of the Kings of France and Spain , who would both goe first : they at last found an expedient , and they did both goe first , and both were preferr'd in several positions . So is the spiritual person and the civil , they are both best , but the honour of one is temporal , and the honour of the other is spiritual ; or rather , one is properly called Honour , and the other , Reverence . Honour the King , Reverence his Priests . But this Question is not properly a question of right , but of duty : and the spiritual man must not call for it , but the other must pay it . And it is something a sad consideration to think that all the Questions of the preference and comparison of spiritual and temporal persons doe end in covetousnesse and ambition , to which spiritual eminency , let it be never so great , was never intended to minister . For the honour due to spiritual persons for their spiritual relation is a spiritual honour , and that though it be never so great cannot well be compar'd with temporal ; for it is a great honour in another kind : but whatsoever temporal honours are given to them , are then well given when they are done in love to religion ; and are then well taken when the advantage passes on to the good of souls , and does not sully the Spiritual man with spiritual pride , or temporal vanity . Socrates complains that the Bishops of Alexandria and of Rome were fallen into Empire , or Dominion . That 's none of the preference proper to a spiritual man. He is then honor'd , when his person is had in reverend and venerable esteem , when his counsel is ask'd , when his example is observ'd and followed , when he is defended by laws and Princes , when he is rescued from beggery and contempt , when he is enabled to doe his duty with advantages , when he can verify his Ecclesiastical power , when he can vindicate religion from oppression , and lastly , when his person which is the relative of religion receives those advantages which as a man he needs , and which can adorne him as such a man. But if he disputes for any other honour , so much is his due as is given him by Christian Princes or Commonwealths , and no more ; and he will gain the more by making no further question . Christ gave his Apostles power abundantly , but the greatest honour he gave them was to suffer for his Name ; and of this he promised they should want nothing : but when Kings became nursing Fathers of the Church , and she suck'd the breasts of Queens & princely women , then the Spiritual person & guides of souls had temporal honours heap'd on them , as the offerings were made for the Tabernacle , more then was sufficient . For it quickly rose into excesse , and then the persons of the Prelates fell into secular affections , and grew hated and envied and oppos'd . Ammianus Marcellinus giving an account of that horrible sedition raised in Rome in the contest between Damasus and Ursicinus about the Papacy , says he wonders not that the Prelates did so earnestly contend for the Bishoprick of Rome , cum id adepti , futuri sint ita securi , ut ditentur oblationibus Matronarum , procedantque vehiculis insidentes , circumspecte vestiti , epulas curantes profusas , adeo ut eorum convivia Regales superent mensas , Because when they have obtained it , they are safe and warm , full with the oblations of the good women , and are carried in their caroches , and are neatly habited , and splendidly feasted , and themselves keep Tables beyond the profusenesse of Kings . Now although Bishops are Men , and Religion it self is serv'd by men who have bodies and secular apprehensions , and therefore does need secular advantages ; yet this belongs to them as Men , not as Spiritual . It is just as if you should call the General of an Army Holy Father , and beg his blessing , and set him in the chiefest place of the Quire , and pray him to preach upon the greatest Festivals of the year , and run in multitudes to hear him speak . These are the proper honours of spiritual persons ; and the splendor of the world is the appendage of secular atchievements : whatsoever is necessary for their persons in order to the advantages of religion is very fit to be given by Princes to the Bishops , who will certainly modestly entertain it , & by pious conduct transfer it to the glory of Christ and the good of souls . But this is none of the Honour that Christ invested their Holy order with : They have an honour and a blessednesse which none but themselves can take from them . The Rosary of Christian graces is the tiar of their head , and their office is their dignity , and humility is their splendour , and zeal is their Conquest , and patience is their Eminence , and they are made illustrious by bringing peace , and promoting holinesse , and comforting the afflicted , and relieving the poor , and making men and women useful to the publick , and charitable in their ministeries , and wise unto salvation . This is that which was spoken by God in the Prophet Isaiah , Since thou wast precious in my sight thou hast been honourable . And this was observed by the Pagan , who being surpris'd with the secular splendor of the Roman Bishops lik'd it not , but said that there was another way for them to be truly happy : Esse poterant beati revera , si magnitudine urbis despectâ quam vitiis opponunt , ad imitationem Antistitum quorundam provincialium viverent , quos tenuitas edendi potandique parcissimè , vilitas etiam indumentorum , & supercilia humum spectantia , perpetuo Numini verisque ejus cultoribus ut puros commendant & verecundos . They are the words of Ammianus Marcellinus whom I lately mentioned . The Roman Bishops might indeed be truly happy , if they despising the splendors of the city would live as some Bishops in the Provinces , whom their temperate and spare diet , their plain habit and their humble carriage represent to God and all God's servants as persons pure and modest . But then if this discourse have any thing of reason , piety or truth in it , it must needs be infinitly certain that spiritual persons are to be preferr'd before the temporal in spiritual honours , but not in temporal regards ; they have nothing to doe with them by virtue of their order or their office : what they have to their Persons by the favour of Princes and Nobles is of another consideration , and so this question is chang'd into an advice , and best ends in a Sermon or Declamation . Question IV. Whether the Eminency of the spiritual calling , and the consequent prelation of spiritual persons , can exempt them from secular coercion , and make them superior to Princes . In what senses Bishops have any superiority over Princes I shall afterwards explain : Now the question is concerning secular superiority , and immunity from the temporal sword of Princes . Now to this , I suppose , what I have already said may be able to give an answer . For the spiritual order gives no temporal power at all ; and therefore if all temporal power be in the supreme Civil Magistrate , all men that can deserve to feel the edge of the sword are subject to it . For what ? Had Archimedes reason to take it ill of the Romans for not sending for him and making him General in the Syracusan warre , because he was a better Geometrician then any of all their Senate ? Lewis the eleventh of France had a servant who was an excellent surgeon , and an excellent barber , and dress'd his gout tenderly , and had the ordering of his feet and his face , and did him many good offices . But the wise Prince was too fond when for these qualities he made him governour of his Counsels . Every good quality , and every eminence of Art , and every worthy imployment hath an end and designe of it's own , and that end and the proportions to it are to be the measure of the usage of those persons which are appointed to minister to it . Now it is certain that spiritual persons are appointed Ministers of the best and most perfective end of mankind , but to say that this gives them a title to other Ministeries which are appointed to other ends , hath as little in it of reason as it hath of revelation . But I shall not dispute this over again , but shall suppose it sufficient to adde those authorities which must needs be competent in this affair , as being of Ecclesiastic persons , who had no reason , nor were they willing , to despise their own just advantages , any more then to usurp what was unjust . When Origen complain'd of the fastuousnesse and vanity of some Ecclesiastics in his time , they were bad enough , but had not come to a pretence of ruling over Kings upon the stock of Spiritual prelation : but he was troubled that some had quit their proper excellency , consisting in the multitude of spiritual gifts , their unwearied diligence in the care of souls , their dangers , their patience , their humility , and their dyings for Christ. Et haec nos docet sermo Divinus ( saith he ) The word of God teaches us these things . But we either not understanding the Divine will set down in Scriptures , or despising what Christ to such purposes recommended to us , are such that we seem to exceed the pride even of the evil Princes of the world : and we doe not onely seek for guards to goe before us like Kings , but are terrible to the poor , and of difficult accesse , and behave our selves towards those who addresse themselves to intercede for some thing or some person , that we are more cruel then Tyrants , and the secular Lords of their subjects . And in some Churches you may see ( especially in the Churches of the greatest cities ) the chief of the Christian people neither affable to others , nor suffering others to be free in their entercourses with them . These things are out of the way of the Ecclesiastics , for these things cannot consist with piety and humility , and the proper imployments of such persons who gain'd the world by cession , and got victory over whole Kingdomes by trampling upon Devils , and being trampled upon by men . Bishops should be like the Symbols of the Blessed Sacrament , which although for the ornament of religion and for our sakes and because we would fain have opportunity to signify our love to Christ , we minister in silver and gold , yet the symbols themselves remain the same plain and pure bread and wine , and altered onely by prayers , and by spiritual consecration , and a relative holinesse . But he were a strange superstitious fool who , because the Sacramental bread and wine are much better then all the Tables and viands of Princes and all the spoils of Nature , will think it fit to mingle sugar and the choicest spices of Arabia with the bread , and amber-griece and powder of pearl and the spirit of gold with the chalice . These are no fit honours to the H. Sacrament : the symbols of which are spoil'd when they are forc'd off from the simplicity and purity of their institution and designe . So it is with spiritual persons : their office is spiritual , and their relation is holy , and their honours are symbolical . For their own sakes , Princes and good people must cause decent and honourable ministeries and accommodations to be provided for them ; but still they must remain in their own humility and meeknesse and piety , and not pretend to dignities heterogeneal , and Eminences secular , because their spiritual imployment is very excellent . It was S. Nazianzen's wish , that there were in the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Neither precedency of Episcopal Sees , nor any Eminency of one place above another , nor any Tyrannical or pompous provisions and solennities , that we might be distinguished onely by our vertue . Now if prelation by order and Ecclesiastical Oeconomy amongst the Bishops was of so ill effect , so little necessary , and so greatly inconvenient that the good Bishop wished there we●e no such thing ; there is little reason to doubt , but he would have infinitely condemned all pretensions of a power over civil governments . But the Bishops of Rome were not at that time gone so far . The Archimandrites of Constantinople , complaining against the Eutychians , write to Pope Agapetus , that if they be still permitted [ licenter omnia accedent , non contra Ecclesiasticos solos , sed etiam contra ipsum piissimum Imperatorem , nostrum & vestrum honorabile caput ] They will doe insolencies not onely to the Ecclesiastics , but also to our most pious Emperor , who is the honourable head both of you and us . * This power of headship or supremacy over the whole order Ecclesiastical was acknowledged in the Church for about a thousand years : for besides the apparent practice and approbation of it , which I brought in the former pages , we find that the Emperour Henry the second did deprive Widgerus of the Arch-Bishoprick of Ravenna , and depos'd Gregory the sixth from the Papacy . And therefore we find that those ancient Prelates that call'd upon Princes to pay reverence to them , and an acknowledgment of that Authority which Christ intrusted in their hands , accounted them wholly to be distinct things , and not at all invading each others limits . For Christ by making them Christians did not make them lesse to be Princes : and Christian Emperors could not goe lesse then the heathens ; they were certainly no loosers by their baptisme . For it had been a strange argument for Sylvester to have us'd to Constantine , Sr , give up your self a Disciple to the most Holy Jesus , and you shall have a crown hereafter , and here also you shall still reign over all but me and my Clergy ; to us indeed you must be subject , and by us you must be governed , but the Crown Imperial shall be greater then every thing , our Mitres onely excepted . If this had been the state of the question , I wonder by what argument could the Prince have been perswaded to become Christian : when it was so obvious for him to say , that Sylvester had reason to move him to preach Christ , since he got so much temporal advantage by it , but that he could see little reason why himself should loose and Sylvester get , and become a Disciple of Christ to be made a Minor and a Pupil to the Bishop . And indeed it would have been a strange Sermon that preaches humility to Emperors & dominion to Bishops . But their sermons when they were at the highest were of another nature . De humanis rebus judicare permissum , est , non praeesse Divinis . So P. Gelasius declares the limit of the Imperial and priestly power : Of all things belonging to this world the Emperor is to judge ; but not to be the president or chief Minister of holy rites . Gelasius spake it upon occasion , because Anastasius the Emperor did unnecessarily interpose in the absolution of Peter Bishops of Alexandria . This Pope Gelasius suppos'd was of another nature , and not relative to the things of this world , and therefore not of Imperial cognisance . But all the things of this world belong to him . And if all things of this world , then all persons of this world . For circa actiones propriè versatur Imperium , say the Lawyers , Rule and Empire and all power of judicature is principally concerning actions ; but actions are done by persons , who therefore are subject to government . And upon this 〈…〉 vile thing , Regis haec auribus intimare non differant , Let him without delay be accused unto the King. And Lambert the Emperour about the year of our Lord 900 having some contest with the Pope , propounded this first article in a Synod at Ravenna , If any Roman of the Clergy or the Senate , of what order soever , shall either voluntarily or by compulsion appeal to the Imperial Majesty , let no man presume to contradict him : — untill the Emperor by himself or his Missives shall deliberate concerning their persons and their causes . Thus we find Pope Leo the 4th submitting himself to Lotharius the Emperour , and promising obedience : and to Ludovicus he professes that if he have done amisse he will amend it according to his sentence , or the judgement of his Deputies . Upon the consideration of these and many other particulars Gratian , though unwillingly , confesses that in civil causes a Clergy-man is to be conven'd before the civil Judge : and although a little after he does a little praevaricate in the matter of criminal causes , yet it was too late ; for he had said it before , Regum est corporalem irrogare poenam , Kings have the power of inflicting corporal punishments : and therefore if a Clerk were guilty in a criminal cause , the secular Judge had power over him , said the Fathers of the first Council of Matiscon , cap. 7. But it matters not much , for a greater then Gratian said it in his own case before the civil power , If I have done any thing worthy of death , I refuse not to die : they are the words of S. Paul. Question V. Whether is to be obeyed , the Prince or the Bishop , if they happen to command contrary things ? To this I answer , that it is already determin'd that the Emperour is to be obeyed against the will of the Bishop . For so it was in the case of Mauritius and S. Gregory ; for the Bishop was fain to publish the Princes Edict which yet he believ'd to be impious . It was also most evident in S. Athanasius of Alexandria , S. Gregory of Nazianzum , S. Chrysostom of Constantinople , Eusebius of Samosata , who by injustice were commanded to leave their Dioceses . But this is to be understood in actions which can by Empire and command be chang'd into good or bad respectively : because such actions are most properly the subject of humane laws . For in what God hath expressely commanded or forbidden , the Civil or Ecclesiastical power is onely concerned to serve the interest of the Divine Commandement , to promote or to hinder good and evil respectively . But whatsoever is left undetermined by God , that the supreme power can determine : and in such things if there could be too supreme powers , the government were Monstrous , and there could be no obedience ; for no man can serve two Masters . Now the 〈…〉 against the Canons of the Church ; but then we are to follow the civil law , because the power is by the law of Nature supreme and Imperial . The matter of the Civil power and Ecclesiastical is so wholly differing , that there where either hath to doe it cannot contradict the other ; but if they invade the rights of one another , then the question grows hard . But the solution is this ; If the Bishop invades the rights of the Civil power he is not at all to be obeyed , for he hath nothing to doe there . But if the Civil power invades the rights of the Bishop , then they are either such rights which are his by positive laws and humane concession , or such which by Divine appointment are his due . All those which are the Bishops right by positive laws may by the same power be rescinded by which they were granted ; and therefore if a King makes a law against the rights of the Church , and the Bishop protests against that law , the King and not the Bishop must prevail . For Neminem sibi imperare posse , & neminem sibi legem dicere , à qua mutatâ voluntate nequeat recedere , say the Lawyers . A man may change his will as long as he lives ; and the supreme will can never be hindred : for summum ejus esse Imperium qui ordinario juri derogare valeat is a rule in law , He that is the supreme can derogate by his power from an ordinary right , viz. by making a contrary law . But if they be the rights of Bishops and the Ministers of Religion by Divine appointment , then the Bishops command is to prevail , cum conditione crucis ; that is , so as the subject must submit to the Princes anger , and suffer for what he cannot doe , according to that of S. Austin , Imperatores cum in errore sunt , pro errore contra veritatem leges dant , per quas justi & probantur & coronantur , non faciendo quod illi jubent , quia Deus prohibet , Mistaken Princes make ill laws ; but by them good men are tried and crown'd , by not doing what God hath forbidden them . This is much more modestly express'd then that responsory in the Roman Breviary , speaking of the Apostles , Isti sunt triumphatores & amici Dei , qui contemnentes jussae Principum meruerunt praemia aeterna , They have deserved eternal rewards by despising the commands of Princes . The expression is hard ; for though their impious laws are not to be obeyed , yet indefinitely it is not safe to say , their commands are to be despis'd . And none ever lesse despis'd the laws then they who , because they could not obey them against God , yet obeyed them against themselves ; by suffering death at their command , when they might not suffer a sinne . But then this also suffers diminution . For if the Ecclesiastical power in such things where their authority is proper and competent and Divine , give any negative or prohibitive precepts , they may and they must be obeyed intirely ; because every negative is indivisible , and hath neither parts nor time : and in this they are but proclaimers of the Divine Commandment , which if it be negative it can never be lawful to doe against it . But in positive instances of commandement , though from Divine Authority , ( for that 's the limit of the Ecclesiastical power and authority ) if the King commands one thing and the Bishop another , they are severally to be regarded according to the several cases . For the rule is this , That all external actions are under the command of the Civil power in order to the publick government : and if they were not , the Civil power were not sufficiently provided for the acquiring the end of it's institution : and then it would follow that either the civil authority were not from God ( expressely against S. Paul ) or else all that God made were not good , as being defective from the end of it's creation ( expressely against Moses , and indeed against the honour of God. ) Now because external actions are also in order to religion internal , it happens that the Spiritual power hath accidentally power over them . Here then is the issue of this inquiry : when an external action is necessary to the publick service , and yet in order to religion at the same time , the positive commands of the Spiritual superior must yield to the positive commands of the supreme Civil power . For that which hath a direct power is to bepreferr'd before that which hath but an indirect power . Thus it is a divine precept that we should not neglect the assembling of our selves together . Upon the warranty of this , the Guides of souls have power to command their flocks to meet at the Divine service ; and they are tied to obey . But if at the same time the Prince hath given command that those persons or some of those who are commanded to be at the Divine Offices , be present on the guards , or the defence of the city walls , they are bound to obey the Prince , and not the Priest at that time . * For besides the former reason , when external actions are appointed by competent Authority , they are cloth'd with circumstances with which actions commanded by God , and in which Ecclesiastics have competent Authority , are not invested : and amongst these circumstances , time and place are the principal . And therefore it follows that in external actions the command of the Prince is always to be preferred before the command of the Church ; because this may stay , and that cannot : This is not by God determin'd to time and place , but that is by the Prince ; and therefore by doing that now , and letting this alone till another time , both ends can be serv'd : and it were a strange peevishnesse of Government ( besides the unreasonablenesse of it ) to crosse the Prince to shew our power , when both may stand , and both may be obeyed ; if they did not croud at the same narrow dore together , there is time enough for them to goe out one after another ; and by a little more time , there will be a great deal of more room . I have heard that when King James the 6th of Scotland was wooing the Danish Lady , he commanded the Provost of Edenburgh and the Townsmen upon a certain day to feast the Denmark Embassadors , and to shew all the bravery of their Town and all the splendor they could : of which when the Presbytery had notice , they to crosse the King proclaim'd a fast to be kept in the Town upon that very day . But the Townsmen according to their duty obeyed the King : and the Presbytery might have consider'd that it was no zeal for God that the Fast was indicted upon that day ; but God might have been as well serv'd by the Tuesday fast as by the Monday . Thus if the Ecclesiastic power hath admitted a person to Ecclesiastical Ministeries or Religions , if the supreme Civil power requires his service , or if he be needed for the publick good , he may command him from thence , unlesse there be something collaterally to hinder ; as if the Prince have sworn the contrary , or that the person requir'd have abjur'd it by the Princes leave : but supposing him onely bound by the Ecclesiastical power , the supreme Civil power is to prevail over it , as being the lord of persons and actions external . An instance of this was given by Mauritius the Emperour forbidding his souldiers to turn Monks without his leave , though the law was made sore against the mind of S. Gregory who was the Bishop of Rome . And thus * Casimire King of Poland was taken from his gown , and invested with a Royal Mantle ; and divers Monks have been recalled into the imployments of armies , or publick Counsels , or publick Governments . But this also is to be understood with this provision . The supreme Civil power hath dominion over external actions , so as to govern them for time and place and other circumstances . He can forbid sermons at such a time ; he can forbid fasts or publick solennities and meetings when he please , and when it is for the interests of government : and concerning any accident or circumstance and manner he can give laws , and he must be obeyed . But he cannot give laws prohibiting the thing it self , out of hatred or in persecution of the religion : for then the Ecclesiastic power is to command not onely the thing , but the circumstances too . For the thing it self , it is plain ; because it is a Divine Commandement , and to this the Spiritual power must minister , and no Civil power can hinder us from obeying God : and therefore the Apostles made no scruple of preaching Christ publickly , though they were forbidden it under great penalties . But then for the circumstances , they also in this case fall under the Ecclesiastical power . If the Prince would permit the thing , he might dispose of the accidents ; for then he is not against God , and uses his right about external actions . But if he forbids the thing , they that are to take care that God be obeyed must then invest the actions with circumstances ; for they cannot be at all , unlesse they be in time and place ; and therefore by a consequent of their power over the thing they can dispose the other , because the circumstances are not forbidden by the Prince , but the thing , which being commanded by God & not being to be done at all but in circumstances , they that must take care of the Principal must , in that case , take care also of the accessory . Thus we find the Bishops in the Primitive Church indicting of Fasts , proclaiming assemblies , calling Synods , gathering Synaxes : for they knew they were obliged to see that all that should be done which was necessary for the salvation of souls and instruction of lives by preaching , and for the stabiliment of the Church by assemblies and communions . Now the doing of these things was necessary , and for the doing of these they were ready to die ; for that passive obedience was all which they did owe to those laws which forbad them under pain of death : for it was necessary those things should be done , it was not necessary they should live . But when the supreme Civil power is Christian and does not forbid the thing , there is no danger that God shall not be obeyed by the Prince his changing and disposing the circumstances of the thing ; and therefore there can be no reason why the Prince should be disobeyed , commanding nothing against God , and governing in that where his authority is competent . Thus if the supreme Civil power should command that the Bishops of his Kingdome should not ordain any persons that had been souldiers or of mean trades to be Priests , nor consecrate any Knight to be a Bishop ; though the Bishops should desire it very passionately , they have no power to command or doe what the Civil power hath forbidden . But if the supreme should say there should be no Bishops at all , and no ordination of Ministers of Religion according to the laws of Jesus Christ , then the question is not whether the supreme Civil power or the Ecclesiastical is to be obeyed , but whether Man or God : and in that case if the Bishops doe not ordain , if they doe not take care to continue a succession in the Church of God , they are to answer for one of the greatest neglects of duty of which man-kind is capable ; alwaies suppos'd that the order of Bishops is necessary to the Church , and that ordination of Priests by Bishops is of Apostolical institution , and that there is no Univocal generation of Church-Ministers but by the same hands which began the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 succession , and hath continued it for almost seventeen ages in the Church . Of which I am not now to interpose my sentence , but to answer the case of Conscience relying upon the supposition . This onely I am to adde , that supposing this to be necessary , yet it is to be done cum conditione crucis , with submission to the anger of the laws if they have put on unjust armour ; and to be done with peaceablenesse , and all the arts of humility and gentlenesse , petition and wise remonstrances . * But there is yet one reserve of caution to be us'd in this case . If the Civil power and the Spiritual differ in this particular , the spiritual must yield so long , and forbear to doe what is forbidden by their lawfull supreme , untill it be certain that to forbear longer is to neglect their duty , and to displease God. If the duty or if the succession can be any way supplied , so that the interest of religion be not destroyed , then cession or forbearance is their duty . And therefore if the King of Portugal should forbid consecrations of Bishops in his Kingdome not for a time , but for ever , the Bishops were bound to obey , if they could be supplied from other Churches , or if it were not necessary that God should have a Church in Portugal , or if without Bishops there could be a Church . But if they be sure that the Bishops are the head of Ecclesiastical Union , and therefore the conservators of Being ; and if the remaining Prelates are convinc'd that God hath requir'd it of them to continue a Church in Portugal ( as it is certain that by many regards they are determined there to serve Gods Church , and to provide for souls and for the religion of their charges ) and if they could be no otherwise supplied with Ecclesiastical persons of the order and ordination Apostolical , as if other Churches would not ordain Bishops or Priests for them but upon sinful conditions , and violation of their Consciences : then the Spiritual power is to doe their duty , and the supreme Civil power is to doe their pleasure ; and the worst that can come is the crown of Martyrdome , which whosoever gets will be no looser . And therefore I cannot without indignation consider it , that the Pope of Rome , who pretends to be a great Father of Christians , should not onely neglect but refuse to make ordinations and consecrations in that Church : which if their Prince should doe , the Bishops ought to supply it by their care ; and therefore when the Prince desires it , as it is infinite dishonour to the Bishop of Rome to neglect or refuse , in compliance with the temporal interest of the King of Spain , so it is the duty of the Bishops of Portugal to obey their Prince . But I have nothing to doe to meddle with any mans interest , much lesse that of Princes : onely the scene of this case of Conscience happens now to lie in Portugal , and the consideration of it was usefull in the determination of this present question . But this Question hath an appendent branch which is also fit to be consider'd . What if the Civil laws and the Ecclesiastical be contrary ? as it happens in divers particulars ; as if the Prince be a heretick , an Arrian or Macedonian , and happens to forbid the invocation of the Holy Ghost , or giving Divine honours to the Son of God , and the Church hath alwayes done it , and always commanded it . What is to be done in this case ? This instance makes the answer easy : for in matters of Faith it is certain the Authority and laws of God have made the determination ; and therefore in these and the like the Church is bound to doe and to believe and to professe according to the commandement of God. But how if the Prince does not forbid the internal duty ( for in that his authority is incompetent ) but commands onely that there should be no prayers to the Holy Ghost put into the publick Liturgies of the Church ; to this the answer is certain , That though in all externals the supreme Civil power is to be obeyed , yet the spiritual power in such cases is tied to confesse the faith which the Prince would discountenance , and to take care that their charges should plentifully supply in all their private devotions what is not permitted to them in publick . And the reason of this is not that they are tied to doe any thing in opposition or scandal to the Prince ; but that they are in duty and charity to provide lest the publick discouragement and alteration of the circumstance of the duty , doe not lessen the duty internal and essential : and therefore they are to put so much more to the private , that they may prevent the diminution which is likely to come upon the private duty from the publick prohibition . But there are some Civil laws which are oppos'd to Ecclesiastical , not by contrariety of sanction and command hinc inde , but by contrariety of declaration or permission respectively . Thus if the Ecclesiastical laws have forbidden marriage in a certain Degree , and the Civil power hath permitted it , then the subject may more safely obey the power Ecclesiastical ; because by so doing he avoids the offending of religious persons , and yet disobeys no command of the Prince ; for no Civil power usually commands a man to marry in a certain Degree : and therefore when he is at liberty from the Civil law , which in this case gives him no command , and he is not at liberty from the Ecclesiastical law , which hath made a prohibition , he must obey the Church ; which if it had no power over him , could have made no law , and if it have a power , it must be obeyed ; for in the present case there is nothing to hinder it . So it is in such things which are permitted for the hardnesse of mens hearts or the publick necessity . The permission of the Prince is no absolution from the authority of the Church . Supposing Usury to be unlawfull , as it is certain many kinds and instances of it are highly criminal , yet the Civil laws permit it , and the Church forbids it . In this case the Canons are to be preferr'd . For though it be permitted , yet by the laws no man is compell'd to be an Usurer ; and therefore he must pay that reverence and obedience which is otherwise due to them that have the rule over them in the conduct of their souls . * The case is alike in those laws where the Civil power onely gives impunity , but no warranty . As in such cases when laws indulge to a mans weaknesse and grief ; as when it permits him to kill any man that creeps in at his windows , or demands his purse of him on the high way , or to kill his adulterous wife if he surprises her in the sin : If the Civil power promises impunity , and does not intend to change the action from unlawfull to lawfull , as in some cases it does , in some it cannot ; then if there be any laws of the Church to the contrary , they passe an obligation upon the conscience , notwithstanding the Civil impunity . And there is great reason for this . For since the affairs of the world have in them varieties and perplexities besides , it happens that in some cases men know not how to govern by the strictest measures of religion , because all men will not doe their duty upon that account ; and therefore laws are not made [ ut in Platonis republica , but as in faece Romuli ] with exact and purest measures , but in compliance and by necessity , not always as well as they should , but as well as they may : and therefore the Civil power is forc'd sometimes to connive at what it does not approve . But yet these persons are to be governed by conscience ; and therefore it is necessary that that part of the publick Government which is to conduct our consciences more immediately should give a bridle to that liberty which , by being in some regards necessary , would if totally permitted become intolerable . And therefore the spiritual power puts a little myrrhe into their wine , and supplies that defect which in the intrigues of humane affaires we bring upon our selves by making unnatural necessities . But then if it be inquir'd , whether it be lawfull for the spiritual power by spiritual Censures to punish those actions which the Civil power permits ; I answer , that the Church makes laws either by her declarative and direct power , or by a reductive and indirect power : that is , she makes laws in matters expressely commanded by God or forbidden , or else in such things which have proportion , similitudes and analogies to the Divine laws . In the first she is the declarer of Gods will , and hath a direct power . In the second she hath a judgement of discretion , and is the best Judge of Fit and Decent . If the Church declares an act to be against Gods commandement , or bound upon us by essential duty , in that case , unlesse there be error evident and notorious , she is intirely to be obeyed : and therefore the refractary and the disobedient she may easily coerce and punish by her censures , according as she sees it agreeable and conducing to Gods glory and the good of souls , although the Civil power permits the fact for necessity or great advantages . And the reason is , because as the Civil power serves the ends of the republick by impunity and permission , so there is another end to be serv'd which is more considerable , that is , the service of God and the interest of souls , to which she is to minister by laws and punishments , by exhortations and the argument of rewards : and as every power of Gods appointment is sufficient for it's own end , so it must doe it 's own portion of duty for which so competent provisions are made . And therefore the Spiritual power may in this case punish what the Civil power punishes not . * With this onely Caution , if the Civil power does not forbid the Church to use her Censures in such a particular case : for if it does , it is to be presumed that such Ecclesiastical coercion would hinder the Civil power from acquiring the end of it's laws , which the Ecclesiastical never ought to doe ; because although her censures are very usefull to the ends of the spiritual power , yet they are not absolutely necessary , God having by so many other ways provided for souls , that the Church is sufficiently instructed with means of saving souls though she never draw her sword . But the Civil power hath not so many advantages . But if the lawes of Church are made onely by her Reductive and indirect power , that is , if they be such that her authority is not founded upon the expresse law of God , but upon the judgment of discretion , and therefore her laws are concerning decencies and usefulnesses and pious advantages , in this case the Church is not easily to proceed to Censures , unlesse it be certain that there is no disservice nor displeasure done to the Civil power . For it will look too like peevishnesse to crosse the Civil laws , where it is apparent there is no necessity , and no warranty from a Divine commandement . The Church would not have her laws oppos'd or discountenanc'd upon little regards ; and therefore neither must she without great necessity doe that which will cause some diminution to the Civil laws , at least by interpretation . And after all this , if it happens that the Civil power and the Ecclesiastical command things contrary , there is a fault somewhere , and there is nothing to be done but to inquire on which side God is ; for if he be not on the Churches side by a direct law in the matter , he is not on the Churches side for her relation , but on the Kings side for his authority . From the matter of the former Question arises another like it . Question VI. Whether in the Civil affaires and causes of the Ecclesiastical power and persons the presumption ought to lie for the King , or for the Church . This Question must suppose the case to be dibious , and the matter equal on both sides as to the subject matter ; for else there needs to be no question , but judgment must be according to the merit of the cause : and it must suppose also that neither of them will yield , but use their own right ; for if either did , themselves would make an end of the question : but when both are in pretence , and the pretence is equal in the matter and the argument , and that the cause is to be determined by favour and privilege , whether is to be preferr'd ? I doe not ask which is to be preferr'd in law ; for in that question , the laws and customes of a people are the rule of determination : but whether there be in conscience any advantage of presumption due to either . To this I answer , that in the most pious ages of the Church the presumption was ever esteemed to lie for the Church when the Princes were Christians : and when the question is of piety not of authority , of charity not of Empire , it is therefore fit to be given to the Church , 1. Because if the Civil power takes it to it self , it is a Judge and a party too . 2. Because whatever external rights the Church hath , she hath them by the donation , or at least enjoyes them by the concession of the supreme Civil power , who in this case by cession doe confirm at least , and at most but enlarge their donative . 3. Because the spiritual power is under the Kings protection , and hath an equal case with that of widows and orphans . It is a pious cause , it is the cause of the poor and the unarmed . 4. The King is better able to bear the losse , and therefore it is a case of equity . 5. The Church is a relative of God and the Minister of Religion , and therefore the advantage being given to the Church , the honour is done to God ; and then on the Kings side it would be an act of religion and devotion . 6. If the Civil power being judge prefers the Ecclesiastics in the presumption , it is certain there is no wrong done , and none hath cause to complain : but if it be against the Ecclesiastics the case is not so evident , and justice is not so secur'd , and charity not at all done . And if it be thought that this determination is fit to be given by a Church-man ; though it be no objection while it is true and reasonable , yet I endeavour'd to speak exactly to truth , and for the advantage of the Civil power , though the question is decided for the Ecclesiastics . For in such cases , as the Ecclesiastics will have advantage if they in dubious cases never wil contend , of the Civil power will ever have the better of it if in these cases they resolve never to prevail . Although these inquiries have carried me a little further then the first intention of the Rule , yet they were greatly Relative to it . But I shall recal my Reader to the sense and duty of it by the words of S. Gregory , who sayes that Christus Imperatori & omnia tribuit , & dominari eum non solùm militibus , sed etiam Sacerdotibus concessit , Christ hath both given all things to the Emperour , but a power of dominion not onely over the souldiers , but even over the Priests themselves . And that great wise disposer of all things in Heaven and Earth , who makes twins in the little continent of their Mothers Wombe to lie at ease and peace , and the Eccentric motions of the Orbes , and the regular and irregular progressions of the starres , not to crosse or hinder one another , and in all the variety of humane actions , cases and contingencies , hath so wisely dispos'd his laws that no contradiction of chance can infer a contradiction of duty , and it can never be necessary to sin , but on one hand or other it may for ever be avoided ; cannot be supposed to have appointed two powers in the hands of his servants to fight against or to resist each other : but as good is never contrary to good , nor truth to truth , so neither can those powers which are ordain'd for good . And therefore where the powers are distinct they are imployed upon several matters ; and where they converse about the same matter , as in external actions and persons they doe , there one is subject to the other , and therefore can never be against it . RULE VII . The supreme Civil power hath jurisdiction in causes not onely Ecclesiastical , but internal and spiritual . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Aristotle , Of things belonging to God the King is the Governour . Therefore besides that the supreme Civil power is to govern all persons and all actions and ministeries which are directly external , it is to be considered that actions internal , as they can be made publick , have also influence upon the persons and lives , he fortunes and communities of Men ; and therefore either are so far forth to be gonerned by them who are governours of men in their lives and fortunes , in their societies and persons , that they may doe good to them , or at least doe no hurt . Therefore as the supreme Princes and Magistrates have in several ages of the Church indulg'd to Ecclesiastics a power of Civil government , privileges and defensatives in ordine ad spiritualia , that is , to enable them with the help of the Civil power to advance the interests of religion and the spiritual men , which by evil men is apt to be despis'd , as all the threatnings of the Gospell and the terrors of death and the horrible affrightments of the day of Judgement are : so God hath given to the supreme Civil power authority over all publick religion in ordine ad bonum temporale . Princes and States did the other , but God did this . That was well , very well ; but this is necessary , and that was not . The reason of both is this , Because no external accident can hinder the intentions of God in the effects of religion and the event of souls . Religion thrives as well in a storm and in persecution as in sun-shine . God had more summer friends under Constantine , but possibly as many true ones under Diocletian ; or if he had not , it was mens fault , their weaknesse , not their necessity . But the Civil interest can be really hindered by the intervening of new doctrines and false manners of worship : and the common-wealth if it be destroyed hath no recompence in eternity : and therefore God hath not call'd them happy when they are troubled , and hath not bidden them to suffer rebellion , or to rejoice when men speak evil of dignities , and he hath not told them that great is their reward in heaven ; but the whole purpose and proper end of the government being for temporal felicity , though that temporal felicity is by the wisdome of God made to minister to the eternal , the government expires in this world , & shall never return to look for recompence for it's sufferings . But every single Man shall ; and though temporal power can be taken from Princes , yet a mans religion cannot be taken from him : and therefore God hath given to Princes a supreme power for the ordering of religion in order to the common-wealth , without which it had not had sufficient power to preserve it self ; but he hath not given to Ecclesiastics a power over Princes in matter of government in order to spiritual things , 1. because though spiritual things may receive advantage by such powers if they had them , yet they may doe as much harm as good , and have done so very often , and may doe so again . 2. Because God hath appointed to spiritual persons spiritual instruments sufficient to the end of that appointment . 3. Because he hath also established another Oeconomy for religion , the way of the crosse , and the beaten way of humility , and the defensatives of mortification , and the guards of self-denial , and the provisions of contentednesse , and the whole spiritual armour , and prayers and teares , and promises , and his holy spirit , and these are infinitely sufficient to doe Gods work , and they are infinitely the better way . 4. Because religion being a spiritual thing can stand alone , as the soul can by it self subsist : and secular violence can no more destroy faith , or the spiritual and true worship of God , then a sword can kill the understanding . 5. Because if God had given a temporal power to Ecclesiastics in order to a spiritual end , then he had set up two supremes in the same affairs , which could never agree but by the cession of one ; that is , the two supremes could never agree but by making one of them not to be supreme . And the world hath seen this last particular verified by many sad experiments . For when the Roman Emperours residing in the East gave great powers and trusts to the Patriarchs of the West , by their Spiritual sword they began to hew at the head of gold , and lop off many Royalties from the Imperial stock . And Leo Iconomachus for breaking down the images of Saints felt their power , for they suffered not the people to pay him tribute in Italy , threatning to interdict them the use of Sacraments and publick devotions if they did . But as soon as ever they began by spiritual power to intermeddle in secular affairs , they quickly pulled the Western Empire from the East , and in a convenient time lessened and weakned that of the West . For Pope John the third combin'd with Beengarius and Adalbar his son against the Emperor Otho the great , and they must pretend themselves to be Kings of Italy . Pope John the 18th made a league with Crescentius , and stirred up the people against Otho the third . Pope Benedict the ninth excited Peter of Hungary to pretend to the Empire , onely to hinder Henry surnamed Niger from entring into Italy to repeat his rights . And all the world knows what Gregory the 7th did to Henry the fourth ; how he first caused Rodulph of Suevia , and afterwards Ecbert of Saxony to fight against him : and here their great quarrel was about the power of chusing the Pope . Then they fell out about the collation of Bishoprics ; for which cause Pope Gelasius the XIIth caus'd the Arch-Bishop of Mentz to rebel against Henry the 5th ; and there the Pope got the better of him , and by the aid of his Norman forces which he had in Sicily beat him into compliance . Then they fell out about some fees of the Empire ; and Innocent the second raised up Roger the Norman against Lotharius the XII . about the Dutchy of Poüille : and S. Bernard being made Umpire in the Quarrel , the Pope got a share in Bavaria , for whoever lost , signior Papa , like the butlers box , was sure to get , by the advantage of his supreme conduct of religion which by this time he got into his hands . And now he improv'd it providently . For the same Innocent stirred up Guelphus Duke of Bavaria against Conrade the third ; and thence sprang that dismal and bloudy faction between the Guelphs and Ghibellins . But what should I reckon more ? I must transcribe the Annals of Germany to enumerate the hostilities of the Roman Bishops against the Emperors their lords , when they got the conduct and Civil government of religious affairs into their power . Frederic Barbarossa , Henry the sixth , his brother Philip , Frederic the second , Henry the seventh , Frederic of Austria , Lewis of Bavaria , Sigismond , Frederic the third , felt the power of a temporal sword in a religious scabbard : and this was so certain , so constant a mischief , that when the Pope had excommunicated eight Emperors , and made the temporal sword cut off them whom the spiritual sword had struck at , the Emperors grew afraid . And Radulph of Haspurg when he was chosen Emperor durst not goe into Italy , which he called the Lions denne , because the entrance was fair , but few returning footsteps were espied . And it grew to be a proverb , saith Guicciardine , Proprium est Ecclesiae odisse Caesares , The Church hates Caesar ; and the event was that which Carion complained of , Sceleribus Pontificum hoc Imperium languefactum est , By the wickednesse of the Bishops of Rome the Roman Empire is fallen into decay . These instances are more then enough to prove that if Religion be governed by any hand with which the Civil power hath nothing to doe , it may come to passe that the Civil power shall have no hands at all , or they shall be in bands . The consequence of these is this , That if the supreme Civil power be sufficient to preserve it self , it can provide against the evil use of the spiritual sword , and consequently can conduct all religion that can by evil men be abus'd , so as to keep it harmlesse . If by excommunications the Bishop can disturb the Civil interest , the Civil power can hold his hands that he shall not strike with it , or if he does , can take out the temporal sting , that it shall not venome and fester . If by strange doctrines the Ecclesiastics can aliene the hearts of subjects from their duty , the Civil power can forbid those doctrines to be preach'd . If the Canons of the Church be seditious or peevish or apt for trouble , the Civil power can command them to be rescinded , or may refuse to verify them , and make them into laws . But that we may not trust our own reason onely , I shall instance in the particulars of jurisdiction , and give evident probation of them from the authority of the best ages of the Church . And first in general , that Kings or the supreme Civil power is by God made an Overseer , a Ruler , a carefull Father , a Governour , a Protector and Provider for his Church , is evident in the Scriptures , and the doctrine of the Primitive ages of the Church . Nutritii & patres Ecclesiae is their appellative which we are taught from Scripture , Nursing Fathers of the Church . Pastores ; that 's the word God us'd of Cyrus the Persian , Cyrus my shepherd : and when the Spirit of God by David calls to Kings and Princes of the earth to kisse the Son lest he be angry , it intends that as Kings they should use their power and Empire in those things in which the Son will be worshipp'd by the children of men . For besides the natural and first end of government , which is temporal felicity , of which I have already spoken , there is also a supernatural , the eternal felicity of souls ; and to this Civil government does minister by the Oeconomy and designe of God : and therefore it was well said of Ammianus , Nihil aliud est Imperium ( ut sapientes definiunt ) nisi cura salutis alienae . It is true in both senses ; Empire is nothing else ( as wise men define it ) but a power of doing good by taking care for the salvation of others . To doe them good here , and to cause them to doe themselves good hereafter , is the end of all government . And the reason of it is well expressed by the Emperor Theodosius Junior to S. Cyril , Quandoquidem ut vera religio justâ actione perficitur , ita & Respublicautriusque ope nixa florescit , As true religion is perfected by justice , so by religion and justice the republick does flourish ; and therefore he addes , Deus opt . Max. pietatis & justae actionis quoddam quasi vinculum nos esse voluerit , The Emperor is by the Divine appointment the common band of justice and religion . In pursuance of this truth , Eusebius tels that Constantine the Great was wont to say to the Bishops concerning himself , Vos intra Ecclesiam , ego extra Ecclesiam à Deo Episcopus constitutus sum , You within the ●hurch walls and I without , but both of us are appointed by God to be Bishops or Overseers of his Saints and servants . And in the edict of Valentinian and Martian , which approves the acts of the Council of Chalcedon , they are both called Inclyti Pontifices , illustrious Bishops : and the Emperor Leo 3. in his Epistle to Gregory the Bishop of Rome sayes of himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , I am both a King and a priest ; meaning in office , not in order , in government , not in ministeries . These and such like words are often us'd in the Letters enterchang'd between the Princes and the Bishops in the Ancient Church , of which that of Leo the Roman Bishop concerning the French Capitulars is remarkable , writing to Lotharius . De capitulis vel praeceptis Imperialibus vestris vestrorum Pontificum praedecessorum irrefragabiliter custodiendis & conservandis , quantum valuimus & valemus in Christo propitio , & nunc & in aevum nos conservaturos modis omnibus profitemur . It was a direct Oath of supremacy . Concerning the Capitulars or Imperial precepts given by you and your predecessors who were Bishops , ( viz. in their power and care over Churches ) we through the assistance of Christ promise as much as we are able to keep and to conserve them for ever . The limit of which power is well explicated by S. Austin in these words , Quando Imperatores veritatem tenent , pro ipsa veritate contra errorem jubent ; quod quisquis contempserit , ipse sibi judicium acquirit , When the Emperors are Christians and right believers , they make laws for the truth and against false doctrines ; which laws whosoever shall despise , gets damnation to himself . For if we consider that famous saying of Optatus , that Ecclesia est in republica , non respublica in Ecclesia , The Church is in the common-wealth , not the common-wealth in the Church , and the Church is not a distinct state and order of men , but the common-wealth turn'd Christian , that is better instructed , more holy , greater lovers of God , and taught in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus ; it is not to be imagin'd , that the Emperors or supreme governours should have the lesse care and rule over it by how much the more it belongs to God. This fancy first invaded the servants when they turn'd Christians ; they thought their Masters had then lesse to doe with them . The Apostle tels them as in the case of Onesimus , that it is true , they ought to love them better , but the other were not the lesse to be obedient ; onely there was this gotten by it , that the servants were to doe the same service for the Lords sake , which before they did for the laws . But it is a strange folly to imagine that because a man hath chang'd his opinion he hath therefore chang'd his relation ; and if it were so , he that is weary of his Master , may soon change his service by going to another Tutor . Religion establishes all natural and political relations , and changes none but the spiritual ; and the same Prince that governs his people in the time of the plague is to govern them when they are cur'd ; and the Physician that cur'd them hath got no dominion over them , onely in regimine salutis he is principal , he is to govern their health . The cases as to this are parallel between the soul and the body . And therefore the Emperor Constans declar'd his power and his duty too , de omnibus curam agere & intendere quae respiciunt ad utilitatem Christianissimae nostrae reipublicae , to take care and to intend all things which regard the advantage of our most Christian common-wealth : and Aimonius tels of King Clodovaeus , that in one of the Councils of Africa held at Clupea he described his office and duty by these two summaries , publicis rebus consultores advocare , & ea quae Dei & sanctorum ejus sunt disponere ; to consult about publick affaires of the common-wealth , and to dispose of those things which belong to God and to his saints . But the consideration of the particulars will be more useful in this inquiry , and first The supreme Civil power hath authority to convene and to dissolve all synods Ecclesiastical . This appears 1. in that all the first Councils of the Church after the Emperors were Christian were convocated by their Authority . The Council of Nice was called by Constantine , as is affirmed by a Eusebius , b Ruffinus , c Sozomen and d Theodoret : and when the Eusebians had persuaded Constantine to call a council at Tyre against Athanasius , the Prince understanding their craft and violence calld them from Tyre to Constantinople * : and by the same Emperour there was another Council called at Arles . The Council at Sardica in Illyria was conven'd by the authority of the Emperours Constans and Constantius , as the Fathers of that Synod themselves wrote in their letters to the Egyptians and Africans : and Liberius the Bishop of Rome with many other Bishops of Italy joyn'd in petition to Constantius to convocate a Council at Aquileia ; not to suffer them to doe it , but that he would , for to him they knew it onely did belong . Theodosius the Emperor called the second general Council at Constantinople ; as Socrates , Sozomen and Nicephorus relate : and the Fathers of the Council * write in their Synodical constitutions , with this expression added , ea quae acta sunt in sancto Concilio ad Tuam referimus Pietatem , whatsoever was done in that Synod was wholly referr'd and submitted to the Princes piety . The great Ephesin Council , which was the third Oecumenical , was conven'd by Theodosius Junior , exproprio munere & officio , & ex animi sui deliberatione , so himself affirms , out of his own free choice , according to his office and his duty . But his rescript by which he conven'd the Council is a most admirable letter , and contains in it a full testimony of the truth of this whole Rule , and does excellently enumerate and imply all the parts of the Imperial jurisdiction in causes of religion . The summe of which are in the preface of that rescript in these words , Our common-wealth depends upon piety [ or religion ] towards God , and between them both there is great cognation and society ; for they agree together , and grow by the increase of one another : so that true religion does shine by the study of justice , and the common-wealth is assisted by them both . We therefore being plac'd in the Kingdome by God , having receiv'd from him the care both of the Religion and the prosperity of the subject , we have hitherto endeavour'd by our care and by our forces to keep in perpetual union : and for the safety of the republic we are intent to the profit of our subjects , and diligently watch for the conservation of true religion ; but especially we strive that they may live holily , as becomes holy persons , taking care , as it befits us , even of both ( for it is impossible we should take good care of one if we neglect the other . ) But above the rest , we are carefull that the Ecclesiastical state may remain firm , so as is fit to relate to God , and to be in our time , and may have tranquillity by the consent of all men , and may be quiet by the peace of the Ecclesiastic affaires ; and that true religion may be kept unreprovable , and the lives of the inferior Clergy and the Bishops may be free from blame . This is the summe of his duty , and the limit of his power , and the intention of his Government . And to these purposes he call'd a Council , threatning punishment to any Prelate who was called if he neglected to come . If the Emperour took more upon him then belong'd to him , he was near a good Tutour that could well have reprov'd him , the Fathers of the Ephesin Council ; but if he took upon him but what was just , this testimony alone is sufficient in this whole question . But he ended not so , but shortly after called another Council in the same place , against the will of Pope Leo , who yet was forc'd to send his Deputies to be assistant at it . But that Council had an ill end : and to repair the wounds made to truth by it , Pope Leo petition'd the Emperor for another to be held in Italy . But the Emperor was then not much in love with Councils , having been so lately deceived by one ; and therefore put it off , and died : and his successor Martianus called one at Nice , but changing his mind had it kept in Chalcedon . I shall proceed no further in particular , but account it sufficient what Cardinal Cusanus acknowledges . Sciendum est quod in universalibus octo Conciliis semper invenio Imperatores & Judices suos cum senatu primatum habuisse . For this is more then the mere power of calling them ; for that he might doe upon many accounts : but the Emperors and his Judges and Council always had the primacy in the eight general Councils . As the Emperors did convene , so they did dismisse the Ecclesiastical conventions ; as appears in the acts of the Ephesin Council , where the Fathers petition the Emperor , that he would free them from that place , and give them leave to wait upon him to see his face , or at least he would dismisse them and send them home to their own Churches . The same petition was made by the Bishops at Ariminum to the Emperor Constantius , and by the Fathers at the Council of Chalcedon * to Martianus . But these things did never please the Italians after their Patriarch began to set up for Ecclesiastical Monarchy , and they , as soon as they could , and even before their just opportunities , would be endeavouring to lessen the Imperial power and to take it into their own hands . But this is one of the things that grew to an intolerable mischief ; and was not onely against the practice of the best ages , and against the just rights of Emperors , but against the doctrine of the Church . For S. Hierom reproving Ruffinus , who had quoted the authority of some Synod , I know not where , S. Hierome confutes him , by this argument , Quis Imperator jusserit hanc Synodum congregari ? There was no such Synod , for you cannot tell by what Emperors command it was conven'd . To this purpose there was an excellent Epistle written by certain Bishops of Istria to Mauritius the Emperour , enumerating from the records of the Church the convention of Ecclesiastical Councils to have been wholly by the Emperors disposition ; in which also they dogmatically affirm , Semper Deus praesentiâ Christianorum Principum contentiones Ecclesiasticas sedare dignatur , God does always vouchsafe to appease Church-quarrels by the presence of Christian Emperors : meaning that by their authority the Conciliary definitions pass'd into laws . But who please to see more particulars relating to this inquiry , may be filled with the fight of them in the whole third book of William Ranchin his Review of the Council of Trent . The supreme Civil power hath a power of external Judgement in causes of Faith. This relies upon the former reasons , That since propositions of religion and doctrines of Theology have so great influence upon the lives of men , upon peace and justice , upon duty and obedience , it is necessary that the supreme Civil power should determine what doctrines are to be taught the people , and what to be forbidden . The Princes are to tell what religions are to be permitted and what not : and we find a law of Justinian forbidding anathematisms to be pronounced against the Jewish Hellenists ; for the Emperors did not onely permit false religions by impunity , but made laws even for the ordering their assemblies , making Ecclesiastical laws for enemies of true religion : so necessary it is for Princes to govern all religion and pretences of religion within their Nations . This we find in the Civil law , in the title of the Code de Judaeis , in many instances . A law was made by Justinian also that none should be admitted into the Jewish Synagogues that denied Angels , or the Resurrection , or the day of Judgment . Thus the Civil power took away the Churches from the Maximianistae , because they were an under sect of the Donatists condemn'd by their superiors . But then that the Christian Princes did this and might doe this and much more in the articles of true religion , is evident by many instances and great reason . There is a title in the first book of the Code , Ne sacrosanctum baptisma iteretur , against the Anabaptists . C●arles the Great made a decree against the worshipping of Images , and gave sentence against the second Nicene Council in that particular : and Sozomen reports that Constantine cut off unprofitable questions , to prevent schismes in the Church ; which example our Kings of England have imitated by forbidding publick preachers or Divines in schools to meddle in the curious questions of Predestination . Thus the publick laws of a Nation often declare who are and who are not heretics : and by an Act of Parliament in England they onely are judged heretics who for such were condemn'd by the four general Councils . Upon this account many Princes have forbidden publick disputations in matters of religion : to this purpose there was a law of Leo and Anthemius , l. qui in Mon. C. de Episc. & Clericis ; and Andronicus the Emperor hearing some Bishops disputing with some subtilty upon those words [ my Father is greater then I ] threatned to throw them into the river , if they would not leave such dangerous disputations . Heraclius the Emperor forbad any of those nice words concerning Christ to be used : some did use to say that in Christ there was a single energy , some said there was a double ; but the Emperor determin'd the question well , and bad them hold their peace and speak of neither : for , as Sisinnius said to Theodosius , disputando de sacris accendi tantùm contentionem , there is nothing got by disputations but strife and contention : and therefore Princes are the best Moderators of Church-mens quarrels , because Princes are bound to keep the peace . And consonantly to this Isidore spake well , Sanè per regnum terrenum coeleste regnum proficit , ut qui intra Ecclesiam positi contra fidem & disciplinam Ecclesiae agunt , rigore principum conterantur , apsamque disciplinam quam Ecclesiae humilitas exercere non praevalet , cervicibus superborum potestas principalis imponat . The Civil power advances the interests of the heavenly Kingdome by punishing them who sin against the faith and discipline of the Church ; if they be intra Ecclesiam , within the Church , their faith and manners both are subject to the secular judgment . But not onely so , but they are to take care to secure & promote the interest of truth : for though , as S. Paul sayes , doubtful disputations doe engender strife , yet we must contend earnestly for the faith ; with zeal , but yet with meeknesse too : and therefore that matters of faith and doctrines of good life be established , it is part of the Princes duty to take care . * According to which we find that when a rumour was spread that brought Pope Pelagius into suspicion of heresy , King Childebert sent Rufinus to him to require him either to recite and professe the Tome of S. Leo in which there was a good confession of faith , or else that he should doe the same thing in his own words . Pope Pelagius sent this answer : Satagendum est ut pro auferendo suspicionis scandalo obsequium confessionis nostrae Regibus ministremus , quibus etiam nos subditos esse sacrae Scripturae praecipiunt , We must take care that for the avoiding suspicion we exhibit to Kings the duty of our confession : For to them the holy Scriptures command even us to be obedient . And not onely for the Faith of Bishops and even of Popes , but for their Manners also Kings were to take care , and did it accordingly . Justinian made laws that Bishops should not play at dice , nor be present at publick spectacles ; and he said of himself , maximam habere se sollicitudinem circa vera Dei dogmata , & circa Sacerdotum honestatem , that his greatest care was about the true doctrines of God , and the good lives of Bishops . I doe not intend by this , that whatsoever article is by Princes allowed is therefore to be accounted a part of true religion ; for that is more then we can justify of a definition made by a Synod of Bishops : but that they are to take care that true doctrine be established ; that they that are bound to doe so must be suppos'd competent Judges what is true doctrine , else they guide their subjects , and some body else rules them , and then who is the Prince ? By what meanes and in what manner the Civil-power is to doe this I am to set down in the next Rule ; but here the question is of the power , not of the manner of exercising it : and the answer is , that this power of judging for themselves and for their people is part of their right ; that no article of religion can become a law unlesse it be decreed by God , or by the Prince ; that the Bishops declaration is a good indication of the law of God , but that the Princes sanction makes it also become a law of the Common-wealth : that the Prince may be deceived in an article of religion is as true as that he may be deceiv'd in a question of right , and a point of law ; yet his determination hath authority , even when a better proposition wants it : that error must serve the ends of peace , till by the doctrines of the wiser Ecclesiastics the Prince being better informed , can by truth serve it better . RULE VIII . The supreme Civil power is to govern in Causes Ecclesiastical by the meanes and measures of Christ's institution , that is , by the assistance and ministeries of Ecclesiastical persons . KIngs are supreme Judges of the Law ; for cujus est loqui ejus est interpretari , He that speaks , best knows his own meaning : and the law-giver is certainly his own best interpreter . But in cases where there is doubt , the supreme Civil power speaks by them whose profession it is to understand the laws . And so it is in religion . The King is to study the law of God ; nec hoc illi dictum ut totus ab alieno ore pendeat , ipsequi à se nihil dijudicet , said that learned Prelate of Winchester , not that he should wholly depend in religion upon the sentences of others , but be able of himself to judge . But where there is difficulty , and that it be fit that the difficulty be resolved , there the supreme Civil power is to receive the aid of the Ecclesiastic , from whose mouth the people are to require the law , and whose lips by their office and designation are to preserve knowledge . The Doctors of the Jews tell that when Jephthah had made a rash vow , he might have been releas'd if he had pleas'd : For if a horse had first met him , he had not been bound to have offer'd it to God ; but it must have been sold , and a sacrifice be bought with the price ; and much more must a man or a woman have been redeem'd . But because Jephthah was a Prince in Israel , he would not goe to Phinehas the high Priest to have had his vow interpreted , commuted , or released . Neither would Phinehas goe to him , because he was not to offer his help till it was implor'd . Phinehas did not goe to Jephthah , for he had no need , he had no businesse : and Jephthah would not goe to Phinehas , because he was the better man. In the mean time the Virgin died , or , as some say , was kill'd by her Father : but both Prince and Priest were punished , Jephthah with a palsy , and Phinehas was depriv'd of the Spirit of God. For when the Prince needs the Priest he must consult him ; and whether he consults him or no , the Priest must take care that no evil be done by the Prince , or suffer'd by him for want of Counsel . But the Princes office of providing for religion , and his manner of doing it in cases of difficulty are rarely well discours'd of by Theodosius the younger in a letter of his to S. Cyril , of which I have formerly mentioned some portions… .. Pietatis doctrinam in sacra Synodo in utramque partem ventilatam eatenus obtinere volumus quatenus veritati & rationi consentaneum esse judicabitur , The doctrine of godlinesse shall be discuss'd in the sacred Council , and it shall prevail or passe into a law so far as shall be judg●d agreeable to truth and reason . Where the Emperour gives the examination of it to the Bishops to whose office and calling it does belong : but the judgment of it and the sanction are the right of the Emperor , who would see the Decrees should be established if they were true and reasonable . The judgement I say was the Emperors , but in his judgement he would be advised , taught and established by his Bishops . Sed nec eam doctrinam indiscussam patiemur ; cui dijudicandae eos praefici oportet qui sacerdotiis ubivis gentium praesident , per quos & nos quoque in veritatis sententia stabilimur , & magis magisque identidem stabiliemur , That doctrine that is in question we will not suffer to escape examination ; but those shall be presidents of the judgment who in every Nation are the appointed Bishops , by whom we also our selves are confirmed in the true Religion , and hope every day to be more and more established . When the supreme power hath call'd in the aid and office of the Ecclesiastic , good Princes use to verify their acts accordingly , to establish their sentences , to punish the convict , to exterminate heretics and suppresse their doctrines . Thus Honorius and Arcadius the Emperors by an Edict repressed Pelagius and Caelestius whom the Bishops had condemn'd ; Constantine after the sentence of the Nicene Fathers against Arius , banish'd him . Theodosius the Elder having diligently conferr'd with the Orthodox Bishops , and heard patiently what the others could say , by a law forbad them to have publick assemblies who denied the Consubstantiality of the Son with the Father . Per Consilium Sacerdotum & Optimatum ordinavimus , constituimus , & diximus ; it was the style of King Pepin in the Council of Soissons . And of this nature the instances are very numerous . For semper studium fuit Orthodoxis & piis Imperatoribus pro tempore exortas haereses per congregationem religiosissimorum Archiepiscoporum amputare , & rectâ fide sincerè praedicata in pace sanctam Dei Ecclesiam custodire , said Theodorus Silentiarius . All the pious and orthodox Emperors did use this instrument and manner of proceeding , for the cutting off heresies , and the sincere publication of the faith , and the conservation of the Church in peace . But that this manner of Empire may not prejudice the right of Empire , it is to be observed that in these things the Emperors us'd their own liberty , which prov'd plainly they us'd nothing but their own right . For sometimes they gave toleration to differing Sects , sometimes they gave none ; sometimes they were govern'd by zeal , and sometimes by gentle Counsels , onely they would be carefull that the disputes should not break the publick peace : but for their punishing Recusants and Schismatics they us'd their liberty ; so we find in the Acts of the great Ephesin Council , that Theodosius the 2d resolv'd of one , but not upon the other . At vero sive illi veniam impetraturi sint qui à Patribus victi discedent , sive non , nos sanè civitates simul & Ecclesias conturbari nequaquam sinemus , Whether those who are convict of heresy by the Fathers shall be pardon'd yea or no , yet we will be sure not to suffer the Repu●lick or the Churches to be disturbed . This I observe now in opposition to those bold pretences of the Court of Rome , and of the Presbytery , that esteem Princes bound to execute their decrees , and account them but great ministers and servants of their sentences . Now if this be true , then Princes must confirm all that the Clergy decrees : If all , then the supreme Prince hath lesse then the meanest of the people , not so much as a judgement of discretion ; or if he have , it is worse , for he must not use his discretion for the doing of his duty , but must by an implicite faith and a blind brutish obedience obey his Masters of the Consistory or Assembly . But if he be not bound to confirm all , then I suppose he may chuse which he will , and which he will not : and if so , it is well enough ; for then the supreme judgment and the last resort is to the Prince , not to his Clercs . And that Princes are but Executioners of the Clergyes sentences is so far from being true , that we find Theodosius refusing to confirm the Acts of the great Ephesin Council : for having been informed ( though falsely ) that affaires were carried ill , he commanded the Bishops to resume the question of the Nestorians : for their acts of condemnation against them he made null , and commanded them to judge it over again , and that till they had done so , they should not stirre to their Bishopricks . The ministery was the Bishops all the way , but the external judgement and the legislative was the Princes . So Charles the Great reform'd the Church , Episcopos congregavi , &c. I convocated the Bishops to counsel me how Gods law and Christian religion should be recover'd . Therefore by the counsel of my Religions Prelates and my Nobles we have appointed Bishops in every City , and Boniface their Archbishop , and appoint that a Synod shall be held every year , that in our presence the canonical decrees and the rights of the Church may be restor'd , and Christian religion may be reformed . But because this must be evident as a consequent of all the former discourses upon this question ; it will be sufficient now to summe it up with the testimony of S. Austin writing to Emeritus the Donatist . Nam & terrenae potestates cum schismaticos persequuntur eâ regulâ se defendunt , quia dicit Apostolus , Qui potestati resistit , Dei ordinationi resistit… . Non enim frustra gladium portat , When the Civil power punishes Schismatics they have a warrant from an Apostolical Rule , which sayes , He that resists , resists the ordinance of God : For they bear not the sword in vain . It is not therefore by a commission or a command from the Church that they punish Schismatics , but [ constituunt adversus vos pro sua sollicitudine ac potestate quod volunt ] they decree what they please against them according to their own care and their own power . So that when it is said that Princes are to govern their Churches by the consent and advice of their Bishops , it is meant not de jure stricto , but de bono & laudabili : It is fit that they doe so , it is the way of Christs ordinary appointment ; He that heareth you heareth me : and to them a command is given , to feed all the flock of Christ. In pursuance of which it was a famous rescript of Valentinian the first , cited by S. Ambrose , In causa fidei vel Ecclesiastici alicujus ordinis eum judicare debere qui nec munere impar sit , nec jure dissimilis . These are the words of the rescript : that is , he would that Bishops should judge of Bishops ; and that in causes of faith or the Church their ministery should be us'd , whose persons by reason of the like imployment were most competent to be put in delegation . But to the same purpose more of these favourable Edicts were made in behalf of the Church by Theodosius and Valentinian the second , by Arcadius , Honorius and Justinian : and indeed besides that it is reasonable in all cases , it is necessary in very many ; because Bishops and Priests are the most knowing in spiritual affaires , and therefore most fit to be counsellors to the Prince , who oftentimes hath no great skill , though he have supreme authority . I remember that when Gellius the Praetor was sent Proconsul into Greece , he observ'd that the Scholars at Athens did perpetually wrangle and erect schools against schools , and divided their philosophy into Sects ; and therefore sending for them , persuaded them to live quietly and peaceably , and to put their questions to reference or umpirage , and in it offerr'd his own assistance : but the Scholars laught at his confident offer to be a moderator in things he understood no more then his spurres did . He might have made them keep the peace , and at the same time make use of their wit and his own authority . And although there may happen a case in which Princes may , and a case in which they must refuse to confirm the synodical decrees , sentences and judgements of Ecclesiastics : yet unlesse they doe with great reason & upon competent necessity , they cannot doe it without great scandal , and sometimes great impiety . But of this I shall discourse in the next Chapter . For the present , I was to assert the rights of Princes , and to establish the proper foundation of humane laws ; that the Conscience may build upon a rock , and not trust to that which stands upon sand , and trust to nothing . I have been the larger upon these things because the adversaries are great and many , and the pretences and the challenges high , and their opposition great and intricate , and their affrightments large ; for they use something to perswade and something to scare the conscience . Such is that bold saying of Pope Leo the xth , A jure tam Divino quam humano laicis potestas nulla in Ecclesiasticas personas attributa est , Both by Divine and humane laws Ecclesiastics are free from all secular power . But fierce and terrible are the words of the Extravagant Unam sanctam . Porro subesse Romano Pontifici omnem humanam creaturam declaramus , dicimus , definimus & pronunciamus omnino esse de necessitate salutis , That every man should be subject to the Bishop of Rome , we define , we say , we declare and pronounce to be altogether necessary to salvation . This indeed is high ; but how vain withal and trifling and unreasonable I have sufficiently evidenc'd . So that now the conscience may firmly rely upon the foundation of humane laws , and by them she is to be conducted not onely in Civil affaires , but in Ecclesiastical , that is , in religion as well as justice : and there is nothing that can prejudice their authority , unlesse they decree against a law of God ; of which because Ecclesiastical persons are the preachers and expositors by ordinary Divine appointment , Princes must hear Bishops , and Bishops must obey Princes : or because audire & obaudire to hear and to obey have great affinity , I chuse to end this with the expression of Abbot Berengar almost 1100 years agoe , Sciendum est quod nec Catholicae fidei nec Christianae contrarium est legi , si ad honorem regni & sacerdotii Rex Pontifici & Pontifex obediat Regi , It is neither against the Catholic faith nor the Christian law that the Prince obey the Bishop , and the Bishop obey the Prince : the first is an obedience of piety , and the later of duty ; the one is justice , and the other is religion . CHAP. IV. Of the power of the Church in canons and censures , with their obligations and powers over the conscience . RULE I. The whole power which Christ hath left in ordinary to his Church is merely spiritual . THat there are great things spoken by the Doctors of the Primitive Church of the Ecclesiastical or spiritual power is every where evident , and that there are many expressions which prefer it above the secular ; all which I shall represent in stead of others in the words of S. Chrysostom , because of them all he was the most eloquent , and likeliest in the fairest imagery to describe the powers of his Order . Others are the limits of the Kingdome , others of the Priesthood ; for this is greater then that : and you must not estimate it by the purple and the gold . The King hath allotted to him the things of this world to be administred ; but the right of Priesthood descendeth from above : Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven . To the King is committed what is here below ; to me , that is to the Bishop , things celestial . The bodies are intrusted to Princes , but the souls to Bishops . The King remits the guilt of bodies , but the Bishop the guilt of sinnes . The Prince compels , the Bishop exhorts . He governs by necessity , but we by counsel ; he hath sensible armour , but we spiritual weapons ; he wageth warre against the Barbarians , but we against the Devil . Here then is a greater principality . For which cause the King submits himself to the Priests hand , and every where in the Old Testament the Priests did anoint Kings . Where by the way , though it be not exactly true that the Kings of Israel and Judah were always anointed by Priests , but sometimes by Prophets who were no Priests , as in the case of Jehu yet supposing all that , the discourse is true enough , and the spiritual power in relation to a nobler object is in that regard better then the temporal ; and therefore is in spiritual account in order to a spiritual end above that which serves the lesse excellent . But the effect of this discourse is , that Kings are subject to Bishops just as the Princes of Israel were to those that anointed them ; that is , they came under their hands for unction , and consecration , and blessing , and counsel , and the rites of sacrifice . And all this is very true ; and this is all that was or could be intended by S. Chrysostom , or those other eminent lights of the Primitive Church , who set their Order upon a candlestic , and made it illustrious by the advantage of comparison . The advantages are wholly spiritual , the excellencies are spiritual , the operations are spiritual , and the effects are spiritual ; the office is spiritual , and so is all the power . But because the persons of the men in whom this spiritual power is subjected are temporal as well as Princes , and so are all their civil actions , therefore whatever eminence they have for their spiritual imployment , it gives them no temporal advantage ; that comes in upon another stock : but for the spiritual it is as much as it is pretended ; but then it is no more . For it is purely spiritual . Where any thing of temporal is mingled with it , it is not greater in that , but subject to the temporal power . Without this there could never be peace : and where the jurisdiction of two Courts doe enterfere , there is perpetual wranglings . But God having ordain'd two powers hath made them both best ; and yet so that both of them are inferior : but because it is in differing powers , they both rule in peace , and both obey with pleasure . How the Ecclesiastic state is subject to the Civil I have largely accounted : Now I am to describe the eminencies , powers , advantages and legislations of the spiritual : concerning which we shall have the best light if we rightly understand the nature and quality of the power . As my Father sent me , so send I you , said Christ to his Apostles . Now it is plain how the Father was pleas'd to send his Son ; with humility and miracles , with a low fortune and a great designe , with poverty and power , with fulnesse of the spirit and excellency of wisdome . That was the manner . The end was , the redemption of Man , the conquering of the Devil , the preaching of the Gospel , the foundation of the Church , the instruction of faith , the baptizing Converts , the reformation of manners , the extirpation of sinne . This was the intire end , and that was the just manner in which Christ was sent into the world : And since his Apostles & their successors were to pursue the same ends and no other , they were furnished with the same power : and Christ gave them the Holy Ghost , and gave them commandement and power to teach all Nations , to baptise them , to bind and to loose , to minister his body and his bloud , to exhort and to reprove , to comfort and to cure , to make spiritual separations of the vile from the precious . This is the summe of all the Commissions they had from Christ. This power and these commissions were wholly Ministerial without domination , without proper jurisdiction , that is , without coaction ; it being wholly against the designe of the religion , that it should be forc'd ; and it being far remov'd from persons , so dispos'd , so imployed , so instructed to doe it . And therefore one of the requisites of a Bishop is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , He must be no striker : he had no armes put into his hand to that purpose ; the Ecclesiastic state being furnished with authority , but no power , that is authoritate suadendi , non jubendi potestate ( that I may use the expression in Tacitus ) an authority to persuade and to rebuke , but no power to command , as the word is us'd in the sense of secular dominion . Concerning which that the thing be rightly understood , we must first truly understand the word . Accursius defines Jurisdiction to be potestatem de publico introductam cum necessitate juris dicendi & aequitatis statuendae , A publick power of doing right and equity . It is potestas ad jus dicendum , so Muscornus Cyprins , A power of giving sentence in causes between party and party . But we shall best understand the meaning of Jurisdictio by that place of Cicero . Quid ergo istius in jure dicendo libidinem demonstrem ? Quis vestrum non ex urbana jurisdictione cognovit ? Quis unquam isto Praetore Chelidone invitâ lege agere potuit ? Judices citari jubet : jubet citari Heraclium : citatur reus Sopatrus : Stenium citari jubet : atque ut aliquando de rebus ab isto cognitis , judicatis , & de judicibus datis desistamus dicere , &c. From which words it is plain , that jurisdiction is a power of magistracy to summon the parties , to hear their cause , and to give sentence . And therefore in Suetonius we often find these expressions , Imperatorem jus dixisse , cognovisse , judicasse , The Emperor took cognisance , did judge , did give sentence , that is , did exercise jurisdiction . Empire is always included under jurisdiction ; and it is divided into a cognition of capital and pecuniary causes , as appears plainly in the title of the Code De jurisdictione , which handles both causes : and Asconius Paedianus in his argument upon the 4th action against Verres proves expressely that Capital actions are part of jurisdiction . To which purpose is that of Suctonius in the life of Augustus ; Dixit autem jus non diligentiâ modo summâ sed & lenitate , siquidem manifesti parricidii reum , ne culleo insueretur , quod non nisi confessi afficiebantur hâc poenâ , &c. But of this there is no question . Now of jurisdiction thus understood , it is evident that the Ecclesiastic state hath no right derived to them from Christ , that is , no power to punish any man corporally , or to compel them to answer in criminal causes ; they have no power of the sword , no restraint upon the body : but having care of souls , which cannot be govern'd by force , they are to govern as souls can be governed , that is by arguments and reason , by fear and hope , by preaching of rewards and punishments , and all the ways of the noblest government , that is , by wisdome and by the ways of God. This appears in the Apostles description of their own office & power . What is Paul and what is Apollo , but Ministers by whom ye believed ? Ministers of Christ , stewards of the Mysteries of Christ : to us is committed the word of reconciliation ; we are Embassadors for Christ ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we are not lords over the flock ; but as though God did beseech you by us , we pray you in Christs stead to be reconcil'd to God. Thus Christ set them over the houshold , not to strike the servants , but to give them their meat in due season ; that is , as Optatus expresses it , to minister the food of Gods word and Sacraments to the servants of the family . Nolite vobis majestatis dominium vindicare ; nam si ita est , vindicent sibi & ministri qui m●nsae dominicae famulantur , ut pro humanitaete exhibita ab invitatis gratulatio eis referatur… . Est ergo in universis servientibus non dominium sed ministerium . Therefore esteem not your selves to have any thing but the ministery and service , nothing of dominion . And indeed we need challenge no more : It is honour enough to serve such a Prince , to wait at such a table , to be stewards of such a family , to minister such food . This service is perfect freedome ; and that is more then can be said of the greatest temporal dominion in the world . Principes Ecclesiae fiunt ut serviant minoribus suis , & ministrent eis quaecunque acceperunt à Christo. The same with the words of Christ , He that is greatest amongst you , let him be your minister . For the honours in Christian religion at the first look indeed like dignities ; but indeed they are not divers honours , but divers services : as it seems to be an honour to the eye that it enlightens the whole body , but it is not it's honour , but it 's ministery ; so it is amongst the Saints ; it is not his honour , but his act . And so is the Apostleship thought to be a great dignity , but it is not so ; but it is his ministery . For So S. Paul sayes , If I preach the Gospel it is no glory to me : for necessity is laid upon me , and woe is unto me if I doe not preach the Gospel : for if I doe it willingly , I have a reward ; but if unwillingly , there 's nothing but a stewardship intrusted to me . The consequent of this discourse is this in the words of the same Father , Quicunque desiderat primatum in terra inveniet confusionem in coelo , Whosoever desires primacy ( meaning amongst the Ecclesiastics , and by vertue of their order and office ) upon earth , shall find confusion in Heaven . But this is most expressely and clearly taught by the Fathers of the Church . so S. Gregory Nazianzen , He that is set over others ( speaking of Bishops ) laying behind him every sin , must proceed in godlinesse , so that by the example of his spiritual growth he may draw others unto vertue , especially by that form of humility which was deliver'd to us by the Lord. Non enim oportet vi vel necessitate constringere , sed ratione & vitae exemplis suaderc , For no man is to be constrained by force or by necessity , but persuaded by reason and good examples . And thus S. Hierome distinguishes the Ecclesiastical power from the Regal . Ille nolentibus praeest , hic volentibus : ille terrore subjicit , hic servituti donatur : ille corpora custodit ad mortem , hic animas servat ad vitam . The King governs whither men will or no , the Bishop none but the willing . He subdues them by terror , but the Bishop is but the servant of the peoples souls . The King keeps bodies reserv'd for death , but the Bishop takes care of souls that they may live eternally . Upon this account S. Chrysostom considers the great difficulty there is in the discharge of the Episcopal office , and affirms it to be more troublesome then that of Kings ; as much as the rage of the sea in a tempest is greater then the curlings of a troubled River : and he gives this reason for it , Quoniam illic plures sunt qui adjuvant , eo quod ligibus ac mandatis omnia peraguntur : hic verò nihil tale , neque enim licet ex authoritate praecipere , Because there are more helpers in the secular government ; for all things are transacted by laws and by commandements : but here ( meaning in the Ecclesiastic state ) there is no such thing ; for it is lawfull , but we have no authority to command any thing . For * In potestate subjectorum est obedire vel non . They are not domestics , they are not properly subjects , but obedientiam habentes in sua ipsorum potestate , they have their obedience in their own power : they may if they will , and they shall have a good reward ; but if they will not , they may chuse . For with this power and upon these termes the Holy Ghost hath made them overseers , to feed , not to rule , the Church of God , that is , not to rule by Empire , but by persuasion . And this is intimated by the Epistle to the Hebrew●s Obey them that are set over you , and submit your selves ; for they watch for your souls : that they may doe it with joy , not with grief ; for that is unprofitable for you . That is , Submit your selves to your spiritual Rulers cheerfully and willingly : if you doe not , they can have no comfort in their ministery ; it will grieve them to find you refractary , and you will be the loosers by it , for their grief will doe you no profit . Now if these Rulers had a power of coercion , he could quickly make them willing , and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the anguish would fall upon the disobedient . The same precept is in the Epistle to the Thessalonians , where the words doe themselves expound the nature of the government , We beseech you , brethren , to know them which labour amongst you and are over you in the Lord , and admonish you , and to esteem them very high in love for their works sake . And immediately after he calls them in partem sollicitudinis , into a participation of this rule , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , We beseech you , brethren , to admonish , or to warne , to reprove them that are unruly . That is , you must help us in our government : we are over you to admonish you , but you must admonish one another : that will help our work forward when you are willing . But they which are over you must be highly esteemed , not for their dignity , but for their works sake , not in fear , but in love ; for they are over you not by Empire , but by discourses , not by laws , but by exhortation . And certainly this is the best government in the world ; that the people of God sit populus voluntarius should serve God with reason and choice , with love and pleasure and eternity of satisfaction . And this is observed also by S. Chrysostom . The Princes of this world ( saith he ) are so much inferior to this spiritual power , by how much it is better to rule over the wills of men then over their bodies : and that 's the state of Ecclesiastical government , concerning which who please to see much more , may with pleasure read it in S. Chrysostom in his first Homily upon the Epistle to Titus , and the 11th Homily upon the Epistle to the Ephesians , and in his second book of Priesthood . Now against this it will not be sufficient to oppose any precedents of government under the Old Testament . He there that did not obey the word of the High Priest was to die the death ; for they had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a true proper formal jurisdiction given them by God : and when Moses sate in judgement , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith Philo , the Priests were his assessors ; and Judaeis sacerdotii honos firmamentum potentiae erat , the honour of the Jewish priesthood was a great establishment to the power of the Nation , saith Tacitus . For the Priest were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bishops , and Judges of controversies , and by the law appointed to inflict punishment upon criminals , said Josephus . But in the Gospel there was no such thing . The Jewish excommunications were acts of power and a mixt Empire ; ours are securities to the sound part , and cautions against offenders . Their preachings were decrees sometimes ; ours can be but exhortations and arguments to persuade and invite consent . But neither can it be denied but that the Apostles did sometimes actions of a delegate jurisdiction . Thus S. Peter gave sentence of death against Ananias and Sapphira ; S. Paul inflicted blindnesse upon Elymas the Sorcerer , and deliver'd Hymenaus and Alexander and the incestuous Corinthian to be buffeted by Satan ; and S. John threatned to doe the like to Di●trephes . That this was extraordinary appears by the manners of animadversion , which were by miracle and immediate Divine judgment ; for those which were delivered to Satan were given up to be corporally tormented by some grievous sicknesse or violence of an evil spirit , as a S. Chrysostom , b S. Ambrose , S. Hierom , and divers others of the Fathers doe affirm . But therefore this was an act of Divine jurisdiction , not of Apostolical : It was a miraculous verification of their Divine mission , seldome us'd , not by ordinary emission of power , but by an extraordinary spirit : for so S. Paul threatned some criminals in the Church of Corinth , that if he did come he would not spare them : but it was because they made it necessary by their undervaluing of his person and ministery . Since ye doe so , since ye doe look for a signe and proof of Christ speaking in me , you shall have it . It is not S. Pauls ordinary power , nor his own extraordinary , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an experiment of Christ's power , who was pleas'd to minister it by S. Paul , as well as by any other Apostle : something like those words of our Blessed Saviour , An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a signe ; and the signe of the Prophet Jonas shall be given them . But then there was great necessity , and some prodigious examples were to be made to produce the fear of God and the reverence of religion , that the meannesse and poverty of the Ministers might not expose the institution to contempt : and because the religion was destitute of all temporal coercion , and the Civil power put on armor not for it but against it , therefore God took the matter into his own hand , and by judgments from heaven verified the preachings Apostolical . Thus when the Corinthians did use the Lord's Supper unworthily God punished them with sicknesse and with death , as the Apostle himself tells them : for to denounce them after and to pronounce them before were equal actions of ministery , but equally no parts of jurisdiction . This way continued in the Church , though in very infrequent examples , till the Emperors became Christians , and by laws and temporal coercions came to second the word of Ecclesiastical Ministery . For S. Cyprian tells of some persons who being afflicted with evil spirits were cur'd at their baptisme , who afterwards upon their apostasy from the faith were afflicted again , and again fell into the power of the Devil : Recedente siquidem disciplina recessit & gratia ; when they forsook Christ , himself took the matter into his own hand , and was not wanting by an act of his own jurisdiction to declare that he was their Lord , and would be honour'd by them or upon them . And this was the rod that S. Paul threatned to the Schismatical Corinthians ; not any emanation of the ordinary power of ministery , but a miraculous consignation of it : for these things ( as S. Chrysostom observes ) S. Paul calls signa Apostolatus mei , the signes of his Apostleship wrought among them in signes and miracles and powers : this was effected in healing the sick , and in striking the refractary with the rod of God ; in giving fight to the blind , and making them blind that would not see ; in raising the dead to life , and causing them to die that would not live the life of righteousnesse . But this was not done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , not by any power of their own , but by that power to which they onely ministred , by the power of Christ who ( blessed be his holy Name for it ) keeps this power onely in his own hands . In these their power was no more a power of jurisdiction then Elias had , who , as S. James said , prayed that it might and prayed that it might not rain ; and call'd for fire from heaven . And just so the Apostles being mov'd by an extraordinary spirit did , when the spirit saw cause , minister to the Divine judgment . But that was not their work ; they were sent of another errand , and were intrusted with other powers . But after all this , it is certain that there were in the Church some images and similitudes of jurisdiction in their spiritual government . The soul is not , cannot be , properly subject to any jurisdiction but that of God. For jurisdiction is the effect of legislation , and is in the mixt Empire as the other is in the mere . Now none can give laws to souls but God ; he onely is Lord of wills and understandings ; and therefore none can give judgment or restraint to souls but God. But as by preaching the Ecclesiastic state does imitate the legislation of God ; so by the power of the Keyes she does imitate his jurisdiction . For it is to be observed that by the Sermons of the Gospel the Ecclesiastics give laws to the Church , that is , they declare the laws of God ; and by the use of the Keyes they also declare the Divine jurisdiction : for as the Church can make no law of Divine worship or Divine propositions , of faith or manners , but what she hath received from Christ and his Apostles ; so neither can she exercise any judgment but the judgment of God. To that she ministers by threatnings and denunciations , by comforts and absolutions , as she ministers to the legislative of God by preaching and publishing , by exhortation and command . For there is an Empire in preaching ; there is a power of Command which the Bishops and Ministers of the Church of God must exercise . To this purpose S. Chrysostom discourses excellently , There are some things which need teaching , some which need commanding : if therefore you invert the order , and had rather command where it is necessary for you to teach , you are ridiculous ; and as bad if you goe about to teach where you rather should command . That men should doe no evil , you need not teach , but to forbid it with the force of a great authority : and so you must command them that they should not give heed to Jewish fables : But if you would have them give their goods to the poor , or keep their virgin , here you have need of doctrine and exhortation . Therefore the Apostle said both , Command and teach… .. Thus you see that a Bishop must not onely teach , but sometimes it is necessary that he should command . * But then this being a doctrinal precept , or commanding by the force of a clear and confessed doctrine , hath in it no other Empire but that it is a Commanding in the Name of God , and means this onely , that some things are so clear and obvious , so necessary and confess'd , that he who neglects them is condemn'd by himself ; he need not be taught , but onely commanded to doe his duty : but if he will not , God , who gave him the law , hath also jurisdiction over him : and to this also the Church does minister ; for the Bishop commands him in Gods Name , and if he will not , he can punish him in Gods Name , that is , he can denounce Gods judgments against him ; and that 's our ministerial jurisdiction : he can declare him to be out of the way of salvation , and unworthy to receive the holy mysteries and pledges of salvation . This is our coercion . But the use of the Keyes does differ from proper jurisdiction in this great thing , That if the Keyes be rightly us'd they doe bind or loose respectively ; but if they erre , they doe nothing upon the subject , they neither bind nor loose . Now in proper jurisdiction it is otherwise : for , right or wrong , if a man be condemn'd he shall die for it ; and if he be hang'd he is hang'd . But the Church gives nothing but the sentence of God , and tells upon what termes God will or will not pardon . If the Priest minister rightly and judge according to the will and laws of God , the subject shall find that sentence made good in heaven by the real events of the other world , which the Priest pronounces here upon earth . But if the Priest be deceived , he is deceiv'd for himself and for no body else ; he alters nothing of the state of the soul by his quick absolution , or his unreasonable binding . For it is not true here which the Lawyers say of humane Jurisdictions , Quod Judex errans pronunciavit , ob authoritatem jus dicentis transit in rem judicatam . The Priest hath no such authority , though the Civil power have . The error of the Judge does not make the sentence invalid ; his authority prevails above his error : but in the other it is the case of souls , and therefore is conducted by God onely as to all real and material events , and depends not upon the weaknesse and fallibilities of men . And therefore the power of remitting sins given to the Church , is nothing but an authority to minister that pardon which God gives by Jesus Christ. The Church pardons sins as the Levitical Priest did cleanse the lepers , said S. Hierom ; that is , he did discern whether they were clean or no , and so restor'd them to the congregation : but apud Deum non sententia Sacerdotum , sed reorum vita quaeritur , God regards not the sentence of the Priest , but the life of the penitent . For the Priest , aliquid est ad ministrandum ac dispensandum verbum ac sacramenta , ad mundandum autem & justificandum non est aliquid ; is something as to the ministery and dispensation of the word and sacraments , but nothing as to the purifying and justification of a sinner : for none works that in the inward man but he who created the whole man. They are the words of S. Austin . This therefore is but verbum reconciliationis ; the word of reconcilation is intrusted to us : but we properly give no pardon , and therefore inflict no punishment . Indeed the power of the Keyes is by a Metaphor chang'd into a sword , and S. Pauls wish [ I would they were even cut off that trouble you ] seems to be the warrant ; and by excommunications evil persons are cut off from the congregation of the Lord. And it is true that the Ecclesiastical authority is a power of jurisdiction , just as Excommunication is a sword . But so is the word of God , sharper then a two edged sword ; and so is a severe reproof , it cuts to teh bone . Nec censorium stylum , cujus mucronem multis remediis majores nostri retuderunt , aeque posthac atque illum gladium Dictatorium pertimescamus , said Cicero . The Censors tongue was a sword , but our Ancestors sometimes did not feel it smart ; and we fear it not so much as the sword of the Dictators . But how little there is of proper jurisdiction in Excommunication we can demonstrate but by too good an argument . For suppose Julian robbing of a Church , striking the Bishop , disgracing the religion , doing any thing for which he is ipso facto excommunicate : tell him of the penalty he incurs , cite him before the Bishop , denounce it in the Church ; what have you done to him that shall compel him to doe his duty ? Suppose he will not stay from the Church , that he will goe to another , to a strange country , or that he despises all this . Have you made him afraid ? have you troubled him ? have you griev'd him ? have you done that which shall make him doe so no more ? But Julian was about to renounce Christianity , and thinks it all a Fable . Or suppose lesse then that : suppose a man that keeps a concubine , and knowing that he sins , and yet resolves not to quit the sin , he abstains from the communion and the publick service of the Church ; if the Bishop admonishes him to leave the partner of his sin , how if he will not ? By what compulsory can the Ecclesiastic state enforce him ? If you threaten to drive him from the Communion , he hath prevented you ; he never comes at it . If from prayers , you doe him a kindnesse ; for he loves them not . If from Sermons , then he will enjoy his lust without controlment . What can the Church doe in this case ? But suppose yet once more , that a violent hand shall pull down the whole Episcopal order , what shall the Church doe then ? will she excommunicate the men that doe it ? They say the order it self is Antichristian ; and can they fear to be excommunicated by them ? And who fears to be excommunicated by the Presbytery that believes them to be a dead hand and can effect nothing ? And in the summe of affaires , onely the obstinate and the incorrigible are to be proceeded against by that extreme remedy . And to them who need that extreme it is no remedy : for they that need it , care not for it : & what compulsion then can this be ? If it be any thing really effective , let it be persuaded to them that shall deserve it ; for it must work wholly by opinion , and can affright them onely who are taught to be afraid of it . It can onely doe effort upon them who are willing to be good in the way of the Church : for it is a spiritual punishment ; and therefore operates onely upon the spirit , that is upon the will and understanding , which can have no coercion : so that in effect it compels them who are willing to be compell'd , that is , it does not compel at all , and therefore is but improperly an act of Jurisdiction . For that which the Ecclesiastics can doe , is a suspension of their own act , not any power over the actions of other men : and therefore is but an use of their own liberty , not an exercise of jurisdiction . He does the same thing in Sacraments as he does in preaching : In both he declares the guilty person to be out of the way to heaven , to be obnoxious to the Divine anger , to be a debtor of repentance ; and refusing to baptize an evil Catechumen , or to communicate an ill-living Christian , does but say the same thing : he speaks in one by signes , and in the other he signifies by words . If he denies to give him the Holy Communion , he tels him he is not in the state of grace and the Divine favour , he tels him that he hath no communion with Christ ; and therefore by denying the Symbols sayes that truth which by his Sermons he publishes . All the effect and real event is produc'd by the sin of the man ; and the Minister of religion tells him as God's messenger what he hath done to himself , and what will come upon him from God. This is judicium , non jurisdictio , a judging , not a jurisdiction ; a judging a man worthy or unworthy ; which does not suppose a superiority of jurisdiction , but equals doe it to their equals , though in this the Clergy hath a superiority , and an authority from God to doe so . Adde to this , that the other effects of Excommunication are not any force or impression upon the Delinquent , but are the caution and duty of the Church , or sanior pars of them that are innocent ; for it is a command to them to abstain from the society of the criminal : for to him it is no direct obligation ; indirectly it is , as I have already affirm'd and shall afterwards discourse . This discourse cannot lessen the power and authority of the Church ; it onely explicates the nature of it , because it is useful to many cases of conscience , and does rightly establish the foundation of this great measure of conscience , [ Ecclesiastical laws ] and it addes grandeur to it . For it is in the Ecclesiastical government as it was in the Judaical before they had a King. They had no King of their own , but God was their King ; and he did exercise Jurisdiction , and appointed Judges over them , and wrought miracles for their punishment or their escape respectively : and so it is in the Church ; Christ our head keeps the spiritual regality and the jurisdiction in his own hands , but sends us to minister it according to his laws ; which if we doe , they who are found criminals cannot indeed be smitten by us , but they shall be smitten by God : and therefore Christ said the same thing to his Missionaries as God did to Samuel , They have not rejected thee , but me , said God ; and , He that despiseth you , despiseth me , said Christ. And now , although Kings have the sword in their own hand , and can smite the disobedient ; yet we cannot : but God will smite them that are disobedient to the Church : and that 's worse for them that feel it , and better for them that are but threatned ; for it is true , that by repentance they may escape that which is threatned by the Church , which in the Common-wealth they cannot : but these that feel it are in a worse condition ; for it is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the living God ; and , who can dwell with the Everlasting burnings ? For our God is a consuming fire . RULE II. The Church hath power to make laws and to give Commands obliging the conscience , that is , tying the subjects to obedience under the penalty of committing sin , or of incurring the Divine displeasure . BY the Church it is certain I must first mean the Church Catholick , or all the Governours of the Christian assemblies in the world : because if it be in a part it is in the whole ; and if it be neither in a part nor in the whole , it is no where . But yet because the whole Catholick Church , that is , all the Governours of Churches ( for if we speak of the Church making laws , we must mean the governing part of the Church ) did never meet since the days of the Apostles , who being few and united and absolute and supreme could then doe what could never be done since : it is necessary for the reducing this Rule to practise , that the legislation and the power of commanding be subjected in some more particular subject ; and therefore I shall instance in the least . By the Church , I mean every particular Church joyn'd to the head of Union ; and by the particular Church , I mean the Angel of that Church , the Bishop ; according to that saying of S. Cyprian , Scire debes Episcopum in Ecclesia esse , & Ecclesiam in Episcopo , The Bishop is in the Church , and the Church in the Bishop : that is , he is in the Church as the head is part of the body , and the Church is in him as in their representative , and all their power is ministred by his hand , and their interest promoted by him ; and he is the hand of God and the hand of the people ; this lifted up , and that let down ; this in the ministery of prayers , and that in the ministery of blessings . And therefore S. Chrysostome expounding those words of Christ , Tell it unto the Church , says that they mean , tell it to the Bishop of the Church , who is to minister food and Discipline to the congregation . Now all the power of commanding and making Ecclesiastical laws , that is , laws of Religion , is wholly in the Pastors and Bishops in the supreme order of Ecclesiastics . If there be two orders of Divine institution , it is certain that one is the superior ; and therefore one onely is to rule in eminency , and the other can rule but in minority and substitution : and that which is appointed to rule is the superior . Now the case then is clear as to the present purpose : the Presbyters were under Bishops , and might be accused before them and rebuk'd by them ; we see it plain in the case of Timothy and Titus , to whom S. Paul gave rules of Court , and measures of taking cognisance of causes brought before them . There was plainly the judging order and the judged : The Elders or Presbyters were judged ; over them were Overseers plac'd . Par in parem potestatem non habet . Since therefore a judicatory was plac'd in the Church , though it was a spiritual onely and without temporal coercion , yet it had a just authority ; and therefore must suppose a distinction in the Clergy of superior and inferior . Now because there can be no union political without government , and the government which was appointed was that of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the ruling Clergy , it follows that the Bishop being the head of spiritual union in the first institution of the Church , every society of Christians is reckoned one by the unity of the Bishop ; and therefore that society of a Bishop and his parish is the least indeed , but it is a Christian Common-wealth . Now the practice Apostolical and Primitive administring this power by one and one in every Church , where there were many Presbyters , it must be evident that he who was superior to the Presbyters was to rule in every congregation ; and because there was none superior to him by Divine or Apostolical appointment , all the legislative or commanding power in the Church is founded in the Episcopal order , and therefore that one Bishop hath in his own charge a legislative or power of command ; and therefore much more when many Bishops meet together . A Diocese is the least circuit of government , but it is an intire body subject to distinct commands ; that is , every Diocese hath one set over them in the Lord , to whom the people are by the commands of Jesus Christ tied to give obedience . Whether the Diocese be little or great , allowed or disallowed , in City or in Country , divided into parishes or not divided , under Metropolitans or not under , of many Churches or but one , it matters not : where there is a Bishop and a congregation there is a Diocese , and there is a power of commanding and a necessity of obeying , intra limites disciplina , within that pale in which they have warranty and power to govern and to give commandements . As for parishes in the late sense of the word , that is , the charge of a single Presbyter , it is no body politic of Apostolical or Divine appointment : for the Presbyters were called in partem sollicitudinis into the help of the Ministery ; but they had no cure of souls , save onely by delegation & special and temporary appointment , for some whole ages in the Church : and therefore the Governing and the Commanding Authority cannot be extended to Parishes and to their Curates which are of late date , and received no power from Christ but that of Ministery , which is also conveyed by the Bishops hands . But then because above the Bishop there is no appointment in the whole religion , it is necessary that the legislative be established in him : if we goe higher we can never come to a society of Apostolical or Divine institution in the Church , because between the whole Catholick Church , either in diffusion or representation , and a single Diocese , all the intermedial unions , as of Metropolitans , Primates , Patriarchs , Councils Provincial or Oecumenical , are by consent and positive and humane institution , but they directly estabish no Divine Government . This onely is properly such . And though this can suffer alteration as to the administration of it , yet the proper seat of the authority is the Bishop , by virtue of his order . Whether the Bishop of Rome receiv'd the power into himself alone , and so conveyes it to all other Bishops , is not material to our present inquiry ; for that is a question of the manner of receiving it , not of the power when it is receiv'd . I shall in order to other purposes discover the unreasonablenesse of that fond pretence and novelty . But that which I say is , that those persons who by Christs appointment to or by the Apostles were authoris'd to govern the Church , are the heads of Christian societies , and every such society is a distinct government ; and that this cannot be the division of parishes , because that division was later then the authority : and though this be true also of Dioceses as they are now divided , yet that division being but accidental to the charge , and the charge being an appointed relation , that which is accidental and superinduc'd cannot prejudice the nature and institution of it , but that a Bishop and his charge more or lesse is an intire society or Common-wealth , as much as the thing can be ; that is , according to the nature and capacity of the subject matter , it is an intire government , and Prelate and people make the parts of the integral constitution . To the verification therefore of the power thus subjected , all those titles of eminency and superior office recorded in Scripture doe aptly minister : as that they are called Pastors , and Rulers , and Praepositi , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bishops or Overseers of the Church : He that hears them , hears Christ , who hath sent them as himself was sent . Upon the account of these the first rulers of Churches in Scripture did give laws to their people , and threatned the disobedient not onely by the force of their extraordinary power , but by the effects of their ordinary ministery . The particular instances of command I shall enumerate when I give account in what things they have power to make laws ; but these words of power were sufficient warrant , and were like seals to their Commissions and Monitors of their duty . But so the Rulers of the Church did practise their power , and taught the necessity of obedience . To this purpose are those words of S. Clement to S. James the Brother of our Lord ; These things , most dear Brother , I have received from the mouth of holy Peter , who gave the commands , and I have endeavour'd to shew them to thee , that thou mayest command them all to be kept inviolate , because Ecclesiastical affaires ought not to be done carelesly but with diligence . Therefore let no man think that without danger he can neglect these precepts , or dissemble them ; quia in judicio Dei ignis aeterni tormenta sustinebit qui Ecclesiastica decreta neglexerit , because in the judgment of God he shall suffer the torments of an Eternal fire who shall neglect the decrees of the Church . But he that shall hear thee as the Minister of Christ commanded , shall receive glory : But he that shall not hear thee , or rather the Lord speaking by thee , shall receive to himself damnation . S. Ignatius is very frequent and expresse in this particular . Be subject to the Bishop as to the Lord. For he watches for your souls as he that must give an account to God. For it is necessary that you doe nothing without the Bishop . For he that is disobedient to Bishops , will be altogether without God , impious , and a despiser of Christ , and a disparager of his ordinance . And again , It is fit that you obey your Bishop , and in nothing to contradict him . For he that does , despises not him that is visible , but in him despises the invisible God , who cannot be despis'd of any one . For the Bishop hath not his promotion from men , but from God. Tertullian speaking of the power and judicatory of the Church , saith , Ibidem etiam exhortationes , castigationes & censura Divina ; nam & judicatur magno cum pondere , ut apud certos de Dei conspectu , There are exhortations , chastisements and a Divine censure ; for the judgment of the Church is with great weight and efficacy , because it is amongst them who are certain that they shall appear before God : and it is the greatest forerunning of the great Judgment , if any one sins so that he be banished from the communion of prayers , assemblies and all holy entercourse . To which if we adde the words of S. Cyprian , we shall find not onely the power and authority warranted , but the subject of the power declar'd to be the Bishop . Since there are such and so great and many other examples and precedents by which the Authority of the Bishop and his power is established by Divine ordinance , what sort of men doe you suppose them to be who , being enemies of Bishops and rebels against the Catholic Church , are not affrighted with the threatning of God admonishing them , nor yet with the revenge of the future judgment ? For heresies have arisen and schisms commenc'd from no other cause then this , that men doe not obey [ the Bishop ] the Priest of God : neither doe they consider that there is in the Church for a time a Judge in the stead of Christ , to whom if all the Brethren would obey according to the Commands of God , no man would move any thing against a college of Bishops ; no man would after the Divine judgment is pass'd , after the suffrage of the people , and the judgment of the Bishops his assessors , make himself a judge not of the Bishop , but indeed of God himself ; no man would divide the Unity of the Church ; no man by a self-pleasure and pride would make a new heresy apart by himself . I onely adde the testimony of S. Hierom , it being in a clear case as to the thing it self ; and the difficulty being onely in the measures , the manner and instances of obedience . Episcopus vester cui Ecclesiae commissum est regimen , &c. Your Bishop to whom the government of the Church is committed , whom God hath plac'd as the surveyor of his vineyard , the shepherd of the sheep , the director of the flock , the leader of the people both in the city and the country in which ye live , let him nourish you with a singular care , and feed you with the meat of holy doctrine , and in the presence of God take especial care of your souls : let all men devoutly and with an even mind as to God obey him to whom all the city is committed . But because I have given a larger account of this duty in general , in * a Discourse on purpose , I shall more properly consider in what particular cases the conscience is , or is not , bound to obey the Church-governours . RULE III. The Church hath power to make laws in all things of necessary duty , by a direct power and a Divine authority . SAint Ignatius discoursing of the Bishops power , commands subjection to him in so large and comprehensive termes , that they seem to put an end to all further inquiries in this rule of conscience , by making all inquiries to be uselesse ; because an obedience universal is due . Necesse est ut quicquid facitis , nihil sine Episcopo tentetis , & in nullo illi refragari : And again , Nec quicquam videatur vobis consentaneum quod sit praeter illius judicium ; quod enim tale est , Deo inimicum est . It is necessary that whatsoever ye doe , ye doe nothing without the Bishop ; that ye be obedient to him , and be refractary against him in nothing : Neither let any thing please you that is besides his judgment ; for whatsoever is so is an enemy to God. The same also he repeats in other places , and gives it in command to other Churches . But this is too general to guide any man , and therefore of it self requires a limit : and therefore himself does explicate it in his letter to the Church of Smyrna . Sine Episcopo nemo quicquam faciat eorum quae ad Ecclesiam spectant , Without the Bishop let no man doe any thing of that which belongs to the Church ; that is , whatsoever is intrusted to the Bishops charge , the conduct of souls , the duties of religion , the commandements of God , the Sacraments of the religion , the Orders of the Divine institution , the interior actions of grace , and the external which are of necessary ministery and relation to them , are under the Discipline and legislation of the Church . For in these things onely his charge , and therefore in these things onely his authority does lie . Thus the Bishop hath power to command his subject or parishioner to put away his concubine ; and if he does not , he not onely sins by uncleannesse , but by disobedience too . For the authority of the Church being spiritual , it hath power over the spirit , and introduces guilt upon the soul if it be disobeyed . So that it is but folly and ignorance to think the Bishop hath no power , because he is to command onely in those things where God hath commanded already . For though he is God's Minister and commands not by his own will , but by God's , yet he hath the authority of God given to him to doe that : and besides that it is not reasonable to think that God would give the Church-Rulers his authority for trifling and needlesse purposes ; it is also evident in the thing it self , that it is of great effect , because even in these things he is the voice of God , and judges in the place of God , and affrights sinners with the accents of his displeasure , and upon this account brings a burden upon the disobedient which was not brought upon him before the command and sentence of the Church . Whatsoever therefore the Bishop commands us as from God , in that his power and legislation is properly exercised : and it is absolutely to be obeyed without any other condition or reserve , but that it be indeed the will and commandement of God. So S. Bernard , Quicquid vice Dei praelatus homo praecipit , quod non sit tamen certum displicere Deo , haud secus omnino recipiendum est ac si praecipiat ipse Deus , Whatsoever the Prelate in the stead of God commands , provided you are certain it does not displease God , it must be receiv'd as if God himself commanded it . For what difference is it whether God by himself , or by men his Ministers , or by his ministring Angels make his will and pleasure known unto us ? Where it is observable that he does not give leave to disobey if we question whether it be God's will or no ; for if it be a question , the presumption is for the authority imposing it : and in that case , though it be a doubt in theory , yet that must not hinder the practical obedience ; because it is as certain that our lawfull superior hath power to command us to obey when we are not certain of the thing , as it is certain that it is a sin if we doe it in a doubting conscience by our own authority . For the authority of God in the hand of a Prelate is warrant enough to determine us when we know nothing to the contrary , though our own will is not . If we have a doubting conscience , we have nothing ( while the doubt remains ) to oppose against it but our will , and that is not sufficient , but a Divine authority is . Now although in the present case it does not work to the clearing of the material doubt , yet it does operate to the clearing of the duty : and therefore S. Bernard said well [ quod non sit tamen certum displicere Deo ] unlesse you are sure , that is , be fully persuaded , you displease God in obeying the Bishop , it is certain you doe displease God by disobeying him . For it is a part of our obedience not to judge his sentence , that is , not to give judgment against him in a question of difficulty , but to stand to his sentence . Credas tibi salutare quicquid ille praeceperit ; nec de Majorum sententia judices , cujus officii est obedire & implere quae jussa sunt , said S. Hierom in a like case . It is your part to obey , and to doe what is commanded , and not to judge your judges , but to believe all that to be good which your Prelate commands you ; meaning when his command is instanc'd in the matter of the Divine Commandement . In things that are plain and easy , every man can be a Judge , because indeed their needs none , for there is no question : but in things of difficulty , and where evidently God is not dishonour'd , it is very much our duty to obey the Church . Thus the Church hath power to command us to be devout in our prayers , to be charitable to our Brother , to forgive our enemy , to be heartily reconcil'd to him , to instruct the ignorant , to follow holinesse , and to doe justice , and to be at peace with all men ; and he that obeys not , does walk disorderly , and may be us'd accordingly with all the power the Church hath intrusted to her , according to the merit of the cause : but it is certain he sins with a double iniquity that refuses Gods Commandement and the precept of his spiritual superior ; for in these things every Minister can exhort , but the Bishop can command , that is , he binds the Commandement of God by a new obligation and under a distinct sin , the sin of disobedience . RULE IV. The Church hath power to make laws in such things which are helps and apt ministeries and advantages of necessary duty . This Rule is expressely taught by S. Basil : Necessariò ea nos in memoriam debemus redigere quae dicta sunt ab Apostolo , Prophetias nolite spernere… . Ex his autem intelligitur quod si quid nobis imperatum est quod idem sit cum mandato Domini , aut adjuvet , illud tanquam voluntas Dei studiosius diligentiusque à nobis suscipi debet , We must remember what the Apostle said , Despise not prophesyings . But if any thing be commanded us which is all one with the command of God , or may help it , it ought to be undertaken by us with diligence and study as if it were the will of God. Thus if our Bishop in his precepts and sermons of chastity command that the women goe not to the publick spectacles , where are represented such things which would make Cato blush , and Tuccia have looser thoughts , they are bound in Conscience to abstain from those impure societies ; and not onely from the lust , but from the danger . For in vain is it that God should intrust the souls of the people to spiritual Rulers , and give them wisdome to doe it , and commandment to doe it with diligence , and gifts of the Holy Spirit to enable them to doe it with advantage , if the people were not tied in duty to decline those places and causes where and whence they doe usually perish . And in pursuance of the Episcopal authority in the like instances it was that S. Chrysostom held his pastoral staffe over the disobedient : for the Church had declar'd that in the holy time of Lent the people should live austerely , and therefore he told them at that time especially that they should not goe to the publick shews and theatres ; and to the disobedient he addes this threatning , Sciant omnes his criminibus obnoxii , si post hanc nostram admonitionem in ea negligentia manserint , non toleraturos nos , sed legibus Ecclesiasticis usuros , & magnâ austeritate docturos ne talia posthac negligant , n●ve tanto contemptu Divina audiant eloquia , Let all that are guilty of such crimes know that if after this admonition they persist in this neglect , we will not suffer it , but use the laws of the Church against them , and shall teach them with great austerity that hereafter they doe not hear the Divine Sermons with so great contempt . Upon the same account the Church in her Sermons of repentance does usually , and hath authority to enjoyn actions of internal and external significations and ministeries of repentance . In the Primitive Church the Bishops did indict fasting-dayes , and publick Letanies and processions or solemn supplications and prayers to be us'd in the times of publick danger and necessity . This we find in Tertullian , Episcopi universae plebi mandare jejunia assolent , non dico de industria stipium conferendarum , ut vestrae capturae est , sed interdum & ex aliqua sollicitudinis Ecclesiasticae causa , The Bishops are wont to command fasting dayes to all the people , not for secular ends , but for Ecclesiastical necessity and advantage . For when God hath established an office and ministery , it is certain he made it sufficient to acquire all the ends of it ' s designation : since therefore the government even of internal actions and a body or society of men must suppose external acts , ministeries , circumstances and significations , no man can from without govern that which is within , unlesse he have power to govern that without which the internal act cannot be done in publick , in union and society . And here comes in that Rule of the law , The Accessory follows the nature of the Principal ; which hath been so infinitely mistaken and abus'd by the pretences of Romanists and Presbytery for the establishing an Empire Ecclesiastical in things belonging to themselves , not to God. For the soul being the principal and the body it 's instrument , they hence argue that they to whom the souls are committed , have therefore a right to govern the body , because it is accessory to the soul ; and if the body , then also the accessories of the body , actions , circumstances , time , wealth , lands and houses ; in order to the spiritual good of the soul : which proposition because it is intolerable , it can never be the product of Truth , and therefore must be deriv'd from a false understanding of this true rule of the lawyers . But because in it's true meaning it serves to conduct many , and particularly this rule of Conscience , it is necessary that we know the true meaning of it . The Rule [ The Accessory followes the nature of the Principal ] explicated . Therefore for the understanding of it so far as can be in order to our design , it is to be inquir'd , how we shall know which is the principal and which is the accessory ? 2. In what sense the accessory must follow the nature of the principal . 1. That which is principal to one purpose , is but the accessory to another sometimes . If Titius hires my land and builds a house upon it , the house is but the accessory , because it came after my land was in possession . But if Titius buyes my house standing upon my own land , he buyes the land too ; for the land is but the accessory , and the house is the principal : because the house being the purchase , it cannot be at all but upon a foundation , and therefore the ground is the accessory , and after the house in the intention of the buyer . Villa fundum quaerat , it is sometimes true ; but ordinarily , Fundus quaerit villam . 2. That which is of greatest value is not always the principal , but sometimes is the accessory . The picture of Apollo upon a laurel board is much more precious then the wood , and yet if Apelles should take Lucian's wood and draw the picture . Lucian will make bold with the board , and consequently carry away the picture . A jewel set in gold is much better then the gold , but yet the gold is the principal , because it was put there to illustrate and to adorn the gold ; according to that of Ulpian , Semper cum quaerimus quid cui cedat , illud spectamus , quid cujus rei ornanda causâ adhibetur . And therefore if Caius dying leave me in legacy his black-cloth suit , I shall also receive the diamond-buttons that adorn it : because these were plac'd there to adorn it ; and therefore are the accessory , because they are usu minores , and wholly set there for the ministery of the other . Quod adhibetur alterius rei causâ ; that is principal for whose sake the other was sent or put . And therefore it is no good argument to conclude that the body is the accessory , because the soul is more noble . Cedent gemmal phialis vel lancibus inclusae auro argentove . The soul is indeed a jewel set in gold ; but is therefore an accessory to the body in some cases . He that buyes the body of a slave , hath right to all the ministeries of the soul ; and the man is bound to serve his Master with a ready mind and a good will ; and the soul is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the body . The body is first , and the soul comes afterwards to give it life and motion . 3. When two substances concurre to the constitution or integrity of a third , one is not the accessory to the other . The eye is not the accessory to the head , nor the foot to the leg , nor the hand to the arme ; for that onely is an accessory , quod alterius rei causâ adhibetur aut accedit : If it comes in accidentally and be wholly for the others sake , then it is an accessory . Thus order and decency and circumstances of time and place are for the ministeries and ornament of religion , and therefore are accessories . The outward act is the lesse principal and an accessory to the inward , for to the inward it wholly ministers ; and consequently he that disposes of one may also govern the other , because the lesse principal is included in the more , and the lesse and the more have not two administrations , because they have but one use . But the soul and the body are two distinct substances of differing ministrations , acting to several and sometimes to contrary purposes ; they are parts of the same man , a better and a worse , but not a principal and accessory , unlesse it be by accident and in some uses and to some purposes ; and then sometimes one sometimes the other is the principal . Concerning which the Rule is this . 4. Those things which of themselves are not , but by accident may be made accessories to a principal , are then to be esteem'd to be so when they actually and wholly are joyn'd in use to the principal , and serve the end of the principal , but have none of their own . Thus when the soul prays passionately , if the lips move without a deliberate act of understanding , but obeying the fancy , the body in that case is purely the accessory . I say in that case : for if the body receive a command to other purposes , as to attend upon the Prince at the same time when the soul prays , in that case they are both principals ; and neither of them is accessory to the other . And therefore although it will follow that when the body ministers to the action of the soul wholly , and hath no distinct work & office of its own in that action , he that commands the soul , can also command the body ; for they are in that ministery but as one : yet it will not follow that when the body is not 〈…〉 have also an absolute and irrespective nature , operation or designe , it cannot be governed in any thing of this , because of it's relative nature and conjunction in the other ; for there it is not accessory . For it is the nature of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The conjunct cause or reason , when it is there , the work will follow : but when it is away , there will be no event , says the Philosopher . 6. It is not enough to make a thing to be accessory , that it is design'd for the use and ministery of another that is principal ; but it must be actually applied : for till then it is but a potential accessory , which gives no right , and changes no nature , and produces no effect . Bridles and saddles are made to be us'd with horses : but he that buyes all the horses in a faire cannot claim all the saddles and bridles which are in the same faire to be sold ; because they are not yet become the accessories , but are onely design'd to be so . It is intended that the body should minister to the soul in matters of religion ; but because it ministers also to other actions of the soul , he that rules the soul does not by consequence rule the body , unlesse it be actually applied , and be conjunct with the soul in the ministeries of religion . 2. These may be sufficient to declare so much of the nature of accessories as is of use in our present questions . The next inquiry is , what is the meaning of these words , [ The accessory [ follows the nature ] of the principal . ] For it cannot be meant that whatsoever is said of one may be said of the other ; or whatsoever may be done to one , may be done to the other . The Rulers of souls have power to excommunicate or to cut them off from the body of the Church , which is the greatest spiritual power , and is after it's own manner a spiritual death . Now suppose the body be an accessory to the soul , it will not follow that he that can cut the soul off from the Church , can cut the body also off from the Common-wealth . But the meaning is , that duplici & diverso jure censeri non debent , they who are joyn'd in one action are to have one judgment , though according to their respective measures . If the soul does well , so does the body ministring to the soul. If it be good to pray , it is good to appoint times and places to pray in , because without time and place you cannot pray : If time and place be contingent and irregular , so are our prayers ; if our prayers be solemn and fixt , so must they . And thus also it is in matter of Government . If the Bishop is to guide the devotion of the soul , he can also give rules to the body in all that which it ministers to that action of the soul ; and when they two make one compleat action by way of principal and accessory , they are the same one intire subject of government . But this is to be extended no further . This passes not to the distinct actions or ministeries of the body ; but is confin'd to that in which it is , and so long as it is one agent with the soul : neither can it passe to warrant any other impression upon the body , but that it be commanded and conducted in the 〈…〉 the Curator bonorum ; and the Physician that gives physic to the body , and conducts the regiment of health , is not Master of his wardrobe : and the Epigram derided Herod the Empiric , Clinicus Herodes trullam subduxerat aegro : Deprensus dixit , Stulte , quid ergo bibis ? because when he came to take away his patients sicknesse , he took away his plate . If the principal act be confirm'd by an accessory oath , though the principal act prove null and invalid in law , yet the man is tied by the remaining oath . A man cannot offer to God an indifferent action or thing . And therefore he that promises to God to walk three turns every day , hath done nothing ; the act is null , and he is not obliged to pay that to God : but if an oath did supervene , that must stand , * though the principal of it self be null ; because every oath that can without sin be kept , must stand . The alienation of a Minors lands is rescinded by law , yet the obligation and caution of the Tutor for the accessory verification of the principal sale will stand : because there is a reason that separates the accessory from the principal , and the law intending to rescind the translation of the Dominion , not to rescind the contract , leaves the principal loose , and the accessory bound . This is also thus in actions principal and accessory , which the law cals personales & hypothecarias . Maevius dies and divides his estate between Lucius and Lucullus ; but he was indebted 20 talents , and for caution had ingag'd some jewels . Lucius payes his five talents , and Lucullus payes foure of the other : the personal action of Lucius is dissolv'd , but the accessory is not ; for till Lucullus his personal or principal be taken off , the accessory and cautionary remaines upon them both : and this also hath a particular reason , and so have all those cases in which this Rule failes . From whence I inferre , that this thing is sometimes reasonable , and sometimes unreasonable , but it is never necessary but in one case ; and that is when the accessory is necessary and inseparable , either by reason of a natural or positive conjunction . For some things are accessory by use and customes , some by laws and commandements , some by the nature of the thing . Now of the first two sorts the measures are contingent and alterable : the laws sometimes declare a thing to be accessory , and at other times it is no so : and if by use or contract or custome a thing be accessory , it ceases to be so if the accessory be particularly excepted . As if I buy a house , it is by custome concluded that I intend the garden that is joyn'd to it ; and he that sels a horse , sels his bridle : but if the garden be reserv'd , & the bridle be excepted , the rule is then of no use . Now to apply this to the present inquiries . 1. Because the body is not in the nature of the thing an inseparable , necessary accessory to the soul in spiritual actions and ministeries , but the soul can pray alone , and be charitable alone , and love God alone , and the body hath actions , and intentions , and interests which mingle not with that which the spiritual rulers are to govern ; therefore it cannot be inferr'd that the body is subject in all things to them who govern souls . But 2. It does follow and may by force of this rule be inferr'd that they who are to govern the religion and spiritual actions of the soul , can also govern the actions of the body which minister immediately and necessarily to the necessary actions of the soul : & therefore because it is a duty that we communicate in the Communion of Saints , when that duty is actually and of necessity to be done , the Bishop hath power to command the bodies of men to be present in Christian assemblies , according to the precept of the Apostle , Neglect not the assembling of your selves together . And yet further , to come home to the present Rule , there are several degrees of necessitie , and several reasons of it . Some things are necessary for life , and some for health . Some are necessary for single Christians , some things are necessary for societies ; some things are necessary in private , and some in publick ; some things are for order , and some for precise duty ; some things are absolutely , and some are but respectively and in order to certain ends necessary . The body is an accessory to the soul , atque eodem jure censendum , to be judg'd by the same laws , govern'd by the same persons , subject to the same sentence and conduct , not onely in things of absolute necessity , but even in things of great advantage ; not onely in private necessity , which is always indispensable , but even in publick necessities of the Church , in which there is greater latitude and more liberty : and the reason is , because even these lesser degrees of necessity are requir'd of us by Divine Commandement ; and it is not onely commanded to us to doe that which is lawful , but that also which is of good report ; not onely that we glorify God , but that our Brethren be edified . And in proportion to this , it is requir'd of the guides of souls that they give good account of them , but it is requir'd of us also that we so comport our selves that they may doe it with joy : which cannot be suppos'd , if their power be kept within the bounds of a simply and indispensably necessary internal religion ; it cannot be done without prosperous circumstances and advantages of religion : in these therefore if spiritual guides have not power to give commands , they have not all that is necessary by all the kinds of necessity which God made . But this Rule we see verified by authentic precedents . For the Apostles at Jerusalem indeed thought fit to impose nothing but those necessary things which are specified in their decretal : but S. Paul us'd also this authority by the measures of the present Rule , and commanded beyond the limits of absolute necessity , even that which he judg'd convenient ; and verifies his authority in his Epistle to Philemon , I might be much bold in Christ to enjoyn thee that which is convenient : and this he actually did to the Corinthian Church , commanding that all things should be done decently and in order . Now although it be true that in these things the Apostle had some advantages which the Bishops in succession have not ; he had an infallible spirit , and what he call'd convenient was so indeed ; and he had converted Philemon , he was his Father in Christ , and he was one of the pillars upon which Christ built the Church , and he was to lay the foundation for an everlasting building : yet because the instance to the Corinthian Church was such which was of a perpetual reason , and it would be for ever necessary that things should be done in the Church decently and in order , and the question of decency would for ever have variety and flux , succession and a relative uncertainty , it was necessary that of this there should be perpetual Judges and perpetual Dictators : and these can be no other but the Rulers of the Church , who have the same power as the Apostles had in this , though not so many advantages of power . When the Bishops judge truly concerning necessity , & such decencies and reasonablenesses as are next to necessity , they can enjoyn them , onely they cannot judge so surely ; and therefore although there may be more causes of laying aside their commands , yet it is never lawfull without cause . But this is not to be extended to such decencies as are onely ornament , but is to be limited to such as onely rescue from confusion : the reason is , because the Prelates and spiritual guides cannot doe their duty , unlesse things be so orderly that there be no confusion , much lesse can they doe it with joy ; and so far their power does extend : for although that is not required of the governours but of the people , that the Rulers office be done with joy ; yet because it is required of the people , they sin if they hinder it ; therefore the Rulers have power to enjoyn it . But if it can goe beyond this limit , then it can have no natural limit , but may extend to sumptuousnesse , to ornaments of Churches , to rich utensils , to splendor , to Majesty ; for all that is decent enough , and in some circumstances very fit . But because this is too subject to abuse , and gives a secular po●er into the hands of Bishops , and an authority over mens estates and fortunes , and is not necessary for souls , and no part of spiritual government , it is more then Christ gave to his Ministers . This also is to be added : that because this power is deriv'd to spiritual Rulers upon the account of reason and experience of things and the duty of the people , that the Rulers should be enabled to give an account of their charges with joy , therefore it is onely left to the people to doe it or not , under the pain of a sin ; but they are not to incurre spiritual censures upon the stock of non-compliance in things not simply necessary or of essential duty . For to compel them to advantages will bring but little joy to the Ruler : he must secure the main duty whether they will or no ; that himself is to look to , and therefore to use all the means God hath put into his hand ; and for that he must look for his joy when he comes to give up his account : but that he himself should doe his duty with joy , that is with advantages , with ease , with comfort , being a duty wholly incumbent on the people and for their profit , if they will not comply , they sin ; and it is not profitable for them , saith the Apostle , that is , they loose by it ; but to this they are at no hand to be constrain'd , for that will destroy his joy as much as the letting it alone . Beyond this the Bishop hath no authority to command what he can persuade by argument , he is to take care it be well and wisely , to the glory of God and the good of his Church , to the edification of all men that are interested , and the special comfort and support of the weak . The summe of which power is excellently summ'd up by S. Paul. For ye know what Commandements we gave you by the Lord Jesus . For this is the will of God , even your sanctification : That ye abstain from fornication… . that no man defraud his Brother . In these things the spiritual power is proper and competent . But the Apostle addes , He therefore that despiseth , despiseth not man but God , who hath also given us his holy Spirit . That is , In those things which are certainly the laws of God the Bishop is to rule intirely according to the power given him . But because God hath not onely given his authority ; but his spirit too , that is , he hath given him wisdome as well as power , it cannot be supposed to be for nothing : whatever he wisely orders , that is of necessary relation to the expresse command of God , or is so requisite for the doing of it , that it cannot be well done without it by any other instrument , nor by it self alone . In this it is to be supposed that the spirit of government which God hath given to his Church will sufficiently assist , and therefore does competently oblige : lesse then this the Spirit of God cannot be suppos'd to doe , if it does any thing beside giving and revealing the expresse commandement and necessary duty . Beyond these strict and close measures there is no doubt but the Spirit of God does give assistance : as the great experience of the Church , and the effects of government , and the wise rules of conduct , and the usefull Canons , and the decent Ceremonies , and the solemn rites , and the glorifications of God consequent to all this doe abundantly testify . But yet beyond this , the Bishops can directly give no laws that properly and immediately bind the transgressors under sin : and my reasons are these . 1. Because we never find the Apostles using their Coercion upon any man but the expresse breakers of a Divine Commandement , or the publick disturbers of the peace of the Church and the establish'd necessary order . 2. Because even in those things which were so convenient that they had a power to make injunctions , yet the Apostles were very backward to use their authority of commanding ; much lesse would they use severity , but intreaty . It was S. Paul's case to Philemon before mention'd ; Though I might be much bold in Christ to enjoyn that which is convenient ; yet for love's sake I rather intreat thee . 3. In those things where God had interpos'd no Command , though the rule they gave contain'd in it that which was fit and decent , yet if men would resist , they gently did admonish or reprove them , and let them alone . So S. Paul in case of the Corinthian men wearing long haire , If any man list to be contentious , we have no such custome , nor the Churches of God : that is , let him chuse ; it is not well done , we leave him to his own liberty , but let him look to it . 4. If the Bishops power were extended further , it might extend to Tyranny , and there could be no limits beyond this prescrib'd , to keep him within the measures and sweetnesse of the government Evangelical : but if he pretend a Divine authority to goe further , he can be absolute and supreme in things of this life which doe not concern the Spirit , and so fall into Dynasty , as one anciently complain'd of the Bishop of Rome , and change the Father into a Prince , and the Church into an Empire . But this hinders not but that the power of spiritual Rulers may yet extend to a further use , not by a direct power of command , or of giving laws , but by all the indirect and collateral ways of obligation , as of fame , consent , reputation of the man , the reverence of his person , and the opinion of his wisedome and sanctity , by voluntary submission , and for the avoiding scandal : when any of these causes of action or instruments of obligation doe intervene , the Bishop does not directly bind , but the people are bound : and their obligation from all these principles are reduc'd to two heads . The matter of scandal ; in which case , under pain of sin they must obey in all lawfull things , when by accident and the concurse of emergent causes it is scandalous to disobey . And the other is , Their own consent ; for however it be procur'd fairly , if they once have consented , they are become a law unto themselves , and so they remain till this law suffers diminution as other laws doe that die : of which I am afterwards to give account . There is one way more by which Ecclesiastical laws doe bind ; but this is the matter of the next Rule . RULE V. When the Canons or Rules of Ecclesiastical Rulers are confirmed by the supreme Civil power , they oblige the Conscience by a double obligation . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , say the Greek Lawyers . The power of making laws , viz. of determining things not commanded by God , or of punishing prevarications against Gods laws or their own , is granted to Kings . And therefore as secular Princes did use to indict or permit the indiction of Synods of Bishops ; so when they saw cause , they confirm'd the sentences of Bishops and pass'd them into laws . Before the Princes were Christian , the Church was governed by their spiritual guides , who had authority from God in all that was necessary , and of great conveniency next to necessity ; and in other things they had it from the people , from necessity and from good will , by hope and fear , by the sense of their own needs , and the comfort of their own advantages . It was populus voluntarius , the people came with free-will-offerings , and were at first govern'd by love as much as now they need to be by fear and smart . But God was never wanting to his Church , but made provisions in all cases and in all times . Of that which was necessary Christ left in his Ministers a power of government : and in that which was not primely necessary , but emergently and contingently came to be useful and fit , he onely left in his Ministers a power to perswade ; but he gave them an excellent spirit of wisedome and holinesse by which they did prevail , and to the people the spirit of love and obedience : and these together were strength enough to restrain the disobedient . For as in the Creation there was Light before the Sun , that we might learn that the Sun was not the fountain of light , but God : so there was a government in the Church even before the Princes were Christians , that the support and ornament of Gods Church might be owned as an efflux of the Divine power , and not the kindnesse of Princes . But yet as when the Light was gathered and put into the body of the Sun , we afterwards deriv'd our light from him , and account him the Prince of all the bodies of light : so when the government external of all things was drawn into the hands of Princes becoming Christians , to them the Church owes the heat and the warmth , the light and the splendor , the life of her laws , and the being of all her great advantages of maintenance and government . At first the Church was indeed in the Common-wealth , but was reckoned no part of it , but as enemies and outlaws , were persecuted with intolerable violence ; but when the Princes of the Common-wealth became servants of Christ , they were also nurses of the Church , and then it became a principal part of the Republick , and was car'd for by all her laws . For this first way was not like to last long ; for good manners soon corrupt , and a precarious authority , though wise and holy , useful and consented to , was not stable as the firmament of laws that could compel : and yet it became necessary by new introduc'd necessities that there should be rules and measures given in things relating to the Church , concerning which God himself had given no commandement ; as concerning order in Synods and conventions Ecclesiastical , the division of Ecclesiastical charges , the appointment of under-ministeries in the Church , the dispensation of revenues , the determination of causes and difficulties in manners of speaking or acting , and whatsoever was not matter of faith or a Divine Commandment : in all that new necessities did every day arise , and the people were weary of obeying , and the Prelates might presse too hard in their governing , or might be suppos'd to doe so when they did not , and the peoples wearinesse might make them complain of an easy load ; and it was not possible well to govern long by the consent of the people who are to be governed . It pleased God to raise up a help that should hold for ever , and when the Princes became Christian and took care of all this , that is , of all the external regiment of the Church , of all that was not of spiritual nature and immediate necessary relation to it , then the Ecclesiastical laws were advised by Bishops and commanded by Kings ; they were but Rules and Canons in the hands of the spiritual order , but laws made by the secular power . And now these things are not questions of the power of the Clergy , but a matter of obedience to Kings and Princes . These Canons before the Princes were Christian were no laws further then the people did consent ; and therefore none but the men of good will , the pious and the religious children of the Church did obey : but now that Princes have set the Crosse upon their Imperial globes and scepters , even the wicked must obey ; all are tied by all manner of ties , and all can be compelled that need it . These Ecclesiastical laws so established the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Edicts , orders , and golden bulls , commanding or making into laws the sentences and rules of Synods . The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that 's the effect and production of Bishops in their conventions ; that is , they have jus pronunciandi quid sanctum , quid non , a right of pronouncing what is for Gods glory and the interests of religion , and what not : but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the establishment and the command belong to Princes . The Synod hath a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a right of judging , but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or confirmation of it into a law belongs to the Civil power . So we find in a Synodal Epistle de non avellendis episcopis à sua Metropoli , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , some such thing as this hath been found done by the decree or judgement of a Synod , but established by after-judgement of the King. To the same sense are those words of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 applied to the Bishops Canons , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Kings Edict upon them ; and therefore the Emperors and Princes were said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , * to put the seal of their authority to the decrees of the Fathers . † For it was never known in the Primitive Church that ever any Ecclesiastical law did oblige the Catholick Church unlesse the secular Prince did establish it . The Nicene Canons became laws by the Rescript of the Emperor Constantine , says Sozomen . He wrote an Epistle and commanded that all Churches should keep Easter by the Canon of the Nicene Fathers , and made it capital to keep any of the books of Arius . * When the Council of Constantinople was finish'd the Fathers wrote to the Emperor Theodosius , and petition'd ut edicto Pietatis tuae confirmetur Synodi sententia , that he would be pleased to confirm the sentence of the Council by his Edict : ut quemadmodum literis quibus nos vocabas Ecclesiam honorasti , ita etiam decreta communibus suffragiis tandem facta sigillo tuo confirmes . The Emperor had done them favour and honour in calling them together , and they petitioned he would also confirm what they had agreed upon , and by his seal make it authentic . The confirmation of the Canons and Decrees of the great Ephesin Council by the Emperor is to be seen at the end of the Acts of the Synod : and Marcian the Emperor wrote to Palladius his Prefect a letter in which he testifies that he made the Decrees of the Council of Chalcedon to become laws . For having forbidden any person to make assemblies and orations of religion in publick , he addes this reason , Nam & injuriam facit reverendissimae Synodi judicio , si quis semel judicata ac rectè disposita revolvere & publicè disputare contenderit ; cùm ea quae nunc de Christiana fide à Sacerdotibus qui Chalcedone convenerunt per nostra praecepta statuta sunt , &c. For he does injury to the judgement of the most reverend Synod , if he shall unravel and dispute the things which were there judged and rightly disposed ; since those things appointed by the Bishops met at Chalcedon concerning Christian faith were commanded by us ; or were appointed by our Commandement… . Nam in contemptores hujus legis poena non de●rit , They that despise this law shall be punished . Thus also the Fathers of the fifth General Synod petition'd Justinian to confirm and establish their Canons into a law , in the same form which was sent to Theodosius by the Bishops of the General Council at Constantinople before mention'd . * The same Prince also published a Novel in which he commands vim legum obtinere Ecclesiasticos Canones à quatuor Synodis , Nicena , Constantinopolitana prima , Ephesina prima & Chalcedonensi expositos & confirmatos ; that all the laws which were made or confirm'd by the four first General Councils should have the force of laws : that is , all their own Canons and those of Ancyra , Gangra , Antioch & Laodicea , which were then adopted into the Code of the Universal Church , though they were but Provincial in their original . So that now upon this account the Ecclesiastical laws are as obligatory to the conscience as those which are made in a Civil matter ; and there is no difference but in the matter onely : but for that there will be some advantage ; for as the Civil power hath authority in Ecclesiastical matters , so the spiritual power hath a share in the legislative : the matter is handled by the Ecclesiastics , and the law is established by the secular . And therefore if it be thought that the cognisance of these things is not proper for seculars , those that think so may be satisfied that the Bishops have judged the thing already ; and they that think the Bishops have no power of making the law , may learn to obey , because the Prince hath by his legislative established it . So one hand helps another , and both are lift up to God , but will fall heavy upon the disobedient . §. 2. Of CENSURES Ecclesiastical . I have given the general measures of the Legislative power of the Ecclesiastical state : next to this I am to account concerning their Coercitive § . 2. and then return to the inquiries after the more particular subjects of this power § . 3. and their particular laws and their obligations upon the conscience in external order § . 4. and in matters of faith § . 5. RULE VI. Kings and Princes are by the ties of Religion , not of power , oblig'd to keep the laws of the Church . THe laws of the Church I have already divided into such which she makes by a Divine authority , such which concern our essential duty , in which she hath power to command and rule in her appointed manner ; and into those which are external , political and contingent , such which Princes if they please make up into laws , but the spiritual power cannot . In the first sort , Kings and Princes are as much tied to obedience as the meanest Christian subject . For the King , though he be supreme in government Political , yet his soul is of Christs fold , and to be conducted by a proper shepherd . It is no contradiction that the same person should be supreme , and yet obey in another regard in which he is not supreme . The Captain that fights in a ship commands the souldiers in chief , but himself obeyes the Master ; and the safety of the souldiers depends upon them both : for they are distinct powers in order to distinct purposes . For Kings must give an account for Bishops that they live well in the political capacity , and Bishops for Kings in their spiritual ; and therefore they must obey each other : and we find that persons of greatest honour in the days of peace , serve under Captains and Generals in the time of warre ; and when Themistius , an excellent Philosopher , who from his chair did rule and dictate wise things , and give laws to the understandings of his Auditors , and was admir'd by his Prince , was by the Emperor Constantius advanc'd to a prefecture , in an excellent Epigram he says to himself , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Now ascend downwards , for thou hast already descended upwards . The same dignity is above and below in several regards . But in this there is no difficulty , because the souls of Princes are of equal regard , and under the same laws of God , and to be cleans'd and nourish'd by the same Sacraments , and tied to the same duty by the Commandements of God as any of the people ; in this there is no difference . But in matters not of necessary duty , not expressely required by God's law and the necessary , unavoidable , immediate consequents of it , there being no laws but what themselves have made , they are no otherwise oblig'd then by their own civil laws , of which I have already given account . This thing is particularly noted by Balsamo upon the 16th Canon of the Council of Carthage , who affirms that by the reason of the power given to Princes from God they are subject neither to their laws nor Canons . And of this latter he gives this instance , That although by the XIIth Canon of the Council of Chalcedon it was decreed that no city should for the future acquire the title of a Metropolis ; yet after this Justinianea prima was made an Archiepiscopal seat and had Metropolitical rights , to the diminution of the former rights of Thessalonica : but Balsamo instances in divers others . There was an ancient Canon of great celebrity in the Church , that every city should have a proper Bishop : but the Bishops of Isauropolis and Tolma besides their own , had others ; so had the Bishops of Lichfield and of Bath in England : they had other cities under their jurisdiction which had no Bishops in propriety . For if Kings did give limit to their Dioceses they might divide again , and give a new limit ; since it is not in Kings as it is in people . The power that goes from the people is like water slipt from their hands , it returns no more , and does not abide in the first place of it's efflux ; but when an act of power passes from the King , any deputation or trust , any act of grace or delegation of jurisdiction , it is like heat passing from the fire , it warms abroad , but the heat still dwells at home . It is no more the lesse , then the Sun is for the emission of it's beams of light . And this is apparent in all the privileges and concessions made to the Church , which are as revocable as their duty is alterable . For Princes are so far from being oblig'd to perpetuate such rights which themselves have indulg'd , that it is a rul'd case , and the Greek Fathers sometimes make use of it to this very purpose , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , If a King hath given a gift , he may recal it in case the beneficiary proves ingratefull . The same with that in the feudal laws of the Lombards , Feudum amittit qui feudum sciens inficiatur . If he wittingly denies the fee , or refuses homage , he looses it . But this depends upon the reasons of the second Rule in the third Chapter of this Book . But although in strict right the Kings laws oblige him not , yet because de bono & laudabili he is in the senses above explicated oblig'd to his civil laws , therefore much more is he tied to the observations and Canons of the Church , as being specifications of religion , instances of love to God , significations of some internal duty , or outer guards to piety , great examples to the people , and honours to the Church of Christ , and that which above all external things will enable the Rulers and guides of souls to render their account with joy ; and the King shall never so well promote the interests of religion by any thing , as by being himself subject to the religion : for who will murmure at those laws which the King himself weares in a phylactery upon his forehead and his wrists ? Facere rectè cives suos princeps optimus faciendo docet ; cumque sit Imperio Maximus , exemplo major est , said Velleius Paterculus . This is most of all true in religion , whose laws look too like policy when they are established onely by penalties , but they are accounted religion when they are made sacred by example . To which purpose is that of Tacitus , Obsequium in Principem & aemulandi amor validiora quam poena ex legibus . It is duty to our Prince , and it is our honour to imitate the example of the Prince ; and these prevail more then penalties . Haec enim conditio principum , ut quicquid faciant , praecipere videantur , says Quintilian . Their example is the best law . Sic agitur censura , & sic exempla parantur , Si Judex , alios quod jubet , ipse facit . So laws and judgements and good manners are best established , when by the examples of Kings and supreme Judges they are made sacred . Adde to this , that the laws of religion have most of them the warranty of some internal grace or other , and are to be reckoned in the retinue and relation of that vertue , and therefore cannot in many instances be broken without some straining of our duty to God , which is by the wisedome and choice of men determin'd in such an instance to such a specification . But this is to be understood onely in such laws which are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 outerguards , the exercises of internal religion , not in the garments and adornments of the relatives and appendages of religion . If a Prince despises the Festival of the Church , nothing but a competent reason will excuse him from being or at least from seeming irreligious . And in whatsoever instance he hath made or consented to laws of religion , if by them he can suppose the people may serve and please God , he is much more oblig'd then they ; not by the duty of obedience , for he owes none , but by the vertue of religion : for besides that his soul must live or die by greater measures and exactions of those vertues which bring the people unto heaven , every action of his that deserves an ill report , it is but scandal in the lesser people , but to him it is infamy . For the Kings Escutcheon is blazon'd otherwise then that of his subjects : the Gentry by metals , the Nobility by precious stones , but Kings by planets . For in a King there is nothing moderate . Cavere debet qualem famam habeat , qui qualemcunque meruerit , magnam habiturus est , said Seneca . His fame , let it be good or bad , it will certainly be very great . The summe is this : Kings are so tied to their own Ecclesiastical laws , that they must take care they be not despis'd by their example , that the religion design'd by them be promoted , that that part of the Common-wealth which most secures to them obedience and peace , and procures them the most and greatest blessings , be not discouraged or disadvantag'd : but they are not so tied that every act of omission is imputable to them , though it have no other cause but the use of his liberty ; for in this his duty differs from that of his subjects : for obedience which the subject owes is a part of justice , and that hath no degrees , but consists in an indivisible point where it can be practis'd , and where it can be understood ; for he is unjust that does one act of injustice . But religion hath a latitude of signification and instances , and a man may be very religious who yet does not keep a Saints day where by obedience he is not bound ; which is the case of Kings . Therefore what Seneca said of the cares of Kings , may be said of the external observations of the laws of religion , Remissum aliquando animum habebit , nunquam solutum , He may remit something of the strict observance , but he must never esteem himself wholly quit . But this is to be understood onely in externals and rituals ; concerning which one said excellently , Pleraque ex iis magis ad morem quam ad rem pertinent , They are nothing of the substance of religion , but onely appendages , and manner , and circumstances : and therefore ; Sapiens servabit ea tanquam legibus jussa , non tanquam diis grata , A wise man will observe rituals because they are commanded by laws , not that they are pleasing to God. They are the words of Seneca quoted by S. Austin . Since therefore these are wholly matter of obedience , Kings are free , save onely when they become bound collaterally and accidentally . But in matters of essential duty , the King hath equally with his subjects no liberty , but much more direct duty , and many more accidental obligations . The whole affaire is well enough express'd by Cicero , Religioni parendum est : nec patrius mos contumaciter repudiandus . The Prince must obey religion , and he must not despise the customes and the manners of his Country ; that is , in the better words of our Blessed Saviour , These things they ought to doe , and not [ wholly ] to leave the other undone . But the liberty of Princes in these Ecclesiastial laws of order , and circumstance , and ritual observances is very apparent in the practice of the Hebrew Kings , who yet possess'd this liberty , that even in the rituals of the Divine ordinance they sometimes did dispense . Thus David eat the shew-bread ; and Hezekiah permitted some that were unclean to eat the passeover , otherwise then it was written : onely Hezekiah prayed to God not to impute it to them , and gave them way : and under his reigne the Levites did kill the sacrifice twice , which was onely lawfull for the Priests to doe . But it was a favourable case , because the Priests were but few , and the sacrifices were very numerous : and if it be ( as the Greek expression is ) lawfull 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to loose a litle of the exactnesse of the rituals of the Divine appointment , it is certain where the man is the law-giver , he can much more use the liberty . But it is not good to doe all that is lawfull . RULE VII . It is not lawful for the Ecclesiastical power to excommunicate Christian Princes , or the supreme Civil power . IN the sentence & penalty of the lesser excommunication as it is us'd in the Church there are three portions of evil . In one the Bishop is the author or minister , in the other the people , and in the third the Prince . The first is a denying to minister the holy mysteries . The other is a withdrawing from the communion and conversation of such a person : which although it be done most of all in the greater excommunication , yet it is done also in some proportion in the lesse , for emendation of the erring brother ; not for extermination , as appeares in the Apostolical precept given to the Church of Thessalonica , 2 Thessal . 3. v. 6 , and v. 14 , 15. And the last is , the supervening temporal punishments by which Princes use to verify the just sentences of the Church against refractary Criminals . Concerning the last , it is certain it wholly is owing to the power and favour of the Prince ; who by that favour is not suppos'd to lay violent hands upon himself , who if he did , could quickly take them off again : however the Church inflicts not them by her own authority , but by that of the Prince , who will not , like the tree in the Fable , lend a stick to the hatchet , to be hewen down or hurt by it afterwards . But then concerning that part which is inflicted by the people , which is abstinence from the society of the offender till he repent and make amends and get his pardon , it is infinitely certain the Church cannot inflict that on Kings ; because it is destructive of the duty which the people owe to their Prince , and of the rights which the Prince hath from God indep●ondently from the religion . Besides this , nothing ought to be done to the dishonour of the supreme power , to whose happy government fame is almost as necessary as power : and the imposing upon them disgracefull penalties is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a note of dishonour and blasphemy ; for they are to esteem their King as a heathen and a publican , from whose society they are to estrange themselves as from a pestilence . Invisum semel principem seu bene seu malè facta premunt , saith Tacitus . If he once fall into such a calamity and dishonour , whether he doe well or ill afterwards , it shall be evil to him . And yet further , the power of assemblies and publick meetings is wholly by the laws and permission of Kings ; and nothing is more unreasonable then that any man should interdict Kings from publick meetings by whom himself hath leave to meet publickly . And therefore we find Imperial laws making provisions in this very particular , and so far from being subject to any thing of this nature , that the Emperors gave orders and strict measures to the Bishops when they should , and whom they should or should not separate from Churches and Communions ; as is to be seen l. 30. Cod. de Episc. & Clericis and in the 123. Novel of Justinian . For even in those actions of Bishops in which themselves have liberty & Divine authority , yet the supreme Civil power hath external jurisdiction . Thus Mauritius the Emperor commanded Gregory the Great , Bishop of Rome , to communicate with John of Constantinople ; and anciently in France the Princes were wont to compell the Clergy to officiate ; and when the Pope had interdicted the kingdome of England , the King compelled the Priests and Bishops to open their Churches : so it is in Holland , and so in Venice , and so in all places where Kings know their power and their interest and their duty . For if excommunication be onely an act of caution and prudence , it is very great prudence not to involve Kings in it , lest they be provok'd by the evil usages of the Church ; and if it be nothing else , certainly it cannot be necessary to be done at all . But if it be an act of external jurisdiction , it derives from Kings , and therefore they are not under it but over it : for no coercion in the hands of man ought to touch those who are reserv'd onely for the judgement of God. Apud serenissimum Regem opus est exhortatione potius quam increpatione , consilio quam praeceptis , doctrina quam virga , said Hildebertus the Bishop . The King is to be exhorted , not reproved ; counselled , not commanded ; and to him not a rod , but doctrine is to be us'd : and Ivo Bishop of Chartres * said the same thing . Kings if they abuse their power are not to be provok'd ; but in case they refuse the admonition of Bishops , they are to be left to the Divine judgement ; where they will be punish'd the more severely , by how much they were the lesse obnoxious to humane monitions . So Gregorius Turonensis , Si tu excesseris , quis te corripiet ? Si autem nolueris , quis te damnabit , nisi is qui se pronunciat esse Justitiam ? He spake to King Chilperic . If thou beest exorbitant , who shall correct thee ? If thou refusest , who shall condemn thee , but he onely who is the Everlasting Righteousnesse ? For if S. Paul gave in charge to Timothy that each person should receive an impression and emanation from the Pastoral charge according to his quality , and commanded that he should not rebuke an Elder , but intreat him as a Father ; much lesse would he have permitted any to have punish'd the Father of the Country and his own superior , and him who is lesse then none but God , and by whom himself can rule others in external actions , and who in these very administrations is superior , and can give laws , and inflict penalties , and is judge and the remedy of all abuses . And if concerning this inquiry we consult the doctrine and practices of the Fathers in the Primitive and Ancient Churches , we shall find that they never durst think of excommunicating Kings . They had no power , no right to doe it . Nam Sacerdotis tantum est arguere , & liberam praestare admonitionem , saith S. Chrysostom , Priests can onely reprove and argue , and give a free admonition : and therefore the first supreme Prince that ever was excommunicated by a Bishop , was Henry the Emperor by Pope Hildebrand . But against this that I say now the Doctors of the Church of Rome make a mighty out-cry , saying that Philip the first Christian Emperor was excommunicate and thrust amongst the penitents ; that Babylas the Bishop of Antioch thrust the Emperor Decius with his hands against his breast from the doors of the Church ; that Athanasius excommunicated the Prefect of Libya , and S. Basil commanded in his Diocese that he should be avoided ; that S. Ambrose did excommunicate the Emperor Theodosius ; that S. Chrysostom forbad Eudoxia the Emperesse to enter into the Church doors ; that Innocentius excommunicated Arcadius ; so did Synesius to Andronicus the Prefect , S. Austin to Bonifacius , Pope Symmachus to Anastasius the Emperor , Pope Vigilius to Theodora the Empresse , Gregory the second to the Exarch , Gregory the third to Leo Isaurus . Instances enough , if they be right and true , to shew that the Fathers were of another mind then the Rule pretends . But in this heap I must separate what is true and certain from what is false and uncertain , and give an answer to them , and the rest will not trouble us . * The story of the Emperor Philip is vehemently suspected : but if it were true , yet it was no excommunication , but his own submission to the discipline of penitents ; to which , saith Eusebius , he was persuaded by the Bishop . * And the same was the case of S. Ambrose to Theodosius : the Prince was persuaded to it , * but it was onely to doe his repentance after the manner of the penitents in those days ; the Bishop onely refus'd to celebrate in the presence of the Emperor if he would not give testimony of his repentance towards God. This the Emperor did , because he was a good man , and things were then in such a conjunction , that there was nothing amisse : but that S. Ambrose could not have verified his power , if the Emperor had been unwilling , and the Emperor did doe more then was necessary . But S. Ambrose said that he had his warrant to use the Emperor so , from a vision . His warrant was extraordinary : for he had no ordinary power or commission . * The excommunications of the Prefects by S. Athanasius , S. Basil , S. Austin , Synesius and Gregory the second doe not come home to the inquiry , because the Prefects were but subjects and had not the privilege of supreme Princes . * The fact of Babylas to Decius was not excommunication : for Decius was a Heathen , and the Church hath nothing to doe with them that are without ; but Babylas was zealous and fierce , and acted with the spirit of a Martyr , to which he hastned by his fervor . * S. Chrysostom indeed did that to Eudoxia which did not become him , and which he had leisure and cause enough afterwards to repent : he did in anger what himself in the sober hours of his life professed to be more then he could justify . That of Innocentius to Arcadius is of no credit , and so is that of Symmachus to Anastasius , as being onely seen in the Epistles of the Popes of Rome ; concerning which there is nothing certain , but that very many of them are certainly spurious . The pretended excommunication of Theodora by Vigilius hath no testimony . Contra Theodoram & Acephalos Vigilius pronunciavit damnationis sententiam , said Gregory . But this was nothing but a condemnation or rejection of the heresy of the Acephali with which she was partaker . And the like was the case of Leo Isaurus ; it was sententia damnatoria , a condemnation of his opinion , called by Zonaras 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . But these things are onely pretended to make noises . Pope Hildebrand was the first that ever did any thing of this nature ; as is expressely affirmed by Authors of great credit , by Otho Frisingensis , by Godefridus Viterbiensis , and by Onuphrius , who counted all the other pretences either fabulous or to no purpose . But yet there is a third portion of excommunication , which is a denying to administer the holy Communion to Princes of a scandalous and evil life ; and concerning this there is no question but the Bishop not onely may , but in some cases must doe it . Nolite dare sanctum canibus , said Christ , Give not that which is holy to dogs ; and cast not pearls before swine . But this is not an act of jurisdiction , punishment or coercion , but of charity to the Prince and duty in the Bishop . It is just as if a Physician should refuse to give drink to an hydropic patient ; he may have it if he will be willing to die , but if the other refuses his ministery in the reaching it , he is charitable and kind , not imperious and usurping . For whatsoever is in the Ecclesiastical hand by Divine right , is as applicable to him that sits upon the Throne as to him that sits upon the Dunghil . But then the refusing it must be onely by admonition and caution , by fears and denunciations Evangelical , by telling him his unfitnesse to communicate , and his danger if he doe : but if after this separation by way of sentence and proper ministery the Prince will be communicated , the Bishop hath nothing else to doe but to pray , and weep , and unwillingly to minister . S. Gregory's case with Mauritius the Emperor was like this . The Prince commanded him to be the minister to hand an unlawfull Edict to the Churches : the Bishop told the Prince it was a sinne which the Prince went about , prayed , admonish'd , declam'd , did all that he could to hinder it , and then obeyed ; that is , he did all he could to God , by using all his authority , the word of his proper ministery , and then all that he owed to the Prince , by submitting his external ministery to his command . The unlawfull proclamations and Edicts of a true Prince may be published by the Clergy in their several charges ; but yet they must not conceal from the people any thing of their duty , nor yet from their Prince when they can declare it . It was also the case of Saul and Samuel . The King desir'd Samuel to joyn and communicate with him in the service of the Lord. He with the liberty of a Prophet refus'd at first , and declar'd the heinousnesse of Sauls sinne ; but at last , when the King's will was pressing and importunate , Samuel did obey his voice and did joyn with him . Ivo Bishop of Chartres tells that in such cases where Princes will not comply with the customes and disciplines of the Church , the Bishops must doe their duty by saying , Nolo te fallere ; introitum hujus visibilis Ecclesiae periculo tuo te habere permitto . Januam regni coelestis tali reconciliatione tibi aperire non valeo . Sr , I will not deceive you ; at your peril be it if you will come into the holy place to partake of holy mysteries . I declare to you , that this ministery [ of the communion ] is not any reconciling of you to God. I cannot doe that , unlesse you repent . But the reason of this is wholly upon this account , because the Ecclesiastical state hath no proper coercion by Divine right , but is a Minister of the Divine coercion , of spiritual promises and threatnings ; their power is spiritual and internal , it hath it's effort upon the spirit , and not upon the outer man , and therefore is to proceed by methods fitted to the spirit , that is , by reason and argument , by the fear of God , and the terror of his threatnings , by the love of God and the invitation of his promises . But all the ministeries and compulsions about the external is the gift and leave of Princes ; and therefore it descends , but ascends not , unlesse they please ; [ of which by and by . ] Admoneri quidem possunt , increpari , argui à discretis viris : quia quos Christus in terris Rex Regum vice suâ constituit , damnandos & salvandos suo judicio reliquit , said the Church of Liege in their Epistle to Paschalis : Kings may be admonished and reprov'd and argued by discreet persons ; but they whom Christ the King of Kings hath appointed to be his vicars on earth , are intirely to be left to his judgement . Upon the likenesse of matter it is to be inquir'd Whether the guides of souls have a proper and spiritual power to enjoyn penances or Ecclesiastical satisfactions to a Prince that hath sinn'd publickly . The answer to this depends upon the premisses . For the Church when she enjoyn'd publick satisfactions , did separate from the Communion those whom they thrust into the place of publick penitents . Now if the Bishops may not separate the Prince from the Communion , then neither impose those penances to which that separation did minister : But this is one of the Censures of the Church , and part of that coercitive power which she hath by the permission of Princes and the voluntary submission and consent of good people : And therefore it cannot be done , unlesse the Prince please . In the Primitive Church , when this discipline was in godly use , none could be compelled to it , but by conviction in publick , or private confession , and in both cases their own consent was either expresse or implied ; and therefore much lesse can this be done to the supreme power whether he will or no. Imperatoriâ unctione poenitentiam tolli , said Balsamo , From the suffering penances Kings are quitted by their anointing : and upon those words of David , [ Against thee onely have I sinned ] S. Ambrose hath this note , He was a King , he was held by no laws , because Kings are free from the bands of delinquents ; Neque enim ullis ad poenam vocantur legibus tuti Imperii potestate , Neither are they by any laws call'd to penance , being safe by the power of their Empire . And since the Primitive Church was infinitely restrain'd in imposing publick penances on Bishops , for the honour of their order and dignity of their persons , we shall the lesse need to doubt of their opinion or practises concerning Kings . But yet we find that some excellent good Princes did submit to such imposition of penances , and did abstain from the publick communions till they had given testimony of their repentance toward God. So the Emperor Philip , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he of his own willing mind plac'd himself amongst the penitents . So did Theodosius under the discipline and conduct of S. Ambrose . But these things are but cautelously to be drawn into example , and as they give no power to the Bishop , so every seldome doe they advantages to Kings . Henry the Emperor was a sad example of it , for his affaires went into diminution , and his person into contempt , and his power into pupillage as soon as ever he had done penance at Canusium bare-footed , in a cold winter , for three dayes together , and had endur'd the insolency and scorn of Hildebrand . And when Kings made themselves lesse , the Bishops became greater without any good to the Church , but not without much detriment to religion . But neither may Princes be reprov'd publickly . For if he will not be obedient to the will of God in the voice of his ministers publickly teaching , or privately admonishing , and prudently reproving ; he that goes about to reprove him publickly , intends by that meanes by some indirect coercion to compel him , either by shame or by fear ; neither of which ought to be impos'd by a subject on the Prince . For it is to be observed that reproof is a part of Empire and superiority , and differs not from teaching , save onely that it is manus linguae , it is the hand of the tongue , not the voice onely . He that reproves teaches onely minors : and though Kings are so in respect of the conduct of their souls , yet it must not be done to them but very sparingly , because it can very hardly be done without diminution of their dignity ; and teaching or declaring their duty will doe their work for them if they please , and if they doe not please , he that reproves will doe the Prince no good , but he shall hurt himself , and shall not be a Martyr when he is smitten . Let no man therefore pretend zeal for God in excuse of any boldnesse more then Priestly towards Kings . For the work of God is oftentimes better done by a gentle hand , then by a strong . — peragit tranquilla potestas Quod violenta nequit : mandatáque fortiùs urget Imperiosa quies — And if we esteem reproof unseasonable where it is likely we may doe hurt , & where it is not likely we shall doe good , much more is not this course prudent to be us'd to Kings , who may be provok'd by your ungentle Sermon , or may be hardened by your fire . For every Prince hath not the gentlenesse of Antigonus , patiently to hear himself revil'd : but if he had , yet it was but reason that Antigonus sapek when he bade the Souldiers if they would revile him , to goe further off . And such men should doe well to consider how ill themselves would take it if they were publickly in the Pulpit call'd schismatics or incendiaries . * But how and if the people be as zealous as the Priest , and think it lawfull to call their King by all the names of reproach which they hear in the sermons of the Ministers ? And if the Bishop calls a spade a spade , it is very possible the people may doe so too , for they are soon taught to despise their rulers ; and then it is to be remembred what Aristole sayes , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . If they once come to despise their Prince , they will soon unclasp his royal Mantle . It is true that the Ministers of religion are stewards of the mysteries of God and Embassadors for Christ : and though I cannot say that they who upon this account think they have power publickly to reprove vitious Kings , and in plain language give names to their vices and publish their shame , doe overvalue their dignity , for that cannot easily be done ; yet I say they use it incompetently and imprudently ; for the effect of this power and dignity is not to upbraid , or to disgrace , but to edify and doe good to all men according to their capacity : and therefore S. Paul , when he had declar'd his office and commission to be Christ's Embassador , he addes , as the full , expresse and proper issue of that power , we pray you in Christs stead to be reconciled to God. The old Prophets took liberty , and were bold in their reproofs , and troubled Kings ; and the people sometimes were stirred too much upon such accounts : but when the Prophets were charged with sedition , they onely gave in answer the expresse Commandement of God. And therefore it was that Amos being very bold was bidden not to prophesy and more at Bethel , because it was the Kings Chappel and the Kings Court : and he was forc'd to plead a special mission ; which the Priests had not , and therefore we doe not find that ever they us'd any such licence and freedome of reproof , except in such cases in which they also became prophets ; as it happened to Jehoiada , 2 Chron. 24. 20. and that 's the very case of the Ministers of , the Gospel , who unlesse they had a special commission , must teach according to the duty and obedience , the gentlenesse and prudence of the religion ; lest it be said to them as was said by King Amaziah to a bold man that spake openly to him , Have they made thee the Kings Counsellor ? cease thou , why should they smite thee ? Now in this there can be the lesse doubt , for they mistake it that suppose this to be a question of duty ; it is onely an inquiry after the manner of doing the duty : and therefore although for the former reasons this manner of doing their duty is not fit , yet it is necessary that the duty should be done . For miser est Imperator cui vera reticentur . No misery is greater then that Kings shall not be taught their duty . They must be taught it all : and in this no liberty , if it be prudently conducted , can become licentious . To which purpose , the Bishops and Ministers of religion must thus comport themselves to Kings . 1. Let the publick doctrines be instructive , but not apt to raise suspicion of the Prince . 2. Let it be in things certain and of evident and apparent duty . 3. Let no doctrines be fitted to private interests and partialities in the State. 4. let no reproof of Kings be in Pulpits , for it is uncivil toward any ut quis crimen audiat eo loco quo refellendi copia non sit , as the Roman said , that a man should be reprov'd in that place where for reverence and religion sake the man may not answer for himself . And therefore Clement the third caus'd a Clergy-man to be punish'd because multis coram astantibus verba quadam in depressionem officii & beneficii nostri protulit , he spoke words in a publick audience tending to his disparagement : and the Emperors Theodosius , Arcadius and Honorius made a law , Si quis modestiae nescius , & pudoris ignarus , improbo petulantique maledicto nomina nostra crediderit lacessenda , &c. That if any man , forgetting shame and modesty , thought fit to dishonour the Emperors , he should not presently be punish'd : for if the man were a fool or a light person , the thing was to be despis'd ; if he were a mad man , he was to be pitied ; if injurious or angry , he might be forgiven : but , ad nostram scientiam referatur , ut ex personis hominum dicta pensemus , & utrum praetermitti an exquiri debeant censeamus : the Princes would have it referr'd to their cognisance and judgment whether such persons should be punish'd or no. 5. Let there be no doubtful speeches in publick sermons scatter'd amongst the people concerning Princes , for they are publick seditions , not sermons . 6. When it is necessary or when it is prudent that private addresses to Princes be with a sacerdotal freedome , let it be in cases of great crimes , and evidently prov'd and evidently vitious , neither deriv'd from uncertain rumors of the people , nor from trifling suspicions , nor yet be in matters of secret concernment and undiscerned reason . A Prince may be reprov'd for notorious adultery , or evident murder against the forms of law ; but not so freely in the questions of warres or judicature : for the Bishops private opinion may be warrant enough for him to speak it when he is requir'd , but not to reprove a Prince upon pretence of duty , and by a spiritual authority , when the matter of fact or the question of right is uncertain . RULE VIII . Ecclesiastical Censures are to be inflicted by the consent and concurrence of the supreme civil power . BY Ecclesiastical censures I mean the greater and lesser Excommunication . This is a separation of a Criminal ( who is delated and convict by witnesses , or by confession voluntary ) from the peace and communion of the Church , till he hath by exterior signes signified his internal repentance : this is called the lesser excommunication . The greater is onely of refractary & desperate persons , who will be subject to no discipline , make no amends , return to no goodnesse , and forsake no sinne . These the Church throws out from her bosome , and shakes the fire from her lap , and quits her self of the plague : and this is called the greater excommunication , or the anathema . Both these are bound by the Ecclesiastical power : but the first is bound that he maybe purged of his sins ; the second , that the Church maybe purged of him . The first is bound as a man is tied fast that he may be cut of the stone ; the other is bound as a Criminal that is going to execution : he is bound that he may be thrown into outer darknesse . Not that the Church hath power to damne any man , but when she observes a man confirm'd in impiety , she does antedate the Divine judgment , and secures the sound members , and tells what will befall him in the day of judgment . In the first case , the penitent is like a wandring sheep ; in the second he is turn'd a goat or a woolf ; & by their own acts acts also as well as by the power of the Keyes they are both bound : the first consents to the Medicin , and the reprobate hath by his own act incurr'd that death which the Church declares ; and both are acts of discipline , and directly or indirectly consequent to that power which Christ hath given to his Church of binding and loosing , and to the charge of the conduct of souls . These two are by the fifth Roman Synod under Symmachus distinguish'd by the names of excommunication ( meaning the lesser ) and anathema . He that breaks the decrees of this Synod , let him be depriv'd of the Communion : but if he will not amend , anathemate feriatur , let him be anathema . The same we find in the Synod of Turon . c. 25. which commands that all the curses of the 108 [ alias 109 ] Psalm be cast upon Church-robbers , ut non solùm excommunicati , sed etiam anathematizati moriantur ; that they may die not onely excommunicate , but anathematiz'd . They which are never to be restor'd to the Communion , but are to be accurs'd ; so Agapetus expresses it in his 6th Epistle . This is called eradication ; while the lesser excommunicates are still members of the Church , as S. Austin notes . There is yet a third sort of excommunication , brought in by zeal and partiality , a willingnesse to rule or to prevail ; which is no part of the power given by Christ , but taken up as it happen'd ; it is not part of Jurisdiction so much as improper , not an act of the power of the Keyes : and that is a refusing to communicate with him who is not excommunicate , a punishing one whom we have no power to punish , a doing that which we have no power to doe at all , or to such a person over whom confessedly we have no authority or jurisdiction . For when this humor was got into the manners and customes of the Church they made a new distinction ; and there was a communio cum fratribus , and a communio cum omnibus Christianis . He that might communicate with the people might not in some cases communicate with the Priests and Bishops his Brethren . The distinction we find in the 45. Chapter of the Council of Auxerre , and in pursuance of it we find one Bishop refusing to communicate with another . Thus if a Bishop came not to the Synod of his province it was decreed in the fifth Council of Carthage , ut Ecclesiae suae communione debeat esse contentus , that he should onely communicate with his own Diocese . The like to which we find in the second Council of Arles can . 19. in the Council of Tarracon can . 6. and the Council of Agatho cap. 35. Thus Epiphanius Bishop and Metropolitan of Cyprus refus'd to communicate with the Bishop of Jerusalem , who was not his suffragan . Concerning which way of proceeding , 1. it is evident that there is no authority in it , or any thing that is like to jurisdiction , and 2. sometimes there may be duty , but 3. most commonly there is danger . 1. * There is evidently no authority : for if the authority were competent and the cause just , they might proceed to excommunication . But this was sometimes done by equals to equals , as by Bishop to Bishop , by Church to Church , as by Victor to the Churches of Asia , by Stephen to the Churches of Africa , and by angry or zealous Bishops to them that were not of their humor or opinion . Sometimes it was done by inferiors to their superior , the people withdrawing themselves from their pastor ; so the Samosatenians refus'd to communicate with their Bishop that was thrust upon them after the expulsion of Eusebius . So that evidently in this matter there is no authority to verify it . 2. Sometimes there may be duty : as if a Bishop be a heretic or an open vitious person , his Brother that is a Bishop may use that liberty to him as the people might doe to a Brother that walks disorderly ; that is , withdraw from his society , that he may be asham'd : and if his communicating with him will give countenance to his heresy , or offence to his people , he is bound then to abstain and to refuse it : and so is the people tied not to communicate with their Priest or Bishop , if the condition of his communion be a sin , or the countenancing of a sin . And thus we find in the Annals of Spain , that a daughter of an Arrian King of Spain suffer'd death rather then receive the Communion from the hands of an Arrian Bishop . In her case her refusal was duty , and her suffering was Martyrdome , because her Father impos'd his command of communicating with the heretical Bishop as a secret allowance of the heresy , which in that case she was to refuse , and obey God unto the death . But when this does accidentally become a matter of duty , the charity of our communion is no further to be refus'd then we are oblig'd by our duty ; we are not to refuse it to that person , but for that cause , and therefore in other cases & upon all other accounts we are tied to doe the charity of Christians . I will not communicate with a Roman Priest in his worship of Images , or in his manner of Praying for the dead , or invocation of Saints ; but I may not refuse to say the Lords Prayer and the Credo with him , unlesse by chance it give offence to some weak uninstructed person . I will not receive the Communion from the hands of him who was ordain'd by a Presbytery without a Bishop ; because his hand is a dead hand , and reaches me nothing : but because he is my Brother , I will not refuse to give him the Communion if he will require it at my hand , which was made sacred by the Holy Ghost invocated by the prayer and the lifting up of the Bishops hand . I will not come to their Communions ; but if they would use good formes of Liturgy , and preach well , I would not refuse to communicate in such assemblies : unlesse ( as I said before ) I be accidentally hindred by some other duty drawing me off a while . But then thirdly , when it is not an expresse and a clear duty , it is alwayes a great danger , an occasion of schisms and divisions in the Church , and consequently may be an infinite breach of duty , a certain violation of one vertue , for the uncertain preservation of another : it is commonly the daughter of spiritual pride , an accounting of our selves more holy then our Brethren , whom by such meanes we oftentimes provoke to jealousies and indignation ; and so sometimes altars are erected against altars , and Pulpits turn to cock-pits , and seates of scorners and of proud and illiterate declamations . Upon this account Christendome hath bled for many ages . The division of the East from the Western Churches , and in the West the division of Rome from divers Churches , the Protestants and Reformed , came in at this door ; while one Church either pretends the singularity of truth , or the eminency of authority over other Churches : by which two things the Church of Rome hath been author of the permanent and greatest schisms of Christendome . For indeed little better can be expected when the Keys of the Church , which were given for the letting in or shutting out of single criminals or penitents respectively , are us'd to oppose multitudes . A man may lock his chamber-door , but he cannot put a lock upon the Ocean : and it was wisely said of S. Austin , that to excommunicate a single person cannot make a schism , unlesse the multitude favour him ; intimating that a multitude is a dangerous thing to be involv'd in censures . The King nor the people are not to be excommunicated , is an old Rule . For if the whole multitude be excommunicate , with whom shall we communicate ? if great parts of them be , they plainly make a schism , if they unwillingly suffer the censure ; and therefore that one Church should doe this to another is very hardly possible to be done with wisedome , or charity , or necessity . For when S. Paul bad his flock to abstain from the society of fornicators , he told them he meant it onely in the smal numbers of the Brethren , where , it may be , one or two in a Diocese or city of that religion might be criminal ; for he would not have them to goe out of the world to keep that Canon , and therefore meant not to involve the multitudes of fornicators which were in the world . But now he that excommunicates a Church , either does nothing at all , or he obliges every one in that Church to separate from that multitude ; and then if he must not goe out of the world , he must goe out of that Country , which no spiritual power can command , and which the Apostle never did intend , as appears in his caution and the whole Oeconomy and reason of that Canon . But I am to adde this also , That there is scarce any case practicable in which , if it be indifferently permitted to the people to separate from the communion of their superior , it will not very quickly proceed to mischief and become intolerable ; a remedy worse then the disease . When Nestorius had preach'd these words , whoever shall say that the Virgin Mary is the Mother of God , let him be accursed , the people had reason to be offended ; but they did ill when they made a tumult : for when the people are stirred , zeal is the worst thing about them . Thus when the two Deacons of Pope Vigilius were displeased with their Bishop in the cause of the three articles which the Pope had condemn'd in the fifth General Council , they very pertly withdrew themselves from his communion ; and the effect of it was , that almost all the Roman Church and divers other Western Churches did so : and so did the people of Istria to their Bishops in the same cause , and so did many more : and the evil grew so great , when every one would as he pleas'd withdraw himself from the communion of their Bishop or Priest , that it was under great penalty forbidden by the eighth Synod the tenth Chapter . But this may be done in these following cases . 1. When the superior hath manifestly erred in faith , that is , in an article of his Creed , or a plain proposition of Scripture , or in an article established or declar'd by that authority which hath bound him and them equally , and in which they conceive no error . Thus the Priests and people of Constantinople withdrew themselves from the communion of Eunomius , because he erred in an article determined by the whole Church , and established by the laws of Emperors , and as they believed clearly declar'd in Scripture . But when Plato the Monk withdrew himself from the communion of Tarasius the Patriarch of Constantinople because he refus'd to excommunicate the Emperor , it was an insolence fit to be chastis'd by the rod of Ecclesiastical discipline . 2. Priests may withdraw themselves from the communion of their Bishop , and people from the communion of their Priests , in things declar'd by laws to be against the peace of God and the Church , when the fact is evident and notorious . But this is not to be done by single persons , but by the whole community : and the reason is , because the fact is not evident , or not scandalous to that degree as to deserve this canonical punishment , unlesse the congregation be offended , or the congregation note it ; for though the Bishop be more publick then any single person , yet he is not more publick or of more concernment then all his Diocese . These particulars , that is , this leave and this caution I have from Origen , explicating in what sense we are bound to cut off our right hand . Ego qui videor tibi manus esse dextra , & Presbyter nominor , & verbum Dei videor praedicare , si aliquid contra Ecclesiasticam disciplinam & Evangelii regulam gessero , ita ut scandalum tibi Ecclesia faciam , in uno consensu Ecclesia conspirans excidat me dextram suam , & projiciat à se. If I that am thy right hand , and preach the word of God , doe any thing against the discipline of Gods Church and the rule of the Gospel , so that I give offence to the whole Church , let the whole Church consenting together cut me off and throw me away . 3. But all this is to be understood to be done by permission or authority of the Prince , in case he shall interpose , because where publick divisions and breach of peace are in agitation , the Common-wealth is more concerned oftentimes then religion ; and therefore where the laws of God doe not intervene , the laws of the King must , or the whole separation is a sin . And therefore we find that when Gregory the first , Bishop of Rome , had thus refus'd to communicate with John Bishop of Constantinople , he was commanded by the Emperor Mauritius to communicate with him . And it is very fit that such heats and private judgments and zealous , but unnecessary , proceedings should be kept from inconveniences by such publick persons who are to take care of peace and of the publick . For if such separations be not necessary , they are not lawful ; and if they be not the onely way to avoid a sin , they are a ready way to commit one . For because every mans cause is right in his own eyes , when such heats as these happen between confident persons , every man is judge in his own cause ; and what is like to be the event of such things , all the world can easily imagine . But now concerning those other two proper kinds of excommunication , the greater and the lesser , they have the same consideration , if we mean them according as the Church now uses them ; that is , if they be impos'd upon men against their will. For as for the lesser excommunication , so as it was us'd in the Primitive Church , and so as the Church of England wishes it were now restor'd , when penitents came and submitted themselves to the discipline of the Church , and had exercises , stations and penitential times allotted to them , and were afterwards with joy and comfort restor'd to the peace of the Church , it is a ministery done by consent , and without any evil , and no man hath to doe with it . But if the consent of the Criminal be not in it , the Bishop cannot compel him ; but the Bishop and the King can . And therefore we find that the Emperors made laws in this very particular ; and Justinian in his 123 Novel commanded that no Ecclesiastic person should excommunicate any one , unlesse the cause were first approved . Which law was commended by the Council of Paris under Ludovicus ; and by John the 8th , who upon the authority of that law inhibited some Bishops from excommunicating one Bichertinus . By this I doe not mean to say that the Ecclesiastical judge hath not power to deny a Criminal the peace and communion of the Church , by declaring him to be unworthy to communicate ; but because as the laws and as the customes of the world are now , there is disgrace , and there is temporal evil consequent to such Ecclesiastical separations , the Bishop can be restrain'd in the actual exercise of his spiritual authority , if there be any thing in it of temporal concernment . And therefore if the Bishop did excommunicate any of the Princes servants , or any whom the Prince had a mind to communicate and converse withall , the censure was to be revers'd ; ut quod principalis pietas recipit , nec à sacerdotibus Dei alienum habeatur , as the Fathers of the 12th Council of Toledo did decree ; that what the piety of the Prince does receive , the Bishops may not reject . For to avoid the company of any person is an effect of excommunication indeed , but not inseparable : and because to converse with any of his subjects is a right of Kings that none of his Bishops can devest him of , the Bishop can excommunicate no man without the Kings leave ; that is , he cannot separate him from the society of the faithful . And therefore Ivo Bishop of Chartres justified himself upon this account for conversing with one Gervasius that was excommunicate . Pro Regia enim honorificentia hoc feci fretus authoritate legis , si quos culpatorum , &c. I did it ( saith he ) relying upon the authority of the law , and for the honourable regard of the King. And this he advises to others also , in his 171 Epistle : and S. Anselme , though he was extremely troubled with the Popes peevish injunctions against the King of England's right in the matter of Investitures , yet in his Epistle to Prior Ernulph he gives leave that though he durst not by reason of the Popes personal command to the contrary , yet they might communicate with those whom the Pope had excommunicated for receiving Investitures from the King. Now although this appendage of excommunication , that is , abstention from the civil society of the Criminal , is wholly subject to the lawes and power of Princes ; yet the spiritual part of the excommunication , that is , a separation from the communion by declaring such a person to be unworthy , and using to him the word of his proper ministery , is so wholly under the power of the Ecclesiastic order , that when the King commands that the company of the excommunicate should not be avoided , yet the man is not absolved from his sentence in the Court of Conscience , but is bound to satisfy the Church if she have proceeded legally and canonically . The King can take off the temporal penalty , but not the spiritual obligation ; that is , the man is not to demand the Sacrament till he be absolved . If the King commands it , the Bishop must not deny his externall ministery : but the man sins that demands it , because he communicates unworthily , that is , by a just power , but not by a just disposition . He must repent of his crime before he can come innocently . For it is to be observed that in this affair one part concerns the Criminal , and another concerns the people . The Criminal is bound to abstain from the communion : that duty is incumbent upon him , because he is judg'd to be unworthy of it by that authority which he is bound to trust , in case there be no apparent error . But to be thrust from civil society is not directly any duty of his , but is incumbent on the people . Now though the Bishop can in some cases advise this , yet in a Christian Common-wealth he cannot without leave command it : and therefore the censure or judgment of the Church is to have effort upon the Conscience of the guilty , and this invades no mans right ; it is for his good that is concerned , and is wholly a spiritual power , and intrenches not upon the civil right of any man , much lesse upon the publick and supreme power . * In the lesser excommunication , if the subjects be not voluntary , or be not subjected by him that hath the power over them , that is , the King , they cannot be compell'd by the Bishop to any external act or abstention . But if they doe themselves submit , or are submitted by their supreme , they are bound not onely to obey the censure of the Church , but themselves to goe away from company that know not of this calamity : as I have * already instanc'd . 3. The sentence of the greater excommunication , though to be estimated in many particulars by the former measures , yet hath in it something of particular consideration . This is the great Anathema Maranatha , the excision of a man from the body of the Church ; without which body , whosoever is in that manner justly separate , there is no salvation to him : and this the Church called by the name of anathema . Not that whenever the word anathema is us'd , the greater excommunication is signified ; for it is very often us'd as an earnest expression of the dislike of a thing : so the Clergy of Edessa , when they purg'd their Bishop Ibas of the Crimes objected to him in the Council of Chalcedon , they solemnly protested they knew no evil of him , anathematizantes nosmetipsos , & terribili gehennae nosmetipsos obnoxios facientes , si novimus , anathematizing themselves and exposing themselves to the guilt of eternal damnation if they knew any such thing . Such anathemata are denounc'd against sacrilegious persons in the donatives made to the Church : and thus divers Councils doe pronounce anathema to false propositions , and Justinian in the Code uses the same execration against certain heresies . Now to such an anathema as this all persons can be subject , Kings and Princes , Bishops and Priests , Multitudes and single persons . There is nothing considerable in this , but that the cause be great and worthy : for whoever he be that works abomination , let him be who will , yet he is abominable , and shall be separated from the communion of Saints in the day of the New Jerusalem . But the inquiry that remains is concerning the great anathema or excision of obstinate criminals from the body of the Church , which is the onely excommunication that Christ gave in commission and warranty . For so the Fathers expound those words of Christ , But if he will not hear the Church , let him be unto thee as an heathen and a publican ; that is , not to be esteem'd for a Brother , or a Christian , saith S. Gregory ; quia neque influxum habet à capite , neque participat de Spiritu Christi , saith S. Austin , he neither hath any influence from the head , nor partakes of the Spirit of Christ. This man the Church does not pray for , does not pray with , does not communicate , does not hope well of ; he receives no assistance and gifts of grace from the holy Spirit of God : and S. Jude sayes , his works are gone aforehand unto judgement . Videlicet peccator gravis & scandalosus , notorius , aut accusatus & convictus , he who is a grievous and a scandalous sinner , notorious or convict , being ●●prov'd by the Bishop in the publick assemblies of the Church , if he will not be humbled , but remains incorrigible and perseveres in his scandalous sinnes , tum anathemate feriendus est , & à corpore Ecclesiae separandus , then he is to be smitten with the anathema , and to be separated from the body of the Church : so . Gregory . To this there is nothing else consequent , but that the man , unlesse he timely and mightily repent , will be damned ; and in the mean time that every man account him to be no Brother , and have no entercourse with him , but as with a Turk or a Jew . Now concerning this , he that is in Ecclesiastical authority , and hath received the holy order , hath this power ; and he that hath a charge can minister this power : and so long as nothing temporal and secular is mingled with it , the Bishop can doe it wholly by his spiritual authority ; and in this he does nothing depend on the supreme Civil power , save that he be permitted to exercise his spiritual office . For though it be true that any Bishop can by the Civil power be hindred from ministring in publick assemblies , for he may be banished or depos'd , and another put in his chair , or all his offices may be suspended quoad exercitium actus ( as the Schools speak ) so that he may not exercise his power ; yet a Bishop that hath a flock , that is permitted actually to doe what Christ hath impower'd him to doe , can by his own sole authority inflict this sentence upon scandalous and refractary , disobedient and impenitent , rebellious and persevering sinners : and if the Church could not doe this , she had not power sufficient to the ends of her designation ; she were no body politic , but without government and power ; and all that discourse of our Blessed Saviour in the 18th of S. Matthew , and his commands of delating refractary Criminals to the Church , & the promise to verify in heaven what they shall reject on earth , were words signifying nothing and of no effect . But because no wise man will imagine that it must follow that the Ecclesiastic state , they to whom Christ promised to give the keyes of the Kingdome of heaven , they who are Stewards of the houshold and dispensers of the mysteries of the Gospel , have this power subjected in themselves independently from the Civil power , as they have a power to baptize , and to consecrate , and to ordain Ministers of religion ; and they can no more be hindred from one then from the other ; they may de facto , and they may by a competent power , but if they be , it is persecution . That this Bishop or that , that Cyprian or Silvester , that Valerius or Augustine should be the man , is under the power of the Civil Magistrate ; but the man that is permitted to use the powers Christ put into his hand , can upon persons so disposed pronounce God's anathema and the Churches . Now the reason of the difference why the Bishop cannot doe this in the lesser excommunication , and yet can in the greater , is this , because the greater is of Divine institution , and the other is of humane , never us'd but by consent , or by a superinduc'd civil authority , and therefore must still depend upon the causes of it's being . Adde to this , there is a precept annexed to this power : there is a double duty ; the Bishop is to separate the vile from the precious , the leprous from the sound , and the people are to take heed of such impure mixtures . But in the lesser excommunications there may possibly be something of prudence ; yet as there is no proper authority in the Ecclesiastical superior but what is given him by consent , so there is no obligation or duty in the subjects : it is well when they submit to this discipline , and goe to be cur'd by the publick hands even for every malady ; but they are not bound to this : but if they be delated or be notorious and great Criminals , here the Church is warranted by God to proceed to discipline , and to separation and excision of the refractary . This onely hath effort upon the soul ; but the lesser excommunication is a discipline of Ecclesiastical institution ; and so is that denying of communion to equals or superiors , and so is irregularity , and so is refusing to mention a name in our collects and publick or private prayers , and so is suspension and interdict , degradation and deposition : they are all of Ecclesiastical positive constitution , no part of the power of the Keyes , nothing of Divine authority ; but are introduc'd by the consent of Churches , and verified by custome , consent and the laws of Princes , and so come accidentally to passe an obligation , but effect nothing directly upon the soul. That is a peculiarity of the greater excommunication : and that which stands next to it is the lesser excommunication ; which although it be humanum inventum and of positive institution , yet because it is a part of the greater , and proceeds in the same way , upon lesser causes , but to designes of charity and edification , it is an use of the spiritual sword , it is the lancing of a sore , but not the cutting off a dead part ; but it may be admitted to be a consequent of the power of binding or loosing , and so I have already call'd it * . For it is a part of that intermedial monition which Christ hath in general commissionated his Ministers and guides of the Church to make . If an offendor will not mend by private , and by a more publick admonition , tell it to the Church ; then the Church is to doe something when the stubborn criminal is delated to her . The Church must try if he will repent upon her monition : for then the Ecclesiastical Rulers are to exhort him into repentance , to reprove , to correct , to doe what spiritual Fathers ought to doe : the particulars of which because they are not specified by our Blessed Lord , they are left to the prudence of the Ecclesiastical Governours ; so that the general Discipline is warranted , but the particular is left to their choice who by the analogies of the consequent power of the Keyes can proceed by lesser and an intermedial processe . But the power of the Keyes is given in order to something that is to be done afterwards . For that is onely the warranted and expresse authority , and that which imitates coercitive jurisdiction the nearest , that those be cut off from the Church who by their voluntary submission will not amend and submit to the paternal rod & gentle correption . RULE IX . Excommunication inflicted upon a light cause binds externally , but not internally ; but if it be inflicted upon an unjust cause , it binds not at all . THis latter part of the Rule is evident and consented to by all . For in this the Civil and Ecclesiastical power differ . The Civil power , if it condemns the Innocent , hath effect upon him , and does afflict or put him to death : But the Ecclesiastical power does nothing , unlesse the man hath done the mischief to himself . For God having undertaken to verify what the Church does , it must be suppos'd that the Church must doe right , else God will not verify it ; and then it signifies nothing , but that the Governours Ecclesiastical have sinn'd . Ejiciunt oves qui contra justitiam de Ecclesia separant , saith S. Hierom , They that against right cast a man from the Church , they are ill shepherds , and drive the sheep from their folds where Christ loves to see them : and therefore Alexander the second 24. q. 1. c. Audivimus , sayes that : unjust excommunications are not to be slighted and neglected ; and Gerson sayes , it is honorable to the Church that such a Prelate should be resisted to his face . But this in case of injustice and manifest abuse : such are those excommunications in the Bulla coenae Domini , ●n which those persons who doe their duty , who doe not consent to the errors and abuses of the Church of Rome , who read good books that discover their horrible impieties , are excommunicated : it is Brutum fulmen ; it is harsh as the noise of peacocks , but does no more harm to them that are intended . But now in the other part of the Rule there is difficulty , and it is occasion'd by a discourse of S. Leo in his 93. Epistle ; Let not the Communion be easily or lightly denied to any Christian , nor at the pleasure of every angry Priest ; because the mind of the avenger ought unwillingly and with a kind of grief to proceed to the infliction of vengeance even upon a great guilt . For we have known some for slight actions and words excluded from the grace of the Communion , and a soul for which the bloud of Christ was shed , by the infliction of this so severe a punishment wounded , and as it were disarm'd and spoil'd of all defence , expos'd to the assaults of the Devil , that it might be easily taken . ] By which words . S. Leo seems to say that he who for a trifling cause is excommunicate , does neverthelesse feel all the evils of that greatest censure . He sayes well and true : But he does not say that he is separate from God , that he shall perish everlastingly , that God will in heaven verify what is done upon earth ; but he reproving this impiety , that the greater excommunication should be inflicted for trifles , tells the real evils which doe follow : for the excommunicate being separate from the communion , denyed the prayers of the Church , banish'd from the communion of Saints , is devested of all these excellent helps and spiritual defensatives against the power of the Devil . Now this is very true , though the cause were wholly unjust ; and much more if the cause be something , though not sufficient . De facto the man is depriv'd of the helps of the Church , and the advantage of holy Ordinances : and though God will , if the man be a good man and devout , hear his private prayers , and supply him with secret strengths , and in his behalf rebuke the Devil ; yet it was a worthy cause of complaint in S. Leo , to consider that this evil was done for little things , and that for so small occasions God should be put to his extraordinary way , and the man be depriv'd of the blessings of the ordinary . But whether this sentence so slightly inflicted doe really bind the soul before God , is a question which Origen inquir'd into , but durst not affirm it ; but concludes that it obliges in the Church and before men : for whether it obliges before God or no , Deus scit ; nos autem pronunciare non possumus , secundum quod scriptum est , Nolite judicare ] God onely knows , but we must not judge . But yet if it be his unhappy lot to fall into such a calamity , factum valet , fieri non debuit ; the ecclesiastical Ruler did very ill in it , yet the man is bound to the Church . Qui ergor in peccato levi correptus … non se emendat , nos quidem sic eum debemus habere quasi publicanum & ethnicum , abstinentes ab eo , ut confundatur , He therefore that is taken and excommunicate for a small fault , and will not amend , we must esteem him as a Heathen and a Publican , that he may be ashamed . Indeed the Church hath put a heavy and an unequal load upon such a person , and hath erred greatly ; for no man is to be separate from the Church of God , but he that separated himself from God , and hath left his duty : but therefore if the Church doe excommunicate him whose action or words though it be faulty , yet it can consist with the state of a good man , and does not destroy the love of God , the censure was too heavy as to the external , and false as to the internal ; for the man is not fallen from God , but does communicate with the Head , and continues to receive of the Spirit of Christ. But yet even such a man is bound externally : for this is the meaning of that famous saying of S. Gregory , Pastoris sententia etiam injusta timenda est , The sentence of a Bishop though it be unjust is to be fear'd ; that is , though it be in a cause that is not great and competent enough , but if it be in a light matter , yet it is to be feared ; not onely because the man is depriv'd of the prayers and communions of the Church ( which though it happen to an innocent person is a great evil , and therefore is to be fear'd , though it be in all senses unjust ) but also because it binds the man that is deprehended even in a light fault , to submit to the judgment and satisfactions of the Church . The burden is very great , and ought not to have been impos'd ; but when it is it must be suffer'd , because no repentance can be too great for any sinne : and although the Bishop made a false judgment concerning the man , and he does not stand so before God as before the Church , that is , for his first little offence ; yet being censur'd and unfortunate , if he refuses to obey that which is indeed too much to be impos'd , but will doe him no hurt , it is not his first little sin , but his great contempt that is to be accounted for before God with the greatest severity . But then if it be inquir'd in what cases onely excommunication may be lawfully inflicted ; the answer is easy ; but I chuse to give it in the words of the Fathers , because there is in this case reason and authority 〈◊〉 Ubi peccatum non est evidens , ejicere de Ecclesia neminem possumus , 〈◊〉 forte eradicantes zizania , eradicemus simul cum ipsis etiam triticum : So ●rigen . Unless the fact be evident , no man must be excommunicate , for else we may peradventure root up the wheat with the tares . But that 's not enough . 2. No man must be excommunicate but he that is peccator gravis & scandalosus , a grievous and a scandalous sinner ; so S. Gregory : and like to this is that of Aristotle , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , We must not separate from every sinner ; but from the intolerable and malicious . For what should a man proceed to violent remedies , when a gentle application will make the cure ? and for a trifling cause to cut a man off from the communion of the Church , is to doe as the man 〈◊〉 the fable , that espying a fly upon his neighbours forehead ; went to put it off with a hatchet , and struck out his brains . And therefore the Fathers in the Council of Worms can . 2. decreed , Ut nullus Sacerdotum quenquam rect● fidei hominem pro parvis & levibus causis à communione suspendat : praeter e●s culpas pro quibus antiqui patres arceri jusserunt aliquid committentes . In the infliction of Censures the Church should follow the practice of the primitive Fathers , excommunicating no true believer but for some very grievous fault . 3. Neither is this sufficient of it self : a scandalous sin alone is not enough , for excommunication is the last remedie . Omnia prius tentanda quam bello experiendum ; when nothing else will doe it , then this is to be us'd : for if the man will be amended by private correction , or by publick admonition , if he be ready to hear his brother , or to obey the Church , why should he be esteemed as a heathen man and a publican ? Si non audierit ecclesiam , is the condition of using the keyes ; if he will not hear the Church : so it is in the Charter , if being publickly convict and reprov'd by the Bishop , he will not be humbled , but remains incorrigible and perseveres in his sin , then he is to be excommunicated and smitten with the anathema . Like to this is that of Chrysippus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Some things are to be turned from , with our head a little aside ; and from some things we must run away . Some things are more earnestly to be avoided ; and from others we must be parted for ever . So S. Gregory in the place above cited . Spirituali gladio superbi & contumaces necantur dum de Ecclesia ejiciuntur , so . S. Cyprian , The proud and the contumacious are slain by the spiritual sword when they are thrown out of the Church . Inobediens truncatur , is S. Hierom's expression , He that is rebellious or disobedient to the discipline and correction of the Church , he is to be cut off . Now all these must be joyned together . If the fact be not notorious or prov'd , a man must be so severely smitten we know not why . And if the fact be evident , yet unless it be great , it deserves not the biggest punishment . For the judge is cruel , and not just , that puts a man to death with torments for spitting in his parlour : and the judgment of the Church being nothing else but an effective and terrible declaration of the judgment of God , must not be exterminating and final for things of little concernment , but according to the wisedome which we see , and the mercy which we hope for . And after all , if it be evident and great , yet the last remedy must not be us'd at first ; and a man will not have his arm cut off for a felon upon his finger , or the gout in his wrist , or an ulcer that can by any other means be cur'd . But when in a great pestilence and danger of infection there is no other remedy ; when the fire rages desperately , and can by no other means be stopp'd ; then pull the house down , and separate the infected from the city ; he is fit for nothing but charnel-houses , and the society of the dead . 4. This caution Gerson instances in pecuniary matters . For ( saith he ) not ever contumacy against the orders of Courts Ecclesiastical is to be punish'd with this death . If it be in matters of faith or manners , then the case is competent : but when it is a question of money and fees , besides that the case is full of envy and reproach , apt for scandal and to bring contempt upon the Church , the Church hath no direct power in it ; and if it have by the aide of the civil power , then for that a civil coercion must be us'd . It is certainly unlawful to excommunicate any man for not paying the fees of Courts ; for a contumacy there is an offence against the civil power , and he hath a sword of his own to avenge that . But excommunication is a sword to avenge the contumacy of them who stubbornly offend against the discipline of the Church in that wherein Christ hath given her authority , and that is in the matters of salvation and damnation immediate , in such things where there is no fecular interest , where there can be no dispute , where the offender does not sin by consequence and interpretation , but directly and without excuse . But let it be considered how great a reproach it is to ecclesiastical discipline if it be made to minister to the covetousness or to the needs of Proctors and Advocates ; and if the Church shall punish more cruelly then civil Courts for equal offences : and because she hath but one thing to strike withall , if she upon all occasion smites with her sword , it will either kill too many , or hurt and affright none at all . 5. Spiritual censures must not be inflicted for temporal causes , in questions of right and secular concernment , for which the civil sword is sharp enough and proper . In the Church of Rome it hath been very usual to use excommunications for the discovery of thefts , or the manifestation of secret actions . Divers examples of which are in the Decretals and later Canons of the Church ; but not till the Church had been extremely corrupted both in Doctrine and Manners . But this advice is the same almost with the former , and relies upon the same reason . But who please to see more of it may see it in Gerson de vita spirit . anim . lect . 4. Corol. 7. & serm . in Concil . Rhemens . partit . 2. consid . 2. provis . 2. As as Corollary to these advices , I am to adde one thing that is of great use and consideration , and that is , That when a law is made that who ever shall commit such a fact shall be ipso facto excommunicate , it must never be understood of the greater and proper excommunication ; for if it be , it is unlawful and it is ridiculous . For the abscission from the Church is not to be us'd but after all other remedies : when the crime is delated or notorious , and the person called , when he hath been admonished and reprov'd , and called to repentance , if after all he refuses and rebels , then he is to be cut off , else not : and therefore no man is ipso facto cut off . The offence alone deserves it just as it deserves damnation : but because God is pleas'd graciously to call a sinner to repentance , and cuts him not off till he hath refus'd his gentleness and forbearance , the Church must doe so too , following the Oeconomy of God ; for if the Church kills on earth , and God saves in heaven , it is clear she hath not rightly us'd her power , and therefore must not kill at the first dash . If therefore it be inquired whether all such sentences in law which declare a man to be in certain cases ipso facto excommunicate be unlawful , the Arch-Bp . of Spalato , who is fierce against them , answers affirmatively and confidently , and disputes well against them : but his reasons are overvalued by him and are not demonstrative ; for they all rely upon this proposition , That no man can be tied to be executioner of any sentence against himself , which I have proved to be false * . * What then doe such sentences effect more then others which are comminatory , and threaten the sentence onely to be inflicted by the Judge if the crime be delated and prov'd ? Gerson saith he learn'd thus to answer from his Master , That the Judge in such cases , when the fact is prov'd or confess'd , may pass to sentence without any further Judicial process ; which in other cases he cannot doe . But Gerson and his Master would fain have been at a new thing , but they could not hit it right . For whether any such thing was effected or no , or whether any more was intended , is not a matter of conscience ; for this whole proceeding is not the ministery of the keyes , but wholly a humane invention , done with great reason , and is of prudent conduct , and warranted by precedents in Scripture : and since in those places where many such laws are made and us'd it is certain that the law-givers intend more , and more is practis'd , i● is not true that Gerson's Master told him , that these laws produc'd nothing but a power for the Judge to proceed summarily . And therefore he neither answered right in the point of law , nor in the case of Conscience ; & yet he said well , that such sentences of excommunication doe not oblige others to abstain from the society of the excommunicate . It is true , but not for his , or for the reasons of the learned Arch-Bp . of Spalato ; but for this reason , because these sentences doe not intend to involve the offender in the greater excommunication , which is not to be inflicted but upon him that hath sinn'd griveously , and after admonition refuses to amend . For if the greater excommunication were intended , the laws were unlawful , and the sentence unjust . For a crime in manners is like an errour in faith : this without pertinacy is not heresy , and that without contumacy does not deserve excommunication . But what then ? Therefore all those laws which inflict the sentence of excommunication ipso facto are to be understood of the lesser excommunication , and they mean thus much onely , That the Church declares that all such criminals are obliged to confesse their sin , to abstain from the Communion till they have truly repented , to submit themselves to the judgement of their spiritual guide , to receive discipline at his hand , and manners of emendation ; and in this sense the laws are pious and reasonable , usefull and of great effect : but how much the conscience of the criminal is by them oblig'd is a secret of which we know nothing ; but this we know , that where such laws are us'd and understood , without such submission and amends , a man that desires to be good can have no peace of conscience . The like is to be said of those ancient Canons of Councils which for light causes impose and decree the sentence of excommunication . Thus the fourth Council of Carthage decrees him to be excommunicate qui sacerdote verbum faciente in Ecclesia egressus de auditorio fuerit , who shall goe out of the Church before the Sermon be ended . Very many of the same nature might be produc'd , but they all mean the same thing ; that he that is delinquent in the instance when he is delated and convict shall be separate a while from the Communion , ( for that was the Discipline of those times ) and thrust into the place of publick penitents . RULE X. It is not lawfull to communicate with those whom the Church hath by a just sentence excommunicated . THat is , all prohibited Communion is unlawful : as if they be driven onely from holy offices , then we must not admit such persons to our assemblies ; if a civil entercourse be prohibited , that the Criminal by shame might be brought to repentance , then that also must be denied him : for if he be bound by the censure of the Church , then we also who are the relatives of that coercion are tied to doe our duty to the Church . To which purpose there is an excellent discourse in S. Cyprian , Wherefore ( saith he ) although there be some of our collegues that think it fit to neglect the Divine discipline , and doe rashly communicate with Basilides and Martialis , this thing ought not to disturb our faith ; since the Holy Ghost in the Psalms threatens such persons , saying , Thou hast hated discipline and cast my words behind thee : if thou sawest a thief thou didst goe with him , and wert partaker with the adulterers . He shewes that they were consorts and partakers of other mens sins who were joyned with the delinquents . But this thing also the Apostle Paul writes , saying , They are whisperers , backbiters , haters of God… . who knowing the judgement of God , that they which commit such things are worthy of death , not onely doe the same , but have pleasure in them that doe them . For ( saith he ) they that doe such things are worthy of death . He manifests and proves that they are worthy of death and shall come to punishment , not onely that doe evil , but they who consent to them that doe evil ; who whilest by an unlawfull communication they are mingled with evil sinners , and that will not repent , are polluted with the contact of the guilty , and because they are joyned in crimes , they are not separated in punishment . The Church having so good warrant from Scripture proceeded to adde Ecclesiastical penalties to those that would not verify her Sentences of just excommunications . For when some had got a trick to meet in houses and pray in Conventicles , because they were forbidden , or did voluntarily refuse to enter into Churches , the Council of Antioch took notice of it , and forbad all such communions and assemblies and entercourses under the pain of excommunication . But this was decreed by the Canons commonly called Apostolical , Si quis cum excommunicato saltem i● domo simul oraverit , iste communione privetur , He that prayes with an excommunicate person so much as privately in a house , let him be depriv'd of the Communion . The same we find often in the Ancient Epistles of the Popes ; in the a second and in the b fourth Council of Carthage , in the first Council of c Toledo , and in the Synod at d Auxerre in France , in the first Council of e Bracara , in the Council of f Touraine , and the Council of g Verne . But this is to be understood with one caution , and to be reduc'd to practice by another . 1. Although the Church excommunicates the● that communicate with excommunicates , yet it is alwayes to be understood that the partners are onely smitten with a lesser excommunication , and oblig'd onely externally , not internally . For there may be many cases very favourable in which an innocent person may innocently communicate with a heathen and a publican : and therefore in such cases in which a man does not take part against , or directly or by intention despise the Church , or give countenance , strength or increment to the sin of the excommunicate , but with simplicity pursues other lawfull purposes , and designs nothing of these , he is onely tied to give satisfaction to the Church ; but is not guilty before God. For the places of Scripture quoted by S. Cyprian above-mention'd are onely spoken of such persons who by their society approve , and in their hearts doe consent to such crimes . But every man that goes along with them in their journey or in their Merchandise , does not goe along with them in their crime ; and yet if they be forbidden to goe along the road with them , and yet will doe it , they may justly be presum'd to goe along in their consent and approbation : and therefore the Church does well to forbid such to come to her communions till she be satisfied , that is , till the contrary does appear , or amends be made . But because in many cases the contrary can be made to appear , and in more cases the contrary is true , whether it can be made to appear or no , therefore in such cases it must be understood , that the companion of the excommunicate is onely bound in the face of the Church by such censures , and not in the Court of heaven . And to this accords that of S. Leo , Certainly when any such cause does happen , that for the hainousnesse of some crime committed any one is justly depriv'd of the Communion , he alone ought to be punish'd who is involv'd in the guilt ; nec particeps debet esse supplicii qui consors non docetur fuisse commissi , neither is he to partake of the punishment that was not a consort of the fact . 2. This rule is to be reduc'd to practice with this caution , That the Church intends not to forbid any such entercourse or communion to which we stand preoblig'd by the law of Nature , or any law of God , or of the Civil supreme power , from which the Church cannot absolve us . The sentence of excommunication does not enjoyn a son not to help his aged Father , nor the Physician to give him physic in his sicknesse , nor the tenants to pay their rent , and talk with their land-lord about his and their necessities , nor the feudatary to pay homage to his lord : to prohibite Natural or Civil duties the Ecclesiastical power hath nothing to doe . If the Civil power hath forbidden a civil duty , he may , and then the subject is civilly bound in all things but where God hath commanded a duty . For even the King cannot command a wife not to pay her duty to her husband , nor a child to his mother . To these they are bound by God , though they die for it ; and if the Prince be angry , yet God is well pleased . For although the supreme power can forbid even an action that is of it self good and pious , and we are in the proper circumstances bound to obey him , and in this case also obedience is better then sacrifice ; yet when the piety is necessary , and not under choice and counsell , but under a Commandement , the King and the Bishop singly or conjunctly have no power to forbid it . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for these are things that are not of to day or yesterday , but of an eternal rectitude , and no man knows when they did begin . For upon this account Antigona in Sophocles defends the fact of burying her dead Brother against the Kings commandement , Even the Gods themselves , that is , the great Rulers of the world , are subject to these laws . So Euripides , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . This law rules them that rule the world : and therefore the Greek Tragedy does rarely well call these laws 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , because all men and all things are under their feet . It is , as Pindar calls it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a law that is the King of all things mortal and immortal . And therefore excommunications , though verified by the secular power , cannot forbid the necessary and dutifull entercourses of relations , or the issue of any duty commanded by a former obligation in the law of God. But if the Church will take her measures from the words of her commission , which as they are her onely warrant , so they are the best rule , the external effect of excommunication is this onely , that we esteem him that refuses to hear the Church as a heathen and a publican . If we account and use him so , it is bad enough ; but then we have no warrant to use him worse . And then as we eat and drink and talk and buy and sell with heathens without sin , why also not with excommunicates , this precept notwithstanding ? I say , this precept notwithstanding , for it is more then an indulgence or a leave to use them so ; it is a commandement : the Rulers and stewards of God's houshold are tied to separate refractary Criminals from the sound part ; and the people are bound to be separate , for they also have a share in this binding and loosing by way of consent and compliance and verification , according to that of S. Austin , Si fratrem habes pro Ethnico & publicano , ligasti illum in terris ; si correxeris fratrem , solvisti illum in terris . The people are to bind and loose , that is , to esteem him that is bound as a heathen and a publican , and to assist in the correcting of him , by bringing him to repentance by the instrument of shame . But this being matter of office , and not merely of benefit , it is evident that it is a precept , and not a leave onely , a Commandement , and not an indulgence . But then if we enquire to how much and to what manner of usages it does oblige us , we shall be able to understand our duty best by considering that it is a proverbial expression , or a form of execration , to signify impious and prophane persons , of the vilest reproach . Just as in the Old Testament , of what Nation soever he was , yet a stranger from the Covenant of God was called an Aramite or a Syrian ; and when S. Paul said that S. Timothie's Father was a Greek , the Syriac interpreter calls him an Aramite : so here a heathen and a publican signifies a wicked and a reprobate person ; as we call cruel people Turks , and in the time of the holy warre all very vile and intolerably vitious or hated persons were called Saracens . Harlots and Publicans Christ joynes together ; so Publicans and Sinners the same with Heathens and Publicans . Meaning that all contumaciòus sinners , that upon admonition and Ecclesiastical correption refuse to repent , are to be accounted enemies and strangers to the rights and promises of the Gospell , enemies to the religion , and separate from God , and given over to a reprobate sense . But it cannot be inferred from hence that the same usage which the Jews gave to Heathens and Publicans , we are tied to have towards excommunicates . That we must have no worse is certain , but not such , not so bad , is also very true ; because our Blessed Saviour did not even amongst them approve of those harsh and contemptuous usages ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they would not eat , nor drink , nor trade , nor come to them . Non monstrare vias eadem nisi sacra colenti , Quaesitum ad fontem solos deducere verpos . They would not doe common civilities or charities to an uncircumcised man , to a heathen . But when our Blessed Saviour had us'd them better , and so taught others to converse with them , to doe them good and to save their souls , it will be very reasonable to collect from hence , that Christ did not intend by this to enjoyn us to such treatments of the excommunicates as the proud Pharisees gave to Publicans and heathens : but the manner of speech was in use among the Jews to signify impious persons and great sinners , and so Excommunicates are to be accounted . That therefore which remains is , that the usage here intended is , that they should be separate from the communion of holy offices , from partaking in the mysteries of religion ; for that was the known use of the words of binding and loosing among the Jews , which Christ us'd in giving the Church a power of excommunication . To bind signifies to forbid , and to loose signifies to give admission and leave , according to that usual saying of the Jews , There was nothing bound by Ezekiel or by David but what was bound in the Law , that is , they forbad nothing else . So that the accounting these persons separate from God , and forbidding them to enter into the communions of the sons of God in the mysteries of their religion , is all that can by any probability be inferr'd from hence , excepting what is superadded from common reason and the laws of nature ; that if beyond this there be danger of receiving hurt , the separation goe further : and therefore the Apostles gave caution to their converts that they should not salute or admit into their houses false Apostles , because of the imminent danger ; but beyond this I find no Divine Commandement . Whatsoever therefore besides these things is superadded by the laws of the King of the Canons of the Church is to be obeyed upon those accounts , where no other duty is prejudic'd ; and therefore in this there is no other rule of Conscience , but that we first attend to the laws of God concerning our other duties , and then to the laws of the King in this . But in the thing it self , excommunication cuts the refractary sinner from the communion or religious entercourse of the Church ; he is not to be reckon'd as a Brother , or a relative in our religious friendship and union . The offices of humanity and civility are not to be denied to him ; but there ought to be no dearnesse and proximity of friendship : we are not to take much care of reproving him ; his eares are shut to truth , and he cannot hear good counsel ; hujus ergo desperanda salus ( as Cicero said of the like persons ) unlesse a new hope arise , we may despair of his salvation . One thing more I adde , That when the Church inflicts censures upon those who communicate with the Excommunicates , it is not upon a real belief that all such persons are guilty of the same crimes by secret approbation or consent , but because she cannot tell whether they be or no ; for it is a just legal presumption , and hath some natural probability that it is so ; and the Church is but too justly offended and scandaliz'd at such communications and entercourse . But then on all sides there is a difference to be made , and the Church must not be so offended when he that communicates with the excommunicate apparently does not , or by that communion cannot be presumed to partake of the principal sin : and therefore besides the tyranny and usurpation and illegal proceedings of Hildebrand against the Emperor Henry , excommunicating him upon pretence of Simony in the matter of Investitures , he did foolishly and unreasonably excommunicate all them that did partake or converse with him . For first the Church hath no power directly to make laws in the matter of secular conversation : and if it be said , by consequence and legal presumption the Church concludes such persons that communicate with the excommunicates to consent or partake of the crime ; that is according as the matter is , and in this case is extremely unreasonable and foolish : for it cannot be imagined that all the subjects of the Emperor should be partners of the bargains , or should know of them , or believe any such thing , or approve it , if they did know or believe it ; and the communicating with their Prince as subjects could not infer it , with any seeming probability , that they were all simoniacs . But then on the other side , the sons of the Church must be with curiosity restrain'd in their communions with such excommunicates , whose conversation does with probability involve us in the guilt and participation of the principal crime : and this is especially to be observed in sins about Government , and in matters of persuasion , that is , in matters of heresy and schisme ; for their word eateth like a canker , that is , these crimes are infectious and scatter themselves into all that converse with them , or is very likely so to doe ; and therefore in these cases the subjects may be more restrained from entercourse with excommunicates , and it must be a greater necessity that must warrant it , then may passe and be allowed in other cases . This is all I find necessary to be considered in the matter of Ecclesiastical censures , in order to the regulating of conscience : which the Casuists in the Roman Church have handled in great volumes , and make it commonly the one half of all their inquiries and ministeries of Conscience . For all the questions and considerations concerning suspensions , irregularities , interdicts , depositions and degradations , absolutions of the dead and of the absent , the forms of absolution , reservation of cases , delegations and licenses , absolutions against our wills , and by others who bound us not , and upon false suggestions , absolutions upon condition and reincidences , sentences uncertain and unknown , excommunications comminatory & ipso facto , papal and episcopal , common and special , principal and delegate , by regulars and seculars , the excommunication of Angels and Devils , of fowls and beasts , Pagans & Jews , and thousands of questions , cases , accidents , incidents , limitations of times appendant to all these , which make the peace of conscience to be as impossible as the conduct of it , all these are cut off by the simplicity of truth , and the plainenesse of Divine institutions , which are few , and easy , and useful , and reasonable ; wise , but not perplext ; severe , but not insnaring . But those things which are introduc'd by humane authority and rely upon secular interests , the artifices of covetous or ambitious men , and are maintain'd by force and false or uncertain principles , they are fit for the forum contentiosum for Courts of strife , but not for the Court of Conscience , which is troubled by any thing that destroys peace as certainly as by that which destroys innocence . § III. Of CANONS Ecclesiastical . That which I am next to inquire of , is , concerning the more particular persons or communities of men in whom the Ecclesiastical power is subjected , and where we are to find the records of Ecclesiastical laws , and from whom the obligations of Conscience doe proceed , and in what matters their authority is competent , and their Canons obligatory . That is , to what and whose Ecclesiastical Canons the Conscience is , and how far it is bound . RULE XI . The Canons of the Apostles which are of Order and external government doe oblige the Conscience by being accepted in several Churches , not by their first establishment . THat the Canons which the Apostles made did oblige the Churches to whom they were fitted & directed is without all question , according to that of the Apostle , To this end also did I write , that I might know the proof of you , whether ye be obedient in all things . For whatsoever was their ordinary power , yet they had so much of extraordinary , had such special commissions and warranties from Christ , had such gifts and miracles of power , so much wisdome , so much charity , and so intire a government , and were the onely fountains from whence the rules of the Church were to be deriv'd , that their word ought to be a law to whom it was sent , and a precedent to them that should hear of it : it was like the pattern in the Mount , to which all Churches in equal circumstances and the same conjunction of affairs might conform their practices . Thus we find that the Apostolical decree of abstaining from blood was observed by more Churches then those of Syria and Cilicia to which the Canon was directed ; and the college of Widows or Deaconesses , though provided for the first ministery of the churches and relief of ancient widows , deriv'd it self into the manners of the Western Churches , and lasted longer then there was need . There was no hurt in it ; the reverence to the persons and dignity Apostolical was foundation enough to bear a greater burden : but the retention of such Canons and orders was just like the retention of the Judicial laws in some commonwealths , which they did in regard to the divine wisdome ; though they in so doing did piously indeed , but yet did not imitate that wisdome by which those laws were made . But because it is evident that the laws of order and government were fitted to times and places and present necessities , the same wisdome that so fitted the laws and things together , did also know that those rules were not good when the things were changed and grew unfit for that measure . The Apostles in their first preachings and conversation in Jerusalem instituted a coenobitic life , and had all things in common with the believers ; indeed no man was tied to it : and of the same nature were their Canons , Counsels and advices , and propositions of what was best . But that advise related to the present necessities of believers : they were likely to suffer persecution , and the nation was in a little time to be destroyed , and therefore it was prudence to sell their lands , and charity to divide the use of it . But if any man shall say that this obliges all Christians , he is unreasonable ; but if they doe not , then it is certain that their laws oblige according to the subject matter and the changing reasons of things , and therefore not by their authority alone , but by their authority also who are judges of the reason of things , and can declare with obligation . But yet further , The orders which the Apostles gave to their Churches , though they be as good now as they were then , and have equal circumstances , yet unless it can appear that they by them intended to oblige all ages of the Church , although they were not free then , yet they are free now . Now this is certain , that they gave no such laws but what they receiv'd in Commandement from Christ ; and when ever they said of any particular , This say I , not the Lord , they gave but an advice , or made a temporary order ; but when they said , This we have receiv'd from the Lord , it is alwaies a doctrine of faith , or a moral Commandement . So that the rules of order being neither of these are but topical , and limited , and transient ; such which when they are chosen by the Rulers of Churches they become Canons and measures of practice , but else not . The Apostle made an order in the Corinthian Church that men should not pray or prophesy having their heads covered : but yet in France the preachers are covered , and doe not think they prevaricate an Apostolical Canon ; because they suppos'd it reach'd no further but to that Church , or at least was agreeable to the manners and customes of those places . S. Paul appointed that they should lay aside every first day of the week something for the poor : but he that shall chuse to doe this upon his weekly fasting-day , does as well ; he does the same thing in another circumstance . * S. Paul gave in order to Timothy that a Bishop should not be a novice ; meaning in age , or in Christianity , or both : and yet S. Timothy himself was but a novice , being chosen Bishop at the age of XXV years , as the Ecclesiastical histories report ; and Theodosius chose Nectarius being but newly converted ; and the people chose S. Ambrose to be Bishop before he was baptiz'd , and the election was confirmed by Valentinian . Fabianus , Cyprian , Nicolaus , Severus , Tarasius , were all novices or new Christians when they were chosen Bishops ; and yet the Church made no scruple of that Canon of the Apostles , because to break it was more for the edification of the Church . And I remember that Cassander , speaking of the intolerable evils that fell upon the Church by the injunction of single life to Priests and Bishops , he saies this law ought to have been relaxed , although it had been an Apostolical Canon . * Thus also it happened in the Canon concerning the college of widows , Let not a widow be chosen under threescore years ; and yet Justinian suffer'd one of forty years old to be chosen , and had no scruple , and he had no reproof : but that was no great matter ; for the whole institution it self is now laid aside , and other appointments are established . * And which is most of all , that Decretal of the Apostles which was made in full Council , the most Oecumenical Council that ever was in Christendome , made at the request of the Churches of the Gentiles , and the inquiry of the Jews , forbidding to eat things strangled , is no where observed in the Western Churches of Christendome ; and S. Austin affirm'd that if any man in his time made a scruple of eating strangled birds , every man did laugh at him . But of this I have given a full account * . Now if those Canons Apostolical which are recorded in Scripture , and concerning which we are sure that they had Apostolical authority , be without scruple laid aside in all Christendome , some every where , some in some places , it is evident that it is the sense of the whole Catholick Church , that the Canons of the Apostles for order and external measures of Government had a limited sphere of activity , and bind not beyond their reason and convenience , that is , as every Church shall find them fitted to their own measures ; and therefore this is much more true in such things which are but pretendedly Apostolical , whose name is borrowed , whose story is uncertain , whose matter is dubious , whose records are not authentick : and therefore whatever else can be pretended to be Apostolical , and is of this contingent nature and variable matter , is evidently subject to the present authority of every Church or Christian Kingdome which is supreme in its own dominion . But besides the reasonablenesse of the thing , we see it practis'd in all places without dispute or question ; that those things which are called Canons Apostolical , and either were not so , or not certainly so , are yet laid aside by those Churches who pretend to believe them to be so . The 5th Canon of the Apostles in that collection which is called Apostolical , appoints that the first-fruits shall be sent home to the houses of Bishops and Priests , and makes no question but they divide them amongst the Deacons and Clercs ; but I think in the Church of Rome they pay no first-fruits , and what they doe pay , the Bishops and Priests keep unto themselves . But this is nothing . The 6th Canon commands that a Priest or a Deacon should not under pretence of religion put away his wife : now this is so far from being receiv'd in the Church of Rome , that for this very Canon's sake Baronius calls the collection apocryphal , and rejects them from being Apostolical . The 7th Canon forbids a Bishop or Presbyter to have any thing to doe in secular affaires , under pain of deposition . This would destroy much of the grandeur of the Church of Rome if it were receiv'd . And the 10th destroys one of their great corruptions in discipline and doctrine , for it is a perfect deletery of their private Masse ; it excommunicates those of the people who come to Churches and goe away before they have received the Communion , calling them disturbers of the Church : now this at Rome would seem a strange thing . And yet all these are within that number of fifty which Baronius sayes were known to antiquity . But he that desires more instances in this affaire , may consult the Canons themselves , amongst which he will find very few observed at this day by any Church in Christendome . The Church of Rome pretends to believe that the wednesday and friday fast were ordained by the Apostles ; and yet the wednesday fast is not observed except by particular order and custome but in very few places . * I shall give one instance more . The Apostles commanded the feast of Easter to be celebrated upon the Sunday after the full Moon which should happen after the vernal Aequinox : So the Western Churches said . The Eastern pretended another Canon from S. John to celebrate it after the manner of the Jewes : and though they were confident and zealous for that observation upon the Apostolical warrant ; yet the Western Bishops at first , and afterwards the whole Church did force the Easterlings to change that rule which they and their forefathers had avowed to all the world to have received from S. John ; and it is observable that this was done upon the designes of peace and unity , not upon any pretence that S. John had never so given it in order to the Asian Churches . RULE XII . All those Rituals which were taught to the Church by the Apostles concerning ministeries , which were of Divine institution , doe oblige all Christendome to their observation . I Instance in the Holy Sacrament first of all : concerning which the Apostles delivered to the Churches the essential manner of celebration , that is , the way of doing it according to Christs commandement : for the words themselves being large and indefinite were spoken indeed onely to the Apostles , but yet they were representatives of all the whole Ecclesiastical order in some things , and of the whole Christian Church in other , and therefore what parts of duty and power and office did belong to each the Apostles must teach the Church , or she could have no way of knowing without particular revelation . Thus the Apostles taught the Bishops and Priests to consecrate the Symbols of bread and wine before they did communicate ; not onely because by Christs example we were taught to give thanks before we eat , but because the Apostles knew that the Symbols were consecrated to a mystery . And this was done from the beginning , and in all Churches and in all ages of the Church ; by which we can conclude firmly in this Rule , that the Apostles did give a Canon or rule to the Churches to be observed always , and that the Church did never believe she had authority or reason to recede from it . For in those rites which are Ministeries of grace no man must interpose any thing that can alter any part of the institution , or make a change or variety in that which is of Divine appointment . For the effect in these things depends wholly upon the will of God , and we have nothing to discourse or argue ; for we know nothing but the institution , nothing of the reason of the thing : and therefore we must in these cases with simplicity and obedience apply our selves to practice as we have received , for we have nothing else to guide us : memory and obedience , not discourse and argument , are here in season . And in this we have an evident and apparent practice of the Church handed to us by all hands that touch these mysteries : as who please may see in a Justin Martyr , b Irenaeus , c Origen , d S. Cyril of Jerusalem , and of e Alexandria , f S. Basil , S. Gregory Nyssen de vita Moysi , g Optatus Milevitanus , h S. Chrysostom , i S. Ambrose , k S. Hierom , l S. Austin , m Theodoret , n Gregorius Emissenus , o Gregory the Great , p Damascen , q Remigius , r Paschasius and divers others , & absolutely in all the liturgies that ever were us'd in the Church : so that the derivation of this Canon from the Apostles is as evident as the obedience to it was universal . But where the Apostles did not interpose , there the Churches have their liberty ; and in those things also which evidently were no part of the appointed liturgy or ministration , in those things though it be certain the Apostles did give rules of order and decency , yet because order is as variable as the Tactics of an army , and decency is a relative terme , and hath a transient and changeable sense , in all these things there is no prescription to the Church , though we did know what the Churches Apostolical did practise , for they did it with liberty : and therefore we are not bound ; the Churches are as free as ever ; though the single persons in the Churches can be bound , yet the Churches always have liberty . And indeed that is the best signe that the Apostles gave no perpetual order in any instance , and that it is no part of the institution or the ministery of grace , when the Ancient Churches , who were zealous for the honour Apostolical , and accounted every thing excellent that deriv'd from them , did differ in their practices . Thus the Greek and Latine Churches did always differ in the Sacramental bread , the Latins consecrating in unleavened bread which the Greeks refuse : if either one or other had been necessary they should have been clearly taught it , and if they had , there is no reason to believe but they would have kept the depositum , there being no temptation to the contrary , and no difficulty in the thing , and no great labour to preserve ; the daily use of the Church would have had in it no variety ; for no traditions are surer , or easier preserved then the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the matters of liturgy and the Rituals Apostolical : which when we find that they were unitedly and consentingly kept by the Ancient Churches , we may well suppose the Apostles to be the first principle of derivation , and that the thing it self was necessary and a part of the religion ; but if at first they varied , they had no common principle , and therefore they had no necessity . Thus that the Bishop or Priest should be the onely Minister of consecration is an Apostolical Canon or Rule , ad quorum preces Christi corpus sanguisque conficitur , saith S. Hierom : and the continuation and descent of this particular from the manners of the Apostolical ministration is evident in the fore-alleged testimonies . Now because by this constant derivation we can pursue the track up to the Apostles , and from their practice and teaching of it we can understand it to be the will of God , and because this whole ministery is an act of grace and depends onely upon the will of God , we perceive the thing to be necessary and unalterable , we must look for grace in the ministeries of grace so as God hath appointed them ; and therefore in these things the Churches of the succeeding ages have no authority , no liberty , no variety . * That women do communicate in the holy mysteries is not set down in the institution : but the Church derives her warranty from the interpretation and order and practice Apostolical : the Church was taught by the Apostles to admit them , and she always did it : and these things amongst sober and modest men doe sufficiently prove one another . They always did it , and therefore they were taught it by the Apostles : and they were taught to doe so by the Apostles , and therefore they were oblig'd to doe it . And now in matters of salvation and common duty , the rule of the Church is , Scriptura loquens in Masculino procedit etiam in foeminino . There is no difference in sexes , and before God it is now as it shall be in the resurrection , There is neither male nor female with him , but all alike . That the Symbols were to be consecrated , and who were to consecrate , and who were to receive , were of great necessity to be taught and determin'd : and in all this we see unity and necessity , authority and obedience ; but when we goe beyond this and the plain & necessary & constituent parts of the institution we find variety and uncertainty . That bread is to be us'd is plain : but whether leavened or unleavened neither Christ nor his Apostles have left in charge or memory . That wine is to be bless'd is certain : but whether mingled with water or not mingled , we are not determined by any authority . That the bread and wine are to be bless'd we are sure : but in what form of words , and whether by the mystic prayer , or the words of institution , is not deriv'd to us by sufficient tradition . That the Lords Supper is sacredly and with reverence to be receiv'd is taught us by the Apostles : but whether this reverence ought to be express'd by taking it virgine salivâ , fasting , or not fasting , the Apostles left the Churches to their choice . In those things which did cooperate immediately to the grace of the Sacrament , in those we were not to invent any thing , and in those we were tied to obey what was deliver'd us . And the same is the case in Baptisme , in which that which was necessary is that the person be baptized in water , and in the name of the Father , Son and holy Ghost : but whether the Priest shall say , Ego te baptizo , as the Latins doe , or Baptizetur servus Christi , as the Greeks doe , is indifferent : and if the Apostles had us'd any other little variety of words , yet if there was not in the first Churches an unity and universality of practice , it is certain the Apostles did not by their act or Canon intend to oblige all Christendome ; but themselves did it with liberty , and therefore so might the Churches after them . For , excepting those things which the Apostles received from Christ in which they were ministers to all ages , once for all conveying the mind of Christ to the generations to come , in all other things they were but ordinary Ministers , to govern the Churches in their own times , and left all that ordinary power to their successors , with a power to rule their Churches , such as they had , and therefore what ever they conveyed as from Christ , a part of his doctrine or any thing of his appointment , this was to bind for ever ; for Christ onely is our law-giver , and what he said , was to last for ever : in all things which he said not , the Apostles could not be law-givers , they had no such authority ; and therefore whatsoever they order'd by their own wisdome , was to abide as long as the reason did abide ; but still with the same liberty with which they appointed it ; for of all men in the world they would least put a snare upon the Disciples , or tie fetters upon Christian liberty . But in Divine Commandements , and in what were the appointed ministeries of grace , they were but the mouth of Christ and Ministers of his holy spirit ; and in those things , what they told to the Churches is our law for ever . Of the same nature is the distinction of Bishops from Presbyters , and the government of the Church by them : for this being done in the Apostles times , and immediately receiv'd by all Churches , who every where and ever since were governed by Bishops and by Presbyters under them , it is not onely still to be retain'd unalterably , and is one of those great things in which the present Churches have no liberty or authority to make a change , but it is to be concluded to be a law of Christ , which the Apostles did convey with an intent to oblige all Christendome ; not onely because the Apostles could not in things indifferent oblige or make a law to succeeding ages , for they had no authority and could not govern Churches after they were dead , and it was against the laws of Christ that the commandements of men should be taught for doctrines , and it is against Christian liberty , that a lasting necessity should by man be put upon any thing , and the succeeding Churches would be streightned in the liberty which Christ had given them , and in which they were bound to stand fast ; not onely all this , but this was a Ministery of grace , the Bishops were for ever appointed to give a gift by the laying on of hands : and therefore here was an appointment by Christ and by Christs spirit ; for there is not in the world a greater presumption then that any should think to convey a gift of God , unlesse by God he be appointed to doe it . Here then could be no variety , and no liberty : this Canon Apostolical is of eternal obligation , and the Churches cannot otherwise be continued . But then in the appendages and annexes of this , the Apostles did doe their ministeries ; they did invocate the holy Spirit upon those which were to be ordained : but in these they had no commandement what form to use . Imposition of hands and prayer were the necessary and appointed ministery ; for in these things the Churches did not vary , but took them from the Apostles as the appointed liturgy : but with what forms of words , and with the tradition of what instruments , is left to the choice and Oeconomy of every Church . RULE XIII . In the Rules which the Apostles gave to their Churches in things indifferent , the Church hath a liberty ; but it is not to be used but for great reason and great necessity , and for the edification of the people committed to their charge . THe reasons of this Rule are these two . First , because it is a great regard to the honour'd names of the Apostles , the pillars and foundations of the Church , that there be not an easy change made of what they in wisedome had determin'd to be the measures of order and decency . * But this is to be understood in such things which change not , and whose nature although it be not of moral obligation , yet the reason that bound it first may be perpetual , and such which cannot be succeeded to , and cannot be excelled . Thus the keeping of the Lords day , besides all the other reasons deriv'd from the nature of the thing , yet even for this alone , because it deriv'd from the Apostles , is to remain so for ever : because the reason being at first competent for which they kept their assemblies , and gave that day to religion , and the same reason remaining for ever , and another cannot come in place of it , and a greater there cannot be , although the Churches are not in Conscience directly bound , yet collaterally and indirectly they are . For it would be a plain contempt of the persons and wisedome of the Apostles , besides the disrespect to the mystery it self , to change the Sunday Festival into any other day ; for since there can be no reason for so doing , and a greater blessing then Christs Resurrection we are not to expect , and a greater reason for the keeping of a day then a thanksgiving for the greatest blessing there cannot be ( except a Divine commandement ) the onely reason why any Church should change it must relate to the Apostles , and therefore be no lesse then a contempt of their persons and a lessening of their eminence , and could not be lesse then an intolerable scandal . The other reason is , because the Apostles even in things where they had no Divine Commandement , yet had the Spirit of God , * the spirit of wisdome and government ; and therefore where evidently there is not an inconvenience , or an uselesnesse , or an unreasonablenesse by reason of the change of times and circumstances , the Churches are on the surer side when they follow the practice and precedents of the Apostles , and have the confidences of a reasonable hope that such appointments are pleasing to Christ , since it is not unlikely that they were deriv'd from the Spirit of Christ. But in these cases the practices and Canons Apostolical must be evident and prov'd : For since in these particulars of lesser concernment , we doe but presume and conjecture that the Apostles were taught by the Spirit immediately ; if it be but a conjecture also that the Apostles did teach or practise it , we have two lame feet , and cannot tread securely . I shall give one instance in this particular , but it will be of great use , not onely for the verification of this explication of the Rule , but in order to conscience , because it is in some Churches tied with straight cords , and pretended to be very necessary , and of great obligation upon this stock , because it was appointed by the Apostles : and it is the observation of Lent and the weekly fasting-days . Of the Lent-fast , and the weekly fasting-days . The fast of Lent of all that are not pretends the most fairly to have been an Apostolical tradition ; and if it could prove so it would with much probability pretend to have been imposed with a perpetual obligation . Of the first we have many testimonies from the Ancient Fathers . So S. Hierom , Nos unam quadragesimam secundum traditionem Apostolorum toto anno , tempore nobis congruo jejunamus . So S. Leo , Quod ergo in omni tempore unumquemque convenit facere Christianum , id nunc sollicitius est & devotius exequendum , ut Apostolica institutio quadraginta dierum jejuniis impleatur . And again , A Sanctis Apostolis per doctrinam spiritus sancti majora sunt instituta jejunia , ut per commune consortium crucis Christi , nos etiam aliquid in eo quod propter nos gessit ageremus . To these agrees Isidorus Hispalensis , Quadragesima in universo orbe institutione Apostolicâ observatur circa confinium Dominicae passionis . To which Dorotheus a Greek Abbat does consent , save onely that he sayes more ; for he affirms that the Apostles did consecrate the seven quadragesimal weeks of fasting . So that here we have four Ancient Authors giving testimony that the Lent-fast was a tradition or an appointment Apostolical . Now if it came from the Apostles by way of precedent or authority , the thing it self hath in its nature or appendage some advantages by which with much reasonablenesse we may believe it was intended to bind all ages of the Catholick Church . Because the usefulnesse of it will be as much now as ever it was ; and it being a specification of the duty of fasting , which will never be out of season , and having always the same common cause , that is the precedent of Moses and Elias , and the example of our Blessed Saviour himself , the duty not being relative to time or place , and the reason of the institution being of perpetual regard , and the usefulnesse very great , and the thing pious and holy , and adde to these , all Churches ancient and modern having received it till now of late , it will be very like a duty incumbent upon all Churches and all ages to observe this fast which the Apostles with so much reason did prescribe . And in pursuance of this we find some excellent persons in the Ancient Churches saying expressely that this institution is warranted to us from Christ. So S. Austin , The Caresme or Lent-fast hath an authority of a Fast both in the Old Testament from the fast of Moses and Elias , and out of the Gospel ( because so many dayes the Lord fasted ) demonstrating that the Gospel does not differ from the law : and again , By that number of fourty in which Moses and Elias and our Lord himself did fast , was signified unto us that we must abstain from secular delights . The same thing also is affirmed by S. Hierom , Moses and Elias in their forty days hunger were filled with the conversation of God : and our Lord himself fasted so many days in the wildernesse that he might leave to us the solemn days of fasting ; or , as he says in another place , haereditatem nobis jejunii derelinquens , ad esum corporis sui sub hoc numero animas nostras praeparat , leaving to us the inheritance of fasting , under this number he prepares our souls for the eating of his body . So Isidore , The first is the fast of Lent , which began from the fast of Moses and Helias and of our Blessed Lord , who fasted so many days . Now although these Fathers intend not to say that our Lord did command this fast , but gave us a precedent and an example to imitate as well as we can ; he was the occasion why the Church took that time , and perform'd that severity : yet the example of our Blessed Lord cannot be neglected without sin : Non enim , Fratres , leve peccatum est indictā Quadragesimam à Domino non jejunare , & jejunia consecrata ventris voracitate dissolvere , &c. said the Author of the 25th sermon in the works of S. Ambrose . It is not a light sin not to keep the Lenten-fast which was indicted by our Lord , and with the greedinesse of the belly to dissolve these consecrated fasting-days . For what does he deserve that breaks the fast which Christ indicted ? If therefore thou wilt be a Christian thou must doe as Christ did . He that had no sin fasted forty days : and wilt not thou who hast sinned keep the Lent-fast ? He ( I say ) that had no sin yet fasted for our sins : Think therefore in thy Conscience what a kind of Christian thou art , when Christ fasting for thee thou wilt eat thy dinner . This Author whoever he was ( for it was not S. Ambrose ) suppos'd that the example of Christ was a sufficient indiction of the Quadragesimal fast . But it is to be observed that it is not unusual with Ancient writers to affirm a thing to be by Divine right , if there be in Scripture but an authentic precedent and example of it . Thus when the Canon law affirms in 6. de censibus , cap. Quanquam , That the Churches & Church-men are free from secular exactions not onely by humane but also by Divine right : which saying because to our eares it must needs seem extremely harsh , the Glosse upon the place does soften it , by referring it to the fact of Joseph to the Egyptian Priests , & of Artaxerxes to the Israelites . So that it is not intended that things of this nature be Divine precepts properly so called ; but such which the Church for decent regard takes up in imitation of so great examples : and indeed they are such , which when the Church hath upon such accounts taken up , cannot be omitted without sin , if they be omitted without cause : for then they have authority when they are commanded by our superiors . But the example of our Blessed Lord in such extraordinaries as these is but a very weak argument to introduce an institution , ordinary and perpetual , troublesome and ensnaring . But of this that we may be rid at once , I will set down the judgement of S. Austin and of S. Chrysostom . In what shall we imitate the ways of Christ ? Shall it be in that magnificence in which God was in the flesh ? Or does he exhort us to this , or exact of us to doe miracles such as he did ? He did not say , Ye shall not be my disciples unlesse ye walk upon the sea , or unlesse ye raise to life him that hath been dead four days , or unlesse ye open the eyes of one that was born blind . What therefore does he mean , saying , Ye must enter by the doore ; Learn of me , because I am meek and humble in heart ? that 's entring in by the door , that 's the imitation of Christ that is requir'd of us . But S. Chrysostom says the same thing , and more pertinently and applied to this matter of fasting : He doth not say his fast is to be imitated , although he might propound those fourty days of his : But , Learn of me , for I am meek and humble in heart : yea rather contrarily , when he sent the Apostles to preach the Gospel , he did not say , Fast , but , Eat whatsoever is set before you . Now this argument of our Blessed Lord's example being remov'd , and it being certain that from his example to conclude a Divine precept in such extraordinaries and external actions is the worst argument of the world , and it being expressely affirmed by S. Chrysostom that Christ did not in his fasting propound himself as imitable by us , we may now return to the first consideration and pretence , and inquire whether or no the fast of Lent was a tradition and Canon Apostolical : that is , not onely whether this did descend from their practice ( for if Christs example did not oblige us in this , much lesse could that of the Apostles ; ) but also whether the Apostles did deliver this as a rule for the practice of the Churches in all descending ages . The Lent-fast is not a tradition or Canon Apostolical . This first appears in that we find it affirm'd often in Antiquity that the fasts of the Church were arbitrary and chosen , without necessity and imposition from any authority . Which thing was observed by Socrates , speaking of the Lent-fast . Because no man can shew in any record that there was a Commandement concerning this thing , it is manifest that the Apostles did permit a free power in the same , leaving it to every ones mind and choice , that every one might doe what was good , without the inducement of fear or of necessity . For so we ought to fast and to abstain ( saith Prosper ) that we may not submit our souls to a necessity of fasting and abstaining , that we may not doe a voluntary thing by an involuntary devotion . But of this we have elder testimony : for when Tertullian scrap'd together all that he could to justify the Lents of Montanus , the new fasts which he for discipline would have had the Churches for ever to observe , he lay'd hold upon the practice of the Catholics to verify Montanus his imposition , saying that the Catholic Bishops did injoyn fasts sometimes and ex aliqua sollicitudinis Ecclesiasticae causa , upon the occasion of some trouble or affliction in the Church , that is , temporary fasts , or solemn dayes upon special emergent accidents . He addes also that they kept the Paschal fast , the two days before Easter , in which the Bridegroom was taken from them : but in these days they did sometimes live on bread and water , ut cuique videbatur , & haec ex arbitrio agentes & non ex imperio ; they did this not by any command , but by choice and as they pleas'd themselves : for so the Catholics did say and believe , sic & observasse Apostolos , nullum aliud imponentes jugum certorum , & in commune omnibus obeundorum jejuniorum , that the Apostles did fast as every Christian else did and ought to doe , ex arbitrio , pro temporibus & causis uniuscujusque , as every one had cause and opportunity and will ; but they impos'd no other yoke of certain , and for ever to be observed fasts . Laxus ac liber modus abstinendi Ponitur cunctis : neque nos severus Terror impellit : sua quemque cogit Velle potestas . Sufficit quicquid facias , vocato Numinis nutu prius , inchoare , Sive tu mensam renuas , cibumve Sumere tentes . So Prudentius , expressely affirming that even in his time there were no laws of set and annual fasts : for that very thing Victor Antiochenus makes to be a difference between the Old and New Testament ; for the faithfull in that time had fasting-days appointed by God , quae proinde modis omnibus explere obligabantur , etiamsi alias noluissent , which they were bound by all means to observe though against their will ; but under the Gospel we fast by the love of vertue , and the choice of our own will , rather then by the coaction of any law . For quibus diebus jejunandum sit nullo Apostolorum praecepto definitum reperiri , said S. Austin ; what days we are to fast is no where to be found determin'd by any precept of the Apostles . 2. This also appears in that we find the original of the Quadragefimal or Lent-fast attributed to other causes and beginnings then the tradition or Canon Apostolical . Cassian sayes , that as long as the perfection of the Primitive Church did remain , there was no observation of a Lent-fast ; for they who spent the whole year in abstinence were not tied with the necessity of a precept or legal sanction . But when the multitude of the believers every day cooling in their devotion did brood upon their wealth… . .id tunc universis sacerdotibus placuit , then it seem'd good to the Bishops to recal men to the work of holinesse by a Canonical indiction of fasts , and to give to God the tenth of their days . So that the cause of the institution of this fast was the universal declension of the Primitive piety : and the Authors of it were the whole consent of Bishops . Something like this was that of S. Chrysostom , who complaining of the diminution of the Primitive heats of piety , and their unworthy communicating , especially at Easter , addes , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. When the Fathers had observ'd the hurt that came from so carelesse conventions , they meeting together appointed forty days for fasting and prayer and hearing Sermons , and holy assemblies . S. Austin does not , as Cassian , impute it to the sanction of the Bishops , nor to a Council of the Fathers , as S. Chrysostom , but to the custome of the Church . Ut quadraginta illi dies ante Pascha observentur Ecclesiae consuetudo roboravit : Sic etiam ut octo dies Neophytorum distinguantur à caeteris , The custome of the Church hath established the observation of forty dayes before Easter , and the eight dayes after Easter for the Novices . Both from the same principle . But it was not the authority of the Apostles , but the custome of the Church that made it into a law . In Irenaeus his time there was a custome of fasting about that time , for one or two dayes or more , but it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a simple and a private custome . But when it was made , it was onely for the imperfect , and the men of the world that spent their year in gathering money , and mispent their time ; they onely were intended in the constitution . This we have from S. Hierom , jejunia à viris prudentibus propter eos constituta fuisse qui magis saeculo vacant quam Deo , Some prudent men appointed the solemn fasts for their sakes who spent their time in the affaires of the world , more then in religion . And since it is consentingly affirmed that the great end of the Lent-fast is for preparation to the Easter communion , what use ( at least to this great purpose , ) can it be of to those pious persons who communicate every fortnight , or it may be every week in the year ? But it is true that the great end and ministery of the Lent-fast was in order to the Easter communion , but it was of such persons who being admitted to publick penance upon Ashwednesday were reconcil'd and admitted to the communion upon Easter-day : which custome being not in use , the use of Lent in order to the chief end to which it did minister is wholly lost . It was therefore true which S. Hierom said , that Lent was for the imperfect and secular persons , for publick penitents and persons convict of scandalous crimes , for men of the world , and not for the religious , who every moneth or week observe the religion of Easter , and live in a state of perpetual preparation . Perfecti non tenentur lege jejunii , They that all the year liv'd strictly were not bound to the observation of Lent : so Cassian ; and from him * Isidorus Hispalensis and † Rabanus Maurus : and the same thing also was affirmed by S. * Chrysostom , from whom Cassian , who was his scholar , might receive it . 3. Some of the Ancient and Primitive writers affirm Pope Telesphorus to have been the first author of Lent-fast about the year 136. So Eusebius in his Chronicon affirms , Quadragesimale jejunium à Telesphoro per hoc tempus institutum ac praeceptum quidam scribunt , Some write that Telesphorus commanded the Quadragesimal fast . Scaliger believes this not to be the saying of Eusebius , as not being to be found in the Greek MS. copies : but however , till Scaliger's time it was in the middle ages of the Latin Church and so downwards believed ; and it was affirmed expressely by * Rabanus Maurus and † Rupertus . 4. The Thing and the Name was unknown in the Church in the first three Ages . This is very apparent in Tertullian , who making his apology for the fasting-dayes of Montanus , sayes they are no such great matter that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the spiritual men ( so he calls the Catholics ) should complain of them as of so intolerable yoke upon the Disciples . It was but ten dayes in all ; two weeks , abating Saturdays and Sundays : and Sozomen sayes these two weeks were before Easter . Now if the Catholics had known of our Lent then , of forty dayes fast , they would never have been so unreasonable to complain of the ten dayes of Montanus ; and that was all he impos'd in the whole year , let the time be when it will. And yet this was more then the Catholics did ; for when from their practice ( as I noted before ) Tertullian would fain have drawn some warranty and countenance , he sayes that the Apostles did not quite extinguish all difference of dayes ; for if they did , why did the Catholics then observe Easter every year ? why the fifty dayes of joy after it ? why the Wednesday and Friday fast , and [ good Friday or ] the preparation-day ? and why the Saturday fast ? though indeed this ye never fast but at Easter . Here is all the solennities both of feastings and fastings which the Church then had : and therefore it is easy without much diligence to discover the weaknesse of those pretences which derive from more ancient record , but indeed are nothing but deceptions and interpolations . Such as is the 69th Canon Apostolical , which commands the observation of Lent to a Clergy-man under pain of deposition , to a lay-man under excommunication . But the imposture of these Canons , especially of the last 36 , amongst which this is one , are abundantly acknowledged by men of all persuasions . And so is that of S. Ignatius to the Philippians , Despise not the Lent , for it contains an imitation of the conversation of our Lord. But of this Epistle the Ancients make no mention , and that it is supposititious is very fully proved by the learned and most Reverend Primate of Ardmagh , and it is so notorious as nothing can be more ; for the author of this Epistle condemns that which S. Ignatius and his neighbour-Churches did , and calls him a companion of them that killed Christ , that keeps Easter after the manner of the Jews . But of this enough . But as to the thing ; If the Lent fast were of Apostolical institution , it were strange there should be no mention of it in the certain writings of the three first ages ; not a word of it in Justin Martyr or S. Irenaeus , in Tertullian or Clemens Alexandrinus , in Clemens Romanus his genuine Epistle to the Corinthians , nor in S. Cyprian . There is indeed a little shred taken out of Origen's tenth homily on Leviticus [ Habemus enim quadragesimae dies jejuniis consecratos ] we have the dayes of Lent design'd for fasting . But concerning this I can onely say that the homilies were supposed to be S. Cyril's , written in the fifth age and publish'd in his Name ; but whoever be the author , he that wrote them destroys the letter of the Scripture all the way , out of his own brain , and is a man of no great authority , sayes Bellarmine : and therefore it remains certain that in the three first ages of the Church there was no mention made of the quadragesimal or forty-dayes fast in Lent , and therefore it was not deriv'd as a law or by rule from the Apostles : but so strange a thing it was that there should be any common prescript fasts , that Apollonius accus'd Montanus for it , he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he taught the solutions of marriage , and made a law for fasting-dayes . 5. The Quadragesimal fast was relative and ever in order to the Easter feast , and therefore could not be before that for whose sake it was appointed . But the feast of Easter was , and the Sunday festival was introduc'd by custome and arbitrary choice , for relaxation of labours and the memory of Christs resurrection : indeed it was at the beginning of the dissemination and prevailing of Christianity , but it was without a Divine command , or an Apostolical Canon , if we may believe Socrates . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The feast of Easter and other feasts , every man as they pleas'd in several places did out of a certain custome celebrate the memory of the salutary Passion . For neither our Saviour nor the Apostles appointed this by a law . For the Apostles did not trouble themselves about making laws for feasts , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but to introduce piety and a good life . The rest was permitted to the good will of the Churches , who being sensible of the great benefits of Christs passion and resurrection , would quickly introduce a custome of such a pious gratitude : and Nicephorus tels the same story , and in words very like . And the thing was not long in doing ; it was so reasonable , so pious , so obvious , so ready and prepar'd , that at the very beginning all Christians did it , though , as it happens , in several Churches after several manners . And supposing that these Greeks say true , yet it is no more lessening to the sacrednesse of that great feast , that the Apostles did not intend to make laws concerning it , then it is to Baptisme , that S. Paul sayes , Christ sent him not to baptize , but to preach the Gospel ; that is , though to baptize was a holy office , yet he was to attend something that was greater and requir'd his diligence and presence . But this addes some moments to the sacrednesse of this and other such feasts , that the Apostles left it to the piety and good will of the Churches , as knowing that the Spirit of God , which they had receiv'd to this and greater purposes , was more then sufficient for the leading them into a specification of their piety and gratitude upon such great causes : and it was a very great matter that instantly all Churches did consent in the duty , without any law , or common teacher , but the Spirit of God and right reason . The result of this consideration is this , That if the Apostles left the celebration of Easter and other feasts to the choice and piety of the Churches , it is not likely that they bound the Lent-fast by a Canon , since the Lent was always acknowleged to be a preparation for Easter , and was never heard of before there was a Christian Easter . But if I may have leave to interpose my conjecture ( for it is no more ) I suppose Socrates by Pascha does not mean the day of the Resurrection , but the day of the Passion ; and that he intends onely to say that the solemnity of the good-Friday devotion was not appointed by Christ and his Apostles , but left to the piety and gratitude of the Church . The reasons of my conjecture are these . 1. Because Socrates calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; the memorial of Christs passion ; which the Easter Sunday was not , but of the resurrection . 2. Because we find the word Pascha us'd by the Ancient Fathers in the same sense ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Timotheus Alexandrinus , to fast on the Pasch : so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , S. Clement calls the good-friday fast , the Paschal fast , meaning that then began the Jewish passeover , and then Christ our Passeover was offered for us . So Tertullian , Sic & die Paschae , quo communis & quasi publica jejunii religio est , merito deponimus osculum , &c. The day of the Pasch is a publick and a common day for the religion of fasting ; which because it was never true of Easter-day , and being always true of good-friday , he must mean this . 3. Because it is very probable that the Easter festival was in use , though not commanded , in the Apostles time , therefore because they kept the memorial of the resurrection the first day in every week ; and therefore Socrates could not in all likelyhood mean that day , but the Pascha passionis , the Paschal passion , not the Paschal resurrection . And then upon this account , though this fifth argument will not prevail , it is because we need it not ; for whatever destroys the premisses in this case , does establish the Conclusion . For if by Pascha he means the Paschal fast , that is , good-Friday , then he gives testimony , and that very consonantly to the prime antiquity , that it was left free and undetermin'd by Christ and his Apostles : but if he should mean the Easter feast , and did say true , yet it will follow from hence , that much more must the preceding fast be left undetermin'd . 6. If any man should say that Kings are all created , as Adam was , in full stature and manhood by God himself immediately , he could best be confuted by the midwives and the nurses , the School-masters and the servants of the family , and by all the neighbourhood , who saw them born infants , who took them from their Mothers knees , who gave them suck , who carried them in their armes , who made them coats and taught them their letters , who observed their growth & chang'd their ministeries about their persons . The same is the case of the present article . He that sayes our Lent , or forty days fast before Easter , was established by the Apostles in that full growth & state we now see it , is perfectly confuted by the testimony of those ages that saw it's infancy & childhood , & help'd to nurse it up to it's present bulk . For it is not to be denied but that from the very first ages of the Christian Church of which we have any records , it was with sacrednesse and religion observed that before the feast of Easter they should fast . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Clement calls it ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so the Council of Gangra about the time of the Nicene Council , the fasts which were delivered in common , and observed by the Church ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the appointed fasts , so Constantine call'd them . But this Paschal fast was nothing like ours , it was not our Quadragesimal ; it was but a fast of one or two days at first and in some places . For at first the Christians were very shie of receiving any load of ordinances and burdens to their consciences , as soon as ever they had entred into the liberty of Christians . They did all that reason , and all that love would require : but if love was the parent of their observations , they would doe them in love , and not in necessity , lest they should be again intangled in a yoke of bondage . That they kept their fasts with liberty , besides the foregoing testimonies , is expressely affirmed by Theodoret , who blaming the heretics that abstain'd from flesh and wine as being abominable . Ecclesia vero ( saith he ) de his nihil praecipit : neque enim horum usum interdicit . Ideo alii quidem permissis voluptatibus securi fruuntur , alii verò abstinent : & nemo qui rectè sapiat condemnat eum qui comedit ; nam & abstinentia & participatio sunt in mentis potestate . But the Church commands nothing in these things , and forbids not to use flesh and wine ; and therefore some enjoy them freely , others doe abstain , and no wise man condemns him that eats : for to eat or to abstain is in the power of every mans will. Now if the Church had from the Apostles receiv'd a law of the Lent-fast , or if in the Church there had been a law to command abstinence from flesh in Lent , it had not been truly said of Theodoret , Ecclesia de his nihil praecipit ; for a commandement for a time and a revolving period , certainly is a commandement . But this further appears in the variety which is in all the actions and minds of men when they are at their own choice . Of this a fragment of Irenaeus mention'd by Eusebius is a great testimony : for there had been an unlucky difference between the Western and Eastern Churches about their keeping of Easter , and Pope Victor was transported into heats upon the question , and received from S. Irenaeus this sober advertisement , For there is not onely a controversy about the day of Easter , but about the kind of fasting . For some suppose they ought to fast but one day , others two , others more ; some measure their day by forty hours of day and night . And this variety of them that observe the fasts did not begin in our age , but long before us with our Ancestors , who , as it is likely , retaining a custome introduc'd by simplicity and a private choice , did propagate it to posterity . And yet neverthelesse all these liv'd peaceably one with another , and we also keep peace together ; for the difference of the fast is so far from violating the agreement of faith , that it does commend it rather . Here was the Paschal fast observ'd by all men , but with great variety and a proportionate liberty . The cause of the variety was this , which was also the ground of their practice . They thought that the words of Christ , [ when the bridegroom shall be taken from them , in those days shall they fast ] were to be meant of the interval of Christs death and burial , as we learn from Tertullian . Now because it was but one whole day that Christ was in the grave , some fasted but one day , beginning on the Friday afternoon . Others consider that Christ was about 40 hours dead , and the bridegroom was absent so long ; and therefore reckon'd their fast to 40 hours , beginning from the ninth hour on good-Friday , & eating nothing till the morning of Easter day : and this was the most severe and the most prevailing amongst them ; and this is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the quadragesimal fast , this gave occasion to the name , which was kept when the forty hours was chang'd into forty dayes , and new analogies and new reasons found out for it , and their fasting for the absence of the bridegroom was chang'd into a fasting in imitation of Moses and Elias and our Blessed Saviour in the wildernesse . Onely by the way let me observe that at first they had no appointed fasts , but of those hours in which the bridegroom was taken from them , that is , none but the Paschal fast ; as Tertullian expressely affirms , illos dies jejuniis determinatos putasse in quibus ablatus est sponsus , & hos esse jam solos legitimos jejuniorum Christianorum , The Catholics had no other days appointed for fastings , no other were the legitimate fasting days for Christians ( as they thought ) but onely those in which the Bridegroom was taken from them . But S. Irenaeus said that some fast one day , some two , and others more . Some kept the whole six days of the Passion week ; we find mention made of it in Dionysius Alexandrinus about the 255th year of Christ , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the six days of fasting ; but he affirms that all doe not equally observe them . For some fast all the six days , some two , some three , some four , some none . But by Epiphanius his time the fast had possess'd the whole six days almost every where , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , All the people spend the six days of the Pasch , or before Easter , in dry diet : but by this time the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Quadragesima had prevail'd , and was us'd to signify the Paschal fast . The word was us'd in the Council of Nice , which commanded two Synods every year to be held in the Provinces , and the first of them to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Quadragesimal fast . But this did not signify the fast of forty days , for that was not yet brought into the Church . But first the matter is clear that the word Quadragesima is often us'd in antiquity and by other good Authors to signify a set time of fast , but plainly lesse then forty days . S. Hierom sayes that the Montanists doe make tres in anno quadragesimas , three Lents ; and yet two of them were but of five days a piece , and whether the third was more or lesse we cannot tell : and this Tertullian plainly affirms , who was himself a Montanist . And this thing also came into the practice of some Catholics ; for they did so too in the time of Amalarius , they kept tres quadragesimas , three quadragesimal fasts ; and yet that before Midsummer and that before Christmas were much shorter then forty days . The same word is several times used by a Rabanus Maurus and b Durandus . But that the use of the word may be no prejudice to the right understanding of the thing , we find the thing noted by c Socrates and wondred at exceedingly , that since there was so great difference in the number of days , yet all alike called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or the quadragesimal fast . The same also we find in d Sozomen , noting that some did onely observe three weeks of five days to the week , out of the number of the seven antepaschal weeks , and yet neverthelesse called it Quadragesima : and the same also we find in Nicephorus , who ( I suppose ) transcrib'd it from them : and in Cassian's time , when the Lent-fast came up to the number of 36 days , yet he still calls it the Quadragesima or the 40 days fast : and it is no wonder , if Rigaltius say true , that all the set and stationary fasts of the Primitive Christians were called Quadragesimals . But the first use of the word is in the Nicene Council ; unlesse the words of Origen be allowed to be good record : but yet both in Origen , and in the Nicene Council , though the word be us'd , yet without any remark of the number of the days , or intimation of it , untill the Council of Laodicea * , which mentions more weeks then one in the Lent , commanding to fast also upon the Thursday of the last week in Lent. For by this time it was come to three weeks , in some places more , and in some lesse , as appears in Socrates , Sozomen , Cassian and Nicephorus above quoted . But for the reason of the word Quadragesima there are various conjectures . Cassian says it is an imitation of Christs fast of forty days , and so had the name from thence . But he addes some little Cabalistical things of the number of forty in the Scripture , which are to no great purpose . But his first conjecture is not altogether unreasonable ; and Rigaltius makes use of it , saying that the Apostles having obliterated the Jewish fasts , to which Christs forty days fast put an end , and asserted us into liberty , they would upon that day on which Christ wrought our liberty for us , nailing the hand-writing of ordinances to his Crosse , consecrate a fast to the memorial of this great work of redemption for us ; [ ut obliteratis Judaeorum Sabbatis jejunia sua Christiani , quae Domino suo tantula pro tantis offerrent , de jejunii Dominici spatio vocitarent ] that the Christians might call their fast by a name taken from the duration of the Lords fast , that since they could not attain to that great fast , they might at least have it in venerable memory . But this although it be ingenious and pretty , yet it is something violent , and hath no warrant from antiquity ; and the question is better answer'd from the words of Irenaeus in Eusebius , who sayes that they who kept the Paschal fast would some of them produce the fast to forty hours : now the whole fast being in memory of the bridegrooms being taken away , and he having been absent , as they computed it , forty hours , this proportion did better carry the analogy , and therefore easily carried away the name , and a quadragesimal of hours is as proper as a quadragesimal of days , and hath a better warranty then any other conjecture . But this I remark'd before . But afterwards the number of weeks increas'd : it came in some places to six and seven weeks ; so Cassian . But it was diverso more , for some would fast Saturdays , and some would not ; but they made it but to be 36 days however : so we find it in S. Gregory , that 42 days were the appointment of Lent , but taking away the Sundays , six and thirty days remain for fasting . But in all this whole affair there was nothing yet universally determin'd by any law of the universal Church . For in Rome about the year 437 they fasted but three weeks before Easter , [ and out of them they excepted Saturdays and Sundays * . ] But in Illyricum , in Greece & Alexandria they begin their Lenten fast above six weeks before Easter . Others begin seven weeks before Easter , but fast by intervals , and observe but fifteen days in all : and yet all call this the quadragesimal fast . So * Socrates . And S. Chrysostom sayes it was the custome against Easter to ask every one how many weeks he had fasted ; and you should hear some answering two , some three , some all . For at Constantinople the Lent was longest : It was of seven weeks there and all up unto Phoenicia , as Sozomen and Nicephorus report : but all this while with liberty , by custome , and without a law . S. Austin tells that in some places they would not fast the Thursdays in Lent : indeed the Council of Laodicea had commanded they should , but that was but provincial , and did not oblige and was not received every where ; and that saying which is reported out of the constitutions of S. Clement might prevail as far , Jejunium quintae hypocritarum est . But at Rome this was then observed , they did not fast on Thursdays , nor yet on Tuesdays , or they might chuse : so we find in S. Leo exhorting them to the Monday , Wednesday , Friday and Saturday fast , and on Saturday to watch beside . And because of the defalcation of these days in every week , some that were very zealous made up their Lent to be eight weeks , and began it on Sexagesima Sunday , but at last it setled upon Ash-wednesday , and hath endur'd so to this day in many of the Western Churches . Now if all this be not sufficient to prove that the forty days fast of Lent was not a Canon or institution Apostolical , I cannot tell by what measures the question can be filled : and if the Apostles were the Authors of it , yet because the Churches kept themselves in great liberty and variety , it is certain that if they did so still , there would be no diminution to religion . For the use of it being wholly for preparation to the Easter communion , and the setting apart some portion of our time for God's service , it can then onely be of use , when it ministers to such ends with an advantage so great as to recompence the trouble , and so material as to quit it from a vain observance . * But how it can be enjoyn'd , and how it ought to be practis'd , I shall consider in the inquiries concerning the condition of Ecclesiastical laws . Here I was onely to quit the Conscience of this snare which is laid for her by some unskilfull Fowlers , and to represent that the Apostles did not by any Rule or Canon oblige the Christian Churches . That which remains is this , that we consider that it is and ought to be no prejudice to this liberty , that S. Hierom calls Lent an Apostolical tradition . For it was very easy for them who lov'd the institution , and knew it very ancient , and that the custome of it did descend from Apostolical persons , to call it a tradition Apostolical . It is no wrong to S. Hierom if we think he did so here : for he did as much as this comes to in the question of the Saturdays fast , for in his Epistle to Lucinus he sayes , Unaquaeque provincia abundet in sensu suo , & praecepta majorum leges Apostolicas arbitretur , Let every Province abound in their own sense , and suppose the precepts of their Ancestors to be Apostolical laws . But that the Churches had no such law upon them , but were at liberty , appears from all the premisses ; which I summe up with the words of S. Austin . The Christians , not that the meats are unclean , but for mortification , doe abstain from flesh and fruits ; some few always , or else at certain times : Sicut per quadragesimam ferè omnes , quanto magis quisque vel minus voluerit , seu potuerit , As in Lent almost all men , more or lesse according as every man is able , or as every man is willing . He that desires to see more particulars concerning the history , the original , the variety and increase of Lent , may , if he please , read them in Cassian , in Amalarius , Alcuinus & Rabanus of old , and of late , in Durandus , in Hugo Menardus a Benedictine his notes in Gregor . Sacramentarium , in Petavius his notes upon Epiphanius , Rigaltius upon Scaliger's admirable animadversions upon Eusebius , in that excellent Epistle of Erasmus to the Bishop of Basil de interdicto esu carnium , in Delaunoy , Filescac and Daille * . Out of these any man may satisfy his curiosity ; I have endeavour'd onely to satisfy the Conscience . Concerning the weekly fasts of Friday and Saturday , the former of them is of great antiquity in the Church , as being in use in Tertullian's time , and without variety alwayes observed after it once began . We find the Wednesday and Friday fast mentioned by Clemens Alexandrinus , and the Wednesday station is equally in Tertullian . But the Saturday fast was for some ages counted abominable in the whole Church ; but it came into the Latin Church in time , but with so much scandal to the Greeks , that in the year of our Lord 707 they excommunicated them that fasted on the Saturday , and to this day persevere in the same mind . But that neither one nor the other was of Apostolical institution , is of it self clear by the consequence of the former discourse concerning Lent ; the Apostles having made no laws concerning fasting-days , as I have made apparent . * The Rogation fast ( all the world knows ) was instituted by Mammercus Bishop of Vienna : and as for the Ember-weeks , they can pretend to no antiquity that is Primitive , and rely for their authority upon a spurious epistle of Pope Calixtus , which is pretended to have been written about the year 221 , and which is abundantly detected of forgery by many persons , but especially by Mr Tertullian's words are a hatchet to cut off all fasting-days from pretending to Apostolical authority , affirming that the Montanists did fast but two weeks in the whole year , and in them not on Saturdays and Sundays ( though S. Hierom is pleas'd to lay three Lents to their charge , ) and that the Catholics blam'd them for imposing so much ; but themselves did fast onely upon those days the bridegroom was taken from them , that is , the paschal fast ; that they did sometimes interpose half-fasts , and live on bread and water for some time , but ut cuique videbatur , haec ex arbitrio agentes , non ex imperio , as every man saw cause , doing these things by choice and not by command . The result of this discourse is this , That the Apostles did not lay a yoke upon the Disciples neck in the matter of fasting , much lesse in the forty days fast of Lent ; that as in relation to the Apostles , the Conscience is at liberty . Now whether or no any positive constitution of the Rulers of our Churches can or doe oblige the Conscience to the observation of Lent , and how farre , I shall consider in the next Paragraph of this Chapter . RULE XIV . The Canons of the ancient General and Provincial Councils are then laws to the Conscience when they are bound upon us by the authority of the respective Governours of Churches . A General Council is nothing but the union of all the Ecclesiastical power in the world . The authority of a General Council in matters of Government and Discipline is no greater , no more obligatory then the authority of a Provincial Council to those who are under it . A General Council obliges more Countries and more Dioceses , but it obliges them no more then the Civil and Ecclesiastic power obliges them at home A General Council is an Union of Government , a consent of Princes and Bishops , and in that every one agrees to govern by the measures to which there they doe consent : and the consent of opinions addes moment to the laws , and reverence to the sanction ; and it must prevail against more objections then Provincial decrees , because of the advantage of wisdome and consultation which is suppos'd to be there , but the whole power of obligation is deriv'd from the Authority at home . That is , if twenty Princes meet together and all their Bishops , and agree how they will have their Churches governed , those Princes which are there and those Bishops which have consented are bound by their own act , and to it they must stand till the reason alters , or a contrary or a better does intervene ; but the Prince can as much alter that law when the case alters , as he can abrogate any other law to which he hath consented . But those Princes which were not there , whatever the cause of their absence be , are not oblig'd by that General Council ; and that Council can have no authority but what is given them by consent , & therefore they who have not consented , are free as ever . The Council of Florence , so called because , though it was begun at Ferrara , yet it was ended there , Pope Clement 7th calls the eighth General Council in his Bull of April 22th 1527. yet others call it the 16th : but it was never receiv'd in France , as Panormitan * tells us : for the King of France did forbid expressely and upon great penalties that any of his subjects should goe to Ferrara to celebrate that Council ; and after it had been celebrated , and Charles the 7th was desir'd by Pope Eugenius to accept it , he told the Legates plainly , that he had never taken it for a Council , and he never would . The Council of Basil , though the King of France had sent his Embassadors thither , and had received it as a Council , yet he approved it but in part , for he rejected the last thirteen sessions , and approv'd onely the first two and thirty ; some of them as they lie , others with certain forms and qualifications : and this was done to fit and accommodate them to the exigencies of the times and places and persons , saith Benedict a French lawyer . And upon the like accounts the last Council of Lateran is there rejected also . Thus in England we accept not of the Council of Trent , and excepting the four first General Councils , which are established into a Law by the King and Parliament , there is no other Council at all of use in England , save onely to entertain scholars in their arguments , and to be made use of in matters of fact , by them to understand the stories of the Church . Where any thing else is received into custome and practice of law , it binds by our reception , not by it's own natural force . But I have already spoken sufficiently of this thing * . I now onely mention it to the purpose that those religious and well-meaning , persons who are concluded by the canon of an Ancient Council , and think that whatever was there commanded it layes some obligation upon the Consciences of us at this day , and by this means enter into infinite scruples and a restlesse unsatisfied condition , may consider that the Ancient Doctors of the Church had no jurisdiction over us who were born so many ages after them ; that even then when they were made they had their authority wholly from Princes and consent of Nations ; that things and reasons , that jurisdictions and governments , that Churches and Dioceses , that interests and manners are infinitely alter'd since that time ; that since the authority of those Fathers could not be permanent and abide longer then their lives , it being certainly not greater then that of Kings , which must needs die with their persons , that their successors may be Kings as well as they , and not be subjects of the dead , the efficacy of their rules must descend upon succession by a succeeding authority ; that therefore they prevail upon us by a new force , by that which is extrinsecal to them ; and therefore in such cases we are to inquire whether the thing be good , and if it be , we may use it with liberty till we be restrained , but we may also chuse ; for then we are to inquire whether the thing be a law in that Government to which we owe obedience : for that the Fathers met at Laodicea , At Antioch , at Nice , at Gangra , a thousand , 1100 or 1300 years agoe , should have authority over us in England so many ages after , is so infinitely unreasonable , that none but the fearfull and the unbelievers , the scrupulous and those who are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , of a slavish nature , and are in bondage by their fear , and know not how to stand in that liberty by which Christ hath made them free , will account themselves in subjection to them . If upon this account the Rulers of Churches will introduce any pious , just and warrantable Canon , we are to obey in all things where they have power to command ; but the Canon , for being in the old Codes of the Church , binds us no more then the laws of Constantine . RULE XV. The laudable Customes of the Catholick Church which are in present observation doe oblige the Conscience of all Christians . THis we have from S. Paul , who reproves the contumacy and regardlesse comport of those who , against the usages of Christians and the places where they liv'd , would wear long hair : We have no such custome , not the Churches of God. In such cases where there is no law , the manners of Christians introduce a law so far , that we cannot recede from it without some probable cause ; or if we doe , we cannot doe it without scandal and reproach . And indeed it is an act of love to conform to the customes of Christians with whom we doe converse , who either will think you blame their custome , or despise their persons , if you comply not . S. Austin gave his advice to the same purpose , In his rebus de quibus nihil certi tradit scriptura Divina , mos populi Dei vel statuta Majorum pro lege tenenda sunt . Et sicut praevaricatores divinarum legum , ita contemptores Ecclesiasticarum consuetudinum coercendi sunt . If the holy Scriptures have not interpos'd in the particular , we must keep the customes and decrees of our Ancestors as a law : and as they that prevaricate the Divine laws are to be restrained , so are all they that despise the customes of the Church . * It is a Catholic custome , that they who receive the Holy Communion , should receive it fasting . This is not a duty commanded by God : but unlesse it be necessary to eat , he that despises this custome , gives nothing but the testimony of an evil mind . But this is first to be understood in such Customes as are laudable , that is , such which have no suspicion or moral reproach upon them , such which are reasonable and fit for wise and sober persons . It was a custome of the Primitive Church , at least in some places , not to touch the earth with the bare foot within the Octaves of Easter : this was a trifle , and tending to phantastic opinions and superstitious fancies , and therefore is not to be drawn into imitation ; onely so long as it did remain , every man was to take care he gave no offence to weak persons , but he was to endeavour to alter it by all fair means and usages . It was a custome in many Churches anciently , and not long since in the Church of England , that in cases of the infants extreme danger the midwives did baptize them . This custome came in at a wrong door , it lean'd upon a false and superstitious opinion ; and they thought it better to invade the Priests office , then to trust God with the souls which he made with his own hands and redeem'd with his Sons bloud . But this custome was not to be followed if it had still continued ; for even then they confess'd it was a sinne , factum valet , fieri non debuit ; and evil ought not to be done for a good end . Quod si à mulieribus baptizari oporteret , profecto Christus à Matre baptizatus esset , & non à Joanne : aut cum nos ad baptizandum misit , misisset mulieres nobiscum ad hoc : nunc vero nusquam neque jussit Dominus , neque per Scripturam tradidit , utpote qui naturae convenientiam & rei decorum nosset , tanquam naturae author & legislator , said the Author of the Constitutions under the name of S. Clement . If women might be suffer'd to baptize , Christ need not have gone to S. John , but might have been baptized by his Mother ; and Christ would have sent women along with the Apostles when he gave them commission to preach and to baptize . But now our Lord hath neither commanded any such thing by his word , or in Scripture ; for the author and law-giver of Nature knew what was agreeable and decent for their Nature . To this agrees that of Tertullian , Non permittitur mulieri in Ecclesia loqui , sed nec docere , nec tingere , nec offerre , nec ullius virilis muneris nedum sacerdotalis officii sortem sibi vendicare , A woman is not permitted to speak in the Church , nor to teach , nor to baptize , nor to offer , nor to doe the office of a man , much lesse of a Priest. * This custome therefore is of the nature of those which are to be laid aside . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , No man baptizes but he that is in holy Orders , said Simeon of Thessalonica ; and I think he said truly . But above all things , opinions are not to be taken up by custome , and reduc'd to practice : not onely because custome is no good warranty for opinions , and voluntas fertur carere oculis , intellectus pedibus , the will hath no eyes , & the understanding hath no feet ; that is , it can doe nothing without the will , and the will must doe nothing without that ; they are a blind man and a lame when they are asunder , but when they are together they make up a sound man , while the one gives reason , and the other gives command : but besides this , when an opinion is offer'd onely by the hand of custome , it is commonly a signe of a bad cause , and that there is nothing else to be said for it ; and therefore it was a weaknesse in Salmeron to offer to persuade us to entertain the doctrine and practice of Indulgences , Purgatory , Invocation of Saints , Images and the like , because they are customes of the Church , meaning his own . 2. This is to be understood also of the Customes of the Catholick Church . For if the Churches differ , it is indifferent to take either or neither as it may happen . Clemens Alexandrinus said it was a wickednesse to pull the beard , because it is our natural , it is a generous and an ingenuous ornament : and yet Gregory the 7th , Bishop of Rome , made Arch-Bishop James shave his beard close , pretending that it had been always a custome in the Western Churches ; Consuetudini sanctae obedire coegimus , We have constrained him to obey the holy custome . In such cases where several Churches have several usages , every Church is to follow her own custome , and every of her subjects to obey it . 3. Though every subject is tied to the custome of his own Church , yet he is not to give offence when he converses with another Church that hath a differing custome : according to that rule and example of S. Ambrose , Quando hic sum , non jejuno Sabbato ; quando Romae sum , jejuno Sabbato : & ad quamcunque Ecclesiam veneritis , ejus morem servate , si pati scandalum non vultis aut facere , When I am at Millain I doe not fast on the Saturday , when I am at Rome I doe : and to whatsoever Church you shall come , keep the custome of that Church , if ye will neither give nor receive offence . And these words S. Austin made use of to this very purpose , Totum hoc genus liberas habet observationes , nec disciplina ulla est in his melior gravi prudentique Christiano , quam ut eo modo agat quo agere viderit Ecclesiam ad quamcunque fortè devenerit . The best way is to doe as that Church does where you happen to be . And in the same instance S. Hierom gave answer to Lucinus , servandam esse propriae Ecclesiae consuetudinem , The custome of the place of our own Church is to be observed . And therefore at Millain it is counted a violation of their rights when the Roman Priests come into the Ambrosian Churches , and refuse to use the Missal of S. Ambrose , but use the Roman . It is a custome in the Church of England to uncover the head or to bow the knee when the name of Jesus is named : the custome is not onely innocent but pious , and agreeable to the duty of every Christian , and therefore abstracting from the injunction , the custome it self is sufficient to exact conformity of all modest persons . But if a son of the Church of England shall come into other Protestant Churches who use it not , he is to comply with them in the omission , unlesse himself be persuaded that it is a Divine Commandement ; and yet even then also , the specification and the circumstances of time and place may be undetermin'd , and leave him in a capacity to comply for a time , and in a limited place . 4. It is requir'd that the custome be of present observation , or else it does not oblige the Conscience . Thus it is a custome of the Catholic Church that at the Baptising of Infants there be God-fathers and God-mothers . This custome is still of use in the Church of England : and although much of the reason for which they were first introduc'd is ceas'd , and the case alter'd ; yet it is enough to every man that is a subject , that it is the custome : and therefore if any man shall dispute and prove that the thing it self is not now necessary , that is no warranty to him to omit it , so long as the custome is allowed & upheld , & is no evil . But if the custome be left in a Church , that it was a Catholic custome & of long use in the Church is of no obligation to the Conscience . Socrates tells that omnes ubique in orbe terrarum Ecclesiae , all the Churches in the world , every week upon Saturday celebrate the mysteries . Alexandrini tamen & Romani ex antiqua traditione istud facere renuunt . But the Churches of Alexandria & Rome refuse to doe so , because they have an ancient tradition to the contrary . And in this they had their liberty . It was a long & a general custome in the Church upon all occasions and motions of solemnity or greater action to make the signe of the Crosse in the aire , on the breast , or on the forehead ; but he that in England should doe so upon pretence because it was a Catholic custome would be ridiculous . For a custome obliges by being a custome amongst them with whom we doe converse , and to whom in charity and prudence we are to comply : and therefore to doe an action that was a custome there where it is not a custome , must be done upon some other reason then because it is a custome ; or else it is done because there is no reason . It was a custome of the Catholic Church to reserve infants all the year till Easter to be baptiz'd , except it were in cases of necessity or great danger : but we have no such custome now ; nor the Churches of God ; and therefore to think we are bound to comply with that or any such custome , is to make our selves too fond admirers of the actions , and more then servants to the sentences and customes of Ancient Churches . 5. An Ecclesiastical custome against an Ecclesiastical law does not oblige the Conscience . It does in many cases excuse , but when there is no scandal accidentally emerging , it never binds us to follow it . I say it can excuse from penalty , then when the Ecclesiastical law hath been neglected , because the Governours are presumed to doe their duty ; and therefore if they who made the law suffer it to be commonly broken , it is to be suppos'd they are willing the law should die : and this is the sense of that in the Comedy , Mores leges perduxerunt jam in potestatem suam , Customes give limit to laws ; and they bind according as the manners of men are . And this the lawyers extend even to a custome that is against the law of God. So the Presidents of Sena at the entry into their office take an oath in form that they will never receive bribes ; and yet they doe so , and are known to doe so , and because of the general custome are never punish'd : and much of the same nature are the oaths taken at the Matriculations and admissions into Universities and offices respectively , concerning which it were very well there were some remedy or prevention . But if it can be understood that the law-giver intends the law should be in force , and that the negligence of his Ministers or the stubborn and uncomplying nature of the subjects is the cause of the want of discipline ; then the conscience is oblig'd to the law , and not excus'd by the custome * . And yet further , when the law is called upon , then although there be a custome in the Church against the Canon , it neither preserves from sin , nor rescues from punishment : quia lex derogat consuetudini , say the lawyers ; when the law is alive the custome is dead , because the custome took it's life from the diminution of the law ; and when there is a law actually called upon , the custome to the contrary is a direct evil , and that against which the law is intended , and which the law did intend to remedy . The Church hath made laws that no man shall fast upon the Lords day , nor the great Festivals of the year : if a custome of fasting upon Christmas-day should in evil and peevish times prevail , and the law be unable or unwilling to chastise it , but suffer it to grow into evil manners ; when the law is again warm and refresh'd and calls for obedience , the contrary custome is not to be pretended against the law , but to be repented of . In the Church of England there is a law , that when children are baptized they shall be dipped in the water ; onely if they be sick it shall be sufficient that it be sprinkled upon them : but yet the custome of sprinkling all does prevail . In this case we are to stand to the law , not to the custome , because the law is still in force , and is actually intended to prevail according to the mind of the Church , and it is more agreeable with the practice , the laws and customes of the Primitive Church , and to the practice of Christ and his Apostles . But of this I shall speak again in some of the following Numbers . 6. An Ecclesiastical custome must be reasonable or usefull , or it cannot oblige the conscience , except to avoid scandal , for that is in all things carefully to be observed , right or wrong , so it be not a sin against God ; Customes must be kept , when the breaking them is scandalous . But excepting this case , an unreasonable custome does not oblige . For no man is bound to be a fool , or to doe a foolish action . Now a custome in the Canon law is concluded to be reasonable if it tends to the good of the soul. In the Civil law it is allowed to be reasonable if it tends to any publick good . Thus it is a custome that Judges should wear their Robes upon their seates of judicature ; that the Clergy wear blacks . Doctores portant varium , quia habitus virum ostendit , saith the law , l. stigmata , C. de fabri . And that Priest were a strange peevish or a weak person who should chuse to wear gray , because there is no religion in the colour : his religion in this would have nothing else : and though these things tend not to the good of the soul , yet they tend to the good of the publick , they distinguish men , that honour may be given to them to whom honour belongs . For it is considerable , what the wiser Lawyers say , 1. That a custome is good if it contains bonum honestum , any honesty or matter of publick reputation . Thus it is a custome that civil persons should not walk late in the night , but be in their houses at seasonable times ; it is a good custome that Bishops and Priests abstain from going to Taverns ; this custome is reasonable , and therefore does oblige those that are concerned in it . 2. A custome is good if it contains bonum commune , if it be for the common good : and of this sort there are many customes in every nation which are pass'd into laws , as that in the cause of Dowries the Judge should proceed summarily ; that a fact be tried in the country where it was done ; that when any man is accused he should have his accusers brought before his face . And thus also in the laws Ecclesiastical there are very many of this nature ; as that when Bishops visit their Churches there be allowance of procurations and Synodals , and aptnesses for their entertainment ; that when we see a Bishop we beg his blessing ; that when we come to a city we first goe to the Cathedral to pray , then to the Bishop to be bless'd and prayed for ; that the contract of Marriage be publickly solemniz'd in Churches after three publications ; that children ask their Parents benediction : these things are of publick use , for the advancing of a necessary duty , for the mutual endearment of Relatives , for the establishment of piety , for the conciliating authority , and to many other good purposes , which whosoever can advance by the keeping of a custome & complying with the manners of the Church where he lives , is not to be excus'd if he will be stubborn and singular and proud . 3. Baldus sayes , Bona est consuetudo quae continet bonum honorabile , It is a good custome that gives honour and regard to whom it is due . Thus it is a custome that the Consecration of Bishops should be in publick Churches ; that the Degree of Doctor , because it is an honour , be not conferred sneakingly and in conventicles . And upon this account , when any custome is honourable to religion or to a mystery , it is not to be omitted , because the custome is good , and in some proportions ministers to Religion and it's advantage . Thus the Ministers of religion when they officiate are by an immemorial custome vested in ables or surplices : it was intended as an honour to the religion , because the white and the purple colours are the ensignes of Civil and Ecclesiastical dignity respectively , and are in honour to each other alternately indulg'd , and Kings weare albes , and Bishops and Judges weare purple ; and our Blessed Saviour was pleas'd to call it the glory of Solomon , when he was cloth'd in the purest linen of Egypt , whose whitenesse though very bright , yet it fell short of the natural whitenesse of the lilly . Glory is nothing but the excesse and greatnesse of honour , and therefore these garments which were glorious upon Solomon , at least were given to the Religious as ensignes of honour : the same which the Epigram says of the purple Mantle which was stoln from Crispinus , Quisquis habes , humeris sua munera redde precamur : Non hoc Crispinus te , sed abolla rogat . Non quicunque capit saturatas murice vestes : Nec nisi deliciis convenit iste color . Such garments are not fit for every shoulder , they are marks of honor , and the delicacies of the greatest and the worthiest Men. But that the white garment was given to Religion , it had besides the honour to the persons , the * signification and embleme of a precept : It signified purity and truth , which in Philostratus in the image of Amphiaraus is said to be clothed with garments of snow , and cover'd with the purest whitenesse ; and a Clemens Alexandrinus writes that Caeus the Sophister in the description of vertue and vice , describ'd vertue in a white robe ; and so does b Themistius invest truth , sitting upon an adamant , holding a bright splendor in her hand , and clothed with an albe . Concerning this S. Clement of Alexandria * spake much , even as much as the thing it self will bear : for it being nothing but the colour of a garment , is not to be prov'd to be necessary , & therefore not to be valued in such a quality : but yet neither is the custome of that colour to be despis'd , because that colour is a good embleme , and hath as much advantage as a colour can have ; and therefore there can be no reason to despise the thing , or peevishly to goe against the custome , where it is quitted from abuse . But I shall adde this to it , which is warranty enough for the Churches choice , that the Primitive Christians , who were free enough from any superstitious fancy concerning it , did neverthelesse particularly affect and chuse this colour . They saw that the Saints in the Revelation had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 white garments , and they were dipt in the bloud of the Lamb : and S. Anthony to represent himself a Christian did goe in white , as S. Athanasius tells of him . † Eunapius tells that the Monks in Egypt went in black ; and that many Christians that liv'd in other places did so too , for modesty sake and gravity , in humility and abjection , who please , may see demonstrated by many instances in Baronius : & that is a good precedent to warrant the custome of the ordinary Clergy habit . But yet it is evident that very many Christians were pleas'd rather to use the simple and native colour of truth , the embleme of purity ; and Synesius writing to one John the Monk that chose to goe in a black coat , writes that which is enough to be said in this whole affaire , Atqui nihilo deterius erat si candida foret : splendidissimae quippe naturae dicatum ac consecratum id potius fuerit quod in his quae sensu percipiuntur purius atque lucidius est . Sed si pullum ideo colorem probâsti , quod id aliorum qui ante te usurpârunt imitatione feceris ; laudo quicquid Dei causâ suscipitur , But it had been no worse if you had chosen the white , as that which is agreeable to the nature of splendor and purity , and brighter and purer to the eyes . But if you chose the black garment because it was the custome of others that went before you , it is well ; I commend any thing that is done for God , and for the cause of piety . Colorem album Deo maximè decorum , said Cicero , quòd sit index puritatis & nitelae , omnemque fucum excludat veritate nativâ contentus , The white garment is most comely for religion , as being content with it's native simplicity , and an indication of brightnesse and purity . Upon this account it is a custome of clothing the bodies of dead in white ; for they that are dead are justified from sins , and they are candidates of immortality . But it may be this was too much to be said of so small a thing : I instanc'd in this , to shew that this colour was intended for an exteriour honour to religion , and that is sufficient ( say the lawyers ) to make a custome reasonable ; and if it be reasonable , it must be complied with . 7. A custome whose reason is not known , yet if it be of an immemorial time , and does transmit a right to Ecclesiastical persons , is not without great reason and evident necessity or publick utility to be refus'd . Thus it is a custome in the Church of England that certain rights be paid to the Rector of the Church if the corps be interred in the Chancel : and though in some places this did run into great abuse , which was excellently reprov'd by that learned and good man Sir Henry Spelman 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in his learned and pious Tract de Sepultura ; yet the thing was not wholly to be blamed for the abuse sake , and the rights of any man are not easily to be snatched away because he cannot prove how he came by them , if he have had them long in possession . The thing was to have been reformed ; but not after the new manner , that is , wholly taken away . Consuetudo cujus initii memoria non sit in contrarium praesumitur rationabilis , say Geminianus , Cardinal Alexander and Panormitan ; and they instance in a Prelate receiving money beyond his procurations in his visitation . For though the reason of it be not now known , yet it is presum'd at first ▪ there was a reason ; & though we have lost the record , yet he must not loose his right ; unless that right of his be manifestly other mens wrong . But this instance is to be understood so , that the Sepulture be first perform'd , and the charity and the ecclesiastical right be done to the dead ; for these things cannot be contracted for : but when the piety is performed , the oblations of the faithful which at first were voluntary , and afterwards came into custome , and so transferred a right , may be receiv'd by the Rector , but must not be detained by the heire . Here in Ireland there is a custome of receiving oblations at the baptisme of infants ; but if the Priest refuses to baptise the child till he be secur'd of the money , he is a direct Simoniac , for he contracts and takes a price for the Sacrament : but if he confer the Sacrament , to which he is tied by his charge and by the laws of God and Man , then afterwards he hath a right to the oblation which by law or custome was to be given . But the office is to be done without it : for the Infant hath a right to the Sacrament before the Priest hath a right to the offering ; and that came in by the laws of God , this by the customes of Men. 8. A Custome Ecclesiastical that is but of a legal and presum'd reasonableness does oblige us to a conformity . I call that a legal or presum'd reasonableness , when the law in certain cases does suppose it reasonable ; and though it be not known to be naturally or precisely so , yet because it is not known to be unreasonable , but there is a probability to conjecture that it entred upon a right cause , it is permitted and allowed . This happens in two cases . The first is when a Custome is besides the law , and not against it . For if it be against a law , it ought not to prevaile at all , unless it be precisely reasonable , that is , unless the law in the changing of affairs or in it self at first be unreasonable ; for in that case a custome that is naturally reasonable may be admitted , and if it be , must be observed . But if it be only besides the law , and not against it , then it is presum'd to be reasonable , hoc ipso quod introducta est , say the Doctors , therefore because it is introduc'd : and the reason is , because every thing is presumed to be reasonable that is done generally , unless it be known to be unreasonable ; and the very interests of peace and the reputation and honour of mankind require this , without any more inquiry ; save onely that this be added , that if the custome introduc'd besides law be either universal , or of an immemorial beginning , the law presumes the more strongly of the reasonableness of it , and therefore in these cases it ought to prevail the rather . For to this sense is that rule of S. Austin , Illa quae non scripta sed tradita custodimus , quae quidem toto terrarum orbe observantur , dantur intelligi vel ab ipsis Apostolis , vel plenariis Conciliis , quorum est in Ecclesia saluberrima authoritas , commendata atque statuta retineri , Those things which are delivered to us not by writing , but by tradition [ or custome ] which are observed in all the world , we understand them to be either retain'd by the appointment or commendation of the Apostles , or some General Councils , whose authority in the Church is of great use . ] That is , when the custome is universal and immemorial . For the first we presume it to be very reasonable , it could not else have easily prevail'd upon the whole Church : and for the second we suppose it to have had a very good beginning ; for it addes moments to the custome , that when we know nothing to the contrary , we presume the best of its original . Not that we ought to conclude or to believe a Custome to have come from the Apostles , if it be universal or immemorial ; but that we ought to regard and reverence it as if it did , because we know not in some cases whether it did or no. * But if it be either one or other , it is sufficient to oblige us to retain it , or to comply with it so long as it is retained . Thus the solemn daies of Rogation which we observe in the Church of England were not of an immemorial beginning ; for they were first us'd by the Bishops of Vienna , Mamertus , Isicius and Avitus ; but yet they were quickly universal , non per Gallias tantummodo , sed penè per totum orbem , not onely in France , but in almost all the world , said Alcimus Avitus in his time : and therefore this custome is not to be neglected by any single person , where the Church still retains it ; for this is sufficient to make a legal presumption of its reasonableness . * The other case is , that a Custome is presum'd reasonable when the nature of it is such that it can have no positive and natural unreasonableness , but is capable of some extrinsic and accidental decency and fittingness . The custome that is actually in the practice and manners of a Church is presum'd reasonable : and this is of use but in small matters , but yet such which little and great men sometimes make great matters of ; I mean presidencies and priorities of place , sittings in the quire , precedencies in Councils . Now in these cases Custome ought to prevail , for where there is no reason in the thing , there Custome is a reason sufficient ; and if a law ought to prevail though there be no reason known for it , then so must Custome , because this is esteemed as a law . Capit. Consuetudo 1. dist . & l. de quibus , ff . de legibus . And it is remarkable , that although in the introducing of a Custome , it concerns the Governours of Churches to take care that it be reasonable ; yet when it is introduc'd that care is over , and then they are to take care to keep unity and to avoid scandal . Praestat illic esse ubi nihil licet quam ubi omnia , said one , It is better to be under a Tyranny then under an Anarchy ; it is better to be too much restrain'd then to be too loose : and if a Custome hath seiz'd upon us , it is better to stand still under that arrest , then to break the gentlest cords of a man , and inter into licentiousness . Perniciosior temeritas quam quies . It is not good to move any stirs in a quiet Church , for certainly peace is better then that which is onely a little better then a custome . And we see it by a sad experience , that those who are enemies and stubborn to the innocent Customes of a Church , intend nothing but to get the government into their own hands . Genus hominum potentibus infidum , sperantibus fallax ; as Tacitus said of the Astrologers , we have too much reason to say of them , They are a sort of men that deceive their own confidents , and are no sure friends to their Superiors : for to difavow Customes is a great dishonour to the Government , and a reproach to the ministery of laws ; and to their disciples they preach liberty , that themselves onely may rule them absolutely . Quanto majore libertatis imagine teguntur , tanto eruptura ad infensius servitium ; Tacitus said it of such persons : by the exempting fools from the just rule of their superiors , they make them their own slaves . But to rebel against the Customes of a Church is an accusation not onely of the Rulers , but a condemnation of the whole society of the faithful . 9. A Custome in the administration of a Sacrament introduc'd against the analogy and mystery , the purpose and signification of it , ought not to be complied with . I instanc'd before in a Custome of the Church of England of sprinkling water upon infants in their baptisme ; and I promised to consider it again . Baptizabant enim veteres , non manibus suis aquam baptizando aspergentes , sed trinâ immersione hoc Evangelii sequentes , Ascendit ex aqua , ergo descenderat . Ecce immersio , non aspersio ; said Jeremy the Patriarch of CP . Straightway Jesus went up out of the water , saith the Gospel : He came up , therefore he went down . Behold an immersion , not an aspersion . And the Ancient Churches following this of the Gospel , did not in their baptismes sprinkle water with their hands , but immerg'd the Catechu●en , or the infant . And therefore we find in the records of the Church , that the persons to be baptized were quite naked ; as is to be seen in many places , particularly in the 11th Mystagogic Catechisme of S. Cyril of Jerusalem : and S. Dyonis * describes the ritual in the same manner . The Bishop puts his hand upon the Catechumen's head , and giving a sign to the Priests , commands that they write the name of the Catechumen and of his God-father ; which being written he saies the office or prayers , which when the whole Church hath perform'd together with him , he dev●sts him of his garments by the Ministers . And the same thing out of the same Author is observed by Elias Cretensis in his notes upon the fourth Oration of S. Gregory Nazianzen , and is reported also by S. Ambrose in his tenth Sermon . Nudi in seculo nascimur , nudi etiam accedimus ad lavacrum , We are born naked , and naked we enter into the waters of baptisme . All which are a perfect conviction that the Custome of the Ancient Churches was not sprinkling , but immersion , in pursuance of the sense of the word in the Commandement , and the example of our Blessed Saviour . * Now this was of so sacred account in their esteem , that they did not account it lawful to receive him into the Clergy who had been onely sprinkled in his baptisme ; as we learn from the Epistle of Cornelius to Fabius of Antioch , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , It is not lawful that he who was sprinkled in his bed by reason of sickness should be admitted into holy orders . Nay it went further then this , they were not sure that they were rightly Christned yea or no who were onely sprinkled ; as appears in the same Epistle of Cornelius in Eusebius , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which Nicephorus thus renders [ if at least such a sprinkling may be called baptisme : ] and this was not onely spoken in diminution of Novatus and indignation against his person , for it was a formal and a solemn question made by Magnus to S. Cyprian , an habendi sint Christiani legitimi , eo quod aquâ salutari non loti sunt , sed perfusi , Whether they are to be esteemed right Christians who were onely sprinkled with water , and not washed or dipped . He answers , that the Baptisme was good when it is done necessitate cogente , & Deo indulgentiam suam largiente , in the case of necessity , God pardoning and necessity compelling . And this is the sense and law of the Church of England ; not that it be indifferent , but that all infants be dipped , except in the case of sickness , and then sprinkling is permitted . And of this sprinkling , besides what is implyed in the former testimonies , there was some little use in the Primitive Church . Quis enim tibi tam infidae poenitentiae viro asperginem unam cujuslibet aquae commodabit ? saies Tertullian speaking to an impenitent person : Who will afford thee so much as one single sprinkling of water ? ( meaning ) for his baptism . And Surius in the life of S. Laurence tells that as he was going to his Martyrdome , one Romanus a souldier brought to him a pitcher of water that he might be baptized of him as he went ; which in that case must needs have been done by powring water upon him . Fudit aquam super caput ejus : so did S. Laurence also to Lucillus , he powred water upon his head . And Walafridus Strabo from these very examples concludes that in cases of necessity it is lawful to use sprinkling . He addes also , that it is lawful to doe it when there is a great multitude of persons at once to be baptized : and Aquinas supposes the Apostles did so when the 3000 and when the 5000 were at once converted and baptized . But this is but a conjecture , and hath no tradition and no record to warrant it : and therefore although in cases of need and charity the Church of England does not want some good examples in the best times to countenance that permission , yet we are to follow her command , because that command is not onely according to the meaning and intent of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Commandement , but agrees with the mystery of the Sacrament it self ; For we are buried with him in baptisme , saith the Apostle . In aqua tanquam in sepulchro caput immergentibus vetus homo sepelitur & submergitur , deinde nobis emergētibus nouns resurgit inde : so S. Chrysostom , The old man is buried and drowned in the immersion under water , and when the baptized person is lifted up from the water , it represents the resurrection of the new man to newness of life . In this case therefore the contrary Custome not onely being against an Ecclesiastical law , but against the analogy and mysterious signification of the Sacrament , is not to be complied with , unless in such cases that can be of themselves sufficient to justify a liberty in a ritual and ceremony ; that is , a case of necessity . And of the same consideration is it , that the baptisme be performed with a trine immersion , and not with one onely . In England we have a custome of sprinkling , and that but once . To the sprinkling I have already spoke ; but as to the number , though the Church of England hath made no law , and therefore the custome of doing it once is the more indifferent and at liberty , yet if the trine immersion be agreeable to the analogy of the mystery , and the other be not , the Custome ought not to prevail , and is not to be complied with , if the case be evident or declar'd . Now in this particular the sense of Antiquity is clear . Nam nec semel , sed ter ad singula nomina in personas singulas tingimur , saith Tertullian : Dehinc ter mergitamur , We are thrice put under water , not once ; at the mention of every person we are dipped . The very same words we read in S. Hierom against the Luciferians . But more largely it is explicated by S. Ambrose . Thou wert asked , Doest thou believe in God the Father Almighty ? and thou didst say , I doe believe : and thou wert plunged , that is , buried . Thou wert asked again , Doest thou believe in our Lord Jesus Christ ? and thou saidest , I doe believe : and thou wert dipped or plunged ; and therefore thou art buried together with Christ. The third time thou wert asked , Doest thou believe in the Holy Spirit ? and thou saidest , I doe believe : and the third time thou wert plunged ; that thy three-fold confession might wash away the many lapses of thy former life . S. Denis says that the trine immersion signifies the Divine essence and beatitude of God in a Trinity of Persons . S. Athanasius says it signifies the death , burial , and resurrection of our Blessed Saviour , together with his being three dayes in the grave . And this thing was so the practice and custome of the Church , that in the Canons of the Apostles * ( as they are called ) he that does not use trine immersion is to be deposed from his dignity . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , It is impious and ungodly to immerge but once in baptisme ; so Zonaras upon that Canon : and S. Chrysostome derives it from Christs institution , Omnibus mysteriis velut signum imponens Dominus , in tribus mersionibus aquae unum baptisma discipulis suis tradidit , Our Lord did as it were impose a signe upon every mystery , and delivered one baptisme to his Disciples in three immersions or dippings : and therefore says , that though this descended by tradition , yet it hath the authority of a law . And the same thing we find affirmed by Pope Pelagius , as he is cited by Gratian de consecrat . dist . 4. And Theodoret speaking of the heretic Eunomius , who first of all without authority and against reason did use but single immersion , he says that he subverted the rite of holy baptisme which at first was delivered by our Lord and his Apostles . Now in these particulars it is evident that the Ancient Churches did otherwise then we doe : but that is not sufficient to force us to break the Ecclesiastical custome which is of long abode with us . But when they say , these things are to be done by Divine precept , we are to consider that upon it 's own account : and though some of the Fathers did say so , yet it can never be proved to be so ; and it were strange that there should be a Divine Commandement of which there is no mention made in the four Gospels , nor in the Acts or Epistles of the Apostles . But then that there is in dipping , and in the repetition of it more correspondencie to the analogy and mystery of the Sacrament , is evident ; the one being a Sacrament of the death and burial of Christ , the other a confession of , and an admission to the faith and profession of God in the most Holy Trinity : and therefore I say , it is sufficient warrant that every single person break that custome of sprinkling which is against the Ecclesiastical Law ; and it is also a sufficient reason to move the Church to introduce a contrary custome to the other of single immersion , concerning which as yet there is no law . But because there is even in sprinkling something of the analogy of the mystery , as is rightly observed by Aquinas and Dominicus à Soto ; and because it is not certain that the best representation and the most expressive ceremony is requir'd ; therefore the Church upon great cause may lawfully doe either : but because it is better to use dipping , and it is more agreeable to the mystery to use it three times , and that so the Ancient Church understood it , therefore these things are a sufficient warrant to acquit us from the obligation of the contrary custome ; because a custome against which there is so much probability , and in which there is no necessity and no advantage , is to be presumed unreasonable . But if the custome of single immersion should by some new-arising necessity become reasonable , then it not onely might be retained , but ought to be complied with . Thus it hapned in Spain in the year DC , the Arrian Bishops finding their advantage in the readily-prepared custome of trine immersion , used it and expounded it to signify the substantial difference of the Son and the Holy Ghost from the Father . Upon this Leander the Bishop of Sevil gives advice and notice to S. Gregory Bishop of Rome ; who commends Leander for using a single immersion , which he did to signify the Unity of nature in the Divinity , & that he might not comply with the Arrians : and this was afterwards brought into custome , and then into a law by the fourth Council of Toledo . But unlesse such an accident happen , and that the reason be changed , every Church is to use her first customes , those which be right , and agreeable to the sense and purpose of the Sacrament . But otherwise an evil custome is better broken then kept . RULE XVI . The Decrees and Canons of the Bishops of Rome oblige the conscience of none but his own subjects . THis must needs follow from divers of the former discourses : for if Bishops in their spiritual capacity have no power of making laws of external regiment without the leave of their Princes , or the consent of their people , then supposing the Popes great pretence were true , that he is the head or chief of the Ecclesiastical order , that from him they receive immediately all the spiritual power they have , yet this will afford him no more then what Christ left to the whole order ; of which I have already given accounts . But in this there will be the lesse need of inquiry , for since the Bishop of Rome by arts which all the world knows had raised an intolerable Empire , he us'd it as violently as he got it , and made his little finger heavier then all the loyns of Princes : and in the Council of Trent , when in the 25th Session the Fathers confirmed and commanded the observation of all Canons , General Councils , Apostolical ordinances made in favour of Ecclesiastical persons and Ecclesiastical liberty , they at once by establishing the Popes Empire , destroyed it quite , for they made it impossible to obey , and the Consciences of people were set at liberty , because they were commanded every man to beare a steeple upon his back . For first there were an infinite number of Apostolical ordinances , saith Cardinal Cusanus , which were never received even when they were made . Then let it be considered what there is to be done to Gratian's decretum , which is made part of the Popes law : and who knows in that Concordantia discordantiarum , that contradictory heap of sayings , which shall , and which shall not oblige the Conscience ? But then the Decretals of Gregory the 9th and of Boniface the 8th , the Clementines and Extravagants , all those laws in that book which is called Collectio diversarum constitutionum & literarum Romanorum Pontificum , and in another called Epistolae decretales Summorum Pontificum in three volumes , and in another called Eclogae Bullarum & motuum propriorum , and in another called Summa Pontificum , and in the seventh book of the Decretals not long since composed , and in their Rules of Chancery , their Penitentiary taxes , and some other books of such loads as these that I need not adde to this intolerable heap : but that a Christian Bishop should impose , and a Council of Christian Bishops and Priests should tie upon the Consciences of men such burdens which they can never reckon , never tell over , never know , never understand ; and that they should doe it then when a Christian Emperour had given advice that the Decrees and Canons should be reduc'd to a less number , and made to conform to the laws of God , is so sad a story , so unlike the spirit of Christ and to government Apostolical , that it represents the happiness of Christendome that they are not oblig'd to such laws , and the unhappiness that would be upon them if the Pope had the rule and real obligations of the Consciences of Christendome . But of these things the world hath been long full of complaint ; as appears in the writings of the a Cardinal of Cusa , in b Marsilius of Padua , c in Aventinus , in d Albericus Rosate , in e Gregory Hambourg , in f Matthew of Paris , g Matthew of Westminster , h Nicolaus de Clemangiis , i Franciscus Duarenus , k the Cardinal of Cambray , and many others both collected by Goldastus , and the Catalogus testium veritatis by Illyricus . Insomuch that if the people had not been ignorant and superstitious , qui facilius vatibus quam Ducibus parent suis , and more willing to obey their Priests then their Princes , and if the Princes had not been by such means over-powered , these Decrees and Canons would have been as easily rejected as many others have been . For if by the Papal sanction they doe oblige the Conscience , then they all oblige . If they all oblige , how comes it to pass that , as Cusanus saies , infinite numbers of them are rejected when they are newly made ? And if so many of them may be rejected , then which of them shall oblige ? If they oblige by the authority of the Pope , that is alike in them all : If by the condition of the matter , then they bind as they agree with our duty to God and to Princes , with the publick good , and the edification of the Church ; and then the authority it self is nothing . And it is no trifling consideration , that the body of the Canon law was made by the worst and the most ambitious Popes . Alexander the third , who made Gratian's decree to become law , was a schismatical Pope , an Antipope , and unduly elected : The rest were Gregory the ninth , Boniface the eighth , Clement the fifth , John the 22 , persons bloudy and ambitious , traitors to their princes , and butchers of Christendome by the sad warres they rais'd , and therefore their laws were likely to be the productions of violence and warre , not of a just and peaceable authority . But to come nearer to the point of Conscience ; who made the Bishop of Rome to be the Ecclesiastical law-giver to Christendome ? For every Bishop hath from Christ equal power , and there is no difference but what is introduc'd by men , that is , by laws positive , by consent , or by violence . Ad Trinitatis instar , cujus una est atque individua potestas , unum est per diversos Antistites sacerdotium , said Pope Symmachus . As is the power of the holy Trinity , one and undivided ; so is the Episcopacy , divided amongst all the Bishops , but th● power is the same . So S. Cyprian , Una est Ecclesia per totum mundum in multa membra divisa : item Episcopatus unus , Episcoporum multorum concordi numerositate diffusus , As there is but one Church in the whole world divided into many members , so there is but one Bishoprick parted into an agreeing number of Bishops . And again , Let no man deceive the Brotherhood with a lie , let no man corrupt the truth of faith with a perfidious praevarication : Episcopatus unus est , cujus à singulis in solidum pars tenetur , There is but one Bishoprick , and every one of us hath his share : a part of the flock is given to every Pastor . Now if one were the universal Bishop over all , then these zealous words of S. Cyprian had not been reconcilable to truth and sense : for then the unity of the Church had been by a unity of subordination , not by an identity of office and a partition of charge . To the same purpose is that of Pope Damasus , writing to the African Bishops to require their aide in a matter of discipline , Nos excusare non possumus , si ejus Ecclesiam quae nobis generaliter commissa est in quantū praevalemus puram à tam illicitis superstitionibus non custodiamus , quia non aliter unus grex & unus Pastor sumus , nisi quemadmodum Apostolus docet , id ipsum dicamus omnes , &c. The Church is committed to us in common , and we have no other way of being one flock and one shepherd , but by speaking the same things ] that is , consenting and joyning in the common government . This is the same which S. Hierom affirm'd , Omnis Episcopus , sive Romae fuerit , sive Eugubii , sive Constantinopoli , sive Rhegii , sive Alexandriae , sive Tanais , ejusdem est meriti , ejusdem sacerd●tii : It is all one , there is no difference in worthiness and power , whether he be Bishop of Rome or Eugubium , Constantinople or Rhegium , Tanais or Alexandria . For as it was with the Apostles , so with their successors ; Hoc utique erant caeteri Apostoli quod erat Petrus , pari consortio praediti & honoris & potestatis , What Peter was that the rest of the Apostles were ; He was the Vicar of Christ on earth , and so were they , and so are their successors . Caput enim Ecclesiae Christus est , Christi autem Vicarii Sacerdotes sunt , qui vice Christi legatione funguntur in Ecclesia , said Pope Hormisda : and S. Cyprian calls the Bishop , unum ad tempus vice Christi Judicem , the Deputy and vicegerent of Christ. S. Peter had the Keyes given him , so had the Apostles , and so have their Successors ; S. Peter was the pillar of the Church , and so were the other Apostles ; He was a foundation , and so were they ; for Christ hath built his Church upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets . He was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and every one of them was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a rock , and Christ was the Corner-stone . And what they were in their perpetual office , that the Bishops are . Antistitem puriorem caeteris esse oportet , ipsius enim [ Christi ] personam habere videtur , est enim vicarius ejus , ut quod caeteris licet , illi non liceat , quia necesse habet quotidie Christi vicem agere , said S. Austin . A Bishop ought to be more holy then others , because he hath the person of Christ , he is his Vicar , what is lawful to others is not lawful for him , for he every day is in his place or stead . Adde to this , that the power which the Bishops have , they have it immediately from Christ , they are successors of the Apostles , of all , not of Peter onely , many Apostolical Churches which were established by others being succeeded in as well as Rome ; that these things are evident in matter of fact , and universally affirmed in antiquity clearly and without dispute . From hence it must needs follow that by the law of Christ one Bishop is not superior to another . Concerning which I need no other testimony then that excellent saying of S. Cyprian in the Council of Carthage , It remains ( saith he ) that we all speak what every one of us does think , judging no man , and refusing to communicate with no man that shall happen to be of a differing judgment . Neque enim quisquam nostrum se Episcopum Episcoporum constituit , aut tyannico terrore ad obsequendi necessitatem collegas suos adegit ; quando habeat omnis Episcopus pro licentia libertatis & potestatis suae arbitrium proprium , tanquam judicari ab alio non possit , cum nec ipse possit alterum judicare : sed expectemus universi judicium Domini nostri Jesu Christi , qui unus & solus habet potestatem & praeponendi nos in Ecclesiae suae gubernatione , & de actu nostro judicandi , For none of us makes himself a Bishop of Bishops , or by tyrannical terror compels his collegues to a necessity of complying : for every Bishop hath a liberty and power of his own arbitrement , neither can he be judged by any one , nor himself judge any other ; but we all must expect the judgment of our Lord Jesus Christ , who by himself and alone hath power of setting us over the government of his Church , and of judging us for what we doe . Now if all Bishops be equal in their power , then the Pope can by the laws of Christ make laws no more then any Bishop can ; and what the legislative of the Bishop is , I have already declar'd and prov'd : and therefore for these and infinite other reasons the Consciences of Christians may be at peace as to the Canons of the Popes , out of his temporal jurisdiction . Concerning which other reasons who please to require them may find enough in * Spalatensis , in the replies of our English Prelates in the questions of supremacy and allegeance , in Chamier , Moulin , Gerard , and divers others . I have the less need to insist upon any more particulars , because I write in a Church where this question is well understood , and sufficiently determin'd to all effects of Conscience . I onely adde the saying of Aeneas Sylvius who was himself a Pope , Ante Concilium Nicenum quisque sibi vivebat , & parvus respectus habebatur ad Ecclesiam Romanam , Before the Nicene Council every man lived to himself ( that is , by his proper measures , the limits of his own Church ) and little regard was had to the Church of Rome . §. IV. Of the matter and conditions of ECCLESIASTICAL Laws requir'd to the obligation of Conscience . RULE XVII . Ecclesiastical laws that are meerly such cannot be Universal and perpetual . I Doe not mean onely that Ecclesiastical laws can be abrogated by an Authority as great as that which made them ; for all positive laws both of God and man can be so , and yet there are some of both which have been obligatory to all men under such a government , and during such a period , that have been called perpetual & for ever . But that which is here intended is of greater consequence and concern to the Conscience , and it is this , That Ecclesiastical laws meerly such , that is , those which doe not involve a divine law within their matter , must be so made as that they doe not infringe Christian liberty ; and secondly , that they be so enjoyn'd , that the Commandements of men be not taught for doctrines . These are very material considerations , but of great difficulty ; and therefore it is fit they be most seriously considered . They must be imposed so as to leave our liberty unharm'd ; that is , that the law be not universal , not with an intent to oblige all Christendome , except they will be obliged , that is , doe consent . For laws are in publick as actions in particular ; actions are done by single men , and laws are made by limited communities . A Society cannot be said to doe an action , and the whole world cannot be said to make a law ; but as the action is done by a determin'd person , so the law is made by a determin'd Government , as by the Church of England , of Rome , of Millain ; and the Catholick Church never yet did meet since the Apostles daies in any assembly to make a law that shall bind all Christians whether they consent or no. And because one Church hath not by any word of Christ authority over another Church , and one King is not superior to another King , but all are supreme in their own dominions , of which the Church is at least a part , and if they be all Christian , it is that Church , that Christian dominion ; it must necessarily follow that no Ecclesiastical law can be made with a power of passing necessary obligation upon all Christians . And therefore the Code of the Catholick Church was nothing but a collection of some private constitutions which were consented to by many Churches , and to which they bound themselves , but did not long stand so , but changed them more or less according as they pleas'd . And when the Roman Emperors made any Canon Ecclesiastical into a law , it was a part of the Civil law , and by that authority did oblige as other civil laws did , not all the world , but onely the Roman world , the subjects of that dominion . But when any law or Canon Ecclesiastical is made , it is made by a certain number of Ecclesiastics , or by all . If by all , then all consent first or last , and then every Bishop may govern his charge by that measure ; but that was never yet reduc'd to practice , and prevails onely by consent : But if by a certain number onely , then they can but by that measure rule their own subjects ; but if they obtrude it upon others , then comes in the precept of the Apostle , Stand fast in the liberty with which Christ hath made you free , and be not again intangled in the yoke of bondage . For when Christ had made us free from the law of Ceremonies which God appointed to that nation , and to which all other nations were bound if they came into that Communion ; it would be intolerable that the Churches , who rejoyced in their freedome from that yoke which God had imposed , should submit themselves to a yoke of ordinances which men should make : for though before they could not , yet now they may exercise communion and use the same religion without communicating in rites and ordinances . This does no way concern the subjects of any government ( what liberty they are to retain and use , I shall discourse in the following numbers ) but it concerns distinct Churches under distinct Governments , and it means , as appears plainly by the context and the whole analogy of the thing , that the Christian Churches must suffer no man to put a law upon them who is not their Governour . If he have undertaken a pious discipline , let him propound it , and for God's glory and the zeale of souls endeavour to perswade it ; for all that is not against Christian liberty , untill any man or any Church shall impose it , and command it , whether the Churches please or no , whether they judge it expedient or no , whether it be for their edification or not for their edification : that 's not to be suffered ; it is against our Evangelical liberty , and the Apostolical injunction . And this was so well understood by the Primitive Churches , that though the Bishops did appoint temporary and occasional fasts in their Churches upon emergent and great accidents , as Tertullian affirms , yet they would suffer no Bishop to impose any law of fasting upon others , but all Churches would keep their own liberty , as I have already proved in this Chapter * & when Montanus did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make a law of fasting , not for his own Church , but intended that all Christians should keep the fasts appointed , they made an outcry against him & would not endure it ; & yet he did it onely for discipline , not for doctrine , for piety , not as of necessity , as appears in Tertullian's book of fasting , in the first & second Chapters : and they also did keep fasting-days set and solemn , every Bishop in his own Church , at what times they would , but almost all upon Good-Friday ; but this was by consent and with liberty , and that they ought to defend , and so they did . But Ecclesiastical laws must not be perpetual . That is , when they are made , they are relative to time and place , to persons and occasions , subject to all changes , fitted for use and the advantage of Churches , ministring to edification , and complying with charity . Now whatsoever is made with these conditions , cannot be perpetual : and whatsoever Ecclesiastical Law hath not these conditions , the Churches ought not to receive , because they are impediments , not advantages to the service of God. If they be thus qualified , no good man will refuse them ; if they be not , they are the laws of Tyrants , not of Spiritual Fathers : For this whole affaire is fully stated in those words of our Blessed Saviour ; reproving of the Pharisees and their Ecclesiastical laws , he says , they by their traditions did evacuate the Commandement of God , and they taught for doctrines the commandements of men . The full sense of which when we understand , we have the full measure of Ecclesiastical laws , not onely as they relate to the Churches and communities of Christians under distinct governments , but to every single Christian under his own governour and superior . These I say are the Negative measures : that is , Ecclesiastical laws are not good and are not binding if they be impos'd against the interest of a Divine Commandement , or if they be taught as doctrines . Of the first there is no doubt , and in it there is no difficulty : But in the latter there is a very great one . For when our superiors impose a law of discipline , they say it is good , it is pleasing to God , it is a good instrument and ministery to some vertue , or at least it is an act of obedience , and that it is so , is true doctrine : what hurt can there be in all this ? The commandements of men are bound upon us by the Commandement of God , and therefore when they are once imposed , they cease to be indifferent , and therefore may then become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doctrines and points of religion ; what then is that which our Blessed Saviour reproves ? and what is our Negative measure of Ecclesiastical laws ? To this the answer is best given by a narrative of what the Pharisees did , and was reproved : for all was not repugnant to the law of God , neither is all that amisse which men teach to be done . For our Blessed Saviour commanded us to hear them that sate in Moses chaire , and to doe whatsoever they commanded : not absolutely whatsoever , but whatsoever of a certain sort ; that is , 1. whatsoever they taught by a probable interpretation of what was doubtfull , 2. or by faithfull counsel concerning things belonging to piety and charity , 3. or by a determining to circumstances of time and place those things which were left to their choice and conduct . Whatsoever was besides these , that is , 1. whatsoever had it's foundation in the opinions of men , and not in something certainly derived from God , if brought into religion , and impos'd on mens consciences as a part of the service of God , this is the teaching for doctrines the commandements of men . But besides this 2. if what is deduc'd onely by probable interpretation be obtruded as a matter of faith ; or 3. if what is piously counsel'd , be turned into a perpetual and absolute law ; or 4. if that which was left to the choice and conduct of the governours , be handled not as matter of liberty , but of necessity ; in all these cases the commandements of men are taught for doctrines . The reason of these things is plain . For the first ; If it have no foundation in the law of God , but in humane opinions , and yet be taught for doctrine , it is literally the thing that is here reproved . For the second . Whatsoever is but probably collected is not the word of God , for that is always certain : it is true it is not probable in it self , but in it self is true of false ; but to him it is but probable , and therefore to say this is the word or the Commandement of God , is more then the man can say ; it is to say that it is true in it self , that is , it is a doctrine of God , when indeed it is but the word of Man for ought we know . * For the third ; When God hath left it at liberty , if man turnes it into a commandement , and teaches it for the law of God , he does more then God would doe , and more then is true ; for God never made it into a law , and man cannot make it to become God's law : for the Ecclesiastic order being but God's Minister and the publisher of God's will , must propose things as they received them from God ; that which is law , as necessary , that which is Counsel , as highly rewardable . For the fourth ; If it be left in the power of the Governours , then it is hoc ipso evident that it is not necessary , and therefore though it may minister to order and discipline , yet it must doe no more : it may be called obedience , so long as it is justly bound upon us with the cords of a man ; but it must not in any other sense nor at any time be called religion . How these two last sorts may be made into laws I shall account when I speak of the positive measures of Ecclesiastical laws ; but abstracting from that superinduc'd obligation , to teach these things as necessary which God hath not made so , is to doe as the Pharisees did , whom our Blessed Saviour so reproves . An example of the first is the Pharisees teaching the washing of cups and dishes , because they said that if a Gentile or any unclean person had touch'd their vessel that touch'd their meat , the impurity would goe into their body that eat it , and from thence into their soul ; and therefore they taught the doctrine or tradition of cleansing vessels and washing their hands , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as he said in the Greek Comedy ; finding out a vain remedy to cure a phantastical disease . Thus in the Church of Rome , they exorcise salt and water to cast our Devils ; they give verses out of the Psalms or Gospels to charm witches ; they ring the bells to appease tempests , and very many more such ridiculous devices . 2. Of the second we have examples enough in the Council of Trent , who drew into a body of articles , and declar'd those things , some of which are but probable at most , and some of them apparently false , to be articles of faith : and under this those also must needs be involved , who persecute men for opinions and doubtfull disputations . 3. Of the third , they are very evil examples who to some whole orders of men lay an injunction of keeping Evangelical counsels : such who forbid the whole order of the superior Clergy to marry , and command them that are married to forsake their wives or their office and livelihood . 4. But they are guilty of the fourth kind of prevaricating of the words of our Blessed Saviour , who persecute the breakers of an Ecclesiastical Law with a severity greater then the violators of a Divine Commandement . For if there be any liberty of any sort left after an indifferent action is made into a law of man , it is all destroyed by them who give lesse liberty to the transgression of that law then to the breach of God's law , under which there is left no liberty , but the liberty of a chearfull and voluntary obedience . For they that doe such things must needs at least say that such humane injunctions are as necessary as the Divine Commandements ; for else why are they more severely punished ? The summe is this ; Not onely those who expressely teach that what they have invented is a Commandement of God , but all they that say any thing is a law of God which is not , though it be good , though it be probable , and all they which use arts and secret devices and little arguments and inforcements , and presse indifferent things up to the height and necessity of religion and a Divine Commandement , are guilty of this Pharisaisme , obnoxious to our Saviours reproof , and if it be in the matter of Ecclesiastical laws , have exceeded their measures and their power , and bind themselves , but not the consciences of their subjects . A Commandement is not onely then broken when we bid open defiance to it , but then also when we doe actions unlike the vertue of it , and actions tending to the violation of it ; that is , there are degrees of violation of a Divine law : and an Ecclesiastical law that does in any degree break this law of our Blessed Saviour is therefore void , and is become intolerable . Of these things I shall yet give two great examples , one of the Pharisees , and another of some that follow their example in this affair . God gave a Commandement to the Jews of keeping holy the Sabbath-day , their new Moons and some other solemnities . Now there were many particulars in the observation which were not determin'd in the Law ; but 1. what was doubtfull was to be expounded by their Doctors . 2. Some things were left to the liberty of good people , and the measure of them was best determin'd by their Doctors and men learned in the Law. 3. There were some Canons Ecclesiastical which were outer guards and hedges to the law it self , that men might by those distances be kept farther off from sin ; and in these things their Rulers also had power . Now though all this they could doe , and might pretend an authority from God to interpret the Law and to guide the Consciences , yet when they fell into ridiculous Commentaries and uselesse Glosses , neither the law it self about which their interpretations were imployed , nor their authority which they had from God could secure them from tyranny , and corruption , and doing violence to Conscience , and imposing unequal burdens . Thus we find that their Rabbins taught that upon a solemn feast-day it was not lawful to catch fish in their ponds , but they might hunt the hens and catch the geese in their yard . They might not blow the fire with a pair of bellows , because that was too like the labour of Smiths ; but they might blow it through a hollow Cane . They might make a fire and set on their pot , but they must not lay on their wood like the structure of a house , that is , too artificially ; and you must rost or boyle no more then was necessary : and if you made a fire , you might wash your feet with warm water , but not your whole body . You must not touch an egge that was laid that day ; nay if you were doubtful whether it were laid that-day or no , yet you might not eat it , and if that were mingled with a thousand , you might touch none of them : but if you kill'd a hen , you might eat the perfect eggs that you found in her . These and many more such little doctrines they taught to be observed , as explications and manners of the observation of the Divine Commandement : but these I have here transcrib'd from the Jewes books , that we may perceive the sense of our Blessed Saviour's reproof by the instances of their prevarication . He was pleased to speak to that of washing of cups and platters : but it is also s●●d there , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , there are many other things , such as that was which they have received and teach , some of which I have recited . Now we doe not find that the Pharisees taught these as divine Commandements , but they us'd them as if they were ; they did them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they thought themselves the more holy for doing them , they accounted them profane that did not , they plac'd much of their religion and Pharisaisme or separation in them , esteeming them a part of the divine worship : This was their case , and Christ gave their sentence . The other instance which I promised is the law of the Roman Church in keeping of Lent ; which it is certain was no law of Christ ; not so much as the interpretation of a Divine law . Some of them pretend it was enjoyned by the Apostles ; others of them say not , and these say true ; so that it is a Commandement of men : but yet this they teach for doctrine in the culpable and criminal sense , that is , 1. They value it more then some Commandements of God. I need no other proof but the words of Erasmus , Veluti parricida , penè dierim , rapitur ad supplicium , qui pro piscium carnibus gustarit carnes suillas , He that in stead of fish shall but tast a piece of pork is dragg'd to punishment almost as if he were a parricide . Gustavit aliquis carnes , clamant omnes , O coelum ! O terra ! O maria Neptuni ! Nutat Ecclesiae status , &c. If they see a man eat flesh , they are amaz'd , they think the Church is in danger ; they put men to death , to the sharpest death of burning alive , for eating flesh ; they shut up the Butchers shambles , but leave open the publick Stews . 2. They account it to be a part of the service of God , not onely as it is an act of obedience to superiors , but in it self and without any relative consideration . Bellarmine saies they are not Christians that eat flesh in Lent : which words are extremely false , or else every one that disobeys an Ecclesiastical law hath forfeited his Christendome ; or else he places the summe and life of religion in the keeping of Lent , and makes it a vital part , expressly prevaricating one of the most glorious propositions of Christianity , placing the Kingdome of God in meat and drink , not in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost ; and doing that which the Apostle hath forbidden , when he said to the Colossians , let no man judge you in meat and drink . If it were onely a question of obedience to the law , it were to be considered upon a distinct account , and were a sin or duty respectively according to the several dispositions of the person and the law : but no man saies that he is no Christian who at any time breaks any Ecclesiastical law ; and therefore in this more is pretended , and it is to be reckoned amongst the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the commandements of men that are taught for doctrines . 3. They account the exterior action , the body of the injunction , the element of it to be a service of God ; and for that part of it esteem themselves the more holy and the better Christians , as appears in their contentions about it , using arguments to prove the very Fast to be a sacrifice , a pure oblation * . Now it is true that fasting is a good ministery to divers holy purposes , but it is no more ; it is that which can be supplied by other ministeries as apt , and therefore that in kind is not necessary , nor requir'd ; it is that whose work can be done without any ministery at all in some persons & some cases , even by love and by obedience , by hope and fear , which are of themselves direct graces , vertues and parts of the service of God. And therefore the Fathers of the Church press in their Sermons and exhortations to fasting , that they would take care to acquire the end of fasting , to be free from vice , to mortify the affections and lusts ; according to that saying of Isidore , Fastings with good works are acceptable to God : But he that abstains from meat , and does evil , imitates the Devils , quibus esca non est , & nequitia semper est , They never eat , but ever doe wickedly and perversly . But he fasts well that fasts from maliciousness and secular ambitions . Take heed therefore , saies S. Hierom to Celantia , that when you begin to fast and use abstinence , you doe not think your self holy . For this strength adjumentum est , non perfectio sanctitatis , it is not the perfection of sanctity , but a help onely . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and there is no profit at all of fasting , unless all things else doe follow , saith S. Chrysostome ; that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an abstinence from sin intirely : and again , what gain is it if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being void and empty of good works we have kept the fast ? If therefore another saies , I have fasted all the Lent , say thou , I had an enemy , but I am reconcil'd ; I had an evil Custome of detracting from my neighbours fame , but I have left it off ; I had an ungodly custome of swearing , but it is now amended . The summe is this , which I represent in the words of Prosper , jejunia , abstinentiae , ac caetera hujusmodi , non pro justitia , sed cum justitia Deo sunt exhibenda , Abstinence and fastings are not to be given to God for good works , but with them . That is , they are of use in order to certain purposes , which when they doe effect they are good , when they doe not , they are useless troubles ; and if they then be urg'd beyond their ministery , and instrumentality , and for themselves , then we return to the beggerly elements and rudiments of the synagogue : and if we suffer our selves to be brought under the power of these things by laws and affrightments and spiritual terrors , then we have lost our Christian liberty which was bought by the best bloud of the world . 4. But not onely the exterior and instrumental act is absolutely urged and taught as necessary , but a circumstance , a manner and forme of that exterior instrument is enjoyned . It is enjoyn'd not that we fast totally ; but that we fast so : you may dine if you will eat at the Merchants hours , after twelve or one of the clock , but you may not eat flesh ; you may eat sweet-meats , the most delicious fish , the Sturgeon and the Scarus , the Lamprey and the Oyster , the Eele and the Salmon , and all the delicacies of Nature , so you doe not touch the fillets of a Veal , nor eat an Egge or Milk , Curds or Cheese , or any thing that comes from a beast or bird . Now what can be the meaning of this , when it comes to be expounded by wise and sober men that can judge of the causes and differences of things ? For if abstinence and fasting be the thing that is requir'd , this is nothing of it : if we may dine , if we may fill our bellies with wine and delicacies , if we may eat and , as Adam might , of all the garden of Eden , it is no great matter as to temperance and abstinence , as to mortification and austerities , if we abstain from one ; it may be something as to our health , and so certainly it is to very many bodies . It may be an instrument of vexation , but it cannot edify . Is any man cur'd of his lust by eating nothing but fish and broaths for forty daies ? He may indeed be made sick by it , and so very many are , but the interest of no vertue is serv'd by it , but by the other permissions it may be more destroyed ; and by fishes and broaths and artificial meats provisions may be too abundantly made for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof . What therefore is in this manner of the law , but something of the beggerly religion of meats and drinks ? In the daies of Prosper they abstain'd from the flesh of beasts , but not of birds ; and his sentence of that kind of fasting is this , But they that abstaining from the flesh of four-footed beasts , enjoy the flesh of Phesants and other precious birds or fishes , seem to me not to cut off the delights of their bodies , but to change them , and to cast away the common and cheap delicacies of flesh , that they may fill their pleasures with more delicious and more precious flesh ; not for abstinence , but because some flesh is unclean , or rather , as I suppose , for the tenderness of their wanton stomacks : since the nature of any flesh is not to be condemned , if it be intended for mans use and appointed by God ; but the lusts of the flesh are to be avoided , which the Devil hath superinduc'd and offers to our senses . But they that would seem to themselves more abstinent , and by it acquire same and noises , doe so abstain from flesh , that they fill their vast appetite with rare fruits and curious broaths : but spiritual abstinence perswades not to refrain the use of certain meats , but the restraint of the lust and the desire ; and they are rather to be esteem'd abstinent , who forbid not to themselves the use of some meats , but the delights of the body . ] And indeed let it be considered ; if a man pretending to mortify his body shall abstain from wine , and will nevertheless drink sherbets and delicious beurages , strong ale and Spirits , I suppose his body will not by that discipline be dead to sin : and so it is in the abstinence from flesh , unless he also abstain from all nourishment but what is necessary and made pleasant by want . For thus the holy Primitives when they had gotten the custome of the Lenten fast , for two daies , or six daies , or ten daies , or fifteen daies , according as the humor increased , they did generally abstain from flesh ; but so they did also from fish , and wine , and all delicacies , and eat a drie diet , bread and water , herbs and common fruits , turneps and berries , flies and nuts : and yet this they did without making it a religion not to eat a bit of flesh ; but upon occasion would eat a meale of flesh , but not very delicious ; and when their fasts were of many daies , they were not continual but intermitted . This latter I have already proved ; but that even in Lent the Primitive Christians did not abhorre flesh , appears beyond dispute in the case of Spiridion Bishop of Cyprus , who when a traveller came to him in the time of Lent very weary and faint , and there was no cold provisions in the house ready dress'd , it being a time of fasting , bids his daughter to boyle some pork which was in the house powder'd for the use of the family : she did so , and her Father the Bishop eat of it , and bade his guest doe so too ; who refus'd , saying that he was a Christian. The Bishop replied , therefore the rather you ought not to refuse ; because the word of God hath said , To the pure all things are clean . So Sozomen tels the story . By which it is apparent , that then it was not the custome for Christians to eat flesh in Lent , for they eat nothing that was pleasant , but they abstain'd because it was pleasant , not because it was flesh ; for of this they made no religion , as appears in the fact and exhortation and argument of Spiridion . And of the same consideration was that law of Justinian , in whose time , which was in the middle of the sixth Age , the Custome of abstaining from flesh in Lent did prevaile much ; but because it hapned in Constantinople to be great scarcity of other provisions , the Emperor commanded the shambles to be open and flesh to be publickly sold. But Nicephorus tells that the people would not buy any , for they began to think it to be religion not to touch , not to tast , not to handle . But the Emperor and the wise men knew no religion against it . And that which Marcian said to Avitus in the like case is very considerable , We know that charity is better then fasting ; for charity is a work of the Divine law , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but fasting , is a thing urbitrary and of our own choice . * Since therefore to eat flesh or not to eat it , may become good or bad as it is us'd , and does not serve the end of fasting , and such fasting does not serve the end of the spirit , not onely to make fasting to be religion , to which it does but minister , but to call that fasting which they who first began Lent would call feasting and luxury , and to make that to be essential to that fast , and that fast necessary to salvation in the ordinary way of necessity , is not onely to teach for doctrine the Commandements of men , but to make the impotent , fantastick and unreasonable devices of men to become Commandements . 5. That this may be an exact parallel with the practice of the Pharisees in that folly which our Blessed Saviour reprov'd ; the Commandement does so little regard the true end of fasting , and that fasting so little advance the use and interest of any vertue , that they spend themselves even in the circumstances of some circumstances , and little devices of superstition , taking care not to eat a turnip if boyl'd in a vessel in which flesh was put , not to cut their bread with a knife that had carv'd flesh , not to tast it , but to wash their mouth after a little whey or broath , if by chance it hath been touch'd : which things because they can serve no end of religion , the law that requires such things must needs be foolish or superstitious ; it must either play with mens consciences as with a tennis-ball , or intimate some pollution and unholiness at that time to be in the flesh , or else at least must pretend to greater strictness then God does in the observation of his positive laws ; and it certainly introduces the greatest tyranny in the world , destroys peace , and is the most unwarrantable of all the follies which can be incident to the wiser part of mankind , I mean to them that govern others . I will not instance in the ridiculous and superstitious questions which they make about the keeping of this Ecclesiastical law ; as whether it be a dinner or a supper if we eat after Even-song said at high noon ; whether a mornings draught does break the Ecclesiastical fast ; whether a man may eat a bit of bread with his drink , and yet be a good son of the Church ; whether a Cook that dresses meat for sick persons may lawfully lick his fingers ; whether he that eats one bit of flesh , sins anew if he eats another ; and whether or no he may not at the same rate eat flesh all the Lent after ; whether the wet nurse may eat flesh , because her baby may have good milk ; whether it be lawful to eat birds and fowls , because they were produc'd out of the water : which doughty reason did incourage some to doe it , of whom Socrates speaks , and is mention'd by Peter Comestor the Master of the scholastical history . Which questions , if they that make them be in their wits , and think other men are so too , they must needs believe that the keeping of Lent is so sacred , so principal a point of religion , so great a service of God in the very letter and body , in the crust and outside of it , that the observation of it must consist in a mathematical point : it is like the Decalogue , the very letters of which are numbred ; and if a haire be missing , religion suffers diminution : and which of all these it be , yet in every one of them they doe what the Pharisees did and what Christ reprov'd in them , and therefore forbids in all men , they teach for doctrines the Commandements of Men. 6. To return to the particular of the Rule , They make an Ecclesiastical law , which is of a relative use and nature , to be periodical and perpetual , which is unreasonable , and may be sometimes unjust , and very often uncharitable , and therefore not the fit matter of an Ecclesiastical law . For this is certainly the greatest deletery of the liberty of Christian Churches , and a snare to Consciences , and is of it self apt to introduce superstition and the opinion of direct religion into the discipline . But this is to be understood of such laws which are intended for discipline , and are 1. a burden , and 2. of a nature relative to the future , and 3. of an alterable use . For if a law were made that every man at a certain time of the year should doe a certain discipline to mortify his lust , it were a foolish law ; for the man at that time , it may be , needs it not , or he hath another remedy , or he is sufficiently contrite for his sins , and does his penance by internal sorrow , or it may be he cannot at that time mourn , or it may be the cause is alter'd , or a greater cause intervenes , and that ought to be serv'd , and therefore not this , for if you serve both , you tire obedience , and make religion to be a burden : but which is most of all , a law of burden if it be perpetual , makes the willing to be slaves , and tempts the unwilling to be rebels ; and because it is intended to minister to things contingent and infinitely alterable , if the law be not so too , it must pass into an opinion of being a Divine worship and religion , or else into more then an opinion and imagination of tyranny . Adde to this , that laws of burden are alwaies against charity , if they be not done in great necessity , or not effective of a good greater then the evil ; and therefore to impose such laws with a perpetual obligation upon Churches , when it cannot be of perpetual use , and at all times good , or just at such times necessary , is against the equity & charity of that power which Christ intrusted in the hands of them whom he made stewards of his houshold , feeders of his flock , and Fathers of his family . But if the laws be relative to what is past , and no burden , but matter of ease or benefit , or comes from a perpetual cause , or that which is unalterable , then the law may be such which will be perpetually consented to , and kept for ever . Thus the Catholic Church keeps the Lords day , not by an everlasting ordinance , but by a perpetual consent , and for a never-failing reason ; and that which makes it necessary now to keep that day , and will doe so for ever , is because the reason of it is always the same ; and in this case that which was fit at first , will be so at last , and all the way : and things are in that constitution and conjunction , that no man can despise that day , without being carelesse to return thanks for the resurrection of Christ , and to separate a just portion of his time to the more solemn service of God. But for all this , this is not a perpetual law impos'd upon all Churches ; for God did not impose it , and no man hath power to doe it ; for no mans power can last longer then his life : and therefore no Bishop can oblige his successors by any Canon , without the Civil power supervenes and fixes that law by continuation . And therefore although God did enjoyn the Jews an annual fast for ever , and although the Rulers of the Jews did add some more , and they were observed for ever : yet this will not infer that therefore now this may be done in a law of the Church . For God who is a law-giver does abide for ever , and therefore his laws are to remain as long as he please : & the Rulers of the Jews had both the powers , Civil and Ecclesiastical , conjunct , and they by a current legislation still caus'd their fasts to be observed ; but yet the succeeding ages had been at liberty , and the Sanhedrim might have chang'd those solemn days , but that they were established by Prophets and by those whom they believ'd to speak the will of God : all which make their case special , and not to be drawn into example and warranty in the sanction of Ecclesiastical laws in the Christian Church . * To which let this be added , that the Jews might keep and observe a religion of days and meats , and it not being against the analogy of their manner of serving God , their Rulers had an equal power to make laws in the difference of days and meats , as in any other matter whatsoever . But the laws of the Church must minister to piety and holinesse , and to nothing else ; and they must be exacted with prudence and charity , and in no other manner ; and they must be obeyed in love and liberty , and by no other measures : but the day or the meat must ever be the lesse principal in the constitution ; they may be the circumstances , but no part of the Religion , and therefore cannot be perpetual ; but just as a Venice glasse may , that is , if there be nothing to break it , it may abide for many ages , but every thing that strikes it can break the glasse , & every requisite of reason or charity can put a period , or take off the necessity of that portion in the law , which because it must be lesse principally regarded , must accordingly be imposed and exacted , but cannot be universal and perpetual . The result of these considerations is this ; 1. Ecclesiastical laws may be made by particular Churches , to prevail in their own governments , and to passe on their own subjects , but may not by one Church be imposed upon another , much lesse from one to passe upon all . 2. Ecclesiastical laws may be made and continued by any authority so long as that power lasts , and so long as the reason of the law does last : but it can be no longer a law then it hath influence from the remaining power who is to establish it according to the remaining usefulnesse . 3. All Ecclesiastical laws in the matter of meats and drinks and days must be wholly relative to religion , and the effect of graces and proper duties , and must not at all be imposed with any regard to themselves , but to the ends of their ministery , and must live and die according to the nature of Relative beings : but cannot be perpetual , but where neither the cause nor the subject alters . 4. All Ecclesiastical laws must be imposed with liberty : not with liberty of the subjects to obey or not to obey , but with the liberty of the whole Church , to change them or to continue them , to exact or to relax them , to bind or to loose , as may best stand with prudence and charity , with the interests of vertue or the good of the subject . 5. Ecclesiastical laws must serve religion , but must never pretend to be religion or a direct service of God. It is true that all religious laws of our just superiors rightly imposed in order to any vertue are adopted into the society of that vertue ; as a law of fasting does also enjoyn a duty of temperance ; a law of Christian festivity , in order to our joy in God , and praising his Name , and paying him thanks , promotes all these graces , and therefore he that keeps that day to these purposes , besides his obedience , does an act of all those graces . Yet it is to be observed that the observation of these laws can never formally be reckoned to be actions of those graces ; they are but ministeries and instruments , and they not necessary , but usefull onely : and therefore he that does not observe that day , though it may be he sins against obedience , yet he is not to be judg'd as if he were intemperate , or unthankfull , or unmindfull of God's benefits ; because though these appointments are made for the services of these graces , yet these are not the adequate ministeries of them , they may be done by other ways at other times , and they may at that time be omitted without any neglect of such graces . If there be a just cause to omit the observation , then the omission is neither disobedience , nor intemperance , nor unthankfullnesse : but if there be no just cause , it is disobedience ; and may be any of the other as it happens , but is not certainly so . But though in these respects to obey an Ecclesiastical law may be a doing an act of vertue together with the obedience , and so a serving of God ; yet because it is onely in regard of the concomitant act of vertue , which is served by the law , if that law doe not serve that vertue , but by any cause be destitute of it's purpose , that external action which the law enjoyns is so far from being a service of God , that if it be urg'd imperiously , or acted for it self , and delighted in upon the Natural account , it enters into religion , with which it hath nothing to doe , and so passes into superstition . 6. Ecclesiastical laws if by any means they be taught for doctrines and Commandements of God , they become unlawfull in the imposition , though the actions of themselves be lawfull ; that is , they are unlawfull laws , and doe not bind the Conscience , for they are such things in which no man can have authority , for they are a direct destruction to Christian liberty , which no man ought to take from us . If they once pretend to a necessity besides the equal necessity of obedience , they doe not oblige the subjects of any government ; but if they pretend to a necessity of obedience , they doe not oblige any Churches besides that whose Governours have made the law . RULE XVIII . Ecclesiastical laws of Ceremonies and circumstances of external observances doe not bind the conscience beyond the cases of Contempt and Scandal . THat is they bind onely in publick , and not in private ; they bind not for any thing that is in themselves , but for something that is better then themselves ; they bind , not for our own sakes , but for their sakes that look on : and therefore when no body looks on , when they have no end to serve , when they doe no good , when they signify nothing , they cannot bind at all ; for whatsoever binds onely for this reason , does not bind at all when this reason is not . The Church of England commands that when the Priest says the Responsory after the Creed at Morning or Evening Prayer , he shall stand up : the purpose of it is , that the people who are concerned to answer may the better hear : but if the prayers be said in private , none being by , or it may be two or three that kneel near him , it is ridiculous to suppose that the Priest sins if he kneels on to the end of those ejaculations . In some cases he that officiates is bound to turn his face to the West , or to the body of the Church ; but if there be no body in the Church , but the Clerk at his side , why he should doe so , there is no reason to be given , and therefore it cannot be supposed to be bound upon him by the law of the Church . For it is highly considerable , that in these laws of Ceremonies it is otherwise then in laws which concern the matter and instances of Divine Commandements . Because the laws of Common-wealths can change actions of themselves indifferent into the order of vertue and vice , if they be of the same matter and naturally capable : as when Incest is defin'd to be a forbidden conjunction of persons too near in bloud , the law by forbidding the marriage of Uncle and Neece for that reason , can make that to be incest : and killing can by the law be made murder when it is forbidden , or not to be murder when it is justly commanded . Thus if there be a law made that corn or gold-lace shall be sold at a certain price , the law which is the measure of justice in contracts makes that price to be the instance of justice , and what exceeds it to be unjust , if it be a just law . Because these actions lying next to the instances of the Divine Commandement , and plac'd there as outer guards to Gods Law , and being naturally the same actions , when the prohibition comes from a just authority , then it is made to be a sin by the law , and that sin by the nature and participation of the same reason . For he that kills his adulterous daughter where it is permitted , does doe the natural act of killing as much as he that kills his Father ; but where there is no law against it , but by law she is sentenc'd to death , and that without solennities , there is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and therefore no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is not a sin unlesse it be the transgression of a law . So that the natural capacity and the supervening law together make up the action to be such a sin . But now this thing can never be in Ecclesiastical laws of ceremonies and rules of order : for they are not in their matter and in their own nature like to religion or next to it ; and nothing can be religion but that service which God hath chosen of himself , and that which is naturally and internally so , as glorification of God , loving him , obeying him , praying to him , believing him , and such other inward actions which are taught to us by our natural reason and our prime notices of God. But external actions and ministeries are then capable of being made religion when God appoints them , and not else , because God will be worshipped externally as he is pleas'd to appoint , according to that saying of Origen , Nemo qui oculis animae cernit , alio modo Deum colit quam sicut ipse docuit , That man is blind in his reason , that will worship God otherwise then he himself hath taught . * This onely , The Church can adopt actions into religion which God hath made ready , and which he hath prepar'd and fitted for religion ; such as are free-will-offerings and Counsels Evangelical : for when any man does chuse to doe any act which God hath recommended and not injoyn'd , this is religion ; but this is onely in such things which are real graces appointed by the Divine law , and the instance onely is left undetermin'd : and how far the Church can command any of these things , I shall afterwards inquire ; but for the present , these things can pass into religion , because God hath so prepar'd them . But 2dly , external observances can become religion , if they be the outward act of an inward grace ; as giving money to the poor , worshipping God with the body ; that is , when they naturally express what is conceived and acted within , not when they come from without : a commandement of man may make these actions to be obedience , but they are made religion by the grace within , or not at all . Thus fasting can be an act of religion , when it is naturally consequent to penitential sorrow , and the hatred of sin : but when it is injoyn'd by men , then it is but an instrument , and may be separate from all religion , and may be no act of repentance , and can be made to be religion by no man but by the nature of the thing . But 3 d●y , Ceremonies and rituals and gestures and manners of doing outward actions cannot be made to be any thing but obedience : they are neither fitted by God , as Counsels Evangelical are , nor yet by nature , as the outward actions of vertue are , to become religion ; nay they are separated from being religion by the word of God , by the coming of Christ , by his death upon the Cross ; and daies and meats and drinks , and carnal purities , and external observances are now both by God and by nature remov'd far from being any thing of the Christian , that is , of the Spiritual religion . The consequent of these things is this , When a law is made , it binds either by the natural goodness of the thing , or by the order and usefulness of it's ministery to something else , or onely by the authority . Ceremonies cannot be of the first sort , but of the second they may , and then they oblige only so long as they can minister to the end of their designation , but no longer . For if that be the onely reason of their obliging , then they oblige not when that reason is away . Now because they are onely made for order and decency , both which are relative terms , and suppose an action done in public , there is no need , no use of them in private . But because even after the reason ceases , the authority hath reasons of it's own to be regarded , and things that are not binding by their absolute or relative nature , may yet bind by the authority and for the reverence of that , till there be opportunity to annul the law , therefore when the reason of the ceremony does cease , or is useless and operates not at all , we must yet regard the authority , that is , doe it honour , as Samuel did to Saul . If the thing it self be of an intrinsick goodness , though made necessary onely by the positive command , then it is to be done for it self , and in private as well as publick : * but if it be onely a relative ministery , then it hath no reason beyond that relation ; and if that relation be publick , it binds onely in publick : * but if it be onely matter of obedience , and have no reason else either absolute or relative , then the law does not bind the Conscience , but even then we are bound so to comport our selves that the authority may not be despis'd nor offended ; that is , she is not to be slighted or reproach'd , nor publickly disregarded ; though for the obedience it self in this case there is no absolute obligation , but the not-obeying is to be conducted humbly , inoffensively , prudently and regardfully . The reason of these things is this , because the Church makes no absolute laws ; she makes them for good ends , and beyond that she hath no authority : her legislative is wholly a ministery of grace and godliness , not of empire and dominion . For the difference is this , Civil laws oblige in publick and in private , for reason and for Empire , when the cause ceases , and when it remains , when the breach is scandalous , and when it is not scandalous : But the Canons of the Church oblige onely for their reason and religion , for edification and for charity , when the thing is useful to others or good in it self ; but the authority it self being wholly for these purposes , is a ministery of religion , but hath in it nothing of Empire , and therefore does not oblige for it self and by it self , but for the doing good , and for the avoiding evil : and this is that which is meant by the cases of contempt and scandal . These are the negative measures of ECCLESIASTICAL laws . The positive measures are these . RULE XIX . Ecclesiastical laws must be charitable and easy , and when they are not , they oblige not . WHen Ecclesiastical laws were conducted and made by the Spiritual power , the Bishops , Rulers of Churches , before the Civil power was Christian , their laws were either Commandements of essential duty , or of that which was next to it and necessary for it , or else they were indicted to a voluntary people , and therefore to be presumed easy and gentle , charitable and useful , or it is not to be thought the people would have been willing long to bear them . But when the Civil power was the Ecclesiastical Ruler , and the Common-wealth became a Church , the Spiritual sword was put into a temporal scabbard , and the Canons Ecclesiastical became civil laws , though in their matter religious , and in their original they were Ecclesiastical . Now if the laws be established by the civil power , they must indeed be just and good ; but yet if they be laws of burden , and contain a load that is supportable , they are to be obeyed . Quod quidem perquam durum est , sed ita lex scripta est , said Ulpian ; the case is hard , but so the law is written : meaning that though it be hard , yet the law is to be obeyed so long as it is just . But when the Ecclesiastical law is indicted by the spiritual power , the civil power onely consenting and establishing the indicted Canon , that corroboration addes no other band to the Canon then that it be obeyed according to the intention of the spiritual power , onely so it becomes a law indeed , but it is a law onely as the Church can intend a law , or desire it to be impos'd ; that is , what the Church might reasonably perswade , and fitly enjoyn , that so much and no more , in that manner and no other , the Civil power does corroborate it . For the Ecclesiastical Canon put into the hands of the civil power and made into a law , is like the twig of an apple-tree grafted into the stock of a thorn ; it changes not the nature of it , but is still an apple : so is the Canon , still it is but an injunction of the Church , though the Church be enabled temporally to chastise the rebellious ; but still the twig that is so ingrafted must retain it 's own nature , and must be no sowrer then if it grew upon it's own stock ; it must be such as is fit to be perswaded , such which men can be willing to , and easy under , and of which they shall have no cause to complain : for since the Church in these things hath no power but to exhort and to perswade , and therefore can injoyn nothing but what can be reasonably perswaded ; she must not by the aid of the temporal power injoyn those things which are cruel and vexatious , and such to which no argument but fear can make the subject willing . The Church when she hath temporal possessions , alwaies is a good Land-lady , and when she makes judgments she meddles not with bloud , but gives the gentlest sentences , and when she is admitted to a legislative , she enjoyns a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an easy , a gentle yoke , and when she does not , the subject is concerned to avoid the temporall evil threatned by the civil power ; but not to give obedience to the intolerable law of the Church , as in that capacity : for unless the law of the Church be such that good men may willingly obey it , it cannot be injoyned by the Church , and the Church ought not to desire the civil power to doe it for her : For since she hath no power to command in such things where the Divine authority does not intervene , all the rest is but perswasion ; and he that hath power onely to perswade , cannot be supposed to perswade against our will : and therefore matters of intolerable burden are not the matter of Ecclesiastical laws , because they certainly are against the will of all men , who can serve God and goe to heaven without them . Not that it is permitted to any man as he please to obey or not to obey the Ecclesiastical laws ; nor that the spiritual authority so depends upon the consent of every subject , that he is at his choice whether he will keep it or no : but that he is to obey willingly ; that is , that no more be imposed then what he may be willing to , and then that he be not disobedient , when if he were not peevish , he ought to be willing . For this is all that share of Christian liberty which under his just superiors every single subject can enjoy ; he may not break the law when he please , but when he cannot keep it ; not when he is not in the humour , but when he is not in capacity ; not because he will , but because without great evil he cannot . I shall give an instance in the Ecclesiastical laws of fasting , and by an inquiry into their obligation sta●e the sense and intention of this Rule . What persons are tied to the observation of Ecclesiastical Fasts , and in what cases . To the solution of which question , first we are to consider to what end the Church enjoyns her Fast. For whoever is involved in that end is also concerned in the law , ordinarily and regularly . Thus if a Fast be onely indicted to suppress incontinence , they who have no temptation to it , or have a sufficient remedy by which they please God , are not bound by that law , but in the cases of scandal and contempt . Fasting-spittle kils a Serpent ( saies Pierius ; ) but if a man have a rod in his hand that will doe it sooner , that law would be fantastical that should command him to stay till he could kill the snake with his fasting-spittle . * But if the Church intends many good ends in the Canon , any one is sufficient to tye the law upon the Conscience , because for that one good end it can be serviceable to the Soul : and indeed fasting is of that nature that it can be a ministery of repentance by the affliction , and it can be a help to prayer , by taking off the loads of flesh and a full stomach , and it can be aptly ministerial to contemplation ; and if fasting were onely for mortification of lustful appetites , then a virgin might not safely fast in publick , lest she fall into the suspicion of incontinence , or be expos'd to the bolder sollicitations of the yong men . Now because every one is concerned in some one or more of these ends of fasting , all people are included within the circles of the law , unless by some other means they be exempted . But they are exempted from it who are sick and weak , spent with labour , or apt to be made sick , or hindred in their imployment : Nisi quem infirmitas impedierit , saies the Canon law ; all are bound to keep fasting daies but such who are hindred by infirmity , — seu Dura valetudo inciderit , seu tarda senectus , any bodily infirmity , whether of age or sickness , weakness or disease . Concerning which , if the infirmity be evident , there is no question , for the law does except such persons in the very sanction , or publick and authentick interpretations , and common usages . Women with child , children and old persons , the sick and the traveller , the weary and the weak , the hard student and the hard labourer , the poor man and the beggar , these are persons which need not ask leave , for the law intends not to bind them . Now those that are but probably so , that is , not well , apt to be sick , suspected with child , not very weary , these also are within the power of having leave given them , that is , capable of dispensation ; that is , it may be declared that the law intends not to bind them at all in such cases . So that upon this account none are bound but the lusty and the lazy , the strong and the unimployed . Now in these things there is no other certaintie but what is set down in the laws of every Church respectively , save only this , that in all Churches where such laws are us'd , they are ever expounded by the measures of great Charitie and Remission , excepting in such places where they place Religion in external observances ; and yet there also they pretend great gentleness when they are charg'd with want of it by their adversaries , as is to be seen in Albericus Pius his Lucubrations against Erasmus . But I consider that the laws of fasting are therefore very sparingly to be imposed , when there are so many causes of being excus'd ; and not at all but upon great occasions , and particular emergencies : and when they are , the injunction is to be so made , as fewest may be excus'd , and none may desire it but those who cannot help it : and the evil of the contrary is very visible and apparent in the fierce and decretory injunctions of the long Lenten fast , the burden of which is so great , that they who doe not think it religion , or a law of God , or a part of the Divine worship , use all the arts they can to be eased of the load , cosening the law , and easing themselves , and studying a new Cookery , and destroying the end of the law by keeping the letter , and buying dispensations , and complaining of the burden , and being troubled when it comes , and glad when it is over . A law of fasting is very imprudent and very uncharitable when it becomes , like Rehoboam's thigh , too big and too heavy for all the people : and what good is done by such fasting , that could not with more ease and more charity be acquired by other instruments or a better conduct of this ? Mantuan complain'd with great sorrow and great reason in this particular . Adjungunt etiam primi jejunia veris ; Quae nisi sint servata , volunt nos ire sub orcum . Aspice quam duris , aiunt , fraenata capistris Gens electa fuit . Lex Christi aeterna , nec unquam Cessatura , sinus ( dicunt ) sine tendat in amplos , Ut sit conveniens , habilísque , & idonea toti Humano generi , non importuna senectae , Non onerosa inopi , non importabilis aegro . The laws of religion should be , like the yoke of Christ , light and easy , fitted to the infirmities and capacities of all men ; for let them be never so easy and delightfull , we shall be too much tempted to neglect them , though the laws themselves be no temptation to disobedience . This is certain , that in a law of so great burden in it self , and so severely imposed , and so fiercely punished , and so religiously accounted of , and so superstitiously conducted , the conscience is so certainly made restlesse by the scruples of the conscientious persons , the arts of the crafty , the ignorance of the over-busy , and the witty nothings of the idly-imployed , that the good which accidentally may be brought to some by it cannot pay for the many evils which it regularly produces in others : and that law of fasting can never be so good as the peace which it disturbs . For if you pretend your youth as a just excuse from the law of Lent , you shall be told , that the Fast consists in the quality of the meat , and in the singlenesse of the meal , and in the time of taking it ; and that though you are excused from eating fish or pulse , yet you must eat but once ; or if you doe eat at night , yet you must not eat in the morning ; or if you doe , yet you are to be advised how much can be called a meal . And then you are not sure whether you are to fast at the beginning , or not till the consummation of your fourteenth year : and when that is out , if the understanding be so little as not to understand what and why and how , you fast to no purpose ; and if sooner you doe understand , it may be you are obliged in conscience , though not punishable by law . * If you be old , yet some old men are lusty and strong ; and the Church does not intend that the age alone , but that the infirmity should excuse : and because this infirmity is divisible , it is not every infirmity that will doe it ; and it may be you are an easy and too gentle a judge in your own case ; therefore you must ask ; and who shall tell you ? Cajetan and Navarre , Filliucius and Gregory Sayr , Diana and Azorius understand no physic ; and they can tell you something in general of the law , but nothing absolutely in your case : if you will , be at the charge and goe to a Physician : for it may be if you live in the Country , you have a learned man within ten or twenty miles , or it may be fourty , and upon all occasions you may know of him whether your case requires ease ; or it may be it ●equires leave this day , but you cannot have your answer so soon , and the case will alter by to morrow ; and Hippocrates said , that senes facillimè ferunt jejunium , old men bear fasting better then yong men : and though Cardan hath upon that Aphorisme spoken according to his usual manner many ingenious things , yet whether you will put your Conscience upon him or no is a material consideration . * But then if you be sick , you must know whether fasting can consist with your condition : for not every sicknesse can excuse you from the holy fast of Lent ; or if you may not eat fish , yet you may be oblig'd to the single refection , or to the time . But that which is of material consideration is , that though you be not well , yet it may be your fasting will doe you no great hurt , and if it be but little , it must not be stood upon ; for fasting is intended to be an affliction of the body , and therefore you must not be too hasty to snatch at ease and liberty . But however , if you will inquire of learned men , you may have from the Physicians some twenty or thirty rules by which you may guesse when and in what diseases you are excus'd from the quality of the diet , when you are dispensed in the time , when in the frequency , when you must exchange one for the other : and to this purpose you may inform your Conscience by reading a Vallesius , Cardan , Hollerius , Zacutus Lusitanus , Paulus Zacchias , b Alphonsus à Fontech , c Cognatus , d Arnoldus de Villanova , e Petrus Hispanus and his Author Isaac ; and if you can find them agree , and that your case is describ'd , and their rules be rightly applied , and the particulars be well weighed , and the judgement not byass'd by ease and fear and too great a care of your health , you might doe well , if it were not for one thing ; and that is , that Physicians are not to be trusted , for they will speak excellent reason for the securing of your health , but they think they are not to answer concerning the state of your soul ; and therefore they leane too much upon the wrong hand for your satisfaction , especially because Lent falls in the spring aequ●nox , in which we are very apt to sicknesses . * But then if we pretend to be excus'd by reason of labour and travel , every man must judge for himself : and yet there are in this a great many things to be consider'd ; for it must be a considerable diminution of our strength , and a great inanition of spirits that can dispense with us in this so great a law : but how great that must be , if we be judges , we shall be too favourable ; if others judge , they cannot tell ; and if we fear to be too gentle to our selves , we may be too rigorous , and by the laws of fasting break the laws of charity . But then it may be our labour is to come , and it will be necessary that we lay in stowage before-hand , lest we faint by the way . And it is a great labour for a man to hunt all day , or to manage the great horse , — leporem sectatus , equóque Lassus ab indomito : vel si Romana fatigat Militia assuetum Graecari , seu pila velox Molliter austerum studio fallente laborem . A little thing will weary a soft person , and a long sport will tire a strong man : and my not these put in their plea for a pleasant or an early meal ? for hungry men will plead hard . And the labour of the mind is also a great wearinesse to the bones ; and who shall tell me how long I must study before I may be allowed not to keep the punctualities of Lent ? for the thinking man must be fed tenderly and furnished with finer spirits . But then who shall come into this licence is worth inquiring ; whether not onely the hard Student , but the Preacher that speaks long , and thinks little ; whether School-Masters , Advocates , Orators , Judges , for every one would be glad of a little liberty : and if the bodily labourer shall be excused , whether all trades that sit long , and work easily , as Shoomakers , Tailers , Glovers , Book-binders may pretend to an exemption ; for though Azorius is so kind as to except most of these , yet others doe not . And what shall the poor man doe ? his rule is commonly to eat when he can get it ; and if he be at a friends house must he refuse to eat , because it is not his time ? or must he starve , because there is nothing but flesh ? Unde fames homini vetitorum tanta ciborum est ? Certainly he can hardly be tied to the measures and rules of eating Ecclesiastically , that every day is in dispute whether he shall or shall not have something that he may eat naturally . But yet he is to inquire whether he be tied on those days to fast when he can be provided for : and it would also be known whether a poor man is not tied to refuse flesh and require fish where it can be had ; and whether he is not bound first to spend the fragments of his fish-basket before his bits of flesh , and keep them onely for necessity ; and whether he may be secretly pleas'd that he hath that necessity put upon him that he hath flesh but no fish . There are also some hundreds of questions more that might be consider'd ; some are pleasant cases and some are sowre , some can be determined and some cannot . But the great case of Conscience in this whole affaire is , What great good that is which this law of Lent thus conducted can effect , which can no other ways be effected , and which can be greater then the infinite numbers of sin , and doubtings , and scruples , and fears , and troubles , and vexations , and sicknesses , and peevishnesse , and murmur , and complaints , and laborious arts of excuse , and cheating the law , and slavery , and tyranny , occasion'd and effected by it . For although fasting is not onely an excellent ministery to some parts of religion , but of health also , Accipe nunc victûs tenuis quae , quantaque secum Afferat : imprimis , vale as bene — yet all the world knows that long fasting is the most destructive thing in the world to our bodies , and breeds diseases sharper and more incurable then fullnesse and intemperance ; and therefore the Canon law * forbids a fast of two or three days , and a fast beyond our strength . Therefore it is certain that the Church cannot command a long fast : and therefore in the beginning of the custome of Lent it was but a fast of one day , or two at most , eating at night . And although this fast was then a fast of liberty , and permitted to every ones choice ; yet it might be enjoyn'd in every Government , according to the fore-described measures . But that in stead of a fast , the Church should prescribe a diet , an ill diet , not onely unpleasant , but unwholesome , and that with so much severity , and with so much danger , and so many snares , is no exercise of that power which Christ hath given her , but of that power which is usurp'd , ill gotten and worse administred . It is against the law of charity , and therefore ought not to be a law of the Church ; that men be tied for forty days together to keep from their usual diet , not to be temperate , but to be vex'd and rul'd , this I say is uncharitable , and therefore unlawfull . Hoc hic quidem homines tam brevem vitam colunt , Quum hasce herbas hujusmodi in suam alvum congerunt , Formidolosas dictu , non esu modo : Quas herbas pecudes non edunt , homines edunt . As the Cook in the Comedy complain'd , eating herbs and ill diet makes men to live such short lives . And what interest of religion is serv'd by eating fish and nettle pottage , is not obvious to him that hath tried it , or can consider it : Thestylis hanc nimio pultem sale fecit amaram ; Death and sicknesse is in this pot . And I remember to have heard a Frier , none of the meanest of his Order , say , that he never kept Lent for a long time together , but at Easter he had a great fit of sicknesse : and therefore as the Canonists say that a future labour & wearinesse may legitimate the breach of the strict measures of the law as well as if it be actual & present ; so may the fear of sicknesse as well take off the obligation as when it is present : and of this , every man that is not of an athletic health hath reason to be afraid . But that which relates also very much to the law , though not so much to us , is this , that all this trouble is for little or no good : if there be any good in it , it is relative , and transient , and contingent , and inconsiderable , and without hazard otherwise to be acquired . For though fools and poor folks are sometimes press'd with the evils of such a change of diet , yet the witty and the rich can change all that law into the arts and instruments of pleasure . For the greatest feasts and the greatest Epicurismes use to be in fish . So he in the Comedy , Musicè herclè agitis aetatem , ita ut vos decet : Vino & victu , piscatu probo , electili Vitam colitis ; Wine and choice fish make music at the Table . Nam in re praesenti , ex copia piscaria Consulere licebit . They are forbid no sorts , no quantity , no delicacies of fish or wine . And if this be objected to them , they answer , that fish is lesse pleasant , lesse nutritive then flesh , and therefore wisely chosen by the Church to be the entertainments of our Lenten table : but if you object , that fish is therefore not to be eaten because it is unwholsome , breeds ill juices , and afflicts the body ; * they answer , that we are mistaken ; that fish is a delicacy ; that Alexander the great was so delighted with little fishes , that he would send them for presents to his dearest friends ; that Suetonius tells the same of Augustus Caesar ; that Bullinger tells that the Rhodians esteem'd them ▪ that lov'd and liv'd much upon fish to be gentlemen and well bred , and all others clowns and of a rude palate ; that Julius Caesar at one triumphal feast entertain'd his guests with 8000 lampryes ; that the great feast which Metellus made , & which we find describ'd in * Macrobius , was especially made costly and delicious with the fish there presented . — quo pertinet ergo Proceros odisse lupos ? He therefore that objects against the severity and affliction of the Lenten diet , knows not the arts of feasting ; and complains of the Church for a step-mother , when she is not onely kind , but fond also in making such provisions . But if fish be un wholesome , then eat herbs , but at no hand flesh . Parcite mortales dapibus temerare nefandis Corpora : sunt fruges , sunt deducentia ramos Pondere poma suo , tumidaeque in vitibus uvae . Sunt herbae dulces , sunt quae mitescere flammâ Mollirique queant ; nec vobis lacteus humor Eripitur , nec mella thymi redolentia flore . Prodiga divitias alimentaque mitia tellus Suggerit , atque epulas sine caede & sanguine praebet . Carne ferae sedant jejunia . — For lions and wolves , tigres and bears eat flesh ; but God hath provided great variety of other things besides flesh . In some places milk is permitted , in all , herbs and fruits and broaths : and these are agreeable to a weak stomack ; according to that of S. Paul , Qui infirmus est , olus manducat , He that is weak eateth herbs ; it is the argument of Bruyerinus . But I shall make a better use of it if I shall observe that S. Paul gives it as a note of infirmity , when Christians upon pretences and little arguments shall not dare to eat flesh , but in stead of them eat herbs ; they are weak in faith that doe it , and doe not consider that flesh can as well be sanctified by the word of God and prayer , as lettice and asparagus : and that a little flesh and course and common , will better serve the end of fasting , and that fasting better serve the end of religion , then variety of fish , and a belly fill'd with fruits and wind and superstition . All or any thing of this may be done in discipline , and with liberty : but because it may be unfit for so very many , and for all at some time , and may produce much evil , and hath in it no more good then to give us cause to say that it may be us'd , it is a very unfit thing to become the matter of an Ecclesiastical law , a trouble and danger to the body , and a great snare to the conscience , which it may intangle , but it can never cleanse : — pinguem vitiis albumque nec Ostrea , Nec Scarus , aut poterit peregrina juvare Lagois . To eat fish or herbs , are of so little use in religion , they are so trifling an exercise of the body by restraining the appetite , that besides that all bodily exercise profiteth but little , this is so little of that , as it is conducted , and as it is even in the very permissions of the law , that it is not worth all this discourse about it ; onely to rescue the conscience from such snares and little intanglements is of great concernment . * Fasting is very good to some purposes , at some times , and to some persons : but laws regard that quod plerumque est , and therefore in the matter of a periodical and long continued fast cannot but be uncharitable and unreasonable : and therefore when there is cause for such injunctions , they are to be press'd with argument and exhortation , not by Empire and necessity . For supposing the law otherwise without objection , yet he that fasts against his will , does not serve God ; and therefore externally to be forc'd to doe it , is not a lawfull exercise of an Ecclesiastical power . This summe is this . If it be the fast of one day , it may be indicted by our lawfull superior , with the measures of prudence and charity , and according to the needs of the Church . * But if it be the fast of many days together , it is a burden , and therefore not to be exacted , lest it be uncharitable . But if there be a law , the law ought to bend in all the flexures of reason and a probable necessity , and to prevail onely by the reason of the thing , not the force of a command . * But if it be no fast , but a change of diet , it is of so little profit , that it will not recompence the trouble , and will turn into superstition , and will more minister to evil then to good , and is not properly the matter of an Ecclesiastical law , and the Bishop hath no power to make a law in this matter : it is not for God , and it is not for religion , but for vanity , or Empire , or superstition . This onely I am to adde in order to the determination of our conscience in the practice of this inquiry , That if there be a law made by the Civil power for the keeping Lent , then it is for civil regards , and the law is not for superstition , but therefore to be observed as other civil laws are , with the same equity and measures of obedience ; of which I am to give further accounts in the Chapter of the Interpretation and diminution of humane laws . But if it be still an Ecclesiastical law , indicted and suggested by the spiritual power , and onely corroborated by the civil power , and for them efformed into a law , then it obliges the Conscience no otherwise then it did and ought to doe in the hands of the spiritual power ; that is , onely when the law is for good , and not for evil , with Christian liberty , and not a snare , when it is fit to be perswaded and ought to be complied with , then and there it may be indicted , and is to be obeyed accordingly . RULE XX. Ecclesiastical laws must ever promote the service of God and the good of Souls ; but must never put a snare or stumbling-block to Consciences . THE holy Primitives in their laws and actions ever kept that saying of the Apostle in their eye and in their heart , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Every word , every action must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for the use of edifying : Let all things be done for edification : and therefore much more must laws , which have a permanent causality and influence upon the actions of the Church ; for therefore they are either a permanent good or evil . When the Churches had hope of converting the Jews by gentleness and compliance in some outward rites , the Church made laws of combination and analogy , of continuation and correspondence in some observances . Thus the Apostles at the Council of Jerusalem indicted the abstinence from blood , as being infinitely offensive to the Jews , and apt to estrange their hearts from the whole religion of them that eat it . And therefore the law was made that it might cement the stones of the Spiritual building , and the Jews and Gentiles might make the two walls of the Church . But when the Jews refus'd to come in , and excepting the remnant onely ( of which S. Paul speaks ) which were saved , the rest grew to hate the Lord of life , then the Church consider'd that to use their liberty would be for the edification of the Church of the Gentiles ; and then they remembred that Moses had given the Jews flesh , but forbad them bloud , but Christ gave us both flesh and bloud , and forbad neither ; and therefore they return'd to that use of it that was most for charity and liberty , instruction and edification . * Upon the same account , though the Church was kind to the Jews , yet they would take care not to offend any of her children by retaining words that might abuse them into a good opinion of their religion ; and therefore at first they abstain'd from the name of Priest , and Temple , as is to be observed . ●n Justin Martyr , Ignatius and Minutius . * At the first the Christians kept the Jewish Sabbath ; but in the Council of Laodicea it was forbidden ; and in the 70th Canon of that collection which goes under the name of the Apostles , which was published much about the same time , the Christians are forbidden [ neque jejunia cum Judaeis exercere , nec festos dies agere , nec quae in ipsorum celebritatibus Xenta mittuntur accipere ] to keep the Jewish fasts , or feasts , or to receive their presents , viz. of unleavened cakes which upon those daies they usually sent abroad . And the reason of the prohibition is , lest Judaisme should be valued , and lest Christians be scandaliz'd at such compliance , as Zonaras and Balsamo note upon that Canon of the Laodicea● Council , but is more fully discoursed by Constantine upon the keeping of Easter , as Eusebius reports in his life . To this end all Laws and Canons must be made ; not onely for that great reason , because the end of the Commandement is charity , and of all Ecclesiastical government is the building up the Church in love ; but because the Church hath no power to make laws which are not for edification : and this the Apostle testifies twice in one Epistle using the same words ; that the power and authority which the Lord had given to him , was for edification , not for destruction . * And this is not onely so to be understood , that if the Church makes laws which are not for edification , she does amiss ; but that she obliges not , her laws are null , and doe not bind the Conscience . For it is otherwise here then in civil laws : right or wrong the civil constitutions bind the body or the soul ; but because the verification of the laws of the Church is in the hands of God , and he onely materially and effectively punishes the rebellious against this Government , it is certain he will doe onely according to the merit of the cause , and not verify a power which he hath forbidden . But in the civil Courts there is a punishment that is exterminating of afflictive , which can punish them whom God will finally absolve . Therefore it is that when the Church does any thing beyond her commission , she does no way oblige the Conscience , neither actively nor passively : the Church punishes no man temporally , and God will not either temporally or eternally afflict those who doe not obey there where he hath given no man power to command . And this is greatly to be observed in all the cases of Conscience concerning Ecclesiastical laws . If we understand where the spiritual power can command , where she can exhort and ought to prevail , we have found out all the measures of our obedience . But if she goes beyond her commission , she hurts none but her self ; for she hath nothing to doe with Bodies , and our Souls are in safe hands . And the case is much alike , in case the spiritual law be bound by the civil power : for the King when he makes laws of religion is tied up to the Evangelical measures ; and if he prevaricates , he does indeed tie us to a passive obedience , but the conscience is no otherwise bound ; and he is to govern Christs Church by the same measures with which the Apostles did , and the Bishops their successors did and ought to doe before the civil power was Christian. For he hath no more power over consciences then they had ; and therefore he ought not by the afflictions of the body to invade the soul : but if he does , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he hath onely power over bodies , but no authorityover the Conscience . This being considered , the Rule hath effect in the following particulars . 1. This Rule is to be understood positively and affirmatively ; that is , The Church in all her constitutions must take care that the Church be edified and built up in some grace or other . But not so , that whatsoever is for edification she hath power to command . The measures and limits of her legislative power I have already describ'd * ; it must be within those circles : and though other things without them may be useful , and fit for instruction , or to promote the interest of a vertue ; yet Christ hath left them at liberty , and his Church hath no power to bind beyond his commission . They can exhort and perswade , and by consent they can prescribe ; but to the making of a law there is something else requir'd , besides that it be apt to edify or to instruct . For ( besides that it must be of something plac'd in her power ) it must edify , and not destroy ; it must build up , and not pull down ; that is , it must build with all hands , and not pull down with one . I instance in the institution of significant ceremonies , that is , such which are not matters of order and decency , but meerly for signification and the representment of some truth or mystery . Those which are prudently chosen are in their own nature apt to instruct . Thus the use of pictures in the Greek and in the Lutheran Churches is so far useful , that it can convey a story , and a great and a good example to the people that come thither , and so far they may be for edification . But because these can also and doe too often degenerate into abuse and invade religion , to make a law of these is not safe ; and when that law does prevail to any evil that is not easily by other means cured , it does not prevail upon the Conscience : and indeed to make a law for the use of them , is not directly within the commission of the Ecclesiastical power . But there is also more in it then thus . For although significant ceremonies can be for edification to the Church in some degree , and in some persons ; yet it is to be considered whether the introducing of such things does not destroy the Church , not onely in her Christian liberty , but in the simplicity and purity and spirituality of her religion , by insensibly changing it into a ceremonial and external service . To the Ceremonial law of the Jews nothing was to be added , and from it nothing was to be subtracted ; and in Christianity we have less reason to adde any thing of ceremony , excepting the circumstances and advantages of the very ministery , as time and place , and vessels and ornaments and necessary appendages . But when we speak of rituals or ceremonies , that is , exterior actions or things besides the institution or command of Christ , either we intend them as a part of the Divine service , and then they are unlawful and intolerable ; or if onely for signification , that is so little a thing , of so inconsiderable use in the fulness and clarity of the revelations Evangelical , that besides that it keeps Christians still in the state of infancy and minority , and supposes them alwaies learning , and never coming to the knowledge of the truth , it ought not to stand against any danger or offence that can by them be brought to any wise and good Christians . In some ages of the Primitive Church , and in some Churches , they gave to persons to be baptized milk and hony or a little wine ( as we read in Tertullian and S. Hierom ) to signify that those Catechumens were babes in Christ ; and in a rebus to recommend to them that saying of S. Peter , as new-born babes desire the sincere milk of the word . Now besides that this was not usual , to give hieroglyphics where they had plain precepts , and to give signs of things that were present and perceiv'd ▪ it was of so very little use , that all Churches that I know of have laid it aside . It was also a custome anciently , when they brought the bread and wine to the altar or Communion-table , to present milk along with it ; and this also did signify nutrition by the body and bloud of Christ. But the Council of Bracara forbad it upon this reason , quia evidens exemplum Evangelicae veritatis illud offerri non sinit , because Christ did no such thing , and commanded no such thing ; and therefore nothing is to be added to those ceremonies which Christ left . * And indeed if the Church might adde things or rituals of signification , then the walls might be cover'd with the figures of Doves , Sheep , Lambs , Serpents , Birds , and the Communion-table with Bread , Wine , Herbs , Tapers , Pigeons , Raisins , Hony , Milk and Lambs , or whatever else the wit of man or the nature and sense of the mysteries might invent or import . But concerning such things as these , the judgment of Balsamen is this ; Eos malè facere arbitror , qui in Ecclesia columbas emittunt pro Spiritus sancti adventu ; & qui pro illa stella quae novo modo apparucrat , & erat admirabilis , cereos accendunt ; & qui arcanam & salutarem Domini , & Dei , & Servatoris nostri Jesu Christi generationem thoro strato exprimunt ; & quae sunt supra rationem & mentis cogitationem humanis adinventionibus describunt . To let a Pigeon fly to signify the coming of the Holy Spirit ; to light up candles to represent the Epiphany ; to dress a bed to express the secret and ineffable generation of the Saviour of the world ; to which he might have added , to prepare the figure of the Crucifix , and to burie an image to describe the great sacrifice of the Cross for the redemption of mankind ; these are things to no purpose : not onely for the levity and theatrical gayeties and representments unbefitting the gravity and purity and spirituality of Christian religion ; but also the manner of teaching these truths by symbolical things and actions is too low , too suspicious , too dangerous to be mingled with the Divine liturgies . Christ may as he please consign his own good things that he gives us ; but he consigns no good , and represents none , but what he also gives and effects in that ministration and under that sign : but a symbolical rite of humane invention to signify what it does not effect , and then introduc'd into the solemn worship of God , is so like those vain imaginations and representments forbidden in the second Commandement , that the very suspicion is more against edification then their use can pretend to . But if any such ritual or ceremony be introduc'd by custome or by consent , it ought to be us'd as men use their champignons ; they boyl them in three or four waters , cleansing them both by water and fire before they be us'd at all ; much more before they be perswaded into a law . 2. But when they can be innocently us'd , that is , when they can be made usefull , and yet be innocent in themselves , yet it is to be taken care of , that they may not onely by their abuse , or by mistake , but that by their number they be not troublesome and inconvenient . This advice I learn from S. Austin , in whose time the Church had gone beyond her rule and beyond her power in the introducing or permitting to be introduc'd very many significant ceremonies ; every one of which he could not directly blame , but yet they were servile burdens , and intolerable besides , by their number and their load . [ Etiamsi non intelligatur quomodo contra fidem sunt , tamen quoniam onerant religionem , & servilibus oneribus premunt quam Christus voluit paucissimis & manifestis celebrationeum Sacramentis liberam esse ; propterea faciunt ut tolerabilior sit conditio Judaeorum , qui etiamsi tempus libertatis non agnoverunt , legalibus tamen sarcinis subjiciebantur , non humanis praesumptionibus ] Although it is not to be understood how these things are directly against the faith , yet they burden religion , and load with a servile pressure her whom Christ left free and charg'd onely with the two Sacraments : therefore our case is worse then that of the Jews ; for though they had not a time of liberty , yet they were charg'd onely with burdens that God impos'd , but not with the presumptions of man : which words are a severe condemnation of such laws and customes Ecclesiastical . And therefore there is reason to celebrate and honour the wisdome and prudence of the Church of England , which hath in all her offices retain'd but one ritual or ceremony that is not of Divine ordinance or Apostolical practice , and that is , the Cross in baptisme : which though it be a significant ceremony , and of no other use , yet as it is a compliance with the practice of all ancient Churches , * so it is very innocent in it self , and being one and alone is in no regard troublesome or afflictive to those that understand her power and her liberty and her reason . I said , she hath one onely ceremony of her own appointment ; for the Ring in marriage is the symbol of a civil and a religious contract , it is a pledge and custome of the nation , not of the religion : and those other circumstances of her worship , are but determinations of time and place and manner of a duty ; they serve to other purposes besides signification , they were not made for that , but for order & decency , for which there is an Apostolical precept , and a natural reason , and an evident necessity , or a great convenience . Now if besides these uses they can be construed to any good signification or instruction , that is so far from being a prejudice to them , that it is their advantage , their principal end being different , and warranted , and not destroy'd by their superinduc'd and accidental use . * In other things we are to remember that figures and shadows were for the Old Testament , but light and manifestation is in the New ; and the Egyptians indeed did teach religion by Symbolical figures ; and in the Eastern Empire their laws were written with characters and abbreviatures ; and in the schools of Plato and Pythagoras they taught their scholars by numbers and figures ; and Diodorus of Tarsus and Origen brought in an allegorical way of expounding the Scriptures , and almost wholly , but certainly too much left the literal and simple way of interpretation , and so doe the Perfectionists and some others at this day : but we that walk in the light of the Gospel , and rejoyce in that light , have received from Christ and his Apostles an easier way of teaching the people ; and are not therefore to return to the elements and rituals of Jews and Pagan schools . Christ left no sign but two that did also effect as well as signify : and if they had onely signified , and done no other good , we have no reason to believe that they would have been appointed . But this thing is gone into so great inconvenience in the Church of Rome , that there are not onely so many ceremonies as doe fill a book in folio ; but the reasons and significations of them are offered to us by Durandus , Durantus , Vicecomes and others : but it is certain that all the propositions and mysteries signified by them are very much sooner learn'd then the meaning of those ceremonies . But that those rituals or circumstances of Liturgy , the actions , gestures , habits , and instruments of order and decency be also significant , gives an advantage to the things themselves , and makes their first intended ministery of some more usefulness . 3. Ecclesiastical laws are not then for edification when they give offence to the wise and to the good ; to the lovers of peace and the obedient to government ; that is , when there is in their nature so much real evil , or so much cause of jealousy of which the law-givers cannot purge them , that the good and complying principles that are in the good subjects cannot be sufficient to give them entertainment . But of this the law-givers are to be the Judges ; and if they insist upon them when there is cause enough to lay them aside , they sin against their Brethren , and they sin against Christ. But the laws themselves doe not bind , if the exceptions against them be just and reasonable and sufficient : which whether they be or no , the Church-Rulers shall judge at present , and God shall judge at last : and in the mean time there can be no other rule given , but that the superiour and the inferiour endeavour by all waies of prudence and humility to satisfy one another . A peaceable mind , and willingness to learn , and a charitable exposition , are the just dispositions of the subjects duty ; and the Governours are to take all the care of souls that can be supposed to be the duty of spiritual Fathers : and if these things be done , there will be no hatred , and no reproach , and no schisme . But if the question be who shall yield , the Governours certainly have authority , and the others say they have reason : the one ought to be pitied , and the other ought to be obeyed ; but both ought to yield : onely the subject must yield outward obedience though otherwise it were not necessary , yet if it be lawful , it accidentally becomes so ; and if it be not lawful , or if he thinks it is not , yet he must be careful he give no offence , but modestly , humbly and without reproach offer his reasons against the law . But then the Governours also must yield : they must not consider how much is possible for them , but how much is fit ; they must mediate nothing of Empire , but much of charity ; they must consider which will doe most good to the souls to whom they doe relate ; they must with meekness instruct the gainsayers , and with sweetness endeavour to win them , and bear with the infirmities of the weak , if they can perceive the weakness to be innocent . But if a crime be mingled with it , and be discerned , it is matter of edification that such criminals be discountenanc'd , and the Authority be immur'd and kept from contempt . But in these and the like accidents the Spirit of God must be invocated and implor'd and endear'd , that by his aides the Church may be safely and wisely and charitably governed . Whoever wants wisdome must ask it of God ; and God will be easily intreated to doe good , and to give good things . This onely is to be added , that according as the matter of the laws is of advantage , or necessity , or onely of convenience more or less , so are the Governours of Churches and Guides of Souls to be more or less easy in dispensing or annulling their laws : till then , neither the Rulers nor the subject can by any other means be excused from sin but by a hearty inquiry , and a sincere humble labour to doe their duty to each other according to the best of their understanding . For if this does not procure a just compliance , it will at least preserve peace and innocence : and though the first is best , because it includes these , yet these are the next best . 4. Ecclesiastical laws that encourage and adorn , and add degrees and moments and zeal to the service of God , are good ministeries of edification ; and till by excesse or accident they convert into evil , are of themselves fit to minister to religion . Of Music in Churches . Thus the use of Psalmody or singing of Psalms , because it can stirre up the affections , and make religion please more faculties , is very apt for the edification of Churches . The use of Musical instruments may also adde some little advantages to singing , but they are more apt to change religion into aire and fancies , and take off some of its's simplicity , and are not so fitted for edification . Ad disciplinas aliquid artificiale organum non esse adhibendum , said Aristotle as he is quoted by Aquinas , Artificial instruments are not fit to be applied to the use of disciplines . That is , the music of instruments of it self does not make a man wiser , or instruct him in any thing . This is true , and therefore they are not of themselves very good ministeries of religion . But vocal music , being natural , and the action of a man with the circumstance of pleasure , if it come to invest religion is of great use , as all the experience of man can tell . Instruments may guide the voice , and so they may be us'd ; but they are but a friends friend to religion , and can have no near relation to the service of God. Justin Martyr asks the Question why the Church uses songs in her Liturgy after the manner of the unwise and weak under the Law. Answers , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , That meerly to sing is not proper to weak and ignorant persons , but to sing with inanimate instruments , with dancings and with timbrels . Therefore in the Churches we doe not use hymns with such organs or instruments . And S. Chrysostom saith that those instruments were permitted to the Jews ob eorum imbecillitatem for their weaknesse : and he addes , As the Jews did praise God by all the instruments of music , so we are commanded to praise him with all our members , our eyes , our tongues , our eares , our hands . The same thing is also affirm'd by Isidore Pelusiot ; Since God permitted sacrifices and effusions of bloud for their childishnesse , it is no wonder that he did tolerate that music which is made by the harp and psaltery . But then in relation to us , he expounds that Psalm to signify not literally , but mystically . By the sound of the trumpet he understands the memory of the resurrection ; by psaltery and harp , our tongue and mouth ; by timbrel and dances , our body and mind ; by every thing that hath breath , ] every spirit : Angels and men are called upon to praise the Lord. But now upon this account we may easily perceive the difference of vocal from instrumental music in Churches ; this being but typical of that , and permitted then when they knew not so well to use their voices and tongues to praise the Lord. And certainly the difference is very material , not onely because we find these wise men saying that instruments were typical and permitted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for their tendernesse and infancy ; but also because by the voice and tongue we can properly and directly serve God , and as well by singing as saying , and better , if it be better ; which can never be said of instrumental music : which though I cannot condemn if it be us'd as a help to psalmody , yet it must not be called so much as a circumstance of the Divine service , for that is all can be said of vocal music . But of this the use is very great , and I will onely represent it in the words of Justin Martyr ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , simple and plain singing is left in Churches . For this stirres up the mind with a certain pleasure unto an ardent desire of that which is celebrated in the song ; it appeases the desires and affections of the flesh ; it drives away the evil thoughts of our enemies that are invisible and secretly arise ; it makes the mind irriguous and apt to bring forth holy and Divine fruits ; it makes the Generous contenders in piety valiant and strong in adversity ; and it brings a medicine and remedy to all the evil accidents of our life . S. Paul in his spiritual armoury calls this the Sword of the Spirit : for it is all of it the word of God which is celebrated , in the mind , in the song and in the verse : it drives away evil spirits , and the pious mind is by the songs of the Church perfected in vertue . ] The Eulogy is fair and large : but yet all wise and sober persons doe find fault when the Psalmody which is recommended to us by the practice of Christ and his Apostles , does sensibly passe further into art then into religion , and serves pleasure more then devotion ; when it recedes from that native simplicity and gravity which serv'd the affections and holy aspirations of so many ages of the Church ; when it is so conducted that it shall not be for edification , that is , when it is so made accurate and curious that none can joyn in it but Musicians , and they also are not so recitative , they doe not sing and expresse the words so plainly that they which hear doe understand ; for by this means the greatest benefit and use of edification is lost : as appears in those words of S. Basil , who when he had highly commended 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the delight of melody mingled with heavenly mysteries , he addes , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , For this cause were the tunes of harmonious Psalms devised for us , that they which either are yong in years , or novices in instruction , might when they think they sing , have their souls instructed in the truth . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , O the great wisedome of our Heavenly master , which at the same time designes to have us pleas'd and instructed to perfection by the singing of Psalms ! But in this and all things like this , the rulers of Churches are to doe that which most promotes the end of their institution . Salus populi suprema lex esto , is a rule which in this affair hath no exception : the salvation of one soul is more then all the interests in the world besides . 5. Although Counsels Evangelical being observed are greatly for the glory of God and for the edification of the Church ; yet it is not for edification that they be injoyn'd , and therefore make not the proper subject and matter of Ecclesiastical laws : and the reason is , all that wisedome by which God was moved not to injoyn it , even because all men cannot take it , and few men will ; and the imposition is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a gentle yoke , but is a perpetual snare . For here is the difference between things indifferent and Counsels Evangelical , though alike they be left under no command by God , yet for several reasons : for things in themselves indifferent are too little for the service of God , and Counsels Evangelical are too great for our strengths ; and therefore God will not be worshipped by those , and he will not put any necessary upon these : but yet those may be made matter of humane laws , because they may become usefull to many purposes ; but Counsels cannot be made into laws , not because the nature of the things themselves will not bear the load of a Commandement , but because our natures will not : and therefore they are to be advis'd , encourag'd , preached , practis'd , commended and rewarded ; any thing but injoyn'd , or made into necessary duty . And indeed , when we consider that Counsels of perfection are a direct worship of God when they are perform'd , and that God onely is to make laws of his own worship and direct religion , and that in these he would make no law , because these should not become necessary , but the instruments of a voluntary service , that in these things we might shew our love , as in the matter of his laws we shew our obedience ; the Church cannot have a power legislative in these , for she is the mouth of Christ , to command what he commands , to exhort to what he exhorts : and as the Church cannot make that to be a part of the Divine worship which God hath not made so , and therefore things indifferent may become ministeries and circumstances of religion , but no parts of it ; so neither can any thing be otherwise a Divine worship then God hath made it , and therefore man cannot make that to be a necessary worship which God hath not made so , but hath chusingly , and wisely left to the choice of our will and love . And to this sense was that saying of Athenagoras in his Apology for the Christians , Deus ad ea quae praeter naturam sunt neminem movet , God moves no man to things which are besides his nature ; that is , he urges no man to doe such things which must suppose great violence to be done to nature . But the great matter in this whole affaire is , that Counsels Evangelical when they are not left at liberty become a snare ; not onely because they are commonly great violations of our desires , or great invasions of our interest , and therefore fit onely to be undertaken by a very few and after a long experience of their strength : but also because though they be excellencies in themselves , yet in some cases and in some conjugations of circumstances they doe destroy another duty ; as giving all our goods to the poor hinders us from making provision for our relatives , a state of coelibate exposes us to a perpetual ustulation ; and then either by our contrary state of affairs , or by our unequal strengths pull down that building which they intended to set up . Some Canonists say that the Church forbids a mutual congression of married paires upon Festival days ; upon which days the Jews thought it a special duty , but the heathens abstain'd : but how if one be willing , and the other is not ? he shall be put to dispute between two duties , justice and religion , and shall be forc'd like him in the Satyr to ask pardon for doing of his duty ; Ille petit veniam quoties non abstinet Uxor Concubitu sacris observandisque diebus . The Council of Eliberis commanded abstinence from conjugal rights for three or four or seven days before the Communion . Pope Liberius commanded the same during the whole time of Lent ; quia penè nihil valet jejunium quod conjugali opere polluitur , supposing the fast is polluted by such congressions : but because this relied upon an heretical stock , that marriage is unclean , and scarce to be allowed to be holy , of it self it seems unreasonable : but when they commanded that those which were married should that day communicate , and they that did communicate should that night abstain , ( but that they had no power to command any such thing , ) the law it self laid a snare for souls , and if it could have chang'd the action into a sin , would have ingag'd most married paires to become sinners . Upon the same account , but upon very much more reason , those Churches which injoyn coelibate to all their numerous Clergy doe unreasonably and uncharitably ; they have no power to make any such law , and if they had , they ought not to doe it , upon the account of this Rule , because they ought not to lay a stumbling-block and a stone of offence in their Brothers way . Of the Marriages of Bishops and Priests . Now concerning this , I shall first consider the purpose and influence of the Rule upon it . For if this be a stone of offence , if this law be directly and regularly a snare to consciences , it is certain it is an ungodly law , and of no obligation to the subjects of any Church . Now this relying upon experience and being best proved by the event of things , will be sufficiently cleared by the testimony of those wise persons who have observed the evil , and wish'd a remedy by annulling the law . Aeneas Sylvius , who was afterwards Pope Pius the second , said that the single life of the Clergy was upon good reason at first introduc'd , but that for better reason it ought now to be let alone and taken off . And of the same mind was Panormitan ; saying that we are taught by experience that from this law of coelibate not continency but a contrary effect does follow : for the Priests doe not live spiritually , neither are they clean , but are polluted with unlawfull mixtures to their great sin and shame , whereas it were chastity if it were a society with their own wife . And indeed the scandal was so great , the stories so intolerable , their adulteries so frequent , their lusts so discovered , and the accidents so ridiculous , that the Clergy became the contempt and jest of buffoons and drunkards , and the pity and shame of wise and sober men . And it was a strange thing which in the history of the Council of Trent is told out of Zuinglius , that writing to the Cantons of the Suisses , he made mention of a law or edict made by the magistrates their predecessors , that every Priest should be bound to have his proper Concubine , that he might not ensnare the chastity of honest women ; adding , that though it seem'd a ridiculous decree , yet it could not be avoided , unlesse the word Concubine were chang'd into Wife , and the permission before given to unlawfull Concubinate might be given now to lawfull Marriage . And who please to see instances more then enough to verify the infinite scandals given by the unmarried Clergy generally , may be glutted with them in Henry Stephen's apology for Herodotus . * But if he be lesse relied upon , as being a friend to the complaining side , the testimony of Cassander will not so easily be rejected , saying , If ever there was a time for changing of an old custome , certainly these times require it ; where all the best and most religious Priests acknowledging their infirmity , and abhorring the turpitude of perpetual fornication , if publickly they dare not , yet privately they marry . And they that did not , did worse : for things ( saith he ) are come to that passe , that scarce one in an hundred abstains from the fellowship of women . And Alvarus Pelagius telling sad stories of the incests , uncleannesse and fornications of the Priests and Friers , tells of their gluttony , their idlenesse and ease , their pride and arrogancy , their receiving boys into their houses and cloysters , their conversation with Nunnes and secular women , that it is no wonder there is amongst them so impure a Clergy , that so many good men have complained , and all have been ashamed of it . And therefore upon this account we may consider the evils which the Church suffers by such a law which permits their Clergy to walk in the fire , and commands them not to be burn'd ; or rather not that so much , but they forbid them the use of cold water : I say , we may consider the intolerable scandals , the infinite diminution of spiritual good , the great loss and hazard of souls , when fornicators and adulterers , paederasts and the impurest persons shall by their sermons and common talk dishonour marriage , and at the same time put their polluted hands to the dreadful mysteries , and their tongues to sing hymns to God , and to intercede for the people , who the night before have polluted the temples of the Holy Ghost , and defiled them unto the ground . But I had rather these things were read in the words of other men , and therefore I shall remit the Reader that would see heaps of such sad complaints to the Via Regia of Weicelius , to Andreas Fricius Modrevius de Matrimonio presbyterorum , and in his a Apology , b Albertus Pighius , c Dominicus Soto , the d Centum Gravamina Germaniae , e John Gerson , f Polydore Virgil. Many more might be reckoned , but these are witnesses beyond exception ; especially if we adde that the complaints were made by wise and grave men many ages together , and that their complaints were of an old canker in the Church , that could never be cured , because the spiritual Physitians did see , but would not take the cause away . For this thing we find complain'd of by S. g Bernard , Rupertus Tuitiensis his contemporary , who compares the Clergy of that age to the Nicolaitans , whom God hated for their uncleanness , by the author of the book de singularitate Clericorum attributed to S. Cyprian , by h Guilielmus Durandus in his book de modo concilii Generalis celebrandi , S. Hudelrichus Bishop of Auspurg , who wrote against the constrained single life of Priests to Pope Nicholas , i Robert Holkot , k Nicolaus de Clemangiis , l Petrus de Alliaco , m Tostatus , Platina in the life of Pope Marcellinus . The scandal must needs be notorious and intolerable when so many persons of the ingaged party , of the Roman Church , whence all this mischief came , durst so openly complain , and wish the annulling of the law of single life to the Clergy , or that the spirit of purity were given to all that minister to a pure religion , the religion of Jesus Christ. But the thing it self was it's own indication ; it was a black cloud , and all good men abhorr'd it : for things came to that pass , that the Bishops Officials took annuities from all their parish Priests for licences to keep Concubines ; and if they came to a continent person that told them he kept none , they replied , that yet he must pay , because he might if he would ; as is reported by divers of their own , particularly by the Centum Gravamina , and by Espencaeus in Epist. ad Titum , cap. 1. I end this with the words of Martinus Peresius , Multis piis visum est ut leges de coelibatu tollerentur propter scandala , Many pious persons have thought it necessary that the law of Priests single life should be taken away by reason of the scandals which it brings . For S. Paul was so curious , even in this very instance , that when he had but commended the ease and advantages of the single life to all Christians in regard of the present necessity , and the affairs of religion under persecution , he presently claps in this caution , I speak not this to lay a snare before you , sed vestro commodo : If any of you find it for your ease or advantage , well and good , but at no hand let it be a snare . 2. But that which next is considerable is , that this law is an intolerable burden . So said Paphnutius in the Nicene Council ; he call'd it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; an excess of exactness : and therefore when some Bishops would have had it made into a law , he advis'd the contrary ; Nolite gravare jugum Ecclesiasticorum , Lay not a load upon the Ecclesiastic state ; for marriage is honourable in all men and the bed undefiled : adding , that all cannot bear that institution of life that is void of all affections ; and as he suppos'd , no man should be sav'd in his chastity if husbands were depriv'd of their wives , but that such society was continence and chastity . So Gelasius Cyzicenus tells the story . And though Turrian the Jesuite would fain make the world not believe it ; yet he hath prevail'd nothing . For it is not onely related by Gelasius , but by a Ruffinus , by Socrates , Sozomen , by Aurelius Cassiodorus the b Author of the tripartite history , by c Suidas , d Nicephorus Callistus , and by e Gratian. And the Synod did obey the Counsel . And therefore the third Canon of that Council cannot be understood by any learned man to be a prohibition to the Clergy to marry : it forbids a Bishop , a Priest or Deacon , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to have a woman introduc'd , unless she be a Mother , a Sister , or an Aunt , that is one of whom there can be no suspicion . Mulierem extraneam , a woman that is not a domestic ; so f Ruffinus , g Fulgentius Ferrandus , and the h fourth Council of Toledo expound the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . For by that time the opinion of single life had prevail'd both by right and by wrong ; for in the three hundred years of danger and persecution many that were under the cross would not intangle themselves with secular relations , but fight naked and expedite : but besides this , the Nicolaitans and the Encratitees and the Manichees and the Montanists and the Gnosticks and the Priscillianists had so disgrac'd marriage , and pretended such purities to be in single life , that it was very easy in that conjunction of affairs to insinuate it into the zeale and affections of some less-discerning persons , who not being content to have marriage left at liberty as it was during the whole 300. years , would needs have it imposed : not discerning in the mean time that amongst those who pretended to the purities of coelibate , some would yet bring women into their houses ; so did the Hieracitae , as Epiphanius reports of them , pretending they did not marry them , but made them house-keepers : meer Platonics , or , as they call'd them , sisters ; but they would kiss and embrace tenderly , and sometimes sleep together , but still would be thought Virgins , as we find in an epistle of S. Cyprian , where he commands such persons to be thrust from the Communion of the faithful , unless they would either marry , or leave the communion of their women ( for that gloss had not yet invaded the perswasions of men which since hath prevail'd : Sacerdos-amplectens mulierem , praesumitur benedicere , If a Priest imbrace a woman , it is to be presum'd he onely gives her a blessing . ) And the same S. Chrysostom tells of them in some homily he made against those that brought in such women . They were the companions of their single life ; so Budaeus renders the word : but it was usual amongst the Christians of those ages , Virgins to bring in men , and Monks to bring in women : but these were condemn'd by the Council of Nice ; who yet did not prevail , but that they who might have wives or husbands had rather have such friends and companions , which nevertheless gave infinite scandal and reproach . S. Gregory Nazianzen speaks of them with no good will or commendations at all , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , He neither knew how to call them * , whether married or unmarried , or between both ; but at no hand was that kind of life to be commended : but much less was it to be indured that men by new laws should be crush'd to death or danger under an intolerable burden . This was the sense of the Nicene Council . And the same thing was affirmed by Dionysius Bishop of Corinth to Pinytus Bishop of Gnossus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the heavy yoke of abstinence ought not to be imposed upon the Brethren . And of this the * Chancellor of Paris , a good man and a wise , discourses gravely . Christ our most wise law-giver hath left rituals or Judicials to their choice of whom he said , He that heareth you , heareth me ; but yet so that they should know they are set over others for edification , not for destruction : and that they should judge according to the law of God , which is the general rule for all the professors of Christian religion under Christ who is their General Abbat ; not enlarging it , not restraining it , or making it harder then Christ expressed it when he said his yoke is easy and his burden light . For the Prelates of the Church have not power to bind their subjects to any things which are not delivered in the Evangelical law professed by all Christians ; they have no other authority then Abbats have over their Monks , who , according to the doctrine of S. Thomas and other Doctors , cannot command their Monks any other thing then what they have professed in their Rule . ] Now whether this be a burden or no will need no inquiry , when there is not in all the laws of God so much difficulty as in this very thing ; insomuch that without a special gift of God , it is impossible . I need not to prove this tell the sad stories of some Saints who have fallen foully by the sollicitations of their own nature ; or how that youth , in which age many enter into holy Orders , is a state of flames and danger ; that S. Hierom complains of it in his own particular , Scitis lubricum adolescentiae iter , in quo & ego lapsus sum , he lost his glory of a virgin body when he was young : but I consider that those persons who have undertaken it , and had eminent graces , and were persons of rare and exemplar sanctity , yet could not preserve their virgin without almost destroying their body . Evagrius the Priest us'd to goe into a well in a winters night , S. Bernard into a lake , to cool their burnings : S. Francis us'd to roll his naked body in snows , S. Omar in nettles , S. Benedict upon thorns , S. Martinian upon burning coals , to overthrow the strongest passion by the most violent pains . And were not that law intolerable that should command all Ecclesiastics to doe such things ? They must doe these or worse : I speak of those who have not the gift of continence . For to say that all men have it , or may have it if they will labour and pray for it , is to speak against reason and * Scripture and experience . It is easier to give our bodies to be burn'd for religion , then to live innocently in the state of perpetual burning : and supposing those Saints now enumerated did by these violent remedies keep themselves from pollution , yet it is not certain that they took the better part when they chose ustulation before marriage , expressly against the Apostle , who not onely said , that it is better to marry then to fornicate , but , better to marry then to burn : and that these violences did cure their burning , is so false , that they doe suppose them afflicted with burnings , and that therefore they were constrain'd to use violent remedies ; for those which men invent are infinitely worse then that which God hath appointed ; so easy it was by marriage to cure what they found scarce possible to keep from the extremest mischiefs , but not possible to doe in all degrees , by mortifications . And therefore S. Hierom speaking of Virgins that did not doe honour to their virginity by real continence , he advis'd them , ut aut nubant si se non possunt continere , aut contineant si nolunt nubere , that they would contain if they will not marry , or marry if they cannot contain : not onely if they cannot contain from outward acts of uncleanness , but even from the secret desires of it , and from burnings . Quid enim prodest ( saith he ) corporis pudicitia animo constuprato ? The chastity of the body is of no profit , if the desires be burning and dishonest . Casso saltem delectamine Amare quod potiri non licet . So the burning is well describ'd in the Comedy . Uri est illegitimo coitu aut foedis cogitationibus se polluere , said Alfonsus Virvesius , To burn , is to pollute our self with unlawful mixtures , or with filthy thoughts ; and these desires are not to be cur'd by mortifications and corporal austerities . Nella guerra d' amor chi fuge vince , saith the Italian proverb . There is no contesting against this passion ; even to dispute against it is a temptation , even to fast and to be hungry does enkindle the flame . Fames & sitis exasperat & incendit animos , saith Seneca , Hunger and thirst make a man angry : and anger and lust are fed by the same fuel , — mea cum deferbuit ira Nolo prognatam consule — A spare and temperate diet gives no extraordinary maintenance to the desire , and therefore it was advis'd and practis'd in all ages : but there is enough of desire in ordinary ; even that which maintains health will keep up that natural desire ; and that which destroys health , destroys charity , and hinders us more in the service of God then it can set forward . And S. Hierom saies that he had known them of both sexes who have by too much abstinence turn'd mad , and lost their wits . They that from God's mercy have receiv'd strengths to live singly and purely , may use it as it serves best for God's glory and the interest of their souls , and their own intermedial comforts . But it is to be considered , that it is not onely a gift of God that some men can contain , but it is a peculiar gift that they will : and it is observed by wise and good men , that this desire hath or hath not respectively been inspir'd by the spirit of God in several ages of the Church according to their present necessities ; and when God gives the gift , then every thing wil help it forward . But in the present manners and circumstances of the world , as there is no public necessity of it , so there is no great care taken to acquire it ; for there where the unequal laws of men have brought a necessity upon their Clergy , it is with them as with those of whom Epiphanius complains , Ut ne confundantur apud homines occultè scortantur , & sub solitudinis aut continentiae specie libidinem exercent , They pretend purity in public , and fornicate in private . And it is certain , that such courses are no fit means to invite the spirit of purity to invest and adorn the Church . Neither is prayer a certain way of obtaining this gift , any more then of the gift of a healthful or a strong body ; for God requires it of none of us directly ; if accidentally he does require it , he will give him wherewithall : but therefore the Apostle does not say , But if a man does not contain , let him pray , but let him marry . It is sufficient that God hath given a remedy that is easy and infallible to all that love God ; and it is best to use that remedy which is best , and was by the best Physician provided for all that need . Oportet compati & commetiri doctrinam pro virium qualitate , & hujusmodi qui non possunt capere sermonem de castitate , concedere nuptias , said S. Cyril , Every ones strength must be measured , and so fit our doctrines to their proportions , and to grant marriages to them who cannot receive the word of Continence . And therefore what S. Austin said of Widows may be exactly applied to Ecclesiastics , There are some that call them adulterous if they marry , and so pretend themselves purer then the doctrine of the Apostle , who , if they would confess their name , mundanos potius se quam mundos vocarent , they would prove to be servants of interest rather then of purity . For they compel the Widows [ the Ecclesiastics ] to burnings , because they suffer them not to marry . But we are not to esteem them to be wiser then the Apostle Paul , who saith , I had rather they should marry then burn . And like to this is that of S. Hierom , Si quis consideret virginem suam , i. e. carnem suam , lascivire & ebullire in libidinem , nec refraenare se potest , duplex illi incumbit necessitas , aut capiendae conjugis , aut ruendi , He that considers his Virgin , that is , his flesh , and observes it troublesome and boyling into desires , and cannot refrain himself , hath a double necessity upon him ; either he must take a wife , or he must perish . * And therefore they that pretend the gift of continence is in every mans power , should doe well to give God thanks that they find it so in their own , but yet they should also doe well to believe others who complain that they have it not . S. Bernard's wish was something to the same purpose of charity and security . Utinam qui continere non valent , perfectionē temerariè profiteri , aut coelibatui dare nomina vererentur ; sumptuosa siquidem turris est , & verbum grande , quod non omnes capere possunt , I wish that they who cannot contain , would be afraid to profess perfection , and undertake single life : for this is a costly tower , and a great word that all cannot receive . Aeneas Sylvius having gotten a Lady with child , to his Father that was troubled at it he replies , in sua potestate non fuisse ut vir non esset , he could not help it : and when Origen had resolved to live continently , he found no course but one would doe it , even by making it impossible to be otherwise ; and he was followed by many , particularly by the Valesii : and Leontius , who was afterwards chosen Bp. of Antioch by the Arrians , having a woman in his house , one of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which I spake before , being commanded to put her away , emasculated himself that he might have leave to sleep with her : but that uncharitable folly produc'd a good law against it . For what chastity is that , or what service of God is it for a man to offer to God a single life when he hath made himself naturally impotent ? It is ( that I may use S. Basil's expression ) as if we should commend a horse for not hurting any man with horns . But I observe it for this purpose , to represent upon what terms the gift of continence was to be obtain'd by some who would fain , but by this act shewed plainly that they could not . Propterea leges quae sunt connubia contra Esse malas …… prudentia patrum Non satis advertit … quid ferre recusat , Quid valeat Natura pati . Cervicibus ( aiunt ) Hoc insuave jugum nostris imponere Christus Noluit . Istud onus quod adhuc quamplurima monstra Fecit , ab audaci dicunt pietate repertum . And therefore those laws that command single life to so many thousands of Priests , Italians , Spaniards , Frenchmen , which are none of the most continent nations of Europe , are a snare to those that cannot keep them , and a burden to them that would , and intolerable to both . So Origen complains of some imperious and imprudent persons who in his time would be commanding single life and virginity ; Non solum quae docent non faciunt , sed etiam crudeliter & sine misericordia injungunt aliis majora virtute ipsorum , non habentes rationem virium uniuscujusque , They not onely doe not what they teach , but cruelly and unmercifully injoyn to others things greater then their strength , not regarding the measure of every one . For it is a burden bigger then the weight of all the laws of Jesus Christ put together , except to such persons who are Eunuchs by nature , or have received a particular gift of God ; of which they may make use as they finde other things concurring . For to be able to contain is one gift , and to be willing is another ; and after all , that this can promote any end of religion is but accidental , and depends upon a special providence and Oeconomy of affairs . It may be useful in some times , and to some persons , and to some purposes ; but of it self it is no act of religion , no service of God : and that 's the next consideration . 3. The law of coelibate is an unreasonable law , and besides that it does very much mischief to souls , it does no good at all . For if single life have in it any greater purity or spirituality then chast marriages , yet even that single life is more acceptable when it is chosen and voluntary ; and if it be involuntary and constrain'd , it is not pleasing to God : so that the law in this case does effect nothing but this , that they who are willing may loose something of the reward , or may be uncertain whether they doe or no ; and they that are unwilling are constrained either to hypocrisy , which will bring them an evil reward , or to a burden and slavery which shall bring them none at all . But that which I intended is this , 4. That all this stirre is to no purpose ; for Virginity is not more holy then chast marriage , and the one does not more advance religion then the other directly , but by accident , and in some circumstances , and as an instrument fitted for use in it's own time . For as S. Austin observes well , S. Paul does modestly dehort from marriage , not as from an evil , but as from a burden : ] neither is his advice for all times , but for that present necessity ; neither is it to the Clergy , but to all Christians ; neither is it for religion , but for convenience ; neither was it from the Lord , but from himself ; nothing of the Gospel or spirituality , but a matter of prudence , and the exterior conduct of affairs . For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , marriage is honourable , it is so to all , and such mixtures have in them nothing that defiles , and he that is perfect in his constitution , if he be also so much a Virgin as to have nothing that defiles , is a rare person , but it may be not to be found ; but if he be , yet he does arrive but to that state of things in which the married man is , even when he does actually use his greatest liberty , he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 undefiled . Which thing if the zelots in some of the first ages of the Church had rightly observed , they would not have been so fierce for single life upon the account of heretical principles . For they did it because they suppos'd marriage to be a pollution : and if they did not expressly condemn it upon that stock , yet they secretly suspected it , as not being confident of the truth of the Apostles words , but suffering themselves to be a little abus'd by heretical sermons , though they did not openly joyn in their communions and professions . The Council of Gangra notes such persons as these , that refus'd the communion from the hands of a married Priest ; but in the fourth chapter pronounces anathema against them : and S. Ignatius saies that they who call the society of married pairs corruption , and pollution , have the Devil that great Apostate dwelling in them . For what state of life can be purer then that which is undefiled ? and from whence shall we take the measures of purity but from the fountains of our Saviour , from the holy Scriptures , the springs of salvation ? But to this the first ages of the Church gave apparent witness . Perfecti Christiani edunt , bibunt , contrahunt Matrimonium , said Clemens Alexandrinus , Perfect Christians eat and drink and make marriages : and therefore the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the perfect state of Orders is not at all impugned or diminished by marriage . Sozomen tells of Bishop Spiridion , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , He was a plain man , he had wife and children , but not at all the worse , not at all hindred in Divine things . The same also is said of Gregory Bp. of Nazianzum the Father of S. Gregory the Divine , and S. Basil , Et si matrimonio se vinxit , ita tamen in eo vixit ut nihil propeterea ad perfectam virtutem ac Philosophiam consequendam impediretur . He comported himself so in the state of marriage , that he was not at all hindred for obtaining the perfection of vertue and [ Christian ] philosophy : and indeed what should hinder him ? for marriage does not . Matrimonium non solum nihil nobis obstat ad philosophandum Deo , si voluerimus esse sobrii , sed & magnam adfert consolationem : comprimit enim insanum naturae impetum , nec turbari sinit quasi mare , sed efficit ut scapha feliciter in portum appellet ; & ideo Deus consolationem hanc tribuit humano generi , For if men will be sober , marriage is not onely no hindrance to Christian philosophy , but also brings great aids and comfort . For it represses the mad violences of nature , and causes that we be not troubled like the enraged sea , but makes the vessel arrive safely to her port ; and therefore God hath given this comfort to mankind . For although it be true that , as S. Paul saies , the Married cares for the things of the world , the Unmarried for the things of the Lord ; He , how he may please his wife , This , how he may be holy both in body and in spirit ; yet this is so far from disparaging holy Marriage , or making it less consistent with the dignity and offices ecclesiastical , that in the world there is not a greater argument to the contrary . For consider where every ones trouble , and where their danger lies . The Married hath more necessities and more affairs in the world , and relations to look after : which if he well provides for according to his power , he hath indeed suffered some secular trouble ; but he hath done his duty , & he is safe . But the unmarried is alone , & without those relations ; & therefore they may if they will let the things of the world alone , and mind the present imployment , which then was the ministeries and attendancies Evangelical . But though they have less care of the things of this world ; yet their care which lies in another scene is a good care indeed , but it is very great and tender , and hath in it very great danger . — poenaeque graves in coelibe vita . The Unmarried takes care how she may be holy or clean in body and spirit . And this is a care not onely of greater concernment then that of secular supplies , but to most persons of extreme difficulty and danger . For it is to no purpose to be Unmarried , unless they remain pure in body and in spirit , that is , be free from carnal desires as well as unclean actions : and how great a care is requir'd to this , I need not say , because all men that have tried it know : but this care the Married need not know any thing of ; for they have by God a remedy provided for them , and they are in the holy state of marriage , without that care , holy both in body and mind ; so that it is easy to say where the advantage lies . The one takes care to avoid want , the other to avoid damnation . The one hath troubles of this world , the other hath dangers of the other . The hardest province which the married man hath is how to please his wife ; but his affairs are so well order'd , that he hath not such difficulties to please God as the other hath : which thing was long since observed by S. Gregory Nazianzen , that indeed single life is higher and better ( if it be pure and undefiled ) but it is more difficult and more dangerous , and Marriage , which looks not so splendidly , is yet much more safe . ] But this comparison is true between persons married , and the unmarried that have the gift of continence ; for even that gift does not exempt them from great dangers and great labours . But if there be any burning , if there be a fire within , it is ill dwelling in the house where there is no chimny ; for that the smoak will fill every corner of the dwelling , and at least make a perpetual trouble . But between the married , and the unmarried that hath not the gift of continence , which is far the greatest part of mankind , there is no comparison at all . And therefore though in respect to that conjunction of affairs , to the beginnings of a persecuted religion , in which many of them were to live an ambulatory life , and suffer the spoiling of their goods , and be thrust out of their houses , the Apostle had great reason to take care lest by the greatness and superfetations of trouble they should be tempted to forsake , and be vext out of their religion : yet abstracting from that consideration , the married estate is much more secure for the state of souls , & propter eam quae in nuptiis est animi tranquillitatem ( as S. Gregory Nazianzen affirms ) and for that peace of mind which is in chast marriages , and is not in the state of single life with them who are perpetually fighting with a dangerous enemy , who is not alwaies resisted , and if he be , is not alwaies put to the worst . And therefore it was rightly observed of S. Clemens Alexandr . As [ single life , or ] Continence , so Marriage also hath proper gifts and ministeries which pertain unto the Lord : but at no hand ought it to be admitted that marriage does hinder the service of the Lord ; it sets it forward very much , but hinders nothing ; it may be burdensome to those who are to travel and pass from country to country , but to them who fix in a place , and who attend the ministeries of one people , it is no hindrance ; and then to the direct service of God in our personal piety and spiritual safety it is a very great advantage : concerning which who please may read S. Gregory concerning his mother Nonna , and the Epistles of Paulinus * concerning Amanda the wife of Aper , who were to their husbands admirable advantages both in the affairs of the world and of religion . Sanctissimus Samuel filios genuit : non tamen justitiae suae merita minuit . Zecharias sacerdos vir justus in senectute sua genuit filium . Quâ ergo ratione accusatur , quod minimè obesse probatur ? so S. Austin . To which adde the instance of S. Chrysostome upon those words of Isai , [ I saw the Lord , ] Quis ista loquitur ? Isaias ille spectator coelestium Seraphim , qui cum conjuge commercium habuit , nec tamen extinxit gratiam . Samuel the most holy Prophet , and Zechary that just Priest , and Isaiah that Seer who saw the celestial Seraphim , were not hindred from their greatest graces , favours and perfections by the state and offices of marriage . The event of this consideration I represent in the words of the same excellent Doctor , Quamvis nuptiae plurimum difficultatis in se habeant , it a tamen assumi possunt ut perfectiori vitae impedimento non sint , Though marriage have in it very much difficulty ( in respect of domestic cares ) yet it may be so undertaken that it may be no impediment to a life of perfection . For even in respect of secular cares and intrigues of business the single life , which seems in this to have advantage , is not alwaies found so innocent and disin tangled , and yet some times even in this very regard a married man hath or may have advantages and ease and liberty : Videmus virgines de seculo cogitare , & Matrimonio junctos Dominicis studere operibus , said S. Ambrose , Men of single lives take care for the world , and we see them that are married study the works of the Lord. And if it were otherwise , yet a law to command single life were very imprudent ; unless they could secure that they who have no wives shall have no children . But as Lipsius said of the Roman Senate , who forbad their souldiers to marry , à Junone arcebant eos , non à Venere , Romanae leges , the Roman laws forbad Juno to them , not Venus , for Contubernii militibus semper jus , the souldiers alwaies might have women , but no wives ; so it is amongst the Roman Prelates too much : but unless this also were so denied them , that they could have no children , or that they who have no children shall not be sollicitous to raise a poor family , or to increase a great , the law were very unreasonable as to this very pretence . For that things are otherwise there where single life is injoyn'd is too apparent , and it is complain'd of by a Alvarus Pelagius 300 years agoe , and by b Platina and c Bonaventure , and it is notorious in all the Popes ; divers particulars of which in the instance of Sixtus quintus are to be seen in the excellent d Thuanus . I end this consideration with the excellent words of e Salvian , Novum prorsus est conversionis genus : licita non faciunt , illicita committunt . Temperant à conjugio , & non temperant à rapina . Quid agis stulta persuasio ? peccata interdixit Deus , non matrimonia . This is a new and a strange kind of conversion . They will not doe lawful things , but they commit unlawful : they abstain from marriage , but not from rapine . O ye fools , why are ye so perswaded ? God hath forbidden sins , not marriages . Although these considerations are a sufficient explication of this instance of the Rule , and verify the first intention , that single life ought not by a law to be injoyn'd to any one order of men ; yet because the instance is of great concernment beyond the limits of this Rule , I adde that the Apostles and the first ages of the Church not onely forbad that the Clergy should put away their wives , but left it indifferent for any man , or any order of men to marry : and therefore that it ought not now to be done by the present guides of Churches , who have lesse reason so to doe ; and if they had a greater reason , yet they have a lesse authority . But Christ and his Apostles left it free . Of this besides the matter and evidence of fact , there being no law of Christ or Canon of the Apostles to restrain it , but a plain supposition of liberty , and intimation of the thing done in the Epistles to Timothy and Titus , there needs no other testimony but that of Cratian . Copula sacerdotalis , vel consanguineorum , nec legali , nec Evangelicâ , nec Apostolicâ authoritate prohibetur , Neither the Old Testament nor the New , neither Christ nor his Apostles have forbidden the marriage of Priests . To which agrees that of Panormitan ; Continentia non est de substantia Ordinis , nec de jure Divino , To contain from marriage is not of Divine appointment , nor necessary to them that are in holy Orders . The same also is affirm'd by Antoninus , as who please may see in summa , part . 3. tit . 1. c. 21. Now then nothing remains to be considered but the practice of the Church , which how far it can oblige , I have already discours'd : but suppose it might in other cases , yet for the reasons above describ'd it ought to be altered in this ; for if such a law may not bind , much lesse can the practice ; and yet if the practice might , here was no Catholick practice . For as for the whole Greek Church , the practice of that is drawn into a compendium by Pope Stephen . Aliter se Orientalium traditio habet Ecclesiarum , aliter hujus S. R. Ecclesiae : Nam illarum Sacerdotes , Diaconi & Subdiaconi matrimonio copulantur . The tradition of the Eastern Churches is otherwise then that of the Roman Church : For their Priests and Deacons and Subdeacons are joyned in marriage . I shall therefore adde no more to this confession but the Canon of the Council of Ancyra , which orders that if Deacons in their ordination will professe that they cannot contain , and that they intend to marry , they may . But if then they professe otherwise , and doe against their profession , they must cease from their Ministery . And the practice is to this day , that the Greek and all the Eastern Priests ; are if they please , married men , and most of them actually are so : though in the Eastern Churches they always did exhort their Clergy to continence , yet they left it to their liberty , and they always took it . In the Latine Church , from the time of Pope Siricius , and the second Council of Arles , which Binius makes about the same time , at the end of the fourth Age after Christ , there were some canons provincial injoyning single life to the Clergy ; but the practice was ever against the Canon : and as for the first 400. years or thereabouts , all had liberty to be married if they pleas'd , so even afterwards they would take it , as they saw cause . This we find in S. Hierom , who to Jovinian , objecting the marriage of Samuel , answers , that this was no prejudice to the honour of the virgin-state , quasi non hodie quoque plurimi Sacerdotes habeant Matrimonia , & Apostolus describat Episcopum unius uxoris virum ; ] for the Apostle describes a Bishop the husband of one wife , and even at this day most Priests are married . S. Hierom did not contend that all Priests ought to be virgins ; but that if they that could contain , would , it were much better . But by this , the matter of fact against the law was evident . S. Ambrose tells that in most remote or private Churches the Priests did use marriage : In plerisque abditioribus locis , cum ministerium gererent vel etiam sacerdotium , filios susceperunt . The clerical marriages were in his time almost universal : and therefore many endeavoured to persuade single life as much as they could , and from arguments they came to affirmations , and so to laws by little and little ; but did not prevail . For when Petrus Damiani was sent from Rome into France to persuade the Priests to put away their wives , they defended themselves with the Canon of the Council of Tribur in Germany , and with the words of S. Paul , To avoid fornication , let every man have his wife ; to which the Legate knew not what to answer . And when in the year 1074 Pope Gregory the seventh sent fierce letters to Germany about the same affair , the Arch-Bishop of Mentz , to whose conduct the businesse was committed , did publish the letters , but durst not verify them ; and neither by fair means nor by foul could cause the Priests to put away their wives . And in England till the year 1100 it was not prohibited to the Clergy to marry , saith Henry of Huntingdon : but then Anselme endeavour'd to put the Popes letters in execution ; and 25 yeares after the Cardinal of Crema was sent over to the same purpose : but because he was taken in bed with an harlot , he got nothing but shame and money , and so went away . But at last , after the attempts * & pressures and tyranny and arts of an hundred and thirty years continuance ( for it began in 970 , and was not finished till An. Dom. 1100 , as † Polydor Virgil computes it ) the Clergy was driven from their chast marriages , & they took themselves to Concubines , whom they could change or multiply , and they found themselves undisturbed in that ; and so they rested , till God being long provok'd by their impurest services , awakened Christian Princes and Priests into liberty and holinesse and reformation . For amongst the Canons which are called Apostolical , the sixth severely forbids Bishops or Priests upon pretence of religion to put away their wives , ] according to the words of Christ , What God hath joyned , let no man put asunder ; and the words of the Apostle , Defraud not one another , unlesse it be by consent , and for a time . And therefore the Church of Rome , which makes orders to dissolve marriage , and commands Priests which before were married to depart from their wives , speaks and does against the practice of the Ancient Churches , and against the decrees of Councils , and the Canons of the Apostles , and the expresse laws of Jesus Christ. I end this with the saying of those in Mantuan , Tutius esse volunt quâ lex Divina sinebat Isse viâ , veterumque sequi vestigia Patrum , Quorum vita fuit melior cum conjuge , quam nunc Nostra sit exclusis thalamis & conjugis usu . The old primitives and holy Bishops and Priests in the first ages liv'd better with their wives , then now-a-days they doe without them ; and therefore it were better to tread in their footsteps , and to walk in that way to which we are pointed by the law of God. One thing I am to adde which is of material consideration . For every one observes in the story of the Church , that even then when they did permit the Bishops and Priests to live with their wives and to get children , yet the Church did even then forbid Bishops or Priests to marry after their Ordination ; and therefore many suppose that we might at least comply so far with the Catholick Church , according as it is set down in the constitutions Apostolical attributed to S. Clement , Non licere autem iis , si post ordinationem sine uxore fuerint , ad nuptias transire : vel si uxores habuerint , cum aliis conjungi ; but they must be content with her whom they had at the time of their ordination ; but after orders they must not marry : and Paphnutius in the Nicene Council , said that they did not doe it , and left it as suppos'd that it ought not . Of this I doe not know any one that hath given a reason , or considered it apart to any purpose ; and therefore it will not be uselesse or unpleasant if I give a short account of it . 1. Therefore the Primitive Church chose her Priests and Bishops commonly of great age , of known vertue and holinesse . They were designed to a publick and dangerous imployment , for some whole ages they were under persecution , and the way of the crosse was a great deletery to flesh and bloud ; and therefore they might the rather require it of them whom in these dispositions they found fit to be taken into an imployment which would require a whole man , all his time and all his affections . Now if we consider that the married Priests and Bishops were commanded to retain their wives , and the unmarried had been tried to be of a known and experienc'd continence , they might with much reason and great advantages require that they should so remain ; that is , they might ask their consent , and might trust their promise : for here was liberty , and but little danger . The Priests were few , and the unmarried much fewer , and their age commonly such as was past danger , and the publick affairs of the Church requir'd it , and the men were willing ; and then all was right . 2. The Greek Church , and generally the Churches of the East , did by Custome and tradition oblige their Priests to single life , if in that state they were ordain'd , because they took care that if they could not contain they should take a wife before their Orders , immediately if they pleas'd , and then enter into the Priesthood ; as appears frequently in the Greek laws and Canons , and particularly in the third Novel constitution of the Emperor Leo the sixth . So that this was but a circumstance of law , introduc'd for that which they apprehended to be decent : and in matters of decency , opinion is the onely measure . But if they might marry immediately before their ordination and live with their wives , then it is evident they did not believe that either the offices or the state of marriage were against the offices and state of Priesthood . And this is affirm'd by Cajetan , Nec ordo in quantum ordo , nec ordo in quantum sacer , est impeditivus Matrimonii , Neither the order nor the appendant holinesse , that is , neither the office nor it's decency , are impeded by holy marriages . ] And therefore he addes [ that it can never be prov'd by reason or by authority , that if a Priest does contract marriage , he does absolutely sin ; because the Priesthood does not dissolve the marriage , whether contracted after or before ; stando tantum in iis quae habemus à Christo & Apostolis , that is , if we keep our selves within the limits of Christs Commandements , and the doctrine Apostolical . ] And that 's well enough ; for if any Church or all Churches did otherwise , the Custome was not good for many reasons : it did dishonour to marriage , it made it to be secretly suspected of some uncleannesse , it gave too much countenance to heretics who disparag'd it , it made a snare to those who promised continence and found it difficult or impossible , and at last it came to an intolerable mischief in the Church of Rome , it brought in divorces , which God hates ; for they teach that Orders does dissolve Marriage , and that which Christ onely permitted in the case of adultery , they command in the case of ordination . 3. But because there are some persuasions that will not be mov'd unlesse they be shewn some precedents and practices of the Primitive Church , and will always suspect it to be ill for the superior Clergy to marry after ordination , unlesse you can tell them that some good men did so before them , for they rely more upon example then upon rule ; therefore I shall represent that although the ancient Canons and practices did generally injoyne their Clergy not to marry after Orders , ( before orders they might ) yet this thing did not prevail , but Deacons , Priests and Bishops , good men and orderly , did after ordination use their liberty , as they found it necessary or expedient . This I have already remark'd in the case of Deacons , who are permitted by the Council of Ancyra to marry after ordination , if at their ordination they will not professe continence . But Bishops and Priests did so too : which is plainly gathered from those words of S. Athanasius to Dracontius , who refus'd to be made Bishop because he impertinently thought it was not so spiritual a state as that of Monks , since he saw the Bishops married men and full of secular affairs : S. Athanasius answer'd him , that he might be Bishop for all that , and keep on his way as he was before : for if that did hinder him , he let him know , that all Bishops did not enter into the married estate , nor all Monks abstain . Multi quoque ex Episcopis Matrimonia non inierunt ; Monachi contrà liberorum patres facti sunt , Many Bishops did not contract marriages . Now if none did , his answer to Dracontius had been more full , and would not have been omitted ; but therefore it is manifest that in his time some did . But Cassiodore gives an instance in a Bishop and Martyr that took a wife but a little before his Martyrdome , Eupsychius of Caesarea in Cappadocia . In illo tempore ferunt Martyrio vitam finivisse Eupsychium Caesareensem , ductâ nuper uxore , cum adhuc quasi sponsus esse videretur . He was first a Priest in Caesarea , but afterwards he was a Bishop ; and so he is called by S. Athanasius , who mentions Sylvester and Protogenes Bishops of Dacia , and Leontius and Eupsychius Bishops of Cappadocia , of which Caesarea was the Metropolis . This Eupsychius having newly married a wife , while he was yet but as it were a bridegroom , gave up his life in Martyrdome for Christ. But this was no news in the Greek Church ; For Pope Stephen having affirm'd that the Greek Priests , Deacons and Subdeacons are joyn'd in marriage , the gloss saies , Multi ex hac litera dixerunt quod Orientales possunt contrahere in sacris Ordinibus , Many from these words have affirmed that the Easterlings can marry in holy Orders . And it is also added by the glosse upon the same distinction , that the Greeks in their ordinations doe promise continence neither explicitly nor tacitly : and if that be true , there is no peradventure but very many of them marry after their consecrations . But because the Latin lawyers and Canonists are none of the best historians , we may better inform our selves in this particular from the Greeks themselves : amongst whom we find that for almost two hundred years together after the Synod in Trullo , the Greek Priests had after their Ordination two years time for probation whether they could bear the yoke of single life , and if they could not , they had leave to marry . For although the Canons in Trullo had permitted them onely to stay with the wives they had married before Orders , and commanded that they should take none after ; yet the Canon prevail'd not , but the contrary custome of two years probation lasted till the time of the Emperor Leo the sixth , as appears in his third Novel constitution before cited . The words are these , Consuetudo quae in praesenti obtinet , iis qui in Matrimonio conjungi in animo est concedit , ut antequam Uxorem duxerint , Sacerdotes fieri possint , & deinde biennium ad perficiendam voluntatem jungi Matrimonio volenti praestituit . They took their Orders first , and then had two years time to consider whether they would marry or no. Now this being the custome of the whole Greek Church , in which the Bishops because of the ordinations were engaged . it is evident it was not illegal or irregular , but an approved custome of the Church ; though before the end of two hundred years after the Synod in Trullo it was decreed against by an Imperial law . What became of it afterwards I have had no opportunity to inquire ; but I find contrary relations by several persons . That which I most rely upon is the relation of Erasmus , who in his Apology against the Parisians saies that in Venice he saw a Greek Priest marry a wife : and in the history of Johannes Magnus I find these words , Wilhelmi Cardinalis prima cura & intentio fuit revocare Suecos & Gothos à schismate Graecorum in quod Presbyteri & Sacerdotes ductis publicè uxoribus consensisse videbantur , Cardinal William endeavoured to recover the Suedes and Goths from the schism of the Greeks , to which they seem'd to adhere when their Priests and Bishops did marry wives publicly . By which it appears the Greeks did so , since the others by so doing complied with them . And the Metropolitan of Russia in Sigismundus Baro cals it a great error and sin in the Roman Church , that they reject the Priests who marry wives according to the laws . But the matter is not great ; for the Church might doe what they saw cause for . But in the Latine Church it will be harder to find examples of Priests marrying after Orders . Not but that there were very many that did ; but that they durst not be known to doe it . But yet some notices we have even of this also . For Pope Innocentius the second observ'd that every where Bishops and Priests , and the Religious professed did marry wives after they had purpos'd the contrary , and by a Decretal restrains it . And Ivo Bishop of Chartres tels of a Prelate that had two harlots ; but ( as it should seem ) being weary of that life , he prepar'd Matrimonial Tables for a third : and he tels also of a Canon in the Church at Paris who did actually contract marriage , and the Bishop held it rate and firm , that it was good and could not be dissolv'd : and we find that Aeneas Sylvius being consulted by a Priest that was in the snare , he advis'd him actually to take a wife and marry . For what should hinder ? The law of the Church was an evil law , made by an authority violent and usurp'd , insufficient as to that charge , it was not a law of God , it was against the rights and against the necessities of nature , it was unnatural and unreasonable , it was not for edification of the Church , it was no advantage to spiritual life : it is a law that is therefore against public honesty because it did openly and secretly introduce dishonesty ; it had nothing of the requisites of a good law , it had no consideration of humane frailty nor of humane comforts , it was neither necessary nor profitable nor innocent , neither fitted to time nor place nor person ; it was not accepted by them that could not bear it , it was complain'd of by them that could ; it was never admitted in the East , it was fought against and declaim'd and rail'd at in the West , and at last is laid aside in the Churches ( especially ) of the North , as the most intolerable and most unreasonable tyranny in the world ; for it was not to be endur'd , that upon the pretence of an unseasonable perfection , so much impurity should be brought into the Church , and so many souls thrust down to hell . And therefore when the Latine Priests saw themselves so horribly insnar'd , they did secretly corrode the net , which openly they durst not tear in pieces . And the case is clear . Dominicus a Soto observing that the Church did not for a long time permit Priests to marry after Orders , argues thus . The Church admitted married men to be Priests , but did not admit Priests to be married men , meaning afterwards : which thing ( saith he ) relies upon no other reason but this , Because they suppos'd the use of the marriage-bed to be inconsistent with the office and dignity of a Priest or Bishop . For if they who were Bishops and Priests might use marriage , what hinders them but that they might after Orders enter upon marriage ? ] That 's his argument . To which I reply , That it is true , the Church , which was aemula continentiae , desirous to promote continence , did set it forwards where she thought she might with safety , and therefore injoyn'd her Priests , which anciently could not be ordain'd till they were almost 40. years of age , to remain in that state in which their ordination found them : though even this was a snare also , and could not be observed , and was not ( as I have proved ) yet this was not because they disapproved the conjugal society ; for besides that the Scripture gives it a title of honour , and calls it purity ; it was also declar'd to be chastity in the Nicene Council , who did therefore leave married Priests & Bishops to the use of it : and they who spake against the use of marriage in Priests and refus'd to pray with married Priests , were anathematiz'd in the Council of Gangra . And it is evident that those who were admitted in the state of marriage to holy Orders did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beget children . S. Gregory the Divine tels it of his Father , Gregory Nazianzen , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . That he said he had been in holy Orders longer then the age of his son , and yet he had also a yonger son then this Gregory ; for Caesarius was his yonger brother . Baronius contends fiercely against this instance to convince the son of a Poetical fiction , or an hyperbole , or some other civil word for a lie . But let it be as it was ; yet the thing it self was infinitely evident : for as Fabianus said , Bishops and Priests did for a thousand years together in the Church live with their wives , nullâ lege prohibente , no law forbidding it , that is , no law in force ; and the Council of C P. decreed , Si quis praesumpserit contra Apostolicos Canones aliquos Presbyterorum & Diaconorum privare à contactu & communione legalis uxoris suae , deponatur . It is against the Canons Apostolical to forbid a Priest or Deacon the contact and society of his lawful wife ; and he that shall presume to doe it , let him be depos'd . Now then the argument of Dominicus à Soto is very good . If Bishops and Priests might use marriage , what hinders them from contracting marriage ? There is no undecency in the thing , therefore no inconsistency with Orders . Since therefore it is certain that the married Bishops and Priests not onely in the Greek Church , but even in the Latine , in Germany , in France , in England , where they kept their wives in despite of the Pope for a long time , did retain the liberties and societies of marriage ; there can be nothing in the thing that can make it unfit for them to contract marriages , to whom it is fit to use them . There is but one thing more which I think fit to be considered in this affaire , and that is , that there is a pretence of a vow of Continence annexed to holy Orders ; and that therefore it is not lawful for Bishops and Priests to marry , when they have vowed the contrary . * This indeed concerns them who have made such a vow ; but not them that have not . But who made it necessary that persons to be ordain'd should make such a vow ? even they onely that made laws against the Clergies marriage ; and because they durst not trust the laws which they made , they took order that men should become a law unto themselves , that they might be insnar'd to purpose . This vow was onely introduc'd in the Latine Church , and injoyn'd to all her Clergy . Injoyn'd , I say , against the nature of a vow , which if it be not voluntary , is no vow ; which includes desire in its very name and nature . But Orders doe not include this vow in their nature , and it were intolerable that men should be forc'd from their wives against both their wills : that 's a persecution , not an ordination , and it is so far from being for the advantage of the Church , that it is expressly against a Commandement of God , that what he hath joyn'd , any man should separate : and yet we find many in the primitive Churches by force made Priests and Bishops against their wills . S. Augustin was taken at Tagasta and made Priest whether he would or no , but he was not married ; but another good man was . Pinianus , the husband of Melania , was ordain'd against his will and the tears of his wife . Paulinianus , the brother of S. Hierom , was first made Deacon by Epiphanius , and then made Priest , and they were forc'd to stop his mouth that he might not deny it . And can it be thought that these men did in this violence make a vow of single life ? or can these be fitting circumstances for a vow ? But I shall not insist upon the particulars of this : because if they should make such a vow , yet if they found it to be a snare , and impossible to be kept , they had not onely leave , but a necessity to break it . If the vow was constrain'd and prov'd impossible , it was the less sin in the taking , and none in the breach of it . But if it was voluntary , it was rash , unless they had been sure the thing had been in their power ; and then if it proves not to be so , the fault is not in the breach but in the undertaking . Quod si perseverare nolunt , vel non possunt , melius est ut nubant , quam ut in ignem deliciis suis cadant ; certè nullum fratribus aut sororibus scandalum faciant . So S. Cyprian advises the professed Virgins . If they will not , or cannot persevere , it is better that they marry , then fall into the fire and into burning ; onely let them give no scandal , meaning by their unchast lives . And Epiphanius expressly , Melius est lapsum à cursu palam sibi uxorem accipere secundum leges . If a man have undertaken a load too heavy , and fals with it , it is better to lay it aside , and openly to take a wife . The same counsel is given by S. Hierom , by S. Austin , and by Alfonsus Virvesius a Divine of the Roman Church . To which I shall adde nothing of my own but this , That if the holy vow of marriage , appointed and confirm'd and accepted by God , may yet be dispens'd with and annull'd , much more may the vow of virginity and single life . If the adultery of the wife makes the husbands vow and promise to be void ; much more may his own adultery or fornication make void his vow of single life . If for the dishonour of his house , and the introduction of bastards into his temporal possessions , he is absolved from his vows of wedlock which God certainly did approve and appoint ; much more may his vow be null when there is danger or ruine to his soul. A man may lawfully live with an adulterous wife ; and yet he may chuse , and his vow does not oblige him : but he cannot safely live with burnings , he cannot lawfully abide in fornication and uncleanness . For Who can dwell with the everlasting burning ? It were not unseasonable to consider the Ecclesiastical law against the second marriages of Priests , or the ordaining them who have married the second time . But this also relying upon the humor of men , who will be more pure then God , and more righteous then the law of Christ , and more wise then the Apostle , it may be determin'd by the same considerations . The law is a snare , * it is in an incompetent matter , * it is a restraint of that liberty which Christ hath left , * it cannot be fitted to time and place , and yet remain a law ; because there are so many necessities to be served , and so many favourable cases to be consider'd , that the exceptions may be more then the Rule . * It may also be considered that to make second marriages a cause of irregularity , or incapacity of receiving holy Order , is nothing but a secret accusation and an open reproach to marriage ; * that it was not of use and avail in the primitive Church , Tertullian witnessing , apud vos digami ubique praesident , in the Catholic Church Bishops twice married doe every where govern ; that Cauterius a Spanish Bishop was twice married ; that S. Hierom affirms that all the world was full of such or dinations , not only of Deacons and Priests , but of Bishops , and that he could reckon so many as would excell the number of the Bishops conven'd in the Council of Ariminum ; * that S. Augustin had fornicated with two several women , and yet he was made Priest and Bishop for all that ; * and to deny that to holy marriages which is not denied to unholy fornications , will be a doctrine unfit for the honour of Christian a schools ; * that the second marriage is as holy as the first ; * that it may be as necessary * and as usefull ; * that it is always as lawfull ; * that the Canon of the Apostle , that a Bishop should be the husband of one wife , is intended against plurality of wives at once , and marrying after divorces , both which were usual amongst the Jews and Greeks and Romans , and could not at first be taken away from the new-converted Christians ; * that it was so expounded by S. Chrysostom , Theodoret , b S. Hierom , and divers others , but especially by the Greek Fathers ; * that not onely the first marriages are blessed by God , but the second and the third , as S. Austin observes ; * that S. Clemens of Alexandria affirmed , that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Digamy after a vow to the contrary is an irregularity , not for the contact and conjunction , but for the lye ; * that the Church of Rome does without scruple frequently ordain them that have been twice married , if they will pay the price appointed in the Chancery tax , as is witnessed by one that knew very well ; * that if the Apostle had forbidden it by a Canon , yet that Canon did no more oblige the descending ages of the Church then the other Canons which we see broken in every Church , according to their reason or their liberty ; * that in the Primitive Church they were not very sollicitous about the affaires of marriage , because they suppos'd the end of all things was at hand : Crescite & multiplicamini evacuavit extremitas temporis ; * that it was a blot in the face of the Primitive Church that they would not blesse second marriages ; * that it was most rationally and elegantly complained of by S. Bernard ; * that second marriages are not a signe of incontinence but the cure , * or if they were a signe of an incontinent body , they are a sure signe of a continent mind , that will at no hand admit any uncleannesse ; * that a great liberty permitted is infinitely to be preferr'd before a little prevarication of a Divine law , * and therefore that second marriages are to be permitted to the Clergy , rather then evil thoughts , or the circles of an inward fire ; * that the prohibition of the ordination of persons after the second marriages did rely upon the opinions of holinesse that was in the Ecclesiastical order above the lay purity , and the unholinesse of marriage in respect of single life ; * that in whatsoever sense the former can be true , yet the latter is a branch of Montanisme , and a product of the heresy of Tatianus ; * that Theodoret did ordain Irenaeus that was twice married ; * that he defends the fact by the consent and suffrages of the Bishops of Phoenicia , * & saies that he insisted in the footsteps of his Ancestors , * & produces for his precedent , Alexander of Constantinople , Acacius of Beroea , and Praylus of Caesarea , who ordained Domnus after his second marriage ; * that the chief of the Diocese of Pontus did so , * and all the Bishops of Palestine ; * that they accounted it holy according to the opinion and doctrine of their Nation , * for so we read in Maimonides , Although a man have fulfilled the precept concerning the multiplication of mankind , yet neverthelesse it is prescribed in the sayings of the Scribes , that no man should cease from the multiplication of his kind , so long as he can well continue it ; for whosoever shall adde a soul to Israel . is like him that buildeth up the world . And it is moreover in the sayings of the wise men , that a man should not keep a house without a wife , lest he be provok'd by lust . * It may also be considered that he that burns had better marry , though he have been already married , and though he be a Bishop ; * that the virgin or widow estate is no where commanded , but that in some cases marriage is , as in that of burning ; * that in Scripture no chastity or continence is requir'd of a Bishop but the Matrimonial ; * that Abraham the Father of the faithfull was married again after the death of Sarah ; * that S. Joseph the supposed Father of our B. Lord was by the Ancients said to be twice married ; * and lastly , that it is confessed that the forbidding second marriages to the Clergy , and refusing to ordain such as have been twice married , is neither of the law of nature , nor any article of faith , nor any necessity of the Sacrament ; it is onely a constitution of the Church , which as the Pope binds on , so he may take off as he please , as is affirmed by a Aquinas , b Durandus , c Gabriel Vasquez and others : and therefore this law also ought to be cancell'd ; but if it be not annull'd by expresse revocation , it is unjust , and unreasonable , and unnecessary , and a snare to consciences , and is not the circumstance of a thing commanded , but of that which ought to be left at liberty , and therefore is no measure or proper band of conscience ; but to us it is an obligation neither in conscience nor in law . But Haec ideo volui nostris intexere chartis , Ut quoties Patres… . coeunt Sint memores , magno ad leges opus esse ferendas Ingenio , multis oculis , examine recto . I have given these instances not onely to fix the Conscience in these great inquiries , but by these to explicate the measures of the Rule . §. V. Of Ecclesiastical Laws of FAITH , or Articles of confession . RULE XXI . The Catholic Church is a witnesse of Faith , and a record of all necessary truths ; but not the Mistresse and Ruler of our Creed ; that is , cannot make any laws of Faith. IN our inquiries of faith we doe not run to the Catholic Church desiring her to judge our questions ; for she can never meet together ; and she is too great a body to doe single acts and make particular sentences : but to her we run for conduct , by inquiring what she believes , what she hath receiv'd from Christ and his Apostles . So that the Authority of the Catholic Church is resolved into Catholic tradition . Whatsoever can be made to appear to have been by the Apostles taught , & consigned to the Church , that is a law of faith . But of this I have already given accounts . * The Catholic Church , taking in the Apostolical , that is , the Church of all ages , is a witnesse beyond exception . For if she have the Spirit of God , if she love truth , and if she doe not consent to deceive her self , she cannot be deceiv'd in giving testimony concerning matter of fact and actual tradition : or if she could , yet we are excused in following that testimony , because we have no better , we have no other . Better then our best , and better then all we have , we cannot be oblig'd to use : but therefore we have the justice and the goodnesse , our own necessity and the veracity of God for our security , that this is a sure way for us to walk in . But then when this is reduc'd to practice in matters of belief , it will come to this onely , That she bears witnesse to the Scriptures , that they are the word of God ; but beyond what is contain'd in Scripture , she hath no article of faith . The consequent of this which I have largely prov'd and explicated in the place above cited , is , that all her Sermons and all her explications of doctrines must be by that measure . If it be agreeable to Scripture , it is that which she hath received : but if she hath not received it , she cannot make a doctrine , nor deliver a proposition with authority , nor oblige the conscience . But this Rule if it be understood of the Catholic Church of this or any one present age , will not signify so much : for unlesse the Tradition be delivered in a constant succession from the Apostles , the Church is not a certain witnesse , but makes her self a Judge of truth ; which she can never doe , but by relating to the Scriptures , by shewing there it is , in the Code which she hath received . But when any doubt does arise concerning any matter of belief , the Catholic Church hath no solemn Court of judicature or place of resort where a single person may goe for determination . And if a question be between Church and Church , as between Rome and England , the question is , which is the Catholic Church ; for indeed neither of them is : and there is no such thing then as a Catholic Church to determine the question : as when the head and the belly , the mouth and the armes fell out , the whole body could not be judge of the controversy ; but if they had had a rule , thither they might goe to be guided . And if it be asked , who shall expound the rule , there is no other answer to be given , but to desire men to be good and humble , to pray to God , and without partiality to desire truth ; and then every man will be able to answer his own question . For if the Rule be hard , it is hard to them that are not willing and soft and compliant ; but not to the gentle and the humble , to them that follow God in simplicity and whithersoever he will lead them . But it is to be considered that the Church is a Net that hath in it ●ishes good and bad , it is a field of corn and tares ; and but that the Apostles were guided by an infallible spirit , there could have been no certainty : bu● then after them there was no more to be look'd for ; what they left we were to use , but to look for no more . For the Catholic Church never was since the Apostles time without error . By Catholic Church , I doe not mean the right believing part of the Church , ( for in questions of faith the dispute was which was the right believing part ) but I mean all that professe the faith of Christ , who when they are divided will never allow the opposite party to be their Judge : and therefore it cannot be suppos'd that God should appoint one to be the Judge , who must always be suppos'd a party , and will never be accepted by the other , unlesse he had given infallibility to that one part , and we had all known it . To the Apostles he did , and they were the fountains of tradition : but when they were gone , the onely way that was left was to see what they left , and to that every part was to conform ; but neither part was Judge , except onely for themselves : and in this every part ought to be trusted , because they onely had the biggest concern to take care that they be not deceived . No man or company of men was charged with them ; every Government was charg'd with it's own care and conduct . But I shall not insist upon this , because it can be of no use in the conduct of conscience . Because if ever there be a dispute in the Church , there is no Catholic Church to which we can goe : and if we call that the Catholic Church which is the greater part , that may deceive us ; for in the days of Elias almost all Israel had corrupted himself , and in the time of the Arrians almost all the world was Arrian ; and at this day a very great part of the Catholic Church is stain'd with the horrible errors and follies of Popery : and besides our notices are so little and narrow of the belief of Christendome , our entercourses so small , our relations so false , our informations so partial , that it is not possible for us to know what is the belief of the major part . It is not known at this day by the Doctors of the Roman Church what is the practice of the Greek Churches in the Marriage of their Priests , nor what is their doctrine of Purgatory , nor of the procession of the holy Ghost , as appears in their disputes & contrary narratives of these particulars . We cannot tell in England at this day whether the Lutheran Churches have right Ordinations and perfect succession of Bishops in their Churches . I have endeavoured very much to inform my self in the particular , and am not yet arrived to any certain notice of it . This therefore , to appeal to the sense of the major part of the Church in a question , will signify nothing at all as to our conscience . Especially if to this we adde , that the Churches have got a trick of Empire and imposing their sometimes false , and always unnecessary articles upon all of their communion ; and then the faith of the Church will depend upon the opinion of the chief and principals : and then their belief will be like a rumour spread from a few mouths into the ears of millions , who , though they all tell the same story , yet are no more credible for their multitude then the first reporters were for their authority . Nay in most places men dare not speak what they think , and dare not believe what they find dangerous , and dare not inquire into what they dare not disbelieve ; so that if you had been at Trent and ask'd the Fathers , it would have signified nothing : for whatever their belief was , they were born down by the Congregations , and the Congregations by the Legates , and the Legates by the Pope ; and that 's the Catholic Church . It remains therefore that we are from the Catholic Church to expect no other determination of our questions , but by conveying to us notice of the doctrines Apostolical . And this is often and largely discours'd and taught by a S. Irenaeus , by S. Clement b in Eusebius , by c Tertullian , by d Origen , e S. Cyprian , f S. Athanasius , g S. Basil , h Epiphanius , i S. Hierom , k S. Austin , and l Vincentius Lirinensis : what they could derive from the fountains Apostolical by a clear chanel and conduit , that was first , and that was true , and that was in the rule , and that was the measure of faith . And therefore when in the Council of Ephesus the Epistle of Capreolus the Bishop of Carthage was read for the establishment of antiquity , and the reproof of the new doctrines , all the Bishops cried out , Hae omnium voces sunt , haec omnes dicimus , hoc omnium votum est . This was the voice of them all , they all said the same thing : and what was that which they all affirm'd , nisi ut quod erat antiquitus traditum , teneretur ? quod adinventum nuper , exploderetur ? saith Vincentius , that what is ancient and at first deliver'd , that should be held ; that which is lately invented should be exploded . For the Church cannot determine questions by way of judgment and authority , but by way of attestation , and as a witnesse onely of the doctrine Apostolical . There is nothing else necessary , and nothing else is practicable . RULE XXII . The Decrees of General Councils are of great use in the Conduct of Conscience , but not the proper measure , or last determination of matters of belief . I Before * considered Councils as they had acquir'd an accidental authority by the veneration of their age , and their advantage of having been held in the elder ages of the Church : Now I consider them in their own proper and immediate pretence . I then consider'd them in order to Government , but now in order to faith : for Councils Ecclesiastical have pretended to a power over the conscience , so as to require both the obedience of the will , and the obedience of the understanding . Concerning which I am to say , that Nothing can oblige to Divine faith but a Divine authority : to which Councils can no more pretend for being General , then for being Provincial ; and to which great assemblies have no other title or pretence of promise then the private congregations of the faithfull , who though but two or three , yet shall be assisted by the Divine presence . But General Councils are so wholly of humane institution , that though by the dictate of right reason and natural wisedome they are to be conven'd ; yet to make them a formal judicatory , and to give them a legislative power or a dominion and magistery in faith , there are so many conditions requir'd both to their indiction and convention , to their constitution and integrity , to their conduct and proceeding , to their conclusion and determination , that men are not to this day agreed about any one of them ; and therefore they cannot be a legal judicatory obliging any but them that doe consent , and so oblige themselves . But yet they are of great use for inquiry and consultation : and therefore Eusebius speaking of Constantine the Emperour , says of him , Concilium generale tanquam Dei exercitum instruens , in unum locum coegit . A General Council is God's army ; and being a representative of the Church in the same degree as it is General and rightly called , and rightly order'd , and rightly proceeding , it partakes of the Churches appellation ; it is acies ordinata , terrible as an army with banners . Let them be as many as it happens , in the multitude of Counsellors there is safety ; that is , they are more likely to understand truth then single persons , for they are not so soon prejudic'd and corrupted : as a river is harder to be poyson'd or to be turn'd aside , then a pail of water or a dish-full ; but if it be , it is so much the worse . But if they proceed rightly they are excellent helps , and some of them have done great good to the Church , and some have done great mischief ; and which have , and which have not , we are to inquire by other instruments : so that we are to judge concerning them , and then they are to be guides to us ; that is , we consider which are fittest to be followed , of which we judge by General and extrinsic considerations , and then we follow them in the particular inquiry ; that is , we follow them because we think they followed the Apostles , and were faithfull witnesses of their doctrine . Which indeed is an excellent benefit which we may receive by the first and most Ancient Councils , which were near the fountains : they could trace all the new pretences up to their original , they discussed the doctrines in their provinces , they heard what any one could say , they carried it to the General assembly , they compared it with the tradition and doctrine of other Churches , and all together were able very well to tell how the Apostles had taught the Churches of their foundation . And because the four first General Councils did , or are suppos'd to have done so , therefore they have acquir'd a great , but an accidental authority , and are accepted by the most part of Christendome , and made into humane laws of faith , and the measures of heresy . Such use as this the conscience can make of the Ancient Councils ; but beyond this or some such good use as this the conscience is at no hand oblig'd to follow their determinations as the sentence of a competent judge , but as of an authentick witnesse , when it can appear or be credible that it can be so , and is so . And this was the very thing that S. Athanasius affirm'd of the Nicene Council , Siquidem Nicaena Synodus non temere habita est , ut quae habeat gravissimos usus & legitimam rationem . The Nicene Synod was of great use . They met about the question of Easter and the Arian heresy . Sed in negotio Paschatis non abhorruerunt ab istiusmodi appendice . Ibi enim placuit ut adderetur , Visum est ut omnes obtemperarent . De Fide verò non scripserunt , Visum est ; sed ad istum modum , Credit Catholica Ecclesia : & statim confessio ipsa credendi adjuncta est , ut ostenderent eam non esse novam sententiam , sed Apostolicam , & quae ipsi scripsissent non esse sua inventa , sed Apostolorum documenta . But in the matter of Easter , because it was a ritual , and the circumstance of time and the unity of order , they decreed , that every one should obey . But in the matter of Faith they did not write so , that they appointed every one to obey , but in this manner , The Catholick Church believes : and then they adjoyn'd the confession of Faith , to shew that the doctrine was not new , but that it was Apostolical , it was that which they wrote , but nothing of a later birth . To any other purpose neither the Council of Nice nor the Council of Ariminum is of any use or authority : save onely it is the sentence of so many men , and is to be received according to the credibility of the men , or the reasonablenesse of the article . But then let it be considered , to what the authority of a Council will amount according to the sentence of most men . The Doctors of the Church of Rome ( a few onely expected ) say that a Council , if it be not confirmed by the Pope , hath no authority . Upon this account , if they say true , every Council is fallible , and therefore no rule or guide of faith : for unlesse it can be deceiv'd , why should it be submitted to the judgment of the Pope ? and if it can be deceived , it cannot bind , because it cannot secure the conscience . But the others that are not of the Roman party say , a Council is then not deceiv'd , when it delivers the doctrine of Christ and his Apostles , and speaks consonantly to Scriptures : and if a single Doctor does so , he is to be believ'd . What then ? where 's the difference ? This onely is it , That it is more likely a Council shall find out the truth , and report the tradition ; and if we be to chuse our faith by guesse and probability , a Council is better then a single Doctor , by so much as there are many more then one Doctor in it . But this will onely serve the turn till men are willing or at leisure to inquire : this onely excepted ; because few men can judge , and most men are rul'd by others , all such persons can have nothing better to rule and determine them then a General Council : but then it is an argument of reason , and not of authority ; it is not because they are bound , but because it is most reasonable in their circumstances . I should here have considered of what authority the writings of the Fathers are to the interpretation of Scripture and the conduct of conscience : but because I find onely the same use of them as of other learned men in all ages of the Church , save onely in those things where they are witnesses of the Apostolical doctrines , to which they best can give testimony who are the most Ancient , and because themselves disclaim any authority in matters of faith , and call to be tried by the word of God ; I had rather this thing should be read in others then in my self : because it is matter of envy and reproach to tell why they cannot be relied upon ; and to adde more reputation to that authority which they have acquir'd by many intervening causes , by reason , and by unreasonablenesse , would be matter of danger , and sometimes the causes of error , and very often of a deceitfull confidence . But who please may see this uncertainly disputed , and never concluded to any certaintly , by * Cajetan on one side , and Melchior Canus on the other . He may also consider the saying of the † Bishop of Bitonto , that he preferr'd the sentence of one Pope before a thousand Hieroms , and a thousand Augustines & Gregories ; and that every side declines their arbitration when they speak against them : by which it appears that no side supposes themselves to be bound in conscience to follow them . But the best use of them is that which the Church of England hath describ'd in one of her ancient Canons , that her Bishops and Priests should teach nothing nisi quod ex doctrina Veteris & Novi Testamenti veteres Patres & Ecclesiae Episcopi collegerint , but what the Fathers & ancient Bishops of the Church have gathered out of the doctrine of the Old and New Testament : which Canon gives a very good answer to this inquiry if we should enter into it . For it declares that the Fathers are so far to be followed as they follow Scripture , and that their writings are of great use for the reproof of new doctrines : and certainly if Preachers were confin'd to this measure , possibly we might misse some truths which now it may be we find ; but it is certain we should escape very many errors . For the rest , I refer my reader to the Archbp. of Spalato de rep . Eccles. lib. 7. c. 6. to Rivet's Prolegomena to his Criticus Sacer , to Daniel Tossanus his Synopsis de legendis Patribus , to Gregory de Valentia his analysis fidei , to Bishop Morton his Catholick Apology , and to D Whittaker de Script , authoritate . In this whole affair the conscience is at liberty , and therefore I am here to inquire no further . RULE XXIII . Subscription to articles and formes of confession in any particular Church , is wholly of Political consideration . WHen forms of confession are made , & public articles established , it is of great concernment not onely to the reputation of the Government , but to the unity and peace of that Christian community , that they be not publicly oppos'd . To this purpose we find so many subscriptions to the Decrees of Councils , by Princes and Prelates and Priests and Deacons , by Prefects of Cities and Governours of Countries ; it was an instrument of unity and peace , a declaration of their consent , and at no hand to be reprov'd , unlesse it be in a false article , or with tyranny to consciences , or to maintain a faction . But that which the Government looks after is , that no new Religions be introduc'd to the public disturbance ; of which the Romans were so impatient , that they put to death a Noble Lady , Pomponia Graecina , utpote novae cujusdam religionis ream , saith Tacitus , as being guilty of a new religion . Now to prevent this , Subscription is invented , that is , an attestation of our consent ; which if it be requir'd by the supreme authority , it may be exacted in order to peace and unity : and Tacitus tells that Apudius Muraena was degraded from the dignity of a Senator because he refus'd to subscribe to the laws of Augustus . This is the same case , for subscription serves no other end but that which is necessary in Government . We find in Polydore Virgil that the Ancient Kings of England at their inauguration , Silicem tenebant juraturi per Jovem , se religionem & ritus Patrios retenturos , haec verba loquentes , Si sciens fallo , tunc me Diespiter salvâ urbe arcéque bonis omnibus ejiciat ; They swore by Jupiter that they would keep the religion and their Country rites , and curs'd themselves if they did not . This was more then Ecclesiastical subscription : for that bound them to it for ever ; this onely gives witnesse of our present consent , but according to it's designe and purpose , for the future it binds us onely to the conservation of peace and unity . For though it may be very fitting to subscribe a confession of articles , yet it may be very unfit that we swear always to be of the same mind ; for that is either a profession of infallibility in the authority , or in the article , or else a direct shutting our heart against all further clarity and manifestations of the truths of God. And therefore subscription ought to be so intended , that he who hath subscrib'd may not perceive himself taken in a snare : but yet he that subscribes must doe it to those purposes and in that sense and signification of things which the supreme power intends in his commanding it ; that is , at least , that he who subscribes does actually approve the articles over-written ; that he does at that time believe them to be such as it is said they are ; true , if they onely say they are true , usefull , if they pretend to usefulnesse , necessary , if it be affirm'd that they are necessary . For if the subscriber believes not this , he by hypocrisy serves the ends of public peace and his own preferment . But this whole affair is to be conducted with some warinesse , lest there come more evil by it then there can come good . And therefore although when articles are fram'd , the Sons of the Church ought to subscribe them for public peace , in case they doe heartily approve them ; yet such articles ought not to be made and impos'd , unlesse they of themselves be necessary , and plain by a Divine Commandement . And this was the advice of Melanchthon . Ut sit igitur discordiarum finis , rectè facit potestas obligans homines ut obtemperent , quando alioqui parere est necesse , The supreme power may then command men to subscribe to such articles , which it is necessary that they should believe . But if God have not commanded us to believe them , no humane power can command us to professe them . Beyond what is necessary or very usefull , unlesse peace be concerned in the publication of the article and it's establishment , it is but weakly and impertinently concerned in the subscription . For if the peace of the Church be safe without the article , how can it be concern'd in the consent to it and profession of it , excepting onely by an accidental and a necessity superinduc'd by themselves and their own imprudent forwardnesse , or itch of Empire over consciences ? If an article be contested publicly , and is grown into parties and factions , and these factions cannot be appeased without decision of the question , then the conformity is as usefull to peace as the sentence and determination was ; and then there is nothing else to be considered , but that the article be true , or believ'd to be so . But to them that are so perswaded , it is necessary they obey , if they be requir'd to subscribe ; and the supreme power hath authority to require it , because it is one of their greatest duties , to govern and to rule in peace . But these things can seldome happen thus without our own fault : but when they doe , there is inconvenience on all sides ; but that which is least must be chosen . When articles are established without necessity , subscription must be requir'd without tyranny and imperiousnesse . That is , it must be left to the liberty of the subject to professe or not to professe that doctrine . The reason is plain . In things not certain in themselves no man can give a law to the conscience , because all such laws must clearly be Divine Commandements : but if the conscience cannot be bound to the article , and the profession serves no necessary end of the Common-wealth , then God does not bind , and man cannot : and therefore to bring evil upon men that doe not believe the article , and dare not professe to believe what they doe not , is injustice and oppression , it is a law of iniquity ; and therefore it is not obligatory to conscience , and no humane authority is sufficient for the sanction and imposition . Socrates was wont to say , Sacramentum oblatum duabus de causis fide firmandum : vel ut teipsum à turpi suspicione liberes , vel ut amicos ex magnis periculis eripias . When you are requir'd to give faith and security by a sacrament , oath or subscription , there are two cases in which you must not refuse : when thou thy self art suspected , and canst no otherwise purge thy self ; and when any of thy relations is in danger , that is , when it is for good to thy self or thy friends . But when there is no necessity of faith , and no public need to be served , the causes that besides these injoyn subscription are fond persuasions , and indiscreet zeal , and usurped Empire over consciences : in which cases the Ecclesiastic state hath no power to give Commandements ; and if the Civil state does , they oblige to suffering calamity , but not to any other conformity , and then it is a direct state of persecution . Upon the account of this Rule it hath been of late inquir'd , whether it can be lawfull for any man to subscribe what he does not believe to be true , giving his hand to public peace , and keeping his conscience for God. But to this the answer is easy , if subscription does signify approbation ; for in that case it is hypocrisy , and a denying to confesse with the mouth , what we believe with the heart . But if subscription were no more then the office of the Clerk of the Signet or of a Council , who in form of law is to signe all the acts of Council , then the consideration were different . For he that is a public officer , and interposes the signature of the Court , not as the account of his own opinion , but as a formality of the Court , all the world looks upon it as none of his personal act , but as a solennity of law , or an attestation of the act of the Council . But in subscription to articles of confession , or censure of Propositions as heretical , every Ecclesiastic that subscribes does it for himself , and not for the Court. Lubens & ex animo subscripsi : that 's our form in the Church of England . Consentiens subscripsi : so it was in the ancient Councils , as S. Austin reports ; I consent to the thing , My mind goes along with it . But in this case the whole affair is put to issue in this one particular , which I touch'd upon before . If the intention of the Superior be to require our assent to be testified by subscription , he that subscribes does professe his assent , and whatever he thinks himself , it is the intention of the imposer that qualifies the subscription . S. Austin tels of a Senator that upon his parol went to treat for his ransome or exchange , and promised to return to them again in case he could not effect it . But he going from the army pretended to have forgot something , and came back presently , and then departed . But telling his story to the Roman Senate , and pretending himself quit of his promise because he went back presently , they drave him out of the Senate ; because they regarded not what he had in his head , but that which the enemy intended when they made him swear to return . But the effect of these considerations will be this , That no particular Church ought with rigor to require subscriptions to articles which are not evidently true , and necessary to be profess'd ; because in the division of hearts that is in the world , it is certain that some good men may dissent , and then either they shall be afflicted , or be tempted to hypocrisy : of either of which if Ecclesiastic laws be guilty , they are not for edification , they are neither just nor pious , and therefore oblige not . But if for temporal regards the supreme power doe require subscription , those temporal regards must be complied with , so that the spiritual interest of souls and truth be secur'd . And therefore the next good thing to the not imposing uncertain and unnecessary articles is , that great regard be had , and great ease be done to wise and peaceable dissenters . And at last , in such cases , let the articles be made with as great latitude of sense as they can ; and so that subscriptions be made to the form of words , let the subscribers understand them in what sense they please which the truth of God will suffer , and the words can be capable of . This is the last remedy , but it is the worst ; it hath in it something of craft , but very little of ingenuity ; and if it can serve the ends of peace , or of external charity , or of a phantastic concord , yet it cannot serve the ends of truth and holinesse , and Christian simplicity . CHAP. Vth . Of Laws Domestic : or the power which Fathers of Families have to bind the Consciences of their Relatives . RULE I. Children are bound to obey the laws and Commandements of their Parents in all things domestical , and in all actions personal relating to the family , or done within it . THE word of the Commandement is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifies to be or to make weighty ; but in Piel it signifies to honour , that is , Honour your Parents , and doe not lightly account of them : But in Levit. 19. 3. the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fear thy Mother and thy Father . They signify the same event of things , for a reverential fear is honour , and they both imply obedience . And there are three great endearments of this which make it necessary , and make it as absolute as it can be . The one is that our Parents are to us in the place of God : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said the Greek Comedy , Suppose your Parents to be to you as God. Haec enim paternitas est nobis Sacramentum & imago Divinae paternitatis , ut discat cor humanum in eo principio quod videt , quid debeat illi principio à quo est , & quod non videt . For the Fathers power is a Sacrament and image of the Divine Paternity , that a man may learn by the principle of his Being which he sees , what he owes to the principle of his Being which he sees not : and Plato saies there is no image by which we can worship God so well as our Fathers , our Grandfathers and our Mothers . And therefore it is impiety to dishonour or disobey our Parents , and it is piety when we pay our duty to them . The same word signifies religion to God , which expresses this duty . Parentes not amare , impietas est ; non agnoscere , insaniae . For as there are two great crimes which we commit properly against God , Impiety or Irreligion , and Atheisme : so there are these two crimes against our Parents . He that does not honour and revere them is impious or irreligious ; and he that will not acknowledge them is Atheistical , that is , like the Atheists , he denies the principle of his Being . And therefore upon that of Virgil , Huc Pater O Lenaee veni — Servius observes that the Heathens called all their Gods by the name of Fathers : and an injury done to our Father is said to be done to God , according to that of Menander , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . He that reviles and speaks evil of his Father * , does blaspheme God ; for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . God is the Great Father of the world , and therefore he hath by greatest religion immur'd the Fathers honour . Et Jovis imperium & chari praecepta parentis , Edocet… . Next to God is our duty to our Father . 2. The second endearment of our duty , obedience and regard to parents , is gratitude ; which here hath the greatest obligation , and is to this purpose remark'd by all laws and by all wise men of the World. Omnis in Ascanio chari stat cura Parentis . All their love and all their care is for their dear boy . The child is a part of his parents , a tender part , but under custody and a guard ; and the state of descent and succession from parents or children is called Suitas in the law : and there is so much of a Father in his child , that if a Father and a Son be partners in a crime , and refuse to confesse it before torments , the law commands the Son first to be tormented ; Charles the second , the Emperor , did so ; as knowing that the Father will confesse rather then endure to see his son tormented : and when the Father does confesse upon the torment of his son , the Father is said to be confessus in tormentis , said Baldus , he confessed in his own torments . And as long as the Son is in prison , the Father is not accounted free in law : and the Fathers sins are then punish'd , when the child is made sick , or unfortunate . So that the government of children is no otherwise then as a mans will governs his own hand & foot ; over which , always supposing him to abide within the limits and inclinations of nature , that is , to love and cherish them , and in no sense to hate them , in all other he hath an intire power of command . 3. The third endearment of childrens obedience is the power of blessing and cursing which God hath given to Parents , and which himself by his providence and great Oeconomy will verify . The Fathers blessing establisheth the houses of children but the curse of the Mother rooteth out foundations , saith Ben-Sirach . And S. Paul exhorting children to obey their parents , saies it is the first Commandement with promise , that is , the first to which any special promise is annexed , the promise of longaevity in the land of promise . Benedictio merces obedientiae est , saith Elias Cretensis , The Fathers blessing is the reward of the sons obedience . But it is observable that the original word in the fifth Commandement is of active signification , Honour thy Father and thy Mother that they may prolong thy days upon the Earth ; that is , saith Paulus Fagius , thy parents are Gods ministers and instruments , the chanels and conveyances of the Divine blessing : for God hears the prayers of Fathers and Mothers blessing their obedient children , or cursing their disobedience ; insomuch that Ezekiel reckons their disobedience to their parents to be to the Jewes the cause of their banishment from their own Country . Suidas tells that Leontius the Bishop of Tripolis in Lydia seeing his onely son of an ill nature and apt to mischief , prayed to God that his son might die yong , lest he should fall into impiety : and God heard the Fathers prayer . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The curses of parents are grievous upon the earth . And this was observed among the Heathens in the sad examples of the children of O Edipus , Amintor and Theseus , who grew miserable upon their Fathers curses ; and therefore Telemachus was afraid to cast his Mother out of Ulysses house , lest she should curse him . And this was it that brought servitude or slavery into the world ; God having in one of the fountains of mankind , in the great Patriarch of the world , consign'd a sad example that for ever children should be afraid to dishonour their parents , and discover their nakednesse , or reveal their turpitude , their follies and dishonours . To these I need not adde their natural necessity , their disability to help themselves , their obnoxiousnesse to every evil , their defencelesse condition , the miseries and calamities and infirmities by their want of wisedome , all which at first doe infinitely endeare obedience , and make it necessary : but I remember that this very thing was of great value amongst the Ancients , and they did use to tell this fable to their children to teach them to obey their parents . An old Lion , amongst other precepts that he gave his son , charg'd him that he should never fight with a Man , because if he was not too strong , he would at least be too crafty . The young Lion heard him , but regarded him not , but therefore as soon as ever he was full grown , hastens abroad to seek a man to be his enemy . He came into a field , and saw a yoke of oxen standing ready furnish'd to plow , and asking them if they were men , they said , No , but that a man had put those yokes upon them . He left them and went aside , and espying a horse bridled and tied to a tree , ask'd if he were a man. He was answer'd , No , but a man had bridled him , and would by and by come to ride him , for a man was his Master . At last he finds a man cleaving wood , and ask'd him : and finding him to be so , told him he must then prepare to fight with him . The man told him , With all his heart , but first desired him to help to draw the wedge out of that tree , and then he would . The yong Lion thrusts in his paws , and a little opens the tree till the wedge fell out , and the tree clos'd upon his feet by it's returning violence . The man seeing the lion fastned , and the lion seeing himself entrap'd , the man cried out to his Neighbours to come to his help ; and the lion to escape his danger tore his feet from the tree , and left his nailes and bloud behind him , and returning with shame and smart to his old Father said to him , Mi Pater , si paruissem monitis tuis ungulas non amisissem , I had not lost my nailes if I had obeyed my Fathers commandement . For the commandements of parents being for the good of their children , he cannot be prosperous that will not obey his Father . That was their meaning . But concerning the duty it self there is no question ; nothing is plainer , nothing is easier : but concerning the limits and administration of this power there is very great difficulty ; the Scripture speaking either indefinitely or universally , either of which does equally need a limit and specification . Children , obey your parents in all things , saith S. Paul : and if that all were absolutely all , there were no difficulty in the understanding it ; but infinitely difficult it would be to observe it , and reconcile it with our other duties and just interests . And just so is that law which by the consent of all the world is represented as universally , Liberi quacunque in re parentibus dicto audientes sunto ; and he in the Comedy , Pater adsum , Impera quodvis , neque tibi ero in mora , Here am I my Father , Command me any thing , neither will I resist . But this any thing and this every thing , is but any thing and every thing of a certain kind ; which if we can establish upon certain measures , we have one great line more for the conduct of conscience . The Divines and Lawyers reduce the issues of this relation to three heads , 1. Reverence , 2. Animadversion , 3. Piety . Of Reverence to Parents . And first it is certain whatever can be signified by honour and fear and reverence is the duty of children ; that is , so far as to think honourably of them , to speak well of them , to conceal their faults , to excuse them to others , to comport themselves with reverence and great regard before them . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Above all things have your parents in honour : and this is to be express'd according as the parents shall require , and according to the customes of the nation and the most pious and obedient in it ; for vultu quoque laedi pietatem , was an old rule , A child may be rude and undutifull in his very looks ; and he deserves to be punished with blindnesse , qui parentum vultus torvo visu despexerit , & elatis oculis laeserit pietatem , saith S. Hierom , who by proud looks and scornfull eyes is impious to his parents . But this duty is well describ'd by Theophilus to Autolycus , Sanctum & laudabile censetur , non solùm apud Deum sed & apud homines , videlicet ut in simplicitate & absque omni malitia subjiciamur parentibus . Children must be subject to their parents without all malice perversenesse , and in all simplicity , that is , ●ngenuity of words and manners . And when Ptolemy asked one of the 72 translators of the Bible how a son should pay due thankfulnesse to his parents , he was answer'd , Si nullâ re illos tristitiâ affeceris , If you grieve them in nothing . That 's the surest measure . The next thing that is also certain in this is , that all the good Counsels and precepts of holinesse and wisedome which the parents give , it is necessary the children should observe ; and besides that the not observing them is a sin against the special Commandements , it is also a sin of disobedience , and a rebellion against the Fathers authority . So the Father in the Comedy urges his authority , Feceris par tuis caeteris factis , Patrem Tuum si percoles per pietatem . Nolo ego cum improbis te viris , Gnate mi , neque in via , neque in foro ullum sermonem exequi . Haec noctes diesque tibi canto ut caveas … . .meo modo , & moribus vivito antiquis : Quae ego tibi praecipio , haec facito : haec tibi Si mea Imperia capesses , multa bona in pectore consident . Keep good company , avoid the debaucheries of the present times , live as I command , and as your forefathers did live ; and if to these purposes you submit to my government , good things shall dwell within you . But we find amongst the Ancients some little instances of this honour and reverence besides obedience specified . The Ancients would not without leave goe from the presence of their Father : so he in the Comedy , — neque latebrosè me abs tuo Conspectu occultabo — * They would not conceal from their parents the entercourses and accidents of their youth , their amours , their mistresses , their designes of marriage , their little plots , and advantages or disadvantages . Quae fert adolescentia Ea ne me celet consuefeci filium : that is , they accounted it part of the honour due to their parents , to tell them truth in all things where they were interrogated , or suspected . Nam qui mentiri aut fallere insuerit Patrem , aut Audebit , tanto magis audebit caeteros . He that lies before his Father dishonours him , and commits two sins ; he transgresses two commandements . * Adde to this , they counted it impiety to steal any thing from their parents . Egon ' Patri surripere possim quidquam tam cauto seni ? Atque adeo si facere possem , pietas prohibet . That is , whatever was a single injury if done to a stranger , was double if committed against their parents : for as to doe good to them was piety as well as charity , it was religion and justice too ; so to doe any evil to them is to doe them dishonour , and expressely against the fifth Commandement . These are the first general measures , and the indication of very many particulars . But there is one great measure more , and that is , that specification of the duties of this Commandement which we find in the laws of Nations and the consent of all wise men , and particularly of those with whom we doe converse , and by whom we are governed . For our parents have a double power over us , one by the law of Nature , and the other by the Civil law ; that is , there are some duties which children doe owe to their parents , which are primely and indispensably necessary , others which are specifications and instances of a general duty , but such which may suffer increase and diminution , but are necessary by virtue of a Divine Commandement when they are bound upon us by the laws of our Country ; because these are of the nature of those things whose natures can be chang'd by becoming laws , and are reduc'd under the Category of their proper vertues . The particulars I shall draw out of the laws of Nations , from the Civil and Canon laws , reducing them to distinct rules shall describe their several obligations of the conscience : and they relate to the other two parts of parental power , signified by Castigation and Piety . Of Castigation , or the Coercitive power of Parents . RULE II. Fathers have a power to chastise their offending children , but not a power of life and death . IN the laws of Romulus and Numa , Fathers had a power three times to sell their children , and a power to put them to death in certain cases : and they attribute much of the prosperity of their city to this permission , nothing being a better instrument to make good citizens , then by making them good sons : it being very unlikely that ever he should command well abroad , that knows not well how to obey at home . Quicunque patrem timet ac reveretur , Hic in bonum civem evadet proculdubio , said Timocles , He that fears and obeys his Father , without a good citizen * . And therefore it was observed by Dionysius Halicarnasseus that amongst the Greeks , Contumacy , Impiety and Parricide were very common ; and he gives this reason , because Charondas , Pittacus and Solon did by their laws give the Fathers no great power over their children . But I said that the Romans did , and those great examples of Titus Manlius , C. Flaminius , C. Cassius , who put their sons to death , were indeed very severe , but did imprint great terrors upon all the Roman youth . Bodinus thinks this to be a natural and unalterable power ; and Aerodius supposes that God would not have commanded Abraham to kill his son , but that it was a part of his ordinary and inherent power ; and when Judah commanded his daughter in law Thamar to be brought forth and burn'd for her adultery , it gave indication that he by his supreme paternal power in the family had power of life and death . And of this there is no question in the heads of families , where the Father is a Patriarch , the fountain of his nation , or of his society , and under the command of no superior : for the paternal power is the fountain of the Royal ; and Abimelech was nothing but the King my Father . But when families were multiplied , though Fathers were fitter to be trusted with the severest power then any other sort of interested persons , yet because this might fall into disorder , God was pleas'd in the law of Moses so to order this affair , that the Fathers power should not be diminished , & yet the execution of it and the declaration of the sentence should be trusted to the Judge . For if a Father found his son stubborn , rebellious , disobedient , a glutton or a drunkard , all which are personal crimes , and against the private authority and counsel of the Father , the Father and the Mother might delate him to the Judge , and without further proof but their own testimony he was to be ston'd to death . Drunkennesse & gluttony were in no other cases capital in the law of Moses , but when joyn'd with rebellion or disobedience to their parents . And like to this proceeding in Moses law was the processe in the Persian Monarchy . For Aelian tells that when Rhaco the Mardian brought Cartomes his son with his hands bound behind him to Artaxerxes , desiring that the Prince would command him to be slain , because he was impudent , he was naught , he was a villain ; the Persian King ask'd him if he could find in his heart to see his son die with violence . The Father replied , I have in my garden a goodly lettice , fat and wanton and full of leaves . When I find any of them luxuriant , proud and exorbitant , though it be a part of the body I cut it off ; and so I doe to whatsoever is bitter and superfluous , and my lettice is the sweeter for it , it does not bewail the losse of it's bad leaves , but thrives the better . Think the same of me , O King ; for though he be par'd away that hurts my family , that gives ill example to his Brothers , my stock will be the more thriving , florid and fruitfull in all good things . ] By this instance we perceive that when Fathers had not power to put to death their rebellious children , they could require it of the Prince , who was to proceed summarily and meerly upon the Fathers instance . And we find in the French Annals that Stephen Boslée the President of Paris impal'd a yong fellow because his Mother said that she could by no arts or labour keep him from being a thief . But this went off very much in the manners of men ; and children were by other means restrain'd ordinarily , before things were brought to that extremity ; and in the Civil law parents were forbidden to kill their children , and this law hath prevail'd in all Christendome , excepting that a man is in some places permitted to kill his daughter if he sees her in unchast Embraces . But in stead of these great excesses of power , there is left to Christian parents nothing but a decent castigation in the lesser and single faults , and disinherison in case of great and persevering . That children are to submit to the animadversions and chastisements of their Fathers is the voice of nature , and of all Nations , of Scripture and right Reason . So S. Paul , We have had Fathers of our flesh which corrected us , and we gave them reverence : and Ben-Sirach teaches us , In opere & sermone & omni patientia honora Patrem tuum , Honour thy Father in thy work and in thy word , and in all patience , so the Vulgar Latin reads it ; that is , suffer what he imposes upon you : and this was it which the yong Greek that Plutarch speaks of had learn'd in Zeno's school , Didici Patris iram ferre ; I have learn'd ( saith he ) patiently to bear my Fathers anger . The authority is plain ; the measures of it are onely , that it be done for amendment ; that is , that it be discipline , not anger and revenge , and that it be done with charity and moderation , which is signified by S. Paul , Parents , provoke not your children to wrath ; which precept he repeats , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , give them no opprobrious words , no contumelious and provoking language , and therefore much lesse any cruel and undecent castigations . Pudore & liberalitate liberos Retinere satius esse credo , quam metu . Hoc patrium est , potius consuefacere filium Suâ sponte rectè facere , quam alieno metu . Hoc Pater ac Dominus interest : hoc qui nequit , Fateatur se nescire imperare liberis . A Master governs by fear , & a Father by love , & both by their authority : but the gentle way is the Fathers method ; but if he will use the severe , he hath authority to doe it , and right or wrong he must be suffered , till the evil be insufferable , and then he may decline it , but ever with reverence to his Fathers honour ; for indeed against a Fathers tyranny there is no aid , no remedy , no intercession , but by an appeal to the common Father , the chief of all the tribes and all the families . This onely I am to adde , That as Fathers have not a power of life and death over their children ; so neither are they lightly to use that power which they have , and is next to this , that is , that I may use S. Ambrose his expression , ne laesa pietas Patris ulciscatur se exhaeredatione vel abdicatione contumacis generis , a power of disinherison is not to be us'd for every great offence , much lesse for a litte . Pater , nisi magnae & multae injuriae patientiam evicerint , nisi plus est quod timet quam quod damnat , non facile accedit ad decretorium stylum , said Seneca , A Father will not easily proceed to an exterminating sentence , unlesse great and many injuries have quite overcome his patience . Nor then neither , unlesse he fear worse things then those which he already blames . For , as Quintilian observ'd well , this power was not given to Fathers but when their sons are incorrigible . Fulmen istud Patrum adversus ferociam adolescentiae datum est , adversus filios qui peccare plus possunt . If they will sin yet more , and will not be corrected , then they may unwillingly use this thunderbolt . It is like the sentence of excommunication , never to be us'd but when nothing else will cure the man , and nothing at all will make the mischief tolerable : that is , a son may not be disinherited , but when he may be hated , which may never be , sine causis multis , magnis & necessariis ( as Cicero affirms ) The causes must be great and many , and intolerable , and without remedy . But of these things because the Fathers are judges , they must judge according to the permissions of law , and the analogies of Christian prudence and charity ; for if they doe amisse , the Child is miserable by the Fathers passion , and the Father by his own . Of Piety to Parents . RULE III. A Father hath power over the goods and persons of his Children , so as to be maintain'd by them . THe Lawyers define the Paternal power to be jus moribus legibusque constitutum , quo Patri in filium bonaque ipsius plenum jus olim tributum fuit ; a full right upon his son and his sons goods introduc'd by laws and customes . Now this full right is alterable by the Civil law of any nation : that is , whereas amongst the Romans whatsoever the son acquir'd , he acquir'd it not for himself , but for his Father ; this may determine sooner or last longer , according to the appointments of law , for the heir so long as he is a child differs nothing from a servant , and therefore if the law please , may be us'd accordingly ; and when the law hath so appointed , the Conscience is bound by it . But that which is not alterable by laws is that which is the natural and necessary duty , that parents be maintain'd by their children if they need it : for this is in the Commandement , this is a part of the honour that is due to them . For so our Blessed Saviour remarks the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : the Pharisees that taught the children to cry Corban , it is a gift , and therefore out of it the parents must not be profited , he calls it a not honouring the Father and Mother ; and the double honour which S. Paul commands to be given to the Elders that rule well is instanc'd in the matter of maintenance . And this the Heathens had . So Hierocles , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Let us greatly honour our parents , affording them the ministery of our bodies and the use of our wealth most chearfully . But this Cicero limits to the necessaria vitae praesidia , quae debentur his maxime , the necessary aides of life ; that is , what is for their support , to keep them from need and shame , according to the quality of the parent and ability of the child : so that this be first respected , and then that , saith Bartolus . To this purpose is that of S. Ambrose , If the contumely of the Father and the reproaching or vilifying of the Mother be punish'd so severely , what shall their starving or their beggery be ? This the Romans did resent so deeply , that they made a law that if a son that was emancipated or quitted from his Fathers government did deny aliment to his indigent Father , he was to be reduc'd under his Fathers power , and so to abide for ever . But by this instance it is apparent that this is no part of the Fathers power , but is an office of the sons piety . For between the Father & the son there is a threefold chord or tie , as I have already observed , the band of Reverence , of Castigation , and Piety ; the two first are the Fathers authority , this last gives the Father properly no right , but obliges the son directly . But then this is to be added , that this obligation is onely confirm'd by the Civil laws , but it is immediately tied upon him by the Natural : for a son is bound to keep his Father from starving though he be a Bandito , or an Out-law , that is , though he have lost all civil rights , because no Civil power can prejudice a Divine Commandement . Plutarch tells that by Solon's law the son was not bound to give his Father aliment , if his Father caus'd him to learn no trade , or taught him nothing whereby he might get his living . Indeed if the Father neither did give him whereon to live , nor teach him whereby he might get it himself , the son is the lesse oblig'd ; but yet sufficiently for this , because it is by a law of Nature that he is oblig'd , and all such obligations are before such conditions can intervene . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Aristotle . Something else is to be considered besides the advantages of education : the Father was the principle of his Being , and in that he can never be requited in kind , and therefore let him be paid by duty . But if the case be such as divides the duty , and the money cannot be divided , what shall then be done ? Marco Tomaso a tradesman in Venice had a Father and a Son , both lame , both in great necessity . The Father lost all his goods to the Turks , and the son had rowed in the Gallies till all his strength and health was gone : but the poor Cutler ( for Tomaso was no more ) was not able to relieve them both : what shall he doe ? The case here is hard . But love descends , and ascends not : therefore Tomaso's bowels yern upon his son ; and he cannot have that tendernesse for his Father , and he were unnatural if he should let his son perish . It is true , but therefore he ought not to neglect his Father and feed his son , because his son does not , cannot love him so well as his Father does ; and therefore he is obliged by gratitude to his Father , and by tendernesse to his son ; to this there is more natural inclination , but to the other there is more natural duty . And therefore the Lawyers say that amor descendit , non ascendit , is to be understood quoad ordinem dilectionis , non quoad effectum obligationis . Love does descend , but it should not in some cases . And therefore when the law gives leave that a Son may by his Father be sold to keep the Father from starving , it shews plainly that the Father is in cases of necessity to be preferred . And this indeed by the help of the Civil laws brings this rule to an instance of Paternal power ; for a Father in this law hath a right over his son , and can deliver him to labour and service for the necessary support of his helplesse Father . This we find done frequently , — Et tandem demissa in viscera censu Filia restabat non isto digna parente : Hanc quoque vendit inops . And Eusebius tells it was done in the time of Maximianus the Emperor ; and the Prophet Jeremy brings in the people complaining in a time of famine , Our sons and our daughters are too many , let us take corn for their price , that we may eat and live . But this being onely in the case of extreme necessity is not to be drawn to any thing else , for this power is onely just when it is unavoidable : and therefore it is permitted in laws , which doe therefore so comply with the necessity , and endeavour to find a remedy , or to make it tolerable , that in such cases the judges , if there be a contest in the particular , are tied to proceed summarily : and if a son should pretend causes of excuse from giving aliment to his Father , during the whole contestation , and till the proof be made , the Son is tied to maintain his Father in the interval ; so carefull are the laws to secure the performance of this duty , for the omission of which all the world hath observed great marks of the Divine displeasure , expressed in judgments , and particularly of immature deaths ; so Homer observes of Semoisius — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , He refus'd to nourish his loving parents , and therefore he liv'd but a short life . One particular more is to be added , and that is , if an indigent Father have a rich Father living and a rich Son , although both are oblig'd to nourish him , yet it is in the Fathers power to burden the Son and to excuse the Grandfather ; that is , the power which the Father hath over the Son can require this duty : The Grandfather is equally oblig'd , but the Son hath no power over him , the law hath . For as for the thing it self there is no other difference in it . But if the rich Father refuses he is worse then an Infidel , if the rich Son refuses he is impious ; the first is unnatural , and the second is ungodly ; the first is a heathen , and the other is no Christian ; the Grandfather hath no bowels , and the Grandchild no gratitude ; the first hath no humanity , and the other no Religion ; so that is an even lay between them which is the worst : but the necessitous Father may put the duty actually upon the Son by reason of his Paternal power , that is , he may so order it , that if the Son refuses he is not onely uncharitable , but undutifull also , he commits two great sins ; whereas the refusing Grandfather commits but one , though that also be enough to bring him an extreme damnation . RULE IV. The Fathers power does not extend to matter of Religion , and persuasions of Faith. IN the law of the XII Tables it was written , Sacra privata perpetua manento , that the private Religion of a family should not be alter'd : which Cicero expounds to mean that all those to whom the care of the Father of the family did appertain were tied to the celebration of the same rites ; and the lawyers say , that Filii sunt in sacris parentum dum sunt in eorum potestate , Children are within the holy rites of their parents while they are in their power . And indeed this is very true in the Court of Conscience so long as their understanding is in their Fathers power ; but that is of all things first emancipated : when a Son can chuse for himself , when he is capable of malice and perversenesse , when he is judicable by external and public laws , then he is emancipated and set free , so as he can chuse his religion , and for that the Father hath no other power over him but persuasion and instruction . For it is very observable that as it was said of the law of Moses , it was a school-master to bring us unto Christ , so it is true of the Imperium domesticum , the Fathers government , it is a pedagogy to bring us to the obedience of the laws both of God and Man : the Fathers commands are exacted before the laws of God or Princes doe require obedience ; because the Government of children is like the Government of the sick and the mad-men , it is a protection of them from harm , and an institution of them to obedience of God and of Kings ; and therefore the Father is to rule the Understanding of his child , till it be fit to be rul'd by the laws of God ; that is , the child must believe and learn , that he may chuse and obey ; for so we see it in the baptising infants , the Fathers and Susceptors first chuse the childs religion , and then teach it him , and then he must chuse it himself . For the Fathers authority to the understanding of the child is but like a false arch or temporary supporter , put under the building till it can stand alone : and it onely hath this advantage , that the Father hath the prerogative of education , the priority of possession , which how great it is all the experience of the world can tell . But that this is part of the Paternal power is evident , because no child is to be baptized without his Fathers will. A Turk , a Jew , a Heathen can reckon their children in ●acris Parentum * , they have power , a natural and proper power to breed up their children in what religion they please , but not to keep them in it ; for then when they can chuse they are under no power of man , God onely is the Lord of the understanding : and therefore it is no disobedience if a Son changes his Fathers religion , or refuses to follow his Fathers change , for he cannot be injur'd in that where he hath no right and no authority . But this is so to be understood that the religion of the Son must at no hand prejudice the Fathers Civil rights , so that he must not quit his Fathers house , if he be under his Fathers power , and by the laws o● his country be oblig'd under that government . Vigoreus in his Sermon of S. Martin , tells that S. Martin being but a Catechumen and yet unbaptiz'd did still abide with his Father and Mother though they were heathens , and he neverthelesse did all the offices of a Christian. And there is in this great duty , because one right must not destroy another ; and a man may be of what religion he please without doing wrong to any man , for a man cannot be hindred in his persuasion , for though he dies , he is of that religion ; but no good religion does warrant the Son to doe wrong to his Fathers legal rights . And therefore Marius Victor observes of Abraham , Verum mente Deum venerans , Gentilia Sacra Aversatus erat — He was a great hater of his Fathers idolatry and the impious rites of his family , yet he did not leave his Fathers house till after his Fathers death . Linqueret ut sedes patrias , terramque nocentem Pollutamque domum , nisi postquam morte parentis Jussa sequi jam posse Dei sine fraude licebat . He might doe it justly when he had no just power over him to restrain him by the cords of another justice and a differing duty . There is onely this variety to be added , that when either of the parents is Christian , and the other Infidel , the Son is to be reckon'd to the believing parent : the effect whereof can be this , that he or she that believes hath a right to educate the children in Christianity without injury to the other , and the Church may baptize the children against the will of the unbeliever : and the reason of this is , the prerogative of God , and of Christ who is head of the Church , and the Soveraign of all the world ; for if the child is sanctified and made holy by the believing parent , then it may be brought to Christ ; that sanctification of it is Christs seizure of it , it is his right , because he hath made a Covenant with the parents for themselves and for their children . This is practis'd in the Countries of the Roman Communion to evil purposes ; and if the Father be a heretic in their account , they teach their children to disobey their parents , and suppose heresy to destroy the Fathers right of power and government . Between Christian and Christian there is no difference as to matter of Civil rights ; no law allows that : but between Heathen and Christian , so far as the soul is concern'd , the right of Christ is indubitable ; for we are sure Christianity is the true religion : but amongst the Sects of Christians the case is wholly differing , for they may both have enough to secure the souls of pious persons , and yet may both be deceiv'd in their question , and unnecessary article . RULE V. The Fathers power over the children can remit an injury done to them , without their leave or consent . THe reason of this depends upon the former considerations , and is to have it's understanding accordingly . So long as the Son is within the Civil power of the Father , so long as he lives in his house , is subject to his command , is nourish'd by his Fathers charge , hath no distinct rights of his own , he is in his Fathers possession , and to be reckon'd by his measures , and therefore cannot have any actions of injury for his own amendment . But this is to be limited onely to the effects of law and external Courts and trials of right , or external actions of injury . For although a Son cannot repeat what the Father hath legally acquitted , yet if it be a personal action , in which charity and peace are concerned , the injurious person is bound in conscience to ask the Son forgivenesse , upon the account of S. Paul's words , Follow peace with all men and holinesse , and , for as much as is possible live peaceably with all men ; which no man can be said to doe who hath done wrong to a person , to whom he will not doe right . For besides the relation and the communication of it's effect between Father and Son , the Son is a person too , and in personal actions hath an interest naturally and unalterably , which no fiction of law , no supposition of case can take off . So that all the legal and external obligation the Father may remit ; but in the personal there is something of proper concernment . This is also to be limited to an entercourse with extraneous persons , and is not true in actions between the Son and a conjunct person to him . As if the injury be done by a wife , or a spouse , or a freed man , or a person endeared and oblig'd by the Son , the Father cannot remit any such injury . The reason is , because although by the force of the Civil or Municipal laws the Son be suppos'd to be still in the Fathers power , yet in such things he hath some peculiarity , and is as to those things free and in his own power . If the Sons wife commit adultery , the Father cannot forgive it , though the Son be under his Fathers power by law ; because as to all personal actions the Son hath a personal right , and such things have great dependance upon the law of God and Nature , and these things to some great purposes doe not at all communicate with the Civil laws . Lastly , this Rule is so to be understood and practis'd , that it be no prejudice to the just interests of any other : and therefore a Father cannot so forgive an injury done to his Son , that he shall be tied not to witnesse it in public , when he is requir'd by the Civil power ; for it may concern the Common-wealth that the Criminal be punish'd , when it may become the Father to pardon his and his Sons share . He may remit all with which he hath to doe , but not that which may passe into the Exchequer . But in such cases the Judge may inquire , but the Son without the Fathers leave may be no voluntary accuser . RULE VI. A Fathers authority cannot abide after his death , but the Sons piety to his Father must , and may passe upon him some indirect obligations . THe Son after his Fathers death is as much lord of his person and his estate as his Father was : and therefore although all the actions which the living Father did , which by law or the nature of the thing have a permanent effect , still doe abide as they were left ; yet those things which are of an alterable nature , and to be administred by new Counsels , and to be determin'd by emergencies and proper circumstances , or are directly subject to Empire , or are personal concernments , these are in the power of the Son after his Fathers death . A Father cannot by his power command a Son to marry a person whom the Father does , but the Son does not love : He cannot command the Son by a just and a sufficient authority never to be a Priest , or Bishop , or a Magistrate : for in those things in which his own meer interest is concerned , his own understanding must be his guide , and his will his Ruler , for he alone does lie at stake whether it be good or bad ; and it is not reasonable that he should govern who neither gets , nor looses , nor knows . But though the Fathers authority be extinct , yet his memory is not , and there is piety towards the dead , and to parents much more ; and of this the Heathens gave some worthy examples . Herodotus tells that the Issionides , a people of Scythia , did use to embalm their Fathers head , and then to cover it with gold , and use it for a Divine image , and pay to it the veneration of a yearly sacrifice . This they intended for an honour to their dead Father : but in this there were no signes of obedience . Nearer to this was that which Tertullian tells of the Nasamones , that they took their oracles at the graves of their Fathers , as supposing the souls of their Progenitors to have some right or care to conduct their children . But it was a pretty story that AElian saies the Brachmanes tell of a certain King of the Indians that had many Sons , who being all of them ( the yongest onely excepted ) immorigerous and rebellious , at last drove their Father and Mother from their Kingdome ; and they with their yongest Son wandring in strange places were quickly consumed with age and wearinesse and inconvenience . The yong Son seeing his parents dead , burnt their bodies , and striking his head with a sword , put the ashes into the wound , by that act of piety giving his parents the most honourable sepulture , but with it also emblematically representing that his parents even after death had power upon his head , and that his head ought to be submitted to them . And it was well ; if piety goes before , whatever duteousnesse or observance comes afterwards it cannot easily be amisse . Piety sometimes does more then Authority can . Plus potest patria potestas in liberos quam lex , legi●ve , aut summa Dictatura , say the lawyers ; A Father or a Mother can prevail , when a Consul or a Prince cannot . Cum Martius Coriolanus pergebat infesto agmine adversus Patriam , quis illi arma succussit è manibus nisi una Veturia ? saith the Roman story . Coriolanus took up armes in rage against his Country ; and no authority could disarme him but his piety to his Mother Veturia . Now this principle is a good one ; but it hath no limits of it self , but onely what we give to it our selves by prudence , and necessity , and the nature of the things that are to be done . But in things that are pious and prudent , or that are innocent and indifferent , a dying Fathers desire , or a living Fathers counsel ought to be esteemed sacred : and though they make no law , yet they passe an indirect obligation ; that is , if they be transgressed without reason , they cannot be transgressed without impiety . It is certain , God is pleas'd with this obedience of piety , as is apparent in the case of the Rechabites ; and such actions are exemplar in a family , and make the name of Father venerable and sacred ; and sometimes the neglect of a dying Fathers charge hath met with a sad event ; and a petulant disobedience hath been a rebellion against the greatest reason , which sometimes is the greater by how much it ought the more to be conceal'd . Philotimus of Athens having observ'd his Son given to amours and wandring fancies , upon his death-bed charg'd him by all that was Sacred and Prophane , that however he did resolve to please his fancy and satisfy his impotent desires , he should be sure not to court or to fall in love with Paegnium . Philotimus dies , and Philodectes his Son having quickly dried up his teares which were caus'd by the smoke of the funeral pile , hath a great curiosity to visit this pretty Greek that his Father had so forbidden to him . He sees her , likes her , courts her and lies with her ; and in the first night of their congresse , she being over-pleas'd , told him that she infinitely preferr'd his kindnesse before the dull embraces of his Father Philotimus which had so often tir'd her . Upon this the yong man starts and trembles , and finds his sin and shame , the rewards of an impious disobedience . His want of piety to his dead Father made him incestuous in his mixtures and impious in his lusts . And Pausanias telling of a Father who meeting his Son in Charon's boat did then attempt to strangle him , to revenge his impiety and disobedience , by this does represent what their sentence was concerning the resentment of rebellion of Sons and their undecent stubbornnesse even after death . And this is of so much the greater regard , if the Father charges it upon the Son upon his blessing , and with great imprecations : for then unlesse the Father be evidently a light or trifling person , there is to be supposed some great reason for the imposition , and then nothing can warrant the laying it aside , but a great necessity , or a very great , good , and certain reason to the contrary ; that is , such a cause as may make the contrary effect to be infinitely unlike any image of impiety or disregard . But of this parents also must be very cautious , and not to put a load of duty upon a trifle that ought not to bear it . For he is foolish that upon his blessing will command his Son to make much of his Sparrow or his Monkey ; and that Son is prodigal of his Fathers blessing , that will venture it all to please his humor , and his itch of liberty . RULE VII . Neither the Father's authority , nor the Sonnes piety can oblige them to doe an action against the laws of God , or of the Father's and our just Superior . THis Rule although it seems to contain in it nothing but what is ordinary and confessed , because God is rather to be obeyed then Man , and amongst men the supreme rather then the superior ; yet I have here describ'd it , because the explication of it will not onely contain one great measure of our duty and conduct of conscience , but it will give the full general proportion of the Fathers power and the Sons piety , and also very much endear the obedience and piety of children . When Bias had discoursed well and wisely that God was present in every place , he soon after argued weakly ; If God dwels in all places , his presence makes all places holy , for it is his presence that hallows a Temple , and then there can be no such thing as sacrilege ; for a thief that robs a Temple cannot carry it out of a Temple , but by carrying it into another . And upon such a trick as this some in A. Gellius did argue that we were not to obey our parents . For either they command that which is good , or that which is not good : If of it self it be good , then for it 's own sake we are to doe it , not for their command ; but if it be not good , then though they doe command it , it is not to be done at all . For these men supposed , there is necessity and holinesse in every lawfull action , as the other did suppose there was holinesse in every place of Gods abode . But this Sophistry is quickly discover'd . For besides that every thing is not necessary to be done because it is good , but many are left to our choice to doe or not to doe them , there are many things also which are not good in themselves , but onely become so when they are commanded . In both these cases the authority of our parents is competent . For if they be in themselves good but not necessary , by the command of our parents they are made necessary and passe into a law . But if they be not good of themselves , but when they are commanded become good , then also they become necessary . A. Gellius instances , in militiam ire , rus colere , honores capescere , causas defendere , uxorem ducere , uti jussum proficisci , accersitum venire , to goe into the country or to stay in the city , to live at court or to live in your farm , to take up armes or to be a merchant , to marry a wife , and to come when you are called , and to work in the vineyard , these things of themselves are innocent and harmlesse , but not necessary of themselves ; propterea in ejusmodi omnium rerum generibus patri parendum esse , In all things of this nature we are to obey our Father . But adde this also , that if it be of it self a duty , and of that nature that it ought to be done sive imperet Pater , sive non imperet , whether his Father command or no , yet even here also the Fathers command is of great authority and great effect ; for it addes a new law to the old commandement , and therefore the disobedience is guilty of a new sinne . But in things dishonest and impious the Father hath no authority to give a commandement ; and if he does , the children are bound not to obey . If the Father commands the Son to marry a wife , to plead a cause for the guilty , obsequendum est ; there is no more to be said , the Father must be obeyed . But if he command the Son to marry a harlot , an impudent woman , a drunkard , or to be an advocate for Catiline or Clodius , for Ravillas or Guido Faux , he is not to be obeyed , quoniam accedente aliquo turpitudinis numero , desinunt esse per sese haec media & indifferentia , When any turpitude is mingled with the action , it is no longer indifferent , or subject to command . And therefore we find Acrotatus commended among the ancients because when his parents had requir'd of him to doe an unjust thing , he answer'd , I know that you are willing I should doe that which is just , for so you taught me to doe . I will doe therefore that which you desire I should , but what you bid me I will not doe . And yet if a Father commands an unjust thing , his Authority is not wholly nothing . For first , though it must not be obeyed , yet it must not be dishonour'd , nor yet rejected but with great regard . Quaedam esse parendum , quaedam non obsequendum , said some in A. Gellius . Sed ea tamen quae obsequi non oportet , leniter & verecunde , ac sine detestatione nimia , sine opprobratione acerba reprehensionis declinanda sensim , & relinquenda esse dicunt , quam respuenda . What is not fit to be obeyed , must be declin'd and avoided rather then rail'd at and rejected with reproach . Etiam in bona causa filii apud parentes debet humilis esse oratio , said Salvian . When a Son denies his Father he must doe it with the language of obedience . Such as was the answer of Agesilaus to his Father when he would have had him to give judgement against the laws , A te , Pater , à puero didici parêre legibus , quamobrem nunc quoque tibi obtempero , cavens nequid faciam praeter leges , Thou hast from my childhood , O Father , taught me to observe the laws ; therefore even now also I obey your command , because I take care not to break them . For whatsoever the command be , yet the authority is venerable ; if the command be unholy , yet the person is sacred . Liberto & filio semper honesta & sancta persona Patris & Patroni videri debet , said Ulpian , The person of a Father is always honest and venerable to the Son , and so is that of a Patron to his freed man. 2. Though the command is not to be obeyed in things dishonest , yet that then also the Fathers authority hath in it some regard appears by this , that if a Son transgresses the law by the command of his Father , his punishment is something the more easy upon that account , though the offence be great , l. fin . de bon . damn . But if the offence be little , he is wholly excus'd saith the law , l. liberorum . § . fin . & seq . de his qui no. infam . Thus if a Son by the command of his Father marries a widow within the year of mourning , he does not incurre infamy by the law , say the Doctors . Velle enim non creditur qui obsequitur Imperio Patris vel Domini , saith the law ; and Venia dignus est qui obtemperavit , saith Ulpian : If he did obey the command of his Father , he is to be pardon'd , it was not his own will ; that is , not his absolutely , but in a certain regard , and in a degree of diminution . 3. The Fathers authority hath this effect also upon children , that if the Father does wrong , the Son must bear it as long as it can be born : and therefore the Son may not goe to law with the Father , and complain of him to the Judge , without leave from both their Superiors . For if by any means the Son can make the Father lesse then he is , it will destroy all duty , and dispark the inclosure which Nature and the laws have made with fear and reverence . But this hath a double consideration , the one in Religion , and the other in Laws . 1. In Religion we are to consider not onely what is lawfull in the precise question , but what is to be done in the whole complication and practice of it . For if the Supreme can give leave in some case for a Son to complain of his Father to a Judge , then in some cases it may be lawfull to doe it , that is , in those cases in which the law hath specified and restrain'd the Paternal power , in those things which the laws call excesses and injuries , and which indeed in themselves are cruel and intolerable . For in such cases the laws are a guard and defence to the oppressed Son ; concerning whom although it is suppos'd that the Father takes sufficient care to keep him harmlesse , yet if the Father does not , the law does : and the law does indeed allow the greatest power to Fathers , because it presumes it will be for the childs good ; but because there are some persons whom no presumption can measure , who are wicked beyond all the usual temptations and infirmities of mankind , therefore even in extraordinary cases there must be some provision ; and therefore it is not to be supposed that it shall for ever be unlawfull for Sons to complain of their Fathers to the Prince . But what those cases are we can be taught by nothing but by the laws themselves , and by our own natural necessities . We must cry out when we cannot forbear , and we must throw off the burden under which we cannot stand ; onely we must not throw it off as a wild horse does his load , and kick it with our feet , but we must lay it as gently down as we can . Thus if a Father refuses to give alimony to his Son who cannot be otherwise provided for , the aid of the Prince or any superior that can rightly give us remedy may be implor'd . If a Father beats his child till he lame or dismember him , or endanger his life , the Son can be remedied , and without breach of duty can implore it . So long as a child is in his Fathers house , and under his Fathers power , these are the onely causes in which he can be allowed legally to complain : because in all other things he is intirely under his Fathers power . But when he is emancipated , and quit from his direct authority , which the Lawyers signify by the power of Castigation , then the Son hath distinct rights , and in them because he can be injured , there are more causes of difference . To this therefore the answer is , That in matters of contract , in little injustices , in any thing that is tolerable , in such things the suffering of which can consist with charity to our selves and piety to our relatives , if a Son does contest with his Father at law , it may be it is no proper act of disobedience , and there is nothing of rebellion in it against his just authority ; but there is also as little of piety ; especially if we consider that such contests at law are extremely seldome manag'd with ordinary charity , and never without the greatest reproach on one side , and scandal on both : and if the Son can secure that on his own part , yet whether that seeming undutifulnesse , and more then seeming want of pious and loving regard , may not exasperate the Father into angry cursings and evil thoughts , is a consideration of religion which ought to be taken care of by all that would be Innocent . There is not one of a thousand that goes to law at all but he runs into so many temptations that it is very hard for him to doe right and to doe nothing that is wrong : but not one in ten thousand can justify his cause and his person too , if he goes to law with a Father . And he will for no cause suffer wrong at any mans hands that will take no wrong of his Father ; and he that does so , will give but an ill account of his Christianity . 2. And these things appear the more by reason of the open dislikes which the Law professes against such proceedings . For look at this thing in Law , and we find that the laws expresse the Sons obedience in universal termes ; Omnibus quae Pater imperat parendum , Sons must be obedient to their Parents in all things . Now if the dispute be betwixt our obedience to God or to our parents , it is an ill case ; we know whom we are to obey , but the dispute it self is not good ; and the very making a question of either is a disadvantage to the honour of both : and therefore the Law , which never supposes a question to be between God and our Father , does not think it fit to make this to be any exception to her indefinite termes ; and therefore Tiberius said it without a limitation , Filium non posse detrectare jussa Patris ; and Turnus against Tarquin said summarily and clearly , Nullam breviorem esse cognitionem quam quae inter Patrem & Filium , paucisque verbis transigi posse ; Ni pareat Patri , habendum infortunium , Between a Father and a Son the proceeding is short , and the case quickly summ'd up ; Either let the Son obey , or let him be punish'd . And the law accounts it a diminution of such supreme authorities , to have exceptions and reservations express'd in the first provisions of the law ; and the very making God and the Father to be the opposite and compar'd persons in the question , is to lessen them both . In comparatione personarum inest laesio & injuria , say the Lawyers ; There is some wrong done when you compare two Eminencies . Therefore in this case , if ever any such thing does happen , without dispute we know what we are to doe : but it is not good that the laws should take public notice of it beforehand . * But if the question be between the Father and the Son , the law is so great an enemy to all such questions , right or wrong , that the law judges for the person of the Father , even when it does not like the cause . It does so in the case of all Superiors in some degree , and therefore much more in the case of Fathers . Jus quod deprimitur , aufertur ; if you lessen the authority , you take it away ; and then you doe injury , though by doing of right . When Accia Variola question'd her Fathers Testament , because he had left immoderate Legacies to her Mother in law , the Fathers of rich families were present in great numbers , and the Sons of those families attended for the sentence in great and anxious expectations , looking which interest should get the advantage . But the Judges very wisely left the case undetermin'd , because it was hard on the Fathers side ; but they were resolved never to leave a precedent in which the children should be in any thing superior to their Fathers : or that as Death and Love chang'd their quivers , so old age should be reckon'd as void of Counsel , and wisedome and prudence should be the portion of yong men . RULE VIII . It is not lawfull for Children to enter into any lasting Course of life against the will or approbation of their Parents . THis Rule contains two great Cases . The first is concerning the states of Religion ; the other is concerning the states of Civil life . 1. It is not lawfull for children to take them any religious vows , or enter into any of those which are called states of Religion , viz. to take upon them the state of single life , to be Priests , Monks , Friers , Hermits , or any thing of the like nature , without the consent of their Parents . Thomas Aquinas entred into the Dominican Order , and became a Frier without the consent of his parents : and that unjustifiable action begat a more unjustifiable doctrine , Post annos pubertatis posse liberos se voto religionis obligare , absque voluntate parentum , That afer 14 years of age or the first ripenesse , it is lawfull for children to take upon them the vows of Religion , whether their parents be willing or unwilling . And after his time it grew into a common doctrine and frequent practice ; and if a Monk could persuade a yong heir , or a pregnant youth into their cloysters , they pretended to serve God , though certainly they serv'd themselves , and disserv'd a family . The ground they went upon was , the pretence of the great sanctity of the state Monastical ; that it was for God and for religion ; that to serve God no man that can chuse hath need to ask leave ; that if the Father be superior , yet God is the supreme ; that it is Corban ; that if the yong man or maiden be given to God , he is given to him that hath more right to him or her then his parents ; that religion in all things is to be preferr'd ; and that although the parents have a right over the bodies of their children , yet of their souls they are themselves to dispose , because theirs is the biggest interest and concern : and whereas God hath commanded to Honour our Father and Mother , we know that God is our Father , and the Church is our Mother ; and what does accrue to these , is no diminution to the others right . Against all these fair pretences it is sufficient to oppose this one truth , That Religion and Piety cannot of themselves crosse each other , but may very well stand together , and nothing is better then to doe a necessary duty . And there needs not much consideration to tell which is better , to make our love to God and our love to our Parents , and our duty to them both to stand together , or to fight one with another . God intends the first , that is certain , for he is not the author of division , nor hath he made one good contrary to another . For if one be set up against another they are both spoiled . For that duty that goes away is lost ; and that duty which thrust it away hath done evil , and therefore is not good . If therefore it be possible to doe our duty to our parents and to love God greatly at the same time , there needs no more to be said in this affair , but that we are to remember that a man may greatly serve God , and yet never be a Frier or a Priest ; and that allowing or supposing that these are great advantages , or rather engagements of duty , yet it is certain that no state of perfection can be set forward by doing evil ; and he enters ill into the state of perfection that passes into it by the door of Undutifulnesse . Now then , we are certain of this , that Parents have the first right , and the first possession , and that to dispossesse any one of his rights against his will is great injustice , and therefore that no end can sanctify it ; and that it would be a strange religion which teaches impiety for pious considerations : and therefore without further inquiry , it follows that a Son may not upon any pretences of a religious manner and circumstances of life subduct himself from his Fathers power , and put himself under other governments with which his Father shall have nothing to doe . A Son hath no power over himself , for he belongs to and is under the power of another ; & therefore if he does subduct himself , he is undutifull , and impious , & unjust , and does not Honour his Father and his Mother . But he that does persuade the Son from his Fathers house into a Monastery , is reus Plagii , he is a Man-stealer . Qui Patri eripit filium , educatori alumnum , Domino servum , Deo efficit impium , educatori ingratum , Domino nequam , said Tertullian , He that debauches a Son , a Pupil , or a Servant , and snatches them from their Father , their Guardian , or their Lord , makes them impious , ingratefull and vile . And because this was done by some upon pretence of piety , the Council of Gangra forbad it upon a curse . Quicunque fil●● à parentibus pratextu Divini cultûs abscedunt , nec debitam reverentiam impendunt illis… . anathema sint . Pretence of the Divine service is no good warranty for disobedience to parents ; and they who so neglect their Fathers blessing , will meet with the curse of their Mother . And this Canon 〈◊〉 cited and renewed in the sixth Council of Constantinople . * The Council of Tribur forbids expressely a yong maiden before twelve years of age ●o enter into a Monastery without the consent of her Guardian . Gratian citing this Decree , addes something of his own ; for it is not known whence he had it , except from the degenerous and corrupt practices of his own times . Si verò in fortiori aetate adolescens vel adolescentula servire Deo elegerit , non est potestas parentibus prohibendi , If the yong man or maiden be of greater age , the parents have no power to forbid him : which ●s a clause which is not to be found in the Codes of Councils , in any editions old or new . But when Monastical life had reputation and secular advantages upon religious pretences , then the advocates and promoters of it were willing by right and wrong to set it forward . But the corruption is plain , and apparently against the doctrine and practices of the Fathers of the Church . S. a Ambrose and S. b Austin say that a Father or Mother ought not to hinder a son or daughter from entring to a Monastery . But the ▪ things were so ordered that the entry thither was not a perpetual bond , but a going thither as to a Christian School , a place for institution and holy practice , and from thence they might return when they would , they might serve God and their Parents too : the profession of a Monk was then nothing else but priscae liberaeque vitae ac pure Christianae meditatio , a meditation and institution of a Christian life according to the rate of the Primitive simplicity , liberty and devotion . But besides this , though they exhort parents not to hinder their children , yet they affirm that they have power to doe it ▪ and they may if they will ; as appears amply in S. Austin's Epistle to Ecdicia , and in his 233. Epistle to Benenatus . But most plainly and dogmatically it is affirm'd by S. Basil , liberos non esse recipiendos in Monasteriis , nisi à parentibus suis offerantur , Children are not to be receiv'd into Monasteries unlesse their parents present them : and when S. Gregory Nazianzen had against his Fathers commandement run into a Monastery , he began to bethink himself what he had done , and found that without impiety he could not be contumacious against his Father , and therefore left his solitude and return'd home . Et hoc facio ( saith he ) jussu Dei magis quam hominum metu . Itaque , O pataer , dicto jam audienti praeb● benedictionem . This he did in obedience to God , and not for the fear of men ; and therefore upon the account of his obedience and return , he begg'd his Fathers blessing . But besides this , there were two remarkable examples which abundantly conclude this duty . * The one was of Heliodorus , who together with S. Hierom had undertaken a Monastical life by vow ; but finding that by Piety and Nature he was to regard his onely sister and her son , he return'd to her house , and took upon him the habit of the Clergy , and left that of Monks . Against him S. Hierom , who was then a yong man , newly come from the University and the schools of Rhetoric , storms very much , and saies some things which when he was older and wiser he changes and revokes , as appears in his Epistle to Nepotian , where he imputes his former sayings to his juvenile years and learning . Now though Heliodorus had no parents when he undertook a Monastical life , and therefore had his liberty ; yet it is therefore certain he believ'd he ought not to have done it without the consent of parents if they had been living , because he did suppose a lesse Piety , even to his Sister and his Nephew , to be a sufficient reason for him to leave his solitude and shew Piety at home . * But the other instance is more material . Stagirius was made a Monk , not against his Fathers commandement , but against his Counsel . The Father was very unwilling , but durst not expressely forbid it , upon some scruples which were put into his head by the humors which were then beginning . But because he had neglected his Fathers Counsel , and caus'd trouble to him , Stagirius was vexed with the Devil , and S. Chrysostome took great pains to comfort him . But afterwards the manners of men grew worse , and all religion was inclosed in a Friers habit , and it grew to be esteemed excellent to enter into a Monastery , and whatsoever did hinder it was to be despis'd , or us'd like a temptation ; and the Orders of Religion grew potent and prevail'd over private interests and private religion , and by degrees it enter'd into unsufferable mischiefs and impiety . It was sometimes restrain'd by good laws , so that it could not grow so fast , Charles the Great made a law concerning it : De pueris verò sine voluntate parentum ut tonsurentur , vel puellae velentur , modis omnibus inhibitum est , Boys must not be shorn nor maidens vail'd without the consent of their parents . And to the transgressors of this law a fine was impos'd , the same with that which was appointed in the Salic law * ; which did equally forbid them to be slain and to be shorn . For by religious pretences not to doe kindnesse to their parents our Blessed Saviour called hypocrisy in the Pharisees ; and therefore upon the like pretences to doe them wrong , to take their right from them , to dispossesse them of their dearest pledges , must needs be so mcuh the worse . It is that which our Blessed Saviour calls Hypocrisy , and dishonouring our parents : It is that which the Church does call an anathema , which the Laws call plagium , or man-stealing : It is homicide in the account of the Imperial laws : and S. Bernard calls them wolves that doe it , in his first Epistle , which , as the story runs , was not written without a Miracle . The other great case is in the Marriage of their Children , concerning which the sentence is ready and acknowledged in the greatest part of it . 2. It is unlawfull for Children to marry without and against the consent of their Parents . That such marriages are not licitae is confess'd on all hands ; that is , the son or daughter sin against God and the laws , by marrying against his Fathers Commandement . Adeone impotenti animo esse , ut praeter civium Morem atque legem , & sui voluntatem patris , Tamen hanc habere studeat , cum summo probro ? said he in the Comedy . It is dishonourable , and a shame to take a wise against the will of his Father ; it is against the manners and the laws of all Republics . But whether they be legitimae or no is a great question ; that is , whether they be wholly invalid and null in law , or in case they be valid , whether or no they suffer any diminution , and what it is . Amongst the Ancients , and for a long time in the Civil law , such marriages were esteem'd illegitimate , and no better then a meer Concubinate . So Ovid intimates in the marriage of Pyramus and Thisbe ; — Tedae quoque jure coissent , Sed vetuere patres — If the parents had not forbidden , the marriage had been legitimate ; but therefore not then when they are forbidden : and therefore as incestuous marriages were not onely Impious but Null , they are not onely sinfull in the entry , but all the way ; so are these , alike evil in all the progression , though as yet they have not a proper name in law , as the other have . But Apulcius is more expresse ; Impares nuptiae , & praeterea in villa sine testibus & Patre non consentiente factae , legitima non possunt videri , ac per hoc spurius iste nascetur . Unequal marriages , clandestine , and made without the Fathers consent can never seem legitimate , and therefore the children that are born will be illegitimate . And Musaeus observes in the marriage of Leander , that it was ominous and unlucky upon this reason , because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The Father and the Mother did not sing the Hymenaeal or Marriage song The same thing was observ'd also by the Christians ; for when Tertullian is recounting the auspicious signes and causes of a blessed marriage , he puts this in , Unde sufficiam ad enarrandam felicitatem ejus Matrimonii quod Ecclesia conciliat , & confirmat oblatio , & obsignatum Angeli renunciant , Pater rato habet ? That marriage will be very prosperous which is blessed by the Church , made solemn by publication and the rituals of religion , and establishe'd by the consent of the Father . For without it it is not onely inauspicious and unlucky , but illegal , unfirm and insufficient . Nam nec in terris filii sine consensu Patrum ritè & jure nubent , saith he . For he liv'd in a time when the law pronounc'd such marriages illegal , and the children bastards . For as some contracts are invalid unlesse the solemnity of the law be observed , and Testaments are ineffective without such a number of witnesses ; so the law requires the consent of Parents to make the espousals to be a legal and valid contract . Non videri justum filium qui ex eo Matrimonio natus est cui Pater non consensit , said Paulus the Lawyer : and this went so farre , that if a daughter were expos'd by her Father like a child of the people , and no care of her education or alimony taken , yet before the time of Constantine , that daughter might not marry without the leave even of that unnatural Father . And amongst the children of Abraham this was so sacredly observed , that even there where by the event of things we perceive that the marriage was design'd by God , yet it was not to be acted but by the Fathers willingnesse ; as appears in the cases of Isaac and Rebecca , Sampson and his wife at Timnath . Thus Agar took a wife for her son Ishmael , and Jacob went into Mesopotamia for a wife by the consent of his Father and Mother ; and Sichem ask'd of his Father Hemor that he would get him the daughter of Jacob to wife . And the words of the Law were directed to the Father , not to the Son ; Non accipies Uxorem filiis tuis de filiabus eorum , & filiam tuam non dabis filio ejus : and in the New Testament , He that giveth his Virgin in marriage doth well : still it is the Parent that hath the right and the power ; it is the Parent that can make the contract ; he is the person suppos'd onely competent in law . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Hermione in Euripides , My Father is to take care of my espousals ; that 's no part of my care or determination . And S. Ambrose , by the example of Rebecca , said that the choice of a husband for his daughter is to be permitted to the Father . And indeed by these instances and the perpetual practice and persuasion of the old world we cannot suppose it to be lesse then a Natural law , or a natural reason , of great effect , or of great necessity . When the daughter of Cyaxarus was ask'd whom she would marry , she answer'd , Cyrus ; for when they were children together he had delighted her with pretty songs and conversation : And when she was offer'd to him with a royal robe , Jewels and a crown of gold , and all Media for her dowry , Cyrus answer'd , Et genus & puellam & dotalia laudo , I like the Lady , her dowry and her family , but I must have these agree with the mind of my Father and my Mother , and then I will marry her . For ( as Panaegyris in Plautus told his sister ) in Patris potestate esse situm liberorum matrimonium , quibus faciendum hac in parte sit quod Patres imperant , Childrens marriage is in the power of their Father , and they must doe what their Father commands : and Simo would not allow Pamphilus to call him Father , when he disobey'd him in this particular , Quid , mi Pater ? quasi tu hujus indigeas Patris . Domus , Uxor , liberi inventi invito Patre . But Pamphilus in despite of his passion , suffered his duty to prevail , Tibi , Pater , me dedo : quidvis oneris impone , impera . Vis me Uxorem ducere ? hanc vis amittere ? ut potero feram . Pamphilus offer'd to quit Glycerium if his Father pleas'd , and yet he had been contracted to her , and had a Son by her . Certain it is , these contracts were to all purposes invalid by the Civil law both of the Greeks and Romans . Nuptias consistere non posse nisi consentiant omnes , hoc est , qui coeunt , quorumque in potestate sunt , saith the Law , Inst. de Nuptiis . ff . de ritu nuptiarum . And in the Jus Graeco-Romanum there is an expresse Canon , Qui in aliena potestate sunt eorum pacta nihil habent firmi : propterea quae citra voluntatem nuptiae fiunt eorum penes quos potestas est , pro scortationibus habentur . This is peremptory . Such marriages are fornications , and therefore the children are Bastards . And of this Justinian gives this account , Just●●● . nuptias inter se contrahunt qui secundum praecepta legum coeunt , Those marriages are true which are confederated according to the precepts of laws , when the contractors are of fitting age , whether they be the chief , or the sons of families . Onely if they be sons of families , they must have their consent in whose power they are . Nam hoc fieri debere , & civilis & naturalis ratio suadet , in tantum ut jussus parentum praecedere debeat . For that this ought to be done , that the Fathers consent must be before the marriage , not onely is concluded by civil or political reason , but also by the natural . Thus it was in the Natural and in the Civil law ; and at first , and for a long time after , it was no otherwise in the Canon law . To this purpose is that famous Decree of Pope Euaristus ; Aliter legitimum non sit conjugium nisi ab iis qui super ipsam foeminam dominationem habere videntur , & à quibus custoditur , uxor petatur , & à parentibus & propinquioribus sponsetur , & legibus dotetur . Euaristus had enumerated a great many things which were fit ( as he thought ) and much for the honesty and decency , the blessing and prosperity of the marriage ; as attending to solemn prayers for two or three days , oblations and bridemen , and some other things which are now out of use : he proceeds to that which was essentiall to the contract , the consent of parents ; and aliter legitimum non sit , it cannot otherwise be legitimate : and he addes , aliter verò praesumpta non conjugia , sed adulteria , vel contubernia , vel stupra aut fornicationes potius quam legitima conjugia esse non dubitatur , Marriages without the consent of parents are adulteries and ravishments , fornications and concubinate , any thing rather then marriages . To this accords that Canon of S. Basil , Puellis quae praeter Patris sententiam fornicatores secutae sunt reconciliatis parentibus videtur res remedium accipere : sed non protinus ad communionem restituentur , sed triennio punientur . If Fathers will pardon their daughters that without their leave run after wanton persons , their crime as to him seems to be taken off ; yet let them be put for three years into the station of Penitents . Upon this Canon Theodorus Balsamon saies , that by [ Puellis ] or Girles , S. Basil means those that are under their Fathers power : and that if any such give themselves up to their lovers without their Fathers consent and are dishonour'd , although they to themselves seem to be married , yet such marriages are not valid , they cannot stand : and for this there is no remedy but being reconcil'd to their Fathers . But S. Basil is also as expresse himself in his text as Balsamon in his Commentary , for in his 40 ●h Canon he saies that marriages without the consent of them in whose power they are , are fornications and not marriages . And therefore the Council of Carthage requires that when the bridegroom and his bride are to be blessed by the Priest , that is , solemnly married , they should be presented to the Priest by their parents or their deputies ; which thing is carefully to this day observed in the Church of England . For according to the saying of S. Leo , Paterno arbitrio foeminae viris junctae carent culpâ ; If maidens be joyn'd to their Husbands by the consent of their parents , there is then nothing but innocence , no body hath cause to complain . But that 's not all . For Gratian expounding these words , saies that from hence [ datur intelligi quod Paternus consensus desideratur in nuptiis , nec sine eo legitimae nuptiae habeantur ] we are given to understand that the Fathers consent is requir'd , and without it the marriages are not to be accounted legitimate : and for it he quotes the words of Euaristus before mention'd . But the Council of Aquisgrane did not onely separate such marriages when the maiden was stoln away without her parents leave , but would not allow that ever after they should be man and wife , as we find in Burchard ; and the same was verified in the Council of Melda , which for it's warrant quotes a synodal definition of S. Gregory to the same purpose . The Church was indeed very severe against such undutifull proceedings and rebellions against the supreme natural power ; and therefore the Council in Paris & divers others did anathematize them that so married , & even when they were reconcil'd to their parents did impose on them severe penances . But because when things were once come to that passe , Fathers perceived that the reputation of their children was lost , and that it was not easy to get other honest Matches for their children , and especially when Marriage began to be called a Sacrament , and some scruples were by the Clergy cast into this affair , and because men were willing to make the best of a bad Market ; the Fathers gave over making use of this power given them by the laws , and thought the public penances were castigation sufficient . But then according to the nature of all good laws and manners running down the hill , this thing never left running till children had leave to despise their parents , and marry where and when they pleas'd ; and though it was said to be a fault , yet factum valet , fieri non debuit , it was decreed in the Council of Trent to be valid and effectual . But now this sentence which indeed relies upon some reason and very great authority , and is wise and fit to prevent much evil in families , is yet very severe , and ought to receive some allay ; which when I have represented upon the general consideration , I shall endeavour to give it a right understanding , and describe the truth that lies between the two extremes , and was yet never affirm'd and describ'd by any one that I know of , but is determinable by a just weighing of all that which very many wise men have said , being put together . First therefore I consider what Quintilian said : If it be lawfull at any time for a son to doe an action otherwise unreprovable without the consent of parents , certainly liberty is in nothing so necessary as in marriage . Ego eligam cum qua victurus sum , ego comitem laborum , sollicitudinum , curarum ipse perpendam . Quis enim amare alieno animo potest ? It is fit that I should chuse her or him with whom I must always live , the partner of my joys and sorrows , the companion of my cares , the Father or the Mother of my own children : for it is impossible that a man should love with any affections but his own . And if Pamphilus can love none but Glycerium , it will be hard for Simo , whose fires are extinct by age , to command his son to burn and pine away without remedy and pitty . It was better which Pausanias tells of Danaus , that he gave his daughters leave to chuse their husbands ; and Herodotus tells that Callias the Athenian was much commended by the Greeks because he permitted to his daughters to chuse what husbands , not he , but themselves lik'd best . But the case is to be determin'd by these three Propositions . 1. When sons or daughters are of competent years and have the use of reason , they can naturally contract marriages ; that is , there is nothing naturally requir'd but that they can consent , and be of a marriageable strength . Sufficiat solus consensus illorum de quorum , quarumque conjunctionibus agitur , said Clement the third , Consent alone makes marriage ; that is , it makes a marriage naturally valid , if it be done by those persons who naturally can consent . For that the consent of parents is not essentially necessary to the validity of the contract naturally , appears in many instances . 1. Because children can contract when their parents are dead . 2. Because if their Father be dead , and their Mother living , the son that is of years of discretion is not under his Mothers power as to that , but that upon great and good reason he may marry by his own choice . 3. A son may marry at the command of a Prince , when it is for the public good , though his Father at the same time regard nothing but his private . 4. If a Father say nothing to hinder it , though he be secretly unwilling , or owns the unwillingnesse , but behaves himself negatively as to any cooperation , yet the son may marry : which demonstrates that the Fathers consent is no active principle , ingredient into the marriage , but a privative or a negative onely ; that is , he can forbid it , and so hinder it , but it is not therefore naturally invalid ; that is , he can legally prevent it , but not naturally annul it . 5. If the marriage of the son be not onely of regard and advantage to the son , but so far from doing injury to the Father , that it does him honour ; the laws declare that such a marriage is valid , though the Father out of humor disagree . And therefore when the law saies that the son cannot contract marriage but with his Fathers consent , the Doctors limit it amongst other cases to this especially , quando filius duceret uxorem turpem & indignam , when the son marries dishonorably ; for then ( say Bartolus and Decius ) there is injury done to the Father : so that the prohibition lying for this reason , when the case is contrary to the reason , the extraordinary effect must be contrary to the ordinary law . 6. Whatever the law decrees in detestation of childrens disobedience , yet the marriage though to some civil effects it is null'd , yet that it is naturally valid appears in this , because the son that is born of that marriage is the Grandfathers own , and if the Father die before the Grandfather , the Grandchild must inherit . So that the punishment is but personally on the Son , and is not a perfect invalidating of the marriage . And this very case was determin'd in the Parliament of Harlay in behalf of Marguerite de Nesdes her children , the Nephews of her husbands Father , in the year 1584. 7. If the Father be unreasonable , and offers to his son or daughter an ugly , a deform'd , a vitious or a base person , and gives him no other choice , and the son cannot contain and live a single life , by the consent of all men the son may refuse , and he cannot but chuse another . 8. The same is the case , if the Father be negligent ; then by the law a son sooner and a maiden after 25. years of age can chuse for her self . * An sedere oportuit domi virginem tam grandem ? said Phalaris . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For it is intolerable that a maid should be suffer'd to passe the flower of her age at home . And when the Gemara Sanhedrin had said [ Doe not prostitute thy daughter , to make her a harlot ] Rabbi Eliezer said this was spoken to him that marries his daughter to an old man. R. Akiba saies , it was meant of him qui domi retinet filiam nubilem , that keeps his daughter at home too long . Which two last cases relying upon the same reason produce the same effect , That the Fathers consent , though highly to be requir'd , yet is not essentially necessary ; it may be a valid marriage without it . 9. And this is true also in case of Emancipation * , or quitting the Son from the Fathers power ; he is sui juris , and can marry where he will , and yet he owes to his Father all the obedience to which by the law of Nature he was obliged . 10. If a Son marries without his Fathers consent , the law saies it is void ; but yet it is not so void , but that the Fathers approbation makes it valid without marrying again : which could not be if it were naturally invalid , but therefore it is both naturally and Ecclesiastically good . Quod enim ab initio malè factum est , parentum postea consensus reparare videtur , said Balsamon : it was ill done at first , and the Fathers consent repairs the dammage ; but if it was invalid and null at first , nothing can make it alive upon the first stock . Quod enim ab initio non valuit , progressu temporis valere non debet , saith the law . 11. Servants or slaves in the Civil law were as much in the power of their lords as sons in the power of their Fathers ; as much I say , though not for so many reasons ; and yet the marriage of servants was valid in law though contracted without the consent of their Lords ; as Pope Alexander the third wrote in a decretal Epistle to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury : and therefore that the marriage of sons and daughters may be so too , that is , not to be dissolved , not to be declar'd null in conscience , I can find no reason to the contrary . 12. We find in Scripture that Esau's marriages were valid and went on , though contracted against the interest of that family , the pleasure of the parents and , as Lyra saies , without their consent . It is true indeed that the Jerusalem Thargum saies that they were a grief to Isaac and Rebecca because they were undutifull , and proud , and idolatrous , refusing to be taught by their Husbands Father or Mother . But when I consider that it is not onely affirmed by Rebecca that they were an affliction to her , but observ'd at the very first taking of them in , that they were a grief to both of them , and that Esau afterwards to gratify his Father did marry his Cosen german , the daughter of his Uncle Ishmael ; the opinion of Lyra seems most probable , and that Isaac and Rebecca did not consent , and were not pleas'd with those first marriages . But if this should fail , there are arguments enough besides to evince that naturally such marriages are valid , though at no hand they ought to be done . But what then shall we say to all the former discourse , which prov'd that those marriages were illegitimate , and the conjunctions no better then concubinate ? Does all that heap of things , and sayings of wise men , and laws Ecclesiastical and Civil and Natural , effect nothing ? or doe they prevail intirely ? That they effect something their own strength does evidence ; that they doe not prevail to effect a natural nullity in marriage , the contrary arguments describ'd in the former Number doe sufficiently prove . What then is the conclusion ? From hence we may learn it . 2. Although the marriage is naturally valid , yet that natural validity can have this effect onely , that it can for ever bind the conscience of the engaged parties to faith and mutual love , and to cohabitation when it is not hindred ; and it is , even when it is most of all forbidden , yet potentially legitimate , that is , it wants no features and lineaments , nor life , but it wants solennity and publication ; that is , it is like an Embryo in his Mothers womb , there it must stay till the law gives it name and birth . * For it is to be considered , that although the yong folks can contract even against their parents will , yet they can be hindred from possession : Not onely because natural rights can be impeded in their use and challenge by the Supreme Civil power ; but because there is in marriage something that is wholly in the power of the Civil law . For in marriage there are three things , Unity , and Society , and Mystery . This last is not of present consideration , because it is wholly of spiritual nature , and therefore of Ecclesiastical cognisance . But of the other two , the first is in the power of the Contractors , the latter is in the power of the Common-wealth . From union of minds , and obligation of mutual duties and affections , and perpetuity of relations they cannot be kept by their dissenting parents , or by the Civil law . But from being a society , from beginning a legal family , from rights of succession , from reckoning descents in their line , and from cohabitation they can be kept by that power which is the Supreme in the establishment and conduct of all societies . And the consequent of this will be , not onely that such persons shall loose all civil benefits and profits of inheritance , that is , all that can come from Society , but even their very Unity will be disparag'd , so as it shall be esteem'd no better then fornication ; not that it is so before God , or is against the vertue of Chastity , but that it is so in the Civil account , and is against the laws of Marriage . It is in this as it is in the case of Raptus or Ravishment . In the Civil law , he that takes away a mans daughter without the consent of her parents rapuisse dicitur is a Ravisher : but it is not so in the Canon law , it is not so in Nature or Conscience . Raptus ibi dicitur admitti ubi nihil ante de nuptiis dicitur : If there was no treaty of marriage , it is a rape ; but if the man was secretly betrothed , to carry her away and lye with her is no rape , licèt parentes reclamarent , although the parents were against it , said Pope Lucius the third . Now to call this a rape , and to punish it as if it were , is in the power of law : just as the stealing of a knife out of a Church , or a Chalice out of the Clercs house , may by law be called Sacrilege ; and then it is so to all the purposes of law ; though before God it may not differ from simple theft . So for yong lovers to lye together before publication is by the Canon law called Antenuptialis fornicatio , and is punished as if it were so indeed : and yet though it be evil in the eye of men , and upon that account is so in it self , yet in the eyes of God it is not fornication ; God himself having expressely called a Betrothed woman by the name of wife , and punish'd her falshood to her husband before marriage with the same evil as adultery . And thus it is in the present inquiry : Marriage of persons in minority is naturally invalid , because they are naturally unable to make a contract for their good , they understand it not ; but if they be of good years , though under their Fathers power , they are naturally able , but politically unable , and therefore are inevitably engag'd in an evil condition , and they have sinn'd , and it is a miracle if they doe not sin again , and abide in it upon this account . For the marriage is good within doors , but it is not good abroad : they are both oblig'd , and yet cannot pay their obligation : this marriage is not good in law , and yet they cannot chuse another in conscience : it was by their own fault , and therefore they must bear their own burden : they are guilty of fornication , but it is not a sin against the seventh Commandement : they have not dishonour'd their own bodies between themselves , but they have dishonour'd them before all the world besides . And as covetousnesse is idolatry , and rebellion is witchcraft , so this disobedience is unchastity , it is uncleannesse against the fifth Commandement : and therefore it is no legal marriage , but unlawfull at first , and remains so all the way , till a legal remedy be found out . For this things is rightly stated by Paulus the Lawyer : Matrimonia haec jure non contrahi , sed tamen contracta non solvi , Such marriages ought not to be made , but being made they cannot be dissolved . And he gives an excellent reason for it ; contemplationem enim publicae utilitatis privatorum commodis anteferri . It is of public concern that marriages naturally valid be not rescinded ; but it is but of private emolument that the Father should be pleas'd in his daughter in law : and therefore although the * Law of God and man doe their several shares for the securing of every interest and concern , yet that regard which is greatest and more public is to be preferred . Now for the understanding of the full effect of this , and for the verification of it , it is to be consider'd , that laws are called Perfect , or Imperfect . A perfect law is that which either in it self or by the Magistrate rescinds whatsoever was done against her prescript . l. Non dubium , C. de legib . The imperfect law is that which does not indeed rescind the thing , but inflicts a punishment upon the transgressors : such as was the lex Furia Testamentaria , and such as is the law concerning these forbidden marriages against their Fathers will ; the Marriage must stand , and the married must lie under the punishment * : they in the civil law were reckon'd as Concubines , and their Children bastards , and there was neither dowry nor marriage allowed . And upon this account , all those sayings which I brought in the former numbers † are true : the marriages were then civilly null , that is , in estimation of law and to all intents and purposes of law were outlawed , and made uncapable of civil benefits and advantages ; but the law could not make them naturally null : and in the Law of Moses , although a maiden that had been humbled was to become the wife of him that did it , and to have her dowry accordingly , if her Father pleas'd , and he might chuse whether he would or no ; yet there is no footstep or signe , that if he had betrothed himself to her , and lyen with her , that then she was not his wife , or that her dissenting Father could make it null . Indeed divorces were so easily granted then , that even in this case they had a remedy at hand : but we are tied up by stricter and more holy bands ; and since Christ reduc'd it to the first institution , and that it was made to represent the union of the Church unto him , it is not so easy to untie this knot . So much as is in the power of law , so much is fit to be done for the securing the Fathers authority and his rights according to the interests of religion and the public : but the laws themselves have a limit ; and though they can verify all their own acts , yet they cannot annul the Act of God : Quae Deus conjunxit , nemo separet . Conjunction of marriages is by a law of God and Nature , and to it nothing is requir'd but a natural capacity and an explicit consent , and therefore this no man can separate . But yet , 3. The Father hath over his children a double power ; a natural power and a political . His Natural power is intire , absolute , and unlimited , except where the Law of God or of Nations does intervene ; but then it lasts but till the children are able to understand and chuse , and shift for themselves . For there are some natural and personal rights relating to duty , to the perpetuating the kind , to defending and providing for themselves , which are not to be taken from us , unlesse they be as well or better supplied otherwhere ; for some can , and some cannot . The desires relating to marriage have in th●m so much natural necessity , and so much relation to personal duties , that either they must be in our own powers , or else our salvation must depend on other men . Nescis nostri arbitrii esse Matrimonia ? Affectus nostri nobis non serviunt . Non potes efficere Imperio ut vel amen quam velis , vel oderim . Matrimonium vero tum perpetuum est , si mutuâ voluntate jungitur . Cum ergo quaeratur mihi uxor , socia thori , vitae consors , in omne seculum mihi eligenda est . My wife is to dwell with me for ever , the half of my self , my lasting joy or my lasting sorrow , and if I doe not love her we cannot live comfortably , and to love I cannot be commanded , for my affections are not at my own command , much lesse at anothers : and therefore the conduct of this belongs to my selfe , and to none else , for so much of the interest as the union and conjunction comes to ; and in this I am no mans subject , when I am a man my self . But the Father hath a political power . Patria potestas est jus quoddam quod habent qui sunt de Imperio Romano in liberos Naturales & legitimos , say the Lawyers . The paternal power is defin'd by the measures of the Roman law ; and so it is in all Countries by their own measures . Now in most Countries , especially of old , the Father had so much power given to him over his children that they were a part of his possessions ; they acquir'd what they did acquire for their Father , not for themselves ; they might be pawn'd , they might be sold three times for their Fathers profit ; they must last and abide under this power till they were dismissed or emancipated by their Father . Now whatsoever rights were consequent to these powers were so wholly to be dispos'd of by the Fathers , that whatsoever actions of the sons did destroy those rights were so far , and in relation to those rights , null and invalid . When therefore the Father had by the Civil law a power over the person of his son , so as to have the profit of his labours , the issues of his marriage , his children to succeed , the sons wife to be partner of his goods and his holy rites , and to perpetuate his family , he had by the Civil law power to dispose of him so far as concern'd these things , but no further . And therefore the Father had power to disinherit the son that married without his Fathers leave ; and all the Emperors and all the Lawyers till the time of Constantine did allow it : but then it felt variety and change , and it was limited to the case of the sons marrying dishonourably . The result of these three Propositions is this , That every Common-wealth hath power to extend or to streighten the Fathers political power , & to give sentences and judgements upon the actions that relate to such power : and if the law does declare the children of marriages against the parents will to be bastards , they are so ; and the Son not to succeed in his Fathers estate , it must be so ; and the marriage to be a concubinate , it must be accounted so ; and the conjunction to be uncleannesse , it must be called dishonourable , and may be punished as if it were so : and this must last so long till the son be by the same law declar'd not to be under his Fathers power as to that particular ; and when it is so , he can then chuse for himself without fraud or detriment ; though even then also he hath upon him two bands , Reverence and Piety , from which the son can never be emancipated as long as he lives , and as long as he can be obliged to be a thankfull person , ever remembring what the old Sibyll said , that they deserve damnation … quíve parentes In senio linquunt , neque praemia digna rependunt Pro Nutricatu , vel qui parere recusant , Aspera vel contra dixerunt verba parentes , who leave their parents in their old age , who speak words against them , who doe not pay their thankfull duty for their alimony and education , and who refuse to obey them , viz. according to the laws , and according to the exigence of reverence and piety which must be for ever . Of exemption from the power of Fathers . For by this means we shall the shortest and truest answer the inquiry , when a Son is free from his Fathers power , and how long he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Demosthenes his expression is , subject to the necessity of the Fathers laws . I answer that , in those things which are parts of natural power and relate to personal duties , the Father hath always a power of Counsel , which must be regarded by the ties and analogies of reverence and piety , and the reasons of the things themselves . But in those powers which the law hath given him , he is to abide in them as long as the law permits ; for in this there is no other measure but the law . But in these and all other things whatsoever , when by nature and the laws we are quit from the Empire of the Father , and that power which is called Castigation , or the power of command and coercion , we are still tied to fear him with a reverential fear , and to obey him with the readinesse of piety in all things where Reverence and Piety are to have regard and prevail , that is , where-ever it is possible and reasonable to obey . Quae praerogativa ex beneficentia acquiritur perpetuo durat , said Aristotle , The authority that is acquir'd by bounty is perpetual . And therefore even Marriage it self does not quit the children from their duty : Not onely by force of Civil laws , in which sense the sons wife was in the Fathers power as well as the son himself till he was emancipated ; but I mean it in respect of reverence and pious regards , and natural duty , and humble observation . For Nomen Patris grande Mysterium est , & nomen Matris arcana Reverentia , said Origen ; there is Reverence , and there is mystery , and all sacrednesse in the Names of Father and Mother ; and that dignity lasts for ever . The Ancients tell that when Danaus , who had given liberty to his fifty daughters to marry according to their own liking , was compelled to give them to the fifty Grandchildren of Aegisthus , he gave to each of them a sword , and commanded them to kill their husbands the first night before their congresse : and they thought themselves , though married , oblig'd to obey their Father , and all did so but Hypermnestra , who for her disobedience was question'd upon her life , and was by the equally-divided sentences of the Judges acquitted . The like story to this is told by Chalcondylas , that a daughter of a Florentine Physician being by the public request and necessity of the Town given to Lantislaus an amorous Prince , who to get her besieged the Town , her Father gave her a poyson'd handkerchief which he commanded her to use upon the Prince ; and she did so , and upon her self , and both died . These indeed were excesses of power and obedience : but I noted them to shew that the sense of the world is to suppose children oblig'd to their parents even when they are in the power of a husband , or in necessitude and conjunction with a wife . And this is extended also to daughters that are Widows , if they be in minority , that is under 25 years ; for so it was in the Roman law ; or , if under any other number of years which the law calls minority in any Government . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , If she will marry again , let her marry by the consent of her Father . 2. If a Son be a Magistrate , the Magistrate is exempted , but not the Son. That is , in those things which concern his office and dignity the Father hath nothing to doe with him : but in things Oeconomical the Fathers power stands , and his person is capable of the same regards as formerly ; of all the same , Salvo honore Magistratus . But yet the reverence of such a Son to a Father ought to be no otherwise exacted then by the measures of prudence and custome , and the common usages of the place . When Fabius Maximus came to his Son who was then Consul , and sate upon his horse , otherwise then he ought , his Son sent the Lictors to him to call him to descend and come to him : and the old Man gladly obeyed , and told him , Non ego Imperium tuum , mi Fili , contempsi , I did not despise thy authority , but I tried if you knew how to be a Consul : nec ignoro quid Patriae venerationi debeatur ; verum publica instituta privatâ pietate potiora judico , I know what veneration is due to a Father ; but the private regard must give place to the public laws . And yet even in things of public nature , if a Father be wise , his Counsel ought to have some force besides the reason . When the Tribunes of the people , who sometime had Consular dignity , contended which of them should goe to the Warre against the Lavicani ( for they all would fain have gone , but none would stay at home to take care of the city ) Quintus Servilius commanded his Son to stay , and doe his duty at home ; and he did so , for it was for the public interest that one should , and the power of his Father determin'd him when they all refus'd at first . 3. If a Son enters into holy Orders , it does not quit him from his duty and obedience to his Father , unlesse the law declare it so ; that is , in such things wherein the Fathers political power did consist . And we find in that collection of Canons which is called Apostolical , it is decreed that if a servant take on him holy Orders against the will of his lord , there was a redhibition allowed ; he was to return to his service , till he was freed by his lord . The case is the same in Princes and in Fathers . There are four little Queres more for the finishing this Rule ; the answers to which will be short , because they depend upon the former discourses . 1. Whether if the Grandfather be alive , and the Son be in his power , it be sufficient to legitimate the marriage of the Nephew if the Grandfather consent , though the Father be not ask'd . To this the Lawyers answer with a distinction : If the Nephew marry a wife , the consent of the Son must be ask'd ; but if the Niece marry , the consent of the Grandfather is sufficient : and so it is if the Nephew marry in the same family , that is , the Niece by another son . The reason of the last is , because the Fathers are suppos'd willing to doe advantage to their own family , and therefore it may be sufficient that he who is in actual possession of the Government should explicitly consent , and the other implicitely . But why to the marriage of the Niece the Grandfathers consent should be enough , but to the Nephew's marriage the Fathers consent also be requir'd , the reason that is pretended is onely this , Because no man ought to have his heir provided for him against his will , of which there is no danger in the marriage of a daughter . But in short , though this was thus in the Civil law of the Romans , and was no more reasonable then we see ; yet now that it is a case of Conscience I am to answer otherwise . For it is against Natural and Divine reason and laws that the Father should in either of the cases be neglected , who ought rather to be preferred , as he that is most and longest like to be concerned in the good and evil of the marriage . 2. Whether if the parents have consented and authoris'd the treaty of marriage till the affections of the children are irrevocably ingag'd , and afterwards retract that consent , the children are bound to obey their parents , and quit their loves . This I find in an elegant case related by Gentian Hervet in his oration to the Council . Damoiselle Vitrou was espoused to a Cavalier by her parents ; but when he would have married her and carried her home to his friends , her parents , I know not upon what account , chang'd their minds and refus'd to let her goe . But the Souldier carries her away by force and marries her and lies with her , but us'd her ill ; of which she being quickly weary , flies into a Monastery ; and that she might not be drawn thence and forc'd to return under her bondage , she pretends that he was not her husband by law , because he forc'd her from her Fathers house against the will of her parents . To this it was answered in behalf of the husband , that she who was espoused legally , might be carried away by the spouse lawfully , according to that of Gregory , and Eusebius , Si quis virginem aut viduam furatus fuerit , nisi fuerit à se desponsata , anathema sit . If she was not espoused , it is Plagium & raptus , a rape and stealth ; but if she was , it was no fraud to him . Now if this was no ravishment , as it is plain , because she was espoused , and she was willing , though her parents were not , then she was his wife , saies the Law ; and if so , then the revocation or dissent of the Father hindred not but that she might proceed thither where she was ingag'd . Now this case went farre indeed : But if it be not gone so farre , yet if it be gone thither from whence they cannot honestly or decently recede , the Fathers dissent ought not to be a prejudice to the consummation : for it began from an honest and a competent cause , it was a fire kindled from the Sun , and it proceeds to that which is honest in it self ; and therefore there is no evil done . But if the parties are unengag'd , or be indifferent , or can well retire , the first liberty did not let them loose from duty , but that they are to abide therewhere they were , unlesse ( I say ) by that first leave they are pass'd beyond a fair return . For the affections and the great content of children is not to be plaid with , as with a tennis-ball ; and it is in this as in his children , if he have begotten the affection unto life , he must maintain it at his own charge . 3. Whether Mothers have the same authority over their children as the Fathers have . To this I answer , that in the Civil law sons were not in their Mothers power , but in their Fathers : Appellare de nuptiis debui Patrem ; and Eustathius upon Homer , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . He that gives the dowry , it is fit that by his will the marriage be contracted . This is well enough , that the Father should doe it : but it becomes the piety of children to endeavour that their Mother be pleased ; for to her also there is the same natural relation , obligation and minority , and in all things they are equal , abating the privilege of the sex ; and therefore though the same duty is owing to them both , yet their authority is severally express'd , which to my sense is well intimated by Eustathius : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Not the power of my Father , nor the persuasion of my Mother , should make me marry even Venus her self . Where the Mother is allowed onely the power of persuasion . But that also implies all her power , onely that is the most proper way for her exercise of it . And it is the most forcible . Jussum erat , quodque est potentissimum Imperandi genus , rogabat , qui jubere poterat , said Ausonius . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Julian the Emperor . For they that can if they please compel , ought most of all to prevail when they counsel and intreat . But however things were in the law of the Romans , yet by the laws of nature Mothers , who have so great an affection to their children , and so great an interest in the good and evil respectively of their Son in law's or their Daughters manners , must with duty & tendernesse be regarded like the Fathers . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said S. Cyril of Alexandria : Consonantly to the law of Nature he commanded his son to abstain from such marriages as were displeasing to his Mother . Isaac did so to Jacob. And to this purpose Catullus elegantly presses this obligation . At tu ne pugna cum tali conjuge , virgo . Non aequum est pugnare , Pater cui tradidit ipse , Ipse Pater cum Matre , quibus parêre necesse est . Virginitas non tota tua est : ex parte parentum est . Tertia pars Matri data , pars data tertia Patri , Tertia sola tua est . — Her Father and her Mother and her self had in her self equal share . But if the Father be dead , then the question is greater , because if the Mother have any power , she hath it alone : when her Husband liv'd she had power as the Moon hath light by the aspect of the Sun ; but now that her light is extinguish'd , hath she any natural and proper power of her own ? To this S. Austin answers clearly , Fortassis enim quae nunc non apparet , apparebit & Mater , cujus voluntatem in tradenda filia omnibus ut arbitror Natura praeponit : nisi eadem puella in ea jam aetate fuerit , ut jure licentiore sibi eligat ipsa quod velit . From which words of S. Austin it is plain , that in the disposing of her daughter in marriage by the voice of Nature the Mother hath a power ; and this is rather , and more , and longer then in the disposal of her son . The reason of both is the same , because by the advantage of the sex and breeding , the son will be fit to govern in the family ; and at the same time the daughter hath the weaknesses of feminine spirit upon her as much as the Mother , and more by reason of her tender age and want of experience . To which may be added , that if the Father be dead , the estate is descended upon the Son , and then he is put by law under the power of Tutors and Guardians , and then is to marry , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saies the law , by the consent of his Kindred and Guardians ; that is , if he be not come to maturity : but if he be , the rule is , Filius quidem pubes nullius expectat arbitrium , filia verò Matris & propinquorum , A son that is of a marriageable age if his Father be dead is wholly in his own power , but a daughter is under the power of her Mother . And yet this also lasts no longer but to a certain age , which is determin'd by the laws of every Nation respectively . And yet both the Son and the Daughter are to shew piety to their Mother , and not to grieve her . Pulchre Deo obtemperat qui tristis est Parenti , for he does ill serve God , that brings sorrow to his parent . And therefore the Ancient laws of the Romans were ever favourable to that part of the marriage which the Mother chose . Postulatu audito Matris Tutorumque , Magistratus secundum parentis arbitrium dant jus Nuptiarum , saies Livy . But the Wisigoths by their law were more kind to the Mothers interst , for Patre mortuo utriusque sexus filiorum conjunctio in Matris potestate consistat ; Both son and daughter if their Father was dead were in the power of their Mother , and were to marry by her appointment and counsel . And therefore Simeon Metaphrastes commends Abraham for taking a wife at the command of his parents , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as knowing it to be one of the Divine Commandements to obey his Father and his Mother . But these things were varied by laws and particular considerations . That which is of universal truth is this onely , That in their natural minority children are equally under the power of their Mother , as of their Father when he was alive ; but when they can chuse , they are sooner quit from the Castigation or legal coercitive powers of their Mother , then of their Father if he had liv'd . And this relies upon the practice and consent of all the world , and hath this reason , because women are not by laws suppos'd very fit to govern lasting interests . But lastly , they are never quit from their reverence and duty , piety and greatest and kindest regards : but the Mothers dissenting does not annul the marriage of her sons that are of age ; and it is so far from that , that their not complying with their Mother in this affair is onely then a sin when it is done with unregarding circumstances , or hath not in it a great weight of reason . But every child should doe well to remember their obligation to their Mothers ; and as S. Chrysostom said in his own case , when he had a mind to enter into a Monastery his Mother recalled him , or rather the voice of God crying , Fili colito Anthusam , Son remember thy Mother Anthusa , and grieve her not as long as she lives . For Nomen Matris , arcana reverentia , There is a secret veneration due to the very Name of a Mother . 4. Although a Fathers authority is such that against it a Son may not marry ; yet whether or no is the power of the parents such that they can compel a son or a daughter to marry whom or when they will ? To this I answer , that in the matters of marriage especially , and proportionably to the probable event of things in other lasting states of life , that of Aristotle is very true , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The Fathers authority hath in it no necessity , no constraint Which Heliodorus Prusaeensis thus paraphrases , The commandements of Fathers of their children 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , have not in them such force that they can compel their children . And therefore Pamphilus in the Comedy complains passionately , and yet reasonably , Proh Deûm atque hominum fidem ! quid est , si non haec contumelia'st ? Uxorem decrêrat sese dare mihi hodie : nonne oportuit Praescisse me ante ? nonne priùs communicatum oportuit ? Upon which place Donatus said well , quia nuptiarum non omnis potestas in Patre est , All the intire power of marriages is not in the Fathers . It may not be done against their wills , but neither is their will alone sufficient . The Fathers have a negative , but the children must also like . Constat enim circa nuptias esse filiis liberam voluntatem : ideo servatâ ratione pietatis communicatum oportuit , said Eugraphius . For it is certain they have the power of choice , and therefore in piety the Father ought to have acquainted the Son with it . And the same also is the case of the daughter , she is not to be forc'd to marry against her inclination and affections . Eustathius upon that of Homer , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it was spoken according to the exactest political measures , that the Father should chuse an husband for his daughter ●enelope , and yet that his daughter should like the yong Prince Ulysses ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . For there is difference between a servant and a child ; the Father may chuse for his daughter , so that at the same time she may chuse for her self : and therefore ( saies he ) when Homer said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he saies it in respect of the Father , that he may give her to whom he please ; but when he saies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he saies it in respect of the Daughter , that the man whom the Father chuses must be gracious in her eyes : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Priscus , It is impious to marry a daughter against her will. But this is to be understood with some restraint . For if a Father may chuse , and the daughter may chuse too , how if it happens that they fancy several persons ? shall the Fathers authority , or the daughters liking prevail ? both cannot prevail at once : but the question is , which shall , and when , and how long , or in what cases . To this I answer that if the matter be indifferent , or the person be fit , the Father ought to prevail . Patris quippe jussa non potuisse filium detrectare , A son may not refuse his Fathers commandement . For the Fathers authority is certainly a very great thing ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , A Father is by Nature to his child both a Lord and a Prince : and therefore Theophilus calls the Paternal power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which is the title of the Royal Majesty : and though the old name for disobedience in the Scripture is Witchcraft , yet Ennodius would fain have found a new name for this kind of it . Non invenio quâ novum facinoris genus explicem novitate sermonum , quibus fuit Sacrilegium non parere . It is Sacrilege at least not to obey our parents . Now although this be spoken generally and indefinitely , yet it must have it's effect in such commandements which have no great reason against them : and therefore if a Father offers a wife to a son , or a husband to a daughter , such as a wise or a good man may offer without folly and injury , the child is not to dispute at all , but to obey , if the Father urges and insists upon the precept . But there are some cases in which the Father ought not to urge the children . 1. If the children be not capable or able for marriage , if it be destructive of their health , or against his nature ; and this excuse was allowed amongst the Romans even where the Paternal power was at the highest . Solent qui coguntur à Patribus ut Uxores ducant , illa dicere , Non sumus etiam nunc apti nuptiis . It is not fit to require them to marry that hate , or are unable to doe the offices of that state . 2. If the Father offer to his child a dishonest or filthy person , unequal , or unfit ; that is , when it is notoriously or scandalously so : when the person is intolerably and irreconcileably displeasing , then the command is tyranny . The Son is bound to obey his Father commanding him to marry ; Sed enim si imperet uxorem ducere infamem , propudiosam , criminosam , non scilicet parendum , said A. Gellius ; But not if he offers to his child an infamous , a dishonest person . And so the law provides in behalf of the daughter , that she ought not to be compelled to marry an infamous man ; l. sed quae Patris , ff . de Sponsal . and so Harmenopulus renders it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , She that is under her Fathers power can then onely refuse her Fathers command , when he chuses for her a man that is unworthy in his manners , and a filthy person : and indeed in this case she hath leave to refuse the most Imperious command of an angry Father . Son and daughter in this have equal right : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : so Lucian . Though his Father would have compell'd and forc'd him to marry a wife , yet he refus'd it : and he might lawfully , when he offer'd him a strumpet . But there is another sort of persons which are called Turpes filthy or hatefull ; and that is , such as are deformed and intolerably ugly . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith Lucian , We call them filthy that are not fair or comely . But in this sense , if the Father offers a husband to his daughter , she hath not liberty to dissent , but onely to petition for liberty : for beauty is not the praise of a man , and he may be a worthy person , though of an ill shape , and his wit and manners may be better then his countenance . And there is no exception in this , but that if the daughter hath us'd all means she can to endure him , and cannot obtain it , she can onely then refuse when she can be sure that with him she can never doe her duty ; of which because she cannot be sure beforehand , because his worthinesse may overcome the aire and follies of her fancy , therefore the unhandsomenesse of a man is not alone a sufficient cause for a daughter to refuse her Fathers earnest commands . But yet in this case though a Father have authority , yet a good Father will never use it , when it is very much against his Daughter , unlesse it be also very much more for her good . But a Son hath in this some more liberty , because he is to be the head of a family , and he is more easily tempted , and can sooner be drawn aside to wander , and beauty or comelinesse is the proper praise of a woman ; comelinesse and good humor , forma uxoria , and a meek and quiet spirit are her best dressings , and all that she can be good for in her self ; and therefore the uglinesse of a woman will sooner passe into an incapacity of person , then it can doe in a man. But in these cases , as children should not be too forward to dispute the limits of their Fathers power , lest they mistake their own leave or their Fathers authority ; so Fathers also should remember what the Lawyers say , Patria potestas in pietate debet , non in atrocitate consistere , The Fathers power consists not in the surliest part of Empire , but in the sun-shine side , in the gentlest and warmest part . Quis enim non magis filiorum salutem quam suam curat ? saith Tertullian . He is an ill Father that will not take more care for the good of his child , then his own humor . The like is to be said in case the Father offers to his child a person of a condition much inferior . For though this difference is introduc'd principally by pride and vanity in all the last ages of the world , and Nobility is not the reward of vertue , but the adornment of fortune , or the effect of Princes humors , unlesse it be in some rare cases ; yet now that it is in the humors and manners of men , it is to be regarded , and a Diamond is really of so much value as men will give for it : and therefore a son or daughter may justly refuse to marry a person whose conjunction will be very dishonourable and shamefull : but at little differences children must not start . If the Nobility marries into the family of a Merchant , the difference is not so great , but that portion makes up the want of great extraction . For a husband or a wife may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Noble by their wealth ; so the Greek proverb means : and old Ennius translating of Euripides his Hecuba , makes wealth to be Nobility , Haec ita etsi perversè dicas , facile Achivos flexeris . Nam cum opulenti loquuntur pariter atque ignobiles , Eadem dicta , eademque oratio aequa , non aequa valet . When the rich and the ignoble speak the same things , the rich man shall prevail when the ignoble shall not . — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Wealth makes nobility . And therefore in such cases , if the sons or daughters refuse the command of their Father , it is to be accounted rebellion and disobedience . But this whole inquiry is well summ'd up in those excellent words of Heliodorus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . If the Fathers will use the utmost power of law , it is enough for them to say , It is their will. And it is to no purpose to ask , where they have power to compel . But when there is a marriage to be contracted , it is fit that they both consent . There are some inquiries relating to the title of this Chapter , which would be seasonable enough here to be considered , concerning the powers of Husbands over their Wives : But because the Matrimonial questions and cases of Conscience are very Material and very Numerous , and of all things have been most injur'd by evil and imperfect principles and worse conduct ; I though it better to leave this to fall into the heap of Matrimonial cases , which I design in a book by it self , if God shall give me opportunity , and fit me with circumstances accordingly . CHAP. VI. Of the Interpretation , Diminution and Abrogation of Humane lawes . THERE are seven ways of the changing of humane laws so , that the obligation of Conscience is also changed : 1. Equity , 2. Judicial interpretation , 3. A contrary , or a ceasing reason , 4. Dispensation , 5. Commutation , 6. Contrary Custome , 7. Direct revocation or abrogation . Of these I am to give account in this Chapter , that the Conscience having already seen her obligation , may also discern when she enters into liberty . §. 1. Of Equity . RULE I. VVhen the letter of the law is burdensome and unjust , the meaning and charity of the law does onely oblige the Conscience . SCire leges non est verba earum tenere , sed vim ac potestatem ; quia prior atque potentior est quam vox mens dicentis , say the Lawyers , The mind of the law-giver is more to be regarded then his words . For words change , and things change ; and our expressions sometimes the more literal they are , the more obscure they are , because there are more words then things , and the circumstances and appendages are the best commentary . Leges perquam egregia res sunt ; sed is qui legibus utitur Nimium exacte , videtur esse Sycophanta , said Menander . It is not the office of a Judge or Prince , but of a Sycophant , to be exact in the use of his laws : but there is abatement and allay to the words by the purpose of him that spake them . For Nullam rem neque legibus , neque scripturâ ullâ , denique ne in sermone quidem quotidiano atque Imperiis domesticis recte posse administrari , si unusquisque velit verba spectare , & non ad voluntatem ejus qui verba habuerit accedere , For nothing can be rightly administred either in lawes , or common talk , in public or domestic Governments , if we regard the words more then the mind of him that spake them . There are some tacite exceptions in all laws that would not be tyrannical . Quaedam etiamsi nulla significatione legis comprehensa sint , naturâ tamen excipiuntur , saith Quintilian ; Natural reason excepts some things which are not excepted in the law . And it was counted a fierce and cruel piece of importune justice in Basilius Macedo the Emperor : when a stagge fastned his horn in the Princes belt and toss'd him up with very much danger , one of his guard with a faucheon cut the Princes girdle and rescued him from his sad calamity ; but he caus'd the poor man to be put to death , because by the law it was capital to draw a sword upon the Prince . The law could never intend to make it death to save the Princes life . Here was a necessity in this case ; and if it had been like a fault , yet here it had been excusable ; for necessity excuses whatever it compels to . Now this happens in the matter of penal laws principally ; for those equities which are alleviations of duty , I shall consider under the other heads : but in penalties it is not onely the charity but the justice of the law , that the subject should neither be shared by an unwary or obscure letter , nor oppress'd by an unequal punishment . Quid tristes querimoniae , Si non supplicio culpa reciditur ? Laws intend not to cut away the life or to pare away the goods of the subject , but to cut off his crimes , to restrain him from that which the law would not have him to doe . This in propriety of speaking is justice : but equity although it signifies all that reasonablenesse by which the burden of laws is alleviated , and so will comprehend the six first heads ; yet here I mean it in the particular sense , that is , the easing of punishments ; and the giving gentle sentences ; not by remission of what is justly incurred , for that is Clemency , but by declaring the delated person not to be involved in the curse of the law , or not so deeply ; not to punish any man more then the law compells us ; that 's equity . And to this many rules in the law doe minister . 1. Non debet aliquis considerare verba , sed voluntatem , cum non intentio verbis , sed verba intentioni debeant deservire , said the law . Which is thus to be understood ; not that we are blindly to aime at some secret purpose of the law-giver , for the intention of man is to be judg'd by his words , and not the words by his intention . But the meaning is , that if some words be obscure , they are to be made intelligible by others . Incivile enim esse nisi tot● lege perspectâ unâ aliquâ ejus particulâ propositâ judicare , saies the law . We must in discerning the sense of the law take in all together , the antecedents and the consequences ; and if darknesse be over all the face of the law , th●n the intention is to be judg'd by circumstances , by the matter and the occasion , by the story and by use . Intelligentia dictorum ex causis dicendi assumenda est , said S. Hilary , By the causes of the law we may judge of the intention of the law-giver . 2. When the first sense of the words inferres any absurdity , contradiction , injustice , or unreasonablenesse , the mind of the law-giver is to be suppos'd to be otherwise , and the words are not to be adhered unto . In ambigua voce legis ea potius accipienda est significatio quae vitio caret , praesertim cum voluntas legis ex hoc colligi possit . The laws are suppos'd to be good , and therefore no evil can come from them , and if there does , that was not their mind ; for , as Cicero said rarely well , Verba reperta sunt , non quae impedirent , sed quae indicarent voluntatem , Words were not invented to obscure , but to declare the will , and therefore not the words but the will is to prevail ; for if we could otherwise certainly and easily understand the Princes will , we should never use words . When Leo Isaurus was in expectation of the Greek Empire , he dealt with two Astrologers that were Jews : they promis'd that the summe of affairs would fall into his hands , and he promised them to grant them any one petition they should ask . When he had obtained his desires , they desir'd , that all the images of Saints might be demolished : he granted their request , but put them to death who put it in execution . This was against that mind of the promise which the Prince had or ought to have had , and he did not keep his promise though he kept his word ; for it is not to be supposed that he promis'd or intended to reward them with a mischief . So it is in laws , if an evil be consequent to the observation of the letter , the intention is then wholly to be regarded ; for fraudem legi facit , qui salvis verbis legis , mentem ejus circumvenit , saith the law , The law is then abus'd , when you keep the words of the law and prevaricate in the sense and meaning . 3. If the intention be gathered by circumstances , by comparing of laws , by the matter and by appendages , and yet but obscurely , the obscure words are rather to be chosen then the obscure intention . The reason is , because words are the first and principal signe of the intention , and therefore ever to be preferred , and we are to seek no other , but when by accident these are hindred to signify : when the intention and the words doe differ , by what means soever the intention can rightly be found out , that must be stood to . Ex lege esse tam quod est ex sententia legis , quam quod ex verbis ; for that is law which is signified by the words , or by the causes and matter and circumstances . But when in respect of the obscurity on all hands the case is indifferent , we must stand to the words ; for there is equity in that , that what is first in every kind , should be preferr'd and be the measure of the rest . 4. Adde to this , that unlesse it be manifest that the words doe not represent the intention of the law-giver , the conscience of the subject is to obey the words of the law : so the law it self saies expressely , Non aliter à significatione verborum ejus recedi , quam cum manifestum est aliud ipsum sensisse . For if this rule were not our measure , every witty Advocate might turn laws to what purpose he please , and every subject would take liberty to serve his Prince not by the Princes law , but by his own glosses ; and then our Conscience could have no measure of duty , and therefore no ground of peace . 5. When there is and ought to be a little deflexion from the natural or Grammatical sense , and this deflexion is evident and perceiv'd , we must stand to that sense without any further deflexion , as strictly as to the first natural sense . That is , when a word in law signifies many things by proportion and analogy , but one is the principal , we must stand to that principal . As if a law saies , He that steals a Chalice from a Church , let him die the death ; the word death must signify naturally , for the separation of soul and body . But if by any other indication it appear not to signify in the first natural sense , then it must signify in that sense that stands next to it ; it must stand , as the Logicians say , pro famosiori analogato , and therefore must signify a Civil death , that is , banishment , or the diminution of his head by losse of liberty , according to the usage of the laws . And when it is said , The son must inherit , it is meant , not the natural but the legitimate ; or if not this , yet not the adopted but the natural , not the yongest but the eldest . 6. If words us'd in law have a civil signification , by parity , by extension , by fiction of law , it is then to be followed and chosen , and the natural to be left , when the circumstances ; the matter and the appendages doe enforce it , else not : but yet the legal sense of a word though it prevails not against the natural , yet it must prevail in the common sense of law , against the sense of privilege and exception . Among the Romans they who had three children had a right not to be sent to the warres . But if by the common use and signification of the law , the word [ children ] had signified Nephews , or adopted children , although this sense could not have prejudic'd the first and natural sense of the word ; yet when the Emperor gave the same privilege to them that had children in no sense , but to such as made three books , children of the brain , the second sense could not prevail against the first , yet it might against the last . 7. Words that are of civil or legal signification must not signify according to Grammar , but according to Law. Suspension must not signify hanging of the man , but a temporary laying aside his office or emolument : and Sacrament must not in Theology signify an oath , but a religious ceremony of Christs institution . For whatsoever is a word of art must be understood by the measures of that art ; and therefore if it be a law-term , though that word be us'd also in common among the people , yet not this sense but that is to be followed in the understanding of the law * . But if the law hath no propriety of use or interpretation in the word , but takes it up from the common usages of the Country , not the best lawyers , but the best Masters of language are the best interpreters . To which this is to be added , that if a word in law be taken from the common use , and this use change , and the law abide , the word in the law must abide the same as does the law , and must not change with the common use : and in this case , not the best Lawyers , nor the best Grammarians , but the best Historians are the best measures of our Conscience . The word Censeo in the law of the Romans at first did signify to appoint , afterwards to estimate , and then to censure , and at last to counsel or to suppose . Now when the word censere is used l. ult . ff . de suis & legit . haered . it must not be expounded by Cicero in his oration pro Cluentio , where it stands for liquet , for in this law it stands for consulere : and therefore in such cases we are to inquire what the word signified when the law was made , for the word in the old use is not the measure of the present use ; nei●ther if it were clear what it meant in the ancient laws , could that be the mea●sure of expounding contracts or humane acts or obligations at present ; not yet can that word in that old law receive an interpretation by the differen●e which it hath got by time . But it may be some of these rules will be but seldome usefull to our cases of conscience ; possibly they may often : but then to reduce these things to the intentions of the present Rule , and to become a measure of practice , there are three great rules which are the best and most general measures of finding out the meaning of the words of laws in order to equity and conscience , when the Grammar or the common use of the words themselves is not sufficient . 1. That is the meaning of the words of the law that does the work of the law . And this is the first rule of equity . For it is but conscience to suppose that he that makes a contract does it bonâ fide , and he that makes a Will would have it executed , and he that leaves a Legacy would have it doe good , & he that appoints a guardian would have one that should be fit for the imployment , that the thing in hand may not perish and come to nothing . And therefore Brasidas did cavil , not treat like a Prince , when having agreed with the Greeks that he would quit his claim to the Boeotian fields , he afterwards told them that those were not the Boeotian fields but his own where he encamp'd his army . Which thing if it had been true , they all had treated about nothing . And when the laws of Sicily forbad their priests to resign their Benefices to their sons , the two priests of Panormo that agreed together interchangeably to resign their's to the son of each other , did keep the words of the Canon well enough ; but they took a course that the law should not acquire it's end , and therefore they sinn'd against it's meaning . And this Rule is of great use in all doubtfull and amphibological expressions , according to that rule in the law , Quoties idem sermo duas sententias exprimit , ea potissimum excipiatur quae rei gerendae aptior est . Thus in the discerning contracts and other entercourses , the substance of the thing and the present imployment is more to be considered then any improper or aequivocal expression , or quirk in the words of the law or entercourse . Antonio Casulano a poor Piemontane having a sad vintage & harvest one year by reason of the early rains running from the hills before he had gather'd his fruits , comes and complains to his landlord Signior Vitaldo , and tells him his sad condition , and how unable he was to pay his rent . Vitaldo pitying his poor tenant , told him he would never exact any thing of his tenants that were ruin'd by the hand of heaven , and therefore for his rent he bid him be at rest and let it alone . Casulano makes his leg and thanks his lord , and goes home . But the next year he had so brave a harvest and so full a vintage , that it was greater then two years before . He comes and brings this years rent : but Vitaldo asks him where was the rent of the former year . The tenant saies it was forgiven him . Here then is the question , what was meant by , let it alone , and he would not exact his rent of his disabled tenants ; that is , while they were not able he would forbear them : for there all the entercouse was about forbearing the rent , and he never thought to ask his lord to forgive it him . But this sense of the words was rei gerendae aptior , it was agreeable to both their interests in conjunction , and therefore Casulano is bound in conscience to pay his rent . So the Lawyers say , Si ambigua sit intentio seu actio , quod utilius sit actori accipiendum est . The landlord is to have the advantage of the ambiguity ; for besides that he knew his own meaning best , the right was his , and no man is to be presum'd to part with his right against his will. And thus it is in the law , as well as in Contracts , Amphiboliae enim omnis in his erit quaestio : aliquando uter sit secundum naturam magis sermo ; semper utrum sit aequius , utrum is qui sic scripsit ac dixit , sic voluerit . So Quintilian draws into a compendium all the rules of expounding doubtfull words . First , see whether it be agreeable to the thing in hand , for no man is willing his own act should perish : for this sometimes will doe it ; but if it will not , then equity must intervene : but if by any other way we know the mind of the law-giver , that is of all things to be preferred . For though the case be hard , yet if it was the mind of the law-giver and be not unjust , it must stand . Quod quidem perquam durum est , sed ita lex scripta est , It is hard , but so the law is written . That is , if the mind of the law-giver be certain and clear , no equity is to intervene ; but when the mind is not known , equity is the best meaning . But of this by and by . This is of great use in Religion as well as in justice . For when God gives a command and uses mystical expressions , metaphors , ritual or typical representments , or signifies his pleasure by the outside and crust of services , though this is not to be despis'd or omitted , yet the spiritual and moral sense and internal service is the principal , that is rei gerendae aptior , more to God's purposes , and more to ours . When God commands us to repent , and to serve him , he that asks the question , when God would have us to repent , whether it will not serve the turn if we repent at all , if we repent upon our death-bed , because the words of the commandement doe indifferently signify any time ; here we are rightly determin'd by this Rule , That was God's meaning which does God's work , that without which the work would perish , and God would not be serv'd : for God's intention being that we should glorify him by a free obedience , and serve him in a holy life , that which makes God to loose his purpose , cannot be the meaning of his words . Thus when God commands us to come into his Courts , to fall down upon our knees before his footstool ; it must mean that we must worship God with the lowest adoration of our souls , with the prostration of our mind : for the body without the mind being nothing , unlesse this commandement for bodily worship be expounded to signify the worship of the spirit , God is injur'd , his intention is defeated : and therefore the law hath taken care of this . Impropriè verba regulariter non accipiuntur , nisi aliter actus vel periret , vel elusorius redderetur , Words are not to be taken improperly , unlesse the proper acception of it does elude the purpose of the law-giver , and makes his law vain . Thus the very Gentiles understood the mind of God : when he commanded men to offer sacrifices and oblations to him , his meaning was , they should kill their lusts , and sacrifice themselves to God. To this purpose are those excellent words of Menander , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . He that offers to God the sacrifices of bulls and goats , or of any other beast , gold or rich garments , Ivory or precious stones , and thinks by this means to reconcile God to him , is deceiv'd , and is a fool . When God commanded these things he intended to be understood to other purposes . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . For the sacrificer must be a spiritual man , dead unto sin and living unto righteousnesse ; he must be chast and charitable , just and true , a despiser of the world , and must not desire so much as another mans pin ; and he must be the same in private as in public , walking ever as in the presence of God. This is an excellent summe of religion , and the best interpreter of the spiritual sense of Moses law , next to the Sermons of the Gospel : but without this the work of God had perished , and religion it self had been elusory . And this is a sufficient warrant for a sense beyond the letter of a Commandement . 2. In all laws and obligations of conscience by contract , when any doubt arises , we are to consider what is most likely and what is most usual , and rest upon that . In contrahendo quod agitur pro cauto habendum , saies the law . We must suppose that the contractor did intend that sense that is the wariest , because that is the most likely ; nothing being so reasonable as to think the man intended that which all the world does , that is , to buy cheap and to sell dear . If this will not doe it , then we must run to the custome of the country ; because the things and manners of custome , though they were not in the contract , yet veniunt in bonae fidei judiciis , they are to be of weight in judgements , as being a reasonable decision of questions and obscurities . But if nothing of all this will doe , then comes in the principal rule of equity and remissions : Semper in obscuris quod minimum est sequimur , In all things of burden the least is to be chosen . This is of use in Contracts , in Testaments , and in infliction of punishments . * In Contracts . He that promises to give a man an hundred or two hundred pound , cannot be challeng'd nor oblig'd but for a hundred . In summis semper quod minus est promitti videtur . The reason is , because when two things of burden are expressed , he that promised must so far be his own judge as to determine himself in the event , when he did not in the stipulation ; and therefore it is to be presum'd that he would be bound but to the lesse . For as in the Canon law , when a Bishop had obtain'd leave to resign or quit his litle Bishopric , of his superior , it is not granted that he shall be translated to another in the grant of cession ; and the reason given in the law is this , Nam si circa translationem idem fieri voluisset , quod de cessione dixerat , & de translatione poterat expressisse , Because he that granted a cession , could as easily have said translation if he had so intended : so here also it is presum'd that he intended to give the least , because if he had intended the biggest , he might as easily have said so , as to have nam'd a lesse ; and if he intended the greater , he may perform it yet if he please . Thus if Titius promise to pay his debt within a year or two , Caius cannot by virtue of that promise force him to pay it till the two years be out . * In Testaments also the case is the same . Maevius makes his Will , and leaves Lucius his heir of all , but gives his sister as much as one of his sons . The heir is tied to pay his Aunt but so much as that son hath whose portion is the least . Thus when Regulus left to his wife Quintilla the field that was next to the Campus Martius , the Praetor understanding that he had two fields next to the Campus Martius , gave her the least of the two : the reason is , because the Father is suppos'd to put upon the Heir that burden which is the lighter . But this holds not in all cases : the rule is the same , and ease and remission is to be done , and the gentler sentence is to be followed , and the least burden to be impos'd , and the smallest legacy to be pai'd and receiv'd , or the most advantageous sense of favour is to be pursued : but all the difficulty will be to whom the ease or the advantage is to be done ; for sometimes one , and sometimes another is to have the benefit of the Chancery . 1. For the heir is to be favour'd against the Legatées , unlesse God and religion be the Legatée , for the Church is to be favour'd against the heir . And therefore Scaevola said , that if a Roman in his Testament appointed an image to be set up in a Temple in which there were marble and brasse and silver statues , the legacy was to be performed in the most costly material ; idque favore Dei & religionis , saies the law ; because in doubts it is fit that God should have the preeminence , and it is also to be presumed that the Testator intended to give the best unto the best . Let the instance bé chang'd and it is a good measure for conscience in the causes and questions of Christians . 2. The heir or the Donor is to be eas'd and to be understood in the least sense , unlesse that least sense makes the gift unprofitable and good for nothing . Aruns dying left a servant to his Brother for a legacy . Canidius who was the heir offers to give to his Uncle his man Spinax , who was the veriest rogue in all the Empire . But his Uncle answered , My Brother did not intend to give me a mischief . Then he offers him Lentillus who was little better then a fool . To this his Uncle answer'd , My Brother did not intend to give me nothing . And at last the Uncle demanded Aretius , who was his Brothers Physician : but that Canidius refus'd , and he might very well ; but he gave him Merula that was a very good Baker , and both were indifferently pleas'd : but such a one that was not the best , and yet was good for something , was due by justice . 3. Causes of repetition are to be favour'd more then causes of gain . He that desires but to save himself , or to get his own , is to have the advantage of him that if he prevails gets gain : and the reason is , because it is better to save a main stake , then to get an accession ; it is better to have one preserved then another increased : and it is more to be presumed that he who demands restitution seeks but his own , then that the others gain is justly his . 4. He that buyes in doubts of conscience and law , is to be preferr'd before him that sells , and the interpretation ought to be on the behalf of the first . The reason of this is , because he that sel●s cannot so easily be deceiv'd as he that 〈◊〉 , for every man is justly presum'd to know the price of his own goo●● , and be cunning in his own trade . 5. For dowries and 6. for liberty and 7. possession sentences are to be given in the favourable sense , because the cases themselves are full of charity and mercy ; and they that complain in these cases are commonly the oppressed party . * This Rule also is intended and that principally in punishments and penal sentences of law . Where if the law be obscure , it is on all hands confess'd , that the sense of equity is an excellent interpretation and declares the mind of the law-giver : and it is also true that if several pen●lties be expressed in the law , ordinarily the judge is to impose the least ; and the reason is , because he does at once the actions of two vertues ; it is justice and it is charity at the same time . I say ordinarily , for sometimes there are great examples to be made , and in them there is very often Aliquid iniqui * , nothing of equity , but something that was very hard : and the Hebrew Kings ( say the Rabbins ) had a power of causing the malefactor to hang all day and all night upon the accursed tree ; though the law was more gentle , and commanded the body to be taken down before the Sun set ; but if the public necessity requir'd it , the Jewish Doctors say that their Kings had power . But the great difficulty is , when the words of the law are expresse , and name the punishment , whether or no can there be any remission by equity or interpretation ? Titius being cited to appear in Court , came not , and was fin'd : but he came immediately . The question is , whether he ought in conscience to be relieved . It is certain that in law the sentence against him is just ; for let the cause be never so odious , the law must be understood according to the propriety of the words , unlesse the intention of the law-giver can otherwise be certainly known . But if by any ways he can be relieved , he ought to be , if there be evident equity on his side . But because this equity is against the solemnity of law , it must be introduc'd as solemnly , that is , by a law , or a solemn decree according to the disposition of law . But this latter part is matter of prudence more then of conscience ; and concerning this conflict of law and equity Cicero hath spoken excellent things , as who please may see in his Oration pro Caecina and in his lib. 2. Vet. Rhet. But for the practice of it both in law and conscience it is an excellent rule of law , Capienda est occasio quae praebet benignius responsum ; An occasion must not be forc'd against law , but if any can be found it must be us'd in the behalf of equity . And therefore Celsus , Marcellus and Ulpian are noted with a fair memory for being studious of equity in the sentences of law : and for this very thing Cicero commends Servius : but Scaevola , Paulus , Julianus and the Sabiniani and some others were more propense to rigor and subtilty , and were lesse belov'd . Turpe rigor nimius : Torquati despue mores . Titus Manlius was to blame in putting his son to death for a glorious victory gotten by a little offence . But all good laws were ever desirous of easy interpretation when the matter it self was a burden : and it was well said of Gattinara to the Emperor Charles the 5th , Chi vuole troppo abbracciare , va à pericolo di non strignere cosa alcuna , He that strains the cord too hard , breaks it and can bind nothing . Periculosum est praegrave Imperium : & difficile est continere quod capere non possis , said * Curtius . He that fills his hand too full , le ts goe more then he should . There is a measure in laws , which must not take in every thing , but let some things passe gently ; for a government that is too heavy is dangerous : and therefore without all peradventure when the punishments are general , the least special ought to be taken . Thus Gentlemen are not to be punish'd with the punishment of slaves and vagabonds . If bodily punishment by law be commanded , scourging is to be understood , or such as is in use in the nation , and not the cutting off a member , or putting to death , say the Greek lawyers . And there is no exception to this , but this onely , That this is to be understood in lighter offences , not in greater ; for in these it may be of as much concernment to justice that the severer part be taken , as it is to charity that lighter offences should carry the lighter load . And therefore the S. C. Syllanianum decreed that if a slave had kill'd his lord , all the slaves in the house should die for it . It was a hard and a severe law ; but it was a great crime , and by great examples the lives of masters were to be secur'd : and to this purpose C. Cassius the Lawyer defended it with great reason , as is to be seen in his oration in Tacitus . 3. In matters of favour and matters of piety , the sense of the law is to be extended by interpretation . Things odious and correctory are called strictae in the law , and that which is favourable is called res ampla ; because as the matter of that is to be made as little as it may be , so the matter of this may be enlarged . Thus if any thing be done in the favour of the children , the adoptive and the naturall are included , when it is not to the prejudice of the legitimate . And that which is made legitimate is to be reckoned as that which is so of it self ; and he that is naturaliz'd is to be reckon'd as a Native ; and a freed man , as he that was born free ; and the privileges granted to a city are to be extended to the suburbs . But this Rule is to be estimated as the former , there being the same reason of Contraries , save onely that there is in the matters of favour something of particular consideration . For although it is by the former measures set down who are the persons , and which are the causes to be favour'd and eas'd ; yet those persons are not in all cases to receive the advantage ; that is they are in all cases which the words of the law can bear , except that by that favour the whole processe be evacuated , or the thing be lost . Therefore although the guilty person is favour'd in all the methods and solennities of law , where the law can proceed ; yet where the favour would hinder the proceeding , the accuser and not the guilty person is to receive it . For the accuser hath the advantage of taking his oath in law , which the guilty person hath not ; because the law supposes he will deny the fact , right or wrong . And thus we are also to proceed in our private entercourses of justice and charity , we are rather to believe the accuser swearing , then the accused . But if the accusation be not sworn , or if the guilty person be brought into judgement upon suspicion onely , and a public fame , we are rather to believe the accused swearing his innocence , then the voice of fame , or uncertain accusers . §. 2. Judicial Interpretation . RULE II. When the power that made the law does interpret the law , the interpretation is authentical , and obliges the Conscience as much as the law ; and can release the bond of Conscience so far as the interpretation extends , as much as if the law were abrogated . WHen the law is interpreted by the Emperor , ratam & indubitatam habendam esse say the Lawyers . The reason is plain and easy . The law is nothing but the solemn and declar'd will of the law-giver ; and he that speaks , best knows his own mind ; and he that can take away the law , can alter it ; and he that can cut off the hands , may certainly pare the nails : and since the legislative power never dies , and from this power the law hath it's perpetual force , and can live no longer then he please , by what method of law soever he signify his mind , whether it be by declaring the meaning of the law , or by abating the rigor of it , or dispensing in the case , or enlarging the favour , or restraining the severity ; it is all one as to the event and obligation of conscience . The interpretation is to the law , as the Echo to the voice ; it comes from the same principle ; and though it speaks lesse , yet it speaks oftner , and it speaks enough , so much as is then to be the measure of the Conscience in good and evil . For when the law-giver does interpret his law , he does not take off the obligation of the law , but declares that in such a case it was not intended to oblige . Tacitus tells of a Roman Knight who having sworn to his wife that he would never be divorc'd from her , was by Tiberius dispens'd with when he had taken her in the unchast embraces of his son in law . The Emperor then declar'd that the Knight had onely oblig'd himself not to be divorc'd , unlesse a great cause should intervene . Thus we find that P. Lucius * the 3d did absolve those from their oath that sware they would not speak to their Father or Mother , Brother or Sister , or shew them any kindnesse : but this absolution quitted them not from the sin of a rash & impious oath , but declar'd that they were not bound to keep it . Absolvit , i. e. absolutum ostendit , as Pope Nicholas did in the Case of the Arch-bishop of Triers , he declar'd him to be at liberty ; and the Glosse derives a warranty for this use of the word out of the Prophet Isaiah . It was ill said of Brutus , that a Prince might not be more severe , nor yet more gentle then the law . For there are many things quae naturâ videntur honesta esse , temporibus sunt inhonesta , saith Cicero , which at first sanction of the law and in their own Nature are honest , but in the change of times and by new relations become unjust and intolerable : and therefore the Civil law allows to Princes a power juvare , supplere , corrigere , to help , to supply , to correct the laws . For those are but precarious Princes who when they see a case that needs a remedy , cannot command it , but like the Tribunes of Rome , when they offer'd to intercede and interpose between Fabius and the sentence of Papyrius the Dictator by which Fabius was condemned , could effect nothing till they went upon their knees in his behalf . But it is worse that the laws of a nation should bind the Prince as Jupiter in Homer was bound by the laws of Fate , so that he could not help his son Sarpedon , but sate weeping like a chidden girle . But of this I have already given sufficient accounts . The Supreme power is Dominus legum , Canon animatus in terris , lex animata , fons justitiae , supra jus dispensare potens , as Innocentius said of himself ; and therefore of this there can be no question . Inter aequitatem jusque interpositam interpretationem nobis solis & oportet , & licet inspicere , saith the Emperor , C. de leg . & const . Princ. The Prince alone hath power to intervene between equity and strict law by his interpretation . This is now to be reduc'd to practice . First this power must be administred with noblenesse & ingenuity ; not fraudulenty , or to oppresse any one , which Cicero calls calumniam , & nimis callidam , sed malitiosam juris interpretationem , a crafty and malicious commentary . Such as was that act of Solyman , who after he had sworn never to take from Ibrahim Bassa his life , kill'd him when he was asleep , because Talisman the Priest declar'd that sleep is death . Thus the Triumviri in Rome having a mind to kill a boy , which by the force of law they could not doe , they gave him the Toga Virilis , and forc'd him to be a man in estimation of law , that by law they might oppresse him : and Mithridates King of Armenia thought himself secure when Radamistus the son of Pharasmanes the Iberian King had promis'd he would neither stab nor poyson him ; but the yong Tyrant interpreted his promise maliciously , when he oppressed him with pillows and featherbeds : and all Europe hates the memory of the Arch-bishop of Mentz , who having promis'd to Atto Adel a Palatine of Franconia that he should safely return out of his Castle , did indeed perform the letter of his word ; but pretending kindnesse as well as justice , when he had brought him forth of the Castle , passionately invited him to break-fast , and then killed him when he reentred . The power of Princes to give senses to their laws must be to doe justice and to give ease to the pitiable and oppressed . 2ly , This power is not to be administred but upon grave & just causes : for to be easy and forward in bending the laws by unnecessary interpretations is but a diminution of justice , and a loosenesse in government ; as was well observ'd by Livy , speaking of those brave ages in which the Romane honesty and justice was the beginning of the greatest Empire of the world , Sed nondum haec quae nunc tenet seculum negligentia Divum venerat , nec interpretando sibi quisque jusjurandum & leges aptas faciebat , sed suos potius mores ad ea accommodabat , The neglect of the Gods and the laws was not gone so farre as to bend the laws to the manners of men , but men measur'd their manners by the laws : and then no man can deny to a Prince leave to derogate from his laws by such interpretations . Licet enim Regi in civitate cui regnat , jubere aliquid quod neque ante illum quisquam , neque ipse unquam jusserat , saith S. Austin ; A King in his own dominions may command that which neither any man before him , or himself before that time commanded : meaning that although he must govern by his laws , yet when there is a favourable case , he may give a new sense to them , that he may doe his old duty by new measures . Thus Solomon absolved Abiathar from the sentence of death which by law he had incurred , because he had formerly done worthily to the interests of his Father David . Thus when Cato Censor had turned L. Quinctius Flaminius out of the Senate , the Majesty of the Roman people restor'd him ; and though they had no cause to doe it , yet they had power . Now this power though it may be done by interpretation , yet when it is administred by the Prince it is most commonly by way of pardon , absolute power and prerogative . Thus Princes can restore a man in bloud . Fas est cuivis Principi maculosas notas vitiatae opinionis abstergere . So Antony the Emperor restored Julianus Licinianus whom Ulpian the President had banished . When a law determins that under such an age a person shall be uncapable of being the General of an army , the Supreme power can declare the meaning of the law to be , unlesse a great excellency of courage and maturity of judgement supply the want of years : in which very case Scipio Africanus said wisely , when he desir'd to be imployed in the Punic warre , se sat annorum habiturum si populus Romanus voluerit , he should quickly be old enough if the Roman people pleased . Thus Tiberius put Nero into the Senate at fifteen years of age , and so did Augustus the like to Tiberius and his Brother ; and the people declar'd or dispens'd the law in Pompey's case , and allowed him a Triumph before he had been Consul or Praetor . But to this there is not much to be said ; for he that can make a New law , may by interpretation change the Old into a New ; that is , any interpretation of his is valid , if it be just , naturally just , though it be not according to the Grammar or first intention of the Civil or Municipal law : quia si leges condere soli Imperatori concessum est , etiam leges interpretari solo dignum impero esse oportet . He that can doe the greater can doe the lesse ; and he that hath power of cutting off the head , can dispose of the tongue as he please , so that if it will not speak what he would have it , he can take a course it shall speak nothing against him . But the case is otherwise in Judges . For the interpretation of laws made by Judges is matter of fidelity and wise dispensation , but nothing of Empire and power ; and it is a good probable warranty of Conscience , but no final determination in case any cause of doubt happens to oppose it . And this was well observed by Cicero : Nemo apud Judices ita solet causam agere ; Ignoscite Judices , Lapsus est , Non putavi , Si unquam posthac . In Senatu vero , & apud populum , & apud Principem , & ubicunque juris clementia est , habet locum deprecatio . No man is to ask any favour of the Judges but what the law allows him , but of the Prince he may ; A quo saepe rei , nullo licet aere redempti , Accipiunt propriam donato crimine vitam . For what is wanting in the provisions of law he can make up by the fulnesse of his power : and if there be no injury to any , let there be what favour or indulgence he please , his interpretation is good law , and can bring peace to the conscience in the particular . According to this is that of the Lawyers , Qui jurato promisit judicio sisti , non videtur pejerasse , si ex concessa causa hoc deseruit , He that hath sworn to appear in judgement , is not perjur'd if he have leave given him not to appear : meaning , from him that can interpret the law , or dispense , declare the man not bound , or give leave to break it . But when the Judges interpret a law , they either expound it by customes of the Court or Country , or else by learning and wise conjectures . Interpretations by prevailing and allowed customes are good law and sure measures of action according to the doctrine of customes ; of which in part I have given account , and shall yet adde something in the 6. § . of this Chapter , and therefore I shall adde nothing here . But if the Judges interpretation be onely doctrinal , it is sufficient to us that it is not introductive of a law , and it cannot of it self be a resolution of conscience ; but is to be made use of according to the doctrine of probabilities * . This onely is to be added , that if the authoriz'd Judges doe consent , and by a delegation of power , or the customes of the Nation , or the disposition of the law the sentence does passe in rem judicatam into a legal sentence , then it obliges as a law ; for it is a warranted interpretation and declares the sense of the law , and consequently does bind the Conscience . §. 3. A contrary or ceasing reason . RULE III. A law made for a particular reason , when the reason wholly ceases , does no longer oblige the Conscience . THe title of this § . implies a distinction of reasons considerable in this particular . For sometimes it happens that onely one reason dies , and there is no other change , but that the efficient cause of the law , from whence it had it's being , is dead . But sometimes it is more then so ; for not onely the reason of the law is gone , but a nettle is risen up in the place of it , and that which was once profitable is become intolerable , and that which was just is now dishonest , and that which was righteous will not be righteous still , but against the public interest . * Now when a contrary reason does arise there is no peradventure but the law ceases : and this is to be extended not onely to the case of injustice or impossiblity , but of trouble or of uselesnesse ; that is , if the contrary reason makes things so that the law could not justly have been impos'd , or if it had been de facto impos'd , it could not oblige the conscience , then the conscience is restor'd to liberty and disobligation . * But then this case must be manifest : for if it be doubtfull , the law retains her power ; for it is in possession , and the justice of it is presum'd . But if the reason of the law ceases onely , and no more , there is some more difficulty , for it may be the will of the Prince does not cease , and he intends the law should last for the support of his authority ; and that will be reason enough to keep up a law that once was good and now hath no harm in it : and there ought to be a great reason that shall change a custome , though it be good for nothing ; and where there was a law , a custome will easily be suppos'd , especially if the law was usefull and reasonable , as we suppose in the present case . And if the law did prevail unto a custome , and that it be not safe to change a custome , then though the proper reason of the law be ceas'd , there is another reason arisen in the place of it that will be enough to bind the conscience to obedience . For the stating of this question , it is still necessary that we yet first distinguish , and then define . 1. Some laws have in them a natural rectitude or usefulnesse in order to moral ends , by reason of the subject matter of the law , or by reason that the instance of the law is made an instrument of vertue by the appointment of law . 2. Others have onely an acquir'd rectitude , and an extrinsic end ; that is , it was by the law-giver commanded in order to a certain purpose , and beyond that purpose it serves for nothing . Thus when a Prince imposes a tribute upon a Country for the building of certain bridges , when the work is done , the tribute is of no public emolument . But if he imposes a fast upon Wednesdays and Fridays for six moneths to obtain of God to remove the plague from a City or a Country , though the plague be gone before the end of four months , yet the fast may serve many other good ends . Another distinction to be considered is concerning the cessation of the reason of the law , whether the reason be intrinsecal or extrinsecal . For sometimes the reason ceases universally . Sometimes it remains as to the generality , but is alter'd in the particular cases . So if a Superior commands that none of his subjects shall enter into such a family where there are many fair women amorous and young , lest such a conversation should tempt them to wantonnesse ; the general reason of the law remains , although Alexis be an Eunuch , and old Palaemon have a dead palsy upon him and cannot be warm'd by such fires . The reason ceases in the particular , but abides still in the general . A third thing is also to be observed , which hath in it some difference of case . Sometimes there are many parts of a law , and sometimes it is uniform and hath in it but one duty . That which hath parts and is a combination of particulars may cease in one or more of them , and the rest abide in their full usefulnesse and advantage . And these and all the former may be uselesse , or their reason may cease for a time , and be interrupted , and a while after return : and in all these the reason may cease negatively , or contrarily ; that is , the first cause may cease , or another quite contrary may come . According to these distinctions , the cases and the answers are several . 1. If there be two ends in the law , an extrinsecal and an intrinsecal , though the extrinsecal be wholly and generally ceas'd , yet the law obliges for it's intrinsic reason , that is , when it commands an act of it self honest and vertuous . Thus if a Prelate , or a Prince , commands women in Churches to sit apart , and to wear vailes that they may not be occasion of quarrels and duels amongst yong Gentlemen ; if it happen that the Duelling of Gallants be out of fashion , and that it be counted dishonourable to fight a duell , then that end of the law ceases ; and yet because it is of it self honest that women should have a vail on their head for modesty sake , and because of the Angels , this law is not to cease , but to stand as well upon one leg , as it did before upon two . But this can onely be when Divine and humane laws are complicated , or at least when humane laws are mixt with a matter of perfection and Counsel Evangelical , or of some worthinesse , which collaterally induces an obligation distinct from the humane law . 2. If a law be appointed for an extrinsecal end , when that reason ceases universally , though there be an inherent and remaining worthinesse in the action , and an aptnesse to minister to a moral end , yet that law binds not unlesse that moral end was also intended by the law-giver . For that which was no ingredient into the constitution of the law , can have no power to support the law , for it hath nothing to doe with the law ; it never help'd to make it , and therefore by it cannot be a law , unlesse by the legislative power it be made anew . So that such actions which can be good for something of their own , and are not good at all for the end of the law-giver , can onely be lawfull to be done , but they are not necessary . Therefore when a law is made that every Thursday the subjects should goe to Church to Morning prayer , that they might in the public offices pray for the life of the Prince , if the Prince be dead that law obliges not ; for although going to Morning prayer is of it self good , yet if the Prince had no consideration of that good , but of his own , that good entred not into the law , and had no causality in it , and therefore was no part of the duty of the subject in relation to that law . 3. If the action commanded by law be in it self indifferent , when the reason of the law ceases extrinsecally , the whole obligation is taken away , because the act is good for nothing in it self , and good for nothing to the Common-wealth , and therefore cannot be a law . Thus there was an oath fram'd in the Universities that no Professor should teach Logic publicly any where but there , meaning that it should not be taught in Stamford , whether the Scholars made so long a recesse that it had almost grown into an University . But when the danger of that was over , the oath was needlesse , and could not oblige , and ought not to have been impos'd . In Spain a law was made that no man should cut any timber-trees : in a few years the province grew so full of wood that the reason and fear of the law was over ; and it was more likely to passe into inconvenience by abundance then by scarcity , and therefore then it was lawfull for any man to cut some of his own . So if a law were made for ten years to forbid hunting of wild beasts , that some royal game which was almost destroyed might be preserved for the Prince , if in five years the wolves and lions were grown so numerous that there were more danger then game , the law were no longer obligatory . For as Modestinus said well , Nulla ratio aut juris benignitas patitur , ut quae salubriter pro hominum commodis statuta sunt , nos duriore interpretatione contra ipsorum commodum producamus ad severitatem ; It is against reason that what the law decreed for the good of men , should be severely and rigorously expounded to their damage . And this is to be understood to be true though the reason of the law ceases onely negatively ; that is , though the act doe still remain indifferent , and there be no reason to the contrary . To which this is to be added , that when the reason of a law commanding an action otherwise indifferent does cease universally , the very Negative ceasing passes into the contrary of it self : not that it does so in the matter of the action , for the action is still indifferent and harmlesse , but that it does so in the power of legislation : it does not so to the subject , but it does so to the Prince ; that is , the subject may still doe it without sin , but without sin the Prince cannot command it to be done , when it is to no purpose . Thus we find in the Legends of the Roman later Saints that some foolish Priors and Superiors of Convents would exercise the obedience of their Monks by commanding them to scrape a pibble , to fill a bottomlesse tub , and such ridiculous instances ; which were so wholly to no purpose , that though the Monk might suffer himself to be made a fool of , yet he was not tied to it in virtue of his obedience , and the Prior did sin in commanding it . This ought to be observ'd strictly , because although it looks like a subtilty , yet it is of use in the conduct of this Rule of conscience , and hath not been at all observ'd exactly . 4. When the intrinsecal reason of a law does cease universally , the negative ceasing of the reason passes into a contrary ; and if the action be not necessary , it is not lawfull . For actions which have in them an internal rectitude have it so always , unlesse the case be wholly chang'd , and then it is become very evil . To restore that which is deposited with us is commanded because of the natural justice that is in the action ; but when the reason of this ceases , that is , that it is not just to doe it , it is unjust , or uncharitable : and therefore if you restore to a mad-man his sword to kill an innocent , you are unjust to innocence , and but aequivocally just to madnesse and folly . 5. When a law hath many parts , and is a conjugation of duties for several reasons , when one of the parts of the law does loose the reason of it wholly , though it be tied in the same bundle , and by the same tie , yet that part is slackened and obliges not , though included in a law which does oblige . The reason of this is the same with the former ; onely this is to be added , that in this case it is not one law , but a conjugation of laws ; it is not a single starre , but like a constellation , and particularly as the Pleiades , where one of the seven hath almost no light or visibility , though knit in the same confederation with those which half the world doe at one time see . * And the same also is the case in the suspension of a law , that is when the reason ceases universally and wholly , but not for ever : while the reason is absent , the conscience is not tied to attend ; but when it returns to verify the law , the duty returns to bind the conscience . But in this there is no difficulty . These are the measures of conscience when the reason of a law ceases wholly and universally , that is , as to the public interest ; but that which is more difficult , is when the reason of the law remains in the general , but it fails in some particular cases , and to particular persons : and what then is our duty , or our liberty ? The reason of the difficulty is , because laws are not to regard particulars , but that quod plerumque accidit , saith Theophrastus ; and therefore the private damage is supplied by the public emolument : and the particular pretences are not to be regarded , though they be just , lest others make excuses , and the whole band of discipline and laws be broken , Satius erat à paucis justam excusationem non accipi , quam ab omnibus aliquam tentari , said Seneca ; It is better to reject the just exception of a few , then to encourage the unjust pretensions of all . And therefore subjects should for the public interest sit quietly under their own burden . For lex nulla satis commoda est ; id modo quaritur , si majori parti & in summa prodest , said Cato . It is a just law if it does good to the generality and in the summe of affairs . And therefore if Cajus or Titius be pinch'd in the yoke , they may endure it well , when they consider the public profit . But this were very true onely in case there were no other remedy ; but our inquiry here being onely a question of conscience , which is to be judged by him that commands justly in general , and will doe no injustice in particular , and can govern all things without suffering them to intangle each other , the case will prove easy enough : for if God does not require obedience to the laws , when the reason of the law ceases in particular , of them I say in whose particular case the reason ceases , it is all that is look'd for . Now for this the conclusions are plain . 1. If the extrinsic reason of the law ceases in a particular case onely negatively , that is , so as no evil , grievous burden , sin , or danger be incumbent upon his person , the law retains her obligation and is to be obeyed ; because in that case , although there be no reason in the subject matter , yet there is reason enough in the reverence of the law , and in a conformity to the public manners of the Nation . Thus when the law forbids a citizen to bear armes in the night because of frequent murders that have been done or are apt to be done by armed night-walkers ; he that knows himself a peaceable man and that is resolv'd to offend no body is not bound by the reason of that law in his own particular , but he is bound by the law as long as the public is bound whereof he is a part : for if he have no reason to the contrary , but onely there is no reason for it in his case , it is reason enough that there is a law in the case , which is usefull to the public , and of great interest as to the communities of men . And therefore he that disobeys in these circumstances cannot be excus'd from contempt of the law : because though his obedience be causelesse , yet so is his disobedience , and this cannot be innocent , though that can ; especially because though the obedience be causelesse in his own particular in relation to that matter , yet it hath cause enough in it in relation to example and the veneration of the laws . 2. If the reason of the law ceases contrarily , that is , turns into mischief ; then though it ceases onely in a particular , in that particular the subject whose case it is , is free ( from the law I mean , but not free to obey it . ) Whatever we have vowed to religion or the Temple we are bound to perform : but if in the interval of the solution my Father or my nearest relative , or any to whom I am bound to shew piety , be fallen into want , or needs my ministery , I am bound to doe this first , and let that alone till both can be done : and the reason is , because I could not bind my self by vow to omit any duty to which I am naturally oblig'd : and therefore though the law that commands payment of vows be just , yet it must be always with exception of preceding obligations ; so that if it be certainly a sin which is consequent to the obedience of any law , it is certainly no sin to disobey it . 3. If the general reason of the law remaining , in some particular cases it ceases contrarily , but not so as to introduce a sin , but a great evil , or such a one which the law would not have commanded , and the law-giver is supposed not to have intended , the law does not oblige the conscience of the subject in that case . For here is the proper place for equity . In the former case it is duty not to obey the law . Either then there is no equity but what is necessary and unavoidable ; or if there can be any shewn or us'd by prudence and great probability , and in mercy , it follows that then it is to be us'd when the yoke pinches the person , though it does not invade the Conscience . And it is not to be suppos'd that a superior would have his laws burdensome to any one beyond the public necessity ; it being as certainly in his duty to be willing to ease single persons in their private burdens , as to provide for the common interest in their great and little political advantage . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Equity is as much law as the law it self , it is as just as justice , onely that it is a better justice , saith Aristotle : it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the legal justice , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a rectification and an amendment of it . — Bonum jus dicis ; Impetrare oportet , quia aequum postulat , said he in the Comedy ; It is fit that you prevail , you ask reason & equity . That 's bonum jus ; it is justice & mercy in a knot . Thus if a Church commands such ceremonies to be us'd , such orders , such prayers , they are to be observ'd when they may ; but if I fall into the hands of an enemy to that manner of worship , who will kill or afflict me greatly for using it , I am in that case disoblig'd . For though this case be not excepted in the law , yet it is supplied by the equity and correction of the law : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it is fit that when the law-giver hath commanded absolutely and indefinitely , he should in cases of particular evil make provision and correct what was amisse or omitted by the law . For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saies Aristotle ; if he had known of it before he would have provided for it before-hand : and because he did not , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , if the law-giver were present , he would use equity and give leave to the grieved subject to ease himself . And therefore since it is reasonable to suppose that if it had been thought of , this very case would have been provided for in the law ; and if the law-giver were present he would declare the law in that case not to oblige ; it follows undeniably , that the law binds not any man to a great inconvenience in his own person , though otherwise , and as to the public , it be a just and a good law , of a remaining reason and a remaining obligation . In order to this consideration , that is usefull which hath been already said in the first Chapter of this book , in the second and third Rules . 4. If the reason of the law ceases in a particular , so that without sin it may be obeyed , and without any great and intolerable evil to the obedient , yet sometimes the law does not intend to oblige in the particular case , even when there is a little inconvenience , or but a probable reason to the contrary ; and this is in things of small concernment . I should instance in rituals and little circumstances of Ecclesiastical Offices and forms of worship , in the punctualities of Rubrics , in the order of Collects , in the number of prayers , and fulnesse of the Office upon a reasonable cause or inducement to the omission or alteration : for these things are so little , and so fit to be intrusted to the conduct of these sober , obedient and grave persons , who are thought fit to be trusted with the cure of souls ; and these things are always of so little concernment , and so apt to yield to any wise mans reasons and sudden occasions and accidents , and little and great causes , that these were the fittest instances of this rule , if Superiors , for want of great manifestations of their power , would not make too much of little things . But the purpose and declar'd intention of all just laws and just governments is in these things to give the largest interpretation to persons of a peaceable mind and an obedient spirit , that such circumstances of ministeries may not passe into a solemn religion , and the zeal of good men , their caution and their curiosity , may not be spent in that which does not profit . But the measures of practice in this particular must be taken from the manner and circumstances of the government , and the usual disposition of the law . In many cases an equity may be presum'd ; but if it be explicitely denyed , it must not be us'd . Question . But upon the instance of these particular rules it is to be inquir'd , whether in these cases the subject is so quitted from the obligation of the law , that without further leave he may use his liberty , or must he require it of his Superior ? To this I answer , that if the case be evident , the subject may use his liberty : for if he should be tied to goe to his Superior , it is either to ask of him that the law should not bind him , or that he may declare that the law in his case does not bind , or to promulgate and publish the law in that particular . Not to ask leave that the law shall not bind , for of it self it ceases , and it was never intended to bind against equity and reason . Not for declaration , because the case is here suppos'd to be evident . Nor yet lastly for promulgation , because that is onely necessary in the sanction and revocation of laws which depend upon the will of the Prince ; whereas in this case the law ceases by natural justice and the nature of thing , and the reasons of equity . 2. But if the case be doubtfull , and it is not evident whether the particular case ought to be excepted in the general law , then we are to consider whether it be a doubt of fear onely or a doubt of reason , that is , whether it be nothing but an unjust fear , or relies upon just grounds ; for some men may easily perceive in themselves a diffidence in any thing , not that they have reason to cause their fear , but because they dare not trust the greatest reason that they either have or hear . If it be onely a doubt of fear , then it is to be conducted by the rules given concerning a scrupulous Conscience : If it be a fear of reason , we are to manage it by the measures of a doubting Conscience . But if he supposes upon probable inducements that he is not obliged , then according to the nature of the probability we are to proceed . For if he believes it as probable that such a case ought not to be comprehended in the law , as supposing it to be a sin that in his case would be commanded , or too great a burden impos'd , and so to be beyond the power of the law-giver , then the subject may of himself be free , without recourse to his superior . The reason is , because to avoid a sin , or to doe a great charity to our selves , a probable reason is a sufficient inducement , provided a more probable reason be not oppos'd against it , we being commanded , to avoid all appearance of evil . Now if this opinion be the more probable that by obeying the letter of the law in my case I should sin , it must needs appear to be an evil to doe it , and not to obey the law in this case does not appear to be an evil , as being the lesse probable : for if the opinions be equally probable , then the conscience is in doubt , and is to proceed by measures fitted to a doubting conscience : but when I say there is a greater probability and a lesse , the greater must carry it ; and therefore the law is not to be obeyed , it being here suppos'd to be the more probable opinion that the obedience would produce a sin . So also in the case of a great burden or intolerable pressure , the presumption is for ease ; and the law-giver is to be supposed good and gentle and reasonable ; and besides , it is supposed as the more probable opinion that the law-giver hath not power to make a law or to oblige to so much inconvenience , and then the case is the same . * But if he believes it as probable that to oblige in the present case was not in his will , but it is certain that it was in his power , then the case is so that the subject may without injustice or violence obey it ; and therefore ought not to use his liberty by his own opinion , but by recourse to his superior that hath power to declare the intention of the law . In the first case if it be easy and convenient to goe to the Superior , or that there is time enough and all things fitted , it were the surer way to require his sentence . But if there be not time , and the action urges by hastinesse , or necessity , or present opportunity , the liberty is as present as his need . But in the second case , ( which is oftentimes harder to know then the first , it being more difficult to pronounce definitively concerning the will of the law-giver which is free , then concerning his power which is not free , ) when it is onely probable that the law-giver is willing , it is not safe to venture upon the not-obeying , without recourse to the Superior . Because our innocence depending wholly upon his will , and there being no sin in keeping the law , we may safely doe this ; but we cannot safely disobey without being more assured of his leave : and therefore if it be opportune and easy to have recourse to our competent Superior , it is worth our paines to goe and inquire ; if it be not opportune , it is worth our stay till it be ; for the securing our duty and the peace of conscience are interests much greater then the using of an unnecessary liberty . 3. But in these cases of uncertainty , when we are not confident of a just liberty by the force of reason and the nature of the thing , we may justly presume that the Superior does not intend to oblige in all those cases in which he usually and of course dispenses ; that is , when his dispensation is not of special favour , but of ordinary concession ; because as in the first case it is suppos'd a gift , so in this latter it is suppos'd a justice . For example , A law is made to keep so many fasting-days . Maevius is a hard student , and feels himself something ill after fasting , and believes it will not be for his health ; but yet things are so with him , that he can obey the law without great or apparent mischief , but yet he probably believes that the law-giver would not have him bound in this case . If he perceives that they that have recourse to the Superior in lesse needs then his , are ordinarily dispensed with , then he hath reason enough not to goe to his Superior ; for it is already declar'd that he does not intend to bind in his and the like cases . This is evident , and the best measure that I know in such cases . It is the surest , and the largest , and the easiest . 4. When the recourse to a Superior for declaration of the case hath in it great difficulty or inconvenience , though the cause of exception from the law be not very great , yet if together with the inconvenience of addresse to the Superior it make up an unequal burden , and so that the particular case seem very probable to be excepted , and that in it the legislator did not intend to bind ; it is sufficient to consult with wise men and good , and by their advice and answers , as by extrinsecal causes of probability , or by any other just and probable cause of determination , to use our liberty , or to obey . The reason of this is plain necessity . Because we have no other way of proceeding , but either we must in this , as in almost all the other cases of our life , be content with the way which to us seems the more probable ; or else if we were tied to make it secure , our lives and conditions would be burdensome and intolerable , and the whole processe would be a snare and torment to a conscience : the Superior , who is to be consulted , it may be , not being within 40 miles of us ; or when we come , it may be he is of difficult accesse , or otherwise imployed , and it will be impossible for many to be heard by him , if all in the like cases were bound to consult him ; or it may be when we goe , we shall not be admitted , or if we be , it may be we shall not be eas'd unlesse we carry along with us the rewards of Divination in our hands , and we are poor ; or it may be the matter requires hast , and cannot stay the leisure of the Oracle ; and besides all this , the greatest part of the actions of our lives are not so well conducted as to be determin'd by the consultation of a wise man , but we doe them of our own head , and it may be of our own heart , without consideration ; and therefore it is a prudent course to proceed this way : and he that in such cases ties the consciences to proceed more then prudently , and thinks that prudence is not a sufficient warrant , does not consider the condition of humane nature , nor the necessities of a mans life , nor the circumstances of his condition , nor the danger of an unquiet and a restlesse conscience . Upon occasion of this subject , viz. the alteration of humane laws by the interpretation and equity of reason , it is very seasonable , and very usefull to conscience , to inquire whether by the similitude of reason the law may not as well receive advantage and extension , as well as the subject can receive liberty and ease . That is , Question . Whether the obligation of the law does extend it self to all cases that have the same or an equal reason , though the case be not comprehended directly in the law . To this the answer is by several Propositions . 1. In laws declarative of natural right or obligation , the obligation extends to all things of equal reason , though they be not comprehended under the law . Thus because we are bound by the laws to pay honour and gratitude to our parents for their nourishing of us and giving us education , the same duty is to be extended to those persons who took care of us when our parents were dead , or that took us in when we were exposed ; and children are to pay a proportionable regard even to their Nurses ; and Moses was for ever oblig'd to Pharaohs daughter , because she rescued him from drowning , and became as a Mother to him . And the reason of this is , because in these things there is a natural rectitude , and a just proportion between the reason and the event ; the reason of the thing is the cause why it was commanded . But in laws dispositive or introductive of a new obligation there is some difference . Therefore , 2. In odious cases , and especially in penal laws , the extension of the reason does neither extend the obligation nor the punishment ; according to that glosse in the Canon law , In poenis non arguimus ad similia , quia poenae non excedunt proprium casum . Punishments and odious burdens must not exceed the very case set down in the law : for if in the cases set down the Judges are to give the gentlest measure , it is not to be suppos'd that they can be more severe then the letter of the law , which it self requires an abatement and allay when it is capable : and as it is with Judges in the punishments appointed by law , so it is with all the subjects in the obligation of the law . For in both these cases , it is to be presum'd that the mind of the law-giver was not to oblige or to punish more and in more cases ; for si voluisset , expressisset , is a good presumption in these things , he could as easily have spoken that as this , if he had intended both alike ; and he would , because he knows that in odious things every one is willing to take the easiest part : and therefore that is a good warranty to presume of the mind of the law-giver ; especially since the apportioning such a punishment to such a fact hath in it no natural necessity , but depends upon the will of the law-giver , and therefore is not to be extended by a participation of the reason , but by a declaration of the will. 3. When there is a defect in the law , and the public necessity or utility requires a supply , it may be supplied , and the obligation and the judgements even in matters of burden can be extended by the similitude and parity of reason ; for in this sense it is true which the lawyers say , Casus similis expresso non censetur omissus . If it was omitted onely in the law , by the imperfection of it's sanction , or want of consideration , the Common-wealth must not suffer detriment , and therefore is to be help'd by the parity of reason . But then it is to be observ'd , that this is not wholly for the force and consequence of the reason of the law , but for the necessity and profit of the republic , and therefore the supply is to be made by jurisdiction rather then by interpretation : so saith the law , Is qui jurisdictioni praeest , ad similia procedere , atque ita jus dicere debet , The Praefect that hath jurisdiction must doe right by proceeding to the like cases : so that the jurisdiction and power is the sufficient and indeed the adequate efficient of this supply ; onely by the similitude of reason he that hath jurisdiction can take occasion to doe right . Quando lex in uno disponit , bonam esse occasionem caetera quae tendunt ad eandem utilitatem vel interpretatione vel certâ jurisdictione supplendi ; The Law having made provision in one case , it is a good occasion to supply other cases which tend to the same advantage ; but this supply is to be made either by interpretation , if it can , or if it cannot , then by certain jurisdiction and authority . So that here are three things to be considered in this extension of obligation . The one is , that the law be defective and need supply . The second is , that the supply be for the same utility and advantage which is in the expressed case of the law . And the third is , that if it cannot be by interpretation , that is , if it cannot be done by force of something contained in the law , but that there be a very defect in the law , it be done by the force of authority : for the similitude of reason is not enough , and therefore either the supreme , or a jurisdiction delegate with this power in special , is necessary . But where there is such a power , the way of doing it is procedendo de similibus ad similia , the occasion of supply must be taken from the similitude of the reason . But this I say is to be done either in cases of public necessity , or great equity and questions of favour . In other cases there are yet more restraints . 4. A similitude of reason ( except in the cases now expressed ) does not extend the law to cases not comprehended in the words and first meaning of the law . For ratio legis non est lex , sed quod ratione constituitur , say the Lawyers , Every thing that is reasonable is not presently a law , but that is the law which for that reason is decreed . And when a thing is propounded to a Prince , it is in the body politic as in the body natural , though the Understanding propound a thing as reasonable , the Will stil hath power to chuse or to reject it ; and there may be reason for the thing in one regard , and reason against it in another ; and if the reason in both cases onely be alike , they are also unlike . Omne simile est etiam dissimile . For Titius contracts friendship with Callinicus because their Fathers were fellow-Souldiers in the Parthian warre , and they lov'd well : but Titius refuses to contract the same league with Catulus , although the like reason was for him , his Father having been in the same legion in the same warre : but Catulus was an ill-natur'd man , and not fit to be entertain'd into such societies . 5. The Conscience is not bound to a greater duty then is express'd in the words and first meaning of the law by the proportion and communication of the reason , unlesse the reason be not onely alike , but be absolutely the same in both cases ; and not onely so , but that the reason was adequate to the law , that is , was the reason which actually and alone did procure the sanction of the law . When Caesar took in a town in Gallia Narbonensis , he destroyed the walls , and commanded they should not build any more walls : they consented , but cast up a great trench of earth ; and he came and fir'd their Town , because although a trench of earth was ●ot in the words of the contract or prohibition , yet because Caesar forbad the rebuilding of the walls for no other reason but because he would not have it fortified , the law against walls was to be extended to trenches also for the identity of an adequate reason . To the same purpose is that of Quintilian , Caedes videtur significare sanguinem & ferrum : si quis alio genere homo fuerit occisus , ad illam legem revertemur . A law against murder does commonly signify shedding of his bloud ; but if a man have his neck broken , or be smother'd with pillows , or strangled with a bow-string , he shall be avenged by the same law that forbad he should be killed with a knife or dagger : for it was not the instrument or the manner which the law regarded , but it wholly intended to secure the lives of the subjects . 6. Now this identity of reason must be clear and evident , or else it effects nothing ; for in matters of doubt the presumption is for liberty and freedome . But it commonly is best judg'd by one or more of these following cases . 1. The relative and the correlative are to be judg'd by the same reason when the reason of the law does equally concern them , though onely one be named in the provision of the law . If the husband must love the wife , the wife must love the husband , though she were not nam'd in the law . For here they are equal . But in superior and inferior the reason cannot be equal , but therefore is onely to be extended to the proportion of the reason . A Son must maintain his Father that is fallen into poverty , and so must a Father a Son : but they are not tied to equal obedience ; to equal duty they are , but not to equal significations and instances of it . A husband must be true to his wives bed , and so must she to his ; but she may not be admitted to an equal liberty of divorce as he is : the reason is , because the duty is equal , but the power is unequal ; and therefore the consequents of this must differ , though the consequents of the other be the same . 2. The identity of the reason is then sufficient for the extension of the law when one thing is contain'd under another , a particular under a general , an imperfect under a perfect , a part under the whole . 3. When the cases are made alike by the effort of other laws . 4. When the law specifies but one case for example sake , the rest also of the same nature and effect are comprehended . 5. When the cases are radicated in the same principle , and are equally concerned . 7. What is here said concerning cases and actions is also to be understood not onely of persons , which cannot be separated from the consideration of actions which are always personal , but of places and times , when the analogy and force of the reason or the words require it . Onely each of these is to observe their proper caution . * Places are equally included in the meaning of the law , though they be not express'd in the words of the law , if they be within the jurisdiction of the law-giver , that is , within the capacity of the law * . * But the caution concerning time is this , That although in laws declarative there is no difference of time , because there the present law is not the measure of our duty , but supposes the duty limited and prescrib'd before ( nihil enim nunc dat , sed datam significat , saith the law in this case ; ) yet laws constitutive or introductive of a new right or obligation never of themselves regard or can be extended to what is past , because this is not in our power , and is not capable of Counsel or Authority ; but they can onely be extended to the future : but the allay is this , for this is to be understood onely in precepts and prohibitions , but not in matters of indulgence and favour ; for in this it is quite contrary : what the law hath forbidden in time past or present , and what she hath or doth command is to be extended to the future ; but Cum lex in praeteritum quid indulget , in futurum vetat , When the law gives a pardon for what is past , and this pardon relies upon a proper reason , there is no leave given for the future to doe so though the same reason shall occurre ; for the pardon of what went before is a prohibition of what is to come hereafter . 8. When a law is made to take away an evil , it is to be understood also , and to be extended to all cases of prevention , and from an actual evil passes on to a probability . When Antiochus agreed that Ptolemy should not bring an army into Syria , he did not onely intend to remove the present hostility that he fear'd , but he intended also that he should not bring any at all , though for passage onely through his Country ; because if his army were at all in Syria , he was in danger of suffering what by his treaty he desir'd to prevent . 9. Whatsoever is said in laws is also true in promises and contracts : for these are laws to the contractors and interested persons , and to be measur'd by the same proportions . For when the adequate reason of a promise or contract is evidently extended to another instance though not nam'd in the contract , it must be perform'd and suppos'd as included in the stipulation , and so still in succeeding and new-arising instances ; and the state of things is not changed so long as that adequate reason remains for which the obligation was first contracted , though the thing be varied in a thousand other circumstances and accidents . But of this I shall have better opportunity to speak in the last book . 33. I onely adde this one thing , That there is great caution to be us'd in determining our cases of Conscience by the measures of the reason of a law . For Non omnium quae à Majoribus constituta sunt ratio reddi potest , said Julian . It will be hard to find out what was the reason of the laws made by our forefathers ; and unlesse the reason be expressed in the law , our conjectures are very often so wild and far amisse , that they will be very ill measures of conscience or obedience . Et ideo rationes eorum quae constituuntur inquiri non oportet , alioquin multa ex iis quae certa sunt subvertentur . We must obey the law , and never inquire after the reason , unlesse the law of it self declares it : it is not good to examine , for by this means many clear laws are made obscure and intricate . Delicata est illa obedientia quae causas quaerit . The law-giver is mov'd to the sanction of the law by the reason of the thing , but the sanction of the law is to be the onely reason of our obedience . §. 4. Dispensation . RULE IV. The Legislator hath authority to dispense in his own laws for any cause that himself prudently shall judge to be reasonable , so that no distinct interest be prejudic'd or injur'd . DIspensation differs from interpretation of laws , because this does declare the law in certain cases not to bind ; but dispensation supposes the law in actual obligation , not onely in general , but in this case , and to this person ; and it is but like the old man in the fable his laying aside his burden of sticks , which he is bound to carry with him to his long home unlesse some friendly person come to help him . But Dispensation differs from diminution of laws by a ceasing or a contrary reason , because the law ceases of it self in this case , but in dispensation wholly by the will of the Prince . And lastly it differs from equity , because equity is law , melior lex , but dispensation is a remission of the law ; and the cases of equity are such as by justice must be eas'd , but in dispensations there is nothing but benignity and favour . So that Dispensation is a voluntary act of the Princes grace and favour , releasing to any single person or community of men the obligation of the law , others at the same time remaining bound , not onely in other cases , but in the same and in the like . For although the same and the like cases of equity doe procure remission to all alike , yet in dispensations it is not so . One may be eased , and another not eas'd in the very same case . And the not understanding or not considering this great and material difference hath caus'd so great errors both in the understanding and in the ministeries of dispensation . For if we use the word improperly , Dispensation can signify a declaration made by the superior that the subject in certain cases is not oblig'd , that the law-giver did not intend it : but this is interpretation of laws , or a declaration of the equitable part of the law , and is not properly an act of authority , but of doctrine and wisedome ; save onely that that doctrine and that wisedome shall be esteemed authentical , and a warranty in doubtfull cases : but if the subject did know the meaning of the law , as in most cases he may , his conscience is of it self and by the intention of the law at liberty without any such declaration ; for that liberty is from an intrinsic cause , that is , from the natural equity and reasonablenesse of the case , and therefore claims nothing but what the law intends and ought to intend in its very sanction . Now in these cases to require dispensation , is to ask more then is needfull ; it is as if one should desire his friend to untie his girdle when his cloths hang loose about him : he needs it not ; but that the wisdome and charity of the law is made an artifice to get mony , and to put the subject to scruples and trouble that he may get his ease . But when Dispensation signifies properly , it means an act of mere grace and favour , proceeding from an extrinsic cause ; that is , not the nature of the thing , or the merit of the cause , but either the merit of the person , or some degrees of reasonablenesse in the thing ; which not being of it self enough to procure the favour of the law , is of it self enough to make a man capable of the favour of the Prince ; and if this be authority enough , that is reason enough . For since dispensation is an act of mere jurisdiction , and not of doctrine or skill and wisedome and law , that is , it is not declarative of something already in being , but effective of a leave which is neither unreasonable nor yet due , so that it is not an act of justice , but of mercy and favour upon a fair and worthy occasion ; it must follow that the reason and causes of dispensation must be such as are not necessary : but probable and fit to move a Prince they must be , lest he doe an unreasonable act . All those disputes therefore amongst the Civil and Canon Lawyers and the Divines , Whether the Prince sins in dispensing without just cause , or the subject in desiring it or using it without just cause ; Whether if the cause be not that which they are pleas'd to call just , the dispensation be valid , and very many more , are inquiries relying upon weak grounds , and tending to no real purpose . For since the cause need not be necessary , but probable , it will be very hard if the Prince can find out no probable reason for what he does , and harder yet to imagine that he should doe it at all , if he have not so much as a probable reason why he does it ; and since the reason of dispensation is extrinsic to the cause or matter in hand very often , or else is but occasion'd by the matter in hand , as most commonly it is in wise and good governments , it will be impossible but that the Prince will have reason enough to doe an act of kindnesse in his own affairs and matters of his own disposing : the Princes will being enough to satisfy us , and any good reason within or without being sufficient for him if it does move and determine his will , the consequent will be , that the Conscience ought to be at rest , without curious inquiry into the cause , if it have a dispensation from a just and competent authority . And indeed it is not easy that the Prince can be reprov'd for the insufficiency of the cause of dispensation : for a dispensation is not necessary to the conscience at all , when the cause it self is great and sufficient for equity ; but then it is necessary for the avoiding of scandal or civil punishments in some cases , that there be a declaration of liberty & equity : but to dispense is onely then proper and a fitting ministery 1. when the law is still usefull and reasonable to one or more good purposes , but accidentally becomes an impediment of a greater good ; or 2ly , when it is doubtfull whether the cause of equity and legal remission without asking leave be sufficient , for in this case , if the superior dispenses , he supplies by favour what is wanting in the merit of the cause , and makes the conscience sure when the question it self was not sure ; or 3ly , to reward a vertue , or the service of a worthy person , or to doe honour or favour , mercy and benignity upon the occasion of any reasonable consideration . These being all the causes of proper dispensations , it will be hard that every thing of this should be wanting , or that what moves a prudent Prince to doe it , should by the subject not be thought sufficient , especially since no man is judge of it but he that does it : and therefore he that saies the dispensation was for an insufficient cause , hath no sufficient cause to say it ; it may be evil in the manner , or in the excesse , or in the event , but not in the moving cause , because a little cause is sufficient , and therefore a little cause cannot suffice to blame it . Nullius sensus esse praesumitur qui sensum vincat principalem . The subjects opinion can never overcome the opinion of the Prince in those things where the Prince is Judge . There is onely this to be added , That he that dispenses with a law to particular persons be carefull that it be in a matter wholly in his own power , and make no intrecnhment upon religion so much as collaterally , so far as he can perceive , nor yet that any man be injur'd by it . And therefore if a Prince dispenses with any one in the matter of tribute , he must abate it from his own rights , and not lay it upon others , to their considerable and heavy pressure . If it be inconsiderable , no man is to complain , but to indulge so much to the Princes reason and to the man whom the King will honour ; but if it be considerable and great , the Prince ought not to do it , but upon such a reason which may repay the private burden by the public advantage : and the reason of this is not , because the Supreme power cannot dispense with his own laws without great cause , but becasue he cannot dispense with other mens rights . And therefore when by the laws of Christendome the Tiths were given to the Curates of souls of all the fruits arising in their parishes , it was unjustly done of the Pope to exempt the lands of the Cistertians and some other Orders from paying that due to the Parish Priest : for though he that hath a just power may use it for the benefit of his subjects , yet he may not use the rights of others and give away that which is none of his own , to ease one and burden another . In cases of public necessity this may be done , but not for pleasure , or a little reason . And therefore dispensations must be sparingly granted , because if they be easy and frequent , they will oppresse by their very numbers . Dispensationum modus nulli sapientum displicuit , said the Canon law . That which is but seldome and in small things , or in little degrees , will be of no evil effect , and that which may greatly profit one or two will be no burden to a Common-wealth ; but if it be often done , and to many , it may be of evil consequent , and therefore ought not to be done , but upon a cause so weighty , that the good effect of the cause may prevail above the pressure of the dispensation : for though this may be favour to one or to a few , yet it is justice to all . But if the dispensations be in matters of government , or censures , or favours and meer graces , where some are benefited and no man is injur'd , as in taking off irregularities , personal burdens which return to no mans shoulders , in giving graces beyond the usual measures of laws , dispensations in time , in solennities of law , giving what by law could not be claimed ; in these and the like the Prince as he hath supreme power , so his good will being mov'd by any reasonable inducement is warrant enough for him that gives it , and for him that uses it . §. 5. Commutation . RULE V. The same power that can dispense , can also commute a duty ; and as in the first it eases , so in the latter it binds the Conscience . COmmutation is nothing but a kind , or rather a particular manner of dispensation ; and therefore hath in it no particular consideration differing from the former , but onely such prudential advices as are usefull to the ministery and conduct of it . For Commutation is a changing of the burden of the law into an act of , it may be , a greater usefulnesse but a lesse trouble . Thus when a public penance is enjoyn'd to a lapsed person , who by a public shame would be hardned or oppressed , the Church sometimes dispenses in the obligation , and changes it into almes , ut solvat in aere , quod non luit in corpore , that the fruit of his labours may goe for the sin of his soul , and an expensive almes may be taken in recompence of his exteriour humiliation . 1. But this must be done so as may be no diminution to religion , or to adde confidence to the vices of great persons , who spend much more in the purchases of their lust then in the redemption of their shame , and therefore think they escape with their sin , when they enjoy it at a price . 2. It must be done never but upon considerations of piety and great regard ; not because the sinner is powerfull or rich : for though in matters of commutative justice neither the rich man is to be regarded for his riches , nor the poor man for his poverty ; yet in matters criminal and of distributive justice the rich man is lesse to be eased , when the indulgence makes the crime more popular and imitable by the greatnesse of the evil example ; but he is more to be eased , when the punishment will by reason of his greatnesse of honour be too unequal a diminution to him , and cause a contempt greater then the intention of the law . 3. The commutation of the punishment imposed by law must at no hand be done at a set price before-hand , or taxed in penitentiary tables , and be a matter of course , or indifferent dispensation : for when men know the worst of the evil , which they fear , to be very tolerable and easy , it is an invitation , and does tempt to the sin . But therefore this must be done by particular dispensation ; not easily , not to all , not to many , not at all for the price , but to relieve the needs of him who is in danger of being swallowed by too great a sorrow . 4. Commutations are not to be impos'd but when the dispensation is something of ease in a law of burden ; for then to change it into a lesse burden is a dispensation by a commutation of which it is properly capable . Thus when abstinence from flesh is enjoyn'd by a law , it may be upon good ground dispens'd withall and chang'd into an abstinence from wine or strong drink , or society , or into almes . But when laws are made which contain in them no burden , but are in order to some end of personal or public advantage , some end of vertue , or caution , or defence , then either the dispensation ( when it is reasonable to be requir'd ) must be without commutation ; or if it be not , the commutation must be made into something that shall contribute to the end intended in the law . Thus if any one hath reason to desire to be dispensed with in the publication or trine denunciation of an intended marriage , it is not reasonable , nor according to the intention and wisedome of the law , to change that law into a taxe of money , though for almes and religion ; but it may be done by commanding them to abs●●● in from mutual congresse till the secret marriage can prudently be ma● public ; because this commutation does in some degree secure the end of the law , and makes some amends for want of publication of the bannes . If a Deacon have reason to desire to receive the Order of Priesthood from one that is not his own Diocesan , the Bishop that dispenses with him cannot prudently or justly require of him to give a summe of money for the reparation a Church , because that , though it be a good work , yet it is not in the same matter , nor does it cooperate toward the wise end of the law : but he does well , if he enjoyns him to procure and carry along with him greater testimonials of his conversation and worthinesse , and that he publish his intention to all his own neighbourhood , that they may , if they see cause , object against him ; and he may not be promoted by a clancular ordination . 5. I might adde here , that in commutations the pretences of charity and almes and religion must not be the cover of avaritious practices and designes ; but that this , although it be usefull in respect of the corrupted manners of men , yet it is nothing to the explication of this Rule . §. 6. Contrary Custome . RULE VI. A Custome can interpret a law , but can never abrogate it without the consent of the Supreme power . THe doctrine of Customes both in divine laws and in humane , I have already explicated , so far as concerns their positive power , and the power of binding the Conscience to obedience and complying . That which now is to be inquir'd is concerning their power to disoblige and set at liberty : and even this also may very well be estimated by those positive measures , and hath in it not very much of special consideration , save this onely , that there is very great reason of dissenting from the commonly-received doctrine of the power of customes in this very particular . For although by the consent of all the world custome can introduce a law , according to that saying of Tertullian , Consuetudo in rebus civilibus pro lege suscipitur , cum deficit lex , When there is no law , it is supplied by custome ; and this is so far to be extended , that if the custome be reasonable , and antecedent to a law , it shall remain after the making of a law in that very matter , nisi expressè caveatur in ipsa , unlesse the law does expressely cancell it by particular caution : yet when a law is established and is good , the force of custome is not sufficient of it self to annul it , and to cancel the obligation of Conscience . A custome can interpret a law . Si de interpretatione legis quaeratur , inprimis inspiciendum est , quo jure civitas retro in hujusmodi casibus uteretur , saies the law . For it is to be suppos'd that the law was obeyed , and in that sense in which the law-giver intended it ; and that the people doe their duty in things of public concern is a just and a legal presumption : and therefore nothing is more reasonable in questions concerning the interpretation of a law , then to inquire how the practice of the people was in times bygone , because what they did when the reason and sense of the law was best perceiv'd , and what the law-giver allowed them to doe in the obedience of it , may best be suppos'd to be that which he intended . Upon this account , the judg'd cases in law are the best indication of the meaning of the law ; because the sentence of the Judges does most solemnly convey the notice of a custome , and allow it reasonable , and by those customes does interpret the law , so that they give aid each to other ; the custome gives assistance to the Judges in understanding the meaning of the law , and the Judges giving sentence according to the custome declare that custome to be reasonable ; according to that in the Spanish laws , That custome is for ever hereafter to be observed , si secundum eam bis judicatum fuerit , if there have been two sentences pronounced according to the custome . But this use of custome is expressed both in the Civil and Canon law . In ambiguitatibus quae ex legibus proficiscuntur , consuetudinem aut rerum perpetuò similiter judicatarum authoritatem vim legis obtinere debere . Custome and precedents of law are as good as law in all questions of law and of doubtfull interpretation : and therefore the Presidents of Provinces were commanded to judge by the measures of custome : probatis iis quae in oppido frequenter in eodem controversiarum genere servata sunt , causâ cagnitâ statuat ; see what is the custome of the place , and by the measures of that let the decree passe . And so it is in the Canon law , where a certain Bishop is commanded to inquire what is the custome of the Metropolitan Church and the Churches in the neighbourhood , & diligentius imitari , to follow it diligently , meaning both in practice and in sentences . Now in this , if the Conscience can be relieved and the rigor of the law abated by the aides of custome , it is safe to use it , and to proceed according to the rules of equity , describ'd in the beginning of this Chapter . But all this is therefore reasonable because it is consuetudo secundum legem , it is according to law ; all the ease and abatements of which that are reasonable the Conscience may safely use . But if a custome be against a law , the law , and not the custome ought to prevail ; for a custome cannot take off from us the duty and obedience we owe to the just laws of our superiors . Consuetudo nec rationem vincit nec legem . As in Divine laws reason and truth can never be prejudic'd by contrary customes ; so in humane laws , the authority and obligation cannot be annull'd by desuetude alone . For although a man may get impunity and save his skin whole under the protection of contrary custome ; yet our inquiry is for the indemnity of Conscience : and as to this , it is considerable that when a custome contrary to law does enter , it enters by neglect or disobedience , by rebellion or contempt , it proceeds all the way in the paths of iniquity ; for still men goe quà itur , non quà eundum est , they goe , like frighted or wandring sheep , there where the gap is open , not where the way lies : and it will be impossible that such customes should be a warranty to the conscience , and that it should be lawfull to break a law , because the law is broken ; that disobedience should warrant rebellion * ; and that it be innocent to follow the multitude to sin . So that so long as the custome is alone and walks by it self , it walks amisse : but if by any means this custome pass into lawfull , as a traveller that goes so far westward and still goes on till at last he comes to the rising of the sun , then it is not by any force of the custome , but by first obtaining pardon and then procuring leave . For it is observable that in law , customes themselves are esteem'd illegal and reprobate if they be against law . Licet usus consuetudinis non minima sit authoritas , nunquam tamen veritati aut legi praejudicat ; Use and custome hath great authority , but nothing against truth or law : and Non valet consuetudo contra canonicam institutionem ; for the custome is unreasonable if it be against law : for illam dico rationabilem quam non improbant jura , saith the Glosse in cap. ult . de consuet . verbo rationabilis ; and the Lateran Council defines those customes to be reasonable , quae ratione juvantur & sacris congruunt institutis , which are assisted by reason and are agreeable to the holy Canons . Now because a custome is by no law admitted unlesse it be reasonable , and that by all laws those customes are judg'd unreasonable which are against law ; we have reason to withdraw our selves from the practice of such customes though they be never so general and long , unlesse they be by some other means allowed . And therefore there is wholly a mistake in this doctrine , upon the account of ●n 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and some antinomies in law : for it is certain that in the Civil law , and in the laws of many nations anciently , the custome of the people was esteem'd sufficient to abrogate a law ; but it began first , and continued long onely in those Common-wealths where the people had power to make a law , or had some pretensions and colours of that power which were not wholly to be taken from them : and therefore , Rectissimè receptum est ut leges non solum suffragio legislatoris , sed etiam tacito consensu omnium per desuetudinem abrogentur , Laws are abrogated not onely by the expresse revocation of the law-giver , but by the secret consent of all . And the reason of this is well express'd by Julianus the Lawyer , Quid interest suffragio populus voluntatem suam declaret , an rebus ipsis & factis ? It is all one how the people signify their will , by suffrages or by actions : meaning that so long as the legislative power was in them , they had power to revoke their own law by custome as well as by voice , at long running as well as at one convention . But when the people are not their own subjects and their own Princes ( for so they are in all popular governments ) but that the Prince or the Senate hath the legislative power , they cannot introduce a custome but by rebellion and disobedience . In Democracies , when the people did otherwise then their own laws requir'd , they disobeyed themselves , and so were innocent and out of danger ; but now they cannot disobey but they sin , and a sin can never of it self lead a man to innocence , nor a lie to truth , unlesse it be by the help of some other intervening cause , of it self alone it cannot . But this affair relies upon the same ground which I formerly discours'd of in this book ; for the mistake of men is alike in both . The obligation of a law does not depend upon the acceptation of the people ; and as a law hath not it's beginning so neither can it have it's perpetuity dependantly upon them ; and no man thinks it hath , but he who supposes the supreme power to be originally in the people , and in the King by trust ; and there are too many that think that , for there have been so many Democratical governments that many wise men have said so , because then they had reason : but so many popular governments have also produc'd popular opinions , which being too much receiv'd even by wise men , have still given the people occasion to talk so still , and to very many to believe them . But if a contrary custome could justly abrogate a law , then it were no matter who had the legislative power , for whatever the Prince please , the people shall chuse whether it be a law or no ; which because it is a perfect destruction to all government , must needs proceed from an intolerable principle . To which I adde this consideration , that whatever effect in law and external regiment a custome may be admitted to have , of which I am not concern'd to give accounts , yet if the custome be against law , it is certain the conscience can have no safety , and no peace but in the obedience to the law . For besides that there are so many difficult and indeterminable questions in the conduct of the matter of customes , as whether the custome be reasonable , and who is to judge of that , and by what measures ; what are the sufficient causes of custome , whether there must be some inequality or pressure or iniquity in the matter , or is it sufficient that the multitude is willing to introduce a custome against law ? what time and continuance is requir'd to prescribe a custome , and when it begins to be innocent , and how long it is disobedience ; how many must concurre to the making of it , and whether the dissent of a few does interrupt it's coalition and growing into a custome , and how shall we know whether all or no doe consent ? or how are we sure that a greater part is sufficient , and that we have the greater part with us ? whether for the abrogation of the law a mere desuetude or omission is sufficient , or must the custome be contrary to the law and matter of fact ? and if that be sufficient to annul an affirmative precept , how many things and circumstances of things will be further requir'd for the removing the obligation of a negative commandement ? and very many more to the same purposes , that is , to no purposes : besides this , I say , the conscience can never be warranted in any thing but obedience , because it is impossible to tell the precise time in which the law is actually abrogated by the custome ; and therefore a man can never know by all that is before him in this affair , whether he be worthy of love or hatred . There is onely one case that can set this right , and give warranty to the conscience , and that is when the Prince or the supreme power allows the custome and annuls his own law ; for he onely that made it can give it a period : and therefore our inquirie can be onely this , how we shall know when the Prince is willing the law shall goe for nothing . Concerning which there are but two ways of our knowing it , or his doing it . The one is by tacit consent or secret approbation of the custome , as by not punishing , by not complaining , and by silence ; and the other is by direct revocation . The former will be very hard to know so well as to be able to bring peace to an inquiring and curious conscience ; but I shall give accounts of the best ways of knowing it in the next book , in the explication of this Rule , Qui tacet consentire videtur : of the latter I am to speak in the next Rule . In the mean time there is nothing sure for the conscience but to obey the laws , onely that we can understand that the custome is then approved when it passes in rem judicatam , when the Kings Judges have given sentence in a cause against an old law , for a later custome ; which when they have reason to doe , the Princes will is sufficiently declared ; till then , if we cannot sufficiently know that the Prince does secretly approve the custome against the law , we must stay till the law be expressely abrogated , and then the custome may safely be complied with , because then we are sure it is not against law . For , as Panormitan said well , Oportet ut duae partes sint scientes consuetudinis quae introducitur . Not onely the people , but the Prince too must consent before the custome be approved . For there must be two words to this bargain . §. 7. Abrogation . RULE VII . Abrogation of a law by a competent , that is , by the Supreme power , may be just and reasonable , though the law it self be neither unreasonable nor unjust . THe causes of abrogating a law are all those which are sufficient to make a good and a wise man change his mind . The alteration of the cause of the law , new emergencies , unfit circumstances , public dislike , a greater good : for it is no otherwise in the public then in the private will ; there where a man is master of his will and ruler of his own affairs , there is nothing to be consider'd , but that what he does be done wisely and justly and charitably . The same power that makes the law , the same can annul it , and the same reason which introduc'd the law , can also change it : and there is no difference but this onely , that a law may not be imposed unlesse the matter of it be honest , or holy , or profitable ; but it may be abrogated though it be all this , provided it be not necessary . For to the making of a law all the conditions are requir'd , a competent authority , and just matter , and fitting promulgation ; but to the abrogation of it , the defect of any one cause is sufficient . And therefore if the law be unjust , it ceases of it self ; if it be uselesse , it falls into just neglect ; if it be not publish'd , it is not born ; if it be generally dislik'd , it is suppos'd to be uncharitable , and therefore is as good as if it were not born , for it will be starv'd at Nurse . But when it is made it must continue and be maintain'd by all these things together ; and therefore when any one fails , the whole structure descends into dissolution and a heap . But therefore if the will of the Prince changes , and that he will not have it to be a law , it looses the spirit , though the body and the external causes of life remain . For though an action must not be done unlesse it be good and innocent , yet it is not necessary that it be done , though it be so . Every thing that is good is not necessary , and many good things are let alone , and at the same time others as good as they are done , and sometimes better : and because there are many good provisions and counsels which are not taken , and are not made into laws , many such things which are well enough may be laid aside , either for the procuring a greater good , or for the avoiding of some appendant inconvenience . But in these cases , unlesse the Prince be obliged by oath or promise to preserve this law , his abrogating even of a good law is no question of justice , but of prudence and charity , both which also may be preserved , if the good be chang'd , or improv'd , or recompens'd . But whether it be right or wrong on the Princes part , yet if the law be annull'd , the conscience of the subject is no longer bound . The Prince cannot bind the conscience , unlesse the law be good ; but the conscience is at liberty , though the abrogation be not good . Because the goodnesse of the matter cannot make it into a law without the Prince's will , but the Prince's will can alone make it cease to be . Upon this account , it is not unseasonable to inquire whether , that a thing hath been abus'd may be accounted a just and a prudent cause to take it quite away . That it may be a just , that is , a sufficient cause , is out of all question , because it is not unjust ; for then in this case it is just enough , though it be not necessary . But whether it be prudent for the Prince to doe it , and whether it be necessary that it be done , is another consideration . But to this the precedent of Hezekiah King of Judah is a good guide . For he brake in pieces the brazen serpent , because the people made it an idol ; and he did prudently , because the people who were too apt to that crime could not easily be kept from doing it so long as that great memorial of the divine power did remain . It is like removing a beautifull woman from the greedy eyes of a yong person ; he cannot behold her and be safe : and thus it is in all cases , if the evil be incumbent , and not remediable , nor to be cleans'd from mischief or just suspicion and actual danger , then whatsoever is so abus'd not onely may , but ought to be remov'd . But if that which was abus'd be now quitted from the abuse , then it may be kept , if it be good for any thing : and if it were not , I suppose there would be no question about it . But in the change of laws , or reformation of prevailing evil customes , prudence is good always , and zeal sometimes : but certainly the contrary and the exterminating way of reformation is not always the best , because he that opposes a vice too fiercely may passe into a contrary vice as readily as into a contrary vertue . If a Church happens to command some rituals and formes of worship in a superstitious manner or to superstitious purposes , or if men doe observe them with a curiosity great as to the nicenesse of superstition , it is not good to oppose them superstitiously . If the obedient doe keep the rituals as if they were the Commandements of God , they are to blame : but if the disobedient will reject them as if they were of themselves against God's Commandements they are more to blame , because a superstitious obedience is better then a superstitious rebellion ; that hath piety and error in an evil mixture , but this hath error and impiety . But as to the subject matter and inquiry of the Rule ; That a thing hath been abus'd , and a law hath been made the occasion of evil , it does not make the law of it self to cease , unlesse that abuse and deception be not to be cur'd without abrogation of the law . So that if a subject sees the abuse and is offended at it , and is not tempted to comply with it , he is still tied to observe the law , and in his own practice separate it from the abuse . Thus in the Primitive Church , the observation of Vigils and Wakes was a holy custome , and yet it afterwards grew into such abuse , that the Ecclesiastic authority thought it fit to abrogate it ; because the custome in the declining piety and corrupted manners of the world was a ready temptation to the evil . But till the Vigils were taken away by authority , the laws of the Church did still oblige , and did not cease of themselves : and therefore where with innocence and without active scandal they could be observed , the subject was oblig'd . But then this was cause enough why the Rulers of Churches should annul that law or custome . If they could easily have quitted those meetings from corruption , they might if they pleas'd retain them or annul them , as they listed ; onely they were bound to annul them when the evil could find no other remedy . The abuse even so long as it was curable was yet cause enough why the Supreme power might abrogate the law , but not sufficient to make the abrogation necessary , nor yet for the subject to disobey it . For the inferior cannot lawfully withdraw his obedience , till the superior cannot lawfully retain the law : but when to abrogate it is necessary , then to disobey it is no sin . I conclude these numerous inquiries and large accounts of the obligation of Conscience by Humane laws , with the Apologue taken out of Nicolaus Damascenus his Politics . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Laws are like the girdles of the Iberian women : if any mans belly or his heart is too big for those circles , he is a dissolute and a dishonour'd person . The end of the Third Book . Non nobis Domine . OF THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF Good and Evil , THEIR Limits & Circumstances , THEIR AGGRAVATIONS & DIMINUTIONS . The Fourth Book . LONDON , Printed by James Flesher , for Richard Royston at the Angel in Ivy-lane . 1660. The Fourth Book . HE that intends to consider any thing fully and intirely , must consider it in all the four kinds of causes . The Formal cause , or the essentiality of good and evil is the doing it with or against Conscience , true of false , right or wrong , confident or doubtfull , probable or certain ; and this I have explicated in the First book . The Material cause of good and evil is derived from the object or the Rule , which is the laws of God and Man , by a conformity to which the action is good ; and if it disagrees , it is materially evil . And this I have largely represented in the Second and Third Books . But because it is not enough that any thing be in its own nature honest and just , unlesse it be also honestly and justly done , according to that saying of the wise man , Qui sanctitatem sanctè custodiunt judicabuntur sancti , They that keep holinesse holily shall be adjudged holy ; to make up the Rule of Conscience complete , it is necessary that it be considered by what Rules and measures a good action may be rightly conducted , and how all may be rightly judged , that we passe on to emendation , either by repentance or ●●provement , that a good action may not be spoil'd , and an evil may not be allowed , but that according to the words of the Apostle we may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prepar'd for every good work : which will be done by considering the efficient and the final causes of all humane actions ; the nature and rules of which when we understand and consider , as we have the measure of humane actions in all the four kinds of causes , so there will be nothing deficient to the fulnesse of a general or universal Rule of Conscience . CHAP. I. Of the efficient causes of all Humane actions good or evil . §. 1. Of Choice and Election , voluntary and involuntary . RULE I. An action is neither good nor evil , unlesse it be voluntary , and chosen . THis Rule is taken from the doctrine of S. Austin , who makes freedome and election to be of the constitution and definition of sin . Peccatum est voluntas retinendi vel consequendi quod justitia vetat , & unde liberum est abstinere . The will is the mistresse of all our actions , of all but such as are necessary and natural ; and therefore to her it is to be imputed whatsoever is done . The action it self is good or bad by it's conformity to , or difformity from the Rule of Conscience ; but the Man is good or bad by the will. Nemo nostrûm tenetur ad culpam , nisi propriâ voluntate deflexerit , said S. Ambrose . If the actions be natural and under no command of the will , they are good by creation and the act of God ; but if it be a moral action it is to be conducted by another Oeconomy . For in these it is true which the Wise man said , Deus posuit hominem in manu consilii sui : God intending to be glorified by our free obedience hath set before us good and evil : we may put our hand to which we will ; onely what we chuse that shall be our portion : for all things of this nature he hath left us to our selves ; not to our natural strengths , but to our one choice ; he hath instructed us how to chuse ; he hath open'd to us not onely the nature of things , but the event also of all actions , and invited the will with excellent amabilities and glorious objects ; and by all the aides of the Spirit of Grace hath enabled it to doe it 's own work well . Just as Nature is by Physic enabled to proceed in her own work of nutriment and increase by a removing of all impediments , so does the Spirit of God in us , and to us , and for us : and after all the will is to chuse by it's own concreated power . I shall not here enter into the philosophy of this question , but consider it onely as it is to be felt and handled . Let the will of man be enabled by what means it please God to chuse for it , without God's grace we are sure it cannot doe it's work ; but we are sure also that we can doe our work that God requires of us , and we can let it alone : and therefore as sure as God's grace and help is necessary , so sure it is that we have that help that is necessary ; for if we had not , we could not be commanded to work , and there were no need of arguments or of reason , of deliberation or inquiry , according to the words of S. Austin , Quis non clamet stultum esse praecepta dare ei , cui liberum non est quod praecipitur facere ; & iniquum esse eum damnare , cui non fuit potestas jussa complere ? for if in humane actions , that is actions of morality , there be a fate , then there is no contingency , and then all deliberation were the greatest folly in the world ; because since onely one part is possible ( that being impossible to come to passe which God hath inevitably decreed shall never be ) the other part is but a chimaera , and therefore not subject to consultation . Adde to this , if all our actions were predetermin'd , then one man were not better then another , and there could be no difference of rewards in heaven or earth ; God might give what he please , but he shall reward none , not in any sense whatsoever ; & Christian Princes may as well hang a true man as a thief , because this man no more breaks his law then the other , for neither of them doe obey or disobey , but it is fortune that is hang'd , and fortune that is advanc'd : Ille erucem [ sortis ] pretium tulit , hic diadema ; and there is no such thing as vertue , no praise , and no law . But in all this there is nothing new . For these were long since the discourses of S. Austin against the Manichees , and S. Hierom against the Pelagians ; and S. Leo by these very Mediums confutes the Priscillianists , as appears in his 19th Epistle to Turibius the Bishop . But certainly that is a strange proposition which affirms that nothing is possible but what is done ; and to what purpose is repentance ? No man repents that he could not speak as soon as he was born , and no man repents that he was begotten into the world by the ordinary way of all the earth . He that repents is troubled for doing what he ought not , and what he need not . But I will goe on no further in this particular ; not because I cannot chuse , for I could adde very many more things , but because if a man hath not a power to will or nill , it is to no purpose to write cases of Conscience , or indeed to doe any thing as wise men should . A fool and a wise man differ not , a lazy man and a diligent , a good man and a bad , save onely one hath a better starre ; they differ as a strong man and a weak : but though one be the better thing , he is not the better man. But I am not here to dispute , yet I shall observe a few things which may be usefull to the question as the question can minister to practice . 1. That whereas all men granting liberty of will in actions of natural life and common entercourse , many of them deny it in moral actions , and many more deny it in actions spiritual , they consider not that they evacuate and destroy the very nature and purpose of liberty and choice . For besides that the case of moral actions and spiritual is all one , for that action is moral which is done in obedience or disobedience to a law , and spiritual is no more , save onely it relates to another law , to the Evangelical or Spiritual law of liberty , but in the nature of the thing it is the same , and can as well be chosen one as the other , when they are equally taught , and alike commanded , and propounded under the same proportionable amability , and till they be so they are not equally laws ; besides this , the denying liberty in all moral things , that is in all things of manners , in all things of obedience to the laws of God and Man , and the allowing it in things under no law , is a destruction of the very nature and purpose of liberty . For the onely end of liberty is to make us capable of laws , of vertue and reward , and to distinguish us from beasts by a distinct manner of approach to God , and a way of conformity to him proper to us ; and except in the matter of Divine and humane laws , except in the matter of vertue and vice , except in order to reward or punishment , liberty and choice were good for nothing : for to keep our selves from harm , and poison , and enemies , a natural instinct , and lower appetites , and more brutish faculties would serve our needs as well as the needs of birds and beasts . And therefore to allow it where it is good for nothing , and to deny it where onely it can be usefull and reasonable and fit to be done , and given by the wise Father of all his creatures , must needs be amisse . 2. Liberty of choice in moral actions , that is , in all that can be good or bad , is agreeable to the whole method and purpose , the Oeconomy and designe of humane nature and being . For we are a creature between Angel and beast , and we understand something , and are ignorant of much , and the things that are before us are mixt of good and evil , and our duty hath much good and some evil , and sin hath some good and much evil , and therefore these things are and they are not to be pursued ; Omne voluntarium est etiam involuntarium , and there is a weight on both sides , and our propositions are probable , not true and false , but for several reasons seeming both to several persons . Now if to all this there were not a faculty that should proportionably , and in even measures , and by a symbolical progression tend to these things , we could not understand , we could not see , we could not admire the numbers and music and proportions of the Divine wisedome in our creation in relation to this order of things . For since in our objects there is good and evil in confusion or imperfect mixture , if our faculties tending to these objects were natural , and not deliberative & elective , they must take all in , or thrust all out , and either they must receive no good , or admit every evil . It is natural for every thing to love it 's good and to avoid it's evil : now when the good and evil are simple and unmixt or not discerned , an instinct and a natural tendency to the object is sufficient to invest it in the possession . But when they are mixt , and we are commanded to chuse the good and eschew the evil , if to an indifferent object there be not an indifferent faculty , what Symmetry and proportion is in this creation ? If there be two amabilities propounded , and onely one is to be followed , and the other avoided , since the hand hath five , the soul must at least have two fingers , the one to take , the other to put away . And this is so in all species or kinds of moral actions , even that kind which we call spiritual ; for with that also there is mingled so much difficulty and displeasure , that is , so much evil , so much that we naturally and reasonably desire to avoid , and the avoiding of this evil does so stand against the chusing of the other good , that a natural and unchusing faculty can doe nothing at all in the question . But upon this account God hath commanded industry , diligence , toleration , patience , longanimity , mortification ; that is , he hath set before us several eligibilities in order to several ends , which must either be wholly to no purpose , or an art of vexation and instrument of torment to evil purpose , or else the means of a reward , and the way of felicity by the advantage of a free and a wise choice , and this is to very good purpose . Materiamque tuis tristem virtutibus imple : Ardua per praeceps gloria vadit iter . Hectora quis nosset , si felix Troja fuisset ? Publica virtutis per mala facta via est . It is difficulty and the mixture of several amabilities that presupposes choice and makes vertue . But if events and actions were equally predetermin'd , idlenesse would be as good as labour , and peevishnesse as good as patience ; but then a man could never come to God. It was well said of Eusebius , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . As idlenesse is to the body , so is carelesnesse and inconsideration to the soul , but exercise and difficulty and mortification bring us unto God : but these things cannot be understood but where there is liberty and election , and yet without these there is no vertue . — Nam virtus futile Nomen Ni decus adfuerit patiendo , ubi tempora lethi Proxima sint , pulchramque petat per vulnera laudem . Difficulty makes vertue , and the contrariety of objects makes difficulty , and the various ends and amabilities make the contrariety , and liberty is the hand and fingers of the soul by which she picks and chuses , and if she gathers flowers she makes her self a garland of immortality . 3. All this state of things thus represented must needs signify a state much more perfect then that of beasts , but very imperfect in respect of that of Angels , and of that which we our selves expect hereafter ; and therefore that liberty which is made in just proportion to fit this imperfection must also of it self needs be imperfect , and need not be envied to mankind as if it were a jewel of the celestial crown . Alas it is an imperfection , fit to humble us , not to make us proud ; it is not too much to be given us , it is a portion of our imperfect condition ; it onely sets us higher then a Tulip , and enlarges our border beyond the folds of sheep or the Oxens stall , but it keeps us in our just station , servants to God , inferior to Angels , and in possibility of becoming Saints . For in moral or spiritual things liberty and indetermination is weaknesse , and supposes a great infirmity of our reason and a great want of love . For if we understood all the degrees of amability in the service of God , and if we could love God as he deserves , we could not deliberate concerning his service , and we could not possibly chuse or be in love with disobedience , we should have no liberty left , nothing concerning which we could deliberate ; for there is no deliberation but when something is to be refus'd , and something is to be preferr'd , which could not be but that we understand good but little , and love it lesse . For the Saints and Angels in heaven and God himself love good and cannot chuse evil , because to doe so were imperfection and infelicity ; and the Devils and accursed souls hate all good , without liberty and indifferency : but between these is the state of Man in the days of his pilgrimage , untill he comes to a confirmation in one of the opposite termes . Liberty of will is like the motion of a Magnetic needle toward the North , full of trembling and uncertainty till it be fixt in the beloved point : It wavers as long as it is free , and is at rest when it can chuse no more . It is humility and truth to allow to man this liberty ; and therefore for this we may lay our faces in the dust , and confesse that our dignity and excellence supposes misery and is imperfection , but the instrument and capacity of all duty and all vertue . 4. In the inquiries concerning the efficient cause of moral actions men doe deny one truth for fear of loosing another , and will not allow ●o man a liberty of choice in spiritual actions and moral effects , for fear of disparaging the grace of God ; whereas it is by the grace of God that we have this liberty . Ipsa ratio quemlibet nostrum quaerentem vehementer angustat , ne sic defendamus gratiam ut liberum arbitrium auferre videamur : rursus nec liberum sic asseramus arbitrium , ut superbâ impietate ingrati Dei gratiae judicemur . It is very easy to reconcile God's grace with our liberty , because by this grace it is that we have this liberty . For no man can chuse what he does not know , and no man can love that which hath in it no amability . Now because we have all notices spiritual and the arguments of invitation to obedience in duties Evangelical from revelation and the grace of God , therefore to this we owe the liberty of our will , that is , a power to chuse spiritual things . Grace and truth come by Jesus Christ , and liberty of will comes from him ; for if the Son makes us free , then are we free indeed : but this is not by giving us new faculties , but new strengths and new instruments to these faculties we have already . But let it be this way or any other , we cannot work till we have powers to work , and we cannot chuse till we have liberty , and we cannot be under a law , and promises and threatnings , if we cannot chuse : and therefore it matters not as to our present inquiry , the explication and manner of speaking of which school of learning we or any man shall please to follow : this onely we are to rely upon , that the man cannot be a good man , if he doe not chuse the good and decline the evil ; and there is no such thing as Conscience , and there is no need of it , and no use ( except it be merely to torment us , ) unlesse it be to guide us into the choice of good , and to deterre us from doing evil . But lastly , It will yet be sufficient to the verification of this Rule , that whether we affirm or deny the liberty of the will , yet that there be in every action good or bad the action of the will ; and if that be not necessary to be admitted as the cause of morality , then he that kills a man against his will is as bad as he that did it with his will , and he that receives the holy Sacrament by constraint does as well as he that chuses it , and to confesse Christ against our Conscience is as good as if we confesse him according to it : for when the material actions are the same , there is nothing can distinguish the men that doe them , but something within that can doe this , or let it alone . Now because a good understanding , and a good fancy , and a great reason , and a great resolution , and a strong heart , and a healthfull body may be in a reprobate or vitious person , but a good will and the choice of vertue is onely in a good man , it follows that all morality depends on the action of the will ; and therefore that all other faculties are natural and necessary and obedient , this onely is the Empresse , and is free , and Mistresse of the action . And yet beyond this heap of things , there is another reason why a man can be good or bad onely by the act of his will , and not of any other faculty , because the act of the will produces material and permanent events ; it is acquisitive and effective , or recusative and destructive , otherwise then it is in any other faculties . For the other faculties are like the eye and ear , they can see or hear foul things and be never the worse , and good things and be never the better : but the will of a man is like the hand and the mouth and the belly , if they touch foul things they are defiled , and if they eat poison they die ; so is the will of man , it becomes all one with it's object . For it works onely by love or hatred , and therefore changes by the variety of the object it entertains . He that loves a lie is a liar ; but he that onely understands it , is never the worse . Facti sunt abominabiles sicut ea quae dilexerunt , saith the Prophet , They are made abominable according as they loved ; [ as the things are which they loved ] so the Vulgar Latin : and so it is in good things , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , He that is joyn'd to the Lord is one spirit : love makes the faculty like to the object , and therefore as the object of the will is , whose action is love , so is the man good or bad accordingly . Now this is not so to be understood as if the actions of other faculties could not be sins ; for a sin may be in the memory , in the fancy , in the understanding , in the eye , and in the members of the body : but then in these is onely the material part of the sin ; if the actions subjected in them be involuntary they are not criminal , they may be irregular , but not sinfull ; onely as the will commands them and they obey , so they are to stand or fall in judgment . For so ignorance is a sin when it is voluntary . Qui dixerunt Deo , Recede à nobis ; scientiam viarum tuarum nolumus . The wicked say unto God , We will not understand thy ways . So the Psalmist complains , Noluit intelligere ut bene ageret , He refused understanding . Now since in all the faculties the will of man hath a dominion , and is the cause of all moral actions , from thence they have their estimate , and are acquitted or condemned accordingly ; according to that of S. Bernard , Nihil ardet in inferno nisi propria voluntas , Nothing makes fuel for the flames of hell , but the will of man , and evil actions that are voluntary and chosen . The consequent of this discourse in order to Conscience is , that no man loose his peace concerning the controverted articles and disputes of Christendome . If he inquires after truth earnestly as after things of great concernment ; if he prays to God to assist , and uses those means which are in his hand and are his best for the finding it ; if he be indifferent to any proposition , and loves it not for any consideration but because he thinks it true ; if he will quit any interest rather then loose a truth ; if he dares own what he hath found and believ'd ; and if he loves it so much the more by how much he believes it more conducing to piety and the honour of God , he hath done what a good and a wise man should doe ; he needs not regard what any man threatens , nor fear God's anger when a man of another sect threatens him with damnation : for he that heartily endeavours to please God , and searches what his will is that he may obey it , certainly loves God ; and nothing that loves God can perish . 2. It follows also from hence that no unavoidable calamity , no being born of evil parents , no being born from illegitimate embraces , no unjust sentences of men can irreconcile us to God , or prejudice our Eternal interest . God will judge us according to our works , not according to his , or any mans else , or by any measures but by his own law and our obedience . 3. Let no man think that either God will , or that the Devil can make us sin . God loves not sin , or that we should die ; and therefore will not divide his own kingdome , or set up that by his effective power which by his legislative and his persuasive , and his natural and eternal , he intends to destroy . And as for the Devil , he can tempt indeed , but unlesse we please , he cannot prevail ; it is our consent and willingnesse that makes him conqueror . And if we be really persuaded of these plain and evident truths , there is a plain way made to encourage our industry , to actuate our caution , to glorify God , to work out our salvation with fear and trembling , to walk humbly with our God , to devest our selves of all excuses , to lay the burden where it ought ; that is , to walk in the right way , in the way of duty and the paths of the Divine commandements , without tempting our selves , or being fool'd and cosen'd out of our duty , or hindring our repentance and humiliation , if we have done amisse . These are the material events , and that proper usefulnesse of this proposition which can doe benefit to us in the conduct of Conscience . Our own will and choice is all that upon which we are to make judgement of our actions . For the further declaration of which we are to inquire into divers particulars , in order to the institution and regulating of Conscience . Question I. Whether every action of our life ought to be directed by a right conscience , or a well-persuaded will : or , Are not some actions not onely in their whole kind , but in their circumstances and limitations also , merely indifferent ? To this I answer , that actions , if they be considered in their Physical or natural capacity , are all negatively indifferent ; that is , neither good nor bad : the going into a house , the entring into a field , the striking of a blow , the act of generation , eating or drinking , as they are taken in their natural capacity , are not moral actions , that is , by all that they are in nature are nothing at all in manners : even homicide it self and adultery , in their natural capacity , differ nothing from justice and the permissions of marriage ; and the giving of almes is no better naturally then giving money to Mercury , or to an Image . 2. Omissions of acts are oftentimes indifferent , even always when the omission is not of a thing commanded or morally good from some law , or sufficient principle of morality , as perfection , counsel , praise and fame , worthinesse and charity . The reason is , because omissions may come in upon a dead stock , and proceed from a negative principle , from sleep and forgetfulnesse , from a lethargy or dulnesse , from differing businesse and divertisements . And that which is nothing can produce nothing , and neither good nor evil can come from that which is not ; they both must have a positive cause , if they have in them any morality . Even not to commit adultery is not commendable , unlesse that omission be chosen . * And this is very remarkable in order to Conscience . For the whole duty of man consists in eschewing evil and doing good : but to will and to chuse good is so necessary , and if we can , to doe it is so requir'd of us , that the very avoiding evil is exacted in that manner , that unlesse it be a doing good , it is a doing nothing at all , it is good for nothing , it will goe for nothing . To eschew evil is a labour and a mighty work , it is a running from temptation , a shutting the doors against it , a praying against it , it is a flying from it when we can , and a resisting of it when we cannot . A porter cannot be said to eschew ambition , nor does he doe well by not commencing of a proud warre , when he can think of nothing but how to fill his belly by breaking of his back ; and the poor shepherd shall never be thank'd for not contending for the Arch-bishopric of Toledo , or not fighting against his Prince , when nothing enters into his armory but his bottle and his hook , and nothing into his head , but that his sheep may wander in wholesome and pleasant pastures , and his lambs be free from dogs and foxes . A mere negative does nothing in God's service . The avoiding evil is neither good nor bad , unlesse it be by a positive act , unlesse the will be in it : and indeed as things are order'd it is many times harder to decline evil then to doe good ; and therefore the eschewing evil is a contention and a warre , it is a heap of severe actions , a state of mortification , it is a resisting of temptations . For he that was never tempted may be innocent ; but he is not vertuous , and shall have no reward . * This is to be understood to be true in all cases ; unlesse his not acting a sin , and his not being tempted now , be the effect of a long prayer , and a former contention ; and that either the temptation by his preceding piety be turn'd aside , or made impotent by mortification , or by his chosen and beloved state of life be made impossible ; that is , unlesse by the arts of the spirit he hath made it vain , or by his frequent victories he hath made the Devil flee away , and so bought his peace at the price of a mighty warre , and his rest at the charge of a pertinacious labour . In all these cases the omission is negative as to the present state of things ; and yet it is vertuous , because it had a positive and a vertuous cause , which now it may be lies still , because it hath produc'd a permanent and perpetual effect . And upon this account we also can hope for the reward even of those graces which we never exercise . The Prince that refuses the offer of a crown or the possibilities of Empire because they doe not belong to him , shall certainly have a great reward , because upon the noblest account he avoids a very great evil . But the poor herdsman that dwells upon his own acre , and feeds his little yokes and couples of sheep on high ways and mountains , and looks not ambitiously on his neighbours farm , nor covets the next cottage , which yet he likes well , and thinks it excellent because it hath a chimny , nor would doe an act of falshood to get his own tenement rent-free , this man shall have a reward in proportion great as that just Prince who refuses to oppresse his brother when his state is broken by rebellion and disadvantages . For there is no vertue but may be lov'd and courted , delighted in and commended in every state and circumstance of life : and though it be not exercis'd in noble temptations and trials proper to the most excellent and remarked persons ; yet the very images and little records of trial may expresse a love and choice which may be equal to that which is prosperous by the greatest exercise and indication . For there are little envies & ambitions even in cottages , and therefore there may be the choice and volition of humility and peacefull thoughts and acts of charity : and there may be unchastity even in marriage ; and therefore though the contention is easier , and the temptations but inconsiderable , yet they also when they are immur'd by their Sacramental defensatives and securities may delight in chastity , and therefore rejoyce in that state because it secures them from uncleanenesse ; and therefore for this love , and act of choice , even for delighting in that safety , may find a reward of chastity : and there may be covetousnesse amongst them that are full of plenty , and therefore even the richest person can be imployed in securing the grace of contentednesse , though he have but little temptation to the contrary . * Indeed if a begger were tempted with the offer of 20000 , the temptation would be too big for him , if he understood the summe ; and possibly if he be a vertuous man , and would not be tempted to tell a lie for 20s s , or for one of his own possible and likely summes , yet for so vast a heap of gold bigger then his thoughts , he might be put beyond his vertue . But therefore God in his goodnesse to mankind does seldome permit such trials and unequal hazards , and to our not being so tempted ( without disparagement to our vertue and our choice ) we may well confesse we owe our innocence . But because God suffers our temptations to be by accidents happening in our own condition , and we are commonly tried by that which is before us , or next above us ; every one can either exercise or chuse the worthinesse of every grace , and may hope for the reward of the whole vertue by resisting the most inconsiderable temptation to it's contrary , if in case he have no bigger , he equally chuses the vertue and rejoyces in his innocence . And he that does resist , or by any means expedite himself from his own temptation , shall be rewarded equally to him , to whom the greatest is but his next best . * For our vertue is not to be estimated by the instance , but the willingnesse and the courage , the readinesse of mind and alacrity of choice , by the proportion of the man and the methods of his labour , the resolution of the will , and the preparation of the heart ; and we must account our omissions or eschewings of evil to be vertuous , by what we have done against it , by our prayer and our watchfulnesse , our fear and caution , not by an unactive life , and a dull peace , and a negative omission : for he does not eschew evil that does not doe evil , but he that will not doe it . 3. All acts that passe without any consent of the will are indifferent ; that is , they are natural , or unavoidable , or the productions of fancy , or some other unchusing faculty , or they are the first motions of a passion , or the emotions of some exterior violence ; as the sudden motion of an eye , the head or heart , the hands or feet . Now that these are as indifferent as to grow , or to yawn , to cough or to sneeze , appears because they are of the same nature , and partake equally of the same reason . But these instances can be made to differ . For those which are so natural that the whole effect also is natural , and cannot passe on to morality or be subject to a command , are always indifferent in their whole kind , and in all their degrees and in all their circumstances . Thus to grow taller , to digest meat , to wink with the eye in the face of the Sun , are not capable of morality . But those things which are at first onely natural , and afterwards are nurs'd by the will and discourse , they are onely at first indifferent , because they then onely are unavoidable . To look upon a woman is no sin , if she suddenly comes into our presence , though every such look by reason of the mans weaknesse were a temptation : for at first there was no time to deliberate , and therefore we could not be bound not to look , and if we had not seen her , it had not been good at all , nor evil . But to look upon her so long till we lust after her , to look upon her but to the entertainment of any faculty that ministers to lust , to observe that which is precious in her but so long that the will doe consent to that which is , or is likely to be vile , that corrupts the manners and prevaricates the law . 4. No action of the will is indifferent , but is either lawfull or unlawfull , and therefore good or bad . For although there is in many actions that which the School calls indifferentiam secundum speciem , an indifference in the kind of action , or in respect of the object ; yet when such actions come under deliberation and to be invested with circumstances , they cannot be consider'd at all , but that first they must be understood to be lawfull or unlawfull ; for that very objective or specific indifference supposes the action lawfull : and he that does a thing though but with that deliberation and precaution , does doe well , unlesse there be something else also to be consider'd , and then it may be he does better , or it may be ill ; but when it is come as far as to be chosen and considered , it must be good or bad . For whatsoever that is about which we deliberate , we doe it for a reason that to us cannot seem indifferent ; it is for an innocent and a good end , for good to our selves or others : and nothing can come under the consideration of being an end of humane actions , but is directed by the words or by the reason , by the designe or the proportion of some law . For even our profit or our pleasure are to be conducted by the measures of the spirit : and there is nothing else besides profit and pleasure that is good , or can become the end of an action , excepting onely what is honest : and therefore every thing that is good or can be the reason of an action is under a law , and consequently cannot be indifferent , according to the doctrine of S. Austin , Quanquam voluntas , mirum , si potest in medio quodam ita consistere , ut nec bona nec mala sit : aut enim justitiam diligimus , & bona est , & si magis diligimus , magis bona , si minus , minus bona ; aut si omnino non diligimus , non bona est . Quis vero dubitet dicere voluntatem nullo modo justitiam diligentem non modo esse malam , sed pessimam voluntatem ? Ergo voluntas aut bona est aut mala , &c. Whatsoever we doe , we doe it for a good end or an evil ; for if we doe it for no end , we doe not work like men : and according as the reason is which moves the action so is the will , either good or bad : for though vertue oftentimes is in the midst between two evils ; yet the will of man is never so in the middle as to be between good and evil ; for every thing that can move the will is good , or it seems so , and accordingly so is the will. Indeed every action we doe is not in an immediate order to Eternal blessing or infelicity ; but yet mediately and by consequence , and in the whole disposition of affairs it addes great moments to it . Bonum est continentia , malum est luxuria ; inter utrumque indifferens , ambulare , capitis naribus purgamenta projicere , sputis rheumata jacere . Hoc nec bonum , nec malum : sive enim feceris , sive non , nec justitiam habebis nec injustitiam , said S. Hierom. Continence is good , and luxury is evil ; but between these it is indifferent to walk , to blow the nose , to spit . These things are neither good nor bad , for whether you doe them or doe them not , you are by them neither just nor unjust . For besides that S. Hierom instances in things of a specific and objective indifference , of which I have already spoken , that which he saies is true in respect of the supernatural end of man , to which these things ( concerning which oftentimes we doe not deliberate at all , and even then when we doe deliberate , they ) operate but little . But because the instances are in natural things , where the will hath very little to doe , we shall best understand this proposition by the instance of S. Gregory ; Nonnulli diligunt proximos , sed per affectionem cognationis & carnis , quibus in hac dilectione sacra eloquia non contradicunt . Our natural love to our kindred is a thing so indifferent , not in it's own nature , but of so little concern to eternity if it be onely upon the stock of Nature , that all that can be said of it is , that the Scripture doe not forbid it . That is , whatsoever is natural is not considerable in morality . But because this which first enters by nature is commanded by God , and can be confirm'd and improv'd by the will , therefore it can become spiritual : but that which is natural is first , and then that which is spiritual : so that although at the first and when it is onely the product of nature , it is but a disposition and a facility towards a spiritual or moral duty ; yet as soon as ever the will handles it , it puts on it's upper garment of morality , and may come to be invested with a robe of glory . And this was very well discours'd of by the Author of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in S. Austin ; Esse fatemur liberum arbitrium omnibus hominibus , habens quidem judicium rationis , non per quod sit idoneum quae ad Deum pertinent sine Deo aut inchoare , aut certè peragere , sed tantum in operibus vitae praesentis , tam bonis quam etiam malis . Bonis dico quae de bono naturae oriuntur , id est , velle laborare in agro , velle manducare & bibere , In things pertaining to God we cannot begin , or at least we cannot finish any thing without God and his grace . But in the things of this life we have a free choice , whether the things be good or evil . For those I call good which doe natural good , as to be willing to work in the field , to will to eat or to drink . Now even these things are always good or bad when they are once chosen by the will , and to these very things the Divine grace does give assistance . So the same author , Velle quicquid bonum ad praesentem pertinet vitam , non sine Divino gubernaculo subsistunt , A man cannot chuse well even in things belonging to this life , without the Divine assistance . And therefore in things of great concernment we pray to God to conduct and direct our choice . And since the order and perfection of every creature is to doe actions agreeable to the end and perfection of his nature , it is a pursuance of the end of God and of his own felicity . Although to doe so is not vertue in beasts , because they are directed by an external principle , and themselves chuse it not ; yet in men it is vertue , and it is obedience : and although it is natural to doe so , and it is unnatural to doe otherwise ; yet because it is also chosen in many instances , in them it is a vertue or a vice respectively : and though it be no eminent vertue to doe so , yet it is a prodigious sin to doe otherwise ; for sins against nature are ordinarily and in most instances the worst ; which does demonstrate , that even things of nature and the actions of our prime appetites , when they can be consider'd and chosen , never can be indifferent ; and for other things which are not of nature , there is lesse question . Thus to walk , to eat , to drink , to rest , to take physic for the procuring health , or the ease of our labours , or any end of charity to our selves or others , to talk , to tell stories , or any other thing that is good or can minister good to nature or society is good , not onely naturally , but morally , and may also be spiritually so : for it being a duty to God to preserve our selves , and against a commandement to destroy our selves ; it being a duty to be affable and courteous in our deportment , to be gentle and kind and charitable ; it being charity to make our own lives and the lives of others pleasant , and their condition not onely tolerable but eligible ; there is no peradventure but every thing of our lives can be good or bad , because if it can minister to good or evil ends , it can be chosen for those ends , and therefore must partake of good or evil accordingly . How these ends are to be considered , and with what intention and actual or habitual intuition , I am afterwards to consider : for the present it suffices that upon this account the actions themselves are not indifferent . And this doctrine is to great and severe purposes taught by our Blessed Saviour , Of every idle word that a man shall speak , he shall give account in that day . It was a known saying among the Jews , Cavebit vir ne cum uxore lequatur turpia , quia etiam propter sermonem levem viri cum uxore adducetur ille in judicium , said Rabbi Jonah ; Even the loosenesse of a mans talk with his wife shall be brought into judgement : and Maimonides said , Pleraque verba sunt otiosa & causam praebent iniquitatis , Most words are such which some way or other minister to iniquity , and therefore shall certainly passe the fiery trial . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so it is in some Greek copies , every wicked word : for an idle word is not indifferent ; it may have in it some degree of wickednesse , and therefore may be fit to be forbidden , and consequently shall be judged . Otiosum verbum est quod sine utilitate & loquentis dicitur & audientis , si omissis seriis de rebus frivolis loquamur , & fabulas narremus antiquas . Caeterum qui scurrilia explicat , & cachinuis ora dissolvit , & aliquid profert turpitudinis , hic non otiosi verbi , sed criminosi tenebitur reus , said S. Hierom , That which neither profits him that speaks nor him that hears , is an idle word ; any thing that is not serious , but frivolous and like an old tale . But if it be dissolute or wanton , it is not idle but criminal . S. Chrysostome expounds the words to the same purpose , calling that an idle word , which is spoken without just inducement in some kind or order of good things , and that which is mixt with lying or slander . Omne verbum quod non conducit ad propositam in Domino utilitatem vanum & otiosum est , said S. Basil ; That word which is not for edification , that is , that which does no good at all , must needs be evil : Nay further yet , Verbum otiosum est quod , etiamsi bonum sit , ad aedificationem fidei tamen non aptatur . Et si ejusmodi verba in celeberrimo illo totius orbis conventu examinabuntur , quid scurrilibus , & detrahentibus , & obscoenis verbis fiet ? That is an idle word , which although it be good , yet does not tend to the edification of faith : and if such words as these shall be examin'd in the great assembly of all mankind , what shall be done to detracting , scurrilous and lascivious talkings ? I suppose , S. Basil's meaning is that all those propositions which being built upon the foundation are not fit for the promotion of it , they are not silver or gold , but a superstructure of wood or hay or stubble : even these and those shall be examin'd in the eternal scrutiny ; nothing shall escape there ; if it will not endure the fire , it shall be consumed . For if the action here have any material end , it shall hereafter have a material reward : if it have no end , yet the man that did it was sent hither to a better end then to doe foolish and uselesse things . The very doing or speaking that which is good for nothing , is evil , and shall be discern'd and judged . We see it even in the judgements of men . Martial tells of a good man that had got a trick to invite his friends to walk , to bath , to eat , to drink with him , and in all his enterviews he would be perpetually reading of his verses : one would have thought the thing it self were innocent , if the question had been ask'd concerning the thing alone ; but they that felt the folly and the tediousnesse of it , were afraid to see him . Vir probus , justus , innocens timeris . And Sidonius tells of some idle persons , quos execrabilis popularitias agit ; civium maximos manu prensant , éque consessu publico abducunt , ac sequestratis oscula impingunt , operam suam spondent , sed non petiti . Utque videantur in negotii communis assertione legari , evectionem refundunt , ipsosque sumptus ultro recusant , & ab ambitu clam rogant singulos , ut ab omnibus palam rogentur , &c. their very civility is troublesome , their idlenesse is hugely busy , and their imployment signifies nothing . Ardelionum natio , occupata in otio , Gratis anhelans , multa agendo nihil agens , Sibi molesta & aliis odiosissima . They doe nothing , and yet never stand still , and are very troublesome to themselves and others . Such an idlenesse as this , whether in words or deeds , if it can be consider'd and observed here , shall not escape a stricter consideration hereafter . For none of these things in the event of affairs shall prove to be indifferent . The effect of this question is very great ; for it ingages us upon a strict watchfulnesse over all our words and actions , and to a wise inquiry when they are done , and scatters that incuriousnesse and inadvertency of spirit which seizes upon most men while they doe actions which they consider not whether they be right or wrong , and supposing actions , many more then there are , to be in their whole kind indifferent , would fain make them so in their individual , and by never disputing the particulars , detain the action in a neutrality as to the Conscience , never representing it either as lawfull or unlawfull , much lesse as good and evil . But our actions shall be judg'd by Gods measures , not by our wilfull and ignorant mistakes . 2. Every thing we doe must twice passe through the Conscience ; once when it is to be done , and again when it is done : And not onely whatsoever is not of faith is sin , so that we sin if we are not persuaded it is lawfull ; but it becomes a sin , when we are carelesse and consider not at all , either actually or habitually , either openly or by involution , as it is alone or 〈◊〉 it is in conjunction with something else , by direct intuition or consequent deduction , by expresse notices or by reasonable presumptions , by rule or by fame , by our own reason or by the reason of others whom we may fairly trust . Question II. Whether is it necessary for the doing of good that we have an expresse act of Volition ? or is it not sufficient in some cases that we are not unwilling ? Is it not enough that we doe not oppose it ? but must we also promote it ? That is , Although actions of themselves be not indifferent when they are chosen ; may not the will be allowed to be indifferent to some good things that are laid before her ? and what kind or degrees of indifference to good can be lawfull , and in what cases ? This is not a question of single actions principally , but of states of life and being ▪ and of single actions onely by consequence and involution in the whole : But of great usefulnesse in the conduct of Conscience and making judgements concerning the state of our souls ; and it is a great endearment of the actions , the zeal and forwardnesses of the will and an active piety . First therefore in general I answer , then more particularly . In the Law of Moses the righteousnesse commanded was a designe for Innocence , their great Religion was Rest , their Decalogue was a systeme especially of Negative commandements , the sanction of the Law was fear and terror , which affrights all men , but invites none , it makes them afraid , but never willing ; their offices were purifications and cleansings away : but so little of good was to be done , that God was more carefull that the people should not commit idolatry , then severe in calling them to admire his beauties ; that they should learn no evil , then that they should learn much good . Now to this negative state of duty , a will doing nothing , an understanding not considering , a forgetfulnesse of the question , and a sitting still might in many cases minister ; and then the will is accidentally indifferent , when the action never stands before it , either as good or evil . But now under the Gospel we are unclean unlesse we have active purities , and we are covetous unlesse we despise the world , and we are malicious by interpretation of law , unlesse we take what opportunities we have of doing good to them that have us'd us ill , and even to be luke-warm is abominable to God , and our tongues may sin with silence , and we are to keep holy-days not by rest , but by religious labour , and we dishonour the holy Name of God not onely by cursed swearing , and false oaths , and evil covenants , but if we doe not doe him honour ; if we doe not advance his kingdome we are rebels , if we doe not set his glory forward we have prophan'd his holy name that is called upon us . And this is with some mysteriousnesse intimated in the several senses of those words of Scripture [ Therefore let my Name be called upon them . ] So Jacob's name was called upon Rebeccah , and Uriah's name upon Bathsheba ; Rebecca Jacobi , & Uriae Bathsheba : and upon Ephraim and Manasseh when Jacob's name was called , the purpose was that they should be reckon'd not as if they had been sons of Joseph , but the sons of Jacob , having an equal portion in the divisions of Israel . So in the Prophet * , Onely let thy Name be called upon us , that is , let us be reckon'd in thy portion , accounted to be thy people , thou our Father , and we Sons and Daughters unto God. Now in these instances of the Old Testament , it signifies honour and privilege , security of title and advantage of relation , something that on their part was passive all the way . But in the New Testament we find the same expression rendred to such purposes as will signifie something on our parts also , some emanation of our will and choice , even an active duty . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , They blaspheme that holy Name which is invocated upon you , that is , they blaspheme the Name of Jesus Christ which was put upon them in baptisme , by invocation and solemn sacramental prayer . The Name of Christ was then put upon us in that manner which teaches us how to wear it for ever after : it was called upon and so put upon us ; it must be called upon , and so worn by us . Here is invocation relative to two termes , both active and passive . And since it is evident and clear in the Scriptures of the New Testament that calling on the Name of the Lord is us'd for being Disciples and servants of the Lord , as appears in those words , Whosoever shall call on the Name of the Lord shall be saved , that is , all that have given up their names to Christ , all that have taken his Name and live accordingly ; it follows that all we who bear the name of Christians must not be content with the glorious appelation , or the excellency of the relation , but we must by our holy lives , by our active obedience , by an operative faith , and a busy love doe honour to Christ , and glorify that Name by which we are called and made illustrious . And this is rarely well taught us by a proverbial saying used by our Blessed Lord , He that is not with us is against us ; and he that gathereth not , scattereth abroad : that is , it is not enough that our will doe not chuse evil , or oppose it self against God , and his holy laws and sermons . For many unconverted Gentiles , children and strangers , the luke-warm and the indifferent , the deaf and the dumbe , the stones of the street and the gold of the Temple , the starers and the talkers , the Sceptic and the carelesse , these have a negative indifference of will ; they doe not take part against Christ , but neither doe they fight of his side , and therefore are not populus voluntarius , their will and choice is not on Christ's side . But the particulars are these , which determine the cases of Conscience which can arise from this inquiry . There are in the Gospels two proverbial sayings , each of them twice us'd . He that is not with us is against us ] and , * He that is not against us is with us . ] The sayings are of contrary purpose and effect . For as the first injoyns us to the labour of love , and an active will , and an effective zeal , and a religion productive of permanent effects ; so the latter seems to be content with negative measures , to approve of an indifferent will , to allow a neutrality , and that not onely many single actions , but that a whole state of life may have a negative indifference and indetermination . Now because both the propositions must needs be true , they must have distinct measures , and proper significations . Therefore 1. When Christ said , He that is not against us is with us , he meant it principally of strangers and aliens , persons not admitted into the strictures of the Covenant Evangelical . For when the Princes of the nations conspire against the Lords Christ , he that refuses to joyn with them , declares that he will not be Christs enemy ; and est quiddam prodire tenus , this little is more then nothing . Thus Gamaliel was on Christ's side , when he gave a gentle counsel in a case of the Apostles , with whom although he did not joyn , yet because he would not joyn against them , he was so far with them , that he was not esteem'd an enemy : and it was noted of Joseph of Arimathea , that he was not consenting to the sentence of the high Priests in putting our Blessed Lord to death , and therefore he was a good man. His not doing that evil was a great indication of a friendly mind . 2. This is also true in questions of religion of difficult understanding , and lesse necessary knowledge , or not of immediate concernment to salvation . He that does not disbelieve the miracles of Christ , he that does not stop his ears against the voice of Christ , he that does not run after a strangers voice , is not far from the kingdome of heaven : though the man knows little , yet if he believes nothing against any word of Christ , though many words of Christ were deliver'd of which he knows nothing , he hath put his head into the folds of Christ. For in articles of belief which are not of the foundation , an implicite belief in God and his Christ is sufficient , when there is no vitious positive cause of the not knowing them explicitely : and if this were not true , ignorant and unletter'd persons were tied to as great learning and explicite knowledge as the profoundest Clercs ; which because it is no where commanded , and is very often impossible , and always unreasonable to be exacted , it must follow that it will in most cases be enough for the ideot or unlearned that they doe not oppose what they doe not understand , but humbly submit themselves to God and their superiors , by a confident confession of what they understand , and a modest conformity to those other articles in which public peace is more concerned then public truth , or their private duty . In this case a negative indifference of the will by reason of the ignorance of the understanding , that is , a not opposing what they understand not , and cannot understand , is their security and their innocence . 3. He that is not against Christ is with him , is true in the preparations and dispositions to conversion . For he that makes use of a little grace shall have more ; and he that well uses the laws of his country , and keeps the justice of his nation , and observes the principles of reason , and walks according to the light he hath , though he hath not the broad noon-day of the Gospel , yet he is so far on Christ's side , that Christ will joyn himself to his , and draw him nearer , and advance his Nature , and promote his excellent dispositions , and by the methods of the spirit bring him to God. Upon this stock it was that God sent S. Peter to Cornelius , and that so many of the Jewish Proselytes were converted to Christianity , and so many wise Heathens , who had just and ingenuous souls and liv'd good lives , were brought into the schools of Christ. 4. This is true also in the habits or actions of any one vertue when it is alone , or when it comes in upon the stock of nature , or education , or passion , or humane laws . He that does one good act for Christ , though he doe no more , by that one action declares himself to be no-enemy , and therefore he shall not loose his reward ; though he give but a cup of cold water to a thirsty disciple , in that capacity of his being a disciple ; nay if it be but in the consideration of his being thirsty , if it be but by a natural pity and tendernesse , by the emotions of humanity , by the meltings of a worthy disposition and of tender bowels : and therefore much more shall every worthy habit , though it be alone , though entring from a lesse perfect principle then a spiritual and Christian grace . The chastity of Lucretia , the honesty of Decianus , the truth of Rutiius , the bravery of Scaevola , the repentance of Ahab , the humiliation of Manasses , the zeal of Jehu , the compassion of Titus over Jerusalem , these things and these persons are consider'd by God , and have their portion of reward . And he is not wholly against Christ that does any thing for him : for our Blessed Lord is so gracious , that no man shall speak a word for him , or relieve any of his servants , or keep a memorial , but as far as that action goes , according to the proportion of the choice and the good will , Christ will reckon him to be on his side , and allot him a portion of his blessing , a yonger Brothers part , though not the inheritance . 5. This is true of those who being secretly convinc'd cannot yet shake off their prejudices and their pitiable fears , who own Christ in their hearts , whose faith is weak and their doubts are strong , who fear God heartily , and yet cannot quite shake off the fear of men ; they also are reckon'd on Christ's side so far , that they are not present and actual enemies , but actual friends , and but potential professors and Disciples . Thus Nicodemus was on Christ's side by not being against him . He owned as much as he durst ; he spake in behalf of Christ , but profess'd him not ; he believ'd in him , but fear'd the Jews . This was not enough to adopt him into the kingdome , but this brought him from the enemies side , like the Kenites and the sons of Rechab in the land of Israel . 6. To be with Christ hath many parts and degrees of progression and avail . Every man that professes Christ is with him ; he that is baptized , he that is called Christian , he that delights in the name , he that is in the external communion of the Church is in some sense with Christ , because he is not against him . For whoever is a member of the Church , whosoever retains his baptismal right , he that hath not renounced Christianity , lost his faith , defied Christ , or turn'd Apostate , he is still within the covenant of mercy , within the limits of grace and the power of the spirit ; that is , he hath a right to the privilege and grace of being admitted to repentance and the consequent grace of pardon : for baptisme is for the remission of sins , and as long as that is not renounc'd , we have a perpetual title to remission of sins , the Sacrament as to this purpose being of perpetual effect . Every such person is yet a member of Christ , though barren and unfruitfull : his leaf doth not prosper and his fruit springs not , yet there is a root remaining . For thus the Gospel is compar'd to a net with fishes good and bad , to a field of corn and tares . For no man is thrown from grace and mercy but the open , profess'd , irreconcileable enemies of Christ , voluntary and malicious Apostates ; for they are cut off from the root , and have no portion in it , as S. Paul largely discourses in the sixth and tenth Chapters to the Hebrews . But those who sin against Christ , & dishonour and grieve the holy Spirit of Christ , who sin and repent and yet sin and repent again , being always sorrowful , and always have cause , these men have hopes , and time , and helps , and arguments , and probabilities of life , which they could not have but by being members of Christ's mystical body . They are with Christ in Covenant and desire , in title and adoption , because they are not against him in profession and voluntary hostility : but they must goe further , or they die . For all this effects nothing else , but that we are tied to treat such persons not as enemies but as brethren ; it exposes such to be chastis'd and guided by the rod of Ecclesiastical discipline , but not to be cut off by the sword of excision and anathema , and sentences of despair ; it does manifest the goodnesse of God , the glorious mercies of our Redeemer , his aptnesse to pardon , his readinesse to receive us , his desires to have us sav'd , his passion for our felicity , and the presence of his preventing and auxiliary grace . But this was but the Proverb of strangers and beginners , of infants and babes in Christ. 7. But when we are entred into the Covenant of Grace , when we have declar'd , when the question is concerning final pardon and the hopes of glory , then the other Proverb is onely true . It is not enough that we are not against Christ , but we must be with him and for him , earnest and zealous , passionate and obedient , diligent and true , industrious and inquisitive ; then it is , He that is not with Christ , is against him . For it is not enough that we are in the root , that is , in preparation and disposition , but we must also bear fruit in the root ; for so saith our Blessed Saviour , I am the Vine ; my Father is the Husbandman : Every branch in me that beareth not fruit shall be cut off . First they are in Christ as in the vine , before they can bear fruit ; and there he suffers them to be in expectation of fruit ; of which if they fail in their season , they shall be cut off . * For the case between Christ and the world is as it was between Caesar and Pompey . Pompey had the possession and the right : and therefore as Cicero in his Oration pro Ligario affirms , Pompey's party acknowledged none but his certain and professed friends ; adversarios autem putare nisi qui nobiscum essent , and all to be against them that were not with them : Te autem ( saith he to Caesar ) qui contra te non essent , tuos . For Caesar was but entring upon his new fortune , and all that he could get to himself , and all that would not assist his enemy , were his purchase or security . So it is with Christ in the beginnings of our Conversion ; it is a degree of victory to arrest our thoughts , and our not consentings to the world and it's fond affections , is an approach and an accession to Christ. But when our Lord hath gotten the first victories , when he hath acquir'd possession as well as right to a soul , and hath a title to rule alone , then the proposition is chang'd . Christ will not be satisfied with neutrality and an indifferent undetermin'd will , but he will have our love and active choice , and he will be honour'd by all our services : and then the Christian philosophy relies upon these principles : * He that does not love God is his enemy ; * Not to goe forward is to goe backward ; * Not to doe good is a doing evil , and luke-warmnesse is an evil state ; and * We must not onely not resist the word of truth , but we must contend earnestly for it ; and * We must confesse with our mouth , what we believe with the heart ; * To be a Christian is to hurt no man , and to doe good to every man ; and * We must not onely proceed when we are not hindred , but we must take care that we be not hindred , we must remove every impediment , and pare away that which is uselesse ; for obstat quicquid non adjuvat , if it does no good , it does hurt : and when the talent is intrusted to us it must not onely not be spent riotously , but it must not be laid up in a napkin . Pensemus quod lucrum Dei fecimus nos qui accepto talento ad negotium missi sumus . Unlesse we gain and put something to God's heap , we are unprofitable servants . By the proportion of this truth in the state of our life , we are to account concerning our single actions ; not that every single action must be effective of a real , discernible event of piety , but that is be fitted to the general designe of a Christians life ; nothing of evil , but ministring to good some way or other , or at least in some good order of things ; good for edification , or good in charitable society , or good for example , or usefull to some purpose that is fit to be design'd , and fit to be chosen . RULE II. The virtual and interpretative consent of the Will is imputed to Good or Evil. THis Rule is intended to explicate the Nature of Social Crimes , in which a mans will is deeper then his hand , though the action of the will is often indirect and collateral , consequent or distant ; but if by any means it hath a portion into the effect , it is intire in the guilt . And this happens many ways . 1. By Ratihabition and Confirmation . In maleficio Ratihabitio mandato comparatur , saith the law : To command another to doe violence is imputed to him that commands it more then him that does it . So Ulpian interpreting the interdict Unde tu illum vi dejecisti , affirms eum quoque dejicere qui alteri mandavit vel jussit : and therefore Ptolemy was guilty of the bloud of Pompey when he sent Pothinus to kill him , Hic factum Domino praestitit… . Now because ratihabition is by presumption of law esteem'd as a Commandement , therefore Ulpian affirms of both alike , Dejicit & qui mandat , & dejicit qui ratum habet . He that commands , and he that consents after it is done are equally responsible . Now though the law particularly affirms this onely In maleficio in criminal and injurious actions , yet in the edition of Holoander that clause is not inserted ; and it is also certain that it holds and is true in contracts and civil affairs . Thus what a servant or a son imployed by his Father or his Master shall contract for , is the Father's act if he accounts it valid . If the son borrows money in the Father's name , the Father is the debtor . But in matters Criminal and Civil there is a real difference as to this particular . For in matters Criminal , ratihabition or approving of the act does always make the approver guilty . The Jews crucified their Lord and King : he that saies it was well done , is guilty of that intolerable murder , and for an ineffective malice and spite , procures to himself a real and effective damnation . But in actions Criminal there is this difference to be observed . Some actions are done by the lust and appetite of the Criminal agent onely , as adultery , rape , fornication ; and if this be the state of that affair , that sin is wholly imputed to him that acted it , not to him that approves it . He that approves it is indeed guilty of the same kind of sin , because he hath applied his will to that which God forbids , and for his lustfull disposition approv'd and consented to by his will commits a sin like it , but is not guilty of that . 2. But if such approbation become an incouragement to the Criminal to doe so again , if it fortifies his heart in sin , or hardens his forehead , or makes it pleasant , he that approv'd the first is not onely guilty of a sin like the first , but partakes with the Criminal really in the guilt of the sins that follow upon that account . 3. But there are other sins which are , as the law speaks , ratihabentis nomine gesta , which are done in anothers Name , and either partly or wholly for his interest ; and therefore if by him they be approv'd , the ratihabition is valid to all evil purposes , and is therefore all one as if the actions were by him commanded for whose interest they were acted , and by whose will they are approved . And thus it is also in the former sins which serve the lust of him that acts them , if besides the serving of his lust they are designed to serve anothers interest ; as if Titius steal Sempronia and run away with her , or lie with Maevia the daughter of Amilius to doe a spite to the Father for the injury he did to Tubero , not onely Titius but Tubero is guilty of the crime , if Tubero approves what Titius did for his sake . But now if it be inquir'd what real event as to Conscience this nice distinction without greater difference can have , that in one case he that approves the sin is not guilty of the same but another like it , and in the other cases he is partner of the same fault ; I answer , First , in humane laws the difference of effect is very great . For to approve an act of sin done not in my name introduces no punishment upon the approver ; but if it be done in my name and for my interest , by a fiction or presumption of law it is suppos'd I gave command or warranty , and therefore I also shall partake of the punishment , unlesse by the consideration of other circumstances I be relieved in equity , and the presumption be found to fail . But in the court of Conscience the difference depends not upon presumption ; but upon what it is in the truth of the thing , which shall be judged well enough by him that knows the secret . For whether the crime was done for me or not , I shall be judg'd according to that influence which I would have upon the effect . If I will'd it directly and caus'd it to be done knowingly , or by some causality which I at any time us'd to that purpose , I am liable to all the evil that can be consequent to that sin : but if I be guilty onely by ratihabition , that is , if really I did not command it , or effect it , or cause it to be effected , but onely rejoyce in it and use it when it is done , then my ratihabition is ordinarily ( though very evil ) yet much lesse then the other's action . I say ordinarily , that is in all cases where craft and machination , plots and contrivances , intermedial violences and deceivings , and other evil things of the retinue of the sin are previous to the crime . For in all these things he that onely approves the act hath commonly no interest , or care , or notice , or consideration . If it happens that he considers and approves them too , then the case is alter'd : but it is not always so . This case will explicate the Rule . Ventidius was married to Romanella ; but growing rich , and being made a Roman Knight , grows weary of his first bed-fellow , because he hopes now to get a richer wife if she were gone . While he tumbled this often in his head , it hapned that a slave of Ventidius upon some trifling occasion , but in a great passion , flings something at Romanella , which caused her to miscarry , and to die . Ventidius observing his good fortune , secretly puts away his servant that he may escape the hand of justice , and promises him liberty , making what pretences he found convenient to his purpose . He went presently to get him a new wife , but was arrested in his designe , because he was told that he that was guilty of his wives death was to loose the privilege of a second marriage ; but because he confirm'd it and rejoyc'd in it , it was esteem'd in law as a Commandement . Upon this he takes advice , and was told , that though in Conscience he was guilty of murder , because he delighted in and approv'd it , yet mere ratihabition in such things which must be judg'd not by the effect but by the previous machination and designe , did not produce that punishment of impeding his future marriage . And there is reason for it ; because though Ventidius was so base as to wish his wife dead or kill'd , yet he would not doe it himself , nor procure it to be done , his covetousnesse had not prevail'd so far with him ; and therefore neither ought the punishment goe to the extremity of the law . 2. In Divine laws and in the direct obligation of Conscience there is this great difference . If a crime be done in my name , and I approve it , I am not onely guilty before God of the crime , and liable to an equal share of the punishment ( according to the foregoing measure ) but I contract a new necessity of duty ; I am bound to restore the man that sinn'd for my interest to his former state of justice and integrity as far as I can , by disallowing the act , by discountenancing it , by professing my own repentance , by inviting him to the like : which obligation is not at all upon me by a simple and mere ratihabition of an act in which I have no interest , and to which I had no previous concurse , directly , nor by interpretation . This is the state of this question in relation to matters Criminal . But in matters Civil , as in contracts , debts , pledges , provisions for pupils , the law is to determine the whole affair , and to account the ratihabition at what rate she please , and upon what conditions ; and therefore we are to be determin'd by our own laws in all such inquiries . That which can be a general measure and relates any way to Conscience is this ; Where the law does require an expresse command pro forma , the after-ratification is of no effect in law , nor conscience , if the law impedes the effect . Thus if a Minor makes a contract without the consent of his Guardian , though afterward the Guardian allow it , the contract is invalid : because the law requir'd in the very form and solennity of the contract that the authority of the Guardian should be interpos'd ; and ea quae pertinent ad solennitatem contractus , à contractu dividi non possunt , say the lawyers ; and ubi forma actus deficit , corruit actus , l. Julianus . 9. § . si quis . ff . ad exhib . If there be an essential defect of what is by law requir'd to the validity of the act , the act is null and invalid , and therefore is also invalid and effects nothing in Conscience , unlesse where the law of Nature intervenes ; of which I have already given accounts * . Thus also it is in punishments which are not to be incurred but in cases nam'd in the law , and therefore are not to be impos'd in cases of presumption or fiction of law , amongst which is this , of the equivalence of ratihabition to a command . If the son marries a widdow within the year of mourning , he is legally infamous ; but so is not the Father , though he approves it , unlesse he did consent in the beginning ; because these effects being wholly depending upon positive laws , can have no other measures but what the laws put upon them . But in the Court of Conscience the matter is not so easy . But since ratihabition is at the worst but an interpretative command , and yet is so very bad as to imprint the guilt of the whole action upon him that so hath influence into the effect by interpretation , it must needs be that a direct command is more evidently criminal , and in greater degrees ; which I needed not to have observed but in order to a further inquiry , and that is , Question . Upon whom doth the greater portion of the Guilt lie ; upon him that commands a sin , or him that sins in obedience ? Although the question of degrees may here be usefull to some purposes of Conscience , yet it is just to condemn them both with a downright sentence . For so the wise Ape in Esop judg'd the question between the wolf and the fox about a piece of flesh which the fox had stoln from the village , and the wolf had stoln from the fox , who now complain'd of the wrong . The judicious ape answer'd , Tu non vidêris perdidisse quod petis : Te credo subripuisse quod pulchre negas . The fox saies he hath lost it , but he lies ; and the wolf saies he hath not stoln it , and he lies too . They were both in the wrong , and it was hard to say which was the worse . But because although they were equally wicked in their nature and their manners , yet in this cause there might be some difference , and in the partners and confederates in a crime some have more causality then others , though both of them are in a sad condemnation ; therefore To this I answer by a distinction known in the Civil law , of Mandatum & Jussio . Mandatum is amongst equals , by bidding , incouraging , warranting and setting on ; and in this case , they are both equally guilty , except what difference can be made by the degrees of confidence and earnestnesse , and by wit and folly , by the advantage and reputation of the man that bids , and the weaknesse of him that is bidden . But Jussio is from Superior to Inferior ; Father to Son , Master to Servant , Prince to Subjects . In this case and amongst these persons the efficiency is unequal , and hath it's estimate from the grandeur and sacrednesse of the authority , and the degree of the fear which can be the instrument of prevailing and determining . And therefore when Attilius had spoken gently with Cracchus ut Patriae parceret , seeming to have discover'd his design , Gracchus looking terribly upon him , one of his servants , non expectato signo , ex solo vultu conjectans adesse tempus , ratusque initurum se gratiam apud Patronum si primus rem aggrederetur , stricto ferro trajecit Attilium , saith Appian , staied neither for command nor sign , but supposing by his forwardnesse he should please his Patron , and guessing by his cruel aspect it would not be displeasing to him , he kills Attilius upon the place . Now such an influence as this from a superior to an inferior is so little , that the servant is much more to blame then the Master . But when Henry the second in a rage complain'd that none about him would rid him of that peevish man , meaning Arch-Bishop Becket , it was more then the frown of Gracchus , but yet not so much as to lessen the fault of the sacrilegious homicides ; because there was no violence done to their choice , but the crime entred upon the account of lust and ambition , and that was as bad as if it had begun and ended upon the stock of their own anger or revenge . But when a Prince or a Lord commands his subject to sin , as Domitius the Father of Nero commanded his freed man to drink to drunkennesse , so earnestly that he kill'd him for refusing it , and as Cambyses did to Praxaspes ; then it is evident that the Prince is so much more guilty then he that obeys , by how much it is evident that the subject sins with lesse delight , and a more imperfect choice , and with a will which in it's actions suffers diminution : and therefore in such cases servants are very much excused from punishment in exterior courts , as knowing that such actions proceed from an excusable principle , from a regardfull obedience , and an undiscerning subjection ; which because in most things it ought not to dispute , they not discerning their utmost limit , being born to serve , not to rule and distinguish by their reason , and besides this , having all their fortune bound up in their Masters frown or favour , are very much to be pitied if they obey too much ; etenim quod imperante te servus tuus Faciebat , abs te id esse factum existimo . And this the law it self observes in the commands of some superiors : Qui jussu judicis aliquid facit , non videtur dolo malo facere , cui parêre necesse habet ; The command of such a superior whom we esteem it necessary to obey , exempts our obedience from being Criminal . And though this of Judges be a particular case , because Res judicata pro veritate accipitur , saies the law , they declare law by their sentence and commands ; yet the Romans observ'd it in the case of Clients and freed men to their Patrons , as Livy reports it in the case of the freed man of Appius the Decemvir ; and the old books of Philosophers observ'd it in the obedience of children to their parents , as Aulus Gellius recites out of them . But then this also admits of one distinction more , which the law thus expresses ; Ad ea quae non habent atrocitatem sceleris vel facinoris , ignoscitur servis , si vel Dominis vel his qui vice Dominorum sunt , velut Tutoribus & Curatoribus , obtemperaverint , Servants and inferiors are excus'd if they transgresse at the command of their superiors in a small matter , but not in a great . This is observed by the Sages of our Common law . If a Feme covert doth steal goods by the commandment of her husband ( without other constraint ) this hath been holden to be felony in her , saith Sr Richard Bolton the L. Chancellor of Ireland : and for this he quotes Bracton , and addes this reason out of him ; For licet Uxor obedire debeat viro , in atrocioribus tamen non est ei obediendum , In great matters , and sins of high nature , a wife is not to be excus'd for her obedience . But if the husband not onely commands , but uses compulsion , then it is so far excus'd , that in the wife the theft is not felony ; but murder is , because the greatnesse of the horror in such a fact is sufficient to prevail against the husbands threatnings and her own fear , unlesse there were in her some evil principle . If a servant defending his lords right doe some injury , he is excus'd in law , but not if he kills a man ; if he speaks a rude word he may be born with , but not if he steals a horse . And this also hath some proportions of truth in the Court of Conscience , that if the superior be great , and the command be urgent , and the instance not very considerable , the fault is by every of these considerations very much lessen'd , but the man is not totally excus'd ; his excuse is upon the stock of fear or a great temptation : so far as they intervene in the present case , and so far as they can excuse in any ( which I am afterwards to consider ) so far the guilt suffers diminution . But the advice of the son of Sirach is the great rule in this question , Accept no person against thy soul , and let not the reverence of any man cause thee to fall . But all this is to be understood of those actions which are Criminal both in the Commandement and in the obedience , in the sanction and in the execution , such as are adultery , murder , treason , blasphemy , and all the prevarications of the natural law , in all moral precepts , the transgression of which can by no intention become legitimate . But in the positive and temporary laws of God which enjoyn no moral , natural rectitude , but simple and just obedience during the abode of that law , the subject , the son or the servant if he be commanded by his just superior to an external ministery in the sin of the superior , if he consents not to the sin , and declares against it according as he can be requir'd , sins not at all in the obedience . Thus when Joab and the Captains numbred the people against their wills upon the peremptory command of David their King , they had no part in the sin , because they explicitely dissented all the way , and the execution and obedience did not implicitely and by interpretation involve them in it . The reason is , because the act of numbring the people was of it self innocent , and made criminal onely by David's circumstances ; of which when they had advertis'd their King , and disclaim'd the malice and irregularity , they interested themselves in nothing but the material part : which when it can be separated from the evil heart , as in this it was , and in all the like it may , the obedience is innocent , though the commandement be impious ; and therefore David wholly takes the fault upon himself , — mea fraus omnis , nihil iste nec ausus , Nec potuit… . I have sinn'd and done wickedly , but what have these sheep done ? * To this also is to be added , that even in the case of positive precepts our obedience must be wholly passive , and in no sense active ; that is , it must be wholly an act of obedience , without any promoting or advancing the sin in him that commands , no way increasing , or incouraging , or confirming the sin or the sinner . 2. Under this head is reduc'd the praising of an action : Which if it be done with a designe to promote it , is first a sin in the approving it secretly , and is another sin in setting it forward publicly . According to this is that saying of the Arabians , Qui laudat obscoenum perpetrat illud , He that praises an unclean action is himself an unclean person . And therefore it was good Counsel , Qualem commendes etiam atque etiam aspice… for by our words we shall be judged : but , as Salust said of Caesar and Cato , Alius aliâ viâ , some one way , and some another get great names . Cato was famous for discountenancing , Caesar for being a patron of evil men ; but Cato was the better man : and upon this account Pliny commends one , or navit virtutes , Insectatus est vitia , he adorned vertues with a fair character , but reproach'd vitious persons : and he that by praises and dispraises respectively does not distinguish vertue and vice cannot be a good man. Ne laudet dignos , laudat Callistratus omnes . Cui malus est nemo , quî bonus esse potest ? For in vain doe laws make a distinction between good and bad , if they be all blended in a common reward . Malè pereas qui Gratias virgines , meretrices effecisti , said Democritus to one that gave large gifts to all men alike . Concerning which it was excellently said by Maximus Tyrius , Qui largiuntur indignis ea quae dignis conferenda essent , tria praestant absurda : Nam & ipsi jacturam faciunt , in bonos sunt injuriosi , malosque roborant segete ac materiâ vitiorum suppeditatâ To give to vice any of the treatments or rewards of vertue is a treble mischief : The gift or reward is lost , and injury is done to vertue , and evil men are incouraged in their evil courses . 3. By consent , silent and implicite , we are partakers of the fact of others : by not contradicting we are sometimes adjudged willing . Of the main part of the proposition there is no doubt , but that a consenting to evil is a sin ; a consenting to any action gives it as much authority , being and warranty as his consent can effect : but the question here is what are the signes of consent when it is not express'd , and when the man that is silent is justly presumed willing . This inquiry is of use in the matter of presumptive dispensations , and in the participation of good and evil actions and rewards . But it hath in it but little difficulty . For 1. It is evident that then silence is an implicit consent , when the superior or the interested person , whose consent can verify the act , and whose power can easily hinder it , and who is bound to hinder it if it be unlawfull , does yet hold his peace , and forbids it not . The reason of this is , because every man is suppos'd to doe his duty , unlesse the contrary be known : and therefore when a Prince sees his subjects doing what the law forbids , and which he can easily hinder , it is to be presum'd that he dispenses with them in that case , because he knows that they will expound his silence to be a license ; and therefore he also intends it so , so long as he is silent , or else he does unreasonably , and to no good purpose holds his peace . But this is not true in those things which to their stabiliment or warranty require a positive act . For sometimes a silence is but an indifference and neutrality , according to that of the law , Qui tacet non utique fatetur , sed tamen verum est eum non negare ; He that holds his peace neither confesses nor denies : and in the Canon law , Id in tua Ecclesia dissimulare poteris , ita quod nec contradicere , nec tuum videaris praestare assensum ; The Bishop's dissembling or taking no notice in some cases , is expounded neither to be a contradiction nor consent : and the glosse in cap. cum jamdudum de praeben , affirms , Multa per patientiam tolerantur , quae si deducta fuerint in judicium , exigente justitiâ non debent tolerari , Some things are patiently suffer'd , which if they were publicly complain'd of , ought not to be suffer'd . But these seeming antinomies are both very reasonable in their own senses , and therefore are easy to be reconcil'd . For if the act about which the superior is patient be connvi'd at , it is either because for some reasonable cause he pardons the Criminal ; or else because his patience is necessary and by constraint , he cannot help himself . For no silence is esteem'd a ratihabition of a past act : because when the thing is done without the leave of the superior , his silence or speaking cannot alter it , or legitimate the action if it was evil ; at the most it does but pardon what is past , which is no allowance of any future action of the same nature . Indeed in the Court of Conscience , such a silence , or not reproving of a past fault , may be want of duty and discipline , and a criminal omission of what we are oblig'd to ; but hath no legal or natural causality upon that action which is past , and can be but an accidental cause or occasion of a future . But then silence is an interpretative consent , when it is 1. a silence of a thing observed , and 2. at present , and 3. that can be hindred : and then indeed in law it is a great presumption , but not always in Conscience ; because it may proceed from a neglect of duty that the superior takes no notice of the action , or from many other causes , as pusillanimity , just fear , or weaknesse , which because they cannot always be prov'd or observ'd , they may conclude legally from silence to consent or dispensation : yet the processe of Conscience must be upon more wary grounds , and where there is so much fallibility in the presumption , the conscience must proceed to action upon more certain accounts , and must strictly follow her rule , or must have greater causes to justify her liberty . And therefore though the superior be silent , and does observe the action , and can hinder me ; yet I am not to presume that he dispenses , or consents , or gives me leave to goe besides the law , unlesse there be in the state of my affairs a just cause of dispensation , and yet a reasonable cause of hindring me from asking , or him from expressing his leave ; then silence may be presum'd to be leave , though the cause of dispensation be probable onely , and not very necessary . In the reducing this to practice three cautions are to be attended . 1. When a subject proceeds to action upon the presumption of leave , or a tacit dispensation , this presumption or supposition must be made use of before the action be done , not afterwards . For it can never be honest to doe an act in hope to get leave afterwards ; for untill the leave be actually given or reasonably presum'd , it is prohibited , and consequently unlawfull ; and if a dispensation were afterwards given and obtained , it were nothing but a pardon , which is so far from making the past action to be innocent , that it supposes it to be Criminal , for else there were no need of pardon . He that sins in hope of pardon , fears nothing of the sin but the smart , he thinks there is no evil but punishment ; and therefore hath nothing towards vertue but the fear . If therefore before the action be undertaken the dispensation be not presum'd , nothing that comes after can change the action . 2. This presumption is not to be extended beyond that very action that is done in the presence , or within the notice and observation of the superior . For although it should be true that he does give tacit consent or leave to this particular , yet it follows not that therefore he does so to any or all of the same kind . For that may be just or tolerable once , which if repeated may be chang'd in circumstances , or become evil example , or of intolerable effect by the very repetition ; or the mind of the superior may change , or the causes of dispensation may cease : and after all , since this dispensation wholly depends upon the consent of the superior , and this consent is then onely justly presum'd when he observes the action and forbids it not , the presumption is wholly at an end when he does not see it ; and therefore a tacit consent or leave to an observed action can at no hand be extended to a consent or leave to others that are not observ'd by him . 3. If the tacit dispensation be of such nature that it cannot give leave to a present observed action , but by introducing a faculty , or state , or potentiality of doing the like , then it is certain that if the present action be tacitly dispens'd withal or consented to , it may be extended to all of the like kind ; but it is also as certain , that such a tacit consent is not so easily to be presum'd . The Bishop of Bitonto for his exercise was flinging of a leaden weight , and by chance kill'd his servant who unfortunately cross'd the way as the lead was irrecoverably passing from his hand , and for this misfortune in the chance of bloud is made irregular . Afterwards in the presence of his superior seeing a yong Turk dying who had express'd some inclinations to Christianity , baptizes him in the instant before his death , and was observ'd and conniv'd at by his superior , and therefore had a presumptive leave or dispensation for his irregularity . But because this single action could not have been dispens'd withall but by taking off his irregularity , it took away all that which could hinder his future doing his Episcopal office ; and therefore he hath the same presumptive leave for the future actions which will not be observed , as for the present which was . But then the first presumption must be very reasonable and sure : for although a probable presumption may suffice to conclude for leave in a single present action whose effects determine with it self ; yet if it have influence upon the future ( as in the case before cited ) it ought to be better consider'd , and more warily conducted by the superior , and therefore not readiy presumed by the subject . These are the measures of guessing at a consent by silence . There is also one way more of implicit or secret consent , viz. 2. He does implicitely consent to an action , who consents or commands any thing to be done , from whence such an action or leave must necessarily follow : and the reason is , because he ought not to doe things repugnant to each other . He that makes it necessary for me to doe a thing , is the cause of my doing it , as much as if he commanded it . And this is more then a tacit consent or dispensation respectively , for it is a virtual . He that collates the order of Priesthood upon me , intends I should doe the whole office . Princeps enim qui illi dignitatem dedit , omnia gerere decrevit , saith the law . Thus he that dispenses in the irregularity , consents to all the actions which he does by virtue of the removing that impediment , who is so dispens'd with . Which proposition is onely so to be understood , when there is nothing wanting to the effecting such an action but the removing that impediment : but it is suppos'd that he that is dispens'd with , will use his liberty ; and the dispensation if it be at all is directed so , and is in order to it . But if the superior does an action which is not in order to an end , neither in order of nature or of intention , but yet it can be consequent to it , that consequent action is not to be imputed to him who did something precedent , without which that action could not have been done . Thus if a Prince pardons a thief , or a friend begs his pardon that kill'd a man , although he could not have stoln any more without that pardon , yet that after-theft or murder is not imputable to him that gave or to him that beg'd the pardon , unlesse they did it with that very intention ; for the pardon is not in any natural order to any such consequent action , and therefore without his own actual or design'd conjunction and intuition , cannot convey the crime and guiltinesse . Question . Upon the occasion of this , it is seasonable to inquire how far it may be lawfull , and can be innocent to permit a sin . The case is this . Pancirone an Italian Gentleman invites a German Embassador to dinner , feasts him nobly , sets before him plenty of delicious wine , enough to exhilarate him and all his company ; but the German after his country fashion thinks it no entertainment unlesse he be drunk . The question is whether Pancirone sins in setting before him so much more as will fill the utmost capacity of his intemperance . Is it lawfull to suffer him to be drunk ? If this Question had been ask'd in the Primitive Church , the answer would have been a reproof to the inquirer , as one who no better understood the laws of sobriety and hospitality , and the measures of the Christian feastings . Posidonius tells of S. Austin , Usus est frugali mensa & sobriâ , quae quidem inter olera & legumina etiam carnes aliquando propter hospites & quosque inferiores continebat . Semper autem vinum habebat , quod tamen moderatissime bibebat , quia noverat & docebat , ut Apostolus dicit , quod omnis creatura Dei bona sit , & nihil abjiciendum quod cum gratiarum actione percipitur . He had that which was good and usefull for himself according to his own measures , and something better for strangers . He always had wine , but it was drank very sparingly ; because every creature of God is good , if it be received with thanksgiving . But if the guests be permitted to drink to drunkennesse , who shall say Amen at thy giving of thanks ? or how shalt thou give thanks at the spoiling of the gifts of God ? There is no peradventure but as a feast is the enlargement of our ordinary diet , so the entertainment of guests is a freer use of our liberty , so it be within the limits and capacities of sobriety . But though the guests meal may be larger then our ordinary , yet we must secure our own duty more then we can secure theirs . When the Greeks whom Lucullus feasted wondred why for their sakes he should be so large in his expences , he answer'd , Nonnihil , O Hospites , vestri causâ , sed maxima pars Luculli gratiâ , Something of this , O Guests , is for your sakes , but the most of it is for my own magnificence . We should take care to doe so , that though for our guests we doe something more then ordinary , yet our greatest care should be for our selves , that we doe nothing that may misbecome the house of one of Christs servants . Would Pancirone suffer the German Embassadour to lie with his women when he entertains him , and make his chambers a scene of lust ? Certainly he would esteem it infinitely dishonest , if to an honest family he should offer so great an injury ; and why may not his chambers minister to lust , as well as his dining-room or cellars to beastly drunkennesse ? and is it not as honorable that the family should be accounted sober , as to be esteemed chast ? or is not drunkennesse dishonesty as well as lust ? and why may not Panicrone as well bid his servants keep the door to wantonnesse , as hold the chalice to beastly vomitings ? In these things there is no other difference , but that as cloths , so vices also are in and out of fashion as it happens . He that means to be a servant of God , must for himself and all his house take care that God be not there dishonour'd . I and my house will serve the Lord , said Joshuah : and when God gave to the Israelites the law of the sabbath , he gave it for themselves and their families and the strangers within their gates . * But so corrupt and degenerous are the manners of Christians , that our feasts are ministeries of sin , and every guest hath leave to command the house even when he cannot command himself : but this is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Christian sobriety hath other laws . Does any man when he relieves the poor at his gate give them leave to drink till they be drunk ? and yet what they give to the poor is given for God's sake : but when they minister to the rich man within , for whose sake is that excesse given ? If Codrus askes an almes , we refuse him , if we suppose he will make himself drunk with it , and we think we are bound to refuse him : & can it be lawfull to give to a guest within what it is unlawful to give to a guest without ? If it be unlawful , it is certain it is not unavoidable : but if there be difficulty in declining it to some men , then besides that which is principally intended by our Blessed Saviour , we see also there is very great reason in those words , When thou makest a feast , call not the rich , but call the poor : These will not tempt you to make them drunk , it may be the others will. If our Guest makes himself drunk with the usual provisions which must be indistinctly ministred at feasts , that cannot be help'd , but by refusing to receive such persons again to our Table : but he that knowingly and observingly espies the meeting turn to God's dishonour , and does not put a limit to that sea of drink , and place a shore and a strand to the inundation , will find that God is departed from that meeting , and the pleasing of his drunken guests will not make him recompence for the losse of such an inhabitant . A man must at no hand consent to his brothers sin : and he that can and ought to hinder it , and does not , by interpretation does consent . For he that gives a man a goblet of intemperance , with which he sees him about to drown his soul , is just as innocent as he that lends him a knife to cut his own throat . But this is to be understood when the case is evident and notorious ; for in the approaches and accesses to drunkennesse the matter is lesse then in the lending of a knife , because it is yet disputable whether he will finish his intemperance : but if it be plain that drunkennesse is design'd , the case is all one ; and if it be not perfectly design'd , yet as it steals on discernably , so the sin of him that ministers to the crime increases up to the same proportion of effect and guiltinesse . Hospitality is one of the kinds of charity : and that is but an ill welcome which first procures a feaver , and it may be after it an irrevocable damnation . 3. He that gives Counsel or aid to an action good or evil , consents to it , and it is imputed to him as a product of his will and choice . This is expressely affirm'd by all laws Civil and Canon , and the Municipal laws of all those Nations of which I have seen any records concerning this matter : and the interpreters universally consent , with this proviso , that the counsel be so much cause of the action , that without it it would not have been done . For if the action would have been done however , then he that counsels to it is guilty in Conscience always ; but unlesse it be in great crimes , and in detestationem facti , it is not always punish'd in law . But if it were it would be very just , so that a difference were made in the degree of punishment : For he whose counsel is wholly author of the fact is guilty of more evil then he who onely addes hardnesse to him who was resolved upon the crime . But in the Court of Conscience he stands guilty that gives evil counsel , whether the Criminal would have done it with or without his counsel : and therefore the laws doe very well also to punish evil counsellors . Quam bene dispositum terris , ut dignus iniqui Fructus consilii primis authoribus instet ? Sic multos fluvio Vates arente per annos , Hospite qui caeso monuit placare Tonantem Inventas primùm Busyridis imbuit aras , Et cecidit saevi , quo dixerat , hostia sacri . So Claudian . The evil counsellor is first to feel the evil effect of his own pernicious counsel ; that is , if his counsel persuade to sin , not if it prove infortunate : not but that even counsel that is given with purpose to doe a mischief is highly to be punish'd not onely by the degree of the evil effect , but by the degree of the malice that advis'd it ; but that those events which were not foreseen or design'd cannot be imputed to him that gave the best advice he could , but could not help it if he were deceiv'd in his judgment . But if the counsel be to a sin or an unworthy action , there is no need to expect the event to make a judgement of the counsel . The same also is affirm'd in the case of giving aides to an action good or bad ; in which there is no variety , but of degrees onely : for when they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in combination , it is mischief with a witnesse . Non caret effectu quod voluere duo . It is an aggravation of the impiety when the zeal of malice is so potent , that it is greater then the power , and therefore calls in aide to secure the mischief . But he that so assists , that he is the great effective cause of the evil which without his aide would not have been done at all , is intirely guilty . Sic opifex Tauri , tormentorumque repertor , Qui funesta novo fabricaverat aera dolori , Primus inexpertum Siculo cogente Tyranno Sensit opus , docuitque suum mugire juvencum . Perillus invented and made witty instruments of cruelty , to invite Phalaris to a witty mischief ; but the Tyrant was just that once , and made him teach his own brazen bull to roar . * But if the aide doe but facilitate the work , the assistant is punishable according to the efficacy of his aide , in humane laws ; but in Conscience he is guilty according to the secret malice of the principle : and therefore when Lucius Carpentus kill'd Nicanor , his page that hated Nicanor mortally , and did nothing but thrust his Masters sword further into his heart , to shew his ill will , though Carpentus had sufficiently kill'd him , was as much a Murderer as his Master was . In humane laws there is great difference in these things . 1. For if many by joyn'd counsel set upon a man and kill him together , though one onely gave him a deadly wound , yet all are guilty of the murder , because they all intended it , and did something towards it . 2. But if in heat of bloud and by the surprise of passion this be done , he onely that gave the deadly wound is the homicide , and the rest are injurious , and are punish'd accordingly . 3. If one give the deadly wound , and the other knock him on the head and so speed him , they are both murderers alike . 4. If many strike a man , and of all these wounds together he dies , they are equally guilty ; for the law justly presumes that their malice is equal , by their conjunct attempt , and there being nothing in the event to distinguish them , the presumption is reasonable and ought to passe into effect . 5. If the man be dead but with one wound , and it be not known which of the assistants did it , they are all alike accounted homicides ; for every of them is justly suppos'd to have had malice enough to have done it , and which of them had the hap to doe it is not known ; therefore there can be nothing to distinguish them in the punishment , because the guilt is alike , and the event not discernably any ones peculiar . But although in external judicatories the proceedings are various , and considering there is no other way of judging what is secret and indistinguishable , this way is necessary and unavoidable of proceeding by the most reasonable and probable methods of justice ; yet in the Court of Conscience there is a more certain proceeding , and the answer is regular , and one ; according to the degree of the will and choice , and the tendency of our affections to the event , so we shall be judged : and therefore concerning this , our own conscience is the onely measure of our expectations ; and the will is the measure of reward . But these things onely two can know , the Spirit of God , and the spirit of a man ; and that 's enough to finish the processe at the day of judgement . Question . Whether or no is the making and providing the instruments which usually minister to sin , by interpretation such an aid to the sin , as to involve our will and consent to the sin , and make us partakers of the guilt ? To this I answer , first in general , that all those arts and trades of life which minister onely to vanity and trifling pleasures are of ill fame , such as are Juglers , Tumblers , Players , Fencers and the like ; it being an injunction of the Apostle that every Christian should labour with his hands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which is good , that is , something profitable to the Common-wealth , and acceptable to God : and to the same purpose it is that all that a Christian does must be apt to be reckon'd amongst one of these heads , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , either the true or the honest , the just or the pure , the lovely or of good report ; and it will be hard to reduce some of those trades to any of these heads . But I cannot see reason enough to say that if any man sins by the using of these arts● and their productions , that the artist is partaker of the crime ; because he designing onely to maintain himself , and to please the eyes and ears and youthfull passions of others , may possibly not communicate in their sin , who over-act their liberty and their vanity . But because such persons are not so wise or discerning as to be able to discern so nicely one formality from another , but desire upon any termes to get as much money as they can , and that if they were so wise as to be able to discern the measures of their duty , they would imploy themselves better , therefore in the whole such persons are to be reprov'd , though the arts themselves might otherwise be tolerated . They are not unlawfull because they are directly evil , but because they doe but little or no good , such as are jesters , and buffoons , and juglers ; at the best they are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vain arts , and if they be not directly punishable , they can have no reward at all . But Alexander did very well to a fellow who made it his trade and livelyhood to stand at distance and throw little pease in at the eye of a needle made on purpose just so big as would receive them : the fellow seeing the Prince admire his dexterous aime expected a great reward ; and the Prince observing the fellows expectation , rewarded him with a whole Bushel of pease . It was a reward worthy of such an imployment . A man cannot be blam'd for having such an art , but he that makes that to be his trade , cannot be otherwise then an idle person : and therefore although he may be tolerated in the Common-wealth where there live many persons more idle and uselesse then himself , and although , if other things were well , the man could not be directly condemn'd for this , and said to be in a state of damnation ; yet because if other things were well he would quickly imploy himself better , therefore such persons when they come near a spiritual guide are to be called off from that which at the best is good for nothing , and stands too near a sin to be endur'd in the scrutinies after life eternal . But some inquire whether the trade of Card-makers and Dice-makers be lawfull : and the reason of their doubt is , because these things are us'd by the worst of men , and to very vile purposes ; to which these arts doe minister , and therefore are reasonably suspected as guilty of a participation of the consequent crimes . To which I answer , that some things minister to sin immediately , others mediately onely and by the intervention of something else ; some minister to sin inevitably and by their design and institution , others by the fault of them that use them ill ; and lastly , some things minister to evil and to no good , others to good and evil promiscuously . These three distinctions make but one difference of things , but give several reasons of that difference . Those things which minister to sin immediately , by their very nature and designe , and therefore minister to no good unlesse it be accidentally and by the virtue of something else nothing appertaining to them , are certainly unlawfull : and of this there is no question , and that for all those reasons contain'd in their description , they are of evil , and they are evil , and they tend to evil . But if they can minister to good , if they of themselves are innocent , if they can be us'd without doing hurt , although they are generally abus'd , yet he that makes them in order onely to such uses to which of themselves they can and ought to minister , partakes not of the sin of them that abuse the productions of his art and labour . And this is remarkable in the case of pictures and images : concerning the making of which there was a great question in the Primitive Church ; but the case of Conscience they thus determined : It was unlawfull to make pictures or images for heathen Temples , or for any use of religion : imò tu colis , qui facis ut coli possint ; He that makes them that they may be worshipped , is a worshipper of them , that is , he partakes of his sin that does worship . But because the art statuary and of painting might be us'd to better purposes , therefore they were advis'd to doe so , but to separate them from all approaches toward religion ; of which I have already given accounts out of Tertullian De spectaculis c. 23. And the same is the answer concerning the trades of making cards and dice. But although this be but an instance of this Rule ; yet because it relates to the practice of so great a part of mankind , it may deserve to be considered alone in order to that relation and that practice . For it wholly depends upon this , If it be innocent , if it can be good to play at cards and dice , then the trade of making the instruments of playing is also innocent . If not , that which ministers to nothing but sin , must be of the kinred of sin , and in the same condemnation . Question . Whether it be lawfull to play at Cards or Dice . S. Chrysostome affirms , Non Deum invenisse ludum , sed Diabolum , Not God , but the Devil * found out play . It may be he alluded to that of a Plato , who saies that the spirit Theuth invented tables and dice ; but then he saies that the same spirit found out Arithmetic , Geometry and Astronomy ; and therefore from hence we can make no conjecture . S. b Cyprian saies that , quidam studio literarum bene eruditus , multum meditando hoc malum & perniciosum studium adinvenit , instinctu solius Zabuli qui eum artibus suis repleverat . Hanc ergo artem ostendit , quam & colendam sculpturis cum sua imagine fabricavit , Some very learn'd person inspired and filled with the arts of the spirit Zabulus taught the art of dice and tables : and he addes , that he so order'd it , that no man might touch the tables till he had first sacrific'd to Zabulus . And therefore M. Mantua affirm'd it to be very unlawfull to play at dice or tables , upon this very reason ; Non tantum aleae lusum crimen esse , sed malorum daemonum inventum , It must needs be unlawfull when it is more then so , as being the very invention of the devil . And this fierce declamation hath prevail'd amongst many wise men to the condemnation of it . Vincentius saies , Manus Diaboli est ludus taxillorum : and Bodinus is yet more particular , he tells us how ; for , saies he , in alea & fortuito illius jactu geomantiam artemque diabolicam sitam esse , The chance and luck of it is a kind of geomancy or diabolicat art . Indeed if he had meant that the art of conducting the fall of the contingent die had been diabolical and a jugling art , he had spoken reason and truth : but that there is a diabolical art in the contingency and chance of it , is little better then a contradiction ; unlesse he could make it appear that the fall of the dice was by God committed to the Devils conduct : which truly is not very improbable in some cases to be admitted ; but because it is uncertain , Apherdianus calls it diabolical or found out by the Devil , by reason of the craft us'd in it , and the evils consequent to it . Daemonis instinctu sibi quod reperêre maligni Cum variis homines in sua damna dolis . And indeed this is almost the whole state of the question ; for there are so many evils in the use of these sports , they are made trades of fraud and livelyhood , they are accompanied so with drinking and swearing , they are so scandalous by blasphemies and quarrels , so infamous by the mispending our precious time , and the ruine of many families , they so often make wise men fools and slaves of passion , that we may say of them that use these inordinately , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they are in an ocean of mischiefs , and can hardly swim to shore without perishing . And therefore it is no wonder that holy men and wise Common-weaths , observing the great evil of them , and having not skill or experience enough to tell of any good that is in them , have forbidden them utterly . This is the observation of S. Isidore ; Ab hac arte autem fraus & mendacium atque perjurium nunquam abest , postremo & odium & damna rerum . Unde & aliquando propter haec scelera interdicta legibus fuit , Fraud and lying and perjury are the inseparable attendants upon cards and dice , and hatred and great losses follow ; and therefore because of this appendant wickednesse , sometimes these are wholly forbidden by the laws . For so we find it forbidden in the Civil laws of Princes and Republics . M. Mantua tells that by an old law of Egypt , every man was easily admitted to the accusation of a gamester or dice-player ; and if he were convicted of it , he was condemned to the quarries : and Josephus Mascardus tells that those who were remark'd as daily and common gamesters were infamous , and not admitted to give testimony in a cause of law . It is certain it was forbidden by the laws ; Seu mavis vetitâ legibus aleâ . The lex Roscia punish'd those persons with banishment who lost any considerable portions of their estates by playing at dice ; and sometimes the laws did condemn them that lost money , to pay four times so much to the Fiscus , as Asconius Paedianus tells in his observations upon Cicero's second book de Divinatione . Justinian the Emperor made an expresse law against it , forbidding it both in public and private houses . Magnus Sfortia forbad dice and tables to be us'd in his campe : Philippus Adeodatus severely prohibited it in the Commonwealth ; so did Charles the seventh of France : For in the perpetual and daily abuse of such sports the Commonwealth hath much incommodity , and consequently many interests in the prohibition . Ludus enim genuit trepidum certamen & iram ; Ira truces inimicitias & funebre bellum . The public peace cannot be kept where public dicing-houses are permitted , and therefore the Romans were so severe against such public houses and scenes of debauchery , that the Praetor said , Si quis eum apud quem aleâ lusum esse dicetur , verberaverit , damnúmve ei dederit , sive quid eo tempore domo ejus subtractum erit , judicium non dabo , If the Gentlemen beat the Master of such gaming-houses , or stole any thing from his house at that time , he should have no remedy . For these were houses of public hatred , and therefore outlawed . And therefore Seneca calls them loca aedilem metuentia , houses afraid of the Magistrate . Virtutem in Templo invenies , in foro , in Curia , pro muris stantem , pulverulentam , coloratam , callosas habentem manus ; Voluptatem latitantem saepius ac tenebras captantem , circa balnea ac sudatoria , ac loca aedilem metuentia , You may find Vertue standing in Courts , and Temples , and upon the walls of a city , dusty and discolour'd , and with brawny hands ; but Pleasure sneaks up and down to baths , and sweating-houses , and places that fear the presence of the Aedile ; that is , gaming-houses , which we learn from Martial , Arcana modo raptus è popina Aedilem rogat udus aleator , The Dice-player half drunk newly snatcht from his Tavern or Ordinary beseeches the Aedile for mercy . But in the Civil law the punishments of the Gamesters , and especially the keepers of the gaming-houses , by the confiscation of the house , nay the destruction of it , that no man may dwell in it for ever , in that place where God hath been so many times dishonour'd and blasphem'd , are sufficient indication of that just detestation in which the laws had them : and who please may see them largely describ'd in a Danaeus and b Jodocus Damhouderius . But I observe that the especial remarks that the Civil laws of Princes and republics put upon this kind of ga●●ing is that it causes many quarrels ; — dum vitreo peraguntur milite bella : the contention for the victory begets a more cruel war : but this is especially upon the account of money which is then lost , and which the laws most regard , as the cause of all the mischief . But when this question and these observations fell into ●he hands of the Church , that is , of Christian and pious Princes and Prelates , and they that were and ought to be zealous for souls had observ'd that God was exceedingly dishonour'd , that his name was infinitely blasphem'd , that much of that precious time which God had allowed to us for the working out our salvation with fear and trembling was spent in luxury , and swearing , and passion , and lying and cursing , and covetousnesse , and fraud , and quarrels , and intemperance of all sorts , & that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 d●inking and gaming are joyned so frequently that they are knit in a proverb , and that these together baffle the spirit of a man and drive away the spirit of God , Aleáque & multo tempora quassa mero Eripiunt omnes animo sine vulnere vires , they disarme and weaken the mind of a man without a wound ; it is , I say , no wonder that they forbad it so fiercely , and censur'd it so severely . Aleator quicunque es , Christianum te dicis , quod non es , said S. Cyprian , A common gamester or dice-player may call himself Christian , but indeed he is not : and S. Clemens Alexandrinus saies , inconsideratum luxuriae amorem otiofis isthaec ●●eae oblectamina suppeditare , desidiámque in causa esse , idlenesse and wantonnesse provides these games for the lazy and uselesse people of the world . And therefore S. Bernard said that the pious and Christian souldiers that inhabit Jerusalem , aleas detestantur , mimos , & magos , & fabulatores , scurrilesque cantilenas , tanquam vanitates aut insanias respuunt & abominantur ; they hate dice , and abominate jesters , and juglers , and players , and idle songs like vanities and madnesse . Upon these or the like accounts the Fathers of the Council of Eliberis separated these gamesters from the Communion . Si quis fidelis aleâ , id est , tabulâ luserit , placuit eum abstinere . Et si emendatus cessaverit post annum poterit reconciliari ; A Christian playing at dice or tables is not to be admitted to the Holy Communion , but after a years penance and abstention , and his total amendment : and the Canon law forbids a Clergy-man either to play at tables , or to be present at those places where they doe . But the Capitular of Charles the Great joynes dicing and drunkennesse together , as being usual companions , and forbids them both alike to Bishops , Priests and Deacons . And indeed when the case is thus , I may say as Schonaeus said in the case of Saul , — quae potest esse in tanti sceleris Immanitate coercendâ crudelitas ? No laws are too severe , no sentence is too rigid for it's sentence and condemnation . But if the case can be otherwise , if playing at dice and tables can become an innocent recreation , then all these terrible and true sentences will not reach them that so use it . And indeed even amongst those places and republics where such gaming was so highly condemn'd & severely punish'd , some of their braver men did use it , but without the vile appendages , and therefore without scandal and reproach . For first in general , it cannot misbecome a wise and a good man to unbend his bow , and to relaxe the severities , the strictures and more earnest tendences of his mind . Quin ubi se à vulgo & scena in secreta remôrant Virtus Scipiadae & mitis sapientia Laeli , Nugari cum illo , & discincti ludere , donec Decoqueretur olus , soliti . — Laelius and Scipio would play till they had digested their meal . And of Archias of Tarentum it was said , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , He was an old and a wise man in public Counsels and imployments , but he would play like a yong man. And concerning very many wise Princes and Philosophers you shall find many stories of their confident using lighter but innocent sports for the refreshment of their spirits ' tir'd with study and labour , collected by Alexander ab Alexandro . But in particular concerning dice and tables we find in Valerius Maximus related of Q. Mucius , Aleae quoque & calculis vacasse interdum dicitur , cum bene ac diu jura civium ac caeremonias deorum ordinasst : Ut enim in rebus seriis Scaevolam , ita & in scurrilibus * lusibus hominem agebat : that sometimes he would play at dice and tables , when he had first dispatch'd the businesse of the Commonwealth prosperously , and the affairs of religion wisely : In serious things doing as Scaevola should , in his recreations doing as a man : quâ quidem aleâ Porcius Cato lusisse fertur animi laxandi causâ , and Porcius Cato himself , wise and severe though he was , yet play'd at tables to refresh and relaxe his mind . And if cards or tables have in their own nature nothing that is evil , provided it can be also separated from all the evil appendages , from the crimes and from the reproach , from the danger and from the scandal , that which onely remains is , that they as well as other innocent recreations and divertisements may be us'd . In the case so stated we suppose them onely to be recreations and relaxations of the mind : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Julian , such little imployments are like the pauses of music , they are rests to the spirit and intervals of labour . And therefore Johannes Sarisburiensis allows of every game , quae absque vitio curarum gravium pondus allevat , & sine virtutis dispendio jucundam interpolationem gaudiorum affert , if it can ease our griefs , or alleviate our burdens without the losse of our innocence . Now that cards and dice are of themselves lawfull I doe not know any reason to doubt . For if they be unlawfull , it is because they are forbidden , or because there is in them something that is forbidden . They are no where of themselves forbidden : and what is in them that is criminal or suspicious ? Is it because there is chance and contingency in them ? There is so in all humane affairs ; in Merchandise , in laying wagers , in all consultations and warres , in journeys and agriculture , in teaching and learning , in putting children to school or keeping them at home , in the price of the market , and the vendibility of commodities . And if it be said that there is in all these things an overruling providence ; though no man can tell in what manner or by what means the Divine providence brings such things to a determinate event , yet it is certain that every little thing as well as every great thing is under God's government , and our recreations as well as our wagers . But what if it be and what if it be not ? He can never be suspected in any Criminal sense to tempt the Divine providence , who by contingent things recreates his labour , and having acquir'd his refreshment , hath no other end to serve , and no desires to engage the Divine providence to any other purpose : and this end is sufficiently secur'd by whatsoever happens . I know nothing else that can be pretended to render the nature of these things suspicious ; and this is perfectly nothing : and as for the evil appendages which are so frequently attending upon these kinds of games , besides that they also are as near to other exercises as to these , as to bowling , horse-racing , cock-fighting , the fight of quailes and of partridges , bulbaiting , pall-mall , billiards , and all other games for money and victory , to some more and to some lesse , besides this , I say , the evil appendages are all separable from these games , and till they be separated they are not law ●ull : but they may be separated by the following advices . Rules of conducting our Sports and Recreations . 1. Let no mans affections be immoderately addicted to them . And this requires a great diligence and caution . For as Petrarch said well , Hoc est in regno stultitiae commune , ut quarum rerum minor est fructus , & cupiditas & delectatio major sit , In the kingdome of folly we are most pleased with those things by which we have the least profit . And the want of doing us good , is supplied by doing us pleasure . But the moderation of our affections to our sports is best express'd , by using them according to those measures which wise and severe men use in their recreations , that is , not to be frequent or long in them . For it is in these as in meat and drink , which are then good when they are necessary and usefull to the purposes of our nature and imployment . Sleep is necessary , and so long it is good : but a man must not therefore spend the best of his time in sleep , but that time that is allowed to it , and without which he cannot well doe his businesse . The limits of these things are not so streight as necessity , nor yet so large as humor or desire ; but as a man may drink to quench his thirst , and he may yet drink more to refresh his sorrow , and to alleviate his spirits , and to ease his grief , provided that he turn not his liberty into a snare , so he may in his recreation and his sports . Cito rumpes arcum semper si tensum habueris : At si laxâris , cum voles , erit utilis . Sic lusus animo debent aliquando dari , Ad cogitandum melior ut redeat tibi . Within this bound he must keep , * that he loose none of his businesse for his sport ; * that he make his other time more usefull ; * that this be the lesse principal ; * that it be taken as Physic , * or as wine at most : * and the minutes and little points of this measure are no otherwise to be weighed and consider'd , but that we take those proportions which our selves think we need to good purposes , or which we are advis'd to by a wise guide . To this purpose was that saying of Plato reported by Laertius ; Parum est aleâ ludere , at non parum est assuescere , It is no great matter to play at dice or tables , but to be accustom'd to it is a great matter ; that is , to make it a portion of our businesse , an expence of our time due to worthy imployments : and therefore in the laws , not the action it self , but the abuse , and particularly the frequency , is noted and forbidden . Ludentes quotidie ad aleam , & tabernarum frequentatores inter infames habentur , saies the constitution . Quorum aut latrunculi , aut excoquendi in sole corporis cura consumpsêre vitam , Men that spend their lives in cards and dice , and making much of themselves , Haunters of drinking and gaming-houses . A man may innocently and to good purposes goe to a Tavern ; but they that frequent them have no excuse , unlesse their innocent businesse does frequently ingage , and their severe religion bring them off safely . And so it is in these sports , with this onely difference , that there can be no just cause to frequent these sports : there is onely one cause of using them , and that comes but seldome , the refreshment I mean of my self or my friend , to which I minister in justice or in charity ; but when our sports come to that excesse that we long and seek for opportunities , when we tempt others , are weary of our businesse , and not weary of our game , … . Cum mediae nequeant te frangere noctes , Nec tua sit talos mittere lassa manus , when we sit up till midnight , and spend half days , and that often too ; then we have spoil'd the sport , it is not a recreation but a sinne . 2. He that means to make his games lawfull must not play for money , but for refreshment . This , though ( it may be ) few will believe , yet it is the most considerable thing to be amended in the games of civil and sober persons . For the gaining of money can have no influence into the game to make it the more recreative , unlesse convetousnesse hold the box . The recreation is to divert the mind or body from labours by attending to something that pleases and gives no trouble ; now this is in the conduct of your game , in the managing a prosperous chance to advantage , and removing the unprosperous from detriment and losse of victory , so to crosse the proverb , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and that by wit he may relieve his adverse chance , and by a symbol learn to make good and vertuous use of every crosse accident . But when money is at stake , either the summe is trifling , or it is considerable . If trifling , it can be of no purpose unlesse to serve the ends of some little hospitable entertainment or love-feast , and then there is nothing amisse ; but if it be considerable , there is a wide door open to temptation , and a man cannot be indifferent to winne or loose a great summe of money , though he can easily pretend it . If a man be willing or indifferent to loose his own money , and not at all desirous to get anothers , to what purpose is it that he playes for it ? if he be not indifferent , then he is covetous , or he is a fool ; he covets that which is not his own , or unreasonably ventures that which is . If without the money he cannot mind his game , then the game is no divertisement , no recreation , but the money is all the sport , and therefore covetousnesse is all the designe : but if he can be recreated by the game alone , the money does but change it from lawfull to unlawfull , and the man from being weary to become covetous , and from the trouble of labour or study remove him to the worse trouble of fear and anger and impatient desires . But here indeed begins the mischief , here men begin for the money to use vile arts , Quaerit compositos manus improba mittere talos , here cards and dice begin to be a diabolical art , and men are witty to undoe or defraud one another , … .. Neque enim loculis comitantibus itur Ad casum tabulae , positâ sed luditur arcâ . Men venture their estates at it , and make their families sad not poor , because the dice turn up an unlucky chance : and what sport is it for me to loose my money if it be at all valuable ? and if it be not , what is it to my game ? But sure the pleasure is in winning the money . That is it certainly . But Hoccine credibile est aut memorabile , Tanta vecordia innata cuiquam ut siet Ut malis gaudeant , atque ex incommodis Alterius sua comparent ut commoda ? ah ! Idne est verum ? Imo id genus hominum Est pessimum… .. Nothing is more base then to get advantages by the losse of others ; they that doe so , and make the losse of their neighbour their game & pastime , are the worst of men , said the Comedy . But concerning the losse of our money , let a man pretend what he please , that he plaies for no more then he is willing to loose ; it is certain , he is not to be believ'd : for if that summe be so indifferent to him , why is not he easy to be tempted to give such a summe to the poor ? to give that summe ? his sport will not be the lesse if that be all he designes . Positâ dum luditur arcâ , stat pauper nudus atque esuriens ante fores , Christusque in paupere moritur , Whilest men play for great summes of money , a poor man at the door , redeem'd by the bloud of Christ , wants a shilling , and begs it for Christs sake , and goes without it . Whenever the case is this or like this , he sins that plays at cards or dice or any other game for money . It is alike in all games , for I know no difference ; Money is the way to abuse them all : and cards and dice , if there be no money at stake , will make as good sport and please the mind as well as any the sports of boys , and are as innocent as push-pin . For if we consider it rightly , from hence is taken the great objection against cards and tables , because men at these venture their money , and expose their money to hazard for no good end , and therefore tempt God ; and certainly to doe so is unlawfull , and that for the reason alleged : but when we play onely for recreation , we expose nothing of considerable interest to hazard , and therefore it cannot be a criminal tempting of God , as it is in gaming for money , Ubi centuplex murus rebus servandis parum est , where no wit , no observation , no caution , can save our stake : for Adversis punctis doctum se nemo fatetur ; Vulnera plus crescunt punctis quam bella sagittis , saies the Epigram , No man is crafty enough to play against an ill hand ; and therefore to put a considerable interest , to the hazard of the ruine of a family , or at least more then we find in our hearts to give to Christ , is a great tempting of God. And in these cases , as I have heard from them that have skill in such things , there are such strange chances , such promoting of a hand by fancy and little arts of Geomancy , such constant winning on one side , such unreasonable losses on the other , and these strange contingencies produce such horrible effects , that it is not improbable that God hath permitted the conduct of such games of chance to the Devil , who will order them so where he can doe most mischief ; but without the instrumentality of money he could doe nothing at all . There are two little cases pretended to lessen this evil , and bring it from unlawfull to lawfull . The one is , that when a man hath lost his money , he desires to play on for no other reason but to recover his own : the question is whether that be lawfull or no. To this I can give no direct answer , for no man can at first tell whether it be or no : but at the best it is very suspicious , for it engages him upon more losse of time , and he tempts God in a further hazard , and gives himself the lie by making it appear that , whatever he pretended , he did play for more then he was willing to loose . Sic ne perdiderit , non cessat perdere lusor , Et revocat cupidas alea saepe manus . He plays on that he may give over , and looses more that he may not loose so much , and is vexed with covetousnesse , and chides his fortune , and reproves he knows not what : so that by this time I can tell whether he sinn'd or no ; for though it was hard to say whether he did well or ill to desire the recovery of his money , yet when we see upon what termes it is design'd and acted , the question is very easy to be resolved , and the man had better sit down with that losse then venture a greater , and commit more sins . The other case is this ; If I can without covetousnesse of the money play , is it then lawfull ? and to shew that I am not covetous , I will give the money I win to the standers by , or to my servants , or to the poor . When Theodoric King of the Goths did win at dice or tables he was very bountifull to his servants , and being over-pleas'd with his own good fortune , would grant them any thing . But Augustus Caesar did use to doe this thing bravely . He gives this account of himself in a letter of his to Tiberius ; Ego perdidi viginti millia nummûm meo nomine : sed cum effusè in lusu liberalis fuissem , ut soleo plerumque . Nam si quas manus remisi cuique exegissem , an t retinuissem quod cuique donavi , vicissem vel quinquaginta millia : sed hoc malo . Benignitas enim mea me ad coelestem gloriam efferet . He lost ( suppose ) 20000 Crowns ; but it was not his ill fortune or his ill conduct , but his excessive liberality : he forgave to many what he had wone , and other summes which he took , he gave to the standers by , and chose this bounty as the way to immortality . Now it is true this is a fair indication that convetousnesse is not the prevailing ingredient ; but to him that considers it wisely it will appear to be but a splendid nothing . For what kind of sport is that to bring it into my power to oblige my play-fellow with his own money ? and what bounty is that by which I reward my friends and servants with another mans estate ? Parysatis did it yet more innocently , when playing with her yong son Artaxerxes , she on purpose lost a thousand Darics at a throw , to help the yong Prince to money . Thus far it was well enough ; for I doubt not but it is as lawfull to loose my money as to give it away , if there be nothing else in it : but besides that it is not so honourable , it may be , he that plays against me is not of my mind , or of my ability , and I correspond to him in an action in which he is not so innocent as I should be , if I did not something minister to his evi : so that though I play that I may oblige him , yet there are so many circumstances requir'd to keep my self and him innocent , that it is a thousand times better in some cases to give him something , and in all cases to play for nothing . 3. For it is a worthy inquiry , if we ask whether it be lawfull for a man to possesse what he gaines by play . For if it be unlawfull , then when he hath wone he hath got nothing , but is bound to make restitution , and cannot give almes of that ; and then it can be good for nothing , but on all sides pierces his hand that holds it like a handfull of thorns . But in answer to this question , if I shall speak what I think , I am like to prevail but little , because the whole world practises the contrary ; … .. Et nunc in hacce publica Contage morum , congreges inter malos Malum esse jus est . Nam nunc Leges nihil faciunt quod licet , nisi quod lubet , Nothing prevails but evil manners and evil propositions : and in such things as these it is easy to confute a good counsel or a severe reproof , by saying , The man is angry , or too strict , and all men are not of his mind . Therefore in this inquiry I shall onely tell what I have learn'd in the schools of wisedome , in the laws of wise people , and the sayings of holy men . In the Civil laws of the Romans , all the money that these gamesters wone was taken from them and spent upon public works ; and he that lost and paid the money was punishable , for the Senate forbad to play for money , or to make any promise or give any pledge for payment . The same hath been forbidden by the laws of many republics , ut quod ille in alea perdiderat , beneficio legis dissolveret , that the law should pay what the fool and the prodigal had lost . An old Epigrammatist affirmes that such gains will never thrive , Per scelus immensas quid opes cumulare juvabit ? Turpiter è manibus res malè parta fluit . And no wonder if such gains be the purchaces of a thief , and no better then robbery . Aristotle joyns them together in the same kind of dishonourable crime , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , He that plays at dice for money , and the thief are illiberal gamesters , for they are guilty of filthy lucre : and Seneca says , — immensas opes Jampridem avaris manibus , ut perdat , rapit . He is greedy , and gets nothing ; he wins much , and looses more ; he snatches from his neighbour what belongs to him , and looses that and his own beside . Pascasius Justus observes that the Spaniards call such gamesters Tahur , which is the Metathesis of Hurta , a thief ; for to cast the dice for money what is it but to desire to take another mans money against his will ? and that is theft . S. Bonaventure saies that which is gotten by play is possess'd by no good title , and cannot be lawfully retain'd : he that lost it , hath indeed for his folly deserv'd to loose it ; but he that hath it , does not deserve to keep it , and therefore he must not , nor yet must he restore it to him that lost it , unlesse he persuaded or compell'd him to play ; but therefore the money is to be given to the poor : and the same also is expressely affirmed by S. Austin . Now if it be not lawfull to retain such purchaces , they are not our own when we have wone them , and therefore it is no thanks to us if we give them away . Aleatoris eleemosyna invalida est & nihili apud Deum , saith S. Bonaventure . Oblatio enim de rapina reprobatur ▪ saith the Canon law , and eleemosynae & sacrificium non placent Deo quae offeruntur ex scelere . The money is gotten by an equivocal contract , and an indirect rapine , and therefore can never become a pleasing sacrifice to God ; it is a giving our good to the poor without charity , and that profits not , saith S. Paul. But at last , although he that looses his money , deserves to loose it ; yet because by laws such purchaces and acquisitions are forbidden , and we have no right to give almes of what is not our own , and as God will not accept it when it is done by us , so he hath no where commanded that it should be done at all , therefore it is certain that all such money is to be restor'd , if the looser please . Bona aleâ amissa tanquam furto ablata [ veteres ] restituenda putabant . S. Austin said , that the Ancients did affirm , money wone by dice and tables ought to be restor'd , like the money that was stollen . But if the owner will not , let it ascend to pious uses . And if this be the state of this affair , it cannot be lawfull to play at cards or dice for money . For the love of money is the root of all evil , which some having coveted , have pierced themselves through with many sorrows . And this appears yet more in the next advice . 3. No man can play lawfully at such games but those who are dispassionate , and of sober spirits , under the command of reason and religion ; and therefore to play for money will be quickly criminal , for Ploratur lachrymis amissa pecunia veris ; Et majore domus gemitu , majore tumultu Planguntur nummi quam funera . Men may weep solemnly for the dead , but they will be heartily troubled when their money is departed ; and therefore there is but little sport in such games . And this Alexander the Great rightly observ'd , when he set a fine upon some friends of his , quod in ludo aleae sensisset eos non ludere , sed velut in re maximè seria versari , fortunas suas omnes aleae permittentes arbitrio , because they did not play at dice , but contend as in a matter of greatest concernment . And certainly so it is . For doe not all the nations of the world think the defence of their money and estates a just cause of taking up armes and venturing their lives ? He that plays at games of fortune should put nothing to fortunes conduct , but what he can perfectly subject to reason every minute . Seneca tells that Julius Canus was playing at tables , when the Centurion being sent upon a desperate service , and went out leading agmen hominum periturorum a troup of men to death , hapned to call him out to march in that service . Julius Canus knew the danger well enough , but being summon'd , call'd to his play-fellow to tell the men upon the tables ; and now , saies he , doe not say when I am dead that you had the better of the game ; and desir'd the Centurion to bear him witnesse that he had one man more then the other . He that is thus even and serene may fairly play ; but he that would be so , must not venture considerable portions of his estate , nor any thing , the losse of which displeases him and shakes him into passion . Not that every displeasure , though for a trifle , is criminal ; but that every degree of it tends to evil , and the use of it is not safe , and the effect may be intolerable . Ludit cum multis Vatanas , sed ludere nescit : Et putat imperio currere puncta suo . If the chances will not run as we would have them , or if our passions will not , then it is at no hand safe to play ; unlesse to fret , and vex secretly for trifles , to swear and lie , to blaspheme and curse , to cheat and forswear , to covet and to hate can be innocent . 4. Upon these accounts it is that wise men advise that yong men be at no hand permitted to play at dice or the like games . Ab isto lusu arcendi sunt pueri , tum propter pecunias quas perdunt , tum propter vitia quae colligunt , & mores pravos quos inde addiscunt : Yong men and boys loose their money and learn evil manners at such games , they have great passions , fierce desires and quick angers , and their flames are stirr'd perpetually with chance . It is a sad story that is told of the yong Prince , the onely son of Claudius the Emperor , who when he had lost all his money at dice , and had tir'd out all his invention for the getting more , and could not doe it fairly , being impatient of his losse , and desirous of new hopes and ventures , he stole a rich jewel from his Fathers closet , the Princes Tutor knowing and concealing the theft . But it came to the Emperors ear , and produc'd this tragedy . He disinherited his son , he banished all the Princes play-fellows , and put the Tutor to death . Yong men are not to be trusted to play with such aspics . And therefore Sidonius saies , Alea est oblectamentum senum , ut pila juvenum , Tables for old men , and the Ball for yong men . Cato allows to yong men , armes , horses and bows , and such like sports ; but would have dice and tables permitted to old men , whose minds are more to be refreshed with diversion then their bodies by laborious exercise . And in allusion to this , Augustus in his letter to Tiberius mention'd by Suetonius hath these words , Inter coenam lusimus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & heri & hodie , Yesterday and to day we plai'd like old men ; that is , at tables . But this is matter of prudence , and not of Conscience ; save onely that old men are more masters of reason and rulers of their passion , and a sedentary exercise being fittest for them , they who cannot but remember that they are every day dying , though possibly they need some divertisement to their busied and weary spirits , yet they doe more need to remember their later end , and take care to redeem their time , and above all things not to play for any considerable money , not for any money the losse whereof is bigger then a jest : and they that doe thus , will not easily doe amisse . But better then all these permissions is that resolution of Cicero , Quantum alii tribuunt intempestivis conviviis , quantum denique aleae , quantum pilae , tantum mihi egomet ad haec studia recolenda sumpsero , What time other men spend in feasting and revellings , in dice and gaming , all that I spend in my studies : and that is very well . For though there is good charity in preserving our health , yet there is a greater necessity upon us that we doe not loose our time . 5. That our games may be innocent , we must take care they be not scandalous , that is , not with evil company , not with suspicious company . Ciceroni nequissimorum hominum in ludo talario consessus ? shall Cicero suffer base persons to sit and play at tables in his house ? That 's not well : and therefore he objected it as a great crime to Marc Anthony , domum ejus plenam ebriorum aleatorumque , his house was frequented with gamesters and drunkards . We must neither doe evil , nor seem to doe evil : We must not converse with evil persons , nor use our liberty to our brothers prejudice or grief : we must not doe any thing which he with probability or with innocent weaknesse thinks to be amisse , untill he be instructed rightly ; and if he be , yet if he will be an adversary and apt to take opportunities to reproach you , we must give him no occasion . In these cases , it is fit we abstain : where nothing of these things does intervene , and nothing of the former evils is appendant , we may use our liberty with reason and sobriety . * And then , if this liberty can be so us'd , and such recreations can be innocent , there is no further question , but those trades which minister to these divertisements are innocent and lawfull . RULE III. The act of the Will alone , although no external action or event doe follow , is imputed to good or evil by God and men . THe will of man in the production and perfecting of a sin hath six steps or degrees of volition , in all which the sin is actual , excepting the first onely . 1. The inclination of the will is the first ; and that so far as it is natural , so far it is innocent . Sin oftentimes enters in at that door , but the door was plac'd there in the first creation ; it was a part of that building which God made and not man , and in which every stone and stick was good . It was not made for sin , but for vertue ; but it was made so , that if we would bring sin in that way , it was in our choice , and at our perill . But although this be the case of our natural inclination , yet if our inclinations be acquir'd , or increas'd , or habitual , that is , if they become facilities and promptitudes to sin , they are not innocent : for this state is a state of sin and death , it is the effect of many vile actions and vile desires , it is an aversion from and an enmity against God ; it is a bed of desires which are sometimes asleep , and then doe no more mischief then a sleeping wolfe , but when they are awake they doe all the evil they can . And therefore the case of an habitual sinner is such , that even his first inclinations to any forbidden action in the instance of his own habit are criminal as the external effect . But in natural inclinations the case is different . 2. The first beginning of the sin is when the will stops and arrests it self upon the tempting object , and consents onely so far that it will have it consider'd and disputed . Then the will is come too far , not when it is willing a thing should be disputed whether it be lawfull or unlawfull , good or evil ; but when it is willing it be considered which is to be followed , Reason or Sense , wise counsels or sensual pleasures : for when the will is gone so far it is past beyond what is natural , and come so far towards choice and guiltinesse , that it is yet no more friend to vertue then to vice , and knows not which to chuse . 3. The next step the will makes is when it is pleas'd with the thought of it , and tasts the honey with the top of a rod , a little phantastic pleasure before-hand in the meditation of the sin . This prelibation is but the antepast of the action , and as the twilight to the dark night , it is too near an approach to a deed of darknesse . 4. When the will is gone thus far and is beyond the white lines of innocence , the next step towards a perfect sin is a desire to doe the action ; not clearly and distinctly , but upon certain conditions , if it were lawfull , and if it were convenient , and if it were not for something that lies crosse in the way . Here our love to vertue is lost , onely fear and God's restraining grace remains still for the revocation of the man to wisedome and security . 5. But when this obstacle is remov'd , and that the heart consents to the sin , then the Spirit is departed , and then there remains nothing but that the sin be [ 6 ] contriv'd within , and [ 7. ] committed to the faculties and members to goe about their new and unhappy imployment ; and then both the outward and the inward man have combin'd and made up the body of a sin . But the sin begins within , and the guilt is contracted by what is done at home , by that which is in our own power , by that which nothing from without can hinder . For as for the external act , God for ends of his own providence does often hinder it ; and yet he that fain would , but cannot bring his evil purposes to passe , is not at all excused , or the lesse a Criminal before God. Question . But is it not a mercy for a man to be recalled from acting his adultery ? is it not charity to two persons to keep Autolycus from killing the steward of Stratocles ? and if so , then there is sin in the action as well as in the affection , and the hand sins distinctly from the heart : but then it will be found untrue to say that all our good and evil comes from the will and choice , and yet it will not be possible to tell from what principle the evil of the hand is derived , if not from the evil will. This brings a necessity of inquiring into the union , or difference of the actions internal and external , and the influence the will hath upon the external act , and whether it can have any aggravation or degree beyond what it receives from the inward principle . To this therefore I answer , That all the morality of any action depends wholly on the will , and is seated in the inner man ; and the eye is not adulterous , but it is the instrument of an adulterous heart ; and the hand is not the thief before God , but the covetous desire is guilty : and this appears in this , because if a man takes the goods of his neighbour , which he would not have taken if he had suppos'd they had been his neighbours , he is innocent before God. And yet it cannot be denied but it is worse to steal then to covet , it is worse to humble and dishonour our neighbours wife then to lust after her . But the reason is , because the doing of the action supposes a great many precedent acts of lust , even the whole method and oeconomy of sin : for every act of the will , every degree of desire is lusting or covetousnesse ; and the external act which supposes them all , is worse then all them except the last . The natural inclination of the will is but a capacity or readinesse and disposition of the faculty , and is no act . But the arrest and stop of the will , the delight in fancying , the desire of action , the consent of the heart , and the deliberation and resolution , these are the acts and products of the will ; and the second is worse then the first , and the third worse then the second , and so till we come to the immediate addresse to the action : but that action is not worse then the last resolution and deliberate purpose of the will ; and therefore when it is charity to hinder the man from acting his lust , it is therefore charity , because in the acting of the sin externally there are more acts of the will , even the whole method of death is completed , and the same acts of will are repeated , or confirm'd , and there is mischief done to some person or to some interest , to something besides the sinning man , and there are some contingencies and some circumstances to which new actions of the will must be consenting and give their influence and renew their acts : but still , if we compare every consent and deliberate purpose of the will with the action , or that part of the action which is immediately produc'd in it , there is in that event no morality , and no good , and no evil but what is first within . So that he who hinders a man from acting of his lust , does hinder him not from sins distinct from those of his will , but from more sins of the will , from repetition , or confirmation , or abiding in the same chosen folly . Upon this account it will be easy to answer whether is the greater sin , the wishing and desiring a very great evil , and willingly doing but a little one , or the doing a very great evil and an intolerable mischief with a little malice . For it is certain that the sin is much more increas'd by the malice of the action and effect then by the malice of the will , if the malice of the will be little , and the evil of the event be great and intolerable . For at first to desire a very great mischief , and then to act but a little one , supposes that the great malice went not to it 's utmost period ; it was desir'd , but not resolved on , and deliberately determin'd : and then that malice though in it self great , yet it was ineffective , and was retracted before it was consummate by the will , and acted by her subjects the other faculties and members . But now , if a great mischief be done by a little malice , to that little malice all that event is to be imputed : though not to it alone , yet to that malice manag'd by ignorance , carelessenesse and folly ; which being no excuses , but of themselves criminal appendages , the man shall be judged by his action , not by his ignorant and imperfect choice ; because though the choice was naturally imperfect , yet morally and in the whole conjunction of it's circumstances it was completely Criminal . If this thing happens to be otherwise in any particular , God will discern it , and not man ; for the greatnesse of the mischief in humane laws and accounts supposes the greatnesse of the malice , if malice at all , and not chance wholly was the principle . But if the question be in the acting of a great mischief where the sin most lies , in the will or in the event , I say it is originally in the will ; and it is equally in the event , if all that event was foreseen and known , although it was not principally or at all design'd . He that steales a cow from a widow , and does verily believe that the losse of her cow will not onely undoe her , but break her heart , though he does not designe this , yet because he knows it , all that event is to be imputed to him . They that abuse their own bodies by abominable and unclean contacts , & the sin of Onan , though they design onely the pleasing of their lust , yet if they consider what they doe , and what will be the event , they secondarily chuse all that event , and are as guilty of it as of that which they principally design'd . — quòd pellice laevâ Uteris , & Veneri servit amica manus , Hoc nihil esse putas ? scelus est , mihi crede , sed ingens , Quantum vix animo concipis ipse tuo . Ipsam crede tibi naturam dicere rerum , Istud quod digitis , Pontice , perdis , homo est . For the internal act of the will and the external act of the man are but one act , unlesse the instrument and the efficient cause produce two distinct effects in every concourse ; and whatsoever is done without is first consented to within , and is but the ministery and execution of the sin within . For the act of chusing is the foundation of all morality : and therefore when not onely the first design , but the appendages and other consequents are foreseen , and yet the action is chosen , the will is guilty of so many evils as it chuses directly and indirectly , principally and consequently . But to reduce this doctrine to more minute and particular considerations and order . Of the identity and diversity respectively of actions internal and external , and the multiplications of sins by them . 1. Every external act proceeding from the internal makes but one moral act , whether it be good or bad . The election and choice is the foundation : and as they are many houses which are built upon many foundations , but many chambers and galleries built upon one foundation is but one house , though there be many rooms ; so the internal and external relying upon one basis operating to the same end , effecting the same work , having the same cause , and being but several lengths of the same thrid , doe not make two acts ; as the soul seeing by the eye hath but one vision , and the will acting by the hand does but her own act by her own instrument : and therefore although they are Physically or Naturally several actions , because elicite and acted by several faculties , yet morally they are but one ; for what the hand or eye alone does , is neither good nor evil , but it is made so by the mind and will. 2. If there be two acts of will in one external act , there is a double malice or goodnesse respectively . A Prince commands his Almoner to give much almes to the poor ; the almoner being also a good man loves the imployment , and does it very often : the external act is but the one ministery of almes , but the internal is both obedience and charity . 3. The external act is the occasion of the intending or extending the internal , but directly & of it self increases not the goodnesse or the badnesse of it . For the external act is not properly and formally good or bad , but onely objectively and materially ; just as a wall cannot increase the whitenesse , unlesse the quality it self be intended by it's own principle . But as heat in iron is more intense then it is in straw ; so may the goodnesse or the badnesse of an internal act be increased by the external : but this is onely by accident . By instances of these several assertions , they will be more intelligible . When John surnam'd the Almoner commanded his boy to carry an almes to a poor man that was sick in the next village , the boy sometimes would detain it and reserve it for his own vanity ; but S. John lost not the reward of his charity , for his internal act was good , but it was no cause of the outward event at all . And on the other side , when Maevius lay with his wife Petronilla , supposing she had been Nicostrata , he was an adulterer before God , though by the laws of men he was harmlesse . And if a man steals a horse in the night from his neighbours field , and carries him away secretly , and by the morning perceives it to be his own , he is no lesse guilty before God and his Confesssor then if he had indeed stoln his neighbours . The reason is , because the external act hath another cause , which is or may be innocent , but the internal act was of it self completely evil and malicious . In these cases , where the internal volition is not the cause of the external event , the sin is terminated within , and that to him who is to be our Judge is as visible as any thing . But when the internal volition is properly the cause of the action external , there more is done then it could doe alone . For in a good work the will finds the difficulties which it could not perceive while it was onely in purpose ; and it is easy to resolve to be patient in sicknesse when we feel nothing of it , but onely discourse it , and cast about in our easy minds what we suppose it will be : but Tu si hic esses , aliter sentires , said the sick man ; it may be when it comes to be acted , the will shall find new work , new difficulties , and will need new fortifications , and renewed resolutions , and the repetition of acts , and fresh aids of reason : so that although all the good or evil that is in all this , is the good or evil of the will ; yet this is it which I said , that the external action hath in it the materiality of good and evil , and by accident the external act is better then the internal , that is , the will does better when she reduces her purposes to act very often , then when she does onely resolve . And for this very reason 4. The external act does superadde new obligations beyond those which are consequent to the mere internal volition though never so perfect and complete . For the external act is exemplar in vertue , or scandalous in evil ; it obliges to restitution , to Ecclesiastical censures and legal penalties , in which there are active and passive duties incumbent on us ( as I have represented in the third book . ) Thus also in good things ; the external participation of the Sacraments hath in it some advantages beyond the internal : but these things are accidental to the action , and nothing of the nature of it ; they are nothing of the direct morality , but the consequent of it ; which the sinner ought indeed to have consider'd beforehand , and to act or to omit accordingly . 5. If the course and continuance of the outward act be interrupted , and then proceeded in again , when the cause of the intercision is over , that action seeming but one , is more then one sin , or vertuous act respectively . He that resolves to bring up a poor orphan in learning and capacities of doing and receiving worthy benefit , does often sleep and often not think of it , and hath many occasions to renew his resolution : although his obligation be still permanent , yet if he delights in it , and again chuses , so often is the almes imputed to him , he does so many acts of charity . Titius intends to give to Codrus a new gown at the next Calends , but forgets his intention ; but yet at the Calends does upon a new intention give him a gown . This act is but one , but hath no morality from the first intention , but from the second , though there were two internal acts of volition to the same external ; because the first did cease to be , and therefore could have no influence into the effect . But this multiplication of actions and imputations cannot be by every suddain and physical interruption , but by such an interruption onely where the first intention is not sufficient to finish the external act . Thus if a man against his will nod at his prayers , and awakening himself by his nodding proceed in his devotion , he does not pray twice , but once , because the first intention is sufficient to finish his prayer . But if he falls asleep over-night and sleeps till morning , his morning-prayer is upon a new account , and his will must renew her act , or nothing is done . But in instances of good this part of the Rule hath but little use ; for no man will dare to call God to a strict and minute reckoning , and require his reward by number and weight . But in sinfull actions there is more consideration ; and if we be not strict in our weights and measures , God will ; and if we will not be sure to put enough into the ballance of repentance , there will be too much in that of judgment and condemnation : and therefore it concerns us as much as we can , to tell the number of our sins . Therefore 6. External actions in order to one end , though produc'd by one internal act or resolution of the will , yet doe not make one external act , unlesse the end be at the same time acquir'd . Thus if the man resolves to lay wait for his enemy till he have destroyed him , and therefore lays wait to day and to morrow , and prevails not untill the third day , his sin is more then one , though his resolution was but one . The reason is , because there must of necessity be a repetition of the same resolution , or at least of some ministring acts toward the perfecting that resolution ; and although the resolution and the end were one , yet to every ministring intermedial act there is also some internal act proportionate . Thus every impure contact in order to impure embraces are sins distinct from the final adultery , and so is the joyfull remembrance of it afterwards . But because these things have in them some little intricacy , therefore I add this which is plain and usefull : Every renewing of an external action subordinate to a sinfull end is either a repeating of the sin , or , which is all one , it is an aggravation of it ; it extends it , or intends it . He that calls a man fool three times together either commits three sins , or one as great as three : and he that strikes seven blows to kill a man , hath so many times lift up his hand against God ; and though he hath kill'd the man but once , yet he shall be avenged seven times . But if after any notable interruption of the act , the intention be renewed , so often is the sin repeated , though it be but one external event afterward . He that resolves every day of the week to be absent from Divine service the Sunday following , is to estimate his sin by the number of his internal actions , and not by the singularity of that omission . 7. Internal acts of the will are then multiplied , when they proceed after an expresse revocation , or a deliberate intermission , or a considerable physical interruption , or by an actual attendance to things incompossible and inconsistent with the first resolution . There is no difficulty in these particulars , save onely that in making judgments concerning them we proceed by prudent and moral proportions , by the usual measures of laws , and the accounts of wise men ; onely the extremes are evident and notorious . For he that being upon his knees looses his attention for a minute & then recalls it , does not pray twice , or so often as he again thinks actually of what he is doing ; and we are sure that he who saies a Pater noster to day , and another to morrow , does pray twice : and between these no certain rule can be given but what is measur'd and divided by prudence and similitude with the unity of natural and artificial compositions . But he onely does well who secures his cases of conscience in this inquiry , by interrupting his evil acts as soon as they begin , and gives them quite over as soon as they are interrupted , and when he hath chosen well , perseveres as long as nature and exteriour accidents will give him leave , and renews that choice as soon as his divertisement can cease . Question . In the pursuit of the matter of this Rule , it is seasonable to inquire concerning [ what degrees of guiltinesse are contracted by the beginnings and desires of wickednesse which are imperfect and unfinish'd . ] I have already * given account that the inward acts of will are very often punishable by humane laws , and from thence some light may be reflected to this inquiry , which is concerning the estimate which God and the Conscience are to make of imperfect actions : for though in humane accounts and the estimate of our laws , that a thing is secret or public is a great difference and concernment ; yet in this question , and in relation to God and the conscience immediately , it is nothing at all , for nothing here is secret , every thing is visible , and it is always day here . But now the inquiry is concerning those things which are imperfect , and so sometimes are secret as to men because they are onely in desires , and sometimes they are public , but yet not finished & completed : And here the rule is , Nunquam mens exitu aestimanda est . God judges not by the event , but by the mind , by the good or ill will : so Apuleius , In maleficiis etiam cogitata scelera , non perfecta adhuc , vindicantur , cruentâ mente , purâ manu . He that thinks it , that is , that resolves it perfectly , putting the last hand of the will to it , his mind is bloudy , though his hand be pure , and shall find an equal vengeance . But this is to be understood of the last act of the will , and that which is immediate to the external action ; if it be in counsel , that is , not whether it shall be done or no , but how it shall be done , it is as bad and hatefull in the eyes of God as the external violence . To this purpose is that of Paulus the Lawyer , Consilium uniuscujusque , non factum puniendum est , Not the fact ; but the Counsel is to be punished : by Counsel meaning the design and resolution , the perfect and complete volition , which is then without all question come to the perfection of its malice and evil heart , when it is gone as far as to the beginning of action . Insidiatus civi etiamsi non effecerit scelus , poenas tamen legibus solvet , said Quintilian , He that lays a snare for a mans life shall smart for it , though the man escape ; the laws shall punish him : but if they doe not , it is all one in Conscience . For as Donatus said well , Non perficere , sed conari velle aliquid ad scelus , effectio est , etiamsi non potest fieri . It is nothing to the sinner that God defends the innocent and rescues him from his fraud or violence , or slander ; he hath done his work when he resolv'd and endeavour'd it . For there is no degrees of morality beyond the last act of the will : the sin or vertue may be extended by multiplication or confirmation of the same acts , but no way intended beyond that act of the will which commands execution . But this distinction ought to be observed not onely in order to punishments inflicted by humane laws upon Criminals accus'd of imperfect acts , but in order to conscience . For though the whole morality of the act depends upon the last purpose of the will , and is before God the fulnesse of the sin in respect of degrees of any simple sin ; yet when it passes on to execution the will may grow worse by repetition of her acts , or abiding in them , she may sin more sins . For the acts themselves about which there are endeavours made , are not always perfect , so as the criminal can perfect them ; for it is not to all purposes perfect when the will hath commanded the resolution to be acted , no nor when something is done towards it by the sinning man , but something else may be added , and till it be , there is some difference in the case . The examples will clear it . Priscus Merula resolves to kill his brother Taurinus , and in order to it , buyes a dagger , way-lays him as he goes to Augustus , set upon him , throws him down ; but as he is lifting up his hand to strike , hears a noise behind the hedge , and being affrighted , curses his brother and wished him dead , and runs away . Merula is in the sight of God guilty of murder , and if he had kill'd him effectively , there had been no greater malice , but more mischief , and more acts of malice ; and therefore the judges are to diminish something of his punishment , not onely because the life of a citizen was not lost , but because Merula had not done all his part of the murder , that is , his brother could not have died , unlesse he had done something beyond what he did . But when the Egyptian nobility being weary of a dull melancholy Prince , who by his healthlesse spirit was good for nothing , gave him a brisk poison to dispatch him ; that which would have burnt to ashes any person that had any fire within him , did but heighten him to the ordinary temper of another man , it onely warm'd him into an active spirit , and he became a wise Prince . Here the murder was not effected , but there was on the traytors part nothing wanting to the completing of the wickednesse : and therefore as in humane laws they are to have no abatement of sentence extraordinary , so in the Court of Conscience they are to think of no excuse , no diminution , but every thing is present that can make all that greatnesse which can be in the nature of that sin : and in the first case there may be an alteration so timely as to change the mind before it was at the utmost end of the line of wickednesse ; but in the second case , whether the effect follow or no , there is place left for nothing , unlesse peradventure for repentance . That part which concerns humane laws is alterable as men please , and in Christendome ( unlesse it be in the greatest crimes ) custome hath against the purpose of laws given impunity to them who without effect have attempted to commit vile actions ; yet in the Court of Conscience and by the measures of religion the matter is unchangeable . There are some other ways of imperfect acts , which are to be regulated by the proportion of these measures . 1. He that kills a child in his Mothers wombe is as guilty of murder as he that kills a man in the field , if he did equally intend it . In this it is true that the Lawyers and Physicians distinguish the time of the abortion . If the child was efform'd into a humane shape it is capital by the laws ; but not if it was inform and unshapen . But in order to Conscience I perfectly consent to the doctrine of the old Christians , recorded by Tertullian , Etiam conceptum utero , dum adhuc sanguis in hominem deliberatur , dissolvere non licet . Homicidii festinatio est prohibere nasci . Nec refert natam quis eripiat animam an nascentem disturbet . Homo est , & qui futurus est : etiam fructus omnis jam in semine est . While the bloud is in deliberation whether it shall be male or female , it is not lawfull to dissolve it ; and he that intends to hinder it from life is but a hasty murderer . He is guilty of inferring death who prevents that to have life to which God and nature did design it . But this is owing to the choice and design of the will , for the effect of one is much lesse then the effect of the other upon many considerations : but if the malice was not lesse , the difference of the effect makes no diminution . The other case is , If a man smite his neighbour that he die , he shall surely be put to death , saith God to Moses . That is , if he purpose to smite him , though he did not purpose to kill him , but wound him onely , he hath sinn'd unto death . The Vulgar Latin reads it , Qui percusserit hominem volens occidere ] He that smites a man , willing to kill him . But this last clause is neither in the Hebrew nor the Greek . And though it is something lesse to intend to wound him grievously , then to kill him ; yet he that willingly gives that wound which he would have doe him a mischief , and gives it so that it does give him his death , had a malice so great that it could not well discern between wounds and death . But in this case though it is certain God will judge righteously , and make abatement if there be any cause ; yet in humane laws , and in the measures of his own repentance he will not and ought not to find gentle sentences , but the whole perfect event will be imputed to the imperfect act of his will. For it was too much that he was willing to doe any mischief ; and ex toto noluisse debet qui imprudentiâ defenditur , said Seneca : He cannot pretend that the evil event was against his will , when it is certain he did perfectly consent to a great part of it . RULE IV. An involuntary effect proceeding from a voluntary cause is imputed to the agent , as if it were voluntary and directly chosen . HE that is Husband of the wife is justly presum'd to be the Father of the child , and he that chuses the cause must own all those which are the effects and proper productions of it ; and all causes are not immediate and contiguous to the effect . He that drinks himself drunk that without fear and shame he may fornicate , though when he fornicates he hath not the use of his reason any more then of his modesty , and cannot deliberate , and therefore cannot chuse , yet he is guilty of fornication as well as drunkennesse . He that eats high and drinks deep that in his sleep he may procure pollution , is guilty of that uncleannesse as well as of that excesse , which S. Paul intimates in those words , Make not provision for the flesh to fullfill the lusts thereof ; that is , what you design as the purpose of your intemperance , is your crime , though it be a natural effect when things are by your choice so disposed : and when our Blessed Saviour commanded us to take heed of surfeting and drunkennesse , he forewarned us as well of the effect as of the cause ; for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , surfeting hath it's name from the event , because it causes dissolutions of the nerves and dilutions of the brain , and consequently palsies , which when we have contracted , we are by our own fault disabled in the service of God. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , surfeting is the product of yesterdayes debauchery : and since the effect is also forbidden , he that chuses it by delighting in the cause , chuses also what is forbidden , and therefore that which will be imputed to him . But this I have largely proved upon a distinct account , by making it appear that even a vitious habit , the facility and promptnesse to sin is an aversion from God , and makes us hatefull by a malignity distinct from that which is inherent in all the single actions . Thus he sins that swears by custome , though he have no advertency to what he saies , and knows nothing of it : he chose those actions which introduc'd the habit , and he can derive no impunity from his first crime : and he that is the greatest sinner can never come to that state of things that he shall take God's name in vain , and yet be held guiltlesse . But this Rule is to be understood with these Cautions . 1. The involuntary effect is imputed to the voluntary cause , if that effect was foreseen , or if it was design'd , though when it be acted , the foolish man knows but little of it , no more then a beast does of his own acts of pleasure , which he perceives by sense , but does not by Counsel enter into it . Of this there is no question , because he put his hand to a hook of iron , and that being fastned upon the rich vessels in the house draws forth what the man it may be knows not to be there ; but his hand willingly mov'd the iron hook , and therefore his hand and his will is the thief . 2. The involuntary effect is not imputed to the voluntary cause , if after it is chosen by the will in one act , it is revok'd by another before the mischief be effected . Thus if Maevius shoot an arrow to kill Paternus , and in the instant of it's egression nollet factum , repents of the intended evil , that mischief which is then done shall not be imputed to him . This indeed is generally said both by the Divines and Lawyers ; but it hath no effect at all that is material and considerable , save onely this , that the repentance does wash away the guilt : but in true speaking the whole guilt was contracted , because the act of the will was completed up to action and execution , beyond which there can be no intension of the evil ; but then the effect is therefore not imputed because the cause also is pardon'd by the meanes of repentance , and so it is even after the mischief is done . He that by repentance recalls the mischief , shall by pardon be clear'd from guiltinesse , whether that repentance be before or after . 3. But that which we can rely upon in this particular , and of which great use is to be made , is this , That though all the evil events which are foreseen , or ought to have been consider'd , are imputed even then when they are not in our power , to him who willingly brought in the cause of those evils ; yet whatsoever was not foreseen , and therefore not design'd , nor yet chosen , by consequence and implication is not imputed to him that brought that foolish necessity upon himself . Consonant to this is the doctrine of S. Austin , Culpandus est Loth non quantum incestus in ebrietate admissus , sed quantum ebrietas meretur , Lot was answerable for his drunkennesse , but not for his incest caused by his drunkennnesse , which he foresaw not and designed not . But this case also suffers alteration . For if Lot had been warned of the evils of his first nights drunkennesse , and yet would be drunk the next night , he is not so innocent of the effect , the incest lies nearer to him . Onely if after that monition he suspected as little as at first , he was not indeed guilty of the incest directly , but of a more intolerable drunkennesse and a carelesse spirit , who by the first sad event did not consider and was not affrighted from the intolerable cause . But thus if a servant throws himself into a pit , and breaks a leg or an arme that he might not work , his not working is as much imputed to him as his uncharitable injury to himself : but if afterwards , as Pyrrho saw his Master faln into a ditch , and by reason of that first fall he cannot help his Master out , that is not to be imputed to him ; for he will'd it not , it was not included virtually in any act of his will or understanding . And thus it is also in the Divine judgements , which if we procure by our own vilenesses , all that impotency and disability of obeying God in external religion which is consequent to the suffering that judgment which himself procur'd , & by which he is faln sick or mad or lame , is not imputed to him ; because to make himself guilty of a thing , it is not sufficient that he be the meritorious cause of that which procur'd it , but he must be the voluntary and discerning cause . That evil of which a man is onely the meritorious cause depends upon another will besides his own , and is indeed an effect deserv'd by him , but not willingly consented to , but very much against him ; and therefore can never be imputed to him to any other purpose but to upbraid his infelicity , who justly suffers what he would not foresee , and now cannot avoid . 4. When a man falls into a state or condition in which he cannot chuse , those acts which are done in that state are imputed to him , if they be such acts to which no new consent is requir'd , but that it be sufficient that he doe not dissent , and if those acts be consonant to his former will , all such effects are imputed to the will. Thus if Titius being a Catechumen desir'd to be baptized , and then falls into madnesse , or stupidity , or a lethargy he is capable of being baptized , because nothing is in some persons requir'd but a mere susceptibility , and that there be no just impediment ; the grace of the Sacrament being so mere a favour , that it is the first grace to which nothing on our parts is previous but that all impediments be removed . Since therefore in this a man is passive , his present indisposition of making new acts of election renders him not incapable of receiving a favour ; always provided that there was in him no indisposition and impediment before his present accident , but that he did desire it and was capable before : that volition hath the same effect in the present state of madnesse or stupidity as it could have if he had been well . But when this comes to be reduc'd to practice , I know of no material change it works upon the man in case he dies in that sad affliction , but what was by the mercies of God laid up for him upon the account of his own goodnesse and the mans former desire . But if he does live , that susception of the Sacrament of baptisme is sufficient for him for his whole life , and the daies of his recovery ; that is , all that which he could be bound to in the susception , is perform'd effectively in that state in which he could not presently chuse . But I shall resume this consideration and inquiry upon occasion of something to be explicated in the sixth Rule of this Chapter . 5. But in matter of punishment the case is something different . The case is this ; Mizaldus a Florentine smote an Officer of the Great Duke in the Court , and apprehending that he was in great danger of suffering a great punishment , grew sad and impatient , and at last distracted ● the question upon the case is , Question . Whether or no Mizaldus may , being mad , be punished by death , or the abscission of his hand , for a fact he did in his health and the days of understanding . To this the answers are various by reason of the several cases that may arise . 1. If the punishment cannot be inflicted without legal processe , trial , conviction and sentence , the mad man cannot be punish'd , because he is not capable of passing through the solennities of law : but if the sentence was pass'd before his madnesse , then the evil may be inflicted , that is , it is just if it be ; and it may be done unlesse some other consideration interpose to hinder it . 2. In punishments where no judicial processe is requir'd , a man that is mad may be punish'd for what he did when he was sober . If a son strikes his Father , and then falls mad , the Father may disinherit him for all his madnesse , because the Father may proceed summarily and upon sense of the crime ; and he that by his own voluntary act did deserve it , is not by madnesse made uncapable of the punishment , to which in this case nothing but a passivenesse is requir'd . 3. This also holds in cases of punishments ipso facto incurr'd , that is , which a man is fallen into as soon as ever the crime is committed . And of this there is a double reason ; the one is because the punishment is actually incurred before he is actually mad , for the very crime it self is to him as a Judge and sentence , and the sanction of the law is all the solennity : and that 's the other reason , consequent to the former ; in this case there needs no processe , and therefore the sinners indisposition cannot make him uncapable of passing into punishment . 4. In punishments Emendatory , that is , such which besides the exemplar justice , intend to reform the Criminal , he that is fallen into madnesse ought not to suffer them , whether the sentence be to be pass'd by the law or by the Judge , whether it be solemn or summary , whether it be pass'd before his calamity or after . The reason of this is plain , because such punishments being in order to an end which cannot be acquired , are wholly to no purpose , and therefore are tyrannical and unreasonable ; the man is not capable of amendment , and therefore not of such punishments which are emendatory . But after all this , the moderation of charity in Christian Judicatories is such , as that they refuse to inflict corporal penalties on distracted people , it being enough that they are already but too miserable . Solus te jam praestare potest Furor insontem : proxima puris Sors est manibus , nescire nefas . He that knows not what he does , or what he hath done , is next to him that is innocent . And when the man is civilly dead , it is to little purpose to make him sink further under the civil sword . That 's a dreadfull justice and security that would kill a man twice over . Onely when any thing of example , or public interest , or detestation of the fact is concern'd , it may be done according to the former measures , and for the present considerations ; just as it is in some cases lawfull to punish a man after he is dead , by denying him an honourable or Christian sepulture : where although there be something particular in the case , the nature of this punishment being such , that because we doe not bury them before they be dead , this evil must be inflicted upon him that feels it not , or not all be inflicted ; yet indeed it is true that it ought not at all to be inflicted upon any direct account of justice , but upon collateral considerations , as for terror and exemplarity ; and so it may be in the case of the present question . §. 2. Of the Diminutions of voluntary actions : and first of Ignorance , and it's influence into the morality of Humane actions . RULE V. Nothing is good or bad , but what we know , or concerning which we can deliberate . 1. THe great measures of morality are , Chuse the good , and eschew the evil : before these can be chosen or avoided they must be consider'd and discern'd . And therefore those things concerning which there can be no deliberation are neither morally good nor bad , and those persons who cannot deliberate , can neither be vertuous nor vicious ; but the things may be lawfull , and the persons be innocent , but both of them negatively , that is , the things are not evil , and the persons are not criminal . And therefore S. Paul celebrating the immense love of God to mankind , says that God would have all men to be saved ; and in order to this , he addes , he would have all men come to the knowledge of the truth , as knowing this to be the onely way : no man can be sav'd unlesse he knows saving truth , but every man may be sav'd unlesse it be his own fault ; and therefore there is to every man reveal'd so much truth as is sufficient to his salvation . It may be this saving truth is reveal'd by degrees , and so that he who hath the first general propositions of nature and reason , and uses them well , shall have more , even so much as is necessary untill he comes to all sufficient knowledge . He that comes to God ( saith S. Paul ) must believe that God is , and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him . This is the Gentiles Creed , but such as at first will be sufficient to bring them unto God ; whether when they are come he will give them his Holy Spirit , and teach them whatsoever is yet necessary . I am not here to dispute what is likely to be the condition of Heathens in the other world : it concerns not us , it is not a case of Conscience : but we are sure that all me have the Law of God written in their hearts ; that God is so manifested in the creatures , and so communicates himself to mankind in benefits and blessings , that no man hath just cause to say he knows not God. We see also that the Heathens are not fools , that they understand arts and sciences , that they discourse rarely well of the works of God , of good and evil , of punishment and reward : and it were strange that it should be impossible for them to know what is necessary , and stranger yet that God should exact that of them which is not possible for them to know . But yet on the other side , we see infinite numbers of Christians that know very little of God , and very many for whom there is no course taken that they should know him ; and what shall be the event of these things is hard to tell . But it is very certain that without a mans own fault , no man shall eternally perish : and therefore it is also certain that every man that will use what diligence he can and ought in his circumstances , he shall know all that in his circumstances is necessary ; and therefore Justin Martyr said well , voluntate ignorare illos , qui res ad cognitionem ducentes hebent , nec de scientia laborant . Every man hath enough of knowledge to make him good if he please : and it is infinitely culpable and criminal that men by their industry shall become so wise in the affairs of the world , and so ignorant in that which is their Eternal interest ; it is because they love it not . Non aurum in viridi quaeritis arbore , Nec vite gemmas carpitis : Non altis laqueos montibus abditis Ut pisce ditetis dapes , No man looks for Emeralds in a tree , nor cuts his vines hoping that they will bleed rubies or weep pearls . Which of all the Heathens or Christians ever went to take goats in the Tyrrhene waters , or look'd for Crystall in a furnace ? Many know what pits have the best Oysters , and where the fattest Tortoise feeds . Sed quonam lateat quod cupiunt bonum Nescire caeci sustinent : Et quod stelliferum trans abiit polum Tellure demersi petunt , and yet they look for immortality in money , and dig deep into the earth , hoping there to find that blessednesse which their reason tells them dwells beyond the starres . Men have enough of reason and law put into their hearts by which they read the will of God ; and therefore no man can in the universall lines and measures of salvation pretend ignorance : I am sure we cannot , and that is all that concerns us . And therefore ignorance in the Law of God , in that which concerns our necessary duty , is so far from excusing any thing it causes , that it self is very criminal . Non est levius omnino nescire quod liceat , quam facere aliquid quod scias non licere , To doe somethings that we know to be unlawfull , is not so great a crime , as to be wholly ignorant of what is and what is not lawfull . So that since the great end why God hath given us liberty and election , reason and understanding , is that by these we should serve him and partake of his felicities , it follows that in all that is of necessity to our salvation God is not wanting to give us sufficient notice ; and of good and evil in general every man that hath the use of reason does or may understand the rules and differences . But if we descend to particular rules and laws , the case is different . So Gregory Nyssen said , Universalium secundum electionem non esse involuntariam ignorantiam , sed particularium , A man cannot against his will be ignorant of the universal precepts that concern our life Eternal and Election , but of particulars a man may . That a man must not oppresse his brother by cruel or crafty bargains every man ought to know : but there are many that doe not know whether all usury be a cruelty or oppression , or in any sense criminal . But concerning these things we may better take an estimate by the following measures . Of what things a man may or may not be innocently ignorant . 1. No man can be innocently ignorant of that which all the Nations of the world have ever believed and publicly professed ; as that there is a God ; that God is good and just and true ; that he is to be worshipped ; that we must doe no more wrong then we are willing to receive or suffer . Because these things and the like are so conveyed to us in our creation that we know them without an external Teacher ; and yet they are so every where taught , that we cannot but know them , if we never consulted with our natural reason . 2. No Christian can be innocently ignorant of that which the Catholic Church teaches to be necessary to salvation . The reason of this is , because every one that knows any thing of God , and of heaven and hell , as every Christian is suppos'd to doe , cannot but know it is necessary he learn something or other in order to it ; and if any thing , then certainly that which is necessary : and of that nothing can so well judge , nothing can teach so readily as the whole Church ; for if the whole Church teaches it as necessary , then it is taught every where , and at all times , and therefore to be ignorant of such things can never be suppos'd innocent . 3. Of that which is by several Churches and societies of wise and good men disputed , a man may be innocently ignorant ; for there is suppos'd difficulty , and obscurity , and every degree of these is the greatest indication that there is not of them any absolute necessity . What God hath made necessary to be known , he hath given sufficient means by which it can be known . But because every man cannot dispute , and of them that can , very many doe it to very little purpose , and they had better let it alone , and by disputing men often make more intrigues , but seldome more manifestations of what is obscure ; it is certain that which cannot be known but with some difficulty and more uncertainty , may be unknown with very much innocence . 4. Those things which doe not concern good life , and the necessities of this world and of the other , are not of necessity to be known by every one ; because there is beyond these no common and universal necessity . But beyond these . 5. Whatsoever concerns every mans duty in special , to which he is specially oblig'd , of that he cannot innocently be ignorant , because he hath brought upon himself a special obligation of a new duty , to which he must take care that sufficient aides and notices be procur'd . Thus must a Bishop understand not onely the articles of faith , but the rules of manners , not onely for himself , but for those which are under his charge ; he must be able to instruct others in the mysteries of religion , and to convince the gainsayers ; that is , he must have knowledge sufficient to doe what God requires of him , and what himself hath undertaken . * But then as there is in the duty of every Christian , so there is in the charge of every office , some things that are primely necessary , some things that are onely usefull , and some for ornament , and some for excellency and perfection . So that as of every Christian so much knowledge is requir'd , that he be not ignorant of what is necessary for his great calling , but of other things lesse necessary there is lesse knowledge requir'd ; so it is in every special calling . For although a Bishop must know how to teach sound doctrine , and to reprove evil manners ; & if he knows not these things , his ignorance is criminal : yet a Bishop may be innocent and laudable though he be not so learned as S. Gregory Nyssen . Valerius the Bishop of Hippo was a good man and a good Bishop , yet he was not so instructed and able as his successor S. Austin ; and Nectarius of Constantinople was accounted a good Patriarch , yet he was very far short of S. Chrysostome . Of what is more then of simple necessity , some may be innocently ignorant , but yet very few are . Because God hath not confin'd his providence and his spirit to the ministery onely of what is merely and indispensably necessary : and therefore when God hath largely dispensed and open'd the treasures of his wisedome and heavenly notices , we should doe well not to content our selves with so much onely as will keep us from perishing . Therefore that the Conscience may be directed how far it's obligation of inquiry does extend , and may be at peace when it inquires wisely whether the duty be done , these are the best measures whereby we can take account . What diligence is necessary that our ignorance may be innocent . 1. Our inquirie after things necessary must have no abatement or diminution , nothing lesse then that it be so great and diligent as that the work be done . Because whatsoever is necessary is sufficiently communicated , and without that we cannot doe our duty , or receive the felicity design'd for us ; and in that where God's part is done , if the event answer not , it is because we have not done our part , and then we are not innocent . So that in these inquiries we are no otherwise to make a judgement of our diligence then by the event : whatsoever is lesse then that , is lesse then duty . 2. But in things not absolutely necessary , such which are of conveniency and ornament , of advantage and perfection , it is certain we are not tied to all diligence that is naturally possible : and the reason is , because these things are not simply necessary , and therefore not of necessity to be acquir'd by all means . Adde to this , if a man were bound to use all diligence to acquire all notices that can be usefull to him in his general or in his special calling , he should fall under a perpetual rack of Conscience . For considering that a mans life were not sufficient to doe this in some callings , and it is necessary in this world that a man doe many things more then the works of his office , he could never be suffer'd to attend to any necessity but what is mere and indispensable and indivisible , and never use any divertisement , recreation , variety or ease , but he must first be tied upon the wheel , and feel the pains of a doubting and tormenting Conscience , by reason of the impossibility of knowing whether we have done all that we can . 3. In acquiring notices concerning doing any work with advantages a moral diligence is necessary : for he that stops at the gate of simple necessity hath some love to himself , and great dread of God , but no love to him ; for love cannot consist with a resolution of knowing no more then we must needs ; to get so much and no more will well enough serve the ends and the design of fear , but not of love : and therefore although the man that does so is innocent as long as he is in that state , and as long as that state is acceptable ; yet because the state of fear is but the state of infancy and imperfection , it must proceed further , or be imperfect for ever ; that state will not be accepted long . For if a man does his duty in that state , he shall be enabled to goe further ; and then he must , or else he sins by despising the spirit of grace . But if he does not doe his duty in the first state , then he must not in that state of carelesnesse and neglect of using moral diligence pretend that he is innocent . A man that hath been blessed in his first attempts must still follow the method and Oeconomy of the Divine spirit ; that is , as God increases in aides , so the man must increase in diligence and labour , and must use what means are before him to doe still better and better . 4. In acquiring notices not simply necessary , a moral diligence is sufficient . This is an immediate consequent of the second Rule , and therefore needs not particular confirmation , but explication rather . Therefore by Moral diligence is to be understood such a diligence in acquiring notices as can * 1. consist with our other affairs , and the requisites of our calling and necessities ; * 2. such as is usual by our selves in the obtaining things which we value ; * 3. such which is allowed by wise men , such which a spiritual guide will approve ; * 4. and such as we our selves doe perceive to be the effects of a real desire . For there ought to be nothing of scruple or vexation in the acts of this diligence , nor in the inquiries concerning it . And therefore if we are sure we desire to know what we can , and doe towards it such like things as we doe in the purchase of other things which we greatly value , we may be at peace . For this thing does not consist in an indivisible point , it is not just thus much , neither more nor lesse ; but it is more or lesse according as our love is and our leisure , our opportunities and abilities : and if we cannot judge concerning our selves so well as to rest in peace , let us ask a spiritual guide , having first declar'd to him the narrative of our life and actions whereby he shall be enabled to make a judgement . What is a probable ignorance ? Upon this account we can also give the measures and definitions of a probable ignorance , that is , such an ignorance which is next to an invincible or an irremediable ignorance : this the Schools call probable . For as the invincible ignorance is a mere nescience , and is either of such things which we are not bound to know , because God requires them of no man ; or of such things which we cannot know , because we never heard of them , and are not taught sufficiently , and so God will not require them of us : so next to this stands the probable ignorance , that is , when the things are propounded to be known , and can be known if we would use all our natural and possible diligence ; but yet because God hath not plac'd them in a necessary order to salvation , he hath not tied us to use all our natural diligence , but some diligence he does require , which when we have us'd , and yet misse , the ignorance is probable . Now when that is so , we shall learn by the proportions to the description of the parts and requisites of a moral diligence , and by these following measures . 1. Then our ignorance is probable , when we enter upon the action without temerity , and yet without doubt or trepidation ; that is , when our addresse is with consideration , but we find no reluctancy against the action , nor remorse after it . For then it must be that we have faith , and doe it with a good mind , not against our Conscience ; and yet having no fiercenesse of passion or fancy , and a mind wary enough to discern any objection that is near , it will be very probable that there is none at all but what stands a great way off , and therefore farre enough from disturbing the innocence of the action . 2. But this is to be understood onely in the ordinary accidents and traverses of our lives . But if it be in matters of great concernment , such as are above our ordinary imployments , as if it be in the actions and duties of an eminent office , it is not sufficient that we have no regret or remorse , but we must have an actual consideration , a plain perceiv'd deliberation and counsel , and then no regret . It is not here enough that we have nothing against it , but we must have something for it , because in such persons and in such accidents the processe ought to be more then ordinary ; that as there are greater abilities requir'd to the performance of that office , so there may be a proper use and exercise of those abilities . And there is in this a great evidence of truth . For in ordinary things , it is very often so that they are well enough if they have not evidently any evil in them . But in the actions of public imployments things are not so indifferent ; they doe hurt unlesse they doe good , they are scandalous if they be suspicious ; they are design'd always to doe benefit , and if they doe not they cannot be justified , and therefore they must be look'd on with an actual consideration : in which state of things it is certain that every thing will occurre that is obvious to be considered ; and what it not obvious to such persons is indeed very difficult , and may well be suppos'd to leave a probable and very excusable ignorance . 3. This also is to be extended to the case of confident asseverations , and confirming any proposition with an oath , in which no man can have a probable ignorance , but he that hath us'd a diligence of inquiry so great as to give confidence great enough to an oath , which must be of a thing so sure , that nothing can be a cause of doubt , unlesse some secret and undiscerned thing , to which a great and proportionable diligence hath not arriv'd and made discovery , doe accidentally intervene . No man must swear a thing is so , and yet at last say , I did bonâ fide suppose it so : but I examin'd it , I search'd as well as I could , I entred into all the corners of it , I had great reasons to believe , I had fair assurances it was so , and I every day am assur'd of many things of which I had lesse testimony . If beyond this any thing escapes him , the ignorance is probable and excusable . But the rule is the same as at first : He is sufficiently and innocently confident , who hath no distrust , and upon inquiry finds no cause of distrust ; always provided that the inquiry be in proportion to the dignity , and difficulty , and duty of the occasion and subject matter . By the use of these premisses it will be easy to determine Plato's Case of Conscience which he propounded to Hippias the Sophister . Whether is the better or worse , he that sins willingly , or he that sins by folly & ignorance ? of them that wrastle , whether is the more inglorious , he that falls willingly , or he that is thrown in despite of himself and all his strength ? whether foot is better , that which halts upon designe , or that which halts with lamenesse ? whether were it better for a man to have a fool or a knave to his servant ? But this discourse of Plato concerns arts onely and sciences . But Hippias answer'd well , It was not so in vertues ; the differences of which Plato did not seem to discern , but Aristotle afterwards very well explicated . The sense of which in order to the purpose of the present Rule is well expressed by Seneca ; Vis scire quam dissimilis est altarum artium cognitio & hujus ? In illis excusatius est voluntate peccare quam [ casu , ] ignorantiâ : in hac maxime culpa est , sponte delinquere . If a Grammarian speaks a soloecisme on purpose , he blushes not ; but if ignorantly , he hath reason to be asham'd . If the Physician knows not what his patient ailes , it is more shame to him then if he on purpose names a wrong disease . At in hac parte vivendi , turpior volentium culpa est ; But in manners to erre willingly is the more intolerable . The reason of these things is plain , which who please may read in a Gifanius the interpreter of Aristotle , and b Marsilius Ficinus the expositor of Plato : for indeed it is evident that to moral actions the rectitude of the appetite is requir'd , not so to arts and sciences and the vertues intellectual . It is enough to art that the work be well done , though with what mind it matters not as to that : and when the Italian painter , who was to depict a Crucifix , hir'd a slave to be tied to a Crosse , that he might lively represent a body so hanging and so extended , did afterward stab him to the heart , that he might see and perceive every posture and accent and little convulsion of a dying man , he was very much the worse man for it , but no whit the worse Painter ; as appear'd by the incomparable excellency of that piece ; and the principles of Art cannot be corrupted with the evil manners of the Man : but because evil desires pollute the manners , the will is to be taken care of , as the principle of all morality . To which we may adde that he who in arts erres willingly , can mend it when he please ; but so cannot he that erres ignorantly . Ignorance is the onely disparagement of his art , and malice is the onely disparagement of our manners . But this , though disputed to little purpose amongst the Philosophers , may be of good use in Cases of Conscience . Cardinal Campegius having wickedly said to the Senate at Norimberg , that it was worse for a Priest to marry then to fornicate , offer'd in justification of it a reason that could lesse be justified . For ( saith he ) the Priest that fornicates knows he does amisse , and therefore may in time repent ; but the Priest that marries thinks he does well , and therefore will never change his mind , he will never repent . It is true , he needs not , because he believes he does well ; and he is not deceiv'd . But suppose he were deceiv'd , and abus'd by error , what man before him was ever so impious as to say that he that knows he does evil is in a better condition then he that erres with a good mind , & supposes he does very well ? For the present , the state is infinitely different : & for the time to come , which is the more likely to obtain mercy , he that does a thing ignorantly , or he that does it maliciously , we shall not need to appeal any whether but to all the notices of vertue and vice which are in mankind . Indeed there are some sins of ignorance , that is , such which are subjected in the understanding , which are worse then some sins of malice , or such which are subjected wholly in the will and the faculties which obey it . Thus to be ignorant of the fundamental articles of faith is a worse state of things then to have committed an act of gluttony , or to have entertain'd a wanton thought , or to have omitted Divine service upon a Festival . They Jewes had an opinion that thoughts were free , and God did not require them of us with severity ; but a thought against faith , that was highly criminal . Cogitationem pravam Deus non habet vice facti , nisi concepta fuerit in Dei fidem atque religionem , said R. David Kimchi ; meaning that no sin was greater then heresy , or an error in faith . But the reason of this is , not onely because the effect of heresy is , like the plague , infectious and disseminative ; but because by how much the articles of faith are more necessary to be believed , by so much is the ignorance of them more criminal , and more voluntary , and therefore lesse excusable . But even in matters of faith , where there is lesse of malice or wilfull negligence ingredient into the ignorance of them , there the crime is lesse then any thing else , be the instance what it will. But this will be more explicite in the sequel . RULE VI. Ignorance does always excuse the fact , or diminish the malignity of it , or change the kind and nature of the sinne . IGnorance according to it's several capacities , and the several methods of art and ways of speaking , hath several divisions . But all are reducible to this in order to Conscience . Ignorance is either voluntary or involuntary . It is vincible or invincible , that is , it can be helped or it can not . It is the cause of an action , or it onely goes along with it . And of these several ignorances there are many degrees , but no more kinds that are here fit to be considered . 1. The first sort of ignorance , which is involuntary , invincible , and antecedent , that is , is the cause of an action , so that the thing would not be done but by that ignorance , does certainly make the action also it self involuntary , and consequently not criminal . In this sense is that of the law , Errantis nulla voluntas , nullus consensus , They that know nothing of it , consent not . This is meant of ignorance that is involuntary in all regards , that is , such as is neither chosen directly nor indirectly , but is involuntary both in the effect and in the cause . Thus what fools and mad-men and infants doe is not at all imputed to them , because they have no understanding to discern good from evil , and therefore their appetite is not deprav'd or malicious which part soever they take . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith the law , according to the interpretation of the Greeks . Injury proceeds from the affection , and consequently we say that a mad-man or an infant if they strike or reproch anyone they are not criminal , they have done no injury because they perceiv'd it not . Nec reputantur infantiae anni qui sensu carent , saith Pliny ; The years of infancy come not under the notice of laws and judges , of right or wrong , for they have no reason , that is , they use none . So Galen , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , All the scholars of Chrysippus constantly affirm that beasts and babies have no use of reason . And Iamblichus suppos'd that the rational soul was not infus'd into children before the tenth year of their age . But that is more reasonable which almost all wise men ( excepting the Stoics ) affirm , and is thus expressed by a Gregory Nyssen , and his contemporary b Nemesius in the very same words ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Although in infants there is no action or motion of reason , yet we say that they have a reasonable soul , for they manifest the use of it when they are growing up . But this occasions a difficulty in this subject . For we see the rational soul exercising it's operations in some sooner in some later ; and as the body grows in strength and grandeur , so does the soul in the use of reason and powers of deliberation and choice . Nam velut infirmo pueri teneroque vagantur Corpore , sic animi sequitur sententia tenuis . Inde ubi robustis adolevit viribus aetas , Consilium quoque majus , & auctior est animi vis . And Hippocrates addes that the soul does always grow , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , A mans soul is born every day of a mans life , it always receives some increment . Now the question is How long shall infant ignorance or childshnesse excuse so far as that the actions they doe shall be reckon'd neither to vertue nor to vice ? To this it will not be possible to give a strict and definite answer , but a rule and a measure may be given . Possidonius said , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The rational faculty is at first very weak , but it is great and strong about the age of fourteen years : and Plutarch saies that the Stoics affirm'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , about the second septenary , or the fourteenth year , they begin to be perfect : but Zeno said that from that year complete , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is perfect , that is , as to all capacities of reward and punishment . But in this there was great variety . For some laws would punish boys after twelve years , not before : so the Salic law , Si quis puer infra duodecim annos aliquam culpam commiserit , fredus ei non requiratur , A boy before he is twelve years old , committing a fault is not tied to make amends or composition . Servius upon that of Virgil , Alter ab undecimo tum me jam ceperat annus , saies , the thirteenth year is meant , because that was next to puberty ; for , saies , he , the law judges of maturity not onely by years but by the habit and strength of the body . But though this be lesse by one year then that of the Stoical account , and more by one year then that of the Salic law ; yet we find in the law of the Greeks and Romans that after seven years complete boys were punishable ; so the * Basilica , † Michael Attaliotes and some others . But this variety was not wholly arbitrary , but it was commonly established upon reason ; for the differences were made by the different nature of the crimes of which boys were not equally capable in every year : but although in every crime some were forwarder then others , yet all were capable of some sooner then of others . Spite and malice comes sooner then lust : and therefore if a boy after seven years old kill'd a man , he was liable to the lex Cornelia de Sicariis ; but not so if he were a pathic and a correspondent in unnatural lusts , as appears in Matthaeus Blastares and Leo ; if he were under twelve years , he had impunity , quum aetas ipsa argumento sit nescire eum quid patiatur , said the Emperor , His age is an argument of his ignorance , that he knows not what he suffers . For in these things it was reasonable that Galen said of Hippocrates , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , infancy is to be reckon'd untill youth , or a power of generation : and that was it which I observ'd before out of Servius , Bene cum annis jungit habitum corporis . Nam & in jure pubertas ex utroque colligitur . The strength of body must be suppos'd before you allow them strength of reason , that is , a power to deliberate and chuse those sins to which they cannot be tempted before they have natural capacities . But this , I say , relates onely to the crime of uncleannesse . Now because this was commonly the first of our youthfull sins , malice in infancy being prodigious and unnatural , which caus'd that advice of S. Paul , In malice be children ; therefore wise men and the laws did usually reckon that age to be the first beginning of their choice as well as of their strength . But this rule is very far from being certain , and therefore S. Austin blames those that doe not impute any sins to boys before the age of fourteen ; Meritò crederemus ( saith he ) si nulla essent peccata nisi quae membris genitalibus admittuntur , We might well doe so if there were no sins but the sins of lust : but they can steal sooner , and they can lie , and , as unnatural and as unusual as it is , they can be malicious , some sooner , some later , according to the basenesse of their disposition , their pregnancy and education . A. Gellius tells that the Decemviri , who wrote the laws of the XII Tables , ex caeteris manifestis furibus liberos verberari , addicique jusserunt ei cui factum furtum esset , They caus'd thieving boys to be whipp'd and given up to them from whom they had stoln ; and if they cut corn by night and stole it , they were to be chastis'd by the discretion of the Praetor ; which also Pliny notes . But then this also is to be added , that even in these things although they did not esteem them innocent , yet because their understanding was but little , and their choice proportionable , they inflicted but easy punishments : which Theophanes expressed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they were beaten with thongs , or rods , or ferula's . From hence we may take an estimate how it is in this affair as to the question and relation of Conscience . For then these wise men and wise law-givers did declare them punishable when they did suppose them criminal ; though in the Sanction of laws they were to proceed by rule , and determine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as things were most commonly . But then it is to be consider'd , that since they being to make a rule could not at all take in extraordinaries , and there would many particulars and hasty instances be pass'd before it could come to a just measure and regular establishment , we must therefore proceed something otherwise in the Court of Conscience . For , as Libanius speaking concerning boys , said , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , this is not a name of age that cannot sin and cannot be punished . But Anastasius Sinaita saies that sometimes God imputes sins to boys from twelve year old and upwards . But S. Austin confess'd the sins of his first years , the peevishnesse of his infancy , his wrangling with his nurses , his very envying for the nurses milk and fondnesses : this was indeed a greater piety then reason . But when he was a boy and robb'd an Orchyard , he had reason then to be troubled for it . The sins of children are but little , but they are sins . Puerorum sensus in qualiacunque verba prorumpens , qui certè ad ea quae majores sapiunt penè nullus est . When boys give evil words , it is almost nothing . But because it is but almost and comparatively nothing , it is of it self and absolutely something ; and we know not at what period of time any child first comes to the use of reason , and therefore neither can we tell when God will impute their follies ; and when he does not impute their follies to damnation , it may be he will impute them so far as to cause a sicknesse or an immature and a hasty death . And therefore Parents and Tutors can never discharge their duty but by a coercion and strict restraint of children , from the very first beginning of their being capable of laws , of the laws I mean of their parents , and even before that to restrain them from the material parts of any evil , even from evil words which they understand not . For when they once have learnt the sound they will quickly perceive the sense : and although we account their infant malices pretty and sportive , yet because we know not from what an early principle they come , nor how soon God will impute them , nor whether they will tend , nor what impression they leave , we should betimes exercise our legislative ; and it is God's great mercy to children that they can understand fear as soon as they can learn to sin , that their evil company and evil inclinations may not prevent the discipline of the parents , but that God and the good things of his law may get the first possession . And he that will let his children alone till they have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , animum consilio ac ratione firmatum , a fixed and settled judgement , shall find evil habits fixt and permanent as the foot of a rock , and that good counsel will be too late , too easy a remedy . The summe is this ; So long as they are ignorant , that is , so ignorant that they know not how to deliberate sufficiently to avoid a sin , so long their evil is not imputed , but together with their reason begins their vertue or their vice . 2. The second sort of ignorance is concomitant , that is , such which is really and actually conjoyn'd with the cause of the action , but it self is not the cause ; for if the man were not ignorant , he would doe the thing neverthelesse . Thus the boy that flung a stone at a bird , and hit his cruel stepmother whom he knew not to be there , said he did not then design it , but the stone was well thrown . He that shoots an arrow at a stag and hits his enemy whom he resolved to kill when he could well doe it , but knew not at all that he was in the bush , hath an ignorance and a malice at the same time ; and here the question is which prevails , the ignorance to excuse , or the malice to condemn . To this I answer , that the ignorance excuses that action , but not that man. He is not a murderer in that shooting , nor in the counsels and deliberation of that action ; but for his mind and his malice distinct from that action , he is proportionably guilty . But if the man have no malice to the unfortunate man that is kill'd , then he is intirely innocent , if his ignorance be innocent . The mind of the man is , and the action is ; and if the ignorance were invincible and irremediable , then there is innocence on all parts . Non consentiunt qui errant , saith the law . For there is in this concomitant ignorance the same reason as in the antecedent , so far as relates to that event , though not as to that action : the action was indeed voluntary and not procur'd by ignorance , but that event was ; and that being the thing onely in question , is to be accounted for , just as those actions which are wholly produc'd by ignorance antecedent . I deny not but the laws of wise Republics have principally regarded the mind and Counsel of him that sin'd , and that therefore the laws of the Romans under their Christian Princes did professe to follow the law of God in the matter of involuntary murder , and so did the Lombards and the Visigoths ; yet sometimes this chance-medly was punish'd by a lesser punishment : so we find in the laws of the Thuringians , Qui nolens sed casu quodam hominem vulneraverit vel occiderit , compositionem legitimam solvat . If a man unwittingly wounds or kills a man , si telum fugit potius quam jecerit , as Cicero expresses the instance , if his arrow or weapon slipt from him , rather then was flung , he shall not be put to death ; but yet neither shall he wholly escape , but must pay a fine appointed by law . And there is some reason for this . 1. Because the law must require the life and bloud of every of her citizens from whom it is taken , and the external event , of which she is the most competent judge , must as well as it may be repair'd . But 2. although it may appear that the event was not intended , yet it cannot so well appear whether the man did use all that diligence and precaution which wise and good men ought to doe to prevent mischiefs . And 3. something is to be indulged to the injur'd person , some consideration had of the grief and losse and the passion of the relatives of the slain person . And upon these considerations God was pleased to appoint sanctuaries for such persons ; which in true speaking is but a just remedy for an unjust calamity , and supposes that something was permitted in favour of the relatives of the unhappy man that died , something , I say , which yet was not always deserv'd of him that was in danger to suffer it . 3. The third sort of ignorance is the worst , it is that which is vincible and voluntary , that is , procur'd by the will , is not the prime cause of it's actions but the effect , brought in on purpose to make way for an easy mischief with a colour and excuse . Of this there are two noted and discernible degrees : An ignorance crasse and dul , and introduc'd by negligence voluntary and observed more or lesse ; and an ignorance affected , that is , chosen and delighted in , to serve evil purposes . Now concerning these degrees of this criminal ignorance it is true of them both that they bring guilt upon the head of the ignorant , according to their several proportions : but concerning the actions themselves which are acted by men in that state of ignorance and disorder , there is something of particular consideration . For we find our Blessed Saviour praying for pardon for his persecutors upon this very inducement : Father , forgive them , for they know not what they doe ; that is , they doe not now know , for they are blinded and are in a state of ignorance : but that it was vincible and voluntary appears by those words of Christ , If ye were blind , ye had not sinn'd ; but now ye say that you see , therefore your sin remains ; and having eyes they see not , that is , they would not see , they did it ignorantly , and they would not cure their ignorance , for it was evident that Christ said and did enough infinitely to convince them that he was the Messias . So also S. Paul's ignorance was very culpable , when in zeal and rage he persecuted the Church of God ; but yet this ignorance lessen'd the malice of the effect , and dispos'd him greatly towards pardon . Upon these considerations , it is a worthy inquiry into that effect or influence which proceeds even from a criminal ignorance and undiscerning estate , and what it can operate towards pardon . The question then is , whether what is done by persons that know not what they doe , when that disability to know is procur'd by themselves , either by voluntary negligence , or malicious purpose , is a sin as great as if it were done knowingly . Question . The case is this , Marcus Bibulus falls frequently into drunkennesse ; when he is drunk he fights , and fornicates , and steals , and does ( as it happens ) all manner of impiety . Does his drunkennesse excuse , or does it extenuate , or does it aggravate his fault ? The Greeks call'd these things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Contention and every mischief that comes from wine , saith Hesychius ; which when a man hath observed to be consequent to his intemperance , or hath been foretold of it by laws and wise persons , he may justly fall under the sentence not onely of drunkennesse , but of homicide , or incest , or whatever happens to be the vile daughter of so disgrac'd a Mother . Drunkards are very often proud and quarrelsome : and therefore to that of Solomon , Look not upon the wine when it is red , Rabba saith , Ne spectes vinum cujus finis est sanguis , Look not upon the wine whose end is bloud : and Eustathius saith that the nurses of Bacchus were painted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , having snakes and daggers in their hands , to shew that drunkards were beastly and bloudy . And therefore if such persons could have impunity , there were no safety for the lives of innocent men , or the chastity of modest women . But they neither have , nor have they reason why they should 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Aristotle ; They that being drunk doe evil , are guilty of the injury . Because they are causes of their own ignorance : for they might have abstain'd from that excesse which caus'd them ignorantly to smite their Father . Pittacus by a law caus'd a double punishment to be inflicted upon drunkards , one for the cause , and the other for the evil effect . The same also seems to be the sense of Plato both in his first and in his sixth book of Laws : but generally all the interpreters of Aristotle , the old Philosophers , the Mahumetans and the Christians and the Heathens , are perfectly of this persuasion , that the sins they doe in their drunken fit are perfectly to be imputed to them . To this purpose is that of Cicero , Nam qui se propter vinum aut amorem aut iracundiam fugisse rationem dicet , is animi vitio videbitur nescisse , non imprudentiâ . Quare non imprudentiâ se defendet , sed culpâ contaminabit , He that with wine or anger or lust looses his reason , cannot pretend ignorance or want of knowledge for his excuse , for by his own fault he is polluted . And this is the sense of the Doctors of the Church . S. Basil saies drunkennesse is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so S. Chrysostome ; voluntaria insania , so S. Austin ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so Isidore Pelusiot : A voluntary Devil , a chosen madnesse , a spontaneous fury . And the very same words are us'd by Seneca and Ammianus Marcellinus . And therefore the sinning man must not excuse him by his stupidity , and blame the wine , but himself onely ; as Callicles in the Comedy convinc'd Dinarchus when he pray'd him to give him pardon , Quod animi impos vini vitio fecerim ; he was not himself when he did it , it was his wine not he . The old man answer'd him , — non placet In mutum quippiam conferri quod loqui non potest . Nam vinum si Fabulari possit , se defenderet : non vinum moderari , Sed vino solent qui quidem probi sunt : verum Qui improbus est , sive subbibit , sive adeo caret temeto , Tamen ab ingenio est improbus . Blame not the wine ; for wine does not govern a good man , but a good man the wine : But he that is wicked is wicked from within , whether he drinks or no. By these sayings of wise men we perceive that they held not the drunkard innocent even in those vilenesses which he did in his drunkennesse ; and their reason was Philosophical , The effect from a voluntary cause is to be imputed to the first principle . But Commonwealths have another interest to serve ; they are to secure the lives and good things of their citizens , and therefore they are by all means to effect what is necessary : and if drunken mischiefs were unpunish'd , men might pretend drunkennesse for an excuse , and make it really to be the warrant of their licentiousnesse , their rapine , their lust or their revenge . Nam si isthuc jus est , ut tu isthuc excusare possies , Luce clarâ diripiamus aurum Matronis palam ; Post id si prensi simus excusemus ebrios Nos fecisse amoris causâ : nimis vile'st vinum atque amor , Si ebrio atque amanti impunè facere quod lubeat , licet , said old Euclio to Lyconides . If drunkennesse may be our excuse , let us goe and drink drunk that we may rob the Matrons in the streets . And Manuel Palaeologus tells of one that had a mind to be reveng'd and put some affront upon a great man ; and because he durst not when he was sober , he drank himself into an impudent fiercenesse , that he might first have boldnesse and then , as he hop'd , impunity . And therefore there may be great reason why the Civil laws of any Nation should punish the evil effects of drunkennesse not onely for the evil mothers sake , but for the security of the citizens . But in Theology and in the just estimate of things in order to Conscience we are to speak and to proceed with some little difference . For if it be ask'd concerning the drunkennesse , or concerning the man , there is no peradventure but he is for these evil effects the worse man , and the drunkennesse is also the greater crime . The drunkennesse makes the injury or the murder lesse criminal then if it were done with actual reason and choice , but these make the drunkennesse more intolerable and criminal . The man in chusing drunkennesse with or for these effects is much the worse man ; but the crime is the voluntary drunkennesse , not the involuntary rage and injury . And this appears upon these reasons . 1. Because by how much more the sense and reason is depraved , by so much the lesse the man hath pleasure in his sin . For if he be wholly mad or senselesse , his sin is wholly uselesse to him , it does him no present delight , any more then to a beast to push with his horns ; which therefore is not criminal because he cannot reflect upon his own act , he cannot chuse it for a reasonable consideration , he hath no will to entertain it . But if he be not so far gone , then there is some proportion of guilt , because there is of choice in the shipwracks of his reason and his will : and therefore Theodoret said , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Drunkennesse hath some reproof , and some pity ; some punishment , and some pardon . And Arrius Menander said that per vinum aut lasciviam lapsis capitalis poena remittenda est , They that sin by drunkennesse or passion may be punish'd , but not capitally ; the same with that in Stobaeus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Even in the follies and stupidities of drunkennesse there is something amisse besides the material part . But this is when there is something left by which he can understand and chuse something of the crime . 2. The mischiefs consequent to drunkennesse are therefore lesse moral evils , because they doe lesse moral mischief . For no man by his lust acted in his drunkennesse is made more lustfull , or by any act then done is promoted towards a vitious habit ; for he knew not what he did , and remembers it not : it is like Lot's incest , no more known after then before , and therefore it leaves no sediment or lees behind it ; which shews it to have more natural vilenesse then moral , and therefore is nearer to pardon . Et causa justa est , siquidem ita est ut praedicas , Te eam compressisse vinolentum virginem . If the yong man was drunk when he lay with her , he hath some excuse , that is , as to his lust ; but that is an aggravation of his drunkennesse , and he is not the more acquitted , when the aggravation of his sin and punishment is onely plac'd upon the right cause . 3. If the consequent mischiefs of drunkennesse were formally those sins which materially they are , that is , if they were properly guilty of all that they ignorantly doe , then it would follow that because murder is worse then drunkennesse , and yet that murder was involuntary , some action that is involuntary would be more malicious then that which is chosen . If it be replied that those consequent acts are chosen because the cause of them is chosen , according to what is discours'd in the 4th Rule of this Chapter ; I answer , that this is true if drunkennesse were not an accidental cause of them : but these effects being but contingent to drunkennesse , and the effect of some other evil principle , which then prevails when by drunkennesse the mans guards are called off , therefore they cannot be intirely attributed to drunkennesse ; and therefore if a man be surpris'd with drink , or is advis'd to it as to a medicine , if he falls into such consequent disorders , it would be hard to damne this man as a murderer or as an incestuous person , when he is so neither by his present , nor his antecedent choice . Therefore it is that Libanius saies that one who hath grievously offended another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , oftentimes is not punished when wine was his excuse ; and the Scholiast upon the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saies that he that kills a man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; with deliberation is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to be pardon'd : If he does it by chance , he is free ; but if by drunkennesse , he was by the Roman law banish'd for five years : and thus justice is preserved on all hands , that the drunkennesse should be punish'd more then drunkennesse , and the murder lesse then murder . For that is the worse for having such a daughter , but this is more pardonable for having such a Mother . But if the drunkennesse be but imperfect , if the consequent crimes be remembred and delighted in afterwards , ( for that is a certain indication the stupidity was not extreme , nor equal to an excuse ) then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such a drunkard is also all that which he acts and professes in his folly : a remembring drunkard , as he is but an ill companion , so if he falls into the horrid consequents which too often are the punishments of intemperance , hath no excuse . But if he chose drunkennesse on purpose that he might have impudence enough to doe a mischief , he committed the sin before-hand , and was before he acted it guilty before God ; and when he hath acted it , he is also guilty before men * . But unlesse it be in these cases , the actions done by him that understands not what he does are as the actions of a mad man or a fool . The sin was done before , and the mischief and the punishment doe follow : but the guilt is in the cause , not in the effect that is involuntary ; though proceeding from a cause that was indeed voluntary , but not univocal and proper . The sense of this question thus explicated agrees with the doctrine of the Fathers , who in the instance of Lot declare him criminal onely as to his drunkennesse , not to his incest . So Origen , S. Chrysostom , S. Austin : and S. Ambrose gives this account of the whole question ; Sanè discimus vitandam ebrietatem , &c. We learn that drunkennesse is to be avoided , by which we are brought to that evil state of things , that we cannot beware of crimes . For those things which being sober we avoid , when we are drunk we ignorantly commit . And a little after ; They who have been too free in drinking wine , know not what they speak , they are like men dead and buried : ideoque siqua per vinum deliquerint , apud sapientes Judices veniâ quidem facta donantur , sed levitatis damnatur authores , Therefore what vilenesses they commit in their wine ( meaning when they know not what they doe ) for the deeds themselves so ignorantly committed they find pardon amongst wise Judges , but for their temulency a condemnation . The result of these discourses is this . The vilenesses which are done by drunken and stupid persons unwittingly , are not of the same kind of which naturally they are and would be if the actors were sober : they are not the crimes of murder or lust or incest respectively , but circumstances of great horrour aggravating the drunkennesse , and deeply condemning the man. And yet , if the drunkennesse be not extreme , I mean the stupidity and ignorance , if that be not such as to take away wholly the use of reason and moral choice , all the remaining portions of reason doe in their proper degree make the imperfect drunkard guilty of other perfect crimes , even of whatsoever he then shall act ; and they shall for their own degrees of remaining choice be imputed to him as certainly as the drunkennesse . The same is the case of Inconsideration and Oblivion , whose effects are innocent upon the same accounts and no other . If they come in upon a negative principle , that is , begin and proceed upon a natural deficiency and an unavoidable cause , that which is forgotten , or that which is done by forgetfulnesse must be amended and repair'd as well as we can ; but by a preceding morally-diligent care , and an after-revocation , nolition or amends , it may be kept innocent . This onely thing is to be interpos'd , that if by the precontract of a vitious habit there is ingenerated in our spirits and exteriour faculties such a promptnesse and facility of sinning , that many of the acts of such a habit are done without advertency , as in vile and habitual swearing , every such action though passing without notice is criminal , because it is the product of the will habitually depraved ; and there is no other cause why the actual consent of the will is not at it , but because it was not requir'd , but presum'd , and taken without dispute . A yong Lutenist disputes and contends for every single touch of a string : but when he hath made it easy and habitual , he resolves to play a set of lessons , and every stroke is voluntary , though every one is not now actually consider'd . Question . To this § . of Ignorance belongs the question concerning Fraud and Guile . For if another man cosens and abuses my understanding , he places me in ignorance ; and then it is worth our inquiry , What morality or what obligation there is in those actions which are done by us so abus'd , so deceiv'd , so made ignorant , and incapable of judging rightly . The answer relies upon the same grounds as formerly , with this advantage , that he who is deceiv'd by the crafts of another , hath most commonly an ignorance that is very innocent ; and then if that ignorance be wholly the cause of any action , the cause is innocent and so is the production . And upon the same accounts we are to judge concerning the obligation of promises and contracts made by persons in error and deception . 1. If the error be concerning the substance of the thing contracted for , the contract is naturally invalid , and obliges not at all . If Titius buy a horse , and Caius send him a Mule or an Oxe , there is nothing done , Titius hath made no bargain at all . If I buy a man-servant , and the Merchant sells me a maiden dress'd in mans apparrel , this makes the contract invalid ; I made no bargain for a maid-servant , but for a man. When Jacob married Rachel , and lay with Leah , that Concumbency made no marriage between them ; for the substitution of another person was such an injury as made the contract to be none at all : and unlesse Jacob had afterwards consented , Leah had been none of his wife . 2. If the error and ignorance be not in the substance of the contract , whatever else the error be , the contract is naturally valid , that is , without a new contract and renewed consent it can stand ; but if that error was the cause of the contract , which if the error had not been would not have been at all , then it is in the power of the abused person to rescind the contract , and the fraudulent contractor is in Conscience bound to recede from all his ill-acquir'd advantages . The reason is , because he did injury to his neighbour , and plac'd him in evil dispositions and unaptnesse to chuse wisely , otherwise then God and the laws of nations and the common intention of contractors doe intend : and therefore although there was so much of the substantial requisites as could make a contract naturally valid , yet it was so ill , that all laws and intentions and tacit conditions of contractors have thought fit to relieve the abused person , Dolo vel metu adhibito , actio quidem nascitur , si subdita stipulatio sit : per doli mali tamen vel metûs exceptionem submoveri petitio debet : and the reason is given l. si dolo . 5. C. de rescindenda venditione ; Si dolo adversarii deceptum venditionem praedii te fecisse Praeses provinciae aditus animadverterit , sciens contrarium esse dolum bonae fidei ( quae in huju smodi contractibus maxime exigitur ) rescindi venditionem jubebit . In Contracts the honesty of the contractors is principally to be regarded , and fraud is destructive of all honest intentions ; and therefore the Praetor shall rescind such fraudulent bargains . 3. But if the error was not the intire cause of the contract , but that upon other accounts we would have bargain'd , onely we would not have paid so great a price , then the bargain is valid , and the Praetor cannot rescind it , nor the injur'd person revoke it ; but the Civil law in this case did permit actionem quanti minoris , that is , an amends for so much detriment as I suffer apparently by the fraud . If Caius sells to Maevius sheep which he affirms to be sound , but they are indeed rotten , the law permits not rescission of the bargain , but forces Caius to restore so much of the price as the sheep were overvalued . And this is also the measure in the Court of Conscience . But this is to be understood in such cases where the fault of the vendible commodity cannot be discerned by the buyer , and where the seller did deceive voluntarily . For in other cases Caveat emptor is the rule of the law , let the buyer look to it , and it is also the rule in Conscience . The seller must not affirm the thing to be without fault , if he knows it vitious and faulty . But neither is he bound to proclaim the faults of his goods , if they be discernible . And of this Cicero discourses reasonably , Num te emere coegit , qui ne hortatus quidem est ? Ille quod non placebat proscripsit ; quod placebat emisti . Quod si qui proscribunt villam bonam benéque aedificatam , non existimantur fefellisse , etiamsi illa nec bona est , nec aedificata ratione ; multo minus qui domum non laudarunt : ubi enim judicium emptoris est , ibi fraus venditoris quae potest esse ? Sin autem dictum non omne praestandum est , quod dictum non est , id praestandum putas ? Quid vero est stultius quam venditorem ejus rei quam vendat vitia narrare ? Quid autem tam absurdum , quam si Domini jussu ita praeco praedicet , Domum vendo pestilentem ? Who compell'd thee to buy ? The man that sold it did not ( it may be ) so much as desire thee . He sold it because it did not please him ; and because it did please thee , thou hast bought it . He that sets up a bill of sale and proclaims a house fair , and well-built and well-seated , hath not deceiv'd thee , though it be neither well-built , nor well-seated ; because if it be intire for thee to make a judgement , he hath not deceiv'd thee . Much lesse if he hath not prais'd it . For if all that is spoken in the bill is not of necessity ( viz. in order to the bargain or thy choice ) to be verified , much lesse must that be perform'd or requir'd which was not spoken . But does ever any man cry stinking fish to be sold , or say , Come and buy a house that hath the plague in it ? All this is great reason : Onely this is to be added , that such faults as cannot be discerned by the buyer , must be declar'd , or must be allowed for in the price : and the case is the same , if the buyer be a child , or a fool , or an ignorant undiscerning person ; for no man must be made richer by the injurie and folly of his Brother . I know that in all the public contracts of mankind , that which all men consent in is , to buy cheap and to sell dear : but Christian religion , and the contempt of the world , and the love of spiritual interests , are sent from heaven , to cause merchandise to be an instance of society , and not a craft and robbery . 4. If the buyer be deceiv'd , but not by the seller , but by a third person , and that deception be the cause of the contract , the buyer may rescind the contract if he can ; that is , he is not in Conscience oblig'd to stand to it , if he can be quit in law : but he that deceiv'd him is bound to repair his injury if he have suffer'd any , or to break the bargain , if the goods be unalter'd . These things have no particular reason , but are evident upon the former accounts . §. 3. Of Fear and Violence , and how these can make an action involuntary . RULE VII . Fear that makes our reason uselesse , and suffers us not to consider , leaves the actions it produces free from crime , even though it self be culpable . THe case is this ; Roberto Mangone a poor Neapolitan travelling upon the Mountains to his own house , is seized on by the Banditi , a pistol is put to his breast , and he threatned to be kill'd unlesse he will be their guide to the house of Signior Seguiri his Landlord , whom he knows they intend to rob and murder . The poor Mangone did so : his Lord was murder'd , his goods rifled and his house burned . The question is , whether Mangone be guilty of his Lords death . To this the answer is easy , that Mangone is not innocent ; and though he did not consent clearly and delightingly to Seguiri's death , yet rather then die himself he was willing the other should . No man is desirous in a storm to throw his goods into the sea , if he could help it , and save his life ; but rather then loose his goods and his life too , he heaves them over-board . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Aristotle , These kind of actions are mixt , but they have more of spontaneity and election in them then of constraint . No Christian remaining a Christian is willing to offer sacrifice to Daemons , or to abjure Christ , if he be let alone : but he that in time of persecution falls away , not changing his heart , but denying his profession , this man is not excus'd by his fear , but betray'd by it . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , There are some things to which a man must not suffer himself to be compell'd by any force , but he must rather die then doe them . And because there are some things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which are insufferable to humane Nature , and therefore there is in laws assign'd a certain allowance of fear qui potest cadere in fortem & constantem virum , that is , in the case of danger of suffering the extremest evils , and our obedience to humane laws is excus'd in such cases , because no man is ordinarily bound by the laws to suffer a greater evil in keeping the law , then is threatned by the law it self to him that breaks them ; therefore the law allows an omission of obedience in the fear of the greatest evils , as I have already explicated * . But in Divine lawes it is otherwise , because no man can threaten or inflict on another an evil comparably so great as God does on them that break his laws ; and therefore the lesse fear cannot be a reasonable excuse against a greater ; and in all cases , the fear of man must yield to the fear of God. And therefore in the matter of a Divine Commandement , no fear of temporal evil is an excuse or warranty . Because we are taught to despise poverty and pain and death , and to doe all this chearfully and gloriously . And therefore this case of Conscience and it's whole dimensions are quickly measur'd . But this is onely in Negative commandements , for they can never be broken with innocence upon what pretended necessity or violence soever . But in positive Commandements the case is not so clear , but fit to be more consider'd : But it will quickly also come to an issue , if we distinguish omissions from commissions . For no man may upon any pretence doe anything against a positive Commandement . He may omit to visit a Christian in prison , if he fears he shall loose his life in the visitation , or be threatned with any great calamity ; but he may not doe him any injury or oppression to save his life and liberty . But I have to this also given particular answer upon another occasion . That which I am to adde here is this ; There is no peradventure but the obedience to a positive commandement , till it be plac'd in it's own circumstances and requir'd here and now and so , will give place to so just a cause of deference and stay as is the securing our selves against a great fear . For where God hath not requir'd us in particular manner to doe a duty , he hath requir'd it in a very particular manner to preserve our selves . But when the case is so , that the particular is requir'd , no fear of man can hinder us . For in all things God is to be preferred . And therefore it is so rarely well order'd that unlesse it be in extraordinary cases , as the Apostles preaching the Gospel , their open confessions of faith , their declaring against the religions of the world at that time , for which they had special commands , and were to doe them and not to fear the fear of men , there is scarce any positive law of God but either it may be perform'd by an internal suppletory , by a desire and willingnesse and endeavour , or else will be sufficient to be done in the article of death , that is , then when we need not fear the worst that man can doe unto us . Thus it is in the susception of the Sacraments ; from the actual susception of which by a great and just fear if we be frighted , we cannot be hindred from the desire and spiritual and most effective susception of them : and from the actual if we be by a just fear delayed ( though the case cannot often happen ) yet it is generally suppos'd that if they be done before our death , the commandement is obeyed , if the delay was not on our part ; and at our death no new fear of death can be a just excuse . However , if it or any thing else be positively and determinately requir'd in circumstances , we must not be afraid of them that can onely kill the body ; or if we be , the fear and the omission are both criminal , and this is not excus'd by that . But if in these or any other cases the fear be a surprise , sudden , and violent , and impetuous , that is , such that our reason is invaded and made uselesse , such as by a natural effort disorders all our faculties , such as that of Arachne in Ovid , Quid mihi tunc animi misera fuit ? anne quod agnae est Siqua lupos audit circum stabula alta frementes ? Aut lepori , qui vepre latens hostilia cernit Ora canum , nullos audet dare corpore motus ? such a fright as a hare or lambe are in when they are pursued by dogs and ●oxes , Occupat obsessos sudor mihi frigidus artus , Caerule aeque cadunt toto de corpore guttae , when nature is in a lipothymie , and our strengths are made extravagant , when we can doe any thing in flying and nothing at all to consider ; then our understanding cannot deliberate , and then our will does not consent , and then the effect is pityable but not criminal , but the fear it self possibly may be both . For sometimes our fear may be so great , that it fills all our faculties , and then there cannot be any deliberation ; for that must be at leisure , and must look upon two objects . Statius well describes this kind of fear in the similitude of a hunted stagge . … . .qualis cum cerva cruentis Circumventa lupis , nullum cui pectore molli Robur , & in volucri tenuis fiducia cursu , Praecipitat suspensa fugam , jam jamque teneri Credit , & illusos audit concurrere morsus : she hath no courage , no confidence , no hope of any thing ; she dies if she stayes , but she cannot stay to consider so long ; and when she runs , she dies too , and she hears the wolf at her ear , and sees him with her eye , and feels the teeth in her heart , and dies with fear . In such cases as these we are as men without reason , and therefore to be judg'd accordingly . I have heard of a Trouper who in the late sad warres of England being alarm'd , was so affrighted that he bridled his Comerade instead of his horse : and in the last inroad which the Turks made into the Empire , a German carrier was so affrighted with the noise of Turkish horses coming , that he knew not how to make use of his own to fly away , but deploring his condition that his horse being loaden could not run fast , had not the reason left him , though he had time , to throw off his pack , but staid in that amazement , till the prisoner of fear became a slave to the Turks . What a man does in such a case , no equal estimator of things will impute to choice or malice . He that flies from a lion pursuing him , and in his affrightment runs into a River , is not criminally guilty of his own death . He runs into one death before another , but prefers it not : for if he were in the same fear of drowning , he would leap ashore though a Lion did stand there expecting of a prey . Concerning degrees of fear which are lesse , such which leave us in a power to consider and deliberate , they may lessen the malice of the crime to which they drive , but cannot make the fact innocent . He that is taken by a Tyrant and an unjust power and put amongst the troups , is not innocent though in that fear and against his will he fight against his Prince . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Dio Cocceius , They went willingly to warre , if at least they may be said to be willing who are constrain'd by fear . It is an unwilling willingnesse , and therefore it is a sin almost against their will. For in despite of such a constraint , a man may use his liberty ; as Lucian saies of the yong man , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , He did not marry , but though his Father forc'd and compell●d him , yet he refus'd . The same is the case of Superstition , which is an excessive and inordinate fear in the matter of religion . If the fear be supreme and distracting , the effects of it are very pityable ; but criminal onely in that degree in which it is vincible and can be subdued by reason . When Michael Stifelius a German in Luther's time had affrighted the people with a confident and terrible prediction of the day of Judgement within a few days to be revealed , the poor affrighted people left off their daily labours , and took care of no duty for this life . This omission at another time would have been very criminal ; but now their superstitious fear did alleviate it , if not wholly take it away . But in this there is nothing particular , save onely that the causes of fear in this case are worse then in other things ; but the effects themselves are not commonly very bad . But this passion of fear hath in it yet more difficulty in relation to humane contracts and obligations , which can be evacuated and declar'd never to have oblig'd if they commenc'd with fear . For upon this account some pretend contracts of marriages , absolutions from Ecclesiastical censures , testimonies in testamentary causes , vowes , donations , sentences , resignations of Benefices , constitutions of Proctors , election to offices , and oaths of obligation to men , and promises , not to oblige , if the promiser or contractor was constrained by fear . But to all these the answer will be the same , for they are all discernable by the same reason . If the fear was such that it might affright a wise and a constant person , the law judges the contract to be null , and not to oblige in law , which is the measure of contracts and legal obligations . But although the law declares many particular cases , in which the fear does annul the contract , and in such cases ordinarily there needs no further inquiry ; yet because many cases happen in which the law hath not regularly declar'd her sentence , by that measure which the law goes by , we may without trouble determine our selves . The rule therefore is this ; When any evil threatned is so great , that to suffer it is more intolerable then to doe the thing to which you are compell'd , there the fear is suppos'd great enough to nullify the contract . If a rich person be threatned , that he shall be forc'd to pay a hundred pound , or marry the oppressors daughter ; if he promises to marry her he is oblig'd , and that fear and that threatning shall not prevail to evacuate his promise . Because he that so threatens intending but an evil that is very tolerable , if the marriage be of worse mischief , he did not chuse it out of fear ; for he that does so , chuses the lesse evil to avoid a greater , not a greater to avoid a lesse : so S. Austin observes , Neque enim dici solet quispiam voluntate fecisse , siquid fecit invitus ; quanquam si subtiliùs advertamus , etiam quod quisque invitus facere cogitur , si facit , voluntate fecit : sed quia malit aliud , ideo invitus , hoc est , nolens , facere dicitur ; and Simplicius to the same purpose , quia licet inviti agamus , tamen sic agere eligimus , It is indeed against our will ; but when things are in an evil state , we chuse the least . If therefore he chuses that which he saies is a worse evil , he cannot pretend it is for that fear ; and consequently it must be upon some other motive , something of his own ; and if it be , it will verify the contract . Titius finds Caius at an advantage with a Watch & a Ring about him of no great value ; he threatens to take them from him , unlesse Caius will promise the next day to bring him twenty talents . Caius promises it , and therefore is oblig'd , for he cannot say , he was compell'd . For no lesse violence can constrain us to suffer a greater , because that is far more eligible then this . And therefore the law calls nothing a just cause of fear , but the fear of the greatest evils , as death , torment , dismembring , intolerable disgrace ; that is , such things which to avoid a man would suffer any evil that is lesse . Now because in contracts we intend some advantage to our selves , real or imaginary , and in contracts effected by a great fear we can design none but the avoiding of a greater mischief , the law and right reason wholly attribute it to fear , and therefore annul the contract . Martial's case is pertinent to this inquiry , Quod si me tonsor , cum stricta novacula supra est , Tunc libertatem divitiasque roget , Promittam : nec enim rogat illo tempore tonsor ; Latro rogat : res est imperiosa timor . Sed fuerit curvâ cùm tuta novacula thecâ , Frangam tonsori crura manusque simul . If a Barber when the rasor is upon my throat contracts with me for twenty pound , if I fear he will cut my throat if he be denied , I promise to him as to a thief , with whom whatsoever contract I make in my intolerable fear , no law of man does verify it . But Martial as to his instance was no good Casuist . For if it be inquir'd whether I am oblig'd in Conscience to keep my promise to a thief or a bandito , which I made to save my life ; I answer that I am . Because he being an outlaw and rebell against all Civil laws , and in a state of warre , whatever you promise to him , you are to understand it according to that law under which then you are , which is the law of Nature and Force together . So that you cannot be guarded by the defensative of the Civil laws , nor is your contract under it's guard and conditions . In contracts under the protection of Civil laws , we are to goe by it's measures , and the contract is good or bad accordingly . But when we have no measures but what we can get of our selves , our contracts are to begin and end between our selves , and by our own proportions . But in law no man is suppos'd to have consented , but he in whose power it is to dissent . Si vis scire ut velim , effice ut possim nolle : and every contract must have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Damascen calls it , a desire free from all bond . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . If there be force and a sad necessity in it , it is a calamity rather then a contract ; and therefore the laws intend to defend and rescue us from the oppression . I am to adde one caution , That no reverential fear , let it be never so great , and the person never so timorous , so that the use and ministeries of reason be left , can excuse a sin , or nullify a contract . The reason is given by Aristotle , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The Fathers Empire hath in it no violence and no coaction . And Heliodorus Prusaeus in his paraphrase saith the same thing , that the commands of Parents , or such whom we reverence and fear , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , have not such force as to compel : not but that we are to obey ; but that what we doe out of reverential fear to them is not compell'd , but voluntary and chosen . What is said of Fear , is not true of other passions , lust and anger , or whatever else is productive of those effects which use to make men asham'd , and disorder all their interests . 1. Because these passions are seldome of that nature and degree of violence as to take away all powers of deliberation , and therefore they are but seldome fit to be pretended in excuse of any action . 2. They are commonly the true Mothers , the univocal parents of their productions , otherwise then it is in fear and drunkennesse and ignorance ; for these produce things of a nature different from their immediate principles , as drunkennesse produces effects of anger , of lust , &c. that is , it is the occasion of them , not the proper Mother . But lust produces lust , and anger sends forth angry words , and spitefull actions , and resolutions of revenge . 3. The products which come from these passions are so very far from being rendred involuntary , that by these passions they are made most delightfull , and without them they could not please at all . 4. Whenever they prevail to any violence or extremity of degree , it is by an increasing will ; not by weaknesse and natural infirmity , but by a moral state of infirmity , that is , a state of sinfulnesse . 5. It is not in these as it is in fear , or vincible ignorance , that what is voluntary in the cause may be involuntary in the effect : but in these passions and temptations , the Mother and the daughter are chosen ; not the one directly and the other by interpretation , but both of them properly , directly and immediately . For these reasons the case of these passions is curiously to be distinguish'd from the precedent . But when these passions doe come to extremity , although their proper acts are not the lesse sins but the greater , as an act of anger is the more devilish by how much the passion is the more extreme ; yet if any aequivocal and contingent effects be produc'd , as if in the violence of lust a child be run over and hurt , or any thing that is not natrual to that passion , nor intended by the man , then according to the degree of the ecstasy and transport by the passion , the contingent effect may be lessen'd in it's malignity . And in this sense is that of Libanius to be understood ; or else it is not true , that injuries are very often to be remitted if the man hath drunkennesse for his excuse , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or anger , or forgetfullnesse , or arrogance , or any such like thing . Like to this is that of Arrius Menander , Capital punishments are not to be inflicted per vinum aut lasciviam lapsis , to them that offend by the follies of drunkennesse or the violence of lust . — Et vino tortus , & irâ : Wine & rage are like two racks , & compel men to open secrets . Now when the case is so that the effect is aequivocal , as it is in drunkennesse in many instances , and in other passions sometimes , there onely there is some diminution or excusing of the crime . But the Ancients gave too much liberty , and an indifferent sentence in these cases , because wanting the Christian measures they understood no better . CHAP. II. Of the Finall Cause of Humane actions ; and it 's influence or Causality of Good and Evil. RULE I. In every good action the means and the end must be Symbolical : so that , 1. a good action done for an evil end , and 2. an evil action done for a good end , are alike Criminal . THE first part of this Rule is in the express words of our Blessed Lord , Take heed that you give not your alms before men to be seen of them . Even alms , which are our righteousness , and so rendred both by the Arabick and the Vulgar Latin , yet if done to vainglorious purposes , are good for nothing , but are directly acts of vain-glory . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith S. Basil , The noise of a trumpet spoils our alms . For from the end every action is qualified ; and an indifferent action is made good and bad by the end ; and that which is so already , is made more so by a participation of that to which it is design'd . For the end changes the nature as well as the morality of the action . So Aristotle , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . He that commits adultery for gain is covetous , not lascivious : but he that spends his money and suffers loss for his lusts sake , he is the wanton . And therefore God and all wise men regard not the exterior action in their accounts of vertue , but the manner and purpose of doing it . Quoniam quidem non in facto laus est , sed in eo quemadmodum fiat . Eadem res si gulae datur , turpis est : si honori , reprehensionem effugit . Amico aegro aliquis assidet ? probamus : at hoc si haereditatis causâ facit , vultur est , cadaver expectat . So Seneca . The praise and vertue is not in the thing done , but in the manner of doing it . If we spend great sums of money in our Kitchin , it is sordid : but if upon publick works , on Colleges and Hospitals , on the Poor or upon Religion , it is brave and noble . He that visits his sick friend in charity , does well ; but he that sits by him and watches with him in hope to get a legacy , is a vultur , and watches for the Carcasse and the Prey . Now concerning this , the best Compendium of all the Cases of Conscience which can relate hither , is , that with hearty simplicity we pursue that rule of S. Paul , VVhether ye eat or drink , and whatsoever ye doe , doe all to the glory of God : the same with those other words of his , for the one illustrates and explicates the other , Whatsoever ye shall doe in word or deed , doe all in the name of the Lord Jesus , giving thanks to God even the Father by him . Concerning the obligation and full sense of these precepts , the following measures are our Rule . 1. He that in every action that is considerable , and fit to be noted and discerned , and is distinguished by counsels and consultations , by deliberation and observation , does actually design the glory of God , does his work most perfectly . It will shame the tepidity and incuriousness of Christians , if I tell them that this advice is given to us by some wise Heathens . When Marcus Brutus had given many excellent precepts to parents , and children , and brethren , he adds , Haec nemo faciet quemadmodum debet nisi habuerit quò referat . Proponamus oportet finem summi boni , ad quem nitamur , ad quem omne factum nostrum dictúmque respiciat , veluti navigantibus ad aliquid sidus dirigendus est cursus . No man can doe these things as he ought , unless he direct them to some proper end . We must propose to our selves the chiefest good for our end , to which every word and every deed of ours must have regard ; as mariners in their sailing look to a star for conduct . This is not so to be understood as if we were to make acutal directions and dedications of every single word , or little minute action we doe , to the glory of God : this is a snare to Consciences , and an Hypochondriacal devotion which some Friers have invented , and attributed to S. Gertrude , of whom they report that Christ admonish'd her that she should consecrate every little part of action and word unto him ; not only every writing , and every discourse , and every meal , and every prayer , but every bit she put into her head , & every letter she did write , every single step she did tread : just as if a man that were to receive a thousand pound should tell it over by so many single Maravides , and not be content to tell every shilling , but reckon how many farthings are in the whole sum ; this would sound great as the Spanish Coblers portion to his daughter , but certainly a wise man will find something else to doe , which may be more really for God's glory , then so to tell his little minutes and particles of actions . It is a great piety if we dedicate to God all our states of life , and all our great actions in every state , and all changes , and every day , and every night , and every meal , and every beginning of labour , and give God thanks at every end , and invocate his help in every progression ; for so doing , we shall consecrate our whole life to God. And this counsell S. Macarius of Alexandria gave to Palladius Bishop of Helenopolis ; who when he was a young man was much troubled in Conscience concerning his unprofitable life , and suppos'd that he did nothing that was good , nothing that was profitable , but all he did was vain and trifling . Macarius told him , Dic tu tuis cogitationibus , Propter Christum custodio parietes , when such afflictive thoughts doe intervene , say unto them , For Christs sake I keep the walls . Nothing could be a meaner imploiment , nothing could be less usefull ; for the walls were not likely to run away . His meaning was , whatsoever the imploiment of a mans day or a mans life be , though never so mean , yet if it be done with a single eye , and with an intuition to Christ , it is a holy imploiment . 2. Although our intentions by how much the more they are actual , by so much they are the better , yet it is not necessary that they be alwaies actual ; but they are right if they be virtually and habitually directed unto God : that is , that by some general designation of our actions , by the renewing of our intentions actually in certain periods of time , as in the morning of every day , or at evening , or both , or in every change of imploiment , we have an actual intuition on God and God's glory ; and then , though we only attend to the work without any more actual consideration of the end , the intention may be right , and the action sanctified . 3. But because thousands of words and actions may pass wise and good men in which they do not actually reflect upon the end of God's glory , and that possibly the thinking of it , and saying , I design this to God's glory , is of no more value then if a man saies , I love God ; which if it be only an act of fancy , or of ineffective affection , is no sure indication of the true love of God , but must be expressed by something that is more material and properly significative of love according to the Commands of God and the manner of Men ; therefore we cannot better judge of the goodness of our intentions , or that we do our actions for the glory of God , then when we are in all things carefull that we doe nothing against any of the laws of God. For this is that charity which is the singleness of a Christian eye : Ut noverimus omnia opera nostra tunc esse munda , & placere in conspectu Dei , si fiant simplici corde , id est , intentione supernâ , fine illo charitatis , quia & plenitudo legis charitas est . Oculum ergo hic accipere debemus ipsam intentionem quâ facimus quicquid facimus : quae si munda fuerit & recta , & illud aspiciens quod aspiciendum est , omnia opera nostra quae secundum eam operamur , necesse est bona sint . So S. Austin . He does all to the glory of God , that does all his works , and speaks all his words in charity ; just as he works for a reward , who does that good thing which shall be rewarded , though it may be he thought not of it since his first beginning of his Undertaking . To doe all things by the rule of God's will , is to doe all things for the end of God's glory . For he that walks with his eye upon the rule , is all the way carefull that he may not dishonour God ; and that 's a great matter towards it : and he may at least say of himself , Non ideo tamen eximiam gloriam meruisse me credo , sed tamen effugisse flagitium ; if God hath acquired no honour by my action , I am glad I have not dishonoured him : and yet he that actually takes care that God be not dishonoured , does obey God , and that 's our best love to God , and in this world our greatest glorification of him ; it is more then all songs and thanksgivings expressed in words or transports of fancy . If we take care that all our actions be obedience , and nothing be against God's will , we glorifie God rightly . Adjice nunc , quod nihil honeste fit , nisi cui totus animus incubuit atque affuit , cui nullâ parte sui repugnavit . That is done honestly that is done with an honest and a whole heart , and is all of a piece , nothing at all repugnant to the Rule . 4. He does all things for the glory of God , that does nothing for an evil or a forbidden end : that is , if we take care that there be no foulness or any unlawfull thing in our purposes . For if a man does things wisely , he must design some end ; and therefore if his end be not evil , then it is a lawfull end : and if he studiously declines every end that is evil , he is carefull that God be not displeased , that God be not dishonoured , and whatever ends can be besides all ends that are evil , are certainly good , that is , eligible for some good purpose ; it comes from God , & to him it returns . The first of these waies is a doing all things to the glory of God actually . The second does it virtually , or habitually . The third is a glorifying of God interpretativè , by equivalence and interpretation : and this fourth does it consecutivè , by way of consequence and acceptation . 5. There is yet another way of doing it , which is so perfect an indication of the designing God's glory , that unless our hearts deceive us , the sign will not ; and that is , a beginning all our actions and changes with prayer , and ending them with thanksgiving : this is that which S. Paul cals a doing all things in the name of the Lord Jesus ; giving thanks to God the Father by him . For to doe things in the Name of Christ can signifie nothing but a doing them at his word , and by his aid ; which when we pray for of God in his Name , and then return thanks to God by him , we have evidently directed that action to the Divine glory . And this is the full meaning of those words of the Apostle , Every creature is sanctified by the word of God and prayer . That is , whatsoever is taken according to God's word , and upon whatsoever so taken we pray for the Divine blessing , it is sanctified , and ministers to the good pleasure and glory of God. So that if God be at any end of the action , and be at no end of it displeased , we have secur'd our intentions : and there will be the less need by scrupulous fears to afflict our selves concerning actual remembrances and intuitions of the end ; since there are so many waies of supply and equivalent performances . For 6. He that does all that he does because he supposes God commands him or allows him , and abstains from all things from which he does abstain only because God hath forbidden those things , this mans intentions are right , and his actions pointed to a proper end . For then every act is an act of obedience , and that is love , and that is the great instrument of the glorification of God. The second part of this Rule , viz. An evil action done for a good end is Unlawfull , is plainly enough taught us by S. Paul , Rom. 3. 8. and I have already * given account of such particulars as are under the general Consideration . This only is to be added ; that an evil done for a good end merely and intirely , is less then that which is not so alleviated ; according to that saying of S. Austin , Pejor est qui concupiscendo quam qui miserando furatur , He that steals that he may give alms is not so bad as he that steals in Covetousness and for his own increase . RULE II. To doe an action of it self lawfull , for temporal regards , for ends of profit , pleasure or honour , is not unlawfull , except it be accidentally . THE Arabians have an excellent Proverb , Anima boni operis bona est intentio , A good intention , or a good Mind , is the Soul of a good work . Now by how much the more noble that end is which is the design and purpose of the agent , by so much the more excellent is the action . We ought therefore to consider that every thing that God hath made is good , and every desire of man which is Natural is also good ; and God made amabilities in several objects , and inclinations and tendencies towards them in several faculties ; and he that gave us desires to them , intended also that we should obtain and use them , and therefore he also fitted us with means to acquire them . It follows therefore that those actions which proceed from those desires as those desires proceed from God , and tend towards those ends whether God himself by the measures and laws of Creation hath directed them , must needs be very innocent and lawfull . If God gives Riches as a blessing and a reward of piety , it is lawfull to desire riches , and to labour for them . If Honour be a gift of heaven to them that honour God , then to desire honour and to doe actions for that end cannot be criminal . If Pleasure be created by God as an instrument to serve many ends of Nature and Grace it self , then to desire pleasure , and to doe actions in order to it , is not against the end of God's glory , because it is not against his will. These things are as evident as a demonstration . All that remains is , that in these we also glorifie God ; that is , so use them , so desire them , so design them , that they be still left in that place and in that order where God appointed them : that is , that they entertain our intermedial desires , and satisfie the needs of our journy and travel , and please our ministring appetites in order to their service to their Superior : that as this life is but a passage to a better , so these desires may minister to higher , and by the comforts and satisfactions of this world promote our affections and purchases of the other . The particulars of which are briefly these . 1. These temporal ends must not fill our affections and divert them from things better and more excellent . Si ipsa cordis intentio quâ facis quod facis , quae tibi nota est , sordidatur appetitu rerum terrenarum & temporalium , atque caecatur , quanto magis ipsum factum , cujus incertus est exitus , sordidum & tenebrosum est ? said S. Austin . Our appetites must not be polluted with earthly affections . Which S. Basil expresses well in answer to that question , How in eating and drinking can we glorifie God ? Mensam accedas animo non nimium soluto , & in solum cibum hiante , Come not to the table with a dissolute mind and a greedy desire . Say not , Bring me , bring me , the meat is mine own , I lick my own plate , I live of mine own provisions ; and therefore I will please my self , that I may feel my self to live . You must not so speak , and you must not so eat : but rather revolve in thy mind , Inspectorem habeo Deum , God beholds me ; I will therefore so eat that no man may be offended , nor God's glory lessened . I will not be the slave of my own belly , or follow it's pleasures alone ; neither will I live to eat , but eat that I may live , and be enabled to bear the burdens of my life and duty . Plainly thus ; He that observs the measures of Temperance , the limits and ends of Nature , aud materially serves those ends which he is bound to take care of ; he eats and drinks to God's glory : although he doe not formally design by actual intuition this meal to God's glory . Let him so eat that he may be fit to serve God , and that he neither desire , nor actually do serve his lust ; let his pleasure extend no further then to serve his health and natural and religious ends , that is , let it be intermedial to that end whether the eating it self is design'd ; and the intention is innocent . For he that chuses this dish rather then another , because it is pleasant , hath not corrupted his intention ; if this pleasure serves no more but that intermedial end which is in a natural or proper order to a further end of God's appointing . That he eats this and not that , his end is pleasure ; but because that he eats at all hath another end , even to enable him to live in duty to God and his Neighbour , and to preserve his life according to the measures of charity and duty , this end of pleasure is innocent , because it is Natural , and produc'd by God , and goes on further towards the other ends of God. So that the result is this ; Actions may be done innocently for temporal ends , if those temporal ends be but intermedial , and be carried on further according to the purposes of God. 2. We may serve our temporal ends according to our Natural or Political desires , alwaies provided that we observe those measures which God hath prescribed ; for then we are sure they will bear us on to the glory of God ; for that 's their purpose , and that must be ours . A man may seek to be honoured , but he must not seek it by ill means ; * he must not make the service of God to give way to that ; * his affections must not dwell in that purchase ; * it must leave no vanity upon his spirit ; * it must not serve the end of pride ; * it must be some way or other for God , in the beginning or in the latter end : that is , if it be not actually or virtually designed for Gods glory and service , that is , for the good of our Neighbour or our own Soul , by that means to incourage us in vertue ; it must at last be referred to God , and passing through us rest upon him . Cajetan , Navarre and Reginaldus from this instance except two cases ; saying that if the honour be our due , as if we receive it from our Subjects and inferiors ; or if it be matter of favour and grace , indulged to us by our Superiours , it is lawfull to receive it without either actually or habitually referring it unto God : that is , we may take honour to our selves without referring it to God , when that honour is our due , and when it is not our due ; when it is paid us in justice , or when it is given us in kindness ; which are almost all the cases in the world of receiving honour . But this doctrine ought not to be receiv'd , as being infinitely unreasonable and very impious ; since in the case of Herod God declar'd his anger mightily because he received honour from his Subjects , and did not in so doing glorifie God. 3. All designs of profit , pleasure and honour , must be the less principal ; that is , ever subordinate to duty and religion : for although the profit or the pleasure swim uppermost , and be the actual mover to the particular instance , and be more perceived then any actual consideration of the last and noblest end ; yet this is not sufficient to condemn the intention , unless it be made the principal ; that is , that it be not only more delighted in by the contacts of sense , but preferred also in our understanding part , and our abused reason . Concerning which we may take accounts by the proportions I have formerly described . * But in General , Our best measure we can take in the regulating this Case of Conscience is , that we enquire whether we prefer the ultimate or the intermediall end ; which trial we may easily make when they cross one another , as it often happens they doe in the very instance , and very often in their proportions , circumstances and degrees . If we will not receive our profit or our pleasure without innocence , our purposes and our hearts are right ; only then we are to take care that the love of our profit doe not hinder us in making right judgments concerning Lawfull and Unlawfull . For very often we think our affections and our purposes are right , when there is no other cause to think so but because our understandings are not right . But for the fuller understanding of our measures in this inquiry , there are some particular Cases of Conscience to be resolved . 1. Whether it be lawfull to serve God for any end less then himself ; for riches , for honour , for defence and security of our lives , for health and secular satisfactions : that is , Whether it be lawfull to make God and his service to be intermedial to the things of the world , the ultimate end to be intermedial , and this to be the ultimate . I answer ; It is at no hand lawfull to doe so , if the meaning be such , that if these ends should fail , we would no longer serve God ; for then these temporal ends are principal , when without them the service would not be done , and with them alone it would . But it is lawfull to serve God for temporal ends , provided that these being but some or all the first incentives of duty , they bear us on indeed to the service of God. For he that serves God for temporal ends does well ; and it matters not where the service of God begins ; whether by fear or hope , whether for temporal regards or upon wise discourses : the more imperfect motives are more usual with beginners . But then although it matters not where we begin , yet it is a very great matter whether these beginnings carry us : for if upon these first incentives we do indeed serve God , then our love to God begins from them ; and if these imperfect principles be the beginning of our love , they will certainly end in God. But if the question be concerning a single action , whether it be lawfull to be done only for a temporal regard , as to get fame or money ; I answer , that a single action done alone for any such consideration with actual rejection , or positive neglect of all other considerations , is in it's whole constitution criminal : and in this sense those words of Publius Mimus are true , Malus est vocandus qui suâ causâ est bonus , He is no good man that does good only for his own sake . For it is a direct preferring the world before God , and is not a serving God for temporal ends , but wholly a serving our selves by actions which in those circumstances are no serving of God , but a doing of some material actions of religion in mere hypocrisie . But to serve God for temporal ends is very lawfull , 1. when these temporal ends are either the incentive and argument used by God to move us to his service ; especially if no other be used , and if the Covenant be founded upon temporal promises , as the Law of Moses was ; 2. or when these temporal ends are but the first and beginning motive , and lead us on to other and better ; 3. or when they doe actually consist & are conjunct with others ; 4. or when they are in true estimate and value subordinate and less principal ; or 5. when the temporal end is first served , and the service is a return of gratitude , and the effect of preceding obligation . The first of these was the case of them in the old Law. The second is the ordinary case of beginners in religion . The third was the case of Moses , who despised to be called the son of Pharaohs daughter , because he had an eye to the recompence of reward : which reward was both temporal and eternal . The fourth is the case of all them who follow after godliness because it hath the promises of the world that now is , and of that which is to come ; and that seek the Kingdom of heaven and the righteousness thereof , knowing that all these things ( which they need here ) shall be added to them ; added ex abundanti , besides those greater and more glorious promises belonging to the Kingdom of grace . And the last was the Case of Job . Doth Job serve God for nought ? No , he had received many blessings which had endeared and obliged his services . But as in all cases God gives us temporal blessings in order to his service and the communication of Eternal ; so must our intentions and designs be , ever subordinate , ever apt to yield in case of opposition , but alwaies ministring in case of compatibility and consistency . 2. The second inquiry is , In what sense it is true that God must be served purely for his own sake ; and vertue pursued for vertues sake , and not for low regards , for fear or hope , or secular considerations . To this I answer , that this question hath it's principal effect in discourse and contemplation , and but little in practice and in the real events of actions . For the first thing that any man knows of God is , that he is , and is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him : and no man does chuse to serve God but he really is assured and believes he shall have a very great reward : and all the laws of God are established upon promises and arguments of amability and desire . So that to serve God for his own sake , is nothing but an extasie of love used by some excellent and contemplative persons , in which they only actually consider the excellencies and perfections of God ; being built up in the love of God by the instruments of fear and hope and experience , and the spirit of God : and to serve God without reward , can never be any more then a fiction of law or fancy , a supposition , and a case put , which can never be reduced to act . But even as the serving of God with intuition of the reward is virtually a serving God for love of him ; so serving God out of mere love of him , is virtually a serving God for reward . Diligeris populo non propter praemia , Caesar : Propter te populus praemia , Caesar , amat . For as no man can wisely hope for the reward but he that does love God ; so no man loves God purely and for himself but he knows also that he is most sure of his reward . It is like S. Paul's wishing himself anathema for his Brethren : the greater charity he had in so wishing , the further that thing was from being effected . 2. But yet there is something more material in the answer to this question . For by God and wise men it is intended we should love God purely and for himself ; but so he does who loves God above every thing else ; for all that supereminent love by which God is more loved then all the world , all that love is pure and for himself . He that loves God only for riches or health , loves these better then God : but he that loves God above these , loves him for these and for himself too ; for the good that he is , as well as for the good which he does . 3. He is understood to love God for himself , who abstains from sin not only because it is forbidden , or because it will bring him to mischief , but because he hates it ; though it may be the prohibition and the fear first brought in that hatred . For this they usually called the love of vertue and honesty ; but the other is necessity . Neque enim minus apud nos honestas , quam apud alios necessitas valet , said Pliny . And of this we still receive the greater evidence , by how much the less we are moved with any of the lesser appendages of vertue . Quam me juvat ( said Secundus ) quod in causis agendis non modo pactione , dono , munere , verum etiam Xeniis semper abstinui . Oportet siquidem quae sunt inhonesta , non quia illicita , sed quasi pudenda vitare . Jucundum tamen , si prohiberi publicè videas quod nunquam tibi ipsi permiseris . I am pleased that in the administration of justice I did not only abstain from bribes and presents , but even from new-years gifts and gratuities . For we ought to abstain from dishonest things not only because they are unlawfull , but because they are shamefull . But when a man had rather doe a base action then suffer trouble , then he gives in evidence , that he loves not God and vertue in any sense principally . So he in the Comedy , Pol pudere quam pigere praestat totidem literis . It is better to blush then to be hungry , to be ashamed then to smart . Lucrum pudori praestat . That 's the intention and design of these men : they serve vertue as long as vertue will serve their ends of pleasure and profit , and no more : and this is therefore infinitely against the will and glory of God , because it destroies the noblest conjugation of graces that are in Christianity ; it makes that there shall be no such thing as self-denial and Christian fortitude , and the greatest love in giving our lives for God , and Martyrdome . But the surest conjecture we can make of our intentions when they are complicated is by the actual cession of one to the other . Theodoric advised well to Marcellus the Advocate of his Exchequer , [ in Cassiodore ] Non quoties superes , sed quemadmodum vincas inquirimus . Non quaeras de potestate nostra , sed potius de jure victoriae : quando laudabilius à parte fisci perditur , cum justitia non habetur . I have alwaies power on my side , but do you take care that I have right . I am willing my revenue be increased , but at no hand would I have justice violated . Such men as these & in these cases do love God for himself , therefore because they love good actions for other considerations then the temporal reward ; they love God and serve him whether it does them hurt or good , pleasure or displeasure : and that 's the true meaning of the old brave Philosophers and Poets , of loving vertue for vertues sake ; they lov'd it when it was discountenanced , when it was the Enemy of their temporal ends and prosperities ; and what they call'd loving vertue for vertues sake , the Christian calls loving God purely , or for God's sake . 4. But if we search the Scriptures , we shall but seldom see foot-steps of any such Metaphysical love , as to love God or doe our duty without considerations of hope or fear : and amongst the braver Gentiles , and amongst the better Christians in imitation and contentions to excel them , it is further observable , that when they speak of loving vertue for vertues sake , they only mean to exclude all considerations of sordid ends , of slavish fear of laws , or the acquist of money . But even in their greatest bravery , some of them designed to themselves the reward of Honour and an immortal Name ; and the best of them did rest in the peace of their minds , and that satisfaction which uses to reward a good action even in this life : but by both these they were by God secretly conducted to an expectation of a reward hereafter : and there was no love of God ever so abstracted by any command or express'd intention of God , as to lay aside all intuition of that reward ; because in the receiving of that reward we are most united unto God , and shall in the best manner and measures glorifie him for ever . RULE III. The end and intention of a Law is under the Commandement , as much as the action it self commanded in order to the end . THIS Rule is meant principally of the Laws of God : Because the end of all these laws is that which is simply and absolutely good , and nearer to the chief end which is primarily design'd : and this is an endearment of our services and a Monitor to our duty in many particulars not express'd . God hath commanded us to honour our Parents ; his end is , that we may receive the fruits of Government , provision and order , defence and maintenance respectively . Upon this account , since we are more bound to comply with the purpose and end of God then with the means to that end when it is evident and known , because the end is greater in God's account then the means ; we are taught that it is the will of God so to expound the words of that Commandement , as may best promote that end : and by Honour is understood all those duties whereby the Parent is confessed Honourable ; and by Parents is meant all that are in the place of Parents , and who minister to the ends of Government . Now this must not be understood as if God did design the end , and car'd not for the means ; for he is the best chuser of the instruments also of his own service and his own glory : and though the end is better then the means , yet those are the best means which God hath appointed : but if we cannot obtain the means , then it will suffice that the end be acquired as well as we can by other instruments Symbolical . Thus we are bound to profess the faith of Christ in the susception of baptism : but if we cannot obtain baptism , which is the usual and appointed publication of our faith , yet we are obliged still to pursue the end , and confess the faith of Christ by profession , by holy living , by declaring our desires of baptism , by dying for Christ if it be requir'd . This also hath effect upon the instances of our duty so as to enforce the sincerity and ingenuity of them , and to make them really usefull in order to their proper ends . Thus we must confess our sins , because we will forsake them ; pray to God for his grace , because we intend to make use of it ; not resting in forms of godliness , but living in the power of it . Diodorus lent to Caius ten Attic talents ; but Caius is not able to pay a drachm , and therefore Diodorus forgives him ; that he may be thank'd indeed for nothing . Condones aut sustineas , Diodore , necesse est : Nam tibi quod solvat non habet arca mea . But if Diodorus will be truly charitable let him lend to Caius so much more ; for he serves no end of charity that lets that alone which he knows he can never get . Ridiculè hac homines , nequeunt quae vendere , donant . I deny not but it may accidentally serve the ends of charity to forgive him that is insolvent ; it may free him from fear of trouble , and make his life comfortable ; and he that does it upon these considerations serves the end of the Commandement . But he that forgives it for no other reason but because he cannot have it , he does nothing at all ; for though he perform the instance of the law , yet he does nothing toward the end of it . But in humane laws the case is something different ; for we are only obliged to doe nothing against the end of the law : for in this sense is that of the law to be understood , Fines mandati sunt diligenter custodiendi . l. diligenter , ff . mandati . The ends of the law are with diligence to be kept . But we are no otherwise bound to promote that end then by observing of such means as are appointed ; that is , if the end be only civil and humane , and do not also include a duty of religion commanded by God. If the Church command a fasting-day in order to a corporal affliction of our selves and an external ministery of repentance , we are bound to obey it ; and though that fasting-day should accidentally be no affliction , yet by virtue of that law we are no further obliged to afflict our selves . But we are indeed obliged to doe nothing that shall be against the end of that law . Finem certum respicientia non debent contrarium operari . l. quod favore . C. de legibus . We must not caress our selves with delicious juice of fishes and costly wines upon a fish-day . The reason of these things is briefly this . In humane laws the end is not alwaies good ; or if it be , it is not alwaies necessary ; or if it were in any degree necessary , yet the necessity of it is to be judg'd by the Supreme , and is no otherwise to be estimated necessary by the Subject , then by the conjecture , the proportion and efficacy of the means or instrument appointed by the Supreme to effect that end : and therefore we are bound to restrain our liberties no more then the law restrains them ; and we need not be wiser then the laws : but he that goes against the mind of the law , upbraids the insufficiency of her provisions , and shews that he obeys with an ill will. But the laws of God have it in their intention to regulate all the purposes and whole intention of the Subject ; and therefore our obedience cannot be measured only by the instance of the precept , but by the purpose of it : and because we must serve God with all our heart and all our skill , our duty must be coextended with all the holiness & designs of God in every Commandement ; that is , we must doe all that which we really suppose God would have to be done in every of his laws , whether it be express'd or only implied . For he that intends the just end of all humane actions , that is , the glory of God , can be assured that his purposes are right , when he measures them by their tendency to the end , better then by their commensuration with the expressed means . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Philostratus . That 's the sum of all ; we must take care that the end of our actions be all of gold . If they be design'd well , they are likely to end well ; for this is truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for in the service of God , a Golden head shall never have the feet of clay . The End. Nomini tuo da gloriam . THE TABLE . A. Aequivocation . IT was disowned by the Roman Senate . l. 3. c. 4. r. 23. n. 7. p. 358. is allowed for great charity . l. 3. c. 2. r. 5. n. 35. p. 100. but not to evil ends . l. 3. c. 2. r. 5. n. 39. p. 102. is allowable in more cases then lying . ibid. n. 40. p. 103. is then only a crime , when it is against Justice and Charity . ibid. Advocate . in a good cause must not use evil arts . l. 3. c. 2. r. 5. n. 14. p. 90. may not tell a lye . ibid. p. 91. against those of them that are evil and rapacious . l. 3. c. 2. r. 6. n. 20. p. 116. Abraham . concerning his offering his Son. l. 2. c. 1. r. 9. n. 8. p. 266. whether Sarah were his Sister . l. 2. c. 2. r. 3. n. 32. p. 300. & n. 45. p. 305. Act. when and how the internal acts alone do multiplie the sin . l. 4. c. 1. r. 3. n. 11. p. 486. & n. 9 , 10. the omissions of them are oftentimes indifferent . l. 4. c. 1. r. 1. n. 15 , 16. p. 444. the external act of it self increases not the goodness or badness of the internal , but accidentally it may . l. 4. c. 1. r. 3. n. 7. p. 484. the external act inferrs obligations distinct and greater then the internal . l. 4. c. 1. r. 3. n. 8. p. 484. every renewing of an external Act serving to a sinfull end is either a repeating of the sin or an aggravation of it . ibid. n. 10. p. 485. the goodness or badness of an Act is made by the Object . l. 1. c. 2. r. 9. n. 4. p. 95. but accidentally good or bad , by the Conscience . ibid. n. 7. p. 96. Acts of vertue are to be prefer●ed before the Instruments of vertue , and inward Acts before the outward , when Laws interfere . l. 2. c. 3. r. 5. n. 10. p. 410. Acts of vertue Elicit and Imperate what they signifie . l. 2. c. 3. r. 6. n. 1. p. 411. The Elicit acts of several vertues can never be contrary to each other . ibid. n. 2. p. 411. The Imperate acts of one vertue may ●ontradict the Imperate acts of another . ibid. n. 3. p. 411. the Imperate acts of one vertue must not hinder the Elicit of another . ibid. n. 6. p. 413. Actions . what guilt is contracted by imperfect actions . l. 4. c. 1. r. 3. n. 12. p. 486. of the morality of actions that are involuntary in the effect , but voluntary in respect of the cause . l. 4. c. 1. r. 4. p. 489. to begin all actions with prayer and end them with thanks-giving . l. 4. c. 2. r. 1. r. 7. actions in their physical capacity are negatively indifferent . l. 4. c. 1. r. 1. n. 14. p. 444. of the morality of negative actions . ibid. n. 15 , 16. p. 445. every action of our lives is either good or bad . ibid. n. 19. p. 448. we should be watchfull over our words and actions . l. 4. c. 1. r. 1. n. 21. p. 450. to praise an ill action how far sinfull . ibid. r. 2. n. 9. p. 460. of the identity and diversity of actions internal and external , and the multiplication of sins by them . ibid. r. 3. n. 5. p. 483. an action receives the denomination of good or bad from the end . l. 4. c. 2. r. 1. n. 1. how it is to be understood that a man should make the glory of God the end of every action . l. 4. c. 2. r. 1. n. 3. we must not judge of the goodness of actions by the event . l. 3. c. 3. r. 4. n. 5. p. 162. how far a secular end may be admitted to be the reason of a good action , and what diminution it makes of the worthiness of the act . l. 1. c. 2. r. 5. n. 2. p. 65. but if the secular end be or be not under a promise it much alters the case . ibid. n. 2 , 3. p. 65. the difference of outward actions . l. 2. c. 3. r. 6. n. 8. p. 413. what are elicit actions . ibid. Abrogation of laws . of the abrogation of laws . l. 3. c. 6. r. 7. p. 431. to the making a Law many conditions are required , but the defect of any one is sufficient to the abrogating . l. 3. c. 6. r. 7. n. 1. p. 431. Adam . the six precepts given to him . l. 2. c. 2. r. 2. n. 3. p. 281. Admonition . of brotherly admonition . l. 3. c. 2. r. 6. n. 6. p. 108. Accessory . it follows the nature of the principal . l. 3. c. 4. r. 4. n. 4. p. 227. what is an Accessory . ib. n. 7. p. 227. Adultery . a subject of England taking in Spain his daughter in adultery may not kill her , though it be the Law there . l. 3. c. 1. r. 8. n. 3. p. 50. it may be very pious and charitable for a woman to cohabit with an adulterous husband . l. 1. c. 5. r. 8. n. 9. p. 193. but she is not bound to doe so . ib. n. 10. the falshood of a betrothed woman is in Scripture punished as Adultery . l. 3. c. 5. r. 8. n. 16. p. 387. Affirmative . affirmative duties follow from the negative not in contraries but in contradictiories . l. 2. c. 3. r. 1. n. 10. p. 392. affirmative precepts bind semper , not ad semper ; negative semper & ad semper . l. 2. c. 3. r. 1. n. 13. p. 393. Amor descendit non ascendit , the meaning of it . l. 3. c. 5. r. 3. n. 3. p. 367. Angels . upon what false reason the Gnostics commanded the worship of Angels . l. 2. c. 3. r. 13. n. 22. p. 464. Apostles . their Canons were at first observed by more Churches then those they did oblige . l. 3. c. 4. r. 11. n. 2. p. 266. how far those orders made in the Church by them do bind others . ibid. n. 3. p. 267. they gave no laws to oblige all ages of the Church , but such as they received in commandment from Christ. ibid. n. 4. p. 267. apostolical institutions may be changed . ibid. Cassander affirms , those laws that enjoyn single life to Bishops and Priests ought to be relaxed , though they were Canons Apostolical . ibid. Canons Apostolical not observed . ibid. n. 6. p. 268. the Apostles institutions concerning the Sacrament oblige all Christendom . l. 3. c. 4. r. 12. n. 1 , 2. p. 269. the Apostles did not prescribe to the Church in any thing that is matter of order or decency . ibid. n. 4. p. 270. the ancient Church did differ in their practices from the Apostles . ibid. n. 5. p. 270. the Apostles in those things they received from Christ were ministers to all ages , in other things only to their own . ibid. n. 9. p. 271. the Lords day is an Apostolical institution . ibid. r. 13. n. 1. p. 272. the constitutions of the Apostles are to be retain'd , where the change of times has brought in a contrary unreasonableness . ibid. n. 2. p. 273. the Apostles in their Laws complied much with the Jews . ibid. r. 20. n. 2. p. 323. what power Christ gave to his Apostles . l. 3. c. 4. r. 1. n. 3. p. 212. it was without coaction . ibid. n. 4. p. 212. they did exercise jurisdiction , but it was in an extraordinary and miraculous way . ibid. n. 9. p. 216. under their names and the names of Apostolical men divers books falsly put forth . l. 2. c. 3. r. 14. n. 35. p. 492. whatsoever the Apostles taught we must equally believe , but it is not equally necessary to be known . ibid. n. 63. p. 509. the foundation of Faith laid by Christ and his Apostles was plain and easie , and consisted but of a few articles . ibid. r. 14. n. 64. p. 509. Apostles Creed . the Fathers gave to that Creed those names of honour & excellence , which in the Scripture are attributed to the whole faith . ibid. r. 14. n. 71. p. 514. the ancient Church in the Creed made at Nice and Constantinople added no new articles , only new explications against some Hereticks . ibid. r. 14. n. 73. p. 515. the Apostles Creed were useless if any thing necessary to be believed in order to salvation could be added to it . ibid. r. 14. n. 77. p. 516. none ought to adde to it but they that are as infallible as the Apostles were . ibid. the danger and trouble that will follow from the insufficiency of that Creed , if granted . ibid. 78. p. 516. the practice of the Church of Rome in enlarging that Creed . ib. n. 79. p. 517. the Apostles themselves could not make a proposition to be an article of faith , but only declare it . ibid. n. 80. p. 517. the Apostles intended the Creed to be a remedy against heresy , which could not be , unless it contained the whole faith . l. 2. c. 3. r. 14. n. 81. p. 517. Amability . all the causes of amability are reduced to two . l. 2. c. 1. r. 4. n. 6. p. 249. Anathema , and Anathema Maranatha . l. 3. c. 4. r. 8. n. 16. p. 253. Angaria . what it is , and whether it be lawfull . l. 3. c. 2. r. 8. n. 3. p. 125. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , was Judas his manner of death . l. 1. c. 1. r. 2. n. 9. p. ●5 . Apologue , told by Jo. Nider . l. 1. c. 1. r. 3. n. 5. p. 28. Aquinas . Th. Aquinas entered into the Dominican order without his Fathers leave . l. 3. c. 5. r. 8. n. 3. p. 378. Articles of religion . the ancient Church in the Creed at Nice and Constantinople added no new articles . l. 2. c. 3. r. 14. n. 73. p. 515. An expedient for peace of Conscience in relation to the controverted articles of religion . l. 4. p. 443. to subscribe to Articles of religion is only for the conservation of peace and unity . l. 3. c. 4. r. 23. n. 1. p. 356. where the Articles are not necessary the Subjects should be invited to subscribe , not forced . l. 3. c. 4. r. 23. n. 5. p. 357. Arrians were accounted Idolaters because they gave divine worship to Christ , whom they affirmed to be a mere man. l. 2. c. 2. r. 6. n. 27. p. 341. Atheism . it is a kinde of atheism to disobey Parents . l. 3. c. 5. r. 1. n. 1. p. 359. none can be an Atheist , but who thinks that he has either more learning then he has , or who has not so much as he should have . l. 1. c. 2. r. 3. n. 66. p. 61. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . the Hebrews expressed dying by a word equivalent to it . l. 3. c. 2. r. 3. n. 10. p. 76. S. Augustine . the reason of that Thesis of his , Satius est fame mori , quam Idolothytis vesci . l. 3. c. 1. r. 2. n. 14. p. 30. Arguments . it is lawfull to use those kind of reasons , that are argumenta ad hominem , with reasons to prove it . l. 1. c. 2. r. 6. n. 10. p. 75. every argument is not false to which a satisfactory answer can be given . ibid. one must not chuse alwaies such arguments as prevail with the understanding , but the fancy , will or appetite . ibid. p. 76. the force of many probable arguments amassed together . l. 1. c. 4. r. 2. n. 1 , 2. p. 121. Astrology . of Judicial Astrology . l. 1. c. 2. r. 3. n. 67. p. 61. Authors . multitude of them is not to prevail against a strong reason . l. 1. c. 4. r. 9. n. 2. p. 156. when a multitude of them may be reduced to one single person as their leader , their testimonie is to be accounted but single . ibid. n. 3. p. 157. multitude of them hath only a presumptive authority , and can never make a conscience sure . l. 1. c. 4. r. 9. n. 5. p. 157. a comparison between the authority of the ancient and modern writers . l. 1. c. 4. r. 10. n. 2. p. 163. B. Baal . OF Elias his sacrificing to him . l. 1. c. 5. r. 8. n. 28. p. 200. Baptisme . baptisme for the dead . l. 1. c. 2. r. 6. n. 11. p. 77. baptizing of infants . l. 2. c. 3. r. 14. n. 57. p. 506. it is not well to defer baptisme till death . l. 2. c. 3. r. 16. n. 1. p. 521. upon whom the necessity lies , upon the Infants or their Parents . l. 2. c. 3. r. 18. n. 1. p. 546. some afflicted with evil spirits , cured at their baptisme , and upon the apostasie relapsed into the same affliction , out of S. Cyprian . l. 3. c. 4. r. 1. n. 9. p. 216. Midwives may not baptise . l. 3. c. 4. r. 15. n. 2. p. 287. of God-fathers and God-mothers at baptisme . l. 3. c. 4. r. 15. n. 5. p. 289. of dipping in baptisme . ibid. n. 6. p. 290. & n. 12. p. 295. the custome of the ancient Church was not to sprinkle in baptisme . ibid. those that were only sprinkled in baptisme the ancient Church would not admit into holy orders , and made a question whether they were rightly baptized . l. 3. c. 4. r. 15. n. 12. p. 295. sprinkling was sometime used by the Ancients , and is lawfull in case of necessity . ibid. baptisme should be performed with a trine immersion . ibid. n. 13. p. 296. of the Cross in baptisme . l. 3. c. 4. r. 20. n. 8. p. 327. a child is not to be baptized without his Fathers leave . l. 3. c. 5. r. 4. n. 1. p. 369. if either of the Parents is Christian , the child may be baptized against the will of the other who is infidel . ibid. n. 3. p. 370. Betrothed . a betrothed woman in Scripture before marriage is stiled a wife , and her falshood punished as adultery . l. 3. c. 5. r. 8. n. 16. p. 387. Bishop . there were two Bishops of Rome , one of the Circumcision the other of the Uncircumcision , at one time in Rome . l. 2. c. 3. r. 11. n. 12. p. 444. if a person uncapable be chosen Bishop , whether the Bishop that ordains , or he that is ordained , or they that chuse him sin . l. 2. c. 3. r. 18. n. 1. p. 547. S. Timothy was made Bishop at the age of twenty five years . ibid. to avoid a Bishoprick Synesius uses unlawful arts . l. 3. c. 2. r. 5. n. 18. p. 93. the Canons of the Popes and Bishops were made into Laws by the Emperour Justinian . l. 3. c. 3. r. 5. n. 4. p. 175. Eusebius Bishop of Samosata obeyed the Emperours decree concerning his banishment , against the perswasion of the people . l. 3. c. 3. r. 6. n. ● . p. 178. the Bishops are subject to the Imperial power . ibid. n. 21. p. 190. the Emperour is to be obeyed even against the will of the Bishop . ibid. n. 22. p. 191. what is to be done when the command of the King and Bishop enterfere . ibid. n. 26. p. 192. S. Chrysostome proves the office of a Bishop more difficult then a King , because it hath no jurisdiction . l. 3. c. 4. r. 1. n. 7. p. 214. all the power of making Church laws is in the Pastors and Bishops . l. 3. c. 4. r. 2. n. 2. p. 221. A Bishop is distinct from , and above a Presbyter . ibid. the distinction of Bishops from Presbyters was a law made by the Apostles to oblige all Christendome . l. 3. c. 4. r. 12. n. 10. p. 272. a Bishop hath supreme and legislative power within his own Diocese intra limites Disciplinae . l. 3. c. 4. r. 2. n. 3. p. 222. a Bishop and his charge is an entire Society or Commonwealth . ibid. n. 3 , 4. p. 222. the authority of a Bishop . ibid. r. 3. n. 1. p. 224. to disobey the Bishop in an action of duty adds a new formality to the sin . l. 3. c. 4. r. 3. n. 2. p. 224. the Bishops can give no Laws that properly and immediately bind the transgressors under sin . ibid. r. 4. n. 23. p. 233. how Bishops should carry themselves in teaching Kings their duty . ibid. r. 7. n. 18. p. 246. in what cases it is lawfull for the people to separate from their Bishop or Priest. l. 3. c. 4. r. 8. n. 9. p. 250. that none but the Bishop or Priest should consecrate the Sacrament is an Apostolical Canon . l. 3. c. 4. r. 12. n. 6. p. 270. by the Law of Christ one Bishop is not superiour to another . l. 3. c. 4. r. 16. n. 6. p. 300. Bishops were permitted in the antient Church to marry after ordination . ibid. r. 20. n. 27. p. 344. Gregory Nazianzen had sons born to him after he was consecrated Bishop . ibid. n. 28. p. 347. Bless . Fathers Bless their children . l. 3. c. 5. r. 1. n. 3. p. 360. Black. of Clergy-men wearing black . l. 3. c. 4. r. 15. n. 7. p. 290. Blood. of eating blood , whether forbidden , and why . l. 2. c. 2. r. 2. n. 2. p. 281. abstinence from blood is not a Law of nature . l. 2. c. 2. r. 2. n. 3. p. 281. the Heathen used to consummate their contracts and covenants by blood or wine . l. 2. c. 3. r. 9. n. 31. p. 431. Bind . the use of the words bind and loose . l. 3. c. 4. r. 10. n. 10. p. 264. Body . in criminall causes , where bodily punishment is inflicted no man can be surety for another , quia nemo membrorum suorum Dominus videtur . l. 3. c. 2. r. 7. n. 2. p. 117. of bowing the body at the name of Jesus . l. 3. c. 4. r. 15. n. 4. p. 289. Bonum ex integra causa , Malum ex qualibet particulari . l. 2. c. 3. r. 2. n. 2. p. 395. Brothers . of the marriage of Brothers and Sisters . l. 2. c. 2. r. 3. n. 24. p. 296. reasons why they ought not to marry their sisters . ibid. n. 27. p. 298. Buy . in doubts of Conscience or Law he that buys is to be favoured before him that sells . l. 3. c. 6. r. 1. n. 15. p. 405. Bury . A Roman Philosopher was in his dream warned not to bury the corps of a Persian , who had married his Mother . l. 2. c. 2. r. 3. n. 23. p. 296. C. Cards . WHether the trade of Cardmakers be lawfull . l. 4. c. 1. r. 2. n. 25. p. 468. whether it be lawfull to play at Cards . ibid. n. 27. p. 469. in what cases it may be lawfull to do so . ibid. n. 28. p. 470. rules to be used in those kind of recreations . ibid. n. 32. p. 473. Vide Gaming in the letter G. Canon . the Canon and Civil Law differ in their account of Rapes . l. 3. c. 5. r. 8. n. 15. p. 387. divers laws in the Canon law were the edicts of Kings . l. 3. c. 3. r. 5. n. 4. p. 175. the Canons of the Church . l. 3. c. 4. r. 11. p. 266. how binding the Canons of an ancient council are . l. 3. c. 4. r. 14. n. 2. p. 286. the body of the Canon law was made by the worst Popes . l. 3. c. 4. r. 16. n. 4. p. 299. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . the definition of it out of Varinus . l. 2. c. 3. r. 14. n. 10. p. 482. Cases . arising from the necessity of restitution . l. 2. c. 3. r. 10. n. 8. p. 435. concerning contracts . l. 4. c. 1. r. 6. n. 22. p. 510. Ceremonies . I am not bound to observe the Ceremonies of the Church , if I must doe it with danger of my life . l. 3. c. 6. r. 3. n. 15. p. 416. they may be the accidents of worship , but nothing of the Substance . l. 2. c. 3. r. 5. n. 5. p. 407. Ceremonies and customes ought to be borrowed from the Heathen with great caution . l. 2. c. 3. r. 19. n. 14. p. 553. Ceremonies and gestures may become obedience , but not religion . l. 3. c. 4. r. 18. n. 5. p. 314. Church cannot impose Ceremonies by a law . l. 3. c. 4. r. 20. n. 4 , 5. p. 325. the Primitive Church did borrow some Ceremonies from the Heathen . l. 2. c. 3. r. 19. n. 13. p. 552. against multitude of Ceremonies . l. 3. c. 4. r. 20. n. 7 , 8. p. 326. Ecclesiastical laws of Ceremonies bind only in publick , not in private . l. 3. c. 4. r. 18. n. 1 , 6. p. 313 , 314. Church . the Church in Legacies is to be favoured against the heir . l. 3. c. 6. r. 1. n. 15. p. 405. the primitive Church did borrow some ceremonies from the heathen . l. 2. c. 3. r. 19. n. 13. p. 552. the Christian Churches and Commonweals ought to be better ordered then were the Jewish . ibid. r. 20. n. 5. p. 555. of the honour due to Church-men . l. 3. c. 3. r. 6. n. 18. p. 187. In external actions the command of the Prince is to be obeyed before the command of the Church . ibid. n. 27. p. 193. Princes are not bound to execute the decrees of the Church . ibid. r. 8. n. 5. p. 209. The Church hath no jurisdiction . l. 3. c. 4. r. 1. n. 5. p. 213. it hath no dominion but a ministerial power . ibid. n. 6. p. 214. which is proved by the Testimonie of the Fathers . ibid. S. Chrysostome proves the Episcopal office more difficult then the Kingly , because it hath no jurisdiction . ibid. the Hig● priest under the old Testament had a proper formal jurisdiction , which the Christian Church had not . ibid. n. 8. p. 215. the Church hath an analogical Jurisdiction . ibid. n. 11. p. 217. what is that power of remitting sins given to the Church . ibid. r. 13. ● . 218. rightly to understand the power of the Church very usefull . ibid. n. 17. p. 220. the Government of the Church like that of the Jews before they had a King. ibid. all the power of making Church laws is in the Pastor or Bishop . l. 3. c. 4. r. 2. n. 2. p. 221. what obedience we owe to the Church . l. 3. c. 4. r. 3. n. 3 , 4 , 5. p. 225. the Church hath power to make laws in things that are helps of duty . l. 3. c. 4. r. 4. por tot . p. 226. God in several manners governed his Church . ibid. r. 5. n. 1. p. 234. never any Ecclesiastical Laws in the primitive Church did oblige the people , unless established by the Prince or Emperour . ibid. n. 4. p. 236. Kings obey the Laws of the Church . ibid. r. 6. n. 1. p. 237. Privileges made to the Church may be taken away again . ib. n. 3. p. 238. the Apostles intended not by any Laws to oblige all the ages of the Church , but such Laws as they received from Christ. ib. r. 11. n. 4. p. 267. the Canons of the Church . ib. r. 11. p. 266. the authority of customes of the Church . l. 3. c. 4. r. 15. n. 1. p. 287. a Christian must not practise the different Customs of his own Church to the scandal of another . ibid. n. 4. p. 288. a man may comply with the differing customes of several Churches . ibid. a custome of the Church obliges not the Conscience against a Law of the Church . ibid. n. 6. p. 289. a custome of the Church obliges not the Conscience , unless it be reasonable , or to avoid scandal . ibid. n. 7. p. 290. a custome Ecclesiastical that is but of a legal and presum'd reasonableness binds us to conformity . ibid. n. 11. p. 293. the Character of those that quarrelled with the customes of our Church . ibid. p. 294. Laws of the Church must not be perpetual . ibid. r. 17. n. 7. p. 303. the Church of the Jews made laws with another authority then doth the Christian. ibid. n. 24. p. 311. Laws made by a particular Church , may not by one Church be imposed on another . ibid. n. 25. p. 311. they may be continued by any authority so long as that authority lasts . ibid. n. 26. p. 311. In the matter of meats and drin●s and days their Laws must be wholly relative to religion , not have regard to themselves . ibid. n. 27. p. 312. they must be imposed with liberty of the whole Church , not of each Subject . ibid. n. 28. they must serve religion , but never pretend to be religion . ib. n. 29. they must not be taught for doctrines and commandments of God. ibid. n. 30. the difference between the obligation that Laws of the Church and Civil Laws leave on the Subject . ibid. r. 18. n. 6. p. 315. the Legislative power of the Church is wholly a ministery of grace and godliness , not of empire and dominion . ibid. Laws of the Church must be easie and charitable . l. 3. c. 4. r. 19. n. 1. p. 316. Edification and Charity ought to be the end of all Lawes made by the Church , beyond this she hath no Legislative power . ibid. r. 20. n. 3. p. 324. When the Church in making such laws acts beyond her Commission , she obliges not . ibid. the Church hath not power to bring into a Law whatsoever is for edification . ibid. n. 5. p. 325. the Church cannot impose ceremonies by a law . ibid. n. 4 , 5. p. 325. Laws of the Church are not for edification when they give offence to wise and good men . l. 3. c. 4. r. 20. n. 9. p. 328. how the Rulers of the Church and their Subjects must behave themselves if their Laws give offence . ibid. Catholic Church . the Catholic Church cannot alone give sufficient authority to tradition . l. 2. c. 3. r. 14. n. 40 , 41. p. 498 , 499. the universal Church is to be our Guide in interpreting some precepts . l. 2. c. 3. r. 17. n. 7. p. 544. a custome of the Catholic Church obliges not the Conscience , unless it be of present observation . l. 3. c. 4. r. 15. n. 5. p. 289. the Catholic Church is a good Witness , but not a competent Judge in matters of Faith. ibid. r. 21. n. 1. p. 350. this is not true of the Catholic Church of any one age , but of all . ibid. n. 3. p. 351. the Catholic Church cannot be a Judge in controversies , because if there be a difference it is not Catholic . ib. n. 4. we know not where to find it . n. 5. the sentence of those that call themselves Catholic depends on a few that prescribe to others . ibid. n. 6. of the power of the Church in making Laws . l. 3. c. 1. r. 1. n. 32. p. 22. Church of Rome . Instances wherein the Roman Church do advance the Commandments of men above those of God. l. 3. c. 4. r. 17. n. 16 , 17 , 18. p. 306 , & 307. the Reasons that move those of the Church of Rome to make the two first Commandments to be one . l. 2. c. 2. r. 6. n. 6. p. 327. what evil Doctrines concerning Conscience the Roman Doctors teach . Preface , pag. 2 , 3. Conscience . In things not certain no man can give a Law to the Conscience . l. 3. c. 4. r. 23. n. 5. p. 357. in articles not necessary the subjects should be invited to subscribe , not forced . ibid. the Conscience cannot relie upon customes because of the many difficulties . l. 3. c. 6. r. 6. n. 7. p. 430. Humane Laws bind the Conscience . l. 3. c. 1. r. 1. Rules to know what humane Laws bind to a greater and what to a lesser sin . l. 3. c. 1. r. 1. n. 16. p. 10. an expedient for the attaining peace of Conscience in relation to the controverted articles of Christendome . l. 4. c. 1. r. 1. n. 10. p. 443. Every thing we doe must twice pass through the Conscience , when it is to be done , and when done . l. 4. c. 1. r. 1. n. 21. p. 450. Customes against Law cannot indemnifie the Conscience . l. 3. c. 6. r. 6. n. 4. p. 429. Conscience defined . l. ● . c. 1. r. 1. n. 1. p. 1. what Conscience is in its use and power . ibid. n. 1 , 2. it is a result of the understanding , will and memory . ibid. it proves that there is a God. ib. n. 4. the word distinguished . ibid. n. 6. how it is , men do things against their Conscience . ibid. n. 7. Conscience is the mind guided and furnished with a holy rule . ibid. n. 8. the Hebrew hath no word for Conscience but what signifies principally the heart . ibid. n. 8. p. 4. God reigns in our mind by Faith and Conscience , their difference . ibid. n. 10. p. 5. S. Bernards comparison between the Conscience and a house in the parts of both , examined . ibid. n. 11 , 12. p. 5. what force the will hath upon the Conscience . ibid. n. 13. p. 9. what is the adequate measure of Conscience . l. 1. c. 1. r. 1. n. 21. p. 8. what Conscience is . ibid. n. 23. p. 9. the word Conscience explained . ibid. the full process of Conscience . ibid. n. 24. p. 10. Conscientia distinguished from Prudentia . ibid. n. 26. p. 10. all the dictates of Conscience are not equally certain . l. 1. c. 1. r. 2. n. 2. p. 12. the offices of Conscience . ibid. p. 11. to dictate . n. 1. p. 11. to witness . n. 3. to accuse or excuse . n. 5. to loose or bind . n. 8. the evils that are felt by a troubled Conscience . l. 1. c. 1. r. 2. n. 10. p. 15. the torments of a troubled Conscience . ibid. p. 16. Shame , the attendant of a troubled Conscience . ibid. n. 11. p. 17. Distraction of mind the effect of a troubled Conscience . ibid. n. 12. p. 17. Impudence is sometimes the effect of a troubled Conscience . ibid. n. 13. p. 18. A troubled Conscience disquieted with Fear . ibid. n. 14. p. 19. the pains of a troubled Conscience described out of the book of the Wisdom of Solomon . ibid. a perpetual restlesness accompanies a troubled Conscience . ibid. n. 16. p. 19. the torments of Conscience encrease at death and after . ibid. n. 17. p. 20. by what instrument or power the Conscience inflicteth torment . ibid. n. 18. p. 20. the reason why Conscience is more afraid in some sins then others , though they are all damnable . ibid. n. 22. p. 21. Of the act of Absolution in the Conscience . ibid. n. 24. p. 23. the pleasures of a quiet good Conscience . ibid. the signs of true peace of Conscience . l. 1. c. 1. r. 2. n. 25. p. 24. Conscience does sometimes onely counsell . ibid. n. 27. p. 25. men cover all their open sins with the pretence of Conscience . ibid. r. 3. n. 1. p. 26. Conscience binds though it be in an error . ibid. p. 27. how to know when the office of Conscience is usurped by something like it . ibid. r. 3. n. 3. p. 27. that Conscience that is not willing to bear a search is not right . ibid. the Division of Conscience . ibid. r. 7. per tot . p. 35. the Conscience judgeth of actions by a double act , a direct and reflex . l. 1. c. 2. r. 2. n. 2. p. 39. Propositions naturally and philosophically known and not theologically sometimes are the rule in a sure Conscience ibid. r. 3. n. 5. p. 41. the more sure the Conscience is the greater is the sin that is against it . ibid. r. 8. n. 1. p. 81. the Conscience if it declares , obliges whether it be right or wrong ( with some cautions . ) ibid. r. 9. n. 3. p. 95. whatsoever is expresly commanded by God cannot by Conscience be changed into evil ibid. n. 8. p. 96. where the rule is so obscure or the duty so intricate , that the Conscience may inculpably erre , there the Conscience may change the object . ibid. n. 9. p. 97. when the act is materially evil , believing it to be good does not make a perfect change , but leaves an allay only . ibid. r. 9. n. 10. p. 97. if the Conscience dictate a thing to be necessary , the thing is by no means to be declined . ibid. n. 11. p. 97. Conscience makes no essential alterations in the thing , but only personall obligations to the man. ibid. n. 11. p. 98. the Conscience can make a change between necessary and unnecessary , but not between good and bad . ibid. n. 12. p. 98. If the Conscience determine that for necessary to be done which ought not to be done , the man cannot escape a sin . l. 1. c. 2. r. 9. n. 11. p. 98. If the Conscience dictate a thing to be lawfull but not necessary , if the contrary be a duty , it is not safe to follow the Conscience , because it allows only and commands not . ibid. n. 13. p. 99. what manner of obligation is passed upon us by an erring Conscience . l. 1. c. 3. r. 2. n. 26. p. 107. the measures of obedience due to an erring Conscience . ibid. n. 28. p. 107. of a perplexed Conscience . l. 1. c. 6. r. 2. n. 6. p. 212. the strong and violent perswasions of Conscience in single persons or in some communities of men is not a sufficient indication of a morall Law. l. 2. c. 2. r. 6. n. 73. p. 371. Nemo , in Conscientia donec condemnetur , ad poenam exolvendam tenetur . l. 2. c. 3. r. 16. n. 9. p. 523. the Conscience may be free , when the will is not . l. 3. c. 1. r. 1. n. 29. p. 20. all humane Laws prescribing to the Conscience or restraining the thoughts are null . l. 3. c. 1. r. 3. n. 4. p. 33. in matter of burden the Conscience of the guilty person is to be favoured as much as may be in the interpretation of Laws . l. 3. c. 2. r. 2. n. 31. p. 70. they doe ill that make no Conscience of purloining from the Custom-houses . l. 3. c. 2. r. 8. n. 3. p. 125. General Councils are of great use in determining cases of Conscience . l. 3. c. 4. r. 22. n. 2. p. 353. Against a doubting Conscience a man may not act , but against a scrupulous he may . l. 1. c. 6. r. 2. n. 2. p. 211. Candles . of lighting Candles by dead bodies . l. 3. c. 1. r. 1. n. 18. p. 12. Charity . religion yields to it . l. 1. c. 1. r. 8. n. 28. p. 201. the precept of Charity and forgiveness is not inconsistent with humane punishments . l. 3. c. 2. r. 1. n. 3. p. 54. whatsoever is against Charity is not the effect of Justice . ibid. n. 5. p. 54. duties of Charity in several persons may be mutually contrary . ib. n. 7. p. 55 Children . they ought to obey their Parents . l. 3. c. 5. r. 1. n. 1. p. 359. reasons to enforce that duty . ibid. n. 1 , 2 , 3. p. 359 , 360. they must honour and reverence their Parents . l. 3. c. 5. r. 1. n. 6. p. 362. it is a sin for Children to disobey the holy precepts and counsels their Fathers instruct them with . ibid. n. 7. p. 362. they must maintain their Parents . l. 3. c. 5. r. 3. n. 2. p. 366. they should be under strict tutelage betimes . l. 4. c. 1. r. 6. n. 6. p. 503. at what age Children are capable of Laws . ibid. n. 4. p. 501. Compliance with weak Consciences . the Council of Auxerre did appoint Letanies and austerities three days within the twelve Festivals of Christmas , to rebuke the too-great compliance with the Heathen . l. 2. c. 3. r. 19. n. 15. p. 553. No sin is to be permitted in complyance with weak Consciences . ibid. r. 10. n. 8. p. 434. of compliance with weak Consciences . ibid. n. 12. p. 437. A custome in the administration of a Sacrament brought in against the analogy and purpose of the mystery ought not to be complyed with . l. 3. c. 4. r. 15. n. 12. p. 295. Christ. the divinity of his person . l. 1. c. 4. r. 2. à n. 13. ad n. ●8 . p. 130. of his Doctrine . ibid. à n. 18. ad . n. 21. his Instruments . n. 22. of his praedictions . ibid. n. 26. considered in opposition to the Jewish religion . ibid. n. 29. Heathen . ibid. n. 30. Mahometan . ibid. n. 31. If Christ hath not taught us some new Laws , he hath taught some new Excellencies and perfections of Morality in the old instances . l. 2. c. 2. r. 4. n. 2. p. 319. of the Example of , Christ , as it is to be imitated by us . l. 2. c. 2. r. 7. n. 33. p. 383. Christian. wherein the Christian righteousness differs from the Mosaick . l. 4. c. 1. r. 1. n. 24. p. 450. why the Christian Law contains somethings contrary to the Law of nature . l. 1. c. 2. r. 3. n. 31. p. 50. A discourse proving that the CHRISTIAN RELIGION is from God. l. 1. c. 4. r. 2. n. 12. p. 124. the Christian Religion if it were embraced rightly would prevent all war. l. 2. c. 2. r. 7. n. 20. p. 378. A character of the Christians obedience . l. 2. c. 3. r. 5. n. 1. p. 405. the difference between the Christian ceremonies and those of Moses Law. ib. n. 5. p 406. the righteousness of the Christians must exceed that of the Jews . l. 2. c. 3. r. 20. n. 2. p. 555. the Christian Churches and Commonweals ought to be better ordered then were the Jewish . ib. n. 3. p. 555. wherein the Christian obedience must exceed the Jewish . l. 2. c. 3. r. 20. n. 2. ad fin . cap. p. 556 , 557 how far every single Christian is bound to exceed the measures of obedience practised under the Law of Moses . l. 2. c. 3. r. 20. n. 12. p. 558. Humane Laws can impose ceremonies upon us notwithstanding Christian Libertie . l. 3. c. 1. r. 1. n. 28. p. 18. Christians must not go to Law but upon very great cause . l. 3. c. 2. r. 1. n. 18. p. 615. Cicero was too amorous to his own daughter . l. 2. c. 2. r. 3. n. 78. p. 315. Civil . the Civil power is enabled in the law of Moses to punish with death crimes committed against the private authority of the Father upon his single testimony . l. 3. c. 5. r. 2. n. 2. p. 364. the Civil and Canon Law differ in their account of Rapes . ibid. r. 8. n. 15. p. 387. wherein the Civil Law can change the Natural Law. l. 2. c. 1. r. 10. n. 7. p. 271. the Civil Law can adde to the Law of Nature . ibid. n. 9. p. 272. Cautions to be used in civil permissions of an unlawfull act . l. 2. c. 2. r. 7. n. 7. p. 374. the difference between the obligation that Laws of the Church and Civil Laws leave on the Subject . l. 3. c. 4. r. 18. n. 6. p. 315. Circumstances . of the Circumstances of time and place in relation to Laws . l. 3. c. 6. r. 3. n. 30. p. 422. Certainty . a twofold certainty in the Conscience . l. 1. c. 2. r. 2. n. 2. p. 39. what kind of certainty is to be look'd for in moral actions . ibid. n. 3. p. 39. an opinion may be practically certain when the knowledge of it in speculation is only probable . l. 1. c. 4. r. 1. n. 1. p. 120. Clemency . It is a great vertue in a Prince . l. 3. c. 3. r. 2. n. 18. p. 146. Commandment , &c. In interpreting Gods commands we must chuse that sense that most promotes the ends of the Commandment . l. 3. c. 6. r. 1. n. 10. p. 403. he that commands is more guilty then be that in obedience executes . l. 4. c. 1. r. 2. n. 1. p. 455. In maleficio , Ratihabitio mandato comparatur . ibid. In all prime necessary Commandments the most obvious sense is the best and principally intended . l. 1. c. 1. r. 6. n. 1. p. 34. whatsoever is expresly commanded by God cannot by Conscience be changed into evil . l. 1. c. 2. r. 9. n. 8. p. 96. when a Commandment is given with a reason , it does not follow , that where the reason continues not , that the Commandment does not . l. 1. c. 5. r. 8. n. 8. p. 192. the breach of a Commadment is a surer rule to judge of the quality of sins then their being against a natural reason . l. 2. c. 1. r. 6. n. 4. p. 259. To kill ones self is against the sixth Commandment . l. 3. c. 2. r. 3. n. 7. p. 75. whatsoever is forbidden by the naturall law or commanded by it cannot be permitted or forbidden . l. 2. c. 1. r. 10. n. 3. p. 270. The Jewish Doctors taught that at the command of a Prophet , it was lawfull to break any Commandment , that only excepted , which concerns the worship of God. l. 2. c. 2. r. 1. n. 1. p. 276. the reasons that move those of the Church of Rome to make the two first Commandments to be one . l. 2. c. 2. r. 6. n. 6. p. 327. the reasons that move the Lutherans to doe it . ibid. p. 329. the second Commandment is moral , not only positive . ibid. n. 23. p. 338. the Primitive Christians were haters of Image-worship . ibid. n. 33. p. 349. Many of the Ancients affirme that both the tables of Moses are moral in all except the precept of the Sabbath . ibid. n. 41. p. 355. Reasons why all Commandments but the Fifth are affirmative . l. 2. c. 3. r. 1. n. 2. p. 389. that parts of some precepts are Counsels ibid. n. 14. p. 394. more is forbidden and commanded then is in the words of the Commandmandment . ibid. r. 3. n. 1. p. 396. whatsoever action is of the same specification with an action expresly commanded or forbidden is of the same obligation . ibid. n. 3. p. 398. if the Relative be under the Commandment , then also the Correlative is ibid. n. 6. p. 399. In what sense it is said , He that breaks one Commandment is guilty of all . ibid. r. 11. n. 17. p. 447. there is in every Commandment a negative and an affirmative part . ibid. r. 12. n. 2. p. 449. In matters of counsell God does invite us to some actions , which to omit is no sin , but it is never so in matters of Commandment . ib. r. 16. n. 21. p. 529. Of Commandments and Counsels . ib. r. 17. n. 11. p. 545. A flying or ambulatory Commandment , il mandato volante . ibid. r. 18. n. 1. p. 547. when it is unlawfull to teach for Doctrines the Commandments of men . l. 3. c. 4. r. 17. n. 10. p. 304. Instances wherein the Roman Church do advance the Commandments of men above those of God. ibid. n. 16 , 17 , 18. p. 306 , 307. Laws made by a particular Church must not be taught for doctrines and Commandments of God. ibid. n. 30. Customs are to be tried by the rule or commandment . l. 2. c. 3. r. 19. n. 5. p. 550. Commission . Sins of commission are greater then sins of omission . l. 2. c. 3. r. 1. n. 12. p. 393. Commutation . of commutation of Laws . l. 3. c. 6. r. 5. p. 426. rules of administring it . ibid. Consent . in what cases Consent is indicated by silence . l. 4. c. 1. r. 2. n. 11. p. 461. Cautions to be observed in the presumption of leave upon the silence of a Superiour . l. 4. c. 1. n. 16. p. 462. it is no argument , when it is nothing but imitation . l. 2. c. 2. r. 6. n. 74. p. 371. In matters criminal the consent contracts guilt . l. 4. c. 1. r. 2. n. 3. p. 456. Contract . In all obligations of Conscience by contract , when any doubt arises in the Interpretation , we are to rest upon that which is most likely and most usuall . l. 3. c. 6. r. 1. n. 12. p. 404. Rules of extending or diminution of contracts the same as of extending or diminution of Laws . ibid. r. 3. n. 32. p. 422. In matters of Fraud , if an error be in the substance of things contracted for , it is invalid . l. 4. p. 509. Cases concerning contracts . l. 4. c. 1. r. 6. n. 22. p. 510. of contracts with minors . l. 2. c. 1. r. 5. n. 2 , 3. p. 252. A Contract made by him that had no power is invalid . ibid. r. 7. n. 3. p. 261. Clergy . Of Clergy-men wearing black . l. 3. c. 4. r. 15. n. 7. p. 290. of the marriage of the Clergy . ibid. r. 20. n. 15. p. 332. Some Councils have subjected the Clergy to the secular Judge . l. 3. c. 3. r. 6. n. 4. p. 180. Communion . Of Communion with erroneous persons . l. 3. c. 4. r. 8. n. 5 , 6. p. 249. We may not communicate with those that are justly excommunicate . ibid. r. 10. p. 261. Compell . Princes may compell their Subjects to serve God. l. 3. c. 3. r. 5. n. 3. p. 174. Confessions of Faith. Subscription to them is only for the conservation of peace and unity . l. 3. c. 4. r. 23. n. 1. p. 356. Such subscription does not bind a man for ever . ibid. n. 2. should be required to Articles otherwise necessary in themselves . ibid. n. 3. p. 357. or for the preserving of peace . ib. n. 4. Controversies . Of the Judge of Controversies . l. 3. c. 4. r. 21. n. 3. p. 351. The Catholick Church cannot be a Judge in Controversies , because if there be a difference it is not Catholick . ibid. n. 4. an expedient for the attaining peace of Conscience in relation to the Controversies that trouble Christendome . l. 4. c. 1. r. 1. n. 10. p. 443. Contempt . Of Contempt of Laws . l. 3. c. 1. r. 1. n. 22. p. 15. Causelessly and contemptuously are all one . ibid. In Comparatione personarum inest lasio & injuria . l. 3. c. 5. r. 7. n. 9. p. 377. Counsell . He that gives counsell or aid to an action good or evil , to him it is imputed as the effect of his choice . l. 4. c. 1. r. 2. n. 22. p. 466. of the guilt of those that assist at murthers , either by counsell , company or presence . ibid. n. 23. p. 467. the parts of some precepts are Counsells . l. 2. c. 3. r. 1. n. 14. p. 394. the difference between Counsells and Laws . ibid. r. 12. n. 4. p. 450. the measures and notes of their difference ibid. n. 10. p. 452. In matter of Counsels God does invite us to some actions , which to omit is no sin . ibid. r. 16. n. 21. p. 529. Of Counsells , ib. r. 17. n. 11. p. 545. Evangelical Counsells may not be made into Laws . l. 3. c. 4. r. 20. n. 12. p. 330. Counsells Evangelical when they are not left at liberty become a snare . l. 3. c. 4. r. 20. n. 13. p. 331. Council . A Council cannot alone give sufficient authority to tradition . l. 2. c. 3. r. 14. n. 42. p. 499. The Council of Auxerre did appoint Letanies and Austerities three dayes within the twelve festivals of Christmas , to rebuke the too-great complyance with the Heathen . ibid. r. 19. n. 14. p. 553. Some Councils have subjected the Clergy to the Secular Judge . l. 3. c. 3. r. 6. n. 4. p. 180. The first Councils were called by the Emperors . ibid. r. 7. n. 10. p. 204. the Emperor had the primacy in eight General Councils . ibid. the Emperor did dismiss the Councils ibid. n. 11. p. 205. Of a General Council and its authority . l. 3. c. 4. r. 14. n. 1. p. 285. Several Councils rejected by several Catholick Princes . ibid. n. 2. p. 286. How binding the Canons of an ancient Council are . ibid. n. 3. p. 286. General Councils are not the proper measure of matters of faith . ibid. r. 22. n. 1. p. 353. yet are of great use in determining cases of Conscience . ibid. n. 2. what is the authority of a Council . ibid. n. 3. p. 354. Of Counterfeiting old Medals , Manuscripts and Beautie , &c. l. 3. c. 2. r. 5. n. 44. p. 104. Criminal . In matters criminal the consent contracts guilt . l. 4. c. 1. r. 2. n. 3. p. 456. in what cases the Criminal is to be his own Executioner . l. 3. c. 2. r. 2. n. 14. p. 63. A Criminal condemned may be pardoned by the King. l. 3. c. 3. r. 2. n. 18. p. 146. In what cases he may doe it . ibid. n. 19. p. 147. Death must not be inflicted on Criminals upon trifling causes . l. 3. c. 2. r. 1. n. 17. p. 58. Condemned . Condemned persons are not bound to put themselves to death . l. 3. c. 2. r. 2. n. 18. p. 65. One condemned by an unlawful Judge or Power , may resist the Executioner in some cases . ibid. Signes by which to know when the Law condemns the Offender ipso facto . ibid. p. 68. whether it be lawfull to kill a mans self when he stands condemned to dye . l. 3. c. 2. r. 3. n. 4. p. 72. An Offender condemned may be pardoned by the King. l. 3. c. 3. r. 2. n. 18. p. 146. In what cases he may doe it . ibid. n. 19. p. 147. Of the Cross used in Baptisme . l. 3. c. 4. r. 20. n. 8. p. 327. Of the marriage of Cosen-Germans . l. 2. c. 2. r. 3. n. 34. p. 301. P. Gregory affirmed that if Cosen-Germans marry they would have no children . l. 2. c. 2. r. 3. n. 79. p. 316. Custome . Where a Law is established and good , Custome of it self cannot annull it . l. 3. c. 6. r. 6. n. 2. p. 428. When there is no Law , Custome suplies the place . ibid. A Custome can interpret a Law. ibid. n. 3. p. 428. Customes are as good as Laws in the doubtfull interpretation of Laws . ibid. n. 3. p. 428. That Custome , by the Laws of Spain , is forever to be observed , according to which the Judge has twice pronounced sentence . ibid. Custome alone cannot abrogate Laws . ibid. n. 4. p. 428. Consuetudo nec rationem vincit nec legem . ibid. p. 429. Customes against law cannot inde●nifie the Conscience . ibid. That mistake that Custome can abrogate a Law , ●egan in those nations where the legislative power was in the people . ib. n. 6. p. 429. Custome cannot abrogate a Law under a Monarchy ibid. p. 430. The Conscience cannot relie upon Customes , because of the many difficulties . ibid. n. 7. p. 430. What receives all its warrant from Custome cannot be of divine authority . l. 2. c. 3. ● . 19. n. 1. p. 548. Custome may expound the sense of Law or Doctrine , but not make one . ibid. n. 2. p. 549. A weak reason is to be preferred before a long prevailing custome . ibid. n. 3. p. 549. Customes are to be examined and tryed by the Rule or Commandment . ibid. n. 5. p. 550. When Custome may safely be relyed upon . ibid. n. 6. p. 550. The Customes of the world are but an ill Commentary on the Commandments of our B. Lord. ibid. n. 7. p. 550. Customes ought to be borrowed from the Heathen with great caution . ibid. n. 14. p. 553. Such customes as are built upon any point of heathen doctrine we may not borrow . l. 2. c. 3. r. 19. n. 15. p. 553. Ex consuetudine indici praesumptionem contemptus , licèt ipsa contemptus non fit . l. 3. c. 1. r. 1. n. 22. p. 15. The authority of customes of the Church . l. 3. c. 4. r. 15. n. 1. p. 287. A Christian must not practise the different customes of his own Church to the scandal of another . ibid. n. 4. p. 288. A man may comply with the differing customes of several Churches . ibid. A custome of the Catholick Church obliges not the Conscience , unless it be of present observation . ibid. n. 5. p. 289. A custome of the Church obliges not the Conscience against a Law of the Church . ibid. n. 6. p. 289. A custome of the Church obliges not the Conscience , unless it be reasonable , or to avoid scandal . ibid. n. 7. p. 290. The measures by which good customes are known . ibid. n. 8. p. 291. A custome whose reason is not known , if it be of immemorial time , is not lightly to be laid aside . l. 3. c. 4. r. 15. n. 10. p. 292. Consu●tudo cujus initii memoria non sit in contrarium , praesumitur rationabilis . ibid. n. 10. p. 293. A custome Ecclesiastical that is but of a legal and presumed reasonableness binds us to conformity . ibid. n. 11. p. 293. The Character of those that quarrelled with the customes of our Church . ibid. n. 11. p. 294. A custome in the administration of a Sacrament brought up against the analogy & purpose of the mystery ought not to be complied with . l. 3. c. 4. r. 15. n. 12. p. 295. The Judges by their sentences best convey the notice of a Custome . l. 3. c. 6. r. 6. n. 3. p. 428. Custome , or tribute . They doe ill that make no conscience of purloining from the Custome-house . l. 3. c. 2. r. 8. n. 3. p. 125. It is not lawfull to deny custome , though to the Farmer and not to the Prince . l. 3. c. 2. r. 10. n. 5. p. 128. Of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 3. c. 3. r. 4. n. 19. p. 172. In Corporal punishments the Law does not proceed without the sentence of the Judge . l. 3. c. 2. r. 2. n. 17. p. 64. Qualis Causa talis Effectus . Pref. pag. 12. D. THE Daughter that is marriageable , when her Father is dead , is under the power of her Mother . l. 3. c. 5. r. 8. n. 29. p. 394. Death . What things are requisite to make the sentence of Death just upon an accused person . l. 1. c. 2. r. 8. n. 18. p. 88. Death-bed repentance . l. 2. c. 3. r. 16. n. 9. p. 523. The Laws of God in precepts purely affirmative do not oblige to an actual obedience in danger of death . l. 3. c. 1. r. 2. n. 8. p. 27. An Humane Law made under the penaltie of death binds to obedience , though death certainly follow . l. 3. c. 1. r. 2. n. 12. p. 29. Whether it be lawfull to kill a mans self when he stands condemned to dye . l. 3. c. 2. r. 3. n. 4. p. 72. Among the Romans they that killed themselves might make their wills . ibid. The Stoicks held it lawfull to kill ones self in five cases . ibid. n. 4. p. 73. Aristotle will not allow it to be gallant for the avoiding any evil to kill ones self . l. 3. c. 2. r. 3. n. 6. p. 74. When a Tyrant power threatens death to make the obedient Subject contemn the Law , the Subject ought rather to dy then disobey the Law. l. 3. c. 1. r. 2. n. 13. p. 29. Death must not be inflicted on Criminals upon trifling causes . l. 3. c. 2. r. 1. n. 17. p. 58. Some Princes required malefactors to be Executioners of death upon themselves . l. 3. c. 2. r. 2. n. 17. p. 65. It is an act of Despair to procure ones own death to prevent worse usage from the hands of Enemies . l. 3. c. 2. r. 3. n. 8. p. 75. To kill ones self is against the sixth Commandment . ibid. n. 7. p. 75. It is no more lawfull to kill ones self , then ones neighbour , because our love to our selves is the measure of our love to our neighbour . ibid. n. 9. p. 76. To kill ones self is against the Doctrines of the Fathers . l. 3. c. 2. r. 3. n. 6 , 9. p. 76. is rebellion against God. n. 10. p. 76. is against nature . n. 11. p. 77. Of Sampsons killing himself . l. 3. c. 2. r. 3. n. 13. p. 77. Of arresting dead bodies for debt . l. 3. c. 2. r. 7. n. 10. p. 120. Debt . A man is not bound to pay his debts , when to do so will take away from him his natural support . l. 1. c. 5. r. 8. n. 28. p. 201. Of imprisoning insolvent Debtors . l. 3. c. 2. r. 7. n. 5. p. 118. Debtors were free from their Crediditors , if they did ejurare bonim copiam . ibid. n. 7. p. 118. The several Laws of the Romans concerning insolvent Debtors . ibid. n. 5 , 6 , 7 , 8. p. 118. Christian religion takes off all rigid inflictions from isolvent Debtors . ibid. n. 9. p. 120. Of Delight in an evill action when it is passed . l. 1. c. 3. r. 5. per tot . p. 112. Dice . Whether the Dicemakers trade be lawfull . l. 4. c. 1. r. 2. n. 25. p. 468. Whether it be lawfull to play at Dice . ibid. n. 27. p. 469. Those that lost any considerable part of their estate at Dice the Roman Law banished . ibid. n. 28. p. 470. In what instances Dice may be lawfull . ibid. Rules to be used in the managing that kind of recreation . ibid. n. 32. p. 473. Vide Gaming in the letter G. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . l. 1. c. 2. r. 3. n. 20. p. 460. Dispensation . The ground and measure of the Dispensation of Laws . l. 1. c. 5. r. 8. n. 35. p. 205. God can dispense with the Law of Nature . l. 2. c. 1. r. 9. n. 3. p. 264. A Dispensation is not necessary for Conscience , but for avoiding scandall or punishment . l. 3. p. 424. The causes of proper dispensations . ibid. p. 425. He that dispenseth must not injure religion nor any right not subject to him . l. 3. p. 425. Every matter from whence the ratio Debiti can be taken , is dispensable . l. 2. c. 1. r. 9. n. 11. p. 268. The Pope hath not power to dispense with the law of Nature . l. 2. c. 1. r. 10. n. 9. p. 272. No humane power can dispense with the positive Laws of Jesus Christ. l. 2. c. 3. r. 11. n. 1. p. 440. Dispensation is twofold . ibid. n. 13. p. 445. No man can dispense with those Laws that follow by immediate consequence from the positive Laws of Christ. ibid. n. 15. p. 446. When any condition intrinsecal to the duty of an affirmative precept can neither be had nor supplied , the duty falls without the need of Dispensation . l. 2. c. 3. r. 11. n. 15. p. 446. A duty whose necessary condition cannot be supplied is dispensed with in the nature of the thing , not by any act of Jurisdiction . l. 2. c. 3. r. 11. n. 15. p. 446. Of the power of Dispensation . l. 3. c. 6. r. 4. n. 1. p. 423. It is twofold , proper and improper . ibid. n. 2 , 3. p. 423. Men have made many needless disputes about the power of Princes in dispensing with Laws . ibid. n. 4. p. 424. All Dissembling from an evill principle and to evill purposes is unlawfull . l. 3. c. 2. r. 5. n. 44. p. 104. Divine . When the authority of Divines is to be followed . l. 1. c. 4. r. 10. n. 5. p. 165. The Antients sometimes affirm a thing is of Divine right , if they have in Scripture but an authentic example . l. 3. c. 4. r. 13. n. 8. p. 275. Divorce . It was the opinion of S. Hierome and some others , that it was not lawfull for the Husband or wife to live with her or him that was notoriously guilty of adultery . l. 1. c. 5. r. 8. n. 7. p. 191. Duty . Concerning the supply of Duty . l. 2. c. 3. r. 11. n. 17. p. 447. The external actions of a Duty are determined by something without , and things which are not in our power , and sometimes by our own will. l. 2. c. 3. r. 16. n. 4. p. 522. In what manner an intrinsecal condition being wanting , the Duty is released . l. 2. c. 3. r. 11. n. 15. p. 446. No man is to answer for an accidental evil effect , that is consequent to his duty . l. 3. c. 2. r. 1. n. 6. p. 55. That which is necessary to be done is not against any mans duty . ib. n. 10. p. 56. The Distinction of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 2. c. 2. r. 6. n. 27 , 28. p. 342. Doubt . A negative doubt what it is . l. 1. c. 5. r. 1. n. 5. p. 175. a negative doubt binds not to action . l. 1. c. 5. r. 2. n. 1. p. 176. what is a privative Doubt . ibid. n. 7. p. 177. Against a doubting Conscience a man may not act , but against a scrupulous he may . l. 1. c. 6. r. 2. n. 2. p. 211. In all matters of doubt when the Case on either hand is equall , so that the Conscientia cannot determine , there the Examples of good men are of great use to determine it . l. 2. c. 2. r. 7. n. 43. p. 387. The Doctors of the Church cannot give sufficient authority to a tradition . l. 2. c. 3. r. 14. n. 41. p. 499. Concerning Durandus his distinction , Ligat Conscientia Erronea , sed non obligat . l. 1. c. 3. r. 2. n. 26. p. 107. Duell . Of the way of proving ones innocence by Duell . l. 3. c. 2. r. 6. n. 12. p. 112. In what cases judicial Duells are lawfull . ibid. n. 13. p. 113. Drunkenness . Of those that permit it in their houses at feasts . l. 4. c. 1. n. 21. p. 465. Whether and in what manner it may lessen a Crime . l. 4. c. 1. r. 6. n. 14. p. 506. Of the Crimes done in drunken distempers . ibid. n. 10. p. 505. What difference there is in the obligation of a Law of Christ in respect of the outward and inward action . l. 2. c. 3. r. 16. n. 4. p. 522. E. Easter . EAster was not instituted by command of the Apostles . l. 3. c. 4. r. 13. n. 13. p. 278. It is no dishonour to that feast , to affirm the Apostles did not intend to make laws concerning it . l. 3. c. 4. ● . 13. n. 13. p. 279. Easter festival was in use , though not commanded in the Apostles time . ibid. The measures of Eating and drinking . l. 4. c. 2. r. 2. n. 2. Ecclesiastics . Rules concerning the residency of Ecclesiastics or their translation . l. 1. c. 2. r. 5. n. 22. p. 69. A Decretal of Pope Evatristus concerning Ecclesiastics leaving their Churches , dissallowing it upon any pretence . ibid. n. 23. p. 69. An act of the Nicene Creed concerning the same , out of S. Hierome . ibid. An explication of the Decretal of Evatristus . ibid. n. 24. An explication of the allegation , out of S. Hierome . ibid. n. 25. p. 71. Some instances of Kings and Priests driven from their thrones by an exorbitant Ecclesiastical power . l. 3. c. 3. r. 4. n. 11. p. 166. Ecclesiastical power differs much from the Civil . l. 3. c. 3. r. 4. n. 19. p. 171. Divers Ecclesiastical Laws made by Emperours . l. 3. c. 3. r. 5. n. 5. p. 175. Baronius answered , who affirms , those Ecclesiastical Laws made by Emperours were unjust . l. 3. c. 3. r. 5. n. 7. p. 176. Donatus said , What hath the Emperour to doe with the Church ? l. 3. c. 3. r. 5. n. 6. p. 176. S. Chrysostome teaches that an Ecclesiastical person though an Apostle must be subject to the civil power . l. 3. c. 3. r. 6. n. 1. p. 178. Instances to prove that the civil power hath a power of coercion over Ecclesiastics . ibid. n. 3. p. 179. Wherein consists the honour of an Ecclesiastic . l. 3. c. 3. r. 6. n. 18. p. 187. Ecclesiastics have not a temporal power in order to a spiritual end . l. 3. c. 3. r. 7. n. 2. p. 200. That saying . Ecclesia est in republica , non Respublica in Ecclesia , explained . ibid. n. 8. p. 203. The distinct parts and measures of the Ecclesiastical and Civil power . l. 3. c. 4. r. 5. n. 3. p. 235. the difference of the Ecclesiastical from the Civil power . l. 3. c. 4. r. 9. n. 1. p. 255. See more in C. word Church . Of the Hebrews lying to Egyptians . l. 3. c. 2. r. 5. n. 7. p. 84. The Council of Eliberis decreed against pictures in Churches . l. 2. c. 2. r. 6. n. 35. p. 350. Emperour . they made divers Ecclesiastical Laws . l. 3. c. 3. r. 5. n. 5. p. 175. Honorius the Emperour made a Law concerning the election of the Pope . l. 3. c. 3. r. 5. n. 5. p. 176. Donatus said , What hath the Emperour to doe with the Church ? ibid. n. 6. p. 176. Boronius affirms those Ecclesiastical Laws were unjust that the Emperour made , an answer to it . ibid. n. 7. p. 176. Pope Gregory the Great submitted to Mauritius the Emperour in an Ecclesiastical Law. l. 3. c. 3. r. 5. n. 7. p. 176. Eusebius Bishop of Samosata yielded to be banished by the Emperour , though the people offered to defend him . l. 3. c. 3. r. 6. n. 2. p. 178. The Archimandrites of Constantinople writing to the Pope , mentioned the Emperour as head of the Church . ibid. n. 19. p. 189. The Emperour hath power over Bishops . ibid. n. 21. p. 190. Emperour is to be obeyed against the will of the Bishop . ibid. n. 22. p. 191. He is to be obeyed against the will of the Bishop in actions that by empire are changed into good or bad respectively . ibid. n. 23. p. 191. The Bishops of Rome destroyed the Roman Empire . l. 3. c. 3. r. 7. n. 4. p. 201. The first Councils were called by the Emperours . ibid. n. 10. p. 204. He had the primacy in eight General Councils . ibid. n. 10. p. 204. The Emperours did dismiss the Councils . l. 3. c. 3. r. 7. n. 11. p. 205. S. Hierome disputing against Ruffinus , disproves a certain Synod , because Ruffinus could not shew what Emperour called it . ibid. n. 11. p. 205. Decrees made by the Emperours concerning matters of Faith. ibid. n. 13 , 14. p. 206. Empire is included in Jurisdiction . l. 3. c. 4. r. 1. n. 5. p. 212. There is no Empire in preaching . ibid. n. 12. p. 217. Never any Canons of the primitive Church did oblige the people , unless established by the Emperour . l. 3. c. 4. r. 5. n. 4. p. 236. Of. S. Ambrose excommunicating Theodosius : Babylas excommunicating the Emperour Decius : Athanasius , the Prefect of Lybia : Chrysostome , the Empress Eudoxia . l. 3. c. 4. r. 7. n. 8 , 9. p. 242. See more in the title King & Prince , &c. Hildebrand did ill to excommunicate the Emperour Henry . l. 3. c. 4. r. 10. n. 12. p. 264. Of Elias his sacrificing to Baal . l. 1. c. 5. r. 8. n. 28. p. 200. & n. 37. p. 205. End. An action receives the denomination of good or bad from the end . l. 4. c. 1. r. 1. n. 1. How the Glory of God is to be reconciled with those other lower ends which we set for our actions . l. 4. c. 2. r. 2. n. 1. How temporal ends are to be subordinate to spiritual . ibid. n. 2. Temporal ends must not fill our affections & keep out better things . ib. n. 2. We may serve inferiour ends so they carry us not beyond due measures . ib. n. 3. All temporal ends must be less principal and subordinate to religion . ib. n. 4. Fines mandati sunt diligenter custodiendi . l. 4. c. 2. r. 3. n. 4. England . There is not article in the faith of the Church of England , but is possible to be effected by the ordinary power of God. l. 1. c. 2. r. 3. n. 50. p. 56. In England no Council is of authority but the first four general Councils . l. 3. c. 4. r. 14. n. 2. p. 283. The Church of England retains in all her Offices but one ceremony , that is not of divine institution or Apostolical . l. 3. c. 4. r. 20. r. 8. p. 327. The reformation made in England by Henry the eighth was never the worse because he proposed to himself ( possibly ) an evil end . l. 3. c. 1. r. 3. n. 5. p. 33. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . l. 2. c. 2. r. 3. n. 53. p. 307 , 317. Equity . Of Equity in interpreting penal Laws . l. 3. c. 6. r. 1. r. 2. p. 399. Of Equity in punishments . l. 3. c. 6. r. 1. n. 16. p. 405. it is to be practised for the ends of charity and justice , not oppression . ibid. r. 2. n. 4. p. 408. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . l. 2. c. 3. r. 13. n. 9. p. 458. Errour . The causes of it . l. 1. c. 3. r. ● . n. 2 , 3. p. 100. The measures of obedience due to an erring Conscience . l. 1. c. 3. r. 2. n. 28. p. 107. If the thing which it commands be indifferent we may follow it without sin . ibid. If an Erring Conscience dictate a thing to be good , which is not good , not to follow that dictate and not to doe that thing is no sin . ibid. n. 29. p. 108. If an Erring Conscience affirm that which is good or indifferent to be evil , it is no sin to omit that action . ibid. n. 30. p. 108. If an Erring Conscience say that such an action is lawfull only , when of it self it is good , we sin not whether we doe it or not doe it . ibid. n. 31. p. 108. If an Erring Conscience commands what is simply evil , or forbids that which is absolutely commanded , the man sins whether he obeys or obeys not . ibid. n. 32. How the Error of an abused Conscience must be removed . l. 1. c. 3. r. 7. p. 116. Example . An Example out of the Old Testament is not in all things sufficient warrant for us . l. 2. c. 2. r. 7. n. 26. p. 380. The actions of good men in Scripture are not a competent warrant for our imitation , not only when they are reproved , but even when they are set down without a censure . ibid. n. 27. p. 380. The actions of men in the Old Testament though attested and brought to effect by the providence of God , are not to be made examples alwaies by us . l. 2. c. 2. r. 7. n. 28. p. 381 , & p. 557. Examples in matters of war are ever most dangerous precedents . ibid. n. 31. p. 382. A Law being changed , Examples which were never given in proportion to that Law are not to be imitated . ibid. n. 32. p. 382. Examples are instead of a Rule , when there is none . ibid. n. 40. p. 386. The greatest use of Examples is in the interpretation of Laws , when the letter is equivocal or the Example doubtfull . l. 2. c. 2. r. 7. n. 44. p. 387. what Examples may be safely followed . ibid. n. 47. p. 387. That Example is safe , where we find upon the Action the marke of Gods blessing . ibid. n. 48. p. 387. In all matters of doubt , when the case on either hand is equal , so that the Conscience cannot determine , there the Examples of good men are of great use to determine it . ibid. n. 43. p. 386. Evil. Instances of holy and great men that have done evil to the end that good might come of it . l. 1. c. 5. r. 8. n. 28. p. 200. When the Evils are subordinate and relative , the less may be done to prevent the greater . l. 1. c. 5. r. 8. n. 33. p. 203. the natures , causes and measures of Evil. l. 1. c. 5. r. 8. n. 34. p. 204. He that makes use of a material part of a sin already prepared , to which he gives no consent , and which he cannot help , does not evil for a good end . l. 1. c. 5. r. 8. n. 37. p. 205. It is falsely said by some , that some things are by God forbidden , because they were before that act of God's unlawful . l. 2. c. 1. r. 1. n. 58. p. 242. of toleration of Evil. l. 2. c. 2. r. 7. n. 11 , 12. p. 376. To have a power of chusing Evil is an imperfection and infelicity . l. 4. c. 1. r. 1. n. 5. p. 441. He does not eschue Evil that does not doe it , but he that chuseth not to doe it . l. 4. c. 1. r. 1. n. 16. p. 445. Everlasting . That word among the Jews does not alwaies fignifie eternal . l. 2. c. 2. r. 1. n. 11. p. 279. Executioner . An Executioner is not to refuse to doe his office , if he know the prisoner unjustly condemned . l. 1. c. 2. r. 8. n. 25. p. 91. & p. 82. n. 7. In what case the Criminal is to be Executioner against himself . l. 3. c. 2. r. 2. p. 63. Exceptio●irmat ●irmat regulam in non exceptis . l. 2. c. 2. r. 6. n. 31. p. 346. Concerning the Excellency of things , and how to be estimated . l. 3. c. 3. r. 6. n. 7. p. 181. Excess , reasons against it . l. 3. c. 2. r. 9. p. 127. Excommunication . Concerning it . l. 3. c. 1. r. 1. n. 19. p. 14. & l. 3. c. 2. r. 2. n. 14 , 15 , 16. p. 63. what are the effects of it . l. 3. c. 4. r. 1. n. 15 , 16. p. 219. See the title Keys , in K. A King cannot be excommunicated . l. 3. c. 4. r. 7. n. 4 , 5. p. 241. the Primitive Bishops never durst think of Excommunicating Kings . l. 3. c. 4. r. 7. n. 7. p. 242. Of S. Ambrose Excommunicating Theodosius : Babylas , the Emperour Decius : Athanasius , the Prefect of Lybia : Chrysostome , the Emperess Eudoxia , &c. l. 3. c. 4. r. 7. n. 8 , 9. p. 242. but the Church may deny the Sacrament to evil Princes . ibid. n. 10. p. 243. Excommunication the greater and the lesser . ibid. r. 8. n. 1. p. 247. Excommunication improperly so called , when we refuse to communicate with one that is not excommunicated . ibid. n. 3. p. 248. this is not warrantable . ib. n. 4. Neither the People or King are to be excommunicated . ib. n. 7. p. 250. In what cases it is lawfull for the people to separate from their Bishops or Priests . l. 3. c. 4. r. 8. n. 9. p. 250. of the lesser Excommunication . ibid. n. 12. p. 251. The Bishop cannot Excommunicate any of the Princes servants without his leave . ibid. n. 14. p. 252. In the lesser Excommunication the internal and spiritual part depends not upon the Princes consent , but the external does . ibid. of the greater Excommunication . l. 3. c. 4. r. 8. n. 18. p. 254. The Bishop in inflicting the greater Excommunication depends not upon the Civil power . ibid. n. 18. p. 254. The reason why the Bishop depends upon the consent of the Civil power in the exercise of the lesser Excommunication & not of the greater ib. n. 19. p. 254. Excommunication for an unjust cause binds not . l. 3. c. 4. r. 9. n. 2. p. 256. for a light cause binds before men but not before God. ibid. n. 3. p. 256. In what cases Excommunication may be inflicted . l. 3. c. 4. r. 9. n. 6. p. 257. It should be the last remedy . l. 3. c. 4. r. 9. n. 7. p. 258. Unlawfull to Excommunicate any man for not paying the fees of Courts . ibid. n. 9. p. 258. Spiritual censures must not be inflicted for temporal causes . ibid. n. 10. p. 259. Excommunication ipso facto in a Law is not to be understood of the greater Excommunication . ibid. n. 11. p. 259. n. 13. p. 260. We may not communicate with those that are justly Excommunicated . l. 3. c. 4. r. 10. p. 261. When the Church excommunicates those that communicate with the excommunicated , she only inflicts the lesser Excommunication , and binds only externally . l. 3. c. 4. r. 10. n. 4. p. 261. The Church by Excommunication intends not to forbid any such entercourse or communion to which we stand preoblig'd by the Law of Nature , God , or the supreme Civil power . l. 3. c. 4. r. 10. n. 5. p. 262. We may lawfully converse with an Excommunicate person . ib. n. 7. p. 263. To what restraint of conversation Excommunication does oblige . ibid. n. 9. p. 263. What usage Excommunicated persons are to have from us . ibid. n. 10. p. 264. What is the design of the Church when she inflicts censures on those that communicate with the excommunicated . ibid. n. 12. p. 264. Hildebrand did ill to Excommunicate the Emperour Henry and his Subjects . ibid. It is dangerous to communicate with those that are Excommunicated . ibid. n. 13. p. 265. F. OF Fables and fictions , whether lawfull . l. 3. c. 2. r. 5. n. 19. p. 94. Fast. In the first ages of the Christian Church they kept their Fasts with liberty . l. 3. c. 4. r. 13. n. 15. p. 280. Fasts observed by the Ancients were divers . l. 3. c. 4. r. 13. n. 17. p. 281. Concerning the weekly Fasts , Saturday and Friday . ibid. n. 23. p. 284. The Rogation Fast and Ember-week . ibid. n. 23. p. 284. & ibid. r. 15. n. 11. p. 294. Fasting , of its necessity and abuse . l. 3. c. 4. r. 17. n. 18. p. 307. It is not to be offered to God for good works , but with them . ibid. The Roman Fasts superstitious . ibid. n. 19. p. 308. The niceties of the Roman Church about Fasting . l. 3. c. 4. r. 17. n. 21. p. 310. In what cases , and what person are tyed to the observation of Ecclesiastical Fasts . l. 3. c. 4. r. 19. n. 4. p. 317. The sick and weak are exempted from the Laws of Fasting . ibid. n. 5. p. 317. Laws of Fasting are sparingly to be impos'd . ibid. n. 7. p. 318. & 322. Needless scruples about fasting . ibid. n. 8. p. 318 , 319. The usefulness of Fasting . ibid. n. 9. p. 321. The Canon Law forbids a fast of two or three days , or that is beyond our strength . ibid. Little use of the Flesh Fast. ibid. n. 10. p. 322. Fish as delicious and luxurious as flesh . ibid. Fasts of many days continuance ought not to be imposed severely . l. 3. c. 4. r. 19. n. 12. p. 322. Unless it be by the Civil power . ibid. n. 13. p. 323. Too much abstinence in Fasting brings sometimes madness . l. 3. c. 4. r. 20. n. 17. p. 336. Of Fasting . l. 2. c. 3. r. 14. n. 55. p. 505. & l. 2. c. 3. r. 8. n. 1 , 2. &c. p. 417. Reasons proving it to be a duty . l. 2. c. 3. r. 8. n. 3. p. 418. Of the manner of its obligation different from other duties . l. 2. c. 3. r. 8. n. 6. p. 419. The words of S. Chrysostome concerning Fasting explained . l. 3. c. 1. r. 1. n. 18. p. 13. Words of S. Basil concerning Fasting explained . ibid. The Ecclesiastical Laws concerning Fasting do not oblige in case of sickness or the like . l. 3. c. 1. r. 2. n. 8. p. 28. The Primitive Church did appoint Fasting days . l. 3. c. 4. r. 4. n. 3. p. 226. Of the Fast of Lent and the weekly Fasting days . l. 3. c. 4. r. 13. n. 4. p. 273. Testimonies of the Fathers shewing that the Church had no Fasts but voluntary . ibid. n. 9. p. 276 , 278. Of breaking Fasting days . l. 3. c. 1. r. 1. n. 18. p. 13. & ibid. n. 29. p. 20. Faith. It is not lawfull to declare those things that are proved out of Scripture by probable arguments to be articles of Faith. l. 3. c. 4. r. 17. n. 10 , 11 , 12. p. 305. The Catholic Church in matters of Faith is a Witness , not a Judge . l. 3. c. 4. r. 21. n. 1. p. 356. Religion and Faith are not within the power of a Father . l. 3. c. 5. r. 4. n. 1. p. 369. The Jews believed God would not punish the sin of the thoughts , unless it were against the Faith. l. 4. c. 1. r. 5. n. 18. p. 500. Faith and reason are not opposite . l. 1. c. 2. r. 3. n. 20. p. 46. What Faith is . ibid. Faith is in other Sciences besides Theologie . ibid. n. 21. Faith it self is an act of reason . ibid. n. 24. p. 47. What , Faith infused by God , is . ibid. n. 25. p. 48. How Faith and Reason serve one another . l. 1. c. 2. r. 3. n. 52. p. 57. The foundation of Faith laid by Christ and his Apostles is plain and easie and hath but a few articles . l. 2. c. 3. r. 14. n. 64. p. 509. The Symbols of Faith in the New Testament are short . l. 2. c. 3. r. 14. n. 65. p. 510. The Apostles baptiz'd Proselytes upon the confession of a very few Articles . ibid. n. 66. p. 511. Justin Martyr affirms , that if any man should even then ( in his times ) live according to the Law of Moses , so that he believes in Jesus Christ crucified , he shall be saved . ibid. n. 67. p. 512. The Primitive Father required the beliefe of a few Articles . l. 2. c. 3. r. 14. n. 67 , 68. p. 512. It was the sense of the first ages , that the Creeds should not be enlarged . ibid. n. 69. p. 513. The Ancient Church in the Creed of Constantinople and Nice added only new explications , no new Articles . ibid. n. 73. p. 515. Every Conclusion drawn from a believed truth is certain but not necessary . ibid. n. 74. p. 515. Many things are necessary to be believed upon the account of obedience more then upon the account of Faith. ibid. n. 76. p. 516. About matters of Faith no mans Conscience ought to be pressed with any authority , but of Christ enjoyning or the Apostles declaring what is necessary . ibid. n. 83. p. 518. Faith is to be kept even with an Enemy . l. 3. c. 2. r. 5. n. 19. p. 94. but not if the person engaging had not competent power . ibid. n. 19. p. 95. decrees made by the Emperours concerning matters of Faith. l. 3. c. 3. r. 7. n. 14. p. 206. Father . Children ought to obey their Parents or Fathers . l. 3. c. 5. r. 1. n. 1. p. 359. three reasons to enforce the Duty . ibid. n. 1 , 2 , 3. p. 359 , 360. If a Father and Son being partners in a Crime be to endure torment to for●● confession , the Law commands the Son to be tormented first . l. 3. c. 5. r. 1. n. 2. p. 360. Fathers are to us in the place of God. ibid. n. 1. p. 359. Fathers bless their children . l. 3. c. 5. r. 1. n. 3. p. 360. The Curses of Fathers are Ominous . ibid. n. 3. p. 361. A Fable teaching children to obey their Fathers commands . l. 3. c. 5. r. 1. n. 4. p. 361. It is a sin for Children to reject the Counsels or holy precepts which their Fathers give them . ibid. n. 7. p. 362. The power of Fathers over their children . l. 3. c. 5. r. 2. n. 1. p. 364. An instrument of political peace . ib. The Fathers power the fountain of the Royal. ibid. The Judge is authoriz'd in the Law of Moses to punish with death crimes committed against the private authority of a Fathers upon his single testimony . ibid. n. 2. p. 364. A Father Anger must be such as must have Discipline for his end , not revenge . ibid. n. 3. p. 365. Against a Fathers tyranny there is no remedy but in the civil power . ibid. n. 3. A Father must use moderation in chastising . ibid. Children must maintain their Parents and Fathers . l. 3. c. 5. r. 3. n. 1. p. 366. Maintenance is a part of that honour that is due to Fathers . ib. n. 2. p. 367. A Son is bound to maintain his indigent Father , though the Father be outlaw'd . ibid. The indigent Father is to be relieved rather then the Son. ibid. n. 3. p. 367. The Civil law permits the Father to sell his Son for his necessary support . l. 3. c. 5. r. 3. n. 4. p. 368. And if a Son deny it , the Law ties the Son to maintain his Father during the suit . ibid. n. 5. p. 368. Religion and Faith are not within the Fathers power . ibid. r. 4. n. 1. p. 369. A child is not to be baptiz'd without his Fathers leave . ibid. The religion of the Son must not prejudice the Fathers civil rights . ib. n. 2. A Father hath no authority after his death . l. 3. c. 5. r. 6. n. 1. p. 372. When their Fathers are dead the Sons owe much to the memory of them . l. 3. c. 5. r. 6. n. 2. p. 372. What regard we should have to our dead Fathers . ibid. n. 3. p. 373. The Argument in A. Gellius , that proves we ought not to obey the command of our Fathers , answered . l. 3. c. 5. r. 7. n. 2. p. 374. A Son is not to obey his Father in things impious . ibid. n. 3. p. 375. though the Fathers command may be neglected , his authority must not . ibid. n. 4. p. 375. if the Son transgress the Law by his Fathers command , his punishment is the more easie . ibid. n. 5. Velle non creditur , qui obscquitur imperio Patris aut Domini . ibid. The Authority of Fathers over their children proved , with the measures thereof . l. 3. c. 5. r. 7. n. 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8. p. 375 , & 376. In what case the Son may complain of his Father to the Judge . ib. n. 7. p. 376. It is not lawfull for Sons to enter into a state of religion against their Fathers will. ibid. r. 8. n. 3. p. 378. Thomas Aquinas did . ibid. A Son cannot withdraw himself from under his Fathers Government , and put himself under another . ibid. n. 5. p. 379. it is forbid by the Council of Gangra . ibid. S. Augustine and S. Ambrose affirm that a Father cannot hinder his Son from going into a Monastery ; but then it was not a perpetual bond , but only as a School for Education . ibid. n. 6. p. 379. Instances shewing that Sons may not enter into a religious Order without their Fathers leave . ibid. n. 6. p. 380. Charles the Great made a Law against it . ibid. Children sin , that marry against their Fathers will. l. 3. c. 5. r. 8. n. 7. p. 381. the Ancients judged such marriages illegitimate . ibid. n. 8. p. 381. the Law of Nature requires Sons to aske their Fathers leave in marriage . ibid. n. 9. p. 382. Marriage made against the will of the Father were invalid by the civil Law. ib. The Church sometime did excommunicate those that married without the consent of their Fathers or Parents . ibid. n. 11. p. 384. The consent of Fathers or Parents is not essentially necessary to the validity of marriage . l. 3. c. 5. r. 8. n. 14. p. 385. though the consent of the Father or Parents being wanting cannot invalidate the contract , yet it may hinder the possession . ibid. n. 16. p. 387. The Fathers natural power over the Son. ibid. n. 17. p. 388. His political power . ibid. n. 18. p. 389. this later every Commonwealth hath power to extend or streighten . ibid. n. 19. p. 389. Of Exemption from the power of Fathers . ibid. n. 20. p. 390. A Son is never exempted from his Fathers natural power . ibid. Of his political power the Laws determine the measure and period . ibid. The Sons wife is in the Fathers power after marriage . ibid. n. 21. p. 390. If a Son be a Magistrate , the Magistrate is exempted from the Fathers power , but not the Son. ibid. n. 22. p. 391. If a Son enter into holy orders , it quits him not from his duty to his Father . ibid. n. 23. p. 391. A Father cannot hinder the marriage of his children , if they are far gone in love , and he at first promoted it . ibid. n. 27. p. 392. The Civil law puts not Sons under their Mother but their Father . ibid. n. 28. p. 393. Some cases in which a Father ought not to force his children to marry . ibid. n. 33 , 34. p. 396. A man is bound to the duty of maintaining his Father , though he have made a vow of his estate to the Church . l. 3. c. 6. r. 3. n. 14. p. 415. Those that doe to us all the duties of Fathers we are bound to as our Fathers . ibid. n. 24. p. 419. the power that Fathers have over their children , and the reasons of it . l. 2. c. 2. r. 6. n. 65. p. 367. The power of Fathers in inflicting punishments . l. 3. c. 2. r. 6. n. 7. p. 109. The fifth Commandment of honouring our Father and Mother the Jews accounted to the first table . l. 2. c. 2. r. 6. n. 8. p. 329. Fathers of the Church . Of the authority of those Books that were written by the ancient Fathers . l. 3. c. 4. r. 22. n. 4 , 5. p. 355. concerning their judgment in controversies . l. 1. c. 4. r. 10. n. 1. p. 162. they cannot give sufficient authority to a tradition . l. 2. c. 3. r. 14. n. 42. p. 499. the Primitive Fathers required the belief of a few articles . l. 2. c. 3. r. 14. n. 67 , 68. p. 512. Fear . What influence Fear hath upon the morality of our actions . l. 4. c. 1. r. 7. p. 511. In Divine Commandments no fear of temporal evil is an excuse . l. 4. c. 1. r. 7. n. 2. p. 512. what influence Fear hath upon contracts , marriages , &c. ibid. n. 7. p. 514. The Law calls nothing a just fear , but the fear of the greatest evils , as death , &c. ibid. n. 8. p. 514. Whether I am bound to keep my promise , which I make , fearing to lose my life if I deny . ibid. n. 9. p. 515. No reverential Fear can excuse a sin or nullifie a contract . ib. n. 10. p. 515. why Fear hath upon our actions a different influence from other passions , as lust , anger , &c. ibid. Fear is the band of all laws . l. 2. c. 1. r. 3. n. 1. p. 244. even in good men Fear is the instrument of justice . ibid. n. 6. p. 246. Fear the attendant of a guilty conscience . l. 1. c. 1. r. 2. n. 14. p. 19. another Fear there is alwaies joyned with true peace of Conscience . ibid. n. 25. p. 25. It is lawfull to perswade fools and children by Mormo's instead of arguments . l. 1. c. 2. r. 6. n. 19. p. 80. Fear abuses the Conscience into errour . l. 1. c. 3. r. 1. n. 4. p. 100. Of the Fears of a scrupulous Conscience . l. 1. c. 6. r. 5. n. 9. p. 216. Feasts . The Apostles made no laws concerning Feasts , saith Socrates . l. 3. c. 4. r. 13. n. 13. p. 279. of Feasting , and its luxury and due measures . l. 4. c. 1. r. 2. n. 21. p. 465. Of those that permit Drunkenness in their houses at Feasts . ibid. Among the Romans works of necessity and charity were permitted on Festivals . l. 2. c. 2. r. 6. n. 57. p. 363. Fornication . the congress of betrothed persons is not Fornication before God. l. 3. c. 5. r. 8. n. 16. p. 387. Of those Commonwealths that permit fornication and publick stews . l. 1. c. 5. r. 8. n. 17. p. 195. Fines mandati sunt diligenter custodiendi . l. 4. c. 2. r. 3. n. 4. Free-will , and Freedome . Of Free-will . l. 4. c. 1. r. 1. p. 438 , 439. & 447 , 448. It is consequent to the weakness and blindness of our nature . l. 4. c 1. r. 1. n. 5. p. 441. to grant Frr-will does not disparage the grace of God. ibid. n. 6. p. 441. to have a power of chusing evil is an imperfection and inselicity . ibid. n. 5. p. 441. wherein consists that freedome which the death of Christ hath put us into . l. 3. c. 1. r. 1. n. 28. p. 18. The Fifth Commandment of honouring our Father and Mother , the Jews accounted to the first table . l. 2. c. 2. r. 6. p. 8. p. 329. What influence Fraud has upon contracts . l. 4. c. 1. r. 6. n. 22. p. 510. The precepts of Forgiveness and charity are not against executing penal Laws . l. 3. c. 2. r. 1. n. 3. p. 54. It is lawfull to perswade Fooles and children by Mormo's instead of arguments . l. 1. c. 2. r. 6. n. 19. p. 80. G. THE Gallican Church is ruled by those Ecclesiastical Laws that their Kings have made . l. 3. c. 3. r. 5. n. 7. p. 177. Gaming . Rules to be observed in Gaming . l. 4. c. 1. r. 2. n. 32. p. 473. Of Gaming . l. 4. c. 1. r. 2. n. 27. p. 470. Of Gaming-houses and the punishments by some Laws inflicted . ibid. n. 28. p. 470. In what cases Gaming is lawfull . ib. whether it be lawfull to play only to recover ones loss . ibid. n. 34. p. 476. whether it be lawfull to Game when I give away all I win to the poor . ibid. n. 35. p. 476. whether a man has right of possession to what he wins by Gaming . ibid. n. 36. p. 477. not lawfull to Game for money . ibid. n. 37. p. 478. young men should not game . ibid. n. 38. p. 479. Gerson . His mistake . l. 3. c. 4. r. 9. n. 12. p. 259. God. that there is a God , proved by Conscience . l. 1. c. 1. r. 1. n. 4. He rules in our minds by Faith and Conscience ; the difference of those two faculties . ibid. n. 10. p. 5. Justice and Truth are the same in Us and in God. l. 1. c. 2. r. 3. r. 3 n. 38. p. 52. God hath said it , therefore it is true , is the greatest reason in the world . ibid. n. 65. p. 61. to obey God never hath an unavoidable dilemma . l. 1. c 3. r. 3. n. 7. p. 110. It was ill said by those that affirmed that God cannot change the Law of Nature . l. 2. c. 1. r. 1. n. 49. p. 239. Nothing is unlawfull antecedently to Gods Commandment . l. 2. c. 1. r. 1. n. 58. p. 242. Our Duty to God is supreme . l. 2. c. 1. r. 9. n. 12. p. 268. the measures of our Love towards God. l. 2. c. 3. r. 12. n. 1. p. 449. God is to be worshipped by nothing but what himself appointed . l. 2. c. 3. r. 13. n. 7. p. 457. Plato taught that they were not to be suffered in a Commonwealth , that said God was the Author of evil . l. 3. c. 3. r. 4. n. 10. p. 166. The grace of God is not disparaged by the doctrine of Free-will . l. 4. c. 1. r. 1. n. 6. p. 441. In what manner it is to be understood , that a man should make the glory of God the end of every action . l. 4. c. 2. r. 1. n. 3. It is not necessary that all our actions be alwaies actually directed to the glory of God. ibid. n. 4. Rules concerning the directing all our actions to the glory of God. l. 4. c. 2. r. 1. n. 3 , 4 , 5. How the Glory of God is to be reconciled with those other inferior ends which God allows us to propose to our actions . l. 4. c. 2. r. 2. n. 1. whether it be lawfull to serve God for any end less then himself , viz. riches , honour , &c. ibid. n. 5. It is not lawfull to doe a thing for temporal regards with positive neglect of the glory of God. ibid. n. 6. Rules shewing when and how it is lawfull to serve God for temporal ends . ibid. In what sense it is true that God must be served for his own sake . ibid. n. 7. he that loves God above all other things loves him for himself . ib. n. 9. Rules to know when we love God for his own sake . ibid. n. 8 , 9. God is the Fountain of all Laws . l. 2. c. 2. r. 7. n. 1. p. 372. In Gods service a mere negative action does nothing . l. 4. c. 1. r. 1. n. 15. p. 444. Of the morality of those kind of actions . ibid. n. 15 , 16. p. 445. Good. No man can make the measures of Good and evil . l. 1. c. 1. r. 1. n. 20. p. 8. Good and bad is before the act of Conscience . l. 1. c. 2. r. 9. n. 12. p. 98. Such collateral considerations as belong to the goodness or badness of an action . l. 1. c. 4. r. 9. n. 10. p. 160. Instances of Holy persons , that have done evil that good may come of it . l. 1. c. 5. r. 8. n. 28. p. 200. A private evil is not to be done for a private good , but for a publick it may . l. 1. c. 5. r. 8. n. 31. p. 203. an evil in nature may be done for a good in morality . ibid. n. 32. p. 203. every thing that is not intrinsecally evil , if it be directed to a good end , is good , unless it be spoiled by some intervening accident . ibid. n. 33. p. 204. all the measures of Good and evil are to be taken by the Law of the Gospel . l. 2. c. 2. r. 7. n. 3. p. 373. whatsoever is against the Law of the Gospel may not be permitted directly for the obtaining a greater good , but may for the avoiding a greater evil which otherwise cannot be avoided . ibid. n. 9. p. 375. We must not judge of the goodness of actions by the event . l. 3. c. 3. r. 4. n. 5. p. 162. An action is good or bad by the conformity to the rule , but a man by his own will. l. 4. c. 1. r. 1. n. 1. p. 438. Of that saying , It is lawfull to doe evill that Good may come of it . l. 1. c. 5. r. 8. n. 4 , 20. p. 197. & l. 4. c. 2. r. 1. n. 8. whether the lesser e●●l in respect of the greater hath the nat●●●e of Good. l. 1. ●apsn● r. 8. n. 25. p. 199. Of Godfather● and Godmothers at Baptisme . ●● . 3. c. 4. r. 15. n. 5. p. 289. Gospel . All the measures of good and evil are to be taken by the law of the Gospel . l. 2. c. 2. r. 7. n. 3. p. 373. whatsoever 〈◊〉 ●gainst the Law of the Gospel may no● be permitted directly for the obtaining a greater good , but may for the avoiding a greater evil which otherwise cannot be avoided . l. 2. c. 2. r. 7. n. 9. p. 375. The Commandments of the Gospel are affirmative , and why ? l. 2. c. 3. r. 1. n. 7. p. 390. The Gospel exceeds all other institutions in the manner of its teaching . 〈◊〉 . 3. c. 4. r. 20. n. 8. p. 327. the difference between the Gospel and the Law. 〈◊〉 4. c. 1. r. 1. n. 24. p. 450. Government . Nihil aliu●● est Imperium nisi cura salutis aternae . l. 3. c. 3. r. 7. n. 6. p. 202. the Original of Government . l. 3. c. 1. r. 7. n. 1 , 2. p. 46. In their disputations of Government the Roman and Greek writers modelled their principles to the popular governments they lived under . l. 3. c. 1. r. 7. n. 5. p. 47. no change of Government or alteration of sentence is to be made upon pretence of any secret counsel of God. l. 3. c. 2. r. 1. n. 14. p. 57. H. HEretics and others have falsly pretended divers books to be written by Apostles and Apostolical men . l. 2. c. 3. r. 14. n. 35. p. 492. It is not alwaies lawfull to hear good things and true . l. 1. c. 2. r. 3. n. 67. p. 61. Heart . We must take care that hardness of Heart be not mistaken for peace of Conscience . l. 1. c. 1. r. 2. n. 25. p. 24. the Heart is principally regarded by God in all actions of obedience . l. 2. c. 3. r. 5. n. 2. p. 405. Sin is forbidden in the Heart . l. 2. c. 3. r. 7. n. 1. p. 414. Heathen . The Ceremonies which the Primitive Church borrowed from the Heathen were such as had no relation to doctrine . l. 2. c. 3. r. 19. n. 13. p. 552. Ceremonies ought with great caution to be taken up in imitation of the Heathen . ibid. n. 14. p. 553. In what state Heathens are after death . l. 4. c. 1. r. 5. n. 1. p. 493. Heir . The Heir or Donor is to be eased in doubts , unless it make the gift good for nothing . l. 3. c. 6. r. 1. n. 15. p. 405. Haredem teneri ad poenam , ad quam defunctus fuerat condemnatus . l. 3. c. 2. r. 7. n. 11. p. 121. In what sense that proposition and the contrary are both true . ibid. Of King Hezekiah's breaking the brazen Serpent . l. 3. c. 6. r. 7. n. 3. p. 432. Henry VIII . his reformation in England was never the worse because he proposed to himself possibly an evil end . l. 3. c. 1. r. 3. n. 5. p. 33. Hildebrand did ill in excommunicating the Emperour Henry and his Subjects . l. 3. c. 4. r. 10. n. 12. p. 264. Holy daies . Of the observation of them . l. 2. c. 2. r. 6. n. 55. p. 361. The Eastern Churches and Disciples of S. John kept Easter-day not on the day of the week on which Christ rose , but on the full Moon , whatsoever day it fell upon . ibid. Honour . It comprehends maintenance . l. 3. c. 5. r. 3. n. 2. p. 367. of the Honour due to Churchmen . l. 3. c. 3. r. 6. n. 18. p. 187. how it is lawfull to strive for Honour . l. 4. c. 2. r. 2. n. 2. all designs of Honour must be less principal then , and subordinate to , religion . ibid. n. 4. When a thing is disputed by good and learned men on both sides , to doe either is not against publick Honesty . l. 2. c. 2. r. 3. n. 57. p. 309. Reasons why Humility and piety are the best dispositions to the understanding the secrets of the Gospel . l. 1. c. 2. r. 3. n. 57. p. 59. Of Hushai his dealing falsly with Absalom . l. 1. c. 5. r. 8. n. 28 , 30. p. 200 , 202. Hypocrites excuse all their open sins with the pretence of Conscience . l. 1. c. 1. r. 3. n. 1. p. 26. I. OF Jephthah's vow out of the Jewstory . l. 3. c. 3. r. 8. n. 1. p. 208. Of the Custome of bowing at the name of Jesus . l. 3. c. 4. r. 15. n. 4. p. 289. Jews . their religion upon their Sabbaths and feasts . l. 2. c. 2. r. 6. n. 58. p. 363. The Jews in their writings against the Primitive Christians never charged them with worshipping Images . l. 2. c. 2. r. 6. n. 37. p. 351. The Righteousness of the Christians must exceed the Jews . l. 2. c. 3. r. 20. n. 3. p. 555. S. Ignatius his Epistle to the Philippians is supposititious . l. 3. c. 4. r. 13. n. 12. p. 278. Ignorance . it abuses the Conscience into Errour . l. 1. c. 3. r. 1. n. 3. p. 100. of vincible ignorance . l. 4. c. 1. r. 6. n. 9 , 10. p. 505. we cannot be ignorant of things necessary to salvation without sin . l. 4. c. 1. r. 5. n. 1 , 4. p. 493. No man can be innocently ignorant of what all Nations and men believe and publickly profess . l. 4. c. 1. r. 5. n. 3. p. 494. of that which is by several Churches and societies of wise and good men disputed , a man may be innocently ignorant . l. 4. c. 1. r. 5. n. 5. p. 495. A man may not be innocently ignorant of that which is his special duty . ibid. n. 7. p. 495. what is that diligence , after which Ignorance is excusable . l. 4. c. 1. r. 5. n. 11. p. 497. what is probable Ignorance . ibid. r. 12. p. 497. whether is worse , to sin willingly , or by Ignorance . ibid. n. 16. p. 498. Some sins of ignorance worse then some sins of malice . ibid. n. 18. p. 499. What ignorance Antecedent and Concomitant are , and what influence they have upon our actions . l. 4. c. 1. r. 6. n. 2 , 7. p. 500. how long infant ignorance or childishness can excuse , so as their actions shall be reckoned neither to vertue nor vice . l. 4. c. 1. r. 6. n. 4. p. 501. Illusion is hard to be distinguished from Conscience . l. 1. c. 1. r. 3. n. 5. p. 28. Images and Idolatry . The Jews were forbid to make an Image , as a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Law of Idolatry . l. 2. c. 2. r. 3. n. 42. p. 304 , 313. though the making or having an Image were unlawfull to the Jews , yet not to the Christians . l. 2. c. 2. r. 6. n. 11. p. 330. it is not lawfull to worship the true God by an Image . ibid. n. 21. p. 338. Idolatry is a sin against the Law of Nature . ibid. n. 23. p. 338. To worship false gods , and to give divine worship to an Image , is one and the same kind of formal Idolatry . ibid. n. 25. p. 339. S. John was not permitted to give divine worship to an Angel who represented the person of God. ib. n. 27. p. 341. A Definition of Idolaters out of S. Austin . l. 2. c. 2. r. 6. n. 28. p. 343. how an Image can be an idol . ibid. n. 30. p. 344. The difference between an Image and an Idol . ibid. n. 30. p. 345. That which forbad the Jews to make or have Images was no moral Law. ibid. n. 31. p. 347. The worship of Images is against the analogy of the Gospel . ibid. n. 32. p. 348. The Primitive Christians were great haters of Image-worship . l. 2. c. 2. r. 6. n. 33. p. 349. The Council of Eliberis decreed against pictures in Churches . ibid. n. 35. p. 350. the Jews in their writings against the Christians of the first ages never charged them with worshipping Images , which shews then they did not worship them . ibid. n. 37. p. 351. In the first part of the Thalmud written about A. D. 200. there is no reproof to Christians for Images : but in the second part written about A. D. 500. they frequently charge it upon them . ibid. The Heathens did not believe their Images to be Gods , and worshipped them with no other but relative worship . l. 2. c. 2. r. 6. n. 38. p. 351. only the ruder part of them . ibid. p. 352. The culpable usage of Images by modern Papists . l. 2. c. 2. r. 6. n. 39. p. 353. The worship of Images never prevailed any where but among a degenerating people . ibid. n. 40. p. 354. The ancient Romans worshipped their Gods 170 years without Images . ibid. Idolatry hindred by Sacrifices . l. 2. c. 3. r. 13. n. 30. p. 476. Of the Imitation of Christ. l. 2. c. 2. r. 7. n. 35. p. 383. Summum ejus esse Imperium , qui ordinario juri derogare valeat . l. 3. c. 3. r. 6. n. 25. p. 192. Impudence often the attendant of an evil Conscience . l. 1. c. 1. r. 2. n. 13. p. 19. Incest . Incest taught by the Devil speaking out of Fire . l. 2. c. 2. r. 3. n. 23. p. 295. the notation of the word . ibid. n. 24. p. 296. A strange case happening at Venice of an incestuous marriage . l. 1 c. 3. r. 8. n. 3. p. 118. Of the word Institutio . l. 2. c. 3. r. 9. n. 4. p. 421. Signs of difference , whereby we may , in a mixt Intention , know which is the principal ingredient . l. 1. c. 2. r. 5. n. 30. p. 71. Indifferent . Things indifferent may be ministeries of religion , but no parts of it . l. 3. c. 4. r. 20. n. 12. p. 331. Actions in their physical capacity are negatively indifferent . l. 4. c. 1. r. 1. n. 14. p. 444. Acts omitted are oftentimes indifferent . ibid. n. 15. p. 444. all acts that pass without any consent of the will are indifferent . ibid. n. 17. p 446. Of Indifferent actions , what are such . ibid. n. 16 , 17. p. 445. No action of the will is indifferent . ib. n. 18. p. 446. Interest renders the Conscience suspected , if it be guided by it . l. 1. c. 1. r. 3. n. 6. p. 29. Interest is sometimes on the side of Truth . ibid. How to discern when it is joined with Truth . ibid. Of Inconsideration . l. 4. c. 1. r. 6. p. 508. Interpretation . Laws that are doubtfull are rightly interpreted by examples . l. 2. c. 2. r. 7. n. 44. p. 387. Rules of the interpretation of Laws by consequence . l. 2. c. 2. r. 7. n. 8. p. 400. When any condition intrinsecal to the duty of an affirmative precept is impossible or cannot be supplied , the duty it self falls without interpretation . l. 2. c. 3. r. 11. n. 15. p. 446. Laws are to be interpreted with respect to the mind of the Lawgiver . l. 3. c. 6. r. 1. n. 1. p. 398. In what sense and manner . ibid. n. 3. p. 399. See more Letter L. word Laws . In interpreting the Commandments of God , we must chuse that sense which most promotes the end of the commandment . l. 3. c. 6. r. 1. n. 10. p. 403. Of the favourable interpretation of Laws . l. 3. c. 6. r. 1. n. 15. p. 405. Of favourable interpretation in inflicting punishments . ibid. n. 16. All good Laws admit interpretation in some cases . ibid. n. 17. In matters of favour and pietie the sense of the Laws is to be extended by interpretation . ibid. n. 18. p. 406. When the Lawgiver interprets his own Law , he does not take off , but remove the obligation . l. 3. c. 6. r. 2. n. 2. p. 408. The power of interpreting Laws must be used with nobleness , not fraud . ibid. n. 4. p. 408. The Laws are not to be bended by interpretation but upon great and just causes . ibid. n. 5. p. 409. The interpretation of Laws made by Judges is nothing of Empire and power . ibid. n. 7. p. 410. Judged cases are the best indication of the meaning of a Law. l. 3. c. 6. r. 6. n. 3. p. 428. In the doubtfull interpretation of Laws , Customes are as good as Laws . ibid. A King is Dominus Legum , and therefore may intervene between Equity and strictness by interpretation . l. 3. c. 6. r. 2. n. 3. p. 408. Judge . A Judge must proceed according to the process of Law , though contrary to his own private Conscience . l. 1. c. 2. r. 8. n. 7. p. 82. A Judge may not proceed upon the evidence of an instrument , which he produced privately , but was not produced in Court. ibid. n. 7. p. 83. what a Judge is to doe in case the evidence upon Oath is contrary to his own private Knowledg . ibid. n. 8. p. 84. A Judge may not doe any public act against his own private Conscience . ibid. n. 9 , 10. p. 85. A Judge having seen a stone in Court thrown at his brother Judge , proceeded to sentence upon the intuition of the fact , and stayed not for the sole●nities of the Law. ibid. n. 14. p. 86. Concerning the double capacity of a Judge . ibid. n. 24. p. 90. Sententia à Judice non suo lata , nulla est . l. 3. c. 1. r. 3. n. 4. p. 33. The interpretation of Laws made by Judges is nothing of Empire and Power . l. 3. c. 6. r. 2. n. 7. p. 410. Judged cases are the best indication of the meaning of a Law. l. 3. c. 6. r. 6. n. 3. p. 428. The Judges do by their sentences best convey the notice of a custome . ib. Judgment . Three degrees of practical Judgment . l. 1. c. 2. r. 4. n. 1. p. 62. The virtual Judgment , that is a natural inclination passing forth into habit or custom , is not a state of good , by which one is acceptable to God. ibid. n. 6. p. 63. This disposition secures not against temptation . ibid. p. 63. A formal Judgment , that is , delibration of the understanding and choice of the will , is required to the constitution of a right and sure Conscience . ibid. n. 7. p. 64. The Judicial Law of Moses is annulled . l. 2. c. 2. r. 3. n. 1. p. 286. Lex Julis . l. 3. c. 2. r. 7. n. 7. p. 118. Jussio and Mandatum , how distinguished . l. 4. c. 1. r. 2. n. 7. p. 458. Whatsoever is against charity cannot be the effect of Justice . l. 3. c. 2. r. 1. n. 5. p. 54. That saying of Justin Martyr explicated , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . l. 2. c. 2. r. 4. n. 10. p. 322. Jurisdiction . Of the word . l. 3. c. 4. r. 1. n. 5. p. 213. It includes Empire . ib. S. Chrysostom proves the office of a Bishop to be more difficult then that of a King , because it hath no jurisdiction . ibid. n. 7. p. 214. The High priest under the Law of Moses had a proper formal Jurisdiction , which the Christian Church hath not . ibid. n. 8. p. 215. The Apostles did exercise jurisdiction , but it was in an extraordinary and miraculous way . ibid. n. 9. p. 216. The Church hath an analogical Jurisdiction . ibid. n. 11. p. 217. How the power of the Keys differs from proper Jurisdiction . ibid. n. 13. p. 217. There is no Jurisdiction in the power of the Keys . ibid. n. 14. p. 218. To deny the Sacrament to the unworthy is not an act of Jurisdiction but Charity . l. 3. c. 4. r. 7. n. 10. p. 243. Incorporalia sunt individua . Pref. pag. 12. K. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , what it means . l. 3. c. 3. r. 1. n. 5. p. 133. Keys . Of the power of the Keys . l. 3. c. 4. r. 1. n. 11. p. 217. Wherein the power of the Keys differs from proper jurisdiction . ibid. n. 13. p. 217. If they are not rightly used they neither bind nor lose . ibid. There is no jurisdiction in the power of the Keys . ibid. n. 14. p. 219. That power is only a suspension of their own act by Ecclesiastics . ibid. n. 15. p. 219. Kill . The reason why it is lawfull to kill a man in my own defence . l. 1. c. 5. r. 8. n. 38. p. 206. The Commandment that forbids to kill is not broken by the Authors of a just war , nor execution upon Malefactors . l. 3. c. 2. r. 1. n. 18. p. 59. King. The Edicts of Kings are by Gratian put among the Laws of the Church . l. 3. c. 3. r. 5. n. 4. p. 175. The Gallican Church is ruled by those Laws Ecclesiastical that their Kings have made . l. 3. c. 3. r. 5. n. 7. p. 177. Instances to prove that the Ecclesiastics are under the jurisdiction of the Civil or Kingly power . l. 3. c. 3. r. 6. n. 3. p. 179. What is to be done when the command of the King and Bishop enterfere . ibid. n. 26. p. 192. A King that commands to the Guard is to be obeyed before a Bishop that commands to goe to Divine service . ibid. n. 27. p. 193. In external actions the command of the King is to be obeyed before the command of the Church . ibid. The King hath jurisdiction in causes internal and spiritual . ibid. r. 7. n. 2. p. 200. The King is by God appointed to be an Overseer , Governour , Father and Protector over his Church . l. 3. c. 3. r. 7. n. 6. p. 202. The King ought to determine what doctrines are to be taught the people , and what are to be forbidden . ibid. n. 13. p. 205. Every article of Religion that the King allows is not to be accounted a part of the true religion . ib. n. 16. p. 207. The King must govern the Church by Church-men . l. 3. c. 3. r. 8. n. 1 , 2. p. 208. Good Kings use to verifie the judicial acts of the Church . ib. n. 3. p. 208. but freely , not by necessity . ibid. n. 4 , 6. p. 209 , 210. Kings are not bound to execute the Decrees of the Church . l. 3. c. 3. r. 8. n. 5. p. 209. The difference between the Kingly and Ecclesiastical power . l. 3. c. 4. r. 1. n. 1. p. 211. Kings obey the Laws of the Church . l. 3. c. 4. r. 6. n. 1. p. 237. & n. 5. p. 239. The Example of Kings prevails much . l. 3. c. 4. r. 6. n. 4. p. 238. In what manner Kings were bound by the Canons of the Church under the old Testament . ib. n. 6. p. 240. A King cannot be excommunicated . l. 3. c. 4. r. 7. n. 3. p. 241. The Primitive Bishops never durst think of excommunicating Kings . ibid. n. 7. p. 242. The Church may deny the Sacrament to evil Kings . l. 3. c. 4. r. 7. n. 10. p. 243. The King though unworthy must not be denied the Sacrament , if he be instant for it . ibid. A Church-man though an Apostle must be subject to the King. l. 3. c. 3. r. 6. n. 1. p. 178. Penances cannot be inflicted on the King against his will. l. 3. c. 4. r. 7. n. 12. p. 244. Some Kings have received hurt by such Penances . ibid. n. 13. p. 245. Kings may not be publicly reprov'd . ibid. n. 14. p. 245. The old Prophets did , but mere Priests never did reprove Kings . ibid. n. 16. p. 246. How Bishops and Ministers should carry themselves in the reproof of Kings . ibid. n. 18. p. 246. The King nor the people cannot be excommunicated . l. 3. c. 4. r. 8. n. 7. p. 250. The Hebrew Kings had power to cause the Malefactors body to hang all night on the tree , though the Laws forbid it , say the Rabbins . l. 3. c. 6. r. 1. n. 16. p. 405. A King may be either more severe or more gentle then the Law. ib. r. 2. n. 3. p. 408. He is Dominus Legum , and therefore may intervene between Equity and strictness by Interpretation . ibid. S. Chrysostom proves the office of a Bishop is more difficult then that of a King. l. 3. c. 4. r. 1. n. 7. p. 214. Difference between a King and Tyrant . l. 3. c. 1. r. 3. n. 5. p. 34. & l. 3. c. 3. r. 1. n. 1. p. 130. The power of Kings . l. 3. c. 3. r. 1. n. 3. p. 132. Though they have an absolute power , they may not use it . ib. n. 4. p. 132. Their power is absolute in doing right , not in doing wrong ; their power of government is absolute , not their power of possession . ib. n. 5. p. 133. The difference between a King and Lord of the people . ibid. What is Jus Regium ? l. 3. c. 3. r. 1. n. 7. p. 135. A consideration upon the power of Kings as it is described by Samuel . l. 3. c. 3. r. 1. n. 7 , 8. p. 135. Whether Kings are subject to their own Laws . l. 3. c. 3. r. 2. n. 1. p. 138. Kings are not under the directive power of Laws . ibid. n. 2. p. 138. They are not under the fear of their Laws . ibid. n. 5. p. 139. They are obliged by the Laws of God and nature . ibid. n. 6. p. 141. A King may not command his Subjects to fight in an unjust cause . ibid. n. 7. p. 142. Their Laws must not be neglected upon the opinion of every vain person . ibid. n. 8. p. 142. Some Laws bind the Prince . ibid. n. 10. p. 142. Whatsoever the King hath sworn to , obliges him . ibid. n. 13. p. 143. Of the Oath which Kings take . ibid. n. 14. p. 144. Of the Kingly prerogative . ibid. n. 16. p. 145. The King can give pardon to a Criminal condemned . ibid. n. 18. p. 146. Clemency a great vertue in a King. ibid. In what cases a King may pardon a Criminal condemned . ibid. n. 19. p. 147. It is not lawful in any cases to resist the King. l. 3. c. 3. r. 3. n. 1. p. 149. per tot . reg . A King , though wicked , must not be resisted . l. 3. c. 3. r. 3. n. 13. p. 156. A King cannot be supposed to have a desire to destroy his Kingdome . ibid. n. 15. p. 157. A Christian must not seek revenge upon , nor resist his Father or King. ibid. n. 16. p. 158. A King must not , because no subject does , forfeit his right in his estate by his vices . l. 3. c. 3. r. 3. n. 17. p. 159. The King hath no power over his Subjects against Law , so neither the Subject over his King. ibid. Arguments brought to prove the Pope hath power over Kings . l. 3. c. 3. r. 4. n. 4. p. 161. Kings are Governours of religion . ibid. n. 7. p. 163. Attalus in making the State of Rome his Heir , together with the Kingly power bequeathed the power over things sacred . ibid. Religion being the great band of societies must be under the government of the King. l. 3. c. 3. r. 4. n. 8. p. 164. The King without the conduct of religion in many exigencies cannot govern his people . ibid. n. 9. p. 165. If the Priests rule religion , they may be superiour to the King. ib. n. 10. p. 166. Examples of Kings and Princes that have been put out of their thrones by a pretended Ecclesiastical power . ibid. n. 11. p. 166. Ancient Kings would not endure any change in religion . ibid. n. 13. p. 167. Kings are the vicegerents of Christ. ibid. n. 19. p. 170. The Jewish Kings were superiour in power to the Priests in matter of religion . l. 3. c. 3. r. 4. n. 20. p. 173. Christ will call Christian Kings to account for Souls . ibid. n. 21. p. 173. Kings have a Legislative power in the matters of religion . l. 3. c. 3. r. 5. n. 1. p. 174. Kings may compell their Subjects to serve God. ibid. n. 3. p. 174. Those matters are under the power of the King which God hath left under no Commandment , viz. Church-affairs . ibid. n. 4. p. 174. Kinred . The Canon and Civil Law account not the distance of Kinred in the same manner . l. 2. c. 2. r. 3. n. 67. p. 313. those reasons considered which men invent for the restraint of those marriages which God restrains not . ibid. n. 75. p. 315. Know. Every Knowing facultie is the seat of Conscience . l. 1. c. 1. r. 2. n. 4. p. 13. How little certainty there is in humane discourses . l. 1. c. 2. r. 6. n. 7. p. 74. L. Law. IN what sense the mind of the Law-giver is to be the measure of interpretation . l. 3. c. 6. r. 1. n. 3. p. 399. by the reasons and causes of the Law we may judge of the intention of the Lawgiver . ibid. the Law is broken when the words are obeyed , if you violate the end or meaning of it . ibid. n. 4. p. 400. If the intention of the Law be collected but obscurely , the obscure words are rather to be followed then the obscure intention . ibid. n. 5. p. 400. unless it be manifest the words recede from the intention , the Subject is to follow the words . ibid. n. 6. p. 400. Words of Civil and Legal signification in Laws must not signifie according to Grammar , but Law. l. 3. c. 6. r. 1. n. 8. p. 401. That is the meaning of words in the Law , that does the work of the Law. ibid. n. 11. p. 402. In all Laws and obligations of Conscience by contract , when any doubt arises , we are to rest upon that which is most likely and most usual . ibid. n. 12. p. 404. Of the favourable sense of Laws . ib. n. 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16. p. 404 , 405. Of the favourable interpretation of Laws in inflicting punishments . ibid. n. 16. p. 405. When a Lawgiver interprets his Law he does not take off the obligation , but remove it . l. 3. c. 6. r. 2. n. 2. p. 408. Rules to know when the obligation of Laws ceaseth upon the change of reason . l. 3. c. 6. r. 3. n. 6. p. 412. How the obligation of a Law may be extended by parity of reason . ibid. n. 26. p. 420. Ratio L●gis non est Lex . ibid. n. 27. p. 420. Laws cannot by interpretation be extended to the time past . ibid. n. 30. p. 422. Cum Lex in praeteritum quid indulget , in futurum vetat . ibid. It is not safe to enquire after the reason of a Law , unless the Law it self declare it . l. 3. c. 6. r. 3. n. 33. p. 422. Of the Abrogation of Laws . ibid. r. 7. p. 431. Difference between Moses Law and the Gospel . l. 4. c. 1. r. 1. n. 24. p. 450. & l. 2. c. 2. r. 5. p. 324. when the authority of Lawyers is to be followed . l. 1. c. 4. r. 10. n. 5. p. 165. The Actions of men living under another Law are not to be measured by Laws of a differing government . l. 1. c. 5. r. 8. n. 30. p. 202. Quod licitum est ex superveniente causa mutatur . l. 2. c. 1. r. 10. n. 5. p. 270. Quod L●ge prohibitoria non vetitum est , permissum esse intelligitur . l. 2. c. 2. r. 3. n. 45. p. 304. Fac Legi tuae sepem . l. 2. c. 2. r. 3. n. 68. p. 313. & supra p. 304. It is a new Law , though old in the letter , if a new degree of duty be required . l. 2. c. 2. r. 4. n. 4. p. 320. To forbid evil and command to doe good cannot be one precept . ibid. n. 8. p. 321. whatsoever is absolutely is certainly Lawfull . l. 2. c. 2. r. 7. n. 21. p. 379. Laws that are doubtfull are rightly interpreted by Example . ibid. n. 44. p. 387. A Lawgiver is not only he who gives Laws , but he that authoritatively expounds them already given . l. 2. c. 3. r. 1. n. 1. p. 389. whatsoever is equivalent to the instance of the Law , is also within its obligation . l. 2. c. 3. r. 3. n. 5. p. 399. whatsoever can certainly and truly be deduced from a Law , does as certainly bind us as the instance that is named . ibid. n. 9. p. 401. The usefulness and original of Laws . l. 3. c. 2. r. 6. n. 1. p. 107. Christians must not go to Law but upon very great cause . ibid. n. 18. p. 115. Neminem Legem sibi dicere posse , à qua , mutata voluntate , nequeat recedere . l. 3. c. 3. r. 6. n. 25. p. 192. All Laws bind either by the natural goodness of the action , or by its subserviencie to something else , or only by the authority . l. 3. c. 4. r. 18. n. 6. p. 314. Laws are either perfect or imperfect . l. 3. c. 5. r. 8. n. 16. p. 388. The meaning of Laws is to be regarded above their words . l. 3. c. 6. r. 1. n. 1. p. 398. Counsels Evangelical cannot be made into Laws . l. 3. c. 4. r. 20. n. 12. p. 330. Laws Divine . The end and Intention of a Law is under the Commandment , as much as the action commanded in order to the end . l. 4. c. 2. r. 3. per tot . Difference between Moses Law and the Gospel . l. 4. c. 1. r. 1. n. 24. p. 450. & l. ● . c. 2. r. 5. n. 4. p. 324. When two Laws are opposite , that which yields is not moral . l. 2. c. 2. r. 6. n. 76. p. 371. He does not alwaies keep a good Conscience who observes only the words of the Divine Law , and neglects the reasons and analogies in like instances . l. 1. c. 1. r. 1. n. 20. p. 8. Some laws of God are such , that they cannot be dispensed with . l. 1. c. 5. r. 8. n. 35. p. 204. Affirmative Laws oblige not when they cross a Negative . ibid. p. 205. The ground and measure of dispensing with affirmative Laws . ibid. That in the Sanction of the Law of God , the reason binds more then the letter . l. 2. c. 1. r. 9. n. 15. p. 268. Tertullian undertakes to find all the moral Law in the first Commandment God gave to Adam . l. 2. c. 2. r. 4. n. 9. p. 321. Gods method in giving of Laws . ibid. n. 10. p. 322. In all contracts of Laws the Spiritual sense or action is to be preferred . l. 2. c. 3. r. 5. n. 9. p. 409. Difference between Laws and Counsels . l. 2. c. 3. r. 12. n. 4. p. 450. the measures and notes of their difference . ibid. n. 10. p. 452. In laws not only the contrary to the duty , but the privative also is a sin . ibid. n. 12. p. 453. Whatsoever Law or precept in Scripture relates wholly to a person , circumstance or time , passes no obligation beyond the limits of that person , circumstance or time . ibid. r. 17. n. 3. p. 541. Whatsoever Law or Precept was given to many , if another succeeded it that is inconsistent with it , the former is by the latter declar'd personal , temporary and expir'd . l. 2. c. 3. r. 17. n. 4. p. 541. A Law that is merely temporary may be inserted without any mark of difference among other Laws that are perpetual and moral . ibid. n. 5. p. 541. We are free from the curse of the Law by Christ. l. 3. c. 1. r. 1. n. 28. p. 18. We are freed from the Ceremonial Law by Christ. ibid. The Difference of Divine and Humane Laws in their obligation . l. 3. c. 1. r. 1. n. 34. p. 23. The Laws of God in precepts purely affirmative do not oblige to an actual obedience in danger of death . l. 3. c. 1. r. 2. n. 8. p. 27. They that teach any thing is a Law of God which is not , are guilty of teaching the Commandments of men for doctrines . l. 3. c. 4. r. 17. n. 13. p. 305. Laws that are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of duty . l. 3. c. 4. r. 6. n. 4. p. 239. Laws Humane . Of Equity in Penal Laws . l. 3. c. 6. r. 1. n. 2. p. 399. When the words of the Law are ambiguous , unjust or absurd , the mind of the Lawgiver is to be presumed to be free from all evill or vice . ibid. n. 4. p. 399. In all Laws and obligations of Conscience by contract , when any doubt arises , we are to rest upon that which is most likely and most usual . l. 3. c. 6. r. 1. n. 12. p. 404. Of the favourable interpretation of Laws in inflicting punishments . l. 3. c. 6. r. 1. n. 16. p. 405. When a Lawgiver interprets his Law , he does not take off the obligation but remove it . l. 3. c. 6. r. 2. n. 2. p. 408. A Prince may be either more severe or more gentle then the Law. ibid. n. 3. The Laws are not to be bended by interpretation , but upon great and just causes . l. 3. c. 6. r. 2. n. 5. p. 409. The Interpretation of Laws made by the Judges is nothing of Empire and power . ibid. n. 7. p. 410. A Law obliges not the Conscience , when its reason wholly ceaseth , or a contrary reason ariseth . l. 3. c. 6. r. 3. n. 1. p. 411. Rules to know when the obligation of Laws ceaseth upon the change of reason . l. 3. c. 6. r. 3. n. 6. p. 412. A Law binds not to an inconvenience greater then is the publick benefit of the Law. ibid. n. 15. p. 416. In what cases the Subject is to consult the Prince about the ceasing obligation of Laws . l. 3. c. 6. r. 3. n. 19. p. 417. Of commutation of Laws . l. 3. c. 6. r. 5. p. 426. A Law may be interpreted by customes . l. 3. c. 6. r. 6. n. 3. p. 428. Judged cases are a good indication of the meaning of a Law. ibid. Humane Laws bind the Conscience . l. 3. c. 1. r. 1. Rules by which may be known , what Humane Laws are intended to bind to a greater sin and what to a less . l. 3. c. 1. r. 1. n. 16. p. 10. Humane Laws bind the Conscience in things otherwise indifferent . l. 3. c. 1. r. 1. n. 13. p. 7. They bind without the intention of the Lawgiver . ibid. n. 14. p. 8. But the intention of the Lawgiver is the measure of their binding . ibid. n. 15. p. 9. Laws sometime made in England professing not to bind the Conscience . ibid. n. 14. p. 9. Of the end and intention of Humane Laws . l. 4. c. 2. r. 3. n. 4. The abuse of a Law does not make it to cease . l. 3. c. 6. r. 7. n. 5. p. 433. No Humane Law is or can be the rule of our obedience . l. 1. c. 1. r. 1. n. 20. p. 8. Humane Laws make not any action intrinsecally evil . l. 1. c. 3. r. 5. n. 6. p. 113. Of tolerating disobedience to Laws . l. 2. c. 2. r. 7. n. 12. p. 376. Humane Laws can exact but the outward action . l. 2. c. 3. r. 5. n. 2. p. 405. Laws of man do limit and declare and make the instances , in which the Laws of God do bind . l. 3. c. 1. r. 1. n. 12. p. 7. The Laws of men bind the Conscience even in materia indifferenti . l. 3. c. 1. r. 1. n. 13. p. 7. Humane Laws are neither derived from the Divine positive Law nor that of nature . l. 3. c. 1. r. 1. n. 13. p. 8. The obligation which Humane Laws pass upon the Conscience depend not upon the intention of the Lawgiver . l. 3. c. 1. r. 1. n. 14. p. 9. A Law that professes not to bind the Conscience is no Law. ibid. Though Humane Laws doe not bind the Conscience by the intention of the Prince , yet God binds them upon the Conscience according to his intention . ibid. n. 15. The Laws of men bind the Conscience properly and directly : not indirectly and by consequence . ibid. n. 15. p. 10. He that breaks a Humane Law established upon great penalties commits a great sin . ibid. n. 16. p. 10. That Rule holds not , where the penaltie serves only for terrour . ibid. Humana Lex non magis gravat Consciencias quam corpora . ibid. How Humane Laws do bind where the matter in it self is great . l. 3. c. 1. r. 1. n. 17. p. 11. Of Laws in themselvs small and trifling , but by the consequence made very considerable . ibid. n. 18. p. 11. When Law expounds an action to be a Sin of signifie one , though in it self it doe not , nor in the heart of him that does it , he that does it sins . ibid. p. 12. If the matter of a Law be of small account , and the Legislative power set a value upon it , it is no argument of the smallness of the sin . ibid. n. 18. p. 13. The preceptive or prohibitive words , what they signifie in Humane Laws toward a greater obligation of the Conscience . l. 3. c. 1. r. 1. n. 20. p. 14. However Humane Laws are established , yet Desuetude may take off the band of Conscience . ibid. n. 21. p. 14. The contempt of any Law , be the matter never so trifling , is a very great sin . ibid. n. 22. p. 15. To teach that Humane Laws bind the Conscience , intrenches not upon the power of God. l. 3. c. 1. r. 1. n. 25. p. 16. Humane Laws may lay on us an obligation to observe ceremonies notwithstanding our privilege of Christian Liberty . ibid. n. 28. p. 19. The Difference of Divine and Humane Laws in their obligation . ibid. n. 34. p. 23. Humane Laws bind not the understanding . ibid. n. 35. p. 23. Humane Laws must alwaies yield to Divine where they are opposed . ibid. n. 42. p. 24. Humane Laws that are Defensatives of Divine bind to active obedience too . l. 3. c. 1. r. 2. n. 1. p. 26. An Humane Law made under the penalty of Death , binds to obedience though Death certainly follow . ibid. n. 12. p. 29. When a Tyrant power threatens death to make the obedient Subject contemn the Law , the Subject ought rather to die then disobey the Law. ib. p. 13. p. 29. Concerning breaking Laws to save ones Life . ibid. n. 13. p. 30. Laws that oblige to obedience in danger of death must be in materia gravi . ibid. n. 16. p. 3● . Upon a just cause a man may without a Crime break a Law , when by such a transgression the end of the Law is not hindred . ibid. n. 17. p. 31. Of Humane-Laws that are unjust , and how many waies they be so . ibid. r. 3. n. 1. p. 32. Humane Laws are unjust , if the matter be incompetent and undue . l. 3. c. 1. r. 3. n. 2. p. 32. Where Humane Laws do oblige with danger of death , they oblige not but to the whole obedience of the Law. ibid. r. 2. n. 17. p. 31. Humane Laws are unjust , when a lawfull power in a competent matter goes beyond its bounds . ibid. r. 3. n. 4. p. 33. All Humane Laws prescribing to the Conscience or setting bounds to the thoughts are null . ibid. Humane Laws are unjust when they do not contribute to the publick good , but wholly to his private good that made the Law. l. 3. c. 1. r. 3. n. 5. p. 33. The right end of Humane Laws is the publick good . ibid. A Law that by the change of affairs becomes contrary to the Common good is not to be observed . l. 3. c. 1. r. 3. n. 6. p. 35. An unjust Law is not to be disobeyed with scandall of others . ibid. n. 10. p. 36. Cautious to be observed in disobeying Humane Laws , that are unjust . ibid. A civil Law cannot evacuate a naturall . l. 3. c. 1. r. 4. n. 3. p. 39. Of the promulgation of Humane Laws . l. 3. c. 1. r. 6. p. 45. The care of sufficient promulgation lies upon the Prince . l. 3. c. 1. r. 6. n. 5. p. 45. Laws have not their binding power by the consent of the people . l. 3. c. 1. r. 7. n. 4 , 5. p. 47. The consent of the people gives no authority to the Law. ibid. n. 6. p. 48. Unreasonable Laws in some instances bind by the acceptation of the people . ibid. n. 9. p. 49. In the Substantial matters of religion the Laws bind out of the Dominions , but not in the Ceremonials of religion . ibid. r. 8. n. 2. p. 50. A Law does oblige beyond the proper territory if it relate to the good or evill of it . l. 3. c. 1. r. 8. n. 5. p. 51. How far strangers are bound by the Laws of the Countrey where they are . ibid. r. 8. n. 7. p. 51. A Sentence set down in the Law in words of the Present or Preter tense , shews the sentence is incurred ipso facto . l. 3. c. 2. r. 2. n. 28. p. 69. What sentence those Laws are to have where the punishment is expressed by the verb Substantive . ibid. n. 29. p. 69. When a Law passes a sentence , which will be invalid , unless its punishment be inflicted before the Judge take Cognisance , then the Offender is condemned ipso facto . ibid. n. 32. p. 71. Of the distinction of Laws . First , purely penal . Secondly , mixed . Thirdly , purely moral . l. 3. c. 2. r. 4. n. 2. p. 79. Kings are not under the Directive power of their own Laws . l. 3. c. 3. r. 2. n. 2. p. 138. The Supreme power is not under the power of the Laws . ibid. n. 5. p. 139. The Laws of Kings are not to be disobeyed upon the Phancy of every vain person , pretending they are unjust . ibid. n. 8. p. 142. Some Laws , and what they are , that bind the Prince . ibid. n. 10. p. 142. Humane Laws can take off from an action or put upon it the formality of sin . l. 3. c. 4. r. 18. n. 2. p. 313. Laws of the Church . God gave power to the Church by their Laws to bind and loose , as Princes have . l. 3. c. 1. r. 1. n. 16. p. 11. A Law that inflicts a Civil and Eclesiastical punishment too , binds to a great sin . ibid. n. 19 p. 14. The Canons of the Pope and Bishops were made into Laws by the Emperour Justinian . l. 3. c. 3. r. 5. n. 4. p. 175. Honorius the Emperour made a Law concerning the election of the Pope . ibid. n. 5. p. 176. The Laws of the Church after they are ratified by the Prince , bind him as the Civil Laws of his own making . l. 3. c. 4. r. 6. n. 2. p. 238. A Custome of the Church binds not against a Law of it . l. 3. c. 4. r. 15. n. 6. p. 290. Laws of the Church must not be perpetual . l. 3. c. 4. r. 17. n. 7. p. 303. An Ecclesiastical Law , by which is taught for Doctrines any Commandments of men is void . l. 3. c. 4. r. 17. n. 13. p. 305. Ecclesiastical Laws cannot take off or put upon an action the formality of sin . l. 3. c. 4. r. 18. n. 2. p. 313 , 314. Laws of the Church must not be made to give offence . l. 3. c. 4. r. 20. n. 9. p. 318. How the Rulers of the Church and the Subject must behave themselves in that case . ibid. Counsels Evangelical cannot be made into Laws . ibid. n. 12. p. 330. Leut. Of Lent and the weekly Fasting days . l. 3. c. 4. r. 13. n. 4. p. 273. Some Fathers affirm the Lent fast is a tradition Apostolical . ibid. n. 5. p. 273. Some others affirm , it is an institution warranted to us from Christ. ibid. n. 7. p. 274. The Lent fast cannot be concluded from the Example of Christ. ibid. n. 8. p. 275. The Original of the Lent fast much later then the Apostles . l. 3. c. 4. r. 13. n. 10. p. 276. The Ancient use of the Lent fast . ibid. p. 277. It was unknown in the Church the three first ages . ibid. n. 12. p. 277. The Lent fast was in order to Easter , therefore could not be more ancient then it . ibid. n. 13. p. 279. In the first ages of the Christian Church , the Fast before Easter lasted but two or three days . ibid. n. 15. p. 280. The word Quadragesima & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 came from the fast of fourty hours held immediately before Easter . ibid. n. 15. p. 281. That word in the Council of Nice does not signifie Lent. ibid. n. 16. p. 281. Lents or Quadragesimal Fasts observed by the Ancients were divers . l. 3. c. 4. r. 13. n. 17 , 18 , 19. p. 282. Divers conjectures about the reason of the word Quadragesim● . ibid. n. 18. p. 282. In what sense S. Hierom calls Lent an Apostolical Institution . ibid. n. 21. p. 283. Some errours of the Roman Church about imposing the Lent fast . l. 3. c. 4. r. 17. n. 15 , 16. p. 306. Bellarmine affirms , they are not Christians that eat Flesh in Lent. ibid. n. 17. p. 306. The Primitive Christians did not abhor flesh in Lent. l. 3. c. 4. r. 17. n. 19. p. 309. Liberty . Libertas omnibus rebus favorabilior . l. 3. c. 6. r. 1. n. 15. p. 405. Christian Liberty , what it is , and wherein it consists . l. 1. c. 4. r. 4. n. 3. p. 145. & ●l . 3. p. 4 , 17. It is not Liberty from sin . l. 3. c. 1. n. 5. p. 4. By Christian Liberty there is nothing gotten to us before men , but before God there is . l. 3. c. 1. r. 1. n. 28. p. 17. We are free from the curse of the Law by Christ. ibid. p. 18. Wherein consists that Liberty which Christs death hath put us in . ibid. We are freed from the Ceremonial Law by Christ. ibid. Christian Liberty at first mistaken . l. 3. c. 1. r. 1. n. 28. p. 19. & pag. 4. Liberty of Conscience how far it should be permitted by the Supreme power . l. 3. c. 3. r. 4. n. 15. p. 169. Of Christian Libertie in relation to whole Societies . l. 3. c. 4. r. 17. n. 2. p. 302. Jus trium liberorum , what it was . l. 3. c. 1. r. 1. n. 37. p. 23. Lie. It is lawfull to tell a harmeless Lie to save the life of a gallant brave man. l. 1. c. 5. r. 8. n. 28. p. 201. The Essence of a Lie does not consist in its difference from the eternal truth . l. 3. c. 2. r. 5. n. 4. p. 83. Melanchthon in his definition of a Lie , includes the hurting of ones Neighbour . ibid. Of the Egyptians deceived by the Jews of their Jewels by a Lie. ibid. n. 7. p. 84. It is lawfull to tell a Lie to children or madmen for their benefit . ibid. n. 8. A Physitian may lawfully tell a ly to some kind of Patients . ibid. To tell a Lie for charity to save the life of a husband , publick person or Prince , hath been commended by wise and good men . l. 3. c. 2. r. 5. n. 10. p. 85. Of the Lie told by the Egyptian Midwives . ibid. It is lawfull to doe otherwise then we promised , if the doing be better then the saying . ibid. n. 15. p. 91. It is not lawfull to tell a lie to save ones fame . l. 3. c. 2. r. 5. n. 16. p. 91. The Romanists give leave to tell a Lie to save ones reputation . ibid. p. 92. That Doctrine proved false . ibid. n. 17. p. 92. Synesius tells a Lie , to refuse a Bishoprick . ibid. n. 18. p. 93. In a just wat it is lawfull to deceive the Enemy , but not to Lie. ibid. n. 19. p. 93. It is not lawfull to deceive the Enemy when we are in treaty with him . ibid. p. 94. To use Stratagems is not to Lie. ibid. p. 95. A Lie that serves charity must not be against Justice . l. 3. c. 2. r. 5. n. 23. p. 97. If a man speak a downright Lie , he can hardly be innocent . l. 3. c. 2. r. 5. n. 50. p. 106. Of the Lord Mayor of London his slaying Wat Tiler . l. 3. c. 2. r. 6. n. 9. p. 111. The use of the word Loose . l. 3. c. 4. r. 10. n. 10. p. 264. Lord. What is the power of a Lord. l. 3. c. 3. r. 1. n. 5. p. 134. A King is not Lord over his people . ibid. Lords supper . Of the Institution of the Lords supper . l. 2. c. 3. r. 9. n. 1. p. 420. The authority of Justin Martyr against Communion in one kind . ibid. n. 7. p. 422. The Manichees who abstained from wine , mixing themselves among the faithfull , were discovered by their refusing wine in the Sacrament . ibid. n. 16. p. 426. P. Gelasius condemned those who abstained from the consecrated chalice . ibid. n. 17. p. 426. The time when the Chalice was first withheld from the Communicants . ibid. n. 20. p. 427. Against Communion in one kind . l. 2. c. 3. r. 17. n. 6. p. 543. & n. 7. p. 544. The Apostles taught the Bishops and Priests to consecrate the bread and wine , before they did communicate . l. 3. c. 4. r. 12. n. 2. p. 269. That none but the Bishop or Priest could consecrate , is an Apostolical Canon . ibid. n. 6. p. 271. Of keeping the Lords day . l. 3. c. 4. r. 17. n. 24. p. 311. Love. He that Loves God above all other things , loves him for his own sake . l. 4. c. 2. r. 2. n. 9. The measures of Love towards God. l. 2. c. 3. r. 12. n. 1. p. 449. M. A Mad-man in his madness may be punished for those Crimes he did when he was in health , if to the punishment no judicial process be required . l. 4. c. 1. r. 4. n. 8. p. 491. Mandatum & Jussio how distinguished . l. 4. c. 1. r. 2. n. 7. p. 458. Magistrate . The Civill Magistrate may punish the thoughts of the heart , though they never proceed to action . l. 3. c. 1. r. 5. n. 6. p. 42 The Original of Magistracy . l. 3. c. 1. r. 7. n. 1 , 2. p. 46. It is an ordinance of God. l. 3. c. 2. r. 1. n. 2. p. 53. If the Son be a Magistrate , the Magistrate is exempted from the Fathers power , but not the Son. l. 3. c. 5. r. 8. n. 22. p. 391. Marriage . Marriage of Bishops and Priests . l. 3. c. 4. r. 20. n. 15. p. 332. Aeneas Sylvius , Panormitan and Cassander , were against it . ibid. n. 16. p. 332. Writers of the Roman Church against it . ibid. p. 333. It is an intolerable burden . ibid. n. 17. p. 333. The Nicene Council is against it . ibid. p. 334. The great difficultie some holy men found in the obeying that Law. ibid. n. 17. p. 335. Of Marriage . l. 2. c. 3. r. 5. n. 6. p. 408. Contract and Congress do effect as well as signifie a marriage . l. 3. c. 1. r. 4. n. 1. p. 38. Cassander affirms , that that Law which injoins single life to Bishops and Priests , ought to have been relaxed , though it had been a Canon Apostolical . l. 3. c. 4. r. 11. n. 4. p. 267. To forbear marriage is not a means of preserving Chastity . l. 3. c. 4. r. 20. n. 17. p. 336. Is not in every mans power . ibid. n. 17. p. 337. It does no good at all , is no service of God. ibid. n. 18. p. 338. Virginity is not more holy then chast Marriage . l. 3. c. 4. r. 20. n. 19. p. 338. Spiridion a Bishop was married . ibid. n. 19. p. 339. So was the Bishop of Nazianzum . ibid. A comparison between the Married and unmarried life . ibid. n. 20. p. 339. Marriage does not hinder the service of God. ibid. p. 340. The Roman Senate forbad their Souldiers to marry . ibid. p. 341. Christ and his Apostles left it free for Priests to marry . ibid. n. 21. p. 341. The practice of the ancient Church is for it . ibid. n. 22. p. 342. It was permitted to the Clergy the first 400 years . ibid. n. 23. p. 342. The Priests in France refused to put away their wives at the Legates perswasion . ibid. Not forbidden in England till A. D. 1100. ibid. When the Church did allow marriage to Priests she did forbid it after Ordination . l. 3. c. 4. r. 20. n. 24. p. 343. The Greek and Eastern Churches did oblige their Priests to single life , if they were ordained in that state . ibid. n. 26. p. 344. They were permitted by the Ancient Church to marry after Ordination . ibid. n. 27. p. 344. The practice of the Latin Church about the Marriage of their Priests . ibid. n. 28. p. 346. Gregory Nazianzen had Sons born to him after he was consecrated Bishop . ibid. p. 347. They annexed a vow of Continence to holy Orders . ibid. n. 29. p. 347. Concerning the second marriages of Priests . l. 3. c. 4. r. 20. n. 29. p. 348. The Church of Rome does without scruple frequently ordain those that have been twice married if they will pay the mulct . Ex Spalatens . ibid. n. 29. p. 349. Children may not marry without their Parents consent . l. 3. c. 5. r. 8. n. 7. p. 381. Isaac did not marry without his Fathers leave , though God had design'd the Marriage . ibid. n. 8. p. 382. Marriages against the Parents consent the Civil and Canon Law pronounce invalid . ibid. n. 9 , 10. p. 383. The Church did sometime anathematize those that married without their Parents consent . ibid. n. 11. p. 384. It is reason a Son should be left at liberty in nothing more then in Marriage . l. 3. c. 5. r. 8. n. 13. p. 384. When Sons and Daughters are of competent years and have the use of reason , they can of themselves contract marriage . ibid. n. 14. p. 385. The Council of Trent declares all clandestine Marriages null . l. 2. c. 1. r. 5. n. 4. p. 253. The Church of Rome does ill to give leave to either of the persons married to break their vow , and enter into a religious house . ibid. n. 5. p. 253. Every Error Persona does not annual Marriage . l. 2. c. 1. r. 7. n. 2. p. 260. Of the prohibition of Marriage in certain degrees . l. 2. c. 2. r. 3. n. 17. p. 292. The Persian Magi were begotten of the Mother and the Son. ib. n. 23. p. 295. Of the Marriage of Mothers in Law and their husbands children . ibid. n. 29. p. 299. God hath not forbid to marry our kinred , but only the nearest of our flesh ; Propinquos , not Cognatos . ibid. n. 38. p. 303. Impari Cognationis gradu par & idem jus statuatur , A rule of the Law about Marriage . ibid. n. 48. p. 305. The Marriage of Parents and children forbidden by Christ. ibid. r. 56. p. 308. The Marriage of Slaves against the consent of their Lords is valid according to the Civil Law. l. 3. c. 5. r. 8. n. 14. p. 386. The full effect of Marriages made against the Parents consent . ibid. n. 16. p. 387. Three things in Marriage , one of which is in the power of the Contractors , the other of the Domestic or Civil Ruler , the third under the power of the Church . ibid. A Betrothed woman is in Scripture stilled a wise before Marriage , and her falshood punished like adultery . ibid. n. 16. p. 387. The Law makes such marriages as are made without the consent of Parents civilly null only , not naturally void . l. 3. c. 5. r. 8. n. 16. p. 388. A Father cannot force his children to marry whom and when he will. ibid. n. 31. p. 395. Some cases in which a Father ought not to force his Son to marry . ibid. n. 33 , 34. p. 396. What Men may teach to be done . l. 3. c. 4. r. 17. n. 9. p. 304. The Manichees who abstained from wine , mixing themselves among the Orthodox , were discovered by their refusing the Chalice in the H. Eucharist . l. 2. c. 3. r. 9. n. 16. p. 426. Ministers . Of the maintenance of Ministers under the Gospel . l. 2. c. 3. r. 3. n. 4. p. 398. Of their wearing Surplices . l. 3. c. 4. r. 15. n. 8. p. 291. It is lawfull to enter into the Ministry with actual design to make that calling the means of our necessary support , with reasons proving it . l. 1. c. 2. r. 5. n. 7. p. 65. but the principal end must be the glory of God , with reasons . ibid. n. 11. p. 66. It is not lawfull to forsake the Ministry without Gods permission , because it is not lawfull to enter into it without the Divine vocation . l. 1. c. 2. r. 5. n. 21. p. 68. Mind . The Mind furnished with a holy rule and guided by it , is Conscience . l. 1. c. 1. r. 1. n. 8. Distraction of mind the effect of a guilty and troubled Conscience . l. 1. c. 1. r. 2. n. 13. p. 19. Of Contracts made with Minors . l. 2. c. 1. r. 5. n. 3. p. 252. & l. 3. c. 1. r. 4. n. 2 , 3. p. 39. Of the Miracles which Christ did . l. 1. c. 4. r. 2. n. 14. p. 128. Custome cannot abrogate a Law under a Monarchie . l. 3. c. 6. r. 6. n. 6. p. 430. Money . Majori summae negative prolatae , minorem nec naturaliter nec civiliter inesse . l. 3. c. 2. r. 5. n. 14. p. 90. In summis ambiguis , semper quod minus est promitti videtur . l. 3. c. 6. r. 1. n. 13. p. 404. Mauritius the Emperour made a Law that no Souldier should turn Monk without his leave , and forced the Pope to own it . l. 3. c. 3. r. 5. n. 7. p. 176. Moses , Mosaical . The great sanction of the Law of Moses was fear of punishment , for it consisted almost all of Negatives . l. 2. c. 3. r. 1. n. 4. p. 390. Evangelical duties expressed in words borrowed from Mosaical rites , determined with the rites to which they are annexed . l. 2. c. 3. r. 15. n. 2 , 3 , 4. p. 519 , 520. Reasons shewing that the Law of Moses required the Introduction of a better Law. l. 2. c. 2. r. 1. n. 1 , 2. p. 277. In what sense the Law of Moses was an everlasting Covenant . ibid. n. 11. p. 279. Reasons proving the actual abrogation of Moses Law. ibid. n. 13. p. 280. What part of Moses Law was annulled by Christ. l. 2. c. 2. r. 2. n. 1. p. 280. The Law of Moses was a collection of the best of those Laws by which the world was governed before his time . l. 2. c. 2. r. 3. n. 36. p. 302. The Law of Moses obliged not the Heathen . ibid. The Law of Moses was made , say the Jews , two thousand years before the Creation . ib. r. 4. n. 1. p. 318. Moral , When two Laws are opposite , that which yields is not Moral . l. 2. c. 2. r. 6. n. 76. p. 371. Whatsoever duty in Scripture is commanded to all mankind , is either Moral in its nature or by adoption . ibid. n. 77. p. 372. A Moral Demonstration , what it is . l. 1. c. 4. r. 2. n. 5. p. 123. The advantages of Moral Demonstration above close arguing in some Questions . l. 1. c. 4. r. 2. n. 8. p. 124. What is required in a Moral Demonstration to assure our Conscience . ibid. n. 34. p. 141. When an action is forbidden only for a reason that is transient , and that hath in it no essential , natural rectitude , that prohibition is not moral or natural , but for a time or positive . l. 2. c. 2. r. 6. n. 23. p. 338. What was for temporary reasons established , is not Moral , cannot pass an eternal obligation . ibid. n. 44. p. 356. How to discern between precepts Moral and not Moral in the Laws of God. ibid. n. 65. p. 367. A precept is not Moral if no reason can be given of it . ibid. n. 66. p. 368. The Consequents of natural reason are no indication of a Moral Commandment . ibid. n. 67. p. 368. A Law that invades the right of nature is not alwaies the breach of a Moral Commandment . ibid. n. 68. p. 369. Every consonancy to natural reason is not the sufficient proof of a Moral precept . ibid. n. 69. When God gives a Law and adds a reason , though the reason be it self eternal , it is not alwaies the indication of a Moral Law. ibid. n. 70. p. 370. When God in the old Testament did threaten the Heathen or punish them for any fact , we cannot conclude it was against the Moral Law. l. 2. c. 2. r. 6. n. 71. p. 370. All the instances of a Moral precept are not Moral , as the Chief duty . ibid. n. 72. p. 370. The strong and violent perswasion of any single person of or in some Communities of men does not sufficiently prove a precept is Moral . ibid. n. 73. p. 370. The consonant practices of the Heathen is not alwaies an argument of a Moral duty . ibid. n. 74. p. 371. The annexed penaltie of death imposed by God does not prove the Law to be Moral . ibid. n. 75. p. 371. The power of Mothers over their children . l. 3. c. 5. r. 8. n. 28. p. 393. Of crimes ●●●mitted by a Multitude , how subject ●●ey are to punishment . ● . 3. c. 2. r. 7. n. 13 , 14. p. 123. Murther . Of those that assist at Murthers either by co●●sel or company . l. 4. c. 1. r. 2. n. 23. p. 467. Of ●usick in the Church . l. 3. c. 4. r. 20. n. 11. p. 329. N. O● changin● and disguising Names . ● . 3. c. 2. r. 5. n. 41. p. 103. Nations . Of 〈◊〉 consent of Nations . l. 2. c. 1. r. 1. n. 15. p. 225. Of the universal customs of Nations . ibid. n. 15 , 16 , 17. p. 226. The divers custom of Nations . ●bid . n. 22. p. 228. The Law of Nat●●ns cannot be the measure of war. l. 2. ● . 2. r. 7. n. 19. p. 378. Of what use the ●greement or consen● o● Nations can be 〈◊〉 prove a propositio● . l. 2. c. ● . r. 19. n. 15. p. 554. Na●●re . Law of Nature , why the Christian Law commands some things contrary to it . l. 1. ● . 2. r. 3. n. 31. p. 50. The difference between Jus naturae and Lex naturae . l. 2. c. 1. r. 1. n. 2. p. 221. Aristotle's opinion of the Law of Nature : he was not constant to himself in it . ibid. n. 3. p. 221. The Law of Nature is not the Law of all the world absolutely . ibid. n. 4. p. 222. Nature makes no Laws but only prepares them . ibid. n. 8. p. 223. It is no indication of a Law of Nature , that a thing is common to men and beasts . ibid. n. 10. p. 224. It is not possible to collect the Laws of Nature out of the customs of Nations . ibid. n. 21 , 22. p. 228. How the precepts of the Law of Nature were made Laws and promulgated . ibid. n. 40. p. 235. There is no other System of the particular Laws of Nature , but the Moral Law and Gospel . ibid. n. 42. p. 236. The Laws of Nature variously enumerated by divers . ibid. n. 46. p. 237. All the instances of the Law of Nature are not so lasting and unalterable as the prime precepts are . ibid. n. 48. p. 238. It was ill said , that God cannot change the Law of Nature . ibid. n. 49. p. 239. The Law of Nature cannot be abrogated , but it may be derogated . l. 2. c. 1. r. 1. n. 53. p. 241. Every proposition pretended to be of the Natural Law , is not a Law , but a rule . ibid. n. 54. p. 241. Some instances of the Law of Nature have been changed . ibid. n. 55. When any thing of the Law of Nature is twisted with the Right of Nature , the civil constitution cannot disannul it . ibid. r. 5. n. 13. p. 255. Of the greatness of Sins against Nature . l. 2. c. 1. r. 6. n. 1. p. 258. If any Prophet or Angel from Heaven shall teach any thing contrary to a Natural Law , he is not to be heard . l. 2. c. 1. r. 9. n. 16. p. 269. Whatsoever is forbidden by the Law of Nature cannot be permitted by the Civil . l. 2. c. 1. r. 10. n. 3. p. 270. Whatsoever is commanded by the Law of Nature cannot be forbidden by the Civil . ibid. n. 4. Wherein the Civil Law can change the Natural Law. ibid. n. 7. p. 271. The Pope hath no power to dispense with the Law of Nature . ibid. n. 9. p. 272. To live according to Nature hath two meanings . l. 2. c. 2. r. 4. n. 10. p. 322. A Law that invades the right of Nature is not alwaies the breach of a Moral Commandment . l. 2. c. 2. r. 6. n. 68. p. 369. The Consequents of Natural Reason are no indications of a moral Commandment . ibid. n. 67. p. 368. Every consonancy to Natural Reason is not sufficient proof of a Moral Law. ibid. n. 69. p. 369. The Law of Nature cannot have the conduct of War. l. 2. c. 2. r. 7. n. 16. p. 377. The propositions we can learn from the dictates of Nature are but a few . l. 2. c. 3. r. 19. n. 15. p. 554. A Civil Law cannot evacuate a Natural . l. 3. c. 1. r. 4. n. 3. p. 39. In Laws declarative of Natural right , the obligation extends to all things of equal reason , though they be not mentioned in the Law. l. 3. c. 6. r. 3. n. 24. p. 419. Necessary . Whatsoever is absolutely necessary , is certainly lawfull . l. 2. c. 2. r. 7. n. 21. p. 379. That which is necessary to be done , is not against any mans duty . l. 3. c. 2. r. 1. n. 10. p. 56. Several degrees of necessity . l. 3. c. 4. r. 4. n. 17. p. 231. In our enquiry after things necessary , we must not rest till our work be done . l 4. c. 1. r. 5. n. 8. p. 496. Negative . Why all Commandments ●●t one are negative . l. 2. c. 3. r. 1. n. 3. p. 389. ad negationem non semper sequitur affirmatio oppositi . ibid. n. 9. p. 392. affirmative duties follow from the negative not in contraries but contradictories . ibid. From a negative duty an affirmative is not alwaies inferred in a particular instance . ibid. n. 11. p. 392. negative precepts oblige semper & ad semper , affirmative semper , but not ad semper . n. 13. p. 393 , & 522. n. 2. of the concluding negative precepts from affirmative , and è contra . l. 2. c. 3. r. 1. per tot . a negative precept cannot be lessened by an affirmative . l. 2. c. 3. r. 2. n. 2. p. 395. negative precepts have no degrees of obedience , but consist in a Mathematical point . l. 2. c. 3. r. 11. n. 17. p. 447. what is the force of negative arguments from Scripture . l. 2. c. 3. r. 14. n. 45. & seq . p. 501. A mere negative does nothing in Gods service . l. r. 1. 4. c. 1. n. 15. p. 444. Of negative Commandments . l. 4. c. 1. r. 7. n. 3. p. 512. Of the morality of negative actions . l. 4. c. 1. r. 1. n. 15 , 16. p. 445. Dissoluta Negligentia propè dolum est . l. 3. c. 1. r. 1. n. 40. p. 24. Of the marriage of Nicces and Uncles . l. 2. c. 2. r. 3. n. 30. p. 299. Nóu●s . l. 1. c. 2. r. 3. n. 20. p. 46. Nullities do not commence from the sentence of the Judge , but from the existence of the action . l. 3. c. 2. r. 2. n. 22. p. 67. Nummus and Numisma the Etymon of them . l. 3. c. 2. r. 8. n. 2. p. 124. Nuptiae nefariae , incestae & damnatae . l. 2. c. 2. r. 3. n. 24. p. 296. O. Orders , Ordination . WHether they that enter into H. Orders ought principally to design the glory of God , so that if they doe not , it is unlawfull to doe it . l. 1. c. 2. r. 5. n. 5. p. 65. Who does actually enter into H. Orders must take care that his principal end be the work of God. ib. n. 11. p. 66. Rules concerning the intention of those that enter into H. Orders . ib. n. 17. p. 67. Priests were forbid to marry after Ordination . l. 3. c. 4. r. 20. n. 24. p. 343. By the ancient Church they were permitted to marry after Ordination . ibid. n. 27. p. 344. The Greek Priests , after the Synod in Trullo , had allowed them two years probation after their Ordination , to try whether they could abstain from marriage or no. ibid. n. 27. p. 345. Gregory Nazianzen used marriage after he was consecrated Bishop . ibid. n. 28. p. 347. A vow of continence was not annexed to H. Orders . l. 3. c. 4. r. 20. n. 29. p. 347. The Church of Rome does frequently without scruple ordain those that have been twice married , if they will pay the mulct . ex Spaluens . ibid. p. 349. To enter into H. Orders quits not the Son from his duty to his Father . l. 3. c. 5. r. 8. n. 23. p. 391. How far Obedience to our Superiours can lessen a crime . l. 4. c. 1. r. 2. n. 7. p. 459. Obedience is due to them to whom tribute is due . l. 3. c. 2. r. 8. n. 1. p. 124. One is more then all the numbers in the world . l. 2. c. 2. r. 7. n. 1. p. 372. Sins of Omission are less then Sins of Commission . l. 2. c. 3. r. 1. n. 12. p. 393. Old age unfit for repentance . l. 2. c. 3. r. 16. n. 23. p. 530. Otths. Of those a King takes at his Coronation . l. 3. c. 3. r. 2. n. 14. p. 144. of Oaths taken in the Universities . l. 3. c. 4. r. 15. n. 6. p. 290. he that is bound by an Oath imposed must interpret the Obligation according to the intention of the Imposer . l. 3. c. 4. r. 28. n. 7. p. 358. concerning the Oath taken in the Universities , not to teach Logick any where but there . l. 3. c. 6. r. 3. n. 8. p. 413. what knowledg is necessary to the taking an Oath . l. 4. c. 1. r. 5. n. 15. p. 498. The Homilies on Leviticus under the name of Origen , are not his , nor of any authority . l. 3. c. 4. r. 13. n. 12. p. 278. Semper in Obscuris , quod minimum est sequimur . l. 3. c. 6. r. 1. n. 12. p. 404. In those places where it is a custom to pay Oblations at the baptizing of a child , the Minister is Simoniacal if he refuse to baptize the child till he be secured of his money . l. 3. c. 4. r. 15. n. 10. p. 293. Of extending the Obligation of Laws . l. 3. c. 6. r. 3. n. 24 , 25 , 26 , 27. pag. 420. Non posse prascribi contra Obedientiam . l. 3. c. 6. r. 6. n. 4. p. 429. what influence Oblivion can have upon the morality of actions . l. 4. c. 1. r. 6. n. 20. p. 509. P. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . l. 2. c. 3. r. 14. n. 16. p. 484. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Socrates by it does not mean Easter , but Good-friday . l. 3. c. 4. r. 13. n. 13. p. 279. Peace . Peace of Conscience , the signs of it . l. 1. c. 1. r. 2. n. 25. p. 24. That Peace of Conscience cannot be true , which wicked men have . ibid. True Peace of Conscience relies not upon the opinions of men . ibid. n. 25. p. 25. Religion is a good instrument of Political happiness and Peace . l. 3. c. 3. r. 4. n. 8. p. 164. 165. An expedient for the attaining Peace of Conscience in Scruples concerning the controverted articles and disputes of Christendome . l. 4. c. 1. n. 10. p. 443. Parents . Children ought to obey their Parents . l. 3. c. 5. r. 1. n. 1. p. 359. Reasons to prove it necessary . ibid. n. 1 , 2 , 3. p. 359. It is a kind of Atheisme to disobey Parents . ibid. Children must honour and reverence their Parents . l. 3. c. 5. r. 1. n. 6. p. 362. S. Pelagia after her conversion lived in mans habit to her death , to avoid temptation . l. 3. c. 1. r. 1. n. 18. p. 12. The Church remembers her on October 8. ibid. p. 13. Penal , Penalties , Punishment . concerning doing good out of fear of punishment . l. 2. c. 1. r. 3. n. 3. p. 245. Penal Laws are not cassated by the precepts of charity and forgiveness . l. 3. c. 2. r. 1. n. 3. p. 54. A man may inflict punishment on himself . l. 2. c. 3. r. 2. n. 9. p. 61. He that breaks a Humane Law established on great Penalties commits a great Sin. l. 3. c. 1. r. 1. n. 16. p. 10. That rule holds not where the punishment serves only for terrour . ibid. In Punishments Corporal , the Law does not proceed without the sentence of the Judge . l. 3. c. 2. r. 2. n. 17. p. 64. When Punishments are principally medicinal the Conscience is bound to a voluntary execution of the Sentence . ibid. n. 19. p. 66. In Poenis benignior interpretatio est facienda . ibid. n. 31. p. 71. Penal sentences expressed in words that signifie the time past or indefinite are to be expounded in the most favourable sense to the offender , that is , oblige not to Punishment before the sentence . ibid. Punishment does not satisfie the Law. ibid. r. 4. n. 3. p. 80. Omnis Poena si justa est , peccati Poena est . S. August . ibid. n. 5. p. 80. the use of the word Poena . ibid. n. 7. p. 81. Two ca●●s wherein Laws oblige to punishment but not to guilt . ibid. n. 7 , 8. p. 81. It is not lawful to sollicit the Magistrate to Punish the Malefactor out of a love of revenge . l. 3. c. 2. r. 6. n. 15. p. 114. but it is lawful to doe so to prevent a future intolerable evil . l. 3. c. 2. r. 6. n. 16. p. 114. of Punishing one for the offence of another . l. 3. c. 2. r. 7. n. 1. p. 117. Nemo fiat deterior per quem melior factus non est . ibid. n. 11. p. 121. Nunquam unus pro altero Poena corporis puniri potest . ibid. Penances cannot be imposed upon the King without his consent . l. 3. c. 4. r. 7. n. 12. p. 244. of the favourable interpretation of Laws in inflicting punishments . l. 3. c. 6. r. 1. n. 16. p. 405. Penal Laws bind not by the extension of their reason . l. 3. c. 6. r. 3. n. 25. p. 419. In Poenis non arguimus ad similia . ib. how far the actions of mad-men are punishable . l. 4. c. 1. r. 4. n. 5 , 6. p. 491. People . The Supreme Legislative power is not the servant of the people . l. 3. c. 1. r. 1. n. 11. p. 6. The consent of the people gives no authority to the Law. l. 3. c. 1. r. 7. n. 8. p. 48. The Masters of Politicks whom we now follow framed their Principles according to the popular governments they then lived under . l. 3. c. 1. r. 7. n. 5. p. 47. The refusal of the greater part of the people takes not off the obligation of a Law. ibid. n. 9. p. 49. Neither the people nor King are to be excommunicated . l. 3. c. 4. r. 8. n. 7. p. 250. Caret Peccato , quod ex duobus minus est . l. 3. c. 2. r. 5. n. 13. p. 88. The Persian feast called vitiorum interitus . l. 2. c. 3. r. 16. n. 13. p. 525. Whatsoever concerns a moral duty , and was delivered to a single person , obliges all . l. 2. c. 3. r. 17. n. 6. p. 542. Pepin King of France . The case of Pepin taking the Crown of France by force from Chilperic , A. D. 750. l. 3. c. 3. r. 4 , n. 4. 5. p. 162. the Judgment of God upon his posterity . ibid. n. 5. Notorius Percussor Clerici , is ipso jure excommunicate . l. 3. c. 2. r. 2. n. 21. p. 66. Mistaken Philosophy ought not to be urged as reason , in examining mysteries . l. 1. c. 2. r. 3. n. 51. p. 57. the heart religion hath received by it . l. 1. c. 2. r. 3. n. 7. p. 42. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . l. 1. c. 2. r. 3. n. 20. p. 46. Polygamy unlawfull . l. 2. c. 3. r. 3. n. 7. p. 400. Pope . The Pope hath not power to dispense with the Law of Nature . l. 2. c. 1. r. 10. n. 9. p. 272. concerning the Popes power of dispensing with the positive Laws of Jesus Christ. l. 2. c. 3. r. 11. n. 6 , 7. p. 442. that the Epistles of the Popes were very many of them false . l. 2. c. 3. r. 14. n. 34. p. 491. The Schoolmen of the Roman party affirm that he hath power to enlarge the Creed , by inserting new articles . l. 2. c. 3. r. 14. n. 79. p. 517. The arguments that usually are brought to prove the Pope hath power over Kings . l. 3. c. 3. r. 4. n. 4. p. 161. the Canons of the Pope and Bishops received the authority of Laws from the Emperour . l. 3. c. 3. r. 5. n. 4. p. 175. Honorius the Emperour made a Law concerning the election of the Pope . ibid. n. 5. p. 176. Pope Gregory the Great submitted to Mauritius the Emperour . ibid. n. 7. p. 176. Spiritual persons have no temporal power . ibid. r. 6. n. 19. p. 188. The Pope disobeyed in France and Germany . l. 3. c. 4. r. 10. n. 23. p. 342. The Pope did not well to dispense with the Cistertians for paying tythes . l. 3. c. 6. r. 4. n. 6. p. 425. Politic , Political . The Masters of Politicks whom we now follow , because they lived under popular Governments , squared their principles to such governments . l. 3. c. 1. r. 7. n. 5. p. 47. Religion is a great instrument of Political happiness . l. 3. c. 3. r. 4. n. 8. p. 164 , 165. Supreme Power , Prince . Princes must not lie for the interests of Government . l. 3. c. 2. r. 5. n. 22. p. 96. In all Governments there must be a supreme Power . l. 3. c. 3. r. 1. n. 1. p. 130. Whether a Prince may put to death a guilty person privately by poison or strangling , &c. l. 3. c. 2. r. 6. n. 11. p. 111. The supreme Legislative Power is not the Servant of the people . l. 3. c. 1. r. 1. n. 11. p. 6. There is in all States sometime a necessity of setting up a supreme , absoluta Potestas . l. 3. c. 3. r. 1. n. 2. p. 131. The supreme Power is much less then a Lordship over the Subjects . l. 3. c. 3. r. 1. n. 5. p. 134. It must usurp no mans right . ib. n. 6. It is from God. l. 3. c. 3. r. 3. n. 1. p. 149. The supreme Power is defective without the government of religion . l. 3. c. 3. r. 4. n. 8. p. 164 , 165. The inconvenience of setting up two supreme Powers , one temporal , the other spiritual . l. 3. c. 3. r. 7. n. 2 , 3. p. 200. They that rule religion may make themselves superiour to the supreme Power . l. 3. c. 3. r. 4. n. 10. p. 166. Anciently the Priesthood was in the same hands as the supreme Power . l. 3. c. 3. r. 4. n. 16. p. 169. The unlawfull Proclamations of a true Prince may be published by the Clergy in their several charges . l. 3. c. 4. r. 7. n. 10. p. 243. The supreme Power cannot forbid an action that is under a divine Commandment . l. 3. c. 4. r. 10. n. 6. p. 262. The supreme secular Power ought to determine what doctrines shall be taught the people . l. 3. c. 3. r. 7. n. 13. p. 205. Power . Ecclesiastical Power differs much from the Civil . l. 3. c. 3. r. 4. n. 19. p. 171. The Power of the Keys . vide K. Spiritual persons have no temporal Power . l. 3. c. 3. r. 6. n. 19. p. 188. That which hath a direct Power is to be obeyed before that which hath an indirect Power . ibid. n. 27. p. 193. Priest. A Priest may not refuse to communicate him whom he knows to be unworthily absolved . l. 1. c. 2. r. 8. n. 7. p. 83. A Priest , if by hearing the Confession of a Criminal he learn the guilt of another Criminal , may not upon the account of this private information deny absolution to this latter Criminal . l. 1. c. 2. r. 8. n. 10. p. 83. The Priests if they rule religion may make themselves superiour to the supreme power . l. 3. c. 3. r. 4. n. 10. p. 166. The Priesthood and Supreme power were anciently vested in the same person . l. 3. c. 3. r. 4. n. 16. p. 169. Priests were forbid to marry after Ordination . l. 3. c. 4. r. 20. n. 24. p. 343. Of the Marriage of Priests . See more M. voce Marriage . The Greek and Eastern Churches did oblige their Priests to single life , if they were ordained in that estate . ibid. n. 26. p. 344. Priests were permitted by the ancient Church to marry after ordination . ibid. n. 27. p. 344. The practice of the Latine Church about the marriage of their Priests . l. 3. c. 4. r. 20. n. 28. p. 346. The Greek Priests had two years probation allowed to them after their ordination , to try whether they could forbear marriage . ibid. n. 27. p. 345. concerning the second marriage of Priests . ibid. n. 29. p. 348. Tiberius was less observant of religion , because his opinion sav●●red much of Predestination . l. 3. c. 3. r. 4. n. 10. p. 166. To Praise an evil action , how far sinfull . l. 4. c. 1. r. 2. n. 9. p. 460. Almost every word of the Lords Prayer was taken from the writings of Pious men of the Jewish nation . l. 2. c. 3. r. 15. n. 1. p. 519. Private . A Private evil is not to be done for a Private Good , but for a publick it may . l. 1. c. 5. r. 8. n. 31. p. 203. Private persons may not be executioners of the sentence of death . l. 3. c. 2. r. 6. n. 3. p. 107. but it was permitted in some cases by the Law of Moses . ibid. In desert places , where no Law is in force but that of Nature , a private person may be Judge and Executioner too . l. 3. c. 2. r. 6. n. 4. p. 108. They may where the Law has passed sentence and given leave . ibid. n. 8. p. 109. Private persons that kill Offenders , though they are quitted by the Law , are not quitted in Conscience . ibid. n. 9. p. 110. the measures of publick Interest are not to be esteemed by Private measures . l. 1. c. 5. r. 8. n. 31. p. 203. Promise . A threatning , in all Laws , leaves a greater obligation then a Promise . l. 2. c. 3. r. 2. n. 2. p. 396. The Rules of Extention or diminution of Promises are the same as of Laws . l. 3. c. 6. r. 3. n. 32. p. 422. Precept . The positive Precepts of Christ , in respect of the inward duty , bind all persons in all time even to present action . l. 2. c. 3. r. 16. n. 3. p. 522. Particular Precepts of Christ bind , if they are affirmative and in special times and certain occasions . ibid. n. 5. p. 522. Universal affirmative precepts bind in all times and on all occasions . ibid. n. 6. p. 523. Whatsoever precept concerns every one by the nature of the thing , though delivered to a few persons , concerns all . l. 2. c. 3. r. 17. n. 6. p. 543. When the Universal Church does suppose her self bound by any preceptive words , though they were directed to particular persons , yet they are to be understood of universal concernment . l. 2. c. 3. r. 17. n. 7. p. 544. When a precept is addressed to a particular person , and yet hath a more full and better meaning if extended to the whole Church , then its obligation is upon all . ibid. n. 8. p. 544. When any precept is personally addressed , & yet is enforced with the threatning of eternal death , it is of universal concernment . ibid. n. 9. p. 545. Whatsoever precept concerns a moral duty , though delivered to a single person , obliges all . ibid. n. 6. p. 542. Presumption . There are two kinds , first , of Justice ; second , of Caution . l. 3. c. 1. r. 4. n. 2. p. 38. An Humane Law founded upon a false presumption obliges not the conscience . l. 3. c. 1. r. 4. p. 37. but not so if it be a presumption of caution . ibid. n. 2. p. 38. Laws , first , of favour relying upon a false presumption oblige not the Conscience ; but Laws , secondly , of duty doe . l. 3. c. 1. r. 4. n. 4. p. 39. Promulgation . Of promulgation of Laws . l. 3. c. 1. r. 6. p. 45. A Contract made before the promulgation of a Law , but not performed till after , binds not . l. 3. c. 1. r. 6. n. 6. p. 45. Prudentia distinguished from Conscientia . l. 1. c. 1. r. 1. n. 26. p. 10. Prejudice or Passion , Phancy and affection , error and illusion , are sometime mistaken for Conscience . l. 1. c. 1. r. 3. n. 1. p. 27. How to know when one of these usurps the office of Conscience . l. 1. c. 1. r. 3. n. 3. p. 27. Concerning the authority of a Probable Doctor . l. 1. c. 4. r. 5. n. 12. p. 149. Pupill . If a Pupill in his minority make a contract with an adult to his own ruine , it is void . l. 2. c. 1. r. 5. n. 17. p. 256. if to his advantage it is valid . ibid. n. 18. p. ead . It is as great a sin to teach for necessary doctrines the prohibitions of men , as their injunctions . l. 2. c. 3. r. 13. n. 20. p. 463. No man can prescribe to truth . l. 2. c. 3. r. 19. n. 1. p. 549. Preaching . There is an Empire in Preaching . l. 3. c. 4. r. 1. n. 12. p. 217. The supreme secular power ought to determine what doctrines shall be taught the people , and what not . l. 3. c. 3. r. 7. n. 13. p. 205. Prison . One may escape from prison , if he can , though he stand condemned to die . l. 3. c. 2. r. 3. n. 2 , 3. p. 72. A guilty prisoner may not say , Not guilty , when he is justly interrogated . l. 3. c. 2. r. 5. n. 14. p. 89. The case of the Kingdom of Portugal , desiring the consecration of Bishops from Rome . l. 3. c. 3. r. 6. n. 28. p. 195. what is the Principal , and what the Accessory . l. 3. c. 4. r. 4 n. 6. p. 227. Privileges or Concessions made to the Church by the King , may by him be recalled . ibid. r. 6. n. 3. p. 238. Of the use of singing Psalms in the Church . l. 3. c. 4. r. 20. n. 11. p. 329. All designs of Profit or Pleasure must be subordinate to religion . l. 4. c. 2. r. 2. n. 4. Q. QVadragesima or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Council of Nice signifies not Lent. l. 3. c. 4. r. 13. n. 17. p. 281. whence that word is taken . ibid. n. 16. p. 281. Quadragesima or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used to signifie Fasts longer or shorter then 40 daies . ibid. n. 17. p. 282. Divers conjectures about the reason of the word Quadragesima . ibid. n. 18. p. 282. R. Ratihabition . HOw Ratihabition contracts guilt . l. 4. c. 1. r. 2. n. 3. p. 456. Ratihabition does not render guilty in Foro humano . l. 4. c. 1. r. 2. n. 4. p. 457. Reason . A weak reason is to be preferred before a long prevailing custome . l. 2. c. 3. r. 19. n. 3. p. 549. Of what use it may be in religion . l. 1. c. 2. r. 3. n. 8. p. 42. It is denied in religion by Papists and Enthusiasts . ibid. n. 17 , 18. p. 45. Faith and it are not opposite . ibid. n. 20. p. 46. We embrace all religion by reason . ibid. n. 24. p. 47. Faith is an act of Reason . ibid. Right reason is not the affirmative measure of things divine . l. 1. c. 2. r. 3. n. 27. p. 48. & n. 31. p. 50. The reason of man is a right Judge if it be rightly informed . ibid. n. 30. p. 50. Right reason is not the same in all constitutions of affairs . ibid. Right reason is the negative measure of every article of Faith. ibid. n. 33. p. 51. What things reason can discern to be certainly true or false . l. 1. c. 2. r. 3. n. 47. p. 55. Our reason cannot discover the effects of all the power of God , but when they are revealed can consent to them . ibid. What is impossible or absurd to reason cannot be an article of Faith. ibid. n. 48. p. 55. Mistaken Philosophy ought not to be urged for reason in questions of Religion . ibid. n. 51. p. 57. How reason and Faith serve one the other . ibid. n. 52. p. 57. It is a lawfull argument to prove a thing is against the word of God , because it is against reason . ibid. n. 54. p. 58. Though natural reason cannot teach us the things of God , yet Reason illuminated can . ibid. n. 56. p. 59. It is ratiocination that is fallible , not reason . ibid. n. 64. p. 61. In what manner reason is the measure of religion . ibid. n. 66. p. 61. Reason is not the same alwaies . l. 1. c. 2. r. 6. n. 7. p. 75. Infallible reasons are not to be required in moral actions to guide our selves by . l. 1. c. 4. r. 1. n. 1. p. 120. The same reason will not serve all states of men . l. 1. c. 4. r. 2. n. 34. p. 142. Rules of prudence are not to be urged against reason and strict discourses . ibid. n. 40. p. 143. Reason is not a meet indication of the Laws of nature . l. 2. c. 1. r. 1. n. 30. p. 230. & l. 2. c. 3. r. 13. n. 28. p. 467. The uncertainty of reason . l. 2. c. 1. r. 1. n. 31. p. 231. The Consequents of natural reason are no indication of a moral Commandment . l. 2. c. 2. r. 6. n. 67. p. 368. Right reason cannot be the rule of war. l. 2. c. 2. r. 7. n. 18. p. 377. Ratio Legis non est Lex , sed quod ratione constituitur . l. 3. c. 6. r. 3. n. 27. p. 420. Rebellion . Rebellion against a lawful Prince is not lawfull in any case . l. 3. c. 3. r. 3. per tot . p. 149. The Primitive Christians when most sharply prosecuted did never rebell . l. 3. c. 3. r. 3. n. 8. p. 153. Natural reason forbids rebellion . ibid. n. 11. p. 156. Of Rebellion . l. 2. c. 2. r. 7. n. 23. p. 379. Recreations . Rules of conducting them . l. 4. c. 1. r. 2. n. 32. p. 473. Of Atilius Regulus sent from Carthage to Rome to get an exchange of prisoners . l. 3. c. 2. r. 7. n. 2. p. 117. Relative . If the Relative be under the Commandment , then also the Correlative is . l. 2. c. 3. r. 3. n. 6. p. 399. The Relative and Correlative are to be judged of by the same reason of the Law , when the reason equally concerns them , though only one be named . l. 3. c. 6. r. 3. n. 29. p. 421. Religion . In the substantial matters of religion the Laws of the Country bind out of the Dominions , but not in the ritual duties . l. 3. c. 1. r. 8. n. 2. p. 59. Religion is the great instrument of Political happiness . l. 3. c. 3. r. 4. n. 8. p. 164. Numa to establish his government first settled religion Livy , ibid. n. 9. p. 165. They that rule religion are supreme to the King. ibid. n. 10. p. 166. Such propositions of religion as have great influence on government . ib. Religion hath influence on persons as well as actions . ibid. n. 11. p. 166. Ancient governments would not endure any change in religion . ibid. n. 13. p. 167. It was not in ancient times lawfull to dispute the religion of the Country . ibid. n. 14. p. 168. Change of religion brings great trouble . ibid. How far it concerns the supreme power to tolerate libertie of Religion . ibid. n. 15. p. 169. Kings have a Legislative power in matters of Religion . l. 3. c. 3. r. 5. n. 3. p. 174. Religion and Piety cannot cross one another . l. 3. c. 5. r. 8. n. 3. p. 378. The hurt Religion hath received by the mixture of erroneous philosophy . l. 1. c. 2. r. 3. n. 7. p. 42. Of what use reason is in religion . l. 1. c. 2. r. 3. n. 8. p. 42. & p. 61. we embrace all religion by reason . ibid. n. 24. p. 47. All temporal designs must be subordinate to religion . l. 4. c. 2. r. n. 4. Renunciatio sui juris per poenitentiam revocari non potest . l. 3. c. 2. r. 5. n. 19. p. 95. The Canon and Civil Law differ in their account of Rapes . l. 3. c. 5. r. 8. n. 16. p. 387. Causes of Repetition are to be favoured more then causes of gain . l. 3. c. 6. r. 1. n. 15. p. 405. Repentance . To defer repentance proceeds from evil principles and causes . l. 2. c. 3. r. 16. n. 24. p. 531. It is against the voice and intention of Scripture . ibid. n. 25. p. 532. The danger of deferring repentance . ibid. p. 533. Delaying repentance may turn to final impenitence . ibid. n. 26. p. 534. The example of the Thief upon the Cross no argument against it . ibid. n. 27. p. 535. To defer repentance is not consistent with any Christian grace . ibid. n. 28. p. 535. All the while repentance is delayed a man is the object of the Divine Anger . ibid. n. 29. p. 536. God hath appointed no time but present for repentance . ibid. n. 31. p. 536. Reasons why our repentance for any one sin should not be limited to one time or act . ibid. n. 34. p. 538. The measures of repentance . ibid. n. 35. p. 538. A man is not bound to weep for his sin as oft as he thinks of it . ibid. n. 36. p. 539. Repentance must not be put off from hodie , and must continue every day in a proportionable measure . ib. n. 37. p. 539. Repentance is a penal duty : it is an act of repentance to inflict punishment upon ones self . l. 3. c. 2. r. 2. n. 6. p. 61. Of the measure of that sorrow that is required in repentance . l. 2. c. 3. r. 10. n. 8. p. 434. Of death-bed repentance . l. 2. c. 3. r. 16. n. 9. p. 523. The doctrine of the Church of Rome concerning the time of repentance . ibid. n. 10. p. 524. Their doctrine of the time of repentance destroys holy life . ibid. n. 13. p. 525. Repentance must not be deferred after the sin once committed . ibid. n. 15. p. 526. Repentance being deferred increases the sin . ibid. n. 17 , 18. p. 527. He that deferrs his repentance resists the grace of God , and despises his goodness . ibid. n. 19. p. 528. He that deferrs repentance leaves the affection to sin unmortified . ibid. n. 22. p. 530. Old men are more unfit for repentance . ibid. n. 23. p. 530. The state of sickness unfit for repentance . ibid. as he that deferrs taking physick if he be sick , encreases his disease . ibid. Synesius denied the article of the Resurrection , and some other , in dissimulation , to wave a Bishoprick . l. 3. c. 2. r. 5. n. 18. p. 93. Reservations . Mental reservations are not lawfull . l. 3. c. 2. r. 5. n. 26. p. 98. It is lawfull to use them in some cases to divert the cruelty of tyrants . ibid. n. 29. p. 99. Conditional reservations are lawfull . ibid. n. 30. p. 99. When words contain a double sense , the not explicating in what sense I speak , is no lie . ibid. n. 32. p. 100. Revenge . It is not lawfull to pursue a mans revenge , no not by the hand of Justice . l. 3. c. 2. r. 6. n. 15. p. 114. It is lawfull to require of the Magistrate to punish him that is injurious to me , if I fear a future intolerable evil from him . ibid. n. 16. p. 114. What is meant by Rights in the Law of Nature . l. 2. c. 1. r. 10. n. 5. p. 270. Wherein the Mosaick Righteousness differs from the Christian. l. 4. c. 1. r. 1. n. 24. p. 450. Rites . The rites which the primitive Church did borrow from the heathen were such as had no relation to doctrine . l. 2. c. 3. r. 19. n. 13. p. 552. In the substantial matters of religion the Laws of the Country bind out of the Dominions , but not in the ritual duties . l. 3. c. 1. r. 8. n. 2. p. 50. The use of Tradition in rituals . l. 2. c. 3. r. 14. n. 19. p. 486. Rome , Roman . Many of the rites of the Roman Church are derived from the customs of the Heathen . l. 2. c. 3. r. 19. n. 12. p. 552. Those Ceremonies which the Primitive Church did borrow from the Heathen had no affinitie to Doctrine . ibid. n. 13. p. 552. The Canons of the Bishop of Rome oblige only his own subjects . l. 3. c. 4. r. 16. n. 1. p. 298. It is impossible they should all oblige , because of their contrariety to one another . ibid. n. 2. That Bishop is not a Law-giver to Christendom , nor superiour to other Bishops . ibid. n. 5. p. 299. Instances wherein the Roman Church does advance some of her own Commandments above those of God. l. 3. c. 4. r. 17. n. 16 , 17 , 18. p. 306 , 307. There were two Bishops of Rome together in the time of S. Peter . l. 2. c. 3. r. 11. n. 12. p. 444. The Doctrine of the Church of Rome concerning the time of Repentance . l. 2. c. 3. r. 16. n. 10. p. 524 , 525. The Roman Church for 600 years taught and practised the communicating of Infants , and the contrary for other 600 years . l. 2. c. 3. r. 14. n. 39. p. 497. Rule . If there be no rule , we must look for examples . l. 2. c. 2. r. 7. n. 23. p. 386. Rule of Conscience is never the less one for the great difference of cases contradictorily determined . l. 1. c. 1. r. 5. n. 3. p. 33. Of the use of philosophical rules in Moral Theology . Pref. pag. 12. Of serving God for Reward . l. 2. c. 1. r. 4. n. 3. p. 248. S. Sabbath . For what ends the Sabbath was instituted . l. 2. c. 2. r. 6. n. 43. p. 356. Of the Jewish Sabbath and the Lords day . ibid. At the first the Primitive Christians kept both the Jewish Sabbath and the Christian. ibid. n. 50. p. 358. The Lords day did not succeed in the place of the Sabbath . ibid. n. 51. p. 359. What is moral in the fourth Commandment . ibid. The Primitive Christians affirm the fourth Commandment is no part of the moral Law. ibid. n. 53. p. 361. What honour Christ and his Apostles did to the first day of the week . ibid. n. 56. p. 362. How we are to celebrate the Christian Sabbath . ibid. n. 57. p. 363. In the Command of the Sabbath to distinguish the Rest from the religion of the day . l. 2. c. 2. r. 6. n. 46. p. 357. & n. 58. p. 364. The Rest of the Sabbath was not moral , because it was broken upon many occasions . ibid. n. 58. p. 364. How the Primitive Christians kept the Lords day . ibid. n. 59. p. 364. Whatsoever duty is in Scripture imposed on all mankind , is either in its own nature moral or by adoption . ibid. n. 77. p. 371. The Lords day cannot be changed , because it is an order Apostolical . l. 3. c. 4. r. 13. n. 1. p. 273. Some trifling rules of the Rabbins concerning the observing the Sabbath & other feast-days . l. 3. c. 4. r. 17. n. 14. p. 306. The Commandment of the Jewish Sabbath is not moral . l. 2. c. 3. r. 17. n. 5. p. 542. Reasons why the Maccabees did innocently break the Sabbath , but the Sons of Eleazar could not lawfully yield to those that would force them to tast Swines flesh . l. 3. c. 1. r. 2. n. 13. p. 29. Sacrifices . They could not be taught by the Law of Nature . l. 2. c. 3. r. 13. n. 29. p. 469. Reasons why God introduced the Law of Sacrifices . ibid. n. 30. p. 470. Sacrifices commanded to the Jews to prevent Idolatry . ibid. Sacrifices were penal duties . l. 3. c. 2. r. 2. n. 5. p. 60. That Spiritual persons should not be exempt from Secular Jurisdiction . l. 2. c. 2. r. 6. n. 67. p. 368. The Original of the sect of Saducees . l. 2. c. 1. r. 4. n. 3. p. 248. Sacrament . To deny the Sacrament to the unworthy is not an act of jurisdiction but charity . l. 3. c. 4. r. 7. n. 10. p. 243. The Apostles institutions concerning the Sacrament oblige all Christendom . l. 3. c. 4. r. 12. n. 1. p. 269. When and in what cases it is lawfull to chuse the safer side in any question of choice between two actions . l. 1. c. 5. r. 5. n. 2. p. 181. Scandal . Of Scandal . l. 3. c. 1. r. 1. n. 18. p. 11 , 12. & p. 233. An humane Law that is unjust is not to be obeyed with scandal of others . l. 3. c. 1. r. 3. n. 10. p. 36. Scripture . Of the Interpretation of it . l. 1. c. 2. r. 3. n. 50. p. 56. In the interpreting Scripture the ordinary way caeteris paribus is to be preferred before the extraordinary . ibid. A moral Demonstration cannot assure the Conscience against Scripture . l. 1. c. 2. r. 4. n. 36. p. 142. The H. Scripture is the entire guide of our Consciences . l. 2. c. 1. r. 9. n. 17. p. 269. Whatsoever duty in Scripture is imposed on all mankind , is either in its own nature Moral or by adoption . l. 2. c. 2. r. 6. n. 77. p. 371. The H. Scriptures contain the whole will of God. l. 2. c. 3. r. 14. n. 2. p. 473. The first ages of the Church did appeal to Scripture in all their questions . ibid. n. 3. p. 473. The primitive Doctors did confute all heresies from Scripture . ib. n. 6. p. 476. They did reject all articles of faith or rules of manners that were not in , nor could be proved from Scripture . ibid. n. 9. p. 478. They did esteem the H. Scriptures a sufficient and perfect rule of faith and manners . l. 2. c. 3. r. 14. n. 10. p. 479. That argument , Scripture is not perfect without tradition , because tradition teaches us that Scripture is the word of God , considered and answered . ibid. n. 14. p. 483. Nothing is necessary either to be believed or done , unless it be in Scripture ibid. n. 47. p. 501. A negative argument from Scripture is not good , if the contrary affirmative can be drawn by consequence from any part of it . ibid. n. 48. p. 502. A negative argument from Scripture does not conclude in Qu. of fact . ibid. n. 51. p. 504. A negative argument out of Scripture consisting in a single word or expression cannot be consequently deduced to deny the mysterie signified in that word . ibid. n. 49. p. 503. A negative argument from Scripture is sufficient to prove an article not to be necessary of belief , but not sufficient to prove it to be true . ibid. n. 50. p. 503. Whatsoever is not forbidden in Scripture directly or by consequence , is lawful : and if not commanded , not necessary . ibid. n. 53. p. 504. A 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 negative out of Scripture is not good . ibid. n. 57. p. 506. Scripture may lawfully be quoted to a sense besides its first meaning , if the analogy will bear it . l. 1. c. 2. r. 6. n. 8. p. 75. Scruple . Of Scruple of Conscience . l. 1. c. 6. r. 1. p. 209 , 210. The right course in case of scruple is to proceed to action . l. 1. c. 6. r. 2. n. 1. p. 211. Against a doubting Conscience a man may not act , but against a scrupulous he may . ibid. n. 2. p. 211. Remedies against scruples of Conscience . l. 1. c. 6. r. 5. n. 2. p. 215. Advices to the scrupulous . ibid. n. 9. p. 216. Let the scrupulous man divert his fears upon greater sins . ibid. n. 11. p. 217. He should avoid all excess in mortification and corporal austerities . ibid. n. 12. p. 217. What is true in the Sciences may be false in Law. Pref. pag. 12. Secret. Humane Laws bind the Conscience in secret as well as in publick . l. 3. c. 1. r. 5. n. 1. p. 40. They have power over the Conscience in inward and secret acts not directly but by accident . ibid. n. 6. p. 41. A secret action designed in the thoughts only , is not punishable by man ; proved by the sentence of Cato . l. 3. c. 1. r. 5. n. 6. p. 42. In doubts of Law the buyer must be favoured before the Seller . l. 3. c. 6. r. 1. n. 15. p. 405. Separate . In what cases it is lawfull for the people to separate from their Bishop or Minister . l. 3. c. 4. r. 8. n. 9. p. 250. It must be done by the authority of the Prince . ibid. n. 11. p. 251. Separation must not be made for a light cause . l. 3. c. 4. r. 9. n. 6. p. 257. Sentence . Generalc Edictum accedente Facti evidentia habet vim latae sententia . l. 3. c. 2. r. 6. n. 11. p. 111. In Moses Law if the Criminal did voluntarily submit to punishment , his sentence was gentler then if the Judge did it . l. 3. c. 2. r. 2. n. 4 , 5 , 6. p. 60. Service . De offensionibus adversus dominum non est compensatio ad servitia eidem impensa . l. 3. c. 3. r. 2. n. 24. p. 147. The service of God does not only comprehend actions of religion . l. 3. c. 3. r. 6. n. 7. p. 181. Of that Shame that attends an evil Conscience . l. 1. c. 1. r. 2. n. 11. p. 16. The state of Sickness unfit for repentance . l. 2. c. 3. r. 16. n. 23. p. 530. Silence . How far a silent consent makes us partakers of the guilt of others . l. 4. c. 1. r. 2. n. 10. p. 461. In what cases silence is a sign of consent . ibid. n. 11. p. 461. Sometimes it is a sign of indifferencie . ibid. n. 12. p. 461. No silence is esteemed a ratihabition of a past act . ibid. n. 13. p. 462. Of Singing in the Church . l. 3. c. 4. r. 20. n. 11. p. 329. Sin. The baseness of it . l. 1. c. 1. r. 2. n. 11. p. 17. Of the greatness of a sin we cannot take a direct account by the measure of that horrour is observed in the Conscience of the sinner . ibid. n. 23. p. 22. It is not as great a sin to go against the Conscience in those dictates which flow from reason , as those that come by nature or revelation . ibid. n. 2. p. 12. We cannot conclude that God hath pardoned our sins from our peace of Conscience . ibid. n. 25. p. 24. A proposition that directly serves a sin is not the dictate of Conscience . l. 1. c. 1. r. 3. n. 7. p. 30. Bishops can directly give no Laws that properly and immediately bind the transgressors under sin . l. 3. c. 4. r. 4. p. 233. Acts mutually contradictory may be both sins to divers persons in different circumstances . l. 1. c. 1. r. 5. n. 1. p. 32. & reg . ead . n. 6. p. 33. A sin against a sure Conscience though it be great , is not a double one . l. 1. c. 2. r. 8. n. 1. p. 81. Of sins that have a double guilt . ibid. n. 2 , 3. p. 81. No man can ever be in that condition that to obey God shall become a sin to him . l. 1. c. 3. r. 3. n. 7. p. 110. Cautions propounded to those who counsell a lesser sin that thereby they may hinder a greater . l. 1. c. 5. r. 8. n. 4. p. 190. Sin is sometime in the material part of the action , sometime in the formal part . ibid. n. 36. p. 205. What is that power of remitting sins given to the Church . l. 3. c. 4. r. 1. n. 13. p. 218. All sin is voluntary . l. 4. c. 1. r. 1. p. 437. Neither God nor the Devil will or can force us to sin . ibid. n. 12. p. 443. How far it may be lawfull or innocent to permit a sin . l. 4. c. 1. r. 2. n. 20. p. 464. Of the lawfulness of those trades that minister to sin . ibid. n. 24. p. 467. The external act of sin is worse then the same sin in the will. l. 4. c. 1. r. 3. n. 2. p. 482. It is charity to a Malefactor to hinder him from committing the sin he hath resolved on . ibid. To him that commits a sin , all that evil that will follow the sin , if he knows it , but not designs it , is imputed for sin . ibid. n. 4. p. 483. To doe a great evil with a little malice is a greater sin , then to desire a great evil but act willingly a little one . ib. n. 4. p. 482. Of the identity and diversitie of actions internal and external , and the multiplication of sins by them . ib. n. 5. p. 483. Whether is the worse , he that sins willingly , or he that sins by folly and ignorance . l. 4. c. 1. r. 5. n. 16. p. 499. Some sins of ignorance worse then some sins of malice . ibid. n. 18. p. 499. No effect which after a mans death happens , is imputable to him as a new sin . l. 2. c. 3. r. 4. n. 7. p. 404. Sin , whatsoever event depends upon the will of another , is no longer upon his account then he actually or habitually desires or endeavours it . ibid. n. 8. p. 404. Sin is unlawfull in the mind . l. 2. c. 3. r. 7. n. 1. p. 414. Those sins whose evil consists wholly in relation to men with whom we converse , are not sins in the thought . ibid. n. 2. p. 415. In Laws not only the contrary to the Duty , but the privative is sin . l. 2. c. 3. r. 12. n. 12. p. 453. In what sense we are free from sin by Christ. l. 3. c. 1. r. 1. n. 28. p. 18. Sin in the thoughts in some instances is punishable . l. 3. c. 1. r. 5. n. 7. p. 43. An accidental evil effect consequent to my duty cannot make me sin . l. 3. c. 2. r. 1. n. 66. p. 55. If sinners become Judges to punish themselves , they prevent the greater anger of God. l. 3. c. 2. r. 2. n. 6. p. 60. Simony . The reproof of it . l. 1. c. 2. r. 5. n. 17. p. 67. & l. 3. p. 293. It is like the sin of Simon Magus , not the same sin . l. 2. c. 3. r. 3. n. 1. p. 397. Of the marriage of Sisters and Brothers . l. 2. c. 2. r. 3. n. 24. p. 296. Son. A Son is bound to maintain his indigent Father though outlawed . l. 3. c. 5. r. 3. n. 2. p. 367. It is no disobedience of a Son to change his Fathers religion . ib. r. 4. n. 1. p. 369. The religion of the Son must not prejudice the civil rights of the Father . ibid. n. 2. p. 370. A Son is not to obey his Father in things dishonest . ib. r. 7. n. 3. p. 375. If a Son transgress the Law by his Fathers commandment , his punishment is the less . ibid. n. 5. p. 375. In what cases a Son may complain of his Father to the Judge . ib. n. 7. p. 376. Sons cannot lawfully enter into a state of religion without their Fathers consent . l. 3. c. 5. r. 8. n. 3. p. 378. A Son cannot withdraw himself from his Fathers government , and put himself under another . ibid. n. 5. p. 379. Examples of some holy men that left Monastical life because they had not their Parents leave . ibid. n. 6. p. 380. Charles the Great made a Law against it . ibid. The Son or Daughter sins that marries against the consent of his Father . ibid. n. 7. p. 381. The ancients accounted such marriages illegitimate . ib. n. 8. They were forbid by the Natural and Civil and Canon Law. ibid. n. 8 , 9 , 10. p. 383. A Son in reason should be left at liberty in nothing more then in marriage . ibid. n. 13. p. 384. Sons and Daughters when they are of competent years and have the use of reason , may of themselves contract marriage . l. 3. c. 5. r. 8. n. 14. p. 385. A Son may marry at the command of his Prince against his Fathers leave . ib. The marriage of Sons and Daughters is good against their Fathers consent , because the marriage of Slaves is valid in Law against the consent of their Lords . ibid. p. 386. A Son is never exempted from his Fathers natural power . ib. n. 20. p. 390. Of his Political power the Laws prescribe the measure and bounds . ibid. If the Son be a Magistrate , the Magistrate is exempted from the Father power , but not the Son. ibid. n. 22. p. 391. If a Son enters into H. Orders it does not quit him from his duty to his Father . ibid. n. 23. p. 391. The Son that is marriageable , his Father being dead , is not under the power of his mother . ibid. n. 29. p. 394. A Son may refuse to marry a Virgin much inferiour to him , if his Father offer her . ib. n. 35. p. 397. Of the measure of that Sorrow is required in repentance . l. 2. c. 3. r. 10. n. 8. p. 434. Justinian gave leave to any man to kill the Souldiers that came to plunder . l. 3. c. 2. r. 6. n. 8. p. 109. Socrates by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does not mean the day of the Resurrection , but the Passion . Reasons to prove it . l. 3. c. 4. r. 13. n. 13. p. 279. Spirit , Spiritual . What the Spirit is , and how it differs from the Soul of man. l. 1. c. 1. r. 1. n. 8. p. 4. Temporal things must not yield to every thing that is spiritual . l. 3. c. 3. r. 6. n. 13. p. 183. In what sense it is true that temporal things are subordinate to spiritual . ibid. n. 15. p. 184. Concerning the preeminence of spiritual or temporal persons . ib. n. 18. p. 186. Of the honour due to spiritual persons . ibid. n. 18. p. 187. Spiritual persons have no temporal power . ibid. n. 19. p. 188. The spiritual power must yield to the temporal power so long , untill it appears that to forbear longer would be to neglect a duty , and displease God , and then they must disobey only passively . ibid. n. 28. p. 195. How the secular power differs from the spiritual . l. 3. c. 4. r. 1. n. 1. p. 212. Spiritual censures must not be inflicted for temporal causes . ib. r. 9. n. 10. p. 259. That spiritual persons should not be exempt from secular Jurisdiction . l. 2. c. 2. r. 6. n. 67. p. 368. Sports . Rules of conducting them . l. 4. c. 1. r. 2. n. 32. p. 473. Stratagems . To use them is not to lie . l. 3. c. 2. r. 5. n. 19. p. 95. Strangers . How far they are bound by the Laws of the Countrey where they are . l. 3. c. 1. r. 8. n. 7. p. 51. Of eating things strangled . l. 2. c. 2. r. 2. n. 2. p. 281. Subject . Subjects sometime sin equally to those that command the sinfull action , sometime less , according to the different degrees of the authority . l. 4. c. 1. r. 2. n. 7. p. 459. The command of a Superiour excuseth the Subject in small matters , not in great . ibid. n. 8. p. 459. Otherwise in the transgression of moral precepts then temporary and ritual . ibid. n. 9. p. 460. Of Subscribing confessions of Churches or acts of a Council . l. 3. c. 4. r. 23. n. 7. p. 358. It is better to suffer nobly , then to escape by a doubtfull way . l. 3. c. 2. r. 5. n. 48. p. 105. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it is . l. 1. c. 1. r. 1. n. 24. p. 9. Superstition . What influence it can have upon the morality of its effects . l. 4. c. 1. r. 7. n. 6. p. 513. Concerning it . l. 3. c. 1. r. 1. n. 18. p. 12. & l. 2. c. 3. r. 13. n. 11. p. 459. & n. 20. p. 464. & ibid. n. 26. p. 466. Suretie . No man can be Surety for another in obligations to capital punishment . l. 3. c. 2. r. 7. n. 2. p. 117. but in pecuniary punishments he may . ibid. n. 4. p. 118. Stories . l. 1. c. 2. r. 3. n. 2. p. 40. Of Cain and Abel as it is in the tradition of the Easterlings . l. 2. c. 3. r. 13. n. 31. p. 471. Of others . l. 3. c. 2. r. 5. n. 10. p. 86. & l. 3. p. 91. & Praf . p. 15. Synesim used unlawfull arts to wave a Prelacy . l. 3. c. 2. r. 5. n. 18. p. 93. T. Temporal . TEmporal things ought not to yield to every thing that is Spiritual . l. 3. c. 3. r. 6. n. 12. p. 183. In what sense temporal things are subordinate to spiritual . ibid. n. 15. p. 184. Temporal things as well as spiritual are subordinate to the glory of God. ibid. n. 16. p. 184. Of Temptation . l. 2. c. 3. r. 7. n. 7. p. 415. Extrae Territorium jus dicenti impune non paretur . l. 3. c. 1. r. 8. n. 1. p. 49. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence taken to signifie Lent. l. 3. c. 4. r. 13. n. 16. p. 281. Of the books of mystical Theology . l. 1. c. 6. r. 5. n. 16. p. 219. The difficulty of moral Theology . Pref. p. 8 , 9. An Example out of the old Testament is not a sufficient warrant for us . l. 2. c. 2. r. 7. n. 27. p. 380. Thief . If a Thief make me promise to pay a Sum of money the next day , though he sin against a natural Law in so doing , yet the promise binds me . l. 2. c. 1. r. 8. n. 4. p. 263. The Civil Law permits a man to kill a night-thief . l. 3. c. 2. r. 6. n. 8. p. 109. Thoughts . The superiour may punish the thoughts of the heart though they proceed not to action . l. 3. c. 1. r. 5. n. 6. p. 42. The Jews taught that God would not punish the sin of the thoughts unless it were against the faith . l. 4. c. 1. r. 5. n. 18. p. 500. Tithes . Christians ought to pay Tithes . l. 2. c. 3. r. 20. n. 8. p. 556. The Pope did not well to dispense with the Cistertians for paying Tithes . l. 3. c. 6. r. 4. n. 6. p. 425. Of tolerating disobedience to Laws . l. 2. c. 2. r. 7. n. 11 , 12. p. 376. Trade . Of the lawfullness of those Trades that minister to sin . l. 4. c. 1. r. 2. n. 24. p. 467. Whether the trade of Cardmakers or Dicemakers be lawful . ib. n. 25. p. 468. Tradition . the reason of it . l. 1. c. 4. r. 2. n. 4. p. 123. what is the use of Traditions . l. 2. c. 3. r. 14. n. 14. p. 483. Those prerogatives that in the writings of the Fathers are given to Scripture under the name of Tradition , the Papists give to Tradition as distinct from and opposite to Scripture . ib. n. 16. p. 484. The Primitive Christians had that need of Tradition that we have not . ibid. n. 17 , 18. p. 485. The use of Tradition in rituals . ibid. n. 19. p. 486. Tradition uncertain , because Hereticks and other evil persons have affixed the names of Apostles and Apostolical men to many books never writ by them , which now are not easily to be found out and distinguished . ibid. n. 35. p. 492. Of the rules by which Tradition is tryed . ib. n. 39. p. 495. Tradition cannot receive sufficient authority either from The Catholic Church . l. 2. c. 3. r. 14. n. 40 , 41. p. 498. The Doctors . ibid. n. 41. p. 499. Council . ibid. n. 42. p. 499. Of Tradition . l. 3. c. 4. r. 21. n. 1. p. 351. It is not of use , unless there be an uninterrupted succession from the Apostles . ibid. n. 3. p. 351. Truth . One truth cannot be against another . l. 1. c. 2. r. 3. n. 49. p. 56. No man can prescribe to truth . l. 2. c. 3. r. 19. n. 1. p. 549. Of Truth . l. 3. c. 2. r. 5. n. 1. p. 82. Whether truth can be practised at all times . ibid. n. 2. To differ from the eternal truth is not the essence of a lie . ibid. n. 4. p. 83. Every man hath a right to truth . ibid. n. 5. p. 83. That right may be taken away by other superiour rights . ibid. n. 6. p. 84. How it is that to tell truth is an act of justice . ibid. n. 13. p. 89. Tutors , their power in inflicting punishments . l. 3. c. 2. r. 6. n. 7. p. 109. Types . That opinion of some , that every rite in Moses law answers to some rite of the Christian , is not sound . l. 2. c. 2. r. 6. n. 52. p. 360. Types and shaddows were for the Old Testament , not the New. l. 3. c. 4. r. 20. n. 8. p. 327. Tyrant . What duty is required of us toward a Tyrant . l. 2. c. 2. r. 7. n. 41. p. 386. When a Tyrant power threatens death to make the obedient Subject contemn the Law , the Subject ought rather to die then disobey the Law. l. 3. c. 1. r. 2. n. 13. p. 29. Difference between a Tyrant and a King. l. 3. c. 1. r. 3. n. 5. p. 34. & l. 3. c. 3. r. 1. n. 1. p. 130. Tribute . Of Laws made concerning it . l. 3. c. 2. r. 8. per tot . p. 124. Obedience is due to them , that tribute is . ibid. n. 1. p. 124. Taxes are to be paid for Conscience , though they are odious and of ill name . ibid. n. 3. p. 125. Tribute must be imposed by none but the supreme power , unless it be penal tribute . l. 3. c. 2. r. 9. n. 1. p. 127. V. Vertue . TO love vertue merely for its own sake is not the inseparable Character of a good man. l. 2. c. 1. r. 4. n. 9. p. 250. What it is to love Vertue for Vertues sake . ib. & l. 4. c. 2. r. 2. n. 7. Virgin. It is not lawful for a Virgin to kill her self to save her virginity , though there be no other way of preserving it . l. 3. c. 2. r. 3. n. 5. p. 74. & ibid. n. 16. p. 78. Virginity is not more holy then chast marriage . l. 3. c. 4. r. 20. n. 19. p. 338. Understanding . All that is above our understanding is not against it . l. 1. c. 2. r. 3. n. 46. p. 54. Obedience of the understanding in what particulars it consisteth . ib. n. 59. p. 60. The understanding may not chuse the lesser truth , though it may innocently chuse the lesser good . l. 1. c. 4. r. 5. n. 3. p. 147. Of the marriage of uncles and Nieces . l. 2. c. 2. r. 3. n. 30. p. 299. Of usury . l. 3. c. 3. r. 6. n. 30. p. 196. & l. 2. c. 2. r. 7. n. 7. p. 374. Of the morality of those actions that are involuntary in the effect , but voluntary in respect of the cause . l. 4. c. 1. r. 4. p. 489. A vow if it be not voluntary is no vow . l. 3. c. 4. r. 20. n. 29. p. 347. W. War. OF the measures of war by Christs law . l. 2. c. 2. r. 7. n. 15. p. 377. Right reason cannot be the rule of war. ibid. n. 18. p. 377. War cannot be conducted by the Laws of nature . ibid. n. 16. p. 377. The Law of Nations cannot be the measure of war. ibid. n. 19. p. 378. The Christian Law hath made no particular provisions for the conduct of War under a proper title . ib. n. 20. p. 378. The Christian religion if it were rightly embraced would prevent all War. ibid. Of War Defensive . ibid. n. 21. p. 378. Offensive . ibid. n. 22. p. 379. Examples out of the Old Testament in matter of War are dangerous precedents . ibid. n. 31. p. 382. A just war is not the breach of that Commandment that forbids killing . l. 3. c. 2. r. 1. n. 18. p. 59. In a just War it is lawfull to deceive the Enemy , but not to lie . l. 3. c. 2. r. 5. n. 19. p. 93. Of pledges is War. ib. r. 7. n. 2. p. 117. We should be Watchfull over our actions and words . l. 4. c. 1. r. 1. n. 21. p. 450. The use of White garments in religion . l. 3. c. 4. r. 15. n. 9. p. 291 , 224. Wicked men cannot have true peace of Conscience . l. 1. c. 1. r. 2. n. 25. p. 24. Will. The distinction of Gods secret and revealed Will is unreasonable . l. 1. c. 2. r. 3. n. 38. p. 52. God cannot have two Wills. ibid. n. 39. p. 53. Acts of the will and understanding are good and bad from the Object . ibid. r. 9. n. 4. p. 95. Where the understanding is wrong and the Will wholly right , the action is accepted and the errour pardoned . ibid. n. 9. p. 97. The Will may chuse the lesser good , but not the understanding the less truth . l. 1. c. 4. r. 5. n. 3. p. 147. A man is rendred good or bad only by his Will. l. 4. c. 1. r. 1. n. 1. p. 438. The Will of man is free to action . ibid. n. 2. p. 438. The will is free in actions moral and spiritual . ibid. n. 3. p. 439. Libertie of will in good things is a piece of weakness . ibid. n. 5. p. 441. To grant libertie of Will does not disparage the grace of God. ib. n. 6. p. 441. The Will is in every action good or bad . ibid. n. 7 , 8. p. 442. The other faculties of the Soul are not changed by good or bad objects . ibid. n. 8. p. 442. The material part of the sin is in them , the formal only in the will. ib. n. 9. p. 442. All acts that pass without any consent of the Will are indifferent . ibid. n. 17. p. 446. No action of the Will is indifferent . ibid. n. 18. p. 446. The Will hath six steps or degrees of volition . l. 4. c. 1. r. 3. n. 1. p. 480. The first inclination of the Will is not sinfull . ibid. All the moralitie of any action depends wholly on the Will , and is seated in the inner man. ibid. n. 2. p. 481. The external act of sin is more then the same sin in the Will. ibid. p. 482. All sin is in the Will , and is there completed . ibid. n. 12. p. 486. In what manner execution of the intention adds to the crime . ibid. n. 13. p. 487. Wills or Testaments . In Wills or Testaments there arising a doubt , the lesser burden is to be laid upon the Executor . l. 3. c. 6. r. 1. n. 14. p. 404. The Heir is to be favoured against the Legatees , unless God and Religion be the Legatee . ibid. n. 15. p. 405. Wine . The Heathens used to compleat their Covenants with drinking blood , or Wine instead of it . l. 2. c. 3. r. 9. n. 31. p. 431. The Encratites and Manichees sinned in abstaining from the use of Wine . l. 2. c. 3. r. 13. n. 23. p. 465. But the Rechabites did not , and why . ibid. n. 14. p. 460. In what cases the sentence of a good and Wise man may determine the choice . l. 1. c. 4. r. 15. n. 1. p. 174. & p. 386. Women , Wife . It is not well for women to baptize . l. 2. c. 1. r. 7. n. 3. p. 261. Of women wearing mens cloths . l. 3. c. 1. r. 1. n. 18. p. 12. S. Pelagia did wear mans cloths to avoid temptation . ibid. Women are to be admitted to the Sacrament . l. 3. c. 4. r. 12. n. 6. p. 270. Scriptura loquens in Masculino , procedit etiam in Foeminino . ibid. In Scripture a betrothed woman is called wife before marriage , and her falshood to her Spouse hath the same punishment as adultery . l. 3. c. 5. r. 8. n. 16. p. 387. The Wife sinning is excused by the Hubands command in small matters , not in greater . ibid. Words . Of their signification in Laws . l. 3. c. 6. r. 1. n. 6 , 7 , 8 , 9. p. 400 , 401. That is the meaning of the words of the Law , that does the work of the Law. ibid. n. 11. p. 402. How far the words of a Law may be drawn to prove a sin forbidden to be great or small . l. 3. c. 1. r. 1. n. 20. p. 14. We should be watchfull over our actions and words . l. 4. c. 1. r. 1. n. 21. p. 450. Worship . The vanity of that distinction of Relative and Terminative worship . l. 2. c. 2. r. 6. n. 27. p. 341. Will-worship . l. 2. c. 3. r. 13. n. 7. p. 457. God is to be worshipped by nothing but what himself appointeth . ibid. There can be no Will-worship in acts internal of the Soul. ib. n. 30. p. 470. He that kills a child in the Wombe is guilty of murther . l. 4. c. 1. r. 3. n. 14. p. 488. Y. Young men should not be permitted to game . l. 4. c. 1. r. 2. n. 38. p. 479. Z. Of the Jewish Zelots . l. 3. c. 2. r. 6. n. 2. p. 107. FINIS . Errata sic corrige . Vol. I. PAge 11. l. 41. read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 137. l. 26. r. a few Fishermen 145. l. 33. r. to be fit 156. l. 13. r. stronger argument 196. l. 44. r. yet then they 216. l. 24. r. every accident 220. l. 4. dele and Humane . 227. l. 43. r. indeed 228. l. 5. r. this than any 241. l. 8. r. particulars , made relative 244. l. 19. r. which is serv'd by justice . 268. l. 24. r. so wholy 290. l. 38. r. yet the arg . 291. l. 13. r. Nations 313. l. 20. r. no more : by 314. l. 4. r. too near l. 24. r. before ) it was 319. l. 16. r. any foot-steps 323. l. 40. r. is to be 334. l. 30 & 35. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 336. l. 25. after because , dele yet 339. l. 34. r. a degree Pag. 344. l. 8. r. branle 345. l. 5. r. idol 348. l. 32. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 353. l. 23. r. Prunetana 359. l. 13. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 369. l. 23. r. posture 377. l. 44. r. heard , possibly there l. 45. r. against reason , it 383. l. 13. r. Presidents 401. l. 38. r. be not 413. l. 35. after observe , dele but 417. l. 42. r. morally 421. l. 11. r. beginning form'd with 422. l. 6. r. traditionis l. 30. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 423. l. 45. r. Apostles ministery 429. l. 15. r. taken notice 428. l. 22. r. life issuing 433. l. 32. after appendage , dele and 437. l. 43. r. ease of rigour 444. l. 29. dele , But I shall give an account of that inquiry in some of the following pages . 449. l. 39. r. they oblige Pag. 454. l. 28. r. in it , but 502. l. 13. r. S. Gregory 503. l. 37. r. is not an adequate 548. l. 35. r. Christ are or ought Vol. II. Pag. 92. l. 20. r. by publishing 94. l. 15. r. as in parlies 96. l. 6. r. and they who may 97. l. 9. after but not , dele to 99. l. 17. r. an usual 131. l. 31. r. Ne respublica 139. l. ult . r. Seres 145. l. 42. r. fuerant 155. l. 42. r. Inviolabiliter 230. l. 20. r. 10 talents 254. l. 28. r. that ; it must 256. l. 6. r. are to be 294. l. 40. r. enter into 359. l. 33. r. non amare — infania 368. l. 27. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 438. l. 12. r. our own 490. l. 34. r. ( as Pyrrho did ) he see 513. l. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A CATALOGUE of some Books Printed for Richard Royston at the Angel in Ivy-lane , London . Books and Sermons written by J. Taylor D. D. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , A Course of Sermons for all the Sundays of the year ; together with a discourse of the Divine Institution , Necessity , Sacredness and Separation of the Office Ministerial , in fol. 2. The History of the Life and Death of the Ever-blessed Jesus Christ , the third Edition in fol. 3. The Rule and Exercises of holy living , in 12. 4. The Rule and Exercises of holy dying , in 12. 5. The Golden Grove , or A Manual of daily Prayers , fitted to the daies of the week , together with a short Method of Peace and Holiness , in 12. 6. A Collection of Polemical and Moral discourses , in fol. newly reprinted . 7. A Discourse of the Nature , Offices & Measure of Friendship , in 12. new . 8. A Collection of Offices or forms of Prayer fitted to the needs of all Christians , taken out of the Scriptures and Ancient Liturgies of several Churches , especially the Greek , together with the Psalter or Psalms of David after the Kings Translation , in a large octavo , newly published . 9. Ductor Dubitantium , or the Rule of Conscience , fol. in two volumes . 10. The Doctrine and Practice of Repentance , describing the necessities of a Strict , a Holy and a Christian Life : Serving as a necessary Supplement unto the Rule of Conscience . Books written by the late Reverend Dr. Henry Hammond . A Paraphrase and Annotations upon all the Books of the New Testament , by Hen. Hammond D. D. in fol. the second Edition enlarged . 2. A Paraphrase and Annotations upon the Books of the Psalms , briefly explaining the Difficulties thereof , by Hen. Hammond D. D. fol. new . 3. The Practical Catechisme , with other English Treatises , in two volumes in 4. 4. Dissertationes quatuor quibus Episcopatus Jura ex S. Scripturis & Primava Antiquitate adstruuntur , contra sententiam D. Blondelli & aliorum . in 4. 5. A Letter of Resolution in six Queries , in 12. 6. Of Schisme . A defence of the Church of England against the exceptions of the Romanists , in 12. 7. Of Fundamentals in a notion referring to practice , in 12. 8. Paraenesis , or a seasonable exhortation to all true sons of the Church of England , in 12. 9. A Collection of several Replies and Vindications published of late , most of them in defence of the Church of England , now put together in four volumes . Newly published , in 4. 10. The Dispatcher Dispatch'd , in Answer to a Roman Catholick Book intituled Schism Dispatch'd , in 4. new . 11. A Review of the Paraphrase and Annotations on all the Books of the New Testament , with some additions and alterations , in 8. 12. Some profitable directions both for Priest & people , in two Sermons , in 8. new . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A63844-e170 Jer. 30. 7 , 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 19. 14. Lib. 7 , 8. Of Eccle. Polity . Lib. 8. de rep . Eccles. Notes for div A63844-e510 a Eman. Sa. aphor . v. Furtum . * Prov. 28. 24. b Idem v. Restitutio . c Diana de Euchar . in compend . n. 30. n. 31. n. 32. Idem de poenit . n. 3. num . 7. num . 11 , & 17 , & 18. num . 18. num . 19. Id. Verb. Detractio . num . 5. Dispensatio . num . 11. Concil . Trid. sess . 14. cap. 4. Dian. Compend . de poenit . Sacram. n. 8. Clavis Regia , l. 4. c. 2. n. 5. Sa aphor . verb. Jejun . n. 11. ibid. n. 8. idem verb. Dubium . Suarez lib. 10. deleg . cap. 6. n. 3. * Vide Summas Cas. Consc. in verbis , Immunitas . Ecclesia . Hospitale . Privilegium . Clericus . Monasterium . &c. Tract . de Decretis . Seneca ad Lucilium . Eccles. 12. 12. Arist. lib. ● eth . c. 3. De doct . Christi . li. 2. c. 18. Cōfess . l2 . c. 15. G. of . in c. quo●um appell . non ●●cipiuntu● . b. 3. 15. Ad Olynth . 1. Isa. 49. 4 , 5. Notes for div A63844-e11430 §. 1. Lib. de interiori domo . 2. Exod. 7. 1. Lib. 6. de vero cultu . cap. 24. 3. 4. Lib. de testimon . animae . 5. 6. 7. Psal. 78. 49. 7. Heb. 10. 16. Jer. 31. 33. 8. * Eccles. 7. 22. 1 John 3. 21. Apud Syros conscientia dicitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à radice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 formavit , depinxit , descripsit ; quia scil . conscientia notat & pingit actiones nostras in tabula cordis . * Prov. 18. 14. Heb. 4. 12. In epist. ad Rom. cap. 2. lib. 2. 9. Rom. 7. 23. Titus 3. 1● . Marc. 14. 72. Philip. 2. 5. 1 Co● . 2. 16. Luc. 1. 29. Rom. 14. 5. Rom. 1. 28. Ephes 4. 23. Rom. 12. 2. 10. 11. De interiori domo cap. ● . 12. a Ubi supsa . In Psal. 48. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 1 Tim. 1. v. 1● . a Verb. Cons●ientia . b In c●cum cau sa de Testi . c In §. s●d iste . Instu . de Act. Gl. in c. Statut . §. assess . detent . Ecclus. 13. 30 , alia● 24. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 25. Acts 23. 1. & 24. 16. Rom. 13. 5. 1 Cor. 8. 10. & 19. 12. 1 Tim. 1. 5. 19. & 3. 9. 2 Tim. 1. 3. Titus 1. 15. 1 Pet. 2. 19. 3. 16. Heb. 13. 18. 26. Horat. de art● Poet. Rom. 2. 15. Iliad . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. Rom. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 6. 4. 1 Cor. 13 12. Cicero 2. Tuscul . De Inter. dom . lib. 2. cap. ult . 5. Rom. 2. 1● . Cicero pro Cluentio . Lucretius ▪ 6. In Epic●●● James 1. 21 , 23 , 24. 7. Juven . Sat. 10. 〈◊〉 . Sat. 3. 8. 9. Apud Publianum . Plautus . 10. 1 Macc ▪ 6. 1● . Aeneid . 12. 11. Cicero de ●egib . l. 2. Rom ●●● . 12. A. Gell. l. 5. c. 1. Lib. 14. Annal. 13. 14. Epicharm . De 4 Hono● Con●u● . 〈…〉 〈…〉 J●r . 2●● 4. 15. Lucret. 16. De profugit . 17. Juvenal . Martial . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 18. 19. Levit. 26. 36. Deuter. 28. 65● Isai. 22. 2. Lib. 1. c. ● . 20. Aeschyl . Senec. 〈◊〉 Act. 3. 21. 22. 24. 〈◊〉 2 C●● 1. 1● . Prov. 30 , 20. Eccl●s . 13 ●6 . 〈…〉 Lib. 4. de be●efic . c. 21. Orat. 25. 26. Cicero pro Milone . 27. 28. 2 Tim. ● . ● . 2 Tim. 2. 22. 2 Tim. 1. 3. H●b 9 14. 10. 22. 13. 18. Acts 15 9. 1. Prosper Epigr. de cohibenda ira . 2. 3. 4. 5. In Lava●ro Conscien● . Lib. 11. samil epist. 6. Lib. 5. ep . 20. Mart. Ecclus. 37. 11. 7. 8. Eccl●●s . 37. 15. 1. 2. 3. In Rule 1. numb . 5. & se● . 4. Rom. 1. 28. 5. 1. 2. 3. 4. 6. In Epicter . lib. 3. c. 26. 1. 2. 3. 1. 2. 3. 4. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 1. 2. 3. Aristo● . Ethic. lib. 6. cap. 6. 4. 5. Rom. 14. 14. 1. 2. De bellis Sytiacis . 3. 4 5. 1 Cor. 8. 1. 4. 6. 7. Ad annum 538. sect . 34. A. D. 44. n. 88. 8. 9. 10. John 7. 17. 1 Cor. 1. 10. 11. 2 Cor. 10. 5. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. Prosper c. ● . de ingrat . Prosp. de praedest . 55. cap. 8. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. Isa. 1. 18. & 5. 3. Ezek. 18. 25. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. Luke 12. 57. 54. 55. Rom. 12. 1. 1 Pet. 2. 2. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61. 62. 63. 64. 65. 66. 67. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Vide Aristot. de anima lib. 2. text . 154. 6. 7. Lib. 1. ep . 8. 8. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 2 Cor. 11. 14. 14. 1 P●● . 5. 2. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 〈…〉 〈…〉 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. Plin. li. ● . ep . 2. Vide Rule of Holy Living Chap. 1. §. 2. 30. 31. 32. 33. Plin. li. 1. ep . 8. 34. 35. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 1 Cor. 15. 14. 11. 12. 13. 14. Malachi 3. 8 , &c. Psal. 83. 13. 15. 1 Cor. 11. 3● . 16. In Apocal. 17. 18. 19. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 2. Cap. pastoralis . § 〈…〉 De ●fficio & pote●● Judicis Delegati . 3. 4. 6 , 7. 8. John 8. In Psal. 118. 9. 10. 11. 12. 〈…〉 13. 14. 8. 9. 10. Exod. 23. 7. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. C. penult . de reg . jur . 23. 24. Tertul. ●ib . de 〈…〉 . 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. Unum necessar . 32. 33. 34. 35. Prov. 18 5. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Tit. 1. 16. Deuter. 32. 17. 9. Rom. 1● 14. Vide Chrysost. in hunc locum , S. Ambros. ib. & Theophyl● . ibid. 10. 11. Gal. 5. 3. 13. 1. 2. James 5. 3. 4. 5. Part. 1. decret . dist . 6. c. 4. 6. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 〈…〉 & 〈◊〉 . 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. Cha. 2. Rule 9. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 1. 2. 3. Castropal . tom . 1. dis . 1. punct . 6. n. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 1. 2. 3. 4. 1. 2. 3. 4. 6. 7. 1. Lib. de praecept . & dispens . 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 1. Vide Chap. 4. 2. * Sanchez . select . 99. disp . 41. num . 27. Meroiia in florileg . verb. conscientiâ nu . 14. B●●dus de conscientia discept . 3. cap. 11. 3. 4. 5. Vide Chap. 4. Rule 5. 6. 1. 2. 3. 4. 1. 〈◊〉 11 4. Ethic. l. 1. c. 1. 2. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. Euseb. lib. 5. c. 1. praep . Euang. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 1. 2. Ch● . 2. Rule 2. 1. 2. 3. Lib. 3. c 9. instit . 4. 5. 6 1 * 〈◊〉 2 of this 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 5. Rule 4. 2. 3 Lib. 2. de an●ma . text . 153. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 1. 2. 3. Cha 3 Rule 7. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 1. 2. 3. 4. 1. L p. ver . Sed 〈◊〉 C de veter● jure enucle●●●o . Cap. Nicaena Syn. dus . dist . 32. 2. In Protag . Plat. 1. De nat . Deor. Vide Libe . ep of Prophes . Sect. 8. D●ille du Vrai usage des Peres 3. 4. 5. 6. C. earch . 7. 8. 10. 11. 12. 13. Eth. lib. 10. ● . ● . 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 1 Pet 3. 15 , Tit. 1. 9. 1. 2. 3. Epist. 64. Aeneid . l. 11. 4. Horat. l. 2. ep . ● . Videat lector epist. 19. Sancti Augustini ; quae est ad Hieronymum . & epist. ad Fortunatum . 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Lib. 22. contr . Faustum cap. 74. & habetur cap. Quid culpatur . 23. qu. 1. 6. 1. 2. 3. 4. 1. 2. 3. 1. 2. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 1. Rom. 14. 23. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 1. 2. 3. 4. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 1. Ci●p . 2. Rule 3. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 1. * Rule 7. 2. 3. 4. 5. 1. Concil . T●le● . 8 Can 2. temp . Martini P. Lib. 5. cap. ● . Ethic. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. In 19. Matth. Caus. 32. ● . c. Sicut . Prov. 28. 21. 8. 9. Lib. 3. 10. M●●●h 2. 16. 11. 12. 13. 14. C. 6● . C. 8. 1 Tim. 3. 4 ▪ 5. 15. 16. 17. * S. Ambros. lib. 1. c. 6 ▪ de Patriarch . Abraham . Hom. 27. ad pop ▪ Antiochen . L. 1 c. 15. de adulterin . conjug . L●b . 32. moral . ● ▪ 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. G●rson tract . 8. in Magnif . num ▪ 88. lit ▪ F. 24. 25. 26. L. 5. epist. rerum senilium . Lib 3. Offic. 27. Rom. 3. 8. 28. 1 Kings 18. 25 ▪ Jerem. 41. Lib. 5. c. 1. Lib. 6. appo●t● . 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 23. 24. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 1. Prov. 28. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 1. 2. Antonin . in sum . 1. p. tit . ● c. 10. 1. 2. 3. 4. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Luke 11. 13. James 1. 5. 11. 12. Lib. 8. c. ●●riri De rerum 〈◊〉 erate . Epist. l. 3 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 1. Constit. Apost . l. 1. c 6. 2. Valla Elegant . l. 4. c. 48. 3. L. 5. c. 10. Lib. 1. c. 13. & 15. Lib. 5. c. 7● Ethic. 4. E●hic . l. 5. c. 10. Rhetor. l. 1. c. 11. L. 9. ff . de jure & justitia . Arbiter . 5. 6. 7. 8. L. 1. ff . de justitia & jure . 1. 2 q. 1●4 . art . 2. Elegant . l. 4. c. 43. See Great E●● emplat . 9. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 L. 1. c. 78. Orat. contr . Aristocratem . Contr. Celsum . 11. a L. 1. contr . Jovin . b Hom. 5. sup . 19 Genes . c L. 1. Comm. sup . Luc. 1. d In cap. 5. Eph. L. 1. ss . si Qu●drupes . §. 3. 12. 13. De praescrip● . 14. 15. 16. In Synopsi LI. 17. 18. 19. Lib 8. Polit. c. 4. 20. 21. In Thalia . Arist. Rheot●● . l. 1. c. 11. 22. V● . F●c● . 〈…〉 . L. 11. cap. 18. Lib. 1. c. 8. C●p. 43. 〈…〉 23. App●an . d● B●l. Sy●● Orat. pro C●a . 24. 25. 26. Maxim. Ty● Dissert . ● . 27. 28. See the preface to the Great Exempl●r . n. 23. 29. Lib. 1. tit . 1. Prochir . 30. Lib. de Repub. Juven . Sat. 1● . 31. 32. 33. Lib. de anima cap. 2. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. a Epist. 151. ad Algas . q. 8. b Adrv Judxos c. 2. 39. 40. 41. 42. Dist. 1. in princ . 43. 44. Adv. Marcion . lib. 2. Adv. Praxeam . 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 2. q. 19. ad 3 , & 4. 59. 1. Lib. 1. de inv . & ●● . 4 , & 5. de 〈◊〉 2. Lib. 6. ●● . de justit . & jure . 3. 〈…〉 . 1. 〈…〉 . c. 1. 2. 3. 7 , de Repub , 4. De consol . Philosoph . 7. Aenei● ▪ Tac , 〈◊〉 ▪ 3. 5. 6. Ovid. l. 3. Eleg. 7. Reg. fusior . inter . 2. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 〈…〉 9. 〈…〉 10. 〈◊〉 , 12 , 2 3. 11. 1. 2. Lib. 2. de lege . 3. 4. Navarrus Enclyri●● . c. 25. ●t con●●●gatio Cardinalium quos tal● & 〈◊〉 putidi pudibat 〈…〉 rem factum aut dictam , & 〈◊〉 clandesina etiam poll concilium rata manere , sicut & eate . Consula●●unt sc. famae Concilii , non propriae , aut rem tam contam , verba tam 〈…〉 non crubuerunt . 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. Lib. 5. Ep. ad Calvisium . Lib. 2. Epist. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. Rule 10. 〈…〉 . 22. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 1. 2. 3. 4. 1. L. Si stipuletur . de verb. oblig . 2. 3. 4. Vide reg . 1. n. 43 , 44. &c. 1. 2. 1. 2. 3. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 1. 2. L. Manumissiones , & l. jus civile . ff . de justitia & jure . & in Sect. jus autem . instit . de ju●e Natur. Gentium & civili . 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 1. 2. 1. 2. 3. 4. L. 4. de bene● . 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 1. 〈◊〉 . tit . 〈◊〉 Synedrio . Josh. 6. 1 Sam. 7. 17. & 13. 8. 1 King. 18 38. 2. 3. Adv. Cel● . 3● L. 1. de non esu anim . 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Jer. 31. 31 , &c. Psal. 50. & 51. & 40. Isaiah 1. Jer. 7. Micah 6. 10. * Jer. 23. Isaiah 43. Malach. 1. 11. Exod. 21. 6. 1 Sam. 1. 22. 1 Sam. 2. 30. 12. Iren. l. 1. c. 26. Epiphan . haer . 18 , 28 , 30 , 66. Hieron . ep . 89. ad Augustin . Damasc. verb. Nazaraei . Euseb. l. 3. c. 21. August . haeres . 8 , & 9. 13. Luke 16. 16. Rom. 6. 14. Rom. 7. 4. Heb. 7. 12. Gal. 3. 14. 1. Coloss. 2 , 16. 2. Acts 15. Novel . 58. a In Ap. c. 9 b In Octivio . c Eccles. hist. lib. 5. c. 1. d C. 62. Vide etiam Clemen Alex. Paedag. l. 3. c. 3. Niceph. lib. 4. c. 17. & idem vide●● est apud Lucianum in Pereg. 3. Gen 9. 4. 2. 3. a Ve●s . 4. b Ve●● . 5. Vide 8. Aug. lib. 2. c 6. con●●● adve●iari●● legis & 〈…〉 . 4. 5. 1 Cor. 1● . 25. Pho●yl . 6. Levit. 17. 11. 7. Math. 15. 1 Cor. 10. 25. Rom. 14. 17. ●e jejuniis . 4. Metam . l. 15. Lib. 32. c. 13. cont . Faustum Manich. 5. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Levit. 20. ●3 . 7. 8. Cap. 6. explan . in Levit. 9. L. Nemo . de regul . juris . L. 2. de aqua pluvia arcenda . Qu. 64. super Levit. 10. 11. 12. 13. ●● . 44. Isai. ●●anc●● Vict. de Sacram. de read . de● con . 14. Le● , 20. ●● 15. 1 Cor. ●● 16. 17. 18. Papin . stat . Thebaid . 4. 19. 20. 21. Gen. 2. 24. Matth. 19. 5. 22. Hist. animal . l. 9. c. 46. Plin. Nat. hist. ● . 42. Varro de re rustic● , 2. 7. 10 M●an● . 23. Eur. in Andro. Michael Ephe. in Arist. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Ad Nicomach . Rom. 1. 21. &c. Vide Tiraq . l. 7. connub . n. 22. Xenoph. l. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Agath . hist. 2. Lib. 6. 24. C. lex illa . §. incest . 36. q. 1. L. si adult . cum incest . in prin . D. de adult . Text. in authen● ic . de incest . nupt . 〈◊〉 p●inc . co●●at . 1. C. cum secund . leges 〈…〉 . 25. In 5. ad N●● . Plut. in The● , Vide Lucian . l. de sacrificiis , 26. Vide Alex. 〈◊〉 Alexan. l. 1. c , 24. Geni●l . dierum . 27. Metam . l. 9. 28. 29. Quest. ●● . 30. 31. Lib. 12. Annal. 32. L. 〈◊〉 de civit . D●i . c. 16. L. 5. de sinib. Gen. 13. 8. 33. 〈◊〉 15. 17. 34. 35. S. Amb. ep . 66. ad Paternum . 36. 37. * Supra n. 14. 38. 39. 40. De leg . special , 41. Le. it . 21. vers . 2. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. Exod. 6. 20. Jer. 32. 12. Num. 33. 53. Numbers 36. Ter. in phor . In Danaidib . Adelphi . Ruth 3. 12. 50. Luke 3. 23. 51. 56. 57. 58. 59. Annal. l , 12. L. 1. ad V. C. L. 4. Anti● ▪ 60. 61. L●●si Nepot . 3. D. de ●it . nupt . ● . conditioni . 2. C de instit . & subst . 62. L. 15. c. 16. de civit . Dei. 63. 64. C. lit . extr . de ●●stit . sponsal . 65. Concil . Tolet. 2. c. 5. Concil . Worm . 66. 67. 68. 69. L. 7. varia● 〈◊〉 70. 71. 72. 73. 74. 75. 76. Cicero de sia . 77. 1 1. 2 2 3 3. 4 4. 78. Lib. 46. 79. 80. 1 1. 2 2. 3 3. 81. Xenophon . l. 5. de Cy● instic . 82. 83. 84. 85. 86. 87. 〈◊〉 . 10 Met. 88. Lib. 15. c. 16. de civis . Dei. 89. 1. Rom. 7. 1● . 2. 1 Job . 2. 7 , ● . 3. Levit. 19. 1● . Hierocles . Tertul. 4. 1 John. 3. 16. Job . 15. 12 , 13. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Lib. adv . Jud. Ibid. 10. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Lib. 4. c. 26. in princip . 1. 2. Lev. 19. 17 , 18 ▪ 3. 4. 5. 1. Synops. Scripr . tom . 2 ▪ L. 5. contr . Jul. In c. 10. Hos. In 26. Levit. 2. L. 6. strom . Qu. 71. in Ex. a In 20. Exod. b Sup. salv . Reg. 3. L. 3. Antiq. c. 4. L. 3. hom . 8. in Exod. In Carm. * In 6. Ephes ▪ 4. 2. 3. 4. 5. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Vid. Manasseh Be● lsrael in Concil . q 30. & Tertul. l. 2. contr . Marcion . c. 12. Gab. Vasquez . disp . 104. c. 6. 11. 12. 13. Deut 4 15. 16. Isai. 40. 18. Acts. 17. 29. 14. 1 Tim. 6. 15 , 16. 4. 5. 6. 15. 16. 1. 2. Act. 2. 3. 3. 2 Pet. 1. 17. 4. 17. 2. 〈…〉 3. 〈…〉 I●● . 42. 2 , ●● . Luke 9. ●● 18. * Si quis dicat quòd Spiritus S. in columba apparuit , & Pater in Veteri Testamento sub aliquibus corpo●alibus form●● ideoque possunt & illi per imagines repraesentari ; dicendum quòd illae formae corporales , non fuerunt à Patre vel Spiritu Sancto assumptae , & ideò repraesentatio eorum per imagines , non est repraesentatio personae Divina ; sed repraesentatio illius formae secundùm se. propterea non debetur ei aliqua reverentia sicut nec illis formis secundùm se. Nec illae formae fuerunt ad repraesentandas Divinas personas , sed ad repraesentandum effectus , quos Divinae personae faciebant in rebus . Durand . in 3. Sent. Dist. 9 q. 2. n. 15. Bibl. Vulg. 19. Idem ●●iam videre est apud Diodo● . S●●●l . S●romat . 1. a l. 7. con . Celi . b de coron . mil. c l. 1. c. 6. praep . Evang. d Orat. contra Gentes . e in c. 40. Is●i . f de fide & Symbol . c. 7. g in Deut. q. 1. h l. 4. de Orth. fide c 17. i l. 2. c. 23. de invent . k Rom. 1. 23. L. 1. in Somn. Scip. c. 2. 20. 21. In c. 7. Acts. Judg. 17. Ep. 31. ad Val. 119. ep . ad Januar. 22. Ut vid. est ap . Bellar. de imag . 23. L. 7. con . Cels. 25. 26. 26. In●●● . Moral . part . 1. l. 9. c. 6. 27. ●●it Rom. p 672. Salve sancta facies nostri Redemptoris , In qua nitet species Divini splendoris , Impressa panniculo nivei candoris . Salve vultus Domini , imago beata , Nes deduc ad propria ● felix figura Ad videndum faciem Christi , quae est pura . … Ave ferrum triumphale , felix hasta . Nos amore per te fixi saucia . 28. L. 1. de Trin. c. 6. 29. 30. In 1 Cor. 8. L. 4 p. ●● 31. De spect c. 23. S●●ma● . l. 6 & in Protrep . p. 41. ed●● Paris . L. 4. con . Cel● . D● idol . c. 3. L. 2. c. 22. adv . Marcion . * Sup. r. 6. n. 10. De idol . c. 5. De idol . c. 6. 32. De idol . c. 7. S●ro●●● . 33. L. 7. con . Ce●● . 34. L. 2. c. de orig . erroris . Judges 17. 5. 35. 〈…〉 . Syn. 7. Act. 6. An. Dom. 753. Senon . 2. c. 20. 36 37. Syn. 7. Act. 5. 38. 〈…〉 a Legat. pro Christian. b L. 6 adv : Gentes . c L. 2. div . inst . c. 2. in init . d De civi● Dei l. 8. c. 23. & in Psal. 113. conc . 2. & l. 3. de doctr . Christ. e Dec. 3. l. 3. f Recog . l. 5. Lucil. Consult . loc . de imagin . De invent . rer . In Decal . parc . 1. c. 66. Pontific . Rom. Vid. Missal . Rom. sub tit . Der●tu servan . Pietro 〈◊〉 Hist. delle Ind ▪ l. 20. c. 11. 40. 41. L. 4 , c. 31 , 32. de idolatr . L. 3. ad Quirin c. 59. &c. 1. de exhort . Marty . Origen . hom . 8. in Ex. l. 15. contr . Faust , c. 4. & 7. 42. 43. L ● c. 4● . Homer . S. Aug. l. 4. de Genes . ad li● . c. 11. 44. 45. Apol. 2. 46. 47. 48. 49. ● Acts. 15. 21. Can. 16. A. D. 364. 50. Epist. ad Mag. L. 7. c. ●● . L ● 51. 52. Coloss. 2. 16. 1. Cor. 12. 17. 53. Can. 29. 54. Gal. 4. 10. In hunc locum Apud Euseb. 55. Contr. Adam . Man. c. 16. ●●i . ●6 . 23. 56. Ep ▪ 59. ad . Fid. 〈◊〉 119. ad Januar. Can. 13. Can. 1. In Psal. 118. 1 Co● . 10. 2. Apoc. 1. 1● . 57. Macrob. 58. Acts 15. 21. V. Act. 13. et . 14. 27. 44. Luk. 4 16 31 , & 13. 10. 59. Ep●ad Magn●● . L. omnes c. de fer●is . 60. 61. Ibidem . Apol. 2. L. 11. ep . 3. L. omnes 3. Cod. de feriis ▪ Can. 21 , In Itinerat . L. de decem chordis . c. 3. Gloss. ordinar . in 28. Matth. 62. In Decal . 63. 64. 65. Eurip. 66. 67. ●● hunc locum . 68. 69. Vid. Aquinat . 12. q. 95. art . 2. 70. 〈…〉 1● . 71. 72. 73. 74. 75. 76. 77. 1. 2. John. 6. 68. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. Cic. pro Mil. Ovid. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. Seneca de vita beata . c. 2. 27. 3 3. 4 4. De Virgin. 5 5. 6 6. 2 Mac. 15. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. Foxe Martyros . S. Cyprian . ● Pet. 2. 21. Hiercel . in ca●m . aur . 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 3 49. 50. 51. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Matth. 5. 28 , 29 39 , 40. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 1. 2. 3. Mark. 16. 1. Gal. 5. 21. 2. 3. 4. 5. Hebr. 13. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 〈…〉 1. c. 8. Rom. 13. 14. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 1. Per Scriptor Diognetum . 2. Matth 6. & Math. 23. Deiis qui tardè à Numine pu●iuntur . Matth. 12. 34. 15. 19. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Rom. 12. 1. 8. 1 Cor. 13. 9. 10. James 2. 15. 1. 2. Lib. 3. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 1. 2. Joel . 2. 12. Cap. 2. Rul . 5. 3. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 1 King. 8. 3● . 6. 7. 4. 2 Cor. 11. 27. 2 Cor. 6. 4. Acts 13. 3 , 4. 1 Cor. 7 5. 5. Luke 2. 6. 7. 1. 2. 3. 4. L. 1. c. 2. Ubi supra . 5. In 1 Cor. 11. Gal. 1. 6. 〈…〉 1 Cor. 11. 23 , 24. 7. Ap● . 2. 1 Cor. 21. 25. 8. 9. 10. Hebr. 8 4. 11. Matth. 26 41. Matth. 18. 3. In 1 Cor. 11. Ration . l 4 c ▪ 1. 12. Ep. ad Philad . Sup. 1 Cor ▪ 11. & sup 2 Cor. hom . 18. 1 Cor. 1. 1 , 2. 1 Cor. 11. 13. 14. Lib. 2. ep . 3. 15. Can. 14. 16. 〈…〉 〈…〉 17. 〈…〉 . 2. 18. De 〈◊〉 c. 6. & 26 q 6. C. 15. in decr . 〈…〉 A●gypt . De consecrat . 〈◊〉 . 2. Can. 〈◊〉 omne . 19. L. 2. c. 35. 20. 3 part sum . Q. 80 art 12. 4. 〈…〉 11. ar● . ● . q. 1. 21. 22. 23. Rom. 4 25. Rom. 5. 9. 24. L. 6. ep . 11. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 10. Quaest. 32. memb 1. art 2. Quaest. 53. a 4. Sent. dist 8. art . 13. b 3. part . Sum. q. 66. art . 2. c ●●ist ▪ 8. q. 2. d dist . 11. art . 1. 31. Gal. 3. 15. Chrysost. hom . 18. in 2 Cor. L. 2. ep . 3. 1. 2. 3. 4. Ecclus. 43. 30 , 31 , 32. 5. 6. * Doctrine & practice of Repentance . c. 3. 7. 8. * Vide Book 1. Chapt. 5. Rul . 8. n. 16. &c. usque ad finem . 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 1. Chap. 1. R●● 12. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. * C. proposuit . de concess . praebend . ● . 20. 7. * In c. quae in Eccles. inconst . n. 19 , 20. 8. Can●s re●ect . 〈…〉 5. ad finem . 9. Psal. 15. 1. 2. 3. 11. 12. Matth. 16. 19. Matth. 18. 18. John 20. 23. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 17. 18. 19. 20. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 1. Cor. 7. 11. 12. 13. 1. 2. Juvenal . l. 5. Satyr . 15. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. S. August . de vera relig . c. 55. Non sit nobisreligio in phantasmatibus nostris . Melius est enim qualecūque verum quam omne quicquid arbitrio cogi potest . Lib. 1. de consens . Fvan● . cap. 18. 8. De●●● 12. 32. Vers. 8. 9. Matt. 15. 8 , 9. Mark 7. 7. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 1 King. 8. 18. 16. 17. 2 Sam. 7. 5. 1 Ch●on . 22. 8. & 28. 3. 18. S. Chrysost. in Rom. 8. * Doctrine & pract . of Repen cap. 1. 19. 20. Socrat. lib. ● . c. 22. 21. 22. * Joh. 16. 23. 23. 24. 25. Isa. 1. 11 , 12 , 13. 1 Cor. 7. 37. 26. 27. * Multi commentariorum & 〈◊〉 versiarum scriptores ex his verbis 〈◊〉 , homines illius seculi novos rius , no●●s ceremoni as & religionis formas instit●isse ; quia scil . certum est , ab exor●●o humani generis homines Deum colu●se , atque adeò invocasse nomen Domini . Hoc ergo quod quasi de novo factum 〈◊〉 , est institutio novorum rituum , quibus quasi de proprio Deum ●olere volucru●● At notandum est in horum verborum sensu nihil esse certii quod ad hanc rem possit pertinere . Nam passim in Hebraeorum cōmentariis seculum Enoch tanquam impium memoratur : Et Hebrai expon●re solebant hunc locum quasi sensus esset , tunc cum Enoch natus 〈◊〉 homines pr●fanasse nomen Domini invocando nomea ejus super Creatur●s , sic ●●●rbum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , derivatum scil . à voce Colin , i. e. pr●sana , profanasse interpret●● sunt : homines sc●● tunc coepisse appellare ●●lios hominum , & animalia , & herb 〈◊〉 nomine Dei sancti benedicti . Abenez●● a. & Abrabaneel simpliciorem horum ●erborii sensum re●inuerunt : caeperu●● scil . commemorate creatorem suum , & ad nomen ejus opera & orationes dirigere . a a 12 de Statuis . b ad Quest. 83. 28. Ethic l. 1. c. 7. * Lex Dei mentem nostram incendens , eam ad se pertrahit , conscientiámque nostram vellicat quae & ipsa mentis nostrae lex dicitur . Damascen . lib. 4. cap. 23. de fide . ●ibi Clichtovaeus sic exponit , lex mentis nostrae est ipsa naturalis ratio Dei legem habens sibi inditam , impressámque & insitam qu bonum à malo interno luminc di●adicam ●● . S. Hieronymus episi . 151. ad Algasi . q. 8. hanc legè appellat legem intelligentiae , quam ignorat pueritia , nescii infantia , tunc a venit & praecipit , quando incipit intelligentia . B. Maximus tom . 5. Biblioth . centur . 5. c. 13. Lex naturae est ratio naturalis , quae captivum tenet sensum ad delendam vim irrationalem . Hoc dixit imperfectè , quia ratio naturali● ta●●m est maieria legis naturalis . Rectiusa . S. Augustinus , l. 2. de sermone Domini in monto , Nullam animam esse quae ratiocinar● possit , in cujus conscientia non loquatur Deus : quis n. legem naturalem in cordibus hominum scribit nisi Deus ? hoc scil . innuens non rationē solam , sed Deum loquentem ex principiis nostra rationis sanxisse legem . Idem dixit explicatius , l. 22. contr . Faustum c. 27. legem aeternam esse Divinam rationem vel voluntatem ordinem naturalem cōservari jubentem perturbari vetantem . 29. Levit. 17. 11. D. ● 30. Lib. 6. c. 18. Num. 7. * In Epi●● . de perfidia Euic●●● & libro super illud , Omnia mihi : radia sunt . Antiq. Jud. l. 1. c. 3. 31. Hebr. 11. Lib 1. & lib. 2. de legibus . Videl●● dial . to de legibus . 1. 2. 3. Clem. Alex. ●●onat . 7. 4. in . Matth. 〈◊〉 . O●a● . contra . Gentes . in cap. 3. ep . Rom. S. Cyril . Hierosol . 〈◊〉 . 12. illumin torum . Catech. 4. illuminat . in Psal. 89 Idem in Matth cap. 23. Homil. in Psal. 95 ad Euoptium . Dialog . 1. cap. 6. Contra Maximinum lib. 3. cap. 14. * 〈…〉 & remigant animi popul●rum . Nemo vobis credat , nemo nobis : 〈…〉 sunt Judues si Christiani , de utra●que parte dari non possunt , quia studtis 〈…〉 et Ju●ex : si 〈◊〉 , non potest nosse Christiana secreta ; si Judaus , inimi●us est 〈…〉 Ergo in 〈…〉 : de coelo quarendus est Judex . Sed ut 〈…〉 cum ●●beamus in E●●gelio testamentum ? Optat. lib. 5. contr . Parmen . 〈…〉 didici hunc 〈◊〉 honoremque deferre , ut nullam eorum scribendo 〈…〉 ut quantalibet 〈…〉 polleant : non ideò verum putem quia ipsi 〈…〉 per illo● auti●●● Canonico● , vel probabilit 〈◊〉 , quod à veritate non abhorreat , persuadere 〈…〉 August 〈◊〉 19. ad 〈◊〉 . 〈…〉 , quae Canonica in Ecclesia nominantur , perspiciuá aliquid firmatur authoritate , 〈…〉 est , Aliis vero testibus vel testimontis quibus aliquid credendum esse suadetur , tibi credere 〈…〉 &c. Idem Epist. 112. Vide cundem libr. ad 〈…〉 ●●llationem cap. 15. & lib. de Unitate 〈…〉 . 6. De 〈◊〉 carnis cap. 3. T●act 23. in M●●h . 〈…〉 Ho●●● . 58. in Johan . Ad illud . ad docendum ] in 2 〈◊〉 . 3. 〈◊〉 . 7. De script . Eccl. de S. Joh. Chrysost. 8. Tract . 2. in Epist. Johan . 9. ● . C●● cap. 12. Cap. 22. Homil. de fide . In Asceticis , 〈◊〉 80. Lib. 3. contra liter . Petiliani , cap. 6. De vocat . gentium in 20. tomo operum Ambros. l. 2. c. 3. lib. de Trinit . & persona Christi . Paschali 2. In Agge . c. 1. in Regni . bre●● reg . 95. in Reg. brev . reg . 1. Advers . Hermogen . Cap , 22. Lib. 2. cap. 47. Lib. 4. cap. 66. Apud Theodoret . hist. Eccles. l. 1. c. 6. & apud Gelasium Cyzicenum in actis Concil . Nicen. l. 2. c. 7. Orat. contra Gentes in initio Homil. 9. in 2. T●m . Homil. 9. in ep . Coloss. Homil. 58. in Johan . Homil. 41. opi . 〈◊〉 . in Matth. l. 2. c. 9. de doctri . Christiana . Collat. l. 1. c. 1. 〈…〉 . 〈…〉 c. 1. ●omil . 9. in 〈◊〉 . lib. 1. de ortho fide c. 1. in Levit. q. 9. in Michae . c. 1. lib. 7. contra Julian . lib. 8. anagogicae contempl . in Hexaemeron . Rupert . Abbas Tuitiensis Comment . in lib. Regum . l. 3. c. 12. Lib. 1. contr . Eunomium . Homil. 12. in 3. Philip. 11. Lib. 3. cap. 1. Tract . 49. in Johan . Exposit. 2. Psal. 21. contr . Parmen . l. 5. Lib. 2. Hist. cap. 34. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 〈◊〉 15. Epist. 74. ad Pompei . ●●b . 3. contra 〈◊〉 . Lib. 3. cap. 4. 17. a Lib. 3. hist. cap. 25. b Lib. de viris illustr . 18. Lib. 2. cap. 2. Lib. 2. cap. 24. Hist. lib. 5. c. 27. S. Basil. l. 2. contr . Eunom Tract . 97. in Johan . 19. 20. Lib 5 c. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. De author . S. Script . l. 3. p. 53 Tom. 1. contr 1. de verbo Dei cap. 19. In colloq . Ratisbon . lib. 3. c. 3. contre le Roy Jaques , & l. 2. c. 7. de Euchar. cont . Du Plessis & cap. 5. obser . 4. Resp. ad quaest . 9. Jacobi Regi● Epiphaen . haere . 69. * S. Ambros. c. 5. lib. de side cōtra Arianos . S. Aug. tract . 97. in Johan . & epist. 174 , & 178. S. Athanas. in libel . de decret . Synod . Nicen. Tertul. adv . Praxeam . Theodoret. Dial. 2. c. 4. Salmero , disp . 4. in 2. ad Timoth. 26. 27. Summa Theol. p. 1. tit . 10. c. 3. de Indulg . fol. 202. Venet. 1582. Vtle etiam 〈◊〉 . cap. 2. dexs Indulgent . Na●●r . Comment . de J●●al . & indulgent . Biel lect . 57. in Can. Missae . * De cultu Sanctorum cap. 9. § praeterea . a Contre le Roy de la Grand Bretagne , p. 1009. 28. 29. L. 1. Stroma● . Lib. 2. cap. 39. 31. 32. Exod. 17. 14 & 34. 27. Job . 19. 23 , 24. Psal. 102. 19. Isai. 30. 8. Jer. 30. 2. Revd. 1. 11 , 19. & 21. 5. 33. 34. 35. Homil 26. in Matth. 36. 37. 38. 39. In cap. 6. Johan . n. 11● Vide Hierem. Patriar . C. P. doctr . & exho● . ad Germanos . 40. 41. 42. 〈…〉 . 〈…〉 23. 〈…〉 6. 43. 1 pist . 10. Lyra in Matth. c. 16. 44. 45. 46. * Vide 〈◊〉 9. 47. O●● . 2 co●●● Eunomiu● . Lib. 2. de Trinit . cap. 5. & cap. 6. contr . haer . l. 2. tom . 2. 48. S. Greg. Nys●●n . ibid. Lib. de Spi●● c. 1. * Nónne perspicuum est , ista , tametsi non dicantur , tamen ex illis colligi quae haec necessariò efficiant ac probent ? Quae tandem ? Ego sum primus , & post haec , & ante me non est alius Deus , & post me non crit . Totum enim quicquid est , mecum est , nec principium habens , nec finem habiturum . His à Scriptura acceptis , illud quidem , quod ante eum nihil sit , nec anti quiorem causam habeat , Anarchum & Ingenitum appellasti : quod autem nunquam defiturum sit , Immortale , exiti●que expers . Nazianz. lib. 5. Theol. interprete Jacobo Billio . Et infra , Cum ergo in nominibus & rebus tantum discrimen reperiatur , quid causae est cur literae tantopere s●rvias , Judaicaeque sapientiae teipsum adjungas , relictisque rebus syllabas consecteris ? Quod si te bis quinque aut bis septem dicente , decem aut quatuor decim ex verbis tuis colligerem , aut ex eo quod animal ratione praeditum . & mortale diceres , hominem esse concluderem , an tibi viderer delirare ? Neque enim verba magis sunt ejus qui loquitur quam illius qui loquendi necessitatem simul affert . 49. 50. 51. 〈…〉 52. 53. 54. Lib. de fide , ● 28. 55. Lib. de Script : Eccles. in Luca 56. C. Pli. A● . Dom. 532. 〈…〉 Lib. 4 cap. 2. 〈◊〉 Ma ●cion . Dial. adv . Luciferianos . 57. Lib. 1. c. 1. Frima parte Concil . Ephes. cap. 25 58. Lib. 2. de Trinit . cap. 6. 59. Apud Facundum lib. 10. cap. 5 60. 61. Epist. 74. ad Pompeium . 62. 63. 64. Senec. ep . 9● . Leo. 2. cap. 45. 65. Joh. 11. 26 , 27. Ma●h . 16. 16. John 6. 69. Joh. 17. 3 Joh. 20. 31. Rom. 10. 8 , 9. 1 Co● . 2. 2. 1 Cor. 15. 1. 1 J●k . 3. 23. ● Cor. 3. 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15. 1 Joh. 4. 2. 1 Joh. 5. ● . 66. Act. 2. 24. & 3. 15. Act. 8. 12 , 3● 38. Acts 9. 20 17. 2. Acts 16. 31. 67. Ad Magnes . Ad Philip. Coll. cum Tryph. 68. Lib. 3. cap. 4. 69. De vela●● Virgin. cap. 1 70. 71. 〈…〉 . 〈…〉 . 〈…〉 . 〈…〉 〈◊〉 115. de 〈◊〉 & ●erm . 131. De 〈◊〉 ●ymb . 72. 73. 74. August . contra epist. Fundam c. 4. 75. 76. Lib. 2. de Trin. in princ . 77. 78. 79. 2. 2● . q. 1. a. 10. August . Tri. de Ancona q. 59. art . 1. Novum Symbolum condere solum ad Papam spectat , quia est caput fidei Christianae , cujus authoritate omnia quae ad fidem spectant firmantur & roborantur . Idem art . 2. Sicut potest novum Symbolum condere , ità potest novos articulos supra alios multiplicare . Tom. 13. part . 3. disp . 6. § est ergo . 80. 81. 82. 2 Co● 1. 24. 1 ●et . 5. 3. Cod. lib. 1. de span● § Cum ●ecta . 83. ●ib . 2. biblioth . 5. Lib 1. advers . haeret . cap. 13. See Liberty of Prophes . sect . 1. 1. 2. In Psal. 226. 3. 4. 5. 1. * 1 〈…〉 book . De●ll 〈…〉 l. 2. 〈…〉 . 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 〈…〉 11. L. 5. cap. 2. siect . 4. n. 23. Idem sect . 3 . n. 21. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. * Ubi supra sect . 3. 17. 18. 19. 〈…〉 Prov. 1. 24. Rom. 2. 4. 20. L. 5. prax . 〈◊〉 poenit . cap. 2. sect . 4. n. 23 21. 22. 23. Ovid. 24. Lib. 1. de remed . amoris . 25. Apud Reginaid ubi supra . Ecclus. 5. 7. Eu●● . Auson S. Greg. Naz. in Sanct. Bapt. 26. Revt .. 2. 5. 27. Menand . 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 26. Dan. ● 37. 38. 39. 1. 〈…〉 c. 17. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. * Lib. 2. Ch. ● . Rule 6. Nu. 65. * Rule 9. num . 7 , 8 , 9. 7. In Levit. qu. 57. In 1 Cor. 11. Rationale Divin . lib. 4. cap. 1. In 1 Cor. 11. homil . 24. 8. 9. 10. 11. 〈…〉 * Great Exemp . Disc. of Bapt. of Infants : Liberty of Proph. Sect. 18. edit . in folio . 2. 3. 4. 5. 1. De Virgin. veland . 2. Cap. 29. de Spii . 9. 3. 4. Ad Juba●● . 5. 〈…〉 6. Hist. compend . fere in initio , pag. 25. 7. 8. Epist. 58. 9. Juven . Sat. 2. 10. Ad Pomp●● , 11. 12. Orat. de vita S. Gregor . Thaum . Annal. A. D. 44. § 88. & A. D. 58. §§ . 76 , 77. & in Martyrol . ●ebr . 2. a De inventor . rerum lib. 5. cap. 2. b Lib. 2. cap. 9. & lib. 5. de origin . dignit . Gall. cap. 17. c Lib. de religione Romanorum in fine . d In lib. 1. & 2. de Roma triumphante . e Lib. 1. de purgatorio cap. 7. §. Tertia ratio . f Adv. Regem Jacobum in prima instantia cap. 1. 13. a De divinis Offic. b De offic . Eccles . c De consecrat . 14. Deuter. 7. 5. & 12. 4 De orat . cap. 12 Concil . Antisodor . c. 1. Concil . Turon . 2. Can. 13. 15. Can. 34. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 1 Joh. 3. 2 , 3. Notes for div A63844-e140600 1. 2. 3. 4. Lib. 1. Rule . 1. 5. 1 Cor. 7. 23. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. Prov. 8. 15. Wisdom 6. 3 , 4. Rom. 13. 1 , 2. John 19. 11. a L. 2. retract . c. 9. & ep . 105. ad Sixtum . b Cap. 20. lib. contr . collatorem . 12. 1 Pet. 2. 13. Rom. 13. 5. c In Rom. 13. c In Rom. 13. c In Rom. 13. d Ep. 54. ad Maced . Vide etiam S. Hieron . in c. 3. ad Titum . e Cap. placuit 16. q. 6. & in l. extat . ff . quod metus causa . f Gl. in cap. Jus gentium dist . 2. verbo Sedium . Capp . 1 , 2 , 23. q. 2. l. ait praetor . §. si debitorem . ff . de his quae in fraud , Creditorum . 13. 1 Cor. 7. 12. Lib. 5. Ethic. cap. 7. 14. 15. Unum necessarium Chap. 3. p. 101. 16. Lib. 2. de Baptis . c. 6. John 20. 17. 18. De Sepultur . cap. corripiantur . c. 25. q. 3. gl . ad verbum [ Major . ] Lib. 10. ep . 83. 19. * Numb . 16. 20. 21. 22. Lib. 1. de praecept . & dispens . c. 11. Cap. 12. Lev. 26. 15. Lev. 26. 15. Gloss. in cap. Metropolitanum 2. quaest . 7. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. Isai. 33. Luc. 1. Apoc. 1. & cap. 19. * 1 Pet. 2. 15. * See the Doct. and Pract. of Repent . chap. 4 p. 173. Galat. 5. 13. 1 Cor. 7. 20. 21 , 24. Lib. 3. instir . cap. 19. § 10. James 1. 25. Rom. 8. 12. Rom. 8. 1 , & 14. 1 Cor. 8. 9. Rom. 8. 22. Acts 13. 33. 1 Cor. 7. 23. Verse 24. Vide etiam Francisci de Silvestris opusculum de Evangelica libertate . 29. If a man have but a right understanding that it is all one before God to eat flesh o● egges , milk or fish ; that to him it matters not whether you wear a red or a white garment in your times of solemn prayer ; this is enough , says Calvin [ lib. 3. cap. 19. §. 10. instit . ] he need not tie himself to either , but if he does , his conscience is still free , though his action or choice be determined . And so it is though the law of his Superiour determines him . 1 Pet. 2. 19. De benefic . 3. 2. 2 ae q. 104. art . 5. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. Col. 3. 23. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. Vide Rule 6. of this chapter . Rule 4. of this chapter . 45. 46. Orat. 17. Apolog. 2. pro Christ. Lib. 1. de praecept . & dispens . c. 11 , 12. * Videat lector Latomi librum [ de Ecclesia & legis humanae obligatione ] & Claudium Carninum [ de vi & potestate legum humanarum ] Cajetanum verb ▪ praeceptum , Navarrum , Card. Toletum de hac materia in libello de 7. peccatis mortal . 1. 2. 3. Lib. 1. Offic. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. Lib. de bono conjug . cap. 16. 15. 16. 17. 18. 2. Clement . Exivi de Paradiso , de verb. signif . 3. * L. in causae . § ▪ idem ●omponius . ff . de minoribus . & l. item si precio . §. quemadmodum . ff . locati & conducti . Levit. 19. 1 Thes● . 4. 4. Cap. at si Clerici . in princip . de Judi ▪ Rom. 14. 5. Cap. 10. Epist. 91. Claudian . ad Honor. L. 1. ff . de legibus . In Hippia . Lib. 3. cap. 3. Ethic. lib. 8. c. 10. Lib. 4. Eth. cap. 1. Ubi suprà . De Clemen● . 1. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. Lib. 3. de legib . cap. 30. ● . 11. 1. 2. 3. 4. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. De Poenit. 7. 8. L. 18. ff . de poenis . l. fugitivus . ff . de verbor . signific . 9. Novel . 135. 1. Vide etiam Authent . ut factae novae constit . De benefic . q. 22. n. 14. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Lib. 2. Polit. c. 6. § leges dist . 4. l. dequibus ff . de legibus . Apolog. c. 4. 6. 7. 8. 9. * Rule 3. Panormit . c. cum olim . de cleric . conjug . 1. Cap. 2. de constitut . n. 6. L. omnes populi de justitia & jure . 2. 3. 4. 5. L. Qui non facit ff . de regulis juris . 6. 7. 1. Vide A. Gellium lib. 1. cap. 13. 2. 3. 4. 5. 1. * Nemo sibi putabit turpe quod aliis fuit fructu●sum . Patercul . lib. 2. in princ . 1 Chron. 29. 12. 1 Tim. 6. 15. Psal. 82. 6. 2. Rom. 13. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. See the Doctr. and Practise of Repentance , chap. 5. sect . 5. p. 280. 17. ●hilippi● . 8. 18. Gen. 9. 6. Lib. 4 Lib. 4. Etymol . c. 21. & habetur . dist . 4. can . factae sunt leges 1. 2. Exod. 21. 25 , 26. 3. Lib. 2. chap. 2. Rule 3. n. 8. 4. Levit. 22. 14. 5. Num. 5. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 6. 1 Cor. 11. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. De superstitione . Lib. 2. Ennead . 1. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. Lib. 1. Offic. 24. 25. 26. 26. Lib. 2. ordinat . Regal . tit . 9. l. 1. Ibid. tit . 15. 27. 28. Cap. Caeterum , & cap. Nonnulli de rescriptis . cap. Novit . in fine de his quae fiunt à praelato . 29. Lib. 17. cap. 7. Noct. Attic. 30. Virgil. lib. 4. Aeneid . & lib. 4. Geor. Alph. à Castro lib. 2. de leg . poen . cap. 7. 31. Lib. 1. de Divinat . Epist. ad Attic. Cap. in poenis de reg . ju● . lib. 6. 32. 1. 2. Lib. de mendac . c. 13. 3. 4. Vide Diogen . Laert. in Zenon . Alexander Aphrodisaeus in 2. de anima . Lucian . in Macrob. Galen . 5. de loc . affect . Plutarch . in Pericle . Suidas . ●lin . l. 1. ep . 12. * Lib. 15. a In Phaedon . Platon . b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 4. c Annal. 6. Vide Front. Ducaeum Tom. 1. S. Chrysost. n. 628. Lib. 3. de Virgin. In cap. 1. Jonae , in haec verba , Mittite me in mare . §. quod si ff . quod metus causâ . 5. Hii●or . Sep●entr . Exposit. in Johan . tract . 52. Et lib. 19. de Civit. Dei. Bell. Judaic . l. 3. c. 25. Lib. 3. Ethic. cap. 7. & lib. 5. cap. ult . Metamorph l. 7. fab . 25. Ubi suprá . 7. Lib. 1. cap. 20. de Civit. Dei. Eth. Nic. li. ● . cap. 11. 8. 9. Lib. 3. Instit. cap. 18. 10. Lib. de Senect . Somn. Scip. Vide Platonem in Phaedone . Lib. 1. Tuscul. Ad Carm. aur . Pyth. Jamb . 18. 11. In 12. Aeneid . 12. Lib. 5. c. 11. Eth. 13. 1 Macc. 6. 43. 14. 15. 16. Orat. de Provinciis consularibus . Adv. Jovinian . Lib. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal. 1. 4. Gothicor . 4. Lib. 6. c. 70. Aeneid 6. a Lib. 1. de civit . Dei , c. 20. 21 , 26. ep . 61. ad Dulcit . & l. 11. contra 2. ep . Gaudent . c. 23. b Excid . Hieros . 3. c. 17. c Epitom . log . c. 4. d Aethiop . 2. 1. 2. Exod : 22. 1. Ibid. Can. Miss . de consecrat . dist . 1. * Tacitè per●issum est quod sine ultione prohibetur . Tertull. 1. adv . Marc. 3. 4. 5. Lib. 1. Retract . c. 9. A. Gellius , lib. 20. cap. 1. 6. 7. 8. 9. Lib. 1. Offic. 1. Lib. 12. variar . hist. Lib. 6. de Rep. Clem. Alex. lib. 6. cap. 4. 2. 3. Prov. 13. 5. 30. 8. Psal. 5. 7. Col. 3. 9. Revel . 21. 8 , 27. 4. 5. S. Gregor . lib. 26. Moral . cap. 7. Epist 8. ad Hieron . Eurip. in Phoeniss . Lactant. 6. instit . 16. 6. 7. 8. Luc●● . Niceph. 16. c. 35. 9. 10. Homil. 5. de poenitent . Natali 5. S. Felicis . In Philopseu . Lib. 5. Constit. cap. 37. Lib. 3. Epist. 16. Quaest. 68. in Levit. 11. Ovid. 3. 〈◊〉 . 12. Sophocl . in Creusa . Caus. 22. qu. 2. c. Nequis . Lib. de pudicit . De mendacio , ad Consentium . 13. Lib. de mendac . cap. 13. 14. Num. 16. 15. 16. Habetur in compendio Navarri per Petr. Guivar . edit . Antverp . 1595. pag. 93. Pagina 82. Vide Compen . impress . Lugd. 1641. pag. 335. 17. S. Aug. lib. de bono viduit . cap. 22. 18. De verbi Apost . Dorotheus doctr . 2. n. 11. Eth. lib. 4. c. 7. Evagr. lib. 1. c. 15. hist. Niceph. lib. 14 c. 55. 19. Pindar . 2 Kings 6. 19. Lib. 1. de Sacerdotio . Livius l. 3. 29. Val●● . Max. Iliad . 8. De offic . l. 1. c. 29. Epist. 1. ad Bonifac. Hi●ius , Bell. Gallic . 8. c. 3. Cicero , lib. 3. Offic. Vide Orat. Cicer pro C● Rabirio . Appian . bel Civil . 1. Stromat . l. 1. c. 13. 20. Qu. 10 , & 11. in Josu● . Virg. L. 1. ff . de dolo male . Lib. 17. 21. a 5 Politic. c. 17. b Lib. 10. Pol. c. 38 , & 46 , 47. Sanazar. 1. Epig. 22. Lib. 2. Antiquit . 23. Lib. 3. de rep . 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. Lib. 6. in 1 Reg. c. 3. 30. 31. Isa. 38. 32. Theophylact. in 24. Matth. Moral . lib. 10. c. 27. 33. 34. S. Aug. de conflictu virt . & vitiorum . 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 8. l. Hist. c. 22. 41. 42. 43. ● . 2● . q. 3. art . 1. 44. Lib. de discipl . & habitu . virg . Orat. 21. 45. Vide Senecam epist. 115. 46. Epist. 99. 47. * Vide Aq●inat . in 3. ● . dist . 38. art . 3. ad 5. 48. Lib. 4. Eth. c. 7. 49. Vide in fine li. 1. de Sacerd. Serm. of Christian simplicity . 50. 1. 2. 3. Deut. 13. 9. 4. 5. 6. 7. * Jubet Deus ut manus nostras super minores semper habeamus , hoc est , ut peccantes eos assiduis verberibus corrigamus , n● amore inuili & indulgentia nimi● e●u●entur ad malum , & ad vitia nutriantur , Lactant. lib. 6. instit . 8. C●d . rubr . quando liceat se sine judice vindicare . 9. Rom. 12. 19. 10. 11. 12. Caus. 2. qu. 5. c. 22. monomachiam . Decret . tit . de vulgari purgat . 6 Stows Annals . 25. of Henry 13. 14. Lib. 5. hist. Ital. in Dobunis . Bald. 5. conf●● . 493. Horat. epist. l. 1. ep . 2. a De lingua Latina . b in verb. Duellum . c Amphitruo . d in lib. 1. Annal. Enn. e de Rep. lib. 1. cap. 26. f lib. 1. c. 3. g lib. 2. c. 8. h de Singul. certam . c. 3. i de Rep. c. 4. l. 7. k conclus . 76. l de Jure belli , lib. 1. c. 3. 15. Juvenal . De amicitia . 16. 17. 18. Vide Great Exemplar , part . 2. p. 363. * apud Lysiam . Serm. 2. 19. 20. 1. 2. 1 Cor. 6. 20. 3. 4. 5. Lib. 20. cap. 1. 6. Oratione pro Quintio , apud Livium , l. 6. 7. L. 1. C Theod. Vide Raevardum ad Ll. 12. Tabul . c. 8. Lib. 1. Cod. Theod. qui bon . ex leg . Jul. ced . & l. si victum . ff . de re judic . l. 2. C. de exact . tribut . l. 10. 8. In Rullum . In Catilin . 9. Lib. de Nabuthe , cap. 5. Offic. lib. 1. 10. Lib. de Tobia cap. 10. 11. Lib. de Tobia cap. 8. 3. p. q. 41. in 4. a. 4. Corol. lar . 3. in 2. 22. q. 108. a. 4. ad . 2. 12. Livius l. 38. Sueton. in Julio , c. 69. in August . c. 24. Livius l. 36. Lib. 45. a Lib. hist. 6. b Lib. 14 , & 17. c In Crasso . d Civil . 2. e Lib. 48. f In Opilio Macrone . 13. 14. 15. 1. Rom. 13. * Ad hoc tributa praestamus , ut propter necessaria militi stipēdium praebeatur . S. Aug. lib. 22. c. 74. c. Faust. Manich . Cicero prolege Manilia . 2. Lib. 5. Eth. cap. 8. 3. Matth. 22. 21. Rom. 13. 7. In Apolog. In 1. Reg. 14. 11. q. 1. c. 28. * Vectigalia sine Imperatorum praecepto , neque Praesidi , neque Curatori , neque Curia constituere , nec praecedentia reformare , & his vel addere , vel diminuere licet , ff . de Publican . l. 10. Vectigalia nova nec decreto civitatum institui possunt , Sever. C. de vectigal . nov . instit . non post . l. 2. & Gallien . l. seq . ait , Non solent nova vectigalia inconsultis principibus instituti . Placet nullum omnino Judicem de caetero Provincialibus inferendum aliquid indicere , ut ea tdntum sedulo cunctorum studio pensitentur , quae Canonis instituti forma complectitur , vel nostra clementia decernit inferenda , vel delegatione solemniter sanciente , vel epistolis praecedentibus , Constantin . l. 8. C. de excusat . mun . lib. 10. a Deuter. 20. b Tacit. hist. l. 4. c Lib. 1. ad Quintum fratr . ep . 1. 2. 3. 4. d Pra●crea cum pedagia , gui lagia , salinaria tibi legatus interdixerit , authoritate Apostolica duximus declarandum , illa esse pedagia , salinaria , guidagia interdicta , quae non apparent Imperatorum , vel Regum , ●el Later an●nsis Concilii largitione concessa , vel ex antiqua consuetudine à tempore cujus non extat memoria introducta . Innocent . 3. de verb. signif . c. super quibusdam , § 1. 5. L. Universi . C. de vectig . & l. omnium . C. eod . 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. * Quid est publicanus ? N●nne caput rapinae , & lex violentiae ? Quid est publicanus ? Praedo sine pudore , medius exterminii . Nónne immanior furibus publicanus ? Fur namque vel metuens furatur , hic autem delinquit confidenter . Fur laqueos tegit , timet , hic autem quicquid fecerit legem putat . Lex furem deterret ab illicitis , hic ad iniquum malitiae suae compendium legem trahit . Quis eo iniquior qui verbis justitia justitiam damnat , & armis innocentiae spoliat , vulnerat , occidit Innocentes ? lege utique legem per●ertit , & dum urget ad legem , exlex est , Laurent . Episc. Mediol . in Homil. Juvenal . Sat. 8. 1. 2. 3. Lib. 53. In Arg. trag . supplic . Decad. 1. l. 9. 4. 5. De Magistrat . August . 53. Tacit. in Agric. Lib. 7. De benef . cap. 4. Ibid. cap. 5. Cap. 6. 6. 4. ad Herennium . 7. 1 Sam. 8. Deuter. 17. 8. Contr. Christian . 9. 1 Consil. 245. 10. 11. 12. Illust. Quaest. 1. 1. 2. Instit. d. tit . 2. 3. 4. 5. * Vestri consilii , vestrae prudentiae est spectare quid deceat vos , non quantum liceat . Cic. pro Rabitio . Hieron . Muscornus tract . de Jurisdict . & Imp. Principes qui Superiorem non habent , plus puniuntur à Deo , & itaque caveant sibi , ne peccent . Castr. 11. C. de jud . * Vindicta certè maxima in nobis siua est . Cogunt timere ? odisse rursum possumus : jus●a odia superant omne vindictae genus . Meursi . 6. 〈◊〉 . 4. 〈◊〉 . Lib. de regno Apud 〈◊〉 . 7. In Eph●● . 6. 8. In Martyrol . Rom. 9. 10. 11. L. 3. C. de r●sta . L. 6. C. qui test . ●●c . po . 12. Lib. 20. 13. 14. Cassiod . var. l. 10. 16 , 17. 15. Authen : si q●is de eden . 16. L. 1. ff . de constitut . Princip . & § sed & quod Principi . instit . de Jure Natur. & praef . pandect . l. 1. ff . de offic . praef . praet . & Cod. de vet . Jur. enucleand . l. 1. § sed & hoc . * Lib. 8. * Fodder . 17. Comm. Pii 2. lib. 3. Lib. 20. de Civit . Dei , c. 26. Nov. 105. 18. Sen. Herc. Fur. Senec. De clement . Variat . 11. 19. 20. 21. 1 Kings 2. 26. 22. 23. 24. 25. * Vani capitis est existimare superiorem non posse evocare sine causae cognitione . Innoc. in c. ad aures de Temp. Ord. 1. 2. 3. Eccl. 10. 20. Eccles. 8. 2 , 3. Prov. 30. 31. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4. 5. 6. 1 Pet. 2. 13 , ad 17. vers . 7. Jude 8. 8. Biblioth . PP . Tom. 8. edit . Binian . Orat. 1. in Julian . * Et in 1 Timoth . c. 2. v. 1. * Et Epist. 54. ad Macedon . & tract . 6. in Johan . 9. 10. Orat. in obit . fratr . Satyri . apud Simon . Scard . lib. 5. de Civit. Dei. c. 21. 11. Polit. 7. c. 13. 1 Tim. 2. 2. lib. 3. Confess . cap. 8. 12. 13. 14. Dion . Cassius . 15. 16. Bell. Jugurth . lib. 1. Fam. ep . 9. 17. 18. 19. Eurip. Claudian . 1. 2. a De pontif . Rom. l. 2. c. 17. b Annal. Eccles. c Contr. Apol. Eccl. Angl. d Contr. Episc. Eliens . e in Comment . in Esther . f in Theatr. g de Justa abdicat . Henric. 3. h De jure Magistratuum . i De potestate Papae . k De temp . et spirit . Pontif. potestate . l Of the broken succession . 3. m de Presbyterio n in his last Reply o Christian. poli●iâ . p lib. disciplinae q loci comm . Theol. r Observat. in Psal. 1. s De jure regni apud Scotes . t treatise of Obedience u De jure magistratuum w Francogallia x Dial. 2. p. 65. 4. lib. 5. Annal. Boior : Epist. ad Perimannum Epis. Metens . 5. 6. 7. * Cum jus conferendi opi ●a sacerdotia ab Henrico Imp. vi fuerat extortum , ea res ( inquit Paulus AEmilius lib. 5. ) multum virium Imperatoriae Majestati detraxit in animis popularium , plus enim quam dimidium suae jurisdictionis perdidit . Auson . l. 4. Eutrop. l. 2. L. Flor. lib. 8. 1 Cor. 6. 8. Lib. 2. de Divinat . Horat. Orat. 5. in Ver●em . in Bacchis in Supplic . Novel . 42. * Eorum imperiis remp . amplificuam qui relizionibus paruissent , dixit Cicero , de Nat. Deor. l. 2. † Orat. de arusp . resp . contra Colot . 9. * Solo sacramento inclyti principes tuti sunt , Symmach . lib. 10. ep . 54. Maximum , dicente Catone ; majoribus nostris telum , ex quo plures pace susceptae quam bello gentes fuere devictae , quo solo continetur omnis societas , & dissoluto dissolvitur . Appius lib. 6. in fin . Omnium primum , rem ad multitudinem imperitam , & illis seculis rudem efficacissimam , Deorum metum injiciendum ratus est . Livius lib. 1. Primum enim militiae vinculum est religio , & signorum amor , & deserendi nefas . Senec. epist. 96. 10. 11. Matth. Westmonast . in Henr. 3. lib. 8. Rerum Gallicar . Aventin . lib. 7. Annal. in Sertorio . Diod. Sicul. lib. 6. c. 10. Florus lib. 3. c. 16. lib 2. De bello Judaic . cap. 12. 12. 13. lib. 2. cont● . Applon . Liv. lib. 15. Liv. lib. 39. 14. Liv. 5. dec . 3. & lib. 10. dec . 4. in Augusto , c. 31. Joseph . lib. 13. Antiq. Judic . c. 6. * Novel . 103. c. 2. 15. lib. 1. Paedag. c. 1. apud Cassiodorum , lib. 2. Variar . ep . 27. lib. 10. ep . 26. 16. Marsil . Ficin . in praefat . lib. Trismeg . Strabo lib. 5. In bell . Alexandr . Diod. Sicul. l. 6. c. 10. lib. 10. Aeneid . Fastor . lib. 2. De nat . Deor. 17. Festus Pompeius , lib. 17. Dionys. Halic . lib. 4. A. Gell. lib. 10. cap. 15. Liv. lib. 2. 18. Annal. lib. 3. 19. Hebr. 1. 2. Revel . 1. 5. 11. 17. 17. 14. 19. 16. 1 Tim. 6. 15. Matth. 28. 18. * Serm. de B. Virg. Synes . Matth. 20. 25. 20. 21. in Sent. c. 51. Epist. 75. S. August . Ep. 166. 22. 1. Contr. Crescon . l. 3. c. 51. 2. 3. 4. a 3. q. 6. c. 16 , 17. & 2. q. 8. c. 4. b 2. q. 3. c. 3. c 3. q. 6. c. 1. * 3. q. 9. 35. q. 6. 25. q. 2. c. 1. Ext. de juram . calum . 5. Novel . 133. C. de feriis . l. 3. & Cod. Theod. de fer . l. † Epist. 31. 1. Leo. 6. Novel . 54. * Ep. 2. ad Nepotian . 6. tom . 7. A. D. 541. 7. apud Radenon . in Frider. lib. 1. cap. 15. Epist. 166. l. 2. ind . 11. ep . 61. Epist. 10. c. 14. lib. 2. Cath. Concord . c. 40. 1. Homil. 23. in Epist. ad Rom. 2. Hist. l. 4. c. 15. Apolog. 2. Epist. ad Mauritium . Comm. in Tit. 1. de Privileg . c. super specula . c. innotuit , de Arbitr . c. 1. de No. oper . nunc . c. constitutus de In integr . restitut . c. authoritate , de Concess . praeb . in 6. 3. Vide Athan. de Synod . Socrat. l. 1. c. 25. Sozom. l. 2. c. 28. Theodor. l. 1. c. 20. id . ibid. c. 31. Athanas. Apol. 2 Socrat. l. 2. c. 14. Sozom. l. 3. c. 9. l. 2. Quorum appel . Cod. Theod. Socrat. l. 6. c. 16. * Vestra pia genua protensis manibus attingimus . Anastas . biblioth . in Symmacho . Epist. Hormisdae 56 , 57. Novel . 42. et ponitur in Concil . Gen. 5. Act. 1. Liberatus in Breviat . c. 22. 4. ad Can. 12. syn . Antioch . 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. Orat. 15. ad subd . tim . percul . 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. Isai. 43. 4. 19. 20. Ora. post reditum . in 5 tâ Synod . Act. 1. Tom. 2. Concil . Herman . in Chron. 21. tom . de Vinc. an●them . apud Baron . tom . 10. A. D. 904. ● . 17. Dist. 10. c. de capitulis . 2. q. 7. c. Nos si . 11. 9. 1. c. sicut enim . §. ex his . 2. q. 2. §. item . 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. De communi Apost . R. 6. 27. * A. D. 1040. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. Epist. 64. ad Theodorum medicum . 1. Polit. l. 3. 2. 3. 4. Vide Luitpran . lib 6. c. 6. Cuspinian , & Theodoric . à Niem in vita Othon . 3. lib. 4. Chron. 5. 6. lib. 39. ●pud Cyril . ep . 17. 7. de vita Constant . lib. 4. c. 24. Epist. 166. 8. In Concii . Roman . sub Martino l. lib. 4. cap. 41. 9. 10. a de vita Constant . l. 7. c. 6. b lib. 1. hist. c. 1. c lib. 1. c. 16. d lib. 2. hist. c. 5. * apud Athanas. apol . 2. apud Athanas , ibid. Theodor. lib. 2. c. 16. in dial . & Liberius in Epist. ad Hosium Cordub . apud Baron . Tom. 3. A. D. 353. n. 19. * Synod . constit . libell . apud Cy●il . Ep. 4. Epist. 17. apud Cyrilium . In Concil . Chalced. act . 1. scribensad Dioscorum Alex. Leo Epist. 21. Tom. 1. Epist. RR. PP . de Concord . l. 3. c. 16. 11. Vide etiam Baron . Tom ▪ 5. A. D. 441. n. 103. Theod. l. 2. c. 19. 20. * fine 6 tae act . 12. Apol. ad . Ruffin . lib. 2. apud Baron . A. D. 590. to . 8. n. 40. 13. Novel . 146. 14. Vide l. nemo . ff . de summa Trinitate . Nicet . Choniat . 23. q. 5. c. principes . 15. * Imperator , ut communis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 existens & nominatus , Synodalibus praest sententiis & robur tribuit , Ecclesiasticos ordines componit , & legem dat vitae politiaque ●orum qui altari serviunt . Et rursus ut uno verbo dicam , solo sacrificandi excepto ministerio , reliqua Pontificialia privilegia Imperator repraelentat ? Demetr . Chomaten . in resp . Orien . F●agrius Leonis Imp. Concilii Chalced. approbarionem vecat decisionem de fide , lib. 3. c. 4. &c. 5. videat lector totum hujus re● processum ex l. 1. Heracl●● , incip . Cum sanctus , inter constit , Imperial . Cum. S. ( inquit ) Sophronius , tunc fummo Sacerdotio fungens Hierosolymis , subjectis sibi sacerdotibus convocatis synodice demonstrasset eos qui unam in duabus Christi naturis volun●aiem atque energiam affirmarent palam unam quoque natur●● statuere , eique Johannes Papa Romanus assensus esset , Imperator edictum proponit , Neque singularem , neque duplicem in Christo energiam esse asserendam , 25. q. 1. c. Saragendum . Novel . 123. c. 10. 16. 1. Tortur . Tort. 2. 3. Sozom. l. 7. c. 12. in 5 ta Synod . Constant. 4. 5. apud Acta Concil . Ephes. in liter . Theod. ad Synod . apud Surium die 5. Jun. Epist. 164. 6. lib. 5. Epist. 32. lib. 1. Cod. Theod. de relig . Novel . Valen. de Episc. Jud. l. graviter . ibid. Novel . 89. Cicer. lib. 1. de leg . 7. Concil . Latersub Leon. 1. lib. de Myster . sign . in Biblioth . SS . PP . 1. Hom. l. 4. ex verb. Isaiae . 2 Kings 9. 4. 2. 3. 4. 5. in l. 1. in verbo Potest . FF . de jurisdict . Orat. in Verrem 4 ta . Cap. 33. 6. 1 Cor. 3. 2 Cor. 5. 2 Cor. 6. Act. 26. Luke 12. lib. 5. contr . Parmen . Homil. 35. in Matt. apud Chrysost. ibid. 1 Cor. 9. 7. in Apologet. in Epitaph . Nepot . Ep. 3. Homil. 3. in Acta Apost . * Homil. 3. in Tit. Hom. 3. in Acta . Hebt . 13. 17. 1 Thess. 5. 12. v. 14. 8. Deuter. 17. 8. contr . Appi●● . l. 11. c. 6. 9. a 1 Corinth . homil . 15. b de Poenit. l. 1. c. 17. S. August . contr . Epist. Parmen . l. 3. c. 1. 2 Cor. 13. 2. 1 Cor. 11. 30. Epist. 75. 10. 2 Cor. 12. 12. Homil. 14. in 1 Cor. Homil. 29. in 2 Cor. Homil. 5. in 1 Tim. 11. 12. Homil. 13. in 2 Tim. 13. 14. Orat. pro Cluentio . 15. 16. 17. 1. Epist. ad Florent . Pupian . lib. 4. ep . 9. Homil. 61. in Matth. 2. 3. 4. 5. 1 p●●t . Clem. 1. in a●e . 6. Epist. ad Trallian . Epist. ad Magnes . 7. in Apologe . 8. Ep. ad Cornel. Papam lib. 1. ep . 5. 9. in Regul . Monachor . cap. 17. * Episcopacy asserted Sect. 34 , 35. 1. ad Trallian . ad Magnes . Epist. ad Ephes. 2. 3. lib. de Praecepto & dispensation● 4. ad Rusticum Monach. 5. 1. In regul . brevior . cap. 14. 2. Homil. 6. in Genes . 3. Lib. de jejunio in psychicos 4. 5. 6. 7. l. cum aurum . 19. §. perveniamus ff . de aur . & argent . leg . 8. 9. 11. 12. * c. cum contingat . extr . de jurejur . 14. 15. 16. 17. Hebr. 13. 17. 18. Philem. 8. vers . 19. 20. 21. Hebr. 13. 17. 22. 1 Thessal . 4. v. 2 , 3 , and 6. 23. 24. 25. Philemon . 8 , ● . 26. 27. 28. 1. 2. 3. * in act . Concil . C. P. † Vide Chapt. 3. Rule 8. hujus libri . 4. * Vide Concil . Tolet. 6. 5. 1. 2. 3. Leunclav . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 4. Annal. 3. Declam . 4. de Clementi● 5. 6. lib. 6. de civit . Dei. de Divinat . 2. 7. Levit. 7. 20. 2 Chron. 30. 28. Levit. 1. 5. 2 Chron. 29. 24. & 30. 17. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. * Epist. 171. 1 Timoth. 5. 1. 7. Homil. 4. de verbis Isai. Vidi Dominum . 8. Euseb. lib. 6. c. 27. Chrysost. adv . Gentes . Basil. Ep. 47. Paulin. apud Baron . A. D. 387. Theod. lib. 5. c. 17. Leo Aug. orat . de vita Johan . Chrysostom . Niceph. lib. 13. c. 34. Aug. Epist. 6. in append . Greg. lib. 2. Ep. 36. Anastas . Biblioth in Greg. 2. 9. * ultrò à communione abstinuisse Theodosium aiunt Ruffinus lib. 2. c. 18 ▪ & Waremund . ab Ere●b . c. 2. 〈…〉 reg . n. 35. et seqq . lib. 2. Ep. 36. 10. 1 Sam. 15. 25. 11. 12. ad Can. 12. Synodi Ancyranae 13. 14. Claud. in Paneg. Mallii . 15. 16. Amos. 7. 10. Amos 7. 13. 2 Chron. 25. 16. 17. 18. de Maledic . c. 1. tit . C. Si quis Imper maled . 1. 2. Hom. 50. in Psal. 101. 3. Can. 10. Vide distinct . 18. cap. placuit . &c. si quis autem , & cap. si quis Episcopus . 4. 5. 6. 7. Contr. Epist. Parmen . l. 3. c. 2. 8. S. Cyril . Ep. 18. ad Caelestinum . Paulus Diacon . degest . Longob . lib. 3. c. 12. 9. Theodoret. lib. 4. c. 14. Baron . A. D. 795. 10. in Josu . Hom. 7. 11. 12. 13. 14. Cap. 3. Epist. 62. 15. * Chapt. 2. Rule . 2. Num. 15 16. Act. 10. Cod. de summa Trinit . l. 17. in Psal. 5. poenit . in it . Tract . 27. in Johan . ubi suprà 18. Matth. 18. 15 , 16 , 17 , 18. 19. * Numb . 1. of this Rule . 1. in Jerem. c. 23. De vita spirit . an . lect . 2. ad em . 2. 3 Tract . 6. in Matth. In Evange . Homil. 26. In Josue . Homil. 21. 6. In 5 Penit. Psal. 7. Lib. 1. ep . 11. Epist. 1. 8. 9. De vita Spirit . anim . lect . 4. corol . 7. 10. 11. 12. Lib. 5. de Rep. Eccles. cap. 9. n. 23 , 24. * Chap. 2. Rule 2. 13. 14. Cap. 24. 1. 2. lib. 1. Ep. 4. Rom. 1. 29 , 30 , 31. 3. Cap. 2. Can. 10. a●● 11. a Cap. 7. b Cap. 73. c Cap. 15. d Cap. 39. e Cap. 33. f Cap. 8. & 21. g C. 9. 4. Epist. 93. 5. 6. in Hecuba . 7. de verbo Domini , Homil 15. 8. Levit. 25. 47. Matth. 21. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 1. 2 Cor. 2. 9. 2. 3. 4. Consult . Art. 23. Novel . 123. c. 12 , 13. Lib. 32. contra Faustum Manich . c. 13. * Lib. 2. Chap. 2. Rule 2. 5. 6. Reginald . prax . fori poenit . l. 4. c. 12. sect . 3. p. 148. n. 133. 1. 2. 3. a Apol. 2. ad Anton. b lib. 4. Ad. haer . c. 34. c lib. 8. contr . Celsum . d Mystag . Catech. 3. & 4. e in . Johan . lib. 10. c. 13. f lib. De spir . S. cap. 27. g lib. 2. Contr. Par. h in 2. Tim. Hom. 2. Serm. de prodit . Jud. i de Sacram. lib. 4. c. 4. k Ep. 1. & Ep. 85. ad Evagrium , & in Sophon . c. 3. l de Trinit . lib. 3. c. 4. contra Faust. Manich. lib. 20. cap. 13. & Serm. 28. de verbis Domini . m Dial. 1. n Serm. 5. de Paschate . o Dial. l. 4. ● . 58. p de Fide. l. 4. c. 14. q in 1 Cor. cap. 10. r lib. de Corpore Domini . 4. 5. 6. Epist. 85. Panormitan . in capit . Majores in princip . in 5 10 Notab . 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 1. 2. * 1 Cor. 7. 40. 3. 4. 5. Epist. 54 , ad Marcell . Serm. 6. de 40 ma Serm. 9. Origin . l. 6. c. 19. p. 83. a. Biblioth . PP . Graecolat . T. 1. p. 839. 6. 7. Epist. 119. ad Januar. in Psal. 110. in Isai. l. 16. c. 58. in Jonae cap. 3. 8. Vide Bellar. lib. 1. de cleric . c. 28. §. quinta propositio . S. Aug. in Psal. 90. Homil. in Matth. 47. 9. lib. 5. cap. 22. Grae. 21. Latin. de vita contemplat . lib. 2. cap. 24. lib. De jejun . cap. 13. Cap. 2. Cathemet . hymn . 8. in Marc. cap. 2. Epist. 68. ad Casulanum . 10. Collat. 22. c. 30. Cap. 9. in Vet. Test. T. 5. Hom. in eos qui Pascha jejunent . Epist. 119. ad Januar. apud Euseb. lib. 5. cap. 26. in Galat. l. 2. * de Offic. Eccles . l. 1. c. 36. † de Instit. Cleric . lib. 2. cap. 20. * Homil. 10. in Genes . 11. * ubi suprà , cap. 34. † de Divin . offic . l. 4. c. 9. 12. Sozom. l. 7. cap. 19. Petav. in not ● ad Epiph. p. 361. Tertull. de jejun . c. 15. Cap. 14. Dissert . ad Ignat. cap. 12. de Verbo Dei lib. 4. c. 11. 13. lib. 5. c. 22. Hist. lib. 12. c. 32. lib. de Orat. c. 14. Vide lib. 2. Chapt. 2. Rule 6. Numb . 55 , 56. 14. 15. apud Socrat. lib. 2. Hist. cap. 3. lib. 5. Haeretic . fabul . cap. 29. lib. 5. Hist. cap. 26. lib. de Jejun . c. 14. lib. de Jejun . cap. 2. 16. Epist. can . ad Basil. lib. 3. Exp. fidei & hae●●s . 75. 17. Epist. 54. ad Marcel . lib. de jejun . c. 15. lib. 4. de offic . Eccles. c. 37. a lib. 4. de instit . ●●●ic . c. 1. b lib. 6. Rational . de 1ª 40 mae Dominic . c Hist. lib. 5. c. 22. d lib. 7. cap. 19. in notis ad Tertull. de jejun . * A. D. 460. Can. 50. 18. Collar . 21. cap. 28. ubi suprà 19. Collat. 21. c. 27. lib. 40. Homil. Hom. 16. * Hac clausula inseritur in loco non suo : oportuit enim p●st narrationem de Ecclesiis Grac● & Alexandrina interseri . Videat lector Hugonem Menardum in notis ad Gregor . Sacram. qui etiam aliter emendat hunc locum satis mendosum . * lib. 5. c. 22. Homil. 16. ad pop . Antioch . lib. 7. c. 19. lib. 12. c. 34. Epist. 118. ad Januar. Serm. 4. de 40 ma 20. 21. contr . Faustum Manich. l. 30. cap. 5. 22. * de j●juniis & 40 ma 23. Stromat . 7. Co●●a ●●ych . ● 2. 13 , 15. 24. 1. 2. Vide Surium in Epist. ad lectorem , ante Concil . Ferrar. tom . 4. Concil . * in Tract . de Concil . Basil. circa princ . n. 6. Vide etiam Nicolaum de Clemangiis Vide prooemiū pragmat . sanct . Guil. Benedict . in repetit . cap. Raynutius . * Chapter 3. Rule 7. and Chapter 4. Rule 5. 3. 1. Epist. 76. ad Casulanum Presbyter . 2. lib. 3. c. 9. lib. de Virg. veland . * see the Divine institution of the order and offices Minister . sect . 4. Disput. 18. in 1 Cor. 11. in solut . 8 vi . dub . 3. lib. 3. Paedagog . cap. 3. lib. 8. Registri , Epist. 10. 4. Epist. 86. Epist. 118. 5. lib. 5. Hist. cap. 21. 6. Plaut . Trinum . Baldus in l. observare , §. proficisci , circa fin . ff . de officio proconsul . & leg . * See the VIth Rule of the last Chapter of this Book . 7. 8. C. si Judex laicus desent . excommunicat . lib. 6. 9. lib. 8. Epigr. 48. * Vide Liliú Giraldum Syntag. 1. Deorum , titulo de Diis ex humanis actionibus : & Chartarium lib. de Deorum●maginibus . a lib. 2. Paedag. cap. 10. b Orat. 3. sub finem . * ubi suprà , & lib. 3. cap. 11. † sub finem vitae Aedesil . An. Dom. 57. n. 77. Epist. 146. lib. 2. de Legib. Videat lector , si , placet , Plutarchum lib. de Iside sub initium , & 26. Rom. quaest . & Theodor. orat . 2. de Provid . & Eliam Cretensem in Nazian . orat . 4. in initio , Arrianum lib. 3. cap. 1. & Philon. Jud. lib. de plantat . Noae . 10. 11. Epist. 11● . cap. 1. Homil. de Rogat . 12. Resp. 2. cap. 4. * Lib. de Eccl. Hi●●●●ch . cap. de Baptismo . Apud Euseb. lib. 6. c. 43. Epist. 76. De Poenit. c. 6. De rebus Eccle. cap. 26. In illud 3. Johan . Nisi quis renatus &c. 13. Adv. Praxeam c. 28. De corona milit . c. 15. Lib. 2. de Sacram . cap. 7. in Dictis & interpret . Script . qu. 91. Vide August : Homil. 4. & apud Gratian . de Consecr . dist . 4. cap. 76. * Can. 49. Lib. 4. Har●t . fabul . 14. 15. Can. 5. aliàs 6. 1. 2. Cap. 20. Lib. 2. c. 11. 3. a Ubi supra . b In Defens . pacis part . 2. c. 23. c L. 7. Annal. Boiorum . d In ● . Bene à Zenone , C. de quadrien . praescript . e In Confut. Primat . ● apae 2. consider . princip . f In Henrico 3. g In parte 2. A. D. 1247. h Lib. de ruina & reparar . Eccl. i In Praefat. libri de sacris Ecclesiae Ministeriis , impres . 1551. k Alliacens . de Reformat . ●ccles . consid . 2. See also the Vergers Dream made in Latine in the time of Charls the fifth , and translated into French. 4. 5. Baron . A. D. 499. n. 36. Lib. 4. Epist. 2. Lib. 4. Epist. 3. Lib. 1. Fp. 3. Epist. 5. Cyprian de unit . Eccles. Vide S. Cypr. l. 1. ep . 3. & lib. 5. ep . 6. S. Ambrose in 1 Cor. 11. In Quaest. Vet. & N. Test. q. ult . & ad fratres in Eremo , cap. 37. 6. * Lib. 2. Cap. 1 , 5 , 6. Epist. 288. 1. 2. 3. Galat. 5. 1. 4. 5. 6. * Rule 13. n. 9. Vide etiam c. 13. & 15. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. Mark 7. 4. 15. 16. Epist. ad Epis. Basil. 17. Lib. 2. de bonis operib . c. 9. § tertio addit . Rom. 14. 17. Coloss. 2. 16. 18. * Beliar. ubi supra c. 11. § item . Lib. 2. Senten . cap. 44. Epist. 14. Homil. 3. ad pop . Antioch . & hom . 4. & hom . 16. L. 3. de vita contemplat . cap. 10. 19. Lib. 2. de vit . contempl . cap. 23. Lib. 1. hist. 11. Lib. 17. cap. 32. hist. Theodoret. hist. relig . in Marciano . 20. 21. Lib. 5. hist. cap. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 1. 2. Contra Celsum lib. 7. 3. 4. 5. Coloss. 2. 6. 1. L. Prospicit . ff . qui & à quibus . 2. 3. 4. Lib. 14. Hier. 5. C. quadragesima . de consecr . dist . 5. & cap. 2. §. cum autem de observ . jejun . 6. 7. Lib. 1. Fast. 8. lib. 1. Aphor. 13. a de Victus 〈◊〉 in acut . b in Specim . m●d . Christ. lumin . 2. c lib. 1. Var. lect . c. 18. d libell . de Esu carnium . e Comm. in Isaac de di●●a particul . Horat. serm . lib. 2. Sat. 2. 9. Horat. Serm. l. 2. sat . 2. * C. non dico . &c. non me●●ocriter . de cons●●cer . dist . 5. Pseudol . Act. 3. Scen. 2. Mantuan . 10. Mostell . Act. 3. Scen. 2. Casina , Act. 2. Scen. 8. * Vide Paul. Zacchiae Quae. medico-legal . lib. 5. tit . 1. quaest . 2. Lib. 2. de Conviv . cap. 25. vide Athenaeū lib. 1. Deip. cap. 25. * lib. 3. Saturnal . cap. 13 15. Metamorph. de Re cibar . lib. 8. cap. 1. 11. Horat. ubi supr●● . 12. 13. 1. 1. Cor. 14. 26. Ephes. 4. 29. 2. Vide ult . caput 2. libri . Can. 29. Lib. 3. cap. 17. 3. Ephes. 4. 16. 2 Corin. 10. 8. 2 Cor. 13. 10. 4. Rule 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ▪ of this chapter . 5. 6. 7. Lib. 1. contr . Ma●cion . Dial. adv . Luciferianos . Cap. 1. In Can. 82. Synod . 6. in Trullo . 8. Epist. 119. cap. 19. * S. Cypriande lapsis : & epist. 56. 9. 10. 11. 22● . q. 91. art . 2. Quaest. 107. ad Orthod . in Psalm . 150. lib. 1. Ep. 457. ubi suprá in Psalm . 12. 13. Juven . Sat. 6. 14. 15. 16. Platina in vita Pii 2● . & Sabellicus Ennead . 10. lib. 6. in c. cum olim . de cleric . conjugat . Vide etiam Sleidan . lib. 3. A●t . 23. De Planctu Ecclesiae lib. 2. art . 73. a Cap. 20. lib. 4. de Eccles. b Controvers . 15. sub initio . c Lib. 7. de just . & jur . q. 6. art . 1. d Gravam . 75 , & 91. e De vita spirit . animae , sect . 4. corol . 14. prop. 3. f De invent . ●erum lib. 5. c. 4. g Lib. de conversione ad cl●ricos , cap. 20. h part . 2. tit . 46. i 183. lect . in Sapient . k De corrupto Eccles. statu . l De reformatione Eccles. m Opusc. contr . Clericos concubinar . concl . ult . 1 Cor. 7. 17. In actis concil . Nicen. Paris . impress . cap. 3. p. 170. Acta ipsa è Vaticana Bibl. prodierū● ; latina facta sunt ab Alfonso Pisano & Rober. Balforeo Scoto . a Hist. l. 1. cap. 4. b Lib. 2. cap. 14. c Verb. Paphnutius . d Lib. 8. c. 19. e Cap. Nicena , dist . 31. f Hist. Eccl. lib. 1. cap. 6. g Cap. 122. h Cap. 41. Haeres . 67. they were their gallants , * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apud Epiphan . haeres . 63. Epist. 62. Orat. 17 , & Orat. 18. edit . Savil. * Videat lector qui velit plura de sensu hujus vocabuli & Canonis , Gabrielem Vasquiū in 3. disp . 247. c. 4. & Micha●lem Medinam lib. 2. de continentia , c. 21. & Georgium Calixtum de conjug . Cleric . p. 174. * De vita spirit , animae u●● supra . Epist. 43. ad Chromatium * 1 Cor. 7. 7. Matth. 19. 11. Ad Demetriad . virg . In Jeremiam lib. 2. cap. 7. Philippicâ 18. Epist. 8. Lib. 6. haeres . 60. In Levit. l. 15. Lib. de agone Christian. cap. 31. Contra Jovin . lib. 1. De convers . ad Clericos cap. 29. Epist. 15. Extrem . libro de vera Virgin. Baptista Mantuan . in vita Divi Hilarii . In Matth. tract . 24. 18. 19. De S. Virginit . c. 16. Ad Philadelph . Lib. 7. Strom. Lib. 1. c. 11. Greg. Naz. verba ex transl . Volaterrani . S. Chrysost. hom . 21. in Gen. 20. 1 Cor. 7. 34. Auson . In fun . Gorgō . In fun . Gorgō . Stromat . 3. * Inter Epist. Augustini . Epist. 27. & 29. ●uaest . Ve● . & N. Test. qu. 127. In 1 ep . Tim. hom . ●0 . in 1 Cor. 7. Ad 14. Annal. n. 74. a lib. de Planctu Eccl●s . 2. art . 15. A. D. 1330. b in Johan . 16. c 4. dist . 27. art . 1. q. 3. d hist. lib. 100. e lib. 5. de Provident . Dei. 21. 26. qu. 2. cap. Sors . de Cleric . conjug . cum olim . 22. dictinct . 31. c. Aliter . dist . 28. cap. 8. 23. de Offic. lib. 1. cap. ult . 1 Cor. 7. 2. Baron . A. D. 1059. & A. D. 1065. apud Baron . A. D. 1075. Matth. Paris Hist. Anglor . A. D. 1125. * O bo●e Calixte , nunc omnis elerus edit te . Nam olim Presbyteri solent ●xoribus uti . Id praevertisti quondam cum Papa fuisti : Ergo tibi festum nunquam celebrabit honestum . Sic non nimis facunde , sed vere nimis questus est olim non nemo . † Lib. 6. Hist. Angl. A. D. 970. Vide 27. q. 1. cap. ut lex . & Clem. cap. li●eras de filiis Presbyter . & Innocent . c. ut clericorum . de vita & honestate cleric . 24. lib. 6. const . Apost . cap. 17. 25. 26. in quodlib . contr . Lutherum . 27. Cap. 10. Tripart . hist. lib. 6. cap. 14. Orat. contr . Arianos . Dist. 31. C. aliter 28. 27. q. 1. cap. ut lex . Epist. 200. Epist. 201. Epist. 321. ad Johan . Fontem . Lib. 7. de Just. & jure q. 6. art . 2. Justinian . Nov. 123. cap. 13. Carm. de sua vita . Habetur 1. Dist. 3. c. Quoniam . 29. Alexand. 3. cap. sanè de Cler. Conjug . Vide Cajetan . opusc . tom . 1. tract . 27. Lib. 1. ep . 11. Haeres . 60 , & Haeres . 61. Epist. ad Demetriad . Lib. de Bono conjugal . & habetur dist . 27. c. quidam . De Monogam . Epist. ad Ocean . a Glossa in Dist. 34. can . Fraternitas hanrem exhorruit . Ecce casus , ubi plus juris habet luxuria quam castitas : quia castus repelleretur , si contraxisset cum secunda ; sed fornicator non . Vide etiam S. August . Epist. 64. in locum Apost . 1 Tim. 3. b ad Ocean . tom . 2. Lib. 3. cap. 2. Spalat . l. 2. cap. 10. n. 75. Tertull. ubi suprá . Serm. 66. in Cantica . Halach I sho●● . cap. 15. a Quodl . 4. Art. 13. b in Sent. 4. dist . 27. q. 4. c in 3. part . tom . 3. disp . 24. cap. 5. Mantuan . 1. * lib. 2. Chap. 3. Rule 14. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. a Lib. 3. cap. 40. & lib. 5. c. 20. lib. 4. cap. 63 , & 43. b Lib. 3. cap. 12. c de Praescript . & contr . Marcion . l. 4. d In prooem . l. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . e Epist. ad Pompei . f Ad S●rap . de Spir. S. g Serm. cont . Sab. & Arrium . h Haeres . 31. i Adv. Lucifer . k Contr. Faust. Manich. lib. 11. cap. 2. l Cap. antepenult . * Rule 14. 1. 2. lib. 3. de vi●a Constant. c. 6. de Synod . 3. 4. S. August . Epist . 48. & Epist . 111. Vide Gratian. dist . 9. Cyril . Hier. Catech. 4. S. Hieron . Ep. 19. & Ep. 76. * Praefat. in comment . de Locis com . l. 7. c. 3. concl . 3 , & 4. † Concion . in Epist. ad Rom. cap. 14. pag. 606. 5. 1. lib. 3. cap. 7. de Rerum inventor . l. 4. cap. 12. 2. 3. in Epist. & Consiliis theologicis . 4. 5. apud Stobaeum 6. 7. Epist. 124. ad Alipium . ubi suprá . 8. 9. 10. 1. Hugo de S. Victore lib. 1. de Sacram. c. 7. lib. 2. de Legib. Seneca l. 3. de Benef. c. 1. in lib. 2. Georg. * In verbis per totam vitam parentes venerari maximè decet , levium enim volatiliumque verborum gravissima imminet poena . Plato . l. 4. de repub . 2. l. 1. in fi . C. si rect . provi . in 2. lec . 3. Ecclus. 3. 10. Ephes. 6. 2 , 3. Ezek. 22. 7. Orpheus . Plato lib. 11. de Leg. 4. 5. Trinum . Act. 3. 6. 7. Plaut . Trinum . Act. 3. 8. Trinum . ubi supr . Terent. Adelph Act. 1. Scen. 1. ibid. Prov. 28. 24. 9. 1. * Si quis in●●●●● fuerit in parente 〈◊〉 Magistratuum s●● incapax Xenoph. l. 2. 〈◊〉 & fact . 〈◊〉 2. Deater . 21. 18. 3. § final . inst . de noxa . l. Divus . ff . ad leg . Pomp. de parricid . & toto tit . C. de his qui Parent . vel fil . occid . Hebr. 12. 9. Ecclus. 3. 8. Ephes. 6. 4. Coloss. 3. 21. Adelph . Act ▪ 1. Sc. 1. lib. 5. Epist. 20. lib. 1. c. 14. de Clement . Declam . 259. Orat. pro Rosc. Amer. 1. Sebast. Monticul . de Patria potest . 2. * Matth. 15. 6. 1 Tim. 5. 17. Offic. 1. in l. Si libertis : §. manumissis : ff . de alim . In Luc. 18. l. Unic . C. de ingrat . liber . in vita Solon● 3. 4. Metamorph. 8. Iliad . 4. 5. 1. lib. 2. de Legib. Alciat . lib. 1. praeterm . in verb. sacra . * Panormit . in cap. 2. de convers . infid . & Baldus in l. item in potestate . ff . de juperson . 2. Tit. 3. Comment . in Genesin . 3. 4. 1. 2. 3. 4. 1. 2. lib. 10. de Anima c. 57. lib. 16. c. 5. 3. lib. 10. 4. 1. 2. lib. 2. cap. 7. idem ibid 3. A. Gell. ibid. 4. Plutarch . lib. de Vitios . verecund . 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 1. 2. 3. 2. 2● . qu. 88. art . 9. Bellar. l. 2. de Monachis , c. 36. 4. 5. advers . Marcion . Can. 16. 6. a lib. 1. de Virgin . b Epist. 109. 110. ● Aug. Epist. ●d Bonifac. Comit. in quaest . fuse explic . q. 15. libr. de Providentia . lib. 5. cap. 95. * tit . de iis qui pueros vel puellas occiderint , vel totonderint . 7. Terent. 8. lib. 6. de Asino a●reo . ad Uxotem . Ibid. l. 2. in fi . ff . de statu hominum . Genes . 24. Judges 14. 2 , 4. Exod. 34. 16. Deuter. 7. 3. 1 Cor. 7. Andromach . Eurip. lib. de Patriarch . 9. Xenoph. lib. 8. in Stich. Andria , Act. 5. Scen. 3. in respons . Matrimon . Matth. Monachi . 10. & habetur 30 q. 5. Can. 38. in Can. Patrum . in Graecor . Nomocan . et habetur 32. q. 2. in tit . de foemin . non consecrat . cap. 33 , 36. q. 2. placuit . 11. Ibid. Vide etiam Concil . Paris . 36. q. 2. 27. q. 2. nullus . 12. 13. Declam . 257 , & 376. lib. 3. in Laconic . in Erato , l. 6. 14. c. tuae . de Spons . extr . vide Ascanium Clement . Amerin . de patria potest . cap. 6. effect . 6. l. Divi fratres . ff . de jure patron . l. Filius 25. ff . de ritu Nuptiarum . l. 3. §. Emancipatus . ff . de cont . tab . * Phalar . Epist. 143. cap. 9. Cap. 9. * Ulpian . l. 3. §. si emancipatus . ff . de bonor . possess . contr . tabulas . Hoc observant Giaeci ad l. 10. de sponsal . l. 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . tit . 1. in Can. Pasil . 38. in Can. PP . C. 1. extra . de conjug . servor . Gen. 26. 35. 15. 16. C. cum causam . de rapt . extra . Deuter. 22. lib. Sentent . 2. tit . 19. Idem dixitvetus Scholiastes ad Paulum . * Exod. 22. 16 , 17. * O sententiam necessitate confusam● parcit & s●vit , dissimulat & animadver●it . Tertull. 18 , 9 , 10 , 11. Exod. 22. 17. Quintilian . declam . 376. 18. ●jus autem potestatis . Inst. de potest . Patr. & l. nam in civium . & l. item in potestate . ff . de his qui sant sui & alieni juris . 19. 20. in Encomio . 21. Homil. 11. in Levit. In Basi●ico . 22. Vale. Max. l. 2. c. 2. 23. Cap. 81. 24. 25. l. oratione 16. §. 1. ff . de rit● nuptiar . l. 3. D. eod . 26. 27. de clandest . Matrim . impress . Paris . 1556. in Burchard . & in decretis . Idem dixit Lucius 3. in C. cum causam de rapt . extra . 28. Seneca controv . l. 3. c. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Ismeniae & Ismen . 5. Epist. ad Paulum . Orat. 2. in Genes . l. 4. 29. Epist. 233. l. filia . 20. C. de inoffic . testam . & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . lib. 28. c. 4. Constanti●n . Harm●nopul . Epitom . l. 4. tit . 7. §. 12. Liv. lib. 4. lib. 3. tit . 1. §. 7. in Abramio . lib. 1. de Sacerdot . Origen . ubi supra . 30. 31. Andria , Act. 1. Scen. 5. ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Eclogis legationum . 32. Tacit. Annal. 3. Manuel Palaeolog . orat . 7. a ● . §. 1. de his qui sui vel alien . jur . Dec●am . 10. 33. Senec. controv . 1. 6. lib. 2. c. 7. * Matthaus Monachus legit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ut filiū etiam compre● 〈…〉 malè , quia eo loci JC. 〈…〉 quitur de filio & filia , & de filio controversia non erat . Harm●nopalo a. conscntiunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. 28. tit . 1. in dial . Meretr . 34. in Charidemo . l. D. Adrianus . ff . ad legem Pompeian . de partic . Advers . Marcion . 35. apud A. Gell. lib. 11. c. 4. Eurip. in Archelao . 1. Cicero lib. 2. de Invent. 2. Horat. l. 3. od . 24. 3. Cap. in his . de verb. signif . l. 4. ff . de legib . lib. 4. de Trinit . 4. l. 19. ff . de legibus . Orat. pro Gaecin . Zonar . l. contra . ff . de legib . & l. Non dubium . C. de legib . 5. l. Nominis . ff . de verb. signif . 6. l. non aliter . ff . de legat . 7. 8. 9. * Dialecticorum verba nulla sunt publica ; suis utuntur : & id quidem commune omnium fere est artium . Cice● . lib. 1. Acad. 10. 11. Thucyd. l. 4. l. 67. ff . de reg . jur . l. ex conducto . §. Papinianus . ff . de usur . l. 66. de Judiciis . lib. 7. cap. 9. Orat. l. perspexit . ff . Qui & à quibus . l. cum filiofam , ff . de legat . 12. l. cum quid . ff . de reb . credit . l. 9. ff . de regul . jur . 13. l. inter stipulantem . & l. si ita . ff . de ve●b . signif . cap. 2. §. sed neque . de translat . Episc. 14. l. cum servus , §. scio . ff . de legat . & l. unum ex familia , §. si rem tuam . ff . cod . 15. l. Titia . 38. §. fin . sup . de auro & argent . leg . Libertas omnibus rebus favorabilior est . l. 38. ff . de re judicat . 16. l. interpretatione . ff . de poenis . * Habet aliquid 〈◊〉 iniquo omne ●agnum exemplum , quod cont●a singulos util●●●te publica re●enditur , dix●● C. Cassius apu● Tacitum . 17. l. 168. ff . de reg . jur . Philipp . 9. Claudian . apud Guicciard . l. 16. Gall. Proverb . Qui trop embrasse , mal estreint . * lib. 4. ad l. pen. ff . de poenis . apud Tacit. l. 14. 18. 1. 2. * c. cum quidam . §. illi vero de jure . c. authoritatem . 15. q. 6. Gloss. magn . verb. absolvimus . 3. lib. 3. de Offic. l. jus a. §. de just . & jure . c. proposuit . de . concess . praebend . 4. lib. 1. de Offic. 5. lib. 3. lib. 3. Confess . c. 8. Cassiodor . lib. 3. var. ep 46. l. Cum salutatus . C. de sent . pass . 6. l. ult . C. de legib . 7. pro Ligario . Gunther . lib. 4. l. ult . ff . qui satisd . cog . * lib. 1. Chap. 4. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. l. nulla . ff . de legibas . 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. Ethic. l. 5. c. 10. ●●aut . Stich. ubi supra . 16. 17. 18. 19. Vide lib. 1. cap. 5 , & 6 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. Gloss. in cap. in poenis . 49. de reg . jur . in 6. 26. l. non possunt . ff . deleg . l. nam . ff . eod . Glossa in legem praedict . 27. Albertus Bologneti Bonon . in Tract . DD. 28. in declam . Patris . 29. 30. * See Chapter 1. Rule 8. of this book . * See Chapter 1. Rule 8. of this book . * See Chapter 1. Rule 8. of this book . l. haeredes . §. 1. ff . de Testam . l. Cum lex . ff . de legib . 31. 32. 33. ff . de leg . 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. l. fin . C. de legib . 6. 1. q 7. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 1. Book . 2. Chap. 3. Rule 29. & Book 3. Chap. 4. Rule 15. 2. de Coron . milit . c. 1. de constitut . in 6. 3. l. si de interpret . ff . de legibus . Vide Burgos de Paz. in l. 1. Tauri , num . 247. l. nam Imperator . ff . cod . l. 1. C. quae sit longa consuet . cap. super eo . de cognat . spirit . 4. l. 2. C. quae sit long . consuet . * Non posseprascribi contra obedientiam . cap. cum non liceat . de praescript . 5. cap. cum causa . de re judicata . glos . in cap. ad nostram . de consuet . verb. canonicis . 6. l. de quibus . ff . de legib . ibid. Chap. 1. Rule 7. 7. 8. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 1. habetur 15. qu. 1. in princip . lib. De duabu● animabus cap. 11. ibid. ubi suprá . cap. non est . 2. lib. de fide contra Manichaeos cap. 10. 3. 4. Ovid. Trist. lib. 4. El. 3. Sil. Ital. l. 9. 5. 6. S. Augusti 〈◊〉 lib. 2. de peccator . merit . cap. 18. Vide etiam Prosper . lib. 1. de vocat . g●●tium cap. 8. & ad capitula Gallor●●● Sent. 6. & contra Collatorem , cap. ●● . & carmen d● ingratis capp . 26 , 2● . & ult . Vide etiam & Fulgent . lib. de incarnat . & gratiâ Christi . cap. 20. Gregorii lib. 18. moral cap. 21. & lib. 33. cap. 25. & V. B●●●m in Gen. 4. super verbis Domini ad Cain . Sed super omnes videatur 〈◊〉 . Bernardi liber de gratia & liber● arbitrio : vide eundem serm . 81. in Canti●a . 7. 8. Hose . 9. 10. 1 Cor. 6. 17. 9. Job 21. Psal. 35. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. de Peccator . merit . & remiss . c. 18. 19. Epist. 11. ad Augustin . homil . 27. in Evang. tom . 7. l. 3. 20. Matth. 12. 36. in libr. Timoris . In comment ad hunc locum . in Regul , brevior . resp . ad interr . 23. Epist. 20. lib. 5 Phaedr . fab . l. 2. 36. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. Gen. 48. 16. * Isai. 4. 1. James 2. 7. 26. Matth. 12. 30. Luk● 11. 23. 27. * Marc. 9. 40. Luke 9. 50. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. John 15. 1 , 2. Quintil. l. 8. 6. S. Greg. Homil. 7. in Evang. 36. 1. 2. ff . de reg . ju . l. 152. 3. 4. 5. * lib. 2. Chap. 1. Rule 5. Vide Petrum Peckium ad c. 10. Ratihabitionem . de regul . jur . in 6●0 . 6. Phaedr . fab . 10. 7. de Bello civill ▪ l. 1. Avian . fab . l. 167. §. 1. Qui ju●●u . l. 207. ff . de reg . jur . & Ulpian . lib. 1. ad segem Juliam & Papiam . lib. 3. lib. 2. c. 7. 8. l. 157. §. ad ea quae . l. 11. is qui in puteum . §. 6. si Tutoris jussu . ff . quod vi a●clam . l. 17. sed si unius . §. si jussu Domini . ff . de injuriis . Ecclus. 4. 22. 9. 2 Sam. 24. Horat. Martial . Serm. 8. de Benef. 10. 11. 12. l. 142. ff . de reg . Jur. c. super eo . de cognat . spirituali . 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. l. quidam . ff . de re judic . & l. Barbarius . ff . de offic . praetor . 20. See Book 1. Chapt. 5. Rule 8. Numb . 17 , 18. 21. Plutarch . in apoph . Rom. 22. cap. si quis viduam . 50. distinct . c. 2. de cler . pug . in duello . c. sicut dignum ● . clericos . de homici . Claudian . lib. 1. in Eutrop. 23. Claud. ibid. 24. Ephes. 4. 28. Phil. 4. 8. 25. 26. See lib. 2. Chap. 2. Rule 6. Numb . 31. 27. Homil. 6. in Matth. * Quem Deum hujus mundi vocat Apostolus : quem Deum scil . hujusmodi ludorum auth●rem indigitat Hieronymus . Vida Cremonensis , Poeta non incelebris , Mox verò gratum ludum mortalibus ipse Ostendit Deus , & morem certaminis hujus . Namque olim , ut perhibent , dilectam Scacc●ida , quá non Inter Serialas praestantior altera Nymphas , Compressit ripā errantem , & nil tale putantem , Dum pascit niveos herbosa ad flumina olores . Tum bicolor●m buxum dedit , atque pudoris Amissi pretium , vario ordine picturatum Argentique auriq●c gravem tabulam addit , usumque Edocuit ; Nymphaeque etiam nunc servat honorem Et Nomen Ludus , celebrat quem maxime , Roma , Extremaeque hominum diversa ad littora gentes . a in Phaedro . b de alcatoribus Serm. de S. Mattkia . lib. 1. de Daemonol . Eurip. lib. 1. Origin . c. 67. 28. Polymath . l. 8. c. 3. De prob . vol. 2. conc . 13. 6. Horat. lib. 3. Cod. Justin. tit . 43. & in Authentic . tit . de Sacrosanctis Episcopis . §. interdicimus . Horat. Ep. 1. ff . l. 11. tit . 5. de alcator . vide etiam Wesenbech . ibid. de Vita beara c. 7. a de Alea. b praxis . p. 507. c. 126. & alibi . 29. Ovid. de r●med . lib. de Al●●●ribus . de Christian. milite . Can. 79. Vide etiam can . 41 , & 42. Apostol . de vita & honestate Clericor . cap. Cleric . L. 6. c. 200. Vide etiam Decretum dist . 35. c. 8. Episcop . & de excessu praelatorum , cap. inter dilectos . 30. Horat. l. 2. Sat. 1. lib. 3. c. 21. l. 8. c. 8. * Janus Rutgersius legit [ in scnilibus ] non [ in scurrilibus ] Pontanus [ in serotinis lusibus ] Scriverius [ inheroicis ] alii [ inseriis ] unico verbo . † Alex. ab Alex. in Caesarib . Polyc. lib. 1. c. 5. 31. 32. Phaedrus . LIII Petrus Follerius . Senec. de Brevit . vitae c. 13. 33. Teren. Andria . S. Hieron . ep . ad Gaudent . Plaut . Persâ . 34. Ovid. 35. apud Sucton . 36. lib. 3. Cod. tit . 43. Vide ibi Cujacium , & Wesenbech . ff . l. 11. tit . 5. Cicer. ad Atticum . Ep. 13. l. 1. ib. 4. Ethic. c. 1. Specul . anim . c. 2. & in Sent. lib. 1. dist . 25. part . 2. art . 2. q. 1. in conclus . ad 4. Epist. 54. ad Macedon . ibid. 1 Cor. 13. ubi supra . 37. Juven . sat . 13. Plutarch . in Reg. & Imperapoph . 38. Anton Gu●vata . horol . Prine . per Anton. Guevata . orat . pro A●chia ●o●t . 39. ad Attic. ep . 13. l. 1. in 2 â Philippic . 1. Vide Unum necessar . cap. 5. of Habitual sins . 2. 3. 4. Mart. Ep. 42. l. 9. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. * Lib. 3. Chap. 1. Rule 4. Quintil. Sententiar . 5. in Andria , act . 1. sc. 4. 13. 14. in Apologet. & in Exhortat . castit . & de Virg. velandis . 15. Exod. 21. 12. 1. Luke 21. 34. Unum necessar . cap. 5. 2. 3. 4. lib. 22. contr . Faust. cap. 44. 5. 6. 7. 8. Bartol . in l. ex facto . in princip . ff . de vulg . & pupilla substit . 9. 10. 11. Senec. Herc. Fur. 1. 1 Timoth. 4. Bo●th . lib. 3. de Consol. Philos . Seneca . 2. lib. 5. de Philosoph . cap. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. l. de Mendacio . lib. 6. Ethic. cap. 5. Epist. 98. a in l. 6. Eth. c. 5. b in Hippia minor . 17. Sleidan . lib. 4. 18. in Psal. 66. v. 18. 1. 2. l. 9. ff . de jur . & fact . ignor . & l. 20. ff . de aqua & aquae pluvi . l. 3. §. 2. ff . de injur . de Hippocrat . & Platon . placit . apud Stobaeu●● in Physicis Eclogis . a de Anima . b de Nat. Hom. cap. 2. 3. Lucret. l. 3. 4. de Placit . philos . 5. c. 24. Diog. Laert. in Zenone . tit . 26. in 8. Eclog. Virgil. * lib. 60. tit . 39. † tit . 71. 5. Vide 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ubi supra . in Epit. leg . tit . ult . num . 21. lib. 10. de Genes . ad liter . cap. 13. lib. 11. cap. 18. lib. 18. cap. 3. l. 1. §. impuberi , ff . de Senat. Silan . habena . 6. Declamat . 21. Quaest. 84. Epist. 57. Cicer. pro Cluent . 7. l. 15. ff . de juris . l. Divus . ff . ad leg . Cornel. 8. l. 5. Epist. 9. Luke 23. 34. Acts 3. 17. John 9. 41. 1 Tim. 1. Gal. 1. 10. 11. Gemara Sanhed●in cap. 8. Ad Iliad . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Moral . l. 1. ad Eudem . c. 34. & Ethic. ad Nicom . l. 3. c. 3 , & 4. Vide etiam Politic . 2. cap. ult . & Rhetor. 2. cap. 27. Averroes in l. 3. Ethic. c. 5. ad Herennium 2. Tr●cul . Act. 4. Sc●n . 2. 12. Aulul . Act. 4. Scen. 10. Orat. 3. 13. 14. qu. 59. in Genes . in l. 6. de R● milit . 15. Aulul . Act. 4. Scen. 7. 16. Declamat . 22. 17. * See Rule 4. of this Chap. Num. 2. 18. Homil. 5. in Genes . Homil. 44. in Genes . lib. 2. contr . Faust. Manic . cap. 44. lib. de Patriarch . cap. 6. 19. 20. 21. 22. l. Dolo. 5. C. de inutilib . stipulat . & instit . de exceptionib . in initio . l. 13. ff . de actionibus empti . in princ . lib. 3. Offic. l. in causae . §. Idem Pomp. ff . de minor . & l. item si . §. ult . ff . loc . l. si voluntate . C. de rescind . vend . 1. 2. Ethic. lib. 3. cap. 1. ibid. * lib. 3. Chap. 1. Rule 2. 3. ubi suprá . & lib. 2. Chap. 3. Rule 11. 4. lib. 3 Metam lib. 5. Thebais . 5. Dial. Me●etrie . 6. 7. 8. lib● . singul . ad Marcellin . de Spir. & liter . in Epicte●um . lib. 11. Ep. 59. 9. Seneca . 10. Ethic. lib. 10. c. ult . 11. Declamat . 22. ubi suprá . 1. Matth. 6. 1. Lib. 5. Ethic. cap. 2. 2. 1 Cor. 10. 31. Coloss. 3. 17. 3. Hist. Lausiac . c. 20. 4. 5. Plin. lib. 3. ep . 11. Seneca ep . 82. 6. 7. Ubi suprá . 8. * Book 1. ch . 5. rule 8. 1. 2. In reg . brevior . reg . 196. 3. Vide Reginald . prax . lib. 12. cap. 3. n. 27. 4. * See Book 1. ch . 2. Rule 5. 5. 6. 7. 8. See Book II. chap. 1. rule 4. Epigr. l. 8. 54. 9. 10. Lib. 4. epist. 20. Lib. 5. ep . 14. Trinum . 11. Vide lib. 2. ch . 3. rule 4. 2. 3. Avian . fab . 4. 5. 6. Eu●t●th . in Iliad . 4. 
A71177	----	Symbolon theologikon, or, A collection of polemicall discourses wherein the Church of England, in its worst as well as more flourishing condition, is defended in many material points, against the attempts of the papists on one hand, and the fanaticks on the other : together with some additional pieces addressed to the promotion of practical religion and daily devotion / by Jer. Taylor ... Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. 1674 Approx. 4932 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 624 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-12 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A71177 Wing T399 ESTC R17669 11875707 ocm 11875707 50225 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A71177) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 50225) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 828:1 or 829:1) Symbolon theologikon, or, A collection of polemicall discourses wherein the Church of England, in its worst as well as more flourishing condition, is defended in many material points, against the attempts of the papists on one hand, and the fanaticks on the other : together with some additional pieces addressed to the promotion of practical religion and daily devotion / by Jer. Taylor ... Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. The third edition enlarged. 2 pts. ([45], 1079; [11], 70, [35] p.) : ill., 4 p. of plates. Printed by R. Norton for R. Royston ..., London : 1674. Reproduction of originals in Huntington Library and Duke University Library. Index: p. [1]-[34] at end. Reel 829:1 lacking all after page 555. Errata: p. [34] at end. Entry for T302 cancelled in Wing (2nd ed.). [pt.1] -- [I] An apology for authorized and set forms of liturgy. -- [II] Of the sacred order and offices of episcopacy -- [III] The real presence and spiritual of Christ in the blessed sacrement proved against the doctrine of transubstantiation -- [IV] A dissuasive from popery. The first part -- [V] The second part of the dissuasive from popery -- [VI] Unum necessarium, or, The doctrine and practice of repentance -- [VII] Deus justificatus, or, A vindication of the glory of the divine attributes, in the question of original sin -- [VII] Theolotia eklektike, or, A discourse of the liberty of prophesying -- [pt.2] -- [I] Chrisis teleiotiche, a discourse of confirmation ... also a discourse of the nature, offices and measures of friendship -- [II] Two letters to persons changed in their religion -- [III] Three letters written to a gentleman. 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Theology -- History -- 17th century. 2005-02 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-04 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2005-05 Mona Logarbo Sampled and proofread 2005-05 Mona Logarbo Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-10 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion ΣΥΜΒΟΛΟΝ ΘΕΟΛΟΓΙΚΟΝ : OR A COLLECTION OF Polemicall Discourses , Wherein the CHURCH of ENGLAND . IN ITS WORST As well as more Flourishing Condition , is defended in many material Points , against the Attempts of the PAPISTS on one hand , and the FANATICKS on the other . TOGETHER WITH Some Additional Pieces addressed to the Promotion of Practical Religion and Daily Devotion . By JER . TAYLOR , Chaplain in Ordinary to King CHARLES the First , and late Lord Bishop of Down and Connor . The Third Edition Enlarged . LONDON , Printed by R. Norton for R. Royston , Bookseller to the King 's most Excellent Majesty , at the Angel in Amen-Corner , M. DC . LXXIV . NON MAGNA LOQVIMVR ▪ SED VIVIMVS NIHIL OPINIONIS GRATIA . OMNIA CONSCENTIAE FACIAM portrait ECCLESIA ANGLICANA ΣΥΜΒΟΛΟΝ ΘΕΟΛΟΓΙΚΟΝ DUX MEA IN TENEBRAS ET GAUDIUM IN MAEROREM VT PELLICANA IN DESERTO Proprio vos sanguine pasco . PROTEGE PASCE Nunquam CHRISTO Charior quam sub Cruce gemen● Ecclesia . allegorical representation of Anglican Church To the Right Honourable and truly Noble CHRISTOPHER Lord HATTON , Baron HATTON of KIRBY , Privy Councellor and Comptroller of the Houshold to his late Majesty , and Knight of the Honourable Order of the Bath . MY LORD , WHEN we make Books and publish them , and by Dedications implore the Patronage of some worthy person , I find by experience that we cannot acquire that end which is pretended to by such addresses : For neither friendship nor power , interest , or favour , can give those defences to a Book , which it needs : Because the evil fortune of Books comes from causes discernible indeed , but irremediable ; and the breath of the people is like the voice of an exterminating Angel , not so killing but so secret ; but that 's not all ; it is also as contingent as the smiles of an Infant , or the fall of a Die , which is determined by every part of motion which can be in any part of the hand or arm . For when I consider that the infinite variety of understandings is greater than that of faces , not only because the lines that make our faces are finite , but the things that integrate and actuate the Vnderstanding are not ; but also because every man hath a face , but every man hath not Vnderstanding ; and men with their understandings or with their no understandings give their sentence upon Books , not only before they understand all , not only before they read all , but before they read three Pages , receiving their information from humour or interest , from chance or mistake , from him that reads in malice , or from him that reads after dinner ; I find it necessary that he that writes should secure himself and his own reputation by all the ways of prudence and religion ; that God who takes care of fame as certainly as of lives may do that which is best in this instance ; for no other Patron can defend him that writes from him that reads , and understands either too much or too little : And therefore , my Lord , I could not chuse you to be the Patron of my Book , upon hopes you can by greatness or interest secure it against the stings of insects and imperfect creatures ; nothing but Domitian's style can make them harmless ; but I can from your wisdom and your learning , the great reputation you have abroad , and the honour you have at home , hope that for the relation-sake some will be civil to it , at least until they read it , and then I give them leave to do what they please , for I am secure enough in all this ; because my writings are not intended as a stratagem for noises ; I intend to do not only what is good , but what is best ; and therefore I am not troubled at any event , so I may but justly hope that God is glorified in the ministration : But he that seeks any thing but Gods service , shall have such a reward as will do him no good . But finding nothing reasonable in the expectation that the Dedication should defend the Book , and that the gate should be a fortification to the house , I have sometimes believed that most men intend it to other purposes than this , and that because they design or hope to themselves ( at least at second hand ) an artificial immortality , they would also adopt their Patron or their friend into a participation of it ; doing as the Caesars did , who taking a partner to the Empire , did not divide the honour or the power but the ministration : But in this also I find that this address to your Lordship must be destitute of any material event , not only because you have secur'd to your self a great name in all the registers of Honour by your skill and love to all things that are excellent , but because of all men in the world I am the unfittest to speak those great things of your Lordship which your worthiness must challenge of all that know you . For though I was wooed to love and honour you by the beauties of your vertue , and the sweetness of your disposition , by your worthy imployments at Court , and your being so beloved in your Country , by the value your friends put upon you , and the regard that strangers paid to you , by your zeal for the Church , and your busie care in the promoting all worthy learnings , by your Religion and your Nobleness ; yet when I once came into a conversation with these excellencies , I found from your Lordship not only the example of so many vertues , but the expressions of so many favours and kindnesses to my person , that I became too much interested to look upon you with indifferency , and too much convinced of your worthiness to speak of it temperately ; and therefore I resolve to keep where I am , and to love and enjoy what I am so unfit to publish and express . But My Lord , give me leave to account to you concerning the present Collection ; and I shall no otherwise trouble your Lordship than I do almost every day when my good fortune allows me the comfort and advantages of your Conversation . The former Impressions of these Books being spent , and the world being willing enough to receive more of them , it was thought fit to draw into one Volume all these lesser Books which at several times were made publick , and which by some collateral improvements they were to receive now from me might do some more advantages to one another , and better struggle with such prejudices with which any of them hath been at any time troubled . For though I have great reason to adore the goodness of GOD in giving that success to my labours , that I am also obliged to the kindness of men for their friendly acceptance of them ; yet when a persecution did arise against the Church of England , and that I intended to make a defensative for my Brethren and my self , by pleading for a liberty to our Consciences to persevere in that profession which was warranted by all the laws of GOD and our Superiours , some men were angry and would not be safe that way , because I had made the roof of the Sanctuary so wide that more might be sheltered under it than they had a mind should be sav'd harmless ; Men would be safe alone or not at all , supposing that their truth and good cause was warranty enough to preserve it self ; and they thought true ; it was indeed warranty enough against persecution , if men had believed it to be truth ; but because we were fallen under the power of our worst enemies ( for Brethren turn'd enemies are ever the most implacable ) they looked upon us as men in misperswasion , and error ; and therefore I was to defend our persons , that whether our cause were right or wrong ( for it would be supposed wrong ) yet we might be permitted in liberty and impunity : but then the Consequent would be this , that if we when we were supposed to be in error were yet to be indemnified , then others also whom we thought as ill of were to rejoyce in the same freedom , because this equality is the great instrument of justice , and if we would not do to others as we desir'd should be done to us , we were no more to pretend Religion , because we destroy the Law and the Prophets . Of this some men were impatient ; and they would have all the world spare them , and yet they would spare no body . But because this is too unreasonable , I need no excuse for my speaking to other purposes . Others complain'd that it would have evil effects , and all Heresies would enter at the gate of toleration ; and because I knew that they would croud and throng in as far as they could , I placed such guards and restraints there as might keep out all unreasonable pretenders ; allowing none to enter here that speak against the Apostles Creed , or weakened the hands of Government , or were enemies to good life . But the most complain'd , that in my ways to perswade a toleration , I helped some men too far , and that I arm'd the Anabaptists with swords instead of shields , with a power to offend us , besides the proper defensatives of their own . To this I shall need no reply but this ; I was to say what I could to make their persons safe , by shewing how probably they were deceived ; and they who thought it too much , had either too little confidence , or too little knowledge of the goodness of their own cause ; and yet if any one made ill use of it , it was more than I allowed or intended to him , but so all kindness may be abused : But if a Criminal be allowed Counsel , he would be scorned if he should avow his Advocate as a real Patron of his crime , when he only says what he can to alleviate the Sentence . But wise men understand the thing and are satisfied ; but because all men are not of equal strength ; I did not only in a Discourse on purpose demonstrate the true doctrine in that question , but I have now in this Edition of that Book answered all their pretensions , not only fearing lest some be hurt with their offensive arms , but lest others , like Tarpeia the Roman Lady , be oppressed with shields , and be brought to think well of their Cause by my pleading for their persons . And now ( My Lord ) I have done all that I can do , or can be desired , only I cannot repent me of speaking truth , or doing charity ; but when the loyns of the Presbytery did lie heavy upon us , and were like to crush us into flatness and death , I ought not to have been reproached for standing under the ruine , and endeavouring to defend my Brethren ; and if I had strain'd his arm whom I was lifting up from drowning , he should have deplor'd his own necessity and not have reproved my charity ; if I say I had been too zealous to preserve them whom I ought to love so zealously . But I have been told , that my Discourse of Episcopacy relying so much upon the Authority of Fathers and Councils , whose authority I so much diminish in my Liberty of Prophesying , I seem to pull down with one hand what I build with the other : To these men I am used to answer , that they ought not to wonder to see a man pull down his Out-houses to save his Father and his Children from the flames ; and therefore if I had wholly destroyed the Topick of Ecclesiastical Antiquity , which is but an outward Guard to Episcopacy to preserve the whole Ecclesiastical order ; I might have been too zealous , but in no other account culpable : But my Lord , I have done nothing of this as they mistake . For Episcopacy relies not upon the Authority of Fathers and Councils , but upon Scripture , upon the institution of Christ , or the institution of the Apostles , upon an universal Tradition , and an universal practice , not upon the words and opinions of the Doctors ; It hath as great a testimony as Scripture it self hath ; and it is such a government as although every thing in Antiquity does minister to it , and illustrate or confirm it ; yet since it was before the Fathers and Councils , and was in full power before they had a being , and they were made up of Bishops for the most part , they can give no authority to themselves , as a body does not beget it self , or give strength to that from whence themselves had warranty , integrity and constitution . We bring the sayings of the Fathers in behalf of Episcopacy , because the reputation they have justly purchased from posterity prevails with some , and their reason with others , and their practice with very many ; and the pretensions of the adversaries are too weak to withstand that strength ; But that Episcopacy derives from a higher Fountain appears by the Justifications of it against them who value not what the Fathers say . But now , he that says that Episcopacy besides all its own proper grounds hath also the witness of Antiquity to have descended from Christ and his Apostles ; and he that says that in Questions of Religion the Sayings of the Fathers alone is no demonstration of Faith , does not speak things contradictory . He that says that we may dissent from the Fathers when we have a reason greater than that authority , does no way oppose him that says , you ought not to dissent from what they say , when you have no reason great enough to out-weigh it : He that says the words of the Fathers are not sufficient to determine a nice Question , stands not against him who says they are excellent Corroboratives in a Question already determined and practised accordingly . He that says the Sayings of Fathers are no demonstration in a Question may say true , and yet he that says it is a degree of probability may say true too . He that says they are not our Masters speaks consonantly to the words of Christ ; but he that denies them to be good Instructors does not speak agreeably to reason or to the sence of the Church . Sometimes they are excellent Arbitrators , but not always good Judges ; In matters of Fact they are excellent Witnesses ; In matters of Right or Question they are rare Doctors , and because they bring good Arguments are to be valued accordingly ; and he that considers these things will find that Ecclesiastical Antiquity can give very great assistances to Episcopal Government , and yet be no warranty for Tyrannical ; and although even the Sayings of the Fathers is greater warranty for Episcopacy , and weighs more than all that can be said against it ; Yet from thence nothing can be drawn to warrant to any man an Empire over Consciences ; and therefore as the probability of it can be used to one effect , so the fallibility of it is also of use to another ; but yet even of this no man is to make any use in general , but when he hath a necessity and a greater reason in the particular ; and I therefore have joyn'd these two Books in one Volume , because they differ not at all in the design , nor in the real purposes to which by their variety they minister . I will not pretend to any special reason of the inserting any of the other Books into this Volume ; it is the design of my Bookseller to bring all that he can into a like Volume ; excepting only some Books of devotion , which in a lesser Volume are more fit for use . As for the Doctrine and Practice of Repentance , which because I suppose it may so much contribute to the interest of a good life , and is of so great and so necessary consideration to every person that desires to be instructed in the way of godliness , and would assure his salvation by all means ; I was willing to publish it first in the lesser Volume , that men might not by the encreasing price of a larger be hindred from doing themselves the greatest good to which I can minister ; which I humbly suppose to be done , I am sure I intended to have done in that Book . And now , my Lord , I humbly desire , that although the presenting this Volume to your Lordship can neither promote that honour which is and ought to be the greatest , and is by the advantages of your worthiness already made publick , nor obtain to it self any security or defence from any injury to which without remedy it must be exposed , yet if you please to expound it as a testimony of that great value I have for you , though this signification is too little for it , yet I shall be at ease a while till I can converse with your Lordship by something more proportionable to those greatest regards which you have merited of mankind ; but more especially of , My Lord , Your Lordships most affectionate Servant , JER . TAYLOR . THE CONTENTS and ORDER of the whole Volume . The Apologie for Liturgie . THE Authors PREFACE to the Apology for Authorized and Set Forms of Liturgy . Quest. 1. Whether all Set Forms are unlawful . Page 2 2. Whether are better in publick , Set Forms injoyned by Authority , or Set Forms composed by private Preachers . Sect. 51. pag. 13 Episcopacy Asserted . Sect. 1. CHrist did institute a government in his Church . pag. 45 2. This Government was first committed to the Apostles by Christ. 46 3. With a power of joyning others , and appointing Successors . 47 4. This Succession is made by Bishops . 48 § . For the Apostle and Bishop are all one in Name and Person , ibid. 5. and Office. 49 6. Which Christ himself hath made distinct from Presbyters . 50 7. Giving to Apostles a power to do some offices perpetually necessary , which to others he gave not ; 51 § . as of Ordination , ibid. 8. and Confirmation , 52 9. and Superiority of Jurisdiction . 55 10. So that Bishops are Successors in the office of Apostleship according to Antiquity , 11. and particularly of S. Peter . 61 12. And the institution of Episcopacy expressed to be jure divino by Primitive Authority . 63 13. In pursuance of the Divine Institution the Apostles did ordain Bishops in several Churches , as S. James and S. Simeon at Jerusalem . 65 14. S. Timothy at Ephesus . 67 15. S. Titus at Crete . 70 16. S. Mark at Alexandria . 73 17. S. Linus and S. Clement at Rome . 74 18. S. Polycarp at Smyrna , and divers others . 75 19. So that Episcopacy is at least an Apostolical ordinance ; of the same authority with many other points generally believed . 76 20. And was an office of Power and great Authority . 77 21. Not lessened by the counsel and assistance of Presbyters . ibid. 22. And all this hath been the Faith and practice of Christendom . 84 23. Who first distinguished names used before in common . 85 24. Appropriating the word Episcopus to the supreme Church-officer . 89 25. Calling the Bishop , and him only , the Pastor of the Church , 91 26. and Doctor , 92 27. and Pontifex . ibid. 28. And these were a distinct order from the rest . 94 29. To which the Presbyterate was but a degree . 96 30. There being a peculiar manner of Ordination to a Bishoprick ; 31. To which Presbyters never did assist by imposing hands . 97 32. For a Bishop had a power distinct and superior to that of Presbyters . As of Ordination , 101 33. and Confirmation , 108 34. and Jurisdiction . Which they expressed in attributes of authority and great power . 111 35. Requiring universal obedience to be given to Bishops by Clergie and Laity . 113 36. Appointing them to be Judges of the Clergie and Laity in spiritual causes . 115 37. Forbidding Presbyters to officiate without Episcopal license . 125 38. Reserving Church Goods to Episcopal dispensation . 129 39. Forbidding Presbyters to leave their own Dioecese , or to travel without leave of the Bishop . 129 40. And the Bishop had power to prefer which of his Clerks he pleased . 130 41. Bishops only did vote in Council , and neither Presbyters nor People . 133 42. The Bishops had a propriety in the persons of their Clerks . 138 43. Their Jurisdiction was over many Congregations or Parishes . 139 44. And was aided by Presbyters , but not impaired . 144 45. So that the Government of the Church by Bishops was believed necessary . 148 46. For they are Schismaticks that separate from their Bishop . 149 47. And Hereticks . 150 48. And Bishops were always in the Church men of great honour . 152 49. And trusted with affairs of Secular interest . 157 50. And therefore were forced to delegate their power , and put others in substitution . 163 51. But they were ever Clergie-men , for there never was any Lay-Elders in any Church-office heard of in the Church . 164 A Discourse of the Real Presence . Sect. 1. THE state of the Question . 181 2. Transubstantiation not warrantable by Scripture . 186 3. Of the Sixth Chapter of S. John's Gospel . 188 4. Of the words of Institution . 198 5. Of the Particle Hoc in the words of Institution . 201 6. Of these words , Hoc est corpus meum . 208 7. Considerations of the manner , circumstances and annexes of the Institution . 213 8. Of the Arguments of the Romanists from Scripture . 217 9. Arguments from other Texts of Scripture , proving Christ's Real Presence in the Sacrament to be only Spiritual , not Natural . 219 10. The doctrine of Transubstantiation is against Sense . 223 11. The doctrine of Transubstantiation is wholly without and against reason . 230 12. Transubstantiation was not the doctrine of the Primitive Church . 249 13. Of Adoration of the Sacrament . 267 The Disswasive from Popery . The First Part. THE Introduction . 285 Chap. I. The doctrine of the Roman Church in the controverted Articles is neither Catholick , Apostolick , nor Primitive . 286 Sect. 1. That our Religion is , but that their Religion is not such , is proved in general , first , from their challenging power of making new Articles , and secondly , from the practice of their Indices Expurgatory , with some instances of their Innovating . 286 2. They Innovate in pretending power to make new Articles . 290 3. They did Innovate in their doctrine of Indulgences . 291 4. In their doctrine and practice about Purgatory . 294 5. In their doctrine of Transubstantiation . 297 6. They Innovate in their doctrine of the Half-Communion . 30● 7. In that they suffer not their publick Prayers to be in a language vulgarly understood . 303 8. In requiring the adoration of Images . 305 9. In picturing God the Father and the Bl. Trinity . 307 10. In arrogating to the Pope an universal Bishoprick . 308 11. A Miscellany of many other doctrines and practices wherein that Church has Innovated . Chap. II. They maintain Doctrines and Practices in opposition to us , that are direct impieties , and certainly destroy good life . 312 Sect. 1. Such is their doctrine of Repentance . 312 2. And Confession . 315 3. Of Penances and Satisfactions . 316 4 , 5. Their doctrine about Pardon and Indulgences , Contrition and Satisfaction . 318 6. Satisfaction and habitual sins , distinction of Mortal and Venial sins , by which they contract their Repentance and their Sins , and mistake in cases of Conscience . 322 7. Their teaching now of late , that a probable opinion , for which the authority of one Doctor is sufficient , may in practice be safely followed . 324 8. That Prayers are accepted by God ex opere operato . 327 9. Such is their practice of Invocating dead Saints as Deliverers . 329 10. And of Exorcising possessed persons . 333 11. Sacramentals , such as Holy-water , Paschal-wax , Agnus Dei , &c. 336 12. The worship of Images is Idolatry , and to worship the Host. 337 13. The Summ and Conclusion of the whole Chapter . 337 Chap. III. Their Docrines are such as destroy Christian Society in general , and Monarchy in particular . 340 Sect. 1. As equivocation , mental reservation taught and defended by them , &c. 340 Their teaching that faith is not to be kept with Hereticks , dispensing with Oaths , Dissolving the bonds of duty . 341 They teach , the Pope has power to dispense with all the Laws of God , and to dissolve contracts . 2. Their Exemption of the Clergie from the secular authority , as to their Estates and Persons , even in matters of Theft , Murder and Treason , &c. and the divine right of the seal of Confession . 343 3. By subjecting all Christian Kings to the Pope , who can , as they teach , depose and excommunicate Kings , and that Subjects are bound to expel Heretical Kings . The Second Part of the Disswasive . THe Introduction , containing an answer to the Fourth Appendix of J. S. his Sure-footing . 351 Lib. I. Sect. 1. Of the Church , that the Church of Rome relies upon no certain foundation for their Faith. Of Councils and their authority ; the Canon Law , and the great contrariety in it . Of the Pope , of the notes of the Church . 381 2. Of the sufficiency of H. Scripture to Salvation , which is the foundation and ground of the Protestant Religion : The sufficiency of Scripture proved by Tradition . 405 3. Of Traditions and those doctrines and practices that most need the help of that Topick , as of the Trinity , Paedo-Baptism , Baptism by Hereticks , and the Lords day . 420 4. There is nothing of necessity to be believed , which the Apostolical Churches did not believe . 436 5. That the Church of Rome pretends to a power of introducing into the Confession of the Church new Articles of Faith , and endeavours to alter and suppress the old Catholick doctrine . 446 First , They do it , and pretend to a power of doing it . Secondly , That it agrees with their interest so to do . 452 6. They use indirect ways to bring their new Articles into credit : e. g. the device of Indices Expurgatorii . 454 First , That the King of Spain gave a Commission to the Inquisitors to purge Catholick Authors . Secondly , That they purged the very Indices of the Father's works . Thirdly , They did purge the Writings of the Fathers too . 7. While they enlarge the Faith they destroy Charity . 459 8. The insecurity of the Roman Religion . 466 9. That the Church of Rome does teach for doctrines the commandments of men . 471 10. Of the Seal of Confession , the First Instance . 473 11. The Second Instance is the imposing Auricular Confession upon Consciences as a Commandment of God. 477 First , For which there is no ground in holy Scripture . 479 Secondly , Nor in Ecclesiastical Tradition either of the Latin or Greek Church . 491 Lib. II. Sect. 1. Of Indulgences and Pilgrimages . 495 2. Of Purgatory . The testimonies of Roffensis , Polyd. Virgil , &c. Alphonsus à Castro are vindicated . 500 It is proved that Purgatory is not a consequent to the doctrine of Prayer for the dead . 501 The Fathers made Prayers for those whom they believed not to be in Purgatory . 502 And such Prayers are in the Roman Missal . 505. The Greek and Latin Fathers teach , that no Soul enters Heaven till the day of Judgment . The doctrine of Purgatory was no Article in S. Austin's time . 506. It was not owned by the Greek Fathers . 510. It is directly contrary to the ancient Fathers of the Latin Church . 512 3. Of Transubstantiation , wherein the authorities out of Scotus , Odo Cameracensis , Roffensis , Biel , Alph. à Castro , Pet. Lombard , Durandus , Justine Martyr , Eusebius , S. Augustine are justified from the exceptions of the Adversaries . And it is proved that the Council of Laterane did not determine the Article of Transubstantiation , but brake up abruptly , without making any Canons at all . 516 4. Of the Half-Communion . 528 Of the Decree of the Council of Constance . 528. The authority of S. Ambrose , 530. and S. Cyprian . 531 5. Of the Scriptures and Service in an unknown tongue . 532 S. Basils authority , S. Chrysostom , S. Ambrose , S. Austin , Aquinas , Lyra. 6. Of the Worship of Images . 535 1o. The Quotations vindicated . 536. of S. Cyril , Chrysostom , Epiphanius , Austin , Council of Eliberis , Nicene II. Francfort . First , The Council of Francfort condemned the Nicene II. 540 Secondly , They commanded that it should not be called a General Council . ibid. Thirdly , The acts of it are in the Capitular of the Emperor , written in the time of the Synod . 541 Of Tertullian . 541. Clemens Alexandrinus . 542. Origen . 543. 2o. The Quotations alledged by them answered , as of S. Basil , S. Athanasius . 544. S. Chrysostom . 545. 3o. The truth confirmed . 545 First , Image-worship came from Simon Magus ; ibid. Secondly , Heathens spake against it ; 546 Thirdly , Christians did abominate it ; ibid. Fourthly , The Heathens never charged the Christians with it ; ibid. Fifthly , The Primitive Fathers never taught those distinctions that the Papists use to discern lawful Idolatry from Heathen Idolatry ; 547 Sixthly , The Second Commandment is against it ; ibid. Seventhly , It is a scandal , and makes way for Heathen Idolatry . 549 7. Of picturing God the Father and the H. Trinity . 550 The testimonies of Tertullian , Eusebius and S. Hierome alledged in the Dissuasive , vindicated from the Romanists exceptions , as also the testimonies of S. Austin , Theodoret , Damascen , Nicephorus . 552 , 553. An answer to that reply of theirs of painting the Essence of God the Father . 550 , 551. The Doctrine and Practice of Repentance . Chap. I. THE Foundation and Necessity of Repentance . 573 Sect. 1. Of the indispensable Necessity of Repentance in remedy to the unavoidable transgressing of the Covenant of Works . 573 2. Of the possibility or impossibility of keeping the Precepts of the Gospel . 576 First , The Law of God is naturally possible to be kept , but not morally . 576. n. 15. ad 32. Secondly , How we are to understand the Divine Justice in exacting a Law so impossible . 580. n. 32. ad 35. Thirdly , Since God exacteth not an impossible Law , how does it consist with his wisdom to impose what in justice he does not exact . 581. n. 35. &c sequ . 3. How Repentance and the Precept of perfection Evangelical can stand together . 582 4. The former doctrine reduced to practice . The new and old Covenant , as they are expressed in the words of Scripture . 587 Chap. II. Of the nature and definition of Repentance , and what parts of duty are signified by it in Scripture . 596 Sect. 1. The notion of those words that in the Greek and Latin languages express Repentance with the definition and parts of it . 596 2. Of Repentance in general , or Conversion . 599 3. Descriptions of Repentance taken from the H. Scriptures . 604 The indispensable necessity of a good life represented in the words of Scripture . 606 Chap. III. Of the distinction of Sins , Mortal and Venial , in what sence to be admitted , and how the smallest Sins are to be repented of and expiated . 610 Sect. 1. The inconvenience as to the conduct of Conscience in distinguishing Sins into Mortal and Venial , in their own nature or kind . ibid. 2. Of the difference of sins , and their measures . 611 3. That all sins are punishable , if God please , even with the pains of Hell. 614 4. The former doctrine reduced to practice . 623. n. 36. 5. To deny that there is a sort of sins that are Venial in their own nature , how it is consistent with that doctrine which teaches the possibility of keeping the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and with the righteousness of David , Zechary and Elizabeth . 625. n. 4. Some more particular measures of practice . 626. n. 46. 6. What Repentance is necessary for the more Venial sins . 630 Chap. IV. Of actual single sins , and what Repentance is proper for them . 635 Sect. 1. A Catalogue of sins that are severely threatned in Scripture , of which men commonly believe not such hard things . 635 2. Whether every single act of the fore-enumerated sins puts a man out of Gods favour . 640 3. What Repentance is necessary for single acts of sin . 646 Chap. V. Of Habitual Sins , and manner of eradication or cure , and their proper instruments of pardon . 652 Sect. 1. The state of the Question . ibid. 2. Every man is bound to Repent of his sin assoon as he hath committed it . 654 3. A sinful habit hath in it proper evils , and a proper guiltiness of its own , besides all that which came directly from the single actions . 658 Of sinful habits , 1o. in their natural capacity , 659 2o. in their moral capacity . 661 First , they add many degrees of aversation from God ; ibid. Secondly , they imply not only a facility , but a necessity of sinning ; 662 Thirdly , they make our Repentance more difficult ; 663 Fourthly , they make us swallow a great sin as easily as a smaller ; 664 Fifthly , they keep us always out of Gods favour ; 665 3o. in their relative capacity in reference to our aversation from God. 665 4. Sinful habits do require a distinct manner of Repentance , and have no promise to be pardoned , but by the introduction of the contrary . 669. n. 32. Against the repentance of Clinicks . ibid. 5. Consideration of seven objections against the doctrine in the foregoing Section . 675 6. The former doctrine reduced to practice . 687 1o. The Repentance of habitual sinners , who return in their vigorous years . ibid. 2o. The Repentance of sinners that return not till their old age . 692 3o. How sinners are to be treated who Repent not till their death-bed . 695 First , what hopes are left to an ill-liv'd man that Repents in his death-bed , and not before ; ibid. Secondly , what advices can bring such a one most advantage . 700 Chap. VI. Of Concupiscence and Original Sin , whether or no , and how far we are bound to repent of it . 709 Sect. 1. The doctrine explained and proved out of the Scripture . ibid. 2. Consideration of the objections against the former doctrine . 720 3. How God punisheth the Fathers sin upon the children . 725 4. Of the causes of the universal wickedness of mankind . n. 66. 727 5. Of liberty of Election remaining after Adams fall . n. 71. 730 6. The practical Question . 733 7. Advices relating to the matter of Original sin . 714 8. Rules and measures of deportment when a curse is feared to descend upon children for their Parents fault . 738 Chap. VII . A farther explication of the doctrine of Original Sin. 747 Sect. 1. Of the fall of Adam , and the effects of it upon him and us . 747 2. Adams sin is in us no more than an imputed sin , and how it is so . 751 3. The doctrine of the ancient Father's was , that free will remained in us after the fall . 753 4. Adams sin is not imputed to us to our damnation . 755 5. The doctrine of antiquity in this whole matter . 757 6. An exposition of the Ninth Article of the Church of England , which is of Original Sin , shewing that the former doctrine contradicts not that Article . 763 Chap. VIII . Of sins of Infirmity and their remedy . 770 Sect. 1. Of the state of Infirmity and its first remedy . ibid. 2. An exposition and vindication of that Text , Rom. 7.15 . ad 20. which by the mistake of some is thought to mean the state of Infirmity in the regenerate . 772 3. S. Augustines exposition of those words , taken up after his retractation considered . 775 4. The true meaning of that Text of the Apostle fully decreed and vindicated . 777 1o. That S. Paul speaks not in his own person , but of one unregenerate by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; ibid. 2o. that the state he describes is the state of a carnal man under the corruption of his nature ; ibid. 3o. from this state we are redeemed by Christ and his grace , which is the second remedy . 779 5. How far an unregenerate man may go in the ways of piety and religion . 779 1o. An unregenerate man may be instructed in and convinced of his duty , and approve the Law , and conf●ss the obligation ; 780 2o. he may in his will delight in goodness , and desire it earnestly ; 781 3o. he may not only desire to do natural or moral good things , but even spiritual ; 784 4o. he may leave many sins which he is commanded to forsake ; 785 5o. he may leave some sins not only for temporal interest , but out of fear of God , and regard to his Law ; ibid. 6o. he may , besides abstinence from evil , do many good things ; 786 7 o he may have received the Spirit of God , and yet be in a state of distance from God. ibid. 6. The character of the unregenerate state or person . n. 42.787 7. What are properly and truly sins of infirmity , and how far they can consist with the regenerate estate . 789 8. Practical advices to be added to the foregoing considerations . 795. n. 65. Chap. IX . Of the effect of Repentance , viz. remission of Sins . 800 Sect. 1. There is no sin but with Repentance may be pardoned . ibid. 2. Of pardon of sins committed after baptism . 802 3. Of the difficulty of obtaining pardon . The doctrine and practice of the Primitive Church in this Article . 803 4. Of the sin against the H. Ghost , and in what sence it may be unpardonable . 808 5. What sin is spoken of by our Lord , Matth. 12.32 . and that final impenitence is not it . 810 6. The former doctrines reduced to practice . 815 Chap. X. Of Ecclesiastical Penance , or the fruits of Repentance . 820 Sect. 1. What the fruits of Repentance are in general . ibid. 2. Of Contrition or godly sorrow , the reasons , measures and constitution of it . 821 3. Of the nature and differences of Attrition and Contrition . 828 4. Of Confession . 830 1o. Confession is necessary to Repentance . ibid. 2o. It is due only to God. 831 3o. In the Primitive Church there was no judicial absolution used in their Liturgies . n. 54.838 4o. The judicial absolution of a Priest does effect no material change in the Penitent as to giving of pardon . 841. n. 60 5. Attrition or imperfect Repentance , though with absolution is not sufficient . 842 6. Of Penance or satisfactions , 844. 1o. sorrow and mourning , 2o. Corporal austerities , 3o. Prayers , 847. 4o. Alms , 848. 5o. forgiving injuries , 6 o restitution . 849 7. The former doctrine reduced to practice . 850 8. The practice of Confession . 854 9. The practice of Penances and corporal austerities . 858 A Discourse in Vindication of Gods Attributes of Goodness and Justice in the matter of Original Sin , against the Calvinists way of understanding it . 1o. THe truth of the Article , with the errors and mistakes about it . 869 2o. Arguments to prove the truth . 872 3o. Objections answered . 881 4o. An Explication of Rom. 5.12 . ad 19. 887 An Answer to the Bishop of Rochesters First Letter , written concerning the Sixth Chapter of Original Sin in the Discourse of Repentance . 895 The Bishop of Rochesters Second Letter upon the same subject . 907 An Answer to the Second Letter from the Bishop of Rochester . 909 The Liberty of Prophesying . EPist . Dedicatory . Introduction . Sect. 1. Of the nature of Faith , and that the duty of it is compleated in believing the Articles of the Apostles Creed . 941 2. Of Heresie , its nature and measures . That it is to be accounted according to the stricter capacity of the Christian Faith , and not in opinions speculative , nor ever to pious persons . 947 3. Of the difficulty and uncertainty of arguments from Scripture in Questions not simply necessary nor literally determined . 965 4. Of the difficulty of expounding Scripture . 971 5. Of the insufficiency and uncertainty of Tradition to expound Scripture or determine questions . 976 6. Of the insufficiency and uncertainty of Councils Ecclesiastical to expound Scripture or determine questions . 984 7. Of the fallibility of the Pope , and the uncertainty of his expounding Scripture and resolving Questions . 995 8. How unable the Fathers or Writers Ecclesiastical are to determine our questions with certainty and truth . 1007 9. How incompetent the Church in its diffusive capacity is to be Judge of controversies , and how impertinent that pretence of the Spirit is . 1011 10. Of the authority of reason , and that it proceeding on the best grounds is the best Judge . 1013 11. Of some causes of error in the exercise of reason , which are in themselves inculpable . 1016 12. How innocent error of mere opinion is in a pious person . 1022 13. Of the deportment to be used toward persons disagreeing , and reasons why they are not to be punished with death . 1025 14. Of the practice of Christian Churches toward persons disagreeing , and when persecution first came in use . 1031 15. How far the Church or Governours may act to the restraining false or differing opinions . 1034 16. Whether it be lawful for a Prince to give toleration to several Religions . 1036 17. Of complying with disagreeing persons , or weak Consciences in general . 1038 18. A particular instance in the opinion of the Anabaptists , to shew that there is so much reason on both sides of the Question , that a pious person mistaking may be innocent in his error . 1040 1o. The arguments usually alledged for baptizing Infants . n. 3. ad 12.1041 , 1042 2o. How much the Anabaptists have to say in opposition to those arguments , and to justifie their own tenent . n. 12. ad 34.1043 . ad 1051 3o. A reply to the arguments of the Anabaptists ( by the Author since the first Edition ) wherein the lawfulness of the Churches practice is established . n. 34. ad fin . Sect. 1051. ad 1068 19. That there ought not to be any toleration of doctrines inconsistent with piety or the publick good . 1069 20. How far the Religion of the Church of Rome may be tolerated . 1070 21. Of the duty of particular Churches in allowing Communion . 1076 22. That particular men may communicate with Churches of different perswasions , and how far they may do it . 1077 The Discourse of Confirmation . INtroduction . Sect. 1. Of the Divine Original , Warranty and Institution of the Rite of Confirmation . 3 2. The Rite of Confirmation is a perpetual and never-ceasing Ministery . 12 3. That Confirmation , which by laying on of Hands gives the H. Spirit , was actually continued and practised by all succeeding Ages of the Primitive Church . 15 4. The Bishops were always and are still the only Ministers of Confirmation . 18 5. The whole procedure of Confirmation is by prayer and laying on of Hands . 22 6. Many great Graces and Blessings are consequent to the worthy reception and due ministery of Confirmation . 24 7. Of preparation to Confirmation , and the circumstances of receiving it . 28 A Discourse of Friendship . 1. HOw far a perfect Friendship is authorized by the principles of Christianity . 35 2. What are the requisites of Friendship . 38 3. What are the lawful expressions and acts of Friendship . 42 4. Whether a Friend may be dearer than a Husband or Wife . 47 5. What are the duties of Friendship . 49 6. Ten Rules to be observed in the conduct of Friendship . 50 Five Letters about change of Religion . 53 THE AUTHORS PREFACE TO THE APOLOGY FOR AUTHORIZED and SET FORMS OF LITURGY . WHEN Judges were instead of Kings , and Hophni and Phinehas were among the Priests , every man did what was right in his own eyes , but few did what was pleasing in the eyes of the Lord ; and the event was this , God put on his fierce anger against them , and stirr'd up and arm'd the Enemies of their Country and Religion , and they prevail'd very far , against the expectation and confidence of them who thought the goodness of their cause would have born out the iniquity of their persons , and that the impiety of their adversaries would have disabled them even from being made Gods scourges and instruments of punishing his own people : The sadness of the event proved the vanity of their hopes ; for that which was the instrument of their worship , the determination of their religious addresses , the place where God did meet his people , from which the Priests spake to God , and God gave his Oracles , that they dishonourably and miserably lost : The Ark of the Lord was taken , the impious Priests ( who made the Sacrifice of the Lord to become an abomination to the people ) were slain with the sword of the Philistines , old Eli lost his life , and the wife of Phinehas died with sorrow , and the miscarriages of childbirth , crying out , That the Glory was departed from Israel , because the Ark of God was taken . 2. In these things we also have been but too like the sons of Israel ; for when we sinned as greatly , we also have groaned under as great and sad a calamity . For we have not only felt the evils of an intestine War , but God hath smitten us in our spirit , and laid the scene of his judgments especially in Religion ; he hath snuffed our lamp so near , that it is almost extinguished , and the sacred fire was put into a hole of the Earth , even then when we were forced to light those Tapers that stood upon our Altars , that by this sad truth better than by the old ceremony we might prove our succession to those holy men who were constrained to sing Hymns to Christ in dark places and retirements . 3. But I delight not to observe the correspondencies of such sad accidents , which as they may happen upon diverse causes , or may be forc'd violently by the strength of fancy , or driven on by jealousie ▪ and the too fond op●nings of troubled hearts and afflicted spirits ; so they do but help to vex the offending part , and relieve the afflicted but with a phantastick and groundless comfort : I will therefore deny leave to my own affections to ease themselves by complaining of others : I shall only crave leave that I may remember Jerusalem , and call to mind the pleasures of the Temple , the order of her Services , the beauty of her Buildings , the sweetness of her Songs , the decency of her Ministrations , the assiduity and Oeconomy of her Priests and Levites , the daily Sacrifice , and that eternal fire of Devotion that went not out by day nor by night ; these were the pleasures of our peace , and there is a remanent felicity in the very memory of those spiritual delights which we then enjoyed as antepasts of Heaven , and consignations to an immortality of joys . And it may be so again when it shall please God who hath the hearts of all Princes in his hand , and turneth them as the rivers of waters ; and when men will consider the invaluable loss that is consequent , and the danger of sin that is appendant to the destroying such forms of discipline and devotion in which God was purely worshipped , and the Church was edified , and the people instructed to great degrees of piety , knowledge , and devotion . 4. And such is the Liturgy of the Church of England . I shall not need to enumerate the advantages of Liturgy in general , though it be certain that some Liturgie or other is most necessary in publick addresses , that so we may imitate the perpetual practice of all setled Churches since Christianity , or ever since Moses's Law or the Jewish Church came to have a setled foot , and any rest in the land of Canaan . [ 2. ] That we may follow the example , and obey the precept of our blessed Saviour , who appointed a set form of devotion ( and certainly they that profess enmity against all Liturgy can in no sence obey the precept given by him who gave command , When ye pray , say , Our Father . ) [ 3. ] That all that come may know the condition of publick Communion , their Religion , and manner of address to God Almighty . [ 4. ] That the truth of the proposition , the piety of the desires , and the honesty of the petitions , the simplicity of our purposes , and the justice of our designs may be secured before-hand , because Whatsoever is not of Faith is sin ( and it is impossible that we should pray to God in the extempore prayers of the Priest , by any Faith , but unreasonable , unwarranted , insecure and implicit . ) [ 5. ] That there may be union of hearts , and spirits , and tongues . [ 6. ] That there may be a publick symbol of Communion in our prayers , which are the best instruments of endearing us to God , and to one another ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Private prayer not assisted with the concord and unity of a publick spirit is weaker and less effectual , saith S. Basil. [ 7. ] That the Ministers less learned may have provisions of devotions made for them . [ 8. ] That the more learned may have no occasion of ostentation ministred to them , lest their best actions , their prayers , be turned into sin . [ 9. ] That extravagant levities , and secret impieties be prevented . [ 10. ] That the offices Ecclesiastical may the better secure the Articles of Religion . [ 11. ] That they may edifie the people by being repositories of holy and necessary truths ready form'd out of their needs , and described in their Books of daily use ; for that was one of the advices of the Apostle , t eaching and admonishing one another in Psalms , and Hymns , and Spiritual Songs . [ 12. ] That men by the intervening of authority may be engaged to certain devotions . [ 13. ] That not only the duty , but the very form of its ministration may be honoured by the countenance of authority , and not be exposed to contempt by reason of the insufficiency of its external warrant . [ 14. ] That the assignation of such offices , and appropriating them to the ministery of certain persons may be a cancel to secure the inclosures of the Clerical orders from the usurpings and invasions of pretending and unhallowed spirits . [ 15. ] That indetermination of the office may not introduce indifferency , nor indifferency lead in a freer liberty , or liberty degenerate into licentiousness , or licentiousness into folly , and vanity ; and these come sometime attended with secular designs , lest these be cursed with the immission of a peevish spirit upon our Priests , and that spirit be a teacher of lies , and these lies become the basis of impious theoremes , which are certainly attended with ungodly lives ; and then either Atheism or Antichristianism may come , according as shall happen in the conjunction of time and other circumstances ; for this would be a sad climax , a ladder upon which are no Angels ascending or descending , because the degrees lead to darkness and misery . 5. But that which is of special concernment is this , that the Liturgy of the Church of England hath advantages so many and so considerable as not only to raise it self above the devotions of other Churches , but to endear the affections of good people to be in love with Liturgy in general . 6. For to the Churches of the Roman Communion we can say that ours is reformed , to the reformed Churches we can say that ours is orderly and decent ; for we were freed from the impositions and lasting errors of a tyrannical spirit , and yet from the extravagancies of a popular spirit too : our reformation was done without tumult , and yet we saw it necessary to reform ; we were zealous to cast away the old errors , but our zeal was balanced with consideration and the results of authority : Not like women or children when they are affrighted with fire in their clothes ; we shak'd off the coal indeed , but not our garments lest we should have exposed our Churches to that nakedness which the excellent men of our sister Churches complained to be among themselves . 7. And indeed it is no small advantage to our Liturgy , that it was the off-spring of all that authority which was to prescribe in matters of Religion . The King and the Priest , which are the Antistites Religionis , and the preservers of both the Tables joyn'd in this work , and the people as it was represented in Parliament were advised withal , in authorizing the form after much deliberation ; for the Rule , Quod spectat ad omnes ab omnibus tractari debet , was here observed with strictness , and then as it had the advantages of discourse , so also of authorities , its reason from one and its sanction from the other , that it might be both reasonable and sacred and free , not only from the indiscretions , but ( which is very considerable ) from the scandal of popularity . 8. And in this I cannot but observe the great wisdom and mercy of God in directing the contrivers of the Liturgy with the spirit of zeal and prudence , to allay the furies and heats of the first affrightment . For when men are in danger of burning , so they leap from the flames , they consider not whither but whence : and the first reflexions of a crooked tree are not to straightness , but to a contrary incurvation , yet it pleased the Spirit of God so to temper and direct their spirits , that in the first Liturgy of King Edward they did rather retain something that needed further consideration , than reject any thing that was certainly pious and holy ; and in the second Liturgy , that they might also throughly reform , they did rather cast out something that might with good profit have remained , than not satisfie the world of their zeal to reform , of their charity in declining every thing that was offensive , and the clearness of their light in discerning every semblance of error or suspicion in the Roman Church . 9. The truth is , although they fram'd the Liturgy with the greatest consideration that could be , by all the united wisdom of this Church and State , yet as if Prophetically to avoid their being charg'd in after ages with a crepusculum of Religion , a dark , twilight , imperfect Reformation , they joyn'd to their own Star all the shining tapers of the other reformed Churches , calling for the advice of the most eminently learned and zealous Reformers in other Kingdoms , that the light of all together might shew them a clear path to walk in . And this their care produced some change ; for upon the consultation the first form of King Edwards Service-book was approved with the exception of a very few clauses , which upon that occasion were review'd and expung'd , till it came to that second form and modest beauty it was in the Edition of MDLII , and which Gilbertus a German approved of as a transcript of the ancient and primitive forms . 10. It was necessary for them to stay some-where . Christendom was not only reformed , but divided too , and every division would to all ages have called for some alteration , or else have disliked it publickly ; and since all that cast off the Roman yoke , thought they had title enough to be called Reformed , it was hard to have pleased all the private interests and peevishness of men that called themselves friends , and therefore that only in which the Church of Rome had prevaricated against the word of God , or innovated against Apostolical tradition , all that was par'd away . But at last she fix'd , and strove no further to please the people , who never could be satisfied . 11. The Painter that exposed his work to the censure of the common passengers , resolving to mend it as long as any man could find fault , at last had brought the eyes to the ears and the ears to the neck , and for his excuse subscrib'd , Hanc populus fecit . But his [ Hanc ego ] that which he made by the rules of art , and the advice of men skill'd in the same mystery was the better piece . The Church of England should have par'd away all the Canon of the Communion , if she had mended her piece at the prescription of the Zuinglians ; and all her office of Baptism , if she had mended by the rules of the Anabaptists , and kept up Altars still by the example of the Lutherans , and not have retain'd decency by the good will of the Calvinists ; and now another new light is sprung up , she should have no Liturgy at all , but the worship of God be left to the managing of chance , and indeliberation , and a petulant fancy . 12. It began early to discover its inconvenience ; for when certain zealous persons fled to Frankford to avoid the funeral piles kindled by the Roman Bishops in Queen Maries time , as if they had not enemies enough abroad they fell soul with one another , and the quarrel was about the Common-Prayer-Book , and some of them made their appeal to the judgment of Mr. Calvin , whom they prepossessed with strange representments , and troubled phantasms concerning it , and yet the worst he said upon the provocation of those prejudices was that even its vanities were tolerable . Tolerabiles ineptias was the unhandsome Epithete he gave to some things which he was forc'd to dislike by his over-earnest complying with the Brethren of Frankford 13. Well! upon this the wisdom of this Church and State saw it necessary to fix where with advice she had begun , and with counsel she had once mended . And to have altered in things inconsiderable upon a new design or sullen mislike , had been extreme levity , and apt to have made the men contemptible , their authority slighted , and the thing ridiculous , especially before adversaries , that watch'd all opportunity and appearances to have disgraced the Reformation . Here therefore it became a Law , was established by an Act of Parliament , was made solemn by an appendant penalty , against all that on either hand did prevaricate a sanction of so long and so prudent consideration . 14. But the Common-Prayer-Book had the fate of S. Paul , for when it had scap'd the storms of the Roman Sea , yet a viper sprung out of Queen Maries sires , which at Frankford first leap'd upon the hand of the Church , but since that time it hath gnawn the bowels of its own Mother , and given it self life by the death of its Parent and Nurse . 15. For as for the Adversaries from the Roman party , they were so convinc'd by the piety and innocence of the Common-Prayer-Book , that they could accuse it of no deformity , but of imperfection , of a want of some things which they judged convenient , because the error had a wrinkle on it and the face of antiquity . And therefore for ten or eleven years they came to our Churches , joyn'd in our devotions , and communicated without scruple , till a temporal interest of the Church of Rome rent the Schism wider , and made it gape like the jaws of the grave . And let me say , it adds no small degree to my confidence and opinion of the English Common-Prayer-Book , that amongst the numerous Armies sent from the Roman Seminaries , ( who were curious enough to enquire , able enough to find out , and wanted no anger to have made them charge home any error in our Liturgy , if the matter had not been unblameable , and the composition excellent ) there was never any impiety or Heresie charg'd upon the Liturgy of the Church ; ( for I reckon not the calumnies of Harding , for they were only in general , calling it [ Darkness , &c. ] from which aspersion it was worthily vindicated by M. Deering . ) The truth of it is , the Compilers took that course which was sufficient to have secur'd it against the malice of a Spanish Inquisitor , or the scrutiny of a more inquisitive Presbytery , for they put , nothing of controversie into their prayers , nothing that was then matter of question ; only because they could not prophesie , they put in some things which since then have been called to question , by persons whose interest was highly concerned to find fault with something . But that also hath been the fate of the Penmen of holy Scripture , some of which could prophesie , and yet could not prevent this . But I do not remember that any man was ever put to it to justifie the Common-Prayer against any positive , publick , and professed charge by a Roman Adversary : Nay , it is transmitted to us by the testimony of persons greater than all exceptions , that Paulus Quartus in his private entercourses and Letters to Queen Elizabeth did offer to confirm the English Common-Prayer-Book , if she would acknowledge his Primacy and authority , and the Reformation derivative from him . And this lenity was pursued by his Successor Pius Quartus , with an [ omnia de nobis tibi polliceare ] he assured her she should have any thing from him , not only things pertaining to her soul , but what might conduce to the establishment and confirmation of her Royal Dignity ; amongst which , that the Liturgy new established by her authority should not be rescinded by the Popes power , was not the least considerable . 16. And possibly this hath cast a cloud upon it in the eyes of such persons who never will keep charity or so much as civility but with those with whom they have made a league offensive and defensive against all the world . This hath made it to be suspected of too much compliance with that Church , and her Offices of devotion , and that it is a very Cento composed out of the Mass-Book , Pontifical , Breviaries , Manuals , and Portuises of the Roman Church . 17. I cannot say but many of our Prayers are also in the Roman Offices . But so they are also in the Scripture , so also is the Lords Prayer , and if they were not , yet the allegation is very inartificial , and the charge peevish and unreasonable , unless there were nothing good in the Roman Books , or that it were unlawful to pray a good prayer which they had once stain'd with red letters . The Objection hath not sence enough to procure an answer upon its own stock , but by reflection from a direct truth , which uses to be like light manifesting it self and discovering darkness . 18. It was first perfected in King Edward the Sixths time , but it was by and by impugned through the obstinate and dissembling malice of many : They are the words of M. Fox in his Book of Martyrs . Then it was reviewed and published with so much approbation , that it was accounted the work of God ; but yet not long after there were some persons qui divisionis occasionem arripiebant ( saith Alesius ) vocabula & pene syllabas expendendo , they tried it by points and syllables , and weighed every word , and sought occasions to quarrel , which being observed by Archbishop Cranmer , he caused it to be translated into Latin and sent it to Bucer , requiring his judgment of it , who returned this answer , That although there are in it some things quae rapi possunt ab inquietis ad materiam contentionis , which by peevish men may be cavill'd at , yet there was nothing in it but what was taken out of the Scriptures , or agreeable to it , if rightly understood ; that is , if handled and read by wise and good men . The zeal which Archbishop Grindal , Bishop Ridly , Dr. Taylor , and other the holy Martyrs and Confessors in Queen Maries time expressed for this excellent Liturgy before and at the time of their death , defending it by their disputations , adorning it by their practice , and sealing it with their bloods , are arguments which ought to recommend it to all the sons of the Church of England for ever , infinitely to be valued beyond all the little whispers and murmurs of argument pretended against it : and when it came out of the flame , and was purified in the Martyrs sires ▪ it became a vessel of honour , and used in the house of God in all the days of that long peace which was the effect of Gods blessing , and the reward ( as we humbly hope ) of an holy Religion ; and when it was laid aside in the days of Queen Mary , it was [ to the great decay of the due honour of God , and discomfort to the Professors of the truth of Christs Religion ] they are the words of Queen Elizabeth , and her grave and wise Parliament . 19. Archbishop Cranmer in his purgation , A. D. 1553. made an offer if the Queen would give him leave , to prove All that is contained in the Common-Prayer-Book , to be conformable to that order which our blessed Saviour Christ did both observe and command to be observed . And a little after he offers to joyn issue upon this point , That the Order of the Church of England , set out by authority of the innocent and godly Prince Edward the Sixth , in his high Court of Parliament , is the same that was used in the Church fifteen hundred years past . 20. And I shall go near to make his words good . For , very much of our Liturgy is the very words of Scriptures . The Psalms and Lessons , and all the Hymns save one , are nothing else but Scripture , and owe nothing to the Roman Breviaries for their production or authority . So that the matter of them is out of question holy and true ; As for the form , none ever misliked it but they that will admit no form , for all admit this that admit any . But that these should be parts of Liturgy needs not to be a question , when we remember that Hezekiah and the Princes made it a Law to their Church to sing praises to the Lord with the words of David , and of Asaph the Seer , and that Christ himself did so and his Apostles after the manner of the Jews in the Feast of Passeover , sung their Hymns and portions of the great Allelujah in the words of David and Asaph the Seer too , and that there was a song in Heaven made up of the words of Moses and David , and Jeremy the Seer , and that the Apostles and the Church of God always chose to do so , according to the commandment of the Apostle , that we sing Psalms and Hymns to God. I know not where we can have better than the Psalms of David and Asaph , and these were ready at hand for the use of the Church , insomuch that in the Christian Synaxes , particularly in the Churches of Corinth S. Paul observed that every man had a Psalm , it was then the common devotion , and Liturgy of all the faithful , and so for ever ; and the Fathers of the fourth Council of Toledo justifie the practice of the Church in recitation of the Psalms and Hymns by the example of Christ and his Apostles , who after Supper sung a Psalm : and the Church did also make Hymns of her own , in the honour of Christ , and sung them : Such as was the [ Te Deum ] made by S. Ambrose and S. Augustine , and they stood her in great stead , not only as acts of direct worship to Christ , but as Conservators of the Articles of Christs Divinity , of which the Fathers made use against the Heretick Artemon , as appears in Eusebius lib. 5. cap. 28. Eccles. Hist. 21. That reading the Scripture was part of the Liturgy of the Apostolical ages , we find it in the tenth Canon of the Apostles , in Albinus Flaccus , Rabanus Maurus , and in the Liturgy attributed to S. James . Deinde leguntur fusissime oracula sacra veteris Testamenti & Prophetarum , & Filii Dei Incarnatio demonstratur , Passio , Resurrectio ex mortuis , ascensus in Coelum , secundus item adventus ejus cum gloria . Atque id fit singulis diebus , &c. 22. So that since thus far the matter of our devotions is warranted by Gods Spirit , and the form by the precedents of Scripture too , and the ages Apostolical , above half of the English Liturgy is as Divine as Scripture it self , and the choice of it for practice is no less than Apostolical . 23. Of the same consideration is the Lords Prayer , commanded by our blessed Saviour in two Evangelists ; the Introit is the Psal. 95. and the Responsories of Morning and Evening Prayer , ejaculations taken from the words of David and Hezekiah ; the Decalogue recited in the Communion is the ten words of Moses , and without peradventure was not taken into the Office in imitation of the Roman ; for although it was done upon great reason , and considering the great ignorance of the people they were to inform , yet I think it was never in any Church Office before , but in Manuals and Catechisms only : yet they are made Liturgick by the suffrages at the end of every Commandment , and need no other warrant from antiquity but the 20. Chapter of Exodus . There are not many parts beside , and they which are , derive themselves from an elder house than the Roman Offices ; The Gloria Patri was composed by the Nicene Council , the latter Versicle by S. Jerome , though some eminently learned ( and in particular ) Baronius is of an opinion that it was much more ancient . It was at first a confession of Faith , and used by a newly baptized Convert and the standers by , and then it came to be a Hymn , and very early annexed to the Antiphones , and afterwards to the Psalms and Hymns , all except that of S. Ambrose beginning with [ Te Deum ] because that of it self is a great Doxology . It is seven times used in the Greek Office of Baptism , and in the recitation of it the Priest and People stood all up and turned to the East , and this custom ever continued in the Church , and is still retained in the Church of England in conformity to the ancient and Primitive custom , save only that in the Litany we kneel , which is a more humble posture but not so ancient , the Litanies having usually been said walking , not kneeling or standing . But in this the variety is an ornament to the Churches garment . S. Gregory added this Doxology to the Responsory at the beginning of Prayer , after , O Lord make hast to help us ; That was the last , and yet above a thousand years old , and much elder than the body of Popery . And as for the latter part of the Doxology . I am clearly of opinion , that though it might by S. Hierome be brought into the Latin Church , yet it was in the Greek Church before him , witness that most ancient Hymn or Doxology , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . However , as to the matter of the Doxology ; it is no other than the Confession of the three most blessed persons of the Trinity which Christ commanded , and which with greatest solemnity we declare in Baptism ; and certainly we can no ways better , or more solemnly and ritually give glory to the Holy Trinity , than by being baptized into the profession and service of it . The Trisagion was taught to the Greek Church by Angels ; but certain it is , it sprang not from a Roman fountain ; and that the Canon of our Communion is the same with the old Canon of the Church many hundred years before Popery had invaded the simplicity of Christian Religion , is evident , if we compare the particulars recited by a S. Basil , b Innocentius , his Epistle to John Archbishop of Lyons , c Honorius the Priest , d Alcuinus , and e Walafridus Strabo , and if we will , we may add the Liturgy said to be S. James's , and the Constitution of f S. Clement , ( for whoever was the author of these , certainly they were ancient ) Radulphus Tongrensis and the later Ritualists , Cassander , Pamelius , Hittorpius , Jacobus Goar and the rest . 24. And that we may be yet more particular , the very Prayer for Christs Catholick Church , in the Office of Communion , beside that it is nothing but a plain execution of an Apostolical precept , set down in the Preface of the Prayer , it was also used in all times , and in all Liturgies of the ancient Church . And we find this attested by * S. Cyril of Jerusalem , Deinde postquam confectum est illud spirituale sacrificium — obsecramus Deum pro communi Ecclesiarum pace , pro tranquillitate mundi , pro Regibus , &c. To the same purpose also there is a testimony in S. Chrysostome , which because it serves not only here , but also to other uses , it will not be amiss here to note it : Quid autem sibi vult [ primum omnium ? ] In obsequio scil . quotidiano , perpetuoque divinae religionis ritu . Atque id noverunt fideles quomodo diebus singulis mane & vespere orationes fundantur ad Dominum , quomodo pro omni mundo & Regibus , & omnibus qui in sublimitate positi sunt , obsecrationes in Ecclesia fiant . Sed forte quis dixerit , pro omnibus , quod ait , tantum fideles intelligi voluisse . At id verum non esse quae sequuntur , ostendunt . Denique ait , pro Regibus , neque enim tunc Reges Deum colebant . It is evident by this , that the custom of the Church was not only in the celebration of the holy Communion , but in all her other Offices to say this Prayer , not only for Christs Catholick Church , but for all the world . 25. And that the charity of the Church might not be misconstrued , he produces his warrant . S. Paul not only expresly commands us to pray for all men , but adds by way of instance , for Kings , who then were unchristian , and heathen in all the world . But this form of Prayer is almost word for word in S. Ambrose . Haec regula Ecclesiastica est tradita à Magistro gentium qua utuntur Sacerdotes nostri , ut pro omnibus supplicent — deprecantes pro Regibus — orantes pro iis quibus sublimis potestas credita est , ut in justitia & veritate gubernent — postulantes pro iis qui in necessitate varia sunt , ut eruti & liberati Deum collaudent incolumitatis Authorem . So far goes our form of Prayer . But S. Ambrose adds , Referentes quoque gratiarum actiones — And so it was with us in the first Service-books of King Edward , and the Preface to the Prayer engages us to a thanksgiving ; but I know not how it was stoln out , the Preface still remaining , to chide their unwariness that took down that part of the building , and yet left the gate standing . But if the Reader please to be satisfied concerning this Prayer , which indeed is the longest in our Service-book , and of greatest consideration , he may see it taken up from the universal custom of the Church , and almost in all the words of the old Liturgies , if he will observe the Liturgies themselves of S. Basil , S , Chrysostome , and the concurrent testimonies of a Tertullian , b S. Austin , c Celestine , d Gennadius , e Prosper , and f Theophylact. 26. I shall not need to make any excuses for the Churches reading those portions of Scripture which we call Epistles and Gospels before the Communion . They are Scriptures of the choicest , and most profitable transaction . And let me observe this thing , That they are not only declarations of all the mysteries of our redemption , and rules of good life , but this choice is of the greatest compliance with the necessities of the Christian Church that can be imagined . For if we deny to the people a liberty of reading Scriptures , may they not complain as Isaac did against the inhabitants of the land , that the Philistines had spoiled his well , and the fountains of living water ; If a free use to all of them , and of all Scriptures were permitted , should not the Church her self have more cause to complain of the infinite licentiousness and looseness of interpretations , and of the commencement of ten thousand errors , which would certainly be consequent to such permission ? Reason and Religion will chide us in the first , reason and experience in the latter . And can the wit of man conceive a better temper and expedient , than that such Scriptures only or principally should be laid before them all in daily Offices , which contain in them all the mysteries of our redemption , and all the rules of good life ? which two things are done by the Gospels , and Epistles respectively : the first being a Record of the life and death of our blessed Saviour ; the latter , instructions for the edification of the Church , in pious and Christian conversation ; and all this was done with so much choice , that as obscure places are avoided by design , as much as could be , so the very assignation of them to certain festivals , the appropriation of them to solemn and particular days does entertain the understandings of the people with notions proper to the mystery , and distinct from impertinent and vexatious questions . And were this design made something more minute , and applicable to the various necessities of times , and such choice Scriptures permitted indifferently , which might be matter of necessity and great edification , the people of the Church would have no reason to complain that the fountains of our Saviour were stopp'd from them , nor the Rulers of the Church , that the mysteriousness of Scripture were abused by the petulancy of the people to consequents harsh , impious , and unreasonable in despight of government , in exauctoration of the power of superiours , or for the commencement of Schisms and Heresies . The Church with great wisdom hath first held this torch out , and though for great reasons intervening and hindering , it cannot be reduced to practice , yet the Church hath shewn her desire to avoid the evil that is on both hands , and she hath shewn the way also , if it could have been insisted in . But however , this choice of the more remarkable portions of Scripture is so reasonable and proportionable to the nature of the thing , that because the Gospels and Epistles bear their several shares of the design , ( the Gospel representing the foundation , and prime necessities of Christianity , and the mysterious parts of our Redemption , the summ , the faith , and the hopes of Christianity ) therefore it is attested by a ceremony of standing up , it being a part of the confession of faith : but the Epistles containing superstructures upon that foundation , are read with religious care , but not made formal or solemn by any other circumstance . The matter contains in it sufficient of reason and of proportion , but nothing of necessity , except it be by accident , and as authority does intervene by way of sanction . 27. But that this reading of Epistles and Gospels before the Communion was one of the earliest customs of the Church , I find it affirmed by Rabanus Maurus . Sed enim initio mos iste cantandi non erat , qui nunc in Ecclesia ante sacrificium celebratur : Sed tamen epistolae Pauli recitabantur & sanctum Evangelium . The custom of reading S. Paul's Epistles , and the holy Gospel before the Sacrament was from the beginning . Some other portions of Scripture were read upon emergent occasions instead of the Epistle , which still retain the name of Epistle , but it is so seldom , that it happens upon two Sundays only in the year , upon Trinity Sunday , and the 25. Sunday after ; upon Saints days it happens oftner , because the story requires a particular rememoration , and therefore is very often taken out of the Acts of the Apostles , but being in substitution only of the ordinary portion of the Epistle of S. Paul , or other the Apostles , it keeps the name of the first design , though the change be upon good reason , and much propriety . 28. There remains now nothing but the Litany and Collects to be accounted for : for the matter of which I shall need to say nothing , because the Objections whatsoever have been against them are extremely low , and rather like the intemperate talk of an angry child , than pressures of reason or probability , excepting where they are charg'd with their vertues , for their charity in praying for all men , for their humility in acknowledging such a worthlesness in our selves , as not to dare to ask our petitions upon our own confidences . These things fall like water against a rock , or like the accusations against our blessed Saviour , the unreasonableness of them splits themselves . 29. But for the form I think themselves will make answer , when they consider that they are nothing but a pursuit of that Apostolical precept , which next to the Lords Prayer was the first Scripture pattern whence the Church fram'd her Liturgies . First of all , let there be made intercessions and prayers and supplications , and giving of thanks for all men . In which words if there be not an impertinent repetition of divers words to the same sence , then needs must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , be as much distinct from each other in their form , as they are all from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 30. S. Augustine expounds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prayers made in and about the blessed Eucharist . Ideo in hujus sanctificatione & distributionis praeparatione existimo Apostolum jussisse proprie fieri 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , id est , orationes . Interpellationes autem vel postulationes fiunt cum populus benedicitur . 31. But S. Augustine if he were not deceived in his Criticism , says that beside the general name of Prayer , which is signified by all those words , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Scripture signifies votum or desire , such surely as we express by sudden and short emissions , and then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is but a prayer , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , but an expression of short and ejaculatory desires , and may be better applied to such forms of prayer as are our Collects , rather than the longer and more solemn parts of the Canon of Communion . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] though it signifie an address to God , yet it may with propriety enough be applied to our interlocutory prayers where the people bear a share ; for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies congressum or colloquium , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Isocrat . make no frequent societies or confederations with them . However , although Grammarians may differ in assigning these several words to their proper , minute , and incommunicable signification , yet it is most clear , that they mean not prayers distinct , and made several by the variety of matter , but several addresses differing only in modo orandi , and therefore by these are intended the several forms of prayer and supplication : and the Church hath at all times used prayers of all variety , long and short , ejaculatory , determined and solemn . And the Church of England understood it in this variety , calling the short ejaculatory prayers and responsories by the names of Litanies , or suffrages , which I should render in the phrase of S. Austin to be postulationes , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but the longer Collects he calls prayers , which is the true rendring of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( I suppose ) and therefore twice in the Litany , after the short responsories , the Priest says [ Let us pray ] by that minding the people of the Apostles precept , that prayer as well as supplications be made . * For the Litanies it is certain , the form is of great antiquity ; Mamercus Bishop of Vienna made solemn Litanies 400. years after Christ , and he and all his Diocess repeated them together ▪ And therefore I know not what matter of doubt there can be reasonable in the form , since besides that we have the wisdom of so many ages , and holy and prudent persons to confirm them , the form is made with design to represent all the needs of the Catholick Church , and to make the prayer it self fitted for an active and an intense devotion ; and that it cooperates rarely well to these ends , is so true , that of the first every man is judge , of the second , every man may be judge that will without prejudice , & with pious predispositions use the form ; for if they help my devotion infinitely , they may do as much to another , if he be disposed as I am ; and he that says they do no advantage or singular relish to my spirit , may as well tell me the meat I eat does not please me because he loves it not ; but the exceptions which are against it are so phantastick , and by chance , that unless it be against a single adversary , and by personal engagement , they cannot be noted in the series of a positive discourse . Sometimes they are too long , and sometimes they are too short , and yet the objectors will make longer and shorter when they please ; and because no law of God hath prescribed to us in such circumstances , if the Church leaves the same liberty to their private devotions , it is not reasonable they should prescribe to her in publick , and in such minutes , in which the ordinary prudence of one wise man is abundantly sufficient to give him Laws and directions , and in matters of greater difficulty . 32. Of the same consideration is the form of our Church Collects , which are made pleasant by their variety of matter , are made energetical and potent by that great endearment of [ per Jesum Christum Dominum nostrum ] are cleared from a neighbourhood of tediousness by their so quick intercision and breakings off , and have for their precedent the forms of Prayer used by the religious of Palestine mentioned by Cassian , Et hae fuerunt Monachorum jaculatoriae orationes , ut frequentius Dominum deprecantes jugiter eidem cohaerere possimus , & ut insidiantis Diaboli jacula quae infligere nobis tum praecipue insistit cum oramus , succincta vitemus brevitate . In all these forms of prayer there is no difference but what is circumstantial , and therefore although these circumstances be of great efficacy for the procuring of accidental advantages to our spirits which are often swayed , moved and determined by a manner as much as by an essence , yet there is in it nothing of duty and obligation , and therefore it is the most unreasonable thing in the world to make any of these things to be a question of Religion . 33. I shall therefore press these things no further , but note that since all Liturgy is and ever was either prose or verse , or both , and the Liturgy of the Church of England as well as most others , is of the last sort , I consider that whatsoever is in her devotions besides the Lessons , Epistles and Gospels ( the body of which is no other thing , than was the famous Lectionarium of S. Jerome ) is a compliance with these two dictates of the Apostle for Liturgy : the which , one for verse , the other for prose , in 1 Psalms and 2 Hymns and 3 Spiritual songs [ for verse : ] for prose , 4 deprecations , and 5 prayers , and 6 intercessions , and 7 giving of thanks , will warrant and commend , as so many parts of duty , all the portions of the English Liturgy . 34. If it were worth the pains , it were very easie to enumerate the Authors , and especially the occasions and time when the most minute passages ▪ such I mean as are known by distinct appellatives , came into the Church , that so it may appear , our Liturgy is as ancient and primitive in every part , as it is pious and unblameable , and long before the Church got such a beam in one of her eyes , which was endeavoured to be cast out at the Reformation . But it will not be amiss to observe that very many of them were inserted as Antidotes , and deleteries to the worst of Heresies , as I have discours'd already , and such was that clause [ through Jesus Christ our Lord , who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the holy Spirit ever one God ] and some other phrases parallel were put in , in defiance of the Macedonians , and all the species of the Antitrinitarians , and used by S. Ambrose in Millain , S. Austin in Africa , and Idacius Clarus in Spain ; and in imitation of so pious precedents , the Church of England hath inserted divers clauses into her Offices . 35. There was a great instance in the administration of the blessed Sacrament . For upon the change of certain clauses in the Liturgy upon the instance of Martin Bucer , instead of [ the bloud of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for you preserve your body and soul unto everlasting life ] was substituted this [ take and eat this in remembrance , &c. ] and it was done lest the people accustomed to the opinion of Transubstantiation and the appendant practices , should retain the same doctrine upon intimation of the first clause . But in the beginning of Queen Elizabeths reign , when certain persons of the Zuinglian opinion would have abused the Church with Sacramentary doctrine , and pretended the Church of England had declared for it in the second clause of 1552 ; the wisdom of the Church thought it expedient to joyn both the clauses ; the first lest the Church should be suspected to be of the Sacramentary opinion , the latter lest she should be mistaken as a Patroness of Transubstantiation . And both these with so much temper and sweetness , that by her care she rather prevented all mistakes , than by any positive declaration in her prayers , engaged her self upon either side ; that she might pray to God without strife and contention with her brethren . For the Church of England had never known how to follow the names of men , but to call Christ only her Lord and Master . 36. But from the inserting of these and the like clauses which hath been done in all ages , according to several opportunities and necessities , I shall observe this advantage which is in many , but is also very signally in the English Liturgy , we are thereby enabled and advantaged in the meditation of those mysteries , de quibus festivatur in sacris ( as the Casuists love to speak ) which upon solemn days we are bound to meditate and make to be the matter and occasion of our address to God ; for the offices are so ordered that the most indifferent and careless cannot but be reminded of the mystery in every Anniversary , which if they be summ'd up will make an excellent Creed , ( and then let any man consider what a rare advantage it will be to the belief of such propositions when the very design of the Holy-day teaches the hard handed Artizan the name and meaning of an Article ) and yet the most forward and religious cannot be abused with any semblances of superstition . The life and death of the Saints which is very precious in the eyes of God , is so remembred by his humble and afflicted handmaid the Church of England , that by giving him thanks and praise , God may be honoured , the Church instructed by the proposition of their example , and we give testimony of the honour and love we owe and pay unto Religion by the pious veneration and esteem of those holy and beatified persons . 37. Certain it is , that there is no part of Religion , as it is a distinct vertue , and is to be exercised by interiour acts and forms of worship , but is in the offices of the Church of England . For if the Soul desires to be humbled she hath provided forms of Confession to God before his Church ; if she will rejoyce and give God thanks for particular blessings , there are forms of thanksgiving described and added by the Kings authority upon the Conference at Hampton-Court , which are all the publick , solemn , and foreseen occasions for which by Law and order provision could be made : if she will commend to God the publick and private necessities of the Church , and single persons , the whole body of Collects and devotions supplies that abundantly : if her devotion be high and pregnant , and prepared to fervency and importunity of congress with God , the Litanies are an admirable pattern of devotion , full of circumstances proportionable for a quick and an earnest spirit ; when the revolution of the Anniversary calls on us to perform our duty of special meditation , and thankfulness to God for the glorious benefits of Christs Incarnation , Nativity , Passion , Resurrection , and Ascension ( blessings which do as well deserve a day of thanksgiving as any other temporal advantage , though it be the pleasure of a victory ) then we have the offices of Christmass , the Annunciation , Easter and Ascension : if we delight to remember those holy persons , whose bodies rest in the bed of peace , and whose souls are deposited in the hands of Christ , till the day of restitution of all things , we may by the Collects and days of Anniversary festivity not only remember , but also imitate them too in our lives , if we will make that use of the proportions of Scripture allotted for the festival which the Church intends ; to which if we add the advantages of the whole Psalter which is an intire body of devotion by it self , and hath in it forms to exercise all graces by way of internal act and spiritual intention , there is not any ghostly advantage which the most religious can either need or fancy , but the English Liturgy in its entire constitution will furnish us withal . And certainly it was a very great wisdom , and a very prudent and religious Constitution so to order that part of the Liturgy , which the ancients called the Lectionarium , that the Psalter should be read over twelve times in the year , the Old Testament once , and the New Testament thrice , beside the Epistles and Gospels , which renew with a more frequent repetition such choice places as represent the entire body of faith and good life . There is a defalcation of some few Chapters from the entire body in the order , but that also was part of the wisdom of the Church not to expose to publick ears and common judgments , some of the secret rites of Moses's Law , or the more mysterious prophecies of the New Testament , whose sence and meaning the event will declare , if we by mistaken and anticipated interpretations do not obstruct our own capacities , and hinder us from believing the true events , because they answer not those expectations with which our own mistakes have prepared our understandings : as it hapned to the Jews in the case of Antiochus , and to the Christians in the person of Antichrist . 38. Well! thus as it was framed in the body of its first Constitution and second alteration , those excellent men whom God chose as instruments of his honour and service in the Reformation , to whom also he did shew what great things they were to suffer for his Names sake , approved of it with high testimony , promoted it by their own use and zeal , and at last sealed it with their blood . 39. That they had a great opinion of the piety and unblameable composure of the Common-Prayer-Book , appears 1 in the challenge made in its behalf by the Archbishop Cranmer , to defend it against all the world of Enemies ; 2 by the daily using it in time of persecution and imprisonment ( for so did Bishop Ridley , and Dr. Taylor , who also recommended it to his wife for a legacy : ) 3 by their preaching in behalf of it ( as many did : ) 4 by Hulliers hugging it in his flames with a posture of great love and forwardness of entertainment , 5 besides the direct testimony which the most eminent learned amongst the Queen Mary Martyrs have given of it . Amongst which that of the learned Rector of Hadley , Dr. Rowland Taylor , is most considerable : his words are these in a Letter of his to a friend ; [ But there was after that by the most innocent King Edward ( for whom God be praised everlastingly ) the whole Church Service with great deliberation , and the advice of the best learned men of the Realm , and authorized by the whole Parliament , and received and published gladly by the whole Realm : Which Book was never reformed but once , and yet by that one reformation it was so fully perfected according to the rules of our Christian Religion in every behalf , that no Christian conscience could be offended with any thing therein contained . I mean of that Book reformed . ] 40. I desire the words may be considered and confronted against some other words lately published , which charge these holy and learned men but with a half-fac'd light , a darkness in the confines of Egypt , and the suburbs of Goshen . And because there is no such thing proved of these blessed Men , and Martyrs , and that it is easie to say such words of any man that is not fully of our mind , I suppose the advantage and the out-weighing authority will lie on our part in behalf of the Common-Prayer-Book , especially since this man and divers others died with it and for it according as it hapned by the circumstance of their Charges and Articles , upon which they died ; for so it was in the cases of John Rough , John Philpot , Cutbert Simson , and seven others burnt in Smithfield , upon whom it was charged in their Indictments , that they used , allowed , preached for , and maintained respectively the Service-book of King Edward . To which Articles they answered affirmatively , and confessed them to be true in every part , and died accordingly . 41. I shall press this argument to issue in the words of S. Ambrose cited to the like purpose by Vincentius Lirinensis . Librum sacerdotalem quis nostrum resignare audeat , signatum à Confessoribus , & multorum jam martyrio consecratum ? Quomodo fidem eorum possumus denegare , quorum victoriam praedicamus ? Who shall dare to violate this Priestly book , which so many Confessors have consigned , and so many Martyrs have hallowed with their blood ? How shall we call them Martyrs , if we deny their faith , how shall we celebrate their victory , if we dislike their cause ? If we believe them to be crown'd , why shall we deny but that they strove lawfully ? So that if they dying in attestation of this Book were Martyrs , why do we condemn the Book for which they died ? If we will not call them Martyrs , it is clear we have chang'd our Religion since then . And then it would be considered whether we are fallen ? For the Reformers in King Edwards time died for it , in Q. Elizabeths time they avowed it under the protection of an excellent Princess , but in that sad interval of Q. Maries reign it suffered persecution , and if it shall do so again , it is but an unhandsome compliance for Reformers to be unlike their Brethren , and to be like their Enemies , to do as do the Papists , and only to speak great words against them ; and it will be sad for a zealous Protestant to live in an age that should disavow King Edwards and Queen Elizabeths Religion and manner of worshipping God , and in an age that shall do as did Queen Maries Bishops , persecute the Book of Common-Prayer , and the Religion contained in it . God help the poor Protestants in such times : But let it do its worst , if God please to give his grace , the worst that can come is but a Crown , and that was never denied to Martyrs . 42. In the mean time I can but with joy and Eucharist consider with what advantages and blessings the pious Protestant is entertained and blessed , and arm'd against all his needs by the constant and Religious usage of the Common-Prayer-Book . For besides the direct advantages of the Prayers and devotions , some whereof are already instanc'd , ( and the experience of holy persons will furnish them with more ) there are also forms of solemn benediction and absolution in the Offices , and if they be not highly considerable , there is nothing sacred in the Evangelical Ministery , but all is a vast plain , and the Altars themselves are made of unhallowed turf . 43. Concerning Benediction ( of which there are four more solemn forms in the whole Office , two in the Canon of the Communion , one in Confirmation , one in the Office of Marriage ) I shall give this short account , that without all question the less is blessed of the greater , and it being an issue spiritual , is rather to be verified in spiritual relation , than in natural or political . And therefore if there be any such thing as regeneration by the Ministery of the word , and begetting in Christ , and Fathers and Sons after the common faith ( as the expressions of the Apostle make us to believe ) certain it is , the blessings of Religion do descend most properly from our spiritual Fathers , and with most plentiful emanation . And this hath been the Religion of all the world , to derive very much of their blessings by the Priests particular and signal ministration ; Melchisedech blessed Abraham , Isaac blessed Jacob , and Moses and Aaron blessed the people . So that here is benediction from a Prince , from a Father , from the Aaronical Priest , from Melchisedech , of whose order is the Christian , in whose Law it is a sanction , that in great needs especially , the Elders of the Church be sent for , and let them pray over him that is distressed . That is the great remedy for the great necessity . And it was ever much valued in the Church , insomuch that Nectarius would by no means take investiture of his Patriarchal Sea , until he had obtained the benediction of Diodorus the Bishop of Cilicia : Eudoxia the Empress brought her son Theodosius to S. Chrysostome for his blessing , and S. Austin and all his company received it of Innocentius Bishop of Carthage ; It was so solemn in all marriages , that the marrying of persons was called Benediction . So it was in the fourth Council of Carthage , Sponsus & sponsa cum benedicendi sunt à Sacerdote , &c. benedicendi , for married . — And in all Church Offices it was so solemn , that by a Decree of the Council of Agatho , A. D. 380. it was decreed , ante benedictionem Sacerdotis populus egredi non praesumat . By the way only , here is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for two parts of the English Liturgy . For the benediction in the Office of marriage by the authority of the Council of Carthage , and for concluding the Office of Communion with the Priests or Bishops benediction by warrant of the Council of Agatho , which Decrees having been derived into the practice of the universal Church for very many ages , is in no hand to be undervalued , lest we become like Esau , and we miss it when we most need it . For my own particular , I shall still press on to receive the benediction of holy Church , till at last I shall hear a Venite benedicti , and that I be reckoned amongst those blessed Souls who come to God by the ministeries of his own appointment , and will not venture upon that neglect , against which the piety and wisdom of all Religions in the world infinitely do prescribe . 44. Now the advantages of confidence which I have upon the forms of benedicton in the Common-Prayer-Book are therefore considerable , because God himself prescribed a set form of blessing the people , appointing it to be done not in the Priests extempore , but in an established form of words : and because , as the authority of a prescript form is from God , so that this form may be also highly warranted , the solemn blessing at the end of the Communion , is in the very words of S. Paul. 45. For the forms of Absolution in the Liturgy , though I shall not enter into consideration of the Question concerning the quality of the Priests power which is certainly a very great ministery , yet I shall observe the rare temper , and proportion which the Church of England uses in commensurating the forms of Absolution to the degrees of preparation and necessity . At the beginning of the Morning and Evening Prayer after a general Confession usually recited before the devotion is high and pregnant , ( whose parts like fire enkindle one another ) there is a form of Absolution in general , declarative and by way of proposition . In the Office of the Communion , because there are more acts of piety and repentance previous and presupposed , there the Churches form of Absolution is optative and by way of intercession . But in the Visitation of the sick , when it is supposed and enjoyned that the penitent shall disburthen himself of all the clamorous loads upon his conscience , the Church prescribes a medicinal form by way of delegate authority , that the parts of justification may answer to the parts of good life . For as the penitent proceeds so does the Church : pardon and repentance being terms of relation , they grow up together till they be complete ; this the Church with greatest wisdom supposes to be at the end of our life ; ( grace by that time having all its growth that it will have here ) and therefore then also the pardon of sins is of another nature than it ever was before , it being now more actual and complete , whereas before it was in fieri in the beginnings and smaller increases , and upon more accidents apt to be made imperfect and revocable . So that the Church of England in these manners of dispensing the power of the Keys does cut off all disputings and impertinent wranglings , whether the Priests power were Judicial or declarative ; for possibly it is both , and it is optative too , and something else yet , for it is an emanation from all the parts of his Ministery , and he never absolves , but he preaches or prays or administers a Sacrament ; for this power of remission is a transcendent , passing through all the parts of the Priestly Offices ; For the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven are the promises and the threatnings of the Scripture , and the prayers of the Church , and the Word and the Sacraments , and all these are to be dispensed by the Priest , and these keys are committed to his Ministery , and by the operation of them all he opens and shuts Heaven gates ministerially ; and therefore S. Paul calls it verbum reconciliationis , and says it is dispensed by Ministers , as by Embassadors or Delegates : and therefore it is an excellent temper of the Church , so to prescribe her forms of Absolution , as to shew them to be results of the whole Priestly Office , of Preaching , of dispensing Sacraments , of spiritual Cure , and authoritative Deprecation . And the benefit which pious and well disposed persons receive by these publick Ministeries , as it lies ready formed in our blessed Saviours promise [ erit solutum in coelis ] so men will then truly understand when they are taught to value every instrument of grace or comfort by the exigence of a present need , as in a sadness of spirit , in an unquiet conscience , in the arrest of death . 46. I shall not need to procure advantages to the reputation of the Common-Prayer , by considering the imperfections of whatsoever hath been offered in its stead : but yet * a 1 form of worship , composed to the dishonour of the Reformation , accusing it of darkness , and intolerable inconvenience : 2 a direction without a rule : 3 a rule without restraint : 4 a prescription leaving an indifferency to a possibility of licentiousness : 5 an office without any injunction of external acts of worship , not prescribing so much as kneeling : 6 an office that only once names reverence , but forbids it in the ordinary instance , and enjoyns it in no particular : 7 an office that leaves the form of ministration of Sacraments so indifferently , that if there be any form of words essential , the Sacrament is in much danger to become invalid , for want of provision of due forms of Ministration : 8 an office that complies with no precedent of Scripture , nor of any ancient Church : 9 that must of necessity either want authority , or it must prefer novelty before antiquity : 10 that accuses all the Primitive Church of indiscretion at the least : 11 that may be abused by the indiscretion , or ignorance , or malice of any man that uses it : 12 into which , Heresie or blasphemy may creep without possibility of prevention : 13 that hath no external forms to entertain the fancy of the more common spirits : 14 nor any allurement to perswade and entice its adversaries : 15 nor any means of adunation and uniformity amongst its confidents : 16 an office that still permits children , in many cases of necessity to be unbaptized , making no provision for them in sudden cases : 17 that will not suffer them to be confirmed at all , ( ut utroque Sacramento renascantur , as S. Cyprians phrase is , that they may be advantaged by a double rite : ) 18 that joyns in marriage as Cacus did his Oxen , in rude , inform and unhallowed yokes : 19 that will not do piety to the dead , nor comfort to the living , by solemn and honorary offices of funeral : 20 that hath no forms of blessing the people any more 21 than described forms of blessing God , which are just none at all : 22 an office that never thinks of absolving penitents , or exercising the power of the Keys , after the custom and rites of Priests : 23 a Liturgy that recites no Creed , no Confession of Faith , so not declaring either to Angels or men , according to what Religion they worship God ; but entertaining , though indeed without a symbol , Arrians , Macedonians , Nestorians , Manichees , or any other Sect , for ought there appears to the contrary : 24 that consigns no publick Canon of Communion , but leaves that as casual and phantastick as any of the lesser offices : 25 an office that takes no more care than chance does , for the reading the holy Scriptures : 26 that never commemorates a departed Saint : 27 that hath no Communion with the Church Triumphant , any more than with the other parts of the Militant : 28 that never thanks God for the redemption of the world by the Nativity , and Passion , Resurrection , and Ascension of our blessed Saviour Jesus , but condemns the memorial even of the Scripture Saints , and the memorial of the miraculous blessings of redemption of mankind by Christ himself , with the same accusation it condemns the Legends and portentous stories of the most suspected part of the Roman Calendar ▪ 29 an office that out of zeal against Judaism condemns all distinction of days , unless they themselves distinguish them : that leaves no signature of piety upon the Lords day , and yet the Compilers do enjoyn it to a Judaical superstitition : 30 an office that does by implication undervalue the Lords Prayer , for it never injoyns it , and does but once permit it : 31 an office that is new without authority , and never made up into a sanction by an Act of Parliament : an order or Directory of devotion that hath all these ingredients and capacities ( and such a one there is in the world ) I suppose is no equal match to contest with and be put in balance against the Liturgy of the Church of England , which was with so great deliberation compiled out of Scriptures , the most of it , all the rest agreeing with Scriptures , and drawn from the Liturgies of the ancient Church , and made by men famous in their generations , whose reputation and glory of Martyrdom hath made it immodest for the best of men now to compare themselves with them : and after its composition considered by advices from abroad , and so trimm'd and adorn'd that no excrescency did remain ; the Rubricks of which Book was writ in the blood of many of the Compilers , which hath had a testimony from Gods blessing in the daily use of it , accompanying it with the peace of an age , established and confirmed by six Acts of Parliament directly and collaterally , and is of so admirable a composure , that the most industrious wits of its Enemies could never find out an objection of value enough to make a doubt , or scarce a scruple in a wise spirit . But that I shall not need to set a night-piece by so excellent a beauty , to set it off the better , it s own excellencies are Orators prevalent enough , that it shall not need any advantages accidental . 47. And yet this excellent Book hath had the fate to be cut in pieces with a pen-knife , and thrown into the fire , but it is not consumed ; at first it was sown in tears and is now watered with tears , yet never was any holy thing drowned and extinguished with tears . It began with the Martyrdom of the Compilers , and the Church hath been vexed ever since by angry spirits , and she was forced to defend it with much trouble and unquietness : but it is to be hop'd that all these storms are sent but to increase the zeal and confidence of the pious sons of the Church of England . Indeed the greatest danger that ever the Common-Prayer-Book had , was the indifferency and indevotion of them that used it but as a common blessing ; and they who thought it fit for the meanest of the Clergy to read prayers ; and for themselves only to preach , though they might innocently intend it , yet did not in that action consult the honour of our Liturgy ; except where charity or necessity did interpose . But when excellent things go away , and then look back upon us , as our blessed Saviour did upon S. Peter , we are more mov'd than by the nearer embraces of a full and an actual possession . I pray God it may prove so in our case , and that we may not be too willing to be discouraged ; at least that we may not cease to love and to desire what is not publickly permitted to our practice and profession . JER . TAYLOR . AN APOLOGY FOR AUTHORIZED and SET FORMS OF LITURGY : AGAINST THE PRETENCE OF THE SPIRIT . 1. For ex tempore PRAYER , AND 2. Forms of Private composition . By JER . TAYLOR , D. D. and Chaplain in Ordinary to King CHARLES the First . The third Edition Enlarged . The Compilers of the Common-Prayer Book of the Church of England ( as it now is ) were Doctor CRANMER , Arch-Bishop of Canterbury . Doctor GOODRICK , Bishop of Ely. Doctor SKIP , Bishop of Hereford . Doctor THIRLBY , Bishop of Westminster . Doctor DAY , Bishop of Chichester . Doctor HOLBECK , Bishop of Lincoln . Doctor RIDLEY , Bishop of Rochester . Doctor TAYLOR , Dean of Lincoln . Doctor HEYNES , Dean of Exeter . Doctor REDMAN , Dean of Westminster . Doctor COX , K. Edwards Almoner . Doctor Mr. Robinson , Arch-Deac . of Leicester . Mense Maio 1549. Anno Regni Edwardi Sexti tertio . LONDON , Printed for R. Royston , Bookseller to the King 's most Excellent MAJESTY , M DC LXXIII . TO HIS MOST SACRED MAJESTY . IT is now two years , since part of these ensuing Papers , like the publick issue of the people , imperfect and undressed , were exposed , without a Parent to protect them , or any hand to nourish them . But since your Most Sacred Majesty was pleased graciously to look upon them , they are grown into a Tract , and have an ambition ( like the Gourd of Jonas ) to dwell in the eye of the Sun from whence they received life and increment . And although because some violence hath been done to the profession of the doctrine of this Treatise , it may seem to be verbum in tempore non suo , and like the offering Cypress to a Conqueror , or Palms to a broken Army , yet I hope I shall the less need an Apologie , because it is certain , he does really dis-serve no just and Noble interest , that serves that of the Spirit , and Religion . And because the sufferings of a KING and a Confessor are the great demonstration to all the world that Truth is as Dear to your MAJESTY as the Jewels of your Diadem , and that your Conscience is tender as a pricked eye , I shall pretend this only to alleviate the inconvenience of an unseasonable address , that I present your MAJESTY with a humble persecuted truth , of the same constitution with that condition whereby you are become most Dear to God , as having upon you the characterism of the Sons of God , bearing in your Sacred Person the marks of the Lord Jesus , who is your Elder Brother , the King of Sufferings , and the Prince of the Catholick Church . But I consider that Kings , and their Great Councils , and Rulers Ecclesiastical have a special obligation for the defence of Liturgies , because they having the greatest Offices , have the greatest needs of auxiliaries from Heaven , which are best procured by the publick Spirit , the Spirit of Government and Supplication . And since the first , the best , and most solemn Liturgies and Set forms of Prayer were made by the best and greatest Princes , by Moses , by David , and the Son of David ; Your MAJESTY may be pleased to observe such a proportion of circumstances in my laying this ( Apology for Liturgy ) at Your feet , that possibly I may the easier obtain a pardon for my great boldness ; which if I shall hope for , in all other contingencies I shall represent my self a person indifferent whether I live or die , so I may by either , serve God , and Gods Church , and Gods Vicegerent , in the capacity of , Great Sir , Your Majesties most humble , and most obedient Subject and Servant , JER . TAYLOR . Hierocl . in Pythag. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . An APOLOGY for Authorized and Set Forms of LITVRGY . I Have read over this Book which the Assembly of Divines is pleased to call , [ The Directory for Prayer . ] I confess I came to it with much expectation , and was in some measure confident , I should have found it an exact and unblameable model of Devotion , free from all those Objections which men of their own perswasion had obtruded against the Publick Liturgie of the Church of England ; or at least , it should have been composed with so much artifice and fineness , that it might have been to all the world , an argument of their learning and excellency of spirit , if not of the goodness and integrity of their Religion and purposes . I shall give no other character of the whole , but that the publick disrelish which I find amongst Persons of great piety , of all qualities , not only of great , but even of ordinary understandings , is to me some argument that it lies so open to the objections even of common spirits , that the Compilers of it did intend more to prevail by the success of their Armies , than the strength of reason , and the proper grounds of perswasion , which yet most wise and good Men believe to be the more Christian way of the two . But because the judgment I made of it from an argument so extrinsecal to the nature of the thing , could not reasonably enable me to satisfie those many Persons who in their behalf desired me to consider it , I resolv'd to look upon it nearer , and to take its account from something that was ingredient to its Constitution , that I might be able both to exhort and convince the Gainsayers , who refuse to hold fast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that faithful word which they had been taught by their Mother the Church of England . Sect. 2. I SHALL decline to speak of the efficient cause of this Directory , and not quarrel at it , that it was composed against the Laws both of England and all Christendom . If the thing were good and pious , and did not directly or accidentally invade the rights of a just Superiour , I would learn to submit to the imposition , and never quarrel at the incompetency of his authority that ingaged me to do pious and holy things . And it may be when I am a little more used to it , I shall not wonder at a Synod , in which not one Bishop sits ( in the capacity of a Bishop ) though I am most certain this is the first example in England since it was first Christened . But for the present it seems something hard to digest it , because I know so well that all Assemblies of the Church have admitted Priests to consultation and dispute , but never to authority and decision , till the Pope enlarging the phylacteries of the Archimandrites , and Abbots , did sometime by way of priviledge and dispensation give to some of them decisive voices in publick Councils ; but this was one of the things in which he did innovate and invade against the publick resolutions of Christendom , though he durst not do it often , and yet when he did it , it was in very small and inconsiderable numbers . Sect. 3. I SAID I would not meddle with the Efficient , and I cannot meddle with the Final cause , nor guess at any other ends and purposes of theirs than at what they publickly profess , which is the abolition and destruction of the Book of Common Prayer ; which great change , because they are pleased to call Reformation , I am content in charity to believe they think it so , and that they have Zelum Dei , but whether secundum scientiam , according to knowledge or no , must be judg'd by them who consider the matter , and the form . Sect. 4. BUT because the matter is of so great variety and minute Consideration , every part whereof would require as much scrutiny as I purpose to bestow upon the whole , I have for the present chosen to consider only the form of it ; concerning which , I shall give my judgment without any sharpness or bitterness of spirit , for I am resolved not to be angry with any men of another perswasion , as knowing that I differ just as much from them as they do from me . Sect. 5. THE Directory takes away that Form of Prayer which by the a●●hority and consent of all the obliging power of the Kingdom , hath been used and enjoyned ever since the Reformation . But this was done by men of differing spirits , and of disagreeing interests ; Some of them consented to it , that they might take away all set forms of prayer , and give way to every mans spirit ; the other , that they might take away this Form , and give way and countenance to their own . The first , is an enemy to all deliberation . The Second , to all authority . They will have no man to deliberate , These would have none but themselves . The former are unwise and rash ; the latter are pleased with themselves , and are full of opinion . They must be considered apart , for they have rent the Question in pieces , and with the fragment in his hand , every man hath run his own way . question 1 Sect. 6. FIRST , of them that deny all set forms , though in the subject matter they were confessed innocent and blameless . Sect. 7. AND here I consider that the true state of the Question is only this , Whether it is better to pray to God with Consideration , or without ? Whether is the wiser Man of the two , he who thinks and deliberates what to say , or he that utters his mind as fast as it comes ? whether is the better man , he who out of reverence to God is most careful and curious that he offend not in his tongue , and therefore he himself deliberates , and takes the best guides he can ; or he who out of the confidence of his own abilities , or other exterior assistances , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; speaks what ever comes uppermost . Sect. 8. AND here I wave the advice and counsel of a very wise man , no less than Solomon , Be not rash with thy mouth , and let not thy heart be hasty to utter any thing before God , for God is in Heaven and thou upon Earth , therefore let thy words be few . The consideration of the vast distance between God and us , Heaven and Earth , should create such apprehensions in us , that the very best and choicest of our offertories are not acceptable but by Gods gracious vouchsafing and condescension : and therefore since we are so much indebted to God for accepting our best , it is not safe ventured to present him with a dough-baked sacrifice , and put him off with that which in nature and humane consideration , is absolutely the worst ; for such is all the crude and imperfect utterance of our more imperfect conceptions ; Hoc non probo in philosopho , cujus oratio sicut vita debet esse composita , said Seneca , A wise mans speech should be like his life and actions ; composed , studied , and considered . And if ever inconsideration be the cause of sin , and vanity ; it is in our words , and therefore is with greatest care to be avoided in our prayers , we being most of all concerned that God may have no quarrel against them , for folly , or impiety . Sect. 9. BUT abstracting from the reason , let us consider who keeps the precept best , He that deliberates , or he that considers not when he speaks ? What man in the world is hasty to offer any thing unto God , if he be not , who prays ex tempore ? And then add to it but the weight of Solomons reason , and let any man answer me if he thinks it can well stand , with that reverence we owe to the immense , the infinite and to the eternal God , the God of wisdom , to offer him a sacrifice , which we durst not present to a Prince or a prudent Governour in re ●eriâ , such as our prayers ought to be . Sect. 10. AND that this may not be dasht with a pretence it is carnal reasoning , I desire it may be remembred , that it is the argument God himself uses against lame , maimed and imperfect sacrifices , Go and offer this to thy Prince , see if he will accept it ; implying , that the best person is to have the best present ; and what the Prince will slight as truly unworthy of him , much more is it unfit for God. For God accepts not of any thing , we give or do , as if he were bettered by it ; for therefore its estimate is not taken by its relation or natural complacency to him , for in it self it is to him as nothing : but God accepts it by its proportion and commensuration to us . That which we call our best , and is truly so in humane estimate , that pleases God , for it declares that if we had better , we would give it him . But to reserve the best , says too plainly , that we think any thing is good enough for him . As therefore God in the Law would not be served by that which was imperfect in genere naturae : so neither now , nor ever , will that please him which is imperfect in genere morum , or materiâ intellectuali , when we can give a better . Sect. 11. AND therefore the wisest Nations , and the most sober Persons prepared their Verses and Prayers in set forms , with as much religion as they dressed their sacrifices , and observ'd the rites of Festivals and Burials . Amongst the Romans it belong'd to the care of the Priests , to worship in prescrib'd and determin'd words . In omni precatione qui vota effundit Sacerdos , Vestam & Janum aliosque Deos praescriptis verbis & composito carmine advocare solet . The Greeks did so too , receiving their prayers by dictate word for word . Itaque sua carmina suaeque praecationes singulis diis institutae sunt ; quas plerunque nequid praeposterè dicatur , aliquis ex praescripto praeire & ad verbum referre solebat . Their hymns and prayers were ordained peculiar to every God , which , lest any thing should be said preposterously , were usually pronounced word for word after the Priest , and out of written Copies ; and the Magi among the Persians were as considerate in their devotions ; Magos & Persas primo semper diluculo canere Diis hymnos & laudes , meditato & solenni precationis carmine , The Persians sang hymns to their Gods by the morning twilight in a premeditate , solemn and metrical form of prayer , saith the same Author . For since in all the actions and discourses of men , that which is the least considered is likely to be the worst , and is certainly of the greatest disreputation , it were a strange cheapness of opinion , towards God and Religion , to be the most incurious of what we say to him , and in our religious offices , It is strange that every thing should be considered but our Prayers . It is spoken by E●●apius to the honour of Proaeres●us's Scholars , that when the Proconsul asked their judgments in a question of Philosophy , they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they with much consideration and care gave in answer those words of Aristides , that they were not of the number of those that used to vomit out answers , but of those that considered every word they were to speak . Nihil enim ordinatum est quod praecipitatur & properat , said Seneca , Nothing can be regular and orderly , that is hasty and precipitate ; and therefore unless Religion be the most imprudent , trifling , and inconsiderable thing , and that the Work of the Lord is done well enough , when it is done negligently , or that the sanctuary hath the greatest beauty , when it hath the least order , it will concern us highly to think our prayers and religious offices are actions fit for wise men , and therefore to be done as the actions of wise men use to be , that is , deliberately , prudently , and with greatest consideration . Sect. 12. WELL then in the nature of the thing ex tempore forms have much the worse of it . But it is pretended that there is such a thing as the gift of prayer , a praying with the spirit ; Et nescit tard● molimina Spiritus sancti gratia , Gods Spirit ( if he pleases ) can do his work as well in an instant , as in long premeditation . And to this purpose are pretended those places of Scripture which speak of assistance of Gods spirit in our prayers , Zech. 12.10 . And I will pour upon the house of David , and the inhabitants of Hierusalem the spirit of grace and supplication . But especially Rom. 8.26 . Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities , for we know not what we should pray for as we ought , but the Spirit it self maketh intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered , &c. From whence the Conclusion that is inferred is in the words of S. Paul , that we must pray with the Spirit , therefore not with set forms , therefore ex tempore . Sect. 13. THE Collection is somewhat wild , for there is great independency in the several parts ; and much more is in the Conclusion than was virtually in the premises . But such as it is , the Authors of it , I suppose , will own it . And therefore we will examine the main design of it , and then consider the particular means of its perswasion quoted in the Objection . Sect. 14. IT is one of the Priviledges of the Gospel , and the benefit of Christs ascension , that the Holy Ghost is given unto the Church , and is become to us the fountain of gifts and graces . But these gifts and graces are improvements and helps of our natural faculties , of our art and industry , not extraordinary , miraculous , and immediate infusions of habits and gifts . That without Gods spirit we cannot pray aright , that our infirmities need his help , that we know not what to ask of our selves is most true : and if ever any Heretick was more confident of his own naturals , or did evermore undervalue Gods grace , than the Pelagian did , yet he denies not this ; but what then ? therefore without study , without art , without premeditation , without learning , the Spirit gives the gift of prayer , and is it his grace that without any natural or artificial help makes us pray ex tempore ? no such thing : the Objection proves nothing of this . Sect. 15. HERE therefore we will joyn issue , whether the gifts and helps of the Spirit be immediate infusions of the faculties and powers and perfect abilities ? Or that he doth assist us only by his aids external , and internal , in the use of such means which God and nature hath given to man to ennoble his soul , better his faculties , and to improve his understanding ? ** That the aids of the Holy Ghost are only assistances to us , in the use of natural and artificial means , I will undertake to prove , and from thence it will evidently follow , that labour , and hard study , and premeditation , will soonest purchase the gift of prayer , and ascertain us of the assistance of the Spirit , and therefore set Forms of Prayer studied and considered of , are in a true and proper sence , and without Enthusiasm , the fruits of the Spirit . Sect. 16. FIRST , Gods Spirit did assist the Apostles by ways extraordinary , and fit for the first institution of Christianity : but doth assist us now by the expresses of those first assistances which he gave to them immediately . Sect. 17. THUS the Holy Ghost brought to their Memory all things which Jesus spake and did , and by that means we come to know all that the Spirit knew to be necessary for us , the Holy Ghost being Author of our knowledge , by being the fountain of the Revelation , and we are therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , taught by God , because the Spirit of God revealed the Articles of our Religion that they might be known to all ages of the Church ; and this is testified by S. Paul , He gave some Apostles , and some Prophets , &c. for the perfecting of the Saints , for the work of the Ministry , for the edifying of the Body of Christ , till we all come in the unity of the faith , and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man , &c. This was the effect of Christ's ascension , when he gave gifts unto men , that is , when he sent the Spirit , the verification of the promise of the Father . The effect of this immission of the Holy Ghost was to fill all things , and that for ever ; to build up the Church of God , until the day of consummation ; so that the Holy Ghost abides with the Church for ever , by transmitting those revelations , which he taught the Apostles , to all Christians in succession . Now as the Holy Ghost taught the Apostles , and by them still teaches us what to believe ; so it is certain he taught the Apostles how , and what to pray ; and because it is certain that all the rules concerning our duty in prayer , and all those graces which we are to pray for are transmitted to us by Derivation from the Apostles , whom the Holy Ghost did teach even to that very purpose also , that they should teach us ; it follows evidently that the gift of prayer is a gift of the Holy Ghost , and yet to verifie this Proposition we need no other immediate inspiration or extraordinary assistance , than that we derive from the Holy Ghost by the conveyance of the Apostolical Sermons and Writings . Sect. 18. THE reason is the same in Faith and Prayer ; and if there were any difference in the acquisition , or reception , faith certainly needs a more immediate infusion , as being of greatest necessity , and yet a grace to which we least cooperate , it being the first of graces , and less of the will in it , than any other . But yet the Holy Ghost is the Author of our faith , and we believe with the Spirit , ( it is S. Pauls expression ) and yet our belief comes by hearing , and reading the holy Scriptures , and their interpretations . Now reconcile these two together , Faith comes by hearing , and yet is the gift of the Spirit , and it says that the gifts of the Spirit are not extasies , and immediate infusions of habits , but helps from God , to enable us upon the use of the means of his own appointment , to believe , to speak , to understand , to prophesie , and to pray . Sect. 19. BUT whosoever shall look for any other gifts of the Spirit besides the parts of nature helped by industry and Gods blessing upon it , and the revelations , or the supplies of matter in holy Scripture , will be very far to seek , having neither reason , promise , nor experience of his side . For why should the spirit of prayer be any other than as the gift and spirit of faith ( as S. Paul calls it ) acquired by humane means , using divine aids ? that is , by our endeavours in hearing , reading , catechizing , desires to obey , and all this blessed and promoted by God , this produces faith . Nay , it is true of us what Christ told his Apostles , sine me nihil potestis facere : not nihil magnum aut difficile , but omninò nihil , as S. Austin observes . Without me ye can do nothing , and yet we were not capable of a Law , or of reward , or punishment , if neither with him , nor without him , we were able to do any thing . And therefore although in the midst of all our co-operation we may say to God in the words of the Prophet , Domine omnia opera operatus es in nobis , O Lord thou hast wrought all our works in us , yet they are opera nostra still ; God works , and we work ; First is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Gods grace is brought to us , he helps and gives us abilities , and then expects our duty . And if the spirit of prayer be of greater consequence than all the works God hath wrought in us besides , and hath the promise of a special prerogative , let the first be proved , and the second be shown in any good Record , and then I will confess the difference . Sect. 20. THE Parallel of this Argument , I the rather urge , because I find praying in the Holy Ghost joyned with graces which are as much Gods gifts and productions of the spirit as any thing in the world , and yet which the Apostle presses upon us as duties , and things put into our power to be improved by our industry , and those are faith , ( in which I before instanced ) and charity . But ye ( beloved ) building up your selves on your most holy faith , praying in the Holy Ghost , keep your selves in the love of God. All of the same consideration , Faith , and Prayer , and Charity , all gifts of the Spirit , and yet build up your selves in faith , and keep your selves in love , and therefore by a parity of reason , improve your selves in the spirit of Prayer , that is , God by his Spirit having supplied us with matter , let our industry and co-operations per modum naturae , improve these gifts , and build upon this foundation . Sect. 21. THUS the Spirit of God is called the Spirit of adoption , the Spirit of counsel , the Spirit of grace , the Spirit of meekness , the Spirit of wisdom . And without doubt he is the fountain of all these to us all , and that for ever , and yet it cannot reasonably be supposed , but that we must stir up the graces of God in us , co-operate with his assistances , study in order to counsel , labour and consider in order to wisdom , give all diligence to make our calling and election sure in order to our adoption , in which we are sealed by the Spirit . Now these instances are of gifts , as well as graces , and since the days of wonder and need of miracles is expired , there is no more reason to expect inspiration of gifts , than of graces , without our endeavours . It concerns the Church rather to have these secured than those , and yet the Spirit of God puts it upon the condition of our co-operation , for according to the Proverb of the old Moralists , Deus habet sinum facilem non perfor●tum , Gods bosom is apt and easie to the emission of graces and assistances , but it is not loose and ungirt ; something must be done on our part , we must improve the talents , and swell the bank ; for if either we lay them up in a napkin , or spend them , suppress the Spirit , or extinguish it , we shall dearly account for it . Sect. 22. IN the mean time , if we may lose the gifts by our own fault , we may purchase them by our diligence : if we may lessen them by our incuriousness , we may increase them by study : if we may quench the spirit , then also we may re-enkindle it : all which are evident probation that the Holy Ghost gives us assistances to improve our natural powers , and to promote our acquisite , and his aids are not inspirations of the habit , or infusions of a perfect gift , but a subliming of what God gave us in the stock of nature and art , to make it in a sufficient order to an end supernatural and divine . Sect. 23. THE same doctrine we are taught by S. Pauls exhortation to Timothy , Neglect not the gift that is in thee , which was given thee by prophecie with the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery . And again , stir up the gift of God which is in thee by the laying on of my h●nds . If there be any gifts of the Holy Ghost , and spiritual influences , dispensed without our co-operation , and by inspiration of the intire power , it is in ordination , and the persons so ordained are most likely to receive the gift of prayer , if any such thing be for the edification of the Church , they being the men appointed to intercede , and to stand between God and the people , and yet this gift of God even in those times when they were dispensed with miracle , and assistances extraordinary , were given as all things now are given , by the means also of our endeavour , and was capable of improvement by industry , and of defailance by neglect , and therefore much rather is it so now in the days of ordinary ministration and common assistances . Sect. 24. AND indeed this argument , beside the efficacy of its perswasion , must needs conclude against the Men to whom these adversaria are addressed , because * themselves call upon their Disciples , to exercise the gift of prayer , and offer it to consideration , that such exercising it , is the way to better it ; and if natural endowments and artificial endeavours are the way to purchase new degrees of it , it were not amiss they did consider a little before they begin ; and did improve their first and smallest capacities before they ventured any thing in publick by way of address to Almighty God. For the first beginnings are certainly as improvable as the next degrees , and it is certain they have more need of it , as being more imperfect and rude . Therefore when ever Gods Spirit hath given us any capacities , or assistances , any documents , motions , desires , or any aids whatsoever , they are therefore given us with a purpose we should by our industry , skill , and labour , improve them , because without such co-operation , the intention is made void , and the work imperfect . Sect. 25. AND this is exactly the doctrine I plainly gather from the objected words of S. Paul , The Spirit helpeth our infirmities , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it is in the Greek , collaborantem adjuvat . It is an ingeminate expression of our labours . And that supposes us to have faculties capable of improvement , and an obligation to labour , and that the effect of having the gift of prayer depends upon the mutual course , that is , upon God blessing our powers and our endeavours . And if this way the Spirit performs his promise sufficiently , and does all that we need , and all that he ties himself to ; he that will multiply his hopes farther than what is sufficient , or what is promised , may possibly deceive himself , but never deceive God , and make him multiply and continue miracles to justifie his fancy . Sect. 26. BETTER it is to follow the Scriptures for our guide , as in all things else , so in this particular , Ephes. 6.17 , 18. Take the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God , Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit . The word of God is the sword of the spirit ; praying in the Spirit is one way of using it , indeed the only way that he here specifies . Praying in the Spirit then being the using of this Sword , and this Sword being the word of God , it follows evidently , that praying in the spirit , is praying in , or according to the word of God , that is , in the directions , rules , and expresses of the Word of God , that is , of the holy Scriptures . For we have many infirmities , and we need the spirit to help ; as doubting , coldness , weariness , disrelish of heavenly things , indifferency ; and these are enough to interpret the place quoted in the Objection , without tying him to make words for us to no great religious purposes when God hath done that for us in other manner than what we dream of . ** Sect. 27. SO that in effect , praying in the Holy Ghost , or with the spirit , is nothing but prayer for such things , and in such manner which God by his Spirit hath taught us in holy Scripture . Holy Prayers , spiritual songs , so the Apostle calls one part of prayer , viz. Eucharistical or thanksgiving , that is , Prayers or Songs which are spiritual in materiâ . And if they be called spiritual for the Efficient cause too , the Holy Ghost being the Author of them , it comes all to one , for therefore he is the cause and giver of them , because he hath in his word revealed , what things we are to pray for , and there also hath taught us the manner . Sect. 28. AND this I plainly prove from the words of S. Paul before quoted , The Spirit helpeth our infirmities , [ for we know not what we should pray for as we ought ] In this we are infirm , that we know not our own needs , nor our own advantages : when the Holy Ghost hath taught us what to ask , and to ask that as we ought , then he hath healed our infirmities , and our ignorances in the matter and the manner ; then we know what to pray for as we ought , then we have the grace of Prayer , and the Spirit of supplication . And therefore in the instance before mentioned concerning spiritual songs , when the Apostle had twice enjoyn'd the use of them in order to Prayer and Preaching , to instruction and to Eucharist , and those to be done by the aid of Christ , and Christ's spirit ; What in * one place he calls , [ being filled with the Spirit : ] In the other he calls , [ ‖ the dwelling of the word of Christ in us richly ] plainly intimating to us , that when we are mighty in the scriptures , full of the word of Christ , then we are filled with the Spirit , because the Spirit is the great Dictator of them to us , and the Remembrancer , and when by such helps of Scripture we sing Hymns to Gods honour and our mutual comfort , then we sing and give thanks in the spirit . And this is evident , if you consult the places , and compare them . Sect. 29. AND that this is for this reason called a gift , and grace , or issue of the Spirit , is so evident and notorious , that the speaking of an ordinary revealed truth , is called in Scripture , a speaking by the Spirit , 1 Cor. 12.8 . No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost . For though the world could not acknowledge Jesus for the Lord without a revelation , yet now that we are taught this truth by Scripture , and by the preaching of the Apostles to which they were enabled by the Holy Ghost , we need no revelation or Enthusiasm to confess this truth , which we are taught in our Creeds and Catechisms ; and this light sprang first from the immission of a ray from God's Spirit , we must for ever acknowledge him the fountain of our light . Though we cool our thirst at the mouth of the river , yet we owe for our draughts to the springs and fountains from whence the waters first came , though derived to us by the succession of a long current . If the Holy Ghost supplies us with materials and fundamentals for our building , it is then enough to denominate the whole edifice to be of him , although the labour and the workmanship be ours upon another stock . And this is it which the Apostle speaks , 1 Cor. 2.13 . Which things also we speak , not in the words which mans wisdom teacheth , but which the Holy Ghost teacheth , comparing spiritual things with spiritual . The Holy Ghost teaches , yet it is upon our co-operation , our study and endeavour ; while we compare spiritual things with spiritual , the Holy Ghost is said to teach us , because these spirituals were of his suggestion and revelation . Sect. 30. FOR it is a rule of the School , and there is much reason in it , Habitus infusi infunduntur per modum acquisitorum , whatsoever is infused into us is in the same manner infused as other things are acquired , that is , step by step , by humane means and co-operation , and grace does not give us new faculties , and create another nature , but meliorates and improves our own . And therefore what the Greeks called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , habits , the Christians used to call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , gifts , because we derive assistances from above to heighten the habits , and facilitate the actions , in order to a more noble and supernatural end . And what S. Paul said in the Resurrection , is also true in this Question , That is not first which is spiritual , but that which natural , and then that which is spiritual . The graces and gifts of the Spirit are postnate , and are additions to art and nature . God directs our counsels , opens our understandings , regulates our will , orders our affections , supplies us with objects and arguments , and opportunities , and revelations in scriptis , and then most when we most imploy our own endeavours , God loving to bless all the means , and instruments of his service , whether they be natural , or acquisite . Sect. 31. SO that now I demand , Whether , since the expiration of the age of miracles , Gods spirit does not most assist us , when we most endeavour and most use the means ? He that says , No , discourages all men from reading the Scriptures , from industry , from meditation , from conference , from humane arts , and sciences , and from whatsoever else God and good Laws , provoke us to by proposition of rewards . But if Yea , ( as most certainly God will best crown the best endeavours ) then the spirit of prayer is greatest in him , who ( supposing the like capacities and opportunities ) studies hardest , reads most , practises most religiously , deliberates most prudently ; and then by how much want of means is worse than the use of means , by so much ex tempore prayers are worse than deliberate and studied . Excellent therefore is the Counsel of Saint Peter , 1 Epist. Chap. 4. ver . 11. If any man speak let him speak as the Oracles of God ( not lightly then and inconsiderately ) If any man minister , let him do it as of the ability which God giveth , ( great reason then to put to all his abilities and faculties to it ) and whether of the two does most likely do that , he that takes pains , and considers and discusses , and so approves and practises a form , or he that never considers what he says , till he says it , needs not much deliberation to pass a sentence . Only methinks it is most unreasonable that we should be bound to prepare our selves with due requisites to hear what they shall speak in publick , and that they should not prepare what to speak ; as if to speak were of easier or of less consideration , than to hear what is spoken ; or if they do prepare what to speak to the people , it were also very fit they prepar'd their prayers , and considered before-hand of the fitness of the offertory they present to God. Sect. 32. LASTLY , Did not the Pen-men of the Scripture , write the Epistles and Gospels respectively all by the Spirit ? Most certainly , holy Men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost , saith Saint Peter . And certainly they were moved by a more immediate motion , and a motion nearer to an Enthusiasm , than now adays in the gift and spirit of Prayer . And yet in the midst of those great assistances and motions they did use study , art , industry , and humane abilities . This is more than probable in the different stiles of the several Books , some being of admirable art , others lower and plain . The words were their own , at least sometimes , not the Holy Ghosts . And if Origen , Saint Hierome , and especially the Greek Fathers , Scholiasts and Grammarians were not deceived by false Copies , but that they truly did observe , sometimes to be impropriety of an expression in the language , sometimes not true Greek , who will think those errors or imperfections in Grammar , were ( in respect of the words , I say , precisely ) immediate inspirations and dictates of the Holy Ghost , and not rather their own productions of industry and humanity ? But clearly some of their words were the words of Aratus , some of Epimenides : some of Menander , some of S. Paul , [ This speak I , not the Lord. ] Some were the words of Moses , even all that part of the Levitical Law which concerned divorces , and concerning which our blessed Saviour affirms , that Moses permitted it , because of the hardness of their hearts , but from the beginning it was not so : and divers others of the same nature collected and observed to this purpose , by (a) Origen , (b) S. Basil , (c) S. Ambrose ; and particularly , that promise which S. Paul made of calling upon the Corinthians as he passed into Macedonia , which certainly in all reason is to be presumed to have been spoken humanitùs , and not by immediate inspiration and infusion , because Saint Paul was so hindred that he could not be as good as his word , and yet the Holy Ghost could have foreseen it and might better have excused it , if Saint Paul had laid it upon his score ; but he did not , and it is reasonable enough to believe there was no cause he should , and yet because the Holy Ghost renewed their memory , improved their understanding , supplied to some their want of humane learning , and so assisted them that they should not commit an error in fact or opinion , neither in the narrative nor dogmatical parts , therefore they writ by the Spirit . Since that we cannot pretend upon any grounds of probability to an inspiration so immediate as theirs , and yet their assistances which they had from the Spirit did not exclude humane arts and industry , but that the ablest Scholar did write the best , much rather is this true in the gifts and assistances we receive , and particularly in the gift of prayer , it is not an ex tempore and an inspired faculty , but the faculties of nature , and the abilities of art and industry are improv'd and ennobled by the supervening assistances of the Spirit . And if these who pray ex tempore , say that the assistance they receive from the Spirit is the inspiration of words and powers without the operations of art and natural abilities & humane industry , then besides that it is more than the Pen-men of Scripture sometime had ( because they needed no extraordinary assistances to what they could of themselves do upon the stock of other abilities ) besides this , I say , it must follow that such Prayers so inspired , if they were committed to writing , would prove as good Canonical Scripture as any is in Saint Paul's Epistles ; the impudence of which pretension is sufficient to prove the extreme vanity of the challenge . Sect. 33. THE summe is this . Whatsoever this gift is , or this spirit of prayer , it is to be acquired by humane industry , by learning of the Scriptures , by reading , by conference , and by whatsoever else faculties are improved ; and habits enlarged . Gods Spirit hath done his work sufficiently this way , and he loves not either in nature or grace ( which are his two great sanctions ) to multiply miracles when there is no need . Sect. 34. AND now let us take a man that pretends he hath the gift of Prayer , and loves to pray ex tempore , I suppose his thoughts go a little before his tongue ; I demand then , Whether cannot this man , when it is once come into his head , hold his tongue , and write down what he hath conceived ? If his first conceptions were of God , and God's Spirit , then they are so still , even when they are written . Or is the Spirit departed from him , upon the sight of a Pen and Inkhorn ? It did use to be otherwise among the old and new Prophets , whether they were Prophets of prediction , or of ordinary ministery . But if his conception may be written , and being written is still a production of the Spirit , then it follows , that set forms of prayer , deliberate , and described , may as well be a praying with the Spirit , as sudden forms and ex tempore out-lets . Sect. 35. NOW the case being thus put , I would fain know what the difference is between deliberate and ex tempore Prayers , save only that in these there is less consideration and prudence ; for that the other are ( at least as much as these ) the productions of the Spirit , is evident in the very case put in this Argument : and whether to consider and to weigh them be any disadvantage to our devotions , I leave it to all wise men to determine ; So that in effect since after the pretended assistance of the Spirit in our prayers we may write them down , consider them , try the spirits , and ponder the matter , the reason and the religion of the address ; let the world judge whether this sudden utterance and ex tempore forms be any thing else but a direct resolution not to consider beforehand what we speak . Sic itaque habe , ut istam vim dicendi rapidam aptiorem esse circulanti judices , quàm agenti rem magnam & seriam docentique . They are the words of Seneca , and express what naturally flows from the premises . The pretence of the Spirit , and the gift of prayer is not sufficient to justifie the dishonour they do to Religion , in serving it in the lowest and most indeliberate manner , nor quit such men from unreasonableness and folly who will dare to speak to God in the presence of the people , and in their behalf , without deliberation , or learning , or study . Nothing is a greater disreputation to the prudence of a Discourse , than to say it was a thing made up in haste , that is , without due considering . Sect. 36. BUT here I consider , and I wish they whom it concerns most , would do so too : that to pretend the Spirit in so unreasonable a manner to so ill purposes , and without reason , or promise , or probability for doing it , is a very great crime , and of dangerous consequence . It was the greatest aggravation of the sin of Ananias and Sapphira , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that they did falsly pretend and belye the Holy Spirit , which crime besides that it dishonours the Holy Ghost , to make him the President of imperfect and illiterate rites , the Author of confusion , and indeliberate Discourses , and the Parent of such productions , which a wise person would blush to own : it also intitles him to all those Doctrines which either Chance or Design shall expose to the people in such prayers to which they entitle the holy Spirit as the Author and immediate Dictator . So that if they please , he must not only own their follies , but their impieties too ; and how great disreputation this is to the Spirit of Wisdom , of Counsel , and of Holiness , I wish they may rather understand by Discourse than by Experiment . Sect. 37. BUT let us look a little further into the mystery , and see what is meant in Scripture by [ praying with the spirit . In what sence the holy Ghost is called the Spirit of Prayer , I have already shewn , viz. by the same reason as he is the Spirit of faith , of prudence , of knowledge , of understanding , and the like , because he gives us assistances for the acquiring of these graces , and furnishes us with revelations by way of object and instruction . But praying with the Spirit hath besides this , other sences also in Scripture . I find in one place , that we then pray with the Spirit , when the Holy Ghost does actually excite us to desires and earnest tendencies , to the obtaining our holy purpose , when he prepares our hearts to pray , when he enkindles our desires , gives us zeal and devotion , charity and fervour , spiritual violence , and holy importunity . This sence is also in the latter part of the objected words of S. Paul , Rom. 8. The Spirit it self maketh Intercession for us with groanings . And indeed this is truly a praying with the Spirit , but this will do our Reverend Brethren of the Assembly little advantage as to the present Question . For this Spirit is not a Spirit of utterance , not at all clamorous in the ears of the people , but cries aloud in the ears of God with [ groans unutterable , ] so it follows , and only [ He that searcheth the heart , he understandeth the meaning of the Spirit . ] This is the Spirit of the Son , which God hath sent into our hearts ( not into our tongues ) whereby we cry , Abba , Father , Gal. 4.6 . And this is the great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for mental prayer , which is properly and truly praying by the Spirit . Sect. 38. ANOTHER praying with the Spirit I find in that place of St. Paul , from whence this expression is taken , and commonly used , I will pray with the spirit , and I will pray with the understanding also . It is generally supposed that Saint Paul relates here to a special and extraordinary gift of Prayer , which was indulg'd to the Primitive Bishops and Priests , the Apostles and Rulers of Churches , and to some other Persons extraordinarily , of being able to compose Prayers , pious in the matter , prudent in the composure , devout in the forms , expressive in the language ; and in short , useful to the Church , and very apt for devotion , and serving to her Religion and necessities . I believe that such a gift there was , and this indulged as other issues of the Spirit to some persons , upon special necessities , by singular dispensation , as the Spirit knew to be most expedient for the present need and the future instruction . This I believe , not because I find sufficient testimony that it was so , or any evidence from the words now alledged , but because it was reasonable it should be so , and agreeable to the other proceedings of the Holy Ghost . For although we account it an easie matter , to make prayers , and we have great reason to give thanks to the Holy Ghost for it , who hath descended so plentifully upon the Church , hath made plentiful revelation of all the publick and private necessities of the world , hath taught us how to pray , given rules for the manner of address , taught us how to distinguish spiritual from carnal things , hath represented the vanity of worldly desires , the unsatisfyingness of earthly possessions , the blessing of being denied our impertinent , secular , and indiscreet requests , and hath done all this at the beginning of Christianity , and hath actually stirred up the Apostles and Apostolical men to make so many excellent Forms of Prayer , which their Successors did in part retain , and in part imitate , till the conjunct wisdom of the Church saw her Offices compleat , regular and sufficient . So that now every man is able to make something of Forms of Prayer , ( for which ability they should do well to pay their Eucharist to the Holy Ghost , and not abuse the gift to vanity or schism ) yet at the first beginning of Christianity , till the holy Spirit did fill all things , they found no such plenty of Forms of Prayer : and it was accounted a matter of so great consideration to make a Form of Prayer , that it was thought a fit work for a Prophet , or the Founder of an Institution . And therefore the Disciples of John asked of him to teach them how to pray ; and the Disciples of Christ did so too . For the Law of Moses had no Rules to instruct the Synagogue how to pray ; and but that Moses , and David , and Asaph , and some few of the Prophets more , left forms of Prayer which the Spirit of God inspired them withall upon great necessities , and great mercy to that people , they had not known how to have composed an Office , for the daily service of the Temple , without danger of asking things needless , vain , or impious , such as were the prayers in the Roman Closets , that he was a good man that would not own them . Et nihil arcano qui roget ore Deos. — Pulchra Laverna Da mihi fallere , da justum , sanctúmque videri ; Noctem peccatis & fraudibus objice nubem . But when the Holy Ghost came down in a full breath , and a mighty wind , he filled the breasts and tongues of men , and furnished the first Christians not only with abilities enough to frame excellent devotions for their present Offices , but also to become precedents for Liturgie to all Ages of the Church , the first being imitated by the second , and the second by the third , till the Church be setled in peace , and the Records transmitted with greater care , and preserved with less hazard , the Church chose such Forms whose Copies we retain at this day . Sect. 39. NOW since it was certain that all ages of the Church would look upon the first Fathers in Christ , and Founders of Churches as precedents , or Tutors , and Guides , in all the parts of their Religion , and that prayer with its several parts , and instances , is a great portion of the Religion ( the Sacraments themselves being instruments of grace , and effectual in genere orationis ) it is very reasonable to think that the Apostolical men had not only the first fruits , but the elder Brothers share , a double portion of the Spirit , because they were not only to serve their own needs , to which a single and an ordinary portion would have been then ( as now ) abundantly sufficient , but also to serve the necessity of the succession , and to instruct the Church for ever after . Sect. 40. BUT then , that this assistance was an ability to pray ex tempore , I find it no where affirmed by sufficient authentick Testimony , and if they could have done it , it is very likely they would have been wary , and restrained in the publick use of it . I doubt not but there might then be some sudden necessities of the Church , for which the Church being in her infancy had not as yet provided any publick forms , concerning which cases I may say as Quintilian of an Oratour in the great and sudden needs of the Commonwealth , Quarum si qua non dico cuicunque innocentium civium , sed amicorum ac propinquorum alicui evenerit , stabítne mutus , & salutarem parentibus vocem , statim , si non succurratur , perituris , moras & secessum & silentium quaeret , dum illa verba fabricentur , & memoriae insidant , & vox ac latus praeparetur ? I do not think that they were oratores imparati ad casus , but that an ability of praying on a sudden was indulged to them by a special aid of the Spirit to contest against sudden dangers , and the violence of new accidents , to which also possibly a new inspiration was but for a very little while necessary , even till they understood the mysteries of Christianity , and the revelations of the Spirit , by proportion and analogy to which they were sufficiently instructed to make their sudden prayers when sudden occasions did require . Sect. 41. THIS I speak by way of concession and probability . For no man can prove thus much as I am willing ( relying upon the reasonableness of the Conjecture ) to suppose ; but that praying with the Spirit in this place , is praying without study , art , or deliberation , is not so much as intimated . Sect. 42. FOR first , It is here implyed that they did prepare some of those devotions to which they were helped by the Spirit , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , when you come together each of you ( peradventure ) hath a Psalm . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , not every one makes , but when you meet , every one hath , viz. [ already ] which supposes they had it prepared against the meeting . For the Spirit could help as well at home in their meditation , as in the publick upon a sudden : and though it is certain , the Holy Spirit loves to bless the publick meetings , the communion of Saints , with special benedictions ; yet I suppose my Adversaries are not willing to acknowledge any thing that should do much reputation to the Church , and the publick authoriz'd conventions ; at least , not to confine the Spirit to such holy and blessed meetings . They will ( I suppose ) rather grant the words do probably intimate , they came prepared with a Hymn , and therefore there is nothing in the nature of the thing , but that so also might their other forms of Prayer ; the assistance of the Spirit ( which is the thing in Question ) hinders not , but that they also might have made them by premeditation . Sect. 43. SECONDLY , In this place , praying with the Spirit signifies no other extraordinary assistance , but that the Spirit help'd them to speak their prayer , in an unknown Tongue , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , If I pray in a tongue , my spirit prayeth , but my understanding is without fruit , what then ? I will pray with the spirit , and I will pray with the understanding also . Plainly here , praying in the spirit , which is opposed to praying in understanding , is praying in an unknown tongue ; where by the way observe , that praying with the spirit , even in the sence of Scripture , is not always most to edification of the people . Not alwayes with understanding . And when these two are separated , St. Paul prefers five words with understanding , before ten thousand in the spirit . For this praying with the spirit was indeed then a gift extraordinary and miraculous , like as prophesying with the spirit , and expired with it . But while it did last , it was the lowest of gifts , inter dona linguarum , it was but a gift of the tongue , and not to the benefit of the Church directly or immediately . Sect. 44. THIS also observe in passing by . If Saint Paul did so undervalue the praying with the Spirit , that he preferred edifying the Church a thousand degrees beyond it ; I suppose he would have been of the same mind , if the Question had been between praying with the Spirit , and obeying our Superiours , as he was when it was between praying with the Spirit and edification of the Church , because , ( if I be not mistaken ) it is matter of great concernment towards the edification of the Church , to obey our Superiours , not to innovate in publick forms of worship , especially with the scandal and offence of very wise and learned men , and to the disgrace of the dead Martyrs , who sealed our Liturgie with their blood . Sect. 45. BUT to return . In this place , praying with the Spirit , beside the assistance given by the Holy Ghost to speak in a strange tongue , is no more than [ my spirit praying ] that is , it implies my co-operation with the assistance of the Spirit of God , insomuch that the whole action may truly be denominated mine , and is called ( of the Spirit ) only by reason of that collateral assistance . For so Saint Paul joyns them as terms identical , and expressive one of anothers meaning , as you may please to read , ver . 14. and 15. 1 Cor. 14. I will pray with the spirit , and my spirit truly prayeth . It is the act of our inner man , praying holy and spiritual prayers . But then indeed at that time there was something extraordinary adjoyned , for it was in an unknown Tongue , the practice of which Saint Paul there dislikes . This also will be to none of their purposes . For whether it were ex tempore , or by premeditation is not here expressed ; or if it had , yet that assistance extraordinary in prayer , if there was any beside the gift of Tongues , ( which is not here , or any where else expressed ) is no more transmitted to us , than the speaking Tongues in the Spirit , or prophesying ex tempore and by the Spirit . Sect. 46. BUT I would add also one experiment which Saint Paul also there adds by way of instance . If praying with the Spirit in this place be praying ex tempore , then so is singing too . For they are expressed in the same place , in the same manner , to the same end , and I know no reason why there should be differing sences put upon them to serve purposes . And now let us have some Church Musick too , though the Organs be pull'd down , and let any the best Psalmist of them all , compose a Hymn in Metrical form ( as Antipater Sidonius in Quintilian , and Licinius Archias in Cicero could do in their Verses ) and sing it to a new tune with perfect and true musick , and all this ex tempore . For all this the Holy Ghost can do if he pleases ; But if it be said that the Corinthian Christians composed their Songs and Hymns according to art and rules of Musick , by study and industry , and that to this they were assisted by the Spirit ; and that this together with the devotion of their spirit , was singing with the Spirit : then say I , so composing set forms of Liturgie by skill , and prudence , and humane industry , may be as much praying with the Spirit , as the other is singing with the Spirit : plainly enough . In all the sences of praying with the Spirit , and in all its acceptations in Scripture , to pray or sing with the Spirit , neither of them of necessity implies ex tempore . Sect. 47. THE sum or Collecta of the premises is this . Praying with the Spirit , is either , First , when the Spirit stirs up our desires to pray , per motionem actualis auxilii : or secondly , when the Spirit teaches us what , or how to pray , telling us the matter , and manner of our prayers . Thirdly , or lastly , dictating the very words of our prayers . There is no other way in the world to pray with the Spirit or in the Holy Ghost , that is pertinent to this Question . And of this last manner the Scripture determines nothing , nor speaks any thing expresly of it , and yet suppose it had , we are certain the Holy Ghost hath supplied us with all these , and yet in set forms of Prayer best of all , I mean , there where a difference can be ; For ( 1 ) as for the desires , and actual motions or incitements to pray , they are indifferent to one or the other , to set forms , or to ex tempore . Sect. 48. SECONDLY , But as to the matter or manner of prayer , it is clearly contained in the expresses , and set forms of Scriptures , and there it is supplied to us by the Spirit , for he is the great Dictatour of it . Sect. 49. 3. NOW then for the very words . No man can assure me that the words of his ex tempore prayer are the words of the holy Spirit : it is neither reason nor modesty to expect such immediate assistances to so little purpose , he having supplied us with abilities more than enough to express our desires aliundè , otherwise than by immediate dictate ; But if we will take David's Psalter or the other Hymns of holy Scripture , or any of the Prayers which are respersed over the Bible , we are sure enough that they are the words of Gods Spirit , mediately or immediately , by way of infusion , or extasie , by vision , or at least by ordinary assistance . And now then , what greater confidence can any man have for the excellency of his prayers , and the probability of their being accepted , than when he prayes his Psalter , or the Lords Prayer , or any other office which he finds consigned in Scripture ? When Gods Spirit stirs us up to an actual devotion , and then we use the matter he hath described and taught , and the very words which Christ and Christs Spirit , and the Apostles , and other persons , full of the Holy Ghost did use . If in the world there be any praying with the Spirit ( I mean , in vocal prayer ) this is it . Sect. 50. AND thus I have examined the intire and full scope of this first Question , and rifled their Objection , which was the only colour to hide the appearance of its natural deformity at the first sight . The result is this , Scribendum ergo quoties licebit ; Si id non dabitur , cogitandum : ab utroque exclusi , debent tamen adniti , ut neque deprehensus orator , neque destitutus esse videatur . In making our Orations and publick Advocations , we must write what we mean to speak , as often as we can ; when we cannot , yet we must deliberate , and study ; and when the suddenness of the accident prevents both these , we must use all the powers of art and care that we have a present mind , and call in all our first provisions , that we be not destitute of matter and words apt for the imployment . This was Quintilian's rule for the matter of prudence , and in secular occasions ; but when the instance is in Religion , and especially in our prayers , it will concern us nearer , to be curious and deliberate what we speak in the audience of the eternal God , when our lives and our souls , and the honour of God , and the reputation of Religion are concern'd , and whatsoever is greatest in it self , or dearest to us . Sect. 51. THE second Question hath in it something more of difficulty ; for the Men that own it will give leave that set forms may be used , so you give question 2 leave to them to make them ; but if authority shall interpose and prescribe a Liturgie , every word shall breed a quarrel , and if the matter be innocent , yet the very injunction is tyranny , a restraining of the gifts of the Holy Ghost , it leaves the spirit of a Man sterile and unprofitable , it is not for edification of the Church , and is as destitute of comfort , as it is of profit . For God hath not restrained his Spirit to those few that rule the Church in prelation above others , but if he hath given to them the spirit of Government , he hath given to others the spirit of Prayer , and the spirit of Prophecy . Now the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withall , for to one is given by the Spirit the word of Wisdom , to another the word of knowledge , by the same Spirit . And these and many other gifts are given to several members that they may supply one another , and all joyn to the edification of the body . And therefore that must needs be an imprudent sanction that so determines the offices of the Church , that she cannot be edified by that variety of gifts which the holy Spirit hath given to several men to that purpose , just as if there should be a Canon , that but one Sermon should be preached in all Churches for ever . Besides , it must needs be , that the devotion of the Suppliants must be much retarded by the perpetuity , and unalterable reiteration of the same form ; For since our affections will certainly vary and suffer great alteration of degrees , and inclinations , it is easier to frame words apt to comply with our affections than to conform our affections in all varieties to the same words : When the forms are daily changed , it is more probable that every man shall find something proportionable to his fancy , which is the great instrument of Devotion , than to suppose that any one form , should be like Manna fitted to every taste ; and therefore in prayers , as the affections must be natural , sweet , and proper , so also should the words expressing the affections , issue forth by way of natural emanation . Sed extemporalis audaciae atque ipsius temeritatis vel praecipua jucunditas est . Nam in ingenio sicut in agro quanquam alia diu serantur , atque elaborentur , gratiora tamen quae suâ sponte nascuntur . And a garment may as well be made to fit the Moon , as that one form of Prayer should be made apt and proportionable to all men , or to any man at all times . Sect. 52. THIS Discourse relies wholly upon these two grounds ; A liberty to use variety of forms for prayer , is more for the edification of the Church . Secondly , it is part of that liberty which the Church hath , and part of the duty of the Church to preserve the liberty of the Spirit in various forms . Sect. 53. BEFORE I descend to consideration of the particulars , I must premise this , that the gift or ability of prayer given to the Church is used either in publick or in private , and that which is fit enough for one , is inconvenient in the other , and although a liberty in private may be for edification of good people , when it is piously and discreetly used , yet in the publick , if it were indifferently permitted , it would bring infinite inconvenience , and become intolerable , as a sad experience doth too much verifie . Sect. 54. BUT now then , this distinction evacuates all the former discourse , and since it is permitted that every man in private use what forms he please , the Spirit hath all that liberty that is necessary , and so much as can be convenient ; the Church may be edified by every mans gift , the affections of all men may be complied withall , words may be fitted to their fancies , their devotions quickned , their weariness helped and supported , and whatsoever benefit may be fancied by variety and liberty , all that may be enjoyed , and every reasonable desire , or weaker fancy be fully satisfied . Sect. 55. BUT since these advantages to devotion are accidental , and do consult with weakness and infirmity , and depend upon irregular variety , for which no antecedent rule can make particular provision ; it is not to be expected , the publick constitution , and prescribed forms , which are regular , orderly , and determin'd , can make provision for particulars , for chances , and for infinite varieties . And if this were any objection against publick forms , it would also conclude against all humane Laws that they did not make provision for all particular accidents , and circumstances that might possibly occurr . All publick sanctions must be of a publick spirit and design , and secure all those excellent things which have influence upon societies and communities of men , and publick obligations . Sect. 56. THUS , if publick forms of Prayer be describ'd whose matter is pious and holy , whose design is of universal extent , and provisionary for all publick , probable , fear'd , or foreseen events , whose frame and composure is prudent , and by authority competent and high , and whose use and exercise is instrumental to peace and publick charity , and all these hallowed by intention , and care of doing glory to God , and advantages to Religion , express'd in observation of all such rules , and precedents as are most likely to teach us best , and guide us surest , such as are Scriptures , Apostolical Tradition , Primitive practice , and precedents of Saints , and holy Persons , the publick can do no more , all the duty is performed , and all the care is taken . Sect. 57. NOW after all this there are personal necessities and private conveniencies or inconveniencies , which if men are not so wise as themselves to provide for by casting off all prejudice and endeavouring to grow strong in Christianity , men in Christ , and not for ever to be Babes in Religion , but frame themselves to a capacity of receiving the benefit of the publick , without needing other provisions , than what will fit the Church in her publick capacity ; the Spirit of God and the Church taught by him , hath permitted us to comply with our own infirmities , while they are innocent , and to pray in private in any form of words , which shall be most instrumental to our devotion in the present capacity . Neque hoc ego ago ut ex tempore dicere malit , sed ut possit . Sect. 58. AND indeed sometimes an exuberant , and an active affection , and overflowing of Devotion may descend like anointing from above , and our cup run over , and is not to be contained within the margent of prescribed forms ; And though this be not of so great consideration as if it should happen to a man in publick , that it is then fit for him , or to be permitted to express it in forms unlimited and undetermin'd . ( For there was a case in the dayes of the inundation of the Spirit , when a man full of the Spirit was commanded to keep silence in the Church ; and to speak to himself and to God ) yet when this grace is given him in private , he may compose his own Liturgy , pectus enim est quod disertos facit , & vis mentis . Ideoque imperitis quoque , si modò sint aliquo affectu concitati , verba non desunt . Only when in private devotion we use forms of our own making or chusing , we are concern'd to see , that the matter be pious , apt for edification and the present necessity , and without contempt of publick prescriptions , or irreverence to God , and in all the rest we are at liberty ; * only in the Lord , that is , according to the rule of faith , and the analogy of Christian Religion . For supposing that our devotion be fervent , our intention pious , and the petition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the will of God. Whatsoever our expressions are , God reads the petition in the Character of the spirit , though the words be brevia , concisa , & singultantium modo ejecta . But then these accidental advantages , and circumstances of profit , which may be provided for in private ; as they cannot be taken care of in publick , so neither is it necessary they should , for those pleasures of sensible devotion are so far from being necessary to the acceptation of prayer , that they are but compliances with our infirmities , and suppose a great weakness in him that needs them ( say the Masters of spiritual life ) and in the strongest prayers , and most effectual devotions , are seldomest found ; such as was Moses prayer when he spake nothing , and Hannah's and our blessed Saviour's when he called upon his Father , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , with strong cries , in that great desertion of spirit , when he prayed in the Garden ; In these prayers the spirit was bound up with the strictness and violence of intention , but could not ease it self with a flood of language , and various expression . A great devotion is like a great grief , not so expressive as a moderate passion , tears spend the grief , and variety of language breaths out the devotion ; and therefore Christ went thrice ; and said the same words ; he could just speak his sence in a plain expression , but the greatness of his agony was too big for the pleasure of a sweet and sensible expression of devotion . Sect. 59. SO that let the devotion be never so great , set forms of prayer will be expressive enough of any desire , though importunate as extremity it self ; but when the spirit is weak , and the devotion imperfect , and the affections dry , though in respect of the precise duty on our part , and the acceptation on Gods part , no advantage is got by a liberty of an indifferent , unlimited , and chosen form ; and therefore in all cases , the whole duty of prayer is secured by publick forms ; yet other circumstantial and accidental advantages , may be obtained by it , and therefore let such persons feast themselves in private with sweet-meats , and less nourishing delicacies , weak stomachs must be cared for , yet they must be confessed to have stronger stomachs , and better health , that can feed upon the wholesome food prepared in the common Refectories . Sect. 60. SO that publick forms ( it is true ) cannot be fitted to every mans fancy , and affections , especially in an Age wherein all publick constitutions are protested against ; but yet they may be fitted to all necessities , and to every mans duty , and for the pleasing the affections and fancies of men , that may be sometimes convenient , but it is never necessary ; and God that suffers driness of affections many times in his dearest servants , and in their greatest troubles , and most excellent Devotions , hath by that sufferance of his , given demonstration that it is not necessary such affections should be complyed withal , for then he would never suffer those sterilities , but himself by a cup of sensible Devotion would water and refresh those drinesses ; and if God himself does not , it is not to be expected the Church should . Sect. 61. AND this also is the case of Scripture , for the many discourses of excellent Orators and Preachers have all those advantages of meeting with the various affections and dispositions of the hearers , and may cause a tear , when all Saint Paul's Epistles would not ; and yet certainly there is no comparison between them , but one Chapter of Saint Paul is more excellent and of better use to the substantial part of Religion , than all the Sermons of Saint Chrysostome : and yet there are some circumstances of advantage which humane eloquence may have , which are not observed to be in those other more excellent emanations of the holy Spirit . And therefore if the Objection should be true , and that conceived forms of Prayer in their great variety might do some accidental advantages to weaker persons , and stronger fancies , and more imperfect judgments , yet this instance of Scripture is a demonstration that set and composed devotions may be better ; and this reason does not prove the contrary , because the Sermons in Scripture are infinitely to be preferred before those discourses and orations , which do more comply with the fancies of the people . Nay , we see by experience , that the change of our prayers , or our books , or our company , is so delightful to most persons , that though the change be for the worse , it more complies with their affections than the peremptory and unaltered retaining of the better ; but yet this is no good argument to prove that change to be for the better . Sect. 62. BUT yet if such compliance with fancies and affections were necessary , what are we the nearer if every Minister were permitted to pray his own forms ? How can his form comply with the great variety of affections which are amongst his Auditors , any more than the publick forms described by Authority ? It may hit casually , and by accident be commensurate to the present fancy of some of his Congregation , with which at that time possibly the publick form would not : This may be thus , and it may be otherwise , and at the same time , in which some feel a gust and relish in his prayer , others might feel a greater sweetness in recitation of the publick forms . This thing is so by chance , so irregular and uncertain , that no wise man , nor no Providence less than Divine can make any provisions for it . Sect. 63. AND after all , it is nothing but the fantastick and imaginative part that is pleased , which for ought appears , may be disturbed with curiosity , peevishness , pride , spirit of novelty , lightness , and impertinency : and that to satisfie such spirits , and fantastick persons , may be as dangerous and useless to them , as it is troublesome in it self . But then for the matter of edification , that is considerable upon another stock : for now adayes men are never edified , unless they be pleased , and if they mislike the Person , or have taken up a quarrel against any form , or institution , presently they cry out , They are not edified , that is , they are displeased : and the ground of their displeasure is nothing from the thing it self , but from themselves only : they are wanton with their meat , and long for variety , and then they cry out that Manna will not nourish them , but prefer the onions of Egypt before the food of Angels ; the way to cure this inconvenience is to alter the men , not to change the institution ; for it is very certain that wholsome meat is of it self nutritive , if the body be disposed to its reception and entertainment . But it is not certain that what a sick man fancies out of the weakness of his spirit , the distemper of his appetite , and wildness of his fancy , that it will become to him either good , or good physick . Now in the entertainments of Religion and spiritual repasts , that is wholsome , nutritive , and apt to edifie , which is pious in it self , of advantage to the honour of God , whatsoever is good Doctrine , or good Prayers , especially when it is prepared by a publick hand , and designed for publick use , by all the wisdom of those men , who in all reason are to be supposed to have received from God all those assistances which are effects of the spirit of Government ; and therefore it is but weakness of spirit , or strength of passion , impotency in some sence or other , certainly , that first dislikes the publick provisions , and then , say , they are not wholsome . Sect. 64. FOR I demand concerning the publick Liturgies of a Church , whose constitution is principally of the parts , and choicest extracts of Scripture , Lessons and the Psalms , and some few Hymns and Symbols , made by the most excellent persons in the Primitive Church , and all this in nothing disagreeing from the rules of Liturgie given in Scripture , but that the same things are desired , and the same persons prayed for , and to the same end , and by the same great instrument of address and acceptation [ by Jesus Christ ] and which gives all the glory that is due to God , and gives nothing of this to a Creature , and hath in it many admirable documents ; whether there be any thing wanting in such a Lyturgie towards edification ? What is there in prayers that can edifie , that is not in such a Lyturgie so constituted ? or what can there be more in the private forms of any Minister , than is in such a publick composition ? Sect. 65. BY this time , I suppose , the Objection , with all its parts is disbanded so far as it relates to edification , profit , and compliance with the auditors : As for the matter of liberty , and restraint of the spirit , I shall consider that part . In the mean time I shall set down those grounds of Religion and reason upon which publick Liturgie relies , and by the strength of which it is to be justified , against all opposition and pretences . Sect. 66. 1. THE Church hath a power given to her by the Spirit of God , and a command to describe publick forms of Liturgie . For I consider that the Church is a Family , Jesus Christ is the Master of the Family , the holy Spirit is the great Dispensator of all such graces the family needs , and are , in order to the performance of their Duty ; the Apostles , and their Successors , the Rulers of the Church are Stewards of the manifold graces of God , whose office is to provide every mans portion , and to dispence the graces and issues Evangelical by way of Ministry . Who is that faithful and wise Steward , whom his Lord shall make ruler of his Houshold ? It was our blessed Saviour's Question , and Saint Paul answered it : Let a man so account of us , as of the Ministers of Christ , and Stewards of the mysteries of God. Now the greatest Ministery of the Gospel is by way of prayer , ( most of the graces of the Spirit being obtained by prayer , and such offices which operate by way of impetration , and benediction , and consecration , which are but the several instances of prayer ) Prayer , certainly , is the most effectual and mysterious ministery : and therefore since the Holy Ghost hath made the Rulers of the Church , Stewards of the mysteries , they are by vertue of their Stewardship Presidents of Prayer and publick Offices . Sect. 67. 2. WHICH also is certain , because the Priest is to stand between God and the People , and to represent all their needs to the throne of grace ; He is a Prophet and shall pray for thee , said God , concerning Abraham to Abimelech . And therefore the Apostles appointed inferiour Officers in the Church that they might not be hindred in their great work , but we will give our selves to the word of God and to prayer ; And therefore in our greatest need , in our sickness , and last scene of our lives , we are directed to send for the Elders of the Church , that they may pray over us ; and God hath promised to hear them : and if prayer be of any concernment towards the final condition of our souls , certainly it is to be ordered , guided , and disposed by them who watch for our souls , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as they that must give account to God for them . Sect. 68. 3. NOW , if the Rulers of the Church are Presidents of the rites of Religion , and by consequence of Prayer , either they are to order publick prayers , or private . For private I suppose , most men will be so desirous of their liberty , as to preserve that in private , where they have no concernments but their own , for matter of order or scandal : But for publick , if there be any such thing as Government , and that prayers may be spoiled by disorder , or made ineffectual by confusion , or by any accident may become occasion of a scandal , it is certain that they must be ordered as all other things are in which the publick is certainly concerned , that is , by the Rulers of the Church , who are answerable if there be any miscarriage in the publick . Thus far I suppose there will not be much question with those who allow set forms , but would have themselves be the Composers ; They would have the Ministers pray for the people , but the Ministers shall not be prescribed to ; the Rulers of the Church shall be the Presidents of religious rites , but then they will be the Rulers , therefore we must proceed farther ; and because I will not now enter into the Question who are left by Christ to govern his Church , I will proceed upon such grounds which I hope may be sufficient to determine this Question , and yet decline the other . Therefore Sect. 69. SINCE the Spirit of God is the Spirit of supplication , they to whom the greatest portion of the Spirit is promised are most competent persons , to pray for the people , and to prescribe forms of prayer . But the promise of the Spirit is made to the Church in general , to her in her united capacity , to the whole Church first , then to particular Churches , then in the lowest seat of the Category to single persons ; And we have title to the Promises by being Members of the Church , and in the Communion of Saints ; which beside the stylus curiae , the form of all the great Promises , being in general and comprehensive terms , appears in this , that when any single person is out of this communion , he hath also no title to the promises ; which yet he might , if he had any upon his own stock , not derivative from the Church . Now then I infer ; if any single persons will have us to believe without possibility of proof ( for so it must be ) that they pray with the Spirit , ( for how shall they be able to prove the Spirit actually to abide in those single persons ? ) then much rather must we believe it of the Church , which by how much the more general it is , so much the more of the Spirit she is likely to have : and then if there be no errors in the matter , the Church hath the advantage and probability on her side ; and if there be an error in matter in either of them , neither of them have the Spirit , or they make not the true use of it . But the publick spirit in all reason is to be trusted before the private when there is a contestation , the Church being prior & potior in promissis , she hath a greater and prior title to the Spirit . And why the Church hath not the spirit of prayer in her compositions as well as any of her children , I desire once for all to be satisfied upon true grounds either of reason or revelation . And if she have , whether she have not as much as any single person ? If she have but as much , then there is as much reason in respect of the divine assistance , that the Church should make the forms , as that any single Minister should , and more reason in respect of order and publick influence , and care , and charge of souls : but if she have a greater portion of the Spirit than a single person , that is , if the whole be greater than the part , or the publick better than the private , then it is evident , that the Spirit of the Church in respect of the divine assistance , is chiefly , and in respect of order , is only to be relied upon for publick provisions and forms of prayer . Sect. 70. BUT now if the Church in her united capacity makes prayers for the people , they cannot be supposed to be other than limited and determined forms ; for it is not practicable , or indeed , imaginable , that a Synod of Church Governours ( be they who they will , so they be of Christs appointment ) should meet in every Church , and pray as every man list ; their Counsels are united , and their results are conclusions , and final determinations , which like general propositions are applicable to particular instances ; so that first , since the Spirit being the great Dictator of holy prayers , and secondly , the Spirit is promised to the Church in her united capacity , and thirdly , in proportion to the Assembled , caeteris paribus , so are measures of the Spirit powred out , and fourthly , when the Church is assembled , the Prayers which they teach the People are limited and prescribed forms ; it follows , that limited and prescribed forms , are in all reason , emanations from the greatest portion of the Spirit , warranted by special promises , which are made to every man there present that does his duty , as a private Member of the Christian Church , and are due to him as a Ruler of the Church , and yet more especially , and in a further degree to all them met together ; where ( if ever ) the holy Spirit gives such helps and graces which relate to the publick government , and have influence upon the communities of Christians , that is , will bless their meeting , and give them such assistances as will enable them to do the work for which they convene . Sect. 71. But yet if any man shall say , what need the Church meet in publick Synods to make forms of Prayer , when private Ministers are able to do it in their several Parishes ? I answer , It is true , Many can , but they cannot do it better than a Councel ; and I think no man is so impudent , as to say , he can do it so well ; however , quod spectat ad omnes ab omnibus tractari debet , the matter is of publick concernment , and therefore should be of publick consultation , and the advantages of publickly describ'd forms I shall afterwards specifie . In the mean time , Sect. 72. FIFTHLY , And the Church , I mean the Rulers of the Church , are appointed Presidents of Religious rites , and as the Rulers in conjunction are enabled to do it best by the advantages of special promises , and double portions of the Spirit ; so she always did practise this , either in conjunction or by single dictate , by publick persons , or united authority ; but in all times , as necessity required , they prescribed set Forms of Prayer . Sect. 73. IF I should descend to minutes , and particulars , I could instance in the behalf of set Forms , that First , God prescribed to Moses a set Form of Prayer , and benediction to be used when he did bless the people . Secondly , That Moses composed a Song or Hymn for the children of Israel , to use , to all their generations . Thirdly , that David composed many for the service of the Tabernacle , and every company of singers was tyed to certain Psalms , as the very titles intimate ; and the Psalms were such limited and determinate prescriptions , that in some , Gods Spirit did dind them to the very number of the Letters , and order of the Alphabet . Fourthly , That Solomon , and the holy Kings of Judah brought them in , and continued them in the ministration of the Temple . Fifthly , That in the reformation by Hezekiah , the Priests and Levites were commanded to praise the Lord in the words of David and Asaph . Sixthly , That all Scripture is written for our learning ; and since all these , and many more set Forms of Prayer are left there upon record , it is more than probable , that they were left there for our use and devotion ; and certainly , it is as lawful , and as prudent to pray Scriptures , as to read Scriptures ; and it were well , if we would use our selves to the expression of Scripture , and that the language of God were familiar to us , that we spake the words of Canaan , not the speech of Ashdod ; and time was , when it was thought the greatest Ornament of a spiritual Person , and Instrument of a Religious conversation ; but then the consequents would be , that these Prayers were the best Forms which were in the words of Scripture , and those Psalms and Prayers there recorded , were the best devotions , but these are set Forms . * 7. To this purpose I could instance in the example of Saint John Baptist , who taught his Disciples a form of prayer ; and that Christ's Disciples begged the same favour , and it was granted as they desired it . Sect. 74. AND here I mean to fix a little , for this ground cannot fail us . I say Christ prescribed a set Form of Prayer to be used by all his Disciples , as a Breviary of Prayer , as a rule of their devotions , as a repository of their needs , and as a direct address to God. For in this Prayer God did not only command us to make our Prayers , as Moses was bid to make the Tabernacle , after the pattern which God shewed him in the Mount , and * Christ shewed his Apostles ; but he hath given us the very Tables written with his own hand , that we should use them as they are so delivered ; this Prayer was not only a precedent and pattern , but an instance of address , a perfect form for our practice , as well as imitation . For Sect. 75. FIRST , When Christ was upon the Mount , he gave it for a pattern 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . So pray ye , or after this manner ; which if we expound only to the sence of becoming a pattern , or a Directory , it is observable , that it is not only directory for the matter , but for the manner too ; and if we must pray with that matter , and in that manner , what does that differ from praying with that form ? however it is well enough , that it becomes a precedent to us , in any sence , and the Church may vary her forms according as she judges best for edification . Sect. 76. SECONDLY , When the Apostles upon occasion of the Form which the Baptist taught his Disciples , begged of their Master to teach them one , he again taught them this , and added a precept to use these very words , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , when ye pray say , Our Father , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , when they spake to God , it was fit they should speak in his words , in whose Name also their prayers only could be acceptable . Sect. 77. THIRDLY , For if we must speak this sence , why also are not the very words to be retained ? Is there any error or imperfection in the words ? Was not Christ Master of his language ? And were not his words sufficiently expressive of his sence ? Will not the Prayer do well also in our tongues , which as a duty we are obliged to deposite in our hearts , and preserve in our memories , without which it is in all sences useless , whether it be only a pattern , or a repository of matter ? Sect. 78. FOURTHLY , And it is observable , that our blessed Saviour doth not say , Pray that the Name of your heavenly Father may be sanctified , or that your sins may be forgiven , but say , Hallowed be thy name , &c. so that he prescribes this Prayer , not in massa materiae , by in forma verborum , not in a confused heap of matter , but in an exact composure of words , it makes it evident he intended it not only pro regula petendorum , for a direction of what things we are to ask , but also pro forma orationis , for a set form of Prayer . Now it is considerable that no man ever had the fulness of the Spirit , but only the Holy Jesus , and therefore it is also certain , that no man had the Spirit of prayer like to him , and then , if we pray this prayer devoutly , and with pious and actual intention , do we not pray in the Spirit of Christ , as much as if we prayed any other form of words pretended to be taught us by the Spirit ? We are sure that Christ and Christs Spirit taught us this Prayer ; they only gather by conjectures and opinions , that in their ex tempore or conceived forms the Spirit of Christ teacheth them . So much then as Certainties are better than uncertainties , and God's Word better than Man's , so much is this set Form , besides the infinite advantages in the matter , better than their ex tempore and conceived Forms , in the form it self . And if ever any Prayer was , or could be , a part of that Doctrine of Faith by which we received the Spirit , it must needs be this Prayer which was the only form our blessed Master taught the Christian Church immediately , was a part of his great and glorious Sermon in the Mount , in which all the needs of the world are sealed up as in a treasure house , and intimated by several petitions as diseases are by their proper and proportioned remedies , and which Christ published as the first emanation of his Spirit , the first perfume of that heavenly anointing which descended on his sacred Head when he went down into the waters of Baptism . Sect. 79. THIS we are certain of , that there is nothing wanting , nothing superfluous and impertinent , nothing carnal or imperfect in this Prayer , but as it supplies all needs , so it serves all persons , is fitted for all estates , it meets with all accidents , and no necessity can surprize any man , but if God hears him praying that Prayer , he is provided for in that necessity : and yet if any single person paraphrases it , it is not certain but the whole sence of a petition may be altered by the intervention of one improper word , and there can be no security given against this , but qualified and limited , and just in such a proportion as we can be assured of the wisdom and honesty of the person , and the actual assistance of the holy Spirit . Sect. 80. NOW then I demand whether the Prayer of Manasses be so good a Prayer as the Lords Prayer ? or is the Prayer of Judith , or of Tobias , or of Judas Macchabeus , or of the Son of Sirach , is any of these so good ? Certainly no man will say they are ; and the reason is , because we are not sure they are inspired by the Holy Spirit of God ; prudent , and pious , and conformable to Religion they may be , but not penn'd by so excellent a spirit as this Prayer . And what assurance can be given that any Ministers prayer is better than the prayers of the Son of Sirach , who was a very wise , and a very good man , as all the world acknowledges ; I know not any one of them that has so large a testimony , or is of so great reputation . But suppose they can make as good prayers , yet surely they are Apocryphal at least , and for the same reason that the Apocryphal prayers are not so excellent as the Lords prayer , by the same reason must the best they can be imagin'd to compose fall short of this excellent pattern by how much they partake of a smaller portion of the Spirit , as a drop of water is less than all the waters under or above the Firmament . Sect. 81. SECONDLY , I would also willingly know , whether if any man uses the form which Christ taught , supposing he did not tie us to the very prescript words , can there be any hurt in it ? Is it imaginable that any Commandment should be broken , or any affront done to the honour of God , or any act of imprudence , or irreligion in it , or any negligence of any insinuation of the Divine pleasure ? I cannot yet think of any thing to frame for answer , so much as by way of an Antinomy or Objection . But then supposing Christ did tie us to use this Prayer pro loco & tempore , ( according to the nature and obligation of all affirmative precepts ) as it is certain he did , in the preceptive words recorded by St. Luke . [ When ye pray , say , Our Father ] then it is to be considered that a Divine Commandment is broken by its rejection ; and therefore , if there were any doubt remaining , whether it be a Command or no ; yet since , on one side there is danger of a negligence ▪ and a contempt , and that on the other side , the observation and conformity cannot be criminal , or imprudent ; it will follow , that the retaining of this Prayer in practice , and suffering it to do all its intentions , and particularly becoming the great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or authority for set Forms of prayer , is the safest , most prudent , most Christian understanding of those words of Christ , propounding the Lords Prayer to the Christian Church . And because it is impossible that all particulars should be expressed in any form of prayer , because particulars are not only casual and accidental , but also infinite ; Christ , according to that wisdom he had without measure , fram'd a Prayer , which by a general comprehension should include all particulars , eminently and virtually ; so that there should be no defect in it , and yet so short , that the most imperfect memories might retain , and use it . Sect. 82. AND it is not amiss to observe , that our blessed Saviour first taught this Prayer to be as a remedy , and a reproof of the vain repetition of the Pharisees ; and besides , that it was so , à priori , we also in the event , see the excellent spirit and wisdom in the Constitution ; for those persons who have laid aside the Lords Prayer , have been noted by common observation , to be very long in their forms , and troublesome , and vain enough in their repetitions , they have laid aside the medicine , and the old wound bleeds afresh , the Pharisees did so of old . Sect. 83. AND after all this , it is strange imployment , that any man should be put to justifie the wisdom and prudence of any of Christs institutions ; as if any of his servants who are wise upon his Stock , instructed by his Wisdom , made knowing by his Revelations , and whose all that is good , is but a weak ray of the glorious light of the Sun of Righteousness , should dare to think that the Derivative should be before the Primitive , the Current above the Fountain ; and that we should derive all our excellency from him , and yet have some beyond him , that is , some which he never had , or which he was not pleased to manifest ; or that we should have a spirit of Prayer able to make productions beyond his Prayer who received the Spirit without measure . But this is not the first time man hath disputed against God. Sect. 84. AND now let us consider with sobriety , not only of this excellent Prayer , but of all that are deposited in the primitive records of our Religion . Are not those Prayers and Hymns in holy Scripture , excellent compositions , admirable instruments of devotion , full of piety , rare and incomparable addresses to God ? Dare any man with his gift of Prayer pretend , that he can ex tempore , or by study , make better ? Who dares pretend that he hath a better spirit than David had ? or than the Apostles and Prophets , and other holy persons in Scripture , whose Prayers and Psalms are by Gods Spirit consigned to the use of the Church for ever ? Or will it be denied but that they also are excellent Directories and Patterns for prayer ? And if Patterns , the nearer we draw to our example , are not the imitations and representments the better ? And what then if we took the Samplers themselves ? Is there any imperfection in them , and can we mend them , and correct the Magnificat ? The very matter of these , and the Author no less than Divine cannot but justifie the Forms , though set , determin'd and prescribed . Sect. 85. IN a just proportion and commensuration , I argue so concerning the primitive and ancient forms of Church-service , which are composed according to those so excellent Patterns , which if they had remained pure , as in the first institution , or had always been as they had been reformed by the Church of England , they would against all defiance put in for the next place to those forms of Liturgy , which mutatis mutandis , are nothing but the words of Scripture . But I am resolved at this present not to enter into Question concerning the matter of Prayers . Sect. 86. NEXT , we must enquire what the Apostles did in obedience to the precept of Christ , and what the Church did in imitation of the Apostles . That the Apostles did use the Prayer their Lord taught them , I think need not much be questioned , they could have no other end of their desire , and it had been a strange boldness to ask for a form which they intended not to use , or a strange levity not to do what they intended . But I consider they had a double capacity , they were of the Jewish Religion by education , and now Christians by a new institution ; in the first capacity they used those Set forms of Prayer which their Nation used in their devotions . Christ and his Apostles sang a Hymn , part of the great Allelujah which was usually sung at the end of the Paschal Supper , After the Supper they sang a Hymn , sayes the Evangelist . The Jews also used every Sabbath to sing the XCII Psalm , which is therefore intitled , A Song or Psalm for the Sabbath , and they who observed the hours of Prayer , and Vows , according to the rites of the Temple , need not be suspected to have omitted the Jewish forms of prayer . And as they complied with the religious customes of the Nation , worshipping according to the Jewish manner , it is also in reason to be presumed they were Worshippers according to the new Christian institution , and used that form their Lord taught them . Sect. 87. NOW , that they tyed themselves to recitation of the very words of Christs Prayer pro loco & tempore , I am therefore easie to believe , because I find they were strict to a scruple in retaining the Sacramental words which Christ spake when he instituted the blessed Sacrament , insomuch that not only three Evangelists , but Saint Paul also not only making a narrative of the institution , but teaching the Corinthians the manner of its celebration , to a tittle he recites the words of Christ. Now the action of the Consecrator is not a theatrical representment of the action of Christ , but a sacred , solemn , and * Sacramental prayer , in which since the Apostles at first , and the Church ever after did with reverence , and fear , retain the very words , it is not only a probation of the Question in general , in behalf of set forms ; but also a high probability that they retained the Lords Prayer , and used it to an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the very form of words . Sect. 88. AND I the rather make this inference from the preceding argument , because of the cognation one hath with the other ; for the Apostles did also in the consecration of the Eucharist , use the Lords Prayer , and that together with the words of institution was the only form of consecration saith Saint Gregory , and Saint Hierome affirms , that the Apostles , by the command of their Lord , used this * prayer in the benediction of the Elements . Sect. 89. BUT besides this , when the Apostles had received great measures of the Spirit , and by their gift of Prayer composed more Forms for the help and comfort of the Church , and contrary to the order in the first Creation , the light which was in the body of the Sun , was now diffused over the face of the new heavens , and the new Earth ; it became a precept Evangelical , that we should praise God in Hymns and Psalms , and Spiritual Songs , which is so certain , that they were compositions of industry and deliberation , and yet were sung in the Spirit , that he , who denies the last , speaks against Scriptures , he who denies the first , speaks against Reason , and would best confute himself , if in the highest of his pretence of the Spirit , he would venture at some ex tempore Hymns . And of this , we have the express testimony of St. Austin de Hymnis & Psalmis canendis haberi Domini & Apostolorum documenta , & utilia praecepta . And the Church obeyed them , for as an Ancient Author under the name of Di●nysius Areopagita relates , the chief of the Clerical , and Ministring Order offer bread upon the altar , Cum Ecclesiastici omnes laudem hymnumque generalem Deo tribuerunt , cum quibus Pontifex sacras preces ritè perficit , &c. They all sing one Hymn to God , and the Bishop prays ritè , according to the ritual or constitution , which in no sence of the Church , or of Grammar , can be understood without a solemn and determined form ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Casaubon is cantare , idem saepiùs dicere , apud Graecos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; they were forms of praising God used constantly , periodically , and in the daily Offices . And the Fathers of the Councel of Antioch complain against Paulus Samosatenus , Quod Psalmos & cantus qui ad domini nostri Jesu Christi honorem decantari solent tanquam recentiores , & à viris recentioris memoriae editos exploserit . The quarrel was , that he said the Church had used to say Hymns which were made by new men , and not deriv'd from the Ancients ; which , if we consider that the Councel of Antioch was in the twelfth year of Galienus the Emperour , 133 years after Christs Ascension , will fairly prove , that the use of prescribed Forms of prayer , Hymns and forms of Worshipping , were very early in the Church ; and it is unimaginable it should be otherwise , when we remember the Apostolical precept before mentioned . And if we fancy a higher precedent , than what was manifested upon earth , we may please to see one observ'd to have been made in Heaven ; for a set form of Worship , and address to God , was recorded by St. John , and sung in Heaven ; and it was composed out of the Songs of Moses , ( Exod. 15. ) of David , ( Psal. 145 ▪ ) and of Jeremy , Chap. 10.6 , 7. which , certainly , is a very good precedent for us to imitate , although but revealed by St. John , by way of vision and extasie , that we may see , if we would speak with the tongue of Men and Angels , we could not praise God in better Forms , than what are recorded in holy Scripture . Sect. 90. BUT besides the metrical part , the Apostle hath described other parts of Liturgy in Scripture , whose composition , though it be in determined forms of words , yet not so bound up with numbers , as Hymns : and these Saint Paul calls supplications , prayers , intercessions , and giving of thanks , which are several manners of address distinguished by their subject matter , by their form and manner of address . As appears plainly by [ intercessions and giving of thanks ] the other are also by all men distinguished , though in the particular assignment they differ , but the distinction of the Words implies the distinction of Offices , which together with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Lectionarium of the Church , the Books of the Apostles , and Prophets spoken of by Justin Martyr , and said to be used in the Christian congregations , are the constituent parts of Liturgy ; and the exposition of the words we best learn from the practice of the Church , who in all Ages , of whose publick offices any record is left to us , took their pattern from these places of Scripture , the one for Prose , the other for Verse ; and if we take Liturgy into its several parts , or members , we cannot want something to appply to every one of the words of St. Paul in these present allegations . Sect. 91. FOR the offices of prose we find but small mention of them in the very first time , save only in general terms , and that such there were , and that St. James , St. Mark , St. Peter , and others of the Apostles and Apostolical men made Liturgies , and if these which we have at this day were not theirs , yet they make probation that these Apostles left others , or else they were impudent people that prefixed their names so early , and the Churches were very incurious to swallow such a bole , if no pretension could have been reasonably made for their justification . But concerning Church Hymns we have clearer testimony in particular , both because they were many of them , and because they were dispersed more , soon got by heart , passed also among the people , and were pious arts of the Spirit whereby holy things were instilled into their souls by the help of fancy , and a more easie memory . The first civilizing of people used to be by Poetry , and their Divinity was conveyed by Songs and Verses , and the Apostle exhorted the Christians , to exhort one another in Psalms and Hymns , for he knew the excellent advantages were likely to accrue to religion by such an insinuation of the mysteries . Thus St. Hilary , and St. Ambrose composed Hymns for the use of the Church , and St. Austin made a Hymn against the Schism of Donatus , which Hymns when they were publickly allowed of , were used in publick Offices ; not till then ; For Paulus Samosatenus had brought Women into the Church to sing vain and trifling songs , and some Bishops took to themselves too great and incurious a license , and brought Hymns into the Church , whose gravity and piety was not very remarkable ; upon occasion of which , the Fathers of the Councel of Laodicea ordained , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , No Psalms of private composition must be brought into the Church , so Gentian Harvet renders it ; Isidore Translates it [ Psalmos ab idiotis compositos , ] Psalms made by common persons ; ] Psalms usually sung abroad , so Dionysius Exiguus calls them , [ Psalmos Plebeios ] but I suppose by the following words is meant , That none but Scripture Psalms shall be read there , for so the Canon addes , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , nothing to be read in the Church but Books of the Old and New Testament . And this interpretation agrees well enough with the occasion of the Canon which I now mentioned . Sect. 92. THIS only by the way , the reddition of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Isidore to be Psalms made by common persons , whom the Scripture calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ignorant , or unlearned , is agreeable enough with that of Saint Paul , who intimates , that prayers , and forms of Liturgies are to be composed for them , not by them , they were never thought of to be persons competent to make Forms of Prayers themselves : For S. Paul speaks of such an one as of a person coming into the Church to hear the Prophets pray , and sing , and interpret , and prophesie , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he is reproved of all , and judged of all ; and therefore the most unfit person in the world to bring any thing that requires great ability , and great authority , to obtrude it upon the Church , his Rulers , and his Judges . And this was not unhandsomely intimated by the word sometimes used by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Greek Church , calling the publick Liturgie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifies Prayers , made for the use of the Idiotae , or private persons , as the word is contradistinguished from the Rulers of the Church . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies contum , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , is as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to live in the condition of a private person , and in the vulgar Greek ( sayes Arcudius ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifie a little man , of a low stature , from which two significations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may well enough design a short form of Prayer , made for the use of private persons . And this was reasonable , and part of the Religion even of the Heathen as well as Christians ; the presidents of their Religion were to find prayers for the people , and teach them forms of address to their Gods. Castis cum pueris ignara puella mariti Disceret unde preces , vatem ni Musa dedisset ? Poscit opem chorus , & praesentia numina sentit . Coelestes implorat equas , docta prece blandus , Carmine dii superi placantur , carmine Manes . But this by the way . Sect. 93. BUT because I am casually fallen upon mention of the Laodicean Council , and that it was very ancient , before the Nicene , and of very great reputation , both in the East , and in the West ; it will not be a contemptible addition to the reputation of set forms of Liturgy , that we find them so early in the Church , reduced to a very regular and composed manner . The XVth . Canon suffers none to sing in the Church , but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they that sing by book , and go up into the Pulpit ; they were the same persons , and the manner of doing their office , was their appellative , which shews plainly , that the known custom of the Church was for them who were in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in the Pulpit to read their offices , and devotions . They read them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that 's the word in the Canon . Those things which signifie the greatest , or first Antiquity , are said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , was spoken proverbially , to signifie ancient things : And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : So that if these Fathers chose these words as Grammarians , the singers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , were such as sung ancient Hymns of Primitive antiquity , which also is the more credible , because the persons were noted and distinguished by their imployment , as a thing known by so long an use , till it came to be their appellative . * The 17th . and 18th . Canons command that Lessons and Psalms should be said interchangeably 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and the same Liturgy ( that 's the word ) or office of prayers to be said always at Nones and Vespers . This shews the manner of executing their office of Psalmists , and Readers , they did not sing or say ex tempore , but they read Prayers and Psalms , and sung them out of a Book ; neither were they brought in fresh and new at every meeting , but it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , still the same form of prayers , without variation . Sect. 94. BUT then if we remember how ancient this office was in the Church , and that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Readers and Singers were Clerical offices , deputed for publick ministry about prayers and devotions in the Church ( for so we are told by Simeon Thessalonicensis in particular concerning the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he does dictate the hymns to the singers , and then of the singers there is no question ) and that these two offices were so ancient in the Church , that they were mentioned by St. Ignatius , who was contemporary with the latter times of the Apostles ; We may well believe that set and described forms of Liturgy were as early as the days of the Apostles , and continued in the continuation of those and the like offices in all descending ages . Of the same design and intimation were those known offices in the Greek Church , of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which Socrates speaks of as of an office in the Church of Alexandria , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. Their office was the same with the Reader , they did ex praescripto praeire , & ad verbum referre , the same which ab Alexandro notes to have been done in the religious rites of Heathen Greece , The first read out of a Book the appointed prayers , and the others rehearsed them after . Now it is unimaginable that constant officers should be appointed to say an office , and no publick office be described . Sect. 95. I SHALL add but this one thing more , and pass on ad alia . And that is , that I never yet saw any instance , example , or pretence of precedent of any Bishop , Priest , or Lay person that ever prayed ex tempore in the Church , and although in some places , single Bishops , or peradventure , other persons of less Authority did oftentimes bring prayers of their * own into the Church ; yet ever they were compositions , and premeditations , and were brought thither , there to be repeated often , and added to the Liturgy ; and although the Liturgies , while they were less full than since they have been , were apt to receive the additions of pious and excellent Persons , yet the inconvenience grew so great , by permitting any forms but what were approved by a publick Spirit , that the Church , as She always had forms of publick Prescription , so She resolved to permit no mixture of any thing but what was warranted by an equal power , that the Spirits of the Prophets might be subject to the Prophets , and such Spirits , when they are once tried whether they be of God or no , tryed by a lawful superiour , and a competent Judge , may then venture into the open air . And it were a strange imprudence , choosingly to entertain those inconveniences which our wiser Fore-fathers felt , and declar'd , and remedied . For why should we be in love with that evil , against which they so carefully arm'd their Churches , by the provision and defence of Laws ? For this produc'd that Canon of the Councel of Mileuis in Africa , Placuit ut preces quae probatae fuerint in Concilio ab omnibus celebrentur , nec aliae omnino dicantur in Ecclesiâ , nisi quae à prudentioribus factae fuerint in Synodo . That 's the restraint and prohibition ; publick Prayers must be such as are publickly appointed and prescribed by our superiors , and no private forms of our conceiving must be used in the Church . The reason follows , Ne fortè aliquid contra fidem , vel per ignorantiam , vel per minus studium sit compositum , lest through ignorance , or want of deliberation any thing be spoken in our prayers against faith , [ and good manners ; ] Their reason is good , and they are witnesses of it who hear the variety of Prayers , before and after Sermons , there where the Directory is practised , where ( to speak most modestly ) not only their private opinions , but also humane interests , and their own personal concernments , and wild fancies , born perhaps not two daies before , are made the objects of the peoples hopes , of their desires , and their prayers , and all in the mean time pretend to the holy Spirit . Sect. 96. THUS far we are gone . The Church hath ( 1 ) power and authority , and ( 2 ) command , ( 3 ) and ability , or promise of assistances to make publick forms of Liturgy ; and ( 4 ) the Church always did so ; in all descents from Moses to Christ , from Christ to the Apostles , from them all to all descending Ages ; for I have instanced till St. Austin's time ; and since , there is no Question , the people were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Balsamon sayes of those of the Greek Communion , they used unalterable forms of Prayers , described out of the Books of publick Liturgy ; it remains only , that I consider upon what reason and grounds of prudence and religion the Church did so , and whether she did well or no ? In order to which , I consider , Sect. 97. FIRST , Every man hath personal needs of his own , and he that understands his own condition , and hath studied the state of his Soul in order to eternity , his temporal estate in order to justice and charity , and the constitution and necessities of his body in order to health , and his health in order to the service of God , as every wise and good man does , will find that no man can make such provision for his necessities , as he can do for his own , ( caeteris paribus ) no man knows the things of a man but the spirit of the man , and therefore if he have proportionable abilities , it is allowed to him , and it is necessary for him to represent his own conditions to God , and he can best express his own sence , or at least best sigh forth his own meaning , and if he be a good man , the Spirit will make intercession for him , with those unutterable groans . Besides this , every Family hath needs proper to it in the capacity of a Family , and those are to be represented by the master of the Family ; whom men of the other perswasion are apt to confess to be a Priest in his own Family and a King , and Sacrorum omnium potestas sub Regibus esto , they are willing in this sence to acknowledge ; and they call upon him to perform Family duties , that is , all the publick devotions of the Family are to be ordered by him . Sect. 98. NOW that this is to be done by a set form of words is acknowledged by Didoclavius . Nam licèt in conclavi ( Pater Familiâs ) verbis exprimere animi affectus pro arbitrio potest , quia Dominus cor intuetur , & affectus , tamen publicè coram totâ familiâ idem absque indecoro non potest . If he prays ex tempore , without a set form of prayer , he may commit many an undecency ; a set and described form of prayer is most convenient in a Family that Children and Servants may be enabled to remember , and tacitely recite the prayer together with the Major domo . But I rely not upon this , but proceed upon this consideration . Sect. 99. AS private Persons and as Families , so also have Churches their special necessities in a distinct capacity , and therefore God hath provided for them Rulers and Feeders , Priests and Presidents of Religion , who are to represent all their needs to God , and to make provisions . Now because the Church cannot all meet in one place , but the harvest being great , it is bound up in several bundles , and divided into many Congregations , for all which the Rulers and Stewards of this great Family are to provide , and yet cannot be present in those particular societies , it is necessary that they should have influence upon them by a general provision , and therefore that they should take care that their common needs should be represented to God , by set forms of Prayer , for they only can be provided by Rulers , and used by their Mininisters and Deputies ; such as must be one in the principe , and diffused in the execution ; and it is a better expression of their care and duty for the Rulers to provide the bread and bless it , and then give it to them who must minister it in small portions and to particular companies , ( for so Christ did ) than to leave them who are not in the same degree answerable for the Churches , as the Rulers are to provide their food , and break it , and minister it too . The very Oeconomy of Christs Family requires that the dispensations be made according to every mans capacity . The general Stewards are to divide to every man his portion of work , and to give them their food in due season , and the under-servants are to do that work is appointed them ; so Christ appointed it in the Gospel , and so the Church hath practised in all Ages , indè enim per temporum & successionum vices Episcoporum ordinatio & Ecclesiae ratio decurrit , ut Ecclesia supra Episcopos constituatur , & omnis actus Ecclesiae per eosdem Praepositos gubernetur , when the Rulers are few ( for the Ecclesiastical regiment is not Democratical ) and the under offices many , and the companies numerous , for all which those few Rulers are bound to provide , and prayer and offices of devotion are one of the greatest instances of provision , it is impossible there should be any sufficient care taken or caution used by those Rulers in the matter of prayers , but for them to make such prescript forms which may be used by all companies , under their charge ; that since they are to represent all the needs of all their people , because they cannot be present by their persons in all Societies , they may be present by their care and provisions , which is then done best when they make prescript Forms of prayer , and provide pious Ministers to dispense it . Sect. 100. SECONDLY , It is in the very nature of publik prayer that it be made by a publick spirit , and performed by a publick consent . For publick , and private prayer , are certainly two distinct duties ; but they are least of all distinguished by the place , but most of all by the spirit that dictates the prayer , and the consent in the recitation ; and it is a private prayer which either one man makes , though spoken in publick , as the Laodicean Councel calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , private Psalms , or which is not attested by publick consent of minds , and it is a publick prayer , which is made by the publick spirit , and consented to by a general acceptation ; and therefore the Lords prayer , though spoke in private , is a publick form , and therefore represented plurally ; and the place is very extrinsecal to the nature of Prayer ; I will that men pray every where , lifting up pure hands ; and retiring into a closet is only advised for the avoiding of hypocrisie , not for the greater excellency of the duty . So that if publick Prayer have advantages beyond private Prayer , or upon its own stock , besides it , the more publick influences it receives , the more excellent it is . And hence I conclude , that set forms of Prayer composed and used by the Church ; I mean by the Rulers in conjunction and Union , of Heads , and Councels , and used by the Church ; I mean the people in Union , and society of Hearts and Spirits , hath two very great advantages which other Prayers have not . Sect. 101. FOR First , it is more truly publick , and hath the benefit of those helps which God ( who never is deficient to supply any of our needs ) gives to publick persons in order to publick necessities , by which I mean its emanation from a publick , and therefore a more excellent spirit . And secondly , it is the greatest instance of union in the world ; for since God hath made faith , hope , and charity , the ligaments of the communion of Saints , and Common Prayer , which not only all the Governours have propounded as most fit , but in which all the people are united , is a great testimony of the same Faith , and a common hope , and mutual charity , because they confess the same God whom they worship , and the same Articles which they recite , and labour towards the same hope , the mighty price of their high calling , and by praying for each other in the same sence and to the same purpose , doing the same to them that I desire they should do for me , do testifie and preserve , and increase their charity ; it follows , that common , and described prayers are the most excellent instrument , and act , and ligament of the Communion of Saints , and the great common term of the Church in its degrees of Catholick capacity . And therefore saith S. Ignatius , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , All meet together , and joyn to Common Prayers , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , let there be one mind and let there be one prayer . That 's the true Communion of Christians . Sect. 102. AND in pursuance of this , I consider , that if all Christian Churches had one common Liturgy , there were not a greater symbol to testifie , nor a greater instrument to preserve the Catholick Communion ; and when ever a Schism was commenc'd , and that they called one another Heretick , they not only forsook to pray with one another , but they also altered their Forms by interposition of new Clauses , Hymns , and Collects , and new Rites and Ceremonies ; only those parts that combined kept the same Liturgy ; and indeed the same Forms of Prayer were so much the instrument of Union , that it was the only ligament of their Society , ( for their Creeds , I reckon as part of their Liturgy , for so they ever were : ) so that this may teach us a little to guess , I will not say into how many Churches , but into how many innumerable atoms , and minutes of Churches those Christians must needs be scattered , who alter their Forms according to the number of persons , and the number of their meetings , every company having a new Form of Prayer at every convention . And this consideration will not be vain , if we remember how great a blessing Unity in Churches is , and how hard to be kept , with all the arts in the world ; and how every thing is powerful enough for its dissolution . But that a publick Form of Liturgy was the great instrument of Communion in the Primitive Church , appears in this , that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or excommunication , was an exclusion , à communicatione orationis , & conventûs , & omnis sancti commercii , from the participation of the publick meeting and Prayers ; and therefore the more united the Prayer is , still it is the greater instrument of Union ; the Authority and Consent , the publick Spirit , and common Acceptation , are so many degrees of a more firm and indissoluble Communion . Sect. 103. THIRDLY , To this I add , that without prescribed Forms , issues of the publick Spirit and Authority , publick Communion cannot be regular and certain , as may appear in one or two plain instances . It is a practise prevailing among those of our Brethren that are zealous for ex tempore , or not enjoyned Prayers , to pray their Sermons over , to reduce their Doctrine into Devotion and Liturgie . I mislike it not for the thing it self , if it were regularly for the manner , and the matter always pious and true . But who shall assure me , when the preacher hath disputed , or rather dogmatically decreed a point of Predestination , or of prescience , of contingency , or of liberty , or any of the most mysterious parts of Divinity , and then prayes his Sermon over , that he then prays with the Spirit ? Unless I be sure that he also Preached with the Spirit , I cannot be sure that he Prays with the Spirit , for all he prays ex tempore . Nay , if I hear a Protestant preach in the Morning , and an Anabaptist in the Afternoon , to day a Presbyterian , to morrow an Independant , am I not most sure , that when they have preached contradictories , and all of them pray their Sermons over , that they do not all pray with the Spirit ? More than one in this case cannot pray with the Spirit , possibly all may pray against him . Sect. 104. FOURTHLY , From whence I thus argue in behalf of set Forms of prayer , That in the case above put , how shall I , or any man else , say Amen to their prayers that preach and pray contradictories ? At least , I am much hindred in my devotion . For besides that , it derives our opinions into our devotions , makes every School-point become our Religion , and makes God a party so far as we can , intitling him to our impertinent wranglings ; Besides this , I say while we should attend to our addresses towards God , we are to consider whether the point be true , or no , and by that time we have tacitely discoursed it , we are upon another point , which also perhaps is as questionable as the former , and by this time our spirit of devotion , is a little discomposed and something out of countenance , there is so much other imployment for the spirit , the spirit of discerning and judging ; All which inconveniences are avoided in set forms of Liturgy . For , we know before hand the conditions of our communion , and to what we are to say , Amen , to which if we like it , we may repair ; if not , there is no harm done , your devotion shall not be surprized , nor your communion invaded , as it may be often , in your ex tempore prayers , and unlimited devotions . Sect. 105. FIFTHLY , and this thing hath another collateral inconvenience which is of great consideration , for upon what confidence can we solicite any Recusants to come to our Church , where we cannot promise them , that the devotions there to be used shall be innocent , nor can we put him into a condition to judge for himself ? if he will venture he may , but we can use no argument to make him choose our Churches , though he would quit his own . Sect. 106. SIXTHLY , So that either the people must have an implicite faith in the Priest , and then may most easily be abused , or if they have not , they cannot joyn in the prayer , it cannot become to them an instrument of communion but by chance , and irregularly ; and ex post facto , when the prayer is approv'd of , and after the devotion is spent , for till then they cannot judge , and before they do , they cannot say Amen , and till Amen be said there is no benefit of the prayer , nor no union of hearts and desires , and therefore as yet no communion . Sect. 107. SEVENTHLY , Publick forms of prayer are great advantages to convey an Article of faith into the most secret retirement of the Spirit , and to establish it with a most firm perswasion , and endear it to us with the greatest affection . For , since our prayers are the greatest instruments and conveyances of blessing and mercy to us , that which mingles with our hopes , which we owe to God , which is sent of an errand to fetch a mercy for us , in all reason will become the dearer to us for all these advantages . And just so is an Article of belief inserted into our devotions , and made a part of prayer , it is extreamly confirmed by that confidence and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , fulness of perswasion that must exclude all doubting from our prayers , and it insinuates it self into our affection by being mingled with our desires , and we grow bold in it by having offered it to God , and made so often acknowledgment of it to him who is not to be mocked . Sect. 108. AND , certainly it were a very strange Liturgy in which there were no publick Confession of Faith , for as it were deficient in one act of Gods worship , which is offering the understanding up to God , bringing it in subjection to Christ , and making publick profession of it , it also loses a very great advantage which might accrue to Faith by making it a part of our Liturgick devotions ; and this was so apprehended by the Ancients in the Church , our Fathers in Christ , that commonly they used to oppose a Hymn , or a Collect , or a Doxology , in defiance of a new-sprung Heresie . The Fathers of Nice fram'd the Gloria Patri , against the Arians . Saint Austin compos'd a Hymn against the Donatists . Saint Hierome added the [ sicut erat in principio ] against the Macedonians . Saint Ambrose fram'd the [ Te Deum ] upon occasion of St. Austins Baptism , but took care to make the Hymn to be of most solemn adoration , and yet of prudent institution and publick Confession , that according to the advice of St. Paul we might sing with grace in our hearts to the Lord , and at the same time teach and admonish one another too : Now this cannot be done but in set forms of prayer ; for in new devotions and uncertain forms we may also have an ambulatory faith , and new Articles may be offered before every Sermon , and at every convention ; the Church can have no security to the contrary , nor the Article any stable foundation , or advantageous insinuation either into judgment or memory of the persons to be informed or perswaded , but like Abrahams sacrifice , as soon as his back is turn'd , the birds shall eat it up . Quid quod haec oratio quae sanandis mentibus adhibetur , descendere in nos debet . Remedia non prosunt nisi immorentur . A cursory Prayer shall have a transient effect ; when the hand is off , the impression also is gone . Sect. 109. EIGHTHLY , Without the description of publick forms of prayer there can be no security given in the matter of our prayers , but we may burn assa foetida for incense , and the Marrow of a mans bones instead of the fat of Rams ; and of all things in the world we should be most curious that our prayers be not turned into sin , and yet if they be not prescribed and pre-considered , nothing can secure them antecedently , the people shall go to Church but without confidence that they shall return with a blessing , for they know not whether God shall have a present made of a holy oblation , or else whether the minister will stand in the gap , or make the gap wider ? But this I touch'd upon before . Sect. 110. NINTHLY , They preserve the authority and sacredness of Government , and possibly they are therefore decried that the reputation of authority may decline together . For as God hath made it the great Cancel between the Clergy and the People , that they are deputed to speak to God for them , so is it the great distinction of the persons in that order , that the Rulers shall judge between the Ministers and the People in relation to God , with what addresses they shall come before God , and intercede for the people , for so St. Paul enjoyns , that the spirits of the Prophets should be submitted to the Prophets , viz. to be discern'd and judg'd by them , which thing is not practicable in permissions of every Minister to pray what forms he pleases every day . Sect. 111. TENTHLY , Publick forms of Liturgy are also the great securities and basis to the religion and piety of the people ; for circumstances govern them most , and the very determination of a publick office , and the appointment of that office at certain times , engages their spirits , the first to an habitual ; the latter to an actual devotion . It is all that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , many men know of their Religion , and they cannot any way know it better , than by those Forms of prayer which publish their faith , and their devotion to God , and all the world , and which by an admirable expedient reduces their faith into practice , and places their Religion in their understanding and affections . And therefore St. Paul when he was to give an account of his Religion , he did it not by a mere recitation of the Articles , but by giving account of his Liturgy , and the manner of his worship . After that way which they call haeresie , so worship I the God of my Fathers . And the best worship is the best religion , and therefore I am not to trust any man to make my manner of worshipping , unless I durst trust him to be the Dictator of my Religion ; and a Form of Prayer made by a private man , is also my Religion made by a private man. So that we must say after the manner that G. the Minister of B. shall conceive and speak , so worship I the God of my Fathers , and if that be reasonable or pious , let all the world judge . Sect. 112. ELEVENTHLY , But when authority shall consider and determine upon a form of Liturgy , and this be used and practised in a Church , there is an admirable conjunction in the Religion , and great co-operation towards the glory of God. The authority of the injunction adds great reputation to the devotion , and takes off the contempt which from the no-authority of single and private persons must be consequent to their conceived prayers ; and the publick practice of it , and union of spirits in the devotion satisfies the world in the nature of it , and the Religion of the Church . Sect. 113. TWELFTHLY , But nothing can answer for the great scandal which all wise persons and all good persons in the world must needs receive when there is no publick testimony consigned , that such a whole Nation , or a Church hath any thing that can be called Religion , and those little umbrages that are , are casual as chance it self , alterable as time ; and shall be good when those infinite numbers of men ( that are trusted with it ) shall please to be honest , or shall have the good luck not to be mistaken . Sect. 114. THIRTEENTHLY , I will not now instance in the vain-glory that is appendent to these new made , every-days forms of prayer , and that some have been so vain , like the Orators Quintilian speaks of , ut verbum petant quo incipiant , that they have published their ex tempore faculty upon experiment , and scenical bravery , you shall name the instance , and they shall compose the form : Amongst whom also the gift of the man is more than the devotion of the man ; nor will I consider that then this gift is esteemed best , when his prayer is longest ; and if he takes a complacency in his gift ( as who is not apt to do it ? ) he will be sure to extend his prayer till a suspicious and scrupulous man would be apt to say , his Prayer pressed hard upon that which our blessed Saviour reprehended in the Pharisees , who thought to be heard for their much babling . I know it was observed by a very wise man , that the vanity of spirit and popular opinion that grows great , and talks loudly of his abilities that can speak ex tempore , may not only be the incentive , but a helper of the faculty , and make a man not only to love it , but to be the more able to do it . Addit ad dicendum etiam pudor stimulos , addit & dicendorum expectata laus , mirumque videri potest , quod cum stylus secreto gaudeat , atque omnes arbitros reformidet , extemporalis actio auditorum frequentiâ , ut miles congestu signorum excitatur . Namque & difficiliorem concitationem exprimit , & expolit dicendi necessitas , & secundos impetus auget placendi cupido . Adeò praemium omnia spectant ut eloquentia quoque quanquam plurimum habeat in se voluptatis , maximè tamen praesenti fructu laudis , opinionisque ducatur . It may so happen that the opinion of the people as it is apt to actuate the faculty , so also may encourage the practice , and spoil the devotion . But these things are accidental to the nature of the thing , and therefore though they are too certainly consequent to the person , yet I will not be too severe , but preserve my self on the surer side of a charitable construction , which truly I desire to keep , not only to their persons whom I much reverence , but also to their actions . But yet I durst not do the same thing even for these last reasons , though I had no other . Sect. 115. IN the next place we must consider the next great objection , that is with much clamor pretended , viz. that in set Forms of Prayer we restrain and confine the blessed Spirit ; and in conceived Forms , when every man is left to his liberty , then the Spirit is free , unlimited and unconstrained . Sect. 116. I ANSWER , Either their conceived forms ( I use their own words , though indeed the expression is very inartificial ) are premeditate and described , or they are ex tempore . If they be premeditate and described , then the Spirit is as much limited in their conceived forms , as in the Churches conceived Forms . For as to this particular it is all one who describes and limits the Form , whether the Church , or a single man does it , still the Spirit is in constraint and limit . So that in this case they are not angry at set Forms of Prayer , but that they do not make them . And if it be replyed , that if a single person composes a set Form , he may alter it if he please , and so his Spirit is at liberty ; I answer , so may the Church , if She see cause for it ; and unless there be cause , the single person will not alter it , unless he do things unreasonable , and without cause . So that it will be an unequal challenge , and a peevish quarrel to allow of set Forms of Prayer made by private Persons , and not of set Forms made by the publick spirit of the Church . It is evident that the Spirit is limited in both alike . Sect. 117. BUT if by [ conceived Forms ] in this Objection they mean ex tempore Prayers ( for so they would be thought most generally to practise it ) and that in the use of these ▪ the liberty of the spirit is best preserved ; To this I answer , that the being ex tempore , or premediate will be wholly impertinent to this Question of limiting the spirit . For there may be great liberty in set forms , even when there is much variety ; and there may be great restraint in ex tempore Prayers , even then when it shall be called unlawful to use set forms . That the spirit is restrained , or that it is free in either , is accidental to them both ; for it may be either free or not free in both , as it may happen . Sect. 118. BUT the restraint is this , that every one is not left to his liberty to pray how he list , ( with premeditation or without , it makes not much matter ) but that he is prescribed unto by the spirit of another . But if it be a fault thus to restrain the Spirit , I would fain know , is not the Spirit restrained when the whole Congregation shall be confined to the form of this one mans composing ? Or shall it be unlawful , or at least a disgrace and disparagement to use any set Forms , especially of the Churches composition ? More plainly thus . Sect. 119. SECONDLY , Doth not the Minister confine and restrain the spirit of the Lords People , when they are tied to his Form ? It would sound of more liberty to their spirits , that every one might make a prayer of his own , and all pray together , and not be forced or confined to the Ministers single dictate and private spirit . It is true , it would breed confusions , and therefore they might pray silently till the Sermon began , and not for the avoiding one inconvenience run into a greater , and to avoid the disorder of a popular noise restrain the blessed Spirit , for even in this case as well as in the other , where the Spirit of God is there must be liberty . Sect. 120. THIRDLY , If the spirit must be at liberty , who shall assure us this liberty must be in Forms of Prayer ? And if so , whether also it must be in publick Prayer , and will it not suffice that it be in private ? and if in publick Prayers , is not the liberty of the spirit sufficiently preserved , that the publick Spirit is free ? That is , the Church hath power , upon occasion , to alter and increase her Litanies . By what argument shall any man make it so much as probable , that the Holy Ghost is injured , if every private Ministers private spirit shall be guided , ( and therefore by necessary consequence limited ) by the authority of the Churches publick Spirit ? Sect. 121. FOURTHLY , Does not the Directory that thing which is here called restraining of the Spirit ? Does it not appoint every thing but the words ? And after this , is it not a goodly Palladium that is contended for , and a princely liberty they leave unto the Spirit , to be free only in the supplying the place of a Vocabulary , and a Copia verborum ? For as for the matter , it is all there described and appointed ; and to those determined sences the Spirit must assist , or not at all , only for the words he shall take his choice . Now I desire it may be considered sadly and seriously , Is it not as much injury to the Spirit to restrain his matter , as to appoint his words ? Which is the more considerable of the two , Sence or Language , Matter or Words ? I mean when they are taken singly , and separately . For so they may very well be , ( for as if men prescribe the matter only the Spirit may cover it with several words and expressions ; so if the Spirit prescribe the words , I may still abound in variety of sence , and preserve the liberty of my meaning ; we see that true in the various interpretations of the same words of Scripture . ) So that , in the greater of the two , the Spirit is restrained when his matter is appointed ; and to make him amends , for not trusting him with the matter without our directions and limitations , we trust him to say what he pleases , so it be to our sence , to our purposes . A goodly compensation surely ! Sect. 122. FIFTHLY , Did not Christ restrain the spirit of his Apostles , when he taught them to pray the Lords Prayer , whether his precept to his Disciples concerning it was , Pray this , or Pray thus ; Pray these words , or Pray after this manner ? Or though it had been less than either , and been only a Directory for the matter ; still it is a thing which our brethren in all other cases of the same nature , are resolved perpetually to call a restraint . Certainly then , this pretended restraint is no such formidable thing . These men themselves do it by directing all of the matter , and much of the manner , and Christ himself did it , by prescribing both the matter , and the words too . Sect. 123. SIXTHLY , These restraints ( as they are called , ) or determinations of the Spirit , are made by the Spirit himself . For I demand , when any Assembly of Divines appoint the matter of prayers to all particular Ministers , as this hath done , is that appointment by the Spirit or no ; If no , then for ought appears , this directory not being made by Gods Spirit , may be an enemy to it . But if this appointment be by the Spirit , then the determination and limitation of the Spirit is by the spirit himself , and such indeed is every pious and prudent constitution of the Church in matters spiritual . Such as was that of St. Paul to the Corinthians , when he prescribed orders for publick Prophesying , and Interpretation , and speaking with Tongues . The Spirit of some he so restrained , that he bound them to hold their peace , he permitted but two or three to speak at one meeting , the rest were to keep silence , though possibly six or seven might at that time have the spirit . Sect. 124. SEVENTHLY , Is it not a restraint of the spirit to sing a Psalm in Metre by appointment ? Clearly , as much as appointing Forms of prayer , or Eucharist ; And yet that we see done daily , and no scruple made . Is not this to be partial in judgment , and inconsiderate of what we do ? Sect. 125. EIGHTHLY , And now after all this strife , what harm is there in restraining the spirit in the present sence ? What prohibition ? What law ? What reason or revelation is against it ? What inconvenience in the nature of the thing ? For , can any man be so weak as to imagine a despite is done to the spirit of grace , when the gifts given to his Church are used regularly , and by order ? As if prudence were no gift of Gods spirit , as if helps in Government , and the ordering spiritual matters were none of those graces which Christ when he ascended up on high gave unto men . But this whole matter is wholly a stranger to reason , and never seen in Scripture . Sect. 126. FOR , Divinity never knew any other vitious restraining the spirit , but either suppressing those holy incitements to vertue and good life , which God's Spirit ministers to us externally , or internally , or else a forbidding by publick authority the Ministers of the Word and Sacraments , to speak such truths as God hath commanded , and so taking away the liberty of prophesying . The first is directly vitious in materia speciali : The second is tyrannical and Antichristian . And to it persecution of true Religion is to be reduced . But as for this pretended limiting or restraining the Spirit , viz. by appointing a regular Form of prayer , it is so very a Chimaera , that it hath no footing or foundation upon any ground where a wise man may build his confidence . Sect. 127. NINTHLY , But lastly , how if the Spirit must be restrained , and that by precept Apostolical ? That calls us to a new account . But if it be not true , what means Saint Paul , by saying , The spirits of the Prophets must be subject to the Prophets ? What greater restraint than subjection ? If subjected , then they must be ruled ; if ruled , then limited ; prescribed unto , and as much under restraint as the spirits of the superiour Prophets shall judge convenient . I suppose by this time this Objection will trouble us no more . But perhaps another will. Sect. 128. FOR , Why are not the Ministers to be left as well to their liberty in making their Prayers as their Sermons ? I answer , the Church may if she will , but whether she doth well or no , let her consider . This I am sure , there is not the same reason , and I fear the experience the world hath already had of it will make demonstration enough of the inconvenience . But however , the differences are many . Sect. 129. FIRST , Our Prayers offered up by the Minister , are in behalf , and in the name of the People , and therefore great reason they should know beforehand , what is to be presented , that if they like not the message , they may refuse to communicate , especially since people are so divided in their opinions , in their hopes , and in their faiths ; it being a duty to refuse communion with those prayers which they think to have in them the matter of sin or doubting . Which reason on the other part ceases . For the Minister being to speak from God to the people , if he speaks what he ought not , God can right himself , however is not a partner of the sin , as in the other case , the people possibly may be . Sect. 130. SECONDLY , It is more fit a liberty be left in Preaching than Praying , because the address of our discourses and exhortations are to be made according to the understanding and capacity of the audience , their prejudices are to be removed , all advantages to be taken , and they are to be surprized that way they lie most open , [ But being crafty I caught you , ] saith St. Paul to the Corinthians . And discourses and arguments ad hominem , upon their particular principles and practises may more move them than the most polite and accurate that do not comply and wind about their fancies and affections . St. Paul from the absurd practise of being baptized for the dead , made an excellent Argument to convince the Corinthians of the Resurrection . But this reason also ceases in our prayers . For God understandeth what we say , sure enough , he hath no prejudices to be removed , no infirmities to be wrought upon , and a fine figure of Rhetorick , a pleasant cadence and a curious expression move not him at all : No other twinings and compliances stir him , but charity , and humility , and zeal , and importunity , which all are things internal and spiritual . It was observed by Pliny , Deos non tam accuratis adorantium precibus , quàm innocentiâ & sanctitate laetari : gratiorémque existimari qui delubris eorum puram castámque mentem , quàm qui meditatum carmen intulerit . And therefore of necessity there is to be great variety of discourses to the people , and permissions accordingly , but not so to God , with whom a Deus miserere prevails as soon as the great Office of forty hours not long since invented in the Church of Rome , or any other prayers spun out to a length beyond the extension of the office of a Pharisee . Sect. 131. THIRDLY , I fear it cannot stand with our reverence to God to permit to every spirit a liberty of publick address to him in behalf of the people . Indeed , he that is not fit to pray , is not always fit to preach , but it is more safe to be bold with the people , than with God , if the persons be not so fit . In that there may be indiscretion , but there may be impiety and irreligion in this . The people may better excuse and pardon an indiscretion , or a rudeness , ( if any such should happen ) than we may venture to offer it to God. Sect. 132. FOURTHLY , There is a latitude of Theology , much whereof is left to us , so without precise and clear determination , that without breach either of faith or charity men may differ in opinion : and if they may not be permitted to abound in their own sence , they will be apt to complain of tyranny over Consciences , and that Men Lord it over their faith . In prayer this thing is so different , that it is imprudent , and full of inconvenience , to derive such things into our prayers which may with good profit be matter of Sermons . Therefore here a liberty may well enough be granted , when there it may better be denied . Sect. 133. FIFTHLY , But indeed , If I may freely declare my opinion , I think it were not amiss , if the liberty of making Sermons were something more restrain'd than it is , and that either such persons only were intrusted with the liberty , for whom the Church her self may safely be responsive , that is , to men learned , and pious , and that the other part , the Vulgus Cleri should instruct the People out of the fountains of the Church , and the publick stock , till by so long exercise and discipline in the Schools of the Prophets , they may also be intrusted to minister of their own unto the people . This I am sure was the Practice of the Primitive Church ; when preaching was as ably and religiously performed as now it is ; but in this , I prescribe nothing . But truly I think the reverend Divines of the Assembly are many of them of my mind in this particular , and that they observe a liberty indulg'd to some Persons to preach , which I think they had rather should hold their peace , and yet think the Church better edified in their silence , than their Sermons . Sect. 134. SIXTHLY , But yet methinks the Argument objected so far as the ex tempore Men make use of it , if it were turned with the edge the other way , would have more reason in it ; and instead of arguing [ Why should not the same liberty be allowed to their spirit in praying as in preaching ? ] it were better to substitute this . If they can pray with the Spirit , why do they not also preach with the Spirit ? And it may be there may be in reason or experience something more for preaching and making Orations by the excellency of a mans spirit and learning , than for the other , which in the greatest abilities it may be unfit to venture to God without publick approbation : but for Sermons they may be fortunate and safe if made ex tempore . Frequenter enim accidit , ut successum extemporalem consequi cura non possit : quem si calor ac spiritus tulit , Deum tunc adfuisse cùm id evenisset , veteres Oratores , ut Cicero dicit , aiebant . Now let them make demonstration of their spirit by making excellent Sermons ex tempore : that it may become an experiment of their other faculty , that after they are tried and approved in this , they may be considered for the other : And if praying with the Spirit be praying ex tempore , why shall not they preach ex tempore too , or else confess they preach without the Spirit , or that they have not the gift of preaching ? For to say that the gift of prayer is a gift ex tempore , but the gift of Preaching is with study and deliberation , is to become vain and impertinent . Quis enim discrevit ? Who hath made them of a different Consideration ? I mean as to this particular , as to their Efficient cause ? nor Reason , nor Revelation , nor God , nor Man. Sect. 135. TO summe up all . If any man hath a mind to exercise his Gift of prayer , let him set himself to work , and compose Books of Devotion , ( we have need of them in the Church of England , so apparent need , that some of the Church of Rome have made it an objection against us ) and this his Gift of Prayer will be to edification . But otherwise , I understand it is more fit for ostentation , than any spiritual advantage . For God hears us not the sooner for our ex tempore , long or conceived Prayers , possibly they may become a hinderance , as in the cases before instanced . And I am sure , if the people be intelligent , and can discern , they are hindred in their Devotion ; for they dare not say Amen till they have considered , and many such cases will occur in ex tempore , or unlicenced Prayers , that need much considering before we attest them . But if the people be not intelligent , they are apt to swallow all the inconveniences which may multiply in so great a licence : and therefore it were well that the Governours of the Church , who are to answer for their souls , should judge for them , before they say Amen ; which judgment cannot be without set Forms of Liturgy . My sentence therefore is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , let us be as we are already , few changes are for the better . Sect. 136. FOR if it be pretended , that in the Liturgy of the Church of England , which was composed with much art and judgment , by a Church that hath as much reason to be confident She hath the Spirit and Gift of Prayer as any single person hath , and each learned man that was at its first composition can as much prove that he had the Spirit , as the Objectors now adays ; ( and he that boasts most , certainly hath the least : ) If , I say , it be pretended that there are many errors and inconveniences both in the Order and in the matter of the Common-Prayer-Book , made by such men with so much industry : how much more , and with how much greater reason may we all dread the inconveniences and disorders of ex tempore and conceived Prayers ? Where respectively there is neither conjunction of Heads , nor Premeditation , nor Industry , nor Method , nor Art , nor any of those Things , ( or at least not in the same Degree ) which were likely to have exempted the Common-prayer-book from errors and disorders . If these things be in the green tree , what will be done in the dry ? Sect. 137. BUT if it be said the ex tempore and conceived Prayers will be secured from error by the Directory , because that chalks them out the matter ; I answer , it is not sufficient , because , if when men study both the matter and the words too , they may be ( and it is pretended are actually deceived ) much more may they , when the matter is left much more at liberty , and the words under no restraint at all . And no man can avoid the pressure and the weight of this , unless the Compilers of the Directory were infallible , and that all their followers are so too , of the certainty of which I am not yet fully satisfied . Sect. 138. AND after this , I would fain know , what benefit and advantages the Church of England in her united capacity receives by this new device ? For the publick it is clear , that whether the Ministers Pray before they Study , or Study before they Pray , there must needs be infinite deformity in the publick Worship , and all the benefits which before were the consequents of Conformity and Unity will be lost , and if they be not valuable , I leave it to all them to consider , who know the inconveniences of Publick disunion , and the Publick disunion that is certainly consequent to them , who do not communicate in any common forms of Worship ; and to think that the Directory will bring Conformity , is as if one should say , that all who are under the same Hemisphere are joyned in communi patriâ , and will love like Country-men . For under the Directory there will be as different religions , and as different desires , and as differing forms , as there are several varieties of Men and manners under the one half of Heaven , who yet breath under the same half of the Globe . Sect. 139. BUT ask again , what benefit can the publick receive by this form , or this no form ? For I know not whether to call it . Shall the matter of Prayers be better in all Churches ? shall God be better served ? shall the Word of God , and the best Patterns of Prayers be always exactly followed ? It is well if it be . But there is no security given us by the Directory ; for the particulars , and special instances of the matter are left at every Mans dispose for all that , and we must depend upon the honesty of every particular for it : and if any man proves an Heretick , or a Knave , then he may introduce what impiety he please into the publick forms of Gods Worship : and there is no law made to prevent it , and it must be cured afterward if it can , but before-hand it is not prevented at all by the Directory which trusts every man. Sect. 140. BUT I observe that all the benefit which is pretended , is , that it will make an able Ministry . Maximus verò studiorum fructus est & praemium quoddam amplissimum longi laboris ex tempore dicendi facultas , said an excellent person . And it is very true ; to be able to speak excellent things , without long considering is an effect of a long industry , and greatest learning : but certainly the greatest enemy in the world to its production : Much learning , and long use of speaking may enable a man to speak upon sudden occasions , but speaking without consideration will never make much learning . Nec quisquam tantum fidit ingenio ut sibi speret incipienti statim posse contingere , sed sicut in cogitatione praecipimus , ita facilitatem quoque extemporal●m à parvis initiis paulatim perducemus ad summam . And to offer that , as a means of getting learning which cannot be done at all as it ought , but after learning is already gotten in a very great degree , is highest mistaking . I confess I am very much from believing the allegation , and so will every man be that considers what kind of men they are that have been most zealous for that way of conceived Prayer . I am sure that very few of the learnedst , very many ignorants , most those who have made least abode in the Schools of the Prophets . And that I may disgrace no mans person , we see Trades-men of the most illiberal arts , and women pretend to it , and do it with as many words , ( and that 's the main thing ) with as much confidence , and speciousness of spirit as the best amongst them . Sed nec tumultuarii nec fortuiti sermonis contextum mirabor unquam quem jurgantibus etiam mulierculis superfluere video , said Quintilian . And it is but a small portion of learning that will serve a man to make conceived Forms of Prayer , which they may have easily upon the stock of other men , or upon their own fancy , or upon any thing in which no learning is required . He that knows not this , knows nothing of the craft that may be in the Preachers trade . But what ? Is God better served ? I would fain see any authority , or any reason , or any probability for that . I am sure , ignorant men offer him none of the best sacrifices ex tempore , and learned men will be sure to deliberate and know , God is then better served when he is served by a publick , than when by a private Spirit . I cannot imagine what accruements will hence come to the Publick : it may be some advantages may be to the private interests of men . For there are a sort of men whom our Blessed Saviour noted , Who do devour Widows houses , and for a pretence make long Prayers . They make Prayers , and they make them long , by this means they receive double advantages , for they get reputation to their ability , and to their piety . And although the Common-Prayer-Book in the Preface to the Directory be charged with unnecessary length , yet we see that most of these men , they that are most eminent , or would be thought so , make their Prayers longer , and will not lose the benefits which their credit gets , and they , by their credit , for making their Prayers . Sect. 141. ADDE this , that there is no promise in Scripture that he who prays ex tempore shall be heard the better , or that he shall be assisted at all to such purposes , and therefore to innovate in so high a matter without a warrant to command us , or a promise to warrant us , is no better than vanity in the thing , and presumption in the person . He therefore that considers that this way of Prayer is without all manner of precedent in the Primitive Church , against the example of all famous Churches in all Christendom , in the whole descent of XV Ages , without all command or warrant of Scripture , that it is unreasonable in the nature of the thing , against prudence and the best wisdom of humanity , because it is without Deliberation , that it is innovation in a high degree , without that authority which is truly , and by inherent and Ancient right to command and prescribe to us in external Forms of Worship , that it is much to the disgrace of the first Reformers of our Religion , that it gives encouragement to the Church of Rome to quarrel , with some reason , and more pretence against our Reformation , as being by the Directory confessed to have been done in much blindness ; and therefore might erre in the excess as well as in the defect , throwing out too much , as casting off too little , ( which is the more likely , because they wanted no zeal to carry them far enough : ) He that considers the universal deformity of publick Worship , and the no means of Union , no Symbol of publick Communion being publickly consigned ; that all Heresies may , with the same authority , be brought into our Prayers , and offered to God in the behalf of the people , with the same authority that any truth may , all the particular matter of our Prayers being left to the choice of all men of all perswasions , and then observes that actually there are in many places Heresie , and Blasphemy , and Impertinency , and illiterate Rudenesses put into the Devotion of the most solemn Days , and the most publick Meetings ; and then lastly , that there are divers parts of Liturgie for which no provision at all is made in the Directorie ; and the very administration of the Sacraments left so loosely , that if there be any thing essential in the Forms of Sacraments , the Sacrament may become ineffectual for want of due Words , and due Administration ; I say , he that considers all these things ( and many more he may consider ) will find that particular men are not fit to be intrusted to offer in Publick with their private Spirit to God , for the people , in such Solemnities , in matters of so great concernment , where the Honour of God , the benefit of the People , the interest of Kingdoms , the being of a Church , the unity of Minds , the conformity of Practice , the truth of Perswasion , and the salvation of Souls are so much concerned as they are in the publick Prayers of a whole National Church . An unlearned man is not to be trusted , and a Wise man dare not trust himself ; he that is ignorant cannot , he that is knowing will not . THE END . OF THE SACRED ORDER AND OFFICES OF EPISCOPACY ▪ BY Divine Institution , Apostolical Tradition , and Catholick Practice . TOGETHER WITH Their Titles of Honour , Secular Imployment , Manner of Election , Delegation of their Power , and other Appendant Questions , Asserted against the Aërians and Acephali , New and Old. By JER . TAYLOR , D. D. and Chaplain in Ordinary to King CHARLES the First . Published by His MAJESTIES Command . ROM . 13.1 . There is no Power but of God. The Powers that be , are ordained of God. CONCIL . CHALCED . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . LONDON , Printed for R. Royston , Bookseller to the King 's most Excellent MAJESTY , M DC LXXIII . TO THE Truly Worthy , and Most Accomplisht Sir CHRISTOPHER HATTON , Knight of the Honourable Order of the BATH . SIR , I AM ingag'd in the defence of a Great Truth , and I would willingly find a shroud to cover my self from danger and calumny ; and although the cause both is and ought to be defended by Kings , yet my person must not go thither to Sanctuary , unless it be to pay my devotion , and I have now no other left for my defence , I am robb'd of that which once did bless me , and indeed still does , ( but in another manner ) and I hope will do more ; but those distillations of celestial dews are conveyed in Channels not pervious to an eye of sense , and now adays we seldom look with other , be the object never so beauteous or alluring . You may then think , Sir , I am forc'd upon You ; may that beg my pardon and excuse : but I should do an injury to Your Nobleness , if I should only make You a refuge for my need , ( pardon this truth ) you are also of the fairest choice , not only for Your love of Learning , ( for although that be eminent in You , yet it is not your eminence ) but for your duty to H. Church , for Your loyalty to his sacred Majesty . These did prompt me with the greatest confidence to hope for Your fair incouragement , and assistance in my pleadings for Episcopacy , in which cause Religion , and Majesty , the King , and the Church are interested as parties of mutual concernment . There was an odde observation made long ago , and registred in the Law to make it authentick , Laici sunt infensi Clericis . Now the Clergie pray , but fight not , and therefore if not specially protected by the King contra Ecclesiam Malignantium , they are made obnoxious to all the contumelies , and injuries , which an envious multitude will inflict upon them . It was observ'd enough in King Edgars time , Quamvis decreta Pontificum , & verba Sacerdotum inconvulsis ligaminibus velut fundamenta montiurn fixa sunt , tamen plerumque tempestatibus , & turbinibus saecularium rerum Religio S. Matris Ecclesiae maculis reproborum dissipatur , ac rumpitur . Idcirco Decrevimus Nos , &c. There was a sad example of it in K. John's time . For when he threw the Clergie from his Protection , it is incredible what injuries , what affronts , what robberies , yea what murders were committed upon the Bishops and Priests of H. Church , whom neither the Sacredness of their persons , nor the Laws of God , nor the terrors of Conscience , nor fears of Hell , nor Church-censures , nor the laws of Hospitality could protect from Scorn , from blows , from slaughter . Now there being so near a tye as the necessity of their own preservation in the midst of so apparent danger , it will tye the Bishops hearts , and hands to the King faster than all the tyes of Lay-Allegiance , ( all the Political tyes I mean , ) all that are not precisely religious , and obligations in the Court of Conscience . 2. But the interest of the Bishops is conjunct with the prosperity of the King , besides the interest of their own security ; by the obligation of secular advantages . For they who have their livelihood from the King , and are in expectance of their fortune from him , are more likely to pay a tribute of exacter duty , than others , whose fortunes are not in such immediate dependency on his Majesty . Aeneas Sylvius once gave a merry reason why Clerks advanced the Pope above a Council , viz. because the Pope gave spiritual promotions , but the Councils gave none . It is but the common expectation of gratitude , that a Patron Paramount shall be more assisted by his Beneficiaries in cases of necessity , than by those , who receive nothing from him but the common influences of Government . 3. But the Bishops duty to the King derives it self from a higher fountain . For it is one of the main excellencies in Christianity , that it advances the State , and well-being of Monarchies and bodies Politick . Now then the Fathers of Religion are the Reverend Bishops , whose peculiar office it is to promote the interests of Christianity , are by the nature and essential requisites of their office bound to promote the Honour and Dignity of Kings , whom Christianity would have so much honour'd , as to establish the just subordination of people to their Prince , upon better principles than ever , no less than their precise duty to God , and the hopes of a blissful immortality . Here then is utile , honestum , and necessarium , to tye Bishops in duty to Kings , and a threefold Cord is not easily broken . In pursuance of these obligations Episcopacy pays three returns of tribute to Monarchy . 1. The first is the Duty of their people . For they being by God himself set over souls , judges of the most secret recesses of our Consciences , and the venerable Priests under them , have more power to keep men in their dutious subordination to the Prince , than there is in any secular power , by how much more forcible the impressions of the Conscience are than all the external violence in the world . And this power they have fairly put into act , for there was never any Protestant Bishop yet in Rebellion , unless he turned recreant to his Order , and it is the honour of the Church of England , that all her Children and obedient people are full of indignation against Rebels , be they of any interest or party whatsoever . For here ( and for it we thank God and good Princes ) Episcopacy hath been preserved in fair priviledges and honour , and God hath blest and honour'd Episcopacy with the conjunction of a loyal people . As if because in the law of Nature the Kingdom and Priesthood were joyned in one person , it were natural and consonant to the first justice , that Kings should defend the rites of the Church , and the Church advance the honour of Kings . And when I consider that the first Bishop that was exauctorated was a Prince too , Prince and Bishop of Geneva , methinks it was an ill Omen , that the cause of the Prince and the Bishop should be in Conjunction ever after . 2. A second return that Episcopacy makes to Royalty is that which is the Duty of all Christians , the paying tributes and impositions . And though all the Kings Liege people do it , yet the issues of their duty and liberality are mightily disproportionate , if we consider their unequal Number and Revenues . And if Clergie-subsidies be estimated according to the smallness of their revenue and paucity of persons , it will not be half so short of the number and weight of Crowns from Lay Dispensation , as it does far exceed in the proportion of the Donative . 3. But the assistance that the Kings of England had in their Councils and affairs of greatest difficulty , from the great ability of Bishops and other the Ministers of the Church , I desire to represent in the words of K. Alvred to Walfsigeus the Bishop , in an Epistle where he deplores the misery of his own age , by comparing it with the former times , when the Bishops were learned , and exercised in publick Councils . Foelicia tum tempora fuerunt inter omnes Angliae populos ; Reges Deo , & scriptae ejus voluntati obsecundârunt in suâ pace , & bellicis expeditionibus , atque regimine domestico domi se semper tutati fuerint , atque etiam foris nobilitatem suam dilataverint . The reason was , as he insinuates before , Sapientes extiterunt in Anglica gente de spirituali gradu , &c. The Bishops were able by their great learning and wisdom to give assistance to the Kings affairs . And they have prosper'd in it ; for the most glorious issues of Divine Benison upon this Kingdom were conveyed to us by Bishops hands , I mean the Vnion of the houses of York and Lancaster , by the Counsels of * Bishop Morton , and of England and Scotland by the treaty of ‖ Bishop Fox , to which if we add two other in Materia religionis , I mean the conversion of the Kingdom from Paganism , by St. Augustin Arch-bishop of Canterbury ; and the reformation begun and promoted by Bishops , I think we cannot call to mind four blessings equal to these in any Age or Kingdom , in all which God was pleased by the mediation of Bishops , as he useth to do , to bless the people . And this may not only be expected in reason , but in good Divinity , for amongst the gifts of the spirit which God hath given to his Church , are reckoned Doctors , Teachers , and * helps in government . To which may be added this advantage , that the services of Church-men are rewardable upon the Churches stock ; no need to disimprove the Royal Banks to pay thanks to Bishops . But , Sir , I grow troublesome . Let this discourse have what ends it can ; the use I make of it , is but to pretend reason for my boldness , and to entitle You to my Book : For I am confident you will own any thing that is but a friends friend to a cause of Loyalty . I have nothing else to plead for your acceptance , but the confidence of your Goodness , and that I am a person capable of your pardon , and of a fair interpretation of my address to you , by being , SIR , Your most affectionate Servant , JER . TAYLOR . The goodly CEDAR of Apostolick & Catholick EPISCOPACY , 〈…〉 d with the moderne Shoots & Slips of divided NOVELTIES , in the Church . 16●● Place this Figure at Page 43. OF THE SACRED ORDER and OFFICES OF EPISCOPACY , BY Divine Institution , Apostolical Tradition , and Catholick practice , &c. IN all those accursed machinations , which the device and artifice of Hell hath invented , for the supplanting of the Church , Inimicus homo , that old superseminator of heresies , and crude mischiefs , hath endeavoured to be curiously compendious , and with Tarquins device , putare summa papaverum . And therefore in the three ages of Martyrs , it was a rul'd case in that Burgundian forge , Qui prior erat dignitate prior trahebatur ad Martyrium . The Priests , but to be sure the Bishops must pay for all , Tolle impios , Polycarpus requiratur . Away with these pedling persecutions , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Lay the axe at the root of the tree . Insomuch that in Rome from Saint Peter and Saint Paul to Saint Sylvester , thirty three Bishops of Rome , in immediate succession , suffered an Honourable , and glorious Martyrdom , unless * Meltiades be perhaps excepted , whom Eusebius , and Optatus report to have lived all the time of the third Consulship of Constantine and Lucinius . Conteret caput ejus , was the glorious promise , Christ should break the Devils head , and though the Devils active part of the Duel was far less , yet he would venture at that too , even to strike at the heads of the Church , capita vicaria , for the head of all was past his striking now ; And this , I say , he offered to do by Martyrdom , but that in stead of breaking , crowned them . His next onset was by Julian , and occidere Presbyterium , that was his Province . To shut up publick Schools , to force Christians to ignorance , to impoverish and disgrace the Clergie , to make them vile and dishonourable , these are his arts ; and he did the Devil more service in this fineness of undermining , than all the open battery of the ten great Rams of persecution . But this would not take . For , that which is without cannot defile a man. So it is in the Church too . Cedunt in bonum , all violences ab extrá . But therefore besides these he attempted by heresies to rent the Churches bowels all in pieces ; but the good Bishops gathered up the scattered pieces and reunited them at Nice , at Constantinople , at Ephesus , at Chalcedon , at Carthage , at Rome , and in every famous place of Christendom , and by Gods goodness , and the Bishops industry Catholick religion was conserved in Unity and integrity . Well ; however it is , Antichrist must come at last , and the great Apostasie foretold must be , and this , not without means proportionable to the production of so great declensions of Christianity . When ye hear of wars , and rumors of wars , be not afraid ( said our Blessed Saviour , ) the end is not yet . It is not War that will do this great work of destruction , for then it might have been done long ere now . What then will do it ? We shall know when we see it . In the mean time when we shall find a new device , of which indeed the platform was laid , in Aerius and the Acephali , brought to a good possibility of compleating a thing , that whosoever shall hear , his ears shall tingle , an abomination of desolation standing where it ought not , in sacris in holy persons , and places , and offices , it is too probable that this is the preparatory for the Antichrist , and grand Apostasie . For if Antichrist shall exalt himself above all that is called God , and in Scripture none but Kings and Priests are such , Dii vocati , Dii facti , I think we have great reason to be suspicious , that he that devests both of their power ( and they are , if the King be Christian , in very near conjunction , ) does the work of Antichrist for him ; especially if the men , whom it most concerns , will but call to mind that the discipline or Government which Christ hath instituted , is that Kingdom by which he governs all Christendom ( so themselves have taught us ) so that in case it be proved , that Episcopacy is that government , then they ( to use their own expressions ) throw Christ out of his Kingdom ; and then , either they leave the Church without a head , or else put Antichrist in substitution . We all wish , that our fears in this and all things else , may be vain , that what we fear may not come upon us ; but yet that the abolition of Episcopacy is the fore-runner , and preparatory to the great Apostasie , I have these reasons to shew , at least the probability . First , Because here is a concurse of times ; for now after that these times have been called the last times for 1600 years together , our expectation of the Great revelation is very near accomplishing ; and what a Grand innovation of Ecclesiastical government , contrary to the faith and practice of Christendom , may portend now in these times , when we all expect Antichrist to be revealed , is worthy of a jealous mans inquiry . Secondly , Episcopacy , if we consider the final cause , was instituted as an obstructive to the diffusion of Schism and Heresie . So * S. Hierome , In toto orbe decretum est , ut unus de Presbyteris Electus superponeretur caeteris , VT SCHISMATVM SEMINA TOLLERENTVR . And therefore if unity and division be destructive of each other , then Episcopacy is the best deletery in the world for Schism : and so much the rather because they are in eâdem materiâ : for Schism is a division for things either personal or accidental , which are matters most properly the subject of government , and there to be tried , there to receive their first and last breath , except where they are starv'd to death by a desuetude ; and Episcopacy is an Unity of person-governing , and ordering persons and things , accidental and substantial : and therefore a direct confronting of Schism , not only in the intention of the author of it , but in the nature of the institution . Now then , although Schisms always will be , and this by divine prediction ( which clearly shews the necessity of perpetual Episcopacy , and the intention of its perpetuity , either by Christ himself ordaining it , who made the prophecy , or by the Apostles and Apostolick men at least , who knew the prophecy : ) yet to be sure , these divisions and dangers shall be greater about and at the time of the Great Apostasie ; for then , were not the hours turned into minutes , an universal ruine should seize all Christendom [ No flesh should be saved if those days were not shortened . ] Is it not next to an evidence of fact , that this multiplication of Schisms must be removendo prohibens ? and therefore that must be by invalidating Episcopacy ordained as the remedy and obex of Schism , either tying their hands behind them , by taking away their coercion , or by putting out their eyes , by denying them cognizance of causes spiritual , or by cutting off their heads , and so destroying their order . How far these will lead us , I leave to be considered . This only ; Percute pastores , atque oves dispergentur ; and I believe it will be verified at the coming of that wicked one , I saw all Israel scattered upon the Mountains as sheep having no shepherd . I am not new in this conception , I learn'd it of S. Cyprian ; Christi adversarius , & Ecclesiae ejus inimicus ad hoc , ECCLESIAE PRAEPOSITVM suâ infestatione persequitur , ut , Gubernatore sublato , atrocius , atque violentius circa Ecclesiae naufragia grassetur . The adversary of Christ and enemy of his Spouse therefore persecutes the Bishop , that having taken him away , he may without check pride himself in the ruines of the Church ; and a little after speaking of them that are enemies to Bishops , he says , that Antichristi jam propinquantis adventum imitantur , their deportment is just after the guise of Antichrist who is shortly to be revealed . But be this conjecture vain or not , the thing of it self is of deep consideration , and the Catholick practice of Christendom for 1500 years is so insupportable a prejudice against the enemies of Episcopacy , that they must bring admirable evidence of Scripture , or a clear revelation proved by Miracles , or a contrary undoubted tradition Apostolical for themselves , or else hope for no belief against the prescribed possession of so many ages . But before I begin , methinks in this contestation ubi potior est conditio possidentis , it is a considerable Question ; what will the adversaries stake against it ? For if Episcopacy cannot make its title good , they lose the benefit of their prescribed possession . If it can ; I fear they will scarce gain so much as the obedience of the adverse party by it , which yet already is their due . It is very unequal ; but so it is ever , when Authority is the matter of the Question . Authority never gains by it ; for although the cause go on its side , yet it loses costs and dammages ; for it must either by fair condescension to gain the adversaries , lose something of it self , or , if it asserts it self to the utmost , it is but that seldom or never happens , for the very questioning of any authority , hoc ipso , makes a great intrenchment even to the very skirts of its cloathing . But huc deventum est . Now we are in we must go over . SECT . I. Christ did institute a Government in his Church . FIRST then , that we may build upon a Rock . Christ did institute a government to order and rule his Church by his Authority , according to his Laws , and by the assistance of the blessed Spirit . 1. If this were not true , how shall the Church be governed ? For I hope the adversaries of Episcopacy , that are so punctual to pitch all upon Scripture ground , will be sure to produce clear Scripture for so main a part of Christianity , as is the Form of the Government of Christs Church . And if for our private actions , and duties Oeconomical , they will pretend a text , I suppose , it will not be thought possible Scripture should make default in assignation of the publick Government , insomuch as all Laws intend the publick , and the general directly ; the private , and the particular , by consequence only and comprehension within the general . 2. If Christ himself did not take order for a Government , then we must derive it from humane prudence , and emergency of conveniences , and concurse of new circumstances , and then the Government must often be changed , or else time must stand still , and things be ever in the same state and possibility . Both the Consequents are extremely full of inconvenience . For if it be left to humane prudence , then either the government of the Church is not in immediate order to the good and benison of souls , or if it be , that such an institution , in such immediate order to eternity , should be dependant upon humane prudence , it were to trust such a rich commodity in a cock-boat , that no wise Pilot will be supposed to do . But if there be often changes in government Ecclesiastical ( which was the other consequent ) in the publick frame I mean , and constitution of it ; either the certain infinity of Schisms will arise , or the dangerous issues of publick inconsistence and innovation , which , in matters of Religion , is good for nothing , but to make men distrust all ; and , come the best that can come , there will be so many Church-Governments , as there are humane Prudences . For so ( if I be not mis-informed ) it is abroad in some Towns that have discharged Episcopacy . As Saint Galles in Switzerland , there the Ministers and Lay-men rule in Common , but a Lay-man is President . But the Consistories of Zurick and Basil are wholly consistent of Lay-men , and Ministers are joyned as Assistants only , and Counsellors ; but at Schaff-hausen the Ministers are not admitted to so much , but in the Huguenot Churches of France , the Ministers do all . 3. In such cases , where there is no power of the sword for a compulsory ( and confessedly of all sides there can be none in Causes and Courts Ecclesiastical ) if there be no opinion of Religion , no derivation from a Divine authority , there will be sure to be no obedience , and indeed nothing but a certain publick , calamitous irregularity . For why should they obey ? Not for Conscience , for there is no derivation from Divine authority . Not for fear , for they have not the power of the sword . 4. If there be such a thing as the power of the Keys , by Christ concredited to his Church , for the binding and losing Delinquents and Penitents respectively on earth , then there is clearly a Court erected by Christ in his Church ; for here is the delegation of Judges , Tu Petrus , vos Apostoli , whatsoever ye shall bind ; Here is a compulsory , ligaveritis ; Here are the causes of which they take cognizance , quodcunque ; viz. in materiâ scandali . For so it is limited Matth. 18. but it is indefinite Matth. 16. and Universal , John 20. which yet is to be understood secundùm materiam subjectam , in causes which are emergent from Christianity , ut sic , that secular jurisdictions may not be intrenched upon . But of this hereafter . That Christ did in this place erect a Jurisdiction , and establish a government ( besides the evidence of fact is generally asserted by primitive exposition of the Fathers , ) affirming , that to Saint Peter the Keys were given , that to the Church of all ages a power of binding and loosing might be communicated . Has igitur claves dedit Ecclesiae , ut quae solveret in terrâ , soluta essent in coelo ; scil . ut quisquis in Ecclesia ejus dimitti sibi peccata crederet , seque ab iis correctus averteret , in ejusdem Ecclesiae gremio constitutus eâdem fide atque correctione sanaretur . So * S. Austin . And again , Omnibus igitur sanctis ad Christi corpus inseparabiliter pertinentibus propter hujus vitae procellosissima gubernaculum ad liganda & solvenda peccata claves regni coelorum primus Apostolorum Petrus accepit ; Quoniam nec ille solus , sed universa Ecclesia ligat , solvitque peccata . Saint Peter first received the government in the power of binding and loosing . But not he alone but all the Church , to wit , all succession , and ages of the Church . Vniversa Ecclesia , viz. in Pastoribus solis , as * Saint Chrysostom , In Episcopis & Presbyteris , as * S. Hierome . The whole Church , as it is represented in the Bishops and Presbyters . The same is affirmed by (a) Tertullian , (b) S. Cyprian , (c) S. Chrysostom , (d) S. Hilary , (e) Primasius , and generally by the Fathers of the elder , and Divines of the middle ages . 5. When our blessed Saviour had spoken a parable of the sudden coming of the Son of Man , and commanded them therefore with diligence to stand upon their watch , the Disciples asked him , Speakest thou this parable to us , or even to all ? And the Lord said , Who then is that faithful and wise steward , whom his Lord shall make ruler over his houshold to give them their portion of meat in due season ? As if he had said , I speak to You , for to whom else should I speak and give caution for the looking to the house in the Masters absence ? You are by office and designation my stewards , to feed my servants , to govern my house . 6. In Scripture , and other Writers , to Feed , and to Govern , is all one when the office is either Political , or Oeconomical , or Ecclesiastical . So he Fed them with a faithful and true heart , and Ruled them prudently with all his power . And Saint Peter joyns 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 together , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . So does Saint Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Rulers or Overseers in a Flock . Pastors . It is ordinary . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Homer . i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Euripides calls the Governours and Guides of Chariots , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And our blessed Saviour himself is called the Great Shepherd of our souls ; and that we may know the intentum of that compellation , it is in conjunction also with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . He is therefore our Shepherd , for he is our Bishop , our Ruler , and Overseer . Since then Christ hath left Pastors or Feeders in his Church , it is also as certain he hath left Rulers , they being both one in name , in person , in office . But this is of a known truth to all that understand either Laws or Languages : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith * Philo , they that feed have the power of Princes and Rulers ; the thing is an undoubted truth to most men , but because all are not of a mind , something was necessary for confirmation of it . SECT . II. This Government was first committed to the Apostles by Christ. THIS Government was by immediate substitution delegated to the Apostles by Christ himself , in traditione clavium , in spiratione Spiritûs , in missione in Pentecoste . When Christ promised them the Keys , he promised them power to bind and loose ; when he breathed on them the Holy Ghost , he gave them that actually , to which by the former promise they were intitled ; and in the Octaves of the Passion he gave them the same authority , which he had received from his Father , and they were the faithful and wise stewards whom the Lord made Rulers over his Houshold . * But I shall not labour much upon this . Their founding all the Churches from East to West , and so , by being Fathers , derived their authority from the nature of the thing , their appointing Rulers in every Church , their Synodal Decrees de suffocato & Sanguine , and letters missive to the Churches of Syria and Cilicia , their excommunications of Hymeneus and Alexander , and the incestuous Corinthian , their commanding and requiring obedience of their people in all things , as Saint Paul did of his subjects of Corinth , and the Hebrews by precept Apostolical , their threatning the Pastoral rod , their calling Synods and publick Assemblies , their ordering Rites and Ceremonies , composing a Symbol as the tessera of Christianity , their publick reprehension of Delinquents , and indeed the whole execution of their Apostolate is one continued argument of their superintendency , and superiority of jurisdiction . SECT . III. With a power of joyning others and appointing Successors in the Apostolate . THIS Power so delegated was not to expire with their Persons ; For when the Great Shepherd had reduced his wandring Sheep into a fold , he would not leave them without guides to govern them , so long as the Wolf might possibly prey upon them , and that is , till the last separation of the Sheep from the Goats . And this Christ intimates in that promise , Ero vobiscum ( Apostolis ) usque ad consummationem seculi . Vobiscum ; not with your persons , for they dyed long ago , but vobiscum & vestri similibus , with Apostles to the end of the world . And therefore that the Apostolate might be successive and perpetual , Christ gave them a power of ordination , that by imposing hands on others they might impart that power which they received from Christ. For in the Apostles there was something extraordinary ; something ordinary . Whatsoever was extraordinary , as immediate mission , unlimited jurisdiction , and miraculous operations , that was not necessary to the perpetual Regiment of the Church , for then the Church should fail when these priviledges extraordinary did cease . It was not therefore in extraordinary powers and priviledges that Christ promised his perpetual assistance ; not in speaking of tongues , not in doing miracles , whether in materiâ censurae , as delivering to Satan ; or , in materiâ misericordiae , as healing sick people ; or in re naturali , as in resisting the venome of Vipers , and quenching the violence of flames ; in these Christ did not promise perpetual assistance , for then it had been done , and still these signs should have followed them that believe . But we see they do not . It follows then , that in all the ordinary parts of power and office Christ did promise to be with them to the end of the world , and therefore there must remain a power of giving faculty , and capacity to persons successively for the execution of that , in which Christ promised perpetual assistance . For since this perpetual assistance could not be meant of abiding with their persons , who in few years were to forsake the world , it must needs be understood of their function , which either it must be succeeded to , or else it was as temporary as their persons . But in the extraordinary priviledges of the Apostles they had no successors , therefore of necessity must be constituted in the ordinary office of Apostolate . Now what is this ordinary Office ? Most certainly since the extraordinary ( as is evident ) was only a help for the founding and beginning , the other are such as are necessary for the perpetuating of a Church . Now in clear evidence of sence , these offices and powers are Preaching , Baptizing , Consecrating , Ordaining , and Governing . For these were necessary for the perpetuating of a Church , unless men could be Christians that were never Christned , nourished up to life without the Eucharist , become Priests without calling of God and ordination , have their sins pardoned without absolution , be members and parts and sons of a Church , whereof there is no coadunation , no authority , no Governour . These the Apostles had without all question , and whatsoever they had they had from Christ , and these were eternally necessary , these then were the offices of the Apostolate , which Christ promised to assist for ever , and this is that which we now call the Order and Office of Episcopacy . SECT . IV. This succession into the ordinary office of Apostolate is made by Bishops . FOR although Deacons and Priests have part of these Offices , and therefore ( though in a very limited sence ) they may be called successores Apostolorum , to wit , in the power of Baptizing , consecrating the Eucharist , and Preaching ( an excellent example whereof , though we have none in Scripture , yet if I mistake him not , we have in Ignatius , calling the Colledge of Presbyters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a Combination of Apostles ) yet the Apostolate and Episcopacy which did communicate in all the power , and offices which are ordinary and perpetual , are in Scripture clearly all one in ordinary ministration , and their names are often used in common to signifie exactly the same ordinary function . 1. The name was borrowed , from the Prophet David in the prediction of the Apostasie of Judas , and Surrogation of Saint Matthias ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . His Bishoprick , that is , his Apostolate , let another take . The same word , according to the translation of the seventy , is used by the Prophet Isaiah , in an Evangelical prediction , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . I will give thy Princes in peace , and thy Bishops in righteousness . Principes Ecclesiae vocat futuros Episcopos , saith * Saint Hierom , herein admiring Gods Majesty in the destination of such Ministers whom himself calls Princes . And to this issue it is cited by Saint Clement in his famous Epistle to the Corinthians . But this is no way unusual in Scripture , For , 2. Saint James the Brother of our Lord is called an Apostle , and yet he was not in the number of the twelve , but he was Bishop of Jerusalem . First , That Saint James was called an Apostle appears by the testimony of Saint Paul : [ But other Apostles saw I none , save James the Lords Brother . ] Secondly , That he was none of the twelve , appears also because among the twelve Apostles there were but two James's , The son of Alpheus , and James the son of Zebedee , the brother of John. But neither of these was the James whom Saint Paul calls the Lords Brother . And this Saint Paul intimates in making a distinct enumeration of all the appearances which Christ made after the Resurrection . First to Cephas , then to the twelve , then to the 500. Brethren , then to James , then to all the Apostles . So that here Saint James is reckoned distinctly from the twelve , and they from the whole Colledge of the Apostles , for there were ( it seems ) more of that dignity than the twelve . But this will also safely rely upon the concurrent testimony of * Hegesippus , Clement , Eusebius , Epiphanius , S. Ambrose , and S. Hierom. Thirdly , That Saint James was Bishop of Jerusalem , and therefore called an Apostle , appears by the often commemoration of his presidency , and singular eminency in holy Scripture . Priority of order is mentioned , Gal. 2. even before Saint Peter , who yet was primus Apostolorum , naturâ unus homo , Gratiâ unus Christianus , abundantiore gratiâ unus idémque primus Apostolus ; ( as S. Augustin ) yet in his own Diocess Saint James had priority of order before him , vers . 9. And when 1 James , 2 Cephas , and 3 John , &c. First James before Cephas and Saint Peter . Saint James also was President of that Synod which the Apostles convocated at Jerusalem about the Question of Circumcision ; as is to be seen * Acts 15. to him Saint Paul made his address , Acts 21. to him the Brethren carried him , where he was found sitting in his Colledge of Presbyters , there he was alwayes resident , and his seat fixt , and that he lived Bishop of Jerusalem for many years together , is clearly testified by all the faith of the Primitive Fathers and Historians . But of this hereafter . 3. Epaphroditus is called the Apostle of the Philippians . I have sent unto you Epaphroditus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , My Compeer and your Apostle . Gradum Apostolatûs recepit Epaphroditus , saith Primasius , and what that is , we are told by Theodoret , dictus Philippensium Apostolus à S. Paulo , quid hoc aliud nisi Episcopus ? Because he also had received the Office of being an Apostle among them , saith Saint Hierom upon the same place ; and it is very observable , that those Apostles to whom our blessed Saviour gave immediate substitution are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Apostles of Jesus Christ , but those other men which were Bishops of Churches , and called Apostles by Scripture , are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Apostles of Churches , or sometime Apostles alone , but never are intitled of Jesus Christ. Other of the Apostles saw I none , but James the Lord Brother , Gal. 1. There S. James the Bishop of Jerusalem is called an Apostle indefinitely . But S. Paul calls himself often the Apostle of Jesus Christ , not of man , neither by man , but by Jesus Christ. So Peter an Apostle of Jesus Christ ; but S. James in his Epistle to the Jews of the dispersion , writes not himself the Apostle of Jesus Christ , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , James the Servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. Further yet : S. Paul , although as having an immediate calling from Christ to the office of Apostolate , at large calls himself the Apostle of Jesus Christ , yet when he was sent to preach to the Gentiles by the particular direction indeed of the Holy Ghost , but by Humane constitution , and imposition of hands ; in relation to that part of his Office , and his cure of the uncircumcision , he limits his Apostolate to his Diocess , and calls himself , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The Apostle of the Gentiles ; as Saint Peter for the same reason , and in the same modification is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , The Apostle of those who were of the Circumcision . And thus Epaphroditus is called the Apostle of the Philippians , who clearly was their Bishop ( as I shall shew in the sequel ) that is , he had an Apostolate limited to the Diocess of Philippi . Paulatim verò tempore procedente , & alii ab his quos Dominus elegerat ordinati sunt Apostoli , sicut ille ad Philippenses sermo declarat , dicens , necessarium autem existimo Epaphroditum , &c. So Saint Jerome . In process of time others besides those whom the Lord had chosen , were ordained Apostles ; and particularly he instances in Epaphroditus from the authority of this instance , adding also , that by the Apostles themselves Judas and Silas were called Apostles . 4. Thus Titus , and some other with him , who came to Jerusalem with the Corinthian benevolence , are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Apostles of the Churches . Apostles , I say , in the Episcopal sence . They were none of the twelve , they were not of immediate divine mission , but of Apostolick ordination , they were actually Bishops , as I shall shew hereafter . Titus was Bishop of Crete , and Epaphroditus of Philippi , and these were the Apostles , for Titus came with the Corinthian , Epaphroditus with the Collossian liberality . Now these men were not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , called , Messengers in respect of these Churches sending them with their contributions . 1. Because they are not called the Apostles of these Churches , to wit , whose alms they carried , but simply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , of the Churches , viz. of their own of which they were Bishops . For if the title of [ Apostle ] had related to their mission from these Churches , it is unimaginable that there should be no term of relation expressed . 2. It is very clear that although they did indeed carry the benevolence of the several Churches , yet Saint Paul , not those Churches sent them , And we have sent with them our Brother , &c. 3. They are called Apostles of the Churches , not going from Corinth with the money , but before they came thither from whence they were to be dispatch'd in legation to Jerusalem , [ If any inquire of Titus — or the Brethren , they are the Apostles of the Church , and the glory of Christ. ] So they were Apostles before they went to Corinth , not for their being imployed in the transportation of their charity . So that it is plain , that their Apostolate being not relative to the Churches whose benevolence they carried , and they having Churches of their own , as Titus had Crete , Epaphroditus had Philippi , their Apostolate was a fixt residence , and superintendency of their several Churches . SECT . V. And Office. BUT in holy Scripture the identity of the ordinary office of Apostleship and Episcopacy is clearer yet . For when the holy Spirit had sent seven Letters to the seven Asian Bishops , the Angel of the Church of Ephesus is commended for trying them , which say they are Apostles and are not , and hath found them liars . This Angel of the Church of Ephesus , as Antiquity hath taught us , was at that time Timothy , or * Gaius , the first a Disciple , the other had been an entertainer of the Apostles , and either of them knew them well enough ; it could not be that any man should dissemble their persons , and counterfeit himself Saint Paul , or Saint Peter . And if they had , yet little trying was needful to discover their folly in such a case , and whether it was Timothy or Gaius he could deserve but small commendations for the meer believing of his own eyes and memory . Besides , the Apostles except Saint John all were then dead , and he known to live in Pa●mos , known by the publick attestation of the sentence of relegation ad insulam . These men therefore dissembling themselves to be Apostles , must dissemble an ordinary function , not an extraordinary person . And indeed by the concurse of story , place , and time , Diotrephes was the Man , Saint John chiefly pointed at . For he seeing that at Ephesus there had been an Episcopal chair plac'd , and Timothy a long while possess'd of it , and * perhaps Gaius after him , if we may trust Dorotheus , and the like in some other Churches , and that Saint John had not constituted Bishops in all other Churches of the lesser Asia , but kept the Jurisdiction to be ministred by himself , would arrogantly take upon him to be a Bishop without Apostolical ordination , obtruding himself upon the Church of Ephesus , so becoming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a busie man in anothers Diocess . This , and such Impostors as this the Angel of the Church of Ephesus did try , and discover , and convict , and in it he was assisted by Saint John himself , as is intimated in Saint John's third Epistle written to his Gaius [ v. 9. ] I wrote unto the Church ( to wit of Asia ) but Diotrephes who loveth to have the preheminence among them receiveth us not . ] Clearly this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 would have been a Bishop . It was a matter of ambition , a quarrel for superintendency and preheminence that troubled him ; and this also appears further in that he exercised jurisdiction , and excommunication where he had nothing to do , [ v. 10. ] He forbids them that would receive the Brethren , and casteth them out of the Church . So that here it is clear , this false Apostolate , was his ambitious seeking of Episcopal preheminence and jurisdiction without lawful ordination . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that was his design , He loved to be the first in the Church , esse Apostolum , esse Episcopum , to be an Apostle , or a Bishop . SECT . VI. Which Christ himself hath made distinct from Presbyters . BUT this Office of the ordinary Apostleship or Episcopacy , derives its Fountain from a Rock ; Christ's own distinguishing the Apostolate from the function of Presbyters . For when our blessed Saviour had gathered many Disciples who believed him at his first preaching , Vocavit Discipulos suos , & elegit duodecim ex ipsis quos & Apostolos nominavit , saith Saint Luke . He called his Disciples , and out of them chose twelve , and called them Apostles . That was the first election . Post haec autem designavit Dominus & alios septuaginta duos . That was his second election ; the first were called Apostles , the second were not , and yet he sent them by two and two . We hear but of one Commission granted them , which when they had performed and returned joyful at their power over Devils , we hear no more of them in the Gospel , but that their Names were written in Heaven . We are likely therefore to hear of them after the passion , if they can but hold their own . And so we do . For after the Passion the Apostles gathered them together , and joyn'd them in Clerical commission by vertue of Christ's first ordination of them , for a new ordination we find none in holy Scripture recorded , before we find them doing Clerical offices . Ananias we read baptizing of Saul , Philip the Evangelist we find preaching in Samaria , and baptizing his Converts ; Others also we find , Presbyters at Jerusalem , especially at the first Councel , for there was Judas sirnamed Justus , and Silas , and Saint Mark , and John ( a Presbyter , not an Apostle , as Eusebius reports him ) and Simeon Cleophas who tarried there till he was made Bishop of Jerusalem , these and divers others are reckoned to be of the number of the 72. by Eusebius and Dorotheus . Here are plainly two Offices of Ecclesiastical Ministeries . Apostles and Presbyters , so the Scripture calls them . These were distinct , and not temporary , but succeeded to , and if so , then here is clearly a Divine institution of two Orders , and yet Deacons neither of them . Here let us fix a while . SECT . VII . Giving to Apostles a power to do some Offices perpetually necessary , which to others he gave not . THEN ; It is clear in Scripture that the Apostles did some acts of Ministery which were necessary to be done for ever in the Church , and therefore to be committed to their Successors , which acts the seventy Disciples or Presbyters could not do . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith Saint Denis of the Highest Order of the Hierarchy . The Law of God hath reserved the greater and Diviner Offices to the Highest Order . First , The Apostles imposed hands in Ordinations , which the 72. did not , the case is known , Acts 6. The Apostles called the Disciples , willing them to chuse seven men whom they might constitute in the ministration and over-sight of the poor ; They did so , and set them before the twelve Apostles , so they are specified and numbred , vers . 2. cum 6. and when they had prayed , they laid their hands on them . They , not the Disciples , not the 72. who were there actually present , and seven of them were then ordained to this Ministery , for they were not now ordained to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as the * Councel of Constantinople calls them , and that these were the number of the 72. Disciples , Epiphanius bears witness . He sent other 72. to preach 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , of which Number were those seven ordained and set over the Widows . And the same is intimated by Saint Chrysostom , if I understand him right , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . What dignity had these seven here ordained ? Of Deacons ? No ; for this dispensation is made by Priests not Deacons ; and Theophylact more clearly repeating the words of Saint Chrysostom , pro more suo , adds this , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The name and dignity of these seven was no less , but even the dignity of Presbyters , only for the time they were appointed to dispense the goods of the Church for the good of the faithful people . Presbyters they were say S. Chrysostom and Theophylact ; of the number of the 72. saith Epiphanius . But however , it is clear that the 72. were present , for the whole multitude of the Disciples was as yet there resident , they were not yet sent abroad , they were not scattered with persecution till the Martyrdom of Saint Stephen , [ but the twelve called the whole multitude of the Disciples ] to them about this affair , vers . 2. But yet themselves only did ordain them . Secondly , An instance parallel to this , is in the imposition of hands upon Saint Paul and Barnabas , in the first ordination that was held at Antioch . [ Now there were in the Church that were at Antioch certain Prophets and Teachers , as Barnabas and Simeon , and Lucius , and Manaen , and Saul . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , while these men were ministring , the Holy Ghost said to them , separate me Barnabas and Saul . ] They did so , they [ fasted , they prayed , they laid their hands on them , and sent them away . So they being sent forth by the Holy Ghost , departed into Seleucia . ] This is the story , now let us make our best on 't . Here then was the ordination and imposition of hands compleat , and that was said to be done by the Holy Ghost which was done by the Prophets of Antioch . For they sent them away , and yet the next words are , so they being sent forth by the Holy Ghost . So that here was the thing done , and that by the Prophets alone , and that by the command of the Holy Ghost , and said to be his act . Well! but what were these Prophets ? They were Prophets in the Church of Antioch , not such as Agabus , and the Daughters of Philip the Evangelist , Prophets of prediction extraordinary , but Prophets of ordinary office and ministration , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Prophets and Teachers and Ministers . More than ordinary Ministers , for they were Doctors or Teachers , and that 's not all , for they were Prophets too . This even at first sight is more than the ordinary office of the Presbytery . We shall see this clear enough in Saint Paul , * where the ordinary office of Prophets is reckoned before Pastors , before Evangelists , next to Apostles , that is , next to such Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Saint Paul there expresses it , next to those Apostles to whom Christ hath given immediate mission . And these are therefore Apostles too , Apostles secundi ordinis , none of the twelve , but such as Saint James , and Epaphroditus , and Barnabas , and Saint Paul himself . To be sure they were such Prophets as Saint Paul and Barnabas , for they are reckoned in the number by Saint Luke , for here it was that Saint Paul , although he had immediate vocation by Christ , yet he had particular ordination to his Apostolate or Ministery of the Gentiles . It is evident then what Prophets these were , they were at the least more than ordinary Presbyters , and therefore they imposed hands , and they only . And yet to make the business up compleat , Saint Mark was amongst them , but he imposed no hands , he was there as the Deacon and Minister [ vers . 5. ] but he medled not , Saint Luke fixes the whole action upon the Prophets , such as Saint Paul himself was , and so did the Holy Ghost too , but neither did Saint Mark who was an Evangelist , and one of the 72. Disciples ( as he is reckoned in the Primitive Catalogues by Eusebius and Dorotheus ) nor any of the Colledge of the Antiochian Presbyters , that were less than Prophets , that is , who were not more than meer Presbyters . The sum is this : Imposition of hands is a duty and office necessary for the perpetuating of a Church , ne gens sit Vnius aetatis , lest it expire in one age : this power of imposition of hands for Ordination was fixt upon the Apostles and Apostolick men , and not communicated to the 72. Disciples or Presbyters ; for the Apostles and Apostolick men did so de facto , and were commanded to do so , and the 72. never did so , therefore this Office and Ministery of the Apostolate is distinct , and superiour to that of Presbyters , and this distinction must be so continued to all ages of the Church , for the thing was not temporary but productive of issue and succession , and therefore as perpetual as the Clergy , as the Church it self . SECT . VIII . And Confirmation . SECONDLY , The Apostles did impose hands for confirmation of Baptized people , and this was a perpetual act of a power to be succeeded to , and yet not communicated , nor executed by the 72. or any other mere Presbyter . That the Apostles did confirm Baptized people , and others of the inferiour Clergy could not , is beyond all exception clear in the case of the Samaritan Christians , Acts 8. For when Saint Philip had converted , and Baptized the Men of Samaria , the Apostles sent Peter and John to lay their hands on them that they might receive the Holy Ghost . Saint Philip he was an Evangelist , he was one of the 72. Disciples , * a Presbyter ; and appointed to the same ministration that Saint Stephen was about the poor Widdows , yet he could not do this , the Apostles must and did . This giving of the Holy Ghost by imposition of the Apostles hands , was not for a miraculous gift , but an ordinary Grace . For Saint Philip could , and did do miracles enough , but this Grace he could not give , the Grace of consigning or confirmation . The like case is in Acts 12. where some people having been Baptized at Ephesus , Saint Paul confirmed them , giving them the Holy Ghost by imposition of hands . The Apostles did it ; not the twelve only , but Apostolick men , the other Apostles . Saint Paul did it . Saint Philip could not , nor any of the 72. or any other mere Presbyters ever did it , that we find in Holy Scripture . Yea , but this imposition of hands was for a Miraculous issue , for the Ephesine Christians received the Holy Ghost , and spake with tongues and prophesied , which effect because it is ceased , certainly the thing was temporary and long ago expired . First . Not for this reason to be sure . For extraordinary effects may be temporary , when the function which they attest may be eternal , and therefore are no signs of an extraordinary Ministery . The Apostles preaching was attended by Miracles , and extraordinary conversions of people [ ut in exordio , Apostolos divinorum signorum comitabantur effectus & Spiritûs Sancti gratia , ità ut videres unâ alloquutione integros simul populos ad cultum divinae religionis adduci , & praedicantium verbis non esse tardiorem audientium fidem , ] as * Eusebius tells of the success of the preaching of some Evangelists ; yet I hope preaching must not now cease because no Miracles are done , or that to convert one man now would be the greatest Miracle . The Apostles when they cursed and anathematized a delinquent , he dyed suddenly , as in the case of Ananias and Saphira , whom Saint Peter slew with the word of his Ministery , and yet now although these extraordinary issues cease , it is not safe venturing upon the curses of the Church . When the Apostles did excommunicate a sinner , he was presently delivered over to Satan to be buffeted , that is , to be afflicted with corporal punishments , and now although no such exterminating Angels beat the bodies of persons excommunicate , yet the power of excommunication I hope still remains in the Church , and the power of the Keys is not also gone : So also in the power of confirmation , * which however attended by a visible miraculous descent of the Holy Ghost in gifts of languages and healing , yet like other miracles in respect of the whole integrity of Christian faith , these miracles at first did confirm the function , and the faith for ever . Now then that this right of imposing hands for confirming of baptized people , was not to expire with the persons of the Apostles , appears from these considerations . First , Because Christ made a promise of sending Vicarium suum Spiritum , the Holy Ghost in his stead ; and this by way of appropriation is called the promise of the Father ; This was pertinent to all Christendom , Effundam de spiritu meo super omnem carnem , so it was in the Prophecy . For the promise is to you and to your Children , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and to all them that are afar off , even to as many as the Lord shall call . So it was in the first accomplishing . To all . And this for ever , for I will send the Holy Ghost unto you , and he shall abide with you for ever ] for it was in subsidium , to supply the comforts of his desired presence , and must therefore ex vi intentionis be remanent till Christ's coming again . Now then this promise being to be communicated to all , and that for ever , must either come to us by 1. Extraordinary and miraculous mission , or by 2. an ordinary Ministery . Not the first ; for we might as well expect the gift of Miracles . If the second ( as it is most certain so ) then the main Question is evicted , viz. that something perpetually necessary was in the power of the Apostles , which was not in the power of the inferiour Ministers , nor of any but themselves and their Colleagues , to wit , Ministerium S. Spiritus , or the ordinary office of giving the holy Ghost by imposition of hands . For this promise was performed to the Apostles in Pentecost , to the rest of the faithful after Baptisme , Quod n. nunc in confirmandis Neophytis manûs impositio tribuit singulis , hoc tunc spiritûs sancti descensio , in credentium populo donavit Vniversis , saith Eusebius Emissenus . Now we find no other way of performing it , nor any ordinary conveyance of the Spirit to all people , but this ; and we find that the Holy Ghost actually was given this way . Therefore the effect , to wit , the Holy Ghost being to continue for ever , and the promise of universal concernment , this way also of its communication , to wit , by Apostolical imposition of hands , is also perpetuum ministerium , to be succeeded to , and to abide for ever . Secondly , This Ministery of imposition of hands for confirmation of baptized people is so far from being a temporary Grace , and to determine with the persons of the Apostles , that it is a fundamental point of Christianity , an essential ingredient to its composition , Saint Paul is my Author . [ Therefore leaving the principles of the Doctrine of Christ , let us go on unto perfection , not laying again the foundation of Repentance from dead works , faith towards God , the doctrines of Baptism , and of laying on of hands , &c. ] Here is imposition of hands reckoned as part of the foundation and a principle of Christianity in Saint Paul's Catechism . Now , imposition of hands is used by Name in Scripture but for two Ministrations . First , For Ordination , and secondly , for this whatsoever it is . Imposition of hands for Ordination does indeed give the Holy Ghost , but not as he is that promise which is called the promise of the Father . For the Holy Ghost for Ordination was given before the Ascension , John 20. But the promises of the Holy Ghost the Comforter , [ the Paraclete , I say , not the Ordainer or Fountain of Priestly order , that ] was not given till the day of Pentecost ; and besides , it was promised to all Christian people , and the other was given only to the Clergy . * Add to this , that Saint Paul having laid this in the foundation , makes his progress from this to perfection ( as he calls it ) that is to higher mysteries , and then his discourse is immediately of the Priesthood Evangelical , which is Originally in Christ , ministerially in the Clergy ; so that unless we will either confound the terms of his progress , or imagine him to make the Ministery of the Clergy the foundation of Christ's Priesthood , and not rather contrary , it is clear that by imposition of hands Saint Paul means not ordination , and therefore confirmation , there being no other ordinary ministry of imposition of hands but these two specified in holy Scripture . For , as for benediction in which Christ used the ceremony , and as for healing in which Ananias and the Apostles used it ; the first is clearly no Principle or fundamental point of Christianity ; and the second is confessedly extraordinary , therefore the argument is still firm upon its first principles . 3. Lastly , The Primitive Church did de facto , and believed themselves to be tyed de jure to use this Rite of Confirmation and giving of the Holy Ghost after Baptism . Saint Clemens Alexandrinus in Eusebius tells a story of a young man whom S. John had converted and committed to a Bishop to be brought up in the Faith of Christendom , Qui ( saith S. Clement ) eum baptismi Sacramento illuminavit , posteà verò sigillo Domini tanquam perfectâ & tutâ ejus animi custodiâ obsignavit . The Bishop first baptized him , then consigned him . Justin Martyr sayes ( speaking pro more Ecclesiae , according to the Custom of the Church ) that when the mysteries of Baptism were done , then the faithful are consigned , or confirmed . Saint Cyprian relates to this story of Saint Philip and the Apostles , and gives this account of the whole affair , Et idcircò quia legitimum & Ecclesiasticum baptismum consequnti fuerant , baptizari eos ultrà non oportebat ; Sed tantummodo id quod deerat , id à Petro & Iohanne factum erat , ut oratione pro eis habitâ & manu impositâ invocaretur , & infunderetur super eos Spiritus S. Quod nunc quoque apud nos geritur , ut qui in Ecclesiâ baptizantur , Praepositis Ecclesiae offerantur , ut per nostram orationem ac manûs impositionem Spiritum S. consequantur , & signaculo Dominico confirmentur . Saint Peter and Saint Iohn by imposing their hands on the Converts of Samaria , praying over them , and giving them the Holy Ghost , made supply to them of what was wanting after Baptism : and this is to this day done in the Church , for new baptized people are brought to the Bishops , and by imposition of their hands obtain the Holy Ghost . But for this who pleases to be farther satisfied in the Primitive faith of Christendom , may see it in the decretal Epistles of Cornelius the Martyr to Fabianus , recorded by Eusebius ; in the * Epistle written to Iulius and Iulianus Bishops , under the name of Saint Clement , in the * Epistle of Vrban P. and Martyr , (a) in Tertullian , in (b) Saint Austin , and in Saint Cyril of Ierusalem , whose whole third Mistagogique Catechism is concerning Confirmation . This only . The Catholicks , whose Christian prudence it was , in all true respects to disadvantage Hereticks , lest their poyson should infect like a Pest , laid it in Novatus's dish as a crime , He was baptized in his bed , and was not confirmed , Vnde nec Spiritum sanctum unquam potuerit promereri , therefore he could never receive the gift of the Holy Ghost . So Cornelius in the forequoted Epistle . Whence it is evident , that then it was the belief of Christendom , that the Holy Ghost was by no ordinary Ministery given to faithful people after Baptism , but only by Apostolical , or Episcopal consignation and imposition of hands . What also the faith of Christendom was concerning the Minister of confirmation , and that Bishops only could do it , I shall make evident in the descent of this discourse . Here the scene lies in Scripture , where it is clear that Saint Philip , one of the 72. Disciples , as antiquity reports him , and an Evangelist and a Disciple , as Scripture also expresses him , could not impose hands for application of the promise of the Father , and ministerial giving of the Holy Ghost , but the Apostles must go to do it ; and also there is no example in Scripture of any that ever did it but an Apostle , and yet this is an ordinary Ministery which de jure ought , and de facto alwayes was continued in the Church . Therefore there must alwayes be an ordinary office of Apostleship in the Church to do it , that is , an office above Presbyters , for in Scripture they could never do it , and this is it which we call Episcopacy . SECT . IX . And Superiority of Jurisdiction . THIRDLY , The Apostles were Rulers of the whole Church , and each Apostle respectively of his several Diocess , when he would fix his Chair ; and had superintendency over the Presbyters , and the people , and this by Christ's donation , the Charter is by the Fathers said to be this . Sicut misit me Pater , sic● ego mitto vos . As my Father hath sent me , even so send I you . Manifesta enim est sententia Domini nostri Jesu Christi Apostolos suos mittentis , & ipsis solis potestatem à Patre sibi datam permittentis quibus nos successimus eâdem potestate Ecclesiam Domini gubernantes , said Clarus à Musculâ , the Bishop in the Council of Carthage related by S. Cyprian and S. Austin . But however it is evident in Scripture , that the Apostles had such superintendency over the inferior Clergy ( Presbyters I mean and Deacons ) and a superiority of jurisdiction , and therefore it is certain that Christ gave it them , for none of the Apostles took this honour , but he that was called of God as was Aaron . 1. Our blessed Saviour gave to the Apostles plenitudinem potestatis . It was sicut misit me Pater , &c. As my Father sent , so I send . You , my Apostles whom I have chosen . This was not said to Presbyters , for they had no commission at all given to them by Christ , but at their first mission to preach repentance , I say no commission at all , they were not spoken to , they were not present . Now then consider . Suppose that as Aerius did deny the Divine institution of Bishops over the Presbyters cum grege , another as confident as he should deny the Divine institution of Presbyters , what proof were there in all the holy Scripture to shew the Divine institution of them as a distinct Order from Apostles or Bishops ? Indeed Christ selected 72. and gave them commission to preach , but that commission was temporary and expired before the crucifixion for ought appears in Scripture . If it be said the Apostles did ordain Presbyters in every City , it is true , but not sufficient , for so they ordained Deacons at Jerusalem , and in all established Churches , and yet this will not tant'amount to an immediate Divine institution for Deacons , and how can it then for Presbyters ? If we say a constant Catholick traditive interpretation of Scripture does teach us , that Christ did institute the Presbyterate together with Episcopacy , and made the Apostles Presbyters as well as Bishops ; this is true . But then 1. We recede from the plain words of Scripture , and rely upon tradition , which in this Question of Episcopacy will be of dangerous consequence to the enemies of it , for the same tradition , if that be admitted for good probation , is for Episcopal preheminence over Presbyters , as will appear in the sequel . 2. Though no use be made of this advantage , yet to the allegation it will be quickly answered , that it can never be proved from Scripture , that Christ made the Apostles Priests first , and then Bishops or Apostles , but only that Christ gave them several commissions , and parts of the Office Apostolical , all which being in one person , cannot by force of Scripture prove two Orders . Truth is , if we change the scene of war , and say that the Presbyterate , as a distinct Order from the ordinary Office of Apostleship , is not of Divine institution , the proof of it would be harder than for the Divine institution of Episcopacy . Especially if we consider , that in all the enumerations of the parts of Clerical Offices , there is no enumeration of Presbyters , but of Apostles there is ; and the other Members of the induction are of gifts of Christianity , or parts of the Apostolate , and either must infer many more Orders than the Church ever yet admitted of , or none distinct from the Apostolate , insomuch as Apostles were Pastors , and Teachers , and Evangelists , and Rulers , and had the gift of Tongues , of Healing , and of Miracles . This thing is of great consideration , and this use I will make of it : That either Christ made the 72. to be Presbyters , and in them instituted the distinct Order of Presbyterate , as the ancient Church alwayes did believe , or else he gave no distinct commission for any such distinct Order . If the second be admitted , then the Presbyterate is not of immediate divine institution , but of Apostolical only , as is the Order of Deacons , and the whole plenitude of power is in the Order Apostolical alone , and the Apostles did constitute Presbyters with a greater portion of their own power , as they did Deacons with a less . But if the first be said , then the commission to the 72. Presbyters being only of preaching that we find in Scripture , all the rest of their power which now they have is by Apostolical ordinance , and then although the Apostles did admit them in partem sollicitudinis , yet they did not admit them in plenitudinem potestatis , for then they must have made them Apostles , and then there will be no distinction of order neither by Divine nor Apostolical institution neither . I care not which part be chosen , one is certain ; but if either of them be true , then since to the Apostles only Christ gave a plenitude of power , it follows , that either the Presbyters have no power of jurisdiction , as affixed to a distinct order , and then the Apostles are to rule them by vertue of the order and ordinary commission Apostolical ; or if they have jurisdiction , they do derive it à fo●te Apostolorum , and then the Apostles have superiority of jurisdiction over Presbyters , because Presbyters only have it by delegation Apostolical . And that I say truth ( besides that there is no possibility of shewing the contrary in Scripture , by the producing any other commission given to Presbyters , then what I have specified ) I will hereafter shew it to have been the faith and practice of Christendom , not only that Presbyters were actually subordinate to Bishops ( which I contend to be the ordinary office of Apostleship ) but that Presbyte●s have no Jurisdiction essential to their order , but derivative only from Apostolical preheminence . 2. Let us now see the matter of fact . They that can inflict censures upon Presbyters have certainly superiority of Jurisdiction over Presbyters , for Aequalis aequalem coercere non potest , saith the Law. Now it is evident in the case of Diotrephes a Presbyter , and a Bishop Would be , that for his peremptory rejection of some faithful people from the Catholick Communion without cause , and without authority , Saint John the Apostle threatned him in his Epistle to Gaius , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. Wherefore when I come I will remember him , and all that would have been to very little purpose , if he had not had coercive jurisdiction to have punisht his delinquency . 3. Presbyters many of them did succeed the Apostles by a new Ordination , as Matthias succeeded Judas , who before his new ordination was one of the 72. as (a) Eusebius , (b) Epiphanius , and (c) S. Jerom affirm , and in Scripture is expressed to be of the number of them that went in and out with Jesus ; S. Clement succeeded S. Peter at Rome , S. Simeon Cleophae succeeded S. James at Jerusalem , S. Philip succeeded S. Paul at Caesarea , and divers others of the 72. reckoned by Dorotheus , Eusebius , and others of the Fathers , did govern the several Churches after the Apostles death , which before they did not . Now it is clear that he that receives no more power after the Apostles , than he had under them , can no way be said to succeed them in their Charge , or Churches . It follows then , since ( as will more fully appear anon ) Presbyters did succeed the Apostles , that under the Apostles they had not such jurisdiction as afterwards they had . But the Apostles had the same to which the Presbyters succeeded to , therefore greater than the Presbyters had before they did succeed . When I say Presbyters succeeded the Apostles , I mean , not as Presbyters , but by a new ordination to the dignity of Bishops , so they succeeded , and so they prove an evidence of fact , for a superiority of Jurisdiction in the Apostolical Clergy . *** Now that this superiority of Jurisdiction was not temporary , but to be succeeded in , appears from Reason , and from ocular demonstration , or of the thing done . 1. If superiority of Jurisdiction was necessary in the ages Apostolical for the Regiment of the Church , there is no imaginable reason why it should not be necessary in succession , since upon the emergency of Schisms and Heresies which were foretold should multiply in descending ages , government and superiority of jurisdiction , unity of supremacy , and coercion was more necessary than at first , when extraordinary gifts might supply , what now we expect to be performed by an ordinary Authority . 2. Whatsoever was the Regiment of the Church in the Apostles times , that must be perpetual ( not so as to have * all that which was personal and temporary , but so as to have no other ) for that , and that only is of Divine institution which Christ committed to the Apostles , and if the Church be not now governed as then , We can shew no Divine authority for our government , which we must contend to do , and do it too , or be call'd usurpers . For either the Apostles did govern the Church as Christ commanded them , or not . If not , then they failed in the founding of the Church , and the Church is built upon a Rock . If they did ( as most certainly they did ) then either the same disparity of jurisdiction must be retained , or else we must be governed with an unlawful and unwarranted equality , because not by that which only is of immediate Divine institution ; and then it must needs be a fine government , where there is no authority , and where no man is superiour . 3. We see a disparity in the Regiment of Churches warranted by Christ himself , and confirmed by the Holy Ghost in fairest intimation . I mean the seven Angel-presidents of the seven Asian Churches . If these seven Angels were seven Bishops , that is , Prelates or Governours of these seven Churches , in which it is evident and confessed of all sides , there were many Presbyters , then it is certain that a Superiority of Jurisdiction was intended by Christ himself , and given by him , insomuch as he is the fountain of all power derived to the Church ; For Christ writes to these seven Churches , and directs his Epistles to the seven Governours of these Churches , calling them Angels , which it will hardly be supposed he would have done , if the function had not been a ray of the Sun of righteousness , they had not else been Angels of light , nor stars held in Christs own right hand . This is certain , that the function of these Angels ( whatsoever it be ) is a Divine institution . Let us then see what is meant by these Stars and Angels . [ The seven Stars are the Angels of the seven Churches , and the seven Candlesticks are the seven Churches . ] 1. Then it is evident , that although the Epistles were sent with a final intention for the edification and confirmation of the whole Churches or people of the Diocess , with an Attendite quid Spiritus dicit Ecclesiis ] yet the personal direction was not to the whole Church , for the whole Church is called the Candlestick , and the superscription of the Epistles is not to the seven Candlesticks , but to the seven Stars which are the Angels of the seven Churches , viz. The lights shining in the Candlesticks . By the Angel therefore is not , cannot be meant the whole Church . 2. It is plain that by the Angel is meant the Governour of the Church , First , Because of the title of eminency , The Angel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , the Messenger , the Legate , the Apostle of the Church . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . For these words , Angel or Apostle , although they signifie Mission or Legation , yet in Scripture they often relate to the persons to whom they are sent . As in the examples before specified . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Their Angels . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The Apostles of the Churches . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The Angel of the Church of Ephesus ; and divers others . Their compellation therefore being a word of office in respect of him that sends them , and of eminence in relation to them to whom they are sent , shews that the Angel was the Ruler of each Church respectively . 2. Because acts of jurisdiction are concredited to him ; as , not to suffer false Apostles ; So to the Angel of the Church of Ephesus , which is clearly a power of cognizance and coercion in causis Clericorum ( to be watchful and strengthen the things that remain ; as to the Angel of the Church in Sardis , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The first is the office of Rulers , for they watch for your Souls ; And the second , of Apostles and Apostolick men . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Judas and Silas confirmed the Brethren ; for these men , although they were but of the LXXII at first , yet by this time were made Apostles and [ chief men among the Brethren ] S. Paul also was joyned in this work , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , He Went up and down confirming the Churches . And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . S. Paul. To confirm the Churches , and to make supply of what is deficient in discipline and government , these were offices of power and jurisdiction , no less than Episcopal or Apostolical ; and besides , the Angel here spoken of had a propriety in the people of the Diocess [ Thou hast a few names even in Sardis ] they were the Bishops people , the Angel had a right to them . And good reason that the people should be his , for their faults are attributed to him , as to the Angel of Pergamus , and divers others , and therefore they are deposited in his custody . He is to be their Ruler and Pastor , and this is called His Ministery . To the Angel of the Church of Thyatira 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , I have known thy Ministery . His office therefore was clerical , it was an Angel-Minister , and this his office must make him the guide and superiour to the Rest , even all the whole Church , since he was charged with all . 3. By the Angel is meant a singular person , for the reprehensions and the commendations respectively imply personal delinquency , or suppose personal excellencies . Add to this that the compellation is singular , and of determinate number , so that we may as well multiply Churches as persons , for the seven Churches had but seven stars , and these seven stars were the Angels of the seven Churches . And if by seven stars they may mean 70 times seven stars ( for so they may if they begin to multiply ) then by one star they must mean many stars , and so they may multiply Churches too , for there were as many Churches as stars , and no more Angels than Churches , and it is as reasonable to multiply these seven Churches into 7000 , as every star into a Constellation , or every Angel into a Legion . But besides the exigency of the thing it self , these seven Angels are by Antiquity called the seven Governours or Bishops of the seven Churches , and their names are commemorated . Unto these seven Churches S. Iohn , saith Arethas , reckoneth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , an equal number of Angel-Governours , and Oecumenius in his Scholia upon this place , saith the very same words , Septem igitur Angelos Rectores septem Ecclesiarum debemus intelligere , eò quòd Angelus nuntius interpretatur , saith S. Ambrose ; and again , Angelos Episcopos dicit sicut docetur in Apocalypsi Iohannis . Let the woman have a covering on her head because of the Angels , that is , in reverence and in subjection to the Bishop of the Church , for Bishops are the Angels , as is taught in the Revelation of S. Iohn . Divinâ voce sub Angeli Nomine laudatur praepositus Ecclesiae , so S. Austin . By the voice of God the Bishop of the Church is commended under the title of an Angel. Eusebius names some of these Angels who were then Presidents and actually Bishops of these Churches . S. Polycarpe was one to be sure , apud Smyrnam & Episcopus & Martyr , saith Eusebius . He was the Angel of the Church of Smyrna ; And he had good authority for it , for he reports it out of Polycrates , who a little after was himself an Angel of the Church of Ephesus , and he also quotes S. Irenaeus for it , and out of the Encyclical Epistle of the Church of Smyrna it self , and besides these authorities it is attested by * S. Ignatius , and ‖ Tertullian . S. Timothy was another Angel , to wit , of the Church of Ephesus ; to be sure had been , and most likely was still surviving . Antipas is reckoned by Name in the Revelation , and he had been the Angel of Pergamus , but before this book was written he was turned from an Angel to a Saint . Melito in all probability was then the Angel of the Church of Sardis . Melito quoque Sardensis Ecclesiae Antistes , & Apollinaris apud Hierapolim Ecclesiam regens celeberrimi inter caeteros habebantur , saith Eusebius . These men were actually living when S. Iohn writ his Revelation , for Melito writ his book de Paschate when Sergius Paulus was Proconsul of Asia , and writ after the Revelation , for he writ a Treatise of it , as saith Eusebius . However , at least some of these were then , and all of these about that time were Bishops of these Churches , and the Angels S. John speaks of were such who had jurisdiction over their whole Diocess , therefore these , or such as these were the Angels to whom the Spirit of God writ hortatory and commendatory letters , such whom Christ held in his Right hand , and fixed them in the Churches like lights set on a candlestick , that they might give shine to the whole house . The Summe of all is this ; that Christ did institute Apostles and Presbyters , or 72 Disciples . To the Apostles he gave a plenitude of power , for the whole commission was given to them in as great and comprehensive clauses as were imaginable ; for by vertue of it they received a power of giving the Holy Ghost in confirmation , and of giving his grace in the collation of holy Orders , a power of jurisdiction and authority to govern the Church : and this power was not temporary , but successive and perpetual , and was intended as any ordinary office in the Church , so that the successors of the Apostles had the same right and institution that the Apostles themselves had , and though the personal mission was not immediate , as of the Apostles it was , yet the commission and institution of the function was all one . But to the 72 Christ gave no commission but of preaching , which was a very limited commission . There was all the immediate Divine institution of Presbyterate as a distinct order that can be fairly pretended . But yet farther , these 72 the Apostles did admit in partem solicitudinis , and by new ordination or delegation Apostolical did give them power of administring Sacraments , of Absolving sinners , of governing the Church in conjunction and subordination to the Apostles , of which they had a capacity by Christs calling them at first in sortem ministerii , but the exercise , and the actuating of this capacity they had from the Apostles . So that not by Divine ordination , or immediate commission from Christ , but by derivation from the Apostles ( and therefore in minority and subordination to them ) the Presbyters did exercise acts of order and jurisdiction in the absence of the Apostles or Bishops , or in conjunction consiliary , and by way of advice , or before the consecration of a Bishop to a particular Church . And all this I doubt not , but was done by the direction of the Holy Ghost , as were all other acts of Apostolical ministration , and particularly the institution of the other order , viz. of Deacons . This is all that can be proved out of Scripture concerning the commission given in the institution of Presbyters , and this I shall afterwards confirm by the practice of the Catholick Church , and so vindicate the practises of the present Church from the common prejudices that disturb us , for by this account Episcopacy is not only a Divine institution , but the only order that derives immediately from Christ. For the present only I summe up this with that saying of Theodoret speaking of the 72 Disciples . Palmae sunt isti qui nutriuntur ac erudiuntur ab Apostolis . Nam quanquam Christus hos etiam elegit , erant tamen duodecim illis inferiores , & postea illorum Discipuli & sectatores . The Apostles are the twelve fountains , and the LXXII are the palms that are nourished by the waters of those fountains . For though Christ also ordained the LXXII , yet they were inferior to the Apostles , and afterwards were their followers and Disciples . I know no objection to hinder a conclusion ; only two or three words out of Ignatius are pretended against the main question , viz. to prove that he , although a Bishop , yet had no Apostolical authority , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , I do not command this as an Apostle , ( for what am I , and what is my Fathers house , that I should compare my self with them ) but as your fellow souldier and a Monitor . But this answers it self , if we consider to whom he speaks it . Not to his own Church of Antioch , for there he might command as an Apostle , but to the Philadelphians he might not , they were no part of his Diocess , he was not their Apostle , and then because he did not equal the Apostles in their commission extraordinary , in their personal priviledges , and in their universal jurisdiction , therefore he might not command the Philadelphians , being another Bishops charge , but admonish them with the freedom of a Christian Bishop , to whom the souls of all faithful people were dear and precious . So that still Episcopacy and Apostolate may be all one in ordinary office , this hinders not , and I know nothing else pretended , and that antiquity is clearly on this side is the next business . For hitherto the discourse hath been of the immediate Divine institution of Episcopacy by arguments derived from Scripture ; I shall only add two more from Antiquity , and so pass on to tradition Apostolical . SECT . X. So that Bishops are successors in the office of Apostleship , according to the general Tenent of Antiquity . 1. THE belief of the Primitive Church is , that Bishops are the ordinary successors of the Apostles , and Presbyters of the LXXII , and therefore did believe that Episcopacy is as truly of Divine institution as the Apostolate , for the ordinary office both of one and the other is the same thing . For this there is abundant testimony . Some I shall select , enough to give fair evidence of a Catholick tradition . S. Irenaeus is very frequent and confident in this particular , Habemus annumerare eos qui ab Apostolis instituti sunt Episcopi in Ecclesiis , & successores eorum usque ad nos — Etenim si recondita mysteria scîssent Apostoli , his vel maxime traderent ea quibus etiam ipsas Ecclesias committebant — quos & successores relinquebant suum ipsorum locum Magisterii tradentes . We can name the men the Apostles made Bishops in their several Churches , appointing them their successors , and most certainly those mysterious secrets of Christianity which themselves knew , they would deliver to them to whom they committed the Churches , and left to be their successors in the same power and authority themselves had . Tertullian reckons Corinth , Philippi , Thessalonica , Ephesus and others to be Churches Apostolical , apud quas ipsae adhuc Cathedrae Apostolorum suis locis praesident . Apostolical they are from their foundation , and by their succession , for the Apostles did found them , and Apostles or men of Apostolick authority still do govern them . S. Cyprian ; Hoc enim vel maximè , Frater , & laboramus & laborare debemus , ut Vnitatem à Domino , & per Apostolos Nobis Successoribus traditam quantùm possumus obtinere curemus . We must preserve the Vnity commanded us by Christ , and delivered by his Apostles to us their Successors . To us Cyprian and Cornelius , for they only were then in view , the one Bishop of Rome , the other of Carthage . And in his Epistle ad Florentium Pupianum ; Nec haec jacto , sed dolens profero , cum te Judicem Dei constituas & Christi , Qui dicit ad Apostolos ac per hoc ad omnes praepositos qui Apostolis Vicariâ ordinatione succedunt , qui vos audit , me audit , &c. Christ said to his Apostles , and in them to the Governours or Bishops of his Church , who succeeded the Apostles as Vicars in their absence , He that heareth you heareth me . Famous is that saying of Clarus à Musculâ the Bishop , spoken in the Council of Carthage and repeated by S. Austin , Manifesta est sententia Domini nostri Jesu Christi Apostolos suos mittentis & ipsis solis potestatem à patre sibi datam permittentis , quibus nos successimus eâdem potestate Ecclesiam Domini gubernantes . Nos successimus . We succeed the Apostles governing the Church by the same power . He spake it in full Council in an assembly of Bishops , and himself was a Bishop . The Council of Rome under S. Sylvester , speaking of the honour due to Bishops , expresses it thus , Non oportere quemquam Domini Discipulis , id est , Apostolorum successoribus detrahere . No man must detract from the Disciples of our Lord , that is , from the Apostles successors . S. Hierome speaking against the Montanists for undervaluing their Bishops , shews the difference of the Catholicks honouring , and the Hereticks disadvantaging that sacred order . Apud nos ( saith he ) Apostolorum locum Episcopi tenent , apud eos Episcopus tertius est . Bishops with us [ Catholicks ] have the place or authority of Apostles , but with them [ Montanists ] Bishops are not the first but the third state of Men. And upon that of the Psalmist , pro Patribus nati sunt tibi filii , S. Hierome , and divers others of the Fathers make this gloss , Pro Patribus Apostolis filii Episcopi , ut Episcopi Apostolis tanquam filii Patribus succedant ; The Apostles are Fathers , instead of whom Bishops do succeed , whom God hath appointed to be made Rulers in all lands . So S. Hierome , S. Austin , and Euthymius upon the 44 Psalm aliàs 45. But S. Austin for his own particular makes good use of his succeeding the Apostles , which would do very well now also to be considered , Si solis Apostolis dixit , qui vos spernit me spernit , spernite nos ; si autem sermo ejus pervenit ad nos , & vocavit nos , & in eorum loco constituit nos , videte ne spernatis nos . It was good counsel not to despise B●shops , for they being in the Apostles places and offices are concerned and protect●d by that saying , He that despiseth you , despiseth me . I said it was good counsel , especially if besides all these , we will take also S. Chrysostomes testimony , Potestas anathematizandi ab Apost●lis ad successores eorum nimirum Episcopos transit . A power of anathematizing delinquents is derived from the Apostles to their successors , even to Bishops . S. Ambrose upon that of S. Paul , Ephes. 4. Quosdam dedit Apostolos , Apostoli Episcopi sunt , He hath given Apostles , that is , he hath given some Bishops . That 's downright , and this came not by chance from him ; he doubles his assertion . Caput itaque in Ecclesiâ Apostolis posuit , qui legati Christi sunt , sicut dicit idem Apostolus [ pro quo legatione fungimur . ] Ipsi sunt Episcopi , firmante istud Petro Apostolo , & dicente inter caetera de Judâ , & Episcopatum ejus accipiat alter . And a third time . Numquid omnes Apostoli ? verum est ; Quia in Ecclesiâ Vnus est Episcopus . Bishop and Apostle was all one with S. Ambrose , when he spake of their ordinary offices ; which puts me in mind of the fragment of Polycrates of the Martyrdom of Timothy in Photius , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The Apostle Timothy was ordained Bishop in the Metropolis of Ephesus by S. Paul , and there enthron'd . To this purpose are those compellations and titles of Bishopricks usually in antiquity . S. Basil calls a Bishoprick , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . So Theodoret. An Apostolical presidency . The summe is the same which S. Peter himself taught the Church , as S. Clement his scholar , or some other Primitive man in his name reports of him . Episcopos ergo vicem Apostolorum gerere Dominum docuisse dicebat , & reliquorum Discipulorum vicem tenere Presbyteros debere insinuabat . He [ Peter ] said that our Lord taught that Bishops were to succeed in the place of the Apostles , and Presbyters in the place of the Disciples . Who desires to be farther satisfied concerning Catholick consent , for Bishops succession to Apostles in their order and ordinary office , he may see it in (a) Pacianus the renowned Bishop of Barcinona , in (b) S. Gregory , (c) S. Iohn Damascen , in S. Sextus the first his second decretal Epistle , and most plentifully in (d) S. Caelestine writing to the Ephesine Council , in the Epistle of (e) Anacletus de Patriarchis & Primatibus , &c. In (f) Isidore , and in (g) Venerable Bede . His words are these , Sicut duodecim Apostolos formam Episcoporum exhibere simul & demonstrare nemo est qui dubitet : sic & 72 figuram Presbyterorum gessisse sciendum est , tametsi primis Ecclesiae temporibus , ut Apostolica Scriptura testis est , utrique Presbyteri , & utrique vocabantur Episcopi , quorum unum scientiae maturitatem , aliud industriam curae Pastoralis significat . Sunt ergo jure Divino Episcopi à Presbyteris praelatione distincti . As no man doubts but Apostles were the order of Bishops ; so the 72 of Presbyters , though at first they had names in common . Therefore Bishops by Divine right are distinct from Presbyters , and their Prelates or Superiours . SECT . XI . And particularly of S. Peter . TO the same issue drive all those testimonies of Antiquity that call all Bishops ex aequo successors of S. Peter . So S. Cyprian . Dominus noster cujus praecepta metuere & observare debemus , Episcopi honorem & Ecclesiae suae rationem disponens in Evangelio , loquitur & dicit Petro , ego tibi dico , Quia tu es Petrus , &c. Inde per temporum & successionum vices , Episcoporum ordinatio & Ecclesiae ratio decurrit , ut Ecclesia super Episcopos constituatur , &c. When our B. Saviour was ordering his Church and instituting Episcopal dignity , he said to Peter , thou art Peter , and on this Rock will I build my Church . Hence comes the order of Bishops , and the constitution or being of the Church , that the Church be founded upon Bishops , &c. The same also S. Jerome intimates , Non est facile stare loco Pauli , tenere gradum Petri . It is not a small thing to stand in the place of Paul , to obtain the degree of Peter , so he , while he disswades Heliodorus from taking on him the great burden of the Episcopal office . Pasce oves meas , said Christ to Peter , and feed the flock of God which is amongst you , said S. Peter to the Bishops of Pontus , Galatia , Cappadocia , Asia and Bithynia . Similia enim Successoribus suis Petrus scripsit praecepta , saith Theodoret. S. Peter gave the same precepts to his successors which Christ gave to him ; And S. Ephrem speaking of S. Basil the Bishop of Caesarea Cappadocia , Et sicut rursus Petrus Ananiam & Saphiram fraudantes de precio agri enecavit : ita & Basilius , locum Petri obtinens ejúsque pariter authoritatem libertatémque participans , suam ipsius promissionem fraudantem Valentem redarguit ejúsque filium morte mulctavit . As S. Peter did to Ananias and Saphira , so Basil did to Valens and his Son for the same delinquency , for he had the place , liberty , and authority of S. Peter . Thus Gaudentius of Brixia calls S. Ambrose the Successor of S. Peter , and Gildas sirnamed the wise , saith that all evil Bishops whatsoever do with unhallowed and unclean feet usurp the seat of S. Peter . But this thing is of Catholick belief , and of this use . If the order and office of the Apostolate be eternal and to be succeded in , and this office Superior to Presbyters , and not only of Divine institution ; but indeed the only order which can clearly show an immediate Divine commission for its power and authority ( as I have proved of the function Apostolical ) then those which do succeed the Apostles in the ordinary office of Apostolate , have the same institution and authority the Apostles had , as much as the successors of the Presbyters have with the first Presbyters , and perhaps more . For in the Apostolical ordinations they did not proceed as the Church since hath done . Themselves had the whole Priesthood , the whole commission of the Ecclesiastical power and all the offices . Now they in their ordaining assistant Ministers , did not in every Ordination give a distinct order , as the Church hath done since the Apostles . For they ordained some to distinct offices , some to particular places , some to one part , some to another part of Clerical imployment , as S. Paul who was an Apostle , yet was ordained by imposition of hands to go to the Churches of the Uncircumcision , so was Barnabas : S. John , and James , and Cephas to the Circumcision , and there was scarce any publick design or grand imployment , but the Apostolick men had a new ordination to it , a new imposition of hands , as is evident in the Acts of the Apostles . So that the Apostolical ordinations of the inferiour Clergy were only a giving of particular commissions to particular men to officiate such parts of the Apostolical calling as they would please to imploy them in . Nay , sometimes their ordinations were only a delivering of Jurisdiction , when the persons ordained had the order before , as it is evident in the case of Paul and Barnabas . Of the same consideration is the institution of Deacons to spiritual offices , and it is very pertinent to this Question . For there is no Divine institution for these rising higher than Apostolical ordinance ; and so much there is for Presbyters as they are now authorized ; for such power the Apostles gave to Presbyters as they have now , and sometimes more , as to Judas and Silas , and divers others , who therefore were more than meer Presbyters as the word is now used . * The result is this . The office and order of a Presbyter is but part of the office and order of an Apostle , so is a Deacon , a lesser part , so is an Evangelist , so is a Prophet , so is a Doctor , so is a helper or a Surrogate in Government , but these will not be called orders , every one of them will not I am sure , at least not made distinct orders by Christ , for it was in the Apostles power to give any one or all these powers to any one man , or to distinguish them into so many men , as there are offices , or to unite more or fewer of them . All these , I say , clearly make not distinct orders , and why are not all of them of the same consideration ? I would be answered from grounds of Scripture . For there we fix as yet . * Indeed the Apostles did ordain such men , and scattered their power at first , for there was so much imployment in any one of them , as to require one man for one office ; but a while after they united all the lesser parts of power into two sorts of men , whom the Church hath since distinguished by the Names of Presbyters and Deacons , and called them two distinct orders . But yet if we speak properly and according to the Exigence of Divine institution , there is Vnum Sacerdotium , one Priesthood appointed by Christ , and that was the commission given by Christ to his Apostles , and to their successors precisely , and those other offices of Presbyter and Deacon are but members of the Great Priesthood , and although the power of it is all of Divine institution , as the power to Baptize , to Preach , to Consecrate , to Absolve , to Minister , yet that so much of it should be given to one sort of men , so much less to another , that is only of Apostolical ordinance . For the Apostles might have given to some only a power to Absolve , to some only to Consecrate , to some only to Baptize . We see that to Deacons they did so . They had only a power to Baptize and Preach , whether all Evangelists had so much or no , Scripture doth not tell us . * But if to some men they had only given a power to use the Keys , or made them officers spiritual to restore such as are overtaken in a fault , and not to consecrate the Eucharist , ( for we see these powers are distinct , and not relative and of necessarie conjunction , no more than Baptizing and Consecrating ) whether or no had those men who have only a power of Absolving or Consecrating respectively , whether ( I say , ) have they the order of a Presbyter ? If yea , then now every Priest hath two orders besides the order of Deacon , for by the power of Consecration he hath the power of a Presbyter , and what is he then by his other power ? But if such a man ordained with but one of these powers have not the order of a Presbyter , then let any man shew me where it is ordained by Christ , or indeed by the Apostles , that an order of Clerks should be constituted with both these powers , and that these were called Presbyters . I only leave this to be considered . * But all the Apostolical power we find instituted by Christ , and we also find a necessitie , that all that power should be succeeded in , and that all that power should be united in one order , for he that hath the highest , viz. a power of Ordination , must needs have all the other , else he cannot give them to any else , but a power of Ordination I have proved to be necessary and perpetual . So that we have clear evidence of the Divine institution of the perpetual order of Apostleship , mary for the Presbyterate I have not so much either reason or confidence for it , as now it is in the Church ; but for the Apostolate it is beyond exception . And to this Bishops do succeed . For that it is so , I have proved from Scripture , and because [ no Scripture is of private interpretation ] I have attested it with the Catholick testimony of the Primitive Fathers , calling Episcopacie , the Apostolate , and Bishops successors of S. Peter in particular , and of all the Apostles in general in their ordinarie offices in which they were Superiour to the LXXII , the Antecessors of the Presbyterate . One objection I must clear . For sometimes Presbyters are also called Apostles , and Successors of the Apostles , as in Ignatius , in Irenaeus , in S. Hierome . I answer . 1. They are not called Successores Apostolorum by any dogmatical resolution or interpretation of Scripture , as the Bishops are in the examples above alledged ; but by allusion and participation at the most . For true it is that they succeed the Apostles in the offices of Baptizing . Consecrating and Absolving in privato foro , but this is but part of the Apostolical power , and no part of their office as Apostles were superiour to Presbyters . 2. It is observable that Presbyters are never affirmed to succeed in the power and regiment of the Church , but in subordination and derivation from the Bishop , and therefore they are never said to succeed In Cathedris Apostolorum , in the Apostolick Sees . 3. The places which I have specified , and they are all I could ever meet with , are of peculiar answer . For as for Ignatius in his Epistle to the Church of Trallis , * he calls the Presbytery or company of Priests , the Colledge , or combination of Apostles . But here S. Ignatius , as he lifts up the Presbyters to a comparison with Apostles , so he also raises the Bishop to the similitude and resemblance with God. Episcopus typum Dei Patris omnium gerit , Presbyteri verò sunt conjunctus Apostolorum coetus . So that although Presbyters grow high , yet they do not overtake the Bishops , or Apostles , who also in the same proportion grow higher than their first station . This then will do no hurt . As for S. Irenaeus he indeed does say that Presbyters succeed the Apostles , but what Presbyters he means , he tells us , even such Presbyters as were also Bishops , such as S. Peter and S. John were , who call themselves Presbyters , his words are these , Proptereà eis qui in Ecclesiâ sunt Presbyteris obaudire oportet his qui successionem habent ab Apostolis , qui cum Episcopatûs successione charisma veritatis certum secundum placitum Patris acceperunt . And a little after , Tales Presbyteros nutrit Ecclesia , de quibus & Propheta ait , Et dabo Principes tuos in pace , & Episcopos tuos in Justitiâ . So that he gives testimony for us , not against us . As for S. Hierome , the third man , he in the succession to the honour of the Apostolate joyns Presbyters with Bishops , and that 's right enough , for if the Bishop alone does succeed in plenitudinem potestatis Apostolicae ordinariae , as I have proved he does , then also it is as true of the Bishop together with his consessus Presbyterorum . Episcopi Presbyteri habeant in exemplum Apostolos & Apostolicos viros , quorum honorem possidentes , habere nitantur & meritum , those are his words , and enforce not so much as may be safely granted , for reddendo singula singulis , Bishops succeed Apostles , and Presbyters Apostolick men , and such were many that had not at first any power Apostolical , and that 's all that can be inferred from this place of S. Hierome . I know nothing else to stay me , or to hinder our assent to those authorities of Scripture I have alledged , and the full voice of traditive interpretation . SECT . XII . And the Institution of Episcopacy as well as the Apostolate expressed to be Divine by Primitive Authority . THE second argument from Antiquity is the direct testimony of the Fathers for a Divine Institution . In this S. Cyprian is most plentiful . Dominus noster Episcopi honorem & Ecclesiae suae rationem disponens in Evangelio , dicit Petro , &c. Inde per temporum & successionum vices Episcoporum ordinatio & Ecclesiae ratio decurrit , ut Ecclesia super Episcopos constituatur , & omnis actus Ecclesiae per eosdem Praepositos gubernetur . Cùm hoc itaque Divinâ lege fundatum sit , &c. Our Lord did institute in the Gospel the honour of a Bishop . Hence comes the Ordination of Bishops , and the Church is built upon them , and every action of the Church is to be governed by them , and this is founded upon a Divine law . Meminisse autem Diaconi debent quoniam Apostolos , i. e. Episcopos , & praepositos Dominus elegit . Our Lord hath chosen Apostles , that is , Bishops and Church-governours . And a little after . Quòd si nos aliquid audere contra Deum possumus qui Episcopos facit , possunt & contra nos audere Diaconi , à quibus fiunt . We must not attempt any thing against God who hath instituted Bishops . The same Father in his Epistle to Magnus disputes against Novatianus his being a Bishop . Novatianus in Ecclesiâ non est , nec Episcopus computari potest , qui Evangelicâ & Apostolicâ traditione contemptâ , nemini succedens à seipso ordinatus est . If there was both an Evangelical and an Apostolick tradition , for the successive ordination of Bishops by other Bishops , ( as S. Cyprian affirms there is , by saying Novatianus contemned it , ) then certainly the same Evangelical power did institute that calling , for the modus of whose election it took such particular order . S. Ignatius long before him , speaking concerning his absent friend Sotion the Deacon , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . He wishes for the good mans company , because , by the grace of God , and according to the law of Jesus Christ , he was obedient to the Bishop and his Clergie . And a little after . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It is home enough . Ye ought to obey your Bishop , and to contradict him in nothing . It is a fearful thing to contradict him : For whosoever does so , does not mock a visible man , but the invisible , undeceivable God. For this contumely relates not to man but to God. So S. Ignatius , which could not be true , were it a humane constitution and no Divine ordinance . But more full are those words of his in his Epistle to the Ephesians , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . He that obeys the Bishop and Clergy , obeys Christ who did constitute and ordain them . This is plain and dogmatical , I would be loth to have two men so famous , so Ancient , and so resolute , speak half so much against us . But it is a general resolve , and no private opinion . For S. Austin is confident in the case with a Nemo ignorat Episcopos Salvatorem Ecclesiis instituisse . Ipse enim priusquam in coelos ascenderet , imponens manum Apostolis , ordinavit eos Episcopos . No man is so ignorant but he knows that our blessed Saviour appointed Bishops over Churches ; for before his ascension into Heaven , he ordained the Apostles to be Bishops . But long before him , Hegesippus going to Rome , and by the way calling in at Corinth , and divers other Churches discoursed with their several Bishops , and found them Catholick and Holy , and then staid at Rome three successions of Bishops , Anicetus , Soter and Eleutherius . Sed in omnibus istis ordinationibus , vel in caeteris quas per reliquas urbes videram ita omnia habebantur , sicut lex antiquitùs tradidit , & Prophetae indicaverunt , Et Dominus Statuit . All things in these ordinations or successions were as our Lord had appointed . All things , therefore both of doctrine and discipline , and therefore the ordinations themselves too . Further yet , and it is worth observing , there was never any Bishop of Rome from S. Peter to S. Sylvester , that ever writ a decretal Epistle now extant and transmitted to us , but either professedly or accidentally he said or intimated , that the order of Bishops did come from God. S. Irenaeus speaking of Bishops successors to the Apostles , saith that with their order of Bishoprick , they have received charisma veritatis certum , a true , and certain or indeleble character ; secundùm placitum Patris , according to the will of God the Father . And this also is the doctrine of S. Ambrose , Ideò quanquam melior Apostolus aliquando tamen eget Prophetis , & quia ab uno Deo Patre sunt omnia , singulos Episcopos , singulis Ecclesiis praeesse decrevit . God from whom all good things do come , did decree that every Church should be governed by a Bishop . And again , Honor igitur , Fratres , & sublimitas Episcopalis , nullis poterit comparationibus adaequari ; Si Regum fulgori compares , &c. And a little after , Quid jam de plebeiâ dixerim multitudine , cui non solùm praeferri à Domino meruit , sed ut eam quoque jure tueatur patrio , praeceptis imperatum est Evangelicis . The honour and sublimity of the Bishop is an incomparable preheminence , and is by God set over the people , and it is commanded by the precept of the holy Gospel that he should guide them by a Fathers right . And in the close of his discourse , Sic certè à Domino ad B. Petrum dicitur , Petre amas me ? — repetitum est à Domino tertiò , Pasce oves meas . Quas oves , & quem gregem non solùm tunc B. suscepit Petrus , sed & cum illo nos suscepimus omnes . Our blessed Lord committed his sheep to S. Peter to be fed , and in him we ( who have pastoral or Episcopal authority ) have received the same authority and commission . Thus also divers of the Fathers speaking of the ordination of S. Timothy to be Bishop , and of S. Paul's intimation , that it was by Prophecy , affirm it to be done by order of the Holy Ghost . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith S. Chrysostome , he was ordained by Prophecy , that is , by the holy Ghost . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Thou wert not made Bishop by humane constitution . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so Oecumenius . By Divine revelation , saith Theodoret. By the command of the Holy Ghost , so Theophylact ; and indeed so S. Paul to the assembly of Elders and Bishops met at Miletus , Spiritus S. posuit vos Episcopos , the Holy Ghost hath made you Bishops : and to be sure S. Timothy was amongst them , and he was a Bishop , and so were divers others there present ; therefore the order it self is a ray streaming from the Divine beauty , since a single person was made Bishop by revelation . I might multiply authorities in this particular , which are very frequent and confident for the Divine institution of Episcopacy , in * Origen , in the Council of Carthage recorded by S. Cyprian , in the collection of the ‖ Oriental Canons by Martinus Bracarensis : in the Councils of (a) Aquisgrane , and (b) Toledo , and many more . The summe is that which was taught by (c) S. Sextus , Apostolorum dispositione , ordinante Domino , Episcopi primitùs sunt constituti . The Lord did at first ordain , and the Apostles did so order it , and so Bishops at first had their Original constitution . These and all the former who affirm Bishops to be successors of the Apostles , and by consequence to have the same institution , drive all to the same issue , and are sufficient to make faith , that it was the doctrine Primitive , and Catholick that Episcopacy is a Divine institution , which Christ Planted in the first founding of Christendom , which the Holy Ghost Watered in his first descent on Pentecost , and to which we are confident that God will give an increase by a neve-failing succession , unless where God removes the Candlestick , or which is all one , takes away the star , the Angel of light from it , that it may be invelop'd in darkness , usque ad consummationem saeculi & aperturam tenebrarum . The conclusion of all I subjoyn in the words of Venerable Bede before quoted , Sunt ergo jure Divino Episcopi à Presbyteris praelatione distincti , Bishops are distinct from Presbyters , and Superiour to them by the law of God. The second Basis of Episcopacy is Apostolical tradition . We have seen what Christ did , now we shall see what was done by his Apostles . And since they knew their Masters mind so well , we can never better confide in any argument to prove Divine institution of a derivative authority than the practice Apostolical . Apostoli enim , Discipuli veritatis existentes , extra omne mendacium sunt , non enim communicat mendacium veritati , sicut non communicant tenebrae luci , sed praesentia alterius excludit alterum , saith S. Irenaeus . SECT . XIII . In pursuance of the Divine Institution , the Apostles did ordain Bishops in several Churches . FIRST then , the Apostles did presently after the Ascension fix an Apostle or a Bishop in the chair of Jerusalem . For they knew that Jerusalem was shortly to be destroyed , they themselves foretold of miseries and desolations to ensue , ( Petrus & Paulus praedicunt cladem Hierosolymitanam , saith Lactantius l. 4. inst . ) famines and wars , and not a stone left upon another was the fate of that Rebellious City by Christs own prediction , which themselves recorded in Scripture . And to say they understood not what they writ , is to make them Enthusiasts , and neither good Doctors nor wise seers . But it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the holy Spirit , which was promised to lead them into all truth , would instruct them in so concerning an issue of publick affairs , as was so Great desolation , and therefore they began betimes to establish that Church , and to fix it upon its perpetual base . Secondly , The Church of Jerusalem was to be the president and platform for other Churches . [ The word of God went forth into all the world , beginning first at Jerusalem , ] and therefore also it was more necessary a Bishop should be there plac'd betimes , that other Churches might see their government from whence they receiv'd their doctrine , that they might see from what stars their continual flux of light must stream . Thirdly , the Apostles were actually dispers'd by persecution , and this to be sure they look'd for , and therefore ( so implying the necessity of a Bishop to govern in their absence or decession any ways ) they ordained S. James the first Bishop of Jerusalem ; there he fixt his chair , there he lived Bishop for 30 years , and finished his course with glorious Martyrdom . If this be proved , we are in a fair way for practice Apostolical . First , Let us see all that is said of S. James in Scripture , that may concern this affair . Acts 15. We find S. James in the Synod at Jerusalem , not disputing , but giving final determination to that Great Question about Circumcision . [ And when there had been much disputing , Peter rose up and said , &c. ] He first drave the question to an issue , and told them what he believed concerning it , with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , we trust it will go as well with us without circumcision , as with our Forefathers who used it . But S. James , when he had summed up what had been said by S. Peter , gave sentence and final determination . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , wherefore I judge or give sentence . So he . The acts of Council which the Brethren or Presbyters did use were deliberative , they disputed , v. 7. S. Peter's act was declarative , but S. James his was decisive ; which proves him clearly ( if by reasonableness of the thing and the successive practice of Christendom in imitation of this first Council Apostolical we may take our estimate ) that S. James was the President of this Synod , which considering that he was none of the twelve ( as I proved formerly ) is unimaginable , were it not for the advantage of the place , it being held in Jerusalem , where he was Hierosolymorum Episcopus , ( as S. Clement calls him ) especially in the presence of S. Peter , who was primus Apostolus , and decked with many personal priviledges and prerogatives . * Add to this , that although the whole Council did consent to the sending of the Decretal Epistle , and to send Judas and Silas , yet because they were of the Presbytery , and Colledge of Jerusalem , S. James his Clergy , they are said , as by way of appropriation to come from S. James , Gal. 2. v. 12. Upon which place S. Austin saith thus , Cùm vidisset quosdam venisse à Jacobo , i. e. à Judaeâ , nam Ecclesiae Hierosolymitanae Jacobus praefuit . To this purpose that of Ignatius is very pertinent , calling S. Stephen the Deacon of S. James , and in his Epistle to Hero , saying that he did Minister to S. James and the Presbyters of Jerusalem , which if we expound according to the known discipline of the Church in Ignatius's time ( who was Suppar Apostolorum , only not a contemporary Bishop ) here is plainly the eminency of an Episcopal chair , and Jerusalem the seat of S. James , and the Clergy his own , of a Colledge of which he was the praepositus Ordinarius , he was their Ordinary . * The second evidence of Scripture is [ Acts 21. And when we were come to Jerusalem the Brethren received us gladly , and the day following Paul went in with us unto James , and all the Elders were present . ] Why unto James ? Why not rather unto the Presbytery , or Colledge of Elders , if James did not eminere , were not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Praepositus or Bishop of them all ? Now that these conjectures are not vain and impertinent , see it testified by Antiquity , to which in matter of fact , and Church-story , he that will not give faith upon current testimonies , and uncontradicted by Antiquity is a mad-man , and may as well disbelieve every thing that he hath not seen himself , and can no way prove that himself was Christned , and to be sure , after 1600 years there is no possibility to disprove a matter of fact that was never questioned or doubted of before , and therefore can never obtain the faith of any man to his contradictory , it being impossible to prove it . Eusebius reports out of S. Clement . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . S. Peter and S. John , although they were honoured of our Lord , yet they would not themselves be , but made James , sirnamed the Just , Bishop of Jerusalem ; and the reason is that which is given by Hegesippus in Eusebius for his successor Simeon Cleophae , for when S. James was crowned with Martyrdom , and immediately the City destroyed , Traditur Apostolos qui supererant in commune consilium habuisse quem oportere dignum successione Jacobi judicari . It was concluded for Simeon , because he was the Kinsman of our Lord , as S. James also his Predecessor . The same concerning S. James is also repeated by Eusebius . Judaei ergo cùm Paulus provocâsset ad Caesarem — in Jacobum fratrem Domini cui ab Apostolis sedes Hierosolymitana delata fuit , omnem suam malevolentiam convertunt . In the Apostolical constitutions under the name of S. Clement , the Apostles are brought in speaking thus . De ordinatis autem à nobis Episcopis in vitâ nostrâ , significamus vobis quòd hi sunt ; Hierosolymis ordinatus est Jacobus Frater Domini . S. James the Brother of our Lord was ordained Bishop of Jerusalem by us [ Apostles . ] The same is witnessed by Anacletus . Porrò & Hierosolymitarum primus Episcopus B. Jacobus qui Justus dicebatur , & secundum carnem Domini nuncupatus est frater , à Petro , Jacobo , & Johanne , Apostolis , est ordinatus . And the same thing in terms is repeated by Anicetus , with a Scimus enim Beatissimum Jacobum , &c. Just as Anacletus before . S. James was Bishop of Jerusalem , and Peter , James , and Iohn were his Ordainers . But let us see the testimony of one of S. Iames his Successors in the same Chair , who certainly was the best witness of his own Church Records . S. Cyrill of Jerusalem is the man. Nam de his non mihi solum , sed etiam Apostolis , & Jacobo hujus Ecclesiae olim Episcopo curae fuit , speaking of the question of circumcision , and things sacrificed to Idols , and again , he calls S. Iames , primum hujus parochiae Episcopum , the first Bishop of this Diocess . S. Austin also attests this story . Cathedra tibi quid fecit Ecclesiae , in quâ Petrus sedit , & in quâ hodiè Anastasius sedet ? Vel Ecclesiae Hierosolymitanae In qua Jacobus Sedit , & in quâ hodiè Iohannes sedet ? I must not omit the testimony of S. Ierome , for it will be of great use in the sequel , Iacobus ( saith he ) post passionem Domini statim ab Apostolis Hierosolymorum Episcopus ordinatus , and the same also he repeats out of Hegesippus . There are many more testimonies to this purpose , as of (a) S. Chrysostome , (b) Epiphanius , (c) S. Ambrose , the Council of (d) Constantinople in Trullo . But Gregorius Turonensis rises a little higher , Iacobus Frater Domini vocitatus , ab ipso Domino nostro Iesu Christo Episcopus dicitur ordinatus . S. James the Brother of our Lord is said to have been ordained Bishop by our Lord Iesus Christ himself . If by [ Ordinatus ] he means [ designatus ] he agrees with S. Chrysostome : But either of them both will serve the turn for the present . But either in one sence or the other it is true , and attested also by Epiphanius , Et primus hic accepit Cathedram Episcopatûs , cui concredidit Dominus thronum suum in terra primó . S. James had first the Episcopal chair , for our Lord first intrusted his earthly throne to him . And thus we are incircled with a cloud of witnesses , to all which if we add what I before observed , that S. Iames is in Scripture called an Apostle , and yet he was none of the twelve , and that in the sence of Scripture and the Catholick Church a Bishop and an Apostle is all one , it follows from the premisses , ( and of them already there is faith enough made ) that S. Iames was by Christs own designation and ordination Apostolical made Bishop of the Church of Ierusalem , that is , had power Apostolical concredited to him which Presbyters had not , and this Apostolate was limited and fixed , as his Successors since have been . But that this also was not a temporary business , and to expire with the persons of S. Iames and the first Apostles , but a regiment of ordinary and successive duty in the Church , it appears by the ordination of S. Simeon the son of Cleophas to be his Successor . It is witnessed by Eusebius , Post martyrium Iacobi — traditur Apostolos , &c. habuisse in commune Concilium quem oporteret dignum successione Iacobi judicari ; omnesque uno consilio , atque uno consensu Simeonem Cleophae filium decrevisse ut Episcopatûs sedem susciperet . The same also he transcribes out of Hegesippus , posteaquam Iacobus Martyr effectus est — electione divina Simeon Cleophae filius Episcopus ordinatur , electus ab omnibus pro eo quòd esset consobrinus Domini . S. Simeon was ordained Bishop by a divine election ; And Epiphanius in the Catalogue of the Bishops of Ierusalem , reckons first Iames , and next Simeon , Qui sub Trajano crucifixus est . SECT . XIV . S. Timothy at Ephesus . THE next Bishop we find ordained by the Apostles was Timothy at Ephesus . That he was ordain'd by an Apostle appears in Scripture . For S. Paul imposed hands on him , that 's certain , Excita Gratiam quae in te est per impositionem manuum mearum , By the laying on of my hands . That he was there a Bishop is also apparent from the power and offices concredited to him . First , He was to be * resident at Ephesus . And although for the publick necessities of the Church , and for assistance to S. Paul he might be called sometimes from his Charge , yet there he lived and died , as the Church story writes , there was his ordinary residence and his avocations were but temporary and occasional . And when it was , his cure was supplied by Tychicus , whom S. Paul sent to Ephesus as his Vicar , as I shall shew hereafter . 2. S. Paul in his Epistles to him , gave directions to him for Episcopal deportment , as is plain ; A Bishop must be blameless , the husband of one wife , &c. Thirdly , S. Paul concredits jurisdiction to S. Timothy . Over the people ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is of as great extent in S. Timothies commission as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Commanding as teaching . Over Presbyters ; but yet so as to make difference between them and the Neotericks in Christianity , the one as Fathers , the other as Brethren . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is denied to be used towards either of them : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith Suidas , a dishonourable upbraiding or objurgation . Nay it is more ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is castigo , plagam infero , saith Budaeus : so that that kind of Rebuking the Bishop is forbidden to use , either toward Priest or Deacon , Clergy or Laity , Old or Young. [ For a Bishop must be no striker . ] But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that 's given him in commission both to old and young , Presbyters and Catechumens , that is , Require them ; postula , provoca . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Synesius . To be provoked to a Duel , to be challenged . And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Chrysostom . Ad precandum vos provoco . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Eurip. Thou makest me , or compellest me to shed tears . Suaviter omnia . That 's the way S. Paul takes . Meekly ; but yet so as to do his office , to keep all in their several duties , and that is by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , command these things , for so he summes up the Bishops duty towards Presbyters , Neophytes , and Widows . Give all these things in charge , Command all to do their duty . Command , but not objurgate . Et quid negotii esset Episcopo ut Presbyterum non objurgaret , si super Presbyterum non haberet potestatem ? So Epiphanius urges this argument to advantage . For indeed it had been to little purpose for S. Paul to have given order to Timothy how he should exercise his Jurisdiction over Presbyters and people , if he had had no Jurisdiction and coercive authority at all . Nay , and howsoever Saint Paul forbids Timothy to use 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , yet S. Paul in his second Epistle bids him use it , intimating , upon great occasion . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . To be sure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , if it be but an urging , or an exhortation , is not all , for S. Paul gives him coercive jurisdiction , as well as directive . Over Widows . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Reject the younger widows , viz. à collegio viduarum , ab eleemosynis Ecclesiae . Over Presbyters , for he commands him to have sufficient probate in the accusation of Presbyters , of which if he was not to take cognizance , it was to no purpose to number witnesses . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Receive not a publick accusation [ foro externo ] against a Priest. Non vocabis in jus nisi in testimonio duorum , &c. to wit , in causes criminal . That is sufficient intimation of the Bishops power to take cognizance in causes criminal ; then for his punishing in such cases , it follows in the next words , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Reprehend them publickly , that is , disgrace them . For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , indecorus . — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Homer Iliad . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . So that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in S. Paul , is to call them to publick account , that 's one part of the jurisdiction . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , is to examine . Plato Epist. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to give an account of ones life . Idem in Apolog. And then also it implies punishment upon conviction , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Hom. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Iliad . But the words in S. Paul will clear the business . Let them that sin be publickly shamed , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that the rest may fear ; A punishment most certainly , something that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Malum in genere poenae . What else should they fear ? to sin ? Most true . But why upon this reprehension , if not for fear of being punished ? Add to all this , that here is in this Chapter the plain giving of a jurisdiction , an erection of a Judicatory , and is all the way direction for his proceeding in cases criminal , appears most evidently , v. 21. I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect Angels , that thou observe these things , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , without prejudging the cause of any man before it comes in open contestation under publick test of witnesses , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , doing nothing for favour or partiality . Nothing in the world is plainer for the erection of a Consistory than these mandates of S. Paul. Lastly , to make up his Episcopal function compleat , S. Paul gives him also direction concerning giving of orders . [ Lay hands suddenly on no man. ] Sub testatione ergo ea quae ad ordinationem Ecclesiae mandat custodiri — Nè facilè aliquis accipiat Ecclesiasticam dignitatem — peccat enim si non probat & sic ordinet . Melior enim caeteris debet probari qui ordinandus est . Haec Episcopus custodiens , castum se exhibebit religioni , cujus rei infuturo praemium consequetur . So S. Ambrose upon the place , who is so far from exempting Presbyters from being submitted to the Bishops Consistory , that he does appropriate all his former cautions concerning the Judicature and coercive Jurisdiction to causes of the Clergy . Adde to this evidence of Scripture the testimony of Catholick and unquestioned Antiquity affirming S. Timothy to have been ordained Bishop of Ephesus by S. Paul. Eusebius speaking of the successions to S. Paul , Sed & Lucas ( saith he ) in actibus Apostolorum plurimos ejus socios memorat , sicut Timothei & Titi , quorum alter in Epheso Episcopus — ab eo ordinatus praeficitur . S. Ambrose affirms that S. Paul having ordained him Bishop writes his first Epistle to him , to instruct him in his Episcopal Office . Hunc igitur jam creatum Episcopum instruit per Epistolam quomodo deberet Ecclesiam ordinare . And that this Epistle was written to instruct S. Timothy for his own person , and all Bishops in him for their deportment in the office of a Bishop , is the united concurrent testimony of (a) S. Vincentius , (b) Tertullian , (c) S. Chrysostom , (d) S. Ambrose , (e) Oecumenius , (f) Epiphanius , (g) Primasius , and (h) S. Gregory . As for Epiphanius in the place now quoted , he uses it as an argument against the madness and stupidity of Aerius contending a Bishop and a Presbyter to be all one ; Docet Divinus Apostoli sermo quis sit Episcopus & quis Presbyter , quum dicit ad Timotheum qui erat Episcopus , Presbyterum ne objurges , &c. I shall transcribe no more testimonies for this particular but that of the general Council of Chalcedon in the case of Bassianus and Stephanus ; Leontius the Bishop of Magnesia spake it in full Council , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . From S. Timothy until now there have been 27 Bishops ordained in Ephesus . Who desires a multitude of testimonies ( though enough already have deposed in the cause , besides the evidence of Scripture ) may to these add that saying of S. Chrysostom , that to Timothy was committed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; of Theodoret , calling him Episcopum Asianorum ; the subscription to the first Epistle to Timothy , ( which if it were not writ by S. Paul , yet at least will prove a Primitive record , and very ancient , ) the fragment of the Martyrdom of S. Timothy in Photius , (i) S. Hierom , (k) S. Theophylact , (l) Isidore , and (m) Nicephorus . And now all is well if after all this Timothy do not prove an Evangelist , for this one objection will be sufficient to catch at to support a drowning cause , and though neither pertinent nor true , yet shall be laid in the balance against all the evidence of Scripture and Catholick Antiquity . But [ do the work of an Evangelist ] ( saith S. Paul ) therefore it is clear S. Timothy was no Bishop . No , was not ? That 's hard . But let us try however . 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , those are the next words , fulfil thy Deaconship . And therefore he was no Bishop ? As well this as the other ; for if Deaconship do not exclude Episcopacy , why shall his being an Evangelist exclude it ? Or why may not his being a Deacon exclude his being an Evangelist , as well as his being an Evangelist exclude his being a Bishop ? Whether is higher , a Bishoprick , or the office of an Evangelist ? If a Bishops office be higher , and therefore cannot consist with an Evangelist , then a Bishop cannot be a Priest , and a Priest cannot be a Deacon , and an Evangelist can be neither , for that also is thought to be higher than them both . But if the office of an Evangelist be higher , then as long as they are not disparate , much less destructive of each other , they may have leave to consist in subordination . For as for the pretence that an Evangelist is an office of a moveable imployment , and a Bishoprick of fixt residence , that will be considered by and by . 2. All the former discourse is upon supposition , that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implies the office of a Deacon , and so it may as well as S. Paul's other phrase implies S. Timothy to be an Evangelist . For if we mark it well , it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , do the work , not the office of an Evangelist . And what 's that ? We may see it in the verses immediately going before , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And if this be the work of an Evangelist which S. Paul would have Timothy perform , viz. to preach , to be instant in season , and out of season , to reprove , to rebuke , to exhort , there is no harm done , a Bishop may , nay he must do all this . 3. Consider what an Evangelist is , and thence take our estimate for the present . 1. He that writes the story of the Gospel is an Evangelist , so the Greek Scholiast calls him . And in this sence indeed S. Timothy was not an Evangelist , but yet if he had , he might have been a Bishop , because S. Mark was an Evangelist to be sure , and perhaps as sure that he was a Bishop ; sure enough ; for they are both delivered to us by the Catholick testimony of the Primitive Church , as we shall see hereafter , so far as concerns our Question . But then again ; an Apostle might be an Evangelist , S. Matthew was , S. John was , and the Apostolical dignity is as much inconsistent with the office of an Evangelist as Episcopal preheminence , for I have proved these two names Apostle and Bishop to signifie all one thing . Secondly , S. Ambrose gives another exposition of [ Evangelists ] Evangelistae Diaconi sunt sicut fuit Philippus . S. Philip was one of the seven , commonly called Deacons , and he was also a Presbyter , and yet an Evangelist , and yet a Presbyter in its proportion is an office of as necessary residence as a Bishop , or else why are Presbyters cri'd out against so bitterly in all cases , for non-residence , and yet nothing hinders , but that S. Timothy , as well as S. Philip might have been a Presbyter and an Evangelist together , and then why not a Bishop too , for why should a Deaconship , or a Presbyterate consist with the office of an Evangelist more than a Bishoprick ? Thirdly , Another acceptation of [ Evangelist ] is also in Eusebius . Sed & alii plurimi per idem tempus Apostolorum Discipuli superstites erant — Nonnulli ex his ardentiores Divinae Philosophiae — animas suas verbo Dei consecrabant — ut si quibus fortè provinciis nomen fidei esset incognitum praedicarent , primaque apud eos Evangelii fundamenta collocantes — Evangelistarum fungebantur officio . They that planted the Gospel first in any Country , they were Evangelists . S. Timothy might b● such a one , and yet be a Bishop afterwards . And so were some of this sort of Evangelists . For so Eusebius , Primaque apud eos fundamenta Evangelii collocantes , atque electis quibusque ex ipsis officium regendae Ecclesiae quam fundaverant committentes , ipsi rursùm ad alias gentes properabant . So that they first converted the Nation , and then governed the Church , first they were Evangelists and afterwards Bishops ; and so was Austin the Monk that converted England in the time of S. Gregory and Ethelbert , he was first our Evangelist , and afterwards Bishop of Dover . Nay , why may they not in this sence be both Evangelists and Bishops at the same time , insomuch as many Bishops have first planted Christianity in divers Countries , as S. Chrysostome in Scythia , S. Trophimus , S. Denis , S. Mark , and many more . By the way only , according to all these acceptations of the word [ Evangelist ] this office does not imply a perpetual motion . Evangelists many of them did travel , but they were never the more Evangelists for that , but only their office was writing or preaching the Gospel , and thence they had their name . 4. The office of an Evangelist was but temporary , and take it in either of the two sences of Eusebius or Oecumenius , which are the only true and genuine , was to expire when Christianity was planted every where , and the office of Episcopacy , if it was at all , was to be succeeded in , and therefore in no respect could these be inconsistent , at least , not always . And how S. Paul should intend that Timothy should keep those rules he gave him , [ to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ , ] if the office for the execution of which he gave him the rules , was to expire long before , is not so easily imagined . For if S. Paul did direct him in a temporary and expiring office , then in no sence , neither in person , nor in succession could those rules of S. Paul be kept till Christ's coming , to wit , to judgment . But if he instructed him in the perpetual office of Episcopacy , then it is easie to understand that S. Paul gave that caution to Timothy , to intimate that those his directions were not personal , but for his successors in that charge , to which he had ordained him , viz. in the sacred order and office of Episcopacy . 5. Lastly , After all this stir , there are some of the Fathers that will by no means admit S. Timothy to have been an Evangelist . So S. Chrysostom , so Theophylact , so the Greek Scholiast . Now though we have no need to make any use of it , yet if it be true , it makes all this discourse needless , we were safe enough without it ; if it be false , then it self we see is needless , for the allegation of S. Timothies being an Evangelist is absolutely impertinent , though it had been true . But now I proceed . SECT . XV. S. Titus at Crete . TITVS was also made a Bishop by the Apostles . S. Paul also was his ordainer . First , Reliqui te Cretae . There S. Paul fixt his seat for him at Crete . Secondly , His work was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to set in order things that are wanting , viz. to constitute rites and forms of publick Liturgy , to erect a Consistory for cognizance of causes criminal , to dedicate houses for prayer by publick destination for divine service , and in a word , by his authority to establish such Discipline and Rituals , as himself did judge to be most for edification and ornament of the Church of God. For he that was appointed by S. Paul to rectifie , and set things in order , was most certainly by him supposed to be the Judge of all the obliquities which he was to rectifie . 2. The next work is Episcopal too , and it is the ordaining Presbyters in every City . Not Presbyters collectively in every City , but distributively 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , City by City , that is Elders in several Cities , one in one City , many in many . For by these Elders are certainly meant Bishops . Of the identity of Names I shall afterwards give an account , but here it is plain S. Paul expounds himself to mean Bishops . 1. In terms and express words . [ To ordain Elders in every City ; If any be the husband of one wife , &c. For a Bishop must be blameless . ] That is , the Elders that you are to ordain in several cities must be blameless , for else they must not be Bishops . 2. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cannot hinder this exposition , for S. Peter calls himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and S. John , Presbyter electae Dominae , and Presbyter delectissimo Gaio . Such Presbyters as these were Apostolical , and that 's as much as Episcopal to be sure . 3. S. Paul adds farther , [ a Bishop must be blameless as the steward of God. Who then is that faithful and wise steward , whom his Lord shall make ruler ? ] S. Paul's Bishop is Gods steward , and Gods steward is the ruler of his houshold , says our blessed Saviour himself , and therefore not a meer Presbyter , amongst whom indeed there is a parity , but no superintendency of Gods making . 4. S. Paul does in the sequel still qualifie his Elders or Bishops with more proprieties of rulers . A Bishop must be no striker , not given to wine . They are exactly the requisites which our blessed Saviour exacts in his Stewards or Rulers accounts . [ If the Steward of the house will drink and be drunk , and beat his fellow servants , then the Lord of that servant shall come and divide him his portion with unbelievers . ] The steward of the houshold , this Ruler , must not be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , no more must a Bishop , he must not be given to wine , no striker ; Neque enim pugilem describit sermo Apostolicus , sed Pontificem instituit quid facere non debeat , saith S. Hierome : still then these are the Rulers of the Church , which S. Titus was to ordain , and therefore it is required should Rule well his own house , for how else shall he take charge of the Church of God , implying that this his charge is to rule the house of God. 5. The reason why S. Paul appointed him to ordain these Bishops in cities is in order to coercive jurisdiction , because [ many unruly and vain talkers were crept in , verse 10. ] and they were to be silenced 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , their mouths must be stopped . Therefore they must be such Elders as had superiority of jurisdiction over these impertinent Preachers , which to a single Presbyter , either by Divine or Apostolical institution no man will grant , and to a Colledge of Presbyters S. Paul does not intend it , for himself had given it singly to S. Titus . For I consider , Titus alone had coercive Jurisdiction before he ordained these Elders , be they Bishops , be they Presbyters . The Presbyters which were at Crete before his coming had not Episcopal power , or coercive Jurisdiction , for why then was Titus sent ? As for the Presbyters which Titus ordained , before his ordaining them , to be sure they had no power at all , they were not Presbyters . If they had a coercive Jurisdiction afterwards , to wit , by their ordination , then Titus had it before in his own person , ( for they that were there before his coming had not , as I shewed ) and therefore he must also have it still , for he could not lose it by ordaining others , or if he had it not before , how could he give it unto them whom he ordained ? For plus juris in alium tranferre nemo potest , quam ipse habet . Howsoever it be then , to be sure , Titus had it in his own person , and then it follows undeniably , that either this coercive Jurisdiction was not necessary for the Church ( which would be either to suppose men impeccable , or the Church to be exposed to all the inconveniences of Schism and tumultuary factions without possibility of relief ) or if it was necessary , then because it was in Titus not as a personal prerogative , but a power to be succeeded to ; he might ordain others , he had authority to do it , with the same power he had himself , and therefore since he alone had this coercion in his own person , so should his successors , and then because a single Presbyter could not have it over his brethren by the confession of all sides , nor the Colledge of Presbyters which were there before his coming had it not , for why then was Titus sent with a new commission , nor those which he was to ordain if they were but meer Presbyters could not have it , no more than the Presbyters that were there before his coming , it follows that those Elders which S. Paul sent Titus to ordain , being such as were to be constituted in opposition and power over the false Doctors and prating Preachers , and with authority to silence them , ( as is evident in the first Chapter of that Epistle ) these Elders ( I say ) are verily , and indeed such as himself calls Bishops in the proper sence and acceptation of the word . 6. The Cretan Presbyters who were there before S. Titus's coming , had not power to ordain others , that is , had not that power that Titus had . For Titus was sent thither for that purpose , therefore to supply the want of that power . And now , because to ordain others was necessary for the conservation and succession of the Church , that is , because new generations are necessary for the continuing the world , and meer Presbyters could not do it , and yet this must be done , not only by Titus himself , but after him , it follows undeniably that S. Paul sent Titus to ordain men with the same power that himself had , that is with more than his first Cretan Presbyters , that is Bishops , and he means them in the proper sence . 7. That by Elders in several Cities he means Bishops is also plain from the place where they were to be ordained , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . In populous Cities , not in village Towns ; For no Bishops were ever suffered to be in village Towns , as is to be seen in the Councils of * Sardis , of ‖ Chalcedon , and * S. Leo , the Cities therefore do at least highly intimate that the persons to be ordained were not meer Presbyters . The issue of this discourse is , That since Titus was sent to Crete to ordain Bishops , himself was a Bishop to be sure , at least . If he had ordained only Presbyters , it would have proved that . But this infers him to be a Metropolitan , forasmuch as he was Bishop of Crete , and yet had many suffragans in subordination to him , of his own constitution , and yet of proper Diocesses . However , if this discourse concludes nothing peculiar , it frees the place from popular prejudice and mistakes , upon the confusion of Episcopus and Presbyter ; and at least infers his being a Bishop , if not a great deal more . Yea ; but did not S. Titus ordain no meer Presbyters ? yes , most certainly . But so he did Deacons too , and yet neither one nor the other are otherwise mentioned in this Epistle but by consequence and comprehension within the superior order . For he that ordains a Bishop , first makes him a Deacon , ( and then he obtains 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a good degree ) and then a Presbyter , and then a Bishop . So that these inferior orders are presupposed in the authorizing the Supream , and by giving direction for the qualifications of Bishops , he sufficiently instructs the inferior orders in their deportment , insomuch as they are probations for advancement to the higher . 2. Add to this , that he that ordains Bishops in Cities set there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ordinem generativum Patrum , as Epiphanius calls Episcopacy , and therefore most certainly with intention , not that it should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Manus Mortua , but to produce others , and therefore Presbyters and Deacons . 3. S. Paul made no express provision for Villages , and yet most certainly did not intend to leave them destitute , and therefore he took order that such ordinations should be made in Cities which should be provisionary for Villages , and that is of such men as had power to ordain , and power to send Presbyters to what part of their charge they pleased . For since Presbyters could not ordain other Presbyters , as appears by S. Paul's sending Titus to do it there , where most certainly many Presbyters before were actually resident , if Presbyters had gone to Villages , they must have left the Cities destitute , or if they staid in Cities , the Villages would have perished , and at last , when these men had died , both one and the other had been made a prey to the wolf , for there could be no shepherd after the decay of the first generation . But let us see further into S. Titus his commission and letters of orders , and institution , [ A man that is an Heretick after the first and second admonition reject . ] Cognizance of Heretical pravity , and animadversion against the Heretick himself is most plainly concredited to S. Titus . For first he is to admonish him , then to reject him upon his pertinacy , from the Catholick communion . Cogere autem illos videtur , qui saepe corripit , saith S. Ambrose , upon the establishing a coactive , or coercive jurisdiction over the Clergy and whole Diocess . But I need not specifie any more particulars , for S. Paul committed to S. Titus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , all authority and power . The consequence is that which S. Ambrose prefixes to the Commentary on his Epistle . Titum Apostolus consecravit Episcopum , & ideò commonet eum ut sit solicitus in Ecclesiasticâ ordinatione , id est , ad quosdam qui simulatione quâdam dignos se ostentabant ut sublimem ordinem tenerent , simulque & haereticos ex circumcisione corripiendos . And now after so fair preparatory of Scripture we may hear the testimonies of antiquity witnessing that Titus was by S. Paul made Bishop of Crete . Sed & Lucas ( saith Eusebius ) in actibus Apostolorum — Timothei meminit & Titi quorum alter in Epheso Episcopus : alter ordinandis apud Cretam Ecclesiis ab eo ordinatus praeficitur . That is it which S. Ambrose expresses something more plainly , Titum Apostolus consecravit Episcopum , The Apostle consecrated Titus Bishop ; and Theodoret calling Titus , Cretensium Episcopum , The Bishop of the Cretians . And for this reason saith S. Paul did not write to Sylvanus , or Silas , or Clemens , but to Timothy and Titus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , because to these he had already committed the government of Churches . But a fuller testimony of S. Titus being a Bishop who please may see in (a) S. Hierome , in (b) Dorotheus , in (c) Isidore , in (d) Vincentius , in (e) Theodoret , in (f) S. Gregory , in (g) Primasius , in (h) Sedulius , (i) Theophylact and (k) Nicephorus . To Which if we add the subscription of the Epistle asserted from all impertinent objections by the clearer testimony of (l) S. Athanasius , (m) S. Jerome , the Syriack translation , (n) Oecumenius and (o) Theophylact , no confident denial can ever break through , or scape conviction . And now I know not what objection can fairly be made here ; for I hope S. Titus was no Evangelist , he is not called so in Scripture , and all Antiquity calls him a Bishop , and the nature of his offices , the eminence of his dignity , the superiority of jurisdiction , the cognizance of causes criminal , and the Epistle proclaim him Bishop . But suppose a while Titus had been an Evangelist , I would fain know who succeeded him ? or did all his office expire with his person ? If so , then who shall reject Hereticks when Titus is dead ? Who shall silence factious Preachers ? If not , then still who succeeded him ? The Presbyters ? How can that be ? For if they had more power after his death than before , and governed the Churches which before they did not , then to be sure their government in common is not an Apostolical Ordinance , much less is it a divine right , for it is postuate to them both . But if they had no more power after Titus than they had under him , how then could they succeed him ? There was indeed a dereliction of the authority , but no succession . The succession therefore both in the Metropolis of Crete and also in the other Cities was made by singular persons , not by a Colledge , for so we find in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 recorded by Eusebius , that in Gnossus of Crete , Pinytus was a most eminent Bishop , and that Philip was the Metropolitan at Gortyna ; Sed & Pinytus nobilissimus apud Cretam in Episcopis fuit , saith Eusebius . But of this enough . SECT . XVI . S. Mark at Alexandria . MY next instance shall be of one that was an Evangelist indeed , one that writ the Gospel , and he was a Bishop of Alexandria . In Scripture we find nothing of him , but that he was an Evangelist , and a Deacon , for he was Deacon to S. Paul and Barnabas , when they went to the Gentiles , by ordination and special designment made at Antioch ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . They had John to be their Minister ; viz. John whose sirname was Mark. * But we are not to expect all the ordinations made by the Apostles in their Acts written by S. Luke , which end at S. Pauls first going to Rome ; but many other things , their founding of divers Churches , their ordination of Bishops , their journeys , their persecutions , their Miracles and Martyrdoms are recorded , and relye upon the faith of the Primitive Church . And yet the ordination of S. Mark was within the term of S. Lukes story , for his successor Anianus was made Bishop of Alexandria in the eighth year of Nero's reign , five or six years before the death of S. Paul. Igitur Neronis primo Imperii anno post Marcum Evangelistam Ecclesiae apud Alexandriam Anianus Sacerdotium suscepit . So the Latin of Ruffinus reads it , in stead of octavo . Sacerdotium , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is the Bishoprick , for else there were many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Priests in Alexandria besides him , and how then he should be S. Marks successor more than the other Presbyters , is not so soon to be contrived . But so the Collecta of the Chapter runs . Quod post Marcum primus Episcopus Alexandrinae Ecclesiae ordinatus sit Anianus , Anianus was consecrated the first Bishop of Alexandria after S. Mark. * And Philo the Jew telling the story of the Christians in Alexandria , called by the inhabitants , Cultores , and Cultrices , The worshippers , Addit autem adhuc his ( saith Eusebius ) quomodò sacerdotes vel Ministri exhibeant officia sua , vel quae sit supra omnia Episcopalis apicis sedes , intimating that beside the offices of Priests and Ministers there was an Episcopal dignity which was apex super omnia , a height above all imployments , established at Alexandria ; and how soon that was , is soon computed , for Philo lived in our blessed Saviour's time , and was Embassador to the Emperor Caius , and survived S. Mark a little . But S. Jerome will strike up this business . A Marco Evangelistâ ad Heraclam usque , & Dionysium Episcopos , Presbyteri Aegypti semper unum ex se electum in celsiori gradu collocatum Episcopum nominabant . And again , Marcus interpres Apostoli Petri , & Alexandrinae Ecclesiae primus Episcopus . The same is witnessed by * S. Gregory , ‖ Nicephorus , and divers others . Now although the ordination of S. Mark is not specified in the Acts , as innumerable multitudes of things more , and scarce any thing at all of any of the twelve but S. Peter , nothing of S. James the son of Thaddaeus , nor of Alpheus , but the Martyrdom of one of them , nothing of S. Bartholomew , of S. Thomas , of Simon zelotes , of S. Jude the Apostle , scarce any of their names recorded , yet no wise man can distrust the faith of such records , which all Christendom hitherto , so far as we know , hath acknowledged as authentick , and these ordinations cannot possibly go less than Apostolical , being done in the Apostles times , to whom the care of all the Churches was concredited , they seeing and beholding several successions in several Churches before their death , as here at Alexandria , first S. Mark , then Anianus , made Bishop five or six years before the death of S. Peter and S. Paul. But yet who it was that ordained S. Mark Bishop of Alexandria ( for Bishop he was most certainly ) is not obscurely intimated by the most excellent man S. Gelasius in the Roman Council , Marcus à Petro Apostolo in Aegyptum directus verbum veritatis praedicavit , & gloriosè consummavit Martyrium . S. Peter sent him into Aegypt to found a Church , and therefore would furnish him with all things requisite for so great imployment , and that could be no less than the ordinary power Apostolical . SECT . XVII . S. Linus and S. Clement at Rome . BUT in the Church of Rome , the ordination of Bishops by the Apostles , and their successions during the times of the Apostles , is very manifest by a concurrent testimony of old writers . Fundantes igitur , & instruentes beati Apostoli Ecclesiam Lino Episcopatum administrandae Ecclesiae tradiderunt . Hujus Lini Paulus in his quae sunt ad Timotheum Epistolis meminit . Succedit autem ei Anacletus , post eum tertio loco ab Apostolis Episcopatum sortitur Clemens , qui & vidit ipsos Apostolos , & contulit cum eis , cum adhuc insonantem praedicationem Apostolorum , & traditionem ante oculos haberet . So S. Irenaeus . * Memoratur autem ex comitibus Pauli Crescens quidam ad Gallias esse praefectus . Linus vero & Clemens in urbe Româ Ecclesiae praefuisse . Many more testimonies there are of these mens being ordained Bishops of Rome by the Apostles , as of (a) Tertullian , (b) Optatus , (c) S. Augustin , and (d) S. Hierom. But I will not cloy my Reader with variety of one dish , and be tedious in a thing so evident and known . SECT . XVIII . S. Polycarp at Smyrna , and divers others . S. JOHN ordained S. Polycarp Bishop at Smyrna — Sicut Smyrnaeorum Ecclesia habens Polycarpum ab Johanne collocatum refert ; sicut Romanorum Clementem à Petro ordinatum edit , proinde utique & caeterae exhibent quos ab Apostolis in Episcopatum constitutos Apostolici seminis traduces habeant . So Tertullian . The Church of Smyrna saith that Polycarp was placed there by Saint John , as the Church of Rome saith that Clement was ordained there by S. Peter ; and other Churches have those whom the Apostles made to be their Bishops . Polycarpus autem non solum ab Apostolis edoctus — sed etiam ab Apostolis in Asiâ in eâ quae est Smyrnis Ecclesia constitutus Episcopus — & testimonium his perhibent quae sunt in Asia Ecclesiae omnes , & qui usque adhuc successerunt Polycarpo , &c. The same also is witnessed by S. Jerome , and * Eusebius : Quoniam autem valde longum est in tali volumine omnium Ecclesiarum successiones enumerare , to use S. Irenaeus his expression ; It were an infinite labour to reckon up all those whom the Apostles made Bishops with their own hands , as (a) Dionysius the Areopagite at Athens , (b) Caius at Thessalonica , (c) Archippus at Colosse , (d) Onesimus at Ephesus , (e) An●ipas at Pergamus , (f) Epaphroditus at Philippi , (g) Crescens among the Gaules , (h) Evodias at Antioch , * Sosipater at Iconium , Erastus in Macedonia , Trophimus at Arles , Jason at Tarsus , Silas at Corinth , Onesiphorus at Colophon , Quartus at Berytus , Paul the Proconsul at Narbona , besides many more whose names are not recorded in Scripture , as these fore-cited are , so many as * Eusebius counts impossible to enumerate ; it shall therefore suffice to summe up this digest of their Acts and Ordinations in those general foldings used by the Fathers , saying that the Apostles did ordain Bishops in all Churches , that the succession of Bishops down from the Apostles first Ordination of them was the only argument to prove their Churches Catholick , and their adversaries , who could not do so , to be Heretical : This also is very evident , and of great consideration in the first Ages while their tradition was clear and evident , and not so be-pudled as it since hath been with the mixture of Hereticks , striving to spoil that which did so much mischief to their causes . Edant origines Ecclesiarum suarum , evolvant ordinem Episcoporum suorum ita per successiones ab initio decurrentem , ut primus ille Episcopus aliquem ex Apostolis , aut Apostolicis viris habuerit authorem & antecessorem , hoc modo Ecclesiae Apostolicae census suos deferunt , &c. And when S. Irenaeus had reckoned twelve successions in the Church of Rome from the Apostles , nunc duodecimo loco ab Apostolis Episcopatum habet Eleutherius . Hâc ordinatione ( saith he ) & successione , & ea quae est ab Apostolis in Ecclesiâ traditio & veritatis praeconiatio pervenit usque ad nos ; & est plenissima haec ostensio unam & eandem vivatricem fidem esse quae in Ecclesiâ ab Apostolis usque nunc sit conservata , & tradita in veritate . So that this succession of Bishops from the Apostles ordination , must of it self be a very certain thing , when the Church made it a main probation of their faith ; for the books of Scripture were not all gathered together , and generally received as yet . Now then , since this was a main pillar of their Christianity , viz. a constant reception of it from hand to hand , as being delivered by the Bishops in every chair , till we come to the very Apostles that did ordain them , this ( I say ) being their proof , although it could not be more certain than the thing to be proved , which in that case was a Divine revelation , yet to them it was more evident as being matter of fact , and known almost by evidence of sense , and as verily believed by all , as it was by any one that himself was baptized , both relying upon the report of others . Radix Christianae societatis per sedes Apostolorum , & successiones Episcoporum , certâ per orbem propagatione diffunditur , saith S. Augustin . The very root and foundation of Christian communion is spread all over the world , by the successions of Apostles and Bishops . And is it not now a madness to say there was no such thing , no succession of Bishops in the Churches Apostolical , no ordination of Bishops by the Apostles , and so ( as S. Paul's phrase is ) overthrow the faith of some , even of the Primitive Christians , that used this argument as a great weapon of offence against the invasion of Hereticks and factious people ? It is enough for us that we can truly say with S. Irenaeus , Habemus annumerare eos qui ab Apostolis instituti sunt Episcopi in Ecclesiis usque ad nos , We can reckon those who from the Apostles until now were made Bishops in the Churches ; and of this we are sure enough , if there be any faith in Christians . SECT . XIX . So that Episcopacy is at least an Apostolical Ordinance . Of the same Authority with many other points generally believed . THE summe is this . Although we had not proved the immediate Divine institution of Episcopal power over Presbyters and the whole flock , yet Episcopacy is not less than an Apostolical ordinance , and delivered to us by the same authority that the observation of the Lords day is . For , for that in the new Testament we have no precept , and nothing but the example of the Primitive Disciples meeting in their Synaxes upon that day , and so also they did on the saturday in the Jewish Synagogues , but yet ( however that at Geneva they were once in meditation to have changed it into a Thursday meeting , to have shown their Christian liberty ) we should think strangely of those men that called the Sunday - Festival less than an Apostolical ordinance : and necessary now to be kept holy with such observances as the Church hath appointed . * Baptism of infants is most certainly a holy and charitable ordinance , and of ordinary necessity to all that ever cried , and yet the Church hath founded this rite upon the tradition of the Apostles ; and wise men do easily observe that the Anabaptist can by the same probability of Scripture inforce a necessity of communicating infants upon us , as we do of baptizing infants upon them , if we speak of immediate Divine institution , or of practice Apostolical recorded in Scripture , and therefore a great Master of Geneva in a book he writ against the Anabaptists , was forced to flye to Apostolical traditive ordination , and therefore the institution of Bishops must be served first , as having fairer plea , and clearer evidence in Scripture , than the baptizing of infants , and yet they that deny this , are by the just anathema of the Catholick Church confidently condemned for Hereticks . * Of the same consideration are divers other things in Christianity , as the Presbyters consecrating the Eucharist ; for if the Apostles in the first institution did represent the whole Church , Clergy and Laity , when Christ said [ Hoc facite , do this ] then why may not every Christian man there represented , do that which the Apostles in the name of all were commanded to do ? If the Apostles did not represent the whole Church , why then do all communicate ? Or what place , or intimation of Christ's saying is there in all the four Gospels , limiting [ Hoc facite , id est , benedicite ] to the Clergy , and extending [ Hoc facite , id est , accipite & manducate ] to the Laity ? This also rests upon the practice Apostolical and traditive interpretation of H. Church , and yet cannot be denied that so it ought to be , by any man that would not have his Christendom suspected . * To these I add the communion of Women , the distinction of books Apocryphal from Canonical , that such books were written by such Evangelists and Apostles , the whole tradition of Scripture it self , the Apostles Creed , the feast of Easter ( which amongst all them that cry up the Sunday-Festival for a divine institution , must needs prevail as Caput institutionis , it being that for which the Sunday is commemorated . ) These and divers others of greater consequence ( which I dare not specifie for fear of being misunderstood ) relye but upon equal faith with this of Episcopacy ( though I should wave all the arguments for immediate Divine ordinance ) and therefore it is but reasonable it should be ranked amongst the Credenda of Christianity , which the Church hath entertained upon the confidence of that which we call the faith of a Christian , whose Master is truth it self . SECT . XX. And was an office of Power and great Authority . WHAT their power and eminence was , and the appropriates of their office so ordained by the Apostles , appears also by the testimonies before alledged , the expressions whereof run in these high terms . Episcopatus administrandae Ecclesiae in Lino . Linus his Bishoprick was the administration of the whole Church , Ecclesiae praefuisse was said of him and Clemens , they were both Prefects of the Church , or Prelates , that 's the Church-word . Ordinandis apud Cretam Ecclesiis praeficitur , so Titus , he is set over all the affairs of the new-founded Churches in Crete . In celsiori gradu collocatus , placed in a higher order or degree , so the Bishop of Alexandria , chosen ex Presbyteris , from amongst the Presbyters . Supra omnia Episcopalis apicis , so Philo of that Bishoprick , The seat of Episcopal height above all things in Christianity . These are its honours . Its offices these . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. To set in order whatsoever he sees wanting , or amiss ; to silence vain prating Preachers , that will not submit to their superiors , to ordain elders , to rebuke delinquents , to reject Hereticks , viz. from the communion of the faithful ( for else why was the Angel of the Church of Pergamus reproved for tolerating the Nicolaitan hereticks , but that it was in his power to eject them ? And the same is the case of the Angel of Thyatira in permitting the woman to teach and seduce the people ) but to the Bishop was committed the cognizance of causes criminal , and particular of Presbyters , ( so to Timothy in the instance formerly alledged ) nay , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , all authority , so in the case of Titus , and officium regendae Ecclesiae , the office of ruling the Church , so to them all whom the Apostles left in the several Churches respectively which they had new founded . So Eusebius . For the Bishop was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , set over all , Clergy and Laity , saith S. Clement . This was given to Bishops by the Apostles themselves , and this was not given to Presbyters , as I have already proved , and for the present it will sufficiently appear in this , that Bishops had power over Presbyters , which cannot be supposed they had over themselves , unless they could be their own superiours . SECT . XXI . Not lessened by the assistance and Counsel of Presbyters . BUT a Council , or Colledge of Presbyters might have jurisdiction over any one ▪ and such Colledges there were in the Apostles times , and they did in communi Ecclesiam regere , govern the Church in common with the Bishop , as saith S. Hierom , viz. where there was a Bishop , and where there was none they ruled without him . This indeed will call us to a new account , and it relies upon the testimony of S. Hierom , which I will set down here , that we may leave the Sun without a cloud . S. Jerome's words are these . Idem est enim Presbyter quod Episcopus , & antequam Diaboli instinctu studia in religione fierent , & diceretur in populis , ego sum Pauli , ego Apollo , ego autem Cephae , communi Presbyterorum concilio Ecclesiae gubernabantur . Postquam verò unusquisque eos quos baptizabat suos putabat esse , non Christi , in toto orbe decretum est , ut unus de Presbyteris electus superponeretur caeteris , ut Schismatum semina tollerentur . Then he brings some arguments to confirm his saying , and summes them up thus : Haec diximus ut ostenderemus apud vereres eosdem fuisse Presbyteros quos Episcopos , & ut Episcopi noverint se magis consuetudine quàm Dominicae dispositionis veritate Presbyteris esse majores : & in communi debere Ecclesiam regere , &c. The thing S. Hierome aims to prove , is the identity of Bishop , Presbyter , and their government of the Church in common . * For their identity , It is clear that S. Hierome does not mean it in respect of order , as if a Bishop and a Presbyter had both one office per omnia , one power ; for else he contradicts himself most apertly , for in his Epistle ad Evagrium , Qu●d facit ( saith he ) Episcopus exceptâ ordinatione quod Presbyter non faciat ? A Presbyter may not ordain , a Bishop does , which is a clear difference of power , and by S. Hierome is not expressed in matter of fact , but of right [ quod Presbyter non faciat ] not [ non facit ; ] that a Priest may not , must not do that a Bishop does , viz. he gives holy orders . * And for matter of fact S. Hierome knew that in his time a Presbyter did not govern in common , but because he conceived it was fit he should be joyned in the common regiment and care of the Diocess , therefore he asserted it as much as he could ; And therefore if S. Hierome had thought that this difference of the power of ordination had been only customary , and by actual indulgence , or incroachment , or positive constitution , and no matter of primitive and original right , S. Hierome was not so diffident but out it should come what would have come . And suppose S. Hierome in this distinct power of ordination had intended it only to be a difference in fact , not in right ( for so some of late have muttered ) then S. Hierome had not said true according to his own Principles , for [ Quid facit Episcopus exceptâ ordinatione quòd Presbyter non faciat ? ] had been quickly answered , if the Question had only been de facto ; for the Bishop governed the Church alone , and so in Jurisdiction was greater than Presbyters , and this was by custom , and in fact at least , S. Hierome says it , and the Bishop took so much power to himself , that de facto Presbyters were not suffered to do any thing sine literis Episcopalibus , without leave of the Bishop , and this S. Hierome complained of ; so that de facto the power of ordination was not the only difference : That then ( if Saint Hierome says true ) being the only difference between Presbyter and Bishop , must be meant de jure , in matter of right , not humane positive , for that is coincident with the other power of jurisdiction which de facto , and at least by a humane right the Bishop had over Presbyters , but Divine , and then this identity of Bishop and Presbyter by S. Hierom's own confession cannot be meant in respect of order , but that Episcopacy is by Divine right a Superiour order to the Presbyterate . * Add to this , that the arguments which S. Hierome uses in this discourse are to prove that Bishops are sometimes called Presbyters . To this purpose he urges Acts 20. and Philippians 1. and the Epistles to Timothy and Titus , and some others , but all driving to the same issue . To what ? Not to prove that Presbyters are sometimes called Presbyters ; For who doubts that ? But that Bishops are so may be of some consideration , and needs a proof , and this he undertook . Now that they are so called must needs infer an identity and a disparity in several respects . An identity , at least of Names , for else it had been wholly impertinent . A disparity , or else his arguments were to prove idem affirmari de eodem , which were a business next to telling pins . Now then this disparity must be either in order or jurisdiction . By the former probation it is sure that he means the orders to be disparate ; If jurisdiction too , I am content , but the former is most certain , if he stand to his own principles . This identity then which S. Jerome expresses of Episcopus and Presbyter , must be either in Name or in Jurisdiction . I know not certainly which he means , for his arguments conclude only for the identity of Names , but his conclusion is for identity of Jurisdiction , Et in communi debere Ecclesiam regere , is the intent of his discourse . If he means the first , viz. that of Names , it is well enough , there is no harm done , it is in confesso apud omnes , but concludes nothing ( as I shall shew hereafter ) but because he intends ( so far as may be guessed by his words ) a parity and concurrence of Jurisdiction , this must be considered distinctly . 1. Then ; In the first founding of Churches the Apostles did appoint Presbyters and inferiour Ministers with a power of baptizing , preaching , consecrating and reconciling in privato foro , but did not in every Church at the first founding it , constitute a Bishop . This is evident in Crete , in Ephesus , in Corinth , at Rome , at Antioch . 2. Where no Bishops were constituted there the Apostles kept the jurisdiction in their own hands [ There comes upon me ( saith S. Paul ) daily the care or supravision of all the Churches . ] Not all absolutely , for not all of the Circumcision , but all of his charge , with which he was once charged , and of which he had not exonerated himself by constituting Bishops there , for of these there is the same reason . And again [ If any man obey not our word , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , signifie him to me by an Epistle ] so he charges the Thessalonians , and therefore of this Church , S. Paul as yet clearly kept the power in his own hands . So that the Church was ever in all the parts of it governed by Episcopal or Apostolical authority . 3. For ought appears in Scripture the Apostles never gave any external or coercitive jurisdiction in publick , and criminal causes , nor yet power to ordain Rites or Ceremonies , or to inflict censures to a Colledge of meer Presbyters . * The contrary may be greedily swallowed , and I know not with how great confidence , and prescribing prejudice ; but there is not in all Scripture any commission from Christ , any ordinance or warrant from the Apostles to any Presbyter , or Colledge of Presbyters without a Bishop , or express delegation of Apostolical authority ( tanquam vicario suo , as to his substitute in absence of the Bishop or Apostle ) to inflict any censures , or take cognizance of persons and causes criminal . Presbyters might be surrogati in locum Episcopi absentis , but never had any ordinary jurisdiction given them by vertue of their ordination , or any commission from Christ or his Apostles . This we may best consider by induction of particulars . 1. There was a Presbytery at Jerusalem , but they had a Bishop always , and the Colledge of the Apostles sometimes , therefore whatsoever act they did , it was in conjunction with , and subordination to the Bishop and Apostles . Now it cannot be denied both that the Apostles were superiour to all the Presbyters in Jerusalem , and also had power alone to govern the Church . I say they had power to govern alone , for they had the government of the Church alone before they ordain'd the first Presbyters , that is , before there were any of capacity to joyn with them , they must do it themselves , and then also they must retain the same power , for they could not lose it by giving Orders . Now if they had a power of sole jurisdiction , then the Presbyters being in some publick acts in conjunction with the Apostles cannot challenge a right of governing as affixed to their Order , they only assisting in subordination , and by dependency . This only by the way ; In Jerusalem the Presbyters were something more than ordinary , and were not meer Presbyters in the present and limited sence of the word . For Barnabas , and Judas , and Silas [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Luke calls them ] were of that Presbytery . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . They were Rulers , and Prophets , Chief men amongst the Brethren , and yet called Elders or Presbyters , though of Apostolical power and authority , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith Oecumenius . For truth is , that divers of them were ordained Apostles with an Vnlimited jurisdiction , not fixed upon any See , that they also might , together with the twelve , exire in totum mundum . * So that in this Presbytery either they were more than meer Presbyters as Barnabas , and Judas , and Silas , men of Apostolical power , and they might well be in conjunction with the twelve , and with the Bishop , they were of equal power , not by vertue of their Presbyterate , but by their Apostolate ; or if they were but meer Presbyters , yet because it is certain , and proved , and confessed , that the Apostles had power to govern the Church alone , this their taking meer Presbyteros in partem regiminis , was a voluntary act , and from this example was derived to other Churches , and then it is most true , that Presbyteros in communi Ecclesiam regere , was rather consuetudine Ecclesiae , dominicae dispositionis veritate , ( to use S. Hierom's own expression ) for this is more evident than that Bishops do eminere caeteris , by custom rather than Divine institution . For if the Apostles might rule the Church alone , then that the Presbyters were taken into the Number was a voluntary act of the Apostles , and although fitting to be retained where the same reasons do remain , and circumstances concur , yet not necessary , because not affixed to their Order ; not Dominicae dispositionis veritate , and not laudable when those reasons cease , and there is an emergency of contrary causes . 2. The next Presbytery we read of is at Antioch , but there we find no acts either of concurrent or single jurisdiction , but of ordination indeed we do , and that performed by such men as S. Paul was , and Barnabas , for they were two of the Prophets reckoned in the Church of Antioch , but I do not remember them to be called Presbyters in that place , to be sure they were not meer Presbyters as we now Understand the word ; as I proved formerly . 3. But in the Church of Ephesus there was a Colledge of Presbyters , and they were by the Spirit of God called Bishops , and were appointed by him to be Pastors of the Church of God. This must do it or nothing . In quo spiritus S. posuit vos Episcopos , In whom the holy Ghost hath made you Bishops . There must lye the exigence of the argument , and if we can find who is meant by [ vos ] we shall , I hope , gain the truth . * S. Paul sent for the Presbyters or Elders to come from Ephesus to Miletus , and to them he spoke . ** It 's true , but that 's not all the [ vos . ] For there were present at that Sermon Sopater , and Aristarchus , and Secundus , and Gaius , and Timothy , and Tychicus , and Trophimus ; And although he sent to Ephesus , as to the Metropolis , and there many Elders were either accidentally , or by ordinary residence , yet those were not all Elders of that Church , but of all Asia , in the Scripture sence , the lesser Asia . For so in the Preface of his Sermon S. Paul intimates [ Ye know that from the first day I came into Asia , after what manner I have been with you at all seasons . ] His whole conversation in Asia was not confined to Ephesus , and yet those Elders who were present were witnesses of it all , and therefore were of dispersed habitation , and so it is more clearly inferred from verse 25. And now behold I know that ye all among whom I have gone preaching the Kingdom of God , &c. It was a travel to preach to all that were present , and therefore most certainly they were inhabitants of places very considerably distant . Now upon this ground I will raise these considerations . 1. If there be a confusion of Names in Scripture , particularly of Episcopus and Presbyter , as it is contended for on one side , and granted on all sides , then where both the words are used , what shall determine the signification ? For whether ( to instance in this place ) shall Presbyter limit Episcopus , or Episcopus extend Presbyter ? Why may not Presbyter signifie one that is verily a Bishop , as Episcopus signifie a meer Presbyter ? For it is but an ignorant conceit , where-ever Presbyter is named , to fancy it in the proper and limited sence , and not to do so with Episcopus , and when they are joyned together , rather to believe it in the limited and present sence of Presbyter , than in the proper and present sence of Episcopus . So that as yet we are indifferent upon the terms . These men sent for from Ephesus , are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Elders or Presbyters of the Church , but at Miletus , Spiritus S. posuit vos Episcopos , there they are called Bishops or overseers . So that I may as well say here properly so called Bishops , as another may say , here were meer Presbyters . * And lest it be objected in prejudice of my affirmative , that they could not be Bishops , because they were of Ephesus , there never being but one Bishop in one Church ; I answer , that in the Apostles times this was not true . For at Jerusalem there were many at the same time that had Episcopal and Apostolical authority , and so at Antioch ; as at Jerusalem , where James , and Judas , and Silas , and the Apostles , and Paul and Barnabas at Antioch , and at Rome , at the same time Peter , and Paul , and Linus , and Clemens , but yet but one of them was fixt , and properly the Bishop of that place . But secondly , All these were not of Ephesus , but the Elders of all Asia , but some from other Countries , as appears ver . 4. So that although they were all Bishops , we might easily find distinct Diocesses for them , without incumbring the Church of Ephesus with a multiplied incumbency . Thus far then we are upon even terms ▪ the community of compellations used here can no more force us to believe them all to be meer Presbyters than Bishops in the proper sence . 2. It is very certain that they were not all meer Presbyters at his farewell Sermon , for S. Timothy was there , and I proved him to be a Bishop by abundant testimony , and many of those which are reckoned ver . 4. were companions of the Apostle in his journey ; and imployed in mission Apostolical for the founding of Churches , and particularly Sosipater was there , and he was Bishop of Iconium , and Tychicus of Chalcedon in Bythinia , as Dorotheus and Eusebius witness ; and Trophimus of Arles in France , for so it is witnessed by the suffragans of that province in their Epistle to S. Leo. But without all doubt here were Bishops present as well as Presbyters , for besides the premisses we have a witness beyond exception , the ancient S. Irenaeus , In Mileto enim convocatis Episcopis , & Presbyteris qui erant ab Epheso , & à reliquis proximis civitatibus quoniam ipse festinavit Hierosolymis Pentecosten agere , &c. S. Paul making haste to keep his Pentecost at Jerusalem , at Miletus did call together the Bishops and Presbyters from Ephesus , and the neighbouring Cities . * Now to all these in conjunction S. Paul spoke , and to these indeed the Holy Ghost had concredited his Church to be fed , and taught with Pastoral supravision , but in the mean while here is no commission of power , or jurisdiction to Presbyters distinctly , nor supposition of any such praeexistent power . 3. All that S. Paul said in this narration , was spoken in the presence of them all , but not to them all . For that of verse 18. [ Ye know how I have been with you in Asia in all seasons , ] that indeed was spoke to all the Presbyters that came from Ephesus and the vois●●age , viz. in a collective sence , not in a distributive , for each of them was not in all the circuit of his Asian travels ; but this was not spoken to Sopater the Berean , or to Aristarchus the Thessalonian , but to Tychicus , and Trophimus , who were Asians , it might be addressed . And for that of vers . 25. [ Ye all among whom I have gone preaching shall see my face no more , ] this was directed only to the Asians , for he was never more to come thither ; but Timothy , to be sure , saw him afterwards , for Saint Paul sent for him , a little before his death , to Rome , and it will not be supposed he neglected to attend him . So that if there were a conjunction of Bishops and Presbyters at his meeting , as most certainly there was , and of Evangelists and Apostolical men besides , how shall it be known , or indeed with any probability suspected that clause of vers . 28. Spiritus S. posuit vos Episcopos pascere Ecclesiam Dei , does belong to the Ephesine Presbyters , and not particularly to Timothy , who was now actually Bishop of Ephesus , and to Gaius , and to the other Apostolical men , who had at least Episcopal authority , that is , power of founding and ordering Churches without a fixt and limited jurisdiction . 4. Either in this place is no jurisdiction at all intimated de antiquo , or concredited de novo , or if there be , it is in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , vers . 28. Bishops and Feeders ; and then it belongs either to the Presbyters in conjunction with , and subordination to the Bishops , for to the meer Presbyters it cannot be proved to appertain , by any intimation of that place . 5. How and if these Presbyters , which came from Ephesus and the other parts of Asia , were made Bishops at Miletus ? Then also this way all difficulty will be removed . And that so it was is more than probable ; for to be sure , Timothy was now entring and fixing upon his See ; and it was consonant to the practice of the Apostles , and the exigence of the thing it self , when they were to leave a Church , to fix a Bishop in it ; for why else was a Bishop fixt in Jerusalem so long before any other Churches , but because the Apostles were to be scattered from thence , and there the first bloody field of Martyrdom was to be fought . And the case was equal here , for Saint Paul was never to see the Churches of Asia any more ; and foresaw that ravening Wolves would enter into the Folds , and he had actually placed a Bishop in Ephesus , and it is unimaginable , that he would not make equal provision for other Churches , there being the same necessity from the same danger in them all and either Saint Paul did it now or never ; and that about this time the other six Asian Churches had Angels or Bishops set in their Candlesticks , is plain , for there had been a succession in the Church of Pergamus , Antipas was dead , and Saint Timothy had sat in Ephesus , and Saint Polycarpe at Smyrna many years before Saint John writ his Revelation . 6. Lastly , That no jurisdiction was in the Ephesine Presbyters , except a delegate , and subordinate , appears beyond all exception , by Saint Paul's first Epistle to Timothy , establishing in the person of Timothy power of coercitive jurisdiction over Presbyters , and ordination in him alone without the conjunction of any in commission with him , for ought appears either there or elsewhere . * 4. The same also in the case of the Cretan Presbyters is clear . For what power had they of Jurisdiction ? For that is it we now speak of . If they had none before Saint Titus came , we are well enough at Crete . If they had , why did Saint Paul take it from them to invest Titus with it ? Or if he did not , to what purpose did he send Titus with all those powers before mentioned ? For either the Presbyters of Crete had jurisdiction in causes criminal equal to Titus after his coming , or they had not . If they had not , then either they had no jurisdiction at all , or whatsoever it was in subordination to him , they were his inferiours , and he their ordinary Judge and Governour . 5. One thing more before this be left must be considered concerning the Church of Corinth , for there was power of excommunication in the Presbytery when they had no Bishop , for they had none of diverse years after the founding of the Church , and yet Saint Paul reproves them for not ejecting the incestuous person out of the Church . * This is it that I said before , that the Apostles kept the jurisdiction in their hands where they had founded a Church and placed no Bishop , for in this case of the Corinthian incest the Apostle did make himself the sole Judge . [ For I verily as absent in body but present in spirit have judged already ] and then secondly , Saint Paul gives the Church of Corinth commission and substitution to proceed in this cause [ in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ , when ye are gathered together , and my Spirit , that is , My power , My authority , for so he explains himself , my Spirit , with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ , to deliver him over to Satan . And 3. As all this power is delegate , so it is but declarative in the Corinthians , for Saint Paul had given sentence before , and they of Corinth were to publish it . 4. This was a Commission given to the whole Assembly , and no more concerns the Presbyters than the people , and so some have contended ; but so it is , but will serve neither of their turns , neither for an independent Presbytery , nor a conjunctive popularity . As for Saint Paul's reproving them for not inflicting censures on the peccant , I have often heard it confidently averred , but never could see ground for it . The suspicion of it is ver . 2. [ And ye are puffed up , and have not rather mourned ; that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you ] Taken away . But by whom ? That 's the Question . Not by them , to be sure . For taken away from you , implies that it is by the power of another , not by their act , for no man can take away any thing from himself , He may put it away , not take it , the expression had been very imperfect if this had been his meaning . * Well then : In all these instances , viz. of Jerusalem , Antioch , Ephesus , Crete and Corinth ( and these are all I can find in Scripture of any consideration in the present Question ) all the jurisdiction was originally in the Apostles while there was no Bishop , or in the Bishop when there was any : And yet that the Presbyters were joyned in the ordering Church affairs I will not deny , to wit , by voluntary assuming them , in partem sollicitudinis , and by delegation of power Apostolical , or Episcopal , and by way of assistance in acts deliberative , and consiliary , though I find this no where specified but in the Church of Jerusalem , where I proved that the Elders were men of more power than meer Presbyters , men of Apostolical authority . But here lies the issue and strain of the Question . Presbyters had no jurisdiction in causes criminal , and pertaining to the publick Regiment of the Church , by vertue of their order , or without particular substitution , and delegation . For there is not in all Scripture any Commission given by Christ to meer Presbyters , no Divine institution of any power of Regiment in the Presbytery ; no constitution Apostolical , that meer Presbyters should either alone , or in conjunction with the Bishop , govern the Church ; no example in all Scripture of any censure inflicted by any mere Presbyters , either upon Clergy or Laity ; no specification of any power that they had so to do ; but to Churches where Colledges of Presbyters were resident , Bishops were sent by Apostolical ordination ; not only with power of imposition of hands , but of excommunication , of taking cognisance even of causes and actions of Presbyters themselves , as to Titus , and Timothy , the Angel of the Church of Ephesus ; and there is also example of delegation of power of censures from the Apostle to a Church where many Presbyters were fixt , as in the case of the Corinthian Delinquent before specified , which delegation was needless , if coercitive jurisdiction by censures had been by divine right in a Presbyter , or a whole Colledge of them . Now then , return we to the consideration of S. Hierom's saying : The Church was governed ( saith he ) communi Presbyterorum consilio , by the common Councel of Presbyters . But , 1. Quo jure was this ? That the Bishops are Superiour to those which were then called Presbyters , by custom rather than Divine disposition Saint Hierome affirms ; but that Presbyters were joyned with the Apostles , and Bishops at first , by what right was that ? Was not that also by custom and condescension rather than by Divine disposition ? Saint Hierom does not say but it was . For he speaks only of matter of fact , not of right : It might have been otherwise , though de facto it was so in some places . * 2. [ Communi Presbyterorum consilio ] is true in the Church of Jerusalem , where the Elders were Apostolical men , and had Episcopal authority and something superadded , as Barnabas , and Judas , and Silas , for they had the authority and power of Bishops , and an unlimited Diocess besides , though afterwards Silas was fixt upon the See of Corinth . But yet even at Jerusalem they actually had a Bishop , who was in that place superiour to them in Jurisdiction , and therefore does clearly evince , that the common Councel of Presbyters is no argument against the superiority of a Bishop over them . * 3. [ Communi Presbyterorum consilio ] is also true , because the Apostles call'd themselves Presbyters , as Saint Paul and Saint John in their Epistles . Now at the first , many Prophets , many Elders ( for the words are sometimes used in common ) were for a while resident in particular Churches , and did govern in common ; As at Antioch were Barnabas , and Simeon , and Lucius , and Manaen , and Paul , Communi horum Presbyterorum consilio the Church of Antioch for a time was governed ; for all these were Presbyters , in the sence that S. Peter and S. John were , and the Elders of the Church of Jerusalem . * 4. Suppose this had been true in the sence that any body please to imagine , yet this not being by any divine Ordinance , that Presbyters should by their counsel assist in external regiment of the Church , neither by any imitation of Scripture , nor by affirmation of S. Hierom , it is sufficient to stifle this by that saying of S. Ambrose , Postquàm omnibus locis Ecclesiae sunt constitutae , & officia ordinata , aliter composita res est quam coeperat . It might be so at first de facto , and yet no need to be so neither then , nor after . For at first Ephesus had no Bishop of its own , nor Crete , and there was no need , for S. Paul had the supra-vision of them , and S. John , and other of the Apostles , but yet afterwards S. Paul did send Bishops thither ; for when themselves were to go away , the power must be concredited to another ; And if they in their absence before the constituting of a Bishop had intrusted the care of the Church with Presbyters , yet it was but in dependance on the Apostles , and by substitution , not by any ordinary power , and it ceased at the presence or command of the Apostle , or the sending of a Bishop to reside . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . So S. Ignatius being absent from his Church upon a business of being persecuted , he writ to his Presbyters , Do you feed the Flock amongst you , till God shall shew you who shall be your Ruler , viz. My Successor . No longer . Your Commission expires when a Bishop comes . * 5. To the conclusion of S. Hierom's discourse , viz. That Bishops are not greater than Presbyters by the truth of Divine disposition ; I answer , that this is true in this sence , Bishops are not by Divine disposition greater than all those which in Scripture are called Presbyters , such as were the Elders in the Councel at Jerusalem , such as were they of Antioch , such as S. Peter and S. John , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , all , and yet all of them were not Bishops in the present sence , that is of a fixt and particular Diocess and Jurisdiction . * Secondly , S. Hierom's meaning is also true in this sence , [ Bishops by the truth of the Lords disposition are not greater than Presbyters , ] viz. quoad exercitium actûs , that is , they are not tyed to exercise jurisdiction solely in their own persons , but may asciscere sibi Presbyteros in commune consilium , they may delegate jurisdiction to the Presbyters ; and that they did not so , but kept the exercise of it only in their own hands in S. Hierome's time , this is it , which he saith is rather by custom than by Divine dispensation , for it was otherwise at first , viz. de facto , and might be so still , there being no Law of God against the delegation of power Episcopal . * As for the last words in the Objection , [ Et in communi debere Ecclesiam regere , ] it is an assumentum of S. Hierom's own ; for all his former discourse was of the identity of Names , and common Regiment de facto , not de jure , and from a fact to conclude with a Deberet , is a Non sequitur , unless this Debere be understood according to the exigence of the former Arguments , that is , they ought not by God's Law , but in imitation of the practice Apostolical ; to wit , when things are as they were then , when the Presbyters are such as then they were ; they ought , for many considerations , and in great cases , not by the necessity of a precept . * And indeed to do him right he so explains himself , [ Et in communi debere Ecclesiam regere , imitantes Moysen , qui cum haberet in potestate solus praeesse populo Israel , septuaginta elegit , cum quibus populum judicaret . ] The Presbyters ought to judge in common with the Bishop , for the Bishops ought to imitate Moses , who might have ruled alone , yet was content to take others to him , and himself only to rule in chief . Thus S. Hierome would have the Bishops do , but then he acknowledges the right of sole jurisdiction to be in them , and therefore though his counsel perhaps might be good then , yet it is necessary at no time , and was not followed then , and to be sure is needless now . * For the Arguments which S. Hierome uses to prove this intention , what ever it is , I have and shall elsewhere produce , for they yield many other considerations than this collection of S. Hierome , and prove nothing less than the equality of the Offices of Episcopacy and Presbyterate . The same thing is per omnia respondent to the parallel place of S. Chrysostom : It is needless to repeat either the Objection , or Answer . * But however this saying of S. Hierome , and the parallel of S. Chrysostom , is but like an argument against an evident truth , which comes forth upon a desperate service , and they are sure to be killed by the adverse party , or to run upon their own Swords ; For either they are to be understood in the sences above explicated , and then they are impertinent , or else they contradict evidence of Scripture and Catholick antiquity , and so are false , and die within their own trenches . I end this argument of tradition Apostolical with that saying of Saint Hierome in the same place . Postquam Vnusquisque eos quos baptizabat suos putabat esse , non Christi , & diceretur in populis , Ego sum Pauli , Ego Apollo , Ego autem Cephae , in toto orbe decretum est ut unus de Presbyteris electus superponeretur caeteris , ut schismatum semina tollerentur . That is , a publick decree issued out in the Apostles times , that in all Churches one should be chosen out of the Clergy and set over them , viz. to rule and govern the Flock committed to his charge . This I say was in the Apostles times , even upon the occasion of the Corinthian schism , for then they said I am of Paul , and I of Apollo , and then it was , that he that baptized any Catechumens , took them for his own , not as Christ's Disciples . So that it was , tempore Apostolorum , that this decree was made , for in the time of the Apostles S. James , and S. Mark , and S. Timothy , and S. Titus were made Bishops by S. Hieroms express attestation ; It was also [ toto orbe decretum ] so that if it had not been proved to have been an immediate Divine institution , yet it could not have gone much less , it being , as I have proved , and as S. Hierom acknowledges , Catholick and Apostolick . * SECT . XXII . And all this hath been the Faith and practice of Christendom . BE ye followers of me as I am of Christ , is an Apostolical precept . We have seen how the Apostles have followed Christ , how their tradition is consequent of Divine institution : Next let us see how the Church hath followed the Apostles , as the Apostles have followed Christ. Catholick practice is the next Basis of the power and order of Episcopacy . And this shall be in subsidium to them also that call for reduction of the state Episcopal to a primitive consistence , and for the confirmation of all those pious sons of Holy Church , who have a venerable estimate of the publick and authorized facts of Catholick Christendom . * For consider we , Is it imaginable , that all the world should immediately after the death of the Apostles conspire together to seek themselves , and not ea quae sunt Jesu Christi ; to erect a government of their own devising , not ordained by Christ , not delivered by his Apostles , and to relinquish a Divine foundation , and the Apostolical superstructure , which if it was at all , was a part of our Masters will , which whosoever knew , and observed not , was to be beaten with many stripes ? Is it imaginable , that those gallant men who could not be brought off from the prescriptions of Gentilism to the seeming impossibilities of Christianity , without evidence of Miracle , and clarity of Demonstration upon agreed principles , should all upon their first adhesion to Christianity , make an Universal dereliction of so considerable a part of their Masters will , and leave Gentilism to destroy Christianity , for he that erects another Oeconomy than what the Master of the Family hath ordained , destroyes all those relations of mutual dependance which Christ hath made for the coadunation of all the parts of it , and so destroyes it in the formality of a Christian congregation or family ? * Is it imaginable , that all those glorious Martyrs , that were so curious observers of Divine Sanctions , and Canons Apostolical , that so long as that Ordinance of the Apostles concerning abstinence from blood was of force , they would rather die than eat a strangled Hen , or a Pudding , ( for so Eusebius relates of the Christians in the particular instance of Biblis and Blandina ) that they would be so sedulous in contemning the Government that Christ left for his Family , and erect another ? * To what purpose were all their watchings , their Banishments , their fears , their fastings , their penances and formidable austerities , and finally their so frequent Martyrdomes , of what excellency or avail , if after all they should be hurried out of this world , and all their fortunes and possessions , by untimely , by disgraceful , by dolorous deaths , to be set before a Tribunal , to give account of their universal neglect , and contemning of Christ's last Testament ; in so great an affair , as the whole government of his Church ? * If all Christendom should be guilty of so open , so united a defiance against their Master , by what argument or confidence can any misbeliver be perswaded to Christianity , which in all its members for so many ages together is so unlike its first institution , as in its most publick affair , and for matter of order of the most general concernment , is so contrary to the first birth ? * Where are the promises of Christ's perpetual assistance , of the impregnable permanence of the Church against the gates of Hell , of the Spirit of truth to lead it into all truth , if she be guilty of so grand an error , as to erect a throne where Christ had made all level , or appointed others to sit in it than whom he suffers . * Either Christ hath left no government , or most certainly the Church hath retained that Government whatsoever it is , for the contradictory to these would either make Christ improvident , or the Catholick Church extreamly negligent ( to say no worse ) and incurious of her depositum . * But upon the confidence of all * Christendom ( if there were no more in it ) I * suppose we may fairly venture . Sit anima mea * cum Christianis . SECT . XXIII . Who first distinguished Names used before in common . THE First thing done in Christendom , upon the death of the Apostles in this matter of Episcopacy , is the distinguishing of Names , which before were common . For in holy Scripture all the names of Clerical offices were given to the superiour Order , and particularly all offices , and parts , and persons designed in any imployment of the sacred Priesthood , were signified by Presbyter and Presbyterium . And therefore lest the confusion of Names might perswade an identity , and indistinction of office , the wisdom of H. Church found it necessary to distinguish and separate orders and offices by distinct and proper appellations . [ For the Apostles did know by our Lord Jesus Christ that contentions would arise , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , about the name of Episcopacy , ] saith S. Clement , and so it did in the Church of Corinth , as soon as their Apostle had expired his last breath . But so it was . 1. The Apostles , which I have proved to be the supream ordinary office in the Church , and to be succeeded in , were called in Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Elders or Presbyters , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith Saint Peter the Apostle , the Elders , or Presbyters that are among you , I also who am an Elder , or Presbyter , do intreat . Such elders S. Peter spoke to , as he was himself , to wit , those to whom the Regiment of the Church was committed ; the Bishops of Asia , Pontus , Galatia , Cappadocia and Bithynia , that is , to Timothy , to Tychicus , to Sosipater , to the Angels of the Asian Churches , and all others whom himself in the next words points out by the description of their office , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. Feed the Flock of God as Bishops , or being Bishops and Overseers over it ; And that to Rulers he then spake is evident by his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for it was impertinent to have warned them of tyranny , that had no rule at all . * The mere Presbyters , I deny not , but are included in this admonition ; for as their office is involved in the Bishops office , the Bishop being Bishop and Presbyter too , so is his duty also in the Bishops ; so that , pro ratâ the Presbyter knows what lies on him by proportion and intuition to the Bishops admonition . But again . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith Saint John the Apostle ; and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The Presbyter to Gaius ; The Presbyter to the elect Lady . 2. * If Apostles be called Presbyters , no harm though Bishops be called so too , for Apostles and Bishops are all one in ordinary office as I have proved formerly . Thus are those Apostolical men in the Colledge at Jerusalem called Presbyters , whom yet the Holy Ghost calleth , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , principal men , ruling men , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Presbyters that rule well ▪ by Presbyters are meant Bishops , to whom only according to the intention and exigence of Divine institution the Apostle had concredited the Church of Ephesus , and the neighbouring Cities , ut solus quisque Episcopus praesit omnibus , as appears in the former discourse . The same also is Acts 20. The Holy Ghost hath made you Bishops , and yet the same men are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The one place expounds the other , for they are both ad idem , and speak of Elders of the same Church . * 3. Although Bishops be called Presbyters , yet even in Scripture names are so distinguished , that meer Presbyters are never called Bishops , unless it be in conjunction with Bishops , and then in the General address , which , in all fair deportments , is made to the more eminent , sometimes Presbyters are or may be comprehended . This observation if it prove true , will clearly show , that the confusion of names of Episcopus , and Presbyter , such as it is in Scripture , is of no pretence by any intimation of Scripture , for the indistinction of Offices , for even the names in Scripture it self are so distinguished , that a mere Presbyter alone is never called a Bishop , but a Bishop and Apostle is often called a Presbyter , as in the instances above . But we will consider those places of Scripture , which use to be pretended in those impertinent arguings from the identity of Name , to confusion of things , and shew that they neither enterfere upon the main Question , nor this observation . * Paul and Timotheus to all the Saints which are in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi , with the Bishops and Deacons . I am willinger to chuse this instance , because the place is of much consideration in the whole Question , and I shall take this occasion to clear it from prejudice and disadvantage . * By Bishops are here meant Presbyters , because * many Bishops in a Church could * not be , and yet Saint Paul speaks plurally of the Bishops of the Church of Philippi , * and therefore must mean mere * Presbyters ; so it is pretended . 1. Then ; By [ Bishops ] are , or may be meant the whole superiour Order of the Clergy , Bishops and Priests , and that he speaks plurally , he may , besides the Bishops in the Church , comprehend under their name the Presbyters too ; for why may not the name be comprehended as well as the office , and order the inferiour under the superiour , the lesser within the greater ; for since the order of Presbyters is involved in the Bishops order , and is not only inclusively in it , but derivative from it ; the same name may comprehend both persons , because it does comprehend the distinct offices and orders of them both . And in this sence it is ( if it be at all ) that Presbyters are sometimes in Scripture called Bishops . * 2. Why may not [ Bishops ] be understood properly ; For there is no necessity of admitting that there were any mere Presbyters at all at the first founding of this Church ; It can neither be proved from Scripture , nor Antiquity , if it were denyed : For indeed a Bishop or a company of Episcopal men as there were at Antioch , might do all that Presbyters could , and much more . And considering that there are some necessities of a Church which a Presbyter cannot supply , and a Bishop can , it is more imaginable that there was no Presbyter , than that there was no Bishop . And certainly it is most unlikely that what is not expressed , to wit , Presbyters should be only meant , and that which is expressed should not be at all intended . * 3. [ With the Bishops ] may be understood in the proper sence , and yet no more Bishops in one Diocess than one , of a fixt residence ; for in that sence is Saint Chrysostom and the Fathers to be understood in their Commentaries on this place , affirming that one Church could have but one Bishop ; but then take this along , that it was not then unusual in such great Churches , to have many men who were temporary Residentiaries , but of an Apostolical and Episcopal authority , as in the Churches of Jerusalem , Rome , Antioch there was , as I have proved in the premises . Nay in Philippi it self , if I mistake not , as instance may be given full and home to this purpose . Salutant te Episcopi Onesimus , Titus , Demas , Polybius , & omnes qui sunt Philippis in Christo , unde & haec vobis scripsi , saith Ignatius in his Epistle to Hero his Deacon . So that many Bishops , ( we see ) might be at Philippi , and many were actually there long after Saint Paul's dictate of the Epistle . * 4. Why may not [ Bishops ] be meant in the proper sence ? Because there could not be more Bishops than one in a Diocess . No ? By what Law ? If by a constitution of the Church after the Apostles times , that hinders not , but it might be otherwise in the Apostles times . If by a Law in the Apostles times , then we have obtained the main Question by the shift , and the Apostles did ordain that there should be one and but one Bishop in a Church , although it is evident they appointed many Presbyters . And then let this Objection be admitted how it will , and do its worst , we are safe enough . * 5. [ With the Bishops ] may be taken distributively , for Philippi was a Metropolis , and had divers Bishopricks under it , and Saint Paul writing to the Church of Philippi , wrote also to all the daughter Churches within its circuit , and therefore might well salute many Bishops , though writing to one Metropolis , and this is the more probable , if the reading of this place be accepted according to Oecumenius : for he reads it not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Coepiscopis , & Diaconis , Paul and Timothy to the Saints at Philippi , and to our fellow Bishops . * 6. S. Ambrose refers this clause of [ Cum Episcopis , & Diaconis ] to Saint Paul and Saint Timothy , intimating , that the benediction and salutation was sent to the Saints at Philippi from Saint Paul and Saint Timothy with ●he Bishops and Deacons , so that the reading must be thus , Paul and Timothy with the Bishops and Deacons , to all the Saints at Philippi , &c. Cum Episcopis & Diaconis , hoc est , cum Paulo , & Timotheo , qui utique Episcopi erant , simul & significavit Diaconos qui ministrabant ei . Ad plebem enim scribit . Nam si Episcopis scriberet , & Diaconis , ad personas eorum scriberet , & loci ipsius Episcopo scribendum erat , non duobus vel tribus , sicut & ad Titum & Timotheum . * 7. The like expression to this is in the Epistle of Saint Clement to the Corinthians , which may give another light to this , speaking of the Apostles , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . They delivered their first fruits to the Bishops and Deacons . Bishops here indeed may be taken distributively , and so will not infer that many Bishops were collectively in any one Church , but yet this gives intimation for another exposition of this clause to the Philippians . For here either Presbyters are meant by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Ministers , or else Presbyters are not taken care of in the Ecclesiastical provision , which no man imagines , of what interest soever he be ; it follows then that [ Bishops and Deacons ] are no more but M●jores , and Minores Sacerdotes in both places ; for as Presbyter and Episcopus were confounded , so also Presbyter and Diaconus ; And I think it will easily be shewn in Scripture , that the word [ Diaconus ] is given oftner to Apostles , and Bishops , and Presbyters , than to those Ministers whi●h now by way of appropriation we call Deacons . But of this anon . Now again to the main observation . * Thus also it was in the Church of Ephesus , for Saint Paul writing to their Bishop , and giving order for the constitution and deportment of the Church Orders and Officers , gives directions first for Bishops , then for Deacons . Where are the Presbyters in the interim ? Either they must be comprehended in Bishops or in Deacons . They may as well be in one as the other ; for [ Diaconus ] is not in Scripture any more appropriated to the inferiour Clergy , than Episcopus to the Superiour , nor so much neither . For Episcopus was never used in the new Testament for any , but such as had the care , regiment and supra-vision of a Church , but Diaconus was used generally for all Ministeries . But yet supposing that Presbyters were included under the word Episcopus , yet it is not because the Offices and Orders are one , but because that the order of a Presbyter is comprehended within the dignity of a Bishop . And then indeed the compellation is of the more principal , and the Presbyter is also comprehended , for his conjunction , and involution in the Superiour , which was the Principal observation here intended . Nam in Episcopo omnes ordines sunt , quia primus Sacerdos est , hoc est , Princeps est Sacerdotum , & Propheta & Evangelista , & caetera adimplenda officia Ecclesiae in Ministerio Fidelium , saith Saint Ambrose . * So that if in the description of the qualifications of a Bishop , he intends to qualifie Presbyters also , then it is principally intended for a Bishop , and of the Presbyters only by way of subordination and comprehension . This only by the way , because this place is also abused to other issues ; To be sure it is but a vain dream , that because Presbyter is not nam'd , that therefore it is all one with a Bishop , when as it may be comprehended under Bishop as a part in the whole , or the inferiour within the superiour , ( the office of a Bishop having in it the office of a Presbyter and something more ) or else it may be as well intended in the word [ Deacons ] and rather than the word [ Bishop ] 1. Because [ Bishop ] is spoken of in the singular number , [ Deacons ] in the Plural , and so liker to comprehend the multitude of Presbyters . 2. Presbyters , or else Bishops , and therefore much more Presbyters , are called by Saint Paul , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Ministers , Deacons is the word , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Deacons by whose ministration ye believed ; and 3. By the same argument Deacons may be as well one with the Bishop too , for in the Epistle to Titus , Saint Paul describes the office of a Bishop , and sayes not a word more either of Presbyter or Deacons office ; and why , I pray , may not the office of Presbyters in the Epistle to Timothy be omitted , as well as Presbyters and Deacons too in that to Titus ? or else why may not Deacons be confounded , and be all one with Bishop , as well as Presbyter ? It will , it must be so , if this argument were any thing else but an aery and impertinent nothing . After all this yet it cannot be shown in Scripture that any one single and meer Presbyter is called a Bishop , but may be often found that a Bishop , nay , an Apostle is called a Presbyter , as in the instances above , and therefore since this communication of Names is only in descension , by reason of the involution , or comprehension of Presbyter within ( Episcopus , ) but never in ascension , that is , an Apostle , or a Bishop , is often called Presbyter , and Deacon , and Prophet , and Pastor , and Doctor , but never retrò , that a meer Deacon or a meer Presbyter , should be called either Bishop , or Apostle , it can never be brought either to depress the order of Bishops below their throne , or erect meer Presbyters above their Stalls in the Quire. For we may as well confound Apostle , and Deacon , and with clearer probability , than Episcopus and Presbyter . For Apostles and Bishops are in Scripture often called Deacons . I gave one Instance of this before , but there are very many . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was said of Saint Matthias when he succeeded Judas in the Apostolate . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Saint Paul to Timothy Bishop of Ephesus . Saint Paul is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . A Deacon of the New Testament , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , is said of the first founders of the Corinthian Church ; Deacons by whom ye believed . Paul and Apollos were the men . It is the observation of Saint Chrysostom , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And a Bishop was called a Deacon , wherefore writing to Timothy he saith to him being a Bishop , Fulfil thy Deaconship . * Add to this , that there is no word , or designation of any Clerical office , but is given to Bishops and Apostles . The Apostles are called [ Prophets ] Acts 13. The Prophets at Antioch , were Lucius and Manaën , and Paul and Barnabas ; and then they are called [ Pastors ] too ; and indeed , hoc ipso , that they are Bishops , they are Pastors . ●piritus S. posuit vos Episcopos Pascere Ecclesiam Dei. Whereupon the Greek Scholiast expounds the word [ Pastor ] to signifie Bishops , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And ever since that Saint Peter set us a copy in the compellation of the Prototype , calling him the Great Shepherd , and Bishop of our souls , it hath obtained in all antiquity , that Pastors and Bishops are coincident , and we shall very hardly meet with an instance to the contrary . * If Bishops be Pastors , then they are Doctors also , for these are conjunct , when other offices which may in person be united , yet in themselves are made disparate ; For [ God hath given some Apostles , some Prophets , some Evangelists , some Pastors and Teachers . ] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , If Pastors , then also Doctors and Teachers . And this is observed by S. Austin . " Pastors and Doctors whom you would have me to distinguish , I think are one and the same . For Paul doth not say , some Pastors , some Doctors , but to Pastors he joyneth Doctors , that Pastors might understand it belongeth to their office to teach . The same also is affirmed by Sedulius upon this place . Thus it was in Scripture ; But after the Churches were settled and Bishops fixt upon their several Sees , then the Names also were made distinct , only those Names which did design temporary Offices did expire , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith S. Chrysostom , Thus far the names were common , viz. in the sence above explicated , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . But immediately the names were made proper and distinct , and to every Order it s own Name is left , of a Bishop to a Bishop , of a Presbyter to a Presbyter . * This could not be supposed at first , for when they were to borrow words from the titles of secular honour , or offices , and to transplant them to an artificial and imposed sence , Vse , which is the Master of language , must rule us in this affair , and Vse is not contracted but in some process and descent of time . * For at first , Christendom it self wanted a name , and the Disciples of the Glorious Nazarene were Christened first in Antioch , for they had their baptism some years before they had their Name . It had been no wonder then , if per omnia it had so happened in the compellation of all the Offices and Orders of the Church . SECT . XXIV . Appropriating the word Episcopus or Bishop to the Supreme Church-officer . BUT immediately after the Apostles , and still more in descending ages Episcopus signified only the Superintendent of the Church , the Bishop in the present and vulgar conception . Some few examples I shall give instead of Myriads . In the Canons of the Apostles the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or Bishop , is used thirty six times in appropriation to him that is the Ordinary , Ruler and President of the Church above the Clergy and the Laity , being twenty four times expresly distinguished from Presbyter , and in the other fourteen having particular care for government , jurisdiction , censures and ordinations committed to him , as I shall shew hereafter , and all this is within the verge of the first fifty , which are received as Authentick , by the Councel of (a) Nice ; of (b) Antioch , 25. Canons whereof are taken out of the Canons of the Apostles ; the Councel of Gangra calling them Canones Ecclesiasticos , and Apostolicas traditiones ; by the Epistle of the first Councel of Constantinople to Damasus , which Theodoret hath inserted into his story ; by the (c) Councel of Ephesus ; by (d) Tertullian ; by (e) Constantine the Great ; and are sometimes by way of eminency called the Canons , sometimes , the Ecclesiastical Canons , sometimes , the ancient and received Canons of our Fathers , sometimes the Apostolical Canons , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said the Fathers of the Councel in Trullo , and Damascen puts them in order next to the Canon of Holy Scripture : so in effect does Isidore in his Preface to the work of the Councels , for he sets these Canons in front , because Sancti Patres eorum sententias authoritate Synodali roborarunt , & inter Canonicas posuerunt Constitutiones . The H. Fathers have established these Canos by the authority of Councels , and have put them amongst the Canonical Constitutions . And great reason , for in Pope Stephen's time they were translated into Latine by one Dionysius at the intreaty of Laurentius , because then the old Latine copies were rude and barbarous . Now then this second translation of them being made in Pope Stephen's time , who was contemporary with S. Irenaeus and S. Cyprian , the old copy , elder than this , and yet after the Original to be sure , shews them to be of prime antiquity , and they are mentioned by S. Stephen in an Epistle of his to Bishop Hilarius , where he is severe in censure of them who do prevaricate these Canons . * But for farther satisfaction I refer the Reader to the Epistle of Gregory Holloander to the Moderators of the City of Norimberg . I deny not but they are called Apocryphal by Gratian , and some others , viz. in the sence of the Church , just as the Wisdom of Solomon , or Ecclesiasticus , but yet by most believed to be written by S. Clement , from the dictate of the Apostles , and without all question are so far Canonical , as to be of undoubted Ecclesiastical authority , and of the first Antiquity . Ignatius his testimony is next in time and in authority . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The Bishop bears the image and representment of the Father of all . And a little after , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. What is the Bishop , but he that hath all authority and rule ? What is the Presbytery , but a sacred Colledge , Counsellors and helpers or assessors to the Bishop ? what are Deacons , &c. So that here is the real and exact distinction of Dignity , the appropriation of Name , and intimation of Office. The Bishop is above all , the Presbyters his helpers , the Deacons his Ministers , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Imitators of the Angels who are Ministring Spirits . But this is of so known , so evident a truth , that it were but impertinent to insist longer upon it . Himself in three of his Epistles uses it nine times in distinct enumeration , viz. to the Trallians , to the Philadelphians , to the Philippians . * And now I shall insert these considerations . 1. Although it was so that Episcopus and Presbyter were distinct in the beginning after the Apostles death , yet sometimes the names are used promiscuously , which is an evidence , that confusion of names is no intimation , much less an argument for the parity of Offices , since themselves , who sometimes , though indeed very seldom , confound the names , yet distinguish the Offices frequently , and dogmatically . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Where by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he means the Presbyters of the Church of Antioch , so indeed some say , and though there be no necessity of admitting this meaning , because by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he may mean the suffragan Bishops of Syria , yet the other may be fairly admitted , for himself their Bishop was absent from his Church , and had delegated to the Presbytery Episcopal jurisdiction to rule the Church till he being dead another Bishop should be chosen , so that they were Episcopi Vicarii , and by representment of the person of the Bishop and execution of the Bishops power by delegation were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and this was done lest the Church should not be only without a Father , but without a Guardian too ; and yet what a Bishop was , and of what authority no man more confident and frequent than Ignatius . * Another example of this is in Eusebius , speaking of the Youth whom S. John had converted and commended to a Bishop . Clemens , whose story this was , proceeding in the relation sayes , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. But the Presbyter ; unless by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here S. Clement means not the Order , but Age of the Man , as it is like enough he did , for a little after he calls him [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] The old man , Tum verò Presbyter in domum suam suscipit adolescentem . Redde depositum , O Episcope , saith S. John to him . Tunc graviter suspirans Senior , &c. So S. Clement . * But this , as it is very unusual , so it is just as in Scripture , viz. in descent and comprehension , for this Bishop also was a Presbyter as well as Bishop , or else in the delegation of Episcopal power , for so it is in the allegation of Ignatius . 2. That this name Episcopus or Bishop was chosen to be appropriate to the supream order of the Clergy , was done with fair reason and design . For this is no fastuous or pompous title , the word is of no dignity , and implies none but what is consequent to the just and fair execution of its Offices . But Presbyter is a name of dignity and veneration , Rise up to the grey head , and it transplants the honour and reverence of Age to the office of the Presbyterate . And yet this the Bishops left , and took that which signifies a meer supra-vision , and overlooking of his charge , so that if we take estimate from the names , Presbyter is a name of dignity , and Episcopus of office and burden . * [ He that desires the office of a Bishop , desires a good work , ] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith S. Chrysostom . Nec dicit si quis Episcopatum desiderat , bonum desiderat gradum , sed bonum opus desiderat , quod in majore ordine constitutus possit si velit occasionem habere exercendarum virtutum , so S. Hierom. It is not an honourable Title , but a good Office , and a great opportunity of the exercise of excellent Vertues . But for this we need no better testimony than of S. Isidore . Episcopatus autem vocabulum inde dictum , quòd ille qui superefficitur superintendat curam scil . gerens subditorum . But , Presbyter Graecè Latinè senior interpretatur , non pro aetate , vel decrepitâ senectute , sed propter honorem & dignitatem quam acceperunt . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith Julius ●ollux . 3. Supposing that Episcopus and Presbyter had been often confounded in Scripture , and Antiquity , and that both in ascension and descension , yet as Priests may be called Angels , and yet the Bishop be the Angel of the Church , [ the Angel ] for his excellency , [ of the Church ] for his appropriate preheminence and singularity , so though Presbyters had been called Bishops in Scripture ( of which there is not one example but in the sences above explicated , to wit , in conjunction and comprehension ; ) yet the Bishop is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of eminence , the Bishop : and in descent of time , it came to pass , that the compellation , which was alwayes his , by way of eminence was made his by appropriation . And a fair precedent of it we have from the compellation given to our blessed Saviour , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The great Shepherd , and Bishop of our Souls . The name [ Bishop ] was made sacred by being the appellative of his person , and by fair intimation it does more immediately descend upon them , who had from Christ more immediate mission , and more ample power , and therefore [ Episcopus ] and [ Pastor ] by way of eminence are the most fit appellatives for them who in the Church hath the greatest power , office and dignity , as participating of the fulness of that power and authority for which Christ was called the Bishop of our Souls . * And besides this so fair a Copy ; besides the using of the word in the prophecy of the Apostolate of Matthias , and in the Prophet Isaiah , and often in Scripture , as I have shewn before ; any one whereof is abundantly enough , for the fixing an appellative upon a Church Officer ; this name may also be intimated as a distinctive compellation of a Bishop over a Priest , because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is indeed often used for the office of Bishops , as in the instances above , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used for the office of the inferiours , for Saint Paul writing to the Romans , who then had no Bishop fixed in the Chair of Rome , does command them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , this for the Bishop , that for the subordinate Clergy . So then , the word [ Episcopus ] is fixt at first , and that by derivation , and example of Scripture , and fair congruity of reason . SECT . XXV . Calling the Bishop and him only the Pastor of the Church . BUT the Church used other appellatives for Bishops , which it is very requisite to specifie , that we may understand diverse authorities of the Fathers using those words in appropriation to Bishops , which of late have been given to Presbyters ever since they have begun to set Presbyters in the room of Bishops . And first , Bishops were called [ Pastors ] in antiquity , in imitation of their being called so in Scripture . Eusebius writing the story of S. Ignatius , Denique cum Smyrnam venisset , ubi Polycarpus erat , scribit inde unam epistolam ad Ephesios , eorumque Pastorem , that is , Onesimus , for so follows , in quâ meminit Onesimi . Now that Onesimus was their Bishop , himself witnesses in the Epistle here mentioned , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. Onesimus was their Bishop , and therefore their Pastor , and in his Epistle ad Antiochenos himself makes mention of Evodius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 your most blessed and worthy Pastor . * When Paulus Samosatenus first broached his heresie against the Divinity of our blessed Saviour , presently a Councel was called where S. Denis Bishop of Alexandria could not be present , Caeteri vero Ecclesiarum Pastores diversis è locis & urbibus — convenerunt Antiochiam . In quibus insignes & caeteris praecellentes erant Firmilianus à Caesarea Cappadociae , Gregorius , & Athenodorus Fratres — & Helenus Sardensis Ecclesiae Episcopus — Sed & Maximus Bostrensis Episcopus dignus eorum consortio cohaerebat . These Bishops , Firmilianus , and Helenus , and Maximus were the Pastors ; and not only so , but Presbyters were not called Pastors , for he proceeds , sed & Presbyteri quamplurimi , & Diaconi ad supradictam Vrbem — convenerunt . So that these were not under the general appellative of Pastors . And the Councel of Sardis making provision for the manner of election of a Bishop to a Widow-Church , when the people is urgent for the speedy institution of a Bishop , if any of the Comprovincials be wanting , he must be certified by the Primate , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that the multitude require a Pastor to be given unto them . * The same expression is also in the Epistle of Julius Bishop of Rome to the Presbyters , Deacons , and people of Alexandria , in behalf of their Bishop Athanasius , Suscipite itaque Fratres charissimi cum omni divinâ gratiâ Pastorem vestrum ac praesulem tanquam vere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And a little after , & gaudere fruentes orationibus qui Pastorem vestrum esuritis & sititis , &c. The same is often used in S. Hilary and S. Gregory Nazianzen , where Bishops are called Pastores magni , Great Shepherds , or Pastors ; * When Eusebius the Bishop of Samosata was banished , Vniversi lachrymis prosecuti sunt ereptionem Pastoris sui , saith Theodoret , They wept for the loss of their Pastor . And Eulogius a Presbyter of Edessa , when he was arguing with the Prefect in behalf of Christianity , Et Pastorem ( inquit ) habemus , & nutus illius sequimur , we have a Pastor ( a Bishop certainly , for himself was a Priest ) and his commands we follow , But I need not specifie any more particular instances ; I touch'd upon it before . He that shall consider , that to Bishops the Regiment of the whole Church was concredited at the first , and the Presbyters were but his Assistants in Cities and Villages , and were admitted in partem soll citudinis , first casually and cursorily , and then by station and fixt residency when Parishes were divided , and endowed , will easily see , that this word [ Pastor ] must needs be appropriated to Bishops , to whom according to the conjunctive expression of S. Peter , and the practice of infant Christendom , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was intrusted , first solely , then in communication with others , but alwayes principally . * But now of late , especially in those places where the Bishops are exauctorated , and no where else that I know , but amongst those men that have complying designs , the word [ Pastor ] is given to Parish Priests against the manner and usage of Ancient Christendom ; and though Priests may be called Pastors in a limited , subordinate sence , and by way of participation ( just as they may be called Angels , when the Bishop is the Angel , and so Pastors when the Bishop is the Pastor , and so they are called Pastores ovium in Saint Cyprian ) but never are they called Pastores simply , or Pastores Ecclesiae for above 600. years in the Church , and I think 800. more . And therefore it was good counsel which S. Paul gave , to avoid vocum Novitates , because there is never any affectation of new words contrary to the Ancient voice of Christendom , but there is some design in the thing too , to make an innovation : and of this we have had long warning , in the new use of the word [ Pastor . ] SECT . XXVI . And Doctor . IF Bishops were the Pastors , then Doctors also ; it was the observation which S. Augustin made out of Ephes. 4. as I quoted him even now , [ For God hath given some Apostles , some Prophets — some Pastors and Doctors . ] So the Church hath learn'd to speak . In the Greeks Councel of Carthage it was decreed , that places which never had a Bishop of their own should not now have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a Doctor of their own , that is a Bishop , but still be subject to the Bishop of the Diocess to whom formerly they gave obedience ; and the title of the Chapter is , that the parts of the Diocess without the Bishops consent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , must not have another Bishop . He who in the Title is called Bishop , in the Chapter is called the Doctor . And thus also , Epiphanius speaking of Bishops calleth them , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Fathers and Doctors , Gratia enim Ecclesiae laus Doctoris est , saith Saint Ambrose , speaking of the eminence of the Bishop over the Presbyters and subordinate Clergy . The same also is to be seen in Saint * Austin , Sedulius , and divers others . I deny not but it is in this appellative as in divers of the rest , that the Presbyters may in subordination be also called Doctors , for every Presbyter must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , apt to teach ( but yet this is expressed as a requisite in the particular office of a Bishop ) and no where expresly of a Presbyter that I can find in Scripture , but yet because in all Churches , it was by licence of the Bishop , that Presbyters did Preach , if at all , and in some Churches the Bishop only did it , particularly of Alexandria ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith Sozomen ) therefore it was that the Presbyter in the language of the Church was not , but the Bishop , was often called , Doctor of the Church . SECT . XXVII . And Pontifex . THE next word which the Primitive Church did use as proper to express the offices and eminence of Bishops , is Pontifex , and Pontificatus for Episcopacy . Sed à Domino edocti consequentiam rerum , Episcopis Pontificatus munera assignavimus , said the Apostles , as 1. Saint Clement reports . Pontificale 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Saint John the Apostle wore in his Forehead , as an Ensign of his Apostleship , a gold plate or medal , when he was in Pontificalibus , in his Pontifical or Apostolical habit , saith Eusebius . 2. De dispensationibus Ecclesiarum Antiqua sanctio tenuit & definitio SS . Patrum in Nicaeâ convenientium .... & si Pontifices voluerint , ut cum eis vicini propter utilitatem celebrent ordinationes . Said the Fathers of the Council of Constantinople . 3. Quâ tempestate in urbe Româ Clemens quoque tertius post Paulum & Petrum , Pontificatum tenebat , saith 4. Eusebius according to the translation of Ruffinus . Apud Antiochiani vero Theophilus per idem tempus sextus ab Apostolis Ecclesiae Pontificatum tenebat . saith the same Eusebius . 5. And there is a famous story of Alexander Bishop of Cappadocia , that when Narcissus Bishop of Jerusalem , was invalid and unfit for government by reason of his extream age , he was designed by a particular Revelation and a voice from Heaven , Suscipite Episcopum qui vobis à Deo destinatus est ; Receive your Bishop whom God hath appointed for you , but it was when Narcissus jam senio sessus Pontificatus Ministerio sufficere non possit , saith the story . 6. Eulogius the confessor discoursing with the Prefect , that wished him to comply with the Emperour , asked him ; Numquid ille unà cum Imperio etiam Pontificatum est consequutus ? He hath an Empire ; but hath he also a Bishoprick ? Pontificatus is the word . But 7. S. Dionysius is very exact in the distinction of clerical offices , and particularly gives this account of the present . Est igitur Pontificatus ordo qui praeditus vi perficiente munera hierarchiae quae perficiunt &c. And a little after , Sacerdotum autem ordo subjectus Pontificum ordini &c. To which agrees 8. S. Isidore in his etymologies . Ideo autem & Presbyteri Sacerdotes vocantur , quia sacrum dant sicut & Episcopi , qui licet Sacerdotes sint , tamen Pontificatus apicem non habent , quia nec Chrismate frontem signant , nec Paracletum spiritum dant , quod solis deberi Episcopis lectio actuum Apostolicorum demonstrat ; and in the same chapter , Pontifex Princeps Sacerdotum est . One word more there is often used in antiquity for Bishops , and that 's Sacerdos . Sacerdotum autem bipartitus est ordo , say S. Clement and Anacletus , for they are Majores and Minores . The Majores , Bishops , the Minores , Presbyters , for so it is in the Apostolical Constitutions attributed to (a) S. Clement , Episcopis quidem assignavimus , & attribuimus quae ad Principatum Sacerdotii pertinent , Presbyteris vero quae ad Sacerdotium . And in (b) S. Cyprian , Presbyteri cum Episcopis Sacerdotali honore conjuncti . But although in such distinction and subordination and in concretion a Presbyter is sometimes called Sacerdos , yet in Antiquity Sacerdotium Ecclesiae does evermore signifie Episcopacy , and Sacerdos Ecclesiae the Bishop . Theotecnus Sacerdotium Ecclesiae tenens in Episcopatu , saith (c) Eusebius , and summus Sacerdos , the Bishop always , Dandi baptismum jus habet summus Sacerdos , qui est Episcopus saith (d) Tertullian : and indeed Sacerdos alone is very seldome used in any respect but for the Bishop , unless when there is some distinctive term , and of higher report given to the Bishop at the same time . Ecclesiae est plebs Sacerdoti adunata , & Grex pastori suo adhaerens , saith S. (e) Cyprian . And that we may know by [ Sacerdos ] he means the Bishop , his next words are , Vnde scire debes Episcopum in Ecclesiâ esse , & Ecclesiam in Episcopo . And in the same Epistle qui ad Cyprianum Episcopum in carcere literas direxerunt , Sacerdotem Dei agnoscentes , & contestantes . * (f) Eusebius reckoning some of the chief Bishops assembled in the Council of Antioch , in quibus erant Helenus Sardensis Ecclesiae Episcopus , & Nicomas ab Iconio , & Hierosolymorum praecipuus Sacerdos Hymenaeus , & vicinae huic urbis Cesareae Theotecnus ; and in the same place the Bishops of Pontus are called Ponti provinciae Sacerdotes . Abilius apud Alexandriam tredecim annis Sacerdotio ministrato diem obiit , for so long he was Bishop , cui succedit Cerdon tertius in Sacerdotium . Et Papias similiter apud Hierapolim Sacerdotium gerens , for he was Bishop of Hierapolis saith (g) Eusebius , and the (h) Bishop of the Province of Arles , speaking of their first Bishop Trophimus , ordained Bishop by S. Peter , says , quod prima inter Gallias Arelatensis civitas missum à Beatissimo Petro Apostolo sanctum Trophimum habere meruit Sacerdotem . *** The Bishop also was ever design'd when Antistes Ecclesiae was the word . Melito quoque Sardensis Ecclesiae Antistes , saith Eusebius out of Irenaeus : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the name in Greek , and used for the Bishop by Justin Martyr ( and is of the same authority and use with Praelatus and praepositus Ecclesiae . ) Antistes autem Sacerdos dictus , ab eo quod antestat . Primus est enim in ordine Ecclesiae : & supra se nullum habet , saith S. Isidore . *** But in those things which are of no Question , I need not insist . One title more I must specify to prevent misprision upon a mistake of theirs of a place in S. Ambrose . The Bishop is sometimes called Primus Presbyter . Nam & Timotheum Episcopum à se creatum Presbyterum vocat : quia Primi Presbyteri Episcopi appellabantur , ut recedente eo sequens ei succederet . Elections were made of Bishops out of the colledge of Presbyters ( Presbyteri unum ex se electum Episcopum nominabant , saith S. Hierome ) but at first this election was made not according to merit , but according to seniority , and therefore Bishops were called Primi Presbyteri , that 's S. Ambrose his sence . But S. Austin gives another , Primi Presbyteri , that is chief above the Presbyters . Quid est Episcopus nisi Primus Presbyter , h. e. summus Sacerdos ( saith he ) And S. Ambrose himself gives a better exposition of his words , than is intimated in that clause before , Episcopi , & Presbyteri una ordinatio est : Vterque enim Sacerdos est , sed Episcopus Primus est , ut omnis Episcopus Presbyter sit , non omnis Presbyter Episcopus . Hic enim Episcopus est , qui inter Presbyteros Primus est . The Bishop is Primus Presbyter , that is , Primus Sacerdos , h. e. Princeps est Sacerdotum , so he expounds it , not Princeps , or Primus inter Presbyteros , himself remaining a meer Presbyter , but Princeps Presbyterorum ; for Primus Presbyter could not be Episcopus in another sence , he is the chief , not the senior of the Presbyters . Nay Princeps Presbyterorum is used in a sence lower than Episcopus , for Theodoret speaking of S. John Chrysostome , saith , that having been the first Presbyter at Antioch , yet refused to be made Bishop , for a long time . Johannes enim qui diutissimè Princeps fuit Presbyterorum Antiochiae , ac saepe electus praesul perpetuus vitator dignitatis illius de hoc admirabili solo pullulavit . *** The Church also in her first language when she spake of Praepositus Ecclesiae , meant the Bishop of the Diocess . Of this there are innumerable examples , but most plentifully in S. Cyprian in his 3 , 4 , 7 , 11 , 13 , 15 , 23 , 27 , Epistles ; and in Tertullian his book ad Martyres ; and infinite places more . Of which this advantage is to be made , that the Primitive Church did generally understand those places of Scripture which speak of Prelates , or Praepositi , to be meant of Bishops ; Obedite praepositis , Heb. 13. saith Saint Paul. Obey your Prelates , or them that are set over you . Praepositi autem Pastores sunt , saith Saint Austin , Prelates are they that are Pastors . But Saint Cyprian summes up many of them together , and insinuates the several relations , expressed in the several compellations of Bishops . For writing against Florentius Pupianus , ac nisi ( saith he ) apud te purgati fuerimus .... ecce jam sex annis nec fraternitas habuerit Episcopum , nec plebs praepositum , nec grex Pastorem , nec Ecclesia gubernatorem , nec Christus antistitem , nec Deus Sacerdotes ; and all this he means of himself , who had then been six years Bishop of Carthage , a Prelate of the people , a governour to the Church , a Pastor to the flock , a Priest of the most high God , a Minister of Christ. The summe is this ; When we find in antiquity any thing asserted of any order of the hierarchy , under the names of Episcopus or Princeps Sacerdotum , or Presbyterorum Primus , or Pastor , or Doctor , or Pontifex , or Major , or Primus Sacerdos , or Sacerdotium Ecclesiae habens , or Antistes Ecclesiae , or Ecclesiae sacerdos ; ( unless there be a specification , and limiting of it to a parochial , and inferior Minister ) it must be understood of Bishops in its present acceptation . For these words are all by way of eminency , and most of them by absolute appropriation , and singularity , the appellations , and distinctive names of Bishops . SECT . XXVIII . And these were a distinct Order from the rest . BUT , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( saith the Philosopher ) and this their distinction of names did amongst the Fathers of the Primitive Church denote a distinction of calling , and office , supereminent to the rest . For first Bishops are by all antiquity reckoned as a distinct office of Clergy . Si quis Presbyter , aut Diaconus , aut quilibet de numero Clericorum .... pergat ad alienam parochiam praeter Episcopi sui conscientiam , &c. So it is in the fifteenth Canon of the Apostles , and so it is there plainly distinguished as an office different from Presbyter , and Deacon , above thirty times in those Canons , and distinct powers given to the Bishop , which are not given to the other , and to the Bishop above the other . The Council of Ancyra inflicting censures upon Presbyters first , then Deacons which had fallen in time of persecution , gives leave to the Bishop to mitigate the pains as he sees cause . Sed si ex Episcopis aliqui in iis vel afflictionem aliquam .... ●iderint , in eorum potestate id esse . The Canon would not suppose any Bishops to fall , for indeed they seldome did , but for the rest , provision was made for both their penances , and indulgence at the discretion of the Bishop . And yet sometimes they did fall , Optatus bewails it , but withal gives evidence of their distinction of order . Quid commemorem Laicos qui tunc in Ecclesiâ nullâ ●uerant dignitate suffulti ? Quid Ministros plurimos , quid Diaconos in tertio , quid Presbyteros in secundo Sacerdotio constitutos ? Ipsi apices , & Principes omnium aliqui Episcopi aliqua instrumenta Divinae Legis impiè tradiderunt , The Laity , the Ministers , the Deacons , the Presbyters , nay , the Bishops themselves , the Princes and chief of all proved traditors . The diversity of order is here fairly intimated , but dogmatically affirmed by him in his 2d . book adv . Parmen . Quatuor genera capitum sunt in Ecclesiâ , Episcoporum , Presbyterorum , Diaconorum , & fidelium . There are four sorts of heads in the Church , Bishops , Presbyters , Deacons and the faithful Laity . And it was remarkable when the people of Hippo had as it were by violence carried S. Austin to be made Priest by their Bishop Valerius , some seeing the good man weep in consideration of the great hazard and difficulty accruing to him in his ordination to such an office , thought he had wept because he was not Bishop , they pretending comfort told him , quia locus Presbyterii licèt ipse majore dignus esset appropinquaret tamen Episcopatui . The office of a Presbyter though indeed he deserved a greater , yet was the next step in order to a Bishoprick . So Possidonius tells the story . It was the next step , the next descent , in subordination , the next under it . So the Council of Chalcedon , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is sacriledge to bring down a Bishop to the degree and order of a Presbyter , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so the Council permits in case of great delinquency , to suspend him from the execution of his Episcopal order , but still the character remains , and the degree of it self is higher . * Nos autem idcirco haec scribimus ( Fratres chariss . ) quia novimus quàm Sacrosanctum debeat esse Episcopale Sacerdotium , quod & clero , & plebi debet esse exemplo , said the Fathers of the Council of Antioch , in Eusebius , The office of a Bishop is sacred , and exemplary both to the Clergy , and the People . Interdixit per omnia , Magna Synodus , non Episcopo , non Presbytero , non Diacono licere , &c. And it was a remarkable story that Arius troubled the Church for missing of a Prelation to the order and dignity of a Bishop . Post Achillam enim Alexander .... ordinatur Episcopus . Hoc autem tempore Arius in ordine Presbyterorum fuit , Alexander was ordained a Bishop , and Arius still left in the order of meer Presbyters . * Of the same exigence are all those clauses of commemoration of a Bishop and Presbyters of the same Church . Julius autem Romanus Episcopus propter senectutem defuit , erántque pro eo praesentes Vitus , & Vicentius Presbyteri ejusdem Ecclesiae . They were his Vicars , and deputies for their Bishop in the Nicene Council , saith Sozomen . But most pertinent is that of the Indian persecution related by the same man. Many of them were put to death . Erant autem horum alii quidem Episcopi , alii Presbyteri , alii diversorum ordinum Clerici . And this difference of Order is clear in the Epistle of the Bishops of Illyricum to the Bishops of the Levant , De Episcopis autem constituendis , vel comministris jam constitutis si permanserint usque ad ●inem sani , bene .... Similiter Presbyteros atque Diaconos in sacerdotali ordine definivimus , &c. And of Sabbatius it is said , Nolens in suo ordine nanere Presbyteratus , desiderabat Epi●opatum ; he would not stay in the order of a Presbyter , but desired a Bishoprick . Ordo Episcoporun quadripartitus est , in Patriarchis , Archiepiscopis , Metropolitanis , & Episcopis , saith S. Isidore ; Omnes autem superius designati ordines uno eodémque vocabulo Episcopi Nominantur . But it were infinite to reckon authorities , and clauses of exclusion for the three orders of Bishops , Priests , and Deacons ; we cannot almost dip in any tome of the Councils but we shall find it recorded : And all the Martyr Bishops of Rome did ever acknowledge , and publish it , that Episcopacy is a peculiar office , and order in the Church of God ; as is to be seen in their decretal Epistles , in the first tome of the Councils . I only summ this up with the attestation of the Church of England , in the preface to the Book of ordination , It is evident to all men diligently reading holy Scripture and Ancient Authors , that from the Apostles times , there have been these Orders of Ministers in Christs Church , Bishops , Priests , and Deacons . The same thing exactly that was said in the second Council of Carthage , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . But we shall see it better , and by more real probation , for that Bishops were a distinct order appears by this ; SECT . XXIX . To which the Presbyterate was but a degree . 1. THE Presbyterate was but a step to Episcopacy , as Deaconship to the Presbyterate , and therefore the Council of Sardis decreed , that no man should be ordained Bishop , but he that was first a Reader , and a Deacon , and a Presbyter , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , That by every degree he may pass to the sublimity of Episcopacy . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 &c. But the degree of every order must have the permanence and trial of no small time . Here there is clearly a distinction of orders , and ordinations , and assumptions to them respectively , all of the same distance and consideration ; And Theodoret out of the Synodical Epistle of the same Council , says that they complained that some from Arianism were reconciled , and promoted from Deacons to be Presbyters , from Presbyters to be Bishops , calling it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a greater degree , or Order : And S. Gregory Nazianz. in his Encomium of S. Athanasius , speaking of his Canonical ordination , and election to a Bishoprick , says that he was chosen being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , most worthy , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , coming through all the inferior Orders . The same commendation S. Cyprian gives of Cornelius . Non iste ad Episcopatum subito pervenit , sed per omnia Ecclesiastica officia promotus , & in divinis administrationibus Dominum saepè promeritus ad Sacerdotii sublime fastigium cunctis religionis gradibus ascendit ... & factus est Episcopus à plurimis Collegis nostris qui tunc in Vrbe Româ aderant , qui ad nos literas .... de ejus ordinatione miserunt . Here is evident , not only a promotion , but a new Ordination of S. Cornelius to be Bishop of Rome ; so that now the chair is full ( saith S. Cyprian ) & quisquis jam Episcopus fieri voluerit foris fiat necesse est , Nec habeat Ecclesiasticam ordinationem &c. No man else can receive ordination to the Bishoprick . SECT . XXX . There being a peculiar manner of Ordination to a Bishoprick . 2. THE ordination of a Bishop to his chair was done de Novo after his being a Presbyter , and not only so , but in another manner than he had when he was made priest . This is evident in the first Ecclesiastical Canon that was made after Scripture . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . A Priest and Deacon must be ordained of one Bishop , but a Bishop must be ordained by two or three at least . And that we may see it yet more to be Apostolical , S. Anacletus in his second Epistle reports , Hierosolymitarum primus Episcopus B. Jacobus à Petro , Jacobo , & Johanne Apostolis est ordinatus . Three Apostles went to the ordaining of S. James to be a Bishop , and the self same thing is in words affirmed by Anicetus ; ut in ore duorum , vel trium stet omnis veritas ; And S. Cyprian observes that when Cornelius was made Bishop of Rome , there happened to be many of his fellow Bishops there , & factus est Episcopus à plurimis collegis nostris qui tunc in urbe Româ aderant . These Collegae could not be meer Priests , for then the ordination of Novatus had been more Canonical , than that of Cornelius , and all Christendome had been deceived , for not Novatus who was ordained by three Bishops ; but Cornelius had been the schismatick , as being ordained by Priests , against the Canon . But here I observe it for the word [ plurimis , ] there were many of them at that ordination . In pursuance of this Apostolical ordinance , the Nicene Fathers decreed that a Bishop should be ordained , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by all the Bishops in the Province , unless it be in case of necessity , and then it must be done by three being gathered together , and the rest consenting ; so the ordination to be performed . The same is ratified in the council of Antioch , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . A Bishop is not to be ordained without a Synod of Bishops , and the presence of the Metropolitan of the province . But if this cannot be done conveniently , yet however it is required 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the ordinations must be performed by many . The same was decreed in the Council of Laodicea , can . 12. in the 13 Canon of the African Code , in the 22 Canon of the first Council of Arles , and the fifth Canon of the second Council of Arles , and was ever the practice of the Church ; and so we may see it descend through the bowels of the fourth Council of Carthage to the inferiour ages . Episcopus quum ordinatur , duo Episcopi ponant , & teneant Evangeliorum codicem super caput , & cervicem ejus , & uno super eum fundente benedictionem , reliqui omnes Episcopi qui adsunt manibus suis caput ejus tangant . The thing was Catholick , and Canonical . It was prima , & immutabilis constitutio , so the first Canon of the Council of * Epaunum calls it ; And therefore after the death of Meletius Bishop of Antioch , a schism was made about his successor , and Evagrius his ordination condemned ; because praeter Ecclesiasticam regulam fuerit ordinatus , it was against the rule of Holy Church . Why so ? Solus enim Paulinus eum instituerat plurimas regulas praevaricatus Ecclesiasticas . Non enim praecipiunt ut per se quilibet ordinare possit , sed convocare Vniversos provinciae Sacerdotes , & praeter per tres Pontifices ordinationem penitus fieri interdicunt . Which because it was not observed in the ordination of Evagrius , who was not ordained by three Bishops , the ordination was cassated in the Council of Rhegium . And we read that when Novatus would fain be made a Bishop in the schism against Cornelius , he did it tribus adhibitis Episcopis ( saith Eusebius ) he obtained three Bishops , for performance of the action . Now besides these Apostolical , and Catholick Canons , and precedents , this thing according to the constant , and United interpretation of the Greek Fathers was actually done in the ordination of S. Timothy to the Bishoprick of Ephesus [ Neglect not the grace that is in thee by the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery . ] The Latin Fathers expound it abstractly viz. to signifie the office of Priest-hood , that is , neglect not the grace of Priest-hood , that is in thee by the imposition of hands , and this Erasmus helps by making [ Presbyterii ] to pertain to [ Gratiam ] by a new inter-punction of th● words ; but however , Presbyterii with the Latin Fathers signifies Presbyteratus , not Presbyterorum , and this Presbyteratus is in their sence used for Episcopatus too . But the Greek Fathers understand it collectively , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not simply such , but Bishops too , all agree in that , that Episcopacy is either meant in office , or in person . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . So Oecumenius ; and S. Chrysostome , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . So Theophylact. So Theodoret . The probation of this lies upon right reason , and Catholick tradition ; For , SECT . XXXI . To which Presbyters never did assist by imposing hands . 3. THE Bishops ordination was peculiar in this respect above the Presbyters , for a Presbyter did never impose hands on a Bishop . On a Presbyter they did ever since the fourth Council of Carthage ; but never on a Bishop . And that was the reason of the former exposition . By the Presbytery S. Paul means Bishops , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Presbyters did not impose hands on a Bishop , and therefore Presbyterium is not a Colledge of meer Presbyters , for such could never ordain S. Timothy to be a Bishop . The same reason is given by the Latin Fathers why they expound Presbyterium to signifie Episcopacy . For ( saith S. Ambrose ) S. Paul had ordained Timothy to be a Bishop , Vnde & quemadmodum Episcopum ordinet ostendit . Neque enim ●as erat , aut licebat , ut inferior ordinaret Majorem . So he , and subjoyns this reason , Nemon . tribuit quod non accepit . The same is affirmed by S. Chrysostome , and generally by the authors of the former expositions , that is , the Fathers both of the East , and West . For it was so General and Catholick a truth , that Priests could not , might not lay hands on a Bishop , that there was never any example of it in Christendome till almost 600. years after Christ , and that but once , and that irregular , and that without imitation of his Successors , or example in his Antecessors . It was the case of Pope Pelagius the first , & dum non essent Episcopi , qui eum ordinarent , inventi sunt duo Episcopi , Johannes de Perusio , & Bonus de Ferentino , & Andraeas Presbyter de Ostiâ , & ordinaverunt eum pontificem . Tunc enim non erant in Clero qui eum possent promovere . Saith Damasus . It was in case of necessity , because there were not three Bishops , therefore he procured two , and a priest of Ostia to supply the place of the third , that three , according to the direction Apostolical , and Canons of Nice , Antioch , and Carthage , make Episcopal ordination . * The Church of Rome is concerned in the business to make fair this ordination , and to reconcile it to the Council of Rhegium , and the others before mentioned , who if ask'd would declare it to be invalid . * But certainly as the Canons did command three to impose hands on a Bishop , so also they commanded that those three should be three Bishops , and Pelagius might as well not have had three , as not three Bishops ; and better , because , so they were Bishops , the first Canon of the Apostles approves the ordination if done by two , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And the Nicene Canon is as much exact , in requiring the capacity of the person , as the Number of the Ordainers . But let them answer it . For my part , I believe that the imposition of hands by Andreas , was no more in that case than if a lay-man had done it ; it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and though the ordination was absolutely Uncanonical , yet it being in the exigence of Necessity , and being done by two Bishops according to the Apostolical Canon , it was valid in naturâ rei , though not in forma Canonis , and the addition of the Priest was but to cheat the Canon , and cozen himself into an impertinent belief of a Canonical ordination . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith the Council of Sardis . Bishops must ordain Bishops ; It was never heard that Priests did , or de jure might . These premises do most certainly infer a real difference , between Episcopacy , and the Presbyterate . But whether or no they infer a difference of order , or only of degree ; or whether degree , and order be all one , or no , is of great consideration in the present , and in relation to many other Questions . 1. Then it is evident , that in Antiquity , Ordo and Gradus were used promiscuously . [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] was the Greek word , and for it the Latins used [ Ordo ] as is evident in the instances above mentioned , to which add , that Anacletus says , that Christ did instituere duos Ordines , Episcoporum & Sacerdotum . And S. Leo affir●● ; Primum ordinem esse Episcopalem , secundum Presbyteralem , tertium Leviticum ; And these among the Greeks are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , three degrees . So the order of Deaconship in S. Paul is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a good degree ; and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. is a censure used alike in the censures of Bishops , Priests and Deacons . They are all of the same Name , and the same consideration , for order , distance , and degree , amongst the Fathers ; Gradus , and Ordo are equally affirmed of them all ; and the word Gradus is used sometimes for that , which is called Ordo most frequently . So Felix writing to S. Austin , Non tantum ego possum contra tuam virtutem , quia mira virtus est Gradus Episcopalis ; and S. Cyprian of Cornelius , Ad Sacerdotii sublime fastigium cunctis religionis Gradibus ascendit . Degree , and Order , are used in common , for he that speaks most properly will call that an Order in persons , which corresponds to a degree in qualities , and neither of the words are wronged by a mutual substitution , 2. The promotion of a Bishop ad Munus Episcopale , was at first called ordinatio Episcopi . Stir up the Grace that is in thee , juxta ordinationem tuam in Episcopatum , saith Sedulius ; And S. Hierom ; prophetiae gratiam habebat cum Ordinatione Episcopatus . Neque enim fas erat aut licebat ut inferior Ordinaret majorem , saith S. Ambrose , proving that Presbyters might not impose hands on a Bishop . * Romanorum Ecclesia Clementem à Petro Ordinatum edit , saith Tertulli●n ; and S. Hierome affirms that S. James was Ordained Bishop of Jerusalem immediately after the Passion of our Lord. [ Ordinatus ] was the the word at first , and afterwards [ Consecratus ] came in conjunction with it , when Moses the Monk was to be ordained , to wit a Bishop , for that 's the title of the story in Theodoret , and spyed that Lucius was there ready to impose hands on him , absit ( says he ) ut manus tua me Consecret . 3. In all orders , there is the impress of a distinct Character ; that is , the person is qualified with a new capacity to do certain offices , which before his ordination he had no power to do . A Deacon hath an order or power — Quo pocula vitae Misceat , & latices cum Sanguine porrigat agni , as Arator himself a Deacon expresses it . A Presbyter hath an higher order or degree in the office or ministery of the Church , whereby he is enabled , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as the Council of Ancyra does intimate . But a Bishop hath a higher yet ; for besides all the offices communicated to Priests , and Deacons ; he can give orders , which very one thing makes Episcopacy to be a distinct order . For Ordo is designed by the Schools to be , traditio potestatis spiritualis , & Collatio gratiae , ad obeunda Ministeria Ecclesiastica ; a giving a spiritual power , and a conferring grace for the performance of Ecclesiastical Ministrations . Since then Episcopacy hath a new ordination , and a distinct power ( as I shall shew in the descent ) it must needs be a distinct order , both according to the Name given it by antiquity , and according to the nature of the thing in the definitions of the School . There is nothing said against this but a fancy of some of the Church of Rome , obtruded indeed upon no grounds ; for they would define order to be a special power in relation to the Holy Sacrament which they call corpus Christi naturale ; and Episcopacy indeed to be a distinct power in relation ad corpus Christi Mysticum , or the regiment of the Church , and ordaining labourers for the harvest , and therefore not to be a distinct order . But this to them that consider things sadly , is true or false according as any man list . For if these men are resolved they will call nothing an order but what is a power in order to the consecration of the Eucharist , who can help it ? Then indeed , in that sence , Episcopacy is not a distinct order , that is , a Bishop hath no new power in the consecration of the Venerable Eucharist , more than a Presbyter hath . But then why these men should only call this power [ an order ] no man can give a reason . For , 1. in Antiquity the distinct power of a Bishop was ever called an Order , and I think , before Hugo de S. Victore , and the Master of the Sentences , no man ever denied it to be an order . 2. According to this rate , I would fain know the office of a Sub-deacon , and of an Ostiary , and of an Acolouthite , and of a Reader , come to be distinct Orders ; for surely the Bishop hath as much power in order to consecration de Novo , as they have de integro . And if I mistake not ; that the Bishop hath a new power to ordain Presbyters who shall have a power of consecrating the Eucharist , is more a new power in order to consecration , than all those inferior officers put together have in all , and yet they call them Orders , and therefore why not Episcopacy also , I cannot imagine , unless because they will not . *** But however in the mean time , the denying the office and degree of Episcopacy to be a new and a distinct order is an innovation of the production of some in the Church of Rome , without all reason , and against all Antiquity . This only by the way . The enemies of Episcopacy call in aid from all places for support of their ruinous cause , and therefore take their main hopes from the Church of Rome by advantage of the former discourse . For since ( say they ) that consecration of the Sacrament is the Greatest work , of the most secret mystery , greatest power , and highest dignity that is competent to man , and this a Presbyter hath as well as a Bishop , is it likely that a Bishop should by Divine institution be so much superiour to a Presbyter , who by the confession of all sides communicates with a Bishop in that which is his highest power ? And shall issues of a lesser dignity distinguish the Orders , and make a Bishop higher to a Presbyter , and not rather the Greater raise up a Presbyter to the Counterpoise of a Bishop ? Upon this surmise the men of the Church of Rome , would infer an identity of order , though a disparity of degree , but the Men of the other world would infer a parity both of order and degree too . The first are already answered in the premises , The second must now be served . 1. Then , whether power be greater , of Ordaining Priests , or Consecrating the Sacrament is an impertinent Question ; possibly , it may be of some danger ; because in comparing Gods ordinances , there must certainly be a depression of one , and whether that lights upon the right side or no ▪ yet peradventure it will not stand with the consequence of our gratitude to God , to do that , which in Gods estimate may tantamount to a direct undervaluing , but however it is unprofitable , of no use in case of conscience either in order to faith , or manners , and besides , cannot fix it self upon any basis , there being no way of proving either to be more excellent than the other . 2. The Sacraments and mysteries of Christianity , if compared among themselves , are greater , and lesser in several respects . For since they are all in order to several ends , that is , productive of several effects , and they all are excellent , every rite , and sacrament in respect of its own effect , is more excellent than the other not ordained to that effect . For example . Matrimony is ordained for a means to preserve Chastity , and to represent the mystical union of Christ and his Church , and therefore in these respects is greater than baptism , which does neither . But * Baptism is for remission of sins and in that is more excellent than Matrimony ; the same may be said for ordination , and consecration , the one being in order to Christs natural body ( as the Schools speak ) the other in order to his mystical body , and so have their several excellencies respectively ; but for an absolute preheminence of one above the other , I said there was no basis to fix that upon , and I believe all men will find it so that please to try . But in a relative , or respective excellency , they go both before , and after one another . Thus Wool , and a Jewel , are better than each other ; for wool is better for warmth , and a jewel for ornament . A frogg hath more sense in it , than the Sun ; and yet the Sun shines brighter . 3. Suppose consecration of the Eucharist were greater than ordaining Priests , yet that cannot hinder , but that the power of ordaining may make a higher and distinct order , because the power of ordaining hath in it the power of consecrating and something more ; it is all that which makes the Priest , and it is something more besides , which makes the Bishop . Indeed if the Bishop had it not , and the Priest had it , then supposing consecration to be greater than ordination , the Priest would not only equal , but excel the Bishop ; but because the Bishop hath that , and ordination besides , therefore he is higher both in Order , and Dignity . 4. Suppose that Consecration were the greatest Clerical power in the world , and that the Bishop and the Priest were equal in the greatest power , yet a lesser power than it , superadded to the Bishops , may make a distinct order , and superiority . Thus it was said of the son of Man , Constituit eum paulò minorem Angelis , he was made a little lower than the Angels . It was but a little lower , and yet so much as to distinguish their Natures , for he took not upon him the Nature of Angels , but the seed of Abraham . So it is in proportion between Bishop and Priest ; for though a Priest communicating in the greatest power of the Church , viz. consecration of the venerable Eucharist , yet differing in a less is paulò minor Angelis , a little lower than the Bishop , the Angel of the Church , yet this little lower , makes a distinct order , and enough for a subordination . * An Angel , and a man communicate in those great excellencies of spiritual essence , they both discourse , they have both election , and freedom of choice , they have will , and understanding , and memory , impresses of the Divine image : and loco-motion , and immortality . And these excellencies are ( being precisely considered ) of more real and eternal worth , than the Angelical manner of moving so in an instant , and those other forms and modalities of their knowledge and volition , and yet for these superadded parts of excellency , the difference is no less than specifical . If we compare a Bishop and a Priest thus , what we call difference in nature there , will be a difference in order here , and of the same consideration . 5. Lastly it is considerable , that these men that make this objection , do not make it because they think it true , but because it will serve a present turn . For all the world sees , that to them that deny the real presence , this can be no objection ; and most certainly the Anti-episcopal men do so , in all sences ; and then what excellency is there in the power of consecration , more than in ordination ? Nay , is there any such thing as consecration at all ? This also would be considered from their principles . But I proceed . One thing only more is objected against the main Question . If Episcopacy be a distinct order , why may not a man be a Bishop that never was a Priest , as ( abstracting from the Laws of the Church ) a man may be a Presbyter that never was a Deacon , for if it be the impress of a distinct character , it may be imprinted per saltum , and independently , as it is in the order of a Presbyter ? To this I answer , It is true if the powers and characters themselves were independent ; as it is in all those offices of humane constitution , which are called the inferior orders ; For the office of an Acolouthite , of an Exorcist , of an Ostiary , are no way dependent on the office of a Deacon , and therefore a man may be Deacon , that never was in any of those , and perhaps a Presbyter too , that never was a Deacon , as it was in the first example of the Presbyterate in the 72. Disciples . But a Bishop though he have a distinct character , yet it is not disparate from that of a Presbyter , but supposes it ex vi ordinis . For since the power of ordination ( if any thing be ) is the distinct capacity of a Bishop , this power supposes a power of consecrating the Eucharist to be in the Bishop , for how else can he ordain a Presbyter with a power , that himself hath not ? can he give what himself hath not received ? * I end this point with the saying of Epiphanius , Vox est Aerii haeretici , Vnus est ordo Episcoporum , & Presbyterorum una dignitas . To say that Bishops are not a distinct order from Presbyters , was a heresy first broached by Aerius , and hath lately been ( at least in the manner of speaking ) countenanced by many of the Church of Rome . SECT . XXXII . For Bishops had a power distinct , and Superiour to that of Presbyters . As of Ordination . FOR to clear the distinction of order , it is evident in Antiquity , that Bishops had a power of imposing hands , for collating of orders which Presbyters have not . * What was done in this affair in the times of the Apostles I have already explicated : but now the inquiry is , what the Church did in pursuance of the practice , and tradition Apostolical . The first , and second Canons of Apostles command that two , or three Bishops should ordain a Bishop , and one Bishop should ordain a Priest , and a Deacon . A Presbyter is not authorized to ordain , a Bishop is . S. Dionysius affirms , Sacerdotem non posse initiari , nisi per invocationes Episcopales , and acknowledges no ordainer but a Bishop . No more did the Church ever ; Insomuch that when Novatus the Father of the old Puritans , did ambire Episcopatum , he was fain to go to the utmost parts of Italy , and seduce or intreat some Bishops to impose hands on him , as Cornelius witnesses in his Epistle to Fabianus , in Eusebius . To this we may add as so many witnesses , all those ordinations made by the Bishops of Rome , mentioned in the Pontifical book of Damasus Platina , and others . Habitis de more sacris ordinibus Decembris mense , Presbyteros decem , Diaconos duos , &c. creat ( S. Clemens ) Anacletus Presbyteros quinque , Diaconos tres , Episcopos diversis in locis sex numero creavit , and so in descent , for all the Bishops of that succession for many ages together . But let us see how this power of ordination went in the Bishops hand alone , by Law and Constitution ; for particular examples are infinite . In the Council of Ancyra it is determined 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . That Rural Bishops shall not ordain Presbyters or Deacons in anothers Diocess without letters of license from the Bishop . Neither shall the Priests of the City attempt it . * First , not Rural Bishops , that is , Bishops that are taken in adjutorium Episcopi Principalis , Vicars to the Bishop of the Diocess , they must not ordain Priests and Deacons . For it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it is anothers Diocess , and to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is prohibited by the Canon of Scripture . But then they may with license ? Yes ; for they had Episcopal Ordination at first , but not Episcopal Jurisdiction , and so were not to invade the territories of their neighbour . The tenth Canon of the Council of Antioch clears this part . The words are these , as they are rendred by Dionysius Exiguus . Qui in villis , & vicis constituti sunt Chorepiscopi , tametsi manus impositionem ab Episcopis susceperunt , [ & ut Episcopi sunt consecrati ] tamen oportet eos modum proprium retinere , &c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the next clause [ & ut Episcopi consecrati sunt ] although it be in very ancient Latine copies , yet is not found in the Greek , but is an assumentum for exposition of the Greek , but is most certainly implyed in it ; for else , what description could this be of Chorepiscopi , above Presbyteri rurales , to say that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for so had countrey Priests , they had received imposition of the Bishops hands . Either then the Chorepiscopi had received ordination from three Bishops , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be taken collectively , not distributively , to wit , that each Countrey Bishop had received ordination from Bishops , many Bishops in conjunction , and so they were very Bishops , or else they had no more than village Priests , and then this caution had been impertinent . * But the City Priests were also included in this prohibition . True it is , but it is in a Parenthesis , with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in the midst of the Canon , and there was some particular reason for the involving them , not that they ever did actually ordain any , but that since it was prohibited to the Chorepiscopi to ordain ( to them I say , who though for want of jurisdiction they might not ordain without license , it being in alienâ Parochiâ , yet they had capacity by their order to do it ) if these should do it , the City Presbyters who were often dispatched into the Villages upon the same imployment , by a temporary mission , that the Chorepiscopi were by an ordinary , and fixt residence , might perhaps think that their commission might extend farther than it did , or that they might go beyond it , as well as the Chorepiscopi , and therefore their way was obstructed by this clause of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * Add to this ; The Presbyters of the City were of great honour , and peculiar priviledge , as appears in the thirteenth Canon of the Council of Neo-Caesarea , and therefore might easily exceed , if the Canon had not been their bridle . The sum of the Canon is this . With the Bishops license the Chorepiscopi might ordain , for themselves had Episcopal ordination , but without license they might not , for they had but delegate and subordinate jurisdiction ; And therefore in the fourteenth Canon of Neo-Caesarea are said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , like the 70 Disciples , that is , inferior to Bishops , and the 70 were to the twelve Apostles , viz. in hoc particulari , not in order , but like them in subordination and inferiority of jurisdiction : but the City Presbyters might not ordain , neither with , nor without license ; for they are in the Canon only by way of parenthesis , and the sequence of procuring a faculty from the Bishops to collate orders , is to be referred to Chorepiscopi , not to Presbyteri Civitatis , unless we should strain this Canon into a sence contrary to the practice of the Catholick Church . Res enim ordinis non possunt delegari , is a most certain rule in Divinity , and admitted by men of all sides , and most different interests . * However we see here , that they were prohibited , and we never find before this time , that any of them actually did give orders , neither by ordinary power , nor extraordinary dispensation ; and the constant tradition of the Church , and practice Apostolical is , that they never could give orders ; therefore this exposition of the Canon is liable to no exception , but is clear for the illegality of a Presbyter giving holy orders , either to a Presbyter , or a Deacon , and is concluding for the necessity of concurrence both of Episcopal order , and jurisdiction for ordinations , for , reddendo singula singulis , and expounding this Canon according to the sence of the Church , and exigence of Catholick custome , the Chorepiscopi are excluded from giving orders for want of jurisdiction , and the Priests of the City for want of order ; the first may be supplied by a delegate power in literis Episcopalibus , the second cannot ; but by a new ordination , that is , by making the Priest a Bishop . For if a Priest of the City have not so much power as a Chorepiscopus , as I have proved he hath not , by shewing that the Chorepiscopus then had Episcopal ordination , and yet the Chorepiscopus might not collate orders without a faculty from the Bishop , the City Priests might not do it , unless more be added to them , for their want was more . They not only want jurisdiction , but something besides , and that must needs be order . * But although these Chorepiscopi at the first had Episcopal Ordination , yet it was quickly taken from them for their incroachment upon the Bishops Diocess , and as they were but Vicarii , or visitatores Episcoporum in villis , so their ordination was but to a meer Presbyterate . And this we find , as soon as ever we hear that they had had Episcopal Ordination . For those who in the beginning of the 10 Canon of Antioch we find had been consecrated as Bishops , in the end of the same Canon , we find it decreed de novo : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The Chorepiscopus or countrey Bishop must be ordained by the Bishop of the City , in whose jurisdiction he is ; which was clearly ordination to the order of a Presbyter , and no more . And ever after this all the ordinations they made were , only to the inferiour Ministeries , with the Bishops License too , but they never ordained any to be Deacons or Priests ; for these were Orders of the Holy Ghosts appointing , and therefore were gratia Spiritus Sancti , and issues of order ; but the inferiour Ministeries as of a Reader , an Ostiary , &c. were humane constitutions , and required not the capacity of Episcopal Order to collate them ; for they were not Graces of the Holy Ghost , as all Orders properly so called are , but might by humane dispensation be bestowed , as well as by humane ordinance they had their first constitution . * * The Chorepiscopi lasted in this consistence till they were quite taken away by the Council of Hispalis : save only that such men also were called Chorepiscopi who had been Bishops of Cities , but had fallen from their honour by communicating in Gentile Sacrifices , and by being Traditors , but in case they repented and were reconciled , they had not indeed restitution to their See , but , because they had the indeleble character of a Bishop , they were allowed the Name , and honour , and sometime the execution of offices Chorepiscopal . Now of this sort of Chorepiscopi no objection can be pretended , if they had made ordinations ; and of the other nothing pertinent , for they also had the ordination , and order of Bishops . The former was the case of Meletius in the Nicene Council , as is to be seen in the Epistle of the Fathers to the Church of Alexandria . But however all this while the power of ordination is so fast held in the Bishops hand , that it was communicated to none though of the greatest priviledge . * I find the like care taken in the Council of Sardis , for when Musaeus , and Eutychianus had ordained some Clerks , themselves not being Bishops , Gaudentius ( one of the moderate men , it is likely ) for quietness sake , and to comply with the times , would fain have had those Clerks received into Clerical communion ; but the Council would by no means admit that any should be received into the Clergy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( as Balsamon expresses upon that Canon ; but such as were ordained by them who were Bishops verily , and indeed . But with those who were ordained by Musaeus and Eutychianus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , we will communicate as with Laymen : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . For they were no Bishops that imposed hands on them ; and therefore the Clerks were not ordained truly , but were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , dissemblers of ordination . Quae autem de Musaeo & Eutychiano dicta sunt , trahe etiam ad alios qui non ordinati fuerunt , &c. saith Balsamon , intimating , that it is a ruled case and of publick interest . * The same was the issue of those two famous cases , the one of Ischiras ordained of Colluthus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , one that dreamed only he was a Bishop . Ischiras being ordained by him could be no Priest , nor any else of his ordaining , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and Ischyras himself was reduced into lay communion , being deposed by the Synod of Alexandria , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , falling from the imagination of his Presbyterate , say the Priests and Deacons of Mareotis ; And of the rest that were ordained with Ischiras , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. Athanasius , and this so known a business , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , No man made scruple of the Nullity . ** The parallel case is of the Presbyters ordained by Maximus , who was another Bishop in the air too ; all his ordinations were pronounced null , by the Fathers of the Council in Constantinople . A third is of the blind Bishop of Agabra imposing hands while his Presbyters read the words of ordination , the ordination was pronounced invalid by the first Council of Sevil. These cases are so known , I need not insist on them . This only , In diverse cases of Transgression of the Canons , Clergy men were reduced to lay communion , either being suspended , or deposed ; that is , from their place of honour , and execution of their function , with , or without hope of restitution respectively ; but then still they had their order , and the Sacramens conferred by them were valid , though they indeed were prohibited to minister ; but in the cases of the present instance , the ordinations were pronounced as null , to have bestowed nothing , and to be merely imaginary . * But so also it was in case that Bishops ordained without a title , or in the Diocess of another Bishop , as in the Council of * Chalcedon , & of * Antioch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And may be it was so in case of ordination by a Presbyter , it was by positive constitution pronounced void , and no more , and therefore may be rescinded by the Countermand of an equal power ; A Council at most may do it , and therefore without a Council , a probable necessity will let us loose . But to this the answer is evident . 1. The expressions in the several cases are several , and of diverse issue , for in case of those nullities which are meerly Canonical , they are expressed as then first made , but in the case of ordination by a Non-Bishop , they are only declared void ipso facto . And therefore in that decree of Chalcedon against Sinetitular ordinations , the Canon saith ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Irritam Existimari manus impositionem , to be esteemed as null , that is , not to have Canonical approbation , but is not declared null , in natura rei , as it is in the foregoing instances . 2. In the cases of Antioch , and Chalcedon , the degree is pro futuro , which makes it evident that those nullities are such as are made by Canon , but in the cases of Colluthus , and Maximus , there was declaration of a past nullity , and that before any Canon was made ; and though Synodal declarations pronounced such ordinations invalid , yet none decreed so for the future , which is a clear evidence , that this nullity , viz. in case of ordination by a Non-Presbyter , is not made by Canon , but by Canon declared to be invalid in the nature of the thing . 3. If to this be added , that in antiquity it was dogmatically resolved that by nature and institution of the order of Bishops , ordination was appropriate to them , then it will also from hence be evident , that the nullity of ordination without a Bishop is not dependent upon positive constitution , but on the exigence of the institution . ** Now that the power of ordination was only in the Bishop , even they who to advance the Presbyters , were willing enough to speak less for Episcopacy , give testimony ; making this the proper distinctive cognizance of a Bishop from a Presbyter , that the Bishop hath power of ordination , the Presbyter hath not . So S. Jerome , Quid facit Episcopus ( excepta ordinatione ) quod Presbyter non faciat ? All things ( saith he ) [ to wit all things of precise order ] are common to Bishops with Priests , except ordination , for that is proper to the Bishop . And S. Chrysostome , Sola quippe ordinatione superiores illis sunt [ Episcopi ] atque hoc tantum plusquam Presbyteri habere videntur . Ordination is the proper and peculiar function of a Bishop ; and therefore not given him by positive constitution of the Canon . 4. No man was called an heretick for breach of Canon , but for denying the power of ordination to be proper to a Bishop : Aerius was by Epiphanius , Philastrius , and S. Austin condemned , and branded for heresie , and by the Catholick Church saith Epiphanius . This power therefore came from a higher spring , than positive and Canonical Sanction . But now proceed . The Council held in Trullo , complaining of the incursion of the barbarous people upon the Churches inheritance , saith that it forced some Bishops from their residence , and made that they could not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , according to the guise of the Church , give Orders and do such things as did belong to the Bishop ; and in the sequel of the Canon they are permitted in such cases , ut & diversorum Clericorum ordinationes canonicè faciant , to make Canonical ordinations of Clergy men . Giving of Orders is proper , it belongs to a Bishop . So the Council . And therefore Theodoret expounding that place of S. Paul [ by laying on the hands of the Presbytery ] interprets it of Bishops ; for this reason , because Presbyters did not impose hands . There is an imperfect Canon in the Arausican Council that hath an expression very pertinent to this purpose , Ea quae non nisi per Episcopos geruntur , those things that are not done , but by Bishops , they were decreed still to be done by Bishops , though he that was to do them regularly , did fall into any infirmity whatsoever , yet non sub praesentia sua Presbyteros agere permittat , sed evocet Episcopum . Here are clearly by this Canon some things supposed to be proper to the Bishops , to the action of which Presbyters must in no case be admitted . The particulars , what they are , are not specified in the Canon , but are named before , viz. Orders , and Confirmation , for almost the whole Council was concerning them , and nothing else is properly the agendum Episcopi , and the Canon else is not to be understood . * To the same issue is that circum-locutory description , or name of a Bishop , used by S. Chrysostome , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The man that is to ordain Clerks . * And all this is but the doctrine of the Catholick Church which S. Epiphanius opposed to the doctrine of Aerius , denying Episcopacy to be a distinct order . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( speaking of Episcopacy ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , speaking of Presbytery . The order of Bishops begets Fathers to the Church of God , but the order of Presbyters begets sonnes in baptism , but no fathers or Doctors by ordination . * It is a very remarkable passage related by Eusebius in the ordination of Novatus to be Presbyter , the Bishop did it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , all the whole Clergy was against it , yet the Bishop did ordain him , and then certainly scarce any conjunction of the other Clergy can be imagined ; I am sure none is either expressed or intimated . For it was a ruled case , and attested by the Uniform practise of the Church , which was set down in the third Council of Carthage , Episcopus Vnus esse potest per quem dignatione Divina Presbyteri multi constitui possunt . This case I instance the more particularly , because it is an exact determination of a Bishops sole power of ordination . Aurelius made a motion , that , if a Church wanted a Presbyter to become her Bishop , they might demand one from any Bishop . It was granted ; But Posthumianus the Bishop put this case . Deinde qui Vnum habuerit , numquid debet illi ipse unus Presbyter auferri ? How if the Bishop have but one Priest , must his Bishop part with him to supply the necessity of the Neighbour widow Church ? Yea , that he must . But how then shall he keep ordinations when he hath never a Presbyter to assist him ? That indeed would have been the objection now , but it was none then . For Aurelius told them plainly ; there was no inconvenience in it , for though a Bishop have never a Presbyter , no great matter , he can himself ordain many ( and then I am sure there is a sole ordination ) but if a Bishop be wanting to a Church , he is not so easily found . ** Thus it went ordinarily in the stile of the Church , ordinations were made by the Bishop , and the ordainer spoken of as a single person . So it is in the Nicene Council , the Council of * Antioch , the Council of ‖ Chalcedon , and S. Jerome who writing to Pammachius against the errors of John of Jerusalem ; If thou speak ( saith he ) of Paulinianus , he comes now and then to visit us , not as any of your Clergy , but ejus à quo ordinatus est , that Bishop's who ordained him . * So that the issue of this argument is this . The Canons of the Apostles , and the rules of the Ancient Councils appropriate the ordination of Bishops to Bishops , of Presbyters to one Bishop , ( for I never find a Presbyter ordained by two Bishops together , but only Origen by the Bishops of Jerusalem and Caesarea ) Presbyters are never mentioned in conjunction with Bishops at their ordinations , and if alone they did it , their ordination was pronounced invalid and void ab initio . * To these particulars add this , that Bishops alone were punished if ordinations were Vncanonical , which were most unreasonable if Presbyters did joyn in them , and were causes in conjunction . But unless they did it alone , we never read that they were punishable ; indeed Bishops were pro toto , & integro , as is reported by Sozomen in the case of Elpidius , Eustathius , Basilius of Ancyra , and Eleusius . Thus also it was decreed in the second and sixth Chapters of the Council of Chalcedon , and in the Imperial constitutions . Since therefore we never find Presbyters joyned with Bishops in commission , or practice , or penalty all this while ; I may infer from the premisses the same thing which the Council of Hispalis expresses in direct and full sentence , Episcopus Sacerdotibus , ac Ministris solus honorem dare potest , solus auferre non potest . The Bishop alone may give the Priestly honour , he alone is not suffered to take it away . This Council was held in the year 657 , and I set it down here for this purpose , to show that the decree of the fourth Council of Carthage , which was the first that licensed Priests to assist Bishops in ordinations , yet was not obligatory in the West ; but for almost 300 years after ordinations were made by Bishops alone . But till this Council no pretence of any such conjunction , and after this Council sole ordination did not expire in the West for above 200 years together ; but for ought I know , ever since then it hath obtained , that although Presbyters joyn not in the consecration of a Bishop , yet of a Presbyter they do ; but this is only by a positive subintroduced constitution , first made in a Provincial of Africa , and in other places received by insinuation and conformity of practice . * I know not what can be said against it . I only find a piece of an objection out of S. Cyprian , who was a Man so complying with the Subjects of his Diocess , that if any man , he was like to furnish us with an Antinomy . Hunc igitur ( Fratres Dilectissimi ) à me , & à Collegis qui praesentes aderant ordinatum sciatis . Here either by his Colleagues he means Bishops or Presbyters . If Bishops , then many Bishops will be found in the ordination of one to an inferiour order , which because it was ( as I observed before ) against the practice of Christendom , will not easily be admitted to be the sence of S. Cyprian . But if he means Presbyters by [ Collegae ] then sole ordination is invalidated by this example , for Presbyters joyned with him in the ordination of Aurelius . I answer , that it matters not whether by his Colleagues he means one , or the other , for Aurelius the Confessor , who was the man ordained , was ordained but to be a Reader , and that was no Order of Divine institution , no gift of the Holy Ghost , and therefore might be dispensed by one , or more ; by Bishops or Presbyters , and no way enters into the consideration of this question , concerning the power of collating those orders which are gifts of the Holy Ghost , and of Divine ordinance ; and therefore , this , although I have seen it once pretended , yet hath no validity to impugne the constant practice of Primitive Antiquity . But then are all ordinations invalid which are done by meer Presbyters without a Bishop ? What think we of the reformed Churches ? 1. For my part I know not what to think . The question hath been so often asked with so much violence and prejudice ; and we are so bound by publick interest to approve all that they do , that we have disabled our selves to justifie our own . For we were glad at first of abettors against the Errors of the Roman Church , we found these men zealous in it , we thanked God for it ( as we had cause ) and we were willing to make them recompence , by endeavouring to justifie their ordinations ; not thinking what would follow upon our selves . But now it is come to that issue , that our own Episcopacy is thought not necessary , because we did not condemn the ordinations of their Presbytery . 2. Why is not the question rather , what we think of the Primitive Church , than what we think of the reformed Churches ? Did the Primitive Councils , and Fathers do well in condemning the ordinations made by meer Presbyters ? If they did well , what was a vertue in them , is no sin in us . If they did ill , from what principle shall we judge of the right of ordinations ? since there is no example in Scripture of any ordination made but by Apostles and Bishops , and the Presbytery that imposed hands on Timothy , is by all Antiquity expounded either of the office , or of a Colledge of Presbyters ; and S. Paul expounds it to be an ordination made by his own hands , as appears by comparing the two Epistles to S. Timothy together ; and may be so meant by the principles of all sides , for if the names be confounded , then Presbyter may signifie a Bishop , and that they of this Presbytery were not Bishops , they can never prove from Scripture , where all men grant that the Names are confounded . * So that whence will men take their estimate for the rites of ordinations ? From Scripture ? That gives it always to Apostles and Bishops , ( as I have proved ) and that a Priest did ever impose hands for ordination , can never be shown from thence . From whence then ? From Antiquity ? That was so far from licensing ordinations made by Presbyters alone , that Presbyters in the Primitive Church did never joyn with Bishops in Collating holy Orders of Presbyter and Deacon , till the fouth Council of Carthage ; much less do it alone , rightly , and with effect . So that , as in Scripture there is nothing for Presbyters ordaining , so in Antiquity there is much against it ; And either in this particular we must have strange thoughts of Scripture and Antiquity , and not so fair interpretation of the ordinations of reformed Presbyteries . But for my part I had rather speak a truth in sincerity , than erre with a glorious correspondence . But will not necessity excuse them who could not have orders from Orthodox Bishops ? shall we either sin against our consciences by subscribing to heretical and false resolutions in materiâ fidei , or else lose the being of a Church , for want of Episcopal ordinations ? * Indeed if the case were just thus , it was very hard with good people of the transmarine Churches ; but I have here two things to consider . 1. I am very willing to believe that they would not have done any thing either of error or suspicion , but in cases of necessity . But then I consider that M. Du Plessis , a man of honour and great learning does attest , that at the first reformation there were many Arch-Bishops and Cardinals in Germany , England , France , and Italy that joyned in the reformation , whom they might , but did not imploy in their ordinations ; And what necessity then can be pretended in this case , I would fain learn that I might make their defence . But , which is of more , and deeper consideration ; for this might have been done by inconsideration and irresolution , as often happens in the beginning of great changes , but , it is their constant and resolved practice at least in France , that if any returns to them they will reordain him by their Presbytery , though he had before Episcopal ordination , as both their friends and their enemies bear witness . 2. I consider that necessity may excuse a personal delinquency ; but I never heard that necessity did build a Church . Indeed no man is forced for his own particular to commit a sin , for if it be absolutely a case of necessity , the action ceaseth to be a sin ; but indeed if God means to build a Church in any place , he will do it by means proportionable to that end ; that is , by putting them into a possibility of doing , and acquiring those things which himself hath required of necessity to the constitution of a Church . * So that , supposing that ordination by a Bishop is necessary for the vocation of Priests and Deacons ( as I have proved it is ) and therefore for the founding or perpetuating of a Church , either God hath given to all Churches opportunity and possibility of such Ordinations , and then , necessity of the contrary is but pretence and mockery , or if he hath not given such possibility , then there is no Church there to be either built or continued , but the Candlestick is presently removed . There are divers stories in Ruffinus to this purpose . When Aedesius and Frumen●ius were surprized by the Barbarous Indians , they preached Christianity , and baptized many , but themselves being but Lay-men , could make no Ordinations , and so not fix a Church . What then was to be done in the case ? Frumentius Alexandriam pergit — & rem omnem , ut gesta est , narrat Episcopo , ac monet , ut provideat virum aliquem dignum quem congregatis jam plurimis Christianis in Barbarico solo Episcopum mittat . Frumentius comes to Alexandria to get a Bishop . Athanasius being then Patriarch ordained Frumentius their Bishop , Et tradito ei Sacerdotio , redire eum cum Domini Gratiâ unde venerat jubet — ex quo ( saith Ruffinus ) in Indiae partibus , & populi Christianorum & Ecclesiae factae sunt , & Sacerdotium coepit . The same happened in the case of the Iberians converted by a Captive woman ; Posteà verò quàm Ecclesia magnificè constructa est , & populi fidem Dei majore ardore s●●●ebant , captivae monitis ad Imperatorem Constantinum totius Gentis legatio mittitur : Res gesta exponitur : Sacerdotes mittere oratur qui coeptum erga se Dei munus implerent . The work of Christianity could not be compleated , nor a Church founded without the Ministery of Bishops . * Thus the case is evident , that the want of a Bishop will not excuse us from our endeavours of acquiring one ; and where God means to found a Church , there he will supply them with those means , and Ministeries which himself hath made of ordinary and absolute necessity . And therefore if it happens that those Bishops which are of ordinary Ministration amongst us , prove heretical , still Gods Church is Catholick , and though with trouble , yet Orthodox Bishops may be acquir'd . For just so it happened when Mauvia Queen of the Saracens was so earnest to have Moses the Hermite made the Bishop of her Nation , and offered peace to the Catholicks upon that condition ; Lucius an Arian troubled the affair by his interposing and offering to ordain Moses ; The Hermite discovered his vileness , Et ita majore dedecore deformatus compulsus est acquiescere . Moses refus'd to be ordain'd by him that was an Arian . So did the reform'd Churches refuse ordinations by the Bishops of the Roman Communion . But what then might they have done ? Even the same that Moses did in that necessity ; Compulsus est ab Episcopis quos in exilium truserat ( Lucius ) sacerdotium sumere . Those good people might have had order from the Bishops of England , or the Lutheran Churches , if at least they thought our Churches Catholick and Christian. If an ordinary necessity will not excuse this , will not an extraordinary calling justifie it ; Yea , most certainly , could we but see an ordinary proof for an extraordinary calling , viz. an evident prophesie , demonstration of Miracles , certainty of reason , clarity of sence , or any thing that might make faith of an extraordinary mission . But shall we then condemn those few of the Reformed Churches , whose ordinations always have been without Bishops ? No indeed . That must not be . They stand or fall to their own Master . And though I cannot justifie their ordinations , yet what degree their necessity is of , what their desire of Episcopal ordinations may do for their personal excuse , and how far a good life , and a Catholick belief may lead a man in the way to Heaven , ( although the forms of external communion be not observed ) I cannot determine . * For ought I know their condition is the same with that of the Church of Pergamus , [ I know thy works , and where thou dwellest , even where Sathans seat is , and thou heldest fast my faith , and hast not denied my Name ; Nihilominus habeo adversus te pauca , Some few things I have against thee ; ] and yet of them , the want of Canonical ordinations is a defect which I trust themselves desire to be remedied ; but if it cannot be done , their sin indeed is the less , but their misery the Greater . * I am sure I have said sooth , but whether or no it will be thought so , I cannot tell ; and yet why it may not I cannot guess , unless they only be impeccable , which I suppose will not so easily be thought of them , who themselves think , that all the Church possibly may fail . But this I would not have declared so freely , had not the necessity of our own Churches required it ; and that the first pretence of the legality , and validity of their ordinations been buoyed up to the height of an absolute necessity ; for else why shall it be called Tyranny in us to call on them to conform to us , and to the practice of the Catholick Church , and yet in them be called a good and a holy zeal to exact our conformity to them ; But I hope it will so happen to us , that it will be verified here , what was once said of the Catholicks under the fury of Justina , Sed tantafuit perseverantia fidelium populorum , ut animas prius amittere , quàm Episcopum mallent ; If it were put to our choice , rather to dye ( to wit the death of Martyrs , not rebels ) than lose the sacred order and offices of Episcopacy , without which no Priest , no ordination , no consecration of the Sacrament , no absolution , no rite , or Sacrament legitimately can be performed in order to eternity . The summe is this . If the Canons and Sanctions Apostolical , if the decrees of eight famous Councils in Christendom , of Ancyra , of Antioch , of Sardis , of Alexandria , two of Constantinople , the Arausican Council , and that of Hispalis ; if the constant successive Acts of the famous Martyr-Bishops of Rome making ordinations , if the testimony of the whole Pontifical book , if the dogmatical resolution of so many Fathers , S. Denis , S. Cornelius , S. Athanasius , S. Hierom , S. Chrysostom , S. Epiphanius , S. Austin , and divers others , all appropriating ordinations to the Bishops hand : if the constant voice of Christendom , declaring ordinations made by Presbyters , to be null and void in the nature of the thing : and never any act of ordination by a Non-Bishop , approved by any Council , decretal , or single suffrage of any famous man in Christendom : if that ordinations of Bishops were always made , and they ever done by Bishops , and no pretence of Priests joyning with them in their consecrations , and after all this it was declared heresie to communicate the power of giving orders to Presbyters either alone , or in conjunction with Bishops : as it was in the case of Aerius : if all this , that is , if whatsoever can be imagined be sufficient to make faith in this particular ; then it is evident that the power and order of Bishops is greater than the power and order of Presbyters , to wit , in this Great particular of ordination , and that by this loud voice and united vote of Christendom . SECT . XXXIII . And Confirmation . * BUT this was but the first part of the power which Catholick antiquity affixed to the order of Episcopacy . The next is of Confirmation of baptized people . And here the rule was this , which was thus expressed by Damascen : Apostolorum , & Successorum eorum est per manus impositionem donum Spiritûs sancti tradere . It belongs to the Apostles and their successors to give the Holy Ghost by imposition of hands . But see this in particular instance . The Council of Eliberis giving permission to faithful people of the Laity to baptize Catechumens in the cases of necessity , and exigence of journey ; Ita tamen ut si supervixerit [ baptizatus ] ad Episcopum eum perducat , ut per manûs impositionem proficere possit . Let him be carried to the Bishop to be improved by imposition of the Bishops hands . This was Law. It was also a custom saith S. Cyprian , Quod nunc quoque apud nos geritur , ut qui in Ecclesiâ baptizantur , per Praepositos Ecclesiae offerantur , & per nostram orationem , & manûs impositionem Spiritum sanctum consequantur , & signaculo Dominico consummentur ; And this custom was Catholick too , and the Law was of Vniversal concernment . Omnes Fideles per manuum impositionem Episcoporum Spiritum Sanctum post baptismum accipere debent , ut pleni Christiani accipere debent . So S. Vrbane in his decretal Epistle ; And Omnibus festinandum est sine mora renasci , & demùm Consignari ab Episcopo , & septiformem Spiritûs sancti gratiam recipere ; so saith the old Author of the fourth Epistle under the name of S. Clement . All faithful baptized people must go to the Bishop to be consigned , and so by imposition of the Bishops hands to obtain the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Ghost . Meltiades in his Epistle to the Bishops of Spain affirms Confirmation in this to have a special excellency besides baptism , Quòd solùm à summis Sacerdotibus confertur , because Bishops only can give Confirmation ; And the same is said and proved by S. Eusebius in his third Epistle enjoyning great veneration to this holy mystery , Quòd ab aliis perfici non potest nisi à summis Sacerdotibus . It cannot , it may not be performed by any , but by the Bishops . Thus S. Chrysostom speaking of S. Philip converting the Samaritans , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Philip baptizing the men of Samaria , gave not the Holy Ghost to them whom he had baptized . For he had not power . For this gift was only of the twelve Apostles . And a little after : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . This was peculiar to the Apostles . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , whence it comes to pass , that the principal and chief of the Church do it , and none else . And George Pachymeres the Paraphrast of S. Dionysius ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It is required that a Bishop should consign faithful people baptized . For this was the Ancient practice . I shall not need to instance in too many particulars , for that the Ministry of Confirmation was by Catholick custom appropriate to Bishops in all ages of the Primitive Church , is to be seen by the concurrent testimony of Councils and Fathers ; particularly of S. Clemens Alexandrinus in * Eusebius , (a) Tertullian , (b) S. Innocentius the first , (c) Damasus , (d) S. Leo , in (e) John the third , in (f) S. Gregory , Amphilochius in the life of S. Basil telling the story of Bishop Maximinus confirming Basilius , and Eubulus , the (g) Council of Orleans , and of (h) Melda , and lastly of (i) Sevill which affirms , Non licere Presbyteris — per impositionem manûs fidelibus baptizandis paracletum spiritum tradere . It is not lawful for Presbyters to give confirmation , for it is properly an act of Episcopal power — Chrismate spiritus S. super infunditur . Vtraque verò ista manu , & ore Antistitis impetramus . These are enough for authority , and dogmatical resolution from antiquity . For truth is , the first that ever did communicate the power of confirming to Presbyters was Photius , the first Author of that unhappy and long lasting schism between the Latin and Greek Churches , and it was upon this occasion too . For when the Bulgarians were first converted , the Greeks sent Presbyters to baptize and to confirm them . But the Latins sent again to have them re-confirmed , both because ( as they pretended ) the Greeks had no jurisdiction in Bulgaria , nor the Presbyters a capacity of order to give confirmation . The matters of fact , and acts Episcopal of Confirmation are innumerable , but most famous are those Confirmations made by S. Rembert Bishop of Brema , and of S. Malchus attested by S. Bernard , because they were ratified by miracle , saith the Ancient story . I end this with the saying of S. Hierome , Exigis ubi scriptum sit ? In actibus Apostolorum . Sed etiamsi Scripturae authoritas non subesset , totius orbis in hanc partem consensus instar praecepti obtineret . If you ask where it is written ? ( viz. that Bishops alone should Confirm ) It is written in the Acts of the Apostles ( meaning , by precedent , though not express precept ) but if there were no authority of Scripture for it , yet the consent of all the world upon this particular is instead of a command . *** It was fortunate that S. Hierome hath expressed himself so confidently in this affair , for by this we are armed against an objection from his own words , for in the same dialogue , speaking of some acts of Episcopal priviledge and peculiar ministration , particularly of Confirmation , he says , it was ad honorem potius Sacerdotii quàm ad legis necessitatem . For the honour of the Priesthood , rather than for the necessity of a law . To this the answer is evident from his own words : That Bishops should give the Holy Ghost in Confirmation , is written in the Acts of the Apostles ; and now that this is reserved rather for the honour of Episcopacy , than a simple necessity in the nature of the thing makes no matter . For the question here that is only of concernment , is not to what end this power is reserved to the Bishop , but by whom it was reserved ? Now S. Hierome says it was done apud Acta , in the Scripture , therefore by Gods Holy Spirit , and the end he also specifies , viz. for the honour of that sacred order , non propter legis necessitatem , not that there is any necessity of law , that Confirmation should be administred by the Bishop . Not that a Priest may do it , but that , as S. Hierome himself there argues , the Holy Ghost being already given in baptism , if it happens that Bishops may not be had ( for he puts the case concerning persons in bondage , and places remote , and destitute of Bishops ) then in that case there is not the absolute necessity of a Law , that Confirmation should be had at all : A man does not perish if he have it not ; for that this thing was reserved to a Bishops peculiar ministration , was indeed an honour to the function , but it was not for the necessity of a Law tying people in all cases actually to acquire it . So that this [ non necessarium ] is not to be referred to the Bishops ministration , as if it were not necessary for him to do it when it is to be done , nor that a Priest may do it if a Bishop may not be had ; but this non-necessity is to be referred to Confirmation it self ; so that if a Bishop cannot be had , Confirmation , though with much loss , yet with no danger may be omitted . This is the summe of S. Hieroms discourse , this reconciles him to himself , this makes him speak conformably to his first assertions , and consequently to his arguments ; and to be sure , no exposition can make these words to intend that this reservation of the power of Confirmation to Bishops , is not done by the spirit of God , and then let the sence of the words be what they will , they can do no hurt to the cause ▪ and as easily may we escape from those words of his , to Rusticus Bishop of Narbona . Sed quia scriptum est , Presbyteri duplici honore honorentur — praedicare eos decet , utile est benedicere , congruum confirmare , &c. It is quoted by Gratian dist . 95. can . ecce ego . But the gloss upon the place expounds him thus , i. e. in fide , the Presbyters may preach , they may confirm their Auditors , not by consignation of Chrism , but by confirmation of faith ; and for this quotes a parallel place for the use of the word [ Confirmare ] by authority of S. Gregory , who sent Zachary his legate into Germany from the See of Rome , Vt Orthodoxos Episcopos , Presbyteros , vel quoscunque reperir● potuisset in verbo exhortationis perfectos , ampliùs confirmaret . Certainly S. Gregory did not intend that his legate Zachary should confirm Bishops and Priests in any other sence but this of S. Hierom's in the present , to wit , in faith and doctrine , not in rite and mystery , and neither could S. Hierome himself intend that Presbyters should do it at all but in this sence of S. Gregory , for else he becomes an Antistrephon , and his own opposite . * Yea , but there is a worse matter than this . S. Ambrose tells of the Egyptian Priests , that they in the absence of the Bishop do confirm . Denique apud Egyptum Presbyteri consignant si praesens non sit Episcopus . But , 1. The passage is suspicious , for it interrupts a discourse of S. Ambrose's concerning the Primitive Order of election to the Bishoprick , and is no way pertinent to the discourse , but is incircled with a story of a far different consequence , which is not easily thought to have been done by any considering and intelligent Author . 2. But suppose the clause be not surreptitious , but natural to the discourse , and born with it , yet it is matter of fact , not of right , for S. Ambrose neither approves , nor disproves it , and so it must go for a singular act against the Catholick practice and Laws of Christendom . 3. If the whole clause be not surreptitious , yet the word [ Consignant ] is , for S. Austin who hath the same discourse , the same thing , viz. of the dignity of Presbyters , tells this story of the Act and honour of Presbyters in Alexandria , and all Egppt , almost in the other words of his Master S. Ambrose , but he tells it thus , Nam & in Alexandriâ & per totum Egyptum si desit Episcopus , Consecrat Presbyter . So that it should not be consignat , but consecrat ; for no story tells of any confirmations done in Egypt by Presbyters , but of consecrating the Eucharist in cases of Episcopal absence , or commission . I shall give account in the Question of jurisdiction , that that was indeed permitted in Egypt , & some other places , but Confirmation never , that we can find elsewhere , and this is too improbable to bear weight against evidence and practice Apostolical , and four Councils , and sixteen ancient Catholick Fathers , testifying that it was a practice and a Law of Christendom that Bishops only should confirm , and not Priests , so that if there be no other scruple , this Question is quickly at an end . ** But S. Gregory is also pretended in objection ; for he gave dispensation to the Priests of Sardinia , ut baptizatos Vnguant , to aneal baptized people . Now anointing the forehead of the baptized person was one of the solemnities of Confirmation , so that this indulgence does arise to a power of Confirming ; for Vnctio and Chrismatio in the first Arausican Council , and since that time Sacramentum Chrismatis hath been the usual word for Confirmation . But this will not much trouble the business . Because it is evident that he means it not of Confirmation , but of the Chrisme in those times by the rites of the Church us'd in baptism . For in his ninth Epistle he forbids Priests to anoint baptized people , now here is precept against precept , therefore it must be understood of several anointings , and so S. Gregory expounds himself in this ninth Epistle , Presbyteri baptizatos infantes signare bis infronte Chrismate non praesumant . Presbyters may not anoint baptized people twice , once they might ; now that this permission of anointing was that which was a ceremony of baptism , not an act of confirmation , we shall see by comparing it with other Canons . In the collection of the Oriental Canons by Martinus Bracarensis , It is decreed thus , [ Presbyter praesente Episcopo non Signet infantes , nisi forte ab Episcopo fuerit illi praeceptum . A Priest must not sign infants without leave of the Bishop if he be present . Must not sign them ] that is with Chrisme in their foreheads , and that in baptism ; for the circumstant Canons do expresly explicate and determine it ; for they are concerning the rites of baptism , and this in the midst of them . And by the way this may answer S. Ambrose his [ Presbyteri consignant absente Episcopo ] in case it be so to be read ; for here we see a consignation permitted to the Presbyters in the Eastern Churches to be used in baptism , in the absence of the Bishop , and this an act of indulgence and favour , and therefore extraordinary , and of use to S. Ambrose his purpose of advancing the Presbyters , but yet of no objection in case of Confirmation . * And indeed [ Consignari ] is us'd in Antiquity for any signing with the Cross , and anealing . Thus it is used in the first Arausican Council for extreme Vnction , which is there in case of extreme necessity permitted to Presbyters : Haereticos in mortis discrimine positos , Si Catholici esse desiderent , si desit Episcopus à Presbyteris cum Chrismate , & benedictione Consignari placet . Consign'd is the word , and it was clearly in extreme Unction , for that rite was not then ceased , and it was in anealing a dying body , and a part of reconciliation , and so limited by the sequent Canon , and not to be fancied of any other consignation . But I return . *** The first Council of Toledo prohibites any from making Chrisme , but Bishops only , and takes order , Vt de singulis Ecclesiis ad Episcopum ante diem Paschae Diaconi destinentur , ut confectum Chrisma ab Episcopo destinatum ad diem Paschae possit occurrere ; that the Chrisme be fetcht by the Deacons from the Bishop to be used in all Churches . But for what use ? why , it was destinatum ad diem Paschae says the Canon , against the Holy time of Easter , and then , at Easter was the solemnity of publick baptisms , so that it was to be used in baptism . And this sence being premised , the Canon permits to Presbyters to sign with Chrisme , the same thing that S. Gregory did to the Priests of Sardinia . Statutum verò est , Diaconum non Chrismare , sed Presbyterum absente Episcopo , praesente verò , si ab ipso fuerit praeceptum . Now although this be evident enough , yet it is something clearer in the first Arausican Council , Nullus ministrorum qui Baptizandi recipit officium sine Chrismate usquam debet progredi , quia inter nos placuit semel in baptismate Chrismari . The case is evident that Chrismation or Consigning with ointment was used in baptism , and it is as evident that this Chrismation was it which S. Gregory permitted to the Presbyters , not the other , for he expresly forbad the other , and the exigence of the Canons , and practice of the Church expound it so , and it is the same which S. Innocent the first decreed in more express and distinctive terms , Presbyteris Chrismate baptizatos ungere licet , sed quod ab Episcopo fuerit Consecratum ; there is a clear permission of consigning with Chrisme in baptism , but he subjoyns a prohibition to Priests for doing it in Confirmation ; Non tamen frontem eodem oleo signare , quod solis debetur Episcopis cùm tradunt Spiritum Sanctum Paracletum . By the way ; some , that they might the more clearly determine S. Gregorie's dispensation to be only in baptismal Chrisme , read it [ Vt baptizandos ungant ] not [ baptizatos ] so Gratian , so S. Thomas , but it is needless to be troubled with that , for Innocentius in the decretal now quoted useth the word [ Baptizatos , ] and yet clearly distinguishes this power from the giving the Chrisme in Confirmation . I know no other objection , and these we see hinder not , but that having such evidence of fact in Scripture of Confirmations done only by Apostles , and this evidence urged by the Fathers for the practice of the Church , and the power of Confirmation by many Councils and Fathers appropriated to Bishops , and denied to Presbyters , and in this they are not only Doctors teaching their own opinion , but witnesses of a Catholick practice , and do actually attest it as done by a Catholick consent ; and no one example in all antiquity ever produced of any Priest , that did , no law that a Priest might impose hands for Confirmation ; we may conclude it to be a power Apostolical in the Original , Episcopal in the Succession , and that in this power the order of a Bishop is higher than that of a Presbyter , and so declared by this instance of Catholick practice . SECT . XXXIV . And Jurisdiction . Which they expressed in Attributes of Authority and great Power . THUS far I hope we are right . But I call to mind , that in the Nosotrophium of the old Philosopher that undertook to cure all Calentures by Bathing his Patients in water ; some were up to the Chin , some to the Middle , some to the Knees ; So it is amongst the enemies of the Sacred Order of Episcopacy ; some endure not the Name , and they indeed deserve to be over head and ears ; some will have them all one in office with Presbyters , as at first they were in Name ; and they had need bath up to the Chin ; but some stand shallower , and grant a little distinction , a precedency perhaps for order-sake , but no preheminence in reiglement , no superiority of Jurisdiction ; Others by all means would be thought to be quite through in behalf of Bishops order and power such as it is , but call for a reduction to the Primitive state , and would have all Bishops like the Primitive , but because by this means they think to impair their power , they may well endure to be up to the ankles , their error indeed is less , and their pretence fairer , but the use they make of it , of very ill consequence . But curing the mistake will quickly cure this distemper . That then shall be the present issue , that in the Primitive Church Bishops had more power , and greater exercise of absolute jurisdiction , than now Men will endure to be granted , or than themselves are very forward to challenge . 1. Then ; The Primitive Church expressing the calling and offices of a Bishop , did it in terms of presidency and authority . Episcopus typum Dei Patris omnium gerit , saith S. Ignatius ; The Bishop carries the representment of God the Father , that is , in power and authority to be sure , ( for how else ? ) so as to be the supreme in suo ordine , in offices Ecclesiastical . And again , Quid enim aliud est Episcopus quàm is qui omni Principatu , & potestate superior est ? Here his superiority and advantage is expressed to be in his power ; A Bishop is greater and higher than all other in power , viz. in materiâ , or gradu religionis . And in his Epistle to the Magnesians . Hortor ut hoc sit omnibus studium in Dei concordiâ omnia agere Episcopo praesidente loco Dei. Do all things in Vnity , the Bishop being President in the place of God. President in all things . And with a fuller tide yet , in his Epistle to the Church of Smyrna , Honora Episcopum ut Principem Sacerdotum imaginem Dei referentem , Dei quidem propter Principatum , Christi verò propter Sacerdotium . It is full of fine expression both for Eminency of order and Jurisdiction . The Bishop is the Prince of the Priests , bearing the Image of God for his Principality ( that 's his jurisdiction and power ) but of Christ himself for his Priesthood , ( that 's his Order . ) S. Ignatius hath spoken fairly , and if we consider that he was so primitive a man that himself saw Christ in the flesh , and liv'd a man of exemplary sanctity , and died a Martyr , and hath been honoured as a holy Catholick by all posterity , certainly these testimonies must needs be of great pressure , being Sententiae repetiti dogmatis , not casually slipt from him , and by incogitancy , but resolutely and frequently . But this is attested by the general expressions of after ages . Fungaris circa eum Potestate honoris tui , saith S. Cyprian to Bishop Rogatianus . Execute the Power of thy dignity upon the refractory Deacon ; And Vigor Episcopalis , and Authoritas Cathedrae are the words expressive of that power whatsoever it be which S. Cyprian calls upon him to assert in the same Epistle . This is high enough . So is that which he presently subjoyns , calling the Bishops power Ecclesiae gubernandae sublimem ac divinam potestatem , A high and a divine power and authority in regiment of the Church . * Locus Magisterii traditus ab Apostolis , so S. Irenaeus calls Episcopacy ; A place of mastership or authority delivered by the Apostles to the Bishops their successors . Eusebius speaking of Dionysius , who succeeded Heraclas , he received ( saith he ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The Bishoprick of the Precedency over the Churches of Alexandria . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith the Council of Sardis ; to the top or height of Episcopacy . Apices & Principes omnium , so Optatus calls Bishops ; the Chief and Head of all ; and S. Denys of Alexandria , Scribit ad Fabianum Vrbis Romae Episcopum , & ad alios quam plurimos Ecclesiarum Principes de fide Catholicâ suâ , saith Eusebius . And Origen calls the Bishop , eum qui totius Ecclesiae arcem obtinet , He that hath obtained the Tower or height of the Church . The Fathers of the Council of Constantinople in Trullo ordained that the Bishops dispossessed of their Churches by incroachments of Barbarous people upon the Churches pale , so as the Bishop had in effect no Diocess , yet they should enjoy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the authority of their Presidency according to their proper state ; their appropriate presidency . And the same Council calls the Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Prelate or Prefect of the Church ; I know not how to expound it better . But it is something more full in the Greeks Council of Carthage , commanding that the convert Donatists should be received according to the will and pleasure of the Bishop , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that Governs the Church in that place . * And in the Council of Antioch , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The Bishop hath Power over the affairs of the Church . Hoc quidem tempore Romanae Ecclesiae Sylvester retinacula gubernabat . Saint Sylvester [ the Bishop ] held the Reines or the stern of the Roman Church , saith Theodoret . But the instances of this kind are infinite , two may be as good as twenty , and these they are . The first is of S. Ambrose ; Honor & Sublimitas Episcopalis nullis poterit comparationibus adaequari . The honour and sublimity of Episcopal Order is beyond all comparison great . And their commission he specifies to be in Pasce oves meas ; Vnde regendae Sacerdotibus contraduntur , meritò rectoribus suis subdi dicuntur , &c. The sheep are delivered to Bishops as to Rulers , and are made their Subjects ; and in the next Chapter , Haec verò cuncta , Fratres , ideò nos praemisisse cognoscere debetis , ut ostenderemus nihil esse in hoc saeculo excellentius Sacerdotibus , nihil sublimius Episcopis reperiri : ut cum dignitatem Episcopatûs Episcoporum oraculis demonstramus , & dignè noscamus quid sumus — actione potius , quàm Nomine demonstremus . These things I have said , that you may know nothing is higher , nothing more excellent than the dignity and Eminence of a Bishop , &c. * The other is of S. Hierom , Cura totius Ecclesiae ad Episcopum pertinet , The care of the whole Church appertains to the Bishop . But more confidently spoken is that in his dialogue adversus Luciferianos : Ecclesiae salus in summi Sacerdotis Dignitate pendet , cui si non exors quaedam & ab omnibus Eminens detur potestas , tot in Ecclesiis efficientur schismata , quot Sacerdotes . The safety of the Church consists in the dignity of a Bishop , to whom unless an Eminent and Vnparallel'd power be given by all , there will be as many Schisms as Priests . Here is dignity , and authority , and power enough expressed ; and if words be expressive of things ( and there is no other use of them ) then the Bishop is Superiour in a Peerless and Incomparable Authority , and all the whole Diocess are his subjects , viz. in regimine Spirituali . SECT . XXXV . Requiring Vniversal Obedience to be given to Bishops by Clergie and Laity . BUT from words let us pass to things . For the Faith and practice of Christendom require obedience , Universal obedience to be given to Bishops . I will begin again with Ignatius , that these men who call for reduction of Episcopacy to Primitive consistence , may see what they gain by it , for the more Primitive the testimonies are , the greater exaction of obedience to Bishops ; for it happened in this , as in all other things ; at first , Christians were more devout , more pursuing of their duties , more zealous in attestation of every particle of their faith ; and that Episcopacy is now come to so low an ebbe , it is nothing , but that it being a great part of Christianity to honour and obey them , it hath the fate of all other parts of our Religion , and particularly of Charity , come to so low a declension , as it can scarce stand alone ; and faith , which shall scarce be found upon earth at the coming of the Son of Man. But to our business . S. Ignatius in his Epistle to the Church of Trallis , Necesse itaque est ( saith he ) quicquid facitis , ut sine Episcopo nihil Tentetis . So the Latin of Vedelius , which I the rather chuse , because I am willing to give all the advantage I can . It is necessary ( saith the good Martyr ) that whatsoever ye do , you should attempt nothing without your Bishop . And to the Magnesians , Decet itaque vos obedire Episcopo , & in nullo illi refragari . It is fitting that ye should obey your Bishop , and in nothing to be refractory to him . Here is both a Decet and a Necesse est , already . It is very fitting , it is necessary . But if it be possible , we have a fuller expression yet , in the same Epistle ; Quemadmodum enim Dominus sine Patre nihil facit , nec enim possumfacere à me ipso quicquam : sic & vos sine Episcopo , nec Diaconus , nec Laiconus , nec Laicus , Nec quicquam videatur vobis Consentaneum quod sit praeter illius Judicium , quod enim tale est , & Deo inimicum . Here is obedience universal , both in respect of things and persons ; and all this no less than absolutely necessary . For as Christ obeyed his Father in all things , saying , of my self I can do nothing : so nor you without your Bishop ; whoever you be , whether Priest , or Deacon , or Layman . Let nothing please you , which the Bishop mislikes , for all such things are wicked , and in enmity with God. * But it seems Saint Ignatius was mightily in love with this precept , for he gives it to almost all the Churches he writes to . We have already reckoned the Trallians , and the Magnesians . But the same he gives to the Priests of Tarsus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Ye Presbyters be subject to your Bishop . The same to the Philadelphians . Sine Episcopo nihil facite , Do nothing without your Bishop . But this is better explicated in his Epistle to the Church of Smyrna . Sine Episcopo nemo quicquam faciat eorum quae ad Ecclesiam spectant . No man may do any thing without the Bishop , viz. of those things which belong to the Church . So that this saying expounds all the rest , for this universal obedience is to be understood according to the sence of the Church , viz. to be in all things of Ecclesiastical cognizance , all Church-affairs . And therefore he gives a charge to S. Polycarp their Bishop ; that he also look to it , that nothing be done without hi● leave . Nihil sine tuo Arbitrio agatur , nec item tu quicquam praeter Dei facies voluntatem . As thou must do nothing against Gods will , so let nothing ( in the Church ) be done without thine . By the way , observe , he says not , that as the Presbytery must do nothing without the Bishop , so the Bishop nothing without them ; But , so the Bishop nothing without God. But so it is . Nothing must be done without the Bishop ; And therefore although he incourages them that can to remain in Virginity , yet this , if it be either done with pride , or without the Bishop , it is spoiled . For , Si gloriatus fuerit , periit , & si id ipsum statuatur sine Episcopo , corruptum est . His last dictate in this Epistle to S. Polycarp , is with an [ Episcopo attendite , sicut & Deus vobis . ] The way to have God to take care of us , is to observe our Bishop . Hinc & vos decet accedere Sententiae Episcopi , qui secundum Deum vos pascit , quemadmodum & facitis , edocti à spiritu ; You must therefore c●●form to the sentence of the Bishop , as indeed ye do already , being taught so to do by Gods holy Spirit . There needs no more to be said in this cause , if the authority of so great a man will bear so great a burden . What the man was , I said before : what these Epistles are , and of what authority , let it rest upon * Vedelius , a man who is no ways to be suspected as a party for Episcopacy , or rather upon the credit of (a) Eusebius , (b) S. Hierome , and (c) Ruffinus , who reckon the first seven out of which I have taken these excerpta , for natural and genuine . And now I will make this use of it ; Those men that call for reduction of Episcopacy to the Primitive state , should do well to stand close to their principles , and count that the best Episcopacy which is first ; and then consider but what S. Ignatius hath told us for direction in this affair , and see what is gotten in the bargain . For my part , since they that call for such a reduction hope to gain by it , and then would most certainly have abidden by it , I think it not reasonable to abate any thing of Ignatius his height , but expect such subordination and conformity to the Bishop as he then knew to be a law of Christianity . But let this be remembred all along , in the specification of the parts of their Jurisdiction . But as yet I am in the general demonstration of obedience . The Council of Laodicea having specified some particular instances of subordination and dependance to the Bishop , summs them up thus , * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . So likewise the Presbyters , let them do nothing without the precept and counsel of the Bishop , so is the translation of Isidore , ad verbum . This Council is ancient enough , for it was before the first Nicene . So also was that of Arles commanding the same thing exactly . * Vt Presbyteri sine conscientiâ Episcoporum nihil faciant . Sed nec Presbyteris civitatis sine Episcopi praecepto amplius aliquid imperare , vel sine authoritate literarum ejus in unaquaque parochiâ aliquid agere , says the thirteenth Canon of the Ancyran Council according to the Latin of Isidore . The same thing is in the first Council of Toledo , the very same words for which I cited the first Council of Arles , viz. That Presbyters do nothing without the knowledge or permission of the Bishop . Esto subjectus Pontifici tuo , & quasi animae parentem suscipe . It is the counsel of S. Hierome . Be subject to thy Bishop , and receive him as the Father of thy soul. I shall not need to derive hither any more particular instances of the duty , and obedience owing from the Laity to the Bishop . For this account will certainly be admitted by all considering men . God hath intrusted the souls of the Laity to the care of the Ecclesiastical orders ; they therefore are to submit to the government of the Clergie in matters Spiritual with which they are intrusted . For either there is no Government at all , or the Laity must govern the Church , or else the Clergie must . To say there is no Government , is to leave the Church in worse condition than a tyranny . To say that the Laity should govern the Church , when all Ecclesiastical Ministeries are committed to the Clergy , is to say , Scripture means not what it says ; for it is to say , that the Clergy must be Praepositi , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and Praelati , and yet the prelation , and presidency , and rule is in them who are not ever by Gods spirit called Presidents or Prelates , and that it is not in them who are so called . * In the mean time if the Laity in matters Spiritual are inferiour to the Clergy , and must in things pertaining to the Soul be ruled by them , with whom their Souls are intrusted ; then also much rather they must obey those of the Clergy , to whom all the other Clergy themselves are bound to be obedient . Now since by the frequent precept of so many Councils and Fathers , the Deacons and Presbyters must submit in all things to the Bishop , much more must the Laity , and since the Bishop must rule in chief , and the Presbyters at the most can but rule in conjunction and assistance , but ever in subordination to the Bishop , the Laity must obey de integro . For that is to keep them in that state in which God hath placed them . But for the main , S. Clement in his Epistle to S. James translated by Ruffinus , saith it was the doctrine of Peter , according to the institution of Christ , That Presbyters should be obedient to their Bishop in all things ; and in his third Epistle ; That Presbyters and Deacons , and others of the Clergie must take heed that they do nothing without the license of the Bishop . * And to make this business up compleat , all these authorites of great antiquity , were not the prime constitutions in those several Churches respectively , but meer derivations from tradition Apostolical ; for not only the thing , but the words so often mentioned are in the 40 Canon of the Apostles . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( the same is repeated in the twenty fourth Canon of the Council of Antioch ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Presbyters and Deacons must do nothing without leave of the Bishop , for to him the Lords people is committed , and he must give an account for their souls . * And if a Presbyter shall contemn his own Bishop making conventions apart , and erecting another altar , he is to be deposed , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( saith the 32 Canon ) as a lover of Principality : intimating , that he arrogates Episcopal dignity , and so is ambitious of a Principality . The issue then is this . * The Presbyters , and Clergy , and Laity must obey , therefore the Bishop must govern and give them laws . It was particularly instanced in the case of Saint Chrysostome , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith Theodoret , He adorned and instructed Pontus with these laws , so he , reckoning up the extent of his jurisdiction . * But now descend we to a specification of the power and jurisdiction of Bishops . SECT . XXXVI . Appointing them to be Judges of the Clergie and Spiritual causes of the Laity . THE Bishops were Ecclesiastical Judges over the Presbyters , the inferiour Clergy and the Laity . What they were in Scripture who were constituted in presidency over causes spiritual , I have already twice explicated ; and from hence it descended by a close succession , that they who watched for souls , they had the rule over them , and because no regiment can be without coercion , therefore there was inherent in them a power of cognition of causes , and coercion of persons . * The Canons of the Apostles appointing censures to be inflicted on delinquent persons makes the Bishops hand to do it . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . If any Presbyter or Deacon be excommunicated by the Bishop , he must not be received by any else , but by him that did so censure him , unless the Bishop that censured him be dead . The same is repeated in the Nicene Council ; only it is permitted that any one may appeal to a Synod of Bishops , Si fortè aliquâ indignatione , aut contentione , aut qualibet commotione Episcopi sui , excommunicati sint , if he thinks himself wronged by prejudice or passion ; and when the Synod is met , hujusmodi examinent Quaestiones . But by the way it must be Synodus Episcoporum , so the Canon ; Vt ita demum hi qui ob culpas suas Episcoporum suorum offensas meritò contraxerunt , dignè etiam à caeteris excommunicati habeantur , quousque in communi , vel ipsi Episcopo suo visum fuerit humaniorem circà eos ferre sententiam . The Synod of Bishops must ratifie the excommunication of all those who for their delinquencies have justly incurred the displeasure of their Bishop , and this censure to stick upon them till either the Synod , or their own Bishop shall give a more gentle sentence . ** This Canon we see relates to the Canon of the Apostles , and affixes the judicature of Priests and Deacons to the Bishops : commanding their censures to be held as firm and valid ; only as the Apostles Canon names Presbyters and Deacons particularly ; so the Nicene Canon speaks indefinitely , and so comprehends all of the Diocess and jurisdiction . The fourth Council of Carthage gives in express terms the cognizance of Clergy-causes to the Bishop , calling aid from a Synod in case a Clergy-man prove refractory , and disobedient . Discordantes Clericos Episcopus vel ratione , vel potestate ad concordiam trahat , inobedientes Synodus per audientiam damnet . If the Bishops reason will not end the controversies of Clergie-men , his power must ; but if any man list to be contentious , intimating ( as I suppose out of the Nicene Council ) with frivolous appeals , and impertinent protraction , the Synod [ of Bishops ] must condemn him , viz. for his disobeying his Bishops sentence . * The Council of Antioch is yet more particular in its Sanction for this affair , intimating a clear distinction of proceeding in the cause of a Bishop , and the other of the Priests and Deacons . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. If a Bishop shall be deposed by a Synod ( viz. of Bishops , according to the exigence of the Nicene Canon ) or a Priest , or Deacon by his own Bishop , if he meddles with any Sacred offices , he shall be hopeless of absolution . But here we see that the ordinary Judge of a Bishop is a Synod of Bishops ; but of Priests and Deacons the Bishop alone : And the sentence of the Bishop is made firm omni modo in the next Canon ; Si quis Presbyter , vel Diaconus proprio contempto Episcopo — privatim congregationem effecerit , & altare erexerit , & Episcopo accersente non obedierit nec velit ei parere , nec morem gerere primò & secundò vocanti , hic damnetur omni modo — Quòd si Ecclesiam conturbare , & solicitare persistat tanquam seditiosus , per potestates exteras opprimatur . What Presbyter soever refuses to obey his Bishop and will not appear at his first or second Summons , let him be deposed , and if he shall persist to disturb the Church , let him be given over to the secular powers . * Add to this the first Canon of the same Council , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. If any one be excommunicate by his own Bishop , &c. as it is in the foregoing Canons of Nice and the Apostles . The Result of these Sanctions is this . The Bishop is the Judge : the Bishop is to inflict censures ; the Presbyters and Deacons are either to obey , or to be deposed : No greater evidence in the world of a Superiour jurisdiction , and this established by all the power they had ; and this did extend , not only to the Clergy , but to the Laity ; for that 's the close of the Canon , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . This constitution is concerning the Laity , and the Presbyters , and the Deacons , and all that are within the rule , viz. that if their Bishop have sequestred them from the holy Communion , they must not be suffered to communicate elsewhere . But the Audientia Episcopalis , The Bishops Audience-Court is of larger power in the Council of Chalcedon , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . If any Clergy-man have any cause against a Clergy-man , let him by no means leave his own Bishop and run to Secular Courts , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . But first let the cause be examined before their own Bishop , or by the Bishops leave before such persons as the contesting parties shall desire . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Whosoever does otherwise let him suffer under the censures of the Church . Here is not only a subordination of the Clergie in matters criminal , but also the civil causes of the Clergie must be submitted to the Bishop under pain of the Canon . * I end this with the attestation of the Council of Sardis , exactly of the same Spirit , the same injunction , and almost the same words with the former Canons . Hosius the President said ; If any Deacon , or Priest , or of the inferiour Clergy being excommunicated shall go to another Bishop , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , knowing him to be excommunicated by his own Bishop , that other Bishop must by no means receive him into his communion . Thus far we have matter of publick right , and authority declaring the Bishop to be the Ordinary Judge of the causes , and persons of Clergy-men ; and have power of inflicting censures both upon the Clergy and the Laity . And if there be any weight in the concurrent testimony of the Apostolical Canons , of the General Councils of Nice , and of Chalcedon , of the Councils of Antioch , of Sardis , of Carthage ; then it is evident , that the Bishop is the Ordinary Judge in all matters of Spiritual cognizance , and hath power of censures , and therefore a Superiority of jurisdiction . This thing only by the way ; in all these Canons there is no mention made of any Presbyters assistant with the Bishop in his Courts . For though I doubt not but the Presbyters were in some Churches , and in some times 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as S. Ignatius calls them ; Counsellors and Assessors with the Bishop ; yet the power and the right of inflicting censures is only expressed to be in the Bishop , and no concurrent jurisdiction mentioned in the Presbytery : but of this hereafter more particularly . * Now we may see these Canons attested by practice , and dogmatical resolution . S. Cyprian is the man whom I would chuse in all the world to depose in this cause ; because he , if any man , hath given all dues to the Colledge of Presbyters : and yet if he reserves the Superiority of jurisdiction to the Bishop , and that absolutely , and independently of conjunction with the Presbytery , we are all well enough , and without suspicion . Diù patientiam meam tenui ( Fratres Charissimi ) saith he , writing to the Presbyters and Deacons of his Church . He was angry with them for admitting the lapsi without his consent ; and though he was as willing as any man to comply both with the Clergy and people of his Diocess , yet he also must assert his own priviledges and peculiar . Quod enim non periculum metuere debemus de offensâ Domini , quando aliqui de Presbyteris nec Evangelii , nec loci sui memores , sed neque futurum Domini judicium , neque nunc praepositum sibi Episcopum cogitantes , quod nunquam omnino sub antecessoribus factum est ut cum contumcliâ & contemptu Praepositi totum sibi vendicent . The matter was , that certain Presbyters had reconciled them that fell in persecution without the performance of penance according to the severity of the Canon ; and this was done without the Bishops leave , by the Presbyters , [ Forgetting their own place , and the Gospel , and their Bishop set over them , ] a thing that was never heard of , till that time . Totum sibi vendicabant , They that might do nothing without the Bishops leave , yet did this whole affair of their own heads . Well! Upon this S. Cyprian himself by his own authority alone , suspends them till his return , and so shews that his authority was independent , theirs was not , and then promises they shall have a fair hearing before him , in the presence of the Confessors , and all the people . Vtar eâ admonitione quâ me uti Dominus jubet , ut interim prohibeantur offerre , acturi & apud nos , & apud Confessores ipsos , & apud plebem Vniversam causam suam . * Here it is plain that S. Cyprian suspended these Presbyters by his own authority , in absence from his Church , and reserved the further hearing of the cause till it should please God to restore him to his See. But this fault of the Presbyters S. Cyprian in the two next Epistles does still more exaggerate ; saying , they ought to have asked the Bishops leave , Sicut in praeteritum semper sub antecessoribus factum est , for so was the Catholick custom ever , that nothing should be done without the Bishops leave ; but now by doing otherwise they did prevaricate the divine commandment , and dishonour the Bishop . Yea , but the Confessors interceded for the lapsi , and they seldom were discountenanc'd in their requests . What should the Presbyters do in this case ? S. Cyprian tells them , writing to the Confessors . Petitiones itaque & desideria vestra Episcopo servent . Let them keep your petitions for the Bishop to consider of . But they did not , therefore he suspended them , because they did not reservare Episcopo honorem Sacerdotii sui & cathedrae ; Preserve the honour of the Bishops chair , and the Episcopal authority in presuming to reconcile the penitents without the Bishops leave . The same S. Cyprian in his Epistle to Rogatianus resolves this affair ; for when a contemptuous bold Deacon had abused his Bishop , he complained to S. Cyprian , who was an Arch-Bishop , and indeed S. Cyprian tells him he did honour him in the business that he would complain to him , Cum pro Episcopatus vigore , & Cathedrae Authoritate haberes potestatem quâ posses de illo statim vindicari ; When as he had power Episcopal and sufficient authority himself to have punished the Deacon for his petulancy . The whole Epistle is very pertinent to this Question , and is clear evidence for the great authority of Episcopal jurisdiction , the summe whereof is in this incouragement given to Rogatianus by S. Cyprian , Fungaris circa eum Potestate Honoris tui , ut eum vel deponas , vel abstineas . Exercise the power of your honour upon him , and either suspend him , or depose him . And therefore he commends Cornelius the Bishop of Rome for driving Felicissimus the Schismatick from the Church , vigore pleno quo Episcopum agere oportet , with full authority as becomes a Bishop . Socrates telling of the promotion and qualities of S. John Chrysostom , says , That in reforming the lives of the Clergy , he was too fastuous and severe . Mox igitur in ipso initio quum Clericis asper videretur Ecclesiae , erat plurimis exosus , & veluti furio sum universi declinabant . He was so rigid in animadversions against the Clergie , that he was hated by them ; which clearly shows that the Bishop had jurisdiction and authority over them ; for tyranny is the excess of power , and authority is the subject matter of rigour and austerity . But this power was intimated in that bold speech of his Deacon Serapio , Nunquam poteris , ô Episcope , hos corrigere , nisi uno baculo percusseris Vniversos . Thou canst not amend the Clergie unless thou strikest them all with thy pastoral rod. S. John Chrysostom did not indeed do so ; but non multum pòst temporis plurimos clericorum pro diversis exemit causis . He deprived and suspended most of the Clergie-men for divers causes : and for this his severity he wanted no slanders against him ; for the delinquent Ministers set the people on work against him . * But here we see that the power of censures was clearly and only in the Bishop , for he was incited to have punished all his Clergy , [ Vniversos ] And he did actually suspend most of them , [ Plurimos : ] and I think it will not be believed the Presbytery of his Church should joyn with their Bishop to suspend themselves . Add to this that Theodoret also affirms that Chrysostom intreated the Priests to live Canonically according to the sanctions of the Church , Quas quicunque praevaricari praesumerent , eos ad templum prohibebat accedere , All them that transgressed the Canons he forbad them entrance into the Church . *** Thus S. Hierom to Riparius , Miror sanctum Episcopum , in cujus Parochiâ esse Presbyter dicitur , acquiescere furori ejus , & non virgâ Apostolica , virgaque ferrea confringere vas inutile , & tradere in interitum carnis , ut spiritus salvus fiat . I wonder ( saith he ) that the holy Bishop is not moved at the fury of Vigilantius , and does not break him with his Apostolical rod , that by this temporary punishment his soul might be saved in the day of the Lord. * Hitherto the Bishops Pastoral staffe is of fair power and coercion . The Council of Aquileia convoked against the Arians , is full and mighty in asserting the Bishops power over the Laity , and did actually exercise censures upon the Clergy , where S. Ambrose was the Man that gave sentence against Palladius the Arian . Palladius would have declined the judgment of the Bishops , for he saw he should certainly be condemned , and would fain have been judged by some honourable personages of the Laity . But S. Ambrose said , Sacerdotes de Laicis judicare debent , non Laici de Sacerdotibus . Bishops must judge of the Laity , not the Laity of the Bishops . That 's for the jus ; and for the factum it was the shutting up of the Council ; S. Ambrose Bishop of Milaine gave sentence [ Pronuncio illum indignum Sacerdotio , & carendum & in loco ejus Catholicus ordinetur . ] The same also was the case of Marcellus Bishop of Ancyra in Galatia , whom for heresie the Bishops at Constantinople deposed , Eusebius giving sentence , and chose Basilius in his Room . * But their Grandfather was served no better . Alexander Bishop of Alexandria served him neither better nor worse . So Theodoret. Alexander autem Apostolicorum dogmatum praedicator , prius quidem revocare eum admonitionibus , & consiliis nitebatur . Cum vero eum superbire vidisset , & apertè impietatis facinora praedicare , ex ordine Sacerdotali removit . The Bishop first admonished the heretick , but when to his false doctrine he added pertinacy , he deprived him of the execution of his Priestly function . This crime indeed deserved it highly . It was for a less matter that Triferius the Bishop excommunicated Exuperantius a Presbyter , viz. for a personal misdemeanour , and yet this censure was ratified by the Council of Taurinum , and his restitution was left arbitrio Episcopi , to the good will and pleasure of the Bishop who had censured him . Statuit quoque de Exuperantio Presbytero sancta Synodus , qui ad injuriam sancti Episcopi sui Triferii gravia & multa congesserat , & frequentibus eum contumeliis provocaverat — propter quam causam ab eo fuerat Dominicâ communione privatus , ut in ejus sit arbitrio restitutio ipsius , in cujus potestate ejus fuit abjectio . His restitution was therefore left in his power , because originally his censure was . * The like was in the case of Palladius a Laick in the same Council , Qui à Triferio Sacerdote fuerat mulctatus , Who was punished by Triferius the Bishop ; Hoc ei humanitate Concilio reservato , ut ipse Triferius in potestate habeat , quando voluerit ei relaxare . Here is the Bishop censuring Palladius the Laick , and excommunicating Exuperantius the Priest , and this having been done by his own sole authority was ratified by the Council , and the absolution reserved to the Bishop too , which indeed was an act of favour ; for they having complained to the Council , by the Council might have been absolved , but they were pleased to reserve to the Bishop his own power . * These are particular instances , and made publick by acts conciliary intervening . * But it was the General Canon and Law of Holy Church . Thus we have it expressed in the Council of Agatho . Contumaces vero Clerici prout dignitatis ordo promiserit ab Episcopis corrigantur . Refractory Clerks must be punished by their Bishops , according as the order of their dignity allows . I end this particular with some Canons commanding Clerks to submit to the judgement and censures of their Bishop , under a Canonical penalty ; and so go on ad alia . In the second Council of Carthage , Alypius Episcopus dixit , nec illud praetermittendum est , ut si quis fortè Presbyter ab Episcopo sùo correptus , aut excommunicatus , rumore vel superbiâ inflatus putaverit separatim Deo sacrificia offerenda , vel aliud erigendum altare contra Ecclesiasticam fidem disciplinamque crediderit , non exeat impunitus . And the same is repeated in the Greek code of the African Canons . If any Presbyter being excommunicated , or otherwise punished by his Bishop , shall not desist , but contest with his Bishop , let him by no means go unpunished . The like is in the Council of Chalcedon , the words are the same that I before cited out of the Canons of the Council of Antioch , and of the Apostles . But Carosus the Archimandrite spake home in that action . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The faith of the 318 Fathers of the Council of Nice into which I was baptized I know , Other faith I know not . They are Bishops ; They have power to excommunicate and condemn , and they have power to do what they please : other faith than this I know none . * This is to purpose , and it was in one of the four great Councils of Christendom , which all ages since have received , with all veneration and devout estimate . Another of them was that of Ephesus conven'd against Nestorius , and this ratifies those acts of condemnation which the Bishops had passed upon delinquent Clerks . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. They who are for their unworthy practices condemned by the Synod or by their own Bishops ; although Nestorius did endeavour to restore them , yet their condemnation should still remain vigorous and confirm'd . Upon which Canon Balsamon makes this observation , which indeed of it self is clear enough in the Canon . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Hence you have learned that Metropolitans and Bishops can judge their Clergie , and suspend them , and sometimes depose them . Nay , they are bound to it , Pastoralis tamen necessitas habet ( ne per plures serpant dira contagia ) separare ab ovibus sanis morbidam . It is necessary that the Bishop should separate the scabbed sheep from the sound , lest their infection scatter , so S. Austin . And therefore the fourth Council of * Carthage commands , Vt Episcopus accusatores Fratrum excommunicet , That the Bishop excommunicate the accuser of their Brethren , ( viz. such as bring Clergy-causes and Catholick doctrine , to be punished in secular tribunals ; ) For Excommunication is called by the Fathers Mucro Episcopalis , the Bishops sword to cut offenders off from the Catholick communion . I add no more , but that excellent saying of S. Austin , which doth freely attest both the preceptive and vindictive power of the Bishop over his whole Diocess . Ergo praecipiant tantum modò nobis quid facere debeamus qui nobis praesunt , & faciamus orent pro nobis , non autem nos corripiant , & arguant , si non fecerimus . Imò omnia fiant , quoniam Doctores Ecclesiarum Apostoli omnia faciebant , & praecipiebant quae fierent , & corripiebant si non fierent , &c. And again ; Corripiantur itaque à praepositis suis subditi correptionibus de charitate venientibus , pro culparum diversitate diversis , vel minoribus , vel amplioribus , quia & ipsa quae damnatio nominatur quam facit Episcopale judicium , quâ poenâ in Ecclesiâ nulla major est , potest , si Deus voluerit , in correptionem saluberrimam cedere , atque proficere . Here the Bishops have a power acknowledged in them to command their Diocess , and to punish the disobedient , and of excommunication by way of proper Ministery , [ damnatio quam facit Episcopale judicium ] a condemnation of the Bishops infliction . Thus it is evident by the constant practice of Primitive Christendom , by the Canons of three General Councils , and divers other Provincial , which are made Catholick by adoption , and in inserting them into the Code of the Catholick Church , that the Bishop was Judge of his Clergy , and of the Lay-people of his Diocess ; that he had power to inflict censures upon them in case of Delinquency ; that his censures were firm and valid ; and as yet we find no Presbyters joyning either in commission or fact ; in power or exercise ; but excommunication and censures to be appropriated to Bishops , and to be only dispatch'd by them , either in full Council , if it was a Bishops cause , or in his own Consistory , if it was the cause of a Priest , or the inferior Clergy , or a Laick , unless in cases of appeal , and then it was in pleno Concilio Episcoporum , in a Synod of Bishops ; And all this was confirmed by secular authority , as appears in the imperial Constitutions . For the making up this Paragraph complete , I must insert two considerations . First concerning universality of causes within the Bishops cognizance . And secondly of Persons . The Ancient Canons asserting the Bishops power in Cognitione causarum , speak in most large and comprehensive terms . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . They have power to do what they list . Their power is as large as their will. So the Council of Chalcedon before cited . It was no larger though , than S. Pauls expression , [ for to this end also did I write , that I might know the proof of you , whether ye be obedient in all things . ] A large extent of power when the Apostles expected an Universal obedience . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And so the stile of the Church runs in descension , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so Ignatius , ye must do nothing without your Bishop , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to contradict him in nothing . The expression is frequent in him , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to comprehend all things in his judgment or cognizance , so the Council of Antioch . * But these Universal expressions must be understood secundùm Materiam subjectam , so S. Ignatius expresses himself . Ye must without your Bishop do nothing ; nothing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , of things pertaining to the Church . So also the Council of Antioch , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The things of the Church , are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , committed to the Bishop to whom all the people is intrusted . They are Ecclesiastical persons , it is an Ecclesiastical power they are indowed with , it is for a spiritual end , viz. the regiment of the Church , and the good of souls , and therefore only those things which are in this order are of Episcopal cognizance . And what are those things ? 1. Then it is certain that since Christ hath professed his Kingdom is not of this world , that government which he hath constituted de novo , does no way in the world make any intrenchment upon the Royalty . Hostis Herodes impie Christum venire quid times ? Non eripit mortalia Qui regna dat Coelestia . So the Church us'd to sing . Whatsoever therefore the secular tribunal did take cognizance of before it was Christian , the same it takes notice of after it is Christened . And these are all actions civil , all publick violations of justice , all breach of Municipal laws . These the Church hath nothing to do with , unless by the favour of Princes and Commonwealths it be indulged to them in honorem Dei & S. Matris Ecclesiae ; but then when it is once indulged , that act which does annul such pious vows , is just contrary to that religion which first gave them , and then unless there was sin in the donative , the ablation of it is contra honorem Dei & S. Matris Ecclesiae . But this it may be is impertinent . 2. The Bishops All , comes in after this ; And he is Judge of all those causes which Christianity hath brought in upon a new stock , by its new distinctive Principles . I say , by its new Principles ; for there where it extends justice , and pursues the laws of nature , there the secular tribunal is also extended if it be Christian ; The Bishop gets nothing of that : But those things which Christianity ( as it prescinds from the interest of the republick ) hath introduc'd , all them , and all the causes emergent from them the Bishop is Judge of . Such are causes of Faith , Ministration of Sacraments , and Sacramentals , subordination of inferiour Clergie to their Superiour , censures , irregularities , Orders hierarchical , rites and ceremonies , liturgies , and publick forms of prayer , ( as is famous in the Ancient story of Ignatius , teaching his Church the first use of Antiphona's and Doxologies , and thence was derived to all Churches of Christendom ) and all such things as are in immediate dependance of these , as dispensation of Church - Vessels , and Ornaments , and Goods , receiving and disposing the Patrimony of the Church , and whatsoever is of the same consideration , according to the 41 Canon of the Apostles . Praecipimus ut in potestate suâ Episcopus Ecclesiae res habeat . Let the Bishop have the disposing the goods of the Church ; adding this reason . Si enim animae hominum pretiosae illi sint creditae , multò magis eum oportet curam pecuniarum gerere . He that is intrusted with our precious souls , may much more be intrusted with the offertories of faithful people . 3. There are some things of a mixt nature ; and something of the secular interest , and something of the Ecclesiastical concurr to their constitution , and these are of double cognizance : the secular power and the Ecclesiastical do both in their several capacities take knowledge of them . Such are the delinquencies of Clergy-men , who are both Clergy , and subjects too ; Clerus Domini , and Regis subditi ; and for their delinquencies which are in materiâ justitiae , the secular tribunal punishes , as being a violation of that right which the State must defend , but because done by a person who is a member of the sacred hierarchy , and hath also an obligation of special duty to his Bishop , therefore the Bishop also may punish him ; And when the commonwealth hath inflicted a penalty , the Bishop also may impose a censure , for every sin of a Clergy-man is two . But of this nature also are the convening of Synods , the power whereof is in the King , and in the Bishop severally , insomuch as both the Church and the commonwealth in their several respects have peculiar interest ; The commonwealth for preservation of peace and charity , in which religion hath the deepest interest , and the Church , for the maintenance of faith . And therefore both Prince and Bishop have indicted Synods in several ages , upon the exigence of several occasions , and have several powers for the engagement of clerical obedience , and attendance upon such solemnities . 4. Because Christianity is after the commonwealth , and is a capacity superadded to it , therefore those things which are of mixt cognizance are chiefly in the King ; The Supremacy here is his , and so it is in all things of this nature , which are called [ Ecclesiastical ] because they are in materiâ Ecclesiae , ad finem religionis , but they are of a different nature , and use from things [ Spiritual ] because they are not issues of those things which Christianity hath introduc'd de integro , and are separate from the interest of the commonwealth in its particular capacity , for such things only are properly spiritual . 5. The Bishops Jurisdiction hath a compulsory derived from Christ only , viz. infliction of censures by excommunications , or other minores plagae which are in order to it . But yet this internal compulsory through the duty of good Princes to God , and their favour to the Church , is assisted by the secular arm , either superadding a temporal penalty in case of contumacy , or some other way abetting the censures of the Church , and it ever was so since commonwealths were Christian. So that ever since then Episcopal Jurisdiction hath a double part ; an external , and an internal ; this is derived from Christ , that from the King , which because it is concurrent in all acts of Jurisdiction , therefore it is that the King is supreme of the Jurisdiction , viz. that part of it which is the external compulsory . * And for this cause we shall sometimes see the Emperor , or his Prefect , or any man of consular dignity fit Judge when the Question is of Faith , not that the Prefect was to Judge of that , or that the Bishops were not ; but in case of the pervicacy of a peevish Heretick , who would not submit to the power of the Church , but flew to the secular power for assistance , hoping by taking sanctuary there , to ingage the favour of the Prince : In this case the Bishops also appealed thither , not for resolution , but assistance and sustentation of the Churches power . It was so in the case of Aetiu● the Arian , and Honoratus the Prefect , Constantius being Emperor . For , all that the Prefect did , or the Emperor in this case , was by the prevalency of his intervening authority to reconcile the disagreeing parties , and to incourage the Catholicks ; but the precise act of Judicature even in this case was in the Bishops , for they deposed Aetius for his Heresie , for all his confident appeal , and Macedonius , Eleusius , Basilius , Ortasius , and Dracontius for personal delinquencies . * And all this is but to reconcile this act to the resolution and assertion of S. Ambrose , who refused to be tried in a cause of faith by Lay-Judges , though Delegates of the Emperor . Quando audisti ( Clementissime Imperator ) in causa fidei Laicos de Episcopo judicâsse ? When was it ever known that Lay-men in a cause of Faith did judge a Bishop ? To be sure , it was not in the case of Honoratus the Prefect ; for if they had appealed to him , or to his Master Constantius for judgment of the Article , and not for incouragement and secular assistance , S. Ambrose in his confident Question of [ Quando audisti ? ] had quickly been answered , even with saying , presently after the Council of Ariminum in the case of Aetius , and Honoratus . * Nay it was one of the causes why S. Ambrose deposed Palladius in the Council of Aquileia , because he refused to answer , except it were before some honourable personages of the Laity . And it is observable that the Arians were the first ( and indeed they offered at it often ) that did desire Princes to judge matters of faith , for they despairing of their cause in a Conciliary trial , hoped to ingage the Emperor on their party , by making him Umpire . But the Catholick Bishops made humble and fair remonstrance of the distinction of powers and jurisdictions ; and as they might not intrench upon the Royalty , so neither betray that right which Christ concredited to them to the incroachment of an exteriour jurisdiction and power . It is a good story that Suidas tells of Leontius Bishop of Tripolis in Lydia , a man so famous and exemplary , that he was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the rule of the Church , that when Constantius the Emperor did precede amongst the Bishops , and undertook to determine causes of meer spiritual cognizance , in stead of a Placet , he gave this answer , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . I wonder that thou being set over thing of a different nature , medlest with those things that only appertain to Bishops . The Militia , and the Politia are thine , but matters of Faith and Spirit are of Episcopal cognizance . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Such was the freedom of the ingenuous Leontius . Answerable to which was that Christian and fair acknowledgment of Valentinian , when the Arian Bishops of Bithynia and the Hellespont sent Hypatianus their Legat to desire him , Vt dignaretur ad emendationem dogmatis interesse , That he would be pleased to mend the Article . Respondens Valentinianus , ait , Mihi quidem quum unus de populo sim fas non est talia perscrutari . Verùm Sacerdotes apud seipsos congregentur ubi voluerint . Cúmque haec respondisset Princeps , in Lampsacum convenerunt Episcopi . So Sozomen reports the story . The Emperor would not meddle with matters of faith , but referred the deliberation and decision of them to the Bishops , to whom by Gods law they did appertain ; upon which intimation given , the Bishops convened in Lampsacum . And thus a double power met in the Bishops . A Divine right to decide the Article . Mihi fas non est , ( saith the Emperor ) it is not lawful for me to meddle ; And then a right from the Emperor to assemble , for he gave them leave to call a Council . These are two distinct powers , one from Christ , the other from the Prince . *** And now upon this occasion , I have fair opportunity to insert a consideration . The Bishops have power over all causes emergent in their Diocesses ; all , ( I mean ) in the sence above explicated ; they have power to inflict censures , excommunication is the highest , the rest are parts of it , and in order to it . Whether or no must Church-censures be used in all such causes as they take cognizance of , or may not the secular power find out some external compulsory in stead of it , and forbid the Church to use excommunication in certain cases ? 1. To this I answer , that if they be such cases in which by the law of Christ they may , or such in which they must use excommunication , then , in these cases no power can forbid them . For what power Christ hath given them , no man can take away . 2. As no humane power can disrobe the Church of the power of excommunication ; so no humane power can invest the Church with a lay Compulsory . For if the Church be not capable of a jus Gladii , as most certainly she is not , the Church cannot receive power to put men to death , or to inflict lesser pains in order to it , or any thing above a salutary penance ; I mean in the formality of a Church-tribunal , then they give the Church what she must not , cannot take . I deny not but Clergy-men are as capable of the power of life and death , as any men ; but not in the formality of Clergy-men . A Court of life and death cannot be an Ecclesiastical tribunal ; and then if any man , or company of Men should perswade the Church not to inflict her censures upon delinquents , in some cases in which she might lawfully inflict them , and pretend to give her another compulsory ; they take away the Church-consistory , and erect a vey secular Court , dependant on themselves , and by consequence to be appealed to from themselves , and so also to be prohibited as the Lay-Superiour shall see cause for . * Whoever therefore should be consenting to any such permutation of power , is , Traditor potestatis quam S. Mater Ecclesia à sponso suo acceperat , He betrays the individual , and inseparable right of holy Church . For her censure she may inflict upon her delinquent children without asking leave . Christ is her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for that , he is her warrant and security . The other is begged or borrowed , none of her own , nor of a fit edge to be used in her abscisions and coercions . I end this consideration with that memorable Canon of the Apostles of so frequent use in this Question . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Let the Bishop have the care or provision for all affairs of the Church , and let him dispense them velut Deo contemplante , as in the sight of God , to whom he must be responsive for all his Diocess . The next Consideration concerning the Bishops jurisdiction is of what persons he is Judge ? And because our Scene lyes here in Church-practice , I shall only set down the doctrine of the Primitive Church in this affair , and leave it under that representation . Presbyters and Deacons , and inferiour Clerks , and the Laity are already involved in the precedent Canons ; No man there was exempted of whose soul any Bishop had charge . And all Christs sheep hear his voice , and the call of his shepherd-Ministers . * Theodoret tells a story , that when the Bishops of the Province were assembled by the command of Valentinian the Emperor for the choice of a Successor to Auxentius in the See of Milaine , the Emperor wished them to be careful in the choice of a Bishop , in these words , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Set such an one in the Archiepiscopal Throne , that we who rule the Kingdom may sincerely submit our head unto him , viz. in matters of spiritual import . * And since all power is derived from Christ , who is a King , and a Priest , and a Prophet , Christian Kings are Christi Domini , and Vicars in his Regal power , but Bishops in his Sacerdotal and Prophetical . * So that the King hath a Supreme Regal power in causes of the Church , ever since his Kingdom became Christian , and it consists in all things , in which the Priestly office is not precisely by Gods law imployed for regiment , and cure of souls , and in these also all the external compulsory and jurisdiction is his own . For when his Subjects became Christian Subjects , himself also upon the same terms becomes a Christian Ruler , and in both capacities he is to rule , viz. both as Subjects , and as Christian Subjects , except only in the precise issues of Sacerdotal authority . And therefore the Kingdom and the Priesthood are excelled by each other in their several capacities . For superiority is usually expressed in three words , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Excellency , Impery , and Power . The King is supreme to the Bishop in Impery ; The Bishop hath an Excellency , viz. of Spiritual Ministration which Christ hath not concredited to the King ; but in Power both King and Bishop have it distinctly in several capacities ; the King in potentiâ gladii , the Bishop in potestate clavium . The Sword , and the Keys are the emblems of their distinct power . Something like this is in the third Epistle of S. Clement translated by Ruffinus . Quid enim in praesenti saeculo prophetâ gloriosius , Pontifice clarius , Rege sublimius ? King , and Priest , and Prophet , are in their several excellencies the Highest powers under Heaven . *** In this sence it is easie to understand those expressions often used in Antiquity , which might seem to make intrenchment upon the sacredness of Royal prerogatives ; were not both the piety and sence of the Church sufficiently clear in the issues of her humblest obedience . And this is the sence of S. Ignatius that holy Martyr and disciple of the Apostles : Diaconi , & reliquus Clerus , unà cum populo Vniverso , Militibus , Principibus , & Caesare , ipsi Episcopo pareant . Let the Deacons and all the Clergy , and all the people , the Souldiers , the Princes , and Caesar himself obey the Bishop . This is it which S. Ambrose said ; Sublimitas Episcopalis nullis poterit comparationibus adaequari . Si Regum fulgori compares , & Principum diademati , erit inferius , &c. This also was acknowledged by the great Constantine , that most blessed Prince , Deus vos constituit Sacerdotes , & potestatem vobis dedit , de nobis quoque judicandi , & ideo nos à vobis rectè judicamur . Vos autem non potestis ab hominibus judicari , [ viz. saecularibus , and in causis simplicis religionis . ] So that good Emperor in his oration to the Nicene Fathers . It was a famous contestation that S. Ambrose had with Auxentius the Arian , pretending the Emperors command to him to deliver up some certain Churches in his Diocess to the Arians . His answer was , that Palaces belong'd to the Emperor , but Churches to the Bishop ; and so they did by all the laws of Christendom . The like was in the case of S. Athanasius and Constantius the Emperor , exactly the same per omnia , as it is related by Ruffinus . S. Ambrose his sending his Deacon to the Emperor , to desire him to go forth of the Cancelli , in his Church at Milaine , shews that then the powers were so distinct , that they made no intrenchment upon each other . * It was no greater power , but a more considerable act , and higher exercise , the forbidding the communion to Theodosius , till he had by repentance washed out the blood that stuck upon him ever since the Massacre at Thessalonica . It was a wonderful concurrence of piety in the Emperor , and resolution and authority in the Bishop . But he was not the first that did it ; For Philip the Emperor was also guided by the Pastoral rod , and the severity of the Bishop . De hoc traditum est nobis , quòd Christianus fuerit , & in die Paschae , i. e. in ipsis vigiliis cùm interesse voluerit , & communicare mysteriis , ab Episcopo loci non priùs esse permissum , nisi confiteretur peccata , & inter poenitentes staret , nec ullo modo sibi copiam mysteriorum futuram nisi priùs per poenitentiam , culpas quae de eo ferebantur plurimae , deluisset . The Bishop of the place would not let him communicate till he had wash'd away his sins by repentance . And the Emperor did so . Ferunt igitur libenter eum quod à Sacerdote imperatum fuerat , suscepisse . He did it willingly , undertaking the impositions laid upon him by the Bishop . I doubt not but all the world believes the dispensation of the Sacraments intirely to belong to Ecclesiastical Ministery . It was S. Chrysostomes command to his Presbyters , to reject all wicked persons from the holy Communion . If he be a Captain , a Consul , or a Crowned King that cometh unworthily , forbid him and keep him off , thy power is greater than his . If thou darest not remove him , tell it me , I will not suffer it , &c. And had there never been more error in the managing Church-censures , than in the foregoing instances , the Church might have exercised censures , and all the parts of power that Christ gave her , without either scandal or danger to her self , or her penitents . But when in the very censure of excommunication there is a new ingredient put , a great proportion of secular inconveniences , and humane interest , when excommunications , as in the Apostles times they were deliverings over to Satan , so now shall be deliverings over to a foreign enemy , or the peoples rage ; as then to be buffeted , so now to be deposed , or disinteress'd in the allegiance of subjects ; in these cases excommunication being nothing like that which Christ authorized , and no way cooperating toward the end of its institution , but to an end of private designs and rebellious interest , Bishops have no power of such censures , nor is it lawful to inflict them , things remaining in that consistence and capacity . And thus is that famous saying to be understood reported by S. Thomas to be S. Austin's , but is indeed found in the Ordinary Gloss upon Matth. 13. Princeps & multitudo non est excommunicanda . A Prince or a Commonwealth are not to be excommunicate . Thus I have given a short account of the Persons , and causes of which Bishops according to Catholick practice did , and might take cognizance . This use only I make of it . Although Christ hath given great authority to his Church in order to the regiment of souls , such a power , Quae nullis poterit comparationibus adaequari , yet it hath its limits , and a proper cognizance , viz. things spiritual , and the emergencies , and consequents from those things which Christianity hath introduced de novo , and superadded , as things totally disparate from the precise interest of the Commonwealth ; And this I the rather noted to shew how those men would mend themselves that cry down the tyranny ( as they list to call it ) of Episcopacy , and yet call for the Presbytery . *** For the Presbytery does challenge cognizance of all causes whatsoever , which are either sins directly , or by reduction . [ All crimes which by the Law of God deserve death . ] There they bring in Murders , Treasons , Witchcrafts , Felonies . Then the Minor faults they bring in under the title of [ Scandalous and offensive . ] Nay [ Quodvis peccatum , ] saith Snecanus , to which if we add this consideration , that they believe every action of any man to have in it the malignity of a damnable sin , there is nothing in the world , good or bad , vitious or suspicious ; scandalous or criminal ; true or imaginary ; real actions or personal ; in all which , and in all contestations and complaints one party is delinquent , either by false accusation , or real injury ; but they comprehend in their vast gripe , and then they have power to nullifie all Courts and judicatories , besides their own : and being , for this their cognizance they pretend Divine institution , there shall be no causes imperfect in their Consistory , no appeal from them , but they shall hear , and determine with final resolution , and it will be sin , and therefore punishable , to complain of injustice and illegality . * If this be confronted but with the pretences of Episcopacy , and the modesty of their several demands , and the reasonableness , and divinity of each vindication examined , I suppose , were there nothing but Prudential motives to be put into the balance to weigh down this Question , the cause would soon be determined , and the little finger of Presbytery , not only in its exemplary and tried practices , but in its dogmatical pretensions is heavier than the loyns , nay , than the whole body of Episcopacy ; but it seldom happens otherwise , but that they who usurp a power , prove tyrants in the execution , whereas the issues of a lawful power are fair and moderate . SECT . XXXVII . Forbidding Presbyters to officiate without Episcopal license . BUT I must proceed to the more particular instances of Episcopal Jurisdiction . The whole power of Ministration both of the Word and Sacraments was in the Bishop by prime authority , and in the Presbyters by commission and delegation , insomuch that they might not exercise any ordinary ministration without license from the Bishop . They had power and capacity by their order to Preach , to Minister , to Offer , to Reconcile , and to Baptize . They were indeed acts of order , but that they might not by the law of the Church exercise any of these acts without license from the Bishop , that is an act or issue of jurisdiction , and shews the superiority of the Bishop over his Presbyters , by the practice of Christendom . S. Ignatius hath done very good offices in all the parts of this Question , and here also he brings in succour . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It is not lawful without the Bishop ( viz. without his leave ) either to baptize , or to offer Sacrifice , or to make oblation , or to keep feasts of charity : and a little before , speaking of the B. Eucharist , and its ministration , and having premised a general interdict for doing any thing without the Bishops consent , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . But let that Eucharist ( saith he ) be held valid which is celebrated under the Bishop , or under him , to whom the Bishop shall permit . *** * I do not here dispute the matter of right , and whether or no the Presbyters might de jure do any offices without Episcopal license , but whether or no de facto it was permitted them in the Primitive Church ? This is sufficient to shew , to what issue the reduction of Episcopacy to a primitive consistence will drive ; and if I mistake not , it is at least a very probable determination of the question of right too . For who will imagine that Bishops should at the first in the calenture of their infant-devotion , in the new spring of Christianity , in the times of persecution , in all the publick disadvantages of state and fortune , when they anchor'd only upon the shore of a Holy Conscience , that then they should have thoughts ambitious , incroaching , of usurpation and advantages , of purpose to devest their Brethren of an authority intrusted them by Christ , and then too when all the advantage of their honour did only set them upon a hill to feel a stronger blast of persecution , and was not , as since it hath been , attested with secular assistance , and fair arguments of honour , but was only in a meer spiritual estimate , and ten thousand real disadvantages . This will not be supposed either of wise or holy men . But however . Valeat quantum valere potest . The question is now of matter of fact , and if the Church of Martyrs , and the Church of Saints , and Doctors , and Confessors now regnant in Heaven , be fair precedents for practices of Christianity , we build upon a rock , though we had digg'd no deeper than this foundation of Catholick practice . Upon the hopes of these advantages , I proceed . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . If any Presbyter disrespecting his own Bishop shall make conventions apart , or erect an Altar ( viz. without the Bishops license ) let him be deposed ; clearly intimating that potestas faciendi concionem , the power of making of Church-meetings and assemblies , for preaching or other offices is derived from the Bishop ; and therefore the Canon adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . He is a lover of Rule , he is a Tyrant , that is , an usurper of that power and government which belongs to the Bishop . The same thing is also decreed in the Council of Antioch , and in the Council of Chalcedon , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . All the most Reverend Bishops cried out , this is a righteous law , this is the Canon of the holy Fathers . [ This ] viz. The Canon Apostolical now cited . Tertullian is something more particular , and instances in Baptism . Dandi baptismum jus habet summus Sacerdos , qui est Episcopus . Dehinc Presbyteri & Diaconi , non tamen sine Episcopi authoritate , propter honorem Ecclesiae , quo salvo salva pax est ; alioquin etiam Laicis jus est . The place is of great consideration , and carries in it its own objection and its answer . The Bishop hath the right of giving baptism . Then after him , Presbyters and Deacons , but not without the authority of the Bishop . ( So far the testimony is clear ) and this is for the honour of the Church . * But does not this intimate it was only by positive constitution , and neither by Divine nor Apostolical ordinance ? No indeed . It does not . For it might be so ordained by Christ or his Apostles propter honorem Ecclesiae ; and no harm done . For it is honourable for the Church , that her Ministrations should be most ordinate , and so they are when they descend from the superiour to the subordinate . But the next words do of themselves make answer , [ Otherwise Lay-men have right to baptize ] That is , without the consent of the Bishop Lay-men can do it as much as Presbyters and Deacons . For indeed baptism conferred by Lay-men is valid and not to be repeated , but yet they ought not to administer it , so neither ought Presbyters without the Bishops license : so says Tertullian , let him answer it . Only the difference is this , Lay-men cannot jure ordinario receive a leave or commission to make it lawful in them to baptize any ; Presbyters and Deacons may , for their order is a capacity or possibility . ** But besides the Sacrament of Baptism , Tertullian affirms the same of the venerable Eucharist . Eucharistiae Sacramentum non de aliorum manu quàm Praesidentium sumimus . The former place will expound this , if there be any scruple in [ Praesidentium ] for clearly the Christians receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist from none but Bishops . I suppose he means [ without Episcopal license . ] Whatsoever his meaning is , these are his words . The Council of Gangra forbidding Conventicles , expresses it with this intimation of Episcopal authority . If any man shall make assemblies privately , and out of the Church , so despising the Church , or shall do any Church-offices , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , without the presence of a Priest by the decree of a Bishop , let him be anathema . The Priest is not to be assistant at any meeting for private offices without the Bishops license . If they will celebrate Synaxes privately , it must be by a Priest , and he must be there by leave of the Bishop , and then the assembly is lawful . And this thing was so known , that the Fathers of the second Council of Carthage call it ignorance or hypocrisie in Priests to do their offices without a license from the Bishop . Numidius Episcopus Massilytanus dixit , In quibusdam locis sunt Presbyteri qui aut ignorantes simpliciter , aut dissimulantes audacter , praesente , & inconsulto Episcopo complurimis in domiciliis agunt agenda , quod disciplinae incongruum cognoscit esse Sanctitas vestra . In some places there are Priests that in private houses do offices ( houseling of people is the office meant , communicating them at home ) without the consent or leave of the Bishop , being either simply ignorant , or boldly dissembling ; implying , that they could not else but know their duties to be , to procure Episcopal license for their ministrations . Ab Vniversis Episcopis dictum est . Quisquis Presbyter inconsulto Episcopo agenda in quolibet loco voluerit celebrare , ipse honori suo contrarius existit . All the Bishop said , if any Priest without leave of his Bishop shall celebrate the mysteries , be the place what it will be , he is an enemy to the Bishops dignity . After this in time , but before in authority , is the great Council of Chalcedon . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Let the Clergy according to the tradition of the Fathers , remain under the power of the Bishops of the City . So that they are for their offices in dependance of the authority of the Bishop . The Canon instances particularly to Priests officiating in Monasteries and Hospitals , but extends it self to an indefinite expression , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , They must not dissent or differ from their Bishop , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. All they that transgress this constitution in any way , not submitting to their Bishop , Let them be punished Canonically . So that now these general expressions of obedience and subordination to the Bishop , being to be understood according to the exigence of the matter , to wit , the Ministeries of the Clergy in their several offices , the Canon extends its prohibition to all ministrations without the Bishops authority . But it was more clearly and evidently law and practice in the Roman Church , we have good witness for it ; S. Leo the Bishop of that Church is my Author . Sed neque coram Episcopo licet Presbyteris in baptisterium introire , nec praesente Antistite infantem tingere , aut signare , nec poenitentem sine praeceptione Episcopi sui reconciliare , nec eo praesente nisi illo jubente Sacramentum corporis & Sanguinis Christi conficere , nec eo coràm posito populum docere , vel benedicere , &c. It is not lawful for the Presbyters to enter into the baptistery , nor to baptize any Catechumens , nor to consecrate the Sacrament of Christs body and blood in the presence of the Bishop without his command . From this place of S. Leo , if it be set in conjunction with the precedent , we have fair evidence of this whole particular . It is not lawful to do any offices without the Bishops leave ; So S. Ignatius , so the Canons of the Apostles , so Tertullian , so the Councils of Antioch and Chalcedon . It is not lawful to do any offices in the Bishops presence without leave , so S. Leo. The Council of Carthage joyns them both together , neither in his presence , nor without his leave in any place . Now against this practice of the Church , if any man should discourse as S. Hierome is pretended to do by Gratian , Qui non vult Presbyteros facere quae jubentur à Deo , dicat quis major est Christo. He that will not let Presbyters do what they are commanded to do by God , let him tell us if any man be greater than Christ , viz. whose command it is , that Presbyters should preach . Why then did the Church require the Bishop's leave ? might not Presbyters do their duty without a license ? This is it which the practice of the Church is abundantly sufficient to answer . * For to the Bishop is committed the care of the whole Diocess , he it is that must give the highest account for the whole charge , he it is who is appointed by peculiar designation to feed the flock , so the Canon of the 1 Apostles , so 2 Ignatius , to the Council of 3 Antioch , so every where ; The Presbyters are admitted in partem solicitudinis , but still the jurisdiction of the whole Diocess is in the Bishop , and without the Bishops admission to a part of it per traditionem subditorum , although the Presbyter by his ordination have a capacity of preaching and administring Sacraments , yet he cannot exercise this without designation of a particular charge , either temporary or fixt . And therefore it is that a Presbyter may not do these acts without the Bishops leave , because they are actions of relation , and suppose a congregation to whom they must be administred , or some particular person ; for a Priest must not preach to the stones , as some say Venerable Bede did , nor communicate alone , the word is destructive of the thing , nor baptize , unless he have a Chrysome Child , or a Catechumen ; So that all of the Diocess being the Bishops charge , the Bishop must either authorize the Priest , or the Priest must not meddle , lest he be ( what S. Peter blamed ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a Bishop in anothers Diocess : Not that the Bishop did license the acts precisely of baptizing , of consecrating , &c. For these he had by his ordination , but that in giving license he did give him a subject to whom he might apply these relative actions , and did quoad hoc take him in partem solicitudinis , and concredit some part of his Diocess to his administration cum cura animarum . But then on the other side , because the whole cure of the Diocess is in the Bishop , he cannot exonerate himself of it , for it is a burden of Christs imposing , or it is not imposed at all , therefore this taking of Presbyters into part of the regiment and care does not divest him of his own power , or any part of it , nor yet ease him of his care , but that as he must still 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , visit and see to his Diocess , so he hath authority still in all parts of his Diocess , and this appears in these places now quoted ; insomuch as when the Bishop came to any place , there the Vicaria of the Presbyters did cease . In praesentiâ Majoris cessat potestas minoris . And , though because the Bishop could not do all the Minor and daily offices of the Priesthood in every congregation of his Diocess , therefore he appointed Priests severally to officiate , himself looking to the Metropolis and the daughter Churches by a general supravision ; yet when the Bishop came into any place of his Diocess , there he being present might do any office , because it was in his own charge , which he might concredit to another , but not exonerate himself of it ; And therefore praesente Episcopo ( saith the Council of Carthage , and S. Leo ) if the Bishop be present , the Presbyter without leave might not officiate ; For he had no subjects of his own , but by trust and delegation , and this delegation was given him to supply the Bishops absence , who could not simul omnibus interesse , but then where he was present , the cause of delegation ceasing , the jurisdiction also ceased , or was at least absorpt in the greater , and so without leave might not be exercised ; like the stars which in the noon-day have their own natural light , as much as in the night , but appear not , shine not in the presence of the Sun. This perhaps will seem uncouth in those Presbyters , who ( as the Council of Carthage's expression is ) are contrarii honori Episcopali ; but yet if we keep our selves in our own form , where God hath placed us , and where we were in the Primitive Church , we shall find all this to be sooth , and full of order . For Consider . The elder the prohibition was , the more absolute and indefinite it runs . [ Without the Bishop it is not lawful to baptize , to consecrate , &c. ] So Ignatius . The prohibition is without limit . But in descent of the Church it runs , [ praesente Episcopo ] the Bishop being present they must not without leave . The thing is all one , and a derivation from the same original , to wit , the Vniversality of the Bishops Jurisdiction , but the reason of the difference of expression is this . At first Presbyters were in Cities with the Bishop , and no parishes at all concredited to them . The Bishops lived in Cities , the Presbyters preached and offered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , from house to house , according as the Bishop directed them . Here they had no ordinary charge , and therefore the first prohibitions run indefinitely , they must not do any Clerical offices sine Episcopo , unless the Bishop sends them . But then afterwards when the Parishes were distinct , and the Presbyters fixt upon ordinary charges , then it was only praesente Episcopo , if the Bishop was present , they might not officiate without leave . For in his absence they might do it , I do not say without leave , but I say they had leave given them , when the Bishop sent them to officiate in a Village with ordinary or temporary residence ; as it is to this day , when the Bishop institutes to a particular charge , he also gives power hoc ipso , of officiating in that place . So that at first when they did officiate in places by temporary missions , then they were to have leave , but this license was also temporary ; but when they were fixt upon ordinary charges they might not officiate without leave , but then they had an ordinary leave given them in traditione subditorum , and that was done in subsidium Muneris Episcopalis , because it was that part of the Bishops charge which he could not personally attend for execution of the Minor offices , and therefore concredited it to a Presbyter , but if he was present , a new leave was necessary , because as the power always was in the Bishop , so now the execution also did return to him when he was there in person , himself if he listed , might officiate . All this is excellently attested in the example of S. Austin , of whom Possidonius in his life reports that being but a Presbyter , Valerius the Bishop being a Greek born , and not well spoken in the Latin tongue , and so unfit for publick orations , Eidem Presbytero ( viz. to Austin ) potestatem dedit coram se in Ecclesiâ Evangelium praedicandi , ac frequentissimè tractandi contra usum quidem , & Consuetudinem Africanarum Ecclesiarum . He gave leave to Austin then but Presbyter , to preach in the Church , even while himself was present , indeed against the use and Custom of the African Churches . And for this Act of his he suffered soundly in his report . * For the case was thus . In all Africa ever since the first spring of the Arian heresie , the Church had then suffered so much by the preaching of Arius the Presbyter , that they made a Law not to suffer any Presbyter to preach at all , at least in the Mother Church , and in the Bishops presence . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( saith Socrates . ) Thence came this Custom in the African Churches . But because Valerius saw S. Austin so able , and himself for want of Latin so unfit , he gave leave to Austin to preach before him , against the custom of the African Churches . But he adds this reason for his excuse too , it was not indeed the custom of Africa , but it was of the Oriental Churches . For so Possidonius proceeds , Sed & ille vir venerabilis , ac providus in orientalibus Ecclesiis id ex more fieri sciens , in the Levant it was usual for Bishops to give Presbyters leave to preach , Dummodo factitaretur à Presbytero quod à se Episcopo impleri minime posse cernebat , which determines us fully in the business . For this leave to do offices was but there to be given where the Bishop himself could not fulfil the offices , which shows the Presbyters in their several charges , whether of temporary mission , or fixt residence , to be but Delegates and Vicars of the Bishop admitted in partem Solicitudinis , to assist the Bishop in his great charge of the whole Diocess . Against this it is objected out of S. Hierom , and it is recorded by Gratian , Ecce ego dico praesentibus Episcopis suis , atque adstantibus in altari Presbyteros posse Sacramenta conficere . Behold , I say that Presbyters may minister Sacraments in presence of the Bishop . So Gratian quotes it indeed , but S. Hierome says the express contrary , unless we all have false copies . For in S. Hierome it is not [ Ecce ego dico ] but [ Nec ego dico . ] He does not say it is lawful for Presbyters to officiate in the presence of their Bishop . Indeed S. Hierom is angry at Rusticus Bishop of Narbona , because he would not give leave to Presbyters to preach , nor to bless , &c. This , perhaps it was not well done , but this makes not against the former discourse ; for though it may be fit for the Bishop to give leave , the Church requiring it still more and more in descent of ages , and multiplication of Christians , and Parishes , yet it is clear that this is not to be done without the Bishops leave , for it is for this very thing that S. Hierome disputes against Rusticus , to shew he did amiss , because he would not give his Presbyters license . * And this he also reprehends in his Epistle ad Nepotianum , Pessimae consuetudinis est in quibusdam Ecclesiis tacere Presbyteros , & praesentibus Episcopis non loqui . That Presbyters might not be suffered to preach in presence of the Bishop , that was an ill custom , to wit , as things then stood , and it was mended presently after , for Presbyters did preach in the Bishops presence , but it was by license from their Ordinary . For so Possidonius relates , that upon this act of Valerius before mentioned , Postea currente & volante hujusmodi famâ , bono praecedente exemplo , accepta ab Episcopis potestate Presbyteri nonnulli coram Episcopis , populis tractare coeperunt verbum Dei. By occasion of this precedent it came to pass , that some Presbyters did preach to the people in the Bishops presence , having first obtained faculty from the Bishop so to do . And a little after it became a custom from a general faculty and dispensation indulged to them in the second Council of Vase . Now if this evidence of Church practice be not sufficient to reconcile us to S. Hierome , let him then first be reconciled to himself , and then we are sure to be helped . For in his dialogue against the Luciferians , his words are these , Cui si non exors quaedam & ab omnibus eminens detur potestas , tot efficientur Schismata quot sunt Sacerdotes . Inde venit ut sine Episcopi missione neque Presbyter , neque Diaconus jus habeant baptizandi . Because the Bishop hath an eminent power , and this power is necessary , thence it comes that neither Presbyter nor Deacon may so much as baptize without the Bishops leave . ** This whole discourse shews clearly not only the Bishops to be superiour in jurisdiction , but that they have sole jurisdiction , and the Presbyters only in substitution and vicaridge . SECT . XXXVIII . Reserving Church-goods to Episcopal dispensation . ** DIVERS other acts there are to attest the superiority of the Bishops jurisdiction over Priests and Deacons , as that all the goods of the Church were in the Bishops sole disposing , and as at first they were laid at the Apostles feet , so afterwards at the Bishops . So it is in the 41 Canon of the Apostles , so it is in the Council of Gangra , and all the world are excluded from intervening in the dispensation , without express delegation from the Bishop , as appears in the seventh and eighth Canons , and that under pain of an anathema by the holy Council . * And therefore when in success of time some Patrons that had founded Churches and endowed them , thought that the dispensation of those lands did not belong to the Bishop ; of this the third Council of Toledo complains , and makes remedy , commanding , Vt omnia secundum constitutionem antiquam , ad Episcopi ordinationem & potestatem pertineant . The same is renewed in the fourth Council of Toledo . Noverint autem conditores basilicarum in rebus quas eisdem Ecclesiis conserunt , nullam se potestatem habere , sed juxta Canonum instituta , sicut Ecclesiam , ita & dotem ejus ad ordinationem Episcopi pertinere . These Councils I produce not as Judges , but as witnesses in the business , for they give concurrent testimony , that as the Church it self , so the dowry of it too did belong to the Bishops disposition by the Ancient Canons . For so the third Council of Toledo calls it , antiquam Constitutionem , and it self is almost 1100 years old , so that still I am precisely within the bounds of the Primitive Church , though it be taken in a narrow sence . For so it was determined in the great Council of Chalcedon , commanding that the goods of the Church should be dispensed by a Clergy steward , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , According to the pleasure or sentence of the Bishop . SECT . XXXIX . Forbidding Presbyters to leave their own Diocess , or to travel without leave of the Bishop . ADDE to this , that without the Bishop's dimissory letters Presbyters might not go to another Diocess . So it is decreed in the fifteenth Canon of the Apostles , under pain of suspension or deposition , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the censure ; and that especially , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , If he would not return when his Bishop calls him . The same is renewed in the Council of Antioch , cap. 3. and in the Council of Constantinople in Trullo , cap. 17. the censure there is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Let him be deposed that shall without dimissory letters from his Bishop , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Fix himself in the Diocess of another Bishop . But with license of his Bishop , he may . Sacerdotes , vel alii Clerici concessione suorum Episcoporum possunt ad alias Ecclesias transmigrare . But this is frequently renewed in many other Synodal decrees , these may suffice for this instance . * But this not leaving the Diocess is not only meant of promotion in another Church , but Clergy-men might not travel from City to City without the Bishops license ; which is not only an argument of his regiment in genere politico , but extends it almost to a despotick ; But so strict was the Primitive Church in preserving the strict tye of duty , and Clerical subordination to their Bishop . The Council of Laodicea commands a Priest or Clergy-man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , not to travel without Canonical or dimissory letters . And who are to grant these letters is expressed in the next Canon which repeats the same prohibition , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a Priest or a Clerk must not travel without the command of his Bishop ; and this prohibition is inserted into the body of the Law , De consecrat . dist . 5. can . non oportet , which puts in the clause of [ Neque etiam Laicum , ] but this was beyond the Council . The same is in the Council of * Agatho . The Council of ‖ Venice adds a censure , that those Clerks should be like persons excommunicate in all those places whither they went , without letters of license from their Bishop . The same penalty is inflicted by the Council of Epaunum , Presbytero , vel Diaecono sine Antistitis sui Epistolis ambulanti communionem nullus impendat . The first Council of Tourayne in France , and the third Council of Orleans attest the self-same power in the Bishop , and duty in all his Clergy . SECT . XL. And the Bishop had power to prefer which of his Clerks he pleased . BUT a Coercitive authority makes not a compleat jurisdiction , unless it be also remunerative ▪ and [ the Princes of the Nations are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Benefactors , ] for it is but half a tye to indear obedience , when the Subject only fears quod prodesse non poterit , that which cannot profit . And therefore the Primitive Church , to make the Episcopal Jurisdiction up intire , gave power to the Bishop to present the Clerks of his Diocess to the higher Orders and nearer degrees of approximation to himself , and the Clerks might not refuse to be so promoted . Item placuit ut quicunque Clerici vel Diaconi pro necessitatibus Ecclesiarum non obtemperaverit Episcopis suis volentibus eos ad honorem ampliorem in sua Ecclesia promovere , nec illic ministrent in gradu suo unde recedere noluerunt . So it is decreed in the African Code , They that will not by their Bishop be promoted to a greater honour in the Church , must not enjoy what they have already . But it is a question of great consideration , and worth a strict inquiry , in whom the right and power of electing Clerks was resident in the Primitive Church : for the right and the power did not always go together , and also several Orders had several manners of election ; Presbyters and inferior Clergy were chosen by the Bishop alone , the Bishop by a Synod of Bishops , or by their Chapter ; And lastly , because of late strong outcries are made upon several pretensions , amongst which the people make the biggest noise , though of all their title to election of Clerks be most empty , therefore let us consider it upon all its grounds . 1. In the Acts of the Apostles , which are most certainly the best precedents for all acts of holy Church , we find that [ Paul and Barnabas ordained Elders in every Church ] and [ they passed through Lystra , Iconium , Antioch , and Derbe , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , appointing them Elders . * S. Paul chose Timothy Bishop of Ephesus , and he says of himself and Titus , [ For this cause I sent thee to Crete , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , That thou shouldest appoint Presbyters , or Bishops ( be they which they will ) in every City . ] The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ▪ signifies that the whole action was his . For that he ordained them no man questions , but he also appointed them , and that was , saith S. Paul , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as I commanded thee . It was therefore an Apostolical ordinance , that the Bishop should appoint Presbyters . Let there be half so much shown for the people , and I will also endeavour to promote their interest . *** There is only one pretence of a popular election in Scripture ; It is of the seven that were set over the widows . * But first , this was no part of the hierarchy : This was no cure of souls : This was no divine institution : It was in the dispensation of monies : It was by command of the Apostles the election was made , and they might recede from their own right : It was to satisfie the multitude : It was to avoid scandal , which in the dispensation of monies might easily arise : It was in a temporary office : It was with such limitations , and conditions as the Apostles prescribed them : It was out of the number of the 70 that the election was made , if we may believe S. Epiphanius , so that they were Presbyters before this choice : And lastly , It was only a nomination of seven Men , the determination of the business , and the authority of rejection was still in the Apostles , and indeed the whole power [ Whom we may appoint over this business ] and after all this , there can be no hurt done by the objection , especially since clearly , and indubiously the election of Bishops and Presbyters was in the Apostles own persons ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith S. Ignatius of Evodias ; Evodias was first appointed to be your Governour , or Bishop , by the Apostles ) and themselves did commit it to others that were Bishops , as in the instances before reckoned . Thus the case stood in Scripture . 2. In the practice of the Church it went according to the same law , and practice Apostolical . The People did not , might not chuse the Ministers of holy Church . So the Council of Laodicea , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The people must not chuse those that are to be promoted to the Priesthood . The prohibition extends to their Non-election of all the Superiour Clergy , Bishops and Presbyters . But who then must elect them ? The Council of Nice determines that , for in 16 and 17 Canons the Council forbids any promotion of Clerks to be made , but by the Bishop of that Church where they are first ordained , which clearly reserves to the Bishop the power of retaining or promoting all his Clergy . * 3. All Ordinations were made by Bishops alone , ( as I have already proved . ) Now let this be confronted with the practice of Primitive Christendom , that no Presbyter might be ordained sine titulo , without a particular charge , which was always custom , and at last grew to be a law in the Council of Chalcedon , and we shall perceive that the ordainer was the only chuser ; for then to ordain a Presbyter was also to give him a charge ; and the Patronage of a Church was not a lay inheritance , but part of the Bishops cure , for he had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The care of the Churches in all the Diocess ; as I have already shown . And therefore when S. Jerome , according to the custom of Christendom , had specified some particular ordinations or election of Presbyters by Bishops , as how himself was made Priest by Paulinus , and Paulinus by Epiphanius of Cyprus , Gaudeat Episcopus judicio suo , cum tales Christo elegerit Sacerdotes , Let the Bishop rejoyce in his own act , having chosen such worthy Priests for the service of Christ. Thus S. Ambrose gives intimation that the dispensing all the offices in the Clergy was solely in the Bishop . Haec spectet Sacerdos , & quod cuique congruat , id officii deputet . Let the Bishop observe these rules , and appoint every one his office as is best answerable to his condition and capacity . And Theodoret report of Leontius the Bishop of Antioch , how being an Arian , Adversarios recti dogmatis suscipiens , licet turpem habentes vitam , ad Presbyteratus tamen ordinem , & Diaconatus evexit . Eos autem qui Vniversis virtutibus ornabantur & Apostolica dogmata defendebant , absque honore deseruit . He advanced his own faction , but would not promote any man that was catholick and pious . So he did . The power therefore of Clerical promotion was in his own hands . This thing is evident and notorious ; and there is scarce any example in Antiquity of either Presbyters or people chusing any Priest , but only in the case of S. Austin whom the Peoples haste snatch'd , and carried him to their Bishop Valerius , intreating him to ordain him Priest. This indeed is true , that the testimony of the people for the life of them that were to be ordained was by S. Cyprian ordinarily required ; In ordinandis Clericis ( Fratres Charissimi ) solemus vos ante consulere , & mores ac merita singulorum communi consilio ponderare . It was his custom to advise with his people concerning the publick fame of Clerks to be ordained ; It was usual ( I say ) with him , but not perpetual ▪ for it was otherwise in the case of Celerinus , and divers others , as I shewed elsewhere . 4. In election of Bishops ( though not of Priests ) the Clergy and the people had a greater actual interest , and did often intervene with their silent consenting suffrages , or publick acclamations . But first ; This was not necessary . It was otherwise among the Apostles , and in the case of Timothy , of Titus , of S. James , of S. Mark , and all the Successors whom they did constitute in the several charges . 2. This was not by law , or right , but in fact only . It was against the Canon of the Laodicean Council , and the 31 Canon of the Apostles , which under pain of deposition commands that a Bishop be not promoted to his Church by the intervening of any lay power . Against this discourse S. Cyprian is strongly pretended . Quando ipsa [ plebs ] maxime habeat potestatem vel eligendi dignos Sacerdotes , vel indignos recusandi . Quod & ipsum videmus de divina authoritate descendere , &c. Thus he is usually cited , the people have power to chuse , or to refuse their Bishops , and this comes to them from Divine authority . No such matter . The following words expound him better , [ Quod & ipsum videmus de divinâ authoritate descendere , ut Sacerdos plebe Praesente sub omnium oculis deligatur , & dignus , atque idoneus publico judicio ac testimonio comprobetur : That the Bishop is chosen publickly , in the presence of the people , and he only be thought fit who is approved by publick judgment and testimony ; or as S. Pauls phrase is [ he must have a good report of all men ] that is indeed a divine institution , and that to this purpose , and for the publick attestation of the act of election and ordination the peoples presence was required , appears clearly by S. Cyprians discourse in this Epistle . For what is the Divine authority that he mentions ? It is only the example of Moses whom God commanded to take the Son of Eleazar and cloath him with his Fathers robes coram omni Synagoga , before all the congregation . The people chose not , God chose Eleazar , and Moses consecrated him , and the people stood and looked on ; that 's all that this argument can supply . * Just thus Bishops are , and ever were ordained , Non nisi sub populi assistentis conscientiâ , In the sight of the people standing by ; but to what end ? Vt plebe praesente detegantur malorum crimina , vel bonorum merita praedicentur . All this while the election is not in the people , nothing but the publick testimony and examination , for so it follows , Et sit ordinatio justa & legitima quae omnium suffragio , & judicio fuerit examinata . ** But S. Cyprian hath two more proofs whence we may learn , either the sence or the truth of his assertion . The one is of the Apostles ordaining the seven Deacons , ( but this we have already examined , ) the other of S. Peter chusing S. Matthias into the Apostolate ; it was indeed done in the presence of the people . * But here it is considerable that at this surrogation of S. Matthias , the Number of the persons present was but 120 , of which eleven were Apostles , and 72 were Disciples and Presbyters , they make up 83 , and then there remains but 37 of the Laity , of which many were women , which I know not yet whether any man would admit to the election of an Apostle , and whether they do or do not , the Laity is a very inconsiderable Number if the matter had been to be carried by plurality of voices ; so that let the worst come that is imaginable , the whole business was in effect carried by the Clergy , whom in this case we have no reason to suspect to be divided , and of a distinct or disagreeing interest . * 2. Let this discourse be of what validity it will , yet all this whole business was miraculous and extraordinary ; For though the Apostles named two Candidates , yet the holy Ghost chose them by particular revelation . And yet for all this , it was lawful for S. Peter alone to have done it without casting lots . An non licebat ipsi [ Petro ] eligere ? licebat , & quidem maxime ; verum id non facit ne cui videretur gratificari . Quanquam alioqui non erat particeps Spiritûs . For all he had not as yet received the holy Ghost , yet he had power himself to have compleated the election . So S. Chrysostom . So that now , if S. Cyprian means more than the presence of the people for suffrage of publick testimony , and extends it to a suffrage of formal choice , his proofs of the divine authority are invalid , there is no such thing can be deduced from thence , and then this his complying so much with the people ( which hath been the fault of many a good man ) may be reckoned together with his rebaptization . But truth is , he means no more than suffrage of testimony , viz. That he who is to be chosen Bishop be for his good life a man of good fame , and approved of before God and all the people , and this is all the share they have in their election . * And so indeed himself summs up the whole business , and tells us of another jus Divinum too . [ Propter quod diligenter de traditione Divinâ , & Apostolicâ observatione , observandum est & tenendum , quod apud nos quoque , & fer● apud Provincias Vniversas tenetur , ut ad ordinationes ritè celebrandas ad eam plebem cui Praepositus ordinatur , Episcopi ejusdem provinciae proximi quinque conveniant , & Episcopus deligatur plebe praesente quae singulorum vitam plenissimè novit . It is most diligently to be observed , for there is a Divine tradition , and an Apostolical ordinance for it , and it is used by us and almost by all Churches , that all the Bishops of the Province assembled to the making of right ordinations , and that a Bishop be chosen in the face of the people who best know their life and conversation . ] So that the Bishops were to make the formal election , the people to give their judgment of approbation in this particular , and so much as concern'd the exemplary piety , and good life of him that was to be their Bishop . Here we see in S. Cyprian is a jus Divinum for the Bishops chusing a Colleague , or a Brother-Bishop , as much as for the presence of the people , and yet the presence was all . And howsoever the people were present to give this testimony , yet the election was clearly in the Bishops , and that by Divine tradition , and Apostolical observation saith S. Cyprian ; And thus it was in all Churches almost . In Africa this was , and so it continued till after S. Austins time , particularly in the choice of Eradius his successor . It was so in the Greek Church as S. Chrysostom tells us . It was so in Spain , as * S. Isidore tells us ; and in many other places , that the people should be present , and give acclamation , and tumultuary approbation ; but to the formal election of the Clergy , made by enumeration of votes and subscription , the people never were admitted . 5. Although that in times of persecution , at first , and to comply with the people who were in all respects to be sweetned , to make them with easier appetite swallow the bitter pill of persecution , and also to make them more obedient to their Bishop , if they did , though but in a tumult and noise cry him up in his ordination , Ne plebs in vita Episcopum non optatum , aut contemnat , aut oderit , & fiat minùs religiosa quàm convenit , cui non licuerit habere quem voluit , ( for so S. Leo expresses the cause ) yet the formality and right of proper election was in the Clergy , and often so practised without any consent at all , or intervening act of the people . The right , I say , was in the Bishops , so it was decreed in the Nicene Council , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The Bishop must be appointed or constituted by all the Bishops of the Province , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It must be confirmed , and established by the Metropolitan . No Presbyters here all this while , no people . * But the exercise of this power is more clearly seen in the Acts of some Councils , where the Fathers degraded some Bishops , and themselves appointed others in their Rooms . * The Bishops in the Council of Constantinople deposed Marcellus . In cujus locum Basilium in Ancyram miserunt . They sent Basilius Bishop in his room , saith Sozomen . Ostendat Bassianus si per Synodum Reverendissimorum Episcoporum , & consuetâ lege Episcopus Ephesiorum Metropolis est constitutus , ( said the Fathers of the Council of Chalcedon . ) Let Bassianus show that he was made Bishop of Ephesus by a Synod of Bishops , and according to the accustomed Law. The Law I shewed before , even the Nicene Canon . The Fathers of which Council sent a Synodal Epistle to the Church of Alexandria , to tell them they had deposed Melitius from the office of a Bishop , only left him the name , but took from him all power , Nullum verò omnimodò habere potestatem , neque eligendi , neque ordinandi , &c. Neither suffering him to chuse nor to ordain Clerks . It seems then that was part of the Episcopal office in ordinary , placitos sibi eligere , as the Epistle expresses it in the sequel , to chuse whom they listed . But the Council deposed Melitius , and sent Alexander their Bishop and Patriarch to rule the Church again . ** And particularly to come home to the case of the present question , when Auxentius Bishop of Milaine was dead , and the Bishops of the Province , and the Clergy of the Church , and the people of the City , were assembled at the chusing of another , the Emperor makes a speech to the Bishops only , that they should be careful in their choice . So that although the people were present , Quibus pro fide , & religione etiam honor deferendus est , ( as S. Cyprians phrase is ) To whom respect is to be had , and fair complyings to be used so long as they are pious , catholick and obedient , yet both the right of electing , and solemnity of ordaining was in the Bishops , the peoples interest did not arrive to one half of this . 6. There are in Antiquity divers precedents of Bishops , who chose their own successors ; it will not be imagined the people will chuse a Bishop over his head , and proclaim that they were weary of him . In those days they had more piety . * Agelius did so , he chose Sisinnius , and that it may appear it was without the people , they came about him , and intreated him to chuse Marcian , to whom they had been beholding in the time of Valens the Emperor ; he complied with them , and appointed Marcian to be his successor , and Sisinnius , whom he had first chosen , to succeed Marcian . Thus did Valerius chuse his successor S. Austin ; for though the people named him for their Priest , and carried him to Valerius to take Orders , yet Valerius chose him Bishop . And this was usual ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( as Epiphanius expresses this case , ) it was ordinary to do so in many Churches . 7. The manner of election in many Churches was various , for although indeed the Church had commanded it , and given power to the Bishops to make the election , yet in some times and in some Churches the Presbyters , or the Chapter chose one out of themselves . S. Hierome says they always did so in Alexandria , from S. Mark 's time to Heraclas and Dionysius . S. Ambrose says , that at the first the Bishop was not by a formal new election promoted , but recedente uno sequens ei succedebat . As one died so the next senior did succeed him . In both these cases no mixture of the peoples votes . 8. In the Church of England the people were never admitted to the choice of a Bishop from its first becoming Christian to this very day , and therefore to take it from the Clergy , in whom it always was by permission of Princes , and to interest the people in it , is to recede à traditionibus Majorum , from the religion of our forefathers , and to Innovate in a high proportion . 9. In those Churches where the peoples suffrage ( by way of testimony , I mean , and approbation ) did concur with the Synod of Bishops in the choice of a Bishop , the people at last , according to their usual guise , grew hot , angry , and tumultuous , and then were ingaged by divisions in religion to name a Bishop of their own sect ; and to disgrace one another by publick scandal and contestation , and often grew up to Sedition and Murder ; and therefore although they were never admitted , ( unless where themselves usurped ) farther than I have declared , yet even this was taken from them , especially , since in tumultuary assemblies they were apt to carry all before them , they knew not how to distinguish between power and right , they had not well learned to take denial , but began to obtrude whom they listed , to swell higher like a torrent when they were checked ; and the soleship of election , which by the Ancient Canons was in the Bishops , they would have asserted wholly to themselves both in right and execution . * I end this with the annotation of Zonaras upon the twelfth Canon of the Laodicean Council ; Populi suffragiis olim Episcopi eligebantur ( understand him in the sences above explicated ) sed cùm multae inde seditiones existerent , hinc factum est ut Episcoporum Vniuscujusque provinciae authoritate eligi Episcopum quemque oportere decreverint Patres : Of old time Bishops were chosen , not without the suffrage of the people ( for they concurred by way of testimony and acclamation ) but when this occasioned many seditions and tumults , the Fathers decreed that a Bishop should be chosen by the authority of the Bishops of the Province . And he adds that in the election of Damasus 137 men were slain , and that six hundred examples more of that nature were producible . Truth is , the Nomination of Bishops in Scripture was in the Apostles alone , and though the Kindred of our blessed Saviour were admitted to the choice of Simeon Cleophae , the successor of S. James to the Bishoprick of Jerusalem , as Eusebius witnesses ; it was propter singularem honorem , an honorary and extraordinary priviledge indulged to them for their vicinity and relation to our blessed Lord the fountain of all benison to us ; and for that very reason Simeon himself was chosen Bishop too . Yet this was praeter regulam Apostolicam . The rule of the Apostles , and their precedents were for the sole right of the Bishops to chuse their Colleagues in that Sacred order . * And then in descent , even before the Nicene Council the people were forbidden to meddle in election , for they had no authority by Scripture to chuse ; by the necessity of times and for the reasons before asserted they were admitted to such a share of the choice as is now folded up in a piece of paper , even to a testimonial ; and yet I deny not but they did often take more , as in the case of Nilammon , quem cives elegerunt , saith the story out of Sozomen , they chose him alone , ( though God took away his life before himself would accept of their choice ) and then they behav'd themselves often times with so much insolency , partiality , faction , sedition , cruelty , and Pagan baseness , that they were quite interdicted it , above 1200 years agone . So that they had their little in possession but a little while , and never had any due , and therefore now their request for it is no petition of right , but a popular ambition , and a snatching at a sword to hew the Church in pieces . But I think I need not have troubled my self half so far , for they that strive to introduce a popular election , would as fain have Episcopacy out , as popularity of election let in . So that all this of popular election of Bishops may seem superfluous . For I consider , that if the peoples power of chusing Bishops be founded upon God's law , as some men pretend from S. Cyprian ( not proving the thing from Gods law , but Gods law from S. Cyprian ) then Bishops themselves must be by Gods law : For surely God never gave them power to chuse any man into that office which himself hath no way instituted . And therefore I suppose these men will desist from their pretence of Divine right of popular election , if the Church will recede from her Divine right of Episcopacy . But for all their plundering and confounding , their bold pretences have made this discourse necessary . SECT . XLI . Bishops only did Vote in Councils , and neither Presbyters nor People . IF we add to all these foregoing particulars the power of making laws to be in Bishops , nothing else can be required to the making up of a spiritual Principality . Now as I have shewen that the Bishop of every Diocess did give laws to his own Church for particulars , so it is evident that the laws of Provinces and of the Catholick Church , were made by conventions of Bishops , without the intervening or concurrence of Presbyters , or any else for sentence and decision . The instances of this are just so many as there are Councils . S. Athanasius reprehending Constantius the Arian for interposing in the Conciliary determinations of faith , Si judicium Episcoporum est ( saith he ) quid cum eo commune habet Imperator ? It is a judgment to be passed by Bishops , ( meaning the determination of the article , ) and not proper for the Emperor . And when Hosius of Corduba reproved him for sitting President in a Council , Quis enim videns eum in decernendo Principem se facere Episcoporum , non meritò dicat illum eam ipsam abhominationem desolationis ? He that sits President makes himself chief of the Bishops , &c. intimating Bishops only to preside in Councils , and to make decision . And therefore conventus Episcoporum , and Concilium Episcoporum are the words for General and Provincial Councils . Bis in anno Episcoporum Concilia celebrentur , said the 38 Canon of the Apostles ; and Congregatio Episcopalis the Council of Sardis is called by Theodoret. And when the Question was started in the time of Pope Victor about the celebration of Easter , Ob quam causam ( saith Eusebius ) conventus Episcoporum , & Concilia per singulas quasque provincias convocantur . Where by the way , it is observable , that at first , even provincial Synods were only held by Bishops , and Presbyters had no interest in the decision ; however we have of late sate so near Bishops in Provincial assemblies , that we have sate upon the Bishops skirts . But my Lords the Bishops have a concerning interest in this . To them I leave it ; And because the four general Councils are the Precedents and chief of all the rest , I shall only instance in them for this particular . 1. The title of the Nicene Council runs thus . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The Canons of the 318 Fathers met in Nice . These Fathers were all that gave suffrage to the Canons , for if they had been more , the title could not have appropriated the Sanction to 318. And that there were no more S. Ambrose gives testimony , in that he makes it to be a mystical number ; Nam & Abraham trecentos decem & octo duxit ad bellum — De Conciliis id potissimùm sequor quod trecenti decem & octo Sacerdotes — velut trophaeum extulerunt , ut mihi videatur hoc esse Divinum , quod eodem numero in Conciliis , fidei habemus oraculum , quo in historiâ , pietatis exemplum . Well! 318 was the Number of the Judges , the Nicene Fathers , and they were all Bishops , for so is the title of the subscriptions , Subscripserunt trecenti decem & octo Episcopi qui in eodem Concilio convenerunt ; 13 whereof were Chorespiscopi , but not one Presbyter , save only that Vitus , and Vincentius subscribed as Legates of the Bishop of Rome , but not by their own authority . 2. The great Council of Constantinople was celebrated by 150 Bishops : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , That 's the title of the Canons . The Canons of 150 holy Fathers who met in G. P. and that these were all Bishops appears by the title of S. Gregory Nazianzen's oration in the beginning of the Council . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The oration of S. Gregory Nazianzen in the presence of 150 Bishops . And of this Council it was that Socrates speaking , Imperator ( saith he ) nullâ morâ interpositâ Concilium Episcoporum convocat . Here indeed some few Bishops appeared by Proxy , as Montanus Bishop of Claudiopolis by Paulus a Presbyter , and Atarbius Bishop of Pontus by Cylus a Reader , and about some four or five more . * This only , amongst the subscriptions I find Tyrannus , Auxanon , Helladius , and Elpidius calling themselves Presbyters . But their modesty hinders not the truth of the former testimonies ; They were Bishops , saith the title of the Council , and the Oration , and the Canons , and Socrates ; And lest there be scruple concerning Auxanon Presbyter Apameae , because before Johannes Apameensis subscribed , which seems to intimate that one of them was the Bishop , and the other but a Presbyter indeed , without a subterfuge of modesty , the titles distinguish them . For John was Bishop in the Province of Caelo Syria , and Auxanon of Apam●a in Pisidia . 3. The third was the Council of Ephesus , Episcoporum plurium quàm ducentorum , as it is often said in the acts of the Council [ of above 200 Bishops ] but no Presbyters , for , Cum Episcopi supra ducentos extiterint qui Nestorium deposuerunt , horum subscriptionibus contenti fuimus . We were content with the subscription of the 200 and odd Bishops , saith the Council ; and Theodosius junior , in his Epistle to the Synod , Illicitum est ( saith he ) eum qui non sit in ordine sanctissimorum Episcoporum Ecclesiasticis immisceri tractatibus . It is unlawful for any but them who are in the order of the most holy Bishops to be interess'd in Ecclesiastical assemblies . 4. The last of the four great conventions of Christendom was , sexcentorum triginta Episcoporum , of 630 Bishops at Chalcedon in Bithynia . But in all these assemblies , no meer Presbyters gave suffrage , except by legation from his Bishop , and delegation of authority . And therefore when in this Council some Laicks , and some Monks , and some Clergie-men , not Bishops , would interest themselves , Pulcheria the Empress sent letters to Consularius to repel them by force ; Si praeter nostram evocationem , aut permissionem suorum Episcoporum ibidem commorantur , Who come without command of the Empress , or the Bishops permission . Where it is observable that the Bishops might bring Clerks with them to assist , to dispute , and to be present in all the action ; And thus they often did suffer Abbots , or Archimandrites to be there , and to subscribe too , but that was praeter regulam , and by indulgence only , and condescension ; For when Martinus the Abbot was requested to subscribe , he answered , Non suum esse , sed Episcoporum tantum subscribere , It belonged only to Bishops to subscribe to Councils . For this reason the Fathers themselves often called out in the Council , Mitte foras superfluos , Concilium Episcoporum est . But I need not more particular arguments , for till the Council of Basil the Church never admitted Presbyters as in their own right to voice in Councils , and that Council we know savour'd too much of the Schismatick : but before this Council , no example , no president of subscriptions of the Presbyters , either to Oecumenical , or Provincial Synods . Indeed to a Diocesan Synod , viz. that of Auxerre in Burgundy , I find 32 Presbyters subscribing . This Synod was neither Oecumenical nor Provincial , but meerly the Convocation of a Diocess . For here was but one Bishop and some few Abbots , and 32 Presbyters . It was indeed no more than a visitation , or the calling of a Chapter , for of this we receive intimation in the seventh Canon of that assembly , Vt in medio Maio omnes Presbyteri ad Synodum venirent , that was their summons , Et in Novembri omnes Abbates ad Concilium : so that here is intimation of a yearly Synod besides the first convention , the greatest of them but Diocesan , and therefore the lesser but conventus Capitularis , or however not enough to give evidence of a subscription of Presbyters to so much as a Provincial Council . For the guise of Christendom was always otherwise , and therefore it was the best argument that the Bishops in the Arian hurry used to acquit themselves from the suspicion of heresie , Neque nos sumus Arii sectatores ; Quî namque fieri potest , ut cum simus Episcopi Ario Presbytero auscultemus ? Bishops never receive determination of any article from Priests , but Priests do from Bishops . Nam vestrum est eos instruere ( saith S. Clement speaking of the Bishops office and power over Priests and all the Clergy , and all the Diocess ) eorum est vobis obedire , ut Deo cujus legatione fungimini . And a little after ; Audire ergo eum attentius oportet , & ab ipso suscipere doctrinam fidei , monita autem vitae à Presbyteris inquirere . Of the Priests we must inquire for rules of good life , but of the Bishop receive positions and determinations of faith . Against this if it be objected , Quod omnes tangit ab omnibus tractari debet , That which is of general concernment , must also be of general Scrutiny . I answer , it is true , unless where God himself hath intrusted the care of others in a body , as he hath in the Bishops , and will require the souls of his Diocess at his hand , and commanded us to require the Law at their mouths , and to follow their faith , whom he hath set over us . And therefore the determination of Councils pertains to all , and is handled by all , not in diffusion , but in representation . For Ecclesia est in Episcopo , & Episcopus in Ecclesiâ , ( saith S. Cyprian ) the Church is in the Bishop ( viz. by representment ) and the Bishop is in the Church ( viz. as a Pilot in a ship , or a Master in a family , or rather as a steward and Guardian to rule in his Masters absence ) and for this reason the Synod of the Nicene Bishops is called ( in Eusebius ) conventus orbis terrarum , and by S. Austin , consensus totius Ecclesiae , not that the whole Church was there present in their several persons , but was there represented by the Catholick Bishops , and if this representment be not sufficient for obligation to all , I see no reason but the Ladies too may vote in Councils , for I doubt not but they have souls too . But however , if this argument were concluding in it self , yet it loses its force in England , where the Clergy are bound by Laws of Parliament , and yet in the capacity of Clergy-men are allowed to chuse neither Procurators to represent us as Clergy , nor Knights of the Shire to represent us as Commons . In conclusion of this I say to the Presbyters , as S. Ambrose said of the Lay-Judges , whom the Arians would have brought to judge in Council ( it was an old heretical trick . ) Veniant planè si qui sunt ad Ecclesiam , audiant cum populo , non ut quisquam Judex resideat , sed unusquisque de suo affectu habeat examen , & eligat quem sequatur . So may Presbyters be present , so they may judge , not for others , but for themselves . And so may the people be present , and anciently were so ; and therefore Councils were always kept in open Churches , [ ubi populus judicat ] not for others , but for themselves , not by external sentence , but internal conviction , so S. Ambrose expounds himself in the forecited allegation . There is no considerable objection against this discourse , but that of the first Council of Jerusalem ; where the Apostles and Elders did meet together to determine of the question of circumcision . For although in the story of celebration of it , we find no man giving sentence but Peter , and James ; yet in Acts 16. they are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , decrees judged by the Apostles , and Elders . But first , in this the difficulty is the less , because [ Presbyter ] was a general word for all that were not of the number of the twelve , Prophets , Evangelists , Pastors and Doctors . And then secondly , it is none at all , because Paul and Barnabas are signally , and by name reckoned as present in the Synod , and one of them Prolocutor , or else both . So that such Presbyters may well define in such conventual assemblies . 3. If yet there were any difficulty latent in the story , yet the Catholick practice of Gods Church is certainly the best expositor of such places where there either is any difficulty , or where any is pretended . And of this , I have already given account . * I remember also that this place is pretended for the peoples power of voicing in Councils . It is a pretty pageant ; only that it is against the Catholick practice of the Church , against the exigence of Scripture , which bids us require the law at the mouth of our spiritual Rulers , against the gravity of such assemblies , for it would force them to be tumultuous , and at the best , are the worst of Sanctions , as being issues of popularity , and to summe up all , it is no way authorized by this first copy of Christian Councils . The pretence is , in the Synodal * letter written in the name of [ the Apostles , and Elders , and Brethren ] that is , ( says Geta , ) The Apostles , and Presbyters , and People . But why not Brethren , that is , all the Deacons , and Evangelists , and Helpers in Government , and Ministers of the Churches ? There is nothing either in words , or circumstances to contradict this . If it be asked who then are meant by Elders , if by [ Brethren ] S. Luke understands these Church-officers ? I answer , that here is such variety , that although I am not certain which officers he precisely comprehends under the distinct titles of Elders and Brethren , yet here are enough to furnish both with variety , and yet neither to admit meer Presbyters in the present acceptation of the word , nor yet the Laity to a decision of the question , nor authorising the decretal . For besides the twelve Apostles , there were Apostolical men which were Presbyters , and something more , as Paul and Barnabas , and Silas , and Evangelists , and Pastors besides , which might furnish out the last appellative sufficiently . But however without any further trouble it is evident , that this word [ Brethren ] does not distinguish the Laity from the Clergy . [ Now when they heard this , they were pricked in their hearts , and said unto Peter , and to the rest of the Apostles , Men and brethren what shall we do . Judas and Silas who were Apostolical men , are called in Scripture , chief men among the brethren . But this is too known , to need a contestation . I only insert the saying of Basilius the Emperor in the Eighth Synod . De vobis autem Laicis tam qui in dignitatibus , quàm qui absolutè versamini quid amplius dicam non habeo , quàm quòd nullo modo vobis licet de Ecclesiasticis causis sermonem movere , neque penitùs resistere integritati Ecclesiae , & universali Synodo adversari . Lay-men ( says the Emperor ) must by no means meddle with causes Ecclesiastical , nor oppose themselves to the Catholick Church , or Councils Oecumenical . They must not meddle , for these things appertain to the cognizance of Bishops and their decision . And now after all this , what authority is equal to this Legislative of the Bishops ? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( saith Aristotle , ) They are all evidences of power and authority , to deliberate , to determine or judge , to make laws . But to make laws is the greatest power that is imaginable . The first may belong fairly enough to Presbyters , but I have proved the two latter to be appropriate to Bishops . SECT . XLII . And the Bishop had a propriety in the persons of his Clerks . LASTLY , as if all the acts of Jurisdiction , and every imaginable part of power were in the Bishop , over the Presbyters and subordinate Clergy , the Presbyters are said to be Episcoporum Presbyteri , the Bishops Presbyters ; as having a propriety in them , and therefore a superiority over them , and as the Bishop was a dispencer of those things which were in bonis Ecclesiae , so he was of the persons too , a Ruler in propriety . * S. Hilary in the book which himself delivered to Constantine , Ecclesiae adhuc ( saith he ) per Presbyteros meos communionem distribuens , I still give the holy Communion to the faithful people by my Presbyters . And therefore in the third Council of Carthage a great deliberation was had about requiring a Clerk of his Bishop to be promoted in another Church , — Denique qui unum habuerit numquid debet illi ipse unus Presbyter auferri ? ( saith Posthumianus . ) If the Bishop have but one Presbyter , must one be taken from him ? Id sequor ( saith Aurelius ) ut conveniam Episcopum ejus , atque ei inculcem quod ejus Clericus à quâlibet Ecclesiâ postuletur . And it was resolved , Vt Clericum alienum nisi concedente ejus Episcopo . No man shall retain anothers Bishop , without the consent of the Bishop whose Clerk he is . * When Athanasius was abused by the calumny of the hereticks his adversaries , and entred to purge himself , Athanasius ingreditur cum Timotheo Presbytero suo . He comes in with Timothy his Presbyter ; and , Arsenius , cujus brachium dicebatur excisum , lector aliquando fuerat Athanasii . Arsenius was Athanasius His Reader . Vbi autem ventum est ad Rumores de poculo fracto à Macario Presbytero Athanasii , &c. Macarius was another of Athanasius his Priests . So Theodoret , Peter and Irenaeus were two more of his Presbyters , as himself witnesses . Paulinianus sometimes to visit us ( saith S. Hierome to Pammachius ) but not as your Clerk , Sed ejus à quo ordinatur . His Clerk who did ordain . But these things are too known to need a multiplication of instances . The summ is this . The question was , whether or no , and how far the Bishops had Superiority over Presbyters in the Primitive Church . Their doctrine and practice have furnished us with these particulars . The power of Church goods , and the sole dispensation of them , and a propriety of persons was reserved to the Bishop . For the Clergy , and Church possessions were in his power , in his administration : the Clergy might not travel without the Bishops leave : they might not be preferred in another Diocess without license of their own Bishop : in their own Churches the Bishop had sole power to prefer them , and they must undertake the burden of any promotion if he calls them to it : without him they might not baptize , not consecrate the Eucharist , not communicate , not reconcile penitents , not preach ; not only , not without his ordination , but not without a special faculty , besides the capacity of their order : The Presbyters were bound to obey their Bishops in their sanctions and canonical impositions , even by the decree of the Apostles themselves , and the doctrine of Ignatius , and the constitution of S. Clement , of the Fathers in the Council of Arles , Ancyra , and Toledo , and many others : The Bishops were declared to be Judges in ordinary of the Clergy , and people of their Diocess by the concurcurrent suffrages of almost 2000 holy Fathers assembled in Nice , Ephesus , Chalcedon , in Carthage , Antioch , Sardis , Aquileia , Taurinum , Agatho , and by the Emperor , and by the Apostles ; and all this attested by the constant practice of the Bishops of the Primitive Church inflicting censures upon delinquents , and absolving them as they saw cause , and by the dogmatical resolution of the old Catholicks declaring in their attributes and appellatives of the Episcopal function , that they have supreme and universal spiritual power , ( viz. in the sence above explicated ) over all the Clergy and Laity of the Diocess , as , [ That they are higher than all power , the image of God , the figure of Christ , Christs Vicar , President of the Church , Prince of Priests , of authority imcomparable , unparallell'd power , ] and many more , if all this be witness enough of the superiority of Episcopal jurisdiction , we have their depositions , we may proceed as we see cause for , and reduce our Episcopacy to the Primitive state , for that is truly a reformation [ Id Dominicum quod primum , id haereticum quod posterius , ] and then we shall be sure Episcopacy will lose nothing by these unfortunate contestations . SECT . XLIII . Their Jurisdiction was over many Congregations or Parishes . BUT against the cause it is objected super totam Materiam ; that Bishops were not Diocesan , but Parochial , and therefore of so confin'd a jurisdiction , that perhaps our Village , or City Priests shall advance their Pulpit , as high as the Bishops throne . * Well! Put case they were not Diocesan , but parish Bishops , what then ? yet they were such Bishops as had Presbyters and Deacons in subordination to them , in all the particular advantages of the former instances . 2. If the Bishops had the Parishes , what cure had the Priests ? so that this will debase the Priests as much as the Bishops , and if it will confine a Bishop to a Parish , it will make that no Presbyter can be so much as a Parish-Priest . If it brings a Bishop lower than a Diocess , it will bring the Priest lower than a Parish . For set a Bishop where you will , either in a Diocess or a Parish , a Presbyter shall still keep the same duty and subordination , the same distance still . So that this objection upon supposition of the former discourse will no way mend the matter for any side , but make it far worse , it will not advance the Presbytery , but it will depress the whole Hierarchy , and all the orders of Holy Church . * But because this trifle is so much used amongst the enemies of Episcopacy , I will consider it in little , and besides that it does no body any good advantage , I will represent it in its fucus , and shew the falshood of it . 1. Then. It is evident that there were Bishops before there were any distinct Parishes . For the first division of Parishes in the West was by Evaristus , who lived almost 100 years after Christ , and divided Rome into seven Parishes , assigning to every one a Presbyter . So Damasus reports of him in the Pontifical book . Hic titulos in urbe Româ divisit Presbyteris , & septem Diacons ordinavit qui custodirent Episcopum praedicantem propter stylum veritatis . He divided the Parishes , or titles in the City of Rome to Presbyters . The same also is by Damasus reported of Dionysius in his life , Hic Presbyteris Ecclesias divisit , & coemiteria , parochiásque & dioeceses constituit . Marcellus increased the number in the year 305. Hic fecit coemiterium viâ Salariâ , & 25 Titulos in urbe Roma constituit quasi dioeceses propter baptismum , & poenitentiam multorum qui convertebantur ex Paganis , & propter sepulturas Martyrum . He made a Sepulture or coemitery for the burial of Martyrs , and appointed 25 Titles or Parishes : but he adds [ quasi Dioeceses ] as it had been Dio●esses , that is , distinct and limited to Presbyters , as Diocesses were to Bishops ; and the use of Parishes which he subjoyns clears the business ; for he appointed them only propter baptismum , & poenitentiam multorum & sepulturas , for baptism , and penance , and burial ; for as yet there was no preaching in Parishes , but in the Mother-Church . Thus it was in the West . * But in Aegypt we find Parishes divided something sooner than the earliest of these , for Eusebius reports out of Philo , that the Christians in S. Mark 's time had several Churches in Alexandria . Etiam de Ecclesiis quae apud eos sunt , ita dicit . Est autem in singulis locis consecrata orationi domus , &c. But even before this there were Bishops . for in Rome there were four Bishops , before any division of Parishes , though S. Peter be reckoned for none . And before Parishes were divided in Alexandria , S. Mark himself who did it was the Bishop , and before that time S. James was Bishop of Jerusalem , and in divers other places where Bishops were , there were no distinct Parishes of a while after Evaristus's tim● for when Dionysius had assigned Presbyters to several Parishes , he writes of it to Severus Bishop of Corduba , and desires him to do so too in his Diocess , as appears in his Epistle to him . * For indeed necessity required it , when the Christians multiplied and grew to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as * Cornelius called the Roman Christians , a great and an innumerable people ; and did implere omnia , as Tertullians phrase is , filled all places , and publick and great assemblies drew danger upon themselves , and increased jealousies in others , and their publick offices could not be performed with so diffused and particular advantage , then they were forced to divide congregations , and assigned several Presbyters to their cure , in subordination to the Bishop , and so we see the Elder Christianity grew the more Parishes there were . At first in Rome there were none , Evaristus made seven , Dionysius made some more , and Marcellus added 25 , and in Optatus's time there were 40. Well then ! The case is thus . Parishes were not divided at first , therefore to be sure they were not of Divine institution . Therefore it is no divine institution that a Presbyter should be fixt upon a Parish , therefore also a Parish is not by Christ's ordinance an independant body , for by Christs ordinance there was no such thing at all , neither absolute nor in dependance neither ; and then for the main issue , since Bishops were before Parishes ( in the present sence ) the Bishops in that sence could not be Parochial . * But which was first , of a private congregation or a Diocess ? If a private congregation , then a Bishop was at first fixt in a private congregation , and so was a Parochial Bishop . If a Diocess was first , then the Question will be , how a Diocess could be without Parishes , for what is a Diocess but a jurisdiction over many Parishes ? * I answer , it is true that Diocess and Parish are words used now in contradiction ; And now a Diocess is nothing but the multiplication of many Parishes : Sed non fuit sic ab initio , For at first , a Diocess was the City and the Regio suburbicaria , the neighbouring towns in which there was no distinction of Parishes : That which was a Diocess in the secular sence , that is , a particular Province or division of secular prefecture , that was the assignation of a Bishops charge . Ephesus , Smyrna , Pergamus , Laodicea were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , heads of the Diocess , ( saith Pliny , ) meaning in respect of secular jurisdiction ; so they were in Ecclesiastical regiment . And it was so upon great reason , for when the regiment of the Church was extended just so as the regiment of the Commonwealth , it was of less suspicion to the secular power , while the Church regiment was just fixt together with the political , as if of purpose to shew their mutual consistence , and its own subordination . ** And besides this , there was in it a necessity ; for the subjects of another Province or Diocess could not either safely or conveniently meet where the duty of the Commonwealth did not ingage them ; but being all of one prefecture and Diocess , the necessity of publick meetings in order to the Commonwealth would be fair opportunity for the advancement of their Christendom . And this , which at first was a necessity in this case , grew to be a law in all by the sanction of the Council of * Chalcedon , and of Constantinople in ‖ Trullo , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Let the order of the Church follow the order and guise of the Commonwealth , viz. in her regiment and prefecture . * But in the modern sence of this division a Bishops charge was neither a Parish nor a Diocess , as they are taken in relation ; but a Bishop had the supreme care of all the Christians which he by himself or his Presbyters had converted , and he also had the charge of endeavouring the conversion of all the Country . So that although he had not all the Diocess actually in communion and subjection , yet his charge , his Diocess was so much . Just as it was with the Apostles , to whom Christ gave all the world for a Diocess , yet at first they had but a small congregation that did actually obey them . And now to the Question . Which was first , a particular congregation or a Diocess ? I answer , that a Diocess was first , that is , the Apostles had a charge before they had a congregation of converts ; And S. Mark was sent Bishop to Alexandria by S. Peter before any were converted . * But ordinarily the Apostles , when they had converted a City or Nation , then fixt Bishops upon their charge , and there indeed the particular congregation was before the Bishop's taking of the Diocess ; But then , this City , or Nation although it was not the Bishops Diocess before it was a particular congregation , yet it was part of the Apostles Diocess , and this they concredited to the Bishops respectively . S. Paul was ordained by the prophets at Antioch , Apostle of the Uncircumcision ; All the Gentiles was his Diocess , and even of those places he then received power which as yet he had not converted . So that , absolutely , a diocess was before a particular congregation . But if a Diocess be taken collectively , as now it is , for a multitude of Parishes united under one Bishop , then one must needs be before 20 , and a particular congregation before a Diocess ; but then that particular congregation was not a parish , in the present sence , for it was not a part of a Diocess taking a Diocess for a collection of Parishes ; but that particular Congregation was the first fruits of his Diocess , and like a Grain of Mustard-seed that in time might , and did grow up to a considerable height , even to a necessity of distinguishing titles , and parts of the Diocess , assigning several parts , to several Priests . 2. We see that the Primitive Bishops , before the division of parishes , had the City , and Country ; and after the division of Parishes , had them all under his jurisdiction , and ever , even from the Apostles times had several provinces ( some of them I mean ) within their limits and charges . * The 35 Canon of the Apostles gives power to the Bishop to dispose only of those things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which are under his Diocess and the Neighbour villages , and the same thing is repeated in the ninth and tenth Canons of the Council of Antioch , calling it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Ancient Canon of our forefathers ; and yet it self is elder than three of the general Councils , and if then it was an Ancient Canon of the Fathers , that the City , and Villages should be subject to the Bishop , surely a Primitive Bishop was a Diocesan . But a little before this was the Nicene Council , and there I am sure we have a Bishop that is at least a Diocesan . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Let the old Customes be kept . What are those ? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Let the Bishop of Alexandria have power over all Egypt , Libya , and Pentapolis , It was a good large parish ; And yet this parish , if we have a mind to call it so , was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , according to the old custome of their forefathers , and yet that was so early , that S. Anthony was then alive , who was born in S. Irenaeus his time , who was himself but second from the Apostles . It was also a good large parish that Ignatius was Bishop of , even all Syria , Caelosyria , Mesopotamia , and both the Ciliciae . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Bishop of Syria he calls himself in his Epistle to the Romans , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so Theodoret : and besides all these , his Successors , in the Council of Chalcedon , had the two Phaeniciae , and Arabia yielded to them by composition . These alone would have made two or three reasonable good parishes , and would have taken up time enough to preambulate , had that been then the guise of Christendome . But examples of this kind are infinite . Theodorus Bishop of Cyrus was Pastor over 800 parishes , Athanasius was Bishop of Alexandria , Egypt , Thebais , Mareotis , Libya , Ammoniaca , and Pentapolis , saith S. Epiphanius ; And his predecessor Julinianus successor of Agrippinus was Bishop * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , of the Churches about Alexandria . Either it was a Diocess , or at least a plurality . * S. Chrysostome had Pontus , Asia , and all Thrace in his parish , even as much as came to sixteen prefectures ; a fair bounds surely ; and so it was with all the Bishops , a greater , or a lesser Diocess they had ; but all were Diocesan ; for they had several parishes , singuli Ecclesiarum Episcopi habent sub se Ecclesias , saith Epiphanius in his Epistle to John of Jerusalem , and in his book contra haereses , Quotquot enim in Alexandriâ Catholicae Ecclesiae sunt , sub uno Archiepiscopo sunt , privatimque ad has destinati sunt Presbyteri propter Ecclesiasticas necessitates , ita ut habitatores vicini sint uniuscujusque Ecclesiae . All Italy was the parish of Liberius ( saith Socrates . ) Africa was S. Cyprians parish , saith S. Gregory Nazianzen , and S. Bazil the great was parish-Priest to all Cappadocia . But I rather believe , if we examine their several stories , they will rather prove Metropolitans , than meer parochians . Thirdly , The ancient Canons forbad a Bishop to be ordained in a Village , Castle , or Town . It was so decreed in the Council of Laodicea before the first Nicene . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . In the Villages , or Countreys , Bishops must not be constituted . And this was renewed in the Council of Sardis , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It is not lawful to ordain Bishops in Villages or little Towns to which one Presbyter is sufficient , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but Bishops must ordain Bishops in those Cities where Bishops formerly have been . * So that this Canon does not make a new constitution , but perpetuates the old sanction . Bishops ab antiquo were only ordained in great Cities , and Presbyters in little Villages . Who then was the Parish Curate ? the Bishop or the Priest ? The case is too apparent . Only , here it is objected that some Bishops were of small Towns , and therefore these Canons were not observed , and Bishops might be , and were parochial , as S. Gregory of Nazianzum , Zoticus of Comana , Maris in Dolicha . The one of these is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by * Eusebius ; and another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by * Theodoret , a little Town . This is all is pretended for this great Scarcrow of parochial Bishops . * But , first , suppose these had been parishes , and these three parochial Bishops , it follows not that all were ; not those to be sure , which I have proved to have been Bishops of Provinces , and Kingdomes . Secondly , It is a clear case , that Nazianzum , though a small City , yet was the seat of a Bishops throne , so it is reckoned in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made by Leo the Emperour , where it is accounted inter thronos Ecclesiarum Patriarchae Constantinopolitano subjectarum , and is in the same account with Caesarea , with Ephesus , with Crete , with Philippi , and almost fourscore more . As for Zoticus he indeed came from Comana , a Village town , for there he was born , but he was Episcopus Otrenus , Bishop of Otrea in Armenia , saith ( a ) Nicephorus . * And for Maris the Bishop of Dolicha , it was indeed such a small City as Nazianzum was , but that proves not but his Diocess and teritory was large enough . Thus was Asclepius vici non grandis , but yet he was Vagensis territorii Episcopus . His seat might usually be in a little City , if it was one of those towns in which according to the exigence of the Canons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in which Bishops anciently were ordained , and yet the appurtenances of his Diocess large , and extended , and too great for an hundred Parish●Priests . Fourthly , The institution of Chorepiscopi proves most evidently that the Primitive Bishops were Diocesan , not Parochial : for they were institued to assist the Bishop in part of his Countrey-charge , and were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Visiters ( as the Council of Laodicea calls them . ) But what need such Suffragans , such coadjutors to the managing of a Parish ? Indeed they might possibly have been needful for the managing of a City-parish , especially if a whole City was a Parish , as these objectors must pretend , or not say Primitive Bishops were Parochial . But being these Chorepiscopi were Suffragans to the Bishop , and did their offices in the countrey , while the Bishop was resident in the City , either the Bishops parish extended it self from City to Countrey ; and then it is all one with a Diocess : or else we can find no imployment for a Chorepiscopus , or Visiter . * The tenth Canon of the Council of Antioch describes their use and power . Qui in villis & vicis constituti sunt Chorepiscopi .... placuit sanctae Synodo ut modum proprium recognoscant , ut gubernent sibi subjectas Ecclesias . They were to govern the Churches delegated to their charge . It seems they had many Churches under their provision , and yet they were but the Bishops Vicars , for so it follows in the Canon ; he must not ordain any Presbyters and Deacons absque urbis Episcopo cui ipse subjicitur , & regio ; Without leave of the Bishop of the City to whom both himself and all the countrey is subordinate . 5. The Bishop was one in a City wherein were many Presbyters . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith S. Ignatius . There is one altar in every Church , and one Bishop together with the Presbytery , and the Deacons . Either then a whole City , such as Rome or Jerusalem ( which as Josephus reports had 400 Synagogues , ) must be but one Parish , and then they had as good call a Bishops charge a Diocess as a Parish in that latitude , or if there were many Parishes in a City , and the Bishop could have but one of them , why , what hinder'd but that there might in a City be as many Bishops , as Presbyters ? For if a Bishop can have but one Parish , why may not every Parish have a Bishop ? But by the ancient Canons , a City , though never so great , could have but one for it self and all the Countrey , therefore every parish-Priest was not a Bishop , nor the Bishop a meer parish-Priest . Ne in unâ civitate duo sint episcopi , was the constitution of the Nicene Fathers , as saith Ruffinus ; and long before this , it was so known a business that one City should have but one Bishop , that Cornelius exprobrates to Novatus his ignorance , Is ergo qui Evangelium vendicabat nesciebat in ecclesiâ Catholicâ unum Episcopum esse debere , ubi videbat esse Presbyteros quadraginta & sex . Novatus ( the Father of the old Puritans ) was a goodly Gospeller that did not know that in a Catholick Church there should be but one Bishop wherein there were 46 Presbyters ; intimating clearly that a Chuch that had two Bishops is not Catholick , but Schismatick at least , ( if both be pretended to be of a fixt residence ) what then is he that would make as many Bishops in a Church as Presbyters ? He is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he fights against God , if S. Ambrose say true , Deus enim singulis Ecclesiis singulos Episcopos praeesse decrevit . God hath decreed that one Bishop should rule in one Church ; and of what extent this one Church was , may easily be guessed by himself who was the Ruler , and Bishop of the great City , and province of Millain . * And therefore when Valerius * as it was then sometimes used in several Churches had ordained S. Austin to be Bishop of Hippo , whereof Valerius was also Bishop at the same time , S. Austin was troubled at it as an act most Uncanonical , and yet he was not ordained to rule in common with Valerius , but to rule in succession and after the consummation of Valerius . It was the same case in Angelius , a Novatian Bishop ordaining Marcian to be his successor , and Sisinnius to succeed him , the acts were indeed irregular , but yet there was no harm in it to this cause , they were ordained to succeed not in conjunction . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( saith Sozomen ) It is a note of Schism , and against the rule of H. Church to have two Bishops in one chair . Secundus Episcopus nullus est ( saith S. * Cyprian ) And as Cornelius reports it in his Epistle to S. Cyprian , it was the voice of the confessors that had been the instruments and occasions of the Novatian Schism , by erecting another Bishop ; Nec non ignoramus unum Deum esse , unum Christum esse Dominum quem confessi sumus , unum spiritum sanctum , unum Episcopum in Catholicâ Ecclesiâ esse debere . And these very words the people also used in the contestation about Liberius and Felix . For when the Emperour was willing that Liberius should return to his See , on condition that Felix the Arrian might be Bishop there too , they derided the suggestion , crying out , One God , one Christ , one Bishop . So Theodoret reports . But who lists to see more of this , may be satisfied ( if plenty will do it ) in (a) S. Chrysostom , (b) Theodoret , S. (c) Hierom , (d) Oecumenius , (e) Optatus , S. (f) Ambrose , and if he please he may read a whole book of it written by S. Cyprian , de Vnitate Ecclesiae , sive de singularitate Praelatorum . 6. Suppose the ordinary Diocesses had been Parishes , yet what were the Metropolitans , and the Primates , were they also Parish-Bishops ? Surely if Bishops were parochial , then these were at least Diocesan by their own argument , for to be sure they had many Bishops under them . But there were none such in the Primitive Church ? yes most certainly . The 35. Canon of the Apostles tells us so , most plainly , and at the worst , they were a very primitive record . Episcopus gentium singularum scire convenit quis inter eos primus habeatur , quem velut caput existiment , & nihil amplius praeter ejus conscientiam gerant , quàm ea sola quae parochiae propriae , & villis quae sub eâ sunt , competunt . The Bishops of every Nation must know who is their Primate , and esteem him as their head , and do nothing without his consent , but those things that appertain to their own Diocess . And from hence the Fathers of the Council of Antioch derived their sanction per singulas regiones Episcopos convenit nosse Metropolitanum Episcopum sollicitudinem totius provinciae gerere , &c. The Bishops of every province must know that their Metropolitan-Bishop does take cure of all the province . For this was an Apostolical Constitution ( saith S. Clement ) that in the conversion of Gentile Cities in place of the Archslamines , Archbishops , Primates , or Patriarchs should be placed , qui reliquorum Episcoporum judicia , & majora ( quoties necesse foret ) negotia in fide agitarent , & secundùm Dei voluntatem , sicut constituerunt Sancti Apostoli , definirent . Alexandria was a Metropolitical See long before the Nicene Council , as appears in the sixth Canon before cited ; Nay , Dioscorus the Bishop of that Church was required to bring ten of the Metropolitans that he had under him to the Council of Ephesus , by Theodosius and Valentinian Emperours , so that it was a Patriarchat . These are enough to shew that in the Primitive Church there were Metropolitan Bishops . Now then either Bishops were Parochial , or no : If no , then they were Diocesan ; if yea , then at least many of them were Diocesan , for they had ( according to this rate ) many Parochial Bishops under them . * But I have stood too long upon this impertinent trifle , but as now adays it is made , the consideration of it is material to the main Question . Only this I add ; That if any man should trouble the world with any other fancy of his own , and say that our Bishops are nothing like the Primitive , because all the Bishops of the Primitive Church had only two towns in their charge , and no more , and each of these towns had in them 170 families , and were bound to have no more , how should this man be confuted ? It was just such a device as this in them that first meant to disturb this Question , by pretending that the Bishops were only Parochial , not Diocesan , and that there was no other Bishop but the Parish-Priest . Most certainly , themselves could not believe the allegation , only they knew it would raise a dust . But by Gods providence , there is water enough in the Primitive fountains to allay it . SECT . XLIV . And was aided by Presbyters but not impaired . ANOTHER consideration must here be interposed concerning the intervening of Presbyters in the regiment of the several Churches . For though I have twice already shown that they could not challenge it of right either by Divine institution , or Apostolical ordinance , yet here also it must be considered how it was in the practice of the Primitive Church , for those men that call the Bishop a Pope , are themselves desirous to make a Conclave of Cardinals too , and to make every Diocess a Roman Consistory . 1. Then , the first thing we hear of Presbyters ( after Scripture I mean , for of it I have already given account ) is from the testimony of S. Hierome , Antequam studiain religione fierent , & diceretur in populis Ego sum Pauli &c. communi Presbyterorum consilio Ecclesiae gubernabantur . Before factions arose in the Church , the Church was governed by the common Counsel of Presbyters . Here S. Hierome either means it of the time before Bishops were constituted in particular Churches , or after Bishops were appointed . If before Bishops were appointed , no hurt done , the Presbyters might well rule in common , before themselves had a ruler appointed to govern both them and all the Diocess beside . For so S. Ignatius writing to the Church of Antioch exhorts the Presbyters to feed the flock until God should declare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom he would make their ruler . And S. Cyprian speaking of Etecusa and some other women that had made defailance in time of persecution , and so were put to penance , praeceperunt eas Praepositi tantisper sic esse , donec Episcopus constituatur . The Presbyters , whom sede vacante he praeter morem suum calls Praepositos , they gave order that they should so remain till the Consecration of a Bishop . * But , if S. Hierome means this saying of his , after Bishops were fixt , then his expression answers the allegation , for it was but communi Consilio Presbyterorum , the Judicium might be solely in the Bishop , he was the Judge , though the Presbyters were the counsellors . For so himself adds , that upon occasion of those first Schisms in Corinth , it was decreed in all the World , ut omnis Ecclesiae cura ad unum pertineret , all the care of the Diocess was in the Bishop , and therefore all the power , for it was unimaginable that the burden should be laid on the Bishop , and the strength put into the hands of the Presbyters . * And so S. Ignatius stiles them , [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ] Assessors and Counsellors to the Bishop . But yet if we take our estimate from Ignatius , The Bishop is the Ruler , without him though all concurr'd , yet nothing could be done , nothing attempted ; The Bishop was Superiour in all power and authority , He was to be obeyed in all things , and contradicted in nothing ; The Bishops judgment was to sway , and nothing must seem pleasing to the Presbyters that was cross to the Bishops sentence : this , and a great deal more which I have formerly made use of , is in Ignatius ; And now let their assistance and counsel extend as far as it will , the Bishops authority is invulnerable . But I have already enough discussed this instance of S. Hierom's . Sect. thither I refer the Reader . 2. But S. Cyprian must do this business for us , if any man , for of all the Bishops , he did acts of the greatest condescention , and seeming declination of Episcopal authority . But let us see the worst . Ad id verò quod scripserunt mihi compresbyteri nostri — solus rescribere nihil potui , quando à primordio Episcopatûs mei statuerim nihil sine consilio vestro , & sine consensu plebis meae privatâ sententiâ gerere . And again , quamvis mihi videantur debere pacem accipere , tamen ad consultum vestrum eos dimisi , ne videar aliquid temerè praesumere . And a third time , Quae res cùm omnium nostrum consilium & sententiam spectat , praejudicare ego & soli mihi rem communem vindicare non audeo . These are the greatest steps of Episcopal humility that I find in Materiâ juridicâ ; The sum whereof is this , that S. Cyprian did consult his Presbyters and Clergy in matters of consequence , and resolved to do nothing without their advice . But then , consider also , it was , statui apud me , I have resolved with my self to do nothing without your Counsel . It was no necessity ab extrà , no duty , no Sanction of holy Church that bound him to such a modesty , it was his own voluntary act . 2. It was as well Diaconorum , as Presbyterorum consilium that he would have in conjunction , as appears by the titles of the sixth and eighteenth Epistles ; Cyprianus Presbyteris , ac Diaconis fratribus salutem : So that here the Presbyters can no more challenge a power of regiment in common , than the Deacons by any Divine Law , or Catholick practice . 3. S. Cyprian also would actually have the consent of the people too , and that will as well disturb the Jus Divinum of an independant Presbytery , as of an independant Episcopacy . But indeed neither of them both need to be much troubled , for all this was voluntary in S. Cyprian , like Moses , qui cùm in potestate suâ habuit ut solus possit praeesse populo , seniores elegit ( to use S. Hierome's expression ) who when it was in his power alone to rule the people , yet chose seventy Elders for assistants . For as for S. Cyprian , this very Epistle clears it that no part of his Episcopal authority was impaired . For he shews what himself alone could do . Fretus igitur dilectione vestrâ , & religione , quam satis novi , his literis & hortor & mando &c. I intreat and Command you — vice meâ sungamini circa gerenda ea quae administratio religiosa deposcit , Be my substitutes in the administration of Church affairs . He intreats them pro dilectione , because they loved him , he Commands them pro religione , by their religion ; for it was a piece of their religion to obey him , and in him was the government of his Church , else how could he have put the Presbyters , and Deacons in substitution ? * Add to this ; It was the custome of the Church , that although the Bishop did only impose hands in the ordination of Clerks , yet the Clergy did approve , and examine the persons to be ordained , and it being a thing of publick interest , it was then not thought fit to be a personal action both in preparation , and ministration too ( and for this S. Chrysostome was accused in Concilio nefario [ as the title of the edition of it , expresses it ] that he made ordinations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) yet when S. Cyprian saw occasion for it , he did ordain without the consent of the Clergy of his Church , for so he ordained Celerinus , so he ordained Optatus , and Saturnus , when himself was from his Church , and in great want of Clergy-men to assist in the ministration of the daily offices . *** He did as much in jurisdiction too , and censures ; for himself did excommunicate Felicissimus and Augendus , and Repostus , and Irene , and Paula , as appears in his 38 , and 39 Epistles ; and tells * Rogatianus that he might have done as much to the petulant Deacon that abused him by vertue of his Episcopal authority . And the same power singly , and solely , he exercised in his acts of favour and absolution ; Vnus atque alius obnitente Plebe & contradicente , mea tamen facilitate suscepti sunt . Indeed here is no contradiction of the Clergy expressed , but yet the absolution said to be his own act , against the people and without the Clergy . For he alone was the Judge , insomuch that he declared that it was the cause of Schism and heresie that the Bishop was not obeyed , Nec unus in Ecclesiâ ad tempus Sacerdos , & ad tempus judex vice Christi cogitatur , and that one high Priest in a Church , and Judge instead of Christ is not admitted . So that the Bishop must be one , and that one must be Judge , and to acknowledge more , in S. Cyprians Lexicon is called schism and heresie . Farther yet , this Judicatory of the Bishop is independant , and responsive to none but Christ. Actum suum disponit , & dirigit Vnusquisque Episcopus rationem propositi sui Domino redditurus , and again , habet in Ecclesiae administratione voluntatis suae arbitrium liberum unusquisque Praepositus : rationem actûs sui Domino redditurus . The Bishop is Lord of his own actions , and may do what seems good in his own eyes , and for his actions he is to account to Christ. This general account is sufficient to satisfie the allegations out of the 6th , and 8th Epistles , and indeed , the whole Question . But for the 18th Epistle , there is something of peculiar answer . For first , it was a case of publick concernment , and therefore he would so comply with the publick interest as to do it by publick council . 2dly , It was a necessity of times that made this case peculiar . Necessitas temporum facit ut non temerè pacem demus , they are the first words of the next epistle , which is of the same matter ; for if the lapsi had been easily , and without a publick and solemn trial reconcil'd , it would have made Gentile Sacrifices frequent , and Martyrdom but seldom . 3dly , The common-council which S. Cyprian here said he would expect , was the council of the Confessors , to whom for a peculiar honour it was indulged that they should be interested in the publick assoyling of such penitents , who were overcome with those fears which the Confessors had overcome . So that this is evidently an act of positive , and temporary discipline ; and as it is no disadvantage to the power of the Bishop , so to be sure , no advantage to the Presbyter . * But the clause of objection from the 19th epistle is yet unanswered , and that runs something higher , — tamen ad consultum vestrum eos dimisi ne videar aliquid temerè praesumere . It is called presumption to reconcile the penitents without the advice of those to whom he writ . But from this we are fairly delivered by the title . Cypriano , & Compresbyteris Carthagini consistentibus ; Caldonius salutem . It was not the epistle of Cyprian to his Presbyters , but of Caldonius one of the suffragan Bishops of Numidia to his Metropolitan ; and now , what wonder if he call it presumption to do an act of so publick consequence without the advice of his Metropolitan . He was bound to consult him by the Canons Apostolical , and so he did , and no harm done to the present Question , of the Bishops sole and independent power , and unmixt with the conjunct interest of the Presbytery , who had nothing to do beyond ministery , counsel , and assistance . 3. In all Churches where a Bishops seat was , there were not always a Colledge of Presbyters , but only in the greatest Churches ; for sometime in the lesser Cities there were but two , Esse oportet , & aliquantos Presbyteros , ut bini sint per Ecclesias , & unus in civitate Episcopus , so S. Ambrose , sometimes there was but one in a Church . Post-humianus in the third Council of Carthage put the case . Deinde qui unum [ Presbyterum ] habuerit , numquid debet illi ipse unus Presbyter auferri ? The Church of Hippo had but one . Valerius was the Bishop , and Austin was the Priest ; and after him Austin was the Bishop , and Eradius the Priest. Sometimes not one , as in the case Aurelius put in the same Council now cited , of a Church that hath never a Presbyter to be consecrated Bishop in the place of him that died ; and once at Hippo they had none , even then when the people snatch'd S. Austin and carried him to Valerius to be ordain'd . In these cases I hope it will not be denied but the Bishop was Judge alone , I am sure he had but little company , sometimes none at all . 4. But suppose it had been always done that Presbyters were consulted in matters of great difficulty , and possibility of Scandal , for so S. Ambrose intimates , Ecclesia seniores habuit sine quorum Concilio nihil gerebatur in Ecclesiâ ( understand , in these Churches where Presbyters were fixt ) yet this might be necessary , and was so indeed in some degree at first , which in succession as it prov'd troublesome to the Presbyters ; so unnecessary and impertinent to the Bishops . At first I say it might be necessary . For they were times of persecutions , and temptation , and if both the Clergy and people too were not complied withal in such exigence of time , and agonies of spirit , it was the way to make them relapse to Gentilism ; for a discontented spirit will hide it self , and take sanctuary in the reeds and mud of Nilus , rather than not take complacence in an imaginary security and revenge . 2dly , As yet there had been scarce any Synods to determine cases of publick difficulty , and what they could not receive from publick decision , it was fitting they should supply by the maturity of a Conciliary assistance , and deliberation . For although , by the Canons of the Apostles , Bishops were bound twice a year to celebrate Synods , yet persecution intervening , they were rather twice a year a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a dispersion than a Synod . 3. Although Synods had been as frequently conven'd as was intended by the Apostles , yet it must be length of time , and a successive experience that must give opportunity and ability to give general rules for the emergency of all particulars , and therefore till the Church grew of some considerable age , a fixt standing Colledge of Presbyters was more requisite than since it hath been , when the frequency of general Councils , and provincial Synods , and the peace of the Church , and the innumerable volumes of the Fathers , and Decretals of Bishops , and a digest of Ecclesiastical Constitutions , hath made the personal assistance of Presbyters unnecessary . 4. When necessity required not their presence and counsel , their own necessity required that they should attend their several cures . For let it be considered ; they that would now have a Colledge of Presbyters assist the Bishop , whether they think of what follows . For either they must have Presbyters ordained without a title , which I am sure they have complained of these threescore years , or else they must be forced to Non-residence . For how else can they assist the Bishop in the ordinary , and daily occurrencies of the Church , unless either they have no cure of their own , or else neglect it ? And as for the extraordinary , either the Bishop is to consult his Metropolitan , or he may be assisted by a Synod , if the Canons already constituted do not aid him , but in all these cases the Presbyter is impertinent . 5. As this assistance of Presbyters was at first for necessity , and after by custome it grew a Law ; so now retrò , first the necessity failed , and then the desuetude abrogated the Law , which before , custome had established . [ quod quâ negligentiâ obsoleverit nescio ] saith S. Ambrose , he knew not how it came to be obsolete , but so it was , it had expired before his time . Not but that Presbyters were still in Mother-Churches ( I mean in Great ones ) In Ecclesiâ enim habemus Senatum nostrum , actum Presbyterorum , we have still ( saith S. Hierome ) in the Church our Senate , a Colledge , or Chapter of Presbyters , ( he was then at Rome or Jerusalem ) but they were not consulted in Church affairs , and matter of jurisdiction , that was it , that S. Ambrose wondred how it came to pass . And thus it is to this day . In our Mother-Churches we have a Chapter too , but the Bishop consults them not in matters of ordinary jurisdiction , just so it was in S. Ambrose his time , and therefore our Bishops have altered no custome in this particular , the alteration was pregnant even before the end of the four general Councils , and therefore is no violation of a divine right , for then most certainly a contrary provision would have been made in those conventions , wherein so much sanctity , and authority , and Catholicism and severe discipline were conjunct ; and then besides , it is no innovation in practice which pretends so fair antiquity , but however it was never otherwise than voluntary in the Bishops , and positive discipline in the Church , and conveniency in the thing for that present , and counsel in the Presbyters , and a trouble to the Presbyters persons , and a disturbance of their duties when they came to be fixt upon a particular charge . * One thing more before I leave . I find a Canon of the Council of Hispalis objected . Episcopus Presbyteris solus honorem dare potest , solus autem auferre non potest . A Bishop may alone ordain a Priest , a Bishop may not alone depose a Priest. Therefore in censures there was in the Primitive Church a necessity of conjunction of Presbyters with the Bishop in imposition of censures . * To this I answer , first it is evident , that he that can give an honour can also take it away , if any body can ; for there is in the nature of the thing no greater difficulty in pulling down , than in raising up . It was wont always to be accounted easier ; therefore this Canon requiring a conjunct power in deposing Presbyters is a positive constitution of the Church , founded indeed upon good institution , but built upon no deeper foundation , neither of nature or higher institution , than its own present authority . But that 's enough , for we are not now in question of divine right , but of Catholick and Primitive practice . To it therefore I answer , that the conjunct hand required to pull down a Presbyter , was not the Chapter , or Colledge of Presbyters ; but a company of Bishops , a Synodal sentence , and determination , for so the Canon runs , qui profecto nec ab uno damnari nec uno judicante poterunt honoris sui privilegiis exui : sed praesentati Synodali Judicio , quod canon de illis praeceperit definiri . And the same thing was determined in the Greeks Council of Carthage . If a Presbyter or a Deacon be accused , their own Bishop shall judge them , not alone but with the assistance of six Bishops more , in the case of a Presbyter ; three of a Deacon ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , But the causes of the other Clergy the Bishop of the place must Alone hear and determine them . So that by this Canon , in some things the Bishop might not be alone , but then his assistants were Bishops , not Presbyters , in other things he alone was judge without either , and yet his sentences must not be clancular , but in open Court , in the full Chapter ; for his Presbyters must be present ; and so it is determined for Africa in the fourth Council of Carthage , Vt Episcopus nullius causam audiat absque praesentiâ Clericorum suorum : alioquin irrita erit sententia Episcopi nisi praesentiâ Clericorum confirmetur . Here is indeed a necessity of the presence of the Clergy of his Church where his Consistory was kept , lest the sentence should be clandestine , and so illegal , but it is nothing but praesentia Clericorum , for it is , sententia Episcopi , The Bishops sentence , and the Clerks presence only ; for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The Bishops Alone might give sentence in the causes of the inferiour Clergy , even by this Canon it self , which is used for objection against the Bishops sole jurisdiction . *** I know nothing now to hinder our process ; for the Bishops jurisdiction is clearly left in his own hand , and the Presbyters had no share in it , but by delegation and voluntary assumption . Now I proceed in the main question . SECT . XLV . So that the government of the Church by Bishops was believed necessary . WE have seen what Episcopacy is in it self , now from the same principles let us see what it is to us . And first ; Antiquity taught us it was simply necessary , even to the being and constitution of a Church . That runs high , but we must follow our leaders . S. Ignatius is express in this question . Qui intra altare est , mundus est , quare & obtemperat Episcopo , & sacerdotibus . Qui vero foris est hic is est , qui sine Episcopo , Sacerdote , & Diacono quicquam agit , & ejusmodi inquinatam habet conscientiam , & infideli deterior est . He that is within the Altar , that is , within the communion of the Church , he is pure , for he obeys the Bishop , and the Priests . But he that is without , that is , does any thing without his Bishop and the Clergy , he hath a filthy conscience and is worse than an infidel . Necesse itaque est , quicquid facitis , ut sine Episcopo nihil faciatis . It is necessary that what ever ye doe , ye be sure to do nothing without the Bishop . Quid enim aliud est episcopus , &c. For what else is a Bishop but he that is greater than all power ? So that the obeying the Bishop is the necessary condition of a Christian , and Catholick communion ; he that does not , is worse than an Infidel . The same also he affirms again . Quotquot enim Christi sunt partium Episcopi , qui vero ab illo declinant , & cum maledictis communionem amplectuntur , hi cum illis excidentur . All they that are on Christs side , are on the Bishops side , but they that communicate with accursed Schismaticks shall be cut off with them . If then we will be Christs servants , we must be obedient and subordinate to the Bishop . It is the condition of Christianity . We are not Christians else . So is the intimation of S. Ignatius . As full and pertinent is the peremptory resolution of S. Cyprian in that admirable epistle of his ad Lapsos , where after he had spoken how Christ instituted the honour of Episcopacy in concrediting the Keys to S. Peter and the other Apostles , Inde ( saith he ) per temporum & successionum vices Episcoporum ordinatio , & Ecclesiae ratio decurrit , ut Ecclesia super Episcopos constituatur , & omnis actus Ecclesiae per eosdem Praepositos gubernetur . Hence is it , that by several successions of Bishops the Church is continued , so that the Church hath its being , or constitution by Bishops , and every act of Ecclesiastical regiment is to be disposed by them . Cum hoc itaque divinâ lege fundatum sit , miror &c. Since therefore this is so established by the Law of God , I wonder any man should question it , &c. And therefore as in all buildings , the foundation being gone , the fabrick falls , so if ye take away Bishops , the Church must ask a writing of divorce from God , for it can no longer be called a Church . This account we have from S. Cyprian , and he reenforces again upon the same charge in his * Epistle ad Florentium Pupianum , where he makes a Bishop to be ingredient into the definition of a Church , [ Ecclesia est plebs sacerdoti adunata , & pastori suo Grex adhaerens , The Church is a flock adhering to its Pastor , and a people united to their Bishop ] for that so he means by Sacerdos , appears in the words subjoyned , Vnde & scire debes Episcopum in Ecclesia esse , & Ecclesiam in Episcopo , & si qui Cum Episcopo non sit in Ecclesia non esse , & frustra sibi blandiri eos qui pacem cum Sacerdotibus Dei non habentes obrepunt , & latenter apud quosdam communicare se credunt &c. As a Bishop is in the Church , so the Church is in the Bishop , and he that does not communicate with the Bishop is not in the Church ; and therefore they vainly flatter themselves that think their case fair and good , if they communicate in conventicles , and forsake their Bishop . And for this cause the holy Primitives were so confident , and zealous for a Bishop , that they would rather expose themselves and all their tribes to a persecution , than to the greater misery , the want of Bishops . Fulgentius tells an excellent story to this purpose . When Frasamund King of Byzac in Africa had made an edict that no more Bishops should be consecrate , to this purpose that the Catholick faith might expire ( so he was sure it would , if this device were perfected ) ut arescentibus truncis absque palmitibus omnes Ecclesiae desolarentur , the good Bishops of the province met together in a Council , and having considered of the command of the Tyrant , Sacra turba Pontificum qui remanserant communicato inter se consilio definierunt adversus praeceptum Regis in omnibus locis celebrare ordinationes Pontificum , cogitantes aut regis iracundiam , si qua forsan existeret , mitigandam , quo facilius ordinati in suis plebibus viverent , aut si persecutionis violentia nasceretur , coronandos etiam fidei confessione , quos dignos inveniebant promotione . It was full of bravery and Christian sprite . The Bishops resolved for all the edict against new ordination of Bishops to obey God , rather than man , and to consecrate Bishops in all places , hoping the King would be appeased , or if not , yet those whom they thought worthy of a Mitre were in a fair disposition to receive a Crown of Martyrdome . They did so . Fit repente communis assumptio , and they all strived who should be first , and thought a blessing would outstrip the hindmost . They were sure they might go to heaven ( though persecuted ) under the conduct of a Bishop , they knew , without him the ordinary passage was obstructed . Pius the first Bishop of Rome , and Martyr , speaking of them that calumniate , and disgrace their Bishops , endeavouring to make them infamous , they add ( saith he ) evil to evil , and grow worse , non intelligentes quod Ecclesia Dei in Sacerdotibus consistit , & crescit in templum Dei ; Not considering that the Church of God doth consist , or is establisht in Bishops , and grows up to a holy Temple ? To him I am most willing to add S. Hierome , because he is often obtruded in defiance of the cause . Ecclesiae salus in summi Sacerdotis dignitate pendet , The safety of the Church depends upon the Bishops dignity . SECT . XLVI . For they are schismaticks that separate from their Bishop . THE Reason which S. Hierome gives , presses this business to a further particular . For if an eminent dignity , and an unmatchable power be not given to him , tot efficicientur schismata , quot Sacerdotes . So that he makes Bishops therefore necessary , because without them the Unity of a Church cannot be preserved ; and we know that unity , and being , are of equal extent , and if the unity of the Church depends upon the Bishop , then where there is no Bishop , no pretence to a Church ; and therefore to separate from the Bishop makes a man at least a Schismatick . For unity which the Fathers press so often , they make to be dependant on the Bishop . Nihil sit in vobis quod possit vos dirimere , sed Vnimini Episcopo , subjecti Deo per illum in Christo ( saith S. Ignatius . ) Let nothing divide you , but be united to your Bishop , being subject to God in Christ through your Bishop . And it is his conge to the people of Smyrna to whom he writ in his epistle to Polycarpus , opto vos semper valere in Deo nostro Jesu Christo , in quo manete perunitatem Dei & Episcopi , Farewell in Christ Jesus , in whom remain by the Vnity of God and of the Bishop . Quantò vos beatiores judico qui dependetis ab illo [ Episcopo ] ut Ecclesia à Domino Jesu & Dominus à Patre suo , ut omnia per Vnitatem consentiant . Blessed people are ye that depend upon your Bishop , as the Church on Christ , and Christ on God , that all things may consent in Vnity . * Neque enim aliundè haereses obortae sunt , aut nata sunt schismata , quàm inde quòd Sacerdoti Dei non obtemperatur , nec unus in Ecclesiâ ad tempus Sacerdos , & ad tempus Judex vice Christi cogitatur . Hence come Schisms , hence spring Heresies that the Bishop is not obeyed , and admitted alone to be the high Priest , alone to be the Judge . The same S. Cyprian repeats again , and by it we may see his meaning clearer . Qui vos audit , me audit &c. Inde enim haereses & schismata obortae sunt & oriuntur , dum Episcopus qui unus est , & Ecclesiae praeest superbâ quorundam praesumptione contemnitur , & homo dignatione Dei honoratus , indignus hominibus judicatur . The pride and peevish haughtiness of some factious people that contemn their Bishops is the cause of all heresie and Schism . And therefore it was so strictly forbidden by the Ancient Canons , that any Man should have any meetings , or erect an Altar out of the communion of his Bishop , that if any man proved delinquent in this particular , he was punished with the highest censures , as appears in the 32. Canon of the Apostles , in the 6th Canon of the Council of Gangra , the 5th Canon of the Council of Antioch , and the great Council of Chalcedon , all which I have before cited . The sum is this , The Bishop is the band , and ligature of the Churches Unity ; and separation from the Bishop is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Theodorets expression is ; a Symbol of faction , and he that separates is a Schismatick . But how if the Bishop himself be a heretick , or schismatick ? May we not then separate ? Yes , if he be judged so by a Synod of Bishops , but then he is sure to be deposed too , and then in these cases no separation from a Bishop . For till he be declared so , his communion is not to be forsaken by the subjects of his Diocess , lest they by so doing become their Judges Judge , and when he is declared so , no need of withdrawing from obedience to the Bishop , for the heretick , or schismatick must be no longer Bishop . * But let the case be what it will be , no separation from a Bishop , ut sic , can be lawful ; and yet if there were a thousand cases in which it were lawful to separate from a Bishop , yet in no case is it lawful to separate from Episcopacy ; That is the quintessence , and spirit of schism , and a direct overthrow to Christianity , and a confronting of a Divine institution . SECT . XLVII . And Hereticks . BUT is it not also heresie ? Aerius was condemned for heresie by the Catholick Church . The heresie from whence the Aerians were denominated was , sermo furiosus magis quàm humanae conditionis , & dicebat , Quid est Episcopus ad Presbyterum , nihil dissert hic ab illo . A mad , and unmanly heresie , to say that a Bishop , and a Priest are all one . So Epiphanius , Assumpsit autem Ecclesia , & in toto mundo assensus factus est , antequam esset Aerius , & qui ab ipso appellantur Aeriani . And the good Catholick Father is so angry at the heretick Aerius , that he thinks his name was given him by Providence , and he is called Aerius , aeriis spiritibus pravitatis , for he was possessed with an unclean spirit , he could never else have been the inventer of such heretical pravity . S. Austin also reckons him in the accursed roll of hereticks , and adds at the conclusion of his Catalogue , that he is no Catholick Christian that assents to any of the foregoing Doctrines , amongst which , this is one of the principal . Philastrius does as much for him . But against this it will be objected . First , That heresies in the Primitive Catalogues are of a large extent , and every dissent from a publick opinion , was esteemed heresie . 2dly , Aerius was called heretick , for denying prayer for the dead . And why may he not be as blameless in equalling a Bishop and a Presbyter , as in that other , for which he also is condemned by Epiphanius , and Saint Austin . Thirdly , He was never condemned by any Council , and how then can he be called heretick ? I answer ; that dissent from a publick , or a received opinion was never called heresie , unless the contrary truth was indeed a part of Catholick doctrine . For the Fathers many of them did so , as S. Austin from the Millenary opinion ; yet none ever reckoned them in the Catalogues of hereticks ; but such things only set them down there , which were either directly opposite to Catholick belief , though in minoribus articulis , or to a holy life . 2dly , It is true that Epiphanius and S. Austin reckon his denying prayer for the dead to be one of his own opinions , and heretical . But I cannot help it if they did , let him and them agree it , they are able to answer for themselves . But yet they accused him also of Arianism ; and shall we therefore say that Arianism was no heresie , because the Fathers called him heretick in one particular upon a wrong principal ? We may as well say this , as deny the other . 3dly , He was not condemned by any Council . No. For his heresie was ridiculous , and a scorn to all wise men ; as Epiphanius observes , and it made no long continuance , neither had it any considerable party . * But yet this is certain , that Epiphanius and Philastrius , and S. Austin called this opinion of Aerius a heresy and against the Catholick belief . And themselves affirm that the Church did so ; and then it would be considered , that it is but a sad imployment to revive old heresies , and make them a piece of the New religion . And yet after all this , if I mistake not , although Aerius himself was so inconsiderable as not to be worthy noting in a Council , yet certainly the one half of his error is condemn'd for heresie in one of the four General Councils , viz. the first Council of Constantinople . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . We call all them hereticks whom the Ancient Church hath condemn'd , and whom we shall anathematize . Will not Aerius come under one of these titles for a condemn'd heretick ? Then see forward . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Here is enough for Aerius and all his hyperaspists , new and old : for the holy Council condemns them for hereticks who do indeed confess the true faith , but separate from their Bishops , and make conventicles apart from his Communion . Now this I the rather urge , because an Act of Parliament made 10 of Elizabeth does make this Council , and the other three of Nice , Ephesus , and Chalcedon , the rule of judging heresies . I end this particular with the saying of the Council of Paris against the Acephali ( who were the branch of a Crabstock and something like Aerius , ) cited by Burchard ; Nullâ ratione Clerici aut Sacerdotes habendi sunt , qui sub nullius Episcopi disciplinâ & providentiâ gubernantur . Tales enim Acephalos , id est , sine capite Priscae Ecclesiae consuetudo nuncupavit . They are by no means to be accounted Clergy-men , or Priests , that will not be governed by a Bishop . For such men the Primitive Church call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , headless , witless people . This only . Acephali was the title of a Sect , a formal heresie , and condemn'd by the Ancient Church , say the Fathers of the Council of Paris . Now if we can learn exactly what they were , it may perhaps be another conviction for the necessity of Episcopal regiment . Nicephorus can best inform us . Eodem tempore , & Acephali , quorum dux Severus Antiochenus fuit , &c. Severus of Antioch was the first broacher of this heresy . But why were they called Acephali ? id est , sine capitè , quem sequuntur haeretici ; Nullus enim eorum reperitur author à quo exorti sunt ( saith Isidore . ) But this cannot be , for their head is known , Severus was the heresiarch . But then why are they called Acephali ? Nicephorus gives this reason , and withal a very particular account of their heresie , Acephali autem ob eam causam dicti sunt , quòd sub Episcopis non fuerunt . They refused to live under Bishops . Thence they had their name , what was their heresie ? They denyed the distinction of Natures in Christ. That was one of their heresies , but they had more ; for they were trium capitulorum in Chalcedone impugnatores , saith Isidore , they opposed three Canons of the Council of Chalcedon . One we have heard , what their other heresies were , we do not so well know , but by the Canon of the Council of Paris , and the intimation of their name we are guided to the knowlege of a second ; They refused to live under the government of a Bishop . And this also was impugnatio unius articuli in Chalcedone , for the eighth Canon of the Council of Chalcedon commands that the Clergy should be under Episcopal government . But these Acephali would not , they were Antiepiscopal men , and therefore they were condemn'd hereticks ; condemn'd in the Council of Paris , of Sevil , and of Chalcedon . But the more particular account that Nicephorus gives of them I will now insert , because it is of great use . Proinde Episcopis , & Sacerdotibus apud eos defunctis , neque baptismus juxta solennem , atque receptum Ecclesiae morem apud eos administratur , neque oblatio , aut res aliqua divina facta , ministeriúmve Ecclesiasticum , sicuti mos est , celebratum est . Communionem verò illi à plurimo tempore asservatam habentes feriis pascalibus in minutissimas incisam partes convenientibus ad se hominibus dederunt . Quo tempore quam quisque voluisset placitam sibi sumebat potestatem . Et propterea quod quilibet , quod si visum esset , fidei insertum volebat , quamplurima defectorum , atque haereticorum turba exorta est . It is a story worthy observation . When any Bishop died they would have no other consecrated in succession , and therefore could have no more Priests when any of them died . But how then did they to baptize their Children ? Why , they were fain to make shift , and do it without any Church-solemnity . But , how did they for the holy Sacrament , for that could not be consecrated without a Priest , and he not ordained without a Bishop ? True , but therefore they , while they had a Bishop , got a great deal of bread consecrated , and kept a long time , and when Easter came , cut it into small bits , or crums rather , to make it go the farther , and gave it to their people . And must we do so too ? God forbid . But how did they when all that was gone ? For crummes would not last always . The story specifies it not , but yet I suppose they then got a Bishop for their necessity to help them to some more Priests , and some more crumms ; for I find in the Council of Sevil the Fathers saying , Ingressus est ad nos quidam ex haeresi Acephalorum Episcopus ; they had then it seems got a Bishop , but this they would seldome have , and never but when their necessity drave them to it . But was this all the inconvenience of the want of Bishops ? No. For every man ( saith Nicephorus ) might do what he list , and if he had a mind to it , might put his fancy into the Creed , and thence came innumerable troops of Schismaticks and Hereticks . So that this device was one simple heresie in the root , but it was forty heresies in the fruit , and branches ; clearly proving that want of Bishops is the cause of all Schism , and recreant opinions that are imaginable . I sum this up with the saying of S. Clement the Disciple of S. Peter , Si autem vobis Episcopis non obedierint omnes Presbyteri , &c. tribus , & linguae non obtemperaverit , non solùm infames , sed extorres à regno dei , & consortio fidelium , ac à limitibus Sancti Dei Ecclesiae alieni erunt . All Priests and Clergy-men , and people and Nations , and Languages that do not obey their Bishop , shall be shut forth of the communion of Holy Church here , and of Heaven hereafter . It runs high , but I cannot help it , I do but translate Ruffinus , as he before translated S. Clement . SECT . XLVIII . And Bishops were alwaies in the Church men of great Honour . IT seems then we must have Bishops . But must we have Lord Bishops too ? That is the question now , but such an one as the Primitive piety could never have imagined . For , could they , to whom Bishops were placed in a right and a true light , they who believed , and saw them to be the Fathers of their souls , the Guardian of their life and manners ( as King Edgar call'd S. Dunstan ) the guide of their consciences , the instruments and conveyances of all the blessings heaven uses to pour upon us , by the ministration of the holy Gospel ; would they , that thought their lives a cheap exchange for a free , and open communion with a Catholick Bishop ; would they have contested upon an aiery title , and the imaginary priviledge of an honour , which is far less than their spiritual dignity , but infinitely less than the burden , and charge of the souls of all their Diocess ? Charity thinks nothing too much , and that love is but little , that grutches at the good words a Bishoprick carries with it . However ; let us see whether titles of honour be either unfit in themselves to be given to Bishops , or what the guise of Christendome hath been in her spiritual heraldry . 1. S. Ignatius in his Epistle to the Church of Smyrna gives them this command . Honora Episcopum ut Principem Sacerdotum , imaginem Dei referentem . Honour the Bishop as the image of God , as the Prince of Priests . Now since honour , and excellency are terms of mutual relation , and all excellency that is in men , and things , is but a ray of divine excellency ; so far as they participate of God , so far they are honourable . Since then the Bishop carries the impress of God upon his forehead , and bears Gods image , certainly this participation of such perfection makes him very honourable . And since honor est in honorante , it is not enough that the Bishop is honourable in himself , but it tells us our duty , we must honour him , we must do him honour : and of all the honours in the world , that of words is the cheapest , and the least . S. Paul speaking of the honour due to the Prelates of the Church , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Let them be accounted worthy of double honour . And one of the honours that he there means is a costly one , an honour of Maintenance , the other must certainly be an honour of estimate , and that 's cheapest . The Council of Sardis speaking of the several steps and capacities of promotion to the height of Episcopacy , uses this expression , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . He that shall be found worthy of so Divine a Priesthood , let him be advanced to the highest honour . Ego procidens ad pedes ejus rogabam , excusans me , & declinans honorem cathedrae , & potestatem , ( saith S. Clement , when S. Peter would have advanced him to the Honour and power of the Bishops chair . ) But in the third epistle speaking of the dignity of Aaron the High-Priest , and then by analogy of the Bishop , who although he be a Minister in the Order of Melchisedech , yet he hath also the Honour of Aaron , Omnis enim Pontisex sacro crismate perunctus , & in civitate constitutus , & in Scripturis sacris conditus , charus & preciosus hominibus oppidò esse debet . Every High-Priest ordained in the City ( viz. a Bishop ) ought forthwith to be dear and precious in the eyes of men . Quem quasi Christi locum tenentem honorare omnes debent , eique servire , & obedientes ad salutem suam fideliter existere , scientes quòd sive honor , sive injuria quae ei defertur , in Christum redundat ▪ & à Christo in Deum . The Bishop is Christs Vicegerent , and therefore he is to be obeyed , knowing that whether it be honour or injury that is done to the Bishop , it is done to Christ , and so to God. * And indeed what is the saying of our blessed Saviour himself ? He that despiseth you despiseth me . If Bishops be Gods Ministers and in higher order than the rest , then although all discountenance and disgrace done to the Clergy reflect upon Christ , yet what is done to the Bishop is far more , and then there is the same reason of the honour . And if so , then the Question will prove but an odd one ; even this , Whether Christ be to be honoured or no , or depressed to the common estimate of Vulgar people ? for if the Bishops be , then he is . This is the condition of the Question . 2. Consider we , that all Religions , and particularly all Christianity did give Titles of honour to their High-Priests and Bishops respectively . * I shall not need to instance in the great honour of the Priestly tribe among the Jews , and how highly honourable Aaron was in proportion . Prophets were called [ Lords ] in holy Scripture . [ Art not thou my Lord Elijah ? ] said Obadiah to the Prophet . [ Knowest thou not that God will take thy Lord from thy head this day ? ] said the children in the Prophets Schools . So it was then . And in the new Testament we find a Prophet Honoured every where but in his own Country . And to the Apostles and Presidents of Churches greater titles of honour given than was ever given to man by secular complacence and insinuation . Angels , and Governours , and Fathers of our Faith , and Stars , Lights of the World , the Crown of the Church , Apostles of Jesus Christ , nay , Gods , viz. to whom the Word of God came ; and of the compellation of Apostles , particularly , Saint Hierom saith , that when Saint Paul called himself the Apostle of Jesus Christ , it was as Magnifically spoken , as if he had said , Praefectus praetorio Augusts Caesaris , Magister exercitus Tiberii Imperatoris ; And yet Bishops are Apostles , and so called in Scripture . I have proved that already . Indeed our blessed Saviour in the case of the two sons of Zebedee , forbad them to expect by vertue of their Apostolate any Princely titles , in order to a Kingdom , and an earthly Principality . For that was it which the ambitious woman sought for her sons , viz. fair honour and dignity in an earthly Kingdom ; for such a Kingdom they expected with their Messias . To this their expectation our Saviours answer is a direct antithesis ; And that made the Apostles to be angry at the two Petitioners , as if they had meant to supplant the rest , and get the best preferment from them , to wit , in a temporal Kingdom . No , ( saith our blessed Saviour ) ye are all deceived . [ The Kings of the Nations indeed do exercise authority , and are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Benefactors ] so the word signifies , [ Gracious Lords ] so we read it , [ But it shall not be so with you . ] What shall not be so with them ? shall not they exercise authority ? [ Who then is that faithful and wise Steward whom his Lord made Ruler over his Houshould ? ] Surely the Apostles or no body . Had Christ authority ? Most certainly . Then so had the Apostles , for Christ gave them his , with a sicut misit me pater , &c. Well! the Apostles might , and we know they did exercise authority . What then shall not be so with them ? Shall not they be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ? Indeed if Saint Mark had taken that title upon him in Alexandria , the Ptolomies , whose Honorary appellative that was , would have questioned him highly for it . But if we go to the sence of the word , the Apostles might be Benefactors , and therefore might be called so . But what then ? Might they not be called Gratious Lords ? The word would have done no hurt , if it had not been an Ensign of a secular Principality . For as for the word [ Lord ] I know no more prohibition for that than for being called Rabbi , or Master , or Doctor , or Father . What shall we think now ? May we not be called Doctors ? [ God hath constituted in his Church Pastors and Doctors , saith Saint Paul. ] Therefore we may be called so . But what of the other , the prohibition runs alike for all , as is evident in the several places of the Gospels , and may no man be called Master , or Father ? Let an answer be thought on for these , and the same will serve for the other also without any sensible error . It is not the word , it is the ambitious seeking of a temporal principality as the issue of Christianity , and an affix of the Apostolate that Christ interdicted his Apostles . * And if we mark it , our Blessed Saviour points it out himself . [ The Princes of the Nations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , exercise authority over them , and are called Benefactors , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It shall not be so with you . Not so ? how ? Not as the Princes of the Gentiles , for theirs is a temporal Regiment , your Apostolate must be Spiritual . They rule as Kings , you as fellow servants , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . He that will be first amongst you , let him be your Minister , or Servant ; It seems then among Christs Disciples there may be a Superiority , when there is a Minister or servant ? But it must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that this greatness doth consist , it must be in doing the greatest service and ministration that the superiority consists in . But more particularly , it must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It must not be [ as the Princes of the Gentiles ] but it must be [ as the son of man ] so Christ sayes expresly . And how was that ? why , he came to Minister and to serve , and yet in the lowest act of his humility ( the washing his Disciples feet ) he told them , [ ye call me Lord , and Master , and ye say well , for so I am . It may be so with you . Nay , it must be as the son of Man ; But then , the being called Rabbi , or Lord , nay , the being Lord in spirituali Magisterio & regimine , in a spiritual superintendency , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , may stand with the humility of the Gospel , and office of Ministration . So that now I shall not need to take advantage of the word * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifies to rule with more than a political Regiment , even with an absolute and despotick , and is so used in holy Scripture , viz. in sequiorem partem . God gave authority to man over the creatures , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word in the Septuagint , and we know the power that man hath over beasts , is to kill , and to keep alive . And thus to our blessed Saviour , the power that God gave him over his enemies is expressed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And this we know how it must be exercised , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a rod of iron , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . He shall break them in pieces like a potters vessel . That 's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but it shall not be so with you . But let this be as true as it will. The answer needs no way to rely upon a Criticism . It is clear , that the form of Regiment only is distinguished , not all Regiment and authority taken away . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Not as the Kings of the Gentiles , but as the son of man ; so must your Regiment be , for sicut misit me Pater , &c. As my Father hath sent me , even so send I you . It must be a government , not for your Impery , but for the service of the Church . So that it is not for your advancement , but the publick Ministery that you are put to rule over the Houshold * And thus the Fathers express the authority and regiment of Bishops . Qui vocatur ad Episcopatum non ad Principatum vocatur , sed ad servitutem totius Ecclesiae ( saith Origen . ) And Saint Hierom ; Episcopi Sacerdotes se esse noverint , non Dominos ; And yet Saint Hierom himself writing to Saint Austin calls him , Domine verè sancte , & suscipiende Papa . Forma Apostolica haec est , Dominatio interdicitur , indicitur Ministratio . It is no Principality that the Apostles have , but it is a Ministery ; a Ministery in chief , the Officers of which Ministration must govern and we must obey . They must govern , not in a temporal Regiment by vertue of their Episcopacy , but in a Spiritual , not for honour to the Rulers , so much as for benefit and service to the subject . So Saint Austin . Nomen est operis , non honoris , ut intelligat se non esse Episcopum qui praeesse dilexerit , non prodesse . And in the fourteenth Chapter of the same Book , Qui imperant serviunt iis rebus quibus videntur Imperare . Non enim dominandi cupidine imperant , sed officio consulendi , nec principandi superbiâ , sed providendi misericordiâ . And all this is intimated in the prophetical visions , where the Regiment of Christ is design'd by the face of a man ; and the Empire of the world by Beasts . The first is the Regiment of a Father , the second of a King. The first spiritual , the other secular . And of the fatherly authority it is that the Prophet sayes , Instead of Fathers thou shalt have Children , whom thou mayest make Princes in all lands . This ( say the Fathers ) is spoken of the Apostles and their Successors the Bishops , who may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Princes or Rulers of Churches , not Princes of Kingdoms , by vertue or challenge of their Apostolate . But if this Ecclesiastical rule or chiefty be interdicted , I wonder how the Presidents of the Presbyters , the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Reformed Churches will acquit themselves ? How will their Superiority be reconciled to the place , though it be but temporary ? For is it a sin if it continues , and no sin if it lasts but for a week ? Or is it lawful to sin , and domineer , and Lord it over their Brethren for a week together ? * But suppose it were , what will they say that are perpetual Dictators ? Calvin was perpetual President , and Beza , till Danaeus came to Geneva , even for many years together ? * But beyond all this how can the Presbytery , which is a fixt lasting body rule and govern in causes Spiritual and Consistorial , and that over all Princes , and Ministers , and people , and that for ever ? For is it a sin in Episcopacy to do so , and not in the Presbytery ? If it be lawful here , then Christ did not interdict it to the Apostles , for who will think that a Presbytery shall have leave to domineer , and ( as they call it now adayes ) to Lord it over their Brethren , when a Colledge of Apostles shall not be suffered to govern ? But if the Apostles may govern , then we are brought to a right understanding of our Saviours saying to the sons of Zebedee , and then also , their successors the Bishops may do the same . If I had any further need of answer or escape , it were easie to pretend , that this being a particular directory to the Apostles , was to expire with their persons . So S. Cyprian intimates . Apostoli pari fuêre consortio praediti , & honoris , & dignitatis ; and indeed this may be concluding against the Supremacy of S. Peter's Successors , but will be no wayes pertinent to impugn Episcopal authority . For inter se they might be equal , and yet superiour to the Presbyters and the people . Lastly , [ It shall not be so with you ] so Christ said , Non designando officium , but Sortem , not their duty , but their lot ; intimating that their future condition should not be honorary , but full of trouble , not advanc'd , but persecuted . But I had rather insist on the first answer ; in which I desire it be remembred , that I said , seeking temporal Principality to be forbidden the Apostles , as an Appendix to the office of an Apostle . For in other capacities Bishops are as receptive of honour and temporal principalities as other men . Bishops ut sic are not secular Princes , must not seek for it ; But some secular Princes may be Bishops , as in Germany and in other places to this day they are . For it is as unlawful for a Bishop to have any Land , as to have a Country , and a single Acre is no more due to the Order than a Province ; but both these may be conjunct in the same person , though still by vertue of Christ's precept the functions and capacities must be distinguished ; according to the saying of Synesius , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . To confound and intermix the Kingdom and the Priesthood , is to joyn things incompossible and inconsistent ; Inconsistent ( I say ) not in person , but absolutely discrepant in function . 3. Consider we , that Saint Peter , when he speaks of the dutious subordination of Sarah to her Husband Abraham , he propounds her as an example to all married women , in these words , [ She obeyed Abraham , and called him Lord ] why was this spoken to Christian women , but that they should do so too ? And is it imaginable that such an honourable compellation as Christ allows every woman to give to her Husband , a Mechanick , a hard-handed Artisan , he would forbid to those eminent Pillars of his Church , those Lights of Christendom , whom he really indued with a plenitude of power for the Regiment of the Catholick Church . Credat Apella . 4. Pastor , and Father , are as honourable titles as any . They are honourable in Scripture . Honour thy Father , &c. Thy Father in all sences . They are also made sacred by being the appellatives of Kings and Bishops , and that not only in secular addresses , but even in holy Scripture , as is known . Add to this ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are used in Scripture for the Prelates of the Church , and I am certain , that , Duke , and Captain , Rulers , and Commanders are but just the same in English that the other are in Greek , and the least of these is as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or Lord. And then if we consider that since Christ erected a spiritual Regiment , and us'd words of secular honour to express it , as in the instances above , although Christ did interdict a secular principality , yet he forbad not a secular title ; He us'd many himself . 5. The voice of the Spouse , the holy Church hath alwayes expressed their honourable estimate in reverential Compellations and Epithets of honour to their Bishops , and have taught us so to do . * Bishops were called Principes Ecclesiarum , Princes of the Churches . I had occasion to instance it in the question of jurisdiction . Indeed the third Councel of Carthage forbad the Bishop of Carthage to be called Princeps Sacerdotum , or summus sacerdos , or aliquid hujusmodi , but only primae sedis Episcopus . I know not what their meaning was , unless they would dictate a lesson of humility to their Primate , that he might remember the principality not to be so much in his person as in the See , for he might be called Bishop of the prime See. But whatsoever fancy they had at Carthage , I am sure it was a guise of Christendom , not to speak of Bishops sine praefatione honoris , but with honourable mention . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , To our most blessed Lord. So the Letters were superscribed to Julius Bishop of Rome from some of his Brethren ; in Sozomen . Let no man speak Untruths of me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Nor of my Lords the Bishops , said Saint Gregory Nazianzen . The Synodical book of the Councel of Constantinople is inscribed Dominis Reverendissimis , ac piissimis Fratribus ac Collegis , Damaso , Ambrosio , &c. To our most Reverend Lords , and holy Brethren , &c. And the Councel of Illyricum sending their Synodal letters to the Bishops of Asia , by Bishop Elpidius , Haec pluribus ( say they ) persequi non est visum , quòd miserimus unum ex omnibus , Dominum , & Collegam nostrum Elpidium , qui cognosceret , esset ne sicut dictum fuerat à Domino , & Collegâ nostro Eustathio . Our Lord and Brother Elpidius . Our Lord and Brother Eustathius . * The Oration in the Councel of Epaunum begins thus . Quod praecipientibus tantis Dominis meis ministerium proferendi sermonis assumo , &c. The Prolocutor took that office on him at the command of so many Great Lords the Bishops . * When the Church of Spain became Catholick , and abjured the Arian heresie , King Recaredus in the third Councel of Toledo made a speech to the Bishops , Non incognitum reor esse vobis , Reverendissimi , Sacerdotes , &c. Non credimus vestram latere Sanctitatem , &c. Vestra Cognovit Beatitudo , &c. Venerandi Patres , &c. And these often , Your Holiness , your Blessedness , Most Reverend , Venerable Fathers : Those were the Addresses the King made to the Fathers of the Synod . Thus it was when Spain grew Catholick , but not such a Speech to be found in all the Arian Records . They amongst them used but little Reverence to their Bishops . But the instances of this kind are innumerable . Nothing more ordinary in Antiquity than to speak of Bishops with the titles of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Domine verè Sancte , & suscipiende Papa . So Saint Hierom a Presbyter to Saint Austin a Bishop . Secundùm enim honorum vocabula quae jam Ecclesiae usus obtinuit Episcopatus Presbyteria major est , saith Saint Austin . Episcopacy is greater than the office and dignity of a Presbyter according to the Titles of Honour which the custom of the Church hath introduced . But I shall sum up these particulars in a total , which is thus expressed by Saint Chrysostom . Haeretici à Diabolo Honorum vocabula Episcopis non dare didicerunt . Hereticks have learned of the Devil not to give due titles of honour to Bishops . The good Patriarch was angry surely when he said so . * For my own particular , I am confident that my Lords the Bishops do so undervalue any fastuous , or pompous title , that were not the duty of their people in it , they would as easily reject them , as it is our duty piously to use them . But if they still desire appellatives of honour , we must give them , they are their due , if they desire them not , they deserve them much more . So that either for their humility , or however for their works sake we must [ highly honour them that have the rule over us ] It is the precept of S. Paul , and S. Cyprian , observing how curious our blessed Saviour was that he might give honour to the Priests of the Jews , even then when they were reeking in their malice hot as the fire of Hell ; he did it to teach us a duty . Docuit enim Sacerdotes veros Legitime & plene honorari dum circa falsos Sacerdotes ipse talis extitit . It is the argument he uses to procure a full honour to the Bishop . * To these I add ; If sitting in a Throne even above the seat of Elders be a title of a great dignity , then we have it confirmed by the voice of all Antiquity calling the Bishops Chair a Throne , and the investiture of a Bishop in his Church an Inthronization . Quando Inthronizantur propter communem utilitatem Episcopi , &c. saith Pope Anterus in his decretal Epistle to the Bishops of Boetica and Toledo . Inthroning is the Primitive word for the consecration of a Bishop . Sedes in Episcoporum Ecclesiis excelsae constitutae & praeparatae , ut Thronus speculationem & potestatem judicandi à Domino sibi datam materiam docent , ( saith Vrban . ) And S. Ignatius to his Deacon Hero , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , I trust that the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ will show to me Hero sitting upon my Throne . ** The sum of all is this . Bishops if they must be at all , most certainly must be beloved , it is our duties , and their work deserves it . Saint Paul was as dear to the Galatians as their eyes , and it is true eternally , Formosi pedes Evangelizantium , the feet of the Preachers of the Gospel are beauteous , and then much more of the chief . Ideo ista praetulimus ( charissimi ) ut intelligatis potestatem Episcoporum vestrorum , in eisque Deum veneremini & eos ut animas vestras diligatis , ut quibus illi non communicant , non communicetis , &c. Now , love to our Superiours is ever honourable , for it is more than amicitia , that 's amongst Peers , but love to our Betters , is Reverence , Obedience , and high Estimate . And if we have the one , the dispute about the other would be a meer impertinence . I end this with the saying of Saint Ignatius , Et vos dec●t non contemnere aetatem Episcopi , sed juxta Dei Patris arbitrium omnem illi impertiri Reverentiam . It is the will of God the Father , that we should give all Reverence , Honour , or veneration to our Bishops . SECT . XLIX . And trusted with Affairs of Secular interest . WELL ! However things are now , it was otherwise in the old Religion ; for no honour was thought too great for them whom God had honoured with so great degrees of approximation to himself in power and authority . But then also they went further . For they thought whom God had intrusted with their souls , they might with an equal confidence trust with their personal actions and imployments of greatest trust . For it was great consideration that they who were Antistites religionis , the Doctors , and great Dictators of faith and conscience , should be the composers of those affairs , in whose determination , a Divine wisdom , and interests of Conscience , and the authority of Religion were the best ingredients . But it is worth observing how the Church and the Commonwealth did actions contrary to each other , in pursuance of their several interests . The Common-wealth still enabled Bishops to take cognisance of causes , and the confidence of their own people would be sure to carry them thither where they hop'd for fair issue , upon such good grounds as they might fairly expect from the Bishops Abilities , Authority and Religion : But on the other side , the Church did as much decline them as she could , and made Sanctions against it so far as she might without taking from themselves all opportunities both of doing good to their people , and ingaging the secular arm to their own assistance . But this we shall see by consideration of particulars . 1. It was not in Naturâ rei unlawful for Bishops to receive an office of secular imployment . Saint Paul's tent-making was as much against the calling of an Apostle , as sitting in a secular Tribunal is against the office of a Bishop . And it is hard , if we will not allow that to the conveniences of a Republick , which must be indulged to a private , personal necessity . But we have not Saint Paul's example only , but his rule too , according to Primitive exposition . [ Dare any of you having a matter before another go to Law before the unjust , and not before the Saints ? If then ye have judgment of things pertaining to this life , set them to judge who are least esteemed in the Church . ] Who are they ? The Clergy , I am sure , now adayes . But Saint Ambrose also thought that to be his meaning seriously . Let the Ministers of the Church be the Judges . For by [ least esteemed ] he could not mean the most ignorant of the Laity , they would most certainly have done very strange justice , especially in such causes which they understand not . No , but set them to judge who by their office are Servants , and Ministers of all , and those are the Clergy , who ( as Saint Paul's expression is ) Preach not themselves , but Jesus to be the Lord , and themselves your servants for Jesus sake . Meliùs dicit apud Dei ministros agere causam . Yea , but Saint Paul's expression seems to exclude the Governours of the Church from intermedling . [ Is there not one wise man among you that is able to judge between his Brethren ? ] Why Brethren , if Bishops and Priests were to be the Judges , they are Fathers ? The objection is not worth the noting , but only for Saint Ambrose his answer to it . Ideò autem fratrem Judicem eligendum dicit , qui adhuc Rector Ecclesiae illorum non erat ordinatus . Saint Paul us'd the word [ Brethren ] for as yet a Bishop was not ordained amongst them of that Church , intimating that the Bishop was to be the man , though till then , in subsidium a prudent Christian man might be imployed . 2. The Church did alwayes forbid to Clergy-men a voluntary Assumption of ingagements in Rebus Saeculi . So the sixth Canon of the Apostles , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . A Bishop , and a Priest , and a Deacon , must not assume , or take on himself worldly cares . If he does , let him be depos'd . Here the Prohibition is general , No worldly cares . Not domestick . But how if they come on him by Divine imposition , or accident ? That 's nothing , if he does not assume them ; that is , by his voluntary act acquire his own trouble . So that if his secular imployment be an act of obedience , indeed it is trouble to him , but no sin . But if he seeks it for it self it is ambition . In this sence also must the following Canon be understood . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . A Clerk must not be a Tutor or Guardian , viz ▪ of secular trust , that is , must not seek a diversion from his imployment by voluntary Tutorship . 3. The Church also forbad all secular negotiation for base ends , not precisely the imployment it self , but the illness of the intention , and this indeed she expresly forbids in her Canons . Pervenit ad Sanctam Synodum quòd quidam qui in Clero sunt allecti Propter Lucra Turpia conductores alienarum possessionum fiant , & saecularia negotia sub curâ suâ suscipiant , Dei quidem Ministerium parvipendentes , Saecularium verò discurrentes domos & Propter Avaritiam patrimoniorum sollicitudinem sumentes . Clergy-men were farmers of lands , and did take upon them secular imployment for covetous designs , and with neglect of the Church . These are the things the Councel complain'd of , and therefore according to this exigence the following Sanction is to be understood . Decrevit itaque hoc Sanctum magnumque Concilium , nullum deinceps , non Episcopum , non Clericum , vel Monachum aut possessiones conducere , aut negotiis secularibus se immiscere , No Bishop , no Clergy-man , no Monk must farm grounds , nor ingage himself in secular business . What in none ? No , none . Praeter pupillorum , si forte leges imponant inexcusabilem curam , aut civitatis Episcopus Ecclesiasticarum rerum sollicitudinem habere praecipiat , aut Orphanorum , & viduarum carum quae sine ullâ defensione sunt , ac personarum quae maximè Ecclesiastico indigent adjutorio , & propter timorem Domini causa deposcat . This Canon will do right to the Question . All secular affairs and bargains , either for covetousness , or with considerable disturbance of Church-Offices , are to be avoided . For a Clergy man must not be covetous , much less for covetise must he neglect his cure . To this purpose is that of the second Councel of Arles , Clericus turpis lucri gratiâ aliquod genus negotiationis non exerceat . But not here nor at Chalcedon is the prohibition absolute , nor declaratory of an inconsistence and incapacity ; for , for all this , the Bishop or Clerk may do any office that is in piâ curiâ . He may undertake the supra-vision of Widows and Orphans . And although he be forbid by the Canon of the Apostles to be a Guardian of Pupils , yet it is expounded here by this Canon of Chalcedon , for a voluntary seeking it is forbidden by the Apostles , but here it is permitted only with si fortè leges imponant , if the Law or Authority commands him , then he may undertake it . That is , if either the Emperor commands him , or if the Bishop permits him , then it is lawful . But without such command or licence it was against the Canon of the Apostles . And therefore Saint Cyprian did himself severely punish Geminius Faustinus , one of the Priests of Carthage , for undertaking the executorship of the Testament of Geminius Victor : he had no leave of his Bishop so to do , and for him of his own head to undertake that which would be an avocation of him from his Office , did in Saint Cyprian's Consistory deserve a censure . 3. By this Canon of Chalcedon , any Clerk may be the Oeconomus or Steward of a Church , and dispence her Revenue if the Bishop command him . 4. He may undertake the patronage or assistance of any distressed person that needs the Churches aid . * From hence it is evident , that all secular imployment did not hoc ipso avocate a Clergy-man from his necessary office and duty ; for some secular imployments are permitted him , All causes of piety , of charity , all occurrences concerning the Revenues of the Church , and nothing for covetousness , but any thing in obedience , any thing I mean of the forenamed instances . Nay , the affairs of Church Revenues , and dispensation of Ecclesiastical Patrimony was imposed on the Bishop by the Canons Apostolical , and then considering how many possessions were deposited first at the Apostles feet , and afterwards in the Bishops hands , we may quickly perceive that a case may occur in which something else may be done by the Bishop and his Clergy besides prayer and preaching . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith Ignatius to Saint Polycarpe of Smyrna . Let not the Widows be neglected ; after God , do thou take care of them . Qui locupletes sunt , & volunt , pro arbitrio quisque suo quod libitum est contribuit ; & quod collectum est apud Praesidem deponitur , atque is inde opitulatur Orphanis , & viduis , iisque qui vel morbo vel aliâ de causà egent : tum iis qui vincti sunt , & peregrè advenientibus hospitibus : & ut uno verbo dicam , omnium indigentium Curator est . All the Collects and Offerings of faithful people are deposited with the Bishop , and thence he dispenses for the relief of the Widows and Orphans , thence he provides for travellers , and in one word , he takes care of all indigent and necessitous people . So it was in Justin Martyr's time , and all this , a man would think , requir'd a considerable portion of his time , besides his studies and prayer and preaching . This was also done even in the Apostles times , for first they had the provision of all the goods , and persons of the coenobium , of the Church at Jerusalem . This they themselves administred till a complaint arose , which might have prov'd a scandal ; then they chose seven men , men full of the Holy Ghost , men that were Priests , for they were of the seventy Disciples , saith Epiphanius , and such men as Preached , and Baptized , so Saint Stephen , and Saint Philip , therefore to be sure they were Clergy-men , and yet they left their preaching for a time , at least abated of the height of the imployment , for therefore the Apostles appointed them , that themselves might not leave the Word of God and serve Tables ; plainly implying that such men who were to serve these Tables must leave the Ministery of the Word , in some sence or degree , and yet they chose Presbyters , and no harm neither , and for a while themselves had the imployment . I say there was no harm done by this temporary Office to their Priestly function and imployment . For to me it is considerable . If the calling of a Presbyter does not take up the whole man , then what inconvenience though his imployment be mixt with secular allay . But if it does take up the whole man , then it is not safe for any Presbyter ever to become a Bishop , which is a dignity of a far greater burden , and requires more than a Man 's all , if all was requir'd to the function of a Presbyter . But I proceed . 4. The Church prohibiting secular imployment to Bishops and Clerks , do prohibit it only in gradu impedimenti officii Clericalis ; and therefore when the Offices are supplyed by any of the Order , it is never prohibited but that the personal abilities of any man may be imployed for the fairest advantages either of Church or Commonwealth . And therefore it is observable that the Canons provide that the Church be not destitute , not that such a particular Clerk should there officiate . Thus the Councel of Arles decreed , Vt Presbyteri sicut hactenus factum est , indiscretè per diversa non mittantur loca — ne fortè propter eorum absentiam , & animarum pericula , & Ecclesiarum in quibus constituti sunt , negligantur officia . So that here we see , 1. That it had been usual to send Priests on Embassies [ sicut hactenus factum est . ] 2. The Canon forbids the indiscreet or promiscuous doing of it ; not that men of great ability and choice be not imployed , but that there be discretion or discerning in the choice of the men , viz. that such men be chosen whose particular worth did by advancing the legation make compensation for absence from their Churches ; and then I am sure there was no indiscretion in the Embassy , quoad hoc at least ; for the ordinary Offices of the Church might be dispensed by men of even abilities , but the extraordinary affairs of both states require men of an heightned apprehension . 3. The Canon only took care that the cure of the souls of a Parish be not relinquished , for so is the title of the Canon , Ne Presbyteri causâ legationis per diversa mittantur loca , curâ animarum relictâ . But then if the cure be supplied by delegation , the fears of the Canon are prevented . * In pursuance of this consideration the Church forbad Clergy-men to receive honour , or secular preferment ; and so it is expressed where the prohibition is made . It is in the Councel of Chalcedon . Qui semel in clero deputati sunt , aut Monachorum vitam expetiverunt , statuimus neque ad militiam , neque ad dignitatem aliquam venire mundanam . That 's the inhibition ; But the Canon subjoyns a temper ; Aut hoc tentantes & non agentes poenitentiam , quo minùs redeant ad hoc quod propter deum primitùs elegerunt , anathematizari , they must not turn Souldiers , or enter upon any worldly dignity to make them leave their function , which for the honour of God they have first chosen : for then , it seems , he that took on him military honours , or secular prefectures , or consular dignity , could not officiate in holy Orders , but must renounce them to assume the other : It was in obstruction of this abuse that the Canon directed its prohibition , viz. in this sence clearly , that a Clerk must not so take on him secular Offices , as to make him redire in saeculum , having put his hand to the plow , to look back , to change his profession , or to relinquish the Church , and make her become a Widow . The case of S. Matthew and S. Peter distinguish and clear this business . Ecce reliquimus omnia , was the profession of their Clerical office . S. Matthew could not return to his trade of Publican at all , for that would have taken him from his Apostolate . But S. Peter might and did return to his nets , for all his reliqui omnia . Plainly telling us that a secular calling , a continued fix'd attendance on a business of the world , is an impediment to the Clerical office and ministration , but not a temporary imployment or secession . 5. The Canons of the Church do as much forbid the cares of houshold , as the cares of publick imployment to Bishops . So the fourth Councel of Carthage decrees . Vt Episcopus nullam rei familiaris curam ad se revocet , sed lectioni , & orationi , & verbi Dei praedicationi tantummodò vacet . Now if this Canon be confronted with that saying of Saint Paul , [ He that provides not for them of his own houshold is worse than an Infidel ] it will easily inform us of the Churches intention . For they must provide , saith Saint Paul , but yet so provide as not to hinder their imployment , or else they transgress the Canon of the Councel ; but this caveat may be as well entred , and observed in things Political as Oeconomical . Thus far we have seen what the Church hath done in pursuance of her own interest , and that was that she might with sanctity , and without distraction , tend her Grand imployment ; but yet many cases did occurr in which she did canonically permit an alienation of imployment , and revocation of some persons from an assiduity of Ecclesiastical attendance , as in the case of the seven set over the Widows , and of Saint Peter , and Saint Paul , and all the Apostles and the Canon of Chalcedon . Now let us see how the Commonwealth also pursued her interest , and because she found Bishops men of Religion and great trust , and confident abilities , there was no reason that the Commonwealth should be disserv'd in the promotion of able men to a Bishops throne . * Who would have made recompence to the Emperour for depriving him of Ambrose his Prefect , if Episcopal promotion had made him incapable of serving his Prince in any great Negotiation ? It was a remarkable passage in Ignatius , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . As our Lord is to be observ'd , so also must we observe the Bishop , because he assists and serves the Lord. And wisemen , and of great understanding must serve Kings , for he must not be served with men of small parts . Here either Ignatius commends Bishops to the service of Kings , or else propounds them as the fittest men in the world to do them service . For if only men of great abilities are fit to serve Kings , surely as great abilities are required to inable a man for the service of God in so peculiar manner of approximation . He then that is fit to be a Bishop , is most certainly fit for the service of his King. This is the sence of Ignatius his di●course . For consider , Christianity might be suspected for a design ; and if the Church should chuse the best and most pregnant Understandings for her imployment , and then these men become incapable of aiding the Republick , the promotion of these men would be an injury to those Princes whose affairs would need support . * The interest of the Subjects also is considerable . For we find by experience , that no Authority is so full of regiment , and will so finely force obedience , as that which is seated in the Conscience ; And therefore Numa Pompilius made his Laws and imposed them with a face of religious solemnity . For the people are stronger than any one Governour , and were they not awed by Religion , would quickly miscere Sacra prophanis , jumble Heaven and Earth into a miscellany , and therefore not only in the Sanction of Laws , but in the execution of them , the Antistites Religionis are the most competent instruments ; and this was not only in all Religions that ever were , and in ours ever till now , but even now we should quickly find it , were but our Bishops in that veneration and esteem that by the Law of God they ought , and that actually they were in the Calenture of primitive devotion , and that the Doctors of Religion were ever even amongst the most barbarous and untaught Pagans . Upon the confidence of these advantages , both the Emperours themselves , when they first became Christian , allowed appeals from secular Tribunals to the * Bishops Consistory , even in causes of secular interest , and the people would chuse to have their difficulties there ended whence they expected the issues of Justice and Religion , * I say this was done as soon as ever the Emperours were Christian. Before this time , Bishops , and Priests ( to be sure ) could not be imployed in state affairs , they were odious for their Christianity ; and then no wonder if the Church forbad secular imployment in meaner offices , the attendance on which could by no means make recompence for the least avocation of them from their Church-imployment . So that it was not only the avocation but the sordidness of the imployment that was prohibited the Clergy in the Constitutions of holy Church . But as soon as ever their imployment might be such as to make compensation for a temporary secession , neither Church nor State did then prohibit it ; And that was as soon as ever the Princes were Christian , for then immediately the Bishops were imployed in honorary negotiations . It was evident in the case of Saint Ambrose , For the Church of Millaine had him for their Bishop , and the Emperour had him one of his Prefects , and the people their judge in causes of secular cognizance . For when he was chosen Bishop , the Emperour , who was present at the election , cried out , Gratias tibi ago Domine — quoniam huic viro ego quidem commisi corpora ; tu autem animas , & meam electionem ostendisti tuae justitiae convenire . So that he was Bishop and Governour of Millaine at the same time ; And therefore by reason of both these Offices , Saint Austin was forced to attend a good while before he could find him at leisure . Non enim quaerere ab eo poteram quod volebat sicut volebam , secludentibus me ab ejus aure , atque ore catervis negotiosorum hominum , quorum infirmitatibus serviebat . And it was his own condition too , when he came to sit in the chair of Hippo ; Non permittor ad quod volo vacare ante meridiem ; post meridiem occupationibus hominum teneor . And again , Et homines quidam causas suas saeculares apud nos finire cupientes , quando eis necessarii suerimus , sic nos Sanctos , & Dei servos appellant , ut negotia terrae suae peragant . Aliquando & agamus negotium salutis nostrae & salutis ipsorum , non de auro , non de argento , non de fundis , & pecoribus , pro quibus rebus quotidiè submisso capite salutamur ut dissensiones hominum terminemus . It was almost the business of every day to him , to judge causes concerning Gold , and Silver , Cattel , and Glebe , and all appurtenances of this life . This S. Austin would not have done if it had not been lawful , so we are to suppose in charity ; but yet this we are sure of , Saint Austin thought it not only lawful , but a part of his duty , [ quibus nos molestiis idem affixit Apostolus , and that by the authority , not of himself , but of him that spake within him , even the Holy Ghost : ] so he . Thus also it was usual for Princes in the Primitive Church to send Bishops their Embassadours . Constans the Emperour sent two Bishops chosen out of the Councel of Sardis together with Salianus the Great Master of his Army to Constantius . Saint Chrysostom was sent Embassadour to Gainas . Maruthus the Bishop of Mesopotamia was sent Embassadour from the Emperour to Isdigerdes the King of Persia. Saint Ambrose from Valentinian the younger to the Tyrant Maximus . * Dorotheus was a Bishop and a Chamberlain to the Emperour . Many more examples there are of the concurrence of the Episcopal office , and a secular dignity or imployment . Now then consider . * The Church did not , might not challenge any secular honour , or imployment by vertue of her Ecclesiastical dignity precisely . 2. The Church might not be ambitious , or indagative of such imployment . 3. The Churches interest abstractly considered was not promoted by such imployment , but where there was no greater way of compensation , was interrupted and depressed . 4. The Church ( though in some cases she was allowed to make secession , yet ) might not relinquish her own charge to intervene in anothers aid . 5. The Church did by no means suffer her Clerks to undertake any low secular imployment , much more did she forbid all sordid ends , and covetous designs . 6. The Bishop or his Clerks might ever do any action of piety , though of secular burden . Clerks were never forbidden to read Grammar or Philosophy to youth , to be Masters of Schools , of Hospitals , they might reconcile their Neighbours that were fallen out , about a personal trespass , or real action , and yet since now adayes a Clergy-mans imploment and capacity is bounded within his Pulpit , or Reading-desk , or his Study of Divinity at most , these that I have reckoned are as verily secular as any thing , and yet no Law of Christendom ever prohibited any of these , or any of the like nature to the Clergy , nor any thing that is ingenuous , that is fit for a Scholar , that requires either fineness of parts , or great learning , or over-ruling authority , or exemplary piety . 7. Clergy-men might do any thing that was imposed on them by their Superiours . 8. The Bishops and Priests were men of great ability and surest confidence for determinations of Justice , in which , Religion was ever the strongest binder . And therefore the Princes and People sometimes forced the Bishops from their own interest to serve the Commonwealth , and in it they served themselves directly , and by consequence too , the Church had not only a sustentation from the secular Arm , but an addition of honour and secular advantages , and all this warranted by precedent of Scripture , and the practice of the Primitive Church , and particularly of men whom all succeeding Ages have put into the Calender of Saints . * So that it would be considered , that all this while it is the Kings interest and the Peoples that is pleaded , when we assert a capacity to the Bishops to undertake charges of publick trust . It is no addition to the calling of Bishops . It serves the King , it assists the Republick , and in such a plethory , and almost a surfet of Clergy-men as this Age is supplied with , it can be no disservice to the Church , whose daily Offices may be plentifully supplied by Vicars , and for the temporary avocation of some few , abundant recompence is made to the Church ( which is not at all injured ) by becoming an occasion of indearing the Church to those whose aid she is . There is an admirable Epistle written by Petrus Blesensis in the name of the Arch-bishop of Canterbury to Pope Alexander the third in the defence of the Bishop of Ely , Winchester and Norwich that attended the Court upon service of the King. Non est novum ( saith he ) quòd Regum Consiliis intersint Episcopi . Sicum enim honestate , & sapientiâ caeteros antecedunt , sic expeditiores , & efficaciores in reip . administratione censentur . Quia sicut Scriptum est [ minùs salubriter disponitur regnum , quod non regitur consilio sapientum ] In quo notatur eos consiliis Regum debere assistere , qui sciant & velint , & possint patientibus compati , paci terrae , ac populi saluti prospicere , erudire ad justitiam Reges , imminentibus occursare periculis , vitaeque maturioris exemplis informare subditos & quâdam authoritate potestativâ praesumptionem malignantium cohibere . It is no new thing for Bishops to be Counsellors to Princes ( saith he ) their wisdom and piety that enables them for a Bishoprick proclaims them fit Instruments to promote the publick tranquillity of the Commonwealth . They know how to comply with oppressed people , to advance designs of peace and publick security ; It is their office to instruct the King to righteousness , by their sanctity to be a rule to the Court , and to diffuse their exemplary piety over the body of the Kingdom , to mix influences of Religion with designs of State , to make them have as much of the Dove as of the Serpent , and by the advantage of their Religious authority to restrain the malignity of accursed people in whom any image of a God or of Religion is remaining . * He proceeds in the discourse and brings the examples of Samuel , Isaiah , Elisha , Jojada , Zacharias , who were Priests and Prophets respectively , and yet imployed in Princes Courts , and Councels of Kings , and adds this ; Vnum noveritis , quia nisi familiares , & Consiliarii Regis essent Episcopi supra dorsum Ecclesiae hodiè fabricarent peccatores , & immaniter , ac intolerabiliter opprimeret Clerum praesumptio Laicalis . That 's most true . If the Church had not the advantage of additional honorary imployments , the plowers would plow upon the Churches back and make long furrows . * The whole Epistle is worth transcribing , but I shall content my self with this summary of the advantages which are acquired both to Policy and Religion by the imployment of Bishops in Princes Courts . Istis mediantibis mansuescit circa simplices judiciarius rigor , admittitur clamor pauperum , Ecclesiarum dignitas erigitur , relevatur pauperum indigentia , firmatur in clero libertas , pax in populis , in monasteriis quies , justitia liberè exercetur , superbia opprimitur , augetur Laicorum devotio , religio fovetur , diriguntur judicia , &c. When pious Bishops are imployed in Princes Councils , then the rigour of the Laws is abated , equity introduced , the cry of the poor is heard , their necessities are made known , the liberties of the Church are conserved , the peace of Kingdoms laboured for , pride is depressed , Religion increaseth , the devotion of the Laity multiplies , and Tribunals are made just , and incorrupt , and merciful . Thus far Petrus Blesensis . * These are the effects , which though perhaps they do not alwayes fall out , yet these things may in expectation of reason be looked for from the Clergy , their principles and calling promises all this . Et quia in Ecclesiâ magis lex est , ubi Dominus legis timetur , meliùs dicit apud Dei Ministros agere causam . Faciliùs enim Dei timore sententiam legis veram promunt ; ( saith Saint Ambrose , ) and therefore certainly the fairest reason in the world that they be imployed . But if personal defaillance be thought reasonable to disimploy the whole calling , then neither Clergy nor Laity should ever serve a Prince . And now we are easily driven into an understanding of that saying of Saint Paul , [ No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life . ] For although this be spoken of all Christian people , and concerns the Laity in their proportion as much as the Clergy , yet nor one nor the other is interdicted any thing that is not a direct hinderance to their own precise duty of Christianity . And such things must be par'd away from the Fringes of the Laity , as well as the long Robe of the Clergy . But if we should consider how little we have now left for the imployment of a Bishop , I am afraid a Bishop would scarce seem to be a necessary function , so far would it be from being hindered by the collateral intervening of a Lay-judicature . I need not instance in any particulars ; for if the judging matters and questions of Religion be not left alone to them , they may well be put into a temporal imployment , to preserve them from suspicion of doing nothing . I have now done with this ; only intreating this to be considered . Is not the King fons utriusque jurisdictionis ? In all the sences of Common-law and external compulsory he is . But if so , then why may not the King as well make Clergy-Judges , as Lay-Delegates ? For ( to be sure ) if there be an incapacity in the Clergy of medling with secular affairs , there is the same at least in the Laity of medling with Church affairs . For if the Clergy be above the affairs of the world , then the Laity are under the affairs of the Church ; or else , if the Clergy be incapable of Lay-business because it is of a different and disparate nature from the Church , does not the same argument exclude the Laity from intervening in Church affairs ? For the Church differs no more from the Commonwealth than the Commonwealth differs from the Church . And now after all this , suppose a King should command a Bishop to go on Embassy to a forreign Prince , to be a Commissioner in a treaty of pacification , if the Bishop refuse , did he do the duty of a Subject ? If yea , I wonder what subjection that is which a Bishop ows to his Prince , when he shall not be bound to obey him in any thing but the saying and doing of his office , to which he is obliged , whether the Prince commands him yea or no. But if no , then the Bishop was tyed to go , and then the calling makes him no way incapable of such imployment , for no man can be bound to do a sin . SECT . L. And therefore were inforced to delegate the power and put others in substitution . BUT then did not this imployment , when the occasions were great and extraordinary , force the Bishops to a temporary absence ? And what remedy was there for that ? For the Church is not to be left destitute , that 's agreed on by all the Canons . They must not be like the Sicilian Bishops whom Petrus Blesensis complains of , that attended the Court , and never visited their Churches , or took care either of the cure of souls , or of the Church possessions . What then must be done ? The Bishops in such cases may give delegation of their power and offices to others , though now adayes they are complain'd of for their care . I say , for their care ; For if they may intervene in secular affairs , they may sometimes be absent , and then they must delegate their power , or leave the Church without a Curate . *** But for this matter the account need not be long . For since I have proved that the whole Diocess is in cura Episcopali , and for all of it he is responsive to God Almighty , and yet that instant necessity and the publick act of Christendom hath ratified it , that Bishops have delegated to Presbyters so many parts of the Bishops charge as there are Parishes in his Diocess , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is pretended for delegation of Episcopal charge , is no less than the act of all Christendom . For it is evident at first , Presbyters had no distinct cure at all , but were in common assistant to the Bishop , and were his Emissaries for the gaining souls in City or Suburbs ; But when the Bishops divided Parishes , and fixt the Presbyters upon a cure , so many Parishes as they distinguished , so many delegations they made ; And these we all believe to be good both in Law and Conscience . For the Bishop per omnes divinos ordines propriae hierarchiae exercet mysteria ( saith Saint Denis , ) he does not do the offices of his Order by himself only , but by others also , for all the inferiour Orders do so operate , as by them he does his proper offices . * But besides this grand act of the Bishops first , and then of all Christendom in consent , we have fair precedent in Saint Paul ; for he made delegation of a power to the Church of Corinth to excommunicate the incestuous person . It was a plain delegation ; for he commanded them to do it , and gave them his own spirit , that is , his own authority ; and indeed without it , I scarce find how the Delinquent should have been delivered over to Satan in the sence of the Apostolick Church , that is , to be buffetted , for that was a miraculous appendix of power Apostolick . * When Saint Paul sent for Timothy from Ephesus , he sent Tychicus to be his Vicar . [ Do thy diligence to come unto me shortly , for Demas hath forsaken me , &c. And Tychicus have I sent to Ephesus ] Here was an express delegation of the power of jurisdiction to Tychicus , who for the time was Curate to Saint Timothy . Epaphroditus for a while attended on Saint Paul , although he was then Bishop of Philippi , and either Saint Paul or Epaphroditus appointed one in substitution , or the Church was relinquished , for he was most certainly non-resident . * Thus also we find that Saint Ignatius did delegate his power to the Presbyters in his voyage to his Martyrdom . Presbyteri pascite gregem qui inter vos est , donec Deus designaverit eum qui principatum in vobis habiturus est . Ye Presbyters do you feed the Flock till God shall design you a Bishop . Till then . Therefore it was but a delegate power , it could not else have expired in the presence of a Superiour . To this purpose is that of the Laodicean Council . Non oportet Presbyteros ante ingressum Episcopi ingredi , & sedere in tribunalibus , nisi fortè aut aegrotet Episcopus , aut in peregrinis eum esse constiterit . Presbyters must not sit in Consistory without the Bishop , unless the Bishop be sick , or absent . So that it seems what the Bishop does when he is in his Church , that may be committed to others in his absence . And to this purpose Saint Cyprian sent a plain Commission to his Presbyters . Fretus ergo dilectione & religione vostrâ — his literis hortor , & mando ut vos Vice mea fungamini circa gerenda ea quae adiministratio religiosa deposcit . I intreat and command you , that you do my office in the administration of the affairs of the Church ; and another time he put Herculanus and Caldonius , two of his Suffragans , together with Rogatianus and Numidicus , two Priests , in substitution for the excommunicating Foelicissimus and four more , [ Cùm ego vos pro me Vicarios miserim . ] So it was just in the case of Hierocles Bishop of Alexandria and Melitius his Surrogate in Epiphanius . Videbatur autem & Melitius praemenire , &c. ut qui secundum locum habebat post Petrum in Archiepiscopatu , velut adjuvandi ejus gratiâ sub ipso existens , & sub ipso Ecclesiastica curans . He did Church offices under and for Hierocles : And I could never find any Canon or personal declamatory clause in any Council or Primitive Father against a Bishops giving more or less of his jurisdiction by way of delegation . * Hitherto also may be referr'd , that when the goods of all the Church , which then were of a perplex and busie dispensation , were all in the Bishops hand as part of the Episcopal function , yet that part of the Bishops office the Bishop by order of the Council of Chalcedon might delegate to a Steward , provided he were a Clergy-man ; and upon this intimation and decree of Chalcedon the Fathers in the Council of Sevill forbad any Lay-men to be Stewards for the Church . Elegimus ut unusquisque nostrûm secundùm Chalcedonensium Patrum decreta ex proprio Clero Oeconomum sibi constituat . But the reason extends the Canon further . Indecorum est enim laicum Vicarium esse Episcopi , & Saeculares in Ecclesiâ judicare . Vicars of Bishops the Canon allows , only forbids Lay-men to be Vicars . In uno enim eodemque officio non decet dispar professio , quod etiam in divinâ lege prohibetur , &c. In one and the same office the Law of God forbids to joyn men of disparate capacities . Then this would be considered . For the Canon pretends Scripture , Precepts of Fathers , and Tradition of Antiquity for its Sanction . SECT . LI. But they were ever Clergy-men , for there never was any Lay-Elders in any Church-office heard of in the Church . FOR although Antiquity approves of Episcopal delegations of their power to their Vicars , yet these Vicars and Delegates must be Priests at least . Melitius was a Biship , and yet the Chancellor of Hierocles Patriarch of Alexandria ; so were Herculanus and Caldonius to Saint Cyprian . But they never delegated to any Lay-man any part of their Episcopal power precisely . Of their lay-power or the cognisance of secular causes of the people , I find one delegation made to some Gentlemen of the Laity , by Sylvanus Bishop of Troas , when his Clerks grew covetous , he cur'd their itch of Gold , by trusting men of another profession , so to shame them into justice and contempt of money . Si quis autem Episcopus posthâc ▪ Ecclesiasticam rem aut Laicali procuratione administrandam elegerit — non solùm à Christo de rebus Pauperum judicatur reus , sed etiam & Concilio manebit obnoxius . If any Bishop shall hereafter concredit any Church affairs to Lay-Administration , he shall be responsive to Christ , and in danger of the Council . But the Thing was of more ancient constitution . For in that Epistle which goes under the Name of Saint Clement , which is most certainly very ancient whoever was the Author of it , it is decreed , Si qui ex Fratribus negotia habent inter se , apud cognitores saeculi non judicentur , sed apud Presbyteros Ecclesiae quicquid illud est dirimatur . If Christian people have causes of difference and judicial contestation , let it be ended before the Priests . For so Saint Clement expounds [ Presbyteros ] in the same Epistle , reckoning it as a part of the sacred Hierarchy . To this or some parallel constitution Saint Hierom relates , saying that [ Priests from the beginning were appointed Judges of causes . ] He expounds his meaning to be of such Priests as were also Bishops , and they were Judges ab initio , from the beginning ( saith S. Hierom . ) So that the saying of the Father may no way prejudge the Bishops authority , but it excludes the assistance of Lay-men from their Consistories . Presbyter and Episcopus was instead of one word to S. Hierom , but they are alwayes Clergy with him and all men else . * But for the main Question , Saint Ambrose did represent it to Valentinian the Emperour with confidence and humility , In causa fidei , vel Ecclesiastici alicujus ordinis eum judicare debere , qui nec Munere impar sit , nec jure dissimilis . The whole Epistle is admirable to this purpose , Sacerdotes de Sacerdotibus judicare , That Clergy-men must only judge of Clergy-causes ; and this Saint Ambrose there calls judicium Episcopale , The Bishops judicature . Si tractandum est , tractare in Ecclesiâ didici , quod Majores fecerunt mei . Si conferendum de fide , Sacerdotum debet esse ista collatio , sicut factum est sub Constantino Aug. memoriae Principe . So that both matters of Faith and of Ecclesiastical Order are to be handled in the Church , and that by Bishops , and that sub Imperatore , by permission and authority of the Prince . For so it was in Nice under Constantine . Thus far Saint Ambrose . * Saint Athanasius reports that Hosius Bishop of Corduba , President in the Nicene Council , said , it was the abomination of desolation that a Lay-man shall be Judge in Ecclesiasticis judiciis , in Church-causes ; And Leontius calls Church-affairs , Res alienas à Laicis , things of another Court , of a distinct cognisance from the Laity . To these add the Council of Venice , for it is very considerable in this Question . Clerico nisi ex permissu Episcopi sui servorum suorum saecularia judicia adire non liceat . Sed si fortasse Episcopi sui judicium coeperit habere suspectum , aut ipsi de proprietate aliquâ adversus ipsum Episcopum fuerit nata contentio , aliorum Episcoporum audientiam , non saecularium potestatum debebit ambire . Aliter à communione habeatur alienus . Clergy-men without delegation from their Bishop may not hear the causes of their servants , but the Bishop , unless the Bishop be appealed from , then other Bishops must hear the cause , but no Lay-Judges by any means . * These Sanctions of holy Church it pleased the Emperour to ratifie by an Imperial Edict , for so Justinian commanded , that in causes Ecclesiastical secular Judges should have no interest , Sed sanctissimus Episcopus secundum sacras regulas causae finem imponat . The Bishop according to the sacred Canons must be the sole Judge of Church-matters . I end this with the decretal of Saint Gregory one of the four Doctors of the Church . Cavendum est à Fraternitate vestrâ , ne saecularibus viris , atque non sub regulâ nostrâ degentibus res Ecclesiasticae committantur . Heed must be taken that matters Ecclesiastical be not any wayes concredited to secular persons . But of this I have twice spoken already . Sect. 36. and Sect. 41. The thing is so evident , that it is next to impudence to say that in Antiquity Lay-men were parties and assessors in the Consistory of the Church . It was against their faith , it was against their practice ; and those few pigmy objections , out of * Tertullian , S. Ambrose , and S. Austin using the word Seniores , or Elders , sometimes for Priests , as being the Latine for the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , sometimes for a secular Magistrate , or Alderman , ( for I think Saint Austin did so in his third Book against Cresconius ) are but like Sophoms to prove that two and two are not four ; for to pretend such slight , aery imaginations against the constant , known , open , Catholick practice and Doctrine of the Church , and History of all ages , is as if a man should go to fight an Imperial Army with a single bulrush . They are not worth further considering . * But this is ; That in this Question of Lay-Elders the Modern Arrians and Acephali do wholly mistake their own advantages . For whatsoever they object out of Antiquity for the white and watery colours of Lay-Elders is either a very misprision of their allegations , or else clearly abused in the use of them . For now adayes they are only us'd to exclude and drive forth Episcopacy , but then they misalledge Antiquity , for the men with whose Heisers they would fain plough in this Question were themselves Bishops for the most part , and he that was not would fain have been , it is known so of Tertullian , and therefore most certainly if they had spoken of Lay-Judges in Church matters ( which they never dream'd of ) yet meant them not so as to exclude Episcopacy , and if not , then the pretended allegations can do no service in the present Question . I am only to clear this pretence from a place of Scripture totally misunderstood , and then it cannot have any colour from any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , either Divine or Humane , but that Lay-Judges of causes Ecclesiastical as they are unheard of in Antiquity , so they are neither nam'd in Scripture , nor receive from thence any instructions for their deportment in their imaginary office , and therefore may be remanded to the place from whence they came , even the Lake of Gehenna , and so to the place of the nearest denomination . The Objection is from Saint Paul , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. Let the Elders that rule well be accounted worthy of double honour , especially they that labour in the word and doctrine , especially they — therefore all Elders do not so . Here are two sorts of Elders , Preaching Ministers , and Elders not Preachers . Therefore Lay-Elders , and yet all are Governours . 1. But why therefore Lay-Elders ? Why may there not be diverse Church-officers , and yet but one or two of them the Preacher ? [ Christ sent me not to Baptize but to Preach ] saith S. Paul , and yet the commission of [ baptizate ] was as large as [ praedicate ] and why then might not another say , Christ sent me not to Preach , but to Baptize , that is , in S. Paul's sence , not so much to do one , as to do the other , and if he left the ordinary ministration of Baptism , and betook himself to the ordinary office of Preaching , then to be sure , some Minister must be the ordinary Baptizer , and so not the Preacher , for if he might be both ordinarily , why was not Saint Paul both ? For though their power was common to all of the same Order , yet the execution and dispensation of the Ministeries was according to several gifts , and that of Prophecy or Preaching was not dispensed to all in so considerable a measure , but that some of them might be destin'd to the ordinary execution of other Offices , and yet because the gift of Prophecy was the greatest , so also was the Office , and therefore the sence of the words is this , That all Presbyters must be honoured , but especially they that Prophesie , doing that office with an ordinary execution and ministery . So no Lay-Elders yet . Add to this , that it is also plain that all the Clergy did not Preach . Valerius Bishop of Hippo could not well skill in the Latine tongue being a Greek born , and yet a Godly Bishop , and Saint Austin his Presbyter preached for him . The same case might occur in the Apostles times . For then was a concurse of all Nations to the Christian Synaxes , especially in all great Imperial Cities , and Metropolitans , as Rome , Antioch , Jerusalem , Caesarea , and the like . Now all could not speak with tongues , neither could all Prophesie , they were particular gifts given severally to several men appointed to minister in Church-offices . Some prophesied , some interpreted ; and therefore it is an ignorant fancy to think that he must needs be a Laick , whosoever in the ages Apostolical was not a Preacher . 2. None of the Fathers ever expounded this place of Lay-Elders , so that we have a traditive interpretation of it in prejudice to the pretence of our new Office. 3. The word Presbyter is never used in the New-Testament for a Lay-man , if a Church-officer be intended . If it be said , it is used so here , that is the Question , and must not be brought to prove it self . 4. The Presbyter that is here spoken of must be maintained by Ecclesiastical Revenue , for so Saint Paul expounds [ honour ] in the next verse . Presbyters that rule well must be honoured , &c. For it is written , thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the Oxe that treadeth out the corn . But now , the Patrons of this new devise are not so greedy of their Lay-Bishops as to be at charges with them , they will rather let them stand alone on their own rotten legs , and so perish , than fix him upon this place with their hands in their purses . But it had been most fitting for them to have kept him , being he is of their own begetting . 5. This place speaks not of divers persons , but divers parts of the Pastoral office , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . To rule and to labour in the Word . Just as if the expression had been in materiâ politicâ . All good Councellors of State are worthy of double honour , especially them that disregarding their own private , aim at the publick good . This implies not two sorts of Counsellors , but two parts of a Counsellors worth and quality . Judges that do righteousness are worthy of double honour , especially if they right the cause of Orphans and Widows , and yet there are no righteous Judges that refuse to do both . 6. All Ministers of H. Church did not preach , at least not frequently . The seven that were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , set over the Widows were Presbyters , but yet they were forced to leave the constant ministration of the Word to attend that imployment , as I shewed * formerly ; and thus it was in descent too , for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( said Socrates ) A Presbyter does not Preach in Alexandria , the Bishop only did it . And then the allegation is easily understood . For labouring in the word does not signifie , only making Homilies or Exhortations to the people , but whether it be by word , or writing , or travelling from place to place , still , the greater the sedulity of the person is , and difficulty of the labour , the greater increment of honour is to be given him . So that here is no Lay-Elders ; for all the Presbyters S. Paul speaks of , are to be honoured , but especially those who take extraordinary pains in propagating the Gospel . For though all preach , ( suppose that ) yet all do not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , take such great pains in it as is intimated in , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to take bodily labour and travel , usque ad lassitudinem , ( so Budaeus renders it . ) And so it is likely S. Paul here means . Honour the good Presbyters , but especially them that travel for disseminating the Gospel . And the word is often so used in Scripture . S. Paul , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . I have travelled in the word more than they all . Not that S. Paul preached more than all the Apostles , for most certainly they made it their business as well as he . But he travelled further and more than they all for the spreading it . And thus it is said of the good Women that travelled with the Apostles , for supply of the necessities of their diet and houshold offices , [ they laboured much in the Lord. ] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word for them too . So it is said of Persis , of Mary , of Tryphaena , of Tryphosa . And since those Women were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that travelled with the Apostolical men and Evangelists , the men also travelled too , and preached , and therefore were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , travellers in the word . [ We ought therefore to receive such ] ( saith S. John ) intimating a particular reception of them , as being towards us of a peculiar merit . So that the sence of S. Paul may be this also , All the Rulers of the Church , that is , all Bishops , Apostles , and Apostolick men , are to be honoured , but especially them , who , besides the former ruling , are also travellers in the word , or Evangelists . 7. We are furnished with answer enough to infatuate this pretence for Lay-Elders , from the common draught of the new discipline . For they have some that Preach only , and some that Rule and Preach too , and yet neither of them the Lay-Elder , viz. their Pastors and Doctors . 8. Since it is pretended by themselves in the Question of Episcopacy , that Presbyter and Episcopus is all one , and this very thing confidently obtruded in defiance of Episcopacy , why may not Presbyteri in this place signifie [ Bishops ? ] And then either this must be Lay-Bishops as well as Lay-Presbyters , or else this place is to none of their purposes . 9. If both these Offices of Ruling and Preaching may be conjunct in one person , then there is no necessity of distinguishing the Officers by the several imployments , since one man may do both . But if these Offices cannot be conjunct , then no Bishops must preach , nor no Preachers be of the Consistory ( take which government you list ) for if they be , then the Officer being united in one person , the inference of the dististinct Officer , the Lay-Elder , is impertinent . For the meaning of Saint Paul would be nothing but this . All Church-Rulers must be honoured , especially for their preaching . For if the Offices may be united in one person ( as it is evident they may ) then this may be comprehended within the other , and only be a vital part and of peculiar excellency . And indeed so it is , according to the Exposition of Saint Chrysostom , and Primasius , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . They rule well , that spare nothing for the care of the Flock . So that this is the general charge , and preaching is the particular . For the work in general they are to receive double honour , but this of preaching , as then preaching was , had a particular excellency , and a plastick power to form men into Christianity , especially it being then attested with miracles . But the new Office of a Lay-Elder , I confess , I cannot comprehend in any reasonable proportion , his person , his quality , his office , his authority , his subordination , his commission hath made so many divisions and new emergent Questions : and they , none of them all asserted either by Scripture or Antiquity , that if I had a mind to leave the way of God and of the Catholick Church , and run in pursuit of this meteor , I might quickly be amuzed ; but should find nothing certain , but a certainty of being misguided . Therefore if not for conscience sake , yet for prudence , bonum est esse hîc , it is good to remain in the Fold of Christ , under the guard and supravision of those Shepherds Christ hath appointed , and which his Sheep have alwayes followed . For I consider this one thing to be enough to determine the Question . [ My Sheep ( saith our blessed Saviour ) hear my voice , if a stranger , or a thief come , him they will not hear ] Clearly thus . That Christ's Sheep hear not the voice of a stranger , nor will they follow him , and therefore those Shepherds whom the Church hath followed in all Ages , are no Strangers , but Shepherds or Pastors of Christ's appointing , or else Christ hath had no Sheep ; for if he hath , then Bishops are the Shepherds , for them they have ever followed . I end with that golden Rule of Vincentius Lirinensis , Magnoperè curandum est ut id teneamus , quod ubique , quod semper , quod ab omnibus creditum est . Hoc est enim verè , proprieque Catholicum . For certainly the Catholick belief of the Church against Arius , Eunomius , Macedonius , Apollinaris , and ( the worst of Hereticks ) the Cataphrygians was never more truly received of all , and alwayes , and every where than is the government of the Church by Bishops . Annunciare ergo Christianis Catholicis praeter id quod acceperunt , nunquam licuit , nunquam licet , nunquam licebit . It never was , is , nor ever shall be lawful to teach Christian people any new thing than what they have received from a primitive fountain , and is descended in the stream of Catholick uninterrupted succession . * I only add , that the Church hath insinuated it to be the duty of all good Catholick Christians to pray for Bishops , and as the case now stands , for Episcopacy it self , for there was never any Church-Liturgy but said Letanies for their King , and for their Bishop . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . THE REAL PRESENCE AND SPIRITUAL OF CHRIST IN THE Blessed Sacrament Proved against the DOCTRINE OF TRANSUBSTANTIATION . By JER . TAYLOR , D. D. and Chaplain in Ordinary to King CHARLES the First . Oportuit emim certè ut non solùm anima per Spiritum Sanctum in beatam vitam ascenderet , verùm etiam ut rude , atque terrestre hoc corpus cognato sibi gustu , tactu , & cibo ad immortalitatem reduceretur . S. Cyril . in Joh. l. 4. c. 14. Literam sequi , & signa pro rebus accipere servilis infirmitatis est . S. Aug. l. 3. de doct . Christ. LONDON , Printed for R. Royston , Bookseller to the King 's most Excellent MAJESTY , MDCLXXIII . To the Right Reverend D r. WARNER L. B. R. Right Reverend Father , I Am against my Resolution and proper disposition by the over-ruling power of the Divine Providence which wisely disposes all things , accidentally engaged in the Question of Transubstantiation , which hath already so many times passed by the Fire and under the Saw of Contention : that it might seem , nothing could remain which had not been already considered , and sifted to the bran . I had been by chance ingaged in a conference with a person of another perswasion , the man not unlearned nor unwary , but much more confident than I perceived the strength of his argument could warrant ; and yet he had some few of the best which their Schools did furnish out and ordinarily minister to their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , their Emissaries and Ministers of temptation to our people . I then began to consider whether there were not much more in the secret of the Question which might not have perswaded him more fiercely than I could then see cause for , or others at least , from whom upon the strength of education he might have derived his confidence ; and searching into all the secrets of it , I found infinite reason to reprove the boldness of those men , who in the sum of affairs and upon examination will be found to think men damned , if they will not speak non-sence , and disbelieve their eyes and ears , and defie their own reason , and recede from Antiquity , and believe them in whatsoever they dream , or list to obtrude upon the world who hath been too long credulous , or it could never have suffered such a proposition to be believed by so many men against all the demonstration in the world . And certainly it is no small matter of wonder , that those men of the Roman Church should pretend Learning , and yet rest their new Articles of Faith upon propositions against all Learning ; that they should ingage their Scholars to read and believe Aristotle , and yet destroy his Philosophy , and reason by their Article ; that they should think all the world fools but themselves , and yet talk and preach such things which if men had spoken before this new device arose , they would have been thought mad . But if these men had by chance or interest fallen upon the other Opinion which we maintain against them , they would have filled the World with Declamations against the impossible Propositions and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of their Adversaries ; They would have called us Dunces , Idiots , men without souls , without Philosophy , without Sense , without Reason , without Logick , destroyers of the very first notions of mankind . But now that they are ingaged upon the impossible side , they proceed with a prodigious boldness , and seem to wonder that mankind does not receive from them all their first principles , and credit the wildness and new notions of their Cataphysicks ( for Metaphysicks it is not . ) Their Affirmatives and Negatives are neither natural , nor above , nor besides nature , but against it in those first principles which are primely credible . For that I may use S. Austin's words : Nemo enim huic evidentiae contradicet , nisi quem plus defensare delectat quod sentit , quàm quid sentiendum sit invenire . But I see it is possible for a man to believe any thing that he hath a mind to ; and this to me seems to have been permitted to reprove the vanity of mans imagination , and the confidence of opinion , to make us humble , apt to learn , inquisitive , and charitable : for if it be possible for so great a company of men of all sorts and capacities to believe such impossible things , and to wonder that others do not eandem insaniam insanire , it will concern the wisest man alive to be inquisitive in the Articles of his first perswasion , to be diligent in his search , modest in his sentences , to prejudge no man , to reprove the Adversaries with meekness , and a spirit conscious of humane weakness and aptness to be abused . But if we remember that Pere Coton Confessor to Henry the fourth of France was wont to say , that he could do any thing when he had his God in his hand , and his King at his feet , meaning him at confession , and the other in effigie of the Crucifix or in the Host , we may well perceive that they are not such fools but they will consider the advantages that come to their persons and calling , if they can be supposed to make , with pronouncing four words , bread to become God. Vpon the reputation of this great thing the Priests were exempt from secular Jurisdiction and violence ; in the Council in Dalmatia held by the Legats of Pope Innocent the third , A. D. 1199. Can. 5. upon this account Pope Urban the second in a Council which he held at Rome ( 1097 ) against the Emperour Henry the fourth , took from secular Princes the investiture of Benefices , and advanced the Clergy above Kings , because their hands create God their Creator , as Simeon Dunelmensis reports , Lib. 2. Chron. apud Vigner . Hist : Eccles. And the same horrible words are used in the famous Book called Stella Clericorum : Where the Priest is called the creator of his Creator : and thence also infers his priviledge and immunity from being condemned . I will not with any envy and reproach object to them that saying of a Bohemian Priest , against which John Hus wrote a book on purpose , That before the Priest said his first Mass he was but the Son of God , but afterward he was the Father of God , and the Creator of his body : It was a rude kind of blasphemy , but not much more than that which their severest men do say , and were never corrected by their expurgatory indices , and is to be seen in Biel on Canon of the Mass , Lection . 4. and Perè dè Bessè in his Royal Priesthood , l. 1. c. 3. where the Priest upon the stock of his power is advanced above Angels , and the blessed Virgin her self ; which is the biggest expression which they can devise , unless they advance him above God himself . The consequent of this is a double honour , that is , an honour and maintenance in such a manner as may serve the design of ambition , and fill the belly of covetousness . This was enough to make them willing to introduce it , and ( as to them ) the wonder ceases , but it is strange the World could receive it ; For though men might be willing to believe a thing that would make for their profit and reputation , yet that they should entertain it to their prejudice , as the other part must do , that at so great a price , and with so great a diminution of their rights , they should suffer themselves to be cousened of their reason , is the stranger thing of the two . But to this also there were many concurrent causes ; For , 1. This Doctrine entred upon the world in the most barbarous , most ignorant , and most vitious ages of the world ; for we know when it began , by what steps and progressions it prevailed , and by what instruments . It began in the ninth age , and in the tenth was suckled with little arguments and imperfect pleadings , in the eleventh it grew up with illusions and pretence of miracles , and was christened and confirmed in the twelfth , and afterwards lived upon blood , and craft , and violence ; But when it was disputed by Pascasius Ratbert the Deacon in the ninth Century , the first collateral device by which they attempted to set up their fancy was to devise Miracles , which we find done accordingly in the same Pascasius telling a tale of Plegilus seeing upon the Altar a Babe like that which was pictured in the arms of Simeon : In Joannes Diaconus telling a story of something in the dayes of S. Gregory the Great , but never told by any before him , viz. in the year 873. that is 270. years after the death of S. Gregory ; and extracted from the Archives of Rome or Italy out of England , where it seems they could better tell what so long before done at Rome , by Damianus in the year 1060. who tells two more ; by Guitmond writing against Berengarius out of the Vitae P. P. by Lanfranck , who served his end upon the report of strange Apparitions , and from him Alexander of Hales also tells a pretty tale . For they then observed that the common people did not only then believe all reports of miracles , but desired them passionately , and with them would swallow any thing ; But how vainly and falsly the world was then abused , we need no greater witness than the learned Bishop of the Canaries , Melchior Canus . And yet even one of these Authors , though possible apt enough to credit or report any such fine device , for the promotion of his new opinion , yet it is vehemently suspected , that even the tale which was reported out of Pascasius , was a long time after his death thrust in by some Monk in a place to which it relates not , and which without that tale would be more united and more coherent : and yet if this and the other miracles pretended , had not been illusions or directly fabulous , it had made very much against the present Doctrine of the Roman Church , for they represent the body in such manner as by their explications it is not , and it cannot be : they represent it broken , a finger , or a piece of flesh , or bloody , or bleeding , or in the form of an Infant ; and then when it is in the species of bread ; for if as they say Christ's body is present no longer than the form of bread remained , how can it be Christ's body in the miracle , when the species being gone it is no longer a Sacrament ? But the dull inventers of miracles in those ages considered nothing of this ; the Article it self was then gross and rude , and so were the Instruments of probation . I noted this , not only to shew at what door so incredible a perswasion entered , but that the zeal of prevailing in it hath so blinded the refiners of it in this age , that they still urge these miracles for proof , when if they do any thing at all , they reprove the present Doctrine . But besides this device , they inticed the people forward by institution of the solemn Feast of Corpus Christi day , entertain'd their fancies by solemn and pompous Processions , and rewarded their worshippings and attendances on the blessed Sacrament with Indulgences granted by Pope Urban the fourth , inserted in the Clementines and enlarged by John the 22 d. and Martin the fifth , and for their worshipping of the consecrated water they had authentick precedents , even the example of Bonaventure's Lamb , Saint Francis his Mule , S. Anthony of Padoa's Ass ; and if these things were not enough to perswade the People to all this matter , they must needs have weak hearts and hard heads ; and because they met with Opponents at all hands , they proceeded to a more vigorous way of arguing : they armed legions against their adversaries , they confuted at one time in the Town of Beziers 60000 persons , and in one battel disputed so prosperously and acutely , that they kill'd about 10000 men that were Sacramentaries : and this Bellarmine gives us an instance of the marks of his Church ; this way of arguing was used in almost all the Countries of Christendom , till by Crusado's massacres and battels , burnings and the constant Carnificia , and butchery of the Inquisition , which is the main prop of the Papacy , and does more than Tu es Petrus , they prevail'd far and near ; and men durst not oppose the evidence whereby they fought . And now the wonder is out , it is not strange that the Article hath been so readily entertained . But in the Greek Church it could not prevail , as appears not only in Cyril's book of late , dogmatically affirming the Article in our sence , but in the Answer of Cardinal Humbert to Nicetas , who maintained the receiving the holy Sacrament does break the fast , which it could not do if it were not , what it seems , bread and wine , as well as what we believe it to be , the body and blood of Christ. And now in prosecution of their strange improbable success they proceed to perswade all people that they are fools , and do not know the measures of sence , nor understand the words of Scripture , nor can tell when any of the Fathers speak affirmatively or negatively ; and after many attempts made by diverse unprosperously enough ( as the thing did constrain and urge them ) a great Wit , Cardinal Perron , hath undertaken the Question , and hath spun his thread so fine , and twisted it so intricately , and adorned it so sprucely with language and sophisms , that although he cannot resist the evidence of truth , yet he is too subtle for most mens discerning ; and though he hath been contested by potent adversaries , and wise men , in a better cause than his own , yet he will alwayes make his Reader believe that he prevails ; which puts me in mind of what Thucydides told Archidamus the King of Sparta , asking him whether he or Pericles were the better wrastler ? he told him that when he threw Pericles on his back he would with fine words perswade the people that he was not down at all , and so he got the better . So does he ; and is to all considering men a great argument of the danger that Articles of Religion are in , and consequently mens perswasions , and final interest , when they fall into the hands of a witty man and a Sophister , and one who is resolved to prevail by all means . But truth is stronger than wit , and can endure when the other cannot , and I hope it will appear so in this Question , which although it is managed by weak hands , that is , by mine , yet to all impartial persons it must be certain and prevailing upon the stock of its own sincerity and derivation from God. And now ( R. R. ) though this Question hath so often been disputed and some things so often said , yet I was willing to bring it once more upon the stage , hoping to add some clearness to it , by fitting it with a good instrument , and clear conveyance , and representment , by saying something new , and very many which are not generally known , and less generally noted ; and I thought there was a present necessity of it , because the Emissaries of the Church of Rome are busie now to disturb the peace of consciences by troubling the persecuted , and ejecting scruples into the infortunate , who suspect every thing , and being weary of all , are most ready to change from the present . They have got a trick to ask , where is our Church now ! What is become of your Articles of your Religion ? We cannot answer them as they can be answered ; for nothing satisfies them , but being prosperous , and that we cannot pretend to , but upon the accounts of the Cross , and so we may indeed rejoyce and be exceeding glad , because we hope that great is our reward in Heaven . But although they are pleased to use an Argument that like Jonas Gourd or Sparagus is in season only at some times , yet we according to the nature of Truth , inquire after the truth of their Religion upon the account of proper and Theological Objections ; Our Church may be a beloved Church and dear to God though she be persecuted , when theirs is in an evil condition by obtruding upon the Christian world Articles of Religion , against all that which ought to be the instruments of credibility and perswasion , by distorting and abusing the Sacraments , by making error to be an art , and that a man must be witty to make himself capable of being abused , by out-facing all sence and reason , by damning their brethren for not making their understanding servile and sottish , by burning them they can get , and cursing them that they cannot get , by doing so much violence to their own reasons , and forcing themselves to believe that no man ever spake against their new device , by making a prodigious error to be necessary to salvation , as if they were Lords of the Faith of Christendom . But these men are grown to that strange triumphal gaety , upon their joy that the Church of England as they think is destroyed , that they tread upon her grave which themselves have digged for her who lives and pities them ; and they wonder that any man should speak in her behalf , and suppose men do it out of spight and indignation , and call the duty of her sons , who are by persecution made more confident , pious , and zealous in defending those truths for which she suffers on all hands , by the name of anger , and suspect it of malicious , vile purposes . I wonder'd when I saw something of this folly in one that was her son once , but is run away from her sorrow , and disinherited himself because she was not able to give him a temporal portion , and thinks he hath found out reasons enough to depart from the miserable . I will not trouble him , or so much as name him , because if his words are as noted as they are publick , every good man will scorn them , if they be private , I am not willing to publish his shame , but leave him to consideration and repentance ; But for our dear afflicted Mother , she is under the portion of a child , in the state of discipline , her government indeed hindered , but her Worshippings the same , the Articles as true , and those of the Church of Rome as false as ever , of which I hope the following book will be one great instance . But I wish that all tempted persons would consider the illogical deductions by which these men would impose upon their consciences ; If the Church of England be destroyed , then Transubstantiation is true ; which indeed had concluded well if that Article had only pretended false , because the Church of England was prosperous . But put the case the Turk should invade Italy , and set up the Alcoran in S. Peters Church , would it be endured that we should conclude , that Rome was Antichristian , because her temporal glory is defaced ? The Apostle in this case argued otherwise . The Church of the Jews was cut off for their sins ; be not high-minded ô ye Gentiles , but fear lest he also cut thee off ; it was counsel given to the Romans . But though ( blessed be God ) our afflictions are great , yet we can , and do onjoy the same religion as the good Christians in the first three hundred years did theirs ; we can serve God in our houses , and sometimes in Churches ; and our faith which was not built upon temporal foundations , cannot be shaken by the convulsions of war and the changes of State. But they who make our afflictions an objection against us , unless they have a promise that they shall never be afflicted , might do well to remember , that if they ever fall into trouble , they have nothing left to represent or make their condition tolerable ; for by pretending , Religion is destroyed when it is persecuted , they take away all that which can support their own Spirits and sweeten persecution : However , let our Church be where it pleases God it shall , it is certain that Transubstantiation is an evil Doctrine , false and dangerous ; and I know not any Church in Christendom which hath any Article more impossible or apt to render the Communion dangerous , than this in the Church of Rome : and since they command us to believe all , or will accept none , I hope the just reproof of this one will establish the minds of those who can be tempted to communicate with them in others . I have now given an account of the reasons of my present engagement ; and though it may be enquired also why I presented it to You , I fear I shall not give so perfect an account of it ; because those excellent reasons which invited me to this signification of my gratitude , are such which although they ought to be made publick , yet I know not whether your humility will permit it : for you had rather oblige others than be noted by them . Your Predecessor in the See of Rochester , who was almost a Cardinal when he was almost dead , did publickly in those evil times appear against the truth defended in this Book , and yet he was more moderate and better tempered than the rest : but because God hath put the truth into the hearts and mouths of his successors , it is not improper that to you should be offered the opportunities of owning that which is the belief and honour of that See , since the Religion was reformed . But lest it be thought that this is an excuse , rather than a reason of my address to you , I must crave pardon of your humility , and serve the end of glorification of God in it , by acknowledging publickly that you have assisted my condition by the emanations of that grace which is the Crown of Martyrdom : expending the remains of your lessened fortunes , and increasing charity upon your Brethren who are dear to you , not only by the band of the same Ministery , but the fellowship of the same sufferings . But indeed the cause in which these papers are ingaged , is such that it ought to be owned by them that can best defend it ; and since the defence is not with secular arts and aids , but by Spiritual ; the diminution of your outward circumstances cannot render you a person unfit to patronize this Book , because where I fail , your wisdom , learning , and experience can supply : and therefore if you will pardon my drawing your name from the privacy of your retirement into a publick view , you will singularly oblige and increase those favours by which you have already endeared the thankfulness and service of , R. R. Your most affectionate and endeared Servant in the Lord Jesus , JER . TAYLOR . A DISCOURSE OF THE REAL PRESENCE OF CHRIST In the Holy Sacrament . SECT . I. State of the Question . 1. THE Tree of Knowledge became the Tree of Death to us , and the Tree of Life is now become an Apple of Contention . The holy Symbols of the Eucharist were intended to be a contesseration , and an union of Christian societies to God , and with one another ; and the evil taking it , disunites us from God ; and the evil understanding it , divides us from each other . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And yet if men would but do reason , there were in all Religion no article which might more easily excuse us from medling with questions about it , than this of the holy Sacrament . For as the man in Phaedrus , that being asked what he carried hidden under his Cloak , answered , it was hidden under his Cloak ; meaning that he would not have hidden it , but that he intended it should be secret : so we may say in this mystery to them that curiously ask , what , or how it is ? Mysterium est ; it is a Sacrament , and a Mystery : by sensible instruments it consigns spiritual graces ; by the creatures it brings us to God ; by the body it ministers to the Spirit . And that things of this nature are undiscernable secrets , we may learn by the experience of those men who have in cases not unlike vainly laboured to tell us , how the material fire of Hell should torment an immaterial soul , and how baptismal water should cleanse the spirit , and how a Sacrament should nourish a body , and make it sure of the resurrection . 2. It was happy with Christendom , when she in this article retained the same simplicity which she always was bound to do in her manners and entercourse ; that is , to believe the thing heartily , and not to enquire curiously ; and there was peace in this Article for almost a thousand years together , and yet that Transubstantiation was not determined , I hope to make very evident ; In synaxi transubstantiationem serò definivit Ecclesia ; diù satis erat credere , sive sub pane consecrato , sive quocunque modo adesse verum corpus Christi , so said the great Erasmus . It was late before the Church defined Transubstantiation ; for a long time together it did suffice to believe , that the true body of Christ was present , whether under the consecrated bread or any other way : so the thing was believed , the manner was not stood upon . And it is a famous saying of Durandus , Verbum audimus , motum sentimus , modum nescimus , praesentiam credimus . We hear the Word , we perceive the Motion , we know not the Manner , but we believe the presence : and Ferus , of whom Sixtus Senensis affirms that he was vir nobiliter doctus , pius & eruditus , hath these words : Cum certum sit ibi esse corpus Christi , quid opus est disputare , num panis substantia maneat , vel non ? When it is certain that Christs body is there , what need we dispute whether the substance of bread remain or no ? and therefore Cutbert Tonstal Bishop of Duresme would have every one left to his conjecture concerning the manner . De modo quo id fieret . satius erat curiosum quemque relinquere suae conjecturae , sicut liberum fuit ante Concilium Lateranum . Before the Lateran Council it was free for every one to opine as they please , and it were better it were so now . But S. Cyril would not allow so much liberty ; not that he would have the manner determined , but not so much as thought upon . Firmam fidem mysteriis adhibentes , nunquam in tam sublimibus rebus , illud [ Quomodo . ] aut cogitemus aut proferamus . For if we go about to think it or understand it , we lose our labour . Quomodo enim id fiat , ne in mente intelligere , nec linguâ dicere possumus , sed silentio & firmâ fide id suscipimus : We can perceive the thing by faith , but cannot express it in words , nor understand it with our mind , said S. Bernard . Oportet igitur ( it is at last after the steps of the former progress come to be a duty ) nos in sumptionibus Divinorum mysteriorum , indubitatam retinere fidem , & non quaerere quo pacto . The summe is this ; The manner was defined but very lately ; there is no need at all to dispute it ; no advantages by it , and therefore it were better it were left at liberty , to every man to think as he please ; for so it was in the Church for above a thousand years together ; and yet it were better men would not at all trouble themselves concerning it ; for it 's a thing impossible to be understood ; and therefore it is not fit to be inquired after . This was their sence : and I suppose we do in no sence prevaricate their so pious and prudent counsel by saying , the presence of Christ is reall and spirituall ; because this account does still leave the Article in his deepest mystery : not only because spiritual formalities and perfections are undiscernable and incommensurable by natural proportions and the measures of our usual notices of things , but also because the word spiritual is so general a term , and operations so various and many , by which the Spirit of God brings his purposes to pass , and does his work upon the soul , that we are in this specifick term very far from limiting the Article to a minute and special manner . Our word of spiritual presence is particular in nothing , but that it excludes the corporal and natural manner ; we say it is not this , but it is to be understood figuratively , that is , not naturally , but to the purposes and in the manner of the Spirit and spiritual things , which how they operate or are effected , we know no more than we know how a Cherubin sings or thinks , or by what private conveyances a lost notion returns suddenly into our memory and stands placed in the eye of reason . Christ is present spiritually , that is , by effect and blessing ; which in true speaking is rather the consequent of his presence than the formality . For though we are taught and feel that , yet this we profess we cannot understand ; and therefore curiously inquire not . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Justin Martyr , it is a manifest argument of infidelity to inquire concerning the things of God , How , or after what manner ? And in this it was that many of the Fathers of the Church laid their hands upon their mouths , and revered the Mystery , but like the remains of the sacrifice , they burnt it ; that is , as themselves expound the allegory , it was to be adored by Faith , and not to be discussed with reason ; knowing that , as Solomon said , Scrutator Majestatis opprimetur à gloriâ . He that pries too far into the Majesty , shall be confounded with the Glory . 3. So far it was very well ; and if error or interest had not unravelled the secret , and looked too far into the Sanctuary , where they could see nothing but a cloud of fire , Majesty and Secrecy indiscriminately mixt together , we had kneeled before the same Altars , and adored the same mystery , and communicated in the same rites to this day . For in the thing it self there is no difference amongst wise and sober persons , nor ever was till the manner became an Article , and declared or supposed to be of the substance of the thing . But now the state of the question is this . 4. The doctrine of the Church of England , and generally of the Protestants in this Article is : That after the Minister of the holy mysteries hath ritely prayed , and blessed or consecrated the bread and the wine , the symbols become changed into the body and blood of Christ , after a Sacramental , that is , in a spiritual real manner : so that all that worthily communicate , do by faith recive Christ really , effectually , to all the purposes of his passion : The wicked receive not Christ , but the bare symbols only ; but yet to their hurt , * because the offer of Christ is rejected , and they pollute the blood of the Covenant , by using it as an unholy thing . The result of which doctrine is this : It is bread , and it is Christs body . It is bread in substance , Christ in the Sacrament ; and Christ is as really given to all that are truly disposed , as the symbols are ; each as they can ; Christ as Christ can be given ; the bread and wine as they can ; and to the same real purposes to which they are designed ; and Christ does as really nourish and sanctifie the soul , as the elements do the body . It is here as in the other Sacrament ; for as there natural water becomes the laver of regeneration ; so here bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ ; but there and here too , the first substance is changed by grace , but remains the same in nature . 5. That this is the doctrine of the Church of England , is apparent in the Church Catechism ; affirming the inward part or thing signified by the consecrated bread and wine to be [ The body and blood of Christ , which are verily and indeed taken and received of the faithful in the Lords Supper ; ] and the benefit of it to be , the strengthening and refreshing of our souls by the body and blood of Christ , as our bodies are by the bread and wine : and the same is repeated severally in the exhortation , and in the prayer of the address before the consecration , in the Canon of our Communion ; verily and indeed is reipsâ , that 's really enough ; that 's our sence of the Real Presence ; and Calvin affirms as much , saying , In the Supper Christ Jesus , viz. his body and blood is truly given under the signs of bread and wine . And Gregory de Valentiâ gives this account of the doctrine of the Protestants , that although Christ be corporally in Heaven , yet is he received of the faithful communicants in this Sacrament truly , both spiritually by the mouth of the mind , through a most near conjunction of Christ with the soul of the receiver by faith , and also sacramentally with the bodily mouth , &c. And which is the greatest testimony of all , we who best know our own minds , declare it to be so . 6. Now that the spiritual is also a real presence , and that they are hugely consistent , is easily credible to them that believe that the gifts of the holy Ghost are real graces , and a Spirit is a proper substance : and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are amongst the Hellenists 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , intelligible things , or things discerned by the mind of a man are more truly and really such , and of a more excellent substance and reality , than things only sensible . And therefore when things spiritual are signified by materials , the thing under the figure is called true , and the material part is opposed to it , as less true or real . The examples of this are not infrequent in Scripture [ The Tabernacle ] into which the high Priest entred , was a type or a figure of Heaven . Heaven it self is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the true Tabernacle , and yet the other was the material part . And when they are joyned together , that is , when a thing is expressed by a figure [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , True ] is spoken of such things though they are spoken figuratively : Christ the true light that lighteneth every man that cometh into the world ; He is also the true vine , and verè cibus truly or really meat , and Panis verus è coelo , the true bread from Heaven ; and spiritual goods are called the true riches : and in the same Analogy , the spiritual presence of Christ is the most true , real , and effective ; the other can be but the image and shadow of it , something in order to this : for if it were in the Sacrament naturally or corporeally , it could be but in order to this spiritual , celestial and effective presence , as appears beyond exception in this ; that the faithful and pious communicants receive the ultimate end of his presence , that is , spiritual blessings ; The wicked ( who by the affirmation of the Roman Doctors do receive Christs body and blood in the natural and corporal manner ) fall short of that for which this is given , that is , of the blessings and benefits . 7. So that ( as S. Paul said ) He is not a Jew who is one outwardly , neither is that circumcision which is outwardly in the flesh . But he is a Jew which is one inwardly , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that 's the real Jew , and the true circumcision that which is of the heart , and in the spirit ; and in this sence it is that Nathaniel is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , really and truly an Israelite : so we may say of the blessed Sacrament , Christ is more truly and really present in spiritual presence , than in corporal , in the Heavenly effect , than in the natural being ; this if it were at all , can be but the less perfect , and therefore we are to the most real purposes , and in the proper sence of Scripture the more real defenders of the real presence of Christ in the Sacrament ; for the spiritual sence is the most real , and most true , and most agreeable to the Analogy and style of Scripture , and right reason , and common manner of speaking . For every degree of excellency is a degree of being , of reality , and truth : and therefore spiritual things being more excellent than corporal and natural , have the advantage both in truth and reality . And this is fully the sence of the Christians who use the Aegyptian Liturgy . Sanctifica nos Domine noster , sicut sanctificasti has oblationes propositas , sed fecisti illas non fictas ( that 's for real , ) & quicquid apparet est mysterium tuum spiritale , ( that 's for spiritual . ) To all which I add the testimony of Bellarmine concerning S. Austin , Apud Augustinum saepissimè , illud solum dici tale , & verè tale , quod habet effectum suum conjunctum : res enim ex fructu aestimatur : itaque illos dicit verè comedere corpus Christi , qui utiliter comedunt : They only truly eat Christs body that eat it with effect ; for then a thing is really or truly such , when it is not to no purpose ; when it hath his effect . And in his eleventh Book against Faustus the Manichee , Chap. 7. he shews , that in Scripture the words are often so taken , as to signifie not the substance , but the quality and effect of a thing . So when it is said , Flesh and blood shall not inherit the Kingdom of God , that is , corruption shall not inherit : and in the resurrection our bodies are said to be spiritual , that is , not in substance , but in effect and operation : and in the same manner he often speaks concerning the blessed Sacrament ; and Clemens Romanus affirms expresly , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . This is to drink the blood of Jesus , to partake of the Lords immortality . 8. This may suffice for the word [ real ] which the English Papists much use , but as appears with less reason than the Sons of the Church of England : and when the real presence is denied , the word real is taken for Natural ; and does not signifie transcendenter , or in his just and most proper signification . But the word substantialiter is also used by Protestants in this question : which I suppose may be the same with that which is in the Article of Trent ; Sacramentaliter praesens Salvator substantiâ suâ nobis adest , In substance , but after a sacramental manner : which words if they might be understood in the sence in which the Protestants use them , that is , really , truly , without fiction or the help of fancy , but in rei veritate , so , as Philo calls spiritual things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , most necessary , useful and material substances , it might become an instrument of an united confession ; And this is the manner of speaking which S. Bernard used in his Sermon of S. Martin , where he affirms , In Sacramento exhiberi nobis veram carnis substantiam , sed spiritualiter , non carnaliter ; In the Sacrament is given us the true substance of Christs body or flesh , but not carnally , but spiritually ; that is , not to our mouths , but to our hearts , not to be chewed by teeth , but to be eaten by faith . But they mean it otherwise , as I shall demonstrate by and by . In the mean time it is remarkable that Bellarmine when he is stating this question , seems to say the same thing , for which he quotes the words of S. Bernard now mentioned ; for he says that Christs body is there truly , substantially , really ; but not corporally ; Nay , you may say spiritually : and now a man would think we had him sure ; but his nature is labile and slippery , you are never the nearer for this ; for first he says , it is not safe to use the word spiritually , nor yet safe to say , he is not there corporally , lest it be understood not of the manner of his presence , but to the exclusion of the nature . For he intends not ( for all these fine words ) that Christs body is present spiritually , as the word is used in Scripture , and in all common notices of usual speaking ; but spiritually , with him signifies after the manner of spirits , which , besides that it is a cousening the world in the manner of expression , is also a direct folly and contradiction , that a body should be substantially present , that is , with the nature of a body , naturally , and yet be not as a body but as a spirit , with that manner of being with which a spirit is distinguished from a body . In vain therefore it is that he denies the carnal manner , and admits a spiritual , and ever after requires that we believe a carnal presence , even in the very manner . But this caution and exactness in the use of the word [ spiritual ] is therefore carefully to be observed , lest the contention of both parties should seem trifling and to be for nothing . We say that Christs body is in the Sacrament really , but spiritually . They say it is there really , but spiritually . For so Bellarmine is bold to say , that the word may be allowed in this question . Where now is the difference ? Here , by [ spiritually ] they mean present after the manner of a Spirit ; by [ spiritually ] we mean , present to our Spirits only ; that is , so as Christ is not present to any other sense but that of Faith or spiritual susception ; but their way makes his body to be present no way , but that which is impossibe and implies a contradiction ; a body not after the manner of a body , a body like a spirit ; a body without a body ; and a sacrifice of body and blood , without blood : corpus incorporeum , cruor incruentus . They say that Christs body is truly present there as it was upon the Cross , but not after the manner of all or any body , but after that manner of being as an Angel is in a place . That 's there spiritually . But we by the real spiritual presence of Christ do understand Christ to be present , as the Spirit of God is present in the hearts of the Faithful , by blessing and grace ; and this is all which we mean besides the tropical and figurative presence . 9. That which seems of hardest explication is the word corporaliter , which I find that Melanchthon used ; saying , corporaliter quoque communicatione carnis Christi Christum in nobis habitare ; which manner of speaking I have heard he avoided after he had conversed with Oecolampadius , who was able then to teach him , and most men in that question ; but the expression may become warrantable , and consonant to our doctrine ; and means no more than really and without fiction , or beyond a figure : like that of S. Paul , [ in Christ ] dwelleth the fulness of the Godhead bodily : upon which S. Austin says , In ipso inhabitat plenitudo Divinitatis corporaliter , quia in Templo habitaverat umbraliter , and in S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are opposed , which are a shadow of things to come , but the body is of Christ , that is , the substance , the reality , the correlative of the type and figure , the thing signified : and among the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies solidare , to make firm , real and consistent , but among the Fathers , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or body signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , every thing that is produced from nothing , saith Phavorinus ; that is , every thing that is real extra non ens , that hath a proper being ; so that we receiving Christ in the Sacrament corporally or bodily , understand that we do it really , by the ministery of our bodies receiving him unto our souls . And thus we affirm Christs body to be present in the Sacrament : not only in type or figure , but in blessing and real effect ; that is , more than in the types of the Law ; the shadows were of the Law , but the body is of Christ. And besides this ; the word corporally may be very well used when by it is only understood a corporal sign . So S. Cyril of Jerusalem in his third Catechism , says that the holy Ghost did descend corporally in the likeness of a Dove , that is , in a type or representment of a Doves body , ( for so he and many of the Ancients did suppose ) and so he * again uses the word ; Jesus Christ as a man did inspire the holy Spirit corporally into his Apostles ; where by [ corporally ] it is plain he means [ by a corporal or material sign or symbol , viz. by breathing upon them and saying , receive ye the holy Ghost . ] In either of these sences if the word be taken , it may indifferently be used in this question . 10. I have been the more careful to explain the question and the use of these words according to our meaning in the question for these two reasons . 1. Because until we are agreed upon the signification of the words , they are equivocal ; and by being used on both sides to several purposes , sometime are pretended as instruments of union , but indeed effect it not ; but sometimes displease both parties , while each supects the word in a wrong sence . And this hath with very ill effect been observed in the conferences for composing the difference in this question ; particularly that of Poissy , where it was propounded in these words , Credimus in usu coenae Dominicae verè , reipsâ , substantialiter , sen in substantiâ verum corpus , & sanguinem Christi spirituali & ineffabili modo esse , exhiberi , sumi à fidelibus communicantibus . Beza and Gallasius for the Reformed , and Espencaeus and Monlucius for the Romanists undertook to propound it to their parties . But both rejected it : for though the words were not disliked , yet they suspected each others sence . But now that I have declared what is meant by us in these words , they are made useful in the explicating the question . 2. But because the words do perfectly declare our sence , and are owned publickly in our doctrine and manner of speaking , it will be in vain to object against us those sayings of the Fathers which use the same expressions : for if by vertue of those words , really , substantially , corporally , verily , and indeed , and Christs body and blood , the Fathers shall be supposed to speak for transubstantiation , they may as well suppose it to be our doctrine too , for we use the same words ; and therefore those authorities must signifie nothing against us , unless these words can be proved in them to signifie more than our sence of them does import : and by this truth many , very many of their pretences are evacuated . 11. One thing more I am to note in order to the same purposes ; that in the explication of this question it is much insisted upon , that it be inquired whether , when we say we believe Christs body to be really in the Sacrament , we mean , that body , that flesh , that was born of the Virgin Mary , that was crucified , dead and buried ? I answer , I know none else that he had , or hath : there is but one body of Christ natural and glorified ; but he that says that body is glorified which was crucified , says it is the same body , but not after the same manner * : and so it is in the Sacrament ; we eat and drink the body and blood of Christ that was broken and powred forth ; for there is no other body , no other blood of Christ ; but though it is the same which we eat and drink , yet it is in another manner : And therefore when any of the Protestant Divines , or any of the Fathers deny that body which was born of the Virgin Mary , that which was crucified , to be eaten in the Sacrament , as Bertram , as S. Hierome , as * Clemens Alexandrinus expresly affirm ; the meaning is easie , they intend that it is not eaten in a natural sence , and then calling it corpus spirituale , the word spiritual is not a substantial predication , but is an affirmation of the manner , though in disputation it be made the predicate of a proposition , and the opposite member of a distinction . That body which was crucified is not that body that is eaten in the Sacrament , if the intention of the proposition be to speak of the eating it in the same manner of being ; but that body which was crucified , the same body we do eat , if the intention be to speak of the same thing in several manners of being and operating : and this I noted , that we may not be prejudiced by words , when the notion is certain and easie : And thus far is the sence of our doctrine in this Article . 12. On the other side , the Church of Rome uses the same words we do , but wholly to other purposes , affirming , 1. That after the words of consecration , on the Altar there is no bread ; in the Chalice there is no wine . 2. That the accidents , that is , the colour , the shape , the bigness , the weight , the smell , the nourishing qualities of bread and wine do remain ; but neither in the bread , nor in the body of Christ , but by themselves , that is , so that there is whiteness , and nothing white ; sweetness and nothing sweet , &c. 3. That in the place of the substance of bread and wine , there is brought the natural body of Christ , and his blood that was shed upon the Cross. 4. That the flesh of Christ is eaten by every Communicant , good and bad , worthy and unworthy . 5. That this is conveniently , properly , and most aptly called Transubstantiation , that is , a conversion of the whole substance of bread into the substance of Christs natural body , of the whole substance of the wine into his blood . In the process of which doctrine they oppose spiritualiter to sacramentaliter and realiter , supposing the spiritual manducation , though done in the Sacrament by a worthy receiver , not to be sacramental and real . 13. So that now the question is not , Whether the symbols be changed into Christs body and blood , or no ? For it is granted on all sides : but whether this conversion be Sacramental and figurative ? or whether it be natural and bodily ? Nor is it , whether Christ be really taken , but whether he be taken in a spiritual , or in a natural manner ? We say the conversion is figurative , mysterious , and Sacramental ; they say it is proper , natural , and corporal : we affirm that Christ is really taken by Faith , by the Spirit , to all real effects of his passion ; they say , he is taken by the mouth , and that the spiritual and the virtual taking him in virtue or effect is not sufficient , though done also in the Sacrament . Hic Rhodus , his saltus . This thing I will try by Scripture , by Reason , by Sense , and by Tradition . SECT . II. Transubstantiation not warrantable by Scripture . 1. THE Scriptures pretended for it , are S. John 6. and the words of institution ; recorded by three Evangelists , and S. Paul. Concerning which , I shall first lay this prejudice ; that by the confession of the Romanists themselves , men learned and famous in their generations , nor these places , nor any else in Scripture are sufficient to prove Transubstantiation . Cardinal Cajetan affirms that there is in Scripture nothing of force or necessity to infer Transubstantiation out of the words of institution , and that the words , seclusâ Ecclesiae authoritate , setting aside the decree of the Church , are not sufficient . This is reported by Suarez , but he says that the words of Cajetan by the command of Pius V. were left out of the Roman Edition , and he adds that Cajetanus solus ex catholicis hoc docuit , He only of their side taught it ; which is carelesly affirmed by the Jesuite ; for another Cardinal , Bishop of Rochester , John Fisher affirmed the same thing ; for speaking of the words of institution recorded by S. Matthew , he says ; Neque ullum hîc verbum positum est quo probetur in nostrâ missâ veram fieri carnis & sanguinis Christi praesentiam . There are no words set down here , [ viz. in the words of institution ] by which it may be proved , that in our Mass there is a true presence of the flesh and blood of Christ. To this I add a third Cardinal , Bishop of Cambray de Aliaco , who though he likes the opinion , because it was then more common , that the substance of bread does not remain after consecration : yet ea non sequitur evidenter ex Scripturis , it does not follow evidently from Scripture . 2. To these three Cardinals , I add the concurrent testimony of two famous Schoolmen ; Johannes Duns Scotus , who for his rare wit and learning became a Father of a Scholastical faction in the Schools of Rome ; affirms , Non extare locum ullum Scripturae , tam expressum , ut sine Ecclesiae declaratione evidenter cogat Transubstantiationem admittere . There is no place of Scripture so express , that without the declaration of the Church it can evidently compel us to admit Transubstantiation . And Bellarmine himself says , that it is not altogether improbable , since it is affirmed à doctissimis & acutissimis hominibus , by most learned and most acute men . The Bishop of Eureux , who was afterwards Cardinal Richelieu , not being well pleased with Scotus in this question , said that Scotus had only considered the testimonies of the Fathers cited by Gratian , Peter Lombard , Aquinas and the Schoolmen before him ; Suppose that . But these testimonies are not few , and the witty man was as able to understand their opinion by their words as any man since ; and therefore we have the in-come of so many Fathers as are cited by the Canon-Law , the Master of the sentences and his Scholars , to be partly a warrant , and none of them to contradict the opinion of Scotus ; who neither believed it to be taught evidently in Scripture , nor by the Fathers . 3. The other Schoolman I am to reckon in this account is Gabriel Biel. Quomodo ibi sit corpus Christi , an per conversionem alicujus in ipsum , an sine conversione incipiat esse corpus Christi cum pane , manentibus substantiâ & accidentibus panis , non invenitur expressum in Canone Bibliae . How the body of Christ is there , whether by conversion of any thing into it , or without conversion it begin to be the body of Christ with the bread , the accidents and the substance of the bread still remaining , is not found expressed in the Canon of the Bible . Hitherto I could add the concurrent Testimony of Ocham in 4. q. 6. of Johonnes de Bassolis , who is called Doctor Ordinatissimus , but that so much to the same purpose is needless , and the thing is confessed to be the opinion of many writers of their own party ; as appears in Salmeron . And Melchior Canus Bishop of the Canaries , amongst the things not expressed in Scripture reckons the conversion of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. 4. If it be said , that the Churches determination is a better interpreter of Scripture than they ; it is granted : But did the Church ever interpret Scripture to signifie Transubstantiation , and say that by the force of the words of Scripture it was to be believed ? If she did not , then to say she is a betrer Interpreter , is to no purpose ; for though the Church be a better Interpreter than they , yet they did not contradict each other ; and their sence might be the sence of the Church . But if the Church before their time had expounded it against their sence , and they not submit to it , how do you reckon them Catholicks , and not me ? For it is certain if the Church expounding Scripture did declare it to signifie Transubstantiation , they did not submit themselves and their writings to the Church . But if the Church had not in their times done it , and hath done it since , that is another consideration , and we are left to remember that till Cajetans time , that is , till Luthers time , the Church had not declared that Scripture did prove Transubstantiation ; and since that time we know who hath ; but not the Church Catholick . 5. And indeed it had been strange , if the Cardinals of Cambray , de Sanctovio and of Rochester , that Scotus and Biel should never have heard that the Church had declared that the words of Scripture did infer Transubstantiation . And it is observable that all these lived long after the Article it self was said to be decreed in the Lateran ; where if the Article it self was declared , yet it was not declared as from Scripture ; or if it was , they did not believe it . But it is an usual device amongst their writers to stifle their reason , or to secure themselves with a submitting to the authority of their Church , even against their argument : and if any one speaks a bold truth , he cannot escape the Inquisition , unless he complement the Church , and with a civility tell her that she knows better : which in plain English is no otherwise than the fellow that did penance for saying the Priest lay with his wife : he was forced to say , Tongue thou liest , though he was sure his eyes did not lie . And this is that which Scotus said : Transubstantiation without the determination of the Church is not evidently inferred from Scripture . This I say is a complement , and was only to secure the Frier from the Inquisitors : or else was a direct stifling of his reason : for it contains in it a great error , or a worse danger : For if the Article be not contained so in Scripture as that we are bound to believe it by his being there , then the Church must make a new Article , or it must remain as it was : that is , obscure : and we uncompell'd and still at liberty . For she cannot declare unless it be so : she declares what is , or what is not : If what is not , she declares a lie : if what is , then it is in Scripture before , and then we are compelled , that is , we ought to have believed it . If it be said it was there , but in it self obscurely : I answer , then so it is still : for if it was obscurely there , and not only quoad nos , or by defect on our part , she cannot say it is plain there : neither can she alter it , for if she sees it plain , then it was plain : if it be obscure , then she sees it obscurely : for she sees it as it is , or else she sees it not at all : and therefore must declare it to be so : that is , probably , obscurely , peradventure , but not evidently , compellingly , necessarily . 6. So that if according to the Casuists , especially of the Jesuits order , it be lawful to follow the opinion of any one probable Doctor ; here we have five good men and true , besides Ocham , Bassolis , and Melchior Canus , to acquit us from our search after this question in Scripture . But because this , although it satisfies me , will not satisfie them that follow the decree of Trent ; we will try whether this doctrine be to be found in Scripture . Pede pes . SECT . III. Of the sixth Chapter of Saint Johns Gospel . 1. IN this Chapter it is earnestly pretended that our blessed Saviour taught the mystery of Transubstantiation ; but with some different opinions ; for in this question they are divided all the way : some reckon the whole Sermon as the proof of it , from verse 33 to 58 ; though how to make them friends with Bellarmine I understand not ; who says , Constat , it is known that the Eucharist is not handled in the whole Chapter : for Christ there discourses of Natural bread , the miracle of the loaves , of Faith , and of the Incarnation is a great part of the Chapter ; Solùm igitur quaestio est de illis verbis , [ Panis quem ego dabo , caro mea est pro mundi vitâ ] & de sequentibus , fere ad finem capitis . The question only is concerning those words verse 51. The bread which I will give is my flesh , which I will give for the life of the world ] and so forward almost until the end of the Chapter . The reason which is pretended for it , is , because Christ speaks in the future , and therefore probably relates to the institution which was to be next year : but this is a trifle ; for the same thing in effect is before spoken in the future tense , and by way of promise ; * Labour not for the meat that perisheth , but for that meat that endureth to everlasting life , which the Son of man shall give unto you . The same also is affirmed by Christ under the expression of water , S. John 4.14 . He that drinketh the water which I shall give him shall never thirst ; but the water which I shall give him shall be a fountain of water springing up to life eternal ; The places are exactly parallel ; and yet as this is not meant of Baptism , so neither is the other of the Eucharist ; but both of them of spiritual sumption of Christ. And both of them being promises to them that shall come to Christ and be united to him , it were strange if they were not expressed in the future ; for although they always did signifie in present , and in sensu currenti , yet because they are of never failing truth , to express them in the future is most proper , that the expectation of them may appertain to all , Ad natos natorum & qui nascentur ab illis . But then , because Christ said , [ The bread which I will give is my flesh , which I will give for the life of the World ] to suppose this must be meant of a corporal manducation of his flesh in the holy Sacrament , is as frivolous as if it were said that nothing that is spoken in the future can be figurative ; and if so , then let it be considered what is meant by these ; [ To him that overcomes I will give to eat of the tree of life : ] and [ To him that overcomes I will give to eat of the hidden Manna : ] These promises are future , but certainly figurative ; and therefore why it may not be so here , and be understood of eating Christ spiritually or by faith , I am certain there is no cause sufficient in this excuse . For if eating Christ by faith be a thing of all times , then it is also of the future ; and no difference of time is so apt to express an Eternal truth as is the future , which is alwayes in flux and potential signification . But the secret of the thing was this , the Arguments against the sacramental sence of these words drawn from the following verses between this and the 51. verse could not so well be answered , and therefore Bellarmine found out the trick of confessing all till you come thither , as appears in his Answer to the ninth Argument : that of some Catholicks . However , as to the Article I am to say these things . 1. That very many of the most learned Romanists affirm , that in this Chapter Christ does not speak of sacramental or oral manducation , or of the Sacrament at all . * Johannes de Ragusio , Biel (a) , Cusanus (b) , Ruard , Tapper (c) , Cajetan (d) , Hessels (e) , Jansenius (f) , Waldensis (g) , Armachanus (h) , save only that Bellarmine going to excuse it , sayes in effect that they did not do it very honestly ; for he affirms that they did it , that they might confute the Hussites and the Lutherans about the Communion under both kinds : and if it be so , and not be so , as it may serve a turn , It is so for Transubstantiation , and it is not so for the half Communion , we have but little reason to rely upon their judgment or candor in any exposition of Scripture . But it is no new thing for some sort of men to do so . The Heretick Severus in Anastasius Sinaita , maintained it lawful , and even necessary [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ] according to occasions and emergent heresies to alter and change the Doctrines of Christ : and the Cardinal of Cusa (i) affirmed it lawful , diversly to expound the Scriptures according to the times . So that we know what precedents and authorities they can urge for so doing : and I doubt not but it is practised too often , since it was offered to be justified by Dureus against Whitaker . 2. These great Clerks had reason to expound it , not to be meant of sacramental manducation , to avoid the unanswerable Argument against their half Communion : for so Christ said , Vnless ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood , ye have no life in you . It is therefore as necessary to drink the Chalice as to eat the Bread , and we perish if we omit either . And their new whimsie of Concomitancy will not serve the turn , because there it is sanguis effusus , that is , sacramentally powred forth ; blood that is powred forth , not that is in the body . 2. If it were in the body , yet a man by no concomitancy can be said to drink what he only eats . 3. If in the Sacramental body , Christ gave the blood by concomitancy , then he gave the blood twice ; which to what purpose it might be done is not yet revealed . 4. If the blood be by concomitancy in the body , then so is the body with the blood ; and then it will be sufficient to drink the Chalice without the Host , as to eat the Host without the Chalice ; and then we must drink his Flesh as well as eat his Blood ; which if we could suppose to be possible , yet the precept of eating his Flesh , and drinking his Blood , were not observed by drinking that which is to be eaten , and eating that which is to be drunk . But certainly they are fine Propositions which cannot be true , unless we can eat our drink , and drink our meat , unless bread be wine and wine be bread , or to speak in their stile , unless the body be the blood , and the blood the body ; that is , unless each of the two Symboles be the other as much as it self ; as much that which it is not , as that which it is . And this thing their own Pope Innocentius (a) the third , and from him Vasquez (b) noted , and Salmeron (c) , who affirmed that Christ commanded the manner as well as the thing , and that without eating and drinking the precept of Christ is not obeyed . 3. But whatever can come of this , yet upon the account of these words so expounded by some of the Fathers concerning oral manducation and potation , they believed themselves bound by the same necessity to give the Eucharist to Infants , as to give them Baptism ; and did for above seven Ages together practise it ; And let these men that will have these words spoken of the Eucharist , answer the Argument ; Bellarmine is troubled with it , and instead of answering , increases the difficulty , and concludes firmly against himself , saying , If the words be understood of eating Christ's body spiritually , or by faith , it will be more impossible to Infants , for it is easier to give them intinctum panem bread dipt in the Chalice , than to make them believe . To this I reply , that therefore it is spoken to Infants in neither sence , neither is any law at all given to them ; and no laws can be understood as obligatory to them in that capacity . But then although I have answered the Argument , because I believe it not to be meant in the Sacramental sence to any ; nor in the Spiritual sence to them ; yet Bellarmine hath not answered the pressure that lies upon his cause . For since it is certain ( and he confesses it ) that it is easier , that is , it is possible to give Infants the Sacrament ; it follows that if here the Sacrament be meant , Infants are obliged ; that is , the Church is obliged to minister it , as well as Baptism : there being in vertue of these words the same necessity , and in the nature of the thing the same possibility of their receiving it . But then on the other side no inconvenience can press our interpretation of spiritual eating Christ by faith , because it being naturally impossible that Infants should believe , they cannot be concerned in an impossible Commandment . So that we can answer Saint Austin's and Innocentius his Arguments for communicating of Infants , but they cannot . 4. If these words be understood of Sacramental manducation , then no man can be saved but he that receives the holy Sacrament . For unless ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood , ye have no life in you ; if it be answered that the holy Sacrament must be eaten in act or in desire ; I reply that is not true ; because if a Catechumen desires Baptism only in the Article of his death , it is sufficient to salvation , and they dare not deny it . 2. Fools , young persons , they that are surprised with sudden death , cannot be thought to perish for want of the actual susception or desire . 3. There is nothing in the words that can warrant or excuse the actual omission of the Sacrament , and it is a strange deception that these men suffer by misunderstanding this distinction of receiving the Sacrament either in act or desire . For , they are not opposite , but subordinate members , differ only as act and disposition ; and this disposition is not at all required but as it is in order to the act , and therefore is nothing of it self , and is only the imperfection of , or passage to the act ; if therefore the act were not necessary , neither were the disposition ; but if the act be necessary , then the desire which is but the disposition to the act is not sufficient . As if it be necessary to go from Oxford to London , then it is necessary that you go to Henly , or Vxbridge ; but if it be necessary to be at London , it is not sufficient to go to Vxbridge ; but if it be not necessary to be at London , neither is it necessary to go so far . But this distinction , as it is commonly used , is made to serve ends , and is grown to that inconvenience , that repentance it self is said to be sufficient , if it be only in desire ; for so they must , that affirm repentance in the Article of death after a wicked life to be sufficient ; when it is certain there can be nothing actual but infective desires ; and all the real and most material events of it cannot be performed , but desired only . But whosoever can be excused from the actual susception of a Sacrament , can also in an equal necessity be excused from the desire ; and no man can be tied to an absolute , irrespective desire of that which cannot be had : and if it can , the desire alone will not serve the turn . And indeed a desire of a thing when we know it cannot be had , is a temptation either to impatience , or a scruple ; and why , or how can a man be obliged to desire that to be done , which in all his circumstances is not necessary it should be done . A preparation of mind to obey in those circumstances in which it is possible , that is , in which he is obliged , is the duty of every man ; but this is not an explicite desire of the actual susception , which in his case is not obligatory , because it is impossible ; And lastly , such a desire of a thing is wholly needless , because in the present case , the thing it self is not necessary ; therefore neither is the desire ; neither did God ever require it but in order to the act . But however if we find by discourse that for all these decretory words the desire can suffice , I demand by what instrument is that accepted ; whether by faith , or no ? I suppose it will not be denied . But if it be not denied , then a spiritual manducation can perform the duty of those words : for susception of the Sacrament in desire is at the most but a spiritual manducation . And S. Austin affirms that Baptism can perform the duty of those words , if Beda quotes him right ; for in his Sermon to Infants , and in his third book de peccatorum meritis & remissione , he affirms that in Baptism Infants receive the Body of Christ ; So that these words may as well be understood of Baptism , as of the Eucharist , and of Faith better than either . 5. The men of Capernaum understood Christ to speak these words of his natural flesh and blood , and were scandalized at it ; and Christ reproved their folly by telling them his words were to be understood in a spiritual sence ; So that if men would believe him , that knew best the sence of his own words , there need be no scruple of the sence ; I do not understand these words in a fleshly sence , but in a spiritual , saith Christ : The flesh profiteth nothing ; the words that I have spoken they are spirit , and they are life . Now besides that the natural sence of the words hath in it too much of the sence of the offended Disciples , the reproof and consultation of it is equally against the Romanists , as against the Capernaites . For we contend it is spiritual ; so Christ affirmed it : they that deny the Spiritual sence , and affirm the Natural , are to remember that Christ reproved all sences of these words that were not spiritual . And by the way let me observe , that the expression of some chief men among the Romanists are so rude and crass , that it will be impossible to excuse them from the understanding the words in the sence of the men of Capernaum ; for as they understood Christ to mean his true flesh natural and proper , so do they : as they thought Christ intended they should tear him with their teeth and suck his blood , for which they were offended , so do these men not only think so , but say so , and are not offended . So said Alanus , Apertissimè loquimur , corpus Christi verè à nobis contrectari , manducari , circumgestari , dentibus teri , sensibiliter sacrificari , non minùs quàm ante consecrationem panis . And they frequently quote those Metaphors of S. Chrysostom , which he preaches in the height of his Rhetorick , as testimonies of his opinion in the doctrinal part : and Berengarius was forced by Pope Nicholas to recant in those very words , affirming that Christ●s body , sensualiter non solùm Sacramento , sed in veritate manibus Sacerdotum tractari , frangi , & fidelium dentibus atteri , that Christ's flesh was sensually not only in the Sacrament , but in truth of the thing to be handled by the Priests hands , to be broken and grinded by the teeth of the faithful : Insomuch that the gloss on the Canon , de Consecratione dist . 2. cap. Ego Berengarius , affirms it to be a worse heresie than that of Berengarius , unless it be so soberly understood ; to which also Cassander assents : and indeed I thought that the Romanists had been glad to separate their own opinion from the carnal conceit of the men of Capernaum , and the offended Disciples , supposing it to be a great Objection against their Doctrine , that it was the same with the men of Capernaum , and is only finer dressed : But I find that Bellarmine owns it , even in them , in their rude circumstances : for he affirms that Christ corrected them not for supposing so , but reproved them for not believing it to be so . And indeed himself sayes as much , Corpus Christi verè ac propriè manducari etiam corpore in Eucharistiâ : the body of Christ is truly and properly manducated or chewed with the body in the Eucharist : and to take off the foulness of the expression by avoiding a worse , he is pleased to speak nonsence . Nam ad rationem manducationis non est mera attritio , sed satis est sumptio & transmissio ab ore ad stomachum per instrumena humana . A thing may be manducated or chewed though it be not attrite or broken : If he had said it might be swallowed and not chewed , he had said true ; but to say it may be chewed without chewing or breaking , is a Riddle fit to spring from the miraculous doctrine of Transubstantiation : and indeed it is a pretty device , that we take the flesh , and swallow down flesh , and yet manducate or chew no flesh , and yet we swallow down only what we manducate ; Accipite , manducate , were the words in the institution . And indeed according to this device there were no difference between eating and drinking : and the Whale might have been said to have eaten Jonas , when she swallowed him without manducation or breaking him , and yet no man does speak so : but in the description of that accident reckon the Whale to be fasting for all that morsel : Invasúsque cibus jejunâ vixit in alvo , said Alcimus Avitus : Jejuni , pleníque tamen vate intemerato , said Sidonius Apollinaris ; vivente jejunus cibo , so Paulinus : the fish was full and fasting , that is , she swallowed Jonas , but eat nothing . As a man does not eat Bullets or Quicksilver against the Iliacal passion , but swallows them , and we do not eat our pills : The Greek Physicians therefore call a Pill 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a thing to be swallowed : and that this is distinct from eating , Aristotle tells us , speaking of the Elephant , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he eats the earth , but swallows the stones . And Hesychius determined this thing , Non comedet ex eo quisquam , i. e. non dividetur , quia dentium est dividere , & partiri cibos , cum aliter mandi non possint . To chew is but a circumstance of nourishment , but the essence of manducation . But Bellarmine adds , that if you will not allow him to say so , then he grants it in plain terms , that Christ's body is chewed , is attrite or broken with the teeth , and that not tropically but properly , which is the crass Doctrine which Christ reproved in the men of Capernaum . To lessen and sweeten this expression he tells us , it is indeed broken ; but how ? under the species of bread and invisibly ; well so it is , though we see it not : and it matters not under what ; if it be broken , and we bound to believe it , then we cannot avoid the being that , which they so detested , devourers of Mans flesh . See Theophylact in number 15. of this section . 6. Concerning the bread or the meat indeed of which Christ speaks , he also affirms that whosoever eats it hath life abiding in him : But this is not true of the Sacrament ; for the wicked eating it , receive to themselves damnation . It cannot therefore be understood of oral manducation , but of spiritual , and of eating Christ by faith : that is , receiving him by an instrument or action Evangelical . For receiving Christ by faith includes any way of communicating with his body : By baptism , by holy desires , by obedience , by love , by worthy receiving of the Holy Sacrament ; and it signifies no otherwise , but as if Christ had said : To all that believe in me and obey , I will become the Author of life and salvation : Now because this is not done by all that receive the Sacrament , not by unworthy Communicants , who yet eat the Symbols ( according to us ) and eat Christ's body ( according to their Doctrine ) it is unanswerably certain , that Christ here spake of Spiritual manducation , not of Sacramental . Bellarmine ( he that answers all things whether he can or no ) sayes that words of this nature are conditional ; meaning , that he who eats Christ's flesh worthily shall live for ever : and therefore this effects nothing upon vicious persons , yet it may be meant of the Sacrament , because without his proper condition it is not prevalent . I reply , that it is true it is not , it cannot ; and that this condition is spiritual manducation : but then without this condition the man doth not eat Christs flesh , that which himself calls the true bread , for he that eats this , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he hath life in him , that is , he is united to me , he is in the state of grace at present . For it ought to be observed , that although promises de futuro possibili are to be understood with a condition appendant : yet Propositions affirmative at present , are declarations of a thing in being , and suppose it actually existent : and the different parts of this observation are observable in the several parts of the 54. verse . He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood , hath eternal life ; that 's an affirmation of a thing in being , and therefore implies no other condition but the connexion of the predicate with the subject . He that eats hath life . But it follows , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and I will raise him up at the last day , that 's de futuro possibili : and therefore implies a condition besides the affirmation of the Antecedent , viz. si permanserit , if he remain in this condition , and does not unravel his first interest and forfeit his life . And so the Argument remains unharm'd , and is no other than what I learned from Saint Austin , Hujus rei Sacramentum , &c. de mensâ Dominica sumitur quibusdam ad vitam , quibusdam ad exitium : Res verò ipsa cujus Sacramentum est , omni homini ad vitam , nulli ad exitium , quicunque ejus particeps fuerit . And it is remarkable that the context and design of this place takes off this evasion from the Adversary : For here Christ opposes this eating of his flesh to the Israelites eating of Manna , and prefers it infinitely ; because they who did eat Manna might die , viz. spiritually and eternally : but they that eat his flesh shall never die , meaning , they shall not die eternally : and therefore this eating cannot be a thing which can possibly be done unworthily . For if Manna , as it was Sacramental , had been eaten worthily , they had not died who eat it ; and what priviledge then is in this above Manna , save only that the eating of this , supposes the man to do it worthily , and to be a worthy person , which the other did not ? Upon which consideration Cajetan sayes , that this eating is not common to worthily and unworthily , and that it is not spoken of eating the Sacrament , but of eating and drinking [ that is , communicating with ] the death of Jesus . The Argument therefore lies thus . There is something which Christ hath promis'd us , which whosoever receives , he receives life and not death ; but this is not the Sacrament : for of them that communicate , some receive to life , and some to death , saith S. Austin , and a greater than S. Austin , S. Paul : and yet this , which is life to all that receive it , is Christ's flesh ( said Christ himself ) therefore Christ's flesh here spoken of is not Sacramental . 7. To warrant the Spiritual sence of these words against the Natural , it were easie to bring down a traditive interpretation of them by the Fathers ; at least a great consent . Tertullian hath these words . Etsi carnem ait nihil prodesse , Materiâ dicti dirigendus est sensus . Nam quia durum & intolerabilem existimaverunt sermonem ejus , quasi verè carnem suam illis edendum determinâsset , ut in spiritu disponeret statum salutis , praemisit , Spiritus est qui vivificat ; atque ita subjunxit , Caro nihil prodest , ad vivificandum scil . Because they thought his saying hard and intolerable , as if he had determined his flesh to be eaten by them , that he might dispose the state of salvation in the spirit , he premis'd , It is the spirit that giveth life : and then subjoyns , The flesh profiteth nothing , meaning , nothing to the giving of life . So that here we have , besides his authority , an excellent Argument for us : Christ said , he that eateth my flesh hath life , but the flesh , that is , the fleshly sence of it profits nothing to life ; but the Spirit , that is , the spiritual sence does ; therefore these words are to be understood in a spiritual sence . 9. And because it is here opportune by occasion of this discourse , let me observe this , that the Doctrine of Transubstantiation is infinitely useless and to no purpose ; For by the words of our Blessed Lord , by the Doctrine of Saint Paul , and the sence of the Church , and the confession of all sides , the natural eating of Christ's flesh , ( if it were there , or could so be eaten ) alone or of it self does no good , does not give life ; but the spiritual eating of him is the instrument of life to us ; and this may be done without their Transubstantiated flesh ; it may be done in Baptisme , by Faith and Charity , by Hearing and understanding , and therefore it may also in the blessed Eucharist , although there also according to our Doctrine he be eaten only Sacramentally and Spiritually . And hence it is that in the Mass-book anciently it is prayed after consecration , Quaesumus Omnipotens Deus , ut de perceptis muneribus gratias exhibentes beneficia potiora sumamus ] We beseech thee Almighty God , that we giving thanks for these gifts received may receive greater gifts ] which besides that it concludes against the Natural Presence of Christ's body , ( for what greater thing can we receive , if we receive that ? ) it also declares that the grace and effect of the Sacramental communion is the thing designed beyond all corporal sumption : and as it is more fully express'd in another Collect [ Vt terrenis affectibus expiati ad superni plenitudinem Sacramenti , cujus libavimus sancta , tendamus ] that being redeemed from all earthly affections we may tend to the fulness of the Heavenly Sacrament , the Holy things of which we have now begun to taste . And therefore to multiply so many miracles and contradictions and impossibilities to no purpose , is an insuperable prejudice against any pretence , less than a plain declaration from God. Add to this , that this bodily presence of Christ's body is either for corporal nourishment , or for spiritual : Not for Corporal ; for Natural food is more proper for it ; and to work a Miracle to do that , for which so many Natural means are already appointed , is to no purpose , and therefore cannot be supposed to be done by God ; neither is it done for spiritual nourishment : because to the spiritual nourishment , vertues and graces , the word and the efficacious signs , faith and the inward actions , and all the emanations of the Spirit are as proportion'd , as meat and drink are to natural nourishment ; and therefore there can be no need of a Corporal Presence . 2. Corporal manducation of Christ's body is apparently inconsistent with the nature and condition of a body . 1. Because that which is after the manner of a spirit , and not of a body , cannot be eaten and drunk after the manner of a body , but of a spirit ; as no man can eat a Cherubin with his mouth , if he were made apt to nourish the soul : but by the confession of the Roman Doctors , Christ's body is present in the Eucharist after the manner of a spirit , therefore without proportions to our body , or bodily actions . 2. That which neither can feel or be felt , see or be seen , move or be mov'd , change or be changed , neither do or suffer corporally , cannot certainly be eaten corporally ; but so they affirm concerning the body of our blessed Lord ; it cannot do or suffer corporally in the Sacrament , therefore it cannot be eaten corporally , any more than a man can chew a spirit , or eat a meditation , or swallow a syllogism into his belly . This would be so far from being credible , that God should work so many Miracles in placing Christ's Natural body for spiritual nourishment , that in case it were revealed , to be placed there to that purpose , it self must need one great Miracle more to verifie it , and reduce it to act ; and it would still be as difficult to explain , as it is to tell how the material fire of Hell should torment spirits and souls . And Socrates in Plato's Banquent said well ; Wisdom is not a thing that can be communicated by local or corporal contiguity . 3. That the Corporal presence does not nourish spiritually , appears ; because some are nourished spiritually , who do not receive the Sacrament at all , and some that do receive , yet fall short of being spiritually nourished , and so do all unworthy Communicants . This therefore is to no purpoose , and therefore cannot be supposed to be done by the wise God of all the World , especially with so great a pomp of Miracles . 4. * Cardinal Perron affirms , that the Real Natural presence of Christ in the Sacrament is to greatest purpose , because the residence of Christ's Natural body in our bodies does really and substantially joyn us unto God , establishing a true and real Unity between God and Men. And Bellarmine speaks something like this de Euchar. l. 3. c. 9. But concerning this , besides that every faithful soul is actually united to Christ without the actual residence of Christ's body in our bodies , since every one that is regenerated and born a new of water and of the Spirit is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ▪ the same plant with Christ , as Saint Paul calls him , Rom. 6.5 . He hath put on Christ , he is bone of his bone , and flesh of his flesh , Galat. 3.27 . Ephes. 5.30 . and all this by Faith , by Baptism , by regeneration of the Spirit , besides this ( I say ) this corporal union of our bodies to the body of God incarnate , which these great and witty Dreamers dream of , would make man to be God. For that which hath a real and substantial unity with God , is consubstantial with the true God , that is , he is really , substantially , and truly God ; which to affirm were highest blasphemy . 5. One device more there is to pretend an usefulness of the Doctrine of Christ's Natural presence : viz. that by his contact and conjunction it becomes the cause and the seed of the Resurrection . But besides that this is condemn'd by (a) Vasquez as groundless , and by (b) Suarez as improbable and a novel temerity ; it is highly confuted by their own Doctrine ; For how can the contact or touch of Christ's body have that or any effect on ours , when it can neither be touch'd , nor seen , nor understood but by faith ? which (c) Bellarmine expresly affirms . But to return from whence I am digressed . Tertullian adds in the same place . Quia & sermo caro erat factus , proinde in causam vitae appetendus , & devorandus auditu , & ruminandus intellectu , & fide digerendus . Nam & paulò antè , carnem suam panem quoque coelestem pronunciârat , urgens usquequaque per allegoriam necessariorum pabulorum memoriam Patrum , qui panes & carnes Egyptiorum praeverterant divinae vocationi . Because the Word was made flesh , therefore he was desired for life , to be devoured by hearing , to be ruminated or chewed by the understanding , to be digested by faith . For a little before he called his flesh also celestial bread , still , or all the way , urging by an allegory of necessary food , the memory of their Fathers , who preferrd the bread and flesh of Egypt before the Divine calling . 11. S. Athanasius , or who is the Author of the Tractate upon the words , Quicunque dixerit verbum in filium hominis , in his works , saith , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . i. e. The things which he speaks are not carnal , but spiritual : For to how many might his body suffice for meat , that it should become the nourishment of the whole World ? But for this it was that he put them in mind of the ascension of the Son of man into Heaven , that he might draw them off from carnal and corporal sences , and that they might learn that his flesh which he called meat , was from above , heavenly and spiritual nourishment . For saith he , the things that I have spoken , they are spirit and they are life . 12. But Origen is yet more decretory in this affair . Est & in novo Testamento litera quae occidit eum , qui non spiritualiter ea quae dicuntur adverterit ; si enim secundùm literam sequaris hoc ipsum quod dictum est , Nisi manducaveritis carnem meam , & biberitis sanguinem meam , occidit haec litera : If we understand these words of Christ , Unless ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood , literally , this letter kills . For there is in the new Testament a letter that kills him who does not spiritually understand those things which are spoken . 13. S. Ambrose not only expounds it in a spiritual sence , but plainly denyes the proper and natural . Non iste panis est , qui vadit in corpus , sed ille panis vitae aeternae qui animae nostrae substantiam sulcit . That is not the bread of life which goes into the body , but that which supports the substance of the soul ; And , fide tangitur , fide videtur , non tangitur corpore , non oculis comprehenditur , this bread is touch'd by faith , it is seen by faith : and without all peradventure that this is to be understood of eating and drinking Christ by faith , is apparent from Christ's own words , verse 35. I am the bread of life , he that cometh to me shall not hunger , and he that believeth on me shall not thirst : coming to Christ is eating him , believing him is drinking his blood . It is not touch'd by the body , it is not seen with the eyes . S. Chrysostom in his 47. Homily upon this Chapter of S. John , expounds these words in a spiritual sence ; for these things ( saith he ) are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , such as have in them nothing carnal , nor any carnal consequence . 14. S. Austin gave the same exposition , Vt quid paras dentes & ventrem ? crede & manducasti : and again , Credere in eum , hoc est manducare panem vivum . Qui credit in eum manducat . 15. Theophylact makes the spiritual sence to be the only answer in behalf of our not being Canibals , or devourers of mans flesh , as the men of Capernaum began to dream , and the men of Rome , though in better circumstances , to this day dream on . Putabant isti quòd Deus cogeret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , quia enim nos hoc spiritualiter intelligimus , neque carnium voratores sumus , imò sanctificamur per talem cibum , non sumus carnis voratores . The men of Capernaum thought Christ would compel them to devour mans flesh . But because we understand this spiritually , therefore we are not devourers of mans flesh , but are sanctified by this meat . Perfectly to the same sence , and almost in the very words Theodorus Bishop of Hieraclea is quoted in the Greek Catena upon John. 16. It were easie to add that Eusebius calls the words of Christ his flesh and blood , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; that so also does S. Hierom , saying that although it may be understood in mystery ; tamen veriùs corpus Christi & sanguis ejus sermo scripturarum est ; that so does Clemens Alexandrinus ; that * S. Basil sayes that his Doctrine and his mystical coming is his flesh and blood ; that S. Bernard sayes , to imitate his life and communicate with his passion is to eat his flesh ; But I decline ( for the present ) to insist upon these , because all of them , excepting S. Hierom only , may be supposed to be mystical Expositions , which may be true , and yet another Exposition may be true too . It may suffice that it is the direct sence of Tertullian , Origen , Athanasius , S. Ambrose , S. Austin , and Theophylact , that these wo●ds of Christ in the sixth of S. John are not to be understood in the natural or proper , but in the spiritual sence . The spiritual they declare not to be the mystical , but the literal sence ; and therefore their testimonies cannot be eluded by any such pretence . 17. And yet after all this , suppose that Christ in these words did speak of the Sacramental manducation , and affirm'd that the bread which he would give should be his flesh ; what is this to Transubstantiation ? That Christ did speak of the Sacrament as well as of any other mystery , of this amongst others ; that is , of all the wayes of taking him , is to me highly probable : Christ is the food of our souls ; this food we receive in at our ears , mouth , our hearts ; and the allusion is plainer in the Sacrament than in any other external right , because of the similitude of bread , and eating which Christ used upon occasion of the miracle of the loaves , which introduc'd all that discourse . But then this comes in only as it is an act of faith ; for the meat which Christ gives is to be taken by faith , himself being the Expounder . Now the Sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist being acts and Symbols and consignations of faith , and effects of believing , that is of the first , and principal receiving him by faith in his words , and submission to his Doctrine , may well be meant here , not by vertue of the words ; for the whole form of expression is Metaphorical , not at all proper ; but by the proportion of reason and nature of his effect , it is an act or manner of receiving Christ , and an issue of faith , and therefore is included in the mystery . The food that Christ said he would give is his flesh , which he would give for the life of the world , viz. to be crucified and killed . And from that verse forward he doth more particularly refer to his death ; for he speaks of bread only before , or meat , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but now he speaks of flesh and blood , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; bread and drink , and therefore by Analogy he may allude to the Sacrament , which is his similitude and representation ; but this is but the meaning of the second or third remove ; if here Christ begins to change the particulars of his discourse , it can primarily relate to nothing but his death upon the Cross ; at which time he gave his flesh for the life of the world ; and so giving it , it became meat ; the receiving this gift was a receiving of life , for it was given for the life of the world . The manner of receiving it is by faith , and hearing the word of God , submitting our understanding ; the digesting this meat is imitating the life of Christ , conforming to his doctrine and example ; and as the Sacraments are instruments or acts of this manducation , so they come under this discourse and no otherwise . 18. But to return : This very allegory of the word of God to be called meat , and particularly Manna , which in this Chapter Christ particularly alludes to , is not unusual in the old Testament . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( saith Philo ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Moses said unto them , This is the word which the Lord hath given us to eat . This is the word which the Lord hath ordained , you see what is the food of the soul , even the eternal Word of God , &c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The Word of God , the most honourable and eldest of things is called Mana ; and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The soul is nourished by the Word , — qui pastus pulcherrimus est animorum 19. And therefore now I will resume those testimonies of Clemens Alexandrinus , of Eusebius , S. Basil , S. Hierome and S. Bernard , which I wav'd before , all agreeing upon this exposition , that the word of God , Christs doctrine , is the flesh he speaks of , and the receiving it and practising it are the eating his flesh ; for this sence is the literal and proper : and S. Hierom is express to affirm that the other exposition is mystical , and that this is the more true and proper : and therefore the saying of Bellarmine that they only give the mystical sence , is one of his confident sayings without reason , or pretence of proof : and whereas he adds that they do not deny that these words are also understood literally of the Sacrament : I answer , it is sufficient that they agree in this sence : and the other Fathers do so expound it with an exclusion to the natural sence of eating Christ in the Sacrament ; particularly this appears in the testimonies of Origen and Saint Ambrose above quoted : to which I add the words of Eusebius in the third book of his Theologia Ecclesiastica , expounding the 63. verse of the sixth of Saint John ; he brings in Christ speaking thus . Think not that I speak of this flesh which I bear ; and do not imagine that I appoint you to drink this sensible and corporal blood . But know ye , that the words which I have spoken are spirit and life . Nothing can be fuller to exclude their interpretation , and to affirm ours : though to do so be not usual , unless they were to expound Scripture in opposition to an adversary ; and to require such hard conditions in the sayings of men , that when they speak against Titius they shall be concluded not to speak against Cajus , if they do not clap their contrary negative to their positive affirmative , though Titius and Cajus be against one another in the cause , is a device to escape rather than to intend truth and reality in the discourses of men . I conclude , It is notorious and evident what Erasmus notes upon this place , Hunc locum veteres interpretantur de doctrinâ coelesti : sic enim dicit panem suum , ut frequenter dixit sermonem suum . The Ancient Fathers expound this place of the heavenly doctrine : so he calls the bread his own as he said often the word to be his . And if the concurrent testimonies of Origen , Tertullian , Clemens Alexandrinus , S. Basil , Athanasius , Eusebius , S. Hierom , S. Ambrose , S. Austin , Theophylact , and S. Bernard are a good security for the sence of a place of Scripture , we have read their evidence , and may proceed to sentence . 20. But it was impossible but these words falling upon the allegory of bread and drink , and signifying the receiving Christ crucified , and communicating with his passion in all the wayes of Faith and Sacrament , should also meet with as allegorical expounders , and for the likeness of expression be referr'd to sacramental manducation : And yet I said this cannot at all infer Transubstantiation , though sacramental manducation were only and principally intended . For if it had been spoken of the Sacrament , the words had been verified in the spiritual sumption of it ; for as Christ is eaten by faith out of the Sacrament , so is he also in the Sacrament : as he is real and spiritual meat to the worthy Hearer , so is he to the worthy Communicant : as Christ's flesh is life to all that obey him , so to all that obediently remember him ; so Christ's flesh is meat indeed , however it be taken , if it be taken spiritually , but not however it be taken , if it be taken carnally : He is nutritive in all the wayes of spiritual manducation , but not in all the wayes of natural eating , by their own confession , nor in any , by ours . And therefore it is a vain confidence to run away with the conclusion , if they should gain one of the premises ; But the truth is this : It is neither properly spoken of the Sacrament , neither if it were , would it prove any thing of Transubstantiation . 21. I will not be alone in my assertion , though the reasonableness and evidence would bear me out : Saint Austin saith the same ; Spiritualiter intelligite quod loquutus sum vobis ] Non hoc corpus quod videtis manducaturi estis : Sacramentum aliquod commendavi vobis , spiritualiter intellectum vivificabit nos . That which I have spoken is to be understood spiritually , ye are not to eat that body which ye see ; I have commended a Sacrament to you , which being understood spiritually will give you life ; where besides that he gives testimony to the main question on our behalf , he also makes sacramentally and spiritually to be all one . And again ; Vt quia jam similitudinem mortis ejus in baptismo accipimus , similitudinem quoque sanguinis & carnis sumamus , ita ut & veritas non desit in sacramento , & ridiculum nullum fiat in Paganis , quod cruorem occisi hominis bibamus : That as we receive the similitude of his Death in Baptism , so we may also receive the likeness of his Flesh and Blood , so that neither truth be wanting in the Sacrament , nor the Pagans ridiculously affirm , that we should drink the blood of the crucified Man. Nothing could be spoken more plain in this Question ; We receive Christ's body in the Eucharist , as we are baptized into his death ; that is , by figure and likeness . In the Sacrament there is a verity or truth of Christ's body : and yet no drinking of blood or eating of flesh , so as the Heathen may calumniate us by saying we do that which the men of Capernaum thought Christ taught them they should . So that though these words were spoken of Sacramental manducation ( as sometimes it is expounded ) yet there is reality enough in the spiritual sumption to verifie these words of Christ , without a thought of any bodily eating his flesh . And that we may not think this Doctrine dropt from S. Austin by chance , he again affirms dogmatically , Qui discordat à Christo , nec carnem ejus manducat , nec sanguinem bibit , etiamsi tantae rei sacramentum ad judicium suae praesumptionis quotidiè indifferenter accipiat . He that disagrees from Christ ( that is , disobeys him ) neither eats his flesh nor drinks his blood , although , to his condemnation , he every day receive the Sacrament of so great a thing . The consequent of which words is plainly this , that there is no eating of Christ's flesh or drinking his blood , but by a moral instrument , faith and subordination to Christ ; the sacramental external eating alone being no eating of Christ's flesh , but the Symbols and Sacrament of it . 22. Lastly , Suppose these words of Christ [ The bread which I shall give is my flesh ] were spoken literally of the Sacrament ; what he promised he would give , he perform'd , and what was here expressed in the future tense , was in his time true in the present tense , and therefore is alwayes presently true after consecration ; It follows , that in the Sacrament this is true ; Panis est corpus Christi , The bread is the body of Christ. Now I demand whether this Proposition will be owned . It follows inevitably from this Doctrine , If these words be spoken of the Sacrament . But it is disavowed by the Princes of the party against us . Hoc tamen est impossibile , quòd panis sit corpus Christi , It is impossible that the bread should be Christ's body , saith the Gloss of Gratian ; and Bellarmine sayes it cannot be a true Proposition , In quâ subjectum supponit pro●pane , praedicatum autem pro corpore Christi ; Panis enim & corpus Domini res diversissimae sunt . The thing that these men dread , is , lest it be called bread and Christ's body too , as we affirm it unanimously to be ; and as this Argument upon their own grounds evinces it . Now then how can they serve both ends , I cannot understand . If they will have the bread or the meat which Christ promis'd to give to be his flesh , then so it came to pass ; and then it is bread and flesh too . If it did not so come to pass , and that it is impossible that bread should be Christ's flesh ; then , when Christ said the bread which he would give should be his flesh , he was not to be understood properly of the Sacrament ; But either figuratively in the Sacrament , or in the Sacrament not at all ; either of which will serve the end of truth in this Question . But of this hereafter . By this time I hope I may conclude , that Transubstantiation is not taught by our Blessed Lord in the sixth Chapter of Saint John. Johannes de tertiâ & Eucharisticâ coenâ nihil quidem scribit , eò quod caeteri tres Evangelistae ante illum eam plenè descripsissent . They are the words of * Stapleton , and are good evidence against them . SECT . IV. Of the Words of Institution . 1. MULTA mala oportet interpretari eos qui unum non rectè intelligere volunt , said Irenaeus , they must needs speak many false things who will not rightly understand one . The words of consecration are Praecipuum fundamentum totius controversiae , atque adeò totius hujus altissimi mysterii , said Bellarmine , the greatest ground of the whole Question ; and by adhering to the letter the Mystery is lost , and the whole party wanders in eternal intricacies , and inextricable Riddles ; which because themselves cannot untie , they torment their sense and their reason , and many places of Scripture , whilst they pertinaciously stick to the impossible letter , and refuse the spirit of these words . The Words of Institution are these : S. Matth. 26.26 . Jesus took bread and blessed it and brake it and gave it to the Disciples , and said , Take , eat , this is my body : And he took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them , saying , Drink ye all of it , for this is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins . S. Luke 22.19 . And he took bread , and gave thanks , and brake it , and gave to them , saying , This is my body which is given for you , this do in remembrance of me . Likewise also the cup after Supper , saying , This cup is the New Testament in my blood which is shed for you . S. Mark 14.22 . Jesus took bread and blessed it and gave to them , and said : Take , eat , this is my body . And he took the cup , and when he had given thanks he gave it to them , and they all drank of it ; and he said to them , This is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many . 1 Cor. 11.23 . The Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread . And when he had given thanks he brake it , and said , Take , eat , This is my body which is broken for you , this do in remembrance of me . After the same manner also he took the cup , when he had supped , saying , This cup is the New Testament in my blood , This do ye as often as ye drink it in remembrance of me . 2. These words contain the Institution , and are wholly called the words of Consecration in the Latine Church . Concerning which the consideration is material . Out of these words the Latine Church separates , [ Hoc est corpum meum ] This is my body , ] and say that these words pronounced by the Priest with due intention , do effect this change of the bread into Christs body , which change they call Transubstantiation . But if these words do not effect any such change , then it may be Christs body before the words , and these may only declare what is already done by the prayers of the Holy man ; or else it may become Christ's body only in the use and manducation : and as it will be uncertain when the change is , so also it cannot be known what it is . If it be Christ's body before those words , then the literal sence of these words will prove nothing , it is so as it will be before these words , and made so by other words which refer wholly to use ; and then the praecipuum fundamentum , the pillar and ground of Tranbsubstantiation is supplanted . And if it be only after the words , and not effected by the words , it will be Christ's body only in the reception . Now concerning this I have these things to say : 3. First , By what Argument can it be proved that these words [ Take , and eat ] are not as effective of the change , as [ Hoc est corpus meum , This is my body ? ] If they be , then the taking and eating does consecrate : and it is not Christ's body till it be taken and eaten , and then when that 's done it is so no more ; and besides , that reservation , circumgestation , adoration , elevation of it must of themselves fall to the ground ; it will also follow that it is Christ's body only in a mystical , spiritual , and sacramental manner . 4. Secondly , By what Argument will it so much as probably be concluded that these words [ This is my body ] should be the words effective of conversion and consecration ? That Christ used these words is true , and so he used all the other ; but did not tell which were the consecrating words , nor appoint them to use those words ; but to do the thing , and so to remember and represent his death . And therefore the form and rites of consecration and ministeries are in the power of the Church , where Christ's Command does not intervene ; as appears in all the external ministeries of Religion ; in Baptism , Confirmation , Penance , Ordination , &c. And for the form of consecration of the Eucharist , S. Basil affirms that it is not delivered to us , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. The words of Invocation in the manifestation or opening the Eucharistical bread and cup of blessing , which of all the Saints hath left us ? for we are not content with these which the Apostles and the Evangelists mention , but before and after we say other things which have great efficacy to this mystery . But it is more material which Saint Gregory affirms concerning the Apostles , Mos Apostolorum fuit ut ad ipsam solummodò orationem Dominicam oblationis hostiam consecrarent , The Apostles consecrated the Eucharist only by saying the Lords Prayer . To which I add this consideration , that it is certain , Christ interposed no Command in this case , nor the Apostles ; neither did they for ought appears intend the recitation of those words to be the Sacramental consecration , and operative of the change , because themselves recited several forms of institution in Saint Matthew and Saint Mark for one , and Saint Luke and Saint Paul for the other , in the matter of the Chalice especially ; and by this difference declared , there is no necessity of one , and therefore no efficacy in any as to this purpose . 5. Thirdly , If they make these words to signifie properly and not figuratively , then it is a declaration of something already in being , and not effective of any thing after it . For else [ est ] does not signifie [ is ] but it shall be ; because the conversion is future to the pronunciation ; and by the confession of the Roman Doctors the bread is not transubstantiated till the [ um ] in meum be quite out , till the last syllable be spoken ; But yet I suppose they cannot shew an example , or reason , or precedent , or Grammar , or any thing for it , that est should be an active word . And they may remember how confidently they use to argue against them that affirm men to be justified by a fiducia and perswasion that their sins are pardoned : saying , that saith must suppose the thing done , or their belief is false : and if it be done before , then to believe it does not do it at all , because it is done already . The case is here the same : They affirm that it is made Christ's body , by saying , it is Christ's body ; but their saying so must suppose the thing done , or else their saying so is false ; and if it be done before , then to say it , does not do it at all , because it is done already . 6. Fourthly , When our blessed Lord took bread , he gave thanks , said Saint Luke and Saint Paul ; he blessed it , said Saint Matthew and Saint Mark ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , making it Eucharistical ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that was , consecrating or making it holy ; it was common bread , unholy when he blessed it , and made it Eucharistical , for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word in Justin , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bread and wine , food made Eucharistical , or on which Christ had given thanks , Eucharistia sanguinis & corporis Christi , so Irenaeus and others ; and Saint Paul does promiscuously use 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; and in the same place the Vulgar Latin renders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by benedictionem , and therefore Saint Paul calls it the cup of blessing ; and in this very place of Saint Matthew Saint Basil reads 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , either in this following the old Greek Copies who so read this place , or else by interpretation so rendring it , as being the same ; and on the other side Saint Cyprian renders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( the word used in the blessing the Chalice ) by benedixit . Against this * Smiglecius the Jesuite with some little scorn sayes , it is very absurd to say that Christ gave thanks to the bread , and so it should be if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , blessing and giving of thanks were all one . But in this he shewed his anger or want of skill , not knowing or not remembring that the Hebrews and Hellenist Jews love abbreviature of speech ; and in the Epistle to the Hebrews Saint Paul uses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to appease or propitiate our sins , instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to propitiate or appease God concerning our sins ; and so is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , only that by this means God also makes the bread holy , blessed , and eucharistical . Now I demand , what did Christ's blessing effect upon the Bread and the Chalice ? any thing , or nothing ? If no change was consequent , it was an ineffective blessing , a blessing that blessed not : if any change was consequent , it was a blessing of the thing in order to what was intended , that is , that it might be Eucharistical , and then the following words [ this is my body ] this is the blood of the New Testament , or the New Testament in my blood , were , as Cabasilas affirms , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by way of history and narration ; and so the Syriack Interpreter puts them together in the place of S. Matthew , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , blessing and giving of thanks , when he did bless it he made it Eucharistical . 7. Fifthly , The Greek Church universally taught that the Consecration was made by the prayers of the ministring man. Justin Martyr calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Nourishment made Eucharistical by prayer ; and Origen calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , bread made a body , a holy thing by prayer ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so Damascen , by the invocation and illumination of the Holy Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ▪ they are changed into the body and blood of Christ. But for the Greek Church the case is evident and confessed . For the ancient Latine Church , Saint Hierom reproving certain pert Deacons for insulting over Priests , uses this expression for the honour of Priests above the other , Ad quorum preces Christi corpus sanguisque conficitur , by their prayers the body and blood of Christ is in the Sacrament . And Saint Austin calls the Sacrament prece mysticâ consecratum . But concerning this , I have largely discoursed in another * place . But the effect of the consideration in order to the present Question is this ; that since the change that is made is made not naturally , or by a certain number of syllables in the manner of a charm , but solemnly , sacredly , morally , and by prayer , it becomes also the body of our Lord to moral effects , as a consequent of a moral instrument . 8. Sixthly , And it is considerable , that since the ministeries of the Church are but imitations of Christ's Priestood which he officiates in Heaven , since he effects all the purposes of his graces and our redemption by intercession , and representing in the way of prayer the Sacrifice which he offered on the Cross : it follows that the ministeries of the Church must be of the same kind , operating in the way of prayer , morally , and therefore wholly to moral purposes ; to which the instrument is made proportionable . And if these words which are called the words of Consecration be exegetical , and enunciative of the change that is made by prayers , and other mystical words ; it cannot be possibly inferred from these words that there is any other change made than what refers to the whole mystery and action : and therefore , Take , eat , and this do , are as necessary to the Sacrament as [ Hoc est corpus ] and declare that it is Christ's body only in the use and administration : and therefore not natural but spiritual . And this is yet more plain by the words in the Hebrew Text of Saint Matthew , Take , eat this which is my body , plainly supposing the thing to be done already ; not by the exegetical words , but by the precedents , the mystick prayer , and the words of institution and use ; and to this I never saw any thing pretended in answer . But the force of the Argument upon supposition of the premises is acknowledged to be convincing by an Archbishop of their own , Si Christus dand● consecravit , &c. If Christ giving the Eucharist did consecrate ( as Scotus affirmed ) then the Lutherans will carry the victory , who maintain that the body of Christ is in the Eucharist only , while it is used , while it was taken and eaten . And yet on the other side , if it was consecrated , when Christ said , Take , eat , then he commanded them to take bread , and to eat bread , which is to destroy the Article of Transubstantiation . So that in effect , whether it was consecrated by those words or not by those words , their new Doctrine is destroyed . If it was not consecrated when Christ said , Take , eat , then Christ bid them take bread , and eat bread , and they did so : But if it was consecrated by those words , Take , eat , then the words of consecration refer wholly to use , and it is Christ's body only in the taking and eating , which is the thing we contend for . And into the concession of this Bellarmine is thrust by the force of our Argument . For to avoid Christ's giving the Apostles that which he took , and brake , and blessed , that is , bre●d , the same case being governed by all these words ; he answers , Dominum accepisse , & benedixisse panem , sed dedisse panem non vulgarem , sed benedictum & benedictione mutatum : The Lord took bread and blessed it , but he gave not common bread , but bread blessed and changed by blessing ; and yet it is certain he gave it them before the words , which he calls the words of Consecration . To which I add this consideration : that all words spoken in the person of another are only declarative and exegetical , not operative and practical ; for in particular if these words , hoc est corpus meum were otherwise , then the Priest should turn it into his own , not into the body of Christ. Neither will it be easie to have an answer , not only because the Greeks and Latines are divided in the ground of their argument concerning the mystical instrument of consecration : But the Latines themselves have seven several opinions , as the Archbishop of Caesarea de capite Fontium , hath enumerated them in his nuncupatory Epistle to Pope Sixtus Quintus before his book of divers treatises : and that the consecration is made by [ this is my body ] though it be now the prevailing opinion , yet that by them Christ did not consecrate the elements , was the express sentence of Pope Innocent 3. and Innocent 4. and of many ancient Fathers , as the same Archbishop of Caesarea testifies in the book now quoted ; and the Scholasticks are hugely divided upon this point , viz. Whether these words are to be taken materially or significatively ; the expression is barbarous and rude , but they mean , whether they be consecratory or declarative . Aquinas makes them consecratory , and his authority brought that opinion into credit ; and yet Scotus and his followers are against it : and they that affirm them to be taken significatively , that is , to be consecratory , are divided into so many opinions that they are not easie to be reckoned ; only * Guido Brianson reckons nine , and his own makes the tenth . This I take upon the credit of one of their own Archbishops . 9. But I proceed to follow them in their own way ; whether [ Hoc est corpus meum ] do effect or signify the change ; yet the change is not natural and proper , but figurative , sacramental , and spiritual ; exhibiting what it signifies , being real to all intents and purposes of the Spirit : and this I shall first shew by discussing the words of institution ; first those which they suppose to be the consecratory words , and then the other . 10. Hoc est corpus meum ] Concerning which form of words we must know , that as the Eucharist it self was in the external and ritual part , an imitation of a custome and a sacramental already in use among the Jews , for the major domo to break bread and distribute wine at the Passeover after supper to the eldest according to his age , to the youngest according to his youth , as it is notorious and known in the practice of the Jews : so also were the very words which Christ spake in this changed subject , an imitation of the words which were then used , This is the bread of sorrow which our Fathers eat in Egypt ; This is the Passeover : and this Passeover was called the body of the Paschal Lamb : nay , it was called the body of our Saviour , and our Saviour himself ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Justin Martyr dial . cum Tryph. And Esdras said to the Jews , This passeover is our Saviour , and This is the body of our Saviour , as it is noted by others . So that here the words were made ready for Christ , and made his by appropriation , by meum : he was the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world , he is the true Passeover ; which he then affirming called that which was the Antitype of the Passeover , the Lamb of God [ His body ] the body of the true Passeover , to wit , in the same sacramental sence in which the like words were affirmed in the Mosaical Passeover . SECT . V. 1. HOC , This ] That is , this bread is my body , this cup , or the wine in the cup is my blood : concerning the chalice , there can be no doubt ; it is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hic calix , this chalice ; and as little of the other . The Fathers refer the Pronoun demonstrative to bread , saying , that , of bread it was Christ affirmed , This is my body , which I shall have in the sequel more occasion to prove , for the present , these may suffice ; Christus panem corpus suum appellat , saith (a) Tertullian . Nos audiamus panem quem fregit Dominus esse corpus salvatoris : so (b) S. Hierome . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so (c) S. Cyril of Alexandria called bread his flesh . (d) Theodoret saith that to the body he gave the name of the symbol , and to the symbol the name of his body . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] therefore signifies this bread ; and it matters not that bread in the Greek is of the masculine gender ; for the substantive being understood not expressed , by the rule of Grammar , the adjective must be the neuter gender , and it is taken substantively . Neither is there any inconvenience in this , as Bellarmine weakly dreams upon as weak suggestions . For when he had said that hoc is either taken adjectively or substantively , he proceeds , not adjectively , for then it must agree with the substantive , which in this case is masculine ; bread being so both in Greek and Latine . But if you say it is taken substantively ( as we contend it is ) he confutes you thus ; If it be taken substantively , so that hoc signifies this thing , and so be referred to bread , then it is most absurd , because it cannot be spoken of any thing seen ; that is , of a substantive , unless it agrees with it , and be of the same gender ; that is in plain English , It is neither taken adjectively , nor substantively : not adjectively , because it is not of the same gender : not substantively , because it is not of the same gender ; that is , because substantively it is not adjectively . But the reason he adds is as frivolous ; because no man pointing to his brother will say hoc est frater meus , but hic est fra●er meus , I grant it . But if it be a thing without life you may affirm it in the neuter gender , because it being of neither sex , the subject is supplyed by [ thing ] so that you may say hoc est aqua , this is water ; so in (a) S. Peter , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , this is grace , and (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . But of a person present you cannot say so , because he is present , and there is nothing distinct from him , neither re nor ratione , in the thing nor in the understanding ; and therefore you must say hic , not hoc ; because there is no subject to be supposed distinct from the predicate . But when you see an image or figure of your brother , you may then say , hoc est frater meus , because here is something to make a subject distinct from the predicate . This thing , or this picture , this figure , or this any thing , that can be understood and not expressed , may make a neuter gender ; and every School-boy knows it : so it is in the blessed Sacrament , there is a Subject or a thing distinct from Corpus : This bread , this which you see is my body ; and therefore is in Hoc no impropriety , though bread he understood . 2. To which I add this , that though bread be the nearest part of the thing demonstrated , yet it is not bread alone , but sacramental bread ; that is , bread so used , broken , given , eaten , as it is in the institution and use : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , this is my body ; and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 refers to the whole action about the bread and wine , and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be easily understood without an impropriety . And indeed it is necessary that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this ] should take in the whole action on all sides : because the bread neither is the natural body of Christ , nor yet is it alone a sufficient symbol or representment of it . But the bread broken , blessed , given , distributed , taken , eaten ; this is Christs body , viz. as Origens expression is typicu● symbolicúmque corpus . By the way give me leave to express some little indignation against those words of Bellarmine , which cannot easily be excused from blasphemy ; saying that if our Lord had said of the bread which the Apostles saw and knew to be bread , This is my body , absurdissima esset locutio , it had been a most absurd speech . So careless are these opiniators of what they say , that rather than their own fond opinions should be confuted , they care not to impute non-sence to the eternal Wisdom of the Father . And yet that Christ did say this of bread so ordered and to be used , Hoc est corpus meum , besides that the thing is notorious , I shall prove most evidently . 3. First , That which Christ broke , which he gave to his disciples , which he bid them eat , that he affirmed was his body . What gave he but what he broke ? what did he break , but that which he took ? what did he take ? accepit panem ( saith the Scripture ) he took bread , therefore of bread it was that he affirmed , it was his body . Now the Roman Doctors will by no means endure this ; for if of bread he affirmed it to be his body ; then we have cleared the Question , for it is bread and Christs body too ; that is , it is bread naturally , and Christs body spiritually ; for that it cannot be both naturally , they unanimously affirm . And we are sure upon this Article : for disparatum de disparato non praedicatur propriè ; It is a rule of nature and essential reason , If it be bread it is not a stone , if it be a Mouse it is not a Mule ; and therefore when there is any predication made of one diverse thing by another , the proposition must needs be improper and figurative . And the Gloss of Gratian disputes it well , If bread be the body of Christ ( viz. properly and naturally ) then something that is not born of the Virgin Mary is the body of Christ ; and the body of Christ should be both alive and dead . Now that [ Hoc , This ] points to bread , besides the notoriousness of the thing in the story of the Gospels , in the matter of fact , and S. Paul calling it bread so often , ( as I shall shew in the sequel ) it ought to be certain to the Roman Doctors , and confessed , because by their Doctrines when Christ said Hoc , This ] and a while after , it was bread ; because it was not consecrated till the last syllable was spoken . To avoid this therefore , they turn themselves into all the opinions and disguises that can be devised * Stapleton says , that [ Hoc , This ] does only signifie the predicate , and is referred to the body , so as Adam said , This is flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone , Hoc ] not this rib , but this thing , this predicate ; So , Hic est filius meus , hic est sanguis Testamenti . Now this is confuted before ; for it can only be true when there is no difference of subject and predicate , as in all figures and sacraments and artificial representments there are . Some others say , This is , that is , this shall be my body ; So that is , demonstrates not what is , but what shall be . But this prevailed not amongst them . Others say , that This signifies Nothing ; So Innocentius the third , Major , the Count of Mirandula , De capite Fontium , and Catharinus . Others yet affirm , that [ This ] signifies , these accidents . So Ruard Tapper , and others whom Suarez reckons and confutes . Thomas Aquinas and his Scholars affirm that [ This ] demonstrates neither bread nor the body , nor nothing , nor the accidents , but a substance indefinitely , which is under the accidents of bread ; as when Christ turned the water into wine , he might have said Hoc est vinum , not meaning that water is wine , but this which is here , or this which is in the vessel is wine ; which is an instance in which Bellarmine pleases himself very much , and uses it more than once , not at all considering that in this form of speech , there is the same mistake as in the former : for in this example there are not two things , as we contend there are in the Sacrament ; and that to make up the proposition , the understanding is forc'd to make an artificial subject ; and [ this ] refers to wine , and is determined by his imaginary subject , and makes not an essential or physical , but a logical predication ; This which is in the vessel is wine : and the proposition is identical , if it be reduc'd to a substantial . But when Christ said [ Hoc est corpus meum ] hoc ] first , neither points to corpus as the others do to vinum , even by their own confession ; nor yet , secondly , to an artificial subject , whereby it can by imagination become demonstrative , and determinate ; for then it were no real affirmative , not at all significative , much less effective of a change : nor yet , thirdly , will they allow that it points to that subject which is really there , viz. bread ; but what then ? It demonstrates something real , that either 1. is not the predicate , and then there would be two things disparate signified by it , two distinct substances , which in this case could be nothing but bread and the body of Christ : or 2. it demonstrates nothing but the predicate , and then the proposition were identical , viz. this body of Christ is the body of Christ ; which is an absurd predication : or else 3. it demonstrates something that is indemonstrable , pointing at something that is nothing certain , and then it cannot be pointed at or demonstrated ; for if by this which is under the species , they mean any certain substance , it must be bread or the body of Christ , either of which undoes their cause . 4. But if it be inquired , by what Logick or Grammar it can be , that a Pronoun demonstrative should signify indeterminately , that is , an individuum vagum : They tell us , no ; it does not : but it signifies an individual , determinate substance under the accidents of bread , not according to the formality of the bread , but secundùm rationem substantiae communem & individuam vagè per ordinem ad accidentia , but according to the formality of a substance common and individual , indefinitely or indeterminately by order to those accidents . So Gregory de Valentia ; which is as good and perfect non-sence as ever was spoken . It is determinate and not determinate , it is substantial in order to accidents , individual and yet common , universal and particular , it is limited , but after an unlimited manner ; that is , it is and it is not ; that is , it is the Logick and the Grammar , and the proper sence of Transubstantiation , which is not to be understood but by them that know the new and secret way to reconcile contradictories . Bellarmine sweetens the sence of this as well as he may , and says that the Pronoun demonstrative does point out and demonstrate the species , that is , the accidents of bread ; these accidents are certain and determinate ; so that the Pronoun demonstrative is on the side of the species or accidents , not of the substance . But yet so as to mean not the accidents , but the substance , and not the substance which is , but which shall be ; for it is not the same yet : which indeed is the same non-sence with the former , abused or set off with a distinction , the parts of which contradict each other . The Pronoun demonstrative does only point to the accidents , and yet does not mean the accidents , but the substance under them ; and yet it does not mean the substance that is under them , but that which shall be ; for the substance which is meant is not yet : and it does not point at the substance , but yet it means it : For the substance indeed is meant by the Pronoun demonstrative , but that it does not at all demonstrate it , but the accidents only . And indeed this is a fine secret : The substance is pointed at before it is , and the demonstration is upon the accidents , but means the substance , in obliquo , but not in recto ; not directly , but as by the bie ; just as a man can see a thing before it be made , and by pointing at a thing which you see , demonstrates or shews you a thing which shall never be seen . But then if you desire to know how it was pointed at before it was , that is the secret not yet revealed . But finally this is the doctrine that hath prevailed at least in the Jesuits Schools . This ] points out something under the accidents of bread , meaning , This which is contained under the accidents of bread is my body : there it rests . But before it go any further I shall disturb his rest with this Syllogism : When Christ said , Hoc , this is my body ; by this ] he meant this which is contained under the accidents of bread , is my body . But at that instant , that which was contained under the accidents of bread , was the substance of bread ; Therefore to the substance of bread Christ pointed , that he related to by the Pronoune demonstrative , and of that he affirmed , it was his body . The Major is that the Jesuits contend for : the Minor is affirmed by Bellarmine , Quando dicitur [ Hoc ] tum non est praesens substantia corporis Christi : therefore the conclusion ought to be his and owned by them . However I will make bold to call it a demonstration upon their own grounds , and conclude that it is bread and Christs body too ; and that is the doctrine of the Protestants . And I add this also , that it seems a great folly to declaim against us for denying the literal , natural sence , and yet that themselves should expound it in a sence which suffers a violence and a most unnatural , ungrammatical torture ; for if they may change the words from the right sence and case to the oblique and indirect , why may not we ? and it is less violence to say [ Hoc est corpus meum ] i. e. hic panis est corpus meum ; viz. spiritualiter : than to say , hoc est , that is , sub his speciebus est corpus meum . And this was the sence of * Ocham the Father of the Nominalists : it may be held that under the species of bread , there remains also the substance ; because this is neither against reason nor any authority of the Bible ; and of all the manners this is most reasonable , and more easie to maintain , and from thence follow fewer inconveniences than from any other . Yet because of the determination of the Church ( viz. of Rome ) all the Doctors commonly hold the contrary . By the way observe that their Church hath determined against that , against which neither the Scripture nor reason hath determined . 2. The case is clearer in the other kind , as in transition I noted above * . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , hic calix . I demand to what [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Hic , This ] does refer ? What it demonstrates and points at ? The text sets the substantive down , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , this cup ; that is , the wine in this cup ; of this it is that he affirmed it to be the blood of the New Testament , or the New Testament in his blood : that is , this is the sanction of the everlasting Testament , I make it in my blood , this is the Symbol , what I do now in sign , I will do to morrow in substance , and you shall for ever after remember and represent it thus in Sacrament . I cannot devise what to say plainer than that this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 points at the chalice . — Hoc potate merum * — So Juvencus a Priest of Spain in the reign of Constantine , Drink this wine , ] But by the way , this troubled some body , and therefore an order was taken to corrupt the words by changing them into , Hunc potate meum ; but that the cheat was too apparent ] And if it be so of one kind , it is so in both , that is beyond all question . Against this Bellarmine brings argumentum robustissimum , a most robustious argument : By 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or cup , cannot be meant the wine in the cup , because it follows , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , This Cup [ is the New Testament in my blood ] which was shed for you ; referring to the cup , for the word can agree with nothing but the cup ; therefore by the cup is meant not wine , but blood , for that was poured out . To this I oppose these things ; 1. Though it does not agree with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , yet it must refer to it , and is an ordinary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of case called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : and it is not unusual in the best masters of Language : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in Demosthenes : so also Goclenius in his Grammatical problemes observes another out of Cicero . Benè autem dicere , quod est peritè loqui , non habet definitam aliquam regionem , cujus terminis septa teneatur ; Many more he cites out of Plato , Homer , and Virgil ; and me thinks these men should least of all object this , since in their Latin Bible Sixtus Senensis confesses , and all the world knows , there are innumerable barbarisms and improprieties , hyperbata and Antip●oses . But in the present case it is easily supplyed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which is frequently understood , and implyed in the article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , in my bloud which is shed for you . 2. If it were referred to [ cup ] then the figure were more strong and violent , and the expression less litteral ; and therefore it makes much against them , who are undone if you admit figurative expressions in the institution of this Sacrament . 3. To what can 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 refer , but to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , This cup , and let what sence soever be affixed to it afterwards , if it do not suppose a figure , then there is no such thing as figures , or words , or truth , or things . 4. That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must refer to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appears by S. Matthew , and S. Mark , where the word is directly applyed to bloud ; S. Paul uses not the word , and Bellarmine himself gives the rule , verba Domini rectiùs exposita à Marco , &c. When one Evangelist is plain , by him we are to expound another that is not plain : and S. Basil in his reading of the words , either following some ancienter Greek copy , or else mending it out of the other Evangelists , changes the case into perfect Grammar , and good Divinity , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 6. Thirdly , symbols of the blessed Sacrament are called bread and the cup , after Consecration ; that is , in the whole use of them . This is twice affirmed by S. Paul The Cup of blessing which we bless , is it not the communication ( so it should be read ) of the bloud of Christ ? the bread which we break , is it not the communication of the body of Christ ? as if he had said , This bread is Christs body ; though there be also this mystery in it , This bread is the communication of Christs body , that is , the exhibition and donation of it , not Christs body formally , but virtually , and effectively , it makes us communicate with Christs body in all the effects and benefits : A like expression we have in Valerius Maximus , where Scipio in the feast of Jupiter is said Graccho Communicasse concordiam , that is , consignasse , he communicated concord ; he consigned it with the sacrifice , giving him peace and friendship , the benefit of that communication : and so is the cup of benediction , that is , when the cup is blessed , it communicates Christs blood , and so does the blessed bread ; for to eat the bread , in the New Testament is the sacrifice of Christians ; they are the words of * S. Austin , Omnes de uno pane participamus ; so S. Paul , we all partake of this one bread . Hence the argument is plain ; That which is broken is the communication of Christs body ; But that which is broken is bread , therefore bread is the communication of Christs body . The bread which we break , those are the words . 7. Fourthly , The other place of S. Paul is plainer yet , Let a man examine himself , and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. And , so often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup , ye declare the Lords death till he come ; and the same also vers . 27. three times in this chapter he calls the Eucharist Bread. It is bread , sacramental bread when the communicant eats it : But he that in the Church of Rome should call to the Priest to give him a piece of bread , would quickly find that instead of bread he should have a stone or something as bad . But S. Paul had a little of the Macedonian simplicity , calling things by their own plain names . 8. Fifthly , against this some little things are pretended in answer by the Roman Doctors . 1. That the holy Eucharist , or the sacred body is called [ bread ] because it is made of bread ; as Eve is called of Adam , bone of his bone ; and the rods changed into serpents are still called rods ; or else because it sometimes was bread , therefore so it is called after : just as we say , The blind see , the lame walk , the harlots enter into the kingdome of heaven . Which answer although Bellarmine mislikes , yet lest any others should be pleased with it , I have this certain confutation of it : that by the Roman Doctrine the bread is wholly annihilated , and nothing of the bread becomes any thing of the holy body ; and the holy body never was bread , not so much as the matter of bread remaining in the change . It cannot therefore be called bread , unless it be bread ; at least not for this reason . For if the body of Christ be not bread then , neither ever was it bread , neither was it made of bread : and therefore these cannot be the reasons , because they are not true . But in the instances alledged , the denomination still remains , because the change was made in the same remaining matter , or in the same person , or they were to be so again as they were before ; nothing of which can be affirmed of the Eucharist , by their doctrine , therefore these instances are not pertinent . 2. Others answer , that the holy Body is called Bread , because it seems to be so : just as the effigies and forms of Pomegranates , of Bulls , of Serpents , of Cherubims , are called by the names of those creatures whom they do resemble . I reply , that well they may , because there is there no danger of being deceived by such appellations , no man will suppose them other than the pictures , and so to speak is usual and common . But in the matter of the holy Eucharist it ought not to be called bread for the likeness to bread , unless it were bread indeed ; because such likeness and such appellation are both of them a temptation against that which these men call an article of faith : but rather because it is like bread , and all the world are apt to take it for such , it ought to have been described with caution , and affirmed to be Christ and God , and not to be bread though it seem so . But when it is often called Bread in Scripture , which name the Church of Rome does not at all use in the mystery , and is never called in Scripture , the Son of God , or God , or Christ ; which words the Church of Rome does often use in the mystery ; it is certain that it is called bread , not because it is like bread , but because it is so indeed . * And indeed upon such an answer as this , it is easie to affirm an apple to be a Pigeon , and no apple ; for if it be urged that all the world calls it an apple , it may be replyed then as now , It is true they call it an apple , because it is like an apple , but indeed it is a Pigeon . 3. Some of them say when it is called bread , it is not meant that particular kind of nourishment ; but in general it means any food ; and so only represents Christs body as a celestial divine thing intended some way to be our food . Just , as in S. John 6. Christ is called the bread that came down from heaven , not meaning material bread , but divine nourishment . But this is the weakest of all , because this which is called bread is broken , is eaten , hath the accidents of bread , and all the signs of his proper nature ; and it were a strange violence that it should here signify any manner of food to which it is not like , and not signify that to which it is so like . * Besides this , bread here signifies , as wine or chalice does in the following words ; now that did signifie the fruit of the Vine ; that special manner of drink ( Christ himself being the Interpreter ) and therefore so must this mean that special manner of food . 9. Sixthly , If after the blessing the bread doth not remain , but ( as they affirm ) be wholly annihilated , then by blessing God destroys a creature : which indeed is a strange kind of blessing ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith Suidas , verb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . When God blesses , he confirms his words with deeds , and gives all sorts of good to that which he blesses . And certain it is , that although blessing can change it , it must yet change it to the better ; and so we affirm he does : for the bread besides the natural being , by being blessed becomes the body of Christ in a sacramental manner ; but then it must remain bread still , or else it receives not that increase and change ; but if it be annihilated and becomes nothing , it is not Christs body in any sence , nor in any sence can pretend to be blessed . To which add the words of S. Austin , Ille ad quem non esse non pertinet non est causa deficiendi , id est , tendendi ad non esse . He that is the fountain of all being , is not the cause of not being , much less can his blessing cause any thing not to be . It follows therefore , that by blessing the bread becomes better , but therefore it still remains . 10. Seventhly , That it is bread of which Christ affirmed [ This is my body ] and that it is bread after consecration , was the doctrine of the Fathers in the Primitive Church . I begin with the words of a whole Council of Fathers , In Trullo at Constantinople , decreeing thus against the Aquarii , In Sanctis nihil plus quàm corpus Christi offeratur , ut ipse dominus tradidit , hoc est , panis & vinúm aquâ mixtum , In the holy places or offices ] let nothing more be offered but the body of Christ , as the Lord himself delivered , that is , bread and wine mingled with water . So Justin Martyr , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . We are taught that the food made eucharistical , the food which by change nourishes our flesh and bloud , is the flesh and bloud of Jesus incarnate , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , we do not receive it as common bread : No , for it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it is made Sacramental and Eucharistical , and so it is sublimed to become the body of Christ. But it is natural food still , and that for two reasons . 1. Because still he calls it bread , not common bread , but extraordinary , yet bread still . Card. Perron says , it follows not to say , it is not common bread , therefore it is bread ; so as of those which appeared as men to Abraham , we might say they were not common men ; but it follows not that they were men at all . So the Holy Ghost descending like a Dove upon the blessed Jesus , was no common Dove ; and yet it follows not it was a Dove at all . I reply to this , that of whatsoever you can say , it is extraordinary in his kind , of that you may also affirm it to be of that kind : as concerning the richest scarlet , if you say this is no ordinary colour , you suppose it to be a colour : so the Corinthian brass was no common brass , and the Colossus was no common Statue , and Christmas day is no common day , yet these negatives suppose the affirmative of their proper subject ; Corinthian brass is brass , Colossus is a statue , and Christmas day is a day . But if you affirm of a counterfeit , or of an image or a picture , by saying it is no common thing , you deny to it the ordinary nature by diminution ; but if it have the nature of the thing , then to say it is not common , denies the ordinary nature by addition and eminency ; the first says it is not so at all , the second says it is more than so ; and this is taught to every man by common reason , and he could have observed it if he had pleased ; for it is plain , Justin said this of that , which before the Consecration was known to be natural bread , and therefore now to say it was not common bread , is to say it is bread and something more . 2. The second reason from the words of Justin to prove it to be natural food still is because it is that by which our blood and our flesh is nourished by change . Bellarmine says , that these words by which our flesh and blood is nourished , mean by which they use to be nourished ; not meaning that they are nourished by this bread when it is Eucharistical . But besides that this is gratis dictum without any colour or pretence from the words of Justin , but by a presumption taken from his own opinion , as if it were impossible that Justin should mean any thing against his doctrine : besides this I say the interpretation is insolent , Nutriuntur i. e. solent nutriri ; as also because both the verbs are of the present tense , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The flesh and blood are nourished by bread , and it is the body of Christ ; that is both in conjunction ; so that he says not , as Bellarmine would have him , Cibus ille ex quo carnes nostrae ali solent cum prece mysticâ consecratur , efficitur corpus Christi ; but , Cibus ille quo carnes nostrae aluntur , est corpus Christi . The difference is material , and the matter is apparent : but upon this alone I rely not . To the same purpose are the words of Irenaeus , Dominus accipiens panem , suum corpus esse confitebatur , & temperamentum calicis , suum sanguinem confirmavit ; Our Lord taking bread confessed it to be his body , and the mixture of the cup he confirmed to be his blood . Here Irenaeus affirms to be true what * Bellarmine says , non potest fieri , cannot be done ; that in the same proposition bread should be the subject , and body should be the praedicate ; Irenaeus sayes that Christ said it to be so , and him we follow . But most plainly in his fifth Book , Quando ergo & mixtus calix , & fractus panis percipit verbum dei , fit Eucharistia sanguinis & corporis Christi ; ex quibus augetur & consistit carnis nostrae substantia : Quomodo carnem negant capacem esse donationis Dei qui est vita aeterna , quae sanguine & corpore Christi nutritur ? and a little after he affirms that we are flesh of his flesh and bone of his bones ; and that this is not understood of the spiritual man , but of the natural disposition or temper ; quae de calice qui est sanguis ejus nutritur , & de pane qui est corpus ejus augetur ; and again , eum calicem qui est creatura suum sanguinem qui effusus est ex quo auget nostrum sanguinem , & eum panem &c. qui est creatura , suum corpus confirmavit ex quo nostra auget corpora ; it is made the Eucharist of the bread , and the body of Christ out of that , of which the substance of our flesh consists and is encreased : by the bread which he confirmed to be his body , he encreases our bodies , by the blood which was poured out he encreases our blood ; that is the sence of Irenaeus so often repeated . And to the same purpose is that of Origen , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The bread , which is called the Eucharist , is to us the symbol of thanksgiving or Eucharist to God. So also Tertullian * , acceptum panem & distributum discipulis suis corpus suum fecit , He made the bread which he took and distributed to his disciples to be his body . But more plainly in his Book De Coronâ militis , Calicis aut panis nostri aliquid decuti in terram anxiè patimur ; we cannot endure that any of the cup or any thing of the bread be thrown to the ground . The Eucharist he plainly calls bread ; and that he speaks of the Eucharist is certain , and Bellarmine quotes the words to the purpose of shewing how reverently the Eucharist was handled and regarded . The like is in S. Cyprian , Dominus corpus suum panem vocat , & sanguinem suum vinum appellat . Our Lord calls bread his body , and wine his blood . So John Maxentius in the time of Pope Hormisda , The bread which the whole Church receives in memory of the Passion , is the body of Christ. And S. Cyril of Jerusalem is earnest in this affair ; since our Lord hath declared and said to us of bread , This is my body , who shall dare to doubt it ? which words I the rather note , because Cardinal Perron brings them , as if they made for his cause , which they most evidently destroy . For if of bread Christ made this affirmation , that it is his body , then it is both bread and Christs body too , and that is it which we contend for . In the Dialogues against the Marci●nites , collected out of Maximus , Origen is brought in proving the reality of Christs flesh and blood in his incarnation , by this argument . If as these men say , he be without flesh and bloud , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. Of what body and of what bloud did he command the images or figures giving the bread and cup to his Disciples , that by these a remembrance of him should be made ? But Acacius the successor of Eusebius in his Bishoprick , calls it bread and wine even in the very use and sanctification of us . Panis vinúmque ex hâc materiâ vescentes sanctificat , the bread and wine sanctifies them that are fed with this matter . In typo sanguinis sui non obtulit aquam sed vinum , so S. Hierome , he offered wine not water in the type [ representment or sacrament ] of his bloud . To the same purpose , but most plain are the words of Theodoret , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , In the exhibition of the mysteries he called bread his body , and the mixture in the chalice he called bloud . So also S. Austin Serm. 9. De diversis ; The Eucharist is our daily bread , but we receive it so that we are not only nourished by the belly , but also by the understanding . And I cannot understand the meaning of plain Latin , if the same thing be not affirmed in the little Mass-book published by Paulus 5. for the English Priests , Deus qui humani generis utramque substantiam praesentium munerum alimento , tribue quaesumus , ut eorum & corporibus nostris subsidium non desit & mentibus , The present gifts were appointed for the nourishment both of soul and body . Who please may see more in Macarius 27. Homily , and Ammonius in his Evangelical harmony in the Bibliotheca PP . and this though it be decryed now adays in the Roman Schools , yet was the doctrine of (a) Scotus , of (b) Durandus , (c) Ocham , (d) Cameracensis , and (e) Biel , and those men were for Consubstantiation ; that Christs natural body was together with natural bread , which although I do not approve , yet the use that I now make of them cannot be denied me ; it was their doctrine , that after consecration bread still remains ; after this let what can follow . But that I may leave the ground of this argument secure , I add this , that in the Primitive Church eating the Eucharistical bread was esteemed a breaking the fast , which is not imaginable any man can admit , but he that believes bread to remain after consecration , and to be nutritive as before : but so it was that in the second age of the Church it was advised that either they should end their station ( or fast ) at the communion , or defer the communion to the end of the station ; as appears in Tertullian , de Oratione cap. 14. which unanswerably proves that then it was thought to be bread and nutritive , even then when it was Eucharistical : and * Picus Mirandula affirms that if a Jew or a Christian should eat the Sacrament for refection , it breaks his fast . The same also is the doctrine of all those Churches who use the Liturgies of S. James , S. Mark , and S. Chrysostome , who hold that receiving the holy communion breaks the fast , as appears in the disputation of Cardinal Humbert with Nicetas about 600 years ago . The summ of all is this ; If of bread Christ said , This is my body , because it cannot be true in a proper natural sence , it implying a contradiction that it should be properly bread , and properly Christs body ; it must follow , That it is Christs body in a figurative improper sence . But if the bread does not remain bread , but be changed by blessing into our Lords body ; this also is impossible to be in any sence true , but by affirming the change to be only in use , virtue and condition , with which change the natural being of bread may remain . For , he that supposes that by the blessing , the bread ceases so to be , that nothing of it remains , must also necessarily suppose that the bread being no more , it neither can be the body of Christ , nor any thing else . For it is impossible that what is taken absolutely from all being , should yet abide under a certain difference of being , and that that thing which is not at all , should yet be after a certain manner . Since therefore ( as I have proved ) the bread remains , and of bread it was affirmed [ This is my body ] it follows inevitably that it is figuratively , not properly and naturally spoken of bread , That it is the flesh or body of our Lord. SECT . VI. Est corpus meum . 1. THE Next words to be considered are [ Est corpus ] This is my body ; ] and here begins the first Topical expression ; [ Est ] that is , significat or repraesentat , & exhibet corpus meum , say some . This is my body , it is to all real effects the same to your particulars , which my body is to all the Church : it signifies the breaking of my body , the effusion of my blood for you , and applies my passion to you , and conveys to you all the benefits ; as this nourishes your bodies , so my body nourishes your souls to life eternal , and consigns your bodies to immortality . Others make the trope in Corpus , so that Est shall signify properly , but Corpus is taken in a spiritual sence , sacramental and Mysterious ; not a natural and presential ; whether the figure be in Est or in Corpus , is but a question of Rhetorick , and of no effect . That the proposition is tropical and figurative is the thing , and that Christs natural body is now in heaven definitively , and no where else ; and that he is in the Sacrament as he can be in a Sacrament , in the hearts of faithful receivers , as he hath promised to be there ; that is , in the Sacrament mystically , operatively , as in a moral and divine instrument , in the hearts of receivers by faith and blessing ; this is the truth and the faith of which we are to give a reason and account to them that disagree . But this which is to all the purpose which any one pretends can be in the sumption of Christs body naturally , yet will not please the Romanists unless [ Est Is ] signifie properly without trope or metonymie , and corpus be corpus naturale . Here then I joyn issue ; It is not Christs body properly , or naturally : for though it signifies a real effect , yet it signifies the body figuratively , or the effects and real benefits . 2. Now concerning this , there are very many inducements to infer the figurative or tropical interpretation . 1. In the language which our blessed Lord spake , there is no word that can express significat , but they use the word Is ; the Hebrews and the Syrians always joyn the names of the signs with the things signified : and since the very essence of a sign is to signifie , it is not an improper elegancy in those languages to use [ Est ] for significat . 2. It is usual in the Old Testament , as may appear , to understand est when the meaning is for the present , and not to express it : but when it signifies the future then to express it ; the seven fat cows , seven years ; the seven withered ears shall be seven years of famine . 3. The Greek interpreters of the Bible supply the word est , in the present tense , which is omitted in the Hebrew , as in the places above quoted : but although their Language can very well express [ signifies ] yet they follow the Hebrew Idiom . 4. In the New Testament the same manner of speaking is retained , to declare that the nature and being of signs is to signifie they have no other esse but significare , and therefore they use est for significat . The Seed is the word , the Field is the World , the Reapers are the Angels , the Harvest is the End of the World ; the Rock is Christ ; I am the Door ; I am the Vine , my Father is the husbandman ; I am the way , the truth , and the life ; Sarah and Agar are the two Testaments ; the Stars are the Angels of the Churches , the Candlesticks are the Churches ; and many more of this kind ; we have therefore great and fair , and frequent precedents for expounding this est by significat , for it is the style of both the Testaments to speak in signs and representments , where one disparate speaks of another , as it does here : the body of Christ , of the bread , which is the Sacrament ; especially since the very institution of it is representative , significative , and commemorative : For so said our blessed Saviour , Do this in memorial of me * ; and this doing , ye shew forth the Lords death till he come , saith S. Paul. 3. Secondly , the second credibility that our blessed Saviours words are to be understood figuratively , is , because it is a * Sacrament : For mysterious and tropical expressions are very frequently , almost regularly and universally used in Scripture in Sacraments and sacramentals . And therefore it is but a vain discourse of Bellarmine to contend , that this must be a proper speaking , because it is a Sacrament . For that were all one as to say , he speaks mystically , therefore he speaks properly . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the Greek for a Sacrament , and all the Greek that is for it in the New Testament : and when S. Paul tells of a man praying in the spirit , but so as not to be understood , he expresses it by , speaking mysteries * . The mysterious and sacramental speaking is secret and dark . But so it is in the sacrament or covenant of circumcision . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , This is my Covenant , and yet it was but the seal of the Covenant , ( if you believe S. Paul ) it was a Sacrament and a consignation of it , but it is spoken of it affirmatively ; and the same words are used there as in the Sacrament of the Eucharist ; it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in both places . 4. And upon this account two other usual objections ( pretending that this being a Covenant and a Testament , it ought to be expressed without a figure ) are dissolved . For here is a Covenant and a Testament and a Sacrament all in one , and yet the expression of them is figurative ; and the being a Testament is so far from supposing all expression in it to be proper and free from figure , that it self , the very word Testament in the institution of the holy Sacrament is tropical or figurative : est Testamentum , that is , est signum Testamenti , it is , that is , it signifies . And why they should say that a Testament must have in it all plain words and no figures or hard sayings , that contend that both the Testaments New , and Old , are very full of hard sayings , and upon that account forbid the people to read them ; I confess I cannot understand . Besides this , though it be fit in temporal Testaments all should be plain , yet we see all are not plain ; and from thence come so many suits of Law ; yet there is not the same reason in spiritual or divine , and in humane Testaments ; for in humane , there is nothing but legacies and express commands , both which it is necessary that we understand plainly ; but in divine Testaments there are mysteries to exercise our industry and our faith , our patience and inquiry , some things for us to hope , some things for us to admire , some things to pry into , some things to act , some things for the present , some things for the future , some things pertaining to this life , some things pertaining to the life to come , some things we are to see in a glass darkly , some things reserved till the vision of Gods face . And after all this , in humane Testaments men ought to speak plainly , because they can speak no more when they are dead . But Christ can , for he being dead yet speaketh ; and he can by his Spirit make the Church understand as much as he please ; and he will as much as is necessary : and it might be remembred , that in Scripture there is extant a record of Jacobs Testament , and of Moses , which we may observe to be an allegory all the way . I have heard also of an Athenian that had two sons , and being asked on his deathbed to which of his two sons he would give his goods , to Leon or Pantaleon , which were the names of his two sons ; he only said , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but whether he meant to give all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Leon , or to Pantaleon , is not yet known . And in the Civil Law it is noted that Testaments have figurative expressions very often ; and therefore decreed , Non n. in causâ Testamentorum ad definitionem , ( strictam , sive propriam verborum significationem , saith the Gloss ) utique descendendum est , cum plerumque abusivè loquantur , nec propriis vocabulis ac nominibus semper utantur Testatores , l. non aliter Sect. Titius F. de legat . & fidei com . And there are in Law certain measures for presumption of the Testators meaning . These therefore are trifling arrests ; even a commandment may be given with a figurative expression , and yet be plain enough : such was that of Jesus , Pray ye the Lord of the Harvest , that he would send Labourers into his Harvest ; and that , Jesus commanded his Disciples to prepare the Passeover ; and some others : so , Rent your hearts , and not your garments , &c. And an article of faith may be expressed figuratively ; so is that of Christs sitting at the right hand of his Father . And therefore much more may there be figurative expressions in the institution of a mysterie , and yet be plain enough ; Tropica loquutio cum fit ubi fieri solet , sine labore sequitur intellectus ; said S. Austin , l. 3. de Doct. Christ. c. 37. Certain it is the Church understood this well enough for a Thousand years together , and yet admitted of figures in the institution . and since these new men had the handling of it , and excluded the figurative sence , they have made it so hard , that themselves cannot understand it , nor tell one anothers meaning . But it suffices as to this particular , that in Scripture , doctrines , and promises , and precepts and prophecies , and histories , are expressed sometimes figuratively ; Dabo tibi claves ; and Semen mulieris conteret caput serpentis ; and The dragon drew the third part of the Stars with his tail ; and Fight the good fight of faith , Put on the armour of righteousness ; and very many more . 5. Thirdly , And indeed there is no possibility of distinguishing sacramental propositions from common and dogmatical , or from a commandment ; but that these are affirmative of a nature , those of a mystery ; these speak properly , they are figurative : such as this , Vnless a man be born of water and the Spirit , be cannot enter into the kingdom of Heaven . The proposition is sacramental , mystical , and figurative : Go and baptize , that 's a precept ; therefore the rather is it literal and proper . So it is in the blessed Sacrament , the institution is in [ Jesus took bread and blessed it , and brake it , and gave to his disciples , saying , Take , eat ] In these also there is a precept , and in the last words : Hoc facite , this do in remembrance of me ; But the Sacramental proposition or the mystical , which explicates the Sacrament , is , [ Hoc est corpus meum ] and either this is , or there is no sacramental proposition in this whole affair to explicate the mysterie , or the being a sacrament . But this is very usual in sacramental propositions . For so baptism is called regeneration , and it is called a burial by S. Paul , for we are buried with him in baptism ; then baptism is either sepulchrum or sepultura , the grave or the burial , but either of them is a figure , and it is so much used in sacramental and mystick propositions , that they are all so , or may be so ; ut baptismus sepulchrum , sic hoc est corpus meum , saith S. Austin . And this is also observed in Gentile rites : — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — So Homer : The slain Lambs and the wine were the Sacrament , the faithful oaths , that is , the rite and mysterie of their sanction ; they were oaths figuratively . 6. Fourthly , But to save the labour of more instances ; S. Austin hath made the observation , and himself gives in a list of particulars : solet autem res quae significat , ejus rei nomine quam significat nuncupari ; septem spicae , septem anni sunt ( non enim dixit septem annos significant ) & multa hujusmodi . Hinc est quod dictum erat , Petra erat Christus , non enim dixit , Petra significat Christum , sed tanquam hoc esset quod utique per substantiam non erat , sed per significationem . The thing which signifies is wont to be called by that which it signifies : the seven ears of corn are seven years : he did not say they signified seven years , but are ; and many like this . Hence it is said , the rock was Christ , for he said not , the rock signifies Christ ; but as if the thing were that , not which it were in his own substance , but in signification . Pervulgatum est in Scripturâ , ut res figurata nomen habeat figurae , saith Ribera . That this is no usual thing is confessed on all hands . So is that of Exodus , the Lamb is the Passeover ; and this does so verifie Saint Austins words , that in the New Testament the Apostles asked our Lord , Where wilt thou that we prepare to eat the Passeover ? that is , the Lamb which was the remembrance of the Passeover , as the blessed Eucharist is of the death of Christ. To this instance Bellarmine speaks nothing to purpose , for he denies the Lamb to signifie the Passeover , or the passing of the Angel over the houses of Israel , because there is no likelihood between the Lamb and the Passeover ; and to make the business up , he says , the Lamb was the Passeover : By some straining , the Lamb slain might signifie the slaying the Egyptians , and remember their own escape at the time when they first eat the Lamb : But by no straining could the Lamb be the thing ; especially , if for the dissimilitude it could not so much as signifie it , how could it be the very same to which it was so extreamly unlike ? but he always says something , though it be nothing to the purpose : and yet it may be remembred that the eating the Lamb was as proper an instrument of remembrance of that deliverance , as the eating consecrated bread is of the passion of our blessed Lord. But it seems the Lamb is the very passeover , as the very festival day is called the Passeover ; so he . And he says true , in the same manner ; but that is but by a trope or figure , for the feast is the feast of the Passeover ; if you speak properly , it is the Passeover by a Metonymie : and so is the Lamb. And this instance is so much the more apposite , because it is the fore-runner of the blessed Eucharist , which succeeded that , as Baptism did Circumcision ; and there is nothing of sence that hath been , or I think can be spoken to evade the force of this instance ; nor of the many other before reckoned . 8. Fifthly , And as it is usual in all Sacraments , so particularly it must be here , in which there is such a heap of tropes and figurative speeches , that almost in every word there is plainly a trope . For 1. Here is the Cup taken for the thing contained in it . 2. Testament , for the legacy given by it . 3. This , ] is not in recto , but in obliquo . This ] that is , not this which you see , but this which you do not see . This which is under the species is my dody . 4. My body , but not bodily ; my body without the forms and figure of my body , that is , my body , not as it is in nature , not as it is in glory , but as it is in Sacrament ; that is , my body Sacramentally . 5. Drink ye ] that is also improper ; for his blood is not drunk properly , for blood hath the same manner of existing in the chalice as it hath in the Paten , that is , is under the form of wine as it is under the form of bread ; and therefore it is in the veins , not separate , say they , * and yet it is in the bread , as it is in the chalice , and in both as upon the Cross , that is , poured out , so Christ said expresly ; for else it were so far from being his blood , that it were not so much as the Sacrament of what he gave ; so that the wine in the chalice is not drunk , because it is not separate from the body ; and in the bread it cannot be drunk , because there it is not in the veins ; or if it were , yet is made as a consistent thing by the continent , but is not potable : now that which follows from hence is , that it is not drunk at all properly , but figuratively : and so Mr. Brerely (a) confesses sometimes , and Jansenius , (b) There is also an impropriety in the word [ given , for shall be given ; is poured out , for shall be poured out (c) ; in [ broken , for then it was not broken when Christ spake it , and it cannot be properly spoken since his glorification . Salmeron allows an Enallage in the former , and Suarez a Metaphor in the latter . Frangi cùm dicitur , est Metaphorica locutio . And this is their excuse , why in the Roman missal they leave out the words [ which is broken for you ] for they do what they please , they put in some words which Christ used not , and leave out something that he did use , and yet they are all the words of institution . And upon the same account there is another trope in [ eat ] and yet with a strange confidence these men wonder at us for saying the sacramental words are tropical or figurative * , when even by their own confession (d) and proper grounds , there is scarce any word in the whole institution but admits an impropriety . And then concerning the main predication ; This is my body , as Christ called bread his body , so he called his body bread , and both these affirmatives are destructive of Transubstantiation ; for if of bread Christ affirmed , It is his body , by the rule of disparates it is figurative ; and if of his body he affirmed it to be bread , it is certain also and confessed to be a figure . Now concerning this , besides that our blessed Saviour affirmed himself to be the bread that came down from heaven , calling himself bread , and in the institution calling bread his body ; we have the express words of Theodoret , (e) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; Christ gave to his body the name of the Symbol , and to the Symbol the name of his body ; and S. Cyprian speaks expresly to this purpose , as you may see above , Sect. 5. n. 9. 9. Sixthly , The strange inconveniences and impossibilities , the scandals and errours , the fancy of the Capernaites , and the temptations to faith , arising from the literal sence of these words , have been in other cases thought sufficient by all men to expound words of Scripture by tropes and allegories . The heresie of the Authropomorphites and the Euchitae , and the doctrine of the Chiliasts , and Origen gelding himself , proceeded from the literal sence of some texts of Scripture , against which there is not the hundred part of so much presumption as I shall in the sequel make to appear to lie against this . And yet no man puts out his right eye literally , or cuts off his right hand to prevent a scandal . Certain it is , there hath been much greater inconvenience by following the letter of these words of institution , than of any other in Scripture : by so much as the danger of Idolatry , and actual tyranny , and uncharitable damning others , and schism , are worse than any temporal inconvenience , or an error in a matter of speculation . 10. Seventhly , I argue out of S. Austins grounds thus : As the Fathers did eat Christs body , so do we under a diverse Sacrament , and different symbols , but in all the same reality ; whatsoever we eat , the same they did eat ; for the difference is this only , they received Christ by faith in him that was to come , and we by faith in him that is come already ; but they had the same real benefit , Christ as really as we , for they had salvation as well as we . But the fathers could not eat Christs flesh in a natural manner , for it was not yet assumed : and though it were as good an argument against our eating of it naturally , that it is gone from us into heaven ; yet that which I now insist upon is , that it was cibus spiritualis which they eat under the Sacrament of Manna ; therefore we under the Sacrament of bread and wine eating the same meat , eat only Christ in a spiritual sence , that is , our spiritual meat . And this is also true in the other Sacraments of the Rock and the Cloud : Our Fathers eat of the same spiritual meat , and drank of the same spiritual drink , that is , Christ ; so he afterwards expounds it . Now if they did eat and drink Christ , that is , were by him in sacrament , and to all reality of effect nourished up to life eternal , why cannot the same spiritual meat do the same thing for us , we receiving it also in sacrament and mystery ? 2. To which I add , that all they that do communicate spiritually , do receive all the blessing of the Sacrament , which could not be unless the mystery were only sacramental , mysterious , and spiritual . Maldonate speaking of something of this from the authority of S. Austin , is of opinion that if S. Austin were now alive , in very spite to the Calvinists , he would have expounded that of Manna otherwise than he did : It seems he lived in a good time , when malice and the spirit of contradiction was not so much in fashion in the interpretations of the Scripture . 11. Now let it be considered whether all that I have said be not abundantly sufficient to out-weigh their confidence of the literal sence of these sacramental words . They find the words spoken , they say they are literally to be understood , they bring nothing considerable for it ; there is no Scripture that so expounds it , there is no reason in the circumstances of the words ; but there is all the reason of the world against it , ( as I have and shall shew ) and such , for the meanest of which very many other places of Scripture are drawn from the literal sence , and rest in a tropical and spiritual . Now in all such cases when we find an inconvenience press the literal expression of a text , instantly we find another that is figurative , and why it is not so done in this , the interest and secular advantages which are consequent to this opinion of the Church of Rome may give sufficient account . In the mean time we have reason not to admit of the literal sence of these words , not only by the analogy of other sacramental expressions in both Testaments , I mean that of Circumcision and the Passeover in the Old , and Baptism as Christ discoursed it to Nicodemus in the New Testament ; but also 2. Because the literal sence of the like words in this very Article introduced the Heresie of the Capernaites ; and 3. Because the subject and the predicate in the words of institution are diverse and disparate , and cannot possibly be spoken of each other properly . 4. The words in the natural and proper sence seem to command an unnatural thing , the eating of flesh . 5. They rush upon infinite impossibilities , they contradict sence and reason , the principles and discourses of all mankind , and of all Philosophy . 6. Our blessed Saviour tells us that the flesh profiteth nothing , and ( as themselves pretend ) even in this mystery , that his words were spirit and life . 7. The literal sence cannot be explicated by themselves , nor by any body for them . 8. It is against the Analogy of other Scriptures . 9. It is to no purpose . 10. Upon the literal sence of the words , the Church could not confute the * Marcionites , Eutychians , Nestorians , the Aquarii . 11. It is against antiquity . 12. The whole form of words in every of the members is confessed to be figurative by the opposite party . 13. It is not pretended to be verifiable without an infinite company of miracles , all which being more than needs , and none of them visible , but contestations against art and the notices of two or three sciences , cannot be supposed to be done by God , who does nothing superfluously . 14. It seems to contradict an Article of faith , viz. of Christs sitting in Heaven in a determinate place , and being contained there till his second coming . Upon these considerations , and upon the account of all the particular arguments which I have and shall bring against it , it is not unreasonable , neither can it seem so , that we decline the letter , and adhere to the spirit in the sence of these words . But I have divers things more to say in this particular from the consideration of other words of the institution , and the whole nature of the thing . SECT . VII . Considerations of the Manner and Circumstances and Annexes of the Institution . 1. THE blessed Sacrament is the same thing now as it was in the institution of it : But Christ did not really give his natural body in the natural sence when he eat his last Supper , therefore neither does he now . The first proposition is beyond all dispute , certain , evident , and confessed ; Hoc facite convinces it : This do ] what Christ did , his Disciples are to do . I assume : Christ did not give his natural body properly in the last Supper , therefore neither does he now ; the assumption I prove by divers arguments . 2. First , If then he gave his natural body , then it was naturally broken , and his bloud was actually poured forth before the passion ; for he gave 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , his body was delivered broken , his bloud was shed : Now those words were spoken either properly and naturally ; and then they were not true , because his body was yet whole , his bloud still in the proper channels ; or else it was spoken in a figurative and sacramental sence , and so it was true : ( as were all the words which our blessed Saviour spake ) for that which he then ministred was the Sacrament of his Passion . 3. Secondly , If Christ gave his body in the natural sence at the last Supper , then it was either a sacrifice propitiatory , or it was not ; If it was not , then it is not now , and then their dream of the Mass is vanished : if it was propitiatory at the last Supper , then God was reconciled to all the world , and mankind was redeemed before the Passion of our blessed Saviour : which therefore would have been needless and ineffective : so fearful are the consequents of this strange doctrine . 4. Thirdly , If Christ gave his body properly in the last Supper , and not only figuratively and in sacrament , then it could not be a representment or sacrament of his Passion , but a real exhibition of it : but that it was a Sacrament only , appears by considering that it was then alive ; that the Passion was future , that the thing was really to be performed upon the Cross , that then he was to be delivered for the life of the world . In the last Supper all this was in type and sacrament , because it was before , and the substance was to follow after . 5. Fourthly , If the natural body of Christ was in the last Supper under the accidents of bread , then his body at the same time was visible and invisible in the whole substance , visible in his person , invisible under the accidents of bread : and then it would be inquired what it was which the Apostles received , what benefits they could have by receiving the body naturally ; or whether it be imaginable that the Apostles understoood it in the literal sence , when they saw his body stand by , unbroken , alive , integral , hypostatical . 6. Fifthly , If Christs body were naturally in the Sacrament , I demand , whether it be as it was in the last Supper , or as upon the Cross , or as it is now in Heaven ? Not as in the last Supper , for then it was frangible , but not broken ; but typically , by design , in figure and in Sacrament , as it is evident in matter of fact . 2. Not as on the Cross ; for there the body was frangible and broken too , and the blood spilled ; and if it were so now in the Sacrament , besides that it were to make Christs glorified body passible , and to crucifie the Lord of life again ; it also were not the same body which Christ hath now , for his Body that he hath now is spiritual and incorruptible , and cannot be otherwise ; much less can it be so and not so at the same time properly , and yet be the same body . 3. Not as in Heaven , where it is neither corruptible nor broken ; for then in the Sacrament there were given to us Christs glorified body ; and then neither were the Sacrament a remembrance of Christs death , neither were the words of Institution verified , [ This is my body which is broken ; ] besides , in this we have Bellarmines confession , Neque enim ore corporali sumi potest corpus Christi ut est in coelo . But then if it be remembred , that Christ hath no other body but that which is in Heaven ; and that can never be otherwise than it is , and so it cannot be received otherwise properly ; it unanswerably follows , that if it be received in any other manner ( as it must if it be at all ) it must be received ( not naturally or corporally ) but spiritually and indeed . By a figure , or a sacramental , spiritual sence , all these difficulties are easily assoiled , but by the natural never . 7. Sixthly , At the last Supper they eat the blessed Eucharist , but it was not in remembrance of Christs death , for it was future then , and therefore not then capable of being remembred any more than a man can be said to remember what will be done to morrow ; it follows from hence that then Christ only instituted a Sacrament or figurative mysterious representment of a thing , that in the whole use of it was variable by heri and cras , and therefore never to be naturally verified , but on the Cross by a proper and natural presence , because then it was so and never else ; at that time it was future , and now it is past , and in both it is relative to his death ; therefore it could not be a real exhibition of his body in a natural sence , for that as it could not be remembred then , so neither broken now ; that is , nothing of it is natural , but it is wholly ritual , mysterious , and sacramental . For that this was the sacrament of his death , appears in the words of Institution , and by the preceptive words , Do this in remembrance of me . And in the reason subjoyned by S. Paul , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. For so often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup , ye shew the Lords death till he come . Therefore when Christ said , This is my body given , or broken on my part , taken , eaten on yours , it can be nothing else but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the sacramental image of his death ; to effect which purpose it could not be necessary or useful to bring his natural body , that so the substance should become his own shadow ; the natural presence be his own Sacrament , or rather the image and representment of what he once suffered . His body given in the Sacrament is the application and memory of his death and no more ; that as Christ in Heaven represents his death in the way of intercession , so do we by our ministery : but as in Heaven it is wholly a representing of his body crucified , a rememoration of his crucifixion , of his death & passion , by which he reconciled God and man : so it is in the Sacrament after our manner , This is my body given for you ] that is , This is the Sacrament of my death , in which my body was given for you . For as Aquinas said , in all sciences words signifie things , but it is proper to Theology , that things themselves signified or expressed by voices should also signifie something beyond it . This is my body , are the sacramental words , or those words by which the mystery or the thing is sacramental ; it must therefore signifie something beyond these words , and so they do ; for they signifie the death which Christ suffered in that body . It is but an imperfect conception of the mystery to say it is the Sacrament of Christs body only , or his blood ; but it is ex parte rei , a Sacrament of the death of his body : and to us a participation , or an exhibition of it , as it became beneficial to us , that is , as it was crucified , as it was our sacrifice . And this is so wholly agreeable to the nature of the thing , and the order of the words , and the body of the circumstances , that it is next to that which is evident in it self , and needs no further light but the considering the words and the design of the Institution : especially since it is consonant to the style of Scripture in the Sacrament of the Passeover , and very many other instances ; it wholly explicates the nature of the mystery , it reconciles our duty with the secret , it is free of all inconvenience , it prejudices no right , nor hinders any real effect it hath or can have : and it makes the mystery intelligible and prudent , fit to be discoursed of , and inserted into the rituals of a wise Religion . 8. Seventhly , He that receives unworthily receives no benefit to his body or to his soul by the holy Sacrament , that is agreed on all sides ; therefore he that receives benefit to his body , receives it by his worthy communicating , therefore the benefit reaching to the body by the holy Eucharist , comes to it by the soul , therefore by the action of the soul , not the action of the body ; therefore by faith , not by the mouth : whereas on the contrary , if Christs body natural were eaten in the Sacrament , the benefit would come to the body by his own action , and to the soul by the body . All that eat are not made Christs body , and all that eat not are not disintitled to the resurrection ; the Spirit does the work without the Sacrament , and in the Sacrament when 't is done : The flesh profiteth nothing ] And this argument ought to prevail upon this account : Because , as is the nutriment , so is the manducation . If the nourishment be wholly spiritual , then so is the eating . But by the Roman doctrine the body of Christ does not naturally nourish , therefore neither is it eaten naturally ; but it does nourish spiritually , and therefore it is eaten only spiritually . And this doctrine is also affirmed by Cajetan , though how they will endure it I cannot understand ; Manducatur verum corpus Christi in Sacramento , sed non corporalitèr sed spiritualitèr . Spiritualis manducatio quae per animam fit ad Christi carnem in Sacramento existentem pertingit . The true body of Christ is eaten in the Sacrament , but not corporally , but spiritually . The spiritual manducation which is made by the soul , reaches to the flesh of Christ in the Sacrament ; which is very good Protestant doctrine . And if it be absurd to say Christs body doth nourish corporally , why it should not be as absurd to say , we eat it corporally , is a secret which I have not yet been taught . As is our eating so is the nourishing , because that is in order to this ; therefore if you will suppose that natural eating of Christs body does nourish spiritually , yet it must also nourish corporally ; let it do more if it may , but it must do so much ; just as the waters in baptism , although the waters are symbolical and instrumental to the purifying of the soul , yet because the waters are material and corporeal , they cleanse the body first and primarily : so it must be in this Sacrament also ; if Christs body were eaten naturally , it must nourish naturally , and then pass further : but that which is natural is first , and then that which is spiritual . 9. Eighthly , For the likeness to the argument , I insert this consideration ; by the doctrine of the ancient Church , wicked men do not eat the body , nor drink the blood of Christ. So Origen , Si fieri potest ut qui malus adhuc perseveret edat verbum factum carnem , cùm sit verbum & panis vivus , nequaquam scriptum fuisset , Quisquis ederit panem hunc vivet in aeternum . If it were possible for him that perseveres in wickedness to eat the word made flesh , when it is the word and the living bread , it had never been written , Whosoever shall eat this bread shall live for ever . So S. Hilary , Panis qui descendit de coelo non nisi ab eo accipitur qui Dominum habet , & Christi membrum est : The bread that came down from Heaven is not taken of any but of him who hath the Lord , and is a member of Christ. Lambunt Petram , saith S. Cyprian , They lick the Rock , that is , eat not of the food , and drink not of the blood that issued from thence when the Rock was smitten . They receive corticem sacramenti , & furfur carnis , saith S. Bernard , the skin of the Sacrament , and the bran of the flesh . But Ven. Bede is plain without an allegory . Omnis infidelis non vescitur carne Christi : An unbelieving man is not fed with the flesh of Christ ; the reason of which could not be any thing but because Christ is only eaten by faith . But I reserved S. Austin for the last , So then these are no true receivers of Christs body , in that they are none of his true members . For ( to omit all other allegations ) they cannot be both the members of Christ and the members of an harlot ; and Christ himself saying , He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood , dwelleth in me , and I in him , sheweth what it is to receive Christ , not only sacramentally , but truly ; for this is to dwell in Christ and Christ in him . For thus he spoke , as if he had said ; He that dwelleth not in me nor I in him , cannot say , he eateth my flesh or drinketh my blood . In which words ( if the Roman Doctors will be judged by S. Austin for the sence of the Church in this Question , and will allow him in this point to be a good Catholick ) 1. He dogmatically declares that the wicked man does not eat Christs body truly . 2. He does eat it sacramentally . 3. That to eat with effect , is to eat Christs body truly ; to which if they please to add this , That to eat it spiritually is to eat it with effect , it follows by S. Austins doctrine , that spiritually is really , and that there is no true and real body of Christ eaten in the Sacrament , but by the faithful receiver : or if you please receive the conclusion in the words of S. Austin , Tunc erit unicuique corpus & sanguis Christi , si quod in sacramento sumitur , in ipsâ veritate spiritualiter manducetur , spiritualiter bibatur , then to each receiver it becomes the body and blood of Christ , if that which is taken in the Sacrament be in the very truth it self spiritually eaten and spiritually drunk : which words of S. Austin , Bellarmine , upon another occasion being to answer , in stead of answering , grants it , and tells that this manner of speaking is very usual in S. Austin [ the truest answer in all his books : ] but whether it be for him or against him , he ought to have considered . Neither can this be put off with saying , that the wicked do not truly eat Christ , that is , not to any benefit or purpose , but that this does not mean they receive him not at all . Just as we say when a man eats but a little , he does not eat : for as good never a jot , as never the better . This I say is not a sufficient escape . 1. Because S. Austin opposes sacramental receiving to the true and real , and says that the wicked only receive it sacramentally ; but not the thing whose Sacrament it is ; so that this is not a proposition of degrees , but there is a plain opposition of one to the other . 2. It is true , S. Austin does not say that the wicked do not receive Christ at all , for he says they receive him sacramentally ; but he says , they do not at all receive him truly , and the wicked man cannot say he does : and he proves this by unanswerable arguments out of Scripture . 3. This excuse will not with any pretence be fitted with the sayings of the other Fathers , nor to all the words of S. Austin in this quotation , and much less in others which I have * and shall remark , particularly this ; that he calls that which the wicked eat , nothing but signum corporis & sanguinis . His words are these ‖ , Ac per hoc qui non manet in Christo , & in quo non manet Christus , procul dubio non manducat spiritualiter carnem , non bibit sanguinem , licèt carnaliter & visibiliter premat dentibus signum corporis & sanguinis : he does not eat the body and drink the blood spiritually , although carnally and visibly he presses with his teeth the sign of the body and blood . Plainly , all the wicked do but eat the sign of Christs body , all that is to be done beyond , is to eat it spiritually . There is no other eating but these two : and from S. Austin it was that the Schools received that famous distinction of Panis Dominus , and Panis Domini , Judas received the bread of the Lord against the Lord : But the other Apostles received the bread which was the Lord , that is , his body . But I have already spoken of the matter of this argument in the third Paragraph , num . 7. which the Reader may please to add to this to make it fuller . 10. Ninthly . Lastly , In the words of Institution and Consecration ( as they call them ) the words which relate to the consecrated wine are so different in the Evangelists , and S. Paul respectively , as appears by comparing them together ; that 1. It does not appear which words were literally spoken by our blessed Saviour : for all of them could not be so spoken as they are set down . 2. That they all regarded the sence and meaning of the mystery , not the letters and the syllables . 3. It is not possible to be certain that Christ intended the words of any one of them to be consecratory or effective of what they signifie , for every one of the relators differ in the words , though all agree in the things ; as the Reader may observe in the beginning of the fourth Paragraph , where the four forms are set by each other to be compared . 4. The Church of Rome in the consecration of the Chalice uses a form of words , which Christ spake not at all , nor are related by S. Matthew , or S. Mark , or S. Luke , or S. Paul , but she puts in some things and changes others ; her form is this . Hic est enim calix sanguinis mei novi & aeterni Testamenti , mysterium fidei , qui pro vobis & pro multis effundetur in remissionem peccatorum . For this is the chalice of my blood , of the New and eternal Testament , the mystery of faith , which shall be shed for you , and for many for the remission of sins : what is added is plain , what is altered would be very material , if the words were consecratory ; for they are not so likely to be operative and effective as the words of Christ recited by S. Matthew , and S. Mark , [ this is my blood : ] and if this had not been the ancient form used in the Church of Rome long before the doctrine of Transubstantiation was thought of ; it is not to be imagined that they would have refused the plainer words of Scripture to have made the Article more secret , the form less operative , the authority less warrantable , the words less simple and natural . But the corollary which is natural and proper from the particulars of this argument is , that the mystery was so wholly spiritual , that it was no matter by what words it were expressed , so the spirit of it were retained ; and yet if it had been an historical , natural , proper sence that had been intended , it ought also in all reason to have been declared , or ( much more ) effected by a natural and proper , and constant affirmative . But that there is nothing spoken properly , is therefore evident , because there are so many predications , and all mean the same mystery , Hic est sanguis meus N. Testamenti ; and , Hic calix est N. Testamentum in meo sanguine ; and , Hic est calix sanguinis mei in the Roman Missal ; all this declares it is mysterium fidei , and so to be taken in all sences : and those words are left in their Canon , as if on purpose either to prevent the literal and natural understanding of the other words , or for the reducing the communicants to the only apprehensions of faith : It is mysterium fidei , not sanguis naturalis , a mystery of faith , not natural blood . For supposing that both the forms used by S. Matthew and S. Luke , respectively could be proper and without a figure ; and S. Matthews Hic est sanguis Testamenti , did signifie , This is the divine promise ( for so Bellarmine dreams that Testament there signifies ) and that in S. Lukes words [ This cup is the Testament ] it signifies the instrument of the Testament , ( for so a Will or a Testament is taken , either for the thing willed , or the Parchment in which it is written ) yet how are these or either of these affirmative of the wine being transubstantiated into blood ? It says nothing of that , and so if this sence of those words does avoid a trope , it brings in a distinct proposition ; if it be spoken properly , it is more distant from giving authority to their new doctrine ; and if the same word have several sences , then in the sacramental proposition , as it is described by the several Evangelists , there are several predicates , and therefore it is impossible that all should be proper . And yet besides this , although he thinks he may freely say any thing if he covers it with a distinction , yet the very members of this distinction conclude against his conclusion ; for if Testament in one place be taken for the instrument of his Testament , it is a tropical loquution ; just as I say , my bible ( meaning my book ) is the word of God , that is , contains the word of God , it is a Metonymie of the thing containing for that which it contains . But this was more than I needed , and therefore I am content it should pass for nothing . SECT . VIII . Of the Arguments of the Romanists from Scripture . 1. THUS I have by very many arguments taken from the words and circumstances , and annexes of the Institution or Consecration proved , that the sence of this mystery is mysterious , and spiritual , that Christs body is eaten only sacramentally by the body , but really and effectively only by faith , which is the mouth of the soul , that the flesh profiteth nothing , but the words which Christ spake are spirit and life . And let it be considered , Whether besides a pertinacious resolution that they will understand these words as they found in the letter , not as they are intended in the spirit , there be any thing , or indeed can be in the nature of the thing , or circumstances of it , or usefulness , or in the different forms of words , or the Analogy of the other discourses of Christ , that can give colour to their literal sence ? against which so much reason and Scripture , and arguments from Antiquity do contest . This only I observe , that they bring no pretence of other Scriptures to warrant this interpretation , but such which I have or shall wrest out of their hands ; and which to all mens first apprehensions , and at the very first sight do make against them , and which without curious notion and devices cannot pretend on their side : as appears first in the tenth Chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians , Verses 16 , 17. 2. Out of which I have already proved , that Christs body is not taken in the natural sence , but in the spiritual . But when Bellarmine had out of the same words forced for himself three arguments proving nothing ; to save any man the labour of answering them , he adds at the end of them these words ; Sed tota difficultas est , as corporaliter , realiter , propriè sumatur sanguis & caro , an solùm significativè & spiritualiter . Quod autem corporaliter & propriè probari posset omnibus argumentis quibus suprà probavimus propriè esse intelligenda verba illa institutionis , Hoc est corpus meum . That is , after his arguments out of the first Epistle to the Corinthians were ended , all the difficulty of the question still remained ; and that he was fain to prove by Hoc est corpus meum , and the proper arguments of that ; but brings nothing from the words of S. Paul in this Chapter . But to make up this also he does corrodere , scrape together some things extrinsecal to the words of this authority , as 1. That the literal sence is to be presumed unless the contrary be proved ; which is very true : but I have evidently proved the contrary concerning the words of Institution ; and for the words in this Chapter , if the literal sence be preferred , then the bread remains after Consecration , because it is called bread . 2. So the Primitive Saints expounded it ] which how true it is , I shall consider in his own place . 3. The Apostle calling the Gentiles from their sacrificed flesh proposes to them a more excellent banquet , but it were not more excellent if it were only a figure of Christs body ; so Bellarmine ; which is a fit cover for such a dish : for 1. We do not say that in the Sacrament we only receive the sign and figure of Christs body ; but all the real effects and benefits of it . 2. If we had , yet it is not very much better than blasphemy , to say that the Apostles had not prevailed upon that account . For if the very figure and sacrament of Christs body be better than sacrifices offered to Devils , the Apostle had prevailed , though this sentence were true , that in the Sacrament we receive only the figure . And thus I have ( for all that is said against it ) made it apparent that there is nothing in that place for their corporal presence . 3. There is one thing more which out of Scripture they urge for the corporal presence , viz. He that eateth and drinketh unworthily , eateth and drinketh damnation to himself , not discerning the Lords body : and , he shall be guilty of the body and blood of Christ. Where they observe that they that eat unworthily do yet eat Christs body , because how else could they be guilty of it , and condemned for not discerning it ? 4. To this I answer many things . 1. S. Paul does not say , He that eateth and drinketh Christs body and blood unworthily , &c. but indefinitely , He that eateth and drinketh , &c. yet it is probable he would have said so , if it had been a proper form of speech , because by so doing it would have layed a greater load upon them . 2. Where S. Paul does not speak indefinitely , he speaks most clearly against the Article in the Roman sence ; for he calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The cup of the Lord , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , this bread , and , he that eats this bread unworthily is guilty of the body and blood of Christ : and now these comminatory phrases are quitted from their pretence , but yet they have their proper consideration : Therefore 3. Not discerning the Lords body , is , not separating it from profane and common usages , not treating it with addresses proper to the mystery . To which phrase Justin gives light in these words , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , we do not receive it as common bread and common drink ; but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. but nourishment made Eucharistical or blessed by the word of Prayer ; and so it is the body and blood of the Lord. 4. It is the body of the Lord in the same sence here as in the words of institution , which I have evinced to be exegetical , sacramental , and spiritual ; and by despising the sacrament of it , we become guilty of the body and blood of Christ. Reus erit corporis & sanguinis Christi qui tanti mysterii sacramentum despexerit , saith S. Hierome . And it is in this as Severianus said concerning the statutes of Theodosius broken in despight by the Antiochians , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . If you abuse the Kings Image , the affront relates to your Prince . 5. The unworthy receiver is guilty of the body and blood of Christ , not naturally , for that cannot now be , and nothing is a greater probation of the spiritual sence of the words in this place , than this , which they would intice into their party ; For Christs body is glorified , and not capable of natural injury : but the evil communicant is guilty of the body and blood of Christ : just as relapsing Christians are said by the same Apostles , to crucifie the Lord of life again , and put him to an open shame , which I suppose they cannot do naturally or corporally . One is as the other , that is , both are tropical or figurative . 5. These are all that they pretend from Scripture ; and all these are nothing to their purpose ; but now besides what I have already said , I shall bring arguments from other Scriptures which will not so easily be put off . SECT . IX . Arguments from other Scriptures , proving Christs Real Presence in the Sacrament to be only Spiritual , not Natural . 1. THE first is taken from those words of our blessed Saviour , Whatsoever entereth into the mouth goeth into the belly , and is cast forth into the draught ; meaning , that all food that is taken by the mouth , hath for his share the fortune of the belly ; and indeed manducation and ejection are equally deminutions of any perfect thing ; and because it cannot without blasphemy be spoken , that the natural body of Christ ought or can suffer ejection , neither can it suffer manducation . To this Bellarmine weakly answers , that these words of Christ are only true of that which is taken to nourish the body : which saying of his is not true ; for if it be taken to purge the body , or to make the body sick , or to make it lean , or to minister to lust , or to chastise the body , as those who in pennances have masticated aloes and other bitter gums , yet still it is cast into the draught . 2. But suppose his meaning true , yet this argument will not so be put off ; because although the end of receiving the blessed Sacrament is not to nourish the body ; yet that it does nourish the body , is affirmed by Irenaeus , Justin Martyr , and others ; of which I have already given an account . To which I here add the plain words of Rabanus , Illud [ corpus Christi ] in nos convertitur dum id manducamus & bibimus . That body is chang'd into us when we eat it and drink it ; and therefore although it hath a higher purpose , yet this also cannot be avoided . 3. Either we may manducate the accidents only , or else the substance of bread , or the substance of Christs body . If we manducate only the accidents , * then how do we eat Christs body ? If we manducate bread , then 't is capable of all the natural alterations , and it cannot be denied . But if we manducate Christs body after a natural manner , what worse thing is it , that it descends into the guts , than that it goes into the stomach ; to be cast forth , than to be torn in pieces with the teeth , as I have proved * that it is by the Roman Doctrine ? Now I argue thus : if we eat Christs natural body , we eat it either Naturally or Spiritually : if it be eaten only Spiritually , then it is Spiritually digested , and is Spiritual nourishment , and puts on accidents and affections Spiritual . But if the natural body be eaten naturally , then what hinders it from affections and transmutations natural ? 4. Although Algerus , and out of him Bellarmine , would have Christians stop their ears against this argument , ( and so would I against that doctrine of which these fearful conclusions are unavoidable consequents ) yet it is disputed in the Summa Angelica , and an instance or case put which to my sence seems no inconsiderable argument to reprove the folly of this doctrine : For ( saith he ) what if the Species pass indigested into the belly from the stomach ? He answers ; that they were not meat if they did not nourish ; and therefore it is probable as Boetius says , that the body of our Lord does not go into the draught , though the Species do . And yet it is determined by the Gloss on the Canon Law , that as long as the species remain uncorrupted , the holy body is there under those Species ; and therefore may be vomited ; and consequently ejected all ways by which the Species can pass unalter'd . Eousque progreditur corpus quousque species ; said Harpsfield in his disputation at Oxford . If these things be put together , viz. the body is there so long , as the Species are uncorrupted : and the Species may remain uncorrupted till they be cast upwards or downwards , as in case of sickness : it follows that in this case , which is a case easily contingent , by their doctrine , the holy body must pass in latrinam . And what then ? it is to be ador'd as a true Sacrament , though it come from impure places , though it be vomited . So said Vasquez * , and it is the prevailing opinion in their Church . Add to this , that if this nourishment does not descend and cleave to the guts of the Priest , it is certain that God does not hear his prayers : for he is enjoyned by the Roman Missal published by authority of the Council of Trent , and the command of Pope Pius the Fourth , to pray , Corpus tuum domine quod sumpsi , & sanguis quem potavi , adhaereat visceribus meis , Let thy body , O Lord , which I have taken , and the blood which I have drunk , cleave to my bowels . It seems indeed they would have it go no further , to prevent the inconveniences of the present argument ; but certain it is , that if they intended it for a figurative speech , it was a bold one , and not so fitted for edification , as for an objection . But to return . This also was the argument of Origen : Quod si quicquid ingreditur in os , in ventrem abit , & in secessum ejicitur , & ille cibus qui sanctificatur per verbum Dei perque obsecrationem juxta id quod habet materiale in ventrem abit , & in secessum ejicitur — & haec quidem de typico symbolicóque corpore . He plainly distinguishes the material part from the spiritual in the Sacrament , and affirms that according to the material part , that meat that is sanctified by the word of God and prayer , enters into the mouths , descends into the belly , and goes forth in the natural ejection . And this is only true of the typical and symbolical body . Now besides that it affirms the words of our blessed Saviour to have effect in the Sacrament , he affirms that the material part , the type and symbols are the body of Christ , that is , his body is present in a typical and symbolical manner . This is the plain and natural sence of the words of Origen . But he must not mean what he means , if he says any thing in an other place that may make for the Roman opinion . And this is their way of answering objections brought from the Fathers ; they use to oppose words to words , and conclude they must mean their meaning ; or else they contradict themselves . And this trick Bellarmine uses frequently , and especially Cardinal Perron , and from them the lesser Writers : And so it happens in this present argument : for other words of Origen are brought to prove he inclined to the Roman opinion . But I demand , are the words more contradictory if they be both drawn to a spiritual sence , than if they be both drawn to a natural ? 2. Though we have no need to make use of it , yet it is no impossible thing that the Fathers should contradict one another and themselves too ; as you may see pretended violently by Cardinal Perron in his answer to K. James . 3. But why must all sheaves bow to their sheaf , and all words be wrested to their fancy , when there are no words any where pretended from them , but with less wresting than these must suffer for them , they will be brought to speak against them , or at least nothing for them ? But let us see what other words Origen hath , by which we must expound these . 4. Origen says that the Christian people drinketh the blood of Christ , and the flesh of the word of God is true food ; What then ? so say we too ; but it is Spiritual food , and we drink the blood Spiritually . He says nothing against that , but very much for it ; as I have in several places remarked already . 5. But how can this expound the other words ? Christian people eat Christs flesh and drink his blood ; therefore when Origen says the material part , the Symbolical body of Christ is eaten naturally and cast into the draught , he means , not the body of Christ in his material part , but the accidents of bread , the colour , the taste , the quantity , these are cast out by the belly . Verily a goodly argument ; if a man could guess in what mood and figure it could conclude . 6. When a man speaks distinctly and particularly , it is certain he is easier to be understood in his particular and minute meaning than when he speaks generally . But here he distinguishes a part from a part , one sence from another , the body in one sence from the body in another , therefore these words are to expound the more general , and not they to expound these , unless the general be more particular than that that is distinguished into kinds , that is , unless the general be a particular , and the particular be a general . 7. Amalarius was so amus'd with these words and discourse of Origen , that his understanding grew giddy , and he did not know whether the body of Christ were invisibly taken up into Heaven , or kept till our death in the body , or expired at letting of blood , or exhal'd in air , or spit out , or breath'd forth , our Lord saying , That which enters into the mouth , descends into the belly , and so goes forth into the draught : The man was willing to be of the new opinion of the Real Presence , because it began to be the mode of the Age. But his folly was soberly reproved by a Synod at Carisiacum , about the time of Pope Gregory the Fourth , where the difficulty of Origens argument was better answered , and the Article determined , that the bread and wine are spiritually made the body of Christ , which being a meat of the mind and not of the belly , is not corrupted , but remaineth unto everlasting life . 8. To expound these words of the accidents of bread only , and say that they enter into the belly and go forth in the draught , is a device of them that care not what they say ; for 1. It makes that the ejectamentum or excrement of the body should consist of colour and quantity , without any substance . 2. It makes a man to be nourished by accidents , and so not only one substance to be changed into another , but that accidents are changed into substances , which must be , if they nourish the body and pass in latrinam , and then beyond the device of Transubstantiation we have another production from Africa , a transaccidentisubstantiation a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 3. It makes accidents to have all the affections of substances , as motion , substantial corruption , alteration , that is , not to be accidents but substances . For matter and form are substances , and those that integrate all physical and compound substances : but till yesterday it was never heard that accidents could . Yea , but magnitude is a material quality , and ground or subject of the accidents . So it is said ; but it is nonsence . For besides that magnitude is not a quality , but a quantity , neither can it be properly or truly said to be material but imperfectly ; because it is an affection of matter ; and however it is a contradiction to say , that it is the ground of qualities ; for an accident cannot be the fundamentum , the ground or subject of an accident ; that is , the formality and definition of a substance , as every young scholar hath read in Aristotles Categories : so that to say that it is the ground of accidents , is to say that accidents are subjected in magnitude , that is , that magnitude is neither a quantity nor quality , but a substance . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . An accident always subsists in a subject , says Porphyrie . 9. This answer cannot be fitted to the words of Origen ; for that which he calls the quid materiale or the material part in the Sacrament , he calls it the Symbolical body , which cannot be affirmed of accidents , because there is no likeness between the accidents , the colour , the shape , the figure , the roundness , the weight , the magnitude of the host , or wafer , and Christs body : and therefore to call the accidents a Symbolical body , is to call it an unsymbolical Symbol , an unlike similitude , a representment without analogy : But if he means the consecrated bread , the whole action of consecration , distribution , sumption , manducation , this is the Symbolical body , according to the words of S. Paul , He that drinks this cup , and eats this bread represents the Lords death ; it is the figure of Christs crucified body , of his passion and our redemption . 10. It is a strange expression to call accidents a body ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , says Aristotle , a body may be called white , but the definition or reason of the accident can never be affirmed of a body . I conclude , that this argument out of the words of our blessed Saviour , urged also and affirmed by Origen , do prove that Christs body is in the Sacrament only to be eaten in a Spiritual sence , not at all in a Natural , lest that consequent be the event of it ; which to affirm of Christs glorified body in the natural and proper sence were very blasphemy . 2. The next argument from Scripture is taken from Christs departing from this world ; his going from us , the ascension of his body and soul into Heaven ; his not being with us , his being contained in the Heavens : So said our blessed Saviour , Vnless I go hence , the Comforter cannot come : and I go to prepare a place for you : The poor ye have always , but me ye have not always . S. Peter affirms of him that the Heavens must receive him , till the time of restitution of all things . Now how these things can be true of Christ according to his humane nature , that is a circumscribed body , and a definite soul , is the question . And to this the answer is the same in effect which is given by the Roman Doctors , and by the Vbiquitaries , whom they call Hereticks . These men say Christs humane nature is every where actually , by reason of his hypostatical union with the Deity which is every where ; the Romanists say no : it is not actually every where , but it may be where , and is in as many places as he please : for although he be in Heaven , yet so is God too , and yet God is upon earth : eodem modo , says Bellarmine , in the same manner , the Man Christ , although he be in Heaven , yet also he can be out of Heaven , where he please ; he can be in Heaven and out of Heaven . Now these two opinions are concentred in the main impossibility ; that is , that Christs body can be in more places than one : if in two , it may be in 2000 , and then it may be every where ; for it is not limited , and therefore is illimited and potentially infinite . Against this so seemingly impossible at the very first sight , and relying upon a similitude and analogy that is not far from blasphemy , viz. that as God is in Heaven and yet on Earth , eodem modo after the same manner is Christs body ; which words it cannot be easie to excuse : against this ( I say ) ( although for the reasons alledged , it be unnecessary to be disproved , yet ) I have these things to oppose , 1. The words of Scripture , that affirm Christ to be in Heaven , affirm also that he is gone from hence . Now if Christs body not only could , but must be every day in innumerable places on earth , it would have been said that Christ is in Heaven , but not that he is not here , or that he is gone from hence . 2. Surrexit , non est hîc , was the Angels discourse to the inquiring woman at the Sepulchre , he is risen , he is not here : but if they had been taught the new doctrine of the Roman Schools , they would have denied the consequent ; he is risen and gone from hence , but he may be here too . And this indeed might have put the Angels to a distinction : but the womens ignorance rendred them secure . However S. Austin is dogmatical in this Article , saying , Christum ubique totum esse tanquam Deum & in eodem tanquam inhabitante Deum , & in loco aliquo coeli propter veri corporis modum . Christ as God is every where , but in respect of his body he is determin'd to a particular residence in Heaven , viz. at the right hand of God , that is , in the best seat , and in the greatest eminency . And in the thirtieth Treatise of S. John , It behoveth that the body of our Lord since it is raised again should be in one place alone , but the truth is spread over all . But concerning these words of S. Austin they have taken a course in all their Editions to corrupt the place ; And in stead of [ oportet ] have clapp'd in [ potest ] instead of [ must be ] have foisted in [ may be ] against the faith of the ancient Canonists and Scholasticks ; particularly , Lombard , Gratian , Ivo Carnotensis , Algerus , Thomas , Bonaventure , Richardus , Durand , Biel , Scotus , Cassander , and divers others . To this purpose is that of S. Cyril Alex. * He could not converse with his Disciples in the flesh being ascended to his Father . So Cassian ‖ , Jesus Christ speaking on Earth , cannot be in Heaven but by the infinity of his Godhead : and * Fulgentius argues it strongly ; If the body of Christ be a true body , it must be contained in a particular place : but this place is just so corrupted in their Editions , as is that of S. Austin , potest being substituted instead of oportet ; but this doctrine , viz. that to be in several places is impossible to a body , and proper to God , was affirmed by the Universality of Paris in a Synod under William their Bishop 1340 , and Johannes Picus Mirandula maintained in Rome it self , that it could not be by the power of God that one body should at once be in divers places . 3. Thirdly , The Scripture speaks of his going thither from hence by elevation and ascension , and of his coming from thence at his appearing , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the words have an Antithesis ; the Heavens till then shall retain him ; but then he shall come from thence , which were needless if he might be here and stay there too . 4. When Christ said , Me ye have not always , and at another time , Loe , I am with you always to the end of the World ; It is necessary that we distinguish the parts of a seeming contradiction . Christ is with us by his Spirit , but Christ is not with us in body ; but if his body be here too , then there is no way of Substantial , Real Presence , in which those words can be true [ me ye have not always . ] The Rhemists in their note upon this place , say , that when Christ said , Me ye have not always , he means , ye have not me in the manner of a poor man , needing relief ; that is , Not me so as you have the poor . But this is a trifle ; because our Blessed Saviour did not receive that ministery of Mary Magdalen as a poor man , for it was a present for a Prince , not a relief to necessity , but a Regalo fit for so great a person ; and therefore if he were here at all after his departure , he was capable of as noble an usage and an address fit to represent a Majesty , or at least to express a love . It was also done for his burying , so Christ accepted it , and that signified and plainly related to a change of his state and abode . But besides this , if this could be the interpretation of those words , then they did not at all signifie Christs leaving this world , but only his changing his circumstance of fortune , his outward dress and appendages of person ; which were a strange commentary upon [ Me ye have not always ; ] that is , I shall be with you still , but in a better condition ; but S. Austin hath given sentence concerning the sence of these words of Christ [ Loquebatur de praesentiâ corporis , &c. ] He spake of the presence of his body , ye shall have me according to my providence , according to Majesty , and invisible grace , but according to the flesh which the word assumed , according to that which was born of the Virgin Mary , ye shall not have me , therefore because he conversed with his disciples forty days he is ascended up into Heaven and is not here ; If he be here in person , what need he to have sent his Vicar , his holy Spirit in substitution ? especially since by this doctrine he is more now with his Church than he was in the days of his conversion in Palestine ; for then he was but in one assembly at once ; now he is in thousands every day . If it be said , because although he be here yet we see him not ; This is not sufficient , for what matter is it whether we see him or no , if we know him to be here , if we feel him , if we eat him , if we worship him in presence natural and proper ? There wants nothing but some accidents of colour and shape . A friend in the dark , behind a curtain , or to a blind man , is as certainly present as if he were in the light in open conversation , or beheld with the eyes . And then also the office of the holy Spirit would only be to supply the sight of his person , which might possibly be true if he had no greater offices , and we no greater needs , and if he himself also were visible and glorious to our eyes ; for if the effect of his substitution is spiritual , secret , and invisible , our eyes are still without comfort ; and if the Spirits secret effect does supply it and makes it not necessary that we should see him , then so does our faith do the same thing ; for if we believe him there , the want of bodily sight is supplied by the eye of faith , and the Spirit is pretended to do no more in this particular , and then his presence also will be less necessary , because supplied by our own act . Add to this ; That if after Christs ascension into Heaven , he still would have been upon Earth , in the Eucharist , and received properly into our mouths , and in all that manner which these men dream ; how ready it had been and easie to have comforted them who were troubled for want of his bodily presence ; by telling them [ Although I go to Heaven , yet fear not to be deprived of the presence of my body , for you shall have it more than before , and much better ; for I will be with you , and in you ; I was with you in a state of humility and mortality , now I will be with you with a daily and mighty miracle ; I before gave you promises of grace and glory , but now I will become to your bodies a seed of immortality . And though you will not see me , but under a vail , yet it is certain , I will be there , in your Churches , in your pixes , in your mouths , in your stomachs , and you shall believe and worship . ] Had not this been a certain , clear , and proportionable comfort to their complaint , and present necessity , if any such thing were intended ? It had been so certain , so clear , so proportionable , that it is more than probable , that if it had been true , it had not been omitted . But that such sacred things as these may not be exposed to contempt , by such weak propositions and their trifling consequents , the case is plain , that Christ being to depart hence sent his holy Spirit in substitution to supply to his Church the office of a Teacher , which he on Earth in person was to his Disciples ; when he went from hence , he was to come no more in person , and therefore he sent his substitute ; and therefore to pretend him to be here in person , though under a disguise which we see through with the eye of Faith , and converse with him by presential adoration of his humanity , is in effect to undervalue the real purposes and sence of all the sayings of Christ concerning his departure hence , and the deputation of the holy Spirit . But for this , because it is naturally impossible , they have recourse to the Divine Omnipotency : God can do it , therefore he does . But of this I shall give particular account in the Section of Reason ; as also the other arguments of Scripture I shall reduce to their heads of proper matter . SECT . X. The doctrine of Transubstantiation is against sense . 1. THAT which is one of the firmest pillars upon which all humane notices , and upon which all Christian Religion does rely , cannot be shaken ; or if it be , all Science * and all Religion must be in danger . Now beside that all our notices of things proceed from sense , and our understanding receives his proper objects , by the mediation of material and sensible phantasms , and the soul in all her operations during this life is served by the ministeries of the body , and the body works upon the soul only by sense ; besides this , ‖ S. John hath placed the whole Religion of a Christian upon the certainty and evidence of sense as upon one unmoveable foundation . That which was from the beginning , which we have seen with our eyes , which we have beheld , and our hands have handled of the word of life . And the life was made manifest , and we have seen it , and bear witness and declare unto you eternal life , which was with the Father and was manifested to us , which we have seen and heard , we declare unto you . Tertullian in his book de anima , uses this very argument against the Marcionites , Recita Johannis testationem ; quod vidimus ( inquit ) quod audivimus , oculis nostris vidimus , & manus nostrae contrectaverunt , de Sermone vitae . Falsa utique testatio , si oculorum , & aurium , & manuum sensus natura mentitur ; his testimony was false , if eyes , and ears , and hands be deceived . In Nature there is not a greater argument than to have heard , and seen , and handled . Sed quia profundâ non licet luctarier Ratione tecum , consulamus proxima : Interrogetur ipsa naturalium Simplex sine arte sensuum sententia . And by what means can an assent be naturally produced , but by those instruments , by which God conveys all notices to us , that is , by seeing , and hearing ? Faith comes by hearing , and evidence comes by seeing ; and if a man in his wits , and in his health , can be deceived in these things , how can we come to believe ? Corpus enim per se communis deliquat esse Sensus : quo nisi prima fides sundata valebit , Haud erit occultis de rebus quo referentes Confirmare animi quicquam ratione queamus . For if a Man or an Angel declares Gods will to us , if we may not trust our hearing , we cannot trust him : for we know not whether indeed he says what we think he says ; and if God confirms the proposition by a miracle , an ocular demonstration , we are never the nearer to the believing him , because our eyes are not to be trusted . But if feeling also may be abused , when a man is in all other capacities perfectly healthy , then he must be governed by chance , and walk in the dark , and live upon shadows , and converse with fantasms and illusions , as it happens ; and then at last it will come to be doubted whether there be any such man as himself ; and whether he be awake when he is awake , or not rather , then only awake when he himself and all the world thinks him to have been asleep : Oculatae sunt nostrae manus , credunt quod vident . 2. Now then to apply this to the present question in the words of S. Austin , Quod ergo vidistis panis est & calix , quod vobis etiam oculi vestri renunciant . That which our eyes have seen , that which our hands have handled , is bread ; we feel it , taste it , see it to be bread , and we hear it called bread , that very substance which is called the body of our Lord. Shall we now say , our eyes are deceived , our ears hear a false sound , our taste is abused , our hands are mistaken ? It is answered , Nay ; our senses are not mistaken ; For our senses in health and due circumstances cannot be abused in their proper object , but they may be deceived about that which is under the object of their senses ; they are not deceived in colour , and shape , and taste , and magnitude , which are the proper objects of our senses ; but they may be deceived in substances which are covered by these accidents ; and so it is not the outward sense so much as the inward sense that is abused . For so Abraham , when he saw an Angel in the shape of a humane body , was not deceived in the shape of a man , for there was such a shape ; but yet it was not a man , and therefore if he thought it was , he was abused ; This is their answer : and if this will not serve the turn , nothing will ; This therefore must be examined . 3. Now this , instead of taking away the insuperable difficulty , does much increase it , and confesses the things which it ought to have avoided . For 1. The accidents proper to a substance are for the manifestation , and notice of the substance , not of themselves , for as the man feels , but the means by which he feels is the sensitive faculty , so that which is felt is the substance , and the means by which it is felt is the accidents : as the shape , the colour , the bigness , the motion of a man are manifestative and declarative of a humane substance : and if they represent a wrong substance , then the sense is deceived by a false sign of a true substance , or a true sign of a false substance : as if an Alchymist should shew me brass colour'd like gold , and made ponderous , and so adulterated that it would endure the touchstone for a long while , the deception is , because there is a pretence of improper accidents ; true accidents indeed , but not belonging to that substance . But 2. It is true that is pretended , that it is not so much the outward sense that is abused , as the inward ; that is , not so much the eye , as the Man ; not the sight , but the judgment : and this is it we complain of . For indeed , in proper speaking , the eye , or the hand is not capable of being deceived ; but the man by the eye , or by the ear , or by his hand . The eye sees a colour , or a figure , and the inward sense apprehends it to be the figure of such a substance , and the understanding judges it to be the thing which is properly represented by the accident : it is so , or it is not so : if it be , there is no deception ; if it be not so , then there is a cousenage , there is no lye till it comes to a proposition either explicit , or implicit ; a lye is not in the senses ; but when a man by the ministery of the senses is led into the apprehension of a wrong object , or the belief of a false proposition : then he is made to believe a lye : and this is our case , when accidents proper to one substance are made the cover of another , to which they are not naturally communicable . And in the case of the holy Sacrament , the matter , if it were as is pretended , were intolerable . For in the cases wherein a man is commonly deceived , it is his own fault by passing judgment too soon ; as if he should judge Glass to be Crystal , because it looks like it ; This is not any deception in the senses , nor any injury to the man ; because he ought to consider more things than the colour to make his judgment whether it be Glass , or Crystal , or Diamond , or Ice ; the hardness , the weight , and other things are to be ingredients in the sentence . And if any two things had all the same accidents , then although the senses were not deceived , yet the man would certainly and inculpably mistake . If therefore in the Eucharist ( as is pretended ) all the accidents of bread remain , then all men must necessarily be deceived ; If only one or two did remain , one sense would help the other , and all together would rightly inform the understanding . But when all the accidents remain , they cannot but represent that substance to which those accidents are proper ; and then the holy Sacrament would be a constant , irresistable deception of all the world , in that in which all mens notices are most evident and most relied upon , I mean their senses . And then the question will not be , whether our senses can be deceived or no ? But whether or no it can stand with the justice and goodness of God to be angry with us for believing our senses , since himself hath so ordered it that we cannot avoid being deceived ? there being in this case as much reason to believe a lye , as to believe a truth , if things were so as they pretend . The result of which is this : That as no one sense can be deceived about his proper object ; but that a man may about the substance lying under those accidents which are the object proper to that sense , because he gives sentence according to that representment otherwise than he ought , and he ought to have considered other accidents proper to other senses , in making the judgment ; as the birds that took the picture of grapes for very grapes ; and he that took the picture of a curtain for a very curtain , and desired the Painter to draw it aside ; they made judgment of the grapes and the curtain only by colour and figure , but ought to have considered the weight , the taste , the touch , and the smell : so on the other side , if all the senses concur , then not only is it true that the senses cannot be deceived about that object which is their own , but neither ought the man to be deceived about that substance which lies under those accidents ; because their ministery is all that natural instrument of conveying notice to a mans understanding which God hath appointed . 4. Just upon this account it is , that S. Johns argument had been just nothing in behalf of the whole religion : for that God was incarnate , that Jesus Christ did such miracles , that he was crucified , that he rose again and ascended into Heaven , that he preached these Sermons , that he gave such commandments , he was made to believe by sounds , by shapes , by figures , by motions , by likenesses , and appearances of all the proper accidents : and his senses could not be deceived about the accidents which were the proper objects of the senses ; but if they might be deceived about the substance under these accidents , of what truth or substance could he be ascertain'd by their ministery ? for he indeed saw the shape of a humane body ; but it might so be , that not the body of a man , but an Angelical substance might lie under it ; and so the Article of the assumption of humane nature is made uncertain . And upon the same account so are all the other Articles of our Faith which relied upon the verity of his body and nature : all which if they are not sufficiently signified by their proper accidents , could not be ever the more believed for being seen with the eyes , and heard with the ears , and handled with our hands ; but if they were sufficiently declared by their proper accidents , then the understanding can no more be deceived in the substances lying under the accidents , than the senses can in the accidents themselves . 4. To the same purpose it was that the Apostles were answered concerning the Article of the truth of Christs resurrection . For when the Apostles were affrighted at his sudden appearing , and thought it had been a Spirit , Christ called them to feel his hands , and to shew that it was he ; For a spirit hath no flesh and bones as ye see me have ; plainly meaning , that the accidents of a body were not communicable to a Spirit ; but how easily might they have been deceived , if it had pleased God to invest other substances with new and stranger accidents ? For though a Spirit hath not flesh and bones , they may represent to the eyes and hands the accidents of flesh and bones : and if it could in the matter of faith stand with the goodness and wisdom of God to suffer it , what certainty could there be of any Article of our religion relating to Christs humanity , or any proposition proved by miracles ? To this instance the man that must answer all , I mean Bellarmine , ventures something : saying it was a good argument of our blessed Saviour , Handle and see that I am no Spirit : That which is handled and seen is no Spirit : But it is no good argument to say ; This is not seen ▪ not handled , therefore it is no body : and therefore the body of Christ may be naturally in the Sacrament , though it is not seen nor handled . To this I reply , 1. That suppose it were true what he said ; yet it would also follow by his own words . This is seen bread , and is handled , so therefore it is bread . Hoc enim affirmativè colligitur . This is the affirmative consequent made by our blessed Lord , and here confessed to be certain . It being the same collection . It is I , for by feeling and seeing you shall believe it to be so : and it is bread , for by feeling , and seeing , and tasting , and smelling it you shall perceive it to be so . To which let this be added : That in Scripture it is as plainly affirmed to be bread , as it is called Christs body . Now then , because it cannot be both in the proper and natural sence , but one of them must be figurative and tropical ; since both of the appellatives are equally affirm'd , is it not notorious that in this case we ought to give judgment on that side which we are prompted to by common sense ? If Christ had said only , This is my body , and no Apostle had told us also that it is bread ; we had reason to suspect our senses to be deceived , if it were possible they should be : but when it is equally affirmed to be bread , as to be our Lords body , and but one of them can be naturally true and in the letter , shall the testimony of all our senses be absolutely of no use in casting the ballance ? The two affirmatives are equal ; one must be expounded tropically , which will you chuse ? Is there in the world any thing more certain and expedite than that what you see , and feel , and taste naturall and proper , should be judged to be that which you see , and feel , and taste naturally and properly , and therefore that the other be expounded tropically ? since you must expound one of the words tropically , I think it is not hard to determine whether you ought to do it against your sense , or with it . But it is also remarkable that our blessed Lord did not only by feeling and seeing prove it to be a body : but by proving it was his body , he proved it was himself ; that is , by these accidents representing my person , ye are not led into an error of the person any more than of the kind of substance ; See my hands and my feet , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it is even I my self ; this I noted , lest a silly escape be made , by pretending these accidents only proved Christ to be no Spirit , but a body ; and so the accidents of bread declare a latent body , meaning the body of Christ ; For as the accidents of a body declare the substance of a body , so the particular accidents of this kind declare this kind , of this person declare this person . For so our blessed Saviour proved it to be himself in particular ; and if it were not so , the deceit would pass from one thing to another ; and although it had not been a Spirit , yet it might be John the Baptist risen from the dead , or Moses , or Elias , and not Jesus their dear Lord. Besides , if this had been all that Jesus had intended , only to prove he was no spectrum , but a body , he had not done what was intended . For put case it had been a Spirit , and had assumed a body , as Bellarmine in the very next Paragraph forgetting himself , or else being entangled in the wildernesses of an inconsistent discourse , affirms , that in Scriptures the Israelites did sometimes see ; and then they were not deceived in touching or seeing a body ; for there was a body assumed , and so it seemed to Abraham and Lot ; but then , suppose Jesus Christ had done so , and had been indeed a Spirit in an assumed body , had not the Apostles been deceived by their feeling and seeing , as well as the Israelites were in thinking those Angels to be men that came to them in humane shapes ? how had Christs arguments been pertinent and material ? how had he proved that he was no Spirit , by shewing a body , which might be the case of a Spirit ? but that it is not consistent with the wisdom and goodness of God to suffer any illusion in any matter of sense relating to an Article of Faith. 5. Secondly , It was the case of the Christian Church once , not only to rely upon the evidence of sense for an introduction to the religion , but also to need and use this argument in confirmation of an Article of the Creed . For the Valentinians and the Marcionites thought Christs body to be fantastical , and so denied the Article of the Incarnation : and if arguments from sense were not enough to confute them , viz. that the Apostles did see and feel a body , flesh , and blood , and bones , how could they convince these misbelievers ? for whatsoever answer can be brought against the reality of bread in the Eucharist , all that may be answered in behalf of the Marcionites : for if you urge to them all those places of Scripture which affirm Christ to have a body ; they answer , it was in Scripture called a body , because it seem'd to be so ; which is the answer Bellarmine gives to all those places of Scripture which call it bread after consecration . And if you object , that if it be not what it seems , then the senses are deceived ; They will answer ( a Jesuit being by and prompting them ) the senses were not deceived , because they only saw colour , shape , figure , and the other accidents , but the inward sense and understanding , that is , the man was deceived when he thought it to be the body of a man : for under those accidents and appearances there was an Angel , or a Divinity , but no Man : and now upon the grounds of Transubstantiation how can they be confuted , I would fain know . 6. But Tertullian disputing against them , uses the argument of sense , as the only instrument of concluding against them infallibly : Non licet nobis in dubium sensus istos revocare , &c. It is not lawful to doubt of our senses , lest the same doubt be made concerning Christ ; lest peradventure it should be said , he was deceived when he said , I saw Satan like lightning fall from Heaven ; or when he heard the voice of his Father testifying concerning him ; or lest he should be deceived when he touched Peters wives mother by the hand ; or that he smelt another breath of ointment , and not what was offered to his burial , Alium postea vini saporem quod in sanguinis sui memoriam consecravit , or tasted another taste of wine which he consecrated to the memory of his blood . And if the Catholick Christians had believed the substantial , natural presence of Christs body in the Sacrament , and consequently disbelieved the testimony of four senses , as the Church of Rome at this day does , seeing , smelling , tasting , feeling , it had been impudence in them to have reproved Marcion by the testimony of two senses concerning the verity of Christs body . And supposing that our eyes could be deceived , and our taste , and our smelling , yet our touch cannot : for supposing the organs equally disposed , yet touch is the guardian of truth , and his nearest natural instrument ; all sensation is by touch , but the other senses are more capable of being deceived ; because though they finally operate by touch variously affected , yet their objects are further removed from the Organ , and therefore many intermedial things may intervene , and possibly hinder the operation of the sense ; that is , bring more diseases and disturbances to the action : but in touch the object and the instrument joyn close together , and therefore there can be no impediment if the instrument be sound , and the object proper . And yet no sense can be deceived in that which it always perceives alike ; * The touch can never be deceived ; and therefore a testimony from it , and three senses more cannot possibly be refused : and therefore it were strange if all the Christians for above 1600 years together should be deceived , as if the Eucharist were a perpetual illusion , and a riddle to the senses for so many ages together : and indeed the fault in this case could not be in the senses : and therefore Tertullian and S. Austin dispute wittily , and substantially , that the senses could never be deceived , but the understanding ought to assent to what they relate to it , or represent : For if any man thinks the staff is crooked that is set half way in the water , it is the fault of his judgment , not of his sense ; for the air and the water being several mediums , the eye ought to see otherwise in air , otherwise in water ; but the understanding must not conclude falsly from these true premises , which the eye ministers : For the thicker medium makes a fraction of the species by incrassation and a shadow ; and when a man in the yellow Jaundies thinks every thing yellow , it is not the fault of his eye , but of his understanding ; for the eye does his office right , for it perceives just as is represented to it , the species are brought yellow ; but the fault is in the understanding , not perceiving that the species are stained near the eye , not further off : When a man in a fever thinks every thing bitter , his taste is not deceived , but judges rightly ; for as a man that chews bread and aloes together , tastes not false , if he tastes bitterness ; so it is in the sick mans case ; the juice of his meat is mingled with choler , and the taste is acute , and exact by perceiving it such as it is so mingled . The purpose of which discourse is this , that no notices are more evident and more certain than the notices of sense ; but if we conclude contrary to the true dictate of senses , the fault is in the understanding , * collecting false conclusions from right premises ; It follows therefore that in the matter of the Eucharist we ought to judge that which our senses tell us ; For whatsoever they say is true : for no deceit can come by them ; but the deceit is when we believe something besides or against what they tell us ; especially when the organ is perfect , and the object proper , and the medium regular , and all things perfect , and the same always and to all men . For it is observable , that in this case the senses are competent judges of the natural being of what they see , and taste , and smell , and feel ; and according to that all the men in the world can swear that what they see is bread and wine ; but it is not their office to tell us what they become by the institution of our Saviour ; for that we are to learn by faith , that what is bread and wine in nature is by Gods ordinance the Sacrament of the body and blood of the Saviour of the world ; but one cannot contradict another ; and therefore they must be reconciled : both say true , that which Faith teaches is certain , and that which the senses of all men teach always , that also is certain and evident ; for as the rule of the School says excellently , Grace never destroys nature but perfects it , and so it is in the consecration of bread and wine ; in which although we are more to regard their signification than their matter , their holy imployment , than their natural usage , what they are by grace rather , than what they are by nature , that they are Sacramental rather than that they are nutritive , that they are consecrated and exalted by religion , rather than that they are mean and low in their natural beings , what they are to the spirit and understanding , rather than what they are to the sense ; yet this also is , as true and as evident as the other : and therefore though not so apt for our meditation , yet as certain as that which is . 7. Thirdly , Though it be a hard thing to be put to prove that bread is bread , and that wine is wine ; yet if the arguments and notices of sense may not pass for sufficient , an impudent person may without possibility of being confuted , out-face any man , that an Oyster is a Rat , and that a Candle is a pig of Lead : and so might the Egyptian Soothsayers have been too hard for Moses : for when they changed rods into Serpents , they had some colour to tell Pharaoh they were Serpents as well as the rod of Moses ; But if they had failed to turn the water into blood , they needed not to have been troubled , if they could have born down Pharaoh , that though it looked like water , and tasted like water , yet by their inchantment they had made it verily to be blood : And upon this ground of having different substances , unproper and disproportioned accidents , what hinders them but they might have said so ? and if they had , how should they have been confuted ? But this manner of proceeding would be sufficient to evacuate all reason , and all science , and all notices of things ; and we may as well conclude snow to be black , and fire cold ; and two and two to make five and twenty . 8. But ( it is said ) although the body of Christ be invested with unproper accidents , yet sometimes Christ hath appeared in his own shape , and blood and flesh hath been pull'd out of the mouths of the communicants , and Plegilus the Priest saw an Angel , shewing Christ to him in form of a child upon the Altar , whom first he took in his arms and kissed , but did eat him up presently in his other shape , in the shape of a Wafer . Speciosa certè pax Nebulonis , ut qui oris praebuerat basium , dentium inferret exitium , said Berengarius . It was but a Judas kiss to kiss with the lip , and bite with the teeth . But if such stuffe as this may go for argument , we may be cloyed with them in those unanswerable Authors , Simeon Metaphrastes for the Greeks , and Jacobus de Voragine for the Latin , who make it a trade to lye for God and for the interest of the Catholick cause . But however , I shall tell a piece of a true story . In the time of Soter Pope of Rome , there was an Impostor called Mark ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that was his appellative : and he [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] pretending to make the Chalice of wine and water Eucharistical , saying long prayers over it , made it look red or purple , that it might be thought , that grace which is above all things , does drop the blood into the Chalice by invocation . ] Such as these have been often done by humane artifice or by operation of the Devil , said Alexander of Ales. If such things as these were done regularly , it were pretence enough to say it is flesh and blood that is in the Eucharist ; but when nothing of this is done by God ; but Hereticks and Knaves , Juglers and Impostors hoping to change the Sacrament into a charm by abusing the spiritual sence into a gross and carnal , against the authority of Scripture and the Church , reason or religion , have made pretences of those things , and still the Holy Sacrament in all the times of ministration hath the form and all the perceptibilities of bread and wine : as we may believe those Impostors did more rely upon the pretences of sense than of other arguments , and distrusting them did flye to these as the greater probation : so we rely upon that way of probation , which they would have counterfeited , but which indeed Christ in his institution hath still left in the nature of the symbols , viz. that it is that which it seems to be , and that the other superinduc'd predicate of the body of Christ is to be understood only in that sence which may still consist with that substance , whose proper and natural accidents remain , and are perceived by the mouth , and hands , and eyes of all men . To which this may be added , that by the doctrine of the late Roman Schools all those pretences of real appearances of Christs body or blood must be necessarily concluded to be Impostures , or aery phantasmes , and illusions ; because themselves teach that Christs body is so in the Sacrament , that Christs own eyes cannot see his own body in the Sacrament : and in that manner by which it is there , it cannot be made visible ; no not by the absolute power of God. Nay , it can be neither seen , nor touched , nor tasted , nor felt , nor imagined . It is the doctrine of Suarez in 3. Tho. disp . 53. Sect. 3. and disp . 52. Sect. 1. and of Vasquez in 3. t. 3. disp . 191. n. 22. which besides that it reproves the whole Article , by making it incredible and impossible , it doth also infinitely convince all these apparitions ( if ever there were any ) of deceit , and fond illusion . I had no more to say in this particular , but that the Roman Doctors pretend certain words out of S. Cyrils fourth mystagogique Catechism , against the doctrine of this Paragraph : Pro certissimo habeas , &c. Be sure of this , that this bread which is seen of us is not bread , although the taste perceives it to be bread , but the body of Christ ; For under the species of bread the body is given to thee ; under the species of wine the blood is given to thee . Here if we will trust S. Cyrils words , at least in Bellarmine's and Brerely's sence , and understand of them before you will believe your own eyes , you may . For S. Cyril bids you not believe your sense . For taste and sight tells you it is bread , but it is not . But here is no harm done . 2. For himself plainly explains his meaning in his next Catechism . Think not that you taste bread and wine ( saith he ) No , what then ? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but the antitypes of the body and blood : and in this very place he calls bread 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a type ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and therefore it is very ill rendred by the Roman Priests by Species , which signifies accidental forms : for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies no such thing , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; which is not S. Cyrils word . 3. He says it is not bread , though the taste feel it so ; that is , it is not meer bread , which is an usual expression among the Fathers , Non est panis communis , says Irenaeus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , says Justin Martyr , just as S. Chrysostome says of Baptismal water , it is not common water , and as S. Cyril himself says of the sacramental bread , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it is not meer bread , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but the Lords body . For if it were not that , in some sence or other , it were still meer bread , but that it is not . But this manner of speaking is not unusual in the holy Scriptures , that restrained and modificated negatives be propounded in simple and absolute forms . I have given them statutes which are not good . Ezek. 20.25 . I will have mercy and not sacrifice . Hos. 6.6 . They have not rejected thee , but me . 1 Sam. 8.7 . It is not you that speak , but the Spirit of my Father . I came not to send peace , but a sword . S. Mat. 10.20 . & 34. He that believeth on me , believeth not on me , but on him that sent me . And , If I bear witness of my self , my witness is not true . S. John 5.31 . which is expresly confronted by S. John 8.14 . Though I bear record of my self , yet my record is true ; which shews manifestly that the simple and absolute negative in the former place must in his signification be restrained . So S. Paul speaks usually . Henceforth I know no man according to the flesh , 2 Cor. 5.16 . We have no strife against flesh and blood , Ephes. 6.12 . And in the ancient Doctors nothing more ordinary , than to express limited sences by unlimited words ; which is so known , that I should lose my time , and abuse the Readers patience if I should heap up instances . So Irenaeus . He that hath received the Spirit , is no more flesh and blood , but Spirit . And Epiphanius affirms the same of the flesh of a temperate man ; It is not flesh , but is changed into Spirit : so we say of a drunken man , and a furious person ; He is not a man , but a beast . And they speak thus particularly in the matter of the holy Sacrament , as appears in the instances above reckoned , and in others respersed over this Treatise . But to return to the present objection , it is observable that S. Cyril does not say it is not bread , though the sense suppose it to be so , for that would have supposed the taste to have been deceived , which he affirms not , and if he had , we could not have believed him ; but he says , [ though the sense perceive it to be bread ] so that it is still bread , else the taste would not perceive it to be so ; but it is more , and the sense does not perceive it ; for it is the body of our Lord ; here then is his own answer plainly opposed to the objection ; he says , it is not bread , that is , it is not meer bread ; and so say we : he says , that it is the body of our Lord , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the antitype of the Lords body , and so say we ; He says , the sense perceives it to be bread ; but it is more than the sense perceives ; so he implies , and so we affirm ; and yet we may trust our sense for all that it tells us , and our understanding too , for all it learns besides . The like to this are the words of S. Chrysostome , where he says [ We cannot be deceived by his words , but our sense is often deceived , look not at what is before us , but observe Christs words . Nothing sensible is given to us , but things insensible , by things sensible , &c. This , and many higher things than this are in S. Chrysostome , not only relating to this but to the other Sacrament also . Think not thou receivest the body from a man , but fire from the tongue of a Seraphim ; that for the Eucharist : and for Baptism this ; The Priest baptizes thee not , but God holds thy head . In the same sence that these admit , in the same sence we may understand his other words ; they are Tragical and high , but may have a sober sence ; but literally they sound a contradiction ; that nothing sensible should be given us in the Sacrament ; and yet that nothing insensible should be given , but what is conveyed by things sensible ; but it is not worth the while to stay here : Only this , the words of S. Chrysostome are good counsel , and such as we follow ; for in this case we do not finally rely upon sense , or resolve all into it ; but we trust it only for so much as it ought to be trusted for ; but we do not finally rest upon it , but upon faith , and look not on the things proposed , but attend to the words of Christ , and though we see it to be bread , we also believe it to be his body , in that sence which he intended . SECT . XI . The doctrine of Transubstantiation is wholly without and against reason . 1. WHEN we discourse of mysteries of Faith and Articles of Religion , it is certain that the greatest reason in the world , to which all other reasons must yield , is this , God hath said it , therefore it is true . Now if God had expresly said , This which seems to be bread is my body in the natural sence , or to that purpose , there had been no more to be said in the affair ; all reasons against it had been but sophismes ; When Christ hath said , This is my body , no man that pretends to Christianity doubts of the truth of these words , all men submitting their understanding to the obedience of Faith : But since Christ did not affirm that he spake it in the natural sence , but there are not only in Scripture many prejudices , but in common sense much evidence against it , if reason also protests against the Article , it is the voice of God , and to be heard in this question . For , Nunquam aliud natura , aliud sapientia dicit . And this the rather , because there are so many ways to verifie the words of Christ without this strange and new doctrine of Transubstantiation , that in vain will the words of Christ be pretended against reason , whereas the words of Christ may be many ways verified , if Transubstantiation be condemned : as first if Picus Mirandula's proposition be true , which in Rome he offered to dispute publickly , that Paneitas possit suppositare corpus Domini , which I suppose if it be expounded in sensible terms , means , that it may be bread and Christs body too ; or secondly , if Luthers and the ancient Schoolmens way be true , that Christs body be present together with the bread . In that sence Christs words might be true , though no Transubstantiation ; and this is the sence which is followed by the Greek Church . 3. If Boquinus's way be true , that between the bread and Christs body there were a communication of proprieties , as there is between the Deity and humanity of our blessed Saviour ; then as we say , God gave himself for us , and the blessed Virgin is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the mother of God , and God suffered and rose again , meaning that God did it according to his assumed humanity , so we may say , this is Christs body , by the communication of the Idioms or proprieties to the bread with which it is united . 4. If our way be admitted , that Christ is there after a real spiritual manner ; the words of Christ are true , without any need of admitting Transubstantiation . 5. I could instance in the way of Johannes Longus in his Annotations upon the second Apology of Justin Martyr , Hoc est corpus meum , that is , My body is this , that is , is nourishment spiritual , as this is Natural . 6. The way of Johannes Ca●panus would afford me a sixth instance , Hoc est corpus meum , that is , meum as it is mea creatura . 7. Johannes à Lasco , Bucer and the Socinians refer hoc to the whole ministery , and mean that to be representative of Christs body . 8. If Rupertus the Abbots way were admitted , which was confuted by Algerus , and is almost like that of Boquinus , that between Christs body and the consecrate symbols there was an hypostatical union , then both substances would remain , and yet it were a true proposition to affirm of the whole hypostasis , this is the body of Christ. Many more I could reckon ; all which , or any of which if it were admitted , the words of Christ stand true and uncontradicted : and therefore it is a huge folly to quarrel at them that admit not Transubstantiation , and to say they deny the words of Christ. And therefore it must not now be said , Reason is not to be heard against an Article of Faith ; for that this is an Article of Faith cannot nakedly be inferred from the words of Christ , which are capable of so many meanings . Therefore reason in this case is to be heard by them that will give a reason of their faith ; as it is commanded in Scripture ; much less is that to be admitted which Fisher or Flued the Jesuit was bold to say to King James ; that because Transubstantiation seems so much against reason , therefore it is to be admitted , as if faith were more faith for being against reason : Against this for the present I shall oppose the excellent words of S. Austin Ep. 7. Si manifestissimae certaeque rationi velut Scripturarum Sanctarum objicitur authoritas , non intelligit qui hoc facit , & non Scripturarum illarum sensum ad quem penetrare non potuit , sed suum potiùs objicit veritati : nec quod in eis , sed quod in seipso velut pro eis invenit , opponit . He that opposes the authority of the holy Scriptures against manifest and certain reason , does neither understand himself nor the Scripture . Indeed when God hath plainly declared the particular , the more it seems against my reasons , the greater is my obedience in submitting ; but that is , because my reasons are but Sophismes , since truth it self hath declared plainly against them : but if God hath not plainly declared against that which I call reason , my reason must not be contested , by a pretence of Faith , but upon some other account ; Ratio cum ratione concertet . 3. Secondly , But this is such a fine device that it can ( if it be admitted ) warrant any literal interpretation against all the pretences of the world ; For when Christ said [ If thy right eye offend thee , pluck it out ] Here are the plain words of Christ ; And [ Some make themselves Eunuches for the kingdom of Heaven ] Nothing plainer in the Grammatical sence : and why do we not do it ? because it is an unnatural thing to mangle our body for a Spiritual cause , which may be supplied by other more gentle instruments . Yea , but reason is not to be heard against the plain words of Christ , and the greater our reason is against it , the greater excellency in our obedience ; that as Abraham against hope believed in hope , so we against reason may believe in the greatest reason , the Divine revelation : and what can be spoken against this ? 4. Thirdly , Stapleton confuting Luthers opinion of Consubstantiation , pretends against it many absurdities drawn from reason ; and yet it would have been ill taken , if it should have been answered that the doctrine ought the rather to be believed , because it is so unreasonable ; which answer is something like our new Preachers ; who pretend that therefore they are Spiritual men , because they have no learning , they are to confound the wise , because they are the weak things of the world , and that they are to be heard the rather , because there is the less reason they should , so crying stinking fish that men may buy it the more greedily . But I will proceed to the particulars of reason in this Article ; being contented with this , that if the adverse party shall refuse this way of arguing , they may be reproved by saying , they refuse to hear reason , and it will not be easie for them in despite of reason to pretend faith , for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , unreasonable men , and they that have not faith , are equivalent in S. Pauls expression . 5. First , I shall lay this prejudice in the Article as relating to the discourses of reason ; that in the words of institution there is nothing that can be pretended to prove the conversion of the substance of bread into the body of Christ , but the same will infer the conversion of the whole into the whole ; and therefore of the accidents of the bread into the accidents of the body . And in those little pretences of Philosophy which these men sometimes make to cousen fools into a belief of the possibility , they pretend to no instance , but to such conversions in which if the substance is changed , so also are the accidents : sometimes the accident is chang'd in the same remaining substance ; but if the substance be changed , the accidents never remain the same individually ; or in kind , unless they be symbolical , that is , are common to both , as in the change of elements , of air into fire , of water into earth . Thus when Christ changed water into wine , the substances being chang'd , the accidents also were alter'd , and the wine did not retain the colour and taste of water ; for then though it had been the stranger miracle , that wine should be wine , and yet look and taste like water , yet it would have obtained but little advantage to his doctrine and person , if he should have offer'd to prove his mission by such a miracle . For if Christ had said to the guests ; To prove that I am come from God , I will change this water into wine ; well might this prove his mission : but if while the guests were wondring at this , he should proceed and say , wonder ye not at this , for I will do a stranger thing than it , for this water shall be changed into wine , and yet I will so order it , that it shall look like water , and taste like it , so that you shall not know one from the other : Certainly this would have made the whole matter very ridiculous ; and indeed it is a strange device of these men to suppose God to work so many prodigious miracles as must be in Transubstantiation , if it were at all , and yet that none of these should be seen ; for to what purpose is a miracle that cannot be perceived ? It can prove nothing , nor do any thing , when it self is not known whether it be or no. When bread is turned into flesh , and wine into blood in the nourishment of our bodies ( which I have seen urg'd for the credibility of Transubstantiation ) The bread as it changes his nature , changes his accidents too , and is flesh in colour , and shape , and dimensions , and weight , and operation , as well as it is in substance . Now let them rub their foreheads hard and tell us , it is so in the holy Sacrament . For if it be not so , then no instance of the change of Natural substances from one form to another can be pertinent : For 1. Though it be no more than is done in every operation of a body , yet it is always with change of their proper accidents ; and then 2. It can with no force of the words of the institution be pretended , that one ought to be or can be without the other . For he that says this is the body of a man , says that it hath the substance of a humane body , and all his consequents , that is , the accidents : and he that says this is the body of Alexander , says ( besides the substance ) that it hath all the individuating conditions , which are the particular accidents ; and therefore Christ affirming this to be his body , did as much affirm the change of accidents as the change of substance : because that change is naturally and essentially consequent to this . Now if they say , they therefore do not believe the accidents of bread to be changed , because they see them remain ; I might reply , Why will they believe their sense against faith ? since there may be evidence , but here is certainty , and it cannot be deceived though our eyes can : and it is certain , that Christ affirmed it without distinction of one part from another , of substance from his usual accidents . This is my body . Hoc , Hîc , Nunc , and Sic. Now if they think their eyes may be credited for all the words of our blessed Saviour , why shall not their reason also ? or is it nothing so certain to the understanding , as any thing is to the eye ? If therefore it be unreasonable to say that the accidents of bread are changed against our sense , so it will be unreasonable to say , that the substance is changed against our reason ; Not but that God can , and does often change one substance into another , and it is done in every natural production of a substantial form ; but that we say it is unreasonable that this should be changed into flesh ( not to flesh simply , for so it is when we eat it , nor into Christs flesh simply , for so it might have been , if he had , as it is probable he did , eaten the Sacrament himself , But ) into that body of Christ which is in Heaven , he remaining there , and being whole and impassible , and unfrangible , this we say is unreasonable and impossible : and that is now to be proved . 6. Secondly , In this question when our adversaries are to cousen any of the people , they tell them , the Protestants deny Gods omnipotency , for so they are pleased to call our denying their dreams : And this device of theirs to escape is older than their doctrine of Transubstantiation , for it was the trick of the Manichees , the Eutychians , the Apollinarists , the Arians when they were confuted by the arguments of the Catholicks , to flye to Gods omnipotency ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , says * Nazianzen , and it was very usually by the Fathers called the Sanctuary of Hereticks : Potentia ( inquiunt ) ei haec est ut falsa sint vera : mendacis est ut falsum dicat verum , quod Deo non competit , saith S. Austin . They pretend it to belong to Gods power to verifie their doctrine , that is to make falshood truth ; that is not power , but a lye , which cannot be in God , and this was older than the Arrians ; it was the trick of the old Tragedians ; So Plato told them ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; which Cicero rendring , says , Cum explicare argumenti exitium non potestis , confugitis ad Deum . When you cannot bring your argument about , you flye to the power of God. But when we say this is impossible to be done , either we mean it naturally or ordinarily impossible , that is , such a thing which cannot without a miracle be done ; as a child cannot with his hands break a giants arm , or a man cannot eat a Milstone , or with his finger touch the Moon . Now in matters of Religion , although to shew a thing to be thus impossible is not enough to prove it was not at all , if God said it was ; for although to man it be impossible , yet to God all things are possible ; yet when the question is of the sence of the words of Scripture , which are capable of various interpretations , he that brings an argument ab impossibili against any one interpretation , shewing that it infers such an ordinary impossibility as cannot be done without a miracle , hath sufficiently concluded ( not against the words , for nothing ought to prejudice them , but ) against such an interpretation as infers that impossibility . Thus when in Scripture we find it recorded that Christ was born of a Virgin , to say this is impossible , is no argument against it , because although it be naturally impossible ( which I think is demonstrable against the Arabian Physicians ) yet to him that said it , it is also possible to do it . But then if from hence any man shall obtrude as an Article of Faith , that the blessed Virgin Mother was so a Virgin that her holy Son came into the world without any aperture of his mothers womb , I doubt not but an argument ab impossibili is a sufficient conviction of the falshood of it ; though this impossibility be only an ordinary and natural ; because the words of Scripture affirming Christ to be born of a Virgin , say only that he was not begotten by natural generation ; not that his egression from his Mothers womb made a Penetration of dimensions . To instance once more : The words of Scripture are plain , That Christ is man , That Christ is God ; Here are two natures and yet but one Christ ; No impossibility ought to be pretended against these plain words , but they must be sophismes , because they dispute against truth it self . But now if a Monothelite shall say that by this unity of nature , God hath taught an unity of wills in Christ , and that he had but one will , because he is but one person ; I do not doubt but an argument from an ordinary and natural impossibility will be sufficient to convince him of his heresie ; and in this case the Monothelite hath no reason to say that the Orthodox Christian denies Gods omnipotency , and says that God cannot unite the will of Christs humanity to the will of his Divinity : And this is true in every thing which is not declared minutely , and in his particular sence . There is ordinarily no greater argument in the world , and none better is commonly used , nor any better required than to reduce the opinion to an impossibility ; for if this be not true without a miracle , you must prove your extraordinary , and demonstrate your miracle ; which will be found to be a new impossibility . A sence that cannot be true without a miracle to make it so , it is a miracle if it be true ; and therefore let the literal sence in any place be presumed , and have the advantage of the first offer or presumption ; yet if it be ordinarily impossible to be so , and without a miracle cannot be so , and the miracle no where affirmed , then to affirm the literal sence is the hugest folly that can be in the interpretation of any Scriptures . 7. But there is an impossibility which is absolute , which God cannot do , therefore because he is Almighty ; for to do them were impotency , and want of power ; as God cannot lye , he cannot be deceived , he cannot be mock'd , he cannot die , he cannot deny himself , nor do unjustly : And I remember that Dionysius brings in ( by way of scorn ) Elymas the Sorcerer finding fault with S. Paul for saying God could not deny himself ; as if the saying so , were denying Gods omnipotency ; so Elymas objected ; as is to be seen in the book de Divin . Nom. c. 8. And by the consent of all the world it is agreed upon this expression , That God cannot reconcile contradictions ; that is , It is no part of the divine Omnipotency to make the same proposition true and false at the same time , in the same respect ; It is absolutely impossible that the same thing should be and not be at the same time , that the same thing so constituted in his own formality should lose the formality or essential affirmative ; and yet remain the same thing . For it is absolutely the first truth that can be affirmed in Metaphysical notices , Nothing can be and not be . This is it in which all men and all Sciences , and all religions are agreed upon as a prime truth in all sences , and without distinctions . For if any thing could be and not be at the same time , then there would be something whose being were not to be . Nay Dominicus à Soto affirms expresly , that not only things only cannot be done by God which intrinsecally , formally , and expresly infer two contradictories , but those also which the understanding at the first proposal , does by his natural light dissent from , and can by no means admit ; because that which is so repugnant to the understanding , naturally does suâ naturâ repugnare , is impossible in the nature of things ; and therefore when it is said in S. Luke , nothing is impossible with God , it is meant ; Nothing is impossible , but that which naturally repugnes to the understanding . Now to apply this to the present question ; Our adversaries do not deny , but that in the doctrine of Transubstantiation there are a great many impossibilities , which are such naturally and ordinarily ; but by Divine power they can be done ; but that they are done they have no warrant , but the plain literal sence of the words of Hoc est corpus meum : Now this is so far from proving that God does work perpetual miracles to verifie their sence of it , that the working of miracles ought to prove that to be the sence of it . Now the probation of a proposition by miracles is an open thing , clear as thunder , and being a matter of sense , and consequently more known than the thing which they intend to prove , ought not to be proved by that which is the thing in question . And therefore to say that God will work a miracle rather than his words should be false , is certain , but impertinent : For concerning the words themselves there is no question , and therefore now no more need of miracles to confirm them ; concerning the meaning of them is the question ; They say this is the meaning . Quest. How do you prove it since there are so many impossibilities in it naturally and ordinarily ? Answ. Because God said it , therefore it is true : Resp. Yea , that God said the words we doubt not , but that his words are to be understood in your sence , that I doubt ; because if I believe your sence , I must admit many things ordinarily impossible . Answ. Yea , but nothing is impossible to God. Resp. True , nothing that can be done exceeds his power ; but supposing this absolutely possible , yet how does it appear that God will do a miracle to verifie your sence , which otherwise cannot be true ; when without a miracle the words may be true in many other sences ? Jam dic posthume : for it is hard that men by a continual effort and violence should maintain a proposition against reason and his unquestionable maximes , thinking it sufficient to oppose against it Gods omnipotency ; as if the crying out a miracle were a sufficient guard against all absurdity in the world : as if the wisdom of God did arm his power against his truth , and that it were a fineness of Spirit to be able to believe the two parts of a contradiction , and all upon confidence of a miracle which they cannot prove . And indeed it were something strange , that thousands and thousands of times , every day for above 1500 years together , the same thing should be done , and yet this should be called a miracle , that is , a daily extraordinary : for by this time it would pass into nature and a rule , and so become a supernatural natural event , an extraregular rule , an extraordinary ordinary , a perpetual wonder , that is , a wonder and no wonder : and therefore I may infer the proper corollaries of this argument , in the words of Scotus , whose opinion it was pity it could be overborn by tyranny . 1. That the truth of the Eucharist may be saved without Transubstantiation . And this I have already proved . 2. The substance of bread under the accidents is more a nourishment than the accidents themselves , and therefore more represents Christs body in the formality of Spiritual nourishment . And indeed , that I may add some weight to these words of Scotus which are very true and very reasonable : 1. It cannot be told why bread should be chosen for the symbol of the body , but because of his nourishing faculty , and that the accidents should nourish without substance , is like feeding a man with musick , and quenching his thirst with a Diagram . 2. It is fantastical and mathematical bread , not natural , which by the doctrine of Transubstantiation is represented on the table , and therefore unfit to nourish or to typifie that which can . 3. Painted bread might as well be symbolical as the real , if the real bread become no bread : for then that which remains is nothing but the accidents , as colour and dimensions , &c. But Scotus proceeds . 3. That understanding of the words of institution that the substance of bread is not there , seems harder to be maintained , and to it more inconveniences are consequent , than by putting the substance of bread to be there . 4. Lastly , It is a wonder why in one Article which is not a principal Article of faith , such a sence should be affirmed , for which faith is exposed to the contempt of all that follow reason : and all this is because i● Transubstantiation there are many natural and ordinary impossibilities . In h●c conversione sunt plura difficiliora quàm in creatione , said Aquinas , There are more difficulties in this conversion of the Sacrament , than in the whole Creation . 9. But then because we are speaking concerning what may be done by God , it ought to be considered that it is rash and impudent to say that the body of Christ cannot by the power of God ( who can do all things ) be really in the Sacrament without the natural conversion of bread into him . God can make that the body of Christ should be de novo in the Sacrament of the Altar , without any change of it self , and without the change of any thing into it self , yet some change being made about the bread , or something else . They are the words of Durand * . Cannot God in any sence make this proposition true ; This bread is the body of Christ , or this is bread and Christs body too ? If they say he cannot , then it is a clear case , who it is that denies Gods omnipotency . If God can , then how will they be able from the words of Scripture to prove Transubstantiation ? This also would be considered . 10. But now concerning impossibilities , if it absolutely can be evinc'd that this doctrine of Transubstantiation does affirm contradictions , then it is not only an intolerable prejudice against the doctrine , as is the ordinary and natural impossibility ; but it will be absolutely impossible to be true , and it derogates from God to affirm such a proposition in religion , and much more to adopt it into the body of faith . And therefore when S. Paul had quoted that place of Scripture ; He hath put all things under him ; he adds , It is evident , that he is excepted who did put all things under him ; for if this had not been so understood , then he should have been under himself , and he that gave the power should be lessened , and be inferiour to him that received it ; which because they infer impossibilities , like those which are consequent to Transubstantiation , S. Paul makes no more of it but to say , The contrary is manifest against the unlimited literal sence of the words . Now for the eviction of this , these two mediums are to be taken . The one , that this doctrine affirms that of the essence , or existence of a thing , which is contrary to the essence or existence of it , and yet that the same thing remains ; that is , that the essence remains without the essence , that is , without it self . The other , that this doctrine makes a thing to be and not to be at the same time : I shall use them both but promiscuously , because they are reducible to one . 11. The doctrine of Transubstantiation is against the nature and essence of a body . Bellarmine seems afraid of this ; for immediately before , he goes about to prevaricate about the being of a body in many places at once , he says , that if the essence of things were evidently and particularly known , then we might know what does , and what does not imply a contradiction ; but , id non satis constat , there is no certainty of that ; by that pretended uncertainty making way as he hopes to escape from all the pressure of contradictions that lye upon the prodigious philosophy of this Article : But we shall make a shift so far to understand the essence of a body , as to evince this doctrine to be full of contradictions . 12. First , For Christs body , his Natural body is changed into a Spiritual body , and it is not now a Natural body , but a Spiritual ; and therefore cannot be now in the Sacrament after a natural manner , because it is so no where , and therefore not there ; It is sown a natural body , it is raised a Spiritual body . And therefore though this Spirituality be not a change of one substance into another , yet it is so a change of the same substance , that it hath lost all those accidents which were not perfective nor constitutive , but imperfect and separable from the body ; and therefore in no sence of nature can it be manducated . And here is the first contradiction . The body of Christ is the Sacrament . The same body is in Heaven . In Heaven it cannot be broken naturally ; In the Sacrament they say it is broken naturally and properly ; therefore the same body is and is not , it can and it cannot be broken . To this they answer , that this is broken under the Species of bread ; Not in it self ; Well! is it broken or is it not broken ? let it be broken under what it will , if it be broken , the thing is granted . For if being broken under the Species , it be meant that the Species be broken alone , and not the body of Christ , then they take away in one hand when they reach forth with the other . This being a better argument , The Species only are broken , the Species are not Christs body , therefore Christs body is not broken : better I say than this , The body of Christ is under the Species , the Species alone are broken , therefore the body of Christ is broken . For how can the breaking of Species or accidents infer the breaking of Christs body , unless the accidents be Christs body , or inseparable from it ? or rather , How can the breaking of the accidents infer the breaking of Christs body when it cannot be broken ? To this I desire a clear and intelligible answer . Add to this , how can Species , that is , accidents be broken , but when a substance is broken ? for an accident properly , such as smell , colour , taste , hath of it self no solid and consistent , nor indeed any fluid parts , nothing whereby it can be broken , and have a part divided from a part ; but as the substance in which the accident is subjected becomes divided , so do the inherent accidents ; but no otherwise : and if this cannot be admitted , men cannot know what one another say or mean , they can have no notices of things or regular propositions . 13. Secondly , But I demand , When we speak of a body , what we mean by it ? For in all discourses and entercourses of mankind by words we must agree concerning each others meaning : when we speak of a body , of a substance , of an accident , what does mankind agree to mean by these words ? All the Philosophers , and all the wise men in the world , when they divide a substance from an accident , mean by a substance that which can subsist in it self without a subject of inherence . But an accident is , that whose very essence is to be in another : When they speak of a body and separate it from a Spirit , they mean that a Spirit is that which hath no material , divisible parts , physically ; that which hath nothing of that which makes a body , that is , extension , limitation by lines , and superficies and material measures . The very first notion and conception of things teaches all men , that what is circumscribed and measured by his proper place is there and no where else . For if it could be there and be in another place , it were two and not one . A finite Spirit can be but in one place , but it is there without circumscription ; that is , it hath no parts measured by the parts of a place , but is there after another manner than a body , that is , it is in every part of his definition or spiritual location . So it is said , a soul is in the whole body ; not that a part of it is in the hand , and a part of it in the eye , but it is whole in the whole , and whole in every part ; and it is true that it is so , if it be wholly immaterial : because that which is spiritual and immaterial cannot have material parts . But when we speak of a body , all the world means that which hath a finite quantity , and is determin'd to one place . This was the philosophy of all the world , taught in all the Schools of the Christians and Heathens , even of all mankind , till the doctrine of Transubstantiation was to be nursed and maintained , and even after it was born it could not be forgotten by them who were bound to keep it . And I appeal to any man of the Roman perswasion , if they can shew me any ancient Philosopher , Greek , or Roman , or Christian of any Nation , who did not believe it to be essential to the being of a body to be in one place : and Amphitruo in the old Comedy had reason to be angry with Sofia upon this point . Tun ' id dicere audes , quod nemo unquam homo antehac vidit , nec potest fieri , tempore uno , Homo idem duobus locis ut simul sit ? And therefore to make the body of Christ to be in a thousand places at once , and yet to be but one body , To be in Heaven and to be upon so many Altars , to be on the Altar in so many round Wafers , is to make a body to be a spirit , and to make a finite to be infinite ; for nothing can be so but an infinite Spirit . 14. Neither will it be sufficient to fly here to Gods omnipotency : for God can indeed make a body to be a Spirit ; but can it consist with the Divine Being to make an infinite substance ? Can there possibly be two Categorematical , that is , positive substantial infinites ? or can it be that a finite should , remaining finite , yet not be finite , but indefinite and in innumerable places at once * ? God can new create the body , and change it into a Spirit ; But can a body , remaining a body , be at the same time a Spirit ? or can it be a body , and yet not be in a place ? is it not determined so , that remaining in a place it cannot be out of it ? If these things could be otherwise , then the same thing at the same time could be a Body and a Spirit , limited and unlimited , wholly in a place , and wholly out of it , finite and infinite , a body , and yet no body , one , and yet many , the same and not the same , that is , it should not be it self . Now although God can change any thing from being the thing it is , to become another thing , yet is it not a contradiction to say , it should be the same it is , and yet not the same ? These are the essential , immediate consequents of supposing a body remaining a body , whose essence it is to be finite and determined in one place , can yet so remaining be in a thousand places . Thirdly , The Socinians teach that our bodies at the Resurrection shall be ( as they say Christs body now is ) changed substantially . For corruptible and incorruptible , mortal and immortal , natural and spiritual , are substantial differences : and now our bodies being natural , corruptible and mortal , differ substantially from bodies spiritual , immortal and incorruptible , as they shall be hereafter , and as the body of our Lord now is . Now I am sure the Church of Rome allows not of this doctrine in these ; neither have they reason for it ; But do not they admit that in hypothesi which they deny in thesi ? For is it not a perfect change of substance , that a body from finite is changed to be at least potentially infinite , from being determined in one place to be indefinite and indeterminable ? To lose all his essential proprieties must needs infer a substantial change * ; and that it is of the essence of a body to be in one place , at least an essential propriety , they will not , I suppose be so impudent as to deny , since they flye to the Divine omnipotency , and a perpetual miracle to make it be otherwise : which is a plain demonstration that naturally it is so ; this therefore they are to answer if they can . 15. But let us see what Christian Philosophy teaches us in this particular . S. Austin is a good probable Doctor , and may be trusted for a proposition in Natural Philosophy . These are his conclusions in this Article . * Corpora quae non possunt esse nisi in loco . Bodies cannot be but in their place . ‖ Angustias omnipotentiae corpora patiuntur , nec ubique possunt esse , nec semper ; Divinitas autem ubique praestò est . The Divinity is present every where , but not bodies , they are not omnipotent : meaning , it is a propriety of God to be in many places , an effect of his omnipotence . But more plainly yet , Spatia locorum tolle corporibus , & nusquam erunt , & quia nusquam erunt , nec erunt , If you take from bodies the spaces of place , they will be no where , and if they be no where , they will not be at all : and to apply this to the present question , he affirms , * Christus homo secundùm corpus in loco est , & de loco migrat , & cum ad alium locum venerit , in eo loco unde venit non est . Christ as man according to the body is in a place and goes from a place , and when he comes to another place is not in the place from whence he came . For besides that so to do is of the verity of Christs body , that it should have the same affections with ours ; according as it is insisted upon in divers places of the Scripture , particularly , S. Luke 24.39 . it is also in the same place , and in the story apparent , that the case was not alter'd after the resurrection , but Christ moved finitely by dimensions , and change of places . So Theodoret ; Dominicum corpus incorruptibile resurrexit & impatibile & immortale , & divinâ gloriâ glorificatum est , & à coelestibus adoratur potestatibus ; corpus tamen est , priorem habens circumscriptionem . Christs body even after the resurrection is circumscribed as it was before . And therefore as it is impious to deny God to be invisible : so it is profane , not to believe and profess the son of God in his assum'd humility to be visible , corporeal , and local after the resurrection : It is the saying of S. Austin . 16. And I would fain know how it will be answered , that they attribute to the body of Christ , which is his own creature , the incommunicable attribute of ubiquity , either actually or potentially . For let them say ; is it not an attribute of God to be unlimited and to be undefined by places ? S. Austin says it , and it is affirm'd by natural reason , and all the world attributes this to God , as a propriety of his own . If it be not his own , then all the world hath been always deceived till this new generation arose . If it be , let them fear the horrid consequent of giving that to a creature which is the glory of the Creator . And if they think to escape by saying , that they do not attribute to it actual ubiquity , but potential , that is , that though he be not , yet he may be every where ; let it be considered , if the argument of the Fathers was good ( by which they proved the Divinity of the holy Ghost ) This is every where , therefore this is God ; is it not also as good to say , This may be every where , therefore this may be God ? And then it will be altogether as bad as any thing can be imagined , for it makes the incommunicable attribute of God to be communicable to a creature ; and not only so , but it is worse , for it makes , that an actual creature may be a potential God , that is , that there can be a God which is not eternally a God , that is not a pure act , a God that is not yet , but that shall have a beginning in time . 17. Fourthly , There was not in all School Divinity , nor in the old Philosophy , nor in nature any more than three natural proper ways of being in a place , circumscriptivè , definitivè , repletivé . The body of Christ is not in the Sacrament circumscriptively , because there he could be but in one Altar , in one Wafer . It is not there definitively for the same reason , because to be definitely in a place is to be in it so as to be there , and no where else . And both these are affirmed by their own Turrecremata ; It remains , that it must be repletivè in many places , which we use to attribute to God only , and it is that manner of being in a place , by which God is distinguished from his creatures ; But now a fourth word must be invented , and that is Sacramentalitèr , Christs body is Sacramentally in more places than one : which is very true , that is , the Sacrament of Christs body is : and so is his body figuratively , tropically , representatively in being , and really in effect and blessing . But this is not a natural , real being in a place , but a relation to a person ; the other three are all the manners of location which the soul of Man could yet ever apprehend . 18. Fifthly , It is essential to a body to have partem extra partem , one part without the other , answering to the parts of his place ; for so the eyes stand separate from the hands , and the ears from the feet , and the head from the belly . But in Transubstantiation the whole body is in a point , in a minimum naturale , in the least imaginable crumb of consecrated bread : how then shall nose and eyes , and head and hands be distinct ? unless the mutiny of the members be reconciled , and all parties pleased , because the feet shall be the eyes , and the leg shall be the head , and possess each others dimension and proper cells of dwelling . Quod ego non credo , said an ancient Gloss. I will not insist upon the unworthy questions which this carnal doctrine introduces : viz. Whether Christs whole body be so there , that the prepuce is not wanting ? Suarez supposing that as probable , others denying it , but disputing it fiercely ; Neither will I make scrutiny concerning eating Christs bones , guts , hair , and nails ; nor suppose the Roman Priests to be such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and to have such saws in their mouths : these are appendages of their perswasion , but to be abominated by all Christian and modest persons , who use to eat not the bodies but the flesh of beasts , and not to devour , but to worship the body of Christ in the exaltation , and more in the union with his Divinity . But that which I now insist upon is , that in a body there cannot be indistinction of parts , but each must possess his own portion of place ; and if it does not , a body cannot be a body , nor distinguished from a Spirit . 19. Sixthly , When a body broken into half , one half is separate from another , and remains divided ; But in the doctrine of Transubstantiation , the wafer which they say is Christs whole body , if it be broken , is broken into two whole ones , not into the halfs of one ; and so there shall be two bodies , if each half make one , and yet those two bodies are but one and not two . Adde to this , if each wafer be Christ's body whole , and the fraction of it makes that every part is whole Christ ; then every communicant can consecrate as well as the Priest , for at his breaking the host in his mouth , why the body should not also become whole to each part in the mouth , as well as to each part in the hand is one of the unintelligible secrets of this mystery . 20. Aquinas says that The body of Christ is not in the Sacrament , in the manner of a body , but of a substance , and so is whole in the whole : Well ; suppose that for a while : yet 1. Those substances which are whole in the whole , are by his own doctrine neither divisible nor multiplicable , and how then can Christs body be supposed to be * multiplicable ( for there are no other words to express my meaning , though no words can speak sence according to their doctrine , words not signifying here as every where else , and among them as they did always in all mankind ) how can it , I say , be multiplied by the breaking of the wafer or bread upon the account of the likeness of it to a substance that cannot be broken , or if it could , yet were not multipliable ? But 2. If Christs body be there according to the manner of a substance , not of a body , I demand according to the nature of what substance , whether of a material or an immaterial ? If according to the nature of a material substance , then it is commensurate by the dimensions of quantity , which he is now endeavouring to avoid . If according to the nature of an immaterial substance , then it is not a body , but a Spirit ; or else the body may have the being of a Spirit , whilest it remains a body , that is , be a body and not a body at the same time . But 3. To say that a body is there , not according to the nature of a body , but of a substance , is not sence , for besides that by this answer , it is a body without the nature of a body , it says that it is also there determin'd by a manner , and yet that manner is so far from determining it , that it makes it yet more undetermin'd and general than it was . For [ Substance ] is the highest Genus in that Category : and corpus or body is under it , and made more special by a superadded difference . To say therefore that a body is there after the manner of a substance , is to say , that by being specificated , limited , and determin'd it becomes not a Species but a Genus , that is , more unlimited by limitations , more generical by his specification , more universal by being made more particular . For impossible is it for wise men to make sence of this business . 3. But besides all this , to be in a place after the manner of a substance , is not to be in a place at all ; for substantia hath in it no relation to a place till it be specificated to a Body or a Spirit ; For substantia dicit solùm formalitatem substandi accidentibus & subsistendi per se ; but the capacity of , or relation to a place is by the specification of it by some substantial difference . 4. Lastly , to explicate the being in a place , in the manner of a substance by being whole in the whole , and whole in every part is to say , that every substance is so ; which is notoriously false : for corporal substances are not so ; whether spiritual be , is a question not proper for this place . 21. Aquinas hath yet another device to make all whole , saying that one body cannot be in diverse places localitèr , but Sacramentalitèr , not locally , but Sacramentally . But first I wish the words were sence , and that I could tell the meaning of being in a place locally , and not locally , unless a thing can be in a place and not in a place , that is , so to be in , that it is also out : But so long as it is a distinction it is no matter , it will amuse and make way to escape , if it will do nothing else . But if by being Sacramentally in many places is meant figuratively ( as before I explicated it ) then I grant Aquinas's affirmative ; Christs body is in many places Sacramentally , that is , it is represented upon all the holy Tables or Altars in the Christian Church . But if by Sacramentally he means naturally , and properly , then he contradicts himself , for that is it he must mean by localitèr if he means any thing at all . But it matters not what he means , for it is sufficient to me that he only says it and proves it not ; and that it is not sence ; and lastly , that Bellarmine confutes it as not being home enough to his purpose , but a direct destruction of the fancy of Transubstantiation ; Si non possit esse unum corpus localitèr in duobus locis ; quia divideretur à seipso , profectò non esse possit Sacramentalitèr eâdem ratione . I might make advantage of this contestation between two so great patrons of Transubstantiation , if I did need it ; For Aquinas says , that a body cannot be in two places at once locally . Bellarmine says then neither can it Sacramentally ; it were easie then to infer that Therefore it is in two places no way in the world . But I shall not need this . 22. Seventhly , For there is a new heap of impossibilities , if we should reckon that which follows from the multiplication of totalities ; I mean of the body of Christ , which is one continual substance , one in it self and divided from every thing else , as all unity is ; and yet every wafer consecrated is the whole body of Christ , and yet that body is but one , and the wafers which are not one , are every one of them Christs body . And how is it possible that Christs body should be in Heaven , and between it and us are many other bodies interposed , and his body is in none of the intermedials , and that his body should be also here , and yet not joyned to that , either by continuity or contiguity , and the same body should be a thousand miles off , and ten thousand bodies between them , and yet all this be but one : that is , How can it be two and yet be one ? For how shall any man reckon two ? How can he know that two glasses of wine are not one ? We see them in two places , their continuity divided , there is an intermedial distance and other bodies interposed , and therefore we silly men usually say they are two ; but it is strange to see , a man may be confident and yet without reason when he hath not wit enough to tell two . But then there is not in nature any way for a man to tell two , if this principle be taken from us . It will also be an infinite , impossible contradiction which follows the being of a body in two places at once ; upon this account . For it will infer that the same body is at the same time , in the same respect , in order to the same place , both actually and potentially , that is , possessed and not possessed of it , and may go to that place where it is already . For suppose a body at S. Omers , and the same body at the same time at Doway , then that body which is actually at S. Omers , may yet at the same time be going from Doway thither , and then he is at the same time there and not there , at his journeys end , and yet on the way thither ; that is , in disposition and tendency to that place where he is already actually , and whither he is arriv'd before he set out and began his journey ; and goes away from Doway , before he leaves it . Add to this , that to be in two places at once , makes the same thing which is contained in diverse places to be contain'd in none . For as to be in a place like a body , is to be contain'd in that place ; so to be contain'd in that place is to be terminated or bounded by that place ; but whatsoever is bounded by a thing , is not without or beyond that bounds : it follows therefore that if a body can be intirely without or beyond that place in which it is contained , that is without the bounds , then it is bounded and not bounded , it is contained and not contained ; that is , it is contained by diverse , and it is contained by none . 23. But how can any thing be divided from it self wholly ? for either it must be where it is not , or else it must be two . The wit of man cannot devise a shift to make this seem possible . But Bellarmine can ; for he says there is a double indivision , or unity , or being : an intrinsecal and an extrinsecal , a local , and an essential ; Now of these one can be without the other : and though a body have but one unity essential , because it can be but one body , yet it may have more ●ntrinsecal or local beings . This is the full sence of his device , if at least there be any sence in it . But besides that this distinction is no where taught in any Philosophy , a child of his own still-born , not offer'd to be proved or made credible ; it is , if it be brought into open view from without the curtains of a formal distinction , just as if he had said ; Whereas you object that one thing can be but in one place , for whatsoever is in two places is two bodies ; you are deceiv'd ; for it is true , that one body can be but one , but yet it may be two in respect of place ; that is , it is but one in nature , but it may be in two places ; and so you are confuted . But then if I should reply , This answer is but to deny the conclusion , and affirms the thing in question ; there were no more to be said . For that one thing in nature cannot have two adequate places at the same time , was the conclusion of my argument ; and the answer is , It can have two , and this is all is said . 2. But then I would fain know what warrant there is for the real distinction of esse essentiale and esse locale of bodies , as if they were two distinct separable beings ; whereas quantity is inseparable from bodies , and measure from continual quantities , and to be in a place is nothing but to have his quantity measured . 3. To be in a place , is the termination or limit of a quantitative body , and makes it not to be infinite : and if this can be separated by a distinction from a finite body , then something is said ; but if a finite body must be finite and not infinite , then to be determin'd by a place , the proper determination or definition of a quantitative body , is not separable from it . 4. If any man should say that one person cannot be together in two several times , no more than in two several places ; This distinction would fetch him in to be of two times together ; for there is a double indivision , one in respect of essence , the other in respect of duration , that intrinsecal , this extrinsecal ; though one man or body hath but one being or essence intrinsecal and essential , yet he may have more extrinsecal , accidental and temporary . And really the case , as to this distinction , is all one , and so it is to the argument too : for as two times cannot be together because of their successive nature , so neither can two places be adapted at once to one body , because of their continual and united nature : unity and quantity continual being as essential to quantitative bodies , as succession is to them who are measured by time . 5. If one body may possess and fill two places circumscriptively , that it is commensurate to both of them , or to as many more as it shall chance to be in , then suppose a body of five foot long , is in a place at Rome , at Valladolid , at Paris , and at London , in each of these places it must fill a space of five foot long , because it is always commensurate to his place : it will follow , that a body but of five foot long shall fill up the room of twenty foot ; which whether it implies not a contradiction that the same body should be but five foot long , and yet at the same time be twenty foot long of the same measure , let all the Geometricians judge . This is such a device , that as one said of the witty drunkenness and arts of the Symposiac among the Greeks , that amongst them a dunce could not be drunk : So in this device a man had need be very cunning to speak such non-sence , and make himself believe those things which are against the conceptions of all men in the world , till this new doctrine turned their brains , and make new propositions and new affirmatives out of old impossibilities . But these people in all this affair , deal with mankind , as if they were beasts , and not reasonable creatures ; or as if all their disciples were babies , or fools , and that to them it is lawful to say any thing , and having no understanding of their own , they are to efform them as they please . 23. But to this objection it is answer'd , that it may have a double sence : That a body of five foot long may fill the space of five foot . One ; So as the magnitude of such a body should be commensurate to that place , and so a body of five foot cannot fill up the spaces of twenty foot : but another way is , so as the magnitude of the body should not be commensurate , but only to the space of five foot , but yet the same magnitude may be twice , or thrice put to such a space , and this may be done . This is Bellarmines answer ; That is , If you consider a body of five foot long , so as it can but fill five foot space , in that sence it cannot fill twenty . But if you consider it so as it is commensurate to a space , that is , twenty foot , so it cannot be , being but of five foot long . That this is the sence of his answer , I appeal to all men that can understand common sence . But though it be but of five foot long , yet it may be placed twice or thrice in a space of five foot long , and what then ? Then it fills still but a place of five foot long . True in one place , but if it fills five foot at Rome , and at the same time five foot at Valladolid , and five foot at Paris , and five foot at London , I pray are not four times five twenty ? As although the Sun have but force to drink up five measures of water in Egypt ; and at the same time as much in Arabia , and as much in Ethiopia , and as much in Greece , he at the same time drinks up twenty measures , though his whole force in one place be but to drink five , and yet still it is but one Sun. But besides all this , that the same body be put twice or thrice into a space of five foot at the same time , is that unreasonable thing , which all the natural and congenite notices of men cry down , and therefore ought not to be said confidently , in a distinction without proof ; as if the putting it into a non-sence distinction , could oblige all the world to believe it . 24. Eightly , But I proceed : Valentia (a) affirms that the Fathers prove the Divinity of the holy Ghost by his ubiquity : and it is certain they do so , as appears in (b) S. Athanasius , (c) S. Basil , (d) S. Ambrose , (e) Didymus of Alexandria , (f) S. Cyril of Alexandria , (g) S. Austin ; and divers others : and yet these men affirm that a body may be in many places , and therefore may be in all , and that it is potentially infinite ; is it not evident that they take from the Fathers the force of the argument , because ubiquity is communicable to something that is not God ; or if it be not , why do they give it to a creature ? That which can be in many places , can be in all places ; for all the reason that forbids it to be in two thousand , forbids it to be in two ; and if those cannot determine it to one place , it cannot be determined at all ; I mean , the nature of a body , his determination to places , his circumscription , continuity , unity , quantity , dimensions . Nay , that which is not determined by place , by continuity , nor by his nature , but may be any where , is in his own nature uncircumscribed and indefinite , which is that attribute of God upon which his omnipresence does rely ; and that Christs body is not every where actually , as is the holy Ghost , it says nothing against this ; because he being a voluntary agent , can restrain the measure of his presence , as God himself does the many manners of his presence . However , that nature is infinite that can be every where , and therefore if it can be communicated to a body , to be so , is not proper to God , nor can it prove the holy Ghost so to be . Of the same nature is that other argument used frequently by the Primitive Doctors , proving two natures to be in Christ , the Divine and the Humane , and the difference between them is remarked in this , that the Divine is in many places , and in all : but the Humane can be but in one at once . This is affirmed by (a) Origen , (b) S. Hilary , (c) S. Hierome , (d) S. Austin , (e) Gelasius , (f) Fulgentius , and (g) Ven. Bede . But this is but variety of the same dish ; if both these can prevail together , then either of them ought to prevail singly . 25. Against all this , and whatsoever else can be objected , it is pretended , that it is possible for a body to be in many distant places at once . For Christ who is always in Heaven , yet appeared to S. Paul on Earth , and to many other Saints , as to S. Peter , to S. Anthony , to S. Tharsilla , S. Gregory , and I cannot tell who . To this I answer ; 1. That in all this there is nothing certain , but that Christ appeared to S. Paul ; for it may be , he appeared to him in Heaven , S. Paul being on Earth : for so he did to S. Stephen , as is recorded in the Acts of the Apostles : and from Heaven there might only come a voice and a light . 2. It may be S. Paul saw Christ when he was wrapt up into the third Heavens : for , that Christ was seen by him , himself affirms ; but he says not that he saw him at his conversion ; and all that he says he saw then , was that he saw a great light and heard a voice . 3. That in case Christ did appear corporally to Saul on earth , it follows not his body was in two places at once . I have the warrant of him that is willing enough otherwise that this argument should prevail : Quia non est improbabile Christum privatim & ad breve tempus descendisse de coelo post ascensionem . It is not unlikely that Christ might privately and for a short time descend from Heaven after his ascension ; For when it is said in Scripture that the Heavens must receive him till the day of restitution of all things , it is to be meant , ordinarily , and as his place of residence ; but that hinders not an extraordinary commigration ; as a man may be said to dwell continually in London , and yet sometimes to go into the country to take the air . For the other instances of S. Peter and S. Anthony , and the rest , if I were sure they were true , I would say the same answer would also serve their turn ; but as they are , it is not material whether it does or no. 26. Another way of answering is taken from the examples of God and the reasonable soul. Concerning the soul I have these things to say ; 1. Whether the soul be whole in every part of the body , and whole in the whole is presumed by most men , but substantially proved by none , but denied by a great many , and those of the first rank of learned men . 2. If it were , it follows not that it is in two places or more ▪ because not the hand nor the foot is the adequate place of the soul , but the whole body ; and therefore the usual expression of Philosophy , saying , The soul is whole in every part is not true positively , but negatively , that is , the soul being immaterial , cannot be cantoniz'd into parts by the division of the body ; but positively it is not true . For the understanding is not in the foot , nor the will in the hand : and something of the soul is not organical or depending upon the body : viz. The pure acts of volition , some little glimpses of intuition , reflexion , and the like . 3. If it were , yet to alledge this is impertinent to their purpose : unless whatsoever is true concerning a spirit , can also be affirmed of a body . 4. When the body is divided into parts , the soul is not multiplied into fantastick or real numbers , as it is pretended in Transubstantiation ; and therefore although the soul were whole in every part , it could do no service in this question ; unless it were so whole in each part , as to be whole when each part is divided , for so it is said to be in the Eucharist ; which because we say is impossible , we require an instance in something where it is so ; but because it is not so in the soul , this instance is not home to any of their purposes . But Bellarmine says , God can make it to be so , that the soul shall remain in the member that is discontinued and cut off . I answer that God ever did do so , nor he nor any man else can pretend , unless he please to believe S. Winifreds and S. Denys's walking with their heads in their hands after their decollation ; but since we never knew that God did so , and whether it implies a contradiction or no , that it should be so , God hath no where declared ; it is sufficient to the present purpose , that it is as much a question , and of it self no more evident than that a body can be conserved in many places : and therefore being as uncertain as the principal question , cannot give faith to it , or do any service . But this is to amuse unwary persons , by seeming to say something , which indeed is nothing to the purpose . 27. But that the Omnipresence of God should be brought to prove it possible that a body may be in many places , truly though I am heartily desirous to do it , if I could justly , yet I cannot find any colour to excuse it from great impiety . But this I shall add , that it is so impossible that any body should be in two places , and so impossible to justifie this from the immensity of God ; that God himself is not in proper manner of speaking in two places , he is not capable of being in any place at all , as we understand being in a place ; he is greater than all places , and fills all things , and locality , and place ; and beings , and relations are all from him : and therefore they cannot comprehend him . But then although this immensity of God is beyond the capacity of place , and he can no more be in a place , than all the world can be in the bottom of a well , yet if God could be limited and determined , it were a contradiction to say that he could be in two places ; just as it is a contradiction to say there are two Gods. So that this comparison of Bellarmines , as it is odious up to the neighbourhood , and similitude of a great impiety , so it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it is against that Philosophy whereby we understand any of the perfective notices of God. But these men would fain prevail by all means , they care not how . 28. But why may we not believe as well the doctrine of Transubstantiation in defiance of all the seeming impossibilities , as well as we believe the doctrine of the Trinity in defiance of greater ? To this I answer many things . 1. Because the mystery of the Trinity is revealed plainly in Scripture , but the doctrine of Transubstantiation is against it : as I suppose my self to have plainly proved . So that if there were a plain revelation of Transubstantiation , then this argument were good ; and if it were possible for ten thousand times more arguments to be brought against it , yet we are to believe the revelation in despite of them all ; but when so much of revelation is against it , and nothing for it , it is but vain to say we may believe this , as well as the doctrine of the Trinity ; for so we may as well argue for the heresie of the Manichees ; why may we not as well believe the doctrine of the Manichees in despite of all the arguments brought against it ; when there are so many seeming impossibilities brought against the holy Trinity ? I suppose the answer that I have given would be thought reasonable to every such pretence . 2. As the doctrine of the holy Trinity is set down in Scripture , and in the Apostles Creed , and was taught by the Fathers of the first three hundred years , I know no difficulties it hath ; what it hath met withal since , proceeds from the too curious handling of that which we cannot understand . 3. The Scool-men have so pried into this secret , and have so confounded themselves and the Articles , that they have made it to be unintelligible , inexplicable , indefensible in all their minuits and particularities ; and it is too sadly apparent in the arguments of the Antitrinitarians , whose sophisms against the Article it self , although they are most easily answered , yet as they bring them against the minutiae and impertinences of the School , they are not so easily to be avoided . But 4. There is not the same reason ; because concerning God we know but very few things , and concerning the mysterious Trinity that which is revealed is extremely little ; and it is general , without descending to particulars : and the difficulty of the seeming arguments against that , being taken from our Philosophy , and the common manner of speaking , cannot be apportion'd and fitted to so great a secret ; neither can that at all be measur'd by any thing here below . But I hope we may have leave to say we understand more concerning bodies and their nature , than concerning the persons of the holy Trinity : and therefore we may be sure in the matter of bodies to know what is , and what is not possible ; when we can know no measure of truth or error in all the mysteriousnesses of so high and separate , superexalted secrets , as is that of the holy Trinity . 5. Because when the Church for the understanding of this secret of the holy Trinity hath taken words from Metaphysical learning , as person , hypostasis , consubstantiality , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and such like , the words of themselves were apt to change their signification , and to put on the sence of the present School . But the Church was forc'd to use such words as she had , the highest , the nearest , the most separate and mysterious . But when she still kept these words to the same mystery , the words swell'd or alter'd in their sence ; and were exacted according to what they did signifie amongst men in their low notices ; this begat difficulty in the doctrine of the holy Trinity . For better words she had none , and all that which they did signifie in our Philosophy could not be applied to this mystery , and therefore we have found difficulty ; and shall for ever , till in this Article the Church returns to her ancient simplicity of expression . For these reasons I conceive the case is wholly different , and the difficulty and secret of one mystery which is certainly revealed , cannot warrant us to admit the impossibilities of that which is not revealed . Let it appear that God hath affirm'd Transubstantiation , and I for my part will burn all my arguments against it , and make publick amends . The like also is to be said in the matter of Incarnation . 29. But if two bodies may be in one place , then one body may be in two places . Aquinas denies the consequent of this argument ; but I for my part am careless whether it be true or no. But I shall oppose against it this , If two bodies cannot be in one commensurate place , then one body cannot be in two places ; Now concerning this , it is certain it implies a contradiction that two bodies should be in one place , or possess the place of another till that be cast forth : Quod nisi inania sint ; quâ possent corpora quaeque Transire , hand ullâ fieri ratione videres . And the great dispute between the Scholars of Epicurus and the Peripateticks concerning vacuity , was wholly upon this account . Epicurus saying there could be no motion unless the place were empty . All the other Sects saying that it was enough that it was made empty by the coming of the new body ; all agreeing that two bodies could not be together , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . All agreed that two bodies could not be together , and that the first body must be thrust forth by the intromission of the second . — Quae si non esset inane Non tam sollicito motu privata carerent , Quàm genita omninò nulla ratione fuissent , Vndique materies quoniam stipata quiescet . For the contrary says that two bodies are one . For the proper dimensions of a quantitative body are length , breadth , and thickness : Now the extension of the body in these dimensions is measured by the place : For the place is nothing else , but the measuring and limiting of the thing so measured and limited by these measures and limitations of length , breadth and thickness . Now if two bodies could be in one place , then they must both have one superficies , one length , one thickness ; and then either the other hath none , or they are but one body and not two , or else though they be two bodies , and have two superficies , yet these two superficies are but one , all which are contradictions . Bellarmine says , that to be coextended to a place , is separable from a magnitude or body , because it is a thing that is extrinsecal and consequent to the intrinsecal extension of parts , and being later than it , is by Divine power separable . But this is as very a sophisme as all the rest . For if what ever in nature i● later than the substance be separable from it , then fire may be without heat , or * water without moisture ; a man can be without time , for that also is in nature after his essence ; and he may be without a faculty of will or understanding , or of affections , or of growing to his state , or being nourished ; and then he will be a strange man , who will neither have the power of will , or understanding , of desiring , or avoiding , of nourishment , or growth , or any thing that can distinguish him from a beast , or a tree , or a stone . For these are all later than the essence , for they are essential emanations from it . Thus also quantity can be separated from a substantial body , if every thing that is later than the form can be separated from it . And therefore nothing of this can be avoided by saying , to fill a place is * an act , but these other instances are faculties and powers , and therefore the act may better be impeded by Divine power , the thing remaining the same , than by the ablation of faculties . This I say cannot justifie the trick . 1. Because to be extended into parts is as much an act as to be in a place ; and yet that is inseparable from magnitude , and so confessed by Bellarmine . 2. To be in a place is not an act at all , any more than to be created , to be finite , to be limited ; and it was never yet heard of , that esse locatum , or esse in loco was reducible to the predicament of action . 3. An act is no more separable than a faculty is , when the act is as essential as the faculty ; now for a body to be in a place , is as essential to a body as it is for a man to have understanding ; for this is * confessed to be separable by Divine power , and the other cannot be more ; it cannot be naturally . 4. If to be in a place be an act , it is no otherwise an act , than it is an act for a Father actually to have a son , and therefore is no more separable this than that ; and you may as well suppose a Father and no child , as a body and no place . 5. It is a false proposition to say , that place is extrinsecal to a quantitative body ; and it relies upon the definition Aristotle gives of it in the fourth book of his Physicks , that place is the superficies of the ambient body ; which is as absurd in nature as any thing can be imagined ; for then a stone in the bottom of a river did change his place ( though it lie still ) in every instant , because new water still washes it ; and by this rule it is necessary ( against Aristotles great grounds ) that some quantitative bodies should not be in a place , or else that quantitative bodies were Categorematically infinite . For either there is no end , but body incloses body for ever , or else the ultimate or outmost body is not inclosed by any thing , and so cannot be in a place . To which add this ; that if Epicurus his opinion were true , and that there were some spaces empty , which at least by a Divine power can become true , and he can take the air out from the inclosure of four walls ; In this case if you will suppose a man sitting in the midst of that room , either that man were in no place at all , which were infinitely absurd , or else ( which indeed is true ) circumscription or superficies were not the essence of a place . Place therefore is nothing but the Space to which quantitative bodies have essential relation and finition : that , where they consist , and by which they are not infinite : and this is the definition of place which S. Austin gives in his fourth book Exposit. of Genes . ad literam chapt . 8. 30. God can do what he please , and he can reverse the laws of his whole creation , because he can change or annihilate every creature , or alter the manners and essences ; but the question now is , what laws God hath already established , and whether or no essentials can be changed , the things remaining the same ? that is , whether they can be the same , when they are not the same ? He that says God can give to a body all the essential properties of a Spirit , says true , and confesses Gods omnipotency ; but he says also , that God can change a body from being a body , to become a Spirit ; but if he says , that remaining a body it can receive the essentials of a Spirit , he does not confess Gods omnipotency , but makes this Article difficult to be believed , by making it not to work wisely , and possibly . God can do all things , but , are they undone when they are done ? that is , are the things chang'd in their essentials , and yet remain the same ? then how are they chang'd , and then what hath God done to them ? 31. But as to the particular question . To suppose a body not coextended to a place , is to suppose a man alive not coexistent to time ; to be in no place , and to be in no time , being alike possible * : and this intrinsecal extension of parts is as inseparable from the extrinsecal , as an intrinsecal duration is from time . Place and Time being nothing but the essential manners of material complete substances , these cannot be supposed such as they are without time and place : because quantitative bodies in their very formality suppose that ; For place without body in it , is but a notion in Logick , but when it is a reality , it is a Vbi , and time is Quando ; and a body supposed abstractly from place , is not real but intentional , and in notion only , and is in the Category of substance , but not of quantity . But it is a strange thing that we are put to prove the very principles of nature , and first rudiments of art , which are so plain that they can be understood naturally , but by all devices of the world cannot be made dubitable . 32. But against all the evidence of essential and natural reason , some overtures of Scripture must be pretended . For that two bodies can be in one place appears , because Christ came from his mothers womb , it being closed ; into the assembly of the Apostles , the doors being shut ; out of the grave , the stone not being rolled away ; and ascended into Heaven , through the solid orbs of all the firmament . Concerning the first and the last the Scripture speaks nothing , neither can any man tell whether the orbs of Heaven be solid or fluid , or which way Christ went in . But of the Heavens opening the Scripture sometimes makes mention . And the Prophet David spake in the Spirit saying , Lift up your heads O ye gates , and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors , and the King of glory shall come in . The stone of the Sepulchre was removed by an Angel , so saith S. Matthew . But why should it be supposed the Angel rolled it away after Christ was risen , or if he did , why Christ did not remove it himself , ( who loosed all the bands of death by which he was held ) and there leave it when he was risen ? or if he had passed through and wrought a miracle , why it should not be told us , or why it should not remain as a testimony to the Souldiers and Jews , and convince them the more , when they should see the body gone , and yet their seals unbroken ? or if it were not , how we should come to fancy it was so , I understand not ; neither is there ground for it . There is only remaining that we account concerning Jesus his entring into the assembly of the Apostles , the doors being shut : To this I answer , that this infers not a penetration of bodies , or that two bodies can be in one place . 1. Because there are so many ways of effecting it without that impossibility . 2. The door might be made to yield to his Creator as easily as water which is fluid be made firm under his feet ; for consistence or lability are not essential to wood and water . For water can naturally be made consistent , as when 't is turned to ice ; and wood that can naturally be petrified , can upon the efficiency of an equal agent be made thin , or labile , or inconsistent . 3. This was done on the same day in which the Sea yielded to the children of Israel , that is , the seventh day after the Passeover , and we may allow it to be a miracle , though it be no more than that of the waters , that is , as these were made consistent for a time . Suppositúmque rotis solidum mare . So the doors apt to yield to a solid body . — possint namque omnia reddi Mollia , quae fiant , aer , aqua , terra , vapores Quo pacto fiant & quâ vi cunque gerantur . 4. How easie was it for Christ to pass his body through the pores of it , and the natural apertures if he were pleased to unite them , and thrust the matter into a greater consolidation ? 5. Wood being reduced to ashes , possesses but a little room , that is , the crass impenetrable parts are but few , the other apt for cession , which could easily be disposed by God as he pleased . 6. The words in the Text are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the past tense ; the gates or doors having been shut ; but that they were shut in the instant of his entry , it says not ; they might , if Christ had so pleased , have been insensibly opened , and shut in like manner again ; and if the words be observed , it will appear that S. John mentioned the shutting the doors in relation to the Apostles fear ; not to Christs entring : he intended not ( so far as appears ) to declare a miracle . 7. But if he had , there are ways enough for him to have entred strangely , though he had not entred impossibly . Vain therefore is the fancy of those men who think a weak conjecture able to contest against a perfect , natural impossibility . For when a thing can be done without a penetration of dimensions , and yet by a power great enough to beget admiration , though without contesting against the unalterable laws of nature , to dream it must be this way , is to challenge confidently , but to be careless of our warrant ; I conclude , that it hath never yet been known that two bodies ever were at once in one place . 33. I find but one objection more pretended , and that is , that place is not essential to bodies : because the utmost Heaven is a body , and yet is not in a place ; because it hath nothing without it , that can circumscribe it . To this I have already answered in the confutation of Aristotle's definition of a place . But besides ; I answer , that what the utmost Heaven is , our Philosophy can tell or guess at ; But it is certain that beyond any thing that Philosophy ever dreamed of , there are bodies . For Christ is ascended far above all Heavens , and therefore to say it is not in a place , or that there is not a place where Christs body is , is a ridiculous absurdity . But if there be places for bodies above the highest Heavens , then the highest Heaven also is in a place , or may be for ought any thing pretended against it . In my Fathers house are many mansions , said Christ , many places of abode , and it is highly probable , that that pavement where the bodies of Saints shall tread to eternal ages , is circumscribed , though by something we understand not . Many things more might be said to this . But I am sorry that the series of a discourse must be interrupted with such trifling considerations . 34. The summe is this ; as substances cannot subsist without the manner of substances ; no more can accidents , without the manner of accidents ; quantities , after the manner of quantities ; qualities , as qualities ; for to separate that from either , by which we distinguish them from each other , is to separate that from them , by which we understand them to be themselves . And four may as well cease to be four , and be reduced to unity , as a line cease to be a line , and a body a body , and a place a place , and a quantum or extensum to be extended in his own kind of quantity or extension : and if a man had talked otherwise , till this new device arose , all sects of Philosophers of the world , would have thought him mad ; and I may here use the words of Cotta in Cicero l. 1. De naturâ Deorum : Corpus quid sit , sanguis quid sit , intelligo ; quasi corpus & quasi sanguis quid sit , nullo prorsus modo intelligo . But concerning the nature of bodies and quantities , these may suffice in general . For if I should descend to particulars , and insist upon them , I could cloy the reader with variety of one dish . 35. Tenthly , By this doctrine of Transubstantiation , the same thing is bigger and less than it self : for it is bigger in one host , than in another ; for the wafer is Christs body , and yet one wafer is bigger than another : therefore Christs body is bigger than it self . The same thing is above it self , and below it self , within it self , and without it self : It stands wholly upon his own right side , and wholly at the same time upon his own left side ; it is as very a body as that which is most divisible , and yet it is as indivisible as a Spirit ; and it is not a Spirit but a body , and yet a body is no way separated from a Spirit , but by being divisible . It is a perfect body , in which the feet are further from the head , than the head from the breast , and yet there is no space between head and feet at all ; So that the parts are further off and nearer , without any distance at all ; being further and not further , distant , and yet in every point . By this also here is magnitude without extension of parts ; for if it be essential to magnitude to have partem extra partem , that is , parts distinguished , and severally sited , then where one part is , there another is not , and therefore the whole body of Christ is not in every part of the consecrated wafer ; and yet if it be not , then it must be broken into parts when the wafer is broken , and then it must fill his place by parts . But then it will not be possible that a bigger body , with the conditions of a body , should be contained in a thing less than it self , that a man may throw the house out at the windows : and if it be possible that a magnitude should be in a point , and yet Christs body be a magnitude , and yet in a point , then the same thing is in a point , and not in a point , extended , and not extended , great and not divisible , a quantity without dimension , something and nothing . * By this doctrine the same thing lies still and yet moves , it stays in a place and goes away from it , it removes from it self , and yet abides close by it self , and in it self , and out of it self ; It is removed , and yet cannot be moved , broken and cannot be divided ; * passes from East to West through a middle place , and yet stirs not . * It is brought from Heaven to Earth , and yet is no where in the way , nor ever stirs out of Heaven . * It ceases to be where it was , and yet doe● not stir from thence , nor yet cease to be at all . * It is removed at the motion of the accidents , and yet does not fall when the host falls : it changes his place but falls not , and yet the changing of place was by falling . It supposes a body of Christ which was made of bread , that is , Not born of the Virgin Mary ; * it says that Christs body is there without power of moving , or seeing , or hearing , or understanding , he can neither remember nor foresee , save himself from robbers or vermin , corruption or rottenness ; * it makes that which was raised in power , to be again sown in weakness ; it gives to it the attribute of an idol , to have eyes and see not , ears and hear not , a nose and not to smell , feet and yet cannot walk . * It makes a thing contained , bigger than the continent , and all Christs body , to go into a part of his body ; his whole head into his own mouth , if he did eat the Eucharist , as it is probable he did , and certain that he might have done . These are the certain consequents of this most unreasonable doctrine ; in relation to motion and quantity . I need not instance in those collateral absurdities which are appendent to some of the foregoing particulars ; as how it should be credible that Christ in his sumption of the last Supper should eat his own flesh ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Simplicius * ; Nothing can receive it self , nothing can really participate of it self , and properly ; figuratively and Sacramentally this may be done ; but not in a natural and physical sence ; for as S. Cyril of Alexandria argues ; Si verè idem est quod participat & quod participatur , quid opus est participatione ? What need he partake of himself ? what need he receive a part of that which he is already whole ? and if the partaker , and the thing partaken be naturally the same , then the Sacrament did as much eat Christ , as Christ did eat the Sacrament . * It would also follow from hence , that the soul of Christ should enter into his body , though it were there before it entred ; and yet it would now be there twice , at the same time ; for it is but one soul , and yet enters after it is there , it never having gone forth . * Nay further yet , upon supposition that Christ did eat the Sacrament , as it is most likely he did , and we are sure he might have done , then the soul of Christ , which certainly went along with his body , which surely was then alive , should be in his body in two contrary and incompatible manners ; by one of which he does operate freely , and exercise all the actions of life , by the other he exercises none ; by one he is visible , by the other invisible ; by one moveable , by the other immovable ; by one after the manner of a body , by the other after the manner of a Spirit . The one of these being evident in it self , the other by their own affirmation . But these are by the by ; there are whole Categories of fond and impossible consequents from this doctrine . 36. Eleventhly , But if I should also consider the change of consecration , i. e. the conversion of bread into Christs body , and their rare stratagems and devices in ridiculous affirmatives and negatives as to that particular , it would afford a new heap of matter . 37. For this conversion is not generation , it is not corruption , it is not creation , because Christs body already is , and cannot be produced again ; it is not after the manner of natural conversions , it differs from the supernatural : there is no change of one form into another , the same first matter does not remain under * several forms , first of bread , then of Christs body . It is turned into the substance of Christs body , and yet nothing of the bread becomes any thing of the body of Christ. It is turned into Christ , and yet it is turned into nothing , the substance is not annihilated , ( for then it were not turned into Christs body ) and yet it is annihilated or turned to nothing , for it does not become Christs body ; it is determined upon Christs body , and yet does not become it , though it be changed into it : for if bread could become Christs body , then bread could receive a greater honour than any of the servants of Christ ; for it could be glorified with the biggest glorification , it would be exalted far above all Angels , bread should reign for ever , and be King of all the world , which are honours not communicable to meer man , and by no change can be wrought upon him : and if they may upon bread , then bread is exalted higher than the sons of men ; and yet so it is if it be naturally and substantially changed into the body of Christ. * I cannot insist upon any thing of this , the absurdity being so vast , the labour would be as great , as needless : Only I shall transcribe part of a disputation by which Tertullian proves the resurrection of our bodies by such words which do certainly confute the Roman fancies of Transubstantiation . Cap. 55. de resurrectione carnis . Discernenda est autem demutatio ab omni argumento perditionis , &c. Change must be distinguished from perdition . But they are not distinguished if the flesh be so changed that it perishes . As that which is lost is not changed , so that which is changed is not lost , or perished . For it suffered change , not perdition ; for to perish is wholly not to be that which it was ; but to be changed is only to be otherwise ; Moreover while it is otherwise , it can be the same thing , or it self : for it hath his being which did not perish . Now how it is possible that these words should be reconciled with Transubstantiation , in which they affirm the bread to be changed , and yet totally to have perished , that is , that nothing of it remains , neither matter nor form , it concerns them to take care ; for my part I am satisfied that it is impossible : and I chuse to follow the Philosophy of Tertullian , by which he fairly confirms the Article of the resurrection ; rather than the impossible speculations of these men , which render all notices of men to be meer deceptions , and all Articles of Faith , in many things uncertain ; and nothing to be certain but that which is impossible . This consideration so moved Durand * , and their Doctor Fundatissimus Egidius Romanus ‖ , that they thought to change the word Transubstantiation , and instead of it that they were obliged to use the word of Transformation simply , affirming that other to be unintelligible . But I proceed . By this doctrine Christs body is there where it was not before , and yet not by change of place ; for it descends not : nor by production ; for it was produced before : not by natural mutation ; for Christ himself is wholly immutable , and though the bread be mutable , it can never become Christ. * That which is now , and was always , begins to be , and yet it cannot begin , which was so long before . And by this Doctrine is affirmed that which even themselves * judge to be simply and absolutely impossible . For if after a thing hath his being , and during the first being , it shall have every day many new beginnings , without multiplying the beings , then the same thing is under two times at the same time ; it is but a day old , and yet was six days ago , and six ages , and sixteen . * The body of Christ obtains to be what it was not before , and yet it is wholly the same without becoming what it was not . * It obtains to be under the form of bread , and that which it is now and was not before , is neither perfective of his being , nor destructive , nor alterative , nor augmentative , nor diminutive , nor conservative . It is as it were a production , as it were a creation , as a conservation , as an adduction : that is , it is as it were just nothing ; for it is not a creation , not a generation , not an adduction , not a conservation . It is not a conversion productive ; for no new individual is produced . It is not a conversion conservative ; That 's a child of Bellarmines : but it is perfect non-sence ; for it is ( as he says ) a conversion in which both the terms remain , in the same place ; that is , in which there are two things not converted , but not one that is : but it is a thing of which there never was any example . But then if we ask what conversion it is ? after a great many fancies and devices , contradicting each other , at last it is found to be adductive , and yet that adductive does not change the place , but signifies a substantial change ; and yet adduction is no substantial change , but accidental ; and yet this change is not accidental , but adductive and substantial . O rem ridiculam , Cato , & jocosam ! It is a succession , not a conversion , and Transubstantiation ; for it is Corpus ex pane confectum , a body made of bread , and yet it was made before the bread was made : but it is made of it as day of night , not tanquam ex materiâ , but tanquam ex termino , not as of matter , but as of a term , from whence , say they , but that is , a direct motion or succession , not a substantial change . For that I may use the words of Faventinus ; What is the formal term of this action of Transubstantiation , or conversion ? Not the body of Christ ; for that is the material term : the formal term is , that Christs body should be contained under the Species of bread and wine : Hoc autem totum est accidentale & nihil addit in re nisi praesentiam realem sub speciebus . But all this is accidental , and nothing real , but that he becomes present there . For since the body of Christ relates to the accidents only accidentally , it cannot in respect of them , have any substantial manner of being , different from that which it had before it was Eucharistical . And it is no otherwise than if water on the ground were annihilated , or removed , or corrupted , and some secret way changed from thence , and in the place of it Snow should descend from Heaven , or Honey , or Manna , it were hard to call this Conversion , or Transubstantiation : Just as if we should say , that Augustus Caesar was converted into his successor Tiberius , and Moses into Joshua , and Elias into Elisha , or the sentinel is substantially changed into him that relieves him . 38. Twelfthly , Lastly , if we consider the changes that are incident to the accidents of bread and wine , they would afford us another heap of incommodities : for besides that accidents cannot subsist without their proper subjects , and much less can they become the subjects of other accidents * , for what they cannot be to themselves , they cannot be to others , in matter of supply and subsistence ; it being a contradiction to say , insubsistent subsistencies . Besides this , ( I say ) If Christs body be not invested with these accidents , how do they represent it , or to what purpose do they remain ? If they be the investiture of Christs body , then the body is changed , by the mutation of the accidents . But however , I would fain know whether an accident can be sowre or be burnt , as * Hesychius affirms they used in Jerusalem to do to the reliques of the holy Sacrament ; or can accidents make a man drunk , as Aquinas supposes the Sacramental wine did the Corinthians , of whom S. Paul says , One is hungry , and another is drunken ? I am sure if it can , it is not the blood of Christ ; For Mr. Blands argument in Queen Maryes time , concluded well in this instance . That which is in the chalice can make a man drunk ; But Christs blood cannot make a man drunk : Therefore that which is in the chalice is not Christs blood . To avoid this they must answer to the major , and say that it does not supponere universalitèr , for every thing in the chalice does not make a man drunk , for in it there are accidents of bread , and the body besides , and they do inebriate not this ; that is to say , a man may be drunk with colour (a) and quantity , and a smell , when there is nothing that smells (b) ; for indeed if there were a substance to be smelt , it might ; but that accidents can do it alone , is not to be supposed ; unless God should work a miracle to make a man drunk , which to say I think were blasphemy . But again can an accidental form kill a man ? But the young Emperour of the house of Luxemburgh was poysoned by a consecrated wafer , and Pope Victor the third had like to have been , and the Arch-Bishop of York was poysoned by the chalice , say Mathew Paris and Malmsbury . And if the body be accidentally moved at the motion of accidents , * then by the same reason it may accidentally become mouldy , or sowre , or poysonous ; which methinks to all Christian ears should strike horrour to hear it spoken . I will not heap up more instances of the same kind of absurdities , and horrid consequences of this doctrine : or consider how a man , or a mouse can live upon the consecrated wafers : ( as Aimonius tells that Lewis the fair did for forty days together live upon the Sacrament , and a Jew , or a Turk , could live on it without a miracle , if he had enough of it ) and yet cannot live upon accidents ; it being a certain rule in Philosophy , Ex iisdem nutriuntur mixta ex quibus fiunt ; and a man may as well be made of accidents , and be no substance , as well as be nourished by accidents without substance : Neither will I inquire how it is possible that we should eat Christs body without touching it ; or how we can be said to touch Christs body , when we only touch and tast the the accidents of bread ; or lastly , how we can touch the accidents of bread , without the substance , so to do , being impossible in nature : Tangere n. & tangi nisi corpus nulla potest res , said Lucretius , and from him Tertullian in his 5 chapt . of his book De animâ . These and divers other particulars , I will not insist upon : But instead of them , I argue thus from their own grounds ; if Christ be properly said to be touch'd , and to be eaten , because the accidents are so , then by the same reason , he may be properly made hot , or cold , or mouldy , or dry , or wet , or venomous , by the proportionable mutation of accidents : if Christ be not properly taken and manducated , to what purpose is he properly there ? so that on either hand there is a snare . But it is time to be weary of all this , and inquire after the doctrine of the Church , in this great question ; for thither at last with some seeming confidence they do appeal . Thither therefore we will follow . SECT . XII . Transubstantiation was not the Doctrine of the Primitive Church . COncerning this Topick or Head of argument , I have some things to premise . 1. First , In this question it is not necessary that I bring a Catalogue of all the ancient writers . For although to prove the doctrine of Transubstantiation to be Catholick , it is necessary by Vincentius Lirinensis his rules and by the nature of the thing , that they should all agree ; yet to shew it not to have been the established , resolved doctrine of the Primitive Church , this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not necessary . Because although no argument can prove it Catholick , but a consent ; yet if some , as learned , as holy , as orthodox do dissent , it is enough to prove it not to be Catholick . As a proposition is not universal , if there be one , or three , or ten exceptions ; but to make it universal , it must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it must take in all . 2. Secondly , None of the Fathers speak words exclusive of our way , because our way contains a Spiritual sence ; which to be true our adversaries deny not , but say , it is not sufficient , but there ought to be more . But their words do often exclude the way of the Church of Rome , and are not so capable of an answer for them . 3. Thirdly , When the saying of a Father is brought , out of which his sence is to be drawn by argument , and discourse , by two , or three remote uneasie consequences ; I do not think it fit , to take notice of those words , either for , or against us : because then his meaning is as obscure , as the article it self : and therefore he is not fit to be brought , in interpretation of it . And the same also is the case , when the words are brought by both sides ; for then it is a shrewd sign , the Doctor is not well to be understood , or that he is not fit in those words to be an umpire ; and of this Cardinal Perron is a great example , who spends a volume in folio to prove S. Austin to be of their side in this article , or rather not to be against them . 4. Fourthly , All those testimonies of Fathers which are as general , indefinite , and unexpounded as the words of Scripture which are in question , must in this question pass for nothing ; and therefore when the Fathers say , that in the sacrament is the body and blood of Christ , that there is the body of our Lord , that before consecration it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meer bread , but after consecration it is verily the body of Christ , truly his flesh , truly his blood , these and the like sayings , are no more than the words of Christ , This is my body , and are only true in the same sence of which I have all this while been giving an account : that is , by a change of condition , of sanctification , and usage . We believe that after consecration , and blessing , it is really Christs body , which is verily and indeed taken of the faithful in the Lords Supper ; And upon this account , we shall find that many , very many of the authorities of the Fathers , commonly alledged by the Roman Doctors in this question , will come to nothing . For we speak their sence , and in their own words , the Church of England * expressing this mystery frequently in the same forms of words ; and we are so certain that to eat Christs body Spiritually is to eat him really , that there is no other way for him to be eaten really , than by Spiritual manducation . 5. Fifthly , when the Fathers in this question speak of the change of the Symbols in the holy Sacrament , they sometimes use the words of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek Church : conversion , mutation , transition , migration , transfiguration , and the like in the Latin ; but they by these do understand accidental and Sacramental conversions , not proper , natural and substantial . Concerning which although I might refer the Reader to see it highly verified in David Blondels familiar elucidations of the Eucharistical controversie ; yet a shorter course I can take to warrant it , without my trouble or his ; and that is , by the confession of a Jesuit , and of no mean same or learning amongst them . The words of Suarez , whom I mean , are these ; Licet antiqui Pp. &c. Although the ancient Fathers have used divers names , yet all they are either general , as the names of conversion , mutation , transition ; or else they are more accommodated to an accidental change , as the name of Transfiguration , and the like : only the name of Transelementation , which Theophylact did use , seems to approach nearer to signify the propriety of this mystery , because it signifies a change even of the first elements ; yet that word is harder , and not sufficiently accommodate : For it may signify the resolution of one element into another , or the resolution of a mixt body into the elements . He might have added another sence of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Transelementation . For Theophylact uses the same word to express the change of our bodies to the state of incorruption , and the change that is made in the faithful when they are united unto Christ. But Suarez proceeds : But Transubstantiation does most properly and appositely signifie the passage and conversion of the whole substance , into the whole substance . So that by this discourse we are quitted , and made free from the pressure of all those authorities of the Fathers which speak of the mutation , conversion , transition , or passage , or transelementation , transfiguration , and the like , of the bread into the body of Christ ; these do or may only signifie an accidental change ; and come not home to their purpose of Transubstantiation ; and it is as if Suarez had said [ the words which the Fathers use in this question , make not for us , and therefore we have made a new word for our selves , and obtruded it upon all the world . ] But against it , I shall only object an observation of Bellarmine , that is not ill . The liberty of new words is dangerous in the Church , because out of new words , by little and little , new things arise , while it is lawful to coyn new words , in divine affairs . 6. Sixthly , To which I add this , that if all the Fathers had more unitedly affirmed the conversion of the bread into Christs body , than they have done , and had not explicated their meaning as they have done indeed , yet this word would so little have help'd the Roman cause , that it would directly have overthrown it . For in their Transubstantiation there is no conversion of one thing into another , but a local succession of Christs body into the place of bread . A change of the Vbi was not used to be called a substantial conversion . But they understood nothing of our present 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; they were not used to such curious nothings , and intricate falshoods , and artificial nonsence , with which the Roman Doctors troubled the world in this question . But they spake wholly another thing , and either they did affirm a substantial change or they did not ; If they did not , then it makes nothing for them , or against us . But if they did mean a proper substantial change , then , for so much as it comes to , it makes against us , but not for them ; for they must mean a change of one substance into another , by conversion , or a change of substances , by substitution of one in the place of another . If they meant the latter , then it was no conversion of one into another ; and then they expressed not what they meant ; for conversion which was their word , could signifie nothing of that : But if they meant the change of substance into substance , properly by conversion , then they have confuted the present doctrine of Transubstantiation ; which though they call a substantial change , yet an accident is the terminus mutationis , that is , it is by their explication of it , wholly an accidental change , as I have before discoursed ; for nothing is produced but Vbiquity or Presentiality , that is , it is only made present where it was not before . And it is to be observed , that there is a vast difference between Conversion , and Transubstantiation ; the first is not denied ; meaning by it a change of use , of condition , of sanctification ; as a Table is changed into an Altar ; a House , into a Church : a Man , into a Priest ; Matthias , into an Apostle ; the Water of the River , into the Laver of Regeneration ; But this is not any thing of Transubstantiation . For in this new device , there are three strange affirmatives , of which the Fathers never dream'd . 1. That the natural being of bread is wholly ceased , and is not at all , neither the matter nor the form . 2. That the accidents of bread and wine remain without a subject , their proper subject being annihilated , and they not subjected in the holy body . 3. That the body of Christ is brought into the place of the bread , which is not chang'd into it , but is succeeded by it . These are the constituent propositions of Transubstantiation , without the proof of which , all the affirmations of conversion signifie nothing to their purpose , or against ours . 7. Seventhly , When the Fathers use the word Nature in this question , sometimes saying the Nature is changed , sometimes that the Nature remains , it is evident that they either contradicted each other , or that the word Nature hath amongst them diverse significations . Now in order to this , I suppose , if men will be determined by the reasonableness of the things themselves , and the usual manners of speech , and not by prejudices , and prepossessions , it will be evident , that when they speak of the change of Nature , saying that bread changes his nature , it may be understood of an accidental change : for that the word Nature is used for a change of accidents , is by the Roman Doctors contended for , when it is to serve their turns , ( particularly in their answer to the words of Pope Gelasius : ) and it is evident in the thing ; for we say , a man of a good nature , that is , of a loving disposition . It is natural to me to love , or hate , this , or that ; and it is against my nature , that is , my custome , or my affection . But then , as it may signifie accidents , and a Natural change may yet be accidental , as when water is chang'd into ice , wine into vinegar ; yet it is also certain that Nature may mean substance : and if it can by the analogie of the place , or the circumstances of speech , or by any thing be declared , when it is that they mean a substance by using the word nature ; it must be certain , that then , substance is meant , when the word nature is used distinctly from , and in opposition to accidents : or when it is explicated by and in conjunction with substance ; which observation is reducible to practice , in the following testimonies of Theodoret , Gelasius and others ; Immortalitatem dedit , naturam non abstulit , says S. Austin . 8. Eighthly , So also ; Whatsoever words are used by the ancient Doctors seemingly affirmative of a substantial change , cannot serve their interest , that now most desire it ; because themselves being pressed with the words of Natura and Substantia against them , answer , that the Fathers using these words , mean them not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , not naturally , but Theologically , that is , as I suppose , not properly but Sacramentally : by the same account , when they speak of the change of the bread into the substance of Christs body , they may mean the change of substance , not naturally , but sacramentally ; so that this ought to invalidate the greatest testimony which can be alledged by them ; because themselves have taken from the words that sence which only must have done them advantage ; for if Substantia and Natura always mean naturally , then their sentence is oftentimes positively condemned by the Fathers : if this may mean Sacramentally , then they can never without a just answer , pretend from their words to prove a Natural , Substantial change . 9. Ninthly , But that the words of the Fathers in their most hyperbolical expressions , ought to be expounded Sacramentally and Mystically , we have sufficient warrant from themselves , affirming frequently that the name of the thing signified is given to the sign . S. Cyprian affirms ut significantia & significata eisdem vocabulis censeantur , the same words represent the sign and the thing signified . The same is affirmed by S. Austin in his Epistle ad Bonifacium . Now upon this declaration of themselves , and of Scripture , whatsoever attributes either of them give to bread after consecration , we are by themselves warranted against the force of the words by a metaphorical sence ; for if they call the sign by the name of the thing signified , and the thing intended is called by the name of a figure , and the figure by the name of the thing , then no affirmative of the Fathers can conclude against them , that have reason to believe the sence of the words of institution to be figurative ; for their answer is ready ; the Fathers and the Scriptures too , call the figure , by the name of the thing figurated ; the bread by the name of flesh , or the body of Christ , which it figures , and represents . 10. Tenthly , The Fathers in their alledged testimonies , speak more than is allowed to be literally and properly true , by either side , and therefore declare and force an understanding of their words different from the Roman pretension . Such are the words of S. Chrysostom . Thou seest him , thou touchest him , thou eatest him , and thy tongue is made bloody , by this admirable blood , thy teeth are fastned in his flesh , thy teeth are made red with his blood : and the Author of the book de coenâ Domini , attributed to S. Cyprian , Cruci haeremus &c. We stick close to the cross , we suck his blood , and fasten our tongue between the very wounds of our Redeemer : and under his head may be reduced very many other testimonies ; now how far these go beyond the just positive limit , it will be in the power of any man to say , and to take into this account , as many as he please , even all that go beyond his own sence and opinion , without all possibility of being confuted . 11. Eleventhly , In vain will it be for any of the Roman Doctors to alledge the words of the Fathers proving the conversion of bread into Christs body or flesh , and of the wine into his blood ; since they say the same thing of us , that we also are turned into Christs flesh , and body and blood . So S. Chrysostom , He reduces us into the same mass , or lump , neque id fide solùm sed reipsâ ; and in very deed makes us to be his body . So Pope Leo. In mysticâ distributione Spiritualis alimoniae , hoc impertitur & sumitur , ut accipientes virtutem coelestis cibi in carnem ipsius , qui caro nostra factus est , transeamus . And in his 24 Sermon of the Passion , Non alia igitur participatio corporis , quàm ut in id quod sumimus transeamus . There is no other participation of the body than that we should pass into that which we receive . In the mystical distribution of the Spiritual nourishment this is given and taken , that we receiving the vertue of the heavenly food , may pass into his flesh who became our flesh . And Rabanus makes the analogie fit to this question . Sicut illud in nos convertitur dum id manducamus & bibimus : sic & nos in corpus Christi convertimur dum obedienter , & piè vivimus . As that [ Christs body ] is converted into us while we eat it , and drink it , so are we converted into the body of Christ while we live obediently and piously . So Gregory Nyssen , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The immortal body being in the receiver , changes him wholly into his own nature ; and Theophylact useth the same word . He that eateth me , liveth by me , whilst he is in a certain manner mingled with me , is transelementated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or changed into me . Now let men of all sides do reason , and let one expound the other , and it will easily be granted , that as we are turned into Christ body , so is that into us , and so is the bread into that . 12. Twelfthly , Whatsoever the Fathers speak of this , they affirm the same also of the other Sacrament , and of the Sacramentals , or rituals of the Church . It is a known similitude used by S. Cyril of Alexandria . As the bread of the Eucharist after the invocation of the holy Ghost is no longer common bread , but it is the body of Christ : so this holy unguent is no longer meer and common oyntment , but it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the grace of Christ [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it uses to be mistaken , the Chrisme for the Grace or gift of Christ ] and yet this is not spoken properly , as is apparent ; but it is in this , as in the Eucharist , so says the comparison . Thus S. Chrysostome says , that the Table or Altar is as the manger in which Christ was laid ; that the Priest is a Seraphim , and his hands are the tongs taking the coal from the Altar . But that which I instance in , is that 1. They say that they that hear the word of Christ eat the flesh of Christ : of which I have already given account in Sect. 3. num . 10. &c. As hearing is eating , as the word is his flesh , so is the bread after consecration in a Spiritual sence . 2. That which comes most fully home to this , is their affirmative concerning Baptism , to the same purposes , and in many of the same expressions which they use in this other Sacrament . S. Ambrose (a) speaking of the baptismal waters affirms naturam mutari per benedictionem , the nature of them is changed by blessing ; and S. Cyril of Alexandria (b) saith , By the operation of the holy Spirit , the waters are reformed to a divine nature , by which the baptized cleanse their body . For in these , the ground of all their great expressions is , that which S. Ambrose expressed in these words : Non agnosco usum naturae , nullus est hic naturae ordo , ubi est excellentia gratiae : Where grace is the chief ingredient , there the use , and the order of nature , is not at all considered . But this whole mystery is most clear in S. Austin (c) , affirming ; That we are made partakers of the body and blood of Christ , when in Baptism we are made members of Christ ; and are not estranged from the fellowship of that bread and chalice , although we die before we eat that bread , and drink that cup. Tingimur in passione Domini ; We are baptized into the passion of our Lord , says Tertullian ; into the death of Christ , saith S. Paul : for by both Sacraments we shew the Lords death . 13. Thirteenthly , Upon the account of these premises we may be secur'd against all the objections , or the greatest part of those testimonies from antiquity , which are pretended for Transubstantiation ; for either they speak that which we acknowledg , or that it is Christs body , that it is not common bread , that it is a divine thing , that we eat Christs flesh , that we drink his blood , and the like ; all which we acknowledge and explicate , as we do the words of institution ; or else they speak more than both sides allow to be literally true ; or speak as great things of other mysteries which must not , cannot be expounded literally ; that is , they speak more , or less , or diverse from them , or the same with us : and I think there is hardly one testimony in Bellarmine , in Coccius , and Perron , that is pertinent to this question , but may be made invalid , by one , or more of the former considerations . But of those , if there be any , of which there may be a material doubt , beyond the cure of these observations , I shall give particular account in the sequel . 14. But then for the testimonies which I shall alledge against the Roman doctrine in this article , they will not be so easily avoided . 1. Because many of them are not only affirmative in the Spiritual sence , but exclusive of the natural and proper . 2. Because it is easie to suppose they may speak hyperboles , but never that which would undervalue the blessed Sacrament : for an hyperbole is usual , not a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the lessening a mystery ; that may be true , this never ; that may be capable of fair interpretations , this can admit of none ; that may breed reverence , this contempt . To which I add this , that the heathens slandering the Christians to be worshippers of Ceres or Liber , because of the holy bread and chalice ( as appears in S. Austins 20 book and 13 chapter against Faustus the Manichee ) had reason to advance the reputation of Sacramental signs to be above common bread and wine , not only so to explicate the truth of the mystery , but to stop the mouth of their calumny : and therefore for higher expressions there might be cause , but not such cause for any lower than the severest truth ; and yet let me observe this by the way : S. Austin answered only thus : We are far from doing so , Quamvis panis & calicis Sacramentum ritu nostro amplectamur . S. Austin might have further removed the calumny , if he had been of the Roman perswasion ; who adore not the bread , no● eat it at all in their Synaxes until it be no bread , but changed into the body of our Lord. But he knew nothing of that . Neither was there ever any scandal of Christians upon any mistake that could be a probable excuse for them to lessen their expressions in the matter Eucharistical . Indeed Mr. Brerely hath got an ignorant fancy by the end , which I am now to note , and wipe off . He saies that the Primitive Christians were scandalized by the Heathen to be eaters of the flesh of a child , which in all reason must be occasioned by their doctrine of the manducation of Christs flesh in the Sacrament ; and if this be true , then we may suspect that they to wipe of this scandal , might remove their doctrine as far from the objection as they could , and therefore might use some lessening expressions . To this I answer , that the occasions of the report were the sects of the Gnosticks , and the Peputians . The Gnosticks , as Epiphanius reports , bruised a new born infant in a mortar , and all of them did communicate by eating portions of it ; and the Montanists having sprinkled a little child with meal , let him blood , and of that made their Eucharistical bread ; and these stories the Jews published to disrepute , if they could , the whole religion ; but nothing of this related to the doctrine of the Christian Eucharist , though the bell always must tinkle as they are pleased to think . But this turned to advantage of the truth , and to the clearing of this Article . For when the scandal got foot , and run abroad , the Heathens spared not to call the Christians Cannibals , and to impute to them anthropophagy , or the devouring humane flesh , and that they made Thyestes's Feast , who by the procurement of Atreus eat his own children . Against this the Christian Apologists betook themselves to a defence . Justin Martyr says the false devils had set on work some vile persons , to kill some one or other , to give colour to the report . Athenagoras in a high defiance of the infamy asks , Do you think we are murtherers ? for there is no way to eat mans flesh , unless we first kill him . Octavius in Minutius Felix confutes it upon this account : We do not receive the blood of beasts into our food or beverage ; therefore we are infinitely distant from drinking mans blood . And this same Tertullian in his Apologetick presses further , affirming that to discover Christians , they use to offer them a black pudding , or something in which blood remained , and they chose rather to die , than to do it ; and of this we may see instances in the story of Sanctus and Blandina in the ecclesiastical histories . Concerning which it is remarkable , what Oecumenius in his Catena upon the 2 chap. of the first Epistle of S. Peter reports out of Irenaeus ; The Greeks having taken some servants of Christians , pressing to learn something secret of the Christians , and they having nothing in their notice , to please the inquisitors , except that they had heard of their Masters , that the divine communion is the blood , and body of Christ ; they supposing it true according to their rude natural apprehensions , tortur'd Sanctus and Blandina , to confess it . But Blandina answered them thus : How can they suffer any such thing in the exercise of their Religion , who do not nourish themselves with flesh that is permitted ? All this trouble came upon the act of the forementioned hereticks ; the report was only concerning the blood of an infant , not of a man , as it must have been if it had been occasioned by the Sacrament ; but the Sacrament was not so much as thought of in this scrutiny , till the examination of the servants gave the hint in the torture of Blandina . Cardinal Perron perceiving much detriment likely to come to their doctrine by these Apologies of the primitive Christians upon the 11. anathematism of S. Cyril , says , that they deny anthropophagy , but did not deny Theanthropophagy , saying , that they did not eat the flesh , nor drink the blood of a meer man , but of Christ who was God and Man , which is so strange a device , as I wonder it could drop from the pen of so great a wit. For this would have been a worse , and more intolerable scandal , to affirm that Christians eat their God , and sucked his blood , and were devourers not only of a man , but of an immortal God. But however let his fancy be confronted with the extracts of the several apologies which I have now cited , and it will appear , that nothing of the Cardinals fancy can come near their sence , or words : for all the business was upon the blood of a child which the Gnosticks had kill'd , or the Montanists tormented ; and the matter of the Sacrament was not in the whole rumour so much as thought upon . 15. Lastly , Unless there be no one objection of ours , that means as it says , but all are shadows , and nothing is awake but Bellarmine , in all his dreams ; or Perron in all his laborious excuses ; if we be allowed to be in our wits , and to understand Latin , or Greek , or common sence ; unless the Fathers must all be understood according to their new nonsence answers , which the Primitive Doctors were so far from understanding or thinking of , that besides that it is next to impudence to suppose they could mean them , their own Doctors in a few ages last past did not know them , but opposed , and spake some things contrary , and many things divers from them : I say unless we have neither sense , nor reason , nor souls like other men , it is certain , that not one , nor two , but very many of the Fathers , taught our doctrine most expresly in this article , and against theirs . * And after all , whether the testimonies of the Doctors be ancient , or modern , it is advantage to us , and inconvenient for them : For if it be ancient , it shews their doctrine not to be from the beginning ; if it be modern , it does it more ; for it declares plainly , the doctrine to be but of yesterday : now I am very certain , I can make it appear , not to have been the doctrine of the Church , not of any Church whose records we have , for above a thousand years together . 16. But now in my entry upon the testimonies of Fathers , I shall make my way the more plain and credible , if I premise the testimonies of some of the Roman Doctors in this business . And the first I shall name , is Bellarmine himself , who was the most wary of giving advantage against himself ; but yet he says , Non esse mirandum &c. it is not to be wondred at , if S. Austin , Theodoret , and others of the ancients , spake some things which in shew seem to favour the hereticks , when even from Jodocus some things did fall , which by the adversaries were drawn to their cause . Now though he lessens the matter by quaedam and videantur , and in speciem , seemingly , and in shew and some things ] yet it was as much as we could expect from him ; with whom visibilitèr , if it be on our side , must mean invisibilitèr , and statuimus must be abrogamus . But I rest not here : Alphonsus à Castro says more . De transubstantiatione panis in corpus Christi rara est in antiquis Scriptoribus mentio . The ancient writers seldom mention the change of the substance of bread into the body of Christ. And yet these men would make us believe that all the world 's their own . But Scotus does directly deny the doctrine of Conversion or Transubstantiation to be ancient , so says Henriquez . Ante Concilium Lateranense Transubstantiatio non fuit dogma fidei . So said Scotus himself , as Bellarmine cites him ; and some of the Fathers of the Society in England in their prison affirm'd , Rem Transubstantiationis Patres ne attigisse quidem ; That the Fathers did not so much as touch the matter of Transubstantiation : and it was likely so , because Peter Lombard , whose design it was to collect the sentences of the Fathers into heads of articles , found in them so nothing to the purpose of Transubstantiation , that he professed he was not able to define , whether the conversion of the Eucharistical bread were formal or substantial , or of another kind . To some it seems to be substantial , saying , the substance is changed into the substance . Quibusdam , & videtur , it seems , and that not to all neither , but to some ; for his part he knows not whether they are right or wrong , therefore in his days the doctrine was not Catholick . And me thinks it was an odd saying of Vasquez ; and much to this purpose ; that as soon as ever the later Schoolmen heard the name of Transubstantiation , such a controversie did arise concerning the nature of it ( he says not , of the meaning of the word , but the nature of the thing , ) that by how much the more they did endeavour to extricate themselves , by so much the more they were intangled in difficulties . It seems it was news to them to hear talk of it , and they were as much strangers to the nature of it , as to the name ; it begat quarrels , and became a riddle which they could not resolve ; but like Achelous his horn sent forth a river of more difficulty , to be waded thorough , than the horn was to be broken . And amongst these Schoolmen Durandus maintained an heretical opinion ( says Bellarmine ) saying that the form of bread was changed into Christs body : but that the matter of bread remained still ; by which also it is apparent , that then this doctrine was but in the forge ; it was once stamped upon at the Lateran Council , but the form was rude , and it was fain to be cast again , and polished at Trent ; the Jesuit order being the chief masters of the mint . But now I proceed to the trial of this Topick . 17. I shall not need to arrest the Reader with consideration of the pretension made by the Roman Doctors , out of the passions of the Apostles , which all men condemn for spurious and Apocryphal ; particularly the passion of S. Andrew said to be written by the Priests , and Deacons of Achaia . For it is sufficient that they are so esteemed by Baronius , censured for such by Gelasius , by Philastrius , and Innocentius ; they were corrupted also by the Manichees by additions , and detractions ; and yet if they were genuine , and uncorrupted , they say nothing , but what we profess : [ Although the holy Lamb truly sacrificed , and his flesh eaten by the people , doth nevertheless persevere whole and alive ] for no man , that I know of , pretends that Christ is so eaten in the Sacrament that he dies for it ; for his flesh is eaten spiritually and by faith , and that is the most true manducation of Christs body , the flesh of the holy Lamb : and this manducation breaks not a bone of him ; but then how he can be torn by the teeth of the communicants and yet remain whole , is a harder matter to tell ; and therefore these words are very far from their sence ; they are nearer to an objection : But I shall not be troubled with this any more ; save that I shall observe that one White of the Roman perswasion quoting part of these words which Bellarmine , and from him the under-writers object ; [ Ego omnipotenti Deo omni die immaculatum agnum sacrifico ] of these words in particular affirms that without all controversie they are apocryphal . 18. Next to him is S. Ignatius , who is cited to have said something of this question in his epistle ad Smyrnenses ; speaking of certain hereticks [ They do not admit of Eucharists , and oblations , because they do not confess the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour , which flesh suffered for us . ] They that do not confess it , let them be anathema : for sure it is , as sure as Christ is true : but quomodo is the question , and of this S. Ignatius says nothing . But the understanding of these words perfectly , depends upon the story of that time . Concerning which , we learn out of Tertullian and Irenaeus , that the Marcosians , the Valentinians and Marcionites , who denied the Incarnation of the son of God , did nevertheless use the Eucharistical Symbols ; though , I say , they denied Christ to have a body . Now because this usage of theirs did confute their grand heresie , ( for to what purpose should they celebrate the Sacrament of Christs body , if he had none ? ) therefore it is that S. Ignatius might say : They did not admit the Eucharist , because they did not confess it to be the flesh of Christ : for though in practice they did admit it , yet in theory they denyed it , because it could be nothing , as they handled the matter . For how could it be Christs flesh Sacramentally , if he had no flesh really ? And therefore they did not admit the Eucharist , as the Church did , for in no sence would they grant it to be the flesh of Christ ; not the figure , not the Sacrament of it ; lest admitting the figure they should also confess the substance . But besides , if these words had been against us , it had signified nothing ; because these words are not in S. Ignatius ; they are in no Greek Copy of him ; but they are reported by Theodoret. But in these there is nothing else material , than what I have accounted : for I only took them in by the bie , because they are great names , and are objected sometimes . But I shall descend to more material testimonies , and consider those objections that are incident to the mention of the several Fathers ; supposing that the others are invalid , upon the account of the premises ; or if they were not , yet they can but pass for single opinions , against which themselves , and others , are opposed at other times . 19. Tertullian is affirmative in that sence of the article which we teach . Acceptum panem & distributum discipulis suis , Christus corpus suum meum fecit , dicendo , Hoc est corpus i. e. figura corporis mei . He proves against the Marcionites that Christ had a true real body in his incarnation , by this argument ; because in the Sacrament he gave bread , as the figure of his body , saying , This is my body , that is , the figure of my body . Fisher in his answer to the ninth question propounded by K. James , and he from Card. Perron say it is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and answers to this place , that Figura corporis mei , refers after Tertullians odd manner of speaking , to Hoc , not to corpus meum , which are the words immediately preceding , and so most proper for the relation : and that the sence is : This figure of my body , is my body : that is , this which was a figure in the Old Testament , is now a substance . To this I reply , 1. It must mean , this which is present is my body , not this figure of my body which was in the Old Testament , but this which we mean in the words of consecration ; and then it is no hyperbaton , which is to be supplied with quod erat ; This which was , for the nature of a hyperbaton is , to make all right , by a meer transposition of the words ; as , Christus mortuus est , i. e. unctus ; place unctus before mortuus , and the sentence is perfect ; but it is not so here : without the addition of two words , it cannot be ; and if two words may be added , we may make what sence we please . But 2. suppose that figura corporis does refer to Hoc , yet it is to be remembred that Hoc in that place , is one of the words of the institution , or consecration , and then it can have no sence to evacuate the pressure of his words . 3. Suppose this reference of the words to be intended , then the sence will be ; This figure of my body , is my body , the consequent of which , is that which we contend for : that the same which is called his body , is the figure of his body : the one is the subject ; the other , the predicate : and then it affirms all that is pleaded for : as if we say : Haec effigies est homo , we mean it is the effigies of a man ; and so in this , This figure of my body , is my body , by the rule of denominatives , signifies , This is the figure of my body . 4. In the preceding words , Tertullian says , the Pascha was the type of his passion : this Pascha he desired to eat ; This Pascha was not the lamb ( for he was betrayed the night before it was to be eaten ) professus se concupis●entiâ concupisse edere Pascha ut suum ( indignum enim ut quid alienum concupisceret Deus ) he would eat the Passeover of his own , figuram sanguinis sui salutaris implere concupiscebat , he desir'd to fulfil the figure , that is , to produce the last of all the figures of his healing blood : Now this was by eating the Paschal Lamb , that is , himself ; for the other was not to be eaten that night . Now then , if the eating , or delivering himself to be eaten that night , was implere figuram sanguinis sui , he then did fulfil the figure of his blood , therefore figura corporis mei in the following words , must relate to what he did that night ; that therefore was the figure , but the more excellent , because the nearest to the substance , which was given really the next day : this therefore , as S. Gregory Nazianzen affirms , was the most excellent figure , the Paschal lamb it self being figura figurae , the figure of a figure , as I have quoted him in the sequel . And it is not disagreeing from the expression of Scripture , saying , that the law had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; a shadow , but not the very image : that was in the ceremonies of the law , this in the Sacraments of the Gospel : Christ himself was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the thing it self ; but the image was more than the shadow , though less than the substance ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was the word by which the Fathers expressed this nearer configuration . 5. Whereas it is added , it had not been a figure nisi veritatis esset corpus , to my sence clears the question ; for therefore Christs body , which he was cloathed withall , was a true body , else this could not be a figure of it ; But therefore this which was also a figure , could not be the true body , of which it was a figure . 6. That which Fisher adds , that Tertullians drift was to shew , that whereas in the old Testament , bread was the figure of the body of Christ ( as appears by the words of the Prophet , Mittamus lignum in panem ejus . i. e. crucem in corpus ejus ) Christ in the new Testament made this figure really to be his body ; This I conceive to make very much against Tertullians design . For he proves that therefore Christ might well call bread his body ; that was no new thing , for it was so also in the old figure ; and therefore may be so now : But that this was no more than a figure , he adds , If therefore he made bread to be his body , because he wanted a true body , then bread was delivered for us , and it would advance the vanity of Marcion , that bread was crucified . No , this could not be ; but therefore he must mean , that as of old in the Prophet and in the Passeover , so now in the last supper , he gave the same figure , and therefore that which was figured was real , viz. his crucified body . Now suppose we should frame this argument out of Tertullians medium , and suppose it to be made by Marcion . The body of Christ was delivered for the sins of the world , &c. you Catholicks say that bread is the body of Christ , therefore you say , that bread was delivered for the sins of the whole world , and that bread was crucified for you , and that bread is the son of God ; what answer could be made to this out of Tertullian , but by expounding the minor proposition figuratively ? We Catholicks say that the Eucharistical bread , is the body of Christ in a figurative sence , it is completio or consummatio figurarum , the last and most excellent of all figures . But if he should have said according to the Roman fancy , that it is the natural body of Christ , it would have made rare triumphs in the Schools of Marcion . But that there may be no doubt in this particular , hear himself summing up his own discourses in this question . Proinde panis & calicis Sacramento jam in Evangelio probavimus corporis & sanguinis Dominici veritatem adversùs phantasma Marcionis . Against the phantasm of Marcion we have proved the verity of Christs body and blood by the Sacrament of bread and wine . 7. This very answer I find to be Tertullians own explication of this affair : for speaking of the same figurative speech of the Prophet Jeremy , and why bread should be called his body ; he gives this account : Hoc lignum & Jeremias tibi insinuat dicturis praedicans Judaeis , Venite mittamus lignum in panem ejus , utique in corpus ; sic enim Deus in Evangelio quoque vestro revelavit , panem corpus suum appellans , ut & hinc jam eum intelligas corporis sui figuram pani dedisse , cujus retro corpus in panem prophetis figuravit ipso domino hoc Sacramentum postea interpretaturo . For so God revealed in your Gospel , calling bread his body , that hence thou mayest understand that he gave to bread the figure of his body , whose body anciently the Prophet figured by bread , afterwards the Lord himself expounding the Sacrament . Nothing needs to be plainer . By the way , let me observe this , that the words cited by Tertullian out of Jeremy are expounded , and recited too , but by allusion . For there are no such words in the Hebrew Text : which is thus to be rendred . Corrumpanus veneno cibum ejus , and so cannot be referred to the Sacrament , unless you will suppose that he fore-signified the poysoning the Emperour , by a consecrated wafer . But as to the figure , this is often said by him ; for in the first book against Marcion he hath these words again [ nec reprobavit ] panem quo ipsum corpus suum repraesentat , etiam in Sacramentis propriis egens mendicitatibus creatoris . He refused not bread by which he represents his own body , wanting or using in the Sacraments the meanest things of the Creator . For it is not to be imagined that Tertullian should attempt to perswade Marcion , that the bread was really and properly Christs body ; but that he really delivered his body on the Cross , that both in the old Testament , and here , himself gave a figure of it in bread and wine , for that was it which the Marcionites denied ; saying , on the cross no real humanity did suffer ; and he confutes them by saying these are figures , and therefore denote a truth . 8. However these men are resolved that this new answer shall please them , and serve their turn , yet some of their fellows , great Clerks as themselves , did shrink under the pressure of it , as not being able to be pleased with so laboured and improbable an answer . For Harding against Juel hath these words speaking of this place [ which interpretation is not according to the true sence of Christs words , although his meaning swerve not from the truth . ] And B. Rhenanus the author of the admonition to the Reader , De quibusdam Tertulliani dogmat● , seems to confess this to be Tertullians error . Error putantium corpus Christi in Eucharistiâ tantùm esse sub figurâ , jam olim condemnatus , The error of them that think the body of Christ is in the Eucharist only in a figure , is now long since condemned . But Garetius (a) Bellarmine (b) Justinian (c) Coton (d) Fevardentius (e) Valentia (f) and Vasquez (g) in the recitation of this passage of Tertullian , very fairly leave out the words that pinch them , and which clears the article : and bring the former words for themselves , without the interpretation of id est , figura corporis mei . I may therefore without scruple reckon Tertullian on our side , against whose plain words no real exception can lye , himself expounding his own meaning in the pursuance of the figurative sence of this mystery . 20. Concerning Origen I have already given an account in the ninth Paragraph , and other places casually , and made it appear that he is a direct opposite to the doctrine of Transubstantiation . And the same also of Justin Martyr , Paragraph the fifth , number 9. Where also I have enumerated divers others who speak upon parts of this question , on which the whole depends , whither I refer the Reader . Only concerning Justin Martyr , I shall recite these words of his against Tryphon . Figura fuit panis Eucharistiae quem in recordationem passionis — facere praecepit . The bread of the Eucharist was a figure , which Christ the Lord commanded to do in remembrance of his passion . 21. Clemens Alexandrinus saith , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 &c. The blood of Christ is twofold ; the one is carnal , by which we are redeemed from death ; the other spiritual , viz. by which we are anointed . And this is to drink the blood of Jesus , to be partakers of the incorruption of our Lord. But the power of the word is the Spirit , as blood is of the flesh . Therefore in a moderated proposition , and convenience , wine is mingled with water , as the Spirit with a man. And he receives in the Feast [ viz. Eucharistical ] tempered wine unto faith . But the Spirit leadeth to incorruption , but the mixture of both , viz. of drink and the word , is called the Eucharist , which is praised , and is a good gift or [ grace ] of which they who are partakers by faith , are sanctified in body and soul. Here plainly he calls that which is in the Eucharist , Spiritual blood ; and without repeating , the whole discourse is easie and clear . And that you may be certain of S. Clement his meaning , he disputes in the same chapter , against the Encratites , who thought it not lawful to drink wine . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 &c. For be ye sure he also did drink wine , for he also was a man , and he blessed wine when he said , Take drink 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , This is my blood , the blood of the vine , for that word [ that was shed for many for the remission of sins ] it signifies allegorically a holy stream of gladness ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but that the thing which had been blessed was wine , he shewed again , saying to his disciples , I will not drink of the fruit of this vine , till I drink it new with you in my fathers kingdom . Now S. Clement proving by Christs sumption of the Eucharist , that he did drink wine , must mean , the Sacramental Symbol to be truly wine , and Christs blood allegorically , that holy stream of gladness , or else he had not concluded by that argument against the Encratites . Upon which account these words are much to be valued , because by our doctrine in this article , he only could confute the Encratites ; as by the same doctrine explicated , as we explicate it , Tertullian confuted the Marcionites , and Theodoret and Gelasius confuted the Nestorians , and Eutychians ; if the doctrine of Transubstantiation had been true , these four heresies had by them , as to their particular arguments relating to this matter , been unconfuted . 22. S. Cyprian in his Tractate de unctione , which Canisius , Harding , Bellarmine , and Lindan cite , hath these words , Dedit itaque Dominus noster &c. Therefore our Lord in his table in which he did partake his last banquet with his disciples , with his own hands gave bread and wine , but on the cross he gave to the souldiers his body to be wounded , that in the Apostles the sincere truth , and the true sincerity being more secretly imprinted , he might expound to the Gentiles how wine and bread should be his flesh and blood , and by what reasons causes might agree with effects , and diverse names , and kinds ( viz. bread and wine ) might be reduced to one essence , and the signifying , and the signified , might be reckoned by the same words : and in his third Epistle he hath these words , Vinum quo Christi sanguis ostenditur , wine by which Christs blood is showen or declared : Here I might cry out , as Bellarmine upon a much slighter ground , Quid clariùs dici potuit ? But I forbear ; being content to enjoy the real benefits of these words without a triumph . But I will use it thus far , that it shall outweigh the words cited out of the tract de coenâ Domini , by Bellarmine , by the Rhemists , by the Roman Catechism , by Perron , and by Gregory de Valentiâ . The words are these , Panis iste quem Dominus discipulis porrigebat non effigie sed naturâ mutatus omnipotentiâ verbi factus est caro , & sicut in personâ Christi &c. The bread which the Lord gave to his disciples is changed , not in shape , but in nature , being made flesh by the omnipotency of the word ; and as in the person of Christ the humanity was seen , and the divinity lay hid , so in the visible Sacrament , the divine essence , after an ineffable manner , pours it self forth , that devotion about the Sacraments might be religion , and that a more sincere entrance may be opened to the truth , whereof the body and the blood are Sacraments , even unto the participation of the Spirit , not unto the consubstantiality of Christ. This testimony ( as Bellarmine says ) admits of no answer . But by his favour , it admits of many : 1. Bellarmine cites but half of those words , and leaves out that which gives him answer . 2. The words affirm , that that body and blood are but a Sacrament of a reality and truth ; but if it were really , and naturally , Christs body , then it were it self , veritas & corpus , and not only a Sacrament . 3. The truth [ of which these are Sacramental ] is the participation of the Spirit ; that is , a Spiritual communication . 4. This does not arrive ad Consubstantialitatem Christi , to a participation or communion of the substance of Christ , which it must needs do , if bread were so changed in nature , as that it were substantially the body of Christ. 5. These Sermons of S. Cyprians title and name are under the name also of Arnoldus Abbot of Bonavilla in the time of S. Bernard , as appears in a M S. in the Library of All-Souls Colledge , of which I had the honour sometimes to be a Fellow . However , it is confessed on all sides that this Tractate is not S. Cyprians , and who is the Father of it , if Arnoldus be not , cannot be known ; neither his age nor reputation . His style sounds like the eloquence of the Monastery , being direct Friers Latin , as appears by his honorificare , amaricare , injuriare , demembrare , sequestrare , attitulare , spiritalitas , t● supplico , and some false latin besides , and therefore he ought to pass for nothing ; which I confess I am sorry for , as to this question ; because to my sence he gives us great advantage in it . But I am content to lose what our cause needs not . I am certain they can get nothing by him . For if the authority were not incompetent , the words were impertinent to their purpose , but very much against them : only let me add out of the same Sermon these words . Panis iste communis in carnem & sanguinem mutatus procurat vitam & incrementum corporibus , ideóque ex consueto effectu fidei nostra adjuta infirmitas , sensibili argumento edocta & visibilibus Sacramentis inesse vitae aeternae effectum , & non tam corporali quàm spirituali transitione nos cum Christo uniri . That common bread being changed into flesh and blood procures life and increment to our bodies ; therefore our infirmity being helped with the usual effect of faith is taught by a sensible argument , that the effect of eternal life , is in visible Sacraments , and that we are united to Christ , not so much by a corporal , as by a Spiritual change . If both these discourses be put together , let the authority of the writer be what it will , the greater the better . 23. In the dialogues against the Marcionites collected out of Maximus in the time of Commodus or Severus or thereabouts , Origen is brought in speaking thus : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; If , as the Marcionites say , Christ had neither flesh nor blood , of what flesh or of what blood did he , giving bread and the chalice as images , command his disciples , that by these a remembrance of him should be made ? 24. To the same purpose are the words of Eusebius : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . He gave to his disciples the Symbols of Divine oeconomie , commanding the image or type of his own body to be made : and again , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . They received a command according to the constitution of the new Testament to make a memory of this sacrifice upon the table by the symbols of his body , and healthful blood . 25. S. Ephrem the Syrian , Patriarch of Antioch , is dogmatical and decretory in this question , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The body of Christ received by the faithful departs not from his sensible substance , and is undivided from a spiritual grace . He adds the similitude and parity of baptism to this mystery ; for even baptism being wholly made Spiritual , and being that which is the same and proper of the sensible substance , I mean of water , saves , and that which is born doth not perish . I will not descant upon these or any other words of the Fathers I alledge , for if of their own natural intent they do not teach our doctrine , I am content they should pass for nothing . 26. S. Epiphanius affirming man to be like God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in some image or similitude , not according to Nature , illustrates it by the similitude of the blessed Sacrament ; We see that our Saviour took into his hands , as the Evangelist hath it , that he arose from supper , and took those things , and when he had given thanks he said , This is mine , and this ; we see it is not equal , it is not like , not to the image in the flesh , not to the invisible Deity , not to the proportion of members , for this is a round form , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and cannot perceive any thing , or [ is insensible according to power or faculty ] and he would by grace say , This is mine , and this , and every man believes the word that is spoken , for he that believeth not him to be true , is fallen from grace and salvation . Now the force of Epiphanius his argument , consisting in this , that we are like to God after his image , but yet not according to nature , as the Sacramental bread is like the body of Christ , it is plain that the Sacramental species are the body of Christ , and his blood , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the image or representment , not according to Nature , but according to Grace . 25. Macarius his words are plain enough , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . In the Church is offered bread and wine the antitype of his flesh and of his blood , and they that partake of the bread that appears , do spiritually eat the flesh of Christ. 26. S. Gregory Nazianzen speaking of the Pascha saith , Jam potestatis participes erimus &c. Now we shall be partakers of the Paschal supper , but still in figure , though more clear than in the old law . For the legal passeover ( I will not be afraid to speak it ) was a more obscure figure of a figure . S. Ambrose is of the same perswasion . Fac nobis hanc oblationem ascriptam , rationabilem , acceptabilem , quod est figura corporis & sanguinis Domini nostri Jesu Christi . Make this ascribed oblation , reasonable , and acceptable , which is the figure of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. And again , Mira potentia &c. it is a wonderful power of God which makes that the bread should remain what it is , and yet be changed into another thing . And again , How much more operative is the word of Christ that the things be what they were , and yet be changed into another ? and so that which was bread before consecration , now is the body of Christ ] Hoc tamen impossibile est ut panis sit corpus Christi ; Sed haec verba ad sanum intellectum sunt intelligenda , ita solvit Hugo , saith the Gloss in Gratian ; which is an open defiance of the doctrine of S. Ambrose affirming it to be impossible . But because these words pinch severely , they have retrenched the decisive words ; and leave out , [ & sint ] and make them to run thus [ that the things be — changed into another ] which corruption is discovered by the citation of these words in Paschasius , Guitmond , Bertram , Algerus , Ivo Carnotensis , Gratian and Lombard . But in another place he calls the mystical chalice the type of the blood ; and that Christ is offered here , in imagine , in type , image , or representation ; in coelo , in veritate , the truth , the substance is in heaven . And again , This therefore truly is the Sacrament of his flesh . Our Lord Jesus himself says , this is my body . Before the blessing by the words it was named another species ( or kind ; ) after the consecration , the body of Christ is signified . 27. S. Chrysostome is brought on both sides , and his Rhetorick hath cast him on the Roman side , but it also bears him beyond it ; and his divinity , and sober opinions have fixt him on ours . How to answer the expressions hyperbolical which he often uses , is easie , by the use of rhetorick , and customs of the words : But I know not how any man can sensibly answer these words , [ For as before the bread is sanctified we name it bread , but the Divine grace sanctifying it by the means of the Priest , it is freed from the name of bread , but it is esteemed worthy to be called the Lords body , although the nature of bread remains in it . To the same purpose are those words on the Twenty second Psalm published amongst his works , though possibly they were of some other of that time , or before , or after ; it matters not to us , but much to them : for if he be later and yet esteemed a Catholick , ( as it is certain he was , and the man a-while supposed to be S. Chrysostome ) it is the greater evidence that it was long before the Church received their doctrine . The words are these : That table he hath prepared to his servants and his maidens in their sight , that he might every day shew us in the Sacrament according to the order of Melchisedeck bread and wine to the likeness of the body and blood of Christ. To the same purpose is that saying in the Homilies of whoever is the Author of that opus imperfectum upon S. Mat. Si igitur haec vasa , &c. If therefore these vessels being sanctified , it be so dangerous to transfer them to private uses in which the body of Christ is not , but the mystery of his body is contained ; how much more concerning the vessels of our bodies , &c. Now against these testimonies , they make an out-cry that they are not S. Chrysostoms works , and for this last , the book is corrupted , and they think in this place by some one of Berengarius's scholars ; for they cannot tell . Fain they would believe it ; but this kind of talk is a resolution not to yield , but to proceed against all evidence ; for that this place is not corrupted , but was originally the sence of the Author of the Homilies , is highly credible by the faith of all the old MS. and there is in the publick Library of Oxford an excellent MS. very ancient that makes faith in this particular ; but that some one of their scholars might have left these words out of some of their copies , were no great wonder , though I do not find they did , but that they foisted in a marginal note , affirming that these words are not in all old copies ; an affirmation very confident , but as the case stands , to very little purpose . But upon this account nothing can be proved from sayings of Fathers . For either they are not their own works but made by another , or 2. They are capable of another sence , or 3. The places are corrupted by Hereticks , or 4. It is not in some old copies ; which pretences I am content to let alone , if they upon this account will but transact the question wholly by Scripture and common sence . 5. It matters not at all what he is , so he was not esteemed an Heretick ; and that he was not , it is certain , since by themselves these books are put among the works of S. Chrysostom , and themselves can quote them when they seem to do them service . All that I infer from hence is this , that whensoever these books were writ , some man esteemed a good Catholick was not of the Roman perswasion in the matter of the Sacrament ; therefore their opinion is not Catholick . But that S. Chrysostom may not be drawn from his right of giving testimony and interpretation of his words in other places ; in his 23 Homily upon the first of the Corinthians , which are undoubtedly his own ; he saith [ As thou eatest the body of the Lord , so they ( viz. the faithful in the old Testament ) did eat Manna : as thou drinkest blood , so they the water of the rock . For though the things which are made be sensible , yet they are given spiritually , not according to the consequence of nature , but according to the grace of a gift , and with the body they also nourish the soul , leading unto faith . 28. The next I produce for evidence in this case , is S. Austin , concerning whom it is so evident that he was a Protestant in this Article , that truly it is a strange boldness to deny it ; and upon equal terms no mans mind in the world can be known ; for if all that he says in this question shall be reconcilable to Transubstantiation , I know no reason but it may be possible , but a witty man may pretend when I am dead , that in this discourse I have pleaded for the doctrine of the Roman Church . I will set his words down nakedly without any Gloss upon them , and let them do by themselves as much as they can . Si enim Sacramenta quandam similitudinem , &c. For if the Sacraments had not a certain similitude of those things whereof they are Sacraments , they were no Sacraments at all . But from this similitude , for the most part they receive the things themselves . As therefore according to a certain manner the Sacrament of the body of Christ , is the body of Christ , the Sacrament of the blood of Christ , is the blood of Christ : so the Sacrament of faith is . Now suppose a stranger to the tricks of the Roman Doctors , a wise and a discerning man should read these words in S. Austin , and weigh them diligently , and compare them with all the adjacent words and circumstances of the place , I would desire reasonably to be answered on which side he would conclude S. Austin to be ? if in any other place he speaks words contrary ; that is his fault or forgetfulness : but if the contrary had been the doctrine of the Church , he could never have so forgotten his Religion and Communion , as so openly to have declared a contrary sence to the same Article . * Non hoc corpus quod videtis manducaturi estis , &c. You are not to eat this body which you see ( so he brings in Christ speaking to his disciples ) or to drink that blood which my crucifiers shall pour forth ; I have commended to you a Sacrament , which being spiritually understood shall quicken you ; and Christ ] brought them to a banquet , in which he commended to his disciples the figure of his body and blood : * For he did not doubt to say ‖ , This is my body , when he gave the sign of his body . * Quod ab omnibus sacrificium appellatur , ‖ &c. That which by all men is called a sacrifice , is the sign of the true sacrifice , in which the flesh of Christ , after his assumption is celebrated by the Sacrament of remembrances . But concerning S. Austins doctrine , I shall refer him that desires to be further satisfied , to no other record than their own Canon Law. * Which not only from S. Austin , but from divers others produces testimonies so many , so pertinent , so full for our doctrine , and against the dream of Transubstantiation , that it is to me a wonder why it is not clapped into the Indices expurgatorii , for it speaks very many truths beyond the cure of their Glosses : which they have changed and altered several times . But that this matter concerning S. Austin may be yet clearer , his own third book de doctrinâ Christianâ is so plain for us in this question , that when Frudegardus in the time of Charles the Bald had upon occasion of the dispute which then began to be hot and interested in this question , read this book of S. Austin , he was changed to the opinion of a Spiritual and mysterious presence , and upon occasion of that his being perswaded by S. Austin , Paschasius Ratberdus wrote to him , as of a question then doubted of by many persons , as is to be seen in his Epistle to Frudegardus . I end this of S. Austin with those words of his which he intends by way of rule for expounding these and the like words of Scripture taken out of this book of Christian doctrine ; Locutio praeceptiva , &c. A preceptive speech forbidding a crime , or commanding something good or profitable is not figurative ; but if it seems to command a crime , or forbid a good , then it is figurative : Vnless ye eat the flesh of the son of man , &c. seems to command a wickedness , it is therefore a figure commanding us to communicate with the passion of our Lord , and sweetly and profitably to lay it up in our memory , that his flesh was crucified and wounded for us . I shall not need to urge that this holy Sacrament is called Eucharistia carnis & sanguinis , The Eucharist of the body and blood , by Irenaeus ; Corpus symbolicum & typicum , by Origen ; In typo sanguis , by S. Jerome ; similitudo , figura , typus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , images , enigmaes , representations , expressions , exemplars of the Passion by divers others : that which I shall note here is this ; that in the Council of Constantinople it was publickly professed that the Sacrament is not the body of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , not by nature , but by representment ; for so it is expounded . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the holy image of it , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Eucharistical bread is the true image of the natural flesh , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . A figure or image delivered by God , of his flesh ; and a true image of the incarnate dispensation of Christ. These things are found in the third Tome of the Sixth Action of the second Nicene Council , where a pert Deacon ignorant and confident had boldly said that none of the Apostles or Fathers had ever called the Sacrament the image of Christs body ; that they were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , antitypes , before consecration , he grants ; but after consecration , they are called , and are , and are believed to be the body and blood of Christ properly : which I suppose he might have learned of Damascene , who in opposition to the Iconoclasts , would not endure the word Type , or Image to be used concerning the holy Sacrament ; for they would admit no other image but that : he in defiance of them who had excommunicated him for a worshipper of Images , and a half - Sarazin , would admit any Image but that ; but denied that to be an Image or Type of Christ [ de fide l. 4. c. 14. ] For Christ said not , This is the Type of my body , but it is it . But however this new question began to branle the words of Type and Antitype , and the manner of speaking began to be changed , yet the Article as yet was not changed . For the Fathers used the words of Type and Antitype , and Image , &c. to exclude the natural sence of the Sacramental body : and Damascene , and Anastasius Sinaita , and some others of that Age began to refuse those words , lest the Sacrament be thought to be nothing of reality , nothing but an Image . And that this really was the sence of Damascene , appears by his words recited in the Acts of the second Council of Nice , affirming that the Divine bread is made Christs body by assumption and inhabitation of the Spirit of Christ , in the same manner as water is made the laver of regeneration . But however they were pleased to speak in the Nicene assembly , yet in the Roman Edition of the Councils , the Publishers and Collectors were wiser , and put on this marginal note : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The holy gifts are oftentimes called types and figures even after consecration ; particularly by * Gregory Nazianzen , and ‖ S. Cyril of Hierusalem . I remember only one thing objected to this testimony of so many Bishops , that they were Iconoclasts or breakers of images , and therefore not to be trusted in any other Article . So Bellarmine ( as I remember . ) But this is just as if I should say that I ought to refuse the Lateran Council , because they were worshippers of Images , or defenders of Purgatory . Surely if I should , I had much more reason to refuse their sentence , than there is that the Greeks should be rejected upon so slight a pretence ; nay , for doing that which for ought appears , was in all their circumstances their duty in a high measure : so that in effect they are refused for being good Christians . But after this , it happened again that the words of type and image were disliked in the question of the holy Sacrament , by the Emperor Charles the great , his Tutor Alcuinus , and the Assembly at Frankfort ; but it was in opposition to the Council of Constantinople , that called it the true image of Christs body , and of the Nicene Council who decreed the worship of Images : for if the Sacrament were an Image , as they of CP . said , then it might be lawful to give reverence and worship to some Images : for although these two Synods were enemies to each other , yet the proposition of one might serve the design of the other : but therefore the Western Doctors of that age , speaking against the decree of this , did also mislike the expression of that : meaning that the Sacrament is not a type or image , as a type is taken for a prefiguration , a shadow of things to come , like the legal ceremonies , but in opposition to that is a body , and a truth ; yet still it is a Sacrament of the body , a mystery which is the same in effect with that which the Fathers taught in their so frequent using these words of Type , &c. for 750. years together . And concerning this I only note the words of Charles the Emperor , Ep. ad Alcuinum after the Synod , Our Lord hath given the Bread and the Chalice in figurâ corporis sui & sui sanguinis , in the figure of his body and blood . But setting the authority aside , for if these men of CP . be not allowed , yet the others are , and it is notorious that the Greek Fathers did frequently call the bread and wine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and the Latin Fathers call them signs , similitudes , figures , types , images , therefore there must be something pretended to stop this great out-cry , and insupportable prejudice of so great , so clear authority . After many trials ; as that by antitypes they mean exemplars , that it is only before consecration , not after , and such other little devices , of which they themselves quickly grew weary ; at last the craftiest of them came to this , that the body of Christ under the Species might well be said to be the sign of the same body and blood , as it was on the Cross ; so Bellarmine ; That 's the answer ; and that they are hard put to it , you may guess by the meanness of the answer . For besides that nothing can be like it self , Idem non est simile ; the body , as it is under the Species , is glorified , immortal , invisible , impassible , indivisible , insensible ; and this is it which he affirms to be the sign , that is , which is appointed to signifie and represent a body that was humbled , tormented , visible , mortal , sensible , torn , bleeding , and dying ; So that here is a sign nothing like the thing signified , and an invisible sign of a visible body , which is the greatest absurdity in nature , and in the use of things , which is imaginable ; but besides this , this answer , if it were a proper and sensible account of any thing , yet it is besides the mark ; for that the Fathers in these allegations affirm that the Species are the signs , that is , that bread and wine , or the whole Sacrament is a sign of that body , which is exhibited in effect and Spiritual power : they dreamt not this dream ; it was long before themselves did dream it : They that were but the day before them , having , as I noted before , other fancies . I deny not but the Sacramental body is the sign of the true body crucified : but that the body glorified , should be but a sign of the true body crucified , is a device fit for themselves to fancy . To this sence are those words cited by Lombard and Gratian out of S. Austin in the sentences of Prosper . Caro ejus est quam formâ panis opertam in Sacramento accipimus , sanguis quem sub specie vini potamus : Caro , viz. Carnis , & sanguis sacramentum est sanguinis , carne & sanguine utroque invisibili & intelligibili & spirituali significatur corpus Christi visibile plenum gratiae & divinae majestatis ; That is , It is his flesh which under the form of bread we receive in the Sacrament , and under the form of wine we drink his blood : Now that you may understand his meaning , he tells you this is true in the Sacramental or Spiritual sence only ; for he adds , flesh is the Sacrament of flesh , and blood of blood ; by both flesh and blood which are invisible , intelligible and Spiritual , is signified the visible body of Christ full of grace and Divine majesty . In which words here is a plain confutation of their main Article , and of this whimsie of theirs . For as to the particular , whereas Bellarmine says , that Christs body real and natural is the type of the body as it was crucified , S. Austin says , that the natural body is a type of that body which is glorified , not the glorified body of the crucified . 2. That which is a type , is flesh in a spiritual sence , not in a natural ; and therefore it can mean nothing but this , That the Sacramental body is a figure and type of the real : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And this thing is noted by the Gloss of Gratian. Caro i. e. species carnis , sub qua latet corpus Christi , &c. The flesh , that is , the Species of it under which it lies , are the Sacrament of the flesh : so that the being of a Sacrament of Christs body , is wholly relative to the Symbols , not to the body ; as if the body were his own sign and his own Sacrament . 30. Next to this heap of testimonies , I must repeat the words of Theodoret and Gelasius , which though known in this whole question , yet being plain , certain and unanswerable , relying upon a great Article of the religion , even the union of the two natures of Christ into one person without the change of substances , must be as sacred and untouched by any trifling answer , as the Article it self ought to be preserved . The case was this : The Eutychian Hereticks denied the natures of Christ to be united in one person , that is , they denied him to be both God and Man , saying , his humanity was taken into his divinity after his ascension . The Fathers disputing against them , say , the substances remain intire , though joyned in the person . The Eutychians said this was impossible . But as in the Sacrament the bread was changed into Christs body , so in the ascension was the humanity turned into the divinity . To this Theodoret answers in a Dialogue between the Eutychians under the name of Eranistes and himself the Orthodox : Christ honoured the symbols and signs which are seen with the title of his body and blood , not changing the nature , but to nature adding grace . The words are not capable of an answer if we observe that he says there is no change made , but only grace superadded ; in all things else the things are the same . And again : For neither do the mystical signes recede from their nature ; for they abide in their proper substance , figure , and form , and may be seen and touched , &c. So the humanity of Christ : and a little after : So that body of Christ hath the ancient form , figure , superscription , and ( to speak the summe of all ) the substance of the body , although after the resurrection it be immortal and free from all corruption : Now these words spoken upon this occasion , to this purpose , in direct opposition to a contradicting person , but casting his Article wholly upon supposition of a substantial change , and opposing to him a ground contrary to his , upon which only he builds his answer , cannot be eluded by any little pretence . Bellarmine and the lesser people from him , answer , that by nature he understands the exterior qualities of nature , such as colour , taste , weight , smell , &c. 1. I suppose this , but does he mean so by Substantia too ? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] Does he by substance mean accidents ? but suppose that a while , yet 2. If he had answered thus , how had Theodoret confuted the Eutychians ? For thus says Eranistes , As the bread is changed in substance into the body of Christ , so is the humanity into the divinity : yea but , says Theodoret according to Bellarmine ; The substances of bread is not changed ; for the colour , the shape , the bigness and the smell remain : or thus , the accidents remain , which I call substance ; for there are two sorts of substances ; substances and accidents ; and this latter sort of substances remain ; but not the former ; and so you are confuted , Eranistes . But what if Eranistes should reply ; if you say all of bread is changed excepting the accidents , then my argument holds : for I only contend that the substance of the humanity is changed , as you say the substance of bread is : To this nothing can be said , unless Theodoret may have leave to answer as otherwise men must . But now Theodoret answered , that the substance of bread is not changed , but remains still , and by substance , he did mean substance , and not the accidents ; for if he had , he had not spoken sence . Either therefore the testimony of Theodoret remaineth unsatisfied by our adversaries , or the argument of the Eutychians is unanswered by Theodoret. 3. Theodoret in these places opposes Nature to Grace , and says , all remains without any change but of Grace . 4. He also explicates Nature by Substance , so that it is a Substantial Nature he must mean. 5. He distinguishes substance from form and figure , and therefore by substance cannot mean form and figure , as Bellarmine dreams . 6. He affirms concerning the body of Christ , that in the resurrection it is changed in accidents , being made incorruptible and immortal , but affirms that the substance remains ; therefore by substance , he must mean as he speaks without any prodigious sence affixed to the word . 7. Let me observe this by the way , that the doctrine of the substantial change of bread into the body of Christ was the perswasion of the Heretick , the Eutychian Eranistes , but denied by the Catholick Theodoret ; So that if they will pretend to antiquity in this doctrine , their plea is made ready and framed by the Eutychian , from whom they may , if they please , derive the original of their doctrine , or if they please , from the elder Marcosites ; but it will be but vain to think the Eutychian did argue from thence , as if it had been a Catholick ground ; reason we might have had to suppose it , if the Catholick had not denied it . But the case is plain : as the Sadduces disputed with Christ about the Article of no Spirits , no Resurrection , though in the Church of the Jews the contrary was the more prevailing opinion : so did the Eutychians upon a pretence of a Substantial conversion in the Sacrament , which was then their fancy , and devised to illustrate their other opinion : But it was disavowed by the Catholicks . 31. Gelasius was ingaged against the same persons in the same cause , and therefore it will be needful to say nothing but to describe his words . For they must have the same efficacy with the former , and prevail equally . Certè Sacramenta , &c. Truly the Sacraments of the body and blood of Christ which we receive are a Divine thing , for that by them we are made partakers of the Divine nature , and yet it ceases not to be the substance or nature of bread and wine . And truly an image and similitude of the body and blood of Christ are celebrated in the action of the mysteries . These are his words ; concerning which this only is to be considered , beyond what I suggested concerning Theodoret ; that although the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek , which we render substantia , might be apt to receive divers interpretations , though in his discourse he confined it to his proper meaning ( as appears above ) yet in Gelasius , who was a Latin Author , the word substantia is not capable of it : and I think there is no example where substantia is taken for an accidental nature . It may , as all other words can , suffer alterations by tropes and figures , but never signifie grammatically any thing but it self , and his usual significations : and if there be among us any use of Lexicons or Vocabularies , if there be any notices conveyed to men by forms of speech , then we are sure in these things : and there is no reason we should suffer our selves to be out-faced out of the use of our senses , and our reason , and our language . It is usually here replied , that Gelasius was an obscurer person , Bishop of Caesarea and not Pope of Rome , as is supposed . I answer , that he was Bishop of Rome that writ the book out of which these words are taken , is affirmed in the Bibliotheca PP . approved by the Theological faculty in Paris 1576 : and Massonius de Episcopis urbis Romae , in the life of Pope Gelasius , saith , that Pope John cited the book de duabus naturis , and by Fulgentius it is so too . 2. But suppose he was not Pope , that he was a Catholick Bishop is not denied ; and that he lived above a 1000 years ago ; which is all I require in this business . For any other Bishop may speak truth , as well as the Bishop of Rome ; and his truth shall be of equal interest and perswasion . But so strange a resolution men have taken to defend their own opinions , that they will , in despite of all sence and reason , say something to every thing , and that shall be an answer whether it can or no. 32. After all this , it is needless to cite authorities from the later ages ; It were Indeed easie to heap up many , and those not obscure either in their name , or in their testimony . Such as Facundus Bishop of Hermian in Africa in the year 552. in his ninth book and last Chapter written in defence of Theod. Mopsuest . &c. hath these words , The Sacrament of his body and blood , we call his body and blood ▪ not that bread is properly his body , or the cup his blood , but that they contain in them the mystery of his body and blood . Isidore Bishop of Sevil says , Panis quem frangimus , &c. The bread which we break is the body of Christ , who saith , I am the living bread . But the wine is his blood , and that is it which is written , I am the true vine . But bread , because it strengthens our body , therefore it is called the body of Christ , but wine , because it makes blood in our flesh , therefore it is reduced or referred to the blood of Christ. But these visible things sanctified by the holy Ghost pass into the Sacrament of the Divine body . Suidas in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Christ calls the Church his body ; and by her as a man he ministers : but as he is God he receives what is offered . But the Church offers the symbols of his body and blood , sanctifying the whole mass by the first fruits . Symbola , i. e. Signa , says the Latin version . The bread and wine are the signs of his body and his bloud . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; so Suidas , Hesychius speaking of this mystery affirms , Quòd simul panis & caro est , It is both bread and flesh too . Fulgentius saith , Hic calix est novum Testamentum , i. e. Hic calix quem vobis trado , novum Testamentum significat . This cup is the new Testament , that is , it signifies it . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Procopius of Gaza . He gave to his disciples the image of his own body ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said the scholiast upon Dionysius the Areopagite ; These things are symbols , and not the truth , or verity ; and he said it upon occasion of the same doctrine which his Author ( whom he explicates ) taught in that Chapter ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. The Divine symbols being placed upon the Altar by which Christ is signified and participated . But this only I shall remark , that Transubstantiation is so far from having been the Primitive doctrine , that it was among Catholicks fiercely disputed in the time of Charles the Bald , about the year 880. Paschasius wrote for the Substantial conversion ; Rabanus maintain'd the contrary in his answer to Heribaldus , and in his writing to Abbot Egilo . There lived in the same time in the Court of Charles the Emperor , a country-man of ours Jo. Scot , called by some Jo. Erigena , who wrote a book against the substantial change in the Sacrament ; He lived also sometimes in England with King Alfred , and was surnamed the wise , and was a Martyr , saith Possevinus , and was in the Roman Calender ; his day was the fourth of the Ides of November , as is to be seen in the Martyrologie published at Antwerp 1586. But when the controversie grew publick and noted , Charles the Bald commanded Bertram or Ratran to write upon the question , being of the Monastery of Corbey : he did so , and defended our doctrine against Paschasius : the book is extant , and may be read by him that desires it ; but it is so intire and dogmatical against the substantial change which was the new doctrine of Paschasius , that Turrian gives this account of it , to cite Bertram , what is it else , but to say that Calvins heresie is not new ? and the Belgick expurgatory Index professeth to use it with the same equity which it useth to other Catholick writers , in whom they tolerate many errors and extenuate or excuse them , and sometimes by inventing some device they do deny it , and put some fit sence to them when they are opposed in disputation , and this they do , lest the Hereticks should talk that they forbid and burn books that make against them . You see the honesty of the men ; and the justness of their proceedings ; but the Spanish expurgatory Index forbids the book wholly , with a penitus auferatur . I shall only add this , that in the Church of England , Bertrams doctrine prevailed longer ; and till Lanfrancks time it was permitted to follow Bertram or Paschasius . And when Osbern wrote the lives of Odo Arch-bishop of Canterbury , Dunstan , and Elphege by the command of Lanfranck , he says , that in Odo's time , some Clergy-men affirmed in the Sacrament bread and wine to remain in substance , and to be Christs body only in figure ; and tells how the Arch-bishop prayed , and blood dropped out of the Host over the Chalice , and so his Clerks which then assisted at Mass , and were of another opinion , were convinced . This though he writes to please Lanfranck ( who first gave authority to this opinion in England ) and according to the opinion which then prevailed , yet it is an irrefragable testimony that it was but a disputed Article in Odo's time ; no Catholick doctrine , no Article of Faith , nor of a good while after : for however these Clerks were fabulously reported to be changed at Odo's miracle , who could not convince them by the Law and the Prophets , by the Gospels and Epistles ; yet his successor , he that was the fourth after him , I mean Aelfrick Abbot of S. Albans , * and afterwards Arch-bishop of Canterbury , in his Saxon Homily written above 600 years since , disputes the question , and determines in the words of Bertram only for a Spiritual presence , not natural , or substantial . The book was printed at London by John Day , and with it a letter of Aelfrick to Wulfin Bishop of Schirburn to the same purpose . His words are these : That housel ( that is , the blessed Sacrament ) is Christs body , not bodily , but spiritually , not the body which he suffered in , but the body of which he spake , when he blessed bread and wine to Housel the night before his suffering , and said by the blessed bread , This is my body . And in a writing to the Arch-bishop of York he said , The Lord ] halloweth daily by the hand of the Priest , bread to his body , and wine to his blood in spiritual mystery as we read in books . And yet notwithstanding that lively bread is not bodily so , nor the self same body that Christ suffered in . I end this with the words of the Gloss upon the Canon Law , Coeleste Sacramentum quod verè repraesentat Christi carnem dicitur corpus Christi , sed impropriè , unde dicitur suo modo scil . non rei veritate , sed significati mysterio , ut sit sensus , vocatur Christi corpus , i. e. significatur ; The heavenly Sacrament which truly represents the flesh of Christ , is called the body of Christ ; but improperly , therefore it is said ( meaning in the Canon taken out of S. Austin ) after the manner , to wit , not in the truth of the thing , but in the mystery of that which is signified ; so that the meaning is , it is called Christ body , that is , Christs body is signified ; which the Church of Rome well expresses in an ancient Hymn : Sub duabus speciebus Signis tantùm & non rebus Latent res eximiae . Excellent things lie under the two species of bread and wine which are only signs , not the things whereof they are signs . But the Lateran Council struck all dead : before which , Transubstantiatio non fuit dogma fidei , said Scotus , it was no Article of Faith ; and how it can be afterwards , since Christ is only the Author and finisher of our Faith , and therefore all Faith was delivered from the beginning , is a matter of highest danger and consideration . But yet this also I shall interpose , if it may do any service in the question , or help to remove a prejudice from our adversaries , who are born up by the authority of that Council ; That the doctrine of Transubstantiation was not determined by the great Lateran Council . The word was first invented by Stephen Bishop of Augustodunum , about the year 1100 or a little after , in his book De Sacramento Altaris ; and the word did so please Pope Innocentius III. that he inserted it into one of the 70 Canons which he proposed to the Lateran Council A. D. 1215. which Canons they heard read , but determined nothing concerning them , as Matthew Paris , Platina , and Nauclerus witness . But they got reputation by being inserted by Gregory IX . into his Decretals , which yet he did not in the name of the Council , but of Innocentius to the Council . But the first that ever published these Canons under the name of the Lateran Council was Johannes Cochlaeus , A. D. 1538. But the Article was determined at Rome 36 years after that Council , by a general Council of 54 Prelates and no more . And this was the first authority or countenance it had ; Stephen christened the Article , and gave the name , and this Congregation confirmed it . SECT . XIII . Of Adoration of the Sacrament . WHEN a proposition goes no further than the head and the tongue , it can carry nothing with it but his own appendages , viz. to be right or to be wrong , and the man to be deceived or not deceived in his judgment : But when it hath influence upon practice , it puts on a new investiture , and is tolerable or intolerable , according as it leads to actions good or bad . Now in all the questions of Christendom nothing is of greater effect or more material event , than this . For since by the decree of the Council of Trent * , they are bound to exhibit to the Sacrament the same worship which they give to the true God , either this Sacrament is Jesus Christ , or else they are very Idolaters ; I mean materially such , even while in their purposes they decline it . I will not quarrel with the words of the decree commanding to give Divine worship to the Sacrament ; which by the definition of their own Schools is an outward visible sign of an inward Spiritual grace , and so they worship the sign and the grace with the worship due to God : But that which I insist upon , is this . That if they be deceived in this difficult question , against which there lie such infinite presumptions and evidence of sense , and invincible reason , and grounds of Scripture , * and in which they are condemned by the Primitive Church , and by the common principles of all Philosophy , and the nature of things , * and the analogy of the Sacrament , * for which they had no warrant ever , till they made one of their own , * which themselves so little understand , that they know not how to explicate it , * nor agree in their own meaning , nor cannot tell well what they mean ; * If I say , they be deceived in their own strict Article , besides the strict sence of which there are so many ways of verifying the words of Christ , upon which all sides do rely ; then it is certain they commit an act of Idolatry in giving Divine honour to a meer creature , which is the image , the Sacrament , and representment of the body of Christ : and at least , it is not certain that they are right ; there are certainly very great probabilities against them which ought to abate their confidence in the Article ; and though I am perswaded that the arguments against them are unanswerable ; for if I did not think so , then I shall be able to answer them , and if I were able to answer , I would not seek to perswade others by that which does not perswade me ; yet all indifferent persons , that is , all those who will suffer themselves to be determined by some thing besides interest and education , must needs say they cannot be certain they are right , against whom there are so many arguments that they are in the wrong : The Commandment to worship God alone is so express ; The distance between God and bread dedicated to the service of God is so vast , the danger of worshipping that which is not God , or of not worshipping that which is God , is so formidable , that it is infinitely to be presumed , that if it had been intended that we should have worshipped the holy Sacrament , the holy Scripture would have called it , God , or Jesus Christ , or have bidden us in express terms to have adored it ; that either by the first , as by a reason indicative , or by the second , as by a reason imperative we might have had sufficient warrant direct or consequent to have paid a Divine worship . Now that there is no implicit warrant in the Sacramental words of [ This is my body ] I have given very many reasons to evince , by proving the words to be Sacramental and figurative . Add to this ; that supposing Christ present in their sences , yet as they have ordered the business , they have made it superstitious and Idololatrical ; for they declare that the Divine worship does belong also to the symbols of bread and wine , as being one with Christ ; they are the words of Bellarmine ; That even the Species also with Christ are to be adored ; So Suarez : which doctrine might upon the supposal of their grounds be excused ; if , as Claudius de Sainctes dreamed , they and the body of Christ had but one existence ; but this themselves admit not of , but he is confuted by Suarez . But then let it be considered , that since those species or accidents are not inherent in the holy body , nor have their existence from it , but wholly subsist by themselves , ( as they dream ) since between them and the holy body there is no substantial , no personal union , it is not imaginable how they can pass Divine worship to those accidents which are not in the body , nor the same with the body , but by an impossible supposition subsist of themselves , and were proper to bread , and now not communicable to Christ , and yet not commit idolatry : especially since the Nestorians were by the Fathers called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or worshippers of a man , because they worshipped the humanity of Christ , which they supposed , not to be personally , but habitually united to the Divinity . 2. But secondly , Suppose that the Article were true in Thesi , and that the bread in consecration was changed , as they suppose ; yet it is to be considered , that that which is practicable in this Article , is yet made as uncertain and dangerous as before . For by many defects secret and insensible , by many notorious and evident , the change may be hindred , and the symbols still remain as very bread and wine as ever , and rob God of his honour . For if the Priest erres in reciting the words of consecration , by addition , or diminution , or alteration , or longer interruption ; if he do but say , Hoc est corpus meum , for corpus meum , or meum corpus for corpus meum , or if he do but as the Priest that Agrippa tells of , that said , Haec sunt corpora mea , lest consecrating many hosts he should speak false Latin : if either the Priest be timorous , surprized , or intemperate , in all these cases the Priest and the People too , worship nothing but bread . And some of these are the more considerable , I mean , those defectibilities in pronunciation , because the Priest always speaking the words of consecration in a secret voice not to be heard . None of the people can have any notice whether he speaks the words so sufficiently as to secure them from worshipping a piece of bread . If none of all these happen , yet if he do not intend to consecrate all , but some , and yet know not which to omit , * if he do intend but to mock , * if he be a secret Atheist , * a Moor , * or a Jew , * if he be an impious person and laugh at the Sacrament , * if he do not intend to do as the Church does , * that is , if his intention be neither actual , nor real : then in all these cases the people give Divine worship to that which is nothing but bread ; * But if none of all this happen , yet if he be not a Priest , quod saepe accidit , saith Pope Adrianus VI. in quaest . quodlib . q. 3. it often happens that the Priest feigns himself to celebrate , and does not celebrate , or feigns himself to celebrate , and is no Priest , * if he be not baptized rightly , * if there was in his person , as by being Simoniack , or irregular , a bastard , or bigamus , or any other impediment which he can or cannot know of ; if there was any defect in his Baptism or Ordinations , or in the Baptism and Ordination of him that ordained him , or in all the succession from the head of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , from the Apostles that first began the Series , in all these cases it cannot but be acknowledged by their own doctrine , that the consecration is invalid and ineffective , the product is nothing , but a piece of bread is made the object of the Divine worship . Well! suppose that none of all this happens , yet there are many defects in respect of the matter also : as if the bread be corrupted , * or the wine be vinegar , * if it be mingled with any other substance but water , * or if the water be the prevailing ingredient , or if the bread be not wheat , or the wine be of soure or be of unripe grapes , in all these cases nothing is changed ; but bread remains still , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , meer bread , and meer wine , and yet they are worshipped by Divine adoration . 3. Thirdly , When certain of the Society of Jesuits were to die by the Laws of England in the beginning of King James his reign ; it was ask'd them , whether if they might have leave to say Masse , they would to the people standing by , for the confirmation of their doubt , and to convert them , say these words , [ unless this whole Species you see in the Chalice be the same blood which did flow out of the side of the Crucifix , or of Christ hanging on the Cross , let there be no part for me in the blood of Christ , or in Christ himself to eternal ages ] and so with these words in their mouthes yield to death ; They all denied it , none of them would take such a Sacrament upon them . And when Garnet , that unhappy man was tempted to the same sence ; he answered , that a man might well doubt of the particular . * No man was bound to believe that any one Priest in particular , now , or at any one certain time does consecrate effectively ; But that the bread is transubstantiated some where or other , at some time or other , by some Priest or other . This I receive from the relation of a wise Prelate , a great and a good man , whose memory is precious , and is had in honour . But the effect of this is , that Transubstantiation , supposing the doctrine true , ( as it is most false ) yet in practice is uncertain ; but the giving it Divine worship is certain ; the change is believed only in general , but it is worshipped in particular ; concerning which , whether it be any thing more than bread , it is impossible without a revelation they should know . These then are very ill ; and deeply to be considered ; for certain it is , God is a jealous God , and therefore will be impatient of every incroachment upon his peculiar . And then for us , as we must pray with faith , and without doubting , so it is fit we should worship ; and yet in this case , and upon these premises , no man can chuse but doubt ; and therefore he cannot , he ought not to worship ; Quod dubitas ne feceris . 4. I will not censure concerning the men that do it , or consider concerning the action , whether it be formal idolatry or no. God is their Judge and mine , and I beg he would be pleased to have mercy upon us all ; but yet they that are interested , for their own particulars ought to fear and consider these things . 1. That no man without his own fault , can mistake a creature so far , as to suppose him to be a God. 2. That when the Heathens worshipped the Sun and Moon , they did it upon their confidence that they were gods , and would not have given to them Divine honours if they had thought otherwise . 3. That the distinction of material and formal idolatry , though it have a place in Philosophy , because the understanding can consider an act with his error , and yet separate the parts of the consideration ; yet hath no place in Divinity ; because in things of so great concernment it cannot but be supposed highly agreeable to the goodness and justice of God , that every man be sufficiently instructed in his duty and convenient notices . 4. That no man in the world upon these grounds , except he that is malicious and spightful , can be an Idolater ; for if he have an ignorance great enough to excuse him , he can be no Idolater ; if he have not , he is spightful and malicious ; and then all the Heathens are also excused as well as they . 5. That if good intent and ignorance in such cases can take off the crime , then the persecuters that killed the Apostles , thinking they did God good service , and Saul in blaspheming the religion , and persecuting the servants of Jesus , and the Jews themselves in crucifying the Lord of life , who did it ignorantly as did also their Rulers , have met with their excuse upon the same account . And therefore it is not safe for the men of the Roman communion to take anodyne medicines and Narcoticks to make them insensible of the pain ; for it will not cure their disease . Their doing it upon the stock of error and ignorance I hope will dispose them to receive a pardon : But yet that also supposes them criminal ; And though I would not for all the world be their accuser , or the aggravator of the crime , yet I am not unwilling to be their remembrancer , that themselves may avoid the danger . For though Jacob was innocent in lying with Leah in stead of Rachel , because he had no cause to suspect the deception ; yet if Penelope , who had not seen Vlysses in twenty years , should see one come to her nothing like Vlysses , but saying he were her husband , she should give but an ill account of her chastity if she should actually admit him to her bed , only saying , if you be Vlysses , or upon supposition that you are Vlysses , I admit you . For if she certainly admits him , of whom she is uncertain if he be her husband , she certainly is an adulteress : Because she having reason to doubt , ought first to be satisfied of her question . Since therefore besides the insuperable doubts of the main Article it self , in the practice and the particulars there are acknowledged so many ways of deception , and confessed that the actual failings are frequent ( as I shewed before out of Pope Adrian ) it will be but a weak excuse to say , I worship thee if thou be the Son of God , but I do not worship thee , if thou beest not consecrated , and in the mean time , the Divine worship is actually exhibited to what is set before us . At the best we may say to these men , as our blessed Saviour to the woman of Samaria , Ye worship ye know not what ; but we know what we worship . For concerning the action of adoration , this I am to say , That it is a fit address in the day of solemnity , with a Sursum corda , with our hearts lift up to Heaven , where Christ sits ( we are sure ) at the right hand of the Father , for Nemo dignè manducat nisi priùs adoraverit , said S. Austin , No man eats Christs body worthily , but he that first adores Christ. But to terminate the Divine worship to the Sacrament , to that which we eat , is so unreasonable * and unnatural , and withal so scandalous , that Averroes observing it to be used among the Christians , with whom he had the ill fortune to converse , said these words . ‖ Quandoquidem Christiani adorant quod comedunt , sit anima mea cum Philosophis . Since Christians worship what they eat , let my soul be with the Philophers . If the man had conversed with those who better understood the Article , and were more religious and wise in their worshippings , possibly he might have been invited by the excellency of the institution to become a Christian. But they that give scandal to Jews by their Images , and leaving out the second Commandment from their Catechisms , give offence to the Turks by worshipping the Sacrament , and to all reasonable men by striving against two or three Sciences and the notices of all mankind . We worship the flesh of Christ in the mysteries ( saith S. Ambrose ) as the Apostles did worship it in our Saviour . For we receive the mysteries as representing and exhibiting to our souls the flesh and blood of Christ ; So that we worship it in the sumption , and venerable usages of the signs of his body . But we give no Divine honour to the signs : We do not call the Sacrament our God. And let it be considered ; whether if the Primitive Church had ever done or taught that the Divine worship ought to be given to the Sacrament , it had not been certain that the Heathen would have retorted most of the arguments upon their heads , by which the Christians reproved their worshipping of Images . The Christians upbraided them with worshipping the works of their hands , to which themselves gave what figure they pleased , and then by certain forms consecrated them , and made by invocation ( as they supposed ) a Divinity to dwell there . They objected to them that they worshipped that which could neither see , nor hear , nor smell , nor taste , nor move , nor understand : that which could grow old and perish , that could be broken and burned , that was subject to the injury of Rats and Mice , of Worms and creeping things , that can be taken by enemies , and carried away , that is kept under lock and key for fear of Thieves and sacrilegious persons . Now if the Church of those ages had thought and practised as they have done at Rome in these last ages , might not they have said , Why may not we as well as you ? do not you worship that with Divine honours , and call it your God which can be burnt , and broken , which your selves form into a round or a square figure , which the Oven first hardens , and then your Priests consecrate , and by invocation make to be your God , which can see no more , nor hear , nor smell , than the silver and gold upon our Images ? Do not you adore that which Rats and Mice eat , which can grow mouldy , and sowre , which you keep under locks and bars , for fear your God be stoln ? Did not Lewis the Ninth pawn your God to the Soldan of Egypt , insomuch that to this day the Egyptian Escutcheons by way of triumph bear upon them a pix with a wafer in it : True it is , that if we are beaten from our Cities , we carry our Gods with us ; but did not the Jesuits carry your Host ( which you call God ) about their necks from Venice in the time of the Interdict ? And now why do you reprove that in us which you do in your selves ? What could have been answered to them , if the doctrine and accidents of their time had furnished them with these or the like instances ? In vain it would have been to have replied ; Yea , but ours is the true God , and yours are false gods . For they would easily have made a rejoynder ; and said , that this is to be proved by some other argument ; in the mean time all your objections against our worshipping of Images , return violently upon you . Upon this account , since none of the witty and subtle adversaries of Christianity ever did , or could make this defence by way of recrimination , it is certain there was no occasion given ; and therefore those trifling pretences made out of some sayings of the Fathers , pretending the practice of worshipping the Sacrament , must needs be Sophistry , and illusion , and can need no particular consideration . But if any man can think them at all considerable , I refer him to be satisfied by Mich. le Faucheur in his voluminous confutation of Card. Perron . I for my part am weary of the infinite variety of argument in this question ; and therefore shall only observe this , that antiquity does frequently use the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , venerable , adorable , worshipful to every thing that ought to be received with great reverence , and used with regard : to Princes , to Laws , to Baptism , to Bishops , to Priests , to the ears of Priests , the Cross , the Chalice , the Temples , the words of Scripture , the Feast of Easter ; and upon the same account by which it is pretended that some of the Fathers taught the adoration of the Eucharist , we may also infer the adoration of all the other instances . But that which proves too much , proves nothing at all . These are the grounds by which I am my self established , and by which I perswade or confirm others in this Article . I end with the words of the Fathers in the Council of CP . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Christ commanded the substance of bread to be offered , not the shape of a man , lest Idolatry should be introduced . Gloria Deo in excelsis : In terris pax hominibus bonae voluntatis . THE END . A DISSUASIVE FROM POPERY . THE FIRST PART . By JER TAYLOR , Chaplain in Ordinary to King CHARLES the First , and late Lord Bishop of Down and Connor . The Fifth Edition , Revised and Corrected . MOLINA . S. IGNATIVS LOYOLA SOCIETATIS IESV FVNDATOR . VASQUEZ . Optabilior est Fur qúm Mendax assiduus , vtriqueveró Perditionis haereditatem consequentur Eccles 20 : vers . 25 portrait of Saint Ignatius Loyola LONDON , Printed for R. Royston , Bookseller to the King 's most Excellent MAJESTY , MDCLXXIII . THE PREFACE TO THE READER . WHEN a Roman Gentleman had , to please himself , written a book in Greek , and presented it to Cato ; he desir'd him to pardon the faults of his Expressions , since he wrote in Greek , which was a Tongue in which he was not perfect Master . Cato told him he had better then to have let it alone and written in Latin ; by how much it is better not to commit a Fault , than to make Apologies . For if the thing be good , it needs not to be excus'd ; if it be not good , a crude Apologie will do nothing but confess the fault , but never make amends . I therefore make this Address to all who will concern themselves in reading this book , not to ask their pardon for my fault in doing of it ; I know of none ; for if I had known them , I would have mended them before the Publication ; and yet though I know not any , I do not question but much fault will be found by too many ; I wish I have given them no cause for their so doing . But I do not only mean it in the particular Periods , where every man that is not a Son of the Church of England or Ireland , will at least do as Apollonius did to the Apparition that affrighted his company on the mountain Caucasus , ( he will revile and persecute me with evil words ) but I mean it in the whole Design , and men will reasonably or capriciously ask , Why any more Controversies ? Why this over again ? Why against the Papists , against whom so very many are already exasperated , that they cry out fiercely of Persecution ? And why can they not be suffered to enjoy their share of peace , which hath returned in the hands of His Sacred Majesty at his blessed Restauration ? For as much of this as concerns my self I make no excuse , but give my reasons , and hope to justifie this procedure with that modesty which David us'd to his angry brother , saying , What have I now done ? is there not a cause ? The cause is this : The Reverend Fathers , my Lords the Bishops of Ireland , in their circumspection and watchfulness over their Flocks having espied grievous Wolves to have entered in , some with Sheeps-cloathing , and some without , some secret enemies , and some open , at first endeavour'd to give check to those enemies which had put fire into the bed-straw ; and though God hath very much prosper'd their labours , yet they have work enough to do , and will have , till God shall call them home to the land of peace and unity . But it was soon remembred , that when King James of blessed memory had discerned the spirits of the English Nonconformists , and found them peevish and factious , unreasonable and imperious , not only unable to govern , but as inconsistent with the Government , as greedy to snatch at it for themselves ; resolved to take off their disguise , and put a difference between Conscience and Faction , and to bring them to the measures and rules of Laws ; and to this the Council and all wise men were consenting , because by the King 's great wisdom , and the conduct of the whole Conference and Inquiry , men saw there was reason on the Kings side , and necessity on all sides . But the Gun-powder Treason breaking out , a new Zeal was enkindled against the Papists , and it shin'd so greatly , that the Nonconformists escap'd by the light of it , and quickly grew warm by the heat of that flame , to which they added no small increase by their Declamations and other acts of Insinuation : insomuch that they being neglected , multipli'd until they got power enough to do all those mischiefs which we have seen and felt . This being remembred and spoken of , it was soon observ'd that the Tables only were now turn'd , and that now the publick zeal and watchfulness against those men and those perswasions , which so lately have afflicted us , might give to the Emissaries of the Church of Rome leisure and opportunity to grow into numbers and strength to debauch many Souls , and to unhinge the safety and peace of the Kingdom . In Ireland we saw too much of it done , and found the mischief growing too fast , and the most intolerable inconveniencies , but too justly apprehended , as near and imminent . We had reason at least to cry Fire when it flamed through our very Roofs , and to interpose with all care and diligence , when Religion and the eternal Interest of Souls was at stake , as knowing we should be greatly unfit to appear and account to the great Bishop and Shepherd of Souls , if we had suffer'd the enemies to sow Tares in our fields , we standing and looking on . It was therefore consider'd how we might best serve God , and rescue our Charges from their danger , and it was concluded presently to run to arms , I mean to the weapons of our warfare , to the armour of the Spirit , to the works of our calling , and to tell the people of their peril , to warn them of the enemy , and to lead them in the ways of truth and peace and holiness : that if they would be admonished , they might be safe ; if they would not , they should be without excuse , because they could not say but the Prophets have been amongst them . But then it was next inquired , Who should minister in this affair , and put in order all those things which they had to give in charge : It was easie to chuse many , but hard to chuse one ; there were many fit to succeed in the vacant Apostleship , and though Barsabas the Just was by all the Church nam'd as a fit and worthy man , yet the lot fell upon Matthias ; and that was my case : it fell to me to be their Amanuensis , when persons most worthy were more readily excus'd ; and in this my Lords the Bishops had reason , that ( according to S. Pauls rule ) If there be judgments or controversies amongst us , they should be imploy'd who are least esteem'd in the Church ; and upon this account I had nothing left me but Obedience ; though I confess that I found regret in the nature of the imployment , for I love not to be ( as S. Paul calls it ) one of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Disputers of this world . For I suppose skill in Controversies ( as they are now us'd ) to be the worst part of learning , and time is the worst spent in them , and men the least benefited by them ; that is , when the Questions are curious and impertinent , intricate and unexplicable , not to make men better , but to make a Sect. But when the Propositions disputed are of the foundation of Faith , or lead to good life , or naturally do good to single persons or publick Societies , then they are part of the depositum of Christianity , of the Analogy of faith ; and for this we are by the Apostle commanded to contend earnestly , and therefore Controversies may become necessary ; but because they are not often so , but oftentimes useless and always troublesome ; and as an ill diet makes an ill habit of body , so does the frequent use of controversies baffle the understanding , and makes it crafty to deceive others , it self remaining instructed in nothing but useless notions and words of contingent signification and distinctions without difference , which minister to pride and contention , and teach men to be pertinacious , troublesome and uncharitable , therefore I love them not . But because by the Apostolical Rule I am tyed to do all things without murmurings , as well as without disputings , I consider'd it over again , and found my self reliev'd by the subject matter , and the grand consequent of the present Questions . For in the present affair , the case is not so as in the others ; here the Questions are such that the Church of Rome declares them to reach a● far as eternity , and damn all that are not of their opinions ; and the Protestants have much more reason to fear concerning the Papists , such who are not excus'd by ignorance , that their condition is very sad and deplorable , and that it is charity to snatch them as a brand from the fire ; and indeed the Church of Rome maintains Propositions , which , if the Ancient Doctors of the Church may be believ'd , are apt to separate from God. I instance in their superaddition of Articles and Propositions , derived only from a pretended tradition , and not contain'd in Scripture . Now the doing of this is a great sin , and a great danger . Adoro Scripturae plenitudinem ; Si non est scriptum , timeat vae illud adjicientibus & detrahentibus destinatum , said Tertullian : I adore the fulness of Scripture ; and if it be not written , let Hermogenus fear the woe that is destin'd to them that detract from or add to it . S. Basil says , Without doubt it is a most manifest argument of infidelity , and a most certain sign of pride , to introduce any thing that is not written ( in the Scriptures ; ) our blessed Saviour having said , My sheep hear my voice , and the voice of strangers they will not hear ; and to detract from Scriptures , or add any thing to the Faith that is not there , is most vehemently forbidden by the Apostle , saying , If it be but a mans Testament , nemo superordinat , no man adds to it . And says also , This was the Will of the Testator . And Theophilus Alexandrinus says plainly , It is the part of a Devillish spirit to think any thing to be Divine , that is not in the authority of the holy Scriptures ; and therefore S. Athanasius affirms , that the Catholicks will neither speak nor endure to hear any thing in Religion that is a stranger to Scripture ; it being immodestiae vaecordia , an evil heart of immodesty , to speak those things which are not written . Now let any man judge whether it be not our duty , and a necessary work of charity , and the proper office of our Ministery , to perswade our charges from the immodesty of an evil heart , from having a Devillish spirit , from doing that which is vehemently forbidden by the Apostle , from infidelity and pride , and lastly from that eternal Woe which is denounc'd against them that add other words and doctrines than what is contain'd in the Scriptures , and say , Dominus dixit , The Lord hath said it , and he hath not said it . If we had put these severe censures upon the Popish doctrine of Tradition , we should have been thought uncharitable ; but because the holy Fathers do so , we ought to be charitable , and snatch our Charges from the ambient flame . And thus it is in the question of Images ; Dubium non est , quin Religio nulla sit , ubicunque simulacrum est , said Lactantius ; Without all peradventure where ever an Image is , ( meaning for worship ) there is no Religion : and that we ought rather to die than pollute our Faith with such impieties , said Origen . It is against the Law of Nature , it being expresly forbidden by the second Commandment , as Irenaeus affirms , Tertullian , Cyprian , and S. Augustine ; and therefore is it not great reason we should contend for that Faith which forbids all worship of Images , and oppose the superstition of such Guides who do teach their people to give them veneration , to prevaricate the Moral Law , and the very Law of Nature , and do that which whosoever does has no Religion ? We know Idolatry is a damnable sin , and we also know that the Roman Church with all the artifices she could use , never can justifie her self , or acquit the common practices from Idolatry ; and yet if it were but suspicious that it is Idolatry , it were enough to awaken us : for God is a jealous God , and will not endure any such causes of suspicion and motives of jealousie . I instance but once more . The Primitive Church did excommunicate them that did not receive the holy Sacrament in both kinds , and S. Ambrose says , that he who receives the Mystery other ways than Christ appointed , ( that is , but in one kind , when he hath appointed it in two ) is unworthy of the Lord , and he cannot have Devotion . Now this thing we ought not to suffer , that our people by so doing should remain unworthy of the Lord , and for ever be indevout , or cozen'd with a false shew of devotion , or fall by following evil Guides into the sentence of Excommunication . These matters are not trifling , and when we see these errors frequently taught and own'd as the only true Religion , and yet are such evils , which the Fathers say are the way of damnation ; we have reason to hope that all wise and good men , lovers of souls , will confess that we are within the circles of our duty , when we teach our people to decline the crooked ways , and to walk in the ways of Scripture and Christianity . But we have observed amongst the generality of the Irish , such a declension of Christianity , so great credulity to believe every superstitious story , such confidence in vanity , such groundless pertinacy , such vicious lives , so little sense of true Religion and the fear of God , so much care to obey the Priests , and so little to obey God ; such intolerable ignorance , such fond Oaths and manners of swearing , thinking themselves more oblig'd by swearing on the Mass-book , than the four Gospels , and S. Patricks Mass-book more than any new one ; swearing by their Fathers soul , by their Gossips hand , by other things which are the product of those many Tales are told them ; their not knowing upon what account they refuse to come to Church , but only that now they are old and never did , or their country-men do not , or their Fathers or Grandfathers never did , or that their Ancestors were Priests , and they will not alter from their Religion ; and after all , can give no account of their Religion what it is : only they believe as their Priest bids them , and go to Mass which they understand not , and reckon their Beads to tell the number and the tale of their prayers , and abstain from Eggs and flesh in Lent , and visit S. Patricks Well , and leave Pins and Ribbons , Yarn or Thread in their holy Wells , and pray to God , S. Mary and S. Patrick , S. Columbanus and S. Bridget , and desire to be buried with S. Francis's Cord about them , and to fast on Saturdays in honour of our Lady . These and so many other things of like nature we see daily , that we being conscious of the infinite distance which these things have from the spirit of Christianity , know that no charity can be greater than to perswade the people to come to our Churches , where they shall be taught all the ways of godly wisdom , of peace and safety to their souls : whereas now there are many of them that know not how to say their prayers , but mutter , like Pies and Parrots , words which they are taught , but they do not pretend to understand . But I shall give one particular instance of their miserable superstition and blindness . I was lately within a few months very much troubled with Petitions and earnest Requests for the restoring a Bell , which a Person of Quality had in his hands in the time of , and ever since , the late Rebellion . I could not guess at the reasons of their so great and violent importunity , but told the Petitioners , If they could prove that Bell to be theirs , the Gentleman was willing to pay the full value of it ; though he had no obligation to do so ( that I know of ) but charity : but this was so far from satisfying them , that still the importunity increased , which made me diligently to inquire into the secret of it . The first cause I found , was , that a dying person in the Parish desired to have it rung before him to Church , and pretended he could not die in peace if it were deni'd him ; and that the keeping of that Bell did anciently belong to that Family from Father to Son : but because this seem'd nothing but a fond and an unreasonable superstition , I enquired further , and at last found that they believ'd this Bell came from Heaven , and that it used to be carried from place to place , and to end Controversies by Oath , which the worst men durst not violate if they swore upon that Bell , and the best men amongst them durst not but believe him ; that if this Bell was rung before the Corps to the Grave , it would help him out of Purgatory ; and that therefore when any one died , the friends of the deceased did , whilest the Bell was in their possession , hire it for the behoof of their dead , and that by this means that Family was in part maintain'd . I was troubled to see under what spirit of delusion those poor souls do lie , how infinitely their credulity is abused , how certainly they believe in trifles , and perfectly rely on vanity , and how little they regard the truths of God , and how not at all they drink of the waters of Salvation . For the numerous companies of Priests and Friars amongst them , take care they shall know nothing of Reliligion , but what they design for them ; they use all means to keep them to the use of the Irish Tongue , lest , if they learn English , they might be supplied with persons fitter to instruct them ; the people are taught to make that also their excuse for not coming to our Churches , to hear our advices , or converse with us in religious intercourses , because they understand us not , and they will not understand us , neither will they learn that they may understand and live . And this and many other evils are made greater and more irremediable by the affrightment which their Priests put upon them by the issues of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction , by which ( they now exercising it too publickly ) they give them Laws , not only for Religion , but even for Temporal things , and turn their Proselytes from the Mass , if they become Farmers of the Tithes from the Minister or Proprietary without their leave . I speak that which I know to be true by their own confession and unconstrain'd and uninvited Narratives ; so that as it is certain that the Roman Religion , as it stands in distinction and separation from us , is a body of strange Propositions , having but little relish of true primitive and pure Christianity , ( as will be made manifest , if the importunity of our Adversaries extort it ; ) so it is here amongst us a Faction and a State-party and design to recover their old Laws and barbarous manner of living , a device to enable them to dwell alone , and to be Populus unius labii , a people of one language and unmingled with others . And if this be Religion , it is such a one as ought to be reproved by all the severities of Reason and Religion , lest the people perish , and their souls be cheaply given away to them that make merchandize of souls , who were the purchase and price of Christs blood . Having given this sad account , why it was necessary that my Lords the Bishops should take care to do what they have done in this affair , and why I did consent to be engaged in this Controversie , otherwise than I love to be ; and since it is not a love of trouble and contention , but charity to the souls of the poor deluded Irish : there is nothing remaining but that we humbly desire of God to accept and to bless this well-meant Labour of Love , and that by some admirable ways of his Providence , he will be pleas'd to convey to them the notices of their danger , and their sin , and to de-obstruct the passages of necessary truth to them ; for we know the arts of their Guides , and that it will be very hard that the notice of these things shall ever be suffer'd to arrive to the common people , but that which hinders will hinder until it be taken away : however we believe and hope in God for remedy . For although Edom would not let his brother Israel pass into his Country , and the Philistims would stop the Patriarchs Wells , and the wicked Shepherds of Midian would drive their neighbours flocks from the watering-troughs , and the Emissaries of Rome use all arts to keep the people from the use of Scriptures , the Wells of Salvation , and from entertaining the notices of such things which from the Scriptures we teach ; yet as God found out a remedy for those of old , so he will also for the poor misled people of Ireland ; and will take away the evil minds , or the opportunities of the Adversaries hindring the people from Instruction , and make way that the Truths we have here taught may approach to their ears , and sink into their hearts , and make them wise unto Salvation . Amen . A DISSUASIVE FROM POPERY To the People of IRELAND . PART I. The INTRODVCTION . THE Questions of difference between Our Churches and the Church of Rome , have been so often disputed , and the evidences on both sides so often produc'd , that to those who are strangers to the present constitution of affairs , it may seem very unnecessary to say them over again : and yet it will seem almost impossible to produce any new matter ; or if we could , it will not be probable , that what can be newly alledged can prevail more than all that which already hath been so often urged in these Questions . But we are not deterr'd from doing our duty by any such considerations : as knowing , that the same Medicaments are with success applied to a returning or an abiding Ulcer ; and the Preachers of God's Word , must for ever be ready to put the People in mind of such things , which they already have heard , and by the same Scriptures , and the same Reasons , endeavour to destroy their sin , or prevent their danger ; and by the same word of God to exstirpate those errors , which have had opportunity in the time of our late disorders to spring up and grow stronger , not when the Keepers of the field slept , but when they were wounded , and their hands cut off , and their mouths stopp'd , lest they should continue , or proceed to do the work of God thoroughly . A little warm Sun , and some indulgent showers of a softer Rain , have made many weeds of erroneous Doctrine to take root greatly , and to spread themselves widely : and the Bigots of the Roman Church , by their late importune boldness and indiscreet forwardness in making Proselytes , have but too manifestly declar'd to all the World , that if they were rerum potiti , Masters of our affairs , they would suffer nothing to grow but their own Colocynths and Gourds . And although the Natural remedy for this , were , to take away that impunity , upon the account of which alone they do encrease ; yet because we shall never be Authors of such Counsels , but confidently rely upon God , the Holy Scriptures , right Reason , and the most venerable and prime Antiquity , which are the proper defensatives of truth for its support and maintenance ; yet we must not conceal from the People , committed to our charges , the great evils to which they are tempted by the Roman Emissaries , that while the King and the Parliament take care to secure all the publick interests by instruments of their own , we also may by the word of our proper Ministery endeavour to stop the progression of such errors , which we know to be destructive of Christian Religion , and consequently dangerous to the interest of Souls . In this procedure , although we shall say some things which have not been alwayes plac'd before their eyes , and others we shall represent with a fittingness to their present necessities , and all with Charity too , and zeal for their souls , yet if we were to say nothing but what hath been often said already , we are still doing the work of God , and repeating his voice , and by the same remedies curing the same diseases , and we only wait for the blessing of God prospering that importunity which is our duty : according to the advice of Solomon , In the Morning sow thy seed , and in the Evening withhold not thy hand ; for thou knowest not whether shall prosper , either this , or that , or whether they both shall be alike good . CHAP. I. The Doctrine of the Roman Church in the Controverted Articles , is neither Catholick , Apostolick , nor Primitive . SECT . I. IT was the challenge of Saint Augustine to the Donatists , who ( as the Church of Rome does at this day ) inclos'd the Catholick Church within their own circuits : [ Ye say that Christ is Heir of no Lands , but where Donatus is Co-heir . Read this to us out of the Law and the Prophets , out of the Psalms , out of the Gospel it self , or out of the Letters of the Apostles ; Read it thence and we believe it . ] Plainly directing us to the Fountains of our Faith , the Old and New Testament , the words of Christ , and the words of the Apostles . For nothing else can be the Foundation of our Faith : whatsoever came in after these , foris est , it belongs not unto Christ * . To these we also add , not as Authors or Finishers , but as Helpers of our Faith , and Heirs of the Doctrine Apostolical , the Sentiments and Catholick Doctrine of the Church of God , in the Ages next after the Apostles . Not that we think them or our selves bound to every private Opinion , even of a Primitive Bishop and Martyr ; but that we all acknowledge that the whole Church of God kept the Faith entire , and transmitted faithfully to the after-Ages the whole faith , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the form of doctrine , and sound words , which was at first delivered to the Saints , and was defective in nothing that belong'd unto salvation ; and we believe that those Ages sent millions of Saints to the bosome of Christ , and seal'd the true Faith with their lives and with their deaths , and by both gave testimony unto Jesus , and had from him the Testimony of his Spirit . And this method of procedure we now chuse , not only because to them that know well how to use it , to the Sober and Moderate , the Peaceable and the Wise , it is the best , the most certain , visible and tangible , most humble and satisfactory ; but also because the Church of Rome does with greatest noises pretend her Conformity to Antiquity . Indeed the present Roman Doctrines , which are in difference , were invisible and unheard-of in the first and best Antiquity , and with how ill success their Quotations are out of the Fathers of the first three Ages , every inquiring Man may easily discern . But the noises therefore which they make are from the Writings of the succeeding Ages ; where secular interest did more prevail , and the Writings of the Fathers were vast and voluminous , full of controversie , and ambiguous sences , fitted to their own times and questions , full of proper Opinions , and such variety of sayings , that both sides eternally and inconfutably shall bring sayings for themselves respectively . Now although things being thus , it will be impossible for them to conclude from the sayings of a number of Fathers , that their Doctrine which they would prove thence , was the Catholick Doctrine of the Church ; because any number that is less than all , does not prove a Catholick consent : yet the clear sayings of one or two of these Fathers truly alledged by us to the contrary , will certainly prove that what many of them ( suppose it ) do affirm , and which but two or three as good Catholicks as the other do deny , was not then matter of Faith , or a Doctrine of the Church ; for if it had , these had been Hereticks accounted , and not have remain'd in the Communion of the Church . But although for the reasonableness of the thing we have thought fit to take notice of it ; yet we shall have no need to make use of it ; since not only in the prime and purest Antiquity we are indubitably more than Conquerours ; but even in the succeeding Ages , we have the advantage both numero , pondere & mensurâ , in number , weight and measure . We do easily acknowledge that to dispute these Questions from the sayings of the Fathers , is not the readiest way to make an end of them ; but therefore we do wholly rely upon Scriptures , as the foundation and final resort of all our perswasions , and from thence can never be confuted ; but we also admit the Fathers as admirable helps for the understanding of the Scriptures , and as good testimony of the Doctrine deliver'd from their fore-fathers down to them , of what the Church esteem'd the way of Salvation : and therefore if we find any Doctrine now taught , which was not plac'd in their way of Salvation , we reject it as being no part of the Christian faith , and which ought not to be impos'd upon Consciences . They were wise unto salvation , and fully instructed to every good work ; and therefore the Faith which they profess'd and deriv'd from Scripture , we profess also ; and in the same Faith , we hope to be sav'd even as they . But for the new Doctors ; we understand them not , we know them not : Our Faith is the same from the beginning , and cannot become new . But because we shall make it to appear that they do greatly innovate in all their points of controversie with us , and shew nothing but shadows instead of substances , and little images of things instead of solid arguments ; we shall take from them their armour in which they trusted , and chuse this sword of Goliah to combat their errors ; for non est alter talis ; It is not easie to find a better than the Word of God , expounded by the prime and best Antiquity . The first thing therefore we are to advertise is , that the Emissaries of the Roman Church endeavour to perswade the good People of our Dioceses , from a Religion that is truly Primitive and Apostolick , and divert them to Propositions of their own , new and unheard-of in the first Ages of the Christian Church . For the Religion of our Church is therefore certainly Primitive and Apostolick , because it teaches us to believe the whole Scriptures of the Old and New Testament , and nothing else as matter of Faith ; and therefore unless there can be new Scriptures , we can have no new matters of belief , no new Articles of faith . Whatsoever we cannot prove from thence , we disclaim it , as not deriving from the Fountains of our Saviour . We also do believe the Apostles Creed , the Nicene , with the additions of Constantinople , and that which is commonly called , the Symbol of Saint Athanasius : and the four first General Councils are so intirely admitted by us , that they , together with the plain words of Scripture , are made the rule and measure of judging Heresies amongst us : and in pursuance of these , it is commanded by our Church , that the Clergy shall never teach any thing as matter of Faith religiously to be observed , but that which is agreeable to the Old and New Testament , and collected out of the same Doctrine , by the Ancient Fathers and Catholick Bishops of the Church * . This was undoubtedly the Faith of the Primitive Church , they admitted all into their Communion that were of this Faith ; they condemned no Man that did not condemn these ; they gave Letters communicatory by no other cognisance , and all were Brethren who spake this voice . [ Hanc legem sequentes , Christianorum Catholicorum nomen jubemus amplecti , reliquos verò dementes , vesanosque judicantes haeretici dogmatis infamiam sustinere ] said the Emperours , Gratian , Valentinian , and Theodosius , in their Proclamation to the People of C. P. All that believ'd this Doctrine were Christians and Catholicks , viz. all they who believe in the Father , Son , and Holy Ghost , one Divinity of equal Majesty in the Holy Trinity ; which indeed was the sum of what was decreed in explication of the Apostles Creed in the four first General Councils . And what Faith can be the foundation of a more solid peace , the surer ligaments of Catholick Communion , or the firmer basis of a holy life , and of the hopes of Heaven hereafter , than the measures which the Holy Primitive Church did hold , and we after them ? That which we rely upon , is the same that the Primitive Church did acknowledge to be the adequate foundation of their hopes in the matters of belief : The way which they thought sufficient to go to Heaven in , is the way which we walk : what they did not teach , we do not publish and impose ; into this Faith intirely , and into no other , as they did theirs , so we baptize our Catechumens : The Discriminations of Heresie from Catholick Doctrine which they us'd , we use also , and we use no other : and in short , we believe all that Doctrine which the Church of Rome believes , except those things which they have superinduc'd upon the Old Religion , and in which we shall prove that they have innovated . So that by their confession , all the Doctrine which we teach the people as matter of Faith , must be confessed to be Ancient , Primitive , and Apostolick , or else theirs is not so : for ours is the same , and we both have received this Faith from the Fountains of Scripture and Universal Tradition ; not they from us , or we from them , but both of us from Christ and his Apostles . And therefore there can be no question whether the Faith of the Church of England be Apostolick or Primitive ; it is so , confessedly : But the Question is concerning many other particulars which were unknown to the Holy Doctors of the first Ages , which were no part of their faith , which were never put into their Creeds , which were not determin'd in any of the four first General Councils , rever'd in all Christendom , and entertain'd every where with great Religion and Veneration , even next to the four Gospels and the Apostolical Writings . Of this sort , because the Church of Rome hath introduc'd many , and hath adopted them into their late Creed , and imposes them upon the People , not only without , but against the Scriptures and the Catholick Doctrine of the Church of God ; laying heavy burdens on mens Consciences , and making the narrow way to Heaven yet narrower by their own inventions ; arrogating to themselves a dominion over our faith , and prescribing a method of Salvation which Christ and his Apostles never taught ; corrupting the Faith of the Church of God , and teaching for Doctrines the Commandements of Men ; and lastly , having derogated from the Prerogative of Christ , who alone is the Author and finisher of our Faith , and hath perfected it in the revelations consign'd in the Holy Scriptures ; therefore it is , that we esteem our selves oblig'd to warn the People of their danger , and to depart from it , and call upon them to stand upon the wayes , and ask after the old paths , and walk in them ; lest they partake of that curse which is threatned by God to them , who remove the ancient Land-marks , which our Fathers in Christ have set for us . Now that the Church of Rome cannot pretend that all which she imposes is Primitive and Apostolick , appears in this ; That in the Church of Rome , there is pretence made to a power , not only of declaring new Articles of faith , but of making new Symbols or Creeds , and imposing them as of necessity to Salvation . Which thing is evident in the Bull of Pope Leo the tenth against Martyn Luther , in which , amongst other things , he is condemn'd for saying , [ It is certain , that it is not in the power of the Church or Pope to constitute Articles of Faith. ] We need not add that this power is attributed to the Bishops of Rome by Turrecremata (a) , Augustinus Triumphus de Ancona (b) , Petrus de Ancorano (c) , and the Famous Abbot of Panormo (d) , that the Pope cannot only make new Creeds , but new Articles of Faith ; that he can make that of necessity to be believ'd , which before never was necessary ; that he is the measure and rule , and the very notice of all credibilities ; That the Canon Law is the Divine Law ; and whatever Law the Pope promulges , God , whose Vicar he is , is understood to be the Promulger . That the souls of Men are in the hands of the Pope ; and that in his arbitration Religion doth consist : which are the very words of Hostiensis (e) , and Ferdinandus ab Inciso (f) , who were Casuists and Doctors of Law , of great authority amongst them and renown . The thing it self is not of dubio●● disputation amongst them , but actually practis'd in the greatest Instances , as is to be seen in the Bull of Pius the fourth , at the end of the Council of Trent ; by which all Ecclesiasticks are not only bound to swear to all the Articles of the Council of Trent for the present and for the future , but they are put into a new Symbol or Creed , and they are corroborated by the same decretory clauses that are us'd in the Creed of Athanasius : That this is the true Catholick Faith ; and that without this no Man can be saved . Now since it cannot be imagined that this power , to which they pretend , should never have been reduc'd to act ; and that it is not credible they should publish so invidious and ill-sounding Doctrine to no purpose , and to serve no end ; it may without further evidence be believed by all discerning persons , that they have need of this Doctrine , or it would not have been taught , and that consequently without more ado , it may be concluded that some of their Articles are parts of this new faith ; and that they can therefore in no sence be Apostolical , unless their being Roman makes them so . To this may be added another consideration , not much less material , that besides what Eckius told the Elector of Bavaria , that the Doctrines of Luther might be overthrown by the Fathers , though not by Scripture ; they have also many gripes of Conscience concerning the Fathers themselves , that they are not right on their side ; and of this , they have given but too much demonstration by their Expurgatory indices . The Serpent by being so curious a defender of his head , shews where his danger is , and by what he can most readily be destroyed . But besides their innumerable corruptings of the Fathers Writings ; their thrusting in that which was spurious , and like Pharaoh , killing the legitimate Sons of Israel * ; though in this , they have done very much of their work , and made the Testimonies of the Fathers to be a record infinitely worse , than of themselves uncorrupted , they would have been ( of which divers Learned Persons have made publick complaint and demonstration ) they have at last fallen to a new trade , which hath caus'd more disreputation to them , than they have gain'd advantage , and they have virtually confess'd , that in many things , the Fathers are against them . For first , the King of Spain gave a Commission to the Inquisitors to purge all Catholick Authors ; but with this clause , Iique ipsi privatim , nullisque consciis apud se indicem expurgatorium habebunt , quem eundum neque aliis communicabunt , neque ejus exemplum ulli dabunt : that they should keep the expurgatory Index privately , neither imparting that Index , nor giving a copy of it to any . But it happened , by the Divine Providence so ordering it , that about thirteen years after , a copy of it was gotten and published by Johannes Pappus , and Franciscus Junius ; and since it came abroad against their wills , they find it necessary now to own it , and they have printed it themselves . Now by these expurgatory Tables , what they have done is known to all Learned Men. In Saint Chrysostom's Works printed at Basil , these words , [ The Church is not built upon the Man , but upon the Faith ] are commanded to be blotted out : and these [ There is no merit , but what is given us by Christ , ] and yet these words are in his Sermon upon Pentecost , and the former words are in his first Homily upon that of Saint John , Ye are my friends , &c. ] The like they have done to him in many other places , and to Saint Ambrose , and to Saint Austin , and to them all * , insomuch that Ludovicus Saurius the Corrector of the Press at Lyons , shewed and complain'd of it to Junius , that he was forc'd to cancellate or blot out many sayings of Saint Ambrose in that Edition of his Works , which was printed at Lyons 1559. So that what they say on occasion of Bertram's Book [ In the old Catholick Writers we suffer very many errors , and extenuate and excuse them ; and finding out some Commentary , we feign some convenient sence when they are oppos'd in disputations ] they do indeed practise , but esteem it not sufficient ; for the words which make against them they wholly leave out of their Editions . Nay they correct the very Tables or Indices made by the Printers or Correctors ; insomuch that out of one of Froben's Indices they have commanded these words to be blotted [ The use of Images forbidden ] The Eucharist no Sacrifice , but the memory of a Sacrifice ] Works , although they do not justifie , yet are necessary to Salvation ] Marriage is granted to all that will nor contain ] Venial sins damn ] The dead Saints , after this life cannot help us ] nay out of the Index of Saint Austin's Works by Claudius Chevallonius at Paris 1531. there is a very strange deleatur [ Dele , Solus Deus adorandus ] that God alone is to be worshipped , is commanded to be blotted out , as being a dangerous Doctrine . These Instances may serve instead of multitudes , which might be brought of their corrupting the Witnesses , and razing the Records of Antiquity , that the errors and Novelties of the Church of Rome might not be so easily reprov'd . Now if the Fathers were not against them , what need these Arts ? Why should they use them thus ? Their own expurgatory indices are infinite testimony against them , both that they do so , and that they need it . But besides these things , we have thought it fit to represent in one aspect , some of their chief Doctrines of difference from the Church of England , and make it evident that they are indeed new , and brought into the Church , first by way of opinion , and afterwards by power , and at last , by their own authority decreed into Laws and Articles . SECT . II. FIRST , We alledge that that this very power of making new Articles is a Novelty , and expresly against the Doctrine of the Primitive Church ; and we prove it , first , by the words of the Apostle , saying , If we , or an Angel from Heaven shall preach unto you any other Gospel ( viz. in whole or in part , for there is the same reason of them both ) than that which we have preached , let him be Anathema : and secondly , by the sentence of the Fathers in the third General Council , that at Ephesus . [ That it should not be lawful for any Man to publish or compose another Faith or Creed than that which was defin'd by the Nicene Council : and that whosoever shall dare to compose or offer any such to any Persons willing to be converted from Paganism , Judaism , or Heresie , if they were Bishops or Clerks , they should be depos'd , if Lay-men , they should be accursed . ] And yet in the Church of Rome , Faith and Christianity increase like the Moon ; Bromyard complain'd of it long since , and the mischief increases daily . They have now a new Article of Faith , ready for the stamp , which may very shortly become necessary to salvation ; we mean , that of the immaculate conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary . Whether the Pope be above a Council or no ; we are not sure , whether it be an Article of Faith amongst them or not : It is very near one if it be not . Bellarmine would fain have us believe that the Council of Constance approving the Bull of Pope Martin the fifth , declar'd for the Popes Supremacy . But John Gerson , who was at the Council , sayes that the Council did abate those heights to which flattery had advanc'd the Pope ; and that before that Council , they spoke such great things of the Pope , which afterwards moderate Men durst not speak ; but yet some others spake them so confidently before it , that he that should then have spoken to the contrary would hardly have escap'd the note of Heresie : and that these Men continued the same pretensions even after the Council . But the Council of Basil decreed for the Council against the Pope ; and the Council of Lateran under Leo the tenth , decreed for the Pope against the Council . So that it is cross and pile ; and whether for a penny , when it can be done ; it is now a known case , it shall become an Article of Faith. But for the present it is a probationary Article , and according to Bellarmine's expression is serè de fide , it is almost an Article of Faith ; they want a little age , and then they may go alone . But the Council of Trent hath produc'd a strange new Article ; but it is sine controversiâ credendum , it must be believ'd , and must not be controverted : that although the ancient Fathers did give the Communion to Infants , yet they did not believe it necessary to salvation . Now this being a matter of fact , whether they did or did not believe it , every man that reads their writings can be able to inform himself : and besides that it is strange that this should be determin'd by a Council , and determin'd against evident truth ( it being notorious , that divers of the Fathers did say it is necessary to salvation ; ) the decree it self is beyond all bounds of modesty , and a strange pretension of Empire over the Christian belief . But we proceed to other Instances . SECT . III. THE Roman Doctrine of Indulgences was the first occasion of the great change and Reformation of the Western Churches , begun by the Preachings of Martyn Luther , and others ; and besides that it grew to that intolerable abuse , that it became a shame to it self , and a reproach to Christendom , it was also so very an Innovation , that their great Antoninus confesses that concerning them we have nothing expresly , either in the Scriptures , or in the sayings of the ancient Doctors : And the same is affirmed by Sylvester Prierias . Bishop Fisher of Rochester sayes , that in the beginning of the Church there was no use of Indulgences ; and that they began after the people were a while affrighted with the torments of Purgatory ; and many of the School-men confess that the use of Indulgences began in the time of Pope Alexander the third , towards the end of the twelfth Century : but Agrippa imputes the beginning of them to Boniface the eighth , who liv'd in the Reign of King Edward the first of England ; 1300. years after Christ. But that in his time the first Jubilee was kept , we are assur'd by Crantzius . This Pope * lived and died with great infamy , and therefore was not likely from himself to transfer much honour and reputation to the new institution . But that about this time Indulgences began , is more than probable ; much before , it is certain they were not . For in the whole Canon Law written by Gratian , and in the sentences of Peter Lombard there is nothing spoken of Indulgences . Now because they liv'd in the time of Pope Alexander the third , if he had introduc'd them , and much rather if they had been as ancient as Saint Gregory ( as some vainly and weakly pretend , from no greater authority than their own Legends ) it is probable that these great Men , writing Bodies of Divinity and Law , would have made mention of so considerable a Point , and so great a part of the Roman Religion , as things are now order'd . If they had been Doctrines of the Church then , as they are now , it is certain they must have come under their cognisance and discourses . Now lest the Roman Emissaries should deceive any of the good Sons of the Church , we think it fit to acquaint them , that in the Primitive Church , when the Bishops impos'd severe penances , and that they were almost quite perform'd , and a great cause of pity intervened , or danger of death , or an excellent repentance , or that the Martyrs interceded , the Bishop did sometimes indulge the penitent , and relax some of the remaining parts of his penance ; and according to the example of Saint Paul , in the case of the incestuous Corinthian , gave them ease , lest they should be swallowed up with too much sorrow . But the Roman Doctrine of Indulgences is wholly another thing ; nothing of it but the abused name remains . For in the Church of Rome they now pretend that there is an infinite of degrees of Christ's merits and satisfaction beyond what is necessary for the salvation of his servants : and ( for fear Christ should not have enough ) the Saints have a surplusage of merits , * or at least of satisfactions more than they can spend , or themselves do need ; and out of these the Church hath made her a treasure , a kind of poor-mans box ; and out of this , a power to take as much as they list to apply to the poor souls in Purgatory ; who because they did not satisfie for their venial sins , or perform all their penances which were imposed , or which might have been imposed , and which were due to be pa●d to God , for the temporal pains reserved upon them , after he had forgiven them the guilt of their deadly sins , are forc'd sadly to roar in pains not inferiour to the pains of Hell , excepting only that that they are not eternal . * That this is the true state of their Article of Indulgences , we appeal to Bellarmine . Now concerning their new foundation of Indulgences the first stone of it was laid by Pope Clement the sixth , in his extravagant Vnigenitus , de poenitentiis & remissionibus , A. D. 1350. This Constitution was published fifty years after the first Jubilee , and was a new device to bring in Customers to Rome at the second Jubilee , which was kept in Rome in this Popes time . What ends of profit and interest it serv'd , we are not much concern'd to enquire ; but this we know , that it had not yet passed into a Catholick Doctrine , for it was disputed against by Franciscus de Mayronis (a) , and Durandus (b) , not long before this extravagant ; and that it was not rightly form'd to their purposes till the stirs in Germany , rais'd upon the occasion of Indulgences , made Leo the tenth set his Clerks on work to study the point and make something of it . But as to the thing it self : it is so wholly new , so meerly devis'd and forged by themselves , so newly created out of nothing , from great mistakes of Scripture , and dreams of shadows from Antiquity ; that we are to admonish our charges , that they cannot reasonably expect many sayings of the Primitive Doctors against them , any more than against the new fancies of the Quakers , which were born but yesterday . That which is not , cannot be numbred ; and that which was not , could not be confuted . But the perfect silence of Antiquity in this whole matter , is an abundant demonstration that this new nothing was made in the later Laboratories of Rome . For as Durandus said , the Holy Fathers , Ambrose , Hillary , Hierom , Augustine speak nothing of Indulgences . And whereas it is said that Saint Gregory six hundred years after Christ , gave Indulgences at Rome in the stations ; Magister Angularis who lived about two hundred years since , sayes , he never read of any such any where ; and it is certain there is no such thing in the Writings of Saint Gregory , nor in any History of that Age or any other that is authentick : and we could never see any History pretended for it by the Roman Writers , but a Legend of Ledgerus brought to us the other day by Surius : which is so ridiculous and weak , that even their own parties dare not avow it as true story ; and therefore they are fain to make use of Thomas Aquinas upon the Sentences , and Altisiodorensis , for story and record . And it were strange that if this power of giving Indulgences to take off the punishment , reserv●d by God after the sin is pardoned , were given by Christ to his Church , that no one of the ancient Doctors should tell any thing of it : insomuch that there is no one Writer of authority and credit , not the more ancient Doctors we have named , nor those who were much later , Rupertus Tuitiensis , Anselm , or Saint Bernard , ever took notice of it ; but it was a Doctrine wholly unknown to the Church for about one thousand two hundred years after Christ : and Cardinal Cajetan told Pope Adrian the sixth , that to him that readeth the Decretals it plainly appears , that an Indulgence is nothing else but an absolution from that penance which the Confessor hath imposed ; and therefore can be nothing of that which is now adayes pretended . True it is , that the Canonical penances were about the time of Burchard lessen'd and alter'd by commutations ; and the ancient Discipline of the Church in imposing penances was made so loose , that the Indulgence was more than the Imposition , and began not to be an act of mercy but remisness , and absolution without amends : It became a Trumpet , and a Leavy for the Holy War , in Pope Vrban the Seconds time ; for he gave a plenary Indulgence and remission of all sins to them that should go and fight against the Sarazens : and yet no man could tell how much they were the better for these Indulgences : for concerning the value of Indulgences , the complaint is both old and doubtful , said Pope Adrian ; and he cites a famous gloss , which tells of four Opinions all Catholick , and yet vastly differing in this particular : but the Summa Angelica reckons seven Opinions concerning what that penalty is which is taken off by Indulgences : No man could then tell ; and the Point was but in the infancy , and since that , they have made it what they please : but it is at last turn'd into a Doctrine , and they have devised new Propositions , as well as they can , to make sence of it ; and yet it is a very strange thing ; a solution , not an absolution , ( it is the distinction of Bellarmine ) that is , the sinner is let to go free without punishment in this World , or in the world to come ; and in the end , it grew to be that which Christendom could not suffer : a heap of Doctrines without Grounds of Scripture , or Catholick Tradition ; and not only so , but they have introduc'd a way of remitting sins , that Christ and his Apostles taught not ; a way destructive to the repentance and remission of sins which was preached in the Name of Jesus : it brought into the Church false and fantastick hopes , a hope that will make men asham'd ; a hope that does not glorifie the merits and perfect satisfaction of Christ ; a doctrine expresly dishonourable to the full and free pardon given us by God through Jesus Christ ; a practice that supposes a new bunch of Keyes given to the Church , besides that which the Apostles receiv'd to open and shut the Kingdom of Heaven ; a Doctrine that introduces pride among the Saints , and advances the opinion of their works beyond the measures of Christ , who taught us , That when we have done all that is commanded , we are unprofitable servants , and therefore certainly cannot supererogate , or do more than what is infinitely recompenc'd by the Kingdom of Glory , to which all our doings and all our sufferings are not worthy to be compar'd , especially , since the greatest Saint cannot but say with David , Enter not into judgment with thy servant ; for in thy sight no flesh living can be justified ; It is a practice that hath turn'd Penances into a Fair , and the Court of Conscience into a Lombard , and the labours of Love into the labours of Pilgrimages , superstitious and useless wandrings from place to place ; and Religion into vanity , and our hope in God to a confidence in man , and our fears of hell to be a meer scare-crow to rich and confident sinners : and at last , it was frugally employed by a great Pope to raise a portion for a Lady , the Wife of Franceschet to Cibo Bastard Son of Pope Innocent the eighth , and the merchandize it self became the stakes of Gamesters , at Dice and Cards , and men did vile actions that they might win Indulgences ; by Gaming , making their way to Heaven easier . Now although the Holy Fathers of the Church could not be suppos'd in direct terms to speak against this new Doctrine of Indulgences , because in their dayes it was not : yet they have said many things which do perfectly destroy this new Doctrine and these unchristian practises . For besides that they teach repentance wholly reducing us to a good life ; a faith that intirely relies upon Christ's merits and satisfactions ; a hope wholly depending upon the plain promises of the Gospel , a service perfectly consisting in the works of a good conscience , a labour of love , a religion of justice and piety , and moral vertues : they do also expresly teach that pilgrimages to holy places and such like inventions , which are now the earnings and price of Indulgences , are not requir'd of us , and are not the way of salvation , as is to be seen in an Oration made by Saint Gregory Nyssene , wholly against pilgrimages to Jerusalem ; in Saint Chrysostom (a) , Saint Augustine (b) , and Saint Bernard (c) : The sence of these Fathers is this , in the words of Saint Augustine : God said not , Go to the East , and seek righteousness ; sail to the West that you may receive indulgence . But indulge thy brother , and it shall be indulg'd to thee : you have need to inquire for no other indulgence to thy sins ; if thou wilt retire into the closet of thy heart , there thou shalt find it . That is , All our hopes of Indulgence is from GOD through JESVS CHRIST , and is wholly to be obtain'd by faith in Christ , and perseverance in good works , and intire mortification of all our sins . To conclude this particular : Though the gains which the Church of Rome makes of Indulgences be a heap almost as great as the abuses themselves , yet the greatest Patrons of this new Doctrine could never give any certainty , or reasonable comfort to the Conscience of any person that could inquire into it . They never durst determine , whether they were Absolutions , or Compensations ; whether they only take off the penances actually impos'd by the Confessor , or potentially , and all that which might have been impos'd ; whether all that may be paid in the Court of men ; or all that can or will be required by the Laws and severity of God. Neither can they speak rationally to the Great Question , Whether the Treasure of the Church consists of the Satisfactions of Christ only , or of the Saints ? For if of Saints , it will by all men be acknowledged to be a defeisible estate , and being finite and limited , will be spent sooner than the needs of the Church can be served ; and if therefore it be necessary to add the merits and satisfaction of Christ , since they are an Ocean of infinity , and can supply more than all our needs , to what purpose is it to add the little minutes and droppings of the Saints ? They cannot tell whether they may be given , if the Receiver do nothing or give nothing for them : And though this last particular could better be resolv'd by the Court of Rome , than by the Church of Rome , yet all the Doctrines which built up the new Fabrick of Indulgences , were so dangerous to determine , so improbable , so unreasonable , or at best so uncertain and invidious , that according to the advice of the Bishop of Modena , the Council of Trent left all the Doctrines , and all the cases of Conscience quite alone , and slubber'd the whole matter both in the Question of Indulgences and Purgatory , in general and recommendatory terms ; affirming , that the power of giving Indulgence is in the Church , and that the use is wholesome : And that all hard and subtil Questions ( viz. ) concerning Purgatory , ( which although ( if it be at all ) it is a fire , yet is the fuel of Indulgences , and maintains them wholly ; ) all that is suspected to be false , and all that is uncertain ; and whatsoever is curious and superstitious , scandalous , or for filthy lucre , be laid aside . And in the mean time , they tell us not what is , and what is not Superstitious ; nor what is scandalous , nor what they mean by the general term of Indulgence ; and they establish no Doctrine , neither curious , nor incurious , nor durst they decree the very foundation of this whole matter , The Churches Treasure : Neither durst they meddle with it , but left it as they found it , and continued in the abuses , and proceeded in the practice , and set their Doctors , as well as they can , to defend all the new , and curious , and scandalous Questions , and to uphold the gainful trade . But however it be with them , the Doctrine it self is prov'd to be a direct Innovation in the matter of Christian Religion , and that was it which we have undertaken to demonstrate . SECT . IV. THE Doctrine of Purgatory is the Mother of Indulgences , and the fear of that hath introduc'd these : For the world happened to be abus'd like the Countrey-man in the Fable , who being told he was likely to fall into a delirium in his feet , was advis'd for remedy to take the juyce of Cotton : He feared a disease that was not , and look'd for a cure as ridiculous . But if the Patent of Indulgences be not from Christ and his Apostles ; if upon this ground the Primitive Church never built , the Superstructures of Rome must fall ; they can be no stronger than their Supporter . Now then in order to the proving the Doctrine of Purgatory to be an Innovation , 1. We consider , That the Doctrines upon which it is pretended reasonable , are all dubious , and disputable at the very best . Such are , 1. Their distinction of sins Mortal and Venial in their own nature . 2. That the taking away the guilt of sins , does not suppose the taking away the obligation to punishment ; that is , That when a mans sin is pardoned , he may be punished without the guilt of that sin , as justly as with it ; as if the guilt could be any thing else but an obligation to punishment for having sinned : which is a Proposition , of which no wise man can make sence ; but it is certain that it is expresly against the Word of God , who promises upon our repentance , so to take away our sins that he will remember them no more : And so did Christ to all those to whom he gave pardon ; for he did not take our faults and guilt on him any other way , but by curing our evil hearts , and taking away the punishment * . And this was so perfectly believ'd by the Primitive Church , that they alwayes made the penances and satisfaction to be undergone , before they gave absolution ; and after absolution they never impos'd or oblig'd to punishment , unless it were to sick persons , of whose recovery they despaired not : of them indeed , in case they had not finished their Canonical punishments , they expected they should perform what was injoyn'd them formerly . But because all sin is a blot to a mans soul , and a foul stain to his reputation ; we demand , In what does this stain consist ? in the guilt , or in the punishment ? If it be said that it consists in the punishment ; then what does the guilt signifie , when the removing of it does neither remove the stain nor the punishment , which both remain and abide together ? But if the stain and the guilt be all one , or alwayes together , then when the guilt is taken away there can no stain remain ; and if so , what need * is there any more of Purgatory ? For since this is pretended to be necessary , only lest any stain'd or unclean thing should enter into Heaven ; if the guilt and the pain be removed , what uncleanness can there be left behind ? Indeed Simon Magus ( as Epiphanius reports , Haeres . 20. ) did teach , That after the death of the body there remain'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a purgation of souls : But whether the Church of Rome will own him for an Authentick Doctor , themselves can best tell . 3. It relies upon this also , That God requires of us a full exchange of penances and satisfactions , which must regularly be paid here or hereafter , even by them who are pardon'd here : which if it were true , we were all undone . 4. That the death of Christ , his Merits and Satisfaction do not procure for us a full remission before we dye , nor ( as it may happen ) of a long time after . All which being Propositions new and uncertain , invented by the School Divines , and brought ex post facto , to dress this Opinion , and make it to seem reasonable ; and being the products of ignorance concerning remission of sins by Grace , of the righteousness of Faith , and the infinite value of Christ's Death , must needs lay a great prejudice of novelty upon the Doctrine it self , which but by these cannot be supported . But to put it past suspicion and conjectures ; Roffensis and Polydor Virgil affirm , That who so searcheth the Writings of the Greek Fathers , shall find that none , or very rarely any one of them , ever makes mention of Purgatory ; and that the Latine Fathers did not all believe it , but by degrees came to entertain opinions of it : But for the Catholick Church , it was but lately known to her . But before we say any more in this Question , we are to premonish , That there are two great causes of their mistaken pretensions in this Article from Antiquity . The first is , That the Ancient Churches in their Offices , and the Fathers in their Writings , did teach and practise respectively , prayer for the dead . Now because the Church of Rome does so too , and more than so , relates her prayers to the Doctrine of Purgatory , and for the souls there detaind ; her Doctors vainly suppose , that when ever the Holy Fathers speak of prayer for the dead , that they conclude for Purgatory ; which vain conjecture is as false as it is unreasonable : For it is true , the Fathers did pray for the dead , but how ? That God would shew them mercy , and hasten the Resurrection , and give a blessed Sentence in the great day . But then it is also to be remembred , that they made prayers , and offered for those , who , by the confession of all sides , never were in Purgatory , even for the Patriarchs and Prophets , for the Apostles and Evangelists , for Martyrs and Confessors , and especially for the blessed Virgin Mary : So we find it in (a) Epiphanius , (b) Saint Cyril , and in the Canon of the Greeks , and so it is acknowledged by their own (c) Durandus ; and in their Mass-book anciently they prayed for the soul of Saint Leo : Of which because by their latter Doctrines they grew asham'd , they have chang'd the prayer for him into a prayer to God , by the intercession of Saint Leo , in behalf of themselves ; so by their new doctrine , making him an Intercessor for us , who by their old Doctrine was suppos'd to need our prayers to intercede for him ; of which , Pope Innocent being ask●d a reason , makes a most pitiful excuse . Upon what accounts the Fathers did pray for the Saints departed , and indeed generally for all , it is not now seasonable to discourse ; but to say this only , that such general prayers for the dead as those above reckon'd , the Church of England never did condemn by any express Article , but left it in the middle ; and by her practice declares her faith of the Resurrection of the dead , and her interest in the communion of Saints , and that the Saints departed are a portion of the Catholick Church , parts and members of the Body of Christ ; but expresly condemns the Doctrine of Purgatory , and consequently all prayers for the dead relating to it : And how vainly the Church of Rome from prayer for the dead , infers the belief of Purgatory , every man may satisfie himself , by seeing the Writings of the Fathers , where they cannot meet with one Collect or Clause for praying for the delivery of souls out of that imaginary place . Which thing is so certain , that in the very Roman Offices , we mean the Vigils said for the dead , which are Psalms and Lessons taken from the Scripture , speaking of the miseries of this World , Repentance , and Reconciliation with God , the bliss after this life of them that die in Christ , and the Resurrection of the Dead ; and in the Anthems , Versicles , and Responses , there are Prayers made recommending to God the Soul of the newly defunct , praying , he may be freed from Hell , and eternal death , that in the day of Judgment he be not judged and condemned according to his sins , but that he may appear among the Elect in the glory of the Resurrection ; but not one word of Purgatory , or its pains . The other cause of their mistake is , That the Fathers often speak of a fire of Purgation after this life ; but such a one that is not to be kindled until the day of Judgment , and it is such a fire that destroyes the Doctrine of the intermedial Purgatory . We suppose that Origen was the first that spoke plainly of it ; and so Saint Ambrose follows him in the Opinion ( for it was no more ; ) so does Saint Basil , Saint Hilary ▪ Saint Hierom , and Lactantius , as their words plainly prove , as they are cited by Sixtus Senensis , affirming , that all men , Christ only excepted , shall be burned with the fire of the worlds conflagration at the day of Judgment ; even the Blessed Virgin her self is to pass through this fire . There was also another Doctrine very generally receiv'd by the Fathers , which greatly destroyes the Roman Purgatory : Sixtus Senensis sayes , and he sayes very true , that Justin Martyr , Tertullian , Victorinus Martyr , Prudentius , Saint Chrysostom , Arethas , Euthimius , and * Saint Bernard , did all affirm , that before the day of Judgment the souls of men are kept in secret receptacles , reserved unto the sentence of the great day ; and that before then no man receives according to his works done in this life . We do not interpose in this Opinion to say that it is true or false , probable or improbable ; for these Fathers intended it not as a matter of faith , or necessary belief , so far as we find . But we observe from hence , that if their opinion be true , then the Doctrine of Purgatory is false . If it be not true , yet the Roman Doctrine of Purgatory , which is inconsistent with this so generally receiv'd Opinion of the Fathers , is , at least , new , no Catholick Doctrine , not belived in the Primitive Church ; and therefore the Roman Writers are much troubled to excuse the Fathers in this Article , and to reconcile them to some seeming concord with their new Doctrine . But besides these things , it is certain , that the Doctrine of Purgatory , before the day of Judgment , in Saint Augustine's time , was not the Doctrine of the Church ; it was not the Catholick Doctrine ; for himself did doubt of it : [ Whether it be so or not , it may be inquired ; and possibly it may be found so , and possibly it may never : ] so Saint Augustine . In his time therefore it was no Doctrine of the Church , and it continued much longer in uncertainty ; for in the time of Otho Frisingensis , who liv'd in the year 1146. it was gotten no further than to a Quidam asserunt : [ some do affirm , that there is a place of Purgatory after death . ] And although it is not to be denied , but that many of the ancient Doctors had strange Opinions concerning Purgations , and Fires , and Intermedial states , and common Receptacles , and liberations of Souls and Spirits after this life ; yet we can truly affirm it , and can never be convinc'd to erre in this affirmation , that there is not any one of the Ancients within five hundred years , whose opinion in this Article throughout , the Church of Rome at this day follows . But the people of the Roman Communion have been principally led into a belief of Purgatory by their fear , and by their credulity ; they have been softned and intic'd into this belief by perpetual tales and legends , by which they lov'd to be abus'd . To this purpose , their Priests and Friers have made great use of the apparition of Saint Hierom after death to Eusebius , commanding him to lay his fack upon the corps of three dead men , that they arising from death might confess Purgatory , which formerly they had denied . The story is written in an Epistle imputed to Saint Cyril ; but the ill luck of it was , that Saint Hierom out-lived Saint Cyril , and wrote his life , and so confuted that story ; but all is one for that , they believe it nevertheless : But there are enough to help it out ; and if they be not firmly true * , yet if they be firmly believ'd all is well enough . In the Speculum exemplorum it is said , That a certain Priest in an extasie saw the soul of Constantinus Turritanus in the eves of his house tormented with frosts and cold rains , and afterwards climbing up to Heaven upon a shining Pillar . And a certain Monk saw some souls roasted upon spits like Pigs , and some Devils basting them with scalding Lard ; but a while after they were carried to a cool place , and so prov'd Purgatory . But Bishop Theobald standing upon a piece of Ice to cool his feet , was nearer Purgatory than he was aware , and was convinc'd of it , when he heard a poor soul telling him , that under that Ice he was tormented : and that he should be delivered , if for thirty dayes continual he would say for him thirty Masses : and some such thing was seen by Conrade and Vdalric in a Pool of water : For the place of Purgatory was not yet resolv'd on , till Saint Patrick had the key of it delivered to him ; which when one Nicholas borrowed of him , he saw as strange and true things there , as ever Virgil dreamed of in his Purgatory , or Cicero in his dream of Scipio , or Plato in his Gorgias or Phaedo , who indeed are the surest Authors to prove Purgatory . But because to preach false stories was forbidden by the Council of Trent , there are yet remaining more certain Arguments , even revelations made by Angels , and the testimony of Saint Odilio himself , who heard the Devil complain ( and he had great reason surely ) that the souls of dead men were daily snatch'd out of his hands , by the Alms and Prayers of the living ; and the Sister of Saint Damianus being too much pleas'd with hearing of a Piper , told her Brother , that she was to be tormented for fifteen dayes in Purgatory . We do not think that the wise men in the Church of Rome believe these Narratives ; for if they did , they were not wise : But this we know , that by such stories the people were brought into a belief of it ; and having served their turn of them , the Master-builders used them as false Arches and Centries , taking them away when the parts of the building were made firm and stable by Authority . But even the better sort of them do believe them , or else they do worse , for they urge and cite the Dialogues of Saint Gregory , the Oration of Saint John Damascen de Defunctis , the Sermons of Saint Augustine upon the Feast of the Commemoration of All-souls ( which nevertheless was instituted after Saint Augustine's death ) and divers other citations , which the Greeks in their Apology call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Holds and the Castles , the corruptions and insinuations of Heretical persons . But in this they are the less to be blamed , because better Arguments than they have , no men are tied to make use of . But against this way of proceeding we think fit to admonish the people of our charges , that , besides that the Scriptures expresly forbid us to enquire of the dead for truth ; the Holy Doctors of the Church , particularly , Tertullian , Saint Athanasius , Saint Chrysostom , Isidor and Theophylact , deny that the souls of the dead ever do appear ; and bring many reasons to prove , that it is unfitting they should ; saying , If they did , it would be the cause of many errors , and the Devils under that pretence , might easily abuse the World with notices and revelations of their own : and because Christ would have us content with Moses and the Prophets , and especially , to hear that Prophet whom the Lord our God hath raised up amongst us , our blessed Jesus , who never taught any such Doctrine to his Church . But because we are now representing the Novelty of this Doctrine , and proving , that anciently it was not the Doctrine of the Church , nor at all esteemed a matter of Faith , whether there was or was not any such place or state , we add this , That the Greek Church did alwayes dissent from the Latins in this particular , since they had forg'd this new Doctrine in the Laboratories of Rome ; and , in the Council of Basil , publish'd an Apology directly disapproving the Roman Doctrine of Purgatory . How afterwards they were press'd in the Council of Florence by Pope Eugenius , and by their necessity ; how unwillingly they consented , how ambiguously they answered , how they protested against having that half-consent put into the Instrument of Union ; how they were yet constrain'd to it by their Chiefs , being obnoxious to the Pope ; how a while after they dissolv'd that Union , and to this day refuse to own this Doctrine , are things so notoriously known , that they need no further declaration . We add this only , to make the conviction more manifest : We have thought fit to annex some few , but very clear testimonies of Antiquity , expresly destroying the new Doctrine of Purgatory . Saint Cyprian saith , Quando istinc excessum fuerit , nullus jam locus poenitentiae est , nullus satisfactionis effectus : [ When we are gone from hence , there is no place left for repentance , and no effect of satisfaction . ] Saint Dionysius call the extremity of death , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The end of all our Agonies ; and affirms , That the Holy men of God rest in joy , and in never-failing hopes , and are come to the end of their holy combates . Saint Justin Martyr affirms , That when the soul is departed from the body , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , presently there is a separation made of the just and unjust : The unjust are by Angels born into places which they have deserv'd ; but the souls of the just into Paradise , where they have the conversation of Angels and Archangels . Saint Ambrose (a) saith , That Death is a Haven of rest , and makes not our condition worse ; but according as it finds every man , so it reserves him to the judgment that is to come . The same is affirmed by (b) Saint Hilary , ( c ) Saint Macarius , and divers others ; they speak but of two states after death , of the just and the unjust : These are plac'd in horrible Regions reserv'd to the judgment of the great day ; the other have their souls carried by Quires of Angels into places of Rest. Saint Gregory Nazianzen expresly affirms , That after this life there is no purgation : For after Christ's ascension into Heaven , the souls of all Saints are with Christ , saith Gennadius ; and going from the body , they go to Christ , expecting the resurrection of their body , with it to pass into the perfection of perpetual bliss ; and this he delivers as the Doctrine of the Catholick Church : [ In what place soever a man is taken at his death , of light or darkness , of wickedness or vertue , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in the same order , and in the same degree ; either in light with the just , and with Christ the great King ; or in darkness with the unjust , and with the Prince of Darkness , ] said Olympiodorus . And lastly , we recite the words of Saint Leo , one of the Popes of Rome , speaking of the Penitents who had not perform'd all their penances , [ But if any one of them for whom we pray unto the Lord , being interrupted by any obstacles , falls from the gift of the present Indulgence ( viz. of Ecclesiastical Absolution ) and before he arrive at the appointed remedies ( that is , before he hath perform'd his penances or satisfactions ) ends his temporal life , that which remaining in the body he hath not receiv'd when he is devested of his body , he cannot obtain . ] He knew not of the new devices of paying in Purgatory , what they paid not here ; and of being cleansed there , who were not clean here : And how these words , or any of the precedent , are reconcileable with the Doctrines of Purgatory , hath not yet entred into our imagination . To conclude this particular , We complain greatly , that this Doctrine , which in all the parts of it , is uncertain , and in the late additions to it in Rome is certainly false , is yet with all the faults of it passed into an Article of Faith by the Council of Trent . But , besides what hath been said , it will be more than sufficient to oppose against it these clearest words of Scripture , Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord , from henceforth , even so saith the Spirit , that they may rest from their labours . If all the dead that die in Christ be at rest , and are in no more affliction or labours ; then the Doctrine of the horrible pains of Purgatory is as false as it is uncomfortable : To these words we add the saying of Christ , and we rely upon it [ He that heareth my word , and believeth on him that sent me , hath eternal life , and cometh not into judgment , but passeth from death unto life . ] If so , then not into the judgment of Purgatory : If the servant of Christ passeth from death to life , then not from death to the terminable pains of a part of Hell. They that have eternal life , suffer no intermedial punishment , judgment , or condemnation after death ; for death and life are the whole progression , according to the Doctrine of Christ , and Him we chuse to follow . SECT . V. THE Doctrine of Transubstantiation is so far from being Primitive and Apostolick , that we know the very time it began to be own'd publickly for an Opinion , and the very Council in which it was said to be passed into a publick Doctrine , and by what arts it was promoted , and by what persons it was introduc'd . For all the world knows , that by their own parties , by (a) Scotus , (b) Ocham , (c) Biel , Fisher Bishop of (d) Rochester , and divers others , whom (e) Bellarmine calls most learned and most acute men , it was declared , that the Doctrine of Transubstantiation is not expressed in the Canon of the Bible ; that in the Scriptures there is no place so express , as ( without the Churches Declaration ) to compel us to admit of Transubstantiation , and therefore at least , it is to be suspected of novelty . But further , we know it was but a disputable Question in the ninth and tenth Ages after Christ ; that it was not pretended to be an Article of Faith , till the Lateran Council in the time of Pope Innocent the Third , one thousand two hundred years and more after Christ ; that since that pretended * determination , divers of the chiefest Teachers of their own side have been no more satisfied of the ground of it , than they were before ; but still have publickly affirm'd , that the Article is not express'd in Scripture ; particularly , Johannes de Bassolis , Cardinal * Cajetan , and Melchior * Canus , besides those above reckon'd : And therefore , if it was not express'd in Scripture , it will be too clear , that they made their Articles of their own heads : for they could not declare it to be there , if it was not ; and if it was there but obscurely , then it ought to be taught accordingly ; and at most , it could be but a probable Doctrine , and not certain as an Article of Faith. But that we may put it past argument and probability , it is certain , that as the Doctrine was not taught in Scripture expresly : so it was not at all taught as a Catholick Doctrine , or an Article of the Faith by the Primitive Ages of the Church . Now for this , we need no proof but the confession and acknowledgment of the greatest Doctors of the Church of Rome . Scotus sayes , that before the Lateran Council , Transubstantiation was not an Article of Faith , as Bellarmine confesses ; and and Henriquez affirms , that Scotus sayes , it was not ancient ; insomuch that Bellarmine accuses him of ignorance , saying , he talk'd at that rate , because he had not read the Roman Council under Pope Gregory the Seventh , nor that consent of Fathers which ( to so little purpose ) he had heap'd together . Rem transubstantiationis Patres ne attigisse quidem , said some of the English Jesuits in Prison : The Fathers have not so much as touch'd or medled with the matter of Transubstantiation ; and in Peter Lombard's time , it was so far from being an Article of Faith , or a Catholick Doctrine , that they did not know whether it were true or no : And after he had collected the Sentences of the Fathers in that Article , he confess'd , He could not tell whether there was any substantial change or no. His words are these , [ If it be inquir'd what kind of conversion it is , whether it be formal or substantial , or of another kind ? I am not able to define it : Only I know that it is not formal , because the same accidents remain , the same colour and taste . To some it seems to be substantial , saying , that so the substance is chang'd into the substance , that it is done essentially . To which the former Authorities seem to consent . But to this sentence others oppose these things : If the substance of Bread and Wine be substantially converted into the Body and Blood of Christ , then every day some substance is made the Body or Blood of Christ , which before was not the body ; and to day something is Christ's Body , which yesterday was not ; and every day Christ's Body is increased , and is made of such matter of which it was not made in the Conception : ] These are his words , which we have remark'd , not only for the Arguments sake ( though it be unanswerable ) but to give a plain demonstration that in his time this Doctrine was new , not the Doctrine of the Church : And this was written but about fifty * years before it was said to be decreed in the Lateran * Council , and therefore it made haste , in so short time to pass from a disputable Opinion , to an Article of Faith. But even after the Council , * Durandus , as good a Catholick , and as famous a Doctor as any was in the Church of Rome , publickly maintain'd , that even after consecration , the very matter of bread remain'd : And although he sayes , that by reason of the Authority of the Church , it is not to be held ; yet it is not only possible it should be so , but it implies no contradiction that it should be Christ's Body , and yet the matter of bread remain : and if this might be admitted , it would salve many difficulties , which arise from saying that the substance of bread does not remain . But here , his reason was overcome by authority , and he durst not affirm that of which alone he was able to give ( as he thought ) a reasonable account . But by this it appears , that the Opinion was but then in the forge , and by all their understanding they could never accord it , but still the Questions were uncertain , according to that old Distich ; Corpore de Christi lis est , de sanguine lis est , Déque modo lis est , non habitura modum . And the Opinion was not determin'd in the Lateran , as it is now held at Rome ; but it is also plain , that it is a stranger to Antiquity . De Transubstantiatione panis in corpus Christi rara est in Antiquis scriptoribus mentio , said Alphonsus à Castro . There is seldom mention made in the ancient Writers of transubstantiating the bread into Christ's Body . We know the modesty and interest of the man ; he would not have said it had been seldom , if he could have found it in any reasonable degree warranted ; he might have said and justified it , There was no mention at all of this Article in the Primitive Church : And , that it was a meer stranger to Antiquity , will not be deny'd by any sober person , who considers , That it was with so much uneasiness entertained , even in the corruptest and most degenerous times , and argued and unsetled almost 1300. years after Christ. And that it was so , will but too evidently appear by that stating and resolution of this Question which we find in the Canon Law. For Berengarius was by Pope Nicolaus , commanded to recant his error in these words , and to affirm ▪ Verum corpus & sanguinem Domini nostri Jesu Christi sensualiter , non solùm in sacramento , sed in veritate manibus sacerdotum tractari , frangi , & fidelium dentibus atteri , That the true Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ sensually , not only in Sacrament , but in truth is handled by the Priests hands , and broken and grinded by the teeth of the faithful . Now although this was publickly read at Rome before an hundred and fourteen Bishops , and by the Pope sent up and down the Churches of Italy , France , and Germany , yet at this day it is renounc'd by the Church of Rome , and unless it be well expounded ( sayes the Gloss ) will lead into a heresie , greater than what Berengarius was commanded to renounce ; and no interpretation can make it tolerable , but such an one , as is in another place of the Canon Law , Statuimus , i. e. abrogamus ; nothing but a plain denying it in the sence of Pope Nicolas . But however this may be , it is plain they understood it not , as it is now decreed . But as it happened to the Pelagians in the beginning of their Heresie , they spake rudely , ignorantly , and easily to be reprov'd ; but being asham'd and disputed into a more sober understanding of their hypothesis , spake more warily , but yet differently from what they said at first : so it was and is in this Question ; at first they understood it not ; it was too unreasonable in any tolerable sence , to make any thing of it ; but experience and necessity hath brought it to what it is . But that this Doctrine was not the Doctrine of the first and best Ages of the Church , these following testimonies do make evident . The words of Tertullian are these ; The bread being taken and distributed to his Disciples , Christ made it his Body , saying , This is my Body , that is , the figure of my Body . SECT . II. Of PVRGATORY . THAT the doctrine of Purgatory as it is taught in the Roman Church is a Novelty , and a part of their New Religion , is sufficiently attested by the words of the Cardinal of Rochester , and Alphonsus à Castro ; whose words I now add that he who pleases may see how these new men would fain impose their new fancies upon the Church , under pretence and title of Ancient and Catholick verities . The words of Roffensis in his eighteenth article against . Luther are these , * Legat qui velit Graecorum veterum commentarios , & nullum , quantum opinor , aut quam rarissimum de purgatorio sermonem inveniet . Sed neque Latini simul omnes , at sensim hujus rei veritatem conceperunt . He that pleases , let him read the Commentaries of the Old Greeks , and ( as I suppose ) he shall find none , or very rare mention ( or speech ) of Purgatory . But neither did all the Latins at one time , but by little and little conceive the truth of this thing . And again [ Aliquandin incognitum fuit , serò cognitum Vniversae Ecclesiae . Deinde quibusdam pedetentim , partim ex Scripturis , partim ex revelationibus creditum fuit . For somewhile it was unknown ; it was but lately known to the Catholick Church . Then it was believ'd by some , by little and little ; partly from Scripture , partly from revelations . ] And this is the goodly ground of the doctrine of Purgatory , founded no question upon tradition Apostolical ; delivered some hundreds of years indeed after they were dead ; but the truth is , because it was forgotten by the Apostles , and they having so many things in their heads , when they were alive wrote and said nothing of it , therefore they took care to send some from the dead , who by new revelations should teach this old doctrine . This we may conjecture to be the equivalent sence of the plain words of Roffensis . But the plain words are sufficient without a Commentary . Now for Polydore Virgil his own words can best tell what he says , The words I have put into the Margent , because they are many ; the sence of them is this . 1. He finds no use of Indulgences before the stations of S. Gregory ; the consequent of that is , that all the Latin Fathers did not receive them before S. Gregorie's time ; and therefore they did not receive them all together . 2. The matter being so obscure , Polydore chose to express his sence in the testimony of Roffensis . 3. From him he affirms , that the use of Indulgences is but new , and lately received amongst Christians . 4. That there is no certainty concerning their original . 5. They report , that amongst the Ancient Latins there was some use of them . But it is but a report , for he knows nothing of it before S. Gregorie's time , and for that also he hath but a mere report . 6. Amongst the Greeks it is not to this day believ'd . 7. As long as there was no care of Purgatory , no man look'd after Indulgences ; because if you take away Purgatory , there is no need of Indulgences . 8. That the use of Indulgences began after men had a while trembled at the torments of Purgatory . ] This if I understand Latin or common sence , is the doctrine of Polydore Virgil ; and to him I add also the testimony of Alphonsus à Castro . De Purgatorio fere nulla mentio , potissimum apud Graecos scriptores . Qua de causa usque hodiernum diem purgatorium non est à Graecis creditum . The consequent of these things is this , If Purgatory was not known to the Primitive Church ; if it was but lately known to the Catholick Church ; if the Fathers seldom or never make mention of it ; If in the Greek Church especially there was so great silence of it , that to this very day it is not believed amongst the Greeks ; then this Doctrine was not an Apostolical Doctrine , not Primitive , nor Catholick , but an Innovation and of yesterday . And this is of it self ( besides all these confessions of their own parties ) a suspicious matter , because the Church of Rome does establish their Doctrine of Purgatory upon the Ancient use of the Church of praying for the dead . But this consequence of theirs is wholly vain ; because all the Fathers did pray for the dead , yet they never prayed for their deliverance out of Purgatory , nor ever meant it . To this it is thus objected , It is confessed that they prayed for them that God would shew them a mercy . Now , Mark well , If they be in Heaven they have a mercy , the sentence is given for Eternal happiness . If in Hell , they are wholly destitute of mercy ; unless there be a third place where mercy can be shewed them : ] I have according to my order mark'd it well ; but find nothing in it to purpose . For though the Fathers prayed for the souls departed that God would shew them mercy ; yet it was , that God would shew them mercy in the day of judgment , In that formidable and dreadful day , then there is need of much mercy unto us , saith Saint Chrysostom . And methinks this Gentleman should not have made use of so pitiful an Argument , and would not , if he had consider'd that Saint Paul prayed for Onesiphorus , That God would shew him a mercy in that day ; that is in the day of Judgment , as generally Interpreters Ancient and Modern do understand it , and particularly Saint Chrysostom now cited . The faithful departed are in the hands of Christ as soon as they die , and they are very well ; and the souls of the wicked are where it pleases God to appoint them to be , tormented by a fearful expectation of the revelation of the day of judgment ; but Heaven and Hell are reserved till the day of judgment ; and the Devils themselves are reserved in chains of darkness unto the judgment of the great day , saith Saint Jude ; and in that day they shall be sentenc'd , and so shall all the wicked , to everlasting fire , which as yet is but prepar'd for the Devil and his Angels for ever . But is there no mercy to be shewed to them unless they be in Purgatory ? Some of the Ancients speak of visitation of Angels to be imparted to the souls departed ; and the hastening of the day of judgment is a mercy ; and the avenging of the Martyrs upon their Adversaries is a mercy for which the Souls under the Altar pray , saith Saint John in the Revelation : and the Greek Fathers speak of a fiery trial at the day of judgment through which every one must pass ; and there will be great need of mercy . And after all this ; there is a remission of sins proper to this world , when God so pardons , that he gives the grace of repentance , that he takes his judgments off from us , that he gives us his holy Spirit to mortifie our sins , that he admits us to work in his Laboratory , that he sustains us by his power , and promotes us by his Grace , and stands by us favourably while we work out our salvation with fear and trembling ; and at last he crowns us with perseverance . But at the day of Judgment there shall be a pardon of sins , that will crown this pardon ; when God shall pronounce us pardon'd before all the world ; and when Christ shall actually and presentially rescue us from all the pains which our sins have deserved ; even from everlasting pain : And that 's the final pardon , for which till it be accomplished , all the faithful do night and day pray incessantly : although to many for whom they do pray , they friendly believe that it is now certain , that they shall then be glorified . Saepissime petuntur illa quae certo sciuntur eventura ut petuntur , & hujus rei plurima sunt testimonia , said Alphonsus à Castro : and so also Medina and Bellarmine acknowledge . The thing is true , they say ; but if it were not , yet we find that de facto they do pray Domine Jesu Christe , rex gloriae libera animas Fidelium defunctorum de poenis Inferni & de profundo lacu : libera eos de ore leonis , ne absorbeat eos Tartarus , ne cadant in obscurum . So it is in the Masses pro defunctis . And therefore this Gentleman talking that in Heaven all is remitted , and in Hell nothing is forgiven , and from hence to conclude that there is no avoiding of Purgatory , is too hasty a conclusion : let him stay till he comes to Heaven , and the final sentence is past , and then he will ( if he finds it to be so ) have reason to say what he does ; but by that time the dream of Purgatory will be out ; and in the mean time let him strive to understand his Mass-book better . Saint Austin thought he had reason to pray for pardon and remission for his Mother ; for the Reasons already expressed , though he never thought his Mother was in Purgatory . It was upon consideration of the dangers of every soul that dies in Adam ; and yet he affirms she was even before her death alive unto Christ. And therefore she did not die miserable , nor did she die at all ( said her Son , ) Hoc & documentis ejus morum , & fide non ficta , rationibus certis tenebamus ; and when he did pray for her ; Credo jam feceris quod te rogo , sed voluntaria oris mei approba Domine : which will yet give another answer to this confident Gentleman ; Saint Austin prayed for pardon for his Mother , and did believe the thing was done already ; but he prayed to God to approve that voluntary Oblation of his mouth . So that now all the Objection is vanished ; S. Austin prayed ( besides many other Reasons ) to manifest his kindness , not for any need she had . But after all this , was not Saint Monica a Saint ? Is she not put in the Roman Calendar , and the fourth of May appointed for her Festival ? And do Saints , do Canoniz'd persons use to go to Purgatory ? But let it be as it will , I only desire that this be remembred against a good time ; that here it is confessed that prayers were offered for a Saint departed . I fear it will be denied by and by . But 2. The Fathers made prayers for those who by the confession of all sides never were in Purgatory ; for the Patriarchs , Apostles , &c. and especially for the Blessed Virgin Mary ; this which is a direct and perfect overthrow of the Roman Doctrine of Purgatory , and therefore if it can be made good , they have no probability left , upon the confidence of which they can plausibly pretend to Purgatory . I have already offered something in proof of this , which I shall now review , and confirm fully . I begin with that of Durantus , whom I alledged as confessing that they offer'd * for the Patriarchs , and Prophets , and the Blessed Virgin : I intend him for no more , for true it is , he denies that the Church prayed for them , but that they communicated and offered sacrifice for them , even for the Blessed Virgin Mary her self , this he grants . I have alledged him a little out of the order , because observing where Durantus and the Roman Doctors are mistaken , and with what boldness they say , that offering for them is only giving thanks , and that the Greek Fathers did only offer for them Eucharists , but no Prayers ; I thought it fit first to reprove that initial error , viz. [ that Communicantes , & offerentes pro sanctis is not Prayer ; ] and then to make it clear that they did really pray , for mercy , for pardon , for a place of rest , for eternal glory for them who never were in Purgatory , for it is a great ignorance to suppose , that when it is said the sacrifice or oblation is offered , it must mean only thanksgiving . For it is called in Saint Dionys , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , an Eucharistical prayer ; and the Lords Supper is a sacrifice in genere orationis , and by themselves is intended as propitiatory for the quick and dead . And Saint Cyprian speaking of Bishops , being made Executors of Testaments , saith , Si quis hoc fecisset , non offerretur pro eo , nec sacrificium pro dormitione ejus celebratur . Neque enim ad altare Dei meretur nominari in sacerdotum prece , qui ab altari sacerdotes avocare voluit . Where offerre and celebrare sacrificium pro dormitione is done sacerdotum prece , it is the oblation and sacrifice of prayer : and Saint Cyprian presently after joyns them together , pro dormitione ejus oblatio aut deprecatio . And if we look at the forms in the old Roman Liturgy us'd in the dayes of Pope Innocent the third we shall find this well expounded , prosit huic sancto vel illi talis oblatio ad gloriam . They offered , but the Offering it self was not Eucharistical but deprecatory . And so it is also in the Armenian Liturgy publish'd at Crackow : Per hanc etiam oblationem da aeternam pacem omnibus qui nos precesserunt in fide Christi , sanctis Patribus , Patriarchis , Apostolis , Prophetis , Martyribus , &c. which testimony does not only evince , that the offering Sacrifices and Oblations for the Saints , did signifie praying for them ; but that this they did for all Saints whatsoever . And concerning Saint Chrysostom , that which Sixtus Senensis sayes is material to this very purpose . Et in Liturgia Divini sacrificii ab eo edita , & in variis homiliis ab eodem approbata , conscripsit formulam precandi , & offerendi ; pro omnibus fidelibus , defunctis , & praecipue pro animabus beatorum , in haec verba , Offerimus tibi rationalem hunc cultum pro in fide requiescentibus Patribus , Patriarchis , Prophetis , Apostolis & Martyribus , &c. By which confession it is acknowledged not only that the Church prayed for Apostles and Martyrs , but that they intended to do so , when they offered the Sacramental Oblations ; and offerimus is offerimus tibi preces . Now since it is so , I had advantage enough in the confession of their own Durantus , that he acknowledged so much , that the Church offered sacrifice for Saints . Now though he presently kick'd this down with his foot , and denied that they prayed for Saints departed ; I shall yet more clearly convince him and all the Roman Contradictors of their bold and unreasonable error in this affair . Epiphanius is the first I mentioned as a Witness , but because I cited no words of his , and my Adversaries have cited them for me , but imperfectly , and left out the words where the Argument lies , I shall set them down at length . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. We make mention of the just and of sinners ; for sinners that we may implore the mercy of God for them . For the Just , the Fathers , the Patriarchs , the Prophets , Evangelists and Martyrs , Confessors , Bishops and Anachorets , that prosecuting the Lord Jesus Christ with a singular honour , we separate these from the rank of other men , and give due worship to his Divine Majesty , while we account that he is not to be made equal to mortal men , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , although they had a thousand times more righteousness than they have . ] Now first here is mention made of all in their Prayers and Oblations , and yet no mention made that the Church prayes for one sort , and only gives thanks for the other , ( as these Gentlemen the Objectors falsely pretend . ) But here is a double separation made of the Righteous departed ; one is from the worser sort of sinners , the other from the most righteous Saviour . True it is , they believ'd they had more need to pray for some than for others ; but if they did not pray for all , when they made mention of all , how did they honour Christ by separating their condition from his ? Is it not lawful to give thanks for the life and death , for the resurrection , holiness and glorification of Christ ? And if the Church only gave thanks for the departed Saints , and did not pray for mercy for them too , how are not the Saints in this made equal to Christ ? So that I think the testimony of Epiphanius is clear and pertinent : To which greater light is given by the words of Saint Austin , Who is he for whom no man prayes , but only he who interceeds for all men ? viz. our Blessed Lord. And there is more light yet , by the example of Saint Austin , who though he did most certainly believe his Mother to be a Saint , and the Church of Rome believes so too , yet he prayed for pardon for her . Now by this it was that Epiphanius separated Christ from the Saints departed , for he could not mean any thing else ; and because he was then writing against Aerius who did not deny it to be lawful to give God thanks for the Saints departed , but affirm'd it to be needless to pray for them , viz. he must mean this of the Churches praying for all her dead , or else he had said nothing against his Adversary , or for his own cause . Saint Cyril ( though he be confidently denied to have said what he did say , yet ) is confessed to have said these words , Then we pray for the deceased Fathers and Bishops , and finally for all who among us have departed this life . Believing it to be a very great help of the souls , for which is offered the obsecration of the holy and dreadful Sacrifice . ] If Saint Cyril means what his words signifie , then the Church did pray for departed Saints ; for they prayed for all the departed Fathers and Bishops , it is hard if amongst them there were no Saints : but suppose that , yet if there were any Saints at all that died out of the Militant Church , yet the case is the same ; for they prayed for all the departed : And 2. They offered the dreadful Sacrifice for them all . 3. They offered it for all in the way of prayer . 4. And they believed this to be a great help to souls . Now unless the souls of all Saints that died then went to Purgatory ( which I am sure the Roman Doctors dare not own ) the case is plain that prayer , and not thanksgivings only were offered by the Ancient Church for souls , who by the Confession of all sides never went to Purgatory ; and therefore praying for the dead is but a weak Argument to prove Purgatory . Nicolaus Cabasilas hath an evasion from all this , as he supposes , for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which is the word us'd in the Memorials of Saints , does not alwayes signifie praying for one , but it may signifie giving of thanks ; This is true , but it is to no purpose ; for when ever it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we pray for such a one , that must signifie to pray for , and not to give thanks , and that 's our present case : and therefore no escape here can be made ; the words of Saint Cyril are very plain . The third Allegation is of the Canon of the Greeks ; which is so plain , evident and notorious , and so confess●d even by these Gentlemen the Objectors , that I will be tried by the words which the Author of the Letter acknowledges . So it is in the Liturgy of Saint James , Remember all Orthodox from Abel the just unto this day , make them to rest in the land of the living , in thy Kingdom , and the delights of Paradise . Thus far this Gentleman quoted Saint James , and I wonder that he should urge a conclusion manifestly contrary to his own Allegation . Did all the Orthodox from Abel to that day go to Purgatory ? Certainly Abraham , and Moses , and Elias , and the Blessed Virgin did not , and Saint Stephen did not , and the Apostles that died before this Liturgy was made did not , and yet the Church prayed for all Orthodox , prayed that they might rest in the Land of the living , &c. and therefore they prayed for such which by the confession of all sides never went to Purgatory . In the other Liturgies also , the Gentleman sets down words enough to confute himself , as the Reader may see in the Letter if it be worth the reading . But because he sets down what he list , and makes breaches and Rabbet holes to pop in as he please , I shall for the satisfaction of the Reader set down the full sence and practice of the Greek Canon in this Question . And first for Saint James his Liturgy , which , being merrily disposed and dreaming of advantage by it , he is pleased to call the Mass of Saint James , Sixtus Senensis gives this account of it [ James the Apostle in the Liturgy of the Divine Sacrifice prays for the souls of Saints resting in Christ , so that he shews they are not yet arriv'd at the place of expected blessedness . But the form of the prayer is after this manner , Domine Deus noster , &c. O Lord our God remember all the Orthodox , and them that believe rightly in the faith from Abel the just unto this day . Make them to rest in the Region of the living , in thy Kingdom , in the delights of Paradise , in the bosom of Abraham , Isaac and Jacob our Holy Fathers ; from whence are banished grief , sorrow and sighing , where the light of thy countenance is president and perpetually shines . ] In the Liturgy of Saint Basil , which he is said to have made for the Churches of Syria , is this Prayer , [ Be mindful , O Lord , of them which are dead and departed out of this life , and of the Orthodox Bishops , which from Peter and James the Apostles unto this day , have clearly professed the right word of Faith , and namely , of Ignatius , Dionysius , Julius and the rest of the Saints of worthy memory . Nay , not only for these , but they pray for the very Martyrs . O Lord remember them who have resisted ( or stood ) unto blood for Religion , and have fed thy holy Flock with righteousness and holiness . ] Certainly this is not giving of thanks for them , or praying to them , but a direct praying for them , even for holy Bishops , Confessors , Martyrs , that God ( meaning in much mercy ) would remember them , that is , make them to rest in the bosom of Abraham , in the Region of the living , as Saint James expresses it . And in the Liturgies of the Churches of Egypt attributed to Saint Basil , Gregory Nazianzen and Saint Cyril , the Churches pray ; [ Be mindful O Lord of thy Saints , vouchsafe to receive all thy Saints which have pleas'd thee from the beginning , our Holy Fathers , the Patriarchs , Prophets , Apostles , Martyrs , Confessors , Preachers , Evangelists , and all the Souls of the Just which have died in the faith , but chiefly of the holy , glorious and perpetual Virgin Mary the Mother of God , of Saint John Baptist the Forerunner and Martyr , Saint Stephen the first Deacon and first Martyr , Saint Mark Apostle , Evangelist and Martyr . ] Of the same spirit were all the Ancient Liturgies or Missals , and particularly that under the name of Saint Chrysostom is most full to this purpose ; Let us pray to the Lord for all that before time have laboured and performed the holy Offices of Priesthood . For the memory and remission of sins of them that built this holy House , and of all them that have slept in hope of the resurrection and eternal life in thy society : of the Orthodox Fathers and our Brethren . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . O thou lover of men pardon them . ] And again , [ Moreover we offer unto thee this reasonable service for all that rest in Faith , our Ancestors , Fathers , Patriarchs , Prophets and Apostles , Preachers , Evangelists , Martyrs , &c. especially the most holy and unspotted Virgin Mary ] and after concludes with this prayer [ Remember them all who have slept in hope of Resurrection to Eternal life , and make them to rest where the light of thy countenance looks over them . ] Add to these if you please , the Greek Mass of Saint Peter : To them , O Lord , and to all that rest in Christ , we pray that thou indulge a place of refreshing light and peace . ] So that nothing is clearer than that in the Greek Canon they prayed for the souls of the best of all the Saints , whom yet because no man believes they ever were in Purgatory ; it follows that prayer for the dead us'd by the Ancients does not prove the Roman Purgatory . To these add the Doctrine and Practice of the Greek Fathers : Dionysius speaking of a person deceased , whom the Ministers of the Church had publickly pronounced to be a happy man , and verily admitted into the society of the Saints , that have been from the beginning of the world , yet the Bishop prayed for him , That God would forgive him all the sins which he had committed through humane infirmity , and bring him into the light and region of the living , into the bosoms of Abraham , Isaac and Jacob , where pain and sorrow and sighing have no place ; To the same purpose is that of Saint Gregory Nazianzen in his Funeral Oration upon his Brother Caesarius , of whom he had expresly declar'd his belief , that he was rewarded with those honours which did befit a new created soul ; yet he presently prayes for his soul , Now , O Lord , receive Caesarius . I hope I have said enough concerning the Greek Church , their Doctrine and practice in this particular : and I desire it may be observed , that there is no greater testimony of the Doctrine of a Church than their Liturgy . Their Doctors may have private Opinions which are not against the Doctrine of the Church ; but what is put into their publick devotions , and consign'd in their Liturgies , no man scruples it , but it is the Confession and Religion of the Church . But now that I may make my Reader some amends for his trouble in reading the trifling Objections of these Roman Adversaries , and my Defences ; I shall also for the greater conviction of my Adversaries shew , that they would not have oppos'd my Affirmation in this particular , if they had understood their own Mass-book , for it was not only thus from the beginning until now in the Greek Church , but it is so to this very day in the Latin Church . In the old Latin Missal we have this prayer , [ Suscipe sancta Trinitas hanc oblationem quam tibi offerimus pro omnibus in tui nominis confessione defunctis , ut te dextram auxilii tui porrigente vitae perennis requiem habeant , & à poenis impiorum segregati semper in tuae laudis laetitia perseverent . And in the very Canon of the Mass , which these Gentlemen I suppose ( if they be Priests ) cannot be ignorant in any part of , they pray , Memento Domine famulorum famularumque tuarum qui nos praecesserunt cum signo fidei , & dormiunt in somno pacis . Ipsis Domine & omnibus in Christo quiescentibus , locum refrigerii , lucis & pacis , ut indulgeas deprecamur . Unless all that are at rest in Christ go to Purgatory , it is plain that the Church of Rome prayes for Saints , who by the confession of all sides never were in Purgatory . I could bring many more testimonies if they were needful ; but I summ up this particular with the words of Saint Austin : Non sunt praetermittendae supplicationes pro spiritibus mortuorum , quas faciendas pro omnibus in Christiana & Catholica societate defunctis etiam tacitis nominibus quorumque , sub generali commemoratione suscepit Ecclesia . The Church prayes for all persons that died in the Christian and Catholick Faith. And therefore I wonder how it should drop from Saint Austin's Pen , Injuriam facit Martyri qui orat pro Martyre . But I suppose he meant it only in case the prayer was made for them , as if they were in an uncertain state , and so it is probable enough , but else his words were not only against himself in other places , but against the whole practice of the Ancient Catholick Church . I remember that when it was ask'd of Pope Innocent by the Archbishop of Lyons , why the Prayer that was in the old Missal for the soul of Pope Leo ; Annue nobis Domine , animae famuli tui Leonis haec prosit oblatio , it came to be chang'd into Annue nobis Domine ut intercessione famuli tui Leonis haec prosit oblatio ; Pope Innocent answered him , that who chang'd it or when , he knew not , but he knew how , that is , he knew the reason of it , because the Authority of the Holy Scripture said , he does injury to a Martyr that prayes for a Martyr , the same thing is to be done for the like reason concerning all other Saints . ] The good man had heard the saying somewhere , but being little us'd to the Bible , he thought it might be there , because it was a pretty saying . However though this change was made in the Mass-books , and prayer for the soul of Saint Leo , was chang'd into a prayer to Saint Leo * ; and the Doctors went about to defend it as well as they could , yet because they did it so pitifully , they had reason to be asham'd of it ; and in the Missal reformed by order of the Council of Trent , it is put out again , and the prayer for Saint Leo put in again * , That by these offices of holy attonement , ( viz. the celebration of the Holy Sacrament ) a blessed reward may accompany him , and the gifts of thy grace may be obtain'd for us . Another Argument was us'd in the Dissuasive , against the Roman Doctrine of Purgatory , viz. How is Purgatory a Primitive and Catholick Doctrine , when generally the Greek and many of the Latin Fathers taught , that the souls departed in some exterior place expect the day of judgment , but that no soul enters into the supreme Heaven , or the place of Eternal bliss till the day of judgment : but at that day , say many of them , all must pass through the universal fire . To these purposes respectively the words of very many Fathers are brought by Sixtus Senensis ; to all which being so evident and apparent , the Gentlemen that write against the Dissuasive are pleas'd not to say one word , but have left the whole fabrick of the Roman Purgatory to shift for it self against the battery of so great Authorities , only one of them , striving to find some fault , sayes , that the Dissuader quotes Sixtus Senensis , as saying , That Pope John the 22. not only taught and declar'd the Doctrine ( that before the day of judgment the souls of men are kept in certain receptacles ) but commanded it to be held by all , as saith Adrian in 4. Sent. when Sixtus Senensis saith not so of Pope John , &c. but only reports the opinion of others . To which I answer , that I did not quote Senensis as saying any such thing of his own Authority . For besides that in the body of the discourse there is no mention at all of John 22. in the margent , also it is only said of Sixtus , Enumerat S. Jacobum Apostolum — & Johannem Pontif. Rom. but I add of my own afterwards , that Pope John not only taught and declar'd that sentence , but commanded it to be held by all men , as saith Adrian . Now although in his narrative of it , Adrian begins with novissime fertur , it is reported , yet Senensis himself when he had said , Pope John is said to have decreed this ; he himself adds that Ocham and Pope Adrian are witnesses of this Decree . 2. Adrian is so far a witness of it , that he gives the reason of the same , even because the University of Paris refus'd to give promotion to them who denied , or did refuse to promise for ever to cleave to that Opinion . 3. Ocham is so fierce a witness of it , that he wrote against Pope John the 22. for the Opinion . 4. Though Senensis be not willing to have it believed ; yet all that he can say against it , is , that apud probatos scriptores non est Vndequaque certum . 5. Yet he brings not one testimony out of Antiquity , against this charge against Pope John , only he sayes , that Pope Benedict the Eleventh affirms , that John being prevented by death could not finish the Decree . 6. But this thing was not done in a corner , the Acts of the University of Paris and their fierce adhering to the Decree were too notorious . 7. And after all this it matters not whether it be so or no , when it is confessed that so many Ancient Fathers expresly teach the Doctrine contrary to the Roman , as it is this day , and yet the Roman Doctors care not what they say , insomuch that Saint Bernard having fully and frequently taught , That no souls go to Heaven till they all go , neither the Saints without the common people , nor the spirit without the flesh ; that there are three states of souls , one in the tabernacles ( viz. of our bodies ) a second in atriis or outward Courts , and a third in the House of God ; Alphonsus à Castro admonishes that this sentence is damn'd ; and Sixtus Senensis adds these words , ( which thing also I do not deny ) yet I suppose he ought to be excus'd ob ingentem numerum illustrium Ecclesiae patrum , for the great number of the illustrious Fathers of the Church , who before by their testimony did seem to give authority to this Opinion . But that the present Doctrine of the Roman Purgatory is but a new Article of Faith , is therefore certain , because it was no Article of Faith in Saint Austin's time , for he doubted of it . And to this purpose I quoted in the margent two places of Saint Austin . The words I shall now produce , because they will answer for themselves . In the 68. Chapter of his Manual to Laurentius he takes from the Church of Rome their best Armour in which they trusted , and expounds the words of Saint Paul , He shall be saved yet so as by fire ] to mean only the loss of such pleasant things as most delighted them in this world . And in the beginning of the next Chapter he adds , [ That such a thing may also be done after this life is not incredible , and whether it be so or no it may be inquir'd , & aut inveniri aut latere , and either be found or lie hid . Now what is that which thus may , or may not be found out ? This , that [ some faithful by how much more or less they lov'd perishing goods , by so much sooner or later they shall be sav'd by a certain Purgatory fire . ] This is it which Saint Austin sayes is not incredible , only it may be inquir'd whether it be so or no. And if these be not the words of doubting , [ it is not incredible , such a thing may be , it may be inquir'd after , it may be found to be so , or it may never be found , but lie hid ] then words signifie nothing : yea [ but the doubting of Saint Austin does not relate to the matter or question of Purgatory , but to the manner of the particular punishment , viz. Whether or no that pain of being troubled for the loss of their goods be not a part of the Purgatory flames ? ( sayes E. W. * ) A goodly excuse ! as if Saint Austin had troubled himself with such an impertinent Question , whether the poor souls in their infernal flames be not troubled that they left their lands and money behind them ? Indeed it is possible they might wish some of the waters of their Springs or Fish-ponds to cool their tongues : but Saint Austin surely did not suspect that the tormented Ghosts were troubled they had not brought their best clothes with them , and money in their purses ; This is too pitiful and strain'd an Answer ; the case being so evidently clear , that the thing Saint Austin doubted of was , since there was to some of the faithful , who yet were too voluptuous or covetous persons , a Purgatory in this world , even the loss of their Goods which they so lov'd , and therefore being lost so grieved for , whether or no they should not also meet with another Purgatory after death : that is , whether besides the punishment suffered here , they should not be punish'd after death ; how ? by grieving for the loss of their Goods ? Ridiculous ! What then , Saint Austin himself tells us , by so much as they lov'd their goods more or less , by so much sooner or later they shall be sav'd . And what he said of this kind of sin , viz. too much worldliness , with the same Reason he might suppose of others ; this he thought possible , but of this he was not sure , and therefore it was not then an Article of Faith , and though now the Church of Rome hath made it so , yet it appears that it was not so from the beginning , but is part of their new fashion'd faith . And E. W. striving so impossibly , and so weakly to avoid the pressure of this Argument , should do well to consider , whether he have not more strained his Conscience , than the words of Saint Austin . But this matter must not pass thus . Saint Austin repeats this whole passage verbatim in his Answer to the 8. Quest. of Dulcitius , Quest. 1. and still answers in this and other appendant Questions of the same nature , viz. Whether Prayers for the dead be available , &c. Quest. 2. And whether upon the instant of Christ's appearing , he will pass to judgment . Quest 3. In these things which we have describ'd , our and the infirmity of others may be so exercis'd and instructed , nevertheless that they pass not for Canonical Authority . And in the Answer to the first Question he speaks in the style of a doubtful person [ Whether men suffer such things in this life only , or also such certain judgments follow even after this life , this Understanding of this sentence , is not as I suppose abhorrent from truth . ] The same words he also repeats in his Book de fide & operibus , Chap. 16. There is yet another place of S. Austin , in which it is plain he still is a doubting person in the Question of Purgatory . His sence is this ; After the death of the body until the resurrection , if in the interval the spirits of the dead are said to suffer that kind of fire , which they feel not , who had not such manners and loves in their life-time , that their wood , hay and stubble ought to be consum'd ; but others feel who brought such buildings along with them , whether there only , or whether here and there , or whether therefore here that it might not be there , that they feel a fire of a transitory tribulation burning their secular buildings , ( though escaping from damnation ) I reprove it not ; for peradventure it is true . ] So Saint Austin's , peradventure yea , is alwayes , peradventure nay ; and will the Bigots of the Roman Church be content with such a confession of faith as this of Saint Austin in the present Article ? I believe not . But now after all this , I will not deny but Saint Austin was much inclin'd to believe Purgatory fire , and therefore I shall not trouble my self to answer the citations to that purpose , which Bellarmine , and from him these Transcribers bring out of this Father , though most of them are drawn out of Apocryphal , spurious and suspected pieces , as his Homilies de S. S. &c. yet that which I urge is this , that Saint Austin did not esteem this to be a Doctrine of the Church , no Article of Faith , but a disputable Opinion ; and yet though he did incline to the wrong part of the Opinion , yet it is very certain that he sometimes speaks expresly against this Doctrine , and other times speaks things absolutely inconsistent with the Opinion of Purgatory , which is more than an Argument of his confessed doubting ; for it is a declaration that he understood nothing certain in this affair , but that the contrary to his Opinion was the more probable . And this appears in these few following words . Saint Austin hath these words ; Some suffer temporary punishments in this life only , others after death , others both now and then : Bellarmine , and from him Diaphanta urges this as a great proof of Saint Austin's Doctrine . But he destroyes it in the words immediately following , and makes it useless to the hypothesis of the Roman Church ; This shall be before they suffer the last and severest judgment ( meaning as Saint Austin frequently does such sayings , of the General conflagration at the end of the world . ) But whether he does so or no , yet he adds ; But all of them come not into the everlasting punishments , which after the Judgment shall be to them who after death suffer the temporary . ] By which Doctrine of Saint Austin , viz. that those who are in his Purgatory shall many of them be damn'd ; and the temporary punishments after death , do but usher in the Eternal after judgment ; he destroyes the salt of the Roman fire , who imagines that all that go to Purgatory shall be sav'd : Therefore this testimony of Saint Austin , as it is nothing for the avail of the Roman Purgatory , so by the appendage it is much against it , which Coquaeus , Torrensis , and especially Cardinal Perron , observing , have most violently corrupted these words , by falsely translating them . So Perron , Tous ceux qui souffrent des peines temporelles apres l● mort , ne viennent pas aux peines Eternelles qui auront tien apres le judgement , which reddition is expresly against the sence of Saint Austin's words . 2. But another hypothesis there is in Saint Austin , to which without dubitation he does peremptorily adhere , which I before intimated , viz. that although he admit of Purgatory pains after this life , yet none but such as shall be at the day of Judgment , [ Whoever therefore desires to avoid the eternal pains , let him be not only baptiz'd , but also justified in Christ , and truly pass from the Devil unto Christ. But let him not think that there shall be any Purgatory pains but before that last and dreadful Judgment ] meaning not only that there shall be none to cleanse them after the day of Judgment , but that then , at the approach of that day the General fire shall try and purge : And so himself declares his own sence ; All they that have not Christ in the foundation are argued or reproved ; when ? in the day of Judgment ; but they that have Christ in the foundation are chang'd , that is purg'd , who build upon this foundation wood , hay , stubble . ] So that in the day of Judgment the trial and escape shall be ; for then shall the trial and the condemnation be . But yet more clear are his words * in other places : So , at the setting of the Sun , that is , at the end ( viz. of the world ) the day of judgment is signified by that fire , dividing the carnal which are to be sav'd by fire , and those who are to be damned in the fire ; ] nothing is plainer than that Saint Austin understood that those , who are to be sav'd so as by fire , are to be sav'd by passing through the fire at the day of judgment ; that was his Opinion of Purgatory . And again [ out of these things which are spoken it seems more evidently to appear , that there shall be certain purgatory pains of some persons in that judgment . For what thing else can be understood , where it is said , who shall endure the day of his coming , &c. 3. Saint Austin speaks things expresly against the Doctrine of Purgatory ; [ Know ye that when the soul is pluck'd from the body presently it is plac'd in Paradise , according to its good deservings , or else for her sins is thrown headlong in inferni Tartara , into the hell of the damned ; for I know not well how else to render it . ] And again [ the soul retiring is receiv'd by Angels and plac'd either in the bosom of Abraham , if she be faithful , or in the custody of the infernal prison , if it be sinful , until the appointed day comes , in which she shall receive her body : ] pertinent to which is that of Saint Austin , if he be Author of that excellent Book de Eccles. dogmatibus , which is imputed to him . [ After the ascension of our Lord to the Heavens , the souls of all the Saints are with Christ , and going from the body go unto Christ , expecting the resurrection of their body . ] But I shall insist no further upon these things ; I suppose it very apparent , that Saint Austin was no way confident of his fancy of Purgatory , and that if he had fancied right , yet it was not the Roman Purgatory that he fancied . There is only one Objection which I know of , which when I have clear'd I shall pass on to other things . Saint Austin , speaking of such who have liv'd a middle kind of an indifferent pious life , saith , Constat autem , &c. but it is certain , that such before the day of judgment being purg'd by temporal pains which their spirits suffer , when they have receiv'd their bodies , shall not be deliver'd to the punishment of Eternal fire ; ] here is a positive determination of the Article , by a word of confidence , and a full certificate ; and therefore Saint Austin in this Article was not a doubting person . To this I answer , it may be he was confident here , but it lasted not long ; this fire was made of straw and soon went out ; for within two Chapters after , he expresly doubts , as I have prov●d . 2. These words may refer to the purgatory fire at the general conflagration of the world ; and if they be so referred , it is most agreeable to his other sentiments . 3. This Constat , or decretory phrase , and some lines before or after it , are not in the old Books of Bruges and Colein , nor in the Copies printed at Friburg ; and Ludovicus Vives supposes they were a marginal note crept since into the Text. Now this Objection being remov'd , there remains no ground to deny , that Saint Austin was a doubting person in the Article of Purgatory . And this Erasmus expresly affirm'd of him ; and the same is said of him by Hofmeister , but modestly ; and against his doubting in his Enchiridion he brings only a testimony in behalf of prayer for the dead , which is nothing to the purpose ; and this is also sufficiently noted by Alphonsus à Castro , and by Barnesius . Well! but suppose Saint Austin did doubt of Purgatory ? This is no warranty to the Church of England , for she does not doubt of it as Saint Austin did , but plainly condemns it . So one of my Adversaries objects ; To which I answer , That the Church of England may the rather condemn it , because Saint Austin doubted of it ; for if it be no Catholick Doctrine , it is but a School point , and without prejudice to the Faith may be rejected . But 2. I suppose the Church of England would not have troubled her self with the Doctrine , if it had been left as Saint Austin left it ; that is , but as a meer uncertain Opinion , but when the wrong end of the Opinion was taken , and made an Article of Faith ; and damnation threatned to them that believed it not ; she had reason to consider it , and finding it to be chaff , wholly to scatter it away . 3. The Church of England is not therefore to be blamed , if in any case she see more than Saint Austin did , and proceed accordingly ; for it is certain the Church of Rome does decree against divers things , of which Saint Austin indeed did not doubt , but affirm'd confidently ; I instance in the necessity of communicating Infants , and the matter of appeals to Rome . The next Authority to be examin'd is , that of Otho Frisingensis , concerning which there is a heavy quarrel against the Dissuasive , for making him to speak of a Purgatory before , whereas he speaks of one after the day of Judgment , with a Quidam asserunt , some affirm it , viz. that there is a place of Purgatory after death ; nay but you are deceiv'd sayes E. W. and the rest of the Adversaries ; he means that some affirm there is a place of Purgatory after the day of judgment . Now truly that is more than I said ; but that Otho said it , is by these men confess'd . But his words are these ; [ I think it ought to be search'd , whether the judgment being pass'd , besides the lower hell , there remain a place for lighter punishments ; for that there is ( below , or ) in hell a Purgatory place , in which they that are to be sav●d are either affected ( afficiantur , invested , punish'd ) with darkness only , or else are boiled in the fire of expiation , some do affirm . ] What is or can be more plainly said of Purgatory ; for the places of Scripture brought to confirm this Opinion are such , which relate to the interval between death and the last judgment ; Juxta illud Patriarchae , lugens descendam ad inferos ; & illud Apostoli , ipse autem salvus erit , sic tamen quasi per ignem ; I hope the Roman Doctors will not deny , but these are meant of Purgatory before the last day : and therefore so is the Opinion for the proof of which these places are brought . 2. By post judicium , in the title , and transacto judicio in the Chapter , Otho means the particular judgment passing upon every one at their death : which he in a few lines after calls terminatis in judicio causis singulorum . 3. He must mean it to be before the last great day ; because that which he sayes , some do affirm , quidam asserunt ; is , that those which are salvandi , to be sav'd hereafter , are either in darkness or in a Purgatory fire ; which therefore must be meant of the interval ; for after the day of judgment is pass'd , and the books shut , and the sentence pronounc'd , none can be sav'd that are not then acquitted , unless Origen's Opinion of the salvation of Devils and damned souls be reintroduc'd , which the Church before Otho many Ages had exploded , and therefore so good and great a person would not have thought that fit to be then disputed : and it was not then a Question , nor a thing Undetermin'd in the Church . 4. Whether Otho means it of a Purgatory before or after the day of the last judgment , it makes very much against the present Roman Doctrine ; for Otho applies the Question to the case of Infants dying without Baptism ; now if their Purgatory be before the day of judgment , then I quoted Otho according to my own sence and his ; but if he means it to be after the day of judgment , then the limbus infantum of the Roman Church is vanish'd , ( for the scruple was mov'd about Infants . ) Quid de parvulis qui solo Originali delicto tenentur fiet ? And there is none such till after dooms day ; so that let it be as it will , the Roman Church is a loser , and therefore let them take their choice on which side they will fall . But now after Saint Austin's time ; especially in the time of Saint Gregory , and since , there were many strange stories told of souls appearing after death , and telling strange things of their torments below ; many of which being gather'd together by the speculum exemplorum , the Legend of Lombardy and others , some of them were noted by the Dissuasive to this purpose to shew , that in the time when these stories were told , the fire of Purgatory did not burn clear ; but they found Purgatory in Baths , in Eves of Houses , in Frosts and cold Rains , upon Spits rosting like Pigs or Geese , upon pieces of Ice . Now to this there is nothing said ; but that in the place quoted in the speculum there is no such thing : which saying as it was spoken invidiously , so it was to no purpose ; for if the Objector ever hath read the distinction which is quoted , throughout ; he should have found the whole story at large . It is the 31 example page 205. Col. 1. printed at Doway 1603. And the same words are exactly in an ancienter Edition printed at the Imperial Town of Hagenaw 1519. Impensis Johannis Rynman . But these Gentlemen care not for the force of any Argument , if they can any way put it off from being believ'd upon any foolish pretence . But then as to the thing it self , though learned men deny the Dialogues of Saint Gregory , from whence many of the like stories are deriv'd , to be his , as Possevine confesses , and Melchior Canus though a little timorously affirms ; yet I am willing to admit them for his , but yet I cannot but note , that those Dialogues have in them many foolish , ridiculous and improbable stories , but yet they and their like are made a great ground of Purgatory ; but then the right also may be done to Saint Gregory , his Doctrine of Purgatory cannot consist with the present Article of the Church of Rome , so fond they are in the alledging of Authorities ; that they destroy their own hypothesis by their undiscerning quotations . For 1. Saint Gregory Pope affirms that which is perfectly inconsistent with the whole Doctrine of Purgatory . For * he sayes , That it is a fruit of our redemption by the grace of [ Christ ] our Author , that when we are drawn from our dwelling in the body , Mox , forthwith we are lead to c●lestial rewards ; and a little after speaking of those words of Job , In profundissimum infernum descendunt omnia mea ] * he sayes thus [ Since it is certain that in the lower region the just are not in penal places , but are held in the superior bosom of rest , a great question arises , what is the meaning of Blessed Job . ] If Purgatory can stand with this hypothesis of Saint Gregory , then fire and water can be reconcil'd . This is the Doctrine of Saint Gregory in his own works , for whether the Dialogues under his name be his or no , I shall not dispute ; but if I were studying to do honour to his memory , I should never admit them to be his , and so much the rather because the Doctrine of the Dialogues contradicts the Doctrine of his Commentaries , and yet even the Purgatory which is in the Dialogues is unlike that which was declar'd at Basil ; for the Gregorian Purgatory supposed only an expiation of small and light faults , as immoderate laughter , impertinent talking , which nevertheless he himself sayes are expiable by fear of death ; and Victoria , and Jacobus de Graffis say , are to be taken away by beating the breast , holy water , the Bishops blessing ; and Saint Austin sayes they are to be taken off by daily saying the Lords prayer ; and therefore being so easily , so readily , so many wayes to be purg'd here , it will not be worth establishing a Purgatory for such alone , but he admits not of any remaining punishment due to greater sins forgiven by the blood of Christ. But concerning Saint Gregory I shall say no more , but refer the Reader to the Apology of the Greeks , who affirm that Saint Gregory admitted a kind of Purgatory , but whether allegorically or no , or thinking so really , they know not ; but what he said was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and by way of dispensation , and as it were constrained to it , by the Arguments of those who would have all sins expiable after death , against whom he could not so likely prevail , if he had said that none was ; and therefore he thought himself forc'd to go a middle way , and admit a Purgatory only for little or venial sins , which yet will do no advantage to the Church of Rome . And besides all this , Saint Gregory or whoever is the Author of these Dialogues hath nothing definite , or determin'd , concerning the time , manner , measure or place ; so wholly new was this Doctrine then , that it had not gotten any shape or feature . Next I am to account concerning the Greeks , whom I affirm alwayes to have differed from the Latins , since they had forg'd this new Doctrine of Purgatory in the Roman Laboratories : and to prove something of this , I affirm'd that in the Council of Basil they publish'd an Apology directly disapproving the Doctrine of Purgatory . ] Against this , up starts a man fierce and angry , and sayes there was no such Apology publish'd in the Council of Basil , for he had examined it all over , and can find no such Apology . I am sorry for the Gentlemans loss of his labour , but if he had taken me along with him , I could have help'd the learned man. This Apology was written by Marcus Metropolitan of Ephesus as Sixtus Senensis confesses , and that he offered it to the Council of Basil. That it was given and read to the Deputies of the Council , June 14. 1438. is attested by Cusanus , and Martinus Crusius in his Turco-Graecia . But it is no wonder if this over-learned Author of the Letter miss'd this Apology in his search of the Council of Basil , for this is not the only material thing that is missing in the Editions of the Council of Basil ; for Linwood that great and excellent English Canonist made an Appeal in that Council , and prosecuted it with effect in behalf of King Henry of England , Cum in temporalibus non recognoscat superiorem in terris , &c. But nothing of this now appears , though it was then registred , but it is no new thing to forge or to suppress Acts of Councils : But besides this , I did not suppose he would have been so indiscreet as to have look'd for that Apology in the Editions of the Council of Basil , but it was deliver'd to the Council by the Greeks , and the Council was wise enough not to keep that upon publick record ; however if the Gentleman please to see it , he may have it among the Booksellers , if he will please to ask for the Apologia Graecorum de igne purgatorio published by Salmasius ; it was supposed to be made by Marc Archbishop , but for saving the Gentleman's charge or trouble , I shall tell him a few words out of that Apology which will serve his turn , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. For these Reasons the Doctrine of a Purgatory fire is to be cast out of the Church , as that which slackens the endeavours of the diligent , as perswading them not to use all means of contention to be purged in this life , since another purgation is expected after it . And it is infinitely to be wondred at the confidence of Bellarmine ( for as for this Objector , it matters not so much ) that he should in the face of all the world say , that the Greek Church never doubted of Purgatory : whereas he hath not brought one single , true and pertinent testimony out of the Greek Fathers for the Roman Doctrine of Purgatory , but is forc'd to bring in that crude Allegation of their words , for prayer for the dead , which is to no purpose , as all wise men know ; Indeed he quotes the Alchoran for Purgatory , an authentick Author ( it seems ) to serve such an end . But besides this , two memorable persons of the Greek Church , Nilus Archbishop of Thessalonica , and Marc Archbishop of Ephesus , have in behalf of the Greek Church written against the Roman Doctrine in this particular . And it is remarkable that the Latines were and are so put to it to prove Purgatory fire from the Greek Fathers , that they have forg'd a citation from Theodoret , * which is not in him at all , but was first cited in Latin by Thomas Aquinas either out of his own head , or cosen'd by some body else ; And quoted so by Bellarmine * , which to wise men cannot but be a very great Argument of the weakness of the Roman cause in this Question from the Greek Fathers , and that Bellarmine saw it , but yet was resolv'd to run through it and out-face it ; but Nilus taking notice of it , sayes that there are no such words in Theodoret in the many Copies of his Works which they had . In Greek it is certain they are not , and Gagneius first translated them into Greek to make the cheat more prevalent , but in that translation makes use of those words of the Wisdom of Solomon , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Gold in the fornace ( meaning it of the affliction of the Righteous in this world ) but unluckily he made use of that Chapter : In the first verse of which Chapter , it is said , The souls of the righteous are in the hands of God , and no torment shall touch them , which is a testimony more pregnant against the Roman Purgatory , than all that they can bring from the Greek Fathers for it . And this Gentleman confutes the Dissuasive , as he thinks , by telling the story according as his own Church hath set it down , who as with subtle and potent Arts they forc'd the Greeks to a seeming Union , so they would be sure not to tell the World in their own Records how unhandsomely they carried themselves . But besides this , the very answer which the Archbishop of Ephesus gave to the Latines in that Council ( and which words the Objector here sets down and confesses ) are a plain confutation of himself , for the Latins standing for a Purgatory fire temporary ; the Archbishop of Ephesus denies it , saying , That the Italians confess a fire , both in the present World and Purgatory by it ( that is , before the day of Judgment ) and in the world to come , but not Purgatory but Eternal ; But the Greeks hold a fire in the world to come only , ( meaning Eternal ) and a temporary punishment of souls , that is , that they go into a dark place , and of grief , but that they are purged , that is , delivered from the dark place , by Priests Prayers and Sacrifices , and by Alms , but not by fire . ] Then they fell on disputing about Purgatory fire , to which the Greeks delay'd to answer : And afterwards being pressed to answer , they refus'd to say any thing about Purgatory , and when they at the upshot of all were utcunque United , Joseph the Patriarch of C. P. made a most pitiful confession of Purgatory in such general and crafty terms , as sufficiently shew'd , that as the Greeks were forc'd to do something , so the Latins were content with any thing , for by those terms , the Question between them was no way determin'd , Romae veteris Papam Domini nostri Jesu Christi vicarium esse concedere , atque animarum purgationem esse non inficior . He denied not that there is a Purgatory . No , for the Greeks confess'd it , in this world before death , and some of them acknowledged a dark place of sorrow after this life , but neither fire nor Purgatory ; for the Purgation was made in this world , and after this world by the prayers of the Priests , and the alms of their friends , the purgation was made , not by fire , as I cited the words before . The Latins told them there should be no Union without it ; The Greek Emperour refus'd , and all this the Objector is pleas'd to acknowledge ; but after a very great bussle made , and they were forc'd to patch up a Union , hope to get assistance of the Latins : But in this also they were cosen'd , and having lost C. P. many of the Greeks attributed that fatal loss to their dissembling Union made at Florence ; and on the other side the Latins imputed it to their Opinion of the Procession of the Holy Ghost : however , the Greek Churches never admitted that union as is averred by Laonicus Chalcondylas , de rebus Turcicis . lib. 1. non longè ab initio . And it is a strange thing that this affair , of which all Europe was witness , should with so little modesty be shuffled up , and the Dissuasive accused for saying that which themselves acknowledge . But see what some of themselves say , Vnus est ex notissimis Graecorum & Armenorum erroribus quo docent nullum esse purgatorium , quo animae ex hac luce migrantes purgentur sordibus quas in hoc corpore contraxerunt , saith Alphonsus à Castro . It is one of the most known errors of the Greeks and Armenians that they teach there is no Purgatory : And Aquinas writing contra Graecorum errores labours to prove Purgatory : And Archbishop Antoninus who was present at the Council of Florence , after he had rejected the Epistle of Eugenius , adds , Errabant Graeci purgatorium negantes , quod est haereticum . Add to these the testimony of Roffensis and Polydore Virgil before quoted , Vsque ad hunc diem Graecis non est creditum purgatorium : and Gregory de Valentia * saith , Expresse autem purgatorium negarunt Waldenses haeretici , ut refert Guido Carmelita in summa de haeresi : Item scismatici Graeci recentiores , ut ex concilio Florentino apparet . And Alphonsus à Castro * saith , Unto this very day , Purgatory is not believ'd by the Greeks . And no less can be imagined , since their prime and most learned Prelate , besides what he did in the Council , did also after the Council publish an Encyclical Epistle against the definition of the Council , as may be seen in Binius his narrative of the Council of Florence : By all which appears how notoriously scandalous is the imputation of falsehood laid upon the Dissuasive by this objector ; who by this time is warm with writing , and grows uncivil , being like a baited Bull , beaten into choler with his own tail , and angred by his own objections . But the next charge is higher ; it was not only doubted of in S. Austins time , and since ; but the Roman doctrine of Purgatory without any hesitation or doubting is against the express doctrines deliverd by divers of the Ancient Fathers ; and to this purpose some were remark'd in the Dissuasive , which I shall now verefie and add others very plain and very considerable . S. Cyprian exhorts Demetrianus to turn to Christ while this world lasts , saying , that after we are dead there is no place of repentance , no place of satisfaction . ] To this the letter * answers ; It is not said when we are dead , but when you are dead , meaning that this is spoken to heathens , not to Christians . As if quando istinc excessum fuerit , being spoken impersonally , does not mean indefinitely all the world , and certainly it may as well one as the other , Christians as well as Heathens , for Christians may be in the state of deadly sin , and aversion from God as well as Heathens , and then this admonition and reason fits them as well as the other . E. W. * answers , that S. Cyprian means that after death there is no meritorious satisfaction ; he says true indeed , there is none that is meritorious , neither before nor after death , but this will not serve his turn , for S. Cyprian says , that after death there is none at all ; no place of Satisfaction ] of any kind whatsoever , no place of wholsome repentance . And therefore it is vain to say that this Council was only given to Demetrianus , who was a Heathen ; for if he had been a Christian , he would or at least might have us'd the same argument , not to put any part of his duty off upon confidence of any thing to be done or suffered after this life . For his argument is this , this is the time of repentance , after death it is not ; now you may satisfie ( that is , appease ) the Divine anger , after this life is ended , nothing of this can be done . For S. Cyprian does not speak this dispensativè , or by relation to this particular case , but assertivè , he affirms expresly speaking to the same Demetrian ; [ that when this life is finished we are divided , either to the dwellings of death or of immortality . And that we may see this is not spoken of impenitent Pagans only , as the letter to a friend dreams , S. Cyprian renews the same caution and advice to the lapsed Christians : [ O ye my Brethen let every one confess his sin , while he that hath sinn'd is yet in this world , while his confession can be admitted , while satisfaction and pardon made by the Priests is grateful with God. ] If there had been any thought of the Roman Purgatory in S. Cyprians time , he could not in better words have impugned it , than here he does . All that have sinn'd must here look to it , here they must confess , here beg pardon , here make amends and satisfie , afterwards neither one nor the other shall be admitted . Now if to Christians also there is granted no leave to repent , no means to satisfie , no means of pardon after this life , these words are so various and comprehensive that they include all cases ; and it is plain S. Cyprian speaks it indefinitely , there is no place of repentance , no place of satisfaction ; none at all , neither to Heathens nor to Christians . But now let these words be set against the Roman doctrine , viz. that there is a place called Purgatory , in which the souls tormented do satisfie , and come not out thence till they have paid , ( viz. by sufferings , or by suffrages ) the utmost farthing , and then see which we will follow : for they differ in all the points of the Compass . And these men do nothing but betray the weakness of their cause by expounding S. Cyprian to the sence of new distinctions , made but yesterday in the forges of the Schools . And indeed the whole affair upon which the answer of Bellarmine relies , which these men have translated to their own use , is unreasonable . For is it a likely business , that when men have committed great crimes they shall be pardon'd here by confession , and the ministeries of the Church , &c. and yet that the venial sins though confess'd in the general , and as well as they can be , and the party absolved , yet there should be prepared for their expiation the intolerable torments of hell fire , for a very long time ; and that for the greater sins , for which men have agreed with their adversary in the way , and the Adversary hath forgiven them , yet that for these also they should be cast into prison , from whence they shall not come till the utmost farthing be paid ; that is against the design of our Blessed Saviours Counsel , for if that be the case , then though we and our adversaries are agreed upon the main , and the debt forgiven , yet nevertheless we may be delivered to the tormentors . But then concerning the sence of S. Cyprian in this particular , no man can doubt that shall have but read his excellent treatise of mortality : that he could not , did not admit of Purgatory after death before the day of judgment , for he often said it in that excellent treatise which he made to comfort and strengthen Christians against the fear of death ; that immediately after death we go to God or the Devil : And therefore it is for him only to fear to die , who is not willing to go to Christ , and he only is to be unwilling to go to Christ who believes not that he begins to reign with Christ. ] That we in the mean time die , we pass over by death to immortality . ] It is not a going forth , but a pass over , and when our temporal course is run , a going over to immortality . ] Let us embrace that day , which assigns every one of us to our dwelling , and restores those which are snatch'd from hence , and are disintangled from the snares of the world to Paradise , and the Heavenly kingdom . ] There are here many other things so plainly spoken to this purpose , that I wonder any Papist should read that treatise , and not be cur'd of his infirmity . To the same purpose is that of S. Dionys , calling death the end of holy agonies ; and therefore it is to be suppos'd they have no more agonies to run through immediately after death . To this E. W. answers ; that S. Denis means , that death is the end of all the agonies of this life . A goodly note ! and never revealed till then and now ; as if this were a good argument to encourage men to contend bravely , and not to fear death , because when they are once dead , they shall no more be troubled with the troubles of this life ; indeed you may go to worse , and death may let you into a state of being as bad as hell , and of greater torments than all the pains of this world put together amount to . ] But to let alone such ridiculous subterfuges , see the words of S. Dionys , [ They that live a holy life , looking to the true promises of God , as if they were to behold the truth it self in that resurrection which is according to it , with firm and true hope , and in a Divine joy come to the sleep of death , as to an end of all holy contentions ; ] now certainly if the doctrine of Purgatory were true , and that they who had contended here , and for all their troubles in this world were yet in a tolerable condition , should be told , that now they shall go to worse , he that should tell them so would be but one of Jobs comforters . No , the servant of God [ coming to the end of his own troubles ( viz. by death ) is filled with holy gladness , and with much rejoycing ascends to the way of Divine regeneration , ] viz. to immortality ] which word can hardly mean , that they shall be tormented a great while in hell fire . The words of Justin Martyr , or whoever is the Author of those Questions and Answers imputed to him , affirms that presently after the departure of the soul from the body , a distinction is made between the just and the unjust , for they are brought by Angels to places worthy of them ; the souls of the just to Paradise , where they have the conversation and sight of Angels and Archangels , but the souls of the unrighteous to the places in Hades , ] the invisible region or Hell. ] Against these words because they pinch severely , E. W. thinks himself bound to say something ; and therefore 1. whereas Justin Martyr says , after our departure presently there is a separation made , he answers , that Justin Matyr means here to speak of the two final states after the day of judgment , for so it seems he understands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or presently after death , to mean the day of judgment ; of the time of which neither men nor Angels know any thing . And whereas Justin Martyr says , that presently the souls of the righteous go to Paradise , E. W. answers : 2. That Justin does not say that all just souls are carried presently into Heaven ; no , Justin says , into Paradise , true , but let it be remembred that it is so a part of Heaven , as limbus infantum is by themselves call'd a part of hell ; that is , a place of bliss ; the region of the blessed . But 3. Justin says that presently there is a separation made , but he says not that the souls of the righteous are carried to Paradise . ] That 's the next answer , which the very words of Justin do contradict . There is presently a separation made of the just and unjust , for they are by the Angels carried to the places they have deserved . This is the separation which is made , one is carried to Paradise , the other to a place in hell . But these being such pitiful offers at answering , the Gentleman tries another way , and says , 4. That this affirmative of Justin contradicts another saying of Justin , which I cited out of Sixtus Senensis , that Justin Martyr and many other of the Fathers , affirm'd that the souls of men are kept in secret receptacles , reserved unto the sentence of the great day ; and that before then no man receives according to his works done in this life . To this I answer , that one opinion does not contradict another ; for though the Fathers believ'd that they who die in the Lord rest from their labours and are in blessed places , and have antepasts of joy and comforts , yet in those places they are reserv'd unto the judgment of the great day : The intermedial joy or sorrow respectively of the just and unjust does but antedate the final sentence ; and as the comforts of Gods spirit in this life are indeed graces of God and rewards of Piety , as the torments of an evil conscience are the wages of impiety , yet as these do not hinder , but that the great reward is given at dooms-day and not before , so neither do the joys which the righteous have in the interval . They can both consist together , and are generally affirm'd by very many of the Greek and Latin Fathers . And methinks this ▪ Gentleman might have learn'd from Sixtus Senensis how to have reconcil'd these two opinions ; for he quotes him , saying there is a double beatitude , the one imperfect of soul only , the other consummate and perfect of soul and body . The first the Fathers call'd by several names of Sinus Abrahae , Atrium Dei , sub Altare , &c. The other , perfect joy , the glory of the resurrection , &c. But it matters not what is said , or how it be contradicted , so it seem but to serve a present turn . But at last , if nothing of this will do , these words are not the words of Justin , for he is not the Author of the Questions and Answers ad orthodoxos . To which I answer , it matters not whether they be Justins or no : But they are put together in the collection of his works , and they are generally called his , and cited under his name , and made use of by Bellarmine * , when he supposes them to be to his purpose . However the Author is Ancient and Orthodox , and so esteem'd in the Church , and in this particular speaks according to the doctrine of the more Ancient Doctors ; well ! but how is this against Purgatory ? says E. W. for they may be in secret receptacles after they have been in Purgatory . To this I answer , that he dares not teach that for doctrine in the Church of Rome , who believes that the souls deliver'd out of Purgatory go immediately to the heaven of the Blessed , and therefore if his book had been worth the perusing by the Censors of books , he might have been questioned , and followed Mr. Whites fortune . And he adds , it might be afterwards according to Origens opinion ; that is , Purgatory might be after the day of judgment , for so Origen held , that all the fires are Purgatory , and the Devils themselves should be sav'd . Thus this poor Gentleman thinking it necessary to answer one argument against Purgatory brought in the Dissuasive , cares not to answer by a condemned heresie , rather than reason shall be taught by any son of the Church of England . But however , the very words of the Fathers cross his slippery answers so , that they thrust him into a corner ; for in these receptacles the godly have joy , and they enter into them as soon as they die , and abide there till the day of judgment . S. Ambrose is so full , pertinent and material to the Question in hand , and so destructive of the Roman hypothesis , that nothing can be said against it . His words are these , [ therefore in all regards death is good because it divides those that were always fighting , that they may not impugn each other , and because it is a certain port to them ▪ who being toss'd in the sea of this world require the station of faithful rest ; and because it makes not our state worse , but such as it finds every one , such it reserves him to the future judgment , and nourishes him with rest , and withdraws him from the envy of present things , and composes him with the expectation of future things . ] E. W. thinking himself bound to say something to these words ; answers , It is an excellent saying , for worse he is not , but infinitely better , that quit of the occasions of living here , is ascertain'd of future bliss hereafter , which is the whole drift of the Saint in that Chapter : Read it , and say afterwards if I say not true . ] It is well put off . But there are very many that read him , who never will or can examine what S. Ambrose says , and withal such he hopes to escape . But as to the thing : That death gives a man advantage , and by its own fault no disadvantage is indeed not only the whole drift of that Chapter , but of that whole book . But not for that reason only is a man the better for death , but because it makes him not worse in order to Eternity ; nay , it does not alter him at all as to that , for as death finds him , so shall the judgment find him ( and therefore not purified by Purgatory ) for such he is reserved ; and not only thus , but it cherishes him with rest , which would be very ill done if death carried him to Purgatory . Now all these last words and many others , E. W. is pleas'd to take no notice of , as not being for his purpose . But he that pleases to see more , may read the 12. and 18. Chapters of the same Treatise . S. Gregorie's saying , that after this life there is no purgation , can no way be put off by any pretences . For he means it of the time after death before the day of judgment , which is directly oppos'd to the doctrine of the Church of Rome ; and unless you will suppose that S. Gregory believ'd two Purgatories , it is certain he did not believe the Roman ; for he taught that the purgation which he calls Baptism by fire and the saving , yet as by fire , was to be perform'd at the day of judgment : and the curiosity of that trial is the fierceness of that fire , as Nicetas expounds S. Gregories words in his oration in sancta lumina . So that S. Gregory affirming that this world is the place of purgation , and that after this world there is no purgation , could not have spoken any thing more direct against the Roman Purgatory . S. Hilary , and S. Macarius speak of two states after death , and no more . True says E. W. but they are the two final states . That is true too , in some sence , for it is either of eternal good , or evil ; but to one of these states they are consigned and determined at the time of their death , at which time every one is sent either to the bosom of Abraham , or to a place of pain , where they are reserved to the sentence of the great day . S. Hilary's words are these [ There is no stay or delaying . For the day of judgment is either an eternal retribution of beatitude or of pain : But the time of our death hath every one in his laws whiles either Abraham ( viz. the bosome of Abraham ) or pain reserves every one unto the Judgment . ] These words need no Commentary . He that can reconcile these to the Roman Purgatory , will be a most mighty man in controversie . And so also are the words of S. Macarius , when they go out of the body , the quires of Angels receive their souls , and carry them to their proper place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to a pure world , and so lead them to the Lord. ] Such words as these are often repeated by the Holy Fathers , and Doctors of the Ancient Church ; I summ them up with the saying of S. Athanasius , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. It is not death that happens to the righteous , but a translation : For they are translated out of this world into everlasting rest . And as a man would go out of prison , so do the Saints go out of this troublesome life , unto those good things which are prepared for them . ] Now let these and all the precedent words be confronted against the sad complaints made for the souls in Purgatory by Joh. Gerson , in his querela defunctorum , and Sr. Tho. More in his supplication of souls , and it will be found that the doctrine of the Fathers differs from the doctrine of the Church of Rome as much as heaven and hell , rest and labor , horrid torments and great joy . I conclude this matter of quotations by the saying of Pope Leo which one of my adversaries could not find , because the Princes was mistaken ; It is the 91. Epistle , so known , and so us'd by the Roman writers in the Qu. of Confession , that if he be a man of learning it cannot be suppos'd , but he knew where to find them . The words are these : But if any of them , for whom we pray unto the Lord being intercepted by any obstacle , falls from the benefit of the present Indulgences , and before he comes to the constituted remedies shall end his temporal life by humane condition ( or frailty ) that which abiding in the body he hath not received , being out of the flesh he cannot . Now against these words of S. Leo , set the present doctrine of the Church of Rome ; [ that what is not finished of penances here , a man may pay in Purgatory ] and let the world judge whether S. Leo was in this point a Roman Catholick . Indeed S. Leo forgot to make use of the late distinction of sins venial and mortal , of the punishment of mortal sins remaining after the fault is taken away ; but I hope the Roman Doctors will excuse the Saint , because the distinction is but new and modern . But this testimony of S. Gregory must not go for a single Testimony : That , which abiding in the body could not be receiv'd , out of the body cannot ; that is , when the soul is gone out of the body , as death finds them , so shall the day of judgment find them . And this was the sence of the whole Church ; for after death there is no change of state before the General Trial : no passing from pain to rest in the state of separation , and therefore either there are no Purgatory pains , or if there be , there is no ●ase of them before the day of judgment ; and the Prayers and Masses of the Church cannot give remedy to one poor soul ; and this must of necessity be confessed by the Roman Doctors , or else they must shew that ever any one Catholick Father did teach , that after death , and before the day of Judgment , any souls are translated into a state of bliss out of a state of pain : that is , that from Purgatory they go to heaven before the day of Judgment . He that can shew this , will teach me what I have not yet learned , but he that cannot shew it , must not pretend that the Roman Doctrine of Purgatory was ever known to the Ancient Fathers of the Church . SECT . III. Of Transubstantiation . THE purpose of the Dissuasive was to prove the doctrine of Transubstantiation to be new , neither Catholick nor Apostolick . In order to which I thought nothing more likely to perswade or dissuade , than the testimonies of the parties against themselves . And although I have many other inducements ( as will appear in the sequel ; ) yet by so earnestly contending to invalidate the truth of the quotations , the Adversaries do confess by implication , if these sayings be as is pretended , then I have evinc'd my main point , viz. that the Roman doctrines , as differing from us , are novelties , and no parts of the Catholick faith . Thus therefore the Author of the letter begins . He quotes Scotus , as declaring the doctrine of Transubstantiation is not expressed in the Canon of the Bible ; which he saith not . To the same purpose he quotes Ocham , but I can find no such thing in him . To the same purpose he quotes Roffensis but he hath no such thing . ] But in order to the verification of what I said , I desire it be first observ'd what I did say , for I did not deliver it so crudely as this Gentleman sets it down : For 1. These words [ the doctrine of Transubstantiation is not expressed in the Canon of the Bible ] are not the words of all them before nam'd , they are the sence of them all , but the words but of one or two of them . 2. When I say that some of the Roman Writers say that Transubstantiation is not express'd in the Scripture , I mean , and so I said plainly , [ as without the Churches declaration to compel us to admit of it . ] Now then for the quotations themselves , I hope I shall give a fair account . 1. The words quoted , are the words of Biel , when he had first affirmed that Christs body is contained truly under the bread , and that it is taken by the faithful ( all which we believe and teach in the Church of England ) he adds ; Tamen quomodo ibi sit Christi corpus , an per conversionem alicujus in ipsum ( that is , the way of Transubstantiation ) an sine conversione incipiat esse Corpus Christi 〈◊〉 pane , manentibus substantia & accidentibus panis non invenitur expressum in Can●ne Biblii : and that 's the way of Consubstantiation ; so that here is expresly taught what I affirm'd was taught , that the Scriptures did not express the Doctrine of Transubstantiation ; and he adds , that concerning this , there were Anciently divers opinions . Thus far the quotation is right : But of this man there is no notice taken . But what of Scotus ? He saith no such thing ; well suppose that , yet I hope this Gentleman will excuse me for Bellarmines sake , who says the same thing of Scotus as I do , and he might have found it in the Margent against the quotation of Scotus if he had pleas'd . His words are these [ Secondly he saith ( viz. Scotus ) that there is not extant any place of Scripture so express , without the declaration of the Church , that it can compel us to admit of Transubstantiation : And this is not altogether improbable : For though the Scriptures which we brought above seem so clear to us , that it may compel a man that is not wilful , yet whether it be so or no , it may worthily be doubted , since most learned and acute men ( such as Scotus eminently was ) believe the contrary . ] Well! But the Gentleman can find no such thing in Ocham : I hope he did not look far , for Ocham is not the man I mean ; however the Printer might have mistaken , but it is easily pardonable , because from O. Cam. meaning Odo Cameracensis , it was easie for the Printer or transcriber to write Ocam as being of more publick name ; But the Bishop of Cambray is the man , that followed Scotus in this opinion , and is acknowledged by Bellarmine to have said the same that Scotus did , he being one of his docti & acutissimi viri there mentioned . Now if Roffensis have the same thing too , this Author of the Letter will have cause enough to be a little ashamed : And for this , I shall bring his words , speaking of the whole institution of the Blessed Sacrament by our blessed Saviour , he says , [ Neque ullum hic verbum positum est quo probetur in nostra Missa veram fier● carnis & sanguinis Christi praesentiam . I suppose I need to say no more to verifie these citations , but yet I have another very good witness to prove that I have said true ; and that is Salmeron who says that Scotus out of Innocentius reckons three opinions ] not of hereticks , but of such men who all agreed in that which is the main ; but he adds , [ Some men and writers believe that this article cannot be proved against a heretick , by Scripture alone , or reasons alone . And so Cajetan is affirm'd by Suarez and Alanus to have said ; and Melchior Canus ; perpetuam Mariae virginitatem — conversionem panis & vini in corpus & sanguinem Christi — non ita expressa in libris Canonicis invenies , sed adeo tamen certa in ●ide sunt ut contrariorum dogmatum authores Ecclesia haereticos judicarit . So that the Scripture is given up for no sure friend in this Q. the Article wholly relies upon the authority of the Church , viz. of Rome , who makes faith , and makes heresies as she please . But to the same purpose is that also which Chedzy said in his disputation at Oxford ; In what manner Christ is there , whether with the bread Transelemented or Transubstantiation the Scripture in open words , tells not . ] But I am not likely so to escape , for E. W. talks of a famous or rather infamous quotation out of Peter Lombard , and adds foul and uncivil words , which I pass by : but the thing is this ; that I said , Petrus Lombardus could not tell whether there was a substantial change or no. I did say so , and I brought the very words of Lombard to prove it , and these very words E. W. himself acknowledges . Si autem quaeritur qualis sit ista conversio , an formalis an substantialis , vel alterius generis , definire non sufficio : [ I am not able to define or determine whether that change be formal or substantial : ] So far E. W. quotes him , but leaves out one thing very material , viz. whether besides formal , or substantial , it be of another kind . Now E. W. not being able to deny that Lombard said this , takes a great deal of useless pains , not one word of all that he says being to the purpose , or able to make it probable that Peter Lombard did not say so , or that he did not think so . But the thing is this : Biel reckon'd three opinions which in Lombards time were in the Church ; the first of Consubstantiation which was the way which long since then , Luther followed . The second , that the substance of bread is made the flesh of Christ , but ceases not to be what it was . But this is not the Doctrine of Transubstantiation , for that makes a third opinion , which is that the substance of bread ceases to be , and nothing remains but the accident . Quartam opinionem addit Magister , that is , Peter Lombard adds a fourth opinion ; that the substance of bread is not converted , but is annihilated : this is made by Scotus to be the second opinion ] Now of these four opinions , all which were then permitted and disputed ▪ Peter Lombard seems to follow the second ; but if this was his opinion it was no more , for he could not determine whether that were the truth or no. But whether he does or no truly , I think it is very hard for any man to tell ; for this question was but in the forge , not polished , not made bright with long handling . And this was all that I affirm'd out of the Master of Sentences , I told of no opinion of his at all , but that in his time they did not know whether it ( viz. the doctrine of Transubstantiation ) were true or no , that is , the generality of the Roman Catholicks did not know : and he himself could not define it . And this appears unanswerably by Peter Lombards bringing their several sentiments in this Article : and they that differ in their judgments about an Article , and yet esteem the others Catholick , may think what they please , but they Cannot tell certainly what is truth . But then as for Peter Lombard himself , all that I said of him was this , that he could not tell , he could not determine whether there was any substantial change or no. If in his after discourse he declares that the change is of substances , he told it for no other than as a meer opinion : if he did , let him answer for that , not I ; for that he could not determine it , himself expresly said it , in the beginning of the eleventh distinction . And therefore these Gentlemen would better have consulted with truth and modesty , if they had let this alone , and not have made such an outcry against a manifest truth . Now let me observe one thing which will be of great use in this whole affair , and demonstrate the cange of this doctrine . These three opinions were all held by Catholicks , and the opinions are recorded not only by Pope Innocentius 3. but in the Gloss of the Canon Law it self . For this opinion was not fix'd and setled , nor as yet well understood , but still disputed ( as we see in Lombard and Scotus : ) And although they all agreed in this ( as Salmeron observes of these three opinions , as he cites them out of Scotus ) that the true body of Christ is there , because to deny this were against the faith ; and therefore this was then enough to cause them to be esteem'd Catholicks , because they denied nothing which was then against the ●aith , but all agreed in that , yet now the case is otherwise ; for whereas one of the opinions was , that the substance of bread remains , and another opinion , that the substance of bread is annihilated , but is not converted into the body of Christ ; now both of these opinions are made heresie , and the contrary to them , which is the third opinion pass'd into an article of faith , Quod vero ibi substantia panis non remanet , jam etiam ut articulus fidei definitum est , & conversionis sive transubstantiationis nomen evictum . So Salmeron . Now in Peter Lombards time ; if they who believed Christs real presence were good Catholicks , though they believed no Transubstantiation or Consubstantiation , that is , did not descend into consideration of the manner , why may they not be so now ? Is there any new revelation now of the manner ? Or why , is the way to Heaven now made narrower than in Lombards time ? For the Church of England believes according to one of these opinions ; and therefore is as good a Catholick Church as Rome was then , which had not determined the manner . Nay if we use to value an Article the more , by how much the more Ancient it is , certainly it is more honourable that we should reform to the Ancient model , rather than conform to the new . However , this is also plainly consequent to this discourse of Salmeron ; The abett●r● of those three opinions , some of them do deny something that is of faith , therefore the faith of the Church of Rome now is not the same it was in the days of Peter Lombard . Lastly , this also is to be remark'd , that to prove any ancient Author to hold the doctrine of Transubstantiation , as it is at this day an Article of faith at Rome , it is not enough to say , that Peter Lombard , or Durand , or Scotus , &c. did say that where bread was before , there is Christs body now ; for they may say that and more , and yet not come home to the present Article ; and therefore E. W. does argue weakly , when he denies Lombard to say one thing , [ viz. that he could not define whether there was a substantial change or no , ( which indeed he spake plainly ) because he brings him saying something as if he were resolv'd the change were substantial , which yet he speaks but obscurely . And the truth is , this question of Transubstantiation is so intricate and involved amongst them , seems so contrary to sense and reason , and does so much violence to all the powers of the soul , that it is no wonder , if at first the Doctors could not make any thing distinctly of it . However , whatever they did make of it , certain it is they more agreed with the present Church of England , than with the present Church of Rome ; for we say as they said , Christs body is truly there , and there is a conversion of the Elements into Christs body , for what before the Consecration in all sences was bread , is after Consecration in some sence Christs body ; but they did not all of them say , that the substance of bread was destroyed , and some of them denied the conversion of the bread into the flesh of Christ ; which whosoever shall now do , will be esteemed no Roman Catholick . And therefore it is a vain procedure to think they have prov'd their doctrine of Transubstantiation out of the Fathers also ; if the Fathers tell us , [ That bread is chang'd out of his nature into the body of Christ : that by holy invocation it is no more common bread : that as water in Cana of Galilee was chang'd into wine ; so in the Evangelist , wine is changed into blood : That bread is only bread before the sacramental words , but after consecration is made the body of Christ. ] For though I very much doubt , all these things in equal and full measures cannot be prov'd out of the Fathers , yet suppose they were , yet all this comes not up to the Roman Article of Transubstantiation : All those words are true in a very good sence , and they are in that sence believ'd in the Church of England ; but that the bread is no more bread in the Natural sence , and that it is naturally nothing , but the natural body of Christ , that the substance of one is passed into the substance of the other , this is not affirmed by the Fathers , neither can it be inferred from the former propositions , if they had been truly alledged ; and therefore all that is for nothing , and must be intended only to cosen and amuse the Reader that understands not all the windings of this labyrinth . In the next place I am to give an account of what passed in the Lateran Council upon this Article . For says E. W. the doctrine of Transubstantiation was ever believed in the Church , though more fully and explicitely declared in the Lateran Council . But in the Dissuasive it was said , that it was but pretended to be determined in that Council , where many things indeed came then in consultation , yet nothing could be openly decreed . Nothing , ( says Platina ) that is , says my Adversary , nothing concerning the holy land , and the aids to be raised for it : but for all this , there might be a decree concerning Transubstantiation . To this I reply , that it is as true that nothing was done in this question , as that nothing was done in the matter of the Holy War ; for one was as much decreed as the other . For if we admit the acts of the Council , that of giving aid to the Holy Land was decreed in the 69. ●anon alias 71. So that this answer is not true : But the truth is , neither the one nor the other was decreed in that Council . For that I may inform this Gentleman in a thing which possibly he never heard of ; this Council of Lateran was never published , nor any acts of it till Cochlaeus published them A. D. 1538. For three years before this John Martin published the Councils , and then there was no such thing as the acts of the Lateran Council to be found . But you will say , how came Cochlaeus by them ? To this the answer is easie : There were read in the Council sixty Chapters , which to some did seem easie , to others burthensome ; but these were never approved , but the Council ended in scorn and mockery , and nothing was concluded , neither of faith nor manners , nor war , nor aid for the Holy Land , but only the Pope got mony of the Prelates to give them leave to depart . But afterwards Pope Gregory IX . put these Chapters , or some of them into the Decretals ; but doth not intitle any of these to the Council of Lateran , but only to Pope Innocent in the Council , which Cardinal Perron ignorantly , or wilfully mistaking , affirms the contrary . But so it is that Platina affirms of the Pope plurima decreta retulit , improbavit Joachimi libellum , damnavit errores Almerici . The Pope recited 60. heads of decrees in the Council , but no man says the Council decreed those heads . Now these heads Cochlaeus says he found in an old book in Germany . And it is no ways probable , that if the Council had decreed those heads , that Gregory IX . who published his Uncles decretal Epistles , which make up so great a part of the Canon Law , should omit to publish the decrees of this Council ; or that there should be no acts of this great Council in the Vatican , and that there should be no publication of them till about 300. years after the Council , and that out of a blind corner , and an old unknown Manuscript . But the Book shews its original , it was taken from the Decretals ; for it contains just so many heads , viz. LXXII . and is not any thing of the Council in which only were recited LX. heads , and they have the same beginnings and endings , and the same notes and observations in the middle of the Chapters : which shews plainly they were a meer force of the Decretals . The consequent of all which is plainly this , that there was no decree made in the Council , but every thing was left unfinished , and the Council was affrighted by the warlike preparations of them of Genoa and Pisa , and all retir'd . Concerning which affair , the Reader that desires it may receive further satisfaction , if he read the Antiquitates Britannicae in the life of Stephen Lancton out of the lesser History of Matthew Paris ; as also Sabellicus , and Godfride the Monk. But since it is become a question what was or was not determined in this Lateran Council , I am content to tell them that the same authority , whether of Pope or Council which made Transubstantiation an article of faith , made Rebellion and Treason to be a duty of Subjects ; for in the same collection of Canons they are both decreed and warranted under the same signature , the one being the first Canon , and the other the third . The use I shall make of all is this ; Scotus was observed above to say , that in Scripture there is nothing so express as to compel us to believe Transubstantiation , meaning , that without the decree and authority of the Church , the Scripture was of it self insufficient . And some others as Salmeron notes , affirm , that Scripture and Reason are both insufficient to convince a heretick in this article ; this is to be prov'd ex Conciliorum definitione , & Patrum traditione , &c. by the definition of Councils , and tradition of the Fathers , for it were easie to answer the places of Scripture which are cited , and the reasons . Now then since Scripture alone is not thought sufficient , nor reasons alone , if the definitions of Councils also shall fail them , they will be strangely to seek for their new article . Now for this their only Castle of defence is the Lateran Council . Indeed Bellarmine produces the Roman Council under Pope Nicholas the second , in which Berengarius was forc'd to recant his error about the Sacrament , but he recanted it into a worse error , and such which the Church of Rome disavows at this day : And therefore ought not to pretend it as a patron of that doctrine which she approves not . And for the little Council under Greg. 7. it is just so a general Council , as the Church of Rome is the Catholick Church , or a particular is an Universal . But suppose it so for this once ; yet this Council medled not with the modus , viz. Transubstantiation , or the ceasing of its being bread , but of the Real Presence of Christ under the Elements , which is no part of our question . Berengarius denied it , but we do not , when it is rightly understood . Pope Nicholaus himself did not understand the new article ; for it was not fitted for publication until the time of the Lateran Council , and how nothing of this was in that Council determin'd , I have already made appear : and therefore as Scotus said , the Scripture alone could not evict this article ; so he also said in his argument made for the Doctors that held the first opinion mentioned before out of Innocentius : Nec invenitur ubi Ecclesia istam veritatem determinet solenniter . Neither is it found where the Church hath solemnly determin'd it . And for his own particular , though he was carried into captivity by the symbol of Pope Innocent 3. for which by that time was pretended the Lateran Council ; yet he himself said , that before that Council it was no article of faith : and for this thing Bellarmine reproves him , and imputes ignorance to him , saying that it was because he had not read the Roman Council under Greg. 7. nor the consent of the Fathers . And to this purpose I quoted Henriquez , saying , that Scotus saith the doctrine of Transubstantiation is not ancient ; the Author of the Letter denies that he saith any such thing of Scotus : But I desire him to look once more , and my Margent will better direct him . What the opinion of Durandus was in this Question , if these Gentlemen will not believe me , let them believe their own friends . But first let it be consider'd what I said , viz. that he maintain'd ( viz. in disputation ) that even after consecration the very matter of bread remain'd . 2. That by reason of the Authority of the Church , it is not to be held . 3. That nevertheless it is possible it should be so . 4. That it is no contradiction , that the matter of bread should remain , and yet it be Christs body too . 5. That this were the easier way of solving the difficulties . That all this is true , I have no better argument than his own words , which are in his first question of the eleventh distinction in quartum num . 11. & n. 15. For indeed the case was very hard with these learned men , who being pressed by authority , did bite the file , and submitted their doctrine , but kept their reason to themselves : and what some in the Council of Trent observed of Scotus , was true also of Durandus and divers other Schoolmen , with whom it was usual to deny things with a kind of courtesie . And therefore Durandus in the places cited , though he disputes well for his opinion , yet he says the contrary is modus tenendus de facto . But besides that his words are , as I understand them plain and clear to manifest his own hearty perswasion , yet I shall not desire to be believed upon my own account , for fear I be mistaken ; but that I had reason to say it , Henriquez shall be my warrant : Durandus dist . qu. 3. ait esse probabile sed absque assertione , &c. He saith it is probable , but without assertion , that in the Eucharist the same matter of bread remains without quantity . And a little after he adds out of Cajetan , Paludanus and Soto , that this opinion of Durandus is erroneous , but after the Council of Trent it seems to be heretical : And yet ( he says ) it was held by Aegidius ▪ and Euthymius , who had the good luck it seems , to live and die before the Council of Trent , otherwise they had been in danger of the inquisition for heretical pravity . But I shall not trouble my self further in this particular ; I am fully vindicated by Bellarmine himself , who spends a whole Chapter in the confutation of this error of Durandus , viz. that the matter of bread remains , he endeavours to answer his arguments , and gives this censure of him . Itaque sententia Durandi h●retica est ; Therefore the sentence of Durandus is heretical , although he be not to be called a heretick , because he was ready to acquiesce in the judgment of the Church . So Bellarmine , who if he say true , that Durandus was ready to submit to the judgment of the Church , then he does not say true when he says the Church before his time had determined against him : but however , that I said true of him , when I imputed this opinion to him , Bellarmine is my witness . Thus you see I had reason for what I said , and by these instances it appears how hardly , and how long the doctrine of Transubstantiation was before it could be swallowed . But I remember that Salmeron tells of divers , who distrusting of Scripture and reason , had rather in this point rely upon the tradition of the Fathers , and therefore I descended to take from them this armour in which they trusted . And first , to ease a more curious inquiry , which in a short dissuasive was not convenient , I us'd the abbreviature of an adversaries confession . For Alphonsus à Castro confess'd that in Ancient writers there is seldome any mention made of Transubstantiation : ] one of my adversaries says this is not spoken of the thing , but of the name of Transubstantiation , but if à Castro meant this only of the word , he spake weakly when he said , that the name or word was seldom mention'd by the Ancients . 1. Because it is false that it was seldom mention'd by the Ancients , for the word was by the Ancient Fathers never mention'd . 2. Because there was not any question of the word where the thing was agreed ; and therefore as this saying so understood had been false , so also if it had been true , it would have been impertinent . 3. It is but a trifling artifice to confess the name to be unknown , and by that means to insinuate that the thing was then under other names ; It is a secret cosenage of an unwary Reader to bribe him into peace and contentedness for the main part of the Question , by pleasing him in that part which it may be makes the biggest noise , though it be less material . 4. If the thing had been mentioned by the Ancients , they need not , would not , ought not to have troubled themselves and others by a new word ; to have still retained the old proposition under the old words , would have been less suspicious , more prudent and ingenious : but to bring in a new name is but the cover for a new doctrine ; and therefore S. Paul left an excellent precept to the Church to avoid prophanas vocum novitates , the prophane newness of words , that is , it is fit that the mysteries revealed in Scripture should be preached and taught in the words of the Scripture , and with that simplicity , openness , easiness , and candor , and not with new and unhallowed words , such as is that of Transubstantiation . 5. A Castro did not speak of the name alone ; but of the thing also , de transubstantiatione panis in Corpus Christi ; of the Transubstantiation of bread into Christs body ; of this manner of conversion , that is , of this doctrine ; now doctrines consist not in words but things , however his last words are faint and weak and guilty ; for being convinc'd of the weakness of his defence of the thing , he left to himself a subterfuge of words . But let it be how it will with à Castro , whom I can very well spare if he will not be allowed to speak sober sence , and as a wise man should , we have better and fuller testimonies in this affair ; That the Fathers did not so much as touch the matter or thing of Transubstantiation , said the Jesuits in prison , as is reported by the Author of the modest discourse ; And the great Erasmus who liv'd and died in the communion of the Church of Rome , and was as likely as any man of his age to know what he said , gave this testimony in the present Question ; In synaxi transubstantiationem sero definivit Ecclesia , & re & nomine veteribus ignotam . In the Communion the Church hath but lately defin'd Transubstantiation , which both in the thing and in the name was unknown to the Ancients . Now this was a fair and friendly inducement to the Reader to take from him all prejudice , which might stick to him by the great noises of the Roman Doctors , made upon their presence of the Fathers being on their side ; yet I would not so rely upon these testimonies , but that I thought fit to give some little Essay of this doctrine out of the Fathers themselves . To this purpose is alledged Justin M. saying of the Eucharist , that it was a figure , which our Lord commanded to do in remembrance of his Passion ] These were quoted not as the words , but as the doctrine of that Saint ; and the Letter will needs suppose me to mean those words , which are ( as I find ) in 259 , and 260. page of the Paris edition ; [ The oblation of a Cake was a figure of the Eucharistical bread which the Lord commanded to do in remembrance of his Passion . ] These are Justins words in that place , with which I have nothing to do ( as I shall shew by and by : ) But because Cardinal Perron intends to make advantage of them , I shall wrest them first out of his hands , and then give an account of the doctrine of this holy man in the present Article ; both out of this place and others . [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The oblation of a Cake was a figure of the bread of the Eucharist , which our Lord deliver'd us to do ; therefore says the Cardinal , the Eucharistical bread is the truth , since the Cake was the figure or the shadow . ] To which I answer , that though the Cake was a figure of the Eucharistical bread , yet so might that bread be a figure of something else : Just as baptism , I mean , the external rite , which although it self be but the outward part , and is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or figure of the inward washing by the spirit of grace , and represents our being buried with Christ in his death , yet it is an accomplishment in some sence of those many figures , by which ( according to the doctrine of the Fathers ) it was prefigured . Such as in S. Peter the waters of the deluge , in Tertullian were the waters of Jordan into which Naaman descended , in S. Austin the waters of sprinkling : These were types , and to these baptism did succeed , and represented the same thing which they represented , and effected or exhibited the thing it did represent , and therefore in this sence they prefigur'd baptism : And yet that this is but a figure still , we have S. Peters warrant ; The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us ( not the putting away the filth of the flesh , but the answer of a good conscience towards God. The waters of the flood were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a type of the waters of baptism ; the waters of baptism were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , a type answering to a type : and yet even here there is a typical representing , and signifying part , and beyond that there is the veritas , or the thing signified by both . So it is in the oblation of the Cake , and the Eucharistical bread , that was a type of this , and this the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or correspondent of that ; a type answering to a type , a figure to a figure ; and both of them did and do respectively represent a thing yet more secret . For as S. Austin said , these and those are divers in the sign , but equal in the thing signified , divers in the visible species , but the same in the intelligible signification ; those were promissive , and these demonstrative , or as others express it , those were pronunciative , and these of the Gospel are contestative . So Friar Gregory of Padua noted in the Council of Trent : And that this was the sence of Justin M. appears to him that considers what he says . 1. He does not say the Cake is a type of the bread , but the oblation of the Cake , that is , that whole rite of offering a Cake after the Leper was cleansed in token of thankfulness , and for his legal purity , was a type of the bread of the Eucharist , which for the remembrance of the passion which he suffer'd for these men whose minds are purged from all perverseness , Jesus Christ our Lord commanded to make or do . ] To do what ? To do bread ? or to make bread ? No , but to make bread to be Eucharistical , to be a memorial of the Passion , to represent the death of Christ : so that it is not the Cake and the bread that are the type and the antitype ; but the oblation of the Cake was the figure , and the Celebration of Christs memorial , and the Eucharist are the things presignified and prefigur'd ; But then it remains , that the Eucharistical bread is but the instrument of a memorial or recordation , which still supposes something beyond this , and by this to be figured and represented . For as the Apostle says , Our Fathers did eat of the same spiritual meat , that is , they eat Christ , but they eat him in figure , that is , in an external symbol : so do we , only theirs is abolished , and ours succeeds the old , and shall abide for ever . Nay the very words us'd by Justin M. do evince this , it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , when it is an Eucharist , it is still but bread ; and therefore there is a body of which this is but an outward argument , a vehicle , a channel and conveyance , and that is the body of Christ ; for the Eucharistical bread is both bread , and Christs body too . For it is a good argument to say , this is bread Eucharistical , therefore this is bread ; and if it be bread still , it must be a figure of the bread of life ; and this is that which I affirmed to be the sence of Justin M. The like expression to this is in his second Apology ; It is not common bread , meaning , that it is sanctified and made Eucharistical . But here , it may be , the argument will not hold ; it is not common bread , therefore it is bread : for I remember that Cardinal Perron hath some instances against this way of arguing . For the Dove that descended upon Christs head was not a common Dove , and yet it follows not ; therefore this was a Dove . The three that appeared to Abraham were not common men ; therefore they were men , it follows not . This is the sophistry of the Cardinal , for the confutation of which I have so much Logick left as to prove this to be a fallacy , and it will soon appear if it be reduc'd to a regular proposition . This bread is not common , therefore this bread is extraordinary bread , but therefore this is bread still ; here the Consequence is good ; and is so still , when the subject of the proposition is something real , and not in appearance only ; Because whatsoever is but in appearance and pretence , is a Non-Ens in respect of that real thing which it counterfeits . And therefore it follows not , This is not a common dove ; therefore it is a Dove ; because if this be model'd into a right proposition , nihil supponit ; there is no subject in it , for it cannot in this case be said , This Dove is no common Dove ; but this which is like a Dove , is not a common Dove ; and these persons which look like men , are not common men . And the rule for this and the reason too is , Non entis nulla sunt praedicata . To which also this may be added , that in the proposition as C. Perron expresses it , the negation is not the Adjective , but the substantive part of the predicate ; It is no common Dove ; where the negative term relates to the Dove , not to common ; It is no Dove , and the words not common are also equivocal , and as it can signifie extraordinary , so it can signifie Natural . But if the subject of the proposition be something real , then the consequent is good ; as if you bring a Pigeon from Japan , all red , you may say , This is no common Pigeon , and your argument is still good ; therefore it is a Pigeon . So if you take sugred bread , or bread made of Indian wheat , you saying , this is no common bread , do mean it is extraordinary or unusual , but it is bread still ; and so if it be said , this bread is Eucharistical , it will follow rightly , therefore this is bread . For in this case the predicate is only an infinite or Negative term , but the subject is suppos'd and affirm'd . And this is also more apparent if the proposition be affirmative , and the terms be not infinite , as it is in the present case ; This bread is Eucharistical . I have now I suppose clear'd the words of Justin M. and expounded them to his own sence and the truth , but his sence will further appear in other words which I principally rely upon in this quotation . For speaking that of the Prophet Isai. Panis dabitur ei , & aqua ejus fidelis ; he hath these words , It appears sufficiently [ That in this prophecie he speaks of bread which our Lord Christ hath deliver'd to us to do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a memorial that he is made a body for them that believe in him , for whose sake he was made passible ; and of the Cup which for the recordation of his blood he delivered to them to do , that is [ give thanks ] or celebrate the Eucharist . ] These are the words of Justin : Where 1. According to the first simplicity of the primitive Church , he treats of this mystery according to the style of the evangelists and S. Paul , and indeed of our Blessed Lord himself , commanding all this whole mystery to be done in memory of him . 2. If S. Justin had meant any thing of the new fabrick of this mystery he must have said , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the bread made his body , though this also would not have done their work for them ; but when he says he gave the bread only for the remembrance of his being made a body , the bread must needs be the sign , figure and representation of that body . 3. Still he calls it bread even then when Christ gave it ; still it is wine when the Eucharist is made , when the faithful have given thanks ; and if it be bread still , we also grant it to be Christs body , and then there is a figure and the things figured , the one visible and the other invisible ; and this is it which I affirmed to be the sence of Justin Martyr . And it is more perfectly explicated by Saint Greg. Naz. calling the Pascal Lamb a figure of a figure , of which I shall yet give an account in this Section . But to make this yet more clear , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. We do not receive these as common bread or common drink ; but as by the word of God , Jesus Christ our Lord was made flesh , and for our salvation had flesh and blood : so are we taught , that that very nourishment on which by the prayers of his word thanks are given , by which our flesh and blood are nourished by change , is the flesh and blood of the incarnate Jesus . ] Here S. Justin compares the consecration of the Eucharist by prayer to the incarnation of Christ , the thing with the thing , to shew it is not common bread , but bread made Christs body ; he compares not the manner of one with the manner of the other ( as Cardinal Perron would fain have it believed * ) for if it were so , it would not only destroy an Article of Christian faith , but even of the Roman too ; for if the changes were in the same manner , then either the man is Transubstantiated into God , or else the bread is not Transubstantiated into Christs body ; but the first cannot be , because it would destroy the hypostatical Union , and make Christ to be one nature as well as one person ; but for the latter part of the Dilemma , viz. that the bread is not Transubstantiated , whether it be true or false it cannot be affirmed from hence : and therefore the Cardinal labours to no purpose , and without consideration of what may follow . But now these words make very much against the Roman hypothesis , and directly prove the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the consecrated bread , that is , after it is consecrated to be natural nourishment of the body , and therefore to be Christs body only spiritually , and Sacramentally : unless it can be two substances at the same time ; Christs body and bread in the Natural sence , which the Church of Rome at this day will not allow ; and if it were allowed it would follow that Christ body should be Transubstantiated into our body , and suffer the very worst changes which in our eating and digestion and separation happen to common bread . This argument relies upon the concurrent Testimony of many of the ancient Fathers besides Justin Martyr , especially S. Irenaeus , and certainly destroys the whole Roman Article of Transubstantiation ; for if the Eucharistical bread nourishes the body , then it is still the substance of bread : for accidents do not nourish , and quantity or quality is not the subject or term of Nutrition ; but reparation of substance by a substantial change of one into another . But of this enough . Eusebius is next alledged in the Dissuasive , but his words , though pregnant and full of proof against the Roman hypothesis are by all the Contra-scribers let alone , only one of them says , that the place of the quotation is not rightly mark'd , for the first three chapters are not extant : well ! but the words are ; and the last chapter is , which is there quoted , and to the 10. chapter the Printer should have more carefully attended , and not omit the Cypher , which I suppose he would , if he had foreseen he should have been written against by so learned an adversary . But to let them agree as well as they can , the words of Eusebius , out of his last chapter , I translated as well as I could ; the Greek words I have set in the Margent , that every one that understands may see I did him right ; and indeed to do my Adversary right , when he goes about to change , not to mend the translation , he only changes the order of the words , but in nothing does he mend his own matter by it : for he acknowledges the main Question , viz. that the memory of Christs sacrifice is to be celebrated in certain signs on the Table ; but then that l may do my self right , and the question too ; whosoever translated these words for this Gentleman hath abused him , and made him to render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and hath made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be governed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which is so far off it , and hath no relation to it , and not to be governed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with which it is joyn'd , and hath made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be governed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , when it hath a substantive of its own [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ] and he repeats 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 once more than it is in the words of Eusebius , only because he would not have the Reader suppose that Eusebius call'd the consecrated Elements , the symbols of the body and blood . But this fraud was too much studied to be excusable upon the stock of humane infirmity , or an innocent perswasion . But that I may satisfie the Reader in this Question , so far as the testimony and doctrine of Eusebius can extend , he hath these words fully to our purpose . [ First , our Lord and Saviour , and then after him his Priests of all Nations celebrating the spiritual sacrifice according to the Ecclesiastick Laws , by the bread and the wine signifie the mysteries of his body and healing blood . ] And again , [ By the wine which is the symbol of his blood , he purges the old sins of them who were baptized into his death , and believe in his blood . ] [ Again he gave to his Disciples the symbols of the divine Oeconomy , commanding them to make the image ( figure or representation ) of his own body . ] And Again , [ He received not the sacrifices of blood , nor the slaying of divers beasts instituted in the Law of Moses , but ordained we should use bread , the symbol of his own body . ] So far I thought fit to set down the words of Eusebius , to convince my Adversary that Eusebius is none of theirs , but he is wholly ours in the doctrine of the Sacrament . S. Macarius is cited in the Disswasive in these words , [ In the Church is offered bread and wine , the Antitype of his flesh and blood , and they that partake of the bread that appears , do spiritually eat the flesh of Christ. ] * A. L. saith , Macarius saith not so , but rather the contrary , viz. bread and wine exhibiting the Exemplar . [ or an antitype ] his flesh and blood . ] Now although I do not suppose many learned or good men will concern themselves with what this little man says ; yet I cannot but note [ that they who gave him this answer , may be asham'd , ] for here is a double satisfaction in this little answer . First , he puts in the word exhibiting of his own head , there being no such word in S. Macarius in the words quoted . 2. He makes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be put with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by way of apposition , expresly against the mind of S. Macarius , and against the very Grammar of his words . And after all , he studies to abuse his Author , and yet gets no good by it himself ; for if it were in the words as he hath invented it , or some body else for him , yet it makes against him as much , saying , bread and wine exhibite Christs body ; which is indeed true , though not here said by the Saint , but is directly against the Roman article , because it confesses that to be bread and wine by which Christs body is exhibited to us : but much more is the whole testimony of S. Macarius , which in the Disswasive are translated exactly , as the Reader may see by the Greek words cited in the Margent . There now only remains the authority of S. Austin , which this Gentleman would fain snatch from the Church of England , and assert to his own party . I cited five places out of S. Austin , to the last of which but one , he gives this answer ; that S. Austin hath no such words in that book , that is , in the Tenth book against Faustus the Manichee . Concerning which , I am to inform the Gentleman a little better . These words [ that which by all men is called a sacrifice , is the sign of the true sacrifice ] are in the tenth book of S. Austin de C. D. cap. 5. and make a distinct quotation , and ought by the Printer to have been divided by a colume , as the other . But the following words [ in which the flesh of Christ after his assumption is celebrated by the Sacrament of remembrance , ] are in the 20. book cap. 21. against Faustus the Manichee * . All these words and divers others of S. Austin I knit together in a close order , like a continued discourse ; but all of them are S. Austins words , as appears in the places set down in the Margent . But this Gentleman car'd not for what was said by S. Austin , he was as well pleased that a figure was false Printed ; but to the words he hath nothing to say . To the first of the other four only he makes this crude answer ; that S. Austin denied not the real eating of Christs body in the Eucharist , but only the eating it in that gross , carnal , and sensible manner , as the Capharnaites conceiv'd . To which I reply , that it is true , that upon occasion of this error S. Austin did speak those words : and although the Roman error be not so gross and dull as that of the Capharnaites , yet it was as false , as unreasonable , and as impossible . And be the occasion of the words what they are , or can be , yet upon this occasion S. Austin spake words , which as well confute the Roman error as the Capharnaitical . For it is not only false which the men of Capernaum dreamt of , but the antithesis to this is that which S. Austin urges , and which comes home to our question , [ I have commended to you a Sacrament which being spiritually understood shall quicken you : ] But because S. Austin was the most diligent expounder of this mystery among all the Fathers , I will gratifie my Adversary , or rather indeed my Unprejudicate Readers , by giving some other very clear and unanswerable evidences of the doctrine of S. Austin , agreeing perfectly with that of our Church . [ At this time after manifest token of our liberty hath shin'd in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ , we are not burdened with the heavy operation of signs , but some few instead of many , but those most easie to be done , and most glorious to be understood , and most pure in their observation , our Lord himself , and the Apostolical discipline hath delivered : such is the Sacrament of Baptism , and the celebration of the body and blood of our Lord , which when every one takes , he understands whither they may be referr'd , that he may give them veneration , not with carnal service , but with a spiritual liberty . For as to follow the letter , and to take the signs for the things signified by them , is a servile infirmity ; so to interpret the signs unprofitably is an evil wandring error . But he that understands not what the sign signifies , but yet understandeth it to be a sign , is not press'd with servitude . But it is better to be press'd with unknown signs so they be profitable , than by expounding them unprofitably to thrust our necks into the yoke of slavery , from which they were brought f●●th . ] All this S. Austin spake concerning the sacramental signs , the bread and the wine in the Eucharist ; and if by these words he does not intend to affirm , that they are the signs signifying Christs body and blood ; let who please to undertake it make sence of them , for my part I cannot . To the same purpose are these other words of his , [ Christ is in himself once immolated , and yet in the Sacrament he is sacrificed not only in the solemnities of Easter , but every day with the people . Neither indeed does he lye who being ask'd , shall answer , that he is sacrificed : For if the Sacraments have not a similitude of those things of which they are Sacraments , they were altogether no Sacraments ; but commonly for this similitude they take the names of the things themselves , sicut ergo secundum quendam modum , &c. As therefore after a certain manner the Sacrament of the body of Christ is the body of Christ , the Sacrament of the blood of Christ is the blood of Christ , so the Sacrament of Faith ( viz. Baptism ) is Faith. ] Christ is but once immolated or sacrificed in himself , but every day in the Sacrament ; that properly , this in figure ; that in substance , this in similitude ; that naturally , this sacramentally and spiritually . But therefore we call this mystery a sacrifice , as we call the Sacrament Christs body , viz. by way of similitude or after a certain manner , for upon this account the names of the things are imputed to their very figures . This is S. Austins sence : which indeed he frequently so expresses . Now I desire it may be observed , that oftentimes when S. Austin speaking of the Eucharist , calls it the body and blood of Christ ; he oftentimes adds by way of explication , that he means it , in the Sacramental , figurative sence ; but whenever he calls it , the figure or the Sacrament of Christs body , he never offers to explain that by any words , by which he may signifie such a real or natural being of Christs body there , as the Church of Rome dreams of ; but he ought not , neither would be have given offence or Umbrage to the Church , by any such incurious and loose handling of things , if the Church in his age had thought of it otherwise , than that it was Christs body in a Sacramental sence . Though I have remark'd all that is objected by A. L. yet E. W. is not satisfied with the quotation out of Greg. Naz. not but that he acknowledges it to be right , for be sets down the words in Latin ; but they conclude nothing against Transubstantiation . Why so ? because , though the Paschal was a type of a type , a figure of a figure , yet [ in S. Gregories sence Christ concealed under the species of bread may be rightly called a figure of its own self , more clearly hereafter to be shewed us in Heaven . ] To this pitiful answer the reply is easie . S. Gregory clearly enough expresses himself , that in the immolation of the Passeover Christ was figured ; that in the Eucharist he still is figured , there more obscurely , here more clearly , but yet still but typically , or in figure ; nunc quidem adhuc typicè : here we are partakers of him typically . Afterwards we shall see him perfectly , meaning in his Fathers Kingdom . So that the Saint affirms Christ to be receiv'd by us in the Sacrament after a figurative , or typical manner : and therefore , not after a substantial , as that is oppos'd to figurative . Now of what is this a type ? of himself to be more clearly seen in Heaven hereafter . It is very true , it is so ; for this whole ceremony , and figurative , ritual receiving of Christs body here , does prefigure our more excellent receiving and enjoying him hereafter ; but then it follows that the very proper substance of Christs body is not here ; for figure or shadow and substance cannot be the same , to say a thing that is present is a figure of it self hereafter , is to be said by no man but him that cares not what he says . Nemo est sui ipsius imago , saith S. Hilary ; and yet if it were possible to be otherwise , yet it is a strange figure or sign of a thing , that what is invisible should be a sign of what is visible . Bellarmine , being greatly put to it by the Fathers calling the Sacrament the figure of Christs body , says , it is in some sence a figure of Christs body on the Cross ; and here E. W. would affirm out of Naz. that it is a figure of Christs body glorified . Now suppose both these dreamers say right , then this Sacrament which whether you look forwards or backwards is a figure of Christs body ; cannot be that body of which so many ways it is a figure . So that the whole force of E. W's answer is this , that if that which is like be the same , then it is possible that a thing may be a sign of its self , and a man may be his own picture , and that which is invisible may be a sign to give notice to come see a thing that is visible . I have now expedited this topick of Authority in this Question , amongst the many reasons I urged against Transubstantiation : ( which I suppose to be unanswerable , and if I could have answered them my self , I would not have produc'd them ; ) these Gentlemen my adversaries are pleas'd to take notice but of one ; But by that it may be seen how they could have answered all the rest , if they had pleased . The argument is this , every consecrated wafer ( saith the Church of Rome ) is Christs body ; and yet this wafer is not that wafer , therefore either this , or that is not Christs body , or else Christ hath two natural bodies ; for there are two Wafers . ] To this is answered , the multiplication of wafers does not multiply bodies to Christ , no more than head and feet infer two souls in a man , or conclude there are two Gods , one in Heaven , and the other in Earth , because Heaven and Earth are more distinct than two wafers . To which I reply , that the soul of man is in the head and feet as in two parts of the body which is one and whole , and so is but in one place , and consequently is but one soul. But if the feet were parted from the body by other bodies intermedial , then indeed , if there were but one soul in feet and head , the Gentleman had spoken to the purpose . But here these wafers are two intire wafers , separate the one from the other ; bodies intermedial put between ; and that which is here is not there ; and yet of each of them it is affirm'd , that it is Christs body ; that is , of two wafers , and of two thousand wafers , it is at the same time affirm'd of every one that it is Christs body . Now if these wafers are substantially not the same , not one , but many ; and yet every one of these many is substantially and properly Christs body , then these bodies are many , for they are many of whom it is said , every one distinctly and separately , and in it self is Christs body . 2. For his comparing the presence of Christ in the wafer , with the presence of God in Heaven , it is spoken without common wit or sence ; for does any man say that God is in two places , and yet be the same one God ? Can God be in two places that cannot be in one ? Can he be determin'd and number'd by places , that sills all places by his presence ? or is Christs body in the Sacrament , as God is in the world , that is , repletivè , filling all things alike , spaces void and spaces full , and there where there is no place , where the measures are neither time nor place , but only the power and will of God. This answer , besides that it is weak and dangerous , is also to no purpose , unless the Church of Rome will pass over to the Lutherans and maintain the Ubiquity of Christs body . Yea but S. Austin says of Christ , Ferebatur in manibus suis , &c. he bore himself in his own hands : and what then ? Then though every wafer be Christs body , yet the multiplication of wafers does not multiply bodies : for then there would be two bodies of Christ , when he carried his own body in his hands . To this I answer , that concerning S. Austins mind we are already satisfied , but that which he says here is true , as he spake and intended it ; for by his own rule , the similitudes and figures of things are oftentimes called by the name of those things whereof they are similitudes : Christ bore his own body in his own hands , when he bore the Sacrament of his body ; for of that also it is true , that it is truly his body in a Sacramental , spiritual , and real manner , that is , to all intents and purposes of the holy Spirit of God. According to the words of S. Austin cited by P. Lombard , [ We call that the body of Christ which being taken from the fruits of the Earth , and consecrated by mystick prayer , we receive in memory of the Lords Passion ; which when by the hands of men it is brought on to that visible shape , it is not sanctified to become so worthy a Sacrament , but by the spirit of God working invisibly . ] If this be good Catholick doctrine , and if this confession of this article be right , the Church of England is right ; but then when the Church of Rome will not let us alone in this truth and modesty of confession , but impose what is unknown in Antiquity , and Scripture , and against common sence , and the reason of all the world ; she must needs be greatly in the wrong . But as to this question , I was here only to justifie the Disswasive ; I suppose these Gentleman may be fully satisfied in the whole inquiry , if they please to read a * book I have written on this subject intirely , of which hitherto they are pleas'd to take no great notice . SECT . IV. Of the Half-Communion . WHEN the French Embassador in the Council of Trent , A. D. 1561. made instance for restitution of the Chalice to the Laity , among other oppositions the Cardinal S. Angelo answered ; that he would never give a cup full of such deadly poison to the people of France , instead of a medicine , and that it was better to let them die , than to cure them with such remedies . The Embassador being greatly offended , replied : that it was not fit to give the name of poison to the blood of Christ , and to call the holy Apostles poisoners , and the Fathers of the Primitive Church , and of that which followed for many hundred years , who with much spiritual profit have ministred the cup of that blood to all the people : this was a great and a publick , yet but a single person , that gave so great offence . One of the greatest scandals that ever were given to Christendom was given by the Council of Constance ; which having acknowledged that Christ administred this venerable Sacrament under both kinds of bread and wine , and that in the Primitive Church this Sacrament was receiv'd of the faithful under both kinds , yet the Council not only condemns them as hereticks , and to be punished accordingly , who say it is unlawful to observe the custom and law of giving it in one kind only ; but under pain of excommunication forbids all Priests to communicate the people under both kinds . This last thing is so shameful and so impious , that A. L. directly denies that there is any such thing : which if it be not an argument of the self-conviction of the man , and a resolution to abide in his error , and to deceive the people even against his knowledge , let all the world judge : for the words of the Councils decree , as they are set down by Carranza , at the end of the decree are these [ Item praecipimus sub p●●na excommunicationis quod nullus presbyter communicet populum sub utraque specie panis & vini . ] I need say no more in this affair : To affirm it necessary to do in the Sacraments what Christ did , is called heresie ; and to do so is punished with excommunication . But we who follow Christ , hope we shall communicate with him , and then we are well enough , especially since the very institution of the Sacrament in both kinds , is a sufficient Commandment to minister and receive it in both kinds . For if the Church of Rome upon their supposition only , that Christ did barely institute confession , do therefore urge it as necessary , it will be a strange partiality , that the confessed institution by Christ of the two Sacramental species , shall not conclude them as necessary , as the other upon an Unprov'd supposition . And if the institution of the Sacrament in both kinds be not equal to a command , then there is no command to receive the bread , or indeed , to receive the Sacrament at all : but it is a mere act of supererogation , that the Priests do it at all , and an act of favour and grace , that they give even the bread it self to the Laity . But besides this , it is not to be endur'd that the Church of Rome only binds her subjects to observe the decree of abstaining from the cup jure humano , and yet they shall be bound jure Divino , to believe it to be just , and specially since the causes of so scandalous an alteration are not set down in the decree of any Council ; and those which are set down by private Doctors , besides that they are no record of the Church , they are ridiculous , weak and contemptible . But as Granatensis said in the Council of Trent , this affair can neither be regulated by Scripture nor traditions , ( for surely it is against both ) but by wisdom ; wherein because it is necessary to proceed to circumspection , I suppose the Church of Rome will always be considering , whether she should give the chalice or no ; and because she will not acknowledge any reason sufficient to give it , she will be content to keep it away without reason : And which is worse , the Church of Rome excommunicates those Priests that communicate the people in both kinds ; but the Primitive Church excommunicates them that receive but in one kind . It is too much that any part of the Church should so much as in a single instance administer the Holy Sacrament otherwise than it is in the institution of Christ ; there being no other warrant for doing the thing at all , but Christs institution , and therefore no other way of learning how to do it , but by the same institution by which all of it is done . And if there can come a case of necessity , ( as if there be no wine , or if a man cannot endure wine ) it is then a disputable matter whether it ought or not to be omitted ; for if the necessity be of Gods making , he is suppos'd to dispence with the impossibility : But if a man alters what God appointed , he makes to himself a new institution ; for which in this case there can be no necessity , nor yet excuse . But suppose either one or other ; yet so long as it is , or is thought a case of necessity , the thing may be hopefully excus'd , if not actually justified ; and because it can happen but seldom , the matter is not great : let the institution be observed always where it can . But then in all cases of possibility let all prepared Christians be invited to receive the body and blood of Christ according to his institution ; or if that be too much , at least let all them that desire it , be permitted to receive it in Christs way : But that men are not suffered to do so , that they are driven from it , that they are called heretick for saying it is their duty to receive it as Christ gave it and appointed it , that they should be excommunicated for desiring to communicate in Christs blood , by the symbol of his blood , according to the order of him that gave his blood ; this is such a strange piece of Christianity , that it is not easie to imagine what Antichrist can do more against it , unless he take it all away . I only desire those persons who are here concerned to weigh well the words of Christ , and the consequents of them : He that breaketh one of the least of my Commandments , and shall teach men so , ( and what if he compel men so ? ) shall be called the least in the Kingdom of God. To the Canon last mentioned it is answered , that the Canon speaks not of receiving the sacrament by the communicants , but of the consummating the sacrifice by the Priest. To this I reply , that it is true that the Canon was particularly directed to the Priests , by the title which themselves put to it ; but the Canon medles not with the consecrating or not consecrating in one kind , but of receiving ; for that is the title of the Canon . The Priest ought not to receive the body of Christ without the blood ; and in the Canon it self , Comperimus autem quod quidam sumpta corporis sacri portione , à calice sacrati cruoris abstineant . By which it plainly appears , that the consecration was intire ; for it was calix sacrati cruoris , the consecrated chalice , from which out of a fond superstition some Priests did abstain ; the Canon therefore relates to the sumption or receiving , not the sacrificing ( as these men love to call it ) or consecration , and the sanction it self speaks indeed of the reception of the Sacrament , but not a word of it as it is in any sence a sacrifice ; aut integra sacramenta percipiant , aut ab integris arceantur . So that the distinction of sacrament and sacrifice in this Question will be of no use to the Church of Rome . For if Pope Gelasius ( for it was his Canon ) knew nothing of this distinction , it is vainly applied to the expounding of his words ; but if he did know of it , then he hath taken that part which is against the Church of Rome ; for of this mystery as it is a sacrament Gelasius speaks , which therefore must relate to the people as well as to the Priest. And this Canon is to this purpose quoted by Cassander . And 2. no man is able to shew that ever Christ appointed one way of receiving to the Priest , and another to the people . The law was all one , the example the same , the Rule is simple and Uniform , and no appearance of difference in the Scripture , or in the Primitive Church : so that though the Canon mentions only the Priest , yet it must by the same reason mean all ; there being at that time do difference known . 3. It is call'd sacriledge to divide one and the same mystery ; meaning that to receive one without the other , is to divide the body from the blood , ( for the dream of concomitancy was not then found out ) and therefore the title of the Canon is thus express'd , Corpus Christi sine ejus sanguine sacerdos non debet accipere ; and that the so doing , viz. by receiving one without the other , cannot be without sacriledge . 4. Now suppose at last , that the Priests only are concern'd in this Canon , yet even then also they are abundantly reprov'd , because even the Priests in the Church of Rome ( unless they consecrate ) communicate but in one kind . 5. It is also remarkable , that although in the Church of Rome there is great use made of the distinction of its being sometime a sacrifice , sometime only a sacrament , as Frier Ant. Mondolphus said in the Council of Trent , yet the arguments , by which the Roman Doctors do usually endeavour to prove the lawfulness of the Half-communion , do destroy this distinction , viz. that of Christs ministring to the Disciples at Emaus , and S. Paul in the Ship , in which either there is no proof or no consecration in both kinds , and consequently no sacrifice : for there is mention made only of blessing the bread , for they receiv'd that which was blessed ; and therefore either the consecration was imperfect , or the reception was intire . To this purpose also the words of S. Ambrose are severe , and speak clearly of communicants without distinction of Priest and People : which distinction , though it be in this article nothing to the purpose , yet I observe it to prevent such trifling cavils , which my Adversaries put me often to sight with . His words are these : [ He ( viz. the Apostle S. Paul ) saith , that he is unworthy of the Lord who otherwise celebrates the mystery than it was deliver'd by him . For he cannot be devout that presumes otherwise than it was given by the Author : Therefore he before admonishes , that according to the order delivered , the mind of him that comes to the Eucharist of our Lord be devout ; for there is a judgment to come , that as every one comes , so he may render an account in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ , because they who come without the discipline of the delivery ( or tradition ) and of conversation are guilty of the body and blood of our Lord. ] One of my Adversaries says these words of S. Ambrose are to be understood only of the Priest : and it appears so , by the word celebrat , not recipit ; he that celebrates otherwise than is delivered by Christ. To this I answer , that first it is plain , and S. Ambrose so expresses his meaning to be of all that receive it , for so he says [ that the mind of him that cometh to the Eucharist of our Lord ought to be devout . ] 2. It is an ignorant conceit , that S. Ambrose by celebrat , means the Priest only , because he only can celebrate . For however the Church of Rome does now almost impropriate that word to the Priest , yet in the Primitive Church it was no more than recipit or accedit ad Eucharistiam , which appears not only by S. Ambrose his expounding it so here , but in S. Cyprian , speaking to a rich Matron , Locuples & dives Dominicum celebrare te credis , & corban omnino non respicis ? Dost thou who art rich and opulent suppose that you celebrate the Lords Supper , ( or sacrifice ) who regardest not the poor mans basket ? Celebrat is the word , and receive must needs be the signification , and so it is in S. Ambrose ; and therefore I did ( as I ought ) translate it so . 3. It is yet objected , that I translate [ aliter quam ab eo traditum est ] otherwise than he appointed ; whereas it should be , otherwise than it was given by him . And this surely is a great matter , and the Gentleman is very subtle . But if he be ask'd , whether or no Christ appointed it to be done as he did , to be given as he gave it ? I suppose this deep and wise note of his will just come to nothing . But ab eo traditum est , of it self signifies , appointed ; for this he deliver'd not only by his hands , but by his commandment of Hoc facite ; that was his appointment . Now that all this relates to the whole institution and doctrine of Christ in this matter , and therefore to the duplication of the Elements , the reception of the chalice , as well as the consecrated bread , appears first by the general terms ; qui aliter mysterium celebrat , he that celebrates otherwise than Christ delivered . 2. These words are a Commentary upon that of S. Paul , He that eats this bread , and drinks the Cup of the Lord unworthily , is guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. ] Now hence S. Ambrose arguing that all must be done , as our Lord delivered , says also that the bread must be eaten , and the cup drunk as our Lord delivered : and he that does not do both , does not do what our Lord delivered . 3. The conclusion of S. Ambrose is full to this particular : They are guilty of the body and blood of Christ , who came without the discipline of the delivery and of conversation , that is , they who receive without due preparation , and not after the manner it was delivered , that is , under the differing symbols of bread and wine . To which we may add that observation of Cassander , and of Vossius ; that the Apostles represented the persons of all the faithful , and Christ saying to them , Take and eat , he also said , Drink ye all of this ; he said not , Eat ye all of this ; and therefore if by vertue of these words , Drink ye all of this , the Laity be not commanded to drink , it can never be proved that the Laity are commanded to eat ; Omnes is added to bibite , but it is not expresly added to Accipite & Comedite , and therefore Paschasius Radbertus , who lived about eight hundred and twenty years after Christs incarnation , so expounds the precept without any hesitation , Bibite ex hoc omnes , i. e. tam Ministri quam reliqui credentes , Drink ye all of this , as well they that minister , as the rest of the believers . And no wonder , since for their so doing they have the example and institution of Christ ; by which as by an irrefragable and undeniable argument , the Ancient Fathers us'd to reprove and condemn all usages which were not according to it . For saith S. Cyprian , [ If men ought not to break the least of Christs commandments , how much less those great ones which belong to the Sacrament of our Lords passion and redemption , or to change it into any thing but that which was appointed by him ? ] Now this was spoken against those who refus'd the hallowed wine , but took water instead of it ; and it is of equal force against them that give to the Laity no cup at all ; but whatever the instance was or could be , S. Cyprian reproves it upon the only account of prevaricating Christs institution . The whole Epistle is worth reading for a full satisfaction to all wise and sober Christians ; Abeo quod Christus Magister & praecepit & gessit humana & novella institutione decedere , by a new and humane institution to depart from what Christ our Master commanded and did ; that the Bishops would not do ; tamen quoniam quidam , &c. because there are some who simply and ignorantly [ In calice Dominico sanctificando & plebi ministrando non hoc faciunt quod Jesus Christus Dominus & Deus noster sacrificii hujus author & Doctor fecit & docuit , &c. ] In sanctifying the cup of the Lord , and giving it to the people do not do what Jesus Christ did and taught , viz. they did not give the cup of wine to the people ; therefore S. Cyprian calls them to return ad radicem & originem traditionis Dominicae , to the root and original of the Lords delivery . Now besides that S. Cyprian plainly says , that when the chalice was sanctified , it was also ministred to the people ; I desire it be considered , whether or no these words do not plainly reprove the Roman doctrine and practice , in not giving the consecrated chalice to the people : Do they not recede from the root and original of Christs institution ? Do they do what Christ did ? Do they teach what Christ taught ? Is not their practice quite another thing than it was at first ? Did not the Ancient Church do otherwise than these men do ? and thought themselves oblig'd to do otherwise ? They urg'd the doctrine and example of our Lord , and the whole Oeconomy of the Mystery was their warrant and their reason : for they always believed that a peculiar grace and vertue was signified by the symbol of wine ; and it was evident that the chalice was an excellent representment and memorial of the effusion of Christs blood for us , and the joyning both the symbols signifies the intire refection and nourishment of our souls , bread and drink being the natural provisions ; and they design and signifie our redemption more perfectly , the body being given for our bodies , and the blood for the cleansing our souls , the life of every animal being in the blood : and finally , this in the integrity , signifies and represents Christ to have taken body and soul for our redemption . For these reasons the Church of God always in all her publick communions gave the chalice to the people for above a thousand years . This was all I would have remarked in this so evident a matter , but that I observed in a short spiteful passage of E. W. Pag. 44. a notorious untruth spoken with ill intent concerning the Holy Communion as understood by Protestants . The words are these , [ seeing the fruit of Protestant Communion is only to stir up faith in the receiver , I can find no reason why their bit of bread only , may not as well work that effect , as to taste of their wine with it . ] To these words , 1. I say , that although stirring up faith is one of the Divine benefits and blessings of the Holy Communion , yet it is falsely said , that the fruit of the Protestant Communion is only to stir up faith . For in the Catechism of the Church of England it is affirmed , that the body and blood of Christ are verily and indeed taken and received of the faithful in the Lords Supper : and that our souls are strengthened and refreshed by the body and blood of Christ , as our bodies are by the bread and wine , ] and that of stirring up our faith is not at all mention'd : So ignorant , so deceitful , or deceiv'd is E. W in the doctrine of the Church of England . But then as for his foolish sarcasm , calling the hallowed Element a bit of bread , which he does in scorn ; he might have considered , that if we had a mind to find fault whenever his Church gives us cause , that the Papists wafer is scarce so much as a bit of bread , it is more like Marchpane than common bread , and besides that ( as Salmeron acknowledges ) anciently , Olim ex pane uno sua cuique particula frangi consueverat , that which we in our Church do was the custom of the Church ; out of a great loaf to give particles to every communicant , by which the Communication of Christs body to all the members is better represented , and that Durandus affirming the same thing , says that the Grecians continue it to this day ; besides this ( I say ) the Author of the Roman order ( says Cassander ) took it very ill , that the loaves of bread offered in certain Churches for the use of the sacrifice should be brought from the form of true bread to so slight and slender a form , which he calls Minutias nummulariarum oblatarum , scraps of little penies or pieces of money , ] and not worthy to be called bread , being such which no Nation ever used at their meals for bread . But this is one of the innovations which they have introduc'd into the religious Rites of Christianity , and it is little noted , they having so many greater changes to answer for . But it seems this Section was too hot for them , they loved not much to meddle with it ; and therefore I shall add no more fuel to their displeasure , but desire the Reader , who would fully understand what is fit to be said in this Question , to read it in a book of mine which I called Ductor dubitantium , or the Cases of Conscience ; only I must needs observe , that it is an unspeakable comfort to all Protestants , when so manifestly they have Christ on their side in this Question against the Church of Rome . To which I only add , that for above 700. years after Christ , it was esteemed sacriledge in the Church of Rome to abstain from the Cup , and that in the ordo Romanus the Communion is always describ'd with the Cup ; how it is since , and how it comes to be so , is too plain . But it seems the Church hath power to dispence in this affair , because S. Paul said , that the Ministers of Christ are dispensers of the mysteries of God : as was learnedly urg'd in the Council of Trent in the doctrine about this question . SECT . V. Of the Scriptures and Service in an unknown Tongue . THE Question being still upon the novelty of the Roman doctrines , and Practices ; I am to make it good that the present article and practice of Rome is contrary to the doctrine and practice of the Primitive Church . To this purpose I alledged S. Basil in his Sermon or book de variis scripturae locis : But say my adversaries , there is no such book . ] Well! was there such a man as S. Basil ? If so , we are well enough ; and let these Gentlemen be pleas'd to look into his works printed at Paris , 1547. by Carola Guillard , and in the 130. page , he shall see this Book , Sermon , or Homily , in aliquot scripturae locis , at the beginning of which he hath an exhortation in the words placed in the Margent , there we shall find the lost Sheep : The beginning of it is an exhortation to the people , congregated to get profit and edification by the Scriptures read at morning prayer , the Monitions in the Psalms , the precepts of the Proverbs ; Search ye the beauty of the history , and the examples , and add to these the precepts of the Apostles . But in all things joyn the words of the Gospel , as the Crown and perfection , that receiving profit from them all , ye may at length turn to that to which every one is sweetly affected , and for the doing of which he hath received the grace of the Holy Spirit . ] Now this difficulty being over , all that remains for my own justification is , that I make it appear that S. Chrysostom , S. Ambrose , S. Austin , Aquinas and Lyra do respectively exhort to the study of the Scriptures , exhorting even the Laity to do so , and testifie the custom of the Ancient Church in praying in a known tongue , and commending this as most useful , and condemning the contrary as being useless and without edification . I shall in order set down the doctrine they deliver in their own words , and then the impertinent cavils of the adversaries will of themselves come to nothing . S. Chrysostom commenting upon S. Pauls words concerning preaching and praying for edification , and so as to be understood ; coming to those words of S. Paul , If I pray with my tongue , my spirit prayeth but my mind is without fruit [ you see ( saith he ) how a little extolling prayer he shews , that he who is such a one ( viz. as the Apostle there describes ) is not only unprofitable to others , but also to himself , since his mind is without fruit . ] Now if a man praying what he understands not , does not , cannot profit himself ; how can he that stands by , who understands no more , be profited by that which does him that speaks no good ? For God understands though he does not , and yet he that so prays reaps no benefit to himself , and therefore neither can any man that understands no more . The affirmation is plain , and the reason cogent : To the same purpose are the words of S. Chrysostom which A. L. himself quotes out of him [ If one speaks in only the Persian tongue , or some other strange tongue , but knows not what he saith , certainly he will be a barbarian even to himself , and not to another only , because he knows not the force of the words . ] This is no more than what S. Paul said before him ; but they all say , that he who hears and understands not whether it be the speaker or the scholar , is but a Barbarian . Thus also S. Ambrose in his Commentary upon the words of S. Paul [ The Apostle says , It is better to speak a few words , that are open or understood , that all may understand , than to have a long oration in obscurity : That 's his sence for reading and preaching : Now for prayer he adds , [ The unskilful man hearing what he understands not , knows not when the prayer ends , and answers not Amen , that is , so be it , or it is true , that the blessing may be established : and a little after , If ye meet together to edifie the Church , those things ought to be said , which the hearers may understand . For what profit is it to speak with a tongue , when he that hears is not profited ? Therefore he ought to hold his peace in the Church , that they who can profit the hearers may speak . * S. Austin compares singing in the Church without understanding to the chattering of Parrots and Magpies , Crows and Jackdaws . But to sing with understanding is by the will of God given to man. And we who sing the Divine praises in the Church , must remember that it is written , Blessed is the people that understands singing of praises . Therefore most beloved , what with a joyn'd voice we have sung we must understand and discern with a serene heart . ] To the same purpose are the words of Lyra and ‖ Aquinas , which I shall not trouble the Reader withall here , but have set them down in the Margent , that the strange confidence of these Romanists out-facing notorious and evident words may be made , if possible , yet more conspicuous . In pursuance of this doctrine of S. Paul and the Fathers , the Primitive Christians in their several Ages and Countries were careful , that the Bible should be translated into all languages where Christianity was planted . That the Bibles were in Greek is notorious ; and that they were us'd among the people S. Chrysostom homil . 1. in Joh. 8. is witness , that it was so , or that it ought to be so . For he exhorts , Vacemus ergo scripturis dilectissimi , &c. Let us set time apart to be conversant in the Scripture , at least in the Gospels , let us frequently handle them to imprint them in our minds , which because the Jews neglected they were commanded to have their books in their hands , but let us not have them in our hands , but in our houses and in our hearts ] by which words we may easily understand that all the Churches of the Greek communion had the Bible in their vulgar tongue , and were called upon to use them as Christians ought to do , that is , to imprint them in their hearts : and speaking of S. John and his Gospel , he says that the Syrians , Indians , Persians and Ethiopians , and infinite other nations , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; they grew wise by translating his ( S. Johns ) doctrines into their several languages . But it is more that S. Austin says , The divine Scripture by which help is supplied to so great diseases proceeded from one language which opportunely might be carried over the whole world , that being by the various tongues of interpreters scattered far and wide , it might be made known to the Nations for their salvation . And Theodoret speaks yet more plainly , [ We have manifestly shown to you the inexhausted strength of the Apostolick and prophetick doctrine ; for the Vniversal face of the Earth , whatsoever is under the Sun is now full of those words . For the Hebrew books are not only translated into the Greek idiom , but into the Roman tongue , the Egyptian , Persian , Indian , Armenian , Scythian , Sauromatick languages , and that I may speak once for all , into all tongues which at this day the Nations use . ] By these authorities of these Fathers we may plainly see how different the Roman doctrine and practice is from the sentiment and usages of the Primitive Church , and with what false confidence the Roman adversaries deny so evident truth , having no other way to make their doctrine seem tolerable , but by out-facing the known sayings of so many excellent persons ; and especially of S. Paul , who could not speak his mind in apt and intelligible words : if he did not in his Epistle to the Corinthians exhort the Church to pray * and prophesie so as to be understood by the Catechumens , and by all the people ; that is , to do otherwise than they do in the Roman Church : Christianity is a simple , wise , intelligible and easie Religion ; and yet if a man will resolve against any proposition , he may wrangle himself into a puzle , and make himself not to understand it so , though it be never so plain ; what is plainer than the testimony of their own Cajetan , [ That it were more for the edification of the Church that the prayers were in the vulgar tongue . ] He says no more than S. Paul says ; and he could not speak it plainer . And indeed no man of sence can deny it , unless he affirms at the same time that it is better to speak what we understand not , than what we do ; or that it were better to serve God without that noble faculty than with it ; that is , that the way of a Parrot , and a Jackdaw , were better than the way of a man ; and that in the service of God , the Priests and the people are to differ as a man and a bird . But besides all this ; was not Latin it self when it was first us'd in Divine service , the common tongue , and generally understood by many Nations and very many Colonies ? and if it was then the use of the Church to pray with the understanding , why shall it not be so now ? however , that it was so then , and is not so now , demonstrates that the Church of Rome hath in this material point greatly innovated : Let but the Roman Pontifical be consulted , and there will be yet found a form of ordination of Readers , in which it is said , that they must study to read distinctly and plainly , that the people may understand : But now it seems that labour is sav'd . And when a notorious change was made in this affair , we can tell by calling to mind the following story . The Moravians did say Mass in the Slavonian tongue ; for which Pope John the Eighth severely reprov'd them , and commanded them to do so no more ; but being better inform'd , he wrote a letter to their Prince Sfentoputero , in which he affirms , that it is not contrary to faith and found doctrine to say Mass and other prayers in the Slavonian tongue , and adds this reason ; because he that Hebrew , Greek , and Latin , hath made the others also for his glory ; and this also he confirms with the authority of S. Paul's first Epistle to the Corinthians , and some other Scriptures , only he commanded for the decorum of the business , the Gospel should first be said in Latin and then in the Slavonian tongue . But just two hundred years after this ▪ the Tables were turned , and though formerly these things were permitted , yet so were many things in the Primitive Church ; but upon better examination they have been corrected . And therefore P. Gregory the seventh wrote to Vratislaus of Bohemia , that he could not permit the celebration of the divine offices in the Slavonian tongue , and he commanded the Prince to oppose the people herein with all his forces . Here the world was strangely altered , and yet S. Paul's Epistle was not condemned of heresie , and no Council had decreed that all vulgar languages were prophane ; and no reason can yet be imagined why the change was made , unless it were to separate the Priest from the people , by a wall of Latin , and to nurse stupendious ignorance in them , by not permitting to them learning enough to understand their publick prayers , in which every man was greatly concerned . Neither may this be called a slight matter ; for besides that Gregory the seventh thought it so considerable , that it was a just cause of a war or persecution , ( for he commanded the Prince of Bohemia to oppose the people in it with all his forces ; ) besides this ( I say ) to pray to God with the understanding , is much better , than praying with the tongue ; that alone can be a good prayer , this alone can never ; and then the loss of all those advantages which are in prayers truly understood , the excellency of devotion , the passion of desires , the ascent of the mind to God , the adherence to and acts of confidence in him , the intellectual conversation with God , most agreeable to a rational being , the melting affections , the pulses of the heart to and from God , to and from our selves , the promoting and exercising of our hopes , all these and very many more ( which can never be intire but in the prayers and devotions of the heart , and can never be in any degree but in the same , in which the prayers are acts of love and wisdom , of the will and the understanding ) will be lost to the greatest part of the Catholick Church ▪ if the mouth be set open , and the soul be gag'd ; so that it shall be the word of the mouth , but not the word of the mind . All these things being added to what was said in this article by the Disswasive , will more than make it clear , that in this article ( the consequents of which are very great ) the Church of Rome hath causelesly troubled Christendom , and innovated against the Primitive Church , and against her own ancient doctrines and practices , and even against the Apostle : But they care for none of these things . Some of their own Bigots profess the thing in the very worst of all these expressions ; for so Reynolds and Gifford in their Calvino Turcismus complain that such horrid and stupendious evils have followed the translation of Scriptures into vulgar languages , that they are of force enough ad istas translationes penitus supprimendas , etiamsi Divina vel Apostolica authoritate niterentur : Although they did rely upon the authority Apostolical or Divine , yet they ought to be taken away . So that it is to no purpose to urge Scripture , or any argument in the world against the Roman Church in this article ; for if God himself command it to be translated , yet it is not sufficient : and therefore these men must be left to their own way of understanding , for beyond the law of God , we have no argument . I will only remind them , that it is a curse which God threatens to his rebellious people , [ I will speak to this people with men of another tongue , and by strange lips , and they shall not understand . This is the curse which the Church of Rome contends earnestly for , in behalf of their people . SECT . VI. Of the Worship of Images . THAT society of Christians will not easily be reformed , that think themselves oblig'd to dispute for the worship of Images , the prohibition of which was so great a part of the Mosaick Religion , and is so infinitely against the nature and spirituality of the Christian ; a thing which every understanding can see condemned in the Decalogue , and no man can excuse , but witty persons that can be bound by no words , which they can interpret to a sence contradictory to the design of the common : a thing for the hating of , and abstaining from which the Jews were so remark'd by all the world , and by which as by a distinctive cognizance they were separated from all other Nations , and which with perfect resolution they keep to this very day , and for the not observing of which , they are intolerably scandaliz'd at those societies of Christians , who without any necessity in the thing , without any pretence of any Law of God , for no good , and for no wise end , and not without infinite danger , at least , of idolatry , retain a worship and veneration to some stocks and stones . Such men as these are too hard for all laws , and for all arguments ; so certain it is , that faith is an obedience of the will in a conviction of the understanding ; that if in the will and interests of men there be a perverseness and a non-compliance , and that it is not bent by prudent and wise ●lexures and obedience to God , and the plain words of God in Scripture , nothing can ever prevail , neither David , nor his Sling , nor all the worthies of his army . In this question I have said enough in the Disswasive , and also in the Ductor Dubitantium ; but to the arguments and fulness of the perswasion , they neither have , nor can they say any thing that is material ; but according to their usual method , like flies they search up and down , and light upon any place which they suppose to be sore , or would make their proselytes believe so . I shall therefore first vindicate those few quotations which the Epistles of his brethren except against ; ( for there are many , and those most pregnant which they take no notice of ) as bearing in them too clear a conviction . 2. I shall answer such testimonies , which some of them steal out of Bellarmine , and which they esteem as absolutely their best . And 3. I shall add something in confirmation of that truth of God , which I here have undertaken to defend . First , for the questioned quotations against the worship of Images ; S. Cyril was nam'd in the Disswasive as denying that the Christians did give veneration and worship to the Image even of the cross it self , but no words of S. Cyril were quoted ; for the denial is not in express words , but in plain and direct argument : for being by Julian charg'd with worshipping the cross , S. Cyril in behalf of the Christians takes notice of their using the cross in a religious memory of all good things , to which by the cross of Christ we are ingag'd , that is , he owns all that they did , and therefore taking no notice of any thing of worship , and making no answer to that part of the objection , it is certain that the Christians did not do it , or that he could not justifie them in so doing . But because I quoted no words of S. Cyril , I now shall take notice of some words of his , which do most abundantly clear this particular by a general rule ; [ Only the Divine Nature is capable of adoration , and the Scripture hath given adoration to no nature but to that of God alone ; ] that , and that alone ought to be worshipped . But to give yet a little more light to this particular ; it may be noted that before S. Cyrils time this had been objected by the Pagans , particularly by Caecilius , to which Minutius answers by directly denying it , and saying , that the Pagans did rather worship crosses , that is , the woodden parts of their Gods. The Christians indeed were by Tertullian called Religiosi crucis , because they had it in thankful use and memory , and us'd it frequently in a symbolical confession of their not being asham'd , but of their glorying in the real cross of Christ : But they never worshipped the material cross , or the figure of it , as appears by S. Cyrils owning all the objections , excepting this only , of which he neither confessed the fact , nor offered any justification of it when it was objected , but professed a doctrine with which such practice was inconsistent . And the like is to be said of some other of the Fathers who speak with great affections and veneration of the cross , meaning to exalt the passion of Christ ; and in the sence of S. Paul to glory in the cross of Christ , not meaning the material cross , much less the image of it , which we blame in the Church of Rome : And this very sence we have expressed in S. Ambrose , Sapiens Helena egit , quae crucem in capite regum levavit , ut Christi Crux in Regibus adoretur . The figure of the material cross was by Helena plac'd upon the heads of Kings , that the cross of Christ in Kings might be ador'd : ] How so ? He answers , Non insolentia ista sed pietas est cum defertur sacrae redemptioni . It is to the holy redemption , not to the cross materially taken ; this were insolent , but the other is piety . In the same manner also S. Chrysostom is by the Roman Doctors , and particularly by Gretser , and E. W. urg'd for the worshipping Christs cross . But the book de cruce & latrone , whence the words are cited ; Gretser and Possevine suspect it to be a spurious issue of some unknown person : It wants a Father ; and sometimes it goes to S. Austin , and is crouded into his Sermons de Tempore : But I shall not trouble my discourse any farther with such counterfeit ware . What S. Chrysostoms doctrine was in the matter of Images , is plain enough in his indubitate works , as is , and shall be remark'd in their several places . The famous testimony of Epiphanius , against the very use of Images in Churches , being urg'd in the Disswasive as an irrefragable argument that the Roman doctrine is not Primitive or Catholick , the contra-scribers say nothing ; but that when S. Hierom translated that Epistle of S. Epiphanius , it appears not that this story was in that Epistle that S. Hierom translated ; which is a great argument that that story was foisted into that Epistle after S. Hieroms time . ] A likely matter ! but spoken upon slight grounds . It appears not , saith the Objector , that this story was in it then : To whom does it not appear ? To Bellarmine indeed it did not , nor to this Objector who writes after him . Alan Cope denied that Epiphanius ever wrote any such Epistle at all , or that S. Hierom ever translated any such ; but Bellarmine being asham'd of such unreasonable boldness , found out this more gentle answer , which here we have from our Objector : well ! but now the case is thus ; that this story was put into the Epistle by some Iconoclast is vehemently suspected by Bellarmine and Baronius . But this Epistle vehemently burns their fingers , and the live-coal sticks close to them , and they can never shake it off . For 1. who should add this story to this Epistle ? not any of the reformed Doctors ; for before Luthers time many ages , this Epistle with this story was known , and confessed , and quoted , in the Manuscript copies of divers Nations . 2. This Epistle was quoted , and set down as now it is , with this story by Charles the great above DCCC . years ago . 3. And a little after by the Fathers in the Council of Paris ; only they call the Author John Bishop of C. P. instead of Jerusalem . 4. Sirmondus the Jesuit cites this Epistle as the genuine work of Epiphanius . 5. Marianus Victor , and Dionysius Petavius a Jesuit , of great and deserved same for learning in their Editions of Epiphanius , have published this whole Epistle ; and have made no note , given no censure upon this story . 6. Before them * Thomas Waldensis , and since him Alphonsus à Castro acknowledge this whole Epistle as the proper issue of Epiphanius . 7. Who can be suppos'd to have put in this story ? The Iconoclasts ? Not the Greeks , because if they had , they would have made use of it for their advantage , which they never did in any of their disputations against images ; insomuch that Bellarmine makes advantage of it , because they never objected it . Not the Latins that wrote against images ; for though they were against the worship of images , yet they were not Iconoclasts : Indeed Claudius Taurinensis was , but he could not put this story in , for before his time it was in , as appears in the book of Charles the great before quoted . These things put together are more than sufficient to prove that this story was written by Epiphanius , and the whole Epistle was translated by S. Hierome , as himself testifies . But after all this , if there was any foul play in this whole affair , the cosenage lies on the other side ; for some or other have destroyed the Greek original of Epiphanius , and only the Latin copies remain ; and in all of them of Epiphanius's works , this story still remains . But how the Greek came to be lost , though it be uncertain , yet we have great cause to suspect the Greeks to be the Authors of the loss : And the cause of this suspicion is the command made by the Bishops in the seventh Council , that all writings against images should be brought in to the Bishop of C. P. there to be laid up with the books of other hereticks . It is most likely here it might go away : But however , the good providence of God hath kept this record to reprove the follies of the Roman Church in this particular . The authority of S. Austin , reprehending the worship of images , was urg'd from several places of his writings cited in the Margent . In his first book de moribus Ecclesiae , he hath these words which I have now set down in the Margent ; in which , describing among other things the difference between superstition and true religion , he presses it on to ●ssue ; [ Tell not me of the professors of the Christian name . Follow not the troops of the unskilful , who in true religion it self either are superstitious , or so given to lusts ▪ that they have forgotten what they have promis'd to God. I know that there are many worshippers of sepulchres and pictures , I know that there are many who live luxuriously over [ the graves of ] the dead . ] That S. Austin reckons these that are worshippers of pictures among the superstitious and the vitious , is plain , and forbids us to follow such superstitious persons . But see what follows , [ But how vain , how hurtful , how sacrilegious they are , I have purpos'd to shew in another volume . ] Then addressing himself to the Manichees , who upon the occasion of these evil and superstitious practices of some Catholicks , did reproach the Catholick Church , he says , [ Now I admonish you ●hat at length you will give over the reproaching the Catholick Church , by reproaching the manners the of these men , ( viz. worshippers of pictures , and sepulchres , and livers riotously over the dead , ) whom she her self condemns , and whom as evil sons she endeavours to correct . ] By these words now cited , it appears plainly , that S. Austin affirms that those few Christians , who in his time did worship pictures , were not only superstitious , but condemned by the Church . This the Letter writer denies S. Austin to have said ; but that he did say so , we have his own words for witness . Yea , but 2. S. Austin did not speak of worshippers of Pictures alone : what then ? Neither did he of them alone say they were superstitious , and their actions vain , hurtful and sacrilegious . But does it follow that therefore he does not say so at all of these , because he says it of the others too ? But 3. neither doth he formally call them superstitious ; ] I know not what this offer of an answer means , certain it is , when S. Austin had complained that many Christians were superstitious , his first instance is of them that worship pictures and graves . But I perceive this Gentleman found himself pinch'd beyond remedy , and like a man fastned by his thumbs at the whipping-post , he wries his back and shrinks from the blow , though he knows he cannot get loose . In the Margent of the Dissuasive , there were two other testimonies of S. Austin pointed at ; but the * Letter says , that in these S. Austin hath not a word to any such purpose : That is now to be tryed . The purpose for which they were brought , is to reprove the doctrine and practice of the Church of Rome in the matter of images : It was not intended that all these places should all speak or prove the same particular ; but that which was affirmed in the text being sufficiently verified by the first quotation in the Margent , the other two are fully pertinent to the main inquiry , and to the condemnation of the Roman doctrine , as the first was of the Roman practice . The words are these , [ Neither is it to be thought that God is circumscribed in a humane shape , that they who think of him should fancy a right or a left side , or that because the Father is said to sit , it is to be supposed , that he does it with bended knees , lest we fall into that sacriledge , for which the Apostle execrates them that change the glory of the incorruptible God into the similitude of a corruptible man. For , for a Christian to place such an image to God in the Church is wickedness , but much more wicked is it to place it in our heart . ] So S. Austin . Now this testimony had been more properly made use of in the next Section , as more relating to the proper matter of it , as being a direct condemnation of the picturing of God ; but here it serves without any sensible error , and where ever it is , it throws a stone at them , and hits them . But of this more in the sequel . But the third testimony ( however it pleases A. L. to deny it ) does speak home to this part of the question , and condemns the Roman hypothesis : the words are these , [ See that ye forget not the testimony of your God which he wrote , or that ye make shapes and images : ] But it adds also saying , Your God is a consuming fire , and a zealous God. These words from the Scripture Adimantus propounded ; [ Yet remember not only there , but also here concerning the zeal of God , be so blames the Scriptures , that he adds that which is commanded by our Lord God in those books , concerning the not worshipping of images ; as if for nothing else he reprehends that zeal of God , but only because by that very zeal we are forbidden to worship images . Therefore he would seem to favour images , which therefore they do that they might reconcile the good will of the Pagans to their miserable and mad sect , ] meaning the sect of the Manichees , who to comply with the Pagans , did retain the worship of images . And now the three testimonies are verified ; and though this was an unnecessary trouble to me , and I fear it may be so to my Reader , yet the Church of Rome hath got no advantage but this , that in S. Austins sence , that which Romanists do now , the Manichees did then ; only these did it to comply with the Heathens , and those out of direct and meer superstition . But to clear this point in S. Austins doctrine , the Reader may please to read his 19. book against Faustus the Manichee , cap. 18. and the 119. Epistle against him , chap. 12. where he affirms that the Christians observe that , which the Jews did in this , viz. that which was written , Hear O Israel , the Lord thy God is one God , thou shalt not make an idol to thee , and such like things : and in the latter place , he affirms that the second Commandment is moral , viz. that all of the Decalogue are so , but only the fourth . I add a third as pregnant as any of the rest : for in his first book de consensu Evangelistarum , speaking of some who had fallen into error upon occasion of the pictures of S. Peter and S. Paul , he says , Sic nempe errare meruerunt qui Christum & Apostolos ejus non in sanctis codicibus sed in pictis parietibus quaesiverunt . The Council of Eliberis is of great concern in this Question , and does great effort to the Roman practices . E. W. takes notice of it , and his best answer to it is , that it hath often been answered already . He says true ; it hath been answered both often and many ways . The Council was in the year 305. of 19. Bishops , who in the 36. Canon , decreed this [ placuit picturas in Ecclesiis esse non debere ] It hath pleas'd us that pictures ought not to be in Churches ; That 's the decree ; The reason they give is , ne quod colitur & adoratur in parietibus depingatur , lest that which is worshipped be painted on the walls . So that there are two propositions ; 1. Pictures ought not to be in Churches . 2. That which is worshipped ought not to be painted upon walls . E. W. hath a very learned Note upon this Canon . Mark , first the Council supposeth worship and adoration due to pictures , ne quod colitur & adoratur . By which Mark , E. W. confesses that pictures are the object of his adoration , and that the Council took no care and made no provision for the honour of God , ( who is and ought to be worshipp'd and ador'd in Churches , & illi soli servies ) but only were good husbands for the pictures for fear , 1. they should be spoiled by the moisture of the walls , or 2. defaced by the Heathen ; the first of these is Bellarmines , the latter is Perrons answer : But too childish to need a severer consideration . But how easie had it been for them to have commanded that all their pictures should have been in frames , upon boards or cloth , as it is in many Churches in Rome , and other places . 2. Why should the Bishops forbid pictures to be in Churches ; for fear of spoiling one kind of them , they might have permitted others , though not these . 3. Why should any man be so vain as to think , that in that age , in which the Christians were in perpetual disputes against the Heathens for worshipping pictures and images , they should be so curious to preserve their pictures , and reserve them for ●doration . 4. But then to make pictures to be the subject of that caution , ne quod colitur , & adoratur , and not to suppose God and his Christ to be the subject of it , is so unlike the religion of Christians , the piety of those ages , the Oeconomy of the Church , and the analogy of the Commandment , that it betrays a refractory and heretical spirit in him , that shall so perversly invent an Unreasonable Commentary , rather than yield to so pregnant and easie testimony . But some are wiser , and consider , that the Council takes not care that pictures be not spoil'd , but that they be not in the Churches : and that what is adorable be not there painted , and not , be not there spoiled . The not painting them is the utmost of their design , not the preserving them ; for we see vast numbers of them every where painted on walls , and preserved well enough , and easily repaired upon decay , therefore this is too childish ; to blot them out for fear they be spoiled , and not to bring them into Churches for fear they be taken out . Agobardus Bishop of Lions , above 800. years since cited this Canon in a book of his which he wrote de picturis & imaginibus , which was published by Papirius Massonus ; and thus illustrates it , Recte ( saith he ) nimirum ob hujusmodi evacuandam superstitionem ab Orthodoxis patribus definitum est picturas in Ecclesia fieri non debere [ Nec ] quod colitur & adoratur in parietibus depingatur . Where first he expresly affirms these Fathers in this Canon to have intended only rooting up this superstition , not the ridiculous preserving the pictures . So it was Understood then . But then 2. Agobardus reads it , Nec , not [ Ne ] quod colitur , which reading makes the latter part of the Canon , to be part of the sanction , and no reason of the former decree ; pictures must not be made in Churches , neither ought that to be painted upon walls which is worshipped and adored . This was the doctrine and sentiment of the wise and good men above 800. years since . By which also the Unreasonable supposition of Baronius , that the Canon is not genuine , is plainly confuted ; this Canon not being only in all copies of that Council , but own'd for such by Agobardus so many ages before Baronius , and so many ages after the Council . And he is yet farther reproved by Cardinal Perron who tells a story , that in Granada in memory of this Council , they use frames for pictures , and paint none upon the wall at this day . It seems they in Granada are taught to understand that Canon according unto the sence of the Patrons of images , and to mistake the plain meaning of the Council . For the Council did not forbid only to paint upon the walls , for that according to the common reading is but accidental to the decree ; but the Council commanded that no picture should be in Churches . Now then let this Canon be confronted with the Council of Trent , Sess. 25. decret . de S. S. invoc . [ Imagines Christi , Deiparae virginis , & aliorum sanctor●m in templis praesertim habendas & retinendas , that the images of Christ , and of the Virgin Mother of God , and of other Saints be had and kept especially in Churches : ] and in the world there cannot be a greater contradiction between two , than there is between Eliberis and Trent , the old and the new Church : for the new Church not only commands pictures and images to be kept in Churches , but paints them upon walls , and neither fears thieves nor moisture . There are divers other little answers amongst the Roman Doctors to this uneasie objection ; but they are only such as venture at the telling the secret reasons why the Council so decreed ; as Alan Cope saith , it was so decreed , lest the Christians should take them for Gods , or lest the Heathen should think the Christians worshipped them ; so Sanders . But it matters not for what reason they decreed : Only if either of these say true , then Bellarmine and Perron are false in their conjectures of the reason . But it matters not ; for suppose all these reasons were concentred in the decree , yet the decree it self is not observ'd at this day in the Roman Church , but a doctrine and practice quite contrary introduced . And therefore my opinion is , that Melchior Canus answers best , [ aut nimis duras aut parum rationi consentaneas à Consiliis provincialibus interdum editas , non est negandum . Qualis illa non impudenter modo verum etiam impie à Concilio Elibertino de tollendis imaginibus . By this we may see not only how irreverently the Roman Doctors use the Fathers when they are not for their turns ; but we may also perceive how the Canon condemns the Roman doctrine and practice in the matter of images . The next inquiry is concerning matter of History , relating to the second Synod of Nice in the East , and that of Francfurt in the West . In the Dissuasive it was said , that Eginardus , Hincmarus , Aventinus , &c. affirmed , 1. That the Bishops assembled at Francfurt , and condemned the Synod of Nice . 2. That they commanded it should not be called a General Council . 3. They published a book under the name of the Emperor confuting that Unchristian Assembly . These things were said out of these Authors , not supposing that every thing of this should be prov'd from every one of them , but the whole of it by its several parts from all these put together . 1. That the Bishops of Francfurt condemned the Synod of Nice or the seventh General . Whether the Dissuasive hath said this truly out of the Authors quoted by him , we need no further proof , but the confession of Bellarmine . Auctores antiqui omnes conveniunt in hoc , quod in concilio Francofordiensi sit reprobata Synodus VII . quae decreverat imagines adorandas . Ita Hincmarus , Aimonius , Rhegino , Ado , & alii passim docent . So that if the objector blames the Dissuasive for alledging these authorities , let him first blame Bellarmine , who confesses that to be true , which the Dissuasive here affirms . Now that by the VII . Synod Bellarmine means the II. Nicene , appears by his own words in the same chapter . Videtur igitur mihi in Synodo Francofordiensi vere reprobatam Nicaenam II. Synodum ; sed per errorem , & materialiter , &c. And Bellarmine was in the right ; not only those which the Dissuasive quoted , but all the Ancient Writers saith Bellarmine . So the Author of the life of Charles the Great , speaking of the Council of Francfurt ; [ Their Queen Fastrada died . Pseudosynodus Graecorum quam falso septimam vocabant pro imaginibus , rejecta est à pontificibus . The same is affirmed by the Annals of the Francks (a) ; by Adhelmus Benedictinus in his Annals , in the same year ; by Hincmarus Rhemensis (b) in an Epistle to Hincmarus his Nephew ; by Strabus the Monk of Fulda , Rhegino Prumiensis , Vrspergensis , and Hermanus Contractus in their Annals and Chronicles of the year 794. By Ado Viennensis (c) ; sed pseudosynodus , quam septimam Graeci appellant , pro adorandis imaginibus , abdicata penitus ; the same is affirmed by the annals of Eginhardus (d) ; and by Aimoinus (e) and Aventinus . I could reckon many more , if more were nececessary , but these are they whom the Dissuasive quoted , and some more ; against this truth nothing material can be said , only that Hincmarus and Aimonius ( which are two whom the Dissuasive quotes ) do not say that the Synod of Francfurt rejected the second Nicene , but the Synod of C. P. But to this Bellarmine himself answers , that is is true they do so , but it is by mistake ; and that they meant the Council which was kept at Nice : so that the Dissuasive is justified by his greatest adversary . But David Blondel answers this objection , by saying that C.P. being the head of the Eastern Empire , these Authors us'd the name of the Imperial city for the provinces under it : which answer though it be ingenious , yet I rather believe that the error came first from the Council of Francfurt , who called it the Synod at C. P. and that after it , these Authors took it up : but that error was not great , but always excusable , if not warrantable ; because the second Nicene Council was first appointed to be at C.P. but by reason of the tumults of the people , was translated to Nice . But to proceed , That Blondus ( whom the Dissuasive also quotes ) saith , the Synod of Francfurt abrogated the seventh Synod , the objector confesses , and adds , that it confuted the Felician heresie for taking away of images : concerning which , lest the less wary Reader should suppose the Synod of Francfurt to have deternin'd for images , as Alan Cope , Gregory de Valentia , Vasquez , Suarez , and Binius would fain have the world believe ; I shall note , that the Synod of Francfurt did at the same time condemn the Heresie of Felix Vrgetitanus , which was , that Christ was the adopted son of God. Now because in this Synod were condemned the breakers of images , and the worshippers of images ; some ignorantly ( amongst which is this Gentleman the objector ) have suppos'd that the Felician Heresie was that of the Iconoclasts . 2. Now for the second thing which the Dissuasive said from these Authors ; that the Fathers at Francfurt commanded that the second Nicene should not be called a general Council , that matter is sufficiently cleared in the proof of the first particular ; for if they abrogated it , and called it pseudosynodum , and decreed against it ; hoc ipso , they caused it should not be , or be called a General Synod . But I shall declare what the Synod did in the words of Adhelmus Benedictinus ; Synodus etiam quae paucos ante annos C. P. sub Helena & Constantino filio ejus congregata , & ab ipsis non tantum septima , verum etiam Vniversalis est appellata , ut nec septima nec Vniversalis diceretur , habereturque quasi supervacua , in totum ab omnibus abdicata est . 3. Now for the third thing , which the Dissuasive said , that they published a book under the name of the Emperor ; I am to answer that such a book about that time , within three or four years of it , was published in the name of the Emperor , is notoriously known , and there was great reason to believe it was written three or four years before the Synod , and sent by the Emperor to the Pope ; but that divers of the Church of Rome did endeavour to perswade the world that the Emperor did not write it , but that it was written by the Synod , and contains the acts of the Synod , but published under the Emperors name . Now this the Dissuasive affirm'd by the authority of Hincmarus who does affirm it , and of the same opinion is Bellarmine ; Scripti videntur in Synodo Francofordiensi & acta continere synodi Francofordiensis : & enim asserit Hincmarus ejus temporis Author . ] So that by all this the Reader may plainly see how careful the Dissuasive was in what was affirm'd , and how careless this Gentleman is of what he objects : Only this I add , that though it be said that this book contained the acts of the Synod of Francfurt , though it might be partly true , yet not wholly . For this Synod did indeed do so much against that of the Greeks , and was so decretory against the worship of Images , ( quod omnino Ecclesia Dei execratur , said Hoveden , and Matthew of Westminster ) that it is vehemently suspected , that the Patrons of Images ( the objector knows whom I mean ) have taken a timely course with it , so that the monuments of it are not to be seen , nor yet a famous and excellent Epistle of Alcuinus written against the Greek Synod , though his other works are in a large volume carefully enough preserved . It was urg'd as an argument à minori ad majus , that in the Primitive Church it was accounted unlawful to make images ; and therefore it was impossible that the worship of images should then be the doctrine or practice of the Catholick Church . To this purpose Clemens Alexandrinus , Tertullian and Origen were alledged . First for Tertullian , of whom the Letter says , that he said no such thing : sure it is , this man did not care what he said ; supposing it sufficient to pass the common Reader , to say Tertullian did not say for what he is alledged , for more will believe him , than examine him . But the words of Tertullian shall manifest the strange confidence of this person . The Quotations out of Tertullian are only noted in the Margent , but the words were not cited , but now they must , to justifie me and themselves . 1. That reference to Tertullians book of Idolatry , the objector takes no notice of , as knowing it would reproach him too plainly : see the words , [ the artificers of statues and images , and all kind of representations , the Devil brought into the world , ] and when he had given the Etymology of an idol , saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is formula , he adds , Igitur omnis forma vel formula idolum se dici exposcit : Inde omnis Idoli artifex ejusdem & Vnius est criminis . And a little before . Exinde jam caput facta est Idololatriae ars omnis quae Idolum quoquo modo edit . And in the beginning of the fourth chapter , Idolum tam fieri quam coli Deus prohibet . Quanto praecedit ut fiat quod coli possit , tanto prius est ne fiat si coli non licet . And again , toto mundo ejusmodi artibus interdixit servis Dei. And a little after he brings in some or other objecting ; Sed ait quidam adversus similitudinis interdictae propositionem , cur ergo Moses in eremo simulachrum serpentis ex aere secit ? To this at last he answers . Si eundum Deum observas habes legem ejus , ne feceris similitudinem , si & praeceptum factae postea similitudinis respicis & tu imitare Moysen . Ne facias adversus legem simulachrum aliquod , nisi & tibi Deus jusserit . Now here is no subterfuge for any one : For Tertullian first says , the Devil brought into the world all the artists and makers of statues , images and all sorts of similitudes . 2. He makes all these to be the same with Idols . And 3. that God as well forbad the making of these and the worship of them , and that the maker is guilty of the same crime ; and lastly I add , his definition of Idolatry , Idololatria est omnis circa omne idolum famulatus & servitus . Every image is an idol , and every service and obeysance about any or every idol is idolatry . I hope all this put together will convince the Gentleman that denied it , that Tertullian hath said some such thing as the Dissuasive quoted him for . Now for the other place quoted , the words are these ; proinde & similitudinem vetans fieri omnium quae in coelo & in terra & in aquis , ostendit & causas , idololatriae scilicet substantiam exhibentes . God forbidding all similitude to be made of things in Heaven and Earth , and in the Waters , shews the causes that restrain idolatry : the causes of idolatry be more fully described in the fore-cited place ; Quando enim & sine idolo idololatria fiat : for he supposes the making of the images to be the cause of their worshipping , and he calls this making statues and images Daemoniis corpora facere . But there is yet another place in his books against Marcion , where Tertullian affirming that S. Peter knew Moses and Elias on Mount Tabor by a spiritual extasie , says it upon this reason , Nec enim imagines eorum aut statuas populus habuisset aut similitudines lege prohibente . The same also is to be seen in his book De spectaculis , c. 23. Jam vero ipsum opus personarum quaero an Deo placeat qui omnem similitudinem vetat fieri , quanto magis imaginis suae . By this time I hope the Gentleman thinks himself in some shame , for denying that Tertullian said the making of Images to be Unlawful . Now let us see for the other two Authors quoted by the Dissuasive ; The objector in the Letter says , they only spake of making the Images of Jupiter and the other heathen Gods : but E. W. says he cannot find those quotations out of Clemens of Alexandria , because the books quoted are too big , and he could not espy them . The author of the Letter never examined them , but took them for granted ; but E. W. did search a little , but not exactly . However he ought not to have look'd in the sixth book of the Stromata for the words there quoted , but in the protrepticon , as I shall shew by and by . That other quotation in the Stromata is the sixth book , and is only referred to , as to the question in general against images , for so S. Clement calls it spiritual adultery to make idols or images . Now to this E. W. says , although he did not find what he look'd for , yet he knows before-hand , that the word in the Latin translation is simulachrum , that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , an Idol . It is indeed well guessed of E. W· for the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and if he had seen the place , he now tells us what answer we might have expected . But I am before-hand with him in this particular , and out of Tertullian have prov'd , idolum to be the same with formula , deriv'd from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and consequently means the same with an Image . And he hath a good warrant from the greatest Master of the Latin tongue . Imagines quae idola nominant , quorum incursione non solum videamus , sed etiam cogitemus , &c. said Cicero : and the same notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in a great Master of the Greek , S. Chrysostom , who speaking of the statues and images with which they adorned their houses calls them Idols . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . But it matters not so much what Greek or Latin word is us'd in any translation , for in the Hebrew in which the spirit of God spake , when he forbad the worship of images , he us'd two words , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pesel and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Themunah , and the latter of these signifies always an image or similitude , and that most properly , and is always so translated ; and the former of these is translated indifferently by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , image , carved image and idol , for they are all one . And therefore proportionably Justin Martyr reciting this law of God , says , that God forbad every image and similitude , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are the words . But suppose that idolum and imago were not the same ; yet because the Commandment forbids not only idolum but imago , not only Pesel but Themunah ; they do not observe the Commandment , who make to themselves , viz. for worship , either one or the other . But to return to S. Clement , of whom our present inquiry is . And to deal most clearly in this affair , as in all things else , that out of the Stromata of S. Clement , that I rather remark , is not this of the sixth book , but out of the fifth . S. Clement of Alexandria saith ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Pythagoras commanded that his disciples should not wear rings , or engrave them with the images of their Gods , as Moses many ages before made an express law , that no man should make any graven , cast or painted image ; and of this he gives two reasons . 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that we may not attend to sensible things , but pass on to the things discernible by the understanding . 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The custome of seeing so readily causes that the Majesty of God becomes vile and contemptible , and by matter to worship that which is perceiv'd intellectually , is to disesteem him by sensation . ] Now the Reader may perceive that S. Clemens speaks against the making of any images , not only of Jupiter and the Heathen Gods , but of the true God , of whatsoever intelligible being we ought to worship ; and that upon such reasons which will greatly condemn the Roman practices . But hence also it is plain , how careless and trifling this objector is , minding no truth but the number of objections . See yet further out of S. Clement . Nobis enim est aperte vetitum fallacem artem exercere . Non facies enim ( inquit Propheta ) cujusvis rei similitudinem , we are forbidden to exercise that cosening art , ( viz. of making pictures or images ) for says the prophet ( meaning Moses ) thou shalt not make the likeness of any thing . E. W. it seems could not find these words of S. Clement in his Paraenetick : He should have said his Protreptick , for I know of no Paraenetick that he hath written . But E. W. followed the Printers error in the Margent of the Dissuasive , and very carefully turned over a book that was not , and compared it in bigness with a book that was . But I will not suppose this to be ignorance in him , but only want of diligence : however the words are to be found in the 41. page of this Protreptick , or his admonition to the Gentiles , and now they are quoted , and the very page named ; only I desire E. W. to observe , that in this place S. Clement uses not the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , not simulachrum , but cujusvis rei similitudinem . In the place which was quoted out of Origen in his fourth book against Celsus , speaking of the Jews he hath these words : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . All makers of Images were turned from their common-wealth : for not a painter or a statuary was admitted , their laws wholly forbidding them , lest any occasion should be given to dull men , or that their mind should be turned from the worship of God to earthly things by these temptations . ] Then he quotes the law of God against making images , and adds , by which law this was intended , that being content with the truth of things they should beware of lying figments . ] There it is plain that Origen affirms the law of God to have forbidden the making images , any similitude of things in Heaven , Earth or Waters : which law also he in another place * affirms to be of a moral and eternal obligation , that is , not to be spoken to them only who came out of the terrestrial Egypt ; and therefore is of Christian duty . And of the same mind are S. Irenaeus (a) Tertullian (b) S. Cyprian (c) and S. Austin (d) affirming the whole decalogue , except the law of the Sabbath to be an unalterable , or natural law . But for the further verification of the testimony from Origen against the worship of images in the Primitive Church , I thought fit to add the concurrent words of the prudent and learned Cassander * : Quantum autem veteres initio Ecclesiae ab omni veneratione imaginum abhorruerunt declarat unus Origenes adversus Celsum : but of this I shall have occasion to speak yet once more . And so at last all the quotations are found to be exact , and this Gentleman to be greatly mistaken . From the premisses I infer ; if in the Primitive Church it was accounted unlawful to make images , certainly it is unimaginable they should worship them , and the argument is the stronger , if we understand their opinion rightly ; for neither the second Commandment , nor yet the Ancient Fathers in their Commentaries on them , did absolutely prohibit all making of Images ; but all that was made for religious worship , and in order to Adoration , according as it is expressed in him , who among the Jews collected the negative precepts , which Arias Montanus translated in Latin : the second of which is signum cultus causa ne facito ; the third , simulachrum Divinum nullo pacto conflato ; the fourth , signa religiosa nulla ex materia facito . The authorities of these Fathers being rescued from slander , and prov'd very pungent and material ; I am concerned in the next place to take notice of some authorities which my adversaries urge from antiquity , to prove that in the Primitive Church they did worship images . Concerning their general Council , viz. the second Nicene , I have already made account in the preceeding periods ; The great S. Basil is with great solemnity brought into the Circus , and made to speak for images as apertly , plainly and confidently , as Bellarmine or the Council of Trent it self . His words are these , [ I admit the holy Apostles , and Prophets and Martyrs , and in my prayer made to God call upon them , that by their intercession God may be propitious unto me . Whereupon I honour and adore the characters of their images ; and especially those things being delivered from the holy Apostles , and not prohibited , but are manifested , or seen in all our Churches . ] Now I confess these words are home enough , and do their business at the first sight ; and if they prove right , S. Basil is on their side , and therefore E. W. with great noise and preface insults , and calls them Unanswerable . The words he says are found in S. Basils 205. Epistle ad Julianum . I presently consulted S. Basils works , such as I had with me in the Countrey , of the Paris Edition by Guillard 1547. and there I found that S. Basil had not 205. Epistles in all ; the number of all written by him and to him being but 180. of which , that to Julianus is one , viz. Epistle 166. and in that there is not one word to any such purpose as is here pretended . I was then put to a melius inquirendum . Bellarmine ( though both he , and Lindan and Harding cry up this authority as irrefragable ) quotes this authority not upon his own credit , but as taking it from the report of a book published 1596 , called Synodus Parisiensis , which Bellarmine calls , Vnworthy to see the light . From hence arises this great noise ; and the fountain being confessedly corrupt , what wholsome thing can be expected thence ? But in all the first and voluminous disputations of Bellarmine upon this Question , he made no use of this authority , he never saw any such thing in S. Basils works , or it is not to be imagined that he would have omitted it . But the words are in no ancient Edition of S. Basil , nor in any Manuscript that is known in the world . 2. John Damascen , and Germanus Bishop of C. P. who wrote for the worship of images , and are the most learned of all the Greeks that were abu'sd in this Question ; yet they never urg'd this authority of S. Basil , which would have been more to their purpose than all that they said beside . 3. The first mention of this is in an Epistle of Pope Adrian to the Emperors in the seventh Synod , and that makes the business more suspicious , that when the Greek writers knew nothing of it , a Latin Bishop , a stranger , not very well skill'd in Antiquity , should find this out , which no man ever saw before him , nor since in any Copy of S. Basils works : But in the second Nicene Council such forgeries as these were many and notorious . S. Gregory the Great is there quoted as Author of an Epistle de veneratione imaginum ; when it is notorious , it was writ by Gregory III. and there were many Basils , and any one of that name would serve to give countenance to the error of the second Nicene Synod ; but in S. Basil the Great there is not one word like it . And therefore they who set forth S. Basils , works at Paris 1618. who either could not , or ought not to have been ignorant of so vile a cheat , were infinitely to blame to publish this as the issue of the right S. Basil , without any mark of difference , or note of inquiry . There is also another saying of S. Basil , of which the Roman writers make much , and the words are by Damascen imputed to the Great S. Basil ; Imaginis honor exemplum transit , which indeed S. Basil speaks only of the statues of the Emperors , and of that civil honour , which by consent and custome of the world did pass to the Emperor , and he accepted it so ; but this is no argument for religious images put up to the honour of God , he says not , the honour of any such image passes to God ; for God hath declar'd against it , ( as will appear in the following periods ) and therefore from hence the Church of Rome can have no argument , no fair pretence ; and yet upon this very account , and the too much complying with the Heathen rites and manners , and the secular customs of the Empire , the veneration of images came into Churches . But suppose it be admitted to be true ; yet although this may do some countenance to Thomas aquinas and Bonaventures way of worshipping the image and the sampler with the same worship ; yet this can never be urg'd by all those more moderate Papists , who make the worship to an image of a lower kind : For if it be not the same worship , then they that worship images , worship God and his Saints by the image not as they deserve , but give to them no more than the image it self deserves : let them take which part they please , so that they will but publickly own it . But let this be as it will , and let it be granted true , that the honour done to the image can pass to the sampler , yet this is but an arbitrary thing , and a King may esteem it so if he please , but if the King forbids any image to be made of him , and counts it a dishonour to him , then I hope it is ; and that 's the case now , for God hath forbidden any such way of passing honour to him by an image of him ; and he hath forbidden it in the second Commandment , and this is confessed by Vasquez * : So that upon this account , for all the pretence of the same motion to the image and the sampler , to pass such a worship to God , is no better than the doing as the Heathen did , when they worshipped Mercury by throwing stones at him . Another authority brought by E. W. for veneration of images , is from Athanasius , but himself damns it in the Margent , with and without ingenuity ; for ingenuously saying , that he does not affirm it to be the Great Athanasius , yet most disingenuously he adds , valeat quantum valere potest , that is , they that will be cosened let them . And indeed these Questions and Answers to Antiochus are notoriously spurious , for in them are quoted S. Epiphanius , and Gregory Nyssen , Chrysostom , Scala Johannis , Maximus , and Nicephorus who were after Athanasius ; and the book is rejected by Delrio , by Sixtus Senensis , and Possevine . But with such stuff as this the Roman Doctors are forc'd to build their Babel ; and E. W. in page 56. quotes the same book against me for worshipping the Cross together with another spurious piece de Cruce & passione Domini , which Nannius , a very learned man of their own and professor at Lovaine , rejects , as it is to be seen in his Nuncupatory Epistle . Yea , but S. Chrysostoms Liturgy is very clear , for it is said , that the Priest turns himself to our Saviours picture , and bows his head before the picture , and says this prayer ; These words indeed are very plain , but it is not plain that these are S. Chysostom's , words , for there are none such in S. Chrysostoms Liturgy in the Editions of it by Claudius de Saintes , or Morellus , and Claudius Espencaeus acknowledges with great truth and ingenuity , that this Liturgy begun and compos'd by S. Chrysostom was inlarged by many things put into it , according to the variety of times . And it is evidently so , because divers persons are there commemorated , who liv'd after the death of Chrysostom , as Cyrillus , Euthymius , Sabas , and Johannes Eleemosynarius , whereof the last but one lived 126. years , the last 213. years after S. Chrysostom . Now how likely , nay how certain it is that this very passage was not put in by S. Chrysostom , but is of later interpolation , let all the world judge by that known saying of S. Chrysostom ; Quid enim est vilius atque humilius homine ante res inanimatas se incurvante & saxa venerante ? What in the world is baser and more abject than to see a man worshipping stones , and bowing himself before inanimate things ? ] These are his great authorities which are now come to nothing ; what he hath from them who came after these , I shall leave to him to make his best of them ▪ for about the time of Gregory some began to worship images , and some to break them , the latter of which he reproves , and the former he condemns ; what it was afterwards all the world knows . But now having clear'd the Question from the trifling arguments of my adversaries , I shall observe some things fit to be considered in this matter of images . 1. It came at first from a very base and unworthy stock . I have already pointed at this , but now I shall explain it more fully ; it came from Simon Magus and his crew ; Theodoret says , that the followers of Simon brought in the worship of images , viz. of Simon in the shape of Jupiter , and Helena in the figure of Minerva ; but S. Austin says that Simon Magus himself imagines & suam & cujusdam meretricis quam sibi sociam scelerum fecerat discipulis suis praebuisse adorandas . E. W. upon what confidence I know not , says , that Theodoret hath nothing like it , either under the title de Simone or Carpocrate . And he says true , but with a shameful purpose to calumniate me , and deceive his Reader ; as if I had quoted a thing that Theodoret said not , and therefore the Reader ought not to believe me . But since in the Dissuasive Theodoret was only quoted lib. 5. haeret . fabul . and no title set down ; if he had pleased to look to the next title , Simonis haeresis , where in reason all Simons heresies were to be look'd for , he should have found that which I referred to . But why E. W. denies S. Austin to have reported that for which he is quoted , viz. that Simon Magus brought in some images to be worshipped , I cannot conjecture , neither do I think himself can tell ; but the words are plain in the place quoted , according to the intention of the Dissuasive . But that he may yet seem to lay more load upon me , he very learnedly says that Irenaeus , in the place quoted by me , says not a word of Simon Magus being Author of images ; and would have his Reader believe that I mistook Simon Magus for * Simon Irenaeus . But the good man I suppose wrote this after supper , and could not then read or consider that the testimony of Irenaeus was brought in to no such purpose ; neither did it relate to any Simon at all , but to the Gnosticks or Carpocratians , who also were very early and very deep in this impiety ; only they did not worship the pictures of Simon and Selene , but of Jesus and Paul , and Homer , and Pythagoras , as S. Austin testifies of them ; But that which he remarks in them is this , that Marcellina , one of their sect , worshipped the pictures of Jesus , &c. adorando , incensumque ponendo , they did adore them , and put incense before them : I wish the Church of Rome would leave to do so , or acknowledge whose disciples they are in this thing . The same also is said by Epiphanius ; and that the Carpocratians placed the image of Jesus with the Philosophers of the world , collocatasque adorant , & gentium mysteria perficiunt . But I doubt that both Epiphanius and S. Austin , who took this story from Irenaeus , went farther in the Narrative than Irenaeus ; for he says only that they placed the images of Christ , &c. Et has coronant : No more , and yet even for this , for crowning the image of Christ with flowers * , though they did not so much as is now adays done at Rome , S. Irenaeus made an outcry and reckoned them in the black Catalogue of hereticks , not for joyning Christs image with that of Homer and Aristotle , Pythagoras and Plato , but even for crowning Christs image with flowers and coronets , as they also did those of the Philosophers ; for though this may be innocent , yet the other was a thing not known in the religion of any , that were called Christians , till Simon and Carpocrates began to teach the world . 2. We find the wisest and the most sober of the Heathens speaking against the use of images in their religious rites . So Varro , when he had said that the old Romans had for 170. years worshipped the Gods without picture or image , adds , quod si adhuc mansissent , castius Dii observarentur , and gives this reason for it , qui primi simulachra Deorum populis posuerunt , & civitatibus suis & metum dempsisse , & errorem addidisse . The making images of the Gods took away fear from men and brought in error : which place S. Austin quoting , commends and explicates it , saying , he wisely thought that the Gods might easily be despised in the blockishness of images . The same also was observed by Plutarch , and he gives this reason , nefas putantes augustiora exprimere humilioribus , neque aliter aspirari ad Deum quam mente posse . They accounted it impiety to express the Great Beings with low matter , and they believed there was no aspiring up to God but by the mind . ] This is a Philosophy which the Church of Rome need not be ashamed to learn. 3. It was so known a thing , that Christians did abominate the use of images in religion , and in their Churches ; that Adrian the Emperor was supposed to build Temples to Christ , and to account him as God , because he commanded that Churches without images should be made in all Cities , as is related by Lampridius . 4. In all the disputations of the Jews against the Christians of the Primitive Church , although they were impatient of having any image , and had detested all use of them , especially ever since their return from Babylon , and still retained the hatred of them , even after the dissolution of their Temple , even unto superstition ( says Bellarmine ; ) yet they never objected against Christians their having images in their Churches , much less their worshipping them . And let it be considered , that in all that long disputation between Justin Martyr and Tryphon the Jew , in which the subtle Jew moves every stone , lays all the load he can at the Christians door , makes all objections , raises all the envy , gives all the matter of reproach he can against the Christians , yet he opens not his mouth against them concerning images . The like is to be observed in Tertullians book against the Jews ; no mention of images , for there was no such thing amongst the Christians , they hated them as the Jews did ; but it is not imaginable they would have omitted so great a cause of quarrel . On the other side , when in length of time images were brought into Churches , the Jews forbore not to upbraid the Christians with it . There was a dialogue written a little before the time of the seventh Synod , in which a Jew is brought in saying to the Christians , [ I have believed all ye say , and I do believe in the crucified Jesus Christ , that he is the son of the living God ; Scandalizor autem in vos Christiani quia imagines adoratis , I am offended at you Christians that ye worship images ; for the Scripture forbids us every where to make any similitude or graven image . And it is very observable that in the first and best part of the Talmud of Babylon , called the Misna , published about the end of the second Century , the Christians are not blamed about images ; which shews they gave no occasion : but in the third part of the Talmud about the 10. and 11. age after Christ , the Christians are sufficiently upbraided and reproached in this matter . In the Gemara , which was finished about the end of the fifth Century , I find that learned men say the Jews call'd the Christian Church the house of Idolatry ; which though it may be expounded in relation to images , which about that time began in some Churches to be placed and honoured ; yet I rather incline to believe , that they meant it of our worshipping Jesus for the true God and the true Messias ; for at this day they call all Christians Idolaters , even those that have none , and can endure no images in their Religion or their Churches . But now since these periods , it is plain that the case is altered , and when the learned Christians of the Roman communion write against the Jews , they are forced to make apologies for the scandal they give to the Jews in their worshipping of images , as is to be seen ( besides Leontius Neopolitanus of Cyprus his apology which he published for the Christians against the Jews ; ) in Ludovicus Carretus his Epistle , in Sepher Amana , and Fabianus Fioghus his Catechetical Dialogues . But I suppose this case is very plain , and is a great conviction of the innovation in this matter made by the Church of Rome . 5. The matter of worshipping images looks so ill , so like Idolatry , so like the forbidden practices of the Heathens , that it was infinitely reasonable , that if it were the practice and doctrine of the Primitive Church , the Primitive Priests and Bishops should at least have considered , and stated the question how far , and in what sence it was lawful , and with what intention , and in what degrees , and with what caution , and distinctions this might lawfully be done ; particularly when they preach'd , and wrote Commentaries and explications upon the Decalogue ; especially since there was at least so great a semblance of opposition and contradiction between the commandment and any such practice ; God forbidding any image and similitude to be made of himself , or any thing else in Heaven , or in Earth , or in the Sea , and that with such threatnings and interminations of his severe judgments against them that did make them for worship , and this thing being so constantly objected by all those many that opposed their admission and veneration ; it is certainly very strange that none of the Fathers should take notice of any difficulty in this affair . They objected the Commandment against the Heathens for doing it ; and yet that they should make no account , nor take notice how their worshipping Saints and God himself by images , should differ from the Heathen superstition that was the same thing to look upon : This indeed is very Unlikely . But so it is ; Justin Martyr , Clemens Alexandrinus speak plainly enough of this matter , and speak plain down-right words against making and worshipping images , and so careless they were of any future chance , or the present concern of the Roman Church , that they do not except the image of the true God , nor the image of Saints and Angels no not of Christ , or the Blessed Virgin Mary her self . Nay Origen expounds the Commandments , and S. Austin makes a professed commentary upon them , but touch'd none of these things with the top of his finger , only told that they were all forbidden : we are not so careless now adays in the Church of Rome ; but carefully expound the Commandments against the unsufferable objections of the Hereticks of late , and the Prophets and the Fathers of old . But yet for all this , a suspicious man would conclude that in the first 400. years , there was no need of any such explications , inasmuch as they had nothing to do with images , which only could make any such need . 6. But then in the next place I consider , that the second Commandment is so plain , so easie , so peremptory against all the making and worshipping any image or likeness of any thing , that besides that every man naturally would understand all such to be forbidden , it is so expressed , that upon supposition that God did intend to forbid it wholly , it could not more plainly have been expressed . For the prohibition is absolute and universal , and therefore of all particulars ; and there is no word or sign by the vertue of which it can with any probability be pretended that any one of any kind is excepted . Now then to this , when the Church of Rome pretends to answer they over-do it , and make the matter the more suspicious . Some of them answer by saying , that this is no moral Commandment , not obligatory to Christians , but to the Jews only : Others say , that by this Commandment it is only forbidden to account an image to be very God ; so Cajetan : Others say that an idol only is forbidden , and that an image is no idol . Others yet distinguish the manner of worshipping , saying that the image is worshipp'd for the Samplers sake , not for its own . And this worship is by some called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or service ; by others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; saying that the first is to images of Saints , the other to God only . And yet with this difference ; Some saying that the image of God is ador'd with the same kind of adoration that God is ; only it is to the image for Gods sake ; so S. Thomas of Aquine , and generally his scholars . Others say that it is a religious kind of Worship due to Images , but not at all Divine ; some say it is but a civil worship . And then it is for the image sake , and so far is intransitive , but whatever is paid more to the image is transitive , and passes further . And whatsoever it be , it cannot be agreed how it ought to be paid : whether properly or improperly , Vnivocally or aequivocally , for themselves or for something else , whether analogically or simply , whether absolutely or by reduction . And it is remarkable what Bellarmine answers to the Question , with what kind of worship images may be ador'd ? He answers with this proposition ; [ The worship which by it self and properly is due to images , is a certain imperfect worship , which analogically and reductively pertains to a kind of that worship , which is due to the Exemplar : ] and a little after , to the images a certain inferiour worship is due , and that not all one , but various according to the variety of images . To the images of Saints is due dulia secundum quid , which if you do not understand , Bellarmine in the next words explains most clearly ; dulia secundum quid , is as a man may say , reductive and analogical . But after all this we may be mistaken , and we cannot tell whom to follow nor what to do in the case . Thomas and his Scholars warrant you to give the same worship to Gods image as to God : And is the easiest way indeed to be understood , and indeed may quickly be understood to be direct idolatry . Bellarmine and others tell you , stay , not so altogether ; but there is a way to agree with S. Thomas , that it shall be the same worship , and not the same worship ; for it is the same by reduction , that is , it is of the same kind , and therefore Divine , but it is imperfectly divine , as if there could be degrees in Divine worship ; that is , as if any worship could be divine , and yet not the greatest . But if this seems difficult , Bellarmine illustrates it by similitudes . This worship of images is the same with the worship of the Example , viz. of God , or of Christ , as it happens , just as a painted man is the same with a living man , and a painted horse with a living horse , for a painted man and a painted horse differ specifically ; as the true man and the true horse do ; and yet the painted man is no man , and the painted horse is no horse . ] The effect of which discourse is this , that the worship of images , is but the image of worship ; hypocrisie and dissimulation all the way ; nothing real , but imaginative and phantastical ; and indeed though this gives but a very ill account of the agreement of Bellarmine , with their Saints , Thomas and Bonaventure , yet it is the best way to avoid idolatry , because they give no real worship to images : But then on the other side , how do they mock God and Christ , by offering to them that which is nothing ; by pretending to honour them by honouring their images ; when the honour they do give to images , is it self but imaginary , and no more of reality in it , than there is of humane Nature in the picture of a man. However , if you will not commit down-right idolatry , as some of their Saints teach you , then you must be careful to observe these plain distinctions , and first be sure to remember that when you worship an image , you do it not materially but formally ; not as it is of such a substance , but as it is a sign ; next take care that you observe what sort of image it is , and then proportion your right kind to it , that you do not give latria to that where hyperdulia is only due ; and be careful that if dulia only be due that your worship be not hyperdulical . In the next place consider that the worship to your image is intransitive but in few cases , and according but to a few Doctors ; and therefore when you have got all these cases together , be sure that in all other cases it be transitive . But then when the worship is pass'd on to the Exemplar , you must consider , that if it be of the same kind with that which is due to the Example , yet it must be an imperfect piece of worship , though the kind be perfect ; and that it is but analogical , and it is reductive , and it is not absolute , not simple , not by it self ; not by an act to the image distinct from that which is to the Example , but one and the same individual act , with one intention , as to the supreme kind , though with some little variety , if the kinds be differing . Now by these easie , ready , clear , and necessary distinctions , and rules , and cases , the people being fully and perfectly instructed , there is no possibility that the worship of images should be against the second Commandment , because the Commandment does not forbid any worship that is transitive , reduct , accidental , consequential , analogical and hyperdulical , and this is all that the Church of Rome does by her wisest doctors teach now a days . But now after all this , the easiest way of all certainly is to worship no images , and no manner of way , and trouble the peoples heads with no distinction ; for by these no man can ever be at peace , or Understand the Commandment , which without these laborious devices ( by which they confess the guilt of the Commandment , does lie a little too heavy upon them ) would most easily by every man and every woman be plainly and properly understood . And therefore I know not whether there be more impiety , or more fearful caution in the Church of Rome in being so curious , that the second Commandment be not expos'd to the eyes and ears of the people ; leaving it out of their manuals , breviaries and Catechisms , as if when they teach the people to serve God , they had a mind they should not be tempted to keep all the Commandments . And when at any time they do set it down , they only say thus , Non facies tibi Idolum , which is a word not us'd in the second Commandment at all ; and if the word which is there us'd be sometimes translated Idolum , yet it means no more than similitude ; or if the words be of distinct signification , yet because both are expresly forbidden in that Commandment , it is very ill to represent the Commandment so , as if it were observ'd according to the intention of that word , yet the Commandment might be broken , by the not observing it according to the intention of the other word , which they conceal . But of this more by and by . 7. I consider that there is very great scandal and offence given to Enemies and strangers to Christianity ; the very Turks and Jews , with whom the worship of Images is of very ill report , and that upon ( at least ) the most probable grounds in the world . Now the Apostle having commanded all Christians to pursue those things which are of good report , and to walk circumspectly and charitably towards them that are without , and that we give no offence neither to the Jew nor to the Gentile : Now if we consider , that if the Christian Church were wholly without Images , there would nothing perish to the faith or to the charity of the Church , or to any grace which is in order to Heaven ; and that the spiritual state of the Christian Church may as well want such Baby-ceremonies as the Synagogue did ; and yet on the other side , that the Jews and Turks are the more , much more estranged from the religion of Christ Jesus , by the Image-worship done by his pretended servants ; the consequent will be , that to retain the worship of Images is both against the faith and the charity of Christians , and puts limits , and retrenches the borders of the Christian pale . 8. It is also very scandalous to Christians , that is , it makes many , and endangers more to fall into the direct sin of idolatry . * Polydore Virgil observes out of S. Jerome , that almost all the holy Fathers damned the worship of Images , for this very reason , for fear of idolatry ; and Cassander says , that all the ancients did abhor all adoration of Images ; and he cites ‖ Origen as an instance great enough to verifie the whole affirmative . Nos vero ideo non honoramus simulachra , quia quantum possumus cavemus , ne quo modo incidamus in eam credulitatem , ut his tribuamus divinitatis aliquid . This authority E.W. pag. 55. is not ashamed to bring in behalf of himself in this question , saying , that Origen hath nothing against the use of Images , and declares our Christian doctrine thus , then he recites the words above quoted ; than which , Origen could not speak plainer against the practice of the Roman Church ; and E. W. might as well have disputed for the Manichees with this argument : The Scripture doth not say that God made the world , it only declares the Christian doctrine thus , In the beginning God made Heaven and Earth , &c. But this Gentleman thinks any thing will pass for argument amongst his own people . And of this danger S. Austin * gives a rational account ; [ No man doubts but idols want all sense : But when they are plac'd in their seats , in an honourable sublimity , that they may be attended by them that pray and offer sacrifice , by the very likeness of living members and senses , although they be senseless and without life , they affect weak minds , that they seem to live and feel , especially when the veneration of a multitude is added to it , by which so great a worship is bestowed upon them . ] Here is the danger , and how much is contributed to it in the Church of Rome , by clothing their Images in rich apparel , and by pretending to make them nod their head , to twinkle the eyes , and even to speak , the world is too much satisfied . Some such things as these , and the superstitious talkings and actings of their Priests made great impressions upon my Neighbours in Ireland ; and they had such a deep and religious veneration for the Image of our Lady of Kilbrony , that a worthy Gentleman , who is now with God , and knew the deep superstition of the poor Irish , did not distrain upon his Tenants for his rents , but carried away the Image of the female Saint of Kilbrony ; and instantly the Priest took care that the Tenants should redeem the Lady , by a punctual and speedy paying of their rents ; for they thought themselves Unblessed as long as the Image was away ; and therefore they speedily fetch'd away their Ark from the house of Obededom , and were afraid that their Saint could not help them , when her Image was away . Now if S. Paul would have Christians to abstain from meats sacrificed to idols , to avoid the giving offence to weak brethren , much more ought the Church to avoid tempting all the weak people of her Communion to idolatry , by countenancing , and justifying , and imposing such acts , which all their heads can never learn to distinguish from Idolatry . I end this with a memorial out of the Councils of Sens and Mentz , who command moneri populum ne imagines adorent : The Preachers were commanded to admonish the people that they should not adore Images . And for the Novelty of the practice here in the British Churches , it is evident in Ecclesiastical story , that it was introduc'd by a Synod of London , about the year 714. under Bonifacius the Legat , and Bertualdus Achbishop of Dover ; and that without disputation or inquiry into the lawfulness or unlawfulness of it , but wholly upon the account of a vision pretended to be seen by Eguinus Bishop of Worcester ; the Virgin Mary appearing to him , and commanding that her Image should be set in Churches and worshipped . That Austin the Monk brought with him the banner of the Cross , and the Image of Christ , Beda tells ; and from him Baronius , and Binius affirms , that before this vision of Egwin the Cross and Image of Christ were in use ; but that they were at all worshipped or ador'd Beda saith not ; and there is no record , no monument of it before this Hypochondrical dream of Egwin : and it further appears to be so , because Albinus or Alcuinus an English-man , Master of Charles the Great , when the King had sent to Offa the book of G. P. for the worship of Images , wrote an Epistle against it , Ex authoritate Divina scripturarum mirabiliter affirmatum ; and brought it to the King of France in the name of our Bishops and Kings , saith Hovedon . SECT . VII . Of Picturing God the Father , and the Holy Trinity . AGAINST all the authorities almost which are or might be brought to prove the Unlawfulness of Picturing God the Father , or the Holy Trinity , the Roman Doctors generally give this one answer ; That the Fathers intended by their sayings , to condemn the picturing of the Divine Essence ; but condemn not the picturing of those symbolical shapes or forms in which God the Father , or the Holy Ghost , or the Blessed Trinity are supposed to have appeared . To this I reply , 1. That no man ever intended to paint the essence of any thing in the world . A man cannot well understand an Essence , and hath no Idea of it in his mind , much less can a Painters Pencil do it . And therefore it is a vain and impertinent discourse to prove that they do ill who attempt to paint the Divine Essence . This is a subterfuge which none but men out of hope to defend their opinion otherwise , can make use of . 2. To picture God the Father in such symbolical forms in which he appear'd , is to picture him in no form at all ; for generally both the Schools of the Jews and Christians consent in this , that God the Father never appear'd in his person ; for as S. Paul affirms , he is the invisible God whom no eye hath seen or can see ; He always appeared by Angels , or by fire , or by storm and tempest , by a cloud or by a still voice ; he spake by his Prophets , and at last by his Son ; but still the adorable majesty was reserved in the secrets of his glory . 3. The Church of Rome paints the Holy Trinity in forms and symbolical shapes in which she never pretends the Blessed Trinity did appear , as in a face with three Noses and four Eyes , one body with three heads , and as an old man with a great beard , and a Popes Crown upon his head , and holding the two ends of the transverse rafter of the Cross with Christ leaning on his breast , and the Holy Spirit hovering over his head : And therefore they worship the Images of God the Father , and the Holy Trinity , figures which ( as is said of Remphan and the Heathen Gods and Goddesses ) themselves have made ; which therefore must needs be Idols by their own definition of Idolum ; simulachrum rei non existentis ; for never was there seen any such of the Holy Trinity in Unity , as they most impiously represent . And if when any thing is spoken of God in Scripture allegorically , they may of it make an Image to God , they would make many more Monsters than yet they have found out : For as Durandus * well observes , If any one shall say , that because the Holy Ghost appeared in the shape of a Dove , and the Father in the old Testament under the Corporal forms , that therefore they may be represented by Images , we must say to this , that those corporal forms were not assumed by the Father and the Holy Spirit ; and therefore a representation of them by Images is not a representation of the Divine person , but a representation of that form or shape alone . Therefore there is no reverence due to it , as there is none due to those forms by themselves . Neither were these forms to represent the Divine persons , but to represent those effect● which those Divine persons did effect . ] And therefore there is one thing more to be said to them ●hat do so ; They have chang'd the glory of the incorruptible God into the similitude of a mortal man. Now how will the Reader imagine that the Disswasive is confuted , and his testimonies from Antiquity answered ? Why , most clearly E. W. saith , that one principle of S. John Damascen doth it , it solves all that the Doctor hath or can alledge in this matter . Well! what is this principle ? The words are these ; ( and S. Austin points at the same ) Quisnam est qui invisibilis & corpore vacantis ac circumscriptionis & figurae expertis Dei simulachrum effingere queat ? Extremae itaque dementiae atque impietatis fuerit Divinum numen fingere & figurare . ] This is the principle to confute the Doctor : ] why , but the Doctor thinks that in the world there cannot be clearer word● for the reproof of picturing God and the Holy Trinity . For to do so is madness and extreme impiety , so says Damascen : But stay says E. W. these words of Damascen are [ as who should say , He that goes about to express by any Image the perfect similitude of Gods intrinsecal perfections or his Nature , ( which is immense without body or figure ) would be both impious , and act the part of a Mad-man . ] But how shall any man know that these words of Damascen are as much as to say this meaning of E. W. and where is this principle ( as he calls it ) of Damascen , by which the Doctor is so every where silenc'd ? Certainly E. W. is a merry Gentleman , and thinks all mankind are fools . This is the ridiculous Commentary of E. W. but Damascen was too learned and grave a person to talk such wild stuff . And Cardinal Cajetan gives a better account of the doctrine of Damascen . [ The Authority of Damascen in the ( very ) letter of it condemns those Images , ( viz. of God ) of folly and impiety . And there is the same reason now concerning the Deity which was in the old law . And it is certain , that in the old law the Images of God were forbidden . ] To the like purpose is that of the famous Germanus , who though too favourable to pictures in Churches for veneration , yet he is a great enemy to all pictures of God. Neque ●nim invisibilis Deitatis imaginem , & similitudinem , vel schema , vel figuram aliquam formamus , &c. as who please may see in his Epistle to Thomas Bishop of Claudiopolis ; But let us consider when God forbad the children of Israel to make any likeness of him , did he only forbid them to express by any Image the perfect similitude of his intrinsecal perfections ? Had the children of Israel leave to picture God in the form of a man walking in Paradise ? Or to paint the Holy Trinity like three men talking to Abraham ? Was it lawful for them to make an Image or picture , or ( to use E. W. his expression ) to exhibit to their eyes those visible or circumscribed lineaments , which any man had seen ? And when they had exhibited these forms to the eyes , might they then have fallen down and worshipped those forms , which themselves exhibited to their own and others eyes ? I omit to enquire how they can prove that God appear'd in Paradise in the form of a man , which they can never do , unless they will use the Friers argument ; Faciamus hominem ad similitudinem nostram , &c. and so make fair way for the Heresie of the Anthropomorphites . But I pass on a little further ; Did the Israelites , when they made a molten calf , and said , These are thy Gods O Israel , did they imagine that by that Image they represented the true form , essence or nature of God ? Or did the Heathens ever pretend to make any Image of the intrinsecal perfections of any of their Majores or Minores Dii , or any of their Daemons and dead Heroes ? And because they neither did nor could do that , may it therefore be concluded , that they made no Images of their Gods ? Certain it is , the Heathens have as much reason to say they did not picture their Gods , meaning their nature and essence , but by symbolical forms and shapes represented those good things which they suppos'd them to have done . Thus the Egyptians pictur'd Joseph with a Bushel upon his head , and called him their God Serapis ; but they made no Image of his essence , but symbolically represented the benefit he did the Nation by preserving them in the seven years famine . Thus Ceres is painted with a Hook and a Sheaf of corn , Pomona with a Basket of Apples , Hercules with a Club , and Jupiter himself with a handful of symbolical Thunderbolts ; This is that which the Popish Doctors call picturing God , not in his Essence , but in history , or in symbolical shapes : For of these three ways of picturing God , Bellarmine says , the two last are lawful . And therefore the Heathens not doing the first , but the second , and the third only , are just so to be excused as the Church of Rome is . But then neither these nor those must pretend that they do not picture God : For whatever the intention be , still an Image of God is made , or else why do they worship God by that , which if it be no image of God , must by their own doctrine be an Idol ? And therefore Bellarmines distinction is very foolish , and is only crafty to deceive ; for besides the impertinency of it in answering the charge , only by declaring his intention , as being charged with picturing God ; he tells he did it indeed , but he meant not to paint his nature , but his story or his symbolical significations , which I say is impertinent , it not being inquir'd with what purpose it is done , but whether or no ; and an evil thing may be done with a good intention : Besides this I say , that Bellarmines distinction comes just to this issue : God may be painted or represented by an image , not to express a perfect similitude of his form or nature , but to express it imperfectly , or rather not to express it , but ad explicandam naturam , to explain it , not to describe him truly , but historically ; though that be a strange history , that does not express truly and as it is : But here it is plainly acknowledged , that besides the history , the very Nature of God may be explicated by pictures or images , provided they be only metaphorical and mystical , as if the only reason of the lawfulness of painting God is , because it is done imperfectly and unlike him ; or as if the metaphor made the Image lawful ; just as if to do Alexander honour , you should picture him like a Bear , tearing and trampling every thing , or to exalt Caesar , you should hang upon a table the pictures of a Fox and a Cock and a Lion , and write under it , This is Cajus Julius Caesar. But I am ashamed of these prodigious follies . But at last , why should it be esteemed madness and impiety to picture the nature of God , which is invisible , and not also be as great a madness to picture any shape of him , which no man ever saw ? But he that is invested with a thick cloud , and encircled with an inaccessible glory , and never drew aside the Curtains to be seen under any representment , will not suffer himself to be expos'd to vulgar eyes , by phantastical shapes , and ridiculous forms . But it may be , the Church of Rome does not use any such impious practice , much less own so mad a doctrine ; for one of my adversaries says , that the picturing the forms or appearances of God is all that some ( in their Church ) allow , that is , some do , and some do not : So that it may be only a private opinion of some Doctors , and then I am to blame to charge Popery with it . To this I answer , that Bellarmine indeed says , Non esse tam certum in Ecclesia an sint faciendae imagines Dei sive Trinitatis , quam Christi & Sanctorum ; It is not so certain , viz. as to be an article of faith . But yet besides that Bellarmine allows it , and cites Cajetan , Catharinus , Payva , Sanders and Thomas Waldensis for it ; this is a practice and doctrine brought in by an unproved custom of the Church ; Constat quod haec consuetudo depingendi Angelos & Deum modo sub specie Columbae , modo sub Figura Trinitatis , sit ubique inter Catholicos recepta : The picturing Angels , and God sometimes under the shape of a Dove , and sometimes under the figure of the Trinity , is every where received among the Catholicks , said a great Man amongst them . And to what purpose they do this , we are told by Cajetan , speaking of Images of God the Father , Son and Holy Ghost saying , Haec non solum pinguntur ut ostendantur sicut Cherubim olim in Templo , sed ut adorentur . They are painted , that they may be worshipped , ut frequens usus Ecclesiae testatur : This is witnessed by the frequent use of the Church . So that this is received every where among the Catholicks , and these Images are worshipped , and of this there is an Ecclesiastical custom ; and I add ▪ In their Mass-book lately printed , these pictures are not infrequently seen . So that now it is necessary to shew that this , besides the impiety of it , is against the doctrine and practice of the Primitive Church , and is an innovation in religion , a propriety of the Roman doctrine , and of infinite danger and unsufferable impiety . To some of these purposes the Disswasive alledged Tertullian , Eusebius and S. Hierom ; but A. L. says , these Fathers have nothing to this purpose . This is now to be tried . These men were only nam'd in the Disswasive . Their words are these which follow . 1. For Tertullian ▪ A man would think it could not be necessary to prove that Tertullian thought it unlawful to picture God the Father , when he thought the whole art of painting and making Images to be unlawful , as I have already proved . But however let us see . He is very curious that nothing should be us'd by Christians or in the service of God , which is us'd on , or by , or towards Idols ; and because they did paint and picture their Idols , cast , or carve them , therefore nothing of that kind ought to be in rebus Dei , as Tertullian's phrase is . But the summ of his discourse is this , [ The Heathens use to picture their false Gods that indeed befits them , but therefore is unfit for God ; and therefore we are to flee , not only from Idolatry , but from Idols : in which affair a word does change the case , and that , which before it was said to appertain to Idols , was lawful , by that very word was made Unlawful , and therefore much more by a shape or figure ; and therefore flee from the shape of them ; for it is an Unworthy thing , that the Image of the living God , should be made the Image of an Idol or a dead thing . For the Idols of the Heathens are silver and gold , and have eyes without sight , and noses without smell , and hands without feeling . ] So far Tertullian argues . And what can more plainly give his sence and meaning in this Article ? If the very Image of an Idol be Unlawful , much more is it unlawful to make an Image or Idol of the living God , or represent him by the Image of a dead man. But this argument is further and more plainly set down by Athanasius , whose book against the Gentiles is spent in reproving the Images of God real or imaginary ; insomuch that he affirms that the Gentiles dishonour even their false Gods , by making Images of them , and that they might better have pass'd for Gods , if they had not represented them by visible Images . And therefore , That the religion of making Images of their Gods , is not piety , but impious . For to know God we need no outward thing ; the way of truth will direct us to him . And if any man ask which is that way , viz. to know God , I shall say , it is the soul of a man , and that understanding which is planted in us ; for by that alone God can be seen and Vnderstood . ] The same Father does discourse many excellent things to this purpose , as that a man is the only Image of God ; Jesus Christ is the perfect Image of his Glory , and he only represents his essence ; and man is made in the likeness of God , and therefore he also in a less perfect manner represents God : Besides these , if any many desires to see God , let him look in the book of the creature , and all the world is the Image and lively representment of Gods power , and his wisdom , his goodness and his bounty . But to represent God in a carved stone , or a painted Table , does depauperate our understanding of God , and dishonours him below the Painters art ; for it represents him lovely only by that art , and therefore less than him that painted it . But that which Athanasius adds is very material , and gives great reason of the Command , why God should severely forbid any Image of himself : Calamitati enim & tyrannidi servien●es homines Vnicum illud est nulli Communicabile Dei nomen lignis lapidibusque impos●runt : Some in sorrow for their dead children , made their Images and fancied that presence ; some desiring to please their tyrannous Princes , put up their statues , and at distance by a phantastical presence flattered them with honours . And in process of time , these were made Gods ; and the incommunicable name was given to wood and stones . ] Not that the Heathens thought that Image to be very God , but that they were imaginarily present in them , and so had their Name . Hujusmodi igitur initiis idolorum inventio Scriptura ●este apud homines coepit , Thus idolatry began saith the Scripture , and thus it was promoted ; and the event was , they made pitiful conceptions of God , they confined his presence to a statue , they worshipped him with the lowest way ●maginable , they descended from all spirituality and the noble ways of Understanding , and made wood and stone to be as it were a body to the Father of Spirits , they gave the incommunicable name not only to dead men , and Angels , and Daemons , but to the Images of them ; and though it is great folly to picture Angelical Spirits , and dead Heroes , whom they never saw , yet by these steps when they had come to picture God himself , this was the height of the Gentile impiety , and is but too plain a representation of the impiety practised by too many in the Roman Church . But as we proceed further , the case will be yet clearer . Concerning the testimony of Eusebius , I wonder that any writer of Roman controversies should be ignorant , and being so , should confidently say , Eusebius had nothing to this purpose , viz. to condemn the picturing of God , when his words are so famous , that they are recorded in the seventh Synod ; and the words were occasioned by a solemn message sent to Eusebius by the sister of Constantius and wife of Licinius , lately turned from being Pagan to be Christian , desiring Eusebius to send her the picture of our Lord Jesus ; to which he answers : Quia vero de quadam imagine , quasi Christi , scripsisti , hanc volens tibi à nobis mitti , quam dicis , & qualem , hanc quam perhibes Christi imaginem ? Vtr●● veram & incommutabilem , & natura characteres suos portantem ? An istam quam propter nos suscepit servi formae schemate circumamictus ? Sed de forma quidem Dei nec ipse arbitror te quaerere semel ab ipso edoctam , quoniam neque patrem quis novit nisi filius , neque ipsum filium novit quis aliquando digne , nisi solus pater qui eum genuit . And a little after , Quis ergo hujusmodi dignitatis & gloriae vibrantes , & praefulgentes splendores exarare potuisset mortuis & inanimatis Coloribus & scripturis Vmbraticis ? And then speaking of the glory of Christ in Mount Thabor , he proceeds ; Ergo si tunc incarnata ejus forma tantam virtutem sortita est ab inhabitante in se Divinitate mutata , quid oportet dicere cum mortalitate exutus , & corruptione ablutus , speciem servilis formae in gloriam Domini & Dei commutavit ? Where besides that Eusebius thinks it unlawful to make a picture of Christ , and therefore consequently , much more to make a picture of God ; he also tells Constantia , he supposes she did not offer at any desire of that . ] Well , for these three of the Fathers we are well enough , but for the rest , the objector says , that they speak only against representing God as in his own essence , shape or form . To this I answer , that God hath no shape or form , and therefore these Fathers could not speak against making Images of a thing that was not ; and as for the Images of his essence , no Christian , no Heathen ever pretended to it ; and no man or beast can be pictured so : no Painter can paint an Essence . And therefore although this distinction was lately made in the Roman Schools , yet the Fathers knew nothing of it , and the Roman Doctors can make nothing of it , for the reasons now told . But the Gentleman saith , that some of their Church allow only and practise the picturing those forms , wherein God hath appeared . It is very well they do no more ; but I pray in what forms did God the Father ever appear , or the Holy and Mysterious Trinity ? Or suppose they had , does it follow they may be painted ? We saw but now out of Eusebius , that it was not esteemed lawful to picture Christ , though he did appear in a humane body : And although it is supposed that the Holy Ghost did appear in the shape of a Dove , yet it is forbidden by the sixth General Council to paint Christ like a Lamb , or the Holy Spirit like a Dove . Add to this , where did ever the Holy and Blessed Trinity appear like three faces joyned in one , or like an old man with Christ crucified , leaning on his breast , and a Dove hovering over them ; and yet however the objector is pleas'd to mince the matter , yet the doing this is ubique inter Catholicos recepta ; and that not only to be seen , but to be ador'd , as I prov'd a little above by testimonies of their own . The next charge is concerning S. Hierom , that he says no such thing ; which matter will soon be at an end , if we see the Commentary he makes on these words of Isaiah ; Cui ergo similem fecisti Deum ? ] To whom do you liken God ? ] Or what Image will ye make for him , who is a Spirit , and is in all things , and runs every where , and holds the earth in his fist ? And he laughs at the folly of the Nations , that an Artist , or a Brasier , or a Goldsmith , or a Silversmith makes a God , ] viz. by making the Image of God. But the objector adds , that it would be long to set down the words of the other Fathers quoted by the Doctor : and truly so the Doctor thought so too at first ; but because the objector says they do not make against what some of his Church own and practise , I thought it might be worth the Readers pains to see them . The words of S. Austin in this question are very plain and decretory . For a Christian to place such an Image to God , ( viz. with right and left-hand , sitting with bended knees , that is , in the shape of a man ) is wickedness ; but much more wicked is it to place it in our hearts . But of this I have given account in the preceding Section . Theodoret , Damascen , and Nicephorus do so expresly condemn the picturing God , that it is acknowledg'd by my adversaries , only they fly for succour to the old mumpsimus ; they condemn the picturing the essence of God , but not his forms and appearances ; a distinction which those good old writers never thought of , but directly they condemned all Images of God and the Holy Trinity . And the Bishops in the seventh Synod , though they were worshippers of Images , yet they thinking that Angels were Corporeal , believ'd they might be painted , but denied it of God expresly . And indeed it were a strange thing that God in the old Testament should so severely forbid any Image to be made of him , upon this reason because he is invisible ; and he presses it passionately by calling it to their memory , that they heard a voice , but saw no shape ; and yet that both he had formerly and did afterwards shew himself , in shapes and forms which might be painted , and so the very reason of the Commandment be wholly void . To which add this consideration , that although the Angels did frequently appear , and consequently had forms possible to be represented in Imagery , yet none of the Ancients did suppose it lawful to paint Angels , but they that thought them to be corporeal . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Philo. To which purpose is that of Seneca , Effugit oculos , cogitatione visendus est : And Antiphanes said of God , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : God is not seen with eyes , he is like to no man ; therefore no man can by an Image know him . By which it appears plainly to be the General opinion of the Ancients , that whatever was incorporeal was not to be painted , no , though it had appeared in symbolical forms , as confessedly the Angels did . And of this the second Synod of Nice it self is a sufficient witness ; the Fathers of which did all approve the Epistle of John Bishop of Thessalonica , in which he largely discourses against the picturing of any thing that is incorporeal . He that pleases to see more of this affair , may find much more , and to very great purpose in a little book de imaginibus , in the first book of the Greek and Latin Bibliotheca Patrum ; out of which I shall only transcribe these words : Non esse faciendum imagines Dei : imo si quis quid simile attentaverit , hunc ex●remis suppliciis , veluti Ethnicis communicantem dogmatis , subjici . Let them translate it that please , only I remember that Aventinus tells a story , that Pope John XXII . caused to be burnt for Hereticks , those persons who had painted the Holy Trinity , which I urge for no other reason , but to shew how late an innovation of religion this is in the Church of Rome . The worship of Images came in by degrees , and it was long resisted , but until of late , it never came to the height of impiety as to picture God , and to worship him by Images : But this was the state and last perfection of this sin , and hath spoiled a great part of Christianity , and turn'd it back to Ethnicism . But that I may summ up all ; I desire the Roman Doctors to weigh well the words of one of their own Popes , Gregory II. to the Question , Cur tamen Patrem Domini nostri Jesu Christi non oculis subjicimus ? Why do we not subject the Father of our Lord Jesus to the eyes ? He answers , Quoniam Dei natura spectanda proponi non potest ac fingi : The nature of God cannot be expos'd to be beheld , nor yet feign'd . ] He did not conclude that therefore we cannot make the Image of his essence , but none at all , nothing of him to be expos'd to the sight . And that this is his direct and full meaning , besides his own words , we may conclude from the note which Baronius makes upon it . Postea in usu venisse ut pingatur in Ecclesia Pater & Spiritus Sanctus . Afterwards it became an use in the Church ( viz. the Roman ) to paint the Father and the Holy Ghost . And therefore besides the impiety of it , the Church of Rome is guilty of innovation in this particular also , which was the thing I intended to prove . THE END . VNVM NECESSARIVM . OR , The Doctrine and Practice OF REPENTANCE . DESCRIBING The Necessities and Measures of a Strict , a Holy , and a Christian Life . AND Rescued from Popular Errors . By JER . TAYLOR , Chaplain in Ordinary to King CHARLES the First , and late Lord Bishop of Down and Connor . Poenitentiae compensatione redimendam proponit impunitatem Deus . Praeveniamus faciem ejus in confessione . Tertul. de Poenit. Cor contritum S ▪ PETER MARY MAGDALENE LONDON , Printed for R. Royston , Bookseller to the King 's most Excellent Majesty , 1673. TO The Right Honourable and Noblest Lord , RICHARD Earl of Carbery , &c. MY LORD , THE duty of Repentance is of so great and universal concernment , a Catholicon to the evils of the Soul of every man , that if there be any particular in which it is worthy the labours of the whole Ecclesiastical Calling , to be instant in season and out of season , it is in this duty ; and therefore I hope I shall be excused , if my Discourses of Repentance , like the duty it self , be perpetually increasing ; and I may , like the Widow in the Gospel to the unjust Judge , at least hope to prevail with some men by my importunity . Men have found out so many devices and arts to cousen themselves , that they will rather admit any weak discourses and images of Reason , than think it necessary to repent speedily , severely and effectively . We find that sinners are prosperous , and God is long before he strikes ; and it is always another mans case , when we see a judgment happen upon a sinner , we feel it not our selves , for when we do , it is commonly past remedy . Indeed it was to be pitied in the Heathen , that many of them were tempted to take the thriving side , when Religion it self was unprosperous . When Jupiter suffered his golden Scepter to be stole , and the Image never frown'd ; and a bold fellow would scrape the Ivory thigh of Hercules , and go away without a broken pate , for all the Club that was in his hand ; they thought they had reason to think there was no more sacredness in the Images of their gods , than in the statues of Vigellus : and because the event of all regular actions was not regular and equal , but Catiline was hewn down by the Consuls sword for his Rebellion , and for the same thing Caesar became a Prince , they believed that the Powers that govern'd these extraregular events , must it self be various and changeable , and they call'd it Fortune . But ( My Lord ) that Christians should thus dote upon temporal events , and the little baits of fishes and the meat of dogs , adoring every thing that is prosperous , and hating that condition of things that brings trouble , is not to be pardon'd to them who profess themselves Servants and Disciples of a Crucified Lord and Master . But it is upon the same account that men are so hardly brought to repent , or to believe that Repentance hath in it so many parts , and requires so much labour , and exacts such caution , and cannot be performed without the best assistances , or the greatest skill in spiritual notices . They find sin pleasant and prosperous , gay and in the fashion : And though wise men know it is better to be pleas'd than to be merry , to have rest and satisfaction in wisdom and perfective notices of things , than to laugh loud , and fright sobriety away with noises , and dissolution , and forgetfulness : yet this severer pleasure seems dull and flat , and men generally betake themselves to the wildnesses of sin , and hate to have it interrupted by the intervening of the sullen grace of Repentance . It was a sprightly saying of him in the Comedy , Ego vitam Deorum proptereà sempiternam esse arbitror , Quòd voluptates eorum propriae sunt . Nam mihi immortalitas Parta est , si huic nulla aegritudo gaudio intercesserit . Our immortality is to be reckoned by the continuance of our pleasure . My life is then perpetual , when my delights are not interrupted . And this is the immortality that too many men look after by incompetent means . But to be called upon to Repentance , and when men inquire what that is , to be told it is all the duty of a returning man ; the extermination of sin , the mortification of all our irregular appetites , and all that perfection of righteousness which can consist with our state of imperfection ; and that in order to these purposes , we must not refuse the sharpest instruments , that they may be even cut off which trouble us , but that we suffer all the severity of voluntary or imposed discipline , according as it shall be judged necessary , this is it which will trouble men ; such , I mean , who love a beggerly ease before a laborious thriving trade ( a foul stable to some beasts is better than a fair way ) and therefore it is , that since all Christians are convinced of the necessity , the indispensable necessity of Repentance , they have resolved to admit it , but they also resolve they will not understand what it is . Vna herclè falsa lachrymula ; one or two forc'd tears against a good time : and ( believe it ) that 's a great matter too , that is not ordinary . But if men lose an estate , — Nemo dolorem Fingit in hoc casu , vestem diducere summam Contentus , vexare oculos humore coacto . Men need not to dissemble tears or sorrow in that case : but as if men were in no danger when they are enemies to God , and as if to lose Heaven were no great matter , and to be cast into Hell were a very tolerable condition , and such as a man might very well undergo , and laugh heartily for all that ; they seem so unconcerned in the actions of Religion , and in their obedience to the severe laws of Repentance , that it looks as if men had no design in the world , but to be suffered to die quietly , to perish tamely , without being troubled with the angry arguments of Church-men , who by all means desire they should live and recover , and dwell with God for ever . Or if they can be forc'd to the further entertainments of Repentance , it is nothing but a calling for mercy , an ineffective prayer , a moist cloud , a resolution for to day , and a solemn shower at the most . Mens immota manet , lachrymae volvuntur inanes . The mind is not chang'd , though the face be : for Repentance is thought to be just as other Graces , fit for their proper season , like fruits in their own month ; but then every thing else must have its day too : we shall sin , and we must repent ; but sin will come again , and so may repentance : For there is a time for every thing under the Sun ; and the time for Repentance is when we can sin no more , when every objection is answered , when we can have no more excuse ; and they who go upon that principle will never do it , till it be too late : For every age hath temptations of its own , and they that have been us'd to the yoke all their life time , will obey their sin when it comes in any shape in which they can take any pleasure . But men are infinitely abus'd , and by themselves most of all . For Repentance is not like the Summer fruits , fit to be taken a little , and in their own time ▪ it is like bread , the provisions and support of our life , the entertainment of every day , but it is the bread of affliction to some , and the bread of carefulness to all : and he that preaches this with the greatest zeal , and the greatest severity , it may be he takes the liberty of an enemy , but he gives the counsel and the assistance of a friend . My Lord , I have been so long acquainted with the secrets of your Spirit and Religion , that I know I need not make an apology for dedicating this severe Book to you . You know , according to the prudence which God hath given you , that he that flatters you is your enemy , and you need not be flattered ; for he that desires passionately to be a good man and a religious , to be the servant of God and be sav'd , will not be fond of any vanity , and nothing else can need to be flattered ; but I have presented to your Lordship this Discourse , not only to be a testimony to the world , how great a love , and how great an honour I have for you , but even by ascribing you into this relation , to endear you the rather every day more and more to the severest Doctrines and practices of Holiness . I was invited to make something of this by an Honourable Person who is now with God , and who desir'd his needs should be serv'd by my Ministery . But when I had entred upon it , I found it necessary to do it in order to more purposes , and in prosecution of the method of my other Studies . All which as they are designed to Gods glory and the Ministery of Souls , so if by them I can signifie my obligations to your Lordship , which by your great Nobleness do still increase , I shall not esteem them wholly ineffective even of some of those purposes whither they are intended ; for truly my Lord , in whatsoever I am or can do , I desire to appear , My Noblest Lord , Your Honours most obliged , and most affectionate Servant , JER . TAYLOR . THE PREFACE To the Right Reverend and Religious FATHERS , BRIAN Lord Bishop of SARVM , AND JOHN Lord Bishop of ROCHESTER , And to the most Reverend and Religious Clergy of ENGLAND , my dear Brethren . Men , Brethren and Fathers , THE wiser part of Mankind hath seen so much trifling in the conduct of disputations , so much partiality , such earnest desires of reputation , such resolution to prevail by all means , so great mixture of interest in the contention , so much mistaking of the main question , so frequent excursions into differing matter , so many personal quarrels , and petty animosities , so many wranglings about those things that shall never be helped , that is , the errors and infirmities of men ; and after all this ( which also must needs be consequent to it ) so little fruit and effect of questions , no man being the wiser , or changed from error to truth , but from error to error most frequently : and there are in the very vindication of truth so many incompetent , uncertain , and untrue things offered , that if by chance some truth be gotten , we are not very great gainers , because when the whole account is cast up , we shall find , or else they that are disinterest will observe that there is more error than truth in the whole purchase ; and still no man is satisfied , and every side keeps its own , unless where folly or interest makes some few persons to change ; and still more weakness and more impertinencies crowd into the whole affair upon every reply , and more yet upon the rejoynder , and when men have wrangled tediously and vainly , they are but where they were ; save only that they may remember they suffered infirmity , and , i● may be , the transport of passions , and uncharitable expressions ; and all this for an unrewarding interest , for that which is sometimes uncertain it self , unrevealed , unuseful , and unsatisfying ; that in the event of things , and after being wearied for little or nothing , men have now in a very great proportion left it quite off , as unsatisfying waters , and have been desirous of more material nourishment , and of such notices of things and just assistances , as may promote their eternal interest . And indeed it was great reason and high time that they should do so : for when they were imployed in rowing up and down in uncertain seas , to find something that was not necessary , it was certain they would less attend to that which was more worthy their inquiry : and the enemy of mankind knew that to be a time of his advantage , and accordingly sowed tares while we so slept ; and we felt a real mischief while we contended for an imaginary and phantastick good . For things were come to that pass , that it was the character of a good man to be zealous for a Sect , and all of every party respectively , if they were earnest and impatient of contradiction , were sure to be sav'd by their own Preachers ; and holiness of life was not so severely demanded , but that men believe their Country Articles ; and Heaven gates at no hand might be permitted to stand open to any one else . Thence came hatred , variance , emulation and strifes ; and the Wars of Christendom which have been kindled by Disputers , and the evil lives which were occasioned and encouraged by those proceedings , are the best confutation in the world of all such disputations . But now when we come to search into that part of Theologie which is most necessary , in which the life of Christianity , and the interest of Souls , the peace of Christendom , and the union of Minds , the sweetness of Society , and the support of Government , the usefulness and comfort of our lives , the advancement of Vertue , and the just measures of Honour ; we find many things disordered , the Tables of the Commandments broken in pieces , and some parts are lost and some disorder'd , and into the very practice of Christians there are crept so many material errors , that although God made nothing plainer , yet now nothing is more difficult and involv'd , uncertain and discompos'd , than many of the great lines and propositions in Moral Theologie : Nothing is more neglected , more necessary , or more mistaken . For although very many run into holy Orders without just abilities , and think their Province is well discharged if they can preach upon Sundays ; and men observing the ordinary preaching to be little better than ordinary talk , have been made bold to venture into the Holy Sept , and invade the secrets of the Temple , as thinking they can talk at the same rate which they observe to be the manner of vulgar Sermons : yet they who know to give a just value to the best things , know that the Sacred Office of a Priest , a Minister of Religion , does not only require great holiness , that they may acceptably offer the Christian Sacrifices and Oblations of Prayer and Eucharist for the people , and become their fairest examples ; but also great abilities , and wise notices of things and persons , strict observation , deep remembrances , prudent applications , courage and caution , severity and mercy , diligence and wisdom , that they may dispence the excellent things of Christianity , to the same effect whither they were design'd in the Counsels of Eternity , that is , to the glory of God and the benefit of Souls . But it is a sad thing to observe how weakly the Souls of men and women are guided ; with what false measures they are instructed , how their guides oftentimes strive to please men rather than to save them , and accordingly have fitted their Discourses and Sermons with easie theoremes , such which the Schools of learning have fallen upon by chance , or interest , or flattery , or vicious necessities , or superinduc'd arts , or weak compliances . But from whatsoever cause it does proceed , we feel the thing : There are so many false principles in the institutions and systemes of moral or Casuistical Divinity , and they taught so generally , and believed so unquestionably , and so fitted to the dispositions of men , so complying with their evil inclinations , so apt to produce error and confidence , security and a careless conversation , that neither can there be any way better to promote the interest of souls , nor to vindicate truth , nor to adorn the science it self , or to make Religion reasonable and intelligible , or to promote holy life , than by rescuing our Schools and Pulpits , and private perswasions from the believing such propositions which have prevailed very much and very long , but yet which are not only false , but have immediate influence upon the lives of men , so as to become to them a state of universal temptation from the severities and wisdom of Holiness . When therefore I had observed concerning the Church of England [ which is the most excellently instructed with a body of true Articles , and doctrines of Holiness , with a discipline material and prudent , with a Government Apostolical , with dignities neither splendid nor sordid , too great for contempt , and too little for envy ( unless she had met with little people & greatly malicious ) and indeed with every thing that could instruct or adorn a Christian Church , so that she wanted nothing but the continuance of peace , and what she already was ; ] that amongst all her heaps of excellent things , and Books by which her sons have ministred to piety & learning both at home and abroad , there was the greatest scarcity of Books of Cases of Conscience ; and that while I stood watching that some or other should undertake it according to the ability which God gave them ; and yet every one found himself hindred or diverted , persecuted or disabled , and still the work was left undone , I suffered my self to be invited to put my weak hand to this work , rather than that it should not be done at all . But by that time I had made some progression in the first preparatory discourses to the work , I found that a great part of that learning was supported by principles very weak and very false : and that it was in vain to dispute concerning a single case whether it were lawful or no , when by the general discoursings of men it might be permitted to live in states of sin without danger or reproof , as to the final event of souls . I thought it therefore necessary by way of address and preparation to the publication of the particulars , that it should appear to be necessary for a man to live a holy life ; and that it could be of concern to him to inquire into the very minutes of his conscience : For if it be no matter how men live , and if the hopes of Heaven can well stand with a wicked life , there is nothing in the world more unnecessary , than to enquire after cases of Conscience . And if it be sufficient for a man at the last to cry for pardon for having all his life time neither regarded Laws nor Conscience , certainly they have found out a better compendium of Religion , and need not be troubled with variety of rules and cautions of carefulness and a lasting holiness ; nor think concerning any action or state of life , whether it be lawful or not lawful ; for it is all one whether it be or no , since neither one nor the other will easily change the event of things . For let it be imagined , what need there can be that any man should write cases of Conscience , or read them , if it be lawful for a man thus to believe and speak . I have indeed often in my younger years been affrighted with the fearful noises of damnation , and the Ministers of Religion , for what reasons they best know , did call upon me to deny my appetite , to cross my desires , to destroy my pleasures , to live against my nature ; and I was afraid as long as I could not consider the secrets of things ; but now I find that in their own Books there are for me so many confidences and securities , that those fears were most unreasonable , and that as long as I live by the rules and measures of nature , I do not offend God , or if I do , I shall soon find a pardon . For I consider that the Commandments are impossible , and what is not possible to be done we are not to take care of : and he that fails in one instance cannot be sav'd without a pardon , not by his obedience ; and he that fails in all may be sav'd by pardon and grace . For the case is so , that we are sinners naturally , made so before we were born ; and nature can never be changed until she be destroyed : and since all our irregularities spring from that root , it is certain they ought not to be imputed to us ; and a man can no more fear Gods anger for being inclined to all sin , than for being hungry , or miserable : and therefore I expect from the wisdom and goodness of God some provisions which will so extinguish this solemn and artificial guilt , that it shall be as if it were not . But in the mean time the certainty of sinning will proceed . For besides that I am told that a man hath no liberty , but a liberty to sin , and this definite liberty is in plain English a very necessity , we see it by a daily experience that those who call themselves good men , are such who do what they would not , and cannot do what they would ; and if it be so , it is better to do what I have a mind to quietly , than to vex my self , and yet do it nevertheless : and that it is so , I am taught in almost all the discourses I have read or heard upon the seventh Chapter to the Romans : and therefore if I may have leave to do consonantly to what I am taught to believe , I must confess my self to be under the dominion of sin , and therefore must obey ; and that I am bidden to obey unwillingly , and am told that the striving against sin is indeed ordinarily ineffective , and yet is a sign of regeneration ; I can soon do that ; I can strive against it , and pray against it ; but I cannot hope to prevail in either , because I am told before-hand , that even the regenerate are under the power of sin ▪ they will and do not ; they do and will not ; and so it is with me ; I would fain be perfect if I could ; but I must not hope it ; and therefore I would only doe my actions so reasonably , that I would not be tied to vex my self for what I cannot help ; or to lose the pleasure of my sin by fretting at it , when it is certain it will be done , and yet I shall remain in the state of regeneration . And who can help all this , but God , whose mercy is indeed infinite ; and although in the secret dispensation of affairs , he hath concluded all under sin , yet he had no purpose we should therefore perish ; but it was done that he might have mercy upon all ; that is , that we may glorifie him for supplying our needs , pardoning our sins , relieving our infirmities ? And therefore when I consider that Gods mercy hath no limit in it self , and is made definite only by the capacity of the object , it is not to be doubted , but he loves his creatures so well , that we shall all rejoyce in our being freed from eternal fears . For to justifie my hopes , why may not I be confident of Heaven for all my sins , since the imputation of Christs righteousness is that by which I shall be justified ? my own is but like a menstruous rag , and the just falls seven times a-day ; but Christs Cross pays for all . And therefore I am confident I shall do well . For I am one of those for whom Christ died ; and I believe this , this faith is not to be reprov'd , for this is that which justifies , who shall condemn me ? It is not a good life that justifies a man before God , but it is faith in the special promises ; for indeed it being impossible to live innocently , it is necessary that away of Gods own finding out should be relied upon . Only this indeed I do , I do avoid the capital sins , blasphemies , and horrid murders ; I am 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , I sin like a Gentleman , not like a Thief ; I suffer infirmities , but do not do like a Devil ; and though I sin , yet I repent speedily , and when I sin again , I repent again , and my spiritual state is like my natural , day and night succeed each other by a never failing revolution . I sin indeed in some instances , but I do my duty in many ; and every man hath his infirmities ; no man can say , My soul is pure from sin ; but I hope that because I repent still as I sin , my sins are but as single actions ; and since I resist them what I can , I hope they will be reckoned to me but as sins of infirmity , without which no man is , or can be in this state of imperfection . For if I pray against a sin , and my spirit does resist it , though the flesh prevails , yet I am in the state of grace . For that I may own publickly what I am publickly taught ; a man cannot be soon out of the state of grace , but he may be soon in ; Gods love is lasting and perpetual when it hath once begun ; and when the curtain is drawn over the state of grace by the intervening of a sin , yet as soon as ever we begin to cry for pardon , nay when we do but say , we will confess our sins , nay when we do but resolve we will , God meets us with his pardon , and prevents us with some portions of it . And let things be at the worst they can , yet he that confesseth his sins to God , shall find mercy at the hands of God ; and he hath established a holy Ministery in his Church to absolve all penitents ; and if I go to one of them , and tell the sad story of my infirmity , the good man will presently warrant my pardon , and absolve me . But then I remember this also , that as my infirmity that is unavoidable shall not prejudice me , so neither shall any time prejudice my repentance . For if on my death-bed I cry unto God for pardon , and turn heartily unto God in the very instant of my dissolution , I am safe ; because when-ever a man converts to God , in the same instant God turns to him , or else it were possible for God to hate him that loves God , and our repentance should in some periods be rejected , expresly against all the promises . For it is an act of contrition , an act of the love of God that reconciles us ; and I shall be very unfortunate , if in the midst of all my pains , when my needs increase , and my fears are pregnant , and my self am ready to accept pardon upon any terms , I shall not then do so much as one act of a hearty sorrow and contrition . But however , I have the consent of almost all men , and all the Schools of learning in the world , that after a wicked life my repentance at last shall be accepted . Saint Ambrose , who was a good probable Doctor , and one as fit to be relied on as any man else , in his Funeral Oration of Valentinian hath these words ; Blessed is he truly , who even in his old age hath amended his error ; Blessed is he who even just before the stroke of death turns his mind from vice . Blessed are they whose sins are covered , for it is written , Cease from evil , and do good and dwell for evermore . Whoever therefore shall leave off from sin , and shall in any age be turned to better things , he hath the pardon of his former sins , which either he hath confessed with the affections of a penitent , or turned from them with the desires of amends . But this [ Prince ] hath company enough in the way of his obtaining pardon ; For there are very many who could in their old age recal themselves from the slipperiness and sins of their youth ; but seldom is any one to be found , who in his youth with a serious sobriety will bear the heavy yoke . And I remember that when Faustus Bishop of Rhegium being asked by Paulinus Bishop of Nola from Marinus the Hermit , whether a man who was involved in carnal sins and exercised all that a criminous person could do , might obtain a full pardon , if he did suddenly repent in the day of his death ? did answer peevishly , and severely , and gave no hopes , nor would allow pardon to any such ; Avitus the Archbishop of Vienna reproved his pride and his morosity , and gave express sentence for the validity of such a repentance : and that Gentleness hath been the continual Doctrine of the Church for many Ages ; insomuch that in the year 1584. Henry Kyspenning a Canon of Xant published a Book , intituled , The Evangelical Doctrine of the meditation of death , with solid exhortations and comforts to the sick , from the currents of Scripture , and the Commentaries of the Fathers , where teaching the sick man how to answer the objections of Satan , he makes this to be the fifteenth : I repent too late of my sins . He bids him answer ; It is not late if it be true : and to the Thief upon the Cross Christ said , This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise : And afterwards , a short prayer easily pierceth Heaven , so it be darted forth with a vehement force of the spirit . Truly the history of the Kings tells that David who was so great a sinner , used but three syllables ; for he is read to have said no more but Peccavi , I have sinned . For S. Ambrose said , The flame of the sacrifice of his heart ascends up to Heaven . Because we have a merciful and gentle Lord ; and the correction of our sins needs not much time , but great fervour . And to the same purpose are the words of Alcuinus the Tutor of Charles the Great : It behoves us to come to repentance with all confidence , and by faith to believe undoubtedly , that by repentance our sins may be blotted out , Etiamsi in ultimo vitae spiritu commissa poeniteat , although we repent of our sins in the last breath of our life . Now after all these grounds of hope and confidence to a sinner , what can be pretended in defiance of a sinful life ; and since men will hope upon one ground , though it be trifling and inconsiderable , when there are so many doctrinal grounds of hopes established propositions , parts of Religion and Articles of faith to rely upon , ( for , all these particulars before reckoned , men are called upon to believe earnestly , and are hated and threatned and despised , if they do not believe them ) what is there left to discourage the evil lives of men , or to lessen a full iniquity , since upon the account of the premises , either we may do what we list without sin , or sin without punishment , or go on without fear , or repent without danger , and without scruple be confident of Heaven ? And now if Moral Theologie relie upon such notices as these , I thought my work was at an end before I had well finished the first steps of my progression . The whole summ of affairs was in danger , and therefore I need not trouble my self or others with consideration of the particulars . I therefore thought it necessary first to undermine these false foundations ; and since an inquiry into the minutes of conscience is commonly the work of persons that live holily , I ought to take care that this be accounted necessary , and all false warrants to the contrary be cancell'd , that there might be many idonei auditores , persons competent to hear and read , and such who ought to be promoted and assisted in their holy intendments . And I bless God there are very many such ; and though iniquity does abound , yet Gods grace is conspicuous and remarkable in the lives of very many , to whom I shall design all the labours of my life , as being dear to God , and my dear Brethren in the service of Jesus . But I would fain have the Churches as full as I could before I begin ; and therefore I esteem'd it necessary to publish these Papers before my other , as containing the greatest lines of Conscience , and the most general cases of our whole life , even all the doctrine of Repentance , upon which all the hopes of man depend through Jesus Christ. But I have other purposes also in the publication of this Book . The Ministers of the Church of Rome ( who ever love to fish in troubled waters , and to oppress the miserable and afflicted , if they differ from them in a proposition ) use all the means they can to perswade our people , that the man that is afflicted is not alive , that the Church of England now it is a persecuted Church , is no Church at all ; and though ( blessed be God ) our Propositions , and Doctrines , and Liturgie , and Communion are sufficiently vindicated in despite of all their petty oppositions and trifling arrests , yet they will never leave making noises and outcries ; which for my part I can easily neglect , as finding them to be nothing but noise . But yet I am willing to try the Rights and Excellencies of a Church with them upon other accounts ; by such indications as are the most proper tokens of life , I mean , propositions of Holiness , the necessities of a holy life : for certainly that Church is most to be followed , who brings us nearest to God ; and they make our approaches nearest , who teach us to be most holy , and whose Doctrines command the most excellent and severest lives . But if it shall appear that the prevailing Doctrines in the Church of Rome do consequently teach , or directly warrant impiety , or which is all one , are too easie in promising pardon , and for it have no defences , but distinctions of their own inventing , I suppose it will be a greater reproof to their confidence and bold pretensions , than a discourse against one of their immaterial propositions , that have neither certainty nor usefulness . But I had rather that they would preach severity , than be reprov'd for their careless propositions , and therefore am well pleased that even amongst themselves some are so convinc'd of the weakness of their usual Ministeries of Repentance , that as much as they dare they call upon the Priests to be more deliberate in their absolutions , and severe in their impositions of satisfactions , requiring a longer time of Repentance before the penitents be reconcil'd . Monsieur Arnauld of the Sorbon hath appeared publickly in reproof of a frequent and easie Communion , without the just and long preparations of Repentance , and its proper exercises and Ministery . Petavius the Jesuit hath oppos'd him ; the one cries , The present Church , the other , The Ancient Church ; and as Petavius is too hard for his adversary in the present Authority , so Monsieur Arnauld hath the clearest advantage in the pretensions of Antiquity and the arguments of Truth ; from which Petavius and his abettor Bagot the Jesuit have no escape or defensative , but by distinguishing Repentance into Solemn and Sacramental : which is just as if they should say , Repentance is twofold ; one , such as was taught and practis'd by the Primitive Church ; the other , that which is in use this day in the Church of Rome : for there is not so much as one pregnant testimony in Antiquity for the first four hundred years , that there was any Repentance thought of , but Repentance toward God , and sometimes perform'd in the Church , in which after their stations were perform'd , they were admitted to the holy Communion ; excepting only in the danger or article of death , in which they hastened the Communion , and enjoyn'd the stations to be afterwards completed , in case they did recover , and if they did not , they left the event to God. But this question of theirs can never be ended upon the new principles , nor shall be freely argued because of their interest . For whoever are obliged to profess some false propositions , shall never from thence find out an intire truth , but like caskes in a troubled sea , sometimes they will be under water , sometimes above . For the productions of error are infinite , but most commonly monstrous : and in the fairest of them there will be some crooked or deformed part . But of the thing it self I have given such accounts as I could , being ingaged on no side , and the servant of no interest , and have endeavour'd to represent the dangers of every sinner , the difficulty of obtaining pardon , the many parts and progressions of Repentance , the severity of the Primitive Church , their rigid Doctrines and austere Disciplines , the degrees of easiness and complyings that came in by negligence ; and I desire that the effect should be , that all the pious and religious Curates of Souls in the Church of England would endeavour to produce so much fear and reverence , caution and wariness in all their penitents , that they should be willing to undergo more severe methods in their restitution than now they do : that men should not dare to approach to the holy Sacrament , as soon as ever their foul hands are wet with a drop of holy rain ; but that they should expect the periods of life , and when they have given to their Curate fair testimony of a hearty Repentance , and know it to be so within themselves , they may with comfort to all parties , communicate with holiness and joy . For I conceive this to be that event of things which was design'd by S. Paul in that excellent advice ; Obey them that have the rule over you , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , submit your selves , viz. to their ordering and discipline , because they watch for your souls , as they that must give accounts for them , that they may do it with joy . I am sure we cannot give accounts of souls of which we have no notice : and though we had reason to rescue them from the yoke of bondage , which the unjust laws and fetters of annual and private Confession ( as it was by them ordered ) did make men to complain of ; yet I believe we should be all unwilling , our Charges should exchange these fetters for worse , and by shaking off the laws of Confession , accidentally entertain the tyranny of sin . It was neither fit that all should be tied to it , nor yet that all should throw it off . There are some sins , and some cases , and some persons to whom an actual Ministery and personal provision and conduct by the Priests Office were better than food or physick . It were therefore very well if great sinners could be invited to bear the yoke of holy discipline , and do their Repentances under the conduct of those who must give an account of them , that they would inquire into the state of their souls , that they would submit them to be judged by those who are justly and rightly appointed over them , or such whom they are permitted to chuse ; and then that we would apply our selves to understand the secrets of Religion , the measures of the Spirit , the conduct of Souls , the advantages and disadvantages of things and persons , the ways of life and death , the lahyrinths of temptation , and all the remedies of sin , the publick and private , the great and little lines of Conscience , and all those ways by which men may be assisted and promoted in the ways of godliness : for such knowledge as it is most difficult and secret , untaught and unregarded ; so it is most necessary , and for want of it , the holy Sacrament of the Eucharist is oftentimes given to them that are in the gall of bitterness : that which is holy is given to Dogs . Indeed neither we nor our Forefathers could help it always ; and the Discipline of the Church could seize but upon few : all were invited , but none but the willing could receive the benefit ; but however , it were pity that men upon the account of little and trifling objections , should be discouraged from doing themselves benefit , and from enabling us with greater advantages to do our duty to them . It was of old observed of the Christians : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : they obey the laws , and by the excellency of their own lives excel the perfection of the laws : and it is not well , if we shall be earnest to tell them that such a thing is not necessary , if we know it to be good . For in this present dissolution of manners , to tell the people concerning any good thing that it is not necessary , is to tempt them to let it alone . The Presbyterian Ministers ( who are of the Church of England , just as the Irish are English ) have obtained such power with their Proselytes , that they take some account of the Souls ( of such as they please ) before they admit them to their communion in Sacraments ; they do it to secure them to their party , or else make such accounts to be as their Shibboleth , to discern their Jews from the men of Ephraim : but it were very well we would do that for Conscience , for Charity , and for Piety , which others do for Interest , or Zeal ; and that we would be careful to use all those Ministeries , and be earnest for all those Doctrines , which visibly in the causes of things are apt to produce holiness and severe living . It is no matter whether by these arts any Sect or Name be promoted ; it is certain Christian Religion would , and that 's the real interest of us all , that those who are under our Charges should know the force of the Resurrection of Christ , and the conduct of the Spirit , and live according to the purity of God , and the light of the Gospel . To this let us cooperate with all wisdom , and earnestness , and knowledge , and spiritual understanding . And there is no better way in the world to do this , than by ministring to persons singly in the conduct of their Repentance , which as it is the work of every man , so there are but few persons who need not the conduct of a spiritual guide in the beginnings and progressions of it . To the assistance of this work I have now put my Symbol , having by the sad experience of my own miseries and the calamities of others , to whose restitution I have been called to minister , been taught something of the secret of Souls : and I have reason to think that the words of our dearest Lord to S. Peter were also spoken to me ; Tu autem conversus confirma fratres . I hope I have received many of the mercies of a repenting sinner , and I have felt the turnings and varieties of spiritual entercourses ; and I have often observed the advantages in ministring to others , and am most confident that the greatest benefits of our office may with best effect be communicated to souls in personal and particular Ministrations . In the following book I have given advices , and have asserted many truths in order to all this : I have endeavoured to break in pieces almost all those propositions , upon the confidence of which men have been negligent of severe and strict living : I have cancell'd some false grounds upon which many answers in Moral Theologie us'd to be made to inquiries in Cases of Conscience : I have according to my weak ability described all the necessities , and great inducement of a holy life ; and have endeavoured to do it so plainly , that it may be useful to every man , and so inoffensively , that it may hurt no man. I know but one Objection which I am likely to meet withall ( excepting those of my infirmity and disability , which I cannot answer but by protesting the piety of my purposes ) but this only , that in the Chapter of Original sin , I speak otherwise than is spoken commonly in the Church of England : whos 's ninth Article affirms , that the natural propensity to evil , and the perpetual lusting of the flesh against the spirit , deserves the anger of God and damnation ; against which I so earnestly seem to dispute in the sixth Chapter of my Book . To this I answer , that it is one thing to say a thing in its own nature deserves damnation ; and another , to say it is damnable to all those persons in whom it is subjected . The thing it self , that is , our corrupted nature , or our nature of corruption , does leave us in the state of separation from God , by being unable to bear us to Heaven : imperfection of nature can never carry us to the perfections of glory ; and this I conceive to be all that our Church intends : for that in the state of nature we can only fall short of Heaven , and be condemn'd to a poena damni , is the severest thing that any sober person owns ; and this I say , that Nature alone cannot bring us to God , without the regeneration of the Spirit , and the grace of God , we can never go to Heaven : but because this Nature was not spoil'd by Infants , but by persons of reason , and we are all admitted to a new Covenant of Mercy and Grace , made with Adam presently after his fall , that is , even before we were born , as much as we were to a participation of sin before we were born , no man can perish actually for that , because he is reconcil'd by this . He that says every sin is damnable , and deserves the anger of God , says true ; but yet some persons that sin of mere infirmity are accounted by God in the rank of innocent persons . So it is in this Article . Concupiscence remains in the regenerate , and yet concupiscence hath the nature of sin , but it brings not condemnation . These words explain the 〈◊〉 . Original imperfection is such a thing as is even in the regenerate ; and it is of the nature of sin , that is , it is the effect of one sin , and the cause of many ; but yet it is not da●●ing , because as it is subjected in unconsenting persons , it loses its own natural venome , and relation to guiltiness , that is , it may of it self in its abstracted nature be a sin , and deserve Gods anger , viz. in some persons , in all them that consent to it : but that which will always be in persons that shall never be damned , that is in infants and regenerate , shall 〈◊〉 damn them . And this is the main of what I affirm . And since the Church of England intended that Article against the Doctrine of the Pelagians , I suppose I shall not be thought to recede from the spirit and sence of the Article , though I use differing manners of expression ; because my way of explicating this question , does most of all destroy the Pelagian Heresie , since although I am desirous to acquit the dispensation of God and his Justice from my imputation or suspicion of wrong , and am loth to put our sins upon the account of another , yet I impute all our evils to the imperfections of our nature and the malice of our choice , which does most of all demonstrate not only the necessity of Grace , but also of Infant Baptism ; and then to accuse this Doctrine of Pelagianism , or any newer name of Heresie , will seem like impotency and weakness of spirit ; but there will be nothing of truth or learning in it . And although this Article was penn'd according to the style of the Schools , as they then did lo●e to speak , yet the hardest word in it is capable of such a sence as complies with the intendment of that whole sixth Chapter . For though the Church of England professes her self fallible , and consequently that all her truths may be peaceably improved ; yet I do think that she is not actually deceiv'd ; and also that divers eminently learned do consent in my sence of that Article . However , I am so truly zealous for her honour and peace , that I wholly submit all that I say there , or any where else to her most prudent judgment . And though I may most easily be deceived , yet I have given my reasons for what I say , and desire to be tried by them ▪ not by prejudice , and numbers , and zeal : and if any man resolves to understand the Article in any other sence than what I have now explicated , all that I shall say is , that it may be I cannot reconcile my Doctrine to his explication ; it is enough that it is consistent with the Article it self in its best understanding and compliance with the truth it self , and the justification of God. However , he that explicates the Article , and thinks it means as he says , does all the honour he can to the Authority ; whose words if he does not understand , yet the sanction he reveres . And this liberty I now take , is no other than hath been used by the severest Votaries in that Church where to dissent is death , I mean in the Church of Rome . I call to witness those disputations and contradictory assertions in the matter of some articles , which are to be observed in Andreas Vega , Dominicus à Soto , Andradius , the Lawyers about the Question of divorces , and clan destine contracts , the Divines about predetermination , and about this very article of Original sin , as relating to the Virgin Mary . But blessed be God , we are under the Discipline of a prudent , charitable , and indulgent Mother ; and if I may be allowed to suppose , that the article means no more in short , than the office of Baptism explicates at large , I will abide by the trial , there is not a word in the Rubricks or Prayers , but may very perfectly consist with the Doctrine I deliver . But though the Church of England is my Mother , and I hope I shall ever live , and at last die in her Communion , and if God shall call me to it , and enable me , I will not refuse to die for her ; yet I conceive there is something most highly considerable in that saying , Call no man Master upon earth ; that is , no mans explication of her articles shall prejudice my affirmative , if it agrees with Scripture and right reason , and the doctrine of the Primitive Church for the first 300 years ; and if in any of this I am mistaken , I will most thankfully be reproved , and most readily make honourable amends . But my proposition , I hope , is not built upon the sand : and I am most sure it is so zealous for Gods honour , and the reputation of his justice , and wisdom , and goodness , that I hope all that are pious ( unless they labour under some prejudice and prepossession ) will upon that account be zealous for it , or at least confess that what I intend hath in it more of piety , than their negative can have of certainty . That which is strain'd , and held too hard will soonest break . He that stoops to the authority , yet twists the article with truth , preserves both with modesty and Religion . One thing more I fear will trouble some persons , who will be apt to say to me as Avitus of Vienna did to Faustus of Rhegium , Hic quantum ad frontem pertinent quasi abstinentissimam vitam professus , & non secretam crucem , sed publicam vanitatem , &c. That upon pretence of great severity , as if I were exact or could be , I urge others to so great strictness , which will rather produce despair than holiness . Though I have in its proper place taken care concerning this , and all the way intend , to rescue men from the just causes and in-lets to despair ; that is , not to make them do that against which by preaching a holy life , I have prepar'd the best defensative ; yet this I shall say here particularly : That I think this objection is but a mere excuse which some men would make , lest they should believe it necessary to live well . For to speak truth , men are not very apt to despair , they have ten thousand ways to flatter themselves , and they will hope in despight of all arguments to the contrary ; In all the Scripture there is but one example of a despairing man , and that was Judas ; who did so , not upon the stock of any fierce propositions preach'd to him , but upon the load of his foul sin , and the pusillanimity of his spirit . But they are not to be numbred who live in sin , and yet sibi suaviter benedicunt , think themselves in a good condition ; and all them that rely upon those false principles which I have reckoned in this Preface , and confuted in the Book , are examples of it . But it were well if 〈◊〉 would distinguish the sin of despair from the misery of despair . Where God hath 〈◊〉 us no warrant to hope , there to despair is no sin ; it may be a punishment , and to hope 〈◊〉 may be presumption . I shall end with the most charitable advice I can give to any of my erring Brethren ▪ 〈◊〉 no man be so vain as to use all the wit and arts , all the shifts and devices of the world , 〈…〉 may behold to enjoy the pleasure of his sin , since it may bring him into that condition , that it 〈◊〉 be disputed , whether he shall despair or no. Our duty is to make our calling and electio●● sure ; which certainly cannot be done but by a timely and effective repentance . But they that will be confident in their health , are sometimes pusillanimous in their sickness , presumptious in sin , and despairing in the day of their calamity . Cognitio de incorrupto Dei judicio in multis dormit ; sed excitari solet circa mortem , said Plato . For though 〈◊〉 give false sentences of the Divine judgments , when their temptations are high , and their 〈◊〉 pleasant , yet about the time of their death , their understanding and notices are awakened , 〈◊〉 they see what they would not see before , and what they cannot now avoid . Thus I have given account of the design of this Book to you , Most Reverend Fat●●● and Religious Brethren of this Church ; and to your judgment I submit what I have here discoursed of ; as knowing that the chiefest part of the Ecclesiastical office is conversant about Repentance ; and the whole Government of the Primitive Church was almost wholly imployed in ministring to the orders , and restitution and reconciliation of penitents ; and therefore you are not only by your ability , but by your imployment and experiences , the most competent Judges , and the aptest promoters of those truths by which Repentance is made most perfect and unreprovable . By your Prayers , and your Authority , and your Wisdom , I hope it will be more and more effected , that the strictnesses of a holy life be thought necessary , and that Repentance may be no more that trifling , little piece of duty , to which the errors of the late Schools of learning , and the desires of men to be deceiv'd in this article , have reduc'd it . I have done thus much of my part toward it , and I humbly desire it may be accepted by God , by you , and by all good men . JER . TAYLOR . VNVM NECESSARIVM . OR , The DOCTRINE and PRACTICE OF REPENTANCE . CHAP. I. The Foundation , and Necessity of Repentance . SECT . I. Of the indispensable Necessity of Repentance in remedy to the unavoidable transgressing the Covenant of Works . IN the first entercourse with Man , God made such a Covenant as he might justly make out of his absolute dominion , and such as was agreeable with those powers which he gave us , and the instances in which obedience was demanded . For 1. Man was made perfect in his kind , and God demanded of him perfect obedience . 2. The first Covenant was the Covenant of Works , that is , there was nothing in it , but Man was to obey or die : but God laid but one command upon him that we find ; the Covenant was instanced but in one precept . In that he fail'd , and therefore he was lost . There was here no remedy , no second thoughts , no amends to be made . But because much was not required of him , and the Commandment was very easie , and he had strengths more than enough to keep it , therefore he had no cause to complain : God might , ●nd did exact at first the Covenant of Works , because it was at first infinitely tole●●ble . But , 2. From this time forward this Covenant began to be hard , and by degrees be●●●e impossible ; not only because mans fortune was broken , and his spirit troubled , 〈◊〉 his passions disordered and vext by his calamity and his sin , but because man upon ●●e birth of children and the increase of the world contracted new relations , and consequently had new duties and obligations , and men hindred one another , and their faculties by many means became disorder'd and lessen'd in their abilities ; and their will becoming perverse they first were unwilling , and then unable by superinducing dispositions and habits contrary to their duty . However , because there was a necessity that man should be tied to more duty , God did in the several periods of the world multiply Commandments , first to Noah , then to Abraham , and then to his posterity ; and by this time they were very many : And still God held over mans head the Covenant of Works . 3. Upon the pressure of this Covenant all the world did complain : Tanta mandata sunt , ut impossibile sit servari ea , said S. Ambrose : the Commandments were so many and great , that it was impossible they should be kept . For at first there were no promises at all of any good , nothing but a threatning of evil to the transgressors ; and after a long time they were entertain'd but with the promise of temporal good things , which to some men were perform'd by the pleasures and rewards of sin ; and then there being a great imperfection in the nature of man , it could not be that man should remain innocent ; and for repentance , in this Covenant there was no regard , or provisions made . But I said , 4. The Covenant of Works was still kept on foot ; How justly , will appear in the sequel ; but the reasonableness of it was in this , that men living in a state of awfulness might be under a pedagogy or severe institution restraining their loosenesses , recollecting their inadvertencies , uniting their distractions . For the world was not then prepar'd by spiritual usages and dispositions to be governed by love and an easie yoke , but by threatnings and severities . And this is the account S. Paul gives of it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The Law was a Schoolmaster , that is , had a temporary authority serving to other ends , with no final concluding power . It could chastise and threaten , but it could not condemn : it had not power of eternal life and death , that was given by other measures . But because the world was wild and barbarous , good men were few , the bad potent and innumerable , and sin was conducted and help'd forward by pleasure and impunity , it was necessary that God should superinduce a law , and shew them the rod , and affright and check their confidences , left the world it self should perish by dissolution . The law of Moses was still a part of the Covenant of Works . Some little it had of repentance ; Sacrifice and expiations were appointed for small sins ; but nothing at all for greater . Every great sin brought death infallibly . And as it had a little image of Repentance , so it had something of Promises , to be as a grace and auxiliary to set forward obedience . But this would not do it . The promises were temporal , and that could not secure obedience in great instances ; and there being for them no remedy appointed by repentance , the law could not justifie , it did not promise life Eternal , nor give sufficient security against the Temporal , only it was brought in as a pedagogy for the present necessity . 5. But this pedagogie or institution was also a manuduction to the Gospel . For they were used to severe laws , that they might the more readily entertain the holy precepts of the Gospel , to which eternally they would have shut their ears , unless they had had some preparatory institution of severity and fear : And therefore S. Paul also calls it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a pedagogie , or institution leading unto Christ. 6. For it was this which made the world of the Godly long for Christ , as having commission to open the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the hidden mystery of Justification by Faith and Repentance . For the law called for exact obdience , but ministred no grace but that of fear , which was not enough to the performance or the engagement of exact obedience . All therefore were here convinced of sin , but by this Covenant they had no hopes , and therefore were to expect relief from another and a better : according to that saying of S. Paul , The Scripture concludes all under sin ( that is , declares all the world to be sinners ) that the promise by the faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe . This S. Bernard expresses in these words , Deus nobis hoc fecit , ut nostram imperfectionem ostenderet , & Christi avidiores nos faceret . Our imperfection was sufficiently manifest by the severity of the first Covenant , that the world might long for salvation by Jesus Christ. 7. For since mankind could not be saved by the Covenant of works , that is , of exact obedience , they must perish for ever , or else hope to be sav'd by a Covenant of ease and remission , that is , such a Covenant as may secure Mans duty to God , and Gods Mercy to Man , and this is the Covenant which God made with mankind in Christ Jesus , the Covenant of Repentance . 8. This Covenant began immediately after Adams fall . For as soon as the first Covenant , the Covenant of works was broken , God promised to make it up by an instrument of mercy which himself would find out . The Seed of the woman should make up the breaches of the man. But this should be acted and published in its own time , not presently . In the mean time man was by virtue of that new Covenant or promise admitted to Repentance . 9. Adam confessed his sin and repented . Three hundred years together did he mourn upon the mountains of India , and God promised him a Saviour by whose obedience his repentance should be accepted . And when God did threaten the old world with a floud of waters , he called upon them to repent , but because they did not , God brought upon them the floud of waters . For 120. years together he called upon them to return before he would strike his final blow . Ten times God tried Pharaoh before he destroyed him . And in all ages , in all periods , and with all men God did deal by this measure ; and ( excepting that God in some great cases , or in the beginning of a Sanction to establish it with the terror of a great example ) he scarce ever destroyed a single man with temporal death for any nicety of the law , but for long and great prevarications of it : and when he did otherwise , he did it after the man had been highly warned of the particular , and could have obeyed easily , which was the case of the man that gathered sticks upon the Sabbath ; and was like the case of Adam , who was upon the same account judged by the Covenant of works . 10. This then was an emanation both of Gods justice and his mercy . Until man had sinned he was not the subject of mercy : and if he had not then receiv'd mercy , the infliction had been too severe and unjust , since the Covenant was beyond the measures of man , after it began to multiply into particular laws , and man by accident was lessen'd in his strengths . 11. From hence the corollaries are plain , 1. God was not unjust for beginning his entercourse with mankind by the Covenant of works , for these reasons . I. Because Man had strengths enough to do it , until he lessen'd his own abilities . II. The Covenant of works was at first instanc'd but in a small Commandment : in abstaining from the fruit of one tree , when he had by him very many others for his use and pleasure . III. It was necessary that the Covenant of works should begin : for the Covenant of faith and repentance could not be at first ; there was no need of it , no opportunity for it , it must suppose a defailance , or an infirmity , as physick supposes sickness and mortality . IV. God never exacted the obedience of Man by strict measures , by the severity of the first Covenant after Adams fall ; but men were sav'd then as now , they were admitted to repentance , and justified by faith and the works of faith . And therefore the Jews say that three things were before the world , The Law , the name of the Messias , and Repentance ; that is , as S. Paul better expresses it , This Repentance through faith in the Messias is the hidden wisdom of God , ordained before the world unto our glory . So that at first it was not impossible ; and when it was , it was not exacted in the impossible measure ; but it was kept in pretence and overture for ends of piety , wisdom and mercy , of which I have given account ; it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a wise dispensation , but it was hidden . 12. For since it is essential to a law that it be in a matter that is possible , it cannot be suppos'd that God would judge man by an impossible Commandment . A good man would not do it , much less the righteous and merciful Judge of Men and Angels . But God by holding over the world the Covenant of works , non fecit praevaricatores sed humiles , did not make us sinners by not observing the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the minutes and tittles of the law , but made us humble , needing mercy , begging grace , longing for a Saviour , relying upon a better Covenant , waiting for better promises , praying for the Spirit of grace , repenting of our sins , deploring our infirmities , and justified by faith in the promises of God. 13. II. This then is the great introduction and necessity of repentance . We neither could have liv'd without it , nor have understood the way of the Divine Justice , nor have felt any thing of his most glorious attribute . But the admission of us to repentance , is the great verification of his justice , and the most excellent expression of his mercy : This is the mercy of God in Jesus Christ , springing from the fountains of grace , purchas'd by the blood of the Holy Lamb , the Eternal sacrifice , promised from the beginning , always ministred to mans need in the secret Oeconomy of God , but proclaim'd to all the world at the revelation of God incarnate , the first day of our Lord Jesus . 14. But what are we eased now under the Gospel , which is a Law of greater holiness and more Commandments , and a sublimer purity , in which we are tied to more severity than ever man was bound to under any institution and Covenant ? If the Law was an impossible Commandment , who can say he hath strictly and punctually perform'd the injunctions of the Gospel ? Is not the little finger of the Son heavier than the Fathers loyns ? Here therefore it is to be inquired , Whether the Commandments of Jesus Christ be as impossible to be kept as the Law of Moses ? If we by Christ be tied to more holiness , than the sons of Israel were by Moses Law , then because that could not be kept , then neither can this . But if we be not tied to more than they , how is the law of Christ a more perfect institution , and how can we now be justified by a law no better than that by which we could not be justified ? But then , if this should be as impossible as ever , why is it a-new imposed ? why is it held over us , when the ends for which it was held over us , now are served ? And at last , how can it be agreeable to Gods wisdom and justice , to exact of us a law which we cannot perform , or to impose a law which cannot justly be exacted ? The answering and explicating this difficulty will serve many propositions in the doctrine of Repentance . SECT . II. Of the possibility or impossibility of keeping the Precepts of the Gospel . 15. IT were strange that it should be possible for all men to keep the Commandments , and requir'd and exacted of all men with the intermination or threatning of horrid pains , and yet that no man should ever do it . S. Hierome brings its Atticus thus arguing : Da exemplum , aut confitere imbecillitatem tuam ; and the same also was the argument of Orosius ; and the reasonableness of it is a great prejudice against the contrary affirmation of S. Austin , Alipius & Evodius , Aurelius & Possidius , who because it is no good consequence to argue à non esse ad non posse , and though it is not done , yet possibly it might ; conclude , that it is possible to keep the Commandments , though as yet no man ever did , but he that did it for us all . But as Marcellinus said well , It is hard to say that by a Man a thing can be done , of which although there was a great necessity and a severe Commandment , yet there never was any example . Because in men there is such infinite variety of tempers , dispositions , apprehensions , designs , fears and hopes , purposes and interests , that it were next to a miracle that not one of all mankind should do what he can , and what so highly concerns him . But because this , although it be a high probability , yet is no certain demonstration ; that which S. Paul taught is certainly to be relied upon , That the Law could not do it for ●s , that is , could not bring us justification , in that it was weak through the flesh ; meaning that because we were so weak we could not fulfil the righteousness of the Law , therefore we could not be justified by that Covenant . Mos● manns graves , facies cornata , impedita lingua , lapideae tabulae . Moses's hands were heavy , his face bright , his tongue stammering , and the tables were of stone ; by which is meant , that the imposition and the burthen was great , but the shoulder is weak and crushed , and therefore was not able to bear it ; and therefore much less can it stand under a bigger load , if the holy Precepts of the Gospel should prove so , and we be assisted by no firmer supporters . 16. For the nature and constitution of man is such , that he cannot perpetually attend to any state of things : Voluntas per momenta variatur , quia solus Deus immutabilis ; variety and change , inconstancy and repentance are in his very nature . * If he be negligent , he is soon tempted . If he be watchful , he is soon wearied . * If he be not instructed , he is exposed to every abuse . * If he be , yet he is ignorant of more than he knows , & may be consened by very many things ; and in what he knows or seems to know , he is sometimes confident , sometimes capricious , curious and impertinent , proud and contemptuous , * The Commandments are instanc'd in things against our natural inclinations , and are restraints upon our appetite ; and although a man may do it in single instances , yet to act a part of perpetual violence and preternatural contentions is too hard and severe an expectation , and the often unavoidable failings of men will shew how impossible it is . It is ( as S. Hieromes expression is ) as if a man should hale a boat against the stream ; if ever he slacken his hand , the vessel falls back : and if ever we give way to our appetite in any of the forbidden instances , we descend naturally and easily . * Some vices are proportionable to a mans temper , and there he falls pleasantly and with desire ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Aristotle , That which is natural is sweet , but that which is violent is troublesome : to others he is indifferent , but to them he is turn'd by every byass . * If a man be morose , he is apt to offend with fullenness and angry pretensions : but if he be compliant and gentle , he is easily cousened with fair entreaties . * If he be alone , he is sad and phantastick , and woe to him that is alone : If he be in company , it will be very hard for him to go with them to the utmost limits of permission , and not to step beyond it . * No mans leisure is great enough to attend the inquiry after all the actions and particulars for which he is to be judged ; and he does many things which he considers not whether they be sins or no ; and when he does consider , he often judges wrong . * For some things there are no certain measures ; and there are very many constituent or intervening things and circumstances of things , by which it is made impossible to give a certain judgement of the whole . * Oftentimes a man is surpris'd and cannot deliberate for want of time ; sometimes he is amaz'd , and wants order and distinction to his thoughts , and cannot deliberate for want of powers . * Sometimes the case is such , that if a man determines it against his temporal interest he determines falsly , and yet he thinks he does it safest : and if he judges in compliance with his temporal regards , he cannot be confident but that he was mov'd not by the prevailing reason , but by prevailing passion . * If the dispute be concerning degrees , there is no certain measures to weigh them by : and yet sometimes a degree does diversifie the kind , and vertue and vice are but differing degrees of the same instance : and the ways of sinning upon the stock of ignorance are as many as there are ignorances and degrees , and parts and vicious causes , and instances of it . 17. Concerning our infirmities , they are so many that we can no more account concerning the ways of error coming upon that stock , than it can be reckoned in how many places a lame man may stumble that goes a long journey in difficult and uneven ways . We have beginning infant strengths , which are therefore imperfect because they can grow : Crescere posse imperfectae rei signum est ; and when they are most confirm'd and full grown , they are imperfect still . When we can reckon all the things of chance , then we have summ'd up the dangers and aptnesses of man to sin upon that one principle ; but so as they can they are summ'd up in the words of Epiphanius ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The condition of our nature , the inconstancy of our spirits , the infirmity of our flesh , the distraction of our senses , are an argument to make us with confidence expect pardon and mercy from the loving kindness of the Lord , according to the preaching of Truth , the Gospel of Christ. 18. But besides all this , the numbers of sin are not easily to be told : the lines of account are various and changeable , our opinions uncertain , and we are affrighted from one into another , and all changes from sin are not into vertue , but more commonly into sin . Obsessa mens hominis & undique ‖ diaboli infestatione vallata vix occurrit singulis , vix resistit ; si avaritia prostrata est , exurgit libido . And if we do not commit things forbidden , yet the sins of omission are innumerable and undiscernable . * Businesses intervene and visits are made , and civilities to be rendred , and friendly compliances to be entertain'd , and necessities to be served , and some things thought so which are not so , and so the time goes away , and the duty is left undone ; prayers are hindred , and prayers are omitted ; and concerning every part of time which was once in our power , no man living can give a fair account . 19. This moral demonstration of the impossibility of perfect and exact obedience and innocence , would grow too high , if I should tell how easily our duties are sowr'd even when we think we walk wisely . Severity is quickly turn'd into ungentleness , love of children to indulgence , joy to gayety , melancholy to peevishness , love of our wives to fondness , liberties of marriage to licentiousness , devotion to superstition , austerity to pride , feasting to intemperance , Vrbanity to foolish jesting , a free speech into impertinence and idle talking . 20. There were no bottom of this consideration if we consider how all mankind sins with the tongue . He that offends not in his tongue , he is a perfect man indeed . But experience and the following considerations do manifest that no man is so perfect . For , 21. Every passion of the Soul is a Spring and a shower , a parent and a nurse to sin . Our passions either mistake their objects , or grow intemperate ; either they put too much upon a trifle , or too little upon the biggest interest . They are material and sensual , best pleas'd and best acquainted with their own objects : and we are to do some things , which it is hard to be told how they can be in our own power . We are commanded to be angry , to love , to hope , to desire certain things , towards which we cannot be so affected ever when we please . A man cannot love or hate upon the stock and interest of a Commandment , and yet these are parts of our duty . To mourn and to be sorrowful are natural effects of their proper apprehensions , and therefore are not properly capable of a law . Though it be possible for a man who is of a sanguine complexion , in perfect health and constitution , not to act his lust ; yet it will be found next to impossible not to love it , not to desire it : and who will find it possible that every man and in all cases of his temptation should overcome his fear ? But if this fear be instanced in a matter of religion , it will be apt to multiply eternal scruples , and they are equivocal effects of a good meaning , but are proper and univocal enemies to piety and a wise religion . 22. I need not take notice of the infinite variety of thoughts and sentences that divide all mankind concerning their manner of pleasing and obeying God ; and the appendant zeal by which they are furiously driven on to promote their errors or opinions as they think for God : and he that shall tell these men they do amiss would be wondred at ; for they think themselves secure of a good reward even when they do horrible things . But the danger here is very great , when the instrument of serving God is nothing but opinion and passion abus'd by interest ; especially since this passion of it self is very much to be suspected ; it being temerity or rashness ; ( for some zeal is no better ) and its very formality is inadvertency and inconsideration . 23. But the case is very often so , that even the greatest consideration is apt to be mistaken : and how shall men be innocent , when besides the signal precepts of the Gospel , there are propounded to us some general measures , and as I may call them extraregular lines , by which our actions are to be directed ; such as are , the analogy of faith , fame , reputation , publick honesty , not giving offence , being exemplary ; all which , and divers others being indefinite measures of good and evil , are pursued as men please , and as they will understand them . And because concerning these , God alone can judge righteously , he alone can tell when we have observed them ; we cannot , and therefore it is certain we very often do mistake . 24. Hence it is that they who mean holiness and purity are forc'd to make to themselves rules and measures by way of Idea or instrument , endeavouring to chuse that side that is the surest ; which indeed is but a guessing at the way we should walk in ; and yet by this way also , men do often run into a snare , and lay trouble and intricacy upon their consciences , unnecessary burthens which presently they grow weary of , and in striving to shake them off , they gall the neck , and introduce tediousness of spirit or despair . 25. For we see when Religion grows high , the dangers do increase , not only by the proper dangers of that state , and the more violent assaults made against Saints than against meaner persons of no religious interest ; but because it will be impossible for any man to know certainly what intension of spirit is the minimum religionis , the necessary condition , under or less than which God will not accept the action : and yet sometimes two duties justle one another , and while we are zealous in one , we less attend the other , and therefore cannot easily be certain of our measures ; and because sometimes two duties of a very different matter are to be reconcil'd and waited upon , who can tell what will be the event of it , since mans nature is so limited and little that it cannot at once attend upon two objects ? 26. Is it possible that a man should so attend his prayers , that his mind should be always present and never wander ? does not every man complain of this , and yet no man can help it ? And if of this alone we had cause to complain , yet even for this we were not innocent in others ; and he that is an offender in one is guilty of all ; and yet it is true that in many things we all offend . And all this is true when a man is well and when he is wise ; but he may be foolish and he will be sick , and there is a new scene of dangers , new duties , and new infirmities , and new questions , and the old uncertainty of things , and the same certainty of doing our duty weakly , and imperfectly , and pitiably . — Quid tam dextro pede concipis , ut te Conatus non poeniteat , votique peracti ? 27. Since therefore every sin is forbidden , and yet it can enter from so many angles , I may conclude in the words of Sedulius , Lex spiritualis est , quia spiritualiae mandat , ardua praecipit opera spiritus , prohibens peccata , & ideò non potest impleri . Gods law is spiritual , and we are carnal and disproportionate to it while we are in the state of conjunction , and therefore it cannot be kept . Deus jugum legis homini imponit , homo ferre non valet , said the Fathers of the Synod of Frankeford . God hath imposed a yoke , but man cannot bear it . For that I may summ up all , 28. In affirmative Precepts the measure is , To love God with all our faculties and degrees . In negative Precepts the measure is , Not to lust or desire . Now if any man can say that he can so love God in the proper and full measures , as never to step aside towards the creatures with whom he daily converses , and is of the same kindred with them , and that he can so abstain from the creature , as never to covet what he is forbidden ; then indeed he justifies God in imposing a possible law , and condemns himself that he does not what he ought . But in all he infers the absolute necessity of Repentance . 29. But because we are sure God is just and cannot be otherwise , all the Doctors of the Church have endeavoured to tie these things together , and reconcile our state of infirmity with the justification of God. Many lay the whole fault upon Man , not on the impossible imposition . But that being the Question cannot be concluded on either hand with a bare Affirmative or Negative : and besides , it was condemn'd by the African Councils to say , that a man might , if he pleas'd , live without sin . Posse hominem sine peccato decurrere vitam , Si velit , ut potuit , nullo delinquere primus Libertate suâ : Nempe haec damnata fuêre Conciliis , mundique manu — said Prosper . For if it were only the fault of men , then a man might if he pleased keep the whole law , and then might be justified by the law , and should not need a Saviour . S. Augustine indeed thought it no great error , and some African Bishops did expresly affirm that some from their conversion did to the day of their death live without sin . This was worse than that of Pelagius , save only that these took in the Grace of God , which ( in that sence which the Church teaches ) the Pelagians did not . But this also was affirmed by * S. Austin , upon which account it must follow that the Commandments are therefore possible , because it is only our fault that they are not kept . But how to reconcile this opinion and saying of S. Austin and some other Africans , with the African Councils , with S. Hierome , Orosius , Lactantius , and with ‖ S. Austin himself , and generally the whole ancient Church against the Pelagians , I cannot understand : but it is sufficiently confuted by all the foregoing considerations . 30. S. Hierome says , that the observation of the Commandments is possible to the whole Church , but not to every single person , but then the difficulty remains . For the whole Church being a collection of single persons is not the subject of a law . Nothing is universal but Names and Words ; a thing cannot be universal , it is a contradiction to say it is . To say the Church can keep it , is to say that every man can keep it ; To say that every man of the Church cannot keep it , is to say that the whole Church cannot keep it : As he that says Mankind is reasonable , says that every man is ; but he that says every man is not just , says that all mankind is not just . But if it contains in it another sence , it is a dangerous affirmative , which I shall represent in his own words : Ita fit ut quod in alio aut primum aut totum est , in alio ex parte versetur , & tamen non sit in crimine qui non habet omnia , nec condemnetur ex eo quod non habet , sed justificetur ex eo quod possidet . I will not be so severe as S. Austin , who in his nineteenth Sermon de tempore , calls it blasphemy . It is indeed a hard saying , if he means that a man can be justified by some vertues , though he retains some vices : For he that sins in one is guilty of all . But yet some persons shall be crowned who never converted souls , and some that never redeem'd captives , and millions that never sold all and gave to the poor : and there are many graces , of which some lives have no opportunities . The state of Marriage hath some graces proper to it self ; and the Calling of a Merchant , and the Office of a Judge , and the imployment of an Advocate hath some things of vertue which others do not exercise , and they also have their proper graces : and in this sence it is true what S. Hierome says , that he that hath not all , may be justified by what he hath , and not sentenced for what he hath not , it not being imputed to him that he hath not that of which he hath no use . Now although this be true , yet it is not sufficient to explicate the Question : For the Commandments are not only impossible in this sence , but even in that where the scene of his duty does lie , and where his graces ought to have been exercised , every man is a sinner , every man hath fail'd in his proper duty and calling . So that now to say the Commandments are possible to the whole Church , and not to every single person , is to divide the duty of a Christian , and to give to every one a portion of duty , which must leave in every one a portion of impiety ; and to say that this is keeping the Commandments , or a sufficient means of justification , is that which S. Austin call'd blasphemy . 31. But S. Hierome hath another answer : Hoc & nos dicimus , posse hominem non peccare si velit , pro tempore , pro loco , pro imbecillitate corporeâ , quamdiu intentus est animus , quamdiu corda nullo vitio laxatur in Citharâ . God hath not impos'd an impossible law . For there is no Commandment , but a man that considers , that endeavours , that understands , that watches , that labours , may do in time and place , and so long as he adverts , and is dipassionate , so long as his instrument is in tune . Which answer is like that saying of the Schools , That there is no difficulty in things , but every thing is easie to be understood ; but that we find difficulty , is because of the weakness of the understanding ; that is , things are easie to be understood , if we were wise enough to understand them : But because our understanding is weak , therefore things are hard ; for to be intelligible is a relative term ; and it is not sence to say , that a thing is in it self easie to be understood , but hard to the understanding ; for it is as if it were said , It is easie , but that it is hard : and that 's the thing which in this question is complain'd of on all hands . For an Oak is easie to be pull'd up by the roots , if a man had strength enough to do it ; but if this be impos'd upon a weak man or a child , they have reason to complain : and a Bushel or two of Wheat is no great thing to carry , but it is too great for me , I cannot do it . So by this account of S. Hierome , the Commandments are not impossible , for there is not any one of them , but any man can do at some time , while he considers and is in perfect disposition . But then we are to remember , that the Commandments are always imposed , and we are not always in that condition of good things to be wise and watchful , well dispos'd , and well resolv'd , standing upon our guard , and doing what we can at other times ; and therefore it is that the Commandments are impossible . So that still the difficulty remains and the inquiry must go on , How we are to understand the Divine Justice in exacting an impossible law ? or if he does not exact it , how we understand the way of the Divine Wisdom in imposing that law which he cannot justly exact ? 32. To the first I answer , that God doth not exact of us what is not possible to be done . The highest severity of the Gospel is to love God with all our soul , that is , to love him as much as we can love him ; and that is certain we can do . Every man can do as much as he can , and God requires no more : and even those things which we can do , though he calls upon us to do the most , yet he punishes us not if we do it heartily and sincerely , though with less passion and exactness . Now as Gods justice was secur'd in the imposition of the law of Moses , because whatever severity was held over them to restrain their loosenesses , yet God exacted it only by the measures of a man , and healed all their breaches by the medicine of Repentance : So now in the Gospel he hath done it much more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , God hath taken the vail off , and profess'd it openly , he hath included this mercy in the very constitution of the Covenant . For the Gospel is the Covenant of Repentance ; we shall not have leave to sin , but we shall have leave to repent if we have sinned : so that God hath imposed a law of perfection , but he exacts it according to the possibilities of imperfect persons , Omnia mandata Dei facta deputantur , quando quicquid non fit , ignoscitur , and then we have kept the Commandments , when we have received our pardon for what we have not kept . 33. II. As the law of Moses was not of it self impossible absolutely and naturally : so neither are the Commandments of the Gospel . For if we consider the particulars of Moses law , they were such a burthen which the Jews themselves were loth to part withal , because it was in the Moral part of it but a law of abstinence from evil ; to which fear and temporal promises was , as they understood it , a sufficient endearment : But that burthen which neither they nor their fathers were able to bear , was the sting of the law , that it allowed no repentance for great crimes , but the transgressor should die without mercy under two or three witnesses . Now then since in the Gospel there is no such thing , but there is an allowance of repentance , this must needs be an easie yoke . This only is to be added , That the righteousness of the law was in abstinence from evil ; the righteousness of the Gospel is in that , and in the doing all the affirmative Commandments of Christ. Now this being a new obligation , brought also with it new abilities , I mean the glorious promises of the Gospel , which whosoever believes heartily , will find himself able to do or suffer any thing for the enjoying of them ; and this is that which is taught us by S. Paul : For what the law could not do , in that it was weak through the flesh , God sending his own Son , made it possible by the Spirit of Grace , and by our spiritual conversation . 34. III. There is a Natural possibility , and a Moral : there are abilities in every man to do any thing that is there commanded , and he that can do well to day may do so to morrow ; in the nature of things this is true : and since every sin is a breach of a law which a man might and ought to have kept , it is naturally certain , that when ever any man did break the Commandment he might have done otherwise . In man therefore speaking naturally and of the Physical possibilities of things , there is by those assistances which are given in the Gospel , ability to keep the Commandments Evangelical . But in the Moral sence , that is , when we consider what Man is , and what are his strengths , and how many his enemies , and how soon he falls , and that he forgets when he should remember , and his faculties are asleep when they should be awake , and he is hindred by intervening accidents , and weakned and determin'd by superinduc'd qualities , habits and necessities , the keeping of the Commandments is morally impossible . Now that this may also be taken off , there is an abatement and an allowance made for this also . Our infirmities are pitied , our ignorances excused , our unavoidable errors not imputed . These in the law were imputable , and it was lawful for the avenger of blood to kill a Man-slayer who sinn'd against his will , if he could overtake him before he got to Sanctuary . These I say in the law were imputable , but they were not imputed ; Gods mercy took them off privately upon the accounts of his Mercy and a general Repentance : But in the Gospel they are neither imputed , nor imputable : They were paid for before-hand , and put upon the accounts of the Cross : God winked at the times of your ignorance ; and , The Lord had pity on me , because I did it in ignorance , said S. Paul , and so Christ prayed , Father forgive them , for they know not what they do . But ye did it ignorantly , as did also your Rulers ; so S. Peter , and upon that account he called them to accept of mercy . And it is certain in reason , that if God forgives those sins of malice of which we repent , infinitely rather will he not impute what we cannot probably or possibly avoid . For to do otherwise , were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : It is a severity above the measures of humane sufferance and capacity , to be punished for infirmities when they do not sin wilfully ; and therefore God who remembers and pities our infirmities , will never put these into his account , especially the holy Jesus having already paid our symbol . Upon the account of these particulars it is certain , God does not exact of us an impossible commandment ; that is , not in the impossible measure : for that is the meaning of those words of S. Basil , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It is impious to say the Commandments of the Spirit , i. e. of the Gospel , are impossible , viz. in that sence in which they are exacted . 35. But now to the second inquiry : Since in justice God exacts not an impossible law , how does it consist with his wisdom to impose what in justice he does not exact ? I answer , 1. That it was necessary the Law in its latitude and natural extension should be given ; for if in the sanction any limits and lessenings had been described , it had been a permission given to us to despise him in a certain degree , and could in no sence have been proportionable to his infinity . God commands us to love him with all our hearts , and all our strengths ; that is , always and with all that we can ; if less than this had been imposed , and we commanded to love God but to a less , and a certain proportion , besides that it would not have been possible for us to understand when we did what was commanded , it would have been either a direct lessening our opinion of God , by tempting us to suppose no more love was due to him than such a limited measure , or else a teaching us not to give him what was his due , either of which must necessarily tend to Gods dishonour . 36. II. The commanding us to do all that we can , and that always , though less be exacted , does invite our greatest endeavours , it entertains the faculties and labours of the best , and yet despises not the meanest , for they can endeavour too , and they can do their best : and it serves the end of many graces besides , and the honour of some of the Divine Attributes . 37. III. By this means still we are contending and pressing forwards ; and no man can say he does now comprehend , or that his work is done , till he die ; and therefore for ever he must grow in grace , which could not be without the proposing of a Commandment , the performance of which would for ever sufficiently imploy him : for by this means the Commandments do every day grow more possible than at first . A lustful person thinks it impossible to mortifie his lust : but when he hath long contended and got the mastery , it grows easie , and at last in the progressions of a long piety , sin is more impossible than duty is . He that is born of God sinneth not , neither indeed can he ; so S. John : and , Through Christ that strengthens me I can do all things , saith S. Paul. It is long before a man comes to it , but the impossibility by degrees turns into a possibility , and that into an easiness , and at last into a necessity . It is a trouble for some to commit a sin . By this also we exercise a holy fear , and work out our salvation with fear and trembling . It enlarges our care , and endears our watchfulness and caution . It cures or prevents our pride and bold challenges of God for rewards which we never can deserve . It convinces us of the necessity of the Divine aid , and makes us to relie upon Gods goodness in helping us , and his mercy in pardoning us ; and truly without this we could neither be so sensible of our infirmities , nor of the excellent gifts and mercies of God : for although God does not make necessities on purpose that he may serve them , or introduce sin that he might pardon it , yet he loves we should depend upon him , and by these rare arts of the Divine Oeconomy make us to strive to be like him , and in the midst of our finite abilities have infinite desires , that even so we may be disposed towards the holiness and glories of eternity . 38. IV. Although God exacts not an impossible law under eternal and insufferable pains , yet he imposes great holiness in unlimited and indefinite measures , with a design to give excellent proportions of reward answerable to the greatness of our endeavour . Hell is not the end of them that fail in the greatest measures of perfection ; but great degrees of Heaven shall be their portion who do all that they can always , and offend in the fewest instances . For as our duty is not limited , so neither are the degrees of glory : and if there were not this latitude of duty , neither could there be any difference in glory ; neither could it be possible for all men to hope for Heaven , but now all may : The meanest of Gods servants shall go thither , and yet there are greater measures for the best and most excellent services . 39. Thus we may understand that the imposing of the Divine Laws in all the periods of the world , was highly consistent with the Divine Justice , and an excellent , infinite wisdome , and yet in the exacting them , Mercy prevail'd ; because the Covenant of Works or of exact obedience was never the rule of life and death , since the Saviour of the world was promised , that is , since the fall of Adam , but all Mankind was admitted to repentance , and wash'd clean in the blood of the Lamb of God , who taketh away the sins of the world , and was slain from the beginning of it . Repentance was the measure of our duty , and the remedy for our evils ; and the Commandments were not impossible to him that might amend what was done amiss . SECT . III. How Repentance and the Precept of Perfection Evangelical can stand together . 40. THAT the Gospel is a Covenant of Repentance , is evident in the whole design and nature of the thing , in the preparatory Sermons made by the Baptist , by the Apostles of our Lord , by the seventy two Disciples , and the Exhortations made by S. Peter at the first opening the Commission , and the secret of the Religion . Which Doctrine of Repentance , lest it should be thought to be a permission to sin , a leave to need the remedy , is charged with an addition of a strict and severe holiness , the Precept of Perfection . It therefore must be such a repentance as includes in it perfection , and yet the perfection is such as needs repentance . How these two are to stand together , is the subject of the present inquiry . Be ye therefore perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect ; that 's the charge . To be perfect as God , and yet to repent as a Man , seem contrary to each other . They seem so only . For , 41. I. It does not signifie perfection of degrees in the natural sence of the word . For as Philo said well , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Perfections and the heights of excellencies are only proper to one : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Clemens of Alexandria , God alone is wise , he alone is perfect . All that we do is but little , and that little is imperfect , and that imperfection is such as could be condemned , if God did not use gentleness and mercy towards us . But , II. Although perfection of degrees cannot be understood to be our duty in the periods and spaces of this life , because we are here in the state of labour and contention , of pilgrimage and progression , yet even in this life we are to labour towards it : and Be ye perfect , viz. with the highest degrees of holiness , is to be understood in a current and transient sence . For this Precept thus understood , hath its obligation upon our endeavour only , and not upon the event . When a General commands his Army to destroy the Enemy , he binds them only to a prudent , a possible and vigorous endeavour to do it , and cannot intend the effect , but by several parts answerable to the steps of the progression . So is that in the Psalms , Be learned ye that are Princes of the world , that is , learn , and so by industry and attention arrive at knowledge . For although though every man be a sinner , yet he that does not endeavour to avoid all sin , is not only guilty of the sin he commits , but the negligence also , which is the parent of the sin , is another sin , and directly criminal . So it is in the degrees of perfection , what we cannot attain to , we must at least desire . In this world we cannot arrive thither , but in this life we must always be going thither . It is status ●iae , grace is the way to glory . And as he that commands us to enter into a City from which we are hugely distant , means we should pass through all the ways that lead thither : so it is here . The Precept must be given here , and begun , and set forward , and it will be finished hereafter . But as a man may be an adulterer , or a thief , with his heart and his eye , as well as with his hand ; so it is also in good things : A mans heart and eye may be in Heaven , that is , in the state of perfection , long before he sets his feet upon the golden threshold . His desires are first crown'd and fainted , and then the work shall be made perfect . 43. III. There is another sort of perfection which may not be improperly meant in this charge of duty , and that is , a perfection of state . Be ye perfect , that is , Be ye holy ; for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is sanctifico , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is festum , or a holy day , a day that hath the perfection added to it of which a day is capable , a day sanctified to the Lord. For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to sanctifie is to make perfect . Nihil enim sanctificavit lex , so the Latin reads the words of S. Paul ; but in the Greek it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The law made that perfect which it did sanctifie . So that , Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect , is . Be ye holy like him , or in imitation of him . And thus the word is expounded in Plato , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . That 's the perfection of good to be like God ; but to be like him is to be just , and holy , and prudent . That 's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as much as we can , that is , with a hearty , righteous , sincere endeavour : for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or holy is used . It signifies sincere , true , without error . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . So Damascius in Suidas . It is not likely or true , that he that is not wise in little things should be wise in great things . But to live holily in the Christian sence , is to live in faith and good works , that 's Christian perfection . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . He is good and holy , who by faith and good works is like unto God. For this perfection or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holiness is nothing else but a pursuance of that which is just and good ; for so said Moses concerning the man that forsook God , and denied that he had made a Covenant with him , [ Do not say in thine heart , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , let it be lawful or holy , or permitted to me to depart from the Lord. To this sence was that of Justin Martyr , who expounds this phrase of [ Be ye perfect ] by Christianum fieri , Be perfect , that is , Be Christians , be Christs Disciples ; for he who came 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to fulfil , to consummate obedience , to perfect the law , to obey him , and be Disciples of his institution , is our perfection and consummation . 44. IV. This perfection of state , although it does not suppose a perfection of degrees , yet it can be no less than 1. A perfection of parts . It must be a Religion that is not mingled with interest , piety to God that is not spoiled with cruelty to our neighbours , a zeal that hath in it no uncharitableness or spite , that is , our Religion must be intire , and not defective in any constituent part . So S. James uses the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , perfect and intire wanting nothing . 2. To which add this also , That to this perfection of state , perseverance is of necessity to be added . For so we are taught by the same Apostle , Let patience have her perfect work , that is , let it bear you through all your trials , lasting till all your sufferings are over ; For he that endures to the end shall be crowned , because he only is perfect . Our holiness must persevere to the end . But 3. it must also be growing all the way . For this word perfect is sometimes in Scripture used for degrees , and as a distinction between Christians in the measures of duty . S. Paul uses it to signifie well grown Christians , or men in Christianity . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; stand perfectly and full , or confidently fulfilling all the will of God : for therefore we preach Christ , and exhort every man , and teach every man in all wisdom , that we may present every man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perfect in Christ Jesus ; that is , that they should not always be as babes , for whom milk and weak nutriment is to be provided ; nor like those silly women , always learning , and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth ; but it is commanded us to be wise and perfect , to be men in Christ ; so S. Paul makes the antithesis , Be ye babes in malice , but in your minds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be perfect , that is , be men , wise and confident , and strong , and well grown . Perfectly instructed ; that is , readily prepared to every good work ; not always imployed in the elements and infant propositions and practices of Religion , but doing noble actions , well skill'd in the deepest mysteries of faith and holiness . This is agreeable to that expression of S. Paul , who having laid the foundation of Christianity by describing the fundamentals , intending to speak of the more mysterious points of the Religion , calls it a going on to perfection : So that by this Precept of perfection it is intended we should do more than the lowest measure of our duties , and there is no limit , but even the utmost of our power ; all that we can is the measure of our duty : I do not say , all that we can naturally or possibly , but all that we can morally and probably , according to the measures of a man , and the rate of our hindrances and infirmities . 45. V. But the last sort and sence of perfection , is that which our blessed Saviour intended particularly in the instance and subject matter of this Precept , and that is , a perfection in the kind of action , that is , a choice and prosecution of the most noble and excellent things in the whole Religion . Three are especially instanc'd in the holy Gospel . I. The first is , a being ready , or a making our selves ready to suffer persecution , prescrib'd by our blessed Saviour to the rich young man , If thou wilt be perfect , sell all and give to the poor , that is , if thou wilt be my disciple , make thy self ready , and come and follow me . For it was at that time necessary to all that would follow Christs person and fortune , to quit all they had above their needs . For they that followed him , were sure of a Cross ; and therefore to invite them to be disciples , was to engage them to the suffering persecution ; and this was that which our blessed Saviour calls perfection . Dulce periculum est , O Lenaee , sequi Deum Cingentem viridi tempora pampino . It is an easie thing to follow God in festivals and days of Eucharist ; but to serve him in hard battels , to die for him , is the perfection of love , of faith and obedience . Obedient unto death , was the Character of his own perfection ; for Greater love than this hath no man , than to lay down his life . Scis quem dicam bonum , perfectum , absolutum ? Quem malum facere nulla vis , nulla necessitas potest . He is good , absolute and perfect , whom no force , no necessity can make evil . II. The second instance is , being merciful ; for S. Luke recording this Precept expounds it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Be ye perfect , that is , Be ye merciful as your heavenly Father is merciful ; for by mercy only we can be like him . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . He that bears his neighbours burthen , and is willing to do benefit to his inferiors , and to minister to the needy of the good things which God hath given him , he is as God to them that receive , he is an imitator of God himself . And Justin Martyr reciting this Precept of our blessed Saviour , instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 uses the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Be ye good and bountiful us your heavenly Father is . And to this purpose the story of Jesus and the young man before mentioned , is interpolated in the Gospel according to the Hebrews or the Nazarens , The Lord said unto him , How sayest thou , I have kept the Law and the Prophets , when it is written in the Law , Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self ? and behold many of thy brethren the sons of Abraham are covered in filth , and die with hunger , and thy house is full of good things , and nothing goes forth to them from thence . If therefore thou wilt be perfect , sell all and give to the poor . Charity , which is the fulfilling the Commandment , is also the perfection of a Christian : and that a giving of alms should be perfection , is not disagreeing with the design of the word it self ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , say the Grammarians ; it signifies to spend , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a great spender or a bountiful person . III. The third is the very particular to which our blessed Master did especially relate in the words of the sanction or institution : and we are taught it by the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or therefore . For when the holy Jesus had describ'd that glory of Christianity that we should love our enemies , bless them that curse us , do good to them that hate us , and pray for them which despitefully use us and persecute us ; he propounds the example of our heavenly Father ; for he maketh his Sun to rise on the evil and on the good . But the Publicans love their friends , and salute their brethren : but more is expected of us ; Be ye therefore perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect ; that is , do more than the Publicans , do as your Father does , be perfect as he is , that is , love your enemies . 46. VI. Now concerning this sence of the Precept of perfection , which is the choice and pursuance of the noblest actions of Religion , we must observe that they are therefore perfection , because they suppose a man to have pass'd through the first and beginning graces , to have arrived at these excellencies of piety and duty . For as no man can on a sudden become the worst man in the world , his soul must by degrees be unstript of holiness and then of modesty , and then of all care of reputation , and then of disuse , and by these measures he will proceed to the consummation of the method of Hell and darkness : So can no man on a sudden come to the right use of these graces . Not every man that dies in a good cause shall have the reward of Martyrdome ; but he that having liv'd well , seals that doctrine with dying which before he adorn'd with living . And therefore it does infinitely concern all them that suffer in a good Cause , to take care that they be not prodigal of their sufferings , and throw them away upon vice . Peevishness or pride , lust or intemperance , can never be consecrated by dying or by alms . But he that after a patient continuance in well doing , adds Charity or Martyrdome to the collective body of his other graces , he hath made them perfect with this kind of perfection . Martyrdome can supply the place of actual baptisms , but not of repentance : Because without our fault it may so happen that the first cannot be had ; but without our fault the second is never left undone . 47. Thus perfection and repentance may stand together . Perfection does not suppose the highest intention of degrees in every one , but in all according to their measures of grace and time . Evangelical perfection is such as supposes a beginning , an infant grace , progression and variety , watchfulness and fear , trembling fear . And there are many graces required of us , whose material and formal part is Repentance : Such as are Mortification , Penitential sorrow , Spiritual mourning , Patience , some parts of Humility , all the parts and actions of Humiliation ; and since in these also perfection is as great a duty as in any thing else , it is certain that the perfection of a Christian is not the supreme degree of action or intention . 48. But yet perfection cannot be less than an intire piety , a holiness perfect in its parts , wanting nothing material , allowing no vicious habit , permitting no vile action , but contending towards the greatest excellency , a charitable heart , a ready hand , a confident Religion , willing to die when we are called to die , patient , constant and persevering , endeavouring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the measures of a man , to be pure and pleasing to God in Jesus Christ. This is the summ of all those several sences of perfection which are prescrib'd in the several uses of the word in holy Scripture . For though God through Jesus Christ is pleased to abate for our unavoidable infirmities , that is , for our Nature , yet he will not abate or give allowance to our superinduc'd evil customes ; and the reason is plain for both , because the one can be helped and the other cannot ; and therefore as to allow that is to be a patron of impiety , so not to allow for this , is to demand what cannot be done : that is against the holiness , this against the goodness of God. 49. There is not a man upon earth that sinneth not , said Solomon ; and , the righteous shall be punished , said David ; and he found it so by a sad experience : for he , though affirmed to be blameless save in the matter of Vriah , and a man after Gods own heart , yet complains that his sins are innumerable , more than the hairs upon his head . But though no man can live without errour or mistake , the effects of weakness and ignorance , inadvertency and surprise , yet being helped by Gods grace , we can and must live without great sins , such which no man admits but with deliberation . 50. For it is one thing to keep the Commandments in a sence of favour and equity , and another thing to be without sin . To keep the Commandments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or exactly , is to be without sin ; because the Commandment forbids every sin , and sin is a transgression of the Commandment : But as in this sence no man can keep the Commandments ; so in no sence can he say , that he hath not sinned . But we can by the help of Gods grace keep the Commandments acceptably through Jesus Christ , but we cannot keep them so as to be without sin . Which S. Gregory thus expresses , Multi sine crimine , nullus verò esse sine peccatis valet . Many live without crimes , none without offence . And it is now as it was under the law , many were then righteous and blameless ; David , Josiah , Joshua , Caleb , Zachary , and Elizabeth , Saul before his conversion according to the accounts of the Law ; and so are many now , according to the holy and merciful measures of the Gospel , not by the force of Nature , but by the helps of Grace , not always , but at some time , not absolutely , but in a limited measure ; that is , not innocent , but penitent , not perfect absolutely , but excellently contending , and perfect in their desires , not at their journeys end , but on their way thither ; free from great sins , but speckled with lesser spots , ever striving against sin , though sometimes failing . This is the Precept of perfection , as it can consist with the measures and infirmities of a man. 51. We must turn from all our evil ways , leaving no sin unmortified , that 's one measure of perfection , it is a perfect conversion . * We must have Charity ; that 's another perfection , it is a perfect grace . * We must be ready to part with all for a good conscience , and to die for Christ ; that 's perfect obedience , and the most perfect love . * We must conform to the Divine Will in doing and suffering ; that 's perfect patience : we must live in all holy conversation and godliness ; that 's a perfect state . * We must ever be going forward and growing in godliness , that so we may be perfect men in Christ. * And we must persevere unto the end ; that 's perfection , and the crown of all the rest . If any thing less than this were intended , it cannot be told how the Gospel should be a holy institution , or that God should require of us to live a holy life ; but if any thing more than this were intended , it is impossible but all mankind should perish . 52. To the same sence are we to understand those other severe Precepts of Scripture of [ being pure , unblameable , without spot or wrinkle , without fault ] that is , that we be honest and sincere , free from hypocrisie , just in our purposes and actions , without partiality and unhandsome mixtures . S. Paul makes them to expound each other , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , sincere , that is , without fault , pure and clear in Conscience . 53. Like to this is that of [ Toto corde ] loving and serving God with all our heart , and with all our strength . That this is possible , is folly to deny . For he that saith he cannot do a thing with all his strength , that is , that he cannot do what he can do , knows not what he says : and yet to do this , is the highest measure and sublimity of Christian perfection , and of keeping the Commandments . But it signifies two things : 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , without hypocrisie , sincerely and heartily , opposite to that of Corde & corde in the Psalmist . Corde & corde loquuti sunt ; they spake with a double heart : but the men of Zebulon went out to battel absque corde & corde , they were not of a double heart , so S. Hierome renders it , but heartily or with a whole heart they did their business . 2. It signifies diligence and labour , earnestness and caution : Totus in hoc sum ; so the Latines use to speak , I am earnest and hearty in this affair , I am wholly taken up with it . 54. Thus is the whole design of the Gospel rarely abbreviated in these two words of Perfection and Repentance . God hath sent Jesus to bless you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , whilest , or so that , every one of you turn from your iniquities . He blesses us , and we must do our duty ; He pardons us , and we obey him ; He turns us , and we are turned . And when S. Peter had represented the terrors of the day of Judgment , he infers , What manner of persons ought we to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in holy living and holy worshippings ? This he calls a giving diligence to be found 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , without spot and unblameable ; that 's Christian perfection : and yet this very thing is no other than what he calls a little before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a coming to repentance . Living in holy conversation and piety , in the faith of Christ , is the extent and burthen of repentance , and it is the limit and declaration of the [ spotless and unblameable ] This is no more , and that is no less . 55. Upon this account the Commandments are not only possible but easie , necessary to be observed , and will be exacted at our hands as they are imposed . That is , 1. That we abstain from all deliberate acts of sin . 2. That we never contract any vicious habit . 3. That if we have we quite rescind and cut them off , and make amends for what is past . 4. That our love to God be intire , hearty , obedient and undivided . 5. That we do our best to understand Gods will and obey it , allowing to our selves deliberately or by observation not the smallest action that we believe to be a sin . Now that God requires no more , and that we can do thus much , and that good men from their conversion do thus much , though in differing degrees , is evident upon plain experience and the foregoing considerations . I conclude with the words of the Arausican Council . Omnes baptizati Christo auxiliante & cooperante possunt & debent quae ad salutem pertinent , si fidelitèr laborare voluerint , adimplere . All baptized Christians may by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ , if they will faithfully labour , perform and fulfil all things that belong to their salvation . 56. The summ of all is this : The state of regeneration is perfection all the way , even when it is imperfect in its degrees . The whole state of a Christians life is a state of perfection . Sincerity is the formality or the Soul of it : A hearty constant endeavour is the Body or material part of it : And the Mercies of God accepting it in Christ , and assisting and promoting it by his Spirit of Grace , is the third part of its constitution , it is the Spirit . This perfection is the perfection of Men , not of Angels ; oand it is as in the perfection of Glory , where all are perfect , yet all are not equal . Every regenerate man hath that perfection , without which he cannot be accepted , but some have this perfection more , some less . It is the perfection of state , but the perfection of degrees is not yet . Here men are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , made perfect according to the measure of their Fathers ( as Porphyrie express'd it ) that is , by the measures of mortality , or as it pleases God to enable and accept them . SECT . IV. The former Doctrine reduc'd to Practice . 1. THE Law is either taken for the Law of Moses , or the Law of Works : The Law of Works is that Empire and Dominion which God exercised over man , using his utmost right , and obliging man to the rigorous observation of all that Law he should impose upon him . And in this sence , it was a law of death , not of life , for no man could keep it , and they that did not , might not live . This was impos'd on Adam only . 2. But when God brought Israel out of Egypt , he began to make a Covenant with them , with some compliance to their infirmities : For because little things could not be avoided , Sacrifices were appointed for their expiation ; which was a mercy as the other was a misery , a repentance as the sin : But for great sins there was no Sacrifice appointed , no repentance ministred . And therefore still we were in the ministration of death ; for this mercy was not sufficient , as yet it was not possible for a man to be justified by the Law. It threatned sinners with death , it inflicted death , it did not promise eternal life , it ministred no grace , but fear and temporal hope : It was written in Tables of stone , not in their hearts ; that is , the material parts of the Law of Moses were not consonant to natural and essential reason , but arbitrary impositions ; they were not perfective of a man , but very often destructive . This was a little alteration or ease of the Covenant of Works , but not enough . 3 From this state of evil things we were freed by Christ ; The law was called the letter , the ministration of death , the ministration of condemnation , the old Testament ; apt to amaze and confound a sinner , but did not give him any hopes of remission , no glimpse of heaven , no ministry of pardon : But the Gospel is called , the Spirit , or the ministration of the Spirit , the law of faith , the law of liberty ; it ministers repentance , it enjoyns holiness , it gives life , and we all have hopes of being saved . 4. This which is the state of things in which the whole world is represented in their several periods , is by some made to be the state of every returning sinner ; and men are taught that they must pass through the terrors of the Law , before they can receive the mercies of the Gospel . The Law was a Schoolmaster to bring the Synagogue to Christ ; it was so to them who were under the Law , but it cannot be so to us , who are not under the Law but under grace . For if they mean the law of Works , or that interposition which was the first entercourse with man , they lose their title to the mercies of the Gospel ; If they mean the law of Moses , then they do not stand fast in the liberty by which Christ hath made them free . But whatsoever the meaning be , neither of them can concern Christians . For God hath sent his Son to establish a better Covenant in his blood , to preach repentance , to offer pardon , to condemn sin in the flesh , to publish the righteousness of God , to convince the world of sin by his holy Spirit , to threaten damnation not to sinners absolutely , but absolutely to the impenitent , and to promise and give salvation to his Sons and Servants . 5. I. The use that we Christians are to make of the Law , is only to magnifie the mercies of God in Jesus Christ , who hath freed us from so severe a Covenant , who does not judge us by the measures of an Angel , but by the span of a mans hand . But we are not to subject our selves so much as by fiction of law or fancy to the curse and threatnings of the Covenant of Works , or of Moses Law , though it was of more instances and less severity , by reason of the allowance of Sacrifices for expiation . 6. II. Every Christian man sinning , is to consider the horrible threatnings of the Gospel , the severe intermination of eternal pains , the goodness of God leading to repentance , the severity of his Justice in exacting great punishments of criminals , the reasonableness of this Justice punishing such persons intolerably , who would not use so great a grace in so pleasing a service , for the purchase of so glorious a reward . The terrors of the Law did end in temporal death , they could affright no further ; but in the Gospel Heaven and Hell were opened , and laid before all mankind : and therefore by these measures a sinner is to enter into the sorrows of contrition and the care of his amendment . And it is so vain a thing to think every sinner must in his repentance pass under the terrors of the Law , that this is a very destruction of that reason for which they are fallen upon the opinion . The Law is not enough to affright sinners , and the terrors of the Gospel are far more to persevering and impenitent sinners , than the terrors of the Law were to the breakers of it . The cause of the mistake is this : The Law was more terrible than the Gospel is , because it allowed no mercy to the sinner in great instances : But the Gospel does . But then if we compare the state of those men who fell under the evils of the Law , with these who fall under the evils threatned in the Gospel , we shall find these to be in a worse condition than those by far , as much as hell is worse than being stoned to death , or thrust through with a sword . This we are taught by that excellent Author of the Divine Epistle to the Hebrews , He that despised Moses law , died without mercy under two or three witnesses : Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy , who hath troden under foot the Son of God , and hath counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified , an unholy thing , and hath done despite to the Spirit of Grace ? So that , under the Gospel , he that sins and repents is in a far better condition , than he that sinn'd under the Law , and repented . For repentance was not then allowed of , the man was to die without mercy . But he that sins and repents not , is under the Gospel in a far worse condition than under the Law ; for under the Gospel , he shall have a far sorer punishment , than under the Law was threatned . Therefore let no man mistake the mercies of the New Covenant , or turn the grace of God into wantonness . The mercies of the Gospel neither allow us to sin , nor inflict an easier punishment ; but they oblige us to more holiness , under a greater penalty . In pursuance of which , I add , 7. III. The Covenant by which mankind must now be judged , is a Covenant of more Mercy , but also of more holiness : and therefore let no man think that now he is disobliged from doing good works , by being admitted to the Covenant of Faith : For though the Covenants are oppos'd , as Old and New , as a worse and a better , yet Faith and Works are not oppos'd . We are in the Gospel tied to more , and to more excellent works than ever the subjects of any Law were ; but if after a hearty endeavour we fall into infirmity , and still strive against it , we are pitied here , but there we were not . Under the first Covenant , the Covenant of Works , no endeavour was sufficient , because there was no allowance made for infirmities , no abatements for ignorance , no deductions of exact measures , no consideration of surprises , passions , folly , and inadvertency : but under the New Covenant our hearty endeavour is accepted ; but we are tied to endeavour higher and more excellent things than they . But he that thinks this mercy gives him liberty to do what he please , loses the mercy , and mistakes the whole design and Oeconomy of Gods loving kindness . 8. IV. To every Christian it is enjoyned that they be perfect ; that is , according to the measure of every one . Which perfection consists in doing our endeavour . He that does not do that , must never hope to be accepted , because he refuses to serve God by something that is in his power . But he that does that , is sure that God will not refuse it , because we cannot be dealt withal upon any other account , but by the measures of what is in our power ; and for what is not , we cannot take care . 9. V. To do our endeavour or our best , is not to be understood equally in all the periods of our life , according to the work or effect it self , nor according to our natural powers , but it is accounted for by the general measures and great periods of our life . A man cannot pray always with equal intention , nor give the same alms , nor equally mourn with sharpness for his sins . But God having appointed for every duty proper seasons and solennities , hath declared , that He does his best , who heartily endeavours to do the duty in its proper season : But it were well we would remember that he that did a good act to day , can do the same to morrow in the same circumstances ; and he that yesterday fought a noble battle and resisted valiantly , can upon the same terms contend as manfully every day , if he will consider and watch . And though it will never be that men will always do as well as at some times , yet when at any time they commit a sin , it is not because they could not , but because they would not help it . 10. VI. He that would be approved in doing his best , must omit no opportunity of doing a good action ; because when it is plac'd in its proper circumstances , God lays his hand upon it , and calls to have it done , and there can be no excuse for the omission . He does not do his best , that does not do that , Because such a person does voluntarily omit the doing of a good , without just cause ; and that cannot proceed from an innocent principle . 11. VII . He that leaves any thing undone which he is commanded to do , or does what he is commanded to forbear , and considers or chooses so to do , does not do his best , cannot plead his priviledge in the Gospel , but is fallen under the portion of sinners , and will die , if he does not repent and make it up some way or other , by sorrow , and a future diligence . 12. VIII . To sin against our Conscience , can at no hand consist with the duty of Christian perfection ; Because he loves not God with all his heart , nor serves him with all his strength , who gives some of his strength , and some of his affection to that which God forbids . 13. IX . No man must account that he does his duty , that is , his best , or according to the perfection requir'd of Christians , but he that does better and better , and grows toward the measures of the fulness of Christ. For perfection is an infinite word ; and it could not be communicated to several persons of different capacities and degrees , but that there is something common to them all which hath analogy and equivalent proportions . Now nothing can be perfect , but that to which nothing is wanting ; and therefore a man is not any way perfect but by doing all , all that he can ; for then nothing is wanting to him , when he hath put forth all his strength . For perfection is not to be accounted by comparing the subjects which are perfect , for in that sence nothing is perfect but God ▪ but perfection is to be reckoned by every mans own proportions : For a body may be a perfect body , though it have not the perfection of a soul ; and a man is perfect when he is heartily and intirely Gods servant , though he have not the perfection of S. Paul ; as a man is a meek man , though he be not so meek as Moses or Christ. But he is not meek , if he keeps any fierceness or violence within . * But then because to be more perfect is incident with humane nature , he that does not endeavour to get as much as he can , and more than he hath , he hath not the perfection of holy desires . Therefore 14. X. Every person that is in the state of grace , and designs to do his duty , must think of what is before him , not what is past ; of the stages that are not yet run , not of those little portions of his course he hath already finish'd . Vt cum carceribus missos rapit ungula currus , Instat equis auriga suos vincentibus , illum Praeteritum temnens , extremos inter euntem . For so did the Contenders in the Olympick Races , never look behind but contend forwards : And from hence S. Paul gives the rule I have now described . Brethren , I count not my self to have apprehended ; but this one thing I do , forgetting those things which are behind , and reaching forth unto those things which are before , I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling . Let therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded . That is , no man can do the duty of a Christian , no man can in any sence be perfect , but he that adds vertue to vertue , and one degree of grace unto another . Nilque putans actum , dum quid superesset agendum . Nothing is finish'd , as long as any thing is undone . For our perfection is always growing ; it stands not , till it arrive at the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the crowning of him that runs . For the enforcing of which the more , I only use S. Chrysostoms argument , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; If S. Paul who had done so much , and suffered so much , was not very confident , but that if he did look back , he might also fall back ; what shall we say , whose perfection is so little , so infant and imperfect , that we are come forwards but a little , and have great spaces still to measure ? 15. XI . Let every man that is or desires to be perfect , endeavour to make up the imperfection or meanness of his services , by a great , a prompt , an obedient , a loving and a friendly mind . For in the Parable our blessed Lord hath taught us , that the servant who was bidden to plow the field , or feed the cattel , is still called an unprofitable servant , because he hath done only what was commanded him ; that is , they had done the work , utcunque , some way or other ; the thing was finish'd though with a servile spirit ; for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifies to do the outward work ; and the works of the Law are those which consisted in outward obedience , and by which a man could not be justified . But our blessed Saviour teaching us the righteousness of the Kingdome , hath also brought the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signifie the internal also ; a mixture of faith and operation . For to the Jews enquiring , What shall we do to work the works of God ? Jesus answers , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. This is the work of God that ye believe in him whom he hath sent : and since this [ to do ] in the Christian sence is to do bona benè , good Works with a good mind . For since the works are not only in them●elves inconsiderable , but we also do them most imperfectly and with often failings , a good mind and the spirit of a friend or a son will not only heighten the excellency of the work , but make amends for the defect too . The doing what we are commanded , that is in the usual sence of doing , still leaves us unprofitable ; for we are servants of God , he hath a perfect and supreme right over us , and when this is done , still can demand more , when we have plowed , he will call upon us to wait at supper ; and for all this , we are to expect only impunity and our daily provisions . And upon this account , if we should have performed the Covenant of Works , we could not have been justified . But then , there is a sort of working , and there are some such servants which our Lord uses magis ex aequo & bono , quàm ex Imperio ; with the usages of sons , not of slaves or servants . He will gird himself and serve them , he will call them friends and not servants ; these are such as serve animo liberali , such which Seneca calls humiles amicos , humble friends , serving as S. Paul expresses it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in the simplicity of their heart ; not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , with eye-service , but honestly , heartily , zealously , and affectionately , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; so S. Peter , freely , readily , not grudgingly , or of necessity . 16. XII . The proper effect of this is , that all the perfect do their services so , that their work should fail rather than their minds , that they do more than is commanded . Exiguum est ad legem bonum esse , To be good according to the rigour of the law , to do what we are forc●d to , to do all that is lawful to do , and to go toward evil or danger as far as we can , these are no good signs of a filial spirit , this is not Christian perfection ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , That , slaves consider ; This is commanded and must be done under horrible pains : and such are the negative precepts of the Law , and the proper duties of every mans calling . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , This is an act of piety of mine own choosing , a righteousness that I delight in ; that is the voice of sons and good servants , and that 's rewardable with a mighty grace . And of this nature are the affirmative precepts of the Gospel , which being propounded in general terms , and with indefinite proportions , for the measures are left under our liberty and choice , to signifie our great love to God. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said S. Chrysostome ; Whatsoever is over and above the Commandments , that shall have a great reward . God forbids unmercifulness , he that is not unmerciful keeps the Commandment ; but he that besides his abstinence from unmercifulness according to the commandment , shall open his hand and his heart , and give plentifully to the poor , this man shall have a reward ; he is amongst those servants whom his Lord will make to sit down , and himself will serve him . When God in the Commandment forbids uncleanness and fornication ; he that is not unchast , and does not pollute himself , keeps the Commandment . But if to preserve his chastity he uses fasting and prayer , if he mortifies his body , if he denies himself the pleasures of the world , if he uses the easiest , or the harder remedies , according to the proportion of his love and industry , especially if it be prudent , so shall his greater reward be . If a man out of fear of falling into uncleanness , shall use austerities , and find that they will not secure him , and therefore to ascertain his duty the rather shall enter into a state of marriage , according as the prudence and the passion of his desires were for God and for purity ; so also shall his reward be . To follow Christ is all our duty ; but if that we may follow Christ with greater advantages we quit all the possessions of the world , this is more acceptable ; because it is a doing the Commandment with greater love . We must so order things that the Commandment be not broken , but the difference is in finding out the better ways , and doing the duty with the more affections . 17. Now in this case they are highly mistaken that think any thing of this nature is a work of supererogation : For all this is nothing but a pursuance of the commandment . For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Commandment ] is taken in a general sence , for the prescription of whatsoever is pleasing and acceptable to God , whatsoever he will reward with mighty glories . So loving God with all our heart , with all our soul , and all our mind , and all our strength , is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the first and the great Commandment ; that is , nothing is more pleasing , nothing more acceptable to God , because it proceeds out of an excellent love . But some Commandments are propounded as to friends , some as to servants ; some under the threatning of horrible pains , others not so , but with the proposition and under the invitation of glorious rewards . It was commanded to S. Paul to preach the Gospel : if he had not obeyed , he should have perished : Wo is me ( saith he ) if I preach not the Gospel : he was bound to do it . But he had another Commandment also , to love God as much as was possible , and to love his neighbour : which precepts were infinite , and of an unlimited signification , and therefore were lest to every servants choice to do them with his several measures of affection and zeal . He that did most , did the Commandment best ; and therefore cannot be said to do more than was commanded ; but he that does less ; if he preaches the Gospel , though with a less diligence , and fewer advantages , he obeys the Commandment , but not so nobly as the other . For example : God Commands us to pray . He obeys this , that constantly and devoutly keeps his morning and evening Sacrifice , offering devoutly twice a day . He that prays thrice a day , does better , and he that prays seven times a day , hath done no work of supererogation , but does what he does in pursuance of the Commandment . All the difference is in the manner of Doing what is commanded ; for no man can do more than he is commanded . But some do it better , some less perfectly ; but all is comprehended under this Commandment of loving God with all our hearts . When a father commands his children to come to him , he that comes slowly , obeys the commandment , but he that runs does obey more willingly and readily : now though to come running was left to the choice of the childs affection , yet it was but a brisk pursuance of the commandment . Thus when he that is bound to pay Tithes , gives the best portion , or does it cheerfully , without contention , in all questions taking the worse of the thing , and the better of the duty , does what he is commanded , and he does it with the affection of a son and of a friend , he loves his duty . Be angry , but sin not : so it is in the Commandment ; but he that to avoid the sin , will endeavour not to be angry at all , is the greater friend of God , by how much the further he stands off from sin . Thus in all doubts to take the surest side , to determine always for Religion , when without sin we might have determin'd for interest ; to deny our selves in lawful things , to do all our duty by the measures of Love and of the Spirit , are instances of this filial obedience , and are rewarded by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a perswasion and confidence of Gods love to us , enabling us to call him Father , as well as Lord. Thus this Parable , or one like it , is told in the book of Hermas . The Lord commanded his servant to put pales about his vineyard : He did so , and digg'd a ditch besides , and rooted out all the weeds ; which when his Lord observ'd , he made him coheir with his son . When S. Paul exhorted the Corinthians to give a free contribution to the poor Saints at Jerusalem , he invites to do it nobly and cheerfully , not as of constraint ; for Gods Commandment nam'd not the summ , neither can the degree of affection be nam'd ; but yet God demands all our affection . Now in all the affirmative Precepts , the duty in the lowest degree is that which is now made necessary under the loss of all our hopes of Eternity ; but all the further degrees of the same duty are imposed upon the condition of greater rewards , and other collateral advantages of duty . When Hystaspes ask'd Cyrus the Persian why he preferr'd Chrysantas before him , since he did obey all his Commands : The Prince answered , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Chrysantas does not stay till he is called ; and he does not only what is commanded , but what is best , what he knows is most pleasing to me . So does every perfect man , according to the degrees of his love and his perfection ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The righteousness of a perfect man consists not in legal innocence , but in love and voluntary obedience . This is that charity which is the glory of Christianity , the crown of all other graces , that which makes all the external works of obedience to be acceptable , and every act of the most excellent piety and devotion is a particular of that grace , and therefore though it is highly acceptable , yet it is also commanded in the general , and in the sence before explicated ; and he that does no more than he is particularly commanded , obeys God as a Lion obeys his keeper ; meat and stripes are all the endearments of his peace and services . Qui manet ut moneatur semper servos homo officium suum , Non voluntate id facere meminit , servos is habitu haud probus est . The servant that must be called upon at every step , is but an unprofitable and unworthy person : To do only what we are commanded , will never bring us to the portion and inheritance of Sons . We must do this chearfully , and we must do more ; even contend to please God with doing that which is the righteousness of God , striving for perfection , till perfection it self becomes perfect ; still obeying that law of Sons , Love the Lord with all thy heart , till our charity it self is crown'd . Therefore , 19. XIII . Let no man propound to himself a limit of duty , saying , he will go so far , and go no further . For the Commandment is infinite , and though every good man obeys it all the way of his holy conversation , yet it shall not be finish'd till his life is done . But he that stints himself to a certain measure of love , hath no love at all ; for this grace grows for ever : and when the object is infinite , true love is not at rest till it hath possess'd what is infinite ; and therefore towards that there must be an infinite progression , never stopp'd , never ceasing , till we can work no more . 20. XIV . Let every man be humbled in the sense of his failings and infirmities . Multum in hâc vitâ ille profecit , qui quàm longè sit à perfectione justitiae proficiendo cognovit , said S. Austin . It is a good degree of perfection to have proceeded so far , as well to know and observe our own imperfections . The Scripture concludes all under sin ; not only because all have fail'd of the Covenant of Works , of the exactness of obedience , but by reason of their prevarication of that law which they can obey . And indeed no man could be a sinner , but he that breaks that law which he could have kept . We were all sinners by the Covenant of works , but that was in those instances where it might have been otherwise . For the Covenant of Works was not impossible , because it consisted of impossible Commandments ; for every Commandment was kept by some or other , and all at some times : but therefore it was impossible to be kept , because at some time or other men would be impotent , or ignorant , or surpris'd , and for this , no abatement was made in that Covenant . But then since in what every man could help he is found to be a sinner , he ought to account it a mighty grace that his other services are accepted . In pursuance of this , 21. XV. Let no man boast himself in the most glorious services and performances of Religion . Qui in Ecclesiâ semper gloriosè & granditer operati sunt , & opus suum Domino nunquam imputaverunt , as S. Cyprian's expression is ; They who have greatly serv'd God in the Church , and have not been forward to exact and challenge their reward of God , they are such whom God will most certainly reward . For humility without other external works is more pleasing to God , than pride though standing upon heaps of excellent actions . It is the saying of S. Chrysostome . * For if it be as natural to us to live according to the measures of reason , as for beasts to live by their nature and instinct , what thanks is due to us for that , more than to them for this ? And therefore one said well , Ne te jactes si benè servisti : Obsequitur Sol , obtemperat Luna . Boast not if thou hast well obeyed : The Sun and the Moon do so , and shall never be rewarded . * But when our selves and all our faculties are from God , he hath power to demand all our services without reward , and therefore if he will reward us , it must wholly be a gift to us , that he will so crown our services . * But he does not only give us all our being and all our faculties , but makes them also irriguous with the dew of his Divine Grace ; sending his holy Son to call us to repentance , and to die to obtain for us pardon , and resurrection , and eternal life ; sending his holy Spirit by rare arguments , and aids external and internal to help us in our spiritual contentions and difficulties . So that we have nothing of our own , and therefore can challenge nothing to our selves . * But besides these considerations , many sins are forgiven to us , and the service of a whole life cannot make recompence for the infinite favour of receiving pardon : * Especially since after our amendment and repentance , there are remaining such weaknesses and footsteps of our old impieties , that we who have daily need of the Divine Mercy and Pity , cannot challenge a reward for that which in many degrees needs a pardon ; for if every act we do should not need some degrees of pardon , yet our persons do in the periods of our imperfect workings . * But after all this all that we can do is no advantage to God , he is not profited or obliged by our services , no moments do thence accrew to his felicities ; and to challenge a reward of God , or to think our best services can merit heaven , is as if Galileo when he had found out a Star which he had never observed before , and pleased himself in his own fancy , should demand of the Grand Signior to make him king of Tunis : for what is he the better , that the studious man hath pleased himself in his own Art , and the Turkish Empire gets no advantages by his new Argument ? * And this is so much the more material , if we consider that the littleness of our services ( if other things were away ) could not countervail the least moment of Eternity : and the poor Countrey man might as well have demanded of Cyrus to give him a Province for his handful of river water , as we can expect of God to give us Heaven as a reward of our good works . 22. XVI . But although this rule relying upon such great and convincing grounds , can abolish all proud expectations of reward from God as a debtor for our good works , yet they ought not to destroy our modest confidence and our rejoycings in God , who by his gracious promises hath not only obliged himself to help us if we pray to him , but to reward us if we work . For our God is merciful , he rewardeth every man according to his work : so said David ; according to the nature and graciousness of the work , not according to their value and proper worthiness ; not that they deserve it , but because God for the communication of his goodness was pleased to promise it . Promissum quidem ex misericordiâ sed ex justitiâ persolvendum , said S. Bernard . Mercy first made the promise , but justice pays the debt . Which words were true , if we did exactly do all that duty to which the reward was so graciously promised ; but where much is to be abated even of that little which was bound upon us by so glorious promises of reward , there we can in no sence challenge Gods justice , but so as it signifies equity , and is mingled with the mercies of the chancery . Gratis promisit , gratis reddit . So Ferus . God promised freely , and pays freely . If therefore thou wilt obtain grace and favour , make no mention of thy deservings . And yet let not this slacken thy work , but reinforce it , and enlarge thy industry , since thou hast so gracious a Lord , who of his own meer goodness will so plentifully reward it . 23. XVII . If we fail in the outward work , let it be so ordered that it be as little imputable to us as we can ; that is , let our default not be at all voluntary , but wholly upon the accounts of a pityable infirmity : For the Law was a Covenant of Works , such as they were ; but the mind could not make amends within for the defect without . But in the Gospel it is otherwise : for here the will is accepted for the fact , in all things where the fact is not in our power . But where it is , there to pretend a will , is hypocrisie . Nequam illud verbum est , benè vult , nisi qui benè facit , said the Comedian . This rule is our measure in the great lines of duty , in all negative Precepts , and in the periods of the law of Christ , which cannot pass by us without being observed . But in the material and external instances of duty , we may without our fault be disabled , and therefore can only be supplied with our endeavours and desires . But that is our advantage : we thus can perform all Gods will acceptably . For if we endeavour all that we can , and desire more , and pursue more , it is accepted as if we had done all : for we are accepted according to what a man hath , and not according to what he hath not . Unless we can neither endeavour , nor desire , we ought not to complain of the burthen of the Divine Commandments . For to endeavour truly , and passionately to desire and contend for more , is obedience and charity , and that is the fulfilling of the Commandments . Matter for Meditation out of Scripture , according to the former Doctrine . The Old Covenant , or the Covenant of Works . IN that day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die . Cursed in every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the law to do them . And thou shalt write upon stones all the words of this law very plainly . Thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day , to the right hand or to the left . But it shall come to pass , if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God , to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes , then shall all these curses come upon thee , and overtake thee . And if you will not be reformed by these things , but will walk contrary unto me , then will I also walk contrary unto you , and will punish you yet seven times for your sins . He that despised Moses law , died without mercy under two or three witnesses . The New Covenant , or the Covenant of Grace . WE are justified freely by his grace , through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ : Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood , to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past , through the forbearance of God. * To declare I say at this time his righteousness , that he might be just , and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus . * Where is boasting then ? it is excluded : by what law ? of works ? Nay , but by the law of faith . * Therefore we conclude , that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law . There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus , who walk not after the flesh , but after the Spirit . For as many as are led by the Spirit they are the sons of God. * Likewise the Spirit , also helpeth our infirmities — because he maketh intercession for the Saints according to the will of God. * And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God. He that spared not his own Son , but delivered him up for us all , how shall not he with him also freely give us all things ? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect ? It is God that justifieth . This is the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days , saith the Lord , I will put my laws in their mind , and write them in their hearts : and I will be to them a God , and they shall be to me a people — all shall know me from the least to the greatest . * For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness , and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more . If any man be in Christ , he is a new creature : old things are past away , all things are become new . And all things are of God , who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ , and hath given to us the ministery of reconciliation . * Now then we are ambassadors for Christ , as though God did beseech you by us , we pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled to God. * For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin , that we might be made the righteousness of God in him . Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins , and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost : for the promise is unto you and to your children , and to all that are afar off , and to as many as the Lord our God shall call . And it shall come to pass , that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved . Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law , that the man which doth those things shall live by them . But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise — The word is nigh thee , even in thy mouth and in thy heart , that is , the word of faith which we preach , that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus , and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead , thou shalt be saved . Death is swallowed up in victory . O death where is thy sting ? O grave where is thy victory ? The sting of death is sin , and the strength of sin is the law . But thanks be to God , which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. My yoke is easie , and my burthen is light . For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh , God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh , hath for sin condemned sin in the flesh ; that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us , who walk not after the flesh , but after the Spirit . His Commandments are not grievous . If while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son , much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life . And not only so , but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ , by whom we have now received the attonement . I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me . My grace is sufficient for thee : for my strength is made perfect in weakness . Ask and you shall have , seek and ye shall find , knock and it shall be opened unto you . To him that hath shall be given , and he shall have more abundantly . Having therefore these promises , let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit , perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord. The PRAYER . I. O Eternal God , Lord of Heaven and Earth , Father of Men and Angels , we do adore thy infinite Goodness , we revere thy Justice , and delight in thy Mercies , by which thou hast dealt with us , not with the utmost right and dominion of a Lord , but with the gentleness of a Father ; treating us like friends , who were indeed thy enemies . Thou , O God , didst see our follies , and observe our weaknesses , thou knowest the aversness of our nature to good , and our proneness to commit vanity ; and because our imperfect obedience could not bring us to perfect felicity whither thou didst design us , the great God of all the world was pleased to make a new Covenant with Man , and to become a debtor to his servants . Blessed be God , and blessed be that Mercy , which hath done so great things for us . O be pleased to work that in us which thou expectest from us . Let us not lose our title in the Covenant of Faith and Repentance , by deferring the one , or dishonouring the other ; but let us walk worthy of our vocation , according to the Law of Faith , and the Mercies of God , and the Covenant of our Lord Jesus . II. O Blessed Jesus , never suffer us to abuse thy mercies , or to turn thy Grace into wantonness . Let the remembrance and sense of thy glorious favours endear our services , and let thy goodness lead us to Repentance , and our Repentance bring forth the fruits of godliness in our whole life . Imprint deeply upon our hearts the fear and terror of thy Majesty , and perpetually entertain our spirits with highest apprehensions of thy loving kindness , that we may fear more , and love more , every day more and more hating sin , crucifying all its affections and desires , passionately loving holy things , zealously following after them , prudently conducting them , and indefatigably persevering in them to the end of our lives . III. O Blessed and Eternal God , with thy spirit inlighten our understandings in the rare mysterious Secrets of thy Law. Make me to understand all the most advantageous ways of duty , and kindle a flame in my Soul , that no difficulty or contradiction , no temptation within , or persecution without , may ever extinguish . Give me a mighty grace , that I may design to please thee with my best and all my services , to follow the best examples , to do the noblest Charities , to pursue all Perfection , ever pressing forward to the mark of the high calling in Christ Jesus . Let us rather choose to die , than to sin against our Consciences . Let us also watch , that we may omit nothing of our duty , nor pretermit any opportunity by which thou canst be glorified , or any Christian instructed , comforted or assisted , not resting in the strictest measures of Command , but passing forward to great and prudent significations of love , doing heroick actions ; some things by which thou mayest be greatly pleased , that thou mayest take delight to pardon , to sanctifie , and to preserve thy servants for ever . Amen . CHAP. II. Of the Nature and Definition of Repentance ; And what parts of duty are signified by it in Holy Scriptures . SECT . I. THE Greeks use two words to express this duty , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , post factum angi & cruciari , to be afflicted in mind , to be troubled for our former folly ; it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith Phavorinus ; a being displeased for what we have done : and it is generally used for all sorts of Repentance , but more properly to signifie either the beginnings of a good , or the whole state of an effective Repentance . In the first sence we find it in S. Mathew * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; and ye seeing , did not repent that ye might believe him . Of the second sence we have example in Judas , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he repented too , but the end of it was , he died with anguish and despair ; and of Esau it is said , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he found no place for an [ effective ] repentance ; but yet he repented too , for he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he fain would have had it otherwise , and he sought it with tears ; which two do fully express all the meaning of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , when it is distinguished from the better and effective Repentance . There is in this Repentance , a sorrow for what is done , a disliking of the thing with its consequents and effect ; and so far also it is a change of mind . But it goes no further than so far to change the mind , that it brings trouble and sorrow , and such things which are the natural events of it . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith Suidas . It is an affection incident to man , not to God , who cannot repent : where although by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he means an Accident or property of Man , that is , a quality in the general sence ; yet that it is properly a passion in the special sence , was the sence of all men , as Tertullian observes ; saying , that the Heathens know Repentance to be passionem animi quandam , ( the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Suidas ) a passion , quae veniat de offensâ sententiae prioris , coming from our being offended , or troubled at our former course . But Tertullian uses the Latine word , of which I shall give account in the following periods . 2. But when there was a difference made , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was the better word ; which does not properly signifie the sorrow for having done amiss , but something that is noble● than it , but brought in at the gate of sorrow . For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a godly sorrow , that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or the first beginning of Repentance , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , worketh this better Repentance , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a repentance not to be repented of , not to be sorrowed for , a repentance that is unto salvation . Sorrow may go before this , but dwells not with it , according to that of S. Chrysostome , Medicinae hic locus , non judicii , non poenas sed peccatorum remissionem poenitentia tribuit . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word . Repentance brings not pains , but pardon with it ; for this is the place of medicine and remedy , not of judgment or condemnation : meaning that this Repentance is wholly salutary , as tending to reformation and amendment . But Tertullian made the observation more express . In Graeco sono poenitentiae nomen non ex delicti confessione , sed ex animi demutatione compositum est . To repent among the Greeks signifies not a confession of our fault , but the change of mind . He speaks of the Grammaticall sence of the word ; for in the whole use of it , it is otherwise . 3. For however the Grammarians may distinguish them , yet the words are used promiscuously ; for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is sometimes used in the bad sence , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies the better repentance ; not often , but sometimes it does . The son that told his Father he would not work in his Vineyard , afterwards was sorry for refusing , and he went to work , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; and in the some Chapter , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; ye seeing were not troubled , and sorrowful , that ye might believe , that is , amend your fault . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in both places used for a salutary repentance . And on the other side , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used to signifie in the evil sence , a state of misery , without remedy . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so the Septuagint read that of Solomon , The wicked man cometh to repentance , that is , to misery , and sorrow . So that there is nothing of usefulness which can be drawn from the Grammatical sence of these words ; They both signifie a change of mind ; and they both signifie a sorrow ; and they both are used for the same thing : and indeed that will be the best use of them : No man can be truly said to repent , but he who being sorrowful for doing evil betakes himself to wiser courses . So Phavorinus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Repentance is a sense and compunction of the soul for those things which were done foolishly . Sum Dea quae facti , non factique exigo poenas , Nempe ut poeniteat , sic Metanoea * vocor . Repentance does exact punishment for evils done , and good undone ; but besides this , it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a conversion to that which is better . So Aretas defines it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The same with the former ; an eschewing evil , and doing good . 4. And thus the Holy Scriptures understand this word and this duty . It is a whole change of state , and life ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * , a turning from sin ; and it is emphatically called by the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a repentance from dead works , that is , a forsaking them with sorrow that ever we committed them : And it is also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a conversion to God ‖ ; from darkness to light , from the power of Satan unto God : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a returning to sobriety , the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in Justin Martyr , all signifying a departing from our follies and a changing to a better life . And though sometimes to Repent is in Scripture taken for sorrow only or a being troubled that the fact is done ; yet it is called Repentance , no otherwise than as alms is called Charity ; that is , it is an effect of it , a part , or action , or adjunct of the duty and state of Repentance : which ought to be observed lest ( as it is too commonly ) one act be mistaken for the whole state , and we account our selves perfect penitents if we have only wept a penitential shower ; which is also to be observed in the definitions which the Doctors give of it . 5. Tertullian * calls it [ a passion of the mind , or grief for the offence of our former acts ] S. Austin ‖ calls it [ a revenge always punishing in it self that which it grieves to have committed ] These do only describe that part of repentance which is sometimes signified by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and is nothing else but a godly sorrow , the porch , or beginnings of Repentance . On the other side Lactantius * describing Repentance , gives only the Grammatical sence of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Agere autem poenitentiam nihil aliud est quàm profiteri & affirmare se ulteriùs non peccaturum : To repent ( saith he ) is nothing else but a profession and affirmation , that he will sin no more ; which descriptions of Repentance are just as if we should say , A man is a creature that speaks , or laughs , or that can learn to read . These are effects of his nature , but not the ingredients of a proper definition . Sorrow , and Revenge , and holy purposes and protestations are but single acts of a returning and penitent man : whereas Repentance is a whole state of a new life , an intire change of the sinner , with all its appendages and instruments of ministery . 6. As the Greeks have , so have the Latins also two words to signifie this duty , Poenitentia and Resipiscentia , and these have almost the same fate and the same usages with the other . Poenitentia is used by the old Latin translation ; and is most tenaciously retained by all them who make the very life of Repentance to run into corporal austerities ( like the juice of luxuriant trees into irregular suckers and excrescencies ) which therefore by way of eminency they call Penances ; for they suppose the word in its very nature and institution to signifie something that is punitive , and afflictive . So Hugo , Poenitentia quasi punientia , quòd per eam homo in se puniat , quod malè admisit . Much like that of Scotus ; poenitentia quasi poenae tenentia ; which they both learned from S. Austin ; poenitere est idem quod rei commissae aliquem pudere ac pigere , it a ut , poenitet , sit idem quod poena tenet . This sence of the word prevailed long , and therefore some that would speak exactly , observing that the duty of Repentance did principally consist in the amendment of our lives , were forc'd to use the word Resipiscentia , which better renders the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . So Lactantius expresly , Graeci meliùs & significantiùs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dicunt : quam Latinè possumus resipiscentiam dicere . Resipiscit enim ac mentem suam quasi ab insaniâ recipit quem errare piget , castigátque seipsum dementiae , & confirmat animum suum ad rectiùs vivendum . He truly repents who recovers his mind from folly , and chastising his error , and grieving for his madness , strengthens his purposes to better living . 7. Either of the words will serve the turn . Poenitentia , or Penance , is the old Latin word ; Resipiscentia is the new one , but very expressive and significant : and it is indifferent which be used , if men had not a design upon one , which cannot prudently be effected by it . But such is the force of words , especially when men chuse and affect one particularly and studiously reject another which is apt to signifie the same thing , that in the Greek Church because their words for Repentance did imply only or principally a change of life , they usually describe Repentance in that formality ; but the later Latins practise and discourse to other purposes ; and the Colledge of Rhemes render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , word for word after their vulgar Latin , agite poenitentiam , do penance , which is so absurd a reddition , that their interest and design is more apparent than their skill in Grammar , or their ingenuity . It is much , very much better which we learn from a wise Heathen , who gives such an account both of the words and thing as might not misbecome the best instructed Christian , so far as concerns the nature and morality of the duty : His words are excellent words , and therefore I shall transcribe them . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . We ought principally to take care that we do not sin ; but if we be overtaken , then to make diligent haste to return to justice or righteousness as the cure of our wickedness : that we may amend out evil counsels or wills , by the help of a better . For when we are fallen from goodness , we receive or recover it again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by a wise or well principled penitential sorrow , admitting a Divine correction . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but repentance it self is the beginning of wisdom , a flying from foolish words and deeds , and the first institution of a life not to be repented of . Where besides the definition of repentance and a most perfect description of its nature and intention , he with some curiosity differences the two Greek words ; making 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be but the beginning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : sorrow the beginning of repentance ; and both together the reformation of the old , and the institution of a new life . 8. But to quit the words from being the subject matter of a Quarrel , it is observable that the Latin word poenitentia does really signifie ( by use I mean and custom ) as much as the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and is expressive of the whole duty of Repentance ; and although it implies that sorrow and grief which is the natural in-let of reformation of our lives , and the consequent of our shame and sin , yet it also does signifie correction and amendment , which is the formality and essence of Repentance ; and therefore Erasmus more warily and in imitation of the old Latins , says that poenitere is from pone tenere , quod est posterius consilium capere ; to be wiser the next time ; to chuse again and chuse better ; and so A. Gellius defines it , Poenitere , tum dicere solemus , cum quae ipsi fecimus , aut quae de nostrâ voluntate nostróque consilio facta sunt , ea nobis pòst incipiunt displicere , sententiámque in iis nostram demutamus . To repent is when those things which we have done displease us , and we change our minds . So that here is both a Displeasure and a Change ; a displeasure and sorrow for the evil , and a change to better . And there ought to be no scruple in this ; for by the first sorrow of a penitent man , is meant nothing else but the first act of eschewing evil : which whether it be by grief alone , or by fear , or by hope , or by all these , it is not without some trouble of mind , and displeasure ; for if it were still in all sences a pleasure to go on , they would never return back . And therefore to suppose repentance without displeasure , is to suppose a change of mind without alteration , or a taking a new course without disliking the old . But then to suppose any other sorrow naturally necessary , than this which naturally is included in the change , is to affirm that to be true which experience tells us is not true , and it is to place self-affliction and punition at the head , which is to be look'd for in the retinue of repentance ; to make the daughter to be before the Mother , and the fruit to be kept in the root , not to grow upon the branches . But the Latin words can no way determine any thing of Question in this article ; and the Greek words are used promiscuously ; and when they are distinguished , they differ but as the more and less perfect , as the beginning of Repentance and the progress of perfection ; according to that saying , Poenitentiae erroris magnus gradus est ad resipiscentiam , To acknowledge and be sorry for our sin is a great step to repentance ; and both together signifie all that piety , that change , and holiness which is the duty of the new man , of the Returning sinner : and we can best learn it by the words of him that revealed and gave this grace to all his servants ; even of the Holy Jesus speaking to S. Paul at his Conversion , from whose blessed words , together with those of S. Paul in his narrative of that story , we may draw this more perfect description . To repent is to turn from darkness to light , from the power of Satan unto God , doing works worthy of amendment of life , for the forgiveness of sins , that we may receive inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in Christ Jesus . 9. Upon this account , the parts of Repentance are two ; 1. Leaving our sins : which is properly repentance from dead works . And 2. Doing holy actions in the remaining portion of our days ; actions meet for repentance ; so the Baptist called them . This is in Scripture by way of propriety called Repentance ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so the Baptist used it ; distinguishing Repentance from its fruits ; that is , from such significations , exercises and prosecutions of this change , as are apt to represent , and to effect it more and more ; such as are confession , weeping , self-afflictions , alms , and the like . So S. Paul , using the same words before King Agrippa . But by way of Synecdoche , not only the fruits and consequent expressions , but the beginning sorrow also is signified by the same word : and all are under the same Commandment , though with different degrees of necessity , and expression ; of which I shall afterwards give account . Here I only account concerning the essential and constituent parts and definition of Repentance . 10. All the whole duty of Repentance , and every of its parts , is sometimes called Conversion . Thus godly sorrow is a conversion or change : and upon that account S. James calls upon sinners , Be afflicted , and mourn , and weep , let your laughter be turned into mourning , and your joy into weeping . This is the first change of our affections , which is attended with a change of our judgment : when we do no longer admire the false beauties of sin ; but judge righteously concerning it . And of this the Prophet Jeremy gives testimony , Surely , after that I was turned , I repented . And by this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Hebrews express the duty ; which the LXX . indifferently render by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and is best rendred , Conversion . And then follows the conversion of the whole man , body and soul , mind and spirit , all are set in opposition against sin , and apply themselves to the service of God , and conformity to Jesus . SECT . II. Of Repentance in general ; or Conversion . 1. REpentance and Faith in Scriptures signifie sometimes more generally ; and in the federal sence are used for all that state of grace and favour which the holy Jesus revealed , and brought into the world . They both signifie the Gospel : For the whole Gospel is nothing else but that glad tidings which Christ brought to all mankind , that the Covenant of Works , or exact measures should not now be exacted , but men should be saved by second thoughts , that is , by Repentance and amendment of life , through faith in the Lord Jesus . That is , if we become his Disciples , ( for that is the condition of the Covenant ) we shall find mercy , our sins shall be blotted out , and we shall be saved if we obey heartily and diligently , though not exactly . This becoming his Disciples is called Faith , that is , coming to him , believing him , hoping in him , obeying him ; and consequent to this is , that we are admitted to Repentance , that is , to the pardon of our sins . For him hath God exalted on his right hand , to be a Prince and a Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to give repentance and remission of sins . This is the summ Total of the Gospel . That we have leave to repent , supposes that God will pardon what is past . But then that we have leave to repent , supposes us also highly bound to it . It is in meer pity to our imfirmities , our needs and our miseries , that we have leave to do it : and this is given to mankind by faith in Jesus Christ , that is , by becoming his Disciples ; for he hath power to pardon sins , and to take them away , and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness , viz. which we have committed . This is that which all the world did need , and long'd for ; it was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the hidden mystery from all ages , but revealed in Christ ; whose blood ( as S. Clement expresses it ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , brought to all the world the grace of Repentance . 2. This is the Gospel . For the Gospel is nothing else but Faith and Repentance . The Gospel is called Faith by S. Paul , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , before that faith came , we were under the law , shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed ; that is , to the Gospel , or the glad tidings of Repentance ; which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the hearing of faith . For Faith being here opposed to the Law , that is , the Covenant of Mercy to the Covenant of Works , must mean , the Covenant of Repentance . And therefore although , if we consider them as proper and particular graces and habits , they have differing natures and definitions ; yet in the general and federal sence of which I now speak , Faith and Repentance are only distinguished by relations and respects , not by substance and reality . Repentance towards God , and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ ; that is , Repentance for having sinned against God ; a Repentance , I say , through faith in Jesus Christ ; that is , a Repentance procured , and preach'd and enjoyn'd by Christ , being the summ of his Discipline . And that it may appear Faith and Repentance to be the same thing , and differing only in name and manner of expression , S. Paul confounds the distinction which he formerly made , and that which he called , Repentance towards God , and faith towards our Lord Jesus , in his Sermons in Asia ; in his Epistle to the Hebrews , he calls , Repentance from dead works and faith in God. And the words are used for each other promiscuously in S. Luke ; for that which the rich man in Hell called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Abraham called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . If one comes from the dead they will repent : No , said Abraham , If they will not hear Moses and the Prophets , then if one come from the dead , they will not believe , or be perswaded . And S. Peter giving an account of the delaying of the coming of the Lord for the punishment of the obdurate Jews and enemies of Christ , says , it is because God of his infinite goodness expects even them also to be converted to the faith , or becoming Christians , as the whole design of the place infers ; and this he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a coming to Repentance , that is , to the faith of Christ. And therefore the Gospel is nothing else but an universal publication of Repentance and pardon of sins in the Name of Christ , that is procured for all them who are his Disciples : and to this we are baptized , that is , adopted into the Religion , into that Discipleship under which God requires holiness , but not perfect measures ; sincerity without hypocrisie , but not impeccability or perfect innocence . 3. And as the Gospel is called Faith , and Faith is Repentance , that is , it is the same Covenant of Grace and Mercy , with this only difference , that it is called Faith , as it relates to Christ who procured this mercy for us , Repentance , as it signifies the mercy it self so procured : So Baptism by the same analogy is called the Baptism unto Repentance , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Baptism of Repentance , so it is called in the Jerusalem Creed ; that is , the admission to the grace of the Gospel ; which the Fathers of C.P. in their appendage to the Nicene Creed , thus express : I believe one Baptism for the remission of sins , that is , to remission of sins we are admitted by Baptism alone ; no other way shall we have this grace , this title , but by being once initiated into the Gospel to be Disciples of Jesus . Not that it is to be supposed that our sins are only pardon'd when we are baptized ; but that by Baptism we are admitted to the state and grace of Repentance and pardon of sins . And this is demonstratively certain , not only upon those many instances of baptized penitents , admitted to pardon , and baptized Criminals called upon in Scripture to repent , but upon the very nature of the Evangelical Covenant , and the whole design of Christs coming . For if we were not admitted to Repentance after Baptism , then we were still to be judged by the Covenant of Works , not by the Covenant of Faith ; and we should inherit by the Law , or not at all , and not be heirs according to promise ; and then Christ were dead in vain , we are yet in our sins ; and all the world must perish , because all men have sinned , and so none should go to Heaven but newly baptized Infants , or newly baptized Catechumens : and how then could the Gospel be a New Covenant , it being exactly the same with the Law ; for so it must be , if it promise no mercy or Repentance to them that sin after our admittance to it . * But Baptism is a new birth , and by it we are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , renewed unto Repentance , unto that state of life which supposes holiness and imperfection , and consequently needs mercy all the way ; according to that saying , Justus ex fide vivet , The just shall live by faith ; that is , all our righteousness , all our hopes , all our spiritual life is conserved by , and is relying upon this Covenant of Mercy , the Covenant of Faith , or Repentance : all his life time the just shall still need pardon , and find it , if he perseveres in it , that is , endeavours to obey according to the righteousness of Faith , that is , sincerely , diligently , and by the measures of a man. Of this we shall in the sequel make use . 4. For the present I consider , that Repentance or Conversion admits of degrees according to the necessities of men . For that Repentance which Christ and his Apostles preach'd at the opening of the Kingdom , was an universal change of life , which men did lead in the darkness of Heathen ignorance , and idolatrous impieties among the Gentiles , and the more than Heathen crimes among the Jews ; the whole Nation being generally false , superstitious , bloody , persecutors , proud , rebellious , and at last rejecters and crucifiers of their Messias , whom they had long'd for ever since they were a people : But in the perswasion and effecting of this Repentance , there was some difference of Dispensation and Ministery . 5. John the Baptist began , and he preach'd Repentance to the Jews , that they might believe in the Messias , and so flee from the wrath to come , that is , from the destruction of their Nation , which he prophetically foretold should come to pass , for their rejecting him whom the Baptist did fore-signifie . Christ and his Apostles pursued the same Doctrine , still thrusting forward the design , that is , preaching such a Repentance as was proportionable to his purpose ; that is , obedience to the Gospel , the admission of such doctrines which did destroy the gayeties and cursed usages of the world . So that the Repentance which was first preached was in order to Faith ; that is , the Baptist , and Christ , and Christs Apostles preaching Repentance , did mean such a conversion or change as would take them off from those crimes which so prepossess'd their hearts , that by them they were indispos'd to receive Christs person and doctrine , both which were so contrary to their prejudices of Pride and Covetousness , Malice and Ambition . 6. And therefore among the Jews , Repentance was to go before Faith : for they were already sufficiently disposed to believe the Revelations of God , they had been used to Prophets , and expected the Messias , and pray'd for his day , and long'd passionately for it ; so that they were by nothing hindred in their faith , but by their lusts and secular thoughts ; and the way to make them believe , was to cure their pride . How can ye believe , who receive honour one of another ? Their hunting after praise among the people , did indispose them to the believing and receiving Christs person and doctrine . Therefore until they did repent of that , they could not believe ; and accordingly our blessed Saviour complain'd , that when they saw the light which shin'd in the Ministery of John the Baptist , yet they would not repent , that they might believe . * But afterwards the Jews when they were invited to the Religion , that is , to believe in Jesus , were first to be called to Repentance , because they had crucified the Lord of life : and if they should not repent for crucifying an innocent person , they would be infinitely far from believing him to be the Lord of life , and their long desired Messias . 7. But the Repentance that was preached to the Gentiles , though it had the same design ( as to the event of things ) yet it went in another method . Their Religion taught them impiety , lust and folly was plac'd upon their Altars , and their gods bore in their hands smoking firebrands kindled with the coals of Sodom : they had false confidences , and evil examples , and foolish principles ; they had evil laws , and an abominable Priesthood , and their Daemons , whom they call'd Gods , would be worshipped with lusts and cruelty , with drunkenness and revellings ; so that their false belief and evil Religion betrayed them to evil lives , therefore they were to be recovered by being taught a better belief , and a more holy Religion , therefore in these , faith was to go before Repentance . Poenitentiae stimulus ex fide acciderat , as Tertullians expression is . Faith was the motive of their Repentance . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . So S. Clemens Alexandrinus . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Repentance is the perfection and consummation of Faith. For unless the sinner believes his action to be a sin , and that evil is his portion if he sins , and that he shall be happy if he live by the rule of the Commandments , he can never be converted : Therefore in the conversion of the Gentiles , Faith was to be ordinarily the first . 8. In proportion to these several methods , the doctrine or state of Christianity was sometimes called * Faith , sometimes ‖ Repentance : He that believed Jesus Christ , would repent of his sins ; and he that did repent , would believe . But sometimes Infidelity stood at the gate , and sometimes Malice and vile Affections . That which stood next , was first to be removed . 9. Now the access of both these to Christ is in Scripture called Conversion , or Repentance . Where Faith only was wanting , and the man was of Moses and a good man , the becoming a Christian was a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a perfection or consummation , a progression rather than a returning , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . But when Christ had been preached , all the obfirmation and obstinacy of mind by which they shut their eyes against that light , all that was choice , and interest , or passion , and was to be rescinded by Repentance . But Conversion was the word indifferently used concerning the change both of Jews and Gentiles , because they both abounded in iniquity , and did need this change , called by S. Paul , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a redemption from all iniquity ; by S. Peter , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a conversion from wickedness . 10. In analogy and proportion to these Repentances and Conversions of Jews and Gentiles , the Repentances of Christians may be called Conversion . We have an instance of the word so used in the case of S. Peter , When thou art converted , strengthen thy brethren ; that is , when thou art returned from thy folly and sin of denying the Lord , do thou confirm thy brethren , that they may not fall as thou hast done . This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a conversion from vanity , and impiety , or injustice ; when a person of any evil life returns to his duty , and his undertaking in Baptism : from the unregenerate to the regenerate estate , that is , from habitual sin to habitual grace . But the Repentances of good men for their sins of infirmity , or the seldom interruptions of a good life by single falls , is not properly Conversion . But as the distance from God is , from whence we are to retire , so is the degree of our Conversion . The term from whence , is various , but the term whither we go , is the same . All must come to God through Jesus Christ in the measures and strictness of the Evangelical holiness , which is that state of Repentance I have been now describing , which is , A perfect abrenunciation of all iniquity , and a sincere obedience in the faith of Jesus Christ : which is the result of all the foregoing considerations and usages of words ; and is further manifested in the following appellatives and descriptions , by which Repentance is signified and recommended to us in Scripture . 11. I. It is called Reconciliation , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . We pray you in Christs stead to be reconciled to God ; that is , to be friends with him , no longer to stand in terms of distance ; for every habitual sinner , every one that provokes him to anger by his iniquity , is his enemy : not that every sinner hates God by a direct hate ; but as obedience is love , so disobedience is enmity or hatred by interpretation , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , enemies in their mind by wicked works . So S. Paul expresses it : and therefore the reconciling of these , is to represent them holy and unblameable , and unreprovable in his sight . Pardon of sins is the least part of this reconciliation ; Our sins and our sinfulness too must be taken away ; that is , our old guilt , and the remanent affections must be taken off , before we are friends of God. And therefore we find this reconciliation press'd on our parts ; we are reconciled to God , not God to us . For although the term be relative , and so signifies both parts ; as conjunction , and friendship , and society , and union do : yet it pleased the Spirit of God by this expression to signifie our duty expresly , and to leave the other to be supposed ; because if our parts be done , whatsoever is on Gods part , can never fail . And 2. Although this reconciliation begins on Gods part , and he first invites us to peace , and gave his Son a Sacrifice ; yet Gods love is very revocable till we are reconciled by obedience and conformity . 12. II. It is called Renewing , and that either with the connotation of the subject renewed , or the cause renewing . The renewing of the Holy Ghost , and the renewing of the mind , or the spirit of the mind . The word is exactly the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which is a change of mind from worse to better , as it is distinguished from the fruits and effects of it . So , be renewed in your mind , that is , throw away all your foolish principles , and non-sence propositions by which you use to be tempted and perswaded to sin , and inform your mind with wise notices and sentences of God : That ye put off concerning the old conversation the old man , which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts ; and that ye put on the new man , which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness ; which is an excellent description of Repentance : In which it is observable , that S. Paul uses two words more to express the greatness and nature of this change and conversion . It is 13. III. A new Creature ; The new Man ; Created in Righteousness : for the state of Repentance is so great an alteration , that in some sence it is greater than the Creation ; because the things created had in them no opposition to the power of God , but a pure capacity obediential : but a sinner hath dispositions opposite to the Spirit of Grace , and he must unlearn much before he can learn any thing ; He must die before he can be born . Nam quodcunque suis mutatum finibus exit , Continuò hoc mors est illius quod fuit anté . Lucret. Our sins , the body of sin , the spirit of uncleanness , the old man must be abolished , mortified , crucified , buried ; our sins must be laid away , we must hate the garments spotted with the flesh , and our garments must be whitened in the blood of the Lamb ; our hearts must be purged from an evil conscience , purified as God is pure , that is , as S. Paul expresses it , from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit , denying or renouncing all ungodliness and worldly lusts . 14. And then as the antithesis or consequent of this is , when we have laid away our sin , and renounced ungodliness ; We must live godly , righteously , and soberly in this present world ; we must not live either to the world , or to our selves , but to Christ : Hic dies aliam vitam adfert , alios mores postulat ; Our manner of life must be wholly differing from our former vanities , so that the life which we now live in the flesh , we must live by the faith of the Son of God , that is , according to his Laws and most holy Discipline . 15. This is pressed earnestly upon us by those many Precepts of obedience , to God , to Christ , to the holy Gospel , to the Truth , to the Doctrine of Faith ; * of doing good , doing righteousness , doing the truth ; * serving in the newness of the Spirit ; * giving our members up as servants of righteousness unto holiness ; * being holy in all conversations ; * following after peace with all men and holiness ; being followers of good works ; providing things hones● in the sight of God and men ; abhorring evil , and cleaving to that which is good ; * perfecting holiness in the fear of God ; to be perfect in every good work ; * being filled with the fruits of righteousness ; walking worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing ; being fruitful in every good work , and increasing in the knowledge of God ; * abounding in the work of the Lord. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are the words often used , fill'd full , and perfect . 16. To the same purpose is it , that we are commanded to live in Christ , and unto God , that is , to live according to their will , and by their rule , and to their glory , and in their fear and love , called by S. Paul to live in the faith of the Son of God : to be followers of Christ , and of God , to dwell in Christ , and to abide in him ; to walk according to the Commandments of God , in good works , in truth , according to the Spirit , to walk in light , to walk with God ; which was said of Enoch : of whom the Greek LXX . read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , He pleased God. * There are very many more to the same purpose . For with great caution and earnestness the holy Scriptures place the duties of mankind in practice and holiness of living , and removes it far from a confidence of notion and speculation . Qui fecerit , & docuerit , He that doth them and teaches them , shall be great in the Kingdom ; and , Why do you call me Lord , Lord , and do not the things I say to you ? and , Ye are my friends if ye do what I command you . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . We must not only be called Christians , but be so ; for not to be called but to be so , brings us to felicity ; that is , since the life of a Christian is the life of Repentance , whose work it is , for ever to contend against sin , for ever to strive to please God , a dying to sin , a living to Christ , he that thinks his Repentance can have another definition , or is compleated in any other , or in fewer parts , must be of another Religion than is taught by Christ and his holy Apostles . This is the Faith of the Son of God , this is that state of excellent things which he purchased with his blood : and as there is no other Name under Heaven , so there is no other Faith , no other Repentance whereby we can be saved . Upon this Article it is usual to discourse of Sorrow and Contrition , of Confession of sins , of making amends , of self-affliction , and some other particulars : but because they are not parts , but actions , fruits , and significations of Repentance , I have reserved them for their proper place . Now I am to apply this general Doctrine to particular states of sin and sinners , in the following Chapters . SECT . III. Descriptions of Repentance taken from the Holy Scriptures . ¶ WHEN Heaven is shut up , and there is no rain , because they have sinned against thee : if they pray towards this place , and confess thy name , and turn from their sin when thou afflictest them : Then hear thou in Heaven , and forgive the sin of thy servants , and of thy people Israel , that thou teach them the good way wherein they should walk , and give rain upon thy land which thou hast given to thy people for an Inheritance . ¶ And the Redeemer shall come to Zion , and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob ( saith the Lord. ) As for me , this is my Covenant with them , saith the Lord , My Spirit that is upon thee , and my words which I have put in thy mouth , shall not depart out of thy mouth , nor out of the mouth of thy seed , nor out of the mouth of thy seeds seed , saith the Lord , from henceforth and for ever . Again , when I say unto the wicked , Thou shalt surely die : If he turn from his sin , and do that which is lawful and right : If the wicked restore the pledge , give again that he had robbed , walk in the statutes of life without committing iniquity ; he shall even live , he shall not die . * None of his sins that he hath committed , shall be mentioned unto him ; he hath done that which is lawful and right , he shall surely live . Knowing this , that our old man is crucified with him , that the body of sin might be destroyed , that hence forth we should not serve sin . Likewise reckon ye also your selves to be dead indeed unto sin , but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. * Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body , that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof . * Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin ; but yield your selves unto God , as those that are alive from the dead , and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. * Being then made free from sin , ye became the servants of righteousness . * I speak after the manner of men , because of the infirmity of your flesh : for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness , and to iniquity unto iniquity , even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness . Wherefore my brethren , ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ , that ye should be married to another , even to him who is raised from the dead , that we should bring forth fruit unto God. For when we were in the flesh , the motions of sins which were by the law , did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death . * But now we are delivered from the law , that being dead wherein we were held , that we should serve in the newness of the spirit , and not in the oldness of the letter . And that , knowing the time , that now it is high time to awake out of sleep : for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed . The night is far spent , the day is at hand : let us therefore cast off the works of darkness , and let us put on the armor of light . * Let us walk honestly as in the day , not in rioting and drunkenness , not in chambering and wantonness , not in strife and envying . * But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ , and make not provision for the flesh , to fulfil the lusts thereof . Having therefore these promises ( dearly beloved ) let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit , perfecting holiness in the fear of God. For godly sorrow worketh Repentance to salvation not to be repented of : but the sorrow of the world worketh death . * For behold , this self same thing that ye sorrowed after a godly sort , what carefulness it wrought in you , yea , what clearing of your selves , yea , what indignation , yea , what fear , yea , what vehement desire , yea , what zeal , yea , what revenge ? in all thing ye have approved your selves to be clear in this matter . For the love of Christ constraineth us , because we thus judge , that if one died for all , then were all dead . Therefore if any man be in Christ , he is a new creature : old things are past away , behold all things are become new . That ye put off , concerning the former conversation , the old man , which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts : And be renewed in the spirit of your mind . * And that ye put on that new man , which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness . Let no man deceive you with vain words : for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience . Be not ye therefore partakers with them . * For ye were sometimes darkness , but now are ye light in the Lord , walk as children of light . * For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness , and righteousness , and truth . * Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord : * And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness , but rather reprove them . * See then that ye walk circumspectly , not as fools , but as wise : * Redeeming the time , because the days are evil . * Wherefore be ye not unwise , but understanding what the will of the Lord is . If ye then be risen with Christ , seek those things which are above , where Christ fitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above , not on things on the earth . * For ye are dead , and your life is hidden with Christ in God. * Mortifie therefore your members , which are upon the earth ; fornication , uncleanness , inordinate affection , evil concupiscence , and covetousness , which is idolatry . * But now , you also p●t off all these , anger , wrath , malice , blasphemy , filthy communication out of your mouth . * Lie not one to another , seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds ; * And have put on the new man , which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him . For the grace of God that bringeth salvation , hath appeared to all men , Teaching us , that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts , we should live soberly , righteously and godly in this present world : * Looking for that blessed hope , and the glorious appearing of the great God , and our Saviour Jesus Christ : * Who gave himself for us , that he might redeem us from all iniquity , and purifie unto himself a peculiar people , zealous of good works . Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses , let us lay aside every weight , and the sin which doth so easily beset us , and let us run with patience the race that is set before us : Looking unto Jesus , the Author and Finisher of our faith , who for the joy that was set before him , endured the Cross , despising the shame , and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. * Follow peace with all men , and holiness , without which no man shall see the Lord : * Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God , lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you , and thereby many be defiled . Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth , that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures . Wherefore lay apart all filthiness , and superfluity of naughtiness , and receive with meekness the ingraffed word , which is able to save your souls . * But be ye doers of the word , and not hearers only , deceiving your own selves . Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises , that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature , having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust . And besides this , giving all diligence , add to your faith , vertue ; and to vertue , knowledge ; * And to knowledge , temperance ; and to temperance , patience ; and to patience , godliness ; * And to godliness , brotherly kindness ; and to brotherly kindness , charity : * For if these things be in you and abound , they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. * But he that lacketh these things is blind , and cannot see far off , and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins . Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind , be sober , and hope to the end , for the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children , not fashioning your selves according to the former lusts in your ignorance . * But as he which hath called you is holy , so be ye holy in all manner of conversation ; * Because it is written , Be ye holy , for I am holy . Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree , that we being dead to sins , should live unto righteousness , by whose stripes ye were healed . The indispensable necessity of a good life , represented in the following Scriptures . WHosoever breaketh one of these least Commandments , and shall teach men so , he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven : but whosoever shall do and teach them , the same shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven . And why call ye me Lord , Lord , and do not the things which I say ? Ye are my friends , if ye do whatsoever I command you . I beseech you therefore , brethren , by the mercies of God , that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice , holy , acceptable unto God , which is your reasonable service . And be not conformed to this world : but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind , that ye may prove what is that good , that acceptable and perfect will of God. Who will render to every man according to his deeds : To them , who by patient continuance in well-doing , seek for glory , and honour , and immortality , eternal life . * But unto them that are contentious , and do not obey the truth , but obey unrighteousness ; indignation and wrath , * Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil , of the Jew first , and also of the Gentile . * But glory , honour and peace to every man that worketh good , to the Jew first , and also to the Gentile . Circumcision is nothing , and uncircumcision is nothing , but the keeping of the Commandments of God. Therefore my beloved brethren , be ye stedfast , unmoveable , always abounding in the work of the Lord , forasmuch as you know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. For in Christ Jesus , neither circumcision availeth any thing , nor uncircumcision , but a new creature . For in Jesus Christ , neither circumcision availeth any thing , nor uncircumcision , but faith which worketh by love . For we are his workmanship , created in Christ Jesus unto good works , which God hath before ordained , that we should walk in them . And this I pray , that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment : That ye may approve things that are excellent , that ye may be sincere , and without offence till the day of Christ : * Being filled with the fruits of righteousness , which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God. Furthermore then we beseech you , brethren , and exhort you by the Lord Jesus , that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk , and to please God , so ye would abound more and more . * For ye know what Commandments we gave by the Lord Jesus . * For this is the will of God , even your sanctification . As you know how we exhorted , and comforted , and charged every one of you ( as a Father doth his children ; ) That ye should walk worthy of God , who hath called you unto his Kingdom and glory . * For this cause also thank we God without ceasing , because when ye received the word of God , which ye heard of us , ye received it not as the word of men , but ( as it is in truth ) the word of God , which effectually worketh also in you that believe . How much more shall the blood of Christ , who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God , purge your conscience from dead works , to serve the living God ? And having an High Priest over the house of God ; Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith , having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience , and our bodies washed with pure water : * Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering , ( for he is faithful that promised . ) * And let us consider one another , to provoke unto love and to good works . * Not forsaking the assembling of our selves together , as the manner of some is ; but exhorting one another , and so much the more , as ye see the day approaching . For if we sin wilfully , after that we have received the knowledge of the truth , there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins ; * but a certain fearful looking for of judgment , and fiery indignation , which shall devour the adversaries . * He that despised Moses's law , died without mercy under two or three witnesses : * Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy , who hath trodden under foot the Son of God , and hath counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified , an unholy thing , and hath done despite unto the Spirit of Grace ? For the time is come , that judgment must begin at the house of God : and if it first begin at us , what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel of God ? And every man that hath this hope in him , purifieth himself , even as he is pure . And whatsoever we ask , we receive of him , because we keep his Commandments , and do those things which are pleasing in his sight . And he that overcometh , and keepeth my works unto the end , to him will I give power over the Nations . A Penitential Psalm , collected out of the Psalms and Prophets . HAVE mercy upon me , O God , according to thy loving kindness : according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions . For our transgressions are multiplied before thee , and our sins testifie against us : our transgressions are with us , and as for our iniquities , we know them ; In transgressing and lying against the Lord , and departing away from our God , speaking oppression and revolt , conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falshood . Our feet have run to evil , our thoughts are thoughts of iniquity . The way of peace we have not known : we have made us crooked paths , whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace . Therefore do we wait for light , but behold obscurity : for brightness , but we walk in darkness . Look down from Heaven , and behold from the habitation of thy Holiness and of thy Glory : where is thy zeal and thy strength , the sounding of thy bowels and of thy mercies towards me ? are they restrained ? We are indeed as an unclean thing , and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags : and we all do fade as a leaf , and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away . But now , O Lord , thou art our Father : we are the clay , and thou our potter , and we all are the work of thy hand . Be not wroth very sore , O Lord ; neither remember iniquity for ever : behold , see we beseech thee , we are thy people . Thou , O Lord , art our Redeemer : thy Name is from everlasting . O Lord , Father and Governour of my whole life , leave me not to the sinful counsels of my own heart , and let me not any more fall by them . Set scourges over my thoughts , and the discipline of wisdom over my heart , lest my ignorances encrease , and my sins abound to my destruction . O Lord , Father and God of my life , give me not a proud look , but turn away from thy servant always a haughty mind . Turn away from me vain hopes and concupiscence , and thou shalt hold him up that is always desirous to serve thee . Let not the greediness of the belly , nor the lust of the flesh take hold of me : and give not thy servant over to an impudent mind . There is a word that is clothed about with death : God grant it be not found in the portion of thy servant . For all such things shall be far from the godly , and they shall not wallow in their sins . Though my sins be as scarlet , yet make them white as snow : though they be red like crimson , let them be as wooll . For I am ashamed of the sins I have desired , and am confounded for the pleasures that I have chosen . Lord make me to know mine end , and the measure of my days , what it is : that I may know how frail I am , and that I may apply my heart unto wisdom . Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me , O Lord : let thy loving kindness and thy truth continually preserve me . For innumerable evils have compassed me about , mine iniquities have taken hold upon me , so that I am not able to look up : for they are more than the hairs of my head , therefore my heart faileth me . But thou , O Lord , though mine iniquities testifie against me , save me for thy Name sake : for our backslidings are many , we have sinned grievously against thee . But the Lord God will help me , therefore shall I not be confounded : therefore have I set my face like a flint , and I know that I shall not be ashamed . He is near that justifieth me , who will contend with me ? The Lord God will help me , who is he that shall condemn me ? I will trust in the Lord , and stay upon my God. O let me have this of thine hand , that I may not lie down in sorrow . S. Paul's Prayers for a holy life . I. I BOW my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ , of whom the whole family in Heaven and Earth is named , that he would grant unto me according to the riches of his glory , to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man ; that Christ may dwell in my heart by faith ; that being rooted and grounded in love , I may be able to comprehend with all Saints , what is the breadth and length , and depth and height : and to know the love of Christ , which passeth knowledge , and may be filled with all the fulness of God , through the same our most blessed Saviour Jesus . Amen . The Doxologie . Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think , according to the power that worketh in us : Vnto him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus , throughout all ages , world without end . Amen . II. O MOST gracious God , grant to thy servant to be filled with the knowledge of thy Will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding ; to walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing , to be fruitful in every good work , increasing in the knowledge of God. Strengthen me , O God , with all might according to thy glorious power , unto all patience , and long-suffering , and joyfulness : So shall I give thanks unto the Father , who hath made me meet to be partaker of the inheritance of the Saints in light , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . III. NOW God himself and our Father , and our Lord Jesus Christ perfect what is lacking in my faith , direct my way unto him , make me to increase and abound in love towards all men , and establish my heart unblameable in holiness before God even our Father , at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his Saints . IV. THE God of peace , that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus , the great Shepherd of the sheep , through the blood of the Everlasting Covenant , make me perfect in every good work to do his will , working in me what is well pleasing in his sight , through Jesus Christ , to whom be glory for ever and ever . Amen . A Penitential Prayer . I. O ETERNAL God , most merciful Father , who hast revealed thy self to Mankind in Christ Jesus , full of pity and compassion , merciful and gracious , long-suffering , and abundant in goodness and truth , keeping mercy for thousands , forgiving iniquity , and transgression , and sin ; be pleased to effect these thy admirable mercies upon thy servant , whom thou hast made to put his trust in thee . I know , O God , that I am vile and polluted in thy sight ; but I must come into thy presence or I die . Thou canst not behold any unclean thing , and yet unless thou lookest upon me , who am nothing but uncleanness , I shall perish miserably and eternally . O look upon me with a gracious eye ; cleanse my Soul with the blood of the holy Lamb ; that being purified in that holy stream , my sins may lose their own foulness , and become white as snow : Then shall the leprous man be admitted to thy Sanctuary , and stand before the Throne of Grace , humble , and full of sorrow for my fault , and full of hope of thy mercy and pardon , through Jesus Christ. II. O MY God , thou wert reconciled to Mankind by thy own graciousness and glorious goodness , even when thou didst find out so mysterious ways of Redemption for us by sending Jesus Christ ; then thou didst love us , and that holy Lamb did from the beginning of the world lie before thee as sacrific'd and bleeding ; and in the fulness of time he came to actuate and exhibite what thy goodness had design'd and wrought in the Counsels of Eternity . But now , O gracious Father , let me also be reconciled to thee ; for we continued enemies to thee , though thou lovedst us ; let me no longer stand at distance from thee , but run unto thee , bowing my will , and submitting my understanding , and mortifying my affections , and resigning all my powers and faculties to thy holy Laws , that thou mayest take delight to pardon and to sanctifie , to assist thy servant with thy grace , till by so excellent conduct , and so unspeakable mercy , I shall arrive to the state of glory . III. O Blessed Saviour Jesus , thou hast made thy self a blessed Peace-offering for sins , thou hast procured and revealed to us this Covenant of Repentance and remission of sins ; and by the infinite mercies of the Father , and the death and intercession of the Son , we stand fair and hopeful in the eye of the Divine Compassion , and we have hopes of being saved . O be pleased to work thy own work in us . The grace and admission to Repentance is thy own glorious production , thou hast obtained it for us with a mighty purchase : but then be pleas'd also to take me in , to partake actually of this glorious mercy . Give to thy servant a perfect hatred of sin , a great displeasure at my own folly for ever having provoked thee to anger ; a perpetual watchfulness against it , an effective resolution against all its tempting instances , a prevailing strife , and a glorious victory ; that the body of sin being destroyed , I may never any more serve any of its baser interests ; but that by a diligent labour , and a constant care , I may approve my self to thee my God , mindful of thy Covenant , a servant of thy Will , a lover of thy Glory ; that being thy Minister in a holy service , I may be thy Son by adoption and participation of the glories of the Lord Jesus . O let me never lie down in sin , nor rise in shame ; but be partaker both of the Death and the Resurrection of our Lord ; that my imperfect and unworthy services may , by passing into the holiness of thy Kingdom , be such as thy servant desires they should , and fit to be presented unto thee in the perfect holiness of Eternity , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . CHAP. III. Of the distinction of Sins MORTAL and VENIAL , in what sence to be admitted ; and how the smallest Sins are to be repented of , and expiated . SECT . I. MEN have not been satisfied with devising infinite retirements and disguises of their follies to hide them from the world , but finding themselves open and discerned by God , have endeavoured to discover means of escaping from that Eye from which nothing can escape but innocence , and from which nothing can be hid , but under the cover of mercy . For besides that we expound the Divine Laws to our own purposes of ease and ambition , we give to our sins gentle censures , and adorn them with good words , and refuse to load them with their proper characters and punishments , and at last are come to that state of things , that since we cannot allow to our selves a liberty of doing every sin , we have distinguished the Question of sins into several orders , and have taken one half to our selves . For we have found rest to our fancies in the permissions of one whole kind , having distinguished sins into Mortal and Venial in their own nature ; that is , sins which may , and sins which may not be done , without danger ; so that all the difference is , that some sins must be taken heed of , but others there are , and they the most in number , and the most frequent in their instances and returns , which we have leave to commit , without being affrighted with the fearful noises of damnation ; by which doctrine , iniquity and confidence have much increased and grown upon the ruines and declension of the Spirit . 2. And this one Article hath almost an infinite influence to the disparagement of Religion in the determination of Cases of Conscience . For supposing the distinction to be believed , experience and certain reason will evince , that it is impossible to prescribe proper limits and measures to the several kinds ; and between the least Mortal , and the greatest Venial sin , no man is able with certainty to distinguish : and therefore ( as we see it daily happen , and in every page written by the Casuists ) men call what they please Venial , take what measures of them they like , appoint what expiation of them they fancy , and consequently give what allowance they list to those whom they please to mislead . For in innumerable Cases of Conscience it is oftner inquired , whether a thing be Venial or Mortal , than whether it be lawful or not lawful ; and as Purgatory is to Hell , so Venial is to Sin , a thing which men fear not , because the main stake they think to be secured : for if they may have Heaven at last , they care not what comes between . And as many men of the Roman perswasion will rather chuse Purgatory , than suffer here an inconsiderable penance , or do those little services which themselves think will prevent it : so they chuse venial sins , and hug the pleasures of trifles , warming themselves at phantastick fires , and dancing in the light of the Glo-worms ; and they love them so well , that rather than quit those little things , they will suffer the intolerable pains of a temporary Hell ; for so they believe : which is the testimony of a great evil and a mighty danger ; for it gives testimony , that little sins can be beloved passionately , and therefore can minister such a delight as is thought a price great enough to pay for the sufferance of temporal evils , and Purgatory it self . 3. But the evil is worse yet when it is reduc'd to practice . For in the decision of very many questions , the answer is , It is a venial sin ; that is , though it be a sin , yet there is in it no danger of losing the favour of God by that , but you may do it , and you may do it again a thousand thousand times ; and all the venial sins of the world put together , can never do what one mortal sin can , that is , make God to be your enemy : So Bellarmine expresly affirms . But because there are many Doctors who write Cases of Conscience , and there is no measure to limit the parts of this distinction , ( for that which is not at all cannot be measured ) the Doctors differ infinitely in their sentences ; some calling that Mortal which others call Venial , ( as you may see in the little Summaries of Navar and Emanuel Sà ) the poor souls of the Laity , and the vulgar Clergy who believe what is told them by the Authors or Confessors they chuse to follow , must needs be in infinite danger , and the whole body of Practical Divinity , in which the life of Religion and of all our hopes depends , shall be rendred dangerous and uncertain , and their confidence shall betray them unto death . 4. To bring relief to this state of evil , and to establish aright the proper grounds and measures of Repentance ; I shall first account concerning the difference of sins , and by what measures they are so differenc'd . 2. That all sins are of their own nature punishable as God please , even with the highest expressions of his anger . 3. By what Repentance they are cur'd , and pardon'd respectively . SECT . II. Of the difference of sins , and their measures . 5. I. SINS are not equal , but greater or less in their principle as well as in their event . It was one of the errors of Jovinian , which he learned from the Schools of the Stoicks , that all sins are alike grievous ; — Nam dicunt esse pares res , Furta latrociniis , & magnis parva minantur : Falce recisuros simili se , si sibi regnum Permittant homines — For they supposed an absolute irresistible Fate to be the cause of all things ; and therefore what was equally necessary , was equally culpable , that is , not at all : and where men have no power of choice , or ( which is all one ) that it be necessary that they chuse what they do , there can be no such thing as Laws , or sins against them . To which they adding that all evils are indifferent , and the event of things , be it good or bad , had no influence upon the felicity or infelicity of man , they could neither be differenc'd by their cause , nor by their effect ; the first being necessary , and the latter indifferent . * Against this I shall not need to oppose many Arguments ; for though this follows most certainly from their doctrine , who teach an irresistible Decree of God to be the cause of all things and actions ; yet they that own the doctrine disavow the consequent , and in that are good Christians , but ill Logicians . But the Article is sufficiently cleared by the words of our B. Lord in the case of Judas , whose sin ( as Christ told to Pilate ) was the greater , because he had not power over him but by special concession ; in the case of the servant that knows his Masters will , and does it not ; in the several condemnations of the degrees and expressions of anger in the instances of Racha , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * , Thou vain man , or Thou fool : by this comparing some sins to gnats , and some to Camels : and in proportion to these , there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in S. Luke , many stripes ; a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in S. James , a greater condemnation . * Thus to rob a Church is a greater sin than to rob a Thief ; To strike a Father is a higher impiety than to resist a Tutor ; To oppress a Widow is clamorous , and calls aloud for vengeance , when a less repentance will vote down the whispering murmurs of a trifling injury , done to a fortune that is not sensible of smaller diminutions . Nec vincit ratio tantundem ut peccet , idémque Qui teneros caules alieni fregerit horti , Vt qui nocturnus Divûm sacra legerit — He is a greater criminal that steals the Chalice from a Church , than he that takes a few Coleworts , or robs a garden of Cucumers . But this distinction and difference is by something that is extrinsecal to the action , the greatness of the mischief , or the dignity of the person ; according to that , Omne animi vitium tanto conspectius in se Crimen habet , quanto major qui peccat habetur . 6. II. But this when it is reduc'd to its proper cause , is , because such greater sins are complicated ; they are commonly two or three sins wrapt together , as the unchastity of a Priest , is uncleanness and scandal too : Adultery is worse than Fornication , because it is unchastity and injustice , and by the fearful consequents of it , is mischievous and uncharitable . Et quas Euphrates , & quas mihi misit Orontes , Me capiant ; Nolo furta pudica thori . So Sacriledge is theft and impiety . And Apicius killing himself , when he suppos'd his estate would not maintain his luxury , was not only a self-murtherer , but a gluttonous person in his death : Nil est Apici tibi gulosius factum . So that the greatness of sins is in most instances by extension and accumulation ; that as he is a greater sinner who sins often in the same instance , than he that sins seldom ; so is he who sins such sins as are complicated and intangled , like the twinings of combining Serpents . And this appears to be so , because if we take single sins , as uncleanness and theft , no man can tell which is the greater sin ; neither can they be differenc'd but by something that is besides the nature of the action it self . A thought of theft , and an unclean thought , have nothing by which they can excel each other ; but when you cloath them with the dress of active circumstances , they grow greater or less respectively ; because then two or three sins are put together , and get a new name . 7. III. There is but one way more by which sins can get or lose degrees , and that is the different proportions of our affections . This indeed relates to God more immediately , and by him alone is judg'd ; but the former being invested with material circumstances , can be judg'd by men : But all that God reserves for his own portion of the Sacrifice , is the Heart ; that is , our love and choice ; and therefore the degrees of love or hatred , is that measure by which God makes differing judgments of them . For by this it is , that little sins become great , and great sins become little . If a Jew had maliciously touch'd a dead body in the days of Easter , it had been a greater crime , than if in the violence of his temptation he had unwillingly will'd to commit an act of fornication . He that delights in little thefts , because they are breaches of Gods Law , or burns a Prayer-book , because he hates Religion , is a greater criminal than he that falls into a material heresie by an invincible or less discerned deception : Secure but to God your affections , and he will secure your innocence or pardon ; for men live or die by their own measures . If a man spits in the face of a Priest to defie Religion , or shaves the beard of an Embassador to disgrace the Prince ( as it hapned to Davids Messengers ) his sin is greater than if he kill'd the Priest in his own just defence , or shot the Embassador through the heart , when he intended to strike a Lion. For every negligence , every disobedience being against Charity or the love of God , by interpretation ; this superaddition of direct malice is open enmity against him , and therefore is more severely condemned by him who sees every thought and degrees of passion and affection . For the increase of malice does aggravate the sin , just as the complication of material instances . Every degree of malice being a● distinct and commensurate a sin , as any one external instance that hath a name ; and therefore many degrees of malice combine and grow greater as many sins conjoyn'd in one action , they differ only in Nature , not in Morality ; just as a great number and a great weight : So that in effect , all sins are differenc'd by complication only , that is , either of the external or the internal instances . 8. IV. Though the negligence or the malice be naturally equal , yet sometimes by accident the sins may be unequal , not only in the account of men , but also before God too ; but it is upon the account of both the former . It is when the material effect being different upon men , God hath with greater caution secur'd such interests . So that by interpretation the negligence is greater , because the care was with greater earnestness commanded ; or else because in such cases the sin is complicated : for such sins which do most mischief , have besides their proper malignity , the evil of uncharitableness , or ha●ing our brother . In some cases God requires one hand , and in others both . Now he that puts but one of his fingers to each of them , his negligence is in nature the same , but not in value , because where more is required , the defect was greater . If a man be equally careless of the life of his Neighbours Son and his Neighbours Cock , although the will or attendance to the action be naturally equal , that is , none at all , yet morally , and in the divine account they differ , because the proportions of duty and obligation were different , and therefore more ought to have been put upon the one than upon the other : just as he is equally clothed that wears a single garment in Summer and Winter , but he is not equally warm , unless he that wears a silk Mantle when the Dog-star rages , claps on Furrs when the cold North-star changes the waters into rocks . 9. V. Single sins done with equal affection or disaffection , do not differ in degrees as they relate to God , but in themselves are equally prevarications of the Divine Commandment . As he tells a lie that says the Moon is foursquare , as great as he that says there were but three Apostles , or that Christ was not the Son of Man : and as every lie is an equal sin against truth ; so every sin is an equal disobedience and recession from the Rule . But some lies are more against Charity , or Justice , or Religion , than others are , and so are greater by complication ; but against truth they are all equally oppos'd : and so are all sins contrary to the Commandment . And in this sence is that saying of * S. Basil : Primò enim scire illud convenit , differentiam minorum & majorum nusquam in Novo Testamento reperiri . Siquidem una est & eadem sententia adversus quaelibet peccata , cum Dominus dixerit , Qui facit peccatum servus est peccati : & item , Sermo quem loquutus sum vobis , ille judicabit eum in Novissimo die : & Johannes ●ociferans dicat , Qui contumax est in filium , non videbit vitam aeternam ; sed ira Dei manet super eum ▪ cum contumacia non in discrimine peccatorum , sed in violatione praecepti positam habeat futuri supplicii denunciationem . The difference of great and little sins is no where to be found in the New Testament . One and the same sentence is against all sins ; our Lord saying , He that doth sin is the servant of sin ; and the word that I have spoken , that shall judge you in the last day ; and John crieth out , saying , He that is disobedient to the Son , shall not see eternal life , but the wrath of God abideth on him : for this contumacy or disobedience does not consist in the difference of sins , but in the violation of the Divine Law ; and for that it is threatned with eternal pain . But besides these Arguments from Scripture , he adds an excellent Reason : Prorsus autem si id nobis permittitur , ut in peccatis hoc magnum , illud exiguum appellemus , invicto argumento concluditur magnum mic●ique esse illud à quo quisque superatur : contráque exiguum quod unusquisque ipse superat . Vt in athletis qui vicit fortis est ; qui autem victus est , imbecillior eo unde victus est , quisque ille sit . If it be permitted that men shall call this sin great , and that sin little ; they will conclude that to be great which was too strong for them ; and that to be little which they can master . As among Champions , he is the strongest that gets the victory . And then upon this account , no sin is Venial that a man commits , because that is it which hath prevail'd upon and master'd all his strengths . 10. The instance is great whatsoever it be that God hath chosen for our obedience . To abstain from the fruit of a tree , not to gather sticks or dew after a certain hour , not to touch the Curtains of the Ark , not to uncover our fathers shame , all is one as to God ; for there is nothing in all our duty that can add any moments to his felicity , but by what he please he is to try our obedience . Let no man therefore despise a sin , or be bold to plead for it , as Lot for Zoar , Is it not a little one ? For no man can say it is little , if God hath chosen the Commandment which the sin transgresses , as an instrument of his glorification and our felicity . Disobedience is the formality of sin ; and since the instance or the matter of sin is all one to God , so also is the disobedience . The result of this consideration is this : 1. That no man should indulge to himself the smallest sin , because it is equally against God as the greatest : and though accidentally it may come not to be so exacted , yet of it self it may , and God is just if he does . 2. There is no sin , but if God enters into judgment with us , he may justly sentence us for it to the portion of accursed Spirits . For if for any , then for all , there being ( as to him ) no difference . But these things are to be proved in the following Section . SECT . III. That all sins are punishable as God please , even with the pains of Hell. 11. I. IN the aggravation of sins , the injured person is as considerable as any other circumstance . He that smites a Prince , he that fires a Temple , he that rails upon the Bible , he that pollutes the Sacraments , makes every sin to be a load : and therefore since every sin is against God , it ought not to be called little , unless God himself should be little esteemed . And since men usually give this account , that God punishes a transient sin with an immortal pain , because though the action is finite , yet it was against an infinite God , we may upon the same ground esteem it just , that even for the smallest sin , God in the rigour of his justice can exact the biggest calamity . For an act of Murther , or a whole year of Adultery , hath no nearer proportion to an eternity of pains , than one sinful thought hath : for greater or less are no approaches towards infinite ; for between them both , and what is infinite , the distance is equally infinite . 12. II. In the distinction of sins Mortal and Venial , the Doctors of the Roman Church define Venial sins to be such which can consist with the love of God , which never destroy or lessen it * ; in the very definition supposing that thing which is most of all in question ; and the ground of the definition is nothing but the analogy and proportion of the entercourses and usages of men , who for a small offence do not neglect or cast away the endearments of an old friend ‖ : of which when I have given account , I suppose the greatest difficulty of the question is removed . Against this therefore I oppose this proposition , The smallest sins are destructive of our friendship with God. For although Gods mercies are infinite and glorious , and he forgives millions to us that grudge to remit the trifles of our brother ; and therefore whatsoever we can suppose a man will forgive to his friend , that and much more , infinitely more may we expect from the treasures of his goodness and mercy ; yet our present consideration is , not what we can expect from Gods mercy , but what is the just demerit of our sins ; not what he will forgive , but what he may justly exact ; not what are the measures of pardon , but what are the accounts of his justice : for though we have hopes upon other reckonings , yet upon the account even of our smallest sins , we have nothing but fear and sadder expectations . For we are not to account the measures and rules of our friendship with God , by the easiness and ignorance , by the necessities and usual compliances of men . For 13. I. Certain it is , that in the usual accounts of men some things are permitted , which are not so in the accounts of God. All sorts of ignorance use to lessen a fault amongst men , but before God some sorts of ignorance do aggravate ; such as is , the voluntary and malicious , which is the worst sort of vincible . Not that men do not esteem him vicious and unworthy who enquires not for fear he should know , but because men oftentimes are not competent judges whether they do or no. 14. II. Because men know not by what purpose their neighbours action is directed , and therefore reckon only by the next and most apparent cause , not by the secret and most operative and effective . 15. III. Because by the laws of Charity we are bound to think the best , to expound things fairly , to take up things by the easier handle ; there being left for us no other security of not being confounded by mutual censures , judgments and inflictions , but by being restrained on the surer side of Charity , on which the errors of men are not judged criminal and mischievous , as on the other side they are . But God knows the hearts of men , their little obliquities and intricate turnings , every propensity and secret purpose , what malice is ingredient , and what error is invincible , and how much is fit to be pitied , and therefore what may justly be exacted . For there are three several ways of judgment according to the several capacities of the Judges . * First , the laws of men judge only by the event , or material action , and meddle not at all with the purpose , but where it is open'd by an active sign . He that gives me a thousand pounds to upbraid my poverty , or with a purpose to feed my crimes , is not punishable by law : but he is that takes from me a thousand shillings , though secretly he means to give it to my needy brother . Because as in the estimation of men nothing is valuable but what does them good or hurt : so neither can their Laws and Tribunals receive testimony of any thing but what is seen or felt . And thus it is also in the measures of sins . To break order in a day of battel , is but a disorder , and so it is to break order at S. George's show , at a training , or in a Procession ; and yet that is punished with death , this with a Cudgel ; the aptness to mischief , and the evil consequent , being in humane Judicatories the only measures of judgment : Men feel the effects , and the Laws do judge accordingly . 2. In the private judgments of men , mercy must interpose ; and it can oftner than in the publick : because in the private entercourses of men , there is a sense , and can be a consideration of particulars , and little accidents and significations of things , and some purposes may be privately discerned , which cannot publickly be proved . He that went to help his friend out of a river , and pull'd his arm out of joynt , was excused by the wronged preserved person : the evil accident was taken off by the pious purpose : But he that to dishonour his friend throws a glass of wine in his face , and says he did it in sport , may be judged by his purpose , not by his pretence , because the pretence can be confuted by the observation of little circumstances and adherencies of the action , which yet peradventure cannot legally be proved . Alitèr leges , alitèr philosophi tollunt astutias : leges , quatenus tenere manu res possunt ; philosophi , quatenus ratione & intelligentiâ . Laws regard the great materialities of obedience , the real , sensible effect . But wise men , Philosophers and private Judges , take in the accounts of accidental moments and incidencies to the action , said Cicero . But 3. Gods judgment is otherwise yet ; for he alone can tell the affection , and all that which had secret influence into the event : and therefore he can judge by what is secret , by the purpose and heart , which is indeed the only way of doing exact justice . From hence it follows , that what ought not to dissolve the friendship of man , may yet justly dissolve our friendship with God , for he takes other measures than men may or can . 16. IV. Because offences against God may be avoided , but it is not so in our entercourses with men ; for God hath told us plainly what is our duty , what he expects , what will please , and what will displease him : but men are often governed by Chance ; and that which pleases them to day , shall provoke them to morrow ; and the next day you shall be their enemy , for that for which three days ago they paid you thanks . 17. V. If men exact little things , it becomes their own case ; for we sin against our brother and need his pardon : and therefore Hanc veniam petimúsque damúsque vicissim ; We give and ask pardon ; Det ille veniam facilè , cui veniâ est opus : But we never found iniquity in God , or injustice in the most High , and therefore he that is innocent may throw a stone at the criminal . 18. VI. God hath in the smallest instance left us without excuse ; for he hath often warned us of small offences . * He hath told us their danger . He that despiseth little things , shall perish by little and little . * He hath told us , they asperse us with a mighty guilt ; for he that offends in one Commandment , is guilty of all . * He hath told us that we are not certainly excused , though our conscience do not manifestly accuse us ; for so S. Paul , I am not hereby justified , for God is greater than my conscience . * He hath threatned loss of Heaven to him that is guilty of the breach of one , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , though of the least of these Commandments ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , these which Christ had reckoned in his Sermon , where fetters are laid upon thoughts and words ) shall be called the least in the Kingdom , that is , he shall be quite shut out : for minimus here is as much as nullus ; minimus vocabitur , that is , minimi aestimabitur , he shall not be esteem'd at all in the accounts of doomsday mercy , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in the accounts of the Doomsday book , where there shall be a discerning of them who shall be glorified , from them that are to be punished . And this which is one of the severest periods of holy Scripture , can by no arts be turned aside from concluding fully in this question . Bellarmine says it means only to condemn those who by false doctrines corrupt these severe precepts , and teach men as the Pharisees did of old ; not all those who break them themselves , if they teach others to keep them . He that breaks one of these , and shall teach men so to do ; so are the words of Christ. But it is a known thing that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is oftentimes used for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; He that breaks one of these , or shall teach others . The words were spoken to the persons of the Apostles , who were to teach these doctrines 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exactly as Christ preach'd them ; but without peradventure they were also intended to all the Church : and the following words , and the whole analogy of the adjoyned discourse make it clear to every observing Reader ; and the words plainly say this , He that shall break one of these least Commandments , and He that shall teach men so , each of them shall be called the least in the Kingdom . But 2. why did our blessed Lord so severely threaten those that should teach others to break any of these severe Commandments by false interpretation ? but only because it was so necessary for all to keep them in the true sence , and so fearful a thing to any to break them . 3. Those who preach severe doctrines to others , and touch them not with one of their fingers , are guilty of that which Christ reproved in the Pharisees ; and themselves shall be cast-aways , while they preach to others : so that the breaking it by disobedience is damnable , as well as the breaking it by false interpretation : Odi homines ignavâ operâ , philosophâ sententiâ , Qui cum sibi semitam non sapiant , alteri monstrant viam . Indeed it is intolerable to teach men to be vicious ; but it is a hateful baseness to shew others that way which our selves refuse to walk in . Whatever therefore may not be allowed to be taught , may not also be done ; for the people are not to be taught evil , because they must not do evil ; but may the teachers do what they may not teach , and what the people may not do , or is not the same punishment to them both ? 4. Now upon these grounds this very gloss which Bellarmine gives being a false interpretation of these words of Christ ( which are a summary of his whole Sermon , and as it were the sanction and establishment of the former and following periods into laws ) must needs be of infinite danger to the inventer and followers of it : for this gloss gives leave to men to break the least of these Commandments , some way or other ( if they do not teach others so to do ) without being affrighted with fears of Hell ; but in the mean while , this gloss teaches , or gives leave to others to break them , but allows no false interpretation of them but its own . 5. But then it is worse with them who teach others so to do , and command all men to teach so ; and if the Roman Doctors who teach that some breach of these Commandments is not of its own nature , and by the divine threatnings , exclusive of the transgressors from the Kingdom of God , be not in some sence a teaching men so to do , then nothing is : For when God said to Adam , That day thou eatest of the forbidden fruit , thou shalt die ; the Tempter said , Nay , but ye shall not die ; and so was author to Adam of committing his sin . So when our blessed Saviour hath told us , that to break one of these least Commandments is exclusive of us from Heaven , they that say , that not every solution or breaking of them is exclusive from Heaven ( which are the words of Bellarmine ) and the doctrine of the Roman Church ) must even by the consequence of this very gloss of his fall under the danger of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , of the false teachers , or the breakers of them by false interpretation . However , fearful is the malediction even to the breakers of the least : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( that I may use the words of Theophylact ) he shall be last in the resurrection , and shall be thrown into Hell : for that is the meaning of [ least in the Kingdom of Heaven ] & fortasse ideò non erit in regno coelorum , ubi nisi magni esse non possunt , said S. Austin ; least is none at all ; for into Heaven none can enter but they which are great in Gods account . 19. VII . Lastly , God hath given us the perpetual assistances of his Spirit , the presence of his grace , the ministery of his word , the fear of judgments , the endearment of his mercies , the admonition of friends , the severity of Preachers , the aid of Books , the apprehension of death , the sense of our daily dangers , our continual necessities , and the recollection of our prayers , and above all , he hath promised Heaven to the obedient , which is a state of blessings so great and infinite , as upon the account of them , it is infinitely reasonable and just if he shall exact of us every sin , that is , every thing which we can avoid . 20. Upon this account it is , that although wise and prudent men do not despise the continual endearments of an old friend , yet in many cases God may and doth ; and from the rules and proper measures of humane friendship , to argue up to a presumption of Gods easiness in not exacting our duty , is a fallacious proceeding , but it will deceive no body but our selves . 21. II. Every sin is directly against Gods law ; and therefore is damnable and deadly in the accounts of the Divine justice , one as well , though not so grievously , as another . For though sins be differenc'd by greater and less , yet their proportion to punishment is not differenc'd by Temporal and Eternal , but by greater and less in that kind which God hath threatned . So Origen . Vnusquisque pro qualitate & quantitate peccati diversam mulctae sententiam expendit . Si parum est quod peccas , ferieris damn● minuti , ut Lucas scripsit , ut verò Matthaeus , quadrantis . Veruntamen necesse est hoc ipsum quod e●estitisti debitor , solvere . Non enim inde exibis , nisi & minima quaeque persolveris . Every one according to the quantity and quality of his sin must pay his fine ; but till he hath paid he shall not be loosed from those fearful prisons ; that is , he shall never be loosed , if he agree not before he comes thither . The smallest offence is a sin , and therefore it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a transgression of the Law , a violation of that band by which our obedience unites us unto God. And this the holy Scripture signifies unto us in various expressions . For though the several words are variously used in sacred and profane writers , yet all of them signifie that even the smallest sin is a prevarication of the Holy laws ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so Damascen calls sin ; which we render well by Transgression : and even those words which in distinction signifie a small offence , yet they also signifie the same with the greater words , to shew that they all have the same formality , and do the same displeasure , or at least that by the difference of the words , no difference of their natures can be regularly observed . Sins against God only are by Phavorinus called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; and the same word is also used for sin against our neighbours ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , If thy brother sin against thee ▪ that is , do thee injury ; and this is properly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , injustice ; But Demosthenes distinguishes injustice from sin , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by voluntary and involuntary ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . He that does wrong willingly is unjust , he that does it unwillingly is a sinner . 22. The same indistinction is observable in the other words of Scripture ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is by S. Hierome used for the beginnings of sin , Cum cogitatio tacita subrepit , & ex aliqu● parte conniventibus nobis , nec dum tamen nos impulit ad ruinam ; when a sudden thought invades us without our advertency and observation , and hath not brought forth death as yet : and yet that death is appendent to whatsoever it be that can be signified by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we may observe , because the sin of Adam that called death upon all the world is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; and of the Ephesian Gentiles S. Paul said they had been dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in trespasses and sins ; and therefore it cannot hence be inferred that such little obliquities , or beginnings of greater sins are only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , besides the law , not against it , for it is ( at least the word hinders not but it may be ) of the same kind of malignity as was the sin of Adam : And therefore S. Austin renders the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 delictum or offence , and so do our Bibles . And the same also is the case of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which is attributed even to concupiscence or the beginnings of mischief , by S. Paul and by S. Hierome : but the same is used for the consummation of concupiscence in the matter of uncleanness by S. James ; Lust when it hath conceived 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; peccatum is the Latin word , which when it is used in a distinct and pressed sence , it is taken for the lesser sins , and is distinguished from crimen . Paulus Orosius * uses it to signifie only the concupiscence or sinful thoughts of the heart , and when it breaks forth to action , he calls it a crime ; peccatum cogitatio concipit , crimen verò non nisi actus ostendit : and it was so used by the ancient Latins . Peccatus it was called by them ; quasi pellicatus , that inticing which is proper to uncleanness . So Cicero in A. Gellius , Nemo ita manifesto peccatu tenebatur , ut cum impudens fuisset in facto , tum impudentior videretur si negaret . Thus the indistinction of words mingles all their significations in the same common notion and formality . They were not sins at all , if they were not against a Law , and if they be , they cannot be of their own nature venial , but must be liable to that punishment which was threatned in the Law whereof that action is a transgression . 23. II. The Law of God never threatens , the justice of God never inflicts punishment , but upon transgressors of his Laws ; the smallest offences are not only threatned , but may be punished with death ; therefore they are transgressions of the Divine Law. So S. Basil argues ; Nullum peccatum contemnendum ut parvum , quando D. Paulus de omni peccato generatim pronunciaverat stimulum mortis esse peccatum ; The sting of death is sin ; that is , death is the evil consequent of sin , and comes in the tail of it ; of every sin , and therefore no sin must be despised as if it were little . Now if every little sin hath this sting also ( as it is on all hands agreed that it hath ) it follows that every little transgression is perfectly and intirely against a Commandment . And indeed it is not sence to say any thing can in any sence be a sin , and that it should not in the same sence be against a Commandment . For although the particular instance be not named in the Law , yet every instance of that matter must be meant . It was an extreme folly in Bellarmine to affirm , Peccatum veniale ex parvitate materiae est quidem perfectè voluntarium , sed non perfectè contra legem . Lex enim non prohibet furtum uniu● oboli in specie , sed prohibet furtum in genere . That a sin that is venial by the smalness of the matter is not perfectly against the Law , because the Law forbids theft indeed in the general , but does not in particular forbid the stealing of a half-peny : for upon the same reason it is not perfectly against the Law to steal three pound nineteen shillings three pence , because the Law in general only forbids theft , but does not in particular forbid the stealing of that summ . * But what is besides the Law , and not against it , cannot be a sin ; and therefore to fancy any sin to be only besides the Law is a contradiction ; so , to walk , to ride , to eat flesh or herbs , to wear a long or a short garment , are said to be besides the Law ; but therefore they are permitted and indifferent . Indifferent I say in respect of that Law which relates to that particular matter , and indifferent in all sences ; unless there be some collateral Law which may prohibit it indirectly . So for a Judge to be a Coachman , for a Priest to be a Fidler or Inne-keeper , are not directly unlawful , but indirectly they are , as being against decency and publick honesty or reputation , or being inconvenient in order to that end whither their calling is design'd . To this sence are those words of S. Paul , All things are lawful for me , but all things are not expedient ; That is , some things which directly are lawful , by an indirect obligation may become unfit to be done ; but otherwise , Licitum est quod nullâ lege prohibetur , saith the Law. If no Law forbids it , then it is lawful ; and to abstain from what is lawful though it may have a worthiness in it more than ordinary , yet to use our liberty is at no hand a sin . The issue then is this ; either we are forbidden to do a venial sin , or we are not . If we are not forbidden , then it is as lawful to do a venial sin as to marry , or eat flesh : If we are forbidden , then every such action is directly against Gods Law , and consequently finable at the will of the supreme Judge , and if he please , punishable with a supreme anger . And to this purpose there is an excellent observation in S. Austin , Peccatum & delictum si nihil differrent inter se , & si unius rei duo nomina essent , non curaret Scriptura tam diligentèr unum esse utriusque sacrificium ; There are several names in Scripture to signifie our wandrings , and to represent the several degrees of sin ; but carefully it is provided for , that they should be expiated with the same sacrifice ; which proves that certainly they are prevarications of the same Law , offences of the same God , provocations of the same anger , and heirs of the same death : and even for small offences a Sacrifice was appointed , lest men should neglect what they think God regarded not . 24. III. Every sin , even the smallest , is against Charity , which is the end of the Commandment . For every sin or evil of transgression is far worse than all the evils of punishment with which mankind is afflicted in this world ; and it is a less evil that all mankind should be destroyed , than that God should be displeased in the least instance that is imaginable . Now if we esteem the loss of our life or our estate , the wounding our head , or the extinction of an eye to be great evils to us , and him that does any thing of this to us , to be our enemy , or to be injurious , we are to remember that God hates every sin worse , than we can hate pain or beggery . And if a nice and a tender conscience , the spirit of every excellent person does extremely hate all that can provoke God to anger or to jealousie ; it must be certain that God hates every such thing with an hatred infinitely greater , so great that no understanding can perceive the vastness of it and immensity . For by how much every one is better , by so much the more he hates every sin ; and the soul of a righteous man is vexed and afflicted with the inrodes of his unavoidable calamities , the armies of Egypt , the Lice and Flies , his insinuating , creeping infirmities : Now if it be holiness in him to hate these little sins , it is an imitation of God ; for what is in us by derivation , is in God essentially ; therefore that which angers a good man , and ought so to do , displeases God , and consequently is against charity or the love of God. For it is but a vain dream to imagine , that because just men , such who are in the state of grace , and of the love of God , do commit smaller offences , therefore they are not against the love of God ; for every degree of cold does abate something of the heat in any hot body ; but yet because it cannot destroy it all , cold and heat may be consistent in the same subject ; but no man can therefore say , they are not contraries , and would not destroy each other if they were not hindred by something else ; and so would the smallest offences also destroy the life of grace , if they were not destroyed themselves . But of this afterwards . For the present , let it be considered , how it can possibly consist with our love to God , with that duty that commands us to love him with all our heart , with all our strength , with all our might , and with all our soul , how ( I say ) it can be consistent with a love so extended , so intended , to entertain any thing that he hates so essentially . To these particulars I add this one consideration ; That since there is in the world a fierce opinion , that some sins are so slight and little , that they do not destroy our relation to God , and cannot break the sacred tie of friendship , he who upon the inference and presumption of that opinion shall chuse to commit such small sins , which he thinks to be the All that is permitted him , is not excused by that supposition : For if it be said that he is therefore supposed to love God , because he only does those little sins which he thinks are not against the love of God , and if he did not think so , he would not do them ; This excuses him not , but aggravates the sin , for it is turning the grace of God into wantonness . For since that such little things are the easier pardon'd , is wholly owing to Gods grace and his singular goodness , he that abuses this goodness to licentiousness , makes his sin to abound , because Gods grace abounds ; because God is good , he takes leave to do evil , that is , to be most contrary to God. For it is certain that every man in this case hath affections for sin as formerly ; indeed he entertains it not in the ruder instances because he dares not , but he does all that he dares do ; for when he is taught that some certain sins are not damnable , there he will not abstain : which is a demonstration that though he does something for fear , yet he does nothing for love . 26. IV. From this it follows , that every sin , though in the smallest instance , is a turning from God and a conversion to the creature . Suidas defines 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sin to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a declension from good ; and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to shoot besides the mark , to conduct our actions by an indirect line to a wrong object , from God to the Creature . Peccare est tanquam line●● transilire ; so * Cicero : a sinner goes out of those limits and marks which are appointed him by God. Than this , no greater evil can be spoken of any thing , and of this , all sin partakes more or less . Some few sins are direct aversions from God ; so Atheism , Blasphemy , Apostasie , Resolution never to repent , and some few more : but many other very great sins are turnings from God not directly , but by interpretation . He that commits fornication may yet by a direct act of understanding and a full consent , believe God to be the chiefest Good : and some very vicious persons have given their lives for a good cause , and to preserve their innocence in some great instance , where the scene of their proper and natural temptation does not lie . Some others there are who out of a sincere but an abused Conscience persecute a good cause ; these men are zealous for God , and yet fight against him : But because these are real enemies , and but supposed friends , therefore by interpretation and in effect they turn from God and turn to the Creature . Delictum quasi derelictum , said S. Austin ; because in every sin God is forsaken . They have left me the living Fountain , and digged to themselves cisterns that hold no water . So God complains by the Prophet . He that prefers pleasure or profit before his duty , rejects God , but loves money , and pays his devotion to interest , or ease , or sensuality . And just so does the smallest sin . For since every action hath something propounded to it as its last end , it is certain he that sins , does not do it for God , or in order to him . He that tells a lie to promote Religion , or to save the life of a man , or to convert his soul , does not tell that lie for God , but tells the lie to make way for something else which is in order to God ; he breaks his legs , that he may the better walk in the path of the Divine Commandments . A sin cannot be for God , or in order to him , no not so much as habitually . For whatsoever can never be referred to God actually , cannot at any time be referred habitually . Since therefore the smallest sins cannot be for God , that which is not with him is against him ; if it be no way for God , it is either directly or by interpretation for pleasure or ease , or profit or pride , for something that is against him . 27. And it is not to be neglected , that the smaller the sin is , the less it is excusable if it be done when it is observed . For if it be small , is it not the sooner obeyed , and the more reasonably exacted , and the more bountifully repaid , when Heaven is given as the price of so small a service ? He that pursues his crime for a mighty purchase , to get a Kingdom , or a vast estate , or an exquisite beauty , or something that is bigger than the ordinary vertues of easie and common men , hath something ( not to warrant and legitimate , but ) to extenuate the offence by greatning the temptation . But to lose the friendship of God for a Nut-shell , to save six pence , to lose Heaven with peevishness , to despise the Divine Laws for a non-sence insignificant vapour , and a testy pride hath no excuse , but it loads the sinner with the disreputation of a mighty folly . What excuse can be made for him that will not so much as hold his peace to please God ? What can he do less for him ? How should it be expected he should mortifie his lusts , deny his ambition , part with his goods , lose an eye , cut off a hand , give his life for God , when he will not for God lose the no pleasure of talking vainly , and proudly , and ridiculously ? If he will not chastise his wanton thoughts to please God , how shall he throw out his whole body of lust ? If he will not resist the trifling temptations of a drinking friend to preserve his temperance , how shall he chuse to be banished or murther'd by the rage of a drunken Prince , rather than keep the circle in their giddy and vertiginous method ? The less the instance be , the direct aversation from God is also most commonly the less ; but in many cases the aversation is by interpretation greater , more unreasonable , and therefore less excusable ; as when the small instance is chosen by a perfect and distinct act of election ; as it is in those who out of fear of Hell quit the acting of their clamorous sins , and yet keep the affections to them , and consequently entertain them in thoughts and little reflexions , in remembrances and phantastick images . 28. V. But if we reduce this Question a little nearer to practice and cloath it with circumstances , we shall find this account to be sadder than is usually suppos'd . But before I instance in the particulars , I shall premise this distinction of venial sins , which is necessary not only for the conducting of this Question , but our Consciences also in this whole Article . The Roman Schools say , that sins are Venial either by the imperfection of the agent , as when a thing is done ignorantly , or by surprize , or inadvertency : or 2. A sin is Venial by the smalness of the matter ; as if a man steals a farthing , or eats a little too greedily at his meal , or lies in bed half an hour longer than would become him : or 3. A sin ( say they ) is Venial in its whole kind , that is , such which God cannot by the nature of the thing punish with the highest punishment ; such as are idle words and the like . Now first , I suppose that the two latter will be sound to be both one : For either God hath not forbidden idleness or falseness , or he hath made no restraint at all upon words , but left us at liberty to talk as we please ; for if he hath in this case made a law , then idle words either cannot pretend to an excuse , or it must be for the smalness of the matter ; or else it must fall in with the first , and be excused , because they cannot always be attended to . 29. Now concerning the first sort of venial sins , it is not a kind of sins , but a manner of making all sins venial , ( that is ) apt for pardon : for by the imperfection of the agent or the act , all great sins in their matter , may become little in their malice and guilt . Now these are those which Divines call sins of infirmity ; and of them I shall give an account in a distinct Chapter , under that title . 30. Concerning the second , i. e. sins venial for the smalness of the matter ; I know none such . For if the matter be a particular that God hath expresly commanded or forbidden respectively , it is not little , but all one to him as that which we call the greatest . But if the particular be wholly relating to our neighbour , the smalness of the matter does not absolutely make the sin venial : for amongst us nothing is absolutely great , or absolutely little , but in comparison with something else ; and if a vile person had robb'd the poor woman that offered two mites to the treasury of the Temple , he had undone her ; a farthing there was all her substance : so that the smalness of the matter is not directly an excuse . If a man had robb'd a rich man of a farthing , he had not indeed done him so great a mischief : but how if the rich man was not willing to part with his farthing , but would be angry at the injury , is it not a sin , because the theft was small ? No man questions but it is . It follows therefore that the smalness of the matter cannot make a sin venial , but where there is a leave expresly given , or justly presumed : and if it be so in a great matter , it is as little a sin as if the matter were small , that is , none at all . 31. But now concerning the third , which the Roman Schools dream of , sins venial in their own nature , and in their whole kind ; that is it which I have been disputing against all this while , and shall now further conclude against by arguments more practical and moral . For if we consider what are those particulars which these men call venial sins in their whole kind and nature , we shall find that Christ and they give measures differing from each other . The Catalogues of them I will take from the Fathers , not that they ever thought these things to be in their nature venial , ( for they that think so of them are strangers to their writings : and to this purpose Bellarmine hath not brought one testimony pertinent and home to the question : ) but because they reckon such Catalogues of venial sins , which demonstrate that they do mean sins made venial by accident , by mens infirmity , by Gods grace , by pardon , by repentance , and not such which are so in their own nature . But the thing it self will be its own proof . 32. S. Austin reckons , Vanas cachinnationes ; in escis aviditatem , & immoderatiorem appetitum ; in vendendis & emendis rebus , charitatis & vilitatis vota perversa ; usum matrimonii ad libidinem ; judicia apud infideles agitare ; Dicere fratri Fatue . Vain laughter , greediness in meat , an immoderate or ungovern'd appetite ; perverse desires of dearness and cheapness in buying and selling commodities ; the use of marriage to lustfulness and inordination ; to go to law before the unbelievers ; to call our brother Fool. S. Hierome reckons , jestings , anger , and injurious words . Caesarius Arelatensis the Bishop reckons , excess in eating and drinking , idle words , importune silence , to exasperate an importunate begger , to omit the fasts of the Church , sleepiness or immoderate sleeping , the use of a wife to lustfulness , to omit the visitation of the sick and of prisoners , and to neglect to reconcile them that are at variance , too much severity or harshness to our family , or too great indulgence , flattery , talkings in the Church , poor men to eat too much when they are brought rarely to a good table , forswearings [ unwary perjury ] slander or reproaches , rash judgment , hatred , sudden anger , envy , evil concupiscence , filthy thoughts , the lust of the eyes , the voluptuousness of the ears , or the itch of hearing , the speaking filthy words : and indeed he reckons almost all the common sins of mankind . S. Bernard reckons , stultiloquium , vaniloquium , otiosè dicta , facta , cogitata ; talking vainly , talking like a fool , idle or vain thoughts , words and deeds . These are the usual Catalogues , and if any be reckoned , they must be these ; for many times some of these are least consented to , most involuntary , most ready , less avoidable , of the lightest effect , of an eternal return , incurable in the whole , and therefore plead the most probably , and are the soonest likely to prevail for pardon ; but yet they cannot pretend to need no pardon , or to fear no damnation . For our blessed Saviour says it of him that speaks an angry word , that he shall be guilty of hell fire . Now since we find such as these reckon'd in the Catalogue of venial sins ; and S. Austin in particular calls that venial to which our blessed Saviour threatned hell fire ; it is certain he must not mean that it is in its own nature venial , but damnable as any other : but it is venial , that is , prepared for pardon upon other contingencies and causes , of which I shall afterwards give account . In the mean time , I consider , 33. VI. When God appointed in the Law expiatory Sacrifices for sins , although there was enough to signifie that there is difference in the degrees of sin , yet because they were eodem sanguine eluenda , and without shedding of blood there was no remission , they were reckon'd in the same acounts of death and the Divine anger . And it is manifest that by the severities and curse of the Law no sin could escape . For cursed is he that continues not in every thing written in the law , to do them . The Law was a Covenant of Works and exact measures . There were no venial sins by vertue of that Covenant ; for there was no remission : and without the death of Christ we could not be eased of this state of danger . Since therefore that any sin is venial or pardonable , is only owing to the grace of God , to the death of Christ ; and this death pardons all upon the condition of Faith and Repentance , and pardons none without it : it follows that though sins differ in degree , yet they differ not in their natural and essential order to death . The man that commits any sin , dies if he repents not , and he that does repent timely and effectually , dies for none . The wages of sin is death ; of sin indefinitely , and therefore of all sin , and all death : for there is no more distinction of sin than death ; only when death is threatned indefinitely , that death is to be understood , which is properly and specifically threatned in that Covenant where the death is named ; as death temporal in the Law , death eternal under the Gospel . 34. And thus it appears in a very material instance relating to this question : for when our blessed Saviour had threatned the degrees of anger , he did it by apportioning several pains hereafter of one sort , to the several degrees of the same sin here , which he expresses by the several inflictions passed upon Criminals by the Houses of Judgment among the Jews . Now it is observable , that to the least of these sins Christ assigns a punishment just proportionable to that which the gloss of the Pharisees and the Law it self did to them that committed Murther , which was capital ; He shall be guilty of judgment ; so we read it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : so it is in the Greek : He shall be guilty in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , in the Court of Judgment , the Assembly of the twenty three Elders ; and there his punishment was death , but the gentlest manner of it , the decapitation or smiting him through with the sword , and therefore the least punishment hereafter answering to death here , can mean no less than death hereafter * . * And so also was the second ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he that calls Racha shall be guilty , that is , shall be used as one that stands guilty in the Sanhedrim , or Council , meaning that he is to die too , but with a severer execution by stoning to death : this was the greatest punishment by the houses of judgment ; for Crucifixion was the Roman manner . These two already signifie Hell , in a less degree , but as certainly and evidently as the third . For though we read Hell-fire , in the third sentence only , yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no otherwise signifies Hell , than the other two , by analogy and proportionable representment . The cause of the mistake is this : When Christ was pleased to add yet a further degree of punishment in hell to a further degree of anger and reproach , the Jews having no greater than that of stoning by the judgment of the Sanhedrim or Council , he would borrow his expression from that which they and their Fathers too well understood , a barbarous custome of the Phoenicians of burning children alive in the valley of Hinnom , which in succession of time the Hellenists called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not much unlike the Hebrew word : and because by our blessed Lord it was used to signifie or represent the greatest pains of hell that were spoken of in that gradation , the Christians took the word and made it to be its appellative , and to signifie the state or place of the damned : just as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the garden of Eden is called Paradise . But it was no more intended that this should signifie Hell , than that any of the other two should . The word it self never did so before ; but that and the other two were taken as being the most fearful things amongst them here , to represent the degrees of the most intolerable state hereafter : just as damnation is called death ; the second death ; that because we fear the first as the worst of present evils , we may be affrighted with the apprehensions of the latter . From this authority it follows ; that as in the Law no sins were venial , but by repentance and sacrifice ; so neither in the Gospel are they : not in their own nature , not by the more holy Covenant of the Gospel , but by repentance and mortification . For the Gospel hath with greater severity laid restraint upon these minutes and little particles of action and passion : and therefore if in the law every transgression was exacted , we cannot reasonably think that the least parts of duty , which the Gospel superadded with a new and severer caution , as great and greater than that by which the law exacted the greatest Commandments , can be broken with indemnity , or without the highest danger . The law exacted all its smallest minutes ; and therefore so does the Gospel , as being a Covenant of greater holiness . But as in the law for the smaller transgressions there was an assignment of expiatory rites ; so is there in the Gospel of a ready repentance , and a prepared mercy . 37. VII . Lastly , those sins which men in health are bound to avoid , those sins for which Christ did shed his most precious blood , those sins which a dying man is bound to ask pardon for , though he hopes not , or desires not to escape temporal death , certain it is , that those sins are in their nature , and in the Oeconomy or dispensation of the Divine threatnings , damnable . For what can the dying man fear but death eternal ? and if he be bound to repent and ask pardon even for the smallest sins which he can remember , in order to what pardon can that repentance be , but of the eternal pain , to which every sin by its own demerit naturally descends ? If he must repent and ask pardon when he hopes not , or desires not the temporal , it is certain he must repent , only that he may obtain the eternal . And they that will think otherwise , will also find themselves deceiv'd in this . * For if the damned souls in hell are punish'd for all their sins , then the unpardon'd venial sins are there also smarted for . But so it is , and so we are taught in the doctrine of our great Master . If we agreee not while we are in the way , we shall be cast into the eternal prison , and shall not depart thence till we have paid the uttermost farthing : that is , ever for our smallest sins , if they be unremitted , men shall pay in hell their horrible Symbol of damnation . And this is confessed on all hands (a) : that they who fall into hell , pay their sorrows there even for all . But it is pretended , that this is only by accident (b) , not by the first intention of the Divine justice ; because it happens that they are subjected in such persons , who for other sins ( not for these ) go to hell . Well! yet let it be considered , whether or no do not the smallest unremitted sins , increase the torments of hell in their proportion ? If they do not , then they are not at all punished in hell ; for if without them the perishing soul is equally punished , then for them there is no punishment at all . But if they do increase the pains , as it is certain they do , then to them properly , and for their own malignity and demerit , a portion of eternal pains is assigned . Now if God punishes them in hell , then they deserv'd hell ; if they be damnable in their event , then they were so in their merit ; for God never punishes any sin more than it deserves , though he often does less . But to say that this is by accident , that is , for their conjunction with mortal sins , is confuted infinitely , because God punishes them with degrees of evil proper to them , and for their own demerit . There is no other accident by which these come to be smarted for in hell , but because they were not repented of ; for by that accident they become Mortal ; as by the contrary accident , to wit , if the sinner repents worthily , not only the smallest , but the greatest also become Venial : The impenitent pays for all ; all together . But if the man be a worthy penitent , if he continues and abides in Gods love , he will find a mercy according to his circumstances , by the measures of Gods graciousness , and his own repentance : so that by accident they may be pardoned , but if that accident does not happen , if the man be not penitent , the sins shall be punished directly , and for their own natural demerit . The summ is this . If a man repents truly of the greater sins , he also repents of the smallest ; for it cannot be a true repentance which refuses to repent of any ; so that if it happens that for the smallest he do smart in hell , it is because he did not repent truly of any , greatest , nor smallest . But if it happens that the man did not commit any of the greater sins , and yet did indulge to himself a licence to do the smallest , even for those which he calls the smallest , he may perish ; and what he is pleased to call little , God may call great . Cum his peccatis neminem salvandum , said S. Bernard : with these ( even the smallest sins ) actually remaining upon him unrepented of in general or particular , no man can be saved . SECT . IV. The former doctrine reduc'd to practice . 36. I HAVE been the more earnest in this article , not only because the Doctrine which I have all this while opposed makes all the whole doctrine of moral Theology to be inartificial , and in many degrees useless , false and imprudent ; but because of the immediate influence it hath to encourage evil lives of men . For , 37. I. To distinguish a whole kind of sins is a certain way to make repentance and amendment of life imperfect and false . For when men by fears and terrible considerations are scar'd from their sins , as most repentances begin with fear , they still retain some portions of affection to their sin , some lookings back and phantastick entertainments , which if they be not pared off by repentance , we love not God with all our hearts ; and yet by this doctrine of distinguishing sins into Mortal and Venial in their whole kind and nature , men are taught to arrest their repentances , and have leave not to proceed further : for they who say sins are Venial in their own nature , if they understand the consequences of their own doctrine , do not require repentance to make them so , or to obtain a pardon which they need not . 38. II. As by this means our repentances are made imperfect , so is a relapse extreamly ready ; for while such a leaven is left , it is ten to one but it may sowre the whole mass . S. Gregory said well , Si curare parva negligimus , insensibiliter seducti audentèr etiam majora perpetramus : we are too apt to return to our old crimes , whose reliques we are permitted to keep and kiss . 38. III. But it is worse yet . For the distinction of sins Mortal and Venial in their nature is such a separation of sin from sin , as is rather a dispensation or leave to commit one sort of them ; the expiation of which is so easy , the pardon so certain , the remedy so ready , the observation and exaction of them so inconsiderable . For there being so many ways of making great sins little , and little sins none at all , found out by the folly of men and the craft of the Devil , a great portion of Gods right , and the duty we owe to him , is by way of compromise and agreement left as a portion to carelesness and folly : and why may not a man rejoyce in those trifling sins , for which he hath security he shall never be damned ? As for the device of Purgatory , indeed if there were any such thing , it were enough to scare any one from committing any sins , much more little ones . But I have conversed with many of that perswasion , and yet never observed any to whom it was a terror to speak of Purgatory , but would talk of it as an antidote or security against hell , but not as a formidable story to affright them from their sins , but to warrant their venial sins , and their imperfect repentance for their mortal sins . And indeed let it be considered : If venial sins be such as the Roman DD. describe them ; that they neither destroy nor lessen charity or the grace of God , that they only hinder the fervency of an act , which sleep or business or any thing that is most innocent may doe ; that they are not against the law but besides it ; as walking and riding , standing and sitting are ; that they are not properly sins , that all the venial sins in the world cannot amount to one mortal sin , but as time differs from eternity , finite from infinite , so do all the Venial sins in the world put together , from one Mortal act ; that for all them a man is never the less beloved , and loves God nothing the less ; I say , if venial sins be such ( as the Roman Writers affirm they are ) how can it be imagined to be agreeable to Gods goodness to inflict upon such sinners who only have venial sins unsatisfied for , such horrible pains ( which they dream of in Purgatory ) as are , during their abode , equal to the intolerable pains of hell , for that which breaks none of his laws , which angers him not , which is not against him or his love , which is incident to his dearest servants ? Pro peccato magno paulum supplicii satis est patri ; But if fathers take such severe amends of their children for that which is not properly sin , there is nothing left by which we can boast of a fathers kindness . In this case , there is no remission ; for if it be not just in God to punish such sins in hell , because they are consistent with the state of the love of God , and yet they are punished in Purgatory , that is , as much as they can be punished ; then God does remit to his children nothing for their loves sake , but deals with them as severely as for his justice he can , in the matter of venial sins ; indeed if he uses mercy to them at all , it is in remitting their mortal sins , but in their venial sins , he uses none at all . Now if things were thus on both sides , it is strange , men are not more afraid of their venial sins , and that they are not more terrible in their description , which are so sad in their event ; and that their punishment should be so great , when their malice is so none at all ; and it is strangest of all , that if men did believe such horrible effects to be the consequent of venial sins , they should esteem them little , and inconsiderable , and warn men of them with so little caution . But to take this wonder off , though they affright men with Purgatory at the end , yet they make the bugbear nothing by their easy remedies and preventions in the way . Venial sins may be taken off ( according to their doctrine ) at as cheap a rate as they may be committed ; but of this I shall give a fuller account in the 6. Sect. of this Chapter . In the mean time , to believe Purgatory , serves the ends of the Roman Clergy , and to have so much easiness and leave in venial sins , serves the ends of their Laity ; but as truth is disserv'd in the former , so is piety and the severities of a holy life very much slackned by the latter . 40. But as care is taken that their doctrine do not destroy charity or good life by loosnes and indulgence , so care must be taken that ours do not destroy hope , and discountenance the endeavours of pious people ; for if the smallest sins be so highly punishable , who can hope ever to escape the intolerable state of damnation ? And if God can be eternally angry for those things which we account small sins , then no man is a servant or a friend of God ; no man is in the state of the Divine favour ; for no man is without these sins ; for they are such , Quae non possit homo quisquam evitare cavendo , a man by all his industry cannot wholly avoid . Now because the Scripture pronounces some persons just , and righteous , as David and Josiah , Zechary and Elizabeth , who yet could not be innocent and pure from small offences : either these little things are in their own nature venial , or the godly have leave to do that , which is punished in the ungodly , or some other way must be found out , how that which is in its own nature damnable , can stand with the state of grace ; and upon what causes , sins which of themselves are not so , may come to be venial , that is , more apt and ready to be pardoned , and in the next dispositions to receive a mercy . SECT . V. 41. I. NO just person does or can indulge to himself the keeping of any sin whatsoever ; for all sins are accounted of by God according to our affections , and if a man loves any , it becomes his poison . Every sin is damnable when it is chosen deliberately , either by express act or by interpretation ; that is , when it is chosen regularly or frequently . He that loves to cast over in his mind the pleasures of his past sin , he that entertains all those instances of sin , which he thinks not to be damnable , this man hath given himself up to be a servant to a trifle , a lover of little and phantastick pleasures . Nothing of this can stand with the state of grace . No man can love sin and love God at the same time ; and to think it to be an excuse to say the sin is little , is as if an adulteress should hope for pardon of her offended Lord , because the man whom she dotes upon is an inconsiderable person . 42. II. In sins we must distinguish the formality from the material part . The formality of sin is disobedience to God , and turning from him to the Creature by love and adhesion . The material part is the action it self . The first can never happen without our will ; but the latter may by surprise and indeliberation , and imperfection of condition . For in this life our understanding is weak , our attention trifling , our advertency interrupted , our diversions many , our divisions of spirit irresistible , our knowledge little , our dulness frequent , our mistakes many , our fears potent , and betrayers of our reason ; and at any one of these doors sin may enter , in its material part , while the will is unactive , or the understanding dull , or the affections busie , or the spirit otherwise imployed , or the faculties wearied , or reason abused : Therefore if you inquire for venial sins , they must be in this throng of imperfections , but they never go higher . Let no man therefore say , I have a desire to please my self in some little things ; for if he desires it , he may not do it , that very desire makes that it cannot be venial , but as damnable as any , in its proportion . 43. III. If any man about to do an action of sin , inquires whether it be a venial sin or no , to that man , at that time that sin cannot be venial : for whatsoever a man considers , and acts , he also chooses and loves in some proportion , and therefore turns from God to the sin , and that is , against the love of God , and in its degree destructive or diminutive of the state of grace . Besides this , such a person in this enquiry asks leave to sin against God , and gives a testimony that he would sin more if he durst . But in the same degree in which the choice is lessened , in the same degree the material part of the sin receives also diminution . 44. IV. It is remarkable , that amongst the Ancients this distinction of sins into Mortal and Venial , or to use their own words , Graviora & Leviora , or Peccata & Crimina , does not mean a distinction of kind , but of degrees . They call them mortal sins which shall never , or very hardly be pardon'd , not at all but upon very hard terms . So Pacianus . De modo criminum edisserens nequis existimet omnibus omnino peccatis summum discrimen impositum , sedulòque requirens , quae sint peccata , quae crimina , nequis existimet propter innumera delicta , quorum fraudibus nullus immunis est , me omne hominum genus indiscretâ poenitendi lege constringere . The highest danger is not in every sin ; offences and crimes must be distinguished carefully : for the same severe impositions are not indifferently to be laid upon Criminals , and those whose guilt is in such instances from which no man is free . Wherefore covetousness may be redeem'd with liberality , slander with satisfaction , morosity with cheerfulness , sharpness with gentle usages , lightness with gravity , perverseness or peevishness with honesty and fair carriage . But what shall the despiser of God do ? what shall the Murtherer do ? what remedy shall the Adulterer * have ? Ista sunt capitalia Fratres , ista mortalia . These are the deadly sins , these are capital crimes : meaning that these were to be taken off by the severities of Ecclesiastical or publick Repentance ( of which I am afterwards to give account ) and would cost more to be cleansed . To a good man , and meliorum operum compensatione ( as Pacianus affirms ) by the compensation of good work , that is , of the actions of the contrary graces , they are venial , they are cured . For by venial they mean such which with less difficulty and hazard may be pardon'd : such as was S. Pauls blasphemy and persecuting the Church ; for that was venial , that is , apt for pardon , because he did it ignorantly in unbelief : and such are those sins ( saith Caesarius ) which are usual in the world , though of their own nature very horrible , as forswearing our selves , slander , reproach , and the like ; yet because they are extreamly common , they are such to which if a continual pardon were not offered , Gods numbers would be infinitely lessened . In this sence every sin is venial , excepting the three Capitals reckoned in Tertullian , Idolatry , Murther , and Adultery ; every thing but the sin against the Holy Ghost , and its branches reckoned in Pacianus ; every thing but the seven deadly sins , in others . Now according to the degree and malignity of the sin , or its abatement by any lessening circumstance , or intervening considerations , so it puts on its degrees of veniality , or being pardonable . Every sin hath some degree of being venial , till it arrives at the unpardonable state , and then none is . But every sin that hath many degrees of Venial , hath also some degrees of Damnable . So that to enquire what venial sins can stand with the state of grace ; is to ask , how long a man may sin before he shall be damn'd ; how long will God still forbear him , how long he will continue to give him leave to repent ? For a sin is venial upon no other acount but of Repentance . If Venial be taken for pardonable , it is true that many circumstances make it so , more or less ; that is , whatever makes the sin greater or less , makes it more or less venial : and of these I shall give account in the Chapter of sins of Infirmity . But if by Venial , we mean actually pardon'd , or not exacted : Nothing makes a sin venial , but Repentance , and that makes every sin to be so . Therefore , 45. V. Some sins are admitted by holy persons , and yet they still continue holy ; not that any of these sins is permitted to them ; nor that God cannot as justly exact them of his servants as of his enemies ; nor that in the Covenant of the Gospel they are not imputable ; nor that their being in Gods favour hides them , for God is most impatient of any remaining evil in his children : But the only reasonable account of it is , because the state of grace is a state of Repentance ; these sins are those which as Pacianus expresses it , contrariis emendata proficiunt , they can be helped by contrary actions : and the good man does perpetually watch against them , he opposes a good against every evil ; that is , in effect he uses them just as he uses the greatest that ever he committed . Thus the good man when he reproves a sinning person over-acts his anger , and is transported to undecency , though it be for God : Some are over zealous , some are phantastick and too apt to opinion , which in little degrees of inordination are not so soon discernible . A good man may be over-joyd , or too much pleas'd with his recreation , or be too passionate at the death of a child , or in a sudden anger go beyond the evenness of a wise Christian , and yet be a good man still , and a friend of God , his son and his servant : but then these things happen in despite of all his care and observation ; and when he does espy any of these obliquities , he is troubled at it , and seeks to amend it : and therefore these things are venial , that is , pitied and excused , because they are unavoible , but avoided as much as they well can ( all things considered ) and God does not exact them of him , because the good man exacts them of himself . * These being the Rules of Doctrine , we are to practise accordingly . To which add the following measures . 46. VI. This difference in sins , of Mortal and Venial , that is , greater and less , is not to be considered by us , but by God alone , and cannot have influence upon us to any good purposes . For 1. We do not always know by what particular measures they are lessened : In general we know some proportions of them , but when we come to particulars , we may easily be deceived , but can very hardly be exact . S. Austin said the same thing . Quae sint levia , & quae gravia peecata , non humano sed Divino sunt pensanda judicio . God only , not man , can tell which sins are great , and which little . For since we see them equally forbidden , we must with equal care avoid them all . Indeed if the case should be so put , that we must either commit Sacrilege , or tell a spiteful lie , kill a man , or speak unclean words , then it might be of use to us to consider which is the greater , which is less , that , of evils we might choose the less : but this case can never be , for no man is ever brought to that necessity that he must choose one sin ; for he can choose to die before he shall do either , and that 's the worst that he can be put to . And therefore though right reason and experience , and some general lines of Religion mark out some actions as criminal , and leave others under a general and indefinite condemnation , yet it is in order to repentance and amends when such things are done , not to greater caution directly of avoiding them in the days of temptation ; for of two infini●ies in the same kind , one cannot be bigger than the other . We are tied with the biggest care to avoid every sin , and bigger than the biggest we find not . This only : For the avoiding of the greatest sins , there are more arguments from without , and sometimes more instruments and ministeries of caution and prevention are to be used , than in lesser sins ; but it is because fewer will serve in one than in another ; but all that is needful must be used in all , but there is no difference in our choice that can be considerable , for we must never choose either , and therefore beforehand to compare them together , whereof neither is to be preferred before the other , is to lay a snare for our selves , and make us apt to one by undervaluing it , and calling it less than others , that affright us more . Indeed when the sin is done , to measure it may be of use ( as I shall shew ) but to do it beforehand hath danger in it of being tempted , and more than a danger of being deceived . For our hearts deceive us , our purposes are complicated , and we know not which end is principally intended , nor by what argument amongst many , we were finally determin'd , or which is the prevailing ingredient ; nor are we competent Judges of our own strengths , and we can do more than we think we can ; and we remember not , that the temptation which prevails was sought for by our selves ; nor can we separate necessity from choice , our consent from our being betrayed ; nor tell whether our fort is given up , because we would do so , or because we could not help it . Who can tell whether he could not stand one assault more , and if he had , whether or no the temptation would not have left him ? The ways of consent are not always direct , and if they be crooked , we see them not . And after all this , if we were able , yet we are not willing to judge right , with truth , and with severity : something for our selves , something for excuse , something for pride ; a little for vanity , and a little in hypocrisie , but a great deal for peace and quiet , that the rest of the mind may not be disturbed , that we may live and die in peace , and in a good opinion of our selves . These indeed are evil measures , but such by which we usually make judgment of our actions , and are therefore likely to call great sins little , and little sins none at all . ** 47. II. That any sins are venial being only because of the state of grace and Repentance , under which they are admitted ; what condition a man is in , even for the smallest sins , he can no more know than he can tell that all his other sins are pardon'd , that his Repentance is accepted , that nothing of Gods anger is reserved , that he is pleased for all , that there is no Judgment behind hanging over his head , to strike him for that wherein he was most negligent . Now although some men have great and just confidences that they are actually in Gods favour , yet all good men have not so . For there are coverings sometimes put over the spirits of the best men ; and there are intermedial and doubtful states of men , ( as I shall represent in the Chapter of Actual sins ) there are also ebbings and flowings of sin and pardon : and therefore none but God only knows how long this state of veniality and pardon will last ; and therefore as no man can pronounce concerning any kind of sins , that they are in themselves venial , so neither can he know concerning his own , or any mans particular state , that any such sins are pardon'd , or Venial to him . He that lives a good life will find it so in its own case , and in the event of things ; and that 's all which can be said as to this particular ; and it is well it is so , ne studium proficiendi ad omnia peccata cavenda pigres●at ( as S. Austin well observed . ) If it were otherwise , and that sins in their own nature by venial and not venial are distinguished and separate in their natures from each other , and that some of them are of so easie remedy , and inconsiderable a guilt , they would never become earnest to avoid all . 48. III. There are some sins which indeed seem venial , and were they not sentenc'd in Scripture with severe words would pass for trifles ; but in Scripturis demonstrantur opinione graviora ( as S. Austin notes ) they are by the word of God declared to be greater than they are thought to be ; and we have reason to judge so , concerning many instances in which men are too easie , and cruelly kind unto themselves . S. Paul said , I had not known concupiscence to be a sin , if the law had not said , Thou shalt not lust : and we use to call them scrupulous and phantastick persons who make much adoe about a careless word , and call themselves to severe account for every thought , and are troubled for every morsel they eat , when it can be disputed whether it might not better have been spared . Who could have guessed that calling my enemy Fool should be so great a matter ; but because we are told that it is so ; told by him that shall be our Judge , who shall call us to account for every idle word ; we may well think that the measures which men usually make by their customes and false principles , and their own necessities , lest they by themselves should be condemned , are weak and fallacious : and therefore whatsoever can be of truth in the difference of sins , may become a danger to them who desire to distinguish them , but can bring no advantages to the interests of piety and a holy life . 49. IV. We only account those sins great which are unusual , which rush violently against the conscience , because men have not been acquainted with them : Peccata sola inusitata exhorrescimus , usitata verò diligimus . But those which they act every day , they suppose them to be small , quotidianae incursiones , the unavoidable acts of every day ; and by degrees our spirit is reconciled to them , conversing with them as with a tame wolf , who by custome hath forgotten the circumstances of his barbarous nature , but is a wolf still . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( as Synesius calls them ) the little customes of sinning , men think , ought to be dissembled . This was so of old ; Caesarius Bishop of Arles complain'd of it in his time . Verè dico Fratres &c. I say truly to you Brethren , this thing according to the Law and Commandment of our Lord , never was lawful , neither is it , nor shall it ever be ; but as if it were worse , ita peccata ista in consuetudinem missa sunt , & tanti sunt qui illa faciunt , ut jam quasi ex licito fieri credantur ; these sins are so usual and common that men now begin to think them lawful . And indeed who can do a sin every day , and think it great and highly damnable ? If he think so , it will be very uneasie for him to keep it : but if he will keep it , he will also endeavour to get some protection or excuse for it ; something to warrant , or something to undervalue it ; and at last it shall be accounted venial , and by some means or other reconcileable with the hopes of heaven . He that is used to oppress the poor every day , thinks he is a charitable man if he lets them go away with any thing he could have taken from them : But he is not troubled in conscience for detayning the wages of the hireling , with deferring to do justice , with little arts of exaction and lessening their provisions . For since nothing is great or little but in comparison with something else , he accounts his sin small , because he commits greater ; and he that can suffer the greatest burthen , shrinks not under a lighter weight ; and upon this account it is impossible but such men must be deceiv'd and die . 50. VII . Let no man think that his venial or smaller sins shall be pardoned for the smalness of their matter , and in a distinct account ; for a man is not quit of the smallest but by being also quit of the greatest : for God does not pardon any sin to him that remains his enemy ; and therefore unless the man be a good man and in the state of grace , he cannot hope that his venial sins can be in any sence indulg'd ; they increase the burden of the other , and are like little stones laid upon a shoulder already crushed with an unequal load . Either God pardons the greatest , or the least stand uncancell'd . 51. VIII . Although God never pardons the smallest without the greatest , yet he sometimes retains the smallest , of them whos 's greatest he hath pardon'd . The reason is , because although a man be in the state of grace and of the Divine favour , and God will not destroy his servants for every calamity of theirs , yet he will not suffer any thing that is amiss in them . A Father never pardons the small offences of his son who is in rebellion against him ; those little offences cannot pretend to pardon till he be reconciled to his Father ; but if he be , yet his Father may chastise his little misdemeanors , or reserve some of his displeasure so far as may minister to discipline , not to destruction : and therefore if a son have escaped his Fathers anger and final displeasure , let him remember , that though his Father is not willing to dis-inherit him , yet he will be ready to chastise him . And we see it by the whole dispensation of God , that the righteous are punished , and afflictions begin at the House of God ; and God is so impatient even of little evils in them , that to make them pure he will draw them through the fire ; and there are some who are sav'd , yet so as by fire . And certainly , those sins ought not to be neglected , or esteemed little , which provoke God to anger even against his servants . We find this instanc'd in the case of the Corinthians , who used undecent circumstances and unhandsome usages of the blessed Sacrament ; even for this , God severely reprov'd them ; for this cause many are weak , and sick , and some are fallen asleep , which is an expression used in Scripture to signifie them that die in the Lord , and is not used to signifie the death of them that perish from the presence of the Lord. These persons died in the state of grace and repentance , but yet died in their sin ; chastised for their lesser sins , but so that their souls were sav'd . This is that which Clemens Alexandrinus affirms of sins committed after our illumination , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , These sins must be purged with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , with the chastisements of sons . The result of this consideration is that which S. Peter advises , that we pass the time of our sojourning here in fear : for no man ought to walk confidently , who knows that even the most laudable life hath in it evil enough to be smarted for with a severe calamity . 52. IX . The most trifling actions , the daily incursions of sins , though of the least malignity , yet if they be neglected , combine and knit together , till by their multitude they grow insupportable ; This caution I learn from Caesarius Arelatensis . Et hoc considerate Fratres , quia etiamsi capitalia crimina non subreperent , ipsa minuta peccata quae ( quod pejus est ) aut non attendimus , aut certè pro nihilo computamus , si simul omnia congregentur , nescio quae bonorum operum abundantia illis praeponderare sufficiat . Although capital sins invade you not , yet if your minutes , your small sins which either we do not consider at all , or value not at all , be combin'd , or gathered into one heap , I know not what multitude of good works will suffice to weigh them down . For little sins are like the sand , and when they become a heap are heavy as lead ; and a leaking ship may as certainly perish with the little inlets of water as with a mighty wave ; for of many drops a river is made ; and therefore , ipsa minuta vel levia non contemnantur . Illa enim quae humanae fragilitati quamvis parva tamen crebra subrepunt , quasi collecta contra nos fuerint , ita nos gravabunt sicut unum aliquod grande peccatum * . Let not little sins be despised , for even those smallest things which creep upon us by our natural weakness , yet when they are gathered together against us , stand on an heap , and like an army of flies can destroy us as well as any one deadly enemy . Quae quamvis singula non lethali vulnere ferire sentiantur , sicut homicidium , & adulterium , vel caetera hujusmodi , tamen omnia simul congregata velut scabies , quo plura sunt , necant , & nostrum decus ita exterminant ut à filii sponsi speciosi formâ prae filiis hominum castissimis amplexibus separent , nisi medicamento quotidianae poenitentiae dissecentur . Indeed we do not feel every one of them strike so home and deadly , as murder and adultery does , yet when they are united , they are like a scab , they kill with their multitude , and so destroy our internal beauty , that they separate us from the purest embraces of the Bridegroom , unless they be scattered with the medicine of a daily repentance . For he that does these little sins often , and repents not of them , nor strives against them , either loves them directly or by interpretation . 53. X. Let no man when he is tempted to a sin , go then to take measures of it ; because it being his own case he is an unequal and incompetent Judge ; His temptation is his prejudice and his bribe , and it is ten to one but he will suck in the poyson , by his making himself believe that the potion is not deadly . Examine not the particular measures unless the sin be indeed by its disreputation great , then examine as much as you please , provided you go not about to lessen it . It is enough it is a sin , condemned by the laws of God , and that death and damnation are its wages . 54. XI . When the mischief is done , then you may in the first days of your shame and sorrow for it , with more safety take its measures . For immediately after acting , sin does to most men appear in all its ugliness and deformitty : and if in the days of your temptation you did lessen the measure of your sin , yet in the days of your sorrow , do not shorten the measures of repentance . Every sin is deadly enough ; and no repentance or godly sorrow can be too great for that which hath deserved the eternal wrath of God. 55. XII . I end these advices with the meditation of S. Hierom. Si ira & sermonis injuria , atque interdum jocus judicio , concilióque , atque Gehennae ignibus delegatur , quid merebitur turpium rerum appetitio , & avaritia quae est radix omnium malorum ? If anger , and injurious words , and sometimes a foolish jest is sentenc'd to capital and supreme punishments , what punishment shall the lustful and the covetous have ? And what will be the event of all our souls , who reckon these injurious or angry words of calling Fool , or Sot amongst the smallest , and those which are indeed less we do not observe at all ? For who is there amongst us almost , who calls himself to an account for trifling words , loose laughter , the smallest beginnings of intemperance , careless spending too great portions of our time in trifling visits and courtships , balls , revellings , phantastick dressings , sleepiness , idleness , and useless conversation , neglecting our times of prayer frequently , or causlesly , slighting religion and religious persons , siding with factions indifferently , forgetting our former obligations upon trifling regards , vain thoughts , wandrings and weariness at our devotion , love of praise , laying little plots and snares to be commended ; high opinion of our selves , resolutions to excuse all , and never to confess an error ; going to Church for vain purposes , itching ears , love of flattery , and thousands more ? The very kinds of them put together are a heap ; and therefore the so frequent and almost infinite repetition of the acts of all those are , as Davids expression is , without hyperbole , more than the hairs upon our head ; they are like the number of the sands upon the Sea shore for multitude . SECT . VI. What repentance is necessary for the smaller or more Venial sins . 56. I. UPON supposition of the premises ; since these smaller sins are of the same nature , and the same guilt , and the same enmity against God , and consign'd to the same evil portion that other sins are , they are to be wash'd off with the same repentance also as others . Christs blood is the lavatory , and Faith and Repentance are the two hands that wash our souls white from the greatest and the least stains : and since they are by the impenitent to be paid for in the same fearful prisons of darkness , by the same remedies and instruments the intolerable sentence can only be prevented . The same ingredients , but a less quantity possibly may make the medicine . Caesarius Bishop of Arles , who spake many excellent things in this article , says that for these smaller sins a private repentance is proportionable . Si levia fortasse sunt delicta , v. g. si homo vel in sermone , vel in aliquâ reprehensibili voluntate ; si in oculo peccavit , aut corde ; verborum & cogitationum maculae quotidianâ oratione curandae , & privatâ compunctione terendae sunt . The sins of the eye , and the sins of the heart , and the offences of the tongue are to be cured by secret contrition and compunction and a daily prayer . But S. Cyprian commends many whose conscience being of a tender complexion , they would even for the thoughts of their heart do publick penance : His words are these ; — multos timoratae conscientiae , quamvis nullo sacrificii aut libelli facinore constricti essent , quoniam tamen de hoc vel cogitaverunt , hoc ipsum apud Sacerdotes Dei dolenter & simplicitèr confitentes exomologesin conscientiae fecisse , animi sui pondus exposuisse , salutarem medelam parvis licet & modicis vulneribus exquirentes . Because they had but thought of complying with idolaters , they sadly and ingenuously came to the Ministers of holy things , Gods Priests , confessing the secret turpitude of their conscience , laying aside the weight that pressed their spirit , and seeking remedy even for their smallest wounds . And indeed we find that among the Ancients there was no other difference in assignation of repentance to the several degrees of sin , but only by publick , and private : Capital sins they would have submitted to publick judgment ; but the lesser evils to be mourn'd for in private : of this I shall give account in the Chapter of Ecclesiastical repentance . In the mean time , their general rule was , That because the lesser sins came in by a daily incursion , therefore they were to be cut off by a daily repentance ; which because it was daily , could not be so intense and signally punitive as the sharper repentances for the seldome returning sins , yet as the sins were daily , but of less malice , so their repentance must be daily , but of less affliction . Medicamento quotidianae poenitentiae dissecentur ; That was S. Austins rule . Those evils that happen every day , must be cried out against every day . 57. II. Every action of repentance , every good work done for the love of God and in the state of grace , and design'd , and particularly applied to the intercision of the smallest unavoidable sins , is through the efficacy of Christs death , and in the vertue of repentance operative towards the expiation or pardon of them . For a man cannot do all the particulars of repentance for every sin ; but out of the general hatred of sin picks out some special instances , and apportions them to his special sins ; as to acts of uncleanness he opposes acts of severity , to intemperance he opposes fasting . But then as he rests not here , but goes on to the consummation of Repentance in his whole life : so it must be in the more venial sins . A less instance of express anger is graciously accepted , if it be done in the state of grace and in the vertue of Repentance ; but then the pardon is to be compleated in the pursuance and integrity of that grace , in the Summes total . For no man can say that so much sorrow , or such a degree of Repentance is enough to any sin he hath done : and yet a man cannot apportion to every sin large portions of special sorrow , it must therefore be done all his life time ; and the little portions must be made up by the whole grace and state of Repentance . One instance is enough particularly to express the anger , or to apply the grace of Repentance to any single sin which is not among the Capitals ; but no one instance is enough to extinguish it . For sin is not pardon'd in an instant ( as I shall afterwards discourse ) neither is the remedy of a natural and a just proportion to the sin . Therefore when many of the ancient Doctors apply to venial sins special remedies by way of expiation , or deprecation , such as are , beating the breast , saying the Lords Prayer , Alms , communicating , confessing , and some others ; the doctrine of such remedies is not true , if it be understood that those particulars are just physically or meritoriously proportion'd to the sin . No one of these alone is a cure or expiation of the past sin ; but every one of these in the vertue of Repentance is effective to its part of the work , that is , he that repents and forsakes them as he can , shall be accepted , though the expression of his Repentance be applied to his fault but in one or more of these single instances ; because all good works done in the Faith of Christ , have an efficacy towards the extinction of those sins which cannot be avoided by any moral diligence ; there is no other thing on our parts which can be done , and if that which is unavoidable were also irremediable , our condition would be intolerable and desperate . To the sence of this advice we have the words of S. Gregory : Si quis ergo peccata sua tecta esse desiderat , Deo ea per vocem confessionis ostendat , &c. If any man desires to have his sins covered , let him first open them to God in confession : but there are some sins , which so long as we live in this world , can hardly , or indeed not at all be wholly avoided by perfect men . For holy men have something in this life , which they ought to cover ; for it is altogether impossible that they should never sin in word or thought . Therefore the men of God do study to cover the faults of their eyes or tongue with good deeds , they study to over-power the number of their idle words with the weight of good works . But how can it be that the faults of good men should be covered , when all things are naked to the eyes of God ? but only because that which is covered is put under , something is brought over it : Our sins are covered when we bring over them the cover of good works . But Caesarius the Bishop is more punctual , and descends to particulars . For having given this general rule , Illa parva vel quotidiana peccata bonis operibus redimere non desistant . Let them not cease to redeem or expiate their daily and small faults with good works ; he adds , But I desire more fully to insinuate to you , with what works small sins are taken off . So often as we visit the sick , go ( in Charity ) to them that are in prison , reconcile variances , keep the fasts of the Church , wash the feet of strangers , repair to the vigils and watches of the Church , give alms to passing beggars , forgive our enemies when they ask pardon : istis enim operibus & his similibus minuta peccata quotidiè redimuntur ; with these and the like works the minute or smaller sins are daily redeemed or taken off . 58. III. There is in prayer a particular efficacy , and it is of proper use and application in the case of the more venial and unavoidable sins , rather this than any other alone , especially being helped by Charity , that is , alms and forgiveness . Because the greatest number of venial sins comes in ( as I shall * afterwards demonstrate ) upon the stock of ignorance , or which is all one , imperfect notices and acts of understanding ; and therefore have not any thing in the natural parts and instances of Repentance , so fit to expiate or to cure them . But because they are beyond humane cure , they are to be cured by the Divine Grace , and this is to be obtained by Prayer . And this S. Clement advis'd in his Epistle . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Lift up your eyes to God Almighty , praying him to be merciful to you , if you have unwillingly fallen into errour . And to the same purpose are the words of S. Austin : Propter levia sine quibus esse non possumus , oratio inventa : for those lighter sins without which we cannot be , Prayer is invented as a remedy . 59. IV. Perpetually watch , and perpetually resolve against them , as against any , never indulging to thy self leave to proceed in one . Let this care be constant and indefatigable , and leave the success to God. For in this there is a great difference between Capital or Deadly , and the more venial sins . For , he that repents of great sins , does so resolve against them , that he ought really to believe that he shall never return to them again . No drunkard is truly to be esteem'd a penitent , but he that in consideration of himself , his purpose , his reasons , and all his circumstances , is by the grace of God confident that he shall never be drunk again . The reason is plain : For if he thinks that for all his resolution and repentance the case may happen , or will return in which he shall be tempted above his strength , that is , above the efficacy of his resolution , then he hath not resolv'd against the sin in all its forms or instances : but he hath left some roots of bitterness which may spring up and defile him ; he hath left some weak places , some parts unfortified , and does secretly purpose to give up his fort , if he be assaulted by some sort of enemies . He is not resolved to resist the importunity of a friend , or a prevailing person , a Prince , his Landlord , or his Master ; that for the present he thinks impossible , and therefore ows his spiritual life to chance , or to the mercies of his enemy , who may have it for asking : But if he thinks it possible to resist any temptation , and resolves to do it if it be possible , the natural consequent of that is , that he thinks he shall never fall again into it . But if beforehand he thinks he shall relapse , he is then but an imperfect resolver , but a half-fac'd penitent . * But this is not so in the case of smaller sins coming by ignorance or surprise , by inadvertency and imperfect notices , by the unavoidable weakness and imperfect condition of mankind . For he who in these resolves the strongest , knows that he shall not be innocent but that he shall feel his weakness in the same or in other instances ; and that this shall be his condition as long as he lives , that he shall always need to pray , Forgive me my trespasses : and even his not knowing concerning all actions , and all words , and all thoughts , whether they be sins or no , is a certain betraying him into a necessity of doing something for the pardon of which Christ died , for the preventing of which a mighty care is necessary , in the suffering of which he ought to be humbled , and for the pardon of which he ought for ever to pray . And therefore S. Chrysostome upon those words of S. Paul ; I am conscious in nothing , that is , I do not know of any failing in my Ministry ; saith , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; what then ? he is not hereby justified , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , because some sins might adhere to him he not knowing that they were sins . Ab occultis meis munda me Domine , was an excellent prayer of David . Cleanse me , O Lord , from my secret faults . Hoc dicit , nequid fortè per ignorantiam deliquisset , saith S. Hierome ; he prayed so , lest peradventure he should have sinned ignorantly . But of this I shall give a further account in describing the measures of sins of infirmity . For the present , although this resolution against all , is ineffective as to a perfect immunity from small offences , yet it is accepted as really done , because it is done as it can possibly . 60. V. Let no man relie upon the Catalogues which are sometimes given , and think that such things which the Doctors have call'd Venial sins , may with more facility be admitted , and with smaller portions of care be regarded , or with a slighter repentance washed off . For besides that some have called perjuries , anger , envy , injurious words , by lighter names and titles of a little reproof , and having lived in wicked times , were betray'd into easier sentences of those sins which they saw all mankind almost to practise , which was the case of some of the Doctors who lived in the time of those Warrs which broke the Roman Empire ; besides this , I say , venial sins can rather be * described , than enumerated . For none are so in their nature , but all that are so , are so by accident ; and according as sins tend to excuse , so they put on their degrees of veniality . No sin is absolutely venial , but in comparison with others : Neither is any sin at all times , and to all persons alike venial . And therefore let no man venture upon it upon any mistaken confidence : They that think sins are venial in their own nature , cannot agree which are venial and which are not ; and therefore nothing is in this case so certain , as that all that doctrine which does in any sence represent sins as harmless or tame Serpents , is infinitely dangerous , and there is no safety , but by striving against all beforehand , and repenting of all as there is need . 61. I summ up these questions and these advices with the saying of Josephus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It is as damnable to indulge leave to our selves to sin little sins as great ones : A man may be choaked with a raisin , as well as with great morsels of flesh ; and a small leak in a ship , if it be neglected , will as certainly sink her as if she sprung a plank . Death is the wages of all ; and damnation is the portion of the impenitent , whatever was the instance of their sin . Though there are degrees of punishment , yet there is no difference of state , as to this particular : and therefore we are tied to repent of all , and to dash the little Babylonians against the stones , against the Rock that was smitten for us . For by the blood of Jesus , and the tears of Repentance , and the watchfulness of a diligent , careful person , many of them shall be prevented , and all shall be pardoned . A Psalm to be frequently used in our Repentance for our daily Sins . BOW down thine ear , O Lord , hear me , for I am poor and needy : Rejoyce the soul of thy servant ; for unto thee , O Lord , do I lift up my soul. For thou , Lord , art good , and ready to forgive , and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee : Teach me thy way , O Lord , I will walk in thy truth ; unite my heart to fear thy Name . Shall mortal man be more just than God ? shall a man be more pure than his Maker ? Behold , he put no trust in his Servants ; and his Angels he charged with folly . How much less on them that dwell in houses of clay , whose foundation is in the dust , which are crushed before the moth ? Doth not their excellency which is in them go away ? They die even without wisdom . The law of the Lord is perfect , converting the soul : the testimony of the Lord is sure , making wise the simple . Moreover , by them is thy servant warned , and in keeping of them there is great reward . Who can understand his errors ? Cleanse thou me from my secret faults : keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins ; let them not have dominion over me , then shall I be upright , and I shall be innocent from the great transgression . O ye sons of men , how long will ye turn my glory into shame ? how long will ye love vanity and seek after leasing ? But know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly , for himself : The Lord will hear when I call unto him . Out of the deep have I called unto thee , O Lord ; Lord hear my voice : O let thine ears consider well the voice of my complaint . If thou , Lord , wilt be extreme to mark what is done amiss , O Lord who may abide it ? But there is mercy with thee , therefore shalt thou be feared . Set a watch , O Lord , before my mouth , and keep the door of my lips : Take from me the way of lying ; and cause thou me to make much of thy law . The Lord is full of compassion and mercy , long-suffering , and of great goodness : He will not alway be chiding , neither keepeth he his anger for ever . Yea , like as a Father pitieth his own children : even so is the Lord merciful unto them that fear him . For he knoweth whereof we are made : he remembreth that we are but dust . Praise the Lord , O my soul , and forget not all his benefits : which forgiveth all thy sin , and healeth all thine infirmities . Glory be to the Father , &c. The PRAYER . O Eternal God , whose perfections are infinite , whose mercies are glorious , whose justice is severe , whose eyes are pure , whose judgments are wise ; be pleased to look upon the infirmities of thy servant , and consider my weakness . My spirit is willing , but my flesh is weak ; I desire to please thee , but in my endeavours I fail so often , so foolishly , so unreasonably , that I extreamly displease my self , and I have too great reason to fear that thou also art displeased with thy servant . O my God , I know my duty , I resolve to do it , I know my dangers , I stand upon my guard against them , but when they come near I begin to be pleased , and delighted in the little images of death , and am seised upon by folly , even when with greatest severity I decree against it . Blessed Jesus pity me , and have mercy upon my infirmities . II. O Dear God , I humbly beg to be relieved by a mighty grace , for I bear a body of sin and death about me ; sin creeps upon me in every thing that I do or suffer . When I do well , I am apt to be proud , when I do amiss , I am sometimes too confident , sometimes affrighted : If I see others do amiss , I either neglect them , or grow too angry ; and in the very mortification of my anger , I grow angry and peevish . My duties are imperfect , my repentances little , my passions great , my fancy trifling : The sins of my tongue are infinite , and my omissions are infinite , and my evil thoughts cannot be numbred , and I cannot give an account concerning innumerable portions of my time which were once in my power , but were let slip and were partly spent in sin , partly thrown away upon trifles and vanity : and even of the hasest sins of which in accounts of men I am most innocent , I am guilty before thee , entertaining those sins in little instances , thoughts , desires and imaginations , which I durst not produce into action and open significations . Blessed Jesus pity me , and have mercy upon my infirmities . III. TEACH me , O Lord , to walk before thee in righteousness , perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Give me an obedient will , a loving spirit , a humble understanding , watchfulness over my thoughts , deliberation in all my words and actions , well tempered passions , and a great prudence , and a great zeal , and a great charity , that I may do my duty wisely , diligently , holily ; O let me be humbled in my infirmities , but let me be also safe from my enemies ; let me never fall by their violence , nor by my own weakness ; let me never be overcome by them , nor yet give my self up to folly and weak principles , to idleness , and secure , careless walking ; but give me the strengths of thy Spirit , that I may grow strong upon the ruines of the flesh , growing from grace to grace till I become a perfect man in Christ Jesus . O let thy strength be seen in my weakness ; and let thy mercy triumph over my infirmities ; pitying the condition of my nature , the infancy of grace , the imperfection of my knowledge , the transportations of my passion . Let me never consent to sin , but for ever strive against it , and every day prevail , till it be quite dead in me , that thy servant living the life of grace , may at last be admitted to that state of glory where all my infirmities shall be done away , and all tears be dried up , and sin and death shall be no more . Grant this , O most gracious God and Father , for Jesus Christ his sake . Amen . Our Father , &c. CHAP. IV. Of Actual , single Sins , and what Repentance is proper to them . SECT . I. 1. THE first part of Conversion or Repentance is a quitting of all sinful habits , and abstaining from all criminal actions whatsoever . Virtus est vitium fugere , & sapientia prima Stultitiâ caruisse — For unless the Spirit of God rule in our hearts , we are none of Christs ; but he rules not where the works of the flesh are frequently , or maliciously , or voluntarily entertained . All the works of the flesh , and whatsoever leads to them , all that is contrary to the Spirit , and does either grieve or extinguish him , must be rescinded , and utterly taken away . Concerning which , it is necessary that I set down the * Catalogues which by Christ and his Apostles are left us as lights and watch-towers to point out the rocks and quicksands where our danger is : and this I shall the rather do , not only because they comprehend many evils which are not observed or feared ; some which are commended , and many that are excused ; but also because although they are all mark'd with the same black character of death , yet there is some difference in the execution of the sentence , and in the degrees of their condemnation , and of the consequent Repentance . Evil thoughts : or discoursings . 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Evil reasonings . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , says Hesychius , that is , prating ; importune pratling and looseness of tongue , such as is usual with bold boys and young men ; prating much and to no purpose . But our Bibles read it , Evil thoughts , or surmisings ; for in Scripture it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; so Suidas observes concerning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to think long and carefully , to dwell in meditation upon a thing : to which when our blessed Saviour adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , evil , he notes and reproves such kind of morose thinkings and fancying of evil things : and it is not unlikely that he means thoughts of uncleanness , or lustful fancies . For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith Suidas : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , says Hesychius ; it signifies such words as are prologues to wantonness : so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Aristophanes . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . So that here are forbidden all wanton words , and all morose delighting in venereous thoughts , all rollings and tossing such things in our mind . For even these defile the soul. Verborum obscoenitas si turpitudini rerum adhibeatur , ludus ne libero quidem homine dignus est , said Cicero . Obscene words are a mockery not worthy of an ingenuous person . This is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that foolish talking and jesting which S. Paul joyns to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that filthiness of communication which men make a jest of , but is indeed the basest in the world ; the sign of a vile dishonest mind : and it particularly noted the talk of Mimicks and Parasites , Buffoons and Players , whose trade was to make sport , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and they did use to do it with nastiness and filthy talkings ; as is to be seen in Aristophanes , and is rarely described and severely reproved in S. Chrysostom in his sixth Homily upon S. Matthew . For per verba dediscitur rerum pudor , which S. Paul also affirms in the words of Menander , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Evil words corrupt good manners ; and evil thoughts being the fountain of evil words , lie under the same prohibition . Under this head is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a talkative rash person , ready to speak , slow to hear ; against S. James his rule . Inventers of Evil things . 3. Contrivers of all such artifices as minister to vice . Curious inventions for cruelty , for gluttony , for lust ; witty methods of drinking , wanton pictures , and the like ; which for the likeness of the matter I have subjoyn'd next to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the evil thinkings or surmises reproved by our blessed Saviour , as these are expresly by S. Paul. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , COVETOVSNESS : or , 4. Inordinate , unreasonable desires . For the word does not only signifie the designing and contrivances of unjust ways of purchasing , which is not often separated from covetous desires : but the very studium habendi , the thirst , or greediness , secret and impatient desires of having abundance : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the hurt of immoderate lusting or desire ; and is sometimes applied to the matter of uncleanness ; but in this Catalogue I wholly separate it from this , because this is comprised under other words . Neither will it be hard to discern and to reprove this sin of desires in them that are guilty of it , though they will not think or confess what is , and what is not abundance . For there is not easily to be found a greater testimony of covetousness than the error concerning the measure of our possessions . He that is not easie to call that abundance which by good and severe men is thought so , desires more than he should . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , when any thing is over and above the needs of our life , that is too much ; and to desire that , is covetousness , saith S. Luke . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Take heed and keep your selves from covetousness ; for our life consisteth not in abundance ; intimating that to desire more than our life needs , is to desire abundance , and that is covetousness ; and that is the root of all evil : that is , all sins and all mischiefs can come from hence . Divitis hoc vitium est auri : nec bella fuere , Faginus adstabat cum scyphus ante dapes . There were no wars in those days when men did drink in a treen cup. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , WICKEDNESS . 5. This is the same that the Latines call Malitia ; a scurvy , base disposition ; aptness to do shrewd turns , to delight in mischiefs and tragedies ; a loving to trouble our neighbour , and to do him ill offices ; crosseness , perverseness and peevishness of action in our entercourse . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith Suidas . Facessere negotium alicui ; to do a man an evil office , or to put him to trouble . And to this is reducible that which S. Paul calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Malignity ; a baseness of nature by which we take things by the wrong handle , and expounding things always in the worst sence . Vitiositas is the Latin word for it , and it seems to be worse than the former , by being a more general principle of mischief . Malitia certi cujusdam vitii est : vitiositas omnium , said Cicero . This is in a mans nature an universal depravation of his spirit ; that is in manners , and is sooner cured than this . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . CRAFTINESS . 6. That is , a wiliness and aptness to deceive ; a studying by some underhand trick to over-reach our brother : like that of Corax his Scholar , he cousen'd his Master with a trick of his own art ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , A crafty Crow laid a crafty egge . By which is not signified that natural or acquired sagacity by which men can contrive wittily , or be too hard for their brother if they should endeavour it : but a studying how to circumvent him , and an habitual design of getting advantage upon his weakness ; a watching him where he is most easie and apt for impression , and then striking him upon the unarm'd part . But this is brought to effect , by DECEIT . 7. Cùm aliud simulatur , aliud agitur alterius decipiendi causâ , said Vlpian and Aquilius ; that is , all dissembling to the prejudice of thy Neighbour , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; any thing designed to thy Neighbours disadvantage by simulation or dissimulation . VNCLEANNESS . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 8. Stinking : So the Syriack Interpreter renders it ; and it means obscene actions . But it signifies all manner of excess or immoderation ; and so may signifie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , prodigal or lavish expences , and immoderate use of permitted pleasures , even the excess of liberty in the use of the Marriage-bed . For the Ancients use the word not only for unchaste , but for great and excessive . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , They are exceeding fat : and a Goat with great horns is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It is luxuria or the excess of desire in the matter of pleasures . Every excess is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it is intemperance : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a special kind of crime under this . It means all voluntary pollutions of the body , or WANTONNESS . 9. That is , all tempting foolish gestures ; such which Juvenal reproves , Cheironomon Ledam molli seltante Bathyllo , which being presented in the Theatre would make the Vestal wanton . Every thing by which a man or woman is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abominable in their lusts ; to which the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the lusts not to be named are reducible : amongst which S. Paul reckons the effeminate , and abusers of themselves with mankind ; that is , they that do , and they that suffer such things . Philoctetes and Paris ; Caesar and the King of Pontus . Mollities or softness is the name by which this vice is known , and the persons guilty of it , are also called the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The abominable . HATRED . 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; Great , but transient angers . The cause , and the degree , and the abode makes the anger Criminal . By these two words are forbidden all violent passion , fury , revengefulness . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The enemy and the avenger , says David . But not this only , but the misliking and hating of a man , though without actual designs of hurting him , is here noted ; that is , when men retain the displeasure , and refuse to converse , or have any thing to do with the man , though there be from him no danger of damage , the former experiment being warning enough . The forbearing to salute him , to be kind or civil to him , and every degree of anger that is kept , is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a part of Enmity or Hatred . To this are reduc'd the Vnmerciful ; that is , such as use their right in extream severity towards Servants and Malefactors , Criminal or obnoxious persons : and the Implacable , that is a degree beyond ; such who being once offended will take no satisfaction , but the utmost and extremest forfeiture . DEBATE , CONTENTIONS . 11. That is , all striving in words or actions , scolding and quarrels , in which as commonly both parties are faulty when they enter , so it is certain they cannot go forth from them without having contracted the guilt of more than one sin : whither is reduced clamour , or loud expressions of anger : Clamour is the horse of anger , said S. Chrysostom , anger rides upon it ; throw the horse down , and the rider will fall to the ground . Blasphemy ; backbiting we read it , but the Greek signifies all words that are injurious to God or Man. WHISPERERS . 12. That is , such who are apt to do shrewd turns in private ; a speaking evil of our Neighbour in a mans ear ; Hic nigrae succus loliginis , haec est Aerugo mera : this is an arrow that flieth in the dark , it wounds secretly , and no man can be warned of it . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , backbiters ; it is the same mischief , but it speaks out a little more than the other ; and it denotes such who pretend friendship and society , but yet traduce their friend , or accuse him secretly ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Polybius calls it , a new way of accusation , to undermine a man by praising him , that you seeming his friend , a lover of his vertue and his person , by praising him may be the more easily believed in reporting his faults : like him in Horace , who was glad to hear any good of his old friend Capitolinus , whom he knew so well , who had so kindly obliged him , Sed tamen admiror quo pacto Judicium illud Fugerit — but yet I wonder that he escaped the Judges Sentence in his Criminal cause . There is a louder kind of this evil , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Railers ; that 's when the smoke is turned into a flame , and breaks out ; it is the same iniquity with another circumstance ; it is the vice of women and boys , and rich imperious fools , and hard rude Masters to their Servants , and it does too often infect the spirit and language of a Governour . Our Bibles read this word , by Despiteful ; that notes an aptness to speak spiteful words , cross and untoward , such which we know will do mischief or displease . FOOLISHNESS . 13. Which we understand by the words of S. Paul , Be not foolish , but understanding what the will of the Lord is : It means a neglect of enquiring into holy things ; a wilful or careless ignorance of the best things , a not studying our Religion , which indeed is the greatest folly and sottishness , it being a neglecting of our greatest interests , and of the most excellent notices , and it is the fountain of many impure emanations . A Christian must not be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he must not call fool , nor be a fool . Heady , is reduc'd to this , and signifies , rash and indiscreet in assenting and dissenting ; people that speak and do foolishly , because they speak and do without deliberation . PRIDE . 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; a despising of others , if compared with our selves : so Theophrastus calls it . Concerning which we are to judge our selves by the voices of others , and by the consequent actions observable in our selves : any thing whereby we overvalue our selves , or despise others ; preferring our selves , or depressing them in unequal places or usages , is the signification of this vice ; which no man does heartily think himself guilty of , but he that is not ; that is , the humble man. A particular of this sin is that which is in particular noted by the Apostle , under the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , arrogance , or bragging ; which includes pride and hypocrisie together : for so Plato defines it to be , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a pretending to excellencies which we have not ; a desiring to seem good , but a carelesness of being so ; reputation and fame , not goodness being the design . To this may be referred Emulations , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so the Apostle calls them , zeals , it signifies immoderate love to a lawful object : like that of the wife of Ajax in Sophocles . — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . She did him most strange , zealous services , as if her affection had no measure . It signifies also violent desires of equalling or excelling another for honours sake , ambition and envy mixt together : it is a violent pursuit after a thing that deserves it not . A consequent of these is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Seditions , or Schisms and Heresies . 15. That is , Divisions in the Church upon diversity of Opinions , or upon Pride , Faction and Interest , as in chusing Bishops , in Prelations and Governments Ecclesiastical , from factious Rulers , or factious Subjects ; which are properly Schisms , but use commonly to belch forth into Heresie : according to that saying , Plerunque schisma in haeresin eructat . AN EVIL EYE . 16. That is , a repining at the good of others ; Envy , a not rejoycing in the prosperity of our Neighbours ; a grieving because he grieves not . Aut illi nescio quid incommodi accidit , aut nescio cui aliquid boni : when good happens to another , it is as bad as if evil happened to himself . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 · 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . This is one of the worst of Crimes , for a man to hate him that is prosperous ; hate him whom God loves or blesses . It bears part of its punishment along with it : the sin hath in it no pleasure , but very much torment . Nam sese excruciat qui beatis invidet . A part of this is Vnthankfulness ; those who do not return kindnesses to others , from whom they have received any , neither are apt to acknowledge them : which is properly an envying to our friend the noblest of all graces , that of Charity ; or it is Pride or Covetousness , for from any of these roots this equivocal issue can proceed . LOVERS OF PLEASVRES . 17. Such who study and spend their time and money to please their senses ; — rarum & memorabile magni Gutturis exemplum , conducendúsque Magister : Rare Epicures and Gluttons , such which were famous in the Roman Luxury , and fit to be Presidents of a Greek Symposiack , not for their skill in Philosophy , but their witty Arts of drinking . Ingeniosa gula est , Siculo scarus aequore mersus Ad mensam vivus perducitur — Sensual men : Such who are dull , and unaffected with the things of God , and transported with the lusts of the lower belly ; persons that are greedy of baser pleasures . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said the Scholiast upon Aristotle . The wicked man allows to himself too large a portion of sweet things . Licorishness , is the common word to express this vice in the matter of eating and drinking . BVSIE-BODIES . 18. That is , such who invade the offices , or impertinently obtrude their advice and help when there is no need , and when it is not lik'd , nor out of charity , but of curiosity , or of a trifling spirit : and this produces talking of others , and makes their conversation a scene of Censure and Satyr against others ; never speaking of their own duty , but often to the reproach of their Neighbours , something that may lessen or disparage him . The Fearful , and the Vnbelievers . 19. That is , they that fear man more than God , that will do any thing , but suffer nothing , that fall away in persecution ; such who dare not trust the Promises , but fear want , and fear death , and trust not God with chearfulness , and joy , and confidence . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . They that take pleasure in those that do these things . 20. That is , they who in any sence incourage , or promote , or love the sin of another , are guilty themselves ; not of the others sin , but of their own . He that commands a man to swear , is not guilty of that swearing , but of that commanding him . It is a sin to do so ; but that sin to which the man is encouraged or tempted , or assisted , is his own sin , and for it he is to repent ; every man for his own . For it is in artificially said by the Masters of Moral Theology , that by many ways we are guilty of the sins of others : by many ways indeed we can procure them to sin ; and every such action of ours is a sin , against charity and the matter of that Commandment in which the temptation was instanc'd : But their sin is not ours ; their sin does not properly load us , neither does our being author of it , excuse them . It was the case of Adam and Eve , and the Serpent , who yet did every one bear their own burden . Aristotle , Zeno , and Chrysippus were notorious in this kind . Non est enim immunis à scelere qui ut fieret imperavit , nec est alienus à crimine , cujus consensu licèt à se non admissum crimen , tamen publicè legitur , said S. Cyprian . He that commands , and he that consents , and he that delights , and he that commends , and he that maintains , and he that counsels , and he that tempts , or conceals , or is silent in anothers danger , when his speaking will prevent it , is guilty before God. Corrumpere , & corrumpi saeculum vocatur . This evil is of a great extent , but receives its degrees according to the influence or causality it hath in the sins of others . 21. These I have noted and explicated , because they are not so notorious as others , which have a publick name , and filthy character , and easie definition : Such as , adulteries , fornication , drunkenness , idolatry , hating of God and good men , perjury , malicious lies , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as S. Paul adds , and such like ; these and those and all that are like these , exclude us from the Kingdom of Heaven . They are the works of the flesh ; but these which are last reckoned are such which all the world condemns , and they are easily discerned , as smoak , or a cloud upon the face of the Sun : but the other are sometimes esteemed innocent , often excused , commonly neglected , always undervalued . But concerning all these , the sentence is sad and decretory . They that are such shall not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven : But , they shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone . Now if we list to observe it , many of these are such which occur so frequently in our daily conversation , are so little noted and so confidently practised , that to try men concerning their hopes of Heaven by such measures would seem strange , and hard : but it is our faults that it is so ; these are the measures of the Sanctuary , and not to be prejudg'd by later and looser customs . SECT . II. Whether every single act of these Sins puts a man out of Gods favour ? 22. IN this Question , by a single act , I mean , a deliberate act , a wilful , observ'd , known act ; for concerning acts by surprize , by incogitancy , by imperfection , I shall give a special account in a Chapter on purpose . To this therefore I answer by several propositions . 23. I. There are some acts of sin so vile , and mischievous that they cannot be acted but by a great malice or depravation of the will ; and do suppose a man to be gone a great way from God before he can presumptuously or wilfully commit any of them ; such as are idolatry , wilful murder , adultery , witchcraft , perjury , sacriledge , and the like : such which by reason of their evil effect are called peccata clamantia ad Dominum , crying sins ; as , oppressing widows , entring into the fields of the fatherless , killing a man by false accusation , grinding the face of the poor , some sort of unnatual lusts : or such which by reason of their scandal , and severe prohibitions of them , and their proper baseness and unholiness , are peccata vastantia conscientiam , they lay a mans conscience waste ; such are all these that I have now reckoned . Now concerning every one of these there is amongst wise and good men no question , but every act of them is exclusive of a man from all his hopes of Heaven , unless he repent timely and effectually . For every act of these is such as a man cannot be surprised in the commission of it ; he can have no ignorance , no necessity , no infirmity to lessen or excuse his fault ; which because it is very mischievous in the event , expresly and severely , and by name forbidden , is also against holiness , and against charity , against God , and against the Commandment so apparently , that there is nothing to lessen them into the neighbourhood of an excuse , if he that commits them have a clear use of reason . Some acts of other sins are such which as they are innocent of doing mischief to our neighbour , so they are forbidden only in general ; but concerning the particular there is not any express certainty , as in drunkenness ; which though every Christian knows to be forbidden , yet concerning every particular act it is not always so certain that it is drunkenness , because the acts partake of more and less ; which is not true in murder , in adultery , apostasie , witchcraft , and the like : Besides which , in some of the forbidden instances there are some degrees of surprise , even when there are some degrees of presumption and deliberation , which in others there cannot be . Upon which considerations it is apparent that the single acts of these greater sins are equal to a habit in others , and are for the present , destructive of the state of Gods favour , a man that does them is in the state of damnation , till he hath repented ; that is , no good man can do one of these acts , and be a good man still ; he is a wicked person , and an enemy of God if he does . 24. II. This is apparent in those acts which can be done but once ; as in parricide , or murdering our Father or Mother , and in the wilful murder of our self . There can be no habit of these sins ; all their malignity is spent in one act ; and the event is best declared by one of them ; the man dies in his sin , in that sin which excludes him from Heaven . Every act of these sins is like the stinging of Bees ; — animámque in vulnere ponunt ; He cannot strike again , he can sin that sin over no more ; and therefore it is a single act that damns in that case . Now though it is by accident that these sins can be but once acted , yet it is not by accident that these single acts destroy the soul , but by their malice and evil effect , their mischief or uncharitableness : it follows therefore that it is so in all the single acts of these great crimes ; for since they that cannot be habitual , yet are highly damnable ; the evil sentence is upon every act of these greater crimes . 25. III. Concerning the single acts of other sins which are not so highly criminal , yet have a name in the Catalogues of condemn'd sins , the sentence in Scripture is the same ; the penalty extreme , the fine is the whole interest : S. Paul in his Epistle to the Corinthians seem only to condemn the habit , Thieves , drunkards , covetous , railers , &c. shall not inherit the kindom of Heaven . Now one act does not make them properly such ; a habit , not an act , denominates . But lest this be expounded to be a permission to commit single acts , S. Paul in his Epistle to the Galatians , affixes the same penalty to the actions , as to the habits ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they that do such things ; that is , the actions of those sins are damnable and exclusive from Heaven as verily as the habits . And however in moral accounts , or in Aristotle's Ethicks , a man is not called by the name of a single action , yet in all laws both of God and man he is . He that steals once is a thief , in the Courts of God and the King ; and one act of adultery makes a man an adulterer ; so that by this measure , [ they that are such ] and [ they that do such things ] means the same ; and the effect of both , is exclusion from the Kingdom of Heaven . 26. IV. Single actions in Scripture are called , works of darkness , deeds of the body , works of the flesh ; and though they do not reign , yet if they enter , they disturb the rest and possession of the spirit of grace ; and therefore are in their several measures against the holiness of the Gospel of Christ. All sins are single in their acting ; and a sinful habit differs from a sinful act , but as many differ from one , or as a year from an hour : a vicious habit is but one sin continued or repeated ; for as a sin grows from little to great , so it passes from act to habit : a sin is greater because it is complicated externally or internally , no other way in the world ; it is made up of more kinds , or more degrees of choice ; and when two or three crimes are mixt in one action , then the sin is loud and clamorous ; and if these still grow more numerous , and not interrupted and disjoyned by a speedy repentance , then it becomes a habit . As the continuation of an instant or its perpetual flux makes time and proper succession , so does the re-acting or the continuing in any one or more sins make a habitual sinner . So that in this Question , the answer for one will serve for the other : where-ever the habit is forbidden , there also the act is criminal and against God , damnable by the laws of God , and actually damning without repentance . Between sins great and little , actual and habitual , there is no difference of nature or formality , but only of degrees . 27. V. And therefore the words that represent the state of sin are used indifferently both for acts and habits . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to do single acts , and by aggravation only can signifie an habitual sinner : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he that commits sin is of the Devil ; so S. John : by which although he means especially him that commits sin frequently or habitually ; for where there is greater reason , there is the stronger affirmative : yet that he must also mean it of single sins is evident , not only by the nature of the thing , some single acts in some instances being as mischievous and malicious as a habit in others ; but by the words of our blessed Saviour , that the Devil is the Father of lies ; and therefore every one that tells a lie is of the Devil ; eátenus . To which add also the words of S. John explicating his whole design in these and all his other words ; These things I write unto you that ye might not sin , that is , that ye might not do sinful actions ; for it cannot be supposed , that he did not as verily intend to prevent every sin , as any sin , or that he would only have men to beware of habitual sins , and not of actual , single sins , without which caution he could never have prevented the habitual . To do sin is to do one , or to do many ; and are both forbidden under the same danger . 28. The same manner of expression in a differing matter hath a different signification . To do sin is to do any one act of it : but to do righteousness is to do it habitually . He that doth sin , that is , one act of sin , is of the Devil ; But he that doth righteousness , viz. habitually , he [ only ] is righteous . The reason of the difference is this , because one sin can destroy a man , but one act of vertue cannot make him alive . As a phial is broken , though but a piece of its lip be cut away ; but it is not whole unless it be intire and unbroken in every part . Bonum ex integrâ causâ , malum ex qualibet particulari . And therefore since he that does righteousness ( in S. John's phrase ) is righteous ; and yet no man is righteous for doing one act of righteousness ; it follows , that by doing righteousness , he must mean doing it habitually . But because one blow can kill a man or wound him desperately ; therefore when S. John speaks of doing sin , he means doing any sin , any way , or in any degree of act or habit . For this is that we are commanded by the Spirit of Christ ; we must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , walk exactly , not having spot or wrinkle , or any thing of that nature , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , holy and unblameable ; so must the Church be ; that is , so must be all the faithful , or the men and women of the Christian Church ; for the Church is nothing but a congregation or collective body of believing persons ; Christ therefore intending to represent the Church of God without spot , or wrinkle , or fault ; intends that all his servants should be so . For , let no man deceive himself . Omnis homo qui post baptismum mortalia crimina commiserit ; hoc est , homicidium , adulterium , furtum , falsum testimonium , vel reliqua crimina perpetravit , unde per legem mundanam mori poterat , si poenitentiam non egerit , eleemosynam justam non fecerit , nunquam habebit vitam aeternam , sed cum Diabolo descendet ad inferna . Every man who after his baptism hath committed mortal , or killing sins , that is to say , murder , adultery , theft , false witness , or any other crimes which are capital by humane laws , if he does not repent , if he does not give just measures of alms , he shall not have eternal life , but with the Devil he shall descend into Hell. This is the sad sentence against all single acts of sin in the capital or greater instances . 28. But upon this account who can be justified ? who can hope for Heaven , since even the most righteous man that is , sinneth ; and by single acts of unworthiness interrupts his course of piety , and pollutes his spirit ? If a single act of these great or mortal sins can stand with the state of grace , then not acts of these but habits are forbidden , and these only shut a man from Heaven . But if one single act destroys the state of grace , and puts a man out of Gods favour , then no man abides in it long , and what shall be at the end of these things ? 29. To this I answer , that single acts are continually forbidden , and in every period of their commission displease God , and provoke him to anger . To abide in any one sin , or to do it often , or to love it , is against the Covenant of the Gospel , and the essence and nature of repentance , which is a conversion from sin to righteousness : but every single act is against the cautions and watchfulness of repentance . It is an act of death , but not a state ; it is the way of death , but is not in the possession of it . It is true that every single act of fornication merits an eternal Hell , yet when we name it to be a single act , we suppose it to be no more , that is , to be rescinded and immediately cut off by a vigorous and proportionable repentance : if it be not , it is more than a single act , for it is a habit , as I shall remonstrate in the Chapter of Habits . But then upon this account a single act of any sin may be incident to the state of a good man , and yet not destroy his interests or his hopes ; but it is upon no other ground but this , It is a single act , and it does not abide there , but passes immediately into repentance : and then though it did interrupt or discompose the state of grace or the Divine favour , yet it did not destroy it quite . The man may pray Davids prayer : I have gone astray like a sheep that is lost : O seek thy servant , for I do not forget thy Commandments . 30. So that if a man asks whether a good man falling into one act of these great sins , still remains a good man ; the answer is to be made upon this consideration , He is a good man that is so sorry for his sin , and so hates it , that he will not abide in it : and this is the best indication , that in the act there was something very pitiable , because the mans affections abide not there ; the good man was smitten in a weak part , or in an ill hour , and then repents : for such is our goodness ; to need repentance daily for smaller things , and too often for greater things . But be they great or little , they must be speedily repented of ; and he that does so , is a good man still . Not but that the single act is highly damnable , and exclusive of Heaven , if it self were not excluded from his affections : but it does not the mischief , because he does not suffer it to proceed in finishing that death which it would have effected , if the poison had not been speedily expelled , before it had seis'd upon a vital part . 31. But secondly , I answer , that being in the state of grace is a phrase of the Schools , and is of a large and almost infinite comprehension . Every Christian is in some degree in the state of grace , so long as he is invited to Repentance , and so long as he is capable of the Prayers of the Church . This we learn from those words of S. John , All unrighteousness is sin , and there is a sin not unto death ; that is , some sorts of sins are so incident to the condition of men , and their state of imperfection , that the man who hath committed them is still within the methods of pardon , and hath not forfeited his title to the Promises and Covenant of Repentance : But there is a sin unto death : that is , some men proceed beyond the measures and Oeconomy of the Gospel , and the usual methods and probabilities of Repentance , by obstinacy , and persevering in sin , by a wilful , spiteful resisting , or despising the offers of grace and the means of pardon ; for such a man S. John does not encourage us to pray : If he be such a person as S. John described , our prayers will do him no good ; but because no man can tell the last minute or period of pardon , nor just when a man is gone beyond the limit ; and because the limit it self can be enlarged , and Gods mercies stay for some longer than for others , therefore S. John left us under this indefinite restraint and caution ; which was decretory enough to represent that sad state of things in which the refractory and impenitent have immerged themselves , and yet so indefinite and cautious , that we may not be too forward in applying it to particulars , nor in prescribing measures to the Divine Mercy , nor passing final sentences upon our brother , before we have heard our Judge himself speak . Sinning a sin not unto death , is an expression fully signifying that there are some sins which though they be committed and displease God , and must be repented of , and need many and mighty prayers for their pardon , yet the man is in the state of grace and pardon , that is , he is within the Covenant of mercy , he may be admitted to repentance , if he will return to his duty : So that being in the state of grace , is having a title to Gods loving kindness , a not being rejected of God , but a being beloved by him to certain purposes of mercy , and that hath these measures and degrees . 32. I. A wicked Christian that lives vilely , and yet is called to Repentance by the vigorous and fervent Sermons of the Gospel , is in a state of grace , of this grace . God would fain save him , willing he is and desirous he should live ; but his mercy to him goes but thus far , that he still continues the means of his salvation ; he is angry with him , but not finally . The Jews were in some portions of this state until the final day came in which God would not be merciful any more : Even in this thy day , O Jerusalem , said our blessed Saviour ; so long as their day lasted , their state of grace lasted , God had mercy for them , if they had had gracious hearts to receive it . 33. II. But he that begins to leave his sins , and is in a continual contestation against them , and yet falls often , even most commonly , at the return of the temptation , and sin does in some measure prevail ; he is in the state of a further grace , nearer to pardon , as he is nearer to holiness ; his hopes are greater and nearer to performance , He is not far from the Kingdom of Heaven , so our blessed Lord expressed the like condition ; he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ordered , dispos'd towards life eternal : and this is a further approach towards the state of life . 34. III. He that loves no sin , but hath overcome his affections to all , and hates all , but yet with so imperfect a choice or aversation , that his faith is weak , and his repentance like an infant ; this man is in a better state than both the former : God will not quench the smoaking flax , nor break the bruised reed ; God hath in some measure prevail'd upon him : and as God is ready to receive the first unto the means , and the second unto the grace of Repentance ; so this third he is ready to receive unto pardon , if he shall grow and persevere in grace . And these are the several stages and periods of being in the state of grace . I. With the first of these not only an act , but a habit of sin is consistent ; but how long and how far , God only knows . II. With the second period a frequency of falling into single sins is consistent : But if he comes not out of this state , and proceed to the third period , he will relapse to the first , he must not stay here long . III. But they that are in the third period , do sometimes fall into single sins , but it is but seldom , and it is without any remanent portion of affection , but not without much displeasure and a speedy repentance ; and to this person , the proper remedy is to grow in grace , for if he does not , he cannot either be secure of the present , or confident of the future . 35. IV. But then if by being in the state of grace is meant a being actually pardon'd and beloved of God unto salvation , so that if the man dies so , he shall be saved , it is certain that every deliberate sin , every act of sin that is considered and chosen , puts a man out of the state of grace ; that is , the act of sin is still upon his account , he is not actually pardon'd in that for any other worthiness of state , or relation of person ; he must come to new accounts for that ; and if he dies without a moral retraction of it , he is in a sad condition , if God should deal with him summojure , that is , be extreme to mark that which was done amiss . The single act is highly damnable ; the wages of it are death , it defiles a man , it excludes from Heaven , it grieves the holy Spirit of grace , it is against his undertaking , and in its own proportion against all his hopes : if it be not pardon'd , it will bear the man to Hell ; but then how it comes to be pardon'd in good men , and by what measures of favour and proper dispensation , is next to be considered . Therefore , 36. V. Though by the nature of the thing and the laws of the Covenant , every single deliberate act of sin provokes God to anger , who therefore may punish it by the severest laws which he decreed against it ; yet by the Oeconomy of God and the Divine Dispensation it is sometimes otherwise . For besides the eternal wrath of God , there are some that suffer his temporal ; some suffer both , some but one . God uses to smite them whom he would make to be , or them who are his sons , if they do amiss . If a wicked man be smitten with a temporal judgment , and thence begins to fear God and to return , the anger will go no further ; and therefore much rather shall such temporal judgments upon the good man that was overtaken in a fault be the whole exaction . God smites them that sin these single sins , and though he could take all , yet will demand but a fine . 37. VI. But even this also God does not do , but in the case of scandal or danger to others : as it was in the particular of David , Because thou hast made the enemies of God to blaspheme , the child that is born unto thee shall die : or else 2. When the good man is negligent of his danger , or dilatory in his repentance , and careless in his watch , then God awakens him with a judgment , sent with much mercy . 38. VII . But sometimes a temporal death happens to good men so overtaken ; It happened so to Moses and Aaron for their fault at the waters of Massah and Meribah ; to the Prophet of Judah that came to cry out against the Altar in Bethel ; to Vzzah for touching the Ark with unhallowed fingers , though he did it in zeal ; to the Corinthians who had not observed decent measures in receiving the holy Sacrament ; and thus it happened ( say some of the ancient Doctors ) to Ananias and Sapphira ; God took a fine of them also salvo contenemento , their main stake being secured , — Culpam hanc miserorum morte piabant . There is in these instances this difference : Moses and Aaron were not smitten in their sin , but for it , and ( as is not doubted ) after they had repented : but Vzzah , and the Prophet , and Ananias and Sapphira , and the Corinthians died not only for their sin , but in it too : and yet it is hoped Gods anger went no further than that death , because in every such person who lives well , and yet is overtaken in a fault , there is much of infirmity and imperfection of choice , even when there are some degrees of wilfulness and a wicked heart . And though it be easie to suppose that such persons in the beginning of that judgment , and the approach of that death , did morally retract the sinful action by an act of repentance , and that upon that account they found the effect of the Divine mercies by the blood of the Lamb who was slain from the beginning of the world ; yet if it should happen that any of them die so suddenly , as not to have power to exercise one act of repentance , though the case be harder , yet it is to be hoped that even the habitual repentance and hatred of sin by which they pleased God in the greater portions of their life , will have some influence upon this also . But this case is but seldom , and Gods mercies are very great and glorious ; but because there is in this case no warrant , and this case may happen oftner than it does , even to any one that sins one wilful sin , it is enough to all considering persons to make them fear : but the fool sinneth and is confident . 39. VIII . But if such overtaken persons do live , then Gods Dispensation is all mercy , even though he strikes the sinner , for he does it for good . For God is merciful and knows our weaknesses , our natural and circumstant follies : he therefore recalls the sinning man , he strikes him sharply , or he corrects him gently , or he calls upon him hastily , as God please , or as the man needs . The man is fallen from the favour or grace of God , but ( I say ) fallen only from one step of grace ; and God is more ready to receive him , than the man is to return ; and provided that he repent speedily , and neither add a new crime , nor neglect this , his state of grace was but allayed and disordered , not broken in pieces or destroyed . 40. IX . I find this thing rarely well discoursed of by some of the ancient Doctors of the Church . Tertullians words are excellent words to this purpose : Licet perisse dicatur , erit & de perditionis genere retractare , quia & ovis non moriendo , sed errando ; & drachma non intereundo , sed latitando perierunt . Ita licet dici perisse quod salvum est . That may be said to be lost which is missing , and the sheep that went astray was also lost ; and so was the groat , which yet was but laid aside , it was so lost that it was found again . And thus that may be said to have perish'd , which yet is safe . Perit igitur & fidelis elapsus in spectaculum quadrigarii furoris & gladiatorii cruoris , & scenicae foeditatis , Xisticae vanitatis , in lusus , in convivia saecularis solennitatis , in officium , in Ministerium alienae idololatriae aliquas artes adhibuit curiositatis , in verbum ancipitis negotiationis impegit , ob tale quid extra gregem datus est : vel & ipse fortè irâ , tumore , emulatione , quod denique saepe fit , dedignatione castigationis abrupit , debet requiri atque revocari . The Christian is ( in some sort ) perished , who sins by beholding bloody or unchaste spectacles , who ministers to the sins of others ; who offends by anger , emulation , rage , and swelling , too severe animadversions ; this man must be sought for and called back , but this man is not quite lost . Quod potest recuperari non perit , nisi foris perseveravit . Benè interpretaberis parabolam , viventem adhuc revocans peccatorem . That which may be recovered , is but as it were lost , unless it remains abroad , and returns not to the place from whence it wandred . 41. To the same purpose S. Cyprian and S. Ambrose discourse of the Parable of him that fell among the thieves and was wounded and half dead . Such are they who in times of persecution fell away into dissimulation . Nec putemus mortuos esse , sed magis semianimes jacere eos quos persecutione funestâ sauciatos videmus , qui si in totum mortui essent , nunquam de eisdem postmodùm & Confessores & Martyres fierent . For if these were quite dead , you should not find of them to return to life , and to become Martyrs and Confessors for that faith which through weakness they did seemingly abjure . These men therefore were but wounded and half dead : for they still keep the faith , they preserve their title to the Covenant , and the Promises of the Gospel , and the grace of Repentance . Quam fidem qui habet , vitam habet ( saith S. Ambrose ) He that hath this faith hath life , that is , he is not excluded from pardon ; whom therefore peradventure the good Samaritan does not pass by , because he finds there is life in him , some principle by which he may live again . Now as it was in the matter of Faith , so it is of Charity and the other graces . Every act of sin takes away something from the contrary grace ; but if the root abides in the ground , the plant is still alive , and may bring forth fruit again . But he only is dead who hath thrown God off for ever , or intirely , with his very heart . So S. Ambrose . To be dead in trespasses and sins , which is the phrase of S. Paul , is the same with that expression of S. John , of sinning a sin unto death , that is , habitual , refractory , pertinacious and incorrigible sinners , in whom there is scarce any hopes or sign of life . These are they upon whom ( as S. Paul's expression is ) the wrath of God is come upon them to the uttermost ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , unto death ; so was their sin , it was a sin unto death , so is their punishment . The result of these considerations is this . He that commits one act of a wilful sin , hath provoked God to anger ; which whether it will be final or no , we cannot know but by the event , by his forbearing us , and calling us , and accepting us to repentance . One act does not destroy the life of grace utterly , but wounds it more or less , according to the vileness and quantity , or abode in the sin . SECT . III. What Repentance is necessary for single acts of Sin. 42. I. UPON consideration of the premisses it appears to be dangerous practically to inquire how far single acts of sin can stand with the state of grace , or the being of a good man. For they ought not to be at all , and if they be once , we must repent , and the sin must be pardoned , or we die : And when it can be ask'd how far any sin can be consistent with the state of Gods favour , it cannot be meant that God indulges it to a good man with impunity , or that his grace and favour consists in this that he may safely sin once or twice in what instance or in any instance he shall chuse : but in this it does ; a single act of sin does not so destroy the hopes of a good man , but that if he returns speedily he shall be pardoned speedily ; for this , God will do for him , not by permitting him to sin again , but by taking his sin away , and healing his soul ; but how soon , or how much , or how long God will pardon or forbear , he hath no way told us . * For in the several states and periods of the soul in order to vertue or vice respectively , there is no specifical difference but of degrees only , not of state . As the sins are more or longer , God is more angry , and the man further off ; but the man is not wholly altered from his state of grace till he be arriv'd at the unpardonable condition . He is a good , or an evil man , more or less , according as he sins or repents . For neither of the appellatives are absolute and irrespective ; and though in Philosophy we use to account them such by the prevailing ingredient , yet the measures of the spirit are otherwise . The whole affair is arbitrary , and gradual , various by its own measures and the good pleasure of God , so that we cannot in these things which are in perpetual flux , come to any certain measures . But although in judging of events we are uncertain , yet in the measures of repentance we can be better guided . Therefore first in general : 43. II. S. Cyprian's rule is a prudent measure , Quàm magna deliquimus , tam granditèr defleamus ; ut poenitentia crimine minor non sit . According to the greatness of the sin , so must be the greatness of the sorrow : and therefore we are in our beginnings and progressions of repentance to consider all the 1 circumstances of aggravation , 2 the complication of the crime , 3 the scandal and 4 evil effect ; and in proportion to every one of these , the sorrow is to be enlarged and continued . For if it be necessary to be afflicted because we have done evil ; it is also necessary that our affliction and grief be answerable to all the parts of evil : because a sin grows greater by being more in matter or choice , in the instances , or in the adhesion ; and as two sins must be deplored more than one , so must two degrees , that is , the greater portions of malice and wilfulness be mourned for with a bigger sorrow than the less . 44. III. Every single act of sin must be cut off by a moral revocation , or a contrary act ; by which I mean , an express hatred and detestation of it . For an act of sin being in its proportion an aversion or turning from God , and repentance being in its whole nature a conversion to him , that act must be destroyed as it can be . Now because that which is done , cannot naturally be made undone , it must morally ; that is , it must be revok'd by an act of nolition , and hatred of it , and a wishing it had never been done , for that is properly a conversion from that act of sin . 45. IV. But because in some cases a moral revocation may be like an ineffective resolution , therefore besides the inward nolition or hating of the sin , in all signal and remarked instances of sin , it is highly requisite that the sinning man do oppose an act of vertue to the act of sin in the same instance where it is capable ; as to an act of gluttony , let him oppose an act of abstinence ; to an act of uncleanness , an act of purity and chastity ; to anger and fierce contentions , let him oppose charity and silence : for to hate sin and not to love vertue is a contradiction , and to pretend it is hypocrisie . But besides this , as the nolition or hatred of it does ( if it be real ) destroy the moral being of that act , so does the contrary act destroy its natural being ( as far as it is capable . ) And however it be , yet it is upon this account necessary . For since one act of sin deliberately chosen was an ill beginning and in let of a habit , it is necessary that there be as much done to obtain the habit of the contrary vertue , as was done towards the habit of vice ; that to God as intire a restitution as can , may be made of his own right , and purchased inheritance . 46. V. Every act of sin is a displeasure to God and a provocation of an infinite Majesty , and therefore the repentance for it must also have other measures than by the natural and moral proportions . One act of sorrow is a moral revocation of one act of sin , and as much a natural deletion of it , as the thing is capable . * But there is something more in it than thus , for a single act of sin deserves an eternal Hell ; and upon what account soever that be , it is fit that we do something of repentance in relation to the offence of an infinite God : and therefore let our repentance proceed towards infinite as much as it may : my meaning is , that we do not finally rest in a moral revocation of an act by an act , but that we beg for pardon all our days even for that one sin . * For besides that every sin is against an infinite God , and so ought to be wash'd off with a sorrow as near to infinite as we can ; we are not certain in what periods of sorrow God will speak to us in the accents of mercy and voice of pardon : He always take of them that repent , less than he could in justice exact if he so pleased , but how much less he will take , he hath no where told us , and therefore let us make our way as secure as we can ; let us still go on in repentance , and in the progression we are sure to meet with God. * But there is in it yet more . For however the act of sin be usually called and supposed to be a single act , yet if we consider how many fancies and temptations were preparatory to it , how many consentings to the sin , how many desires and acts of prosecution , what contrivances , and resistances of the holy motions of Gods Spirit and the checks of conscience , how many refusings of God and his laws , what unfitting means and sinful progressions were made to arrive thither , what criminal and undecent circumstances , what degrees of consent , and approaches to a perfect choice , what vicious hopes , and vile fears , what expence of time and mis-imployed passions were in one act of fornication or murder , oppression of the poor , or subornation of witnesses , we shall find that the proportions will be too little to oppose but one act of vertue against all these evils ; especially since an act of vertue ( as we order our affairs ) is much more single than an act of vice is . 47. VI. Every single act of vice may and must be repented of particularly , if it be a wilful , deliberate , and observed action . A general repentance will not serve the turn in these cases . When a man hath forgotten the particulars , he must make it up as well as he can . This is the evil of a delayed repentance , it is a thousand to one but it is imperfect and lame , general and unactive ; it will need arts of supply and collateral remedies , and reflex actions of sorrow , and what the effect will be is in many degrees uncertain : But if it be speedy , and particular , the remedy is the more easie , the more ready , and the more certain . But when a man is overtaken in a fault , he must be restored again as to that particular ; for by that he transgressed , there he is smitten and wounded , in that instance the habit begins , and at that door the Divine judgment may enter , for his anger is there already . For although God pardons all sins or none in respect of the final sentence and eternal pain , yet God strikes particular sins with proper and specifick punishments in this life , which if they be not diverted by proper applications may break us all in pieces . And therefore Davids repentance was particularly applied to his special case , of murder and adultery : and because some sins are harder to be pardoned , and harder to be cured than others , it is certain they must be taken off by a special regard . A general repentance is never sufficient , but when there cannot be a particular ▪ 48. VII . Whoever hath committed any one act of a great crime , let him take the advantage of his first shame and regret , and in the activity of that passion let him design some fasting days , as the solemnities of his repentance , which he must imploy in the bitterness of his soul , in detestation of his sin , in judging , condemning , and executing sentence upon himself ; and in all the actions of repentance , which are the parts and fruits of this duty , according as he shall find them described in their proper places . 49. These are the measures of repentance for single acts of deliberate sin , when they have no other appendage , or proper Consideration . But there are some acts of sin , which by several ways and measures pass into habits , directly , or by equivalency and moral value . For 1. The repetition of acts and proceeding in the same crime is a perfect habit , which as it rises higher to obstinacy , to perseverance , to resolutions never to repent , to hardness of heart , to final impenitence , so it is still more killing and damnable . 2. If a man sins often in several instances it is a habit , properly so called ; for although the instances be single , yet the disobedience and disaffection are united and habitual . 3. When a single act of sin is done , and the guilt remains , not rescinded by repentance , that act which naturally is but single , yet morally is habitual . Of these I shall give account in the next Chapter , where they are of proper consideration . But there are yet three ways more by which single acts do become habits by equivalency and moral value , and are here to be considered accordingly . 50. VIII . First , if a single act of sin have a permanent matter , so long as that matter remains , the sin is uncancell'd . Of this nature is theft , which cannot be cut off by a moral revocation , or an internal act : there must be something done without . For it is a contradiction to say that a man is sorry for his act of stealing , who yet rejoyces in the purchase and retains it : Every man that repents , is bound to make his sinful act as much as he can to be undone : and the moral revocation or nolition of it , is our entercourse with God only , who takes and accepts that , which is the All which can be done to him . But God takes care of our brother also , and therefore will not accept his own share unless all interested persons be satisfied as much as they ought . There is a great matter in it , that our neighbour also do forgive us , that his interest be served , that he do not desire our punishment : of this I shall afterwards give accounts ; in the mean time , if the matter of our sin be not taken away , so long as it remains , so long there is a remanency and a tarrying in it , and that is a degree of habit . 51. IX . Secondly , if the single act have a continual flux or emanation from it self , it is as a habit by moral account , and is a principle of action , and is potentially many . Of this nature is every action whose proper and immediate principle is a passion . Such as hatred of our neighbour , a fearfulness of persecution , a love of pleasures . For a man cannot properly be said to have an act of hatred , an actual expression of it he may ; but if he hates him in one act , and repents not of it , it is a vicious affection , and in the sence of moral Theology it is a habit ; the law of God having given measures to our affections as well as to actions . In this case when we have committed one act of uncharitableness , or hatred , it is not enough to oppose against it one act of love ; but the principle must be altered , and the love of our neighbour must be introduced into our spirit . 52. X. There is yet another sort of sinful action which does in some sence equal a habit , and that is an act of the greatest and most crying sins , a complicated sin . Thus for a Prince or a Priest to commit adultery ; for a child to accuse his Father falsly ; to oppress a widow in judgment , are sins of a monstrous proportion ; they are three or four sins apiece , and therefore are to be repented of by untwining the knot , and cutting asunder every thred : He that repents of adultery , must repent of his uncleanness , and of his injustice or wrong to his neighbour , and of his own breach of faith , and of his tempting a poor soul to sin and death ; and he must make amends for the scandal besides , in case there was any in it . In these , and all the like cases let no man flatter himself when he hath wept and prayed against his sin ; one solemnity is not sufficient ; one act of contrition is but the beginning of a repentance ; and where the crime is capital by the laws of wise Nations , the greatest , the longest , the sharpest repentance is little enough in the Court of Conscience . So Pacianus ; Haec est novi Testamenti tota conclusio ; despectus in multis Spiritus sanctus haec nobis capitalis periculi conditione legavit . Reliqua peccata meliorum operum compensatione curantur : Haec verò tria crimina , ut basilisci alicujus afflatus , ut veneni calix , ut lethalis arundo me●uenda sunt : non enim vitiare animam , sed intercipere noverunt . Some sins do pollute , and some do kill the soul , that is , are very near approaches to death , next to the unpardonable state : and they are to be repented of , just as habits are * , even by a long and a laborious repentance , and by the piety and holiness of our whole ensuing life . De peccato remisso noli esse securus , said the son of Sirach . Be not secure though your sin be pardoned ; when therefore you are working out and suing your pardon , be not too confident . 53. XI . Those acts of sin which can once be done and no more , as Parricide , and such which destroy the subject or person against whom the sin is committed , are to be cured by Prayer and Sorrow , and entercourses with God immediately : the effect of which because it can never be told , and because the mischief can never be rescinded so much as by fiction of Law , nor any supply be made to the injur'd person , the guilty man must never think himself safe , but in the daily and nightly actions of a holy Repentance . 54. XII . He that will repent well and truly of his single actual sins , must be infinitely careful that he do not sin after his Repentance , and think he may venture upon another single sin , supposing that an act of contrition will take it off ; and so interchange his days by sin and sorrow , doing to morrow what he was ashamed of yesterday . For he that sins upon the confidence of Repentance , does not repent at all , because he repents that he may sin : and these single acts so periodically returning , do unite and become a habit . He that resolves against a sin , and yet falls when he is tempted , is under the power of sin in some proportion , and his estate is very suspicious ; though he always resolved against that sin which he always commits . It is upon no other account that a single sin does not destroy a man , but because it self is speedily destroyed ; if therefore it goes on upon its own strength , and returns in its proper period , it is not destroyed , but lives and indangers the man. 55. XIII . Be careful that you do not commit a single act of sin toward the latter end of your life ; for it being uncertain what degrees of anger God will put on , and in what periods of time he will return to mercy , the nearer to our death such sins inter●●ne , the more degrees of danger they have . For although the former discourse is agreeable to the analogy of the Gospel , and the Oeconomy of the Divine Mercy ; yet there are sad words spoken against every single sin . Whosoever shall keep the whole law , and yet offends in one instance , he shall be guilty of all , saith S. James ; plainly affirming , that the admitting one sin , much more , the abiding in any one sin , destroys all our present possession of Gods favour . Concerning which , although it may seem strange that one prevarication in one instance should make an universal guilt , yet it will be certain and intelligible if we consider that it relates not to the formality , but to the event of things . He that commits an act of Murther is not therefore an Adulterer , but yet for being a Murtherer he shall die . He is as if he were guilty of all ; that is , his innocence in the other shall not procure him impunity in this . One crime is inconsistent with Gods love and favour . 56. But there is something more in it than this . For every one that breaks a Commandment , let the instance be what it will , is a transgressor of the same bond by which he was bound to all . Non quòd omnia legis praecepta violârit , sed quòd legis Authore●● contempserit , eóque praemio meritò careat quod legis cultoribus propositum est , saith Venerable Bede . He did not violate all the Commandments , but he offended him who is the giver of all the Commandments . It is like letting one Bead fall from a Rosary or Corone of Bugles . This , or that , or a third makes no difference , the string i● as much broken if he lets one to slide , as if he dropp'd twenty . It was not an ill conceit of Me●edemus the Eretrian , that there was but one vertue which had divers names . Aristo Chius express'd the same conceit with a little difference ; affirming all vertues to be the same in reality and nature , but to have a certain diversification or rational difference by relation to their objects . As if one should call the sight when it looks upon a Crow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , if upon a Swan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; so is vertue . When it moderates the affections , it is Temperance ; when it balances contracts , it is Justice ; when it considers what is , and what is not to be done , it is Prudence . That which they call Vertue , if we call it the grace of God , or Obedience , it is very true which they say . For the same spirit , the same grace of obedience , is Chastity , or Temperance , or Justice , according as is the subject matter . The love of God , if it be in us , is productive of all worthiness : and this is it which S. John said , This is love , that we keep his Commandments ; The love of God constraineth us ; It worketh all the works of God in us ; It is the fulfilling of the Commandments . For this is a Catholicon , an Universal Grace . Charity gives being to all vertues , it is the life and spirit of all holy actions . Abstinence from feasts and inordination , mingled with Charity , is Temperance . And Justice is Charity , and Chastity is Charity , and Humility is still but an instance of Charity . This is that Transcendent that gives life and vertue to Alms , to Preaching , to Faith , to Miracles ; it does all obedience to God , all good offices to our Neighbours : which in effect is nothing but the sentence of Menedemus and Aristo , that there is an Universal Vertue ; that is , there is one soul and essence of all vertue : They call it Vertue , S. Paul calls it Charity ; and this is that one thing which is necessary , that one thing which every man that sins , does violate : He that is guilty of all , is but guilty of that one , and therefore he that is guilty of that one , of the breach of Charity , is guilty of all . And upon this account it is , that no one sin can stand with the state of grace ; because he that sins in once instance , sins against all goodness : not against all instances of duty , but against that which is the life of all , against Charity and Obedience . A Prayer to be said in the days of Repentance for the commission of any great Crime . O MOST glorious God , I tremble to come into thy presence , so polluted and dishonoured as I am by my soul stain of sin which I have contracted , but I must come , or I perish . O my God , I cannot help it now ; Miserable man that I am , to reduce my self to so sad a state of things , that I neither am worthy to come unto thee , nor dare I stay from thee : Miserable man that I am , who lost that portion of innocence which if I should pay my life in price I cannot now recover . O dear God , I have offended thee my gracious Father , my Lord , my Patron , my Judge , my Advocate , and my Redeemer . Shame and sorrow is upon me , for so offending thee my gracious Saviour . But glory be to thee , O Lord , who art such to me who have offended thee . It aggravates my sin , that I have sinned against thee who art so excellent in thy self , who art so good to me : But if thou wert not so good to me , though my sin would be less , yet my misery would be greater . The greatness of my Crime brings me to my Remedy ; and now I humbly pray thee to be merciful to my sin , for it is very great . II. O MY God pity me , and relieve my sad condition , which is so extremely evil , that I have no comfort but from that which is indeed my misery : My baseness is increased by my hopes ; for it is thy grace and thy goodness which I have so provoked . Thou , O God , didst give me thy grace , and assist me by thy holy Spirit , and call by thy Word , and instruct me by thy Wisdom , and didst work in me to will and to do according to thy good pleasure . I knew my sin , and I saw my danger , and I was not ignorant , and I was not surpris'd : but wilfully , knowingly , basely , and sensually I gave thee away for the pleasure of a minute , for the purchase of vanity ; nay I exchanged thee for shame and sorrow , and having justly forfeited thy love , am plac'd I know not where , nor in what degree of thy anger , nor in what neighbourhood of damnation . III. O GOD my God , what have I done ? whither am I fallen ? I was well and blessed , circled with thy Graces , conducted by thy Spirit , sealed up to the day of Redemption , in a hopeful way towards thee ; and now I have listned to the whispers of a tempting Spirit , and for that which hath in it no good , no reason , no satisfaction , for that which is not , I have forfeited those excellencies , for the recovery of which my life is too cheap a price . I am ashamed , O God , I am ashamed . I put my mouth in the dust , and my face in darkness ; and hate my self for my sin , which I am sure thou hatest . But give thy servant leave to hope , that I shall feel the gracious effluxes of thy love : I know thou art angry with me , I have deserved it . But if thou hadst not lov'd me and pitied me , thou mightest have stricken me in the act of my shame : I know the design of thy mercy and loving kindness is to bring me to repentance and pardon , to life and grace . I obey thee , O God , I humbly obey thy gracious purposes . Receive , O Lord , a returning sinner , a poor wounded person , smitten by my enemies , broken by my sin , weary and heavy laden ; ease me of my burthen , and strengthen me by a mighty grace , that hereafter I may watch more carefully , resist more pertinaciously , walk more circumspectly , and serve thee without the interruptions of duty by the intervening of a sin . O let me rather die , than chuse to sin against thee any more . Only try me this once , and bear me in thy arms , and fortifie my holy purposes , and conduct me with thy grace , that thou mayest delight to pardon me , and to save me through Jesus Christ my Lord and dearest Saviour . Amen . I have gone astray like a sheep that is lost : O seek thy servant , for I do not forget thy Commandments . CHAP. V. Of Habitual Sins , and their manner of Eradication or Cure , and their proper Instruments of Pardon . SECT . I. The State of the Question . 1. BOETHVS the Epicurean being ask'd , upon occasion of the fame of Strato's Comedy , Why , it being troublesome to us to see a man furious , angry , timorous or sad , we do yet with so great pleasure behold all these passions acted with the highest , nearest , and most natural significations ? In answer to the question discours'd wittily concerning the powers of Art and Reason , and how much our selves can add to our own Natures by Art and Study . Children chuse bread efform'd in the image of a Bird or Man , rather than a Loaf pluck'd rudely from the Bakers lump ; and a golden Fish rather than an artless Ingot : because Reason and Art being mingled with it , it entertains more faculties , and pleases on more sides . 2. Thus we are delighted when upon a Table we see Cleopatra dying with her Aspicks , or Lucretia piercing her chaste breast . We give great prices for a Picture of S. Sebastian shot through with a shower of arrows , or S. Laurence rosting upon his Gridiron , when the things themselves would have pierc'd our eyes with horror , and rent our very hearts with pity and compassion : and the Country fellows were so taken with Parmeno's imitating the noise of Swine , that they preferr'd it before that of the Arcadian Boar , being so deceiv'd with fancy and prejudice , that they thought it more natural than that which indeed was so . 3. For first we are naturally pleas'd with imitation , and have secret desires to transcribe the copy of the Creation , and then having weakly imitated the work of God in making some kind of production from our own perfections , such as it is , and such as they are , we are delighted in the imagery , as God is in the contemplation of the world . For we see a nature brought in upon us by art and imitation . But what in natural things we can but weakly imitate , in moral things we can really effect . We can efform our nature over anew , and create our selves again , and make our selves bad when God had made us good : and what was innocent in nature , we make to be vicious by custom and evil habit ; or on the contrary , what was crooked in nature , we can make straight by Philosophy , and wise notices , and severe customs ; and there is nothing in nature so imperfect or vicious , but it can be made useful and regular by reason and custom , and the grace of God ; and even our brute parts are obedient to these . Homer observes it of the wise Vlysses , that though he was troubled to see his wife weep for him , yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . He held the corners of his eyes as firmly as the horn of his Bow , or the iron of his Spear , and by his wit he kept his eyes from running over . Reason can make every member of the body obey ; but Vse can make it obey willingly : That can command nature , but this can change it : That can make it do what it pleases , but this can make it be so . 4. For there being in man so much brutishness and inclination to forbidden actions and things , to sensual and weak fruitions , nature in many instances calls upon us to die . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 · let me perish , for it is for my advantage : I desire to die because it is pleasant . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Nature does seem to do violence to us , and constrain us by violent inclinations to things against reason : But then when Passion supervenes , and like strong winds blow vehemently and raise a storm , we should certainly perish , if God did not give us other principles which might be as effective of his purposes , as Nature and Passion are of death and folly . Passion can be commanded by reason , but nothing hath sufficient and final effort and strength against Nature , but Custom . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . For our ship is kept fast and firm in its station by Cables , and when the winds blow , we have anchors and fastnesses to secure it . Which verses Plutarch expounding , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith , that the Cables which are to secure our ship in tempests are the firm and permanent judgments against that which is filthy . They secure us when the winds of passion are violent and dangerous . But then because the storm is renewed every day , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Nature will revert , and for ever belonging after its own proportions , we must introduce a nature against a nature : and as passion sets nature on work , and is it self overcome by reason , so if this reason become constant , firm , and habitual , it makes nature an artless , joyntless enemy . 5. But then on the other side , if we let our evil appetites prevail , and use them to satisfaction and empire , bringing in evil customs upon our vicious and ill disposed nature , we are fallen into an evil state of things : for custom and vicious habits are like the locks and bars to Hell gates , a man cannot but do evil , and then his case is intolerable . 6. Now because this is a great state of danger , and consequently a great caution against continuing in sin , I shall put some strength to it , and rescue the whole doctrine concerning this article from the false glosses and imperfect notices of men , which hang upon the duty of repentance like shackles and fetters hindring it to begin betimes , and so to proceed to its measures by the many and just limits and steps of its progression . For the case is this : If you ask when every man is bound to repent ? I answer , as soon as ever he hath sinn'd . But how if he does not ? then he adds more sin both against God and against his own soul by delaying this duty , to that he did before in the single action of which he is tied to repent . For every man is bound to repent instantly of every known sin ; he sins anew if he does not , though he add no more of the same actions to his heap . But it is much worse if he sins on ; not only because he sins oftner , but because if he contracts a custom or habit of sin , he superadds a state of evil to himself , distinct from the guilt of all those single actions which made the habit . This I shall endeavour to prove against the doctrine of the Roman Schools , who teach ; 7. I. That no man is ordinarily bound to repent instantly of his sin ; for the precept of repentance being affirmative , it does not oblige to its present or speedy performance : For it is as in the case of baptism , or prayers ; to the time of the performance of which duties , the Commandment of God does not specifically bind us , now , or an hour hence , or when it is convenient , or when it becomes accidentally necessary , and determined by something else that intervenes : So it is in repentance ; so it be done at all , it matters not when , as to the duty of it ; when you come to die , or when you justly fear it ; as in the days of the plague , or before a battel , or when the holy man comes to take his leave of his dying Parishioner , then let him look to it * . But else he is not obliged . For the sin that was committed ten years since , grows no worse for abiding ; and of that we committed yesterday we are as deeply guilty , as of the early sins of our youth ; but no single sin can increase its guilt by the putting off our repentance and amendment . 8. II. The guilt of sin which we have committed , they call habitual sin ; that is , a remaining obligation to punishment for an action that is past , a guiltiness : or as Johannes de Lugo expresses it , peccatum actuale moraliter perseverans ; the actual sin morally remaining , by which a man is justly hated by God. But this habitual sin is not any real quality , or habit , but a kind of * Moral denomination or ground thereof , which remains till it be retracted by Repentance . The person is still esteemed ‖ injurious and obliged to satisfaction . That is all . 9. III. The frequent repetition of sinful acts will in time naturally produce a habit , a proper physical , inherent , permanent quality ; but this is so natural , that it is no way voluntary but in its cause , that is , in the actions which produc'd it , and therefore it can have in it no blame , no sinfulness , no obliquity distinct from those actions that caused it , and requires no particular or distinct repentance ; for when the single acts of sin are repented of , the remaining habit is innocent , and the facility to sin which remains , is no sin at all . 10. IV. These habits of sin may be pardon'd without the contrary habit of vertue , even by a single act of contrition , or attrition with the Sacrament . * And the event of all is this , It is not necessary that your repentance should be so early , or so holy as to obtain by the grace of God the habits of vertue , or to root out the habit of sin ; and 2. It is not necessary that it should be at all before the hour of death , unless by accident it be inferr'd and commanded . I do suppose these propositions not only to be false , but extremely dangerous and destructive of the duty of repentance , and all its consequent hopes , and therefore I shall oppose against them these Conclusions . 1. Every man is bound to repent of his sin as soon as ever he hath committed it . 2. That a sinful habit hath in it proper evils , and a proper guiltiness of its own , besides all that which came directly by the single actions . 3. That sinful habits do require a distinct manner of repentance , and are not pardon'd but by the introduction of the contrary . * The consequent of these propositions will be this . Our repentance must not be deferred at all , much less to our death-bed . 2. Our repentance must be so early , and so effective of a change , that it must root out the habits of sin , and introduce the habits of vertue ; and in that degree in which this is done , in the same degree the repentance is perfect , more or less . For there is a latitude in this duty , as there are degrees of perfection . SECT . II. 1. Every man is bound to repent of his sin as soon as he hath committed it . 1. THAT this doctrine is of great usefulness and advantage to the necessity and perswasions of holy life , is a good probable inducement to believe it true ; especially since God is so essential an enemy to sin , since he hath used such rare arts of the Spirit for the extermination of it , since he sent his holy Son to destroy it ; and he is perpetually destroying it , and will at last make that it shall be no more at all , but in the house of cursing , the horrible regions of damnation . But I will use this only as an argument to all pious and prudent persons , to take off all prejudices against the severity of this doctrine . For it is nothing so much against it if we say it is severe , as it makes for it , that we understand it to be necessary . For this doctrine which I am now reproving , although it be the doctrine properly of the Roman Schools , yet it is their and our practice too . We sin with greediness , and repent at leisure . Pars magna Italiae est , si verum admittimus , in quâ Nemo togam sumit nisi mortuus — No man puts on his mourning garment till he be dead . This day we seldom think it fit to repent , but the day appointed for repentance is always To morrow . Against which dangerous folly I offer these considerations . 2. I. If the duty of repentance be indispensably requir'd in the danger of death , and he that does not repent when he is arrested with the probability of so sad a change is felo de se , uncharitable to himself and a murderer of his own soul , then so is he in his proportion who puts it off one day : because every day of delay is a day of danger ; and the same law of charity obliges him to repent to day if he sinn'd yesterday , lest he be dead before to morrow . The necessity indeed is not so great , and the duty is not so urgent , and the refusal is not so great a sin in health , as in sickness , and dangers imminent and visible : But there are degrees of necessity as there are degrees of danger : And he that considers how many persons die suddenly , and how many more may , and no man knows that he shall not , cannot but confess that because there is danger , there is also an obligation of duty and charity to repent speedily , and that positively , or carelesly to put it off , is a new fault and increases Gods enmity against him . He that is well , may die to morrow . He that is very sick , may recover and live many years . If therefore a periculum ne fiat , a danger lest repentance be never done , is a sufficient determination of the Divine Commandment to do it then , it is certain that it is in every instant determinately necessary ; because in every instant there is danger . In all great sicknesses there is not an equal danger ; yet in all great sicknesses it is a particular sin not to repent , even by the confession of all sides ; it is so therefore in all the periods of an uncertain life ; a sin , but in differing degrees . And therefore this is not an argument of caution only , but of duty . For therefore it is of duty , because it is of caution . It could not be a caution , unless there were a danger ; and if there be a danger , then it is a duty . For he that is very sick must do it . But how if he escapes , was he obliged for all that ? He was , because he knew not that he should escape . By the same reason is every one obliged , because whether he shall or shall not escape the next minute , he knows not . And certainly , it was none of the least reasons of Gods concealing the day of our death , that we might ever stand ready . And this is plainly enough taught us by our blessed Saviour , laboriously perswading and commanding us not to defer our repentance , by his parable of the rich man who promised to himself the pleasures of many years : he reprov'd that folly with a Stulte hac nocte ; and it may be any mans case ; for Nemo tam felix — Crastinum ut possit sibi polliceri . But he adds a Precept ; Let your loyns be girded about , and your lights shining , and ye your selves like men that wait for their Lord. And blessed are those servants whom their Lord when he cometh shall find watching . And much more to the same purpose . Nay , that it was the reason why God concealed the time of his coming to us , that we might always expect him , he intimated in the following Parable ; " This know , that if the good man of the house had known what hour the thief would come , he would have watched . Be ye therefore ready also , for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not . Nothing could better have improved this argument , than these words of our blessed Saviour ; we must stand in procinctu , ready girded , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ready for the service , always watching , as uncertain of the time , but in perpetual expectation of the day of our Lord. I think nothing can be said fuller to this purpose . But I add the words of S. Austin ; Verum quidem dicis quòd Deus poenitentiae tuae indulgentiam promisit , sed huic dilationi tuae crastinum non promisit . To him that repents , God hath promised pardon , but to him that defers repentance he hath not promised the respite of one day . It is certain therefore , he intended thou shouldest speedily repent ; and since he hath by words and deeds declar'd this to be his purpose , he that obeys not , is in this very delay , properly and specifically , a Transgressor . 3. II. I consider , that although the precept of repentance be affirmative , yet it is also limited , and the time sufficiently declared , even the present and none else . As soon as ever you need it , so soon you are obliged . To day if ye will hear his voice , harden not your hearts . That is , defer not to hear him , this day ; for every putting it off is a hardening your hearts . For he that speaks to day , is not pleased if you promise to hear him to morrow . It was Felix his case to S. Paul , Go away , I will hear thee some other time . He that calls every day , means every day that we should repent . For although to most men God gives time and leisure , and expects and perseveres to call , yet this is not because he gives them leave to defer it ; but because he still forbears to strike , though their sin grows greater . Now I demand , when God calls us to repentance , is it indifferent to him whether we repent to day or no ? Why does he call so earnestly , if he desires it so coldly ? Or if he be not indifferent , is he displeas'd if we repent speedily ? This no man thinks . But is he not displeas'd if we do not ? Does not every call , and every expectation , and every message , when it is rejected , provoke Gods anger and exasperate him ? Does not he in the day of vengeance smite more sorely , by how much with the more patience he hath waited ? This cannot be denied . But then it follows , that every delay did grieve him and displease him , and therefore it is of it self a provocation distinct from the first sin . 4. III. But further let it be considered : If we repent to day , it is either a duty so to do , or only a counsel of perfection , a work of supererogation . If it be a duty , then to omit it is a sin . If it be a work of supererogation , then he that repents to day , does not do it in obedience to a Commandment : for this is such a work ( by the confession of the Roman Schools ) which if a man omits he is nevertheless in the state of grace and the Divine favour ; as he that does not vow perpetual Chastity , or Poverty , is nevertheless ●he servant of God ; but he that does not repent to day of his yesterdays sin , is not Gods servant , and therefore this cannot be of the nature of Counsels , but of Precept and duty respectively . But to put it past all question : It is expresly commanded us by our blessed Saviour , Agree with thine adversary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quickly . For as it is amongst men of merciful dispositions , he that yields quickly obtains mercy ; but he that stands out as long as he can , must expect the rigour of the law : So it is between God and us ; a hasty Repentance reconciles graciously , whilest the delay and putting it off , provokes his severe anger . And this the Spirit of God was pleas'd to signifie to the Angel or Bishop of the Church of Ephesus , Remember whence thou art fallen , and repent , and do thy first works : If thou doest not , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , I come unto thee quickly , and will remove the Candlestick out of its place , unless thou do repent . Christ did not mean to wait long and be satisfied with their Repentance , be it when it would be ; for he comes quickly , and yet our Repentance must prevent his coming . His coming here is not by death , or final judgment , but for scrutiny and inquiry : for the event of the delaying their Repentance , would have been the removing of their Candlestick . So that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is , I come speedily to exact of thee a speedy repentance , or to punish thee for delaying ; for so the antithesis is plain , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , I come quickly , unless thou dost repent , viz. quickly ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( that I may use the words of Libanius ) God will condemn our actions , unless we appear before him with a speedy Repentance . 5. IV. Add to this , that though God gives time and respite to some , yet to all he does not . God takes away some in their early sins , and gives them no respite , not a month , not a week , not a day ; and let any man say , whether this be not a sufficient indication not only that no man can be secure , but he alone that repents instantly , but that God does intend that every man should presently repent ; for he that hath made it damnation to some for not repenting instantly , hath made it damnable to all , and therefore to repent speedily is certainly a duty . The earth does not open and swallow up all Rebels in the day of their Mutiny ; but it did so once , and by that God did sufficiently consign to all ages his displeasure against Rebellion . So it is in the deferring Repentance . That some have smarted for it eternally , is for ever enough to tell us , that God is displeased with every one that does defer it ; and therefore commands us not to defer it . But this consideration is sufficiently heightned upon this account : For there is no sinner dies , but he is taken away without one days respite . For though God did many times forbear him , yet now he does not , and to his last sin , or his last refusal to hear God , either he afforded no time , or no grace of Repentance . 6. S. Paul's discourse and treaty of the Corinthians , is sufficient to guide us here : he fear'd that at his coming again God would humble him , that is , afflict him with grief and sorrow to see it , that himself should be forc'd to bewail many , that is , so excommunicate , or deliver to Satan them that have sinn'd already , and have not repented . If they had repented before S. Paul's coming , they should escape that rod ; but for deferring it , they were like to smart bitterly . Neither ought it to be supposed that the not repenting of sins is no otherwise than as the being discovered of theft . The thief dies for his robbery , not for his being discovered ; though if he were not discovered , he should have escaped for his theft . So for their uncleanness S. Paul would have delivered them over to Satan , not for their not repenting speedily . For the case is wholly differing here . A thief is not bound at all to discover himself to the Criminal Judge ; but every man is bound to repent . If therefore his repenting speedily would prevent so great a calamity as his being delivered over to Satan , besides the procuring his eternal pardon , it is clear that to repent speedily was great charity , and great necessity ; which is that which was to be prov'd . Satan should have power over him to afflict him for his sin , if he did not speedily repent : but if he did repent speedily , he should wholly escape ; therefore to repent speedily is a duty which God expects of us , and will punish if it be omitted . — Hodiè , mihi credes , vivere serum est . Ille sapit quisquis , Posthume , vixit Heri . Think it not a hasty Commandment that we are called upon to repent to day . It was too much that yesterday past by you , it is late enough if you do it to day . 7. V. Not to repent instantly , is a great loss of our time , and it may for ought we know become the loss of all our hopes . Nunc vivit sibi neuter , heu ! bonosque Soles effugere atque abire sentit , Qui nobis pereunt , & imputantur : And this , not only by the danger of sudden death , but for want of the just measures of Repentance : Because it is a secret which God hath kept to himself only , and he only knows what degrees of Repentance himself will admit of ; how much the sin provok'd him , and by what measures of sorrow and carefulness himself will be appeased . For there is in this a very great difference . To Simon Magus it was almost a desperate case , If peradventure the thoughts of thy heart may be forgiven : It was worse to Esau , There was no place left for his repentance . It was so with Judas , he was not admitted to pardon , neither can any one tell , whether it was not resolved he should never be pardon'd . However it be for the particulars , yet it is certain there is a great difference in the admitting penitents . On some have compassion , others save with fear , pulling them out of the fire . Now since for all our sins we are bound to ask pardon every day , if we do so , who dares say it is too much , that it is more than needs ? But if to repent every day be not too much , who can be sure that if he puts it off one day it shall be sufficient ? To some men , and at some times God is implacably angry ; some men , and at some times God hath in his fury and sudden anger seis'd upon , with the apprehensions of death and saddest judgments , and broken them all in pieces : and as there is a reign and kingdome of Mercy , so there are sudden irruptions of a fierce Justice , of which God hath therefore given us examples , that we may not defer Repentance one day . But this mischief goes further . For , 8. VI. So long as we lie in the guilt of one sin unrepented of , though we do not add heaps upon heaps , and multiply instances of the same or equal crimes , yet we are in so unthriving a condition and so evil a state , that all that while we lose all the benefit of any good thing that we can do upon the interest of any principle whatsoever . For so long as we are out of Gods favour , under the seisure and arrest of eternal guilt , so long we are in a state of enmity with God , and all our actions are like the performances of Heathens , nothing to eternal life , but mispendings of our powers , and prodigalities of reason and wise discourses ; they are not perfective of our being , neither do they set us forward to heaven until our state be changing . Either then we are not by a certain Law and Commandment bound every day to serve God and please him , or else we are positively and strictly bound instantly to repent of all our sins : because so long as a known sin is unrepented of , we cannot serve God , we cannot do any thing that shall be acceptable to him in Jesus Christ. 9. VII . Every delaying of Repentance is one step of progression towards final Impenitence ; which is not only then esteem'd a sin against the holy Ghost when a man resolves never to repent , but if by carelesness he neglects , or out of tediousness and an irreligious spirit quite puts off , or for ever pass by , it is unpardonable ; it shall never be forgiven in this world , nor in the world to come . Now since final impenitence is the consummation and perfection of all sin , we are to remember , that it is nothing but a perseverance of neglecting or refusing to repent . A man is always dying , and that which we call death is but the finishing of death , the last act of it : So is final impenitence , nothing but the same sin told over so many days ; it is a persevering carelesness , or resolution , and therefore it cannot be the sin of one day , unless it be by accident ; it is a state of sin , begun as soon as ever the sin is acted , and grows in every day of thy negligence or forgetfulness . But if it should happen that a sinner that sinn'd yesterday should die to day , his deferring his Repentance that one day would be esteem'd so , and indeed really be a final impenitence . It follows therefore , that to put off our Repentance one day , differs only accidentally and by chance from the worst of evils , from final impenitence ; it is the beginning of it , it differs from it , as an infant from a man ; it is materially the same sin , and may also have the same formality . 10. VIII . The putting off our Repentance from day to day , must needs be a sin distinct from the guilt of the action whereof we are to repent , because the principle of it cannot be innocent , it must needs be distinctly Criminal . It is a rebellion against God , or hardness of heart , or the spirit of Apostasie , Presumption or Despair , or at least such a carelesness as being in the question of our souls , and in relation to God , is infinitely far from being excusable or innocent . 11. These considerations seem to me of very great moment , and to conclude the main proposition ; and at least they ought to effect this perswasion upon us , that whoever hath committed a sin cannot honestly , nor prudently , nor safely defer his Repentance one hour . He that repents instantly , breaks his habit when it is in ovo in the shell , and prevents Gods anger , and his own debauchment and disimprovement : — Qui parvis obvius ibit , Is nunquam praeceps scelera in graviora feretur . And let us consider , that if we defer our Repentance one hour , we do to our souls worse than to our bodies . Quae laedunt oculos , festinas demere ; si quid Est animum , differs curandi tempus in annum ? If dirt fall into our eyes , we do not say unto the Chirurgeon , Stay Sir , and let the grit or little stone abide there till next week , but get it out presently . This similitude if it proves nothing , yet will serve to upbraid our folly , to instruct and exhort us in the duty of this Question . Remember this , that as in Gods account 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to remit to retain a sin are opposite , so it ought to be in ours . Our retaining and keeping of a sin though but for a day , is contrary to the designs of mercy and holiness , it is against God , and against the interest of our souls . SECT . III. A sinful habit hath in it proper evils , and a proper guiltiness of its own , besides all that which came directly by the single actions . 1. BY a sinful habit , I mean the facility and easiness , the delight and custome of sinning contracted by the repetition of the acts of the same sin ; as a habit of drunkenness , a habit of swearing , and the like ; that is , a quality inherent in the soul , whereby we work with pleasure : for that Aristotle calls the infallible and proper indication of habits , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : And so long as any man sins willingly , readily , frequently , and upon every temptation , or most commonly ; so long he is an habitual sinner : when he does his actions of Religion with pain , and of his sin with pleasure , he is in the state of death , and enmity against God. And as by frequent playing upon an instrument a man gets a habit of playing ; so he does in renewing the actions of the same sin , there is an evil quality produced , which affects and corrupts his soul. * But concerning the nature of a vicious habit , this also is to be added . 2. That a vicious habit is not only contracted by the repetition of acts in the same kind , but by frequency of sinning in any variety of instances whatsoever . For there are many vicious persons who have an Ambulatory impiety , and sin in all , or most of their opportunities ; but their occasions are not uniform , and therefore their irregularities are irregular and by chance for the instance , but regular and certain in the prevarication . Vetuleius Pavo would be sure to be drunk at the feasts of Saturn , and take a surfeit in the Calends of January ; he would be wanton at the Floralia , and bloody in the Theatres : he would be prodigal upon his birth day , and on the day of his marriage sacrifice Hecatombs to his Pertunda Dea , and he would be sure to observe all the solemnities and festivals of vice in their own particulars and instances , and thought himself a good man enough , because he could not be called a drunkard or a glutton for one act , and by sinning singly escap'd the appellatives of scorn , which are usually fix'd upon vain persons that are married to one sin . * Naturally to contract the habit of any one sin is like the entertaining of a Concubine , and dwelling upon the folly of one miserable woman . But a wandring habit is like a Libido vaga , the vile adulteries of looser persons that drink at every cistern that runs over , and stands open for them . For such persons have a supreme habit , a habit of disobedience , and may for want of opportunity or abilities , for want of pleasure , or by the influence of an impertinent humour be kept from acting always in one scene . But so long as they choose all that pleases them , and exterminate no vice , but entertain the instances of many , their malice is habitual , their state is a perfect aversation from God. For this is that which the Apostle calls , The body of sin , a compagination of many parts and members ; just as among the Lawyers , a flock , a people , a legion , are called bodies : and corpus civitatis , we find in Livy , corpus collegiorum in Caius , corpus regni in Virgil ; and so here , this union of several sins is the body of sin , and that is , the body of death . And not only he that feeds perpetually upon raw fruit puts himself into an ill habit of body ; but he also does the same thing , who to day drinks too much , and to morrow fills himself with cold fruits , and the next day with condited mushromes , and by evil orders and carelesness of diet , and accidental miscarriages heaps up a multitude of causes , and unites them in the production and causality of his death . This general disorder is indeed longer doing , but it kills as fatally and infallibly as a violent surfeit . And if a man dwells in the kingdome of sin , it is all one whether he be sick in one , or in twenty places ; they are all but several rooms of the same Infirmatory , and ingredients of the same deadly poison . He that repeats his sin , whether it be in one , or in several instances , strikes himself often to the heart , with the same ▪ or with several daggers . 3. Having thus premised what was necessary for the explication of the nature of vicious habits , we must consider that of vicious habits there is a threefold capacity . 1. A Natural . 2. A Moral . 3. A Relative , as it denominates a man in relation to God. 1. Of the Natural capacity of sinful habits . 4. The natural capacity of sinful habits is a facility or readiness of the faculty to do the like actions ; and this is naturally consequent to the frequent repetition of sinful acts , not voluntary but in its cause , and therefore not criminal by a distinct obliquity . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Aristotle . Actions are otherwise voluntary than habits . We are masters of our actions all the way , but of habits only in the beginning . But because it was in our choice to do so or otherwise , therefore the habit which is consequent is called voluntary : not then chosen , because it cannot then be hindred ; and therefore it is of it self indifferent ; an evil indeed , as sickness , or crookedness , thirst or famine , and as death it self to them that have repented them of that sin for which they die ; but no sin , if we consider it in its meer natural capacity . * Nay so , it may become the exercise of vertue , the scene of trouble indeed or danger , of temptation and sorrow , but a field of victory . For there are here two things very considerable . 5. I. That God for the glorification of his mercy can and does turn all evil into some good , so to defeat the Devils power , and to produce honour and magnification to his own goodness . — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . For so God uses to do , if we sin we shall smart for it , but he turns it into good : And S. Austin applies that promise , that all things shall work together for good to them that fear God , even to this particular ; etiam ipsa peccata , nimirum non ex naturâ suâ , sed ex Dei virtute & sapientiâ : if all things , then sins also , not by their proper efficacy , but by the over-ruling power and wisdom of God ; like that of Phocylides , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 · He that will be a good man , must be often deceiv'd , that is , buy his wit at a dear rate . And thus some have been cur'd of pride by the shames of lust , and of lukewarmness by a fall into sin , being awakened by their own noddings , and mending their pace by their fall . And so also the sense of our sad infirmities introduc'd by our vicious living and daily prevarications may become an accidental fortification to our spirits , a new spur by the sense of an infinite necessity and an infinite danger . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . For whoever repents after such sad intervals of sorrow and sin , either must do more than other men , or they do nothing to purpose . For besides , that an ordinary care cannot secure them , who have brought tempters home to themselves ; a common industry cannot root out vicious customes ; a trifling mortification cannot crucifie and kill what hath so long been growing with us : besides this ( for this will not directly go into the account ; for this difficulty the sinner must thank himself ) he must do more actions of piety to obtain his pardon and to secure it . But because they need much pardon , and an infinite care , and an assiduous watchfulness , or they perish infallibly , therefore all holy penitents are to arise to greater excellencies than if they had never sinned . Major deceptae fama est , & gloria dextrae ; Si not erasset , fecerat illa minùs . Scaevola's hand grew famous for being deceived , and it had been less reputation to have struck his enemy to the heart , than to do such honourable infliction upon it for missing . And thus there is in heaven more joy over one repenting sinner , than over ninety nine just persons that need it not ; there is a greater deliverance , and a mightier miracle , a bigger grace , and a prodigy of chance ; it being , as S. Austin affirms , a greater thing that a sinner should be converted , than that being converted he should afterwards be saved ; and this he learn'd from those words of S. Paul ; But God commended his love to us , in that while we were yet sinners , Christ died for us . Much more then being now justified by his blood , we shall be saved from wrath through him . * But now the sinner is more busie in his recovery , more fearful of relapse than before his fall ; Sicut ferae decipulam erumpentes cautiores facti , saith Lactantius ; like wild beasts breaking from their toils , they walk more cautiously for ever after . Thus it is impossible that sin should be exalted above grace , or that the Devils malice can be superiour to the rare arts of the Divine mercy ; for by his conduct , poison it self shall become medicinal , and sin like the Persian apple , — Pomis quae Barbara Persis Miserat , ut fama est , patriis armata venenis , At nunc expositi parvo discrimine lethi Ambrosios praebent succos oblita nocendi , transplanted from its native soil to the Athenian gardens , loses its natural venome , and becomes pleasant as the rinds of Citrons , and aromatick as the Eastern spices . 6. II. Although sins in the state of penitence can by Gods grace procure an accidental advantage , yet that difficulty of overcoming and fierceness of contention , which is necessary to them who had contracted evil habits , is not by that difficulty an augmentation of the reward . As he that willingly breaks his leggs is not more commended for creeping with pain , than if he went with pleasure and ease ; and the taking away our own possibility , being a destroying the grace of God , a contradiction to the arts of the Divine mercy ; whatsoever proper effect that infers , as it is impious in its cause and miserable in the event , so it does nothing of advantage to the vertue , but causes great diminution of it . * For it is a high mistake crudely to affirm , that every repugnancy to an act of vertue , and every temptation to a sin , if it be overcome , increases the reward . Indeed if the temptation be wholly from without , unsought for , prayed against , inferr'd infallibly , superinduc'd by God , then the reward is greater , by how much it was the more difficult to obey . Thus for Jephthah to pay his daughter which he had vowed , and for Abraham to slay his son , were greater acts of obedience , because they were in despite of great temptations to the contrary , and there was nothing evil from within that did lessen the choice , or retard the vertue . * But when our nature is spoil'd , and our strengths diminished , when the grace of God by which we stood is despised and cancelled , when we have made it natural for us to sin , then this remaining inclination to sin , and unwillingness to obey , is so far from increasing the reward , that it is not only a state of danger , but it is an unwillingness to doe good , an abatement of the choice , a state which is still to be mortified , and the strengths to be restored , and the affections made obedient , and the will determined by other objects . 7. But if the unwillingness to obey , even after the beginnings of repentance , were , as it is pretended by the Roman Doctors , an increase of the merit or reward , then 1. It were not fit that we should go about to lessen these inclinations to sin , or to exterminate the remains of the old man , because if they go off , the difficulty being removed , the reward must be no more than ordinary . II. It would also follow from hence , that the less men did delight in Gods service , the more pleasing they should be to him : For if the reluctancy increases , then the perfect choice would lessen the reward . And then , III. A habit of vertue were not so good as single actions with the remains of a habit of vice , upon the same account : and a state of imperfection were better than a state of perfection , and to grow in grace , were great imprudence . IV. It were not good to pray against entring into temptation ; nay it were good we did tempt our selves , so we did not yield ; to provoke our enemy , so he did not conquer us ; to enter into danger , so we did not sink under it ; because these increase the difficulty , and this increases the reward . All which being such strange and horrid consequences , it follows undeniably , that the remanent portion of a vicious habit after the mans conversion is not the occasion of a greater reward , is not good formally , is not good materially , but is a fomes , a nest of concupiscence , a bed of vipers , and the spawn of toads . 8. Now although this is not a sin , if it be considered in its natural capacity , as it is the physical , unavoidable consequent of actions ( for an inherent quality may be considered without its appendant evil ) that is , though a Philosopher may think and discourse of it as of a natural production , and so without sin , yet it does not follow from hence , that such a habit , or inherent quality is without its proper sin , or that its nature is innocent . But this is nothing else but to say , that a natural Philosopher does not consider things in their moral capacity . But just thus every sin is innocent , and an act of adultery , or the begetting a child in fornication is good ; a natural Philosopher looks on it as a natural action , applying proper actives to their proportion'd passives , and operating regularly , and by the way of nature . Thus we say God concurs to every sin , that is , to the action in its natural capacity , but that is therefore innocent so far ; that is , if you consider it without any relation to manners and laws , it is not unlawful . But then if you consider the whole action in its intire constitution , it is a sin . And so is a sinful habit , it is vicious and criminal in its whole nature ; and when the Question is whether any thing be in its own capacity distinctly , good or bad ; the answer must not be made by separating the thing from all considerations of good and bad . However it will suffice , that a habit of vice in its natural capacity is no otherwise innocent than an act of adultery or drunkenness . 2. Of the moral capacity of sinful Habits . But then if we consider sinful Habits in their moral capacity , we shall find them to be a Lerna malorum , and we shall open Pandora's box , a swarm of evils will issue thence . In the enumerating of which , I shall make a great progress to the demonstration of the main Question . 9. I. A vicious habit adds many degrees of aversation from God , by inclining us to that which God hates . It makes us to love and to delight in sin , and easily to choose it ; now by how much the more we approach to sin , by so much we are the further remov'd from God. And therefore this habitual iniquity the prophet describing , calls it , magnitudinem iniquitatis , and the punishment design'd for it , is called , thy lot , the portion of thy measures , that is , Plenitudo poenae ad plenitudinem peccatorum , a great judgment to an habitual sin , a final judgment , an exterminating Angel , when the sin is confirm'd , and of a perfect habit . 10. For till habits supervene , we are of a middle constitution , like the City that Sophocles speaks of ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , It is full of joy and sorrow , it sings and weeps together , it triumphs in mourning , and with tears wets the festival Chariot . We are divided between good and evil ; and all our good or bad is but a disposition towards either : but then the sin is arriv'd to its state and manhood , when the joynts are grown stiff and firm by the consolidation of a habit . So Plutarch defines a habit , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . A habit is a strength and confirmation to the brute and unreasonable part of man gotten by custome . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The brutish passions in a man are not quickly master'd and reduc'd to reason . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : Custome and studies efform the soul like wax , and by assuefaction introduce a nature : To this purpose Aristotle quotes the verses of Evenus . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 · For as experience is to notices , and Tutors to children , so is Custome to the manners of men ; a fixing good or evil upon the spirit : that as it was said of Alexander , when he was a man he could not easily want the vices of his Tutor Leonidas , which he suck'd into his manners and was accustom'd to in his youth ; so we cannot without trouble do against our habit and common usages ; Vsus Magister , use is the greatest Teacher : and the words in Jeremy 13.23 . Ye which are accustomed to do evil , are commonly read , Ye which are taught to do evil ; and what we are so taught to do we believe infinitely , and find it very hard to entertain principles of perswasion against those of our breeding and education . For what the mind of man is accustomed to , and throughly acquainted with , it is highly reconcil'd to it ; the strangeness is removed , the objections are consider'd or neglected , and the compliance and entertainment is set very forward towards pleasures and union . This habit therefore when it is instanc'd in a vice , is the perfecting and improving of our enmity against God , for it strengthens the lust , as a good habit confirms reason and the grace of God. 11. II. This mischief ought to be further expressed , for it is bigger than is yet signified . Not only an aptness , but a necessity is introduc'd by Custome ; because by a habit sin seises upon the will and all the affections ; and the very principles of motion towards vertue are almost broken in pieces . It is therefore called by the Apostle , The law of sin . Lex enim peccati est violentia consuetudinis , quâ trahitur & tenetur animus etiam invitus . The violence of custome is the law of sin , by which such a man is over-rul'd against his will. Nam si discedas , laqueo tenet ambitiosi Consuetudo mali — & in aegro corde senescit . You cannot leave it if you would . S. Austin represents himself as a sad instance of this particular . I was afraid lest God should hear me when I prayed against my lust : As I feared death , so dreadful it was to me to change my custome . Velle meum tenebat inimicus , inde mihi catenam fecerat , & constrinxerat me . Quippe ex voluntate perversâ facta est libido , & dum servitur libidini facta est consuetudo , & dum consuetudini non resistitur facta est necessitas . The Devil had made a chain for him , and bound his will in fetters of darkness . His perverse will made his lust grow high , and while he serv'd his lust , he superinduc'd a custome upon himself , and that in time brought upon him a necessity . For as an old disease hath not only afflicted the part of its proper residence , and by its abode made continual diminution of his strength , but made a path also and a channel for the humours to run thither , which by continual defluxion have digg'd an open passage , and prevail'd beyond all the natural powers of resistance : So is an habitual vice ; it hath debauch'd the understanding , and made it to believe foolish things , it hath abus'd the will and made it like a diseased appetite in love with filthy things ; it is like an evil stomach that makes a man eat unwholsome meat against his Reason : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . That 's a sad calamity , when a man sees what is good and yet cannot follow it , nay that he should desire it , and yet cannot lay hold upon it ; for his faculties are bound in fetters ; the habit hath taken away all those strengths of Reason and Religion by which it was hindred , and all the objections by which it was disturbed , and all that tenderness by which it was uneasie , and now the sin is chosen , and believed and lov'd ; it is pleasant and easie , usual and necessary , and by these steps of progression enters within the iron gates of death , seal'd up by fate and a sad decree . 12. And therefore Simplicius upon Epictetus speaking of Medea seeing and approving good things by her understanding , but yet without power to do them , says , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It is to no purpose for us to think and to desire well , unless we add also deeds consonant to those right opinions and fair inclinations . But that 's the misery of an evil habit ; in such as have them , all may be well till you come to action . Their principles good , their discoursings right , their resolutions holy , their purposes strong , their great interest understood , their danger weighed , and the sin hated and declaimed against : for they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they have begun well and are instructed , but because of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , their intemperance and softness of spirit produc'd by vile customes , there is ( as Plutarch observes ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fatal bestiality in the men , they sin and can neither will nor choose . They are driven to death , and they see themselves crown'd with garlands for the Sacrifice , and yet go to their ruine merry as the Minstrels , and the temptations that entertain and attend those horrid rites . Scibam ut esse me deceret , facere non quibam miser , said he in the Comedy . I knew it well enough how I should comport my self , but I was so wretched that I could not do it . 13. Now all this being the effect of a vicious habit , and not of sinful actions , it being the product and sad consequent of a quality introduc'd first by actions , so much evil cannot be caused and produc'd immediately by that which is innocent . As the fruit is , such is the tree . But let us try further . 14. III. A vicious habit makes our recovery infinitely difficult , our vertues troublesome , our restitution uncertain . In the beginnings of his return it is most visible . For even after we are entring into pardon and the favour of God , we are forced to fight for life , we cannot delight in Gods service , or feel Christs yoke so easie as of it self it is . For a vicious habit is a new Concupiscence , and superinduces such contradictions to the supernatural contentions and designs of grace , it calls back nature from its remedy and purifications of Baptism , and makes such new aptnesses , that the punishment remains even after the beginning of the sins pardon : and that which is a natural punishment of the sinful actions , is or may be morally a sin , as the lust which is produc●d by gluttony . And when a man hath entertain'd a holy sorrow for his sins , and made holy vows of obedience and a new life , he must be forc'd to contend for every act of duty , and he is daily tempted , and the temptation is strong , and his progression is slow ; he marches upon sharp-pointed stones , where he was not us'd to go , and where he hath no pleasure . He is forc'd to do his duty , as he takes Physick , where reason and the grace of God make him consent against his inclination , and to be willing against his will. He is brought to that state of sorrow , that either he shall perish for ever , or he must do more for heaven than is needful to be done by a good man , whose body is chast , and his spirit serene , whose will is obedient , and his understanding well inform'd , whose temptations are ineffective , and his strengths great , who loves God and is reconciled to duty , who delights in Religion , and is at rest when he is doing God service . But an habitual sinner even when he begins to return , and in some measure loves God , hath yet too great fondnesses for his enemy , his repentances are imperfect , his hatred and his love mixt , nothing is pure , nothing is whole , nothing is easie : So that the bands of holiness are like a yoke shaken upon the neck , they fret the labouring Ox , and make his work turn to a disease ; and ( as Isaac ) he marches up the hill with the wood upon his shoulders , and yet for ought he knows , himself may become the Sacrifice . S. Austin complains that it was his own case . He was so accustomed to the apertures and free emissions of his lust , so pleas'd with the entertainments , so frequent in the imployment , so satisfied in his mind , so hardned in his spirit , so ready in his choice , so peremptory in his soul determinations , that when he began to consider that death stood at the end of that life , he was amaz'd to see himself as he thought without remedy ; and was not to be recover'd but by a long time , and a mighty grace , the perpetual , the daily , the nightly prayers and violent importunities of his Mother , the admirable precepts and wise deportments of S. Ambrose , the efficacy of truth , the horrible fears of damnation hourly beating upon his spirit with the wings of horrour and affrightment ; and after all , with a mighty uneasiness and a discomposed spirit he was by the good hand of God dragg'd from his fatal ruine . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Thus one folly added to another hath great labour and vexation , unquietness and difficulty for its reward . But as when our Blessed Saviour dispossess'd the little Demoniack in the Gospel , when the Devil went forth he roar'd and foam'd , he rent him with horrid Spasmes and Convulsions , and left him half dead : So is every man that recovers from a vicious habit , he suffers violence like a bird shut up in a cage , or a sick person not to be restored but by Causticks and Scarifications , and all the torments of Art , from the dangers of his Nature . 15. IV. A vicious habit makes a great sin to be swallowed up as easily as a little one . An dubitat solitus totum con●●are Tonantem , Radet inaurati femur Herculis , & faciem ipsam Neptuni , qui bracteolam de Castore ducet ? He that is us'd to it , makes nothing of Sacriledge , who before started at the defrauding his Neighbour of an uncertain right : but when he hath digested the first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by step and step he ventures so far till he dares to steal the Thunderbolts from Jupiter ; when sin is grown up to its height and station by all its firmest measures , a great sin is not felt ; and let the sin be what it will , many of the instances pass so easily , that they are not observed : as the hands and feet sometimes obey the fancy without the notice of the superiour faculties ; and as we say some parts of our prayers which we are us'd to , though we attend not , and as Musicians strike many single strokes upon which they do not at all consider ; which indeed is the perfection of a habit . So we see many men swear when they know not that they do so , they lie and know they lie , and yet believe themselves : They are drunk often , and at last believe it innocent , and themselves the wiser , and the action necessary , and the excess not intemperance . Peccata quamvis magna & horrenda cùm in consuetudinem venerint , aut parva aut nulla esse creduntur , usque adeò ut non solùm non occultanda , verùm etiam jam praedicanda , ac diffamanda videantur , said S. Austin . At first we are asham'd of sin ; but custome makes us bold and confident , apt to proclaim not to conceal our shame . For though at first it seemed great , yet every day of use makes it less , and at last , all is well , it is a very nothing . 16. This is a sad state of sin , but directly the case of a vicious habit , and of use in the illustration of this Question . For if we look upon the actions , and little or great instances of folly , and consider that they consider not , every such Oath will pass for an indeliberate folly , and an issue of infirmity . But then if we remember that it is voluntary in its principle , that this easiness of sinning comes from an intolerable cause , from a custome of prophaneness and impiety , that it was nourish'd by a base and a careless spirit , it grew up with a cursed inadvertency , and a caitiff disposition , that it could not be at all , but that the man is infinitely distant from God , it is to be reckoned like the pangs of death , which although they are not always felt , yet they are violent , and extreme , they are fatal in themselves , and full of horror to the standers by . 17. But from hence , besides that it serves perfectly to reprove the folly of habitual swearing , it also proves the main Question , viz. that in a vicious habit there is a venome and a malice beyond the guilt , and besides the sinfulness of the single actions that produce and nourish it , the quality it self is criminal . For unless it can be supposed that to swear frequently can at last bring its excuse with it , and that such a custome is only to be estimated according to the present notice and deliberation by which it is attended to ▪ and that to swear often can be but a little thing , but to swear seldom shall be horrid and inexcusable ; it must be certain , that the very habit it self is a state of sin , and enmity against God , besides the guilt of the many single actions : because this customary swearing cannot be accounted so bad as it is by the value and baseness of the single actions , which are scarce considered , very often not known , not noted at all , not attended to ; but therefore they have their load by being effects of a cursed habit and custom . Here the habit is worse than the action , and hath an evil of its own . 18. V. A vicious habit hath in it this evil appendage , that in every instant of its abode it keeps us out of Gods favour ; we are in perpetual danger , and under the eternal arrest of death , even without the actions of sin , without pleasure , or possessing any of its base● interests . It was a horrible foolery which Appianus tells of Lentulus , Spinther and Dolabella , that when Caesar was kill'd in the Senate they drew their swords and ran about the streets , as if they had done the fact , supposing it to be great and glorious : quibus gloriâ quidem frui non contigit , sed poenas dederunt easdem cum sontibus ; they lost their hopes of same , but yet they were punished for the fact . So useless , and yet so pernicious a thing is a vicious habit ; a man may pay the price of his lust when he thinks not of it , and perish for all that he was willing to enjoy , though he did not what he would . This is that by which Divines use to reconcile the justice of God with the infliction of eternal pains upon temporal and transitory actions . There is in unrepenting or habitual sinners an eternal spring or principle of evil , and they were ready for ever to have sinned ; and for this preparation of mind to have sinn'd for ever , it is by them affirm'd to be just to punish them for ever . Now this is not true in the single actions and interruptions of grace by sin , but in the habitual sinner it is more reasonable . Such are they of whom the Apostle speaks , They were past feeling , and yet were given up unto uncleanness ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which properly signifies the beginnings or little images of lust ; which as they are first in the introduction of lust , so in such persons , they are the only remains of the old man. He cannot sin as he used to do , not by his action , but he sins by his habit . 19. The summe is this . If to love God , to delight in him , to frequent holy offices , to love his service , to dwell in God , to have our conversation in heaven , to lay up our treasure , and our hopes , and our heart there , to have no thoughts , no designs , no imployment but for God and for religion , be more acceptable to God than to do single actions of a prosperous piety upon so many sudden resolutions , and the stock of an alternate and returning duty : Then by the same reason is it infinitely more displeasing to God to be a servant under Gods Enemy and our own , to be in slavery to sin , subordinate to passion , ruled by chance and company , to be weary of well doing , to delight in sin according to the inner man ; this I say , must be an infinite aberration and aversion from God , a contradiction to all our hopes , and that in Theology signifies the same effect , as a vicious habit does in nature . For they are the same thing , and have only different conceptions and formal notices ; as the patience of Job differs from the patience of S. Laurence , as natural vertue , from the same grace in a Christian : so does a natural habit of vice in its moral capacity differ from our aversion from God ; I mean in the active sence , which if it be not a distinct state of sinfulness , distinct from the guilt of sinful actions , yet it is at least a further degree of the same guiltiness and being criminal ; and either of them both do sufficiently evince the main question . As the charity and devotion of Cornelius was increased by passing into a habit of these graces ; and as the piety of him a Jewish Proselyte , the habitual piety was mended by his being a Christian : So the single actions of vice pass a great guilt ; but there is more contracted by the habitual vileness , and that habit is made worse by being an opposition to , and an alienation from God. But of this I am now to give more special accounts . 3. Of the relative capacity of sinful Habits , in reference to God 20. I. This is it that contains the strictness of the main Queston : For a sinful habit is a state of ungraciousness with God , and sin is possessed of our love and choice . Therefore in vain it is to think a habit innocent , because it is a natural product of many single actions . Every proper action of the will is a natural production of the will ; but it is nevertheless voluntary . When the understanding hath practically determined the will , it is natural for the will to choose ; but yet such a choice is imputable to the will , and if it be not good , is reckoned as a sin . So it is in vicious habits ; they are natural effects of many single actions ; but then it is also to be remembred that their seat is the will , and whatsoever is naturally there , is voluntary still . A habit of sinning cannot remain at all , but by consent and by delight , by love and adhesion . The habit is radicated no where but in the will , except it be by subordination , and in the way of ministeries . It follows therefore that every vicious habit is the prolongation of a sin , a continuing to love that , which to love but once is death . For every one that hath a vicious habit , chooses his sin chearfully , acts it frequently , is ready to do it in every opportunity , and at the call of every temptation ; and according as these things are in every one , so is the degree of his habit . Now since every one of these which are the constituent parts of a habit , implies a readiness and apt choice of the will to sin , it follows evidently that the capacity of a vicious habit by which it relates to God , consisting of so much evil , and all of it voluntary upon the stock of its own nature and constitution , is highly and chiefly , and distinctly sinful . Although the natural facility , is naturally and unavoidably consequent to frequent sinful actions , yet it is also voluntary ; for the habit is not contracted , nor can it remain but by our being willing to sin , and delighting in the ways of error . 21. II. Now if we look into the fountains of Scripture , which is admirable in the description of vertue and vice , we shall find that habitual sin is all that evil which is to be avoided by all men that have in them the hopes of life . It is the prevailing of sin , it is that by which sins come to their height , it is the debauching of the will and understanding ; it is all that which can be signified by those great expressions , by which holy Scripture describes those great evils which God hates . It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a root of bitterness , such as was in Esau when he undid himself and repented too late : an evil heart in turning from the living Lord : a sear'd conscience : a walking according to the Prince of this world : enemies of the cross of Christ : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , such as cannot cease from sin : enemies that will not have Christ , but the Devil to reign over them ; for this is the true state and constitution of vicious habits . This is more than an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or hindrance of doing our duty ; it is a direct 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a disorder and corruption inherent in all our faculties . 22. This is signally describ'd by S. Paul , who calls it a concupiscence wrought by sin : For sin ( saith he ) wrought in me all manner of concupiscence : it is called by him , a law in the members fighting against the law in my mind ; and the man he calls carnal , sold under sin , dead , killed ; and the sin it self , inhabitants peccatum , sin dwelling in me , and flesh in which dwelleth no good : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the carnal mind . These things ( as is evident ) cannot be spoken of the single actions of sin , but of the law , the power , the dominion , the reign , the habit of sin . It is that which was wrought by sin , viz. by the single actions of sin ; and therefore he does not mean single actions , neither can he mean the remanent guilt of the past action ; but he speaks of a direct state of sinfulness , which is prolifical and productive of sin . For sin wrought this concupiscence and carnal-mindedness ; and this carnal-mindedness is such a propensity and desire to sin , and hath in it such easiness to act , that it bringeth forth many sins , and they bring forth death ; and therefore the Apostle says expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this carnal mindedness is death and enmity against God ; this is that state , in which whosoever abides cannot please God. To the same purpose are those other expressions of Scripture calling this state , Vias Balaam , the ways of Balaam the son of Bosor , a walking perversly with God , a being sold under sin , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , hearts excercised or imployed and used to covetousness ; and it follows , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , sons of cursing ; The fault , or charge is more than that of single actions , and the curse is greater than ordinary ; as the sin is , so is the curse ; the one is apportion'd to the other , and appropriate . 23. III. But I consider further . A single act of sin does not in all cases denominate a man vicious . A man is not called a drunkard for having been once drunk , but for being often , for repeating the act , or continuing the affection . Every single act provokes God to anger , but that anger can be as soon rescinded as the act is past if it remains not by something that is habitual . Indeed he is called a thief or an adulterer that does one action of those crimes ; because his consent in such things is great enough to equal a habit in lesser things . The effect is notorious , the prohibition severe , the dangers infinite , the reasons of them evident ; they are peccata vastantia conscientiam , & quae uno actu perimunt , as S. Austin says , they kill with one blow , and therefore God exacts them highly , and men call the criminal by the name of the vice : But the action gives denomination but in some cases , but the habit in all . No man lives without sin ; and in the state of regeneration , our infirmities still press upon us , and make our hands shake , and our foot to stumble ; and sometimes the enemy makes an inroad , and is presently beaten out again , and though the good man resolves against all , and contends against all , Pauca tamen suberunt priscae vestigia fraudis , there will be something for him to be humbled at , something to contest against , to keep him watchful and upon his guard . But if he be ebriosus or petulans , if he be a drunkard , or wanton , an extortioner , or covetous ; that is , if he have a habit of any sin whatsoever , then he is not the son of God , but an heir of death and hell . That therefore which in all cases denominates a man such , both before God and before men , when the actions do not , that must needs have in it a proper malignity of its own , and that 's the habit . 24. IV. This we may also see evidently in the matter of smaller sins , and the trifles of our life ; which though they be often repeated , yet if they be kept asunder by the intercision of the actions of repentance , do not discompose our state of grace , but if they be habitual they do , though it may be the single instances by some accident being hindred do not so often return : and this is confess'd on all hands . But then the consequent of this is , that the very being habitual , is a special irregularity . 25. V. This also appears by the nature and malignity of the greater sins . A vicious habit is a principle of evil naturally and directly . And therefore as the capital sins are worse than others , because they are an impure root , and apt to produce accursed fruits ; as covetousness is the root of all evil ; and pride , and envy , and idolatry : so is every habit the mother of evil , not accidentally , and by chance , but by its proper efficacy and natural germination , and therefore is worse than single actions .. 26. VI. If natural concupiscence hath in it the nature of sin , and needs a laver of regeneration , and the blood of Christ to wash it off , much more shall our habitual and acquir'd concupiscence . For this is much worse , procur'd by our own act , introduc'd by our consent , brought upon us by the wrath of God which we have deserved ; springing from the baseness of our own manners , the consequent of our voluntary disobedience . So that if it were unreasonable that our natural concupiscence should be charged upon us as criminal , as being involuntary ; yet for the same Reason , it is most reasonable that our habitual sins , our superinduc'd concupiscence should be imputed to us as criminal , because it is voluntary in its cause which is in us , and is voluntary in the effect , that is , it is delighted in , and seated in the will. But however , this argument ought to prevail upon all that admit the article of original sin , as it is usually taught in Schools and Churches . For upon the denial of it , Pelagius also introduc'd this opinion , against which I am now disputing . And lest concupiscence might be reckon'd a sin , he affirm'd that no habitude , no disposition , nothing but an act could be a sin . But on the other side , lest concupiscence should be accounted no sin , S. Austin disputes earnestly , largely affirming and proving , that a sinful habit is a special sinfulness distinct from that of evil actions : malus thesaurus cordis , the evil treasure of the heart out of which proceeds all mischief , and a continual defluxion of impurities . 27. VII . And therefore as God severely forbids every single action of sin , so with greater caution he provides that we be not guilty of a sinful habit . Let not sin reign in your mortal bodies ; we must not be servants of sin , not sold under sin , that sin have no dominion over us . That is , not only that we do not repeat the actions of sin , but that we be not enslaved to it , under the power of it , of such a lost liberty that we cannot resist the temptation . For he that is so , is guilty before God , although no temptation comes . Such are they whom S. Peter notes , that cannot cease from sin . And indeed we cannot but confess the reasonableness of this . For all men hate such persons whose minds are habitually averse from them ; who watch for opportunities to do them evil offices , who lose none that are offer'd , who seek for more , who delight in our displeasure , who oftentimes effect what they maliciously will. Saul was Davids enemy even when he was asleep . For the evil will , and the contradicting mind , and the spiteful heart are worse than the crooked or injurious hand . And as grace is a principle of good , so is this of evil ; and therefore as the one denominates the subject gracious , so the other , sinful ; both of them inherent , that given by God , this introduc'd by our own unworthiness . * He that sins in a single act , does an injury to God , but he that does it habitually , he that cannot do otherwise is his essential enemy . The first is like an offending servant who deserves to be thrown away ; but in a vicious habit there is an antipathy : The Man is Gods enemy , as a Wolf to the Lamb , as the Hyaena to the Dog. He that commits a single sin , hath stain'd his skin , and thrown dirt upon it ; but an habitual sinner is an Ethiop , and must be stay'd alive before his blackness will disappear . 28. VIII . A man is called just or unjust by reason of his disposition to , and preparation for an act : and therefore much more for the habit . Paratum est cor meum Deus . O God my heart is ready , my heart is ready : and S. John had the reward of Martyrdom , because he was ready to die for his Lord , though he was not permitted ; and S. Austin affirms , that the continency of Abraham was as certainly crown'd as the continence of John , it being as acceptable to God to have a chast spirit as a virgin body , that is , habitual continence being as pleasing as actual . Thus a man may be a Persecutor , or a Murtherer , if he have a heart ready to do it : and if a lustful soul be an Adulteress , because the desire is a sin , it follows that the habit is a particular state of sin distinct from the act , because it is a state of vicious desires . And as a body may be said to be lustful though it be asleep , or eating , without the sense of actual urtications and violence , by reason of its constitution : so may the soul by the reason of its habit , that is , its vicious principle and base effect of sin be hated by God , and condemn'd upon that account . 29. So that a habit is not only distinct from its acts in the manner of being , as Rhetorick from Logick in Zeno , as a fist from a palm , as a bird from the egg , and the flower from the gemm : but a habit differs from its acts , as an effect from the cause , as a distinct principle from another , as a pregnant Daughter from a teeming Mother , as a Conclusion from its Premises , as a state of aversation from God , from a single act of provocation . 30. IX . If the habit had not an irregularity in it distinct from the sin , then it were not necessary to persevere in holiness by a constant regular course , but we were to be judg'd by the number of single actions ; and he only who did more bad than good actions should perish , which was affirmed by the Pharisees of old : and then we were to live or die by chance and opportunity , by actions and not by the will , by the outward and not by the inward man ; then there could be no such thing necessary as the Kingdom of Grace , Christs Empire and Dominion in the soul ; then we can belong to God without belonging to his Kingdom ; and we might be in God , though the Kingdom of God were not in us . For without this we might do many single actions of vertue , and it might happen that these might be more than the single actions of sin , even though the habit and affection and state of sin remain . Now if the case may be so ( as in the particular instance ) that the mans final condition shall not be determin'd by single actions , it must be by habits , and states and principles of actions : and therefore these must have in them a proper good and bad respectively by which the man shall be judg'd , distinct from the actions by which he shall not ( in the present case ) be judg'd . All which considerations being put together , do unanswerably put us upon this conclusion : That a habit of sin is that state of evil by which we are enemies to God and slaves of Satan , by which we are strangers from the Covenant of Grace , and consign'd to the portion of Devils : and therefore as a Corollory of all , we are bound under pain of a new sin to rise up instantly after every fall , to repent speedily for every sin , not to let the Sun go down upon our wrath , nor rise upon our lust , nor run his course upon our covetousness or ambition . For not only every period of impenitence is a period of danger , and eternal death may enter ; but it is an aggravation of our folly , a continuing to provoke God , a further aberration from the rule , a departure from life , it is a growing in sin , a progression towards final impenitence , to obduration and Apostasie , it is a tempting God , and a despising of his grace , it is all the way presumption , and a dwelling in sin by delight and obedience ; that is , it is a conjugation of new evils , and new degrees of evil . As pertinacy makes error to be heresie , and impenitence makes little sins unite and become deadly , and perseverance causes good to be crowned , and evil to be unpardonable : So is the habit of viciousness , the confirmation of our danger , and solennities of death , the investiture and security of our horrible inheritance . 31. The summ is this . Every single sin is a high calamity , it is a shame and it is a danger , in one instant it makes us liable to Gods severe anger . But a vicious habit is a conjugation of many actions , every one of which is highly damnable , and besides that union which is formally an aggravation of the evils , there is superinduc'd upon the will and all its ministring faculties , a viciousness and pravity which makes evil to be belov'd and chosen , and God to be hated and despis'd . A vicious habit hath in it all the Physical , Metaphysical and Moral degrees of which it can be capable . For there is not only a not repenting , a not rescinding of the past act by a contrary nolition ; but there is a continuance in it , and a repetition of the same cause of death , as if a man should marry death , the same death so many times over : it is an approving of our shame , a taking it upon us , an owning and a securing our destruction , and before a man can arrive thither , he must have broken all the instruments of his restitution in pieces , and for his recovery nothing is left , unless a Palladium fall from Heaven ; the man cannot live again , unless God shall do more for him than he did for Lazarus when he raised him from the dead . SECT . IV. Sinful habits do require a distinct manner of Repentance , and have no promise to be pardon'd but by the introduction of the contrary . 32. THIS is the most material and practical difficulty of the Question : for upon this depends the most mysterious article of Repentance , and the interest of dying penitents . For if a habit is not to be pardoned without the extirpation of that which is vicious , and the superinducing its contrary ; this being a work of time , requires a particular grace of God , and much industry , caution , watchfulness , frequent prayers , many advices and consultations , constancy , severe application : and is of so great difficulty and such slow progression , that all men who have had experience of this imployment , and have heartily gone about to cure a vicious habit , know it is not a thing to be done upon our death-bed . That therefore which I intend to prove , I express in this Proposition . A vicious habit is not to be pardon'd without the introduction of the contrary , either in kind , or in perfect affection , and in all those instances in which the man hath opportunities to work . 33. The Church of Rome , whose Chairs and Pulpits are dangerous guides in the article of Repentance , affirms , that any sin , or any habit of sin may be pardon'd by any single act of contrition ; the continued sin of forty years may be wash'd off in less than forty minutes , nay by an act of attrition with the Priestly absolution : which proposition , if it be false , does destroy the interest of souls ; and it cannot be true , because it destroys the interest of piety , and the necessities of a good life . The reproof of this depends upon many propositions , of which I shall give as plain accounts as the thing will bear . 34. I. Every habit of vice may be expelled by a habit of vertue naturally , as injustice by justice , gluttony by temperance , lust by chastity : but by these it is not meritoriously remitted and forgiven ; because nothing in nature can remit sins , or be the immediate natural disposition to pardon . All this is the gift of God , a grace obtain'd by our holy Redeemer , the price of his bloud ; but in this , the case is all one as it is in the greatest innocence of the best of men , which if it be not allowed by incorporation into Christ , and sanctified by faith , wants its proper title to Heaven : and so it is with Repentance . For nature cannot teach us this lesson , much less make it acceptable . For it depending wholly upon Gods graciousness and free forgiveness , can be taught only by him , by whom it is effectual , and this is conveyed to us by our blessed Lord , according to that saying , Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. 35. II. Although a habit cannot be the meritorious cause of pardoning the contrary habit , yet to him that hath contracted a vicious habit , it is necessary in order to his pardon that he root out that habit and obtain the contrary in some degrees of prevalency , so that the scales be turned on that side where is the interest of vertue : and this depends upon the evidence of the former proposition . If to be an habitual sinner be more than to be guilty of those actual sins by which the habit was contracted : then as it is necessary to rescind the act of sin by an act of contrition and repentance : so also it is as necessary that the habit be retracted by a habit , that every wound may have its balsam , and every broken bone be bound up and redintegrate . 36. III. But in the case of habitual sins the argument is more pressing . For if the act which is past and remains not , yet must be reversed by its contrary , much rather must that be taken off which does remain , which actually tempts us , by which we are in a state exactly contrary to the state of grace . For some seldom acts of sin and in trifling instances may stand with the state of holiness , and be incident to a good man : but no vicious habit can , neither in a small matter , nor in a great ; this is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a destroyer , and therefore as it hath a particular obliquity , so it must have a special repentance , a repentance proper to it , that is , as an act rescinds an act , so must a habit be oppos'd to a habit , a single act of contrition to a single sin , and therefore it must be more , no less than a lasting and an habitual contrition to obtain pardon for the habit . And although a habit can meritoriously remit a habit , no more than an act can do an act , they being both equal as to that particular ; yet they are also dispositions equally ( at least on this hand ) necessary for the obtaining pardon of their respective contraries . 37. IV. It is confessed on all sides , that every single sin which we remember , must be repented of by an act of repentance that must particularly touch that sin ; if we distinctly remember it , it must distinctly be revok'd by a nolition , a sorrow , and moral revocation of it . Since therefore every habit is contracted by many single actions , every one of which if they were sinful must some way or other be rescinded by its contrary , the rescission of those will also introduce a contrary habit , and so the question will be evinc'd upon that account . For if we shall think one act of sorrow can abolish many foul acts of sin , we but deceive our selves : we must have many for one ( as I have already made to appear ) a multitude of sighs and prayers against every foul action that we remember : and then the consequent is plain , that upon this reckoning when a habit is contracted , the actions which were its principle cannot be rescinded but by such Repentances which will extinguish not only the formality , but the material and natural effect of that cursed production , at least in very many degrees . 38. V. A habit oppos'd to a habit hath greater effect than an act oppos'd to an act , and therefore is not only equally requisite , but the more proper remedy and instance of repentance . For an act of it self cannot naturally extinguish the guilt , nor meritoriously obtain its pardon : but neither can it destroy its natural being , which was not permanent , and therefore not to be wrought upon by an after act . But to oppose a habit to a habit , can equally in the merits of Christ be the disposition to a pardon , as an act can for an act ; and is certainly much better than any one act can be , because it includes many single acts of the same nature , and it is all them and their permanent effect and change wrought by them besides . So that it is certainly the better and the surer way . But now the Question is not , whether it be the better way , but whether it be necessary , and will not the lesser way suffice ? To this therefore I answer , that since no man can be acceptable to God as long as sin reigns in his mortal body , and since either sin must reign , or the Spirit of Christ must reign ; for a man cannot be a Neuter in this war ; it is necessary that sins kingdom be destroyed and broken , and that Christ rule in our hearts ; that is , it is necessary that the first and the old habits be taken off and new ones introduc'd . For although the moral revocation of a single act may be a sufficient disposition to its pardon , because the act was transient , and unless there be a habit or something of it , nothing remains : yet the moral revocation of a sinful habit cannot be sufficient , because there is impressed upon the soul a viciousness and contrariety to God , which must be taken off , or there can be no reconciliation . For let it be but considered , that a vicious habit is a remanent aversation from God , an evil heart , the evil treasure of the heart , a carnal mindedness , an union and principle of sins ; and then let it be answered , whether a man who is in this state can be a friend of God , or reconcil'd to him in his Son , who lives in a state so contrary to his holy Spirit of Grace . The guilt cannot be taken off without destroying its nature , since the nature it self is a viciousness and corruption . 39. VI. Either it is necessary to extirpate and break the habit , or else a man may be pardon'd while he is in love with sin . For every vicious habit being radicated in the will , and being a strong love , inclination and adhesion to sin , unless the natural being of this habit be taken off , the enmity against God remains . For it being a quality permanent and inherent , and its nature being an aptness and easiness , a desire to sin and longing after it , to retract this by a moral retractation , and not by a natural also , is but hypocrisie : for no man can say truly , I hate the sin I have committed , so long as the love to sin is inherent in his will ; and then if God should pardon such a person , it would be to justifie a sinner remaining such , which God equally hates as to condemn the innocent : He will by no means acquit the guilty . It was part of his Name which he caused to be proclaimed in the Camp of Israel . And if this could be otherwise , a man might be in the state of sin , and the state of grace at the same time ; which hitherto all Theology hath believ'd to be impossible . 40. VII . This whole Question is clear'd by a large discourse of S. Paul. For having under the person of an unregenerate man complain'd of the habitual state of prevailing sin , of one who is a slave to sin , sold under sin , captive under a law of sin , that is , under vile inclinations , and high pronenesses and necessities of sinning , so that when he is convinc'd that he ought not to do it , yet he cannot help it ; though he fain would have it help'd , yet he cannot obey his own will , but his accursed superinduc'd necessities ; and his sin within him was the ruler , that , and not his own better choice was the principle of his actions , which is the perfect character of an habitual sinner ; he inquires after a remedy for all this , which remedy he calls a being delivered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , from the body of this death . The remedy is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the grace of God through Jesus Christ , for by Christ alone we can be delivered . But what is to be done ? the extermination of this dominion and Empire of concupiscence , the breaking of the kingdom of sin . That being the evil he complains of , and of which he seeks remedy , that is to be remov'd . But that we may well understand to what sence , and in what degree this is to be done ; in the next periods he describes the contrary state of deliverance , by the parts and characters of an habit or state of holiness ; which he calls , a walking after the Spirit , opposed to a walking after the flesh . It was a law in his members , a law of sin and death . Now he is to be made free by a contrary law , the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus : That is , as sin before gave him law , so now must the Spirit of God ; whereas before he minded the things of the flesh , now he minds the things of the spirit ; that is , the carnal-mindedness is gone , and a spiritual-mindedness is the principle and ruler of his actions . This is the deliverance from habitual sins , even no other than by habitual graces wrought in us by the spirit of life , by the grace of our Lord Jesus . And this whole affair is rarely well summ'd up by the same Apostle ; As ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity , unto iniquity : even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness . If ye were servants before , so ye must be now ; it is but justice and reason , that at least as much be done for God as for the Devil ; It is not enough morally to revoke what is past , by a wishing it had not been done , but you must oppose a state to a state , a habit to a habit . And the Author of the Book of Baruch presses it further yet ; As it was your mind to go astray from God , so being returned seek him ten times more . It ought not to be less ; it must be as S. Chrysostom expresses it , A custom against a custom , a habit opposed to a habit , that the evil may be driven out by the good , as one nail is by another . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Procopius . In those things where you have sinned , to profit , and to increase , and improve to their contraries , that is the more comely way to pardon . 41. VIII . Either a habit of vertue is a necessary disposition to the pardon of a habit of vice , or else the doctrine of mortification of the lusts of the flesh , of all the lusts , of all the members of the old man , is nothing but a counsel , and a caution of prudence , but it contains no essential and indispensable duty . For mortification is a long contention , and a course of difficulty ; it is to be done by many arts , and much caution , and a long patience , and a diligent observation , by watchfulness and labour , the work of every day , and the employment of all the prudence , and all the advices of good men , and the whole grace of God. It is like the curing of a Hectick feaver , which one potion will not do . Origen does excellently describe it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . When a word is strengthened and nourished by care and assiduity , and confirmed by opinions and wise sentences , or near to confirmation , it masters all oppositions , and breaks in pieces the concupiscence . This is the manner of mortification , there must be resolutions and discourses , assiduity and diligence , auxiliaries from reason , and wise sentences , and advices of the prudent ; and all these must operate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , unto a confirmation , or near it , and by these the concupiscence can be master'd . But this must be a work of time . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Menander . To dissolve a long custom in a short time is a work indeed , but very hard , if not impossible , to be done by any man. A man did not suddenly come to the state of evil , from whence he is to arise . Nemo repentè fuit turpissimus . But as a man coming into a pestilential air , does not suck in death at every motion of his lungs , but by little and little the spirits are poysoned , and at last enter into their portion of death ; so it is in a vicious custom . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The evil is not felt instantly , it begins from little things , and is the production of time and frequent actions . And therefore much less can it be supposed , that we can overcome our filthy habits , and master our fortified corruptions by a sudden dash of piety and the ex tempore gleams of repentance . Concerning this , S. Basil discourses excellently . Sicut enim morbi corporis inveterati , &c. For as the old diseases of the body are not healed without a long and painful attendance ; so must old sins be cured by a long patience , a daily prayer , and the sharpest contention of the spirit . That which is dyed with many dippings , is in grain , and can very hardly be washed out : Sic anima sanie peccatorum suppurata & in habitu constituta malitiae , vix ac multo negotio elui potest . So is the soul when it is corrupted with the poyson of sin , and hath contracted a malicious habit , it can scarce , but not without much labour be made clean . 42. Now since we say our nature is inclined to sin , and we feel it to be so in many instances , and yet that it needs time and progression to get a habit of that whither we too naturally tend ; we have reason to apprehend that we need time and fierce contentions , and the long suffering of violences to take the kingdom of Heaven by force , by a state of contradiction and hostility against the tempting enemy . It is much harder to get a habit against our nature , and a prepossessing habit , than to confirm nature , and to actuate our inclinations . 43. And this does not only relate to habits in their Natural capacity , but in their Moral , and consequently their Relative capacity , as appertaining to God , in the matter of his valuation of them . Because in habits as it is in acts , although metaphysically we can distinguish the action from the irregularity , yet because they are subjected in the same person , and the irregularity is inherent in the action , in the whole composition the action is sinful ; so it is in habits . For the sin adheres to the natural facility , and follows it in all its capacities . And as the natural facility of doing viciously , is cured by time , and a successive continued diligence ; so is the sinfulness , because that facility is vicious and sinful . And as heat is distinguished from fire , but you cannot lessen the heat , but by decreasing the natural being of fire : so does the sin of a vicious habit pass away as the habit naturally lessens ; that is , the Moral capacity changes as does the Natural , this being the subject of that , and it could not have been this habit , if it had not in it this sinfulness . * 44. Now if the parts of this argument be put together , their intention is this . A habit of sin is not gotten but by time and progression ; and yet it cannot be lost so soon as it was gotten ; but it is a long time before its natural being is overcome by its contrary . But the sinfulness of it does pass away with the natural being ; and no otherwise ; therefore the sinfulness of it cannot be removed suddenly . And therefore if mortification be a duty , and we be commanded to do it , we are commanded to do a long work and a difficult , a thing that is more than the moral retractation of it by a single act of sorrow or contrition , a duty that contains in it so much work as is proportion'd to the necessity , even to the breaking the habit of sin , and setting up the habit of vertue over it . Now then , all the question will be , whether Mortification be a Precept , or a Counsel . Concerning which , I only appeal to the words of S. Paul , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Mortifie therefore your earthly members ; and , If ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body , ye shall live . Mortification is the condition of life , it is expresly commanded by the Apostle , that we make the deeds of the body to be dead ; that is , the evil habits and concupiscence of the body ; for that which S. Paul here calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or deeds , in the same precept written to the Galatians , he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , lusts and concupiscences . And of what great necessity and effect this mortification and crucifying of our sinful customs is , we may understand best by those other words of the same Apostle ; He that is dead is justified from sins , not till then , not till his habit was dead ; not as soon as he morally retracts it by an act of displeasure and contrition , but when the sin is dead , when the habit is crucified , when the concupiscence does not reign , but is overcome in all its former prevalencies , then he is pardon'd , and not before . 45. IX . Unless it be necessary to oppose a habit against a habit , a state of vertue against a state of vice ; that is , if a vicious habit may be pardon'd upon one act of contrition , then it may so happen that a man shall not be obliged to do good , but only to abstain from evil , to cease from sin , but not to proceed and grow in grace : which is against the perpetual design , and analogy of the Gospel , and the nature of Evangelical righteousness , which differs from the righteousness of the law , as doing good from not doing evil . The law forbad murder , but the Gospel superadds charity . The law forbad uncleanness , but the Gospel superadds purity and mortification . The law forbad us to do wrong , but the Gospel commands us to do offices of kindness . Injustice was prohibited by the law , but revenge also of real injuries is forbidden by the Gospel , and we are commanded to do good to them that injure us ; and therefore the Writers of the New Testament do frequently joyn * these , to be dead unto sin , and to live unto righteousness . This is that which was opposed to the righteousness of the law ‖ , and is called the righteousness of God : And a mistake in this affair was the ruine of the Jews . For being ignorant of the righteousness of God , they thought to be justified by their own righteousness which is of the law . That is , they thought it enough to leave off to sin , without doing the contrary good , and so hop'd for the promises . This was the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees , to be no adulterers , no defrauders of the rights of the Temple , no Publicans or exacters of Tribute . But our blessed Saviour assur'd us that there is no hopes of Heaven for us , unless our righteousness exceed this of theirs . 46. Now then , to apply this to the present argument . Suppose a vicious person who hath liv'd an impious life , plac'd upon his death-bed , exhorted to repentance , made sensible of his danger , invited by the Sermons of his Priest to dress his soul with duty and sorrow ; if he obeys , and is sorry for his sin ; supposing that this sorrow does really begin that part of his duty which consists in not sinning , nay , suppose he will never sin again ( which is the righteousness of the law ) yet how can he in that case do that good which is required by the Gospel ? Seek the kingdom of Heaven , and the righteousness thereof . The Gospel hath a peculiar righteousness of its own , proper to it self , without which there is no entrance into Heaven . But the righteousness of the law is called our own righteousness , that is , such a righteousness which men by nature know ; for we all by the innate law of nature , know that we ought to abstain from doing injury to Man , from impiety to God : But we only know by revelation the righteousness of the Kingdom which consists in holiness and purity , chastity , and patience , humility , and self-denial . He that rests in the first , and thinks he may be sav'd by it ( as S. Paul's expression is ) he establisheth his own righteousness , that is , the righteousness of the law , and this he does , whosoever thinks that his evil habits are pardon'd without doing that good , and acquiring those graces which constitute the righteousness of the Gospel , that is , faith and holiness , which are the significations , and the vital parts of the new creature . 47. X. But because this doctrine is highly necessary , and the very soul of Christianity , I consider further , that without the superinducing a contrary state of good to the former state of evil , we cannot return , or go off from that evil condition that God hates , I mean the middle state , or the state of lukewarmness . For though all the old Philosophy consented that vertue and vice had no medium between them , but whatsoever was not evil , was good , and he that did not do evil was a good man , said the old Jews , yet this they therefore did unreprovably teach , because they knew not this secret of the righteousness of God. For in the Evangelical justice , between the natural , or legal good or evil there is a medium or a third , which of it self , and by the accounts of the Law was not evil , but in the accounts of the Evangelical righteousness is a very great one ; that is , lukewarmness , or a cold , tame , indifferent , unactive Religion . Not that lukewarmness is by name forbidden by any of the laws of the Gospel , but that it is against the analogy and design of it . A lukewarm person does not do evil , but he is hated by God , because he does not vigorously proceed in godliness . No law condemns him , but the Gospel approves him not , because he does not from the heart obey this form of doctrine , which commands a course , a habit , a state and life of holiness . It is not enough that we abstain from evil , we shall not be crowned unless we be partakers of a Divine nature . For to this S. Peter enjoyns us carefully . Now then ▪ we partake of a Divine nature , when the Spirit dwells in us , and rules all our faculties , when we are united unto God , when we imitate the Lord Jesus , when we are perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect . Now whether this can be done by an act of contrition , needs no further inquiry , but to observe the nature of Evangelical Righteousness , the hatred God bears to lukewarmness , the perfection he requires of a Christian , the design and great example of our blessed Lord , the glories of that inheritance whither we are design'd , and of the obtaining of which , obedience to God in the faith of Jesus Christ is made the only indispensable , necessary condition . 48. For let it be considered . Suppose a man that is righteous according to the letter of the Law , of the Ten Commandments , all of which ( two excepted ) were Negative ; this man hath liv'd innocently and harmlesly all his days , but yet uselesly , unprofitably , in rest and unactive circumstances ; is not this person an unprofitable servant ? The servant in the Parable was just such : he spent not his Masters talent with riotous living , like the Prodigal , but laid it up in a Napkin , he did neither good nor harm ; but because he did no good , he receiv'd none , but was thrown into outer darkness . Nec furtum feci , nec fugi , si mihi dicat Servus , habes pretium , loris non ureris , ajo . Non hominem occidi , non pasces in cruce corvos . An innocent servant amongst the Romans might scape the Furca , or the Mill , or the Wheel ; but unless he was useful , he was not much made of . So it is in Christianity . For that which according to Moses was called righteousness , according to Christ is poverty and nakedness , misery and blindness , as appears in the reproof which the Spirit of God sent to the Bishop and Church of Laodicea . He thought himself rich when he was nothing ; that is , he was harmless , but not profitable , innocent according to the measures of the law , but not rich in good works . So the Pharisees also thought themselves just by the justice of the Law , that is , by their abstinence from condemned evils , and therefore they refus'd to buy of Christ the Lord , gold purified in the fire , whereby they might become rich ; that is , they would not accept of the righteousness of God , the justice Evangelical , and therefore they were rejected . And thus to this very day do we . Even many that have the fairest reputation for good persons and honest men , reckon their hopes upon their innocence and legal freedoms , and outward compliances : that they are no liars nor swearers , no drunkards nor gluttons , no extortioners or injurious , no thieves nor murtherers ; but in the mean time they are unprofitable servants , not instructed , not throughly prepared to every good work ; not abounding in the work of the Lord , but blind , and poor , and naked ; just , but as the Pharisees ; innocent , but as Heathens : In the mean time they are only in that state to which Christ never made the promises of eternal life and joys hereafter . 49. Now if this be true in one period , it is true in all the periods of our life . If he that hath always liv'd thus innocently and no more , that is , a Heathen and a Pharisee , could not by their innocence and proper righteousness obtain Heaven , much less shall he who liv'd viciously and contracted filthy habits , be accepted by all that amends he can make by such single acts of contrition , by which nothing can be effected but that he hates sin and leaves it . For if the most innocent by the legal righteousness is still but unprofitable , much more is he such who hath prevaricated that and liv'd vilely , and now in his amendment begins to enter that state , which if it goes no further is still unprofitable . They were severe words which our blessed Saviour said , When ye have done all things which are commanded you , say , We are unprofitable servants ; that is , when ye have done all things which are commanded [ in the law ] he says not [ all things which I shall command you ] for then we are not unprofitable servants in the Evangelical sence . For he that obeys this form of doctrine is a good servant . He is the friend of God. If ye do whatsoever I command you , ye are my friends ; and that is more than profitable servants : For I will not call you servants , but friends , saith our blessed Lord ; and for you , a crown of righteousness is laid up against the day of recompences . These therefore cannot be called unprofitable servants , but friend● , sons and heirs ; for he that is an unprofitable servant shall be cast into outer darkness . * To live therefore in innocence only , and according to the righteousness of the law , is to be a servant , but yet unprofitable , and that in effect is to be no heir of the Promises ; for to these , Piety , or Evangelical Righteousness is the only title . Godliness is profitable to all things , having the promise of this life , and of that which is to come . For upon this account , the works of the law cannot justifie us : for the works of the law at the best were but innocence and ceremonial performances : but we are justified by the works of the Gospel , that is , faith and obedience . For these are the righteousness of God , they are his works , revealed by his Spirit , effected by his Grace , promoted by his Gifts , encouraged by special Promises , sanctified by the Holy Ghost , and accepted through Jesus Christ to all the great purposes of Glory and Immortality . 50. Since therefore a constant innocence could not justifie us , unless we have the righteousness of God , that is , unless we superadd holiness and purity in the faith of Jesus Christ : much less can it be imagined that he who hath transgressed the righteousness of the law , and broken the Negative Precepts , and the natural humane rectitude , and hath superinduc'd vices contrary to the righteousness of God , can ever hope to be justified by those little arrests of his sin , and his beginnings to leave it upon his death-bed , and his sorrow for it , then when he cannot obtain the righteousness of God , or the holiness of the Gospel . It was good counsel that was given by a wise Heathen , Dimidium facti qui coepit habet , sapere aude : Incipe : qui rectè vivendi prorogat horam Rusticus , expectat dum defluat amnis : at ille Labitur , & labetur in omne volubilis aevum . It is good for a man to begin . The Clown that stands by a river side expecting till all the water be run away , may stay long enough before he gets to the other side . He that will not begin to live well till he hath answered all objections , and hath no lusts to serve , no more appetites to please , shall never arrive at happiness in the other world . Be wise , and begin betimes . SECT . V. Consideration of the objections against the former Doctrine . 51. I. BUT why may not all this be done in an instant by the grace of God ? Cannot he infuse into us the habits of all the g●aces Evangelical ? Faith cannot be obtained by natural means , and if it be procur'd by supernatural , the Spirit of God is not retarded by the measures of an enemy , and the dull methods of natural opposition . Nescit tarda molimina Spiritus sancti gratia . Without the Divine Grace we cannot work any thing of the righteousness of God ; but if he gives us his grace , does not he make us chaste and patient , humble and devout , and all in an instant ? For thus the main Question seems to be confessed and granted , that a habit is not remitted but by the introduction of the contrary : but when you consider what you handle , it is a cloud and nothing else ; for this admission of the necessity of a habit , enjoyns no more labour nor care , it requires no more time , it introduces no active fears , and infers no particular caution , and implies the doing of no more than to the remission of a single act of one sin . 52. To this I answer , that the grace of God is a supernatural principle , and gives new aptnesses and inclinations , powers and possibilities , it invites and teaches , it supplies us with arguments , and answers objections , it brings us into artificial necessities , and inclines us sweetly : and this is the semen Dei spoken of by S. John , the seed of God thrown into the furrows of our hearts , springing up ( unless we choke it ) to life eternal . By these assistances we being helped can do our duty , and we can expel the habits of vice , and get the habits of vertue : But as we cannot do Gods work without Gods grace ; so Gods grace does not do our work without us . For grace being but the beginnings of a new nature in us , gives nothing but powers and inclinations . The Spirit helpeth our infirmities ; so S. Paul explicates this mystery . And therefore when he had said , By the grace of God I am what I am ; that is , all is owing to his grace : he also adds , I have laboured more than they all , yet not I ; that is , not I alone ; sed gratia Dei mecum ; the grace of God that is with me . For the grace of God stands at the door and knocks ; but we must attend to his voice , and open the door , and then he will enter and sup with us , and we shall be with him . The grace of God is like a graff put into a stock of another nature ; it makes use of the faculties and juice of the stock and natural root , but converts all into its own nature . But , 53. II. We may as well say there can be a habit born with us , as infus'd into us . For as a natural habit supposes a frequency of action by him who hath natural abilities ; so does an infus'd habit ( if there were any such ) it is a result and consequent of a frequent doing the works of the Spirit . So that to say that God in an instant infuses into us a habit [ of Chastity , &c. ] is to say that he hath in an instant infus'd into us to have done the acts of that grace frequently . For it is certain by experience , that the frequent doing the actions of any grace , increases the grace , and yet the grace or aids of Gods Spirit are as necessary for the growth , as for the beginnings of grace . We cannot either will or do without his help ; he worketh both in us , that is , we by his help alone are enabled to do things above our nature . But then we are the persons enabled ; and therefore we do these works as we do others , not by the same powers , but in the same manner . 54. When God raises a Cripple from his couch , and gives him strength to move , though the aid be supernatural , yet the motion is after the manner of nature . And it is evident in the matter of faith , which though it be the gift of God , yet it is seated in the Understanding , which operates by way of discourse and not by intuition : The believer understands as a Man , not as an Angel : And when Christ by miracle restor'd a blind eye , still that eye did see by reception , or else by emission of species , just so as eyes that did see naturally . So it is in habits . For it is a contradiction to say that a perfect habit is infus'd in an instant : For if a habit were infus'd , it must be infus'd as a habit is acquir'd ; for else it is not a habit . As if a motion should be infus'd , it must still be successive as well as if it were natural . 55. But this device of infus'd habits , is a fancy without ground , and without sence , without authority , or any just grounds of confidence , and it hath in it very bad effects . For it destroys all necessity of our care and labour in the ways of godliness , all cautions of a holy life ; it is apt to minister pretences and excuses for a perpetually wicked life till the last of our days , making men to trust to a late Repentance ; it puts men upon vain confidences , and makes them relie for salvation upon dreams and empty notions ; it destroys all the duty of man , and cuts off all entercourse of obedience and reward . But it is sufficient , that there is no ground for it in Scripture , nor in Antiquity , nor in right Reason : but it is infinitely destructive of all that wise conduct of Souls , by which God would glorifie himself by the means of a free obedience ; and it is infinitely confuted by all those Scriptures which require our cooperation with the assistance of Gods holy Spirit . For all the helps that the Spirit of Grace ministers to us , is far from doing our work for us , that it only enables us to do it for our selves , and makes it reasonable that God should therefore exact it of us , because we have no excuse , and cannot plead disability . To which purpose that discourse of S. Paul is highly convincing and demonstrative : Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling ; for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , according to our desire : so it is better read ; that is , fear not at all , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , throughly do your duty * ; for according as you desire and pray , God will be present to you with his grace , to bear you through all your labours and temptations . And therefore our conversion , and the working our salvation , is sometimes ascribed to God , sometimes to men ‖ ; to God as the prime and indeficient cause , to man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as to the fellow-worker with God ; it is the expression of S. Paul. The Scripture mentions no other effect of Gods grace , but such as I have now described . But that Grace should do all our work alone , and in an instant , that which costs the Saints so much labour , and fierce contentions , so much sorrow and trouble , so many prayers and tears , so much watchfulness and caution , so much fear and trembling , so much patience and long-suffering , so much toleration and contradiction , and all this under the conduct of the Spirit , in the midst of all the greatest helps of grace , and the inhabitation of the holy Spirit of God ; that all this labour and danger should be spar'd to a vile person , who hath griev'd and extinguish'd Gods holy Spirit , and a way contriv'd for him that he should enjoy the pleasures of this world , and the glories of the next , is such a device , as , if it had any ground or colourable pretence for it , would , without the miracles of another grace , destroy all piety from the face of the earth . And in earnest , it seems to me a strange thing , that the Doctors of the Church of Rome should be so loose and remiss in this Article , when they are so fierce in another that takes from such persons all manner of excuse . It is ( I say ) very strange that it should be so possible , and yet withal so unnecessary to keep the Commandments . 56. Obj. 2. But if a single act of contrition cannot procure pardon of sins that are habitual , then a wicked man that returns not till it be too late to root out vicious habits , must despair of salvation . I answer , That such a man should do well to ask his Physician whether it be possible for him to escape that sickness ? If his Physician say it is , then the man need not despair ; for if he return to life and health , it will not be too late for him by the grace of God to recover in his soul. But if his Physician say he cannot recover ; first let the Physician be reproved for making his patient to despair . I am sure he hath less reason to say he cannot live , than there is to say , such a person hath no promise that he shall be saved without performing the condition . But the Physician if he be a wise man will say , So far as he understands by the rules of his art , this man cannot recover ; but some secret causes of things there are , or may be , by which the event may be better than the most reasonable predictions of his art . The same answer I desire may be taken in the Question of his soul. Concerning which the Curate is to preach the rules and measures of God , but not to give a resolution concerning the secret and final sentence . 2. The case of the five foolish Virgins , if we may construe it as it is expressed , gives a sad account to such persons : and unless that part of the Parable be insignificant , which expresses their sorrow , their diligence , their desire , their begging of oyle , their going out to buy oyle before the Bridegroom came , but after it was noised that he was coming , and the insufficiency of all this , we may too certainly conclude , that much more than a single act of contrition , and a moral revocation , that is , a sorrow and a nolition of the past sins , may be done upon our death-bed without effect , without a being accepted to pardon and salvation . 3. When things are come to that sad state , let the man hope as much as he can ; God forbid that I should be Author to him to despair . The purpose of this discourse is , that men in health should not put things to that desperate condition , or make their hopes so little and afflicted , that it may be disputed whether they be alive or no. 4. But this objection is nothing but a temptation and a snare ; a device to make me confess that the former arguments ( for fear men should despair ) ought to be answered , and are not perfectly convincing . I intended them only for institution and instruction , not to confute any person or any thing , but to condemn sin , and to rescue men from danger . But truly , I do think they are rightly concluding ( as moral propositions are capable ; ) and if the consequent of them be , that dying persons after a vicious life cannot hope ( ordinarily ) for pardon , I am truly sorrowful that any man should fall into that sad state of things ; as I am really afflicted and sorrowful that any man should live vilely , or perish miserably ; but then it ought not to be imputed to this doctrine that it makes men despair , for the purpose and proper consequent of it , is , that men are warned to live so , that they may be secur'd in their hopes , that is , that men give diligence to make their calling and election sure , that they may take no desperate courses , and fall into no desperate condition . And certainly , if any man preach the necessity of a good life , and of actual obedience , he may as well be charged to drive men to despair ; for the summ of the foregoing doctrine is nothing else , but that it is necessary we should walk before God in all holy conversation and godliness . But of this I shall give a large account in the Fifth Section . Obj. 3. But if things be thus , it is not good or safe to be a criminal Judge , and all the Discipline of War will be unlawful and highly displeasing to God. For if any one be taken in an act of a great sin , and as it happens in War , be put to death suddenly , without leisure and space of repentance , by the measures of this doctrine , the man shall perish , and consequently the power by which he falls is uncharitable . I answer ; That in an act of sin the case is otherwise than in an habit , as I have already demonstrated in its proper place : It must be a habit that must extirpate a habit ; but an act is rescinded by a less violence and abode of duty : and it is possible for an act of duty to be so heroical , or the repentance of an hour to be so pungent and dolorous , and the fruits of that repentance putting forth by the sudden warmths and fervour of the spirit , be so goodly and fair , as through the mercies of God in Jesus Christ , to obtain pardon of that single sin , if that be all . II. But it is to be considered , whether the man be otherwise a vicious person , or was he a good man , but by misfortune and carelesness overtaken in a fault ? If he was a good man , his spirit is so accustomed to good , that he is soon brought to an excellent sorrow , and to his former state , especially being awakened by the sad arrest of a hasty death : and if he accepts that death willingly , making that which is necessarily inforc'd upon him , to become voluntary by his acceptation of it , changing the judgment into penance , I make no question but he shall find mercy . But if the man thus taken in a fault was otherwise a vicious person , it is another consideration . It is not safe for him to go to war ; but the Officers may as charitably and justly put such a person to death for a fault , as send him upon a hard service . The doing of his duty may as well ruine him , as the doing of a fault ; and if he be repriev'd a week , he will find difficulty in the doing what he should , and danger enough besides . III. The discipline of war , if it be only administred where it is necessary , not only in the general rule , but also in the particular instance , cannot be reprov'd upon this account . Because by the laws of war sufficiently published , every man is sufficiently warned of his danger ; which if he either accept , or be bound to accept , he perishes by his own fault , if he perishes at all . For as by the hazard of his imployment he is sufficiently called upon to repent worthily of all his evil life past , so is he by the same hazardous imployment , and the known laws of war , caution'd to beware of committing any great sin : and if his own danger will not become his security , then his confidence may be his ruine , and then nothing is to be blam'd but himself . IV. But yet it were highly to be wish'd , that when such cases do happen , and that it can be permitted in the particular without the dissolution of discipline , such persons should be pitied in order to their eternal interest . But when it cannot , the Minister of justice is the Minister of God , and dispenses his power by the rules of his justice , at which we cannot quarrel , though he cuts off sinners in their acts of sin , of which he hath given them sufficient warning , and hath a long time expected their amendment : to whom that of Seneca may be applied , Vnum bonum tibi superest , repraesentabimus mortem . Nothing but death will make some men cease to sin ; and therefore , quo uno modo possunt , desinant mali esse . God puts a period to the increase of their ruine and calamity , by making that wickedness shorter , which if it could would have been eternal . When men are incorrigible , they may be cut off in charity as well as justice ; and therefore as it is always just , so it is sometimes pity , though a sad one , to take a sinner away with his sins upon his head . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . When it is impossible to have it otherwise , this is the only good that he is capable of * , to be sent speedily to a lesser punishment than he should inherit , if he should live longer . But when it can be otherwise , it were very well it were so very often . And therefore the customs of Spain are in this highly to be commended , who to condemned criminals give so much respite till the Confessor gives them a benè discessit , and supposes them competently prepared . But if the Law-givers were truly convinced of this doctrine here taught , it is to be hoped , they would more readily practise this charity . 57. Obj. 4. But hath not God promised pardon to him that is contrite ? A contrite and broken heart , O God , thou wilt not despise . And , I said , I will confess my sins unto the Lord : and so thou forgavest the wickedness of my sin . And the prodigal was pardon'd immediately upon his confession , and return . Coeperat dicere , & mox illum pater complectitur , said S. Basil ; His Father embraces him when he began to speak . And S. Chrysostom , In that moment ( says he ) he wipes away all the sins of his life . And S. Austin upon that of David before quoted ; My confession came not so far as my mouth , and God heard the voice of my heart . 58. To this I answer , first concerning the words of David . Then concerning the examples . 1. Concerning contrition , that it is a good beginning of repentance , is certain , and in its measure acceptable to God , and effective of all its proper purposes . But contrition can have but the reward of contrition , but not of other graces which are not parts but effects of it . God will not despise the broken and contrite heart ; no , for he will receive it graciously , and bind up the wounds of it , and lead it on in the paths of righteousness , and by the waters of comfort . 59. II. But a man is not of a contrite heart as soon as he hath exercised one act of contrition . He that goes to break a rock , does something towards it by every blow , but every blow does not break it . A mans heart is not so easily broken ; I mean broken from the love of sin , and its adherence to it . Every act of temperance does not make a man temperate ; and so I fear will it be judg'd concerning contrition . 60. III. But suppose the heart be broken , and that the man is contrite , there is more to be done than so . God indeed does not despise this , but he requires more . God did not despise Ahabs repentance , but it did not do all his work for him . He does not despise patience , nor meekness , nor resignation , nor hope , nor confession , nor any thing that himself commands . But he that commands all , will not be content with one alone ; every grace shall have its reward , but it shall not be crown'd alone . Faith alone shall not justifie , and repentance alone , taken in its specifical , distinctive sence , shall not suffice ; but faith , and repentance , and charity , and patience , and the whole circle and rosary of graces and duties must adorn our heads . 61. IV. Those graces and duties which are commanded us , and to which God hath promised ▪ glorious rewards , must not be single or transient acts , but continual and permanent graces . He that drinks of the water which I shall give him , shall never thirst again . He that eats of this bread shall live for ever . He that believes in me , rivers of living waters shall flow from his belly . He that confesseth his sins and forsaketh them shall have mercy . Repent and believe , and wash away your sins . Now these words of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , are of extended and produced signification ( as Divines observe ) and signifie a state of duty , such as includes patience and perseverance . Such also are these . He that doth the will of my Father abideth for ever . If we confess our sins , he is just and faithful to forgive us our sins , and to cleanse us from all iniquity ; and they that do such things shall possess the kingdom of Heaven . And , I will deliver him because he hath put his trust in me . And , If ye love him he also will love us . And , Forgive and ye shall be forgiven . These and many more do not intend that any one grace alone is sufficient , much less any one act of one grace , proceeding from the Spirit of God , can be sufficient to wipe off our leprosies . But these signifie states of duty , and integrity ; not transient actions , or separate graces . And besides the infinite reasonableness of the thing , this truth is consign'd to us plainly in Scripture : [ God ] will render to every man according to his deeds : To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality , eternal life . And if men had pleased , they might as well have fallen upon this proposition , that an act of humility would have procur'd our pardon , as well as that an act of contrition will do it : because of the words of David , The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a contrite heart ; and will save such as be of an humble spirit . Salvation is as much promised to humility alone , as to contrition alone ; that is , to neither separately , but in the conjunction with other parts of duty . 62. V. Contrition is either taken in its proper specifick signification , and so it is but a part of repentance ; and then who can say that it shall be sufficient to a full and final pardon ? Repentance alone is not sufficient ; There must be faith , and hope , and charity ; therefore much less shall a part be sufficient , when the whole is not . But if contrition be taken in a sence comprehending more than it self , then I demand how much shall it involve ? That it does include in it an act of the Divine love , and a purpose to confess , and a resolution to amend is affirmed . So far is well . But why thus far and no farther ? Why shall not contrition when it is taken for a sufficient disposition to pardon and salvation , signifie as much as repentance does ; and repentance signifie the whole duty of a converted sinner ? Unless it does , repentance it self , that is , as it is one single grace , cannot suffice , as I proved but now : And therefore how shall contrition alone , much less , an act of contrition alone do it ? For my part , I should be very glad it were so , if God so pleased ; for I have as much need of mercy as any man , and have as little reason to be confident of the perfection of my repentance , as any returning sinner in the world . But I would not willingly deceive my self , nor others , and therefore I must take the surest course , and follow his measures who hath describ'd the lines and limits of his own mercy . * But it is remarkable that the manner of the Scripture is to include the consequents in the antecedents . He that is of God , heareth Gods word . That is , not only hears but keeps it . For , not the hearer , but the doer is blessed . So S. John in the Revelation ; Blessed are they that are called to the marriage of the Lamb. They which are called are blessed ; that is , They which being called , come , and come worthily , having on the wedding garment . For without this the meaning of the Spirit is not full . For many are called , but few are chosen . And thus also it is in the present instance : God will not despise the contrite heart ; that is , the heart which being bruised with sorrow returns to duty , and lives in holiness ; for in order to holiness , contrition was accepted . But one thing I shall remark before I leave this . In the definition of Contrition all the Schools of Theologie in the world that I know of , put the love of God. Contrition is not only sorrow , but a love of God too . Now this doctrine , if they themselves would give men leave rightly to understand it , is not only an excellent doctrine , but will also do the whole business of this great Question . Without Contrition our sins cannot be pardon'd . It is not Contrition , unless the love of God be in it . Add then but these ; Our love to God does not consist in an act of intuition or contemplation , nor yet directly and meerly of passion ; but it consists in obedience . If ye love me , keep my Commandments : That 's our love of God. So that Contrition is a detestation of our past sin , and a consequent obedience to the Divine Commandments : Only as the aversion hath been , so must be the conversion ; It was not one act of disobedience only which the habitual sinner is to be contrite for , but many ; and therefore so must his contrition be , a lasting hatred against sin , and an habitual love , that is , an habitual obedience to the Divine Commandment . 63. VI. But now to the instances of David and the Prodigal , and the sudden pronunciation of their pardon , there is something particular to be said . The Parable of the Prodigal can prove nothing but Gods readiness to receive every returning sinner : but neither the measures nor the times of pardon are there described . As for David , his pardon was pronounced suddenly , but it was but a piece of pardon ; the sentence of death which by Moses's law he incurred , that only was remitted : but after this pardon , David repented bitterly in sackcloth and ashes , he fasted and prayed , he liv'd holily and wisely , he made amends as he could ; and yet the child died that was born to him , his Son and Subjects rebelled , his Concubines were dishonoured in the face of the Sun , and the Sword never departed from his house . 2. But to both these and all other instances that are or can be of the like nature , I answer , That there is no doubt but Gods pardon is as early and speedy as the beginnings of our repentance ; but then it is such a pardon as is proportionable to the Repentance , a beginning Pardon , to a beginning Repentance . It is one degree of pardon to be admitted to Repentance ; To have more grace given , to have hopes of final absolution , to be continued in the work of the Lord , to be help'd in the mortification of our sins , to be invited forwards , and comforted , and defended , and blessed , still are further progressions of it , and answer to the several parts and perseverance of Repentance . And in this sence those sayings of the old Doctors are true , but in no other that I know of . To this purpose they are excellent words which were spoken by S. Austin , Nunquam Deus spernit poenitentiam , si ei sincerè & simplicitèr offeratur ; suscipit , libentèr accipit , amplectitur omnia quatenus eum ad priorem statum revocet . God never does despise repentance that is sincerely offered to him ; he takes all , he embraces all , that he may bring the man to his former state . 64. Obj. 5. But against this doctrine are pretended some sentences of the Fathers , expresly affirming that a sinner returning to God in any instant may be pardoned ; even in the last moment of his life , when it is certain nothing can be done , but single acts of contrition or something like it . Thus the Author of the book De coena Domini , attributed to S. Cyprian , Sed & in eodem articulo temporis cum jam anima festinat ad exitum , & egrediens ad labia expirantis emerserit , poenitentiam clementissimi Dei benignitas non aspernatur : nec serum est quod verum , nec irremissibile quod voluntarium , & quae cunque necessitas cogat ad poenitudinem , nec quantitas criminis , nec brevitas temporis , nec horae extremitas , nec vitae enormitas , si vera contritio , si pura fuerit voluptatum mutatio , excludit à veniâ , sed in amplitudine sinus sui mater charitas prodigos suscipit revertentes , & velit nolit Novatus haereticus omni tempore Dei gratia recipit poenitentes . Truly this is expresly against the severity of the former doctrine ; and if S. Cyprian had been the Author of this book , I should have confess'd him to be an adversary in this question . For this Author affirms , that then when the soul is expiring , God rejects not the contrition of him who but then returns : Though the man be compelled to repentance , though the time be short , and the iniquity was long and great , yet in the last hour , if he be truly contrite , God will not refuse him . To this I say , that he that said these words was * one that liv'd not very long since ; then , when Discipline was broken , and Piety was lost , and Charity was waxen cold ; and since the mans authority is nothing , I need say no more , but that I have been reproving this opinion all this while . But there are words in S. Cyprian's book to Demetrianus , which are confessedly his , and yet seem to promise pardon to dying penitents . Nec quisquam aut peccatis retardetur aut annis , quo minus veniat ad consequendam salutem . In isto adhuc mundo manenti poenitentia nulla sera est . Patet ad indulgentiam Dei aditus , & quaerentibus atque intelligentibus veritatem facilis accessus est . Tu sub ipso licet exitu & vitae temporalis occasu pro delictis roges : & Deum qui unus & verus est , confessione & fide agnitionis ejus implores . Venia confitenti datur , & credenti indulgentia salutaris de Divinâ pietate conceditur , & ad immortalitatem sub ipsâ morte transitur . These words are indeed very expresly affirmative of the efficacy of a very late , even of a Death-bed repentance , if it should so happen . But the consideration of the person wholly alters the case , and makes it unapplicable to the case of dying Christians . For Demetrianus was then a Pagan , and a cruel Persecutor of Christians . Nec saltem contentus es dolorum nostrorum compendio , & simplici ac veloci brevitate poenarum : admoves laniandis corporibus longa tormenta . Innoxios , justos , Deo charos domo privas , patrimonio spolias , catenis premis , carcere includis , bestiis , gladio , ignibus punis . This man S. Cyprian , according to the Christian Charity which teaches to pray for our Persecutors , and to love our Enemies , exhorts passionately to believe in Christ , to become a Christian , and though he was very old , yet to repent even then would not be too late . Hujus Sacramento & signo censeamur ; Hunc ( si fieri potest ) sequamur omnes . Let us all follow Christ ; let us all be consign'd with his sign and his Sacrament . Now there is no peradventure , but new converted persons , Heathens newly giving up their Names to Christ and being baptized , if they die in an hour , and were baptized half an hour after they believe in Christ , are heirs of Salvation . And it was impossible to be otherwise ; for when the Heathen world was to be converted , and the Gospel preached to all persons , old men , and dying men , it must either be effective to them also of all the Promises , or by nothing could they be called to the Religion . They who were not Christians , were not to be judged by the Laws of Christ. But yet Christians are ; and that 's a full account of this particular , since the Laws of our Religion require of us a holy life ; but the Religion could demand of strangers nothing but to believe , and at first to promise to obey , and then to 〈◊〉 it accordingly if they shall live . Now to do this , was never too late ; and this is all which is affirmed by S. Cyprian . 65. S. Hierome * affirm'd , Nunquam sera est conversio , latro de cruce transiit ad Paradisum . And S. ‖ Austin , De nullo desperandum est , quamdiu patientia Dei ad poenitentiam adducit : and again , De quocunque pessimo in hâc vitâ constituto utique non est desperandum . Ne● pro illo imprudentèr oratur , de quo non desperatur . Concerning the words of S. Hierome , the same answer will serve which I gave to the words of S. Cyprian ; because his instance is of the Thief upon the Cross , who then came first to Christ : and his case was as if a Heathen were new converted to Christianity . Baptizatus ad horam securus hinc exit , was the Rule of the Church . But God requires more holiness of Christians than he did of strangers ; and therefore he also expects a longer and more laborious Repentance . But of this I have given account in the case of Demetrianus . S. Austins words press not at all : All that he sayes is this , We must despair of no man , so long as the mercy of God leadeth him to repentance . It is true , we must not absolutely despair ; but neither must we presume without a warrant : nay , hope as long as God calls effectually . But when the severity of God cuts him off from repentance , by allowing him no time , or not time enough to finish what is required , the case is wholly differing . But S. Chrysostome speaks words which are not easie to be reconciled to the former doctrine . The words of S. Chrysostome are these : Take heed of saying , that there is a place of pardon onely for them that have sinn'd but little . For if you please suppose any one abounding with all maliciousness , and that hath done all things which shut men from the Kingdome ; let this man be ( not a Heathen , but ) a Christian and accepted of God , but afterwards an Whoremonger , an Adulterer , an effeminate person , unnaturally lustfull , a thief , a drunkard , a slanderer , and one that hath diligently committed such crimes , truly I will not be to him an author of despairing , although he had persevered in these wickednesses to an extreme old age . Truly neither would I. But neither could he nor any man else be forward to warrant his particular . But if the remaining portion of his old age be well imployed , according as the time is , and the spending of that time , and the earnestness of the repentance , and the greatness of the grief , and the heartiness of the return , and the fulness of the restitution , and the zeal of amends , and the abundance of charity , and the largeness of the devotion , so we approach to very many degrees of hope . But there is difference between the case of an extreme old age , and a death-bed . That may have more time , and better faculties , and fitted opportunities , and a clearer choice , and a more perfect resistance between temptation and grace . But for the state of death-bed , although there is in that also some variety , yet the best is very bad , and the worst is stark naught ; but concerning the event of both , God only is the Judge . Only it is of great use that Chrysostom says in the same Letters to Theodorus , Quódque est majoris facilitatis argumentum , etiamsi non omnem prae se fert poenitentiam , brevem illam & exiguo tempore factam non abnuit , sed magnâ mercede compensat . Even a dying person ought not to despair , and leave off to do those little things of which only there is then left to him a possibility ; because even that imperfect Repentance , done in that little time , God rejects not , but will give to it a great reward . So he did to Ahab . And whatsoever is good , shall have a good , some way or other it shall find a recompence : but every recompence is not eternal glory , and every good thing shall not be recompensed with Heaven . To the same purpose is that of Coelestinus , reproving them that denied repentance to persons , qui obitûs sui tempore hoc animae suae cupiunt remedio subveniri , who at the time of their death desired to be admitted to it . Horremus fateor tantae impietatis aliquem reperiri , ut de Dei pietate desperet ; quasi non posset ad se quovis tempore concurrenti succurrere , & periclitantem sub onere peccatorum hominem , pondere quo se expedire desiderat , liberare . I confess ( saith he ) we abhor that any one should be found to be of so great impiety as to despair of Gods mercy ; as if he could not at any time relieve him that comes to him , and ease him that runs to be eased of the burthen of his sins . Quid hoc rogo aliud est , &c. What else is this but to add death to the dying man , and to kill his soul with cruelty , by denying that he can be absolved , since God is most ready to help , and inviting to repentance , thus promises , saying , In what day soever the sinner shall be converted , his sins shall not be imputed to him ; and again , I would not the death of a sinner , but that he should be converted and live ? He therefore takes salvation from a man , who denies him his hoped for repentance in the time of his death ; and he despairs of the clemency of God , who does not believe it sufficient to help the dying man in a moment of time . The Thief on the Cross hanging on Christs right hand had lost his reward , if the repentance of one hour had not helped him . When he was in pain he repented and obtain'd Paradise by one discourse . Therefore the true conversion to God of dying persons , is to be accounted of by the mind rather than by time . Thus far S. Coelestine . The summ of which is this : That dying persons must not be thrust into despair : Because Gods mercy is infinite , and his power is infinite . He can do what he please , and he may do more than we know of , even more than he hath promised ; and therefore they that are spiritual must not refuse to do all that they can to such miserable persons . And in all this there is nothing to be reproved , but that the good man by incompetent arguments goes about to prove what he had a mind to . If the hindring such persons to despair be all that he intends , it is well ; if more be intended , his arguments will not do it . 66. Afterwards in the descending ages of the Church things grew worse , and it began to be good doctrine even in the days of S. Isidore ; Nullus desperare debet veniam , etiamsi circa finem vitae ad poenitentiam convertatur . Vnumquemque enim Deus de suo fine , non de vitâ praeteritâ judicat . God judges a man by his end , not by his past life ; and therefore no man must despair of pardon , though he be not converted till about the end of his life . But in these words there is a lenitive , Circa finem vitae ] if he be converted about the end of his life ; that is , in his last or declining years : which may contain a fair portion of time , like those who were called in the eleventh hour , that is , circa finem vitae , but not in fine ; about , not in the end of their life . But S. Austin , or Gennadius , or whoever is Author of the book De Ecclesiasticis dogmatibus , speaks home to the Question , but against the former doctrine . Poenitentiâ aboleri peccata indubitantèr credimus , etiamsi in ultimo vitae spiritu admissorum poeniteat , & publicâ lamentatione peccata prodantur , quia propositum Dei quo decrevit salvare quod perierat , stat immobile : & ideo quia voluntas ejus non mutatur , sive emendatione vitae si tempus conceditur , sive supplici confessione , si continuò vitâ exceditur , venia peccatorum fidelitèr praesumatur ab illo qui non vult mortem peccatoris , sed ut convertatur à perditione poenitendo , & salvatu● miseratione Domini vivat . Si quis aliter de justissimâ Dei pietate sentit , non Christianus sed Novatianus est . That sins are taken off by repentance , though it be but in the last breath of our life , we believe without doubting . He that thinks otherwise is not a Christian but a Novatian . If we have time , our sins are taken away by amendment of life ; but if we die presently , they are taken off by humble confession . This is his Doctrine . And if he were infallible , there were nothing to be said against it . But to ballance this , we have a more sober discourse of S. Austin in these words . [ If any man plac'd in the last extremity of sickness , would be admitted to repentance , and is presently reconciled , and so departs , I confess to you , we do not deny to him what he asks , but we do not presume that he goes hence well . I do not presume , I deceive you not , I do not presume . A faithful man living well , goes hence securely . He that is baptized but an hour before , goes hence securely . He that repents and afterwards lives well , goes hence securely . He that repents at last and is reconciled , whether he goes hence securely I am not secure . Where I am secure , I tell you , and give security ; where I am not secure , I can admit to repentance , but I cannot give security — And a little after . Attend to what I say . I ought to explain clearly what I say , lest any one should misunderstand me . Do I say he shall be damned ? I do not say it . Do I say he shall be pardon'd ? I do not say it . And what say you to me ? I know not . I presume not , I promise not , I know not . Will you free your self from doubt ? Will you avoid that which is uncertain ? Repent while thou art in health . For if you do penance while you are well , and sickness find you so doing , run to be reconciled ; and if you do so , you are secure . Why are you secure ? Because you repented at that time when you could have sinned . But if you repent then when you cannot sin , thy sins have left thee , thou hast not left them . But how know you that God will not forgive him ? You say true . How ? I know not . I know that , I know not this . For therefore I give repentance to you , because I know not . For if I knew it would profit you nothing , I would not give it you . And if I did know that it would profit you , I would not affright you . There are but these two things . Either thou shalt be pardon'd , or thou shalt not . Which of these shall be in thy portion I know not . Therefore keep that which is certain , and let go that which is uncertain . Some suppose these to have been the words of S. Ambrose , not of S. Austin . But S. Austin hath in his Sermons de tempore something more decretory than the former discourse . He that is polluted with the filth of sins , let him be cleansed exomologesis satisfactione , with the satisfactions of repentance . Neither let him put it off , that he do not require it till his death-bed , where he cannot perform it . For that perswasion is unprofitable . It is nothing for a sinner to repent , unless he finish his repentance . For the voice of the penitent alone is not sufficient for the amendment of his faults : for in the satisfaction for great crimes , not words , but works are look'd after . Truly repentance is given in the last , because it cannot be denied ; but we cannot affirm , that they who so ask , ought to be absolved . For how can the lapsed man do penance ? How shall the dying man do it ? How can he repent , who cannot do works of satisfaction or amendment of life ? And therefore that repentance which is required by sick men , is it self weak ; that which is required by dying men , I fear lest that also die . And therefore whosoever will find mercy of God , let him do his repentance in this world , that he may be saved in the world to come . Higher yet are the words of Paulinus Bishop of Nola , to Faustus of Rhegium , inquiring what is to be done to death-bed penitents ? Inimicâ persuasione mentitur , qui maculas longâ aetate contractas subitis & inutilibus abolendos gemitibus arbitratur : quo tempore confessio esse potest , satisfactio esse non potest . He lies with the perswasion of an enemy , who thinks that those stains which have been long contracting , can be suddenly wash'd off with a few unprofitable sighings , at that time when he can confess , but never make amends . And a little after ; Circa exequendam interioris hominis sanitatem , non solùm accipiendi voluntas , sed agendi expectatur utilitas : And again , Hujusmodi medicina sicut ore poscenda , ita opere consummanda est . Then a man repents truly , when what he affirms with his mouth , he can finish with his hand ; that is , not only declaim against sin , but also mortifie it . To which I add the words of Asterius Bishop of Amasea . At cum debitum tempus adveniet , & indeprecabile decretum corporis & animae nexum dissolvet , reputatio subibit eorum quae in vitâ patrata sunt , & poenitentia sera & nihil profutura . Tunc enim demum poenitentia prodest , cum poenitens emendandi facultatem habet ; sublatâ verò copiâ rectè faciendi , inutilis est dolor , & irrita poenitentia . When the set time shall come , when the irrevocable decree shall dissolve the union of soul and body , then shall the memory of those things return which were done in our life time , and a late repentance that shall profit nothing . For then repentance is profitable , when the penitent can amend his fault : But when the power of doing well is taken away , grief is unprofitable , and the repentance vain . Now to the words of Gennadius before quoted , I answer , That they are a fierce reproof of the Novatian doctrine , and too great an earnestness of going so far from them , that he left also the severity which wise and good men did at that time teach , and ought always to press . He went to cure one error by another , never thinking any contradictory sufficient , unless it were against every thing that the Novatians did say , though also it was said and believed by the Orthodox . But I shall resume this discourse in the following Chapters , where upon another occasion I shall give account of the severity of the Primitive Church in this article ; which at first was at least as strict as the severest part of this discourse , till by degrees it lessen'd and shrunk into the licentiousness and dissolution of the present age . 67. Obj. 6. But if it be necessary to extirpate the habits of sin , and to acquire ( being help'd by Gods grace ) the contrary habits of vertue ; how can it fare with old and decayed men , or with men that have a lingring , tedious , protracted sickness ( for I suppose their case is very near the same ) who were intemperate , or unchast all their life time , and until they could be so no longer ; but how can they obtain the habit of chastity , who cannot do any acts of chastity ; or of temperance , who have lost their stomach , and have not any inclination or temptation to the contrary ? and every vertue must be cum potentiâ ad oppositum ; if it be not chosen it is not vertue , nor rewardable . And the case is almost the same to all persons young or old , who have not opportunity of acting those graces , in the matter of which they have formerly prevaricated . 68. To this I answer many things , and they are of use in the explication of this material question . I. Old men may exercise many acts of chastity both internal and external . For if they may be unchast , they may also be chast : But S. Paul speaks of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , men that being past feeling , yet were given to lasciviousness ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , half men , half boys , prurientes in sepulchro . For it is not the body but the soul that is wanton ; And an evil man may sin with ineffective lusts ; as he that lusts after a woman whom he cannot have , sins with his soul. Now where ever these unlawful desires can be , there also they can be mortified ; and an old man can love to talk of his past vanities , or not rescind them by repentance , or desire that he were young and active in wickedness ; and therefore if he chuses not to do so , and therefore avoids these and the like , out of hatred of his old impurities , he does the proper works of that grace , which he also may do the easier , because then his temptations to the contrary are not so strong : but this advantage is not worth staying for so long . They that do so , venture damnation a long time together , and may also have an evil proper to that state , greater than this little advantage I instance . II. If there were no other act of chastity to be exercised by old persons , by reason of their disability ; yet the very accepting from the hands of God that disability , and the delighting in that circumstance of things , in which it is impossible to sin as formerly , must needs be pleasing to God , because it is a nolition of the former sins , and a desire of pleasing him . III. Every act of sorrow for unchastity is an act of chastity ; and if this sorrow be great , and lasting , permanent , and habitual , it will be productive of much good . And if to these the penitent adds penal actions and detestations of his crimes , revenge and apt expressions of his holy anger against his sin , these do produce a quality in the soul contrary to that which made him formerly consent to lust . IV. When a vicious habit is to be extirpated , and the contrary introduc'd , it is not necessary that the contrary be acted by the body , but be radicated in the soul ; It is necessary that the body do not sin in that instance ; but it is not always required , that contrary acts be done by the body . Suppose Origen had been a lustful person before his castration , yet he might have been habitually chast afterwards , by doing spiritual acts of a corporal chastity . And there are many sins whose scene lies in the body , to which the body afterwards cannot oppose a bodily act in the same instance ; as he that by intemperate drinking once or oftner , falls into a loathing of wine ; he that dismembers himself , and many others ; for which a repentance is possible and necessary , but yet a contrary specifick act cannot be opposed . In these cases it is sufficient that the habit be plac'd in the soul , and a perfect contrary quality superinduc'd , which is to be done by a frequent repetition of the acts of repentance proper to the sin . V. There are some sins for which amends is to be made in the way of commutation , when it cannot be in the proper instance . Redime peccata tua eleemosynis , said Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar , Redeem thy sins with alms , and thy iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor . Our English Bibles read this , Break off thy sins by alms ; as if alms were directly contrary to pride , or lust , or gluttony , or tyranny ; and the shewing mercy to the poor a direct intercision and interruption of the sin . He that gives alms that he may keep his lust , loses his soul and his money too . But he that leaves his lust , or is driven from it , and gives alms to obtain Gods favour for his pardon , by doing something that is gracious in his eyes , this man is a good penitent ; if his alms be great and proportionable , given freely and without constraint , when he can keep them , and receive and retain the temporal advantage , and be assisted by all those other acts and habits of which his present state is capable . It cannot be said , that to give alms can in all such cases be sufficient ; as it will be hard to say that so many acts of the contrary grace will suffice to get a habit , or obtain a pardon ; but it is true , that to give alms is a proper action of repentance in such cases , and is in order to pardon . For , VI. As there is a supreme habit of vice , a transcendent vileness , that is , a custom and readiness to do every sin as it is presented in its proper temptation , and this is worse than the habit of any one sin : so there is a transcendent habit of grace , by which a man is so holy and just and good , that he is ready to obey God in every instance . That is malice , and this is charity . When a man hath this grace habitually , although it may be so that he cannot produce the proper specifick habit opposite to his sin for which he specially repents , yet his supreme habit does contain in it the specifick habit virtually and transcendently . An act of this charity will not do this , but the habit will. For he that does a single act of charity , may also doe a single act of malice ; and he that denies this , knows not what he says , nor ever had experience of himself or any man else . For if he that does an act of charity , that is , he who by a good motion from Gods Spirit does any thing because God hath commanded , to say that this man will do every thing which is so commanded , is to say that a good man can never fall into a great sin , which is evidently untrue . But if he that does one act in obedience to God , or in love to him , ( for obedience is love ) will also do more , then every man that does one act to please his senses , may as well be supposed that he will do more ; and then no mans life should have in it any variety , but be all of a piece , intirely good , or intirely evil . I see no difference in the instances , neither can there be , so long as a man in both states hath a power to chuse . But then it will follow , that a single act of contrition , or of charity cannot put a man into the state of the Divine favour , it must be the grace , or habit of charity ; and that is a magazine of habits by equivalency , and is formally the state of grace . And upon these accounts , if old men will repent , and do what they can do , and are enabled in that state , they have no cause to be afflicted with too great fears concerning the instances of their habits , or the sins of their youth . Concerning persons that are seis'd upon by a lingring sickness , I have nothing peculiar to say , save this only , That their case is in something better than that of old men , in some things worse . It is better , because they have in many periods of their sickness more hopes of returning to health and long life , than old men have of returning to strength and youth , and a protracted age : and therefore their repentance if it be hearty , hath in it also more degrees of being voluntary , and relative to a good life . But in this their case is worse . An old man that is healthful is better seated in the station of penitents , and because he can chuse contraries , is the more acceptable if he chuses well . But the sick man though living long in that disadvantage , cannot be indifferent in so many instances as the other may : and in this case , it is remarkable what S. Austin said , Si autem vis agere poenitentiam quando jam peccare non potes , peccata te dimiserunt , non tu illa . To abstain from sin when a man cannot sin , is to be forsaken by sin , not to forsake it . At the best it is bad enough : But I doubt not but if they do what they can do , there is mercy for them , which they shall find in the day of recompences . 67. Obj. 7. But how shall any man know whether he have perform'd his repentance as he ought ? For if it be necessary that he get the habits of vertue , and extirpate the habits of vice ; that is , if by habits God do , and we are to make judgments of our repentance , who can be certain that his sins are pardon'd , and himself reconcil'd to God , and that he shall be sav'd ? The reasons of his doubts and fears are these . 1. Because it is a long time before a habit can be lost , and the contrary obtain'd . 2. Because while one habit lessens , another may undiscernibly increase , and it may be a degree of covetousness may expel a degree of prodigality . 3. Because a habit may be lurking secretly , and for want of opportunity of acting in that instance , not betray it self , or be discover'd , or attempted to be cur'd . For he that was not tempted in that kind where he sinn'd formerly , may for ought he knows , say that he hath not sinn'd , only because he was not tempted ; but if that be all , the habit may be resident , and kill him secretly , . These things must be accounted for . 70. I. But to him that inquires whether it be light or darkness , in what regions his inheritance is design'd , and whether his Repentance is sufficient , I must give rather a reproof than an answer ; or at least such an answer as will tell there is no need of an answer . For indeed it is not good inquiring into measures and little portions of grace . * Love God with all thy heart , and all thy strength , do it heartily , and do it always . If the thing be brought to pass clearly and discernibly , the pardon is certain , and notorious : But if it be in a middle state , between ebbe and floud , so is our pardon too , and if in that undiscerned state it be in the thing certain that thou art on the winning and prevailing side , if really thou dost belong unto God , he will take care both of thy intermedial comfort , and final interest . * But when people are too inquisitive after comfort , it is a sign their duty is imperfect . In the same proportion also it is not well when we enquire after a sign for our state of grace and holiness . If the habit be compleat and intire , it is as discernible as light , and we may as well enquire for a sign to know when we are hungry and thirsty , when you can walk , or play on the lute . The thing it self is its best indication . 71. II. But if men will quarrel at any truth , because it supposes some men to be in such a case , that they do not know certainly what will become of them in the event of things , I know not how it can be help'd ; I am sure they that complain here , that is , the Roman Doctors , are very fierce Preachers of the certainty of salvation , or of our knowledge of it . But be they who they will , since all this uncertainty proceeds not from the doctrine , but from the evil state of things into which habitual sinners have put themselves , there will be the less care taken for an answer . But certainly it seems strange that men who have liv'd basely and viciously all their days , who are respited from an eternal Hell by the miracles of mercy , concerning whom it is a wonderful thing that they had not really perished long before , that these men returning at the last , should complain of hard usage , because it cannot be told to them as confidently as to new baptized Innocents , that they are certain of their salvation as S. Peter and S. Paul. * But however , both they , and better men than they , must be content with those glorious measures of the Divine mercy which are described , and upon any terms be glad to be pardon'd , and to hope and fear , to mourn and to be afflicted , to be humbled and to tremble , and then to work out their salvation with fear and trembling . 72. III. But then ( to advance one step further ) there may be a certainty where is no evidence ; that is , the thing may be certain in it self , though not known to the man ; and there are degrees of hope concerning the final event of our souls : For suppose it cannot be told to the habitual sinner , that his habits of sin are overcome , and that the Spirit rules in all the regions of his soul ; yet is he sure that his vicious habits do prevail ? is he sure that sin does reign in his mortal body ? If he be , then let him not be angry with this doctrine ; for it is as bad with him , as any doctrine can affirm . But if he be not sure that sin reigns , then can he not hope that the Spirit does rule ? and if so , then also he may hope that his sins are pardon'd , and that he shall be sav'd . And if he look for greater certainty than that of a holy and a humble hope , he must stay till he have a revelation , it cannot be had from the certainty of any proposition in Scripture applicable to his case and person . 73. IV. If a habit be long before it be master'd , if a part of it may consist with its contrary , if a habit may lurk secretly and undiscernibly , all these things are aggravations of the danger of an habitual sinner , and are very true , and great engagements of his watchfulness and fear , his caution and observance . But then not these nor any thing else can evacuate the former truths ; nor yet ought to make the returning sinner to despair : Only this ; If he fears that there may be a secret habit unmortified , let him go about his remedy . 2. If he still fears , let him put himself to the trial . 3. If either that does not satisfie him , or he wants opportunity , let him endeavour to encrease his supreme habit , the habit of Charity , or that universal grace of the love of God , which will secure his spirit against all secret undiscernible vicious affections . 74. V. This only is certain : No man needs to despair that is alive , and hath begun to leave his sins , and to whom God hath given time , and power , and holy desires . If all these be spent , and nothing remain besides the desires , that is another consideration , and must receive its sentence by the measures of the former doctrine . But for the present , a man ought not to conclude against his hopes , because he finds propensities and inclinations to the former courses remaining in him , even after his conversion . For so it will be always , more or less , and this is not only the remains of a vicious habit , but even of natural inclination in some instances . 75. VI. Then the habit hath lost its killing quality , and the man is freed from his state of ungraciousness , when the habit of vertue prevails , when he obeys frequently , willingly , chearfully . But if he sins frequently , and obeys his temptations readily ; if he delights in sin , and chuses that ; that is , if his sins be more than sins of infirmity ( as they are described under their proper title ) then the habit remains , and the man is in the state of death . But when sentence is given for God , when vertue is the greater ingredient , when all sin is hated , and labour'd , and pray'd against , the remaining evils and struglings of the Serpent are signs of the Spirits victory , but also engagements of a persevering care and watchfulness , lest they return , and prevail anew . He that is converted , and is in his contentions for Heaven , is in a good state of being ; let him go forward . He that is justified , let him be justified still ; but whether just now if he dies he shall be sav'd or not , we cannot answer , or give accounts of every period of his new life . In what minute or degree of Repentance his sins are perfectly pardon'd , no man can tell ; and it is unreasonable to reprove a doctrine that infers a man to be uncertain , where God hath given no certain notices or measures . If a man will be certain , he must die as soon as he is worthily baptiz'd , or live according to his promises then made . If he breaks them , he is certain of nothing but that he may be sav'd if he returns speedily , and effectively does his duty . But concerning the particulars , there can no rules be given sufficient to answer every mans case before-hand . If he be uncertain how Gods judgment will be of him , let him be the more afraid , and the more humble , and the more cautious , and the more penitent . For in this case , all our security is not to be deriv'd from signs , but from duty . Duty is the best signification , and Gods infinite boundless mercy is the best ground of our Confidence . SECT . VI. The former Doctrine reduc'd to Practice . IT now remains that we account concerning the effect of this Doctrine ; and first , concerning them that are well and vigorous . 2. Them that are old . 3. Them that are dying . All which are to have several usages and receptions , proper entertainments and exercises of Repentance . The manner of Repentance and usage of Habitual sinners , who convert in their timely and vigorous years . 1. I. Let every man that thinks of his return , be infinitely careful to avoid every new sin ; for it is like a blow to a broken leg , or a burthen to a crushed arm . Every little thing disorders the new health , and unfinish'd recovery . So that every new sin to such a person is a double damage , it pulls him back from all his hopes , and makes his labours vain , and he is as far to seek , and as much to begin again as ever , and more . For so may you see one climbing of a Rock , with a great contention and labour and danger , if when he hath got from the foot to the shoulder , he then lets his hold go , he falls lower than where he first set his foot , and sinks deeper by the weight of his own fall . So is the new converted man who is labouring to overcome the rocks and mountains of his habitual sins ; every sin throws him down further , and bruises his very bones in the fall . To this purpose therefore is the wise advice of the son of Sirach , Hast thou sinn'd ? do so no more , but ask pardon for thy former fault : Add not sin to sin , for in one a man shall not be unpunished . Ergo ne pietas sit victa cupidine ventris , Parcite , vaticinor , cognatas caede nefandâ Exturbare animas , ne sanguine sanguis alatur . Let not blood touch blood , nor sin touch sin ; for we destroy our souls with impious hands , when a crime follows a habit , like funeral processions in the pomps and solennities of death . 2. II. At the beginning of his recovery , let the penitent be arm'd by special cautions against the labours and difficulties of the restitution : and consider , that if sin be so pleasant , it is the habit that hath made it so ; it is become easie and natural by the custom . And therefore so may vertue . And complain not that Nature helps and corroborates the habits of sin : For besides that Nature doth this mischief but in some instances , not in all ; the Grace of God will as much assist the customs and labours of vertue , as Nature doth the habits of vice . And chuse whether you will. Take any institution or course of life , let it at first be never so violent , use will make it pleasant . And therefore we may make vertue as certain as vice is , as pleasing to the spirit , as hard to be removed , as perfective of our nature as the other is destructive ; and make it by assuefaction as impossible to be vicious , as we now think it difficult and impossible to overcome flesh and blood . * But let him remember this also , that it will be a strange shame , that he can be in a state of sin and death from which it will be very hard to remove , and to confess our natures so caitiff and base , that we cannot as easily be united unto vertue ; that he can become a Devil , and cannot be like an Angel ; that he can decline to the brutishness of beasts , and yet never arise up to a participation of the excellent beauties of the intellectual world . 3. III. He that undertakes the repentance of his vicious habits , when he hath strength and time enough for the work , must do it in kind ; that is , he must oppose a habit to a habit , every contrary to its contrary : as Chastity to his Wantonness , Temperance to his Gluttony or Drunkenness : The reason is , because if he had contracted the habit of a sin , especially of youthful sins , unless the habit of vertue be oppos'd to the instance of his sin , he cannot be safe , nor penitent . For while the temptation and fierce inclinations remain , it cannot be a cure to this to do acts of Charity ; he must do acts of Chastity , or else he will fall or continue in his uncleanness ; which in old persons will not be . Here the sin still tempts by natural inclination , and commands by the habit ; and therefore as there can be no Repentance while the affections remain , so neither can there be safety as long as the habit hath a natural being . The first begins with a moral revocation of the sin ; and the same hath also its progression , perfection , and security , by the extinction of the inherent quality . 4. IV. Let the penitent seek to obstruct or divert the proper principles of evil habits ; for by the same by which they begin , commonly by the same they are nursed up to their ugly bulk . There are many of them that attend upon the Prince of Darkness , and minister to the filthy production . Evil examples , Natural inclinations , false propositions , evil prejudices , indulgence to our own infirmities , and many more : but especially , a cohabitation with the temptation , by which we fell and did enter into death , and by which we use to fall . * There are some men more in love with the temptation than with the sin ; and because this rushes against the Conscience rudely , & they see death stand at the end of the progression , therefore they only love to stand upon Mount Ebal & view it . They resolve they will not commit the sin , they will not be overcome , but they would fain be tempted . If these men will but observe the contingencies of their own state , they shall find that when they have set the house on fire , they cannot prescribe its measures of burning . * But there is a secret iniquity in it . For he that loves to stand and stare upon the fire that burnt him formerly , is pleas'd with the warmth and splendor , and the temptation it self hath some little correspondencies to the appetite . The man dares not fornicate , but loves to look upon the beauties of a woman , or sit with her at the wine , till his heart is ready to drop asleep . He will not enter into the house , because it is infected with the plague , but he loves to stand at the door , and fain would enter if he durst ; It is impossible that any man should love to abide by a temptation for a good end . There is some little sensuality in being tempted : And the very consideration concerning it , sometimes strikes the fancy too unluckily , and pleases some faculty or other , as much as the man dares admit . * I do not say , that to be tempted is always criminal , or in the neighbourhood of it ; but it is the best indication of our love to God , for his sake to deny its importunity , and to overcome it : but that is only , when it is unavoidable and from without , against our wills , or at least besides our purposes . * For in the declination of sin , and overcoming temptation , there can be but these two things by which we can signifie our love to God. 1. To stand in a temptation when we could not avoid it . 2. And to run from it , when we can . This hath in it more of prudence , and the other of force and spiritual strength : and we can best signifie the sense of our weakness , and our carefulness by avoiding the occasions ; but then we declare the excellency of our purposes , and pertinacious love to God , when we serve him in hard battels , when we are tempted as before , but fall not now as we did then . Indeed this is the greatest trial ; and when God suffers us so to be tried , we are accepted if we stand in that day , and in such circumstances . But he that will chuse that state , and dwell near his danger , loves not to be safe ; and either he is a vain person in the confidences of his own strength , or else he loves that which is like a sin , and comes as near it as he dare ; and very often , the event of it is , that at last he dies like a flie about a candle . But he that hath fallen by such a neighbourhood , and still continues the cause , may as well hope to cure his feaver by full draughts of the new vintage , as return to life upon that account . * A vicious habit is maintain'd at an easie rate , but not cur'd without a mighty labour and expence : any thing can feed it , but nothing can destroy it , if there be anything near it , whereby it can be kept alive ▪ If therefore you will cure a vicious habit dwell far from danger , and tempt not death with which you have been so long in love . 5. V. A vicious habit never could have come to that state and period but by impunity . If God had smitten the sinner graciously in the beginning of his evil journey , it is likely that as Balaam did , he also would have offered to go back . Now when God does not punish a sinner early , though it hath in it more of danger and less of safety , yet we may in some measure supply the want of Divine mercy smiting and hindring a sinner , by considering that impunity is no mark of innocence , but very often it is an indication of Gods extremest and final anger . Therefore be sure , ever to suspect a prosperous sin . For of it self prosperity is a temptation , and it is granted but to few persons to be prosperous and pious . The poor and the despised , the humble and necessitous ; he that daily needs God with a sharpness of apprehension , that feeds upon necessity , and lives in hardships , that is never flatter'd , and is never cheated out of vertue for bread , those persons are likely to be wise and wary ; and if they be not , nothing can make them so ; for he that is impatient in want is impotent in plenty ; for impatience is pride , and he that is proud when he is poor , if he were rich he would be intolerable ; and therefore it is easier to bear poverty temperately than riches . Securo nihil est te Naevole pejus , eodem Sollicito nihil est Naevole te melius . And Passienus said of Caligula , Nemo fuit servus melior , nemo Dominus deterior . He was the best Servant , and the worst Master that ever was . Poverty is like a girdle about our loyns , it binds hard , but it is modest and useful . But a heap of riches is a heap of temptations , and few men will escape , if it be always in their hand what can be offered to their heart . And therefore to be prosperous hath in it self enough of danger . But when a sin is prosperous and unpunished , there are left but few possibilities and arguments of resistance , and therefore it will become or remain habitual respectively . S. Paul taught us this secret , that sins are properly made habitual upon the stock of impunity . Sin taking occasion by the law wrought in me all concupiscence , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , apprehending impunity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by occasion of the Commandment , viz. so expressed and established as it was . Because in the Commandment forbidding to lust or covet , there was no penalty annexed , or threatned in the sanction or in the explication . Murder was death , and so was Adultery , and Rebellion . Theft was punished severely too ; and so other things in their proportion ; but the desires God left under a bare restraint , and affixed no penalty in the law . Now sin , that is , men that had a mind to sin , taking occasion hence , that is , taking this impunity for a sufficient warrant , prevail'd by frequent actions up to an evil custom and a habit , and so rul'd them who were not renewed and over-ruled by the holy Spirit of grace . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a caution in law , or a security ; so Suidas and Phavorinus . It is used also for impunity in Demosthenes , though the Grammarians note it not . But as to the thing . When ever you see a sin thrive , start back suddenly and with a trembling fear : for it does nurse the sin from a single action to a filthy habit , and that always dwells in the suburbs of the horrible regions . No man is so much to be pitied , as he that thrives and is let alone in his sin : there is evil towards that man. But then God is kind to a sinner when he makes his sin to be uneasie and troublesome . 6. VI. But in prosecution of the former observation , it is of very great use that the vigorous and healthful penitent do use corporal mortifications and austerities , by way of penance and affliction for every single act of that sin he commits , whose habit he intends to mortifie . If he makes himself smart , and never spare his sin , but still punish it , besides that it is a good act of indignation and revenge which S. Paul commends in all holy penitents , it is also a way to take off the pleasure of the sin by which it would fain make abode and seisure upon the will. A man will not so soon delight , or love to abide with that which brings him affliction in present , and makes his life miserable . This advice I learn from Maimonides . Ab inolitâ peccandi consuetudine non posse hominem avelli nisi gravibus poenis . Nothing so good to cure an evil custom of sinning , as the inflicting great smart upon the offender . He that is going to cure his habitual drunkenness ; if ever he be overtaken again , let him for the first offence fast two days with bread and water ; and the next time double his smart ; and let the man load himself till he groans under it , and he will be glad to take heed . 7. VII . He that hath sinn'd often , and is now returning , let him watch if ever his sin be offer'd to him by a temptation , and that temptation dressed as formerly ; that he be sure not to neglect that opportunity of beginning to break his evil habit ; He that hath committed fornication , and repents , if ever he be tempted again ( not to seek for it , but ) to act it , and may enter upon the sin with ease and readiness , then let him refuse his sin so dressed , so ready , so fitted for action , and the event will be this , that besides it is a great indication and sign of an excellent repentance , it discountenances the habit , and breaks the combination of its parts , and disturbs its dwelling ; but besides it is so signal an action of repentance , and so pleasing to the Spirit of God , and of a good man , that it is apt to make him do so again , and proceed to crucifie that habit , upon which he hath had so lucky a day , and so great a victory and success . It is like giving to a person , and obliging him by some very great favour . He that does so , is for ever after ready and apt to do that obliged person still more kindness , lest the first should perish . When a man hath gotten an estate together , he is apt ( saith Plutarch ) to save little things , and be provident even of the smallest summ , because that now if it be sav'd will come to something , it will be seen and preserv'd in his heap . But he that is poor cannot become rich with those little arts of providence ; and therefore he lets them go for his pleasure , since he cannot keep them with hopes to improve his bank : so is such an earnest and entry into piety ; it is such a stock of holiness , that it is worth preserving ; and to have resisted once so bravely , does add confidence to the spirit that it can overcome , and makes it probable that he may get a crown . However it falls out , it is an excellent act and signification of a hearty repentance and conversion . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . He is a just man , not whosoever does no wrong , but he that can and will not . Maimonides saith excellently to the same purpose . For to the Question , Quaenam tandem est poenitentia perfecta ? He answers , This is true and perfect repentance , Cum qui● ad manum habet , quo priùs peccavit , & jam penes ipsum est , idem perpetrare , recedens tamen illud non committit poenitentiae causâ , neque timore cohibitus neque defectu virium . When the power and opportunity is present , and the temptation ( it may be ) ready and urging , when it is in a mans hand to do the same thing , yet retiring he commits it not , only for piety or repentance sake , not being restrain'd by fear or want of powers . 8. VIII . If such opportunities of his sin be not presented , it is never the worse : The penitent need not be fond of them , for they are dangers , which prove death if they be not triumphed over ; and if they be , yet the man hath escap'd a danger , and may both prove and act his repentance without it . But therefore he that is not so tried and put to it , must do all that which he is put to , and execute his fierce anger against the sin , and by proper instances of mortification endeavour the destruction of it ; and although every man hath not so glorious a trial and indication of his Repentance as in the former instance , yet he that denies himself in any instance of his sin , and so in all that he can or is tempted in , does the same thing ; all the same duty , and with less danger , and with less gloriousness . * But if it happen that his sin urge him not at all as formerly , or the occasion is gone , and the matter is subtracted , he is to follow the measures of old men , described in the next Section . 9. IX . Let the penitent be infinitely careful that he does not mortifie one vicious habit by a contrary vice , but by a contrary vertue . For to what purpose is it that you are cur'd of prodigality , and then die by covetousness ? Quid te exempta juvat spinis de millibus una ? It is not this or that alone that is contrary to God. Every vicious habit is equally his enemy ; and he that exterminates one vice and entertains another , hath destroyed the vice , but not the viciousness ; he hath quitted the instance , but not the irregularity ; he hath serv'd the interest of his fortune or his pleasure , his fame or his quiet , his passion or his humour , but not his vertue and relations to God. By changing his vice for another he is convinced of his first danger , but enters not into safety ; He is only weary of his feaver , and changes it into the ease of a dead palsie ; and it is in them as in all sharp sicknesses , that is always worst that is actually upon him ; and the man dies by his imaginary cure , but real sickness . 10. X. When the mortification of a vicious habit is attempted , and is found difficult and pertinacious , not flexible or malleable by the strokes of contrition and its proper remedies , it is a safe way if the penitent will take some course to disable the sin and make it impossible to return in the former instance , provided it be done by a lawful instrument . Origen took an ill course to do it , but resolved he would mortifie his lust , and made himself an Eunuch . But a solemn vow were an excellent instrument to restrain the violences of a frequent temptation , if the person were to be trusted with it ; that is , if he were a constant person , not giddy nor easie to revolt , but of a pertinacious nature , or of so tender conscience , that he durst not for the world break his vow . But this remedy is dangerous where the temptations return strongly . But there are some others which are safer . Cut off the occasion wholly . Defie the Concubine publickly , and disgrace her , make it impossible for her to consent to thee if thou shouldest ask her . If thy Lord or Master tempts thee to drunkenness , quit his service , or openly deny him . Make thy face unpleasant , and tear off the charms from thy beauty , that thou mayest not be courted any more . This is a fierceness and ●eal of repentance , but very fit to be used when milder courses will not cure thee . — Scelerum si benè poenitet , Eradenda cupidinis pravi sunt elementa , Et tenerae nimis mentes asperioribus Formandae studiis — If thou repentest truly , pluck up sin by the roots , take away its principle , strangle its nurse , and destroy every thing that can foment it . 11. XI . It was not well with thee when thou didst first enter into the suburbs of Hell by single actions of sin ; but they were transient and passed off sooner than the habit : But when this did supervene , a mans acts of malice were enlarged and made continual to each other ; that is , joyn'd by a common term of affection and delight in sin , and perfect subjection to its accursed empire . But now in thy return consider proportionably concerning thy actions of repentance and piety , whether they be transient or permanent . Good men often say their prayers , and chuse good forms , and offices , the best they can , and they use them with an earnest and an actual devotion ; but he that hath prayed long , and well , yet when he rises it may be he cannot tell all the particulars which he begg'd of God. I doubt not but those prayers which contain matter in them agreeable to his usual and constant desires , and are actually attended to in the time of their use , are recorded in Heaven , and there will abide to procure the blessing , and towards the accounts of Eternity . But then it is to be observ'd , that those transient acts of devotion , or other volatile and fugitive instances of Repentance , are not the proper and proportion'd remedy to the evil of vicious habits . There must be something more permanent . Therefore let the penitent make no sudden resolutions , but first consider them well , and imprint them upon his spirit , and renew them often , and call them to mind constantly and at certain periods ; let him use much meditation upon the matter of his repentance and remedy ; and let his prayers be the same , passionate , material , alike expressed , and made the business of much of our time . For our spirit by use must be made holy , and by assiduity of reading , of praying , of meditating , and acts of self-denial , be accustomed to the yoke of Jesus : for let the habit be firm as a rock , united and hard as a stone , it will be broken and made soft by a continual dropping . The proper Repentance and usage of sinners , who return not till their old age . 12. I. Let all such penitents be reminded , that their sins will not so easily be pardoned as the sins of younger persons , whose passions are greater , and their reason less , and their observations loose , and their experience trifling . But now God hath long expected the effects of wise and sober counsels . The old man in the Comedy did so to his son . Dum tempus ad eam rem tulit , sivi animum ut expleret suum . Nunc hic dies aliam vitam adfert , alios mores postulat . De hinc postulo , sive aequum est , te oro Dave , ut redeat jam in viam . And God does so to us . And therefore follies of old age are upbraidings of a man , and confusions to his spirit . — Lateranus ad illos Thermarum calices , inscriptáque lintea vadit , Maturus bello Armeniae — To have a grave wise man wrangle for nutshels , and a Judge scramble for apples , is an undecency bigger than the sin , and dishonours him by the disproportion . Quaedam cum primâ resecentur crimina barbâ . Lateranus should have gone to the Armenian wars , or been charging a Parthian horsman , when he went to the baths , and hir'd an unfortunate woman standing under the titles : And every old man should have been gray with sorrow and carefulness , and have passed many stages of his Repentance long before he now begins ; and therefore he is not only straitned for want of time , but hath a greater work to do , by how much the longer he hath staid , and yet is the more unable to do it . The greatness of his need hath diminished his power ; and the more need he hath of grace , the less he shall have . But however with such helps as they have , they must instantly set upon their work . — Breve sit quod turpitèr audes . But they have abode in their sin too long ; let them now therefore use such abbreviatures and hastnings of return as can be in their power . 13. II. Let every old man that repents of the sins of his evil life , be very diligent in the search of the particulars ; that by drawing them into a heap , and spreading them before his eyes , he may be mightily ashamed at their number and burthen . For even a good man will have cause to be asham'd of himself , if the single sins respersed over his whole life were drawn into a body of articles , and united in the accusation ; but then for a man who is grown old in iniquity , to see in one intire view the scheme of his impiety , the horrible heaps of damnation amassed together , will probably have this event , it will make him extremely asham'd , it will make himself most ready to judge and condemn himself , it will humble him to the earth , and make him cry mightily for pardon , and these are good dispositions towards it . 14. III. Let the penitent make some vigorous opposition to every kind of sin of which he hath been particularly guilty by frequent actions ; as to adultery , or any kind of uncleanness , let him oppose all the actions of purity which he can in that state , which may best be done , by detestation of his former follies , by praying for pardon , by punishing himself , by sorrow and all its instruments and apt expressions . But in those instances where the material part remains , and the powers of sinning in the same kind , let him be sure to repent in kind . As if he were habitually intemperate , let him now correct and rule his appetite ; for God will not take any thing in exchange for that duty which may be paid in kind . 15. IV. Although this is to be done to the kinds of sin , yet it cannot be so particularly done to the numbers of the actions ; not only because it will be impossible for such persons to know their numbers , but because there is not time left to make little minute proportions : If he had fewer , all his time and all his powers would be little enough for the Repentance ; and therefore having many , it is well if upon any terms , if upon the expence of all his faculties and labour , he can obtain pardon . Only this : The greater the numbers are , the more firm the habit is suppos'd ; and therefore there ought in general to be made the more vigorous opposition ; and let the acts of Repentance be more frequently exercised in the proper matter of that vertue which is repugnant to that proper state of evil . And let the very number be an argument to thee of a particular humiliation ; let it be inserted into thy confessions , and become an aggravation of thy own misery , and of Gods loving kindness if he shall please to pardon thee . 16. V. Every old man that but then begins to repent , is tied to do more in the remaining proportions of time , than the more early penitents in so much time , because they have a greater account to make , more evil to mourn for , more pertinacious habits to rescind , fewer temptations upon the accounts of nature , but more upon their own superinduc'd account ; that is , they have less excuse and a greater necessity to make hast . Cogimur à suetis animum suspendere rebus , Atque ut vivamus vivere desinimus . He must unlearn what he had learn'd before , and break all his evil customes , doing violence to his own and to his superinduced nature . But therefore this man must not go moderately in his return , but earnestly , vigorously , zealously ; and can have no other measures but to do all that he can do . For in his case every slow progression is a sign of the apprehension of his danger and necessity , but it is also a sign that he hath no affection to the business , that he leaves his sins as a Merchant does his goods in a storm , or a wounded man endures his arm to be cut off ; when there is no help for it , the thing must be done , but he is not pleas'd with the imployment . 17. VI. Let every old man entring into the state of Repentance , use all the earnestness he can to heighten his affections , to fix his will and desires upon the things of God ; to have no gust , no relish for the things of the world , but that all his earnestness , his whole inner man be intirely taken up with his new imployment . For since it is certain there will be a great poverty of external acts of many vertues which are necessary in his case , unless they be supplied with internal actions , and the earnestness of the Spirit , the man will go poor and blind and naked to his grave . It is the heart which in all things makes the outward act to be acceptable ; and if the heart be right , it makes amends for the unavoidable omission of the outward expression . But therefore by how much the more old men are disabled from doing the outward and material actions to extirpate the natural quality and inherent mischief of vicious habits ; by so much the more must they be supplyed , and the grace acted and signified by the actions of the Spirit . 18. VII . Let old men in their state of Repentance be much in alms and prayers , according to their ability , that by doing good to others , and glory to God , they may obtain the favour of God , who delights in the communications of goodness and in such sacrifices . This the Apostle expresses thus : To do good and to communicate forget not , for with such sacrifices 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God is well pleased ; it is like a propitiatory sacrifice , and therefore proper for this mans necessities . The proper arguments to endear this , are reckon'd in their own place ; but the reason why this is most apposite to the state of an old mans repentance , is because they are excellent suppletories to their other defects , and by way of impetration obtain of God to pardon those habits of vice which in the natural way they have now no external instrument to extinguish . 19. VIII . But because every state hath some temptations proper to it self , let old men be infinitely careful to suppress their own lusts , and present inclinations to evil . If an old man out of hatred of sin does mortifie his covetous desires , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath purchas'd a good degree in the station of penitents , and hath given an excellent indication of a true Repentance , and conversion from sin to God. Let old men ( if there be need ) be apt to learn , and so mortifie that pride and morosity that usually do attend their age ; who think their gray hairs title enough to wisdom , and sufficient notices of things . Let them be gentle to others , patient of the evil accidents of their state , bountiful and liberal , as full of good example as they can ; and it is more than probable , that if they yield not to that by which they can then be tempted , they have quit all their affections to sin , and it is enough that they are found faithful in that in which they are now tried . 20. IX . Let old men be very careful that they never tell the story of their sins with any pleasure or delight ; but as they must recolligere annos in amaritudine , call to mind their past years in the bitterness of their soul , so when they speak of any thing of it , they must not tell it as a merry story , lest they be found to laugh at their own damnation . — Mutatus Dices , Heu ! ( quoties te in speculo videris alterum ) Quae mens est hodie , cur eadem non puero fuit ? Vel cur his animis incolumes non redeunt genae ? Trouble and sorrow will better become the spirit of an old sinner , because he was a fool when he was young , and weak when he is wise ; that his strengths must be spent in sin , and that for God and wise courses nothing remains but weak hands , and dim eyes , and trembling knees . 21. X. Let not an old sinner and young penitent ever think that there can be a period to his Repentance , or that it can ever be said by himself that he hath done enough . No sorrow , no alms , no affliction , no patience , no Sacraments can be said to have finish'd his work , so that he may say with S. Paul , I have fought a good fight , I have finish'd my course ; nothing can bring consummation to his work till the day of his death , because it is all the way an imperfect state , having in it nothing that is excellent or laudable , but only upon the account of a great necessity and misery on one side , and a great mercy on the other . It is like a man condemn'd to perpetual banishment ; he is always in his passive obedience , but is a debtor to the Law until he be dead . So is this penitent ; he hath not finish'd his work , or done a Repentance in any measure proportionable to his sins , but only because he can do no more ; and yet he did something , even before it was too late . 22. XI . Let an old man in the mortification of his vicious habits , be curious to distinguish nature from grace , his own disability from the strengths of the Spirit ; and not think that he hath extirpated the vice of uncleanness , when himself is disabled to act it any longer ; or that he is grown a sober person , because he is sick in his stomach , and cannot drink intemperately , or dares not for fear of being sick . His measures must be taken by the account of his actions and oppositions to his former sins , and so reckon his comfort . 23. XII . But upon whatever account it come , he is not so much to account concerning his hopes , or the performance of his duty , by abstaining from sin , as by doing of good . For besides that such a not committing of evil may be owing to weak or insufficient principles , this not committing evil in so little a time , cannot make amends for the doing it so long together , according to the usual accounts of Repentance , unless that abstaining be upon the stock of vertue and labour , of mortification and resistance ; and then every abstinence is also a doing good , for it is a crucifying of the old man with the affections and lusts . But all the good that by the grace of God he superadds , is matter of choice , and the proper actions of a new life . 24. XIII . After all this done , vigorously , holily , with fear and caution , with zeal and prudence , with diligence and an uninterrupted observation , the old man that liv'd a vile life , but repents in time , though he staid as long as he could , and much longer than he should , yet may live in hope , and die in peace and charity . To this purpose they are excellent words which S. Austin said : Peradventure some will think that he hath committed such grievous faults , that he cannot now obtain the favour of God. Let this be far from the conceits of all sinners . O man , whosoever thou art , that attendest that multitude of thy sins , wherefore dost thou not attend to the Omnipotency of the Heavenly Physician ? For since God will have mercy because he is good , and can because he is Almighty , he shuts the gate of the Divine Goodness against himself , who thinks that God cannot or will not have mercy upon him , and therefore distrusts either his Goodness or his Almightiness . The proper Repentance and usage of sinners who repent not until their death-bed . The inquiry after this Article consists in these particulars . 1. What hopes are left to a vicious ill liv'd man that repents on his death-bed and not before . 2. What advices are best , or can bring him most advantage ? 25. That a good life is necessary ; * that it is required by God ; * that it was design'd in the whole purpose of the Gospel ; * that it is a most reasonable demand , and infinitely recompensed by the very smallest portions of Eternity . * That it was called for all our life , and was exacted by the continual voice of Scripture , of Mercies , of Judgment , of Prophets . * That to this very purpose God offered the assistance of his holy Spirit ; and to this ministery we were supplied with preventing , with accompanying , and persevering grace , that is , powers and assistances to begin , and to continue in well doing . * That there is no distinct Covenant made with dying men , differing from what God hath admitted between himself and living healthful persons . * That it is not reasonable to think God will deal more gently with persons who live viciously all their lives , and that at an easier rate they may expect salvation at the hands of God whom they have so provoked , than they who have serv'd him faithfully according to the measures of a man ; * or that a long impiety should be sooner expiated than a short one . * That the easiness of such as promise heaven to dying penitents after a vicious life is dangerous to the very being and constitution of piety , * and scandalous to the honour and reputation , and sanctity of the Christian Religion , * that the grace of God does leave those that use it not . * That therefore the necessity of dying men increases , and their aids are lessen'd and almost extinguished . * that they have more to do than they have either time or strength to finish . * That all their vows and holy purposes are useless , and ineffective as to their natural production , and that in their case they cannot be the beginnings of a succeeding duty and piety , because for want of time it never can succeed . * That there are some conditions and states of life , which God hath determined never to pardon . * That there is a sin unto death , for which because we have no incouragement to pray , it is certain there is no hope ; for it is impossible but it must be very fit to pray for all them to whom the hope of pardon is not precluded . * That there is in Scripture mention made of an ineffective repentance , and of a repentance to be repented of , and that the repentance of no state is so likely to be it as this . * That what is begun and produc'd wholly by affrigh●ment is not esteem'd matter of choice , nor a pleasing sacrifice to God. * That they who sow to the flesh , shall reap in the flesh , and the final judgment shall be made of every man according to his works . * That the full and perfect descriptions of repentance in Scripture are heaps and conjugations of duties which have in them difficulty , and require time , and ask labour . * That those insinuations of duty in Scripture , of the need of patience and diligence , and watchfulness , and the express precepts of perseverance , do imply , that the office and duty of a Christian is of a long time , and business , and a race . * That repentance being the renewing of a holy life , it should seem that on our death-bed the day for repentance is past , since no man can renew his life when his life is done , no man can live well , when he cannot live at all ; * and therefore to place our hopes upon a death-bed repentance only , is such a religion as satisfies all our appetites , and contradicts none , and yet promises heaven at last . * These things , I say , are all either notorious and evident , or expresly affirmed in Scripture ; and therefore that in the ordinary way of things , in the common expectation of events , such persons are in a very sad condition . 26. So that it remains , that in this sad condition there must be some extraordinary way found out , or else this whole inquiry is at an end . Concerning which , all that I can say is this . 1. God hath an Almighty power , and his mercy is as great as his power . He can doe miracles of mercy , as well as miracles of mightiness . And this S. Austin brings in open pretence against desperation . O homo quicunque illam multitudinem peccatorum attendis , cur & omnipotentiam coelestis medici non attendis ? Thy sins are great , but Gods mercies are greater . But this does represent the mans condition at the best to be such , that God may if he will have mercy upon him ; but whether he will or no , there is as yet no other certainty or probability , but that he can if he please : which proposition to an amazed timorous person that fears a hell the next hour , is so dry a story , so hopeless a proposition , that all that can be said of this , is , that it is very fit that no man should ever put it to the venture . For upon this argument , we may as well comfort our selves upon him that died without repenting at all . But the inquiry must be further . 27. II. All mankind , all the Doctors of the Church for very many ages at least , some few of the most Ancient , and of the Modern excepted , have been apt to give hopes to such persons , and no man bids them absolutely despair . Let such persons make use of this easiness of men , thereby to retain so much hope as to make them call upon God , and not to neglect what can then be done . Spem retine , spes una hominem nec morte relinquit . As long as there is life there is hope , and when a man dies , let him not despair ; for there is a life after this , and a hope proper to that ; and amidst all the evils that the Ancients did fabulously report to be in Pandora's box , they wittily plac'd Hope on the utmost lip of it , and extremity . Vivere spe vidi qui moriturus erat . And S. Cyprian exhorts old Demetrianus to turn Christian in his old age , and promises him salvation in the name of Christ : and though his case , and that of a Christian who entred into promises and Covenants of obedience , be very different ; yet ad immortalitatem sub ipsâ morte transitur , a passing from such a repentance to immortality , although it cannot be hoped for upon the just accounts of express promise , yet it is not too great to hope from Gods mercy : and untill that which is infinite hath a limit , a repenting mans hopes in this world cannot be wholly at an end . 28. III. We find that in the battels which were fought by the Maccabees , some persons who fought on the Lords side , and were slain in the fight , were found having on their breasts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or pendants consecrate to the idols of the Jamnenses , and yet the good people of their party made oblation for them , hoping that they might be partakers of a blessed resurrection . They that repent heartily but one hour , are in a better condition than the other that died in their sin , though with the advantage of fighting in a good cause : and if good people will not leave hoping for such persons , it is not fit that themselves should . 29. IV. He that considers Gods great love to Mankind , * the infinite love that God hath to his holy Son Jesus , and yet that he sent him to die for every man ; * and that the holy Jesus does now , and hath for very many ages prayed for the pardon of our sins , that he knows how horrible those pains are which are provided for perishing souls , and therefore that he is exceeding pitiful and desirous that we should escape them ; * and that God did give one extraordinary example of saving a dying penitent , the Thief upon the Cross , and though that had something in it extraordinary and miraculous , yet that is it which is now expected , a favour extraordinary , a miraculous mercy . * And that Christ was pleased to speak a parable of comfort , and the Master of the Vineyard did pay salary to him that began to work at the eleventh hour ; and though that was some portion of his life , the twelfth part of it , and the man was not call'd sooner , yet there may be something in it of comfort to the dying penitent , since it looks something like it , it certainly relates to old men , and can do them comfort , and possibly the merciful intention of it is yet larger ; * and that since God is so well pleased with repentance , it may be he will abate the circumstance of time , Nec ad rem pertinet ubi inciperet , quod placuerat ut fieret , and he will not consider when that begins , which he loves should be done . * And that he is our Father , and paulum supplicii satis est Patri , a Father will chastise , but will not kill his son . * And that it is therefore seasonable to hope , because it is a duty , and the very hope it self God delights to reward ; for so said the Apostle , Cast not away your confidence , which hath great recompence of reward . And the Church of God imitating the mercies of our gracious God and Father , hath denied to give the Sacrament of peace and mercy to none that seek it : Viaticum omnibus in morte positis non est negandum . And in the saddest consideration of things that can be , suppose it be with him as with Simon Magus , suppose that he is in the gall of bitterness , in the state of damnation , in the guilt of a sin which we know not whether God will pardon or not , yet still it is wise and pious counsell , that he should pray , if peradventure he may be forgiven . He ( I say ) that considers these things , will have cause to be very earnest and very busie to lose no time , to remit no labour , to quit no hope , but humbly , passionately , diligently set upon that duty of repentance , which should have long ago come to some perfection . Now because I have ( as I suppose ) said enough to make men afraid to put off their repentance to their death-bed , yet in behalf of those who have been unfortunately lost in their lives , or less instructed , or violently tempted , or unhappily betrayed , and are upon their death-beds , because though nothing can be ascertain'd to them , yet it is not to be suffered that they should utterly despair , I have thought fit to transcribe out of the writings of the ancient Doctors , such exhortations as may both instruct and comfort , promote duty , and give some little door of hope , but not add boldness in defiance of all the laws of holiness . 30. In an epistle of Celestine Bishop of Rome in S. Austins time , we find these words . Vera ad Deum conversio in ultimis positorum , mente potiùs aestimanda est quàm tempore .. .. Quum ergo Dominus sit cordis inspector , quovis tempore non est deneganda poenitentia postulanti , quum ille se obliget Judici , cui occulta omnia noverit revelari . True conversion is to be accounted of by the mind , rather than by time . Therefore repentance is not to be denied to him , who at any time asks it . And he despairs of the clemency of God who thinks it not sufficient , or that it cannot relieve the sinner in an instant . Donec sumus in hâc vitâ quantacunque nobis acciderint peccata , possibile est omnia ablui per poenitentiam , said S. Austin . As long as we are alive , so long it is possible that the vilest sins that are may be wash'd off by repentance . Si vulneratus es , adhibe tibi curam dum vivis , dum spiras , etiam in ipso lecto positus , etiam si dici potest animam efflans ut jam de hoc mundo exeas . Non impeditur temporis angustiâ misericordia Dei. Quid enim est peccatum ad Dei misericordiam ? tela araneae quae vento flante nusquam comparet . So S. Chrysostom . If thou art wounded in thy soul , take care of it while thou livest , even so long as thou canst breath , though thou beest now breathing thy last , yet take care still . The mercy of God cannot be hindred by time . For what is thy sin to Gods mercy ? even as a spiders web , when the wind blows it is gone in an instant . Many more there are to the same purpose , who all speaking of the mightiness of the Divine mercy , do insinuate their meaning to be concerning a miraculous or extraordinary mercy . And therefore I shall oppose nothing against this ; only say , that it is very sad when men put their hopes of being sav'd upon a miracle , and that without a miracle they must perish . But yet then to despair is entring into hell before their time , and even a course of the greatest imprudence in the world , next to that they are already guilty of , that is , a putting things to that extremity . Dandum interstitium paenitentia , said Tacitus . And , Inter vitae negotia & diem mortis oportere aliquid spatium intercedere , said Charles the Emperour . For , Nemo mortem venientem hilaris excepit , nisi qui se ad eam diu composuerat , said Seneca . Repentance must have a space of time ; and from the affairs of the world to rush into the arms of death , is too quick a change for him that would fain be saved . If he can , in the midst of all these disadvantages , it is well ; but he cannot with chearfulness and joy receive his death , unless he bestowed much time and care in preparations against that sad solemnity . Now concerning these instruments of hope , I am yet to give another account , lest this either seem to be an easiness and flattery of souls , and not warrantable from any revelation from God ; or if it be , that it is also a perfect destruction of all the former doctrine . For if it be inquired thus ; Hath God declared that death-bed penitents shall not be saved , or that they may be saved , or hath he said nothing at all of it ? If he hath said they cannot be saved , why then do I bid them hope , and so abuse them with a false perswasion ? If he hath said that they may be saved , why do I dispute against it , and make them fear , where God by a just promise hath given them reason to be confident , and hath obliged them to believe they shall be saved ? If he hath said nothing of it , why are not they to be comprehended within the general rules of all returning penitents ? especially , since there was one case specially made for their interest , the example of the Thief upon the Cross ? To this I shall give a clear and plain answer . That God hath required such conditions of pardon , and that the duty of repentance is of such extent and burden , that it cannot be finish'd and perform'd by dying persons after a vicious life , is evident from all the former arguments : and therefore if we make dying mens accounts upon the stock of Gods usual dealing , and open revelation , their case is desperate for the preceding reasons . But why then do I bid them hope , if their case be desperate ? Either God threatning death to all impenitent persons , means not to exact death of all , but of some only ; or else when his holy Spirit describes Repentance in severe characters , he secretly means to take less than he says . For if it be such a work that cannot possibly be done on a death-bed , how then can dying persons be called upon to repent ? for it is vain to repent , if it be impossible to hope ; but if it be possible to do the work of Repentance on our death-bed , but only that it is very difficult , there is in this affirmative no great matter : Every one confesses that , and all evil men put it to the venture . For the first part of the dilemma , I affirm nothing of it ; God threatning death to all the impenitent , excepts none ; Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish . Neither does God exacting or describing Repentance in several lines , use any respect of persons , but with the same measures he will deal with all . For when there is a difference in the Divine mercy , it is in giving time and grace to repent , not in sparing one and condemning another , who die equally criminal and impenitent . Those little lines of hopes are not upon either of these foundations . For whatsoever is known or revealed , is against these persons , and does certainly condemn them . Why then are they bidden to hope and repent ? I answer , once for all ; It is upon something that we know not . And if they be not sav'd we know not how , they cannot expect to be saved by any thing that is revealed in their particular . When S. Peter had declar'd to Simon Magus that he was in the gall of bitterness ; and yet made him pray , if peradventure the thought of his heart might be forgiven him : he did not by any thing that was reveal'd know that he should be pardoned ; but by something that he did not know , there might be hope . It is at no hand to be dissembled out of tenderness and pity to such persons , but to be affirmed openly ; there is not revealed any thing to them that may bid them be in any degree confident . But he that hath a deadly wound , whom the Chirurgeons affirm to be hopeless , yet is willing to receive Cordials , and to be dress'd . 2. If in the measures of life and death which are described in large characters , there be any lines so indefinite and comprehensive , that they who preach and declare the doctrines , do not fully take in all that God intends , upon the account of our weakness and ignorance , there may be some little rushes and twiggs to support their sinking hopes . For although the matters of duty , and the conditions of life and death are so plain and legible , that we can all understand our obligation , yet things are seldome so described , that we can give the final sentence concerning others . There is a secret in these things , which nothing shall open but the day of Judgment . No man may judge his brother ; that is , no man can or ought to say , This man is damn'd ; and yet we know that he that dies an impenitent Traytor , or Rebel , or adulterer , is damn'd . But yet that Adulterous Natta , or the Rebel Cinna , or the Traytor s●●ti - line , is actually damn'd , that we know not . The reason is , because our duty is described for us to guide and walk our selves by , not to judge and sentence others . And even the judgment of the Church , who hath authority to judge and sentence , yet it is only for amendment , it is universal , it is declarative , it is conditional ; not personal , final , decretory , and eternal . For otherwise does man judge , otherwise does God. II. There is some variety in the case , and in the person , and in the degrees of Repentance . There is a period , beyond which God will not admit a man to pardon ; but when it is we know not . There is a minimum Religionis , the least measure of Religion , the lowest degree of acceptability ; but what it is , we cannot tell . There is also a proper measure for every one , but no man can fathom it . And the duties and parts of Repentance consist in the terms of a great distance and latitude ; and we cannot tell when a man first begins to be safe , and when he is newly escaped from the regions of sin , and when he begins his state of grace . Now as God abates great measures of his wrath , and forgives all that is past if we return betimes , and live twenty years in piety and repentance ; so he does if the man do so nineteen years , and eighteen , and still shortning till you come to a year , or any the least time that can do the work of Repentance , and exterminate his vicious habit . Now because Abraham begg'd for the pardon of Sodom , if there should be found fifty righteous there , and then abated five , and then five more , and then ten more , till he came to ten alone , and it is supposed that Abraham first gave out , and that God would have pardon'd the City for one righteous mans sake , if Abraham had still persevered to ask : if any man will suppose that it may be done so in the abatements of time to be made to a returning sinner ; though I say it is a strange diminution to come from years to one day , yet I will say nothing against it ; but that length or shortness of time makes nothing to the mercies of God , but it makes very much to the duty of man , because every action requires some time , and every habit much more : Now we have reason to say that the condition of a dying penitent after a whole wicked life , is desperate , because so far as we understand things , habits are not to be extinguish'd , and the contraries acquir'd but with long time and study . But if there be any secret way by which the Spirit of God does work faster , and produce undiscerned miracles , we ought to adore that goodness by which it is so ; and they that can believe this , may hope the other : In the mean time , neither the one nor the other is revealed ; and so it stands as it did in the whole Question . IV. We find in the instance of Abrahams faith , that against hope he believed in hope ; that is , that he had great arguments on both sides , and therefore that in defiance of one , he would hope in the other , because this could not fail him , but the other could . If it can be brought to pass that a dying man can hope after a wicked life , it is a hope against hope ; and of this all that I can say is , that it is no contradiction in the thing , to affirm that a dying penitent who hath contracted vicious habits , hath not time left him to perform that repentance which God requires of habitual sinners under the pains of eternal death ; and yet to bid such a person do what he can do , and pray , if peradventure God will be intreated . Because that little hopes which he is bid to have are not warranted , or relying upon pretence of any particular revelation , contrary to the so many expressions of severe duty and stricter conditions ; but are plac'd upon the foundation of the Divine Power , and such little proportions and similitudes of things , and guesses and conjectures of kind persons , as can only be sufficient to make the dying man try what can be done . V. The first ages of the Church did exactly use this method of Doctrine and Discipline . In some cases ( whereof I shall afterwards give account ) they refus'd to declare them pardon'd , to minister Gods pardon to dying penitents ; but yet would not bid them despair , but refer them to the Divine judgment : which if it be reduc'd to the causes of things , if we believe they proceeded reasonably , must mean this , that they knew of no revelation concerning the pardon of such persons ; but whether God would or no pardon them , they knew not , but bid them hope well . And when they did admit dying penitents to the peace of the Church , they did it de benè esse , that it might do as much good as it could . But they knew not what that was . Poenitentiam dare possumus , securitatem dare non possumus . They are S. Austins words . Now if I were to ask of him an account , it would be in the same way of objection as I am now ●ntying . For did God promise pardon to dying penitents after a wicked life ; or are there fearful threatnings in Scripture against such sinners as certainly all in their case are ? or hath God said nothing at all concerning them ? If God did promise pardon to such , then why did not the Church give security , as well as penance ? If God did threaten fearfully all such persons , why do they admit such to repentance whom God will not admit to pardon , but hath threatned with eternal death ? If he hath said nothing of them , they are to be judged by the measures of others ; and truly that will too sadly ring their passing-bell . For men in health who have contracted vicious habits , cannot be pardoned so long as their vicious habit remains ; and they know that to overcome and mortifie a vicious habit , is a work of time and great labour ▪ and if this be the measure of dying penitents , as well as of living and healthful , they will sink in judgment that have not time to do their duty . But then why the Church of those ages , and particularly S. Austin , should hope and despair at the same time for them , that is , knew no ground of revelations upon which to fix any hope of pardon for them , and yet should exhort them to Repentance , which without hopes of pardon is to no purpose , there is no sensible account to be given but this , that for ought they knew God might do more than they knew , and more than he had promised ; but whether he would or not , they knew not , but by that means they thought they fairly quit their hands of such persons . VI. But after all this strict survey of answers , if we be called to account for being so kind , it must be confess'd that things are spoken out of charity and pity , more than of knowledge . The case of these men is sad and deplorable , and it is piety when things are come to that state and saddest event , to shew mercy by searching all the corners of revelation for comfort , that God may be as much glorified , and the dying men assisted as much as may be . I remember the Jews are reproved by some for repeating the last verse but one in the book of Isaiah , and setting it after the last of all . That being a verse of mercy , this of sorrow and threatning ; as if they would be more merciful than God himself , and thought it unfit to end so excellent a book with so sad a cursing . Indeed Gods ways are best , and his measures the surest ; and therefore it is not good to promise where God hath not promised , and to be kind where he is angry , and to be free of his pardon , where he hath shut up and seal'd his treasures . But if they that say God hath threatned all such sinners as dying penitents after wicked life are , and yet that they must not despair , are to be reproved as too kind ; then they much more , who confidently promise heaven at last . It is indeed a compliance with humane misery , that makes it fit to speak what hopeful things we can ; but if these hopes can easily be reproved , I am sure the former severity cannot so easily be confuted . That may , this cannot . 31. I. But now things being put into this constitution ; the inquiry into what manner of Repentance the dying penitent is oblig'd to , will be of no great difficulty . Qui dicit omnia nihil excipit . He that is tied to all can be excus'd from none . All that he can do is too little , if God shall deal with him according to the conditions of the Gospel which are describ'd , and therefore he must not inquire into measures , but do all , absolutely all that he can in that sad period . Particularly 32. II. Let him examine his Conscience most curiously , according as his time will permit , and his other abilities ; because he ought to be sure that his intentions are so real to God and to Religion , that he hath already within him a resolution so strong , a repentance so holy , a sorrow so deep , a hope so pure , a charity so sublime , that no temptation , no time , no health , no interest could in any circumstance of things ever tempt him from God and prevail . 33. III. Let him make a general confession of the sins of his whole life , with all the circumstances of aggravation ; let him be mightily humbled , and hugely ashamed , and much in the accusation of himself , and bitterly lament his folly and misery ; let him glorifie God and justifie him , confessing that if he perishes it is but just ; if he does not , it is a glorious , an infinite mercy ; a mercy not yet revealed , a mercy to be look'd for in the day of wonders , the day of judgment . Let him accept his sickness and his death humbly at the hands of God , and meekly pray that God would accept that for punishment , and so consign his pardon for the rest through the blood of Jesus . Let him cry mightily unto God , incessantly begging for pardon , and then hope as much as he can , even so much as may exalt the excellency of the Divine mercy ; but not too confidently , lest he presume above what is written . 34. IV. Let the dying penitent make what amends he can possibly in the matter of ●eal injuries and injustices that he is guilty of , though it be to the ruine of his estate ; and that will go a great way in deprecation . Let him ask forgiveness , and offer forgiveness , make peace , transmit charity and provisions and piety to his relatives . 35. V. Next to these it were very fitting that the dying penitent did use all the means he can to raise up his spirit , and do internal actions of Religion with great fervour and excellency . To love God highly , to be ready to suffer whatsoever can come , to pour out his complaints with great passion and great humility ; adding to these and the like , great effusions of charity , holy and prudent undertakings of severity and Religion in case he shall recover : and if he can , let him do some great thing , something that does in one little body of action signifie great affections ; any heroical act , any transportation of a holy zeal in his case does help to abbreviate the work of many years . If these things be thus done , it is all that can be done at that time , and as well as it can be then done ; what the event of it will be , God only knows , and we all shall know at the day of Judgment . In this case the Church can give the Sacrament , but cannot give security . Meditations and Prayers to be used in all the foregoing cases . CAN the Ethiopian change his skin , or the Leopard his spots ? then may ye learn to do good that are accustomed to do evil . This is thy lot , the portion of thy measures , from me ( saith the Lord ) because thou hast forgotten me . Give glory to the Lord your God before he cause darkness , and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains , lest while you look for light , he turn it into the shadow of death , and make it gross darkness . What wilt thou say when he shall punish ? shall not sorrow take thee as a woman in travel ? And if thou say in thine heart , Wherefore came these things upon me ? for the goodness of thine iniquity are thy skirts discovered , and thy heels made bare . I have seen thine adulteries , and thy neighings , the lewdness of thy whoredoms , and thine abominations , Wo unto thee , wilt thou not be made clean ? when shall it once be ? saith the Lord God. Thus saith the Lord unto this people , Thus have they loved to wander , they have not refrained their feet , therefore the Lord doth not accept them , he will now remember their iniquity and visit their sins . Then saith the Lord , Pray not for this people for their good . When they fast , I will not hear their cry , and when they offer an oblation , I will not accept them , but I will consume them by the sword , and by famine , and by the pestilence . Therefore thus saith the Lord , if thou return , then will I bring thee again , and thou shalt stand before me : and if thou take forth the precious from the vile , thou shalt be as my mouth . I am with thee to save thee , and to deliver thee , saith the Lord. And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked , and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible . Learn before thou speak , and use Physick or ever thou be sick . Before judgment examine thy self , and in the day of visitation thou shalt find mercy . Humble thy self before thou be sick , and in the time of sins shew repentance . Let nothing hinder thee to pay thy vows in due time , and defer not until death to be justified . I made hast , and prolonged not the time to keep thy Commandments . Thus saith the Lord of Hosts , the God of Israel , Amend your ways and your doings and I will cause you to dwell in this place . Trust not in lying words , saying , The Temple of the Lord , the Temple of the Lord. For if you throughly amend your ways , and your doings , if you throughly execute judgment ; If ye oppress not the stranger and the widow , then shall ye dwell in the land . Thus saith the Lord God , I will give you the land , and they shall take away all the detestable things thereof , and all the abominations thereof from thence . And I will give them one heart , and I will put a new spirit within you , and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh , and will give them an heart of flesh . That they may walk in my statutes , and keep mine ordinances , and do them , and they shall be my people and I will be their God. But as for them whose heart walketh after their detestable things , and their abominations ; I will recompence their way upon their own heads , saith the Lord God. They have seduced my people , saying , Peace , and there was no peace , and one built up a wall , and others dawb'd it with untemper'd morter . Will ye pollute me among my people for handfulls of barley , and pieces of bread , to slay the souls that should not die , and to save the souls alive that should not live by your lying unto my people that hear your lies ? Therefore I will judge you , ô house of Israel , every one according to your ways , saith the Lord God , repent and turn your selves from all your transgressions ; so iniquity shall not be your ruine . Cast away from you all your transgressions whereby you have transgressed , and make you a new heart and a new spirit ; for why will ye die , ô house of Israel ? For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth , saith the Lord God : wherefore turn your selves and live ye . Ye shall remember your ways , and all your doings wherein ye have been defil'd , and ye shall loath your selves in your own sight for all your evils , that ye have committed . Wo unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity , and sin as it were with a cart-rope . Wo unto them that justifie the wicked for a reward , and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him . And when ye spread forth your hands , I will hide mine eyes from you ; yea , when you make many prayers , I will not hear : your hands are full of blood . Wash ye , make ye clean , put away the evil of your doing from before mine eyes , cease to do evil . Learn to do well , seek judgment , relieve the oppressed , judge the fatherless , plead for the widow . Come now and let us reason together , saith the Lord ; Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow , though they be red as crimson they shall be as wooll . If ye be willing and obedient , ye shall eat the fruit of the land . But if ye refuse and rebel , ye shall be devoured with the sword ; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it . She hath wearied her self with lies , therefore have I caused my fury to light upon her . Sow to your selves in righteousness , and reap in mercy ; break up your fallow ground , for it is time to seek the Lord , till he come and rain righteousness upon you . Turn thou unto thy God ; keep mercy and judgment , and wait on thy God continually . O Israel , thou hast destroyed thy self , but in me is thy help . Return to the Lord thy God , for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity . Take with you words , and turn to the Lord , say unto him , Take away all iniquity , and receive us graciously : so will we render the calves of our lips . For in thee the fatherless findeth mercy . I will heal their backsliding , I will love them freely , for mine anger is turned away . Seek ye the Lord while he may be found , call ye upon him while he is near . Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts , and let him return unto the Lord , and he will have mercy upon him ; and to our God , for he will abundantly pardon . For thus saith the high and lofty One , that inhabits eternity , whose name is Holy , I dwell in the high and holy place ; with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit , to revive the Spirit of the humble , and to revive the heart of the contrite ones . For I will not contend for ever , neither will I be always wroth : for the spirit should fail before me , and the souls which I have made . For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth and smote him : I hid me and was wroth , and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart . I have seen his ways and will heal him ; I will lead him also , and restore comfort to him and to his mourners . I create the fruit of the lips ; peace , peace to him that is afar off , and to him that is near , saith the Lord , and I will heal him . But the wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest , whose waters cast up mire and dirt . There is no peace , saith my God , to the Wicked . It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth . It is good that a man should both hope , and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. Who is a God like unto thee , that pardoneth iniquity , and passeth by the transgression of the Remnant of his heritage ? he retaineth not his anger for ever , because he delighteth in mercy . He will turn again , he will have compassion upon us : he will subdue our iniquities , and thou wilt cast all our sins into the depth of the sea . Remember now thy Creator in the daies of thy youth , while the evil daies come not , nor the years draw nigh , when thou shalt say , I have no pleasure in them . A PSALM . O Lord , though our iniquities testifie against us , have mercy upon us for thy Names sake : for our backslidings are many , we have sinned against thee . O the hope of Israel , the Saviour thereof in time of trouble , why shouldst thou be a stranger to us , and as a wayfaring-man that turneth aside to tarry for a night ? Why shouldst thou be as a man astonied , as a mighty man that cannot save ? yet thou , O Lord , art in the midst of us , and we are called by thy name , leave us not . We acknowledge , O Lord , our wickedness , and the iniquity of our fathers , for we have sinned against thee . Do not abhor us for thy Names sake , do not disgrace the Throne of thy Glory ; remember , break not the Covenant with us . I will no more sit in the assembly of mockers , nor rejoyce ; I will sit alone because of thy hand , for thou hast filled me with indignation . Why is my pain perpetual , and my wound incurable which refused to be healed ? ●ilt thou be altogether unto me as waters that fail ? O Lord , I know that the way of man is not in himself , it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps . O Lord , correct me , but with judgment , not in thine anger , lest thou bring me to nothing . O Lord , the hope of Israel , all that forsake thee shall be ashamed , because they have forsaken the Lord the fountain of living waters . Heal me , O Lord , and I shall be healed ; save me , and I shall be saved : for thou art my praise . Be not a terror unto me , thou art my hope in the day of evil . Behold , O Lord , for I am in distress : my bowels are troubled , mine heart is turned within me , for I have grievously rebelled . For these thing● I weep ; mine eye , mine eye runneth down with water , because the Comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me . Hear me , O Lord , and that soon , for my spirit waxeth faint : hide not thy face from me , lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit . O let me hear thy loving kindness betimes , for in thee is my trust ; shew thou me the way that I should walk in , for I lift up my soul unto thee . Teach me the thing that pleaseth thee , for thou art my God : let thy loving Spirit lead me forth into the land of righteousness . Quicken me , O Lord , for thy Names sake , and for thy righteousness sake bring my soul out of trouble . The Lord upholdeth all such as fall , and lifteth up those that be down . I have gone astray like a sheep that is lost : O seek thy servant , for I do not forget thy Commandments . O do well unto thy servant , that I may live and keep thy word . O spare me a little , that I may recover my strength , before I go hence and be no more seen . Glory be to the Father , &c. As it was in the beginning , &c. A Prayer for a Sinner returning after a long impiety . I. O Eternal Judge of Men and Angels , Father of Mercy , and the great lover of Souls , I humbly acknowledge that the state of my soul is sad and deplorable , and by my fault , by my own grievous fault , I am in an evil condition ; and if thou shouldst now enter into judgment with me , I have nothing to put in bar against the horrible sentence , nothing of my own , nothing that can ease thy anger , or abate the fury of one stroke of thy severe infliction . I do ( O God ) judge and condemn my self , and justifie thee , for thou art righteous , and whatsoever thou doest is good and true . But O my God , when the guilty condemns himself nothing is left for the offended party but to return to graciousness and pardon . I ( O Lord ) have done thy severe and angry work , I have sentenc'd a vile man to a sad suffering ; and if I so perish as I have deserved , thou art just and righteous , and thou oughtest for ever to to be glorified . II. BVt O my God , though I know that I have deserved evils that I know not , and hope I shall never feel , yet thou art gracious and holy , and lovest more to behold thy glory reflected from the floods and springs of mercy , than to see it refracted from the troubled waters of thy angry and severe displeasure : And because thou lovest it so highly to shew mercy , and because my eternal interest is served in it , I also ought to desire what thou lovest , and to beg of thee humbly and passionately that I may not perish ; and to hope with a modest confidence that thou hast mercy in store for him , to whom thou hast given grace to ask for it : for it is one degree of pardon to be admitted to the station of penitent beggers ; it is another degree of pardon that thou hast given me grace to hope , and I know that in the fountains of thy own graciousness thou hast infinite arguments and inducements to move thee to pity me and to pardon . III. O My God , pity me for thy Names sake , even for thy own goodness sake , and because I am miserable and need it . And because I have nothing of my own to be a ground of confidence , give thy servant leave to place my hopes on thee through Jesus Christ ; thou hast commanded me to come to the Throne of Grace with boldness , that I may find mercy in time of need ; and thou hast promised to give thy holy Spirit to them that ask him . O dear God , give me pardon , and give me thy Spirit , and I am full and safe , and cloathed and healed , and all that I desire to be , and all that I ought to be . IV. I Have spent much time in vanity , and in undoing my self ; grant me thy grace , that I may recover my loss , and imploy all the remaining portion of my time in holy offices and duties of Repentance . My understanding hath been abused by false perswasions and vain confidences . But now , O God , I offer up that imperious faculty wholly to the obedience of Christ ; to be govern'd by his Laws , to be instructed by his Doctrine , to be bended by all his arguments . My will hath been used to crookedness and peevish morosity in all vertuous imployments , but greedy and fierce in the election and prosecution of evil actions and designs : But now O God , I have no will but what is thine , and I will rather die than consent and choose any thing that I know displeases thee . My heart , O God , was a fountain of evil thoughts , ungracious words , and irregular actions , because my passions were not obedient nor orderly , neither temperate nor governed , neither of a fitting measure , nor carried to a right object : But now , O God , I present them unto thee , not as a fit oblation , but as the Lepers and the blind , the lame and the crooked were brought unto the holy Jesus , to be made streight and clean , useful and illuminate ; and when thou hast taken into thy possession what is thine , and what I stole from thee , or detained violently , and which the Devil did usurp , then thou wilt sanctifie and save it , use it as thine own , and make it to be so for ever . V. BLessed God , refuse not thy returning son : I have prodigally wasted my talents , and spent my time in riotous and vain living ; but I have not lost my title and relation to thee my Father . O my God , I have the sorrow of an humble penitent , the purposes of a converted sinner , the love of a pardoned person , the zeal of an obliged and redeem'd prisoner , the hope of him that feels thy present goodness , and longs for more . Reject me not , O my God , but do thou work all my works within me . My heart is in thy hands , and I know that the way of man is not in himself , it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps : But do thou guide me into the way of righteousness ; work in me an excellent Repentance , a great caution and observance , an humble fear , a prudent and a religious hope , and a daily growing charity ; work in me to will and to do of thy good pleasure : Then shall I praise thy name , and love thy excellencies , and obey thy Commandments , and suffer thy impositions , and be what thou wouldst have me to be , that I being rescued from the possession of the Devil , and the torments of perishing souls , may be admitted to serve thee , and be a minister of thy honour in the Kingdomes of Grace and Glory , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . A Prayer for an old person returning after a wicked life . O Eternal God , give me leave to speak for my self before I die : I would fain live and be healed , I have been too long thine enemy , and would not be so for ever . My heart is broken within me , and all my fortunes are broken without ; I know not how to speak , and I must not , I dare not hold my tongue . II. O MY God , can yesterday be recall'd , and the flying hours be stopped ? In my youth I had not the prudence and caution of old age ; but is it possible that in my old age I may be restored to the hopes and opportunities of youth ? Thou didst make the Sun to stand still at the prayer of Joshua , and return back at the importunity of Hezekiah . O do thou make a new account for me , and reckon not the days of my youth ; but from this day reckon the beginnings of my life , and measure it by the steps of duty , and the light of the Sun of Righteousness now arising upon my heart . III. I AM ashamed , O God , I am ashamed that I should betray my reason , shame my nature , dishonour all my strengths , debauch my understanding , and baffle all my faculties for so base , so vile affections , so unrewarding interests . O my God , where is all that vanity which I suck'd so greedily as the wild Asses do the wind ? whither is that pleasure and madness gone which so ravish'd all my senses , and made me deaf to the holy charms of thy divinest Spirit ? Behold , O God , I die for that which is not ; and unless thy mercy be my rescue , for ever I shall suffer torments insufferable , still to come , still to succeed , for having drunk of unsatisfying perishing waters , which had no current , no abode . IV. O Dear God , smite me not yet ; respite me one portion of time , I dare not say how much , but even as much as thou pleasest . O stay a while , and try me but this once : It is true , O God , I have lost my strength , and given my vigorous years to that which I am asham'd to think on . But yet , O Lord , if thou pleasest , my soul can be as active , and dutiful , and affectionate , and humble , and sorrowful , and watchful as ever . Thou doest not save any for his own worthiness , but eternal life is a gift ; and thou canst if thou pleasest give it unto me . But why does my soul run thither , with all its loads of sin and shame upon it ? That is too great , yet to be thought of . O give me pardon , and give me sorrow , and give me a great , a mighty grace , to do the duty of a whole life in the remaining portion of my days . V. O MY gracious Lord , whatever thy sentence be , yet let me have the honour to serve thee . Let me contribute something to thy glory , let me converse with thy Saints and Servants in the entercourses of piety ; let me be admitted to be a servant to the meanest of thy servants , to do something that thou lovest . O God my God , do what thou pleasest , so I may not for ever die in the sad and dishonourable impieties of the damned . Let me but be admitted to thy service in all the degrees of my soul , and all the days of my short life , and my soul shall have some comfort , because I signifie my love and duty to thee for whom I will not refuse to die . O my God , I will not beg of thee to give me comfort , but to give me duty and imployment . Smite me if thou pleasest , but smite me here ; kill me if thou pleasest , I have deserved it , but I would fain live to serve thee , and for no other reason , but that thou mayest love to pardon and to sanctifie me . VI. O Blessed Jesus , do thou intercede for me ; thy Father hears thee in all things , and thou knowest our infirmities , and hast felt our miseries , and didst die to snatch us from the intolerable flames of Hell ; and although thou givest thy gifts in differing proportions to thy servants , yet thou dost equally offer pardon to all thy enemies that will come unto thee and beg it . O give me all faith , and all charity , and a spirit highly compunctive , highly industrious , passionate , prudent and indefatigable in holy services . Open thy fountains , gracious Lord , and bath my stained soul in thy blood . Wash the Ethiop , cleanse the Leper , dress the strangers wounds , and forgive thy enemy . VII . I Will not , O my God , I dare not distrust those infinite glories of thy mercy and graciousness , by which thou art ready to save all the world . The sins of all mankind together are infinitely less than thy mercy , and thou who didst redeem the Heathen world , wilt also I hope rescue me who am a Christian. This is my glory and my shame , my sins had not been so great if I had not disgrac'd so excellent a title , and abused so mighty a grace ; but yet if the grace which I have abused had not been so great , my hopes had been less . One deep , O God , calls upon another . O let the abyss of thy mercy swallow up the puddles of my impurity ; let my soul no longer sink in the dead sea of Sodom , but in the laver of thy blood and my tears and sorrow ; wash me who come to thee to be cleansed and purified . It is not impossible to have it done , for thy power hath no limit : It is not unusual for thee to manifest such glories of an infinite mercy ; thou doest it daily . O give me a fast , a tenacious hope on thee , and a bitter sorrow for my sins , and an excellent zeal of thy glory ; and let my repentance be more exemplary than my sins , that the infiniteness of that mercy which shall save me may be conspicuous to all Saints and Angels , and may endear the return of all sinners to thee the fountain of Holiness and Mercy . Mercy , dear God , pity thy servant , and do thy work of grace speedily , and mightily upon me , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . Ejaculations and short Prayers to be used by Dying or Sick Penitents after a wicked life . I. O Almighty Father of Men and Angels , I have often been taught that thy mercies are infinite , and I know they are so ; and if I be a person capable of comfort , this is the fountain of it : for my sins are not infinite , only because they could not be so , my desires were only limited by my Nature , for I would not obey the Spirit . II. THou , O God , gavest mercy to the Thief upon the Cross , and from pain thou didst bring him to Paradise , from sin to repentance , from shame to glory . Thou wert the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world , and art still slain in all the periods of it . O be thou pleased to adorn thy Passion still with such miracles of mercy ; and now in this sad conjunction of affairs , let me be made the instance . III. THou art angry if I despair ; and therefore thou commandest me to hope : My hope cannot rest upon my self , for I am a broken reed , and an undermined wall . But because it rests upon thee , it ought not to be weak , because thou art infinite in mercy and power . IV. HE that hath lived best , needs mercy , and he that hath lived worst , even I , O Lord , am not wounded beyond the efficacy of thy blood , O dearest sweetest Saviour Jesus . V. I Hope it is not too late to say this . But if I might be suffered to live longer , I would by thy grace live better , spending all my time in duty , laying out all my passion in love and sorrow , imploying all my faculties in Religion and Holiness . VI. O MY God , I am ready to promise any thing now , and I am ready to do or to suffer any thing that may be the condition of mercy and pardon to me . But I hope I am not deceived by my fears , but that I should , if I might be tried , do all that I could , and love thee with a charity , great like that mercy by which I humbly pray that I may be pardon'd . VII . MY comfort O God is , that thou canst if thou wilt : and I am sure thy mercy is as great as thy power , and why then may not I hope that thou wilt have mercy according to thy power ? Man , only Man is the proper subject of thy mercy , and therefore only he is capable of thy mercy , because he hath sinned against thee . Angels and the inferiour creatures rejoyce in thy goodness , but only we that are miserable and sinful can rejoyce in thy mercy and forgiveness . VIII . I Confess I have destroyed my self ; but in thee is my help ; for thou gettest glory to thy name by saving a sinner , by redeeming a captive slave , by inlightning a dark eye , by sanctifying a wicked heart , by pardoning innumerable and intolerable transgressions . IX . O MY Father , chastise me if thou pleasest , but do not destroy me : I am a son , though an Absalom and a Cain , an unthankful , a malicious , a revengeful , uncharitable person ; Thou judgest not by time , but by the measures of the Spirit . The affections of the heart are not to be weighed in the balance of the Sanctuary , nor repentance to be measured by time , but by the Spirit and by the measures of thy mercy . X. O MY God , Hope is a word of an uncertain sound when it is placed in something that can fail , but thou art my hope and my confidence , and thy mercies are sure mercies which thou hast revealed to man in Christ Jesus , and they cannot fail them who are capable of them . XI . O Gracious Father , I am as capable of mercy as I was of being created ; and the first grace is always so free a grace , so undeserved on our part , that he that needs and calls , is never forsaken by thee . XII . BLessed Jesus , give me leave to trust in thy promises , in the letter of thy promises ; this letter killeth not , for it is the letter of thy Spirit , and saveth and maketh alive . Ask and you shall have ; so thou hast said , O my God , they are thy own words ; and whosoever shall call on the Name of the Lord shall be saved . XIII . THere are , O blessed Jesus , many more ; and one tittle of thy word shall not pass away unaccomplished : and nothing could be in vain by which thou didst intend to support our hopes . If we confess our sins , thou art just and righteous to forgive us our sins , and to cleanse us from all iniquities . XIV . WHen David said he would confess , then thou forgavest him . When the Prodigal was yet afar off , thou didst run out to meet him , and didst receive him . When he was naked , thou didst reinvest him with a precious robe ; and what O God can demonstrate the greatness of thy mercy , but such a misery as mine , so great a shame , so great a sinfulness ? XV. BVT what am I , O God , sinful dust and ashes , a miserable and undone man , that I should plead with the great Judge of all the World ? Look not upon me as I am in my self , but through Jesus Christ behold thy servant ; cloath me with the robes of his righteousness , wash me in his bloud , conform me to his image , fill me with his Spirit , and give me time , or give me pardon and an excellent heroick spirit , that I may do all that can be done , something that is excellent , and that may be acceptable in Jesus Christ. If I perish , I perish ; I have deserved it : but I will hope for mercy , till thy mercy hath a limit , till thy goodness can be numbred . O my God , let me not perish ; thou hast no pleasure in my death , and it is impossible for man to suffer thy extremest wrath . Who can dwell with the everlasting burning ? O my God , let me dwell safely in the embraces of thy sweetest mercy . Amen . Amen . Amen . CHAP. IV. Of Concupiscence , and Original Sin , and whether or no , or how far we are bound to repent of it . SECT . I. 1. ORIGINAL sin is so called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or figuratively , meaning the sin of Adam , which was committed in the Original of mankind by our first Parent , and which hath influence upon all his posterity . Nascuntur non propriè , sed originalitèr , peccatores . So S. Austin ; and therefore S. Ignatius calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the old impiety , that which was in the original or first Parent of mankind . 2. This sin brought upon Adam all that God threatned , but no more . A certainty of dying , together with the proper effects and affections of mortality , was inflicted on him , and he was reduced to the condition of his own nature , and then begat sons and daughters in his own likeness , that is , in the proper temper and constitution of mortal men . For as God was not bound to give what he never promised , viz. an immortal duration and abode in this life ; so neither does it appear in that angry entercourse that God had with Adam , that he took from him or us any of our natural perfections , but his graces only . 3. Man being left in this state of pure Naturals , could not by his own strength arrive to a supernatural end ( which was typified in his being cast out of Paradise , and the guarding it with the flaming sword of a Cherub . ) For eternal life being an end above our natural proportion , cannot be acquir'd by any natural means . Neither Adam nor any of his posterity could by any actions or holiness obtain Heaven by desert , or by any natural efficiency ; for it is a gift still , and it is neque currentis , neque operantis , neither of him that runneth , nor of him that worketh , but of God who freely gives it to such persons , whom he also by other gifts and graces hath dispos'd toward the reception of it . 4. What gifts and graces , or supernatural endowments God gave to Adam in his state of Innocence , we know not , God hath no where told us ; and of things unrevealed we commonly make wild conjectures . But after his fall we find no sign of any thing but of a common man. And therefore as it was with him , so it is with us ; our nature cannot go to Heaven , without the helps of the Divine grace ; so neither could his : and whether he had them or no , it is certain we have ; receiving more by the second Adam than we did lose by the first : and the sons of God are now spiritual , which he never was that we can find . 5. But concerning the sin of Adam , tragical things are spoken ; it destroyed his original righteousness , and lost it to us for ever ; it corrupted his nature , and corrupted ours , and brought upon him , and not him only , but on us also who thought of no such thing , an inevitable necessity of sinning , making it as natural to us to sin as to be hungry , or to be sick and die ; and the con●equent of these things is saddest of all , we are born enemies of God , sons of wrath , and heirs of eternal damnation . 6. In the meditation of these sad stories I shall separate the certain from the uncertain , that which is reveal'd from that which is presum'd , that which is reasonable from that which makes too bold reflexions upon God● honour , and the reputation of his justice and his goodness . I shall do it in the words of the Apostle from whence men commonly dispute in this Question right or wrong , according as it happens . 7. By one man sin came into the world ] That sin entred into the world by Adam , is therefore certain , because he was the first man , and unless he had never sinn'd , it must needs enter by him for it comes in first by the first ; and Death by sin , that is , Death which at first was the condition of nature , became a punishment upon that account : just as it was to the Serpent to creep upon his belly , and to the Woman to be subject to her Husband : These things were so before , and would have been so , for the Apostle pressing the duty of subjection , gives two reasons why the woman was to obey . One of them only was derived from this sin , the other was the prerogative of creation ; for Adam was first formed , then Eve ; so that before her fall , she was to have been subject to her husband , because she was later in being ; she was a minor , and therefore under subjection ; she was also the weaker vessel . But it had not been a curse , and if any of them had been hindred by grace and favour , by Gods anger they were now left to fall back to the condition of their nature . 8. Death passed upon all men ; That is , upon all the old world , who were drowned in the floud of the Divine vengeance ; and who did sin after the similitude of Adam . And therefore S. Paul adds that for the reason . In as much as all men have sinned ] If all men have sinned upon their own account ( as it is certain they have ) then these words can very well mean , that Adam first sinned , and all his sons and daughters sinned after him , and so died in their own sin , by a death which at first and in the whole constitution of affairs is natural , and a death which their own sins deserved , but yet , which was hastned or ascertained upon them the rather for the sin of their progenitor . Sin propagated upon that root and vicious example ; or rather from that beginning , not from that cause , but dum ita peccant , & similiter moriuntur , If they sin so , then so shall they die ; so S. Hierome . 9. But this is not thought sufficient , and men do usually affirm that we are formally and properly made sinners by Adam , and in him we all by interpretation sinned , and therefore think these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , forasmuch as all men have sinned , ought to be expounded thus , [ Death passed upon all men ; In whom all men have sinned ] meaning that in Adam we really sinn'd , and God does truly and justly impute his sin to us , to make us as guilty as he that did it , and as much punish'd , and liable to eternal damnation . And all the great force of this fancy relies upon this exposition of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to signifie [ in him . ] 10. Concerning which there will be the less need of a laborious inquiry ; if it be observed , that the words being read , [ Forasmuch as all men have sinned ] beat a fair and clear discourse and very intelligible ; if it be rendred [ In him ] it is violent and hard , a distinct period by it self , without dependence or proper purpose , against the faith of all copies , who do not make this a distinct period , and against the usual manner of speaking . 2. This phrase of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used in 2 Cor. 5.4 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Not [ for that ] we would be unclothed ; and so it is used in Polybius , Suidas , and Varinus . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , eâ conditione , for that cause or condition ; and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ad quid ades , are the words of the Gospel , as Suidas quotes them . 3. Although 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signifie the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in whom , or in him ; yet it is so very seldom or infrequent , that it were intolerable to do violence to this place to force it to an unnatural signification . 4. If it did always signifie the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or in him , which it does not ; yet we might very well follow the same reading we now do , and which the Apostles discourse does infer ; for even 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does divers times signifie , forasmuch , or for that , as is to be seen in Rom. 8.3 . and Heb. 2.18 . But 5. supposing all that can be , and that it did signifie [ in whom ] yet the sence were fair enough , as to the whole article ; for by him , or in him , we are made sinners , that is , brought to an evil state of things usually consequent to sinners : we are us'd like sinners by him , or in him ; just as when a sinner is justified , he is treated like a righteous person as if he had never sinned , though he really did sin oftentimes ; and this for his sake who is made righteousness to us : so in Adam we are made sinners , that is , treated ill and afflicted , though our selves be innocent of that sin , which was the occasion of our being us'd so severely for other sins of which we were not innocent . But how this came to pass is told in the following words . 11. For until the law , sin was in the world , but sin is not imputed when there is no law . Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses ] even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression ] who is the figure of him that was to come . ] By which discourse it appears , that S. Paul does not speak of all minkind , as if the evil occasion'd by Adams sin did descend for ever upon that account ; but it had a limited effect , and reach'd only to those who were in the interval between Adam and Moses . This death was brought upon them by Adam ; that is , death which was threatned to Adam only , went forth upon them also who indeed were sinners , but not after the similitude of Adams transgression ; that is , who sinn'd not so capitally as he did . For to sin like Adam , is used as a Tragical and a high expression . So it is in the Prophet [ They like men have transgressed ] so we read it ; but in the Hebrew it is [ They like Adam have transgressed ] and yet death pass'd upon them that did not sin after the similitude of Adam ; for Abel , and Seth , and Abraham , and all the Patriarchs died ( Enoch only excepted ; ) and therefore it was no wonder that upon the sin of Adam death entred upon the world , who generally sinn'd like Adam , since it passed on and reigned upon less sinners . * It reigned upon them whose sins therefore would not be so imputed as Adams was , because there was no law with an express threatning given to them as was to Adam ; but although it was not wholly imputed upon their own account , yet it was imputed upon theirs and Adams . For God was so exasperated with Mankind , that being angry he would still continue that punishment even to the lesser sins and sinners , which he only had first threatned to Adam : and so Adam brought it upon them . They indeed in rigour did themselves deserve it , but if it had not been for that provocation by Adam , they who sinn'd not so bad , and had not been so severely and expresly threatned , had not suffer'd so severely . * The case is this . Jonathan and Michal were Sauls children ; it came to pass that seven of Sauls issue were to be hanged , all equally innocent , equally culpable . David took the five sons of Michal , for she had left him unhandsomly . Jonathan was his friend , and therefore he spar'd his son Mephibosheth . Here it was indifferent as to the guilt of the persons , whether David should take the sons of Michal , or of Jonathan ; but it is likely that as upon the kindness which David had to Jonathan he spar'd his son , so upon the just provocation of Michal he made that evil to fall upon them , of which they were otherwise capable , which it may be they should not have suffered , if their Mother had been kind . Adam was to God , as Michal to David . 12. But there was in it a further design : for by this dispensation of death , Adam was made a figure of Christ : So the Apostle expresly affirms ; [ who is the figure of him that was to come ] that as death pass'd upon the posterity of Adam , though they sinn'd less than Adam ; so life should be given to the followers of Christ , though they were imperfectly righteous , that is , not after the similitude of Christs perfection . 13. But for the further clearing the Article depending upon the right understanding of these words , these two things are observable . 1. That the evil of death descending upon Adams posterity , for his sake went no further than till Moses . For after the giving of Moses's law , death passed no further upon the account of Adams transgression , but by the sanction of Moses's law , where death was anew , distinctly , and expresly threatned as it was to Adam , and so went forward upon a new score , but introduc'd first by Adam ; that is , he was the cause at first , and till Moses also , he was in some sence the author , and for ever after , the precedent ; and therefore the Apostle said well , In Adam we all die : his sin brought in the sentence , in him it began , and from him it passed upon all the world , though by several dispensations . 2. In the discourse of the Apostle , those that were nam'd were not consider'd simply as born from Adam , and therefore it did not come upon the account of Natural or Original corruption , but they were consider'd as Sinners ; just as they who have life by Christ are not consider'd as merely children by title , or spiritual birth , and adoption , but as just and faithful . But then this is the proportion and purpose of the Apostle ; as God gives to these life by Christ , which is a greater thing than their imperfect righteousness without Christ could have expected : so here also ; this part of Adams posterity was punish'd with death for their own sin : but this death was brought upon them by Adam ; that is , the rather for his provocation of God by his great transgression . 14. There is now remaining no difficulty but in the words of the 19. verse [ By one mans disobedience many were made sinners . ] Concerning which I need not make use of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or many ; whom sometimes S. Paul calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , all , and many , that is , all from Adam to Moses , but they are but many , and not all in respect of mankind ; exactly answering to the All , that have life by Christ , which are only the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , those many that believe , and are adopted into the Covenant of believers : by this indeed it is perceivable that this was not a natural title or derivation of an inherent corruption from Adam , for that must have included All , absolutely and universally . But that which I here dwell and rely upon is this : 15. Sin is often in Scripture us'd for the punishment of sin ; and they that suffer , are called sinners , though they be innocent . So it is in this case . By Adams disobedience many were made sinners ; that is , the sin of Adam pass'd upon them , and sate upon their heads with evil effect , like that of Bathsheba ; I and my son shall be accounted sinners ; that is , evil will befall us , we shall be used like sinners , like Traitors and Usurpers . So , This shall be the sin of Egypt , said the Prophet : This shall be the punishment ; so we read it . And Cain , complaining of the greatness of his punishment , said , Mine iniquity is greater than I can bear . * And to put it past all doubt , not only punishment is called sin in Scripture , but even he that bears it . Him that knew no sin , God hath made sin , that we might be the righteousness of God in him : and the Prophet Isaiah speaking of Christ , saith , Posuit peccatum animam suam ; He hath made his soul a sin , that is , obnoxious to the punishment of sin . Thus it is said , that Christ shall appear the second time without sin , that is , without the punishment of sin unto salvation : for of sin formally or materially , he was at first as innocent as at the second time ; that is , pure in both . And if Christ who bare our burthen , became sin for us in the midst of his purest innocence , that we also are by Adam made sinners , that is , suffer evil by occasion of his demerit , infers not that we have any formal guilt , or enmity against God upon that account . Facti peccatores in S. Paul , by Adam we are made sinners , answers both in the story and in the expression to Christus factus peccatum pro nobis ; Christ was made sin for us , that is , was expos'd to the evil that is consequent to sin , viz. to its punishment . 16. For the further explication of which , it is observable that the word [ sinner ] and [ sin ] in Scripture is us'd for any person that hath a fault or a legal impurity , a debt , a vitiosity , defect , or imperfection . For the Hebrews use the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for any obligation which is contracted by the Law without our fault . Thus a Nazarite who had touch'd a dead body , was tied to offer a sacrifice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for sin ; and the reason is added , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , he had sinn'd concerning the dead body ; and yet it was nothing but a legal impurity , nothing moral . And the offering that was made by the leprous , or the menstruous , or the diseased in profluvio seminis , is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , an offering for sin , and yet it might be innocent all the way . 17. Thus in the Epistle to the Hebrews it is said , that our blessed Lord ( who is compared to the High-Priest among the Jews ) did offer first for his own sins ; by which word it is certain that no sin properly could be meant , for Christ was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he knew no sin ; but it means , the state of his infirmity , the condition of his mortal body , which he took for us and our sins , and is a state of misery and of distance from Heaven ; for flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of Heaven ; whither Christ was not to go , till by offering himself he had unclothed himself of that imperfect vesture , as they that were legally impure might not go to the Temple before their offering : and therefore when by death he quit himself of this condition , it is said [ he died unto sin . ] Parallel to this is that of S. Paul in the fifth Chapter to the Hebrews , where the state of infirmity is expresly called sin . The High-Priest ] is himself also compassed with infirmity ; and by reason hereof he ought , as for the people , so also for himself to offer for sins . This is also more expresly by S. Paul called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the likeness of the sin of the flesh ; and thus , Concupiscence or the first motions and inclinations to sin , is called sin , and said to have the nature of sin , that is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the likeness , it may be , the material part of sin , or something by which sin is commonly known . And thus Origen observes , that an oblation was to be offered , even for new born children , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as if they were not clean from sin . But this being an usual expression among the Hebrews , bears its sence upon the palm of the hand , and signifies only the legal impurity in which the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the new born babes and their Mothers were involv'd . Even Christ himself who had no Original sin was subject to this purification . So we read in S. Luke ; and when the days of [ her ] purification were accomplish'd : but in most books , and particular in the Kings MS. it is read , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the days of [ their ] purification . But the things of this nature being called offerings for sins , and the expression usual among the Jews , I doubt not but hath given occasion to the Christian Writers to fancy other things than were intended . 18. Having now explicated those words of S. Paul , which by being misunderstood have caused strange devices in this Article , we may now without prejudice examine what really was the effect of Adams sin , and what evil descended upon his posterity . 19. Adams sin was punish'd by an expulsion out of Paradise , in which was a Tree appointed to be the cure of diseases and a conservatory of life . There was no more told as done but this , and its proper consequents . He came into a land less blessed , a land which bore thistles and briars easily , and fruits with difficulty , so that he was forc'd to sweat hard for his bread ; and this also ( I cannot say did descend , but ) must needs be the condition of his children who were left to live so , and in the same place ; just as when young Anthony had seis'd upon Marcus Cicero's land , the Son also lost what he never had . And thus death came in , not by any new sentence or change of nature : for man was created mortal ; and if Adam had not sinned , he should have been immortal by grace , that is , by the use of the Tree of life ; and now being driven from the place where the Tree grew , was left in his own natural constitution , that is , to be sick and die without that remedy . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . He was mortal of himself , and we are mortal from him . Peccando Adam posteros morti subjecit , & universos huic delicto obnoxios reddit , said Justin Martyr . Adam by his sin made all his posterity liable to the sin , and subjected them to death . One explicates the other ; and therefore S. Cyprian calls Original sin , Malum domesticum , contagium mortis antiquae primâ nativitate contractum . His sin infected us with death , and this infection we derive in our birth , that is , we are born mortal . Adams sin was imputed to us unto a natural death ; in him we are sinners , as in him we die . But this sin is not real and inherent , but imputed only to such a degree . So S. Cyprian affirms most expresly — infans recens natus nihil peccavit nisi quòd secundum Adam carnalitèr natus contagium mortis antiquae primâ nativitate contraxit . An infant hath not sinn'd , save only that being carnally born of Adam , in his first birth he hath contracted the contagion of the old death . 20. This evil which is the condition of all our natures , viz. to die , was to some a punishment , but to others not so . It was a punishment to all that sinn'd both before Moses and since ; upon the first it fell as a consequent of Gods anger upon Adam ( as I before discours'd ) upon the latter it fell as a consequent of that anger which was threatned in Moses law . But to those who sinned not at all , as Infants and Innocents , it was merely a condition of their nature , and no more a punishment , than to be a child is . It was a punishment of Adams sin ; because by his sin humane Nature became disrob'd of their preternatural immortality , and therefore upon that account they die ; but as it related to the persons , it was not a punishment , not an evil afflicted for their sin , or any guiltiness of their own , properly so called . 21. We find nothing else in Scripture express'd to be the effect of Adams sin : and beyond this without authority we must not go . Other things are said , but I find no warrant for them in that sence they are usually suppos'd , and some of them in no sence at all . The particulars commonly reckoned , are , that from Adam we derive an Original ignorance , a proneness to sin , a natural malice , a fomes , or nest of sin imprinted and plac'd in our souls , a loss of our wills liberty , and nothing is left but a liberty to sin , which liberty upon the summ of affairs is expounded to be a necessity to sin : and the effect of all is , we are born heirs of damnation . 22. Concerning Original or Natural ignorance , it is true , we derive it from our Parents , I mean we are born with it ; but I do not know that any man thinks that if Adam had not sinn'd that sin , Cain should have been wise as soon as his Navel had been cut . Neither can we guess at what degree of knowledge Adam had before his fall . Certainly , if he had had so great a knowledge , it is not likely he would so cheaply have sold himself and all his hopes , out of a greedy appetite to get some knowledge . But concerning his posterity ; indeed it is true a child cannot speak at first , nor understand ; and if ( as Plato said ) all our knowledge is nothing but memory , it is no wonder a child is born without knowledge . But so it is in the wisest men in the world ; they also when they see or hear a thing first , think it strange , and could not know it till they saw or heard it . Now this state of ignorance we derive from Adam , as we do our Nature , which is a state of ignorance and all manner of imperfection ; but whether it was not imperfect , and apt to fall into forbidden instances even before his fall , we may best guess at by the event ; for if he had not had a rebellious appetite , and an inclination to forbidden things , by what could he have been tempted , and how could it have come to pass that he should sin ? Indeed this Nature was made worse by sin , and became devested of whatsoever it had extraordinary , and was left naked , and mere , and therefore it is not only an Original imperfection which we inherit , but in the sence now explicated , it is also an Original corruption . And this is all : As natural death by his sin became a curse , so our natural imperfection became natural corruption , and that is Original sin . Death and imperfection we derive from Adam , but both were natural to us ; but by him they became actual , and penal , and by him they became worse , as by every evil act , every principle of evil is improv'd . And in this sence , this Article is affirmed by all the Doctors of the ancient Church . We are miserable really , sinners in account or effect , that properly , this improperly ; and are faln into so sad a state of things which we also every day make worse , that we did need a Saviour to redeem us from it . For in Original sin we are to consider the principle , and the effects . The principle is the actual sin of Adam . This being to certain purposes by Gods absolute dominion imputed to us , hath brought upon us a necessity of dying , and all the affections of mortality ; which although they were natural , yet would by grace have been hindred . Another evil there is upon us , and that is Concupiscence ; this also is natural , but it was actual before the fall , it was in Adam , and tempted him . This also from him is derived to us , and is by many causes made worse , by him and by our selves . And this is the whole state of Original sin , so far as is fairly warrantable . But for the other particulars the case is wholly differing . The sin of Adam neither made us 1. Heirs of damnation : Nor , 2. Naturally and necessarily vicious . 23. I. It could not make us Heirs of damnation . This I shall the less need to insist upon , because of it self it seems so horrid to impute to the goodness and justice of God to be author of so great a calamity to Innocents , that S. Austins followers have generally left him in that point , and have descended to this lesser proportion , that Original sin damns only to the eternal loss of the sight of Gods glorious face . But to this , I say these things . 24. I. That there are many Divines which believe this alone to be the worm that never dies , and the fire that never goeth out ; that is , in effect , this , and the anguish for this is all the Hell of the damned . And unless infants remain infants in the resurrection too ( which no man that I know affirms ) or unless they be senseless and inapprehensive , it is not to be imagined , but that all that know they are by way of punishment depriv'd of the glorious face of God , must needs have a horrible anguish of soul to eternal ages . And this argument , besides the reasonableness of the thing , hath warrant from the words of S. Austin . Si hoc eis non erit malum , non ergo amabunt regnum Dei tot innocentes imagines Dei ? Si autem amabunt , & tantum amabunt , quantum innocentes amare debent , regnum ejus , à quo ad ipsius imaginem creantur , nihilne mali de hâc ipsâ separatione patientu● ? Here the good man and eloquent , supposes the little babies to be innocent , to be images of God , to love the Kingdom of God , and yet to be sentenc'd to Hell : which ( it may be ) he did , but I do not understand ; save only that in the Parable we find Dives in Hell to be very charitable to his living brethren . But that which I make use of for the present , is , that infants besides the loss of Gods presence , and the beholding his face , are apprehensive and afflicted with that evil state of things , whither their infelicity , not their fault , hath carried them . 25. II. But suppose this to be but a mere privative state , yet it cannot be inflicted upon infants as a punishment of Adams sin , and upon the same account it cannot be inflicted upon any one else . Not upon infants , because they are not capable of a law for themselves , therefore much less of a law which was given to another , here being a double incapacity of obedience . They cannot receive any law , and if they could , yet of this they never were offer'd any notice till it was too late . Now if infants be not capable of this , nor chargeable with it , then no man is ; for all are infants first , and if it comes not by birth , and at first , it cannot come at all . So that although this privative Hell be less than to say they are tormented in flames besides , yet it is as unequal and unjust . There is not indeed the same cruelty , but there is the same injustice . I deny not but all persons naturally are so that they cannot arrive at Heaven , but unless some other principle be put into them , or some great grace done for them , must for ever stand separate from seeing the face of God. But this is but accidentally occasion'd by the sin of Adam . That left us in our natural state , and that state can never come to Heaven in its own strength . But this condition of all men by nature is not the punishment of our sin ; for this would suppose , that were it not for this sin superinduc'd , otherwise we should go to Heaven . Now this is not true ; for if Adam had not sinned , yet without something supernatural , some grace and gift , we could never go to Heaven . Now although the sin of Adam left him in his nakedness , and a mere natural man ; yet presently this was supplied , and we were never in it , but were improv'd and better'd by the promise , and Christ hath died for mankind , and in so doing is become our Redeemer and Representative ; and therefore this sin of Adam cannot call us back from that state of good things , into which we are put by the mercies of God in our Lord Jesus ; and therefore now no infant or idiot , or man or woman shall for this alone be condemn'd to an eternal banishment from the sweetest presence of God. But this will be evinced more certainly in the following periods . For if they stand for ever banished from the presence of God , then they shall be for ever shut up in Hell , with the Devil and his Angels ; for the Scripture hath mentioned no portions but of the right and left hand . Greg. Naz. and his Scholiast Nicetas did suppose that there should be a middle state between Heaven and Hell for Infants and Heathens ; and concerning Infants Pope Innocent III. and some Schoolmen * have taken it up : but ‖ S. Austin hath sufficiently confuted it ; and it is sufficient that there is no ground for it but their own dreams . 26. III. But then against those that say , the flames of Hell is the portion of Adams heirs , and that Infants dying in Original sin are eternally tormented as Judas , or Dives , or Julian , I call to witness all the Oeconomy of the divine goodness , and justice , and truth . The soul that sins it shall die ; As I live , saith the Lord , the Son shall not bear the iniquity of the Father ; that is , he shall not be guilty of his crime , nor liable to his punishment . 27. IV. Is Hell so easie a pain , or are the souls of children of so cheap , so contemptible a price , that God should so easily throw them into Hell ? Gods goodness which pardons many sins which we could avoid , will not so easily throw them into Hell for what they could not avoid . Gods goodness is against this . 28. V. It is suppos'd that Adam did not finally perish for that sin which himself committed ; all Antiquity thought so , Tatianus only excepted , who was a heretick accounted , and the father of the Encratites . But then what equity is it that any innocents or little children should ? for either God pardon'd Adam or condemn'd him . If he pardon'd him that sinn'd , it is not so agreeable to his goodness to exact it of others that did not * . For if he pardon'd him , then either God took off all that to which he was liable , or only remov'd it from him to place it somewhere else . If he remov'd it from him to his posterity , that is it which we complain of as contrary to his justice and his goodness . But if God took off all that was due , how could God exact it of others , it being wholly pardon'd ? But if God did not pardon him the eternal guilt , but took the forfeiture and made him pay the full price of his sin , that is , all which he did threaten and intend , then it is not to be supposed that God should in justice demand more than eternal pains as the price to be paid by one man for one sin . So that in all sences this seems unjust . 29. VI. To be born , was a thing wholly involuntary and unchosen , and therefore it could in no sence be chosen , that we were born so , that is , born guilty of Adams sin , which we knew not of , which was done so many thousand years before we were born ; which we had never heard of , if God had not been pleas'd by a supernatural way to reveal to us , which the greatest part of mankind to this day have never heard of ; at which we were displeas'd as soon as we knew of it ; which hath caused much trouble to us , but never tempted us with any pleasure . 30. VII . No man can perish for that of which he was not guilty ; but we could not be involv'd in the guilt , unless some way or other our consent had been involv'd . For it is no matter who sins , or who is innocent , if he that is innocent may perish for what another does without his knowledge or leave , either ask'd , or given , or presum'd . * But if our consent was in it , then either it was included naturally , or by an express will of God that made it so . It can no way be imagined how our will can be naturally included , for we had no natural being . We had no life , and therefore no action , and therefore no consent . For it is impossible there should be an act of will in any sence , when there is an act of understanding in no sence . * But if by a Divine act or decree it became so , and not by our act , then we only are said to consent , because God would have it so ; which , if we speak intelligibly , is to charge God with making us guilty when we were not , to say , we consented when we did not . 31. VIII . In pursuance of which argument , I consider , that whatsoever can be said to consent , must have a being either in or out of its causes . But our will was not in being or actual existence when Adam sinned ; it was then in its causes . But the soul , and so the will of man hath no cause but God , it being with the soul immediately created . If therefore we sinned , we could not sin in our selves , for we were not born ; nor could we sin in Adam , for he was not the cause of our will ; it must therefore be that we sinn'd in God : for as was our being , so must our action be ; but our being was then only in God , our will and our soul was in him only , tanquam in 〈◊〉 causâ , therefore in him was our action , or consent , or what we please to call it . Which affirmative , what sence , or what piety , or what probability it can have in it , I suppose , needs not much inquiry . 32. IX . To condemn Infants to Hell for the fault of another , is to deal worse with them , than God did to the very Devils , who did not perish but for an act of their own most perfect choice . 33. X. This , besides the formality of injustice and cruelty , does add and suppose a circumstance of a strange ungentle contrivance . For because it cannot be supposed that God should damn Infants or Innocents without cause , it finds out this way , that God to bring his purposes to pass , should create a guilt for them , or bring them into an inevitable condition of being guilty by a way of his inventing . For if he did make any such agreement with Adam , he beforehand knew that Adam would forfeit all , and therefore that unavoidably all his posterity should be surpris'd . This is to make pretences , and to invent justifications and reasons of his proceedings , which indeed are all one as if they were not . For he that can make a reason for an action otherwise unjust , can do it without any reason ; especially when the reason it self makes the misery as fatal as a decree without a reason : And if God cannot be supposed to damn infants without just cause , and therefore he so order'd it that a cause should not be wanting , but he infallibly and irresistibly made them guilty of Adams sin ; is not this to resolve to make them miserable , and then with scorn to triumph in their sad condition ? For if they could not deserve to perish without a fault of their own , how could they deserve to have such a fault put upon them ? If it be unjust to damn them without cause , is it not also unjust to make a cause for them whether they will or no ? 34. XI . It is suppos'd and generally taught , that before the fall Adam had Original righteousness , that is , not only that he was innocent as children new born are of actual sin ( which seems to be that which Divines call Original righteousness , there being no other either taught , or reasonable ) but a rare rectitude of the inner man , a just subordination of the inferior faculties to the superior , an excellent knowledge and clear light : and therefore that he would sin had so little excuse , that well it might deserve such a punishment , so great as himself suffered . Indeed if he had no such rare perfections and rectitude , I can say nothing to the particular : but to the Question , this ; that if Adam had it not , then he could not lose it , nor his posterity after him ; as it is fiercely and mightily pretended that they did . But if he had this rectitude and rare endowments , what equity is it that his posterity who had no such helps to resist the sin , and were so far from having any helps at all to resist it , that they had no notice of it , neither of the law , nor the danger , nor the temptation , nor the action , till it was past ; I say , what equity is it that his posterity should in the midst of all these imperfections be equally punished with him , who sinned against so great a light , and so mighty helps ? 35. XII . Infants cannot justly perish for Adams sin , unless it be just that their wills should be included in his will , and his will justly become theirs by interpretation . Now if so , I ask , Whether before that sin of Adam were our wills free , or not free ? For if we had any will at all , it must be free , or not free . If we had none at all , how could it be involv'd in his ? Now if our wills were free , why are they without our act , and whether we will or no , involv'd in the will of another ? If they were not free , how could we be guilty ? * If they were free , then they could also dissent . If they were not free , then they could not consent ; and so either they never had , or else before Adams fall they lost their liberty . 36. XIII . But if it be inquired seriously , I cannot imagine what can be answered . Could we prevent the sin of Adam ? could we hinder it ? were we ever ask'd ? Could we , if we had been ask'd after we were born a month , have given our negative ? Or could we do more before we were born than after ? were we , or could we be tied to prevent that sin ? Did not God know that we could not in that case dissent ? And why then shall our consent be taken in by interpretation , when our dissent could not be really acted ; But if at that time we could not dissent really , could we have dissented from Adams sin by interpretation ? If not , then we could dissent no way , and then it was inevitably decreed that we should be ruin'd : for neither really , nor by interpretation could we have dissented . But if we could by interpretation have dissented , it were certainly more agreeable to Gods goodness , to have interpreted for us in the better sence , rather than in the worse ; being we did neither , really and actually ; and if God had so pleased , he rather might with his goodness have interpreted us to have dissented , than he could with justice have interpreted us to have consented : and therefore certainly he did so , or would have done , if there had been need . 37. XIV . Lastly ; the Consequent of these is this . That because God is true and just and wise , and good , and merciful , it is not to be supposed that he will snatch Infants from their Mothers breasts , and throw them into the everlasting flames of Hell for the sin of Adam , that is , as to them , for their mere natural state of which himself was Author and Creator : that is , he will not damn them for being good . For God saw every thing that he had made , and behold it was very good : and therefore so is that state of descent from Adam . God is the Author of it , and therefore it cannot be ill . It cannot be contrary to God , because it is his work . 38. Upon the account of these reasons I suppose it safe to affirm , that God does not damn any one to Hell merely for the sin of our first Father , which I summ up in the words of S. Ambrose , or whoever is the Author of the Commentaries upon the Epistles of S. Paul attributed to him ; Mors autem dissolutio corporis est , cum anima à corpore separatur . Est & alia mors , quae secunda dicitur , in Gehennâ , quam non peccato Adaepatimur , sed ejus occasione propriis peccatis acquiritur . Death is the dividing Soul and Body . There is also another death which is in Hell , and is called the second Death , which we do not suffer for the sin of Adam ; but by occasion of it , we fall into it by our own sins . Next we are to inquire , whether or no it does not make us infallibly , naturally , and necessarily vitious , by taking from us Original righteousness , by discomposing the order of our faculties , and inslaving the will to sin and folly , concerning which the inquiry must be made by parts . 39. For if the sin of Adam did debauch our Nature , and corrupt our will and manners , it is either by a Physical or Natural efficiency of the sin it self : or 2. Because we were all in the loins of Adam , or 3. By the sentence and decree of God. 40. I. Not by any Natural efficiency of the sin it self : Because then it must be that every sin of Adam must spoil such a portion of his Nature , that before he died , he must be a very beast . 2. We also by degeneration and multiplication of new sins must have been at so vast a distance from him at the very worst , that by this time we should not have been so wise as a flie , nor so free and unconstrain'd as fire . 3. If one sin would naturally and by physical causality destroy Original righteousness , then every one sin in the regenerate can as well destroy Habitual righteousness , because that and this differ not but in their principle , not in their nature and constitution . And why should not a righteous man as easily and as quickly fall from grace , and lose his habits , as Adam did ? Naturally it is all one . 4. If that one sin of Adam did destroy all his righteousness and ours too , then our Original sin does more hurt , and is more punish'd , and is of greater malice than our actual sin . For one act of sin does but lessen and weaken the habit , but does not quite destroy it . If therefore this act of Adam ( in which certainly , at least we did not offend maliciously ) destroys all Original righteousness , and a malicious act now does not destroy a righteous habit , it is better for us in our own malice , than in our ignorance , and we suffer less for doing evil that we know of , than for doing that which we knew nothing of . 41. II. If it be said , that this evil came upon us because we all were in the loins of Adam : I consider , 1. That then by the same reason we are guilty of all the sins which he ever committed while we were in his loins ; there being no imaginable reason why the first sin should be propagated , and not the rest ; and he might have sinned the second time , and have sinn'd worse . Add to this , that the later sins are commonly the worse , as being committed not only against the same law , but a greater reason , and a longer experience , and heightned by the mark of ingratitude , and deeply noted with folly , for venturing damnation so much longer : And then he that was born last should have most Original sin ; and Seth should in his birth and nature be worse than Abel , and Abel be worse than Cain . 2. Upon this account all the sins of all our progenitors will be imputed to us , because we were in their loins when they sinn'd them ; and every lustful father must have a lustful son , and so every man , or no man will be lustful . For if ever any man were lustful or intemperate when , or before he begot his child , upon this reckoning his child will be so too , and then his grandchild , and so on for ever . 3. Sin is seated in the will , it is an action , and transient ; and when it dwells or abides , it abides no where but in the will by approbation and love , to which is naturally consequent a readiness in the inferior faculties to obey and act accordingly ; and therefore sin does not infect our mere natural faculties , but the will only , and not that in the natural capacity , but in its moral only . 4. And indeed to him that considers it , it will seem strange and monstrous , that a moral obliquity , in a single instance , should make an universal change in a natural suscipient , and in a natural capacity . When it is in nature impossible that any impression should be made but between those things that communicate in matter or capacity ; and therefore if this were done at all , it must be by a higher principle , by Gods own act or sanction , and then should be referred to another principle , not this against which I am now disputing . 5. No man can transmit a good habit , a grace , or a vertue by natural generation ; as a great Scholar's son cannot be born with learning , and the child of a Judge cannot upon his birth-day give wise sentences ; and Marcus the son of Cicero was not so good an Orator as his father : and how can it be then that a naughty quality should be more apt to be disseminated than a good one ; when it is not the goodness or the badness of a quality that hinders its dissemination , but its being an acquir'd and superinduc'd quality that makes it cannot descend naturally ? Add to this , how can a bad quality , morally bad , be directly and regularly transmitted by an action morally good ? and since neither God that is the Maker of all does amiss , and the father that begets sins not , and the child that is begotten cannot sin , by what conveyance can any positive evil be derived to the posterity ? 6. It is generally , now adays especially , believed , that the soul is immediately created , not generated , according to the doctrine of Aristotle , affirming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; that the soul is from without , and is a Divine substance ; and therefore sin cannot descend by natural generation , or by our being in Adams loins . And how can it be , that the father who contributes nothing to her production , should contribute to her pollution ? that he who did not transmit life , should transmit his sin ? and yet if the soul were traduc'd from the parents , and begotten , yet sin could not descend , because it is not a natural , but a superinduc'd quality ; and if it could , then it would follow , that we should from every vicious father derive a proper Original sin , besides the general . 7. If in him we sinned , then it were but just , that in him we should be punished : for as the sin is , so ought the punishment to be . But it were unjust , or at least it seems so , that he should sin for us , and we be punished for him , or that he should sin for us and for himself , and yet be punish'd for himself alone . 42. III. But if it be said , that this happened because of the will and decree of God ; then there is no more to be done , but to look into the record , and see what God threatned , and what he inflicted . He threatned death and inflicted it , with all its preparations and solemnities in men and women : hard labour in them both ; which S. Chrysostome thus expresses , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Adam falling , even they that did not eat of the Tree , were of him all born mortal . He and all his posterity were left in the mere natural state ; that is , in a state of imperfection , in a state that was not sufficiently instructed and furnished with abilities in order to a supernatural end , whither God had secretly design'd mankind . In this state he could never arrive at Heaven , but that was to be supplied by other means ; for this made it necessary that all should come to Christ , and is the great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and necessity for the baptism of Infants , that they being admitted to supernatural promises and assistances , may be lifted up to a state above their nature ; Not only to improve their present good , as the Pelagians affirm'd , Tam Dives verò hoc donum baptismatis esse , Vt parvis etiam vitióque carentibus omni Congruat , ut qui sunt geniti bene , sint meliores Naturaeque bonum adjecto illustretur honore ; But to take off that evil state of things whither by occasion of the fall of Adam they were devolv'd , and to give them new birth , adoption into Christ , and the seeds of a new nature , so to become children of God and heirs of the promises , who in their mere naturals did inherit from Adam nothing but misery , and imperfection , and death . Coelorum regnum sperate hoc fonte renati , Non recipit felix vita semel genitos . Insons esse volens isto mundare lavacro , Seu patrio premeris crimine , seu proprio . So Xistus in the Verses written upon the Fount of Constantine . But 2. It is not to be supposed that God did inflict any necessity of sinning upon Adam or his posterity , because from that time ever unto this , he by new laws hath required innocence of life , or repentance and holiness . For besides that it is a great testimony of the Divine favour that God will still imploy us , and exact more services of us , and that there is no greater argument of joy to us in the world , than that we are Gods servants , and there can be no greater testimony , that God is our God ; and that of this employing us in his service , there can be no greater evidence , than the giving to us new laws : Besides this , I say , if man could not obey , it is not consistent with the wisdom of God , to require of man , what he knows man cannot do ; nor with his justice to punish that in man , which he knows man cannot avoid . 43. But if it be objected , that man had strengths enough in his first Creation , but when in Adam he sinned , in him also he forfeited all his strengths ; and therefore his consequent disability being his own fault , cannot be his excuse ; and to whatsoever laws God shall be pleased afterwards to impose , he cannot plead his infirmity , because himself having brought it on himself , must suffer for it : It being just in God to exact the law of him , even where he is unable to keep it , because God once made him able , and he disabled himself . I answer many things . 44. I. That Adam had any more strengths than we have , and greater powers of Nature , and by his fall lost them to himself and us , being part of the question , ought not to be pretended , till it be proved . Adam was a man , as his sons are , and no more ; and God gave him strength enough to do his duty ; and God is as just and loving to us as to him , and hath promis●d he will lay no more upon us , than he will make us able to bear . But 2. He that disables himself from doing his Lord service , if he does it on purpose that he may not serve him , may be punished for not doing all that which was imposed upon him , because that servant did chuse his disability , that he might with some pretence refuse the service . He did disobey in all the following particulars ; because out of a resolution not to obey in those particulars , he made himself unable in the general . It is all one with the case of voluntary and affected ignorance . He that refuses knowledge lest he should understand his duty , and he that disables himself that he may not do it , may be punished not only for not doing it , but for making it impossible to be done . But that was not Adams case , so far as we know ; and it is certain it was not ours in the matter of his sin . 3. But if he commits a fault which accidentally disables him ; as if he eats too much , and be sick the next day , and fall into a fever , he may indeed , and is justly punished for his gluttony , but he is not punishable for omitting that which in his present weakness he can no ways perform . The reason is , because this disability was involuntary , and an evil accident ; of it self a punishment of his sin , and therefore of it self not punishable ; and this involuntariness is still the more notorious and certain , as the consequents are the more remote . 4. No man can be answerable to God for the consequent of his sin , unless it be natural , foretold , or foreseen ; but for the sin it self he is ; and as for the consequents superinduc'd by God , he must suffer them , but not answer for them . For these being in the hands of God , are not the works of mens hands ; God hath effected it upon the sinner , he is the Author of it , and by it he is directly glorified ; and therefore though by it the sinner is punished , yet for it he cannot be punished again . 5. But that I may come to the case of the present argument . This measure and line of justice is most evident in laws to be imposed after the disability is contracted , and not foreseen before ; concerning which , there can be no pretence of justice that the breach of them should be punished . If a law be already imposed , and a man by his fault loses those assistances , without which he could not keep the law , he may nevertheless in the rigor of justice be punished for not keeping it , because the law was given him when he had strength , and he ought to have preserv'd it . For though he cannot be obliged to a new law to which he is not enabled , yet for his sin he shall not be disoblig'd from an old law to which he was enabled . Although God will not exceed his measures , or do wrong to a sinner , yet by his sin he shall receive no favour , or immunity . But in laws to be imposed afterwards , the case ( I say ) is otherwise . Because the persons are not capable of any such law ; and God knowing they cannot perform them , cannot intend they should , and therefore cannot justly punish them , for not doing that , which himself did never heartily intend they should do , because he knew they could not . The instances will make the matter to be confessed . * Suppose a man falling into drunkenness , should by the Divine judgement fall lame ; can God afterwards exact it of him that he should leap and dance in publick festivities , when he can neither go nor stand ? If so , suppose yet further , that by the Divine judgment he should fall mad ; Is the mad man capable of a new law ? I suppose it will not be said he is : or if it be , suppose yet further , that he be taken speechless , and senseless , or die : Can God still exact of him obedience to any new Commandment ? If he be dead , his day is done , he can work no more , nor be oblig'd any more ; and so it is , if he be mad , or any ways disabled ; the case is all one . For whatsoever the disability be , the incapacity , and impossibility , and the excuse is the same . 6. When God ( as it is said ) punish'd the first sin with a consequent disability of doing any future services , if he also punishes the not doing what he afterwards imposes , I ask , whether this later punishment be precisely due to the later , or to the former sin ? If to the later , then in vain is it laid upon the former account ; and yet , if it be laid upon its own , it is high injustice ; because of this law the man was not a subject capable when it was imposed , the man was dead before the law was alive : and a tree is as much capable of a law , as a man is of an impossible Commandment . But if the punishment of this later be inflicted upon the sinner for the first transgression by which he disabled himself , then in vain was the later Commandment imposed . For since the later sin was unavoidable , and the first sin deserv'd the whole damnation , what end could there be of imposing this new law , by which God could not serve any new purpose , no not for the manifestation of his justice in condemning him ? For if the first sin deserv'd condemnation , there was no need to introduce a new pretence , and to seek an occasion to slay him . But if it did not , it is certain the new sin could not make it just to do what was not just before , because by this new omission there can be no new guilt contracted . But of this I shall give yet a further account when I shall discourse in what sence God can be said to punish one sin with another . 45. The consequent of the parts of this discourse is this , that since the sin of Adam did not debauch our nature by any natural efficiency of the sin it self , nor by our being in the loyns of Adam , nor yet by any sentence or decree of God , we are not by Adams sin made necessarily and naturally vicious , and inclin'd to evil , but are left in our mere nature such as it was , and such as it is . — Nec si miserum [ Natura ] Sinonem Finxit , vanum etiam mendacémque improba finget . Nature makes us miserable and imperfect , but not criminal . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . They are the words of S. Ignatius the Martyr . If any man be a pious and a good man , he is of God ; if he be impious , he is of the Devil . Not by Nature , but made so by his own proceedings . To all which I add this ; 46. That in Scripture there is no signification of any corruption or depravation of our souls by Adams sin ; which I shall manifest by examination of all those places which are the pretence of the contrary doctrine . For if God hath not declared in Scripture any such thing , we have the common notions of his justice , and wisdom , and goodness , and truth in prejudice of the contrary . SECT . II. Consideration of the Objections against the former Doctrine . 47. THE first is [ Every imagination of the thoughts of mans heart are only evil continually . ] I answer , it is true , they were so , but it was their own fault , not Adams ; for so it is said expresly * , [ All flesh had corrupted his way upon earth , and the earth was filled with violence . ] 2. If this corruption had been natural and unavoidable , why did God punish all the world for it , except eight persons ? why did he punish those that could not help it ? and why did others escape that were equally guilty ? Is not this a respect of persons , and partiality to some , and iniquity towards all ? which far be it from the Judge of all the world . 3. God might as well have punish'd all the world , for sleeping once in a day , or for being hungry , as for sinning , if so to do be natural and unavoidable . 4. If God in these words complain'd of their Natural and Original corruption , why did he but then , as if it were a new thing , complain of it , and repent that he had made man , since he prov'd so bad ? 5. This malice and corruption was such , that God did send Noah the Preacher of righteousness to draw the world from it . But no man supposes that it was fit to send a Preacher to dehort them from being guilty of Original sin . Therefore it was good counsel , — Denique teipsum Concute , numqua tibi vitiorum inseverit olim Natura , aut etiam consuetudo mala : namque Neglectis urenda filix innascitur agris . Blame not nature , but thy own evil customs ; for thy neglect of thy fields will make fern , and thistles to grow . It is not only because the ground is accursed , but because it is neglected , that it bears thorns . Errasti , si existimas nobiscum vitia nasci : supervenerunt , ingesta sunt , said Seneca . Thou art deceived , if thou thinkest that vices are born with us . No , they are superinduc'd and come in upon us afterwards . 48. And by this we may the better understand the following words [ I will not again curse the ground any more for mans sake ; for the imagination of mans heart is evil from his youth . Concerning which , note , that these words are not two sentences . For this is not the reason why God gave over smiting , because man was corrupt from his youth . For if this had been the reason , it would have come to pass , that the same cause which moved God to smite , would also move him to forbear , which were a strange Oeconomy . The words therefore are not a reason of his forbearing , but an aggravation of his kindness ; as if he had said , Though man be continually evil , yet I will not for all that , any more drown the world for mans being so evil : and so the Hebrews note that the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes signifies [ although . ] 49. But the great out-cry in this Question is upon confidence of the words of David [ Behold , I was shapen in wickedness , and in sin hath my mother conceived me . ] To which I answer , that the words are an Hebraism , and signifie nothing but an aggrandation of his sinfulness , and are intended for an high expression , meaning , that I am wholly and intirely wicked . For the verification of which exposition , there are divers parallel places in the holy Scriptures . [ Thou wert my hope when I hanged yet upon my mothers breasts ] and [ The ungodly are froward even from their mothers womb ; as soon as they be born , they go astray , and speak lies ] which because it cannot be true in the letter , must be an idiotism , or propriety of phrase , apt to explicate the other , and signifying only a ready , a prompt , a great , and universal wickedness . The like to this , is that saying of the Pharisees , [ Thou wert altogether born in sin , and dost thou teach us ? ] which phrase , and manner of speaking being plainly a reproach of the poor blind man , and a disparagement of him , did mean only to call him a very wicked person , but not that he had derived his sin originally , and from his birth ; for that had been their own case as much as his ; and therefore S. Chrysostome explaining this phrase , says , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it is as if they should say , Thou hast been a sinner all thy life time . To the same sence are those words of Job , [ I have guided her [ the widow ] from my mothers womb . ] And in this expression and severity of hyperbole it is , that God aggravated the sins of his people , [ Thou wast called a transgressor from the womb . ] And this way of expressing a great state of misery we find us'd among the Heathen Writers : for so Seneca brings in Oedipus complaining ; Infanti quoque decreta mors est : Fata quis tam tristia sortitus unquam ! Videram nondum diem , & jam tenebar , Mors me antecessit , aliquis intra viscera Materna , lethum praecocis fati tulit . Sed numquid & peccavit ? — Something like S. Bernards , Damnatus antequam natus , I was condemn'd before I was born ; dead before I was alive ; and death seised upon me in my mothers womb . Somebody brought in a hasty and a too forward death , but did he sin also ? An expression not unlike to this we have in Lucian , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Pardon me that I was not born wicked , or born to be wicked . 2. If David had meant it literally , it had not signified that himself was born in original sin , but that his father and mother sinn'd when they begat him : which the eldest son that he begat of Bathsheba ( for ought I know ) might have said truer than he in this sence . And this is the exposition of Clemens Alexandrinus , save only that by [ my mother ] he understands Eva : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Though he was conceived in sin , yet he was not in the sin ; peccatrix concepit , sed non peccatorem ; she sinn'd in the conception , not David . And in the following words he speaks home to the main article . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Let them tell us where an infant did fornicate , or how he who had done nothing , could fall under the curse of Adam ? meaning so as to deserve the same evil that he did . 3. If it did relate to his own person , he might mean that he was begotten with that sanguine disposition , and libidinous temper that was the original of his vile adultery : and then , though David said this truly of himself , yet it is not true of all , not of those whose temper is phlegmatick and unactive . 4. If David had meant this of himself , and that in regard of original sin , this had been so far from being a penitential expression , or a confessing of his sin , that it had been a plain accusation of God , and an excusing of himself . As if he had said , O Lord , I confess I have sinn'd in this horrible murder and adultery , but thou , O God , knowest how it comes to pass , even by that fatal punishment which thou didst for the sin of Adam inflict on me and all mankind above 3000. years before I was born , thereby making me to fall into so horrible corruption of nature , that unless thou didst irresistibly force me from it , I cannot abstain from any sin , being most naturally inclin'd to all . In this sinfulness hath my mother conceived me , and that hath produc'd in me this sad effect . Who would suppose David to make such a confession , or in his sorrow to hope for pardon for upbraiding not his own folly , but the decrees of God ? 5. But that David thought nothing of this , or any thing like it , we may understand by the preceding words , which are as a preface to these in the objection . [ Against thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight , that thou mightest be justified in thy saying , and clear when thou art judged . ] He that thus acquits God , cannot easily be supposed in the very next breath so fiercely to accuse him . 6. To which also adde the following words ; which are a sufficient reproof of all strange sences in the other [ In sin hath my mother conceived me . But loe , thou requirest truth in the inward parts ] as if he had said , Though I am so wicked , yet thy laws are good , and I therefore so much the worse , because I am contrary to thy laws : They require truth and sincerity in the soul , but I am false and perfidious . But if this had been natural for him so to be , and unavoidable , God who knew it perfectly well , would have expected nothing else of him . For he will not require of a stone to speak , nor of fire to be cold , unless himself be pleased to work a miracle to have them so . 50. But S. Paul affirms , that by nature we were the children of wrath . True , we were so , when we were dead in sins , and before we were quickned by the Spirit of life and grace . We were so ; now we are not . We were so by our own unworthiness and filthy conversation ; now we being regenerated by the Spirit of holiness , we are alive unto God , and no longer heirs of wrath . This therefore as appears by the discourse of S. Paul , relates not to our Original sin , but to the Actual ; and of this sence of the word Nature , in the matter of sinning we have Justin Martyr , or whoever is the Author of the Questions and Answers ad Orthodoxos to be witness : For answering those words of Scripture , There is not any one clean who is born of a woman , and there is none begotten who hath not committed sin : He says their meaning cannot extend to Christ , for he was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , born to sin ; but he is natura ad peccandum natus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by nature born to sin , who by the choice of his own will is author to himself to do what he list , whether it be good or evil . The following words are eaten out by time ; but upon this ground whatever he said of Infants , must needs have been to better purposes than is usually spoken of in this Article . 2. Heirs of wrath , signifies persons liable to punishment , heirs of death . It is an usual expression among the Hebrews . So sons of death in the holy Scriptures are those that deserve death , or are condemned to die . Thus Judas Iscariot is called , The son of perdition : and so is that saying of David to Nathan , [ The man that hath done this shall surely die . ] In the Hebrew it is [ He is the son of death . ] And so were those Ephesians , children , or sons of wrath before their conversion ; that is , they had deserv'd death . 3. By nature is here most likely to be meant that which Galen calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , an acquisite nature , that is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , customs and evil habits . And so Suidas expounds the word in this very place ; not only upon the account of Grammar , and the use of the word in the best Authors , but also upon an excellent reason . His words are these : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . When the Apostle says , we were by nature children of wrath , he means not that which is the usual signification of nature , for then it were not their fault , but the fault of him that made them such ; but it means an abiding and vile habit , a wicked and a lasting custom . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith Aristotle . Custom is like Nature . For often and always are not far asunder . Nature is always , Custom is almost always . To the same sence are those words of Porphyry , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — The ancients who lived likest to God , and were by nature the best , living the best life , were a golden generation . 4. By nature ] means not by birth and natural extraction , or any original derivation from Adam , in this place : for of this these Ephesians were no more guilty than every one else , and no more before their conversion than after ; but [ by nature ] signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so the Greek Scholiast renders it ; [ really , beyond opinion ] plenè & omnino , intirely , or wholly , so the Syriack ; and so S. Hierome affirms that the Ancients did expound it : and it is agreeable to the usage of the same phrase , Gal. 4.8 . Ye did service to them which by nature are no Gods , that is , which really are none . And as these Ephesians were before their conversion , so were the Israelites in the days of their rebellion , a wicked stubborn people , insomuch that they are by the Prophet called [ children of transgression , a seed of falsehood . ] But these and the like places have no force at all but what they borrow from the ignorance of that sence and acceptation of the word in those languages which ought to be the measure of them . 51. But it is hard upon such mean accounts to reckon all children to be born enemies of God , that is , bastards and not sons , heirs of Hell and damnation , full of sin and vile corruption , when the holy Scriptures propound children as imitable for their pretty innocence and sweetness , and declare them rather heirs of Heaven than Hell. In malice be children ; and , unless we become like to children , we shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven ; and , their Angels behold the face of their Father which is in Heaven . Heaven is theirs , God is their Father , Angels are appropriated to them ; they are free from malice , and imitable by men . These are better words than are usually given them ; and signifie , that they are beloved of God , not hated , design'd for Heaven , and born to it , though brought thither by Christ , and by the Spirit of Christ , not born for Hell ; that was prepared for the Devil and his Angels , not for innocent babes . This does not call them naturally wicked , but rather naturally innocent , and is a better account than is commonly given them by imputation of Adams sin . 52. But not concerning children , but of himself S. Paul complains , that his nature and his principles of action and choice are corrupted . There is a law in my members , bringing me into captivity to the law of sin ; and many other words to the same purpose ; all which indeed have been strangely mistaken to very ill purposes , so that the whole Chapter so as is commonly expounded , is nothing but a temptation to evil life , and a patron of impiety . Concerning which I have in the next Chapter given account , and freed it from the common abuse . But if this were to be understood in the sence which I there reprove , yet it is to be observed in order to the present Question , that S. Paul does not say [ This law in our members comes by nature , or is derived from Adam . ] A man may bring a law upon himself by vicious custom , and that may be as prevalent as Nature , and more ; because more men have by Philosophy and illuminated Reason cured the disposition of their nature , than have cured their vicious habits . * Add to this , that S. Paul puts this uneasiness , and this carnal law in his members wholly upon the account of being under the law , and of his not being under Christ , not upon the account of Adams prevarication , as is plain in the analogy of the whole Chapter . 53. As easie also it is to understand these words of S. Paul without prejudice to this Question [ The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God , neither indeed can he know them ] meaning ( as is supposed ) that there is in our natures an ignorance and averseness from spiritual things , that is , a contrariety to God. But it is observable , that the word which the Apostle uses is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which is not properly rendred [ Natural ] but [ Animal ] and it certainly means a man that is guided only by natural Reason , without the revelations of the Gospel . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . So Suidas . An animal man , that is , a Philosopher , or a rational man , such as were the Greek and Roman Philosophers , upon the stock and account of the learning of all their Schools , could never discern the excellencies of the Gospel mysteries ; as of God incarnate , Christ dying , Resurrection of the body , and the like . For this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or Animal , and another word used often by the Apostle , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Carnal , are opposed to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Spiritual ; and are states of evil , or of imperfection , in which while a man remains he cannot do the work of God. For animality , which is a relying upon natural principles without revelation , is a state privatively oppos'd to the Spirit ; and a man in that state cannot be sav'd , because he wants a vital part , he wants the spirit , which is a part of the constitution of a Christian in that capacity , who consists of Body , and Soul , and Spirit , and therefore Anima without Spiritus , the Soul without the Spirit is not sufficient . * For as the Soul is a sufficient principle of all the actions of life , in order to our natural end and perfection , but it can bear us no further : so there must be another principle in order to a supernatural end , and that is the Spirit ; called by S. Paul , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the new creation , by S. Peter , a divine nature ; and by this , we become renewed in the inner man : the infusion of this new nature into us is called , Regeneration ; and it is the great principle of godliness , called , Grace or the Spirit , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The seed of God , and by it we are begotten by God , and brought forth by the Church to the hopes and beginnings of a new life , and a supernatural end . And although I cannot say , that this is a third substance distinct from Soul and Body , yet it is a distinct principle put into us by God , without which we cannot work , and by which we can ; and therefore if it be not a substance , yet it is more than a Metaphor , it is a real being , permanent and inherent ; but yet such as can be lessen'd and extinguish'd . But Carnality , or the state of being in the flesh , is not only privatively oppos'd , but contrarily also to the spiritual state , or the state of Grace . But as the first is not a sin deriv'd from Adam : so neither is the second . The first is only an imperfection , or want of supernatural aids ; The other is indeed a direct state of sin , and hated by God , but superinduc'd by choice , and not descending naturally . * Now to the spiritual state , nothing is in Scripture oppos'd but these two , and neither of these when it is sinful can be pretended upon the stock or argument of any Scriptures to descend from Adam ; therefore all the state of opposition to Grace , is owing to our selves , and not to him . Adam indeed did leave us all in an Animal estate , but this state is not a state of enmity , or direct opposition to God , but a state insufficient and imperfect . No man can perish for being an Animal man , that is , for not having any supernatural revelations , but for not consenting to them when he hath , that is , for being Carnal as well as Animal ; and that he is Carnal is wholly his own choice . In the state of animality he cannot go to Heaven ; but neither will that alone bear him to Hell : and therefore God does not let a man alone in that state ; for either God suggests to him what is spiritual , or if he does not , it is because himself hath superinduc'd something that is Carnal . 54. Having now explicated those Scriptures which have made some difficulty in this Question , to what Topick soever we shall return , all things are plain and clear in this Article . Noxa caput sequitur , The soul that sinneth it shall die . Neque virtutes , neque vitia parentum liberis imputantur , saith S. Hierome . Neither the vices nor the vertues of the parents are imputed to the children . And therefore when Dion Chrysostomus had reprov'd Solon's laws , which in some cases condemn the innocent posterity ; he adds this in honour of Gods law , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; That it does not like the law of the Athenians , punish the children and kindred of the Criminal ; but every man is the cause of his own misfortune . But concerning this , it will not be amiss in order to many good purposes , to observe the whole Oeconomy and dispensation of the Divine Justice in this affair . SECT . III. How God punishes the Fathers sin upon the Children . 55. I. GOD may and does very often bless children to reward their fathers piety ; as is notorious in the famous descent of Abrahams family . But the same is not the reason of favours and punishments . For such is the nature of benefits , that he in whose power they are , may without injustice give them why , and when , and to whom he please . 56. II. God never imputes the fathers sin to the son or relative , formally making him guilty , or being angry with the innocent eternally . It were blasphemy to affirm so fierce and violent a cruelty of the most merciful Saviour and Father of mankind ; and it was yet never imagined or affirm'd by any that I know of , that God did yet ever damn an innocent son , though the father were the vilest person , and committed the greatest evils of the world , actually , personally , chusingly , and maliciously : and why it should by so many , and so confidently be affirm'd in a lesser instance , in so unequal a case , and at so long a distance , I cannot suspect any reason . Plutarch in his book against Herodotus affirms , that it is not likely they would , meaning that it was unjust , to revenge an injury which the Samians did to the Corinthians three hundred years before . But to revenge it for ever , upon all generations , and with an eternal anger upon some persons , even the most innocent , cannot without trembling be spoken or imagined of God , who is the great lover of Souls . Whatsoever the matter be in temporal inflictions , of which in the next propositions I shall give account , yet if the Question be concerning eternal damnation , it was never said , never threatned by God to pass from father to the son . When God punishes one relative for the sin of another , he does it as fines are taken in our law , salvo contenemento ; the principal stake being safe , it may be justice to seise upon all the smaller portions ; at least it is not against justice for God in such cases to use the power and dominion of a Lord. But this cannot be reasonable to be used in the matter of eternal interest ; because if God should as a Lord use his power over Innocents and condemn them to Hell , he should be Author to them of more evil than ever he conveyed good to them ; which but to imagine , would be a horrible impiety . And therefore when our blessed Saviour took upon him the wrath of God due to all mankind , yet Gods anger even in that case , extended no further than a temporal death . Because for the eternal , nothing can make recompence , and it can never turn to good . 57. III. When God inflicts a temporal evil upon the son for his fathers sin , he does it as a Judge to the father , but as a Lord only of the son . He hath absolute power over the lives of all his creatures , and can take it away from any man without injustice , when he please , though neither he nor his Parents have sinned ; and he may use the same right and power when either of them alone hath sinn'd . But in striking the son , he does not do to him as a Judge ; that is , he is not angry with him , but with the Parent : But to the son he is a supreme Lord , and may do what seemeth good in his own eyes . 58. IV. When God using the power and dominion of a Lord , and the severity of a Judge , did punish posterity , it was but so long as the fathers might live and see it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said S. Chrysostom , to the third and fourth generation , no longer . It was threatned to endure no longer , in the second Commandment ; and so it hapned in the case of Zimri and Jehu ; after the fourth generation they prevailed not upon their Masters houses . And if it happen that the Parents die before , yet it is a plague to them that they know , or ought to fear the evil shall happen upon their posterity ; quò tristiores perirent , as Alexander said of the Traitors whose sons were to die after them , They die with sorrow and fear . 59. V. This power and dominion which God used , was not exercised in ordinary cases , but in the biggest crimes only . It was threatned in the case of idolatry ; and was often inflicted in the case of perjury , of which the oracle recited by Herodotus said , — Impete magno Advenit , atque omnem vastat stirpémque domúmque . And in sacriledge the anger of God uses also to be severe , of which it was observ'd even by the Heathens taught by the Delphick Priests . Sed capiti ipsorum quíque enascuntur ab ipsis Imminet ; ínque domo cladem subit altera clades . Those sins which the Greeks called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and which the Christians called crying sins , are such , in the punishment of which God did not only use his severe justice as to the offending person , but for the enlargement and extension of his justice , and the terror of the world , he used the rights of his power and dominion over their Relatives . 60. VI. Although God threatned this , and hath a right and power to do this , yet he did not often use his right , but only in such notable examples as were sufficient to all ages to consign and testifie his great indignation against those crimes , for the punishment of which he was pleased to use his right , the rights of his dominion . For although he often does miracles of mercy , yet seldom it is that he does any extraordinaries of judgment : He did it to Corah and Dathan , to Achan and Saul , to Jeroboam and Ahab ; and by these and some more expressed his severity against the like crimes sufficiently to all ages . 61. VII . But his goodness and graciousness grew quickly weary of this way of proceeding . They were the terrors of the law , and God did not delight in them . Therefore in the time of Ezekiel the Prophet , he declar'd against them , and promised to use it no more , that is , not so frequently , not so notoriously , not without great necessity and charity , Ne ad parentum exempla succresceret improbitas filiorum . A● I live , saith the Lord , ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel , The Fathers have eaten sowre grapes , and the childrens teeth are set on edge . The soul that sinneth it shall die . 62. VIII . The iniquity of the people , and the hardness of their heart did force God to use this harsh course , especially since that then there was no declaration , or intermination , and threatning the pains of Hell to great sinners . Duritia pop●li ad talia remedia compulerat , ut vel posteritatibus suis prospicientes legi Divinae obedirent , said Tertullian . Something extraordinary was then needful to be done to so vile a people to restrain their sinfulness . But when the Gospel was published , and Hell-fire threatned to persevering , and greater sinners , the former way of punishment was quite left off . And in all the Gospel there is not any one word of threatning passing beyond the person offending . Desivit uva acerba ( saith Tertullian ) à patribus manducata dentes filiorum obstupefacere : unusquisque enim in suo delicto morietur . Now ( that is , in the time of the Gospel ) the sowre grape of the Fathers shall no more set on edge the childrens teeth , but every one shall die in his own sin . 63. Upon this account alone , it must needs be impossible to be consented to , that God should still , under the Gospel , after so many generations of vengeance , and taking punishment for the sin , after the publication of so many mercies , and so infinite a graciousness as is revealed to mankind in Jesus Christ , after the so great provisions against sin , even the horrible threatnings of damnation , still persevere to punish Adam in his posterity , and the posterity for what they never did . 64. For either the evil that falls upon us for Adams sin , is inflicted upon us by way of proper punishment , or by right of dominion . If by a proper punishment to us , then we understand not the justice of it , because we were not personally guilty ; and all the world says it is unjust directly to punish a child for his fathers fault . Nihil est iniquius quàm aliquem haeredem paterni odii fieri , said Seneca ; and Pausanias the General of the Grecian army would not punish the children of Attagines , who perswaded the Thebans to revolt to the Medes , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saying , the children were not guilty of that revolt : and when Avidius Cassius had conspired against Mark Anthony , he wrote to the Senate to pardon his wife and son in law ; Et quid dico veniam , cùm illi nihil fecerint ? but why ( says he ) should I say , pardon , when they had done nothing ? But if God inflicts the evil upon Adams posterity , which we suffer for his sake , not as a punishment , that is , not making us formally guilty , but using his own right and power of dominion which he hath over the lives and fortunes of his creatures ; then it is a strange anger which God hath against Adam , that he still retains so fierce an indignation , as not to take off his hand from striking after five thousand six hundred years , and striking him for that of which he repented him , and which in all reason we believe he then pardon'd , or resolv'd to pardon , when he promised the Messias to him . * To this I add this consideration ; That it is not easily to be imagined how Christ reconciled the world unto his Father , if after the death of Christ , God is still so angry with mankind , so unappeased , that even the most innocent part of mankind may perish for Adams sin ; and the other are perpetually punished by a corrupted nature , a proneness to sin , a servile will , a filthy concupiscence , and an impossibility of being innocent ; that no faith , no Sacrament , no industry , no prayers can obtain freedom from this punishment . 65. Certain it is , the Jews knew of no such thing , they understood nothing of this Oeconomy , that the Fathers sin should be punish'd in the children by a formal imputation of the guilt ; and therefore Rabbi Simeon Barsema said well , that when God visits the sins of the fathers upon the children , jure dominii , non poenae utitur . He uses the right of Empire , not of justice , of dominion , not of punishment , of a Lord , not of a Judge . And Philo blames it for the worst of institutions , when the good sons of bad Parents shall be dishonoured by their Fathers stain , and the bad sons of good Parents shall have their Fathers honour ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; for the law praises every one for their own , not for the vertue of their Ancestors , and punishes not the Fathers , but his own wickedness upon every mans head . And therefore Josephus calls the contrary way of proceeding , which he had observ'd in Alexander , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a punishment above the measures of a man ; and the Greeks and Romans did always call it injustice . Illic immeritam maternae pendere linguae Andromedam poenas injustus jusserat Ammon . And hence it is , that all Laws forbear to kill a woman with child , lest the Innocent should suffer for the Mothers fault : and therefore this just mercy is infinitely more to be expected from the great Father of spirits , the God of mercy and comfort . And upon this account Abraham was confident with God ; Wilt thou slay the righteous with the wicked ? shall not the Judge of all the world do right ? And if it be unrighteous to slay the righteous with the wicked , it is also unjust to slay the righteous for the wicked . Ferréine ulla civitas laborem istiusmodi legis , ut condemnetur Filius aut Nepos , si Pater aut Avus deliquissent . It were an intolerable Law , and no community would be govern'd by it , that the Father or Grandfather should sin , and the Son or Nephew should be punish'd . I shall add no more testimonies , but only make use of the words of the Christian Emperors in their Laws ; Pecca●a igitur suos te●eant auctores : nec ulteriùs progrediatur metus , quàm reperiatur delictum . Let no man trouble himself with unnecessary and melancholy dreams of strange inevitable undeserved punishments , descending upon us for the faults of others . The sin that a man does shall be upon his own head only . Sufficient to every man is his own evil , the evil that he does , and the evil that he suffers . SECT . IV. Of the Causes of the Vniversal wickedness of Mankind . 66. BUT if there were not some common natural principle of evil introduced by the sin of our Parent upon all his posterity , how should all men be so naturally inclined to be vicious , so hard and unapt , so uneasie and so listless to the practices of vertue ? How is it that all men in the world are sinners , and that in many things we offend all ? For if men could chuse and had freedom , it is not imaginable that all should chuse the same thing . As all men will not be Physicians , nor all desire to be Merchants . But we see that all men are sinners , and yet it is impossible that in a liberty of indifferency there should be no variety . Therefore we must be content to say , that we have only a liberty of adhesion or delight ; that is , we so love sin that we all chuse it , but cannot chuse good . 67. To this I answer many things . 1. If we will suppose that there must now be a cause in our nature determining us to sin by an irresistible necessity , I desire to know why such principle should be more necessary to us than it was to Adam ? what made him to sin when he fell ? He had a perfect liberty , and no ignorance , no original sin , no inordination of his affections , no such rebellion of the inferior faculties against the superior as we complain of ; or at least we say he had not , and yet he sinned . And if his passions did rebel against his reason before the fall , then so they may in us , and yet not be long of that fall . It was before the fall in him , and so may be in us , and not the effect of it . But the truth of the thing is this , He had liberty of choice and chose ill , and so do we : and all men say , that this liberty of chusing ill , is still left to us . But because it is left here , it appears that it was there before , and therefore is not the consequent of Original sin . But it is said , that as Adam chose ill , so do we ; but he was free to good as well as to evil , but so are not we ; we are free to evil , not to good ; and that we are so , is the consequent of original sin . I reply , That we can chuse good , and as naturally love good as evil , and in some instances more . A man cannot naturally hate God , if he knows any thing of him . A man naturally loves his Parents . He naturally hates some sort of uncleanness . He naturally loves and preserves himself : and all those sins which are unnatural , are such which nature hates : and the law of nature commands all the great instances of vertue , and marks out all the great lines of justice . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It is a law imprinted in the very substance of our natures , and incorporated in all generations of reasonable creatures , not to break or transgress the laws which are appointed by God. Here only our nature is defective ; we do not naturally know , nor yet naturally love those supernatural excellencies which are appointed and commanded by God as the means of bringing us to a supernatural condition . That is , without Gods grace , and the renovation of the Spirit of God , we cannot be saved . Neither was Adams case better than ours in this particular . For that his nature could not carry him to Heaven , or indeed to please God in order to it , seems to be confessed by them who have therefore affirmed him to have had a supernatural righteousness : which is affirmed by all the Roman party . But although in supernatural instances it must needs be that our Nature is defective ; so it must needs have been in Adam : and therefore the Lutherans ( who in this particular dream not so probably as the other ) affirming that justice was natural in Adam , do yet but differ in the manner of speaking , and have not at all spoken against this ; neither can they , unless they also affirm that to arrive at Heaven was the natural end of man. For if it be not , then neither we not Adam could by Nature do things above Nature ; and if God did concreate Grace with Adam , that Grace was nevertheless Grace , for being given him as soon as he was made : For even the holy Spirit may be given to a Chrysome child ; and Christ , and S. John Baptist , and the Prophet Jeremy , are in their several measures and proportions , instances of it . The result of which is this ; That the necessity of Grace does not suppose that our Nature is originally corrupted ; for beyond Adams mere Nature , something else was necessary , and so it is to us . 68. II. But to the main objection ; I answer , That it is certain there is not only one , but many common principles from which sin derives it self into the manners of all men . 1. The first great cause of an universal impiety is , that at first , God had made no promises of Heaven , he had not propounded any glorious rewards , to be as an argument to support the superior faculty against the inferior , that is , to make the will chuse the best and leave the worst , and to be as a reward for suffering contradiction . For if the inferior faculty be pleas'd with its object , and that chance to be forbidden , as it was in most instances , there had need be something to make recompence for the suffering the displeasure of crossing that appetite . I use the common manner of speaking , and the distinction of superior and inferior faculties : though indeed in nature there is no such thing ; and it is but the same faculty , divided between differing objects ; of which I shall give an account in the Ninth Chapter , Section 3. But here I take notice of it , that it may not with prejudice be taken to the disadvantage of this whole Article . For if there be no such difference of facultie● founded in Nature , then the rebellion of the inferior against the superior , is no effect of Adams sin . But the inclination to sensual objects being chastis'd by laws and prohibitions , hath made that which we call the rebellion of the inferior , that is , the adherence to sensual objects ; which was the more certain to remain , because they were not at first enabled by great promises of good things to contest against sensual temptations . And because there was no such thing in that period of the world , therefore almost all flesh corrupted themselves : excepting Abel , Seth , Enos , and Enoch , we find not one good man from Adam to Noah ; and therefore the Apostle calls that world , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the world of the ungodly . It was not so much wonder that when Adam had no promises made to enable him to contest his natural concupiscence , he should strive to make his condition better by the Devils promises . If God had been pleased to have promis'd to him the glories he hath promised to us , it is not to be suppos'd he had fallen so easily . But he did not , and so he fell , and all the world followed his example , and most upon this account , till it pleas'd God after he had tried the world with temporal promises , and found them also insufficient , to finish the work of his graciousness , and to cause us to be born anew , by the revelations and promises of Jesus Christ. 69. II. A second cause of the universal iniquity of the world , is because our Nature is so hard put to it in many instances ; not because Nature is originally corrupted , but because Gods laws command such things which are a restraint to the indifferent , and otherwise lawful inclinations of Nature . I instance in the matters of Temperance , Abstinence , Patience , Humility , Self-denial , and Mortification . But more particularly thus : A man is naturally inclined to desire the company of a woman whom he fancies . This is naturally no sin : for the natural desire was put into us by God , and therefore could not be evil . But then God as an instance and trial of our obedience , put fetters upon the indefinite desire , and determin'd us to one woman ; which provision was enough to satisfie our need , but not all our possibility . This therefore he left as a reserve , that by obeying God in the so reasonable restraint of our natural desire , we might give him something of our own . * But then it is to be considered , that our unwillingness to obey in this instance , or in any of the other , cannot be attributed to Original sin , or natural disability deriv'd as a punishment from Adam , because the particular instances were postnate a long time to the fall of man ; and it was for a long time lawful to do some things which now are unlawful . But our unwillingness and averseness came by occasion of the law coming cross upon our nature ; not because our nature is contrary to God , but because God was pleas'd to superinduce some Commandments contrary to our nature . For if God had commanded us to eat the best meats , and drink the richest wines as long as they could please us , and were to be had , I suppose it will not be thought that Original sin would hinder us from obedience . But because we are forbidden to do some things which naturally we desire to do and love , therefore our nature is hard put to it ; and this is the true state of the difficulty . Citò nequitia subrepit : virtus difficilis inventa est . Wickedness came in speedily ; but vertue was hard and difficult . 70. III. But then besides these , there are many concurrent causes of evil which have influence upon communities of men , such as are , Evil Examples , the similitude of Adams transgression , vices of Princes , wars , impunity , ignorance , error , false principles , flattery , interest , fear , partiality , authority , evil laws , heresie , schism , spite and ambition , natural inclination , and other principiant causes , which proceeding from the natural weakness of humane constitution , are the fountain and proper causes of many consequent evils . Quis dabit mundum ab immundo , saith Job , How can a clean thing come from an unclean ? We all naturally have great weaknesses , and an imperfect constitution , apt to be weary , loving variety , ignorantly making false measures of good and evil , made up with two appetites , that is , with inclination to several objects serving to contrary interests , a thing between Angel and Beast , and the later in this life is the bigger ingredient . Hominem à Naturâ noverca in lucem edi corpore nudo , fragili atque infirmo animo , anxio ad molestias , humili ad timores , debili ad labores , proclivi ad libidines , in quo Divinus ignis sit obrutus , & ingenium , & mores . So Cicero as S. Austin quotes him . Nature hath like a stepmother sent man into the world with a naked boy , a frail and infirm mind , vex'd with troubles , dejected with fears , weak for labours , prone to lusts , in whom the Divine fire , and his wit , and his manners are covered and overturn'd . And when Plato had fiercely reprov'd the baseness of mens manners , by saying , that they are even naturally evil ; he reckons two causes of it , which are the diseases of the Soul , ( but contracted he knew not how ) Ignorance and Improbity ; which he supposes to have been the remains of that baseness they had before they entred into bodies , whither they were sent as to a prison . This is our natural uncleanness and imperfection , and from such a principle we are to expect proper and proportion'd effects ; and therefore we may well say with Job , What is man that he should be clean , and he which is born of a woman that he should be righteous ? That is , our imperfections are many , and we are with unequal strengths call'd to labour for a supernatural purchase ; and when our spirit is very willing , even then our flesh is very weak : And yet it is worse if we compare our selves , as Job does , to the purities and perfections of God ; in respect of which , as he says of us men in our imperfect state , so he says also of the Angels , or the holy Ones of God , and of the Heaven it self , that it is also unclean and impure : for the cause and verification of which , we must look out something besides Original sin . * Add to this , that vice is pregnant and teeming , and brings forth new instances , numerous as the spawn of fishes ; such as are inadvertency , carelesness , tediousness of spirit , and these also are causes of very much evil . SECT . V. Of liberty of Election remaining after Adams fall . UPON this account , besides that the causes of an universal impiety are apparent without any need of laying Adam in blame for all our follies and miseries , or rather without charging them upon God , who so order'd all things as we see and feel ; the universal wickedness of man is no argument to prove our will servile , and the powers of election to be quite lost in us ( excepting only that we can chuse evil . ) For admitting this proposition , that there can be no liberty where there is no variety ; yet that all men chuse sin , is not any testimony that there is no variety in our choice . If there were but one sin in the world , and all men did chuse that , it were a shrewd suspicion that they were naturally determin'd or strongly precipitated . But every man does not chuse the same sin , nor for the same cause ; neither does he chuse it always , but frequently declines it , hates it , and repents of it : many men even among the Heathens did so . So that the objection hinders not , but that choice and election still remains to a man , and that he is not naturally sinful , as he is naturally heavy , or upright , apt to laugh , or weep . For these he is always , and unavoidable . 72. And indeed the contrary doctrine is a destruction of all laws , it takes away reward and punishment , and we have nothing whereby we can serve God. And precepts of holiness might as well be preached to a Wolf as to a Man , if man were naturally and inevitably wicked . Improbitas nullo flectitur obsequio . There would be no use of reason or of discourse , no deliberation or counsel : and it were impossible for the wit of man to make sence of thousands of places of Scripture , which speak to us as if we could hear and obey , or could refuse . Why are promises made , and threatnings recorded ? Why are Gods judgments registred ? to what purpose is our reason above , and our affections below , if they were not to minister to , and attend upon the will ? But upon this account , it is so far from being true that man after his fall did forfeit his natural power of election , that it seems rather to be encreased . For as a mans knowledge grows , so his will becomes better attended and ministred unto . But after his fall his knowledge was more than before ; he knew what nakedness was , and had experience of the difference of things , he perceiv'd the evil and mischief of disobedience and the Divine anger ; he knew fear and flight , new apprehensions , and the trouble of a guilty conscience : by all which , and many other things , he grew better able , and instructed with arguments to obey God , and to refuse sin for the time to come . And it is every mans case ; a repenting man is wiser , and hath oftentimes more perfect hatred of sin than the innocent , and is made more wary by his fall . But of this thing God himself is witness . Ecce homo tanquam singularis , ex se ipso habet scire bonum & malum : So the Chaldee Paraphrase reads Gen. 3.22 . Our Bibles read thus : And the Lord God said , Behold , the man is become as one of us , to know good and evil . Now as a consequent of this knowledge , God was pleased by ejecting him out of Paradise , to prevent his eating of the Tree of Life : Ne fortè mittat manúm suam in arborem vitae . Meaning , that now he was grown wise and apt to provide himself , and use all such remedies as were before him . He knew more after his fall than before ; therefore ignorance was not the punishment of that sin : and he that knows more , is better enabled to choose , and lest he should choose that which might prevent the sentence of death put upon him , God cast him from thence where the remedy did grow . Upon the authority of this place Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon hath these words : Potestas libera unicuique data est . Si vult inclinare se ad bonum & esse jus●us , penes ipsum est : Sin vult se ad malum inclinare & esse impius , & hoc ipsum penes est . Hoc illud est quod in lege scribitur , Ecce homo tanquam singularis , ex seipso habet scire bonum & malum . To every man is given a power that he may choose and be inclined to good if he please ; or else if he please to do evil . For this is written in the Law , Behold , the man is as a single one , of himself now he knows good and evil : as if he had said , Behold , mankind is in the world without its like , and can of his own counsel and thought know good and evil , in either of these doing what himself shall choose . Si lapsus es , poteris surgere , In utramvis partem habes liberum arbitrium , saith S. Chrysostome . If thou hast fallen , thou mayest rise again . That which thou art commanded to do , thou hast power to do . Thou mayest choose either . 73. I might be infinite in this ; but I shall only add this one thing , That to deny to the will of man powers of choice and election , or the use of it in the actions of our life , destroys the immortality of the Soul. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Hierocles . Humane Nature is in danger to be lost , if it diverts to that which is against Nature . For if it be immortal , it can never die in its noblest faculty . But if the will be destroyed , that is , disabled from choosing ( which is all the work the will hath to do ) then it is dead . For to live , and to be able to operate , in Philosophy is all one . If the will therefore cannot operate , how is it immortal ? And we may as well suppose an understanding that can never understand , and passions that can never desire or refuse , and a memory that can never remember , as a will that cannot choose . Indeed all the faculties of the soul that operate by way of nature can be hindred in individuals ; but in the whole species never . But the will is not impedible , it cannot be restrained at all , if there be any acts of life ; and when all the other faculties are weakest , the will is strongest , and does not at all depend upon the body . Indeed it often follows the inclination and affections of the body , but it can choose against them , and it can work without them . And indeed since sin is the action of a free faculty , it can no more take away the freedome of that faculty , than vertue can ; for that also is the action of the same free faculty . If sin be considered in its formality , as it is an inordination or irregularity , so it is contrary to vertue ; but if you consider it as an effect or action of the will it is not at all contrary to the will , and therefore it is impossible it should be destructive of that faculty from whence it comes . 74. Now to say that the will is not dead , because it can choose sin , but not vertue , is an escape too slight . For besides that it is against an infinite experience , it is also contrary to the very being and manner of a man , and his whole Oeconomy in this world . For men indeed sometimes by evil habits , and by choosing vile things for a long time together , make it morally impossible to choose and to love that good in particular which is contrary to their evil customes . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Custome is the Devil that brings in new natures upon us ; for nature is innocent in this particular . Nulli nos vitio natura conciliat : nos illa integros ac liberos genuit . Nature does not ingage us upon a vice . She made us intire , she left us free , but we make our selves prisoners and slaves by vicious habits ; or as S. Cyril expresses it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . We came into the world without sin , ( meaning , without sin properly so called ) but now we sin by choice , and by election bring a kind of necessity upon us . But this is not so in all men , and scarcely in any man in all instances ; and as it is , it is but an approach to that state in which men shall work by will without choice , or by choice without contrariety of objects . In heaven and hell men will do so . The Saints love God so fully , that they cannot hate him , nor desire to displease him . And in hell the accursed spirits so perfectly hate him that they can never love him . But in this life which is status viae , a middle condition between both , and a passage to one of the other , it cannot be supposed to be so , unless here also a man be already sav'd or damn'd . 75. But then I consider this also , that since it is almost by all men acknowledged to be unjust that infants should be eternally tormented in the flames of Hell for Original sin ; yet we do not say that it is unjust that men of age and reason should so perish , if they be vicious and disobedient . Which difference can have no ground but this , That infants could not choose at all , much less , that which not they , but their Father did long before they were born : But men can choose , and do what they are commanded , and abstain from what is forbidden . For if they could not , they ought no more to perish for this , than infants for that . 76. And this is so necessary a truth , that it is one of the great grounds and necessities of obedience and holy living ; and if after the fall of Adam it be not by God permitted to us to choose or refuse , there is nothing left whereby man can serve God , or offer him a sacrifice . It is no service , it is not rewardable , if it could not be avoided , nor the omission punishable if it could not be done . All things else are determined , and fixed by the Divine providence , even all the actions of men . But the inward act of the will is left under the command of laws only , and under the arrest of threatnings , and the invitation of promises . And that this is left for man can no ways impede any of the Divine decrees , because the outward act being overruled by the Divine providence , it is strange if the Schools will leave nothing to man , whereby he can glorifie God. 77. I have now said something to all that I know objected , and more than is necessary to the Question , if the impertinencies of some Schools , and their trifling arrests had not so needlesly disturb'd this article . There is nothing which from so slight grounds hath got so great , and till of late , so unquestioned footing in the perswasions of men . Origen said enough to be mistaken in the Question . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Adams curse is common to all . And there is not a woman on earth to whom may not be said those things which were spoken to this woman [ Eve. ] Him S. Ambrose did mistake , and followed the error about explicating the nature of Original sin , and set it something forward . But S. Austin gave it complement and authority by his fierce disputing against the Pelagians , whom he would overthrow by all means . Indeed their capital error was a great one , and such against which all men while there was need ought to have contended earnestly , but this might and ought to have been done by truth . For error is no good confuter of error , as it is no good conversion that reforms one vice with another . But his zeal against a certain error , made him take in auxiliaries from an uncertain or less discerned one , and caused him to say many things which all antiquity before him disavowed , and which the following ages took up upon his account . * And if such a weak principle as his saying , could make an error spread over so many Churches , for so many ages , we may easily imagine that so many greater causes as I before reckoned might infect whole Nations , and consequently mankind , without crucifying our Patriarch or first Parent , and declaiming against him ( poor man ) as the Author of all our evil . Truth is , we intend by laying load upon him to excuse our selves , and which is worse , to entertain our sins infallibly , and never to part with them , upon pretence that they are natural , and irresistible . SECT . VI. The Practical Question . 78. AND now if it be inquired , whether we be tied to any particular repentance relative to this sin , the answer will not be difficult . I remember a pretty device of Hierome of Florence a famous Preacher not long since , who used this argument to prove the Blessed Virgin Mary to be free from Original sin . Because it is more likely , if the Blessed Virgin had been put to her choice , she would rather have desired of God to have kept her free from venial actual sin than from Original . Since therefore God hath granted her the greater , and that she never sinn'd actually , it is to be presum'd God did not deny to her the smaller favour , and therefore she was free from Original . Upon this many a pretty story hath been made , and rare arguments fram'd , and fierce contestations , whether it be more agreeable to the piety and prudence of the Virgin Mother to desire immunity from Original sin that is deadly , or from a venial actual sin that is not deadly . This indeed is voluntary , and the other is not ; but the other deprives us of grace , and this does not . God was more offended by that , but we offend him more by this . The dispute can never be ended upon their accounts ; but this Gordian knot I have now untied as Alexander did , by destroying it , and cutting it all in pieces . But to return to the Question . 79. S. Austin was indeed a fierce Patron of this device , and one of the chief inventers and finishers of it ; and his sence of it is declared in his Boook De peccatorum medicinâ , where he endeavours largely to prove that all our life time we are bound to mourn for the inconveniences , and evil consequents deriv'd from Original sin . I dare say , every man is sufficiently displeased that he is liable to sickness , weariness , displeasure , melancholy , sorrow , folly , imperfection , and death , dying with groans , and horrid spasmes and convulsions . In what sence these are the effects of Adams sin , and though of themselves natural , yet also upon his account made penal ; I have already declar'd , and need no more to dispute ; my purpose being only to establish such truths as are in order to practice and a holy life , to the duties of repentance and amendment . But our share of Adams sin , either being in us no sin at all , or else not to be avoided or amended , it cannot be the matter of repentance . Neminem autem rectè ita loqui poenitere sese quòd natus sit , aut poenitere quòd mortalis sit , aut quòd ex offenso fortè vulneratóque corpore dolorem sentiat , said A. Gellius . A man is not properly said to repent that he was born , or that he shall die , or that he feels pain when his leg is hurt ; he gives this reason , Quando istiusmodi rerum nec consilium sit nostrum , nec arbitrium . As these are besides our choice so they cannot fall into our deliberation ; and therefore as they cannot be chosen , so neither refused , and therefore not repented of ; for that supposes both ; that they were chosen once , and now refused . * As Adam was not bound to repent of the sins of all his posterity , so neither are we tied to repent of his sins . Neither did I ever see in any ancient Office or forms of prayer , publick or private , any prayer of humiliation prescrib'd for Original sin . They might deprecate the evil consequents , but never confess themselves guilty of the formal sin . 80. Add to this . Original sin is remitted in Baptism by the consent of those Schools of learning , who teach this article ; and therefore is not reserved for any other repentance : and that which came without our own consent , is also to be taken off without it . That which came by the imputation of a sin , may also be taken off by the imputation of righteousness , that is , as it came without sin , so it must also go away without trouble . But yet because the Question may not render the practice insecure , I add these Rules by way of advice and caution . SECT . VII . Advices relating to the matter of Original Sin. 81. I. IT is very requisite that we should understand the state of our own infirmity , the weakness of the flesh , the temptations and diversions of the spirit , that by understanding our present state we may prevent the evils of carelesness and security . * Our evils are the imperfections and sorrows inherent in , or appendant to our bodies , our souls , our spirits . 82. * In our bodies we find weakness , and imperfection , sometimes crookedness sometimes monstrosity ; filthiness , and weariness , infinite numbers of diseases , and an uncertain cure , great pain , and restless night , hunger and thirst , daily necessities , ridiculous gestures , madness from passions , distempers and disorders , great labour to provide meat and drink , and oftentimes a loathing when we have them ; if we use them they breed sicknesses , if we use them not , we die ; and there is such a certain healthlesness in many things to all , and in all things to some men and at some times , that to supply a need , is to bring a danger : and if we eat like beasts only of one thing , our souls are quickly weary ; if we eat variety , we are sick , and intemperate ; and our bodies are inlets to sin , and a stage of temptation . If we cherish them , they undo us ; if we do not cherish them , they die : we suffer illusion in our dreams , and absurd fancies when we are waking ; our life is soon done , and yet very tedious ; it is too long , and too short ; darkness and light are both troublesome ; and those things which are pleasant , are often unwholsome . Sweet smells make the head ach , and those smells which are medicinal in some diseases , are intolerable to the sense . The pleasures of our body are bigger in expectation , than in the possession ; and yet while they are expected , they torment us with the delay , and when they are enjoyed , they are as if they were not , they abuse us with their vanity , and vex us with their volatile and fugitive nature . Our pains are very frequent alone , and very often mingled with pleasures to spoil them ; and he that feels one sharp pain , feels not all the pleasures of the world , if they were in his power to have them . We live a precarious life , begging help of every thing , and needing the repairs of every day , and being beholding to beasts and birds , to plants and trees , to dirt and stones , to the very excrements of beasts , and that which dogs and horses throw forth . Our motion is slow and dull , heavy and uneasie ; we cannot move but we are quickly tired , and for every days labour , we need a whole night to recruit our lost strengths ; we live like a lamp , unless new materials be perpetually poured in , we live no longer than a fly ; and our motion is not otherwise than a clock ; we must be pull'd up once or twice in twenty four hours ; and unless we be in the shadow of death for six or eight hours every night , we shall be scarce in the shadows of life the other sixteen . Heat and cold are both our enemies ; and yet the one always dwells within , and the other dwells round about us . The chances and contingencies that trouble us , are no more to be numbred than the minutes of eternity . The Devil often hurts us , and men hurt each other oftner , and we are perpetually doing mischief to our selves . The stars do in their courses fight against some men , and all the elements against every man ; the heavens send evil influences , the very beasts are dangerous , and the air we suck in does corrupt our lungs : many are deformed , and blind , and ill coloured ; and yet upon the most beauteous face is plac'd one of the worst sinks of the body ; and we are forc'd to pass that through our mouths oftentimes , which our eye and our stomach hates . Pliny did wittily and elegantly represent this state of evil things . Itaque foelicitèr homo natus jacet manibus pedibúsque devinctis , flens , animal caeteris imperaturum , & à suppliciis vitam auspicatur , unam tantum ob culpam quia natum est . A man is born happily , but at first he lies bound band and foot by impotency and cannot stir ; the creature weeps that is born to rule over all other creatures , and begins his life with punishments , for no fault , but that he was born . In short ; The body is a region of diseases , of sorrow and nastiness , and weakness and temptation . Here is cause enough of being humbled . 83. Neither is it better in the soul of man , where ignorance dwells and passion rules . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . After death came in , there entred also a swarm of passions . And the will obeys every thing but God. Our judgment is often abused in matters of sense , and one faculty guesses at truth by confuting another ; and the error of the eye is corrected by something of reason or a former experience . Our fancy is often abus'd , and yet creates things of it self , by tying disparate things together , that can cohere no more than Musick and a Cable , than Meat and Syllogisms : and yet this alone does many times make credibilities in the understandings . Our Memories are so frail , that they need instruments of recollection , and laborious artifices to help them ; and in the use of these artifices sometimes we forget the meaning of those instruments : and of those millions of sins which we have committed , we scarce remember so many as to make us sorrowful , or ashamed . Our judgments are baffled with every Sophism , and we change our opinion with a wind , and are confident against truth , but in love with error . We use to reprove one error by another , and lose truth while we contend too earnestly for it . Infinite opinions there are in matters of Religion , and most men are confident , and most are deceiv'd in many things , and all in some ; and those few that are not confident , have only reason enough to suspect their own reason . We do not know our own bodies , not what is within us , nor what ails us when we are sick , nor whereof we are made ; nay we oftentimes cannot tell what we think , or believe , or love . We desire and hate the same thing , speak against and run after it . We resolve , and then consider ; we bind our selves , and then find causes why we ought not to be bound , and want not some pretences to make our selves believe we were not bound . Prejudice and Interest are our two great motives of believing ; we weigh deeper what is extrinsical to a question , than what is in its nature ; and oftner regard who speaks , than what is said . The diseases of our soul are infinite ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Dionysius of Athens . Mankind of old fell from those good things which God gave him , and now is fallen into a life of passion , and a state of death . In summ ; it follows the temper or distemper of the body , and sailing by such a Compass , and being carried in so rotten a vessel , especially being empty , or filled with lightness , and ignorance , and mistakes , it must needs be exposed to the dangers and miseries of every storm ; which I choose to represent in the words of Cicero . Ex humanae vitae erroribus & aerumnis fit , ut verum sit illud quod est apud Aristotelem , sic nostros animos cum corporibus copulatos , ut vivos cum mortuis esse conjunctos . The soul joyned with the body , is like the conjunction of the living and the dead ; the dead are not quickned by it , but the living are afflicted and die . But then if we consider what our spirit is , we have reason to lie down flat upon our faces , and confess Gods glory and our own shame . When it is at the best , it is but willing , but can do nothing without the miracle of Grace . Our spirit is hindred by the body , and cannot rise up whither it properly tends , with those great weights upon it . It is foolish and improvident ; large in desires , and narrow in abilities ; naturally curious in trifles , and inquisitive after vanities ; but neither understands deeply , nor affectionately relishes the things of God ; pleas'd with forms , cousen'd with pretences , satisfied with shadows , incurious of substances and realities . It is quick enough to find doubts , and when the doubts are satisfied , it raises scruples , that is , it is restless after it is put to sleep , and will be troubled in despite of all arguments of peace . It is incredibly negligent of matters of Religion , and most solicitous and troubled in the things of the world . We love our selves , and despise others ; judging most unjust sentences , and by peevish and cross measures ; Covetousness and Ambition , Gain and Empire are the proportions by which we take account of things . We hate to be govern'd by others , even when we cannot dress our selves ; and to be forbidden to do or have a thing , is the best art in the world to make us greedy of it . The flesh and the spirit perpetually are at * strife ; the spirit pretending that his ought to be the dominion , and the flesh alleaging that this is her state , and her day . We hate our present condition , and know not how to better our selves , our changes being but like the tumblings and tossings in a Feaver , from trouble to trouble , that 's all the variety . We are extreamly inconstant , and always hate our own choice : we despair sometimes of Gods mercies , and are confident in our own follies ; as we order things , we cannot avoid little sins , and do not avoid great ones . We love the present world , though it be good for nothing , and undervalue infinite treasures , if they be not to be had till the day of recompences . We are peevish , if a servant does but break a glass , and patient when we have thrown an ill cast for eternity ▪ throwing away the hopes of a glorious Crown for wine , and dirty silver . We know that our prayers , if well done , are great advantages to our state , and yet we are hardly brought to them , and love not to stay at them , and wander while we are saying them , and say them without minding , and are glad when they are done , or when we have a reasonable excuse to omit them . A passion does quite overturn all our purposes , and all our principles , and there are certain times of weakness in which any temptation may prevail , if it comes in that unlucky minute . 84. This is a little representment of the state of man ; whereof a great part is a natural impotency , and the other is brought in by our own folly . Concerning the first when we discourse , it is as if one describes the condition of a Mole , or a Bat , an Oyster , or a Mushrome , concerning whose imperfections , no other cause is to be inquired of , but the will of God , who gives his gifts as he please , and is unjust to no man , by giving or not giving any certain proportion of good things : And supposing this loss was brought first upon Adam , and so descended upon us , yet we have no cause to complain , for we lost nothing that was ours . Praeposterum est ( said Paulus the Lawyer ) antè nos locupletes dici quàm acquisterimus . We cannot be said to lose what we never had ; and our fathers goods were not to descend upon us , unless they were his at his death . If therefore they be confiscated before his death , ours indeed is the inconvenience too , but his alone is the punishment , and to neither of us is the wrong . But concerning the second , I mean that which is superinduc'd , it is not his fault alone , nor ours alone , and neither of us is innocent ; we all put in our accursed Symbol for the debauching of our spirits , for the besotting our souls , for the spoiling our bodies . Ille initium induxit debiti , nos foenus auximus posterioribus peccatis , &c. He began the principal , and we have increas'd the interest . This we also find well expressed by Justin Martyr ; for the Fathers of the first ages spake prudently and temperately in this Article , as in other things . Christ was not born or crucified because himself had need of these things , but for the sake of mankind . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : which from Adam fell into death and the deception of the Serpent , besides the evil which every one adds upon his own account . And it appears in the greatest instance of all , even in that of natural death ; which though it was natural , yet from Adam it began to be a curse , just as the motion of a Serpent upon his belly , which was concreated with him , yet upon this story was changed into a malediction and an evil adjunct . But though Adam was the gate , and brought in the head of death , yet our sins brought him in further , we brought in the body of death . Our life was left by Adam a thousand years long almost ; but the iniquity of man brought it quickly to 500 years , from thence to 250 , from thence to 120 , and at last to seventy ; and then God would no more strike all mankind in the same manner , but individuals and single sinners smart for it , and are cut off in their youth , and do not live out half their days . And so it is in the matters of the soul and the spirit . Every sin leaves an evil upon the soul ; and every age grows worse , and adds some iniquity of its own to the former examples . And therefore Tertullian calls Adam mali traducem ; he transmitted the original and exemplar , and we write after his copy . Infirmitatis ingenitae vitium ; so Arnobius calls our natural baseness , we are naturally weak , and this weakness is a vice or defect of Nature , and our evil usages make our natures worse ; like Butchers being used to kill beasts , their natures grow more savage and unmerciful ; so it is with us all . If our parents be good , yet we often prove bad , as the wild olive comes from the branch of a natural olive , or as corn with the chaff come from clean grain , and the uncircumcised from the circumcised . But if our parents be bad , it is the less wonder if their children are so ; a Blackamore begets a Blackamore , as an Epileptick son does often come from an Epileptick father , and hereditary diseases are transmitted by generation ; so it is in that viciousness that is radicated in the body , for a lustful father oftentimes begets a lustful son ; and so it is in all those instances where the soul follows the temperature of the body . And thus not only Adam , but every father may transmit an Original sin , or rather an Original viciousness of his own . For a vicious nature , or a natural improbity when it is not consented to , is not a sin , but an ill disposition : Philosophy and the Grace of God must cure it ; but it often causes us to sin , before our reason and our higher principles are well attended to . But when we consent to , and actuate our evil inclinations , we spoil our natures and make them worse , making evil still more natural . For it is as much in our nature to be pleased with our artificial delights as with our natural . And this is the doctrine of S. Austin , speaking of Concupiscence . Modo quodam loquendi vocatur peccatum quòd peccata facta est , & peccati si vicerit facit reum . Concupiscence or the viciousness of our Nature is after a certain manner of speaking called sin ; because it is made worse by sin , and makes us guilty of sin when it is consented to . It hath the nature of sin ; so the article of the Church of England expresses it ; that is , it is in eâdem materiâ , it comes from a weak principle , à naturae vitio , from the imperfect and defective nature of man , and inclines to sin . But ( that I may again use S. Austins words ) Quantum ad nos atti●et , sine peccato semper essemus donec sanaretur hoc malum , si ei nunquam consentiremus ad malum . Although we all have concupiscence , yet none of us all should have any sin , if we did not consent to this concupiscence unto evil . Concupiscence is Naturae vitium , but not peccatum , a defect or fault of nature , but not formally a sin : which distinction we learn from S. Austin ; Non enim talia sunt vitia quae jam peccata dicenda sunt . Concupiscence is an evil as a weak eye is , but not a sin , if we speak properly , till it be consented to ; and then indeed it is the parent of sin . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : so S. James ▪ it brings forth sin . 85. This is the vile state of our natural viciousness and improbity , and misery , in which Adam had some , but truly not the biggest share ; and let this consideration sink as deep as it will in us to make us humble and careful , but let us not use it as an excuse to lessen our diligence , by greatning our evil necessity . For death and sin were both born from Adam , but we have nurs'd them up to an ugly bulk and deformity . But I must now proceed to other practical rules . 86. II. It is necessary that we understand that our natural state is not a state in which we can hope for heaven . Natural agents can effect but natural ends , by natural instruments : and now supposing the former doctrine , that we lost not the Divine favour by our guilt of what we never did consent to , yet we were born in pure naturals , and they some of them worsted by our forefathers , yet we were at the best , born but in pure naturals , and we must be born again ; that as by our first birth we are heirs of death , so by our new birth we may be adopted into the inheritance of life and salvation . 87. III. It is our duty to be humbled in the consideration of our selves , and of our natural condition . That by distrusting our own strengths we may take sanctuary in God through Jesus Christ , praying for his grace , entertaining and caressing of his holy Spirit , with purities and devotions , with charity and humility , infinitely fearing to grieve him , lest he leaving us , we be left as Adam left us , in pure naturals , but in some degrees worsted by the nature of sin in some instances , and the anger of God in all , that is , in the state of flesh and blood , which shall never inherit the Kingdome of Heaven . 88. IV. Whatsoever good work we do , let us not impute it to our selves , or our own choice . For God is the best estimator of that : he knows best what portion of the work we did , and what influence our will had into the action , and leave it to him to judge and recompense . But let us attribute all the glory to God , and to Gods grace , for without him we can do nothing . But by him that strengthens us , that works in us to will and to do of his good pleasure , by him alone we are saved . Giving all glory to God , will take nothing of the reward from us . 89. V. Let no man so undervalue his sin , or over-value himself , as to lessen that , and to put the fault any where , but where it ought to be . If a man accuses himself with too great a rigour , it is no more than if he holds his horse too hard when he is running down a hill . It may be , a less force would stop his running ; but the greater does so too , and manifests his fear : which in this case of his sin and danger is of it self rewardable . 90. VI. Let no man when he is tempted , say that he is tempted of God. Not only because ( as S. James affirms most wisely ) every man is tempted , when he is led away by his own concupiscence ; but because he is a very evil speaker that speaks evil things of God. Think it not therefore in thy thought , that God hath made any necessities of sinning . He that hath forbidden sin so earnestly , threatned it so deeply , hates it so essentially , prevents it so cautiously , dissuades us from it so passionately , punishes it so severely , arms us against it so strongly , and sent his Son so piously and charitably to root out sin ( so far as may be ) from the face of the earth ; certainly it cannot be thought that he hath made necessities of sinning . For whatsoever he hath made necessary , is as innocent as what he hath commanded ; it is his own work , and he hateth nothing that he hath made , and therefore he hath not made sin . And no man shall dare to say at Doomsday unto God , that he made him to sin , or made it unavoidable . There are no two cases of Conscience , no two duties in any case so seemingly contradictory , that whichsoever a man choose he must sin : and therefore much less is any one state a state of necessary unavoidable enmity against God. 91. VII . Use thy self to holy company , and pious imployment in thy early days : follow no evil example , live by rule , and despise the world ; relieve the usual necessities of thy life , but be not sensual in thy appetite ; accustom thy self to Religion and spiritual things , and then much of that evil nature thou complainest of , will pass into vertuous habits . It was the saying of Xenocrates in Aristotle , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Happy is he that hath a diligent studious soul : for that is every mans good Angel , and the principle of his felicity . 92. VIII . Educate thy children and charges strictly and severely . Let them not be suffered to swear before they can pray , nor taught little revenges in the Cradle , nor pride at School , nor fightings in company , nor drinkings in all their entertainments , nor lusts in private . Let them be drawn from evil company , and do thou give them holy example , and provide for them severe and wise Tutors ; and what Alexander of Ales said of Bonaventure , Adam non peccavit in Bonaventurâ , will be as truly said of young men and maidens . Impiety will not peep out so soon . It was wisely observed by Quintilian , who was an excellent Tutor for young Gentlemen , that our selves with ill breeding our children are the Authors of their evil nature . Antè palatum eorum quàm os instituimus . Gaudemus si quid licentiùs dixerint . Verba ne Alexandrinis quidem permittenda deliciis , risu & osculo excipimus . We teach their palate before we instruct the tongue . And when the tongue begins first to pratle , they can efform wantonness before words ; and we kiss them for speaking filthy things . Fit ex his consuetudo , deinde natura . Discunt haec miseri antequam sciunt vitia esse . The poor wretches sin before they know what it is ; and by these actions a custom is made up , and this custom becomes a nature . SECT . VIII . Rules and Measures of Deportment when a curse doth descend upon Children for their Parents fault , or when it is feared . 93. I. IF we fear a curse upon our selves or family for our fathers sin , let us do all actions of piety or religion , justice or charity , which are contrary to that crime which is suspected to be the enemy ; in all things being careful that we do not inherit the sin . Si quis paterni vitii nascitur haeres ; nascitur & poenae . The heir of the Crime must possess the revenue of punishment . 94. II. Let the children be careful not to commend , not to justifie , not to glory in their fathers sin , but be diligent to represent themselves the more pious , by how much their fathers were impious ; for by such a contrariety and visible distance , they will avoid their fathers shame . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . For most men love not to honour and praise the sons of good men so much as the sons of wicked men , when they study to represent themselves better , and unlike their wicked parents . Therefore , 95. III. Let no child of a wicked father be dejected and confounded in his spirit , because his fathers were impious . For although it is piety to be troubled for their fathers regard , and because he died an enemy to God ; yet in reference to themselves they must know , that God puts upon every head his own punishment . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Plato . For every one is submitted to his own fortune by his own act . The fathers crime and the fathers punishment make no real permanent blot upon the son . No man is forc'd to succeed in his fathers crime ; said Callistratus the Lawyer . 96. IV. Every evil that happens to a son for his fathers fault , hath an errand of its own to him . For as God is a just Judge to his father ; so he is an essential enemy to sin , and a gracious Lord to the suffering person . When God sent blindness upon the man in the Gospel , neither for his parents sins , nor his own , yet he did it for his own glory . Let the afflicted person study by all ways to advance Gods glory in the sufferance , and the sharpness of the evil will be taken off . 97. V. Let not a son retain the price of his fathers sin , the purchase of his iniquity . If his father entred into the fields of the fatherless , let not the son dwell there . If his ancestors were sacrilegious , let not the son declaim against the crime and keep the lands , but cast off that which brings the burthen along with it . And this is to be observed in all those sins , the evil consequent and effect of which remains upon the posterity or successors of the injur'd person ; for in those sins very often the curse descends with the wrong . So long as the effect remains , and the injury is complained of , and the title is still kept on foot , so long the son is tied to restitution . But even after the possession is setled , yet the curse and evil may descend longer than the sin ; as the smart and the aking remains after the blow is past . And therefore even after the successors come to be lawful possessors , it may yet be very fit for them to quit the purchase of their fathers sin , or else they must resolve to pay the sad and severe rent-charge of a curse . 98. VI. In such cases in which there cannot be a real , let there be a verbal and publick disavowing their fathers sin which was publick , scandalous , and notorious . We find this thing done by Andronicus Palaeologus , the Greek Emperor , who was the son of a bad Father ; and it is to be done , when the effect was transient , or irremediable . 99. VII . Sometimes no piety of the children shall quite take off the anger of God from a family or nation : as it hapned to Josiah , who above all the Princes that were before or after him turned to the Lord. Notwithstanding the Lord turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah , because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withal . In such a case as this we are to submit to Gods will , and let him exercise his power , his dominion , and his kingdom as he pleases , and expect the returns of our piety in the day of recompences : and it may be , our posterity shall reap a blessing for our sakes , who feel a sorrow and an evil for our fathers sake . 100. VIII . Let all that have children endeavour to be the beginners , and the stock of a new blessing to their family ; by blessing their children , by praying much for them , by holy education and a severe piety , by rare example , and an excellent religion . And if there be in the family a great curse , and an extraordinary anger gone out against it , there must be something extraordinary done in the matter of religion , or of charity , that the remedy be no less than the evil . 101. IX . Let not the consideration of the universal sinfulness and corruption of mankind , add confidence to thy person , and hardness to thy conscience , and authority to thy sin ; but let it awaken thy spirit , and stir up thy diligence , and endear all the watchfulness in the world for the service of God ; for there is in it some difficulty , and an infinite necessity . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Electra in the Tragedy . Our nature is very bad in it self ; but very good to them that use it well . Prayers and Meditations . THE first Adam bearing a wicked heart transgressed and was overcome : and so be all they that are born of him . Thus infirmity was made permanent : And the law also in the heart of the people with the malignity and root , so that the good departed away , and the evil abode still . Lo , this only have I found , that God hath made man upright : but they have sought many inventions . For there is not a just man upon earth that doth good and sinneth not . Behold , I was shapen in iniquity , and in sin did my mother conceive me . Purge me with hysop , and I shall be clean ; wash me , and I shall be whiter than snow : create in me a clean heart , O God , and renew a right spirit within me . The fool hath said in his heart , There is no God , they are corrupt , they have done abominable works , there is none that doth good : The Lord looked down from Heaven upon the children of men , to see if there were any that did understand and seek after God. They are all gone aside , they are all become filthy : There is not one that doth good , no not one . O that the salvation of Israel were come out of Sion ! when the Lord bringeth back the captivity of his people , Jacob shall rejoyce , and Israel shall be glad . Man dieth and wasteth away , yea man giveth up the ghost , and where is he ? For now thou numbrest my steps : Dost thou not watch over my sin ? my transgression is seal'd up in a bag , and thou sewest up iniquity . Thou destroyest the hope of man : Thou prevailest against him for ever , and he passeth : thou changest his countenance , and sendest him away . But his flesh upon him shall have pain , and his soul within him shall mourn . What is man that he should be clean , and he that is born of a woman that he should be righteous ? Behold , he putteth no trust in his Saints , yea the Heavens are not clean in his sight . How much more abominable and filthy is man which drinketh iniquity like water ? Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid . They shall prevail against him as a King ready to battel . For he stretcheth out his hand against God , and strengthneth himself against the Almighty . Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity , for vanity shall be his recompence . Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean thing ? no not one . I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin , and defiled my horn in the dust . My face is foul with weeping , and on my eye-lids is the shadow of death . Not for any injustice in my hand : also my prayer is pure . Wretched man that I am , who shall deliver me from the body of this death ! I thank God [ I am delivered ] through Jesus Christ our Lord. But now being made free from sin , and become servants of God , ye have your fruit unto holiness , and the end everlasting life : For the wages of sin is death : But the gift of God is eternal life , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin reign in your mortal bodies , that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof . For sin shall not have dominion over you : for ye are not under the law , but under grace . The PRAYER . O Almighty God , great Father of Men and Angels , thou art the preserver of men , and the great lover of souls ; thou didst make every thing perfect in its kind , and all that thou didst make was very good : only we miserable creatures sons of Adam have suffered the falling Angels to infect us with their leprosie of pride , and so we entred into their evil portion , having corrupted our way before thee , and are covered with thy rod , and dwell in a cloud of thy displeasure ; behold me the meanest of thy servants , humbled before thee , sensible of my sad condition , weak and miserable , sinful and ignorant , full of need , wanting thee in all things , and neither able to escape death without a Saviour , nor to live a life of holiness without thy Spirit . O be pleas'd to give me a portion in the new birth : break off the bands and fetters of my sin , cure my evil inclinations , correct my indispositions , and natural averseness from the severities of Religion ; let me live by the measures of thy law , not by the evil example and disguises of the world ; Renew a right spirit within me , and cast me not away from thy presence , lest I should retire to the works of darkness , and enter into those horrible regions , where the light of thy countenance never shineth . II. I AM ashamed , O Lord , I am ashamed that I have dishonoured so excellent a Creation . Thou didst make us upright , and create us in innocence . And when thou didst see us unable to stand in thy sight , and that we could never endure to be judged by the Covenant of works , thou didst renew thy mercies to us in the new Covenant of Jesus Christ ; and now we have no excuse , nothing to plead for our selves , much less against thee ; but thou art holy and pure , and just and merciful . Make me to be like thee , holy as thou art holy , merciful as our Heavenly Father is merciful , obedient as our holy Saviour Jesus , meek and charitable , temperate and chaste , humble and patient according to that holy example , that my sins may be pardoned by his death , and my spirit renewed by his Spirit , that passing from sin to grace , from ignorance to the knowledge and love of God , and of his Son Jesus Christ , I may pass from death to life , from sorrow to joy , from Earth to Heaven , from the present state of misery and imperfection , to the glorious inheritance prepar'd for the Saints and Sons of light , the children of the new birth , the brethren of our Lord and Brother , our Judge and our Advocate , our Blessed Saviour and Redeemer JESVS . Amen . A Prayer to be said by a Matron in behalf of her Husband and Family , that a blessing may descend upon their posterity . I. O Eternal God , our most merciful Lord , and gracious Father , thou art my guide , the light of mine eyes , the joy of my heart , the author of my hope , and the object of my love and worshippings , thou relievest all my needs , and determin'st all my doubts , and art an eternal fountain of blessing , open and running over to all thirsty and weary souls that come and cry to thee for mercy and refreshment . Have mercy upon thy servant , and relieve my fears and sorrows , and the great necessities of my family , for thou alone , O Lord , canst do it . II. FIT and adorn every one of us with a holy and a religious spirit , and give a double portion to thy servant my dear Husband : Give him a wise heart , a prudent , severe , and indulgent care over the children which thou hast given us . His heart is in thy hand , and the events of all things are in thy disposition . Make it a great part of his care to promote the spiritual and eternal interest of his children , and not to neglect their temporal relations and necessities ; but to provide states of life for them in which with fair advantages they may live chearfully , serve thee diligently , promote the interest of the Christian family in all their capacities , that they may be always blessed , and always innocent , devout and pious , and may be graciously accepted by thee to pardon , and grace , and glory , through Jesus Christ. Amen . III. BLESS ( O Lord ) my Sons with excellent understandings , love of holy and noble things , sweet dispositions , innocent deportment , diligent souls , chaste , healthful and temperate bodies , holy and religious spirits , that they may live to thy glory , and be useful in their capacities to the servants of God , and all their neighbours , and the Relatives of their conversation . Bless my Daughters with a humble and a modest carriage , and excellent meekness , a great love of holy things , a severe chastity , a constant , holy and passionate Religion . O my God , never suffer them to fall into folly , and the sad effects of a wanton , loose and indiscreet spirit : possess their fancies with holy affections , be thou the covering of their eyes , and the great object of their hopes , and all their desires . Blessed Lord , thou disposest all things sweetly by thy providence , thou guidest them excellently by thy wisdom , thou unitest all circumstances and changes wonderfully by thy power , and by thy power makest all things work for the good of thy servants ; Be pleased so to dispose my Daughters , that if thou shouldest call them to the state of a married life , they may not dishonour their Family , nor grieve their Parents , nor displease thee , but that thou wilt so dispose of their persons , and the accidents and circumstances of that state , that it may be a state of holiness to the Lord , and blessing to thy servants . And until thy wisdom shall know it fit to bring things so to pass , let them live with all purity , spending their time religiously and usefully . O most blessed Lord , enable their dear father with proportionable abilities and opportunities of doing his duty and charities towards them , and them with great obedience and duty toward him , and all of us with a love toward thee above all things in the world , that our portion may be in love and in thy blessings , through Jesus Christ our dearest Lord , and most gracious Redeemer . IV. O MY God , pardon thy servant , pity my infirmities , hear the passionate desires of thy humble servant ; in thee alone is my trust , my heart and all my wishes are towards thee . Thou hast commanded me to pray to thee in all needs , thou hast made gracious promises to hear and accept me ; and I will never leave importuning thy glorious Majesty , humbly , passionately , confidently , till thou hast heard and accepted the prayer of thy servant . Amen , dearest Lord , for thy mercy sake hear thy servant . Amen . TO The Right Reverend Father in God , JOHN WARNER , D.D. and late Lord Bishop of Rochester . MY LORD , I NOW see cause to wish that I had given to your Lordship the trouble of reading my papers of Original Sin , before their publication ; for though I have said all that which I found material in the Question , yet I perceive that it had been fitting I had spoken some things less material , so to prevent the apprehensions that some have of this doctrine , that it is of a sence differing from the usual expressions of the Church of England . However , my Lord , since your Lordship is pleased to be careful not only of truth , and Gods glory , but desirous also that even all of us should speak the same thing , and understand each other without Jealousies , or severer censures , I have now obeyed your Counsel , and done all my part towards the asserting the truth , and securing charity , and unity : Professing with all truth and ingenuity , that I would rather die than either willingly give occasion or countenance to a Schism in the Church of England ; and I would suffer much evil before I would displease my dear Brethren in the service of Jesus , and in the ministeries of the Church . But as I have not given just cause of offence to any , so I pray that they may not be offended unjustly , lest the fault lie on them , whose persons I so much love , and whose eternal interest I do so much desire may be secured and advanced . Now , my Lord , I had thought I had been secured in the Article , not only for the truth of the Doctrine , but for the advantages and comforts it brings . I was confident they would not , because there was no cause any men should , be angry at it ; For it is strange to me that any man should desire to believe God to be more severe , and less gentle : That men should be greedy to find out inevitable ways of being damned , that they should be unwilling to have the vail drawn away from the face of Gods goodness , and that they should desire to see an angry countenance ; and be displeased at the glad tidings of the Gospel of peace ; It is strange to me that men should desire to believe that their pretty Babes which are strangled at the gates of the womb or die before Baptism , should for ought they know , die eternally and be damned , and that themselves should consent to it , and to them that invent Reasons to make it seem just ; They might have had not only pretences but reasons to be troubled , if I had represented God to be so great a hater of Mankind , as to damn millions of millions for that which they could not help , or if I had taught that their infants might by chance have gone to Hell , and as soon as ever they came for life descend to an eternal death ; If I had told them evil things of God and hard measures , and evil portions to their children , they might have complained ; but to complain because I say God is just to all , and merciful and just to infants , to fret and be peevish because I tell them , that nothing but good things are to be expected from our good God , is a thing that may well be wondred at . My Lord , I take a great comfort in this , that my doctrine stands on that side , where Gods justice and goodness and mercy stand apparently : and they that speak otherwise in this Article , are forced by convulsions and violences to draw their doctrine to comply with Gods justice , and the reputation of his most glorious Attributes . And after great and laborious devices , they must needs do it pitifully and jejunely ; but I will prejudice no mans opinion ; I only will defend my own , because in so doing I have the honour to be an advocate for God , who will defend and accept me , in the simplicity and innocency of my purposes and the profession of his truth . Now my Lord , I find that some believe this doctrine ought not now to have been published : Others think it not true . The first are the wise and few : the others are the many who have been taught otherwise , and either have not leisure , or abilities to make right judgments in the question . Concerning the first I have given what accounts I could , to that excellent man the Lord Bishop of Sarum , who out of his great piety and prudence and his great kindness to me was pleased to call for accounts of me . Concerning the other , your Lordship in great humility , and in great tenderness to those who are not perswaded of the truth of this doctrine hath called upon me to give all those just measures of satisfaction , which I could be obliged to , by the interest of any Christian vertue . In obedience to this pious care and prudent counsel of your Lordship , I have published these ensuing Papers , hoping that God will bless them to the purposes whither they are designed : however I have done all that I could , and all that I am commanded , and all that I was counselled to . And as I submit all to Gods blessing , and the events of his providence and Oeconomy , so my doctrine I humbly submit to my holy Mother the Church of England , and rejoyce in any circumstances by which I can testifie my duty to her and my obedience to your Lordship . CHAP. VII . A further EXPLICATION OF THE DOCTRINE OF Original Sin. SECT . I. Of the Fall of Adam , and the Effects of it upon Him and Vs. IT was well said of S. Augustine in this thing , ( though he said many others in it less certain ) Nihil est peccato Originali ad praedicandum no●ius , nihil ad intelligendum secretius . The article we all confess ; but the manner of explicating it , is not an apple of knowledge , but of contention . Having therefore turned to all the ways of Reason and Scripture ; I at last apply my self to examine how it was affirmed by the first and best Antiquity . For the Doctrine of Original sin ( as I have explicated it ) is taxed of Singularity and Novelty ; and though these words are very freely bestowed upon any thing we have not learned , or consented to ; and that we take false measures of these Appellatives ; reckoning that new that is but renewed ; and that singular that is not taught vulgarly , or in our own Societies : Yet I shall easily quit the proposition from these charges ; and though I do confess , and complain of it , that the usual affirmations of Original sin , are a popular error ; yet I will make it appear that it is no Catholick doctrine , that it prevailed by prejudice , and accidental authorities ; but after such prevailing , it was accused and reproved by the Greatest and most Judicious persons of Christendom . And first that judgment may the better be given of the Allegations I shall bring from authority , I shall explicate and state the Question , that there may be no impertinent allegations of Antiquity for both sides , nor clamours against the persons interested in either perswasion , nor any offence taken by error and misprision . It is not therefore intended , nor affirmed , that there is no such thing as Original sin ; for it is certain , and affirmed by all Antiquity , upon many grounds of Scripture , That Adam sinned , and his sin was Personally his , but Derivatively ours ; that is , it did great hurt to us , to our bodies directly , to our souls indirectly and accidentally . 2. For Adam was made a living soul , the great representative of Mankind , and the beginner of a temporal happy life ; and to that purpose he was put in a place of temporal happiness , where he was to have lived as long as he obeyed God , ( so far as he knew nothing else being promised to him , or implied ) but when he sinned , he was thrown from thence , and spoiled of all those advantages by which he was enabled to live and be happy . This we find in the story ; the reasonableness of the parts of which , teaches us all this doctrine . To which if we add the words of S. Paul , the case is clear . The first Adam was made a living soul ; The last Adam was made a quickning Spirit . Howbeit , that is not first which is spiritual , but that which is natural , and afterwards that which is spiritual . The first man is of the earth , earthly ; the second man is the Lord from Heaven . As is the earthly , such are they that are earthly ; and as is the Heavenly , such are they also that are Heavenly ; and as we have born the image of the Earthly , we shall also bear the image of the Heavenly : Now this I say , That flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of Heaven , neither doth corruption inherit incorruption . This Discourse of the Apostle hath in it all these propositions , which clearly state this whole Article . There are two great heads of Mankind , the two Adams ; the first and the second . The first was framed with an earthly body , the second had viz. ( after his resurrection , when he had died unto sin once ) a spiritual body . The first was Earthly , the second is Heavenly : From the first we derive an Earthly life , from the second we obtain a Heavenly ; all that are born of the first are such as he was naturally , but the effects of the Spirit came only upon them who are born of the second Adam : From him who is earthly , we could have no more than he was , or had ; the spiritual life , and consequently the Heavenly , could not be derived from the first Adam , but from Christ only . All that are born of the first , by that birth inherit nothing but temporal life , and corruption ; but in the new birth only we derive a title to Heaven . For flesh and blood ; that is , whatsoever is born of Adam , cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. And they are injurious to Christ , who think , that from Adam we might have inherited immortality . Christ was the Giver and Preacher of it ; he brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel . It is a singular benefit given by God to mankind , through Jesus Christ. 3. Upon the affirmation of these premises , it follows , That if Adam had stood , yet from him we could not have by our natural generation obtained a title to our spiritual life , nor by all the strengths of Adam have gone to Heaven : Adam was not our representative to any of these purposes , but in order to the perfection of a temporal life . Christ only is and was from eternal ages designed to be the head of the Church , and the fountain of spiritual life . And this is it which is affirmed by some very eminent persons in the Church of God ; particularly by Junius and Tilenus , that Christus est fundamentum totius praedestinationis ; all that are , or ever were predestinated , were predestinated in Christ : Even Adam himself was predestinated in him , and therefore from him , ( if he had stood ) though we should have inherited a temporal happy life , yet the Scripture speaks nothing of any other event . Heaven was not promised to Adam himself , therefore from him we could not have derived a title thither . And therefore that inquity of the School-men [ Whether if Adam had not sinned , Christ should have been incarnate ] was not an impertinent Question , though they prosecuted it to weak purposes , and with trifling arguments ; Scotus and his Scholars were for the affirmative ; and though I will not be decretory in it , because the Scripture hath said nothing of it , nor the Church delivered it ; yet to me it seems plainly the discourse of the Apostle now alledged , That if Adam had not sinned , yet that by Christ alone we should have obtained everlasting life . Whether this had been dispensed by his Incarnation , or some other way of oeconomy , is not signified . 4. But then , if from Adam , we should not have derived our title to Heaven , ( though he had stood ) then neither by his Fall can we be said to have lost Heaven . Heaven and Hell were to be administred by another method . But then , if it be enquired what evil we thence received ? I answer , That the principal effect was the loss of that excellent condition in which God placed him , and would have placed his posterity , unless sin had entred . He should have lived a long and lasting life , till it had been time to remove him , and very happy . Instead of this , he was thrown from those means which God had designed to this purpose , that is , Paradise and the trees of life ; he was turned into a place of labour and uneasiness , of briars and thorns , ill air and violent chances , & nova febrium terris incubuit cohors ; the woman was condemned to hard labour and travel , and ( that which troubled her most ) obedience to her Husband ; his body was made frail , and weak , and sickly ; that is , it was le●t such as it was made , and left without remedies , which were to have made it otherwise . For that Adam was made mortal in his nature , is infinitely certain , and proved by his very eating and drinking , his sleep and recreation ; by ingestion and egestion , by breathing and generating his like , which immortal substances never do ; and by the very tree of life , which had not been needful , if he should have had no need of it to repair his decaying strength and health . 5. The effect of this consideration is this , that all the product of Adam's sin , was by despoiling him , and consequently us , of all the superadditions and graces brought upon his nature . Even that which was threatned to him , and in the narrative of that sad story expressed to be his punishment , was no lessening of his nature , but despoiling him of his supernaturals : And therefore Manuel Pelaeologus calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the common driness of our nature ; and he adds , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by our Fathers sin we fell from our Fathers graces . Now according to the words of the Apostle , As is the earthly , such are they that are earthly ; that is , all his posterity must be so as his nature was left ; in this there could be no injustice . For if God might at first , and all the way have made man with a necessity as well as a possibility of dying , though men had not sinned ; then so also may he do , if he did sin ; and so it was ; but this was effected by disrobing him of all the superadded excellencies with which God adorned and supported his natural life . But this also I add , that if even death it self came upon us without the alteration or diminution of our nature , then so might sin , because death was in re naturali , but sin is not , and therefore need not suppose that Adam's nature was spoiled to introduce that . 6. As the sin of Adam brought hurt to the body directly , so indirectly it brought hurt to the soul. For the evils upon the body , as they are only felt by the soul ; so they grieve , and tempt , and provoke the soul to anger , to sorrow , to envy ; they make weariness in religious things ; cause desires for ease , for pleasure ; and as these are by the body always desired , so sometimes being forbidden by God , they become sins , and are always apt to it ; because the body being a natural agent , tempts to all it can feel , and have pleasure in . And this is also observed and affirmed by S. Chrysostom , and he often speaks it , as if he were pleased in this explication of the Article , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Together with death entred a whole troop of affections or passions . For when the body became mortal , then of necessity it did admit desires , or lust , and anger , and grief , and all things else which need great constancy and wisdom ; lest the storm should drown reason in us , in the gulf of sin . For these affections or passions were not sin , but the excess of them , not being bridled did effect this . The same he affirms in Homl. 11. ad 6. Rom. and the 12. Homil. on Rom. 7. And not much unlike this was that excellent discourse of Lactantius , in his seventh Book de Divino praemio , cap. 5. But Theodoret in his Commentaries upon the Romans follows the same discourse exactly . And this way of explicating the entrance and facility of sin upon us , is usual in antiquity ; affirming , that because we derive a miserable and an afflicted body from Adam , upon that stock sin enters . Quae quia materiam peccati ex fomite carnis Consociata trahit , nec non simul ipsa sodali Est incentivum peccaminis , implicat ambas Vindex poena reas , peccantes mente sub unâ Peccandíque cremet socias cruciatibus aequis . Because the soul joyned to the body draws from the society of the flesh incentives and arguments to sin ; therefore both of them are punished , as being guilty by consociation . But then thus it was also before the fall : For by this it was that Adam fell . So the same Prudentius : Haec prima est natura animae , sic condita simplex Decidit in vitium per sordida foedera carnis . The soul was created simple and pure , but fell into vice by the evil combination with the flesh . But if at first the appetites , and necessities , and tendencies of the body , when it was at ease , and health , and blessed , did yet tempt the soul to forbidden instances ; much more will this be done , when the body is miserable and afflicted , uneasie and dying . For even now we see by a sad experience , that the afflicted and the miserable are not only apt to anger and envy , but have many more desires , and more weaknesses , and consequently more aptnesses to sin in many instances , than those who are less troubled . And this is that which was said by Arnobius , Proni ad culpas , & ad libidinis varios appetitus vitio sumus infirmitatis ingenitae : By the fault of our natural infirmity , we are prone to the appetites of lust and sins . 7. From hence it follows , that naturally a man cannot do or perform the Law of God ; because being so weak , so tempted by his body ; and this life being the bodies day , that is , the time in which its appetites are properly prevailing ; to be born of Adam , is to be born under sin , that is , under such inclinations to it , that as no man will remain innocent , so no man can of himself keep the Law of God ; Vendidit se prior , ac per hoc omne semen subjectum est peccato . Quamobrem infirmum esse hominem ad praecepta legis servanda ; said the Author of the Commentary on S. Paul's Epistles , usually attributed to S. Ambrose . But beyond this there are two things more considerable ; the one is , that the soul of man being devested by Adam's fall , ( by way of punishment ) of all those supernatural assistances , which God put into it ; that which remained was a reasonable soul fitted for the actions of life , and of reason , but not of any thing that was supernatural . For the soul being immerged in flesh , feeling grief by participation of evils from the flesh , hath and must needs have discourses in order to its own ease and comfort , that is , in order to the satisfaction of the bodies desires ; which because they are often contradicted , restrained and curbed , and commanded to be mortified and killed , by the laws of God , must of necessity make great inlets for sin ; for while reason judges of things in proportion , to present interests , and is less apprehensive of the proportions of those good things which are not the good things of this life , but of another ; the reason abuses the will , as the flesh abuses the reason . And for this there is no remedy but the grace of God , the holy Spirit , to make us be born again , to become spiritual ; that is , to have new principles , new appetites , and new interests . The other thing I was to note is this ; That as the Devil was busie to abuse mankind , when he was fortified by many advantages and favours from God : So now that man is naturally born naked , and devested of those graces and advantages , and hath an infirm sickly body , and enters upon the actions of life through infancy , and childhood , and youth , and folly , and ignorance ; the Devil ( it is certain ) will not omit his opportunities , but will with all his power possess and abuse mankind ; and upon the apprehension of this , the Primitive Church used in the first admission of infants to the entrance of a new birth to a spiritual life , pray against the power and frauds of the Devil ; and that brought in the ceremony of Exsufflation , for ejecting of the Devil . The ceremony was fond and weak , but the opinion that introduced them , was full of caution and prudence . For as Optatus Milevitanus said , Neminem fugit , quod omnis homo qui nascitur , quamvis de Christianis parentibus nascitur , sine Spiritu immundo esse non possit ; quem necesse sit ante salutare lavacrum ab homine excludi ac separari . It is but too likely the Devil will take advantages of our natural weaknesses , and with his temptations and abuses enter upon children as soon as they enter upon choice , and indeed prepossess them with imitating follies , that may become customs of sinfulness before they become sins ; and therefore with rare wisdom it was done by the Church , to prevent the Devils frauds and violences , by an early Baptism , and early offices . 8. As a consequent of all this , it comes to pass , that we being born thus naked of the Divine grace , thus naturally weak , thus incumbred with a body of sin , that is , a body apt to tempt to forbidden instances , and thus assaulted by the frauds and violences of the Devil ; all which are helped on by the evil guises of the world , it is certain , we cannot with all these disadvantages and loads soar up to Heaven ; but in the whole constitution of affairs , are in sad dispositions to enter into the Devils portion , and go to Hell : Not that if we die before we consent to evil , we shall perish ; but that we are evilly disposed to do actions that will deserve it , and because if we die before our new birth , we have nothing in us that can , according to the revelations of God , dispose us to Heaven ; according to these words of the Apostle , In me , that is , in my flesh , dwelleth no good thing . But this infers not , that in our flesh , or that in our soul , there is any sin properly inherent , which makes God to be our present enemy ; that is , the only or the principal thing I suppose my self to have so much reason to deny . But that the state of the body is a state not at all fitted for Heaven , but too much disposed to the ways that lead to Hell. For even in innocent persons , in Christ himself it was a hinderance or a state of present exclusion from Heaven ; he could not enter into the second Tabernacle , ( that is , into Heaven ) so long as the first tabernacle of his body was standing ; the body of sin , that is , of infirmity , he was first to lay aside , and so by dying unto sin once , he entred into Heaven ; according to the other words of S. Paul , Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God , it is a state of differing nature and capacity ; Christ himself could not enter thither , till he had first laid that down , as the Divine Author to the Hebrews rarely and mysteriously discourses . 9. This is the whole summ of Original sin , which now I have more fully explicated than formerly ; it being then only fitting to speak of so much of it , as to represent it to be a state of evil , which yet left in us powers enough to do our duty , and to be without excuse , ( which very thing the Belgick Confession in this Article acknowledges ) and that not God but our selves are authors of our eternal death in case we do perish . But now though thus far I have admitted as far as can be consonant to Antiquity , and not unreasonable , though in Scripture so much is not expressed ; yet now I must be more restrained , and deny those superadditions to this Doctrine , which the ignorance , or the fancy , or the interest , or the laziness of men have sewed to this Doctrine . SECT . II. Adam's Sin is in us no more than an imputed Sin , and how it is so . 10. ORIGINAL sin is not our sin properly , not inherent in us , but is only imputed to us , so as to bring evil effects upon us : For that which is inherent in us , is a consequent only of Adam's sin , but of it self no sin ; for there being but two things affirmed to be the constituent parts of Original sin , the want of Original righteousness , and concupiscence , neither of these can be a sin in us , but a punishment and a consequent of Adam's sin they may be : For the case is thus : One half of Christians that dispute in this Article ; particularly , the Roman Schools , say that Concupiscence is not a sin , but a consequent of Adam's sin : The other half of Christians ( I mean in Europe ) that is , the Protestants , generally say , That the want of original righteousness is a consequent of Adam's sin , but formally no sin . The effect of these is this , That it is not certain amongst the Churches , that either one or the other is formally our sin , or inherent in us ; and we cannot affirm either , without crossing a great part of Christendom in their affirmative . There have indeed been attempts made to reconcile this difference ; and therefore in the conference at Wormes , and in the book offered at Ratisbon to the Emperor ; and in the interim it self they jumbled them both together ; saying , that Originale peccatum est carentia justitiae originalis , cum concupiscentiâ . But the Church of England defines neither , but rather inclines to believe that it consists in concupiscence , as appears in the explication of the Article which I have annexed . But because she hath not determined that either of them is formally a sin , or inherent in us , I may with the greater freedom discourse concerning the several parts . The want of original righteousness is not a thing , but the privation of a thing , and therefore cannot be inherent in us ; and therefore if it be a sin at all to us , it can only be such by imputation . But neither can this be imputed to us as a sin formally , because if it be at all , it is only a consequent or punishment of Adam's sin , and unavoidable by us : For though Scotus is pleased to affirm , that there was an obligation upon humane nature , to preserve it ; I doubt not but as he intended it , he said false . Adam indeed was tied to it , for if he lost it for himself and us , then he only was bound to keep it for himself and us ; for we could not be obliged to keep it , unless we had received it ; but he was , and because he lost it , we also missed it ; that is , are punished , and feel the evil effects of it . But besides all this , the matter of Original righteousness is a thing framed in the School Forges , but not at all spoken of in Scripture , save only that God made man upright ; that is , he was brought innocent into the world , he brought no sin along with him , he was created in the time and stature of reason and choice ; he entred upon action when his reason was great enough to master his passion , all which we do not : It is that which as Prosper describes it , made a man expertem peccati , & capacem Dei ; for by this is meant that he had grace and helps enough , if he needed any , besides his natural powers ; which we have not by nature , but by another dispensation . 11. Add to all this , that they who make the want of ORIGINAL Righteousness to be a sin formally in us , when they come to explicate their meaning by material or intelligible events , tell us it is an aversion from God ; that is , in effect a turning to the creature , and differs no otherwise from concupiscence , than going from the West directly does from going directly to the East ; that is , just nothing . It follows then , that if concupiscence be the effect of Adam's sin , then so must the want of original righteousness , because they are the same thing in real event : and if that be no sin in us , because it was only the punishment of his sin , then neither is the other a sin , for the same reason . But then for Concupiscence , that this is no sin , before we consent to it appears by many testimonies of Antiquity , and of S. Austin himself ; Quantum ad nos attinet sine peccato semper essemus donec sanaretur hoc malum , si nunquam consentiremus ad malum . Lib. 2. ad Julianum . And it is infinitely against reason it should ; for in infants the very actions and desire of concupiscence are no sins , therefore much less is the principle ; if the little emanations of it in them be innocent , although there are some images of consent , much more is that principle innocent , before any thing of consent at all is applied to it . By the way , I cannot but wonder at this , that the Roman Schools , affirming the first motions of concupiscence to be no sin , because they are involuntary , and not consented to by us , but come upon us whether we list or no , yet that they should think Original sin to be a sin in us really and truly , which it is certain , is altogether as involuntary and unchosen as concupiscence . But I add this also , that concupiscence is not wholly an effect of Adam's sin ; if it were , then it would follow , that if Adam had not sinned we should have no concupiscence , that is , no contrary appetites ; which is infinitely confuted by the experience of Adam's fall : For by the Rebellion and prevailing of his concupiscence it was that he fell , and that which was the cause , could not be the effect of the same thing : as no child can beget his own Father , nor any thing , which it leads and draws in after it self . Indeed it is True that by Adam's sin this became much worse , and by the evils of the body , and its infirmities , and the nakedness of the soul as well as the body , and new necessities and new Emergencies , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Macarius said ; an entire contrariety both manifest and secret came in upon us from the transgression of Adam ; This I say became much worse , and more inordinate and tempted and vexed , and we were more under the Devils power , because we had the loss of our own . 12. The result is this , that neither the one nor the other , is our sin formally , but by imputation only , that is , we are not sinners but we are afflicted for his sin , and he is punished in us , and that it cannot be our sin properly , but metonymically , that is , our misery only ; appears to me demonstratively certain upon this account : For how can that in another be our sin when it is in us involuntary , when our own acts if involuntary , are not sins ? If it be asked how can we have the punishment unless we also have the fault ? I return this answer that S. Augustine and some others , who make this objection , have already given answer themselves , and Delirant reges plectuntur Achivi , is an answer enough ; as Saul sinned and his seven sons were hanged ; and all that evil which is upon us , being not by any positive infliction , but by privative , or the taking away gifts and blessings and graces from us , which God not having promised to give , was neither naturally nor by covenant obliged to give , it is certain , he could not be obliged to continue that to the sons of a sinning Father , which to an innocent Father he was not obliged to give . But these things which are only evils and miseries to us upon Adam's account , become direct punishments upon our own account , that is , if we sin . But then as to the argument it self : Certainly it were more probable to say , we had not the fault , we did not do the sin which another did : therefore the evil that we feel is our misery , but not our punishment ; rather than to say we are punished therefore we are guilty . For let what will happen to us , it is not true that we are guilty of what we never did ; and what ever comes upon us by the way of Empire and Dominion , nothing can descend upon us by the way of Justice , as relating to our own fault . But thus it was , that in him we are all sinners , that is , his sin is reckoned to us so as to bring evil upon us ; because we were born of him , and consequently put into the same natural state where he was left after his sin ( No otherwise than as children born of a bankrupt father ) are also miserable , not that they are guilty of their fathers sin , or that it is imputed so as to involve them in the guilt , but it is derived upon them and reckoned to evil events ; the very nature of birth and derivation from him infers it . 13. And this it is that S. Augustine once said , Nascimur non propriè , sed originaliter peccatores ▪ that is , Adam's sin is imputed to us , but we have none of our own born with us : and this expression of having Adam's sin imputed to us , is followed by divers of the Modern Doctours : by S. Bernard Serm. 11. de Dominicâ prima post 8. Epiph. by Lyr● in 5. cap. Rom. by Cajetan ibidem : by Bellarmine tom . 3. de amiss . gratiae lib. 5. cap. 17. by Dr. Whitaker lib. 1. de peccato Originali cap. 7. & 9. by Paraeus in his animadversions upon Bellar. lib. 5. de amiss . gratiae cap. 16. by Dr. George Charleton lib. de consensu Ecclesiae Catholicae contra Tridentinos Controvers . 4. which is the 5. chapter of Grace in these words : either we must with Pelagius wholly deny Original sin , or it must be by the imputation of the injustice that was in Adam that we are made sinners because Original sin is an imputed sin . The effect of this is that therefore it is not formally ours , and it is no sin inherent in us ; and then the imputation means nothing but that it brought evils upon us ; Our dying , our sorrow , and the affections of mortality , and concupiscence are the consequents of Adam's sin , and the occasion of ours , and so we are in him and by him , made sinners : and in this there can be no injustice , for this imputation brings nothing upon us as in relation to Adam's sin , but what by his power and justice he might have done without such Relation ; And what is just , if done absolutely , must needs be just if done Relatively , and because there is no other way to reconcile this with God's Justice , it follows , that there is no other sence of imputation than what is now explicated . SECT . III. The Doctrine of the Ancient Fathers was , that Free-will remained in Vs after the Fall. 14. ADAM's sin did not destroy the liberty of our election , but left it naturally as great as before the Fall. And here I observe that the Fathers before S. Augustine , generally maintained the Doctrine of Man's liberty remaining after the Fall ; the consequents of which are incompossible and inconsistent with the present Doctrines of Original sin . That the Doctrine of Mans liberty remaining was general and Catholick , appears by these few testimonies in stead of very many . Justin Martyr in his second apology for the Christians hath these words , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Christ hath declared that the Devil and his Angels and men that follow him shall be tormented in Hell for ever , which thing is not yet done for the sake of Mankind , because God foresees that some by repentance shall obtain salvation , even some that are not yet born : and from the beginning be created Mankind , so that he should be endued with understanding , and by the power of his free will should obtain choice to follow truth and to do well : wherefore all men are wholly left without excuse and defence before God ; for they are created by him reasonable and fit for contemplation . S. Cyrillus lib. 4. in Johan . 1.7 . Non possumus secundum Ecclesiae veritatisque dogmata liberam potestatem hominis , quod liberum arbitrium appellatur , ullo modo negare . S. Hieronymus epist. ad Ctesiphontem extrem . Frustra blasphemas & ignorantiam auribus ingeris , nos liberum arbitrium condemnare . Damnetur ille qui damnat . Author Hypognosticôn lib. 3. Ipsum liberum arbitrium in hominibus esse certâ fide credimus & praedicamus indubitantèr [ & infra ] est igitur liberum arbitrium : quod quisquis negaverit Catholicus non est . Gregor . Nyssenus the great Divine saith , lib. 7. de philosoph . c. 2. Concupiscere & 〈◊〉 concupiscere , mentiri & non mentiri , & quaecunque talia in quibus consistunt virtutis & vitii opera , haec sunt in nostro libero arbitrio . B. Macarius Aegyptius hom . 15. Caeterúmve semel & omninò resonet , & permanea● delectus & arbitrii libertas quam primitus homini dedit Deus , ea propter dispensatione suâ res administrantur , & corporum solutio sit , ut in voluntate hominis situm sit , ad bonum , vel malum converti . Marcus Heremita lib. de Baptismo , ultra medium , speaks more home to the particular question : Haec & similia , cum sciat scriptura in nostrâ potestate positum esse , ut haec agamus nec ne , propterea non Satanam , neque peccatum Adae sed nos increpat . [ & infra ] Primam conceptionem habemus ex dispensatione quemadmodum & ille , & perinde ac ille pro arbitrio possumus obtemperare vel non obtemperare . Julius Firmicus de erroribus profanarum religionum cap. 29. Liberum te Deus fecit : in tuâ manu est , ut aut vivas aut pereas , quia te per abrupta praecipitas . S. Ambros. in exposit . Psalm . 40. Homini dedit eligendi arbitrium quod sequatur , ante hominem vita & mors ; si deliqueris , non natura in culpa est , sed eligentis affectus . Gaudentius Brixianus tertio tractat . super Exod. Horum concessa semel voluntatis libertas non aufertur ne nihil de eo judicare possit , qui liber non fuerit in agendo . Boetius libro de consolatione philosophiae . Quae cum ita sint , manet intemerata mortalibus libertas arbitrii . Though it were easie to bring very many more testimonies to this purpose , yet I have omitted them because the matter is known to all learned Persons , and have chosen these because they testifie that our liberty of choice remains after the fall : that if we sin the fault is not in our Nature but in our Persons and Election : that still it is in our powers to do good or evil ; that this is the sentence of the Church : that he who denies this is not a Catholick believer . 15. And this is so agreeable to nature , to experience , to the sentence of all wise men , to the nature of laws , to the effect of reward , and punishments , that I am perswaded no man would deny it , if it were not upon this mistake ; For many wise and learned men dispute against it , because they find it affirmed in H. Scripture every where , that grace is necessary , that we are servants of sin , that we cannot come to God unless we be drawn , and very many more excellent things to the same purpose . Upon the account of which they conclude that therefore our free will is impaired by Adam's fall , since without the grace of God we cannot convert our selves to Godliness , and being converted , without it we cannot stand , and if we stand , without it we cannot go on , and going on , without it we cannot persevere . Now though all this be very true , yet there is a mistake in the whole Question . For when it is affirmed that Adam's sin did not , could not impair our liberty , but all that freedom of election which was concreated with his reason , and is essential to an understanding creature , did remain inviolate , there is no more said : but that after Adam's fall , all that which was natural remained , and that what Adam could naturally do , all that he and we can do afterwards . But yet this contradicts not all those excellent discourses which the Church makes of the necessity of Grace , of the necessity and effect of which I am more earnestly perswaded , and do believe more things , than are ordinarily taught in the Schools of Learning : But when I say , that our will can do all that it ever could , I mean all that it could ever do naturally , but not all that is to be done supernaturally . But then this I add , that the things of the Spirit , that is , all that belongs to spiritual life , are not naturally known , not naturally discerned ; but are made known to us by the Spirit ; and when they are known , they are not naturally amiable as being in great degrees , and many regards contradictory to natural desires ; but they are made amiable by the proposition of spiritual rewards , and our will is moved by God in wayes not natural , and the active and passive are brought together by secret powers ; and after all this our will being put into a supernatural order , does upon these presuppositions choose freely , and work in the manner of Nature . Our will is after Adam naturally as free as ever it was , and in spiritual things it 's free , when it is made so by the Spirit ; for Nature could never do that : according to that saying of Celestine . Nemo nisi per Christum libero arbitrio benè utitur . Omnis sancta cogitatio & motus bonae voluntatis ex Deo est . A man before he is in Christ hath free-will , but cannot use it well . He hath motions and operations of will ; but without God's grace they do not delight in holy things . But then in the next place there is another mistake also , when it is affirmed in the writings of some Doctors , that the will of man is depraved ; men presently suppose that Depravation is a Natural or Physical effect , and means a diminution of powers ; whereas it signifies nothing but a being in love with , or having chosen an evil object , and not an impossibility or weakness to do the contrary : but only because it will not ; For the powers of the will cannot be lessened by any act of the same faculty , for the act is not contrary to the faculty , and therefore can do nothing towards its destruction . III. As a consequent of this I infer that there is no natural necessity of sinning ; that is , there is no sinful action to which naturally we are determined ; but it is our own choice that we sin . This depending upon the former , stands or falls with it . But because God hath super-induced so many Laws , and the Devil super-induces temptations upon our weak nature , and we are to enter into a supernatural state of things ; therefore it is that we need the Helps of supernatural grace to enable us to do a supernatural duty in order to a divine end ; so that the necessity of sinning which we all complain of , though it be greater in us than it was in Adam before his fall , yet is not absolute in either , nor meerly natural , but accidental and super-induced ; and in remedy to it , God also hath superinduced and promised his Holy Spirit to them that ask Him. SECT . IV. Adam's Sin is not imputed to us to our Damnation . 16. BUT the main of all is this ; that this sin of Adam is not imputed unto us to Eternal Damnation . For Eternal Death was not threatned to Adam for his sin , and therefore could not from him come upon us for that which was none of ours . Indeed the Socinians affirm that the death which entered into the World by Adam's sin was Death Eternal ; that is , God then decreed to punish sinners with the portion of Devils . It is likely he did so , but that this was the death introduced for the sin of Adam upon all Man-kind , is not at all affirmed in Scripture : but temporal death is the effect of Adam's sin ; in Adam we all die , and the Death that Adam's sin brought in , is such as could have a remedy or recompence by Christ ; but Eternal Death hath no recompence , and shall never be destroyed ; but temporal death shall . But that which I say is this ; that for Adam's sin alone , no man but himself is or can justly be condemned to the bitter pains of Eternal Fire . This depends also upon the former accounts , because meer Nature brings not to Hell , but choice . Nihil ardet in inferno nisi propria voluntas , said S. Bernard ; and since Original sin is not properly ours , but only by imputation , if God should impute Adam's sin so as to damn any one for it , all our good we receive from God is much less than that evil ; and we should be infinitely to seek for justifications of God's justice and glorifications of his mercy , or testimonies of his goodness . But now the matter is on this side so reasonable in it self , that let a man take what side he will , he shall have parties enough , and no prejudices , or load of a consenting authority , can be against him , but that there shall be on the side of reason as great and leading persons , as there are of those who have been abused by errour and prejudice . In the time of S. Augustine , Vincentius , Victor , and some others , did believe that Infants dying without Baptism should never the less be saved , although he believed them guilty of Original sin : Bucer , Peter Martyr , and Calvin , affirmed the same of the children of faithful Parents , but Zuinglius affirmed it of all , and that no Infant did lose Heaven for his Original stain and corruption . Something less than this was the Doctrine of the Pelagians ; who exclude Infants unbaptized , from the Kingdom of Heaven : but promised to them an eternal and a natural beatitude , and for it S. Augustine reckons them for Hereticks as indeed being impatient of every thing almost which they said . But yet , the opinion was imbraced lately by Ambrosius Catherinus , Albertus Pighius , and Hieronymus Savanarola . And though S. Augustine sometimes calls as good Men as himself by the Name of Pelagians , calling all them so that assign a third place or state to Infants , yet besides these now reckoned , S. Gregory Nazianzen and his Scholiast Nicetes did believe and reach it ; and the same is affirmed also by S. Athanasius , or whoever is the Author of the Questions to Antiochus usually attributed to him , and also by S. Ambrose , or the Author of the Commentaries on S. Paul's Epistles , who lived in the time of Pope Damasus , that is , before 400. Years after Christ : and even by S. Augustine himself expresly in his third Book de libero arbitrio , cap. 23. But when he was heated with his disputations against the Pelagians , he denied all , and said that a middle place or state was never heard of in the Church . For all this , the opinion of a middle state for unbaptized Infants continued in the Church , and was expresly affirmed by Pope Innocent the third ; who although he says , Infants shall not see the face of God , yet he expresly denies that they shall be tormented in Hell : and he is generally followed by the Schoolmen ; who almost universally teach that Infants shall be deprived of the Vision Beatifical ; but shall not suffer Hell torments ; but yet they stoop so much towards S. Augustin's harsh and fierce Opinion that they say , this deprivation is a part of Hell , not of torment , but of banishment from God , and of abode in the place of torment . Among these , they are also divided , some affirming that they have some pain of sense , but little and light : others saying they have none , even as they pleased to fancy ; for they speak wholly without ground , and meerly by chance and interest ; and against the consent of Antiquity as I have already instanced . But Gregorius Ariminensis , Driedo , Luther , Melancthon , and Tilmanus Heshusius , are fallen into the worst of S. Augustine's opinion , and sentence poor Infants to the flames of Hell for Original sin if they die before Baptism . To this I shall not say much more than what I have said otherwhere : But that no Catholick Writer for 400. Years after Christ did ever affirm it , but divers affirmed the contrary . And indeed if the Unavoidable want of Baptism should damn Infants , for the fault which was also unavoidable , I do not understand how it can in any sence be true , that Christ died for all , if at least the Children of Christian Parents shall not find the benefit of Christ's Death , because that without the fault of any man they want the ceremony . Upon this account some good men observing the great sadness and the injustice of such an accident are willing upon any terms to admit Infants to Heaven , even without Baptism , if any one of their Relatives desire it for them , or if the Church desires it ; which in effect admits all Christian infants to Heaven ; Of this opinion were Gerson , Biel , Cajetan , and some others . All which to my sence seems to declare that if men would give themselves freedom of judgment , and speak what they think most reasonable , they would speak honour of God's mercy , and not impose such fierce and unintelligibe things concerning his justice and goodness , since our blessed Saviour concerning infants and those only who are like infants affirms that of such is the Kingdom of Heaven . But now in the midst of this great variety of Opinions it will be hard to pick out any thing that is certain . For my part I believe this only as certain , That Nature alone cannot bring them to Heaven ; and that Adam left us in a state in which we could not hope for it ; but this I know also , that as soon as this was done , Christ was promised , and that before there was any birth of Man or Woman ; and that God's Grace is greater and more communicative than sin , and Christ was more Gracious and effective than Adam was hurtful ; and that therefore it seems very agreeable to God's goodness to bring them to happiness by Christ , who were brought to misery by Adam , and that he will do this by himself alone in ways of his own finding out . And yet if God will not give them Heaven by Christ , he will not throw them into Hell by Adam : if his goodness will not do the first , his Goodness and his Justice will not suffer him to do the second : and therefore I consent to Antiquity and the Schoolmens opinion thus far ; that the destitution or loss of God's sight is the effect of Original sin , that is , by Adam's sin we were left so as that we cannot by it go to Heaven . But here I differ : Whereas they say this may be a final event ; I find no warrant for that ; and think it only to be an intermedial event ; that is , though Adam's sin left us there , yet God did not leave us there ; but instantly gave us Christ as a remedy ; and now what in particular shall be the state of Unbaptized infants , so dying , I do not profess to know or teach , because God hath kept it as a secret , I only know that he is a gracious Father , and from his goodness , nothing but goodness is to be expected ; and that is , since neither Scripture , nor any Father , till about Saint Augustine's time did teach the poor Babes could die , not onely once for Adam's sin , but twice and for ever , I can never think that I do my duty to GOD , if I think or speak any thing of him that seems so unjust , or so much against his goodness : And therefore although by Baptism , or by the ordinary Ministery , Infants are new born , and rescued from the state of Adam's account , which metonymically may be called a remitting of Original sin , that is , a receiving them from the punishment of Adam's sin , or the state of evil , whither in him they are devolved ; yet Baptism does but consider that grace which God gives in Jesus Christ , and he gives it more ways than one , to them that desire Baptism , to them that die for Christianity ; and the Church even in Origen's time , and before that , did account the Babes that died in Bethlehem by the Sword of Herod , to be Saints , and I do not doubt but he gives it many ways that we know not of . And therefore S. Bernard , and many others , do suppose that the want of Baptism is supplied by the Baptism of the H. Ghost . To which purpose the 87 Epistle of S. Bernard is worth the reading . But this I add , that those who affirmed that Infants without actual Baptism could not be saved ; affirmed the same also of them if they wanted the H. Eucharist , as is to be seen in Paulinus epigr. 6. The writer of Hypognosticon , lib. 5. S. Augustin Hom. 10. Serm. 8. de verbis Apostoli ; & 107 Epistle to Vitalis . And since no Church did ever enjoyn to any Catechumen , any Penance or Repentance for Original sin , it seems horrible and unreasonable , that any man can be damned for that for which no man is bound to repent . SECT . V. The Doctrine of Antiquity in this whole matter . The summe of all is this . 18. I. ORiginal Sin is Adam's sin imputed to us to many evil effects . II. It brings death and the evils of this life . III. Our evils and necessity being brought upon us , bring in a flood of passions which are hard to be bridled , or mortified . IV. It hath left us in pure naturals , disrobed of such aids extraordinary as Adam had . V. It deprives us of all title to Heaven or supernatural happiness , that is , it neither hath in it strength to live a spiritual life , nor title to a heavenly . VI. It leaves in us our natural concupiscence , and makes it much worse . Thus far I admit and explicate this Article . But all that I desire of the usual Propositions which are variously taught now adays , is this . I. Original sin is not an inherent evil ; not a sin properly , but metonymically ; that is , it is the effect of one sin , and the cause of many ; a stain , but no sin . II. It does not destroy our liberty which we had naturally . III. It does not introduce a natural necessity of sinning . IV. It does not damn any Infant to the Eternal Pains of Hell. And now how consonant my explication of the Article is to the first and best antiquity , besides the testimonies I have already brought here concerning some parts of it , will appear by the following authorities , speaking to the other parts of it , and to the whole Question . S. Ignatius the Martyr in his Epistle to the Magnesians , hath these words , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . If a man be a pious man , He is a man of God : if he be impious , he is of the Devil : not made so by nature , but by his own choice , and sentence , by which words he excludes nature , and affirms our natural liberty to be the cause of our good or evil ; that is , we are in fault : but not Adam , so as we are . And it is remarkable that Ignatius hath said nothing to the contrary of this , or to infirm the force of these words ; and they who would fain have alledged him to contrary purposes , cite him calling Adam's sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the old iniquity ; which appellative is proper enough , but of no efficacy in this question . Dionysius the Areopagite ( if he be the Author of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy ) does very well explicate this Article : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . When in the beginning humane nature foolishly fell from the state of good things which God gave it , it was then entred into a life of passions , and the end of the corruption of Death . This sentence of his differs not from that of S. Chrysostome before alledged ; for when man grew miserable by Adam's fall , and was disrobed of his aids , he grew passionate , and peevish , and tempted , and sick , and died . This is all his account of Adam's story : and it is a very true one . But the writer was of a later date , not much before S. Austin's time , as it is supposed ; but a learned and a Catholick believer . 19. Concerning Justin Martyr I have already given this account , that he did not think the liberty of choice impaired by Adam's sin ; but in his Dialogue with Tryphon the Jew , he gives no account of Original sin but this , that Christ was not crucified or born as if himself did need it , but for the sake of Mankind which by Adam fell into death and the deception of the Serpent , besides all that which men commit wickedly upon their own stock of impiety . So that the effect of Adam's sin was death , and being abused by the Devil ; for this very reason to rescue us from the effects of this deception , and death , and to redeem us from our impiety , Christ was born and died . But all this meddles not with any thing of the present Questions ; for to this all interests , excepting the Pelagians and Socinians , will subscribe . It is material which is spoken by him , or some under his name in the Questions and Answers to the Orthodox , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . There is no man who is by nature born to sin and do wickedly , but hath sinned and done wickedly . But he is by nature born to sin , who by the choice of his free-will is author to himself of doing what he will , whether it be good or bad . But an infant as being not indued with any such power , it appears sufficiently that he is not by nature born to sin . These words when they had been handled as men pleased , and turned to such sences as they thought they could escape by , at last they appear to be the words of one who understood nothing of Original sin , as it is commonly explicated at this day . For all that this Author ( for it was indeed some later Catholick Author , but not Justin ) did know of Original sin , was that which he relates in the answer to the 102 Question . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . We also are circumcised with the circumcision of Christ by baptism putting off Adam , by whom we being made sinners did die , and putting on Christ , by whom being Justified we are risen from the dead : In whom saith the Apostle we were circumcised with the circumcision which is made without hands , while you have put off your body . That is , Adam's sin made us to become sinners , that is , was imputed to us so that in him we die ; but by Christ being justified we are made alive ; that is , in him we are admitted to another life , a life after our resurrection ; and this is by baptism ; for there we die to Adam and live to Christ , we are initiated in a new birth to a new and more perfect state of things . But all this leaves Infants in a state of so much innocence , that they are not formally guilty of a sin , but imperfect and insufficient to righteousness , and every one hath his liberty left him to do as he please : so far is affirmed by the author of these answers . But the sentence of Justin Martyr in this article may best be conjectured by his discourse , at large undertaking to prove 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . A freedom of Election to fly evil things , and to choose that which is good , set down in his second apology for the Christians . Theophilus Antiochenus affirms that which destroys the new 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , about Adam's perfection and rare knowledge in the state of innocence . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Adam in that age was yet as an infant , and therefore did not understand that secret , viz. that the fruit which he eat had in it nothing but knowledge : and a little after reckoning the evil consequents of Adam's sin , he names these onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , grief , sorrow , and death at last . 20. Clemens of Alexandria ( having affirmed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that by nature we are born apt to vertue : not that we have vertue from our birth , but that we are apt to require it from thence ) takes opportunity to discuss this question , whether Adam was formed perfect or imperfect ? If imperfect , how comes it to pass that the 〈◊〉 of God , especially Man , should be imperfect ? If perfect , how came he to break the commandments ? He answers that Adam was not made perfect in his constitution , but prepared indeed for vertue . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . For God would have us by our selves ( that is , by our own choice ) to be 〈◊〉 . For it is the nature of the Soul to be driven and stirred up by it self . Many more things to the same purpose he affirms in perfect contradiction to them who believe Adam's sin so to have debauched our faculties that we have lost all our powers of election : our powers of election grow stronger , not weaker , according as our knowledge increases . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . That which was in Adam ( meaning his free-will ) that was it which grew with the increase of a man. Therefore it was not lost by Adam . But more pertinent to the present Questions are these words . An innocent Martyr suffers like an infant . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; an infant neither committed actual sin , or sin in himself ; neither hath he sinned before-hand ; that is , properly in Adam , to whose sin he gave no consent ; for else there can be no antithesis or opposition in the parts of his distinction [ ●● sinned not actually in himself ] being one member , the other [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or sinning before ] being opposed to actual sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in himself ; must mean Original and in another . And this he also expresly affirms : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . When Tatianus and the Encratites did design to prove marriage to be unlawful , because it produced nothing but sinners : and to that purpose urged those words of Job , There is no man free from pollution 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , though his life be but of one day . For so antiquity did generally quote the 25 of Job . 4. following the Lxx which interpret● the place ; there being neither the same words nor the like sence in the Hebrew . But that very Quotation had no small influence into the forward perswasions of the article concerning Original sin , as is visible to them that have read the writings of the Ancient D. D. But to the things here objected Clemens replied : Let them tell us the● how an infant newly born hath fornicated or polluted himself , or how he is fallen under the curse of Adam , he who hath done nothing ? He had no other way to extricate himself . For if marriage produces none but sinners , persons hated by God , formally guilty of sin , then as the Fruit is , such is the Tree . He answers : True , if it were so , but marriage produces infants that are innocent , and having done nothing evil yet , they never deserved to fall under Adam's curse . The effect of which is this , that to them , sickness and death is a misery , but not formally a punishment ; because they are innocent , and formally are no sinners . Some to elude this testimony would make these words to be the words of the Encratites or Julius Cassianus : but then they are no sence , but a direct objection to themselves . But the case is clear to them that read and understand ; and therefore the Learned and Good man Johannes Gerardus V●ssius confesses down-right . Clementem Alexandrinum non satis intellexisse peccatum Originale . That he did not understand the doctrine of Original sin . This only I add , that he takes from the Objector that place of David , In sin hath my mother conceived 〈◊〉 ; affirming that by my mother , he means Eve , and that she peccatrix concepit , sed non peccatorem , she was in sin when she conceived him , but he was not in sin when he was conceived . But the meaning of Clemens Alex. is easily to be understood , to be consonant to truth , and the usual doctrine of the first ages , which makes Adam's sin to be ours by imputation , but that no sin upon that title is inherent in us ; and Clemens Alex. understood the Question very well , though not to the purposes of our new Opinions . 21. Tertullian speaks of the sin of Adam several times , but affirms not , that we have any formal , proper and inherent sin : But that the soul of man is a sinner , because it is unclean , just as it was amongst the rites of Moses Law , where legal impurity was called sin , and that we derive from Adam , a shame rather than a sin , an ignominy or reproach , like that of being born of dishonourable Parents , or rather , from the society of the flesh , ( as he expresses it ) and that this dishonour lasts upon us till we enter upon a new relation in Christ. Ita omnis anima eo usque in Adam censetur , donec in Christo recenseatur , tamdiu immunda quamdiù recenseatur . Peccatrix a. quia immunda , recipiens ignominiam suam ex carnis societate . And this which he here calls a reproach , he otherwhere calls an imperfection or a shame , saying , by Sathan man at first was circumvented , and therefore given up unto Death , and from thence all the kind was from his seed infected , he made a traduction of his sentence or damnation : to wit , unto death , which was his condemnation ; and therefore speaking of the woman , he says , the sentence remaining upon her in this life , it is necessary that the guilt also should remain ; which words are rough and hard to be understood , because after Baptism the guilt does not remain ; but by the following words we may guess that he means , that women still are that which Eve was , even snares to men , gates for the Devil to enter , and that they ( as Eve did ) dare and can prevail with men , when the Devil by any other means cannot . I know nothing else that he says of this Article , save only , that according to the constant sence of antiquity he affirms , that the natural faculties of the Soul were not impaired . Omnia naturalia animae , ut substantiva ejus ipsi inesse , & cum ipsâ procedere atque proficere . And again , Hominis anima velut surculus quidam ex Matrice Adam in propaginem deducta , & genitalibus foeminae foveis commendata , cum omni sua paratura pullulabi● , tam in intellectu quam in sensu . The soul like a sprig from Adam derived into his off-spring and put into the bed of its production shall with all its appendages spring or increase both in sence and understanding . And that there is liberty of choice ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which supposes liberty ) he proved against Marcion and Hermogenes , as himself affirms in the 21 Chap. of the same Book . S. Cyprian proving the effect of Baptism upon all , and consequently the usefulness to Infants , argues thus , If pardon of sins is given to the greatest sinners and them that before sinned much against God , and afterwards believed , and none is forbidden to come to baptism and grace , how much more must not an infant be forbidden , qui recens natus nihil peccavit nisi quod secundum Adam carnaliter natus contagium mortis antiquae primâ nativitate contraxit , qui ad remissam peccatorum accipiendam hoc ipso facilius accedit , quod illi remittuntur , non propria sed aliena peccata , Who being new born hath not sinned at all ▪ but only being born carnally of Adam , he hath in his first birth , contracted the contagion of the old death : which comes to the remission of sin the more easily , because not his own sins , but the sins of another are forgiven him . In which it is plainly affirmed that the Infant is innocent , that he hath not sinned himself , that there is in him no sin inherent , that Adam's sin therefore only is imputed , that all the effect of it upon him , is the contagion of death , that is , mortality , and its affections ; and according as the sins are , so is the remission , they are the infants improperly and metonymically , therefore so is the remission . But Arnobius speaks yet more plainly ; Omne peccatum corde concipitur , & ●re consummatur . Hic autem qui nascitur sententiam Adae habet , Peccatum verò suum non habet . He that is born of Adam hath the sentence of Adam upon him , but not the sin , that is , he hath no sin inherent but the punishment inflicted by occasion of it . The author of the short commentaries upon the Epistles of St. Paul attributed to S. Ambrose speaks so much , that some have used the authority of this writer , to prove that there is no Original sin : as Sixtus Senensis relates . His words are these , Mors autem dissolutio corporis est , cum anima à corpore separatur : est & alia mors que secunda dicitur , in gehenna ; quam non peccato Adae patimur , sed ejus occasione propri●● peccatis acquiritur . Death is the dissolution of the Body , when the Soul is separated from it . There is also another death in Hell which is called the second death , which we suffer not from Adam's sin , but by occasion of it , it is acquired by our own sins . These words need no explication , for when he had in the precedent words affirmed that we all sinned in the Mass of Adam , this following discourse states the Question right , and declares , that though Adam's sin be imputed to us , to certain purposes , yet no man can be damned to the second Death for it , it is a testimony so plain for the main part of my affirmation in this Article , that as there is not any thing against it within the first 400 years ; so he could not be accounted a Catholick author , if the contrary had been the sence or the prevailing Opinion of the Church . 22. To these I shall add the clearest testimonies of S. Chrysostome [ It seems to have in it no small Question , that it is said that by the disobedience of one , many become sinners . For sinning and being made mortal , it is not unlikely that they which spring from him should be so too . But that another should be made a sinner by his disobedience , what agreement or consequent I beseech you can it have ? what therefore doth this word [ Sinner ] in this place signifie ? It seems to me to signifie the same that [ lyable to punishment , guilty of Death ] does signifie , because Adam dying , all are made mortal by him . And again , Thou sayest what shall I do ? by him , that is , by Adam I perish . No not for him . For hast thou remained without sin ? For though thou hast not committed the same sin , yet another thou hast . And in the 29 Homily upon the same Epistle , he argues thus : What therefore , tell me , are all dead in Adam by the death of sin ? How then was Noah a just man in his generation ? How was Abraham and Job ? If this be to be understood of the body , the sentence will be certain , but if it be understood of justice and sin it will not . But to sum up all ; he answers the great Argument used by S. Austin to prove infants to be in a state of damnation and sin properly , because the Church baptizes them , and Baptism is for the remission of sins . Thou seest how many benefits there are of Baptism ; But many think that the grace of baptism consists only in the remission of sins : But we have reckoned 〈◊〉 honours of baptism . For this cause we baptize infants , although they are not polluted with sin , to wit , that to them may be added sanctity , justice , adoption , inheritance , and the fraternity of Christ : Divers other things might be transcribed to the same purposes out of S. Chrysostome , but these are abundantly sufficient to prove that I have said nothing new in this Article . Theodoret does very often consent with S. Chrysostome , even when he differs from others , and in this Article he consents with him and the rest now reckoned ; when God made Adam and adorned him with reason , he gave him one commandement that he might exercise his reason : he being deceived broke the commandement and was exposed to the sentence of death , and so he begat Cain and Seth and others : but all these as being begotten of him had a mortal nature . This kind of Nature wants many things , meat and drink and cloaths , and dwelling and divers arts : the use of these things often-times provokes to excess ; and the excess begets sin . Therefore the divine Apostle saith that when Adam had sinned and was made mortal for his sin , both came to his stock , that is , death and sin , for death came upon all inasmuch as all men have sinned . For every man suffers the decree of death , not for the sin of the first man , but for his own . Much more to the same purpose he hath upon the same Chapter : but this is enough to all the purposes of this Question . Now if any man thinks that though these give testimony in behalf of my explication of this Article , yet that it were easie to bring very many more to the contrary . I answer and profess ingenuously , that I know of none till about S. Austin's time ; for that the first Ages taught the doctrine of Original sin I do no ways doubt , but affirm it all the way , but that it is a sin improperly , that is , a stain and a reproach rather than a sin , that is , the effect of one sin and the cause of many , that it brought in sickness and death , mortality and passions , that it made us naked of those supernatural aides , that Adam had , and so more lyable to the temptations of the Devil ; this is all I find in antiquity , and sufficient for the explication of this question , which the more simply it is handled , the more true and reasonable it is . But that I may use the words of Solomon according to the Vulgar translation . Hoc inveni , quod fecerit Deus hominem rectum , & ipse se infinitis miscuerit quaestionibus , God made man upright , and he hath made himself more deformed than he is , by mingling with innumerable questions . 23. I think I have said enough to vindicate my sentence from Novelty , and though that also be sufficient to quit me from singularity , yet I have something more to add as to that particular , and that is , that it is very hard for a man to be singular in this Article , if he would . For first , in the Primitive Church , when Valentinus and Marcion , Tatianus , Julius Cassianus , and the Encratites condemned marriage upon this account , because it produces that only which is impure , many good men and right believers , did to justifie marriages , undervalue the matter of Original sin ; this begat new questions in the manner of speaking , and at last , real differences were entertained , and the Pelagian Heresie grew up upon this stock . But they changed their Propositions so often , that it was hard to tell what was the Heresie : But the first draught of it was so rude , so confused , and so unreasonable , that when any of the followers of it , spake more warily , and more learnedly , yet by this time , the name Pelagian was of so ill a sound , that they would not be believed if they spake well , nor trusted in their very recantations , nor understood in their explications , but cryed out against in all things right or wrong : and in the fierce prosecution of this , S. Austin and his followers , Fulgenti●● , Prosper , and others did excedere in dogmate , & pati aliquid humanum . S. Austin called them all Pelagians who were of the middle opinion concerning infants , and yet many Catholicks both before and since his time do profess it . The Augustan confession calls them Pelagians , who say that concupiscence is only the effect of Adam's sin , and yet all the Roman Churches say it confidently : and every man that is angry in this Question calls his Enemy Pelagian , if he be not a Stoic , or a Manichee , a Valentinian , or an Encratite . But the Pelagians say so many things in their Controversie , that like them that ●●lk much , they must needs say some things well , though very many things amiss : but if every thing which was said against S. Austin in these controversies be Pelagianism , then all Antiquity were Pelagians and himself besides ; For he before his disputes in these Questions said much against what he said after , as every learned man knows . But yet it is certain , that even after the Pelagian Heresie was conquered , there were many good men , who ( because they from every part take the good and leave the poyson ) were called Pelagians by them that were angry at them for being of another opinion , in some of their Questions . Cassian was a good and holy man , and became the great rule of Monastines , yet because he spake reason in his exhortations to Piety , and justified God , and blamed man , he is called Pelagian : and the Epistle ad Demetriadem , and the little commentary on S. Paul's Epistles were read and commended highly by all men , so long as they were supposed to be S. Hierom's , but when some fancied that Faustus was the author , they suspect the writings for the Man's sake ; and how-ever S. Austin was triumphant in the main Article against those Hereticks , and there was great reason he should , yet that he took in too much , and confuted more than he should , appears in this , that though the World followed him in the condemnation of Pelagianisme , yet the World left him in many things which he was pleased to call Pelagianisme . And therefore when Arch-Bishop Bradwardin wrote his Books de causâ Dei , against the liberty of will , and for the fiercer way of absolute decrees ; he complains in his Preface , that the whole World was against him , and gone after Pelagius in causa liberi arbitrii . Not that they really were made so , but that it is an usual thing to affright men from their reasons by Names and words , and to confute an argument by slandering him that uses it . Now this is it that I and all men else ought to be troubled at , if my doctrine be accused of singularity , I cannot acquit my self of the charge , but by running into a greater . For if I say that one Proposition is taught by all the Roman Schools ; and therefore I am not singular in it ; They reply , it is true , but then it is Popery which you defend . If I tell , that the Lutherans defend another part of it , then the Calvinists hate it therefore because their enemies avow it . Either it is Popery , or Pelagianisme ; you are an Arminian , or a Socinian . And either you must say that which no body sayes , and then you are singular : or if you do say as others say , you shall feel the reproach of the party that you own , which is also disowned by all but it self . That therefore which I shall choose to say is this , that the doctrine of Original sin as I explicate it , is wholly against the Pelagians , for they wholly deny Original sin , affirming that Adam did us no hurt by his sin , except only by his example . These Men are also followed by the Anabaptists , who say that death is so natural , that it is not by Adam's fall , so much as made actual . The Albigenses were of the same opinion . The Socinians affirm that Adam's sin was the occasion of bringing eternal death into the World , but that it no way relates to us , not so much as by imputation . But I having shewed in what sence Adam's sin is imputed to us , am so far either from agreeing with any of these , or from being singular , that I have the acknowledgment of an adversary , even of Bellarmine himself , that it is the doctrine of the Church ; and he laboriously endeavours to prove that Original sin is meerly ours by imputation . Add to this that he also affirms that when Zuinglius says that Original sin is not properly a sin , but metonymically , that is , the effect of one sin , and the cause of many , that in so saying he agrees with the Catholicks . Now these being the main affirmatives of my discourse , it is plain that I am not alone , but more are with me , than against me . Now though he is pleased afterwards to contradict himself , and say it is veri nominis peccatum , yet because I understood not how to reconcile the opposite parts of a contradiction , or tell how the same thing should be really a sin , and yet be so but by a figure onely , how it should be properly a sin , and yet onely metonymically , and how it should be the effect of sin , and yet that sin whereof it is an effect , I confess here I stick to my reason and my proposition , and leave Bellarmine and his Catholicks to themselves . 25. And indeed they that say Original sin is any thing really , any thing besides Adam's sin imputed to us to certain purposes , that is , effecting in us certain evils , which dispose to worse , they are , according to the nature of error , infinitely divided , and agree in nothing but in this , that none of them can prove what they say . Anselme , Bonaventure , Gabriel and others say that Original sin is nothing but a want of Original righteousness . Others say that they say something of truth , but not enough ; for a privation can never be a positive sin , and if it be not positive it cannot be inherent : and therefore that it is necessary that they add indignitatem habendi ; a certain unworthiness to have it being in every man , that is , the sin . But then if it be asked what makes them unworthy , if it be not the want of Original righteousness ? and that then they are not two things but one , seemingly , and none really , they are not yet agreed upon an answer . Aquinas and his Scholars say , Original sin is a certain spot upon the soul. Melancthon considering that concupiscence or the faculty of desiring , or the tendency to an object could not be a sin , fancied Original sin to be an actual depraved desire . Illyrious says it is the substantial image of the Devil . Scotus and Durandus say it is nothing but a meer guilt , that is , an obligation passed upon us , to suffer the evil effects of it : which indeed is most moderate of all the opinions of the School , and differs not at all , or scarce discernibly from that of Albertus Pighius , and Catharinus , who say that Original sin is nothing , but the disobedience of Adam imputed to us . But the Lutherans affirm it to be the depravation of humane nature without relation to the sin of Adam , but a vileness that is in us ; The Church of Rome of late sayes that besides the want of Original righteousness with an habitual aversion from God ; it is a guiltiness and a spot ; but it is nothing of Concupiscence , that being the effect of it only . But the Protestants of Mr. Calvin's perswasion affirm that concupiscence is the main of it , and is a sin before and after Baptism ; but amongst all this infinite uncertainty , the Church of England speaks moderate words apt to be construed to the purposes of all peaceable men that desire her communion . 26. Thus every one talks of Original sin , and agree that there is such a thing , but what it is , they agree not : and therefore in such infinite Variety , he were of a strange imperious spirit that would confine others to his particular fancy ; For my own part now that I have shown what the Doctrine of the purest Ages was , what uncertainty there is of late in the Question , what great consent there is in some of the main parts of what I affirm , and that in the contrary particulars Men cannot agree , I shall not be ashamed to profess what company I now keep in my opinion of the Article ; no worse Men than Zuinglius , Stapulensis , the great Erasmus , and the incomparable Hugo Grotius , who also says there are multi in Gallia qui eandem sententiam magnis same argumentis tuentur , many in France which with great argument defend the same sentence ; that is , who explicate the article intirely as I do ; and as S. Chrysostome and Theodoret did of old in compliance with those H. Fathers that went before them : with whom although I do not desire to erre , yet I suppose their great names are guard sufficient against prejudices and trifling noises , and an amulet against the Names of Arminian , Socinian , Pelagian , and I cannot tell what Monsters of appellatives ; But these are but Boyes tricks , and arguments of Women ; I expect from all that are wiser , to examine whether this Opinion does not , or whether the contrary does better explicate the truth , with greater reason , and to better purposes of Piety ; let it be examined which best glorifies God , and does honour to his justice and the reputation of his Goodness ; which does with more advantage serve the interest of holy living , and which is more apt to patronize carelesness and sin : These are the measures of wise and good men ; the other are the measures of Faires and Markets ; where fancy and noise do govern . SECT . VI. An Exposition of the Ninth Article of the Church of England concerning Original sin ; according to Scripture and Reason . 27. AFter all this , it is pretended and talked of , that my Doctrine of Original sin is against the Ninth Article of the Church of England ; and that my attempt to reconcile them was ineffective . Now although this be nothing to the truth or falshood of my Doctrine , yet it is much concerning the reputation of it . Concerning which , I cannot be so much displeased that any man should so undervalue my reason , as I am highly content that they do so very much value her Authority . But then to acquit my self and my Doctrine from being contrary to the Article , all that I can do is to expound the Article , and make it appear that not only the words of it , are capable of a fair construction , but also that it is reasonable they should be expounded so as to agree with Scripture and reason , and as may best glorifie God and that they require it . I will not pretend to believe that those Doctors who first fram'd the Article did all of them mean as I mean ; I am not sure they did , or that they did not , but this I am sure , that they fram'd the words with much caution and prudence , and so as might abstain from grieving the contrary minds of differing men . And I find that in the Harmony of confessions printed in Cambridge 1586 , and allowed by publick Authority , there is no other account given of the English confession in this Article , but that every Person is born in sin , and leadeth his life in sin , and that no body is able truly to say his heart is clean . That the most righteous person is but an unprofitable servant : That the Law of God is perfect and requireth of us perfect and full obedience : that we are able by no means to fulfill that Law in this worldly life : that there is no mortal Creature which can be justified by his own deserts in God's sight . Now this was taken out of the English Confession inserted in the General Apology written in the year 1562 , in the very year the Articles were fram'd . I therefore have reason to believe that the excellent men of our Church ; Bishops and Priests , did with more Candor and Moderation opine in this Question ; and therefore when by the violence and noises of some parties they were forced to declare something , they spake warily , and so as might be expounded to that Doctrine which in the General Apology was their allowed sence . However , it is not unusual for Churches in matters of difficulty to frame their Articles so as to serve the ends of peace , and yet not to endanger truth , or to destroy liberty of improving truth , or a further reformation . And since there are so very many Questions and Opinions in this point , either all the Dissenters must be allowed to reconcile the Article and their Opinion , or must refuse her Communion , which whosoever shall inforce is a great Schismatick and an Uncharitable Man. This only is certain , that to tye the Article and our Doctrine together is an excellent art of peace , and a certain signification of obedience ; and yet is a security of truth , and that just liberty of Understanding , which because it is only God's subject is then sufficiently submitted to Men , when we consent in the same form of words . The Article is this . Original Sin standeth not in the following of Adam ( as the Pelagians do vainly talk ] 28. THE following of Adam ] that is , the doing as he did , is actual sin , and in no sence can it be Original sin , for that is as vain as if the Pelagians had said , the second is the first ; and it is as impossible that what we do should be Adam's sin , as it is unreasonable to say that his should be really and formally our sin ; Imitation supposes a Copy , and those are two termes of a Relation , and cannot be coincident , as , like is not the same . But then if we speak of Original sin as we have our share in it , yet cannot our imitation of Adam be it , possibly it may be an effect of it , or a Consequent . But therefore Adam's sin did not introduce a necessity of sinning upon us : for if it did , Original sin would be a fatal curse by which is brought to pass , not only that we do but that we cannot choose but follow him , and then the following of Adam would be the greatest part of Original sin expresly against the Article . 29. But it is the fault and corruption of the Nature of every Man. The fault ] vitium Naturae , so it is in the Latine Copyes not a sin properly , Non talia sunt vitia , quae jam peccata dicenda sunt : but a disease of the Soul , as blindness , or crookedness ; that is , it is an imperfection or state of deficiency from the end whither God did design us : we cannot with this nature alone go to Heaven ; for it having been debauch'd by Adam , and disrobed of all its extraordinaries and graces whereby it was or might have been made fit for Heaven , it is returned to its own state which is perfect in its kind , that is , in order to all natural purposes , but imperfect in order to supernatural , whither it was design'd . The case is this . The eldest Son of Craesus the Lydian was born dumb , and by the fault of his Nature was unfit to govern the Kingdom , therefore his Father passing him by , appointed the Crown to his younger Brother ; But he in a Battail seeing his Father in danger to be slain , in Zeal to save his Fathers life strain'd the ligatures of his tongue , till that broke which bound him ; by returning to his speech , he returned to his title . We are born thus imperfect , unfit to raign with God for ever , and can never return to a title to our inheritance till we by the grace of God be redintegrate and made perfect like Adam : that is , freed from this state of imperfection by supernatural aides , and by the grace of God be born again . Corruption ] This word is exegetical of the other , and though it ought not to signifie the diminution of the powers of the soul , not only because the powers of the soul are not corruptible , but because if they were , yet Adams sin could not do it , since it is impossible that an act proper to a faculty should spoil it , of which it is rather perfective : and an act of the will can no more spoil the will , than an act of understanding can lessen the understanding : Yet this word [ Corruption ] may mean a spoiling or disrobing our Nature of all its extraordinary investitures , that is , supernatural gifts and graces , a Comparative Corruption : so as Moses's face when the light was taken from it , or a Diamond which is more glorious by a reflex ray of the Sun , when the light was taken off , falls into darkness , and yet loses nothing of its Nature . But Corruption relates to the body , not to the soul , and in this Article may very properly and aptly be taken in the same sence , as it is used by S. Paul , 1 Cor. 15. The body is sown in Corruption , that is , in all the effects of its mortality , and this indeed is a part of Original sin , or the effect of Adams sin , it introduc'd Natural Corruption , or the affections of mortality , the solemnities of death ; for indeed this is the greatest parth of Original sin ; Fault and Corruption , mean the Concupiscence and Mortality . Of the Nature of every man ] This gives light to the other , and makes it clear it cannot be in us properly a sin , for sin is an affection of persons , not of the whole Nature : for an Universal cannot be the subject of circumstances , and particular actions , and personal proprieties ; as humane Nature cannot be said to be drunk , or to commit adultery ; now because sin is an action or omission , and it is made up of many particularities , it cannot be subjected in humane Nature , for if it were otherwise , then an universal should be more particular than that which is Individual , and a whole should be less than a part ; actiones sunt suppositorum , and so for omissions ; now every sin is either one or other : and therefore it is impossible that this which is an affection of an universal , viz. of humane Nature , can be a sin , for a sin is a breach of some Law , to which not Natures , but Persons are obliged , and which Natures cannot break , because not Natures , but persons only do or neglect . 30. That Naturally is engendred of the off-spring of Adam . This clause is inserted to exclude Christ from the participation of Adams sin . But if concupiscence which is in every mans Nature be a sin , it is certain Christ had no concupiscence or natural desires , for he had no sin . But if he had no concupiscence or natural desires , how he should be a man , or how capable of law , or how he should serve God with choice , where there could be no potentia ad oppositum , I think will be very hard to be understood : Christ felt all our infirmities , yet without sin : All our infirmities are the effects of the sin of Adam , and part of that which we call Original sin , therefore all these our infirmities which Christ felt , as in him they were for ever without sin , so as long as they are only Natural , & Unconsented to , must be in us without sin . For whatsoever is Naturally in us is Naturally in him ; but a man is not a man without Natural desires , therefore these were in him , in him without sin , and therefore so in us , without sin , I mean , properly , really , and formally . But there 's a Catachresis also in these words , or an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Naturally engendred of the off-spring of Adam ] Cain , and Abel , and Seth , and all the sons of Adam , who were the first off-spring , and not engendred of the off-spring of Adam , were as guilty as we : But they came from Adam , but not from Adams off-spring , therefore the Articles is to be expounded to the sence of these words , Naturally engendred [ or are ] of the off-spring of Adam . 31. Whereby Man is very far gone from Original Righteousness . That is , men are devolved to their Natural condition , devested of all those gifts and graces which God gave to Adam , in order to his supernatural end , and by the help of which he stood in Gods favour , and innocent until the fatal period of his fall : This Original Righteousness or innocence , we have not Naturally , for our Natural innocence is but Negative , that is , we have not consented to sin . The Righteousness he had before his fall I suppose was not only that , but also his doing many actions of obedience , and intercourse with God , even all which passed between God and himself till his eating the forbidden fruit : For he had this advantage over us . He was created in a full use of reason ; we his descendents enter into the world in the greatest imperfection , and are born under a law , which we break before we can understand , and it is imputed to us as our understanding increases : And our desires are strongest when our Understanding is weakest : and therefore by this very Oeconomy which is natural to us , we must needs in the Condition of our nature be very far from Adams Original Righteousness , who had perfect reason before he had a law , and had understanding assoon as he had desires . This clause thus understood is most reasonable and true , but the effect of it can be nothing in prejudice of the main business , and if any thing else be meant by it , I cannot understand it to have any ground in Scripture or Reason ; and I am sure our Church does not determine for it . 32. And is inclined to evil . That every Man is inclined to evil , some more , some less , but all in some instances , is very true : and it is an effect or condition of nature , but no sin properly . Because that which is unavoidable is not a sin . 2. Because it is accidental to nature , not intrinsecal and essential . 3. It is superinduc'd to Nature , and is after it , and comes by reason of the laws which God made after he made our Nature ; he brought us laws to check our Nature , to cross and displease , that by so doing we may prefer God before our selves : this also with some variety ; for in some laws there is more liberty than in others , and therefore less Natural inclination to disobedience . 4. Because our Nature is inclined to good and not to evil in some instances , that is , in those which are according to nature , and there is no greater Endearment of vertue , than the Law and Inclination of Nature in all the Instances of that Law. 5. Because that which is intended for the occasion of vertue and reward , is not Naturally and essentially the principle of Evil. 6. In the instances in which Naturally we incline to evil , the inclination is naturally good , because it is to its proper object , but that it becomes morally evil , must be personal , for the law is before our persons ; it cannot be Natural , because the law by which that desire can become evil is after it . 33. So that the flesh lusteth against the spirit . This clause declares what kind of inclination to evil is esteemed criminal ; That which is approved , that which passeth to act , that which is personally delighted in , in the contention which is after regeneration or reception of the Holy Spirit ; For the flesh cannot lust against the spirit in them that have not the spirit : unless both the principles be within , there can be no contention between them , as a man cannot fight a duel alone , so that this is not the sin of Nature , but of persons , for though potentially it is sin , yet actually and really it is none , until it resist the spirit of God , which is the principle put into us to restore us to as good a state at least , as that was which we were receded from in Adam . By the way it is observable that the Article makes only concupiscence or lusting to be the effect of Adams sin , but affirms nothing of the loss of the wills liberty , or diminution of the understanding or the rebellion of the passions against reason , but only against the spirit , which certainly is Natural to it , and in Adam did rebel against Gods Commandments when it was the in-let to the sin , and therefore could not be a punishment of it . And therefore ] The illative conjunction expresly declares that the sence of the Church of England is , that this corruption of our Nature in no other sence , and for no other reason is criminal , but because it does resist the Holy spirit : therefore it is not evil till it does so , and therefore if it does not , it is not evil . For if the very inclination were a sin , then when this inclination is contested against , at the same time , and in the same things the man sins and does well , and he can never have a temptation but he offends God , and then how we should understand S. James's rule , that we should count it all joy when we enter into temptation , is beyond my reach and apprehension . The Natural inclination hath in it nothing moral , and g. as it is good in Nature , so it is not ill in manners ; the supervening consent or dissent makes it morally good or evil . 34. In every person born into the world it deserveth Gods wrath and damnation . Viz. When it is so consented to , when it resists and overcomes the spirit of grace . For we being devested of the grace given to the first Adam , are to be renewed by the spirit of grace , the effect of the second Adam ; which grace when we resist , we do as Adam did , and reduce our selves back into the state where Adam left us . That was his sin , and not ours , but this is our sin and not his ; both of them deserve Gods wrath and damnation , but by one he deserved it , and by the other we deserve it . But then it is true , that this corrupted Nature deserves Gods wrath , but we and Adam deserve not in the same formality , but in the same material part we do . He left our Nature naked , and for it he deserved Gods wrath , if we devest our Nature of the new grace we return to the same state of Nature , but then we deserve Gods wrath ; so that still the object of Gods wrath is our mere Nature so as left by Adam , but though he sinned in the first disrobing , and we were imperfect by it , yet we sin not till the second disrobing , and then we return to the same imperfection , and make it worse . But I consider , that although some Churches in their confessions express it , yet the Church of England does not : they add the word , Eternal , to Damnation ; but our Church abstains from that : therefore [ Gods wrath and damnation ] can signifie the same that damnation does in S. Paul ; all the effects of Gods anger . Temporal Death , and the miseries of mortality was the effect of Adams sin , and of our being reduc'd to the Natural and Corrupted , or worsted state : Or secondly , they may signifie the same that hatred does in S. Paul and in Malachi , Esau have I hated , that is , lov'd him less , or did not give him what he was born to : he lost the primogeniture , and the Priesthood , and the blessing . So do we naturally fall short of Heaven . This is hatred or the wrath of God , and his Judgment upon the sin of Adam to condemn us to a state of imperfection and misery , and death , and deficiency from supernatural happiness , all which I grant to be the effect of Adams sin , and that our imperfect Nature deserves this , that is , it can deserve no better . 35. And this infection of Nature . Viz. This imperfection , not any inherent quality that by contact pollutes the relatives and descendants , but this abuse and reproach of our Nature , this stain of our Nature , by taking off the supernatural grace , and beauties put into it , like the cutting off the beards of Davids Embassadors , or stripping a man of his robe , and turning him abroad in his natural shame , leaving him naked as Adam and we were . But the word [ infection ] being metaphorical , may aptly signifie any thing that is analogical to it : and may mean a Natural habitude or inclination to forbidden instances : But yet it signifies a very great evil , for in the best Authors , to be such by Nature , means an aggravation of it . So Carion in Aristophanes . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . This man is very miserable , or miserable by Nature : and again , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; Do you believe me to be such a man by Nature , that I can speak nothing well ? 36. Doth remain , yea in them that are regenerated . That is , all the baptized and unbaptized receive from Adam nothing but what is inclined to forbidden instances , which is a principle , against which , and above which the spirit of God does operate . For this is it which is called , the lust of the flesh : for so it follows , whereby the lust of the flesh ; that is , the desires and pronenesses to Natural objects , which by Gods will came to be limited , order'd and chastis'd , curb'd and restrain'd , 37. Called in Greek , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Here it is plain , that the Church of England , though she found it necessary to declare something in the fierce contention of the time , in order to peace and unity of expression , yet she was not willing too minutely to declare and descend to the particulars on either side , and therefore she was pleas'd to make use of the Greek word , of the sence of which there were so many disputes , and recites the most usual redditions of the word . 38. Which some do expound the wisdom , some the sensuality , some the affection , some the desire of the flesh , is not subject to the law of God. These several expositions reciting several things , and the Church of England reciting all indefinitely , but definitely declaring for none of them , does only in the generality affirm that the flesh and spirit are contrary principles , that the flesh resists the law of God , but the spirit obeys it , that is , by the flesh alone we cannot obey Gods law , naturally we cannot become the sons of God , and heirs of Heaven , but it must be a new birth , by a spiritual regeneration . The wisdom of the flesh , that is , Natural and secular principles , are not apt dispositions to make us obedient to the law of God : Sensuality , that signifies , an habitual lustfulness . Desires signifie actual Lustings . Affections signifie the Natural inclination : now which of these is here meant , the Church hath not declar'd , but by the other words of the Article , it is most probable , She rather inclines to render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by desires and sensuality , rather than by affection or wisdom , though of these also in their own sence , it is true , to affirm that they are not subject to the law of God : there being some foolish principles , which the flesh and the world is apt to entertain , which are hindrances to holiness : and the affection , that is , inclination to some certain objects , being that very thing which the laws of God have restrained more or less in several periods of the world , may without inconvenience to the Question be admitted to expound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 39. And although there is no condemnation to them that believe and are baptized . That is , this concupiscence , or inclination to forbidden instances is not imputed to the baptized nor to the regenerate , that is ▪ when the new principle of grace and of the spirit is put into us , we are reduced to as great a condition , and as certain an order , and a capacity of entring into Heaven as Adam was before his fall ; for then we are drawn from that mere natural state where Adam left us : and therefore although these do die , yet it is but the condition of nature , not the punishment of the sin . For Adams sin brought in Death , and baptism and regeneration does not hinder that , but it takes away the formality of it , it is not a punishment to such but a Condition of Nature , as it is to Infants ; For , that even to them also there is no condemnation for their Original Concupiscence , is Undeniable and demonstratively Certain upon this account . Because , even the actual desires and little Concupiscences of children are innocent , and therefore , much more their natural tendencies and inclinations . For if a principle be criminal , if a faculty be a sin , much more are the acts of that faculty also a sin , but if these be innocent , then much more is that . 40. Yet the Apostle does confess , that Concupiscence and Lust hath of it self the Nature of sin . Of it self ] that is , it is in the whole kind to be reproved , it is not a sin to all persons , not to unconsenting persons : for if it be no sin to them that resist , then , neither is it a sin to them that cannot consent . But it hath the Nature of sin , that is , it is the material part of sin , a principle and root from whence evil may spring , according to S. Austins words , Modo quodam loquendi vocatur peccatum quod peccato factum est , & peccati , si vicerit , facit reum . S. Aug. lib. 1. de nup. & Concup . c. 23. Just as if a Man have a Natural thirst , it may tempt him , and is apt to incline him to drunkenness ; if he be of a sanguine disposition it disposes him to lust , if cholerick , to anger ; and is so much a sin as the fuel is a part of the fire ; but because this can be there , where damnation shall not enter , this Nature of sin is such as does not make a proper Guiltiness ; for it is a contradiction to say , the sin remains and the guilt is taken away : For he that hath a sin is guilty of punishment , for that is , he is liable to it , if God pleases : he may pardon if he please , but if he pardons he takes away the sin : For in the justified no sin can be inherent or habitual , Quomodo justificati , & sanctificati sumus , si peccatum aliquod in nobis relinquitur ? Hieron . ad Oceanum . If Concupiscence be an inherent sin in us before baptism , it must either be taken away by baptism , or imputed to us after baptism : for if the malice remains , the guilt cannot go away ; for God will by no means justifie the remaining sinner . 41. These things I have chose to say and publish , because I find that the usual doctrines about Original sin are not only false and presum'd without any competent proof , but because , as they are commonly believ'd , they are no friends to piety , but pretences of idleness , and dishonourable to the reputation of Gods goodness and justice , for which we ought to be very zealous , when a greater indifference would better become us in the matter of our opinion , or the doctrine of our sect ; and therefore it is not to be blam'd in me , that I move the thoughts of men in the proposition ; for it is not an useless one , but hath its immediate effects upon the Honour of God , and the next , upon the lives of men . And therefore this hath in it many degrees of necessary doctrine , and the fruits of it must needs do more than make recompence for the trouble I put them to , in making new inquiries into that doctrine , concerning which they were so long at ease . But if men of a contrary judgment can secure the interests and advantages of piety , and can reconcile their usual doctrines of Original sin with Gods justice and goodness and truth , I shall be well pleased with it , and think better of their doctrine than now I can : But until that be done they may please to consider that there is in Holy Scripture no sign of it , nor intimation , that at the day of Judgment Christ shall say to any ; Go ye cursed sons of Adam into everlasting fire , because your Father sinn'd , and though I will pardon millions of sins which men did chuse and delight in , yet I will severely exact this of you , which you never did chuse , nor could delight in : this I say is not likely to be in the event of things , and in the wise and merciful dispensation of God , especially since Jesus Christ himself ( so far as appears ) never spake one word of it , there is not any tittle of it in all the four Gospels ; it is a thing of which no warning was or could be given to any of Adams children , it is not mention'd in the old Testament , ( for that place of David in the 51. Psalm , Clemens Alexandrinus and others of the Fathers snatch from any pretence to it ) and that one time where it is spoken of in the New Testament there is nothing said of it , but that it is imputed to us to this purpose only , that it brought in death temporal : and why such Tragedies should be made of it , and other places of Scripture drawn by violence to give countenance to it , and all the systemes of Divinity of late made to lean upon this Article , which yet was never thought to be fundamental , or belonging to the foundation , was never put into the Creed of any Church , but is made the great support of new and strange propositions , even of the fearful decree of absolute reprobation , and yet was never consented in , or agreed upon what it was , or how it can be conveyed , and was ( in the late and modern sence of it ) as unknown to the Primitive Church , as it was to the Doctors of the Jews , that is , wholly unknown to them both ; why ( I say ) men should be so fierce in their new sence of this Article , and so impatient of contradiction , it is not easie to give a reasonable account . For my own particular , I hope I have done my duty , having produced Scriptures , and Reasons , and the best Authority against it . Qui potest capere capiat . For — I had a good spirit , yea rather being good I came into a body undefiled . Wisd. 8.19 , 20. CHAP. VIII . Of Sins of Infirmity . SECT . I. 1. ALL Mankind hath for ever complain'd of their irremediable calamity , their propensity to sin . For though by the dictates of Nature all people were instructed in the general notices of vertue and vice , right reason being our rule : insomuch that the old Philosophers ( as Plutarch reports ) said that vertue was nothing else but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a disposition and force of reason . And this reason having guided the wisest , was form'd into laws for others ; yet this reason serv'd to little other purposes , but to upbraid our follies and infelicities , and to make our actions punishable , by representing them to be unreasonable : for they did certainly sin , and they could no more help it , than they could prevent their being sick , or hungry , or angry , or thirsty . Nature had made organs for some , and senses for others , and conversation and example brought in all . So that if you reprov'd a Criminal , he heard and understood you , but could not helpt it : as Laius in the Tragedy ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Reason taught him well , but Nature constrain'd him to the contrary ; his affections were stronger than his reason . 2. And it is no wonder that while flesh and blood is the prevailing ingredient , while men are in the state of conjunction , and the soul serves the body , and the necessities of this are more felt than the discourses of that , that men should be angry and lustful , proud and revengeful , and that they should follow what they lust after , not what they are bidden to do . For passions and affections are our first governours , and they being clearly possessed of all mankind in their first years , have almost secured to themselves the soul of man , before reason is heard to speak : And when she does speak , she speaks at first so little and so low , that the common noises of fancy and company drown her voice . This I say is the state of Nature . And therefore Lactantius brings in a Pagan complaining , Volo equidem non peccare , sed vincor . Indutus enim sum carne fragili , & imbecillâ . Haec est quae concupiscit , quae irascitur , quae dolet , quae mori timet . Itáque ducor incertus , & pecco non quia volo , sed quia cogor . Sentio me & ipse peccare ; sed necessitas fragilitatis impellit , cui repugnare non possum . I would fain avoid sin , but I am compelled . I am invested with a frail and weak flesh : This is it which lusteth , which is angry , which grieves , which fears to die . Therefore I am led uncertainly , and I sin , not because I will , but because I am constrained . I perceive that I do ill , but the necessity of my weakness drives me on , and I cannot resist it . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . I know well and perceive the evils that I go upon , and they are horrid ones , but my anger is greater than my reason . So Medea in the Tragedy . This is the state of a natural man in his meer naturals , especially as they are made worse by evil customs , and vile usages of the world . 3. Now this is a state of infirmity ; and all sins against which there is any reluctancy and contrary desires of actual reason , are sins of infirmity . But this infirmity excuses no man ▪ for this state of infirmity is also a state of death ; for by this S. Paul expressed that state from which Christ came to redeem us : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , when we were yet in infirmity , or without strength , in due time Christ died for us ; that is , when when we were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , impious , or sinners , such as the world was before it was redeemed , before Christ came . These are the sick and weak whom Christ the great Physician of our souls came to save . This infirmity is the shadow of death ; and it signifies that state of mankind which is the state of nature , not of original and birth , but in its whole constitution , as it signifies not only the natural imperfection , but the superinduc'd evil from any principle ; all that which is oppos'd to Grace . 4. To this state of Nature being so pitiable , God began to find a remedy , and renewed the measures of vertue , and by a law made them more distinct and legible , and impos'd punishments on the transgressors . For by little and little the notices of natural reason were made obscure , some were lost , some not attended to , all neglected some way or other ; till God by a law made express prohibition of what was unreasonable , forbidding us to desire what before was unfit and unnatural , and threatning them that did things unlawful . But this way , by reason of the peevishness of men , succeeded not well , but men became worse by it . For what the law did forbid without the threatning of any penalty , they took for an advice only , and no severe injunction : And those Commandments which were established with a threatning to the transgressors , they expounded only by the letter , and in the particular instance , and in the outward act . 5. Before the Law , men allowed to themselves many impieties , which reason indeed mark'd out to be such , but no law had forbidden them in express letter . They thought it lawful to seduce and tempt another mans wife , and invite her to his house and conjugation , so he did not steal , or force her away : but if they found a coldness between her and her husband , they would blow the coals , and enkindle an evil flame . It is supposed that Herod did so to Herodias his brother Philip's wife , even after the law . They would not by violence snatch the estate from a young prodigal heir , but if he were apt , they would lend him money , and nurse his vice , and intangle his estate , and at last devour it . They would not directly deny to pay the price of a purchase ; but they would detain it or divert it , or pay it in trifling summs , or in undesir'd commodities . This was Concupiscere rem alienam . They did not steal , but coveted it , and so entred indirectly : and this God seeing , forbad it by a law : For I had not known lust or desires to be a sin ( saith S. Paul ) but that the law said , Thou shalt not covet . 6. But because the law only forbad lustings , but imposed no penalty , they despis'd it ; and those things which were forbidden with an appendent penalty , they would act them privately . For if they avoided the notice of the Criminal Judge , they fear'd not the face of an angry God : and this Lactantius observ'd of them . Metus legum non scelera comprimebat , sed licentiam submovebat . Poterant enim leges delicta punire , conscientiam munire non poterant . Itaque quae antè palàm fiebant , clam fieri coeperunt : circumscribi etiam jura . For all the threatnings of the Law they were wicked still , though not scandalous ; vile in private , and wary in publick ; they did circumscribe their laws , and thought themselves bound only to the letter , and obliged by nothing but the penalty , which if they escaped they reckoned themselves innocent . Thus far the law instructed them , and made them afraid . But for the first , they grew the more greedy to do what now they were forbidden to desire . The prohibition of the law being like a damm to the waters , the desire swells the higher for being check'd ; and the wisdom of Romulus in not casting up a bank against parricide had this effect , that until the end of the second Punick war , which was almost DC . years , there was no example of one that kill'd his Father . Lucius Ostius was the first . And it is certain that the Easterlings neither were nor had they reason to be fond of Circumcision ; it was part of that load which was complain'd of by the Apostles in behalf of the Jewish Nation , which neither they nor their Fathers could bear ; and yet as soon as Christ took off the yoke , and that it was forbidden to his Disciples , the Jews were as fond of it , as of their pleasures ; and fifteen Bishops of Jerusalem in immediate succession , were all circumcised , and no arguments , no authority could hinder them . And for their fear , it only produc'd caution , and sneaking from the face of men , and both together set them on work to corrupt the spirit of the law by expositions too much according to the letter : so that by this means , their natural desires , their lustings and concupiscence were not cured . 7. For as Lactantius brought in the Heathen complaining , so does S. Paul bring in the Jew : That which I do I allow not ; for what I would , that I do not , but what I hate that I do . I say , this is the state of a man under the law ; a man who is not regenerate and made free by the Spirit of Christ ; that is , a man who abides in the infirmities of nature : of which the law of nature warn'd him first , and the superinduc'd law of God warn'd him more ; but there was not in these Covenants or Laws sufficient either to endear or to secure obedience ; they did not minister strength enough to conquer sin , to overthrow its power , to destroy the kingdom and reign of sin : this was reserv'd for the great day of triumph ; it was the glory of the Gospel , the power of Christ , the strength of the Spirit which alone was able to do it ; and by this with its appendages , that is the pardon of sin and a victory over it , a conquest by the prevailing and rule of the Spirit , by this alone the Gospel is the most excellent above all the covenants , and states , and institutions of the world . 8. But then the Christian must not complain thus ; if he be advanced into the secrets of the Kingdom , if he be a Christian in any thing beyond the name ; he cannot say that sin gives him laws , that it reigns in his mortal body , that he is led captive by Satan at his will , that he sins against his will frequently , and habitually , and cannot help it . But so it is , men do thus complain ; and which is worse , they make this to be their excuse , and their incouragement . If they have sinn'd foully , they say , It is true ; but it is not I , but sin that dwelleth in me . For that which I do , I allow not ; for what I would , that do I not , and what I hate , that do I. And if they be tempted to a sin , they cannot be disswaded from it , or incouraged to a noble and pertinacious resistance , because they have this in excuse ready ; To will is present with me , but how to perform that which is good I find not . For the good which I would , I do not , but the evil which I would not , that I do . That is , it is my infirmity , give me leave to do it , I am the child of God for all my sin ; for I do it with an unwilling willingness . I shall do this always , and shall never be quit of this tyranny of sin : It was thus with S. Paul himself , and I ought not to hope to be otherwise than he , and a person more free from sin . We find in the life of Andronicus , written by Nicetas Choniates , the same pretence made in excuse for sin ; they could not help it ; and we find it so in our daily experience ; and the thing it self warranted by many Interpreters of Scripture , who suppose that S. Paul in the seventh Chapter to the Romans , from the fourteenth verse to the end , describes his own state of infirmity and disability , or which is all one , the state of a regenerate man , that it is no other but an ineffective striving and strugling against sin , a contention in which he is most commonly worsted , and that this striving is all that he can shew of holiness to be a testimony of his regeneration . SECT . II. 9. HOW necessary it is to free the words of S. Paul from so dangerous a sence , we may easily believe , if we consider that to suppose a man who is regenerate by the Spirit of Christ to be still a slave under sin , and within its power , and that he fain would but cannot help it , is very injurious to the power of Christ and the mightiness of the spirit of grace : when all its effect is only said to be , that it strives , but can do nothing ; that is , sin abounds more than grace , and the man that is redeemed by Christ , is still unredeem'd , and a captive under sin and Satan ; this is not only an incouragement of evil life , but a reproach and scorn cast upon the holy Spirit ; It is verbum dictum contrae Spiritum sanctum , a word spoken against the holy Ghost . And as S. Austin calls it , it is tuba hostis , non nostra , unde ille incitetur , non unde vincatur , the Devils trumpet to encourage him in his war against poor mankind ; but by this means he shall never be overcome . And therefore he gives us caution of it ; for speaking of these words , The good which I would , that do I not , but the evil that I would not , that I do , advises thus , Lectio Divina quae de Apostoli Pauli epistolâ recitata est , quotiescunque legitur , timendum est ne malè intellecta det hominibus quaerentibus occasionem . When ever these words of S. Paul are read , we must fear lest the misunderstanding of them should minister an occasion of sin to them that seek it . For men are prone to sin , and scarce restrain themselves . When therefore they hear the Apostle saying , I do not the good which I would , but I do the evil which I hate , they do evil , and as it were displeasing themselves because they do it , think themselves like the Apostle . In pursuance of this caution , I shall examine the expositions which are pretended . 10. I. These words [ I do not the good which I would , but I do the evil which I hate ] are not the words or character of a regenerate person in respect of actual good or bad . A regenerate man cannot say that he does frequently or habitually commit the sin that he hates , and is against his conscience . 1. Because no man can serve two Masters ; if he be a servant of sin , he is not a servant of the Spirit . No man can serve Christ and Belial . If therefore he be brought into captivity to the law of sin , he is the servant of sin ; and such was he whom S. Paul describes in this Chapter . Therefore this person is not a servant of Christ ; He that is a servant of righteousness is freed from sin ; and he who is a servant of sin is not a servant of , but freed from righteousness . A regenerate person therefore is a servant of the Spirit , and so cannot at the same time be a servant , or a slave and a captive under sin . 11. II. When the complaint is made , I do the evil which I hate , the meaning is , I do it seldom , or I do it commonly and frequently ; If it means , I do it seldom , then a man cannot use these words so well as the contrary ; he can say , The good which I would I do regularly and ordinarily , and , the evil which I hate , I do avoid ; sometimes indeed I am surpris'd , and when I do neglect to use the aids and strengths of the spirit of grace , I fall ; but this is because I will not , and not because I cannot help it ; and in this case the man is not a servant or captive of sin , but a servant of Christ , though weak and imperfect . But if it means , I do it commonly , or constantly , or frequently , which is certainly the complaint here made , then to be a regenerate person is to be a vile person , sold under sin , and not Gods servant . For if any man shall suppose these words to mean only thus ; I do not do so much good as I would , and do sometimes fall into evil , though I would fain be intirely innocent , indeed this man teaches no false doctrine as to the state or duty of the regenerate , which in this life will for ever be imperfect ; but he speaks not according to the sence and design of the Apostle here . For his purpose is to describe that state of evil in which we are by nature , and from which we could not be recovered by the law , and from which we can only be redeemed by the grace of Jesus Christ ; and this is a state of death , of being killed by sin , of being captivated and sold under sin , after the manner of slaves ; as will further appear in the sequel . 12. III. Every regenerate man , and servant of Christ hath the Spirit of Christ. But where the Spirit of God is , there is liberty ; therefore no slavery ; therefore sin reigns not there . Both the propositions are the words of the Apostle ; The conclusion therefore infers that the man whom S. Paul describes in this Chapter , is not the regenerate man , for he hath not liberty , but is in captivity to the law of sin , from which every one that is Christs , every one that hath the Spirit of Christ , is freed . 13. IV. And this is that which S. Paul calls being under the law , that is , a being carnal , and in the state of the flesh ; not but that the law it self is spiritual ; but that we being carnal of our selves , are not cured by , the law , but by reason of the infirmity of the flesh made much worse ; curbed , but not sweetly won ; admonished , but assisted by no spirit but the spirit of bondage and fear . This state is opposed to the spiritual state . The giving of the law is called the ministery of death ; the Gospel is called the ministery of the Spirit , and that is the ministration of life ; and therefore if we be led by the Spirit , we are not under the law : but if we be under the law , we are dead , and sin is revived ; and sin by the law brings forth fruit unto death . From hence the argument of the Apostle is clear . The man whom he here describes , is such a one who is under the law ; but such a man is dead by reason of sin , and therefore hath not in him the Spirit of God , for that is the ministration of life . A regenerate person is alive unto God ; he lives the life of righteousness : but he that is under the law is killed by sin ; and such is the man that is here described , as appears verse 9. and I shall in the sequel further prove ▪ therefore this man is not the regenerate . 14. V. To which for the likeness of the argument I add this ; That the man who can say , I do that which I hate , is a man in whom sin is not mortified , and therefore he lives after the flesh : but then he is not regenerate ; for if ye live after the flesh ye shall die , ( saith S. Paul ) but if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body , ye shall live . These arguments are taken from consideration of the rule and dominion of sin in the man whom S. Paul describes , who therefore cannot be a regenerate person . To the same effect and conclusion are other expressions in the same Chapter . 15. VI. The man whom S. Paul here describes , who complains , [ That he does not the good which he would , but the evil that he would not ] is such a one in whom sin does inhabit : It is no more I , but sin that dwelleth in me . But in the regenerate sin does not inhabit : My Father and I will come unto him , and make our abode with him . So Christ promised to his servants ; to them who should be regenerate ; and the Spirit of God dwelleth in them ; the Spirit of him that raised Jesus from the dead ; and therefore the Regenerate are called the habitation of God through the Spirit . Now if God the Father , if Christ , if the Spirit of Christ dwells in a man , there sin does not dwell . The strong man that is armed keeps possession ; but if a stronger than he comes , he dispossesses him . If the Spirit of God does not drive the Devil forth , himself will leave the place . They cannot both dwell together . Sin may be in the regenerate , and grieve Gods Spirit , but it shall not abide or dwell there , for that extinguishes him . One or the other must depart . And this also is noted by S. Paul in this very place ; sin dwelleth in me , and , no good thing dwelleth in me : If one does , the other does not ; but yet as in the unregenerate there might be some good , such as are , good desires , knowledge of good and evil , single actions of vertue , beginnings and dispositions to grace , acknowledging of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ , some lightnings and flashes of the holy Ghost , a knowing of the way of righteousness ; but sanctifying , saving good does not dwell , that is , does not abide with them , and rule ; so in the regenerate there is sin , but because it does not dwell there , they are under the Empire of the Spirit and in Christs Kingdom ; or , as S. Paul expresses it , Christ liveth in them : and that cannot be unless sin be crucified and dead in them . The summ of which is thus in S. Paul's words : Reckon your selves indeed to be dead unto sin , but alive unto God through Jesus Christ. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body , that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof . For sin shall not have dominion over you , because we are not under the law , but under grace . 16. VII . Lastly , the man whom S. Paul describes is carnal , but the regenerate is never called carnal in the Scripture , but is spiritual oppos'd to carnal . A man not only in pure naturals , but even plac'd under the law , is called carnal ; that is , until he be redeemed by the Spirit of Christ , he cannot be called spiritual , but is yet in the flesh . Now that the regenerate cannot be the carnal man , is plain in the words of S. Paul : The carnal mind is enmity against God ; and , they that are in the flesh cannot please God. To which he adds , But ye are not in the flesh , but in the Spirit , if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you . But the Spirit of God does dwell in all the servants of God , in all the regenerate . For if any man have not the Spirit of Christ , he is none of his . Now as these are in Scripture distinguished in their appellatives and in their character , so also in their operations . They that are carnal , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , according to the flesh , do mind , or relish the things of the flesh : They that are after the Spirit , do mind the things of the Spirit . And , they that are Christs , have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts . Now they that have crucified the flesh , cannot in any sence of Scripture or Religion be called Carnal . That there is something of carnality in the regenerate is too true , because our regeneration and spirituality in this life is imperfect . But when carnal and spiritual are oppos'd in Scripture ; and the Question is , Whether of these two is to be attributed to the servants and sons of God , to the Regenerate ? It is certain by the analogy of the thing , and the perpetual manner of speaking in Scripture , that by this word Carnal , the Spirit of God never means the sons of God , or the spiritual ; that is , the Regenerate : The sons of God are led by the Spirit of God ; therefore not by the flesh , which they have crucified . Whatsoever is essential to regeneration , to new birth , to the being the sons of God , all that is in the regenerate ; for they cannot be that thing , of which they want an essential part : as a thing cannot be a body unless it be divisible , nor a living creature if it have not life . Therefore regeneration is perfect in respect of its essentials or necessary parts of constitution . But in the degrees there is imperfection , and therefore the abatement is made by the intermixture of carnality . For it is in our new and spiritual birth , as in our natural . The child is a man in all essential parts , but he is as a beast in some of his operations ; he hath all the faculties of a man , but not the strengths of a man , but grows to it by the progression and encrease of every day . So is the spiritual man regenerate in his mind , his will , his affections ; and therefore when carnal and spiritual are oppos'd in their whole nature and definitions , the spiritual man is not the carnal , though he still retain some of the weaknesses of the flesh , against which he contends every day . To this purpose are those words of S. Leo. Quamvis spe salvi facti sumus , & corruptionem adhuc carnémque mortalem gestamus ; rectè tamen dicimur in carne non esse , si carnales nobis non dominentur affectus ; & meritò ejus deponimus ●uncupationem , cujus non sequimur voluntatem . We are not to be called Carnal , though we bear about us flesh and its infirmities ; yet if carnal affections do not rule over us , well are we to quit the name , when we do not obey the thing . Now if any man shall contend that a man may be called Carnal , if the flesh strives against the Spirit , though sin does not rule ; I shall not draw the Saw of Contention with him , but only say that it is not usually so in Scripture ; and in this place of which we now dispute the sence and use , it is not so : for by Carnal S. Paul means such a person , upon whom sin reigns . I am carnal , sold under sin , therefore this person is not the spiritual , not the regenerate , or the son of God. S. Paul uses the word Carnal in a comparative locution ; for babes and infants , or unskilful persons in the Religion ; but then this carnality he proves to be in them , wholly by their inordinate walking , by their strifes and contentions , by their being Schismaticks ; and therefore he reproves them , which he had no reason to do , if himself also had been carnal in that sence which he reproves . 17. The Conclusion from all these premises is , I suppose , sufficiently demonstrated ; that S. Paul does not in the seventh Chapter to the Romans describe the state of himself really , or of a regenerate person , neither is this state [ of doing sin frequently , though against our will ] a state of unavoidable infirmity , but a state of death and unregeneration . SECT . III. 18. SAint Austin did for ever reject that interpretation , and indeed so did the whole Primitive Church ; but yet he having once expounded this Chapter of the unregenerate , or a man under the law , not redeemed by the Spirit of Christ from his vain conversation , he retracted this Exposition , and constru'd those words in question thus ; Non ergo quod vult agit Apostolus , quia vult non concupiscere , & tamen concupiscit , ideo non quod vult agit . The Apostle does not do what he would , because he would fain not desire ; but yet because he desires , he does what he would not . Did that desire lead him captive to fornication ? God forbid : He did strive , but was not mastered ; but because he would not have had that concupiscence left , against which he should contend , therefore he said , What I would not , that I do ; meaning , I would not lust , but I do lust . The same also I find in Epiphanius ; Nam quod dictum est , Quod operor non cognosco , & facio quod odio habeo , non de eo quod operati sumus ac perfecimus malum accipiendum est , sed de eo quod solum cogitavimus . Now this interpretation hath in it no impiety as the other hath ; for these Doctors allow nothing to be unavoidable , or a sin of infirmity , and consistent with the state of grace and regeneration , but the mere ineffective , unprocured , desirings or lustings after evil things , to which no consent is given , and in which no delight is taken ; extraneae cogitationes quas cogitavimus aliquando , & non volentes & non scientes ex quâ causâ , as Epiphanius expresses this Article . But S. Austin may be thought to have had some design in chusing this sence , as supposing it would serve for an argument against the Pelagians and their sence of Free will. For by representing the inevitability of sin , he destroyed their doctrine of the sufficiency of our natural powers in order to Heaven , and therefore by granting that S. Paul complains thus of his own infirmity , he believed himself to have concluded firmly for the absolute necessity of Gods grace to help us . But by limiting this inevitability of sinning to the matter of desires or concupiscence , he gave no allowance or pretence to any man to speak any evil words , or to delight or consent to any evil thoughts , or to commit any sinful actions , upon the pretence of their being sins of an unavoidable infirmity . So that though he was desirous to serve the ends of his present question , yet he was careful that he did not disserve the interests of Religion and a holy life . But besides that the holy Scriptures abound in nothing more than in affirming our needs , and the excellency of the Divine grace , and S. Austin needed not to have been put to his shifts in this Question , it is considerable that his first Exposition had done his business better . For if these words of S. Paul be ( as indeed they are ) to be expounded of an unregenerate man , one under the law , but not under grace ; nothing could more have magnified Gods grace , than that an unregenerate person could not by all the force of nature , nor the aids of the law , nor the spirit of fear , nor temporal hopes , be redeem'd from the slavery and tyranny of sin ; and that from this state there is no redemption but by the Spirit of God , and the grace of the Lord Jesus ; which is expresly affirmed and proved by S. Paul , if you admit this sence of the words . And therefore Irenaeus who did so , cites these words to the same effect , viz. for the magnifying the grace of God : Ipse Dominus erat qui salvabat eos , quia per semetipsos non habebant salvari . Et propter hoc Paulus infirmitatem hominis annuncians , ait , Scio enim quoniam non habitat in carne meâ bonum : significans quoniam non à nobis , sed à Deo est bonum salutis . Et iterum : Miser ego homo , quis me liberabit de corpore mortis hujus ? Deinde infert liberatorem : Gratia Jesu Christi Domini nostri . S. Paul's complaint shews our own infirmity , and that of our selves we cannot be saved ; but that our salvation is of God , and the grace of our Redeemer Jesus Christ. But whatever S. Austins design might be in making the worse choice , it matters not much : only to the interpretation it self I have these considerations to oppose . 19. I. Because the phrase is insolent , and the exposition violent to render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by concupiscere ; to do is more than to desire : factum , dictum , concupitum , are the several kinds and degrees of sinning assigned by S. Austin himself , and therefore they cannot be confounded , and one made to expound the other , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is also used here by the Apostle , which in Scripture signifies sometimes to sin habitually , never less than actually ; and the other word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifies perficere , patrare , to finish the act at least , or to do a sin throughly , and can in no sence be reasonably expounded by natural , ineffective , and unavoidable desires . And it is observable that when S. Austin in prosecution of this device , is to expound those words , to will is present with me , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but to perform what is good , I find not , he makes the word to signifie , to do it perfectly ; which is as much beyond , as the other sence of the same word is short , What I do , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , I approve not : Therefore the man does not do his sin perfectly ; he does the thing imperfectly , for he does it against his conscience , and with an imperfect choice ; but he does the thing however . So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , must signifie to do the good imperfectly , the action it self only ; for such was this mans impotency , that he could not obtain power to do even imperfectly the good he desir'd . The evil he did , though against his mind ; but the good he could not , because it was against the law of sin which reigned in him . But then the same word must not , to serve ends , be brought to signifie a perfect work , and yet not to signifie so much as a perfect desire . 20. II. The sin which S. Paul under another person complains of , is such a sin as did first deceive him , and then slew him ; but concupiscence does not kill till it proceeds further , as S. James expresly affirms , that concupiscence when it hath conceived brings forth sin , and sin when it is finished brings forth death : which is the just parallel to what S. Paul says in this very Chapter : The * passions of sins which were by the law , did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death : peccatum perpetratum , when the desires are acted , then sin is deadly ; the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the passions or first motions of sin which come upon us , nobis non volentibus nec scientibus , whether we will or no , these are not imputed to us unto death , but are the matter of vertue when they are resisted and contradicted ; but when they are consented to and delighted in , then it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , sin in conception with death , and will proceed to action , unless it be hindred from without ; and therefore it is then the same sin by interpretation : Adulterium cordis ; so our blessed Saviour called it in that instance , the adultery of the heart : but till it be an actual sin some way or other , it does not bring forth death . 21. III. It is an improper and ungrammatical manner of speaking , to say , Nolo concupiscere , or Volo non concupiscere , I will lust , or I will not lust , i. e. I will , or I will not desire or will. For , this lust or first motions of desire are before an act of will ; the first act of which is , when these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , these motions and passions are consented to or rejected . These motions are natural and involuntary , and are no way in our power , but when they are occasion'd by an act of the Will collaterally and indirectly , or by applying the proper incentives to the faculty . Vellem non concupiscere ; every good man must say , I would fain be free from concupiscence ; but because he cannot , it is not subject to his Will , and he cannot say , volo , I will be free : and therefore S. Paul's Volo and Nolo are not intended of Concupiscence or desires . 22. IV. The good which S. Austin says the Apostle fain would , but could not perfect , or do it perfectly , is , Non concupiscere , not to have concupiscence . Volo , non perficio ; but Concupiscere is but velle : it is not so much , and therefore cannot be more . So that when he says , to will is present with me , he must mean , to desire well is present with me , but to do this I find not ; that is , if S. Austins interpretation be true , though I do desire well , yet I do lust , and do not desire well , for still concupisco ; I lust , and I lust not , I have concupiscence , and I have it not : which is a contradiction . 23. Many more things might be observed from the words of the Apostle to overthrow this exposition ; but the truth when it is proved will sufficiently reprove what is not true : and therefore I shall apply my self to consider the proper intention and design of the Apostle in those so much mistaken periods . SECT . IV. 24. COncerning which , these things are to be cleared , upon which the whole issue will depend . 1. That S. Paul speaks not in his own person , as an Apostle , or a Christian , a man who is regenerate ; but in the person of a Jew , one under the law , one that is not regenerate . 2. That this state which he describes , is the state of a carnal man , under the corruption of his nature , upon whom the law had done some change , but had not cured him . 3. That from this state of evil we are redeemed by the Spirit of Christ , by the Grace of the Gospel ; and now , a Child of God cannot complain this complaint . 25. I. That he puts on the person of another , by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or translation ( as was usual with S. Paul in * very many places of his Epistles ) is evident by his affirming that of the man whom he here describes , which of himself were not true . ‖ I was alive without the law once . Of S. Paul's own person this was not true ; for he was bred and born under the law , circumcised the eighth day , an Hebrew of the Hebrews , as touching the law a Pharisee : he never was alive without the law . But the Israelites were , whom he therefore represents indefinitely under a single person ; the whole Nation , before and under the law : I was alive once without the law ; but when the Commandment came , that is , when the law was given , sin revived , and I died ; that is , by occasion of the law , sin grew stronger and prevailed . 2. But concerning the Christian and his present condition , he expresly makes it separate from that of being under the law , and consequently under sin . But now we are delivered from the law , that being dead wherein we were held , that we should serve in newness of the spirit , and not in the oldness of the letter . We are delivered : It is plain that some sort of men are freed from that sad condition of things of which he there complains ; and if any be , it must be the regenerate . And so it is . For the scope of the Apostle in this Chapter is to represent , and prove that salvation is not to be had by the law , but by Jesus Christ ; and that by that discipline men cannot be contain'd in their duty , and therefore that it was necessary to forsake the law , and to come to Christ. To this purpose he brings in a person complaining that under the discipline of the law , he was still under the power of sin . Now if this had been also true of a regenerate person , of a Christian renewed by the Spirit of grace , then it had been no advantage to have gone from the Law to Christ , as to this argument ; for still the Christian would be under the same slavery , which to be the condition of one under the law , S. Paul was to urge as an argument to call them from Moses to Christ. 26. II. That this state which he now describes , is the state of a carnal man , under the corruption of his nature , appears , by his saying that sin had wrought in him all manner of concupiscence ; that sin revived , and he died ; that the motions of sin which were by the law , did work in the members to bring forth fruit unto death ; and that this was when we were in the flesh ; that he is carnal , sold under sin ; that he is carried into captivity to the law of sin ; that sin dwells in him ; and is like another person , doing or constraining him to do things against his mind ; that it is a State , and a Government , a Law , and a Tyranny ; For that which I do I allow not : plainly saying , that this doing what we would not , that is , doing against our conscience upon the strength of passion , and in obedience to the law of sin , was the state of them who indeed were under the law , but the effect of carnality , and the viciousness of their natural and ungracious condition . Here then is the description of a natural and carnal man. He sins frequently , he sins against his conscience , he is carnal and sold under sin , sin dwells in him , and gives him laws , he is a slave to sin , and led into captivity . Now if this could be the complaint of a regenerate man , from what did Christ come to redeem us ? how did he take away our sins ? did he only take off the punishment , and still leave us to wallow in the impurities , and baser pleasures , perpetually to rail upon our sins , and yet perpetually to do them ? How did he come to bless us in turning every one of us from our iniquity ? How and in what sence could it be true which the Apostle affirms ; He did bear our sins in his own body on the tree , that we being dead unto sin should live unto righteousness ? But this proposition I suppose my self to have sufficiently proved in the reproof of the first exposition of these words in question : only I shall in present add the concurrent testimony of some Doctors of the Primitive Church . Tertullian hath these words : Nam etsi habitare bonum in carne suâ negavit , sed secundum legem literae in quâ fuit , secundum autem legem Spiritus cui nos annectit , liberat ab infirmitate carnis . Lex enim ( inquit ) Spiritus vitae manumisit te à lege delinquentiae & mortis . Licet enim ex parte , ex Judaismo disputare videatur , sed in nos dirigit integritatem & plenitudinem disciplinarum , propter quos laborantes in lege per carnem miserit Deus filium suum in similitudinem carnis delinquentiae , & propter delinquentiam damnaverit delinquentiam in carne . Plainly he expounds this Chapter to be meant of a man under the law , according to the law of the letter , under which himself had been , he denied any good to dwell in his flesh ; but according to the law of the Spirit under which we are plac'd , he frees us from the infirmity of the flesh : for he saith , the law of the Spirit of life , hath freed us from the law of sin and death . Origen affirms , that when S. Paul says , I am carnal , sold under sin , Tanquam Doctor Ecclesiae personam in semetipsum suscipit infirmorum ; he takes upon him the person of the infirm , that is , of the carnal , and says those words which themselves by way of excuse or apology use to speak . But yet ( says he ) this person which S. Paul puts on , although Christ does not dwell in him , neither is his body the Temple of the holy Ghost , yet he is not wholly a stranger from good , but by his will , and by his purpose he begins to look after good things . But he cannot yet obtain to do them . For there is such an infirmity in those who begin to be converted ( that is , whose mind is convinc'd , but their affections are not master'd ) that when they would presently do all good , yet an effect did not follow their desires . S. Chrysostom hath a large Commentary upon this Chapter , and his sence is perfectly the same : Propterea & subnexuit dicens , Ego verò carnalis sum , hominem describens sub lege , & ante legem degentem . S. Paul describes not himself , but a man living under and before the law , and of such a one he says , but I am carnal . Who please to see more authorities to the same purpose may find them in (a) S. Basil , (b) Theodoret , (c) S. Cyril , (d) Macarius , (e) S. Ambrose , (f) S. Hierom , and (g) Theophylact ; The words of the Apostle , the very purpose and design , the whole Oeconomy and Analogy of the sixth , seventh , and eighth Chapters do so plainly manifest it , that the heaping up more testimonies cannot be useful in so clear a case . The results are these . I. The state of men under the law , was but a state of carnality and of nature better instructed , and soundly threatned and set forward in some instances by the spirit of fear only , but not cured , but in many men made much worse accidentally . II. That to be pleased in the inner man , that is , in the Conscience to be convinc'd , and to consent to the excellency of vertue , and yet by the flesh , that is , by the passions of the lower man , or the members of the body to serve sin , is the state of Unregeneration . III. To do the evil that I would not , and to omit the good that I fain would do ▪ when it is in my hand to do , what is in my heart to think , is the property of a carnal , unregenerate man. And this is the state of men in nature , and was the state of men under the law . For to be under the law , and not to be led by the Spirit , are all one in S. Paul's account ; For if ye be led by the Spirit , ye are not under the law , saith he : And therefore to be under the law , being a state of not being under the Spirit , must be under the government of the flesh ; that is , they were not then sanctified by the Spirit of grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ , they were not yet redeemed from their vain conversation . Not that this was the state of all the sons of Israel , of them that liv'd before the law , or after ; but that the law could do no more for them , or upon them ; Gods Spirit did in many of them work his own works , but this was by the grace of Jesus Christ , who was the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world : this was not by the works of the law , but by the same instruments and grace , by which Abraham , and all they who are his children by promise were justified . But this is the consequent of the third proposition which I was to consider . 27. III. From this state of evil we are redeemed by Christ , and by the Spirit of his grace . Wretched man that I am , quis liberabit ? who shall deliver me from the body of this death ? He answers , I thank God through Jesus Christ ; so S. Chrysostom , Theodoret , Theophylact , S. Hierom , the Greek Scholiast , and the ordinary Greek copies do commonly read the words ; in which words there is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and they are thus to be supplied , I thank God through Jesus Christ we are delivered , or there is a remedy found out for us . But Irenaeus , Origen , S. Ambrose , S. Austin , and S. Hierom himself at another time , and the Vulgar Latin Bibles , instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Gratia Domini Jesu Christi , the grace of God through Jesus Christ. That is our remedy , he is our deliverer , from him comes our redemption . For he not only gave us a better law , but also the Spirit of grace , he hath pardon'd all our old sins , and by his Spirit enables us for the future that we may obey him in all sincerity , in heartiness of endeavour , and real events . From hence I draw this argument . That state from which we are redeemed by Jesus Christ , and freed by the Spirit of his grace , is a state of carnality , of unregeneration , that is , of sin and death : But by Jesus Christ we are redeemed from that state in which we were in subjection to sin , commanded by the law of sin , and obeyed it against our reason , and against our conscience ; therefore this state , which is indeed the state S. Paul here describes , is the state of carnality and unregeneration , and therefore not competent to the servants of Christ ; to the elect people of God , to them who are redeemed and sanctified by the Spirit of Christ. The parts of this argument are the words of S. Paul , and proved in the foregoing periods . From hence I shall descend to something that is more immediately practical , and cloth'd with circumstances . SECT . V. How far an Vnregenerate man may go in the ways of Piety and Religion . 28. TO this inquiry it is necessary that this be premised . That between the regenerate and a wicked person there is a middle state : so that it is not presently true , that if the man be not wicked , he is presently Regenerate . Between the two states of so vast a distance , it is impossible but there should be many intermedial degrees ; between the Carnal and Spiritual man there is a Moral man ; not that this man shall have a different event of things if he does abide there , but that he must pass from extreme to extreme by this middle state of participation . The first is a slave of sin ; the second is a servant of righteousness ; the third is such a one as liveth according to Natural reason , so much of it as is left him , and is not abused ; that is , lives a probable life , but is not renewed by the Spirit of grace : one that does something , but not all ; not enough for the obtaining salvation . For a man may have gone many steps from his former baseness and degenerous practices , and yet not arrive at godliness , or the state of pardon ; like the children of Israel , who were not presently in Canaan , as soon as they were out of Egypt , but abode long in the wilderness : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they begin to be instructed , that is their state . Thou art not far from the Kingdom of Heaven , said our blessed Saviour to a well disposed person ; but he was not arrived thither : he was not a subject of the Kingdom . These are such whom our blessed Lord calls , The weary and the heavy laden , that is such , who groan under the heavy pressure of their sins , whom therefore he invites to come to him to be eased . Such are those whom S. Paul here describes to be under the law ; convinced of sin , pressed , vexed , troubled with it , complaining of it , desirous to be eased . These the holy Scripture calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ordained , disposed to life eternal , but these were not yet the fideles or believers , but from that fair disposition became believers upon the preaching of the Apostles . 29. In this third state of men , I account those that sin and repent , and yet repent and sin again ; for ever troubled when they have sinn'd , and yet for ever or most frequently sinning , when the temptation does return : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , They sin , and accuse , and hate themselves for sinning . Now because these men mean well , and fain would be quit of their sin at their own rate , and are not scandalous and impious , they flatter themselves , and think all is well with them , that they are regenerate , and in the state of the Divine favour , and if they die so , their accounts are ballanc'd , and they doubt not but they shall reign as Kings for ever . To reprove this state of folly and danger , we are to observe , that there are a great many steps of this progression , which are to be passed through , and the end is not yet ; the man is not yet arrived at the state of regeneration . 30. I. An unregenerate man may be convinc'd and clearly instructed in his duty , and approve the law , and confess the obligation , and consent that it ought to be done : which S. Paul calls a consenting to the law that it is good , and a being delighted in it according to the inward man ; even the Gentiles which have not the law , yet shew the work of the law written in their hearts : their thoughts in the mean time accusing or excusing one another . The Jews did more , they did rest in the law , and glory in God , knowing his will , and approving the things that are more excellent . And there are too many who being called Christians know their Masters will , and do it not : and this consenting to the law and approving it , is so far from being a sign of regeneration , that the vilest and the basest of men are those who sin most against their knowledge , and against their consciences . In this world a man may have faith great enough to remove mountains , and yet be without charity : and in the world to come some shall be rejected from the presence of God , though they shall alledge for themselves , that they have prophesied in the name of Christ. * This delight in the law which is in the unregenerate , is only in the understanding . The man considers what an excellent thing it is to be vertuous , the just proportions of duty , the fitness of being subordinate to God , the rectitude of the soul , the acquiescence and appendent peace : and this delight is just like that which is in finding out proportions in Arithmetick and Geometry , or the rest in discovering the secrets of a mysterious proposition : a man hath great pleasure in satisfactory notices , and the end of his disquisition . So also it is in moral things : a good man is belov'd by every one ; and there is a secret excellency and measure , a musick and proportion between a mans mind and wise counsels , which impious and profane persons cannot perceive , because they are so full of false measures and weak discourses , and vile appetites , and a rude inconsideration of the reasonableness and wisdom of sobriety and severe courses . But — virtus laudatur & alget , this is all that some men do , and there is in them nothing but a preparation of the understanding to the things of God , a faith seated in the rational part , a conviction of the mind ; which as it was intended to lead on the will to action , and the other faculties to obedience , so now that the effect is not acquired , it serves only to upbraid the man for a knowing and discerning Criminal , he hath not now the excuse of ignorance . He that complies with an Usurper out of fear and interest , in actions prejudicial to the lawful Prince , and tells the honest party , that he is right in his heart , though he be forc'd to comply , helps the other with an argument to convince him that he is a false man. He that does it heartily , and according to a present conscience , hath some excuse ; but he that confesses that he is right in his perswasion , and wrong in his practice , is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , condemn'd by himself , and professes himself a guilty person , a man whom interest and not conscience governs . Better is it not to know at all , than not to pursue the good we know . They that know not God , are infinitely far from him ; but they who know him , and yet do not obey him , are sometimes the nearer for their knowledge , sometimes the further off , but as yet they are not arrived whither it is intended they should go . 31. II. An unregenerate man may with his will delight in goodness , and desire it earnestly . For in an unregenerate man there is a double appetite , and there may be the apprehension of two amabilities . The things of the Spirit please his mind , and his will may consequently desire that this good were done , because it seems beauteous to the rational part , to his Mind : but because he hath also relishes and gusts in the flesh , and they also seem sapid and delightful , he desires them also . So that this man fain would and he would not ; and he does sin willingly and unwillingly at the same time . We see by a sad experience , some men all their life time stand at gaze , and dare not enter upon that course of life which themselves by a constant sentence judge to be the best , and of the most considerable advantage . But as the boy in the Apologue listned to the disputes of Labour and Idleness , the one perswading him to rise , the other to lie in bed ; but while he considered what to do , he still lay in bed and considered : so these men dispute and argue for vertue and the service of God , and stand beholding and admiring it , but they stand on the other side while they behold it . There is a strife between the law of the mind , and the law of the members . But this prevails over that . For the case is thus : There are in men three laws ; 1. The law of the members . 2. The law of the mind . 3. The law of the spirit . 1. The law of the members , that is the habit and proneness to sin , the dominion of sin , giving a law to the lower man , and reigning there as in its proper seat . This law is also called by S. Paul , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the mind of the flesh * , the wisdom , the relish , the gust and savour of the flesh , that is , that deliciousness and comport , that inticing and correspondencies to the appetite by which it tempts and prevails ; all its own principles and propositions which minister to sin and folly . This subjects the man to the law of sin , or is that principle of evil by which sin does give us laws . 2. To this law of the flesh , the law of the mind * is opposed , and is in the regenerate and unregenerate indifferently : and it is nothing else but the conscience of good and evil , subject to the law of God , which the other cannot be . This accuses and convinces the unregenerate , it calls upon him to do his duty , it makes him unquiet when he does not ; but this alone is so invalidated by the infirmity of the flesh , by the Oeconomy of the law , by the disadvantages of the world , that it cannot prevail , or free him from the captivity of sin . But 3. The law of the Spirit , is the grace of Jesus Christ , and this frees the man from the law of the members , from the captivity of sin , from the tenure of death . Here then are three Combatants ; the Flesh , the Conscience , the Spirit . The flesh endeavours to subject the man to the law of sin ; the other two endeavour to subject him to the law of God. The flesh and the conscience or mind contend ; but this contention is no sign of being regenerate , because the Flesh prevails most commonly against the Mind , where there is nothing else to help it : the man is still a captive to the law of sin . But the Mind being worsted , God sends in the auxiliaries of the Spirit ; and when that enters and possesses , that overcomes the flesh , it rules and gives laws . But as in the unregenerate the Mind did strive though it was over-power'd , yet still it contended , but ineffectively for the most part : so now when the Spirit rules , the flesh strives , but it prevails but seldom , it is over-powered by the Spirit . Now this contention is a sign of regeneration , when the flesh lusteth against the Spirit ; not when the flesh lusteth against the mind or conscience . For the difference is very great , and highly to be remark'd . And it is represented in two places of S. Pauls Epistles : The one is that which I have already explicated in this Chapter ; I consent to the law of God according to the inner man : But I see another law in my members , fighting against the law of my mind , and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin that is in my members : where there is a redundancy in the words ; but the Apostle plainly signifies that the law of sin which is in his members prevails ; that is , sin rules the man in despite of all the contention and reluctancy of his conscience or the law of his mind . So that this strife of flesh and conscience is no sign of the regenerate , because the mind of a man is in subordination to the flesh of the man , sometimes willingly and perfectly , sometimes unwillingly and imperfectly . 32. I deny not but the mind is sometimes called Spirit , and by consequence , improperly it may be said , that even in these men their spirit lusteth against the flesh : That is , the more rational faculties contend against the brute parts , reason against passion , law against sin . Thus the word Spirit is taken for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the inner man , the whole mind together with its affections , Mat. 26.4 . and Acts 19.21 . But in this Question , the word * Spirit is distinguished from Mind ; and is taken for the mind renewed by the Spirit of God : and as these words are distinguished , so must their several contentions be remark'd . For when the mind or conscience , and the flesh fight , the flesh prevails ; but when the Spirit and the flesh fight , the Spirit prevails . And by that we shall best know who are the litigants that like the two sons of Rebecca strive within us . If the flesh prevails , then there was in us nothing but law of the mind ; nothing but the conscience of an unregenerate person : I mean , if the flesh prevails frequently or habitually . But if the Spirit of God did rule us , if that principle had possession of us , then the flesh is crucified , it is mortified , it is killed , and prevails not at all but when we will not use the force and arms of the Spirit , but it does not prevail habitually , not frequently or regularly , or by observation . This is clearly taught by those excellent words of S. Paul , which , as many other periods of his Epistles , have had the ill luck to be very much misunderstood . This I say then , walk in the Spirit , and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh : For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit , and the Spirit against the flesh , so that ye cannot [ that ye do not , or may not do , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] the things that ye would . But if ye be led by the Spirit , ye are not under the law . The word in the Greek may either signifie duty or event . Walk in the Spirit , and fulfil not , or , ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh . If we understand it in the Imperative sence , then it is exegetical of the former words : He that walks in the Spirit , hoc ipso , does not fulfil the lusts of the flesh . To do one , is not to do the other ; whoever fulfils the lusts of the flesh , and is rul'd by that law , he is not ruled by the grace of Christ , he is not regenerate by the Spirit . But the other sence is the best reddition of the word ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as if he had said , Walk in the Spirit , and then the event will i● , that the flesh shall not prevail over you , or give you laws ; you shall not then fulfil the lusts thereof . And this is best agreeable to the purpose of the Apostle . For having exhorted the Galatians that they should not make their Christian liberty a pretence to the flesh : as the best remedy against their enemy the flesh , he prescribes this walking in the Spirit , which is a certain deletery and prevalency over the flesh . And the reason follows : for the flesh lusteth against the Spirit , and the Spirit against the flesh ; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would ; that is , though ye be inclined to , and desirous of satisfying your carnal desires , yet being under the Empire and conduct of the Spirit , ye cannot do those desires ; the Spirit over-rules you , and you must , you will contradict your carnal appetites . For else this could not be ( as the Apostle designs it ) a reason of his exhortation . For if he had meant that in this contention of flesh and Spirit , we could not do the good things that we would , then the reason had contradicted the proposition . For suppose it thus ; Walk in the Spirit , and fulfil not the lusts of the flesh . For the flesh and the Spirit lust against each other , so that ye cannot do the good ye would . This , I say , is not sence , for the latter part contradicts the former . For , this thing [ that the flesh hinders us from doing the things of the Spirit ] is so far from being a reason why we should walk in the Spirit , that it perfectly discourages that design ; and it is to little purpose to walk in the Spirit , if this will not secure us against the domineering and tyranny of the flesh . But the contrary is most clear and consequent : If ye walk in the Spirit , ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh ; for though the flesh lusteth against the Spirit , and would fain prevail , yet it cannot ; for the Spirit also lusteth against the flesh , and is stronger , so that ye may not , or that ye do not , or that ye cannot ( for any of these readings as it may properly render the words of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so are not against the design of the Apostle ) do what ye otherwise would fain do ; and therefore if ye will walk in the Spirit , ye are secured against the flesh . 33. The result is this . 1. An impious , profane person sins without any contention ; that is , with a clear , ready , and a prepared will , he dies and disputes not . 2. An animal man , or a mere moral man , that is , one under the law , one instructed and convinced by the letter , but not sanctified by the Spirit , he sins willingly , because he considers and chuses it ; but he also sins unwillingly , that is , his inclinations to vice , and his first choices are abated , and the pleasures allayed , and his peace disturbed , and his sleeps broken ; but for all that , he sins on when the next violent temptation comes . The contention in him is between Reason and Passion , the law of the mind and the law of the members , between conscience and sin , that weak , this prevailing . 3. But the Regenerate hath the same contention within him , and the temptation is sometimes strong within him , yet he overcomes it , and seldom fails in any material and considerable instances . Because the Spirit is the prevailing ingredient in the new Creature , in the constitution of the regenerate , and will prevail . For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world , and this is the victory that overcometh the world , even your faith ; that is , by the faith of Jesus Christ , by him you shall have victory and redemption ; and again , Resist the Devil , and he will flee from you ; for he that is within you is stronger than he that is in the world ; and , Put on the whole armor of God , that ye may stand against the snares of the Devil , that ye may resist in the evil day , and having done all , to stand ; for , All things are possible to him that believes ; and , Through Christ that strengthens me I can do all things ; and therefore in all these things we are more than conquerors : for , God is able to do above all that we can ask or think ; he can keep us from all sin , and present us unblameable in the sight of his glory . So that to deny the power of the Spirit , in breaking the tyranny , and subduing the lusts of the flesh , besides that it contradicts all these and divers other Scriptures , it denies the Omnipotency of God , and of the Spirit of his grace , making sin to be stronger than it , and if grace abound , to make sin superabound : but to deny the willingness of the Spirit to redeem us from the captivity of sin , is to lessen the reputation of his goodness , and to destroy the possibility , and consequently the necessity of living holily . 34. But how happens it then that even the regenerate sins often , and the flesh prevails upon the ruine , or the declensions of the Spirit ? I answer , It is not because that holy principle which is in the regenerate cannot or will not secure him , but because the man is either prepossess'd with the temptation , and overcome before he begins to oppose the arms of the Spirit , that is , because he is surpris'd , or incogitant , or it may be , careless ; the good man is asleep , and then the enemy takes his advantage and sows tares ; for if he were awake , and considering , and would make use of the strengths of the Spirit , he would not be overcome by sin . For there are powers enough , that is , arguments and endearments , helps and sufficient motives to enable us to resist the strongest temptation in the world ; and this one alone , of resurrection to eternal life , which is revealed to us by Jesus Christ , and ministred in the Gospel , is an argument greater than all the promises and inticements of sin , if we will attend to its efficacy and consequence . But if we throw away our arms , and begin a fight in the Spirit , and end it in the flesh , the ill success of the day is to be imputed to us , not to the Spirit of God , to whom if we had attended we should certainly have prevailed . * The reliques and remains of sin are in the regenerate ; but that is a sign that sin is overcome , and the kingdom of it broken ; and that is a demonstration , that when ever sin does prevail in any single instances , it is not for want of power , but of using that power ; for since the Spirit hath prevailed upon the flesh in its strengths , and hath crucified it , there is no question but it can also prevail upon all its weaknesses . 35. For we must be curious to avoid a mistake here : The dominion of the Spirit , and the remains of the flesh may consist together in the regenerate ; as some remains of cold with the prevailing heat ; but the dominion of one and the other , are in every degree inconsistent ; as both cold and heat cannot in any sence be both said to be the prevailing ingredient . A man cannot be said to be both free from sin , and a slave to sin ; If he hath prevailed in any degree upon sin , then he is not at all a servant of that portion from whence he is set free ; but if he be a captive of any one sin , or regular degree of it , he is not Gods freed man ; for the Spirit prevails upon all as well as upon one ; and that is not an infinite power that cannot redeem us from all our slavery : But to be a slave of sin , and at the same time to be a servant of righteousness , is not only against the analogy of Scripture , and the express signification of so many excellent periods , but against common sence ; it is as if one should say , that a man hath more heat than cold in his hand , and yet that the cold should prevail upon , and be stronger than the heat ; that is , that the weaker should overcome the stronger , and the less should be greater , than that which is bigger than it . 36. But as the choice of vertue is abated , and ( as the temptation grows more violent , and urges more vehemently ) is made less pleasant in the regenerate person ; so is the choice of vice in the Moral , or Animal man. The contention abates the pleasure in both their choices ; but in the one it ends in sin , in the other it ends in victory . So that there is an unwillingness to sin in all but in the impious and profane person , in the far distant stranger . But the unwillingness to sin , that is in the Animal , or Moral man , is nothing else but a serving sin like a grumbling servant , or like the younger son of the Farmer in the Gospel ; he said he would not , but did it for all his angry words . And therefore that the unregenerate man acts the sin against his mind , and after a long contention against it , does not in all cases lessen it , but sometimes increases it . Nec leviat crimen eorum , magis verò auget , quòd eos diù restitisse dixistis , said Pope Pelagius . To resist long , and then to consent , hath in it some aggravations of the crime , as being a conviction of the mans baseness , a violence to reason , a breach of former resolutions , a recession from fair beginnings , and wholly without excuse . * But if ever it comes to pass , that in the contention of flesh and spirit , the regenerate man does sin , he does it unwillingly , that is , by ignorance or inadvertency : The unregenerate sins unwillingly too , but it is by reason of the dominion and rule that sin bears over him : but still this difference distinguishes them in the event of things , that when it comes to the question whether sin shall be done or no , the one wills , and the other wills not , though it may happen that the consent or dissent respectively may be with the same unwillingness by reason of the contention and strife from the adverse , though weaker party . The unregenerate man may be unwilling to obey sin , but he obeys it for all that ; and the unwillingness is a sign of the greater slavery ; but there can be no sign of his regeneration , but by not obeying the sin in the day of its own power and temptation . A servant is still a servant whether he obeys with , or against his will. His servants we are to whom we obey , saith S. Paul ; all therefore that is to be considered in the Question of regeneration , is , whether the man obeys , or not obeys ? for whether he be willing or unwilling , is not here considerable . Let no man therefore flatter himself that he is a regenerate person , because though he is a servant to sin , and acts at the command of his lust , and cannot resist in the evil day , or stand the shock of a temptation , yet he finds an unwillingness within him , and a strife against sin . Hugo de S. Victore , or else S. Austin in the Book de continentiâ , gave beginning or countenance to this error . Hanc pugnam non experiuntur in semetipsis nisi bellatores virtutum , debellatorésque vitiorum . This fight none find in themselves , but they that fight on vertues side , and destroy vice . Which words , though something crudely set down , and so not true , yet are explicable by the following period ; Non expugnat concupiscentiae malum , nisi continentiae bonum : only holy and continent persons do overcome their concupiscence ; and in that sence it is true : Only the regenerate feel this fight which ends in victory . But he whose contention ends in sin , and after a brave on-set , yields basely , frequently I mean , or habitually , every such person is a servant of sin , and therefore not a servant of the spirit , but free from , that is , not rul'd by the law of righteousness . And this is so certain , that this unwillingness to sin , which ends in obeying it , is so far from being a note of a regenerate person , that it is evidently true , that no man can come from the servitude or slavery of sin , but the first step of his going from it , is the sense and hatred of his fetters , and then his desire of being freed : but therefore he is not free , because he complains of his bands , and finds them heavy and intolerable , and therefore seeks for remedy . For if an unregenerate person did always sin willingly , that is , without this reluctancy and strife within ; and the regenerate did sin as infallibly , but yet sore against his will ; then the regenerate person were the verier slave of the two : for he that obeys willingly , is less a slave , than he that obeys in spight of his heart . — Libertatis servaveris umbram , Si quicquid jubeare velis — He that delights in his fetters , hath at least the shadow , and some of the pleasure of liberty ; but he hath nothing of it who is kept fast , and groans because his feet are hurt in the stocks , and the iron entreth into his soul. It was the sad state and complaint of the Romans , when by the iniquity of war , and the evil success of their armies , they were forc'd to entertain their bondage . — tot rebus iniquis Paeruimus victi , venia est haec sola pudoris Degenerìsque metus , nil jam potuisse negari . It was a conquest that gave them laws , and their ineffective strugling , and daily murmurs , were but ill arguments of their liberty , which were so great demonstrations of their servitude . 37. III. An unregenerate man may not only will and desire to do Natural or Moral good things , but even Spiritual and Evangelical ; that is , not only that good which he is taught by natural reason , or by civil sanctions , or by use and experience of things , but even that also which is only taught us by the Spirit of grace . For if he can desire the first , much more may he desire the latter when he once comes to know it : because there is in spiritual good things much more amability ; they are more perfective of our mind , and a greater advancer of our hopes , and a security to our greatest interest . Neither can this be prejudic'd by those words of S. Paul : The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit , for they are foolishness unto him , neither can he know them , because they are spiritually discerned . For the natural man S. Paul speaks of , is one unconverted to Christianity , the Gentile Philosophers , who relied upon such principles of nature as they understood ; but studied not the Prophets , knew not of the Miracles of Christ and his Apostles , nor of those excellent verifications of the things of the Spirit ; and therefore these men could not arrive at spiritual notices , because they did not go that way which was the only competent and proper instrument of finding them . Scio incapacem te Sacramenti , impie , Non posse caecis mentibus mysterium Haurire nostrum — They that are impious , and they that go upon distinct principles , neither obeying the proposition , nor loving the Commandment , they indeed , viz. remaining in that indisposition , cannot receive , that is , entertain him . And this is also the sence of the words of our blessed Saviour , The world cannot receive him ; that is , the unbelievers , such who will not be perswaded by arguments Evangelical . But a man may be a spiritual man in his notices , and yet be carnal in his affections ; and still under the bondage of sin . Such are they of whom S. Peter affirms , it is better they had never known the way of righteousness , than having known it to fall away : Such are they of whom S. Paul says , They detain the truth in unrighteousness . Now concerning this man , it is that I affirm , that upon the same account as any vicious man can commend vertue , this man also may commend holiness , and desire to be a holy man , and wishes it with all his heart , there being the same proportion between his mind , and the things of the Spirit , as between a Jew and the Moral Law , or a Gentile and Moral vertue ; that is , he may desire it with passion and great wishings . But here is the difference : A regenerate man does , what the unregenerate man does but desire . 38. IV. An unregenerate man may leave many sins which he is commanded to forsake . For it is not ordinarily possible , that so perfect a conviction as such men may have of the excellency of religion should be in all instances and periods totally ineffective . Something they will give to reputation , something to fancy , something to fame , something to peace , something to their own deception , that by quitting one or two lusts , they may have some kind of peace in all the rest , and think all is well . These men sometimes would fain obey the law , but they will not crucifie the flesh ; any thing that does not smart . Their temper and constitution will allow them easily to quit such superinduc'd follies which out of a gay or an impertinent spirit they have contracted , or which came to them by company or by chance , or confidence , or violence ; but if they must mortifie the flesh to quit a lust , that 's too hard and beyond their powers , which are in captivity to the law of sin . * Some men will commute a duty ; and if you will allow them covetousness , they will quit their lust , or their intemperance , according as it happens . Herod did many things at the preaching of John the Baptist , and heard him gladly . Balaam did some things handsomely ; though he was covetous and ambitious , yet he had a limit ; he would obey the voice of the Angel , and could not be tempted to speak a curse , when God spake a blessing . Ahab was an imperfect penitent ; he did some things , but not enough . And if there be any root of bitterness , there is no regeneration ; Colloquintida , and Death is in the pot . 39. V. An unregenerate man may leave some sins not only for temporal interest , but out of reverence of the Divine law , out of fear and reverence . Under the law there were many such : and there is no peradventure but that many men who like Felix have trembled at a Sermon , have with such a shaking fit left off something that was fit to be laid aside . To leave a sin out of fear of the Divine judgment is not sinful , or totally unacceptable . All that left sin in obedience and reverence to the law , did it in fear of punishment , because fear was the sanction of the law : and even under the Gospel , to obey out of fear of punishment , though it be less perfect , yet it is not criminal , nay , rather on the other side ; The worse that men are , so much the less they are afraid of the Divine anger and judgments . To abstain out of fear , is to abstain out of a very proper motive : and God when he sends a judgment with a design of emendation , or threatens a criminal , or denounces woes and cursings , intends that fear should be the beginning of wisdom . Knowing therefore the terrors of the Lord , we perswade men , saith S. Paul. And the whole design of delivering criminals over to Satan , was but a pursuance of this argument of fear ; that by feeling something , they might fear a worse , and for the present be affrighted from their sin . And this was no other than the argument which our blessed Saviour used to the poor Paralytick : Go and sin no more , lest a worse thing happen to thee . But besides that this good fear may work much in an unregenerate person , or a man under the law , such a person may do some things in obedience to God , or thankfulness , and perfect , mere choice . So Jehu obeyed God a great way : but there was a turning , and a high stile , beyond which he would not go , and his principles could not carry him through . Few women can accuse themselves of adultery ; in the great lines of chastity they chuse to obey God , and the voice of honour ; but can they say that their eye is not wanton , that they do not spend great portions of their time in vanity , that they are not idle , and useless , or busie-bodies , that they do not make it much of their imployment to talk of fashions and trifles , or that they do make it their business to practise religion , to hear and attend to severe and sober counsels ? If they be under the conduct of the Spirit , he hath certainly carried them into all the regions of duty . But to go a great way , and not to finish the journey is the imperfection of the unregenerate . For in some persons , fear or love of God is not of it self strong enough to weigh down the scales ; but there must be thrown in something from without , some generosity of spirit , or revenge , or gloriousness and bravery , or natural pity , or interest ; and so far as these , or any of them go along with the better principle , this will prevail ; but when it must go alone , it is not strong enough . But this is a great way off from the state of sanctification or a new birth . 40. VI. An unregenerate man , besides the abstinence from much evil , may also do many good things for Heaven , and yet never come thither . He may be sensible of his danger and sad condition , and pray to be delivered from it ; and his prayers shall not be heard , because he does not reduce his prayers to action , and endeavour to be what he desires to be . Almost every man desires to be sav'd : but this desire is not with every one of that perswasion and effect as to make them willing to want the pleasures of the world for it , or to perform the labours of charity and repentance . A man may strive and contend in or towards the ways of godliness , and yet fall short . Many men pray often , and fast much , and pay tithes , and do justice , and keep the Commandments of the second Table with great integrity ; and so are good moral men , as the word is used in opposition to , or rather in destitution of religion . Some are religious and not just : some want sincerity in both : and of this , the Pharisees were a great example . But the words of our blessed Saviour are the greatest testimony in this article ; Many shall strive to enter in , and shall not be able . Either they shall contend too late like the five foolish Virgins , and as they whom S. Paul by way of caution likens to Esau ; or else they contend with incompetent and insufficient strengths : they strive , but put not force enough to the work . An unregenerate man hath not strength enough ; that is , he wants the spirit and activity , and perfectness of resolution . Not that he wants such aids as are necessary and sufficient , but that himself hath not purposes pertinacious , and resolutions strong enough . All that is necessary to his assistance from without , all that he hath or may have ; but that which is necessary on his own part he hath not ; but that 's his own fault ; that he might also have ; and it is in his duty , and therefore certainly in his power to have it . For a man is not capable of a law which he hath not powers sufficient to obey : he must be free and quit from all its contraries , from the power and dominion of them ; or at least must be so free , that he may be quit of them if he please . For there can be no liberty , but where all the impediments are remov'd , or may be if the man will. 41. VII . An unregenerate man may have received the Spirit of God , and yet be in a state of distance from God. For to have received the holy Ghost , is not an inseparable propriety of the regenerate . The Spirit of God is an internal agent ; that is , the effects and graces of the Spirit by which we are assisted , are within us before they operate . For although all assistances from without are graces of God , the effects of Christs passion , purchased for us by his blood and by his intercession ; and all good company , wise counsels , apt notices , prevailing arguments , moving objects , and opportunities and endearments of vertue are from above , from the Father of lights : yet the Spirit of God does also work more inwardly , and creates in us aptnesses and inclinations , consentings , and the acts of conviction and adherence , working in us to will and to do according to our desire , or according to Gods good pleasure : yet this holy Spirit is oftentimes grieved , sometimes provoked , and at last extinguish'd , which because it is done only by them who are enemies of the Spirit , and not the servants of God , it follows that the Spirit of God by his aids and assistances , is in them that are not so , with a design to make them so : and if the holy Spirit were not in any degree or sence in the unregenerate , how could a man be born again by the Spirit ? for since no man can be regenerate by his own strengths , his new birth must be wrought by the Spirit of God ; and especially in the beginnings of our conversion is his assistance necessary : which assistance , because it works within as well , and rather than without , must needs be in a man before he operates within . And therefore to have received the holy Spirit , is not the propriety of the regenerate ; but to be led by him , to be conducted by the Spirit in all our ways and counsels , to obey his motions , to entertain his doctrine , to do his pleasure : This is that which gives the distinction and the denomination . And this is called by S. Paul , The inhabitation of the Spirit of God in us ; in opposition to the inhabitants peccatum , the sin that dwelleth in the unregenerate . The Spirit may be in us , calling and urging us to holiness ; but unless the Spirit of God dwell in us , and abide in us , and love to do so , and rule , and give us laws , and be not griev'd and cast out , but entertain'd , and cherish'd , and obey'd , unless ( I say ) the Spirit of God be thus in us , Christ is not in us ; and if Christ be not in us , we are none of his . SECT . VI. The Character of the Regenerate Estate , or Person . 42. FROM hence it is not hard to describe what are the proper indications of the Regenerate . 1. A regenerate person is convinc'd of the goodness of the law , and meditates in it day and night . His delight is in Gods law , not only with his mind approving , but with his will chusing the duties and significations of the law . II. The Regenerate not only wishes that the good were done which God commands , but heartily sets about the doing of it . III. He sometimes feels the rebellions of the flesh , but he fights against them always ; and if he receive a fall , he rises instantly , and fights the more fiercely , and watches the more cautelously , and prays the more passionately , and arms himself more strongly , and prevails more prosperously . In a regenerate person there is flesh and Spirit , but the Spirit only rules . There is an outward and an inward man , but both of them are subject to the Spirit . There was a law of the members , but it is abrogated and cancell'd ; the law is repeal'd , and does not any more inslave him to the law of sin . Nunc quamdiu concupiscit caro adversus spiritum , & spiritus adversus carnem , sat est nobis non consentire malis quae sentimus in nobis . Every good man shall always feel the flesh lusting against the Spirit ; that contention he shall never be quit of , but it is enough for us if we never consent to the suggested evils . IV. A regenerate person does not only approve that which is best , and desire to do it , but he does it actually , and delights to do it ; he continues and abides in it , which the Scripture calls a walking in the Spirit , and a living after it : for he does his duty by the strengths of the Spirit ; that is , upon considerations Evangelical , in the love of God , in obedience to Christ , and by the aids he hath receiv'd from above beyond the powers of nature and education , and therefore he does his duty upon such considerations as are apt to make it integral and persevering . For , V. A regenerate man does not only leave some sins but all , and willingly entertains none . He does not only quit a lust that is against his disposition , but that which he is most inclin'd to , he is most severe against , and most watchful to destroy it ; he plucks out his right eye , and cuts off his right hand , and parts with his biggest interest , rather than keep a lust : and therefore consequently chuses vertue by the same method , by which he abstains from vice . Nam ipsa continentia cum fraenat , cohibétque libidines simul & appetit bonum , ad cujus immortalitem tendimus : & respuit malum cum quo in hâc mortalitate contendimus ; that is , He pursues all vertue , as he refuses all vice ; for he tends to the immortality of good , as he strives against evil in all the days of his mortality . And therefore he does not chuse to exercise that vertue only that will do him reputation , or consist with his interest , or please his humour , but entertains all vertue , whether it be with him or against him , pleasing or displeasing ; he chuses all that God hath commanded him , because he does it for that reason . VI. A regenerate person doth not only contradict his appetite in single instances , but endeavours to destroy the whole body of sin ; he does not only displease his fond appetite , but he mortifies it , and never entertains conditions of peace with it ; for it is a dangerous mistake , if we shall presume all is well , because we do some acts of spite to our dearest lust , and sometimes cross the most pleasing temptation , and oppose our selves in single instances against every sin . This is not it ; the regenerate man endeavours to destroy the whole body of sin , and having had an opportunity to contest his sin , and to contradict it this day , is glad he hath done something of his duty , and does so again to morrow and ever , till he hath quite killed it ; and never entertains conditions of peace with it , nor ever is at rest till the flesh be quiet and obedient . * For sometimes it comes to pass that the old man being used to obey , at last obeys willingly , and takes the conditions of the Gibeonites ; it is content to do drudgery and the inferior ministeries , if it may be suffered to abide in the land . 43. So that here is a new account upon which the former proposition is verifiable ; viz. It is not the propriety of the regenerate to feel a contention within him concerning doing good or bad . For it is not only true , that the unregenerate oftentimes feel the fight , and never see the triumph ; but it is also true , that sometimes the regenerate do not feel this contention . They did once with great violence and trouble ; but when they have gotten a clear victory , they have also great measures of peace . But this is but seldom , to few persons , and in them but in rare instances , in carnal sins and temptations : for in spiritual , they will never have an intire rest till they come into their Country . It is Angelical perfection to have no flesh at all , but it is the perfection of a Christian to have the flesh obedient to the spirit always , and in all things . But if this contention be not a sign of regeneration , but is common to good and bad , that which can only distinguish them , is victory , and perseverance ; and those sins which are committed at the end of such contentions , are not sins of a pitiable and excusable infirmity ; but the issues of death and direct emanations from an unregenerate estate . Therefore , 44. VII . Lastly ; The regenerate not only hath received the Spirit of God , but is wholly led by him , he attends his motions , he obeys his counsels , he delights in his Commandments , and accepts his testimony , and consents to his truth , and rejoyces in his comforts , and is nourish'd by his hopes up to a perfect man in Christ Jesus . This is the only condition of being the sons of God , and being sav'd . For as many as are led by the Spirit of God , they are the sons of God. None else . And therefore if ye live after the flesh ye shall die , but if through the Spirit ye do mortifie the deeds of the body , ye shall live . This is your characteristick note . Our obedience to the Spirit , our walking by his light , and by his conduct . This is the Spirit that witnesseth to our spirit , that we are the sons of God. That is , if the Spirit be obeyed , if it reigns in us , if we live in it , if we walk after it , if it dwells in us , then we are sure that we are the sons of God. There is no other testimony to be expected , but the doing of our duty . All things else ( unless an extraregular light spring from Heaven and tells us of it ) are but fancies and deceptions , or uncertainties at the best . SECT . VII . What are properly and truly sins of Infirmity , and how far they can consist with the Regenerate Estate . 45. WE usually reckon our selves too soon to be in Gods favour . While the War lasts , it is hard telling who shall be the Prince . When one part hath fought prosperously , there is hopes of his side : and yet if the adversary hath reserves of a vigorous force , or can raise new , and not only pretends his title , but makes great inrodes into the Country , and forrages , and does mischief , and fights often , and prevails sometimes , the inheritance is still doubtful as the success . But if the Usurper be beaten , and driven out , and his forces quite broken , and the lawful Prince is proclaim'd , and rules , and gives laws , though the other rails in prison , or should by a sudden fury kill a single person , or plot an ineffective treason , no man then doubt ▪ concerning the present possession . 46. But men usually think their case is good , so long as they are fighting , so long as they are not quite conquered , and every step towards grace , they call ●t pardon and salvation presently . As soon as ever a man begins heartily to mortifie his ●●n ▪ his hopes begin , and if he proceeds they are certain . But if in this sight he b● overcome , he is not to ask , Whether that ill day , and that deadly blow , can consist with the state of life ? He that fights , and conquers not , but sins frequently , and ●o yield or be killed is the end of the long contentions , this man is not yet alive . But when he prevails regularly and daily over his sin , then he is in a state of regeneration ; but let him take heed , for every voluntary , or chosen sin is a mortal wound . 47. But because no man in this world hath so conquer'd , but he may be smitten , and is sometimes struck at ; and most good men have cause to complain of their calamity , that in their understandings there are doubtings , and strange mistakes , which because after a great confidence they are sometimes discovered , there is cause to suspect there are some there still which are not discovered ; that there are in the will evil inclinations to forbidden instances ; that in the appetite there are carnal desires ; that in their natural actions there are sometimes too sensual applications ; that in their good actions there are mighty imperfections ; it will be of use that we separate the certain from the uncertain , security from danger , the apology from the accusation , and the excuse from the crime , by describing what are , and what are not sins of Infirmity . 48. For most men are pleased to call their debaucheries sins of infirmity , if they be done against their reason , and the actual murmur of their consciences , and against their trifling resolutions , and ineffective purposes to the contrary . Now although all sins are the effects of infirmity Natural or Moral , yet because I am to cure a popular mistake , I am also to understand the word as men do commonly , and by sins of Infirmity to mean , 49. Such sins which in the whole , and upon the matter , are unavoidable , and therefore excusable : Such which can consist with the state of grace , that is , such which have so much irregularity in them as to be sins , and yet so much excuse and pity , as that by the Covenant and Mercies of the Gospel , they shall not be exacted in the worst of punishments , or punished with eternal pains , because they cannot with the greatest moral diligence wholly be avoided . Concerning these so described , we are to take accounts by the following measures . 50. I. Natural imperfections , and evil inclinations , when they are not consented to or delighted in , either are no sins at all , or if they be , they are but sins of infirmity . That in some things our nature is cross to the Divine Commandment , is not always imputable to us , because our natures were before the Commandment ; and God hath therefore commanded us to do violence to our nature , that by such preternatural contentions we should offer to God a service that costs us something . But that in some things we are inclin'd otherwise than we are suffered to act , is so far from offending God , that it is that opportunity of serving him , by which we can most endear him . To be inclined to that whither nature bends , is of it self indifferent , but to love , to entertain , to act our inclinations , when the Commandment is put between , that is the sin ; and therefore if we resist them , and master them , that is our obedience . For it is equally certain ; no man can be esteemed spiritual for his good wishes and desires of holiness , but for his actual and habitual obedience : so no man is to be esteemed carnal or criminal for his natural inclinations to what is forbidden . But that good men complain of their strange propensities to sin , it is a declaration of their fears , of their natural weakness , of the needs of grace , and the aids of Gods Spirit . But because these desires , even when they are much restrained , do yet sometimes insensibly go too far ; therefore it is , that such are sins of infirmity , because they are almost unavoidable . This remain is like the image of the Ape which Theophilus Bishop of Alexandria left after the breaking of the other Idols ; a testimony of their folly ; but as that was left for no other purpose but to reprove them , so is this to humble us , that we may not rely upon flesh and blood , but make God to be our confidence . 51. II. Sins of infirmity are rather observed in the imperfection of our duty , than in the commission of any criminal action . For in this it was that our blessed Saviour instanc'd these words , The spirit truly is willing , but the flesh is weak ; The body is weary , the eyes heavy , the fancy restless , diversions many , businesses perpetually intervene , and all the powers of discourse and observation cannot hinder our mind from wandring in our prayers , — Odi artus , fragilémque hunc corporis usum Desertorem animi — But this being in the whole unavoidable , is therefore in many of its parts and instances very excusable , if we do not indulge to it ; if we pray and strive against it ; that is , so long as it is a natural infirmity . For although we cannot avoid wandring thoughts , yet we can avoid delighting in them , or a careless and negligent increasing them . For if they once seise upon the will , they are sins of choice and malice , and not of infirmity . So that the great scene of sins of infirmity , is in omission of degrees and portions of that excellency of duty which is required of us . We are imperfect , and we do imperfectly , and if we strive towards perfection , God will pity our imperfection . There is no other help for us ; but blessed be God , that is sufficient for our need , and proportionable to our present state . 52. III. But in actions and matters of commission , the case is different . For though a man may forget himself against his will , or sleep , or fall , yet without his will he cannot throw himself down , or rise again . Every action is more or less voluntary , but every omission is not . A thing may be let alone upon a dead stock , or a negative principle , or an unavoidable defect , but an action cannot be done without some command or action of the will ; therefore although sins of defect are in many cases pitied and not exacted , yet sinful actions have not so easie a sentence ; but they also have some abatements . Therefore , 53. IV. Imperfect actions , such which are incomplete in their whole capacity , are sins of infirmity , and ready and prepar'd for pity : of this sort are rash , or ignorant actions , done by surprise ; by inconsideration and inadvertency ; by a sudden and great fear , in which the reason is in very many degrees made useless , and the action cannot be considered duly . In these there is some little mixture of choice , so much as to make the action imputable , if God should deal severely with us ; but yet so little that it shall not be imputed under the mercies of the Gospel ; although the man that does them cannot pretend he is innocent , yet he can pretend that he does stand fair in the eye of mercy . A good man may sometimes be unwary , or he may speak , or be put to it to resolve or do before he can well consider . If he does a thing rashly when he can consider and deliberate , he is not excused : but if he does it indiscreetly , when he must do it suddenly , it is his infirmity , and he shall be relieved at the Chancery of the throne of Grace . For it is remarkable that Gods justice is in some cases 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , exact , full and severe : in other cases it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , full of equity , gentleness , and wisdom , making abatement for infirmities , performing promises , interpreting things to the most equal and favourable purposes . So Justice is taken in S. John , [ If we confess our sins , he is righteous or just to forgive our sins ] that is , Gods justice is such as to be content with what we can do , and not to exact all that is possible to be imposed . He is as just in forgiving the penitent , as in punishing the refractory ; as just in abating reasonably , as in weighing scrupulously : such a justice it is , which in the same case , David calls Mercy . For thou Lord art merciful , for thou rewardest every man according to his works . And if this were not so , no man could be saved . Mortalis enim conditio non patitur esse hominem ab omni maculâ purum , said Lactantius . For in many things we offend all : and our present state of imperfection will not suffer it to be otherwise : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Philo. For as a runner of races at his first setting forth rids his way briskly , and in a breath measures out many spaces ; but by and by his spirit is saint , and his body is breathless , and he stumbles at every thing that lies in his way : so is the course of a Christian ; fierce in the beginnings of repentance , and active in his purposes ; but in his progress remiss and hindred , and starts at every accident , and stumbles at every scandal and stone of offence , and is sometimes listless , and without observation at other times , and a bird out of a bush that was not look'd for , makes him to start aside , and decline from the path and method of his journey . But then if he that stumbles mends his pace , and runs more warily , and goes on vigorously , his error , or misfortune shall not be imputed ; for here Gods justice is equity , it is the justice of the Chancery ; we are not judged by the Covenant of works , that is , of exact measures , but by the Covenant of faith and remission , or repentance . But if he that falls , lies down despairingly or wilfully , or if he rises , goes back , or goes aside , not only his declination from his way , but every error or fall , every stumbling and startling in that way shall be accounted for . For here Gods justice is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , exact and severe ; it is the justice of the Law , because he refused the method and conditions of the Gospel . 54. V. Every sinful action that can pretend to pardon by being a sin of infirmity must be in a small matter . The imperfect way of operating alone , is not sufficient for excuse and pardon , unless the matter also be little and contemptible ; because if the matter be great , it cannot ordinarily be , but it must be considered and chosen . He that in a sudden anger strikes his friend to the heart , whom he had lov'd as passionately as now he smote him , is guilty of murder , and cannot pretend infirmity for his excuse ; because in an action of so great consequence and effect , it is supposed , he had time to deliberate all the foregoing parts of his life , whether such an action ought to be done or not ; or the very horror of the action was enough to arrest his spirit , as a great danger , or falling into a river , will make a drunken man sober ; and by all the laws of God and Man , he was immur'd from the probability of all transports into such violences ; and the man must needs be a slave of passion , who could by it be brought to go so far from reason , and to do so great evil . * If a man in the careless time of the day , when his spirit is loose , with a less severe imployment , or his heart made more open with an innocent refreshment , spies a sudden beauty that unluckily strikes his fancy ; it is possible that he may be too ready to entertain a wanton thought , and to suffer it to stand at the doors of his first consent ; but if the sin passes no further , the man enters not into the regions of death ; because the Devil entred on a sudden , and is as suddenly cast forth . But if from the first arrest of concupiscence , he pass on to an imperfect consent , from an imperfect consent , to a perfect and deliberate , and from thence to an act , and so to a habit , he ends in death ; because long before it is come thus far , The salt water is taken in . The first concupiscence is but like rain water , it discolours the pure springs , but makes them not deadly . But when in the progression the will mingles with it , it is like the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or waters of brimstone , and the current for ever after is unwholsome , and carries you forth into the dead Sea , the lake of Sodom , which is to suffer the vengeance of Eternal fire : But then the matter may be supposed little till the will comes . For though a man may be surprised with a wanton eye , yet he cannot sight a duel against his knowledge , or commit adultery against his will. A man cannot against his will contrive the death of a man ; but he may speak a rash word , or be suddenly angry , or triflingly peevish , and yet all this notwithstanding , be a good man still . These may be sins of Infirmity , because they are imperfect actions in the whole ; and such , in which as the man is for the present surpris'd , so they are such against which no watchfulness was a sufficient guard , as it ought to have been in any great matter , and might have been in sudden murders . A wise and a good man may easily be mistaken in a nice question , but can never suspect an article of his Creed to be false : a good man may have many fears and doubtings in matters of smaller moment , but he never doubts of Gods goodness , of his truth , of his mercy , or of any of his communicated perfections : he may fall into melancholy , and may suffer indefinite fears , of he knows not what himself , yet he can never explicitely doubt of any thing which God hath clearly revealed , and in which he is sufficiently instructed . A weak eye may at a distance mistake a man for a tree ; but he who sailing in a storm , takes the Sea for dry land , or a mushrome for an oak , is stark blind . And so is he who can think adultery to be excusable , or that Treason can be duty , or that by persecuting Gods Prophets , he does God good service , or that he propagates Religion by making the Ministers of the Altar poor , and robbing the Churches . A good man so remaining cannot suffer infirmity in the plain and legible lines of duty , where he can see , and reason , and consider . I have now told which are sins of infirmity ; and I have told all their measures . For as for those other false opinions by which men flatter themselves into Hell , by a pretence of sins of infirmity , they are as unreasonable as they are dangerous ; and they are easily reproved upon the stock of the former truths . Therefore , 55. VI. Although our mere natural inclination to things forbidden , be of it self a natural and unavoidable infirmity , and such which cannot be cured by all the precepts and endeavours of perfection ; yet this very inclination , if it be heightned by carelesness or evil customs , is not a sin of infirmity . Tiberius the Emperor being troubled with a fellow that wittily and boldly pretended himself to be a Prince , at last when he could not by questions , he discovered him to be a mean person by the rusticity and hardness of his body : not by a callousness of his feet , or a wart upon a finger , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , His whole body was hard and servile , and so he was discovered . The natural superfluities , and excrescencies that inevitably adhere to our natures , are not sufficient indications of a servile person , or a slave to sin ; but when our natures are abused by choice and custom , when the callousness is spread by evil and hard usages , when the arms are brawny by the services of Egypt , then it is no longer infirmity , but a superinduc'd viciousness , and a direct hostility . When nature rules , grace does not . When the flesh is in power , the spirit is not . Therefore it matters not from what corner the blasting wind does come , from whence soever it is , it is deadly . Most of our sins are from natural inclinations ; and the negative precepts of God , are for the most part , restraints upon them . Therefore to pretend nature , when our selves have spoil'd it , is no excuse , but that state of evil , from whence the Spirit of God is to rescue and redeem us . 56. VII . Yea , but although it be thus in nature , yet it is hop'd by too many , that it shall be allowed to be infirmity , when the violence of our passions or desires overcomes our resolutions . Against this , I oppose this proposition : When violence of desire or passion engages us in a sin , whither we see and observe our selves entring , that violence or transportation is not our excuse , but our disease : and that resolution is not accepted for innocence or repentance : but the not performing what we did resolve is our sin , and the violence of passion was the accursed principle . 57. For to resolve is a relative and imperfect duty , in order to something else . It had not been necessary to resolve , if it had not been necessary to do do it : and if it be necessary to do it , it is not sufficient to resolve it . And for the understanding of this the better , we must observe , that to resolve , and to endeavour , are several things . To resolve , is to purpose to do what we may if we will ; some way or other the thing is in our power ; either we are able of our selves , or we are help'd . No man resolves to carry an Elephant , or to be as wise as Solomon , or to destroy a vast Army with his own hands . He may endeavour this ; for , To endeavour sometimes supposes a state of excellency , beyond our power , but not beyond our aims . Thus we must endeavour to avoid all sin , and to master all our infirmities ; because to do so is the nobleness of a Christian courage , and that design which is the proper effect of Charity , which is the best of Christian graces . But we cannot resolve to do it , because it is beyond all our powers ; but may endeavour it , and resolve to endeavour it , but that 's all we can do . But if to resolve , be a duty , then to perform it is a greater ; and if a man cannot be the child of God without resolving against all the habits of sin , then neither can he be his child , unless he actually quit them all . 58. But then if from acting our resolution we be hindred by passion and violent desires , we are plainly in the state of immortification . Passion is the Ruler : and as the first step of victory is to keep those passions and appetites from doing any Criminal action abroad : so the worst they can do , is to engage and force the man to sin , and that against his will , even whether he list or no. But concerning this Article , we are intirely determin'd by the words of S. Paul , He that is in Christ hath crucified the flesh , with the affections and lusts ; that is , the passions and desires of the flesh are mortified in all the regenerate : and therefore a state of passion is a state of death . But whatever the principle be , yet we must be infinitely careful we do not mistake a broken resolution for an intire piety . He that perpetually resolves , and yet perpetually breaks his resolution , does all the way sin against his conscience , and against his reason , against his experience , and against his observation ; and it will be a strange offer at an excuse , for a man to hope for , or to pretend to pardon , because be sinned against his Conscience . 59. There is in this Article some little difference in the case of young persons , the violence of whose passions as it transports them infallibly to evil , so it helps to excuse some of it ; but this is upon a double account : 1. Because part of it is natural , naturale vitium aetatis , the defect and inherent inclination of their age . 2. And because their passions being ever strongest when their reason is weakest , the actions of young men are imperfect and incomplete . For deliberation being nothing else but an alternate succession of appetites , it is an unequal entercourse that a possessing , natural , promoted passion should contest against a weak , over-born , beginning , unexperienc'd , uninstructed reason : this alternation of appetites is like the dust of a ballance weighing against a rock ; the deliberation it self must needs be imperfect , because there is no equality . And therefore the Roman Lawyers did not easily upon a man under twenty five years of age inflict punishment , at least not extreme . They are the words of Tryphonius : In delictis autem minor annis xxv . non meretur in integr●● restitutionem , utique atrocioribus ; nisi quatenus interdum miseratio aetatis ad mediocrem poenam judicem produxerit . This I say is only a lessening of their fault , not imputing it . God is ready to pity every thing that is pitiable , and therefore is apt to instruct them more , and to forbear them longer , and to expect and to assist their return , and strikes them not so soon , nor so severely , but what other degrees of pardon God will allow to their infirmities , he hath no where told us . For as to the whole , it is true in all laws Divine and Humane : In criminibus quidem aetatis suffragio minores non juvantur : etenim malorum mores infirmitas animi non excusat . Infirmity of mind does not excuse evil manners : and therefore in criminal actions , young persons are not excus'd by their age . In delictis aetate neminem excusari constat , said Diocletian and Maximianus . The age excuses not ; well may it lessen , but it does not quite extinguish the guilt . 60. VIII . The greatness or violence of a temptation does not excuse our sin , or reconcile it to the state of grace and an actual consistence with Gods favour . The man that is highly tempted and so falls , cannot say it was by an unavoidable infirmity . For God never suffers any man to be tempted above his strength ; and therefore when he suffers him to fall into a great trial , he hath before-hand prepared him with great aids : and a temptation is not such a formidable thing to a considering Christian. All that it can say is nothing , but that sin is pleasant : and suppose that true ; yet so is drink to an hydropick person , and salt meats to a phantastick stomach , and yet they that are concerned do easily abstain from these temptations , and remember that it is a greater pleasure to be in health , than with a little cold water , or a broil'd fish to please their palate : and therefore a temptation which can be overcome by an argument from so small an interest , cannot stand the shock of a Noble and a Christian resolution and discourse . But every temptation puts on its strength as the man is . Sometimes a full meal will not prejudice our health ; and at another time half so much would be a surfeit : and some men take cold with leaving off a half-shirt , who at another time might leave off half their clothes . The indisposition is within : and if men did not love to be tempted , it would not prevail at all . Wine is no temptation to an abstemious man , nor all the beauties of Potiphars wife to Joseph , the Devil could not prevail with such trifles ; but half such an offer would overthrow all the trifling purposes of the effeminate . To say that such a temptation is great , is to say , that you love the sin too well to which you are tempted . For temptations prevail only by our passions and our appetites : leave to love the sin , and the temptation is answered ; but if you love it , then complain of nothing but thy self , for thou makest the temptation great , by being in love with life and sin , by preferring vanity before eternal pleasures . In the Apophthegms of the Egyptian Anachorets , I read of one who had an apparition in the likeness of Christ. A vain and a proud person would have hugg'd himself , and entertain'd the illusion . But he shutting his eyes , said , I shall see Christ in Heaven , it is enough for me to hope and to believe while I am on earth . This or the like did and did not prevail by our weaknesses , not by their own strength : and to pretend the strength of a temptation , is to say , we are to be excused , because we love sin too well , and are too much delighted with baser objects , and we cannot help it , because we love to die . 61. IX . The smallest instance , if it be observed , ceases to be a sin of infirmity ; because by being observ'd , it loses its pretence and excuse , for then it is done upon the account of the will. For here the Rule is general , and it summs up this whole Question . 62. X. A mans will hath no infirmity , but when it wants the grace of God ; that is , whatsoever the will chuses is imputed to it for good or bad . For the will can suffer no violence ; it is subject to nothing , and to no person , but to God and his laws , and therefore when ever it does amiss , it sins directly against him . The will hath no necessity , but what God and her self imposes ; for it can chuse in despight of all arguments and notices from the understanding . For if it can despise an argument from reason , it can also despise an argument from sense ; if it can refuse a good argument , it can also refuse a foolish one : if it can chuse and not yield to religion , it can also chuse and not yield to interest . If it can reject profit , it can reject pleasure ; if it can refuse every argument , it can refuse all , and will because it will ; it can as well be malicious as do unreasonably : and there could be no sin at all , if the will never did amiss but when it were deceived : and even when the will chuses pleasure before Heaven , it is not because that seems better , but because it will chuse against all reason , only upon its own account . For it is certain , he that chuses any thing upon that which he knows is but a seeming and a fallacious reason , may if he please do it without all reason : and so the will can do , against reason , in despight of powers , and hopes , and interest , and threatning . * And therefore whatsoever is voluntarily chosen , let it be taken care of , that it be good ; for if it be not , there can no excuse come from thence . 63. The will is the only fountain , and proper principle of sin , insomuch as the fact is no sin , if it be involuntary ; but the willing is a sin , though no act follows . Latro est etiam antequam inquinet manus , said Seneca : Fecit enim quisquam quantum voluit . If he hath will'd it , he hath done it before God. To this purpose is that saying of Tertullian . Voluntas sacti origo est , quae ne tunc quidem liberatur cùm aliqua difficultas perpetrationem ejus intercepit . Ipsa enim sibi imputatur , nec excusari poterit per illam perficiendi infelicitatem , operata quod suum fuerat . Want of power excuses every thing but the will , because this always hath power to do its own work , and what cannot be done besides , as it is nothing to the will , so it is nothing to its excuse . To will is the formality of sin , and therefore whatever action had its commission from thence , is not a sin of infirmity . For nothing is a sin of infirmity , but what is in some sence involuntary . 64. The summ is this . Sin puts on its excuse , and becomes a sin of infirmity upon no account , but upon the account of ignorance , or something analogical to it , such as are inadvertency , or surprise , which are to ignorance as acts are to habits . The weak brother , in S. Paul's dialect , is he that hath no knowledge . For since nothing leads the will , but the understanding , unless it goes alone , and moves by its own act or principle ; if the understanding be inculpably misled , the will may be in error , but not in sin , it is abused , but shall not be condemned . For no man can be tied to do more or better than he understands , for that would be to do more than he can . If the understanding abuse the will , there is evil in it , but no sin : but if the will abuse the understanding , then it is criminal . That is , where the man understands not , or cannot consider , or deliberate , all his actions by being less humane are less imputable . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . But where there is no knowledge , there is no power , and no choice , and no sin . They increase and decrease by each others measures . S. James his rule is the full measure of this discourse : To him that knoweth to do good , and doth it not , to him it is sin . The same with that of Philo. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . To him that sins ignorantly pardon is given , that is , easily : but he who sins knowingly , hath no excuse . And therefore the Hebrews use to oppose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sin , to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ignorance ; that is , the issues of a wicked from the issues of a weak mind : according to that saying of our blessed Saviour , If ye were blind , ye should have no sin ; that is , no great or very unpardonable sin . Ignorance , where of it self it is no sin , keeps the action innocent ; but as the principle is polluted , so also is the emanation . SECT . VIII . Practical Advices to be added to the foregoing Considerations . 65. I. SINCE our weak nature is the original of our imperfections and sinful infirmities , it is of great concernment that we treat our natures so , as to make them aptly to minister to religion , but not to vice . Nature must be preserved as a servant , but not indulged to as a Mistress ; for she is apt to be petulant , and after the manner of women . — quae faciunt graviora coactae Imperio sexus — She will insult impotently , and rule tyrannically . Natures provisions of meat and drink are to be retrench'd and moderate , that she may not be luxuriant and irregular : but she ought to be refreshed so as to be useful , and healthful , and chearful , even in the days of expiation and sorrow . For he that fasts to kill his lust , and by fasting grows peevish , which to very many men is a natural effect of fasting , and was sadly experimented in S. Hierome , hath only altered the signification of his evil : and it is not easily known , whether the beast that is wanton , or the beast that is curst be aptest to goar ; and if in such cases the first evil should be cured , yet the man is not . 66. But there are in nature some things which are the instruments of vertue and vice too : some things which of themselves indeed are culpable , but yet such which do minister to glorious events , and such which as they are not easily corrigible , so they are not safe to be done away . Dabo maximae famae viros , & inter admiranda propositos , quos si quis corrigit delet . Sic enim vitia virtutibus immixta sunt , ut illas sicum tractura sint . If the natural anger of some men be taken off , you will also extinguish their courage , or make them unfit for government . Vice and vertue sometimes go together : in these cases that which we call vicious is in many degrees of it a natural infirmity , and must be tempered as well as it can : but it neither can , nor indeed ought to be extinguished : and therefore as we must take care that nature run not into extravagancies ; so for the unalterable portions of infirmity , they ought to be the matter of humility , and watchfulness , but not of scruple and vexation . However , we must be careful that nature be not Gods enemy ; for if a vice be incorporated into our nature , that is , if our natural imperfections be chang'd into evil customs ; it is a threefold cord that is not easily broken : it is a legion of Devils , and not to be cast out without a mighty labour , and all the arts and contentions of the Spirit of God. 67. II. In prosecution of this , propound to thy self as the great business of thy life to fight against thy passions . We see that sin is almost unavoidable to young men , because passion seises upon their first years . The days of our youth is the reign of passion ; and sin rides in triumph upon the wheels of desire , which run infinitely , when the boy drives the chariot . But the religion of a Christian is an open war against passion ; and by the grace of meekness , if we list to study and to acquire that , hath plac'd us in the regions of safety . 68. III. Be not uncertain in thy resolutions , or in chusing thy state of life : because all uncertainties of mind , and vagabond resolutions leave a man in the tyranny of all his follies and infirmities : every thing can transport him , and he can be forc'd by every temptation , and every fancy , or new accident can ruine him . He that is not resolv'd and constant , is yet in a state of deliberation , and that supposes contrary appetites to be yet in the ballance , and sin to be as strong as grace . But besides this , there are in every state of life many little things to be overcome , and objections to be master'd , and proper infirmities adherent , which are to be cured in the progression and growth of a man , and after experiment had of that state of life in which we are ingaged ; but therefore it is necessary that we begin speedily , lest we have no time to begin that work which ought in some measure to be finish'd before we die . Dum quid sis dubitas , jam potes esse nihil . He that is uncertain what to do , shall never do any thing well ; and there is no infirmity greater , than that a man shall not be able to determine himself what he ought to do . 69. IV. In contentions against sin and infirmities , let your force and your care be applied to that part of the wall that is weakest , and where it is most likely the enemy will assault thee , and if he does , that he will prevail . If a lustful person should bend all his prayers and his observations against envy , he hath cur'd nothing of his nature and infirmity . Some lusts our temper or our interest will part withal ; but our infirmities are in those desires which are hardest to be master'd : that is , when after a long dispute , and perpetual contention , still there will abide some pertinacious string of an evil root ; when the lust will be apt upon all occasions to revert , when every thing can give fire to it , and every heat can make it stir ; that is the scene of our danger , and ought to be of greatest warfare and observation . 70. V. He that fights against that lust which is the evil spring of his proper infirmities , must not do it by single instances , but by a constant and universal , mortal fight . He that does single spights to a lust ; as he that opposes now and then a fasting day against carnality , or some few alms against oppression or covetousness , will find that these single acts ( if nothing else be done ) can do nothing but cosen him : they are apt to perswade easie people that they have done what is in them to cure their infirmity , and that their condition is good ; but it will not do any thing of that work whither they are design'd . We must remember that infirmities are but the reliques and remains of an old lust , and are not cured but at the end of a lasting war. They abide even after the conquest , after their main body is broken , and therefore cannot at all be cured by those light velitations and pickqueerings of single actions of hostility . 71. VI. When a violent temptation assaults thee , remember that this violence is not without , but within . Thou art weak , and that makes the burden great . Therefore whatever advices thou art pleased to follow in opposition to the temptation without , be sure that thou place the strongest guards within , and take care of thy self . And if thou dost die , or fall foully , seek not an excuse from the greatness of the temptation ; for that accuses thee most of all : the bigger the temptation is , it is true that oftentimes thou art the more to blame ; but at the best , it is a reproof of thy imperfect piety . He whose religion is greater than the temptation of a 100. l. and yet falls in the temptation of a 1000. l. sets a price upon God and upon Heaven ; and though he will not sell Heaven for a 100. l. yet a 1000. l. he thinks is a worthy purchase . 72. VII . Never think that a temptation is too strong for thee , if thou givest over fighting against it : for as long as thou didst continue thy contention , so long it prevail'd not : but when thou yieldest basely , or threwest away thy arms , then it forraged , and did mischief , and slew thee , or wounded thee dangerously . No man knows , but if he had stood one assault more , the temptation would have left him . Be not therefore pusillanimous in a great trial : It is certain thou canst do all that which God requires of thee , if thou wilt but do all that thou canst do . 73. VIII . Contend every day against that which troubles thee every day . For there is no peace in this war ; and there are not many infirmities , or principles of failing , greater than weariness of well doing ; for besides that it proclaims the weakness of thy resolution , and the infancy of thy piety , and thy undervaluing religion , and thy want of love , it is also a direct yielding to the Enemy : for since the greatest scene of infirmities lies in the manner of our piety , he that is religious only by uncertain periods , and is weary of his duty , is not arriv'd so far as to plead the infirmities of willing people ; for he is in the state of death and enmity . 74. IX . He that would master his infirmities , must do it at Gods rate , and not at his own : he must not start back when the burden pinches him ; nor refuse his repentances because they smart , nor omit his alms because they are expensive : for it is vain to propound to our selves any end , and yet to decline the use of those means , and instruments , without which it is not to be obtained . He that will buy must take it at the sellers price ; and if God will not give thee safety or immunity , but upon the exchange of labour , and contradictions , fierce contentions , and mortification of our appetites , we must go to the cost , or quit the purchase· 75. X. He that will be strong in grace , and triumph in good measures over his infirmities , must attempt his remedy by an active prayer . For prayer without labour is like faith without charity , dead and ineffective . A working faith , and a working prayer are the great instruments , and the great exercise , and the great demonstration of holiness and Christian perfection . Children can sit down in a storm , or in a danger , and weep and die : but men can labour against it , and struggle with the danger , and labour for that blessing which they beg . Thou dost not desire it , unless thou wilt labour for it . He that sits still and wishes , had rather have that thing than be without it ; but if he will not use the means , he had rather lose his desire than lose his ease . That is scarce worth having , that is not worth labouring . 76. XI . In all contentions against sin and infirmity , remember that what was done yesterday may be done to day ; and by the same instruments by which then you were conqueror , you may also be so in every day of temptation . The Italian General that quitted his vanity and his imployment , upon the sight of one that died suddenly , might upon the same consideration , actually applied and fitted to the fancy , at any time resist his lust . And therefore Epictetus gives it in rule , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Let death be always before thy eyes , and then thou shalt never desire any base or low thing , nor desire any thing too much . That is , the perpetual application of so great a consideration as is death , is certainly the greatest endearment of holiness and severity . And certain it is , that at some time or other the greatest part of Christians have had some horrible apprehensions of Hell , of Death , and consequent Damnation ; and it hath put into them holy thoughts , and resolutions of piety : and if ever they were in a severe sickness , and did really fear death , they may remember with how great a regret they did then look upon their sins ; and then they thought Heaven a considerable interest , and Hell a formidable state , and would not then have committed a sin for the purchase of the world . Now every man hath always the same arguments and endearments of piety and religion : Heaven and Hell are always the same considerable things ; and the truth is the same still : but then they are considered most , and therefore they prevail most ; and this is a demonstration that the arguments themselves are sufficient , and would always do the work of grace for us , if we were not wanting to our selves . It is impossible that any man can be mov'd by any argument in the world , or any interest , any hope or any fear , who cannot be moved by the consideration of Heaven and Hell. But that which I observe is this ; that the argument that wisely and reasonably prevail'd yesterday , can prevail to day , unless thou thy self beest foolish and unreasonable . 77. XII . If a wicked man sins , it is never by a pitiable or pardonable infirmity , but from a state of death that it proceeds , or will be so imputed , and it is all one as if it did . But if a good man sins , he hath the least reason to pretend infirmity for his excuse , because he hath the strengths of the Spirit , and did master sin in its strengths , and in despight of all its vigorousness and habit ; and therefore certainly can do so much rather when sin is weak and grace is strong . The result of which consideration is this , That no man should please himself in his sin , because it is a sin of infirmity . He that is pleased with it , because he thinks it is indulg'd to him , sins with pleasure , and therefore not of infirmity ; for that is ever against our will , and besides our observation . No sin is a sin of infirmity unless we hate it , and strive against it . He that hath gotten some strength may pretend some infirmity . But he that hath none is dead . 78. XIII . Let no man think that the proper evil of his age or state , or of his Nation is in the latitude and nature of it , a sin of a pardonable infirmity . The lusts of youth , and the covetousness or pride of old age , and the peevishness of the afflicted , are states of evil , not sins of infirmity . For it is highly considerable , that sins of infirmity are but single ones . There is no such thing as a state of a pardonable infirmity . If by distemper of the body , or the vanity of years , or the evil customs of a Nation , a vice does creep upon , and seise on the man , it is that against which the man ought to watch and pray , and labour ; it is a state of danger and temptation . But that must not be called infirmity which corrupts Nations and states of life , but that only , which in single instances surprises even a watchful person , when his guards are most remiss . 79. XIV . Whatsoever sin comes regularly , or by observation , is not to be excused upon the pretence of infirmity ; but is the indication of an evil habit . Therefore never admit a sin upon hopes of excuse ; for it is certain , no evil that a man chuses is excusable . No man sins with a pardon about his neck . But if the sin comes at a certain time , it comes from a certain cause ; and then it cannot be infirmity : for all sins of infirmity , are sins of chance , irregular , and accidental . 80. XV. Be curious to avoid all proverbs and propositions , or odd sayings , by which evil life is incouraged , and the hands of the Spirit weakned . It is strange to consider what a prejudice to a mans understanding of things is a contrary proverb . Can any good thing come out of Galilee ? And when Christ cometh , no man knoweth whence he is . Two or three proverbs , did in despight of all the miracles , and holy doctrines , and rare example of Christ hinder many of the Jews from believing in him ▪ The words of S. Paul misunderstood , and worse applied , have been so often abused to evil purposes , that they have almost passed into a proverbial excuse , The evil that I would not , that I do . Such sayings as these , are to be tried by the severest measures , and all such sences of them which are enemies to holiness of life are to be rejected , because they are against the whole Oeconomy and design of the Gospel , of the life and death of Christ. But a proverb being used by every man , is supposed to contain the opinion and belief , or experience of mankind : and then that evil sence that we are pleased to put to them , will be thought to be of the same authority . I have heard of divers persons who have been strangely intic'd on to finish their revellings , and drunken conventicles by a catch , or a piece of a song , by a humor , and a word , by a bold saying , or a common proverb : and whoever take any measures of good or evil , but the severest discourses of reason and religion , will be like a Ship turned every way by a little piece of wood ; by chance , and by half a sentence , because they dwell upon the water , and a wave of the Sea is their foundation . 81. XVI . Let every man take heed of a servile will , and a commanding lust : for he that is so miserable is in a state of infirmity and death ; and will have a perpetual need of something to hide his folly , or to excuse it , but shall find nothing . He shall be forc'd to break his resolution , to sin against his conscience , to do after the manner of fools , who promise and pay not , who resolve and do not , who speak and remember not , who are fierce in their pretences and designs , but act them as dead men do their own Wills. They make their Will , but die and do nothing themselves . 82. XVII . Endeavour to do what can never be done : that is , to cure all thy infirmities . For this is thy victory for ever to contend : and although God will leave a remnant of Canaanites in the land to be thy daily exercise , and endearment of care and of devotion ; yet you must not let them alone , or entertain a treaty of peace with them . But when you have done something , go on to finish it : It is infinite pity that any good thing should be spent or thrown away upon a lust : But if we sincerely endeavour to be masters of every action , we shall be of most of them ; and for the rest , they shall trouble thee , but do thee no other mischief . We must keep the banks , that the Sea break not in upon us ; but no man can be secure against the drops of rain that fall upon the heads of all mankind : but yet every man must get as good shelter as he can . The PRAYER . I. O Almighty God , the Father of Mercy and Holiness , thou art the fountain of grace and strength , and thou blessest the sons of men by turning them from their iniquities ; shew the mightiness of thy power and the glories of thy grace , by giving me strength against all my enemies , and victory in all temptations , and watchfulness against all dangers , and caution in all difficulties , and hope in all my fears , and recollection of mind in all distractions of spirit and fancy , that I may not be a servant of chance or violence , of interest or passion , of fear or desire , but that my will may rule the lower man , and my understanding may guide my will , and thy holy Spirit may conduct my understanding , that in all contentions thy Spirit may prevail , and in all doubts I may chuse the better part , and in the midst of all contradictions , and temptations , and infelicities , I may be thy servant infallibly and unalterably . Amen . II. BLessed Jesu , thou art our High-priest , and encompassed with infirmities , but always without sin , relieve and pity me , O my gracious Lord , who am encompassed with infirmities , but seldom or never without sin . O my God , my ignorances are many , my passions violent , my temptations ensnaring and deceitful , my observation little , my inadvertencies innumerable , my resolutions weak , my dangers round about me , my duty and obligations full of variety , and the instances very numerous ; O be thou unto me wisdom and righteousness , sanctification and redemption . Thou hast promised thy holy Spirit to them that ask him , let thy Spirit help my infirmities , give to me his strengths , instruct me with his notices , encourage me with his promises , affright me with his terrors , confirm me with his courage , that I being readily prepared and furnished for every good work , may grow with the increase of God to the full measure of the stature and fulness of thee my Saviour ; that though my outward man decay and decrease , yet my inner man may be renewed day by day ; that my infirmities may be weaker , and thy grace stronger , and at last may triumph over the decays of the old man. O be thou pleased to pity my infirmities , and pardon all those actions which proceed from weak principles ; that when I do what I can , I may be accepted , and when I fail of that , I may be pitied and pardoned , and in all my fights and necessities may be defended and secured , prospered and conducted to the regions of victory and triumph , of strength and glory , through the mercies of God , and the grace of our Lord Jesus , and the blessed communication of the Spirit of God and our Lord Jesus . Amen . CHAP. IX . Of the Effect of Repentance , viz. Remission of Sins . SECT . I. 1. THE Law written in the Heart of man is a Law of Obedience , which because we prevaricated , we are taught another , which ( S. Austin says ) is written in the Heart of Angels : Vt nulla sit iniquitas impunita , nisi quam sanguis Mediatoris expiaverit . For God the Father spares no sinner , but while he looks upon the face of his Son : but that in him our sins should be pardon'd , and our persons spared , is as necessary a consideration as any . Nemo enim potest benè agere poenitentiam , nisi qui speraverit indulgentiam . To what purpose does God call us to Repentance , if at the same time he does not invite us to pardon ? It is the state and misery of the damned , to repent without hope ; and if this also could be the state of the penitent in this life , the Sermons of Repentance were useless and comfortless , Gods mercies were none at all to sinners , the institution and office of preaching and reconciling penitents were impertinent , and man should die by the laws of Angels , who never was enabled to live by their strength and measures ; and consequently , all mankind were infinitely and eternally miserable , lost irrecoverably , perishing without a Saviour , tied to a Law too hard for him , and condemned by unequal and intolerable sentences . 2. Tertullian considering that God threatens all impenitent sinners , argues demonstratively : Neque enim comminaretur non poenitenti , si non ignosceret delinquenti . If men repent not , God will be severely angry ; it will be infinitely the worse for us if we do not , and shall it be so too if we do repent ? God forbid . Frustra mortuus est Christus , si aliquos vivificare non potest . Mentitur Johannes Baptista , & digito Christum & voce demonstrans , Ecce agnus Dei , ecce qui tollit peccata mundi , si sunt adhuc in saeculo quorum Christus peccata non tulerit . In vain did Christ die , if he cannot give life to all . And the Baptist deceiv'd us when he pointed out Christ unto us , saying , Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world , if there were any in the world whose sins Christ hath not born . 3. But God by the old Prophets called upon them who were under the Covenant of works in open appearance , that they also should repent , and by antedating the mercies of the Gospel , promised pardon to the penitent ; He promised mercy by Moses and the Prophets ; He proclaimed his Name to be Mercy and Forgiveness ; He did solemnly swear he did not desire the death of a sinner , but that he should repent and live ; and the holy Spirit of God hath respersed every book of holy Scripture with great and legible lines of mercy , and Sermons of Repentance . In short , It was the summ of all the Sermons which were made by those whom God sent with his word in their mouths , that they should live innocently , or when they had sinned they should repent and be sav'd from their calamity . 4. But when Christ came into the world , he open'd the fountains of mercy , and broke down all the banks of restraint , he preach'd Repentance , offer'd health , gave life , call'd all wearied and burthen'd persons to come to him for ease and remedy , he glorified his Fathers mercies , and himself became the great instrument and channel of its emanation . He preach'd and commanded mercy by the example of God ; he made his Religion that he taught to be wholly made up of doing and receiving good , this by Faith , that by Charity . He commanded an indefinite and unlimited forgiveness of our brother , repenting after injuries done to us seventy times seven times : and though there could be little question of that , yet he was pleased to signifie to us , that as we needed more , so we should have and find more mercy at the hands of God. And therefore he hath appointed a whole order of men , whom he maintains at his own charges , and furnishes with especial commissions ; and endues with a lasting power , and imploys on his own errand , and instructs with his own Spirit , whose business is to remit and retain , to exhort and to restore sinners by the means of Repentance , and the word of their proper Ministery . Whose soever sins ye remit , they are remitted ; that 's their Authority : and their Office is , to pray all men in Christs stead to be reconciled to God. And after all this , Christ himself labours to bring it to effect ; not only assisting his Ministers with the gifts of an excellent Spirit , and exacting of them the account of Souls , but that it may be prosperous and effectual , himself intercedes in Heaven before the Throne of Grace , doing for sinners the office of an Advocate and a Reconciler . If any man sins , we have an Advocate with the Father , and he is the propitiation for all our sins , and for the sins of the whole world : and therefore it is not only the matter of our hopes , but an Article of our Creed , that we may have forgiveness of our sins by the blood of Jesus . Qui nullum excepit , in Christo donavit omnia . God hath excepted none , and therefore in Christ pardons all . 5. For there is not in Scripture any Catalogue of sins set down for which Christ died , and others excluded from that state of mercy . All that believe and repent shall be pardon'd , if they go and sin no more . Deus distinctionem non facit , qui misericordiam suam promisit omnibus , & relaxandi licentiam sacerdotibus suis sine ullâ exceptione concessit , said S. Ambrose . God excepts none , but hath given power to his Ministers to release all , absolutely all . And S. Bernard argues this Article upon the account of those excellent examples which the Spirit of God hath consign'd to us in holy Scripture . If Peter after so great a fall did arrive to such an eminence of sanctity , hereafter who shall despair , provided that he will depart from his sins ? For that God is ready to forgive the greatest Criminals if they repent , appears in the instances of Ahab and Manasses , of Mary Magdalen and S. Paul , of the Thief on the Cross and the deprehended Adulteress , and of the Jews themselves , who after they had crucified the Lord of life , were by messengers of his own invited , passionately invited to repent , and be purified with that blood which they had sacrilegiously and impiously spilt . But concerning this , who please may read S. Austin discoursing upon those words , Mittet Crystallum suum sicut buccellas ; which , saith he , mystically represent the readiness of God to break and make contrite even the hearts of them that have been hardened in impiety . Quo loco consistent poenitentiam agentes , ibi justi non poterunt stare , said the Doctors of the Jews . The just and innocent persons shall not be able to stand in the same place where the penitent shall be . Pacem , pacem remoto & propinquo , ait Dominus , ut sanem eum . Peace to him that is afar off , and to him that is near , saith the Lord , that I may heal him . Praeponit remotum : That 's their observations ; He that is afar off is set before the other ; that is , he that is at great distance from God , as if God did use the greater earnestness to reduce him . Upon which place their gloss adds ; Magna est virtus eorum qui poenitentiam agunt , ita ut nulla Creatura in septo illorum consistere queat . So great is the vertue of them that are true penitents , that no creature can stand within their inclosure . And all this is far better expressed by those excellen● words of our blessed Saviour , There is joy in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth , more than over ninety nine just persons that need no repentance . 6. I have been the longer in establishing and declaring the proper foundation of this Article , upon which every one can declaim , but every one cannot believe it in the day of temptation ; because I guess what an intolerable evil it is to despair of pardon , by having felt the trouble of some very great fears . And this were the less necessary , but that it is too commonly true , that they who repent least , are most confident of their pardon , or rather least consider any reasons against their security : but when a man truly apprehends the vileness of his sin , he ought also to consider the state of his danger , which is wholly upon the stock of what is past ; that is , his danger is this , that he knows not when , or whether , or upon what terms God will pardon him in particular . But of this I shall have a more apt occasion to speak in the following periods . For the present , the Article in general is established upon the testimonies of the greatest certainty . SECT . II. Of Pardon of Sins committed after Baptism . 7. BUT it may be our easiness of life , and want of discipline , and our desires to reconcile our pleasures and temporal satisfactions with the hopes of Heaven , hath made us apt to swallow all that seems to favour our hopes . But it is certain that some Christian Doctors have taught the Doctrine of Repentance with greater severity than is intimated in the premises . For all the examples of pardon consign'd to us in the Old Testament , are nothing to us who live under the New , and are to be judged by other measures . And as for those instances which are recorded in the New Testament , and all the promises and affirmations of pardon , they are sufficiently verified in that pardon of sins which is first given to us in Baptism , and at our first Conversion to Christianity . Thus when S. Stephen prayed for his persecutors , and our blessed Lord himself on his uneasie death-bed of the Cross , prayed for them that Crucified him , it can only prove , that these great sins are pardonable in our first access to Christ , because they for whom Christ and his Martyr S. Stephen prayed , were not yet converted , and so were to be saved by Baptismal Repentance . Then the Power of the Keys is exercised , and the gates of the Kingdom are opened , then we enter into the Covenant of mercy and pardon , and promise faith and perpetual obedience to the laws of Jesus ; and upon that condition , forgiveness is promised and exhibited , offer'd and consign'd , but never after : for it is in Christianity for all great sins , as in the Civil Law for theft . Qui eâ mente alienum quid contrectavit ut lucrifaceret , tametsi mutato consilio id Domino postea reddidit , fur est : nemo enim tali peccato poenitentiâ suâ nocens esse desinit , said Vlpian , and Gaius . Repentance does not here take off the punishment , nor the stain . And so it seems to be in Christianity , in which every baptized person having stipulated for obedience , is upon those terms admitted to pardon , and consequently if he fails of his duty , he shall fail of the grace . 8. But that this objection may proceed no further , it is certain that it is an infinite lessening of the mercy of God in Jesus Christ to confine pardon of sins only to the Font. For that even lapsed Christians may be restored by repentance , and be pardoned , appears in the story of the incestuous Corinthian , and the precept of S. Paul to the spiritual man , or the Curate of souls . If any man be overtaken in a fault , ye which are spiritual restore such a man in the spirit of meekness , considering thy self lest thou also be tempted . The Christian might fall , and the Corinthian did so , and the Minister himself , he who had the ministery of restitution and reconciliation , was also in danger : and yet they all might be restored . To the same sence is that of S. James , Is any man sick among you ? let him send for the Presbyters of the Church , and let them pray over him . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , although he was a doer of sins , they shall be forgiven him . For there is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a sin that is not unto death . And therefore when S. Austin in his first Book de Sermone Dei , had said that there is some sin so great that it cannot be remitted , he retracts his words with this clause , addendum fuit , &c. I should have added , If in so great perverseness of mind he ends his life . For we must not despair of the worst sinner , we may not despair of any , since we ought to pray for all . 9. For it is beyond exception or doubt , that it was the great work of the Apostles , and of the whole new Testament , to engage men in a perpetual repentance . For since all men do sin , all men must repent , or all men must perish . And very many periods of Scripture are directed to lapsed Christians , baptized persons fallen into grievous crimes , calling them to repentance . So Simon Peter to Simon Magus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Repent of thy wickedness ; and to the Corinthian Christians S. Paul urges the purpose of his legation , We pray you in Christ's stead be ye reconciled to God. The Spirit of God reprov'd some of the Asian Churches for foul misdemeanours , and even some of the Angels , the Asian Bishops , calling upon them to return to their first love , and to repent and to do their first works ; and to the very Gnosticks , and filthiest Hereticks he gave space to repent , and threatned extermination to them if they did not do it speedily . For , 10. Baptism is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the admission of us to the Covenant of Faith and Repentance , or as Mark the Anchoret call'd it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the introduction to repentance , or that state of life that is full of labour and care , and amendment of our faults ; for that is the best life that any man can live : and therefore repentance hath its progress after baptism , as it hath its beginning before : for first repentance is unto baptism , and then baptism unto repentance . And if it were otherwise , the Church had but ill provided for the state of her sons and daughters by commanding the baptism of Infants . For if repentance were not allowed after , then their early baptism would take from them all hopes of repentance , and destroy the mercies of the Gospel , and make it now to all Christendom a law of works in the greater instances ; because since in our infancy we neither need , nor can perform repentance , if to them that sin after baptism , repentance be denied , it is in the whole denied to them for ever to repent . But God hath provided better things for us , and such which accompany salvation . 11. For besides those many things which have been already consider'd , our admission to the holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper , is a perpetual entertainment of our hopes : because then and there is really exhibited to us the body that was broken , and the blood that was shed for remission of sins : still it is applied , and that application could not be necessary to be done anew , if there were not new necessities ; and still we are invited to do actions of repentance , to examine our selves and so to eat : all which ( as things are order'd ) would be infinitely useless to mankind , if it did not mean pardon to Christians falling into foul sins even after baptism . 12. I shall add no more but the words of S. Paul to the Corinthians ; Lest when I come again , my God will humble me among you , and that I shall bewail many who have sinn'd already , and have not repented of the uncleanness , and fornication , and lasciviousness , which they have committed . Here is a fierce accusation of some of them , for the foulest and the basest crimes ; and a reproof of their not repenting , and a threatning them with censures Ecclesiastical . I suppose this article to be sufficiently concluded from the premises . The necessity of which proof they only will best believe , who are severely penitent , and full of apprehension and fear of the Divine anger , because they have highly deserved it . However , I have serv'd my own needs in it , and the need of those whose consciences have been , or shall be so timorous as mine hath deserved to be . But against the universality of this doctrine there are two grand objections ; The one is the severer practice and doctrine of the Primitive Church , denying repentance to some kind of sinners after baptism . The other , the usual discourses and opinions concerning the sin against the Holy Ghost . Of these I shall give account in the two following Sections . SECT . III. Of the Difficulty of obtaining Pardon : The Doctrine and Practice of the Primitive Church in this Article . 13. NOvatianus and Novatus said , that the Church had not power to minister pardon of sins except only in Baptism : which proposition when they had well digested and considered , they did thus explicate . That there are some capital sins , crying and clamorous , into which if a Christian did fall after baptism , the Church had nothing to do with him , she could not absolve him . 14. This opinion of theirs , was a branch of the elder Heresie of Montanus , which had abus'd Tertullian , who fiercely declaims against the decree of Pope Zephyrinus , because against the custom of his Decessors he admitted adulterers to repentance , while at the same time he refus'd idolaters and murderers . And this their severity did not seem to be put upon the account of a present necessity , or their own zeal , or for the avoiding scandal , or their love of holiness ; but upon the nature of the thing it self , and the sentences of Scripture . An old man of whom Irenaeus makes mention , said ; Non debemus superbi esse , neque reprehendere veteres , ne fortè post agnitionem Dei agentes aliquid quod non placet Deo , remissionem non habeamus ultrà delictorum , & excludamur à regno ejus . We must not be proud and reprove our Fathers , lest after the knowledge of God , we doing something that does not please God , we may no more have remission of our sins , but be excluded from his Kingdom . To the same purpose is that Canon made by the Gallic Bishops against the false accusers of their brethren ; ut ad exitum ne communicent : that they should not be admitted to the Communion or peace of the Church , no not at their death . And Pacianus Bishop of Barcinona gives a severe account of the doctrine of the Spanish Churches even in his time , and of their refusing to admit idolaters , murderers , and adulterers to repentance . Other sins may be cured by the exercise of good works . But these three kill like the breath of a Basilisk , and are to be feared like a deadly arrow . They that were guilty of such crimes did despair . What have I done to you ? was it not in your power to have let it alone ? Did no man admonish you ? Did none foretel the event ? Was the Church silent ? Did the Gospels say nothing ? Did the Apostles threaten nothing ? Did the Priest intreat nothing of you ? why do you seek for late comforts ? Then you might have sought for them , when they were to be had . But they that pronounce such men happy do but abuse you . 15. This opinion and the consequent practice , had its fate in several places to live longer or die sooner . And in Africa the decree of Zephyrinus for the admission of penitent adulterers , was not admitted even by the Orthodox and Catholicks ; but they dissented placidly and modestly , and governed their own Churches by the old severity . For there was then no thought of any necessity that other Churches should obey the sanctions of the Pope , or the decrees of Rome , but they retain'd the old Discipline . But yet the piety and the reasonableness of the decree of Zephyrinus prevail'd by little and little , and adulterers were admitted ; but the severity stuck longer upon idolaters or apostates : for they were not to be admitted to the peace of the Church , although they should afterwards suffer martyrdom for the name of Christ : and for this they pretended the words of S. Paul , Non possunt admitti secundum Apostolum , as S. Cyprian expresly affirms ; and the same is the sentence of the first Canon of the Council of Eliberis . 16. When they began to remit of this rigor ( which they did in or about S. Cyprians time ) they did admit these great criminals to repentance . Once , but , no more ; as appears in (a) Tertullian , the Council of (b) Eliberis , the Synod at Syde in Pamphylia against the Messalians , (c) S. Ambrose , (d) S. Austin , and (e) Macedonius ; which makes it suspicious that the words of Origen are interpolated , saying , In gravioribus criminibus semel tantùm vel rarò poenitentiae conceditur locus . But once or but seldom ; so the words are now ; but the practice of that age was not so remiss , for they gave once and no more : as appears in the foregoing Authors , and in the eleventh Canon of the third Council of Toledo . For as S. Clemens of Alexandria affirms , Apparet , sed non est poenitentia saepe petere de iis quae saepe peccantur . It is but a seeming repentance , that falls often after a frequent return . 17. But this gentleness ( for it was the greatest they then had ) they ministred to such only as desir'd it in their health , and in the days in which they could live the lives of penitents , and make amends for their folly . For if men had liv'd wickedly , and on their death-bed desir'd to be admitted to repentance and pardon , they refus'd them utterly ; as appears in that excellent Epistle of S. Cyprian to Antonianus : Prohibendos omnino censuimus à specommunionis & pacis , si in infirmitate atque periculo coeperint deprecari ; at no hand are those to be admitted to Church communion , who repent only in their danger and weakness , because not repentance of their fault , but the hasty warning of instant or approaching death compell'd them : neither is he worthy in death to receive the comfort , who did not think he was to die . And consequently to this severity , in his Sermon de lapsis , he advises that every man should confess his sin , while his confession can be admitted , while his satisfaction may be acceptable , and his pardon ratified by God. The same was decreed by the Fathers in the Synod of Arles . 18. This was severe , if we judge of it by the manners and propositions of the present age . But iniquity did so abound , and was so far from being cured by this severe discipline , that it made this discipline to be intolerable and useless . And therefore even from this also they did quickly retire . For in the time of Innocentius and S. Austin they began not only to impose penances on dying penitents , but even after a wicked life to reconcile them . They then first began to do it ; but as it usually happens in first attempts , and insolent actions , they were fearful , and knew not the event , and would warrant nothing . To hinder them that are in peril of death from the use of the last remedy , is hard and impious ; but to promise any thing in so late a cure is temerarious . So Salvian : and S. Chrysostome to Theodorus would not have such persons despaired , so neither nourish'd up by hope : only it is better , nihil inexpertum relinquere quàm morientem nolle curare , to try every way , rather than that the dying penitent should fail for want of help . But Isidore said plainly , He who living wickedly , repents in the time of his death , as his damnation is uncertain , so his pardon is doubtful . 19. This was the most dangerous indulgence , and easiness of doctrine , that had as yet entred into the Church ; but now it was tumbling , and therefore could not stop here , but presently , down went all severity . All sinners , and at all times , and as often as they would , might be admitted to repentance and pardon ; whether they could or could not perform the stations and injunctions of the penitents ; and this took off the edge of publick and Ecclesiastical repentance ; and to this succeeded private repentance , where none but God and the Priest were witnesses ; and because this was a recession from the old discipline , and of it self an abuse , or but the reliques of discipline at the best , and therefore not necessary because it was but an imperfect supply of something that was better , this also is in some places ●aid aside , in others too much abus'd . But of that in its place . 20. But now that I may give an account concerning the first severity : Concerning their not admitting those three sorts of Criminals to repentance , but denying it to none else , I consider , 1. That there is no place of Scripture that was pretended to exclude those three Capital sins from hopes of pardon . For one of them there was , of which I shall give account in the following periods * : but for murder and adultery there were very many authorities of Scripture to prove them pardonable , but none to prove them unpardonable . 2. What can be pretended why idolatry , murder , and adultery , should be less pardonable ( if repented of ) than Incest , Treason , Heresie , Sodomy , or Sacriledge ? These were not denied ; and yet some of them are greater Criminals than some that were : but the value is set upon crimes as men please . 3. That even in these three cases the Church did allow Repentance in the very beginning , appears beyond exception in Irenaeus , who writes concerning the women seduced by the Heretick Marck , and so guilty of both Adulteries , carnal and spiritual , that they were admitted to repentance . 4. S. Clemens of Alexandria affirms indefinitely , concerning all persons lapsed after Baptism , that they may be restored and pardon'd . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . They that fall into sins after Baptism , must be chastened . For those things which were committed before Baptism are pardoned , but they which are committed afterwards , are to be purged . For it is certain , that God did not shut up the fountain which he opened in Baptism . Then he smote the Rock , and the stream flowed out , and it became a river , and ran in dry places . 5. It is more than probable that in Egypt it was very ordinary to admit lapsed persons , and even Idolaters ●o repentance , because of the strange levity of the Nation , and that even the Bishops did at the coming of Hadrianus the Emperor devote themselves to Serapis . Illi qui Serapim colunt Christiani sunt : & devoti sunt Serapi qui se Christi Episcopos dicunt . So the Emperor testifies in his letters to Servianus . For it is not to be suppos'd that it was part of their perswasion that they might lawfully do it , or that it was solemn and usual so to do ; but that to avoid persecution they did chuse rather to seem unconstant and changeable than to be kill'd , especially in that Nation , which was tota levis & pendula , & ad omnia famae momenta volans ( as these letters say ) light and inconstant , tossed about with every noise of fame and variety . These Bishops after the departure of Caesar , without peradventure did many of them return to their charges , and they and their Priests pardon'd each other ; just as the Libellatici and the Thurificati did in Carthage and all Africa , as S. Cyprian relates . 6. In Ephrem Syrus there is a form of Confession and of Prayer for the pardon of foul sins : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Have mercy on my sins , my injustices , my covetousness , ( which some render ) unnatural lusts , my adulteries and fornications , my idle and filthy speakings . If these after Baptism are pardonable , Quid non speremus ? the former severity must be understood not to be their Doctrine but their Discipline . 21. And the same is to be said concerning their giving Repentance but to those whom they did admit after Baptism , we find it expresly affirm'd by the next ages , that the purpose of their Fathers was only for Discipline and caution . So S. Austin ; The Church did cautiously and healthfully provide , that penitents should but once be admitted , lest a frequent remedy should become contemptible ; yet who dares say , Why do ye again spare this man , who after his first repentance is again intangled in the snares of sin ? 22. So that whereas some of them use to say of certain sins , that after Baptism , or after the first relapse they are unpardonable , we must know , that in the style of the Church , Vnpardonable signified such to which by the Discipline and Customs of the Church pardon was not ministred . They were called Vnpardonable , not because God would not pardon them , but because he alone could : this we learn from those words of Tertullian , Salvâ illâ poenitentiae specie post fidem quae aut levioribus delicti● veniam ab Episcopo consequi poterit , aut majoribus & irremissibilibus à Deo solo . The lighter or lesser sins might obtain pardon from the Ministery of the Bishop , Hoc satis est , ipsi caetera mando Deo , The greatest and the Vnpardonable could obtain it of God alone : So that when they did deny to absolve some certain Criminals after Baptism , or after a relapse , they did not affirm the sins to be unpardonable , as we understand the word . Novatus himself did not , for ( as Socrates reports ) he wrote to all the Churches every where , that they should not admit them , that had sacrificed , to the Mysteries , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but to exhort them to repentance , and yet to leave their pardon and absolution to him who is able , and hath authority to forgive sins . And the same also was the doctrine of Acesius his great Disciple , for which Constantine in Eusebius reprov'd him . Some single men have despair'd , but there was never any Sect of men that seal'd up the Divine Mercy by the locks and bars of Despair , much less did any good Christians ever do it . 23. And this we find expresly verified by the French Bishops in a Synod there held about the time of Pope Zephyrinus . Poenitentia ab his qui daemonibus * sanctificant agenda ad diem mortis , non sine spetamen remissionis , quam ab eo planè sperare debebunt qui ejus largitatem & solus obtinet , & tam dives misericordiae est ut nemo desperet . Although the Criminal must do penance to his dying day , that is , the Church will not absolve , or admit him to her communion , yet he must not be without hope of pardon , which yet is not to be hop'd for from the Church , but from him , who is so rich in mercy , that no man may despair : and not long after this , S. Cyprian said , Though we leave them in their separation from us , yet we have and do exhort them to repent , if by any means they can receive indulgence from him who can perform it . 24. Now if it be enquired , what real effect this had upon the persons or souls of the offending , relapsing persons ; the consideration is weighty and material . For to say the Church could not absolve such persons , in plain speaking seems to mean , that since the Church ministers nothing of her own , but is the Minister of the Divine mercy , she had no commission to promise pardon to such persons . If God had promised pardon to such Criminals , it is certain the Church was bound to preach it ; but if she could not declare , preach , or exhibite any such promise , then there was no such promise ; and therefore their sending them to God was but a put off , or a civil answer , saying , that God might do it if he please , but he had not signified his pleasure concerning them , and whether they who sinn'd so foully after Baptism , were pardonable , was no where revealed ; and therefore all the Ministers of Religion were bound to say , they were unpardonable , that is , God never said he would pardon them , which is the full sence of the word Vnpardonable . For he that says , any sin is unpardonable , does not mean that God cannot pardon it , but that he will not , or that he hath not said , he will. 25. And upon the same account it seem'd unreasonable to S. Ambrose , that the Church should impose penances , and not release the penitents . He complain'd of the Novatians for so doing ; Cùm utique veniam negando incentivum auferant poenitentiae , The penitents could have little encouragement to perform the injunctions of their Confessors , when after they had done them they should not be admitted to the Churches communion . And indeed the case was hard , when it should be remembred that whatsoever the Church did bind on Earth was bound in Heaven , and if they retain'd them below , God would do so above ; and therefore we find in Scripture that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to give repentance , being the purpose of Christ's coming , and the grace of the Gospel , does mean , to give the effect of Repentance , that is , pardon . And since Gods method is such , by giving the grace , and admitting us to do the duty , he consequently brings to that mercy , which is the end of that duty , it is fit , that should also be the method of the Church . 26. For the ballancing of this Consideration , we are further to consider , that though the Church had power to pardon in all things where God had declar'd he would , yet because in some sins the malice was so great , the scandal so intolerable , the effect so mischievous , the nature of them so contradictory to the excellent laws of Christianity , the Church many times could not give a competent judgment , whether any man that had committed great sins , had made his amends , and done a sufficient penance : and the Church not knowing whether their Repentance was worthy and acceptable to God , she could not pronounce their pardon , that is , she could not tell them whether upon those terms God had , or would pardon them in the present disposition . 27. For after great crimes , the state of a sinner is very deplorable by reason of his uncertain pardon ; not that it is uncertain whether God will pardon the truly penitent , but that it is uncertain who is so ; and all the ingredients into the judgment that is to be made , are such things which men cannot well discern , they cannot tell in what measures God will exact the Repentance , what sorrow is sufficient , what fruits acceptable , what is expiatory , and what rejected ; according to the saying of Solomon , Who can say , I have made my heart clean , I am pure from my sin ? they cannot tell how long God will forbear , at what time his anger is final , and when he will refuse to hear , or what aggravations of the crime God looks on ; nor can they make an estimate which is greater , the example of the sin , or the example of the punishment . And therefore in such great cases the Church had reason to refuse to give pardon , which she could minister neither certainly , nor prudently , nor ( as the case then stood ) safely or piously . 28. But yet she enjoyn'd Penances , that is , all the solemnities of Repentance , and to them the sinners stood bound in Earth , and consequently in Heaven ( according to the words of our blessed Saviour ) but she bound them no further . She intended charity and relief to them , not ruine and death eternal . On this she had no direct power , and if the penitent were obedient to her Discipline , then neither could they be prejudic'd by her indirect power , she sent them to God for pardon , and made them to prepare themselves accordingly . Her injunction of Penances was medicinal , and her refusing to admit them to the Communion , was an act of caution fitted to the present necessities of the Church . Nonnullae ideò poscunt poenitentiam , ut statim sibi reddi communionem velint . Hae non tam se solvere cupiunt , quàm sacerdotem ligare . Some demand penances , that they may have speedy communion . These do not so much desire themselves to be loosed , as to have the Priest bound ; that is , such hasty proceedings do not any good to the penitent , but much hurt to him that ministers . This the Primitive Church avoided ; and this was the whole effect which that Discipline had upon the souls of the penitents . But for their Doctrine S. Austin is a sufficient witness : Sed neque de ipsis ●riminibus quamlibet magnis remittendis , in Sanctâ Ecclesiâ Dei desperanda est misericordia agentibus poenitentiam secundum modum sui cujusque peccati . They ought not to despair of Gods mercy , even to the greatest sinners , if they be the greatest penitents , that is , if they repent according to the measure of their sins . Only in the making their judgments concerning the measures of Repentance they differ'd from our practices . Ecclesiastical Repentance , and Absolution was not only an exercise of the duty , and an assisting of the penitent in his return , but it was also a warranting or ensuring the pardon ; which because in many cases the Church could not so well do , she did better in not undertaking it ; that is , in not pronouncing Absolution . 29. For the pardon of sins committed after Baptism , not being described in full measures ; and though it be sufficiently signifi'd that any sin may be pardon'd , yet it not being told upon what conditions this or that great one shall , the Church did well and warily not to be too forward : for as S. Paul said , I am conscious to my self in nothing , yet I am not hereby justified : so we may say in Repentance , I have repented , and do so , but I am not hereby justified ; because that is a secret which until the day of Judgment we shall not understand : for every repenting is not sufficient . He that repents worthily ( let his sin be what it will ) shall certainly be pardon'd ; but after great crimes who does repent worthily , is a matter of harder judgment than the manners of the present age will allow us to make ; and so secret , that they thought it not amiss very often to be backward in pronouncing the Criminal absolved . 30. But then all this whole affair must needs be a mighty arrest to the gayeties of this sinful age . For although Christs blood can expiate all sins , and his Spirit can sanctifie all sinners , and his Church can restore all that are capable ; yet if we consider that the particulars of every naughty mans case are infinitely uncertain ; that there are no minute-measures of repentance set down after Baptism , that there are some states of sinners which God does reject ; that the arrival to this state is by parts , and undetermin'd steps of progression ; that no man can tell when any sin begins to be unpardonable to such a person ; and that if we be careless of our selves , and easie in our judgments , and comply with the false measures of any age , we may be in before we are aware , and cannot come out so soon as we expect ; and lastly , if we consider that the Primitive and Apostolical Churches , who best knew how to estimate the mercies of the Gospel , and the requisites of repentance , and the malignity and dangers of sin , did not promise pardon so easily , so readily , so quickly as we do , we may think it fit to be more afraid and more contrite , more watchful and more severe . 31. I end this with the words of S. Hierome , Cùm beatus Daniel praescius futurorum de sententiâ Dei dubitet , rem temerariam faciunt qui audacter peccatoribus indulgentiam pollicentur . Though Daniel could foretel future things , yet he durst not pronounce concerning the King , whether God would pardon him or no ; it is therefore a great rashness boldly to promise pardon to them that have sinned . That is , it is not to be done suddenly , according to the caution which S. Paul gave to the Bishop of Ephesus , Lay hands suddenly on no man , that is , absolve him not without great trial , and just dispositions . 32. For though this be not at all to be wrested to a suspicion that the sins in their kind are not pardonable , yet thus far I shall make use of it ; That God who only hath the power , he only can make the judgment , whether the sinner be a worthy penitent or not . For there being no express stipulation made concerning the degrees of repentance , no taxa poenitentiaria , penitential Tables and Canons consign'd by God , it cannot be told by man , when after great sins , and a long iniquity , the unhappy man shall be restor'd , because it wholly depends upon the Divine acceptance . 33. In smaller offences , and the seldom returns of sin intervening in a good or a probable life , the Curates of souls may make safe and prudent judgments . But when the case is high , and the sin is clamorous , or scandalous , or habitual , they ought not to be too easie in speaking peace to such persons to whom God hath so fiercely threatned death eternal . But to hold their hands , may possibly increase the sorrow , and contrition , and fear of the penitent and returning man , and by that means make him the surer of it . But it is too great a confidence and presumption to dispense Gods pardon , or the Kings , upon easie terms , and without their Commission . 34. For since all the rule and measures of dispensing it , is by analogies and proportions , by some reason , and much conjecture ; it were better by being restrain'd in the Ministeries of favour to produce fears and watchfulness , carefulness and godly sorrow , than by an open hand to make sinners bold and many , confident and easie . Those holy and wise men who were our Fathers in Christ , did well weigh the dangers into which a sinning man had entred , and did dreadfully fear the issues of the Divine anger ; and therefore although they openly taught that God hath set open the gates of mercy to all worthy penitents , yet concerning repentance they had other thoughts than we have ; and that in the pardon of sinners there are many more things to be considered , besides the possibility of having the sin pardoned . SECT . IV. Of the Sin against the Holy Ghost ; and in what sence it is or may be Vnpardonable . 35. UPON what account the Primitive Church did refuse to admit certain Criminals to repentance , I have already discoursed ; but because there are some places of Scripture , which seem to have incouraged such severity by denying repentance also to some sinners , it is necessary that they be considered also , lest by being misunderstood , some persons in the days of their sorrow be tempted to despair . 36. The Novatians denying repentance to lapsed Christians , pretended for their warrant those words of S. Paul ; It is impossible for those who were once inlightened , and have tasted of the Heavenly gift , and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost , and have tasted the good word of God , and the powers of the world to come , if they shall fall away , to renew them again unto repentance , seeing they crucifie to themselves the son of God afresh , and put him to an open shame ; and parallel to this are those other words . For if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth , there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins , but a certain fearful looking for of judgment , and fiery indignation which shall consume the adversaries . The sence of which words will be clear upon the explicating what is meant by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , what by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and what by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 37. If they shall fall away , viz. from that state of excellent things in which they had received all the present endearments of the Gospel , a full conviction , pardon of sins , the earnest of the Spirit , the comfort of the promises , an antepast of Heaven it self ; if these men shall fall away from all this , it cannot be by infirmity , by ignorance , by surprise ; this is that which S. Paul calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to sin wilfully after they have received the knowledge of the truth : Malicious sinners these are , who sin against the Holy Spirit , whose influences they throw away , whose counsels they despise , whose comforts they refuse , whose doctrine they scorn , and from thence fall , not only into one single wasting sin , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they fall away , into a contrary state ; into Heathenism , or the heresie of the Gnosticks , or to any state of despising and hating Christ ; expressed here by Crucifying the Son of God afresh , and putting him to an open shame ; these are they here meant ; such who after they had worshipped Jesus , and given up their names to him , and had been blessed by him , and felt it , and acknowledged it , and rejoyc'd in it , these men afterwards without cause , or excuse , without error or infirmity , chusingly , willingly , knowingly , call'd Christ an Impostor , and would have crucified him again if he had been alive , that is , they consented to his death , by believing that he suffer'd justly . This is the case here described , and cannot be drawn to any thing else but its parallel , that is , a malicious renouncing charity , or holy life , as these men did the faith , to both which they had made their solemn vows in Baptism ; but this can no way be drawn to the condemnation , and final excision of such persons , who after baptism fall into any great sin , of which they are willing to repent . 38. There is also something peculiar in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , renewing such men to repentance : that is , these men are not to be redintegrate , and put into the former condition ; they cannot be restored to any other gracious Covenant of repentance , since they have despis'd this . Other persons who hold fast their profession , and forget not that they were cleansed in baptism , they , in case they do fall into sin , may proceed in the same method , in their first renovation to repentance , that is , in their being solemnly admitted to the method and state of repentance for all sins known and unknown . But when this renovation is renounc'd , when they despise the whole Oeconomy ; when they reject this grace , and throw away the Covenant , there is nothing left for such but a fearful looking for of judgment : for these persons are incapable of the mercies of the Gospel , they are out of the way . For there being but one way of salvation , viz. by Jesus Christ whom they renounce , neither Moses , nor Nature , nor any other name can restore them . And 2. Their case is so bad , and they so impious and malicious , that no man hath power to perswade such men to accept of pardon by those means which they so disown . For there is no means of salvation but this one , and this one they hate , and will not have ; they will not return to the old , and there is none left by which they can be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , renewed , and therefore their condition is desperate . 39. But the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or impossible , is also of special importance and consideration : It is impossible to renew such . For [ impossible ] is not to be understood in the natural sence , but in the legal and moral . There are degrees of impossibility , and therefore they are not all absolute and supreme . So when the law hath condemned a criminal , we usually say it is impossible for him to escape , meaning that the law is clearly against him . Magnus ab infernis revocetur Tulli●s umbris , Et te defendat Regulus ipse licèt : Non potes absolvi : — That is , your cause is lost , you are inexcusable , there is no apology , no pleading for you : and that the same is here meant , we understand by those parallel words , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , there is left no sacrifice for him ; alluding to Moses's law in which for them that sinn'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , with a high hand , for them that despised Moses's law there was no sacrifice appointed ; which Ben Maimon . expounds , saying , that for Apostates there was no sacrifice in the Law. So that it is impossible to renew such , means that it is ordinarily impossible , we have in the discipline of the Church no door of reconciliation ; If he repents of this , he is not the same man , but if he remains so , the Church hath no promise to be heard , if she prays for him ; which is the last thing that the Church can do . To absolve him , is to warrant him ; that in this case is absolutely impossible : but to pray for him is to put him into some hopes , and for that she hath in this case no commission . For this is the sin unto death , of which S. John speaks , and gives no incouragement to pray . So that impossible does signifie in sensu forensi a state of sin , which is sentenc'd by the Law to be capital and damning ; but here it signifies the highest degree of that deadliness and impossibility , as there are degrees of malignity and desperation in mortal diseases : for of all evils this state here described is the worst . And therefore here is an impossibility . 40. But besides all other sences of this word , it is certain by the whole frame of the place , and the very analogy of the Gospel , that this impossibility here mentioned , is not an impossibility of the thing , but only relative to the person . It is impossible to restore him , whose state of evil is contrary to pardon and restitution , as being a renouncing the Gospel , that is the whole Covenant of pardon and repentance . Such is that parallel expression used by S. John. He that is born of God sinneth not , neither indeed can he ; that is , it is impossible , he cannot sin , for the seed of God remaineth in him . Now this does not signifie , that a good man cannot possibly sin if he would ; that is , it does not signifie a natural , or an absolute impossibility , but such as relates to the present state and condition of the person , being contrary to sin : the same with that of S. Paul. Be ye led by the Spirit ; for the spirit lusteth against the flesh , so that ye cannot do the things which ye would , viz. which the flesh would fain tempt you to . A good man cannot sin , that is , very hardly can he be brought to chuse or to delight in it , he cannot sin without a horrible trouble and uneasiness to himself : so on the other side , such Apostates as the Apostle speaks of , cannot be renewed ; that is , without extreme difficulty , and a perfect contradiction to that state in which they are for the present lost . But if this man will repent with a repentance proportion'd to that evil which he hath committed , that he ought not to despair of pardon in the Court of Heaven , we have the affirmation of Justin Martyr . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . They that confess and acknowledge him to be Christ , and for whatsoever cause go from him to the secular conversation , ( viz. to Heathenism or Judaism , &c. ) denying that he is Christ , and not confessing him again before their death , they can never be saved . So that this impossibility concerns not those that return and do confess him , but those that wilfully and maliciously reject this only way of salvation as false and deceitful , and never return to the confession of it again ; which is the greatest sin against the Holy Ghost , of which I am in the next place to give a more particular account . SECT . V. 41. HE that speaketh against the Holy Ghost , it shall never be forgiven him in this world , nor in the world to come ; so said our blessed Saviour . Origen and the Novatians after him , when the Scholars of Novatus , to justifie their Masters Schism from the Church , had chang'd the good old discipline into a new and evil doctrine , said that all the sins of Christians committed after Baptism , are sins against the Holy Ghost , by whom in Baptism they have been illuminated , and by him they were taught in the Gospel , and by him they were consign'd in confirmation , and promoted in all the assistances and Conduct of grace : and they gave this reason for it . Because the Father is in all Creatures ; the Son only in the Reasonable , and the Holy Spirit in Christians ; against which if they prevaricate , they shall not be pardon'd , while the sins of Heathens as being only against the Son are easily pardon'd in baptism . I shall not need to refute this fond opinion , as being already done by S. Athanasius in a Book purposely written on this subject ; and it falls alone ; for that to sin against the Holy Ghost is not proper to Christians , appears in this , that Christ charg'd it upon the Pharisees : and that every sin of Christians is not this sin against the Holy Ghost , appears , because Christians are perpetually called upon to repent : for to what purpose should any man be called from his sin , if by returning he shall not escape damnation ? or if he shall , then that sin is not against the Holy Ghost , or if it be , that sin is not unpardonable ; either of which destroys their fond affirmative . 42. S. Austin makes final impenitence to be it : against which opinion , though many things may be oppos'd , yet it is openly confuted in being charged upon the Pharisees , who were not then guilty of final impenitence . But the instance clears the article . The Pharisees saw the light of Gods Spirit manifestly shining in the miracles which Christ did , and they did not only despise his Person and persecute it , which is speaking against the Son of Man , that is , sinning against him ( for speaking against , is sinning or doing against it , in the Jews manner of expression ) but they also spightfully and maliciously blasphemed that Spirit , and that power of God , by which they were convinc'd , and by which such Miracles were done . And this was that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that idle and unprofitable word spoken of in the following verses , by which Christ said they should be judged at the last day ; such which whosoever should speak , he should give account thereof in that day . 43. Now this was ever esteemed a high and an intolerable Crime ; for it was not new , but an old Crime ; only it was manifested by an appellative relating to a power and a name now more used than formerly . This was the sin for which Corah and his Company died , who did despise and reproach the works of God , his power and the mightiness of his hand manifested in his servant Moses . It is called sinning with a high hand , that is , with an hand lift up on high against God. Corah and his Company committed the sin against the Holy Spirit , for they spake against that Spirit and power , which God had put into Moses , and prov'd by the demonstration of mighty effects ▪ It is a denying that great argument of Credibility , by which God goes about to verifie any mission of his , to prove by mighty effects of Gods Spirit , that God hath sent such a man. When God manifests his holy Spirit by signs and wonders extraordinary , not to revere this good Spirit , not to confess him , but to revile him , or to reproach the power , is that which God ever did highly punish . 44. Thus it happened to Pharaoh ; he also sinn'd against the Holy Ghost , the good Spirit of God : for when his Magicians told him that the finger of God was there , yet he hardned his heart against it , and then God went on to harden it more till he overthrew him ; for then his sin became unpardonable in the sence I shall hereafter explicate . And this pass'd into a law to the children of Israel , and they were warned of it with the highest threatning , that is , of a capital punishment , [ The soul that doth ought presumptuously ( or with an high hand ) the same reproacheth the Lord , that soul shall be cut off from among his people : and this is translated into the New Testament , They that do despite to the Spirit of Grace , shall fall into the hands of the living God. That 's the sin against the Holy Ghost . 45. Now this sin must in all reason be very much greater under the Gospel than under the Law. For when Christ came he did such miracles which never any man did , and preach'd a better Law , and with mighty demonstrations of the Spirit , that is , of the power and Spirit of God , prov'd himself to have come from God , and therefore men were more convinc'd ; and he that was so , and yet would oppose the Spirit , that is , defie all his proofs , and hear none of his words , and obey none of his laws , and at last revile him too , he had done the great sin ; for this is to do the worst thing we can , we dishonour God in that in which he intended most to glorifie himself . 46. Two instances of this we find in the New Testament , though not of the highest degree , yet because done directly against the Spirit of God , that is , in despite or in disparagement of that Spirit by which so great things were wrought , it grew intolerable . Ananias did not revere the Spirit of God , so mightily appearing in S. Peter and the other Apostles , and he was smitten and died . Simon Magus took the Spirit of God for a vendible commodity , for a thing less than money , and fit to serve secular ends ; and he instantly fell into the gall of bitterness , that is , a sad bitter calamity : and S. Peter knew not whether God would forgive him or no. 47. But it is remarkable , that the holy Scriptures note various degrees of this malignity ; grieving the holy Spirit , resisting him , quenching him , doing despite to him : all sin against the Holy Ghost , but yet they that had done so , were all called to repentance . S. Stephens Sermon was an instance of it , and so was S. Peters , and so was the prayer of Christ upon the Cross , for the malicious Jews , the Pharisees , his betrayers and murtherers . But the sin it self is of an indefinite progression , and hath not physical limits and a certain constitution , as is observable in carnal crimes , Theft , Murther , or Adultery : for though even these are increased by circumstances , and an inward consent and degrees of love and adhesion ; yet of the crime it self we can say , this is Murther , and this is Adultery , and therefore the punishment is proper and certain . But since there are so many degrees of the sin against the Holy Ghost , and it consists not in an indivisible point , but according to the nature of internal and spiritual sins , it is like time or numbers , of a moveable being , of a flux , unstable , immense constitution , and may be always growing , not only by the repetition of acts , but by its proper essential increment ; and since in the particular case the measures are uncertain , the nature secret , the definition disputable , and so many sins are like it , or reducible to it , apt to produce despair in timorous consciences , and to discourage Repentance in lapsed persons , it will be an intolerable proposition that affirms the sin against the Holy Ghost to be absolutely unpardonable . 48. That the sin against the Holy Ghost is pardonable , appears in the instance of the Pharisees ; to whom , even after they had committed the sin , God was pleased to afford preaching , signs and miracles , and Christ upon the Cross prayed for them ; but in what sence also it was unpardonable , appears in their case ; for they were so far gone , that they would not return , and God did not , and at last would not pardon them . For this appellative is not properly subjected , nor attributed to the sin it self , but it is according as the man is . The sin may be , and is at some time unpardonable , yet not in all its measures and parts of progression ; as appears in the case of Pharaoh , who all the way from the first miracle to the tenth , sinn'd against the Holy Ghost , but at last he was so bad , that God would not pardon him . Some men are come to the greatness of the sin , or to that state and grandeur of impiety , that their estate is desperate , that is , though the nature of their sins is such as God is extremely angry with them , and would destroy them utterly , were he not restrain'd by an infinite mercy , yet it shall not be thus for ever ; for in some state of circumstances and degrees , God is finally angry with the man , and will never return to him . 49. Until things be come to this height , whatsoever the sin be , it is pardonable . For if there were any one sin distinguishable in its whole nature and instance from others , which in every of its periods were unpardonable , it is most certain it would have been described in Scripture with clear characters and cautions , that a man might know when he is in and when he is out . Speaking a word against the Holy Spirit is by our blessed Saviour called this great sin ; but it is certain , that every word spoken against him is not unpardonable . Simon Magus spoke a foul word against him , but S. Peter did not say it was unpardonable , but when he bid him pray , he consequently bid him hope ; but because he would not warrant him , that is , durst not absolve him , he sufficiently declared that this sin is of an indefinite nature , and by growth would arrive at the unpardonable state ; the state and fulness of it is unpardonable , that is , God will to some men , and in some times and stages of their evil life , be so angry , that he will give them over , and leave them , in their reprobate mind . But no man knows when that time is , God only knows , and the event must declare it . 50. But for the thing it self , that it is pardonable is very certain , because it may be pardoned in baptism : The Novatians denied not to baptism a power of pardoning any sin ; and in this sence it is without doubt true what Zosimus by way of reproach objected to Christian Religion , it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a deletery and purgative for every sin whatsoever . And since the unconverted Pharisees were guilty of this sin , and it was a sin forbidden , and punished capitally in the law of Moses , either to these Christ could not have been preached , and for them Christ did not die , or else it is certain that the sin against the holy Spirit of God is pardonable . 51. Now whereas our Blessed Lord affirmed of this sin it shall not be pardoned in this world , nor in the world to come ; we may best understand the meaning of it by the parallel words of old Heli to his sons : If a man sin against another , the Judge shall judge him , placari ei potest Deus , so the Vulgar Latin reads it , God may be appeased , that is , it shall be forgiven him ; that is a word spoken against the Son of man , which relates to Christ only upon the account of his humane nature , that may be forgiven him , it shall , that is , upon easier terms , as upon a temporal judgment , called in this place , a being judged by the Judge . But if a man sin against the Lord who shall intreat for him ? that is , if he sin with a high hand , presumptuously , against the Lord , against his power , and his Spirit , who shall intreat for him ? it shall never be pardoned ; never so as the other , never upon a temporal judgment : that cannot expiate this great sin , as it could take off a sin against a man , or the Son of man : for though it be punished here , it shall be punished hereafter . But , 52. II. It shall not be pardoned in this world , nor in the world to come ] that is , neither to the Jews , nor to the Gentiles . For Saeculum hoc , this World , in Scripture is the period of the Jews Synagogue , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the world to come is taken for the Gospel , or the age of the Messias frequently among the Jews : and it is not unlikely Christ might mean it in that sence which was used amongst them by whom he would be understood : But because the word was also as commonly used in that sence in which it is understood at this day , viz. for the world after this life ; I shall therefore propound another exposition which seems to me more probable . Though remission of sins is more plentiful in the Gospel than under the Law , yet because the sin is bigger under the Gospel , there is not here any ordinary way of pardoning it , no Ministery established to warrant or absolve such sinners , but it must be referred to God himself ; and yet that 's not all . For if a man perseveres in this sin , he shall neither be forgiven here , nor hereafter ; that is , neither can he be absolved in this world by the ministery of the Church , nor in the world to come by the sentence of Christ : and this I take to be the full meaning of this so difficult place . 53. For in this world properly so speaking , there is no forgiveness of sins but what is by the ministery of the Church . For then a sin is forgiven when it is pardon'd in the day of sentence , or execution ; that is , when those evils are removed which are usually inflicted , or which are proper to that day . Now then for the final punishment , that is not till the day of judgment , and if God then gives us a mercy in that day , then is the day of our pardon from him ; In the mean time if he be gracious to us here , he either forbears to smite us , or smites us to bring us to repentance , and all the way continues to us the use of the Word and Sacraments ; that is , if he does in any sence pardon us here , if he does not give us over to a reprobate mind , he continues us under the means of salvation , which is the ministery of the Church , for that 's the way of pardon in this * World , as the blessed sentence of the right hand is the way of pardon in the World to come . So that when our great Lord and Master threatens to this sin , it shall not be pardon'd in this World , nor in the World to come , he means that neither shall the Ministers of the Church pronounce his pardon , or comfort his sorrows , or restore him after his fall , or warrant his condition , or pray for him publickly , or give him the peace and communion of the Church : neither will God pardon him in the day of Judgment . 54. But all this fearful denunciation of the Divine judgment is only upon supposition the man does not repent . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said S. Athanasius . God did not say to him that blasphemes and repents , it shall not be forgiven , but to him that blasphemes and remains in his blasphemy : for there is no sin which God will not pardon to them that holily and worthily repent , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . To be wounded is not so grievous ; but it is intolerable when the wounded man refuses to be cured . For it is considerable , 55. Whoever can repent may hope for pardon , else he could not be invited to repentance . I do not say , whoever can be sorrowful may hope for pardon : for there is a sorrow too late , then commencing when there is no time left to begin , much less to finish 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Athanasius calls it , a holy and a worthy repentance , and of such Philo affirmed , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Some unhappy souls would fain be admitted to repentance , but God permits them not , that is , their time is past , and either they die before they can perform it , or if they live they return to their old impieties like water from a rock . But whoever can repent worthily , and leave their sin , and mortifie it , and make such amends as is required , these men ought not to despair of pardon : they may hope for mercy : and if they may hope they must hope , for not to do it , were the greatest crime of despair . For despair is no sin , but there to hope is a duty . 56. But if this be all , then the sin against the Holy Ghost hath no more said against it than any other sin ; for if we repent not of theft , or adultery , it shall neither be forgiven us in this world , nor in the world to come , and if we do repent of the sin against the Holy Ghost , it shall not be exacted of us , but shall be pardoned . So that to say it is unpardonable without repentance , is to say nothing peculiar of this . 57. To this I answer , that pardonable and unpardonable have no definite signification , but have a latitude and increment , and a various sence ; but seldom signifie in the absolute supreme sence . Sins of infirmity ; such , I mean , which in any sence can properly be called sins , must in some sence or other be repented of ; and they are unpardonable without repentance , that is , without such a repentance as does disallow them and contend against them . But these are also pardonable without repentance , by some degrees of pardon , that is , God pities our sins of ignorance and winks at them , and upon the only account of his own pity does bring such persons to better notices of things . And they are pardonable without repentance , if by repentance we mean an absolute dereliction of them , for we shall never be able to leave them quite ; and therefore either they shall never be pardoned , or else they are pardoned without such a repentance as signifies dereliction or intire mastery over them . 58. II. But sins which are wilfully and knowingly committed , as theft , adultery , murder , are unpardonable without repentance , that is , without such a repentance as forsakes them actually and intirely , and produces such acts of grace as are proper for their expiation : but yet even these sins require not such a repentance as sins against the Holy Ghost do : These must have a greater sorrow , and a greater shame , and a more severe amends , and a more passionate lasting prayer , and a bigger fear , and a more publick amends , and a sharper infliction , and greater excellency of grace than is necessary in lesser sins . But in this difference of sins it is usual to promise pardon to the less and not to the greater , when the meaning is , that the smaller sins are only pardon'd upon easier terms : an example of this we have in Clemens Alexandrin●● , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : Sins committed before Baptism are pardon'd , but sins after it must be purged , that is , by a severe repentance ; which the others needed not , and yet without repentance baptism would nothing avail vicious persons . So we say concerning those sins which we have forgotten , they may be pardon'd without repentance , meaning without a special repentance , but yet no● without a general . Thus we find it in the Imperial Law , that they that had fallen into Heresie or strange superstitions , they were to be pardon'd if they did repent : but if they did relapse , they should not be pardon'd ; but they mean , Venia eodem modo praestari non potest : so Gratian , Valens and Valentinian expressed it . So that by denying pardon , they only mean that it shall be harder with such persons , their pardon shall not be so easily obtained , but as they repeat their sins , so their punishment shall increase , and at last if no warning will serve , it shall destroy them . 59. For it is remarkable , that in Scripture Pardonable and Vnpardonable signifies no more than Mortal and Venial in the writings of the Church ; of which I have given accounts in its proper place . But when a sin is declared deadly , or killing , and damnation threatned to such persons , we are not therefore if we have committed any such , to lie down under the load , and die ; but with the more earnestness depart from it , lest that which is of a killing , damning nature , prove so to us in the event . For the sin of Adultery is a damning sin , and Murther is a killing sin , and the sin against the Holy Ghost is worse ; and they are all Vnpardonable , that is , condemning ; they are such in their cause , or in themselves , but if they prove so to us in the event , or effect , it is because we will not repent . He that eateth and drinketh unworthily , eateth and drinketh damnation to himself ; that 's as high an expression as any ; and yet there are several degrees and kinds of eating and drinking unworthily , and some are more unpardonable than others ; but yet the Corinthians who did eat unworthily , some of them coming to the holy Supper drunk , and others schismatically , were by S. Paul admitted to repentance . Some sins are like deadly potions , they kill the man , unless he speedily take an Antidote , or unless by strength of nature he work out the poison and overcome it ; and others are like a desperate disease , or a deadly wound , the Iliacal passions , the Physicians give him over , it is a Miserere mei Deus ; of which though men despair , yet some have been cured . Thus also in the capital and great sins , many of them are such which the Church will not absolve , or dare not promise cure . Non est in medico semper relevetur ut aeger ; Interdum doctâ plus valet arte malum . But then these persons are sent to God , and are bid to hope for favour from thence , and may find it . But others there are whom the Church will not meddle withall , and sends them to God , and God will not absolve them , that is , they shall be pardon'd neither by God nor the Church , neither in this world nor in the world to come . But the reason is not , because their sin is in all its periods of an unpardonable nature , but because they have persisted in it too long , and God in the secret Oeconomy of his mercies hath shut the everlasting doors ; the olive doors of mercy shall not be open'd to them . And this is the case of too many miserable persons . They who repent timely , and holily , are not in this number , whatsoever sins they be which they have committed . But this is the case of them whom God hath given over to a reprobate mind , and of them who sin against Gods holy Spirit , when their sin is grown to its full measure : So we find it express'd in the Proverbs , Turn ye at my reproof , I will pour out my Spirit unto you ; and then it follows , Because I have called and ye refused , I also will laugh at your calamity , I will mock when your fear cometh . But this is not in all the periods of our refusing to hear God calling by his Spirit ; but when the sin of the Amalekites is full , then it is unpardonable , not in the thing , but to that man , at that time . And besides all the promises , this is highly verified in the words of our blessed Saviour taken out of the Prophet Isaiah ; where it is affirmed , that when people are so obstinate and wilfully blind , that God then leaves to give them clearer testimony and a mighty grace , lest they should hear and see and understand ; it follows , and should be converted , and I should heal them ; plainly telling us , that if even then they should repent , God could not but forgive them ; and therefore because he hath now no love left to them by reason of their former obstinacy , yet where ever you can suppose Repentance , there you may more than suppose a pardon . But if a man cannot , or will not repent , then it is another consideration : In the mean time , nothing hinders but that every sin is pardonable to him that repents . 60. But thus we find that the style of Scripture and the expressions of holy persons is otherwise in the threatning and the edict , otherwise in the accidents of persons and practice . It is necessary that it be severe when duty is demanded ; but of lapsed persons it uses not to be exacted in the same dialect . It is as all laws are . In the general they are decretory , in the use and application they are easier . In the Sanction they are absolute and infinite , but yet capable of interpretations , of dispensations and relaxation in particular cases . And so it is in the present Article ; Impossible , and Vnpardonable , and Damnation , and shall be cut off , and nothing remains but fearful expectation of judgment , are exterminating words and phrases in the law , but they do not effect all that they there signifie , to any but the impenitent ; according to the saying of Mark the Hermite , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . No man is ever justified but he that carefully repents , and no man is condemned but he that despises repentance . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said S. Basil. The eye of God , who is so great a lover of souls , cannot deny the intercessions and Litanies of Repentance . SECT . VI. The former Doctrines reduc'd to Practice . 61. I. ALthough the doors of Repentance open to them that sin after Baptism , and to them that sin after Repentance , yet every relapse does increase the danger , and make the sin to be less pardonable than before . For , 62. I. A good man falling into sin does it without all necessity ; he hath assistances great enough to make him conqueror , he hath reason enough to disswade him , he hath sharp senses of the filthiness of sin , his spirit is tender , and is crush'd with the uneasi● load , he sighs and wakes , and is troubled and distracted ; and if he sins , he sins with pain and shame and smart ; and the less of mistake there is in his case , the more of malice is ingredient , and a greater anger is like to be his portion . 63. II. It is a particular unthankfulness when a man that was once pardon'd shall relapse . And when obliged persons prove enemies , they are ever the most malicious ; as having nothing to protect or cover their shame , but impudence . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . So did the Greeks treat Agamemnon ill , because he used them but too well . Such persons are like Travellers who in a storm running to a fig-tree , when the storm is over they beat the branches and pluck the fruit , and having run to an Altar for sanctuary , they steal the Chalice from the holy place , and rob the Temple that secur'd them . And God does more resent it , that the Lambs which he feeds at his own table , which are as so many sons and daughters to him , that daily suck plenty from his two breasts of Mercy and Providence , that they should in his own house make a mutiny , and put on the fierceness of Wolves , and rise up against their Lord and Shepherd . 64. III. Every relapse after repentance , is directly and in its proper principle a greater sin . Our first faults are pitiable , and we do pati humanum , we do after the manner of men ; but when we are recovered , and then die again , we do facere Diabolicum , we do after the manner of Devils . For from ignorance to sin , from passion and youthful appetites to sin , from violent temptations and little strengths , to fall into sin , is no very great change ; it is from a corrupted nature to corrupted manners : But from grace to return to sin , from knowledge and experience , and delight in goodness and wise notices , from God and his Christ to return to sin , to foolish actions , and non-sence principles , is a change great as was the fall of the morning stars when they descended cheaply and foolishly into darkness ; Well therefore may it be pitied in a child to chuse a bright dagger before a warm coat , but when he hath been refreshed by this and smarted by that , if he chuses again , he will chuse better . But men that have tried both states , that have rejoyced for their deliverance from temptation , men that have given thanks to God for their safety and innocence , men that have been wearied and ashamed of the follies of sin , that have weighed both sides and have given wise sentence for God and for religion , if they shall chuse again , and chuse amiss , it must be by something by which Lucifer did in the face of God chuse to defie him , and desire to turn Devil , and be miserable and wicked for ever and ever . 65. IV. If a man repents of his repentances and returns to his sins , all his intermedial repentance shall stand for nothing : the sins which were marked for pardon shall break out in guilt , and be exacted of him in fearful punishments , as if he never had repented . For if good works crucified by sins are made alive by repentance , by the same reason , those sins also will live again , if the repentance dies ; it being equally just that if the man repents of his repentance , God also should repent of his pardon . 66. For we must observe carefully that there is a pardon of sins proper to this life , and another proper to the world to come . Whose soever sins ye remit , they are remitted , and what ye bind on Earth , shall be bound in Heaven . That is , there are two remissions , One here , the other hereafter ; That here is wrought by the Ministery of the Word and Sacraments , by faith and obedience , by moral instruments and the Divine grace ; all which are divisible and gradual , and grow , or diminish , ebbe or flow , change or persist , and consequently grow on to effect , or else fail of the grace of God , that final Grace which alone is effective of that benefit which we here contend for . Here in proper speaking our pardon is but a disposition towards the great and final pardon ; a possibility and ability to pursue that interest , to contend for that absolution : and accordingly , it is wrought by parts , and is signified and promoted by every act of grace that puts us in order to Heaven , or the state of final pardon : God gives us one degree of pardon when he forbears to kill us in the act of sin , when he admits , when he calls , when he smites us into repentance , when he invites us by mercies and promises , when he abates or defers his anger , when he sweetly engages us in the ways of holiness , these are several parts and steps of pardon : For if God were extremely angry with us as we deserve , nothing of all this would be done unto us : and still Gods favours increase , and the degrees of pardon multiply , as our endeavours are prosperous , as we apply our selves to religion and holiness , & make use of the benefits of the Church , the ministery of the Word and Sacraments , and as our resolutions pass into acts and habits of vertue . But then in this world we are to expect no other pardon , but a fluctuating , alterable , uncertain pardon , as our duty is uncertain . Hereafter it shall be finished , if here we persevere in the parts and progressions of our repentance : But as yet it is an Embryo , in a state of conduct and imperfection ; here we always pray for it , always hope it , always labour for it ; but we are not fully and finally absolved till the day of sentence and judgment ; until that day we hope and labour . * The purpose of this discourse is to represent in what state of things our pardon stands here ; and that it is not only conditional , but of it self a mutable effect , a disposition towards the great pardon , and therefore if it be not nurs'd and maintain'd by the proper instruments of its progression , it dies like an abortive conception , and shall not have that immortality whither it was designed . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . For it was not ill said of old ; he that remits of his severity and interrupts his course , does also break it , and then he breaks his hopes , and dissolves the golden chain which reached up to the foot of the throne of grace . 67. II. Here therefore the advice is reasonable and necessary : he that would ensure his pardon must persevere in duty ; and to that purpose must make a full and perfect work in his mortifications and fights against sin ; he must not suffer any thing to remain behind which may ever spring up and bear the apples of Sodom . It is the advice of Dion Prusaeensis : He that goes to cleanse his soul from lusts like a wild desert from beasts of prey , unless he do it thoroughly , in a short time will be destroyed by the remaining portions of his concupiscence : For as a Fever whose violence is abated , and the malignity lessened , and the man returns to temper and reason , to quiet nights , and chearful days , if yet there remains any of the unconquered humour , it is apt to be set on work again by every cold , or little violence of chance , and the same disease returns with a bigger violence and danger : So it is in the eradication of our sins ; that which remains behind , is of too great power to effect all the purposes of our death , and to make us to have fought in vain , and lose all our labours and all our hopes , and the intermedial piety being lost , will exasperate us the more , and kill us more certainly than our former vices ; as cold water taken to cool the body inflames it more , and makes cold to be the kindler of a greater fire . 68. III. Let no man be too forward in saying his sin is pardoned , for our present perswasions are too gay and confident ; and that which is not repentance sufficient for a lustful thought , or one single act of uncleanness , or intemperance , we usually reckon to be the very porch of Heaven , and expiatory of the vilest and most habitual crimes : It were well if the Spiritual and the Curates of Souls , were not the authors or incouragers of this looseness of confidence and credulity . To confess and to absolve is all the method of our modern repentance , even when it is the most severe . Indeed in the Church of England I cannot so easily blame that proceeding ; because there are so few that use the proper and secret ministery of a spiritual guide , that it is to be supposed he that does so , hath long repented and done some violence to himself and more to his sins , before he can master himself so much as to bring himself to submit to that ministery . But there where the practice is common , and the shame is taken off , and the duty returns at certain festivals , and is frequently performed , to absolve as soon as the sinner confesses , and leave him to amend afterwards if he please , is to give him confidence and carelesness , but not absolution * . 69. IV. Do not judge of the pardon of thy sins by light and trifling significations , but by long , lasting and material events . If God continues to call thee to repentance there is hopes that he is ready to pardon thee ; and if thou dost obey the Heavenly calling , and dost not defer to begin , nor stop in thy course , nor retire to thy vain conversation , thou art in the sure way of pardon , and mayest also finish it . But if thou dost believe that thy sins are pardon'd , remember the words of our Lord concerning Mary Magdalen ; much is forgiven her , and she loved much . If thou fearest thy sins are not pardon'd , pray the more earnestly , and mortifie thy sin with the more severity ; and be no more troubled concerning the event of it , but let thy whole care and applications be concerning thy duty . I have read of one that was much afflicted with fear concerning his final state ; and not knowing whether he should persevere in grace , and obtain a glorious pardon at last , cried out , O si scirem , &c. Would to God I might but know whether I should persevere or no! He was answered , What wouldest thou do if thou wert sure ? Wouldest thou be careless , or more curious of thy duty ? If that knowledge would make thee careless , desire it not ; but if it would improve thy diligence , then what thou wouldest do in case thou didst know , do that now thou dost not know ; and whatever thy notice or perswasion be , the thing in it self will be more secure , and thou shalt find it in the end . But if any mad is curious of the event , and would fain know of the event of his soul , let him reveal the state of his soul to a godly and a prudent Spiritual Guide ; and he , when he hath search'd diligently , and observ'd him curiously , can tell him all that is to be told , and give him all the assurance that is to be given , and warrant him , as much as himself hath receiv'd a warrant to do it . Unless God be pleased to draw the Curtains of his Sanctuary , and open the secrets of his eternal Counsel , there is no other certainty of an actual pardon , but what the Church does minister , and what can be prudently derived from our selves . For to every such curious person , this only is to be said , Do you believe the promises ? That if we confess our sins and forsake them , if we believe and obey , we shall be pardoned and saved . If so , then enquire whether or no thou dost perform the conditions of thy pardon . How shall I know ? Examine thy self , try thy own spirit , and use the help of a holy and a wise guide . He will teach thee to know thy self . If after all this , thou answerest , that thou canst not tell whether thy heart be right , and thy duty acceptable ; then sit down and hope the best , and work in as much light and hope as thou hast ; but never enquire after the secret of God , when thou dost not so much as know thy self ; and how canst thou hope to espy the most private Counsels of Heaven , when thou canst not certainly perceive what is in thy own hand and heart . But if thou canst know thy self , you need not enquire any further . If thy duty be performed , you may be secure of all that is on Gods part . 70. V. When ever repentance begins , know that from thence-forward the sinner begins to live ; but then never let that repentance die . Do not at any time say , I have repented of such a sin , and am at peace for that ; for a man ought never to be at peace with sin , nor think that any thing we can do is too much : Our repentance for sin is never to be at an end , till faith it self shall be no more ; for Faith and Repentance are but the same Covenant ; and so long as the just does live by faith in the Son of God , so long he lives by repentance ; for by that faith in him our sins are pardoned , that is , by becoming his Disciples we enter into the Covenant of Repentance . And he undervalues his sin , and overvalues his sorrow , who at any time fears he shall do too much , or make his pardon too secure , and therefore sets him down and says , Now I have repented . 71. VI. Let no man ever say he hath committed the sin against the Holy Ghost , or the unpardonable sin ; for there are but few that do that , and he can best confute himself , if he can but tell that he is sorrowful for it , and begs for pardon and hopes for it , and desires to make amends ; this man hath already obtained some degrees of pardon : and S. Paul's argument in this case also is a demonstration ; If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son , much more being reconciled , we shall be saved by his life . That is , if God to enemies gives the first grace , much more will he give the second , if they make use of the first . For from none to a little is an infinite distance ; but from a little to a great deal is not so much . And therefore since God hath given us means of pardon and the grace of Repentance , we may certainly expect the fruit of pardon : for it is a greater thing to give repentance to a sinner , than to give pardon to the penitent . Whoever repents hath not committed the great sin , the Unpardonable . For it is long of the man , not of the sin , that any sin is unpardonable . 72. VII . Let every man be careful of entring into any great states of sin , lest he be unawares guilty of the great offence : Every resisting of a holy motion calling us from sin , every act against a clear reason or revelation , every confident progression in sin , every resolution to commit a sin in despite of conscience , is an access towards the great sin or state of evil . Therefore concerning such a man , let others fear since he will not , and save him with fear , plucking him out of the fire ; but when he begins to return , that great fear is over in many degrees ; for even in Moses's law there were expiations appointed not only for error , but for presumptuous sins . The PRAYER . I. O Eternal God , gracious and merciful , I adore the immensity and deepest abysse of thy Mercy and Wisdom , that thou dost pity our infirmities , instruct our ignorances , pass by thousands of our follies , invitest us to repentance , and dost offer pardon , because we are miserable , and because we need it , and because thou art good , and delightest in shewing mercy . Blessed be thy holy Name , and blessed be that infinite Mercy which issues forth from the fountains of our Saviour , to refresh our weariness , and to water our stony hearts , and to cleanse our polluted souls . O cause that these thy mercies may not run in vain , but may redeem my lost soul , and recover thy own inheritance , and sanctifie thy portion , the heart of thy servant and all my faculties . II. BLessed Jesus , thou becamest a little lower than the Angels , but thou didst make us greater , doing that for us which thou didst not do for them . Thou didst not pay for them one drop of blood , nor endure one stripe to recover the fallen stars , nor give one groan to snatch the accursed spirits from their fearful prisons ; but thou didst empty all thy veins for me , and gavest thy heart to redeem me from innumerable sins and an intolerable calamity . O my God , let all this heap of excellencies and glorious mercies be effective upon thy servant , and work in me a sorrow for my sins , and a perfect hatred of them , a watchfulness against temptations , severe and holy resolutions , active and effective of my duty . O let me never fall from sin to sin , nor persevere in any , nor love any thing which thou hatest ; but give me thy holy Spirit to conduct and rule me for ever , and make me obedient to thy good Spirit , never to grieve him , never to resist him , never to quench him . Keep me , O Lord , with thy mighty power from falling into presumptuous sins , lest they get the dominion over me : so shall I be innocent from the great offence . Let me never despair of thy mercies by reason of my sins , nor neglect my repentance by reason of thy infinite loving kindness ; but let thy goodness bring me and all sinners to repentance , and thy mercies give us pardon , and thy holy Spirit give us perseverance , and thy infinite favour bring us to glory , through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen . CHAP. X. Of Ecclesiastical Penance , or , The fruits of Repentance . SECT . I. 1. THE fruits of Repentance , are the actions of spiritual life ; and signifie properly , all that piety and obedience which we pay to God in the days of our return , after we have begun to follow sober counsels . For since all the duty of a Christian is a state of Repentance , that is , of contention against sin , and the parts and proper periods of victory ; and Repentance which includes the faith of a Christian , is but another word to express the same grace , or mercies of the Evangelical Covenant ; it follows , that whatsoever is the duty of a Christian and a means to possess that grace , is in some sence or other a Repentance , or the fruits of Gods mercy and our endeavours . And in this sence S. John the Baptist means it , saying , Bring forth therefore fruits meet for Repentance ; that is , since now the great expectation of the world is to be satisfied , and the Lord 's Christ will open the gates of mercy , and give Repentance to the world , see that ye live accordingly , in the faith and obedience of God through Jesus Christ. That did in the event of things prove to be the effect of that Sermon . 2. But although all the parts of holy life are fruits of Repentance , when it is taken for the state of favour published by the Gospel ; yet when Repentance is a particular duty or vertue , the integral parts of holy life , are also constituent parts of Repentance ; and then by the fruits of Repentance must be meant , the less necessary , but very useful effects and ministeries of Repentance , which are significations and exercises of the main duty . And these are sorrow for sins , commonly called Contrition , Confession of them , and Satisfactions ; by which ought to be meant , an opposing a contrary act of vertue to the precedent act of sin , and a punishing of our selves out of sorrow and indignation for our folly . And this is best done by all those acts of Religion by which God is properly appeased , and sin is destroyed , that is , by those acts which signifie our love to God , and our hatred to sin , such as are Prayer , and Alms , and forgiving injuries , and punishing our selves , that is , a forgiving every one but our selves . 3. Many of these ( I say ) are not essential parts of Repentance , without the actual exercise of which no man in any case can be said to be truly penitent ; for the constituent parts of Repentance are nothing but the essential parts of obedience to the Commandments of God , that is , direct abstinence from evil , and doing what is in the Precept . But they are fruits and significations , exercises and blessed productions of Repentance , useful to excellent purposes of it , and such from which a man cannot be excused , but by great accidents and rare contingencies . To visit prisoners , and to redeem captives , and to instruct the ignorant , are acts of charity ; but he that does not act these special instances , is not always to be condemn'd for want of charity , because by other acts of grace he may signifie and exercise his duty : He only that refuses any instances , because the grace is not operative , he only is the Vncharitable , but to the particulars he can be determin'd only by something from without , but it is sufficient to the grace it self that it works where it can , or where it is prudently chosen . So it is in these fruits of Repentance . He that out of hatred to sin abstains from it , and out of love to God endeavours to keep his Commandments , he is a true penitent , though he never lie upon the ground , or spend whole nights in prayer , or make himself sick with fasting ; but he that in all circumstances refuses any or all of these , and hath not hatred enough against his sin to punish it in himself , when to do so may accidentally be necessary or enjoyned , he hath cause to suspect himself not to be a true penitent . 4. No one of these is necessary in the special instance , except those which are distinctly and upon their own accounts under another precept , as Prayer , and forgiving injuries , and self-affliction in general , and Confession . But those which are only apt ministeries to the grace , which can be ministred unto equally by other instances , those are left to the choice of every one , or to be determin'd or bound upon us by accidents and by the Church . But every one of the particulars hath in it something of special consideration . SECT . II. Of Contrition or godly Sorrow . 5. IN all repentances it is necessary that we understand some sorrow ingredient , or appendant , or beginning . To repent is to leave a sin ; which because it must have a cause to effect it , can begin no where but where the sin is for some reason or other disliked , that is , because it does a mischief . It is enough to leave it , that we know it will ruine us if we abide in it , but that is not enough to make us grieve for it when it is past and quitted . For if we believe that as soon as ever we repent of it , we shall be accepted to pardon , and that infallibly , and that being once forsaken it does not , and shall not prejudice us , he that considers this , and remembers it was pleasant to him , will scarce find cause enough to be sorrowful for it . Neither is it enough to say , he must grieve for it , or else it will do him mischief . For this is not true , for how can sorrow prevent the mischief , when the sorrow of it self is not an essential duty ; or if it were so in it self , yet by accident it becomes not to be so , for by being unreasonable and impossible , it becomes also not necessary , not a duty . To be sorrowful is not always in our power , any more than to be merry ; and both of them are the natural products of their own objects and of nothing else ; and then if sin does us pleasure at first , and at last no mischief to the penitent , to bid them be sorrowful lest it should do mischief , is as improper a remedy as if we were commanded to be hungry to prevent being beaten . He that felt nothing but the pleasure of sin , and is now told he shall feel none of its evils , and that it can no more hurt him when it is forsaken , than a Bee when the sting is out , if he be commanded to grieve , may justly return in answer , that as yet he perceives no cause . 6. If it be told him , it is cause enough to grieve that he hath offended God , who can punish him with sad , unsufferable , and eternal torments . This is very true . But if God be not angry with him , and he be told that God will not punish him for the sin he repents of , then to grieve for having offended God is so Metaphysical and abstracted a speculation , that there must be something else in it , before a sinner can be tied to it . For to have displeased God is a great evil , but what is it to me , if it will bring no evil to me ; It is a Metaphysical and a Moral evil ; but unless it be also naturally and sensibly so , it is not the object of a natural and proper grief . It follows therefore that the state of a repenting person must have in it some more causes of sorrow than are usually taught , or else in vain can they be called upon to weep and mourn for their sins . Well may they wring their faces and their hands , and put on black , those disguises of passion and curtains of joy , those ceremonies and shadows of rich widows , and richer heirs , by which they decently hide their secret smiles : well may they rend their garments , but upon this account they can never rend their hearts . 7. For the stating of this Article it is considerable , that there are several parts or periods of sorrow , which are effected by several principles . In the beginning of our repentance sometimes we feel cause enough to grieve . For God smites many into repentance ; either a sharp sickness does awaken us , or a calamity upon our house , or the death of our dearest relative ; and they that find sin so heavily incumbent , and to press their persons or fortunes with feet of lead , will feel cause enough , and need not to be disputed into a penitential sorrow . They feel Gods anger , and the evil effects of sin , and that it brings sorrow , and then the sorrow is justly great because we have done that evil which brings so sad a judgment . 8. And in the same proportion , there is always a natural cause of sorrow , where there is a real cause of fear ; and so it is ever in the beginning of repentance , and for ought we know it is for ever so , and albeit the causes of fear lessen as the repentance does proceed , yet it will never go quite off , till hope it self be gone and passed into charity , or at least into a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , into that fulness of confidence which is given to few as the reward of a lasting and conspicuous holiness . And the reason is plain . For though it be certain in religion , that whoever repents shall be pardoned , yet it is a long time before any man hath repented worthily ; and it is as uncertain in what manner and in what measures , and in what time God will give us pardon . It is as easie to tell the very day in which a man first comes to the use of reason , as to tell the very time in which we are accepted to final pardon ; The progressions of one being as divisible as the other , and less discernible . For reason gives many fair indications of it self , whereas God keeps the secrets of this mercy in his sanctuary , and draws not the curtain till the day of death or judgment . 9. Add to this , that our very repentances have many allays and imperfections , and so hath our pardon . And every one that sins hath so displeased God , that he is become the subject of the Divine anger . Death is the wages ; what death God please , and therefore what evil soever God will inflict , or his mortality can suffer : and he that knows this , hath cause to fear , and he that fears hath cause to be grieved that he is fallen from that state of divine favour in which he stood secured with the guards of Angels , and covered with Heaven it self as with a shield , in which he was beloved of God and heir of all his glories . 10. But they that describe repentance in short and obscure characters , and make repentance and pardon to be the children of a minute , and born and grown up quickly as a fly , or a mushrome , with the dew of a night , or the tears of a morning , making the labours of the one , and the want of the other to expire sooner than the pleasures of a transient sin , are so insensible of the sting of sin , that indeed upon their grounds it will be impossible to have a real godly sorrow . For though they have done evil , yet by this doctrine they feel none , and there is nothing remains as a cause of grief , unless they will be sorrowful for that they have been pleased formerly , and are now secured , nothing remains before them or behind , but the pleasure that they had and the present confidence and impunity : and that 's no good instrument of sorrow . Securitas delicti etiam libido est ejus . Sin takes occasion by the law it self , if there be no penalty annexed . 11. But the first in-let of a godly sorrow , which is the beginning of repentance , is upon the stock of their present danger and state of evil into which by their sin they are fallen , viz. when their guilt is manifest , they see that they are become sons of death , expos'd to the wrath of a provoked Deity whose anger will express it self when and how it please , and for ought the man knows it may be the greatest , and it may be intolerable : and though his danger is imminent and certain , yet his pardon is a great way off , it may be Yea , it may be No , it must be hop'd for , but it may be missed , for it is upon conditions , and they are , or will seem very hard . Sed ut valeas multa dolenda feres : So that in the summ of affairs , however that the greatest sinner and the smallest penitent , are very apt , and are taught by strange doctrines to flatter themselves into confidence and presumption , yet he will have reason to mourn and weep , when he shall consider that he is in so sad a condition , that because his life is uncertain , it is also uncertain whether or no he shall not be condemned to an eternal prison of flames : so that every sinner hath the same reason to be sorrowful , as he hath who from a great state of blessings and confidence , is fallen into great fears and great dangers , and a certain guilt and liableness of losing all he hath , and suffering all that is insufferable . They who state repentance otherwise , cannot make it reasonable that a penitent should shed a tear . And therefore it is no wonder , that we so easily observe a great dulness and indifferency , so many dry eyes and merry hearts , in persons that pretend repentance , it cannot more reasonably be attributed to any cause , than to those trifling and easie propositions of men , that destroy the causes of sorrow , by lessening and taking off the opinion of danger . But now that they are observed and reproved , I hope the evil will be lessened . But to proceed . 12. II. Having now stated the reasonableness and causes of penitential sorrow ; the next inquity is into the nature and constitution of that sorrow . For it is to be observed , that penitential sorrow is not seated in the affections directly , but in the understanding , and is rather Odium than Dolor , it is hatred of sin , and detestation of it , a nolition , a renouncing and disclaiming it , whose expression is a resolution never to sin , and a pursuance of that resolution , by abstaining from the occasions , by praying for the Divine aid , by using the proper remedies for its mortification . This is essential to repentance , and must be in every man in the highest kind . For he that does not hate sin so as rather to chuse to suffer any evil , than to do any , loves himself more than he loves God , because he fears to displease himself rather than to displease him , and therefore is not a true penitent . 13. But although this be not grief , or sorrow properly , but hatred , yet in hatred there is ever a sorrow , if we have done or suffered what we hate ; and whether it be sorrow or no , is but a speculation of Philosophy , but no ingredient of duty . It is that which will destroy sin , and bring us to God , and that is the purpose of repentance . 14. For it is remarkable that sorrow is indeed an excellent instrument of repentance , apt to set forward many of its ministeries , and without which men ordinarily will not leave their sins ; but if the thing be done , though wholly upon the discourses of reason , upon intuition of the danger , upon contemplation of the unworthiness of sin , or only upon the principle of hope , or fear , it matters not which is the beginning of repentance . For we find fear reckoned to be the beginning of wisdom , that is , of repentance , of wise and sober counsels , by Solomon . We find sorrow to be reckoned as the beginning of repentance by S. Paul ; Godly sorrow worketh repentance not to be repented of . So many ways as there are , by which God works repentance in those whom he will bring unto salvation , to all the kinds of these there are proper apportion'd passions : and as in all good things there is pleasure , so in all evil there is pain , some way or other : and therefore to love and hatred , or which is all one , to ●leasure and displeasure , all passions are reducible , as all colours are to black and white . So that though in all repentances there is not in every person felt that sharpness of sensitive compunction and sorrow that is usual in sad accidents of the world , yet if the sorrow be upon the intellectual account , though it be not much perceived by inward sharpnesses ▪ but chiefly by dereliction and leaving of the sin , it is that sorrow which is possible , and in our power , and that which is necessary to repentance . 15. For in all inquiries concerning penitential sorrow , if we will avoid scruple and vexatious fancies , we must be careful not to account of our sorrow by the measures of sense , but of religion . David grieved more for the sickness of his child , and the rebellion of his son , so far as appears in the story : and the Prophet Jeremy in behalf of the Jews , for the death of their glorious Prince Josiah , and S. Paula Romana at the death of her children , were more passionate and sensibly afflicted than for their sins against God ; that is , they felt more sensitive trouble in that than this , and yet their repentances were not to be reproved ; because our penitential sorrow is from another cause , and seated in other faculties , and fixed upon differing objects , and works in other manners , and hath a divers signification , and is fitted to other purposes , and therefore is wholly of another nature . It is a displeasure against sin which must be expressed by praying against it , and fighting against it ; but all other expressions are extrinsecal to it , and accidental , and are no parts of it , because they cannot be under a command , as all the parts and necessary actions of repentance are most certainly . 16. Indeed some persons can command their tears , so Gellia in the Epigram , Si quis adest , jussae prosiliunt lachrymae ; She could cry when company was there to observe her weeping for her Father : and so can some Orators , and many Hypocrites : and there are some that can suppress their tears by art , and resolution ; so Vlysses did when he saw his wife weep ; he pitied her , but Intra palpebras ceu cornu immota tenebat Lumina , vel ferrum , lachrymas astúque premebat , he kept his tears within his eye-lids , as if they had been in a phial , which he could pour forth or keep shut at his pleasure . But although some can do this at pleasure , yet all cannot . And therefore S. John Climacus speaks of certain penitents , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , who because they could not weep , expressed their Repentance by beating their breasts : and yet if all men could weep when they list , yet they may weep and not be sorrowful ; and though they can command tears , yet sorrow is no more to be commanded than hunger , and therefore is not a part or necessary duty of Repentance , when sorrow is taken for a sensitive trouble . 17. But yet there is something of this also to be added to our duty . If our constitution be such as to be apt to weep , and sensitively troubled upon other intellectual apprehensions of differing objects , unless also they find the same effect in their Repentances , there will be some cause to suspect , that their hatred of sin , and value of obedience , and its rewards , are not so great as they ought to be . The Masters of spiritual life give this rule : Sciat se culpabiliter durum , qui deflet damna temporis vel mortem amici , dolorem verò pro peccatis lachrymis non ostendit . He that weeps for temporal losses , and does not in the same manner express his sorrow for his sins , is culpably obdurate : which proposition though piously intended is not true . For tears are emanations of a sensitive trouble or motion of the heart , and not properly subject to the understanding ; and therefore a man may innocently weep for the death of his friend , and yet shed no tears when he hath told a lie , and still be in that state of sorrow and displeasure , that he had rather die himself than chuse to tell another lie . Therefore the rule only hath some proportions of probability , in the effect of several intellectual apprehensions . As he that is apt to weep when he hath done an unhansome action to his friend , who yet will never punish him ; and is not apt to express his sorrow in the same manner , when he hath offended God : I say , he may suspect his sorrow not to be so great or so real , but yet abstractedly from this circumstance , to weep or not to weep is nothing to the duty of Repentance , save only that it is that ordinary sign by which some men express some sort of sorrow . And therefore I understand not the meaning of that prayer of S. Austin , Domine dagratiam lachrymarum ; Lord give me the grace of tears ; for tears are no duty , and the greatest sorrow oftentimes is the driest ; and excepting that there is some sweetness and ease in shedding tears , and that they accompany a soft and a contemplative person , an easie and a good nature , and such as is apt for religious impressions , I know no use of them , but to signifie in an apt and a disposed nature what kind of apprehensions and trouble there is within . For weeping upon the presence of secular troubles , is more ready and easie , because it is an effect symbolical , and of the same nature with its proper cause . But when there is a spiritual cause , although its proper effect may be greater and more effective of better purposes ; yet unless by the intermixture of some material and natural cause , it be more apportion'd to a material and natural product , it is not to be charged with it , or expected from it . Sin is a spiritual evil , and tears is the sign of a natural or physical sorrow . Smart , and sickness , and labour , are natural or physical evils ; and hatred and nolition is a spiritual or intellectual effect . Now as every labour and every smart is not to be hated or rejected , but sometimes chosen by the understanding , when it is mingled with a good that pleases the understanding , and is eligible upon the accounts of reason : So neither can every sin which is the intellectual evil , be productive of tears or sensitive sorrow , unless it be mingled with something which the sense and affections , that is , which the lower man hates , and which will properly afflict him ; such as are , fear , or pain , or danger , or disgrace , or loss . The sensitive sorrow therefore which is usually seen in new penitents , is upon the account of those horrible apprehensions which are declared in holy Scriptures to be the consequent of sins ; but if we shall so preach Repentance , as to warrant a freedom and a perfect escape instantly from all significations of the wrath of God , and all dangers for the future upon the past and present account . I know not upon what reckoning he that truly leaves his sin can be commanded to be sorrowful , and if he were commanded , how he can possibly obey . 18. But when repentance hath had its growth and progression , and is increased into a habit of piety , sorrow and sensitive trouble may come in upon another account ; for great and permanent changes of the mind , make great impressions upon the lower man. When we love an object intensely , our very body receives comfort in the presence of it : and there are friendly Spirits which have a natural kindness and cognation to each other , and refresh one another , passing from eye to eye , from friend to friend : and the Prophet David felt it in the matter of Religion ; My flesh and my heart rejoyce in the living Lord. For if a grief of mind is a consumption of the flesh , and a chearful spirit is a conservatory of health , it is certain that every great impression that is made upon the mind and dwells there , hath its effect upon the body , and the lower affections . And therefore all those excellent penitents who consider the baseness of sin , * their own danger though now past in some degrees , * the offence of God , * the secret counsels of his Mercy , * his various manners of dispensing them , * the fearful judgments which God unexpectedly sends upon some men , * the dangers of our own confidence , * the weakness of our Repentance , * the remains of our sin , * the aptnesses and combustible nature of our Concupiscence , * the presence of temptation , and the perils of relapsing , * the evil state of things which our former sins leave us in , * our difficulty in obeying , and our longings to return to Egypt , * and the fearful anger of God which will with greater fierceness descend if we chance to fall back : Those penitents ( I say ) who consider these things frequently and prudently , will find their whole man so wrought upon , that every faculty shall have an enmity against sin ; and therefore even the affections of the lower man must in their way contribute to its mortification , and that is by a real and effective sorrow . 19. But in this whole affair the whole matter of question will be in the manner of operation , or signification of the dislike . For the duty is done if the sin be accounted an enemy ; that is , whether the dislike be only in the intellectual and rational appetite , or also in the sensitive . For although men use so to speak and distinguish superior from inferior appetites ; yet it will be hard in nature to find any real distinct faculties , in which those passions are subjected , and from which they have emanation . The intellectual desire , and the sensual desire are both founded in the same faculty ; they are not distinguished by their subjects , but by their objects only : they are but several motions of the will to or from several objects . When a man desires that which is most reasonable , and perfective , or consonant to the understanding , that we call an intellectual , or rational appetite ; but if he desires a thing that will do him hurt in his soul , or to his best interest , and yet he desires it because it pleases him , this is fit to be called a sensitive appetite , because the object is sensitive , and it is chosen for a sensual reason . But it is rather appetitio than appetitus , that is , an act rather than a principle of action . The case is plainer , if we take two objects of several interests , both of which are proportion'd to the understanding . S. Anthony in the desart , and S. Bernard in the Pulpit were tempted by the spirit of pride : they resisted and overcame it , because pride was unreasonable and foolish as to themselves , and displeasing to God. If they had listned to the whispers of that spirit , it had been upon the accounts of pleasure , because pride is that deliciousness of spirit which entertains a vain man , making him to delight in his own images and reflexions ; and therefore is a work of the flesh , but yet plainly founded in the understanding . And therefore here it is plain , that when the flesh and the spirit fight , it is not a fight between two faculties of the soul , but a contest in the soul concerning the election of two objects . It is no otherwise in this than in every deliberation , when arguments from several interests contest each other . Every passion of the man is nothing else but a proper manner of being affected with an object , and consequently a tendency to or an aversion from it , that is , a willing or a nilling of it ; which willing and nilling when they produce several permanent impressions upon the mind and body , receive the names of divers passions : The object it self first striking the fancy or lower apprehensions by its proper energy , makes the first passion or tendency to the will , that is , the inclination or first concupiscence ; but when the will upon that impression is set on work , and chuses the sensual object , that makes the abiding passion , the quality . As if the object be displeasing , and yet not present , it effects fear or hatred ; if good and not present , it is called desire ; but all these diversifications are meerly natural effects ; as to be warm is before the fire , and cannot be in our choice directly and immediately . That which is the prime and proper action of the will , that only is subject to a command ; that is , to chuse or refuse the sin . The passion , that is , the proper effect or impress upon the fancy or body , that is , natural , and is determin'd to the particular by the mixture of something natural with the act of the will ; as if an apprehension of future evils be mingled with the refusing sin , that is , if it be the cause of it : then fear is the passion that is effected by it . If the feeling some evil be the cause of the nolition , then sorrow is the effect ; and fear also may produce sorrow . So that the passion , that is , the natural impress upon the man cannot be the effect of a Commandment , but the principle of that passion is , we are commanded to refuse sin , to eschew evil , that 's the word of the Scripture : but because we usually do feel the evils of sin , and we have reason to fear worse , and sorrow is the natural effect of such a feeling , and such a fear , therefore the Scripture calling us to repentance , that is , a new life , a dying unto sin , and a living unto righteousness , expresses it by sorrow , and mourning , and weeping ; but these are not the duty , but the expressions , or the instruments of that which is a duty . So that if any man who hates sin and leaves it , cannot yet find the sharpness of such a sorrow as he feels in other sad accidents , there can nothing be said to it , but that the duty it self is not clothed with those circumstances which are apt to produce that passion ; it is not an eschewing of sin upon considerations of a present or a feared trouble , but upon some other principle ; or that the consideration is not deep and pressing , or that the person is of an unapt disposition to those sensible effects . The Italian and his wife who by chance espied a Serpent under the shade of their Vines , were both equal haters of the little beast ; but the wise only cried out , and the man kill'd it , but with as great a regret and horror at the sight of it as his wife , though he did not so express it . But when a little after they espied a Lizard , and she cried again , he told her , That he perceiv'd her trouble was not always deriv'd from reasonable apprehensions , and that what could spring only from images of things and fancies of persons , was not considerable by a just value . This is the case of our sorrowing . Some express it by tears , some by penances and corporal inflictions , some by more effective and material mortifications of it : but he that kills it is the greatest enemy . But those persons who can be sorrowful and violently mov'd for a trifling interest , and upon the arrests of fancy , if they find these easie meltings and sensitive afflictions upon the accounts of their sins , are not to please themselves at all , unless when they have cried out , they also kill the Serpent . 20. I cannot therefore at all suspect that mans repentance who hates sin , and chuses righteousness and walks in it , though he do not weep , or feel the troubles of a mother mourning over the hearse of her only son ; but yet such a sensitive grief is of great use to these purposes . I. If it do not proceed from the present sense of the Divine judgment , yet it supplies that , and feels an evil from its own apprehension , which is not yet felt from the Divine infliction . II. It prevents Gods anger , by being a punishment of our selves , a condemnation of the sinner , and a taking vengeance of our selves , for our having offended God. And therefore it is , consequently to this , agreed on all hands , that the greater the sorrow is , the less necessity there is of any outward affliction ; Vt possit lachrymis aequare labores . According to the old rule of the Penitentiaries . Sitque modus culpae justae moderatio poenae , Quae tanto levior quanto contritio major . Which general measure of repentances , as it is of use in the particular of which I am now discoursing , so it effects this perswasion , that external mortifications and austerities are not any part of original and essential duty , but significations of the inward repentance , unto men ; and suppletories of it before God ; that when we cannot feel the trouble of mind , we may at least hate sin upon another account , even upon the superinduc'd evils upon our bodies ; for all affliction is nothing but sorrow ; Gravis animi poena est , quem post factum poenitet , said Publius . To repent is a grievous punishment ; and the old man in the Comedy calls it so . Cur meam senectam hujus sollicito amentiâ Pro hujus ego ut peccatis supplicium sufferam ? Why do I grieve my old age for his madness , that I should suffer punishment for his sins ? grieving was his punishment . 3. This sensitive sorrow is very apt to extinguish sin , it being of a symbolical nature to the design of God , when he strikes a sinner for his amendment : it makes sin to be uneasie to him ; and not only to be displeasing to his spirit , but to his sense , and consequently that it hath no port to enter any more . 4. It is a great satisfaction to an inquisitive conscience , to whom it is not sufficient that he does repent , unless he be able to prove it by signs and proper indications . 21. The summ is this . No man can in any sence be said to be a true penitent , unless he wishes he had never done the sin . 2. But he that is told that his sin is presently pardon'd upon repentance , that is , upon leaving it , and asking forgiveness ; and that the former pleasure shall not now hurt him , he hath no reason to wish that he had never done it . 3. But to make it reasonable to wish that the sin had never been done , there must be the feeling or fear of some evil . Conscia mens ut cuique sua est , ita concipit intra Pectora pro meritis , spémque metúmque suis. 4. According as is the nature of that evil fear'd or felt , so is the passion effected , of hatred , or sorrow . 5. Whatever the passion be it must be totally exclusive of all affection to sin , and produce enmity and fighting against it until it be mortified . 6. In the whole progression of this mortification , it is more than probable that some degrees of sensitive trouble will come in at some angle or other . 7. Though the duty of penitential sorrow it self be completed in nolitione peccati , in the hating of sin , and our selves for doing it , yet the more penal that hate is , the more it ministers to many excellent purposes of repentance . 22. But because some persons do not feel this sensitive sorrow , they begin to suspect their repentance , and therefore they are taught to supply this want by a reflex act , that is , to be sorrowful because they are not sorrowful . This I must needs say is a fine device , where it can be made to signifie something that is material . But I fear it will not often . For how can a man be sorrowful for not being sorrowful ? For either he hath reason at first to be sorrowful , or he hath not . If he hath not , why should he be sorrowful for not doing an unreasonable act ? If he hath reason , and knows it , it is certain he will be as sorrowful as that cause so apprehended can effect : but he can be no more , and so much he cannot chuse but be . But if there be cause to be sorrowful and the man knows it not , then he cannot yet grieve for that ; for he knows no cause , and that is all one as if he had none . But if there be indeed a cause which he hath not considered , then let him be called upon to consider that , and then he will be directly , and truly sorrowful when he hath considered it ; and hath reason to be sorrowful because he had not considered it before , that is , because he had not repented sooner ; but to be sorrowful because he is not sorrowful , can have no other good meaning but this : We are to endeavour to be displeased at sin , and to use all the means we can to hate it , that is , when we find not any sensitive sorrow or pungency of spirit , let us contend to make our intellectual sorrow as great as we can . And if we perceive or suspect we have not true repentance , let us beg of God to give it ; and let us use the proper means of obtaining the grace ; and if we are uncertain concerning the actions of our own heart , let us supply them by prayer , and holy desires ; that if we cannot perceive the grace in the proper shape , and by its own symptoms and indications , we may be made in some measure , humbly confident by other images and reflexions ; by seeing the grace in another shape , so David , Concupivi desiderare justificationes tuas , I have desired to desire thy justifications ; that is , either I have prayed for that grace , or I have seen that I have that desire , not by a direct observation , but by some other signification . But it is certain , no man can be sorrowful for not being sorrowful , if he means the same kind and manner of sorrow ; as there cannot be two where there is not one , and there cannot be a reflex ray where there was not a direct . 23. But if there be such difficulty in the questions of our own sorrow , it were very well that even this part of repentance should be conducted as all the other ought , by the ministery of a spiritual man , that it may be better instructed , and prudently managed , and better discerned , and led on to its proper effects . But when it is so help'd forward , it is more than Contrition , it is Confession also ; of which I am yet to give in special accounts . SECT . III. Of the Natures and Difference of Attrition and Contrition . 24. ALL the passions of the irascible faculty are that sorrow in some sence or other which will produce repentance . Repentance cannot kill sin , but by withdrawing the will from it : and the will is not to be withdrawn , but by complying with the contrary affection to that which before did accompany it in evil . Now whatever that affection was , pleasure was the product , it was that which nurs'd or begot the sin : Now as this pleasure might proceed from hope , from possession , from sense from fancy , from desire , and all the passions of the concupiscible appetite ; so whe● there is a displeasure conceived , it will help to destroy sin , from what passion soever , of what faculty soever , that displeasure can be produced . 25. If the displeasure at sin proceeds from any passion of the irascible faculty , it is that which those Divines who understand the meaning of their own words of art commonly call Attrition , that is , A resolving against sin , the resolution proceeding from any principle that is troublesome and dolorous : and in what degree of good that is , appears in the stating of this Question , it is acceptable to God ; not an acceptable repentance , for it is not so much ; but it is a good beginning of it , an acceptable introduction to it , and must in its very nature suppose a sorrow , or displeasure , in which although according to the quality of the motives of attrition , or the disposition of the penitent , there is more or less sensitive trouble respectively , yet in all there must be so much sorrow or displeasure , as to cause a dereliction of the sin , or a resolution , at least , to leave it . 26. But there are some natures so ingenuous , and there are some periods of repentance so perfect , and some penitents have so far proceeded in the methods of holiness , and pardon , that they are fallen out with sin upon the stock of some principles proceeding from the concupiscible appetite ; such are Love and Hope ; and if these have for their object God , or the Divine promises , it is that noblest principle of repentance or holy life , which Divines call Contrition . For hope cannot be without love of that which is hoped for ; if therefore this hope have for its object , temporal purchases , it is o● may be a sufficient cause of leaving sin , according as the power and efficacy of the hope shall be ; but it will not be sufficient towards pardon , unless in its progression , it joyn with some better principle of a spiritual grace . Temporal Hope and temporal Fear may begin Gods work upon our spirits ; but till it be gone farther , we are not in the first step of an actual state of grace . But as attrition proceeds from the motives of those displeasing objects , which are threatned by God to be the evil consequents of sin , relating to eternity ; so Contrition proceeds from objects and motives of desire , which are promises and benefits , received already , or to be received hereafter . But these must also be more than temporal good things : for hopes and fear relating to things ( though promised or threatned in holy Scripture ) are not sufficient incentives of a holy and acceptable repentance , which because it is not a transient act , but a state of holiness , cannot be supported by a transitory and deficient cause , but must wholly rely upon expectation and love of things that are eternal and cannot pass away . Attrition begins with fear , Contrition hath hope and love in it . The first is a good beginning , but it is no more ; before a man can say he is pardoned , he must be gone beyond the first , and arrived at this . The reason is plain ; because although in the beginnings of Repentance there is a great fear , yet the causes of this fear wear away and lessen , according as the repentance goes on , and are quite extinguished , when the penitent hath mortified his sin , and hath received the spirit of adoption , the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the confidence of the sons of God ; but because repentance must be perfect , and must be perpetual during this life , it must also be maintained , and supported by something that is lasting , and will not wear off , and that is hope and love ; according to that of S. Austin , Poenitentiam certam non facit nisi odium peccati & amor Dei. Hatred of sin , and the love of God make repentance firm and sure ; nothing else can do it : but this is a work of time , but such a work that without it be done , our pardon is not perfect . 27. Now of this Contrition relying upon motives of pleasure and objects of amability , being the noblest principle of action , and made up of the love of God , and holy things , and holy expectations , the product is quite differing from that of Attrition , or the imperfect repentance ; for that commencing upon fear or displeasure , is only apt to produce a dereliction or quitting of our sin , and all the servile affections of frighted or displeased persons . But this would not effect an universal obedience ; which only can be effected by love and the affection of sons ; which is also the product of those objects , which are the incentives of the Divine love , and is called Contrition ; that is , a hatred against sin as being an enemy to God , and all our hopes of enjoying God , whom because this repenting man loves and delights in , he also hates whatsoever God hates , and is really griev'd , for ever having offended so good a God , and for having endangered his hopes of dwelling with him whom he so loves , and therefore now does the quite contrary . 28. Now this is not usually the beginning of repentance , but is a great progression in it ; and it contains in it obedience . He that is attrite leaves his sin ; but he that is contrite obeys God , and pursues the interests and acquists of vertue : so that Contrition is not only a sorrow for having offended God ; whom the penitent loves ; that is but one act or effect of Contrition ; but Contrition loves God and hates sin , it leaves this , and adheres to him , abstains from evil and does good ; dies to sin , and lives to righteousness , and is a state of pardon and acceptable services . 29. But then there is a sorrow also proper to it ; For as this grace comes from the noblest passions and apprehensions , so it does operate in the best manner , and to the noblest purposes . It hates sin upon higher contemplations , than he that hates it upon the stock of fear : he hates sin as being against God and Religion , and right reason , that is , he is gone farther from sin : He hates it for it self . Poenitet , ô si quid miserorum creditur ulli , Poenitet , & facto torqueor ipse meo . Cúmque sit exilium , magis est mihi culpa dolori ; Estque pati poenam quàm meruisse minus . That is , not only the evil effect to himself , but the irregularity and the displeasure to Almighty God are the incentives of his displeasure against sin ; and because in all these passions and affective motions of the mind , there is a sorrow under some shape or other , this sorrow or displeasure is that which is a very acceptable signification , and act of repentance , and yet it is not to be judged of by sense , but by reason , by the caution and enmity against sin : to which this also is to be added : 30. That if any man enquires , whether or no his hatred against sin proceed from the love of God or no ; that is , whether it be Attrition or Contrition ? he is only to observe whether he does endeavour heartily and constantly to please God by obedience ; for this is love that we keep his Commandments : and although sometimes we may tell concerning our love as well as concerning our fear ; yet when the direct principle is not so evident , our only way left to try , is by the event : That is Contrition which makes us to exterminate and mortifie sin , and endeavour to keep the Commandments of God. For that is sorrow proceeding from love . 31. And now it is no wonder if to Contrition pardon be so constantly annexed , in all the Discourses of Divines ; but unless Contrition be thus understood , and if a single act of something like it , be mistaken for the whole state of this grace , we shall be deceived by applying false promises to a real need , or true promises to an incompetent and uncapable state of things . But when it is thus meant , all the sorrows that can come from this principle are signs of life . His lachrymis vitam damus , & miserescimus ultró . No man can deny pardon to such penitents , nor cease to joy in such tears . 32. The summ of the present enquiry is this : Contrition is sometimes used for a part of repentance , sometimes taken for the whole duty . As it is a part , so it is that displeasure at sin , and hatred of it , which is commonly expressed in sorrow , but for ever in the leaving of it . It is sometimes begun with fear , sometimes with shame , and sometimes with kindness , with thankfulness and love ; but Love and Obedience are ever at the latter end of it , though it were not at the beginning : and till then it is called Attrition . But when it is taken for the whole duty it self , as it is always when it is effective of pardon , then the elements of it , or parts of the constitution are fides futuri saeculi & Judicii , fides in promissis & passionibus Christi , timor Divinae majestatis , amor misericordiae , dolor pro peccatis , spes veniae , petitio pro gratiâ . Faith in the promises , and sufferings of Christ , an assent to the Article of the day of Judgment , and the world to come ; with all the consequent perswasions and practices effected on the spirit , fear of the Divine Majesty , love of his mercy , grief for our sins , begging for grace , hope of pardon , and in this sence it is true , Cor contritum Deus non despiciet , God will never refuse to accept of a heart so contrite . SECT . IV. Of Confession . 33. THE modern Schoolmen make Contrition to include in it , a resolution to submit to the Keys of the Church ; that is , that Confession to a Priest is a part of Contrition , as Contrition is taken for a part of Repentance : for it is incomplete till the Church hath taken notice of it , but by submission to the Church Tribunal , it is made complete , and not only so , but that which was but Attrition , is now turned into Contrition , or perfect Repentance . In the examining of this , I shall , because it is reasonable so to do , change their manner of speaking , that the inquiry may be more material and intelligible . That Contrition does include in it a resolution to submit to the Church Tribunal , must either mean , that godly sorrow does in its nature include a desire of Confession to a Priest , and then the very word confutes the thing ; or else by Contrition they meaning so much of Repentance as is sufficient to pardon , mean also that to submit to the Keys , or to confess to a Priest is a necessary or integral part of that Repentance , and therefore of Contrition . Concerning the other part of their affirmative , that Attrition is by the Keys chang'd into Contrition ; this being turned into words fit for men to speak , such men ( I mean ) that would be understood , signifies plainly this : That the most imperfect Repentance towards God , is sufficient if it be brought before the Church ; that is , a little on the penitent mans part , and a little on the Priests part , is disposition enough to the receiving of a pardon : So that , provided you do all that the Church commands you , you may make the bolder to leave out something of Gods command , which otherwise you might not do . The Priest may do half the work for you . These thus represented , I shall consider apart . 34. I. Confession is an act of Repentance highly requisite to its perfection , and in that regard particularly called upon in holy Scripture . But concerning this , and all the other great exercises , actions or general significations of Repentance , every word singly is used indefinitely for the whole duty of Repentance . Thus Contrition is used by David ; A broken and a contrite heart , O God , thou shalt not despise ; that is , a penitent heart God will not reject . The same also is the usage of Confession by S. John ; If we confess our sins , he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins , and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness ; that is , if we repent , God hath promised us pardon and his holy Spirit , that he will justifie us , and that he will sanctifie us . And in pursuance of this , the Church called Ecclesiastical Repentance by the name of Exomologesis , which though it was a Greek word , yet both Greeks and Latines used it . Exomologesis est humiliandi hominis disciplina . So Tertullian . Confession is the discipline of humiliation for a man for his sins : and S. Ambrose calls Confession poenarum compendium , the summ or abbreviature of penance . And this word was sometimes chang'd , and called Satisfaction : which although the Latine Church in the later ages use only for corporal austerities , which by way of appropriation they are pleased also to call Penances , yet it was anciently used for the whole course and offices of Ecclesiastical Repentance ; as appears in the Council of (a) Paris , of (b) Agatho , and the (c) third Council of Toledo . The result and effect of this observation is , that no more be put upon one part or action of Repentance than upon another , to serve ends . For pardon of sins is promis'd to the penitent under single words ; under Contrition , under Sorrow , under Alms , under judging our selves , under Confession ; but no one of these alone is sufficient for pardon : and when pardon is promised to any one , they must mean the whole duty ; for when the whole effect is ascribed to a part , that part stands for the whole , and means more than a part . 35. II. But concerning Confession as it is a special act of Repentance , the first thing that is to be said of it , is , that it is due only to God ; for he is the person injured , sin is the prevarication of his laws , he is our Judge , and he only can pardon , as he only can punish eternally . Non tibi dico ut tua peccata tanquam in pompam in publicum proferas , neque ut te accuses , sed ut pareas Prophetae dicenti , Revela Domino viam tuam . Apud Deum ea confitere , apud Judicem confitere peccata tua , orans si non linguâ , saltem memoriâ , & ita roga ut tui misereatur . I do not enjoyn thee to betray thy self to the publick ear , bringing thy sins as into a Theatre , but obey the Prophet , saying , Reveal thy way unto the Lord. Confess to God , confess to thy Judge ; praying if not with thy tongue , yet at least with thy mind , and pray so that thou mayest be heard . So S. Chrysostome . And upon those words of S. Paul , Let a man examine himself , he saith , Non revelavit ulcus , non in commune Theatrum accusationem produxit , &c. He did not reveal his ulcer , he did not bring his accusation into the common Theatre ; he made none witness of his sins , but in his conscience , none standing by , God only excepted who sees all things . And again , upon that of the Psalm , My sin is always against me ; if thou art ashamed to speak it to any one , say them daily in thy mind : I do not say that thou confess them to thy fellow servant who may upbraid thee ; say them to God. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Let this judicatory be without assessors or witnesses , let God alone see thy confession . Quod si verecundiâ retrahente , revelare ea coram hominibus erubescis , illi quem latere non possunt confiteri ea jugi supplicatione non desinas , ac dicere , Iniquitatem meam agnosco , &c. qui & absque ullius verecundiae publicatione curare , & sine improperio peccata donare consuevit . So Cassian in the imitation of S. Ambrose * . If bashfulness call thee back , and thou art asham'd to reveal them before men , cease not by a continual supplication to confess them to him from whom they cannot be conceal'd , who without any pressing upon our modesty is wont to cure , and without upbraiding to forgive us our sins . And the Fathers of the Council of Cabaillon advanc'd this duty by divers sentences of Scripture ; — itae duntaxat ut & Deo qui remissor est peccatorum confite●●●●r peccata nostra , & cum David dicamus , Delictum meum cognitum tibi feci , & injustitiam meam non abscondi : Dixi , confitebor adversum me injustitias meas Domino , & tu remisisti impietatem peccati mei , &c. God is the pardoner of sins , and therefore let us confess to him , and say with David , I have made my sin known unto thee , and mine unrighteousness have I not hid ; I said , I will confess mine iniquity unto the Lord , and thou forgavest the wickedness of my sin . But this thing is press'd most earnestly by Laurentius Novarriensis , who because he was a Father of the Fifth Age , his words are of more use , by being a testimony that the Ecclesiastical repentance which we find to be now press'd by some as simply necessary , was not the doctrine of those times . " From that day in which thou goest out of the Font , thou becomest to thy self a continual Font , and a daily remission . There is no ( absolute ) necessity of the Priests right hand : from thence forward God hath appointed thee to be thy own judge , thy own arbiter , and hath given thee knowledge whereby of thy self thou mayest discern good and evil ; and because while thou remainest in the body , thou canst not be free from sin , God hath after baptism plac'd thy remedy within thy self ; he hath plac'd pardon within thy own choice , so that thou art not in the day of thy necessity ( indispensably ) tied to seek a Priest ; but thou thy self as if thou wert a most skilful Doctor and Master , mayest amend thy error within thee , and wash away thy sin by repentance . The fountain is never dry , the water is within thee , absolution is in thy choice , sanctification is in thy diligence , pardon is within the dew of thine own tears . Do not thou therefore look neither for John nor Jordan , be thou thy own baptist , viz. in the baptism of repentance . Thou art defiled after thou art washed , thy bowels are defiled , thy soul is polluted ; plunge thy self in the waters of repentance , cleanse thy self by abundance of tears , let compunction be plentifully in thy bowels , — and the Lord himself shall baptize thee with the Holy Ghost and with fire , and shall heap the fruits of repentance , and lay them up like wheat , but the chaff of thy sins he shall burn with unquenchable fire . Many testimonies out of Antiquity to the same purpose are to be seen ready collected by Gratian under the title De poenitentiâ . 36. Now if any one shall inquire to what purpose it is that we should confess our sins to God who already knows them all , especially since to do so can be no part of mortification to the mans spirit : For if I steal in the presence of my brother , afterwards to tell him who saw me , that I did that which he saw me do , is no confusion of face . That which will be an answer to this , and make it appear necessary to confess to God , will also make it appear , not to be necessary to confess to men , in respect , I say , of any absolute necessity of the thing , or essential obligation of the person . I answer , that Confession of sins as it is simply taken for enumeration of the actions and kinds of sin , can signifie nothing as to God , for the reasons now mention'd in the inquiry . But when we are commanded to confess our sins , it is nothing else but another expression or word for the Commandment of Repentance . For , Confess your sins , means , acknowledge that you have done amiss , that you were in the wrong way , that you were a miserable person , wandring out of the paths of God , and the methods of Heaven and happiness , that you ought not to have done so , that you have sinn'd against God , and broken his holy laws , and therefore are liable and expos'd to all that wrath of God which he will inflict upon you , or which he threatned . Confession of sins , is a justification of God , and a sentencing of our selves . This is not only certain in the nature of the thing it self ; but apparent also in the words of David ; Against thee only have I done this evil ; ut tu justificeris , that thou mightest be justified in thy saying , and clear when thou art judged . That is , if I be a sinner , then art thou righteous and just in all the evils thou inflictest . So that Confession of sins is like Confession of faith , nothing but a signification of our conviction ; it is a publication of our dislike of sin , and a submission to the law of God , and a deprecation of the consequent evils . Confessio erroris , professio est desinendi , said S. Hilary : A confession of our sin , is a profession that we will leave it ; and again , Confessio peccati ea est , ut id quod à te gestum est per confessionem peccati confitearis esse peccatum . That is confession of sins , not that we enumerate the particulars , and tell the matter of fact to him that remembers them better than we can , but it is a condemning of the sin it self , an acknowledging that we have done foolishly , a bringing it forth to be crucified and killed . This is apparent also in the case of Achan , who was sufficiently convict of the matter of fact by the Divine disposing of lots , which was one of the ways by which God answered the secret inquiries of the Jews ; but when he was brought forth to punishment , Joshua said unto him , My son , give I pray thee , glory to the Lord God of Israel , and make confession unto him ; that is , acknowledge the answer of God to be true , and his judgment upon us not to be causless . To this answers that part of Achans reply ; Indeed I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel . There God was justified , and the glory was given to him , that is , the glory of his Truth and his Justice ; but then Joshua adds , and tell me now what thou hast done ; hide it not from me . Here it was fit he should make a particular enumeration of the fact ; and so he did to Joshua , saying , Thus and thus have I done . For to confess to man , is another thing than to confess to God. Men need to be informed , God needs it not ; but God is to be justified and glorified in the sentence and condemnation of the sin or the sinner : and in order to it , we must confess our sin , that is , condemn it , confess it to be a sin , and our selves guilty , and standing at Gods mercy . S. Chrysostom upon those words of S. Paul , If we would judge our selves , we should not be judged , hath these words , He saith not , if we would chastise our selves , if we would punish our selves , but only , if we would acknowledge our sins , if we would condemn our selves , if we would give sentence against our sins , we should be freed from that punishment which is due both here and there . For he that hath condemned himself , appeases God upon a double account , both because he hath acknowledged the sins past , and is more careful for the future . To this confession of sins is opposed , the denying our sin , our hiding it from God as Adam did , that is , either by proceeding in it , or by not considering it , or by excusing it , or by justifying it , or by glorying in it : all these are high provocations of Gods anger ; but this anger is taken off by confession . Praeveniamus faciem ejus in confessione , said the Psalmist : Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving ; so we read it ; Let us prevent his anger , or , Let us go before his face with confession , so the old Latin Bibles : which is a doing as the Prodigal did , I will go unto my Father , and say unto him , Father I have sinned against Heaven and against thee : and this is the first act of exterior repentance ; but it is of that repentance that is indispensably necessary to salvation ; this is Repentance towards God , which the Apostles preach'd in the first publication of Christianity . 38. But then besides this , there is a Repentance towards men , and a Confession in order to it . If I have sinn'd against my brother , I must ask his pardon and confess my error , that is , I must repent or confess to him ; for he that is the injur'd person hath a right over me ; I am his debtor , and oblig'd ; and he can forgive me if he please , and he may chuse : that is , I must pay him the debt I owe him , unless he will be pleased to remit it . For God in his infinite wisdom and goodness , and justice hath taken care to secure every mans interest ; and he that takes any thing from me , is bound by Gods law to restore it , and to restore me to that state of good things from whence he forc'd me . Now because for the injury which I have already suffered , he cannot make me equal amends , because whatever he does to me for the future , still it is true that I did suffer evil from him formerly ; therefore it is necessary that I do what I can to the reparation of that ; but because what is done and past cannot be undone , I must make it up as well as I can ; that is , I must confess my sin , and be sorry for it , and submit to the judgment of the offended party , and he is bound to forgive me the sin ; and I am bound to make just and prudent amends according to my power ; for here every one is bound to do his share . If the offending person hath done his part of duty , the offended must do his , that is , he must forgive him that wrong'd him ; if he will not , God will untie the penitent man , and with the same chain fast bind him that is uncharitable . 39. But my brother may be hurt by me , though I have taken nothing from him , nor intended him injury . He may be scandalized by my sin , that is , tempted to sin , incouraged in his vileness , or discontented and made sorrowful for my unworthiness and transgression . In all these cases it is necessary that we repent to them also ; that is , that we make amends not only by confession to God , but to our brethren also . For when we acknowledge our folly , we affright them from it ; and by repentance we give them caution , that they may not descend into the same state of 〈◊〉 . And upon this account all publick criminals were tied to a publick Exo●ologesis or Repentance in the Church , who by confession of their sins , acknowledged their error , and entred into the state of repentance ; and by their being separate from the participation and communion of the mysteries , were declared unworthy of a communion with Christ , and a participation of his promises , till by repentance , and the fruits worthy of it , they were adjudged capable of Gods pardon . 40. At the first this was as the nature of the thing exacted it , in case of publick and notorious crimes , such which had done injury , and wrought publick scandal : and so far was necessary , that the Church should be repaired if she have been injured : if publick satisfaction be demanded , it must be done ; if private be required only , then that is sufficient ; though in case of notorious crimes it were very well , if the penitent would make his repentance as exemplary as Modesty , and his own and the publick circumstances can permit . 41. In pursuance of this in the Primitive Church , the Bishop and whom he deputed , did minister to these publick satisfactions and amends ; which custom of theirs admitted of variety and change according as new scandals or new necessities did arise . For though by the nature of the thing , they only could be necessarily and essentially obliged , who had done publick and notorious offences ; yet some observing the advantages of that way of repentance , the prayers of the Church , the tears of the Bishop , the compassion of the faithful , the joy of absolution and reconciliation , did come in voluntarily , and to do that by choice , which the notorious criminals were to do of necessity . Then the Priests which the penitents had chosen , did publish or enjoyn them to publish their sins in the face of the Church , but this grew intolerable , and was left off , because it grew to be a matter of accusation before the criminal Judge , and of upbraiding in private conversation , and of confidence to them that fought for occasion and hardness of heart and face , and therefore they appointed one only Priest to hear the cases , and receive the addresses of the penitents ; and he did publish the sins of them that came , only in general , and by the publication of their penances , and their separation from the mysteries ; and this also changed into the more private ; and by several steps of progression dwindled away into private repentance towards men , that is , confession to a Priest in private , and private satisfactions , or amends and fruits of repentance : and now , Auricular Confession is nothing else but the publick Exomologesis , or Repentance Ecclesiastical reduced to ashes ; it is the reliques of that excellent Discipline , which was in some cases necessary ( as I have declared ) and in very many cases useful , until by the dissolution of manners , and the extinction of charity it became unsufferable , and a bigger scandal than those which it did intend to remedy . The result is this . That to enumerate our sins before the Holy man that ministers in holy things , that is , Confession to a Priest is not virtually included in the duty of Contrition ; for it not being necessary by the nature of the thing , nor the Divine Commandment , is not necessary absolutely , and properly , in order to pardon ; and therefore is no part of Contrition , which without this may be a sufficient disposition towards pardon , unless by accident , as in the case of scandal , the criminal come to be obliged . Only this one advantage is to be made of their doctrine who speak otherwise in this Article . The Divines in the Council of Trent * affirm , That they that are contrite are reconciled to God before they receive the Sacrament of Penance , ( as they use to speak ) that is , before Priestly absolution . If then a man can be contrite before the Priest absolves him , as their saying supposes , and as it is certain they may , and if the desire of absolution be as they say included in Contrition , and consequently that nothing is wanting to obtain pardon to the penitent even before the Priest absolves him ; it follows that the Priests absolution following this perfect disposition , and this actual pardon , can effect nothing really ; the man is pardon'd before-hand , and therefore his absolution is only declarative . God pardons the man , and the Priest by his office is to tell him so , when he sees cause for it , and observes the conditions completed . Indeed if absolution by the Minister of the Church were necessary , then to desire it also would be necessary , and an act of duty and obedience ; but then if the desire ( in case it were necessary to desire it ) would make Contrition to be complete and perfect , and if perfect contrition does actually procure a pardon , then the Priestly absolution is only a solemn and legal publication of Gods pardon already actually past in the Court of Heaven . For an effect cannot proceed from causes which are not yet in being ; and therefore the pardon of the sins for which the penitent is contrite , cannot come from the Priests ministration which is not in some cases to be obtain'd , but desir'd only , and afterwards when it can be obtain'd , comes when the work is done . God it may be accepts the desire , but the Priests ministery afterwards is not , cannot be the cause , why God did accept of that desire ; because the desire is accepted , before the absolution is in being . 42. But now although this cannot be a necessary duty for the reasons before reckon'd , because the Priest is not the injur'd person , and therefore cannot have the power of giving pardon properly , and sufficiently , and effectively ; and confession is not an amends to him , and the duty it self of Confession is not an enumeration of particulars , but a condemnation of the sin , which is an humiliation before the offended party ; yet confession to a Priest , the minister of pardon and reconciliation , the Curate of souls , and the Guide of Consciences is of so great use and benefit to all that are heavy laden with their sins , that they who carelesly and causlesly neglect it , are neither lovers of the peace of consciences , nor are careful for the advantages of their souls . 43. For the publication of our sins to the minister of holy things , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said Basil , Is just like the manifestation of the diseases of our body to the Physician , for God hath appointed them as spiritual Physicians ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to heal sinners by the antidote of repentance , said the Fathers in the first Roman Council under Simplicius . Their office is to comfort the comfortless , to instruct the ignorant , to reduce the wanderers , to restore them that are overtaken in a fault , to reconcile the penitent , to strengthen the weak , and to incourage their labours , to advise remedies against sins , and to separate the vile from the precious , to drive scandals far from the Church , and as much as may be to secure the innocent lambs from the pollutions of the infected . Now in all these regards , the penitent may have advantages from the Ecclesiastical ministrations . There are many cases of conscience , which the penitent cannot determine , many necessities which he does not perceive , many duties which he omits , many abatements of duty which he ignorantly or presumptuously does make ; much partiality in the determination of his own interests ; and to build up a soul requires so much wisdom , so much severity , so many arts , such caution and observance , such variety of notices , great learning , great prudence , great piety ; that as all Ministers are not worthy of that charge , and secret imployment , and conduct of others in the more mysterious and difficult parts of Religion ; so it is certain , there are not many of the people that can worthily and sufficiently do it themselves : and therefore although we are not to tell a lie for a good end , and that it cannot be said that God hath by an express law required it , or that it is necessary in the nature of things ; yet to some persons it hath put on so many degrees of charity and prudence , and is so apt to minister to their superinduc'd needs ; that although to do it is not a necessary obedience , yet it is a necessary charity ; it is not necessary in respect of a positive express Commandment , yet it is in order to certain ends which cannot be so well provided for by any other instrument : it hath not in it an absolute , but it may have a relative and a superinduc'd necessity . Coelestique viro , quis te deceperit error , Dicito , pro culpâ ne scelus esse putet . Now here a particular enumeration is the confession that is proper to this ministery ; because the minister must be instructed first in the particulars ; which also points out to us the manner of his assistances , and of our obligation ; it is that we may receive helps by his office and abilities , which can be better applied , by how much more minute and particular the enumeration or confession is ; and of this circumstance there can be no other consideration : excepting that the enumeration of shames and follies before a holy man is a very great restraint to the gayeties of a confident , or of a tempted person : For though a man dares sin in the presence of God , yet he dares not let his friend or his enemy see him do a foul act : Tam facile & pronum est superos contemnere testes , Si mortalis idem nemo sciat — And therefore that a reverend man shall see his shame , and with a severe and a broad eye look and stare upon his dishonour , must needs be a great part of Gods restraining grace , and of great use to the mortification and prevention of sin . 44. One thing more there is which is highly considerable in this part or ministery of repentance ; It is a great part of that preparation which is necessary for him who needs , and for him who desires absolution Ecclesiastical . Some do need , and some do desire it ; and it is of advantage to both . They that need it , and are bound to seek it , are such , who being publickly noted by the Church , are bound by her Censures and Discipline : that is , such who because they have given evil example to all , and encouragement in evil to some , to them that are easie and apt to take ; are tied by the publication of their repentance , their open return , and publick amends to restore the Church so far as they can to that state of good things from whence their sin did or was apt to draw her . This indeed is necessary , and can in no regard be excused , if particular persons do not submit themselves to it , unless the Church her self will not demand it , or advise it ; and then if there be an error , or a possibility to have it otherwise , the Governours of the Church are only answerable . And in this sence are those decretory sayings , and earnest advices of the ancient Doctors to be understood . Laicus si peccet , ipse suum non potest auferre peccatum , sed indiget Sacerdote ut possit remissionem peccatorum accipere , said Origen . If any of the people sin , himself cannot take away his own sin , but must shew himself to the Priest , that he may obtain pardon . For they who are spotted with sins , unless they be cured with the Priestly authority , cannot be in the bosome of the Church , said Fabianus Martyr . And as express are those words of S. Basil ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It behoveth every one that is under authority , to keep ●o motion of their hearts secret , but to lay the secrets of their heart naked before them who are intrusted to take care of them that are weak or sick . That is , the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the publick penitents , who are placed in the station of the mourners , must not do their business imperfectly , but make a perfect narrative of their whole case to the penitentiary Minister : and such persons who are under discipline , or under notorious sins , must make their Exomologesis , that is , do Ecclesiastical repentance before them who are the Trustees and Stewards of the mysteries of God : Quâ sine nullus remissione potietur , said a Father to S. John de Gradibus : without which Exomologesis , or publick Ecclesiastical confession , or amends , no man shall obtain pardon : meaning , the peace of the Church . For to this sence we are to understand the doctrine of the holy Fathers , and we learn it from S. Austin . Rectè constituuntur ab iis qui Ecclesiae praesunt tempora poenitentiae , ut fiat etiam satis Ecclesiae , in quâ remittuntur ipsa peccata . Extra eam quippe non remittuntur . The times of penance are with great reason appointed by Ecclesiastical Governours , that the Church in whose communion sins are forgiven , may be satisfied . For out of her , there is no forgiveness . 45. For in this case the Church hath a power of binding , and retaining sins and sinners ; that is , a denying to them the priviledges of the faithful , till they by publick repentance and satisfaction have given testimony of their return to Gods favour and service . The Church may deny to pray publickly for some persons , and refuse to admit them into the society of those that do pray , and refuse till she is satisfied concerning them , by such signs and indications as she will appoint and chuse . For it appears in both Testaments , that those who are appointed to pray for others , to stand between God and the people , had it left in their choice sometimes , and sometimes were forbidden to pray for certain criminals . Thus God gave to the Prophet charge concerning Ephraim : Pray not thou for this people , neither lift up cry nor prayer for them , neither make intercession for them , for I will not hear thee . Like to this was that of S. John ; There is a sin unto death . I say not that ye pray for him that sins unto death ; that is , do not admit such persons to the communion of prayers and holy offices ; at least the Church may chuse whether she will or no. 46. The Church in her Government and Discipline had two ends , and her power was accordingly , apt to minister to these ends ; 1. By condemning and punishing the sin , she was to do what she could to save the criminal ; that is , by bringing him to repentance and a holy life , to bring him to pardon : 2. And if she could , or if she could not effect this , yet she was to remove the scandal , and secure the flock from infection ; This was all that was needful , this was all that was possible to be done . In order to the first , the Apostles had some powers extraordinary , which were indeed necessary at the beginning of the Religion , not only for this , but for other ministrations . The Apostles had power to bind sinners ; that is , to deliver them over to Satan , and to sad diseases , or death it self : and they had power to loose sinners , that is , to cure their diseases , to unloose Satans bands , to restore them to Gods favour and pardon . 47. This manner of speaking was used by our blessed Saviour in this very case of sickness and infirmity : Ought not this woman , a daughter of Abraham , whom Satan hath bound , loe these eighteen years , be loosed from this band on the Sabbath day ? The Apostles had this power of binding and loosing ; and that this is the power of remitting and retaining sins , appears without exception , in the words of our blessed Saviour to the Jews , who best understood the power of forgiving sins by seeing the evil which sin brought on the guilty person taken away . That ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins ; He saith to the man sick of the Palsie , Arise , take up thy bed and walk . For there is a power in Heaven , and a power on Earth to forgive sins . The power that is in Heaven , is the publick absolution of a sinner at the day of Judgment . The power on Earth to forgive sins , is a taking off those intermedial evils which are inflicted in the way ; sicknesses , temporal death , loss of the Divine grace , and of the priviledges of the faithful ; These Christ could take off when he was upon Earth , and his Heavenly Father sent him to do all this , to heal all sicknesses , and to cure all infirmities , and to take away our sins , and to preach glad tidings to the poor , and comfort to the afflicted , and rest to the weary and heavy laden . The other judgment is to be perform'd by Christ at his second coming . 48. Now as God the Father sent his Son , so his holy Son sent his Apostles , with the same power on Earth to bind and loose sinners , to pardon sins by taking away the material evil effects which sin should superinduce ; or to retain sinners by binding them in sad and hard bands to bring them to reason , or to make others afraid . Thus S. Peter sentenc'd Ananias and Saphira to a temporal death : and S. Paul stroke Elymas with blindness , and deliver'd over the incestuous Corinthian to be beaten by an evil spirit , and so also he did to Hymenaeus and Alexander . 49. But this was an extraordinary power , and not to descend upon the succeeding ages of the Church : but it was in this as in all other ministeries ; something miraculous and extraordinary was for ever to consign a lasting truth and ministery in ordinary . The preaching of the Gospel , that is , faith it self ▪ at first , was prov'd by miracles ; and the Holy Ghost was given by signs and wonders , and sins were pardon'd by the gifts of healing ; and sins were retained by the hands of an Angel , and the very visitation of the sick was blessed with sensible and strange recoveries ; and every thing was accompanied with a miracle , excepting the two Sacraments , in the administration of which we do not find any mention of any thing visibly miraculous in the records of holy Scripture ; and the reason is plain , because these two Sacraments were to be for ever the ordinary ministeries of those graces which at first were consign'd by signs and wonders extraordinary . For in all ages of the Church reckoning exclusively from the days of the Apostles , all the graces of the Gospel , all the promises of God were conveyed , or consign'd , or fully ministred by these Sacraments , and by nothing else , but what was in order to them . These were the inlets and doors by which all the faithful were admitted into the outer Courts of the Lords Temple , or into the secrets of the Kingdom ; and the solemnities themselves were the Keys of these doors ; and they that had the power of ministration of them , they had the power of the Keys . 50. These then being the whole Ecclesiastical power , and the summ of their ministrations , were to be dispensed according to the necessities and differing capacities of the sons and daughters of the Church . The Thessalonians who were not furnished with a competent number of Ecclesiastical Governours , were commanded to abstain from the company of the brethren that walk'd disorderly . S. John wrote to the Elect Lady , that she should not entertain in her house false Apostles : and when the former way did expire of it self , and by the change of things , and the second advice was not practicable and prudent , they were reduced to the only ordinary ministery of remitting and retaining sins , by a direct admitting , or refusing and deferring to admit criminals to their ministeries of pardon , which were now only left in the Church , as their ordinary power and ministration . For since in this world all our sins are pardon'd by those ways and instruments which God hath constituted in the Church ; and there are no other external rites appointed by Christ but the Sacraments , it follows , that as they are worthily communicated or justly denied , so the pardon is or is not ministred . And therefore when the Church did bind any sinner by the bands of Discipline , she did remove him from the mysteries , and sometimes enjoyn'd external or internal acts of repentance , to testifie and to exercise the grace , and so to dispose them to pardon ; and when the penitents had given such testimonies which the Church demanded , then they were absolved , that is , they were admitted to the mysteries . For in the Primitive records of the Church , there was no form of absolution judicial , nothing but giving them the holy Communion , admitting them to the peace of the Church , to the society and priviledges of the faithful . For this was giving them pardon , by vertue of those words of Christ , Whose sins ye remit , they are remitted ; that is , if ye who are the Stewards of my family , shall admit any one to the Kingdom of Christ on Earth , they shall be admitted to the participation of Christs Kingdom in Heaven ; and what ye bind here , shall be bound there ; that is , if they be unworthy to partake of Christ here , they shall be accounted unworthy to partake of Christ hereafter ; if they separate from Christs members , they also shall be separate from the head ; and this is the full sence of the power given by Christ to his Church concerning sins and sinners , called by S. Paul , The word of reconciliation . For as for the other later and superinduc'd Ministery of pardon in judicial forms of absolution ; that is wholly upon other accounts , of good use indeed , to all them that desire it by reason of their present perswasions and scruples , fears and jealousies concerning the event of things . For sometimes it happens what one said of old ; Mens nostra difficillimè sedatur ; Deus faciliús . God is sooner at peace with us , than we are at peace with our own minds ; and because our repentances are always imperfect ; and he who repents the most excellently , and hates his sin with the greatest detestation , may possibly by his sence of the foulness of his sin , undervalue his repentance , and suspect his sorrow , and because every thing is too little to deserve pardon , he may think it is too little to obtain it ; and the man may be melancholy , and melancholy is fearful , and fear is scrupulous , and scruples are not to be satisfied at home , and not very easily abroad , in the midst of these and many other disadvantages , it will be necessary that he whose office it is to separate the vile from the precious , and to judge of leprosie , should be made able to judge of the state of this mans repentance , and upon notice of particulars , to speak comfort to him or some thing for institution . For then if the Minister of holy things shall think fit to pronounce absolution , that is , to declare that he believes him to be a true penitent and in the state of grace , it must needs add much comfort to him and hope of pardon , not only upon the confidence of his wisdom and spiritual learning , but even from the prayers of the holy man , and the solemnity of his ministration ; To pronounce absolution in this case , is to warrant him so far as his case is warrantable : That is , to speak comfort to him that is in need : to give sentence in a case which is laid before him ; in which the party interested , either hath no skill , or no confidence , or no comfort . Now in this case to dispute whether the Priest , power be Judicial , or Optative , or Declarative , is so wholly to no purpose ; that this sentence is no part of any power at all ; but it is his office to do it , and is an effect of wisdom , not of power ; it is like the answering of a question , which indeed ought to be askt of him ; as every man prudently is to inquire in every matter of concernment , from him who is skill'd and experienced , and profest in the faculty . But the Priests proper power of absolving , that is , of pardoning ( which is in no case communicable to any man who is not consecrated to the Ministery ) is a giving the penitent the means of eternal pardon , the admitting him to the Sacraments of the Church , and the peace and communion of the faithful ; because that is the only way really to obtain pardon of God ; there being in ordinary no way to Heaven but by serving God in the way which he hath commanded us by his Son , that is , in the way of the Church , which is his body , whereof he is Prince and Head. The Priest is the Minister of holy things ; he does that by his Ministery , which God effects by real dispensation ; and as he gives the Spirit not by authority and proper efflux , but by assisting and dispensing those rites , and promoting those graces which are certain dispositions to the receiving of him : just so he gives pardon ; not as a King does it ; nor yet as a Messenger ; that is , not by way of authority and real donation ; nor yet only by declaration : but as a Physician gives health ; that is , he gives the remedy which God appoints ; and if he does so , and if God blesses the medicines , the person recovers , and God gives the health . 52. For it is certain that the holy man who ministers in repentance hath no other proper power of giving pardon than what is now described . Because he cannot pardon them who are not truly penitent , and if the sinner be , God will pardon him , whether the Priest does or no ; and what can be the effect of these things , but this ; that the Priest does only minister to the pardon , as he ministers to repentance ? He tells us upon what conditions God does pardon , and judges best when the conditions are performed , and sets forward those conditions by his proper ministery , and ministers to us the instruments of grace , but first takes accounts of our souls , and helps us who are otherwise too partial , to judge severe and righteous judgment concerning our eternal interest , and he judges for us , and does exhort or reprove , admonish or correct , comfort or humble , loose or bind . So the Minister of God is the Minister of reconciliation : that is , he is the Minister of the Gospel ; for that is the Word of Reconciliation which S. Paul affirms to be intrusted to him : in every office by which the holy man ministers to the Gospel , in every of them he is the Minister of pardon . 53. But concerning that which we call Absolution , that is , a pronouncing the person to be absolved ; it is certain that the forms of the present use , were not used for many ages of the Church : In the Greek Church they were never used ; and for the Latin Church in Thomas Aquinas his time they were so new that he put it into one of his Quaestiones disputatae , whether form were more fit , the Optative or the Judicial ; whether it were better to say ; [ God of his mercy pardon thee ] or [ by his authority committed to me , I absolve thee ] and in Peter Lombards days when it was esteemed an innocent doctrine to say that the Priests power was only declarative , it is likely the form of absolution would be according to the power believed ; which not being then universally believed to be Judicial , the Judicial form could not be of universal use ; and in the Pontifical there is no Judicial form at all ; but only Optative or by way of prayer . But in this affair , besides what is already mentioned ; I have two great things to say which are a sufficient determination of this whole Article . 54. I. The first is , that in the Primitive Church there was no such thing as a judicial absolution of sins used in any Liturgy , or Church , so far as can appear ; but all the absolution of penitents which is recorded , was the mere admitting them to the mysteries and society of the faithful in religious offices , the summ and perfection of which was the holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper . So the fourth Council of Carthage Can. 76. makes provision for a penitent that is near death ; reconcilietur per manus impositionem , & infundatur ori ejus Eucharistia : Let him be reconciled by the imposition of hands , and let the Eucharist be poured into his mouth : that was all the solemnity ; even when there was the greatest need of the Churches ministery ; that is , before their penances and satisfactions were completed . The Priest or Bishop laid his hands upon him , and prayed , and gave him the Communion . For that this was the whole purpose of imposition of hands , we are taught expresly by S. Austin , who being to prove that imposition of hands , viz. in repentance , might be repeated , though baptism might not ; uses this for an argument , Quid enim est aliud nisi oratio super hominem ? It is nothing else but a Prayer said over the man. And indeed this is evident and notorious in matter of fact ; for in the beginning and in the progression , in the several periods of publick repentance , and in the consummation of it , the Bishop or the Priest did very often impose hands , that is , pray over the penitent ; as appears in Is. Ling. from the authority of the Gallican Councils : Omni tempore jejuniis manus poenitentibus à Sacerdotibus imponantur : And again , Criminalia peccata multis jejuniis , & crebris manus sacerdotum impositionibus , eorúmque supplicationibus juxta Canonum statuta placuit purgari . Criminal , that is , great sins must according to the Canons be purged with much fasting and frequent impositions of the Priests hands , and their supplications . In every time or period of their fast , let the Priests hands be laid upon the penitents : that is , let the Priests frequently pray with him , and for him , or over him . The same with that which he also observes out of the Nicene Council ; Vultu & capite humiliato humilitèr & ex corde veniam postulent , & pro se orare exposcant : that 's the intent of imposition of hands ; let the penitent humbly ask pardon , that is , desire that the holy man and all the Church would pray for him : This in every stage or period of repentance was a degree of reconciliation : for as God pardons a sinner when he gives him time to repent ; he pardons him in one degree , that is , he hath taken off that anger which might justly and instantly crush him all in pieces ; and God pardons him yet more when he exhorts him to repentance , and yet more when he inclines him , and as he proceeds , so does God , but the pardon is not full , and final till the repentance is so too : So does the Minister of repentance and pardon : Those only are in the unpardoned state who are cut off from all entercourse in holy things , with holy persons , in holy offices ; when they are admitted to do repentance , they are admitted to the state of pardon ; and every time the Bishop , or Minister prays for him , he still sets him forwarder towards the final pardon ; but then the penitent is fully reconciled on Earth , when having done his repentance towards men , that is , by the commands of the Church , he is admitted to the holy Communion ; and if that be sincerely done on the penitents part , and this be maturely and prudently done on the Priests part ; as the repentance towards men was a repentance also towards God : so the absolution before men is a certain indication of absolution before God. But as to the main question ; Then the Church only did reconcile penitents when she admitted them to the Communion ; and therefore in the second Council of Carthage , absolution is called , reconciliari Divinis altaribus , a being reconciled to the Altar of God : and in the Council of Eliberis , Communione reconciliari , a being reconciled by receiving the Communion , opposite to which in the same Canon is , Communionem non accipiat ; he may not receive the Communion , that is , he shall not be absolved . The same is to be seen in the eighth Canon of the Council of Ancyra , in the second Canon of the Council of Laodicea , in the 85 Epistle of P. Leo ; and the first Epistle of P. Vigilius , and in the third Council of Toledo , we find the whole process of binding and loosing described in these words : Because we find that in certain Churches of Spain men do not according to the Canons , but unworthily repent them of their sins , that so often as they please to sin , so often they desire of the Priest to be reconciled : therefore for the restraining so execrable a presumption ; it is commanded by the holy Council that repentance should be given according to the form of the ancient Canons ; that is , that he who repents him of his doings , being first suspended from the Communion , he should amongst the other penitents often run to the imposition of hands , that is , to the Prayers of the Bishop and the Church : but when the time of his satisfaction is completed , according as the Priests prudence shall approve , let him restore him to the Communion . That 's the absolution , as the rejecting him from it was the binding him ; It was an excommunication ; from which when he was restored to the Communion , he was loosed : And this was so known , so universal a practice , and process of Ecclesiastical repentance , that without any alteration ( as to the main inquiry ) it continued so in the Church to very many ages succeeding , and it was for a long while together the custom of penitent people in the beginning of Lent to come voluntarily to receive injunctions of discipline and penitential offices from the Priest , and to abstain from the holy Communion till they had done their penances , and then by ceremonies and prayers to be restored to the Communion at Easter ; without any other form of Judicial absolution , as is to be seen in Albinus and in the Roman Pontifical . To which this consideration may be added ; That the reconciling of penitents in the Primitive Church , was not done by the Bishop or Priest only ; but sometimes by Deacons , as appears in Saint Cyprian ; and sometimes by the people , as it was allowed by S. Paul in the case of the incestuous Corinthian ; and was frequently permitted to the Confessori in the times of persecution ; and may be done by an unbaptized Catechumen , as S. Austin affirms . The result of which is , that this absolution of penitents in the Court Christian , was not an act of Priestly power incommunicably ; it was not a dispensation of the proper power of the Keys , but to give , or not to give the Communion ; that was an effect of the power of the Keys ; that was really , properly , and in effect , the Ecclesiastical absolution ; for that which the Deacons , or Confessors , the Laicks or Catechumens did , was all that , and only that which was of rite or ceremony before the giving the Communion : therefore that which was besides this giving the Communion was no proper absolution ; it was not a Priestly act indispensably ; it might be done by them that were no Priests : but the giving of the Communion , that was a sacerdotal act , I mean the consecration of it ; though the tradition of it , was sometimes by Deacons , sometimes by themselves at home : This therefore was the dispensation of the Keys ; this was the effect of the powers of binding and loosing , of remitting , or retaining sins , according as the sence and practice of the Church expounded her own power . The prayers of the Priest going before his ministration of the Communion were called absolution ; that is , the beginning , and one of the first portions of it : absolutio Sacerdotalium precum ; so it was called in ancient Councils ; the Priest imposed hands , and prayed ; and then gave the Communion . This was the ordinary way . But there was an extraordinary . 55. For in some cases the imposition of hands was omitted ; that is , when the Bishop or Priest was absent ; and the Deacon prayed , or the Confessor : but this was first by the leave of the Bishop or Priest , for to them it belong'd in ordinary . And 2. this was nothing else but a taking them from the station of the penitents and a placing them amongst the faithful communicants ; either by declaring that their penances were performed , or not to be exacted . 56. For by this we shall be clear of an objection which might arise from the case of dying penitents ; to whom the Communion was given , and they restored to the peace of the Church , that is , as they supposed , to Gods mercy and the pardon of sins ; for they would not chuse to give the Communion to such persons whom they did not believe God had pardoned : but these persons though communicated ; non tamen se credant absolutos sine manus impositione si supervixerint , were not to suppose themselves absolved if they recovered that sickness without imposition of hands ; said the Fathers of the Fourth Council of Carthage , by which it should seem , absolution was a thing distinct from giving the Communion . 57. To this I answer , that the dying penitent was fully absolved , in case he had receiv'd the first imposition of hands for repentance , that is , if in his health he submitted himself to penance , and publick amends , and was prevented from finishing the impositions , they supposed that desire and endeavour of the penitent man was a worthy disposition to the receiving the holy Communion , and both together sufficient for pardon , but because this was only to be in the case of such intervening necessity , and God will not accept of the will for the deed , but in such cases where the deed cannot be accomplished , therefore they bound such penitents to return to their first obligation in case they should recover , since God had taken off their necessity , and restored them to their first capacity . And by this we understand the meaning of the third Canon of the first Arausican Council . They who having received penance depart from the body , it pleases that they shall be communicated sine reconciliatoriâ manus impositione , without the reconciling imposition of hands ; that is , because the penitential imposition of hands was imposed upon them , and they did what they could , though the last imposition was not , though the last hand was not put upon them , declaring that they had done their penances , and completed their satisfactions , yet they might be communicated , that is , absolved ; Quod morientis sufficit consolationi , This is enough to the comfort of the dying man according to the definition of the Fathers who conveniently enough called such a Communion their Viaticum , their Passe-port or provision for their way . For there were two solemn impositions of hands in repentance ; The first and greatest was in the first admission of them and in the imposition of the Discipline or manner of performing penances : and this was the Bishops office ; and of great consideration amongst the holy Primitives ; and was never done but by the superior Clergy , as is evident in Ecclesiastical story . The second solemn imposition of hands was immediately before their absolution or Communion ; and it was a holy prayer and publication that he was accepted and had finished that processe : This was the less solemn , and was ordinarily done by the superior Clergy ; but sometimes by others , as I have remonstrated : other intermedial impositions there were , as appears by the Creber recursus mentioned in the third Council of Toledo above cited ; the penitents were often to beg the Bishops pardon , or the Priests prayers , and the advocations and intercessions of the faithful ; but the peace of the Church , that is , that pardon which she could minister , and which she had a promise that God would confirm in Heaven , was the Ministery of pardon in the dispensation of the Sacrament of that body that was broken , and that blood that was poured forth for the remission of our sins . 58. The result is ; That the absolution of sins which in the later forms and usages of the Church is introduced , can be nothing but declarative ; the office of the preacher and the guide of souls ; of great use to timorous persons , and to the greatest penitents , full of comfort , full of usefulness , and institution ; and therefore although this very declaration of pardon may truly and according to the style of Scripture be called pardon ; and the power and office of pronouncing the penitents pardon is in the sence of the Scripture and the Church , a good sence and signification of power ; as the Pharisees are said ●o justifie God , when they declare his justice ; and as the preacher that converts a sinner is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to save a soul from death ; yet if we would speak properly , and as things are in their own nature and institution , this declarative absolution is only an act of preaching , or opening and reading the Commission ; an effect of the Spirit of prudence and government entring upon the Church ; but the power of the Keys is another thing ; it is the dispensing all those rites and ministeries by which Heaven is opened ; and that is , the word and baptism at the first , and ever after the holy Sacrament of the Supper of the Lord , and all the parts of the Bishops and Priests advocation and intercession in holy prayers and offices . 59. But as for the declarative absolution , although it is rather an act of wisdom than of power , it being true as S. Hierome said , that as the Priests of the Law could only discern , and neither cause , nor remove leprosies : so the Ministers of the Gospel when they retain or remit sins , do but in the one judge how long we continue guilty , and in the other declare when we are clear and free ; yet this very declaration is of great use , and in many cases of great effect . For as God did in the case of David give to the Prophet Nathan a particular , special and extraordinary commission : so to the Ministers of the Gospel he gives one that is ordinary and perpetual . He had a prophetical evidence ; but these have a certainty of faith as to one of the propositions , and as to the other , some parts of humane experience to assure them 1. of Gods gracious pardon to the penitent , and 2. of the sincerity of their repentance : and therefore can with great effect minister to the comfort of sad and afflicted penitents : This does declare the pardon upon observation of the just grounds and dispositions ; but the dispensation of Ecclesiastical Sacraments does really minister to it , not only by consigning it ; but as instruments of the Divine appointment to convey proper mercies to worthily disposed persons . 60. II. But the other great thing which I was to say in this Article is this , That the judicial absolution of the Priest does effect no material event or change in the penitent as to the giving the pardon , and therefore cannot be it which Christ intended in the giving those excellent powers of remitting and retaining sins . Now upon this will the whole issue depend . Does the Priest absolve him whom God condemns ? God is the supreme Judge , and though we may minister to his judgment , yet we cannot contradict it ; or can the Priest condemn him whom God absolves ? That also is impossible , He is near that justifieth me , who will contend with me ? and if God be with us , who can be against us ? Or will not God pardon , unless the Priest absolves us ? That may become a sad story : For he may be malicious , or ignorant , or interested , or covetous , and desirous to serve his own ends upon the ruine of my soul , and therefore God dispenses his mercies by more regular , just and equal measures than the accidental sentences of unknowing or imprudent men : If then the Priest ministers only to repentance , by saying , I absolve thee , what is it that he effects ? For since Gods pardon does not go by his measures ; his must go by Gods measures ; and the effect of that will be this , God works his own work in us ; and when his Minister observes the effects of the Divine grace , he can and ought to publish and declare to all the purposes of comfort and institution that the person is absolved ; that is , he is in the state of grace and Divine favour , in which if he perseveres he shall be saved . But all this while the work is supposed to be done before ; and if it be , the Priest hath nothing left for him to do , but to approve , to warrant and to publish . And the case in short is this . 61. Either the sinner hath repented worthily , or he hath not . If he hath , then God hath pardoned him already , by vertue of all the promises Evangelical . If he hath not repented worthily , the Priest cannot , ought not to absolve him ; and therefore can by this absolution effect no new thing . The work is done before the Priestly absolution , and therefore cannot depend upon it . Against this , no Sect of men opposes any thing that I know of , excepting only the Roman Doctors ; who yet confess the argument of value , if the penitent be contrite . But they add this , that there is an imperfect Contrition , which by a distinct word they call Attrition , which is a natural grief , or a grief proceeding wholly from fear or smart , and hath in it nothing of love ; and this they say does not justifie the man , nor pardon the sin of it self . But if this man come to the Priest , and confess and be absolv'd , that absolution makes this attrition to become contrition , or which is all one , it pardons the mans sins ; and though this imperfect penitent cannot hope for pardon upon the confidence of that indisposition , yet by the Sacrament of Penance , or Priestly absolution he may hope it , and shall not be deceived . 62. Indeed if this were true , it were a great advantage to some persons who need it mightily . But they are the worst sort of penitents , and such which though they have been very bad , yet now resolve not to be very good , if they can any other way escape it ; and by this means the Priests power is highly advanc'd , and to submit to it , would be highly necessary to most men , and safest to all . But if this be not true , then to hope it , is a false confidence , and of danger to the event of souls ; it is a nurse of carelesness , and gives boldness to imperfect penitents , and makes them to slacken their own piety , because they look for security upon confidence of that which will be had without trouble , or mortification ; even the Priests absolution . This therefore I am to examine , as being of very great concernment in the whole article of Repentance , and promised to be considered in the beginning of this Paragraph . SECT . V. Attrition , or the imperfect Repentance , though with Absolution , is not sufficient . 63. BY Attrition they mean the most imperfect Repentance ; that is , a sorrow proceeding from fear of Hell , a sorrow not mingled with the love of God : This sorrow newly begun ( they say ) is sufficient for pardon , if the sins be confest , and the party absolved by the Priest. This indeed is a short process , and very easie , but if it be not effectual and valid , the persons that rely upon it are miserably undone . Here therefore I consider , 64. I. Attrition being a word of the Schools , not of the Scripture , or of antiquity , means what they please to have it ; and although they differ in assigning its definition , yet it being the least and the worst part of repentance , every action of any man that can in any sence be said to repent upon consideration of any the most affrighting threatnings in the Gospel , cannot be denied to have attrition . Now such a person who being scar'd , comes to confess his sin , may still retain his affections to it ; for nothing but love to God can take away his love from evil , and if there be love in it , it is Contrition , not Attrition . From these premises it follows , that if the Priest can absolve him that is attrite , he may pardon him who hath affections to sin still remaining ; that is , one who fears Hell , but does not love God. If it be said that absolution changes fear into love , attrition into contrition , a Saul into a David , a Judas into a John , a Simon Magus into Simon Peter ; then the greatest conversions and miracles of change , may be wrought in an instant by an ordinary ministery ; and when Simon Magus was affrighted by S. Peter about the horror of his sin , and told that he was in the gall of bitterness , and thereupon desired the Apostle to pray for him , if S. Peter had but absolved him , which he certainly might upon that affright he put the Sorcerer in ; he had made him a Saint presently , and needed not to have spoken so uncertainly concerning him ; Pray , if peradventure the thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee . For without peradventure he might have made a quicker dispatch , and a surer work , by giving him absolution upon his present submission , and the desire of his prayers , and his visible apparent fear of being in the gall of bitterness , all which must needs be as much or more than the Roman Schools define Attrition to be . But , 65. II. The Priest pardons upon no other terms than those upon which God pardons ; for if he does , then he is not the minister of God , but the supreme lord , and must do it by his own measures , if he does it not by the measures of God. For God does never pardon him that is only attrite ; and this is confessed , in that they require the man to go to the Priest , that he may be made contrite : which is all one , as if he were bidden to go to the Priest to be made chast , or liberal , temperate or humble in an instant . 66. III. And if it be said , that although God does not pardon him that is attrite , unless it be together with the Keys , that is , unless the Priest absolves him ; but then , it being all that God requires in that case , the Priest does no more than God warrants ; it is done by Gods measures ; the attrition or imperfect repentance of the penitent , and the Keys of the Church being all which God requires : this indeed if it could be proved were something , but there is no tittle of it in Scripture or Antiquity ; it being no where said , that attrition and absolution alone are sufficient , and is an unreasonable dream but of yesterday . 67. IV. For if attrition be good of it self , and a sufficient disposition to receive pardon from the Church , then it is also sufficient to obtain pardon of God without the Church , in case of necessity . For unless it be for him in case of necessity sufficient to desire absolution , then the outward act does more than the inward , and the ceremony were more than the grace , and the Priest could do more than God would ; for the Priest would and could pardon him , whom God would not pardon without the Priest ; and the will could not be accepted for the deed , when the deed were impossible to be done ; and God would require of us more than we have , more than he hath given us ; and a man should live or die not by himself , but should be judged by the actions of others . All which contain in them impossible affirmatives , and therefore proceed from a false principle . 68. V. But then if Attrition in some cases without the Sacrament were good , it is as good to all intents and purposes of pardon , as Contrition ; for Contrition ( say the Roman Schools ) is not sufficient of it self without the Keys ; that is , unless it contain in it a resolution to confess and beg absolution . Now this resolution is no resolution , unless it be reduced to act when it can ; it is a mockery if it does not ; and it is to be excused in no case , but in that of necessity . And just so it is in attrition , as I have proved . In vain therefore it is for any good man to perswade his penitent to heighten his repentance , and to be contrite ; for he may at a cheaper rate be assured of his pardon , if he makes the Priest his friend : but as for Contrition , by this doctrine , it is more than needs . 69. VI. But then it is strange , that Attrition which of it self is insufficient , shall yet do the work of pardon with the Priests absolution ; and yet that that which is sufficient ( as Contrition is affirmed to be in the Council of Trent ) shall not do it without absolution , in act or desire ; that is in act always , unless it be impossible : This incourages the imperfect , and discourages the perfect , tying them both to equal laws , whether they need it , or need it not . 70. VII . But I demand ; Can the Priest hearing of a penitent mans confession , whom he justly and without error perceives only to be attrite , can he ( I say ) refuse to absolve him , can he retain his sins , till he perceives him to be contrite ? certainly in the Primitive Church when they deferr'd to give him the peace of the Church for three , for seven , for ten , for thirteen years together , their purpose then was to work in him contrition , or the most excellent Repentance . But however , if he can refuse to absolve such a man , then it is because absolution will not work for him what is defective in him ; it will not change it into contrition , for if it could , then to refuse to absolve him , were highly uncharitable and unreasonable . But if he cannot refuse to absolve such a person , it is because he is sufficiently disposed , he hath done all that God requires of him to dispose himself to it ; and if so , then the Sacrament ( as they call it ) that is , the Priests absolution does nothing to the increasing his disposition , it is sufficient already . Add to this , if in the case of attrition the Priest may not deny to absolve the imperfect penitent , then it is certain God will absolve him , in case the Priest does not ; for if the Priest be bound and refuses to do it , this ought not , it cannot prejudice the penitent , but himself only . He therefore shall not perish for want of the Priests absolution ; and if it could be otherwise , then the Parishioner might be damned for the Curates fault , which to affirm were certain blasphemy and heresie . What the Priest is bound to do , God will do , if the Priest will not . The result is this . That if this imperfect repentance , which they call attrition , be a sufficient disposition to absolution , then the Priests ministery is not operative for the making it sufficient ; and indeed it were strange it should , that absolution should make contrition , and yet contrition be necessary in order to absolution ; that the form should make the matter , that one essential or integral part should make another ; that what is to be before , must be made by that which comes after . But if this attrition be not a sufficient disposition to absolution , then the Priest may not absolve such imperfect penitents . So that the Priest cannot make it sufficient , if of it self it be insufficient ; and if it be of it self sufficient , then his absolution does but declare it so , it effects it not . 71. VIII . And after all , it is certain that the words of absolution effect no more than they signifie . If therefore they do pardon the sin , yet they do not naturally change the disposition or the real habit of the sinner . And if the words can effect more , they may be changed to signifie what they do effect ; for to signifie is less than to effect . Can therefore the Church use this form of absolution ? I do by the power committed unto me , change thy Attrition into Contrition . The answer to this is not yet made ; for their pretence is so new , and so wholly unexamined , that they have not yet considered any thing of it . It will therefore suffice for our institution in this useful , material and practical question , that no such words were instituted by Christ , nor any thing like them ; no such were used by the Primitive Church , no such power pretended . And as this new doctrine of the Roman Church contains in it huge estrangements , and distances from the spirit of Christianity , is another kind of thing than the doctrine and practice of the Apostolical and succeeding ages of the Church did publish or exercise : so it is a perfect destruction to the necessity of holy life , it is a device only to advance the Priests office , and to depress the necessity of holy dispositions ; it is a trick to make the graces of Gods holy Spirit to be bought and sold ; and that a man may at a price become holy in an instant , just as if a Teacher of Musick should undertake to convey skill to his Scholar , and fell the art and transmit it in an hour ; it is a device to make dispositions by art , and in effect requires little or nothing of duty to God , so they pay regard to the Priest. But I shall need to oppose no more against it , but those excellent words , and pious meditation of Salvian . Non levi agendum est contritione , ut debita illa redimantur quibus mors aeterna debetur , nec transitoriâ opus est satisfactione pro malis illis propter quae paratus est ignis aeternus . It is not a light contrition , by which those debts can be redeem'd to which eternal death is due ; neither can a transitory satisfaction serve for those evils , for which God hath prepared the vengeance of eternal fire . SECT . VI. Of Penances , or Satisfactions . 72. IN the Primitive Church , the word Satisfaction , was the whole word for all the parts and exercises of repentance ; according to those words of Lactantius , Poenitentiam proposuit , ut si peccata nostra confessi Deo satisfecerimus , veniam consequamur . He propounded repentance , that if we confessing our sins to God , make amends or satisfaction , we may obtain pardon . Where it is evident , that Satisfaction does not signifie in the modern sence of the word , a full payment to the Divine Justice ; but by the exercises of repentance a deprecation of our fault , and a begging pardon . Satisfaction and pardon are not consistent , if satisfaction signifie rigorously . When the whole debt is paid , there is nothing to be forgiven . The Bishops and Priests in the Primitive Church would never give pardon till their satisfactions were performed . To confess their sins , to be sorrowful for them , to express their sorrow , to punish the guilty person , to do actions contrary to their former sins , this was their amends or Satisfaction ; and this ought to be ours . So we find the word used in best Classick Authors . So Plautus brings in Alcmena angry with Amphitruo . — Quin ego illum aut deseram Aut satisfaciat mihi , atque adjuret insuper Nolle esse dicta , quae in me insontem protulit . i. e. I will leave him , unless he give me satisfaction , and swear that he wishes that to be unsaid , which he spake against my innocence : for that was the form of giving satisfaction , to wish it undone , or unspoken , and to add an oath that they believe the person did not deserve that wrong : as we find it in Terence Adelph . Ego vestra haec novi : nollem factum : jusjurandum dabitur , esse te indignum injuriâ hâc . Concerning which , who please to see more testimonies of the true sence and use of the word Satisfactions , may please to look upon Lambinus in Plauti Amphitr . and Laevinus Torrentius upon Suetonius in Julio . Exomologesis , or Confession was the word which ( as I noted formerly ) was of most frequent use in the Church . Si de exomologesi retractas , gehennam in corde considera quam tibi exomologesis extinguet . He that retracts his sins by confessing and condemning them , extinguishes the flames of Hell. So Tertullian . The same with that of S. Cyprian , Deo patri , & misericordi precibus & operibus suis satisfacere possunt . They may satisfie God our Father and merciful , by prayers and good works : that is , they may by these deprecate their fault , and obtain mercy and pardon for their sins : Peccatum suum satisfactione humili & simplici confitentes ; So Cyprian , confessing their sins with humble and simple satisfaction : plainly intimating , that Confession or Exomologesis was the same with that which they called Satisfaction . And both of them were nothing but the publick exercise of repentance ( according to the present usages of their Churches ) as appears evidently in those words of Gennadius ; Poenitentiae satisfactionem esse causas peccatorum exscindere , nec eorum suggestionibus aditum indulgere . To cut off the causes of sins , and no more to entertain their whispers and temptations , is the satisfaction of repentance : and like this is that of Lactantius , Potest reduci & liberari si eum poeniteat actorum , & ad meliora conversus satisfaciat Deo. The sinner may be brought back and freed , if he repents of what is done , and satisfies or makes amends to God by being turned to better courses . And the whole process of this is well described by Tertullian . Exomologesis est quâ delictum Domino nostrum confitemur , non quidem ut ignaro , sed quatenus satisfactio confessione disponitur , confessione poenitentia nascitur , penitentiâ Deus mitigatur : we must confess our sins to God , not as if he did not know them already , but because our satisfaction is dispos'd and order'd by confession ; by confession our repentance hath birth and production , and by repentance God is appeased . 73. Things being thus , we need not immerge our selves in the trifling controversies of our later Schools , about the just value of every work , and how much every penance weighs , and whether God is so satisfied with our penal works , that in justice he must take off so much as we put on , and is tied also to take our accounts . Certain it is , if God should weigh our sins with the same value as we weigh our own good works , all our actions and sufferings would be found infinitely too light in the balance . Therefore it were better that we should do what we can , and humbly beg of God to weigh them both with vast allowances of mercy . All that we can do , is to be sorrowful for our sins , and to leave them , and to endeavour to obey God in the time to follow ; and to take care , ut aliquo actu administretur poenitentia , that our repentance be exercised with certain acts proper to it . Of which these are usually reckoned as the principal . Sorrow and Mourning . 74. So S. Cyprian . Satisfactionibus & lamentationibus justis peccata redimuntur . Our sins are redeem'd or wash'd off by the satisfactions of just sorrow or mourning . And Pacianus gives the same advice , Behold , I promise that if you return to your Father by a true satisfaction , wandring no more , adding nothing to your former sins , and saying something humble and mournful [ We have sinn'd in thy sight , O Father , we are not worthy of the name of sons ] presently the unclean beast shall depart from thee , and thou shalt no longer be fed with the filthy nourishment of husks . And S. Maximus calls this mourning and weeping for our sins , moestam poenitentiae satisfactionem , the sorrowful amends or satisfaction of repentance . The meaning of this is ; That when we are grieved for our sins and deplore them , we hate them , and go from them , and convert to God who only can give us remedy . Corporal Afflictions . 75. Such as are , Fastings , watchings , hair-cloth upon our naked bodies , lyings upon the ground , journeys on foot , doing mean offices , serving sick and wounded persons , solitariness , silence , voluntary restraints of liberty , refusing lawful pleasure , chusing at certain times the less pleasing meats , laborious postures in prayer , saying many and devout prayers with our arms extended , in the fashion of Christ hanging on the Cross , which indeed is a painful and afflictive posture , but safe and without detriment to our body : add to these the austerities used by some of the Ancients in their Ascetick devotions , who sometimes rolled themselves naked upon Nettles , or Thorns , shut themselves in Tombs , bound themselves to Pillars , endured heats and colds in great extremity , chastisements of the body , and all ways of subduing it to the Empire of the Soul. Of which Antiquity is infinitely full ; and of which at last they grew so fond and enamoured , that the greatest part of their Religion was self-affliction ; but I chuse to propound only such prudent severities as were apt to signifie a godly sorrow , to destroy sin , and to deprecate Gods anger in such ways of which they had experience , or warrant express , or authentick precedents ; their Exomologesis being , as Tertullian describes it , a discipline of humbling and throwing a man down , conversationem injungens misericordiae illicem , enjoyning a life that will allure to pity : de ipso quoque habitu atque victu mandat , sacco & cineri incubare , corpus sordibus obscurare . Penitential sorrow expresses it self in the very clothes and gestures of the body ; that is , a great sorrow is apt to express it self in every thing , and infects every part of a man with its contact . Vt Alexandrum Regem videmus , qui cum interemisset Clytum familiarem suum , vix à se abstinuit manus : tanta vis fuit poenitendi . When Alexander had kill'd his friend Clytus , he scarce abstained from killing himself : so great is the effort and violence of repentance : and this is no other thing than what the Apostle said , If one member of the body is afflicted , all the rest suffer with it : and if the heart be troubled , he that is gay in any other part goes about to lessen his trouble , and that takes off , it does not promote repentance . 76. But the use of this is material ; It is a direct judging of our selves , and a perverting the wrath of God ; not that these penances are a payment for the reserve of the temporal guilt , remaining after the sin is pardoned . That 's but a dream , for the guilt and the punishment are not to be distinguished in any material event : so long as a man is liable to punishment , so long he is guilty : and so long he is unpardoned , as he is obnoxious to the Divine anger . God cannot , will not punish him that is innocent ; and he that is wholly pardoned , is in the place and state of a guiltless person . Indeed God punishes as he pleases , and pardons as he pleases , by parts , and as he is appeased , or as he inclines to mercy ; but our general measure is , As our repentance is , so is our pardon , and every action of repentance does something of help to us , and this of self-affliction , when it proceeds from a hearty detestation of sin , and indignation against our selves for having provoked God , is a very good exercise of repentance ; of it self it profits little , but as it is a fruit of repentance , in the vertue of it it is accepted towards its part of expiation , and they that have refused this , have felt worse ; Et qui non tulerat verbera , tela tulit . But when God sees us smite our selves in indignation for our sins , because we have no better way to express and act our repentances , God hath accepted it , and hath himself forborn to smite us , and we have reason to believe he will do so again . For these expressions extinguish the delicacies of the flesh , from whence our sins have too often had their spring : and when the offending party accuses himself first , and smites first , and calls for pardon , there is nothing left to the offended person to do , but to pity and pardon . For we see that sometimes God smites a sinner with a temporal curse , and brings the man to repentance , and pardons all the rest ; and therefore much rather will he do it , when we smite our selves . For this is the highest process of confession . God is pleased that we are ashamed of our sin , that we justifie God , and give sentence against our selves , that we accuse our selves and acknowledge our selves worthy of his severest wrath : If therefore we go on and punish the sinner too , it is all , it is the greatest thing we can do : and although it be not necessary in any one instance to be done , unless where the authority of our superior does intervene ; yet it is accepted in every instance , if the principle be good , that is , if it proceeds from our indignation against sin , and if it be not rested in as a thing of it self , and singly a service of God , which indeed he hath no where in particular required ; and lastly , if it be done prudently and temperately . If these cautions be observed in all things else , it is true that the most laborious repentance , if other things be answerable , is the best , for it takes off the softness of the flesh , and the tenderness of the lower man , it abates the love of the world , and enkindles the love of Heaven , it is ever the best token of sincerity and an humble repentance , and does promote it too , still in better degrees effecting what it doth signifie . As musick in a banquet of Wine , and caresses and indications of joy and festivity are seasonable and proper expressions at a solemnity of joy : so are all the sad accents and circumstances , and effects and instruments of sorrow proper in a day of mourning . All Nations weep not in the same manner , and have not the same interjections of sorrow : but as every one of us use to mourn in our greatest losses , and in the death of our dearest relatives , so it is fit we should mourn in the dangers and death of our souls ; that they may being refreshed by such salutary and medicinal showers spring up to life eternal . 77. In the several Ages of the Church they had several methods of these satisfactions ; and they requiring a longer proof of their repentance than we usually do , did also by consequent injoyn and expect greater and longer penitential severities : Concerning which these two things are certain . 78. The one is , that they did not believe them simply necessary to the procuring of pardon from God ; which appears in this , that they did absolve persons in the Article of death , though they had not done their satisfactions . They would absolve none that did not express his repentance some way or other ; but they did absolve them that could do no exterior penances , by which it is plain that they made a separation of that which was useful and profitable only from that which is necessary . 79. The other thing which I was to say is this . That though these corporal severities were not esteemed by them simply necessary , but such which might in any and in every instance be omitted in ordinary cases , and commuted for others more fit and useful ; yet they chose these austerities as the best signification of their repentance towards men , such in which there is the greatest likelihood of sincerity & a hearty sorrow , such which have in them the least objection , such in which a man hath the clearest power and the most frequent opportunity , such which every man can do , which have in them the least inlet to temptation , and the least powers to abuse a man ; and they are such which do not only signifie , but effect and promote repentance . But yet they are acts of repentance , just as beating the breasts , or smiting the thigh , or sighing , or tears , or tearing the hair , or refusing our meat , are acts of sorrow : if God should command us to be sorrowful , this might be done ( when it could be done at all ) though none of these were in the expression and signification . The Jews did in all great sorrows or trouble of mind rent their garments . As we may be as much troubled as they , though we do not tear our clothes , so we may be as true penitents as were the holy Primitives , though we do not use that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that hardship which was then the manner of their penitential solemnities . But then the repentance must be exercised by some other acts proper to the grace . Prayers . 80. Preces undique & undecunque lucrum , says one . Prayers are useful upon all occasions ; but especially in repentances and afflictive duties or accidents . Is any man afflicted ? let him pray , ( saith S. James ) and since nothing can deserve pardon , all the good works in the world done by Gods enemy , cannot reconcile him to God ; but pardon of sins is as much a gift , as eternal life is , there is no way more proper to obtain pardon , than a devout , humble , persevering prayer . And this also is a part of repentance . — poenaeque genus vidisse precantem , When we confess our sins , and when we pray for pardon , we concentre many acts of vertue together . There is the hatred of sin , and the shame for having committed it ; there is the justification of God , and the humiliation of our selves ; there is confession of sins , and hope of pardon ; there is fear and love , sense of our infirmity , and confidence of the Divine goodness , sorrow for the past , and holy purposes and desires and vows of living better in time to come . Unless all this be in it , the prayers are not worthy fruits of a holy repentance . But such prayers are a part of amends , it is a satisfaction to God in the true and modest sence of the word : So S. Cyprian affirms : speaking of the three children in the fiery Furnace , Domino satisfacere nec inter ipsa gloriosa virtutum suarum martyria destiterunt . They did not cease to satisfie the Lord in the very midst of their glorious martyrdoms . For so saith the Scripture . Stans Azarias precatus est , Azarias standing in the flames did pray , and made his exomologesis , or penitential confession to God with his two partners . Thus also Tertullian describes the manner of the Primitive repentance : Animum moeroribus dejicere , illa quae peccavit , tristi tractatione mutare , caeterum pastum & potum pura nosse , non ventris scil . sed animae causâ : plerumque verò jejuntis preces alere , ingemiscere , lachrymari , & mugire dies noctésque ad Dominum Deum suum : presbyteris advolvi & caris Dei adgeniculari : omnibus fratribus legationes deprecationis suae injungere , To have our minds cast down with sorrow , to change our sins into severity , to take meat and drink without art , simple and pure , viz. bread and water , not for the bellies sake , but for the soul ; to nourish our prayers most commonly with fasting , to sigh and cry , and roar to God 〈◊〉 Lord day and night ; to be prostrate before the Ministers and Priests , to kneel before all the servants of God , and to desire all the brethren to pray to God for them . Oportet orare impensiùs & rogare ; so S. Cyprian , we must pray and beg more earnestly , and as Pacianus adds according to the words of Tertullian before cited , multorum precibus adjuvare ; we must help our prayers with the assistance of others . Pray to God , said Simon Peter to Simon Magus , if peradventure the thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee : Pray for me , said Simon Magus to S. Peter , that the things which thou hast spoken may not happen to me . And in this case , the prayers of the Church , and of the holy men that minister to the Church as they are of great avail in themselves , so they were highly valued and earnestly desir'd and obtain●d by the penitents in the first Ages of the Church . Alms. 81. Alms and Fasting are the wings of prayer , and make it pierce the clouds ; That is , humility and charity are the best advantages and sanctification of our desires to God. This was the counsel of Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar ; Eleemosynis peccata tua redime ; redeem thy sins by Alms , so the Vulgar Latin reads it ; Not that money can be the price of a soul , for we are not redeemed with silver and gold , but that the charity of Alms is that which God delights in , and accepts as done to himself , and procures his pardon , according to the words of Solomon ; In veritate & misericordia expiatur iniquitas ; In truth and mercy iniquity is pardoned : that is , in the confession and Alms of a penitent there is pardon : for water will quench a flaming fire ; and Alms maketh an attonement for sin ; This is that love , which , as S. Peter expresses it , hideth a multitude of sins . Alms deliver from death , and shall purge away every sin . Those that exercise Alms and righteousness shall be filled with life , said old Tobias ; which truly explicates the method of this repentance . To give Alms for what is past , and to sin no more , but to work righteousness , is an excellent state and exercise of repentance ; For he that sins and gives Alms , spends his money upon sin , not upon God , and like a man in a Calenture drinks deep of the Vintage even when he bleeds for cure . 82. But this command and the affirmation of this effect of Alms we have best from our blessed Saviour . Give Alms , and all things are clean unto you : Repentance does 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it cleanses that which is within ; for to that purpose did our blessed Saviour speak that parable to the Pharisees of cleansing cups and platters . The parallel to it is here in S. Luke . Alms do also cleanse the inside of a man ; for it is an excellent act and exercise of repentance . Magna est misericordiae merces , cui Deus pollicetur se omnia peccata remissurum . Great is the reward of mercy , to which God hath promised that he will forgive all sins . To this of Alms is reduced all actions of piety , and a zealous kindness , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the labour of love , all studious endearing of others , and obliging them by kindness , a going about seeking to do good ; such which are called in Scripture , opera justitiae , the works of righteousness , that is , such works in which a righteous and good man loves to be exercised and imployed . But there is another instance of mercy besides Alms , which is exceeding proper to the exercise of Repentance , and that is , Forgiving Injuries . 83. Vt absolva●i● ignosce ; Pardon thy brother that God may pardon thee : Forgive , and thou shalt be forgiven : so says the Gospel , and this Christ did press with many words and arguments , because there is a great mercy and a great effect consequent to it , he put a great emphasis and earnestness of commandment upon it . And there is in it a grea● necessity ; for we all have need of pardon , and it is impudence to ask pardon , if we refuse to give pardon to them that ask it of us : and therefore the Apostles to whom Christ gave so large powers of forgiving or retaining sinners , were also qualified for such powers by having given them a deep sense and a lasting sorrow , and a perpetual repentance for and detestation of their sins ; their repentance lasting even after their sin was dead . Therefore S. Paul calls himself the chiefest or first of sinners ; and in the Epistle of S. Barnabas , the Apostle affirms , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , That Jesus chose for his own Apostles men more wicked than any wickedness , and by such humility and apprehensions of their own needs of mercy , they were made sensible of the needs of others , and fitted to a merciful and prudent dispensation of pardon . Restitution . 84. This is an act of repentance indispensably necessary ; integral part of it : if it be taken for a restitution of the simple , or orginal theft or debt : for it is an abstinence from evil , or a leaving off to commit a sin : The crime of theft being injurious by a continual efflux and emanation ; and therefore not repented of , till the progression of it be stopped . But then there is a restitution also , which is to be reckoned amongst the fruits of repentance , or penances and satisfactions . Such as was that of Zacheus , If I have wronged any man by false accusation , I restore him fourfold . In the law of Moses thieves convicted by law were tied to it ; but if a thief , or an injurious person did repent before his conviction , and made restitution of the wrong ; he was tied only to the payment of one fifth part above the principal , by way of amends for the injury ; and to do this , is an excellent fruit of repentance , and a part of self judicature , a judging our selves that we be not judged of the Lord : and if the injured person be satisfied with the simple restitution , then this fruit of repentance is to be gathered for the poor . 85. These are the fruits of repentance , which grow in Paradise , and will bring health to the Nations , for these are a just deletery to the state of sin , they oppose a good against an evil ; against every evil ; they make amends to our Brother exactly ; and to the Church competently , and to God acceptably , through his mercy in Jesus Christ. These are all we can do in relation to what is past ; some of them are parts of direct obedience , and consequently of return to God , and the others are parts , and exercises , and acts of turning from the sin . Now although , so we turn from sin , it matters not by what instruments so excellent a conversion is effected ; yet there must care be taken that in our return , there be 1 hatred of sin , and 2 love of God , and 3 love of our brother . The first is served by all or any penal duty internal or external : but sin must be confessed , and it must be left . The second is served by future obedience , by prayer , and by hope of pardon ; and the last by alms and forgiveness : and we have no liberty or choice but in the exercise of the penal or punitive part of repentance : but in that every man is left to himself , and hath no necessity upon him , unless where he hath first submitted to a spiritual guide ; or is noted publickly by the Church . But if our sorrow be so trifling , or our sins so slightly hated , or our flesh so tender , or our sensuality so unmortified , that we will endure nothing of exterior severity to mortifie our sin , or to punish it , to prevent Gods anger , or to allay it ; we may chance to feel the load of our sins in temporal judgments , and have cause to suspect the sincerity of our repentance , and consequently to fear the eternal . We feel the bitter smart of this rod and scourge [ of God ] because there is in us neither care to please him with our good deeds , nor to satisfie him , or make amends for our evil ; that is , we neither live innocently , nor penitently . Let the delicate , and the effeminate do their penances in scarlet , and Tyrian Purple and fine Linen , and faring deliciously every day ; but he that passionately desires pardon , and with sad apprehensions fears the event of his sins and Gods displeasure , will not refuse to suffer any thing that may procure a mercy , and endear Gods favour to him ; no man is a true penitent , but he that upon any terms is willing to accept his pardon . I end this with the words of S. Austin ; It suffices not to change our life from worse to better , unless we make amends , and do our satisfactions for what is past . That is , no man shall be pardon'd but he that turns from sin , and mortifies it , that confesses it humbly and forsakes it ; that accuses himself and justifies God ; that prays for pardon , and pardons his offending brother ; that will rather punish his flesh , than nurse his sin ; that judges himself , that he may be acquitted by God : so these things be done , let every man chuse his own instruments of mortification , and the instances and indications , of his penitential sorrow . SECT . VII . The former Doctrine reduc'd to Practice . 86. HE that will judge of his repentance by his sorrow , must not judge of his sorrow by his tears , or by any one manner of expression . For sorrow puts on divers shapes , according to the temper of the body , or the natural , or accidental affections of the mind , or to the present consideration of things . Wise men and women do not very often grieve in the same manner , or signifie the trouble of intellectual apprehensions by the same indications . But if sin does equally smart , it may be equally complain'd of in all persons whose natures are alike que●ulous , and complaining ; that is , when men are forc'd into repentance , they are very apprehensive of their present evils , and consequent dangers , and past follies ; but if they repent more wisely , and upon higher considerations than the affrights of women and weak persons , they will put on such affections , as are the proper effects of those apprehensions by which they were moved . But although this be true in the nature , and secret , and proportion'd causes of things , yet there is no such simplicity and purity of apprehensions in any person , or any instance whatsoever , but there is something of sense mingled with every tittle of reason , and the consideration of our selves mingle● with our apprehensions of God ; and when Philosophy does something , our interest does more ; and there are so few that leave their sins upon immaterial speculations , that even of them that pretend to do it , there is oftentimes no other reason inducing them to believe they do so , than because they do not know the secrets of their own hearts , and cannot discern their intentions : and therefore when there is not a material , sensible grief in penitents , there is too often a just cause of suspecting their repentances ; it does not always proceed from an innocent or a laudable cause , unless the penitent be indisposed in all accidents to such effects and impresses of passion . 87. II. He that cannot find any sensitive and pungent material grief for his sins , may suspect himself , because so doing , he may serve some good ends : but on no wise may we suspect another upon that account : for we may be judges of our selves , but not of others ; and although we know enough of our selves to suspect every thing of our selves , yet we do not know so much of others , but that there may ( for ought we know ) be enough to excuse or acquit them in their inquiries after the worthiness of their repentance . 88. III. He that inquires after his own repentance , and finds no sharpnesses of grief or active sensitive sorrow , is only so far to suspect his repentance , that he use all means to improve it ; which is to be done by a long , serious , and lasting conversation with arguments of sorrow , which like a continual dropping , will intenerate the spirit , and make it malleable to the first motives of repentance . No man repents but he that fears some evil to stand at the end of his evil course ; and whoever feareth , unless he be abused by some collateral false perswasion , will be troubled for putting himself into so evil a condition and state of things : and not to be moved with sad apprehensions , is nothing else but not to have considered , or to have promised to himself pardon upon easier conditions than God hath promised . Therefore let the penitent often meditate of the four last things , Death and the day of Judgment ; the portion of the godly , and the sad intolerable portion of accursed souls ; of the greatness and extension of the duty of repentance , and the intension of its acts , or the spirit and manner of its performance ; of the uncertainty of pardon in respect of his own secret , and sometimes undiscerned defects ; the sad evils that God hath inflicted sometimes even upon penitent persons ; the volatile nature of pleasure , and the shame of being a fool in the eyes of God and good men ; the unworthy usages of our selves , and evil returns to God for his great kindnesses ; let him consider that the last nights pleasure is not now at all , and how infinite a folly it is to die for that which hath no being ; that one of the greatest torments of Hell will be the very indignation at their own folly , for that foolish exchange which they have made ; and there is nothing to allay the misery , or to support the spirit of a man who shall so extremely suffer , for so very a nothing ; that it is an unspeakable horror , for a man eternally to be restless in the vexations of an everlasting fever , and that such a fever is as much short of the eternal anger of God , as a single sigh is of that fever ; that a man cannot think what eternity is , nor suffer with patience for one minute the pains which are provided for that eternity ; and to apply all this to himself , for ought every great sinner knows , this shall be in his lot ; and if he dies before his sin is pardon'd , he is too sure it shall be so : and whether his sin is pardon'd or no , few men ever know till they be dead ; but very many men presume , and they commonly , who have the least reason . He that often and long considers these things , will not have cause to complain of too merry a heart : But when men repent only in feasts , and company , and open house , and carelesness , and inconsideration , they will have cause to repent that he hath not repented . 89. IV. Every true penitential sorrow is rather natural than solemn ; that is , it is the product of our internal apprehensions , rather than outward order and command . He that repents only by solemnity , at a certain period , by the expectation of to morrows Sun , may indeed act a sorrow , but cannot be sure that he shall then be sorrowful . Other acts of repentance may be done in their proper period , by order , and command , upon set days , and indicted solemnities ; such as is , fasting , and prayer , and alms , and confession , and disciplines , and all the instances of humiliation : but sorrow is not to be reckoned in this account , unless it dwells there before . When there is a natural abiding sorrow for our sins , any publick day of humiliation can bring it forth , and put it into activity ; but when a sinner is gay and intemperately merry upon Shrove-Tuesday , and resolves to mourn upon Ash-Wednesday ; his sorrow hath in it more of the Theatre , than the Temple , and is not at all to be relied upon by him that resolves to take severe accounts of himself . 90. V. In taking accounts of our penitential sorrow , we must be careful that we do not compare it with secular sorrow , and the passions effected by natural or sad accidents . For he that measures the passions of the mind by disproportionate objects , may as well compare Musick and a Rose , and measure weights by the bushel , and think that every great man must have a great understanding , or that an Ox hath a great courage because he hath a great heart . He that finds fault with his repentance , because his sorrow is not so great in it , as in the saddest accidents of the world , should do well to make them equal if he can ; if he can , or if he cannot , his work is done . If he can , let it be done , and then the inquiry , and the scruple is at an end . If he cannot , let him not trouble himself ; for what cannot be done , God never requires of us to do . 91. VI. Let no man overvalue a single act of sorrow , and call it Repentance , or be at rest as soon as he hath wip'd his eyes . For to be sorrowful ( which is in the Commandment ) is something more than an act of sorrow ; it is a permanent effect , and must abide as long as its cause is in being ; not always actual and pungent , but habitual and ready , apt to pass into its symbolical expressions upon all just occasions , and it must always have this signification , viz. 92. VII . No man can be said ever truly to have griev'd for his sins , if he at any time after does remember them with pleasure . Such a man might indeed have had an act of sorrow , but he was not sorrowful , except only for that time ; but there was no permanent effect , by which he became an enemy to sin ; and when the act is past , the love to sin returns , at least in that degree , that the memory of it is pleasant . No man tells it as a merry story that he once broke his leg ; or laughs when he recounts the sad groans and intolerable sharpnesses of the stone . If there be pleasure in the telling it , there is still remaining too much kindness towards it , and then the sinner cannot justly pretend that ever he was a hearty enemy to it : for the great effect of that is to hate it● , to leave it , and to hate it . Indeed when the penitent inquires concerning himself , and looks after a sign that he may discern whether he be as he thinks he is , really a ha●er of sin ; the greatest and most infallible mark which we have to judge by , is , the leaving it utterly . But yet in this thing there is some difference . For , 93. Some do leave sin , but do not hate it ; They will not do it , but they wish it were lawful to do it ; and this , although it hath in it a great imperfection , yet it is not always directly criminal ; for it only supposes a love to the natural part of the action , and a hatred of the irregularity . The thing they love , but they hate the sin of it . But others are not so innocent in their leaving of sin ; They leave it , because they dare not do it , or are restrain'd by some over-ruling accident ; but like the heifers that drew the Ark , they went lowing after their Calves left in their s●●lls ; so do these , leave their heart behind , and if they still love the sin , their leaving it is but an imperfect and unacceptable service , a Sacrifice without a heart . Therefore sin must be hated too , that is , it must be left out of hatred to it ; and consequently must be used as naturally we do what we do really hate : that is , do evil to it , and always speak evil of it , and secretly have no kindness for it . 94. VIII . Let every penitent be careful that his sorrow be a cure to his soul , but no disease to his body : an enemy to his sin , but not to his health . — Exigit autem Interdum ille dolor , plus quàm lex ulla dolori Concessit — For although no sorrow is greater than our sin , yet some greatness of sorrow may destroy those powers of serving God , which ought to be preserved to all the purposes of charity and religion . This caution was not to be omitted , although very few will have use of it : because if any should be transported into a pertinacious sorrow , by great considerations of their sin , and that sorrow meet with an ill temper of body , apt to sorrow and afflictive thoughts , it would make Religion to be a burden , and all passions turn into sorrow , and the service of God to consist but of one duty , and would naturally tend to very evil consequents . For whoever upon the conditions of the Gospel can hope for pardon , he cannot maintain a too great actual sorrow long upon the stock of his sins . It will be allayed with hope , and change into new shapes , and be a sorrow in other faculties than where it first began , and to other purposes than those to which it did then minister . But if his sorrow be too great , it is because the man hath little or no hope . 95. IX . But if it happens that any man falls into an excessive sorrow , his cure must be attempted , not directly , but collaterally ; not by lessening the consideration of his sins , nor yet by comparing them with the greater sins of others ; like the grave man in the Satyr , Si nullum in terris tam detestabile factum Ostendis , taceo , nec pugnis caedere pectus Te veto , nec planâ faciem contundore palmâ : Quandoquidem accepto claudenda est janua damno . For this is but an instance of the other , this lessens the sin indirectly : but let it be done by heightning the consideration of the Divine mercy and clemency ; for even yet this will far exceed , and this is highly to be taken heed of . For besides that there is no need of taking off his opinion from the greatness of the sin ; it is dangerous to teach a man to despise a sin at any hand . For if after his great sorrow he can be brought to think his sin little , he will be the sooner brought to commit it again , and think it none at all : and when he shall think his sorrow to have been unreasonable , he will not so soon be brought to an excellent repentance another time . But the Prophets great comfort may safely be applied , Misericordia Dei praevalitura est super omnem malitiam hominis ; Gods mercy is greater than all the malice of men , and will prevail over it . But this is to be applied so as to cure only the wounds of a conscience that ought to be healed , that is , so as to advance the reputation and glories of the Divine mercy : but at no hand to create confidences in persons incompetent . If the man be worthy , and capable , and yet tempted to a prevailing and excessive sorrow ; to him , in this case , and so far the application is to be made . In other cases there is no need , but some danger . 96. X. Although sorrow for sin must be constant and habitual , yet to particular acts of sin , when a special sorrow is apportion'd , it cannot be expected to be of the same manner and continuance , as it ought to be in our general repentances for our many sins , and our evil habits . For every single solly of swearing rashly , or vainly , or falsly , there ought to be a particular sorrow , and a special deprecation ; but it may be another will intervene , and a third will steal in upon you , or you are surpriz'd in another instance ; or you are angry with your self for doing so , and that anger transports you to some undecent expression , and as a wave follows a wave , we shall find instances of folly croud in upon us . If we observe strictly we shall prevent some , but we shall observe too many to press us ; If we observe not , they will multiply without notice and without number . But in either case it will be impossible to attend to every one of them with a special lasting sorrow : and yet one act of sorrow is too little for any one chosen sin ( as I have proved formerly . ) In this case when we have prayed for pardon of each , confess'd it , acknowledged the folly of it , deprecated the punishment , suffe●'d the shame , and endur'd the sorrow , and begg'd for aids against it , and renewed our force ; it will fall into the heap of the state and generality of repentance ; that is , it will be added to the portentous number of follies , for which in general and indefinite comprehensions we must beg for pardon humbly and earnestly all the days of our life . And I have no caution to be added here , but this only : viz. That we be not too hasty to put it into the general heap , but according to the greatness , or the danger , or its mischief , or its approach towards a habit , so it is to be kept in fetters by it self alone . For he that quickly passes it into the general heap , either cares too little for it , or is too soon surpriz'd by a new one , which would not so easily have happened , if he had been more severe to the first . 97. XI . It is a great matter , that in our inquiries concerning our penitential sorrow , we be able to discern what is the present motive and incentive of it : whether fear or love , whether it be attrition or contrition . For by this we can tell best in what state or period of pardon we stand . I do not say , we are to enquire what motive began our sorrow : for fear begins most commonly ; but we are to regard what is the present inducement , what continues the hatred ; that is , whither our first fears have born us ? If fear only be the agent , at the best it is still imperfect ; and our pardon a great way off from being finished ; and our repentance , or state of reformation nothing promoted . But of these things I have in the former doctrine given accounts . To which I only add this , as being an advice or caution flowing from the former discourses . 98. XII . He that upon any pretence whatsoever puts off his repentances to the last or the worst of his days , hath just reason to suspect , that even when he doth repent , he hath not the grace of Contrition , that is , that he repents for fear , not for love : and that his affections to sin remains . The reason is , because ●hat proceeds from an intolerable and a violent cause , as repentance in sickness and danger of death , or in the day of our calamity does ; is of it self for the present defective in a main part , and cannot arrive at pardon , till the love of God be in it : so Christ said of Mary Magdalen ; Much hath been forgiven her , because she loved much ; but from a great fear to pass into love is a work of time , the effect of a long progression in repentance , and is not easie to be done in those straitnesses of time and grace , which is part of the evil portion of dying sinners . Therefore besides those many and great considerations which I have before represented ; upon this account alone repentance must not be put off to our death-bed , because our fear must pass into love , before our sins are taken off by pardon . — proponimus illic Ire , fatigatas ubi Daedalus exuit alas . We have a great way to go , a huge progression to make , a mighty work to be done , to which , time is as necessary as labour and observation ; and therefore we must not put it off till what begins in fear cannot pass into love , and therefore is too likely to end in sorrow ; their fears overtake such men ; it is too much to be feared , that what they fear will happen to them . 99. XIII . And after all , it is to be remembred , that sorrow for sins is not repentance , but a sign , an instrument of it , an inlet to it ; without which indeed , repentance cannot be supposed ; as manhood must suppose childhood ; perfect supposes that it was imperfect : but repentance is after sin , of the same extent of signification , and contains more duties and labour to the perfection of its parts , than Innocence . Repentance is like the Sun , which enlightens not only the tops of the Eastern hills , or warms the wall-fruits of Italy ; it makes the little Balsam-tree to weep precious tears with staring upon its beauties ; it produces rich spices in Arabia , and warms the cold Hermit in his grot , and calls the religious man from his dorter in all the parts of the world where holy religion dwells ; at the same time it digests the American gold , and melts the snows from the Riphaean mountains , because he darts his rays in every portion of the Air , and the smallest Atome that dances in the Air , is tied to a little thread of light , which by equal emanations fills all the capacities of every region : so is repentance ; it scatters its beams and holy influences ; it kills the lust of the eyes , and mortifies the pride of life ; it crucifies the desires of the flesh , and brings the understanding to the obedience of Jesus : the fear of it bids war against the sin , and the sorrow breaks the heart of it : the hope that is mingled with contrition , enkindles our desires to return ; and the love that is in it procures our pardon , and the confidence of that pardon does increase our love , and that love is obedience , and that obedience is sanctification , and that sanctification supposes the man to be justified before ; and he that is justified must be justified still ; and thus repentance is a holy life . But the little drops of a beginning sorrow , and the pert resolution to live better , never passing into act and habit ; the quick and rash vows of the newly returning man , and the confusion of face espied in the convicted sinner , if they proceed no further , are but like the sudden fires of the night , which glare for a while within a little continent of Air big enough to make a fire-ball , or the revolution of a minutes walk . These when they are alone , and do not actually , and with effect minister to the wise counsels and firm progressions of a holy life , are as far from procuring pardon , as they are from a life of piety and holiness . SECT . VIII . 100. XIV . IN the making Confession of our sins , let us be most careful to do it so , as may most glorifie God , and advance the reputation of his wisdom , his justice and his mercy . For if we consider it , in all Judicatories of the world , and in all the arts and violences of men which have been used to extort confessions , their purposes have been that justice should be done , that the publick wisdom and authority should not be dishonoured ; that publick criminals should not be defended or assisted by publick pity , or the voice of the people sharpned against the publick rods and axes , by supposing they have smitten the innocent . Confession of the crime prevents all these evils , and does well serve all these good ends . Gnossius haec Rhadamanthus habet durissima regna , Castigátque audítque dolos , subigítque fateri : So the Heathens did suppose was done in the lower regions . The Judge did examine and hear their crimes and crafts , and even there compell'd them to confess , that the eternal Justice may be publickly acknowledg'd ; for all the honour that we can do to the Divine attributes , is publickly to confess them , and make others so to do ; for so God is pleased to receive honour from us . Therefore repentance being a return to God , a ceasing to dishonour him any more , and a restoring him ( so far as we can ) to the honour we depriv'd him of ; it ought to be done with as much humility and sorrow , with as clear glorifications of God , and condemnations of our selves as we can . To which purpose , 101. XV. He that confesseth his sins , must do it with all sincerity and simplicity of spirit , not to serve ends , or to make Religion the minister of design ; but to destroy our sin , to shame and punish our selves , to obtain pardon and institution ; always telling our sad story just as it was in its acting , excepting where the manner of it and its nature or circumstances require a veil ; and then the sin must not be concealed , nor yet so represented as to keep the first immodesty alive in him that acted it , or to become a new temptation in him that hears it . But this last caution is only of use in our confessions to the Minister of holy things ; for our confession to God as it is to other purposes , so must be in other manners : but I have already given accounts of this . I only add , that 102. XVI . All our confessions must be accusations of our selves , and not of others . For if we confess to God , then to accuse another may spoil our own duty , but it can serve no end ; for God already knows all that we can say to lessen , or to aggravate the sin : if we confess to men , then to name another , or by any way to signifie or reveal him , is a direct defamation ; and unless the naming of the sin do of it self declare the assisting party , it is at no hand to be done , or to be inquired into : But if a man hath committed incest , and there is but one person in the world with whom he could commit it ; in this case the confessing his sin , does accuse another ; but then such a Guide of souls is to be chosen to whom that person is not known ; but if by this or some other expedient the fame of others be not secured , it is best to confess that thing to God only , and so much of the sin as may aggravate it to an equal height with its own kind in special , may be communicated to him of whom we ask comfort , and counsel , and institution . If to confess to a Priest were a Divine Commandment , this caution would have in it some difficulty , and much variety ; but since the practice is recommended to us wholly upon the stock of prudence , and great charity ; the doing it , ought not in any sence to be uncharitable to others . 103. XVII . He that hath injur'd his neighbour must confess to him ; and he that hath sinn'd against the Church , must make amends and confess to the Church , when she declares her self to be offended . For when a fact is done which cannot naturally be undone , the only duty that can remain is to rescind it morally , and make it not to be any longer or any more . For as our conservation is a continual creation , so is the perpetuating of a sin a continuation of its being and actings , and therefore to cease from it , is the death of the sin for the present and sor the future ; but to confess it , ●o hate it , to wish it had never been done , is all the possibility that is left to annihilate the act which naturally can never be undone ; and therefore to all persons that are injur'd , to confess the sin , must needs be a duty , because it is the first part of amends , and sometimes all that is left ; but it is that which God and man requires , before they are willing to pardon the offender . For until the erring man confesses , it does not appear who is innocent , and who is guilty , or whether the offended person have any thing to forgive . And this is the meaning of these preceptive words of S. James , Confess your sins one to another ; that is , to the Church who are scandalized , and who can forgive and pray for the repenting sinner ; and confess to him that is injur'd , that you may do him right , that so you may cease to do wrong , that you may make your way for pardon , and offer amends . This only , and all of this is the meaning of the precept . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , say the Greek Commentaries upon Acts 19.18 . Every faithful man must declare or confess his sins , and must stand in separation that he may be reproved , and that he may promise he will not do the same again , according to that which is said , Do thou first declare thy sins , that thou mayest be justified ; nad again , A just man in the beginning of his speech is an accuser of himself . No man is a true penitent , if he refuses or neglects to confess his sins to God in all cases , or to his brother if he have injur'd him , or to the Church if she be offended , or where she requires it ; for wheresoever a man is bound to repent , there he is bound to Confession ; which is an acknowledgement of the injury , and the first instance and publication of repentance . In other cases , Confession may be of great advantage ; in these it is a duty . 104. XVIII . Let no man think it a shame to confess his sin ; or if he does , yet let not that shame deterr him from it . There is indeed a shame in confession , because nakedness is discovered ; but there is also a glory in it , because there is a cure too : there is repentance and amendment . This advice is like that which is given to persons giving their lives in a good cause , requiring th●● not to be afraid ; that is , not to suffer such a fear , as to be hindred from dying . For if they suffer a great natural fear , and yet in despite of that fear die constantly and patiently , that fear as it increases their suffering , may also accidentally increase their glory , provided that the fear be not criminal it its cause , nor effective of any unworthy comportment . So is the shame in confession ; a great mortification of the man , and highly punitive of the sin ; and such that unless it hinders the duty , is not to be directly reproved : but it must be taken care of that it be a shame only for the sin , which by how much greater it is , by so much the more earnestly the man ought to fly to all the means of remedy and instruments of expiation : and then the greater the shame is which the sinne● suffers , the more excellent is the repentance which suffers so much for the extinction of his sin . But at no hand let the shame affright the duty ; but let it be remembred , that this confession is but the memory of the shame , which began when the sin was acted , and abode but as a handmaid of the guilt , and goes away with it : Confession of sins opens them to man , but draws a veil before them , that God will the less behold them . And it is a material consideration , that if a man be impatient of the shame here , when it is revealed but to one man , who is also by all the ties of Religion , and by common Honesty oblig'd to conceal them ; or if he account it intolerable that a sin publick in the scandal and the infamy , should be made publick by solemnity to punish and to extinguish it , the man will be no gainer by refusing to confess , when he shall remember that sins unconfessed are most commonly unpardon'd ; and unpardon'd sins will be made publick before all Angels , and all the wise and good men of the world , when their shame shall have nothing to make it tolerable . 105. XIX . When a penitent confesses his sin , the holy man that ministers to his Repentance , and hears his Confession , must not without great cause lessen the shame of the repenting man ; he must directly encourage the duty , but not add confidence to the sinner . For whatsoever directly lessens the shame , lessens also the hatred of sin , and his future caution , and the reward of his repentance ; and takes off that which was an excellent defensative against the sin . But with the shame , the Minister of Religion is to do as he is to do with the mans sorrow : so long as it is a good instrument of repentance , so long it is to be permitted and assisted , but when it becomes irregular , or dispos'd to evil events , it is to be taken off . And so must the shame of the penitent man , when there is danger , lest the man be swallowed up by too much sorrow and shame , or when it is perceiv'd , that the shame alone is a hinderance to the duty . In these cases , if the penitent man can be perswaded directly and by choice , for ends of piety and religion to suffer the shame , then let his spirit be supported by other means ; but if he cannot , let there be such a confidence wrought in him , which is deriv'd from the circumstances of the person , or the universal calamity and iniquity of man , or the example of great sinners like himself , that have willingly undergone the yoke of the Lord , or from consideration of the Divine mercies , or from the easiness and advantages of the duty , but let nothing be offer'd to lessen the hatred , or the greatness of the sin ; lest a temptation to sin hereafter be sowed in the furrows of the present Repentance . 106. XX. He that confesseth his sins to the Minister of Religion , must be sure to express all the great lines of his folly and calamity ; that is , all that by which he may make a competent judgment of the state of his soul. Now if the man be of a good life , and yet in his tendency to perfection , is willing to pass under the method and discipline of greater sinners , there is no advice to be given to him , but that he do not curiously tell those lesser irregularities which vex his peace , rather than discompose his conscience : but what is most remarkable in his infirmities , or the whole state , and the greatest marks and instances , and returns of them he ought to signifie , for else he can serve no prudent end in his confession . 107. But secondly , if the man have committed a great sin , it is a high prudence , and an excellent instance of his repentance , that he confess it , declaring the kind of it , if it be of that nature that the spiritual man may conceal it . But if upon any other account he be bound to reveal every notice of the fact , let him transact that affair wholly between God and his own soul. And this of declaring a single action as it is of great use in the repentance of every man , so it puts on some degrees of necessity , if the man be of a sad , amazed and an afflicted conscience . For there are some unfortunate persons who have committed some secret facts of shame and horror , at the remembrance of which they are amazed , of the pardon of which they have no sign , for the expiation of which they use no instrument , and they walk up and down like distracted persons , to whom reason is useless , and company is unpleasant , and their sorrow is not holy , but very great , and they know not what to do , because they will not ask . I have observed some such ; and the only remedy that was fit to be prescribed to such persons , was to reveal their sin to a spiritual man , and by him to be put into such a state of remedy and comfort as is proper for their condition . It is certain that many persons have perished for want of counsel and comfort , which were ready for them if they would have confessed their sin ; for he that concealeth his sin , non dirigetur , saith Solomon , he shall not be counselled or directed . 108. And it is a very great fault amongst a very great part of Christians , that in their inquiries of Religion , even the best of them , ordinarily ask but these two questions : Is it lawful ? Is it necessary ? If they find it lawful , they will do it without scruple or restraint ; and then they suffer imperfection , or receive the reward of folly . For it may be lawful , and yet not fit to be done . It may be it is not expedient . And he that will do all that he can do lawfully , would , if he durst , do something that is not lawful . And as great an error is on the other hand in the other question . He that too strictly inquires of an action whether it be necessary or no , would do well to ask also whether it be good ? whether it be of advantage to the interest of his soul ? For if a Christian man or woman ; that is , a redeemed , blessed , obliged person , a great beneficiary , endeared to God beyond all the comprehensions of a mans imagination , one that is less than the least of all Gods mercies , and yet hath received many great ones and hopes for more , if he should do nothing but what is necessary , that is , nothing but what he is compell'd to ; then he hath the obligations of a son , and the affections of a slave , which is the greatest undecency of the world in the accounts of Christianity . If a Christian will do no more than what is necessary , he will quickly be tempted to omit something of that also . And it is highly considerable that in the matter of souls , Necessity is a divisible word , and that which in disputation is not necessary , may be necessary in practice : it may be but charity to one and duty to another , that is , when it is not a necessary duty , it may be a necessary charity . And therefore it were much the better if every man without further inquiry would in the accounts of his soul consult a spiritual Guide , and whether it be necessary or no , yet let him do it because it is good ; and even they who will not for Gods sake do that which is simply the best , yet for their own sakes they will , or ought to do that which is profitable , and of great advantage . Let men do that which is best to themselves ; for it is all one to God , save only that he is pleas'd to take such instances of duty and forwardness of obedience , as the best significations of the best love . And of this nature is Confession of sins to a Minister of Religion , it is one of the most charitable works in the world to our selves ; and in this sence we may use the words of David , If thou dost well unto thy self , men [ and God ] will speak good of thee , and do good to thee . He that will do every thing that is lawful , and nothing but what is necessary , will be an enemy when he dares , and a friend when he cannot help it . 109. But if the penitent person hath been an habitual sinner , in his confessions he is to take care that the Minister of Religion understand the degrees of his wickedness , the time of his abode in sin , the greatness of his desires , the frequency of his acting them , not told by numbers , but by general significations of the time , and particular significations of the earnestness of his choice . For this transaction being wholly in order to the benefit and conduct of his soul , the good man that ministers , must have as perfect moral accounts as he can , but he is not to be reckon'd withal by natural numbers and measures , save only so far as they may declare the violence of desires , and the pleasures and choice of the sin . The purpose of this advice is this ; that since the transaction of this affair is for counsel and comfort , in order to pardon , and the perfections of repentance , there should be no scruple in the particular circumstances of it ; but that it be done heartily and wisely ; that is , so as may best serve the ends to which it is designed ; and that no man do it in despite of himself , or against his will , for the thing it self is not a direct service of God immediately enjoyn'd , but is a service to our selves to enable us to do our duty to God , and to receive a more ready and easie and certain pardon from him . They indeed who pretend it as a necessary duty , have by affixing rules and measures to it of their own , made that which they call necessary , to be intolerable and impossible . Indeed it is certain that when God hath appointed a duty , he also will describe the measures , or else leave us to the conduct of our own choice and reason in it . But where God hath not described the measures , we are to do that which is most agreeable to the analogy of the commandment , or the principal duty , in case it be under a command : but if it be not , then we are only to chuse the particulars so as may best minister to the end which is designed in the whole ministration . 110. XXI . It is a very pious preparation to the holy Sacrament , that we confess our sins to the Minister of Religion : for since it is necessary that a man be examined , and a self-examination was prescrib'd to the Corinthians in the time of their lapsed discipline , that though there were divisions amongst them , and no established Governours , yet from this duty they were not to be excus'd , and they must in destitution of a publick Minister do it themselves ( but this is in case only of such necessity ) the other is better ; that is , it is of better order , and more advantage that this part of Repentance and holy preparation be perform'd under the conduct of a spiritual Guide . And the reason is pressing . For since it is life or death that is there administred , and the great dispensation of the Keys is in that Ministery , it were very well if he that ministers did know whether the person presented were fit to communicate or no ; and if he be not , it is charity to reject him , and charity to assist him that he may be fitted . There are many sad contingencies in the constitution of Ecclesiastical affairs , in which every man that needs this help , and would fain make use of it , cannot ; but when he can meet with the blessing , it were well it were more frequently used , and more readily entertain'd . I end these advices with the words of Origen : Extra veniam est qui peccatum cognovit , nec cognitum confitetur . Confitendum autem semper est , non quòd peccatum supersit ut semper sit confitendum ; sed quia peccati veteris & antiqui utilis 〈◊〉 indefessa confessio . He shall have no pardon , who knows his sin and confesses it not : But we must confess always , not that the sin always remains , but that of an old sin an unwearied confession is useful and profitable . But this is to be understood of a general accusation , or of a confession to God. For in confessions to men , there is no other usefulness of repeating our confessions , excepting where such repetition does aggravate the fault of relapsing and ingratitude , in case the man returns to those sins for which he hop'd that before he did receive a pardon . SECT . IX . BUT because in all repentances there is something penal , it is not amiss that there be some inquiries after the measures and rules of acting that part of repentance which consists in corporal austerities , and are commonly called Penances . 111. I. He that hath a great sorrow , need neither be invited nor instructed in the matter of his austerities . For a great sorrow and its own natural expressions and significations , such as are Fastings , and abstinence , and tears , and indignation , and restlesness of mind , and prayers for pardon , and mortification of the sin , are all that which will perfect this part of repentance . Only sometime they need caution for the degrees . Therefore , 112. II. Let the penitent be careful that he do not injure his health , or oppress his spirit , by the zeal of this part of repentance . Sic enim peccata compescenda sunt , ut supersint quos peccasse poeniteat . For all such fierce proceedings are either superstitious , or desperate , or indiscreet , or the effect of a false perswasion concerning them ; that they are a direct service of God , that they are simply necessary , and severely enjoyn'd . All which are to be rescinded , or else the penances will be of more hurt than usefulness . Those actions are to minister to repentance ; and therefore if they contradict any duty , they destroy what they pretend to serve . For penances as they relate to the sin that is committed , is just to be measured as penitential sorrow is , of which it is a signification and expression . When the sorrow is natural , sensitive , pungent , and material , the penances will be so too . A great sorrow refuses to eat , to sleep , to be chearful , to be in company , according as the degree is , and as the circumstances of the persons are . But sometimes sorrow is to be chosen , and invited by arts , and ministred to by external instruments , and arguments of invitation ; and just so are the penances , they are then to be chosen , so as may make the person a sorrowful mourner , to make him take no delight in sin , but to conceive , and to feel a just displeasure : For if men feel no smart , no real sorrow or pain for their sins , they will be too much in love with it : impunity is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the occasion and opportunity of sin , as the Apostle intimates : and they use to proceed in finishing the methods of sin and death , who Non unquam reputant quantum sibi gaudia constant , reckon their pleasures , but never put any smart , or danger , or fears , or sorrows into the balance . But the injunction or susception of penances is a good instrument of repentance , because a little evil takes off the pleasure of the biggest sin in many instances , and we are too apprehensive of the present , that this also becomes a great advantage to this ministery : we refuse great and infinite pleasures hereafter , so we may enjoy lit●le ▪ and few , and inconsiderable ones at present ; and we fear not the horrible pains of Hell , so we may avoid a little trouble in our persons , or our interest . Therefore it is to be supposed , that this way of undertaking a present punishment and smart for our sins ( unless every thing when it becomes religious is despoil'd of all its powers which it had in nature , and what is reason here , is not reason there ) will be of great effect and power against sin , and be an excellent instrument of repentance . But it must be so much , and it must be no more ; for penances are like fire and water , good so long as they are made to serve our needs ; but when they go beyond that , they are not to be endured . For since God in the severest of his anger does not punish one sin with another , let not us do worse to our selves than the greatest wrath of God in this world will inflict upon us . A sin cannot be a punishment from God. For then it would be that God should be the Author of sin , for he is of punishment . If then any punishment be a sin , that sin was unavoidable , deriv'd from God ; and indeed it would be a contradiction to the nature of things to say , that the same thing can in the same formality be a punishment and a sin , that is , an action , and a passion , voluntary as every sin is , and involuntary as every punishment is ; that it should be done by us , and yet against us , by us and by another , and by both intirely : and since punishment is the compensation or the expiation of sin , not the aggravation of the Divine anger ; it w●re very strange , if God by punishing us should more provoke himself , and instead of satisfying his justice , or curing the man , make his own anger infinite , and the pati●nt much the worse . Indeed it may happen that one sin may cause o● procure another , not by the efficiency of God , or any direct action of his : but 1. Withdrawing those assistances which would have restrain'd a sinful progression . 2. By suffering him to fall into evil temptation , which is too hard for him consisting in his present voluntary indisposition . 3. By the nature of sin it self , which may either 1 effect a sin by accident ; as a great anger may by the withdrawing Gods restraining grace be permitted to pass to an act of murder ; or 2 it may dispose to others of like nature , as one degree of lust brings in another ; or 3 it may minister matter of fuel to another sin , as intemperance to uncleanness : or 4 one sin may be the end of another , a● covetousness may be the servant of luxury . In all these ways , one sin may be effected by another ; but in all these , God is only conniving , or at most , takes off some of those helps which the man hath forfeited , and God was not obliged to continue . Thus God hardned Pharaohs heart , even by way of object and occasion ; God hardned him , by shewing him a mercy , by taking off his fears when he remov'd the judgment ; and God ministred to him some hope that it be so still . But God does not inflict the sin : The mans own impious hands do that , not because he cannot help it , but because he chuses and delights in it . * Now if God in justice to us will not punish one sin directly by another : let not us in our penitential inflictions commit a sin in indignation against our sin ; for that is just as if a man out of impatience of pain in his side , should dash his head against a wall . 113. III. But if God pleases to inflict a punishment , let us be careful to exchange i● into a penance , by kissing the rod , and entertaining the issues of the Divine justice by approbation of Gods proceeding , and confession of our demerit and justification of God. It was a pretty accident and mixture of providence and penance , that hapned to the three accusers of Narcissus Bishop of Jerusalem ; They accused him falsly of some horrid crimes , but in verification of their indictment bound themselves by a curse : The first , that if his accusation were false , he might be burn'd to death : The second , that he might die of the Kings Evil : The third , that he might be blind . God in his anger found out the two first , and their curse hapned to them that delighted in 〈◊〉 and l●es . The first was burnt alive in his own house : and the second perished by the loathsome disease . Which when the third espied , and found Gods anger so hasty and so heavy , so pressing and so certain , he ran out to meet the rod of God ; and repented of his sin so deeply , and wept so bitterly , so continually , that he became blind with weeping : and the anger of God became an instance of repentance ; the judgment was sanctified , and so passed into mercy and a pardon : he did indeed meet with his curse , but by the arts of repentance the curse became a blessing . And so it may be to us , Praeveniamus faciem ejus in confessione ; let us prevent his anger by sentencing our selves : or if we do not , let us follow the sad accents of the angry voice of God , and imitate his justice , by condemning that which God condemns , and suffering willingly what he imposes ; and turning his judgments into voluntary executions , by applying the suffering to our sins , and praying it may be sanctified . For since God smites us that we may repent , if we repent then , we serve the end of the Divine judgment : and when we perceive God smites our sin , if we submit to it , and are pleased that our sin is smitten , we are enemies to it , after the example of God ; and that is a good act of repentance . 114. IV. For the quality or kind of penances , this is the best measure ; Those are the best which serve most ends ; not those which most vex us , but such which will most please God. If they be only actions punitive and vindictive , they do indeed punish the man , and help so far as they can to destroy the sin ; but of these alone , S. Paul said well , Bodily exercise profiteth but little ; but of the latter sort , he added , but Godliness is profitable to all things , having the promise of the life that now is , and of that which is to come : and this indeed is our exactest measure . Fastings alone , lyings upon the ground , disciplines and direct chastisements of the body , which have nothing in them but toleration and revenge , are of some use ; they vex the body , and crucifie the sinner , but the sin lives for all them : but if we add prayer , or any action symbolical , as meditation , reading , solitariness , silence , there is much more done towards the extinction of the sin . But he that adds Alms , or something that not only is an act contrary to a former state of sin , but such which is apt to deprecate the fault , to obey God , and to do good to men , he hath chosen the better part , which will not easily be taken from him . Fasting , prayer , and alms together are the best penances , or acts of exterior repentance in the world . If they be single , fasting is of the least force , and alms done in obedience and the love of God is the best . 115. V. For the quantity of penances , the old rule is the best that I know , but that it is too general and indefinite . It is S. Cyprian's , Quàm magna deliquimus , tam granditèr defleamus . If our sins were great , so must our sorrow or penances be . As one is , so must be the other . For sorrow and penances I reckon as the same thing in this question ; save only that in some instances of corporal inflictions , the sin is opposed in its proper matter ; as intemperance is by fasting ; effeminacy by suffering hardships ; whereas sorrow opposes it only in general : and in some other instances of penances , there is a duty distinctly and directly serv'd , as in prayer and alms . But although this rule be indefinite and unlimited , we find it made more minute by Hugo de S. Victore . Si in correctione minor est afflictio quàm in● culpâ fuit delectatio , non est dignus poenitentiae tuae fructus . Our sorrow either in the direct passion , or in its voluntary expressions , distinctly or conjunctly , must at least equal the pleasure we took in the committing of a sin . And this rule is indeed very good , if we use it with these cautions . First , that this be understood principally in our repentances for single sins ; for in these only the rule can be properly and without scruple applied , where the measures can be best observed . For in habitual and long courses of sin , there is no other measures but to do very much , and very long , and until we die , and never think our selves safe , but while we are doing our repentances . Secondly , that this measure be not thought equal commutation for the sin , but be only used as an act of deprecation and repentance , of the hatred of sin , and opposition to it ; For he that sets a value upon his punitive actions of repentance , and rests in them , will be hasty in finishing the repentance , and leaving it off even while the sin is alive : For in these cases it is to be regarded ▪ that penances , or the punitive actions of repentance , are not for the extinction of the punishment immediately , but for the guilt . That is , there is no remains of punishment after the whole guilt is taken off : but the guilt it self goes away by parts , and these external actions of repentance have the same effect in their proportion which is wrought by the internal . Therefore as no man can say that he hath sufficiently repented of his sins by an inward sorrow and hatred : so neither can he be secure that he hath made compensation by the suffering penances ; for if one sin deserves an eternal Hell , it is well if upon the account of any actions , and any sufferings , we be at last accepted and acquitted . 116. VI. In the performing the punitive parts of external repentance , it is prudent , that we rather extend them than intend them : that is , let us rather do many single acts of several instances , than dwell upon one with such intension of spirit as may be apt to produce any violent effects upon the body or the spirit . In all these cases , prudence and proportion to the end is our best measures . For these outward significations of repentance , are not in any kind or instance necessary to the constitution of repentance ; but apt and excellent expressions , and significations , exercises and ministeries of repentance . Prayer and Alms are of themselves distinct duties , and therefore come not in their whole nature to this reckoning : but the precise acts of corporal punishment are here intended . And that these were not necessary parts of repentance , the Primitive Church believed , and declared , by absolving dying persons , though they did not survive the beginnings of their publick repentance . But that she enjoyn'd them to suffer such severities in case they did recover , she declar'd that these were useful and proper exercises and ministeries of the Grace it self . And although inward repentance did expiate all sins , even in the Mosaical Covenant , yet they had also a time and manner of its solemnity , their day of expiation , and so must we have many . But if any man will refuse this way of repentance , I shall only say to him the words of S. Paul to them who rejected the Ecclesiastical customs and usages : We have no such Custom , neither the Churches of God. But let him be sure that he perform his internal repentance with the more exactness ; as he had need look to his own strengths , that refuses the assistance of auxiliaries . But it is not good to be too nice and inquisitive , when the whole Article is matter of practice . For what doth God demand of us but inward sincerity of a returning , penitent , obedient heart , and that this be exercised and ministred unto by fit and convenient offices to that purpose ? This is all , and from this we are to make no abatements . The PRAYER . O Eternal God , Gracious and Merciful , the fountain of pardon and holiness , hear the cries , and regard the supplications of thy servant . I have gone astray all my days , and I will for ever pray unto thee and cry mightily for pardon . Work in thy servant such a sorrow that may be deadly unto the whole body of sin , but the parent of an excellent repentance . O suffer me not any more to do an act of shame ; nor to undergo the shame and confusion of face , which is the portion of the impenitent and persevering sinners at the day of sad accounts . I humbly confess my sins to thee , do thou hide them from all the world ; and while I mourn for them , let the Angels rejoyce ; and while I am killing them by the aids of thy Spirit , let me be written in the book of life , and my sins be blotted out of the black registers of death , that my sins being covered and cured , dead and buried in the grave of Jesus , I may live to thee my God a life of righteousness , and grow in it till I shall arrive at a state of glory . II. I Have often begun to return to thee ; but I turn'd short again , and look'd back upon Sodom , and lov'd to dwell in the neighbourhood of the horrible regions . Now , O my God , hear ; now let me finish the work of a holy repentance . Let thy grace be present with me , that this day I may repent acceptably , and to morrow , and all my days ; not weeping over my returning sins , nor deploring new instances ; but weeping bitterly for the old ; loathing them infinitely , denouncing war against them hastily , prosecuting that war vigorously ; resisting them every hour , crucifying them every day , praying perpetually , watching assiduously , consulting spiritual guides and helps frequently , obeying humbly , and crying mightily , I may do every thing by which I can please thee , that I may be rescued from the powers of darkness , and the sad portions of eternity which I have deserved . III. O Give unto thy servant intentions so real , a resolution so strong , a repentance so holy , a sorrow so deep , a hope so pure , a charity so sublime , that no temptation or time , no health or sickness , no accident or interest may be able in any circumstance of things or persons to tempt me from thee and prevail . Work in me a holy and an unreprovable faith whereby I may overcome the world , and crucifie the flesh , and quench the fiery darts of the Devil ; and let this faith produce charity , and my sorrow cause amendment , and my fear produce caution , and that caution beget a holy hope : let my repentance be perfect and acceptable , and my affliction bring forth joy , and the pleasant fruit of righteousness . Let my hatred of sin pass into the love of God , and this love be obedience , and this obedience be universal , and that universality be lasting and perpetual ; that I may rejoyce in my recovery , and may live in health , and proceed in holiness , and abide in thy favour , and die with a blessing , the death of the righteous , and may rest in the arms of the Lord Jesus , and at the day of judgment may have my portion in the resurrection of the just , and may enter into the joy of my Lord , to reap from the mercies of God in the harvest of a blessed eternity , what is here sown in tears and penitential sorrow , being pardoned and accepted , and sav'd by the mercies of God in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen . Amen . Amen . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . THE END . DEVS JVSTIFICATVS , OR , A VINDICATION OF THE Glory of the DIVINE ATTRIBUTES , In the Question of ORIGINAL SIN : Against the Presbyterian Way of Understanding it . In a Letter to a Person of Quality . LUCRETIUS . Nam neque tam facilis res ulla est , quin ea primum , Difficilis magis ad credendum constet — The Third Edition . ALSO An ANSWER to a LETTER Written by the R. R. The Lord Bishop of ROCHESTER : Concerning the Chapter of ORIGINAL SIN , IN THE VNVM NECESSARIVM . By JER . TAYLOR , Chaplain in Ordinary to King CHARLES the First , and late Lord Bishop of Down and Connor . LONDON , Printed for R. Royston , Bookseller to the King 's most Excellent Majesty , 1673. TO THE Right Honourable and Religious Lady , THE LADY CHRISTIAN , Countesse Dowager of DEVONSHIRE . MADAM , WHEN I reflect upon the infinite disputes which have troubled the publick meetings of Christendom concerning Original Sin , and how impatient and vext some men lately have been , when I offered to them my endeavours and conjectures concerning that Question , with purposes very differing from what were seen in the face of other mens designs , and had handled it so , that GOD might be glorified in the Article , and men might be instructed and edified in order to good life ; I could not but think that wise Heathen said rarely well in his little adagie , relating to the present subject ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Mankind was born to be a riddle , and our nativity is in the dark ; for men have taken the liberty to think what they please , and to say what they think ; and they affirm many things , and can prove but few things ; and take the sayings of men for the Oracles of GOD , and bold affirmatives for convincing arguments ; and S. Paul's Text must be understood by S. Austin's commentary , and S. Austin shall be heard in all , because he spake against such men who in some things were not to be heard ; and after all , because his Doctrine was taken for granted by ignorant Ages , and being received so long , was incorporated into the resolved Doctrine of the Church , with so great a firmness ; it became almost a shame to examine what the world believed so unsuspectingly ; and he that shall first attempt it , must resolve to give up a great portion of his reputation to be torn in pieces by the ignorant and by the zealous , by some of the Learned , and by all the Envious ; and they who love to teach in quiet , being at rest in their Chairs and Pulpits will be froward when they are awakened , and rather than they will be suspected to have taught amiss , will justifie an error by the reproaching of him that tells them truth , which they are pleased to call new . If any man differs from me in opinion , I am not troubled at it , but tell him that truth is in the Vnderstanding , and charity is in the Will , and is or ought to be there , before either his or my opinion in these controversies can enter , and therefore that we ought to love alike , though we do not understand alike ; but when I find that men are angry at my Ingenuity and openness of discourse , and endeavour to hinder the event of my labours , in the ministery of Souls , and are impatient of contradiction or variety of explication , and understanding of Questions , I think my self concerned to defend the truth which I have published , to acquit it from the suspicion of evil appendages , to demonstrate not only the truth , but the piety of it , and the necessity , and those great advantages which by this Doctrine so understood may be reaped , if men will be quiet and patient , void of prejudice and not void of Charity . This ( Madam ) is reason sufficient why I offer so many justifications of my Doctrine , before any man appears in publick against it ; but because there are many who do enter into the houses of the rich and the honourable , and whisper secret oppositions and accusations rather than arguments against my Doctrine ; the good Women that are zealous for Religion , and make up in the passions of one faculty what is not so visible in the actions and operations of another , are sure to be affrighted before they be instructed , and men enter caveats in that Court before they try the cause : But that is not all ; For I have found , that some men , to whom I gave and designed my labours , and for whose sake I was willing to suffer the persecution of a suspected truth , have been so unjust to me , and so unserviceable to your self ( Madam ) and to some other excellent and rare personages , as to tell stories , and give names to my proposition , and by secret murmurs hinder you from receiving that good which your wisdom and your piety would have discerned there , if they had not affrighted you with telling , that a Snake lay under the Plantane , and that this Doctrine which is as wholsome as the fruits of Paradise , was enwrapped with the infoldings of a Serpent , subtile and fallacious . Madam , I know the arts of these men ; and they often put me in mind of what was told me by M. Sackvill the late Earl of Dorsets Vncle ; that the cunning Sects of the World ( he named the Jesuits and the Presbyterians ) did more prevail by whispering to Ladies , than all the Church of England and the more sober Protestants could do by fine force and strength of argument . For they by prejudice or fears , terrible things , and zealous nothings , confident sayings and little stories , governing the Ladies Consciences , who can perswade their Lords , their Lords will convert their Tenants , and so the World is all their own . I should wish them all good of their profits and purchases if the case were otherwise than it is : but because they are questions of Souls , of their interest and advantages ; I cannot wish they may prevail with the more Religious and Zealous Personages : and therefore ( Madam ) I have taken the boldness to write this tedious Letter to you , that I may give you a right understanding and an easie explication of this great Question ; as conceiving my self the more bound to do it to your satisfaction , not only because you are Zealous for the Religion of this Church , and are a person as well of Reason as of Religion , but also because you have passed divers obligations upon me , for which all my services are too little a return . DEVS JVSTIFICATVS , OR , A VINDICATION OF THE Glory of the DIVINE ATTRIBUTES , In the Question of ORIGINAL SIN . IN Order to which , I will plainly describe the great lines of difference and danger , which are in the errors and mistakes about this Question . 2. I will prove the truth and necessity of my own , together with the usefulness and reasonableness of it . 3. I will answer those little murmurs , by which ( so far as I can yet learn ) these men seek to invade the understandings of those who have not leisure or will to examine the thing it self in my own words and arguments . 4. And if any thing else falls in by the by , in which I can give satisfaction to a Person of Your great Worthiness , I will not omit it , as being desirous to have this Doctrine stand as fair in your eyes , as it is in all its own colours and proportions . But first ( Madam ) be pleased to remember that the question is not whether there be any such thing as Original Sin ; for it is certain , and confessed on all hands almost . For my part , I cannot but confess that to be which I feel , and groan under , and by which all the World is miserable . Adam turned his back upon the Sun , and dwelt in the dark and the shadow ; he sinned , and fell into Gods displeasure , and was made naked of all his supernatural endowments , and was ashamed and sentenced to death , and deprived of the means of long life , and of the Sacrament and instrument of Immortality , I mean the Tree of Life ; he then fell under the evils of a sickly body , and a passionate , ignorant , uninstructed soul ; his sin made him sickly , his sickness made him peevish , his sin left him ignorant , his ignorance made him foolish and unreasonable : His sin left him to his nature , and by his nature , who ever was to be born at all , was to be born a child , and to do before he could understand , and be bred under Laws , to which he was always bound , but which could not always be exacted ; and he was to chuse , when he could not ●eason , and had passions most strong , when he had his understanding most weak , and was to ride a wild horse without a bridle , and the more need he had of a curb , the less strength he had to use it , and this being the case of all the World , what was every mans evil , became all mens greater evil ; and though alone it was very bad , yet when they came together it was made much worse ; like Ships in a storm , every one alone hath enough to do to out-ride it ; but when they meet , besides the evils of the storm , they find the intolerable calamity of their mutual concussion , and every Ship that is ready to be oppressed with the tempest , is a worse tempest to every vessel , against which it is violently dashed . So it is in mankind , every man hath evil enough of his own ; and it is hard for a man to live soberly , temperately , and religiously ; but when he hath Parents and Children , Brothers and Sisters , Friends and Enemies , Buyers and Sellers , Lawyers and Physicians , a Family and a Neighbourhood , a King over him , or Tenants under him , a Bishop to rule in matters of Government spiritual , and a People to be ruled by him in the affairs of their Souls ; then it is that every man dashes against another , and one relation requires what another denies ; and when one speaks , another will contradict him ; and that which is well spoken , is sometimes innocently mistaken , and that upon a good cause produces an evil effect , and by these , and ten thousand other concurrent causes , man is made more than most miserable . But the main thing is this ; when God was angry with Adam , the man fell from the state of grace ; for God withdrew his grace , and we returned to the state of mere nature , of our prime creation . And although I am not of Petrus Diaconus his mind , who said , that when we all fell in Adam , we fell into the dirt , and not only so , but we fell also upon a heap of stones ; so that we not only were made naked , but defiled also , and broken all in pieces ; yet this I believe to be certain , that we by his fall received evil enough to undo us , and ruine us all ; but yet the evil did so descend upon us , that we were left in powers and capacities to serve and glorifie God ; Gods service was made much harder , but not impossible ; mankind was made miserable , but not desperate , we contracted an actual mortality , but we were redeemable from the power of Death ; sin was easie and ready at the door , but it was resistable ; our Will was abused , but yet not destroyed ; our Understanding was cosened , but yet still capable of the best instructions ; and though the Devil had wounded us , yet G●d sen● his Son , who like the good Samaritan poured Oyl and Wine into our wounds , and we were cured before we felt the hurt , that might have ruined us upon that Occasion . It is sad enough , but not altogether so intolerable , and decretory , as some would make it , which the Sibylline Oracle describes to be the effect of Adam's sin . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Man was the work of God , fram'd by his hands , Him did the Serpent cheat , that to deaths bands He was subjected for his sin : for this was all , He tasted good and evil by his fall . But to this we may superadd that which Plutarch found to be experimentally true , Mirum quod pedes moverunt ad usum rationis , nullo autem fraeno passiones : The foot moves at the command of the Will and by the Empire of reason , but the passions are stiff even then when the knee bends , and no bridle can make the Passions regular and temperate . And indeed ( Madam ) this is in a manner the summ total of the evil of our abused and corrupted nature ; Our soul is in the body as in a Prison ; it is there tanquam in alienâ domo , it is a sojourner , and lives by the bodies measures , and loves and hates by the bodies Interests and Inclinations ; that which is pleasing and nourishing to the body , the soul chuses and delights in : That which is vexatious and troublesome , it abhorrs , and hath motions accordingly ; for Passions are nothing else but acts of the Will , carried to or from material Objects , and effects and impresses upon the man , made by such acts ; consequent motions and productions from the Will. It is a useless and a groundless proposition in Philosophy , to make the Passions to be the emanations of distinct faculties , and seated in a differing region ; for as the reasonable soul is both sensitive and vegetative , so is the Will elective and passionate , the region both of choice and passions , that is , When the Object is immaterial , or the motives such , the act of the Will is so merely intellectual , that it is then spiritual , and the acts are proper and Symbolical , and the act of it we call election or volition , but if the Object is material or corporal , the acts of the Will are passion , that is adhesion and aversation , and these it receives by the needs and inclinations of the body : An Object can diversifie an act ; but never distinguish faculties : And if we make it one faculty that chuses a reasonable object , and another that chuses the sensual ; we may as well assign a third faculty for the supernatural and religious : and when to chuse a sensual object is always either reasonable or unreasonable , and every adherence to pleasure , and mortification or refusing of it , is subject to a command and the matter of duty , it will follow that even the passions also are issues of the Will : by passions meaning the actions of prosecution or refusal of sensitive objects , the acts of the Concupiscible and Irascible appetite , not the impresses made by these upon the body , as trembling , redness , paleness , heaviness , and the like : and therefore to say , the passions rule the will , is an improper saying ; but it hath no truth in its meaning but this ; that the Will is more passionate than wise ; it is more delighted with Bodily pleasures than Spiritual : but as the understanding considers both , and the disputation about them is in that faculty alone ; so the choice of both is in the will alone : Now because many of the bodies needs are naturally necessary , and the rest are made so by being thought needs , and by being so naturally pleasant , and that this is the bodies day , and it rules here in its own place and time , therefore it is that the will is so great a scene of passion , and we so great servants of our bodies . This was the great effect of Adams sin , which became therefore to us a punishment , because of the appendant infirmity that went along with it ; for Adam being spoiled of all the rectitudes and supernatural heights of grace , and thrust back to the form of nature , and left to derive grace to himself by a new Oeconomy , or to be without it ; and his posterity left just so as he was left himself ; he was permitted to the power of his enemy that betray'd him , and put under the power of his body whose appetites would govern him ; and when they would grow irregular could not be mastered by any thing that was about him , or born with him , so that his case was miserable and naked , and his state of things was imperfect and would be disordered . But now Madam , things being thus bad , are made worse by the superinduced Doctrines of men , which when I have represented to your Ladiship , and told upon what accounts I have reproved them , you will find that I have reason . There are one sort of Calvin's Scholars , whom we for distinctions sake call Supralapsarians , who are so fierce in their sentences of predestination and reprobation , that they say God looked upon mankind , only , as his Creation , and his slaves , over whom he having absolute power , was very gracious that he was pleased to take some few , and save them absolutely ; and to the other greater part he did no wrong , though he was pleased to damn them eternally , only because he pleased ; for they were his own ; and Qui jure suo utitur nemini facit injuriam , says the Law of reason , every one may do what he please with his own . But this bloody and horrible opinion is held but by a few ; as tending directly to the dishonour of God , charging on Him alone that He is the cause of mens sins on Earth , and of mens eternal torments in Hell ; it makes God to be powerful , but his power not to be good ; it makes him more cruel to men , than good men can be to Dogs and Sheep ; it makes him give the final sentence of Hell without any pretence or colour of justice ; it represents him to be that which all the World must naturally fear , and naturally hate , as being a God delighting in the death of innocents ; for so they are when he resolves to damn them : and then most tyrannically cruel , and unreasonable ; for it says that to make a postnate pretence of justice , it decrees that men inevitably shall sin , that they may inevitably , but justly , be damned ; like the Roman Lictors , who because they could not put to death Sejanus's daughters as being Virgins , defloured them after sentence , that by that barbarity they might be capable of the utmost Cruelty ; it makes God to be all that for which any other thing or person is or can be hated ; for it makes him neither to be good , nor just , nor reasonable ; but a mighty enemy to the biggest part of mankind ; it makes him to hate what himself hath made , and to punish that in another which in himself he decreed should not be avoided : it charges the wisdom of God with solly , as having no means to glorifie his justice , but by doing unjustly , by bringing in that which himself hates , that he might do what himself loves : doing as Tiberius did to Brutus and Nero the Sons of Germanicus ; Variâ fraude induxit ut concitarentur ad convitia , & concitati perderentur ; provoking them to rail , that he might punish their reproachings . This opinion reproaches the words of the Spirit of Scripture , it charges God with Hypocrisie and want of Mercy , making him a Father of Cruelties , not of Mercy , and is a perfect overthrow of all Religion , and all Laws , and all Government ; it destroys the very being , and nature of all Election , thrusting a man down to the lowest form of Beasts and Bird● , to whom a Spontaneity of doing certain actions is given by God , but it is in them so natural , that it is unavoidable . Now concerning this ho●rid opinion , I for my part shall say nothing but this ; That he that says there was no such man as Alexander , would tell a horrible lie , and be injurious to all story , and to the memory and same of that great Prince ; but he that should say , It is true there was such a man as Alexander , but he was a Tyrant , and a Blood-sucker , cruel and injurious , false and dissembling , an enemy of mankind , and for all the reasons of the world to be hated and reproached , would certainly dishonour Alexander more , and be his greatest enemy : So I think in this , That the Atheists who deny there is a God , do not so impiously against God , as they that charge him with foul appellatives , or maintain such sentences , which if they were true , God could not be true . But these men ( Madam ) have nothing to do in the Question of Original Sin , save only , that they say that God did decree that Adam should fall , and all the sins that he sinned , and all the world after him are no effects of choice , but of predestination , that is , they were the actions of God , rather than man. But because these men even to their brethren seem to speak evil things of God , therefore the more wary and temperate of the Calvinists bring down the order of reprobation lower ; affirming that God looked upon all mankind in Adam as fallen into his displeasure , hated by God , truly guilty of his sin , liable to Eternal damnation , and they being all equally condemned , he was pleased to separate some , the smaller number far , and irresistibly bring them to Heaven ; but the far greater number he passed over , leaving them to be damned for the sin of Adam , and so they think they salve Gods Justice ; and this was the design and device of the Synod of Dort. Now to bring this to pass , they teach concerning Original Sin. 1. That by this sin our first Parents fell from their Original righteousness and communion with God , and so became dead in sin , and wholly defiled in all the faculties , and parts of soul and body . 2. That whatsoever death was due to our first Parents for this sin , they being the root of all mankind , and the guilt of this sin being imputed , the same is conveyed to all their posterity by ordinary generation . 3. That by this Original corruption we are utterly indisposed , disabled , and made opposite to all good , and wholly inclined to all evil ; and that from hence proceed all actual transgressions . 4. This corruption of nature remains in the regenerate , and although it be through Christ pardoned and mortified , yet both it self and all the motions thereof , are truly and properly sin . 5. Original sin being a transgression of the righteous Law of God , and contrary thereunto , doth in its own nature bring guilt upon the sinner , whereby he is bound over to the wrath of God and curse of the Law , and so made subject to death with all miseries , spiritual , temporal , and eternal . These are the sayings of the late Assembly at Westminster . Against this heap of errors and dangerous propositions I have made my former discoursings , and statings of the Question of Original sin . These are the Doctrines of the Presbyterian , whose face is towards us , but it is over-against us in this and many other questions of great concernment . Nemo tam propè proculque nobis . He is nearest to us and furthest from us ; but because I have as great a love to their persons , as I have a dislike to some of their Doctrines ; I shall endeavour to serve truth and them , by reproving those propositions which make truth and them to stand at distance . Now I shall first speak to the thing in general and its designs , then I shall make some observations upon the particulars . 1. This device of our Presbyterians and of the Synod of Dort is but an artifice to save their proposition harmless , and to stop the out-cries of Scripture and reason , and of all the World against them . But this way of stating the Article of reprobation is as horrid in the effect as the other . For , 1. Is it by a natural consequent that we are guilty of Adams sin , or is it by the decree of God ? Naturally it cannot be ; for then the sins of all our forefathers , who are to their posterity the same that Adam was to his , must be ours ; and not only Adams first sin , but his others are ours upon the same account . But if it be by the Decree of God , by his choice and constitution , that it should be so ( as Mr. Calvin and Dr. Twisse ( that I may name no more for that side ) do expresly teach ) it follows , that God is the Author of our Sin ; So that I may use Mr. Calvins words ; How is it that so many Nations with their Children should be involved in the fall without remedy , but because God would have it so ? And if that be the matter , then to God , as to the cause , must that sin , and that damnation be accounted . And let it then be considered , whether this be not as bad as the worst ; For the Supralapsarians say , God did decree that the greatest part of mankind should perish , only because he would : The Sublapsarians say , that God made it by his decree necessary , that all we who were born of Adam should be born guilty of Original Sin , and he it was who decreed to damn whom he pleased for that sin , in which he decreed they should be born ; and both these he did for no other consideration , but because he would . Is it not therefore evident , that he absolutely decreed Damnation to these Persons ? For he that decrees the end , and he that decrees the only necessary and effective means to the end , and decrees that it shall be the end of that means , does decree absolutely alike ; though by several dispensations : And then all the evil consequents which I reckoned before to be the monstrous productions of the first way ; are all Daughters of the other ; and if Solomon were here , he could not tell which were the truer Mother . Now that the case is equal between them , 〈◊〉 of their own chiefest do confess , so Dr. Twisse . If God may ordain Men to Hell for Adam's sin , which is derived unto them by Gods only constitution : He may as well do it ab●olutely without any such constitutions : The same also is affirmed by Maccovius , and by Mr. Calvin : And the reason is plain ; for he that does a thing for a reason which himself makes , may as well do it without a reason , Or he may make his own Will to be the reason , because the thing , and the motive of the thing , come in both cases , equally from the same principle , and from that alone . Now ( Madam ) be pleased to say , whether I had not reason and necessity for what I have taught : You are a happy Mother of a fair and hopeful Posterity , your Children and Nephews are dear to you as your right eye , and yet you cannot love them so well as God loves them , and it is possible that a Mother should forget her Children , yet God even then will not , cannot ; but if our Father and Mother forsake us , God taketh us up : Now , Madam , consider , could you have found in your heart when the Nurses and Midwives had bound up the heads of any of your Children , when you had born them with pain and joy upon your knees , could you have been tempted to give command that murderers should be brought to stay them alive , to put them to exquisite tortures , and then in the midst of their saddest groans , throw any one of them into the flames of a fierce fire , for no other reason , but because he was born at London , or upon a Friday , when the Moon was in her prime , or for what other reason you had made , and they could never avoid ? Could you have been delighted in their horrid shrieks and out-cries , or have taken pleasure in their unavoidable and their intolerable calamity ? Could you have smiled , if the hangman had snatched your eldest Son from his Nurses breasts , and dashed his brains out against the pavement ; and would you not have wondred that any Father or Mother could espy the innocence and pretty smiles of your sweet babes , and yet tear their limbs in pieces , or devise devilish artifices to make them roar with intolerable convulsions ? Could you desire to be thought good , and yet have delighted in such cruelty ? I know I may answer for you ; you would first have died your self . And yet I say again , God loves mankind better than we can love one another , and he is essentially just , and he is infinitely merciful , and he is all goodness , and therefore though we might possibly do evil things , yet he cannot , and yet this doctrine of the Presbyterian reprobation , says he both can and does things , the very apprehension of which hath caused many in despair to drown or hang themselves . Now if the Doctrine of absolute Reprobation be so horrid , so intolerable a proposition , so unjust and blasphemous to God , so injurious and cruel to men , and that there is no colour or pretence to justifie it , but by pretending our guilt of Adams sin , and damnation to be the punishment : Then because from truth nothing but truth can issue ; that must needs be a lie , from which such horrid consequences do proceed . For the case in short is this ; If it be just for God to damn any one of Adam's Posterity for Adam's sin , then it is just in him to damn all ; for all his Children are equally guilty ; and then if he spares any , it is Mercy : And the rest who perish have no cause to complain . But if all these fearful consequences which Reason and Religion so much abhor do so certainly follow from such doctrines of Reprobation , and these doctrines wholly ●ely upon this pretence , it follows , that the pretence is infinitely false and intolerable ; and that ( so far as we understand the rules and measures of justice . ) it cannot be just for God to damn us for being in a state of calamity , to which state we entred no way out by his constitution and decree . You see , Madam , I had reason to reprove that doctrine , which said , It was just in God to damn us for the sin of Adam . Though this be the main error ; yet there are some other collateral things which I can by no means approve , such is that , 1. That by the Sin of Adam our Parents became wholly defiled in all the faculties and Powers of their souls and bodies . And 2. That by this we also are disabled , and made opposite to all good , and wholly inclined to all evil . And 3. That from hence proceed all actual transgressions . And 4. That our natural corruption in the regenerate still remains , though it be pardoned and mortified , and is still properly a sin . Against this , I opposed these Propositions ; That the effect of Adams sin was in himself bad enough ; for it devested him of that state of grace and favour where God placed him ; it threw him from Paradise , and all the advantages of that place , it left him in the state of Nature ; but yet his nature was not spoiled by that sin ; he was not wholly inclined to all evil , neither was he disabled and made opposite to all good ; only his good was imperfect , it was natural and fell short of Heaven ; for till his nature was invested with a new nature , he could go no further than the design of his first Nature , that is , without Christ , without the Spirit of Christ , he could never arrive at Heaven , which is his supernatural condition ; But 1. There still remained in him a natural freedom of doing good or evil . 2. In every one that was born , there are great inclinations to some good . 3. Where our Nature was a verse to good , it is not the direct sin of Nature , but the imperfection of it , the reason being , because God superinduced Laws against our natural inclination , and yet there was in nature nothing sufficient to make us contradict our nature in obedience to God ; all that being to come from a supernatural and Divine principle . These I shall prove together , for one depends upon another . 1. And first , That the liberty of will did not perish to mankind by the fall of Adam is so evident , that S. Austin , who is an adversary in some parts of this Question , but not yet , by way of Question and confidence asks , Quis autem nostrûm dicat quod primi hominis peccato perierit liberum arbitrium de humano genere ? Which of us can say , That the liberty of our Will did perish by the sin of the first Man ? And he adds a rare reason ; for it is so certain , that it did not perish in a sinner , that this thing only is it by which they do sin , especially when they delight in their sin , and by the love of sin , that thing is pleasing to them which they list to do . ] And therefore when we are charged with sin , it is worthy of inquiry , whence it is that we are sinners ? Is it by the necessity of Nature , or by the liberty of our Will ? If by nature and not choice , then it is good and not evil ; for whatsoever is our Nature , is of Gods making , and consequently is good ; but if we are sinners by choice and liberty of will , whence had we this liberty ? If from Adam , then we have not lost it ; but if we had it not from him , then from him we do not derive all our sin ; for by this liberty alone we sin . If it be replied , that we are free to sin , but not to good ; it is such a foolery , and the cause of the mistake so evident , and so ignorant , that I wonder any man of Learning or common sence should own it . For if I be free to evil ; then I can chuse evil , or refuse it ; If I can refuse it , then I can do good ; for to refuse that evil is good , and it is in the Commandment [ Eschew evil ] but if I cannot chuse or refuse it , how am I free to evil ? For Voluntas and Libertas , Will and Liberty in Philosophy are not the same : I may will it , when I cannot will the contrary ; as the Saints in Heaven , and God himself wills good ; they cannot will evil ; because to do so is imperfection and contrary to felicity ; but here is no liberty : for liberty is with power , to do , or not to do ; to do this or the contrary ; and if this liberty be not in us , we are not in the state of obedience , or of disobedience ; which is the state of all them who are alive , who are neither in Hell nor Heaven . For it is to many purposes useful that we consider that in natural things to be determined shews a narrowness of being ; and therefore liberty of action is better , because it approaches nearer to infinity . But in moral things , liberty is a direct imperfection , a state of weakness , and supposes weakness of reason and weakness of love ; the imperfection of the Agent , or the unworthiness of the object ; Liberty of will is like the motion of a Magnetick needle toward the North , full of trepidation till it be fixt where it would fain dwell for ever . Either the object is but good in one regard , or we have but an uncertain apprehension , or but a beginning love to it , or it could never be that we could be free to chuse , that is , to love it or not to love it . And therefore it is so far from being true , that by the fall of Adam we lost our liberty , that it is more likely to be the consequent of it ; as being a state of imperfection ; proper indeed to them who are to live under Laws , and to such who are to work for a reward , and may fail of it ; but cannot go away till we either lose all hopes of good by descending into Hell , or are past all fear or possibility of evil by going to Heaven . But that this is our case , if I had no other argument in the world , and were never so prejudicate and obstinate a person , I think I should be perfectly convinced by those words of S. Paul , 1 Cor. 7.37 . The Apostle speaks of a good act tending not only to the keeping of a Precept , but to a Counsel of perfection ; and concerning that , he hath these words ; Nevertheless he that standeth stedfast in his heart , having no necessity , but hath power over his own will , and hath so decreed in his heart that he will keep his Virgin , doth well ; The words are plain , and need no explication . If this be not a plain liberty of choice , and a power of will , those words mean nothing , and we can never hope to understand one anothers meaning . But if sin be avoidable , then we have liberty of choice . If it be unavoidable , it is not imputable by the measures of Laws and Justice ; what it is by Empire and Tyranny , let the Adversaries inquire and prove : But since all Theology , all Schools of learning consent in this , that an invincible or unavoidable ignorance does wholly excuse from sin ; why an invincible and an unavoidable necessity shall not also excuse , I confess I have not yet been taught . But if by Adam's sin we be so utterly indisposed , disabled , and opposite to all good , wholly inclined to evil , and from hence come all actual sins , that is , That by Adam we are brought to that pass , that we cannot chuse but sin : it is a strange severity , that this should descend upon Persons otherwise most innocent , and that this which is the most grievous of all evils ; For prima & maxima peccantium poena est peccâsse , ( said Seneca ) To be given over to sin , is the worst calamity , the most extreme anger , never inflicted directly at all for any sin , as I have other-where proved , and not indirectly , but upon the extremest anger ; which cannot be supposed , unless God be more angry with us for being born Men , than for chusing to be sinners . The Consequent of these Arguments is this ; That our faculties are not so wholly spoiled by Adams fall , but that we can chuse good or evil , that our nature is not wholly disabled and made opposite to all good : But to nature are left and given as much as to the handmaid Agar ; nature hath nothing to do with the inheritance , but she and her sons have gifts given them ; and by nature we have Laws of Vertue and inclinations to Vertue , and naturally we love God , and worship him , and speak good things of him , and love our Parents , and abstain from incestuous mixtures , and are pleased when we do well , and affrighted within when we sin in horrid instances against God ; all this is in Nature , and much good comes from Nature , Neque enim quasi lassa & effaeta natura est , ut nihil jam laudabile pariat ; Nature is not so old , so obsolete and dried a trunk as to bring no good fruits upon its own stock ; and the French-men have a good proverb , Bonus sanguis non mentitur , a good blood never lies ; and some men are naturally chast , and some are abstemious , and many are just and friendly , and noble and charitable : and therefore all actual sins do not proceed from this sin of Adam ; for if the sin of Adam left us in liberty to sin , and that this liberty was before Adams fall ; then it is not long of Adams fall that we sin ; by his fall it should rather be according to their principles that we cannot chuse but do this or that , and then it is no sin : But to say that our actual sins should any more proceed from Adams fall , than Adams fall should proceed from it self , is not to be imagined , for what made Adam sin when he fell ? If a fatal decree made him sin , then he was nothing to blame . Fati ista culpa est , Nemo fit fato nocens . No guilt upon mankind can lie For what 's the fault of destiny . And Adam might with just reason lay the blame from himself , and say as Agamem●on did in Homer , — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It was not I that sinned , but it was fate or a fury , it was God and not I , it was not my act , but the effect of the Divine decree , and then the same decree may make us sin , and not the sin of Adam be the cause of it . But if a liberty of will made Adam sin , then this liberty to sin being still left us , this liberty and not Adams sin is the cause of all our actual . Concerning the other clause in the Presbyterian Article , that our natural corruption in the regenerate still remains , and is still a sin , and properly a sin : I have ( I confess ) heartily opposed it , and shall besides my arguments , confute it with my blood , if God shall call me ; for it is so great a reproach to the spirit and power of Christ , and to the effects of Baptism , to Scripture and to right reason , that all good people are bound in Conscience to be zealous against it . For when Christ came to reconcile us to his Father , he came to take away our sins , not only to pardon them , but to destroy them ; and if the regenerate , in whom the spirit of Christ rules , and in whom all their habitual sins are dead , are still under the servitude and in the stocks of Original sin , then it follows , not only that our guilt of Adams sin is greater than our own actual , the sin that we never consented to , is of a deeper grain than that which we have chosen and delighted in , and God was more angry with Cain that he was born of Adam , than that he kill'd his Brother ; and Judas by descent from the first Adam contracted that sin which he could never be quit of , but he might have been quit of his betraying the second Adam , if he would not have despaired ; I say not only these horrid consequences do follow , but this also will follow ; that Adams sin hath done some mischief that the grace of Christ can never cure ; and generation stains so much , that regeneration cannot wash it clean . Besides all this , if the natural corruption remains in the regenerate , and be properly a sin , then either God hates the regenerate , or loves the sinner , and when he dies he must enter into Heaven , with that sin , which he cannot lay down but in the grave : as the vilest sinner lays down every sin ; and then an unclean thing can go to Heaven , or else no man can ; and lastly , to say that this natural corruption , though it be pardoned and mortified , yet still remains , and is still a sin , is perfect non-sence ; for if it be mortified , it is not , it hath no being ; if it is pardoned , it was indeed , but now is no sin ; for till a man can be guilty of sin without obligation to punishment , a sin cannot be a sin that is pardoned ; that is , if the obligation to punishment or the guilt be taken away , a man is not guilty . Thus far ( Madam ) I hope you will think I had reason . One thing more I did and do reprove in their Westminster Articles ; and that is , that Original sin , meaning , our sin derived from Adam , is contrary to the law of God , and doth in its own nature bring guilt upon the sinner ; binding him over to Gods wrath , &c. that is , that the sin of Adam imputed to us is properly , formally , and inherently a sin . If it were properly a sin in us , our sin , it might indeed be damnable ; for every transgression of the Divine Commandment is so : but because I have proved it cannot bring eternal damnation , I can as well argue thus : This sin cannot justly bring us to damnation , therefore it is not properly a sin : as to say ; this is properly a sin , therefore it can bring us to damnation . Either of them both follow well : but because they cannot prove it to be a sin properly , or any other ways but by a limited imputation to certain purposes ; they cannot say it infers damnation . But because I have proved , it cannot infer damnation , I can safely conclude , it is not formally , properly , and inherently a sin in us . Nec placet ô superi vobis cum vertere cuncta Propositum , nostris erroribus addere crimen . Nor did it please our God , when that our state Was chang'd , to add a crime unto our fate . I have now ( Madam ) though much to your trouble quitted my self of my Presbyterian opponents , so far as I can judge fitting for the present : but my friends also take some exceptions ; and there are some objections made , and blows given me as it happened to our Blessed Saviour , In domo illorum qui diligebant me ; in the house of my Mother and in the societies of some of my Dearest Brethren . For the case is this . They joyn with me in all this that I have said ; viz. That Original sin is ours only by imputation ; that it leaves us still in our natural liberty , and though it hath devested us of our supernaturals , yet that our nature is almost the same , and by the grace of Jesus as capable of Heaven as it could ever be , by derivation of Original righteousness from Adam . In the conduct and in the description of this Question , being usually esteemed to be only Scholastical , I confess they ( as all men else ) do usually differ ; for it was long ago observed , that there are sixteen several famous opinions in this one Question of Original sin . But my Brethren are willing to confess that for Adams sin alone no man did or shall ever perish . And that it is rather to be called a stain than a sin . If they were all of one mind and one voice in this Article , though but thus far , I would not move a stone to disturb it , but some draw one way and some another , and they that are aptest to understand the whole secret , do put fetters and bars upon their own understanding by an importune regard to the great names of some dead men , who are called masters upon earth , and whose authority is as apt to mislead us into some propositions , as their learning is useful to guide us in others : but so it happens , that because all are not of a mind , I cannot give account of every disagreeing man ; but of that which is most material , I shall . Some learned persons are content I should say no man is damned for the sin of Adam alone ; but yet that we stand guilty in Adam , and redeemed from this damnation by Christ ; and if that the Article were so stated , it would not intrench upon the justice or the goodness of God ; for his justice would be sufficiently declared , because no man can complain of wrong done him when the evil that he fell into by Adam is taken off by Christ ; and his goodness is manifest in making a new Census for us , taxing and numbring us in Christ , and giving us free Redemption by the blood of Jesus : but yet that we ought to confess that we are liable to damnation by Adam , and saved from thence by Christ ; that Gods justice may be glorified in that , and his goodness in this , but that we are still real sinners till washed in the blood of the Lamb ; and without God , and without hopes of Heaven , till then : and that if this Article be thus handled , the Presbyterian fancy will disappear ; for they can be confuted without denying Adams sin to be damnable ; by saying it is pardoned in Christ , and in Christ all men are restored , and he is the head of the Predestination ; for in him God looked upon us when he designed us to our final state ; and this ( say they ) is much for the honour of Christs Redemption . To these things ( Madam ) I have much to say , something I will trouble your Ladiship withal at this time , that you and all that consider the particulars may see , I could not do the work of God and truth if I had proceeded in that method . For , 1. It is observable that those wiser persons , who will by no means admit that anyone is or ever shall be damned for Original sin , do by this means hope to salve the justice of God ; by which they plainly imply , that to damn us for this , is hard and intolerable ; and therefore they suppose they have declared a remedy . But then this also is to be considered , if it be intolerable to damn children for the sin of Adam , then it is intolerable to say it is damnable ; If that be not just or reasonable , then this is also unjust and unreasonable , for the sentence and the execution of the sentence are the same emanation and issue of justice , and are to be equally accounted of . For , 2. I demand , had it been just in God to damn all mankind to the eternal pains of Hell for Adams sin , committed before they had a being , or could consent to it , or know of it ? If it could be just , then any thing in the world can be just , and it is no matter who is innocent , or who is criminal directly and by choice , since they may turn Devils in their mothers bellies ; and it matters not whether there be any laws or no , since it is all one that there be no law , and that we do not know whether there be or no ; and it matters not whether there be any judicial process , for we may as well be damned without judgment , as be guilty without action : and besides , all those arguments will press here which I urged in my first discourse . Now if it had been unjust actually to damn us all for the sin of one , it was unjust to sentence us to it ; for if he did give sentence against us justly , he could justly have executed the sentence ; and this is just , if that be . But , 3. God did put this sentence in execution ; for if that be true which these learned men suppose , that by Adams sin we fell into a damnable condition , but by Christ we are rescued from an actual damnation for it ; then it will follow , that when he sent the holy Jesus into the world , to die for us , and to redeem us , he satisfied his Fathers Anger for Original Sin as well as for actual , he paid for our share as well as for Adams , for our share of that sin which he committed , as well as for those which we committed and not he ; he paid all the price of that as well as of this damnation ; and the horrible sentence was bought off : and God was so satisfied that his justice had full measure for the damnation to which we stood liable . God I say had full measure for all ; for so all men say who speak the voice of the Church in the matter of Christs satisfaction : so that now , although there was the goodness of God in taking the evil from us ; yet how to reconcile this process with his justice , viz. That for the sin of another , God should sentence all the world to the portion of Devils to eternal age● , and that he would not be reconciled to us , or take off this horrible sentence , without a full price to be paid to his justice by the Saviour of the world , this , this is it that I require may be reconciled to that Notion which we have of the Divine justice . 4. If no man shall ever be damned for the sin of Adam alone , then I demand whether are they born quit from the guilt ? or when are they quitted ? If they be born free , I agree to it : but then they were never charged with it , so far as to make them liable to damnation . If they be not born free , when are they quitted ? By Baptism , before or after ? He that says before or after , must speak wholly by chance , and without pretence of Scripture or tradition , or any sufficient warrant ; and he cannot guess when it is . If in Baptism he is quitted , then he that dies before Baptism , is still under the Sentence , and what shall become of him ? If it be answered , that God will pardon him some way or other , at some time or other , I reply , yea , but who said so ? For if the Scriptures have said that we are all in Adam guilty of sin and damnation , and the Scriptures have told us no ways of being quit of it , but by Baptism and Faith in Christ ; Is it not plainly consequent that till we believe in Christ , or at least till in the faith of others we are baptized into Christ , we are reckoned still in Adam , not in Christ , that is , still we are under damnation , and not heirs of Heaven but of wrath only ? 5. How can any one bring himself into a belief that none can be damned for Original sin , if he be of this perswasion that it makes us liable to damnation ; for if you say as I say , that it is against Gods justice to damn us for the fault of another , then it is also against his justice to sentence us to that suffering which to inflict is injustice . If you say it is believed upon this account , because Christ was promised to all mankind , I reply , that yet all mankind shall not be saved ; and there are conditions required on our part , and no man can be saved but by Christ , and he must come to him , or be brought to him , or it is not told us , how any one can have a part in him , and therefore that will not give us the confidence is looked for . If it be at last said that we hope in Gods goodness that he will take care of Innocents , and that they shall not perish , I answer , that if they be Innocents , we need not appeal to his goodness ▪ for his justice will secure them . If they be guilty and not Innocents , then it is but vain to run to Gods goodness , which in this particular is not revealed ; when to condemn them is not against his justice which is revealed , and to hope God will save them whom he hates , who are gone from him in Adam , who are born heirs of his wrath , slaves of the Devil , servants of sin ( for these Epithets are given to all the Children of Adam , by the opponents in this Question ) is to hope for that against which his justice visibly is engaged , and for which hope there is no ground , unless this instance of Divine goodness were expressed in revelation ; For so even wicked persons on their death-bed are bidden to hope without rule , and without reason or sufficient grounds of trust . But besides , that we hope in Gods goodness in this case is not ill , but I ask , Is it against Gods goodness that any one should perish for Original sin ? if it be against Gods goodness , it is also against his justice ; for nothing is just that is not also good . Gods goodness may cause his justice to forbear a sentence , but whatsoever is against Gods goodness , is against God , and therefore against his justice also ; because every attribute in God is God himself : For it is not always true to say [ This is against Gods goodness ] because [ the contradictory is agreeable to Gods goodness ] Neither is it always false to say that two contradictories may both be agreeable to Gods goodness : Gods goodness is of such a latitude that it may take in both parts of the contradiction : Contradictories cannot both be against Gods goodness , but they may both be in with it ; Whatsoever is against the goodness of God is essentially evil : But a thing may be agreeable to Gods goodness , and yet the other part not be against it . For example , It is against the goodness of God to hate fools and Ideots : and therefore he can never hate them . But it is agreeable to Gods goodness to give Heaven to them and the joys beatifical : and if he does not give them so much , yet if he does no evil to them hereafter , it is also agreeable to his goodness : To give them Heaven , or not to give them Heaven , though they be contradictories , yet are both agreeable to his goodness . But in contraries the case is otherwise : For though not to give them Heaven is consistent with the Divine goodness , yet to send them to Hell is not . The reason of the difference is this . Because to do contrary things must come from contrary principles , and whatsoever is contrary to the Divine goodness is essentially evil . But to do or not to do , supposes but one positive principle ; and the other negative , not having a contrary cause , may be wholly innocent as proceeding from a negative : But to speak more plain , Is it against Gods goodness that Infants should be damned for Original sin ? then it could never have been done , it was essentially evil , and therefore could never have been decreed or sentenced . But if it be not against Gods goodness that they should perish in Hell , then it may consist with Gods goodness ; and then to hope that Gods goodness will rescue them from his justice , when the thing may agree with both , is to hope without ground ; God may be good , though they perish for Adams sin ; and if so , and that he can be just too , upon the account of what attribute shall these innocents be rescued , and we hope for mercy for them ? 6. If Adams posterity be only liable to damnation , but shall never be damned for Adams sin , then all the children of Heathens dying in their Infancy , shall escape as well as baptized Christian Children : which if any of my disagreeing Brethren shall affirm , he will indeed seem to magnifie Gods goodness , but he must fall out with some great Doctors of the Church whom he would pretend to follow ; and besides , he will be hard put to it , to tell what advantage Christian Children have over Heathens , supposing them all to die young ; for being bred up in the Christian Religion is accidental , and may happen to the children of unbelievers , or may not happen to the children of believers ; and if Baptism adds nothing to their present state , there is no reason Infants should be baptized ; but if it does add to their present capacity ( as most certainly it does very much ) then that Heathen Infants should be in a condition of being rescued from the wrath of God , as well as Christian Infants , is a strange unlookt for affirmative , and can no way be justified or made probable , but by affirming it to be against the justice of God to condemn any for Adams sin . Indeed if it be un●ust ( as I have proved it is ) then it will follow that none shall suffer damnation by it . But if the hopes of the salvation of Heathen Infants be to be derived only from Gods goodness , though Gods goodness cannot fail , yet our Argument may fail ; for it will not follow , because God is good , therefore Heathen Infants shall be saved ; for it might as well follow , God is good , therefore Heathens shall be no Heathens , but all turn Christians ; These things do not follow affirmatively , but negatively they do . For if it were against Gods goodness that they should be reckoned in Adam unto eternal death , then it is also against his Justice , and against God all the way ; and then they who affirm they were so reckoned , must shew some revelation to assure us , that although it be just in God to damn all Heathens , yet that he is so good that he will not . For so long as there is no revelation of any such goodness , there is this principle to con●est against it , I mean , their affirming that they are in Adam justly liable to damnation ; and therefore without disparagement to the infinite goodness of God , Heathen Infants may perish : for it is never against Gods goodness to throw a sinner into Hell. 7. But to come yet closer to the Question , some good men and wise suppose , that the Sublapsarian Presbyterians can be confuted in their pretended grounds of absolute reprobation , although we grant that Adams sin is damnable to his posterity , provided we say , that though it was damnable , yet it shall never damn us . Now though I wish it could be done , that they and I might not differ so much as in a circumstance , yet first it is certain that the men they speak of can never be confuted upon the stock of Gods Justice , because as the one says , It is just that God should actually damn all for the sin of Adam : So the other says , It is just that God should actually sentence all to damnation ; and so there the case is equal : Secondly , They cannot be confuted upon the stock of Gods goodness ; because the emanations of that are wholly arbitrary , and though there are negative measures of it , as there is of Gods Infinity , and we know Gods goodness to be inconsistent with some things , yet there are no positive measures of this goodness ; and no man can tell how much it will do for us : and therefore without a revelation , things may be sometimes hoped , which yet may not be presumed ; and therefore here also they are not to be confuted : and as for the particular Scriptures , unless we have the advantage of essential reason taken from the Divine Attributes , they will oppose Scripture to Scripture , and have as much advantage to expound the opposite places , as the Jews have in their Questions of the Messias ; an● therefore si meos ipse corymbos necterem , if I might make mine own arguments in their Society , and with their leave ; I would upon that very account suspect the usual discourses of the effects and Oeconomy of Original sin . 8. For where will they reckon the beginning of Predestination ? will they reckon it in Adam after the Fall , or in Christ immediately promised ? If in Adam , then they return to the Presbyterian way , and run upon all the rocks before reckoned , enough to break all the world in pieces . If in Christ they reckon it ( and so they do ) then thus I argue . If we are all reckoned in Christ before we were born , then how can we be reckoned in Adam when we are born , ( I speak as to the matter of Predestination to salvation or damnation ; ) For as for the intermedial temporal evils and dangers spiritual , and sad infirmities , they are our nature , and might with Justice have been all the portion God had given to Adam , and therefore may be so to us , and consequently not at all to be reckoned in this enquiry : But certainly as to the main . 9. If God looks upon us all in Christ , then by him we are rescued from Adam , so much is done for us before we were born . For if this is not to be reckoned till after we were born , then Adams sin prevailed really in some periods , and to some effects for which God in Christ had provided no remedy : for it gave no remedy to children till after they were born , but irremediably they were born children of wrath ; but if a remedy were given to Children before they were born , then they are born in Christ not in Adam : but if this remedy was not given to Children before they were born , then it follows , that we were not at first looked upon in Christ , but in Adam , and consequently he was caput praedestinationis , the head of predestination , or else there were two , the one before we were born , the other after . So that haere●le●h●lis arundo : The arrow sticks fast and it cannot be pulled out , unless by other instruments than are commonly in fashion . However it be , yet methinks this a very good probable Argument . As Adam sinned before any child was born , so was Christ promised before ; and that our Redeemer shall not have more force upon children , that they should be born beloved and quitted from wrath , than Adam our Progenitor shall have to cause that we be born hated and in a damnable condition , wants so many degrees of probability , that it seems to dishonour the mercy of God , and the reputation of his goodness and the power of his redemption . For this serves as an Antidote , and Antinomy of their great objection pretended by these learned persons : for whereas they say , they the rather affirm this , because it is an honour to the redemption which our Saviour wrought for us , that it rescued us from the sentence of damnation , which we had incurred . To this I say , that the honour of our blessed Saviour does no way depend upon our imaginations and weak propositions : and neither can the reputation and honour of the Divine goodness borrow aids and artificial supports from the dishonour of his Justice ; and it is no reputation to a Physician to say he hath cured us of an evil which we never had : and shall we accuse the Father of mercies to have wounded us for no other reason but that the Son may have the Honour to have cured us ? I understand not that . He that makes a necessity that he may find a remedy , is like the Roman whom Cato found fault withall ; he would commit a fault that he might beg a pardon ; he had rather write bad Greek , that he might make an apology , than write good Latin , and need none . But however , Christ hath done enough for us , even all that we did need ; and since it is all the reason in the world we should pay him all honour ; we may remember that it is a greater favour to us that by the benefit of our blessed Saviour , who was the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world , we were reckoned in Christ , and born in the accounts of the Divine favour ; I say , it is a greater favour that we were born under the redemption of Christ , than under the sentence and damnation of Adam , and to prevent an evil is a greater favour than to cure it ; so that if to do honour to Gods goodness and to the graces of our Redeemer , we will suppose a need , we may do him more honour to suppose that the promised seed of the woman did do us as early a good , as the sin of Adam could do us mischief ; and therefore that in Christ we are born , quitted from any such supposed sentence , and not that we bring it upon our shoulders into the world with us . But this thing relies only upon their suppositions . For if we will speak of what is really true and plainly revealed ; From all the sins of all mankind Christ came to redeem us : He came to give us a supernatural birth : to tell us all his Fathers will ; to reveal to us those glorious promises upon the expectation of which we might be enabled to do every thing that is required : He came to bring us grace , and life , and spirit ; to strengthen us against all the powers of Hell and Earth ; to sanctifie our afflictions , which from Adam by Natural generation descended on us ; to take out the sting of death , to make it an entrance to immortal life ; to assure us of resurrection , to intercede for us , and to be an advocate for us , when we by infirmity commit sin ; to pardon us when we repent . Nothing of which could be derived to us from Adam by our natural generation ; Mankind now taken in his whole constitution and design , is like the Birds of Paradise which travellers tell us of in the Molucco Islands ; born without legs ; but by a celestial power they have a recompence made to them for that defect ; and they always hover in the air , and feed on the dew of Heaven : so are we birds of Paradise , but cast out from thence , and born without legs , without strength to walk in the Laws of God , or to go to Heaven ; but by a power from above , we are adopted in our new birth to a celestial conversation , we feed on the dew of Heaven , The just does live by faith , and breaths in this new life by the spirit of God. For from the first Adam nothing descended to us but an infirm body , and a naked soul , evil example and a body of death , ignorance and passion , hard labour and a cursed field , a captive soul and an imprisoned body , that is , a soul naturally apt to comply with the appetites of the body , and its desires whether reasonable or excessive ; and though these things were not direct sins to us in their natural abode and first principle , yet they are proper inherent miseries and principles of sin to us in their emanation . But from this state Christ came to redeem us all by his grace , and by his spirit , by his life and by his death , by his Doctrine and by his Sacraments , by his Promises and by his Revelations , by his Resurrection and by his Ascension , by his Interceding for us and Judging of us ; and if this be not a conjugation of glorious things great enough to amaze us , and to merit from us all our services , and all our love , and all the glorifications of God , I am sure nothing can be added to it by any supposed need of which we have no revelation : There is as much done for us as we could need , and more than we could ask , Nempe quod optanti Divûm promittere nemo Auderet , volvenda dies en attulit ultro ! Vivite foelices animae quibus est fortuna peracta Jam sua — The meaning of which words I render , or at least recompence with the verse of a Psalm , To thee , O Lord , I 'le pay my vow , My knees in thanks to thee shall bow , For thou my life keep'st from the grave , And dost my feet from falling save , That with the living in thy sight I may enjoy eternal light . For thus what Ahasuerus said to Ester , Veteres literas muta , Change the old Letters , is done by the birth of our Blessed Saviour . Eva is changed into Ave , and although it be true what Bensirach said , From the woman is the beginning of sin , and by her we all die , yet it is now changed by the birth of our Redeemer , From a woman is the beginning of our restitution , and in him we all live ; Thus are all the four quarters of the World renewed by the second Adam , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The East , West , North , and South , are represented in the second Adam as well as the first , and rather , and to better purposes , because if sin did abound , Grace shall super-abound . I have now , Madam , given to you such accounts , as I hope being added to my other Papers , may satisfie not only your Ladiship , but those to whom this account may be communicated . I shall only now beg your patience , since you have been troubled with Questions and enquiries , and objections , and little murmurs , to hear my answers to such of them as have been brought to me . 1. I am complained of , that I would trouble the World with a new thing ; which let it be never so true , yet unless it were very useful , will hardly make recompence for the trouble I put the world to , in this inquiry . I answer , that for the newness of it , I have already given accounts that the Opinions which I impugne , as they are no direct parts of the Article of Original sin , so they are newer than the truth which I have asserted . But let what I say seem as new as the Reformation did , when Luther first preached against Indulgences , the pretence of Novelty did not , and we say , ought not to have affrighted him ; and therefore I ought also to look to what I say , that it be true , and the truth will prove its age . But to speak freely , Madam , though I have a great reverence for Antiquity , yet it is the prime antiquity of the Church ; the Ages of Martyrs and Holiness , that I mean ; and I am sure that in them my opinion hath much more warrant than the contrary ; But for the descending Ages I give that veneration to the great names of them that went before us , which themselves gave to their Predecessors ; I honour their memory , I read their Books , I imitate their piety , I examine their arguments ; for therefore they did write them , and where the reasons of the Moderns and theirs seem equal , I turn the balance on the elder side , and follow them ; but where a scruple or a grain of reason is evidently in the other balance , I must follow that ; Nempe qui ante nos ista moverunt , non Domini nostri , sed Duces sunt , Seneca Ep. 33. They that taught of this Article before me , are good guides , but no Lords and Masters ; for I must acknowledge none upon earth ; for so am I commanded by my Master that is in Heaven ; and I remember what we were taught in Palingenius , when we were boys . Quicquid Aristoteles , vel quivis dicat eorum , Dicta nihil moror , à vero cum fortè recedunt : Saepe graves magnosque viros , famâque verendos Errare & labi contingit , plurima secum Ingenia in tenebras consueti nominis alti Authores ubi connivent deducere easdem . If Aristotle be deceiv'd , and say that 's true , What nor himself , nor others ever knew , I leave his text , and let his Scholars talk Till they be hoarse or weary in their walk : When wise men erre , though their fame ring like Bells , I scape a danger when I leave their spells . For although they that are dead some Ages before we were born , have a reverence due to them , yet more is due to truth that shall never die ; and God is not wanting to our industry any more than to theirs ; but blesses every Age with the understanding of his truths . Aetatibus omnibus , omnibus hominibus communis sapientia est , nec illam ceu peculium licet antiquitati gratulari , All Ages , and all men have their advantages in their enquiries after truth ; neither is wisdom appropriate to our Fathers . And because even wise men may be deceived , and therefore that when I find it , or suppose it so ( for that 's all one as to me and my duty ) I must go after truth where-ever it is ; certainly it will be less expected from me to follow the popular noises and the voices of the people , who are not to teach us , but to be taught by us : and I believe my self to have reason to complain when men are angry at a doctrine because it is not commonly taught ; that is , when they are impatient to be taught a truth , because most men do already believe a lie ; Recti apud nos locum tenet error ubi publicus factus est , so Seneca ( Epist. 123. ) complained in his time : it is a strange title to truth which error can pretend , for its being publick ; and we refuse to follow an unusual truth , Quasi honestius sit quiafrequentius , and indeed it were well to do so in those propositions which have no truth in them but what they borrow from mens opinions , and are for nothing tolerable , but that they are usual . Object . 2. But what necessity is there in my publication of this doctrine , supposing it were true ; for all truths are not to be spoken at all times ; and if a truth gives offence , it is better to let men alone , than to disturb the peace . I answer with the labouring mans Proverb , a Penny-worth of ease is worth a Penny at any time ; and a little truth is worth a little Peace , every day of the week : and caeteris paribus , Truth is to be preferred before Peace , not every trifling truth to a considerable peace : But if the truth be material , it makes recompence , though it brings a great noise along with it ; and if the breach of Peace be nothing but that men talk in Private , or declaim a little in publick ; truly ( Madam ) it is a very pitiful little proposition , the discovery of which in truth will not make recompence for the pratling of disagreeing Persons . Truth and Peace make an excellent yoke , but the truth of God is always to be preferred before the Peace of men , and therefore our Blessed Saviour came not to send Peace , but a Sword ; That is , he knew his Doctrine would cause great divisions of heart , but yet he came to perswade us to Peace and Unity . Indeed if the truth be clear , and yet of no great effect in the lives of men , in government , o● in the honour of God , then it ought not to break the Peace : That is , it may not run out of its retirement , to disquiet them , to whom their rest is better than that knowledge . But if it be brought out already , it must not be deserted positively , though peace goes away in its stead . So that Peace is rather to be deserted , than any truth should be renounced or denied : but Peace is rather to be procured or continued , than some Truth offered . This is my sence ( Madam ) when the case is otherwise than I suppose it to be at present . For as for the present case , there must be two when there is a falling out , or a peace broken ; and therefore I will secure it now : for let any man dissent from me in this Article , I will not be troubled at him ; he may do it with liberty , and with my charity . If any man is of my opinion , I confess I love him the better ; but if he refuses it , I will not love him less after than I did before : but he that dissents , and reviles me , must expect from me no other kindness but that I forgive him , and pray for him , and offer to reclaim him , and that I resolve nothing shall ever make me either hate him , or reproach him : And that still in the greatest of his difference , I refuse not to give him the Communion of a Brother ; I believe I shall be chidden by some or other for my easiness , and want of fierceness , which they call Zeal , but it is a fault of my nature ; a part of my Original sin : Vnicuique dedit vitium Natura Creato , Mî Natura aliquid semper amare dedit . Propert. Some weakness to each man by birth descends , To me too great a kindness Nature lends . But if the peace can be broken no more than thus ; I suppose the truth which I publish will do more than make recompence for the noise that in Clubs and Conventicles is made over and above . So long as I am thus resolved , there may be injury done to me , but there can be no duel , or loss of Peace abroad . For a single anger , or a displeasure on one side , is not a breach of Peace on both ; and a War cannot be made by fewer , than a bargain can ; in which always there must be two at least . Object . 3. But as to the thing . If it be inquired 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; what profit , what use , what edification is there , what good to souls , what honour to God by this new explication of the Article ? I answer ; That the usual Doctrines of Original sin are made the great foundation of the horrible proposition concerning absolute Reprobation ; the consequences of it reproach God with injustice , they charge God foolishly , and deny his goodness and his Wisdom in many instances : And whatsoever can upon the account of the Divine Attributes be objected against the fierce way of Absolute Decrees ; all that can be brought for the reproof of their usual Propositions concerning Original sin . For the consequences are plain ; and by them the necessity of my Doctrine , and its usefulness may be understood . For 1. If God decrees us to be born sinners ; Then he makes us to be sinners , and then where is his goodness ? 2. If God does damn any for that , he damns us for what we could not help , and for what himself did , and then where is his Justice ? 3. If God sentence us to that Damnation , which he cannot in justice inflict , where is his Wisdom ? 4. If God for the sin of Adam brings upon us a necessity of sinning ; where is our liberty ? where is our Nature ? what is become of all Laws , and of all Vertue and vice ? How can Men be distinguished from Beasts : or the Vertuous from the vicious ? 5. If by the fall of Adam , we are so wholly ruined in our faculties , that we cannot do any good , but must do evil ; how shall any man take care of his ways ? or how can it be supposed he should strive against all vice , when he can excuse so much upon his Nature ? or indeed how shall he strive at all ? For if all actual sins are derived from the Original , and which is unavoidable , and yet an Unresistible cause , then no man can take care to avoid any actual sin , whose cause is natural , and not to be declined . And then where is his Providence and Government ? 6. If God does cast Infants into Hell for the sin of others , and yet did not condemn Devils , but for their own sin ; where is his love to mankind ? 7. If God chuseth the death of so many Millions of Persons who are no sinners upon their own stock , and yet swears that he does not love the death of a sinner , viz. sinning with his own choice ; how can that he credible , he should love to kill Innocents , and yet should love to spare the Criminal ? Where then is his Mercy , and where is his Truth ? 8. If God hath given us a Nature by derivation , which is wholly corrupted , then how can it be that all which God made is good ? For though Adam corrupted himself , yet in propriety of speaking , we did not ; but this was the Decree of God ; and then where is the excellency of his providence and Power , where is the glory of the Creation ? Because therefore that God is all goodness , and justice , and wisdom , and love , and that he governs all things , and all men wisely and holily , and according to the capacities of their Natures and Persons ; that he gives us a wise Law , and binds that Law on us by promises and threatnings ; I had reason to assert these glories of the Divine Majesty , and remove the hinderances of a good life ; since every thing can hinder us from living well , but scarcely can all the Arguments of God and man , and all the Powers of Heaven and Hell perswade us to strictness and severity . Qui serere ingenuum volet agrum , Liberet arva priùs fruticibus Falce rubos , silicemque resecet , Vt novâ fruge gravis Ceres eat . Boeth . lib. 3. Metr . 1. He that will sow his field with hopeful seed , Must every Bramble , every Thistle weed : And when each hindrance to the Grain is gone , A fruitful crop shall rise of Corn alone . When therefore there were so many ways made to the Devil , I was willing amongst many others to stop this also ; and I dare say , few Questions in Christendom can say half so much in justification of their own usefulness and necessity . I know ( Madam ) that they who are of the other side do and will disavow most of these consequences ; and so do all the World , all the evils which their adversaries say , do follow from their opinions ; but yet all the World of men that perceive such evils to follow from a proposition , think themselves bound to stop the progression of such opinions from whence they believe such evils may arise . If the Church of Rome did believe that all those horrid things were chargeable upon Transubstantiation , and upon worshipping of Images , which we charge upon the Doctrines , I do not doubt but they would as much disown the Propositions , as now they do the consequents ; and yet I do as little doubt but that we do well to disown the first , because we espy the latter : and though the Man be not , yet the doctrines are highly chargeable with the evils that follow : it may be the men espy them not , yet from the doctrines they do certainly follow ; and there are not in the World many men who own that which is evil in the pretence , but many do such as are dangerous in the effect ; and this doctrine which I have reproved , I take to be one of them . Object . 4. But if Original sin be not a sin properly , why are children baptized ? And what benefit comes to them by Baptism ? I answer , As much as they need , and are capable of : and it may as well be asked , Why were all the sons of Abraham circumised , when in that Covenant there was no remission of sins at all ? for little things and legal impurities , and irregularities there were ; but there being no sacrifice there but of Beasts , whose blood could not take away sin , it is certain and plainly taught us in Scripture , that no Rite of Moses was expiatory of sins . But secondly , This Objection can press nothing at all ; for why was Christ baptized , who knew no sin ? But yet so it behoved him to fulfil all Righteousness . 3. Baptism is called regeneration , or the new birth ; and therefore since in Adam Children are born only to a natural life and a natural death , and by this they can never arrive at Heaven , therefore Infants are baptized , because until they be born anew , they can never have title to the Promises of Jesus Christ , or be heirs of Heaven , and co-heirs of Jesus . 4. By Bap●ism Children are made partakers of the holy Ghost and of the grace of God ; which I desire to be observed in opposition to the Pelagian Heresie , who did suppose Nature to be so perfect , * that the grace of God was not necessary , and that by Nature alone , they could go to Heaven ; which because I affirm to be impossible , and that Baptism is therefore necessary , because nature is insufficient and Baptism is the great channel of grace ; there ought to be no envious and ignorant load laid upon my Doctrine , as if it complied with the Pelagian , against which it is so essentially and so mainly opposed in the main difference of his Doctrine . 5. Children are therefore Baptized , because if they live they will sin , and though their sins are not pardoned before-hand , yet in Baptism they are admitted to that state of favour , that they are within the Covenant of repentance and Pardon : and this is expresly the Doctrine of S. Austin , lib. 1. de nupt . & concup . cap. 26. & cap. 33. & tract . 124. in Johan . But of this I have already given larger accounts in my Discourse of Baptism , Part 2. p. 194. in the Great Exemplar . 6. Children are baptized for the Pardon even of Original Sin ; this may be affirmed truly , but yet improperly : for so far as it is imputed , so far also it is remissible ; for the evil that is done by Adam , is also taken away in Christ ; and it is imputed to us to very evil purposes , as I have already explicated : but as it was among the Jews who believed then the sin to be taken away , when the evil of punishment is taken off ; so is Original Sin taken away in Baptism ; for though the Material part of the evil is not taken away , yet the curse in all the sons of God is turned into a blessing , and is made an occasion of reward , or an entrance to it . Now in all this I affirm all that is true , and all that is probable : for in the same sence , as Original stain is a sin , so does Baptism bring the Pardon . It is a sin metonymically , that is , because it is the effect of one sin , and the cause of many ; and just so in Baptism it is taken away , that it is now the matter of a grace , and the opportunity of glory ; and upon these Accounts the Church Baptizes all her Children . Object . 5. But to deny Original Sin to be a sin properly and inherently , is expresly against the words of S. Paul in the fifth Chapter to the Romans , If it be , I have done ; but that it is not , I have these things to say . 1. If the words be capable of any interpretation , and can be permitted to signifie otherwise than is vulgarly pretended , I suppose my self to have given reasons sufficient , why they ought to be . For any interpretation that does violence to right Reason , to Religion , to Holiness of life , and the Divine Attributes of God , is therefore to be rejected , and another chosen ; For in all Scriptures , all good and all wise men do it . 2. The words in question [ sin ] and [ sinner ] and [ condemnation ] are frequently used in Scripture in the lesser sence , and [ sin ] is taken for the punishment of sin ; and [ sin ] is taken for him who bore the evil of the sin , and [ sin ] is taken for legal impurity ; and for him who could not be guilty , even for Christ himself ; as I have proved already : and in the like manner [ sinners ] is used , by the rule of Conjugates and denominatives ; but it is so also in the case of Bathsheba the Mother of Solomon . 3. For the word [ condemnation , ] it is by the Apostle himself limited to signifie temporal death ; for when the Apostle says [ Death passed upon all men , in as much as all men have sinned ; ] he must mean temporal death ; for eternal death did not pass upon all men ; or if he means eternal death , he must not mean that it came for Adams sin ; but in as much as all men have sinned , that is , upon all those upon whom eternal death did come , it came because they also have sinned . For if it had come for Adams sin ; then it had absolutely descended upon all men ; because from Adam all men descended ; and therefore all men upon that account were equally guilty : as we see all men die naturally . 4. The Apostle here speaks of sin imputed ; therefore not of sin inherent : and if imputed only to such purposes as he here speaks of , viz. to temporal death , then it is neither a sin properly , nor yet imputable to Eternal death so far as is or can be implied by the Apostles words . And in this I am not a little confirmed by the discourse of S. Irenaeus to this purpose , lib. 3. cap. 35. Propter hoc & initio transgressionis Adae , &c. Therefore in the beginning of Adams transgression ( as the Scripture tells ) God did not curse Adam but the Earth in his labours , as one of the Ancients saith , God removed the curse upon the Earth that it might not abide on man. But the condemnation of his sin he received , weariness and labour , and to eat in the sweat of his brows , and to return to dust again : and likewise the woman had for her punishment , tediousness , labours , groans , sorrows of child-birth , and to serve her husband ; that they might not wholly perish in the curse , not yet despise God while they remained without punishment . But all the curse run upon the Serpent who seduced them — and this our Lord in the Gospel saith to them on his left hand : Go ye cursed into everlasting fire which my Father prepared for the Devil and his Angels : signifying that not to man in the prime intention was eternal fire prepared , but to him who was the seducer — but this they also shall justly feel who like them without repentance and departing from them persevere in the works of malice . 5. The Apostle says ; By the disobedience of one many were made sinners : By which it appears that we in this have no sin of our own , neither is it at all our own formally and inherently ; for though efficiently it was his , and effectively ours as to certain purposes of imputation ; yet it could not be a sin to us formally ; because it was Vnius inobedientia , the disobedience of one man , therefore in no sence , could it be properly ours . For then it were not Vnius , but inobedientia singulorum : the disobedience of all men . 6. Whensoever another mans sin is imputed to his relative , therefore because it is anothers and imputed , it can go no further but to effect certain evils , to afflict the relative , and to punish the cause ; not formally to denominate the descendant or relative to be a sinner ; for it is as much a contradiction to say that I am formally by him a sinner , as that I did really do his action . Now to [ impute ] in Scripture , signifies to reckon as if he had done it ; Not to impute is to treat him so as if he had not done it . So far then as the imputation is , so far we are reckoned as sinners ; but Adams sin being by the Apostle signified to be imputed but to the condemnation or sentence to a temporal death ; so far we are sinners in him , that is , so as that for his sake death was brought upon us ; And indeed the word [ imputare ] to impute ] does never signifie more , nor always so much . Imputare verò frequenter ad significationem exprobrantis accedit , sed ci●r● reprehensionem , says Laurentius Valla ; It is like an exprobration , but short of a reproo● ; so Quintilian . Imputas nobis propitios ventos , & secundum mare , ac civitatis opulen●ae liberalitatem . Thou dost impute , that is , upbraid to us our prosperous voyages , and a calm Sea , and the liberality of a rich City . Imputare signifies oftentimes the same that computare ; to reckon or account : Nam haec in quartâ non imputantur , say the Lawyers , they are not imputed , that is , they are not computed or reckoned . Thus Adams sin is imputed to us , that is , it is put into our reckoning , and when we are sick and die , we pay our Symbols , the portion of evil that is laid upon us : and what Marcus said , I may say in this case with a little variety , Legata in haereditate — sive legatum datum sit haeredi , sive percipere , sive deducere vel retinere passus est , ei imputantur : The legacy whether it be given or left to the heir , whether he may take it or keep it , is still imputed to him ; that is , it is within his reckoning . But no reason , no Scripture , no Religion does inforce ; and no Divine Attribute does permit that we should say that God did so impute Adams sin to his posterity , that he did really esteem them to be guilty of Adams sin ; equally culpable , equally hateful ; For if in this sence it be true that in him we sinned ; then we sinned as he did , that is , with the same malice , in the same action ; and then we are as much guilty as he ; but if we have sinned less , then we did not sin in him ; for to sin in him , could not by him be lessened to us ; for what we did in him we did by him , and therefore as much as he did ; but if God imputed this sin less to us than to him , then this imputation supposes it only to be a collateral and indirect account to such purposes as he pleased : of which purposes we judge by the analogy of faith , by the words of Scripture , by the proportion and notices of the Divine Attributes . 7. There is nothing in the design or purpose of the Apostle that can or ought to infer any other thing ; for his purpose is to signifie that by mans sin death entred into the world ; which the son of Sirach , Ecclus. 25.33 . expresses thus ; A muliere factum est initium peccati , & inde est quod morimur ; from the woman is the beginning of sin ; and from her it is that we all die : and again , Ecclus. 1.24 . By the envy of the Devil death came into the world ; this evil being Universal , Christ came to the world , and became our head , to other purposes , even to redeem us from death ; which he hath begun and will finish , and to become to us our Parent in a new birth , the Author of a spiritual life ; and this benefit is of far more efficacy by Christ , than the evil could be by Adam ; and as by Adam we are made sinners : so by Christ we are made righteous ; not just so ; but so and more , and therefore as our being made sinners signifies that by him we die , so being by Christ made righteous must at least signifie that by him we live : and this is so evident to them who read S. Pauls words , Rom. 5. from verse 12. to verse 19. inclusively , that I wonder any man should make a farther question concerning them ; especially since Erasmus and Grotius , who are to be reckoned amongst the greatest , and the best expositors of Scripture , that any age since the Apostles and their immediate successors hath brought forth , have so understood and rendred it . But Madam , that your Honour may read the words and their sence together , and see that without violence they signifie what I have said , and no more ; I have here subjoyned a Paraphrase of them ; in which if I use any violence I can very easily be reproved . Rom. 5.12 . As by one man sin entred into the world , and Death by sin : and so death passed upon all men , for that all have sinned , i. e. As by the disobedience of Adam , sin had its beginning ; and by sin death , that is , the sentence and preparations , the solennities and addresses of death , sickness , calamity , d●●inution of strengths , Old age , misfortunes , and all the affections of Mortality , for the destroying of our temporal life ; and so this mortality , and condition or state of death passed actually upon all mankind ; for Adam being thrown out of Paradise , and forced to live with his Children where they had no Trees of Life , as he had in Paradise , was remanded to his mortal , natural state ; and therefore death passed upon them , mortally seized on all , for that all have sinned ; that is , the sin was reckoned to all , not to make them guilty like Adam ; but Adams sin passed upon all , imprinting this real calamity on us all : But yet death descended also upon Adams Posterity for their own sins ; for since all did sin , all should die . But some Greek copies leave out the second 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which indeed seems superfluous and of no signification : but then the sence is cleare● ; and the following words are the second part of a similitude : As by one man sin entred into the world , and death by sin : So death passed upon all men , for that all have sinned : But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies neutrally : And the meaning is ; As Adam died in his own sin : So death passed upon all men for their own sin : in the sin which they sinned , in that sin they died : As it did at first to Adam , by whom sin first entred , and by sin death ; so death passed upon all men upon whom sin passed : that is , in the same method , they who did sin should die . But then he does not seem to say that all did sin ▪ for he presently subjoyns ; that death reigned ( even upon those who did not sin ) after the similitude of Adams transgression ; but this was upon another account , as appears in the following words . But others expound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signifie masculinely , and to relate to Adam ; viz. that in him we all sinned . Now although this is less consonant to the mind of the Apostle , and is harsh and improper both in the language and in the sence , yet if it were so , it could mean but this ; that the sin of Adam was of Universal obligation ; and in him we are reckoned as sinners , obnoxious to his sentence , for by his sin humane Nature was reduced to its own mortality . 13. For until the law , sin was in the World , but sin is not imputed where there is no law . And marvel not that Death did presently descend on all mankind , even before a Law was given them with an appendant penalty , viz. With the express intermination of death ; For they did do actions unnatural and vile enough , but yet these things which afterwards upon the publication of the Law were imputed to them upon their personal account , even unto death , were not yet so imputed . For Nature alone gives Rules , but does not directly bind to penalties . But death came upon them before the Law for Adams sin : for with him God being angry , was pleased to curse him also in his Posterity , and leave them also in their mere natural condition , to which yet they disposed themselves , and had deserved but too much by committing evil things ; to which things , although before the law , death was not threatned , yet for the anger which God had against mankind , he left that death which he threatned to Adam expresly , by implication , to fall upon the Posterity . 14. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses , ( even over them that had not sinned ) after the similitude of Adam's transgression , who is the figure of him which was to come . And therefore it was that death reigned from Adam to Moses , from the first law to the second ; from the time that a Law was given to one man , till the time a Law was given to one Nation ; and although men had not sinned so grievously as Adam did , who had no excuse , many helps , excellent endowments , mighty advantages , trifling temptations , communication with God himself , no disorder in his faculties , free will , perfect immunity from violence , Original righteousness , perfect power over his faculties ; yet those men , such as Abel , and Seth , Noah , and Abraham , Isaac and Jacob , Joseph , and Benjamin , who sinned less , and in the midst of all their disadvantages , were left to fall under the same sentence . But it is to be observed that these words [ even over them that had not sinned ] according to some Interpretations , are to be put into a Parenthesis : and the following words [ after the similitude of Adams transgression ] are an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and to be referred to the first words , thus , Death reigned from Adam to Moses — after the similitude of Adams transgression : that is , as it was at first , so it was afterwards : death reigned upon men ( who had not sinned ) after the similitude of Adams transgression ; that is , like as it did in the transgression of Adam , so it did afterward ; they in their innocence died as Adam did in his sin and prevarication , and this was in the similitude of Adam : As they who obtain salvation obtain it in the similitude of Christ , or by a conformity to Christ : so they 〈◊〉 die do die in the likeness of Adam ; Christ and Adam being the two representatives of mankind : For this , besides that it was the present Oeconomy of the Divine Providence and Government , it did also like Janus look 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it looked forwards as well as backwards , and became a type of Christ , or of him that was to come . For as from Adam evil did descend upon his natural Children , upon the account of Gods entercourse with Adam ; so did good descend upon the spiritual Children of the second Adam . 15. But not as the offence , so also is the free gift : for if through the offence of one many be dead , much more the grace of God , and the gift by grace , which is by one man Jesus Christ , hath abounded unto many . This should have been the latter part of a similitude , but upon further consideration , it is found , that as in Adam we die , so in Christ we live , and much rather , and much more , therefore I cannot say , as by one man [ vers . 12. ] so by one man [ vers . 15. ] But much more ; for not as the offence , so also is the free gift , for the offence of one did run over unto many , and those many , even as it were all , except Enoch , or some very few more , of whom mention peradventure is not made , are already dead upon that account , but when God comes by Jesus Christ to shew mercy to mankind , he does it in much more abundance ; he may be angry to the third and fourth generation , in them that hate him , but he will shew mercy unto thousands of them that love him ; to a thousand generations , and in ten thousand degrees ; so that now although a comparison proportionate was at first intended , yet the river here rises far higher than the fountain ; and now no argument can be drawn from the similitude of Adam and Christ , but that as much hurt was done to humane nature by Adams sin , so very much more good is done to mankind by the incarnation of the Son of God. 16. And not as it was by one that sinned , so is the gift ; for the judgment was by one to condemnation , but the free gift is of many offences unto justification . And the first disparity and excess is in this particular : for the judgment was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by one man sinning one sin ; that one sin was imputed ; but by Christ , not only one sin was forgiven freely , but many offences were remitted unto justification ; and secondly , a vast disparity there is in this ; that the descendants from Adam were perfectly like him in nature , his own real natural production , and they sinned ( though not so bad , yet ) very much , and therefore there was a great parity of reason that the evil which was threatned to Adam , and not to his Children , should yet for the likeness of nature and of sin descend upon them . But in the other part the case is highly differing ; for Christ being our Patriarch in a supernatural birth , we fall infinitely short of him , and are not so like him as we were to Adam , and yet that we in greater unlikeness should receive a greater favour , this was the excess of the comparison , and this is the free gift of God. 17. For if by one offence [ so it is in the Kings MS. or , ] if by one mans offence death reigned by one , much more they which receive abundance of grace , and of the gift of righteousness , shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ. And this is the third degree , or measure of excess of efficacy on Christs part , over it was on the part of Adam . For if the sin of Adam alone could bring death upon the world , who by imitation of his transgression on the stock of their own natural choice did sin against God , though not after the similitude of Adams transgression : much more shall we who not only receive the aids of the spirit of grace , but receive them also in an abundant measure , receive also the effect of all this , even to reign in life by one Jesus Christ. 18. Therefore as by the offence of one , judgment came upon all men to condemnation : Even so by the righteousness of one ; the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life . Therefore now to return to the other part of the similitude where I began ; although I have shown the great excess and abundance of grace by Christ , over the evil that did descend by Adam ; yet the proportion and comparison lies in the main emanation of death from one , and life from the other ; [ judgment unto condemnation ] that is , the sentence of death came upon all men by the offence of one ; even so , by a like Oeconomy and dispensation , God would not be behind in doing an act of Grace , as he did before of judgment : and as that judgment was to condemnation by the offence of one : so the free gift , and the grace came upon all to justification of life , by the righteousness of one . 19. For as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners : so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous . The summ of all is this , By the disobedience of one man , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , many were constituted or put into the order of sinners , they were made such by Gods appointment , that is , not that God could be the Author of a sin to any , but that he appointed the evil which is the consequent of sin , to be upon their heads who descended from the sinner : and so it shall be on the other side ; for by the obedience of one , even of Christ , many shall be made , or constituted righteous . But still this must be with a supposition of what was said before , that there was a vast difference ; for we are made much more righteous by Christ , than we were sinners by Adam ; and the life we receive by Christ shall be greater than the death by Adam ; and the graces we derive from Christ , shall be more and mightier than the corruption and declination by Adam ; but yet as one is the head , so is the other : one is the beginning of sin and death , and the other of life and righteousness . It were easie to add many particulars out of S. Paul , but I shall chuse only to recite the Aethiopick version of the New Testament translated into Latin by that excellent Linguist and worthy Person Dr. Dudly Loftus : The words are these : And therefore , as by the iniquity of one man sin entred into the world , and by THAT SIN death came upon all men , therefore because THAT SIN IS IMPUTED TO ALL MEN , even those who knew not what that sin was . Until the Law came sin remained in the world not known what it was , when sin was not reckoned , because as yet at that time the Commandment of the Law was not come . Nevertheless death did after reign from Adam until Moses , as well in those that did sin , as in those that did not sin by that sin of Adam , because every one was created in the similitude of Adam , and because Adam was a type of him that was to come . But not according to the quantity of our iniquity was the grace of God to us . If for the offence of one man many are dead , how much more by the grace of God , and by the gift of him who did gratifie us , by one man , to wit , Jesus Christ , life hath abounded upon many ? Neither for the measure of the sin which was of one man , was there the like reckoning or account of the grace of God. For if the condemnation of sin proceeding from one man , caus'd that by that sin all should be punished , how much rather shall his grace purifie us from our sins , and give to us eternal life ? If the sin of one made death to reign , and by the offence of one man death did rule in us , how much more therefore shall the grace of one man Jesus Christ and his gift justifie us and make us to reign in life eternal ? And as by the offence of one man many are condemned : Likewise also by the righteousness of one man shall every son of man be justified and live . And as by one man many are made sinners ( or as the Syriack Version renders it ) there were many sinners : In like manner again many are made righteous . * Now this reddition of the Apostles discourse in this Article is a very great light to the Understanding of the words , which not the nature of the thing but the popular glosses have made difficult . But here it is plain that all the notice of this Article which those Churches derived from these words of Saint Paul was this : That the sin of Adam brought death into the world : That it was his sin alone that did the great mischief : That this sin was made ours 〈◊〉 by inherence , but by imputation : That they who suffered the calamity , did not know what the sin was : That there was a difference of men even in relation to thi● sin ; and it passed upon some , more than upon others : that is , some were more miserable than others : That some did not sin by that sin of Adam , and some did ; that is , some there were whose manners were not corrupted by that example , and some were ; that it was not our sin but his ; that the sin did not multiply by the variety of subject , but was still but one sin ; and that it was his and not ours : all which particulars are as so many verifications of the doctrine I have delivered , and so many illustrations of the main Article . But in verification of one great part of it , I mean that concerning Infants , and that they are not corrupted properly or made sinners by any inherent impurity is clearly affirmed by S. Peter , whose words are thus rendred in the same Aethiopick Testament , 1 Pet. 2.2 . And be ye like unto newly begotten Infants , who are begotten every one without sin , or malice , and as milk not mingled . And to the same sence those words of our Blessed Saviour to the Pharisees asking who sinn'd , this man or his Parents ? John 9. the Syriack Scholiast does give this Paraphrase ; some say it is an indirect question : For how is it possible for a man to sin before he was born ? And if his Parents sinn'd , how could he bear their sin ? But if they say , that the punishment of the Parents may be upon the Children , let them know that this is spoken of them that came out of Egypt , and is not Universal . And those words of David ; In sin hath my Mother conceived me , R. David Kimchi and Abe●esra say that they are expounded of Eve , who did not conceive till she had sinned . But to return to the words of S. Paul. The consequent of this discourse must needs at least be this ; that it is impossible that the greatest part of mankind should be left in the eternal bonds of Hell by Adam ; for then quite contrary to the discourse of the Apostle , there had been abundance of sin , but a scarcity of grace ; and the access had been on the part of Adam , not on the part of Christ , against which he so mightily and artificially contends : so that the Presbyterian way is perfectly condemned by this discourse of the Apostle ; and the other more gentle way , which affirms that we were sentenced in Adam to eternal death , though the execution is taken off by Christ , is also no way countenanced by any thing in this Chapter ; for that the judgment which for Adams sin came unto the condemnation of the world , was nothing but temporal death , is here affirmed ; it being in no sence imaginable that the death which here S. Paul says passed upon all men , and which reigned from Adam to Moses , should be eternal death ; for the Apostle speaks of that death which was threatned to Adam ; and of such a death which was afterwards threatned in Moses's Law ; and such a death which fell even upon the most righteous of Adams posterity , Abel and Seth and Methuselah , that is , upon them who did not sin after the similitude of Adams transgression . Since then , all the judgment , which the Apostle says , came by the sin of Adam , was sufficiently and plainly enough affirmed to be death temporal , that God should sentence mankind to eternal damnation for Adams sin , though in goodness through Christ he afterwards took it off ; is not at all affirmed by the Apostle ; and because in proportion to the evil , so was the imputation of the sin , it follows that Adams sin is ours metonymically and improperly ; God was not finally angry with us , nor had so much as any designs of eternal displeasure upon that account ; his anger went no further than the evils of this life , and therefore the imputation was not of a proper guilt , for that might justly have passed beyond our grave ; if the sin had passed beyond a metonymy , or a juridical , external imputation . And of this God and Man have given this further testimony ; that as no man ever imposed penance for it ; so God himself in nature did never for it afflict or affright the Conscience , and yet the Conscience never spares any man that is guilty of a known sin . Extemplo quodcunque malum committitur , ipsi Displicet Authori , He that is guilty of a sin Shall rue the crime that he lies in . And why the Conscience shall be for ever at so much peace for this sin , that a man shall never give one groan for his share of guilt in Adams sin , unless some or other scares him with an impertinent proposition ; why ( I say ) the Conscience should not naturally be afflicted for it , nor so much as naturally know it , I confess I cannot yet make any reasonable conjecture , save this only , that it is not properly a sin , but only metonymically and improperly . And indeed there are some whole Churches which think themselves so little concerned in the matter of Original sin , that they have not a word of it in all their Theology : I mean the Christians in the East-Indies , concerning whom Frier Luys di Vrretta in his Ecclesiastical story of Aethiopia , says , That the Christians in Aethiopia , under the Empire of Prestre Juan , never kept the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary [ no so entremetieron en essas Theologias del peccato Original : porque m●nca tuvieron los entendimientes muy metafisicos , antes como gente afable , benigna , Llana , de entendimientos conversables , y alaguenos , seguian la dotrina de los santos antiguos , y de los sagrados Concilios , sin disputas , ni diferencias ] nor do they insert into their Theology any propositions concerning Original Sin , nor trouble themselves with such Metaphysical contemplations ; but being of an affable , ingenuous , gentle comportment , and understanding , follow the Doctrine of the Primitive Saints and Holy Councils without disputation or difference , so says the story . But we unfortunately trouble our selves by raising Ideas of Sin , and afflict our selves with our own dreams , and will not believe but it is a vision . And the height of this imagination hath wrought so high in the Church of Rome , that when they would do great honours to the Virgin Mary , they were pleased to allow to her an immaculate conception without any Original Sin , and a Holy-day appointed for the celebration of the dream . But the Christians in the other world are wiser , and trouble themselves with none of these things , but in simplicity honour the Divine attributes , and speak nothing but what is easie to be understood . And indeed Religion is then the best , and the world will be sure to have fewer Atheists , and fewer Blasphemers , when the understandings of witty men are not tempted , by commanding them to believe impossible Articles , and unintelligible propositions : when every thing is believed by the same simplicity it is taught : when we do not call that a mystery which we are not able to prove , and tempt our faith to swallow that whole , which reason cannot chew . One thing I am to observe more , before I leave considering the words of the Apostle . The Apostle here having instituted a comparison between Adam and Christ ; that as death came by one , so life by the other ; as by one we are made sinners , so by the other we are made righteous ; some from hence suppose they argue strongly to the overthrow of all that I have said , thus : Christ and Adam are compared , therefore as by Christ we are made really righteous : so by Adam we are made really Sinners : our righteousness by Christ is more than imputed , and therefore so is our unrighteousness by Adam ; to this , besides what I have already spoken in my humble addresses to that wise and charitable Prelate the Lord Bishop of Rochester , delivering the sence and objections of others ; in which I have declared my sence of the imputation of Christs righteousness ; and besides , that although the Apostle offers a similitude , yet he finds himself surprised , and that one part of the similitude does far exceed the other , and therefore nothing can follow hence ; but that if we receive evil from Adam , we shall much more receive good from Christ ; besides this I say , I have something very material to reply to the form of the argument , which is a very trick and fallacy . For the Apostle argues thus , As by Adam we are made sinners , so by Christ we are made righteous ; and that is very true , and much more ; but to argue from hence [ as by Christ we are made really righteous , so by Adam we are made really sinners ] is to invert the purpose of the Apostle , ( who argues from the less to the greater ) and to make it conclude affirmatively from the greater to the less in matter of power , is as if one should say ; If a child can carry a ten pound weight , much more can a man : and therefore whatsoever a man can do , that also a child can do . For though I can say , If this thing be done in a green tree , what shall be done in the dry ? yet I must not say therefore , If this be done in the dry tree , what shall be done in the green ? For the dry tree of the Cross could do much more than the green tree in the Garden of Eden . It is a good argument to say ; If the Devil be so potent to do a shrewd turn , much more powerful is God to do good : but we cannot conclude from hence , but God can by his own mere power and pleasure save a soul ; therefore the Devil can by his power ruine one : In a similitude , the first part may be , and often is , less than the second ; but never greater : and therefore though the Apostle said , As by Adam , &c. So by Christ , &c. Yet we cannot say as by Christ , so by Adam : We may well reason thus ; As by Nature there is a reward to evil doers ; so much more is there by God ; but we cannot by way of conversion , reason thus ; As by God there is an eternal reward appointed to good actions ; so by Nature there is an eternal reward for evil ones . And who would not deride this way of arguing ? As by our Fathers we receive temporal good things ; so much more do we by God : but by God we also receive an immortal Soul ; therefore from our Fathers we receive an immortal Body . For not the consequent of a hypothetical proposition , but the antecedent is to be the assumption of the Syllogism ; This therefore is a fallacy , which when those wise persons , who are unwarily perswaded by it , shall observe , I doubt not but the whole way of arguing will appear unconcluding . Object . 6. But it is objected that my Doctrine is against the ninth Article in the Church of England ; and that I hear , Madam , does most of all stick with you . Of this , Madam , I should not now have taken notice , because I have already answered it in some additional papers , which are already published ; but that I was so delighted to hear and to know that a person of your interest and piety , of your zeal and prudence , is so earnest for the Church of England , that I could not pass it by , without paying you that regard and just acknowledgment which so much excellency deserves . But then , Madam , I am to say , that I could not be delighted in your zeal for our excellent Church , if I were not as zealous my self for it too : I have oftentimes subscribed that Article , and though if I had cause to dissent from it , I would certainly do it in those just measures which my duty on one side , and the interest of truth on the other would require of me ; yet because I have no reason to disagree , I will not suffer my self to be supposed to be of a Differing judgment from my Dear Mother , which is the best Church of the world . Indeed , Madam , I do not understand the words of the Article as most men do ; but I understand them as they can be true , and as they can very fairly signifie , and as they agree with the word of God and right reason . But I remember that I have heard from a very good hand , and there are many alive this day that may remember to have heard it talk'd of publickly , that when Mr. Thomas Rogers had in the year 1584. published an exposition of the Thirty Nine Articles , many were not only then , but long since very angry at him , that he by his interpretation had limited the charitable latitude which was allowed in the subscription to them . For the Articles being framed , in a Church but newly reformed , in which many complied with some unwillingness , and were not willing to have their consent broken by too great a straining , and even in the Convocation it self so many being of a differing judgment , it was very great prudence and piety to secure the peace of the Church by as much charitable latitude as they could contrive ; and therefore the Articles in those things which were publickly disputed at that time , even amongst the Doctors of the Reformation ( such were the Articles of Predestination , and this of Original sin ) were described , with incomparable wisdom and temper ; and therefore I have reason to take it ill , if any man shall deny me liberty to use the benefit of the Churches wisdom ; For I am ready a thousand times to subscribe the Article , if there can be just cause to do it so often ; but as I impose upon no man my sence of the Article , but leave my reasons and him to struggle together for the best , so neither will I be bound to any one man , or any company of men but to my lawful Superiors , speaking there where they can and ought to oblige . Madam , I take nothing ill from any man , but that he should think I have a less zeal for our Church than himself , and I will by Gods assistance be all my life confuting him ; and though I will not contend with him , yet I will die with him in behalf of the Church if God shall call me ; but for other little things and trifling arrests and little murmurs I value none of it . Quid verum atque decent curo , & rogo , & omnis in hoc sum ; Condo & compono quod mox depromere possim , Nullius addictus jurare in verba Magistri : Quo me cunque rapit tempestas deferor — I could translate these also into bad English verse as I do the others ; but that now I am earnest for my liberty , I will not so much as confine my self to the measures of feet . But in plain English I mean by rehearsing these Latin Verses , that although I love every man , and value worthy persons in proportion to their labours and abilities , whereby they can and do serve God and Gods Church , yet I inquire for what is fitting , not what is pleasing ; I search after ways to advantage souls , not to comply with humors , and Sects , and interests ; and I am tied to no mans private opinion any more than he is to mine ; if he will bring Scripture and right reason from any topick , he may govern me and perswade me , else I am free , as he is : but I hope I am before-hand with him in this question . But one thing more I am willing to add . By the confession of all the Schools of learning , it is taught that Baptism hath infallibly all that effect upon Infants which God design'd and the Church intends to them in the ministery of that Sacrament : because Infants cannot ponere obicem , they cannot impede the gift of God , and they hinder not the effect of Gods Spirit . Now all hinderances of the operation of the Sacrament is sin ; and if sin , before the ministration be not morally rescinded , it remains , and remaining , is a disposition contrary to the effect of the Sacrament . Every inherent sin is the obex , bars the gates that the grace of the Sacrament shall not enter . Since therefore Infants do not bar the gates , do not hinder the effect of the Sacrament , it follows they have no sin inherent in them but imputed only . If it be replied that Original sin though it be properly a sin , and really inherent , yet it does not hinder the effect of the Sacrament ; I answer , then it follows that Original sin is of less malignity than the least actual sin in the world ; and if so , then either by it no man is hated by God to eternal damnation , no man is by it an enemy of God , a son of wrath , an heir of perdition ; or if he be , then at the same time he may be actually hated by God , and yet worthily disposed for receiving the grace and Sacrament of Baptism ; and that sin which of all the sins of the world is supposed to be the greatest , and of most universal and parmanent mischief , shall do the least harm , and is less opposed to Gods grace , and indisposes a man less than a single wanton thought , or the first consent to a forbidden action ; which he that can believe , is very much in love with his own proposition , and is content to believe it upon any terms . I end with the words of Lucretius . Desine quapropter novitate exterritus ipsâ Expuere ex animo rationem , sed magis acri Judicio perpende , & si tibi vera videtur , Dede manus , aut si falsa est , accingere contrá . Fear not to own what 's said , because 't is new , Weigh well and wisely if the thing be true . Truth and not conquest is the best reward ; 'Gainst falshood only stand upon thy guard . Madam , I Humbly beg you will be pleased to entertain these Papers , not only as a Testimony of my Zeal for Truth and Peace below , and for the Honour of God above ; but also of my readiness to seize upon every occasion whereby I may express my self to be Your most obliged and most Humble Servant in the Religion of the H. Jesus , JER . TAYLOR . An ANSWER to a LETTER Written by the R. R. The Lord Bishop of ROCHESTER : Concerning the Chapter of ORIGINAL SIN , IN THE VNVM NECESSARIVM . R. R. Father and my good Lord , YOUR Lordships Letter Dated July 28. I received not till Septemb. 11. it seems R. Royston detained it in his hands , supposing it could not come safely to me while I remain a prisoner now in Chepstow-Castle . But I now have that liberty , that I can receive any Letters , and send any ; for the Gentlemen under whose custody I am , as they are careful of their charges , so they are civil to my person . It was necessary I should tell this to your Lordship , that I may not be under a suspicion of neglecting to give accounts in those particulars , which with so much prudence and charity you were pleased to represent in your Letter concerning my discourse of Original Sin. My Lord , In all your Exceptions , I cannot but observe your candor and your paternal care concerning me . For when there was nothing in the Doctrine , but your greater reason did easily see the justice and the truth of it , and I am perswaded could have taught me to have said many more material things in confirmation of what I have taught ; yet so careful is your charity of me , that you would not omit to represent to my consideration what might be said by captious and weaker persons ; or by the more wise and pious who are of a different judgment . But my Lord , First you are pleased to note that this discourse runs not in the ordinary channel . True ; for if it did , it must nurse the popular error : but when the disease is Epidemical , as it is so much the worse , so the extraordinary remedy must be acknowledg'd to be the better . And if there be in it some things hard to be understood , as it was the fate of S. Paul's Epistles ( as your Lordship notes out of S. Peter ) yet this difficulty of understanding proceeds not from the thing it self , nor from the manner of handling it , but from the indisposition and prepossession of mens minds to the contrary , who are angry when they are told that they have been deceived : for it is usual with men to be more displeased , when they are told they were in error , than to be pleased with them who offer to lead them out of it . But your Lordship doth with great advantages represent an objection of some captious persons , which relates not to the material part of the Question , but to the rules of art . If there be no such thing as Original Sin transmitted from Adam to his posterity , then all that Sixth Chapter is a strife about a shadow , a Non ens . Ans. It is true my Lord , the Question as it is usually handled , is so . For when the Franciscan and Dominican do eternally dispute about the conception of the Blessed Virgin , whether it was with , or without Original Sin , meaning by way of grace and special exemption , this is de non ente ; for there was no need of any such exemption : and they supposing that commonly it was otherwise , troubled themselves about the exception of a Rule , which in that sence which they suppos'd it , was not true at all : she was born as innocent from any impurity or formal guilt as Adam was created , and so was her Mother , and so was all her family . * When the Lutheran and the Roman dispute , whether justice and Original righteousness in Adam was Natural or by Grace , it is de non ente : for it was positively neither , but negatively only ; he had Original righteousness till he sinn'd , that is , he was righteous till he became unrighteous . * When the Calvinist troubles himself and his Parishioners with fierce declamations against natural inclinations or concupiscence , and disputes whether it remains in baptized persons , or whether it be taken off by Election , or by the Sacrament , whether to all Christians or to some few ; this is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; for it is no sin at all in persons baptiz'd or unbaptiz'd , till it be consented to . My Lord , when I was a young man in Cambridge , I knew a learned professor of Divinity , whose ordinary Lectures in the Lady Margarets Chair for many years together , Nine as I suppose , or thereabouts , were concerning Original Sin , and the appendant questions : This indeed could not chuse but be Andabatarum conflictus . But then my discourse representing that these disputes are useless , and as they discourse usually to be de non ente , is not to be reprov'd . For I profess to evince that many of those things , of the sence of which they dispute , are not true at all in any sence , I declare them to be de non ente , that is , I untie their intricate knots by cutting them in pieces . For when a false proposition is the ground of disputes , the process must needs be infinite , unless you discover the first error . He that tells them they both fight about a shadow , and with many arguments proves the vanity of their whole process , they ( if he says true ) not he is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * When S. Austin was horribly puzled about the traduction of Original Sin , and thought himself forc'd to say that either the Father begat the soul , or that he could not transmit sin which is subjected in the soul , or at least he could not tell how it was transmitted : he had no way to be relieved but by being told that Original Sin was not subjected in the Soul , because properly and formally it was no real sin of ours at all ; but that it was only by imputation , and to certain purposes , not any inherent quality , or corruption : and so in effect all his trouble was de non ente . * But now some wits have lately risen in the Church of Rome , and they tell us another story . The soul follows the temperature of the body , and so Original Sin comes to be transmitted by contact : because the constitution of the body is the fomes or nest of the sin , and the souls concupiscence is deriv'd from the bodies lust ▪ But besides that this fancy disappears at the first handling , and there would be so many Original Sins as there are several constitutions , and the guilt would not be equal , and they who are born Eunuchs should be less infected by Adam's pollution , by having less of concupiscence in the great instance of desires , [ and after all , concupiscence it self could not be a sin in the soul , till the body was grown up to strength enough to infect it ] [ and in the whole process it must be an impossible thing , because the instrument which hath all its operations by the force of the principal agent , cannot of it self produce a great change and violent effect upon the principal agent ] Besides all this , ( I say ) while one does not know how Original Sin can be derived , and another who thinks he can , names a wrong way , and both the ways infer it to be another kind of thing than all the Schools of learning teach : does it not too clearly demonstrate , that all that infinite variety of fancies agreeing in nothing but in an endless uncertainty , is nothing else but a being busie about the quiddities of a dream , and the constituent parts of a shadow ? But then , My Lord , my discourse representing all this to be vanity and uncertainty , ought not to be call'd or suppos'd to be a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : as he that ends the question between two Schoolmen disputing about the place of Purgatory , by saying they need not trouble themselves about the place ; for that which is not , hath no place at all ; ought not to be told he contends about a shadow , when he proves that to be true , which he suggested to the two trifling Litigants . But as to the thing it self : I do not say there is no such thing as Original Sin , but it is not that which it is supposed to be : it is not our sin formally , but by imputation only ; and it is imputed so , as to be an inlet to sickness , death and disorder : but it does not introduce a necessity of sinning , nor damn any one to the flames of Hell. So that Original Sin is not a Non ens , unless that be nothing which infers so many real mischiefs . The next thing your Lordship is pleas'd to note to me , is that in your wisdom you foresee , some will argue against my explication of the word Damnation , in the Ninth Article of our Church , which affirms that Original Sin deserves damnation . Concerning which , My Lord , I do thus ( and I hope fairly ) acquit my self . 1. That it having been affirmed by S. Austin , that Infants dying unbaptized are damn'd , he is deservedly called Durus pater Infantum , and generally forsaken by all sober men of the later ages : and it will be an intolerable thing to think the Church of England guilty of that which all her wiser sons , and all the Christian Churches generally abhor . I remember that I have heard that King James reproving a Scottish Minister , who refus'd to give private Baptism to a dying Infant , being askt by the Minister , if he thought the child should be damn'd for want of Baptism ? answered , No , but I think you may be damn'd for refusing it : and he said well . But then , my Lord , If Original Sin deserves damnation , then may Infants be damn'd if they die without Baptism . But if it be a horrible affirmative , to say that the poor babes shall be made Devils , or enter into their portion , if they want that ceremony , which is the only gate , the only way of salvation that stands open ; then the word [ Damnation ] in the Ninth Article must mean something less , than what we usually understand by it : or else the Article must be salved by expounding some other word to an allay and lessening of the horrible sentence ; and particularly the word [ Deserves ] of which I shall afterwards give account . Both these ways I follow . The first is the way of the School-men . For they suppose the state of unbaptized Infants to be a poena damni ; and they are confident enough to say that this may be well suppos'd without inferring their suffering the pains of Hell. But this sentence of theirs I admit and explicate with some little difference of expression . For so far I admit this pain of loss , or rather a deficiency from going to Heaven , to be the consequence of Adam's sin , that by it we being left in meris Naturalibus , could never by these strengths alone have gone to Heaven . Now whereas your Lordship in behalf of those whom you suppose may be captious , is pleas'd to argue , That as loss of sight or eyes infers a state of darkness or blindness : so the loss of Heaven infers Hell ; and if Infants go not to Heaven in that state , whither can they go but to Hell ? and that 's Damnation in the greatest sence . I grant it , that if in the event of things they do not go to Heaven ( as things are now ordered ) it is but too likely that they go to Hell : but I add , that as all darkness does not infer horror and distraction of mind , or fearful apparitions and phantasms : so neither does all Hell , or states in Hell infer all those torments which the School-men signifie by a poenase●sus ( for I speak now in pursuance of their way . ) So that there is no necessity of a third place ; but it concludes only that in the state of separation from Gods presence there is a great variety of degrees and kinds of evil , and every one is not the extreme : and yet by the way , let me observe , that Gregory Nazianzen and Nicetas taught that there is a third place for Infants and Heathens : and Irenaeus affirm'd that the evils of Hell were not eternal to all , but to the Devils only and the greater criminals . But neither they nor we , nor any man else can tell whether Hell be a place or no. It is a state of evil ; but whether all the damned be in one or in twenty places , we cannot tell . But I have no need to make use of any of this . For when I affirm that Infants being by Adam reduc'd and left to their mere natural state , fall short of Heaven ; I do not say they cannot go to Heaven at all , but they cannot go thither by their natural powers , they cannot without a new grace and favour go to Heaven . But then it cannot presently be inferred , that therefore they go to Hell ; but this ought to be inferr'd , which indeed was the real consequent of it ; therefore it is necessary that Gods Grace should supply this defect , if God intends Heaven to them at all ; and because Nature cannot , God sent a Saviour by whom it was effected . But if it be asked , what if this grace had not come ? and that it be said , that without Gods grace they must have gone to Hell , because without it they could not go to Heaven ? I answer , That we know how it is , now that God in his goodness hath made provisions for them : but if he had not made such provisions , what would have been we know not , any more than we know what would have followed , if Adam had not sinned ; where he should have liv'd , and how long , and in what circumstances the posterity should have been provided for in all their possible contingencies . But yet , this I know , that it follows not , that if without this Grace we could not have gone to Heaven , that therefore we must have gone to Hell. For although the first was ordinarily impossible , yet the second was absolutely unjust , and against Gods goodness , and therefore more impossible . But because the first could not be done by nature , God was pleased to promise and to give his grace , that he might bring us to that state whither he had design●d us , that is , to a supernatural felicity . If Adam had not fallen , yet Heaven had not been a natural consequent of his obedience , but a Gracious , it had been a gift still : and of Adam though he had persisted in innocence , it is true to say , That without Gods Grace , that is , by the mere force of Nature he could never have arriv'd to a Supernatural state , that is , to the joys of Heaven ; and yet it does not follow , that if he had remain'd in Innocence , he must have gone to Hell. Just so it is in Infants , Hell was not made for man , but for Devils ; and therefore it must be something besides mere Nature that can bear any man thither : mere Nature goes neither to Heaven nor Hell. So that when I say Infants naturally cannot go to Heaven , and that this is a punishment of Adam's sin , he being for it punished with a loss of his gracious condition , and devolv'd to the state of Nature , and we by him left so ; my meaning is , that this Damnation which is of our Nature is but negative , that is , as a consequent of our Patrialous sin , our Nature is left imperfect and deficient in order to a supernatural end , which the School-men call a poena damni , but improperly : they indeed think it may be a real event , and final condition of persons as well as things : but I affirm it was an evil effect of Adam's sin : but in the event of things it became to the persons the way to a new grace , and hath no other event as to Heaven and Hell , directly and immediately . In the same sence and to the same purpose I understand the word Damnation in the Ninth Article . But the word [ Damnation ] may very well , truly , and sufficiently signifie all the purposes of the Article , if it be taken only for the effect of that sentence which was inflicted upon Adam , and descended on his posterity , that is , for condemnation to Death , and the evils of mortality . So the word is used by S. Paul , 1 Cor. 11.29 . He that eateth and drinketh unworthily , eateth and drinketh Damnation to himself . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word , but that it did particularly signifie temporal death and evils , appears by the instances of probation in the next words , For , for this cause some are weak amongst you , some are sick , and some are fallen asleep . This also in the Article . Original Sin deserves damnation , that is , it justly brought in the angry sentence of God upon Man , it brought him to death , and deserv'd it : it brought it upon us , and deserv'd it too . I do not say that we by that sin deserv'd that death , neither can death be properly a punishment of us till we superadd some evil of our own ; yet Adam's sin deserv'd it so , that it was justly left to fall upon us , we as a consequent and punishment of his sin being reduc'd to our natural portion . In odiosis quod minimum est sequimur . The lesser sence of the word is certainly agreeable to truth and reason : and it were good we us'd the word in that sence which may best warrant her doctrine , especially for that use of the word , having the precedent of Scripture . I am confirm'd in this interpretation by the second Section of the Article , viz. of the remanency of Concupiscence or Original Sin in the Regenerate . All the sinfulness of Original Sin is the lust or concupiscence , that is , the proneness to sin . Now then I demand , whether Concupiscence before actual consent be a sin or no ? and if it be a sin , whether it deserves damnation ? That all sin deserves damnation , I am sure our Church denies not . If therefore concupiscence before consent be a sin , then this also deserves damnation where-ever it is : and if so , then a man may be damned for Original Sin even after Baptism . For even after Baptism , concupiscence ( or the sinfulness of Original Sin ) remains in the regenerate : and that which is the same thing , the same viciousness , the same enmity to God after Baptism , is as damnable , it deserves damnation as much as that did that went before . If it be replied , that Baptism takes off the guilt or formal part of it , but leaves the material part behind , that is , though concupiscence remains , yet it shall not bring damnation to the regenerate or Baptized . I answer , that though baptismal regeneration puts a man into a state of grace and favour , so that what went before shall not be imputed to him afterwards ▪ that is , Adam's sin shall not bring damnation ( in any sence ) yet it hinders not , but that what is sinful afterwards shall be then imputed to him , that is , he may be damn'd for his own concupiscence . He is quitted from it as it came from Adam ; but by Baptism he is not quitted from it , as it is subjected in himself , if ( I say ) concupiscence before consent be a sin . If it be no sin , then for it , Infants unbaptized cannot with justice be damn'd ; it does not deserve damnation : but if it be a sin , then so long as it is there , so long it deserves damnation ; and Baptism did only quit the relation of it to Adam ( for that was all that went before it ) but not the danger of the man. * But because the Article supposes that it does not damn the regenerate or baptized , and yet that it hath the nature of sin , it follows evidently and undeniably , that both the phrases are to be diminished and understood in a favourable sence . As the phrase [ the Nature of sin ] signifies ; so does [ Damnation ] but [ the Nature of sin ] signifies something that brings no guilt , because it is affirm'd to be in the Regenerate , therefore [ Damnation ] signifies something that brings no Hell : but [ to deserve Damnation ] must mean something less than ordinary , that is , that concupiscence is a thing not morally good , not to be allowed of , not to be nurs'd , but mortifi'd , fought against , disapprov'd , condemn'd and disallowed of men as it is of God. And truly , My Lord , to say that for Adam's sin it is just in God to condemn Infants to the eternal flames of Hell : and to say , that concupiscence or natural inclinations before they pass into any act , could bring eternal condemnation from Gods presence into the eternal portion of Devils , are two such horrid propositions , that if any Church in the world would expresly affirm them , I for my part should think it unlawful to communicate with her in the defence or profession of either , and to think it would be the greatest temptation in the world to make men not to love God , of whom men so easily speak such horrid things . I would suppose the Article to mean any thing rather than either of these . But yet one thing more I have to say . The Article is certainly to be expounded according to the analogy of faith , and the express words of Scripture , if there be any that speak expresly in this matter . Now whereas the Article explicating Original Sin , affirms it to be that fault or corruption of mans nature ( vitium Naturae , not peccatum ) by which he is far gone from Original righteousness , and is inclin'd to evil : because this is not full enough , the Article adds by way of explanation [ So that the flesh lusteth against the spirit ] that is , it really produces a state of evil temptations : It lusteth , that is , actually and habitually ; [ it lusteth against the spirit , and therefore deserves Gods wrath and damnation ] So the Article : Therefore ; for no other reason but because the flesh lusteth against the spirit ; not because it can lust , or is apta nata to lust , but because it lusteth actually , therefore it deserves damnation : and this is Original Sin : or as the Article expresses it , it hath the nature of sin ; it is the fomes , or matter of sin , and is in the Original of mankind , and deriv'd from Adam as our body is , but it deserves not damnation in the highest sence of the word , till the concupiscence be actual . Till then the words of [ Wrath and Damnation ] must be meant in the less and more easie signification , according to the former explication : and must only relate to the personal sin of Adam . To this sence of the Article I heartily subscribe . For besides the reasonableness of the thing , and the very manner of speaking us'd in the Article ; it is the very same way of speaking , and exactly the same doctrine which we find in S. James , ( Jam. 1.14 . ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : Concupiscence , when it is impregnated , when it hath conceiv'd , then it brings forth sin : and sin when it is in production , and birth , brings forth death , But in Infants , concupiscence is innocent and a virgin , it conceives not , and therefore is without sin , and therefore without death or damnation . * Against these expositions I cannot imagine what can be really and materially objected . But , my Lord , I perceive the main out-cry is like to be upon the authority of the Harmony of Confessions . Concerning which I shall say this , That in this Article the Harmony makes as good musick as Bells ringing backward ; and they agree , especially when they come to be explicated and untwisted into their minute and explicite meanings , as much as Lutheran and Calvinist , as Papist and Protestant , as Thomas and Scotus , as Remonstrant and Dordrechtan , that is , as much as pro and con , or but a very little more . I have not the book with me here in prison , and this neighbourhood cannot supply me , and I dare not trust my memory to give a scheme of it : but your Lordship knows that in nothing more do the Reformed Churches disagree , than in this and its appendages ; and you are pleased to hint something of it , by saying that some speak more of this than the Church of England : and Andrew Rivet , though unwillingly , yet confesses , De Confessionibus nostris & earum syntagmate vel Harmonia , etiamsi in non nullis capitibus non planè conveniant , dicam tamen , melius in corcordiam redigi posse quàm in Ecclesia Romana concordantiam discordantium Canonum , quo titulo decretum Gratiani , quod Canonistis regulas praefigit , solet insigniri . And what he affirms of the whole collection , is most notorious in the Article of Original Sin. For my own part I am ready to subscribe the first Helvetian confession , but not the second . So much difference there is in the confessions of the same Church . Now whereas your Lordship adds , that though they are fallible , yet when they bring evidence of holy Writ , their assertions are infallible , and not to be contradicted : I am bound to reply , that when they do so , whether they be infallible or no , I will believe them , because then though they might , yet they are not deceived . But as evidence of holy Writ had been sufficient without their authority : so without such evidence their authority is nothing . But then , My Lord , their citing and urging the words of S. Paul , Rom. 5.12 . is so far from being an evident probation of their Article , that nothing is to me a surer argument of their fallibility , than the urging of that which evidently makes nothing for them , but much against them : As 1. Affirming expresly that death was the event of Adam's sin ; the whole event , for it names no other ; temporal death ; according to that saying of S. Paul , 1 Cor. 15. In Adam we all die . And 2. Affirming this process of death to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which is and ought to be taken to be the allay or condition of the condemnation . It became a punishment to them only who did sin ; but upon them also inflicted for Adam's sake . A like expression to which is in the Psalms , Psalm 106.32 , 33. They angred him also at the waters of strife , so that he punished Moses for their sakes . Here was plainly a traduction of evil from the Nation to Moses their relative : For their sakes he was punished , but yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for as much as Moses had sinn'd : for so it follows , because they provoked his spirit , so that he spake unadvisedly with his lips . So it is between Adam and us . He sinn'd and God was highly displeased . This displeasure went further than upon Adam's sin : for though that only was threatned with death , yet the sins of his children which were not so threatned , became so punished , and they were by nature heirs of wrath and damnation ; that is , for his sake our sins inherited his curse . The curse that was specially and only threatned to him , we when we sinn'd did inherit for his sake . So that it is not so properly to be called Original Sin , as an Original curse upon our sin . To this purpose we have also another example of God transmitting the curse from one to another : Both were sinners , but one was the Original of the curse or punishment . So said the Prophet to the wife of Jeroboam , 1 Kings 14.16 . [ He shall give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam , who did sin , and who made Israel to sin ] Jeroboam was the root of the sin and of the curse . Here it was also ( that I may use the words of the Apostle ) that by the sin of one man [ Jeroboam ] sin went out into all [ Israel ] and the curse , captivity , or death by sin , and so death went upon all men [ of Israel ] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in as much as all men [ of Israel ] have sinned . If these men had not sinned , they had not been punished : I cannot say they had not been afflicted ; for David's child was smitten for his fathers fault : but though they did sin , yet unless their root and principal had sinned , possibly they should not have so been punished : For his sake the punishment came . Upon the same account it may be , that we may inherit the damnation or curse for Adam's sake , though we deserve it ; yet it being transmitted from Adam , and not particularly threatned to the first posterity , we were his heirs , the heirs of death , deriving from him an Original curse , but due also ( if God so pleased ) to our sins . And this is the full sence of the 12. verse , and the effect of the phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . But your Lordship is pleased to object that though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does once signifie [ For as much as ] yet three times it signifies in or by . To this I would be content to submit , if the observation could be verified , and be material when it were true . But besides that it is so used in 2 Cor. 5.4 . your Lordship may please to see it used ( as not only my self , but indeed most men , and particularly the Church of England does read it and expound it ) in Mat. 26.50 . And yet if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which is the same with in or by , if it be rendred word for word , yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 twice in the Scripture signifies [ for as much as ] as you may read Rom. 8.3 . and Heb. 2.18 . So that here are two places besides this in question , and two more ex abundanti to shew , that if it were not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but said in words expresly as you would have it in the meaning , yet even so neither the thing , nor any part of the thing could be evicted against me : and lastly , if it were not only said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but that that sence of it were admitted which is desired , and that it did mean in or by in this very place : yet the Question were not at all the nearer to be concluded against me . For I grant that it is true [ in him we are all sinners ] as it is true that [ in him we all die ] that is , for his sake we are us'd as sinners ; being miserable really , but sinners in account and effect : as I have largely discoursed in my book . But then for the place here in question , it is so certain that it signifies the same thing ( as our Church reads it ) that it is not sence without it , but a violent breach of the period without precedent or reason . And after all ; I have looked upon those places where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is said to signifie in or by , and in one of them I find it so , Mat. 2.4 . but in Acts 3.16 . and Phil. 1.3 . I find it not at all in any sence : but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indeed is used for in or by , in that of the Acts ; and in the other it signifies , at or upon ; but if all were granted that is pretended to , it no way prejudices my cause , as I have already proved . Next to these your Lordship seems a little more zealous and decretory in the Question upon the confidence of the 17 , 18 , and 19. Verses of the 5. Chapter to the Romans . The summ of which as your Lordship most ingeniously summs it up , is this . As by one many were made sinners : so by one many were made righteous , that by Adam , this by Christ. But by Christ we are made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , just , not by imputation only , but effectively and to real purposes ; therefore by Adam we are really made sinners . And this your Lordship confirms by the observation of the sence of two words here used by the Apostle . The first is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifies a sentence of guilt , or punishment for sin , and this sin to be theirs upon whom the condemnation comes , because God punishes none but for their own sin , Ezek. 18.2 . From the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , clear from sin , so your Lordship renders it : and in opposition to this , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be rendred , that is , guilty , criminal persons , really and properly . This is all which the wit of man can say from this place of S. Paul , and if I make it appear that this is invalid , I hope I am secure . To this then I answer : That the Antithesis in these words here urg'd , ( for there is another in the Chapter ) and this whole argument of S. Paul is full and intire without descending to minutes . Death came in by one man , much more shall life come by one man ; if that by Adam , then much more this by Christ : by him to condemnation , by this man to justification . This is enough to verifie the argument of S. Paul , though life and death did not come in the same manner to the several relatives ; as indeed they did not : of which afterwards . But for the present , it runs thus : By Adam we were made sinners ; by Christ we are made righteous : As certainly one as the other , though not in the same manner of dispensation . By Adam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , death reigned ; by this man the reign of death shall be destroyed , and life set up in stead of it ; by him we were us'd as sinners , for in him we died : but by Christ we are justified , that is , us'd as just persons , for by him we live . This is sufficient for the Apostles argument , and yet no necessity to affirm that we are sinners in Adam any more than by imputation : for we are by Christ made just no otherwise than by imputation . In the proof or perswasion I will use no indirect arguments , as to say , that to deny us to be just by imputation is the Doctrine of the Church of Rome and of the Socinian Conventicles , but expresly dislik'd by all the Lutheran , Calvinist , and Zuinglian Churches , and particularly by the Church of England , and indeed by the whole Harmony of Confessions : This , I say , I will not make use of ; not only because I my self do not love to be press'd by such prejudices rather than arguments ; but because the question of the imputation of righteousness is very much mistaken and misunderstood on all hands . They that say that Christs righteousness is imputed to us for justification , do it upon this account , because they know all that we do is imperfect , therefore they think themselves constrain'd to flie to Christ's righteousness , and think it must be imputed to us , or we perish . The other side , considering that this way would destroy the necessity of holy living ; and that in order to our justification , there were conditions requir'd on our parts , think it necessary to say that we are justified by inherent righteousness . Between these the truth is plain enough to be read . Thus : Christ's righteousness is not imputed to us for justification directly and immediately ; neither can we be justified by our own righteousness : but our Faith and sincere endeavours are through Christ accepted in stead of legal righteousness : that is , we are justified through Christ , by imputation , not of Christs , nor our own righteousness ; but of our faith and endeavours of righteousness , as if they were perfect : and we are justified by a Non-imputation , viz. of our past sins , and present unavoidable imperfections : that is , we are handled as if we were just persons and no sinners . So faith was imputed to Abraham for righteousness ; not that it made him so , legally , but Evangelically , that is , by grace and imputation . And indeed , My Lord , that I may speak freely in this great question : when one man hath sinn'd , his descendants and relatives , cannot possibly by him , or for him , or in him be made sinners properly and really . For in sin there are but two things imaginable : the irregular action , and the guilt , or obligation to punishment . Now we cannot in any sence be said to have done the action which another did , and not we : the action is as individual as the person ; and Titius may as well be Cajus , and the Son be his own Father , as he can be said to have done the Fathers action ; and therefore we cannot possibly be guilty of it : for guilt is an obligation to punishment for having done it : the action and the guilt are relatives ; one cannot be without the other : something must be done inwardly or outwardly , or there can be no guilt . * But then for the evil of punishment , that may pass further than the action . If it passes upon the innocent , it is not a punishment to them , but an evil inflicted by right of Dominion ; but yet by reason of the relation of the afflicted to him that sinn'd , to him it is a punishment . But if it passes upon others that are not innocent , then it is a punishment to both ; to the first principally ; to the Descendents or Relatives , for the others sake ; his sin being imputed so far . How far that is in the present case , and what it is , the Apostle expresses thus : It was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; vers . 18. or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , vers . 16. a curse unto condemnation , or a judgment unto condemnation , that is , a curse inherited from the principal ; deserv'd by him , and yet also actually descending upon us after we had sinn'd , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; that is the judgment passed upon Adam ; the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was on him ; but it prov'd to be a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or a through condemnation when from him it passed upon all men that sinn'd . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes differ in degrees : so the words are used by S. Paul otherwhere ( 1 Cor. 11.32 . ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; a judgment to prevent a punishment , or a less to fore-stall a greater in the same kind : so here the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pass'd further ; the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was fulfilled in his posterity passing on further , viz. that all who sinn'd should pass under the power of death as well as he : but this became formally and actually a punishment to them only who did sin personally : to them it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , vers . 17. the reign of death ; this is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , verse 21. the reign of sin in death : that is , the effect which Adams sin had , was only to bring in the reign of death , which is already broken by Jesus Christ , and at last shall be quite destroyed . But to say that sin here is properly transmitted to us from Adam , formally , and so as to be inherent in us , is to say that we were made to do his action , which is a perfect contradiction . Now then your Lordship sees that what you note of the meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I admit , and is indeed true enough , and agreeable to the discourse of the Apostle , and very much in justification of what I taught . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a punishment for sin , and this sin to be theirs upon whom the condemnation comes . I easily subscribe to it : but then take in the words of S. Paul , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by one sin , or by the sin of one , the curse passed upon all men unto condemnation ; that is , the curse descended from Adam ; for his sake it was propagated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to a real condemnation , viz. when they should sin . For though this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the curse of death was threatned only to Adam , yet upon Gods being angry with him , God resolved it should descend : and if men did sin as Adam , or if they did sin at all , though less than Adam , yet the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the curse threatned to him should pass , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , unto the same actual condemnation which fell upon him , that is , it should actually bring them under the reign of death . But then , my Lord , I beseech you let it be considered , if this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must suppose a punishment for sin , for the sin of him , his own sin that is so condemn'd , as your Lordship proves perfectly out of Ezek. 18. how can it be just that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 condemnation should pass upon us for Adam's sin , that is , not for his own sin who is so condemn'd , but for the sin of another ? S. Paul easily resolves the doubt , if there had been any . The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the reign of death passed upon all men , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in as much as all men have sinned . And now why shall we suppose that we must be guilty of what we did not , when without any such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is so much guilt of what we did really and personally ? Why shall it be that we die only for Adam's sin , and not rather as S. Paul expresly affirms , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in as much as all men have sinned , since by your own argument it cannot be in as much as all men have not sinned ; this you say cannot be , and yet you will not confess this which can be , and which S. Paul affirms to have been indeed : as if it were not more just and reasonable to say , That from Adam the curse descended unto the condemnation of the sins of the world , than to say the curse descended without consideration of their sins ; but a sin must be imagined to make it seem reasonable and just to condemn us . [ Now I submit it to the judgment of all the world , which way of arguing is most reasonable and concluding : You , my Lord , in behalf of others argue thus . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or condemnation cannot pass upon a man for any sin but his own : Therefore every man is truly guilty of Adam's sin , and that becomes his own . Against this I oppose mine . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or condemnation cannot pass upon a man for any sin but his own : therefore it did not pass upon man for Adam's sin ; because Adam's sin was Adam's , not our own : But we all have sinned , we have sins of our own , therefore for these the curse pass'd from Adam to us . To back mine , besides that common notices of sense and reason defend it , I have the plain words of S. Paul ; Death passed upon all men , for as much as all men have sinned ; all men , that is , the generality of mankind , all that liv'd till they could sin , the others that died before , died in their nature , not in their sin , neither Adam's nor their own , save only that Adam brought it in upon them , or rather left it to them , himself being disrobed of all that which could hinder it . Now for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which your Lordship renders [ clear from sin ] I am sure no man is so justified in this world , as to be clear from sin ; and if we all be sinners , and yet healed as just persons , it is certain we are just by imputation only , that is , Christ imputing our faith , and sincere , though not unerring obedience to us for righteousness : And then the Antithesis must hold thus ; By Christ comes justification to life , as by Adam came the curse or the sin to the condemnation of death : But our justification which comes by Christ is by imputation and acceptilation , by grace and favour : not that we are made really , that is , legally and perfectly righteous , but by imputation of faith and obedience to us , as if it were perfect : And therefore Adam's sin was but by imputation only to certain purposes ; not real , or proper , not formal or inherent . For the grace by Christ is more than the sin by Adam : if therefore that was not legal and proper , but Evangelical and gracious , favourable and imputative , much more is the sin of Adam in us improperly , and by imputation . * And truly , my Lord , I think that no sound Divine of any of our Churches will say that we are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in any other sence : not that Christs righteousness is imputed to us without any inherent graces in us , but that our imperfect services , our true faith and sincere endeavours of obedience are imputed to us for righteousness through Jesus Christ : and since it is certainly so , I am sure the Antithesis between Christ and Adam can never be salved by making us sinners really by Adam , and yet just or righteous by Christ only in acceptation and imputation . For then sin should abound more than grace ; expresly against the honour of our blessed Saviour , the glory of our redemption , and the words of S. Paul. But rather on the contrary is it true , That though by Christ we were really and legally made perfectly righteous , it follows not that we were made sinners by Adam in the same manner and measure : for this similitude of S. Paul ought not to extend to an equality in all things ; but still the advantage and prerogative , the abundance and the excess must be on the part of Grace : for if sin does abound , grace does much more abound ; and we do more partake of righteousness by Christ , than of sin by Adam . Christ and Adam are the several fountains of emanation , and are compar'd aequè , but not aequaliter . Therefore this argument holds redundantly , since by Christ we are not made legally righteous , but by imputation only ; much less are we made sinners by Adam . This in my sence is so infinitely far from being an objection , that it perfectly demonstrates the main question ; and for my part I mean to relie upon it . As for that which your Lordship adds out of Rom. 5.19 . That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies sinners , not by imitation , as the Pelagians dream , but sinners really and effectively ; I shall not need to make any other reply ; but that 1. I do not approve of that gloss of the Pelagians , that in Adam we are made sinners by imitation ; and much less of that which affirms , we are made so properly and formally . But [ made sinners ] signifies , us'd like sinners ; so as [ justified ] signifies healed like just persons : In which interpretation I follow S. Paul , not the Pelagians ; they who are on the other side of the question , follow neither . And unless men take in their opinion before they read ; and resolve not to understand S. Paul in this Epistle , I wonder why they should fancy that all that he says sounds that way which they commonly dream of : But as men fancy , so the Bells will ring . But I know your Lordships grave and wiser judgment , sees not only this that I have now opened , but much beyond it , and that you will be a zealous advocate for the truth of God , and for the honour of his justice , wisdom and mercy . That which follows makes me believe your Lordship resolv'd to try me , by speaking your own sence in the line , and your temptation in the interline . For when your Lordship had said that [ My arguments for the vindication of Gods goodness and justice are sound and holy ] your hand run it over again and added [ as abstracted from the case of Original Sin. ] But why should this be abstracted from all the whole Oeconomy of God , from all his other dispensations ? Is it in all cases of the world unjust for God , to impute our fathers sins to us unto eternal condemnation ; and is it otherwise in this only ? Certainly a man would think this were the more favourable case ; as being a single act , done but once , repented of after it was done , not consented to by the parties interested , not stipulated by God that it should be so , and being against all laws and all the reason of the world : therefore it were but reason that if any where , here much rather Gods justice and goodness should be relied upon as the measure of the event . * And if in other cases laws be never given to Ideots and Infants and persons uncapable , why should they be given here ? But if they were not capable of a Law , then neither could they be of Sin ; for where there is no law , there is no transgression . And is it unjust to condemn one man to Hell for all the sin of a thousand of his Ancestors actually done by them ? And shall it be accounted just to damn all the world for one sin of one man ? But if it be said , that it is unjust to damn the innocent for the sin of another ; but the world is not innocent , but really guilty in Adam . Besides that this is a begging of the question , it is also against common sence , to say that a man is not innocent of that which was done before he had a being ; for if that be not sufficient , then it is impossible for a man to be innocent . And if this way of answer be admitted , any man may be damned for the sin of any Father ; because it may be said here as well as there , that although the innocent must not perish for anothers fault , yet the Son is not innocent as being in his Fathers loyns when the fault was committed , and the law calls him and makes him guilty . And if it were so indeed , this were so far from being an excuse , to say that the Law makes him guilty , that this were absolute tyranny , and the thing that were to be complain'd of . I hope , by this time your Lordship perceives , that I have no reason to fear that I prevaricate S. Paul's rule : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . I only endeavour to understand S. Paul's words , and I read them , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in proportion to , and so as they may not intrench upon , the reputation of Gods goodness and justice : that 's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to be wise unto sobriety . But they that do so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as to resolve it to be so , whether God be honour'd in it , or dishonour'd , and to answer all arguments , whether they can or cannot be answered , and to efform all their Theology to the air of that one great proposition , and to find out ways for God to proceed in , which he hath never told of , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ways that are crooked and not to be insisted in , ways that are not right , if these men do not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , then I hope I shall have less need to fear that I do , who do none of these things . And in proportion to my security here , I am confident that I am unconcern'd in the consequent threatning . If any man shall Evangelize , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , any other doctrine than what ye have received , something for Gospel which is not Gospel , something that ye have not received , let him be accursed . My Lord , if what I teach were not that which we have received , that God is just , and righteous , and true : that the soul that sins , the same shall die : that we shall have no cause to say , The Fathers have eaten sowre Grapes , and the childrens teeth are set on edge : that God is a gracious Father , pardoning iniquity , and therefore not exacting it where it is not : that Infants are from their Mothers wombs beloved of God their Father : that of such is the Kingdom of God : that he pities those souls who cannot discern the right hand from the left , as he declar'd in the case of the Ninevites : that to Infants there are special Angels appointed , who always behold the face of God : that Christ took them in his arms and blessed them , and therefore they are not hated by God , and accursed heirs of Hell , and coheirs with Satan : that the Messias was promis●d before any children were born ; as certainly as that Adam sinn'd before they were born : that if sin abounds , grace does superabound ; and therefore children are with greater effect involv'd in the grace than they could be in the sin : and the sin must be gone before it could do them mischief : if this were not the doctrine of both Testaments , and if the contrary were , then the threatning of S. Paul might well be held up against me : but else , my Lord , to shew such a Scorpion to him that speaks the truth of God in sincerity and humility , though it cannot make me to betray the truth and the honour of God , yet the very fear and affrightment which must needs seize upon every good man that does but behold it , or hear the words of that angry voice , shall and hath made me to pray not only that my self be preserved in truth , but that it would please God to bring into the way of truth all such as have erred and are deceived . My Lord , I humbly thank your Lordship for your grave and pious Counsel , and kiss the hand that reaches forth so paternal a rod. I see you are tender both of truth and me : and though I have not made this tedious reply to cause trouble to your Lordship , or to steal from you any part of your precious time , yet because I see your Lordship was perswaded induere personam , to give some little countenance to a popular error out of jealousie against a less usual truth , I thought it my duty to represent to your Lordship such things , by which as I can , so I ought to be defended against captious objectors . It is hard when men will not be patient of truth , because another man offers it to them , and they did not first take it in , or if they did , were not pleas'd to own it . But from your Lordship I expect , and am sure to find the effects of your piety , wisdom and learning , and that an error for being popular shall not prevail against so necessary , though unobserved truth . A necessary truth I call it ; because without this I do not understand how we can declare Gods righteousness and justifie him , with whom unrighteousness cannot dwell : But if men of a contrary opinion , can reconcile their usual doctrines of Original Sin with Gods justice , and goodness and truth , I shall be well pleased with it , and think better of their doctrine than now I can . But until that be done , it were well ( My Lord ) if men would not trouble themselves or the Church with impertinent contradictions ; but patiently give leave to have truth advanced , and God justified in his sayings and in his judgments , and the Church improved , and all errors confuted , that what did so prosperously begin the Reformation , may be admitted to bring it to perfection , that men may no longer go quà itur , but quà eundum est . THE Bishop of ROCHESTER'S Letter TO D r. TAYLOR , WITH AN Account of the particulars there given in Charge . Worthy Sir , LET me request you to weigh that of S. Paul , Ephes. 2.5 . which are urged by some Ancients : and to remember , how often he calls Concupiscence Sin ; whereby it is urg'd , that although Baptism take away the guilt as concretively redounding to the person , yet the simple abstracted guilt , as to the Nature remains : for Sacraments are administred to Persons , not to Natures . I confess , I find not the Fathers so fully , and plainly speaking of Original Sin , till Pelagius had pudled the stream : but , after this , you may find S. Jerome in Hos. saying , In Paradiso omnes praevaricati sunt in Adamo . And S. Ambrose in Rom. 1.5 . Manifestum est omnes peccasse in Adam , quasi in massâ , ex eo igitur cuncti peccatores , quia ex eo sumus omnes ; and as Greg. 39. Hom. in Ezek. Sine culpâ in mundo esse non potest , qui in nundum cum culpâ venit ; But S. Austin is so frequent , so full and clear in his assertions , that his words and reasons will require your most judicious examinations , and more strict weighing of them ; He saith Epist. 107. Scimus secundùm Adam nos primâ nativitate contagium mortis contrahere ; nec liberamur à supplicio mortis aeternae nisi per gratiam renascamur in Christo ; Id. de verb. Apost . Ser. 4. Peccatum à primo homine in omnes homines pertranstit , etenim illud peccatum non in fonte mansit , sed pertransiit , and Rom. 5. ubi ●e invenit ? venundatum sub peccato , trahentem peccatum primi hominis , habentem peccatum antequam possis habere arbitrium . Id. de praedestin . & grat . c. 2. Si infans unius diei non sit sine peccato , qui proprium habere non potuit , conficitur , ut illud traxerit alienum ; de quo Apost . Per unum hominem peccatum intravit in mundum ; quod qui negat , negat profectò nos esse mortales ; quoniam mors est poenae peccati . Sequitur , necesse est , poena peccatum . Id. enchir . c. 9.29 . Sola gratia redemptos discernit à perditis , quos in unam perditionis massam concreverat ab origine ducta communis contagio . Id. de peccator . mer. & remiss . l. 1. c. 3. Concupiscentia carnis peccatum est , quia inest illi inobedientia contra dominatum mentis . Quid potest , aut potuit nasci ex servo , nisi servus ? ideo sicut omnis homo ab Adamo est , ita & omnis homo per Adamum servus est peccati . Rom. 5. Falluntur ergo omnino , qui dicunt mortem solam , non & peccatum transiisse in genus humanum . Prosper . resp . ad articulum Augustino falsò impositum ; Omnes homines praevaricationis reos , & damnationi obnoxi●s nasci periturosque nisi in Christo renascamur , asserimus . Tho. 12. q. 8. Secundum fidem Catholicam tenendum est , quod primum peccatum primi hominis , originaliter transit in posteros , propter quod etiam pueri mox nati deferuntur ad baptismum ab interiore culpâ abluendi . Contrarium est haeresis Pelag. unde peccatum quod sic à primo parente derivatur , dicitur Originale , sicut peccatum , quod ab animâ derivatur ad membra corporis , dicitur actuale . Bonavent . in 2. sent . dist . 31. Sicut peccatum actuale tribuitur alicui ratione singularis personae : ita peccatum originale tribuitur ratione Naturae ; corpus infectum traducitur , quia persona Adae infecit naturam , & natura infecit personam . Animae enim inficitur à carne per colligantiam , quum unita carni traxit ad se alterius proprietates . Lombar . 2. Sent. dist . 31. Peccatum originale per corruptionem carnis , in animâ fit : in vase enim dignoscitur vitium esse , quod vinum accescit . If you take into consideration the Covenant made between Almighty God and Adam as relating to his posterity , it may conduce to the satisfaction of those who urge it for a proof of Original Sin. Now that the work may prosper under your hands to the manifestation of Gods glory , the edification of the Church , and the satisfaction of all good Christians , is the hearty prayer of Your fellow servant in our most Blessed Lord Christ Jesu , JO. ROFFENS . My Lord , I Perceive that you have a great Charity to every one of the sons of the Church , that your Lordship refuses not to solicite their objections , and to take care that every man be answered that can make objections against my Doctrine ; but as your charity makes you refuse no work or labour of love : so shall my duty and obedience make me ready to perform any commandment that can be relative to so excellent a principle . I am indeed sorry your Lordship is thus haunted with objections about the Question of Original Sin ; but because you are pleas'd to hand them to me , I cannot think them so inconsiderable as in themselves they seem ; for what your Lordship thinks worthy the reporting from others , I must think are fit to be answered and returned by me . In your Lordships of November 10. these things I am to reply to : Let me request you to weigh that of S. Paul , Ephes. 2.5 . The words are these [ Even when we were dead in sins , ( God ) hath quickned us together with Christ ] which words I do not at all suppose relate to the matter of Original Sin , but to the state of Heathen sins , habitual Idolatries and impurities ; in which the world was dead before the great Reformation by Christ. And I do not know any Expositor of note that suspects any other sence of it ; and the second Verse of that Chapter makes it so certain and plain , that it is too visible to insist upon it longer . But your Lordship adds further . And to remember how often he calls Concupiscence Sin ] I know S. Paul reckons Concupiscence to be one of the works of the flesh , and consequently such as excludes from Heaven , Col. 3.5 . Evil Concupiscence ] concupiscence with something superadded , but certainly that is nothing that is natural ; for God made nothing that is evil , and whatsoever is natural and necessary cannot be mortified ; but this may and must , and the Apostle calls upon us to do it ; but that this is a superinducing , and an actual or habitual lusting appears by the following words , Verse 7. in which ye also walked sometimes when ye lived in them , such a concupiscence as that which is the effect of habitual sins or an estate of sins , of which the Apostle speaks , Rom. 7.8 . Sin taking occasion by the commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence ; that is , so great a state of evil , such strong inclinations and desires to sin , that I grew as captive under it ; it introduced a necessity like those in S. Peter , who had eyes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , full of an Adulteress : the women had possessed their eyes , and therefore they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they could not cease from sin : because having 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , all concupiscence , that is the very spirit of sinful desires , they could relish nothing but the productions of sin , they could fancy nothing but Colloquintida and Toadstools of the Earth . * Once more I find S. Paul speaking of Concupiscence , 1 Thess. 4.5 . Let every man know to possess his vessel in holiness and honour , not in the lust of concupiscence , as do the Gentiles which know not God. In the lust of Concupiscence , that is plainly in lustfulness and impurity : for it is a Hebraism , where a superlative is usually expressed by the synonymon : as Lutum coeni ; pluvia imbris ; so the Gall of bitterness and the iniquity of sins ; Robur virium ; the blackness of darkness ▪ that is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the outer darkness , or the greatest darkness : so here the lus● of Concupiscence , that is , the vilest and basest of it . I know no where else that the Apostle uses the word in any sence . But the like is to be said of the word lust , which the Apostle often uses , for the habits produced or the pregnant desires , but never for the natural principle and affection , when he speaks of sin . But your Lordship is pleased to add a subtlety in pursuance of your former advices and notices , which I confess I shall never understand . Although Baptism take away the guilt as concretively redounding to the person , yet the simple abstracted guilt as to the Nature remains ; for Sacraments are administred to persons , not to natures ] This I suppose those persons from whom your Lordship reports it , intended as an answer to a secret objection . For if Concupiscence be a sin , and yet remains after Baptism , then what good does Baptism effect ? But if it be no sin after , then it is no sin before . To this it is answered as you see : there is a double guilt ; a guilt of person , and of nature . That is taken away , this is not : for , Sacraments are given to Persons , not to Natures . But first , where is there such a distinction set down in Scripture , or in the prime Antiquity , or in any moral Philosopher ? There is no humane nature but what is in the persons of men ; and though our understanding can make a separate consideration of these , or rather consider a person in a double capacity , in his personal and in his natural , that is ( if I am to speak sence ) a person may be considered in that which is proper to him , and in that which is common to him and others ; yet these two considerations cannot make two distinct subjects capable of such different events . I will put it to the trial . This guilt that is in nature , what is it ? Is it the same thing that was in the person ? that is , is it an obligation to punishment ? If it be not , I know not the meaning of the word , and therefore I have nothing to do with it . If it be , then if this guilt or obligation to punishment remains in the nature after it is taken from the person , then if this concupiscence deserve damnation , this nature shall be damned , though the person be saved . Let the Objectors , my Lord , chuse which they will. If it does not deserve damnation , why do they say it does ? If it does , then the guilty may suffer what they deserve , but the innocent or the absolved must not ; the person then being acquitted , and the nature not acquitted , the nature shall be damn'd and the person be saved . But if it be said that the guilt remains in the nature to certain purposes , but not to all ; then I reply , so it does in the person ; for it is in the person after Baptism , so as to be a perpetual possibility and proneness to sin , and a principle of trouble ; and if it be no otherwise in the nature , then this distinction is to no purpose ; if it be otherwise in the nature , then it brings damnation to it , when it brings none to the Man , and then the former argument must return . But whether it prevail or no , yet I cannot but note , that what is here affirmed is expresly against the words commonly attributed to S. Cyprian ( De ablutione pedum ) Sic abluit quos parentalis labes infecerat , ut nec actualis nec Originalis macula post ablutionem illam ulla sui vestigia derelinquat : How this supposing it of Baptism can be reconcil'd with the guilt remaining in the nature , I confess I cannot give an account . It is expresly against S. Austin ( Tom. 9. Tract . 41. in Johan . Epist. ad Ocean . ) saying , deleta est tota iniquitas ! expresly against S. Hierome , Quomodo justificati sumus & sanctificati , si peccatum aliquid in nobis relinquitur ? But again ( My Lord ) I did suppose that Concupiscence or Original Sin had been founded in nature , and had not been a personal but a natural evil . I am sure , so the Article of our Church affirms ; it is the fault and corruption of our Nature . And so S. Bonaventure affirms in the words cited by your Lordship in your Letter : Sicut peccatum actuale tribuitur alicui ratione singularis personae : ita peccatum originis tribuitur ratione naturae . Either then the Sacrament must have effect upon our Nature , to purifie that which is vitiated by Concupiscence , or else it does no good at all . For if the guilt or sin be founded in the nature , ( as the Article affirms ) and Baptism does not take off the guilt from the nature , then it does nothing . Now since your Lordship is pleas'd in the behalf of the objectors so warily to avoid what they thought pressing , I will take leave to use the advantages it ministers : for so the Serpent teaches us where to strike him , by his so warily and guiltily defending his head . I therefore argue thus : Either Baptism does not take off the guilt of Original Sin , or else there may be punishment where there is no guilt , or else natural death was not it which God threatned as the punishment of Adam's fact . For it is certain , that all men die as well after Baptism as before ; and more after than before . That which would be properly the consequent of this Dilemma , is this , that when God threatned , death to Adam , saying , On the day thou eatest of the tree thou shalt die the death , he inflicted and intended to inflict the evils of a troublesome mortal life . For Adam did not die that day , but Adam began to be miserable that day , to live upon hard labour , to eat fruits from an accursed field , till he should return to the Earth whence he was taken , ( Gen. 3.17 , 18 , 19. ) So that death in the common sence of the word was to be the end of his labour , not so much the punishment of the sin . For it is probable he should have gone off from the scene of this world to a better , though he had not sinn'd ; but if he had not sinn'd , he should not be so afflicted , and he should not have died daily till he had died finally , that is , till he had returned to his dust whence he was taken , and whither he would naturally have gone : and it is no new thing in Scripture that miseries and infelicities should be called dying or death , ( Exod. 10.17 . 1 Cor. 15.31 . 2 Cor. 1.10 . & 4.10 , 11 , 12. & 11.23 . ) But I only note this as probable ; as not being willing to admit what the Socinians answer in this argument ; who affirm that God threatning death to the Sin of Adam , meant death eternal : which is certainly not true ; as we learn from the words of the Apostle , saying , In Adam we all die ; which is not true of death eternal , but it is true of the miseries and calamities of mankind , and it is true of temporal death in the sence now explicated , and in that which is commonly received . But I add also this probleme . That which would have been , had there been no sin , and that which remains when the sin or guiltiness is gone , is not properly the punishment of the sin . But dissolution of the soul and body should have been , if Adam had not sinn'd , for the world would have been too little to have entertain'd those myriads of men which must in all reason have been born from that blessing of Increase and multiply , which was given at the first Creation ; and to have confin'd mankind to the pleasures of this world , in case he had not fallen , would have been a punishment of his innocence ; but however , it might have been , though God had not been angry , and shall still be , even when the sin is taken off . The proper consequent of this will be , that when the Apostle says , Death came in by sin , and that Death is the rages of sin , he primarily and literally means the solemnities , and causes , and infelicities , and untimeliness of temporal death , and not merely the dissolution , which is directly no evil , but an inlet to a better state . But I insist not on this , but offer it to the consideration of inquisitive and modest persons . And now that I may return thither from whence this objection brought me ; I consider , that if any should urge this argument to me : Baptism delivers from Original Sin. Baptism does not deliver from Concupiscence ; therefore Concupiscence is not Original Sin. I did not know well what to answer ; I could possibly say something to satisfie the boys and young men at a publick disputation , but not to satisfie my self when I am upon my knees and giving an account to God of all my secret and hearty perswasions . But I consider , that by Concupiscence must be meant either the first inclinations to their object ; or the proper acts of Election which are the second acts of Concupiscence . If the first inclinations be meant , then certainly that cannot be a sin which is natural , and which is necessary . For I consider that Concupiscence and natural desires are like hunger ; which while it is natural and necessary , is not for the destruction but conservation of man ; when it goes beyond the limits of nature , it is violent and a disease : and so is Concupiscence ; But desires or lustings when they are taken for the natural propensity to their proper object , are so far from being a sin , that they are the instruments of felicity for this duration , and when they grow towards being irregular , they may , if we please , grow instruments of felicity in order to the other duration , because they may serve a vertue by being restrained ; And to desire that to which all men tend naturally , is no more a sin than to desire to be happy is a sin : desire is no more a sin than joy or sorrow is : neither can it be fancied why one passion more than another can be in its whole nature Criminal ; either all or none are so ; when any of them grows irregular or inordinate , Joy is as bad as Desire , and Fear as bad as either . But if by Concupiscence we mean the second acts of it , that is , avoidable consentings , and deliberate elections , then let it be as much condemned as the Apostle and all the Church after him hath sentenc'd it ; but then it is not Adam's sin , but our own by which we are condemned ; for it is not his fault that we chuse ; If we chuse , it is our own ; if we chuse not , it is no fault . For there is a natural act of the Will as well as of the Understanding , and in the choice of the supreme Good , and in the first apprehension of its proper object , the Will is as natural as any other faculty ; and the other faculties have degrees of adherence as well as the Will : so have the potestative and intellective faculties ; they are delighted in their best objects . But because these only are natural , and the will is natural sometimes , but not always , there it is that a difference can be . For I consider , if the first Concupiscence be a sin , Original Sin , ( for actual it is not ) and that this is properly , personally , and inherently our sin by traduction , that is , if our will be necessitated to sin by Adam's fall , as it must needs be if it can sin when it cannot deliberate , then there can be no reason told , why it is more a sin to will evil , than to understand it : and how does that which is moral differ from that which is natural ? for the understanding is first and primely moved by its object , and in that motion by nothing else but by God , who moves all things : and if that which hath nothing else to move it but the object , yet is not free ; it is strange that the will can in any sence be free , when it is necessitated by wisdom and by power , and by Adam , that is , from within and from without , besides what God and violence do and can do . But in this I have not only Scripture and all the reason of the world on my side , but the complying sentences of the most eminent writers of the Primitive Christ ; I need not trouble my self with citations of many of them , since Calvin ( lib. 3. Instit. c. 3. Sect. 10. ) confesses that S. Austin hath collected their testimonies , and is of their opinion , that Concupiscence is not a sin , but an infirmity only . But I will here set down the words of S. Chrysostome ( Homil. 13. in Epist. Rom. ) because they are very clear ; Ipsae passiones in se peccatum non sunt : Effraenata verò ipsarum immoderantia peccatum operata est . Concupiscentia quidem peccatum non est ; quando verò egressa modum foras eruperit , tunc demum adulterium fit , non à concupiscentia sed à nimio & illicito illius luxu . By the way I cannot but wonder why men are pleased , where-ever they find the word Concupiscence in the New Testament , presently to dream of Original Sin , and make that to be the summ total of it ; whereas Concupiscence , if it were the product of Adam's fall , is but one small part of it ; [ Et ut exempli gratia unam illarum tractem ] said S. Chrysostome in the forecited place ; Concupiscence is but one of the passions , and in the utmost extension of the word , it can be taken but for one half of the passion ; for not only all the passions of the Concupiscible faculty can be a principle of sin , but the Irascible does more hurt in the world ; that is more sensual , this is more devillish . The reason why I note this , is because upon this account it will seem , that concupiscence is no more to be called a sin than anger is , and as S. Paul said , Be angry , but sin not ; so he might have said , Desire , or lust , but sin not . For there are some lustings and desires without sin , as well as some Anger 's ; and that which is indifferent to vertue and vice , cannot of it self be a vice ; To which I add , that if Concupiscence taken for all desires be a sin , then so are all the passions of the Irascible faculty . Why one more than the other is not to be told , but that Anger in the first motions is not a sin , appears , because it is not always sinful in the second ; a man may be actually angry , and yet really innocent : and so he may be lustful and full of desire , and yet he may be not only that which is good , or he may overcome his desires to that which is bad . I have now considered what your Lordship received from others , and gave me in Charge your self , concerning Concupiscence . Your next Charge is concerning Antiquity , intimating , that although the first antiquity is not clearly against me , yet the second is . For thus your Lordship is pleased to write their objection [ I confess I find not the Fathers so fully and plainly speaking of Original Sin , till Pelagius had pudled the stream ; but after this you may find S. Jerome , &c. That the Fathers of the first Four Hundred years did speak plainly and fully of it , is so evident as nothing more , and I appeal to their testimonies as they are set down in the Papers annexed in their proper place ; and therefore that must needs be one of the little arts by which some men use to escape from the pressure of that authority , by which because they would have other men concluded , sometimes upon strict inquiry they find themselves entangled . Original Sin as it is at this day commonly explicated , was not the Doctrine of the Primitive Church ; but when Pelagius had pudled the stream , S. Austin was so angry that he stampt and disturb'd it more : And truly my Lord , I do not think that the Gentlemen that urg'd against me S. Austin's opinion , do well consider that I profess my self to follow those Fathers who were before him ; and whom S. Austin did forsake as I do him in the question . They may as well press me with his authority in the Article of the damnation of Infants dying unbaptized , or of absolute predestination . In which Article , S. Austin's words are equally urged by the Jansenists and Molinists , by the Remonstrants and Contra-remonstrants , and they can serve both , and therefore cannot determine me . But then ( my Lord ) let it be remembred , that they are as much against S. Chrysostome as I am against S. Austin , with this only difference ; that S. Chrysostome speaks constantly in the argument , which S. Austin did not , and particularly in that part of it which concerns Concupiscence . For in the inquiry , whether it be a sin or no ; he speaks so variously , that though Calvin complains of him , that he calls it only an infirmity , yet he also brings testimonies from him to prove it to be a sin , and let any man try if he can tie these words together . ( De peccator . mer. & remission . l. 1. c. 3. ) Concupiscentia carnis peccatum est , quia inest illi inobedientia contra dominatum mentis . Which are the words your Lordship quotes : Concupiscence is a sin , because it is a disobedience to the Empire of the spirit . But yet in another place ; ( lib. 1. de civit . Dei cap. 25. ) Illa Concupiscentialis inobedientia quanto magis absque culpa est in corpore non consentientis , si absque culpa est in corpore dormientis ? It is a sin and it is no sin , it is criminal , but is without fault ; it is culpable because it is a disobedience , and yet this disobedience without actual consent is not culpable . If I do believe S. Austin , I must disbelieve him ; and which part soever I take , I shall be reproved by the same authority . But when the Fathers are divided from each other , or themselves , it is indifferent to follow either ; but when any of them are divided from Reason and Scripture , then it is not indifferent for us to follow them , and neglect these ; and yet if these who object S. Austin's authority to my Doctrine , will be content to subject to all that he says , I am content they shall follow him in this too , provided that they will give me my liberty , because I will not not be tied to him that speaks contrary things to himself , and contrary to them that went before him ; and though he was a rare person , yet he was as fallible as any of my brethren at this day . He was followed by many ignorant ages , and all the world knows by what accidental advantages he acquired a great reputation : but he who made no scruple of deserting all his predecessors , must give us leave upon the strength of his own reasons to quit his authority . All that I shall observe is this , that the Doctrine of Original Sin as it is explicated by S. Austin , had two parents ; one was the Doctrine of the Encratites , and some other Hereticks , who forbad Marriage , and supposing it to be evil , thought they were warranted to say , it was the bed of sin , and children the spawn of vipers and sinners . And S. Austin himself , and especially S. Hierome ( whom your Lordship cites ) speaks some things of marriage , which if they were true , then marriage were highly to be refused , as being the increaser of sin rather than of children , and a semination in the flesh , and contrary to the spirit , and such a thing which being mingled with sin , produces univocal issues , the mother and the daughter are so like that they are the worse again . For if a proper inherent sin be effected by chaste marriages , then they are in this particular equal to adulterous embraces , and rather to be pardoned than allowed ; and if all Concupiscence be vicious , then no marriage can be pure . These things it may be have not been so much considered , but your Lordship I know remembers strange sayings in S. Hierome , in Athenagoras , and in S. Austin , which possibly have been countenanced and maintained at the charge of this opinion . But the other parent of this is the zeal against the Pelagian Heresie , which did serve it self by saying too little in this Article , and therefore was thought fit to be confu●ed by saying too much ; and that I conjecture right in this affair , I appeal to the words which I cited out of S. Austin in the matter of Concupiscence ; concerning which he speaks the same thing that I do , when he is disingaged ; as in his books De civitate Dei : but in his Tractate de peccatorum meritis & remissione , which was written in his heat against the Pelagians , he speaks quite contrary . And who-ever shall with observation read his one book of Original Sin against Pelagius , his two books de Nuptiis & Concupiscentia to Valerius , his three books to Marcellinus , de peccatorum meritis & remissione , his four books to Boniface , contra duas epistolas Pelagianorum , his six books to Claudius against Julianus , and shall think himself bound to believe all that this excellent man wrote , will not only find it impossible he should , but will have reason to say , that zeal against an error is not always the best instrument to find out truth . The same complaint hath been made of others ; and S. Jerome hath suffer'd deeply in the infirmity . I shall not therefore trouble your Lordship with giving particular answers to the words of S. Jerome and S. Ambrose , because ( besides what I have already said ) I do not think that their words are an argument fit to conclude against so much evidence , nor against a much less than that which I have every where brought in this Article , though indeed their words are capable of a fair interpretation , and besides the words quoted out of S. Ambrose are none of his ; and for Aquinas , Lombard , and Bonaventure , your Lordship might as well press me with the opinion of Mr. Calvin , Knox , and Buchannan , with the Synod of Dort , or the Scots Presbyteries : I know they are against me , and therefore I reprove them for it , but it is no disparagement to the truth , that other men are in error . And yet of all the School-men , Bonaventure should least have been urg'd against me , for the proverbs sake : for , Adam non peccavit in Bonaventura ; Alexander of Hales would often say , that Adam never sinn'd in Bonaventure . But it may be he was not in earnest : no more am I. The last thing your Lordship gives to me in Charge in the behalf of the objectors , is , that I would take into consideration the Covenant made between Almighty God and Adam , as relating to his posterity . To this I answer , That I know of no such thing ; God made a Covenant with Adam indeed , and us'd the right of his dominion over his posterity , and yet did nothing but what was just ; but I find in Scripture no mention made of any such Covenant as is dreamt of about the matter of Original Sin : only the Covenant of works God did make with all men till Christ came ; but he did never exact it after Adam ; but for a Covenant that God should make with Adam , that if he stood , all his posterity should be I know not what ; and if he fell , they should be in a damnable condition , of this ( I say ) there is nec vola nec vestigium in holy Scripture , that ever I could meet with : if there had been any such Covenant , it had been but equity that to all the persons interessed it should have been communicated , and caution given to all who were to suffer , and abilities given to them to prevent the evil : for else it is not a Covenant with them , but a decree concerning them ; and it is impossible that there should be a Covenant made between two , when one of the parties knows nothing of it . I will enter no further into this enquiry , but only observe , that though there was no such Covenant , yet the event that hapned might without any such Covenant have justly entred in at many doors . It is one thing to say that God by Adam's sin was moved to a severer entercourse with his posterity , for that is certainly true ; and it is another thing to say that Adam's sin of it self did deserve all the evil that came actually upon his children ; Death is the wages of sin , one death for one sin ; but not 10000 millions for one sin ; but therefore the Apostle affirms it to have descended on all , in as much as all men have sinn'd ; But if from a sinning Parent a good child descends ; the childs innocence will more prevail with God for kindness , than the fathers sin shall prevail for trouble . Non omnia parentum peccata dii in liberos convertunt , sed siquis de malo nascitur bonus , tanquam benè affectus corpore natus de morboso , is generis poenâ liberatur , tanquam ex improbitatis domo , in aliam familiam datus : qui verò morbo in similitudinem generis refertur atque redigitur vitiosi , ei nimirum convenit tanquam haeredi debitas poenas vitii persolvere , said Plutarch ( De iis qui serò à Numine puniuntur . ex interpr . Cluserii . ) God does not always make the fathers sins descend upon the children . But if a good child is born of a bad father , like a healthful body from an ill-affected one , he is freed from the punishment of his stock , and passes from the house of wickedness into another family . But he who inherits the disease , he also must be heir of the punishment ; Quorum natura amplexa est cognatam malitiam , hos Justitia similitudinem pravitatis persequens supplicio affecit , if they pursue their kindreds wickedness , they shall be pursued by a cognation of judgment . Other ways there are by which it may come to pass that the sins of others may descend upon us . He that is Author or the perswader , the minister or the helper , the approver or the follower , may derive the sins of others to himself , but then it is not their sins only , but our own too , and it is like a dead Taper put to a burning light and held there , this derives light and flames from the other , and yet then hath it of its own , but they dwell together and make one body . These are the ways by which punishment can enter , but there are evils which are no punishments , and they may come upon more accounts , by Gods Dominion , by natural consequence , by infection , by destitution and dereliction , for the glory of God , by right of authority , for the institution or exercise of the sufferers , or for their more immediate good . But that directly and properly one should be punish'd for the sins of others was indeed practised by some Common-wealths ; Vtilitatis specie saepissimè in repub . peccari , said Cicero , they do it sometimes for terror , and because their ways of preventing evil is very imperfect : and when Pedianus secundus the Pretor was kill'd by a slave , all the family of them was kill'd in punishment ; this was secundum veterem morem , said Tacit. ( Annal. 14. ) for in the slaughter of Marcellus the slaves fled for fear of such usage ; it was thus , I say , among the Romans , but habuit aliquid iniqui , and God forbid we should say such things of the fountain of Justice and mercy . But I have done , and will move no more stones , but hereafter carry them as long as I can , rather than make a noise by throwing them down ; I shall only add this one thing : I was troubled with an objection lately ; for it being propounded to me , why it is to be believed that the sin of Adam could spoil the nature of man , and yet the nature of Devils could not be spoiled by their sin which was worse ; I could not well tell what to say , and therefore I held my peace . THE END . ΘΕΟΛΟΓΙΑ ΕΚΛΕΚΤΙΚΗ , Or , A DISCOURSE OF The Liberty of Prophesying , With its just Limits and Temper ; SHEWING The Vnreasonableness of prescribing to other mens Faith , and the Iniquity of persecuting differing Opinions . By JEREM. TAYLOR , D. D. The Third Edition , Corrected and Enlarged . DANIEL S. IOHN 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 1 Cor. 14.31 . LONDON , Printed for R. Royston , Bookseller to his most Sacred MAJESTY . To the Right Honourable Christopher Lord Hatton , Baron HATTON of Kirby , Comptroller of His Majestie 's Houshold , and one of His Majestie 's most Honourable Privie Council . MY LORD , IN this great Storm which hath dasht the Vessel of the Church all in pieces I have been cast upon the Coast of Wales , and in a little Boat thought to have enjoyed that rest and quietness which in England in a greater I could not hope for . Here I cast Anchor , and thinking to ride safely , the Storm followed me with so impetuous violence , that it broke a Cable , and I lost my Anchor : And here again I was exposed to the mercy of the Sea , and the gentleness of an Element that could neither distinguish things nor persons . And but that he who stilleth the raging of the Sea , and the noise of his Waves , and the madness of his people , had provided a Plank for me , I had been lost to all the opportunities of content or study . But I know not whether I have been more preserved by the courtesies of my friends , or the gentleness and mercies of a noble Enemy : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And now since I have come ashore I have been gathering a few sticks to warm me , a few books to entertain my thoughts , and divert them from the perpetuall Meditation of my private Troubles and the publick Dyscrasy : but those which I could obtain were so few and so impertinent , and unusefull to any great purposes , that I began to be sad upon a new stock , and full of apprehension that I should live unprofitably , and die obscurely , and be forgotten , and my bones thrown into some common charnell-house , without any name or note to distinguish me from those who onely served their Generation by filling the number of Citizens , and who could pretend to no thanks or reward from the Publick beyond jus trium liberorum . While I was troubled with these thoughts , and busie to find an opportunity of doing some good in my small proportion , still the cares of the publick did so intervene , that it was as impossible to separate my design from relating to the present , as to exempt myself from the participation of the common calamity ; still half my thoughts was ( in despite of all my diversions and arts of avocation ) fixt upon and mingled with the present concernments ; so that besides them I could not go . Now because the great Question is concerning Religion , and in that also my Scene lies , I resolved here to fix my considerations ; especially when I observed the ways of promoting the several Opinions which now are busie to be such , as besides that they were most troublesome to me , and such as I could by no means be friends withall , they were also such as to my understanding did the most apparently disserve their ends whose design in advancing their own Opinions was pretended for Religion . For as contrary as cruelty is to mercy , as tyranny to charity , so is war and bloudshed to the meekness and gentleness of Christian Religion . And however that there are some exterminating spirits who think God to delight in humane sacrifices , as if that Oracle — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had come from the Father of Spirits : yet if they were capable of cool and tame Homilies , or would hear men of other opinions give a quiet account without invincible resolutions never to alter their perswasions , I am very much perswaded it would not be very hard to dispute such men into mercies and compliances and Tolerations mutuall , such , I say , who are zealous for Jesus Christ , then whose Doctrine never was any thing more mercifull and humane , whose lessons were softer then Nard or the juice of the Candian Olive . Vpon the first apprehension , I design'd a Discourse to this purpose with as much greediness as if I had thought it possible with my Arguments to have perswaded the rough and hard-handed Souldiers to have disbanded presently : For I had often thought of the Prophecy that in the Gospell our Swords should be turned into plow-shares , and our Spears into pruning-hooks ; I knew that no tittle spoken by God's Spirit could return unperform'd and ineffectual , and I was certain that such was the excellency of Christ's Doctrine , that if men could obey it , Christians should never war one against another . In the mean time I considered not that it was praedictio consilii , non eventûs , till I saw what men were now doing , and ever had done since the heats and primitive fervours did cool , and the love of interests swell'd higher then the love of Christianity : but then on the other side I began to fear that whatever I could say would be as ineffectual as it could be reasonable . For if those excellent words which our Blessed Master spake could not charm the tumult of our spirits , I had little reason to hope that one of the meanest and most ignorant of his servants could advance the end of that which he calls his great , and his old , and his new Commandment , so well as the excellency of his own Spirit and discourses could . And yet since he who knew every event of things , and the success and efficacy of every Doctrine , and that very much of it to most men , and all of it to some men , would be ineffectuall , yet was pleased to consign our duty , that it might be a direction to them that would , and a conviction and a Testimony against them that would not obey ; I thought it might not misbecome my duty and endeavours to plead for peace and charity , and forgiveness and permissions mutuall : although I had reason to believe that such is the iniquity of men , and they so indisposed to receive such impresses , that I had as good plow the Sands , or till the Air , as perswade such Doctrines which destroy mens interests , and serve no end but the great end of a happy eternity , and what is in order to it . But because the events of things are in God's disposition , and I knew them not , and because if I had known my good purposes would be totally ineffectuall as to others , yet my own designation and purposes would be of advantage to myself , who might from God's mercy expect the retribution which he is pleased to promise to all pious intendments ; I resolved to encounter with all Objections , and to doe something to which I should be determined by the consideration of the present Distemperatures and necessities , by my own thoughts , by the Questions and Scruples , the Sects and names , the interests and animosities which at this day and for some years past have exercised and disquieted Christendom . Thus far I discours'd myself into imployment , and having come thus far I knew not how to get farther ; for I had heard of a great experience , how difficult it was to make Brick without Straw ▪ and here I had even seen my design blasted in the bud , and I despaired in the Calends of doing what I purposed in the Ides before . For I had no Books of my own here , nor any in the voicinage ; and but that I remembred the result of some of those excellent Discourses I had heard your Lordship make when I was so happy as in private to gather up what your temperance and modesty forbids to be publick , I had come in praelia inermis , and like enough might have far'd accordingly . I had this onely advantage besides , that I have chosen a subject in which , if my own reason does not abuse me , I needed no other books or aids then what a man carries with him on horseback , I mean , the common principles of Christianity , and those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which men use in the transactions of the ordinary occurrences of civil society : and upon the strength of them and some other collateral assistances I have run through it utcunque , and the sum of the following Discourses is nothing but the sense of these words of Scripture , That since we know in part , and prophesie in part , and that now we see through a glass darkly , we should not despise or contemn persons not so knowing as ourselves , but him that is weak in the faith we should receive , but not to doubtfull disputations ; therefore certainly to charity , and not to vexations , not to those which are the idle effects of impertinent wranglings . And provided they keep close to the foundation , which is Faith and Obedience , let them build upon this foundation matter more or less precious , yet if the foundation be intire , they shall be saved with or without loss . And since we profess ourselves servants of so meek a Master , and Disciples of so charitable an Institute , Let us walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called with all lowliness and meekness , with long-suffering , forbearing one another in love ; for this is the best endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit , when it is fast tied in the bond of peace . And although it be a duty of Christianity , that we all speak the same thing , that there be no divisions among us , but that we be perfectly joyned together in the same mind , and in the same judgement ; yet this unity is to be estimated according to the unity of Faith , in things necessary , in matters of Creed , and Articles fundamental : for as for other things , it is more to be wished then to be hoped for . There are some doubtfull Disputations , and in such the Scribe , the Wise , the Disputer of this world , are most commonly very far from certainty , and many times from truth . There are diversity of perswasions in matters adiaphorous , as meats and drinks , and holy days , &c. and both parties , the affirmative and the negative , affirm and deny with innocence enough ; for the observer and he that observes not intend both to God ; and God is our common Master , we are all fellow-servants , and not the judge of each other in matters of conscience or doubtfull Disputation ; and every man that hath faith must have it to himself before God , but no man must either in such matters judge his brother or set him at nought : but let us follow after the things which make for peace , and things wherewith one may edifie another . And the way to doe that is not by knowledge , but by charity ; for knowledge puffeth up , but charity edifieth . And since there is not in every man the same knowledge , but the consciences of some are weak ; as my liberty must not be judged of another man's weak conscience , so must not I please myself so much in my right opinion , but I must also take order that his weak conscience be not offended or despised : for no man must seek his own , but every man another's wealth . And although we must contend earnestly for the Faith , yet above all things we must put on charity , which is the bond of perfectness . And therefore this contention must be with arms fit for the Christian warfare , the sword of the Spirit , and the shield of Faith , and preparation of the Gospel of peace in stead of shoes , and a helmet of salvation ; but not with other arms : for a Church-man must not be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a striker ; for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal , but spiritual , and the persons that use them ought to be gentle , and easie to be intreated ; and we must give an account of our faith to them that ask us with meekness and humility , for so is the will of God , that with well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men . These and thousands more to the same purpose are the Doctrines of Christianity , whose sense and intendment I have prosecuted in the following Discourse , being very much displeased that so many Opinions and new Doctrines are commenc'd among us ; but more troubled that every man that hath an Opinion thinks his own and other mens Salvation is concern'd in its maintenance ; but most of all , that men should be persecuted and afflicted for disagreeing in such Opinions which they cannot with sufficient grounds obtrude upon others necessarily , because they cannot propound them infallibly , and because they have no warrant from Scripture so to doe . For if I shall tie other men to believe my Opinion , because I think I have a place of Scripture which seems to warrant it to my understanding , why may not he serve up another dish to me in the same dress , and exact the same task of me to believe the contradictory ? And then , since all the Hereticks in the world have offered to prove their Articles by the same means by which true Believers propound theirs , it is necessary that some separation , either of Doctrine or of persons , be clearly made , and that all pretences may not be admitted , nor any just Allegations be rejected ; and yet that in some other Questions , whether they be truly or falsly pretended , if not evidently or demonstratively , there may be considerations had to the persons of men and to the Laws of charity , more then to the triumphing in any Opinion or Doctrine not simply necessary . Now because some Doctrines are clearly not necessary , and some are absolutely necessary , why may not the first separation be made upon this difference , and Articles necessary be onely urged as necessary , and the rest left to men indifferently , as they were by the Scripture indeterminately ? And it were well if men would as much consider themselves as the Doctrines , and think that they may as well be deceived by their own weakness , as perswaded by the Arguments of a Doctrine which other men as wise call inevident . For it is a hard case that we should think all Papists and Anabaptists and Sacramentaries to be fools and wicked persons ; certainly among all these Sects there are very many wise men and good men , as well as erring . And although some zeals are so hot , and their eyes so inflamed with their ardours , that they do not think their Adversaries look like other men ; yet certainly we find by the results of their discourses , and the transactions of their affairs of civil society , that they are men that speak and make Syllogisms , and use Reason , and reade Scripture : and although they do no more understand all of it then we do ; yet they endeavour to understand as much as concerns them , even all that they can , even all that concerns repentance from dead works , and Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore methinks this also should be another consideration distinguishing the persons : for if the persons be Christians in their lives , and Christians in their profession , if they acknowledge the Eternall Son of God for their Master and their Lord , and live in all relations as becomes persons making such professions , why then should I hate such persons whom God loves , and who love God , who are partakers of Christ , and Christ hath a title to them , who dwell in Christ , and Christ in them , because their understandings have not been brought up like mine , have not had the same Masters , they have not met with the same books , nor the same company , or have not the same interest , or are not so wise , or else are wiser , that is , ( for some reason or other which I neither do understand nor ought to blame , ) have not the same Opinions that I have , and do not determine their School-Questions to the sense of my Sect or interest ? But now I know before-hand , that those men who will endure none but their own Sect will make all manner of attempts against these purposes of charity and compliance , and say I or doe I what I can , will tell all their Proselytes that I preach indifferency of Religion , that I say it is no matter how we believe , nor what they profess , but that they may comply with all Sects , and doe violence to their own Consciences , that they may be saved in all Religions , and so make way for a colluvies of Heresies , and by consequence destroy all Religion . Nay , they will say worse then all this ; and , but that I am not used to their phrases and forms of declamation , I am perswaded I might represent fine Tragedies before-hand . And this will be such an Objection , that although I am most confident I shall make it apparent to be as false and scandalous as the Objectors themselves are zealous and impatient ; yet besides that , I believe the Objection will come where my Answers will not come , or not be understood , I am also confident that , in defiance and incuriousness of all that I shall say , some men will persist pertinaciously in the accusation , and deny my conclusion in despite of me . Well , but however I will try . And first I answer , that whatsoever is against the foundation of Faith , or contrary to good life and the laws of obedience , or destructive to humane society , and the publick and just interests of bodies politick , is out of the limits of my Question , and does not pretend to compliance or Toleration : So that I allow no indifferency , nor any countenance to those Religions whose principles destroy Government , nor to those Religions ( if there be any such ) that teach ill life , nor do I think that any thing will now excuse from belief of a fundamental Article , except stupidity or sottishness and natural inability . This alone is sufficient answer to this vanity , but I have much more to say . Secondly , The intendment of my Discourse is , that permissions should be in Questions speculative , indeterminable , curious and unnecessary ; and that men would not make more necessities then God made , which indeed are not many . The fault I find and seek to remedy is , that men are so dogmaticall and resolute in their Opinions , and impatient of others disagreeings in those things wherein is no sufficient means of union and determination ; but that men should let Opinions and Problems keep their own forms , and not be obtruded as Axioms , nor Questions in the vast collection of the systeme of Divinity be adopted into the family of Faith. And I think I have reason to desire this . Thirdly , It is hard to say that he who would not have men put to death , or punished corporally , for such things for which no humane Authority is sufficient either for cognizance or determination , or competent for infliction , that he perswades to an indifferency , when he refers to another Judicatory which is competent , sufficient , infallible , just , and highly severe . No man or company of men can judge or punish our thoughts or secret purposes whilest they so remain : and yet it will be unequal to say , that he who owns this Doctrine preaches it lawfull to men for to think or purpose what they will. And so it is in matters of doubtfull disputation , ( such as are the distinguishing Articles of most of the Sects of Christendome ; ) so it is in matters intellectual , ( which are not cognoscible by a secular power , ) in matters spiritual , ( which are to be discerned by spiritual Authority , which cannot make corporal inflictions , ) and in Questions indeterminate , ( which are doubtfully propounded or obscurely , and therefore may be in utramque partem disputed or believed : ) for God alone must be Judge of these matters , who alone is Master of our Souls , and hath a dominion over humane Vnderstanding . And he that says this does not say that indifferency is perswaded , because God alone is judge of erring persons . Fourthly , No part of this Discourse teaches or encourages variety of Sects and contradiction in Opinions , but supposes them already in being : and therefore since there are , and ever were , and ever will be , variety of Opinions , because there is variety of humane understandings , and uncertainty in things , no man should be too forward in determining all Questions , nor so forward in prescribing to others , nor invade that liberty which God hath left to us intire by propounding many things obscurely , and by exempting our souls and understandings from all power externally compulsory . So that the restraint is laid upon mens tyranny , but no licence given to mens Opinions ; they are not considered in any of the Conclusions , but in the Premisses onely as an Argument to exhort to charity . So that if I perswade a licence of discrediting any thing which God hath commanded us to believe , and allow a liberty where God hath not allowed it , let it be shewn , and let the Objection press as hard as it can : but to say that men are too forward in condemning where God hath declared no sentence , nor prescribed any Rule , is to disswade from tyranny , not to encourage licentiousness ; is to take away a licence of judging , not to give a licence of dogmatizing what every one please , or as may best serve his turn . And for the other part of the Objection ; Fifthly , This Discourse is so far from giving leave to men to profess any thing , though they believe the contrary , that it takes order that no man shall be put to it : for I earnestly contend that another man's Opinion shall be no rule to mine , and that my Opinion shall be no snare and prejudice to myself , that men use one another so charitably and so gently , that no errour or violence tempt men to Hypocrisie ; this very thing being one of the Arguments I use to perswade permissions , lest compulsion introduce Hypocrisie , and make sincerity troublesome and unsafe . Sixthly , If men would not call all Opinions by the name of Religion , and superstructures by the name of fundamental Articles , and all fancies by the glorious appellative of Faith , this Objection would have no pretence or footing : so that it is the disease of the men , not any cause that is ministred by such precepts of charity , that makes them perpetually clamorous . And it would be hard to say that such Physicians are incurious of their Patients , and neglectfull of their health , who speak against the unreasonableness of such Empiricks that would cut off a man's head if they see but a Wart upon his cheek , or a dimple upon his chin , or any lines in his face to distinguish him from another man : the case is altogether the same , and we may as well decree a Wart to be mortal as a various Opinion in re alioqui non necessaria to be capital and damnable . For I consider that there are but few Doctrines of Christianity that were ordered to be preached to all the world , to every single person , and made a necessary Article of his explicite belief : Other Doctrines which are all of them not simply necessary , are either such as are not clearly revealed , or such as are . If they be clearly revealed , and that I know so too , or may , but for my own fault , I am not to be excused : but for this I am to be left to God's judgement , unless my fault be externally such as to be cognoscible and punishable in humane Judicatory . But then , if it be not so revealed but that wise men and good men differ in their opinions , it is a clear case it is not inter dogmata necessaria simpliciter , and then it is certain I may therefore safely disbelieve it , because I may be safely ignorant of it . For if I may with innocence be ignorant , then to know it or believe it is not simply obligatory : ignorance is absolutely inconsistent with such an obligation , because it is destructive and a plain negative to its performance : and if I doe my honest endeavour to understand it , and yet do not attain it , it is certain that it is not obligatory to me so much as by accident ; for no obligation can press the person of a man if it be impossible , no man is bound to doe more then his best , no man is bound to have an excellent understanding , or to be infallible , or to be wiser then he can , for these are things that are not in his choice , and therefore not a matter of a Law , nor subject to reward and punishment . So that where ignorance of the Article is not a sin , there disbelieving it in the right sense , or believing it in the wrong , is not a breach of any duty essentially or accidentally necessary , neither in the thing itself nor to the person ; that is , he is neither bound to the Article , nor to any endeavours or antecedent acts of volition and choice : and that man who may safely be ignorant of the Proposition is not tied at all to search it out ; and if not at all to search it , then certainly not to find it . All the obligation we are capable of is , not to be malicious or voluntarily criminal in any kind : and then if by accident we find out a Truth , we are obliged to believe it ; and so will every wise or good man doe ; indeed he cannot doe otherwise . But if he disbelieves an Article without malice , or design , or involuntarily , or unknowingly , it is a contradiction to say it is a sin to him who might totally have been ignorant of it : for that he believes it in the wrong sense , it is his ignorance ; and it is impossible that where he hath heartily endeavoured to find out a Truth , that this endeavour should make him guilty of a sin , which would never have been laid to his charge if he had taken no pains at all . His ignorance in this case is not a fault at all ; possibly it might , if there had been no endeavour to have cur'd it . So that there is wholly a mistake in this Proposition . For true it is , there are some Propositions which if a man never hear of they will not be required of him ; and they who cannot reade might safely be ignorant that Melchisedeck was King of Salem : but he who reads it in the Scripture may not safely contradict it , although before that knowledge did arrive to him he might safely have been ignorant of it . But this , although it be true , is not pertinent to our Question : For in sensu diviso this is true , that which at one time a man may be ignorant of at some other time he may not disbelieve ; but in sensu conjuncto it is false ; for at what and in what circumstance soever it is no sin to be ignorant , at that time and in that conjuncture it is no sin to disbelieve . And such is the nature of all Questions disputable , which are therefore not required of us to be believed in any one particular sense , because the nature of the thing is such as not to be necessary to be known at all simply and absolutely , and such is the ambiguity and cloud of its face and representment as not to be necessary so much as by accident , and therefore not to the particular sense of any one person . And yet such is the iniquity of men , that they suck in Opinions as wild Asses do the wind , without distinguishing the wholsome from the corrupted air ; and then live upon it at a venture : and when all their confidence is built upon zeal and mistake , yet therefore because they are zealous and mistaken , they are impatient of contradiction . But besides that against this I have laid prejudice enough from the dictates of Holy Scripture , it is observable that this with its appendant degrees , I mean restraint of Prophesying , imposing upon other mens understanding , being masters of their Consciences , and lording it over their Faith , came in with the retinue and train of Antichrist , that is , they came as other abuses and corruptions of the Church did , by reason of the iniquity of times , and the cooling of the first heats of Christianity , and the encrease of interest , and the abatements of Christian simplicity , when the Churche's fortune grew better , and her Sons grew worse , and some of her Fathers worst of all . For in the first three hundred years there was no sign of persecuting any man for his Opinion , though at that time there were very horrid Opinions commenced , and such which were exemplary and parallel enough to determine this Question : for they then were assaulted by new Sects which destroyed the common principles of nature , of Christianity , of innocence and publick society : and they who used all the means Christian and Spiritual for their disimprovement and conviction , thought not of using corporal force , otherwise then by blaming such proceedings . And therefore I do not onely urge their not doing it as an Argument of the unlawfulness of such proceeding , but their defying it and speaking against such practices , as unreasonable and destructive of Christianity . For so Tertullian is express , Humani juris & naturalis potestatis , unicuique quod putaverit colere ; sed nec religionis est cogere religionem , quae suscipi debet sponte , non vi . The same is the Doctrine of S. Cyprian , Lactantius , S. Hilary , Minutius Felix , Sulpitius Severus , S. Chrysostome , S. Hierom , S. Austin , Damascen , Theophylact , Socrates Scholasticus , and S. Bernard , as they are severally referred to and urged upon occasion in the following Discourse . To which I adde , that all wise Princes , till they were overborn with faction , or solicited by peevish persons , gave Toleration to differing Sects whose Opinions did not disturb the publick interest . But at first there were some hereticall persons that were also impatient of an Adversary , and they were the men who at first entreated the Emperours to persecute the Catholicks : but till four hundred years after Christ no Catholick persons , or very few , did provoke the Secular arm or implore its aid against the Hereticks , save onely that Arius behaved himself so seditiously and tumultuarily , that the Nicene Fathers procured a temporary Decree for his relegation ; but it was soon taken off , and God left to be his Judge ; who indeed did it to some purpose when he was trusted with it , and the matter wholly left to him . But as the Ages grew worse , so men grew more cruel and unchristian , and in the Greek Church Atticus , and Nestorius of Constantinople , Theodosius of Synada , and some few others who had forgotten the mercies of their great Master and their own duty , grew implacable and furious and impatient of contradiction . It was a bold and an arrogant speech which Nestorius made in his Sermon before Theodosius the younger , Da mihi , O Imperator , terram ab haereticis repurgatam , & ego tibi vicissim coelum dabo : Disperde mecum haereticos , & ego tecum disperdam Persas . It was as groundless and unwarrantable as it was bloudy and inhumane . And we see the contrary events prove truer then this groundless and unlearned promise : for Theodosius and Valentinian were prosperous Princes , and have to all Ages a precious memory , and the reputation of a great piety ; but they were so far from doing what Nestorius had suggested , that they restrained him from his violence and immanity ; and Theodosius did highly commend the good Bishop Proclus for his sweetness of deportment towards erring persons , far above the cruelty of his Predecessor Atticus . And the experience which Christendom hath had in this last Age is Argument enough , that Toleration of differing Opinions is so far from disturbing the publick peace , or destroying the interest of Princes and Commonwealths , that it does advantage to the publick , it secures peace , because there is not so much as the pretence of Religion left to such persons to contend for it , being already indulged to them . When France fought against the Huguenots , the spilling of her own bloud was argument enough of the imprudence of that way of promoting Religion ; but since she hath given permission to them , the world is witness how prosperous she hath been ever since . But the great instance is in the differing temper , Government and success which Margaret of Parma and the Duke of Alva had . The clemency of the first had almost extinguished the flame : but when she was removed , D' Alva succeeded , and managed the matter of Religion with fire and sword ; he made the flame so great , that his Religion and his Prince too have both been almost quite turned out of the Countrey . Pelli è medio sapientiam , quoties vires agitur , said Ennius : and therefore the best of men and the most glorious of Princes were alwaies ready to give Toleration , but never to make executions for matters disputable . Eusebius in his second Book of the life of Constantine reports these words of the Emperour , Parem cum fidelibus ii qui errant pacis & quietis fruitionem gaudentes accipiant : Ipsa siquidem communicationis & societatis restitutio ad rectam etiam veritatis viam perducere potest . Nemo cuiquam molestus sit , quisque quod animo destinat hoc etiam faciat . And indeed there is great reason for Princes to give Toleration to disagreeing persons whose Opinions by fair means cannot be altered . For if the persons be confident , they will serve God according to their perswasions ; and if they be publickly prohibited , they will privately convene : and then all th●se inconveniences and mischiefs which are Arguments against the permission of Conventicles are Arguments for the publick permissions of differing Religions , because the denying of the publick worship will certainly produce private Conventicles , against which all wise Princes and Commonwealths have upon great reasons made Edicts and severe Sanctions . Quicquid enim agitur absente Rege , in caput ejus plerumque redundat , say the Politicks . For the face of a man is as the face of a Lion , and scatters all base machinations , which breath not but in the dark . It is a proverbial saying , quôd nimia familiaritas servorum est conspiratio adversùs Dominum : and they who for their security run into grots and cellars and retirements , think that , they being upon the defensive , those Princes and those Laws that drive them to it are their enemies , and therefore they cannot be secure , unless the power of the one and the obligation of the other be lessened and rescinded ; and then the being restrained and made miserable endears the discontented persons mutually , and makes more hearty and dangerous Confederations . King James of blessed memory , in his Letters to the States of the Vnited Provinces , dated 6. March 1613. thus wrote , — Magis autem è re fore si sopiantur authoritate publicâ , ità ut prohibeatis Ministros vestros nè eas disputationes in suggestum aut ad plebem ferant , ac districtè imperetis ut pacem colant se invicem tolerando in ista opinionum ac sententiarum discrepantia — Eóque justiùs videmur vobis hoc ipsum suadere debere , quòd neutram comperimus adeò deviam ut non possint & cum fidei Christianae veritate & cum animarum salute consistere , &c. The like counsel in the divisions of Germany at the first Reformation was thought reasonable by the Emperour Ferdinand , and his excellent Son Maximilian . For they had observed that violence did exasperate , was unblessed , unsuccessfull and unreasonable ; and therefore they made Decrees of Toleration , and appointed tempers and expedients to be drawn up by discreet persons , and George Cassander was design'd to this great work , and did something towards it . And Emanuel Philibert , Duke of Savoy , repenting of his war undertaken for Religion against the Pedemontans , promised them Toleration , and was as good as his word . As much is done by the Nobility of Polonia . So that the best Princes and the best Bishops gave Toleration and Impunities : but it is known that the first Persecutions of disagreeing persons were by the Arians , by the Circumcellians and Donatists ; and from them they of the Church took examples , who in small numbers did sometime perswade it , sometime practise it . And among the Greeks it became a publick and authorized practice , till the Question of Images grew hot and high : for then the Worshippers of Images having taken their example from the Empress Irene , who put her son's eyes out for making an Edict against Images , began to be as cruel as they were deceived ; especially being encouraged by the Popes of Rome , who then blew the coals to some purpose . And that I may upon this occasion give account of this affair in the Church of Rome , it is remarkable , that till the time of Justinian the Emperour , A.D. 525. the Catholicks and Novatians had Churches indifferently permitted even in Rome itself ; but the Bishops of Rome , whose interest was much concerned in it , spoke much against it , and laboured the eradication of the Novatians , and at last , when they got power into their hands , they served them accordingly : but it is observed by Socrates , that when the first Persecution was made against them at Rome by Pope Innocent I. at the same instant the Goths invaded Italy , and became Lords of all ; it being just in God to bring a Persecution upon them for true belief , who with an incompetent Authority and insufficient grounds do persecute an errour less material in persons agreeing with them in the profession of the same common Faith. And I have heard it observed as a blessing upon S. Austin , ( who was so mercifull to erring persons , as the greatest part of his life in all senses , even when he had twice changed his minde , yet to tolerate them , and never to endure they should be given over to the Secular power to be killed ) that the very night the Vandals set down before his City of Hippo to besiege it he died and went to God , being ( as a reward of his mercifull Doctrine ) taken from the miseries to come . And yet that very thing was also a particular issue of the Divine Providence upon that City , who not long before had altered their profession into truth by force , and now were falling into their power who afterward by a greater force turned them to be Arians . But in the Church of Rome the Popes were the first Preachers of force and violence in matters of Opinion , and that so zealously , that Pope Vigilius suffered himself to be imprisoned and handled roughly by the Emperour Justinian , rather then he would consent to the restitution and peace of certain disagreeing persons . But as yet it came not so far as Death . The first that preached that Doctrine was Dominick , the Founder of the Begging Orders of Friers , the Friers Preachers ; in memory of which the Inquisition is intrusted onely to the Friers of his Order . And if there be any force in Dreams , or truth in Legends , ( as there is not much in either , ) this very thing might be signified by his Mother's dream , who the night before Dominick was born dreamed she was brought to bed of a huge Dog with a fire-brand in his mouth . Sure enough , however his Disciples expound the dream , it was a better sign that he should prove a rabid , furious Incendiary then any thing else : whatever he might be in the other parts of his life , in his Doctrine he was not much better ; as appears in his deportment toward the Albigenses , against whom he so preached , adeo quidem ut centum haereticorum millia ab octo millibus Catholicorum fusa & interfecta fuisse perhibeantur , saith one of him ; and of those who were taken 180 were burnt to death , because they would not abjure their Doctrine . This was the first example of putting erring persons to death that I find in the Roman Church . For about 170 years before Berengarius fell into opinion concerning the blessed Sacrament which they called Heresie , and recanted , and relapsed , and recanted again , and fell again two or three times , saith Gerson , writing against Romant of the Rose , and yet he died sicca morte , his own natural death , and with hope of Heaven , and yet Hildebrand was once his Judge : which shews that at that time Rome was not come to so great heights of bloudshed . In England , although the Pope had as great power here as any-where , yet there were no executions for matter of Opinion known till the time of Henry the fourth , who ( because he usurped the Crown ) was willing by all means to endear the Clergy by destroying their enemies , that so he might be sure of them to all his purposes . And indeed it may become them well enough who are wiser in their generations then the children of light , it may possibly serve the policies of evil persons , but never the pure and chast d●signs of Christianity , which admits no bloud but Christ's , and the imitating bloud of Martyrs , but knows nothing how to serve her ends by persecuting any of her erring Children . By this time I hope it will not be thought reasonable to say , he that teaches mercy to erring persons teaches indifferency in Religion ; unless so many Fathers , and so many Churches , and the best of Emperours , and all the world ( till they were abused by Tyranny , Popery and Faction ) did teach indifferency . For I have shewn that Christianity does not punish corporally persons erring spiritually , but indeed Popery does : the Donatists , and Circumcellians , and Arrians , and the Itaciani , they of old did : in the middle Ages the patrons of Images did , and the Papists at this day doe , and have done ever since they were taught it by their St. Dominick . Seventhly , And yet after all this , I have something more to exempt my self from the clamour of this Objection . For let all Errours be as much and as zealously suppressed as may be , ( the Doctrine of the following Discourse contradicts not that ) but let it be done by such means as are proper instruments of their suppression , by Preaching and Disputation , ( so that neither of them breed disturbance ) by charity and sweetness , by holiness of life , assiduity of exhortation , by the word of God and prayer . For these ways are most natural , most prudent , most peaceable and effectual . Onely let not men be hasty in calling every dislik'd Opinion by the name of Heresie ; and when they have resolved that they will call it so , let them use the erring person like a brother , not beat him like a dog , or convince him with a gibbet , or vex him out of his understanding and perswasions . And now if men will still say I perswade to indifferency , there is no help for me , for I have given reasons against it ; I must bear it as well as I can ; I am not yet without remedy , as they are ; for patience will help me , and reason will not cure them , let them take their course , and I 'le take mine . Only I will take leave to consider this ( and they would do well to do so too ) that unless Faith be kept within its own latitude , and not call'd out to patrocinate every less necessary Opinion , and the interest of every Sect or peevish person ; and if damnation be pronounced against Christians believing the Creed , and living good lives , because they are deceived , or are said to be deceived , in some Opinions less necessary ; there is no way in the world to satisfie unlearned persons in the choice of their Religion , or to appease the unquietness of a scrupulous Conscience . For suppose an honest Citizen , whose imployment and parts will not enable him to judge the disputes and arguings of great Clerks , sees Factions commenced and managed with much bitterness by persons who might on either hand be fit enough to guide him ; when if he follows either , he is disquieted and pronounced damned by the other , ( who also , if he be the most unreasonable in his Opinion , will perhaps be more furious in his sentence ) what shall this man do ? where shall he rest the soal of his foot ? Vpon the Doctrine of the Church where he lives ? Well , but that he hears declaimed against perpetually , and other Churches claim highly and pretend fairly for truth , and condemn his Church . If I tell him that he must live a good life , and believe the Creed , and not trouble himself with their disputes , or interest himself in Sects and Factions , I speak reason ; because no Law of God ties him to believe more then what is of essential necessity , and whatsoever he shall come to know to be revealed by God : Now if he believes his Creed , he believes all that is necessary to all , or of it self ; and if he do his moral endeavour beside , he can do no more toward finding out all the rest , and then he is secured . But then , if this will secure him , why do men press farther , and pretend every Opinion as necessary , and that in so high a degree , that if they all said true , or any two indeed of them , in 500 Sects which are in the world , ( and for ought I know there may be 5000 ) it is 500 to one but that every man is damned ; for every Sect damns all but itself , and that is damn'd of 499 , and it is excellent fortune then if that escape . And there is the same reason in every one of them , that is , it is extreme unreasonableness in all of them to pronounce damnation against such persons against whom clearly and dogmatically Holy Scripture hath not . In odiosis quod minimum est sequimur , in favoribus quod est maximum , saith the Law ; and therefore we should say any thing , or make any excuse that is in any degree reasonable , rather then condemn all the world to Hell ; especially if we consider these two things , that we ourselves are as apt to be deceived as any are ; and that they who are deceived , when they used their moral industry that they might not be deceived , if they perish for this , they perish for what they could not help . But however , if the best security in the World be not in neglecting all Sects and subdivisions of men , and fixing ourselves on points necessary and plain , and on honest and pious endeavours according to our several capacities and opportunities for all the rest , if I say , all this be not through the mercies of God the best security to all unlearned persons , and learned too , where shall we fix ? where shall we either have peace or security ? If you bid me follow your Doctrine , you must tell me why ; and perhaps when you have , I am not able to judge ; or if I be as able as other people are , yet when I have judged I may be deceived too , and so may you , or any man else you bid me follow ; so that I am not whit the nearer truth or peace . And then if we look abroad , and consider how there is scarce any Church but is highly charg'd by many adversaries in many things , possibly we may see a reason to charge every one of them in some things ; and what shall we doe then ? The Church of Rome hath spots enough , and all the world is inquisitive enough to find out more , and to represent these to her greatest disadvantage . The Greek Churches denies the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son : If that be false Doctrine , she is highly to blame ; if it be not , then all the Western Churches are to blame for saying the contrary . And there is no Church that is in prosperity but alters her Doctrine every Age , either by bringing in new Doctrines , or by contradicting her old ; which shews that none are satisfied with themselves , or with their own Confessions . And since all Churches believe themselves fallible , that only excepted which all other Churches say is most of all deceived , it were strange if in so many Articles which make up their several bodies of Confessions they had not mistaken every one of them in some thing or other . The Lutheran Churches maintain Consubstantiation , the Zuinglians are Sacramentaries , the Calvinists are fierce in the matters of absolute Predetermination , and all these reject Episcopacy ; which the Primitive Church would have made no doubt to have called Heresie . The Socinians profess a portentous number of strange Opinions ; they deny the Holy Trinity , and the Satisfaction of our Blessed Saviour . The Anabaptists laugh at Paedo-baptism : the Ethiopian Churches are Nestorian . Where then shall we fix our confidence , or joyn Communion ? To pitch upon any one of these is to throw the Dice , if Salvation be to be had onely in one of them , and that every errour that by chance hath made a Sect , and is distinguished by a name , be damnable . If this consideration does not deceive me , we have no other help in the midst of these distractions and dis-unions , but all of us to be united in that common term , which as it does constitute the Church in its being such , so it is the Medium of the Communion of Saints ; and that is the Creed of the Apostles , and in all other things an honest endeavour to find out * what Truths we can , and a charitable and and mutual permission to others that disagree from us and our Opinions . I am sure this may satisfie us , for it will secure us ; but I know not any thing else that will : and no man can be reasonably prswaded or satisfied in any else , unless he throws himself upon chance , or absolute predestination , or his own confidence ; in every one of which it is two to one at least but he may miscarry . Thus far I thought I had reason on my side , and I suppose I have made it good upon its proper grounds in the pages following . But then if the result be , that men must be permitted in their Opinions , and that Christians must not persecute Christians ; I have also as much reason to reprove all those oblique Arts which are not direct Persecutions of mens persons , but they are indirect proceedings , ungentle and unchristian , servants of faction and interest , provocations to zeal and animosities , and destructive of learning and ingenuity . And these are , suppressing all the monuments of their Adversaries , forcing them to recant , and burning their Books . For it is a strange industry and an importune diligence that was used by our fore-fathers ; of all those Heresies which gave them battel and imployment we have absolutely no Record or Monument , but what themselves who are adversaries have transmitted to us ; and we know that Adversaries , especially such who observed all opportunities to discredit both the persons and Doctrines of the Enemy , are not alwaies the best records or witnesses of such transactions . We see it now in this very Age , in the present Distemperatures , that parties are no good Registers of the actions of the adverse side : And if we cannot be confident of the truth of a story now , now I say that it is possible for any man , and likely that the interessed adversary will discover the imposture , it is far more unlikely that after-Ages should know any other truth but such as serves the ends of the representers . I am sure such things were never taught us by Christ and his Apostles : and if we were sure that our selves spoke truth , or that truth were able to justifie herself , it were better if , to preserve a Doctrine , we did not destroy a Commandment , and out of zeal pretending to Christian Religion lose the glories and rewards of ingenuity and Christian simplicity . Of the same consideration is mending of Authors , not to their own mind , but to ours , that is , to mend them so as to spoil them ; forbidding the publication of Books in which there is nothing impious or against the publick interest , leaving out clauses in Translations , disgracing mens persons , charging disavowed Doctrines upon men , and the persons of the men with the consequents of their Doctrine , which they deny either to be true or to be consequent , false reporting of Disputations and Conferences , burning Books by the hand of the hang-man , and all such Arts , which shew that we either distrust God for the maintenance of his truth , or that we distrust the cause , or distrust our selves and our abilities . I will say no more of these , but only concerning the last I shall transcribe a passage out of Tacitus in the life of Julius Agricola , who gives this account of it : Veniam non petissem nisi incursaturus tam saeva & infesta virtutibus tempora . Legimus , cùm Aruleno Rustico Paetus Thrasea , Herennio Senecioni Priscus Helvidius laudati essent , capitale fuisse , neque in ipsos modo authores , sed in libros quoque eorum , saevitum , delegato Triumviris ministerio ut monumenta clarissimorum ingeniorum in comitio ac foro urerentur : scil . illo igne vocem populi Rom. & libertatem Senatus & conscientiam generis humani aboleri arbitrabantur , expulsis insuper sapientiae professoribus , atque omni bona arte in exilium acta , ne quid usquam honestum occurreret . It is but an illiterate policy to think that such indirect and uningenuous proceedings can among wise and free men disgrace the Authors , and disrepute their Discourses . And I have seen that the price hath been trebled upon a forbidden or a condemn'd Book ; and some men in policy have got a prohibition , that their impression might be the more certainly vendible , and the Author himself thought considerable . The best way is to leave tricks and devices , and to fall upon that way which the best Ages of the Church did use . With the strength of Argument , and Allegations of Scripture , and modesty of deportment , and meekness and charity to the persons of men , they converted misbelievers , stopped the mouths of Adversaries , asserted Truth , and discountenanced errour ; and those other stratagems and Arts of support and maintenance to Doctrines , were the issues of Heretical brains . The old Catholicks had nothing to secure themselves but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of truth and plain dealing . Fidem minutis dissecant ambagibus , Ut quisque lingua est nequior . Solvunt ligantque quaestionum vincula Per syllogismos plectiles . Vae captiosis Sycophantarum strophis , Vae versipelli astutiae . Nodos tenaces recta rumpit regula Infesta discertantibus : Idcirco mundi stulta deligit Deus , Ut concidant Sophistica . And , to my understanding , it is a plain art and design of the Devil , to make us so in love with our own Opinions as to call them Faith and Religion , that we may be proud in our understanding : and besides that by our zeal in our Opinions , we grow cool in our piety and practical duties ; he also by this earnest contention does directly destroy good life , by engagement of Zealots to do any thing rather then be overcome and lose their beloved Propositions . But I would fain know , why is not any vitious habit as bad or worse then a false Opinion ? Why are we so zealous against those we call Hereticks , and yet great friends with drunkards , fornicatours , and swearers , and intemperate and idle persons ? Is it because we are commanded by the Apostle to reject a Heretick after two admonitions , and not bid such a one God speed ? It is good reason why we should be zealous against such persons , provided we mistake them not . For those of whom these Apostles speak , are such as deny Christ to be come in the flesh , such as deny an Article of Creed ; and in such odious things it is not safe nor charitable to extend the Gravamen and punishment beyond the instances the Apostles make , or their exact parallels . But then also it would be remembred that the Apostles speak as fiercely against communion with Fornicatours , and all disorders practical , as against communion with Hereticks : If any man that is called a brother be a Fornicatour , or Covetous , or an Idolater , or a Railer , or a Drunkard , or an Extortioner , with such a one no not to eat . I am certain that a drunkard is as contrary to God , and lives as contrary to the Laws of Christianity , as an Heretick ; and I am also sure that I know what drunkenness is : but I am not sure that such an Opinion is Heresie ; neither would other men be so sure as they think for , if they did consider it aright , and observe the infinite deceptions , and causes of deceptions , in wise men , and in most things , and in all doubtful Questions , and that they did not mistake confidence for certainty . But indeed I could not but smile at those jolly Friers ; two Franciscans offered themselves to the fire to prove Savonarola to be a Heretick ; but a certain Jacobine offered himself to the fire to prove that Savonarola had true Revelations , and was no Heretick : in the mean time Savonarola preacht , but made no such confident offer , nor durst he venture at that new kind of fire Ordeal . And put case all four had past through the fire , and died in the flames , what would that have proved ? Had he been a Heretick or no Heretick , the more or less , for the confidence of these zealous Ideots ? If we mark it , a great many Arguments whereon many Sects rely , are no better probation then this comes to . Confidence is the first , and the second , and the third part of a very great many of their propositions . But now if men would a little turn the Tables , and be as zealous for a good life and all the strictest precepts of Christianity , ( which is a Religion the most holy , the most reasonable , and the most consummate that ever was taught to man ) as they are for such Propositions in which neither the life nor the ornament of Christianity is concerned , we should find that , as a consequent of this piety , men would be as carefull as they could to find out all Truths , and the sence of all Revelations which may concern their duty ; and where men were miserable and could not , yet others that lived good lives too would also be so charitable , as not to adde affliction to this misery : and both of them are parts of good life . To be compassionate , and to help to bear one another's burthens , not to destroy the weak , but to entertain him meekly , that 's a precept of charity ; and to edeavour to find out the whole will of God , that also is a part of the obedience , the choice and the excellency of Faith : and he lives not a good life that does not doe both these . But men think they have more reason to be zealous against Heresie then against a vice in manners , because Heresie is infectious and dangerous , and the principle of much evil . Indeed if by an Heresie we mean that which is against an Article of Creed , and breaks part of the Covenant made between God and man by the mediation of Jesus Christ , I grant it to be a very grievous crime , a calling God's veracity into question , and a destruction also of good life , because upon the Articles of Creed obedience is built , and it lives or dies , as the effect does by its proper cause , for Faith is the moral cause of obedience . But then Heresie , that is such as this , is also a vice , and the person criminal , and so the sin is to be esteemed in its degrees of malignity ; and let men be as zealous against it as they can , and employ the whole Arsenal of the spiritual armour against it : such as this is worse then adultery or murther , inasmuch as the Soul is more noble then the Body , and a false Doctrine is of greater dissemination and extent then a single act of violence or impurity . Adultery or murther is a duel ; but Heresie ( truly and indeed such ) is an unlawful war , it slays thousands . The losing of Faith , is like digging down a foundation ; all the superstructures of hope and patience and charity fall with it . And besides this , Heresie of all crimes is the most inexcusable , and of least temptation : for true Faith is most commonly kept with the least trouble of any grace in the world ; and Heresie of itself hath not onely no pleasure in it , but is a very punishment : because Faith , as it opposes heretical or false Opinions , and distinguishes from charity , consists in mere acts of believing ; which , because they are of true Propositions , are natural and proportionable to the understanding , and more honourable then false . But then concerning those things which men now a-days call Heresie , they cannot be so formidable as they are represented ; and if we consider that drunkenness is certainly a damnable sin , and that there are more drunkards then Hereticks , and that drunkenness is parent of a thousand vices , it may better be said of this vice then of most of those opinions which we call Heresies , it is infectious and dangerous , and the principle of much evil , and therefore as fit an object for a pious zeal to contest against , as is any of those Opinions which trouble mens ease or reputation , for that is the greatest of their malignity . But if we consider that Sects are made and Opinions are called Heresies upon interest , and the grounds of emolument , we shall see that a good life would cure much of this mischief . For First , the Church of Rome , which is the great Dictatrix of dogmatical Resolutions , and the declarer of Heresie , and calls Heretick more then all the world besides , hath made that the rule of Heresie which is the conservatory of interest and the ends of men . For to recede from the Doctrine of the Church , with them makes Heresie ; that is , to disrepute their Authority , and not to obey them , not to be their subjects , not to give them the empire of our Conscience , is the great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Heresie . So that with them Heresie is to be esteemed clearly by humane ends , not by Divine Rules ; that is formal Heresie which does materially disserve them . And it would make a suspicious man a little inquisitive into their particular Doctrines , and when he finds that Indulgences , and Jubilees , and Purgatories , and Masses , and Offices for the dead , are very profitable ; that the Doctrine of Primacy , of Infallibility , of Superiority over Councils , of indirect power in temporals , are great instruments of secular honour ; he would be apt enough to think that if the Church of Rome would learn to lay her honour at the feet of the Crucifix , and despise the world , and prefer Jerusalem before Rome , and Heaven above the Lateran , that these Opinions would not have in them any native strength to support them against the perpetual assaults of their Adversaries , that speak so much reason and Scripture against them . I have instanced in the Roman Religion , but I wish it may be considered also how far mens doctrines in other Sects serve mens temporal ends , so far that it would not be unreasonable or unnecessary to attempt to cure some of their distemperatures or misperswasions by the salutary precepts of sanctitie and holy life . Sure enough , if it did not more concern their reputation , and their lasting interest to be counted true believers rather then good livers , they would rather endeavour to live well , then to be accounted of a right Opinion in things beside the Creed . For my own particular , I cannot but expect that God in his Justice should enlarge the bounds of the Turkish Empire , or some other way punish Christians , by reason of their pertinacious disputing about things unnecessary , undeterminable and unprofitable , and for their hating and persecuting their brethen , which should be as dear to them as their own lives , for not consenting to one another's follies and senseless vanities . How many volumes have been writ about Angels , about immaculate Conception , about Original sin , when that all that is solid Reason or clear Revelation , in all these three Articles , may be reasonably enough comprised in fourty lines ? And in these trifles and impertinencies men are curiously busie , while they neglect those glorious precepts of Christianity and holy life , which are the glories of our Religion , and would enable us to a happy eternity . My Lord , Thus far my thoughts have carried me , and then I thought I had reason to go further , and to examine the proper grounds upon which these perswasions might rely and stand firm , in case any body should contest against them . For possibly men may be angry at me and my design : for I do all them great displeasure who think no end is then well served when their interest is disserved ; and but that I have writ so untowardly and heavily that I am not worth a confutation , possibly some or other might be writing against me . But then I must tell them I am prepared of an answer beforehand : For I think I have spoken reason in my Book , and examined it with all the severity I have ; and if after all this I be deceived , this confirms me in my first opinion , and becomes a new Argument to me that I have spoken reason ; for it furnishes me with a new instance that it is necessary there should be a mutual compliance and Toleration , because even then when a man thinks he hath most reason to be confident , he may easily be deceived . For I am sure I have no other design but the prosecution and advantage of Truth , and I may truely use the words of Gregory Nazianzen , Non studemus paci in detrimentum verae doctrinae , — ut facilitatis & mansuetudinis famam colligamus : but I have writ this because I thought it was necessary , and seasonable , and charitable , and agreeable to the great precepts and design of Christianity , consonant to the practice of the Apostles and of the best Ages of the Church , most agreeable to Scripture and Reason , to Revelation and the nature of the thing ; and it is such a Doctrine , that , if there be variety in humane affairs , if the event of things be not setled in a durable consistence , but is changeable , every one of us all may have need of it . I shall onely therefore desire that they who will reade it may come to the reading it with as much simplicity of purposes and unmixed desires of truth as I did to the writing it , and that no man trouble himself with me or my discourse that thinks beforehand that his Opinion cannot be reasonably altered . If he thinks me to be mistaken before he tries , let him also think that he may be mistaken too , and that he who judges before he hears , is mistaken though he gives a right sentence . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Was good counsel . But at a venture , I shall leave this sentence of Solomon to his consideration , A wise man feareth , and departeth from evil ; but a fool rageth and is confident . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a trick of boys and bold young fellows , says Aristotle ; but they who either know themselves , or things , or persons , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Peradventure yea , peradventure no , is very often the wisest determination of a Question . For there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( as the Apostle notes ) foolish and unlearned Questions ; and it were better to stop the current of such fopperies by silence , then by disputing them convey them to posterity . And many things there are of more profit , which yet are of no more certainty ; and therefore boldness of assertion ( except it be in matters of Faith and clearest Revelation ) is an Argument of the vanity of the man , never of the truth of the Proposition : for to such matters the saying of Xenophanes in Varro is pertinent and applicable , Hominis est haec opinari , Dei scire ; God only knows them , and we conjecture . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . And although I be as desirous to know what I should , and what I should not , as any of my brethren the sons of Adam ; yet I find that the more I search the farther I am from being satisfied , and make but few discoveries , save of my own ignorance : and therefore I am desirous to follow the example of a very wise personage , Julius Agricola , of whom Tacitus gave this testimony , Retinuítque ( quod est difficillimum ) ex scientia modum : or , that I may take my precedent from within the pale of the Church , it was the saying of S. Austin , Mallem quidem eorum quae à me quaesivisti habere scientiam quam ignorantiam ; sed quia id nondum potui , magis eligo cautam ignorantiam confiteri , quam falsam scientiam profiteri . And these words do very much express my sense . But if there be any man so confident as Luther sometime was , who said that he could expound all Scripture ; or so vain as Eckius , who in his Chrysopassus ventur'd upon the highest and most mysterious Question of Predestination , ut in ea juveniles possit calores exercere ; such persons as these , or any that is furious in his opinion , will scorn me and my Discourse ; but I shall not be much mov'd at it , onely I shall wish that I had as much knowledge as they think me to want , and they as much as they believe themselves to have . In the mean time modesty were better for us both , and indeed for all men . For when men indeed are knowing , amongst other things they are able to separate certainties from uncertainties : If they be not knowing , it is pitty that their ignorance should be triumphant , or discompose the publick peace or private confidence . And now ( my Lord ) that I have inscrib'd this Book to your Lordship , although it be a design of doing honour to myself , that I have mark'd it with so honour'd and beloved a Name , might possibly need as much excuse as it does pardon , but that your Lordship knows your own : for out of your Mines I have digg'd the Mineral ; onely I have stampt it with my own image , as you may perceive by the deformities which are in it . But your great Name in letters will adde so much value to it , as to make it obtain its pardon amongst all them that know how to value you , and all your relatives and dependants by the proportion of relation . For others I shall be incurious , because the number of them that honour you is the same with them that honour Learning and Piety , and they are the best Theatre and the best Judges ; amongst which the world must needs take notice of my ambition , to be ascribed by my publick pretence to be what I am in all heartiness of devotion , and for all the reason of the world , My Honoured Lord , Your Lordship 's most faithfull and most affectionate Servant , JER . TAYLOR . ΘΕΟΛΟΓΙΑ ΕΚΛΕΚΤΙΚΗ , Or , A DISCOURSE OF THE Liberty of Prophesying , With its just Limits and Temper . THe infinite variety of Opinions in matters of Religion as they have troubled Christendome with Interests , Factions and partialities , so have they caused great divisions of the heart , and variety of thoughts and designs amongst pious and prudent men . For they all seeing the inconveniences which the Disunion of Perswasions and Opinions have produced directly or accidentally , have thought themselves obliged to stop this inundation of mischiefs , and have made attempts accordingly . But it hath hapned to most of them as to a mistaken Physician , who gives excellent physick , but mis-applies it , and so misses of his cure : so have these men , their attempts have therefore been ineffectual : for they put their help to a wrong part ; or they have endeavoured to cure the symptoms , and have let the disease alone till it seem'd incurable . Some have endeavoured to re-unite these fractions by propounding such a Guide which they were all bound to follow ; hoping that the Unity of a Guide would have perswaded Unity of mindes ; but who this Guide should be at last became such a Question , that it was made part of the fire that was to be quenched , so far was it from extinguishing any part of the flame . Others thought of a Rule , and this must be the means of Union , or nothing could doe it . But supposing all the World had been agreed of this Rule , yet the interpretation of it was so full of variety , that this also became part of the disease for which the cure was pretended . All men resolv'd upon this , that though they yet had not hit upon the right , yet some way must be thought upon to reconcile differences in Opinion , thinking so long as this variety should last , Christ's Kingdom was not advanced , and the work of the Gospell went on but slowly . Few men in the mean time considered , that so long as men had such variety of principles , such several constitutions , educations , tempers and distempers , hopes , interests and weaknesses , degrees of light and degrees of understanding , it was impossible all should be of one mind . And what is impossible to be done is not necessary it should be done . And therefore although variety of Opinions was impossible to be cured , ( and they who attempted it did like him who claps his shoulder to the ground to stop an earth-quake ; ) yet the inconveniences arising from it might possibly be cured , not by uniting their beliefs , that was to be despair'd of , but by curing that which caus'd these mischiefs , and accidental inconveniences of their disagreeings . For although these inconveniences which every man sees and feels were consequent to this diversity of Perswasions , yet it was but accidentally and by chance , inasmuch as we see that in many things , and they of great concernment , men allow to themselves and to each other a liberty of disagreeing , and no hurt neither . And certainly if diversity of Opinions were of itself the cause of mischiefs , it would be so ever , that is , regularly and universally : but that we see it is not . For there are disputes in Christendome concerning matters of greater concernment then most of those Opinions that distinguish Sects and make Factions ; and yet because men are permitted to differ in those great matters , such evils are not consequent to such differences , as are to the uncharitable managing of smaller and more inconsiderable Questions . It is of greater consequence to believe right in the Question of the validity or invalidity of a death-bed repentance , then to believe aright in the Question of Purgatory ; and the consequences of the Doctrine of Predetermination are of deeper and more material consideration then the products of the belief of the lawfulness or unlawfulness of private Masses : and yet these great concernments , where a liberty of Prophesying in these Questions hath been permitted , have made no distinct Communion , no Sects of Christians , and the others have ; and so have these too in those places where they have peremptorily been determined on either side . Since then , if men are quiet and charitable in some dis-agreeings , that then and there the inconvenience ceases ; if they were so in all others where lawfully they might , ( and they may in most , ) Christendome should be no longer rent in pieces , but would be redintegrated in a new Pentecost . And although the Spirit of God did rest upon us in divided tongues ; yet so long as those tongues were of fire not to kindle strife , but to warm our affections , and inflame our charities , we should find that this variety of Opinions in several persons would be lookt upon as an argument onely of diversity of Operations , while the Spirit is the same : and that another man believes not so well as I , is onely an argument that I have a better and a clearer illumination then he , that I have a better gift then he , received a special grace and favour , and excell him in this , and am perhaps excelled by him in many more . And if we all impartially endeavour to find a truth , since this indeavour and search onely is in our power , that we shall find it being ab extra , a gift and an assistance extrinsecal , I can see no reason why this pious endeavour to find out truth shall not be of more force to unite us in the bonds of charity , then the misery in missing it shall be to dis-unite us . So that since a union of perswasion is impossible to be attained , if we would attempt the cure by such remedies as are apt to enkindle and encrease charity , I am confident we might see a blessed peace would bee the reward and crown of such endeavours . But men are now adays and indeed always have been , since the expiration of the first blessed Ages of Christianity , so in love with their own Fancies and Opinions , as to think Faith and all Christendome is concern'd in their support and maintenance , and whoever is not so fond and does not dandle them like themselves , it grows up to a quarrel , which because it is in materiâ theologiae is made a quarrel in Religion , and God is entitled to it ; and then if you are once thought an enemy to God , it is our duty to persecute you even to death , we do God good service in it ; when if we should examine the matter rightly , the Question is either in materiâ non revelata , or minus evidenti , or non necessariâ , either it is not revealed , or not so clearly , but that wise and honest men may be of different mindes , or else it is not of the foundation of faith , but a remote super-structure , or else of mere speculation , or perhaps when all comes to all , it is a false Opinion , or a matter of humane interest , that we have so zealously contended for ; for to one of these heads most of the Disputes of Christendome may be reduced ; so that I believe the present fractions ( or the most ) are from the same cause which S. Paul observed in the Corinthian Schism , when there are divisions among you , are ye not carnal ? It is not the differing Opinions that is the cause of the present ruptures , but want of charity ; it is not the variety of understandings , but the disunion of wills and affections ; it is not the several principles , but the several ends that cause our miseries ; our Opinions commence , and are upheld according as our turns are served and our interests are preserved , and there is no cure for us , but Piety and Charity . A holy life will make our belief holy , if we consult not humanity and its imperfections in the choice of our Religion , but search for truth without designes , save onely of acquiring heaven , and then be as careful to preserve Charity , as we were to get a point of Faith ; I am much perswaded we shall find out more truths by this means ; or however ( which is the main of all ) we shall be secured though we miss them ; and then we are well enough . For if it be evinced that one heaven shall hold men of several Opinions , if the unity of Faith be not destroyed by that which men call differing Religions , and if an unity of Charity be the duty of us all even towards persons that are not perswaded of every proposition we believe , then I would fain know to what purpose are all those stirrs , and great noises in Christendome ; those names of Faction , the several Names of Churches not distinguished by the division of Kingdomes , ut Ecclesia sequatur Imperium , which was the Primitive * Rule and Canon , but distinguished by Names of Sects and men ; these are all become instruments of hatred , thence come Schisms and parting of Communions , and then persecutions , and then warrs and Rebellion , and then the dissolutions of all Friendships and Societies . All these mischiefs proceed not from this , that all men are not of one mind , for that is neither necessary nor possible , but that every Opinion is made an Article of Faith , every Article is a ground of a quarrel , every quarrel makes a faction , every faction is zealous , and all zeal pretends for God , and whatsoever is for God cannot be too much ; we by this time are come to that pass , we think we love not God except we hate our Brother , and we have not the vertue of Religion , unless we persecute all Religions but our own ; for lukewarmness is so odious to God and Man , that we proceeding furiously upon these mistakes ; by supposing we preserve the body , we destroy the soul of Religion , or by being zealous for faith , or which is all one , for that which we mistake for faith , we are cold in charity , and so lose the reward of both . All these errours and mischiefs must be discovered and cured , and that 's the purpose of this Discourse . SECT . I. Of the nature of Faith , and that its duty is compleated in believing the Articles of the Apostles Creed . 1. FIrst then it is of great concernment to know the nature and integrity of Faith : For there begins our first and great mistake ; for Faith , although it be of great excellency , yet when it is taken for a habit intellectual , it hath so little room and so narrow a capacity , that it cannot lodge thousands of those Opinions which pretend to be of her Family . 2. For although it be necessary for us to believe whatsoever we know to be revealed of God , and so every man does , that believes there is a God : yet it is not necessary , concerning many things , to know that God hath revealed them , that is , we may be ignorant of , or doubt concerning the propositions , and indifferently maintain either part , when the Question is not concerning Gods veracity , but whether God hath said so or no : That which is of the foundation of Faith , that only is necessary ; and the knowing or not knowing of that , the believing or dis-believing it , is that only which in genere credendorum , is in immediate and necessary order to salvation or damnation . 3. Now all the reason and demonstration of the World convinces us , that this foundation of Faith , or the great adequate object of the Faith that saves us , is that great mysteriousness of Christianity which Christ taught with so much diligence , for the credibility of which he wrought so many miracles ; for the testimony of which the Apostles endured persecutions ; that which was a folly to the Gentiles , and a scandal to the Jews , this is that which is the object of a Christians Faith : All other things are implicitely in the belief of the Articles of Gods veracity , and are not necessary in respect of the Constitution of faith to be drawn out , but may there lie in the bowels of the great Articles without danger to any thing or any person , unless some other accident or circumstance makes them necessary : Now the great object which I speak of , is Jesus Christ crucified ; Constitui enim apud vos nihil scire praeter Jesum Christum & hunc crucifixum ; so said St. Paul to the Church of Corinth : This is the Article upon the Confession of which Christ built his Church , viz. only upon St. Peters Creed , which was no more but this simple enunciation , We believe and are sure that thou art Christ , the Son of the living God : And to this salvation particularly is promised , as in the case of Martha's Creed , John 11.27 . To this the Scripture gives the greatest Testimony , and to all them that confess it ; For every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God : And whoever confesseth that Jesus Christ is the Son of God , God dwelleth in him , and he in God : The believing this Article is the end of writing the four Gospels : For all these things are written , that ye might believe , that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God , and then that this is sufficient follows , and that believing , viz. this Article ( for this was only instanced in ) ye might have life through his name : This is that great Article which in genere credendorum , is sufficient disposition to prepare a Catechumen to Baptism , as appears in the case of the Ethiopian Eunuch , whose Creed was only this , I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God , and upon this confession ( saith the story ) they both went into the water , and the Ethiop was washed , and became as white as snow . 4. In these particular instances , there is no variety of Articles , save only that in the annexes of the several expressions , such things are expressed , as besides that Christ is come , they tell from whence , and to what purpose : And whatsoever is expressed , or is to these purposes implyed , is made articulate and explicate , in the short and admirable mysterious Creed of St. Paul , Rom. 10.1 . This is the word of faith which we preach , that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus , and shalt believe in thine heart , that God hath raised him from the dead , thou shalt be saved : This is the great and entire complexion of a Christian's faith , and since salvation is promised to the belief of this Creed , either a snare is laid for us , with a purpose to deceive us , or else nothing is of prime and original necessity to be believed , but this , Jesus Christ our Redeemer ; and all that which is the necessary parts , means , or main actions of working this redemption for us , and the honour for him is in the bowels and fold of the great Article , and claims an explicite belief by the same reason that binds us to the belief of its first complexion , without which neither the thing could be acted , nor the proposition understood . 5. For the act of believing propositions , is not for it self , but in order to certain ends ; as Sermons are to good life and obedience ; for ( excepting that it acknowledges Gods veracity , and so is a direct act of Religion ) believing a revealed proposition hath no excellency in its self , but in order to that end for which we are instructed in such revelations . Now Gods great purpose being to bring us to him by Jesus Christ , Christ is our medium to God , obedience is the medium to Christ , and Faith the medium to obedience , and therefore is to have its estimate in proportion to its proper end , and those things are necessary , which necessarily promote the end , without which obedience cannot be encouraged , or prudently enjoyned : So that those articles are necessary , that is , those are fundamental points , upon which we build our obedience ; and as the influence of the Article is to the perswasion or engagement of obedience , so they have their degrees of necessity . Now all that Christ , when he preached , taught us to believe , and all that the Apostles in their Sermons propound , all aim at this , that we should acknowledge Christ for our Law-giver and our Saviour ; so that nothing can be necessary by a prime necessity to be believed explicitely , but such things which are therefore parts of the great Article , because they either encourage our services , or oblige them , such as declare Christs greatness in himself , or his goodness to us : So that although we must neither deny nor doubt of any thing , which we know our great Master hath taught us : yet salvation is in special and by name annexed to the belief of those Articles only , which have in them the endearments of our services , or the support of our confidence , or the satisfaction of our hopes , such as are ; Jesus Christ the Son of the living God , the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus , forgiveness of sins by his bloud , Resurrection of the dead , and life eternal , because these propositions qualifie Christ for our Saviour and our Law-Giver , the one to engage our services , the other to endear them ; for so much is necessary as will make us to be his servants , and his Disciples ; and what can be required more ? This only . Salvation is promised to the explicite belief of those Articles , and therefore those only are necessary , and those are sufficient ; but thus , to us in the formality of Christians , which is a formality superadded to a former capacity , we before we are Christians are reasonable creatures , and capable of a blessed eternity , and there is a Creed which is the Gentiles Creed , which is so supposed in the Christians Creed , as it is supposed in a Christian to be a man , and that is , oportet accedentem ad Deum credere Deum esse , & esse remuneratorem quaerentium eum . If any man will urge farther , that whatsoever is deducible from these Articles by necessary consequence , is necessary to be believed explicitely : I answer . It is true , if he sees the deduction and coherence of the parts , but it is not certain that every man shall be able to deduce whatsoever is either immediately , or certainly deducible from these premises ; and then since salvation is promised to the explicite belief of these , I see not how any man can justifie the making the way to heaven narrower than Jesus Christ hath made it , it being already so narrow , that there are few that find it . 7. In the pursuance of this great truth , the Apostles or the holy men , their Contemporaries and Disciples , composed a Creed , to be a Rule of Faith to all Christians , as appears in Irenaeus , a Tertullian , b St. Cyprian , c St. Austin , d Ruffinus , and divers e others ; which Creed unless it had contained all the intire object of Faith , and the foundation of Religion , it cannot be imagined to what purpose it should serve ; and that it was so esteemed by the whole Church of God in all Ages , appears in this , that since Faith is a necessary pre-disposition to Baptism in all persons capable of the use of reason , all Catechumens in the Latine Church coming to Baptism , were interrogated concerning their faith , and gave satisfaction in the recitation of this Creed . And in the East they professed exactly the same faith , something differing in words , but of the same matter , reason , design , and consequence ; and so they did at Hierusalem , so at Aquileia : This was that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . These articles were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . L. 5. Cod. de S. Trinit . ad fid . Cath. Cùm recta . Now since the Apostles and Apostolical men and Churches in these their Symbols , did recite particular Articles to a considerable number , and were so minute in their recitation , as to descend to circumstances , it is more than probable that they omitted nothing of necessity ; and that these Articles are not general principles , in the bosom of which many more Articles equally necessary to be believed explicitely and more particular , are infolded ; but that it is as minute an explication of those prima credibilia I before reckoned , as is necessary to salvation . And therefore Tertullian calls the Creed Regulam fidei , quâ salvâ & formâ ejus manente in suo ordine , possit in Scriptura tractari & inquiri si quid videtur vel ambiguitate pendere vel obscuritate obumbrari . Cordis signaculum & nostrae militiae Sacramentum , S. Ambrose calls it , lib. 3. de velandis virgin . Comprehensio fidei nostrae atque perfectio , by S. Austin , Serm. 115. Confessio , expositio , regula fidei , generally by the Ancients : The profession of this Creed , was the exposition of that saying of Saint Peter , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , The answer of a good conscience towards God. For of the recitation and profession of this Creed in Baptism , it is that Tertullian de resur . carnis says , Anima non lotione , sed responsione sancitur . And of this was the prayer of Hilary , lib. 12. de Trinit . Conserva hanc conscientiae meae vocem ut quod in regenerationis meae Symbolo baptizatus in Patre , Filio , Spir. S. professus sum semper obtineam . And according to the rule and reason of this Discourse ( that it may appear that the Creed hath in it all Articles primò & per se , primely and universally necessary ) the Creed is just such an explication of that Faith which the Apostles preached , viz. the Creed which St. Paul recites , as contains in it all those things which entitle Christ to us in the capacities of our Law-giver and our Saviour , such as enable him to the great work of redemption , according to the predictions concerning him , and such as engage and encourage our services . For , taking out the Article of Christs descent into Hell ( which was not in the old Creed , as appears in some of the Copies I before referred to , in Tertullian , Ruffinus , and Irenaeus ; and indeed was omitted in all the Confessions of the Eastern Churches , in the Church of Rome , and in the Nicene Creed , which by adoption came to be the Creed of the Catholick Church ) all other Articles are such as directly constitute the parts and work of our redemption , such as clearly derive the honour to Christ , and enable him with the capacities of our Saviour and Lord. The rest engage our services by proposition of such Articles which are rather promises than propositions ; and the whole Creed , take it in any of the old Forms , is but an Analysis of that which St. Paul calls the word of salvation , whereby we shall be saved , viz. that we confess Jesus to be Lord , and that God raised him from the dead : by the first whereof he became our Law-giver and our Guardian ; by the second he was our Saviour : the other things are but parts and main actions of those two . Now what reason there is in the world that can inwrap any thing else within the foundation , that is , in the whole body of Articles simply and inseparably necessary , or in the prime original necessity of Faith , I cannot possibly imagine . These do the work , and therefore nothing can upon the true grounds of reason enlarge the necessity to the inclosure of other Articles . 9. Now if more were necessary than the Articles of the Creed , I demand why was it made the * Characteristick note of a Christian from a Heretick , or a Jew , or an Infidel ? or to what purpose was it composed ? Or if this was intended as sufficient , did the Apostles , or those Churches which they founded , know any thing else to be necessary ? If they did not , then either nothing more is necessary ( I speak of matters of meer belief ) or they did not know all the will of the Lord , and so were unfit Dispensers of the mysteries of the Kingdom ; or if they did know more was necessary , and yet would not insert it , they did an act of publick notice , and consign'd it to all Ages of the Church to no purpose , unless to beguile credulous people by making them believe their faith was sufficient , having tried it by that touch-stone Apostolical , when there was no such matter . 10. But if this was sufficient to bring men to heaven then , why not now ? If the Apostles admitted all to their Communion that believed this Creed , why shall we exclude any that preserve the same intire ? Why is not our faith of these Articles of as much efficacy for bringing us to heaven , as it was in the Churches Apostolical ? Who had guides more infallible that might without errour have taught them superstructures enough , if they had been necessary : and so they did ; But that they did not insert them into the Creed , when they might have done it with as much certainty , as these Articles , makes it clear to my understanding , that other things were not necessary , but these were ; that whatever profit and advantages might come from other Articles , yet these were sufficient , and however certain persons might accidentally be obliged to believe much more , yet this was the one and only foundation of Faith upon which all persons were to build their hopes of Heaven ; this was therefore necessary to be taught to all , because of necessity to be believed by all : So that although other persons might commit a delinquency in genere morum , if they did not know or did not believe much more , because they were obliged to further disquisitions in order to other ends , yet none of these who held the Creed intire , could perish for want of necessary faith , though possibly he might for supine negligence or affected ignorance , or some other fault which had influence upon his opinions , and his understanding , he having a new supervening obligation ex accidente to know and believe more . 11. Neither are we oblig'd to make these Articles more particular and minute than the Creed . For since the Apostles and indeed our blessed Lord himself promised heaven to them who believed him to be the Christ that was to come into the World , and that he who believes in him , should be partaker of the resurrection and life eternal , he will be as good as his word : yet because this Article was very general , and a complexion rather than a single proposition ; the Apostles and others our Fathers in Christ did make it more explicite , & though they have said no more than what lay entire and ready form'd in the bosom of the great Article , yet they made their extracts , to great purpose , and absolute sufficiency , and therefore there needs no more deductions or remoter consequences from the first great Article , than the Creed of the Apostles . For although whatsoever is certainly deduced from any of these Articles made already so explicite , is as certainly true , and as much to be believed as the Article it self , because ex veris possunt nil nisi vera sequi , yet because it is not certain that our deductions from them are certain , and what one calls evident , is so obscure to another that he believes it is false ; it is the best and only safe course to rest in that explication the Apostles have made , because if any of these Apostolical deductions were not demonstrable evidently to follow from that great Article to which salvation is promised , yet the authority of them who compil'd the Symbol , the plain description of the Articles from the words of Scriptures , the evidence of reason demonstrating these to be the whole foundation , are sufficient upon great grounds of reason to ascertain us ; but if we go farther , besides the easiness of being deceived , we relying upon our own discourses , ( which though they may be true and then bind us to follow them , but yet no more than when they only seem truest , ) yet they cannot make the thing certain to another , much less necessary in it self . And since God would not bind us upon pain of sin and punishment , to make deductions our selves , much less would he bind us to follow another mans Logick as an Article of our Faith ; I say much less another mans ; for our own integrity ( for we will certainly be true to our selves , and do our own business heartily ) is as fit and proper to be imployed as another mans ability . He cannot secure me that his ability is absolute and the greatest , but I can be more certain that my own purposes and fidelity to my self is such . And since it is necessary to rest somewhere , lest we should run to an infinity , it is best to rest there where the Apostles and the Churches Apostolical rested ; when not only they who are able to judge , but others who are not , are equally ascertained of the certainty and of the sufficiency of that explication . 12. This I say , not that I believe it unlawful or unsafe for the Church or any of the Antistites religionis , or any wise man to extend his own Creed to any thing may certainly follow from any one of the Articles ; but I say , that no such deduction is fit to be prest on others as an Article of Faith ; and that every deduction which is so made , unless it be such a thing as is at first evident to all , is but sufficient to make a humane Faith , nor can it amount to a divine , much less can be obligatory to bind a person of a differing perswasion to subscribe under pain of losing his Faith , or being a Heretick . For it is a demonstration , that nothing can be necessary to be believed under pain of damnation , but such propositions of which it is certain that God hath spoken and taught them to us , and of which it is certain that this is their sence and purpose : For if the sence be uncertain , we can no more be obliged to believe it in a certain sence , than we are to believe it at all , if it were not certain that God delivered it . But if it be only certain that God spake it , and not certain to what sence , our faith of it is to be as indeterminate as its sence , and it can be no other in the nature of the thing , nor is it consonant to Gods justice to believe of him that he can or will require more . And this is of the nature of those propositions which Aristotle calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to which without any further probation , all wise men will give assent at its first publication . And therefore deductions inevident , from the evident and plain letter of Faith , are as great recessions from the obligation , as they are from the simplicity , and certainty of the Article . And this I also affirm , although the Church of any one denomination , or represented in a Council , shall make the deduction or declaration . For unless Christ had promised his Spirit to protect every particular Church from all errours less material , unless he had promised an absolute universal infallibility etiam in minutioribus , unless super-structures be of the same necessity with the foundation , and that Gods Spirit doth not only preserve his Church in the being of a Church , but in a certainty of not saying any thing that is less certain ; and that whether they will or no too ; we may be bound to peace and obedience , to silence , and to charity , but have not a new Article of Faith made ; and a new proposition though consequent ( as 't is said ) from an Article of Faith becomes not therefore a part of the Faith , nor of absolute necessity , Quid unquam aliud Ecclesia Conciliorum decretis enisa est , nisi ut quod antea simpliciter credebatur , hoc idem postea diligentius crederetur , said Vincentius Lirinensis ; whatsoever was of necessary belief is so still , and hath a new degree added by reason of a new light or a clear explication ; but no propositions can be adopted into the foundation . The Church hath power to intend our Faith , but not to extend it ; to make our belief more evident , but not more large and comprehensive . For Christ and his Apostles concealed nothing that was necessary to the integrity of Christian Faith , or salvation of our souls ; Christ declared all the will of his Father , and the Apostles were Stewards and Dispensers of the same Mysteries , and were faithful in all the house , and therefore concealed nothing , but taught the whole Doctrine of Christ ; so they said themselves . And indeed if they did not teach all the Doctrine of Faith , an Angel or a man might have taught us other things than what they taught , without deserving an Anathema , but not without deserving a blessing for making up that Faith intire which the Apostles left imperfect . Now if they taught all the whole body of Faith , either the Church in the following Ages lost part of the Faith ( and then was their infallibility , and the effect of those glorious promises to which she pretends and hath certain Title ? for she may as well introduce a falshood as lose a truth , it being as much promised to her that the Holy Ghost shall lead her into all truth , as that she shall be preserved from all errours as appears John 16.13 . ) Or if she retained all the Faith which Christ and his Apostles consign'd and taught , then no Age can by declaring any point , make that be an Article of Faith which was not so in all Ages of Christianity before such declaration . And indeed if the * Church by declaring an Article can make that to be necessary , which before was not necessary , I do not see how it can stand with the charity of the Church so to do ( especially after so long experience she hath had that all men will not believe every such decision or explication ) for by so doing she makes the narrow way to Heaven narrower , and chalks out one path more to the Devil than he had before , and yet the way was broad enough when it was at the narrowest . For before , differing persons might be saved in diversity of perswasions , and now after this declaration if they cannot , there is no other alteration made , but that some shall be damned who before even in the same dispositions and belief should have been beatified persons . For therefore it is well for the Fathers of the Primitive Church that their errours were not discovered , for if they had been contested ( for that would have been called discovery enough ) vel errores emendassent , vel ab Ecclesiâ ejecti fuissent . But it is better as it was , they went to heaven by that good-fortune , whereas otherwise they might have gone to the Devil . And yet there were some errours , particularly that of Saint Cyprian that was discovered , and he went to heaven , 't is thought ; possibly they might so too for all this pretence . But suppose it true , yet whether that declaration of an Article , of which with safety we either might have doubted or been ignorant , does more good , than the damning of those many souls occasionally , but yet certainly and fore-knowingly does hurt , I leave it to all wise and good men to determine . And yet besides this , it cannot enter into my thoughts , that it can possibly consist with Gods goodness , to put it into the power of man so palpably and openly to alter the paths and in-lets to heaven , and to streighten his mercies , unless he had furnished these men with an infallible judgment and an infallible prudence , and a never failing charity , that they should never do it but with great necessity , and with great truth , and without ends and humane designs , of which I think no Arguments can make us certain , what the Primitive Church hath done in this case : I shall afterwards consider and give an account of it ; but for the present , there is no insecurity in ending there where the Apostles ended , in building where they built , in resting where they left us , unless the same infallibility which they had , had still continued , which I think I shall hereafter make evident it did not : And therefore those extensions of Creed which were made in the first Ages of the Church , although for the matter they were most true ; yet because it was not certain that they should be so , and they might have been otherwise , therefore they could not be in the same order of Faith , nor in the same degrees of necessity to be believed with the Articles Apostolical ; and therefore whether they did well or no in laying the same weight upon them , or whether they did lay the same weight or no , we will afterwards consider . 13. But to return . I consider that a foundation of Faith cannot alter , unless a new building be to be made , the foundation is the same still ; and this foundation is no other but that which Christ and his Apostles laid , which Doctrine is like himself , yesterday and to day , and the same for ever : So that the Articles of necessary belief to all ( which are the only foundation ) they cannot be several in several Ages , and to several persons . Nay , the sentence and declaration of the Church , cannot lay this foundation , or make any thing of the foundation , because the Church cannot lay her own foundation ; we must suppose her to be a building , and that she relies upon the foundation . which is therefore supposed to be laid before , because she is built upon it , or ( to make it more explicate ) because a cloud may arise from the Allegory of building and foundation , it is plainly thus ; The Church being a company of men obliged to the duties of Faith and obedience , the duty and obligation being of the faculties of will and understanding to adhere to such an object , must pre-suppose the object made ready for them ; for as the object is before the act in order of nature , and therefore not to be produced or encreased by the faculty ( which is receptive , cannot be active upon its proper object : ) So the object of the Churches Faith is in order of nature before the Church , or before the act and habit of Faith , and therefore cannot be enlarged by the Church , any more than the act of the visive faculty can add visibility to the object . So that if we have found out what foundation Christ and his Apostles did lay , that is , what body and systeme of Articles simply necessary they taught and required of us to believe , we need not , we cannot go any farther for foundation , we cannot enlarge that systeme or collection . Now then , although all that they said is true , and nothing of it to be doubted or dis-believed , yet as all that they said , is neither written nor delivered ( because all was not necessary ) so we know that of those things which are written , some things are as far off from the foundation as those things which were omitted , and therefore although now accidentally they must be believed by all that know them , yet it is not necessary all should know them ; and that all should know them in the same sence and interpretation , is neither probable nor obligatory ; but therefore since these things are to be distinguished by some differences of necessary and not necessary , whether or no is not the declaration of Christ and his Apostles affixing salvation to the belief of some great comprehensive Articles , and the act of the Apostles rendring them as explicite as they thought convenient , and consigning that Creed made so explicite , as a tessera of a Christian , as a comprehension of the Articles of his belief , as a sufficient disposition and an express of the Faith of a Catechumen in order to Baptism : whether or no I say , all this be not sufficient probation that these only are of absolute necessity , that this is sufficient for meer belief in order to Heaven , and that therefore whosoever believes these Articles heartily and explicitely , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Saint John's expression is , God dwelleth in him , I leave it to be considered and judged of from the premises : Only this , if the old Doctors had been made Judges in these Questions , they would have passed their affirmative ; for to instance in one for all , of this it was said by Tertullian , Regula quidem fidei una omnino est sola immobilis & irreformabilis &c. Hâc lege fidei manente caetera jam disciplinae & conversationis admittunt novitatem correctionis , operante scil . & proficiente usque in finem gratia Dei. This Symbol is the one sufficient immoveable , unalterable and unchangeable rule of Faith , that admits no increment or decrement ; but if the integrity and unity of this be preserved , in all other things men may take a liberty of enlarging their knowledges and prophecyings , according as they are assisted by the grace of God. SECT . II. Of Heresy and the nature of it , and that it is to be accounted according to the strict capacity of Christian Faith , and not in Opinions speculative , nor ever to pious persons . 1. AND thus I have represented a short draught of the Object of Faith , and its foundation ; the next consideration in order to our main design , is to consider what was and what ought to be the judgment of the Apostles concerning Heresy : For although there are more kinds of vices , than there are of vertues ; yet the number of them is to be taken by accounting the transgressions of their vertues , and by the limits of Faith ; we may also reckon the Analogy and proportions of Heresy , that as we have seen who was called faithful by the Apostolical men , we may also perceive who were listed by them in the Catalogue of Hereticks , that we in our judgmen●s may proceed accordingly . 2. And first the word Heresy is used in Scripture indifferently , in a good sence for a Sect or Division of Opinion , and men following it , or sometimes in a bad sence , for a false Opinion , signally condemned ; but these kind of people were then call'd Antichrists and false Prophets more frequently than Hereticks , and then there were many of them in the World. But it is observable that no Heresies are noted signanter in Scripture , but such as are great errours practical in materiâ pietatis , such whose doctrines taught impiety , or such who denyed the coming of Christ directly or by consequence , not remote or withdrawn , but prime and immediate : And therefore in the Code de S. Trinitate & fide Catholica , Heresy is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a wicked Opinion and an ungodly doctrine . 3. The first false doctrine we find condemned by the Apostles was the opinion of Simon Magus , who thought the Holy Ghost was to be bought with money ; he thought very dishonourably to the blessed Spirit ; but yet his followers are rather noted of a vice , neither resting in the understanding , nor derived from it , but wholly practical ; 'T is simony , not heresy , though in Simon it was a false opinion proceeding from a low account of God , and promoted by his own ends of pride and covetousness : The great heresy that troubled them was the doctrine of the necessity of keeping the Law of Moses , the necessity of Circumcision ; against which doctrine they were therefore zealous , because it was a direct overthrow to the very end and excellency of Christs coming . And this was an opinion most pertinaciously and obstinately maintained by the Jews , and had made a Sect among the Galathians , and this was indeed wholly in opinion ; and against it the Apostles opposed two Articles of the Creed , which served at several times according as the Jews changed their opinion , and left some degrees of their errour , I believe in Jesus Christ , and I believe the holy Catholick Church ; For they therefore pressed the necessity of Moses Law , because they were unwilling to forgo the glorious appellative of being Gods own peculiar people ; and that salvation was of the Jews , and that the rest of the World were capable of that grace , no otherwise but by adoption into their Religion , and becoming proselytes : But this was so ill a Doctrine , as that it overthrew the great benefits of Christ's coming ; for if they were circumcised , Christ profited them nothing , meaning this , that Christ will not be a Saviour to them who do not acknowledge him for their Law-giver ; and they neither confess him their Law-giver , nor their Saviour , that look to be justified by the Law of Moses , and observation of legal rites ; so that this doctrine was a direct enemy to the foundation ; and therefore the Apostles were so zealous against it . Now then that other opinion , which the Apostles met at Jerusalem to resolve , was but a piece of that opinion ; for the Jews and Proselytes were drawn off from their lees and sediment , by degrees , step by step . At first they would not endure any should be saved but themselves , and their Proselytes . Being wrought off from this height by Miracles , and preaching of the Apostles , they admitted the Gentiles to a possibility of salvation , but yet so as to hope for it by Moses Law. From which foolery , when they were with much ado perswaded , and told that salvation was by Faith in Christ , not by works of the Law , yet they resolved to plow with an Oxe and an Ass still , and joyn Moses with Christ ; not as shadow and substance , but in an equal confederation , Christ should save the Gentiles if he was helpt by Moses , but alone Christianity could not do it . Against this the Apostles assembled at Jerusalem , and made a decision of the Question , tying some of the Gentiles ( such only who were blended by the Jews in communi patria , ) to observation of such Rites which the Jews had derived by tradition from Noah , intending by this to satisfie the Jews as far as might be with a reasonable compliance and condescension ; the other Gentiles who were unmixt , in the mean while , remaining free , as appears in the liberty S. Paul gave the Church of Corinth of eating Idol Sacrifices ( expresly against the Decree at Jerusalem ) so it were without scandal . And yet for all this care and curious discretion , a little of the leaven still remained : All this they thought did so concern the Gentiles , that it was totally impertinent to the Jews ; still they had a distinction to satisfie the letter of the Apostles Decree , and yet to persist in their old opinion ; and this so continued , that fifteen Christian Bishops in succession were circumcised , even until the destruction of Jerusalem , under Adrian , as Eusebius reports . 4. First , By the way let me observe , that never any matter of Question in the Christian Church was determined with greater solemnity , or more full authority of the Church than this Question concerning Circumcision : No less than the whole Colledge of the Apostles , and Elders at Jerusalem , and that with a Decree of the highest sanction , Visum est spiritui sancto & nobis . Secondly , Either the case of the Hebrews in particular was omitted , and no determination concerning them , whether it were necessary or lawful for them to be circumcised , or else it was involv'd in the Decree , and intended to oblige the Jews . If it was omitted since the Question was de re necessaria ( for dico vobis , I Paul say unto you , If ye be circumcised , Christ shall profit you nothing ) it is very remarkable how the Apostles to gain the Jews , and to comply with their violent prejudice in behalf of Moses Law , did for a time Tolerate their dissent etiam in re alioquin necessariâ , which I doubt not but was intended as a precedent for the Church to imitate for ever after : But if it was not omitted , either all the multitude of the Jews ( which S. James then their Bishop expressed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; Thou seest how many myriads of Jews that believe , and yet are zelots for the Law : and Eusebius speaking of Justus saies , he was one ex infinitâ multitudine eorum qui ex circumcisione in Jesum credebant , ) I say all these did perish , and their believing in Christ served them to no other ends , but in the infinity of their torments to upbraid them with hypocrisie and heresie ; or if they were saved , it is apparent how merciful God was and pitiful to humane infirmities , that in a point of so great concernment did pity their weakness , and pardon their errors , and love their good mind , since their prejudice was little less than insuperable , and had fair probabilities , at least , it was such as might abuse a wise and good man ( and so it did many ) they did bono animo errare . And if I mistake not , this consideration S. Paul urged as a reason why God forgave him who was a Persecutor of the Saints , because he did it ignorantly in unbelief , that is , he was not convinced in his understanding , of the truth of the way which he persecuted , he in the mean while remaining in that incredulity not out of malice or ill ends , but the mistakes of humanity and a pious zeal , therefore God had mercy on him : And so it was in this great Question of circumcision , here only was the difference , the invincibility of S. Paul's error , and the honesty of his heart caused God so to pardon him , as to bring him to the knowledge of Christ , which God therefore did because it was necessary , necessitate medii ; no salvation was consistent with the actual remanency of that error ; but in the Question of Circumcision , although they by consequence did overthrow the end of Christ's coming : yet because it was such a consequence , which they being hindred by a prejudice non impious did not perceive , God tolerated them in their error , till time and a continual dropping of the lessons and dictates Apostolical did wear it out , and then the doctrine put on its apparel , and became clothed with necessity ; they in the mean time so kept to the foundation , that is , Jesus Christ crucified and risen again , that although this did make a violent concussion of it , yet they held fast with their heart , what they ignorantly destroyed with their tongue , ( which Saul before his conversion did not ) that God upon other Titles , than an actual dereliction of their error did bring them to salvation . 5. And in the descent of so many years , I find not any one Anathema past by the Apostles or their Successors upon any of the Bishops of Jerusalem , or the Believers of the Circumcision , and yet it was a point as clearly determined , and of as great necessity as any of those Questions that at this day vex and crucifie Christendom . 6. Besides this Question , and that of the Resurrection , commenced in the Church of Corinth , and promoted with some variety of sence by Hymenaeus and Philetus in As●a , who said that the Resurrection was past already , I do not remember any other heresie named in Scripture , but such as were errors of impiety , seductiones in materiâ practicâ , such as was particularly , forbidding to marry , and the heresie of the Nicolaitans , a doctrine that taught the necessity of lust and frequent fornication . 7. But in all the Animadversions against errors made by the Apostles in the New Testament , no pious person was condemned , no man that did invincibly erre , or bonâ mente ; but something that was amiss in genere morum , was that which the Apostles did redargue . And it is very considerable , that even they of the Circumcision , who in so great numbers did heartily believe in Christ , and yet most violently retain Circumcision , and without Question went to heaven in great numbers ; yet of the number of these very men they came deeply under censure , when to their error they added impiety : So long as it stood with charity , and without humane ends and secular interests , so long it was either innocent or connived at ; but when they grew covetous , and for filthy lucres sake taught the same doctrine which others did in the simplicity of their hearts , then they turned Hereticks , then they were termed Seducers ; and Titus was commanded to look to them , and to silence them ; For there are many that are intractable and vain bablers , Seducers of minds , especially they of the Circumcision , who seduce whole houses , teaching things that they ought not , for filthy lucres sake . These indeed were not to be induced , but to be silenced , by the conviction of sound doctrine , and to be rebuked sharply , and avoided . 8. For heresie is not an error of the understanding , but an error of the will. And this is clearly insinuated in Scripture , in the stile whereof Faith and a good life are made one duty , and vice is called opposite to Faith , and heresie opposed to holiness and sanctity . So in S. Paul , For ( saith he ) the end of the Commandment is charity out of a pure heart , and a good conscience , and faith unfeigned ; à quibus quòd aberrarunt quidam , from which charity , and purity , and goodness , and sincerity , because some have wandred , deflexerunt ad vaniloquium . And immediately after , he reckons the oppositions to faith and sound doctrine , and instances only in vices that stain the lives of Christians , the unjust , the unclean , the uncharitable , the lyer , the perjur'd person , & si quis alius qui sanae doctrinae adversatur ; these are the enemies of the true doctrine . And therefore S. Peter having given in charge , to adde to our vertue , patience , temperance , charity , and the like ; gives this for a reason , for if these things be in you , and abound , ye shall be fruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. So that knowledge and faith is inter praecepta morum , is part of a good life : * And Saint Paul calls Faith or the form of sound words , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the doctrine that is according to godliness , 1 Tim. 6.3 . And veritati credere , and in injustitiâ sibi complacere , are by the same Apostle opposed , and intimate , that piety and faith is all one thing ; faith must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , intire and holy too , or it is not right . It was the heresie of the Gnosticks , that it was no matter how men lived , so they did but believe aright : Which wicked doctrine Tatianus a learned Christian did so detest , that he fell into a quite contrary , Non est curandum quid quisque credat , id tantum curandum est quod quisque faciat ; And thence came the Sect Encratites : Both these heresies sprang from the too nice distinguishing the faith from the piety and good life of a Christian : They are both but one duty . However , they may be distinguished , if we speak like Philosophers ; they cannot be distinguished , when we speak like Christians . For to believe what God hath commanded , is in order to a good life ; and to live well is the product of that believing , and as proper emanation from it , as from its proper principle , and as heat is from the fire . And therefore , in Scripture , they are used promiscuously in sence , and in expression , as not only being subjected in the same person , but also in the same faculty ; faith is as truly seated in the will as in the understanding , and a good life as meerly derives from the understanding ●s the will. Both of them are matters of choice and of election , neither of them an effect natural and invincible , or necessary antecedently ( necessaria ut fiant , non necessariò facta ) And indeed if we remember that S. Paul reckons heresie amongst the works of the flesh , and ranks it with all manner of practical impieties , we shall easily perceive that if a man mingles not a vice with his opinion , if he be innocent i● his life , though deceived in his doctrine , his errour is his misery , not his crime ; it makes him an argument of weakness , and an object of pity , but not a person sealed up to ruine and reprobation . 9. For as the nature of faith is , so is the nature of heresie , contraries having the same proportion and commensuration . Now faith , if it be taken for an act of the understanding meerly , is so far from being that excellent grace that justifies us , that it is not good at all , in any kind but in genere naturae , and makes the understanding better in it self or pleasing to God , just as strength doth the arm , or beauty the face , or health the body ; these are natural perfections indeed , and so knowledge and a true belief is to the understanding . But this makes us not at all more acceptable to God ; for then the unlearned were certainly in a damnable condition , and all good Scholars should be saved ( whereas I am afraid too much of the contrary is true . ) But unless Faith be made moral by the mixtures of choice , and charity , it is nothing but a natural perfection , not a grace or a vertue ; and this is demonstrably proved in this , that by the confession of all men of all interests and perswasions , in matters of meer belief , invincible ignorance is our excuse if we be deceived , which could not be , but that neither to believe aright is commendable , nor to believe amiss is reprovable ; but where both one and the other is voluntary and chosen antecedently or consequently , by prime election , or ex post facto , and so comes to be considered in morality , and is part of a good life or a bad life respectively . Just so it is in heresie , if it be a design of ambition , and making of a Sect ( so Erasmus expounds S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , sectarum * authorem ) if it be for filthy lucres sake as it was in some that were of the circumcision , if it be of pride and love of preheminence , as it was in Diotrephes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or out of peevishness and indocibleness of disposition , or of a contentious spirit , that is , that their feet are not shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace ; in all these cases the errour is just so damnable , as is its principle , but therefore damnable not of it self , but by reason of its adherency . And if any shall say any otherwise , it is to say that some men shall be damned when they cannot help it , perish without their own fault , and be miserable for ever , because of their unhappiness to be deceived through their own simplicity and natural or accidental , but inculpable infirmity . 8. For it cannot stand with the goodness of God , who does so know our infirmities , that he pardons many things in which our wills indeed have the least share ( but some they have ) but are overborn with the violence of an impetuous temptation ; I say , it is inconsistent with his goodness to condemn those who erre where the error hath nothing of the will in it , who therefore cannot repent of their errour , because they believe it true , who therefore cannot make compensation , because they know not that they are tyed to dereliction of it . And although all Hereticks are in this condition , that is , they believe their errours to be true ; yet there is a vast difference between them who believe so out of simplicity , and them who are given over to believe a lie , as a punishment or an effect of some other wickedness or impiety . For all have a concomitant assent to the truth of what they believe ; and no man can at the same time believe what he does not believe ; but this assent of the understanding in Hereticks is caused not by force of Argument , but the Argument is made forcible by something that is amiss in his will ; and although a Heretick may peradventure have a stronger argument for his errour , than some true Believer for his right perswasion ; yet it is not considerable how strong his Argument is ( because in a weak understanding , a small motive will produce a great perswasion , like gentle physick in a weak body ) but that which here is considerable , is , what it is that made his Argument forcible . If his invincible and harmless prejudice , if his weakness , if his education , if his mistaking piety , if any thing that hath no venome , nor a sting in it , there the heartiness of his perswasion is no sin , but his misery and his excuse : but if any thing that is evil in genere morum did incline his understanding , if his opinion did commence upon pride , or is nourished by covetousness , or continues through stupid carelesness , or increases by pertinacy , or is confirmed by obstinacy , then the innocency of the errour is disbanded , his misery is changed into a crime , and begins its own punishment . But by the way I must observe , that when I reckoned obstinacy amongst those things which make a false opinion criminal , it is to be understood with some discretion and distinction . For there is an obstinacy of will , which is indeed highly guilty of misdemeanour , and when the School makes pertinacy or obstinacy to be the formality of heresie , they say not true at all , unless it be meant the obstinacy of the will and choice ; and if they do , they speak imperfectly , and inartificially , this being but one of the causes that makes errour become heresie ; the adequate and perfect formality of heresie is whatsoever makes the errour voluntary and vitious , as is clear in Scripture , reckoning covetousness , and pride , and lust , and whatsoever is vitious to be its causes ; ( and in habits , or moral changes and productions , whatever alters the essence of a habit , or gives it a new formality , is not to be reckoned the efficient but the form ) but there is also an obstinacy ( you may call it ) but indeed is nothing but a resolution and confirmation of understanding , which is not in a mans power honestly to alter , and it is not all the commands of humanity , that can be Argument sufficient to make a man leave believing that for which he thinks he hath reason , and for which he hath such Arguments as heartily convince him . Now the persisting in an opinion finally , and against all the confidence and imperiousness of humane commands , that makes not this criminal obstinacy , if the erring person have so much humility of will as to submit to whatsoever God says , and that no vice in his will hinders him from believing it . So that we must carefully distinguish continuance in opinion from obstinacy , confidence of understanding from peevishness of affection , a not being convinced from a resolution never to be convinced , upon humane ends and vitious principles : Scimus quosdam quod semel imbiberit nolle deponere , nec propositum suum facile mutare , sed salvo inter collegas pacis & concordiae vinculo quaedam propria quae apud se semel sint usurpata retinere ; Qua in re nec nos vim cuiquam facimus , aut legem damus , saith S. Cyprian . And he himself was such a one ; for he persisted in his opinion of rebaptization untill death , and yet his obstinacy was not called criminal , or his errour turned to heresie . But to return . 11. In this sence it is that a Heretick is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , self-condemned , not by an immediate express sentence of understanding , but by his own act or fault brought into condemnation . As it is in the Canon Law , Notorius percussor Clerici is ipso jure excommunicate , not per sententiam latam ab homine , but à jure . No man hath passed sentence pro tribunali , but Law hath decreed it pro edicto : So it is in the case of a Heretick . The understanding which is judge , condemns him not by an express sentence ; for he erres with as much simplicity in the result , as he had malice in the principle : But there is sententia lata à jure , his will which is his law , that hath condemned him . And this is gathered from that saying of S. Paul , 2 Tim. 3.13 . But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse , deceiving and being deceived : First , they are evil men ; malice and peevishness is in their wills ; then they turn Hereticks and seduce others , and while they grow worse and worse , the errour is master of their understanding , they are deceived themselves , given over to believe a lie , saith the Apostle : They first play the knave , and then play the fool ; they first sell themselves to the purchase of vain-glory or ill ends , and then they become possessed with a lying spirit , and believe those things heartily , which if they were honest , they should with Gods grace discover and disclaim . So that now we see that bona fides in falso articulo , a hearty perswasion in a false article , does not alwaies make the errour to be esteemed involuntary , but then only when it is as innocent in the principle , as it is confident in the present perswasion . And such persons who by their ill lives and vitious actions , or manifest designs ( for by their fruits ye shall know them ) give testimony of such criminal indispositions , so as competent judges by humane and prudent estimate may so judge them , then they are to be declared Hereticks , and avoided . And if this were not true , it were vain that the Apostle commands us to avoid an Heretick : For no external act can pass upon a man for a crime that is not cognoscible . 12. Now every man that erres , though in a matter of consequence , so long as the foundation is intire , cannot be suspected justly guilty of a crime to give his errour a formality of heresie ; for we see many a good man miserably deceived ( as we shall make it appear afterwards ) and he that is the best amongst men , certainly hath so much humility to think he may be easily deceived , and twenty to one but he is in some thing or other ; yet if his errour be not voluntary , and part of an ill life , then because he lives a good life , he is a good man , and therefore no Heretick : No man is a Heretick against his will. And if it be pretended that every man that is deceived , is therefore proud , because he does not submit his understanding to the authority of God or Man respectively , and so his errour becomes a heresie ; To this I answer , That there is no Christian man but will submit his understanding to God , and believes whatsoever he hath said ; but always provided , he knows that God hath said so , else he must do his duty by a readiness to obey when he shall know it . But for obedience or humility of the understanding towards men , that is a thing of another consideration , and it must first be made evident that his understanding must be submitted to men ; and who those men are , must also be certain , before it will be adjudged a sin not to submit . But if I mistake not , Christs saying [ call no man master upon earth ] is so great a prejudice against this pretence , as I doubt it will go near wholly to make it invalid . So that as the worshipping of Angels is an humility indeed , but it is voluntary and a will-worship to an ill sence , not to be excused by the excellency of humility , nor the vertue of Religion : so is the relying upon the judgement of man , an humility too , but such as comes not under that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that obedience of Faith which is the duty of every Christian ; but intrenches upon that duty which we owe to Christ as an acknowledgement that he is our great Master , and the Prince of the Catholick Church . But whether it be or be not , if that be the Question , whether the disagreeing person be to be determined by the dictates of men , I am sure the dictates of men must not determine him in that Question , but it must be settled by some higher principle : So that if of that Question the disagreeing person does opine , or believe , or err bonâ fide , he is not therefore to be judged a Heretick , because he submits not his understanding , because till it be sufficiently made certain to him that he is bound to submit , he may innocently and piously disagree , and this not submitting is therefore not a crime ( and so cannot make a heresy ) because without a crime he may lawfully doubt whether he be bound to submit or no , for that 's the Question . And if in such Questions which have influence upon a whole systeme of Theology , a man may doubt lawfully if he doubts heartily , because the authority of men being the thing in Question , cannot be the judge of this Question , and therefore being rejected , or ( which is all one ) being questioned , that is , not believed , cannot render the doubting person guilty of pride , and by consequence not of heresy , much more may particular questions be doubted of , and the authority of men examined , and yet the doubting person be humble enough , and therefore no Heretick for all this pretence . And it would be considered that humility is a duty in great ones as well as in Idiots . And as inferiours must not disagree without reason , so neither must superiours subscribe to others without sufficient authority , evidence and necessity too : And if rebellion be pride , so is tyranny ; and it being in materiâ intellectuali , both may be guilty of pride of understanding , sometimes the one in imposing , sometimes the other in a causless disagreeing ; but in the inferiours it is then only the want of humility , when the guides impose or prescribe what God hath also taught , and then it is the disobeying Gods dictates , not mans , that makes the sin . But then this consideration will also intervene , that as no dictate of God obliges men to believe it , unless I know it to be such : So neither will any of the dictates of my superiours engage my faith , unless I also know , or have no reason to dis-believe , but that they are warranted to teach them to me , therefore , because God hath taught the same to them , which if I once know , or have no reason to think the contrary , if I disagree , my sin is not in resisting humane authority , but divine . And therefore the whole business of submitting our understanding to humane authority , comes to nothing ; for either it resolves into the direct duty of submitting to God , or if it be spoken of abstractly , it is no duty at all . 13. But this pretence of a necessity of humbling the understanding , is none of the meanest arts whereby some persons have invaded , and usurpt a power over mens faith and consciences , and therefore we shall examine the pretence afterwards , and try if God hath invested any Man or company of men with such a power . In the mean time , he that submits his understanding to all that he knows God hath said , and is ready to submit to all that he hath said if he but know it , denying his own affections and ends and interests and humane perswasions , laying them all down at the foot of his great Master Jesus Christ , that man hath brought his understanding into subjection , and every proud thought unto the obedience of Christ , and this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the obedience of Faith , which is the duty of a Christian. 14. But to proceed : Besides these heresies noted in Scripture , the age of the Apostles , and that which followed , was infested with other heresies ; but such as had the same formality and malignity with the precedent , all of them either such as taught practical impieties , or denied an Article of the Creed . Egesippus in Eusebius reckons seven only prime heresies that sought to deflour the purity of the Church : That of Simon , that of Thebutes , of Cleobius , of Dositheus , of Gortheus , of Masbotheus ; I suppose Cerinthus to have been the seventh man , though he express him not : But of these , except the last , we know no particulars ; but that Egesippus says , they were false Christs , and that their doctrine was directly against God and his blessed Son. Menander also was the first of a Sect , but he bewitched the people with his Sorceries . Cerinthus his doctrine pretended Enthusiasm or a new Revelation , and ended in lust and impious theorems in matter of uncleanness . The * Ebionites denied Christ to be the Son of God , and affirmed him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , begot by natural generation , ( by occasion of which and the importunity of the Asian Bishops , St. John writ his Gospel ) and taught the observation of Moses Law. Basilides taught it lawful to renounce the faith , and take false oaths in time of Persecution . Carpocrates was a very bedlam , half-witch , and quite mad-man , and practised lust , which he called the secret operations to overcome the Potentates of the World. Some more there were , but of the same nature and pest , not of a nicety in dispute , not a question of secret Philosophy , not of atomes , and undiscernable propositions , but open defiances of all Faith , of all sobriety , and of all sanctity , excepting only the doctrine of the Millenaries , which in the best Ages was esteemed no heresy , but true Catholick Doctrine , though since it hath justice done to it , and hath suffered a just condemnation . 15. Hitherto , and in these instances , the Church did esteem and judge of heresies , in proportion to the rules and characters of Faith. For Faith being a Doctrine of piety as well as truth , that which was either destructive of fundamental verity , or of Christian sanctity was against Faith , and if it made a Sect , was heresy ; if not , it ended in personall impiety and went no farther . But those who , as S. Paul says , not onely did such things , but had pleasure in them that doe them , and therefore taught others to doe what they impiously did dogmatize , they were Hereticks both in matter and form , in doctrine and deportment , towards God , and towards man , and judicable in both tribunals . 16. But the Scripture and Apostolical Sermons , having expressed most high indignation against these masters of impious Sects , leaving them under prodigious characters , and horrid representments , as calling them men of corrupt minds , reprobates concerning the faith given over to strong delusions to the belief of a lie , false Apostles , false Prophets , men already condemned , and that by themselves , Anti-Christs , enemies to God ; and heresy it self , a work of the flesh , excluding from the kingdom of heaven ; left such impressions in the minds of all their successors , and so much zeal against such Sects , that if any opinion commenced in the Church , not heard of before , it oftentimes had this ill luck to run the same fortune with an old heresy . For because the Hereticks did bring in new opinions in matters of great concernment , every opinion de novo brought in was liable to the same exception ; and because the degree of malignity in every errour was oftentimes undiscernable , and most commonly indemonstrable , their zeal was alike against all ; and those Ages being full of piety , were sitted to be abused with an over-active zeal , as wise persons and learned are with a too much indifferency . 17. But it came to pass , that the further the succession went from the Apostles , the more forward men were in numbring heresies , and that upon slighter and more uncertain grounds . Some footsteps of this we shall find , if we consider the Sects that are said to have sprung in the first three hundred years , and they were pretty and quick in their springs and falls ; fourscore and seven of them are reckoned . They were indeed reckoned afterward , and though when they were alive , they were not condemn'd with as much forwardness , as after they were dead ; yet even then , confidence began to mingle with opinions less necessary , and mistakes in judgment were oftner and more publick than they should have been . But if they were forward in their censures ( as sometimes some of them were ) it is no great wonder they were deceived . For what principle or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had they then to judge of heresies , or condemn them , besides the single dictates or decretals of private Bishops ? for Scripture was indifferently pretended by all ; and concerning the meaning of it , was the Question : now there was no general Council all that while , no opportunity for the Church to convene ; and if we search the communicatory letters of the Bishops and Martyrs in those days , we shall find but few sentences decretory concerning any Question of Faith , or new sprung opinion . And in those that did , for ought appears , the persons were mis-reported , or their opinions mistaken , or at most , the sentence of condemnation was no more but this ; Such a Bishop who hath had the good fortune by posterity to be reputed a Catholick , did condemn such a man or such an opinion , and yet himself erred in as considerable matters , but meeting with better neighbours in his life-time , and a more charitable posterity , hath his memory preserved in honour . It appears plain enough in the case of Nicholas the Deacon of Antioch , upon a mistake of his words whereby he taught 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to abuse the flesh , viz. by acts of austerity and self-denial , and mortification ; some wicked people that were glad to be mistaken and abused into a pleasing crime , pretended that he taught them to abuse the flesh by filthy commixtures and pollutions : This mistake was transmitted to posterity with a full cry , and acts afterwards found out to justifie an ill opinion of him . For by S. Hierom's time it grew out of Question , but that he was the vilest of men , and the worst of Hereticks ; Nicolaus Antiochenus , omnium immunditiarum conditor choros duxit foemineos . And again , Iste Nicolaus Diaconus ita immundus extitit , ut etiam in praesepi Domini nefas perpetrârit : Accusations that while the good man lived were never thought of ; for his daughters were Virgins and his Sons lived in holy coelibate all their lives , and himself lived in chast Wedlock ; and yet his memory had rotted in perpetual infamy , had not God ( in whose sight , the memory of the Saints is precious ) preserved it by the testimony of * Clemens Alexandrinus , and from him of † Eusebius and Nicephorus . But in the Catalogue of Hereticks made by Philastrius he stands mark'd with a black character as guilty of many heresies : By which one testimony we may guess what trust is to be given to those Catalogues : Well , This good man had ill luck to fall into unskilful hands at first ; but Irenaeus , Justin Martyr , Lactantius , ( to name no more ) had better fortune ; for it being still extant in their writings that they were of the Millenary opinion , Papius before , and Nepos after were censured hardly , and the opinion put into the catalogue of heresies , and yet these men never suspected as guilty , but like the children of the Captivity walkt in the midst of the flame , and not so much as the smell of fire passed on them . But the uncertainty of these things is very memorable , in the story of Eustathius Bishop of Antioch contesting with Eusebius Pamphilus : Eustathius accused Eusebius for going about to corrupt the Nicene Creed , of which slander he then acquitted himself ( saith Socrates ) and yet he is not cleared by posterity , for still he is suspected , and his fame not clear : However Eusebius then scaped well , but to be quit with his Adversary , he recriminates and accuses him to be a favourer of Sabellius , rather than of the Nicene Canons ; an imperfect accusation , God knows , when the crime was a suspicion , proveable only by actions capable of divers constructions , and at the most , made but some degrees of probability , and the fact it self did not consist in indivisibili , and therefore was to stand or fall , to be improved or lessened according to the will of the Judges , whom in this cause Eustathius by his ill fortune and a potent Adversary found harsh towards him , in so much that he was for heresy deposed in the Synod of Antioch ; and though this was laid open in the eye of the world as being most ready at hand , with the greatest ease charged upon every man , and with greatest difficulty acquitted by any man ; yet there were other suspicions raised upon him privately , or at least talkt of ex post facto , and pretended as causes of his deprivation , lest the sentence should seem too hard for the first offence . And yet what they were no man could tell , saith the story . But it is observable what Socrates saith , as in excuse of such proceedings , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . It is the manner among the Bishops , when they accuse them that are deposed , they call them wicked , but they publish not the actions of their impiety . It might possibly be that the Bishops did it in tenderness of their reputation , but yet hardly ; for to punish a person publickly and highly , is a certain declaring the person punished guilty of a high crime , and then to conceal the fault upon pretence to preserve his reputation , leaves every man at liberty , to conjecture what he pleaseth , who possibly will believe it worse than it is , in as much as they think his judges so charitable as therefore to conceal the fault , lest the publishing of it should be his greatest punishment , and the scandal greater than his deprivation . * However this course , if it were just in any , was unsafe in all ; for it might undoe more than it could preserve , and therefore is of more danger , than it can be of charity . It is therefore too probable that the matter was not very fair ; for in publick sentences the acts ought to be publick , but that they rather pretend heresy to bring their ends about , shews how easie it is to impute that crime , and how forward they were to doe it : And that they might and did then as easily call Heretick as afterward , when Vigilius was condemned of heresie for saying there were Antipodes ; or as the Fryars of late did , who suspected Greek and Hebrew of heresie , and called their Professors Hereticks , and had like to have put Terence , and Demosthenes into the Index Expurgatorius ; sure enough they rail'd at them pro concione , therefore because they understood them not , and had reason to believe they would accidentally be enemies to their reputation among the people . 18. By this instance which was a while after the Nicene Council , where the acts of the Church were regular , judicial and orderly , we may guess at the sentences passed upon heresy , at such times and in such cases , when their process was more private , and their acts more tumultuary , their information less certain , and therefore their mistakes more easie and frequent . And it is remarkable in the case of the heresy of Montanus , the scene of whose heresie lay within the first three hundred years , though it was represented in the Catalogues afterwards , and possibly the mistake concerning it , is to be put upon the score of Epiphanius , by whom Montanus and his Followers were put into the Catalogue of Hereticks for commanding abstinence from meats , as if they were unclean , and of themselves unlawful . Now the truth was , Montanus said no such thing , but commanded frequent abstinence , enjoyned dry diet , and an ascetick Table , not for conscience sake , but for Discipline ; and yet because he did this with too much rigour and strictness of mandate , the Primitive Church misliked it in him , as being too near their errour , who by a Judaical superstition abstained from meats as from uncleanness . This by the way will much concern them who place too much sanctity in such Rites and Acts of Discipline ; for it is an eternal Rule and of never failing truth , that such abstinencies if they be obtruded as Acts of original immediate duty and sanctity , are unlawfull and superstitious ; if they be for Discipline they may be good , but of no very great profit ; it is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which S. Paul says profiteth but little ; and just in the same degree the Primitive Church esteemed them ; for they therefore reprehended Montanus , for urging such abstinences with too much earnestness , though but in the way of Discipline ; for that it was no more , Tertullian , who was himself a Montanist , and knew best the opinions of his own Sect , testifies ; and yet Epiphanius reporting the errours of Montanus , commends that which Montanus truly and really taught , and which the Primitive Church condemned in him , and therefore represents that heresie to another sence , and affixes that to Montanus , which Epiphanius believed a heresie , and yet which Montanus did not teach . And this also among many other things lessens my opinion very much of the integrity or discretion of the old Catalogues of Hereticks , and much abates my confidence towards them . 19. And now that I have mentioned them casually in passing by , I shall give a short account of them ; for men are much mistaken ; some in their opinions concerning the truth of them , as believing them to be all true , some concerning their purpose , as thinking them sufficient not only to condemn all those opinions , there called heretical ; but to be a precedent to all Ages of the Church to be free and forward in calling Heretick . But he that considers the Catalogues themselves , as they are collected by Epiphanius , Philastrius , and S. Austin , shall find that many are reckoned for Hereticks for opinions in matters disputable , and undetermined , and of no consequence ; and in these Catalogues of Hereticks there are men numbred for Hereticks , which by every side respectively are acquitted ; so that there is no company of men in the world that admit these Catalogues as good Records , or sufficient sentences of condemnation . For the Churches of the Reformation , I am certain , they acquit Aerius for denying prayer for the dead , and the Eustathians for denying invocation of Saints . And I am partly of opinion that the Church of Rome is not willing to call the Collyridians Hereticks for offering a Cake to the Virgin Mary , unless she also will run the hazard of the same sentence for offering Candles to her : And that they will be glad with S. Austin ( l. 6. de haeres . c. 86. ) to excuse the * Tertullianists for picturing God in a visible corporal representment . And yet these Sects are put in the black Book by Epiphanius and S. Austin , and Isidore respectively . I remember also that the Osseni are called Hereticks , because they refused to worship towards the East ; and yet in that dissent , I find not the malignity of a Heresie , nor any thing against an Article of Faith or good manners ; and it being only in circumstance , it were hard , if they were otherwise pious men and true believers , to send them to Hell for such a trifle . The Parermeneutae refused to follow other mens dictates like sheep , but would expound Scripture according to the best evidence themselves could find , and yet were called Hereticks whether they expounded true or no. The * Pauliciani for being offended at crosses , the Proclians for saying in a regenerate man all his sins were not quite dead , but only curbed and asswaged , were called Hereticks , and so condemned , for ought I know , for affirming that which all pious men feel in themselves to be too true . And he that will consider how numerous the catalogues are , and to what a volume they are come in their last collections , to no less than five hundred and twenty ( for so many heresies and Hereticks are reckoned by Prateolus ) may think , that if a re-trenchment were justly made of truths , and all impertinencies , and all opinions either still disputable , or less considerable , the number would much decrease ; and therefore that the Catalogues are much amiss , and the name Heretick is made a Terriculamentum to affright people from their belief , or to discountenance the persons of men , and disrepute them , that their Schooles may be empty and their Disciples few . 20. So that I shall not need to instance how that some men were called Hereticks by Philastrius for rejecting the translation of the Lxx. and following the Bible of Aquila , wherein the great faults mentioned by Philastrius , are that he translates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , not Christum , but unctum Dei , and instead of Emanuel writes Deus nobiscum . But this most concerns them of the Primitive Church with whom the translation of Aquila was in great reputation , is enim veluti plus à quibusdam ..... intellexisse laudatur . It was supposed he was a great Clerk and understood more than ordinary ; it may be he did . But whether yea or no , yet since the other Translators by the confession of Philastrius , quaedam praetermisisse necessitate urgente cogerentur , if some wise men or unwise did follow a Translatour who understood the Original well ( for so Aquila had learnt amongst the Jews ) It was hard to call men Hereticks for following his Translation , especially since the other Bibles ( which were thought to have in them contradictories ; and , it was confessed , had omitted some things ) were excused by necessity , and the others necessity of following Aquila , when they had no better was not at all considered , nor a less crime than heresy laid upon their score * . Such another was the heresy of the Quartodecimani ; for the Easterlings were all proclaimed Hereticks for keeping Easter after the manner of the East ; and as Socrates and Nicephorus report , the Bishop of Rome was very forward to Excommunicate all the Bishops of the lesser Asia for observing the Feast according to the Tradition of their Ancestors , though they did it modestly , quietly , and without faction ; and although they pretended , and were as well able to prove their Tradition from S. John , of so observing it , as the Western Church could prove their Tradition derivative from S. Peter and S. Paul. If such things as these make up the Catalogues of Hereticks ( as we see they did ) their accounts differ from the Precedents they ought to have followed , that is , the censures Apostolical , and therefore are unsafe precedents for us ; and unless they took the liberty of using the word heresy , in a lower sence , than the world now doth , since the Councils have been forward in pronouncing Anathema , and took it only for a distinct sence , and a differing perswasion in matters of opinion and minute Articles , we cannot excuse the persons of the men : but if they intended the crime of heresy against those opinions as they laid them down in their Catalogues , that crime ( I say ) which is a work of the flesh , which excludes from the Kingdom of Heaven , all that I shall say against them , is , that the causeless curse shall return empty , and no man is damned the sooner , because his enemy cryes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and they that were the Judges and Accusers might erre as well as the persons accused , and might need as charitable construction of their opinions and practices as the other . And of this we are sure they had no warrant from any rule of Scripture or practice Apostolical , for driving so furiously and hastily in such decretory sentences . But I am willing rather to believe their sence of the word Heresie was more gentle than with us it is , and for that they might have warrant from Scripture . 21. But by the way , I observe , that although these Catalogues are a great instance to shew that they whose Age and spirits were far distant from the Apostles , had also other judgments concerning Faith and heresy , than the Apostles had , and the Ages Apostolical ; yet these Catalogues , although they are reports of heresies in the second and third Ages , are not to be put upon the account of those Ages , not to be reckoned as an instance of their judgment , which although it was in some degrees more culpable than that of their Predecessors , yet in respect of the following Ages it was innocent and modest . But these Catalogues , I speak of , were set down according to the sence of the then present Ages , in which as they in all probability did differ from the apprehensions of the former Centuries , so it is certain , there were differing learnings , other fancies , divers representments and judgments of men depending upon circumstances which the first Ages knew , and the following Ages did not ; and therefore the Catalogues were drawn with some truth , but less certainty , as appears in their differing about the Authors of some heresies ; several opinions imputed to the same , and some put in the roll of Hereticks by one , which the other left out ; which to me is an Argument that the Collectors were determined , not by the sence and sentence of the three first Ages , but by themselves , and some circumstances about them , which to reckon for Hereticks , which not . And that they themselves were the prime Judges , or perhaps some in their own Age together with them ; but there was not any sufficient external judicatory competent , to declare heresy , that by any publick or sufficient sentence or acts of Court had furnished them with warrant for their Catalogues . And therefore they are no Argument sufficient that the first Ages of the Church , which certainly were the best , did much recede from that which I shewed to be the sence of the Scripture , and the practice of the Apostles ; they all contented themselves with the Apostles Creed as the rule of the Faith ; and therefore were not forward to judge of heresy , but by analogie to their rule of Faith : And those Catalogues made after these Ages are not sufficient Arguments that they did otherwise ; but rather of the weakness of some persons , or of the spirit and genius of the Age in which the Compilers lived , in which the device of calling all differing opinions by the name of heresies , might grow to be a design to serve ends , and to promote interests , as often as an act of zeal and just indignation against evil persons destroyers of the Faith and corrupters of manners . 22. For what ever private mens opinions were , yet till the Nicene Council , the rule of Faith was intire in the Apostles Creed , and provided they retained that , easily they broke not the unity of Faith , however differing opinions might possibly commence in such things in which a liberty were better suffered than prohibited with a breach of charity . And this appears exactly in the Question between S. Cyprian of Carthage , and Stephen Bishop of Rome , in which one instance it is easie to see what was lawful and safe for a wise and good man , and yet how others began even then to be abused by that temptation , which since hath invaded all Christendome . S. Cyprian rebaptized Hereticks , and thought he was bound so to doe ; calls a Synod in Africk as being Metropolitan , and confirms his opinion by the consent of his Suffragans and Brethren , but still with so much modesty , that if any man was of another opinion , he judged him not , but gave him that liberty that he desired himself ; Stephen Bishop of Rome grows angry , Excommunicates the Bishops of Asia and Africa , that in divers Synods had consented to rebaptization , and without peace , and without charity , condemns them for Hereticks . Indeed here was the rarest mixture and conjunction of unlikelihoods that I have observed . Here was error of opinion with much modesty and sweetness of temper on one side ; and on the other an over-active and impetuous zeal to attest a truth . It uses not to be so , for errour usually is supported with confidence , and truth suppressed and discountenanced by indifferency . But that it might appear that the errour was not the sin , but the uncharitableness , Stephen was accounted a zelous and furious person , and S. * Cyprian though deceived , yet a very good man , and of great sanctity . For although every errour is to be opposed , yet according to the variety of errours , so is there variety of proceedings . If it be against Faith , that is , a destruction of any part of the foundation , it is with zeal to be resisted , and we have for it an Apostolical warrant , contend earnestly for the Faith ; but then as these things recede farther from the foundation , our certainty is the less , and their necessity not so much , and therefore it were very fit , that our confidence should be according to our evidence , and our zeal according to our confidence , and our confidence should then be the Rule of our Communion ; and the lightness of an Article should be considered with the weight of a precept of charity . And therefore , there are some errours to be reproved , rather by a private friend than a publick censure , and the persons of the men not avoided but admonished , and their Doctrine rejected , not their Communion ; few opinions are of that malignity which are to be rejected with the same exterminating spirit , and confidence of aversation , with which the first Teachers of Christianity condemned Ebion , Manes , and Corinthus ; and in the condemnation of Hereticks , the personal iniquity is more considerable than the obliquity of the doctrine , not for the rejection of the Article , but for censuring the persons ; and therefore it is the piety of the man that excused S. Cyprian , which is a certain Argument that it is not the opinion , but the impiety that condemns and makes the Heretick . And this was it which Vincentius Lirinensis said in this very case of S. Cyprian , Vnius & ejusdem opinionis ( mirum videri potest ) judicamus authores Catholicos , & sequaces haereticos . Excusamus Magistros , & condemnamus Scholasticos . Qui scripserunt libros sunt haeredes Coeli , quorum librorum defensores detruduntur ad infernum . Which saying , if we confront against the saying of Salvian condemning the first Authors of the Arrian Sect , and acquitting the Followers , we are taught by these two wise men , that an errour is not it that sends a man to Hell , but he that begins the heresy , and is the author of the Sect , he is the man marked out to ruine ; and his Followers scaped , when the Heresiarch commenced the errour upon pride and ambition , and his Followers went after him in simplicity of their heart ; and so it was most commonly : but on the contrary , when the first man in the opinion was honestly and invincibly deceived , as S. Cyprian was , and that his Scholars to maintain their credit , or their ends , maintain'd the opinion , not for the excellency of the reason perswading , but for the benefit and accrewments , or peevishness , as did the Donatists , qui de Cypriani authoritate sibi carnaliter blandiuntur , as S. Austin said of them ; then the Scholars are the Hereticks , and the master is a Catholick . For his errour is not the heresy formally , and an erring person may be a Catholick . A wicked person in his errour becomes heretick , when the good man in the same errour shall have all the rewards of Faith. For what ever an ill man believes , if he therefore believe it because it serves his own ends , be his belief true or false , the man hath an heretical mind , for to serve his own ends , his mind is prepared to believe a lie . But a good man that believes what according to his light , and upon the use of his moral industry he thinks true , whether he hits upon the right or no , because he hath a mind desirous of truth , and prepared to believe every truth , is therefore acceptable to God , because nothing hindred him from it , but what he could not help , his misery and his weakness , which being imperfections meerly natural , which God never punishes , he stands fair for a blessing of his morality , which God always accepts . So that now if Stephen had followed the example of God Almighty , or retained but the same peaceable spirit which his Brother of Carthage did , he might with more advantage to truth , and reputation both of wisdom and piety have done his duty in attesting what he believed to be true ; for we are as much bound to be zealous pursuers of peace as earnest contenders for the Faith. I am sure more earnest we ought to be for the peace of the Church , than for an Article which is not of the Faith , as this Question of rebaptization was not ; for S. Cyprian died in belief against it , and yet was a Catholick , and a Martyr for the Christian Faith. 23. The summe is this . S. Cyprian did right in a wrong cause ( as it hath been since judged ) and Stephen did ill in a good cause ; as far then as piety and charity is to be perferred before a true opinion , so far is S. Cyprian's practice a better precedent for us , and an example of primitive sanctity , than the zeal and indiscretion of Stephen : S. Cyprian had not learned to forbid to any one a liberty of prophesying or interpretation , if he transgressed not the foundation of Faith and the Creed of the Apostles . 24. Well , thus it was , and thus it ought to be in the first Ages , the Faith of Christendom rested still upon the same foundation , and the judgements of heresies were accordingly , or were amiss ; but the first great violation of this truth was , when General Councils came in , and the Symbols were enlarged , and new Articles were made as much of necessity to be believed as the Creed of the Apostles , and damnation threatned to them that did dissent , and at last the Creeds multiplied in number , and in Articles , and the liberty of prophesying began to be something restrained . 25. And this was of so much the more force and efficacy , because it began upon great reason , and in the first instance , with success good enough . For I am much pleased with the enlarging of the Creed , which the Council of Nice made , because they enlarged it to my sence ; but I am non sure that others are satisfied with it ; While we look upon the Articles they did determine , we see all things well enough ; but there are some wise personages consider it in all circumstances , and think the Church had been more happy if she had not been in some sence constrained to alter the simplicity of her faith , and make it more curious and articulate , so much that he had need be a subtle man to understand the very words of the new determinations . 26. For the first Alexander Bishop of Alexandria , in the presence of his Clergy , entreats somewhat more curiously of the secret of the mysterious Trinity , and Unity , so curiously that Arius ( who was a Sophister too subtle as it afterward appeared ) misunderstood him , and thought he intended to bring in the heresy of Sabellius . For while he taught the Unity of the Tritity , either he did it so inartificially , or so intricately , that Arius thought he did not distinguish the persons , when the Bishop intended only the unity of nature . Against this Arius furiously drives , and to confute Sabellius , and in him ( as he thought ) the Bishop , distinguishes the natures too , and so to secure the Article of the Trinity , destroyes the Unity . It was the first time the Question was disputed in the world , and in such mysterious niceties , possibly every wise man may understand something , but few can understand all , and therefore suspect what they understand not , and are furiously zealous for that part of it which they do perceive . Well , it happened in these as always in such cases , in things men understand not they are most impetuous ; and because suspicion is a thing infinite in degrees , for it hath nothing to determine it , a suspicious person is ever most violent ; for his fears are worse than the thing feared , because the thing is limited , but his fears are not ; so that upon this , grew contentious on both sides , and tumultuous rayling and reviling each other ; and then the Laity were drawn into parts , and the Meletians abetted the wrong part , and the right part fearing to be overborn , did any thing that was next at hand to secure it self . Now then they that lived in that Age , that understood the men , that saw how quiet the Church was before this stirre , how miserably rent now , what little benefit from the Question , what schism about it , gave other censures of the business than we since have done , who only look upon the Article determined with truth and approbation of the Church generally , since that time . But the Epistle of Constantine to Alexander and Arius , tells the truth , and chides them both for commencing the Question , Alexander for broaching it , Arius for taking it up ; and although this be true , that it had been better for the Church it never had begun , yet being begun , what is to be done in it ? of this also in that admirable Epistle , we have the Emperours judgment ( I suppose not without the advice and privity of Hosius Bishop of Corduba , whom the Emperour loved and trusted much , and imployed in the delivery of the Letters . ) For first he calls it a certain vain piece of a Question , ill begun and more unadvisedly published , a Question which no Law or Ecclesiastical Canon defineth , a fruitless contention , the product of idle brains , a matter so nice , so obscure , so intricate , that it was neither to be explicated by the Clergy , nor understood by the people , a dispute of words , a doctrine inexplicable , but most dangerous when taught , lest it introduce discord or blasphemy ; and therefore , the Objector was rash , and the Answerer unadvised ; for it concerned not the substance of Faith , or the worship of God , nor any chief commandment of Scripture , and therefore , why should it be the matter of discord ? For though the matter be grave ; yet because neither necessary , nor explicable , the contention is trifling and toyish . And therefore , as the Philosophers of the same Sect , though differing in explication of an opinion , yet more love for the unity of their Profession , than disagree for the difference of opinion ; So should Christians believing in the same God , retaining the same Faith , having the same hopes , opposed by the same enemies , not fall at variance upon such disputes , considering our understandings are not all alike ; and therefore , neither can our opinions in such mysterious Articles : So that the matter being of no great importance , but vain , and a toy in respect of the excellent blessings of peace and charity , it were good that Alexander and Arius should leave contending , keep their opinions to themselves , ask each other forgiveness , and give mutual toleration . This is the substance of Constantine's letter , and it contains in it much reason , if he did not undervalue the Question ; but it seems it was not then thought a question of Faith , but of nicety of dispute ; they both did believe one God , and the holy Trinity . Now then that he afterward called the Nicene Council , it was upon occasion of the vileness of the men of the Arian part , their eternal discord , and pertinacious wrangling , and to bring peace into the Church ; that was the necessity ; and in order to it was the determination of the Article . But for the Article it self , the Letter declares what opinion he had of that , and this Letter was by Socrates called a wonderful exhortation , full of grave and sober counsels ▪ and such as Hosius himself , who was the messenger , pressed with all earnestness , with all the skill and Authority he had . 27. I know the opinion the world had of the Article afterward is quite differing from this censure given of it before ; and therefore they have put it into the Creed ( I suppose ) to bring the world to unity , and to prevent Sedition in this Question , and the accidental blasphemies , which were occasioned by their curious talkings of such secret mysteries , and by their illiterate resolutions . But although the Article was determined with an excellent spirit , and we all with much reason profess to believe it ; yet it is another consideration , whether or no it might not have been better determined , if with more simplicity ; and another yet , whether or no since many of the Bishops who did believe this thing , yet did not like the nicety and curiosity of expressing it , it had not been more agreeable to the practice of the Apostles to have made a determination of the Article by way of Exposition of the Apostles Creed , and to have lest this in a rescript , for record to all posterity , and not to have enlarged the Creed with it ; for since it was an Explication of an Article of the Creed of the Apostles , as Sermons are of places of Scripture , it was thought by some , that Scripture might with good profit , and great truth be expounded , and yet the Expositions not put into the Canon ; or go for Scripture , but that left still in the naked Original simplicity , and so much the rather since that Explication was further from the foundation , and though most certainly true , yet not penn'd by so infallible a spirit , as was that of the Apostles ; and therefore not with so much evidence , as certainty . And if they had pleased , they might have made use of an admirable precedent to this and many other great and good purposes , no less than of the blessed Apostles , whose Symbol they might have imitated , with as much simplicity as they did the Expressions of Scripture , when they first composed it . For it is most considerable , that although in reason every clause in the Creed should be clear , and so inopportune and unapt to variety of interpretation , that there might be no place left for several sences or variety of Expositions : yet when they thought fit to insert some mysteries into the Creed , which in Scripture were expressed in so mysterious words , that the last and most explicite sence would still be latent , yet they who ( if ever any did ) understood all the sences and secrets of it , thought it not fit to use any words but the words of Scripture , particularly in the Articles of [ Christs descending into Hell , and sitting at the right hand of God ] to shew us , that those Creeds are best which keep the very words of Scripture ; and that Faith is best which hath greatest simplicity , and that it is better in all cases humbly to submit , than curiously to enquire and pry into the mystery under the cloud , and to hazard our Faith by improving our knowledge : If the Nicene Fathers had done so too , possibly the Church would never have repented it . 28. And indeed the experience the Church had afterwards , shewed that the Bishops and Priests were not satisfied in all circumstances , nor the schism appeased , nor the persons agreed , nor the Canons accepted , nor the Article understood , nor any thing right , but when they were overborn with Authority , which Authority when the scales turned , did the same service and promotion to the contrary . 29. But it is considerable , that it was not the Article or the thing it self that troubled the disagreeing persons , but the manner of representing it . For the five Dissenters , Eusebius of Nicomedia , Theognis , Maris , Theonas , and Secundus , believed Christ to be very God of very God , but the clause of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they derided as being perswaded by their Logick , that he was neither of the substance of the Father , by division as a piece of a lump , nor derivation as children from their Parents , nor by production as buds from trees , and no body could tell them any other way at that time , and that made the fire to burn still . And that was it I said ; if the Article had been with more simplicity , and less nicety determined ; charity would have gained more , and faith would have lost nothing . And we shall find the wisest of them all , for so Eusebius Pamphilus was esteemed , published a Creed or Confession in the Synod , and though he and all the rest believed that great mystery of Godliness , God manifested in the flesh , yet he was not fully satisfied , nor so soon of the clause of one substance , till he had done a little violence to his own understanding ; for even when he had subscribed to the clause of one substance , he does it with a protestation that heretofore he never had been acquainted , nor accustomed himself to such speeches . And the sence of the word was either so ambiguous , or their meaning so uncertain , that Andreus Fricius does with some probability dispute that the Nicene Fathers by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , did mean Patris similitudinem , non essentiae unitatem , Sylva . 4. c. 1. And it was so well understood by personages disinterested , that when Arius and Euzoius had confessed Christ to be Deus verbum , without inserting the clause of one substance , the Emperour by his Letter approved of his Faith , and restored him to his Countrey and Office , and the Communion of the Church . And a long time after , although the Article was believed with * nicety enough , yet when they added more words still to the mystery , and brought in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saying there were three hypostases in the holy Trinity ; it was so long before it could be understood , that it was believed therefore , because they would not oppose their Superiours , or disturb the peace of the Church , in things which they thought could not be understood : in so much that Saint Hierom writ to Damascus in these words : Discerne si placet obsecro , non timebo tres hypostases dicere , si jubetis ; and again , Obtestor beatitudinem tuam per Crucifixum , mundi salutem , per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Trinitatem , ut mihi Epistolis tuis , sive tacendarum sive dicendarum hypostaseôn detur authoritas . 30. But without all Question , the Fathers determined the Question with much truth , though I cannot say , the Arguments upon which they built their Decrees , were so good as the conclusion it self was certain ; But that which in this case is considerable , is whether or no they did well in putting a curse to the foot of their Decree , and the Decree it self into the Symbol , as if it had been of the same necessity ? For the curse , Eusebius Pamphilus could hardly find in his heart to subscribe , at last he did , but with this clause that he subscribed it because the former curse did only forbid men to acquaint themselves with forraign speeches and unwritten languages , whereby confusion and discord is brought into the Church . So that it was not so much a magisterial high assertion of the Article , as an endeavour to secure the peace of the Church . And to the same purpose , for ought I know , the Fathers composed a form of Confession , not as a prescript Rule of Faith to build the hopes of our salvation on , but as a tessera of that Communion which by publick Authority was therefore established upon those Articles , because the Articles were true , though not of prime necessity , and because that unity of confession was judged , as things then stood , the best preserver of the unity of minds . 31. But I shall observe this , that although the Nicene Fathers in that case at that time , and in that conjuncture of circumstances did well ( and yet their approbation is made by after Ages ex post facto ) yet if this precedent had been followed by all Councils ( and certainly they had equal power , if they had thought it equally reasonable ) and that they had put all their Decrees into the Creed , as some have done since , to what a volume had the Creed by this time swelled ? and all the house had run into foundation , nothing left for super-structures . But that they did not , it appears ▪ 1. That since they thought all their Decrees true , yet they did not think them all necessary , at least not in that degree , and that they published such Decrees , they did it Declarando , not imperando , as Doctors in their Chairs , not masters of other mens faith and consciences . 2. And yet there is some more modesty , or wariness , or necessity ( what shall I call it ? ) than this comes too : for why are not all controversies determined ? but even when General assemblies of Prelates have been , some controversies that have been very vexatious , have been pretermitted , and others of less consequence have been determined : Why did never any General Council condemn in express sentence the Pelagian heresie , that great pest , that subtle infection of Christendome ? and yet divers General Councils did assemble while the heresie was in the World. Both these cases in several degrees leave men in their liberty of believing and prophesying . The latter proclaims that all controversies cannot de determined to sufficient purposes , and the first declares that those that are , are not all of them matters of Faith , and themselves are not so secure , but they may be deceived ; and therefore possibly it were better it were let alone ; for if the latter leaves them divided in their opinions , yet their Communions , and therefore probably their charities are not divided ; but the former divides their Communions , and hinders their interest ; and yet for ought is certain , the accused person is the better Catholick . And yet after all this , it is not safety enough to say , let the Council or Prelates determine Articles warily , seldom , with great caution , and with much sweetness and modesty . For though this be better than to do it rashly , frequently , and furiously ; yet if we once transgress the bounds set us by the Apostles in their Creed , and not only preach other truths , but determine them pro tribunali as well as pro cathedra , although there be no errour in the subject matter ( as in Nice there was none ) yet if the next Ages say they will determine another Article with as much care and caution , and pretend as great a necessity , there is no hindring them , but by giving reasons against it ; and so like enough they might have done against the decreeing the Article at Nice ; yet that this is not sufficient ; for since the Authority of the Nicene Council hath grown to the height of a mountainous prejudice against him that should say it was ill done , the same reason and the same necessity may be pretended by any Age and in any Council , and they think themselves warranted by the great precedent at Nice , to proceed as peremptorily as they did ; but then if any other Assembly of learned men may possibly be deceived , were it not better they should spare the labour , than that they should with so great pomp and solemnities engage mens perswasions , and determine an Article which after Ages must rescind , for therefore most certainly in their own Age , the point with safety of faith and salvation , might have been disputed and disbelieved : And that many mens faiths have been tyed up by Acts and Decrees of Councils for those Articles in which the next age did see a liberty had better been preserved , because an errour was determined , we shall afterward receive a more certain account . 32. And therefore the Council of Nice did well , and Constantinople did well , so did Ephesus and Chalcedon ; but it is because the Articles were truly determined ( for that is part of my belief ; ) but who is sure it should be so before-hand , and whether the points there determined were necessary or no to be believed or to be determined , if peace had been concerned in it through the faction and division of the parties , I suppose the judgment of Constantine the Emperour , and the famous Hosius of Corduba is sufficient to instruct us , whose authority I rather urge than reasons , because it is a prejudice , and not a reason I am to contend against it . 33. So that such determinations and publishing of Confessions with Authority of Prince and Bishop , are sometimes of very good use for the peace of the Church , and they are good also to determine the judgment of indifferent persons , whose reasons of either side , are not too great to weigh down the probability of that Authority : But for persons of confident and imperious understandings , they on whose side the determination is , are armed with a prejudice against the other , and with a weapon to affront them , but with no more to convince them ; and they against whom the decision is , do the more readily betake themselves to the defensive , and are engaged upon contestation and publick enmities , for such Articles which either might safely have been unknown or with much charity disputed . Therefore the Nicene Council , although it have the advantage of an acquired and prescribing Authority , yet it must not become a precedent to others , lest the inconveniences of multiplying more Articles upon a great pretence of reason as then , make the act of the Nicene Fathers in straightning Prophesying , and enlarging the Creed , become accidentally an inconvenience . The first restraint , although if it had been complained of , might possibly have been better considered of ; yet the inconvenience is not visible , till it comes by way of precedent to usher in more . It is like an arbitrary power , which although by the same reason it take six pence from the subject , it may take a hundred pound , and then a thousand , and then all , yet so long as it is within the first bounds , the inconvenience is not so great ; but when it comes to be a precedent or argument for more , then the first may justly be complained of , as having in it that reason in the principle , which brought the inconvenience in the sequel ; and we have seen very ill consequences from innocent beginnings . 34. And the inconveniences which might possibly arise from this precedent , those wise Personages also did foresee , and therefore although they took liberty in Nice , to add some Articles , or at least more explicitely to declare the first Creed , yet they then would have all the world to rest upon that and go no farther , as believing that to be sufficient . Saint Athanasius declares their opinion , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . That Faith which the Fathers there confessed , was sufficient for the refutation of all impiety , and the establishment of all Faith in Christ and true Religion . And therefore there was a famous Epistle written by Zeno the Emperour , called the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or the Epistle of reconciliation , in which all disagreeing interests are entreated to agree in the Nicene Symbol , and a promise made upon that condition to communicate with all other Sects , adding withal , that the Church should never receive any other Symbol than that which was composed by the Nicene Fathers . And however Honorius was condemned for a Monothelite ; yet in one of the Epistles which the sixth Synod alledged against him , ( viz. the second ) he gave them counsel that would have done the Church as much service as the determination of the Article did ; for he advised them not to be curious in their disputings , nor dogmatical in their determinations about that Question ; and because the Church was not used to dispute in that Question , it were better to preserve the simplicity of Faith , than to ensnare mens consciences by a new Article . And when the Emperour Constantius was by his Faction engaged in a contrary practice , the inconvenience and unreasonableness was so great , that a prudent Heathen observed and noted it in this character of Constantius , Christianam religionem absolutam & simplicem [ N. B. ] anili superstitione confudit . In quâ scrutandâ perplexiùs quàm in componendâ gratiùs , excitavit dissidia quae progressa fusiùs aluit concertatione verborum , dum ritum omnem ad suum trahere conatur arbitrium . 35. And yet men are more led by Example , than either by Reason or by Precept ; for in the Council of Constantinople one Article de novo & integro was added , viz. I believe one Baptism for the remission of sins ; and then again they were so confident , that that Confession of Faith was so absolutely intire , and that no man ever after should need to add any thing to the integrity of Faith , that the Fathers of the Council of Ephesus pronounced Anathema to all those that should add any thing to the Creed of Constantinople . And yet for all this , the Church of Rome in a Synod at Gentilly added the clause of Filioque , to the Article of the Procession of the holy Ghost , and what they have done since , all the World knows , Exempla non consistunt , sed quamvis in tenuem recepta tramitem , latissimè evagandi sibi faciunt potestatem . All men were perswaded that it was most reasonable the limits of Faith should be no more enlarged ; but yet they enlarged it themselves , and bound others from doing it , like an intemperate Father , who because he knows he does ill himself , enjoyns temperance to his Son , but continues to be intemperate himself . 36. But now if I should be questioned concerning the Symbol of Athanasius ( for we see the Nicene Symbol was the Father of many more , some twelve or thirteen Symbols in the space of an hundred years ) I confess I cannot see that moderate sentence and gentleness of charity in his Preface and Conclusion as there was in the Nicene Creed . Nothing there but damnation and perishing everlastingly , unless the Article of the Trinity be believed , as it is there with curiosity and minute particularities explained . Indeed Athanasius had been soundly vexed on one side , and much cryed up on the other ; and therefore it is not so much wonder for him to be so decretory and severe in his censure , for nothing could more ascertain his friends to him , and dis-repute his enemies , than the belief of that damnatory Appendix ; but that does not justifie the thing . For the Articles themselves , I am most heartily perswaded of the truth of them , and yet I dare not say all that are not so , are irrevocably damn'd , because citra hoc Symbolum , the Faith of the Apostles Creed is intire , and he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved , that is , he that believeth such a belief as is sufficient disposition to be baptized , that Faith with the Sacrament is sufficient for heaven . Now the Apostles Creed does one ; why therefore do not both intitle us to the promise ? Besides , if it were considered concerning Athanasius Creed , how many people understand it not , how contrary to natural reason it seems , how little the * Scripture says of those curiosities of Explication , and how Tradition was not clear on his side for the Article it self , much less for those forms and minutes ( how himself is put to make an answer , and excuse for the Fathers speaking in excuse of the Arrians , at least so seemingly , that the Arrians appealed to them for trial , and the offer was declin'd ) and after all this that the Nicene Creed it self went not so far , neither in Article , nor Anathema , nor Explication , it had not been amiss if the final judgment had been left to Jesus Christ ; for he is appointed Judge of all the World , and he shall judge the people righteously , for he knows every truth , the degree of every necessity , and all excuses that do lessen , or take away the nature or malice of a crime ; all which I think Athanasius , though a very good man , did not know so well as to warrant such a sentence ; And put case the heresie there condemned be damnable , ( as it is damnable enough ) yet a man may maintain an opinion that is in it self damnable , and yet he not knowing it so , and being invincibly led into it , may go to heaven ; his opinion shall burn , and himself be saved . But however , I find no opinion in Scripture called damnable , but what are impious in materiâ practicâ , or directly destructive of the Faith , or the body of Christianity , such of which Saint Peter speaks [ bringing in damnable heresies , even denying the Lord that bought them , these are the false Prophets who out of covetousness make merchandise of you through cozening words . ] Such as these are truly heresies , and such as these are certainly damnable . But because there are no degrees either of truth or falshood , every true proposition being alike true ; that an errour is more or less damnable , is not told us in Scripture , but is determined by the man and his manners , by circumstances and accidents ; and therefore the censure in the Preface and end , are Arguments of his zeal and strength of his perswasion ; but they are extrinsecal and accidental to the Articles , and might as well have been spared . And indeed to me it seems very hard to put uncharitableness into the Creed , and so to make it become as an Article of Faith , though perhaps this very thing was no Faith of Athanasius , who , if we may believe Aquinas , made this manifestation of Faith , non per modum Symboli , sed per modum doctrinae , that is , if I understand him right , not with a purpose to impose it upon others , but with confidence to declare his own belief ; and that it was prescribed to others as a Creed , was the act of the Bishops of Rome ; so he said , nay , possibly it was none of his : So said the Patriarch of C. P. Meletius about one hundred and thirty years since , in his Epistle to John Douza , Athanasio falsò adscriptum Symbolum cum Pontificum Rom. appendice illâ adulteratum , luce lucidiùs contestamur . And it is more than probable that he said true , because this Creed was written originally in Latine , which in all reason Athanasius did not , and it was translated into Greek , it being apparent that the Latine Copy is but one , but the Greek is various , there being three Editions or Translations rather , expressed by Genebrard , lib. 3. de Trinit . But in this particular , who list , may better satisfie himself in a disputation de Symbolo Athanasii , printed at Wertzburg 1590. supposed to be written by Serrarius or Clencherus . 37. And yet I must observe that this Symbol of Athanasius , and that other of Nice , offer not at any new Articles ; they only pretend to a further Explication of the Articles Apostolical , which is a certain confirmation that they did not believe more Articles to be of belief necessary to salvation : If they intended these further Explanations to be as necessary as the dogmatical Articles of the Apostles Creed , I know not how to answer all that may be objected against that ; but the advantage that I shall gather from their not proceeding to new matters , is laid out ready for me in the words of Athanasius , saying of this Creed [ This is the Catholick Faith ] and if his authority be good , or his saying true , or he the Author , then no man can say of any other Article , that it is a part of the Catholick Faith , or that the Catholick Faith can be enlarged beyond the contents of that Symbol ; and therefore it is a strange boldness in the Church of Rome , first to add twelve new Articles , and then to add the Appendix of Athanasius to the end of them , This is the Catholick Faith without which no man can be saved . 38. But so great an Example of so excellent a man , hath been either mistaken or followed with too much greediness , all the World in factions , all damning one another , each party damn'd by all the rest , and there is no disagreeing in opinion from any man that is in love with his own opinion , but damnation presently to all that disagree . A Ceremony and a Rite hath caused several Churches to Excommunicate each other , as in the matter of the Saturday Fast , and keeping Easter . But what the spirits of men are when they are exasperated in a Question and difference of Religion , as they call it , though the thing it self may be most inconsiderable , is very evident in that request of Pope Innocent the Third , desiring of the Greeks ( but reasonably a man would think ) that they would not so much hate the Roman manner of consecrating in unleavened bread , as to wash , and scrape , and pare the Altars after a Roman Priest had consecrated . Nothing more furious than a mistaken zeal , and the actions of a scrupulous and abused conscience . When men think every thing to be their Faith and their Religion , commonly they are so busie in trifles and such impertinencies in which the scene of their mistake lies , that they neglect the greater things of the Law , charity , and compliances , and the gentleness of Christian Communion ; for this is the great principle of mischief , and yet is not more pernicious than unreasonable . 39. For I demand : Can any man say and justifie that the Apostles did deny Communion to any man that believed the Apostles Creed , and lived a good life ? And dare any man tax that proceeding of remissness , and indifferency in Religion ? And since our blessed Saviour promised salvation to him that believeth ( and the Apostles when they gave this word the greatest extent , enlarged it not beyond the borders of the Creed ) how can any man warrant the condemning of any man to the flames of Hell that is ready to die in attestation of this Faith , so expounded and made explicite by the Apostles , and lives accordingly ? And to this purpose it was excellently said by a wise and a pious Prelate , St. Hilary , Non per difficiles nos Deus ad beatam vitam quaestiones vocat , &c. In absoluio nobis & facili est aeternitas ; Jesum suscitatum à mortuis , per Deum credere , & ipsum esse Dominum confiteri , &c. These are the Articles which we must believe , which are the sufficient and adequate object of the Faith which is required of us in order to Salvation . And therefore it was , that when the Bishops of Istria deserted the Communion of Pope Pelagius , in causâ trium Capitulorum , He gives them an account of his Faith by recitation of the Creed , and by attesting the four General Councils , and is confident upon this that de fidei firmitate nulla poterit esse quaestio vel suspicio generari ; let the Apostles Creed , especially so explicated , be but secured , and all Faith is secured ; and yet that explication too was less necessary than the Articles themselves ; for the Explication was but accidental , but the Articles even before the Explication were accounted a sufficient inlet to the Kingdome of Heaven . 40. And that there was security enough , in the simple believing the first Articles ; is very certain amongst them , and by their Principles , who allow of an implicite faith to serve most persons to the greatest purposes ; for if the Creed did contain in it the whole Faith , and that other Articles were in it implicitely , ( for such is the doctrine of the School , and particularly of Aquinas ) then he that explicitely believes all the Creed , does implicitely believe all the Articles contained in it , and then it is better the implication should still continue , than that by any explication ( which is simply unnecessary ) the Church should be troubled with questions and uncertain determinations , and factions enkindled , and animosities set on foot , and mens souls endangered , who before were secured by the explicite belief of all that the Apostles required as necessary , which belief also did secure them from all the rest , because it implyed the belief of whatsoever was virtually in the first Articles , if such belief should by chance be necessary . 41. The summe of this Discourse is this , if we take an estimate of the nature of Faith from the dictates and Promises Evangelical , and from the Practice Apostolical , the nature of Faith and its integrity consists in such propositions which make the foundation of hope and charity , that which is sufficient to make us to doe honour to Christ , and to obey him , and to encourage us in both ; and this is compleated in the Apostles Creed . And since contraries are of the same extent , heresy is to be judged by its proportion and analogie to Faith , and that is heresy only which is against Faith. Now because Faith is not only a precept of Doctrines , but of manners and holy life , whatsoever is either opposite to an Article of Creed , or teaches ill life , that 's heresy ; but all those propositions which are extrinsecal to these two considerations , be they true or be they false , make not heresy , nor the man an Heretick ; and therefore however he may be an erring person , yet he is to be used accordingly , pittied and instructed , not condemned or Excommunicated ; And this is the result of the first ground , the consideration of the nature of Faith and heresy . SECT . III. Of the difficulty and uncertainty of Arguments from Scripture , in Questions not simply necessary , not literally determined . 1. GOD who disposes of all things sweetly and according to the nature and capacity of things and persons , had made those only necessary , which he had taken care should be sufficiently propounded to all persons of whom he required the explicite belief . And therefore all the Articles of Faith are clearly and plainly set down in Scripture , and the Gospel is not hid nisi pereuntibus saith S. Paul ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith Damascen , and that so manifestly that no man can be ignorant of the foundation of Faith without his own apparent fault . And this is acknowledged by all wise and good men , and is evident , besides the reasonableness of the thing , in the testimonies of Saints a Austin , b Hierom , c Chrysostome , d Fulgentius , e Hugo de Sancto Victore , f Thedoret , g Lactantius , h Theophilus Antiochenus , i Aquinas , and the later School-men . And God hath done more ; for many things which are only profitable , are also set down so plainly , that ( as S. Austin says ) nemo inde haurire non possit , si modò ad hauriendum devotè ac piè accedat ( ubi supra de util . cred . c. 6. ) but of such things there is no Question commenced in Christendome , and if there were , it cannot but be a crime and humane interest , that are the Authors of such disputes , and therefore these cannot be simple errours , but always heresies , because the principle of them is a personal sin . 2. But besides these things which are so plainly set down , some for doctrine as Saint Paul says , that is , for Articles and foundation of Faith , some for instruction , some for reproof , some for comfort , that is , in matters practical and speculative of several tempers and constitutions , there are innumerable places containing in them great mysteries , but yet either so enwrapped with a cloud , or so darkned with umbrages , or heightened with expressions , or so covered with allegories and garments of Rhetorick , so profound in the matter , or so altered or made intricate in the manner , in the cloathing and in the dressing , that God may seem to have left them as tryals of our industry , and Arguments of our imperfections , and incentives to the longings after Heaven , and the clearest revelations of eternity , and as occasions and opportunities of our mutual charity and toleration to each other , and humility in our selves , rather than the repositories of Faith , and furniture of Creeds , and Articles of belief . 3. For wherever the word of God is kept , whether in Scripture alone , or also in Tradition , he that considers that the meaning of the one , and the truth or certainty of the other are things of great Question , will see a necessity in these things ( which are the subject matter of most of the Questions of Christendome ) that men should hope to be excused by an implicite faith in God Almighty . For when there are in the Explications of Scripture so many Commentaries , so many sences and Interpretations , so many Volumes in all Ages , and all , like mens faces , exactly none like another , either this difference and inconvenience is absolutely no fault at all , or if it be , it is excusable , by a mind prepared to consent in that truth which God intended . And this I call an implicite Faith in God , which is certainly of as great excellency as an implicite Faith in any man or company of men . Because they who do require an implicite Faith in the Church for Articles less necessary , and excuse the want of explicite Faith by the implicite , do require an implicite Faith in the Church , because they believe that God hath required of them to have a mind prepared to believe whatever the Church says ; which because it is a proposition of no absolute certainty , whosoever does in readiness of mind believe all that God spake , does also believe that sufficiently , if it be fitting to be believed , that is , if it be true , and if God hath said so ; for he hath the same obedience of understanding in this as in the other . But because it is not so certain , God hath tied him in all things to believe that which is called the Church , and that it is certain we must believe God in all things , and yet neither know all that either God hath revealed or the Church taught , it is better to take the certain than the uncertain , to believe God rather than men , especially since if God hath bound us to believe men , our absolute submission to God does involve that , and there is no inconvenience in the world this way , but that we implicitely believe one Article more , viz. the Churches Authority or infallibility , which may well be pardoned , because it secures our belief of all the rest , and we are sure if we believe all that God said explicitely or implicitely , we also believe the Church implicitely in case we are bound to it ; but we are not certain , that if we believe any company of men whom we call the Church , that we therefore obey God and believe what he hath said . But however , if this will not help us , there is no help for us , but good fortune or absolute predestination ; for by choice and industry , no man can secure himself that in all the mysteries of Religion taught in Scripture he shall certainly understand and explicitely believe that sence that God intended . For to this purpose there are many considerations . 4. First , There are so many thousands of Copies that were writ by persons of several interests and perswasions , such different understandings and tempers , such distinct abilities and weaknesses , that it is no wonder there is so great variety of readings both in the Old Testament and in the New. In the Old Testament , the Jews pretend that the Christians have corrupted many places , on purpose to make symphony between both the Testaments . On the other side , the Christians have had so much reason to suspect the Jews , that when Aquila had translated the Bible in their Schools , and had been taught by them , they rejected the Edition many of them , and some of them called it heresy to follow it . And Justin Martyr justified it to Triphon , that the Jews had defalk'd many sayings from the Books of the old Prophets , and amongst the rest , he instances in that of the Psalm , Dicite in nationibus quia Dominus regnavit à ligno . The last words they have cut off , and prevailed so far in it , that to this day none of our Bibles have it ; but if they ought not to have it , then Justin Martyrs Bible had more in it than it should have , for there it was ; so that a fault there was either under or over . But however , there are infinite Readings in the New-Testament ( for in that I will instance ) some whole Verses in one that are not in another , and there was in some Copies of Saint Marks Gospel in the last Chapter a whole verse , a Chapter it was anciently called , that is not found in our Bibles , as S. Hierom. ad Hedibiam , q. 3. notes . The words he repeats , Lib. 2. contr . Polygamos . Et illi satis faciebant dicentes , saeculum istud iniquitatis & incredulitatis substantia est , quae non sinit per immundos spiritus veram Dei apprehendi virtutem , idcirco jam nunc revela justitiam tuam . These words are thought by some , to savour of Manichaism , and for ought I can find were therefore rejected out of many Greek Copies , and at last out of the Latine . Now suppose that a Manichee in disputation should urge this place , having found it in his Bible , if a Catholick should answer him by saying it is Apocryphal , and not found in divers Greek Copies , might not the Manichee ask how it came in , if it was not the word of God , and if it was , how came it out ? and at last take the same liberty of rejecting any other Authority which shall be alledged against him ; if he can find any Copy that may favour him , however that favour be procured ; and did not the Ebionites reject all the Epistles of Saint Paul upon pretence he was an enemy to the Law of Moses ? indeed it was boldly and most unreasonably done ; but if one tittle or one Chapter of St. Mark be called Apocryphal , for being suspected of Manichaisme , it is a plea that will too much justifie others in their taking and chusing what they list . But I will not urge it so far ; but is not there as much reason for the fierce Lutherans to reject the Epistle of Saint James for favouring justification by works , or the Epistle to the Hebrews , upon pretence that the sixth and tenth Chapters do favour Novatianisme ; especially since it was by some famous Churches at first not accepted , even by the Church of Rome her self ? The Parable of the woman taken in adultery , which is now in Joh. 8. Eusebius says was not in any Gospel , but the Gospel secundum Hebraeos , and St. Hierom makes it doubtful , and so does St. Chrysostome and Euthymius , the first not vouchsafing to explicate it in his Homilies upon St. John , the other affirming it not to be found in the exacter Copies . I shall not need to urge that there are some words so near in sound , that the Scribes might easily mistake : There is one famous one of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which yet some Copies read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the sence is very unlikely though the words be near , and there needs some little luxation to strain this latter reading to a good sence ; That famous precept of Saint Paul , that the women must pray with a covering on their head 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , because of the Angels , hath brought into the Church an opinion that Angels are present in Churches , and are Spectatours of our devotion and deportment . Such an opinion if it should meet with peevish opposites on the one side , and confident Hyperaspists on the other , might possibly make a Sect , and here were a clear ground for the affirmative , and yet who knows but that it might have been a mistake of the Transcribers ; for if it were read as Gothofrid and some others would have it ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or rather , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that the sence be , women in publick Assemblies must wear a vail , by reason of the Companies of the young men there present , it would be no ill exchange for the little change of some letters in a word , to make so probable , so clear a sence of the place . But the instances in this kind , are too many , as appears in the variety of readings in several Copies proceeding from the negligence or ignorance of the Transcribers , or the malicious * endeavour of Hereticks , or the inserting Marginal Notes into the Text , or the nearness of several words . Indeed there is so much evidence of this particular , that it hath encouraged the servants of the Vulgar Translation ( for so some are now adays ) to prefer that Translation before the Original ; for although they have attempted that proposition with very ill success , yet that they could think it possible to be proved , is an Argument there is much variety and alterations in divers Texts ; for if there were not , it were impudence to pretend a Translation , and that none of the best , should be better than the Original . But so it is that this variety of reading is not of slight consideration ; for although it be demonstrably true , that all things necessary to Faith and good manners are preserved from alteration and corruption , because they are of things necessary , and they could not be necessary , unless they were delivered to us , God in his goodness and his justice having obliged himself to preserve that which he hath bound us to observe and keep ; yet in other things which God hath not obliged himself so punctually to preserve , in these things since variety of reading is crep● in , every reading takes away a degree of certainty from any proposition derivative from those places so read : And if some Copies ( especially if they be publick and notable ) omit a verse or a tittle , every argument from such a tittle or verse loses much of its strength and reputation ; and we find it in a great instance . For when in probation of the mystery of the glorious Unity in Trinity , we alledge that saying of Saint John [ there are three which bear witness in heaven , the Father , the Word and the Spirit , and these three are one : ] the Antitrinitarians think they have answered the Argument by saying the Syrian Translation , and divers Greek Copies have not that verse in them , and therefore being of doubtful Authority , cannot conclude with certainty in a Question of Faith. And there is an instance on the Catholick part . For when the Arrians urge the saying of our Saviour , [ No man knows that day and hour ( viz. of Judgment ) no not the Son , but the Father only , ] to prove that the Son knows not all things , and therefore cannot be God in the proper sence , St. Ambrose thinks he hath answered the Argument by saying , those words [ no not the Son ] was thrust into the Text by the fraud of the Arrians . So that here we have one objection , which must first be cleared and made infallible , before we can be ascertain'd in any such Question as to call them Hereticks that dissent . 5. Secondly , I consider that there are very many sences and designs of expounding Scripture , and when the Grammatical sence is found out , we are many times never the nearer ; it is not that which was intended ; for there is in very many Scriptures a double sence , a literal and a Spiritual ( for the Scripture is a Book written within and without ( Apoc. 5. ) And both these sences are sub-divided . For the literal sence is either natural or figurative : And the Spiritual is sometimes allegorical , sometimes anagogical , nay , sometimes there are divers literal sences in the same sentence , as Saint Austin excellently proves in divers * places , and it appears in divers quotations in the New Testament , where the Apostles and Divine Writers bring the same Testimony to divers purposes ; and particularly , St. Paul's making that saying of the Psalm , Thou art my Son , this day have I begotten thee , to be an Argument of Christs Resurrection , and a designation or ordination to his Pontificate , is an instance very famous in his first , and fifth Chapters to the Hebrews . But now there being such variety of sences in Scripture , and but few places so marked out , as not to be capable of divers sences , if m●n will write Commentaries , as Herod made Orations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , what infallible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will be left whereby to judge of the certain dogmatical resolute sence of such places which have been the matter of Question ? For put case a Question were commenced concerning the degrees of glory in heaven , as there is in the Schools a noted one , To shew an inequality of reward , Christs Parable is brought of the reward of ten Cities , and of five according to the divers improvement of the Talents ; this sence is mystical , and yet very probable , and understood by men , for ought I know , to this very sence . And the result of the Argument is made good by Saint Paul , as one star differeth from another in glory ; so shall it be in the resurrection of the dead . Now suppose another should take the same liberty of Expounding another Parable to a mystical sence and Interpretation , as all Parables must be expounded , then the Parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard , and though differing in labour , yet having an equal reward , to any mans understanding may seem very strongly to prove the contrary ; and as if it were of purpose , and that it were primum intentum of the Parable , the Lord of the Vineyard determined the point resolutely upon the mutiny and repining of them that had born the burthen and heat of the day , I will give unto this last even as to thee ; which to my sence seems to determine the Question of degrees ; They that work but little , and they that work long , shall not be distinguished in the reward , though accidentally they were in the work : And if this opinion could but answer St. Pauls words , it stands as fair , and perhaps fairer than the other . Now if we look well upon the words of Saint Paul , we shall find he speaks nothing at all of diversity of degrees of glory in beatified bodies , but the differences of glory in bodies heavenly and earthly . There are ( says he ) bodies earthly , and there are heavenly bodies : And one is the glory of the earthly , another the glory of the heavenly ; one glory of the Sun , another of the Moon , &c. So shall it be in the Resurrection ; For it is sown in corruption , it is raised in incorruption . Plainly thus , our bodies in the Resurrection shall differ as much from our bodies here in the state of corruption , as one Star does from another . And now suppose a Sect should be commenced upon this Question ( upon lighter and vainer many have been ) either side must resolve to answer the others Argument , whether they can or no , and to deny to each other a liberty of Expounding the Parable to such a sence , and yet themselves must use it or want an Argument . But men use to be unjust in their own cases ; And were it not better to leave each other to their liberty , and seek to preserve their own charity ; For when the words are capable of a mystical or a divers sence , I know not why mens fancies or understandings should be more bound to be like one another than their faces : And either in all such places of Scripture , a liberty must be indulged to every honest and peaceable wise man , or else all Argument from such places must be wholly declined . Now although I instanced in a Question , which by good fortune never came to open defiance , yet there have been Sects framed upon lighter grounds , more inconsiderable Questions , which have been disputed on either side with Arguments less material and less pertinent . Saint Austin laught at the Donatists , for bringing that saying of the Spouse in the Canticles to prove their Schism , Indica mihi ubi pascas ubi cubes in meridie . For from thence they concluded the residence of the Church was only in the South part of the World , only in Africa . It was but a weak way of Argument ; yet the Fathers were free enough to use such mediums , to prove mysteries of great concernment ; but yet again , when they speak either against an Adversary , or with consideration , they deny that such mystical sences can sufficiently confirm a Question of Faith. But I shall instance in the great Question of Rebaptization of Hereticks , which many Saints , and Martyrs , and Confessours , and divers Councils , and almost all Asia and Africa did once believe and practise . Their grounds for the invalidity of the baptism by a Heretick , were such mystical words as these , Oleum peccatoris non impinguet caput meum , Ps. 140. And Qui baptizatur à mortuo , quid proficit lavatio ejus ? Ecclus. 34. And Ab aquâ alienâ abstinete , Prov. 5. And Deus peccatores non exaudit , Joh. 9. And he that is not with me is against me , Luke 11. I am not sure the other part had Arguments so good . For the great one of una fides , unum baptisma , did not conclude it to their understandings who were of the other opinion , and men famous in their generations ; for it was no Argument that they who had been baptized by Johns Baptism should not be baptized in the name of Jesus , because unus Deus , unum baptisma ; and as it is still one Faith which a man confesseth several times , and one Sacrament of the Eucharist , though a man often communicates ; so it might be one baptism , though often ministred . And the unity of baptism might not be derived from the unity of the ministration , but from the unity of the Religion into which they are baptized ; though baptized a thousand times , yet because it was still in the name of the holy Trinity , still into the death of Christ , it might be unum baptisme . Whether Saint Cyprian , Firmilian , and their Collegues had this discourse or no ( I know not ) I am sure they might have had much better to have evacuated the force of that Argument , although I believe they had the wrong cause in hand . But this is it that I say , that when a Question is so undetermined in Scripture , that the Arguments rely only upon such mystical places , whence the best fancies can draw the greatest variety , and such which perhaps were never intended by the holy Ghost , it were good the Rivers did not swell higer than the Fountain , and the confidence higher than the Argument and evidence ; for in this case there could not any thing be so certainly proved , as that the disagreeing party should deserve to be condemned by a sentence of Excommunication for disbelieving it , and yet they were ; which I wonder at so much the more , because they ( who as it was since judg'd ) had the right cause , had not any sufficient Argument from Scripture , not so much as such mystical Arguments , but did fly to the Tradition of the Church , in which also I shall afterward shew , they had nothing that was absolutely certain . 3. I consider that there are divers places of Scripture containing in them mysteries and Questions of great concernment , and yet the fabrick and constitution is such , that there is no certain mark to determine whether the sence of them should be literal or figurative ; I speak not here concerning extrinsecal means of determination , as traditive interpretations , Councils , Fathers , Popes , and the like ; I shall consider them afterward in their several places ; But here the subject matter being concerning Scripture in its own capacity , I say there is nothing in the nature of the thing to determine the sence and meaning , but it must be gotten out as it can ; and that therefore it is unreasonable , that what of it self is ambiguous , should be understood in its own prime sence , and intention , under the pain of either a sin , or an Anathema ; I instance in that famous place from whence hath sprung that Question of Transubstantiation , Hoc est corpus meum . The words are plain and clear , apt to be understood in the literal sence , and yet this sence is so hard , as it does violence to reason , and therefore it is the Question whether or no it be not a figurative speech . But here what shall we have to determine it ? What mean soever we take , and to what sence you will expound it , you shall be put to give an account why you expound other places of Scripture in the same case to quite contrary sences . For if you expound it literally , then besides that it seems to intrench upon the words of our blessed Saviour , The words that I speak they are Spirit and they are life , that is , to be spiritually understood ( and it is a miserable thing to see what wretched shifts are used to reconcile the literal sence to these words , and yet to distinguish it from the Capernaitical phancy ) but besides this , why are not those other sayings of Christ expounded literally , I am a Vine , I am the Door , I am a Rock ? Why do we fly to a figure in those parallel words ? This is the Covenant which I make between me and you ; and yet that Covenant was but the sign of the Covenant ; and why do we fly to a figure in a precept , as well as in mystery and a proposition ? If thy right hand offend thee , cut it off ; and yet we have figures enough to save a limb . If it be said , because reason tells us these are not to be expounded according to the letter ; This will be no plea for them who retain the literal exposition of the other instance against all reason , against all Philosophy , against all sense , and against two or three sciences . But if you expound these words figuratively , besides that you are to contest against a world of prejudices , you give your self the liberty , which if others will use when either they have a reason or a necessity so to do , they may perhaps turn all into Allegory , and so may evacuate any precept , and elude any Argument . Well , so it is that very wise men have expounded things * Allegorically , when they should have expounded them literally . So did the famous Origen , who as St. Hierom reports of him , turned Paradise into an Allegory , that he took away quite the truth of the Story , and not only Adam was turned out of the Garden , but the Garden it self out of Paradise . Others expound things literally , when they should understand them in Allegory ; so did the Ancient Papias understand ( Apocal. 20. ) Christs Millenary raign upon earth , and so depressed the hopes of Christianity , and their desires to the longing and expectation of temporal pleasures and satisfactions , and he was followed by Justin Martyr , Irenaeus , Tertullian , Lactantius , and indeed the whole Church generally till S. Austin and S. Hierom's time , who first , of any whose works are extant , did reprove the errour . If such great spirits be deceived in finding out what kind of sences be to be given to Scriptures , it may well be endured that we who sit at their feet , may also tread in the steps of them whose feet could not always tread aright . 7. Fourthly , I consider that there are some places of Scripture that have the selfe same expressions , the same preceptive words , the same reason and account in all appearance , and yet either must be expounded to quite different sences , or else we must renounce the Communion , and the charities of a great part of Christendom . And yet there is absolutely nothing in the thing or in its circumstances , or in its adjuncts that can determine it to different purposes . I instance in those great exclusive negatives , for the necessity of both Sacraments . Nisi quis renatus fuerit ex aquâ &c. Nisi manducaveritis carnem filii hominis , &c. a non introibit in regnum coelorum for both these . Now then the first is urged for the absolute indispensable necessity of baptism even in Infants , insomuch that Infants go to part of Hell if ( inculpably both on their own and their Parents part ) they miss of baptism , for that is the doctrine of the Church of Rome , which they learnt from St. Augustin , and others also do from hence baptize Infants , though with a less opinion of its absolute necessity . And yet the same manner of precept in the same form of words , in the same manner of threatning , by an exclusive negative , shall not enjoyn us to communicate Infants , though damnation ( at least in form of words ) be exactly , and per omnia alike appendant to the neglect of holy Baptism and the venerable Eucharist . If [ nisi quis renatus ] shall conclude against the Anabaptist , for necessity of baptizing Infants ( as sure enough we say , it does ) why shall not an equal [ nisi comederitis ] bring Infants to the holy Communion ? The Primitive Church for some two whole ages did follow their own principles , where ever they led them ; and seeing that upon the same ground equal results must follow , they did Communicate Infants as soon as they had baptized them . And why the Church of Rome should not do so too , being she expounds [ nisi comederitis ] of Oral manducation , I cannot yet learn a reason . And for others that expound it of a spiritual manducation , why they shall not allow the disagreeing part the same liberty of expounding [ nisi quis renatus ] too , I by no means can understand . And in these cases no external determiner can be pretended in answer . For whatsoever is extrinsecal to the words , as Councils , Traditions , Church Authority and Fathers , either have said nothing at all , or have concluded by their practice contrary to the present opinion , as is plain by their communicating Infants by virtue of [ nisi comederitis . ] 8. Fifthly , I shall not need to urge the mysteriousness of some points in Scripture , which ex natura rei are hard to be understood , though very plainly represented . For there are some secreta Theologiae , which are only to be understood by persons very holy and spiritual , which are rather to be felt than discoursed of , and therefore if peradventure they be offered to publick consideration , they will therefore be opposed , because they run the same fortune with many other Questions , that is , not to be understood , and so much the rather because their understanding , that is , the feeling such secrets of the Kingdom are not the results of Logick and Philosophy , nor yet of publick revelation , but of the publick spirit privately working , and in no man is a duty , but in all that have it , is a reward , and is not necessary for all , but given to some , producing its operations , not regularly , but upon occasions , personal necessities , and new emergencies . Of this nature are the spirit of obsignation , belief of particular salvation , special influences , and comforts coming from a sense of the spirit of adoption , actual fervours , and great complacencies in devotion , spiritual joyes , which are little drawings aside of the curtains of peace and eternity , and antepasts of immortality . But the not understanding the perfect constitution and temper of these mysteries ( and it is hard for any man so to understand , as to make others do so too that feel them not ) is cause that in ●any Questions of secret Theology , by being very apt and easie to be mistaken , there is a necessity in forbearing one another ; and this consideration would have been of good use in the Question between Soto and Catharinus , both for the preservation of their charity and explication of the mystery . 9. Sixthly , But here it will not be unseasonable to consider , that all systems and principles of science are expressed , so that either by reason of the Universality of the terms and subject matter , or the infinite variety of humane understandings , and these peradventure swayed by interest , or determined by things accidental and extrinsecal , they seem to divers men , nay , to the same men upon divers occasions to speak things extreamly disparate , and sometimes contrary , but very often of great variety . And this very thing happens also in Scripture , that if it were not in re sacrâ & seriâ , it were excellent sport to observe how the same place of Scripture serves several turns upon occasion , and they at that time believe the words sound nothing else , whereas in the liberty of their judgment and abstracting from that occasion , their Commentaries understand them wholly to a differing sence . It is a wonder of what excellent use to the Church of Rome , is [ tibi dabo claves : ] It was spoken to Peter , and none else ( sometimes ) and therefore it concerns him and his Successours only ; the rest are to derive from him . And yet if you question them for their Sacrament of Penance , and Priestly Absolution , then tibi dabo claves comes in , and that was spoken to S. Peter , and in him to the whole College of the Apostles , and in them to the whole Hierarchy . If you question why the Pope pretends to free souls from Purgatory , tibi dabo claves is his warrant ; but if you tell him the Keys are only for binding and loosing on Earth directly , and in Heaven consequently ; and that Purgatory is a part of Hell , or rather neither Earth nor Heaven nor Hell , and so the Keys seem to have nothing to do with it , then his Commission is to be enlarged by a suppletory of reason and consequences , and his Keys shall unlock this difficulty , for it is clavis scientiae , as well as authoritatis . And these Keys shall enable him to expound Scriptures infallibly , to determine Questions , to preside in Councils , to dictate to all the World Magisterially , to rule the Church , to dispence with Oaths , to abrogate Laws : And if his Key of knowledge will not , the Key of Authority shall , and tibi dabo claves shall answer for all . We have an instance in the single fancy of one man , what rare variety of matter is afforded from those plain words of [ Oravi pro te Petre ] Luke 22. for that place says Bellarmine , is otherwise to be understood of Peter , otherwise of the Popes , and otherwise of the Church of Rome . And [ pro te ] signifies that Christ prayed that Peter might neither err personally nor judicially , and that Peters Successors , if they did err personally , might not err judicially , and that the Roman Church might not err personally . All this variety of sence is pretended by the fancy of one man , to be in a few words which are as plain and simple as are any words in Scripture . And what then in those thousands that are intricate ? So is done with pasce oves , which a man would think were a Commission as innocent and guiltless of designs , as the sheep in the folds are . But if it be asked why the Bishop of Rome calls himself Universal Bishop ? Pasces oves is his warrant . Why he pretends to a power of deposing Princes ? Pasce oves , said Christ to Peter , the second time . If it be demanded why also he pretends to a power of authorizing his subjects to kill him ? Pasce agnos , said Christ the third time : And pasce is doce , and pasce is Impera , and pasce is occide . Now if others should take the same ( unreasonableness I will not say , but the same ) liberty in expounding Scripture , or if it be not licence taken , but that the Scripture it self is so full and redundant in sences quite contrary , what man soever , or what company of men soever shall use this principle , will certainly find such rare productions from several places , that either the unreasonableness of the thing will discover the errour of the proceeding , or else there will be a necessity of permitting a great liberty of judgment , where is so infinite variety without limit or mark of necessary determination . If the first , then because an errour is so obvious and ready to our selves , it will be great imprudence or tyranny to be hasty in judging others ; but if the latter , it is it that I contend for : for it is most unreasonable , when either the thing it self ministers variety , or that we take licence to our selves in variety of interpretations , or proclaim to all the world our great weakness , by our actually being deceived , that we should either prescribe to others magisterially when we are in errour , or limit their understandings when the thing it self affords liberty and variety . SECT . IV. Of the difficulty of expounding Scripture . 1. THese considerations are taken from the nature of Scripture it self ; but then if we consider that we have no certain ways of determining places of difficulty and question , infallibly and certainly , but that we must hope to be saved in the belief of things plain , necessary , and fundamental , and our pious endeavour to find out Gods meaning in such places which he hath left under a cloud for other great ends reserved to his own knowledge , we shall see a very great necessity in allowing a liberty in Prophesying , without prescribing authoritatively to other mens consciences , and becoming Lords and Masters of their Faith. Now the means of expounding Scripture are either external , or internal . For the external , as Church Authority , Tradition , Fathers , Councils and Decrees of Bishops , they are of a distinct consideration , and follow after in their order . But here we will first consider the invalidity and uncertainty of all those means of expounding Scripture ; which are more proper and internal to the nature of the thing . The great Masters of Commentaries , some whereof have undertaken to know all mysteries , have propounded many ways to expound Scripture , which indeed are excellent helps , but not infallible assistances , both because themselves are but moral instruments which force not truth ex abscondito , as also because they are not infallibly used and applyed . 1. Sometime the sence is drawn forth by the context and connexion of parts : It is well when it can be so . But when there is two or three antecedents , and subjects spoken of , what man or what rule shall ascertain me that I make my reference true by drawing the relation to such an antecedent ; to which I have a mind to apply it , another hath not ? For in a contexture where one part does not always depend upon another , where things of differing natures intervene and interrupt the first intentions , there it is not always very probable to expound Scripture , and take its meaning by its proportion to the neighbouring words . But who desires satisfaction in this , may read the observation verified in S. Gregory's Morals upon Job lib. 5. c. 22. and the instances he there brings are excellent proof , that this way of Interpretation does not warrant any man to impose his Expositions upon the belief and understanding of other men too confidently and magisterially . 2. Secondly , Another great pretence or medium is the conference of places , which Illyricus calls ingens remedium & foelicissimam expositionem sanctae scripturae ; and indeed so it is , if well and temperately used ; but then we are beholding to them that do so ; for there is no rule that can constrain them to it ; for comparing of places is of so indefinite capacity , that if there be ambiguity of words , variety of sence , alteration of circumstances , or difference of stile amongst Divine Writers , then there is nothing that may be more abused by wilful people , or may more easily deceive the unwary , or that may more amuse the most intelligent Observer . The Anabaptists take advantage enough in this proceeding , ( and indeed so may any one that list ) and when we pretend against them the necessity of baptizing all , by authority of nisi quis renatus fuerit ex aquâ & spiritu , they have a parallel for it , and tell us that Christ will baptize us with the holy Ghost and with fire , and that one place expounds the other ; and because by fire is not meant an Element or any thing that is natural , but an Allegory and figurative expression of the same thing ; so also by water may be meant the figure signifying the effect or manner of operation of the holy Spirit . Fire in one place , and water in the other , do but represent to us that Christs baptism is nothing else but the cleansing and purifying us by the holy Ghost . But that which I here note as of greatest concernment , and which in all reason ought to be an utter overthrow to this topick , 〈◊〉 an universal abuse of it among those that use it most , and when two places seem to have the same expression , or if a word have a double signification ; because in this place it may have such a sence , therefore it must , because in one of the places the sence is to their purpose , they conclude that therefore it must be so in the other too . An instance I give in the great Question between the Socinians and the Catholicks . If any place be urged in which our blessed Saviour is called God , they shew you two or three where the word ●od is taken in a depressed sence , for a quasi Deus , as when God said to Moses , Constitui te Deum Pharaonis ; and hence they argue , because I can shew the word is used for a Deus factus , therefore no argument is sufficient to prove Christ to be Deus verus from the appellative of Deus . And might not another argue to the exact contrary , and as well urge that Moses is Deus verus , because in some places the word Deus is used pro Deo aeterno : Both ways the Argument concludes impiously and unreasonably . It is a fallacy à posse ad esse affirmativè ? because breaking of bread is sometimes used for an Eucharistical manducation in Scripture ; therefore I shall not from any testimony of Scripture , affirming the first Christians to have broken bread together , conclude that they lived hospitably and in common society . Because it may possibly be eluded , therefore it does not signifie any thing . And this is the great way of answering all the Arguments that can be brought against any thing that any man hath a mind to defend ; and any man that reads any controversies of any side , shall find as many instances of this vanity almost as he finds arguments from Scripture ; this fault was of old noted by S. Austin , for then they had got the trick , and he is angry at it , neque enim putare debemus esse praescriptum , ut quod in aliquo loco res aliqua per similitudinem significaverit , hoc etiam semper significare credamus . 3. Thirdly , Oftentimes Scriptures are pretended to be expounded by a proportion and Analogy of reason . And this is as the other , if it be well , it 's well . But unless there were some intellectus universalis furnished with infallible propositions , by referring to which every man might argue infallibly , this Logick may deceive as well as any of the rest . For it is with reason as with mens tastes ; although there are some general principles which are reasonable to all men , yet every man is not able to draw out all its consequences , nor to understand them when they are drawn forth , nor to believe when he does understand them . There is a precept of S. Paul directed to the Thessalonians before they were gathered into a body of a Church , 2 Thes. 3.6 . To withdraw from every brother that walketh disorderly . But if this precept were now observed , I would fain know whether we should not fall into that inconvenience which S. Paul sought to avoid in giving the same commandment to the Church of Corinth , 1 Cor. 5.9 . I wrote to you that ye should not company with fornicators ; And yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world , for then ye must go out of the world : And therefore he restrains it to a quitting the society of Christians living ill lives . But now that all the world hath been Christians , if we should sin in keeping company with vitious Christians , must we not also go out of this world ? Is not the precept made null , because the reason is altered , and things are come about , and that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are the brethren , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 called brethren , as S. Pauls phrase is ? And yet either this never was considered , or not yet believed ; for it is generally taken to be obligatory , though ( I think ) seldom practised . But when we come to expound Scriptures to a certain sence by Arguments drawn from prudential motives , then we are in a vast plain without any sufficient guide , and we shall have so many sences , as there are humane prudences . But that which goes further than this , is a parity of reason from a plain place of Scripture to an obscure , from that which is plainly set down in a Text to another that is more remote from it . And thus is that place in S. Matthew forced , If thy brother refuse to be amended . Dic ecclesiae . Hence some of the Roman Doctors argue , If Christ commands to tell the Church in case of adultery or private injury , then much more in case of heresie . Well , suppose this to be a good Interpretation ; Why must I stay here ? Why may not I also adde by a parity of reason , If the Church must be told of heresie , much more of treason : And why may not I reduce all sins to the cognizance of a Church tribunal , as some men do directly , and Snecanus does heartily and plainly ? If a mans principles be good , and his deductions certain , he need not care whither they carry him . But when an Authority is intrusted to a person , and the extent of his power expressed in his commission , it will not be safety to meddle beyond his commission upon confidence of a parity of reason . To instance once more ; When Christ in pasce oves , & tu es Petrus , gave power to the Pope to govern the Church ( for to that sence the Church of Rome expounds those Authorities ) by a certain consequence of reason , say they , he gave all things necessary for exercise of this jurisdiction , and therefore in [ pasce oves ] he gave him an indirect power over temporals , for that is necessary that he may do his duty : Well , having gone thus far , we will go farther upon the parity of reason , therefore he hath given the Pope the gift of tongues , and he hath given him power to give it ; for how else shall Xavier convert the Indians ? He hath given him power also to command the Seas and the winds , that they should obey him , for this also is very necessary in some cases . And so pasce oves is accipe donum linguarum , and Impera ventis , & dispone regum diademata , & laicorum praedia , and influentias coeli too , and whatsoever the parity of reason will judge equally necessary in order to pasce oves . When a man does speak reason , it is but reason he should be heard ; but though he may have the good fortune , or the great abilities to do it , yet he hath not a certainty , no regular infallible assistance , no inspiration of Arguments and deductions ; and if he had , yet because it must be reason that must judge of reason , unless other mens understandings were of the same aire , the same constitution and ability , they cannot be prescribed unto , by another mans reason ; especially because such reasonings as usually are in explication of particular places of Scripture , depend upon minute circumstances and particularities , in which it is so easie to be deceived , and so hard to speak reason regularly and always , that it is the greater wonder if we be not deceived . 4. Fourthly , Others pretend to expound Scripture by the analogie of Faith , and that is the most sure and infallible way ( as it is thought : ) But upon stricter survey it is but a Chimera , a thing in nubibus which varies like the right hand and left hand of a Pillar , and at the best is but like the Coast of a Country to a Traveller out of his way ; It may bring him to his journeys end though twenty miles about ; it may keep him from running into the Sea , and from mistaking a river for dry land ; but whether this little path or the other be the right away it tells not . So is the analogie of Faith , that is , if I understand it right , the rule of Faith , that is the Creed . Now were it not a fine device to goe to expound all the Scripture by the Creed , there being in it so many thousand places which have no more relation to any Article in the Creed , than they have to Tityre tu patulae ? Indeed if a man resolves to keep the analogie of Faith , that is , to expound Scripture , so as not to doe any violence to any fundamental Article , he shall be sure however he errs , yet not to destroy Faith , he shall not perish in his Exposition . And that was the precept given by Saint Paul , that all Prophecyings should be estimated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Rom. 6.12 . and to this very purpose , St. Austin in his Exposition of Genesis , by way of Preface sets down the Articles of Faith , with this design and protestation of it , that if he says nothing against those Articles , though he miss the particular sence of the place , there is no danger , or sin in his Exposition ; but how that analogie of Faith should have any other influence in expounding such places in which those Articles of Faith are neither expressed nor involved , I understand not . But then if you extend the analogie of Faith further than that which is proper to the rule or Symbol of Faith , then every man expounds Scripture according to the analogie of Faith ; but what ? His own Faith : which Faith if it be questioned , I am no more bound to expound according to the analogie of another mans Faith , than he to expound according to the analogie of mine . And this is it that is complained on of all sides that overvalue their own opinions . Scripture seems so clearly to speak what they believe , that they wonder all the world does not see it as clear as they do ; but they satisfie themselves with saying that it is because they come with prejudice , whereas if they had the true belief , that is , theirs , they would easily see what they see . And this is very true : For if they did believe as others believe , they would expound Scriptures to their sence ; but if this be expounding according to the analogie of Faith , it signifies no more than this , Be you of my mind , and then my arguments will seem concluding and my Authorities and Allegations pressing and pertinent : And this will serve on all sides , and therefore will doe but little service to the determination of Questions , or prescribing to other mens consciences on any side . 5. Lastly , Consulting the Originals is thought a great matter to Interpretation of Scriptures . But this is to small purpose : For indeed it will expound the Hebrew and the Greek , and rectifie Translations . But I know no man that says that the Scriptures in Hebrew and Greek are easie and certain to be understood , and that they are hard in Latine and English : The difficulty is in the thing however it be expressed , the least is in the language . If the Original Languages were our mother tongue , Scripture is not much the easier to us ; and a natural Greek or a Jew , can with no more reason , or authority obtrude his Interpretations upon other mens consciences , than a man of another Nation . Add to this that the inspection of the Original , is no more certain way of Interpretation of Scripture now than it was to the Fathers and Primitive Ages of the Church ; and yet he that observes what infinite variety of Translations of the Bible were in the first Ages of the Church ( as S. Hierom observes ) and never a one like another ; will think that we shall differ as much in our Interpretations as they did , and that the medium is as uncertain to us as it was to them ; and so it is ; witness the great number of late Translations , and the infinite number of Commentaries , which are too pregnant an Argument that we neither agree in the understanding of the words nor of the sence . 6. The truth is , all these ways of Interpreting of Scripture which of themselves are good helps , are made either by design , or by our infirmities , ways of intricating and involving Scriptures in greater difficulty , because men do not learn their doctrines from Scripture , but come to the understanding of Scripture with preconceptions and idea's of doctrines of their own , and then no wonder that Scriptures look like Pictures , wherein every man in the room believes they look on him only , and that wheresoever he stands , or how often soever he changes his station . So that now what was intended for a remedy , becomes the promoter of our disease , and our meat becomes the matter of sickness : And the mischief is , the wit of man cannot find a remedy for it ; for there is no rule , no limit , no certain principle , by which all men may be guided to a certain and so infallible an Interpretation , that he can with any equity prescribe to others to believe his Interpretations in places of controversie or ambiguity . A man would think that the memorable Prophecy of Jacob , that the Scepter should not depart from Judah till Shiloh come , should have been so clear a determination of the time of the Messias , that a Jew should never have doubted it to have been verified in Jesus of Nazareth ; and yet for this so clear vaticination , they have no less than twenty six Answers . S. Paul and S. James seem to speak a little diversly concerning Justification by Faith and Works , and yet to my understanding it is very easie to reconcile them : but all men are not of my mind ; for Osiander in his confutation of the book which Melancthon wrote against him , observes , that there are twenty several opinions concerning Justification , all drawn from the Scriptures , by the men only of the Augustan Confession . There are sixteen several opinions concerning original sin ; and as many definitions of the Sacraments as there are Sects of men that disagree about them . 7. And now what help is there for us in the midst of these uncertainties ? If we follow any one Translation , or any one mans Commentary , what rule shall we have to chuse the right by ? or is there any one man , that hath translated perfectly , or expounded infallibly ? No Translation challenges such a prerogative to be authentick , but the Vulgar Latine ; and yet see with what good success : For when it was declared authentick by the Council of Trent , Sixtus put forth a Copie much mended of what it was , and tied all men to follow that ; but that did not satisfie ; for Pope Clement revives and corrects it in many places , and still the Decree remains in a changed subject . And secondly , that Translation will be very unapt to satisfie , in which one of their own men , Isidore Clarius a Monk of Brescia , found and mended eight thousand faults , besides innumerable others which he says he pretermitted . And then thirdly , to shew how little themselves were satisfied with it , divers learned men among them did new translate the Bible , and thought they did God and the Church good service in it . So that if you take this for your precedent , you are sure to be mistaken infinitely : If you take any other , the Authors themselves do not promise you any security . If you resolve to follow any one as far only as you see cause , then you only do wrong or right by chance ; for you have certainty just proportionable to your own skill , to your own infallibility . If you resolve to follow any one , whithersoever he leads , we shall oftentimes come thither , where we shall see our selves become ridiculous , as it happened in the case of Spiridion Bishop of Cyprus , who so resolved to follow his old book , that when an eloquent Bishop who was desired to Preach , read his Text , Tu autem tolle cubile tuum & ambula ; Spiridion was very angry with him , because in his book it was tolle lectum tuum , and thought it arrogance in the preacher to speak better Latine than his Translator had done : And if it be thus in Translations , it is far worse in Expositions : [ Quia scil . Scripturam sacram pro ipsa sui altitudine non uno eodemque sensu omnes accipium , ut penè quot homines tot illic sententiae erui posse videantur , said Vincent . Lirinensis ] in which every man knows what innumerable ways there are of being mistaken , God having in things not simply necessary left such a difficulty upon those parts of Scripture which are the subject matters of controversie ad edomandam labore superbiam , & intellectum à fastidio revocandum ( as S. Austin gives a reason ) that all that err honestly , are therefore to be pitied , and tolerated , because it is or may be the condition of every man at one time or other . 8. The sum is this : Since holy Scripture is the repository of divine truths , and the great rule of Faith , to which all Sects of Christians do appeal for probation of their several opinions , and since all agree in the Articles of the Creed as things clearly and plainly set down , and as containing all that which is of simple and prime necessity ; and since on the other side there are in Scripture many other mysteries , and matters of Question upon which there is a vail ; since there are so many Copies with infinite varieties of reading ; since a various Interpunction , a parenthesis , a letter , an accent may much alter the sence ; since some places have divers literal sences , many have spiritual , mystical and Allegorical meanings , since there are so many tropes , metonymies , ironies , hyperboles , proprieties and improprieties of language , whose understanding depends upon such circumstances that it is almost impossible to know its proper interpretation ; now that the knowledge of such circumstances and particular stories is irrevocably lost : since there are some mysteries which at the best advantage of expression , are not easie to be apprehended , and whose explication , by reason of our imperfections , must needs be dark , sometimes weak , sometimes unintelligible : and lastly , since those ordinary means of expounding Scripture , as searching the Originals , conference of places , parity of reason , and analogie of Faith , are all dubious , uncertain , and very fallible , he that is the wisest and by consequence the likeliest to expound truest in all probability of reason , will be very far from confidence , because every one of these and many more are like so many degrees of improbability and incertainty , all depressing our certainty of finding out truth in such mysteries and amidst so many difficulties . And therefore a wise man that considers this , would not willingly be prescribed to by others ; and therefore if he also be a just man , he will not impose upon others ; for it is best every man should be left in that liberty from which no man can justly take him , unless he could secure him from errour : So that here also there is a necessity to conserve the liberty of Prophesying , and Interpreting Scripture ; a necessity derived from the consideration of the difficulty of Scripture in Questions controverted , and the uncertainty of any internal medium of Interpretation . SECT . V. Of the insufficiency and uncertainty of Tradition to Expound Scripture , or determine Questions . 1. IN the next place , we must consider those extrinsecal means of Interpreting Scripture , and determining Questions , which they most of all confide in that restrain Prophesying with the greatest Tyranny . The first and principal is Tradition , which is pretended not only to expound Scripture ( Necesse enim est propter tantos tam varii erroris anfractus , ut Propheticae & Apostolicae interpretationis linea secundum Ecclesiastici & Catholici sensus normam dirigatur : ) But also to propound Articles upon a distinct stock , such Articles whereof there is no mention and proposition in Scripture . And in this topick , not only the distinct Articles are clear and plain , like as the fundamentals of Faith expressed in Scripture , but also it pretends to expound Scripture , and to determine Questions with so much clarity and certainty , as there shall neither be errour nor doubt remaining , and therefore no disagreeing is here to be endured . And indeed it is most true if Tradition can perform these pretensions , and teach us plainly , and assure us infallibly of all truths , which they require us to believe , we can in this case have no reason to disbelieve them , and therefore are certainly Hereticks if we doe , because without a crime , without some humane interest or collaterall design , we cannot disbelieve traditive Doctrine or traditive Interpretation , if it be infallibly proved to us that tradition is an infallible guide . 2. But here I first consider that tradition is no repository of Articles of faith , and therefore the not following it is no Argument of heresie ; for besides that I have shewed Scripture in its plain expresses to be an abundant rule of Faith and manners , Tradition is a topick as fallible as any other ; so fallible that it cannot be sufficient evidence to any man in a matter of Faith or Question of heresie . 3. For first , I find that the Fathers were infinitely deceived in their account and enumeration of Traditions , sometimes they did call some Traditions such , not which they knew to be so , but by Arguments and presumptions they concluded them so . Such as was that of . S. Austin , ea quae universalis tenet Ecclesia nec à Conciliis instituta reperiuntur , credibile est ab Apostolorum traditione descendisse . Now suppose this rule probable , that 's the most , yet it is not certain ; It might come by custome , whose Original was not known , but yet could not derive from an Apostolical principle . Now when they conclude of particular Traditions by a general rule , and that general rule not certain , but at the most probable in any thing , and certainly false in some things , it is wonder if the productions , that is , their judgments and pretence fail so often . And if I should but instance in all the particulars , in which Tradition was pretended falsely or uncertainly in the first Ages , I should multiply them to a troublesome variety ; for it was then accounted so glorious a thing to have spoken with the persons of the Apostles , that if any man could with any colour pretend to it , he might abuse the whole Church , and obtrude what he listed under the specious title of Apostolical Tradition , and it is very notorious to every man that will but read and observe the Recognitions or stromata of Clemens Alexandrinus , where there is enough of such false wares shewed in every book , and pretended to be no less than from the Apostles . In the first Age after the Apostles , Papias pretended he received a Tradition from the Apostles , that Christ before the day of Judgment should reign a thousand years upon Earth , and his Saints with him in temporal felicities ; and this thing proceeding from so great an Authority as the testimony of Papias , drew after it all or most of the Christians in the first three hundred years . For besides , that the Millenary opinion is expresly taught by Papias , Justin Martyr , Irenaeus , Origen , Lactantius , Severus , Victorinus , Apollinaris , Nepos , and divers others famous in their time : Justin Martyr in his Dialogue against Tryphon says , it was the belief of all Christians exactly Orthodox , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and yet there was no such Tradition , but a mistake in Papias ; but I find it nowhere spoke against , till Dionysius of Alexandria confuted Nepo's Book , and converted Coracian the Egyptian from the opinion . Now if a Tradition whose beginning of being called so began with a Scholar of the Apostles ( for so was Papias ) and then continued for some Ages upon the meer Authority of so famous a man , did yet deceive the Church : much more fallible is the pretence , when two or three hundred years after , it but commences , and then by some learned man is first called a Tradition Apostolical . And so it happened in the case of the Arrian heresie , which the Nicene Fathers did confute by objecting a contrary Tradition Apostolical , as Theodoret reports ; and yet if they had not had better Arguments from Scripture than from Tradition , they would have fail'd much in so good a cause ; for this very pretence the Arrians themselves made , and desired to be tryed by the Fathers of the first three hundred years , which was a confutation sufficient to them who pretended a clear Tradition , because it was unimaginable that the Tradition should leap so as not to come from the first to the last by the middle . But that this trial was sometime declined by that excellent man S. Athanasius , although at other times confidently and truly pretended , it was an Argument the Tradition was not so * clear , but both sides might with some fairness pretend to it . And therefore one of the prime Founders of their heresie , the Heretick † Ar●emon having observed the advantage might be taken by any Sect that would pretend Tradition , because the medium was plausible , and consisting of so many particulars , that it was hard to be redargued , pretended a Tradition from the Apostles , that Christ was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and that the Tradition did descend by a constant succession in the Church of Rome to Pope Victors time inclusively , and till Zephyrinus had interrupted the series and corrupted the Doctrine ; which pretence if it had not had some appearance of truth , so as possibly to abuse the Church , had not been worthy of confutation , which yet was with care undertaken by an old Writer out of whom † Eusebius transcribes a large passage to reprove the vanity of the pretender . But I observe from hence , that it was usual to pretend to Tradition , and that it was easier pretended than confuted , and I doubt not but oftener done than discovered . A great Question arose in Africa concerning the Baptism of Hereticks , whether it were valid or no. S. Cyprian and his party appealed to Scripture ; Stephen Bishop of Rome and his party , would be judged by custome and Tradition Ecclesiastical . See how much the nearer the Question was to a determination , either that probation was not accounted by S. Syprian , and the Bishops both of Asia and Africk , to be a good Argument , and sufficient to determine them , or there was no certain Tradition against them ; for unless one of these two doe it , nothing could excuse them from opposing a known truth , unless peradventure , S. Cyprian , Firmilian , the Bishops of Galatia , Cappadocia , and almost two parts of the World were ignorant of such a Tradition , for they knew of none such , and some of them expresly denied it . And the sixth general Synod approves of the Canon made in the Council of Carthage under Cyprian upon this very ground , because in praedictorum praesulum locis & solum secundum traditam eis consuetudinem servatus est ; they had a particular Tradition for Rebaptization , and therefore there could be no Tradition Universal against it , or if there were they knew not of it , but much for the contrary ; and then it would be remembred that a conceal'd Tradition was like a silent Thunder , or a Law not promulgated ; it neither was known , nor was obligatory . And I shall observe this too , that this very Tradition was so obscure , and was so obscurely delivered , silently proclaimed , that S. Austin who disputed against the Donatists upon this very Question was not able to prove it but by a consequence which he thought probable and credible , as appears in his discourse against the Donatists . The Apostles , saith S. Austin , prescribed nothing in this particular : But this custome which is contrary to Cyprian ought to be believed to have come from their Tradition , as many other things which the Catholick Church observes . That 's all the ground and all the reason ; nay , the Church did waver concerning that Question , and before the decision of a Council , Cyprian and others might dissent without breach of charity . It was plain then there was no clear Tradition in the Question , possibly there might be a custome in some Churches postnate to the times of the Apostles , but nothing that was obligatory , no Tradition Apostolical . But this was a suppletory device ready at hand when ever they needed it ; and S. Austin confuted the Pelagians , in the Question of Original sin by the custome of exorcism and insufflation , which S. Austin said came from the Apostles by Tradition , which yet was then , and is now so impossible to be proved , that he that shall affirm it , shall gain only the reputation of a bold man and a confident . 4. Secondly , I consider , if the report of Traditions in the Primitive times so near the Ages Apostolical was so uncertain , that they were fain to aym at them by conjectures , and grope as in the dark , the uncertainty is much increased since , because there are many famous Writers whose works are lost , which yet if they had continued , they might have been good records to us , as Clemens Romanus , Egesippus , Nepos , Coracion , Dionysius Areopagite , of Alexandria , of Corinth , Firmilian and many more : And since we see pretences have been made without reason in those Ages where they might better have been confuted , than now they can , it is greater prudence to suspect any later pretences , since so many Sects have been , so many wars , so many corruptions in Authors , so many Authors lost , so much ignorance hath intervened , and so many interests have been served , that now the rule is to be altered ; and whereas it was of old time credible , that that was Apostolical whose beginning they knew not , now quite contrary we cannot safely believe them to be Apostolical unless we do know their beginning to have been from the Apostles . For this consisting of probabilities and particulars , which put together make up a moral demonstration , the Argument which I now urge hath been growing these fifteen hundred years , and if anciently there was so much as to evacuate the Authority of Tradition , much more is there now absolutely to destroy it , when all the particulars , which time and infinite variety of humane accidents have been amassing together , are now concentred , and are united by way of constipation . Because every Age and every great change , and every heresie , and every interest , hath increased the difficulty of finding out true Traditions . 5. Thirdly , There are very many Traditions which are lost , and yet they are concerning matters of as great consequence as most of those Questions for the determination whereof Traditions are pretended : It is more than probable , that as in Baptism and the Eucharist the very forms of ministration are transmitted to us , so also in confirmation and ordination , and that there were special directions for visitation of the sick , and explicite interpretations of those difficult places of S. Paul. which S. Peter affirmed to be so difficult that the ignorant do wrest them to their own damnation , and yet no Church hath conserved these or those many more which S. Basil affirms to be so many that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; the day would fail him in the very simple enumeration of all Traditions Ecclesiastical . And if the Church hath failed in keeping the great variety of Traditions , it will hardly be thought a fault in a private person to neglect Tradition , which either the whole Church hath very much neglected inculpably , or else the whole Church is very much to blame . And who can ascertain us that she hath not entertained some which are no Traditions , as well as lost thousands that are ? That she did entertain some false Traditions I have already proved ; but it is also as probable that some of those which these Ages did propound for Traditions are not so , as it is certain that some which the first Ages called Traditions , were nothing less . 6. Fourthly , There are some opinions which when they began to be publickly received , began to be accounted prime Traditions and so became such , not by a native title , but by adoption ; and nothing is more usual than for the Fathers to colour their popular opinion with so great an appellative . S. Austin called the communicating of Infants an Apostolical Tradition , and yet we do not practise it , because we disbelieve the Allegation . And that every custome which at first introduction was but a private fancy or singular practice , grew afterwards into a publick rite and went for a Tradition after a while continuance , appears by Tertullian who seems to justifie it , Non enim existimas tu licitum esse cuicunque fideli constituere quod Deo placere illi visum fuerit , ad disciplinam & salutem . And again , A quocunque traditore censetur , nec authorem respicias sed authoritatem . And S. Hierome most plainly , Praecepta majorum Apostolicas Traditiones quisque existimat . And when Irenaeus had observed that great variety in the keeping of Lent , which yet to be a fourty days Fast is pretended to descend from Tradition Apostolical , some fasting but one day before Easter , some two , some fourty , and this even long before Irenaeus's time , he gives this reason , Varietas illa jejunii coepit apud Majores nostros qui non accuratè consuetudinem eorum qui vel simplicitate quâdam vel privatâ authoritate in posterum aliquid statuissent , observârant [ ex translatione Christophorsoni : ] And there are yet some points of good concernment , which if any man should question in a high manner , they would prove indeterminable by Scripture , or sufficient reason , and yet I doubt not their confident Defenders would say they are opinions of the Church , and quickly pretend a Tradition from the very Apostles , and believe themselves so secure that they could not be discovered , because the Question never having been disputed , gives them occasion to say that which had no beginning known was certainly from the Apostles . For why should not Divines doe in the Question of reconfirmation as in that of rebaptization ? Are not the grounds equal from an indeleble character in one as in the other ? and if it happen such a Question as this after contestation should be determined , not by any positive decree , but by the cession of one part , and the authority and reputation of the other , does not the next Age stand fair to be abused with a pretence of Tradition , in the matter of reconfirmation , which never yet came to a serious Question ? For so it was in the Question of rebaptization for which there was then no more evident Tradition than there is now in the question of reconfirmation , as I proved formerly , but yet it was carried upon that Title . 7. Fifthly , There is great variety in the probation of Tradition , so that what ever is proved to be Tradition , is not equally and alike credible ; for nothing but universal Tradition is of it self credible ; other Traditions in their just proportion as they partake of the degrees of universality . Now that a Tradition be universal , or which is all one that it be a credible Testimony , S. Irenaeus requires that Tradition should derive from all the Churches Apostolical . And therefore according to this rule there was no sufficient medium to determine the Question about Easter , because the Eastern and Western Churches had several Traditions respectively , and both pretended from the Apostles . Clemens Alexandrinus sayes , it was a secret Tradition from the Apostles that Christ preached but one year : But Irenaeus says it did derive from Hereticks , and says that he by Tradition first from S. John , and then from his Disciples received another Tradition , that Christ was almost fifty years old when he died , and so by consequence preached almost twenty years ; both of them were deceived , and so had all that had believed the report of either pretending Tradition Apostolical . Thus the custome in the Latine Church of fasting on Saturday was against that Tradition which the Greeks had from the Apostles ; and therefore by this division and want of consent , which was the true Tradition was so absolutely indeterminable , that both must needs lose much of their reputation . But how then when not only particular Churches but single persons are all the proof we have for a Tradition ? And this often happened ; I think S. Austin is the chief Argument and Authority we have for the Assumption of the Virgin Mary ; The Baptism of Infants is called a Tradition by Origen alone at first , and from him by others . The procession of the holy Ghost from the Son , which is an Article the Greek Church disavowes , derives from the Tradition Apostolical , as it is pretended ; and yet before S. Austin we hear nothing of it very clearly or certainly , for as much as that whole mysterie concerning the blessed Spirit was so little explicated in Scripture , and so little derived to them by Tradition , that till the Council of Nice , you shall hardly find any form of worship or personal address of devotion to the holy Spirit , as Erasmus observes , and I think the contrary will very hardly be verified . And for this particular in which I instance , whatsoever is in Scripture concerning it , is against that which the Church of Rome calls Tradition , which makes the Greeks so confident as they are of the point , and is an Argument of the vanity of some things which for no greater reason are called Traditions , but because one man hath said so , and that they can be proved by no better Argument to be true . Now in this case wherein Tradition descends upon us with unequal certainty , it would be very unequal to require of us an absolute belief of every thing not written , for fear we be accounted to slight Tradition Apostolical . And since no thing can require our supreme assent , but that which is truly Catholick and Apostolick , and to such a Tradition is required as Irenaeus says , the consent of all those Churches which the Apostles planted , and where they did preside , this topick will be of so little use in judging heresies , that ( beside what is deposited in Scripture ) it cannot be proved in any thing but in the Canon of Scripture it self , and as it is now received , even in that there is some variety . 8. And therefore there is wholly a mistake in this business ; for when the Fathers appeal to Tradition , and with much earnestness , and some clamour they call upon Hereticks to conform to or to be tryed by Tradition , it is such a Tradition as delivers the fundamental points of Christianity , which were also recorded in Scripture . But because the Canon was not yet perfectly consign'd , they called to that testimony they had , which was the testimony of the Churches Apostolical , whose Bishops and Priests being the Antistites religionis , did believe and preach Christian Religion and conserve all its great mysteries according as they have been taught . Irenaeus calls this a Tradition Apostolical , Christum accepisse calicem , & dixisse sanguinem suum esse , & docuisse nodum oblationem novi Testamenti , quam Ecclesia per Apostolos accipiens offert per totum mundum . And the Fathers in these Ages confute Hereticks by Ecclesiastical Tradition , that is , they confront against their impious and blasphemous doctrines that Religion which the Apostles having taught to the Churches where they did preside , their Successors did still preach , and for a long while together suffered not the enemy to sow tares amongst their wheat . And yet these doctrines which they called Traditions , were nothing but such fundamental truths which were in Scripture , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as Irenaeus in Eusebius observes , in the instance of Polycarpus ; and it is manifest by considering what heresies they fought against , the heresies of Ebion , Cerinthus , Nicolaitans , Valentinians , Carpocratians , persons that denied the Son of God , the Unity of the Godhead , that preached impurity , that practised Sorcery and Witch-craft . And now that they did rather urge Tradition against them than Scripture , was , because the publick Doctrine of all the Apostolical Churches was at first more known and famous than many parts of the Scripture , and because some Hereticks denied S. Lukes Gospel , some received none but S. Matthews , some rejected all S. Pauls Epistles , and it was a long time before the whole Canon was consigned by universal testimony , some Churches having one part , some another , Rome her self had not all , so that in this case the Argument from Tradition was the most famous , the most certain , and the most prudent . And now according to this rule they had more Traditions than we have , and Traditions did by degrees lessen as they came to be written , and their necessity was less , as the knowledge of them was ascertained to us by a better Keeper of Divine Truths . All that great mysteriousness of Christs Priest-hood , the unity of his Sacrifice , Christs Advocation and Intercession for us in Heaven , and many other excellent Doctrines might very well be accounted Traditions before S. Pauls Epistle to the Hebrews was published to all the World ; but now they are written truths , and if they had not , possibly we might either have lost them quite , or doubted of them , as we doe of many other Traditions , by reason of the insufficiency of the propounder . And therefore it was that S. Peter took order that the Gospel should be Writ , for he had promised that he would doe something which after his decease should have these things in remembrance . He knew it was not safe trusting the report of men where the fountain might quickly run dry , or be corrupted so insensibly , that no cure could be found for it , nor any just notice taken of it till it were incurable . And indeed there is scarce any thing but what is written in Scripture , that can with any confidence of Argument pretend to derive from the Apostles , except rituals , and manners of ministration ; but no doctrines or speculative mysteries are so transmitted to us by so clear a current , that we may see a visible channel , and trace it to the Primitive fountains . It is said to be a Tradition Apostolical , that no Priest should baptize without chrism and the command of the Bishop : Suppose it were , yet we cannot be obliged to believe it with much confidence , because we have but little proof for it , scarce any thing but the single testimony of S. Hierom. And yet if it were , this is but a ritual , of which in passing by , I shall give that account : That , suppose this and many more rituals did derive clearly from Tradition Apostolical ( which yet but very few doe ) yet it is hard that any Church should be charged with crime for not observing such rituals , because we see some of them which certainly did derive from the Apostles , are expired and gone out in a desuetude ; such as are abstinence from bloud , and from things strangled , the coenobitick life of secular persons , the colledge of widows , to worship standing upon the Lords day , to give milk and honey to the newly baptized , and many more of the like nature ; now there having been no mark to distinguish the necessity of one from the indifferency of the other , they are all alike necessary , or alike indifferent ; If the former , why does no Church observe them ? If the latter , why does the Church of Rome charge upon others the shame of novelty , for leaving of some Rites and Ceremonies which by her own practice we are taught to have no obligation in them , but the adiaphorous ? S. Paul gave order , that a Bishop should be the husband of one wife ; The Church of Rome will not allow so much ; other Churches allow more : The Apostles commanded Christians to Fast on Wednesday and Friday , as appears in their Canons ; the Church of Rome Fasts Friday and Saturday , and not on Wednesday : The Apostes had their Agapae or love Feasts , we should believe them scandalous : They used a kiss of charity in ordinary addresses , the Church of Rome keeps it only in their Masse , other Churches quite omit it : The Apostles permitted Priests and Deacons to live in conjugal Society as appears in the 5. Can. of the Apostles ( which to them is an Argument who believe them such ) and yet the Church of Rome , by no means will endure it ; nay more , Michael Medina gives Testimony that of 84. Canons Apostolical which Clemens collected , scarce six or eight are observed by the Latine Church , and Peresius gives this account of it , In illis contineri multa quae temporum corruptione non plenè observantu● , aliis pro temporis & materiae qualitate aut obliteratis , aut totius Ecclesiae magisterio abrogatis . Now it were good that they which take a liberty to themselves , should also allow the same to others . So that for one thing or other , all Traditions , excepting those very few that are absolutely universal , will lose all their obligation , and become no competent medium to confine mens practices , or limit their faiths , or determine their perswasions . Either for the difficulty of their being proved , the incompetency of the testimony that transmits them , or the indifferency of the thing transmitted , all Traditions both ritual and doctrinal are disabled from determining our consciences either to a necessary believing or obeying . 9. Sixthly , To which I adde by way of confirmation , that there are some things called Traditions , and are offered to be proved to us by a Testimony , which is either false or not extant . Clemens of Alexandria pretended it a Tradition that the Apostles preached to them that died in infidelity , even after their death , and then raised them to life , but he proved it only by the Testimony of the Book of Hermes ; he affirmed it to be a Tradition Apostolical , that the Greeks were saved by their Philosophie , but he had no other Authority for it but the Apocryphal Books of Peter and Paul. Tertullian and S. Basil pretended it an Apostolical Tradition , to sign in the aire with the sign of the Cross , but this was only consigned to them in the Gospel of Nicodemus . But to instance once for all in the Epistle of Marcellus to the Bishop of Antioch , where he affirmes that it is the Canon of the Apostles , praeter sententiam Romani Pontificis , non posse Concilia celebrari . And yet there is no such Canon extant , nor ever was for ought appears in any Record we have ; and yet the Collection of the Canons is so intire , that though it hath something more than what was Apostolical , yet it hath nothing less . And now that I am casually fallen upon an instance from the Canons of the Apostles , I consider that there cannot in the world a greater instance be given how easie it is to be abused in the believing of Traditions . For 1. to the first 50 , which many did admit for Apostolical , 35 more were added , which most men now count spurious , all men call dubious , and some of them univerally condemned by peremptory sentence , even by them who are greatest admirers of that Collection , as 65.67 . and 8⅘ Canons . For the first 50 , it is evident that there are some things so mixt with them , and no mark of difference left , that the credit of all is much impaired , insomuch that Isidor of Sevil says , they were Apocryphal , made by Hereticks , and published under the title Apostolical , but neither the Fathers nor the Church of Rome did give assent to them . And yet they have prevailed so far amongst some , that Damascen is of opinion they should be received equally with the Canonical writings of the Apostles . One thing only I observe ( and we shall find it true in most writings , whose Authority is urged in Questions of Theologie ) that the Authority of the Tradition is not it which moves the assent , but the nature of the thing ; and because such a Canon is delivered , they do not therefore believe the sanction or proposition so delivered , but disbelieve the Tradition , if they do not like the matter , and so do not judge of the matter by the Tradition , but of the Tradition by the matter . And thus the Church of Rome rejects the 84. or 85. Canon of the Apostles , not because it is delivered with less Authority , than the last 35 are , but because it reckons the Canon of Scripture otherwise than it is at Rome . Thus also the fifth Canon amongst the first 50 , because it approves the marriage of Priests and Deacons does not perswade them to approve of it too , but it self becomes suspected for approving it : So that either they accuse themselves of palpable contempt of the Apostolical Authority , or else that the reputation of such Traditions is kept up to serve their own ends , and therefore when they encounter them , they are no more to be upheld ; which what else is it but to teach all the world to contemn such pretences and undervalue Traditions , and to supply to others a reason why they should doe that , which to them that give the occasion is most unreasonable ? 10. Seventhly , The Testimony of the Ancient Church being the only means of proving Tradition , and sometimes their dictates and doctrine being the Tradition pretended of necessity to be imitated , it is considerable that men in their estimate of it , take their rise from several Ages and differing Testimonies , and are not agreed about the competency of their Testimony ; and the reasons that on each side make them differ , are such as make the authority it self the less authentick and more repudiable . Some will allow only of the three first Ages , as being most pure , most persecuted , and therefore most holy , least interested , serving fewer designes , having fewest factions , and therefore more likely to speak the truth for Gods sake and its own , as best complying with their great end of acquiring Heaven in recompence of losing their lives : Others * say , that those Ages being persecuted minded the present Doctrines proportionable to their purposes and constitution of the Ages , and make little or nothing of those Questions which at this day vex Christendome : And both speak true : The first Ages speak greatest truth , but least pertinently . The next Ages the Ages of the four general Councils spake something , not much more pertinently to the present Questions , but were not so likely to speak true , by reason of their dispositions contrary to the capacity and circumstance of the first Ages ; and if they speak wisely as Doctors , yet not certainly as witnesses of such propositions which the first Ages noted not ; and yet unless they had noted , could not possibly be Traditions . And therefore either of them will be less useless as to our present affairs . For indeed the Questions which now are the publick trouble , were not considered or thought upon for many hundred years , and therefore prime Tradition there is none as to our purpose , and it will be an insufficient medium to be used or pretended in the determination ; and to dispute concerning the truth or necessity of Traditions , in the Questions of our times , is as if Historians disputing about a Question in the English Story , should fall on wrangling whether Livie or Plutarch were the best Writers : And the earnest disputes about Traditions are to no better purpose . For no Church at this day admits the one half of those things , which certainly by the Fathers were called Traditions Apostolical , and no Testimony of ancient Writers does consign the one half of the present Questions , to be or not to be traditions . So that they who admit only the doctrine and testimony of the first Ages cannot be determined in most of their doubts which now trouble us , because their writings are of matters wholly differing from the present disputes , and they which would bring in after Ages to the Authority of a competent judge or witness , say the same thing ; for they plainly confess that the first Ages spake little or nothing to the present Question , or at least nothing to their sence of them ; for therefore they call in aid from the following Ages , and make them suppletory and auxiliary to their designs , and therefore there are no Traditions to our purposes . And they who would willingly have it otherwise , yet have taken no course it should be otherwise ; for they , when they had opportunity in the Councils of the last Ages , to determine what they had a mind to , yet they never named the number , nor expressed the particular Traditions which they would fain have the world believe to be Apostolical : But they have kept the bridle in their own hands , and made a reserve of their own power , that if need be , they may make new pretensions , or not be put to it to justifie the old by the engagement of a conciliary declaration . 11. Lastly , We are acquitted by the testimony of the Primitive Fathers , from any other necessity of believing , than of such Articles as are recorded in Scripture : And this is done by them , whose Authority is pretended the greatest Argument for Tradition , as appears largely in Irenaeus , who disputes professedly for the sufficiency of Scripture against certain Hereticks , who affirm some necessary truths not to be written . It was an excellent saying of S. Basil , and will never be wip'd out with all the eloquence of Perron [ in his Serm. de fide . Manifestus est fidei lapsus , & liquidum superbiae vi●ium vel respuere aliquid eorum quae Scriptura habet , vel inducere quicquam quod scriptum non est . ] And it is but a poor device to say that every particular Tradition is consigned in Scripture by those places which give Authority to Tradition ; and so the introducing of Tradition is not a super-inducing any thing over or besides Scripture , because Tradition is like a Messenger , and the Scripture is like his Letters of Credence , and therefore Authorizes whatsoever Tradition speaketh . For supposing Scripture does consign the Authority of Tradition ( which it might do before all the whole Instrument of Scripture it self was consigned , and then afterwards there might be no need of Tradition ) yet supposing it , it will follow that all those Traditions which are truly prime and Apostolical , are to be entertained according to the intention of the Deliverers , which indeed is so reasonable of it self , that we need not Scripture to perswade us to it , it self is authentick as Scripture is , if it derives from the same fountain ; and a word is never the more the Word of God for being written , nor the less for not being written ; but it will not follow that whatsoever is pretended to be Tradition , is so , neither is the credit of the particular instances consigned in Scripture ; & dolosus versatur in generalibus , but that this craft is too palpable . And if a general and indefinite consignation of Tradition be sufficient to warrant every particular that pretends to be Tradition , then S. Basil had spoken to no purpose , by saying , it is Pride and Apostasie from the Faith , to bring in what is not written : For if either any man brings in what is written , or what he says is delivered , then the first being express Scripture , and the second being consigned in Scripture , no man can be charged with superinducing what is not written , he hath his answer ready ; And then these are zealous words absolutely to no purpose ; but if such general consignation does not warrant every thing that pretends to Tradition , but only such as are truly proved to be Apostolical ; then Scripture is useless as to this particular ; for such Tradition gives testimony to Scripture , and therefore is of it self first , and more credible , for it is credible of it self ; and therefore unless Saint Basil thought that all the will of God in matters of Faith and Doctrine were written , I see not what end nor what sence he could have in these words : For no man in the World except Enthusiasts and mad-men ever obtruded a Doctrine upon the Church , but he pretended Scripture for it or Tradition , and therefore no man could be pressed by these words , no man confuted , no man instructed , no not Enthusiasts or Montanists . For suppose either of them should say , that since in Scripture the holy Ghost is promised to abide with the Church for ever , to teach , whatever they pretend the Spirit in any Age hath taught them , is not to super-induce any thing beyond what is written , because the truth of the Spirit , his veracity , and his perpetual teaching being promised and attested in Scripture , Scripture hath just so consigned all such Revelations , as Perron saith it hath all such Traditions . But I will trouble my self no more with Arguments from any humane Authorities , but he that is surprized with the belief of such Authorities , and will but consider the very many testimonies of Antiquity to this purpose , as of a Constantine , b St. Hierom , St. Austin , d St. Athanasius , e St. Hilary , f St. Epiphanius , and divers others , all speaking words to the same sence , with that saying of St. g Paul , Nemo sentiat super quod scriptum est , will see that there is reason , that since no man is materially a Heretick , but he that errs in a point of Faith , and all Faith is sufficiently recorded in Scripture , the judgment of Faith and Heresie is to be derived from thence , and no man is to be condemned for dissenting in an Article for whose probation Tradition only is pretended ; only according to the degree of its evidence , let every one determine himself , but of this evidence we must not judge for others ; for unless it be in things of Faith , and absolute certainties , evidence is a word of relation , and so supposes two terms , the object and the faculty ; and it is an imperfect speech to say a thing is evident in it self ( unless we speak of first principles , or clearest revelations ) for that may be evident to one , that is not so to another , by reason of the pregnancy of some apprehensions , and the immaturity of others . This discourse hath its intention in Traditions Doctrinal and Ritual , that is , such Traditions which propose Articles new in materiâ ; but now if Scripture be the repository of all Divine Truths sufficient for us , Tradition must be considered as its instrument , to convey its great mysteriousness to our understandings ; it is said there are traditive Interpretations , as well as traditive propositions , but these have not much distinct consideration in them , both because their uncertainty is as great as the other upon the former considerations ; as also because in very deed , there are no such things as traditive Interpretations universal : For as for particulars , they signifie no more but that they are not sufficient determinations of Questions Theological , therefore because they are particular , contingent , and of infinite variety , and they are no more Argument than the particular authority of these men whose Commentaries they are , and therefore must be considered with them . 12. The summe is this : Since the Fathers , who are the best witnesses of Traditions , yet were infinitely deceived in their account , since sometimes they guest at them , and conjectured by way of Rule and Discourse , and not of their knowledge , not by evidence of the thing ; since many are called Traditions which were not so , many are uncertain whether they were or no , yet confidently pretended , and this uncertainty which at first was great enough , is increased by infinite causes and accidents in the succession of 1600 years ; since the Church hath been either so careless or so abused that she could not , or would not preserve Traditions with carefulness and truth ; since it was ordinary for the old Writers to set out their own fancies , and the Rites of their Church which had been Ancient under the specious Title of Apostolical Traditions ; since some Traditions rely but upon single Testimony at first , and yet descending upon others , come to be attested by many , whose Testimony , though conjunct , yet in value is but single , because it relies upon the first single Relator , and so can have no greater authority , or certainty , than they derive from the single person ; since the first Ages who were most competent to consign Tradition , yet did consign such Traditions as be of a nature wholly discrepant from the present Questions , and speak nothing at all , or very imperfectly to our purposes ; and the following ages are no fit witnesses of that which was not transmitted to them , because they could not know it at all , but by such transmission and prior consignation ; since what at first was a Tradition , came afterwards to be written , and so ceased its being a Tradition ; yet the credit of Traditions commenced upon the certainty and reputation of those truths first delivered by word , afterward consigned by writing ; since what was certainly Tradition Apostolical , as many Rituals were , are rejected by the Church in several ages , and are gone out into a desuetude ; and lastly , since , beside the no necessity of Traditions , there being abundantly enough in Scripture , there are many things called Traditions by the Fathers , which they themselves either proved by no Authors , or by Apocryphal , and spurious , and Heretical , the matter of Tradition will in very much be so uncertain , so false , so suspicious , so contradictory , so improbable , so unproved , that if a Question be contested , and be offered to be proved only by Tradition , it will be very hard to impose such a proposition to the belief of all men with an imperiousness or resolved determination , but it will be necessary men should preserve the liberty of believing and prophecying , and not part with it , upon a worse merchandise and exchange than Esau made for his birthright . SECT . VI. Of the uncertainty and insufficiency of Councils Ecclesiastical to the same purpose . 1. BUT since we are all this while in uncertainty , it is necessary that we should address our selves somewhere , where we may rest the soal of our foot : And Nature , Scripture , and Experience teach the World in matters of Question , to submit to some final sentence . For it is not reason that controversies should continue till the erring person shall be willing to condemn himself ; and the Spirit of God hath directed us by that great precedent at Jerusalem , to address our selves to the Church , that in a plenary Council and Assembly , she may Synodically determine Controversies . So that if a General Council have determined a Question , or expounded Scripture , we may no more disbelieve the Decree , than the Spirit of God himself who speaks in them . And indeed , if all Assemblies of Bishops were like that first , and all Bishops were of the same spirit of which the Apostles were , I should obey their Decree with the same Religion as I do them whose Preface was Visum est Spiritui Sancto & nobis , and I doubt not but our blessed Saviour intended that the Assemblies of the Church should be Judges of the Controversies , and guides of our perswasions in matters of difficulty . But he also intended they should proceed according to his will which he had revealed , and those precedents which he had made authentick by the immediate assistance of his holy Spirit : He hath done his part , but we do not do ours . And if any private person in the simplicity and purity of his soul desires to find out a truth of which he is in search and inquisition , if he prays for wisdom , we have a promise he shall be heard and answered liberally , and therefore much more , when the representatives of the Catholick Church do meet , because every person there hath in individuo a title to the promise , and another title as he is a governour and a guide of souls , and all of them together have another title in their united capacity , especially , if in that union they pray , and proceed with simplicity and purity , so that there is no disputing against the pretence and promises , and authority of General Councils . For if any one man can hope to be guided by Gods Spirit in the search , the pious , and impartial , and unprejudicate search of truth , then much more may a General Council . If no private man can hope for it , then truth is not necessary to be found , nor we are not obliged to search for it , or else we are saved by chance : But if private men can by vertue of a promise , upon certain conditions be assured of finding out sufficient truth , much more shall a General Council . So that I consider thus : There are many promises pretended to belong to General Assemblies in the Church ; but I know not any ground , nor any pretence , that they shall be absolutely assisted , without any condition on their own parts , and whether they will or no : Faith is a vertue as well as Charity , and therefore consists in liberty and choice , and hath nothing in it of necessity : There is no Question but that they are obliged to proceed according to some rule ; for they expect no assistance by way of Enthusiasme ; if they should , I know no warrant for that , neither did any General Council ever offer a Decree which they did not think sufficiently proved by Scripture , Reason , or Tradition , as appears in the Acts of the Councils ; now then , if they be tied to conditions , it is their duty to observe them ; but whether it be certain that they will observe them , that they will do all their duty , that they will not sin even in this particular in the neglect of their duty , that 's the consideration . So that if any man questions the Title and Authority of General Councils , and whether or no great promises appertain to them , I suppose him to be much mistaken ; but he also that thinks all of them have proceeded according to rule and reason , and that none of them were deceived , because possibly they might have been truly directed , is a stranger to the History of the Church , and to the perpetual instances and experiments of the faults and failings of humanity . It is a famous saying of St. Gregory , That he had the four first Councils in esteem and veneration next to the four Evangelists ; I suppose it was because he did believe them to have proceeded according to rule , and to have judged righteous judgment ; but why had not he the same opinion of other Councils too , which were celebrated before his death , for he lived after the fifth General ; not because they had not the same Authority ; for that which is warrant for one , is warrant for all ; but because he was not so confident that they did their duty , nor proceeded so without interest as the first four had done , and the following Councils did never get that reputation which all the Catholick Church acknowledged due to the first four . And in the next Order were the three following Generals ; for the Greeks and Latines did never jointly acknowledge but seven Generals to have been authentick in any sence , because they were in no sence agreed that any more than seven had proceeded regularly , and done their duty : So that now the Question is not whether General Councils have a promise that the holy Ghost will assist them ; For every private man hath that promise , that if he does his duty , he shall be assisted sufficiently in order to that end to which he needs assistance ; and therefore much more shall General Councils in order to that end for which they convene , and to which they need assistance , that is , in order to the conservation of the Faith , for the doctrinal rules of good life , and all that concerns the essential duty of a Christian , but not in deciding Questions to satisfie contentions , or curious , or presumptuous spirits . But now can the Bishops so convened be factious , can they be abused with prejudice , or transported with interests , can they resist the holy Ghost , can they extinguish the Spirit , can they stop their ears , and serve themselves upon the holy Spirit and the pretence of his assistances ; and cease to serve him upon themselves , by captivating their understandings to his dictates , and their wills to his precepts ? Is it necessary they should perform any condition ? is there any one duty for them to perform in these Assemblies , a duty which they have power to do or not to do ? If so , then they may fail of it , and not do their duty : And if the assistance of the holy Spirit be conditional , then we have no more assurance that they are assisted , than that they do their duty , and do not sin . 2. Now let us suppose what this duty is : Certainly , if the Gospel be hid , it is hid to them that are lost ; and all that come to the knowledge of the truth , must come to it by such means which are spiritual and holy dispositions , in order to a holy and spiritual end . They must be shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace , that is , they must have peaceable and docible dispositions , nothing with them that is violent , and resolute to encounter those gentle and sweet assistances : and the Rule they are to follow , is the Rule which the holy Spirit hath consigned to the Catholick Church , that is , the holy Scripture , either * intirely , or at least for the greater part of the Rule : So that now if the Bishops be factious and prepossessed with perswasions depending upon interest , it is certain they may judge amiss ; and if they recede from the Rule , it is certain they do judge amiss : And this I say upon their grounds who most advance the Authority of General Councils : For if a General Council may err if a Pope confirm it not , then most certainly if in any thing it recede from Scripture , it does also err ; because that they are to expect the Popes confirmation they offer to prove from Scripture : now if the Popes confirmation be required by authority of Scripture , and that therefore the defailance of it does evacuate the Authority of the Council , then also are the Councils Decrees invalid , if they recede from any other part of Scripture : So that Scripture is the Rule they are to follow , and a man would have thought it had been needless to have proved it , but that we are fallen into Ages in which no truth is certain , no reason concluding , nor is there any thing that can convince some men . For Stapleton with extream boldness against the piety of Christendom , against the publick sence of the ancient Church , and the practice of all pious Assemblies of Bishops affirms the Decrees of a Council to be binding , etiamsi non confirmetur ne probabilì testimonio Scripturarum : nay , though it be quite extra Scripturam , but all wise and good men have ever said that sence which Saint Hilary expressed in these words , Quae extra Evangelium sunt non defendam ; This was it which the good Emperour Constantine propounded to the Fathers met at Nice , Libri Evangelici , oracula Apostolorum , & veterum Prophetarum clarè nos instruunt quid sentiendum in Divinis . And this is confessed by a sober man of the Roman Church it self , the Cardinal of Cusa , Oportet quòd omnia talia quae legere debent , contineantur in Authoritatibus sacrarum Scripturarum : Now then all the advantage I shall take from hence , is this , That if the Apostles commended them who examined their Sermons by their conformity to the Law and the Prophets , and the men of Berea were accounted noble for searching the Scriptures , whether those things which they taught were so or no ; I suppose it will not be denied , but the Councils Decrees may also be tryed whether they be conform to Scripture yea or no ; and although no man can take cognisance and judge the Decrees of a Council pro Authoritate publicâ , yet pro informatione privatâ they may ; the Authority of a Council is not greater than the Authority of the Apostles , nor their dictates more sacred or authentick . Now then put case a Council should recede from Scripture ; whether or no were we bound to believe its Decrees ? I only ask the Question : For it were hard to be bound to believe what to our understanding seems contrary to that which we know to be the Word of God : But if we may lawfully recede from the Councils Decrees , in case they be contrariant to Scripture , it is all that I require in this Question . For if they be tyed to a Rule , then they are to be examined and understood according to the Rule , and then we are to give our selves that liberty of judgment which is requisite to distinguish us from beasts , and to put us into a capacity of reasonable people , following reasonable guides . But however , if it be certain that the Councils are to follow Scripture , then if it be notorious that they do recede from Scripture , we are sure we must obey God rather than men , and then we are well enough . For unless we are bound to shut our eyes , and not to look upon the Sun , if we may give our selves liberty to believe what seems most plain , and unless the Authority of a Council be so great a prejudice as to make us to do violence to our understanding , so as not to disbelieve the Decree , because it seems contrary to Scripture , but to believe it agrees with Scripture , though we know not how , therefore because the Council hath decreed it , unless I say we be bound in duty to be so obediently blind , and sottish , we are sure that there are some Councils which are pretended General , that have retired from the publick notorious words and sence of Scripture . For what wit of man can reconcile the Decree of the thirteenth Session of the Council of Constance with Scripture , in which Session the half Communion was decreed , in defiance of Scripture , and with a non obstante to Christs institution . For in the Preface of the Decree , Christs institution and the practice of the Primitive Church is expressed , and then with a non obstante , Communion in one kind is established . Now then suppose the non obstante in the form of words relates to the Primitive practice , yet since Christs institution was taken notice of in the first words of the Decree , and the Decree made quite contrary to it , let the non obstante relate whither it will , the Decree ( not to call it a defiance ) is a plain recession from the institution of Christ , and therefore the non obstante will refer to that without any sensible errour ; and indeed for all the excuses to the contrary , the Decree was not so discreetly framed , but that in the very form of words , the defiance and the non obstante is too plainly relative to the first words . For what sence can there be in the first licet else ? licet Christus in utraque specie , and licet Ecclesia Primitiva , &c. tamen hoc non obstante , &c. the first licet being a relative term , as well as the second licet , must be bounded with some correspondent . But it matters not much ; let them whom it concerns enjoy the benefit of all excuses they can imagine , it is certain Christs institution and the Councils sanction are as contrary as light and darkness . Is it possible for any man to contrive a way to make the Decree of the Council of Trent , commanding the publick Offices of the Church to be in Latine , friends with the fourteenth Chapter of the Corinthians ? It is not amiss to observe how the Hyperaspists of that Council sweat to answer the Allegations of St. Paul , and the wisest of them do it so extreamly poor , that it proclaims to all the world that the strongest man , that is , cannot eat Iron , or swallow a Rock . Now then , would it not be an unspeakable Tyranny to all wise persons , ( who as much hate to have their souls enslaved as their bodies imprisoned ) to command them to believe that these Decrees are agreeable to the word of God ? Upon whose understanding soever these are imposed , they may at the next Session reconcile them to a crime , and make any sin sacred , or perswade him to believe propositions contradictory to a Mathematical demonstration . All the Arguments in the World that can be brought to prove the infallibility of Councils , cannot make it so certain that they are infallible , as these two instances do prove infallibly that these were deceived , and if ever we may safely make use of our reason and consider whether Councils have erred or no , we cannot by any reason be more assured , that they have or have not , than we have in these particulars : so that either our reason is of no manner of use , in the discussion of this Question , and the thing it self is not at all to be disputed , or if it be , we are certain that these actually were deceived , and we must never hope for a clearer evidence in any dispute . And if these be , others might have been , if they did as these did , that is , depart from their Rule . And it was wisely said of Cusanus , Notandum est experimento rerum universale Concilium posse deficere : The experience of it is notorious , that Councils have erred : And all the Arguments against experience are but plain sophistry . 3. And therefore I make no scruple to slight the Decrees of such Councils , wherein the proceedings were as prejudicate and unreasonable , as in the Council wherein Abailardus was condemned , where the presidents having pronounced Damnamus , they at the lower end being awaked at the noise , heard the latter part of it , and concurred as far as Mnamus went , and that was as good as Damnamus , for if they had been awake at the pronouncing the whole word , they would have given sentence accordingly . But by this means Saint Bernard numbred the major part of voices against his Adversary Abailardus : And as far as these men did do their duty , the duty of Priests and Judges , and wise men ; so we may presume them to be assisted : But no further . But I am content this ( because but a private Assembly ) shall pass for no instance : But what shall we say of all the Arrian Councils celebrated with so great fancy , and such numerous Assemblies ? we all say that they erred . And it will not be sufficient to say they were not lawful Councils : For they were conven'd by that Authority which all the World knows did at that time convocate Councils , and by which ( as it is * confessed and is notorious ) the first eight Generals did meet , that is by the Authority of the Emperour all were called , and as many and more did come to them , than came to the most famous Council of Nice : So that the Councils were lawful , and if they did not proceed lawfully , and therefore did err , this is to say that Councils are then not deceived , when they doe their duty , when they judge impartially , when they decline interest , when they follow their Rule ; but this says also that it is not infallibly certain that they will doe so ; for these did not , and therefore the others may be deceived as well as these were . But another thing is in the wind ; for Councils not confirmed by the Pope , have no warrant that they shall not err , and they not being confirmed , therefore fail'd . But whether is the Popes confirmation after the Decree or before ? It cannot be supposed before ; for there is nothing to be confirmed till the Decree be made , and the Article composed . But if it be after , then possibly the Popes Decree may be requisite in solemnity of Law , and to make the Authority popular , publick and humane ; but the Decree is true or false before the Popes confirmation , and is not at all altered by the supervening Decree , which being postnate to the Decree , alters not what went before , Nunquam enim crescit ex postfacto praeteriti aestimatio , is the voice both of Law and reason . So that it cannot make it divine , and necessary to be heartily believed . It may make it lawful , not make it true , that is , it may possibly by such means become a Law but not a truth . I speak now upon supposition the Popes confirmation were necessary , and required to the making of conciliary and necessary sanctions . But if it were , the case were very hard : For suppose a heresy should invade , and possess the Chair of Rome , what remedy can the Church have in that case , if a General Council be of no Authority without the Pope confirm it ? will the Pope confirm a Council against himself ; will he condemn his own heresie ? That the Pope may be an Heretick appears in the * Canon Law , which says he may for heresie be deposed , and therefore by a Council which in this case hath plenary Authority without the Pope . And therefore in the Synod at Rome held under Pope Adrian the Second , the Censure of the Sixth Synod against Honorius who was convict of heresie , is approved with this Appendix , that in this case , the case of heresie , minores possint de majoribus judicare : And therefore if a Pope were above a Council , yet when the Question is concerning heresie , the case is altered ; the Pope may be judged by his inferiours , who in this case , which is the main case of all , become his Superiours . And it is little better than impudence to pretend that all Councils were confirmed by the Pope , or that there is a necessity in respect of divine obligation , that any should be confirmed by him , more than by another of the Patriarchs . For the Council of Chalcedon it self one of those four which Saint Gregory did revere next to the four Evangelists , is rejected by Pope Leo , who in his 53. Epistle to Anatolius , and in his 54. to Martian , and in his 55. to Pulcheria , accuses it of ambition and inconsiderate temerity , and therefore no fit Assembly for the habitation of the holy Spirit , and Gelasius in his Tome de vinculo Anathematis , affirms that the Council is in part to be received , in part to be rejected , and compares it to heritical books of a mixt matter , and proves his assertion by the place of St. Paul , Omnia probate , quod bonum est retinete . And Bellarmine sayes the same ; In Concilio Chalcedonensi quaedam sunt bona , quaedam mala , quaedam recipienda , quaedam rejicienda ; ita & in libris haereticorun , and if any thing be false , then all is Questionable , and judicable & discernable , and not infallible antecedently . And however , that Council hath ex postfacto , and by the voluntary consenting of after Ages obtained great reputation ; yet they that lived immediately after it , that observed all the circumstances of the thing , and the disabilities of the persons and the uncertainty of the truth of its decrees , by reason of the unconcludingness of the Arguments brought to attest it , were of another mind , Quod autem ad Concilium Chalcedonense attinet , illud id temporis ( viz. Anastasii Imp. ) neque palam in Ecclesiis sanctissimis praedicatum fuit neque ab omnibus rejectum , nam singuli Ecclesiarum praesides pro suo arbitratu in ea re egerunt . And so did all men in the world that were not Master'd with prejudices and undone in their understanding with accidental impertinencies ; they judged upon those grounds which they had and saw , and suffered not themselves to be bound to the imperious dictates of other men , who are as uncertain in their determinations as other in their questions . And it is an evidence that there is some deception , and notable errour either in the thing or in the manner of their proceeding , when the Decrees of a Council shall have no authoritie from the Compilers , nor no strength from the reasonableness of the Decision , but from the accidental approbation of Posteritie : And if Posteritie had pleased , Origen had believed well and been an Orthodox person . And it was pretty sport to see that Papias was right for two Ages together , and wrong ever since ; and just so it was in Councils , particularly in this of Chalcedon , that had a fate alterable according to the Age , and according to the Climate , which to my understanding is nothing else but an Argument that the business of infallibility is a latter device , and commenced to serve such ends as cannot be justified by true and substantial grounds , and that the Pope should confirm it as of necessity , is a fit cover for the same dish . 4. In the sixth General Council , Honorius Pope of Rome was condemned ; did that Council stay for the Popes Confirmation before they sent forth the Decree ? Certainly they did not think it so needful , as that they would have suspended or cassated the Decree , in case the Pope had then disavowed it : For besides the condemnation of Pope Honorius for Heresie , the 13. and 55. Canons of that Council are expressely against the custome of the Church of Rome . But this particular is involved in that new Question , whether the Pope be above a Council . Now since the Contestation of this Question , there was never any free or lawful Council that determined for the Pope , it is not likely any should , and is it likely that any Pope will confirm a Council that does not ? For the Council of Basil is therefore condemned by the last Lateran which was an Assembly in the Popes own Palace , * and the Council of Constance is of no value in this Question , and slighted in a just proportion , as that Article is disbelieved . But I will not much trouble the Question with a long consideration of this particular ; the pretence is senceless and illiterate , against reason and experience , and already determined by Saint Austin sufficiently as to this particular , Ecce putemus illos Episcopos qui Romae judicaverunt non bonos judices fuisse . Restabat adhuc plenarium Ecclesiae universae Concilium , ubi etiam cum ipsis judicibus causa possit agitari , ut si male judicasse convicti essent , eorum sententiae solverentur . For since Popes may be parties , may be Simoniacks , Schismaticks , Hereticks , it is against reason that in their own causes they should be Judges , or that in any causes they should be Superiour to their Judges . And as it is against reason , so is it against all experience too ; for the Council Sinvessanum ( as it is said ) was conven'd to take Cognisance of Pope Marcellinus ; and divers Councils were held at Rome to give judgment in the causes of Damasus , Sixtus the III. Symmachus , and Leo III. and IV. as is to be seen in Platina , and the Tomes of the Councils . And it is no answer to this and the like allegations to say in matters of fact and humane constitution , the Pope may be judged by a Council , but in matters of Faith all the world must stand to the Popes determination and authoritative decision : For if the Pope can by any colour pretend to any thing , it is to a supreme Judicature in matters Ecclesiastical , positive and of fact ; and if he fails in this pretence , he will hardly hold up his head for any thing else : for the ancient Bishops derived their Faith from the fountain , and held that in the highest tenure , even from Christ their Head ; but by reason of the Imperial * City it became the principal Seat , and he surprized the highest Judicature , partly by the concession of others , partly by his own accidental advantages ; and yet even in these things although he was major singulis , yet he was minor universis . And this is no more then what was decreed of the eighth General Synod ; which if it be sense , is pertinent to this Question : for General Councils are appointed to take Cognizance of Questions and differences about the Bishop of Rome , non tamen audacter in eum ferre sententiam . By audacter , as is supposed , is meant praecipitanter , hastily and unreasonably : but if to give sentence against him be wholly forbidden , it is non-sense ; for to what purpose is an Authority of taking Cognizance , if they have no power of giving sentence , unless it were to defer it to a superiour judge , which in this case cannot be supposed ? For either the Pope himself is to judge his own cause after their examination of him , or the General Council is to judge him . So that although the Council is by that Decree enjoyned to proceed modestly and warily , yet they may proceed to sentence , or else the Decree is ridiculous and impertinent . 5. But to clear all , I will instance in matters of Question and opinion : For not onely some Councils have made their Decrees without or against the Pope , but some Councils have had the Pope's confirmation , and yet have not been the more legitimate or obligatory , but are known to be heretical . For the Canons of the sixth Synod , although some of them were made against the Popes , and the custome of the Church of Rome , a Pope a while after did confirm the Council ; and yet the Canons are impious and hereticall , and so esteemed by the Church of Rome herself . I instance in the second Canon , which approves of that Synod of Carthage under Cyprian for rebaptization of Hereticks , and the 72. Canon , that dissolves marriage between persons of differing perswasion in matters of Christian Religion ; and yet these Canons were approved by Pope Adrian I. who in his Epistle to Tharasius , which is in the second Action of the seventh Synod , calls them Canones divinè & legaliter praedicatos . And these Canons were used by Pope Nicolas I. in his Epistle ad Michaelem , and by Innocent III. c. à multis : extra . de aetat . ordinandorum . So that now ( that we may apply this ) there are seven General Councils which by the Church of Rome are condemn'd of errour . The * Council of Antioch , A. D. 345. in which Saint Athanasius was condemned : The Council of Millan , A. D. 354. of above 300 Bishops : The Council of Ariminum , consisting of 600 Bishops : The second Council of Ephesus , A. D. 449. in which the Eutychian heresie was confirmed , and the Patriarch Flavianus kill'd by the faction of Dioscorus : The Council of Constantinople under Leo Isaurus , A. D. 730 : And another at Constantinople 35 years after : And lastly , the Council at Pisa , 134 years since . Now that these General Councils are condemned , is a sufficient Argument that Councils may erre : and it is no answer to say they were not confirmed by the Pope ; for the Pope's confirmation I have shewn not to be necessary ; or if it were , yet even that also is an Argument that General Councils may become invalid , either by their own fault , or by some extrinsecall supervening accident , either of which evacuates their Authority . And whether all that is required to the legitimation of a Council was actually observ'd in any Council , is so hard to determine , that no man can be infallibly sure that such a Council is authentick and sufficient probation . 6. Secondly , And that is the second thing I shall observe , There are so many Questions concerning the efficient , the form , the matter of General Councils , and their manner of proceeding , and their final sanction , that after a Question is determined by a Conciliary Assembly , there are perhaps twenty more Questions to be disputed before we can with confidence either believe the Council upon its mere Authority , or obtrude it upon others . And upon this ground , how easie it is to elude the pressure of an Argument drawn from the Authority of a General Council , is very remarkable in the Question about the Pope's or the Council's Superiority : which Question although it be defined for the Council against the Pope by five General Councils , the Council of Florence , of Constance , of Basil , of Pisa , and one of the Laterans ; yet the Jesuites to this day account this Question pro non definita , and have rare pretences for their escape . As first , It is true , a Council is above a Pope , in case there be no Pope , or he uncertain : which is Bellarmin's answer , never considering whether he spake sense or no , nor yet remembring that the Council of Basil deposed Eugenius , who was a true Pope and so acknowledged . Secondly , sometimes the Pope did not confirm these Councils : that 's their Answer . And although it was an exception that the Fathers never thought of , when they were pressed with the Authority of the Council of Ariminum or Sirmium , or any other Arrian Convention ; yet the Council of Basil was conven'd by Pope Martin V. then , in its sixteenth Session , declared by Eugenius the IV. to be lawfully continued , and confirmed expresly in some of its Decrees by Pope Nicolas , and so stood till it was at last rejected by Leo the X. very many years after ; but that came too late , and with too visible an interest : and this Council did decree fide Catholicâ tenendum Concilium esse supra Papam . But if one Pope confirms it , and another rejects it , as it happened in this case and in many more , does it not destroy the competency of the Authority ? and we see it by this instance , that it so serves the turns of men , that it is good in some cases , that is , when it makes for them , and invalid when it makes against them . Thirdly , but it is a little more ridiculous in the case of the Council of Constance , whose Decrees were confirmed by Martin V. But that this may be no Argument against them , Bellarmine tells you he onely confirmed those things quae facta fuerant Conciliariter , re diligenter examinatâ : of which there being no mark , nor any certain Rule to judge it , it is a device that may evacuate any thing we have a mind to , it was not done Conciliariter , that is , not according to our mind ; for Conciliariter is a fine new-nothing , that may signifie what you please . Fourthly , but other devices yet more pretty they have : As , Whether the Council of Lateran was a General Council or no , they know not , ( no , nor will not know : ) which is a wise and plain reservation of their own advantages , to make it General or not General , as shall serve their turns . Fifthly , as for the Council of Florence , they are not sure whether it hath defined the Question satìs apertè ; apertè they will grant , if you will allow them not satìs aperté . Sixthly and lastly , the Council of Pisa is neque approbatum neque reprobatum : which is the greatest folly of all and most prodigious vanity . So that by something or other , either they were not convened lawfully , or they did not proceed Conciliariter , or 't is not certain that the Council was General or no , or whether the Council were approbatum or reprobatum , or else it is partim confirmatum partim reprobatum , or else it is neque approbatum neque reprobatum ; by one of these ways , or a device like to these , all Councils and all Decrees shall be made to signifie nothing , and to have no Authority . 7. Thirdly , There is no General Council that hath determined that a General Council is infallible ; no Scripture hath recorded it ; no Tradition universal hath transmitted to us any such proposition : So that we must receive the Authority at a lower rate , and upon a less probability then the things consigned by that Authority . And it is strange that the Decrees of Councils should be esteemed authentick and infallible , and yet it is not infallibly certain that the Councils themselves are infallible , because the belief of the Councils infallibility is not proved to us by any medium but such as may deceive us . 8. Fourthly , But the best instance that Councils are , some , and may all , be deceived , is the contradiction of one Council to another : for in that case both cannot be true , and which of them is true , must belong to another judgment , which is less then the solennity of a General Council ; and the determination of this matter can be of no greater certainty after it is concluded , then when it was propounded as a Question , being it is to be determined by the same Authority , or by a less then it self . But for this allegation we cannot want instances . The Council of Trent allows picturing of God the Father : The Council of Nice altogether disallows it . The same Nicene Council , which was the seventh General , allows of picturing Christ in the form of a Lamb : But the sixth Synod by no means will indure it , as Caranza affirms . The Council of Neocaesarea confirmed by Leo IV. dist . 20. de libellis , and approved by the first Nicene Council , as it is said in the seventh Session of the Council of Florence , forbids second Marriages , and imposes Penances on them that are married the second time , forbidding Priests to be present at such Marriage-Feasts : Besides that this is expresly against the Doctrine of Saint Paul , it is also against the Doctrine of the Council of Laodicea which took off such Penances , and pronounced second Marriages to be free and lawfull . Nothing is more discrepant then the third Council of Carthage , and the Council of Laodicea , about assignation of the Canon of Scripture ; and yet the sixth General Synod approves both . And I would fain know if all General Councils are of the same mind with the Fathers of the Council of Carthage , who reckon into the Canon five Books of Solomon . I am sure Saint Austin reckoned but three , and I think all Christendom beside are of the same opinion . And if we look into the title of the Law de Conciliis , called Concordantia discordantiarum , we shall finde instances enough to confirm that the Decrees of some Councils are contradictory to others , and that no wit can reconcile them . And whether they did or no , that they might disagree , and former Councils be corrected by later , was the belief of the Doctors in those Ages in which the best and most famous Councils were convened ; as appears in that famous saying of S. Austin , speaking concerning the rebaptizing of Hereticks , and how much the Africans were deceived in that Question , he answers the Allegation of the Bishops Letters , and chose National Councils which confirmed S. Cyprian's opinion , by saying that they were no final determination . For Episcoporum literae emendari possunt à Conciliis nationalibus , Concilia nationalia à plenariis , ipsáque plenaria priora à posterioribus emendari . Not onely the occasion of the Question , being a matter not of fact , but of Faith , as being instanced in the Question of rebaptization , but also the very fabrick and oeconomy of the words , put by all the answers of all those men who think themselves pressed with the Authority of S. Austin . For as National Councils may correct the Bishops Letters , and General Councils may correct National , so the later General may correct the former , that is , have contrary and better Decrees of manners , and better determinations in matters of faith . And from hence hath risen a Question , Whether is to be received , the former or the later Councils , in case they contradict each other ? The former are nearer the fountains Apostolicall , the later are of greater consideration : The first have more Authority , the later more reason : The first are more venerable , the later more inquisitive and seeing . And now what rule shall we have to determine our beliefs whether to Authority , or Reason , the Reason and the Authority both of them not being the highest in their kind , both of them being repudiable , and at most but probable ? And here it is that this great uncertainty is such as not to determine any body , but fit to serve every body : and it is sport to see that Bellarmine will by all means have the Council of Carthage preferred before the Council of Laodicea , because it is later ; and yet he prefers the second Nicene * Council before the Council of Frankfurt , because it is elder . S. Austin would have the former Generals to be mended by the later ; but Isidore in Gratian saies , when Councils do differ , standum esse antiquioribus , the elder must carry it . And indeed these probables are buskins to serve every foot , and they are like magnum & parvum , they have nothing of their own , all that they have is in comparison of others : so these Topicks have nothing of resolute and dogmaticall truth , but in relation to such ends as an interessed person hath a minde to serve upon them . 9. Fifthly , There are many Councils corrupted , and many pretended and alledged when there were no such things , both which make the Topick of the Authority of Councils to be little and inconsiderable . There is a Council brought to light in the edition of Councils by Binius , viz. Sinuessanum , pretended to be kept in the year 303. but it was so private till then , that we find no mention of it in any ancient Record : Neither Eusebius , nor Ruffinus , S. Hierom , nor Socrates , Sozomen , nor Theodoret , nor Eutropius , nor Bede knew any thing of it ; and the eldest allegation of it is by Pope Nicolas I. in the ninth Century . And he that shall consider that 300 Bishops in the midst of horrid Persecutions ( for so then they were ) are pretended to have conven'd , will need no greater Argument to suspect the imposture . Besides , he that was the framer of the engine did not lay his ends together handsomly : for it is said that the deposition of Marcellinus by the Synod was told to Diocletian when he was in the Persian War , when as it is known before that time he had returned to Rome , and triumphed for his Persian Conquest , as Eusebius in his Chronicle reports : and this is so plain , that Binius and Baronius pretend the Text to be corrupted , and to go to * mend it by such an emendation as is a plain contradiction to the sense , and that so un-clerk-like , viz. by putting in two words , and leaving out one ; which whether it may be allowed them by any licence less then Poetical , let Criticks judge . a S. Gregory saith that the Constantinopolitans had corrupted the Synod of Chalcedon , and that he suspected the same concerning the Ephesine Council . And in the fifth Synod there was a notorious prevarication , for there were false Epistles of Pope Vigilius and Menna the Patriarch of Constantinople inserted , and so they passed for authentick till they were discovered in the sixth General Synod , Actions the 12. and 14. And not onely false Decrees and Actions may creep into the Codes of Councils ; but sometimes the authority of a learned man may abuse the Church with pretended Decrees , of which there is no Copy or shadow in the Code itself . And thus Thomas Aquinas says that the Epistle to the Hebrews was reckoned in the Canon by the Nicene Council , no shadow of which appears in those Copies we now have of it : and this pretence and the reputation of the man prevailed so far with Melchior Canus , the learned Bishop of the Canaries , that he believed it upon this ground , Vir sanctus rem adeò gravem non astrueret , nisi compertum habuisset : and there are many things which have prevailed upon less reason , and a more slight Authority . And that very Council of Nice hath not onely been pretended by Aquinas , but very much abused by others , and its Authority and great reputation hath made it more liable to the fraud and pretences of idle people . For whereas the Nicene Fathers made but twenty Canons , ( for so many and no more were received by a Cecilian of Carthage , that was at Nice in the Council , by Saint b Austin , and 200 African Bishops with him , by Saint c Cyril of Alexandria , by d Atticus of Constantinople , by Ruffinus , e Isidore , and Theodoret , as f Baronius witnesses ; ) yet there are fourscore lately found out in an Arabian MS. and published in Latine by Turrian and Alfonsus of Pisa , Jesuites surely , and like to be masters of the mint . And not onely the Canons , but the very Acts of the Nicene Council are false and spurious , and are so confessed by Baronius ; though how he and g Lindanus will be reconciled upon the point , I neither know well nor much care . Now if one Council be corrupted , we see by the instance of S. Gregory that another may be suspected , and so all : because he found the Council of Chalcedon corrupted , he suspected also the Ephesine , and another might have suspected more , for the Nicene was tampered foully with ; and so three of the four Generals were sullied and made suspicious , and therefore we could not be secure of any . If false Acts be inserted in one Council , who can trust the actions of any , unless he had the keeping the Records himself , or durst swear for the Register ? And if a very learned man ( as Thomas Aquinas was ) did either wilfully deceive us , or was himself ignorantly abused , in Allegation of a Canon which was not , it is but a very fallible Topick at the best , and the most holy man that is may be abused himself , and the wisest may deceive others . 10. Sixthly and lastly , To all this and to the former instances , by way of Corollary , I adde some more particulars in which it is notorious that Councils General and National , that is , such as were either General by Original , or by adoption into the Canon of the Catholick Church , did erre , and were actually deceived . The first Council of Toledo admits to the Communion him that hath a Concubine , so he have no wife besides : and this Council is approved by Pope Leo in the 92. Epistle to Rusticus Bishop of Narbona . Gratian saies that the Council means by a Concubine , a wise married sine dote & solennitate ; but this is dawbing with untempered morter . For though it was a custome amongst the Jews to distinguish Wives from their Concubines , by Dowry and legal Solennities , yet the Christian distinguished them no otherwise then as lawfull and unlawfull , then as Chastity and Fornication . And besides , if by a Concubine is meant a lawfull wife without a Dowry , to what purpose should the Council make a Law that such a one might be admitted to the Communion ? for I suppose it was never thought to be a Law of Christianity , that a man should have a Portion with his Wife , nor he that married a poor Virgin should deserve to be Excommunicate . So that Gratian and his Followers are prest so with this Canon , that to avoid the impiety of it , they expound it to a signification without sense or purpose . But the business then was , that Adultery was so publick and notorious a practice , that the Council did chuse rather to endure simple Fornication , that by such permission of a less , they might slacken the publick custome of a greater ; just as at Rome they permit Stews , to prevent unnatural sins . But that by a publick sanction Fornicators , habitually and notoriously such , should be admitted to the holy Communion , was an act of Priests so unfit for Priests , that no excuse can make it white or clean . The Council of Wormes does authorize a superstitious custom at that time too much used , of discovering stolen goods by the holy Sacrament , which a Aquinas justly condemns for Superstition . The b sixth Synod separates persons lawfully married upon an accusation and crime of heresie . The Roman Council under c Pope Nicolas II. defin'd that not onely the Sacrament of Christ's body , but the very body itself of our blessed Saviour is handled and broke by the hands of the Priest , and chewed by the teeth of the Communicants : which is a manifest errour derogatory from the truth of Christ's beatificall Resurrection , and glorification in the Heavens , and disavowed by the Church of Rome it self . But Bellarmine , that answers all the Arguments in the world , whether it be possible or not possible , would fain make the matter fair , and the Decree tolerable ; for , says he , the Decree means that the body is broken , not in it self , but in the sign ; and yet the Decree sayes , that not onely the Sacrament , ( which , if any thing be , is certainly the sign ) but the very body it self is broken and champed with hands and teeth respectively : which indeed was nothing but a plain over-acting the Article in contradiction to Berengarius . And the answer of Bellarmine is not sense ; for he denies that the body it self is broken in it self , ( that was the errour we charged upon the Roman Synod ) and the sign abstracting from the body is not broken , ( for that was the opinion that Council condemn'd in Berengarius : ) but , says Bellarmine , the body in the sign . What 's that ? for neither the sign , nor the body , nor both together are broken . For if either of them distinctly , they either rush upon the errour which the Roman Synod condemn'd in Berengarius , or upon that which they would fain excuse in Pope Nicolas : but if both are broken , then 't is true to affirm it of either , and then the Council is blasphemous in saying that Christ's glorified body is passible and frangible by natural manducation . So that it is and it is not , it is not this way , and yet it is no way else , but it is some way , and they know not how , and the Council spake blasphemy , but it must be made innocent ; and therefore it was requisite a cloud of a distinction should be raised , that the unwary Reader might be amused , and the Decree scape untoucht : but the truth is , they that undertake to justifie all that other men say , must be more subtle then they that said it , and must use such distinctions which possibly the first Authours did not understand . But I will multiply no more instances , for what instance soever I shall bring , some or other will be answering it ; which thing is so far from satisfying me in the particulars , that it encreases the difficulty in the general , and satisfies me in my first belief . For * if no Decrees of Councils can make against them , though they seem never so plain against them , then let others be allowed the same liberty , ( and there is all the reason in the world they should ) and no Decree shall conclude against any Doctrine that they have already entertained : and by this means the Church is no fitter instrument to decree Controversies then the Scripture it self , there being as much obscurity and disputing in the sense , and the manner , and the degree , and the competency , and the obligation of the Decree of a Council , as of a place of Scripture . And what are we the nearer for a Decree , if any Sophister shall think his elusion enough to contest against the Authority of a Council ? yet this they do that pretend highest for their Authority : which consideration or some like it might possibly make Gratian prefer S. Hierom's single Testimony before a whole Council , because he had Scripture on his side , which says that the Authority of Councils is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and that Councils may possibly recede from their Rule , from Scripture : and in that which indeed was the case , a single person proceeding according to Rule is a better Argument : so saith Panormitan , In concernentibus fidem etiam dictum unius privati esset dicto Papae aut totius Concilii praeferendum , si ille moveretur melioribus Argumentis . 11. I end this Discourse with representing the words of Gregory Nazianzen in his Epistle to Procopius ; Ego , si vera scribere oportet , ità animo assect us sum , ut omnia Episcoporum Concilia fugiam , quoniam nullius Concilii sinem laetum faustúmque vidi , nec quod depulsionem malorum potiùs quàm accessionem & incrementum habuerit . But I will not be so severe and dogmaticall against them : ●or I believe many Councils to have been call'd with sufficient Authoritie , to have been managed with singular piety and prudence , and to have been finished with admirable successe and truth . And where we find such Councils , he that will not with all veneration believe their Decrees , and receive their Sanctions , understands not that great duty he owes to them who have the care of our souls , whose faith we are bound to follow , ( saith Saint Paul ) that is , so long as they follow Christ : and certainly many Councils have done so . But this was then when the publick interest of Christendome was better conserv'd in determining a true Article , then in finding a discreet temper or a wise expedient to satisfie disagreeing persons . ( As the Fathers at Trent did , and the Lutherans and Calvinists did at Sendomir in Polonia , and the Sublapsarians and Supralapsarians did at Dort. ) It was in Ages when the summe of Religion did not consist in maintaining the Grandezza of the Papacy ; where there was no order of men with a fourth Vow upon them to advance Saint Peter's Chair ; when there was no man , nor any company of men that esteem'd themselves infallible : and therefore they searched for truth as if they meant to find it , and would believe it if they could see it proved , not resolved to prove it because they had upon chance or interest believed it ; then they had rather have spoken a truth , then upheld their reputation , but onely in order to truth . This was done sometimes , and when it was done , God's Spirit never fail'd them , but gave them such assistances as were sufficient to that good end for which they were assembled , and did implore his aid . And therefore it is that the four General Councils so called by way of eminency have gained so great a reputation above all others , not because they had a better promise , or more special assistances , but because they proceeded better according to the Rule , with less faction , without ambition and temporal ends . 12. And yet those very Assemblies of Bishops had no Authority by their Decrees to make a Divine Faith , or to constitute new objects of necessary Credence ; they made nothing true that was not so before , and therefore they are to be apprehended in the nature of excellent Guides , and whose Decrees are most certainly to determine all those who have no Argument to the contrary of greater force and efficacy then the Authoritie or reasons of the Council . And there is a duty owing to every Parish Priest , and to every Diocesan Bishop ; these are appointed over us and to answer for our souls , and are therefore morally to guide us , as reasonable Creatures are to be guided , that is , by reason and discourse : For in things of judgement and understanding , they are but in form next above Beasts that are to be ruled by the imperiousness and absoluteness of Authority , unless the Authority be divine , that is , infallible . Now then in a juster height , but still in its true proportion , Assemblies of Bishops are to guide us with a higher Authority , because in reason it is supposed they will do it better , with more Argument and certainty , and with Decrees , which have the advantage by being the results of many discourses of very wise and good men . But that the Authority of General Councils was never esteemed absolute , infallible and unlimited , appears in this , that before they were obliging , it was necessary that each particular Church respectively should accept them , Concurrente universali totius Ecclesiae consensu , &c. in declaratione veritatum quae credenda sunt , &c. That 's the way of making the Decrees of Councils become authentick , and be turn'd into a Law , as Gerson observes ; and till they did , their Decrees were but a dead letter : ( and therefore it is that these later Popes have so laboured that the Council of Trent should be received in France ; and Carolus Molineus a great Lawyer , and of the Roman Communion , disputed * against the reception . ) And this is a known condition in the Canon Law , but it proves plainly that the Decrees of Councils have their Authority from the voluntary submission of the particular Churches , not from the prime sanction and constitution of the Council . And there is great Reason it should : for as the representative body of the Church derives all power from the diffusive body which is represented , so it resolves into it , and though it may have all the legal power , yet it hath not all the natural ; for more able men may be unsent , then sent ; and they who are sent may be wrought upon by stratagem , which cannot happen to the whole diffusive Church . It is therefore most fit that since the legal power , that is , the externall , was passed over to the body representative , yet the efficacy of it and the internall should so still remain in the diffusive , as to have power to consider whether their representatives did their duty yea or no , and so to proceed accordingly . For unless it be in matters of justice , in which the interest of a third person is concern'd , no man will or can be supposed to pass away all power from himself of doing himself right , in matters personall , proper , and of so high concernment : It is most unnatural and unreasonable . But besides that they are excellent instruments of peace , the best humane Judicatories in the world , rare Sermons for the determining a point in Controversie , and the greatest probability from humane Authority , besides these advantages ( I say ) I know nothing greater that general Councils can pretend to with reason and Argument sufficient to satisfie any wise man. And as there was never any Council so general , but it might have been more general ; for in respect of the whole Church , even Nice it self was but a small Assembly ; so there is no Decree so well constituted , but it may be prov'd by an Argument higher then the Authority of the Council : And therefore general Councils , and National , and Provinciall , and Diocesan , in their severall degrees , are excellent Guides for the Prophets , and directions and instructions for their Prophesyings ; but not of weight and Authority to restrain their Liberty so wholly , but that they may dissent when they see a reason strong enough so to persuade them , as to be willing upon the confidence of that reason and their own sincerity , to answer to God for such their modesty , and peaceable , but ( as they believe ) their necessary disagreeing . SECT . VII . Of the Fallibility of the Pope , and the uncertainty of his Expounding Scripture , and resolving Questions . 1. BUT since the Question between the Council and the Pope grew high , there have not wanted abettors so confident on the Pope's behalf , as to believe General Councils to be nothing but Pomps and Solemnities of the Catholick Church , and that all the Authority of determining Controversies is formally and effectually in the Pope . And therefore to appeal from the Pope to a future Council is a heresie , yea , and Treason too , said Pope Pius II. and therefore it concerns us now to be wise and wary . But before I proceed , I must needs remember that Pope Pius II. while he was the wise and learned Aeneas Sylvius , was very confident for the preeminence of a Council , and gave a merry reason why more Clerks were for the Popes then the Council , though the truth was on the other side , even because the Pope gives Bishopricks and Abbeys , but Councils give none : and yet as soon as he was made Pope , as if he had been inspired , his eyes were open to see the great priviledges of S. Peter's Chair , which before he could not see , being amused with the truth , or else with the reputation of a General Council . But however , there are many that hope to make it good , that the Pope is the Universal and the Infallible Doctor , that he breaths Decrees as Oracles , that to dissent from any of his Cathedral determinations is absolute heresie , the Rule of Faith being nothing else but conformity to the Chair of Peter . So that here we have met a restraint of Prophecy indeed : but yet to make amends , I hope we shall have an infallible Guide ; and when a man is in Heaven , he will never complain that his choice is taken from him , and that he is confin'd to love and to admire , since his love and his admiration is fixt upon that which makes him happy , even upon God himself . And in the Church of Rome there is in a lower degree , but in a true proportion , as little cause to be troubled that we are confin'd to believe just so , and no choice left us for our understandings to discover , or our wills to chuse , because though we be limited , yet we are pointed out where we ought to rest , we are confin'd to our Center , and there where our understandings will be satisfied , and therefore will be quiet , and where after all our strivings , studies and endeavours we desire to come , that is , to truth ; for there we are secur'd to finde it , because we have a Guide that is infallible . If this prove true , we are well enough . But if it be false or uncertain , it were better we had still kept our liberty , then be couzened out of it with gay pretences . This then we must consider . 2. And here we shall be oppressed with a cloud of Witnesses : For what more plain then the Commission given to Peter ? Thou art Peter , and upon this Rock will I build my Church . And , to thee will I give the Keys . And again , For thee have I prayed that thy faith fail not ; but thou when thou art converted confirm thy brethren . And again , If thou lovest me , feed my sheep . Now nothing of this being spoken to any of the other Apostles , by one of these places S. Peter must needs be appointed Foundation or Head of the Church , and by consequence he is to rule and govern all . By some other of these places he is made the supreme Pastor , and he is to teach and determine all , and enabled with an infallible power so to do . And in a right understanding of these Authorities , the Fathers speak great things of the Chair of Peter ; for we are as much bound to believe that all this was spoken to Peter's successors , as to his Person ; that must by all means be supposed , and so did the old Doctors , who had as much certainty of it as we have , and no more : but yet let 's hear what they have said . a To this Church , by reason of its more powerfull principality , it is necessary all Churches round about should Convene . — In this , Tradition Apostolical always was observed , and therefore to communicate with this Bishop , with this * Church , was to be in Communion with the Church Catholick . — b To this Church errour or perfidiousness cannot have access . — c Against this See the gates of Hell cannot prevail . — d For we know this Church to be built upon a Rock . — And whoever eats the Lamb not within this House , is prophane ; he that is not in the Ark of Noah perishes in the inundation of waters . He that gathers not with this Bishop , he scatters ; and he that belongeth not to Christ , must needs belong to Antichrist . And that 's his final sentence . But if you would have all this proved by an infallible Argument , e Optatus of Milevis in Africa supplies it to us from the very name of Peter : For therefore Christ gave him the cognomination of Cephas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to shew that S. Peter was the visible Head of the Catholick Church . Dignum patellâ operculum ! This long harangue must needs be full of tragedy to all them that take liberty to themselves to follow Scripture and their best Guides , if it happens in that liberty that they depart from the perswasions of the Communion of Rome . But indeed , if with the peace of the Bishops of Rome I may say it , this Scene is the most unhandsomly laid , and the worst carried , of any of those pretences that have lately abused Christendome . 3. First , Against the Allegations of Scripture I shall lay no greater prejudice then this , that if a person dis-interested should see them , and consider what the products of them might possibly be , the last thing that he would think of would be how that any of these places should serve the ends or pretences of the Church of Rome . For to instance in one of the particulars , that man had need have a strong fancy who imagines that because Christ prayed for S. Peter , that ( being he had design'd him to be one of those upon whose preaching and Doctrine he did mean to constitute a Church ) his faith might not fail , ( for it was necessary that no bitterness or stopping should be in one of the first springs , lest the current be either spoil'd or obstructed ) that therefore the faith of Pope Alexander VI. or Gregory , or Clement , 1500 years after , should be preserved by virtue of that prayer , which the form of words , the time , the occasion , the manner of the address , the effect it self , and all the circumstances of the action and person did determine to be personal . And when it was more then personal , S. Peter did not represent his Successors at Rome , but the whole Catholick Church , say Aquinas and the Divines of the University of Paris . Volunt enim pro sola Ecclesia esse oratum , says Bellarmine of them : and the gloss upon the Canon Law plainly denies the effect of this prayer at all to appertain to the Pope ; Quaere de qua Ecclesia intelligas quod hîc dicitur quòd non possit errare : an de ipso Papa qui Ecclesia dicitur ? sed certum est quòd Papa errare potest — Respondeo , ipsa Congregatio fidelium hîc dicitur Ecclesia , & talis Ecclesia non potest non esse , nam ipse Dominus orat pro Ecclesia , & voluntate labiorum suorum non fraudabitur . But there is a little danger in this Argument when we well consider it ; but it is likely to redound on the head of them whose turns it should serve . For it may be remembred that for all this prayer of Christ for S. Peter , the good man fell foully , and denied his Master shamefully : And shall Christ's prayer be of greater efficacy for his Successors , for whom it was made but indirectly and by consequence , then for himself , for whom it was directly and in the first intention ? And if not , then for all this Argument , the Popes may deny Christ as well as their chief predecessor Peter . But it would not be forgotten how the Roman Doctors will by no means allow that S. Peter was then the chief Bishop or Pope , when he denied his Master . But then much less was he chosen chief Bishop when the prayer was made for him , because the prayer was made before his fall ; that is , before that time in which it is confessed he was not as yet made Pope : And how then the whole Succession of the Papacy should be entitled to it , passes the length of my hand to span . But then also if it be supposed and allowed , that these words shall intail infallibility upon the Chair of Rome , why shall not also all the Apostolical Sees be infallible as well as Rome ? why shall not Constantinople or Byzantium where S. Andrew sate ? why shall not Ephesus where S. John sate ? or Jerusalem where S. James sate ? for Christ prayed for them all , ut Pater sanctificaret eos suâ veritate , Joh. 17. 4. Secondly , For [ tibi dabo claves ] was it personal or not ? If it were , then the Bishops of Rome have nothing to do with it : If it were not , then by what Argument will it be made evident that S. Peter in the promise represented onely his Successors , and not the whole Colledge of Apostles , and the whole Hierarchy ? For if S. Peter was chief of the Apostles , and Head of the Church , he might fair enough be the representative of the whole Colledge , and receive it in their right as well as his own : which also is certain that it was so , for the same promise of binding and loosing ( which certainly was all that the Keys were given for ) was made afterward to all the Apostles , Matt. 18. and the power of remitting and retaining ( which in reason and according to the style of the Church is the same thing in other words ) was actually given to all the Apostles : and unless that was the performing the first and second promise , we find it not recorded in Scripture how or when , or whether yet or no , the promise be performed . That promise I say which did not pertain to Peter principally and by origination , and to the rest by Communication , society and adherence , but that promise which was made to Peter first , but not for himself , but for all the Colledge , and for all their Successors , and then made the second time to them all , without representation , but in diffusion , and perform'd to all alike in presence except S. Thomas . And if he went to S. Peter to derive it from him , I know not ; I find no record for that : but that Christ conveyed the promise to him by the same Commission , the Church yet never doubted , nor had she any reason . But this matter is too notorious : I say no more to it , but repeat the words and Argument of S. Austin , Si hoc Petro tantùm dictum est , non facit hoc Ecclesia : if the Keys were onely given and so promised to S. Peter , that the Church hath not the Keys , then the Church can neither bind nor loose , remit nor retain ; which God forbid . If any man should endeavour to answer this Argument , I leave him and S. Austin to contest it . 5. Thirdly , For Pasce oves , there is little in that Allegation , besides the boldness of the Objectors : for were not all the Apostles bound to feed Christ's sheep ? had they not all the Commission from Christ and Christ's Spirit immediately ? S. Paul had certainly . Did not S. Peter himself say to all the Bishops of Pontus , Galatia , Cappadocia , Asia and Bithynia , that they should feed the flock of God , and the great Bishop and Shepheard should give them an immarcescible Crown ? plainly implying , that from whence they derived their Authority , from him they were sure of a reward : in pursuance of which S. Cyprian laid his Argument upon this basis , Nam cùm statutum sit omnibus nobis , &c. & singulis pastoribus portio gregis , &c. Did not S. Paul call to the Bishops of Ephesus to feed the flock of God , of which the holy Ghost hath made them Bishops or Over-seers ? And that this very Commission was spoken to Saint Peter not in a personal , but a publick capacity , and in him spoke to all the Apostles , we see attested by S. Austin and S. Ambrose , and generally by all Antiquity : and it so concern'd even every Priest , that Damasus was willing enough to have S. Hierom explicate many questions for him . And Liberius writes an Epistle to Athanasius with much modesty requiring his advice in a Question of Faith , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , That I also may be perswaded without all doubting of those things which you shall be pleased to command me . Now Liberius needed not to have troubled himself to have writ into the East to Athanasius ; for if he had but seated himself in his Chair , and made the dictate , the result of his pen and ink would certainly have taught him and all the Church : but that the good Pope was ignorant that either pasce oves was his own Charter and Prerogative , or that any other words of Scripture had made him to be infallible ; or if he was not ignorant of it , he did very ill to complement himself out of it . So did all those Bishops of Rome , that in that troublesome and unprofitable Question of Easter , being unsatisfied in the supputation of the Egyptians , and the definitions of the Mathematical Bishops of Alexandria , did yet require and intreat S. Ambrose to tell them his opinion , as he himself witnesses . If pasce oves belongs onely to the Pope by primary title , in these cases the sheep came to feed the Shepheard , which though it was well enough in the thing , is very ill for the pretensions of the Roman Bishops . And if we consider how little many of the Popes have done toward feeding the sheep of Christ , we shall hardly determine which is the greater prevarication , that the Pope should claim the whole Commission to be granted to him , or that the execution of the Commission should be wholly passed over to others . And it may be there is a mystery in it , that since S. Peter sent a Bishop with his staffe to raise up a Disciple of his from the dead , who was afterward Bishop of Triers , the Popes of Rome never wear a Pastoral staff except it be in that Diocese , ( says Aquinas : ) for great reason that he who does not doe the office should not bear the Symbol . But a man would think that the Pope's Master of the Ceremonies was ill advised not to assigne a Pastoral staffe to him , who pretends the Commission of pasce oves to belong to him by prime right and origination . But this is not a business to be merry in . 6. But the great support is expected from Tu es Petrus , & super hanc Petram aedificabo Ecclesiam , &c. Now there being so great difference in the exposition of these words , by persons dis-interessed , who , if any , might be allowed to judge in this Question , it is certain that neither one sense nor other can be obtruded for an Article of Faith , much less as a Catholicon in stead of all , by constituting an Authority which should guide us in all Faith , and determine us in all Questions . For if the Church was not built upon the person of Peter , then his Successors can challenge nothing from this instance : now that it was the confession of Peter upon which the Church was to rely for ever , we have witnesses very credible , a S. Ignatius , b S. Basil , c S. Hilary , d S. Gregory Nyssen , S. Gregory the Great , S. Austin , g S. Cyril of Alexandria , h Isidore Pelusiot , and very many more . And although all these witnesses concurring cannot make a proposition to be true , yet they are sufficient witnesses , that it was not the Universal belief of Christendom that the Church was built upon S. Peter's person . Cardinal Peron hath a fine fancy to elude this variety of Exposition , and the consequents of it . For ( saith he ) these Expositions are not contrary or exclusive of each other , but inclusive and consequent to each other : For the Church is founded casually upon the confession of S. Peter , formally upon the ministry of his person , and this was a reward or a consequent of the former : So that these Expositions are both true , but they are conjoyn'd as mediate and immediate , direct and collateral , literal and moral , original and perpetuall , accessory and temporal , the one consign'd at the beginning , the other introduced upon occasion . For before the spring of the Arrian heresy , the Fathers expounded these words of the person of Peter ; but after the Arrians troubled them , the Fathers finding great Authority and Energy in this confession of Peter for the establishment of the natural filiation of the Son of God , to advance the reputation of these words and the force of the Argument , gave themselves licence to expound these words to the present advantage , and to make the confession of Peter to be the foundation of the Church , that if the Arrians should encounter this Authority , they might with more prejudice to their persons declaim against their cause by saying they overthrew the foundation of the Church . Besides that this answer does much dishonour the reputation of the Fathers integrity , and makes their interpretations less credible , as being made not of knowledge or reason , but of necessity and to serve a present turn , it is also false : for * Ignatius expounds it in a spiritual sense , which also the Liturgy attributed to S. James calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Origen expounds it mystically to a third purpose , but exclusively to this : And all these were before the Arrian Controversy . But if it be lawfull to make such unproved observations , it would have been to better purpose and more reason to have observed it thus : The Fathers , so long as the Bishop of Rome kept himself to the limits prescribed him by Christ , and indulged to him by the Constitution or concession of the Church , were unwary and apt to expound this place of the person of Peter : but when the Church began to enlarge her phylacteries by the favour of Princes and the sunshine of a prosperous fortune , and the Pope by the advantage of the Imperial Seat and other accidents began to invade upon the other Bishops and Patriarchs , then , that he might have no colour from Scripture for such new pretensions , they did most generally turn the stream of their expositions from the person to the confession of Peter , and declared that to be the foundation of the Church . And thus I have requited fancy with fancy : but for the main point , that these two Expositions are inclusive of each other , I find no warrant . For though they may consist together well enough , if Christ had so intended them ; yet unless it could be shewn by some circumstance of the Text , or some other extrinsecall Argument , that they must be so , and that both senses were actually intended , it is but gratìs dictum and a begging of the Question , to say that they are so , and the fancy so new , that when S. Austin had expounded this place of the person of Peter , he reviews it again , and in his Retractions leaves every man to his liberty which to take , as having nothing certain in this Article : which had been altogether needless if he had believed them to be inclusively in each other , neither of them had need to have been retracted , both were alike true , both of them might have been believed . But I said the fancy was new , and I had reason ; for it was so unknown till yesterday , that even the late Writers of his own side expound the words of the confession of S. Peter exclusively to his person or any thing else , as is to be seen in a Marsilius , b Petrus de Aliaco , and the gloss upon Dist. 19. can . ità Dominus , § ut suprá . Which also was the Interpetation of Phavorinus Camers their own Bishop , from whom they learnt the resemblance of the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , of which they have made so many gay discourses . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 7. Fifthly , But upon condition I may have leave at another time to recede from so great and numerous Testimony of Fathers , I am willing to believe that it was not the confession of S. Peter , but his person , upon which Christ said he would build his Church , or that these Expositions are consistent with and consequent to each other ; that this confession was the objective foundation of Faith , and Christ and his Apostles the subjective ; Christ principally , and S. Peter instrumentally : and yet I understand not any advantage will hence accrue to the See of Rome . For upon S. Peter it was built , but not alone , for it was upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets , Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone : and when S. Paul reckoned the Oeconomy of Hierarchy , he reckons not Peter first , and then the Apostles ; but first Apostles , secondarily Prophets , &c. And whatsoever is first , either is before all things else , or at least nothing is before it . So that at least S. Peter is not before all the rest of the Apostles ; which also S. Paul expresly averrs , I am in nothing inferiour to the very chiefest of the Apostles , no not in the very being a Rock and a Foundation : and it was of the Church of Ephesus that S. Paul said in particular it was columna & firmamentum veritatis ; that Church was , not excluding others , for they also were as much as she : for so we keep close and be united to the corner-stone , although some be master-builders , yet all may build ; and we have known whole Nations converted by Lay-men and women , who have been builders so far as to bring them to the corner-stone . 8. Sixthly , But suppose all these things concern S. Peter in all the capacities can be with any colour pretended , yet what have the Bishops of Rome to doe with this ? For how will it appear that these promises and Commissions did relate to him as a particular Bishop , and not as a publick Apostle ? since this latter is so much the more likely , because the great pretence of all seems in reason more proportionable to the founding of a Church , then its continuance . And yet if they did relate to him as a particular Bishop , ( which yet is a farther degree of improbability , removed farther from certainty ) yet why shall S. Clement or Linus rather succeed in this great office of Headship then S. John or any of the Apostles that survived Peter ? It is no way likely a private person should skip over the head of an Apostle . Or why shall his Successors at Rome more enjoy the benefit of it then his Successors at Antioch ? since that he was at Antioch and preached there , we have a Divine Authority ; but that he did so at Rome , at most we have but a humane . And if it be replied that because he died at Rome , it was Argument enough that there his Successors were to inherit his privilege , this besides that at most it is but one little degree of probability , and so not of strength sufficient to support an Article of faith , it makes that the great Divine Right of Rome , and the Apostolical presidency , was so contingent and fallible as to depend upon the decree of Nero ; and if he had sent him to Antioch there to have suffered Martyrdome , the Bishops of that Town had been heads of the Catholick Church . And this thing presses the harder , because it is held by no mean persons in the Church of Rome , that the Bishoprick of Rome and the Papacy are things separable , and the Pope may quit that See and sit in another : which to my understanding is an Argument , that he that succeeded Peter at Antioch is as much supreme by Divine Right as he that sits at Rome ; both alike , that is , neither by Divine Ordinance . For if the Roman Bishops by Christ's intention were to be Head of the Church , then by the same intention the Succession must be continued in that See ; and then let the Pope go whither he will , the Bishop of Rome must be the Head : which they themselves deny , and the Pope himself did not believe , when in a schism he sat at Avignon . And that it was to be continued in the See of Rome , it is but offered to us upon conjecture , upon an act of providence , as they fansy it , so ordering it by vision ; and this proved by an Author which themselves call fabulous and Apocryphal , under the name of Linus , in Biblioth . PP . de passione Petri & Pauli . A goodly building which relies upon an event that was accidental , whose purpose was but insinuated , the meaning of it but conjectured at , and this conjecture so uncertain , that it was an imperfect aim at the purpose of an event , which whether it was true or no was so uncertain , that it is ten to one there was no such matter . And yet again , another degree of uncertainty is , to whom the Bishops of Rome do succeed . For S. Paul was as much Bishop of Rome as S. Peter was ; there he presided , there he preached , and he it was that was the Doctor of the Uncircumcision and of the Gentiles , S. Peter of the Circumcision and of the Jews onely ; and therefore the converted Jews at Rome might with better reason claim the privilege of S. Peter , then the Romans and the Churches in her Communion , who do not derive from Jewish Parents . 9. Seventhly , If the words were never so appropriate to Peter , or also communicated to his Successors , yet of what value will the consequent be ? what prerogative is entailed upon the Chair of Rome ? For that S. Peter was the Ministerial Head of the Church , is the most that is desired to be proved by those and all other words brought for the same purposes , and interests of that See. Now let the Ministerial Head have what Dignity can be imagined , let him be the first , ( and in all Communities that are regular and orderly there must be something that is first upon certain occasions , where an equal power cannot be exercised , and made pompous or ceremonial : ) But will this Ministerial Headship inferr an infallibility ? will it inferr more then the Headship of the Jewish Synagogue , where clearly the High Priest was supreme in many senses , yet in no sense infallible ? will it inferr more to us then it did amongst the Apostles , amongst whom if for order's sake S. Peter was the first , yet he had no compulsory power over the Apostles ? there was no such thing spoke of , nor any such thing put in practice . And that the other Apostles were by a personal privilege as infallible as himself , is no reason to hinder the exercise of jurisdiction or any compulsory power over them ; for though in Faith they were infallible , yet in manners and matter of fact as likely to erre as S. Peter himself was : and certainly there might have something happened in the whole Colledge that might have been a Record of his Authority , by transmitting an example of the exercise of some Judicial power over some one of them . If he had but withstood any of them to their faces , as S. Paul did him , it had been more then yet is said in his behalf . Will the Ministerial Headship inferr any more , then that when the Church in a Community or a publick capacity should do any Act of Ministery Ecclesiasticall he shall be first in Order ? Suppose this to be a dignity to preside in Councils , which yet was not always granted him : suppose it to be a power of taking cognizance of the Major Causes of Bishops when Councils cannot be called : suppose it a double voice , or the last decisive , or the negative in the causes exteriour : suppose it to be what you will of dignity or externall regiment , which when all Churches were united in Communion , and neither the interest of States nor the engagement of opinions had made disunion , might better have been acted then now it can : yet this will fall infinitely short of a power to determine Controversies infallibly , and to prescribe to all mens faith and consciences . A Ministerial Headship or the prime Minister cannot in any capacity become the foundation of the Church to any such purpose . And therefore men are causelesly amused with such premisses , and are afraid of such Conclusions which will never follow from the admission of any sense of these words that can with any probability be pretended . 10. Eighthly , I consider that these Arguments from Scripture are too weak to support such an Authority which pretends to give Oracles , and to answer infallibly in Questions of Faith , because there is greater reason to believe the Popes of Rome have erred , and greater certainty of demonstration , then these places give that they are infallible ; as will appear by the instances and perpetual experiment of their being deceived , of which there is no Question , but of the sense of these places there is . And indeed , if I had as clear Scripture for their infallibility , as I have against their half Communion , against their Service in an unknown tongue , worshipping of Images , and divers other Articles , I would make no scruple of believing , but limit and conform my understanding to all their Dictates , and believe it reasonable all Prophesying should be restrained : But till then I have leave to discourse , and to use my reason . And to my reason it seems not likely that neither Christ nor any of his Apostles , not S. Peter himself , not S. Paul writing to the Church of Rome , should speak the least word or tittle of the infallibility of their Bishops : for it was certainly as convenient to tell us of a remedy , as to foretell that certainly there must needs be heresies , and need of a remedy . And it had been a certain determination of the Question , if , when so rare an opportunity was ministred in the Question about Circumcision , that they should have sent to Peter , who for his infallibility in ordinary , and his power of Headship , would not onely with reason enough , as being infallibly assisted , but also for his Authority , have best determined the Question , if at least the first Christians had known so profitable and so excellent a secret . And although we have but little Record that the first Council at Jerusalem did much observe the solennities of Law , and the forms of Conciliary proceedings , and the Ceremonials ; yet so much of it as is recorded is against them . S. James , and not S. Peter , gave the final sentence ; and although S. Peter determined the Question pro libertate , yet S. James made the Decree and the Assumentum too , and gave sentence they should abstain from some things there mentioned , which by way of temper he judged most expedient : And so it passed . And S. Peter shewed no sign of a Superiour Authority , nothing of Superiour jurisdiction . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 11. So that if the Question be to be determined by Scripture , it must either be ended by plain places , or by obscure . Plain places there are none , and these that are with greatest fancy pretended are expounded by Antiquity to contrary purposes . But if obscure places be all the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by what means shall we infallibly find the sense of them ? The Pope's interpretation though in all other cases it might be pretended , in this cannot ; for it is the thing in Question , and therefore cannot determine for itself . Either therefore we have also another infallible guide besides the Pope , and so we have two Foundations and two Heads , ( for this as well as the other upon the same reason ) or else ( which is indeed the truth ) there is no infallible way to be infallibly assured that the Pope is infallible . Now it being against the common condition of men , above the pretences of all other Governours Ecclesiasticall , against the Analogie of Scripture , and the deportment of the other Apostles , against the Oeconomy of the Church , and S. Peter's own entertainment , the presumption lies against him , and these places are to be left to their prime intentions , and not put upon the rack , to force them to confess what they never thought . 12. But now for Antiquity , if that be deposed in this Question , there are so many circumstances to be considered to reconcile their words and their actions , that the process is more troublesome then the Argument can be concluding , or the matter considerable : But I shall a little consider it , so far at least as to shew either Antiquity said no such thing as is pretended , or , if they did , it is but little considerable , because they did not believe themselves ; their practice was the greatest evidence in the world against the pretence of their words . But I am much eased of a long disquisition in this particular ( for I love not to prove a Question by Arguments whose Authority is in itself as fallible and by circumstances made as uncertain as the Question ) by the saying of Aeneas Sylvius , that before the Nicene Council every man lived to himself , and small respect was had to the Church of Rome ; which practice could not well consist with the Doctrine of their Bishops Infallibility , and by consequence supreme judgment and last resolution in matters of Faith : but especially by the insinuation and consequent acknowledgment of Bellarmine , that for 1000 years together the Fathers knew not of the Doctrine of the Pope's Infallibility ; for Nilus , Gerson , Almain , the Divines of Paris , Alphonsus de Castro and Pope Adrian VI. persons who lived 1400 years after Christ , affirm that Infallibility is not seated in the Pope's person , that he may erre , and sometimes actually hath : which is a clear demonstration that the Church knew no such Doctrine as this ; there had been no Decree nor Tradition nor general opinion of the Fathers , or of any Age before them ; and therefore this Opinion , which Bellarmine would fain blast if he could , yet in his Conclusion he says it is not propriè haeretica . A device and an expression of his own , without sense or precedent . But if the Fathers had spoken of it and believed it , why may not a disagreeing person as well reject their Authority when it is in behalf of Rome , as they of Rome without scruple cast them off when they speak against it ? For Bellarmine , being pressed with the Authority of Nilus Bishop of Thessalonica and other Fathers , says that the Pope acknowledges no Fathers , but they are all his children , and therefore they cannot depose against him : and if that be true , why shall we take their Testimonies for him ? for if Sons depose in their Father's behalf , it is twenty to one but the adverse party will be cast , and therefore at the best it is but suspectum Testimonium . But indeed this discourse signifies nothing but a perpetuall uncertainty in such Topicks , and that , where a violent prejudice or a concerning interest is engaged , men by not regarding what any man says proclaim to all the world that nothing is certain but Divine Authority . 13. But I will not take advantage of what Bellarmine says , nor what Stapleton or any one of them all say , for that will be but to press upon personal perswasions , or to urge a general Question with a particular defaillance , and the Question is never the nearer to an end : for if Bellarmine says any thing that is not to another man's purpose or perswasion , that man will be tried by his own Argument , not by another's . And so would every man doe that loves his liberty , as all wise men do , and therefore retain it by open violence , or private evasions . But to return . 14. An Authority from Irenaeus in this Question , and on behalf of the Pope's Infallibility , or the Authority of the See of Rome , or of the necessity of communicating with them , is very fallible : for besides that there are almost a dozen answers to the words of the Allegation , as is to be seen in those that trouble themselves in this Question with the Allegation , and answering such Authorities ; yet if they should make for the affirmative of this Question , it is protestatio contra factum . For Irenaeus had no such great opinion of Pope Victor's Infallibility , that he believed things in the same degree of necessity that the Pope did ; for therefore he chides him for Excommunicating the Asian Bishops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all at a blow in the Question concerning Easter-day : and in a Question of Faith he expresly disagreed from the doctrine of Rome : for Irenaeus was of the Millenary opinion , and believed it to be a Tradition Apostolicall . Now if the Church of Rome was of that opinion then , why is she not now ? where is the succession of her Doctrine ? But if she was not of that opinion then , and Irenaeus was , where was his belief of that Churche's Infallibility ? The same I urge concerning S. Cyprian , who was the head of a Sect in opposition to the Church of Rome in the Question of Rebaptization , and he and the abettors , Firmilian and the other Bishops of Cappadocia and the voicinage spoke harsh words of Steven , and such as become them not to speak to an infallible Doctor , and the supreme Head of the Church . I will urge none of them to the disadvantage of that See , but onely note the Satyrs of Firmilian against him , because it is of good use , to shew that it is possible for them in their ill carriage to blast the reputation and efficacy of a great Authority . For he says that that Church did pretend the Authority of the Apostles , cùm in multis Sacramentis Divinae rei à principio discrepet , & ab Ecclesia Hierosolymitana , & defamet Petrum & Paulum tanquam authores . And a little after , Justè dedignor ( says he ) apertam & manifestam stultitiam Stephani , per quam veritas Christianae petrae aboletur . Which words say plainly , that for all the goodly pretence of Apostolicall Authority , the Church of Rome did then in many things of Religion disagree from Divine Institution , ( and from the Church of Jerusalem , which they had as great esteem of for Religion sake , as of Rome for its Principality ; ) and that still in pretending to S. Peter and S. Paul they dishonoured those blessed Apostles , and destroyed the honour of their pretence by their untoward prevarication . Which words I confess pass my skill to reconcile them to an opinion of Infallibility : and although they were spoken by an angry person , yet they declare that in Africa they were not then perswaded as now they are at Rome : Nam nec Petrus , quem primum Dominus elegit , vendicavit sibi aliquid insolenter aut arroganter assumpsit , ut diceret se primatum tenere . That was their belief then , and how the contrary hath grown up to that height where now it is , all the world is witness . And now I shall not need to note concerning S. Hierome , that he gave a complement to Damasus that he would not have given to Liberius , Qui tecum non colligit spargit . For it might be true enough of Damasus , who was a good Bishop and a right believer : but if Liberius's name had been put in stead of Damasus , the case had been altered with the name ; for S. Hierome did believe and write it so , that Liberius had subscribed to Arianism . And if either he or any of the rest had believ'd the Pope could not be a Heretick nor his Faith fail , but be so good and of so competent Authority as to be a Rule to Christendom ; why did they not appeal to the Pope in the Arian Controversie ? why was the Bishop of Rome made a party and a concurrent , as other good Bishops were , and not a Judge and an Arbitrator in the Question ? why did the Fathers prescribe so many Rules and cautions and provisoes for the discovery of Heresy ? why were the Emperours at so much charge , and the Church at so much trouble , as to call and convene Councils respectively , to dispute so frequently , to write so sedulously , to observe all advantages against their Adversaries , and for the truth , and never offered to call for the Pope to determine the Question in his Chair ? Certainly no way could have been so expedite , none so concluding and peremptory , none could have convinc'd so certainly , none could have triumphed so openly over all Discrepants , as this , if they had known of any such thing as his being infallible , or that he had been appointed by Christ to be the Judge of Controversies . And therefore I will not trouble this Discourse to excuse any more words either pretended or really said to this purpose of the Pope , for they would but make books swell and the Question endless : I shall onely to this purpose observe that the old Writers were so far from believing the Infallibility of the Roman Church or Bishop , that many Bishops and many Churches did actually live and continue out of the Roman Communion ; particularly * Saint Austin , who with 217 Bishops and their Successors for 100 years together stood separate from that Church , if we may believe their own Records . So did Ignatius of Constantinople , S. Chrysostome , S. Cyprian , Firmilian , those Bishops of Asia that separated in the Question of Easter , and those of Africa in the Question of Rebaptization . But besides this , most of them had Opinions which the Church of Rome disavows now , and therefore did so then , or else she hath innovated in her Doctrine ; which though it be most true and notorious , I am sure she will never confess . But no excuse can be made for S. Austin's disagreeing and contesting in the Question of Appeals to Rome , the necessity of Communicating Infants , the absolute damnation of Infants to the pains of Hell , if they die before Baptism , and divers other particulars . It was a famous act of the Bishops of Liguria and Istria , who , seeing the Pope of Rome consenting to the fifth Synod in disparagement of the famous Council of Chalcedon , which for their own interests they did not like of , renounced subjection to his Patriarchate , and erected a Patriarch at Aquileia , who was afterwards translated to Venice , where his name remains to this day . It is also notorious that most of the Fathers were of opinion that the Souls of the faithfull did not enjoy the Beatifick Vision before Doomsday . Whether Rome was then of that opinion or no I know not , I am sure now they are not , witness the Councils of Florence and Trent : but of this I shall give a more full account afterwards . But if to all this which is already noted we adde that great variety of opinions amongst the Fathers and Councils in assignation of the Canon , they not consulting with the Bishop of Rome , nor any of them thinking themselves bound to follow his Rule in enumeration of the Books of Scripture , I think no more need to be said as to this particular . 15. Eighthly , But now if , after all this , there be some Popes which were notorious Hereticks , and Preachers of false Doctrine , some that made impious Decrees both in Faith and manners , some that have determined Questions with egregious ignorance and stupidity , some with apparent sophistry , and many to serve their own ends most openly , I suppose then the Infallibility will disband , and we may doe to him as to other good Bishops , believe him when there is cause ; but if there be none , then to use our Consciences . Non enim salvat Christianum , quòd Pontifex constanter affirmat praeceptum suum esse justum ; sed oportet illud examinari , & se juxta regulam superiùs datum dirigere . I would not instance and repeat the errours of dead Bishops , if the extreme boldness of the pretence did not make it necessary . But if we may believe Tertullian , Pope Zepherinus approved the Prophecies of Montanus , and upon that approbation granted peace to the Churches of Asia and Phrygia , till Praxeas perswaded him to revoke his act . But let this rest upon the credit of Tertullian , whether Zepherinus were a Montanist or no : some such thing there was for certain . Pope Vigilius denied two Natures in Christ , and in his Epistle to Theodora the Empress anathematiz'd all them that said he had two natures in one person . S. Gregory himself permitted Priests to give Confirmation , which is all one as if he should permit Deacons to consecrate , they being by Divine Ordinance annext to the higher Orders : and upon this very ground Adrianus affirms that the Pope may erre in definiendis dogmatibus fidei . And that we may not fear we shall want instances , we may to secure it take their own confession ; Nam multae sunt decretales haereticae , ( says Occham as he is cited by Almain , ) & firmiter hoc credo , ( says he for his own particular : ) sed non licet dogmatizare oppositum , quoniam sunt determinatae . So that we may as well see that it is certain that Popes may be Hereticks , as that it is dangerous to say so ; and therefore there are so few that teach it . All the Patriarchs and the Bishop of Rome himself subscribed to Arianism , ( as Baronius confesses : ) and * Gratian affirms that Pope Anastasius II. was strucken of God for communicating with the Heretick Photinus . I know it will be made light of that Gregory the seventh saith the very Exorcists of the Roman Church are superiour to Princes . But what shall we think of that Decretall of Gregory the third , who wrote to Boniface his Legate in Germany , quòd illi quorum uxores infirmitate aliquâ morbidâ debitum reddere noluerunt aliis poterant nubere ? Was this a doctrine fit for the Head of the Church , an infallible Doctor ? It was plainly , if any thing ever was , doctrina Daemoniorum , and is noted for such by Gratian , Caus. 32.4.7 . can . quod proposuisti . Where the Gloss also intimates that the same privilege was granted to the English-men by Gregory , quia novi erant in fide . And sometimes we had little reason to expect much better : for , not to instance in that learned discourse in the * Canon-Law de majoritate & obedientia , where the Pope's Supremacy over Kings is proved from the first chapter of Genesis , and the Pope is the Sun , and the Emperour is the Moon , for that was the fancy of one Pope perhaps , though made authentick and doctrinall by him ; it was ( if it be possible ) more ridiculous , that Pope Innocent the third urges that the Mosaicall Law was still to be observed , and that upon this Argument ; Sanè , saith he , cùm Deuteronontium Secunda lex interpretetur , ex vi vocabuli comprobatur , ut quod ibi decernitur in Testamento Novo debeat observari . Worse yet ; for when there was a corruption crept into the Decree called Sancta Romana , where , in stead of these words , Sedulii opus heroicis versibus descriptum , all the old Copies till of late read , haereticis versibus descriptum , this very mistake made many wise men , ( as Pierius says ) yea , Pope Adrian the sixth , no worse man , believe that all Poetry was hereticall , because ( forsooth ) Pope Gelasius , whose Decree that was , although he believed Sedulius to be a good Catholick , yet , as they thought , concluded his Verses to be hereticall . But these were ignorances ; it hath been worse amongst some others , whose errours have been more malicious . Pope Honorius was condemned by the sixth General Synod , and his Epistles burnt ; and in the seventh Action of the eighth Synod the Acts of the Roman Council under Adrian the second are recited , in which it is said that Honorius was justly anathematiz'd , because he was convict of Heresie . Bellarmine says , it is probable that Pope Adrian and the Roman Council were deceived with false Copies of the sixth Synod , and that Honorius was no Heretick . To this I say , that although the Roman Synod and the eighth General Synod and Pope Adrian all together are better witnesses for the thing then Bellarmine's conjecture is against it ; yet if we allow his conjecture , we shall lose nothing in the whole : for either the Pope is no infallible Doctor , but may be a Heretick , as Honorius was ; or else a Council is to us no infallible Determiner . I say , as to us : for if Adrian and the whole Roman Council and the eighth General were all cozened with false Copies of the sixth Synod , which was so little a while before them , and whose Acts were transacted and kept in the Theatre and Records of the Catholick Church ; he is a bold man that will be confident that he hath true Copies now . So that let which they please stand or fall , let the Pope be a Heretick or the Councils be deceived and palpably abused , ( for the other , we will dispute it upon other instances and arguments when we shall know which part they will chuse ) in the mean time we shall get in the general what we lose in the particular . This onely , this device of saying the Copies of the Councils were false , was the strategem of Albertus Pighius 900 years after the thing was done ; of which invention Pighius was presently admonished , blamed , and wished to recant . Pope Nicolas explicated the Mystery of the Sacrament with so much ignorance and zeal , that in condemning Berengarius he taught a worse impiety . But what need I any more instances ? it is a confessed case by Baronius , by Biel , by Stella , Almain , Occham and Canus , and generally by the best Scholars in the Church of Rome , that a Pope may be a Heretick , and that some of them actually were so ; and no less then three General Councils did believe the same thing , viz. the sixth , seventh , and eighth , as Bellarmine is pleased to acknowledge in his fourth Book De Pontifice Romano , c. 11. resp . ad Arg. 4. And the Canon Si Papa , dist . 40. affirms it in express terms , that a Pope is judicable and punishable in that case . But there is no wound but some Empirick or other will pretend to cure it , and there is a cure for this too . For though it be true , that if a Pope were a Heretick the Church might depose him , yet no Pope can be a Heretick ; not but that the man may , but the Pope cannot , for he is ipso facto no Pope , for he is no Christian : so Bellarmine : and so , when you think you have him fast , he is gone , and nothing of the Pope left . But who sees not the extreme folly of this evasion ? For besides that out of fear and caution he grants more then he needs , more then was sought for in the Question , the Pope hath no more privilege then the Abbot of Cluny ; for he cannot be a Heretick , nor be deposed by a Council : for if he be manifestly a Heretick , he is ipso facto no Abbot , for he is no Christian ; and if the Pope be a Heretick privately & occultly , for that he may be accused and judged , said the Glosse upon the Canon Si Papa , dist . 40. and the Abbot of Cluny and one of his meanest Monks can be no more , therefore the case is all one . But * this is fitter to make sport with , then to interrupt a serious discourse . And therefore although the Canon Sancta Romana approves all the Decretalls of Popes , yet that very Decretall hath not decreed it firm enough , but that they are so warily receiv'd by them , that when they list they are pleased to dissent from them . And it is evident in the Extravagant of Sixtus IV. Com. De reliquiis , who appointed a Feast of the immaculate Conception , a special Office for the day , and Indulgences enough to the observers of it : and yet the Dominicans were so far from believing the Pope to be infallible , and his Decree authentick , that they declaim'd against it in their Pulpits so furiously and so long , till they were prohibited under pain of Excommunication to say the Virgin Mary was conceived in Original sin . Now what solennity can be more required for the Pope to make a Cathedral determination of an Article ? The Article was so concluded , that a Feast was instituted for its celebration , and pain of Excommunication threatned to them which should preach the contrary ; nothing more solemn , nothing more confident and severe . And yet after all this , to shew that whatsoever those people would have us to believe , they 'l believe what they list themselves , this thing was not determined de fide , saith Victorellus : nay , the Authour of the Gloss of the Canon-Law hath these express words , De festo Conceptionis nihil dicitur , quia celebrandum non est , sicut in multis regionibus fit , & maximè in Anglia ; & haec est ratio , quia in peccatis concepta fuit , sicut & caeteri Sancti . And the Commissaries of Sixtus V. and Gregory XIII . did not expunge these words , but left them upon Record , not onely against a received and more approved opinion of the Jesuits and Franciscans , but also in plain defiance of a Decree made by their visible Head of the Church , who ( if ever any thing was decreed by a Pope with an intent to oblige all Christendome ) decreed * this to that purpose . 16. So that , without taking particular notice of it , that egregious sophistry and flattery of the late Writers of the Roman Church is in this instance , besides divers others before mentioned , clearly made invalid . For here the Bishop of Rome , not as a private Doctor , but as Pope , not by declaring his own opinion , but with an intent to oblige the Church , gave sentence in a Queston which the Dominicans will still account pro non determinata . And every Decretall recorded in the Canon-Law , if it be false in the matter , is just such another instance . And Alphonsus à Castro says to the same purpose , in the instance of Caelestine dissolving Marriages for Heresy ; Neque Caelestini error talis fuit qui soli negligentiae imputari debeat , ità ut illum errâsse dicamus velut privatam personam , & non ut Papam , quoniam hujusmodi Caelestini definitio habetur in antiquis Decretalibus , in cap. Laudabilem , titulo De conversione infidelium ; quam ego ipse vidi & legi : Lib. 1. adv . haeres . cap. 4. And therefore 't is a most intolerable folly to pretend that the Pope cannot erre in his Chair , though he may erre in his Closet , and may maintain a false opinion even to his death . For besides that it is sottish to think that either he would not have the world of his own opinion , ( as all men naturally would ; ) or that , if he were set in his Chair , he would determine contrary to himself in his Study , ( and therefore to represent it as possible , they are fain to flie to a Miracle , for which they have no colour , neither instructions , nor insinuation , nor warrant , nor promise ; ) besides that it were impious and unreasonable to depose him for Heresy , who may so easily , even by setting himself in his Chair and reviewing his Theorems , be cured : it is also against a very great experience . For besides the former Allegations , it is most notorious that Pope Alexander III. in a Council at Rome of 300 Archbishops and Bishops , A. D. 1179. condemned Peter Lombard of Heresy in a matter of great concernment , no less then something about the Incarnation ; from which Sentence he was , after 36 years abiding it , absolved by Pope Innocent III. without repentance or dereliction of the Opinion . Now if this Sentence was not a Cathedral Dictate , as solemn and great as could be expected , or as is said to be necessary to oblige all Christendome , let the great Hyperaspists of the Roman Church be Judges , who tell us that a particular Council with the Pope's confirmation is made Oecumenicall by adoption , and is infallible , and obliges all Christendome : so Bellarmine . And therefore he says that it is temerarium , erroneum , & proximum haeresi , to deny it . But whether it be or not , it is all one as to my purpose . For it is certain , that in a particular Council confirmed by the Pope , if ever , then and there the Pope sate himself in his Chair ; and it is as certain that he sate besides the cushion , and determined ridiculously and falsely in this case . But this is a device for which there is no Scripture , no Tradition , no one dogmaticall resolute saying of any Father , Greek or Latine , for above 1000 years after Christ : and themselves , when they list , can acknowledge as much . And therefore Bellarmine's saying , I perceive , is believed of them to be true , That there are many things in the * Decretall Epistles which make not Articles to be de fide . And therefore , Non est necessariò credendum determinatis per summum Pontificem , says Almain . And this serves their turns in every thing they do not like ; and therefore I am resolved it shall serve my turn also for something , and that is , that the matter of the Pope's Infallibility is so ridiculous and improbable , that they do not believe it themselves . Some of them clearly practised the contrary : and although Pope Leo X. hath determined the Pope to be above a Council , yet the Sorbon to this day scorn it at the very heart . And I might urge upon them that scorn that † Almain truly enough by way of Argument alledges . It is a wonder that they who affirm the Pope cannot erre in judgement , do not also affirm that he cannot sin : they are like enough to say so , says he , if the vicious lives of the Popes did not make a daily confutation of such flattery . Now for my own particular , I am as confident , and think it as certain , that Popes are actually deceived in matters of Christian Doctrine , as that they do prevaricate the laws of Christian piety . And therefore * Alphonsus à Castro calls them impudentes Papae assentatores , that ascribe to him infallibility in judgment or interpretation of Scripture . 17. But if themselves did believe it heartily , what excuse is there in the world for the strange uncharitableness or supine negligence of the Popes , that they do not set themselves in their Chair , and write infallible Commentaries , and determine all Controversies without errour , and blast all Heresies with the word of their mouth , declare what is and what is not de fide , that his Disciples and Confidents may agree upon it , reconcile the Franciscans and Dominicans , and expound all Mysteries ? For it cannot be imagined but he that was endued with so supreme power in order to so great ends , was also fitted with proportionable , that is , extraordinary , personal abilities , succeeding and derived upon the persons of all the Popes . And then the Doctors of his Church need not trouble themselves with study , nor writing explications of Scripture , but might wholly attend to practicall Devotion , and leave all their Scholasticall wranglings , the distinguishing Opinions of their Orders , and they might have a fine Church , something like Fairy-land , or Lucian's Kingdome in the Moon . But if they say they cannot doe this when they list , but when they are moved to it by the Spirit , then we are never the nearer : for so may the Bishop of Angoulesme write infallible Commentaries when the Holy Ghost moves him to it , for I suppose his motions are not ineffectual , but he will sufficiently assist us in performing of what he actually moves us to . But among so many hundred Decrees which the Popes of Rome have made , or confirmed and attested , ( which is all one ) I would fain know , in how many of them did the Holy Ghost assist them ? If they know it , let them declare it , that it may be certain which of their Decretals are de fide ; for as yet none of his own Church knows . If they do not know , then neither can we know it from them , and then we are as uncertain as ever . And besides , the Holy Ghost may possibly move him , and he by his ignorance of it may neglect so profitable a motion , and then his promise of infallible assistance will be to very little purpose , because it is with very much fallibility applicable to practice . And therefore it is absolutely useless to any man or any Church : because , suppose it settled in Thesi , that the Pope is infallible ; yet whether he will doe his duty , and perform those conditions of being assisted which are required of him , or whether he be a secret Simoniack , ( for if he be , he is ipso facto no Pope ) or whether he be a Bishop , or Priest , or a Christian , being all uncertain , every one of these depending upon the intention and power of the Baptizer or Ordainer , which also are fallible , because they depend upon the honesty and power of other men ; we cannot be infallibly certain of any Pope that he is infallible : and therefore when our Questions are determined , we are never the nearer , but may hug ourselves in an imaginary truth , the certainty of finding truth out depending upon so many fallible and contingent circumstances . And therefore the thing , if it were true , being so to no purpose , it is to be presumed that God never gave a power so impertinently , and from whence no benefit can accrue to the Christian Church , for whose use and benefit , if at all , it must needs have been appointed . 18. But I am too long in this impertinency . If I were bound to call any man Master upon earth , and to believe him upon his own affirmative and authority , I would of all men least follow him that pretends he is infallible , and cannot prove it . For he that cannot prove it makes me as uncertain as ever ; and that he pretends to Infallibility , makes him careless of using such means which will morally secure those wise persons , who , knowing their own aptness to be deceived , use what endeavours they can to secure themselves from errour , and so become the better and more probable guides . 19. Well , thus far we are come : Although we are secured in Fundamental points from involuntary errour by the plain , express and dogmaticall places of Scripture ; yet in other things we are not , but may be invincibly mistaken , because of the obscurity and difficulty in the controverted parts of Scripture , by reason of the incertainty of the means of its Interpretation , since Tradition is of an uncertain reputation , and sometimes evidently false ; Councils are contradictory to each other , and therefore certainly are equally deceived many of them , and therefore all may ; and then the Popes of Rome are very likely to mislead us , but cannot ascertain us of truth in matter of Question ; and in this world we believe in part , and prophesy in part , and this imperfection shall never be done away till we be translated to a more glorious state : either then we must throw our chances , and get truth by accident or predestination ; or else we must lie safe in a mutuall Toleration , and private liberty of perswasion , unless some other Anchor can be thought upon where we may fasten our floating Vessels , and ride safely . SECT . VIII . Of the disability of Fathers , or Writers Ecclesiastical , to determine our Questions with certainty and truth . 1. THere are some that think they can determine all Questions in the world by two or three sayings of the Fathers , or by the consent of so many as they will please to call a concurrent Testimony : But this consideration will soon be at an end . For if the Fathers when they are witnesses of Tradition do not always speak truth , as it happened in the case of Papias and his numerous Followers for almost three Ages together ; then is their Testimony more improbable when they dispute or write Commentaries . 2. The Fathers of the first Ages spake unitedly concerning divers Questions of secret Theology , and yet were afterwards contradicted by one personage of great reputation , whose credit had so much influence upon the world as to make the contrary opinion become popular : why then may not we have the same liberty , when so plain an uncertainty is in their perswasions , and so great contrariety in their Doctrines ? But this is evident in the case of absolute Predestination , which till Saint Austin's time no man preached , but all taught the contrary ; and yet the reputation of this one excellent man altered the scene . But if he might dissent from so general a Doctrine , why may not we doe so too ( it being pretended that he is so excellent a precedent to be followed ) if we have the same reason ? He had no more Authority nor dispensation to dissent then any Bishop hath now . And therefore Saint Austin hath dealt ingenuously , and as he took this liberty to himself , so he denies it not to others , but indeed forces them to preserve their own liberty . And therefore when Saint Hierom had a great minde to follow the Fathers in a point that he fansied , and the best security he had was , Patiaris me cum talibus errare , Saint Austin would not endure it , but answered his reason , and neglected the Authority . And therefore it had been most unreasonable that we should doe that now , though in his behalf , which he towards greater personages ( for so they were then ) at that time judged to be unreasonable . It is a plain recession from Antiquity which was determined by the Council of * Florence , piorum animas purgatas , &c. mox in Coelum recipi , & intueri clarè ipsum Deum trinum & unum sicuti est ; as who please to ●ry may see it dogmatically resolved to the contrary by a Justin Martyr , by b Irenaeus , by c Origen , by d Saint Chrysostome , e Theodoret , f Arethas Caesariensis , g Euthymius , who may answer for the Greek Church . And it is plain that it was the opinion of the Greek Church by that great difficulty the Romans had of bringing the Greeks to subscribe to the Florentine Council , where the Latines acted their master-piece of wit and strategem , the greatest that hath been till the famous and superpolitick design of Trent . And for the Latine Church , h Tertullian , i Saint Ambrose , k Saint Austin , l Saint Hilary , m Prudentius , n Lactantius , o Victorinus Martyr and p Saint Bernard are known to be of opinion that the souls of the Saints are in abditis receptaculis & exterioribus atriis , where they expect the resurrection of their bodies , and the glorification of their souls ; and though they all believe them to be happy , yet they injoy not the beatifick Vision before the resurrection . Now there being so full a consent of Fathers , ( for many more may be added ) and the Decree of Pope John XXII . besides , who was so confident for his Decree that he commanded the University of Paris to swear that they would preach it and no other , and that none should be promoted to degrees in Theology that did not swear the like , ( as q Occham , r Gerson , s Marsilius and t Adrianus report : ) since it is esteemed lawfull to dissent from all these , I hope no man will be so unjust to press other men to consent to an Authority which he himself judges to be incompetent . These two great instances are enough ; but if more were necessary , I could instance in the opinion of the Chiliasts , maintained by the second and third Centuries , and disavowed ever since : in the Doctrine of communicating Infants , taught and practised as necessary by the fourth and fifth Centuries , and detested by the Latine Church in all the following Ages : in the variety of opinions concerning the very form of Baptism , some keeping close to the institution and the words of its first sanction , others affirming it to be sufficient if it be administred in nomine Christi ; particularly Saint Ambrose , Pope Nicolas the First , Ven. Bede and † Saint Bernard , besides some Writers of after-Ages , as Hugo de Sancto Victore , and the Doctors generally his contemporaries . And it would not be inconsiderable to observe , that if any Synod , General , National , or Provincial , be receded from by the Church of the later Age , ( as there have been very many ) then so many Fathers as were then assembled and united in opinion are esteemed no Authority to determine our perswasions . Now suppose 200 Fathers assembled in such a Council , if all they had writ Books , and 200 Authorities had been alledged in confirmation of an opinion , it would have made a mighty noise , and loaded any man with an insupportable prejudice that should dissent : And yet every opinion maintained against the Authority of any one Council , though but Provincial , is in its proportion such a violent recession and neglect of the Authority and Doctrine of so many Fathers as were then assembled , who did as much declare their opinion in those Assemblies by their Suffrages , as if they had writ it in so many books ; and their opinion is more considerable in the Assembly then in their writings , because it was more deliberate , assisted , united , and more dogmaticall . In pursuance of this observation , it is to be noted by way of instance , that Saint Austin and two hundred and seventeen Bishops , and all their Successors * for a whole Age together , did consent in denying Appeals to Rome ; and yet the Authority of so many Fathers ( all true Catholicks ) is of no force now at Rome in this Question : but if it be in a matter they like , one of these Fathers alone is sufficient . The Doctrine of Saint Austin alone brought in the Festival and veneration of the Assumption of the blessed Virgin ; and the hard sentence passed at Rome upon unbaptized Infants , and the Dominican opinion concerning Predetermination , derived from him alone as from their Original . So that if a Father speaks for them , it is wonderfull to see what Tragedies are stirred up against them that dissent , as is to be seen in that excellent nothing of Campian's Ten reasons . But if the Fathers be against them , then Patres in quibusdam non leviter lapsi sunt , says Bellarmine ; and , Constat quosdam ex praecipuis , it is certain the chiefest of them have foully erred . Nay , Posa , Salmeron and Wadding , in the Question of the immaculate Conception , make no scruple to dissent from Antiquity , to prefer new Doctors before the old ; and to justifie themselves , bring instances in which the Church of Rome had determined against the Fathers . And it is not excuse enough to say that singly the Fathers may erre , but if they concur they are certain Testimony . For there is no question this day disputed by persons that are willing to be tried by the Fathers so generally attested on either side , as some points are which both sides dislike severally or conjunctly . And therefore 't is not honest for either side to press the Authority of the Fathers as a concluding Argument in matter of dispute , unless themselves will be content to submit in all things to the Testimony of an equal number of them ; which I am certain neither side will do . 3. If I should reckon all the particular reasons against the certainty of this Topick , it would be more then needs as to this Question , and therefore I will abstain from all disparagement of those worthy personages , who were excellent lights to their several Dioceses and Cures . And therefore I will not instance that Clemens Alexandrinus taught that Christ felt no hunger or thirst , but eat onely to make demonstration of the verity of his Humane nature ; nor that Saint Hilary taught that Christ in his sufferings had no sorrow ; nor that Origen taught the pains of Hell not to have an eternall duration ; nor that S. Cyprian taught Rebaptization ; nor that Athenagoras condemned second Marriages ; nor that Saint John Damascen said Christ onely prayed in appearance , not really and in truth : I will let them all rest in peace , and their memories in honour : for if I should inquire into the particular probations of this Article , I must doe to them as I should be forced to doe now ; if any man should say that the Writings of the School-men were excellent argument and Authority to determine mens perswasions , I must consider their writings , and observe their defaillances , their contradictions , the weakness of their Arguments , the mis-allegations of Scripture , their inconsequent deductions , their false opinions , and all the weaknesses of humanity , and the failings of their persons ; which no good man is willing to doe , unless he be compelled to it by a pretence that they are infallible , or that they are followed by men even into errours or impiety . And therefore since there is enough in the former instances to cure any such misperswasion and prejudice , I will not instance in the innumerable particularities that might perswade us to keep our Liberty intire , or to use it discreetly . For it is not to be denied but that great advantages are to be made by thei● writings , & probabile est quod omnibus , quod pluribus , quod sapientibus videtur : If one wise man says a thing , it is an argument to me to believe it in its degree of probation , that is , proportionable to such an assent as the Authority of a wise man can produce , and when there is nothing against it that is greater ; and so in proportion higher and higher , as more wise men ( such as the old Doctors were ) do affirm it . But that which I complain of is , that we look upon wise men that lived long agoe with so much veneration and mistake , that we reverence them not for having been wise men , but that they lived long since . But when the Question is concerning Authority , there must be something to build it on ; a Divine Commandment , humane Sanction , excellency of spirit , and greatness of understanding , on which things all humane Authority is regularly built . But now if we had lived in their times , ( for so we must look upon them now , as they did who without prejudice beheld them ) I suppose we should then have beheld them as we in England look on those Prelates who are of great reputation for learning and sanctity : here onely is the difference ; when persons are living , their Authority is depressed by their personal defaillances , and the contrary interests of their contemporaries , which disband when they are dead , and leave their credit intire upon the reputation of those excellent books and monuments of learning and piety which are left behind . But beyond this , why the Bishop of Hippo shall have greater Authority then the Bishop of the Canaries , caeteris paribus , I understand not . For did they that lived ( to instance ) in Saint Austin's time be●ieve all that he wrote ? If they did , they were much to blame ; or else himself was to blame for retracting much of it a little before his death . And if while he lived his affirmative was no more Authority then derives from the credit of one very wise man , against whom also very wise men were opposed , I know not why his Authority should prevail farther now ; for there is nothing added to the strength of his reason since that time , but onely that he hath been in great esteem with posterity . And if that be all , why the opinion of the following Ages shall be of more force then the opinion of the first Ages , against whom Saint Austin in many things clearly did oppose himself , I see no reason . Or whether the first Ages were against him or no , yet that he is approved by the following Ages is no better Argument ; for it makes his Authority not be innate , but derived from the opinion of others , and so to be precaria , and to depend upon others , who if they should change their opinions , ( and such examples there have been many ) then there were nothing left to urge our consent to him , which when it was at the best was onely this , because he had the good fortune to be believed by them that came after , he must be so still : and because it was no Argument for the old Doctors before him , this will not be very good in his behalf . The same I say of any company of them , I say not so of all of them , it is to no purpose to say it , for there is no Question this day in contestation , in the explication of which all the old Writers did consent . In the assignation of the Canon of Scripture they never did consent for six hundred years together ; and then by that time the Bishops had agreed indifferently well , and but indifferently , upon that , they fell out in twenty more : and except it be in the Apostles Creed , and Articles of such nature , there is nothing which may with any colour be called a consent , much less Tradition Universal . 4. But I will rather chuse to shew the uncertainty of this Topick by such an Argument which was not in the Fathers power to help , such as makes no invasion upon their great reputation , which I desire should be preserved as sacred as it ought . For other things , let who please reade M. Daillé du vray usage des Peres : But I shall onely consider that the Writings of the Fathers have been so corrupted by the intermixture of Hereticks , so many false books put forth in their names , so many of their Writings lost which would more clearly have explicated their sense , and at last an open profession made and a trade of making the Fathers speak , not what themselves thought , but what other men pleased , that it is a great instance of God's providence and care of his Church , that we have so much good preserved in the Writings which we receive from the Fathers , and that all truth is not as clear gone as is the certainty of their great Authority and reputation . 5. The publishing books with the inscription of great names began in Saint Paul's time ; for some had troubled the Church of Thessalonica with a false Epistle in Saint Paul's name , against the inconvenience of which he arms them in 2 Thess. 2.1 . And this encreased daily in the Church . The Arians wrote an Epistle to Constantine under the name of Athanasius , and the Eutychians wrote against Cyril of Alexandria under the name of Theodoret ; and of the Age in which the seventh Synod was kept Erasmus reports , Libris falso celebrium virorum titulo commendatis scatere omnia . It was then a publick business , and a trick not more base then publick : But it was more ancient then so ; and it is memorable in the books atributed to Saint Basil , containing thirty Chapters De Spiritu Sancto , whereof fifteen were plainly by another hand under the covert of Saint Basil , as appears in the difference of the style , in the impertinent digressions , against the custome of that excellent man , by some passages contradictory to others of Saint Basil , by citing Meletius as dead before him , who yet lived three * years after him , and by the very frame and manner of the discourse : and yet it was so handsomly carried , and so well served the purposes of men , that it was indifferently quoted under the title of Saint Basil by many , but without naming the number of Chapters , and by Saint John Damascen in these words , Basilius in opere triginta capitum de Spiritu Sancto ad Amphilochium ; and to the same purpose , and in the number of 27 and 29 Chapters , he is cited by * Photius , by Euthymius , by Burchard , by Zonaras , Balsamon and Nicephorus . But for this see more in Erasmus his Preface upon this book of Saint Basil. There is an Epistle goes still under the name of Saint Hierom ad Demetriadem virginem , and is of great use in the Question of Predestination with its appendices ; and yet a very * learned man 800 years agone did believe it to be written by a Pelagian , and undertakes to confute divers parts of it , as being high and confident Pelagianism , and written by Julianus Episc. Eclanensis : but Gregorius Ariminensis from Saint Austin affirms it to have been written by Pelagius himself . I might instance in too many : There is not any one of the Fathers who is esteemed Authour of any considerable number of books that hath escaped untouched . But the abuse in this kind hath been so evident , that now if any interessed person of any side be pressed with an Authority very pregnant against him , he thinks to escape by accusing the Edition , or the Authour , or the hands it passed through , or at last he therefore suspects it because it makes against him : both sides being resolved that they are in the right , the Authorities that they admit they will believe not to be against them ; and they which are too plainly against them shall be no Authorities . And indeed the whole world hath been so much abused , that every man thinks he hath reason to suspect whatsoever is against him , that is , what he pleaseth : which proceeding onely produces this truth , that there neither is nor can be any certainty , nor very much probability , in such Allegations . 6. But there is a worse mischief then this , ( besides those very many which are not yet discovered ) which like the pestilence destroys in the dark , and grows into inconvenience more insensibly and more irremediably , and that is , corruption of particular places , by inserting words and altering them to contrary senses : a thing which the Fathers of the sixth General Synod complain'd of concerning the Constitutions of Saint Clement , quibus jam olim ab iis qui à fide aliena sentiunt adulterina quaedam , etiam à pietate aliena , introducta sunt , quae divinorum nobis Decretorum elegantem & venustam speciem obscurârunt . And so also have his Recognitions , so have his Epistles been used , if at least they were his at all ; particularly the fifth Decretall Epistle that goes under the name of Saint Clement , in which community of Wives is taught upon the Authority of Saint Luke , saying the first Christians had all things common ; if all things , then Wives also , says the Epistle : a forgery like to have been done by some Nicolaitan , or other impure person . There is an Epistle of Cyril extant to Successus Bishop of Diocaesarea , in which he relates that he was asked by Budus Bishop of Emessa , whether he did approve of the Epistle of Athanasius to Epictetus Bishop of Corinth ; and that his answer was , Si haec apud vos scripta non sint adultera : Nam plura ex his ab hostibus Ecclesiae deprehenduntur esse depravata . And this was done even while the Authours themselves were alive : for so Dionysius of Corinth complain'd that his writings were corrupted by Hereticks ; and Pope Leo , that his Epistle to Flavianus was perverted by the Greeks . And in the Synod of Constantinople before quoted ( the sixth Synod ) Macarius and his Disciples were convicted quòd Sanctorum testimonia aut truncârint aut depravârint . Thus the third Chapter of Saint Cyprian's book De unitate Ecclesiae in the Edition of Pamelius suffered great alteration ; these words [ Primatus Petro datur ] wholly inserted , and these [ super Cathedram Petri fundata est Ecclesia : ] and whereas it was before , super unum aedificat Ecclesiam Christus , that not being enough , they have made it super [ illum ] unum . Now these Additions are against the faith of all old Copies before Minutius and Pamelius , and against Gratian , even after himself had been chastised by the Roman Correctors , the Commissaries of Gregory XIII . as is to be seen where these words are alledged , Decret . c. 24. q. 1. can . Loquitur Dominus ad Petrum . So that we may say of Cyprian's works as Pamelius himself said concerning his writings and the writings of other of the Fathers , Vnde colligimus ( saith he ) Cypriani scripta , ut & aliorum Veterum , à librariis variè fuisse interpolata . But Gratian himself could doe as fine a feat when he listed , or else some-body did it for him , and it was in this very Question , their beloved Article of the Pope's Supremacy ; for De poenit . dist . 1. c. Potest fieri , he quotes these words out of Saint Ambrose , Non habent Petri haereditatem qui non habent Petri sedem : fidem , not sedem , it is in Saint Ambrose ; but this errour was made authentick by being inserted into the Code of the Law of the Catholick Church . And considering how little notice the Clergy had of antiquity but what was transmitted to them by Gratian , it will be no great wonder that all this part of the world swallowed such a bole , and the opinion that was wrapped in it . But I need not instance in Gratian any farther , but refer any one that desires to be satisfied concerning this Collection of his , to Augustinus Archbishop of Tarracon in emendatione Gratiani , where he shall find fopperies and corruptions good store noted by that learned man. But that the Indices expurgatorii commanded by Authority , and practised with publick licence , professe to alter and correct the sayings of the Fathers , and to reconcile them to the Catholick sense , by putting in and leaving out , is so great an Imposture , so unchristian a proceeding , that it hath made the faith of all books and all Authours justly to be suspected . For considering their infinite diligence and great opportunity , as having had most of the Copies in their own hands , together with an unsatisfiable desire of prevailing in their right or in their wrong , they have made an absolute destruction of this Topick : and when the Fathers speak * Latine , or breathe in a Roman Diocese , although the providence of God does infinitely over-rule them , and that it is next to a miracle that in the Monuments of Antiquity there is no more found that can pretend for their advantage then there is , which indeed is infinitely inconsiderable ; yet our Questions and uncertainties are infinitely multiplied , in stead of a probable and reasonable determination . For since the Latines alwaies complain'd of the Greeks for privately corrupting the ancient Records both of Councils and † Fathers , and now the Latines make open profession not of corrupting , but of correcting , their writings , ( that 's the word ) and at the most it was but a humane Authority , and that of persons not alwaies learned , and very often deceived ; the whole matter is so unreasonable , that it is not worth a farther disquisition . But if any one desires to enquire farther , he may be satisfied in Erasmus , in Henry and Robert Stephens , in their Prefaces before the Editions of the Fathers , and their Observations upon them ; in Bellarm. de scrip . Eccl. in D. Reynolds de lib. Apoc. in Scaliger , and Robert Coke of Leeds in Yorkshire , in his Book De censura Patrum . SECT . IX . Of the incompetency of the Church in its diffusive capacity to be Judge of Controversies , and the impertinency of that pretence of the Spirit . 1. AND now after all these considerations of the several Topicks , Tradition , Councils , Popes and ancient Doctors of the Church , I suppose it will not be necessary to consider the Authority of the Church apart . For the Church either speaks by Tradition , or by a representative body in a Council , by Popes , or by the Fathers : for the Church is not a Chimaera , not a shadow , but a company of men believing in Jesus Christ , which men either speak by themselves immediately , or by their Rulers , or by their proxies and representatives . Now I have considered it in all senses but in its diffusive capacity ; in which capacity she cannot be supposed to be a Judge of Controversies , both because in that capacity she cannot teach us , as also because if by a Judge we mean all the Church diffused in all its parts and members , so there can be no controversie : for if all men be of that opinion , then there is no Question contested ; if they be not all of a mind , how can the whole diffusive Catholick Church be pretended in defiance of any one Article , where the diffusive Church being divided , part goes this way , and part another ? But if it be said , The greatest part must carry it : Besides that it is impossible for us to know which way the greatest part goes in many Questions , it is not always true that the greater part is the best ; sometimes the contrary is most certain ; and it is often very probable , but it is always possible . And when paucity of followers was objected to Liberius , he gave this in answer , There was a time when but three Children of the Captivity resisted the King's Decree . And Athanasius wrote on purpose against those that did judge of truth by multitudes : and indeed it concerned him so to doe , when he alone stood in the gap against the numerous armies of the Arians . 2. But if there could in this case be any distinct consideration of the Church , yet to know which is the true Church is so hard to be found out , that the greatest Questions of Christendom are judged before you can get to your Judge , and then there is no need of him . For those Questions which are concerning the Judge of Questions must be determined before you can submit to his judgement ; and if you can yourselves determine those great Questions which consist much in universalities , then also you may determine the particulars , as being of less difficulty . And he that considers how many notes there are given to know the true Church by , no less then 15 by Bellarmine , and concerning every one of them almost whether it be a certain note or no there are very many questions and uncertainties , and when it is resolved which are the notes , there is more dispute about the application of these notes then of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , will quickly be satisfied that he had better sit still then to go round about a difficult and troublesome passage , and at last get no farther , but return to the place from whence he first set out . And there is one note amongst the rest , Holiness of Doctrine , that is , so as to have nothing false either in Doctrina fidei or morum , ( for so Bellarmine explicates it ) which supposes all your Controversies judged before they can be tried by the Authority of the Church ; and when we have found out all true Doctrine , ( for that is necessary to judge of the Church by , that , as Saint Austin's counsel is , Ecclesiam in verbis Christi investigemus ) then we are bound to follow , because we judge it true , not because the Church hath said it : and this is to judge of the Church by her Doctrine , not of the Doctrine by the Church . And indeed it is the best and onely way : But then how to judge of that Doctrine will be afterwards enquired into . In the mean time the Church , that is , the Governours of the Churches , are to judge for themselves , and for all those who cannot judge for themselves . For others , they must know that their Governours judge for them too , so as to keep them in peace and obedience , though not for the determination of their private perswasions . For the Oeconomy of the Church requires that her Authority be received by all her children . Now this Authority is Divine in its original , for it derives immediately from Christ ; but it is humane in its ministration . We are to be led like men , not like beasts . A Rule is prescribed for the Guides themselves to follow , as we are to follow the Guides : and although in matters indeterminable or ambiguous the presumption lies on behalf of the Governours , ( for we doe nothing for Authority if we suffer it not to weigh that part down of an indifferency and a question which she chuses ; ) yet if there be error manifestus , as it often happens , or if the Church-Governours themselves be rent into innumerable Sects , as it is this day in Christendom , then we are to be as wise as we can in chusing our Guides , and then to follow so long as that reason remains for which we first chose them . And even in that Government which was an immediate Sanction of God , I mean the Ecclesiasticall Government of the Synagogue , ( where God had consign'd the High-Priest's Authority with a menace of death to them that should disobey , that all the world might know the meaning and extent of such precepts , and that there is a limit beyond which they cannot command , and we ought not to obey ) it came once to that pass , that if the Priest had been obeyed in his Conciliary Decrees , the whole Nation had been bound to believe the condemnation of our Blessed Saviour to have been just ; and at another time the Apostles must no more have preached in the name of JESUS . But here was manifest errour . And the case is the same to every man that invincibly , and therefore innocently , believes it so . Deo potiùs quàm hominibus is our rule in such cases . For although every man is bound to follow his Guide , unless he believes his Guide to mislead him ; yet when he sees reason against his Guide , it is best to follow his reason : for though in this he may fall into errour , yet he will escape the sin ; he may doe violence to Truth , but never to his own Conscience ; and an honest errour is better then an hypocriticall profession of truth , or a violent luxation of the understanding , since if he retains his honesty and simplicity , he cannot erre in a matter of Faith or absolute necessity : God's goodness hath secured all honest and carefull persons from that ; for other things he must follow the best guides he can , and he cannot be obliged to follow better then God hath given him . 3. And there is yet another way pretended of infallible Expositions of Scripture , and that is , by the Spirit . But of this I shall say no more , but that it is impertinent as to this Question . For put case the Spirit is given to some men enabling them to expound infallibly ; yet because this is but a private assistance , and cannot be proved to others , this infallible assistance may determine my own assent , but shall not inable me to prescribe to others , because it were unreasonable I should , unless I could prove to him that I have the Spirit , and so can secure him from being deceived if he relies upon me . In this case I may say as S. Paul in the case of praying with the Spirit , He verily giveth thanks well , but the other is not edified . So that let this pretence be as true as it will , it is sufficient that it cannot be of consideration in this Question . 4. The result of all is this : Since it is not reasonable to limit and prescribe to all mens understandings by any external Rule in the interpretation of difficult places of Scripture , which is our Rule ; since no man nor company of men is secure from errour , or can secure us that they are free from malice , interest and design ; and since all the ways by which we usually are taught , as Tradition , Councils , Decretalls , &c. are very uncertain in the matter , in their authority , in their being legitimate and natural , and many of them certainly false , and nothing certain but the Divine Authority of Scripture , in which all that is necessary is plain , and much of that that is not necessary is very obscure , intricate and involv'd : either we must set up our rest onely upon Articles of Faith and plain places , and be incurious of other obscurer revelations , ( which is a duty for persons of private understandings , and of no publick function ; ) or if we will search farther , ( to which in some measure the Guides of others are obliged ) it remains we enquire how men may determine themselves , so as to doe their duty to God , and not to disserve the Church , that every such man may doe what he is bound to in his personal capacity , and as he relates to the publick as a publick minister . SECT . X. Of the authority of Reason , and that it proceeding upon best grounds is the best Judge . 1. HEre then I consider , that although no man may be trusted to judge for all others , unless this person were infallible and authorized so to doe , which no man nor no company of men is ; yet every man may be trusted to judge for himself , I say , every man that can judge at all , ( as for others they are to be saved as it pleaseth God : ) but others that can judge at all must either chuse their Guides who shall judge for them , ( and then they oftentimes doe the wisest , and always save themselves a labour , but then they chuse too ; ) or if they be persons of greater understanding , then they are to chuse for themselves in particular what the others doe in general , and by chusing their Guide : and for this any man may be better trusted for himself , then any man can be for another . For in this case his own interest is most concerned ; and ability is not so necessary as honesty , which certainly every man will best preserve in his own case , and to himself , ( and if he does not , it is he that must smart for 't ) and it is not required of us not to be in errour , but that we endeavour to avoid it . 2. He that follows his Guide so far as his Reason goes along with him , or , which is all one , he that follows his own Reason , ( not guided onely by natural arguments , but by Divine revelation , and all other good means ) hath great advantages over him that gives himself wholly to follow any humane Guide whatsoever , because he follows all their reasons and his own too : he follows them till Reason leaves them , or till it seems so to him , which is all one to his particular ; for by the confession of all sides , an erroneous Conscience binds him , when a right Guide does not bind him . But he that gives himself up wholly to a Guide is oftentimes ( I mean , if he be a discerning person ) forced to doe violence to his own understanding , and to lose all the benefit of his own discretion , that he may reconcile his Reason to his Guide . And of this we see infinite inconveniences in the Church of Rome ; for we find persons of great understanding oftentimes so amused with the Authority of their Church , that it is pity to see them sweat in answering some objections , which they know not how to doe , but yet believe they must , because the Church hath said it . So that if they reade , study , pray , search records , and use all the means of art and industry in the pursuit of truth , it is not with a resolution to follow that which shall seem truth to them , but to confirm what before they did believe : and if any Argument shall seem unanswerable against any Article of their Church , they are to take it for a temptation , not for an illumination , and they are to use it accordingly : which makes them make the Devil to be the Author of that which God's Spirit hath assisted them to find in the use of lawful means and the search of truth . And when the Devil of falshood is like to be cast out by God's Spirit , they say that it is through Beelzebub : which was one of the worst things that ever the Pharisees said or did . And was it not a plain stifling of the just and reasonable demands made by the Emperour , by the Kings of France and Spain , and by the ablest Divines among them , which was used in the Council of Trent , when they demanded the restitution of Priests to their liberty of Marriage , the use of the Chalice , the service in the Vulgar tongue ; and these things not onely in pursuance of Truth , but for other great and good ends , even to take away an infinite scandal and a great Schism ? And yet when they themselves did profess it , and all the world knew these reasonable demands were denied merely upon a politick consideration , yet that these things should be framed into Articles , and Decrees of Faith , and they for ever after bound not onely not to desire the same things , but to think the contrary to be Divine truths ; never was Reason made more a slave or more useless . Must not all the world say , either they must be great hypocrites , or doe great violence to their understanding , when they not onely cease from their claim , but must also believe it to be unjust ? If the use of their Reason had not been restrained by the tyranny and imperiousness of their Guide , what the Emperour and the Kings and their Theologues would have done , they can best judge who consider the reasonableness of the demand , and the unreasonableness of the deniall . But we see many wise men who with their Optandum esset ut Ecclesia licentiam daret , &c. proclaim to all the world , that in some things they consent and do not consent , and do not heartily believe what they are bound publickly to profess ; and they themselves would clearly see a difference , if a contrary Decree should be framed by the Church , they would with an infinite greater confidence rest themselves in other propositions then what they must believe as the case now stands ; and they would find that the Authority of a Church is a prejudice as often as a free and modest use of Reason is a temptation . 3. God will have no man pressed with another's inconveniences in matters spiritual and intellectual , no man's Salvation to depend upon another , and every tooth that eats sour grapes shall be set on edge for itself , and for none else : and this is remarkable in that saying of God by the Prophet , If the Prophet ceases to tell my people of their sins , and leads them into errour , the people shall die in their sins , and the bloud of them I will require at the hands of that Prophet ; meaning , that God hath so set the Prophets to guide us , that we also are to follow them by a voluntary assent , by an act of choice and election . For although accidentally and occasionally the sheep may perish by the shepherd's fault ; yet that which hath the chiefest influence upon their final condition is their own act and election : and therefore God hath so appointed Guides to us , that if we perish , it may be accounted upon both our scores , upon our own and the Guides too , which says plainly , that although we are intrusted to our Guides , yet we are intrusted to ourselves too . Our Guides must direct us ; and yet if they fail , God hath not so left us to them , but he hath given us enough to ourselves to discover their failings , and our own duties in all things necessary . And for other things we must doe as well as we can . But it is best to follow our Guides , if we know nothing better : but if we do , it is better to follow the pillar of fire then a pillar of cloud , though both possibly may lead to Canaan . But then also it is possible that it may be otherwise . But I am sure if I doe my own best , then if it be best to follow a Guide , and if it be also necessary , I shall be sure by God's grace and my own endeavour to get to it : But if I without the particular ingagement of my own understanding follow a Guide , possibly I may be guilty of extreme negligence , or I may extinguish God's Spirit , or doe violence to my own Reason . And whether intrusting myself wholly with another be not a laying up my talent in a napkin , I am not so well assured . I am certain the other is not . And since another man's answering for me will not hinder but that I also shall answer for myself ; as it concerns him to see he does not wilfully misguide me , so it concerns me to see that he shall not if I can help it ; if I cannot , it will not be required at my hands : whether it be his fault , or his invincible errour , I shall be charged with neither . 4. This is no other then what is enjoyned as a duty . For since God will be justified with a free obedience , and there is an obedience of understanding as well as of will and affection , it is of great concernment , as to be willing to believe whatever God says , so also to enquire diligently whether the will of God be so as is pretended . Even our acts of understanding are acts of choice : and therefore it is commanded as a duty , to search the Scriptures ; to try the spirits whether they be of God or no ; of our selves to be able to judge what is right ; to try all things , and to retain that which is best . For he that resolves not to consider , resolves not to be carefull whether he have truth or no , and therefore hath an affection indifferent to truth or falshood , which is all one as if he did chuse amiss : and since when things are truly propounded , and made reasonable and intelligible , we cannot but assent , and then it is no thanks to us ; we have no way to give our wills to God in matters of belief , but by our industry in searching it , and examining the grounds upon which the propounders build their dictates . And the not doing it is oftentimes a cause that God gives a man over 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , into a reprobate and undiscerning mind and understanding . 5. And this very thing ( though men will not understand it ) is the perpetuall practice of all men in the world that can give a reasonable account of their Faith. The very Catholick Church itself is rationabilis & ubique diffusa , saith Optatus , reasonable , as well as diffused every-where . For take the Proselytes of the Church of Rome , even in their greatest submission of understanding they seem to themselves to follow their Reason most of all . For if you tell them , Scripture and Tradition are their Rules to follow , they will believe you when they know a reason for it ; and if they take you upon your word , they have a reason for that too : either they believe you a learned man , or a good man , or that you can have no ends upon them , or something that is of an equal height to fit their understandings . If you tell them they must believe the Church , you must tell them why they are bound to it ; and if you quote Scripture to prove it , you must give them leave to judge whether the words alledged speak your sense or no , and therefore to dissent if they say no such thing . And although all men are not wise , and proceed discreetly , yet all make their choice some way or other . He that chuses to please his fancy takes his choice as much as he that chuses prudently . And no man speaks more unreasonably then he that denies to men the use of their Reason in choice of their Religion . For that I may by the way remove the common prejudice , Reason and Authority are not things incompetent or repugnant , especially when the Authority is infallible and supreme : for there is no greater Reason in the world then to believe such an Authority . But then we must consider whether every Authority that pretends to be such is so indeed . And therefore Deus dixit , ergò hoc verum est , is the greatest Demonstration in the world for things of this nature . But it is not so in humane Dictates , and yet Reason and humane Authority are not enemies . For it is a good argument for us to follow such an Opinion , because it is made sacred by the Authority of Councils and Ecclesiasticall Tradition , and sometimes it is the best reason we have in a Question , and then it is to be strictly followed : but there may also be at other times a reason greater then it that speaks against it , and then the Authority must not carry it . But then the difference is not between Reason and Authority , but between this Reason and that which is greater : for Authority is a very good reason , and is to prevail , unless a stronger comes and disarms it , but then it must give place . So that in this Question by [ Reason ] I do not mean a distinct Topick , but a transcendent that runs through all Topicks : for Reason , like Logick , is instrument of all things else ; and when Revelation , and Philosophie , and publick Experience , and all other grounds of probability or demonstration have supplied us with matter , then Reason does but make use of them : that is , in plain terms , there being so many ways of arguing , so many Sects , such differing interests , such variety of Authority , so many pretences , and so many false beliefs , it concerns every wise man to consider which is the best Argument , which Proposition relies upon the truest grounds . And if this were not his onely way , why do men dispute and urge Arguments ? why do they cite Councils and Fathers ? why do they alledge Scripture and Tradition , and all this on all sides , and to contrary purposes ? If we must judge , then we must use our Reason ; if we must not judge , why do they produce evidence ? Let them leave disputing , and decree Propositions magisterially ; but then we may chuse whether we will believe them or no : or if they say we must believe them , they must prove it , and tell us why . And all these disputes concerning Tradition , Councils , Fathers , &c. are not Arguments against or besides Reason , but contestations and pretences to the best Arguments , and the most certain satisfaction of our Reason . But then all these coming into question submit themselves to Reason , that is , to be judged by humane understanding , upon the best grounds and information it can receive . So that Scripture , Tradition , Councils and Fathers are the evidence in a question , but Reason is the Judge : that is , we being the persons that are to be perswaded , we must see that we be perswaded reasonably ; and it is unreasonable to assent to a lesser evidence , when a greater and clearer is propounded . But of that every man for himself is to take cognizance , if he be able to judge ; if he be not , he is not bound under the tie of necessity to know any thing of it : that that is necessary shall be certainly conveyed to him , God , that best can , will certainly take care for that ; for if he does not , it becomes to be not necessary ; or if it should still remain necessary , and he damned for not knowing it , and yet to know it be not in his power , then who can help it ? there can be no farther care in this business . In other things , there being no absolute and prime necessity , we are left to our liberty to judge that way that makes best demonstration of our piety and of our love to God and truth , not that way that is always the best argument of an excellent understanding ; for this may be a blessing , but the other onely is a duty . 6. And now that we are pitch'd upon that way which is most natural and reasonable in determination of ourselves rather then of questions , which are often indeterminable , since right Reason proceeding upon the best grounds it can , viz. of Divine revelation and humane Authority and probability , is our Guide , ( stando in humanis ) and supposing the assistance of God's Spirit , ( which he never denies them that fail not of their duty in all such things in which he requires truth and certainty ; ) it remains that we consider how it comes to pass that men are so much deceived in the use of their Reason and choice of their Religion , and that in this account we distinguish those accidents which make errour innocent from those which make it become a Heresie . SECT . XI . Of some causes of Errour in the exercise of Reason which are inculpate in themselves . 1. THen I consider that there are a great many inculpable causes of Errour , which are arguments of humane imperfections , not convictions of a sin . And ( First ) The variety of humane understandings is so great , that what is plain and apparent to one is difficult and obscure to another ; one will observe a consequent from a common Principle , and another from thence will conclude the quite contrary . When S. Peter saw the Vision of the sheet let down with all sorts of beasts in it , and a voice saying , Surge , Petre , macta & manduca , if he had not by a particular assistance been directed to the meaning of the Holy Ghost , possibly he might have had other apprehensions of the meaning of that Vision ; for to myself it seems naturally to speak nothing but the abolition of the Mosaicall Rites , and the restitution of us to that part of Christian liberty which consists in the promiscuous eating of meats : and yet besides this , there want not some understandings in the world , to whom these words seem to give S. Peter a power to kill Hereticall Princes . Methinks it is a strange understanding that makes such extractions ; but Bozius and Baronius did so . But men may understand what they please , especially when they are to expound Oracles . It was an argument of some wit , but of singularity of understanding , that happened in the great contestation between the Missals of S. Ambrose and S. Gregory . The lot was thrown , and God made to be Judge ; so as he was tempted to a Miracle , to answer a question which themselves might have ended without much trouble . The two Missals were laid upon the Altar , and the Church-door shut and sealed . By the morrow-Mattins they found Saint Gregorie's Missal torn in pieces , ( saith the story ) and thrown about the Church , but S. Ambrose's opened and laid upon the Altar in a posture of being read . If I had been to judge of the meaning of this Miracle , I should have made no scruple to have said it had been the will of God that the Missal of Saint Ambrose , which had been anciently used , and publickly tried and approved of , should still be read in the Church , and that of Gregory let alone , it being torn by an Angelicall hand as an Argument of its imperfection , or of the inconvenience of innovation . But yet they judg'd it otherwise ; for by the tearing and scattering about , they thought it was meant it should be used over all the world , and that of S. Ambrose read onely in the Church of Milain . I am more satisfied that the former was the true meaning , then I am of the truth of the story : But we must suppose that . And now there might have been eternall disputings about the meaning of the Miracle , and nothing left to determine , when two fancies are the litigants , and the contestations about probabilities hinc indé . And I doubt not this was one cause of so great variety of Opinions in the Primitive Church , when they proved their several Opinions , which were mysterious Questions of Christian Theologie , by testimonies out of the obscurer Prophets , out of the Psalms and Canticles ▪ as who please to observe their arguments of discourse and actions of Council shall perceive they very much used to doe . Now although mens understandings be not equal , and that it is fit the best understandings should prevail ; yet that will not satisfie the weaker understandings , because all men will not think that another understanding is better then his own , at least not in such a particular in which with fancy he hath pleased himself . But commonly they that are least able are most bold , and the more ignorant is the more confident : therefore it is but reason , if he would have another bear with him , he also should bear with another ; and if he will not be prescribed to , neither let him prescribe to others . And there is the more reason in this , because such modesty is commonly to be desired of the more imperfect : for wise men know the ground of their perswasion , and have their confidence proportionable to their evidence ; others have not , but over-act their trifles . And therefore I said it is but a reasonable demand , that they that have the least reason should not be most imperious : and for others , it being reasonable enough , for all their great advantages upon other men , they will be soon perswaded to it . For although wise men might be bolder in respect of the persons of others less discerning ; yet they know there are but few things so certain as to create much boldness and confidence of assertion . If they do not , they are not the men I take them for . 2. Secondly , When an action or Opinion is commenc'd with zeal and piety against a known vice o● a vicious person , commonly all the mistakes of its proceeding are made sacred by the holiness of the principle , and so abuses the perswasions of good people , that they make it as a Characteristick note to distinguish good persons from bad : and then whatever errour is consecrated by this means is therefore made the more lasting , because it is accounted holy ; and the persons are not easily accounted Hereticks , because they erred upon a pious principle . There is a memorable instance in one of the greatest Questions of Christendome , viz. concerning Images . For when Philippicus had espied the Images of the six first Synods upon the front of a Church , he caused them to be pulled down : now he did it in hatred of the sixth Synod ; for he , being a Monothelite , stood condemned by that Synod . The Catholicks that were zealous for the sixth Synod caused the Images and representments to be put up again : and then sprung the Question concerning the lawfulness of Images in Churches . Philippicus and his party strived by suppressing Images to doe disparagement to the sixth Synod : the Catholicks , to preserve the honour of the sixth Synod , would uphold Images . And then the Question came to be changed , and they who were easie enough to be perswaded to pull down Images , were over-awed by a prejudice against the Monothelites ; and the Monothelites strived to maintain the advantage they had got by a just and pious pretence against Images . The Monothelites would have secured their errour by the advantage and consociation of a truth ; and the other would rather defend a dubious and disputable errour , then lose and let goe a certain truth . And thus the case stood , and the successors of both parts were led invincibly . For when the Heresie of the Monothelites disbanded , ( which it did in a while after ) yet the opinion of the Iconoclasts , and the Question of Images , grew stronger . Yet since the Iconoclasts at the first were Hereticks , not for their breaking Images , but for denying the two Wills of Christ , his Divine and his Humane ; that they were called Iconoclasts was to distinguish their opinion in the Question concerning the Images , but that then Iconoclasts so easily had the reputation of Hereticks was because of the other Opinion which was conjunct in their persons : which Opinion men afterwards did not easily distinguish in them , but took them for Hereticks in gross , and whatsoever they held to be hereticall . And thus upon this prejudice grew great advantages to the veneration of Images ; and the persons at first were much to be excused , because they were misguided by that which might have abused the best men . And if Epiphanius , who was as zealous against Images in Churches as Philippicus or Leo Isaurus , had but begun a publick contestation , and engaged Emperours to have made Decrees against them , Christendom would have had other apprehensions of it then they had when the Monothelites began it . For few men will endure a truth from the mouth of the Devil , and if the person be suspected , so are his ways too . And it is a great subtilty of the Devil , so to temper truth and falshood in the same person , that truth may lose much of its reputation by its mixture with errour , and the errour may become more plausible by reason of its conjunction with truth . And this we see by too much experience ; for we see many Truths are blasted in their reputation , because persons whom we think we hate upon just grounds of Religion have taught them . And it was plain enough in the case of Maldonat , that said of an explication of a place of Scripture , that it was most agreeable to Antiquity , but because Calvin had so expounded it , he therefore chose a new one . This was malice . But when a prejudice works tacitly , undiscernibly , and irresistibly of the person so wrought upon , the man is to be pitied , not condemned , though possibly his Opinion deserves it highly . And therefore it hath been usual to discredit Doctrines by the personal defaillances of them that preach them , or with the dis-reputation of that Sect that maintains them in conjunction with other perverse doctrines . Faustus the Manichee , in S. Austin , glories much that in their Religion God was worshipped purely and without Images . S. Austin liked it well , for so it was in his too : but from hence Sanders concludes , that to pull down Images in Churches was the Heresie of the Manichees . The Jews endure no Images ; therefore Bellarmine makes it to be a piece of Judaism to oppose them . He might as well have concluded against saying our prayers and Church-musick , that it is Judaicall , because the Jews used it . And he would be loath to be served so himself : for he that had a mind to use such arguments might with much better probability conclude against their Sacrament of extreme Unction , because when the miraculous healing was ceased , then they were not Catholicks , but Hereticks , that did transfer it to the use of dying persons , ( says Irenaeus ; ) for so did the Valentinians . And indeed this argument is something better then I thought for at first , because it was in Irenaeus time reckoned amongst the Heresies . But there are a sort of men that are even with them , and hate some good things which the Church of Rome teaches , because she who teaches so many errours hath been the publisher , and is the practiser , of those things . I confess the thing is always unreasonable , but sometimes it is invincible and innocent ; and then may serve to abate the fury of all such decretory sentences as condemn all the world but their own Disciples . 3. Thirdly , There are some Opinions that have gone hand in hand with a blessing and a prosperous profession ; and the good success of their defenders hath amused many good people , because they thought they heard God's voice where they saw God's hand , and therefore have rushed upon such Opinions with great piety and as great mistaking . For where they once had entertain'd a fear of God , and apprehension of his so sensible declaration , such a fear produces scruple , and a scrupulous conscience is always to be pitied , because , though it is seldome wise , it is always pious . And this very thing hath prevailed so far upon the understandings even of wise men , that Bellarmine makes it a note of the true Church . Which Opinion when it prevails is a ready way to make , that in stead of Martyrs all men should prove Hereticks or Apostates in persecution : for since men in misery are very suspicious , out of strong desires to find out the cause , that by removing it they may be relieved , they apprehend that to be it that is first presented to their fears ; and then if ever Truth be afflicted , she shall also be destroyed . I will say nothing in defiance of this fancy , although all the experience in the world says it is false , and that of all men Christians should least believe it to be true , to whom a perpetual Cross is their certain expectation , ( and the Argument is like the Moon , for which no garment can be fit , it alters according to the success of humane affairs , and in one Age will serve a Papist , and in another a Protestant : ) yet when such an Opinion does prevail upon timorous persons , the malignity of their errour ( if any be consequent to this fancy , and taken up upon the reputation of a prosperous Heresie ) is not to be considered simply and nakedly , but abatement is to be made in a just proportion to that fear and to that apprehension . 4. Fourthly , Education is so great and so invincible a prejudice , that he who masters the inconvenience of it is more to be commended then he can justly be blamed that complies with it . For men do not always call them Principles which are the prime Fountains of Reason , from whence such consequents naturally flow as are to guide the actions and discourses of men ; but they are Principles which they are first taught , which they suckt in next to their milk , and by a proportion to those first Principles they usually take their estimate of Propositions . For whatsoever is taught to them at first they believe infinitely , for they know nothing to the contrary , they have had no other Masters whose Theorems might abate the strength of their first perswasions ; and it is a great advantage in those cases to get possession ; and before their first principles can be dislodg'd , they are made habitual and complexionall , it is in their nature then to believe them ▪ and this is helped forward very much by the advantage of love and veneration which we have to the first parents of our perswasions . And we see it in the Orders of Regulars in the Church of Rome . That Opinion which was the Opinion of their Patron or Founder , or of some eminent Personage of the Institute , is enough to engage all the Order to be of that Opinion : and it is strange that all the Dominicans should be of one Opinion in the matter of Predetermination and immaculate Conception , and all the Franciscans of the quite contrary , as if their understandings were formed in a different mold , and furnished with various principles by their very Rule . Now this prejudice works by many principles ; but how strongly they do possess the understanding is visible in that great instance of the affection and perfect perswasion the weaker sort of people have to that which they call the Religion of their Fore-fathers . You may as well charm a Fever asleep with the noise of bells , as make any pretence of Reason against that Religion which old men have intailed upon their heirs male so many generations till they can prescribe . And the Apostles found this to be most true in the extremest difficulty they met with to contest against the Rites of Moses , and the long Superstition of the Gentiles , which they therefore thought fit to be retained , because they had done so formerly ; Pergentes non quò eundum est , sed quò itur : and all the blessings of this life which God gave them they had in conjunction with their Religion , and therefore they believed it was for their Religion ; and this perswasion was bound fast in them with ribs of iron : the Apostles were forced to unloose the whole conjuncture of parts and principles in their understandings , before they could make them malleable and receptive of any impresses . But the observation and experience of all wise men can justifie this truth . All that I shall say to the present purpose is this , that consideration is to be had to the weakness of persons when they are prevailed upon by so innocent a prejudice : and when there cannot be arguments strong enough to over-master an habitual perswasion bred with a man , nourished up with him , that always eat at his table , and lay in his bosome , he is not easily to be called Heretick ; for if he keeps the foundation of Faith , other Articles are not so clearly demonstrated on either side , but that a man may innocently be abused to the contrary . And therefore in this case to handle him charitably , is but to doe him justice . And when an Opinion in minoribus articulis is entertained upon the title and stock of education , it may be the better permitted to him , since upon no better stock nor stronger arguments most men entertain their whole Religion , even Christianity itself . 5. Fifthly , there are some persons of a differing perswasion who therefore are the rather to be tolerated , because the indirect practices and impostures of their adversaries have confirmed them , that those Opinions which they disavow are not from God , as being upheld by means not of God's appointment . For it is no unreasonable discourse to say , that God will not be served with a lie ; for he does not need one , and he hath means enough to support all those Truths which he hath commanded , and hath supplied every honest cause with enough for its maintenance , and to contest against its adversaries . And ( but that they which use indirect arts will not be willing to lose any of their unjust advantages , nor yet be charitable to those persons whom either to gain or to undoe they leave nothing unattempted ) the Church of Rome hath much reason not to be so decretory in her sentences against persons of a differing perswasion : for if their cause were entirely the cause of God , they have given wise people reason to suspect it , because some of them have gone to the Devil to defend it . And if it be remembred what tragedies were stirred up against Luther , for saying the Devil had taught him an argument against the Mass ; it will be of as great advantage against them , that they goe to the Devil for many arguments to support , not onely the Mass , but the other distinguishing Articles of their Church . I instance in the notorious forging of Miracles , and framing of false and ridiculous Legends . For the former I need no other instances then what hapned in the great contestation about the immaculate Conception , when there were Miracles brought on both sides to prove the contradictory parts : and though it be more then probable that both sides play'd the jugglers , yet the Dominicans had the ill luck to be discovered , and the actors burn'd at Berne . But this discovery hapned by providence ; for the Dominican Opinion hath more degrees of probability then the Franciscan , is clearly more consonant both to Scripture and all Antiquity ; and this part of it is acknowledged by the greatest Patrons themselves , as Salmeron , Posa , and Wadding : yet because they played the knaves in a just Question , and used false arts to maintain a true proposition , God Almighty , to shew that he will not be served by a lie , was pleased rather to discover the Imposture in the right Opinion then in the false , since nothing is more dishonourable to God then to offer a sin in sacrifice to him , and nothing more incongruous in the nature of the thing then that truth and falshood should support each other , or that true Doctrine should live at the charges of a lie . And he that considers the arguments for each Opinion will easily conclude , that if God would not have truth confirmed by a lie , much less would he himself attest a lie with a true Miracle . And by this ground it will easily follow that the Franciscan party , although they had better luck then the Dominicans , yet had not more honesty , because their cause was worse , and therefore their arguments no whit the better . And although the argument drawn from Miracles is good to attest a holy Doctrine , which by its own worth will support itself after way is a little made by Miracles ; yet of itself and by its own reputation it will not support any fabrick : for in stead of proving a Doctrine to be true , it makes that the Miracles themselves are suspected to be Illusions , if they be pretended in behalf of a Doctrine which we think we have reason to account false . And therefore the Jews did not believe Christ's Doctrine for his Miracles , but disbelieved the truth of his Miracles because they did not like his Doctrine . And if the holiness of his Doctrine , and the Spirit of God by inspirations and infusions , and by that which Saint Peter calls a surer word of Prophecy , had not attested the Divinity both of his Person and his Office , we should have wanted many degrees of confidence which now we have upon the truth of Christian Religion . But now since we are foretold by this surer word of prophecy , that is , the prediction of Jesus Christ , that Antich●ist should come in all wonders and signs and lying miracles , and that the Church saw much of that already verified in Simon Magus , Apollonius Tyaneus , and Manetho , and divers * Hereticks , it is now come to that pass , that the Argument in its best advantage proves nothing so much as that the Doctrine which it pretends to prove is to be suspected , because it was foretold that false doctrine should be obtruded under such pretences . But then when not onely true Miracles are an insufficient argument to prove a Truth since the establishment of Christianity , but that the Miracles themselves are false and spurious , it makes that Doctrine in whose defence they come justly to be suspected , because they are a demonstration that the interessed persons use all means , leave nothing unattempted , to prove their propositions ; but since they so fail as to bring nothing from God , but something from the Devil , for its justification , it 's a great sign that the Doctrine is false , because we know the Devil , unless it be against his will , does nothing to prove a true proposition that makes against him . And now then those persons who will endure no man of another Opinion might doe well to remember how by their Exorcisms , their Devils tricks at Lowdon , and the other side pretending to cure mad folks and persons bewitched , and the many discoveries of their juggling , they have given so much reason to their adversaries to suspect their Doctrine , that either they must not be ready to condemn their persons who are made suspicious by their indirect proceeding in attestation of that which they value so high as to call their Religion , or else they must condemn themselves for making the scandal active and effectual . 6. As for false Legends , it will be of the same consideration , because they are false Testimonies of Miracles that were never done ; which differs onely from the other as a lie in words from a lie in action : but of this we have witness enough in that Decree of Pope Leo X. Session the eleventh of the last Lateran Council , where he excommunicates all the forgers and inventers of Visions and false Miracles : which is a testimony that it was then a practice so publick as to need a Law for its suppression . And if any man shall doubt whether it were so or not , let him see the Centum gravamina of the Princes of Germany , where it is highly complain'd of . But the extreme stupidity and sottishness of the inventers of lying stories is so great , as to give occasion to some persons to suspect the truth of all * Church-story : witness the Legend of Lombardy ; of the Authour of which the Bishop of the Canaries gives this Testimony , In illo enim libro miraculorum monstra saepius quàm vera miracula legas . Hanc homo scripsit ferrei oris , plumbei cordis , animi certè parùm severi & prudentis . But I need not descend so low , for S. Gregory and Ven. Bede themselves reported Miracles for the authority of which they onely had the report of the common people ; and it is not certain that S. Hierome had so much in his stories of S. Paul and S. Anthony , and the Fauns and the Satyrs which appeared to them , and desired their prayers . But I shall onely by way of eminency note what Sir Thomas More says in his Epistle to Ruthal the King's Secretary before the Dialogue of Lucian [ Philopseudes , ] that therefore he undertook the translation of that Dialogue , to free the world from a Superstition that crept in under the face and title of Religion . For such lies ( says he ) are transmitted to us with such authority , that a certain Impostor had perswaded S. Austin , that the very Fable which Lucian scoffs and makes sport withall in that * Dialogue was a real story , and acted in his own days . The Epistle is worth the reading to this purpose : but he says this abuse grew to such a height , that scarce any life of any Saint or Martyr is truly related , but is full of lies and lying wonders ; and some persons thought they served God if they did honour to God's Saints by inventing some prodigious story or Miracle for their reputation . So that now it is no wonder if the most pious men are apt to believe , and the greatest Historians are easie enough to report , such Stories , which serving to a good end , are also consigned by the report of persons otherwise pious and prudent enough . I will not instance in Vincentius his Speculum , Turonensis , Thomas Cantipratanus , John Herolt , Vitae Patrum , nor the Revelations of Saint Brigit , though confirmed by two Popes , Martin V. and Boniface IX . Even the best and most deliberate amongst them , Lippoman , Surius , Lipsius , Bzovius and Baronius , are so full of Fables , that they cause great disreputation to the other Monuments and Records of Antiquity , and yet doe no advantage to the cause under which they serve and take pay . They doe no good , and much hurt ; but yet accidentally they may procure this advantage to Charity , since they doe none to Faith , that since they have so abused the credit of Story , that our confidences want much of that support we should receive from her records of Antiquity , yet the men that dissent and are scandalized by such proceedings should be excused if they should chance to be afraid of truth that hath put on garments of imposture : and since much violence is done to the truth and certainty of their judging , let none be done to their liberty of judging ; since they cannot meet a right Guide , let them have a charitable Judge . And since it is one very great argument against Simon Magus and against Mahomet , that we can prove their Miracles to be Impostures ; it is much to be pitied if timorous and suspicious persons shall invincibly and honestly less apprehend a Truth which they see conveyed by such a testimony which we all use as an argument to reprove the Mahometan Superstition . 7. Sixthly , Here also comes in all the weaknesses and trifling prejudices which operate not by their own strength , but by advantage taken from the weakness of some understandings . Some men by a Proverb or a common saying are determined to the belief of a Proposition , for which they have no argument better then such a proverbial sentence . And when divers of the common people in Jerusalem were ready to yield their understandings to the belief of the Messias , they were turned clearly from their apprehensions by that Proverb , Look and see , does any good thing come from Galilee ? and this , When Christ comes , no man knows from whence he is ; but this man was known of what parents , of what City . And thus the weakness of their understanding was abused , and that made the argument too hard for them . And the whole seventh Chapter of S. John's Gospel is a perpetuall instance of the efficacy of such trifling prejudices , and the vanity and weakness of popular understandings . Some whole Ages have been abused by a Definition , which being once received , as most commonly they are upon slight grounds , they are taken for certainties in any Science respectively , and for Principles , and upon their reputation men use to frame Conclusions , which must be false or uncertain according as the Definitions are . And he that hath observed any thing of the weaknesses of men , and the successions of groundless Doctrines from Age to Age , and how seldome Definitions which are put into Systems , or that derive from the Fathers , or are approved among School-men , are examined by persons of the same interests , will bear me witness how many and great inconveniences press hard upon the perswasions of men , who are abused , and yet never consider who hurt them . Others , and they very many , are led by authority or examples of Princes and great personages : Numquis credit ex Principibus ? Some by the reputation of one learned man are carried into any perswasion whatsoever . And in the middle and latter Ages of the Church this was the more considerable , because the infinite ignorance of the Clerks and the men of the Long robe gave them over to be led by those few Guides which were marked to them by an eminency , much more then their Ordinary : which also did the more amuse them , because most commonly they were fit for nothing but to admire what they understood not . Their learning then was some skill in the Master of the Sentences , in Aquinas or Scotus , whom they admired next to the most intelligent order of Angels : hence came Opinions that made Sects and division of names , Thomists , Scotists , Albertists , Nominals , Reals , and I know not what monsters of Names ; and whole families of the same Opinion , the whole institute of an Order being engaged to believe according to the Opinion of some leading man of the same Order , as if such an Opinion were imposed upon them in virtute sanctae obedientiae . But this inconvenience is greater when the principle of the mistake runs higher , when the Opinion is derived from a Primitive man and a Saint ; for then it often happens that what at first was but a plain innocent seduction comes to be made sacred by the veneration which is consequent to the person for having lived long agone ; and then , because the person is also since canonized , the errour is almost made eternall , and the cure desperate . These and the like prejudices , which are as various as the miseries of humanity or the variety of humane understandings , are not absolute excuses , unless to some persons : but truly if they be to any , they are exemptions to all from being pressed with too peremptory a sentence against them ; especially if we consider what leave is given to all men by the Church of Rome , to follow any one probable Doctor in an Opinion which is contested against by many more . And as for the Doctors of the other side , they being destitute of any pretences to an infallible medium to determine Questions , must of necessity allow the same liberty to the people , to be as prudent as they can in the choice of a fallible Guide ; and when they have chosen , if they do follow him into errour , the matter is not so inexpiable for being deceived in using the best Guides we had , which Guides , because themselves were abused ; did also against their wills deceive me . So that this prejudice may the easier abuse us , because it is almost like a duty to follow the dictates of a probable Doctor : or if it be overacted or accidentally pass into an inconvenience , it is therefore to be excused because the Principle was not ill , unless we judge by our event , not by the antecedent probability . Of such men as these it was said by Saint Austin , Caeteram turbam non intelligendi vivacitas , sed credendi simplicitas tutissimam facit . And Gregory Nazianzen , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The common sort of people are safe in their not enquiring , by their own industry , and in the simplicity of their understanding relying upon the best Guides they can get . 8. But this is of such a nature in which as we may inculpably be deceived , so we may turn it into a vice or a design ; and then the consequent errours will alter the property , and become Heresies . There are some men that have mens persons in admiration because of advantage , and some that have itching ears , and heap up Teachers to themselves ▪ In these and the like cases the authority of a person and the prejudices of a great reputation is not the excuse , but the fault ; and a Sin is so far from excusing an Errour , that Errour becomes a Sin by reason of its relation to that Sin as to its parent and principle . SECT . XII . Of the Innocency of Errour in Opinion in a pious person . 1. AND therefore as there are so many innocent causes of Errour as there are weaknesses within and harmless and unavoidable prejudices from without ; so if ever errour be procured by a vice , it hath no excuse , but becomes such a crime , of so much malignity , as to have influence upon the effect and consequent , and by communication makes it become criminal . The Apostles noted two such causes , Covetousness and Ambition ; the former in them of the Circumcision , and the latter in Diotrephes and Simon Magus : and there were some that were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 · they were of the Long robe too , but they were the she-Disciples , upon whose Consciences some false Apostles had influence by advantage of their wantonness : and thus the three principles of all sin become also the principles of Heresie ; the lust of the flesh , the lust of the eye , and the pride of life . And in pursuance of these arts the Devil hath not wanted fuell to set a-work Incendiaries in all Ages of the Church . The Bishops were always honourable , and most commonly had great Revenues , and a Bishoprick would satisfie the two designs of Covetousness and Ambition ; and this hath been the golden apple very often contended for , and very often the cause of great fires in the Church . Thebulis , quia rejectus ab Episcopatu Hierosolymitano , turbare coepit Ecclesiam , said Egesippus in Eusebius . Tertullian turned Montanist in discontent for missing the Bishoprick of Carthage after Agrippinus ; and so did Montanus himself for the same discontent , saith Nicephorus . Novatus would have been Bishop of Rome , Donatus of Carthage , Arius of Alexandria , Aërius of Sebastia ; but they all missed , and therefore all of them vexed Christendom . And this was so common a thing , that oftentimes the threatning the Church with a Schism or a Heresie was a design to get a Bishoprick . And Socrates reports of Asterius , that he did frequent the Conventicles of the Arians : Nam Episcopatum aliquem ambiebat . And setting aside the infirmities of men and their innocent prejudices , Epiphanius makes Pride to be the onely cause of Heresies ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Pride and Prejudice cause them all , the one criminally , the other innocently . And indeed S. Paul does almost make Pride the onely cause of Heresies : his words cannot be expounded , unless it be at least the principal ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and consents not to sound words , and the doctrine that is according to godliness , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 2. The summe is this , If ever an Opinion be begun with pride , or manag'd with impiety , or ends in a crime , the man turns Heretick : but let the errour be never so great , so it be not against an Article of Creed , if it be simple and hath no confederation with the personal iniquity of the man , the Opinion is as innocent as the person , though perhaps as false as he is ignorant , and therefore shall burn , though he himself escape . But in these cases and many more ( for the causes of deception encrease by all accidents , and weaknesses , and illusions ) no man can give certain judgement upon the persons of men in particular , unless the matter of fact and crime be accident and notorious . The man cannot by humane judgement be concluded a Heretick , unless his Opinion be an open recession from plain demonstrative Divine Authority , ( which must needs be notorious , voluntary , vincible and criminal ) or that there be a palpable serving of an end accidental and extrinsecall to the Opinion . 3. But this latter is very hard to be discerned , because those accidental and adherent crimes which make the man a Heretick , in Questions not simply fundamental or of necessary practice , are actions so internall and spiritual that cognizance can but seldome be taken of them . And therefore ( to instance ) though the Opinion of Purgatory be false , yet to believe it cannot be Heresie , if a man be abused into the belief of it invincibly ; because it is not a Doctrine either fundamentally false or practically impious , it neither proceeds from the will , nor hath any immediate or direct influence upon choice and manners . And as for those other ends of upholding that Opinion which possibly its Patrons may have , as for the reputation of their Churche's Infallibility , for the advantage of Dirges , Requiems , Masses , Monthly minds , Anniversaries , and other Offices for the dead , which usually are very profitable , rich and easie ; these things may possibly have sole influences upon their understanding , but whether they have or no God onely knows . If the Proposition and Article were true , these ends might justly be subordinate and consistent with a true Proposition . And there are some Truths that are also profitable , as the necessity of maintenance to the Clergy , the Doctrine of Restitution , giving Alms , Lending freely , Remitting debts in cases of great necessity : and it would be but an ill argument that the Preachers of these Doctrines speak false , because possibly in these Articles they may serve their own ends . For although Demetrius and the Craftsmen were without excuse for resisting the preaching of S. Paul , because it was notorious they resisted the Truth upon ground of profit and personal emoluments , and the matter was confessed by themselves ; yet if the Clergy should maintain their just Rights and Revenues which by pious dedications and donatives were long since ascertained upon them , is it to be presumed in order of Law and charity , that this end is in the men subordinate to truth , because it is so in the thing itself , and that therefore no judgement in prejudice of these truths can be made from that observation ? 4. But if aliunde we are ascertained of the truth or falshood of a Proposition respectively , yet the judgement of the personal ends of the men cannot ordinarily be certain and judicial , because most commonly the acts are private , and the purposes internall , and temporal ends may sometimes consist with truth ; and whether the purposes of the men make these ends principal or subordinate , no man can judge : and be they how they will , yet they do not always prove that , when they are conjunct with errour , the errour was caused by these purposes and criminal intentions . 5. But in Questions practical the Doctrine itself and the person too may with more ease be reproved , because matter of fact being evident , and nothing being so certain as the experiments of humane affairs , and these being the immediate consequents of such Doctrines , are with some more certainty of observation redargued then the speculative , whose judgement is of itself more difficult , more remote from matter and humane observation , and with less curiosity and explicitness declared in Scripture , as being of less consequence and concernment in order to God's and Man's great end . In other things which end in notion and ineffective contemplation , where neither the Doctrine is malicious , nor the person apparently criminal , he is to be left to the judgement of God : and as there is no certainty of humane judicature in this case , so it is to no purpose it should be judged . For if the person may be innocent with his Errour , and there is no rule whereby it can certainly be pronounced that he is actually criminal ; ( as it happens in matters speculative ) since the end of the Commandment is love out of a pure conscience , and faith unfeigned , and the Commandment may obtain its end in a consistence with this simple speculative Errour ; why should men trouble themselves with such Opinions , so as to disturb the publick charity or the private confidence ? Opinions and persons are just so to be judged as other matters and persons criminal . For no man can judge any thing else : it must be a crime , and it must be open , so as to take cognizance and make true humane judgement of it . And this is all I am to say concerning the causes of Heresies , and of the distinguishing Rules for guiding of our judgements towards others . 6. As for guiding our judgements and the use of our Reason in judging for ourselves , all that is to be said is reducible to this one Proposition : Since Errours are then made sins when they are contrary to charity , or inconsistent with a good life and the honour of God , that judgement is the truest , or at least that opinion most innocent , that , 1. best promotes the reputation of God's Glory , and , 2. is the best instrument of holy life . For in Questions and interpretations of dispute these two analogies are the best to make Propositions , and conjectures and determinations . Diligence and care in obtaining the best Guides , and the most convenient assistances , prayer , and modesty of spirit , simplicity of purposes and intentions , humility and aptness to learn , and a peaceable disposition , are therefore necessary to finding out Truths , because they are parts of good life , without which our Truths will doe us little advantage , and our errours can have no excuse . But with these dispositions as he is sure to find out all that is necessary ; so what Truth he inculpably misses of he is sure is therefore not necessary , because he could not find it when he did his best and his most innocent endeavours . And this I say to secure the persons ; because no Rule can antecedently secure the Proposition in matters disputable . For even in the proportions and explications of this Rule there is infinite variety of disputes : And when the dispute is concerning Free will , one party denies it , because he believes it magnifies the grace of God , that it works irresistibly ; the other affirms it , because he believes it engages us upon greater care and piety of our endeavours . The one Opinion thinks God reaps the glory of our good actions , the other thinks it charges our bad actions upon him . So in the Question of Merit , one part chuses his assertion , because he thinks it incourages us to doe good works ; the other believes it makes us proud , and therefore he rejects it . The first believes it increases piety , the second believes it increases spiritual presumption and vanity . The first thinks it magnifies God's justice , the other thinks it derogates from his mercy . Now then , since neither this nor any ground can secure a man from possibility of mistaking , we were infinitely miserable if it would not secure us from punishment , so long as we willingly consent not to a crime , and doe our best endeavour to avoid an errour . Onely by the way let me observe , that since there are such great differences of apprehension concerning the consequents of an Article , no man is to be charged with the odious consequences of his Opinion . Indeed his Doctrine is , but the person is not , if he understands not such things to be consequent to his Doctrine : for if he did , and then avows them , they are his direct Opinions , and he stands as chargeable with them as with his first propositions : but if he disavows them , he would certainly rather quit his Opinion then avow such errours or impieties which are pretended to be consequent to it , because every man knows that can be no truth from whence falshood naturally and immediately does derive , and he therefore believes his first Proposition , because he believes it innocent of such errours as are charged upon it directly or consequently . 7. So that now , since no errour , neither for its self nor its consequents , is to be charged as criminal upon a pious person ; since no simple errour is a sin , nor does condemn us before the throne of God ; since he is so pitifull to our crimes , that he pardons many de toto & integro , in all makes abatement for the violence of temptation , and the surprizal and invasion of our faculties , and therefore much less will demand of us an account for our weaknesses ; and since the strongest understanding cannot pretend to such an immunity and exemption from the condition of men , as not to be deceived and confess its weakness : it remains we inquire what deportment is to be used towards persons of a differing perswasion , when we are ( I do not say doubtfull of a Proposition , but ) convinced that he that differs from us is in Errour : for this was the first intention and the last end of this Discourse . SECT . XIII . Of the Deportment to be used towards persons Disagreeing , and the reasons why they are not to be punished with Death , &c. 1. FOR although every man may be deceived , yet some are right , and may know it too ; for every man that may erre does not therefore certainly erre , and if he erres because he recedes from his Rule , then if he follows it he may doe right ; and if ever any man upon just grounds did change his Opinion , then he was in the right and was sure of it too : and although confidence is mistaken for a just perswasion many times ; yet some men are confident , and have reason so to be . Now when this happens , the question is what deportment they are to use towards persons that disagree from them , and by consequence are in errour . 2. First then , No Christian is to be put to death , dismembred , or otherwise directly persecuted , for his Opinion , which does not teach Impiety or Blasphemy . If it plainly and apparently brings in a crime , and himself does act it or incourage it , then the matter of fact is punishable according to its proportion or malignity . As if he preaches Treason or Sedition , his Opinion is not his excuse , because it brings in a crime ; and a man is never the less Traitour because he believes it lawfull to commit Treason : and a man is a Murtherer if he kills his brother unjustly , although he thinks he does God good service in it . Matters of fact are equally judicable , whether the principle of them be from within or from without . And if a man could pretend to innocence in being seditious , blasphemous , or perjur'd , by perswading himself it is lawfull , there were as great a gate opened to all iniquity as will entertain all the pretences , the designs , the impostures and disguises of the world . And therefore God hath taken order that all Rules concerning matters of fact and good life shall be so clearly explicated , that without the crime of the man he cannot be ignorant of all his practicall duty . And therefore the Apostles and primitive Doctors made no scruple of condemning such persons for Hereticks that did dogmatize a sin . He that teaches others to sin is worse then he that commits the crime , whether he be tempted by his own interest , or incouraged by the other's Doctrine . It was as bad in Basilides to teach it to be lawfull to renounce Faith and Religion , and take all manner of Oaths and Covenants in time of persecution , as if himself had done so . Nay , it is as much worse as the mischief is more universal , or as a fountain is greater then a drop of water taken from it . He that writes Treason in a book , or preaches Sedition in a Pulpit , and perswades it to the people , is the greatest Traitour and Incendiary , and his Opinion there is the fountain of a sin , and therefore could not be entertained in his understanding upon weakness , or inculpable or innocent prejudice ; he cannot from Scripture or Divine revelation have any pretence to colour that so fairly as to seduce either a wise or an honest man. If it rest there and goes no farther , it is not cognoscible , and so scapes that way : but if it be published , and comes à stylo ad machaeram , ( as Tertullian's phrase is ) then it becomes matter of fact in principle and in perswasion , and is just so punishable as is the crime that it perswades . Such were they of whom Saint Paul complains , who brought in damnable doctrines and lusts . S. Paul's Vtinam abscindantur is just of them , take it in any sense of rigour and severity , so it be proportionable to the crime or criminal Doctrine . Such were those of whom God spake in Deut. 13. If any Prophet tempts to idolatry , saying , Let us goe after other Gods , he shall be slain . But these do not come into this Question : but the Proposition is to be understood concerning Questions disputable in materia intellectuali ; which also , for all that law of killing such false Prophets , were permitted with impunity in the Synagogue , as appears beyond exception in the great divisions and disputes between the Pharisees and the Sadducees . I deny not but certain and known Idolatry , or any other sort of practicall impiety with its principiant Doctrine , may be punished corporally , because it is no other but matter of fact ; but no matter of mere Opinion , no errours that of themselves are not sins are to be persecuted or punished by death or corporal inflictions . This is now to be proved . 3. Secondly , All the former Discourse is sufficient argument how easie it is for us in such matters to be deceived . So long as Christian Religion was a simple profession of the Articles of Belief , and a hearty prosecution of the rules of good life , the fewness of the Articles and the clearness of the Rule was cause of the seldome prevarication . But when Divinity is swelled up to so great a body , when the several Questions which the peevishness and wantonness of sixteen Ages have commenced are concentred into one , and from all these Questions something is drawn into the body of Theologie , till it hath ascended up to the greatnesse of a mountain , and the summe of Divinity collected by Aquinas makes a volume as great as was that of Livy , mocked at in the Epigram , Quem mea vix totum bibliotheca capit ; it is impossible for any industry to consider so many particulars in the infinite numbers of Questions as are necessary to be considered before we can with certainty determine any . And after all the considerations which we can have in a whole Age , we are not sure not to be deceived . The obscurity of some Questions , the nicity of some Articles , the intricacy of some Revelations , the variety of humane understandings , the windings of Logick , the tricks of adversaries , the subtilty of Sophisters , the ingagement of educations , personal affections , the portentous number of writers , the infinity of Authorities , the vastness of some arguments , as consisting in enumeration of many particulars , the uncertainty of others , the several degrees of probability , the difficulties of Scripture , the invalidity of probation of Tradition , the opposition of all exteriour arguments to each other and their open contestation , the publick violence done to Authors and records , the private arts and supplantings , the falsifyings , the indefatigable industry of some men to abuse all understandings and all perswasions into their own Opinions , these and thousands more , even all the difficulty of things , and all the weaknesses of man , and all the arts of the Devil , have made it impossible for any man in so great variety of matter not to be deceived . No man pretends to it but the Pope , and no man is more deceived then he is in that very particular . 4. Thirdly , From hence proceeds a danger which is consequent to this proceeding : for if we , who are so apt to be deceived , and so insecure in our resolution of Questions disputable , should persecute a disagreeing person , we are not sure we do not fight against God. For if his Proposition be true and persecuted , then , because all Truth derives from God , this proceeding is against God , and therefore this is not to be done , upon Gamaliel's ground , lest peradventure we be found to fight against God ; of which because we can have no security ( at least ) in this case , we have all the guilt of a doubtfull or an uncertain Conscience . For if there be no security in the thing , as I have largely proved , the Conscience in such cases is as uncertain as the Question is : and if it be not doubtfull where it is uncertain , it is because the man is not wise , but as confident as ignorant ; the first without reason , and the second without excuse . And it is very disproportionable for a man to persecute another certainly for a Proposition that , if he were wise , he would know is not certain ; at least the other person may innocently be uncertain of it . If he be killed , he is certainly killed ; but if he be called Heretick , it is not so certain that he is an Heretick . It were good therefore that proceedings were according to evidence , and the rivers not swell over the banks , nor a certain definitive sentence of Death passed upon such perswasions which cannot certainly be defined . And this argument is of so much the more force , because we see that the greatest persecutions that ever have been were against Truth , even against Christianity itself ; and it was a prediction of our Blessed Saviour , that persecution should be the lot of true believers . And if we compute the experience of suffering Christendom , and the prediction that Truth should suffer , with those few instances of suffering Hereticks , it is odds but persecution is on the wrong side , and that it is errour and Heresie , that is , cruel and tyrannical ; especially since the Truth of Jesus Christ and of his Religion are so meek , so charitable , and so merciful . And we may in this case exactly use the words of S. Paul , But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit , even so it is now : and so it ever will be till Christ's second coming . 5. Fourthly , Whoever persecutes a disagreeing person arms all the world against himself , and all pious people of his own perswasion , * when the scales of Authority return to his adversary , and attest his contradictory ; and then what can he urge for mercy for himself or his party that sheweth none to others ? If he says that he is to be spared because he believes true , but the other was justly persecuted because he was in errour , he is ridiculous . For he is as confidently believed to be an Heretick as he believes his adversary such : and whethe● ▪ he be or no being the thing in question , of this he is not to be his own judge , but he that hath Authority on his side will be sure to judge against him . So that what either side can indifferently make use of , it is good that neither would , because neither side can with reason sufficiently doe it in prejudice of the other . If a man will say that every man must take his adventure , and if it happens Authority to be with him he will persecute his adversaries , and if it turns against him he will bear it as well as he can , and hope for a reward of Martyrdom and innocent suffering ; besides that this is so equal to be said of all sides , and besides that this is a way to make an eternall disunion of hearts and charities , and that it will make Christendom nothing but a shambles and a perpetuall butchery , and as fast as mens wits grow wanton , or confident , or proud , or abused , so often there will be new executions and massacres ; besides all this , it is most unreasonable and unjust , as being contrariant to those Laws of Justice and Charity whereby we are bound with greater zeal to spare and preserve an innocent then to condemn a guilty person , and there 's less malice and iniquity in sparing the guilty then in condemning the good : because it is in the power of men to remit a guilty person to Divine judicature , and for divers causes not to use severity ; but in no case it is lawfull , neither hath God at all given to man a power , to condemn such persons as cannot be proved other then pious and innocent . And therefore it is better , if it should so happen , that we should spare the innocent person , and one that is actually deceived , then that upon the turn of the wheel the true believers should be destroyed . 6. And this very reason he that had authority sufficient and absolute to make Laws was pleased to urge as a reasonable inducement for the establishing of that Law which he made for the indemnity of erring persons . It was in the Parable of the Tares mingled with the good seed in agro dominico . The good seed ( Christ himself being the interpreter ) are the Children of the Kingdom , the Tares are the children of the wicked one : upon this comes the precept , Gather not the tares by themselves , but let them both grow together till the harvest , that is , till the day of Judgement . This Parable hath been tortured infinitely to make it confess its meaning , but we shall soon dispatch it . All the difficulty and variety of exposition is reducible to these two Questions , What is meant by [ Gather not , ] and what by [ Tares ; ] that is , what kind of sword is forbidden , and what kind of persons are to be tolerated . The former is clear ; for the spiritual sword is not forbidden to be used to any sort of criminals , for that would destroy the power of Excommunication . The prohibition therefore lies against the use of the temporal sword , in cutting off some persons . Who they are is the next difficulty . But by Tares , or the children of the wicked one , are meant either persons of ill lives , wicked persons onely in re practica ; or else another kind of evil persons , men criminal or faulty in re intellectuali . One or other of these two must be meant ; a third I know not . But the former cannot be meant , because it would destroy all bodies politick , which cannot consist without Laws , nor Laws without a compulsory and a power of the sword : therefore if criminalls were to be let alone till the day of Judgement , bodies politick must stand or fall ad arbitrium impiorum , and nothing good could be protected , not Innocence itself , nothing could be secured but violence and tyranny . It follows then , that since a kind of persons which are indeed faulty are to be tolerated , it must be meant of persons faulty in another kind , in which the Gospel had not in other places clearly established a power externally compulsory : and therefore since in all actions practically criminall a power of the sword is permitted , here , where it is denied , must be meant a crime of another kind , and by consequence errours intellectual , commonly call'd Heresie . 7. And after all this the reason there given confirms this * interpretation ; for therefore it is forbidden to cut off these Tares , lest we also pull up the wheat with them : which is the sum of these two last Arguments . For because Heresie is of so nice consideration and difficult sentence , in thinking to root up Heresies we may by our † mistakes destroy true Doctrine : which although it be possible to be done in all cases of practical question by mistake ; yet because externall actions are more discernible then inward speculations and Opinions , innocent persons are not so easily mistaken for the guilty in actions criminal , as in matters of inward perswasion . And upon that very reason Saint Martin was zealous to have procured a revocation of a Commission granted to certain Tribunes to make enquiry in Spain for Sects and Opinions ; for under colour of rooting out the Priscillianists , there was much mischief done , and more likely to happen , to the Orthodox . For it happened then as oftentimes since , Pallore potiùs & veste quàm fide Haereticus dijudicari solebat aliquando per Tribunos Maximi . They were no good inquisitors of Heretical pravity , so Sulpitius witnesses . But secondly , the reason says , that therefore these persons are so to be permitted as not to be persecuted , lest when a revolution of humane affairs sets contrary Opinions in the throne or chair , they who were persecuted before should now themselves become persecuters of others ; and so at one time or other , before or after , the Wheat be rooted up , and the Truth be persecuted . But as these reasons confirm the Law and this sense of it ; so , abstracting from the Law , it is of itself concluding by an argument ab incommodo , and that founded upon the principles of Justice and right Reason , as I formerly alledged . 8. Fifthly , We are not onely uncertain of finding out Truths in matters disputable , but we are certain that the best and ablest * Doctors of Christendom have been actually deceived in matters of great concernment ; which thing is evident in all those instances of persons from whose Doctrine all sorts of Christians respectively take liberty to dissent . The errours of Papias , Irenaeus , Lactantius , Justin Martyr in the Millenary Opinion , of Saint Cyprian , Firmilian , the Asian and African Fathers in the Question of Re-baptization , S. Austin in his decretory and uncharitable sentence against the unbaptized children of Christian parents , the Roman or the Greek Doctors in the Question of the Procession of the Holy Ghost and in the matter of Images , are examples beyond exception . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Now if these great personages had been persecuted or destroyed for their Opinions , who should have answered the invaluable loss the Church of God should have sustained in missing so excellent , so exemplary , and so great Lights ? But then if these persons erred , and by consequence might have been destroyed , what should have become of others whose understanding was lower , and their security less , their errours more , and their danger greater ? At this rate all men should have passed through the fire : for who can escape when S. Cyprian and S. Austin cannot ? Now to say these persons were not to be persecuted , because although they had errours , yet none condemned by the Church at that time or before , is to say nothing to the purpose , nor nothing that is true . Not true ; because S. Cyprian's errour was condemned by Pope Stephen , which in the present sense of the prevailing party in the Church of Rome is , to be condemned by the Church . Not to the purpose ; because it is nothing else but to say that the Church did tolerate their errours . For since those Opinions were open and manifest to the world , that the Church did not condemn them , it was either because those Opinions were by the Church not thought to be errours ; or if they were , yet she thought fit to tolerate the errour and the erring person . And if she would doe so still , it would in most cases be better then now it is . And yet if the Church had condemned them , it had not altered the case as to this question ; for either the persons upon the condemnation of their errour should have been persecuted , or not . If not , why shall they now , against the instance and precedent of those Ages who were confessedly wise and pious , and whose practices are often made to us arguments to follow ? If yea , and that they had been persecuted , it is a thing which this Argument condemns , and the loss of the Church had been invaluable in the losing or the provocation and temptation of such rare personages ; and the example and the rule of so ill consequence , that all persons might upon the same ground have suffered , and though some had escaped , yet no man could have any more security from punishment then from errour . 9. Sixthly , Either the disagreeing person is in errour , or not , but a true believer : in either of the cases to persecute him is extremely imprudent . For if he be a true believer , then it is a clear case that we doe open violence to God , and his servants , and his Truth . If he be in errour , what greater folly and stupidity then to give to errour the glory of Martyrdom , and the advantages which are accidentally consequent to a persecution ? For as it was true of the Martyrs , Quoties morimur , toties nascimur , and the increase of their trouble was the increase of their confidence and the establishment of their perswasions : so it is in all false Opinions ; for that an Opinion is true or false is extrinsecall or accidental to the consequents and advantages it gets by being afflicted . And there is a popular pity that follows all persons in misery , and that compassion breeds likeness of affections , and that very often produces likeness of perswasion ; and so much the rather , because there arises a jealousie and pregnant suspicion that they who persecute an Opinion are destitute of sufficient Arguments to confute it , and that the Hangman is the best disputant . For if those Arguments which they have for their own Doctrine were a sufficient ground of confidence and perswasion , men would be more willing to use those means and Arguments which are better compliances with humane understanding , which more naturally do satisfie it , which are more humane and Christian , then that way is which satisfies none , which destroys many , which provokes more , and which makes all men jealous . To which adde , that those who die for their Opinion leave in all men great arguments of the heartiness of their belief , of the confidence of their perswasion , of the piety and innocencie of their persons , of the purity of their intention and simplicity of purposes , that they are persons totally disinteressed and separate from design . For no interest can be so great as to be put in balance against a man's life and his Soul ; and he does very imprudently serve his ends who seeingly and foreknowingly loses his life in the prosecution of them . Just as if Titius should offer to die for Sempronius upon condition he might receive twenty talents when he had done his work . It is certainly an argument of a great love , and a great confidence , and a great sincerity , and a great hope , when a man lays down his life in attestation of a Proposition . Greater love then this hath no man , then to lay down his life , saith our Blessed Saviour . And although laying of a wager is an argument of confidence more then truth ; yet laying such a wager , staking of a man's Soul , and pawning his life , gives a hearty testimony that the person is honest , confident , resigned , charitable and noble . And I know not whether Truth can doe a person or a cause more advantages then these can doe to an errour . And therefore besides the impiety , there is great imprudence in Canonizing a Heretick , and consecrating an errour by such means , which were better preserved as incouragements of Truth , and comforts to real and true Martyrs . And it is not amiss to observe that this very advantage was taken by Hereticks , who were ready to shew and boast their Catalogues of Martyrs : in particular the Circumcellians did so , and the Donatists ; and yet the first were Hereticks , the second Schismaticks . And it was remarkable in the Scholars of Priscillian , who as they had their Master in the reputation of a Saint while he was living , so when he was dead they had him in veneration as a Martyr ; they with reverence and devotion carried his and the bodies of his slain companions to an honourable sepulture , and counted it Religion to swear by the name of Priscillian . So that the extinguishing of the person gives life and credit to his Doctrine , and when he is dead he yet speaks more effectually . 10. Seventhly , It is unnatural and unreasonable to persecute disagreeing Opinions . Unnatural ; for Understanding , being a thing wholly spiritual , cannot be restrained , and therefore neither punished by corporal afflictions . It is in aliena republica , a matter of another world . You may as well cure the Colick by brushing a man's cloaths , or fill a man's belly with a Syllogism . These things do not communicate in matter , and therefore neither in action nor passion . And since all punishments in a prudent Government punish the offender to prevent a future crime , and so it proves more medicinal then vindictive , the punitive act being in order to the cure and prevention ; and since no punishment of the body can cure a disease in the Soul ; it is disproportionable in nature , and in all civil Government , to punish where the punishment can doe no good . It may be an act of tyranny , but never of justice . For is an Opinion ever the more true or false for being persecuted ? Some men have believed it the more , as being provoked into a confidence , and vexed into a resolution ; but the thing itself is not the truer : and though the Hangman may confute a man with an inexplicable Dilemma , yet not convince his understanding ; for such Premisses can infer no Conclusion but that of a man's life : and a Wolf may as well give laws to the understanding as he whose Dictates are onely propounded in violence , and writ in bloud : and a Dog is as capable of a law as a man , if there be no choice in his obedience , nor discourse in his choice , nor reason to satisfie his discourse . And as it is unnatural , so it is unreasonable , that Sempronius should force Caius to be of his opinion , because Sempronius is Consul this year , and commands the Lictors . As if he that can kill a man cannot but be infallible : and if he be not , why should I doe violence to my Conscience , because he can doe violence to my person ? 11. Eighthly , Force in matters of Opinion can doe no good , but is very apt to doe hurt ; for no man can change his Opinion when he will , or be satisfied in his Reason that his Opinion is false , because discountenanced . If a man could change his Opinion when he lists , he might cure many inconveniences of his life : all his fears and his sorrows would soon disband , if he would but alter his Opinion , whereby he is perswaded that such an accident that afflicts him is an evil , and such an object formidable : let him but believe himself impregnable , or that he receives a benefit when he is plundered , disgraced , imprisoned , condemned and afflicted , neither his steps need to be disturbed , nor his quietness discomposed . But if a man cannot change his Opinion when he lists , nor ever does heartily or resolutely but when he cannot doe otherwise , then to use force may make him an Hypocrite , but never to be a right Believer ; and so , in stead of erecting a trophee to God and true Religion , we build a monument for the Devil . Infinite examples are recorded in Church-story to this very purpose . But Socrates instances in one for all : for when Eleusius Bishop of Cyzicum was threatned by the Emperour Valens with banishment and confiscation if he did not subscribe to the Decree of Ariminum , at last he yielded to the Arian Opinion , and presently fell into great torment of Conscience , openly at Cyzicum recanted the errour , asked God and the Church forgiveness , and complained of the Emperour's injustice : and that was all the good the Arian party got by offering violence to his Conscience . And so many families in Spain , which are as they call them new Christians , and of a suspected Faith , into which they were forced by the tyranny of the Inquisition , and yet are secret Moors , are evidence enough of the * inconvenience of preaching a Doctrine in ore gladii cruentandi . For it either punishes a man for keeping a good Conscience , or forces him into a bad ; it either punishes sincerity , or perswades hypocrisie ; it persecutes a truth , or drives into errour : and it teaches a man to dissemble and to be safe , but never to be honest . 12. Ninthly , It is one of the glories of Christian Religion , that it was so pious , excellent , miraculous and perswasive , that it came in upon its own piety and wisedome , with no other force but a torrent of arguments and demonstration of the Spirit ; a mighty rushing wind to beat down all strong holds , and every high thought and imagination ; but towards the persons of men it was always full of meekness and charity , compliance and toleration , condescention and bearing with one another , restoring persons overtaken with an errour in the spirit of meekness , considering lest we also be tempted . The consideration is as prudent , and the proposition as just , as the precept is charitable , and the precedent was pious and holy . Now things are best conserved with that which gives it the first being , and which is agreeable to its temper and constitution . That precept which it chiefly preaches in order to all the blessedness in the world , that is , of meekness , mercy and charity , should also preserve itself and promote its own interest . For indeed nothing will doe it so well , nothing doth so excellently insinuate itself into the understandings and affections of men , as when the actions and perswasions of a Sect , and every part and principle and promotion , are univocall . And it would be a mighty disparagement to so glorious an Institution , that in its principle it should be mercifull and humane , and in the promotion and propagation of it so inhumane : And it would be improbable and unreasonable that the sword should be used in the perswasion of one Proposition , and yet in the perswasion of the whole Religion nothing like it . To doe so may serve the end of a temporal Prince , but never promote the honour of Christ's Kingdom ; it may secure a design of Spain , but will very much disserve Christendom , to offer to support it by that which good men believe to be a distinctive cognizance of the Mahometan Religion from the excellency and piety of Christianity , whose sense and spirit is described in those excellent words of Saint Paul , 2 Tim. 2.24 . The servant of the Lord must not strive , but be gentle unto all men , in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves , if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging the truth . They that oppose themselves must not be strucken by any of God's servants ; and if yet any man will smite these who are his opposites in Opinion , he will get nothing by that , he must quit the title of being a servant of God for his pains . And I think a distinction of persons Secular and Ecclesiasticall will doe no advantage for an escape , because even the Secular power , if it be Christian , and a servant of God , must not be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . I mean in those cases where meekness of instruction is the remedy : or , if the case be irremediable , abscission by Censures is the penalty . 13. Tenthly , And if yet in the nature of the thing it were neither unjust nor unreasonable , yet there is nothing under God Almighty that hath power over the Soul of man , so as to command a perswasion , or to judge a disagreeing . Humane positive Laws direct all externall acts in order to several ends , and the Judges take cognizance accordingly ; but no man can command the Will , or punish him that obeys the Law against his will : for because its end is served in externall obedience , it neither looks after more , neither can it be served by more , nor take notice of any more . And yet possibly the Understanding is less subject to humane power then the Will : for that humane power hath a command over externall acts which naturally and regularly flow from the Will , & ut plurimùm suppose a direct act of will , but always either a direct or indirect volition , prim●ry or accidental ; but the Understanding is a natural faculty subject to no command , but where the command is itself a reason fit to satisfie & perswade it . And therefore God , commanding us to believe such Revelations , perswades and satisfies the understanding by his commanding and revealing : for there is no greater probation in the world that Proposition is true , then because God hath commanded us to believe it . But because no man's command is a satisfaction to the understanding , or a verification of the Proposition , therefore the understanding is not subject to humane Authority . They may perswade , but not injoyn where God hath not ; and where God hath , if it appears so to him , he is an Infidel if he does not believe it . And if all men have no other efficacy or authority on the understanding but by perswasion , proposal and intreaty , then a man is bound to assent but according to the operation of the argument , and the energy of perswasion ; neither indeed can he though he would never so fain : and he that out of fear , and too much compliance , and desire to be safe , shall desire to bring his understanding with some luxation to the belief of humane Dictates and Authorities , may as often miss of the Truth as hit it , but is sure always to lose the comfort of Truth , because he believes it upon indirect , insufficient and incompetent arguments : and as his desire it should be so is his best argument that it is so , so the pleasing of men is his best reward , and his not being condemned and contradicted all the possession of a Truth . SECT . XIV . Of the practice of Christian Churches towards persons Disagreeing , and when Persecution first came in . AND thus this Truth hath been practised in all times of Christian Religion , when there were no collateral designs on foot , nor interests to be served , nor passions to be satisfied . In Saint Paul's time , though the censure of Heresie were not so loose and forward as afterwards , and all that were called Hereticks were clearly such and highly criminal , yet as their crime was so was their censure , that is , spiritual . They were first admonished , once at least ; for so Irenaeus , Tertullian , Cyprian , Ambrose and Hierom read that place of Titus 3. But since that time all men , and at that time some read it , Post unam & alteram admonitionem reject a Heretick . Rejection from the communion of Saints after two warnings , that 's the penalty . Saint John expresses it by not eating with them , not bidding them God speed ; but the persons against whom he decrees so severely are such as denied Christ to be come in the flesh , direct Antichrists . And let the sentence be as high as it lists in this case , all that I observe is , that since in so damnable Doctrines nothing but spiritual censure , separation from the communion of the faithfull , was enjoyned and prescribed , we cannot pretend to an Apostolicall precedent , if in matters of dispute and innocent question , and of great uncertainty and no malignity , we should proceed to sentence of Death . 2. For it is but an absurd and illiterate arguing , to say that Excommunication is a greater punishment , and killing a less ; and therefore who-ever may be excommunicated may also be put to death : ( which indeed is the reasoning that Bellarmine uses . ) For first , Excommunication is not directly and of itself a greater punishment then corporal Death , because it is indefinite and incompleat , and in order to a farther punishment ; which if it happens , then the Excommunication was the inlet to it ; if it does not , the Excommunication did not signifie half so much as the loss of a member , much less Death . For it may be totally ineffectual , either by the iniquity of the proceeding , or repentance of the person : and in all times and cases it is a medicine if the man please ; if he will not , but perseveres in his impiety , then it is himself that brings the Censure to effect , that actuates the judgement , and gives a sting and an energy upon that which otherwise would be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Secondly , but when it is at worst , it does not kill the Soul ; it onely consigns it to that death which it had deserved , and should have received independently from that sentence of the Church . Thirdly , and yet Excommunication is to admirable purpose : for whether it refers to the person censured , or to others , it is prudentiall in itself , it is exemplary to others , it is medicinal to all . For the person censured is by this means threatned into piety , and the threatning made the more energeticall upon him , because by fiction of Law , or as it were by a Sacramental representment , the pains of hell are made presentiall to him , and so becomes an act of prudent ▪ judicature , and excellent discipline , and the best instrument of spiritual Government ; because the nearer the threatning is reduced to matter , and the more present and circumstantiate it is made , the more operative it is upon our spirits while they are immerged in matter . And this is the full sense and power of Excommunication in its direct intention : consequently and accidentally other evils might follow it ; as in the times of the Apostles the censured persons were buffeted by Satan , and even at this day there is less security even to the temporal condition of such a person whom his spiritual parents have Anathematiz'd . But besides this I know no warrant to affirm any thing of Excommunication ; for the sentence of the Church does but declare , not effect , the final sentence of damnation . Whoever deserves Excommunication deserves damnation ; and he that repents shall be saved though he die out of the Churche's externall Communion ; and if he does not repent , he shall be damned though he was not excommunicate . 3. But suppose it greater then the sentence of corporal Death , yet it follows not , because Hereticks may be excommunicate , therefore killed ; for from a greater to a less in a several kinde of things the argument concludes not . It is a greater thing to make an excellent discourse then to make a shoe ; yet he that can doe the greater cannot doe this less . An Angel cannot beget a man , and yet he can doe a greater matter in that kinde of operations which we term spiritual and Angelicall . And if this were concluding , that whoever may be excommunicate may be kill'd , then , because of Excommunications the Church is confessed the sole and intire Judge , she is also an absolute disposer of the lives of persons . I believe this will be but ill doctrine in Spain : for in Bulla Coenae Domini the King of Spain is every year excommunicated on Maunday-Thursday ; but if by the same power he might also be put to death , ( as upon this ground he may ) the Pope might with more ease be invested in that part of Saint Peter's Patrimony which that King hath invaded and surprized . But besides this , it were extreme harsh Doctrine in a Roman Consistory , from whence Excommunications issue for trifles , for fees , for not suffering themselves infinitely to be oppressed , for any thing : if this be greater then Death , how great a tyranny is that which doth more then kill men for lesse then trifles ? or else how inconsequent is that argument which concludes its purpose upon so false pretence and supposition ? 4. Well , however zealous the Apostles were against Hereticks , yet none were by them or their dictates put to death . The death of Ananias and Sapphira , and the blindness of Elymas the Sorcerer , amount not to this , for they were miraculous inflictions : and the first was a punishment to Vow-breach and Sacrilege , the second of Sorcery and open contestation against the Religion of Jesus Christ ; neither of them concerned the case of this present question . Or if the case were the same , yet the Authority is not the same : For he that inflicted these punishments was infallible , and of a power competent ; but no man at this day is so . But as yet people were converted by Miracles , and Preaching , and Disputing , and Hereticks by the same means were redargued , and all men instructed , none tortured for their Opinion . And this continued till Christian people were vexed by disagreeing persons , and were impatient and peevish by their own too much confidence and the luxuriancy of a prosperous fortune : but then they would not endure persons that did dogmatize any thing which might intrench upon their reputation or their interest . And it is observable that no man nor no Age did ever teach the lawfulness of putting Hereticks to death , till they grew wanton with prosperity . But when the reputation of the Governours was concerned , when the interests of men were endangered , when they had something to lose , when they had built their estimation upon the credit of disputable Questions , when they began to be jealous of other men , when they over-valued themselves and their own Opinions , when some persons invaded Bishopricks upon pretence of new Opinions ; then they , as they thrived in the favour of Emperours , and in the successe of their Disputes , solicited the temporal power to banish , to fine , to imprison and to kill their adversaries . 5. So that the case stands thus : In the best times , amongst the best men , when there were fewer temporal ends to be served , when Religion and the pure and simple designs of Christianity were onely to be promoted , in those times and amongst such men no persecution was actual , nor perswaded , nor allowed , towards disagreeing persons . But as men had ends of their own and not of Christ , as they receded from their duty and Religion from its purity , as Christianity began to be compounded with interests and blended with temporal designs , so men were persecuted for their Opinions . This is most apparent , if we consider when Persecution first came in , and if we observe how it was checked by the holiest and the wisest persons . 6. The first great instance I shall note was in Priscillian and his followers , who were condemned to death by the Tyrant Maximus . Which instance although Saint Hierom observes as a punishment and judgement for the crime of Heresie , yet is of no use in the present Question , because Maximus put some Christians of all sorts to death promiscuously , Catholick and Heretick without choice ; and therefore the Priscillianists might as well have called it a judgement upon the Catholicks , as the Catholicks upon them . 7. But when Vrsatus and Stacius , two Bishops , procured the Priscillianists death by the power they had at Court ; Saint Martin was so angry at them for their cruelty , that he excommunicated them both . And Saint Ambrose upon the same stock denied his communion to the Itaciani . And the account that Sulpitius gives of the story is this , Hoc modo ( says he ) homines luce indignissimi pessimo exemplo necati sunt . The example was worse then the men . If the men were hereticall , the execution of them however was unchristian . 8. But it was of more Authority that the Nicene Fathers supplicated the Emperour and prevailed for the banishment of Arius . Of this we can give no other account , but that by the history of the time we see baseness enough and personal misdemeanour and factiousnesse of spirit in Arius to have deserved worse then banishment , though the obliquity of his Opinion were not put into the balance ; which we have reason to believe was not so much as considered , because Constantine gave toleration to differing Opinions , and Arius himself was restored upon such conditions to his Countrey and Office which would not stand with the ends of the Catholicks , if they had been severe exactors of concurrence and union of perswasions . 9. I am still within the scene of Ecclesiasticall persons , and am considering what the opinion of the learnedst and the holiest Prelates was concerning this great Question . If we will believe Saint Austin , ( who was a credible person ) no good man did allow it ; Nullis tamen bonis in Catholica hoc placet , si usque ad mortem in quenquam , licèt haereticum , saeviatur . This was Saint Austin's final opinion : For he had first been of the mind , that it was not honest to doe any violence to mis-perswaded persons ; and when upon an accident happening in Hippo he had altered and retracted that part of the opinion , yet then also he excepted Death , and would by no means have any mere Opinion made capital . But , for ought appears , Saint Austin had greater reason to have retracted that retractation then his first opinion ; for his saying of nullis bonis placet was as true as the thing was reasonable it should be so . Witnesse those known Testimonies of a Tertullian , b Cyprian , c Lactantius , d S. Hierom , e Severus Sulpitius , f Minutius , g Hilary , h Damascen , i Chrysostome , k Theophylact , and l Bernard , and divers others , whom the Reader may find quoted by the Archbishop of Spalato , Lib. 8. de Rep. Eccl. c. 8. 10. Against this concurrent testimony my reading can furnish me with no adversary , nor contrary instances , but in Atticus of CP . Theodosius of Synada , in Stacius and Vrsatus before reckoned . Onely indeed some of the later Popes of Rome began to be busie and unmercifull ; but it was then when themselves were secure , and their interests great , and their temporal concernments highly considerable . 11. For it is most true , and not amisse to observe it , that no man who was under the Ferula did ever think it lawfull to have Opinions forced , or Hereticks put to death ; and yet many men , who themselves have escaped the danger of a pile and a faggot , have changed their opinion just as the case was altered , that is , as themselves were unconcerned in the suffering . Petilian , Parmenian and Gaudentius by no means would allow it lawfull , for themselves were in danger , and were upon that side that is ill thought of and discountenanced : but * Gregory and † Leo , Popes of Rome , upon whose side the authority and advantages were , thought it lawfull they should be punished and persecuted , for themselves were unconcerned in the danger of suffering . And therefore Saint Gregory commends the Exarch of Ravenna for forcing them who dissented from those men who called themselves the Church . And there were some Divines in the lower Germany who upon great reasons spake against the tyranny of the Inquisition , and restraining Prophesying , who yet , when they had shaken off the Spanish yoke , began to persecute their brethren . It was unjust in them , in all men unreasonable and uncharitable , and often increases the errour , but never lessens the danger . 12. But yet although the Church , I mean in her distinct and Clerical capacity , was against destroying or punishing difference in Opinion , till the Popes of Rome did superseminate and perswade the contrary ; yet the Bishops did perswade the Emperours to make Laws against Hereticks , and to punish disobedient persons with Fines , with Imprisonment , with Death and Banishment respectively . This indeed calls us to a new account . For the Churchmen might not proceed to bloud nor corporal inflictions , but might they not deliver over to the Secular arm , and perswade Temporal Princes to doe it ? For this I am to say , that since it is notorious that the doctrine of the Clergy was against punishing Hereticks , the Laws which were made by the Emperours against them might be for restraint of differing Religion in order to the preservation of the publick Peace , which is too frequently violated by the division of Opinions . But I am not certain whether that was alwaies the reason , or whether or no some Bishops of the Court did not also serve their own ends in giving their Princes such untoward counsel ; but we find the Laws made severally to several purposes , in divers cases and with different severity . Constantine the Emperour made a Sanction , Vt parem cum fidelibus ii qui errant pacis & quietis fruitionem gaudentes accipiant . The Emperour Gratian decreed , Vt quam quisque vellet religionem sequeretur , & conventus Ecclesiasticos semoto metu omnes agerent . But he excepted the Manichees , the Photinians and Eunomians . Theodosius the elder made a law of death against the Anabaptists of his time , and banished Eunomius , and against other erring persons appointed a pecuniary mulct ; but he did no executions so severe as his sanctions , to shew they were made in terrorem onely . So were the Laws of Valentinian and Martian , decreeing contra , omnes qui prava docere tentant , that they should be put to death ; so did * Michael the Emperour : but Justinian onely decreed banishment . 13. But whatever whispers some Politicks might make to their Princes , as the wisest and holiest did not think it lawfull for Churchmen alone to doe executions , so neither did they transmit such persons to the Secular judicature . And therefore when the Edict of Macedonius the President was so ambiguous , that it seemed to threaten death to Hereticks unless they recanted ; S. Austin admonished him carefully to provide that no Heretick should be put to death , alledging it not onely to be unchristian , but illegal also , and not warranted by Imperial constitutions ; for before his time no Laws were made for their being put to death : but however he prevailed that Macedonius published another Edict , more explicite , and lesse seemingly severe . But in his Epistle to Donatus the African Proconsul he is more confident and determinate ; Necessitate nobis impactâ & indictâ , ut potiùs occîdi ab eis eligamus , quàm eos occidendos vestris judiciis ingeramus . 14. But afterwards many got a trick of giving them over to the Secular power ; which at the best is no better then Hypocrisie , removing envy from themselves and laying it upon others ; a refusing to doe that in externall act which they doe in counsel and approbation : which is a transmitting the act to another , and retaining a proportion of guilt unto themselves , even their own and the others too . I end this with the saying of Chrysostome , Dogmata impia & quae ab haereticis profecta sunt arguere & anathematizare oportet , hominibus autem parcendum , & pro salute eorum orandum . SECT . XV. How far the Church or Governours may act to the restraining false or differing Opinions . BUT although Hereticall persons are not to be destroyed , yet Heresie being a work of the flesh , and all Hereticks criminal persons , whose acts and Doctrine have influence upon Communities of men , whether Ecclesiasticall or civil , the Governours of the Republick or Church respectively are to doe their duties in restraining those mischiefs which may happen to their several charges , for whose indemnity they are answerable . And therefore according to the effect or malice of the Doctrine or the person , so the cognizance of them belongs to several Judicatures . If it be false Doctrine in any capacity , and doth mischief in any sense , or teaches ill life in any instance , or encourages evil in any particular , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , these men must be silenced , they must be convinced by sound Doctrine , and put to silence by spiritual evidence , and restrained by Authority Ecclesiasticall , that is , by spiritual Censures , according as it seems necessary to him who is most concern'd in the regiment of the Church . For all this we have precept , and precedent Apostolicall , and much reason . For by thus doing the Governour of the Church uses all that Authority that is competent , and all the means that is reasonable , and that proceeding which is regular , that he may discharge his cure , and secure his flock . And that he possibly may be deceived in judging a Doctrine to be hereticall , and by consequence the person excommunicate suffers injury , is no argument against the reasonableness of the proceeding : For all the injury that is is visible and in appearance , and so is his crime . Judges must judge according to their best reason guided by Law of God as their Rule , and by evidence and appearance as their best instrument ; and they can judge no better . If the Judges be good and prudent , the errour of proceeding will not be great nor ordinary : and there can be no better establishment of humane judicature , then is a fallible proceeding upon an infallible ground . And if the judgement of Heresie be made by estimate and proportion of the Opinion to a good or a bad life respectively , supposing an errour in the deduction , there will be no malice in the conclusion ; and that he endeavours to secure piety according to the best of his understanding , and yet did mistake in his proceeding , is onely an argument that he did his duty after the manner of men , possibly with the piety of a Saint , though not with the understanding of an Angel. And the little inconvenience that happens to the person injuriously judged is abundantly made up in the excellency of the Discipline , the goodnesse of the example , the care of the publick , and all those great influences into the manners of men which derive from such an act so publickly consign'd . But such publick judgement in matters of Opinion must be seldome and curious , and never but to secure piety and a holy life : for in matters speculative , as all determinations are fallible , so scarce any of them are to purpose , nor ever able to make compensation of either side , either for the publick fraction , or the particular injustice , if it should so happen in the censure . 2. But then , as the Church may proceed thus far , yet no Christian man or Community of men may proceed farther . For if they be deceived in their judgement and censure , and yet have passed onely spiritual censures , they are totally ineffectual , and come to nothing ; there is no effect remaining upon the Soul , and such censures are not to meddle with the body so much as indirectly . But if any other judgement passe upon persons erring , such judgements whose effects remain , if the person be unjustly censured , nothing will answer and make compensation for such injuries . If a person be excommunicate unjustly , it will doe him no hurt ; but if he be killed or dismembred unjustly , that censure and infliction is not made ineffectual by his innocence , he is certainly killed and dismembred . So that as the Churche's Authority in such cases so restrained and made prudent , cautelous and orderly , is just and competent : so the proceeding is reasonable , it is provident for the publick , and the inconveniences that may fall upon particulars so little , as that the publick benefit makes ample compensation , so long as the proceeding is but spiritual . 3. This discourse is in the case of such Opinions which by the former rules are formal Heresies , and upon practicall inconveniences . But for matters of question which have not in them an enmity to the publick tranquillity , as the Republick hath nothing to doe , upon the ground of all the former discourses ; so if the Church meddles with them where they do not derive into ill life , either in the person or in the consequent , or else are destructions of the foundation of Religion , which is all one , ( for that those fundamental Articles are of greatest necessity in order to a vertuous and godly life , which is wholly built upon them , and therefore are principally necessary ) if she meddles farther , otherwise then by preaching and conferring and exhortation , she becomes tyrannical in her government , makes herself an immediate judge of Consciences and perswasions , lords it over their Faith , destroys unity and charity : and as he that dogmatizes the Opinion becomes criminal , if he troubles the Church with an immodest , peevish and pertinacious proposall of his Article , not simply necessary ; so the Church does not do her duty , if she so condemns it pro tribunali as to enjoyn him and all her subjects to believe the contrary . And as there may be pertinacy in Doctrine , so there may be pertinacy in judging ; and both are faults . The peace of the Church and the unity of her Doctrine is best conserved when it is judged by the proportion it hath to that rule of unity which the Apostles gave , that is , the Creed for Articles of mere belief , and the precepts of Jesus Christ , and the practicall rules of piety , which are most plain and easie , and without controversie , set down in the Gospels and writings of the Apostles . But to multiply Articles , and adopt them into the family of the Faith , and to require assent to such Articles which ( as Saint Paul's phrase is ) are of doubtfull disputation equal to that assent we give to matters of Faith , is to build a tower upon the top of a Bulrush ; and the farther the effect of such proceedings does extend , the worse they are : the very making such a Law is unreasonable , the inflicting spiritual censures upon them that cannot doe so much violence to their understanding as to obey it is unjust and ineffectuall ; but to punish the person with death , or with corporal infliction , indeed it is effectuall , but it is therefore tyrannicall . We have seen what the Church may doe towards restraining false or differing Opinions : next I shall consider , by way of Corollary , what the Prince may doe as for his interest , and onely in securing his people , and serving the ends of true Religion . SECT . XVI . Whether it be lawfull for a Prince to give Toleration to severall Religions . 1. FOR upon these very grounds we may easily give account of that great Question , Whether it be lawfull for a Prince to give Toleration to several Religions . For first , It is a great fault that men will call the several Sects of Christians by the names of several Religions . The Religion of Jesus Christ is the form of sound Doctrine and wholsome words , which is set down in Scripture indefinitely , actually conveyed to us by plain places , and separated as for the question of necessary or not necessary by the Symbol of the Apostles . Those impertinencies which the wantonnesse and vanity of men hath commenced , which their interests have promoted , which serve not Truth so much as their own ends , are far from being distinct Religions : for matters of Opinion are no parts of the Worship of God , nor in order to it , but as they promote obedience to his Commandments ; and when they contribute towards it , are in that proportion as they contribute parts and actions , and minute particulars of that Religion to whose end they do or pretend to serve . And such are all the Sects and all the pretences of Christians , but pieces and minutes of Christianity , if they do serve the great end ; as every man for his own Sect and interest believes for his share it does . 2. Toleration hath a double sense or purpose . For sometimes by it men understand a publick licence and exercise of a Sect : sometimes it is onely an indemnity of the persons privately to convene and to opine as they see cause , and as they mean to answer to God. Both these are very much to the same purpose , unlesse some persons whom we are bound to satisfie be scandalized , and then the Prince is bound to doe as he is bound to satisfie . To God it is all one . For abstracting from the offence of persons , which is to be considered just as our obligation is to content the persons , it is all one whether we indulge to them to meet publickly or privately , to doe actions of Religion concerning which we are not perswaded that they are truly holy . To God it is just one to be in the dark and in the light , the thing is the same , onely the Circumstance of publick and private is different ; which cannot be concerned in any thing , nor can it concern any thing , but the matter of Scandal and relation to the minds and fantasies of certain persons . 3. So that to tolerate is not to persecute . And the Question whether the Prince may tolerate divers perswasions , is no more then whether he may lawfully persecute any man for not being of his Opinion . Now in this case he is just so to tolerate diversity of perswasions as he is to tolerate publick actions : for no Opinion is judicable , nor no person punishable , but for a sin ; and if his Opinion by reason of its managing or its effect be a sin in itself , or becomes a sin to the person , then as he is to doe towards other sins , so to that Opinion or man so opining . But to believe so or not so , when there is no more but mere believing , is not in his power to enjoyn , therefore not to punish . And it is not onely lawfull to tolerate disagreeing Perswasions , but the Authority of God onely is competent to take notice of it , and infallible to determine it , and fit to judge ; and therefore no humane Authority is sufficient to doe all those things which can justifie the inflicting temporal punishments upon such as doe not conform in their perswasions to a Rule or Authority which is not onely fallible , but supposed by the disagreeing person to be actually deceived . 4. But I consider that in the Toleration of a different Opinion Religion is not properly and immediately concerned so as in any degree to be endangered . For it may be safe in diversity of perswasions , and it is also a part of Christian * Religion , that the liberty of mens Consciences should be preserved in all things , where God hath not set a limit and made a restraint ; that the Soul of man should be free , and acknowledge no Master but Jesus Christ ; that matters spiritual should not be restrained by punishments corporal ; that the same meekness and charity should be preserved in the promotion of Christianity , that gave it foundation and increment and firmness in its first publication ; that Conclusions should not be more dogmatical then the virtual resolution and efficacy of the Premisses ; and that the persons should not more certainly be condemned then their Opinions confuted ; and lastly , that the infirmities of men and difficulties of things should be both put in balance , to make abatement in the definitive sentence against mens persons . But then , because Toleration of Opinions is not properly a Question of Religion , it may be a Question of Policy : and although a man may be a good Christian , though he believe an errour not fundamental , and not directly or evidently impious , yet his Opinion may accidentally disturb the publick peace , through the over-activeness of the persons , and the confidence of their belief , and the opinion of its appendant necessity : and therefore Toleration of differing Perswasions in these cases is to be considered upon political grounds , and is just so to be admitted or denied as the Opinions or Toleration of them may consist with the publick and necessary ends of Government . Onely this ; As Christian Princes must look to the interest of their Government , so especially must they consider the interests of Christianity , and not call every redargution or modest discovery of an established errour by the name of disturbance of the peace . For it is very likely that the peevishness and impatience of contradiction in the Governours may break the peace . Let them remember but the gentleness of Christianity , the liberty of Consciences which ought to be preserved , and let them doe justice to the persons , whoever they are , that are peevish , provided no man's person be over-born with prejudice . For if it be necessary for all men to subscribe to the present established Religion , by the same reason at another time a man may be bound to subscribe to the contradictory , and so to all Religions in the world . And they onely who by their too much confidence intitle God to all their fancies , and make them to be Questions of Religion , and evidences for Heaven , or consignations to Hell , they onely think this Doctrine unreasonable , and they are the men that first disturb the Churche's peace , and then think there is no appeasing the tumult but by getting the victory . But they that consider things wisely , understand , that since salvation and damnation depend not upon impertinencies , and yet that publick peace and tranquillity may , the Prince is in this case to seek how to secure Government , and the issues and intentions of that , while there is in these cases directly no insecurity to Religion , unless by the accidental uncharitableness of them that dispute : which uncharitableness is also much prevented when the publick peace is secured , and no person is on either side ingaged upon * revenge , or troubled with disgrace , or vexed with punishments by any decretory sentence against him . It was the saying of a wise States-man , ( I mean Thuanus ) Haeretici , qui pace datâ factionibus scinduntur , persecutione uniuntur contra Remp. If you persecute H●●reticks or Discrepants , they unite themselves as to a common defence : if you permit them , they divide themselves upon private interest , and the rather , if this interest was an ingredient of the Opinion . 5. The summe is this , It concerns the duty of a Prince , because it concerns the Honour of God , that all vices and every part of ill life be discountenanced and restrained : and therefore in relation to that Opinions are to be dealt with . For the understanding being to direct the will , and Opinions to guide our practices , they are considerable onely as they teach impiety and vice , as they either dishonour God or disobey him . Now all such Doctrines are to be condemned ; but for the persons preaching such Doctrines , if they neither justifie nor approve the pretended consequences which are certainly impious , they are to be separated from that consideration . But if they know such consequences and allow them , or if they do not stay till the Doctrines produce impiety , but take sin before-hand , and manage them impiously in any sense , or if either themselves or their Doctrine do really , and without colour or feigned pretext , disturb the publick peace * and just interests , they are not to be suffered . In all other cases it is not onely lawfull to permit them , but it is also necessary that Princes and all in Authority should not persecute discrepant Opinions . And in such cases wherein persons not otherwise incompetent are bound to reprove an errour , ( as they are in many ) in all these if the Prince makes restraint , he hinders men from doing their duty , and from obeying the Laws of Jesus Christ. SECT . XVII . Of Compliance with Disagreeing persons or weak Consciences in general . 1. UPon these grounds it remains that we reduce this Doctrine to practical Conclusions , and consider , among the differing Sects and Opinions which trouble these parts of Christendome , and come into our concernment , which Sects of Christians are to be tolerated , and how far , and which are to be restrained and punished in their several proportions . 2. The first Consideration is , since diversity of Opinions does more concern publick peace then Religion , what is to be done to persons who disobey a publick Sanction upon a true allegation that they cannot believe it to be lawfull to obey such Constitutions , although they disbelieve them upon insufficient grounds ; that is , whether in constituta lege disagreeing persons or weak Consciences are to be complied withall , and their disobeying and disagreeing tolerated . 3. First , In this Question there is no distinction can be made between persons truly weak , and but pretending so . For all that pretend to it are to be allowed the same liberty whatsoever it be ; for no man's spirit is known to any but to God and himself : and therefore pretences and realities in this case are both alike in order to the publick Toleration . And this very thing is one argument to perswade a Negative . For the chief thing in this case is the concernment of publick Government , which is then most of all violated when what may prudently be permitted to some purposes may be demanded to many more , and the piety of the Laws abused to the impiety of other mens ends . And if Laws be made so malleable as to comply with weak Consciences , he that hath a minde to disobey is made impregnable against the coercitive power of the Laws by this pretence . For a weak Conscience signifies nothing in this case , but a dislike of the Law upon a contrary perswasion . For if some weak Consciences do obey the Law , and others do not , it is not their weakness indefinitely that is the cause of it , but a definite and particular perswasion to the contrary . So that if such a pretence be excuse sufficient from obeying , then the Law is a Sanction obliging every one to obey that hath a minde to it , and he that hath not , may chuse ; that is , it is no Law at all ; for he that hath a mind to it may doe it if there be no Law , and he that hath no mind to it need not for all the Law. 4. And therefore the wit of man cannot prudently frame a law of that temper and expedient , but either he must lose the formality of a law , and neither have power coercitive nor obligatory but ad arbitrium inferiorum ; or else it cannot antecedently to the particular case give leave to any sort of men to disagree or disobey . 5. Secondly , Suppose that a Law be made with great reason so as to satisfie divers persons pious and prudent that it complies with the necessity of Government , and promotes the interest of God's service and publick order , it may easily be imagined that these persons which are obedient sons of the Church may be as zealous for the publick Order and Discipline of the Church as others for their opinion against it , and may be as much scandalized if disobedience be tolerated as others are if the Law be exacted : and what shall be done in this case ? Both sorts of men cannot be complied withall : because as these pretend to be offended at the Law , and by consequence ( if they understand the consequents of their own Opinion ) at them that obey the Law ; so the others are justly offended at them that unjustly disobey it . If therefore there be any on the right side as confident and zealous as they who are on the wrong side , then the disagreeing persons are not to be complied with , to avoid giving offence : for if they be , offence is given to better persons , and so the mischief , which such complying seeks to prevent , is made greater and more unjust , obedience is discouraged , and disobedience is legally canonized for the result of a holy and a tender Conscience . 6. Thirdly , Such complying with the disagreeings of a sort of men is the total overthrow of all Discipline , and it is better to make no Laws of publick Worship then to rescind them in the very constitution ; and there can be no end in making the Sanction , but to make the Law ridiculous , and the Authority contemptible . For to say that complying with weak Consciences in the very framing of a Law of Discipline is the way to preserve unity , were all one as to say , to take away all Laws is the best way to prevent disobedience . In such matters of indifferency , the best way of cementing the fraction is to unite the parts in the Authority , for then the question is but one , viz. Whether the authority must be obeyed or not . But if a permission be given of disputing the particulars , the Questions become next to infinite . A Mirrour when it is broken represents the object mutiplied and divided : but if it be entire , and through one centre transmits the species to the eye , the Vision is one and natural . Laws are the Mirrour in which men are to dress and compose their actions , and therefore must not be broken with such clauses of exception which may without remedy be abused to the prejudice of Authority , and peace , and all humane Sanctions . And I have known in some Churches that this pretence hath been nothing but a design to discredit the Law , to dismantle the Authority that made it , to raise their own credit , and a trophee of their zeal , to make it a characteristick note of a Sect , and the cognizance of holy persons : and yet the men that claimed exemption from the Laws upon pretence of having weak Consciences , if in hearty expression you had told them so to their heads , they would have spit in your face , and were so far from confessing themselves weak , that they thought themselves able to give Laws to Christendome , to instruct the greatest Clerks , and to catechize the Church herself . And , which is the worst of all , they who were perpetually clamourous that the severity of the Laws should slacken as to their particular , and in matter adiaphorous , ( in which , if the Church hath any Authority , she hath power to make Laws ) to indulge a leave to them to doe as they list , yet were the most imperious amongst men , most decretory in their sentences , and most impatient of any disagreeing from them , though in the least minute and particular : whereas , by all the justice of the world , they who perswade such a compliance in matters of fact , and of so little question , should not deny to tolerate persons that differ in Questions of great difficulty and contestation . 7. Fourthly , But yet since all things almost in the world have been made matters of dispute , and the will of some men , and the malice of others , and the infinite industry and pertinacy of contesting and resolution to conquer , hath abused some persons innocently into a perswasion that even the Laws themselves , though never so prudently constituted , are superstitious , or impious ; such persons who are otherwise pious , humble and religious , are not to be destroyed for such matters which in themselves are not of concernment to Salvation , and neither are so accidentally to such men and in such cases where they are innocently abused , and they erre without purpose and design . And therefore if there be a publick disposition in some persons to dislike Laws of a certain quality , if it be fore-seen , it is to be considered in lege dicenda ; and whatever inconvenience or particular offence is fore-seen , is either to be directly avoided in the Law , or else a compensation in the excellency of the Law and certain advantages made to out-weigh their pretensions . But in lege jam dicta , because there may be a necessiy some persons should have a liberty indulged them , it is necessary that the Governours of the Church should be intrusted with a power to consider the particular case , and indulge a liberty to the person , and grant personal dispensations . This I say is to be done at several times , upon particular instance , upon singular consideration , and new emergencies . But that a whole kinde of men , such a kinde to which all men without possibility of being confuted may pretend , should at once in the very frame of the Law be permitted to disobey , is to nullifie the Law , to destroy Discipline , and to hallow disobedience ; it takes away the obliging part of the Law , and makes that the thing enacted shall not be enjoyn'd , but tolerated onely ; it destroys unity and uniformity , which to preserve was the very end of such laws of Discipline ; it bends the Rule to the thing which is to be ruled , so that the Law obeys the subject , not the subject the Law ; it is to make a Law for particulars , not upon general reason and congruity , against the prudence and design of all Laws in the world , and absolutely without the example of any Church in Christendome ; it prevents no scandal , for some will be scandalized at the Authority itself , some at the complying and remisness of Discipline , and several men at matters and upon ends contradictory : All which cannot , some ought not , to be complied withall . 8. Sixthly , The summe is this , The end of the Laws of Discipline are in an immediate order to the conservation and ornament of the publick ; and therefore the Laws must not so tolerate , as by conserving persons to destroy themselves and the publick benefit : but if there be cause for it , they must be cassated ; or if there be no sufficient cause , the complyings must be so as may best preserve the particulars in conjunction with the publick end , which , because it is primarily intended , is of greatest consideration . But the particulars whether of case or person are to be considered occasionally and emergently by the Judges , but cannot antecedently and regularly be determined by a Law. 9. But this sort of men is of so general pretence , that all Laws and all Judges may easily be abused by them . Those Sects which are signified by a Name , which have a system of Articles , a body of profession , may be more clearly determined in their Question concerning the lawfulness of permitting their professions and assemblies . I shall instance in two , which are most troublesome and most disliked ; and by an account made of these , we may make judgement what may be done towards others whose errours are not apprehended of so great malignity . The men I mean are the Anabaptists , and the Papists . SECT . XVIII . A particular consideration of the Opinions of the Anabaptists . 1. IN the Anabaptists I consider onely their two capital Opinions , the one against the Baptism of Infants , the other against Magistracy : and because they produce different judgements and various effects , all their other fancies , which vary as the Moon does , may stand or fall in their proportion and likeness to these . 2. And first I consider their denying Baptism to Infants . Although it be a Doctrine justly condemned by the most sorts of Christians upon great grounds of reason , yet possibly their defence may be so great as to take off much and rebate the edge of their adversaries assault . It will be neither unpleasant nor unprofitable to draw a short scheme of plea for each party ; the result of which possibly may be , that though they be deceived , yet they have so great excuse on their side , that their errour is not impudent or vincible . The Baptism of Infants rests principally and usually upon this discourse . 3. When God made a Covenant with Abraham for himself and his posterity , into which the Gentiles were reckoned by spiritual adoption , he did for the present consign that Covenant with the Sacrament of Circumcision . The extent of which Rite was to all his family , from the Major domo to the Proselytus domicilio , and to infants of eight days old . Now the very nature of this Covenant being a covenant of Faith for its formality , and with all faithfull people for the object , and Circumcision being a seal of this Covenant , if ever any Rite do supervene to consign the same Covenant , that Rite must acknowledge Circumcision for its type and precedent . And this the Apostle tells us in express doctrine . Now the nature of a Type is , to give some proportions to its successour the Antitype ; and they both being seals of the same righteousness of faith , it will not easily be found where these two seals have any such distinction in their nature or purposes , as to appertain to persons of differing capacity , and not equally concern all . And this argument was thought of so much force by some of those excellent men which were Bishops in the Primitive Church , that a good Bishop writ an Epistle to Saint Cyprian , to know of him whether or no it were lawfull to baptize Infants before the eighth day , because the type of Baptism was ministred in that Circumcision ; he in his discourse supposing that the first Rite was a direction to the second , which prevailed with him so far as to believe it to limit every circumstance . 4. And not onely this type , but the acts of Christ which were previous to the institution of Baptism , did prepare our understanding by such impresses as were sufficient to produce such perswasion in us , that Christ intended this ministery for the actual advantage of Infants as well as of persons of understanding . For Christ commanded that children should be brought unto him , he took them in his arms , he imposed hands on them and blessed them , and without question did by such acts of favour consign his love to them , and them to a capacity of an eternal participation of it . And possibly the invitation which Christ made to all to come to him , all them that are heavie laden , did in its proportion concern Infants as much as others , if they be guilty of Original sin , and if that sin be a burthen , and presses them to any spiritual danger or inconvenience . And if they be not , yet Christ , who was ( as Tertullian's phrase is ) nullius poenitentiae debitor , guilty of no sin , obliged to no repentance , needing no purification and no pardon , was baptized by S. John's baptism , which was the baptism of repentance . And it is all the reason in the world , that since the grace of Christ is as large as the prevarication of Adam , all they who are made guilty by the first Adam should be cleansed by the second . But as they are guilty by another man's act , so they should be brought to the Font to be purified by others ; there being the same proportion of reason , that by others acts they should be relieved who were in danger of perishing by the act of others . And therefore S. Austin argues excellently to this purpose , Accommodat illis mater Ecclesia aliorum pedes , ut veniant ; aliorum cor , ut credant ; aliorum linguam , ut fateantur : ut quoniam , quòd aegri sunt , alio peccante praegravantur , sic , cùm sani fiant , alio confitente salventur . And Justin Martyr , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 5. But whether they have original sin or no , yet , take them in puris naturalibus , they cannot goe to God , or attain to eternity , to which they were intended in their first being and creation ; and therefore much less since their naturals are impaired by the curse on humane nature , procured by Adam's prevarication . And if a natural agent cannot in puris naturalibus attain to heaven , which is a supernatural end , much less when it is loaden with accidental and grievous impediments . Now then since the onely way revealed to us of acquiring Heaven is by Jesus Christ ; and the first inlet into Christianity and access to him is by Baptism , as appears by the perpetual Analogie of the New Testament ; either Infants are not persons capable of that end which is the perfection of humane nature , and to which the Soul of man in its being made immortal was essentially designed , and so are miserable and deficient from the very end of humanity , if they die before the use of Reason ; or else they must be brought to Christ by the Church doors , that is , by the Font and waters of Baptism . 6. And in reason it seems more pregnant and plausible that Infants rather then men of understanding should be baptized . For since the efficacy of the Sacraments depends upon Divine Institution and immediate benediction , and that they produce their effects independently upon man , in them that do not hinder their operation ; since Infants cannot by any acts of their own promote the hope of their own Salvation , which men of reason and choice may , by acts of vertue and election ; it is more agreeable to the goodness of God , the honour and excellencey of the Sacrament , and the necessity of its institution , that it should in Infants supply the want of humane acts and free obedience : which the very thing itself seems to say it does , because its effect is from God , and requires nothing on man's part , but that its efficacy be not hindered . And then in Infants the disposition is equal , and the necessity more ; they cannot ponere obicem , and by the same reason cannot doe other acts which without the Sacraments doe advantages towards our hopes of heaven , and therefore have more need to be supplied by an act and an Institution Divine and supernatural . 7. And this is not onely necessary in respect of the condition of Infants incapacity to doe acts of grace , but also in obedience to Divine precept . For Christ made a Law whose Sanction is with an exclusive negative to them that are not baptized , [ Vnless a man be born of water and of the Spirit , he shall not enter into the Kingdom of heaven . ] If then Infants have a capacity of being coheirs with Christ in the Kingdom of his Father , as Christ affirms they have , by saying , [ for of such is the kingdom of heaven ; ] then there is a necessity that they should be brought to Baptism , there being an absolute exclusion of all persons unbaptized and all persons not spiritual from the kingdom of heaven . 8. But indeed it is a destruction of all the hopes and happiness of Infants , a denying to them an exemption from the final condition of Beasts and Insectils , or else a designing of them to a worse misery , to say that God hath not appointed some externall or internall means of bringing them to an eternall happiness . Internall they have none ; for Grace being an improvement and heightning the faculties of nature in order to a heightned and supernatural end , Grace hath no influence or efficacy upon their faculties , who can doe no natural acts of understanding : And if there be no externall means , then they are destitute of all hopes and possibilities of Salvation . 9. But , thanks be to God , he hath provided better , and told us accordingly , for he hath made a promise of the Holy Ghost to Infants as well as to men : The Promise is made to you and to your children , said S. Peter ; the Promise of the Father , the Promise that he would send the holy Ghost . Now if you ask how this Promise shall be conveyed to our children , we have an express out of the same Sermon of S. Peter , Be baptized , and ye shall receive the gift of the holy Ghost . So that therefore because the Holy Ghost is promised , and Baptism is the means of receiving the Promise , therefore Baptism pertains to them , to whom the Promise which is the effect of Baptism does appertain . And that we may not think this Argument is fallible , or of humane collection , observe that it is the Argument of the same Apostle in express terms : For in the case of Cornelius and his Family , he justified his proceeding by this very Medium , Shall we deny Baptism to them who have received the gift of the holy Ghost as well as we ? Which Discourse if it be reduced to form of Argument says this ; They that are capable of the same Grace are receptive of the same sign : But then ( to make the Syllogism up with an Assumption proper to our present purpose ) Infants are capable of the same Grace , that is , of the Holy Ghost : ( for the Promise is made to our children as well as to us , and S. Paul says the children of believing parents are holy , and therefore have the Holy Ghost , who is the Fountain of holiness and sanctification : ) Therefore they are to receive the sign and the seal of it , that is , the Sacrament of Baptism . 10. And indeed , since God entred a Covenant with the Jews which did also actually involve their children , and gave them a sign to establish the Covenant and its appendant Promise , either God does not so much love the Church as he did the Synagogue , and the mercies of the Gospel are more restrained then the mercies of the Law , God having made a Covenant with the Infants of Israel , and none with the children of Christian Parents ; or if he hath , yet we want the comfort of its consignation ; and unless our children are to be baptized , and so intitled to the Promises of the new Covenant , as the Jewish babes were by Circumcision , this mercy which appertains to Infants is so secret and undeclared and unconsigned , that we want much of that mercy and outward testimony which gave them comfort and assurance . 11. And in proportion to these Precepts and Revelations was the practice Apostolicall : For they ( to whom Christ gave in Precept to make Disciples all nations , baptizing them , and knew that nations without children never were , and that therefore they were passively concerned in that commission , ) baptized whole Families , particularly that of Stephanas and divers others , in which it is more then probable there were some Minors , if not sucking babes . And this practice did descend upon the Church in after-Ages by tradition Apostolicall . Of this we have sufficient Testimony from Origen , Pro hoc Ecclesia ab Apostolis traditionem accepit , etiam parvulis baptismum dare : and S. Austin , Hoc Ecclesia à majorum fide percepit . And generally all Writers ( as Calvin says ) affirm the same thing . For nullus est Scriptor tam vetustus qui non ejus originem ad Apostolorum seculum pro certo referat . From hence the Conclusion is , that Infants ought to be baptized , that it is simply necessary , that they who deny it are Hereticks , and such are not to be endured , because they deny to Infants hopes , and take away the possibility of their Salvation , which is revealed to us on no other condition of which they are capable but Baptism . For by the insinuation of the Type , by the action of Christ , by the title Infants have to Heaven , by the precept of the Gospel , by the energy of the Promise , by the reasonableness of the thing , by the infinite necessity on the Infant 's part , by the practice Apostolicall , by their Tradition and the universal practice of the Church , by all these God and good people proclaim the lawfulness , the conveniency , and the necessity of Infants Baptism . 12. To all this the Anabaptist gives a soft and gentle Answer , that it is a goodly harangue , which upon strict examination will come to nothing ; that it pretends fairly , and signifies little ; that some of these Allegations are false , some impertinent , and all the rest insufficient . 13. For the Argument from Circumcision is invalid upon infinite considerations . Figures and Types prove nothing , unless a Commandment goe along with them , or some express to signifie such to be their purpose . For the Deluge of waters and the Ark of Noah were a figure of Baptism , said Peter ; and if therefore the circumstances of one should be drawn to the other , we should make Baptism a prodigie ratherthen a Rite . The Paschall Lamb was a Type of the Eucharist , which succeeds the other as Baptism does to Circumcision ; but because there was in the manducation of the Paschall Lamb no prescription of Sacramental drink , shall we thence conclude that the Eucharist is to be ministred but in one kinde ? And even in the very instance of this Argument , supposing a correspondence of analogie between Circumcision and Baptism , yet there is no correspondence of identity . For although it were granted that both of them did consign the Covenant of Faith , yet there is nothing in the circumstance of childrens being Circumcised that so concerns that Mystery but that it might very well be given to children , and yet Baptism onely to men of reason . Because Circumcision left a character in the flesh , which being imprinted upon Infants did its work to them when they came to age ; and such a character was necessary , because there was no word added to the sign : but Baptism imprints nothing that remains on the body ; and if it leaves a character at all , it is upon the Soul , to which also the word is added , which is as much a part of the Sacrament as the sign itself is . For both which reasons it is requisite that the persons baptized should be capable of Reason , that they may be capable both of the word of the Sacrament , and the impress made upon the spirit . Since therefore the reason of this parity does wholly fail , there is nothing left to infer a necessity of complying in this circumstance of age any more then in the other annexes of the Type . And the case is clear in the Bishop's Question to Cyprian : for why shall not Infants be baptized just upon the eighth days as well as circumcised ? If the correspondence of the Rites be an Argument to infer one circumstance which is impertinent and accidental to the mysteriousness of the Rite , why shall it not infer all ? And then also Females must not be baptized , because they were not circumcised . But it were more proper , if we would understand it right , to prosecute the Analogie from the Type to the Anti-type by way of letter and spirit and signification , and as Circumcision figures Baptism , so also the adjuncts of the Circumcision shall signifie something spiritual in the adherencies of Baptism . And therefore as Infants were Circumcised , so spiritual Infants shall be Baptized , which is spiritual Circumcision : for therefore babes had the ministry of the Type , to signifie that we must when we give our names to Christ become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , children in malice ; [ for unless you become like one of these little ones , you cannot enter into the Kingdom of heaven , ] said our Blessed Saviour : and then the Type is made compleat . And this seems to have been the sense of the Primitive Church : for in the Age next to the Apostles they gave to all baptized persons milk and honey , to represent to them their duty , that though in age and understanding they were men , yet they were babes in Christ , and children in malice . But to infer the sense of the Paedo-baptists is so weak a manner of arguing , that Austin , whose device it was , ( and men use to be in love with their own fancies ) at the most pretended it but as probable and a mere conjecture . 14. And as ill success will they have with the other Arguments as with this . For from the action of Christ's blessing Infants to infer they are to be baptized , proves nothing so much as that there is great want of better Arguments . The Conclusion would be with more probability derived thus : Christ blessed children and so dismissed them , but baptized them not ; therefore Infants are not to be baptized . But let this be as weak as its enemy , yet that Christ did not baptize them , is an Argument sufficient that Christ hath other ways of bringing them to heaven then by Baptism , he passed his act of grace upon them by benediction and imposition of hands . 15. And therefore , although neither Infants nor any man in puris naturalibus can attain to a supernatural end , without the addition of some instrument or means of God's appointing ordinarily and regularly ; yet where God hath not appointed a Rule nor an Order , as in the case of Infants we contend he hath not , the Argument is invalid . And as we are sure that God hath not commanded Infants to be baptized ; so we are sure God will doe them no injustice , nor damn them for what they cannot help . 16. And therefore let them be pressed with all the inconveniences that are consequent to Original sin , yet either it will not be laid to the charge of Infants , so as to be sufficient to condemn them ; or if it could , yet the mercy and absolute goodness of God will secure them , if he takes them away before they can glorifie him with a free obedience . Quid ergò festinat innocens aetas ad remissionem peccatorum ? was the question of Tertullian , ( lib. de Bapt. ) He knew no such danger from their Original guilt as to drive them to a Laver of which in that Age of innocence they had no need , as he conceived . And therefore there is no necessity of flying to the help of others for tongue , and heart , and Faith , and predispositions to Baptism ; for what need all this stir ? As Infants without their own consent , without any act of their own , and without any exteriour solennity , contracted the guilt of Adam's sin , and so are liable to all the punishment which can with justice descend upon his posterity , who are personally innocent : so Infants shall be restored without any solennity or act of their own , or of any other men for them , by the second Adam , by the redemption of Jesus Christ , by his righteousness and mercies applied either immediately , or how or when he shall be pleased to appoint . And so Austin's Argument will come to nothing , without any need of Godfathers , or the Faith of any body else . And it is too narrow a conception of God Almighty , because he hath tied us to the observation of the Ceremonies of his own institution , that therefore he hath tied himself to it . Many thousand ways there are by which God can bring any reasonable soul to himself : But nothing is more unreasonable , then , because he hath tied all men of years and discretion to this way , therefore we of our own heads shall carry Infants to him that way without his direction . The conceit is poor and low , and the action consequent to it is too bold and venturous . Mysterium meum mihi & filiis domûs meae . Let him doe what he please to Infants , we must not . 17. Onely this is certain , that God hath as great care of Infants as of others ; and because they have no capacity of doing such acts as may be in order to acquiring Salvation , God will by his own immediate mercy bring them thither where he hath intended them : but so say that therefore he will doe it by an external act and ministery , and that confin'd to a particular , viz. this Rite and no other , is no good Argument , unless God could not doe it without such means , or that he had said he would not . And why cannot God as well doe his mercies to Infants now immediately , as he did before the institution either of Circumcision or Baptism ? 18. However , there is no danger that Infants should perish for want of this external Ministery , much less for prevaricating Christ's precept of Nisi quis renatus fuerit , &c. For first , the Water and the Spirit in this place signifie the same thing ; and by Water is meant the effect of the Spirit , cleansing and purifying the Soul , as appears in its parallel place of Christ baptizing with the Spirit and with Fire . For although this was literally fulfilled in Pentecost , yet morally there is more in it ; for it is the sign of the effect of the Holy Ghost , and his productions upon the soul ; and it was an excellency of our Blessed Saviour's office , that he baptizes all that come to him with the Holy Ghost and with Fire : for so S. John , preferring Christ's mission and office before his own , tells the Jews , not Christ's Disciples , that Christ shall baptize them with Fire and the Holy Spirit , that is , all that come to him , as John the Baptist did with water ; for so lies the Antithesis . And you may as well conclude that Infants must also pass through the fire as through the water . And that we may not think this a trick to elude the pressure of this place , Peter says the same thing : for when he had said that Baptism saves us , he adds by way of explication , [ not the washing of the flesh , but the confidence of a good Conscience towards God ; ] plainly saying that it is not water , or the purifying of the body , but the cleansing of the Spirit , that does that which is supposed to be the effect of Baptism . And if our Saviour's exclusive negative be expounded by analogie to this of Peter , as certainly the other parallel instance must , and this may , then it will be so far from proving the necessity of Infants Baptism , that it can conclude for no man that he is obliged to the Rite ; and the Doctrine of the Baptism is onely to derive from the very words of Institution , and not to be forced from words which were spoken before it was ordained . But to let pass this advantage , and to suppose it meant of external Baptism , yet this no more infers a necessity of Infants Baptism , then the other words of Christ infer a necessity to give them the holy Communion ; Nisi comederitis carnem Filii hominis , & biberitis sanguinem , non introibitis in regnum coelorum : and yet we do not think these words sufficient Argument to communicate them . If men therefore will doe us justice , either let them give both Sacraments to Infants , as some Ages of the Church did , or neither . For the wit of man is not able to shew a disparity in the Sanction , or in the energie of its expression . And Simeon Thessalonicensis derides inertem Latinorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as we express it , the lazie trifling of the Latines , who dream of a difference . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; O the unreasonableness and absurdity ! For why do you baptize them ? Meaning that , because they are equally ignorant in Baptism as in the Eucharist , that which hinders them in one is the same impediment in both . And therefore they were honest that understood the obligation to be parallel , and performed it accordingly : and yet because we say they were deceived in one distance , and yet the obligation ( all the world cannot reasonably say but ) is the same ; they are as honest and as reasonable that doe neither . And since the ancient Church did with an equal opinion of necessity give them the Communion , and yet men now adays do not , why shall men be burthened with a prejudice and a name of obloquy for not giving the Infants one Sacrament more then they are disliked for not affording them the other ? If Anabaptist shall be a name of disgrace , why shall not some other name be invented for them that deny to communicate Infants , which shall be equally disgracefull , or else both the Opinions signified by such names be accounted no disparagement , but receive their estimate according to their truth ? 19. Of which truth since we are now taking account from pretences of Scripture , it is considerable that the discourse of S. Peter which is pretended for the intitling Infants to the Promise of the Holy Ghost , and by consequence to Baptism , which is supposed to be its Instrument and conveiance , is wholly a fancy , and hath in it nothing of certainty or demonstration , and not much probability . For besides that the thing it self is unreasonable , and the Holy Ghost works by the heightning and improving our natural faculties , and therefore it is a Promise that so concerns them as they are reasonable creatures , and may have a title to it , in proportion to their nature , but no possession or reception of it till their faculties come into act ; besides this , I say , the words mentioned in S. Peter's Sermon ( which are the onely record of the Promise ) are interpreted upon a weak mistake . The promise belongs to you and to your children , therefore Infants are actually receptive of it in that capacity : That is the Argument . But the reason of it is not yet discovered , nor ever will ; for [ to you and your children ] is to you and your posterity , to you and your children when they are of the same capacity , in which you are effectually receptive of the promise ; and therefore Tertullian calls Infants , designatos sanctitatis , ac per hoc etiam salutis , the candidates of holiness and salvation , those that are designed to it . But he that , when-ever the word [ children ] is used in Scripture , shall by [ children ] understand Infants , must needs believe that in all Israel there were no men , but all were Infants : and if that had been true it had been the greater wonder they should overcome the Anakims , and beat the King of Moab , and march so far , and discourse so well , for they were all called the children of Israel . 20. And for the Allegation of S. Paul , that Infants are holy if their Parents be faithfull , it signifies nothing but that they are holy by designation , just as Jeremy and John Baptist were sanctified in their Mothers womb , that is , they were appointed and designed for holy Ministeries , but had not received the Promise of the Father , the gift of the Holy Ghost ▪ for all that sanctification : and just so the children of Christian parents are sanctified , that is , designed to the service of Jesus Christ , and the future participation of the Promises . 21. And as the Promise appertains not ( for ought appears ) to Infants in that capacity and consistence , but onely by the title of their being reasonable creatures , and when they come to that act of which by nature they have the faculty ; so if it did , yet Baptism is not the means of conveying the Holy Ghost . For that which Peter says , Be baptized , and ye shall receive the holy Ghost , signifies no more then this , First be baptized , and then by imposition of the Apostles hands ( which was another mysterie and rite ) ye shall receive the Promise of the Father . And this is nothing but an insinuation of the rite of Confirmation , as is to this sense expounded by divers ancient Authours ; and in ordinary ministery the effect of it is not bestowed upon any unbaptized persons , for it is in order next after Baptism : and upon this ground Peter's Argument in the case of Cornelius was concluding enough à majori ad minus ; thus the Holy Ghost was bestowed upon him and his family , which gift by ordinary ministery was consequent to Baptism , ( not as the effect is to the cause or to the proper instrument , but as a consequent is to an antecedent in a chain of causes accidentally and by positive institution depending upon each other ; ) God by that miracle did give testimony that the persons of the men were in great dispositions towards Heaven , and therefore were to be admitted to those Rites which are the ordinary inlets into the Kingdome of Heaven . But then from hence to argue that wherever there is a capacity of receiving the same grace , there also the same sign is to be ministred , and from hence to infer Paedo baptism , is an Argument very fallacious upon several grounds . First , because Baptism is not the sign of the Holy Ghost , but by another mystery it was conveyed ordinarily and extraordinarily , it was conveyed independently from any mystery ; and so the Argument goes upon a wrong supposition . Secondly , if the supposition were true , the proposition built upon it is false ; for they that are capable of the same grace are not always capable of the same sign : for women under the Law of Moses , although they were capable of the righteousness of Faith , yet they were not capable of the sign of Circumcision . For God does not always convey his graces in the same manner , but to some mediately , to others immediately ; and there is no better instance in the world of it then the gift of the Holy Ghost , ( which is the thing now instanced in this contestation : ) for it is certain in Scripture , that it was ordinarily given by imposition of hands , and that after Baptism ; ( and when this came into an ordinary ministry , it was called by the ancient Church Chrism or Confirmation ; ) but yet it was given sometimes without imposition of hands , as at Pentecost and to the family of Cornelius , sometimes before Baptism , sometimes after , sometimes in conjunction with it . 22. And after all this , lest these Arguments should not ascertain their Cause , they fall on complaining against God , and will not be content with God unless they may baptize their children , but take exceptions that God did more for the children of the Jews . But why so ? Because God made a Covenant with their children actually as Infants , and consigned it by Circumcision . Well ; so he did with our children too in their proportion . He made a Covenant of spiritual Promises on his part , and spiritual and real services on ours ; and this pertains to children when they are capable , but made with them as soon as they are alive , and yet not so with the Jews babes : for as their Rite consigned them actually , so it was a national and temporal blessing and Covenant , as a separation of them from the portion of the Nations , a marking them for a peculiar people , ( and therefore while they were in the wilderness and separate from the commixture of all people they were not at all circumcised ; ) but as that Rite did seal the righteousness of Faith , so , by virtue of its adherencie , and remanency in their flesh , it did that work when the children came to age . But in Christian Infants the case is otherwise : for the new Covenant , being established upon better Promises , is not onely to better purposes , but also in distinct manner to be understood ; when their spirits are as receptive of a spiritual act or impress as the bodies of Jewish children were of the sign of Circumcision , then it is to be consigned . But this business is quickly at an end , by saying that God hath done no less for ours then for their children ; for he will doe the mercies of a Father and Creatour to them , and he did no more to the other . But he hath done more to ours , for he hath made a Covenant with them and built it upon Promises of the greatest concernment ; he did not so to them . But then for the other part , which is the main of the Argument , that unless this mercy be consigned by Baptism , as good not at all in respect of us , because we want the comfort of it ; this is the greatest vanity in the world . For when God hath made a Promise pertaining also to our children , ( for so our Adversaries contend , and we also acknowledge in its true sense ) shall not this promise , this word of God be of sufficient truth , certainty and efficacy to cause comfort , unless we tempt God and require a sign of him ? May not Christ say to these men as sometime to the Jews , A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign , but no sign shall be given unto it ? But the truth on 't is , this Argument is nothing but a direct quarrelling with God Almighty . 23. Now since there is no strength in the Doctrinal part , the practice and precedents Apostolical and Ecclesiastical will be of less concernment , if they were true as is pretended , because actions Apostolical are not always Rules for ever : it might be fit for them to doe it pro loco & tempore , as divers others of their Institutions , but yet no engagement past thence upon following Ages ; for it might be convenient at that time , in the new spring of Christianity , and till they had engaged a considerable party , by that means to make them parties against the Gentiles Superstition , and by way of pre-occupation , to ascertain them to their own Sect when they came to be men , or for some other reason not transmitted to us , because the Question of fact itself is not sufficiently determined . For the insinuation of that precept of baptizing all Nations , of which Children certainly are a part , does as little advantage as any of the rest , because other parallel expressions of Scripture do determine and expound themselves to a sense that includes not all persons absolutely , but of a capable condition ; as Adorate eum omnes gentes , & psallite Deo omnes nationes terrae , and divers more . 24. As for the conjecture concerning the family of Stephanus , at the best it is but a conjecture : and besides that it is not proved that there were children in the family ; yet if that were granted , it follows not that they were baptized , because by [ whole families ] in Scripture is meant all persons of reason and age within the family ; for it is said of the Ruler at Capernaum , that he believed and all his house . Now you may also suppose that in his house were little babes , that is likely enough ; and you may suppose that they did believe too before they could understand , but that 's not so likely : and then the argument from baptizing of Stephen's houshold may be allowed just as probable . But this is unman-like , to build upon such slight airy conjectures . 25. But Tradition by all means must supply the place of Scripture , and there is pretended a Tradition Apostolical that Infants were baptized . But at this we are not much moved ; for we who rely upon the written Word of God as sufficient to establish all true Religion do not value the Allegation of Traditions : And however the world goes , none of the Reformed Churches can pretend this Argument against this Opinion , because they who reject Tradition when 't is against them must not pretend it at all for them . But if we should allow the Topick to be good , yet how will it be verified ? For so far as it can yet appear , it relies wholly upon the Testimony of Origen , for from him Austin had it . For as for the testimony pretended out of Justin Martyr it is to no purpose , because the book from whence the words are cited is not Justin's , who was before Origen , and yet he cites Origen & Irenaeus . But who please may see it sufficiently condemned by Sixtus Senensis Biblioth . Sanct. l. 4. verbo Justinus . And as for the ●●stimony of Origen , we know nothing of it ; for every Heretick & interessed person did interpolate all his Works so much , that we cannot discern which are his & which not . Now a Tradition Apostolical , if it be not consigned with a fuller testimony then of one person whom all after . Ages have condemned of many errours , will obtain so little reputation amongst those who know that things have upon greater Authority pretended to derive from the Apostles , and yet falsely , that it will be a great Argument that he is ●redulous & weak that shall be determined by so weak probation in matters of so great concernment . And the truth of the business is , as there was no command of Scripture to oblige children to the susception of it , so the necessity of Paedo-baptism was not determined in the Church till in the eighth Age after Christ ; but in the year 418. in the Milevitan Council , a Provincial of Africa , there was a Canon made for Paedo-baptism ; never till then . I grant it was practised in Africa before that time , & they or some of them thought well of it ; & though that be no Argument for us to think so , yet none of them did ever before pretend it to be necessary , none to have been a precept of the Gospel . S. Austin was the first that ever preached it to be absolutely necessary ; and it was in his heat & anger against Pelagius , who had warmed & chased him so in that question , that it made him innovate in other Doctrines possibly of more concernment then this . And although this was practised anciently in Africa , yet that it was without an opinion of necessity , and not often there , nor at all in other places , we have the testimony of the learned Paedo-baptist Ludovicus Vives , who in his Annotations upon Saint Austin De Civit. Dei , l. 1. c. 27. affirms , neminem nisi adultum antiquitus solere baptizari . 26. But besides that the Tradition cannot be proved to be Apostolical we have very good evidence from Antiquity , that it was the opinion of the Primitive Church that Infants ought not to be baptized : and this is clear in the sixth Canon of the Council of N●ocaesarea . The words are these , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The sense is this , A woman with child may be baptized when she please ; for her Baptism concerns not the child . The reason of the connexion of the parts of that Canon is in the following words , Because every one in that confession is to give a demonstration of his own choice and election . Meaning plainly , that if the Baptism of the mother did also pass upon the child , it were not fit for a pregnant woman to receive Baptism , because in that Sacrament there being a confession of Faith , which confession supposes understanding and free choice , it is not reasonable the child should be consigned with such a mysterie , since it cannot doe any act of choice or understanding . And to this purpose are the words of Balsamon ; speaking of this Decree ; and of Infants unborn not to be baptized , he says , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The unborn babe is not to be baptized , because he neither is come to light , nor can he make choice of the confession , that is , of the Articles to be confessed in Divine baptism . To the same sense are the words of Zonaras , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The Embryo or unborn babe does then need Baptism when he can chuse . The Canon speaks reason , and it intimates a practice which was absolutely universal in the Church , of interrogating the Catechumens concerning the Articles of Creed . Which is one Argument that either they did not admit Infants to Baptism , or that they did prevaricate egregiously in asking questions of them , who themselves knew were not capable of giving answer . But the former was the more probable , according to the testimony of Walafridus Stabo , Notandum deinde primis temporibus illis solummodo Baptismi gratiam dari solitam qui & corporis & mentis●integritate jam ad hoc pervenerunt , ut scire & intelligere possent quid emolumenti in Baptismo consequendum , quid confitendum atque credendum , quid postremò renatis in Christo esset servandum . It is to be noted that in those first times the grace of Baptism was wont to be given to those onely who by their integrity of mind and body were arrived to this , that they could know and understand what profit was to be had by Baptism , what was to be confessed and believ'd in Baptism , and what is the duty of them who are born again in Christ. 27. But to supply their incapacity by the answer of a Godfather , is but the same unreasonableness acted with a worse circumstance : and there is no sensible account can be given of it . For that which some imperfectly murmure concerning stipulations civil performed by Tutors in the name of their Pupils , is an absolute vanity . For what if by positive constitution of the Romans such solennites of Law are required in all stipulations , and by indulgence are permitted in the case of a notable benefit accruing to Minors , must God be tied , and Christian Religion transact her mysteries by proportion and compliance with the Law of the Romans ? I know God might if he would have appointed Godfathers to give answer in behalf of the Children , and to be Fide jussors for them ; but we cannot find any Authority or ground that he hath : and if he had , then it is to be supposed he would have given them commission to have transacted the solennity with better circumstances , and given answers with more truth . For the Question is asked of believing in the present . And if the Godfathers answer in the name of the child , [ I do believe , ] it is notorious they speak false and ridiculously : for the Infant is not capable of believing ; and if he were , he were also capable of dissenting , and how then do they know his minde ? And therefore Tertullian gives advice that the Baptism of Infants should be deferred till they could give an account of their Faith. And the same also is the Counsel of * Gregory Bishop of Nazianzum , although he allows them to hasten it in case of necessity : for though his reason taught him what was fit , yet he was overborn with the practice and Opinion of his Age , which began to bear too violently upon him ; and yet in another place he makes mention of some to whom Baptism was not administred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by reason of Infancy . To which if we adde that the parents of S. Austin , S. Hierom , and S. Ambrose , although they were Christian , yet did not baptize their children before they were 30 years of age ; and S. Chrysostome , who was instituted and bred up in Religion by the famous and beloved Bishop Meletius , was yet not baptized till after he was twenty years of age ; and Gregory Nazianzen , though he was the son of a Bishop , yet was not Christened till he came to man's age ; it will be very considerable in the example , and of great efficacy for destroying the supposed necessity or derivation from the Apostles . 28. But however , it is against the perpetual analogie of Christ's Doctrine to baptize Infants . For besides that Christ never gave any precept to baptize them , nor ever himself nor his Apostles ( that appears ) did baptize any of them ; all that either he or his Apostles said concerning it requires such previous dispositions to Baptism of which Infants are not capable , and these are Faith and Repentance . And not to instance in those innumerable places that require Faith before this Sacrament , there needs no more but this one saying of our Blessed Saviour , He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved , but he that believeth not shall be damned : plainly thus , Faith and Baptism in conjunction will bring a man to heaven ; but if he have not Faith , Baptism shall doe him no good . So that if Baptism be necessary then , so is Faith , and much more : for want of Faith damns absolutely ; it is not said so of the want of Baptism . Now if this decretory sentence be to be understood of persons of age , and if children by such an answer ( which indeed is reasonable enough ) be excused from the necessity of Faith , the want of which regularly does damn ; then it is sottish to say the same incapacity of Reason and Faith shall not excuse from the actual susception of Baptism , which is less necessary , and to which Faith and many other acts are necessary predispositions when it is reasonably and humanely received . The Conclusion is , that Baptism is also to be deferred till the time of Faith : And whether Infants have Faith or no , is a question to be disputed by persons that care not how much they say , not how little they prove . 29. First , Personal and actual Faith they have none ; for they have no acts of understanding : and besides , how can any man know that they have , since he never saw any sign of it , neither was he told so by any one that could tell ? Secondly , Some say they have imputative Faith : but then so let the Sacrament be too : that is , if they have the parents Faith or the Church's , then so let Baptism be imputed also by derivation from them ; that as in their mothers womb , and while they hang on their breasts , they live upon their mothers nourishment , so they may upon the Baptism of their parents or their Mother the Church . For since Faith is necessary to the susception of Baptism , ( and themselves confess it , by striving to find out new kinds of Faith to dawb the matter up ) such as the Faith is such must be the Sacrament : for there is no proportion between an actual Sacrament and an imputative Faith , this being in immediate and necessary order to that . And whatsoever can be said to take off from the necessity of actual Faith , all that and much more may be said to excuse from the actual susception of Baptism . Thirdly , the first of these devices was that of Luther and his Scholars , the second of Calvin and his : and yet there is a third device which the Church of Rome teaches , and that is , that Infants have habitual Faith. But who told them so ? how can they prove it ? what Revelation or reason teaches any such thing ? Are they by this habit so much as disposed to an actual belief without a new Master ? Can an Infant sent into a Mahumetan province be more confident for Christianity when he comes to be a man , then if he had not been baptized ? Are there any acts precedent , concomitant or consequent to this pretended habit ? This strange invention is absolutely without art , without Scripture , Reason or Authority . But the men are to be excused , unless there were a better . But for all these strategems , the Argument now alledged against the Baptism of Infants is demonstrative and unanswerable . 30. To which also this consideration may be added , that if Baptism be necessary to the Salvation of Infants , upon whom is the imposition laid ? to whom is the command given ? to the parents or to the children ? Not to the children , for they are not capable of a Law : not to the parents , for then God hath put the salvation of innocent babes into the power of others , and Infants may be damned for their fathers carelesness or malice . It follows , that it is not necessary at all to be done to them , to whom it cannot be prescribed as a Law , and in whose behalf it cannot be reasonably intrusted to others with the appendant necessity : and if it be not necessary , it is certain it is not reasonable , and most certain it is no where in terms prescribed : and therefore it is to be presumed that it ought to be understood and administred according as other precepts are , with reference to the capacity of the subject , and the reasonableness of the thing . 31. For I consider , that the baptizing of Infants does rush us upon such inconveniences which in other Questions we avoid like rocks : which will appear if we Discourse thus . Either Baptism produces spiritual effects , or it produces them not . If it produces not any , why is such contention about it ? what are we the nearer heaven if we are baptized ? and if it be neglected , what are we the farther of ? But if ( as without all peradventure all the Paedo-baptists will say ) Baptism does doe a work upon the Soul , producing spiritual benefits and advantages , these advantages are produced by the external work of the Sacrament alone , or by that as it is helped by the co-opera●ion and predispositions of the Suscipient . If by the external work of the Sacrament alone , how does this differ from the opus operatum of the Papists , save that it is worse ? For they say the Sacrament does not produce its effect but in a Suscipient disposed by all requisites and due preparatives of piety , Faith , and Repentance ; though in a subject so disposed they say the Sacrament by its own virtue does it : but this Opinion says it does it of itself , without the help , or so much as the coexistence , of any condition but the mere reception . But if the Sacrament does not doe its work alone , but per modum recipientis , according to the predispositions of the Suscipient , then , because Infants can neither hinder it , nor doe any thing to farther it , it does them no benefit at all . And if any man runs for succour to that exploded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that Infants have Faith , or any other inspired habit of I know not what or how , we desire no more advantage in the world , then that they are constrained to an answer without Revelation , against reason , common sense , and all the experience in the world . The summe of the Argument in short is this , though under another representment . Either Baptism is a mere Ceremony , or it implies a Duty on our part . If it be a Ceremony onely , how does it sanctifie us , or make the comers thereunto perfect ? If it implies a Duty on our part , how then can children receive it , who cannot doe duty at all ? And indeed this way of ministration makes Baptism to be wholly an outward duty , a work of the Law , a carnal Ordinance ; it makes us adhere to the letter , without regard of the Spirit , to be satisfied with shadows , to return to bondage , to relinquish the mysteriousness , the substance and Spirituality of the Gospel . Which Argument is of so much the more consideration , because under the Spiritual Covenant , or the Gospel of Grace , if the Mystery goes not before the Symbol , ( which it does when the Symbols are Seals and consignations of the Grace , as it is said the Sacraments are ) yet it always accompanies it , but never follows in order of time . And this is clear in the perpetual analogie of Holy Scripture . For Baptism is never propounded , mentioned or enjoyned as a means of remission of sins or of eternal life , but something of duty , choice and sanctity is joyned with it , in order to production of the end so mentioned . Know ye not that as many as are baptized into Christ Jesus , are baptized into his death ? There is the Mystery and the Symbol together , and declared to be perpetually united . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , All of us who were baptized into one were baptized into the other ; not onely into the name of Christ , but into his death also . But the meaning of thi● as it is explained in the following words of S. Paul makes much for our purpose : For to be baptized into his death , signifies to be buried with him in Baptism , that as Christ rose from the dead , we also should walk in newness of life : That 's the full mystery of Baptism . For being baptized into his death , or , which is all one , in the next words , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , into the likeness of his death , cannot goe alone ; if we be so planted into Christ , we shall be partakers of his Resurrection : and that is not here instanced in precise reward , but in exact duty ; for all this is nothing but crucifixion of the old man , a destroying the body of sin , that we no longer serve sin . This indeed is truly to be baptized both in the Symbol and the Mystery . Whatsoever is less then this is but the Symbol only , a mere Ceremony , an opus operatum , a dead letter , an empty shadow , an instrument without an agent to manage or force to actuate it . Plainer yet : Whosoever are baptized into Christ have put on Christ , have put on the new man : But to put on this new man , is to be formed in righteousness , and holiness , and truth . This whole Argument is the very words of S. Paul. The Major proposition is dogmatically determined Gal. 3.27 . The Minor in Ephes. 4.24 . The Conclusion then is obvious , that they who are not formed new in righteousness , and holiness , and truth , they who , remaining in the present incapacities , cannot walk in the newness of life , they have not been baptized into Christ : and then they have but one member of the distinction , used by S. Peter , they have that Baptism which is a putting away the filth of the flesh , but they have not that Baptism which is the answer of a good conscience towards God , which is the only Baptism that saves us . And this is the case of children . And then the case is thus : As Infants by the force of nature cannot put themselves into a supernatural condition , ( and therefore , say the Paedo-baptists , they need Baptism to put them into it ; ) so if they be baptized before the use of Reason , before the works of the Spirit , before the operations of Grace , before they can throw off the works of darkness , and live in righteousness and newness of life , they are never the nearer . From the pains of Hell they shall be saved by the mercies of God and their own innocence , though they die in puris naturalibus ; and Baptism will carry them no further . For that Baptism that save us is not the onely washing with water , of which onely children are capable , but the answer of a good conscience towards God , of which they are not capable till the use of Reason , till they know to chuse the good and refuse the evil . And from thence I consider anew , That all vows made by persons under others names , stipulations made by Minors , are not valid till they by a supervening act after they are of sufficient age do ratifie them . Why then may not Infants as well make the vow de novo , as de novo ratifie that which was made for them ab antiquo , when they come to years of choice ? If the Infant vow be invalid till the Manly confirmation , why were it not as good they staid to make it till that time , before which if they do make it , it is to no purpose ? This would be considered . 32. And in conclusion , Our way is the surer way ; for not to baptize children till they can give an account of their Faith is the most proportionable to an act of reason and humanity , and it can have no danger in it . For to say that Infants may be damned for want of Baptism , ( a thing which is not in their power to acquire , they being persons not yet capable of a Law ) is to affirm that of God which we dare not say of any wise and good man. Certainly it is much derogatory to God's Justice , and a plain defiance to the infinite reputation of his Goodness . 33. And therefore who-ever will pertinaciously persist in this opinion of the Paedo-baptists , and practise it accordingly , they pollute the blood of the everlasting Testament ; they dishonour and make a pageantry of the Sacrament ; they ineffectually represent a sepulture into the death of Christ , and please themselves in a sign without effect , making Baptism like the fig-tree in the Gospel , full of leaves but no fruit ; and they invocate the Holy Ghost in vain , doing as if one should call upon him to illuminate a stone or a tree . 24. Thus far the Anabaptists may argue ; and men have disputed against them with so much weakness and confidence , that we may say of them as S. Gregory Nazianzen observes of the case of the Church in his time , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. They have been encouraged in their errour more by the accidental advantages we have given them by our weak arguings , then by any excellency of their wit , and ( much less ) any advantage of their cause . It concerned not the present design of this Book to enquire whether these men speak true or no : for if they speak probably , or so as may deceive them that are no fools , it is argument sufficient to perswade us to pity the erring man that is deceived without design : and that is all that I intended . But because all men will not understand my purpose , or think my meaning innocent , unless I answer the Arguments which I have made or gathered for mine and their adversaries , ( although I say it be nothing to the purpose of my Book , which was onely to represent , that even in a wrong cause there may be invincible causes of deception to innocent and unfortunate persons , and of this truth the Anabaptists in their question of Paedo baptism is a very great instance ; yet ) I will rather chuse to offend the rules of Art , then not to fulfill all the requisites of charity : I have chosen therefore to adde some animadversions upon the Anabaptists plea , upon all that is material , and which can have any considerable effect in the Question . For though I have used this art and stratagem of peace justly , by representing the Enemie's strength to bring the other party to thoughts of charity and kind comportments ; yet I could not intend to discourage the right side , or to make either a mutiny or defection in the Armies of Israel . I do not , as the Spies from Canaan , say that these men are Anakims , and the city-walls reach up to Heaven , and there are giants in the Land : I know they are not insuperable , but they are like the blind and the lame set before a wall , that a weak man can leap over , and a single troup armed with wisedome and truth can beat all their guards . But yet I think that he said well and wisely to Charles the fighting Duke of Burgundy , that told him that the Switzers strength was not so to be despised , but that an honourable peace and a Christian usage of them were better then a cruel and a bloudy war. The event of that battel told all the world , that no Enemy is to be despised and rendred desperate at the same time ; and that there are but few causes in the world but they do sometimes meet with witty Advocates , & in themselves put on such semblances of truth , as will ( if not make the victory uncertain , yet ) make peace more safe & prudent , & mutual charity to be the best defence . And First , I do not pretend to say that every Argument brought by good men and wise in a righ● cause must needs be demonstrative . The Divinity of the eternal Son of God is a Truth of as great concernment and as great certainty as any thing that ever was disputed in the Christian Church ; and yet he that reads the writings of the Fathers , and the Acts of Councils convened about that great Question , will find that all the armour is not proof which is used in a holy War. For that seems to one which is not so to another ▪ and when a man hath one sufficient reason to secure him and make him confident , every thing seems to him to speak the same sense , though to an adversary it does not : for the one observes the similitude , and pleaseth himself ; the other watches onely the dissonancies , and gets advantage ; because one line of likeness will please a believing willing man , but one will not do the work ; and where many dissimilitudes can be observed , & but one similitude , it were better to let the shadow alone then hazard the substance . And it is to be observed , that Hereticks and misbelievers do apply themselves rather to disable truth then directly to establish their errour ; and every Argument they wrest from the hand of their adversaries is to them a double purchase , it takes from the other and makes him less , and makes himself greater : the way to spoil a strong man is to take from him the armour in which he trusted : and when this adversary hath espied a weak part in any discourse , he presently concludes that the cause is no stronger , and reckons his victories by the colours that he takes , though they signified nothing to the strength of the cause . And this is the main way of proceeding in this Question : for they rather endeavour to shew that we cannot demonstrate our part of the Question , then that they can prove theirs . And as it is indeed easier to destroy then to build , so it is more agreeable to the nature and to the design of Heresie : and therefore it were well that in this and in other Q●stions where there are watchfull adversaries , we should fight as Gideon did with three hundred hardy brave fellows that would stand against all violence , rather then to make a noise with rams Horns and broken pitchers , like the men at the siege of Jericho . And though it is not to be expected that all Arguments should be demonstrative in a true cause , yet it were well if the Generals of the Church , which the Scripture affirms is terrible as an army with banners , should not , by sending out weak parties which are easily beaten , weaken their own army , and give confidence to the Enemy . Secondly , Although it is hard to prove a negative , and it is not in many cases to be imposed upon a Litigant ; yet when the affirmative is received and practised , whoever will disturb the actual perswasion must give his reason , and offer proof for his own Doctrine , or let me alone with mine . For the reason why negatives are hard to prove is because they have no positive cause ; but as they have no being , so they have no reason : but then also they are first , and before affirmatives , that is , such which are therefore to prevail because nothing can be said against them . Darkness is before light , and things are not before they are : and though to prove that things are , something must be said ; yet to prove they are not , nothing is to be alledged but that they are not , and no man can prove they are . But when an affirmative hath entred and prevailed , because no effect can be without some positive cause , therefore this which came in upon some cause or other must not be sent away without cause : and because the negative is in this case later then the affirmative , it must enter as the affirmatives doe when they happen to be later then the negative . Adde to this , that for the introduction of a negative against the possession of a prevailing affirmative , it is not enough to invalidate the arguments of the affirmative , by making it appear they are not demonstrative : for although that might have been sufficient to hinder its first entry , yet it is not enough to throw it out , because it hath gotten strength and reasonableness by long custome and dwelling upon the minds of men , and hath some forces beyond what it derives from the first causes of its introduction . And therefore whoever will perswade men to quit their long perswasions and their consonant practices , must not tell them that such perswasions are not certain , and that they cannot prove such practices to be necessary ; but that the Doctrine is false , against some other revealed Truth which they admit , and the practice evil ; not onely useless , but dangerous or criminal . So that the Anabaptists cannot acquit themselves and promote their cause by going about to invalidate our Arguments , unless they do not onely weaken our affirmative by taking away ( not one or two , but ) all the confidences of its strength , but also make their own negative to include a duty , or its enemy to be guilty of a crime . And therefore if it were granted that we cannot prove the Baptism of infants to be necessary , and that they could speak probably against all the Arguments of the right Believers ; yet it were intolerable that they should be attended to , unless they pretend , and make their pretence good , that they teach piety and duty and necessity : for nothing less then these can make recompence for so violent , so great an inroad and rape upon the perswasions of men . Whether the Anabaptists do so or no , will be considered in the sequel . Thirdly , These Arguments which are in this Section urged in behalf of the Anabaptists , [ their persons ] I mean , finally , not their cause at all but in order to their persons , can doe the less hurt , because they rely upon our grounds , not upon theirs ; that is , they are intended to perswade us to a charitable comport towards the men , but not at all to perswade their Doctrine . For it is remarkable , that none of them have made use of this way of arguing since the publication of these Adversaria ; and of some things they can never make use . As in that exposition of the words of S. Peter , Be baptized , and ye shall receive the holy Ghost ; which is expounded to be meant not in Baptism , but in Confirmation : which is a Rite the Anabaptists allow not , and therefore they cannot make use of any such Exposition which supposes a Divine institution of that which they at no hand admit . And so it is in divers other particulars , as any wary person , that is cautious he be not deluded by any weak and plausible pretence of theirs , may easily observe . But after all , the Arguments for the Baptism of children are firm and valid , and though shaken by the adverse plea , yet as trees that stand in the face of storms take the surer root , so will the right Reasons of the right Believers , if they be represented with their proper advantages . Ad 3. & 13. The first Argument is the Circumcising of children , which we say does rightly infer the Baptizing them : The Anabaptist says no ; because admit that Circumcision were the type of Baptism , yet it follows not that the circumstances of one must infer the same circumstances in the other ; which he proves by many instances : and so far he sayes true . And therefore if there were no more in the Argument then can be inferred from the type to the antitype , both the supposition & the superstructure would be infirm : because it is uncertain whether Circumcision be a type of Baptism ; and if it were granted , it cannot infer equal circumstances . But then this Argument goes farther , and to other and more material purposes , even to the overthrow of their chief pretension . For Circumcision was a seal of the righteousness of faith : And if Infants , who have no Faith , yet can by a Ceremony be admitted into the Covenant of Faith , as S. Paul con●ends that all the circumcised were , and it is certain of Infants , that they were reckoned amongst the Lord's people as soon as they were circumcised ; then it follows , that the great pretence of the Anabaptists , that for want of Faith Infants are incapable of the Sacrament , comes to nothing . For if Infants were admitted into the Covenant of Faith by a Ceremony before they could enter by choice and reason , by Faith and Obedience ; then so they may now , their great and onely pretence notwithstanding . Now whereas the Anabaptist says that in the admission of the Jewish Infants to Circumcision and of Christian Infants to Baptism there is this difference , that Circumcision imprints a character on the flesh , but Baptism does not ; Circumcision had no word added , but Baptism hath ; and therefore Infants were capable of the former , but not of the latter ; for they might be cut with the Circumcising-stone , but they cannot be instructed with the word of Baptism : in that there was a character left by which they might be instructed when they come to age , but in Baptism there is no character , and the word they understand not ; therefore that was to purpose , but this is not . I answer , that this is something to the circumstance of the Sacraments , but nothing to the substance of the Argument . For if the Covenant of Faith can belong to Infants , then it is certain they can have the benefit of Faith before they have the grace ; that is , God will doe them benefit before they can do him service : and that is no new thing in Religion , that God should love us first . But then , that God is not as much before-hand with Christian as with Jewish Infants , is a thing which can never be believed by them who understand that in the Gospel God opened all his treasures of mercies , and unsealed the fountain itself , whereas before he poured forth only rivulets of mercy and comfort . That Circumcision is a seal of the righteousness of faith , Saint Paul affirms ; that so also is Baptism , ( if it be any thing at all ) the Anabaptists must needs confess , because they refuse to give Baptism to them who have not Faith , and make it useless to them , as being a Seal without a Deed. But then the Argument is good upon its first grounds . But then for the title Reparties but now mentioned , that Circumcision imprints a character , but Baptism does not ; that Baptism hath a word , but Circumcision had none ; they are just nothing to the purpose . For as that character imprinted on the Infants flesh would have been nothing of instruction to them unless there had been a word added , that is , unless they had been told the meaning of it when they came to be men ; so neither will the word added to Baptism be of use either to men or children , unless there be a character upon their spirits imprinted when or before they come to the use of reason by the Holy Spirit of God : but therefore as the Anabaptists would have our Infants stay from the Sacrament till they can understand the word ; so also might the imprinting of a character on the flesh of the Jewish Infants have been deferred till the word should be added , that is , till they could understand the word , or declaration of the meaning of that character , without which they could not understand its meaning . The case is equal . In the Jewish Infants the character was before the word ; in the Christian Infants the word is before the character : but neither that nor this alone could doe all the work of the Sacrament ; but yet it could doe some , and when they could be conjoyned , the office was compleated . But therefore as the Infants under Moses might have that which to them was an insignificant character ; so may the Infants under Christ have water , and a word whose meaning these shall understand as soon as those could understand the meaning of the character . So that these pretended differences signifie nothing ; and if they did , yet they are not certainly true , but rather certainly false : for although the Scriptures mention not any form of words used in the Mosaick Sacraments , yet the Jews books record them . And then for the other , that there is no character imprinted in Baptism it is impossible they should reasonably affirm , because it being spiritual is also undiscernible , and cometh not by observation . And although there is no permanent or inherent quality imprinted by the Spirit in Baptism that we know of , and therefore will not affirm ; ( but neither can they know it is not , and therefore they ought not to deny , much less to establish any proposition upon it ; ) yet it is certain that , although no quality be imprinted before they come to the use of Reason , yet a Relation is contracted , and then the children have title to the Promises , and are reckoned in Christi censu , in Christ's account , they are members of his body : and though they can as yet doe no duty , yet God can doe them a favour ; although they cannot yet perform a condition , yet God can make a promise ; and though the Anabaptists will be so bold as to restrain Infants , yet they cannot restrain God , and therefore the Sacrament is not to be denied to them . For although they can doe nothing , yet they can receive something ; they can by this Sacrament as really be admitted into the Covenant of Faith , even before they have the Grace of Faith , as the Infants of the Jews could : and if they be admitted to this Covenant , they are Children of faithfull Abraham , and heirs of the promise . All the other particulars of their answer to the Argument taken from Circumcision are wholly impertinent ; for they are intended to prove that Circumcision being a type of Baptism cannot prove that the same circumstances are to be observed : all which I grant . For Circumcision was no type of Baptism , but was a Sacrament of initiation to the Mosaick Covenant ; and so is Baptism of initiation to the Evangelical : Circumcision was a Seal of the Righteousness of Faith , and so is Baptism ; but they are both but Rites and Sacraments , and therefore cannot have the relation of type and antitype ; they are both but external ministeries fitted to the several periods of the Law and the Gospel , with this onely difference , that Circumcision gave place to , was supplied and succeeded to by Baptism . And as those persons who could not be circumcised , I mean the females , yet were baptized , as is notorious in the Jews books and story , and by that Rite were admitted to the same Promises and Covenant as if they had been circumcised : so much more when males and females are onely baptized , Baptism must be admitted and allowed to consign all that Covenant of Faith which Circumcision did , and therefore to be dispensed to all them who can partake of that Covenat , as Infants did then , and therefore certainly may now . So that in short , we do not infer that Infants are to receive this Sacrament because they received that ; but because the benefit and secret purpose of both is the same in some main regards : and if they were capable of the blessing then , so they are now ; and if want of Faith hindered not the Jewish babes from entring into the Covenant of Faith , then neither shall it hinder the Christian babes : and if they can and do receive the benefit for which the ceremony was appointed as a sign and conduit , why they should not be admitted to the ceremony is so very a trifle , that it deserves not to become the entertainment of a fancy in the sober time of the day , but must go into the portion of dreams and illusions of the night . Ad 4. And as ill success will they have with the other Answers . For although we intend the next Argument but as a reasonable inducement of the baptizing Infants by way of proportion to the other treatments they received from Christ ; yet this probability , notwithstanding all that is said against it , may be a demonstration . For if Infants can be brought to Christ by the charitable minsteries of others when they cannot come themselves ; if Christ did give them his blessing , and great expressions of his love to them , when they could not by any act of their own dispose themselves to it ; if the Disciples , who then knew nothing of this secret , were reproved for hindring them to be brought , and upon the occasion of this a precept established for ever , that children should be suffered to come to him ; and though they were brought by others , yet it was all one as if they had come themselves , and was so called , so expounded ; and if the reason why they should be suffered to come is such a thing as must at least suppose them capable of the greatest blessing : there is no peradventure but this will amount to as much as the grace of Baptism will come to . For if we regard the outward Ministery , that Christ did take them in his arms and lay his hands upon them is as much as if the Apostles should take them in their arms and lay water upon them : if we regard the effect of it , that Christ blessed them is as much as if his Ministers prayed over them : if we regard the capacity of Infants , it is such that the Kingdome of Heaven belongs to them ; that is , they also can be admitted to the Covenant of the Gospel , for that is the least signification of [ the Kingdome of Heaven ; ] or they shall be partakers of Heaven , which is the greatest signification , and includes all the intermedial ways thither , according to the capacity of the suscipients : if we regard the acceptance of the action and entertainment of the person , it is as great as Christ any-where expresses : if we regard the Precept , it cannot be supposed to expire in the persons of those little ones which were then brought , for they were come already , and though they were tacitly reproved who offered to hinder them , yet the children were present ; and therefore it must relate to others , to all Infants , that they should for ever be brought to Christ. And this is also to be gathered from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , of such , not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , of these ; for these are but a few , but the Kingdome of God is of such as these who are now brought ; children make up a great portion of it , and the other portion is made up by such who become like to these . And if the Transcript belong to the Kingdome , it were strange if the Exemplar should not : if none can enter but they who are like children , it must be certain that nothing can hinder the children . And lastly , if we regard the Doctrine which Christ established upon this action , it will finish the Argument into a certain conclusion ; Whosoever shall not receive the Kingdome of God as a little child , shall not enter therein : receive it as a little child receives it , that is , with innocence and without any let or hinderance . So that they who receive it best receive it but as little children : for they , being the first in the kind , are made the measure of all the rest ; and if others shall be excluded for not being like these , it is certain these are not to be excluded for not being like others : other are commanded to be like them in innocence , and that is sufficient to make them recipients of the Divine grace ; but therefore to make Infants to be recipients it is not required that they should have the use of Reason . And we do not well consider that it is God who creates all our capacities of grace , and it is he who makes us able to receive what he intends to bestow , and nothing of ours can doe it ; no good actions can deserve any grace , much less the first grace , the grace of Baptism ; and all that men can doe in the whole use of their Reason and order of their life is to return as much as they can to the innocence of their Infancy ; and Prayer is but a seeking after pardon and grace whereby we may stand as innocents before God , and Charity is but growing , and is here principally the extermination of all malice and envie , and by Alms ( as Daniel advis'd to Nebuchadnezzar ) we do but break off our sins , and our health is but the expulsion of evil humors , and our pleasure is but the removal of a pain , and optimus est qui minimis urgetur , and our best holiness is being like to Infants : and therefore it is no wonder if God made them the principals in this line , and loves them so well who are innocent of any consent to evil . And although they have done no good , yet they are all that which God loves , they are his Image undefiled , unscratch●d , unbroken by any act or consent of their own : but then it were a very great wonder , if these in whom God sees the work of his own hands , the image of his own essence , the purity of innocence , the capacities of glory , to whom his Holy Son gave such signal testimonies of his love , upon whom he bestowed a blessing , for whose sake he was much displeased when they were hindred to come , whom he declared the exemplar of those who should be saved , and the pattern and precedent of receiving his Kingdome , to whom he imparted spiritual favours by a ceremony and selemnity , I say , it were a very great wonder that these should not receive the same favours in the way of ordinary establishment , who have the principal title , and did actually receive them in the extraordinary before the general appointment of the other . If there be any thing that can hinder them , it must be something without ; for nothing within can hinder them to receive ●hat which others cannot receive but by being like them : and if any thing without does hinder them , it cannot expect to fare better then the Disciples , with whom Christ was much displeased . But of what can they now be hindered ? Not of the grace of the Sacrament ; that is their own by way of eminent relation and propriety , the Kingdome of Heaven is theirs and of such as they are : Not of the Sacrament therefore or solemnity , for that is wholly for the other , and is nothing but an instrument , and hath a relative use , and none else ; and as it is to no purpose to any man till they receive the grace of it , so it can be for no reason detained from them who shall certainly have the grace though they be forcibly deprived of the instrument . Unless therefore they who could come to Christ and were commanded to be brought to Christ when he was upon earth may not , cannot come to him now that he is in Heaven , and made our Advocate and our Gracious Lord and King ; unless they who had the honour of a solemnity from the hands of Christ may not be admitted to a ceremony from the hands of his servants ; unless Baptismal water be more then Baptismal grace , and to be admitted into the Church be more then to be admitted to Heaven ; it cannot with any plausible reason be pretended that Infants are to be excluded form this Sacrament . Ad 14. Now as for the little things which the Anab. murmurs against the first essay of this Argument , they will quickly disappear . For whereas he says , it were a better Argument to say that Christ blessed children and so dismissed them , but baptized them not , therefore Infants are not to be baptized ; this is perfectly nothing , because Christ baptized none at all , men , women , nor children ; and this will conclude against the Baptism of men too as well as Infants : and whereas it is hence inferred , that because Christ baptized them not , therefore he hath other ways of bringing them to Heaven then by Baptism ; it is very true , but makes very much against them . For if God hath other ways of bringing them to Heaven who yet cannot believe , if they can go to Heaven without Faith , why not to the Font ? If they can obtain that glorious end in order to which the Sacrament is appointed without the act of believing , then so also they may the means . But for what end , to what purpose do they detain the water , when they cannot keep back the Spirit ? and why will they keep them from the Church , when they cannot keep them from God ? and why do men require harder conditions of being baptized then of being saved ? And then , that God will by other means bring them to Heaven if they have not Baptism , is argument sufficient to prove that God's goodness prevails over the malice and ignorance of men , and that men contend more for shadows then for substances , and are more nice in their own ministrations then God is in the whole effusions of his bounty ; and therefore that these disagreeing persons may doe themselves injury , but , in the event of things , none to the children . So that this Argument , though sligthly passed over by the Anab. yet is of very great perswasion in this Article , and so us'd and relied upon by the Church of England in her office of Baptism : and for that reason I have the more insisted upon it . Ad. 5. the next Argument without any alteration or addition stands firm upon its own basis . Adam sinn'd , and left nakedness to descend upon his posterity , a relative guilt and a remaining misery ; he left enough to kill us , but nothing to make us alive : he was the head of mankind in order to temporal felicity ; but there was another head intended to be the representative of humane nature to bring us to eternal : but the temporal we lost by Adam ; and the eternal we could never receive from him , but from Christ onely : from Adam we receive our nature such as it is ; but grace and truth comes by Jesus Christ : Adam left us an imperfect nature that tends to sin and death , but he left us nothing else ; and therefore , to holiness and life we must enter from another principle . So that besides the natural birth of Infants there must be something added by which they must be reckoned in a new account : they must be born again , they must be reckon'd in Chrst , they must be adopted to the inheritance , and admitted to the Promise , and intitled to the Spirit . Now that this is done ordinarily in Baptism , is not to be denied : for therefore it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Font or Laver of regeneration ; it is the gate of the Church , it is the solemnity of our admission to the Covenant Evangelical : and if Infants cannot goe to Heaven by the first or natural birth , then they must goe by a second and supernatural : and since there is no other solemnity or Sacrament , no way of being born again that we know of but by the ways of God's appointing , and he hath appointed Baptism , and all that are born again are born this way , even men of Reason who have or can receive the Spirit being to enter at the door of Baptism ; it follows that Infants also must enter here , or we cannot say that they are entred at all . And it is highly considerable , that whereas the Anab. does clamorously and loudly call for a precept for childrens Baptism ; this consideration does his work for him and us . He that shews the way needs not bid you walk in it : and if there be but one door that stands open , and all must enter some way or other , it were a strange perverseness of argument to say that none shall pass in at that door unless they come alone ; and they that are brought , or they that lean on crutches or the shoulders of others , shall be excluded and undone for their infelicity , and shall not receive help because they have the greatest need of it . But these men use Infants worse then the poor Paralytick was treated at the pool of Bethesda : he could not be washed because he had none to put him in ; but these men will not suffer any one to put them in , and untill they can goe in themselves they shall never have the benefit of the Spirit 's moving upon the waters . Ad. 15. but the Anab. to this discourse gives onely this reply , that the supposition or ground is true , a man by Adam or any way of nature cannot goe to Heaven : neither men nor Infants without the addition of some instrument or means of God's appointing ; but this is to be understood to be true onely ordinarily and regularly : but the case of Infants is extraordinary , for they are not within the rule and the way of ordinary dispensation ; and therefore there being no command for them to be baptized , there will be some other way to supply it extraordinarily . To this I reply , that this is a plain begging of the question , or a denying the conclusion : for the Argument being this , that Baptism being the ordinary way or instrument of new birth and admission to the Promises Evangelical and supernatural happiness , and we knowing of no other , and it being as necessary for Infants as for men to enter some way or other , it must needs follow that they must goe this way , because there is a way for all , and we know of no other but this ; therefore the presumption lies on this , that Infants must enter this way . They answer , that it is true in all but Infants : the contradictory of which was the conclusion , and intended by the argument . For whereas they say , God hath not appointed a rule and an order in this case of Infants , it is the thing in question , and therefore is not by direct negation to be opposed against the contrary Argument . For I argue thus , Whereever there is no extraordinary way appointed , there we must all goe the ordinary ; but for Infants there is no extraordinary way appointed or declared , therefore they must goe the ordinary : and he that hath without difference commanded that all Nations should be baptized , hath without difference commanded all sorts of persons : and they may as well say that they are sure God hath not commanded women to be baptized , or Hermaphrodites , or eunuchs , or fools , or mutes , because they are not named in the precept ; for sometimes in the Census of a nation women are no more reckoned then children ; and when the Children of Israel coming out of Egypt were numbred , there was no reckoning either of women or children , and yet that was the number of the Nation which is there described . But then as to the thing itself , whether God hath commanded Infants to be baptized , it is indeed a worthy inquiry , and the summe of all this contestation : but then it is also to be concluded by every Argument that proves the thing to be holy , or charitable , or necessary , or the means of Salvation , or to be instituted and made in order to an indispensable end . For all commandments are not expressed in imperial forms , as [ we will , or will not ; thou shalt , or shalt not : ] but some are by declaration of necessity , some by a direct institution , some by involution and apparent consequence , some by proportion and analogy , by identities and parities , and Christ never expresly commanded that we should receive the Holy Communion , but that , when the Supper was celebrated , it should be in his memorial . And if we should use the same method of arguing in all other instances as the Anabaptist does in this , and omit every thing for which there is not an express Commandment , with an open nomination and describing of the capacities of the persons concerned in the Duty , we should have neither Sacrament , nor Ordinance , Fasting , nor Vows , communicating of Women , nor baptizing of the Clergy . And when Saint Ambrose was chosen Bishop before he was baptized , it could never upon their account have been told that he was obliged to Baptism : because though Christ commanded the Apostles to baptize others , yet he no way told them that their Successors should be baptized , any more then the Apostles themselves were ; of whom we reade nothing in Scripture that either they were actually baptized , or had a commandment so to be . To which may be added , that as the taking of Priestly Orders disobliges the suscipient from receiving Chrism or Confirmation , in case he had it not before ; so , for ought appears in Scripture to the contrary , it may excuse from Baptism . But if it does not , then the same way of arguing which obliges women or the Clergy to be baptized will be sufficient warrant to us to require in the case of Infants no more signal precept then in the other , and to be content with the measures of wise men , who give themselves to understand the meaning of Doctrines and Laws , and not to exact the tittles and unavoidable commands by which fools and unwilling persons are to be governed , lest they die certainly if they be not called upon with univocal , express , open and direct commandments . But besides all this , and the effect of all the other Arguments , there is as much command for Infants to be baptized as for men ; there being in the words of Christ no nomination or specification of persons , but onely in such words as can as well involve children as old men ; as , [ Nisi quis ] and [ omnes gentes , ] and the like . Ad 16. But they have a device to save all harmless yet : for though it should be granted that infants are press'd with all the evils of original sin , ye there will be no necessity of Baptism to Infants , because it may very well be supposed that as Infants contracted the relative guilt of Adam's sin , that is , the evils descending by an evil inheritance from him to us , without any solemnity ; so may Infants be acquitted by Christ without solemnity , or the act of any other man. This is the summe of the 16 th Number . To which the Answer is easie . First , that at the most it is but a dream of proportions , and can infer onely that if it were so , there were some correspondency between the effects descending upon us from the two great Representatives of the world ; but it can never infer that it ought to be so . For these things are not wrought by the ways of Nature , in which the proportions are regular and constant ; but they are wholly arbitrary and mysterious , depending upon extrinsick causes which are conducted by other measures , which we onely know by events , and can never understand the reasons . For because the sin of Adam had effect upon us without a Sacrament , must it therefore be wholly unnecessary that the death of Christ be applied to us by Sacramental ministrations ? If so , the Argument will as well conclude against the Baptism of men as of Infants : for since they die in Adam , and had no solemnity to convey that death , therefore we by Christ shall all be made alive ; and to convey this life there needs no Sacrament . This way of arguing therefore is a very trifle , but yet this is not : As Infants were not infected with the stain and injured by the evils of Adam's sin but by the means of natural generation ; so neither shall they partake of the benefits of Christ's death but by spiritual regeneration ; that is , by being baptized into his death . For it is easier to destroy then to make alive ; a single crime of one man was enough to ruine him and his posterity : but to restore us , it became necessary that the Son of God should be incarnate , and die , and be buried , and rise again , and intercede for us , and become our Law-giver , and we be his subjects and keep his Commandments . There was no such order of things in our condemnation to death : must it therefore follow that there is no such in the justification of us unto life ? To the first there needs no Sacrament , for evil comes fast enough ; but to the latter there must goe so much as God please ; and the way which he hath appointed us externally is Baptism : to which if he hath tied us , it is no matter to us whether he hath tied himself to it or no : for although he can goe which way he please , yet he himself loves to goe in the ways of his ordinary appointing , as it appears in the extreme paucity of Miracles which are in the world , and he will not endure that we should leave them . So that although there are many thousand ways by which God can bring any reasonable soul to himself ; yet he will bring no soul to himself by ways extraordinary , when he hath appointed ordinary : and therefore although it be unreasonable of our own heads to carry Infants to God by Baptism without any direction from him ; yet it is not unreasonable to understand Infants to be comprehended in the duty , and to be intended in the general precept , when the words do not exclude them , nor any thing in the nature of the Sacrament ; and when they have a great necessity , for the relief of which this way is commanded , and no other way signified , all the world will say there is reason we should bring them also the same way to Christ. And therefore though we no ways doubt but if we doe not our duty to them , God will yet perform his mercifull intention , yet that 's nothing to us ; though God can save by miracle , yet we must not neglect our charitable ministeries . Let him doe what he please to or for Infants , we must not neglect them . Ad 6. The Argument which is here described is a very reasonable inducement to the belief of the certain effect to be consequent to the Baptism of Infants : Because Infants can do nothing towards Heaven , and yet they are designed thither , therefore God will supply it . But he supplies it not by any internall assistances , and yet will supply it ; therefore by an externall . But there is no other externall but Baptism , which is of his own institution , and designed to effect those blessings which Infants need : therefore we have reason to believe that by this way God would have them brought . Ad 17. To this it is answered , after the old rate , that God will doe it by his own immediate act . Well , I grant it ; that is , he will give them Salvation of his own goodness , without any condition on the Infants part personally performed ; without Faith and Obedience , if the Infant dies before the use of Reason : but then , whereas it is added , that to say God will doe it by an externall act and ministery , and that by this Rite of Baptism and no other , is no good Argument , unless God could not doe it without such means , or said he would not ; The Reply is easie , that we say God will effect this grace upon Infants by this externall ministery , not because God cannot use another , nor yet because he hath said he will not , but because he hath given us this , and hath given us no other . For he that hath a mind to make an experiment may upon the same argument proceed thus . God hath given bread to strengthen man's heart , and hath said , that in the sweat of our brows we shall eat bread ; and 't is commanded , that if they do not work , they shall not eat : there being certain laws and conditions of eating , I will give to my labourers and hirelings , but therefore my child shall have none ; for be you sure if I give to my child no man's-meat , yet God will take as great ●are of Infants as of others , and God will by his own immediate mercy keep them alive as long as he hath intended them to live : but to say that therefore he will doe it by externall food , is no good argument , unless God could not doe it without such means , or that he had said he would not . To this I suppose any reasonable person would say I have given sufficient answer , if I tell him that the argument is good , that the Infants must eat man's food , although God can keep them alive without it , and although he hath not said that he will not keep them alive without it ; I say , the argument is good , because he hath given them this way : and though he could give them another , and did never say he would not give them another ; yet because he never did give them another , it is but reasonable that they should have this . To the last clause of this number , viz. why cannot God as well doe his mercies to infants now immediately as he did before the institution either of Circumcision or Baptism ? I answer , that I know no man that says he cannot : but yet this was not sufficient to hinder babes from Circumcision , and why then shall it hinder them from Baptism ? For though God could save Infants always without Circumcision as well as he did sometime , yet he required this of them : and therefore it may be so in Baptism , this pretence notwithstanding . Ad 7. This number speaks to the main inquiry , and shews the commandement ; Vnless a man be born of water and of the spirit , he shall not enter into the Kingdom of heaven . This precept was in all Ages expounded to signifie the ordinary necessity of Baptism to all persons ; and nisi quis can mean Infants as well as men of age : and because it commands a new birth and a regeneration , and implies that a natural birth cannot intitle us to Heaven , but the second birth must ; Infants , who have as much need and as much right to heaven as men of years , and yet cannot have it by natural or first-birth , must have it by the second and spiritual : and therefore all are upon the same main account ; and when they are accidentally differenced by age , they are also differenced by correspondent , accidental and proportionable duties ; but all must be born again . This birth is expressed here by water and the Spirit , that is , by the Spirit in baptismal water ; for that is in Scripture called the Laver of a new birth or regeneration . Ad 18. But here the Anab. gives us his warrant : Though Christ said , None but those who are born again by Water and the Spirit shall enter into Heaven ; he answers , fear it not , I will warrant you . To this purpose it was once said before , Yea , but hath God said , In the day ye shall eat thereof ye shall die ? I say ye shall not die , but ye shall be like Gods. But let us hear the answer . First , It is said that Baptism and the Spirit signifie the same thing : for by water is meant the effect of the Spirit . I reply , that therefore they do not signifie the same thing , because by water is meant the effect of the Spirit ; unless the effect and the cause be the same thing : so that here is a contradiction in the parts of the Allegation . But if they signifie two things as certainly they do , then they may as well signifie the sign and the thing signified , as the cause and the effect ; or they may mean the Sacrament and the grace of the Sacrament , as it is most agreeable to the whole analogie of the Gospel . For we are sure that Christ ordained Baptism , and it is also certain that in Baptism he did give the Spirit ; and therefore to confound these two is to no purpose , when severally they have their certain meaning , and the Laws of Christ and the sense of the whole Church , the institution and the practice of Baptism make them two terms of a relation , a sign and a thing signified , the Sacrament and the grace of the Sacrament . For I offer it to the consideration of any man that believes Christ to have ordained the Sacrament of Baptism , which is most agreeable to the institution of Christ , that by water and the spirit should be meant the outward element and inward grace ; or that by water and spirit should be meant onely the Spirit cleansing us like water ? But suppose it did mean so , what would be effected or perswaded by it more then by the other ? If it be said that then Infants by this place were not obliged to Baptism ; I reply , that yet they were obliged to new birth nevertheless ; they must be born again of the Spirit , if not of water and the Spirit : and if they are bound to be regenerate by the Spirit , why they shall not be baptized with water which is the symbol and Sacrament , the vehiculum and channel of its ordinary conveyance , I profess I cannot understand how to make a reasonable conjecture . But it may be they mean , that if by water and the Spirit be onely meant Spiritus purificans , the cleansing , purifying Spirit , then this place cannot concern Infants at all : But this loop-hole I have already obstructed by placing a bar that can never be removed . For it is certain and evident that regeneration or new birth is here enjoyned to all as of absolute and indispensable necessity ; and if Infants be not obliged to it , then by their natural birth they goe to Heaven , or not at all : but if Infants must be born again , then either let these adversaries shew any other way of new birth but this of water and the Spirit ; or let them acknowledge this to belong to infants , and then the former discourse returns upon them in its full strength . So that now I shall not need to consider their parallel instance of [ being baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire . ] For although there are differences enough to be observed , the one being onely a Prophecy , and the other a Precept ; the one concerning some onely , and the other concerning all ; the one being verified with degrees and variety , the other equally and to all : yet this place , which in the main expression I confess to have similitude , was verified in the letter and first signification of it , and so did relate to the miraculous descent of the Holy Ghost in the likeness of tongues of fire ; but this concerns not all , for all were not so baptized . And whereas it is said in the Objection that the Baptist told not Christ's Disciples , but the Jews ; and that therefore it was intended to relate to all : it was well observed , but to no purpose ; for Christ at that time had no Disciples . But he told it to the Jews : and yet it does not follow that they should all be baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire ; but it is meant onely that that glorious effect should be to them a sign of Christ's eminency above him , they should see from him a Baptism greater then that of John. And that it must be meant of that miraculous descent of the Holy Spirit in Pentecost , and not of any secret gift or private immission , appears , because the Baptist offered it as a sign and testimony of the prelation and greatness of Christ above him ; which could not be proved to them by any secret operation which cometh not by observation , but by a great and miraculous mission , such as was that in Pentecost . So that hence to argue , that we may as well conclude that Infants must also pass through the fire as through the water , is a false conclusion inferred from no premisses ; because this being onely a Prophecy , and inferring no duty , could neither concern men or children to any of the purposes of their Argument . For Christ never said , Vnless ye be baptized with fire and the Spirit , ye shall not enter into the Kingdome of heaven ; but of water and the Spirit he did say it : therefore though they must pass through the water , yet no smell of fire must pass upon them . But there are yet two things by which they offer to escape . The one is , that in these words Baptism by water is not meant at all , but Baptism by the Spirit onely ; because S. Peter having said that Baptism saves us , he addes by way of explication , [ not the washing of the flesh , but the answer of a good conscience towards God , ] plainly saying that it is not water , but the Spirit . To this I reply , that when water is taken exclusively to the Spirit it is very true , that it is not water that cleanses the Soul , and the cleansing of the body cannot save us ; but who-ever urges the necessity of Baptism urges it but as a necessary Sacrament , or Instrument to convey or consign the Spirit : and this they might with a little observation have learned ; there being nothing more usual in discourse , then to deny the effect to the instrument when it is compared with the principle , and yet not intend to deny to it an instrumental efficiency . It is not the pen that writes well , but the hand ; and S. Paul said , It is not I , but the grace of God : and yet it was gratia Dei mecum , that is , the principal and the less principal together . So S. Peter , It is not water , but the Spirit , or , which may come to one and the same , not the washing the filth of the flesh , but purifying the conscience , that saves us ; and yet neither one nor the other are absolutely excluded , but the effect which is denied to the instrument is attributed to the principal cause . But however , this does no more concern Infants then men of age , for they are not saved by the washing the body , but by the answer of a good conscience , by the Spirit of holiness and sanctification ; that is , water alone does not doe it , unless the Spirit move upon the water . But that water also is in the ministery , and is not to be excluded from its portion of the work , appears by the words of the Apostle , The like figure whereunto , even Baptism , saves us , &c. that is , Baptism even as it is a figure saves us , in some sense of other ; by way of ministery and instrumental efficiency , by conjunction and consolidation with the other : but the ceremony , the figure , the Rite and external ministery must be in , or else his words will in no sense be true , and could be made true by no interpretation ; because the Spirit may be the thing figured , but can never be a figure . The other little 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is , that these words were spoken before Baptism was ordained , and therefore could not concern Baptism , much less prove the necessity of baptizing Infants . I answer , that so are the sayings of the Prophets long before the coming of Christ , and yet concerned his coming most certainly . Secondly , They were not spoken before the institution of Baptism , for the Disciples of Christ did baptize more then the Baptist ever in his life-time : they were indeed spoken before the commission was of baptizing all nations , or taking the Gentiles into the Church ; but not before Christ made Disciples , and his Apostles baptized them , among the Jews . And it was so known a thing that great Prophets and the Fathers of an Institution did baptize Disciples , that our Blessed Saviour upbraided Nicodemus for his ignorance of that particular , and his not understanding words spoken in the proportion and imitation of custome so known among them . But then that this Argument which presses so much may be attempted in all the parts of it , like Souldiers fighting against Curiassiers that try all the joynts of their armour , so doe these to this . For they object ( in the same number ) that the exclusive negative of Nisi quis does not include Infants , but onely persons capable : for ( say they ) this no more infers a necessity of Infants Baptism , then the parallel words of Christ [ Nisi com●deritis unless ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his bloud ye have no life in you ] infer a necessity to give them the holy Communion , &c. With this Argument men use to make a great noise in many Questions ; but in this it will signifie but little . First , Indeed to one of the Roman Communion it will cause some disorder in this Question , both because they think it unlawfull to give the holy Communion to Infants , and yet that these words are meant of the holy Communion : and if we thought so too , I do not doubt but we should communicate them with the same opinion of necessity as did the Primitive Church . But to the thing itself : I grant that the expression is equal , and infers an equal necessity in their respective cases ; and therefore it is as necessary to eat the flesh of the Son of man and to drink his bloud , as to be baptized : but then it is to be added , that eating and drinking are metaphors and allusions , us'd onely upon occasion of Manna which was then spoken of , and which occasioned the whole discourse ; but the thing itself is nothing but that Christ should be received for the life of our Souls , as bread and drink is for the life of our bodies . Now because there are many ways of receiving Christ , there are so many ways of obeying this precept ; but that some way or other it be obeyed , is as necessary as that we be baptized . Here onely it is declared to be necessary that Christ be received , that we derive our life and our spiritual and eternall being from him ; now this can concern Infants , and does infer an ordinary necessity of their Baptism : for in Baptism they are united to Christ , and Christ to them : in Baptism they receive the beginnings of a new life from Christ : it is a receiving Christ which is the duty here enjoyned ; this is one way of doing it , and all the ways that they are capable of . And that this precept can be performed this way S. Augustine affirms expresly in his third book de peccatorum meritis & remissione * . In this thing there is nothing hard but the metaphors of eating and drinking . Now that this is to be spiritually understood our Blessed Lord himself affirms in answer to the prejudice of the offended Capernaites ; that it is to be understood of Faith , and that Faith is the spiritual manducation , is the sense of the ancient Church : and therefore in what sense soever any one is obliged to believe , in the same sense he is obliged to the duty of spiritual manducation , and no otherwise . But because Infants cannot be obliged to the act or habit of Faith , and yet can receive the Sacrament of Faith , they receive Christ as they can , and as they can are intitled to life . But however , by this means the difficulty of the expression is taken off : for if by eating and drinking Christ is meant receiving Christ by Faith , then this phrase can be no objection but that S. Austin's affirmative may be true , and that this commandment is performed by Infants in Baptism , which is the Sacrament of Faith. To eat and drink does with as great impropriety signifie Faith as Baptism ; but this is it which I said at first , that the metaphoricall expression was no part of the precept , but the vehiculum of the Commandment , occasioned by the preceding discourse of our Blessed Saviour ; and nothing is necessary but that Christ should be received by all that would have life eternall : of which because Infants are capable , and without receiving Christ they ( by virtue of these words ) are not capable , and but in Baptism they cannot receive Christ ; it follows that these words are no argument to infer an equal necessity of communicating Infants , but they are a good argument to prove a necessity of baptizing them . Secondly , But farther yet ; I demand , can Infants receive Christ in the Eucharist ? Can they in that Sacrament eat the flesh of Christ and drink his bloud ? If they cannot , then neither these words nor any other can infer an equal necessity of being communicated , for they can infer none at all : and whether those other words [ of Nisi quis renatus fuerit , &c. ] do infer a necessity of Baptism , will be sufficiently cleared upon their own account . But if Infants can receive Christ in the Eucharist , to which they can no more dispose themselves by Repentance then they can to Baptism by Faith , then it were indeed very well if they were communicated , but yet not necessary , because if they can receive Christ in the Eucharist they can receive Christ in Baptism ; and if they can receive him any way , this precept is performed by that way : and then whether they must also be communicated , must be enquired by other arguments ; for whatsoever is in these words intended is performed by any way of receiving Christ , and therefore cannot infer more in all circumstances and to all persons . Thirdly , Suppose these words were to be expounded of Sacramentall manducation of the flesh of Christ in the Lord's Supper , yet it does not follow that Infants are as much bound to receive the Communion as to receive the Baptism . It is too crude a fancy to think that all universal Propositions , whether affirmative or negative , equally expressed , do signifie an equal universality . It is said in the Law of Moses , Whosoever is not circumcised , that soul shall be cut off from his people : this indeed signifies universally , and included Infants , binding them to that Sacrament . But when it was said , Whosoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel should be put to death , whether small or great ; although these words be expressed with as great a latitude as the other , yet it is certain it did not include Infants , who could not seek the Lord. The same is the case of the two Sacraments : the obligation to which we do not understand onely by the preceptive words or form of the commandments , but by other appendages and the words of duty that are relative to the suscipients of the several Sacraments , and the analogy of the whole Institution . Baptism is the Sacrament of beginners , the Eucharist of proficients ; that is the birth , this is the nourishment of a Christian. There are many more things of difference to be observ'd . But as the Church in several Ages hath practised severally in this Article , so in the particular there is no such certainty but that the Church may without sin doe it or not doe it as she sees cause : but that there is not the same necessity in both to all persons , and that no necessity of communicating Infants can be inferr'd from the parallel words , appears in the former answers , and therefore I stand to them . Ad 9. The summe of the sixth Argument is this . The promise of the Holy Ghost is made to all , to us and to our children : and if the Holy Ghost belong to them , then Baptism belongs to them also ; because Baptism is the means of conveying the Holy Ghost , as appears in the words of S. Peter , Be baptized , and ye shall receive the holy Ghost ; as also because from this very argument S. Peter resolved to baptize Cornelius and his family , because they had received the gift of the Holy Ghost : for they that are capable of the same grace are receptive of the same sign . Now that Infants also can receive the effects of the Holy Spirit is evident , because besides that the promise of the Holy Ghost is made to all , to us and our posterity , S. Paul affirms that the children of believing parents are holy : but all holiness is an emanation from the Holy Spirit of God. Ad 19. To the words of S. Peter they answer , that the promise does appertain to our children , that is , to our posterity ; but not till they are capable : they have the same right which we have , but enter not into possession of their right till they have the same capacity : for by [ children ] are not meant Infants , but as the children of Israel signifies the descendents onely , so it is here . And indeed this is true enough , but not pertinent enough to answer the intention and efficiency of these words . For I do not suppose that the word [ children ] means Infants , but [ you and your children ] must mean all generations of Christendom , all the descendents of Christian parents : and if they belong to their posterity because they are theirs , then the Promises belong to all that are so ; and then children cannot be excluded . But I demand , have not the children of believing parents a title to the Promises of the Gospel ? If they have none , then the Kingdom of Heaven belongs not to such ; and if they die , we can doe nothing but despair of their Salvation : which is a proposition whose barbarity and unreasonable cruelty confutes itself . But if they have a title to the Promises , then the thing is done , and this title of theirs can be signified by these words ; and then either this is a good argument , or the thing is confessed without it . For he that hath a title to the Promises of the Gospel hath a title to this Promise here mentioned , the promise of the Holy Spirit ; for by him we are sealed to the day of redemption . And indeed that this mystery may be rightly understood , we are to observe that the Spirit of God is the great ministery of the Gospel , and whatsoever blessing Evangelicall we can receive , it is the emanation of the Spirit of God. Grace and Pardon , Wisedome and Hope , offices and titles and relations , powers , priviledges and dignities , all are the good things of the Spirit ; whatsoever we can profit withall , or whatsoever we can be profited by , is a gift of God the Father of spirits , and is transmitted to us by the Holy Spirit of God. For it is but a trifle and a dream to think that no person receives the Spirit of God but he that can doe actions and operations spiritual . S. Paul distinguishes the effects of the Spirit into three classes : there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ▪ besides these operations , there are gifts and ministeries : and they that receive not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the operations , or powers to doe actions spiritual , may yet receive gifts , or at least the blessings of ministery ; they can be ministred to by others who from the Spirit have received the power of ministration . And I instance in these things in which it is certain we can receive the Holy Spirit without any predisposition of our own . First , We can receive gifts : even the wicked have them , and they who shall be rejected at the day of Judgement shall yet argue for themselves , that they have wrought miracles in the name of the Lord Jesus ; and yet the gift of miracles is a gift of the Holy Spirit : and if the wicked can receive them , who are of dispositions contrary to all the emanations of the Holy Spirit , then much more may children● who , although they cannot prepare themselves any more then the wicked do , yet neither can they doe against them to hinder or obstruct them . But of this we have an instance in a young child , Daniel , whose spirit God raised up to acquit the innocent , and to save her soul from unrighteous Judges : and when the boys in the street sang Hosanna to the Son of David , our Blessed Lord said , that if they had held their peace , the stones of the street would have cried out Hosanna . And therefore that God should from the mouths of babes and sucklings ordain his own praise , is one of the Magnalia Dei , but no strange thing to be believed by us who are so apparently taught it in Holy Scripture . Secondly , Benediction or blessing is an emanation of God's Holy Spirit , and in the form of blessing which is recorded in the Epistles of S. Paul one great part of it is the communication of the Holy Spirit : and it is very probable that those three are but Synonyma . The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is to give us his Holy Spirit , and the love of God is to give us his Holy Spirit ; for the Spirit is the love of the Father , and our Blessed Saviour argues it as the testimony of God's love to us : If ye , who are evil , know how to give good things to your children , how much more shall your heavenly Father give his Spirit to them that ask him ? Now since the great summe and compendium of Evangelicall blessings is the Holy Spirit , and this which is expressed by three Synonyma's in the second Epistle to the Corinthians is in the first reduced to one , it is all but the Grace of the Lord Jesus ; it will follow that , since our Blessed Saviour gave his solemn blessing to children , his blessing relating to the Kingdom of Heaven , ( for of such is the Kingdom ) he will not deny his Spirit to them : when he blessed them , he gave them something of his Spirit , some emanation of that which blesses us all , and without which no man can be truly blessed . Thirdly , Titles to inheritance can be given to Infants without any predisposing act of their own . Since therefore Infants dying so can , as we all hope , receive the inheritance of Saints , some mansion in Heaven , in that Kingdom which belongs to them and such as they are , and that the gift of the Holy Spirit is the consignation to that inheritance ; nothing can hinder them from receiving the Spirit , that is , nothing can hinder them to receive a title to the inheritance of the Saints , which is the free gift of God , and the effect and blessing from the Spirit of God. Now how this should prove to Infants to be a title to Baptism is easie enough to be understood : For by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body ; that is , the Spirit of God moves upon the waters of Baptism , and in that Sacrament adopts us into the mysticall body of Christ , and gives us title to a coinheritance with him . Ad 21. So that this perfectly confutes what is said in the beginning of Number 21. that Baptism is not the means of conveying the Holy Ghost . For it is the Spirit that baptizes , it is the Spirit that adopts us to an inheritance of the Promises , it is the Spirit that incorporates us into the mysticall body of Christ ; and upon their own grounds it ought to be confessed : for since they affirm the water to be nothing without the Spirit , it is certain that the water ought not to be without the Spirit ; and therefore that this is the soul and life of the Sacrament , and therefore usually in conjunction with that ministery , unless we hinder it : and it cannot be denied but that the Holy Ghost was given ordinarily to new converts at their Baptism . And whereas it is said in a parenthesis , that this was ( not as the effect is to the cause or to the proper instrument , but as a consequent is to an antecedent in a chain of causes accidentally and by positive institution depending upon each other ; ) it is a groundless assertion : for when the men were called upon to be baptized , and were told they should receive the Holy Ghost ; and we find that when they were baptized they did receive the Holy Ghost ; what can be more reasonable then to conclude Baptism to be the ministery of the Spirit ? And to say that this was not consequent properly and usually , but accidentally onely , it followed sometimes , but was not so much as instrumentally effected by it , is as if one should boldly deny all effect to Physick : for though men are called upon to take Physick , and told they should recover , and when they do take Physick they do recover ; yet men may unreasonably say , this recovery does follow the taking of Physick , not as an effect to the cause or to the proper instrument , but as a consequent is to an antecedent in a chain of causes accidentally and by positive institution depending upon each other . Who can help it if men will say that it happened that they recovered after the taking Physick , but then was the time in which they should have been well however ? The best confutation of them is to deny Physick to them when they need , and try what nature will doe for them without the help of art . The case is all one in this Question , this onely excepted , that in this case it is more unreasonable then in the matter of Physick , because the Spirit is expresly signified to be the baptizer in the forecited place of Saint Paul. From hence we argue , that since the Spirit is ministred in Baptism , and that Infants are capable of the Spirit , the Spirit of adoption , the Spirit of incorporation into the body of Christ , the Spirit sealing them to the day of redemption , the Spirit intitling them to the Promises of the Gospel , the Spirit consigning to them God's part of the Covenant of Grace ; they are also capable of Baptism : For whoever is capable of the Grace of the Sacrament is capable of the sign or Sacrament itself . To this last clause the Anab. answers two things . First , that the Spirit of God was conveyed sometimes without Baptism . I grant it , but what then ? Therefore Baptism is not the sign or ministery of the Holy Ghost ? It follows not . For the Spirit is the great wealth and treasure of Christians , and is conveyed in every ministery of Divine appointment ; in Baptism , in Confirmation , in Absolution , in Orders , in Prayer , in Benediction , in assembling together . Secondly , The other thing they answer is this , that it is not true that they who are capable of the same grace are capable of the same sign ; for females were capable of the righteousness of Faith , but not of the seal of Circumcision . I reply , that the Proposition is true not in natural capacities , but in spiritual and religious regards ; that is , they who in Religion are declared capable of the grace are by the same Religion capable of the Sacrament or sign of that grace . But naturally they may be uncapable by accident , as in the Objection is mentioned . But then this is so far from invalidating the Argument , that it confirms it in the present instance . Exceptio firmat regulam in non exceptis . For even the Jewish females , although they could not be circumcised , yet they were baptized even in those days , as I have proved already * ; and although their natural indisposition denied them to be circumcised , yet neither nature nor Religion forbad them to be baptized : and therefore since the Sacrament is such a ministery of which all are naturally capable , and none are forbidden by the Religion , the Argument is firm and unshaken , and concludes with as much evidence and certainty as the thing requires . Ad 10. The last Argument from Reason is , That it is reasonable to suppose that God in the period of Grace , in the days of the Gospel , would not give us a more contracted comfort and deal with us by a narrower hand then with the Jewish babes , whom he sealed with a Sacrament as well as enriched with a grace , and therefore openly consigned them to comfort and favour . Ad 22. To this they answer , that we are to trust the word without a sign ; and since we contend that the Promise belongs to us and to our children , why do we not believe this , but require a sign ? I reply , that if this concludes any thing , it concludes against the Baptism of men and women ; for they hear and reade and can believe the Promise , and it can have all its effects and produce all its intentions upon men ; but yet they also require the sign , they must be baptized . And the reason why they require it is because Christ hath ordained it . And therefore although we can trust the Promise without a sign , and that if we did not , this manner of sign would not make us believe it , for it is not a miracle , that is , a sign proving , but it is a Sacrament , that is , a sign signifying ; and although we do trust the Promise even in the behalf of Infants when they cannot be baptized : yet by the same reason as we trust the Promise so we also use the Rite , both in obedience to Christ ; and we use the Rite or the Sacrament because we believe the Promise ; and if we did not believe that the Promise did belong to our children , we would not baptize them . Therefore this is such an impertinent quarrel of the Anabaptists , that it hath no strength at all but what it borrows from a cloud of words , and the advantages of its representment . As God did openly consign his grace to the Jewish babes by a Sacrament , so he does to ours : and we have reason to give God thanks , not onely for the comfort of it , ( for that 's the least part of it ) but for the ministery and conveyance of the real blessing in this Holy mystery . Ad 23 , 24 , 25. That which remains of Objections and answers is wholly upon the matter of examples and precedents from the Apostles and first descending Ages of the Church : but to this I have already largely spoken in a Discourse of this Question * ; and if the Anabaptists would be concluded by the practice of the Universal Church in this Question , it would quickly be at an end . For although sometimes the Baptism of children was deferred till the age of reason and choice ; yet it was onely when there was no danger of the death of the children : and although there might be some advantages gotten by such delation ; yet it could not be endured that they should be sent out of the world without it . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said S. Gregory Nazianzen : It is better they should be sanctified even when they understand it not , then that they should go away from hence without the seal of perfection and sanctification . Secondly , But that Baptism was amongst the Ancients sometimes deferred was not always upon a good reason , but sometimes upon the same account as men now adays defer repentance , or put off Confession and Absolution and the Communion till the last day of their life ; that their Baptism might take away all the sins of their life . Thirdly , It is no strange thing that there are examples of late Baptism , because Heathenism and Christianity were so mingled in towns and cities and private houses , that it was but reasonable sometimes to stay till men did chuse their Religion , from which it was so likely they might afterwards be tempted . Fourthly , The Baptism of Infants was always most notorious and used in the Churches of Africa , as is confessed by all that know the Ecclesiastical Story . Fifthly , Among the Jews it was one and all : if the Major domo believed , he believed for himself & all his family , and they all followed him to Baptism , even before they were instructed ; and therefore it is that we find mention of the Baptism of whole Families in which children are as well to be reckoned as the uninstructed servants : and if actual Faith be not required before Baptism even of those who are naturally capable of it , as it is notorious in the case of the Gaolour who believed , and at that very hour he and all his family were baptized , then want of Faith cannot prejudice Infants , and then nothing can . Sixthly , There was never in the Church a command against the baptizing Infants : and whereas it is urged that in the Council of Neocaesarea the Baptism of a pregnant woman did no way relate to the child , and that the reason there given excludes all Infants upon the same account , because every one is to shew his Faith by his own choice and election ; I answer , that this might very well be in those times where Christianity had not prevailed , but was forced to dispute for every single proselyte , and the mother was a Christian and the Father a Heathen ; there was reason that the child should be let alone till he could chuse for himself , when peradventure it was not fit his father should chuse for him : and that is the meaning of the words of Balsamo and Zonaras upon that Canon . But secondly , the words of the Neocaesarean Canon are not rightly considered . For the reason is not relative to the child , but onely to the woman , concerning whom the Council thus decreed . The woman with child may be baptized when she will : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . For her Baptism reaches not to the child , because every one confesses his Faith by his own act and choice : that is , the woman confesses onely for herself , she intends it onely for herself , she chuses onely for herself ; and therefore is onely baptized for herself . But this intimates , that if she could confess for her child , the Baptism would relate to her child ; but therefore when the Parents do confess for the child , or the Godfathers , and that the child is baptized into that confession , it is valid . However nothing in this Canon is against it . I have now considered all that the Anabaptists can with probability object against our Arguments , and have discovered the weakness of their exceptions , by which although they are and others may be abused , yet it is their weakness that is the cause of it : for which although the men are to be pitied , yet it may appear now that their cause is not at all the better . Ad 28. It remains that I consider their own Arguments by which they support themselves in their misperswasion . First , It is against the analogie of the Gospel : for besides that Christ never baptized any Infants , nor his Apostles , there is required to Baptism Faith and Repentance ; of which because Infants are not capable , neither are they capable of the Sacrament . To these things I answer , that it is true Christ never baptized Infants , for he baptized no person at all : but he blessed Infants , and what that amounts to I have already discoursed ; and he gave a commandment of Baptism which did include them also , as I have proved in the foregoing periods , and in other places . That the Apostles never baptized Infants , is boldly said , but can never be proved . But then as to the main of the Argument , that Faith and Repentance are pre-required ; I answer , It is in this as it was in Circumcision , to which a Proselyte could not be admitted form Gentilism or Idolatry , unless he gave up his name to the Religion , and believed in God and his servant Moses ; but yet their children might : and it might have been as well argued against their children as ours , since in their Proselytes and ours there were required predispositions of Faith and Repentance . 2. But it is no wonder that these are called for by the Apostles of those whom they invited to the Religion : they dealt with men of reason , but such who had superinduced foul sins to their infidelity ; which were to be removed before they could be illuminated and baptized ; but Infants are in their pure naturals , & therefore nothing hinders them from receiving the gifts & meer graces of God's Holy Spirit before-mentioned . 3. But we see also that , although Christ required Faith of them who came to be healed , yet when any were brought , or came in behalf of others , he onely required Faith of them who came , and their Faith did benefit to others . For no man can call on him on whom they have not believed , but therefore they who call must believe ; and if they call for others , they must believe that Christ can doe it for others . But this instance is so certain a reproof of this Objection of theirs , which is their principal , which is there all , that it is a wonder to me they should not all be convinced at the reading and observing of it . I knew an eminent person amongst them , who having been abused by their fallacies , upon the discovery of the falshood of this their main allegation was converted : & I know also some others who could not at all object against it ; but if they had been as humble as they were apprehensive , would certainly have confessed their errour . But to this I can adde nothing new beyond what I have largely discoursed of in the Treatise of Baptism before-mentioned . Ad 30. The next Argument is , If Baptism be necessary to infants , upon whom is the imposition laid ? to whom is the command given ? The Children are not capable of a Law , therefore it is not given to them : nor yet to the parents , because if so , then the Salvation of Infants should be put into the power of others who may be careless or malicious . I answer , that there is no precept of baptizing Infants just in that circumstance of age ; for then they had sinned who had deferred it upon just grounds to their manhood . But it is a precept given to all , and it is made necessary by that order of things which Christ hath constituted in the New Testament ; so that if they be baptized at all in their just period , there is no commandment broken : but if Infants come not to be men , then it was accidentally necessary they should have been baptized before they were men . And now to the enquiry , upon whom the imposition lies , it is easie to give an answer ; it lies upon them who can receive it , and therefore upon the parents : not so that the Salvation of Infants depends upon others , God forbid ; but so , that if they neglect the charitable ministry , they shall dearly account for it . It is easie to be understood by two Instances . God commanded that children should be circumcised , Moses by his wife's peevishness neglected it , and therefore the Lord sought to kill him for it , not Gershom the child . It is necessary for the preservation of childrens lives that they eat , but the provisions of meat for them is a duty incumbent on the parents ; and yet if parents expose their children , it may be the lives of the children shall not depend on others ; but when their father and mother forsaketh them , the Lord taketh them up : and so it is in this particular ; what is wanting to them by the neglect of others God will supply by his own graces and immediate dispensation . But if Baptism be made necessary to all , then it ought to be procured for those who cannot procure it for themselves ; just as meat and drink , and physick , and education . And it is in this as it is in blessing : little babes cannot ask it , but their needs require it ; and therefore as by their friends they were brought to Christ to have it , so they must without their asking minister it to them , who yet are bound to seek it as soon as they can . The precept bindes them both in their several periods . Ad 31. But their next great strength consists in this Dilemma . If Baptism does no good , there needs no contention about it : if it does , then either by the opus operatum of the Sacrament , or by the dispositions of the suscipient . If the former , that 's worse then Popery : if the latter , then Infants cannot receive it , because they cannot dispose themselves to its reception . I answer , that it works its effect neither by the Ceremony alone , nor yet by that and the dispositions together , but by the grace of God working as he please , seconding his own Ordinance ; and yet Infants are rightly disposed for the receiving the blessings and effects of Baptism . For the understanding of which we are to observe that God's graces are so free , that they are given to us upon the accounts of his own goodness onely , and for the reception of them we are tied to no other predispositions but that we do not hinder them . For what worthiness can there be in any man to receive the first grace ? before grace there can be nothing good in us , and therefore before the first grace there is nothing that can deserve it ; because before the first grace there is no grace , and consequently no worthiness . But the dispositions which are required in men of reason is nothing but to remove the hinderances of God's grace , to take off the contrarieties to the good Spirit of God. Now because in Infants there is nothing that can resist God's Spirit , nothing that can hinder him , nothing that can grieve him , they have that simplicity and nakedness , that passivity and negative disposition or non-hinderances , to which all that men can doe in disposing themselves are but approaches and similitudes ; and therefore Infants can receive all that they need , all that can doe them benefit . And although there are some effects of the Holy Spirit which require natural capacities to be their foundation ; yet those are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or powers of working : but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and the inheritance and the title to the Promises require nothing on our part , but that we can receive them , that we put no hinderance to them : for that is the direct meaning of our Blessed Saviour , He that doth not receive the kingdome of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein ; that is , without that nakedness and freedome from obstruction and impediment none shall enter . Upon the account of this Truth , all that long harangue that pursues this Dilemma in other words to the same purposes will quickly come to nothing . For Baptism is not a mere Ceremony , but assisted by the grace of the Lord Jesus , the communication of the Holy Spirit ; and yet it requires a duty on our part when we are capable of duty , and need it ; but is enabled to produce its effect without any positive disposition , even by the negative of children , by their not putting a bar to the Holy Spirit of God , that God may be glorified , and may be all in all . Two particulars more are considerable in their Argument . The first is a Syllogism made up out of the words of S. Paul , All that are baptized into Christ have put on Christ. The Minor proposition is , with a little straining some other words of S. Paul , thus , But they that put on Christ , or the new man , must be formed in righteousness and holiness of truth ; for so the Apostle , Put ye on the new man , which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness . But Infants cannot put on Christ to any such purposes , and therefore cannot be baptized into Christ. I answer , that to put on Christ is to become like unto him , and we put him on in all ways by which we resemble him . The little babes of Bethlehem were like unto Christ , when it was given to them to die for him who died for them and us : We are like unto him when we have put on his robe of righteousness , when we are invested with the wedding garment , when we submit to his will and to his doctrine , when we are adopted to his inheritance , when we are innocent , and when we are washed , and when we are buried with him in Baptism . The expression is a metaphor , and cannot be confined to one particular signification : but if it could , yet the Apostle does not say that all who in any sense put on the new man are actually holy and righteous ; neither does he say that by the new man is meant Christ , for that also is another metaphor , and it means a new manner of living . When Christ is opposed to Adam , Christ is called the new man ; but when the new man is opposed to the old coversation , then by the new man Christ is not meant : and so it is in this place , it signifies to become a new man , and it is an exhortation to those who had lived wickedly , now to live holily and according to the intentions of Christianity . But to take two metaphors from two several books , and to concentre them into one signification , and to make them up into one Syllogism , is fallacia quatuor terminorum ; they prove nothing but the craft of the men , or the weakness of the cause . For the words to the Ephesians were spoken to them who already had been baptized , who had before that in some sense put on Christ , but yet he calls upon them to put on the new man ; therefore this is something else ; and it means that they should verifie what they had undertaken in Baptism : which also can concern children , but is seasonable to urge it to them , as S. Paul does to the Ephesians , after their Baptism . But yet after all , let the argument press as far as it is intended , yet Infants even in the sense of the Apostle do put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness : for so are they ; they are a new creation , they are born again , they are efformed after the image of Christ by the designation and adoption of the Holy Spirit : but as they cannot doe acts of reason , and yet are created in a reasonable nature ; so they are anew created in righteousness even before they can doe acts spiritual ; that is , they are designati sanctitatis , ( as Tertullian's expression is ) they are in the second birth as in the first , instructed with the beginnings and principles of life , not with inherent qualities , but with titles and relations to promises and estates of blessing and assistances of holiness , which principles of life if they be nourished will express themselves in perfect and symbolical actions . The thing is easie to be understood by them who observe the manner of speaking usual in Scripture . We are begotten to a lively hope , so S. Paul : the very consignation and designing us to that hope which is laid up for the Saints is a new birth , a regeneration , the beginnings of a new life : and of this Infants are as capable as any . The other thing is this , That the Infants vow is invalid till it be after confirmed in the days of Reason ; and therefore it were as good to be let alone till it can be made with effect . I answer , that if there were nothing in the Sacrament but the making of a vow , I confess I could see no necessity in it , nor any convenience , but that it engages children to an early piety , and their parents and guardians by their care to prevent the follies of their youth : but then when we consider that Infants receive great blessings from God in this holy ministery , that what is done to them on God's part is of great effect before the ratification of their vow , this prudential consideration of theirs is light and airy . And after all this it will be easie to determine which is the surer way . For certainly to baptize Infants is hugely agreeable to that charity which Christ loved in those who brought them to him ; and if Infants die before the use of reason , it can doe them no hurt that they were given to God in a holy designation ; it cannot any way be supposed , and is not pretended by any one , to prejudice their Eternity : but if they die without Baptism , it is then highly questioned whether they have not an intolerable loss . And if it be questioned by wise men whether the want of it do not occasion their eternal loss , and it is not questioned whether Baptism does them any hurt or no , then certainly to baptize them is the surer way without all peradventure . Ad 33. The last number sums up many words of affrightment together , but no Argument , nothing but bold and unjustifiable assertions ; against which I onely oppose their direct contradictories . But in stead of them the effect of the former discourse is this , That whoever shall pertinaciously deny or carelesly neglect the Baptism of Infants does uncharitably expose his babes to the danger of an eternal loss , from which there is no way to recover but an extraordinary way which God hath not revealed to us ; he shuts them out of the Church , and keeps them out who are more fit to enter then himself ; he as much as lies in him robs the children of the gifts of the Holy Ghost , and a title to the Promises Evangelical ; he supposes that they cannot receive God's gifts unless they do in some sense or other deserve them , and that a negative disposition is not sufficient preparation to a new Creation , and an obediential capacity is nothing , and yet it was all that we could have in our first creation ; he supposes that we must doe something before the first grace , that is , that God does not love us first , but we first love him , that we seek him , and he does not seek us , that we are before-hand with him , and therefore can doe something without him , that Nature can alone bring us to God. For if he did not suppose all this , his great pretence of the necessity of Faith and Repentance would come to nothing : for Infants might without such dispositions receive the grace of Baptism , which is alwaies the first ; unless by the superinducing of actual sins upon our nature we make it necessary to doe something to remove the hinderances of God's Spirit , & that some grace be accidentally necessary before that which ordinarily & regularly is the first grace . He , I say , that denies Baptism to Infants does disobey Christ's commandment , which being in general and indefinite terms must include all that can be saved , or can come to Christ ; and he excepts from Christ's commandment whom he pleases , without any exception made by Christ ; he makes himself Lord of the Sacrament , and takes what portions he pleases from his fellow-servants , like an evil and an unjust steward ; he denies to bring little children to Christ , although our dearest Lord commanded them to be brought ; he upbraids the practice and charity of the holy Catholick Church , and keeps Infants from the communion of Saints , from a participation of the Promises , from their part of the Covenant , from the laver of regeneration , from being rescued from the portion of Adam's inheritance , from a new creation , from the Kingdom of God , which belongs to them and such as are like them . And he that is guilty of so many evils , and sees such horrid effects springing from his Doctrine , must quit his errour , or else openly profess love to a serpent , and direct enmity to the most innocent part of mankind . I do not think the Anabaptists perceive or think these things to follow from their Doctrine : But yet they do so really . And therefore the effect of this is , that their Doctrine is wholly to be reproved and disavowed , but the men are to be treated with the usages of a Christian : strike them not as an Enemy , but exhort them as brethren . They are with all means Christian & humane to be redargued or instructed : but if they cannot be perswaded , they must be left to God , who knows every degree of every man's understanding , all his weaknesses and strengths , what impress every argument makes upon his Spirit , and how uncharitable every reason is , and he alone judges of his ignorance or his malice , his innocency or his avoidable deception . We have great reason to be confident as to our own part of the Question ; but it were also well if our knowledge would make us thankfull to God , and humble in ourselves , and charitabe to our brother . It is pride that makes contention , but humility is the way of peace and truth . SECT . XIX . That there may be no Toleration of Doctrines inconsistent with Piety or the Publick good . 1. BUT then for their other capital Opinion , with all its branches , that it is not lawfull for Princes to put malefactors to death , nor to take up defensive Arms , nor to minister an Oath , nor to contend in judgement , it is not to be disputed with such liberty as the former . For although it be part of that doctrine which Clemens Alexandrinus says was delivered per secretam traditionem Apostolorum , Non licere Christianis contendere in judicio , nec coram gentibus nec coram sanctis ; & perfectum non debere jurare ; and the other part seems to be warranted by the eleventh Canon of the Nicene Council , which enjoyns penance to them that take Arms after their conversion to Christianity : yet either these Authorities are to be slighted , or be made receptive of any interpretation , rather then the Commonwealth be disarmed of its necessary supports , and all Laws made ineffectual and impertinent . For the interest of the Republick and the well being of Bodies politick is not to depend upon the nicety of our imaginations , or the fancies of any peevish or mistaken Priests ; and there is no reason a Prince should ask John-a-Brunck whether his understanding would give him leave to reign , and be a King. Nay , suppose there were divers places of Scripture which did seemingly restrain the politicall use of the Sword ; yet since the avoiding a personal inconvenience hath by all men been accounted sufficient reason to expound Scripture to any sense rather then the literal , which infers an unreasonable inconvenience , ( and therefore the pulling out an eye , and the cutting off a hand , is expounded by mortifying a vice , and killing a criminal habit ) much rather must the Allegations against the power of the Sword endure any sense rather then it should be thought that Christianity should destroy that which is the onely instrument of Justice , the restraint of vice and support of Bodies politick . It is certain that Christ and his Apostles and Christian Religion did comply with the most absolute Government , and the most imperial that was then in the world , and it could not have been at all endured in the world if it had not ; for indeed the world itself could not last in regular and orderly communities of men , but be a perpetuall confusion , if Princes and the Supreme power in Bodies politick were not armed with a coercive power to punish malefactors : the publick necessity and universal experience of all the world convinces those men of being most unreasonable that make such pretences which destroy all Laws , and all Communities , and the bands of civil Societies , and leave it arbitrary to every vain or vicious person whether men shall be safe , or Laws be established , or a murtherer hanged , or Princes rule . So that in this case men are not so much to dispute with particular Arguments , as to consider the interest and concernment of Kingdoms and publick Societies . For the Religion of Jesus Christ is the best establisher of the felicity of private persons , and of publick Communities : it is a Religion that is prudent and innocent , humane and reasonable , and brought infinite advantages to mankind , but no inconvenience , nothing that is unnatural , or unsociable , or unjust . And if it be certain that this world cannot be governed without Laws , and Laws without a compulsory signifie nothing ; then it is certain that it is no good Religion that teaches Doctrine whose consequents will destroy all Government : and therefore it is as much to be rooted out as any thing that is the greatest pest and nuisance to the publick interest . And that we may guess at the purposes of the men , and the inconvenience of such Doctrine ; these men that did first intend by their Doctrine to disarm all Princes and Bodies politick , did themselves take up arms to establish their wild and impious fancy . And indeed that Prince or Commonwealth that should be perswaded by them , would be exposed to all the insolencies of forreiners , and all mutinies of the Teachers themselves , and the Governours of the people could not doe that duty they owe to their people , of protecting them from the rapine and malice which will be in the world as long as the world is . And therefore here they are to be restrained from preaching such Doctrine , if they mean to preserve their Government : and the necessity of the thing will justifie the lawfulness of the thing . If they think it to themselves , that cannot be helped ; so long it is innocent as much as concerns the publick : but if they preach it , they may be accounted Authours of all the consequent inconveniences , and punisht accordingly . No Doctrine that destroys Government is to be endured . For although those Doctrines are not always good that serve the private ends of Princes , or the secret designs of State , which by reason of some accidents or imperfections of men may be promoted by that which is false and pretending ; yet no Doctrine can be good that does not comply with the formality of Government itself , and the well-being of Bodies politick . Augur cùm esset Cato , dicere usus est , optimis auspiciis ea geri quae pro Reipub. salute gererentur ; quae contra Rempub . fierent , contra auspicia fieri . Religion is to meliorate the condition of a people , not to doe it disadvantage : and therefore those Doctrines that inconvenience the publick are no parts of good Religion . Vt Respub . salva sit , is a necessary consideration in the permission of Prophesyings ; for according to the true , solid and prudent ends of the Republick , so is the Doctrine to be permitted or restrained , and the men that preach it according as they are good subjects and right Commonwealths-men . For Religion is a thing superinduced to temporal Government , and the Church is an addition of a capacity to a Commonwealth , and therefore is in no sense to disserve the necessity and just interests of that to which it is superadded for its advantage and conservation . 2. And thus by a proportion to the rules of these instances all their other Doctrines ●re to have their judgement as concerning Toleration or restraint : for all are either speculative or practicall , they are consistent with the publick ends or inconsistent , they teach impiety or they are innocent ; and they are to be permitted or rejected accordingly . For in the Question of Toleration the foundation of Faith , good life and Government is to be secured : in all other cases the former considerations are effectuall . SECT . XX. How far the Religion of the Church of Rome is tolerable . 1. BUT now concerning the Religion of the Church of Rome ( which was the other instance I promised to consider ) we will proceed another way , and not consider the truth or falsity of the Doctrines ; for that is not the best way to determine this Question concerning permitting their Religion or Assemblies . Because that a thing is not true , is not Argument sufficient to conclude that he that believes it true is not to be endured : but we are to consider what inducements they are that possess the understanding of those men , whether they be reasonable and innocent , sufficient to abuse or perswade wise and good men ; or whether the Doctrines be commenced upon design , and managed with impiety , and then have effects not to be endured . 2. And here , first , I consider that those Doctrines that have had long continuance and possession in the Church cannot easily be supposed in the present professors to be a design , since they have received it from so many Ages ; and it is not likely that all Ages should have the same purposes , or that the same Doctrine should serve the severall ends of divers Ages . But however long prescription is a prejudice oftentimes so insupportable , that it cannot with many Arguments be retrenched , as relying upon these grounds , that Truth is more ancient then falshood ; that God would not for so many Ages forsake his Church , and leave her in an errour ; that whatsoever is new is not onely suspicious , but false : which are suppositions pious and plausible enough . And if the Church of Rome had communicated Infants so long as she hath prayed to Saints or baptized Infants , the communicating would have been believed with as much confidence as the other Articles are , and the dissentients with as much impatience rejected . But this consideration is to be enlarged upon all those particulars which , as they are apt to abuse the persons of the men and amuse their understandings , so they are instruments of their excuse , and by making their errours to be invincible , and their Opinions , though false , yet not criminall , make it also to be an effect of reason and charity to permit the men a liberty of their Conscience , and let them answer to God for themselves and their own Opinions . Such as are the beauty and splendour of their Church ; their pompous Service ; the stateliness and solennity of the Hierarchy ; their name of Catholick , which they suppose their own due , and to concern no other Sect of Christians ; the antiquity of many of their Doctrines ; the continuall Succession of their Bishops , their immediate derivation from the Apostles , their Title to succeed S. Peter ; the supposall and pretence of his personal prerogatives ; the advantages which the conjunction of the Imperial Seat with their Episcopal hath brought to that See ; the flattering expressions of minor Bishops , which by being old Records have obtained credibility ; the multitude and variety of people which are of their perswasion ; apparent consent with Antiquity in many Ceremonials which other Churches have rejected ; and a pretended , and sometimes an apparent , consent with some elder Ages in many matters Doctrinal ; the advantage which is derived to them by entertaining some personal Opinions of the Fathers , which they with infinite clamours see to be cried up to be a Doctrine of the Church of that time ; the great consent of one part with another in that which most of them affirm to be de fide ; the great differences which are commenced amongst their Adversaries , abusing the liberty of Prophesying unto a very great licentiousness ; their happiness of being instruments in converting divers Nations ; the advantages of Monarchicall Government , the benefit of which as well as the inconveniences ( which though they feel they consider not ) they daily do enjoy ; the piety and the austerity of their Religious Orders of men and women ; the single life of their Priests and Bishops ; the riches of their Church ; the severity of their Fasts and their exteriour observances ; the great reputation of their first Bishops for Faith and sanctity ; the known holiness of some of those persons whose Institutes the Religious persons pretend to imitate ; their Miracles false or true substantial or imaginary ; the casualties and accidents that have happened to their Adversaries , which being chances of humanity are attributed to several causes , according as the fancies of men and their interests are pleased or satisfied ; the temporal felicity of their Professors ; the oblique arts and indirect proceedings of some of those who departed from them ; and , amongs● many other things , the names of Heretick and Schismatick , which they with infinite pertinacy fasten upon all that disagree from them . These things and divers others may very easily perswade persons of much reason , and more piety , to retain that which they know to have been the Religion of their Fore fathers , which had actual possession and seisure of mens understandings before the opposite professions had a name : and so much the rather , because Religion hath more advantages upon the fancy and affections then it hath upon Philosophie and severe discourses , and therefore is the more easily perswaded upon such grounds as these , which are more apt to amuse then to satisfie the understanding . 3. Secondly , If we consider the Doctrines themselves , we shall find them to be superstructures ill built , and worse managed ; but yet they keep the foundation , they build upon God in Jesus Christ , they profess the Apostles Creed , they retain Faith and repentance as the supporters of all our hopes of Heaven , and believe many more Truths then can be proved to be of simple and original necessity to Salvation . And therefore all the wisest personages of the adverse party allowed to them possibility of salvation , whilst their errours are not faults of their will , but weaknesses and deceptions of the understanding . So that there is nothing in the foundation of Faith that can reasonably hinder them to be permitted : The foundation of Faith stands secure enough for all their vain and unhandsome superstructures . But then on the other side , if we take account of their Doctrines as they relate to good life , or are consistent or inconsistent with civil Government , we shall have other considerations . 4. Thirdly , For I consider that many of their Doctrines do accidentally teach or lead to ill life , and it will appear to any man that considers the result of these Propositions . Attrition ( which is a low and imperfect degree of sorrow for sin ; or , as others say , a sorrow for sin commenced upon any reason of a religious hope , or fear , or desire , or any thing else ) is a sufficient disposition for a man in the Sacrament of Penance to receive absolution , and be justified before God , by taking away the guilt of all his sins , and the obligation to eternall pains . So that already the fear of Hell is quite removed upon conditions so easie , that many men take more pains to get a groat , then by this Doctrine we are obliged to for the curing and acquitting all the greatest sins of a whole life of the most vicious person in the world . And but that they affright their people with a fear of Purgatory , or with the severity of Penances in case they will not venture for Purgatory , ( for by their Doctrine they may chuse or refuse either ) there would be nothing in their Doctrine or Discipline to impede and slacken their proclivity to sin . But then they have as easie a cure for that too , with a little more charge sometimes , but most commonly with less trouble : For there are so many Confraternities , so many priviledged Churches , Altars , Monasteries , Coemeteries , Offices , Festivals , and so free a concession of Indulgences appendant to all these , and a thousand fine devices to take away the fear of Purgatory , to commute or expiate Penances , that in no Sect of men do they with more ease and cheapness reconcile a wicked life with the hopes of Heaven then in the Roman Communion . 5. And indeed if men would consider things upon their true grounds , the Church of Rome should be more reproved upon Doctrines that infer ill life then upon such as are contrariant to Faith. For false superstructures do not always destroy Faith ; but many of the Doctrines they teach , if they were prosecuted to the utmost issue , would destroy good life . And therefore my quarrell with the Church of Rome is greater and stronger upon such points which are not usually considered , then it is upon the ordinary disputes , which have to no very great purpose so much disturbed Christendom : and I am more scandalized at her for teaching the sufficiency of Attrition in the Sacrament , for indulging Penances so frequently , for remitting all Discipline , for making so great a part of Religion to consist in externalls and Ceremonials , for putting more force and energy and exacting with more severity the commandments of men then the precepts of Justice and internal Religion , lastly , besides many other things , for promising Heaven to persons after a wicked life upon their impertinent cries and Ceremonials transacted by the Priests and the dying person . I confesse I wish the zeal of Christendom were a little more active against these and the like Doctrines , and that men would write and live more earnestly against them then as yet they have done . 6. But then what influence this just zeal is to have upon the persons of the Professors is another consideration . For as the Pharisees did preach well , & lived ill , and therefore were to be heard , not imitated : so if these men live well , though they teach ill , they are to be imitated , not heard ; their Doctrines by all means , Christian and humane , are to be discountenanced , but their persons tolerated eatenus ; their Profession and Decrees to be rejected and condemned , but the persons to be permitted , because by their good lives they confute their Doctrines , that is , they give evidence that they think no evil to be consequent to such Opinions ; and if they did , that they live good lives , is argument sufficient that they would themselves cast the first stone against their own Opinions , if they thought them guilty of such misdemeanours . 7. Fourthly , But if we consider their Doctrines in relation to Government and publick societies of men , then if they prove faulty , they are so much the more intolerable by how much the consequents are of greater danger and malice : Such Doctrines as these , The Pope may dispense with all oaths taken to God or man ; he may absolve subjects from their allegeance to their natural Prince ; Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks ; Hereticall Princes may be slain by their subjects . These Propositions are so deprest , and do so immediately communicate with matter , and the interests of men , that they are of the same consideration with matters of fact , and are to be handled accordingly . To other Doctrines ill life may be consequent ; but the connexion of the antecedent and the consequent is not ( peradventure ) perceived or acknowledged by him that believes the Opinion with no greater confidence then he disavows the effect and issue of it : but in these the ill effect is the direct profession & purpose of the Opinion , and therefore the man and the man's Opinion is to be dealt withall just as the matter of fact is to be judged ; for it is an immediate , a perceived , a direct event , and the very purpose of the Opinion . Now these Opinions are a direct overthrow to all humane society and mutuall commerce , a destruction of Government , and of the Laws , and duty and subordination which we owe to Princes : and therefore those men of the Church of Rome that do hold them , and preach them , cannot pretend to the excuses of innocent Opinions , and hearty perswasion , to the weakness of humanity , and the difficulty of things ; for God hath not left those Truths which are necessary for conservation of the publick societies of men so intricate and obscure , but that every one that is honest , and desirous to understand his duty , will certainly know that no Christian truth destroys a man's being sociable and a member of the Body politick , cooperating to the conservation of the whole as well as of itself . However , if it might happen that men should sincerely erre in such plain matters of fact , ( for there are fools enough in the world ) yet if he hold his peace , no man is to persecute or punish him ; for then it is mere opinion , which comes not under politicall cognizance , that is , that cognizance which onely can punish corporally : but if he preaches it he is actually a Traitour , or Seditious , or authour of Perjury , or a destroyer of humane society , respectively to the nature of the Doctrine ; and the preaching such Doctrines cannot claim the privilege and immunity of a mere Opinion , because it is as much matter of fact as any the actions of his disciples and confidents , and therefore in such cases is not to be permitted , but judged according to the nature of the effect it hath or may have upon the actions of men . 8. Fifthly , But lastly , in matters merely speculative the case is wholly altered , because the Body politick , which onely may lawfully use the Sword , is not a competent judge of such matters which have not direct influence upon the Body politick , or upon the lives and manners of men as they are parts of a Community : ( Not but that Princes or Judges temporal may have as much ability as others , but by reason of the incompetency of the Authority . ) And Gallio spoke wisely when he discoursed thus to the Jews , If it were a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness , O ye Jews , reason would that I should hear you : But if it be a question of words and names , and of your Law , look ye to it , for I will be no judge of such matters . The man spoke excellent reason ; for the cognizance of these things did appertain to men of the other Robe . But the Ecclesiastical power , which onely is competent to take notice of such questions , is not of capacity to use the temporal sword or corporal inflictions . The mere Doctrines and Opinions of men are things spiritual , and therefore not cognoscible by a temporal Authority : and the Ecclesiastical Authority , which is to take cognizance , is itself so spiritual , that it cannot inflict any punishment corporal . 9. And it is not enough to say that when the Magistrate restrains the preaching such Opinions , if any man preaches them he may be punished , ( and then it is not for his Opinion but his disobedience that he is punished ; ) for the temporal power ought not to restrain Prophesyings where the publick peace and interest is not certainly concerned . And therefore it is not sufficient to excuse him , whose Law in that case , being by an incompetent power , made a scruple where there was no sin . 10. And under this consideration come very many Articles of the Church of Rome , which are wholly speculative , which do not derive upon practice , which begin in the understanding and rest there , and have no influence upon life and Government , but very accidentally , and by a great many removes ; and therefore are to be considered onely so far as to guide men in their perswasions , but have no effect upon the persons of men , their bodies , or their temporal condition . I instance in two ; Prayer for the dead , and the Doctrine of Transubstantiation ; these two to be in stead of all the rest . 11. For the first , This discourse is to suppose it false , and we are to direct our proceedings accordingly : And therefore I shall not need to urge with how many fair words and gay pretences this Doctrine is set off , apt either to cozen or instruct the conscience of the wisest , according as it is true or false respectively . But we finde ( says the Romanist ) in the History of the Maccabees , that the Jews did pray and make offerings for the dead : ( which also appears by other testimonies , and by their Form of prayers still extant which they used in the Captivity . ) It is very considerable , that since our Blessed Saviour did reprove all the evil Doctrines and Traditions of the Scribes and Pharisees , and did argue concerning the dead and the Resurrection against the Sadducees , yet he spake no word against this publick practice , but left it as he found it ; which he who came to declare to us all the will of his Father would not have done , if it had not been innocent , pious and full of charity . To which by way of consociation if we adde that Saint Paul did pray for Onesiphorus , that the Lord would she● him a mercy in that day , that is , according to the style of the New Testament , the day of Judgement ; the result will be , that although it be probable that Onesiphorus at that time was dead , ( because in his salutations he salutes his houshold , without naming him who was the Major domo , against his custom of salutations in other places , ) yet besides this , the prayer was for such a blessing to him whose demonstration and reception could not be but after death : which implies clearly that then there is a need of mercy , and by consequence the dead people even to the day of Judgement inclusively are the subject of a misery , the object of God's mercy , and therefore fit to be commemorated in the duties of our piety and charity , and that we are to recommend their condition to God , not onely to give them more glory in the re-union , but to pity them to such purposes in which they need ; which because they are not revealed to us in particular , it hinders us not in recommending the persons in particular to God's mercy , but should rather excite our charity and devotion . For it being certain that they have a need of mercy , and it being uncertain how great their need is , it may concern the prudence of charity to be the more earnest , as not knowing the greatness of their necessity . 12. And if there should be any uncertainty in these Arguments , yet its having been the universal practice of the Church of God in all places , and in all Ages till within these hundred years , is a very great inducement for any member of the Church to believe that in the first Traditions of Christianity and the Institutions Apostolical there was nothing delivered against this practice , but very much to insinuate or enjoyn it ; because the practice of it was at the first , and was universal . And if any man shall doubt of this , he shews nothing but that he is ignorant of the Records of the Church ; it being plain in Tertullian and Saint * Cyprian , ( who were the eldest Writers of the Latine Church ) that in their times it was ab antiquo the custom of the Church to pray for the Souls of the faithfull departed in the dreadfull mysteries . And it was an Institution Apostolical , ( says one of them ) and so transmitted to the following Ages of the Church ; and when once it began upon slight grounds and discontent to be contested against by Aerius , the man was presently condemn'd for a Heretick , as appears in Epiphanius . 13. But I am not to consider the Arguments for the Doctrine itself , although the probability and fair pretence of them may help to excuse such persons who upon these or the like grounds do heartily believe it : but I am to consider that , whether it be true or false , there is no manner of malice in it , and at the worst it is but a wrong errour upon the right side of charity , and concluded against by its Adversaries upon the confidence of such Arguments which possibly are not so probable as the grounds pretended for it . 14. And if the same judgement might be made of any more of their Doctrines , I think it were better men were not furious in the condemning such Questions which either they understood not upon the grounds of their proper Arguments , or at least consider not as subjected in the persons , and lessened by circumstances , by the innocency of the event , or other prudential considerations . 15. But the other Article is harder to be judged of , and hath made greater stirs in Christendom , and hath been dasht at with more impetuous Objections , and such as do more trouble the Question of Toleration . For if the Doctrine of Transubstantiation be false , ( as upon much evidence we believe it is ) then it is accused of introducing Idolatry , giving Divine worship to a creature , adoring of bread and wine ; and then comes in the precept of God to the Jews , that those Prophets who perswaded to Idolatry should be slain . 16. But here we must deliberate , for it is concerning the lives of men ; and yet a little deliberation may suffice . For Idolatry is a forsaking the true God , and giving Divine worship to a creature or to an Idol , that is , to an imaginary god , who hath no foundation in essence or existence ; and is that kind of superstition which by Divines is called the superstition of an undue object . Now it is evident that the object of their adoration ( that which is represented to them in their minds , their thoughts and purposes , and by which God principally , if not solely , takes estimate of humane actions ) in the blessed Sacrament is the onely true and eternal God hypostatically joyned with his holy Humanity , which Humanity they believe actually present under the veil of the Sacramental signs : And if they thought him not present , they are so far from worshipping the bread in this case , that themselves profess it to be Idolatry to doe so ; which is a demonstration that their soul hath nothing in it that is idololatricall . If their confidence and fancy-full Opinion hath engaged them upon so great mistake , ( as without doubt it hath ) yet the will hath nothing in it but what is a great enemy to Idolatry : Et nihil ardet in inferno nisi propria voluntas . And although they have done violence to all Philosophy and the reason of man , and undone and cancelled the principles of two or three Sciences , to bring in this Article ; yet they have a Divine Revelation whose literal and grammatical sense , if that sense were intended , would warrant them to doe violence to all the Sciences in the Circle . And indeed that Transubstantiation is openly and violently against natural reason , is no Argument to make them disbelieve it , who believe the mystery of the Trinity in all those niceties of explication which are in the School ( and which now-a-days pass for the Doctrine of the Church ) with as much violence to the principles of natural and supernatural Philosophy as can be imagined to be in the point of Transubstantiation . 17. But for the Article itself ; We all say that Christ is there present some way or other extraordinary : and it will not be amiss to worship him at that time , when he gives himself to us in so mysterious a manner , and with so great advantages , especially since the whole Office is a consociation of divers actions of Religion and worship . Now in all opinions of those men who think it an act of Religion to communicate and to offer , a Divine worship is given to Christ , and is transmitted to him by mediation of that action and that Sacrament ; and it is no more in the Church of Rome , but that they differ and mistake infinitely in the manner of his presence : which errour is wholly seated in the understanding , and does not communicate with the will. For all agree that the Divinity and the Humanity of the Son of God is the ultimate and adequate object of Divine adoration , and that it is incommunicable to any creature whatsoever ; and before they venture to pass an act of adoration , they believe the bread to be annihilated , or turned into his substance who may lawfully be worshipped : and they who have these thoughts are as much enemies of Idolatry as they that understand better how to avoid that inconvenience which is supposed to be the crime , which they formally hate , and we materially avoid . This consideration was concerning the Doctrine itself . 18. Secondly , And now for any danger to mens persons for suffering such a Doctrine , this I shall say , that if they who doe it are not formally guilty of Idolatry , there is no danger that they whom they perswade to it should be guilty . And what persons soever believe it to be Idolatry to worship the Sacrament , while that perswasion remains will never be brought to it , there is no fear of that ; and he that perswades them to doe it , by altering their perswasions and beliefs does no hurt but altering the Opinions of the men , and abusing their understandings : but when they believe it to be no Idolatry , then their so believing it is sufficient security from that crime which hath so great a tincture and residency in the will , that from thence onely it hath its being criminall . 19. Thirdly , However , if it were Idolatry , I think the precept of God to the Jews of killing false and idolatrous Prophets will be no warrant for Christians so to doe . For in the case of the Apostles and the men of Samaria , when James and John would have called for fire to destroy them , even as Elias did under Moses Law , Christ distinguished the spirit of Elias from his own Spirit , and taught them a lesson of greater sweetness , and consigned this truth to all Ages of the Church , that such severity is not consistent with the meekness which Christ by his example and Sermons hath made a precept Evangelicall : At most it was but a judiciall Law , and no more of Argument to make it necessary to us then the Mosaicall precepts of putting Adulterers to death , and trying the accused persons by the waters of jealousie . 20. And thus in these two Instances I have given account what is to be done in Toleration of diversity of Opinions . The result of which is principally this ; Let the Prince and the Secular Power have a care the Commonwealth be safe . For whether such or such a Sect of Christians be to be permitted is a Question rather politicall then religious : for as for the concernments of Religion , these Instances have furnished us with sufficient to determine us in our duties as to that particular , and by one of these all particulars may be judged . 21. And now it were a strange inhumanity to permit Jews in a Commonwealth , whose interest is served by their inhabitation ; and yet upon equal grounds of State and policy not to permit differing Sects of Christians . For although possibly there is more danger mens perswasions should be altered in a commixture of divers Sects of Christians ; yet there is not so much danger when they are changed from Christian to Christian , as if they be turned from Christian to Jew , or Moor , as many are daily in Spain and Portugall . 22. And this is not to be excused by saying the Church hath no power over them qui for●s sunt , as Jews are . For it is true , the Church in the capacity of spiritual regiments hath nothing to doe with them , because they are not her Diocese : yet the Prince hath to doe with them when they are subjects of his regiment . They may not be Excommunicate any more then a stone may be killed , because they are not of the Christian Communion : but they ●re living persons , parts of the Commonwealth , infinitely deceived in their Religion , and very dangerous if they offer to perswade men to their Opinions , and are the greatest enemies of Christ , whose honour and the interest of whose service a Christian Prince is bound with all his power to maintain . And when the question is of punishing disagreeing persons with death , the Church hath equally nothing to doe with them both , for she hath nothing to doe with the temporall sword ; but the Prince , whose subjects equally Christians and Jews are , hath equal power over their persons ; for a Christian is no more a Subject then a Jew is , the Prince hath upon them both the same power of life and death : so that the Jew by being no Christian is not for●s , or any more an exempt person for his body or his life then the Christian is . And yet in all Churches where the Secular power hath temporal reason to tolerate the Jews , they are tolerated without any scruple in Religion . Which thing is of more consideration , because the Jews are direct Blasphemers of the Son of God , and Blasphemy by their own Law , the Law of Moses , is made capital ; and might with greater reason be inflicted upon them , who acknowledge its obligation , then urged upon Christians , as an Authority enabling Princes to put them to death who are accused of accidental and consecutive Blasphemy and Idolatry respectively , which yet they hate and disavow with much zeal and heartiness of perswasion . And I cannot yet learn a reason why we shall not be more complying with them who are of the houshold of Faith : for at least they are children , though they be but rebellious children ; ( and if they were not , what hath the mother to doe with them any more then with the Jews ? ) they are in some relation or habitude of the family ; for they are consigned with the same Baptism , profess the same Faith delivered by the Apostles , are erected in the same hope , and look for the same glory to be revealed to them at the coming of their common Lord and Saviour , to whose service according to their understanding they have vowed themselves . And if the disagreeing persons be to be esteemed as Heathens and Publicans , yet not worse . Have no company with them ; that is the worst that is to be done to such a man in Saint Paul's judgement : Yet count him not as an enemy , but admonish him as a brother . SECT . XXI . Of the Duty of particular Churches in allowing Communion . 1. FRom these Premisses we are easily instructed concerning the lawfulness or duty respectively of Christian Communion , which is differently to be considered in respect of particular Churches to each other , and of particular men to particular Churches . For as for particular Churches , they are bound to allow Communion to all those that profess the same Faith upon which the Apostles did give Communion . For whatsoever preserves us as members of the Church gives us title to the Communion of Saints , and whatsoever Faith or belief that is to which God hath promised Heaven , that Faith makes us members of the Catholick Church . Since therefore the judicial Acts of the Church are then most prudent and religious when they nearest imitate the example and piety of God ; to make the Way to Heaven streighter then God made it , or to deny to communicate with those with whom God will vouchsafe to be united , and to refuse our charity to those who have the same Faith , because they have not all our Opinions , and believe not every thing necessary which we overvalue , is impious and schismaticall ; it infers tyranny on one part , and perswades and tempts to uncharitableness and animosities on both ; it dissolves Societies , and is an enemy to peace ; it busies men in impertinent wranglings ; and by names of men and titles of factions it consigns the interessed parties to act their differences to the height , and makes them neglect those advantages which piety and a good life bring to the reputation of Christian Religion and societies . 2. And therefore Vincentius Lirinensis , and indeed the whole Church , accounted the Donatists Hereticks upon this very ground , because they did imperiously deny their Communion to all that were not of their perswasion : whereas the Authours of that Opinion for which they first did separate and make a Sect , because they did not break the Churche's peace , nor magisterially prescribed to others , were in that disagreeing and errour accounted Catholicks . Divisio enim & disunio facit vos haereticos , pax & unitas faciunt Catholicos , said Saint Augustin . And to this sense is that of Saint Paul , If I had all faith and had not charity , I am nothing . He who upon confidence of his true belief denies a charitable Communion to his brother loses the reward of both . And if Pope Victor had been as charitable to the Asiaticks as Pope Anicetus and Saint Polycarp were to each other in the same disagreeing concerning Easter , Victor had not been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so bitterly reproved and condemned as he was for the uncharitable managing of his disagreeing by Polycrates and Irenaeus . Concordia enim , quae est charitatis effectus , est unio voluntatum , non opinionum : True Faith , which leads to Charity , leads on to that which unites wills and affections , not Opinions . 3. Upon these or the like considerations the Emperour Zeno published his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in which he made the Nicene Creed to be the medium of Catholick Communion ; and although he lived after the Council of Chalcedon , yet he made not the Decrees of that Council an instrument of its restraint and limit , as preferring the peace of Christendom and the union of charity far before a forced or pretended unity of perswasion , which never was nor ever will be real and substantial : and although it were very convenient if it could be had , yet it is therefore not necessary because it is impossible . And if men please , whatever advantages to the publick would be consequent to it may be supplied by a charitable compliance and mutuall permission of Opinion , and the offices of a brotherly affection prescribed us by the Laws of Christianity . And we have seen it , that all Sects of Christians , when they have an end to be served upon a third , have permitted that liberty to a second which we now contend for , and which they formerly denied , but now grant , that by joyning hands they might be the stronger to destroy the third . The Arians and Meletians joyned against the Catholicks ; the Catholicks and Novatians joyned against the Arians . Now if men would doe that for charity which they doe for interest , it were handsomer and more ingenuous : For that they do permit each others disagreeings for their interests sake , convinceth them of the lawfulness of the thing , or else the unlawfulness of their own proceedings . And therefore it were better they would serve the ends of charity then of faction ; for then that good end would hallow the proceeding , and make it both more prudent and more pious , while it serves the design of religious purposes . SECT . XXII . That particular men may communicate with Churches of different Perswasions ; and how far they may doe it . 1. AS for the duty of particular men in the Question of communicating with Churches of different perswasions , it is to be regulated according to the Laws of those Churches . For if they require no impiety or any thing unlawfull as the condition of their Communion , then they communicate with them as they are servants of Christ , as disciples of his Doctrine and subjects to his laws , and the particular distinguishing Doctrine of their Sect hath no influence or communication with him who from another Sect is willing to communicate with all the servants of their common Lord. For since no Church of one name is infallible , a wise man may have either the misfortune or a reason to believe of every one in particular , that she errs in some Article or other , either he cannot communicate with any , or else he may communicate with all that do not make a sin or the profession of an errour to be the condition of their Communion . And therefore as every particular Church is bound to tolerate disagreeing persons in the senses and for the reasons above explicated ; so every particular person is bound to tolerate her , that is , not to refuse her Communion , when he may have it upon innocent conditions . For what is it to me if the Greek Church denies Procession of the third Person from the second , so she will give me the right hand of fellowship ( though I affirm it ) therefore because I profess the Religion of Jesus Christ , and retain all matters of Faith and necessity ? But this thing will scarce be reduced to practice ; for few Churches that have framed bodies of Confession and Articles will endure any person that is not of the same Confession : which is a plain demonstration that such bodies of Confession & Articles doe much hurt , by becoming instruments of separating and dividing Communions , and making unnecessary or uncertain propositions a certain means of Schism and disunion . But then men would doe well to consider whether or no such proceedings do not derive the guilt of Schism upon them who least think it , and whether of the two is the Schismatick , he that makes unnecessary and ( supposing the state of things ) inconvenient impositions , or he that disobeys them , because he cannot without doing violence to his Conscience believe them ; he that parts Communion because without sin he could not entertain it , or they that have made it necessary for him to separate by requiring such conditions which to no man are simply necessary , and to his particular are either sinfull or impossible . 2. The Sum of all is this : There is no security in any thing or to any person but in the pious and hearty endeavours of a good life , and neither sin nor errour does impede it from producing its proportionate and intended effect ; because it is a direct deletery to sin and an excuse to errours , by making them innocent , and therefore harmless . And indeed this is the intendment and design of Faith. For ( that we may joyn both ends of this Discourse together ) therefore certain Articles are prescribed to us , and propounded to our understanding , that so we might be supplied with instructions , with motives and engagements to encline and determine our wills to the obedience of Christ. So that Obedience is just so consequent to Faith , as the acts of will are to the dictates of the understanding . Faith therefore being in order to Obedience , and so far excellent as itself is a part of Obedience , or the promoter of it , or an engagement to it ; it is evident that if Obedience and a good life be secured upon the most reasonable and proper grounds of Christianity , that is , upon the Apostles Creed , then Faith also is secured . Since whatsoever is beside the duties , the order of a good life , cannot be a part of Faith , because upon Faith a good life is built ; all other Articles , by not being necessary , are no otherwise to be required but as they are to be obtained and found out , that is , morally , and fallibly , and humanely . It is fit all Truths be promoted fairly and properly , and yet but few Articles prescribed magisterially , nor framed into Symbols and bodies of Confession ; least of all , after such composures , should men proceed so furiously as to say all disagreeing after such declarations to be damnable for the future , and capital for the present . But this very thing is reason enough to make men more limited in their prescriptions , because it is more charitable in such suppositions so to doe . 3. But in the thing itself , because few kinds of errours are damnable , it is reasonable as few should be capital . And because every thing that is damnable in itself and before God's Judgement-seat is not discernible before men , ( and Questions disputable are of this condition ) it is also very reasonable that fewer be capital then what are damnable , and that such Questions should be permitted to men to believe , because they must be left to God to judge . It concerns all persons to see that they doe their best to find out Truth ; and if they do , it is certain that , let the errour be never so damnable , they shall escape the errour , or the misery of being damned for it . And if God will not be angry at men for being invincibly deceived , why should men be angry one at another ? For he that is most displeased at another man's errour may also be tempted in his own will , and as much deceived in his understanding : For if he may fail in what he can chuse , he may also fail in what he cannot chuse : his understanding is no more secured then his will , nor his Faith more then his Obedience . It is his own fault if he offends God in either : but whatsoever is not to be avoided , as errours , which are incident oftentimes even to the best and most inquisitive of men , are not offences against God , and therefore not to be punished or restrained by men : but all such Opinions in which the publick interests of the Commonwealth , and the foundation of Faith and a good life , are not concerned , are to be permitted freely . Quisque abundet in sensu suo , was the Doctrine of S. Paul ; and that is Argument and conclusion too : and they were excellent words which Saint Ambrose said in attestation of this great Truth , Nec Imperiale est , libertatem dicendi negare ; nec Sacerdotale , quod sentias non dicere . I end with a Story which I find in the Jews Books . When Abraham sate at his Tent-door , according to his custome , waiting to entertain strangers ; he espied an old man stooping and leaning on his staff , weary with age and travell , coming towards him , who was an hundred years of age : he received him kindly , washed his feet , provided supper , caused him to sit down : but observing that the old man eat and prayed not , nor begged for a blessing on his meat , he asked him why he did not worship the God of Heaven . The old man told him that he worshipped the Fire onely , and acknowledged no other God. At which answer Abraham grew so zealously angry , that he thrust the old man out of his tent , and exposed him to all the evils of the night , and an unguarded condition . When the old man was gone , God called to Abraham and asked him where the stranger was . He replied , I thrust him away because he did not worship thee . God answered him , I have suffered him these hundred years , although he dishonoured me ; and couldst not thou endure him one night , when he gave thee no trouble ? Upon this , saith the story , Abraham fetcht him back again , and gave him hospitable entertainment and wise instruction . Go thou , and doe likewise , and thy charity will be rewarded by the God of Abraham . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . THE END . ΧΡΙΣΙΣ ΤΕΛΕΙΩΤΙΧΗ . A DISCOURSE OF CONFIRMATION . ACTS 9.2 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; ALSO A DISCOURSE OF The NATVRE , OFFICES and MEASVRES OF FRIENDSHIP . WITH Rules of conducting it . In a Letter to M. K. P. To which are added , Two Letters to Persons changed in RELIGION . ALSO Three Letters to a Gentleman that was tempted to the Communion of the ROMISH CHVRCH . Dion . Orat. 1. de Regno . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . By JER . TAYLOR , Chaplain in Ordinary to King CHARLES the First , and late Lord Bishop of Down and Connor . LONDON , Printed for R. Royston , Bookseller to the King 's most Excellent Majesty , 1673. To His Grace , JAMES DUKE OF ORMONDE , Lord Lieutenant General , And General Governour of His Majestie 's Kingdom OF IRELAND , ONE OF THE Lords of His Majestie 's most Honourable Privy Councils of His Majestie 's Kingdoms OF England , Scotland and Ireland , &c. And Knight of the most Noble Order of the Garter . May it please your Grace , IT is not any Confidence that I have dexterously performed this Charge , that gives me the boldness to present it to Your Grace . I have done it as well as I could ; and for the rest , my Obedience will bear me out : For I took not this task upon my self , but was intreated to it by them who have power to Command me . But yet it is very necessary that it should be addressed to Your Grace , who are , as Sozomen said of Theodosius , Certaminum Magister , & orationum Judex constitutus : You are appointed the great Master of our arguings , and are most fit to be the Judge of our Discourses , especially when they do relate and pretend to publick Influence and Advantages to the Church . We all are witnesses of Your Zeal to promote true Religion , and every day find You to be a great Patron to this very poor Church , which groans under the Calamities and permanent Effects of a War acted by Intervals for above Four Hundred years ; such which the intermedial Sun-shines of Peace could but very weakly repair . Our Churches are still demolished , much of the Revenues irrecoverably swallowed by Sacriledge , and digested by an unavoidable impunity ; Religion infinitely divided , and parted into formidable Sects ; the People extremely Ignorant , and Wilful by inheritance ; superstitiously Irreligious , and uncapable of Reproof . And amidst these and very many more inconveniences , it was greatly necessary that God should send us such a KING , and he send us such a Vice-Roy , who weds the Interests of Religion , and joyns them to his heart . For we do not look upon Your Grace only as a Favourer of the Churche's Temporal Interest , though even for that the Souls of the relieved Clergie do daily bless You : neither are You our Patron only as the Cretans were to Homer , or the Alenadae to Simonides , Philip to Theopompus , or Severus to Oppianus ; but as Constantine and Theodosius were to Christians ; that is , desirous that true Religion should be promoted , that the Interest of Souls should be advanced , that Truth should flourish , and wise Principles should be entertain'd , as the best Cure against those Evils which this Nation hath too often brought upon themselves . In order to which excellent purposes it is hoped , that the reduction of the Holy Rite of Confirmation into use and Holy practice may contribute some very great moments . For besides that the great Vsefulness of this Ministery will greatly endear the Episcopal Order , to which ( that I may use S. Hierom's words ) if there be not attributed a more than common Power and Authority , there will be as many Schisms as Priests ; it will also be a means of endearing the Persons of the Prelates to their Flocks , when the People shall be convinced that there is , or may be , if they please , a perpetual entercourse of Blessings and Love between them ; when God by their Holy hands refuses not to give to the People the earnest of an eternal inheritance , when by them he blesses ; and that the grace of our Lord Jesus , and the Love of God , and the Communication of his Spirit , is conveyed to all persons capable of the Grace , by the Conduct , and on the hands and Prayers of their Bishops . And indeed not only very many single Persons , but even the whole Church of Ireland hath need of Confirmation . We have most of us contended for false Religions and un-Christian Propositions : and now that by God's Mercy and the Prosperity and Piety of his Sacred Majesty the Church is broken from her Cloud , and many are reduc'd to the true Religion and righteous worship of God , we cannot but call to mind , how the Holy Fathers of the Primitive Church often have declar'd themselves in Councils , and by a perpetual Discipline , that such persons who are return'd from Sects and Heresies into the Bosom of the Church should not be re-baptiz'd , but that the Bishops should Impose hands on them in Confirmation . It is true , that this was design'd to supply the defect of those Schismatical Conventicles , who did not use this Holy Rite : For this Rite of Confirmation hath had the fate to be oppos'd only by the Schismatical and Puritan Parties of old , the Novatians or Cathari , and the Donatists ; and of late by the Jesuits , and new Cathari , the Puritans and Presbyterians ; the same evil Spirit of Contradiction keeping its course in the same chanel ▪ and descending regularly amongst men of the same Principles . But therefore in the restitution of a man , or company of men , or a Church , the Holy Primitives , in the Council of C P. Laodicea and Orange , thought that to Confirm such persons was the most agreeable Discipline ; not only because such persons did not in their little and dark Assemblies use this Rite , but because they always greatly wanted it . For it is a sure Rule in our Religion , and is of an eternal truth , that they who keep not the Unity of the Church , have not the Spirit of God ; and therefore it is most fit should receive the ministery of the Spirit , when they return to the bosom of the Church , that so indeed they may keep the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace . And therefore Asterius Bishop of Amasia compares Confirmation to the Ring with which the Father of the Prodigal adorn'd his returning Son ; Datur nempe prodigo post stolam & annulus , nempe Symbolum intelligibilis signaculi Spiritûs . And as the Spirit of God , the Holy Dove , extended his mighty wings over the Creation , and hatch'd the new-born World , from its seminal powers , to Light and Operation , and Life and Motion ; so in the Regeneration of the Souls of Men , he gives a new Being , and Heat and Life , Procedure and Perfection , Wisdom and Strength : and because that this was ministred by the Bishops hands in Confirmation , was so firmly believ'd by all the Primitive Church , therefore it became a Law , and an Vniversal practice in all those Ages , in which men desir'd to be sav'd by all means . The Latin Church and the Greek always did use it , and the Blessings of it , which they believ'd consequent to it , they expressed in a holy Prayer , which in the Greek Euchologion they have very anciently and constantly used . ‖ Thou , O Lord , the most compassionate and great King of all , graciously impart to this person the seal of the gift of thy Holy , Almighty , and adorable Spirit . For , as an ancient Greek said truly and wisely , * The Father is reconcil'd , and the Son is the Reconciler ; but to them who are by Baptism and Repentance made friends of God , the Holy Spirit is collated as a gift . They well knew what they received in this Ministration , and therefore wisely laid hold of it , and would not let it go . This was anciently ministred by Apostles , and ever after by the Bishops , and religiously receiv'd by Kings and greatest Princes ; and I have read that S. Sylvester confirm'd Constantine the Emperor : and when they made their children servants of the Holy Jesus , and Souldiers under his banner , and Bonds-men of his Institution , then they sent them to the Bishop to be Confirm'd ; who did it sometimes by such Ceremonies , that the solemnity of the Ministery might with greatest Religion addict them to the service of their Great Lord. We read in Adrovaldus , that Charles Martel , entring into a League with Bishop Luitprandus , sent his Son Pepin to him , ut , more Christianorum fidelium , capillum ejus primus attonderet , ac Pater illi Spiritualis existeret , that he might , after the manner of Christians , first cut his hair , ( in token of service to Christ ) and [ in confirming him ] he should be his Spiritual Father . And something like this we find concerning William Earl of Warren and Surrey , who when he had Dedicated the Church of S. Pancratius and the Priory of Lewes , receiv'd Confirmation , and gave seizure per capillos capitis mei ( says he in the Charter ) & fratris mei Radulphi de Warrena , quos abscidit cum cultello de capitibus nostris Henricus Episcopus Wintoniensis ; by the hairs of my head and of my Brother's , which Henry Bishop of Winchester cut off before the Altar : meaning ( according to the ancient Custom ) in Confirmation , when they by that Solemnity addicted themselves to the free Servitude of the Lord Jesus . The Ceremony is obsolete and chang'd , but the Mystery can never . And indeed that is one of the advantages in which we can rejoyce concerning the ministration of this Rite in the Church of England and Ireland ; That whereas it was sometimes clouded , sometimes hindred , and sometimes hurt , by the appendage of needless and useless Ceremonies ; it is now reduc'd to the Primitive and first Simplicity amongst us , and the excrescencies us'd in the Church of Rome are wholly par'd away , and by holy Prayers and the Apostolical Ceremony of Imposition of the Bishops hands it is worthily and zealously administred . The Latins us'd to send Chrism to the Greeks , when they had usurped some jurisdiction over them , and the Pope's Chaplains went with a quantity of it to CP . where the Russians usually met them for it ; for that was then the Ceremony of this Ministration : But when the Latins demanded fourscore pounds of Gold besides other gifts , they went away , and chang'd their Custom , rather than pay an unlawful and ungodly Tribute . Non quaerimus vestra , sed vos ; We require nothing but leave to impart God's blessings with pure Intentions and a Spiritual Ministery . And as the Bishops of our Churches receive nothing from the People for the Ministration of this Rite , so they desire nothing but Love and just Obedience in Spiritual and Ecclesiastical duties ; and we offer our Flocks Spiritual things without mixture of Temporal advantages from them ; we minister the Rituals of the Gospel without the Inventions of Men , Religion without Superstition , and only desire to be believ'd in such things , which we prove from Scripture expounded by the Catholick Practice of the Church of God. Concerning the Subject of this Discourse , the Rite of Confirmation , it were easie to recount many great and glorious expressions which we find in the Sermons of the Holy Fathers of the Primitive Ages : so certain it is , that in this thing we ought to be zealous , as being desirous to perswade our People to give us leave to do them great good . But the following Pages will do it , I hope , competently : only we shall remark , that when they had gotten a custom anciently , that in cases of necessity they did permit Deacons and Lay-men sometimes to Baptize , yet they never did confide in it much ; but with much caution and curiosity commanded that such persons should , when that Necessity was over , be carried to the Bishop to be Confirm'd , so to supply all precedent defects relating to the past imperfect ministery , and future necessity and danger ; as appears in the Council of Eliberis . And the Ancients had so great estimate and veneration to this Holy Rite , that as in Heraldry they distinguish the same thing by several names , when they relate to Persons of greater Eminency , and they blazon the Arms of the Gentry by Metals , of the Nobility by precious Stones , but of Kings and Princes by Planets : so when they would signifie the Vnction which was us'd in Confirmation , they gave it a special word , and of more distinction and remark ; and therefore the Oil us'd in Baptism they call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but that of Confirmation was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ▪ and they who spake properly kept this difference of words , until by incaution and ignorant carelesness the names fell into confusion , and the thing into disuse and dis-respect . But it is no small addition to the Honour of this Ministration , that some wise and good men have piously believed , that when Baptiz'd Christians are Confirm'd , and solemnly bless'd by the Bishop , that then it is that a special Angel-Guardian is appointed to keep their Souls from the assaults of the Spirits of darkness . Concerning which , though I shall not interpose mine own opinion , yet this I say , that the Piety of that supposition is not disagreeable to the intention of this Rite : for since by this the Holy Spirit of God ( the Father of Spirits ) is given , it is not unreasonably thought by them , that the other good Spirits of God , the Angels who are ministring Spirits , sent forth to minister to the good of them that shall be Heirs of Salvation , should pay their kind offices in subordination to their Prince and Fountain ; that the first in every kind might be the measure of all the rest . But there are greater and stranger things than this that God does for the Souls of his Servants , and for the honour of the Ministeries which himself hath appointed . We shall only add that this was ancient , and long before Popery entred into the World , and that this Rite hath been more abus'd by Popery than by any thing : and to this day the Bigots of the Roman Church are the greatest Enemies to it ; and from them the Presbyterians . But besides that the Church of England and Ireland does religiously retain it , and hath appointed a solemn Officer for the Ministery ; the Lutheran and Bohemian Churches do observe it carefully , and it is recommended and establish'd in the Harmony of the Protestant Confessions . And now , may it please Your Grace to give me leave to implore Your Aid and Countenance for the propagating this so religious and useful a Ministery , which , as it is a peculiar of the Bishop's Office , is also a great enlarger of God's Gifts to the People . It is a great instrument of Vnion of hearts , and will prove an effective Deletery to Schism , and an endearment to the other parts of Religion : it is the consummation of Baptism , and a preparation to the Lord's Supper : it is the Vertue from on high , and the solemnity of our Spiritual Adoption . But there will be no need to use many arguments to enflame your Zeal in this affair , when Your Grace shall find , that to promote it will be a great Service to God ; for this alone will conclude Your Grace , who are so ready , by Laws and Executions , by word and by Example , to promote the Religion of Christ , as it is taught in these Churches . I am not confident enough to desire Your Grace , for the reading this Discourse , to lay aside any one hour of Your greater Employments , which consume so much of Your Days and Nights : But I say that the Subject is greatly worthy of consideration . Nihil enim inter manus habui , cui majorem sollicitudinem praestare deberem . And for the Book it self , I can only say what Secundus did to the wise Lupercus , Quoties ad fastidium legentium deliciásque respicio , intelligo nobis commendationem ex ipsa mediocritate libri petendam : I can commend it because it is little , and so not very troublesome . And if it could have been written according to the worthiness of the Thing treated in it , it would deserve so great a Patronage : but because it is not , it will therefore greatly need it ; but it can hope for it on no other account , but because it is laid at the feet of a Princely Person , who is Great and Good , and one who not only is bound by Duty , but by Choice hath obliged Himself to do advantages to any worthy Instrument of Religion . But I have detain'd Your Grace so long in my Address , that Your Pardon will be all the Favour which ought to be hop'd for by Your Grace's most Humble and Obliged Servant , Jer. Dunensis . A DISCOURSE OF CONFIRMATION . THE INTRODVCTION . NEXT to the Incarnation of the Son of God , and the whole Oeconomy of our Redemption wrought by him in an admirable order and Conjugation of glorious Mercies , the greatest thing that ever God did to the World , is the giving to us the Holy Ghost : and possibly this is the Consummation and Perfection of the other . For in the work of Redemption Christ indeed made a new World ; we are wholly a new Creation , and we must be so : and therefore when S. John began the Narrative of the Gospel , he began in a manner and style very like to Moses in his History of the first Creation ; In the beginning was the Word , &c. All things were made by him , and without him was not any thing made that was made . But as in the Creation the Matter was first : there were indeed Heavens , and Earth , and Waters ; but all this was rude and without form , till the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters : So it is in the new Creation . We are a new Mass , redeem'd with the bloud of Christ , rescued from an evil portion , and made Candidates of Heaven and Immortality ; but we are but an Embryo in the regeneration , until the Spirit of God enlivens us and moves again upon the waters : and then every subsequent motion and operation is from the Spirit of God. We cannot say that Jesus is the Lord , but by the Holy Ghost . By him we live , in him we walk , by his aids we pray , by his emotions we desire : we breath , and sigh , and groan by him : he helps us in all our infirmities , and he gives us all our strengths ; he reveals mysteries to us , and teaches us all our duties ; he stirs us up to holy desires , and he actuates those desires ; he makes us to will and to do of his good pleasure . For the Spirit of God is that in our Spiritual life that a Man's Soul is in his Natural : without it we are but a dead and liveless trunk . But then , as a Man's Soul in proportion to the several Operations of Life obtains several appellatives ; it is Vegetative , and Nutritive , Sensitive , and Intellective , according as it operates : So is the Spirit of God. He is the Spirit of Regeneration in Baptism , of Renovation in Repentance ; the Spirit of Love , and the Spirit of holy Fear ; the Searcher of the hearts , and the Spirit of Discerning ; the Spirit of Wisdom , and the Spirit of Prayer . In one mystery he illuminates , and in another he feeds us : he begins in one , and finishes and perfects in another . It is the same Spirit working divers Operations . For he is all this now reckoned , and he is every thing else that is the Principle of Good unto us ; he is the Beginning , and the Progression , the Consummation and Perfection of us all : and yet every work of his is perfect in its kind , and in order to his own designation ; and from the beginning to the end is Perfection all the way . Justifying and Sanctifying Grace is the proper entitative Product in all ; but it hath divers appellatives and connotations in the several rites : and yet even then also , because of the identity of the Principle , the similitude and general consonancy in the Effect , the same appellative is given , and the same effect imputed to more than one ; and yet none of them can be omitted , when the great Master of the Family hath blessed it , and given it institution . Thus S. Dionys calls Baptism 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the perfection of the Divine birth ; and yet the baptized person must receive other mysteries which are more signally perfective : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ▪ Confirmation is yet more perfective , and is properly the perfection of Baptism . By Baptism we are Heirs , and are adopted to the inheritance of Sons , admitted to the Covenant of Repentance , and engag'd to live a good Life ; yet this is but the solemnity of the Covenant , which must pass into after-acts by other influences of the same Divine principle . Until we receive the spirit of Obsignation or Confirmation , we are but babes in Christ in the meanest sence , Infants that can do nothing , that cannot speak , that cannot resist any violence , expos'd to every rudeness , and perishing by every Temptation . But therefore as God at first appointed us a ministery of a new birth ; so also hath he given to his Church the consequent Ministery of a new strength . The Spirit mov'd a little upon the waters of Baptism , and gave us the Principles of Life ; but in Confirmation he makes us able to move our selves . In the first he is the Spirit of Life ; but in this he is the Spirit of Strength and Motion . Baptisma est nativitas , Vnguentum verò est nobis actionis instar & motûs , said Cabasilas . In Baptism we are intitled to the inheritance : but because we are in our Infancy and minority , the Father gives unto his Sons a Tutor , a Guardian and a Teacher in Confirmation , said Rupertus : that as we are baptized into the Death and Resurrection of Christ ; so in Confirmation we may be renewed in the Inner man , and strengthned in all our Holy vows and purposes , by the Holy Ghost ministred according to God's Ordinance . The Holy Rite of Confirmation is a Divine Ordinance , and it produces Divine Effects , and is ministred by Divine Persons , that is , by those whom God hath sanctified and separated to this ministration . At first , all that were baptiz'd were also confirm'd : and ever since , all good people that have understood it have been very zealous for it ; and time was in England , even since the first beginnings of the Reformation , when Confirmation had been less carefully ministred for about six years , when the people had their first opportunities of it restor'd , they ran to it in so great numbers , that Churches and Church-yards would not hold them ; insomuch that I have read * that the Bishop of Chester was forc'd to impose hands on the people in the Fields , and was so oppressed with multitudes , that he had almost been trode to death by the people , and had died with the throng , if he had not been rescued by the Civil Power . But men have too much neglected all the ministeries of Grace , and this most especially , and have not given themselves to a right understanding of it , and so neglected it yet more . But because the prejudice which these parts of the Christian Church have suffered for want of it is very great , ( as will appear by enumeration of the many and great Blessings consequent to it ) I am not without hope that it may be a service acceptable to God , and an useful ministery to the Souls of my Charges , if by instructing them that know not , and exhorting them that know , I set forward the practice of this Holy Rite , and give reasons why the people ought to love it and to desire it , and how they are to understand and practise it , and consequently , with what dutious affections they are to relate to those persons whom God hath in so special and signal manner made to be , for their good and eternal benefit , the Ministers of the Spirit and Salvation . S. Bernard in the Life of S. Malachias , my Predecessor in the See of Down and Connor , reports that it was the care of that good Prelate to renew the rite of Confirmation in his Diocese , where it had been long neglected and gone into desuetude . It being too much our case in Ireland , I find the same necessity , and am oblig'd to the same procedure , for the same reason , and in pursuance of so excellent an example : Hoc enim est Evangelizare Christum , ( said S. Austin ) non tantùm docere quae sunt dicenda de Christo , sed etiam quae observanda ei qui accedit ad compagem corporis Christi ; For this is to preach the Gospel , not only to teach those things which are to be said of Christ , but those also which are to be observed by every one who desires to be confederated into the Society of the Body of Christ , which is his Church : that is , not only the doctrines of good Life , but the Mysteries of Godliness , and the Rituals of Religion , which issue from a Divine fountain , are to be declar'd by him who would fully preach the Gospel . In order to which performance I shall declare , 1. The Divine Original , Warranty and Institution of the Holy Rite of Confirmation . 2. That this Rite was to be a perpetual and never-ceasing Ministration . 3. That it was actually continued and practised by all the succeeding Ages of the purest and Primitive Churches . 4. That this Rite was appropriate to the Ministery of Bishops . 5. That Prayer and Imposition of the Bishop's hands did make the whole Ritual ; and though other things were added , yet they were not necessary , or any thing of the Institution . 6. That many great Graces and Blessings were consequent to the worthy reception and due ministration of it . 7. I shall add something of the manner of Preparation to it , and Reception of it . SECT . I. Of the Divine Original , Warranty and Institution of the Holy Rite of Confirmation . IN the Church of Rome they have determin'd Confirmation to be a Sacrament proprii nominis , properly and really ; and yet their Doctors have , some of them at least , been paulò iniquiores , a little unequal and unjust to their proposition , insomuch that from themselves we have had the greatest opposition in this Article . Bonacina and Henriquez allow the proposition , but make the Sacrament to be so unnecessary , that a little excuse may justifie the omission and almost neglect of it . And Loemelius and Daniel à Jesu , and generally the English Jesuits have , to serve some ends of their own Family and Order , disputed it almost into contempt , that by representing it as unnecessary , they might do all the ministeries Ecclesiastical in England without the assistance of Bishops their Superiors , whom they therefore love not , because they are so . But the Theological Faculty of Paris have condemn'd their Doctrine as temerarious and savouring of Heresie ; and in the later Schools have approv'd rather the Doctrine of Gamachaeus , Estius , Kellison , and Bellarmine , who indeed do follow the Doctrine of the most Eminent persons in the Ancient School , Richard of Armagh , Scotus , Hugo Cavalli , and Gerson the Learned Chancellor of Paris , who following the Old Roman order , Amalarius and Albinus , do all teach Confirmation to be of great and pious Use , of Divine Original , and to many purposes necessary , according to the Doctrine of the Scriptures and the Primitive Church . Whether Confirmation be a Sacrament of no , is of no use to dispute ; and if it be disputed , it can never be prov'd to be so as Baptism and the Lord's Supper , that is , as generally necessary to Salvation : but though it be no Sacrament , it cannot follow that it is not of very great Use and holiness : and as a Man is never the less tied to Repentance , though it be no Sacrament ; so neither is he ever the less oblig'd to receive Confirmation , though it be ( as it ought ) acknowledg'd to be of an Use and Nature inferior to the two Sacraments of Divine , direct and immediate institution . It is certain that the Fathers in a large Symbolical and general sence call it a Sacrament ; but mean not the same thing by that word when they apply it to Confirmation , as they do when they apply it to Baptism and the Lord's Supper . That it is an excellent and Divine Ordinance to purposes Spiritual , that it comes from God and ministers in our way to God , that is all we are concern'd to inquire after : and this I shall endeavour to prove not only against the Jesuits , but against all Opponents of what side soever . My First Argument from Scripture is what I learn from Optatus and S. Cyril . Optatus writing against the Donatists hath these words : Christ descended into the water , not that in him , who is God , was any thing that could be made cleaner , but that the water was to precede the future Vnction , for the initiating and ordaining and fulfilling the mysteries of Baptism . He was wash'd , when he was in the hands of John ; then followed the order of the mystery , and the Father finish'd what the Son did ask , and what the Holy Ghost declar'd : The Heavens were open'd , God the Father anointed him , the Spiritual Vnction presently descended in the likeness of a Dove , and sate upon his head , and was spred all over him , and he was called the Christ , when he was the anointed of the Father . To whom also , lest Imposition of hands should seem to be wanting , the voice of God was heard from the cloud , saying , This is my Son in whom I am well pleased , hear ye him . That which Optatus says is this ; that upon and in Christ's person , Baptism , Confirmation and Ordination were consecrated and first appointed . He was Baptized by S. John ; he was Confirm'd by the Holy Spirit , and anointed with Spiritual Unction in order to that great work of obedience to his Father's will ; and he was Consecrated by the voice of God from Heaven . In all things Christ is the Head , and the First-fruits : and in these things was the Fountain of the Sacraments and Spiritual Grace , and the great Exemplar of the Oeconomy of the Church . For Christ was nullius poenitentiae debitor : Baptism of Repentance was not necessary to him , who never sinn'd ; but so it became him to fulfil all righteousness , and to be a pattern to us all , But we have need of these things , though he had not ; and in the same way in which Salvation was wrought by him for himself and for us all , in the same way he intended * we should walk . He was Baptized because his Father appointed it so : we must be baptized because Christ hath appointed it , and we have need of it too . He was Consecrated to be the great Prophet and the great Priest , because no man takes on him this honour , but he that was called of God , as was Aaron : and all they who are to minister in his Prophetical office under him must be consecrated and solemnly set apart for that ministration , and after his glorious example . He was Anointed with a Spiritual Unction from above after his Baptism ; for after Jesus was baptized , he ascended up from the waters , and then the Holy Ghost descended upon him . It is true , he receiv'd the Fulness of the Spirit ; but we receive him by measure ; but of his fulness we all receive , grace for grace : that is , all that he receiv'd in order to his great work , all that in kind , one for another , Grace for Grace , we are to receive according to our measures and our necessities . And as all these he receiv'd by external ministrations ; so must we : God the Father appointed his way , and he , by his Example first , hath appointed the same to us ; that we also may follow him in the regeneration , and work out our Salvation by the same Graces in the like solemnities . For if he needed them for himself , then we need them much more . If he did not need them for himself , he needed them for us , and for our Example , that we might follow his steps , who by receiving these exterior solemnities and inward Graces became the Author and finisher of our Salvation , and the great Example of his Church . I shall not need to make use of the fancy of the Murcosians and Colabarsians , who turning all Mysteries into Numbers , reckoned the numeral letters of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and made them coincident to the α and ω· but they intended to say , that Christ receiving the Holy Dove after his Baptism became all in all to us , the beginning and the perfection of our Salvation ; here he was confirm'd , and receiv'd the ω to his α , the Consummation to his Initiation , the completion of his Baptism and of his Headship in the Gospel . But that which I shall rather add is what S. Cyril from hence argues . When he truly was baptized in the River of Jordan , he ascended out of the waters , and the Holy Ghost substantially descended upon him , like resting upon like . And to you also in like manner , after ye have ascended from the waters of Baptism , the Vnction is given , which bears the image or similitude of him by whom Christ was anointed — that as Christ after Baptism and the coming of the Holy Spirit upon him went forth to battel ( in the Wilderness ) and overcame the adversary ; so ye also , after Holy Baptism and the mystical Vnction ( or Confirmation , ) being vested with the Armour of the Holy Spirit , are enabled to stand against the opposite Powers . Here then is the first great ground of our solemn receiving the Holy Spirit , or the Unction from above after Baptism , which we understand and represent by the word Confirmation , denoting the principal effect of this Unction , Spiritual Strength . Christ , who is the Head of the Church , entred this way upon his duty and work : and he who was the first of all the Church , the Head and great Example , is the measure of all the rest ; for we can go to Heaven no way but in that way in which he went before us . There are some who from this Story would infer the descent of the Holy Ghost after Christ's Baptism not to signifie that Confirmation was to be a distinct Rite from Baptism , but a part of it , yet such a part as gives fulness and Consummation to it . S. Hierom , Chrysostom , Euthymius and Theophylact go not so far , but would have us by this to understand that the Holy Ghost is given to them that are baptized . But Reason and the Context are both against it . 1. Because the Holy Ghost was not given by John's Baptism ; that was reserv'd to be one of Christ's glories ; who also , when by his Disciples he baptiz'd many , did not give them the Holy Ghost ; and when he commanded his Apostles to baptize all Nations , did not at that time so much as promise the Holy Ghost : he was promis'd distinctly , and given by another Ministration . 2. The descent of the Holy Spirit was a distinct ministery from the Baptism : it was not only after Jesus ascended from the waters of Baptism ; but there was something intervening , and by a new office or ministration : For there was Prayer joyn'd in the ministery . So S. Luke observes ; while Jesus was praying , the Heavens were open'd , and the Holy Spirit descended : for so Jesus was pleas'd to consign the whole Office and Ritual of Confirmation . Prayer for invocating the Holy Spirit , and giving him by personal application ; which as the Father did immediately , so the Bishops do by Imposition of hands . 3. S. Austin observes that the apparition of the Holy Spirit like a Dove was the visible or ritual part ; and the voice of God was the word to make it to be Sacramental ; accedit verbum ad elementum , & ●it Sacramentum : for so the ministration was not only perform'd on Christ , but consign●d to the Church by similitude and exemplar institution . I shall only add ▪ that the force of this Argument is established to us by more of the Fathers . S. Hilary upon this place hath these words : The Fathers voice was heard , that from those things which were consummated in Christ , we might know that after the Baptism of water the Holy Spirit from the gates of Heaven flies unto us ; and that we are to be anointed with the Vnction of a celestial glory , and be made the Sons of God by the adoption of the voice of God , the Truth by the very effects of things prefigur'd unto us the similitude of a Sacrament . So S. Chrysostom : In the beginnings always appears the sensible visions of Spiritual things for their sakes who cannot receive the understanding of an incorporeal nature ; that if afterwards they be not so done ( that is , after the same visible manner ) they may be believ'd by those things which were already done . But more plain is that of Theophylact : The Lord had not need of the descent of the Holy Spirit , but he did all things for our sakes ; and himself is become the First-fruits of all things which we afterwards were to receive , that he might become the first-fruits among many Brethren . The consequent is this , which I express in the words of S. Austin , affirming , Christi in Baptismo columbam unctionem nostram praefigurâsse , The Dove in Christ's Baptism did represent and prefigure our Unction from above , that is , the descent of the Holy Ghost upon us in the rite of Confirmation . Christ was baptized , and so must we . But after Baptism he had a new ministration for the reception of the Holy Ghost : and because this was done for our sakes , we also must follow that example . And this being done immediately before his entrance into the Wilderness to be tempted of the Devil , it plainly describes to us the Order of this ministery , and the Blessing design'd to us : After we are baptiz'd , we need to be strengthned and confirm'd propter pugnam spiritualem ; we are to fight against the Flesh , the World and the Devil , and therefore must receive the ministration of the Holy Spirit of God : which is the design and proper work of Confirmation . For ( they are the words of the Excellent Author of the imperfect work upon S. Matthew , imputed to S. Chrysostom ) The Baptism of Water profits us , because it washes away the sins we have formerly committed , if we repent of them . But it does not sanctifie the Soul , nor precedes the Concupiscences of the Heart and our evil thoughts , nor drives them back , nor represses our carnal desires . But he therefore who is ( only ) so baptized , that he does not also receive the Holy Spirit , is baptized in his Body , and his sins are pardon'd ; but in his Mind he is yet but a Catechumen : for so it is written , He that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his : and therefore afterward out of his flesh will germinate worse sins , because he hath not receiv'd the Holy Spirit conserving him ( in his Baptismal Grace , ) but the house of his Body is empty ; wherefore that wicked spirit finding it swept with the Doctrines of Faith , as with besoms , enters in , and in a sevenfold manner dwells there . Which words , besides that they well explicate this mystery , do also declare the necessity of Confirmation , or receiving the Holy Ghost after Baptism , in imitation of the Divine precedent of our Blessed Saviour . 2. After the Example of Christ , my next Argument is from his Words spoken to Nicodemus in explication of the prime mysteries Evangelical ; Vnless a man be born of Water and of the Holy Spirit , he shall not enter into the Kingdom of God. These words are the great Argument which the Church uses for the indispensable necessity of Baptism ; and having in them so great effort , and not being rightly understood , they have suffered many Convulsions ( shall I call them ? ) or Interpretations . Some serve their own Hypothesis by saying that Water is the Symbol , and the Spirit is the Baptismal Grace : Others , that it is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , one is only meant , though here be two Signatures . But others conclude , that Water is only necessary , but the Spirit is super-added as being afterwards to supervene and move upon these Waters : And others yet affirm , that by Water is only meant a Spiritual Ablution , or the effect produced by the Spirit ; and still they have intangled the words so that they have been made useless to the Christian Church , and the meaning too many things makes nothing to be understood . But Truth is easie , intelligible and clear , and without objection , and is plainly this : Unless a man be Baptized into Christ , and Confirmed by the Spirit of Christ , he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Christ ; that is , he is not perfectly adopted into the Christian Religion , or fitted for the Christian Warfare . And if this plain and natural sence be admitted , the place is not only easie and intelligible , but consonant to the whole Design of Christ and Analogy of the New Testament . For , first , Our blessed Saviour was Catechizing of Nicodemus , and teaching him the first Rudiments of the Gospel , and like a wise Master-builder , first lays the foundation , The Doctrine of Baptism and laying on of Hands ; which afterwards S. Paul put into the Christian Catechism , as I shall shew in the sequel . Now these also are the first Principles of the Christian Religion taught by Christ himself , and things which at least to the Doctors might have been so well known , that our Blessed Saviour upbraids the not knowing them as a shame to Nicodemus . S. Chrysostom and Theophylact , Euthymius and Rupertus affirm , that this Generation by Water and the Holy Spirit might have been understood by the Old Testament , in which Nicodemus was so well skilled . Certain it is , the Doctrine of Baptisms was well enough known to the Jews , and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the illumination and irradiations of the Spirit of God was not new to them , who believed the Visions and Dreams , the Daughter of a Voice , and the influences from Heaven upon the Sons of the Prophets : and therefore although Christ intended to teach him more than what he had distinct notice of , yet the things themselves had foundation in the Law and the Prophets : but although they were high Mysteries , and scarce discerned by them who either were ignorant or incurious of such things ; yet to the Christians they were the very Rudiments of their Religion , and are best expounded by observation of what S. Paul placed in the very foundation . But , 2. Baptism is the first Mystery , that is certain ; but that this of being born of the Spirit is also the next , is plain in the very order of the words : and that it does mean a Mystery distinct from Baptism , will be easily assented to by them who consider , that although Christ Baptized and made many Disciples by the Ministery of his Apostles , yet they who were so baptized into Christ's Religion did not receive this Baptism of the Spirit till after Christ's Ascension . 3. The Baptism of Water was not peculiar to John the Baptist , for it was also of Christ , and ministred by his command ; it was common to both ; and therefore the Baptism of Water is the less principal here . Something distinct from it is here intended . Now if we add to these words , That S. John tells of another Baptism which was Christ's peculiar , He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with Fire ; That these words were literally verified upon the Apostles in Pentecost , and afterwards upon all the Baptized in Spiritual effect , ( who , besides the Baptism of Water , distinctly had the Baptism of the Spirit in Confirmation : ) it will follow that of necessity this must be the meaning and the verification of these words of our Blessed Saviour to Nicodemus , which must mean a double Baptism : Transibimus per aquam & ignem , antequam veniemus in refrigerium , We must pass through Water and Fire , before we enter into Rest ; that is , We must first be Baptized with Water , and then with the Holy Ghost , who first descended in Fire ; that is , the only way to enter into Christ's Kingdom is by these two Doors of the Tabernacle , which God hath pitched , and not Man , first by Baptism , and then by Confirmation ; first by Water , and then by the Spirit . The Primitive Church had this Notion so fully amongst them , that the Author of the Apostolical Constitutions attributed to S. Clement , who was S. Paul's Scholar , affirms , That a man is made a perfect Christian ( meaning Ritually and Sacramentally , and by all exterior solemnity ) by the Water of Baptism and Confirmation of the Bishop : and from these words of Christ now alledged , derives the use and institution of the Rite of Confirmation . The same sence of these words is given to us by S. Cyprian , who intending to prove the insufficiency of one without the other , says , Tunc enim plenè Sanctificari & esse Dei filii possunt , si Sacramento utroque nascantur , cùm scriptum sit , Nisi quis natus fuerit ex aqua & Spiritu , non potest intrare in regnum Dei. Then they may be fully Sanctified and become the Sons of God , if they be born with both the Sacraments , or Rites ; for it is written , Vnless a man be born of Water and the Spirit , he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. The same also is the Commentary of * Eusebius Emissenus ; and S. ‖ Austin tells , That although some understand these words only of Baptism , and others of the Spirit only , viz. in Confirmation ; yet others ( and certainly much better ) understand utrumque Sacramentum , both the Mysteries , of Confirmation as well as Baptism . * Amalarius Fortunatus brings this very Text to reprove them that neglect the Episcopal Imposition of Hands : [ Concerning them who by negligence lose the Bishop's presence , and receive not the Imposition of his Hands , it is to be considered , lest in justice they be condemned , in which they exercise Justice negligently , because they ought to make haste to the Imposition of Hands ; because Christ said , Vnless a man be born again of Water and the Spirit , he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God : And as he said this , so also he said , Vnless your Righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees , ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven . ] To this I foresee two Objections may be made . First , That Christ did not institute Confirmation in this place , because Confirmation being for the gift of the Holy Ghost , who was to come upon none of the Apostles till Jesus was glorified , these words seem too early for the consigning an Effect that was to be so long after , and a Rite that could not be practised till many intermedial events should happen . So said the Evangelist , The Holy Ghost was come upon none of them , because Jesus was not yet glorified ; intimating that this great Effect was to be in after-time : and it is not likely that the Ceremony should be ordained before the Effect it self was ordered and provided for ; that the Solemnity should be appointed before provisions were made for the Mystery ; and that the outward , which was wholly for the inward , should be instituted before the inward and principal had its abode amongst us . To this I answer , First , That it is no unusual thing ; for Christ gave the Sacrament of his Body before his Body was given ; the Memorial of his Death was instituted before his Death . 2. Confirmation might here as well be instituted as Baptism , and by the same reason that the Church from these words concludes the necessity of one , she may also infer the designation of the other ; for the effect of Baptism was at that time no more produced than that of Confirmation . Christ had not yet purchased to himself a Church , he had not wrought remission of sins to all that believe on him ; the Death of Christ was not yet passed , into which Death the Christian Church was to be Baptized . 3. These words are so an institution of Confirmation , as the sixth Chapter of S. John is of the blessed Eucharist : It was designativa , not ordinativa , it was in design , not in present command ; here it was preached , but not reducible to practice till its proper season . 4. It was like the words of Christ to S. Peter , When thou art converted , confirm thy Brethren . Here the command was given , but that Confirmation of his Brethren was to be performed in a time relative to a succeeding accident . 5. It is certain that long before the event and Grace was given , Christ did speak of the Spirit of Confirmation , that Spirit which was to descend in Pentecost , which all they were to receive who should believe on him , which whosoever did receive , out of his Belly should flow Rivers of Living Waters , as is to be read in that place of S. John now quoted . 6. This predesignation of the Holy Spirit of Confirmation was presently followed by some little antepast and donariola , or little givings of the Spirit ; for our Blessed Saviour gave the Holy Ghost three several times . First , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 obscurely , and by intimation and secret vertue , then when he sent them to heal the sick , and anoint them with Oil in the Name of the Lord. Secondly , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more expresly and signally after the Resurrection , when he took his leave of them , and said , Receive ye the Holy Ghost : And this was to give them a power of ministring Remission of sins , and therefore related to Baptism and the ministeries of Repentance . But , Thirdly , he gave it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more perfectly , and this was the Spirit of Confirmation ; for he was not at all until now , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , says the Text , The Holy Ghost was not yet : So almost all the Greek Copies Printed and Manuscript ; and so S. Chrysostom , Athanasius , Cyril , Ammonius in the Catena of the Greeks , Leontius , Theophylact , Euthymius , and all the Greek Fathers read it ; so S. * Hierom and S. ‖ Austin among the Latines , and some Latin Translations read it . Our Translations read it , The Holy Ghost was not yet given , was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in them , as some few Greek Copies read it : but the meaning is alike ▪ Confirmation was not yet actual , the Holy Spirit , viz. of Confirmation , was not yet come upon the Church : but it follows not but he was long before promised , designed and appointed , spoken of and declared . * The first of these Collations had the Ceremony of Chrism or Anointing joyned with it , which the Church in process of time transferred into her use and ministery : yet it is the last only that Christ passed into an Ordinance for ever ; it is this only which is the Sacramental consummation of our Regeneration in Christ ; for in this the Holy Spirit is not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 present by his power , but present 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as S. Gregory Nazianzen expresses it , to dwell with us , to converse with us , and to abide for ever ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so S. Paul describes this Spirit of Confirmation , the Spirit which he hath poured forth upon us richly or plentifully , that is , in great measures , and to the full consummation of the first mysteries of our Regeneration . Now because Christ is the great Fountain of this Blessing to us , and he it was who sent his Father's Spirit upon the Church , himself best knew his own intentions , and the great Blessings he intended to communicate to his Church , and therefore it was most agreeable that from his Sermons we should learn his purposes and his blessing , and our duty . Here Christ declared rem Sacramenti , the spiritual Grace which he would afterwards impart to his Church by exterior Ministery , in this as in all other Graces , Mysteries and Rituals Evangelical : Nisi quis , Vnless a man be born both of Water and the Spirit , he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. But the next Objection is yet more material . 2. For if this be the meaning of our Blessed Saviour , then Confirmation is as necessary as Baptism , and without it ordinarily no man can be saved . The Solution of this will answer a Case of Conscience , concerning the necessity of Confirmation ; and in what degree of duty and diligence we are bound to take care that we receive this Holy Rite . I answer therefore , that entring into the Kingdom of God , is being admitted into the Christian Church and warfare , to become Sons of God , and Souldiers of Jesus Christ. And though this be the outward Door , and the first entrance into Life , and consequently the King's high-way , and the ordinary means of Salvation ; yet we are to distinguish the external Ceremony from the internal Mystery : The Nisi quis is for this , not for that ; and yet that also is the ordinary way . Vnless a man be baptized , that is , unless he be indeed regenerate , he cannot be sav'd : and yet Baptism , or the outward washing , is the Solemnity and Ceremony of its ordinary ministration ; and he that neglects this , when it may be had , is not indeed Regenerate ; he is not renewed in the spirit of his Mind , because he neglects God's way , and therefore can as little be sav'd as he who , having receiv'd the External Sacrament , puts a bar to the intromission of the Inward Grace . Both cannot always be had ; but when they can , although they are not equally valuable in the nature of the Thing , yet they are made equally necessary by the Divine Commandment . And in this there is a great , but general , mistake in the doctrine of the Schools , disputing concerning what Sacraments are necessary necessitate medii , that is , as necessary Means , and what are necessary by the necessity of Precept , or Divine Commandment . For although a less reason will excuse from the actual susception of some than of others , and a less diligence for the obtaining of one will serve than in obtaining of another , and a supply in one is easier obtained than in another ; yet no Sacrament hath in it any other necessity than what is made merely by the Divine Commandment . But the grace of every Sacrament , or Rite or Mystery which is of Divine ordinance is necessary indispensably , so as without it no man can be sav'd . And this difference is highly remarkable in the words of Christ recorded by S. Mark , He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved ; but he that believeth not shall be damned . Baptism it self , as to the external part , is not necessary necessitate medii , or indispensably ; but baptismal Faith for the remission of sins in persons capable , that indeed is necessary : for Christ does not say that ●he want of Baptism damns as the want of Faith does ; and yet both Baptism and Faith are the ordinary way of Salvation , and both necessary ; Baptism , because it is so by the Divine Commandment , and Faith as a necessary means of Salvation , in the very Oeconomy and dispensation of the Gospel . Thus it is also in the other Sacrament ; Vnless we eat the flesh of the Son of Man , and drink his blood , we have no life in us : and yet God forbid that every man that is not Communicated should die eternally . But it means plainly , that without receiving Christ , as he is by God's intention intended we should receive him in the Communion , we have no life in us . Plainly thus , Without the Internal grace we cannot live ; and the External ministery is the usual and appointed means of conveying to us the Internal : and therefore although without the External it is possible to be sav'd , when it is impossible to be had ; yet with the wilful neglect of it we cannot . Thus therefore we are to understand the words of Christ declaring the necessity of both these Ceremonies : They are both necessary , because they are the means of spiritual advantages and graces , and both minister to the proper ends of their appointment , and both derive from a Divine Original : but the ritual or ceremonial part in rare emergencies is dispensable ; but the Grace is indispensable . Without the grace of Baptism we shall die in our sins ; and without the grace or internal part of Confirmation we shall never be able to resist the Devil , but shall be taken captive by him at his will. Now the External or Ritual part is the means , the season and opportunity of this Grace ; and therefore is at no hand to be neglected , lest we be accounted despisers of the grace , and tempters of God to ways and provisions extraordinary . For although when without our fault we receive not the Sacramental part , God can and will supply it to us out of his own stores , because no man can perish without his own fault ; and God can permit to himself what he pleases , as being Lord of the Grace and of the Sacrament : yet to us he hath given a Law and a Rule ; and that is the way of his Church in which all Christians ought to walk . In short , The use of it is greatly profitable ; the neglect is inexcusable ; but the contempt is damnable . Tenentur non negligere si pateat opportunitas , said the Bishops in a Synod at Paris : If there be an opportunity , it must not be neglected . Obligantur suscipere , aut saltem non contemnere , said the Synod at Sens : They are bound to receive it , or at least not to despise it . Now he despises it that refuses it when he is invited to it , or when it is offered , or that neglects it without cause . For causlesly and contemptuously are all one . But these answers were made by gentle Casuists : he only values the Grace that desires it , that longs for it , that makes use of all the means of Grace , that seeks out for the means , that refuses no labour , that goes after them as the Merchant goes after Gain : and therefore the Old Ordo Romanus admonishes more strictly ; Omnino praecavendum esse ut hoc Sacramentum Confirmationis non negligatur , quia tunc omne Baptisma legitimum Christianitatis nomine confirmatur : We must by all means take heed that the Rite of Confirmation be not neglected , because in that every true Baptism is ratified and confirmed . Which words are also to the same purpose made use of by Albinus Flaccus . No man can tell to what degrees of diligence and labour , to what sufferings or journeyings he is oblig'd for the procuring of this ministery : there must be debita sollicitudo , a real providential zealous care to be where it is to be had , is the duty of every Christian according to his own circumstances ; but they who will not receive it unless it be brought to their doors , may live in such places and in such times where they shall be sure to miss it , and pay the price of their neglect of so great a ministery of Salvation . Turpissima est jactura quae per negligentiam sit , He is a Fool that loses his good by carelesness : But no man is zealous for his Soul , but he who not only omits no opportunity of doing it advantage when it is ready for him , but makes and seeks and contrives opportunities . Si non necessitate , sed incuriâ & voluntate remanserit , as S. Clement's expression is , If a man wants it by necessity , it may by the overflowings of the Divine Grace be supplied ; but not so if negligence or choice causes the omission . 3. Our way being made plain , we may proceed to other places of Scripture to prove the Divine Original of Confirmation . It was a Plant of our Heavenly Father's planting , it was a Branch of the Vine , and how it springs from the Root Christ Jesus we have seen ; it is yet more visible as it was dressed and cultivated by the Apostles . Now as soon as the Apostles had received the Holy Spirit , they preached and baptized , and the inferior Ministers did the same , and S. Philip particularly did so at Samaria , the Converts of which place received all the Fruits of Baptism ; but Christians though they were , they wanted a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , something to make them perfect . The other part of the Narrative I shall set down in the words of S. Luke : Now when the Apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the Word of God , they sent unto them Peter and John ; Who , when they were come down , prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost : For as yet he was fallen upon none of them , only they were Baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus . Then laid they their hands on them , and they received the Holy Ghost . If it had not been necessary to have added a new solemnity and ministration , it is not to be supposed the Apostles Peter and John would have gone from Jerusalem to impose hands on the Baptized at Samaria . Id quod deerat à Petro & Joanne factum est , ut Oratione pro eis habitâ & manu impositâ , invocaretur & infunderetur super eos Spiritus Sanctus , said S. Cyprian : It was not necessary that they should be Baptized again , only that which was wanting was performed by Peter and John , that by prayer and imposition of hands the Holy Ghost should be invocated and poured upon them . The same also is from this place affirmed by P. Innocentius the First , S. Hierom , and many others : and in the Acts of the Apostles we find another instance of the celebration of this Ritual and Mystery , for it is signally expressed of the Baptized Christians at Ephesus , that S. Paul first Baptized them , and then laid his hands on them , and they received the Holy Ghost . And these Testimonies are the great warranty for this Holy Rite . Quod nunc in confirmandis Neophytis manûs Impositio tribuit singulis , hoc tunc Spiritûs Sancti descensio in credentium populo donavit universis , said Eucherius Lugdunensis , in his Homily of Pentecost : The same thing that is done now in Imposition of hands on single persons , is no other than that which was done upon all Believers in the descent of the Holy Ghost ; it is the same Ministery , and all deriving from the same Authority . Confirmation or Imposition of hands for the collation of the Holy Spirit we see was actually practised by the Apostles , and that even before and after they preached the Gospel to the Gentiles ; and therefore Amalarius , who entred not much into the secret of it , reckons this Ritual as derived from the Apostles per consuetudinem , by Catholick custom ; which although it is not perfectly spoken as to the whole 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Authority of it , yet he places it in the Apostles , and is a witness of the Catholick succeeding custom and practice of the Church of God. Which thing also Zanchius observing , though he followed the sentiment of Amalarius , and seemed to understand no more of it , yet says well ; Interim ( says he ) exempla Apostolorum & veteris Ecclesiae vellem pluris aestimari : I wish that the Example of the Apostles and the Primitive Church were of more value amongst Christians . It were very well indeed they were so , but there is more in it than mere Example . These examples of such solemnities productive of such spiritual effects are , as S. Cyprian calls them , Apostolica Magisteria , the Apostles are our Masters in them , and have given Rules and Precedents for the Church to follow . This is a Christian Law , and written , as all Scriptures are , for our instruction . But this I shall expresly prove in the next Paragraph . 4. We have seen the Original from Christ , the Practice and exercise of it in the Apostles and the first Converts in Christianity : that which I shall now remark is , that this is established and passed into a Christian Doctrine . The warranty for what I say is the words of S. Paul , where the Holy Rite of Confirmation , so called from the effect of this ministration , and expressed by the Ritual part of it , Imposition of Hands , is reckoned a Fundamental point , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not laying again the foundation of Repentance from dead works , and of Faith towards God , of the Doctrine of Baptisms , and of laying on of Hands , of Resurrection from the Dead , and Eternal Judgment . Here are six Fundamental points of S. Paul's Catechism , which he laid as the Foundation or the beginning of the institution of the Christian Church ; and amongst these Imposition of hands is reckoned as a part of the Foundation , and therefore they who deny it , dig up Foundations . Now that this Imposition of hands is that which the Apostles used in confirming the Baptized , and invocating the Holy Ghost upon them , remains to be proved . For it is true that Imposition of hands signifies all Christian Rites except Baptism and the Lord's Supper ; not the Sacraments , but all the Sacramentals of the Church : it signifies Confirmation , Ordination , Absolution , Visitation of the Sick , Blessing single persons , ( as Christ did the Children brought to him ) and blessing Marriages ; all these were usually ministred by Imposition of hands . Now the three last are not pretended to be any part of this Foundation ; neither Reason , Authority , nor the Nature of the thing suffer any such pretension : The Question then is between the first three . First , Absolution of Penitents cannot be meant here , not only because we never read that the Apostles did use that Ceremony in their Absolutions ; but because the Apostle speaking of the Foundation in which Baptism is , and is reckoned one of the principal parts in the Foundation , there needed no Absolution but Baptismal , for they and we believing one Baptism for the Remission of Sins , this is all the Absolution that can be at first and in the Foundation . The other was secunda post naufragium tabula , it came in after , when men had made a shipwrack of their good conscience , and were , as S. Peter says , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , forgetful of the former cleansing and purification and washing of their old sins . Secondly , It cannot be meant of Ordination ; and this is also evident . 1. Because the Apostle says he would thence-forth leave to speak of the Foundation , and go on to perfection , that is , to higher Mysteries . Now in Rituals , of which he speaks , there is none higher than Ordination . 2. The Apostle saying he would speak no more of Imposition of Hands , goes presently to discourse of the mysteriousness of the Evangelical Priesthood , and the honour of that vocation ; by which it is evident he spake nothing of Ordination in the Catechism or Narrative of Fundamentals . 3. This also appears from the context , not only because Laying on of hands is immediately set after Baptism , but also because in the very next words of his Discourse he does enumerate and apportion to Baptism and Confirmation their proper and proportioned effects : to Baptism , illumination , according to the perpetual style of the Church of God , calling Baptism 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an enlightning ; and to Confirmation he reckons tasting the Heavenly gift , and being made partakers of the Holy Ghost ; by the thing signified declaring the Sign , and by the mystery the Rite . Upon these words S. Chrysostom discoursing , says , That all these are Fundamental Articles ; that i● , that we ought to Repent from dead works , to be Baptized into the Faith of Christ , and be made worthy of the gift of the Spirit , who is given by Imposition of Hands , and we are to be taught the mysteries of the Resurrection and Eternal Judgment . This Catechism ( says he ) is perfect : so that if any man have Faith in God , and being baptized is also confirmed , and so tastes the Heavenly gift and partakes of the Holy Ghost , and by hope of the Resurrection tastes of the good things of the World to come , if he falls away from this state , and turns Apostate from this whole Dispensation , digging down and turning up these Foundations , he shall never be built again , he can never be Baptized again , and never be Confirmed any more ; God will not begin again , and go over with him again , he cannot be made a Christian twice : If he remains upon these Foundations , though he sins , he may be renewed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Repentance , and by a Resuscitation of the Spirit , if he have not wholly quenched him ; but if he renounces the whole Covenant , disown and cancel these Foundations , he is desperate , he can never be renewed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Title and Oeconomy of Repentance . This is the full explication of this excellent place , and any other ways it cannot reasonably be explicated : but therefore into this place any notice of Ordination cannot come , no Sence , no Mystery can be made of it or drawn from it ; but by the interposition of Confirmation the whole context is clear , rational , and intelligible . This then is that Imposition of hands of which the Apostle speaks . Vnus hic locus abunde testatur , &c. saith Calvin : This one place doth abundantly witness that the original of this Rite or Ceremony was from the Apostles ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith S. Chrysostom , for by this Rite of Imposition of hands they receiv'd the Holy Ghost . Fo● though the Spirit of God was given extra-regularly , and at all times , as God was pleas'd to do great things ; yet this Imposition of hands was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , this was the Ministery of the Spirit . For so we receive Christ when we hear and obey his word : we eat Christ by Faith , and we live by his Spirit ; and yet the Blessed Eucharist is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the ministery of the Body and Blood of Christ. Now as the Lord's Supper is appointed ritually to convey Christ's Body and Bloud to us ; so is Confirmation ordain'd ritually to give unto us the Spirit of God. And though by accident and by the overflowings of the Spirit it may come to pass that a man does receive perfective graces alone , and without Ministeries external : yet such a man without a miracle is not a perfect Christian ex statuum vitae dispositione ; but in the ordinary ways and appointment of God , and until he receive this Imposition of hands , and be Confirmed , is to be accounted an imperfect Christian. But of this afterwards . I shall observe one thing more out of this testimony of S. Paul. He calls it the Doctrine of Baptisms and Laying on of hands : by which it does not only appear to be a lasting ministery , because no part of the Christian Doctrine could change or be abolished ; but hence also it appears to be of Divine institution . For if it were not , S. Paul had beed guilty of that which our Blessed Saviour reproves in the Scribes and Pharisees , and should have taught for Doctrines the Commandments of Men. Which because it cannot be suppos'd , it must follow , that this Doctrine of Confirmation or Imposition of hands is Apostolical and Divine . The Argument is clear , and not easie to be reprov'd . SECT . II. The Rite of Confirmation is a perpetual and never-ceasing Ministery . YEA , but what is this to us ? It belong'd to the days of wonder and extraordinary : The Holy Ghost breath'd upon the Apostles and Apostolical men ; but then he breath'd his last : recedente gratiâ , recessit disciplina ; when the Grace departed , we had no further use of the Ceremony . In answer to this I shall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by divers particulars evince plainly , that this Ministery of Confirmation was not temporary and relative only to the Acts of the Apostles , but was to descend to the Church for ever . This indeed is done already in the preceding Section ; in which it is clearly manifested , that Christ himself made the Baptism of the Spirit to be necessary to the Church . He declar'd the fruits of this Baptism , and did particularly relate it to the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Church at and after that glorious Pentecost . He sanctified it , and commended it by his Example ; just as in order to Baptism he sanctified the Floud Jordan , and all other waters , to the mystical washing away of sin , viz. by his great Example , and fulfilling this righteousness also . This Doctrine the Apostles first found in their own persons and Experience , and practised to all their Converts after Baptism by a solemn and external Rite ; and all this passed into an Evangelical Doctrine , the whole mystery being signified by the external Rite in the words of the Apostle , as before it was by Christ expressing only the internal ; so that there needs no more strength to this Argument . But that there may be wanting no moments to this truth , which the Holy Scripture affords , I shall add more weight to it : And , 1. The Perpetuity of this Holy Rite appears , because this great Gift of the Holy Ghost was promised to abide with the Church for ever . And when the Jews heard the Apostles speak with Tongues at the first and miraculous descent of the Spirit in Pentecost , to take off the strangeness of the wonder and the envy of the power , S. Peter at that very time tells them plainly , Repent and be Baptized every one of you , — and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not the meanest person amongst you all but shall receive this great thing which ye observe us to have received ; and not only you , but your Children too ; not your Children of this Generation only , sed Natinatorum , & qui nascentur ab illis , but your Children for ever : For the promise is to you and to your children , and to all that are afar off , even to as many as the Lord our God shall call . Now then let it be considered . 1. This gift is by Promise ; by a promise not made to the Apostles alone , but to all ; to all for ever . 2. Consider here at the very first as there is a verbum , a word of promise , so there is sacramentum too : ( I use the word , as I have already premonished , in a large fence only , and according to the style of the Primitive Church ) It is a Rite partly Moral , partly Ceremonial ; the first is Prayer , and the other is Laying on of the hands : and to an effect that is but transient and extraordinary , and of a little abode , it is not easie to be supposed that such a Solemnity should be appointed . I say , such a Solemnity ; that is , it is not imaginable that a solemn Rite annexed to a perpetual Promise should be transient and temporary , for by the nature of Relatives they must be of equal abode . The Promise is of a thing for ever ; the Ceremony or Rite was annexed to the Promise , and therefore this also must be for ever . 3. This is attested by S. Paul , who reduces this Argument to this Mystery , saying , In whom after that ye believed , signati estis Spiritu Sancto promissionis , ye were sealed by that Holy Spirit of promise . He spake it to the Ephesians , who well understood his meaning by remembring what was done to themselves by the Apostles * but a while before , who after they had Baptized them did lay their hands upon them , and so they were sealed , and so they received the Holy Spirit of promise ; for here the very matter of Fact is the clearest Commentary on S. Paul's words : The Spirit which was promised to all Christians they then received , when they were consigned , or had the Ritual seal of Confirmation by Imposition of hands . One thing I shall remark here , and that is , that this and some other words of Scripture relating to the Sacraments or other Rituals of Religion do principally mean the Internal Grace , and our consignation is by a secret power , and the work is within ; but it does not therefore follow that the External Rite is not also intended : for the Rite is so wholly for the Mystery , and the Outward for the Inward , and yet by the Outward God so usually and regularly gives the Inward , that as no man is to rely upon the External Ministery , as if the opus operatum would do the whole Duty ; so no man is to neglect the External , because the Internal is the more principal . The mistake in his particular hath caused great contempt of the Sacraments and Rituals of the Church , and is the ground of the Socinian Errors in these Questions . But 4. What hinders any man from a quick consent at the first representation of these plain reasonings and authorities ? Is it because there were extraordinary effects accompanying this Ministration , and because now there are not , that we will suppose the whole Oeconomy must cease ? If this be it , and indeed this is all that can be supposed in opposition to it , it is infinitely vain . 1. Because these extraordinary effects did continue even after the death of all the Apostles . S. Irenaeus says they did continue even to his time , even the greatest instance of Miraculous power : Et in fraternitate , saepissime propter aliquid necessarium , eâ quae est in quoquo loco Vniversâ Ecclesiâ postulante per jejunium & supplicationem multam , reversus est spiritus , &c. When God saw it necessary , and the Church prayed and fasted much , they did miraculous things , even of reducing the spirit to a dead man. 2. In the days of the Apostles the Holy Spirit did produce miraculous effects , but neither always , nor at all in all men : Are all workers of Miracles ? do all speak with Tongues ? do all interpret ? can all heal ? No , the Spirit bloweth where he listeth , and as he listeth ; he gives Gifts to all , but to some after this manner , and to some after that . 3. These Gifts were not necessary at all times any more than to all persons ; but the Promise did belong to all , and was made to all , and was performed to all . In the days of the Apostles there was an Effusion of the Spirit of God , it ran over , it was for themselves and others , it wet the very ground they trode upon , and made it fruitful ; but it was not to all in like manner , but there was also then , and since then , a Diffusion of the Spirit , tanquam in pleno . S. Stephen was full of the Holy Ghost , he was full of faith and power : The Holy Ghost was given to him to fulfil his Faith principally , the working Miracles was but collateral and incident . But there is also an Infusion of the Holy Ghost , and that is to all , and that is for ever : The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withall , saith the Apostle . And therefore if the Grace be given to all , there is no reason that the Ritual ministration of that Grace should cease , upon pretence that the Spirit is not given extraordinarily . 4. These extraordinary Gifts were indeed at first necessary : In the beginnings always appear the sensible visions of spiritual things for their sakes who cannot receive the understanding of an incorporeal Nature ; that if afterward they be not so done , they may be believed by those things which were already done , said S. Chrysostom in the place before quoted ; that is , these visible appearances were given at first by reason of the imperfection of the state of the Church , but the greater Gifts were to abide for ever : and therefore it is observable that S. Paul says that the gift of Tongues is one of the least and most useless things ; a mere Sign , and not so much as a Sign to Believers , but to Infidels and Unbelievers ; and before this he greatly prefers the gift of Prophesying or Preaching , which yet , all Christians know , does abide with the Church for ever . 5. To every ordinary and perpetual Ministery at first there were extraordinary effects and miraculous consignations . We find great parts of Nations converted at one Sermon . Three thousand Converts came in at once Preaching of S. Peter , and five thousand at another Sermon : and persons were miraculously cured by the Prayer of the Bishop in his visitation of a sick Christian ; and Devils cast out in the conversion of a sinner ; and Blindness cur'd at the Baptism of S. Paul ; and Aeneas was healed of a Palsie at the same time he was cur'd of his Infidelity ; and Eutychus was restor'd to life at the Preaching of S. Paul. And yet that now we see no such Extraordinaries , it follows not that the Visitation of the sick , and Preaching Sermons , and Absolving Penitents are not ordinary and perpetual ministrations : and therefore to fansy that invocation of the Holy Spirit and Imposition of hands is to cease when the extraordinary and temporary contingencies of it are gone , is too trifling a fancy to be put in balance against so Sacred an Institution relying upon so many Scriptures . 6. With this Objection some vain persons would have troubled the Church in S. Austin's time ; but he considered it with much indignation , writing against the Donatists . His words are these : At the first times the Holy Spirit fell upon the Believers , and they spake with Tongues which they had not learned , according as the Spirit gave them utterance . They were Signs fitted for the season ; for so the Holy Ghost ought to have signified in all Tongues , because the Gospel of God was to run through all the Nations and Languages of the World : so it was signified , and so it pass'd through . But is it therefore expected that they upon whom there is Imposition of hands that they might receive the Holy Ghost , that they should speak with Tongues ? Or when we lay hands on Infants , does every one of you attend to hear them speak with Tongues ? And when he sees that they do not speak with Tongues , is any of you of so perverse a heart as to say , They have not received the Holy Ghost ; for if they had received him , they would speak with Tongues , as it was done at first ? But if by these Miracles there is not now given any testimony of the presence of the Holy Spirit , how doth any one know that he hath received the Holy Ghost ? Interroget cor suum , Si diligit fratrem , manet Spiritus Dei in illo . It is true , the Gift of Tongues doth not remain , but all the greater Gifts of the Holy Spirit remain with the Church for ever ; Sanctification and Power , Fortitude and Hope , Faith and Love. Let every man search his Heart , and see if he belongs to God ; whether the love of God be not spread in his heart by the Spirit of God : Let him see if he be not patient in Troubles , comforted in his Afflictions , bold to confess the Faith of Christ crucified , zealous of Good works . These are the miracles of Grace , and the mighty powers of the Spirit , according to that saying of Christ , These signs shall follow them that believe : In my Name shall they cast out Devils , they shall speak with new Tongues , they shall tread on Serpents , they shall drink poison , and it shall not hurt them ; and they shall lay their hands on the sick , and they shall recover . That which we call the Miraculous part is the less power ; but to cast out the Devil of Lust , to throw down the Pride of Lucifer , to tread on the great Dragon , and to triumph over our Spiritual enemies , to cure a diseased Soul , to be unharmed by the poison of Temptation , of evil Examples and evil Company : these are the true signs that shall follow them that truly and rightly believe on the Name of the Lord Jesus ; this is to live in the Spirit , and to walk in the Spirit ; this is more than to receive the Spirit to a power of Miracles and supernatural products in a natural matter : For this is from a supernatural principle to receive supernatural aids to a supernatural end in the Diviner spirit of a man ; and this being more miraculous than the other , it ought not to be pretended that the discontinuance of extraordinary Miracles should cause the discontinuance of an ordinary Ministration ; and this is that which I was to prove . 7. To which it is not amiss to add this Observation , that Simon Magus offered to buy this power of the Apostles , that he also by laying on of hands might thus minister the Spirit . Now he began this sin in the Christian Church , and it is too frequent at this day : but if all this power be gone , then nothing of that sin can remain ; if the subject matter be removed , then the appendant crime cannot abide , and there can be no Simony , so much as by participation ; and whatever is or can be done in this kind , is no more of this Crime than Drunkenness is of Adultery ; it relates to it , or may be introductive of it , or be something like it . But certainly since the Church is not so happy as to be intirely free from the Crime of Simony , it will be hard to say that the power ( the buying of which was the principle of this sin , and therefore the Rule of all the rest ) should be removed , and the house stand without a foundation , the relative without the correspondent , the accessary without the principal , and the accident without the subject . This is impossible , and therefore it remains that still there abides in the Church this power , that by Imposition of the Hands of fit persons the Holy Ghost is ministred . But this will be further cleared in the next Section . SECT . III. The Holy Rite of Imposition of Hands for the giving the Holy Spirit , or Confirmation , was actually continued and practised by all the succeeding Ages of the purest and Primitive Church . NExt to the plain words of Scripture , the traditive Interpretation and Practice of the Church of God is the best Argument in the World for Rituals and Mystical ministrations ; for the Tradition is universal , and all the way acknowledged to be derived from Scripture . And although in Rituals the Tradition it self , if it be universal and primitive , as this is , were alone sufficient , and is so esteemed in the Baptism of Infants , in the Priests consecrating the Holy Eucharist , in publick Liturgies , in Absolution of Penitents , the Lord's Day , Communicating of Women , and the like ; yet this Rite of Confirmation being all that , and evidently derived from the practice Apostolical , and so often recorded in the New Testament , both in the Ritual and Mysterious part , both in the Ceremony and Spiritual effect , is a point of as great Certainty as it is of Usefulness and holy designation . Theophilus Antiochenus lived not long after the death of S. John , and he derives the name of Christian , which was first given to the Disciples in his City , from this Chrism or spiritual Unction , this Confirmation of baptized persons ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , We are therefore called Christians , because we are anointed with the Vnction of God. These words will be best understood by the subsequent testimonies , by which it will appear that Confirmation ( for reasons hereafter mention'd ) was for many Ages called Chrism or Unction . But he adds the Usefulness of it : For who is there that enters into the World , or that enters into contention or Athletick combats , but is anointed with oil ? By which words he intimates the Unction anciently us'd in Baptism , and in Confirmation both : for in the first we have our new Birth ; in the second we are prepar'd for spiritual Combate . Tertullian having spoken of the Rites of Baptism , proceeds ; Dehinc ( saith he ) manus imponitur , per Benedictionem advocans & invitans Spiritum Sanctum : Tunc ille Sanctissimus Spiritus super emundata & benedicta corpora libens à Patre descendit . After Baptism the hand is impos'd , by Blessing calling and inviting the Holy Spirit . Then that most Holy Spirit willingly descends from the Father upon the Bodies that are cleans'd and blessed ; that is , first baptiz'd , then confirm'd . And again ; Caro signatur , ut anima muniatur . Caro manûs impositione adumbratur , ut anima Spiritu illuminetur . The Fl●sh is consign'd , or seal'd , ( that also is one of the known primitive words for Confirmation ) that the Soul may be guarded or defended : and the Body is overshadowed by the Imposition of hands , that the Soul may be enlightned by the Holy Ghost . Nay , further yet , if any man objects that Baptism is sufficient , he answers ; It is true , it is sufficient to them that are to die presently ; but it is not enough for them that are still to live and to fight against their spiritual Enemies . For in Baptism we do not receive the Holy Ghost , ( for although the Apostles had been baptiz'd , yet the Holy Ghost was come upon none of them until Jesus was glorified ) sed in aqua emundati , sub Angelo Spiritui Sancto praeparamur ; but being cleans'd by Baptismal water , we are dispos'd for the Holy Spirit under the hand of the Angel of the Church , under the Bishop's hand . And a little after he expostulates the Article , Non licebit Deo in suo Organo per manus sanctas sublimitatem modulari spiritalem ? Is it not lawful for God , by an instrument of his own , under Holy hands to accord the heights , and sublimity of the Spirit ? For indeed this is the Divine Order : and therefore Tertullian reckoning the happiness and excellency of the Church of Rome at that time , says , She believes in God , she signs with Water , she clothes with the Spirit , ( viz. in Confirmation ) she feeds with the Eucharist , she exhorts to Martyrdom ; and against this order or Institution she receives no man. S. Cyprian , in his Epistle to Jubaianus , having urg'd that of the Apostles going to Samaria to impose hands on those whom S. Philip had baptized , adds ; Quod nunc quoque apud nos geritur , ut qui in Ecclesia baptizantur , per praepositos Ecclesiae offerantur , & per nostram orationem ac manûs impositionem Spiritum Sanctum consequantur , & signaculo Dominico consummentur . Which custom is also descended to us , that they who are baptiz'd might be brought by the Rulers of the Church , and by our Prayer and the Imposition of hands ( said the Martyr-Bishop ) may obtain the Holy Ghost , and be consummated with the Lord's signature . And again , Vngi necesse est eum qui baptizatus est , &c. Et super eos qui in Ecclesia baptizati erant , & Ecclesiasticum & legitimum Baptismum consecuti fuerant , oratione pro iis habitâ , & manu impositâ , invocaretur & infunderetur Spiritus Sanctus . It is necessary that every one who is baptiz'd should receive the Unction , that he may be Christ's anointed one , and may have in him the grace of Christ. They who have receiv'd lawful and Ecclesiastical Baptism , it is not necessary they should be baptiz'd again ; but that which is wanting must be supplied , viz. that Prayer being made for them , and Hands impos'd , the Holy Ghost be invocated and pour'd upon them . S. Clement of Alexandria , a man of venerable Antiquity and Admirable Learning , tells that a certain young man was by S. John delivered to the care of a Bishop , who having baptiz'd him , Postea verò sigillo Domini , tanquam * perfectâ tutâque ejus custodiâ , eum obsignavit , Afterward he sealed him with the Lord's signature ( the Church-word for Confirmation ) as with a safe and perfect guard . Origen in his seventh Homily upon Ezekiel , expounding certain mystical words of the Prophet , saith , Oleum est quo vir sanctus Vngitur , oleum Christi , oleum Sanctae Doctrinae . Cùm ergò aliquis accepit hoc oleum quo Vngitur Sanctus , id est , Scripturam sanctam instituentem quomodo oporteat Baptizari , in nomine Patris , & Filii , & Spiritûs Sancti , & pauca commutans unxerit quempiam , & quodammodo dixerit , Jam non es Catechumenus , consecutus es lavacrum secundae generationis ; talis homo accipit oleum Dei , &c. The Vnction of Christ , of holy Doctrine , is the Oil by which the Holy Man is anointed , having been instructed in the Scriptures , and taught how to be Baptized ; then changing a few things he says to him , Now you are no longer a Catechumen , now you are regenerated in Baptism : such a man receives the Vnction of God , viz. He then is to be Confirmed . S. Dionys , commonly called the Areopagite , in his excellent Book of Ecclesiastical Hierarchy , speaks most fully of the Holy Rite of Confirmation or Chrism . Having describ'd at large the office and manner of Baptizing the Catechumens , the trine Immersion , the vesting them in white Garments , he adds , Then they bring them again to the Bishop , and he consigns him ( who had been so baptiz'd ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , with the most Divinely-operating Vnction , and then gives him the most Holy Eucharist . And afterwards he says , But even to him who is consecrated in the most holy mystery of Regeneration , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the perfective Vnction of Chrism gives to him the advent of the Holy Spirit . And this Rite of Confirmation , then called Chrism , from the Spiritual Unction then effected , and consign'd also and signified by the Ceremony of Anointing externally , which was then the Ceremony of the Church , he calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the holy consummation of our Baptismal Regeneration ; meaning that without this , there is something wanting to the Baptized persons . And this appears fully in that famous censure of Novatus by Cornelius Bishop of Rome , reported by * Eusebius . Novatus had been Baptized in his bed being very sick and like to die : but when he recover'd , he did not receive those other things which by the rule of the Church he ought to have receive'd ; neque Domini sigillo ab Episcopo consignatus est , he was not consign'd with the Lord's signature by the hands of the Bishop , he was not Confirmed : Quo non impetrato , quomodo Spiritum Sanctum obtinuisse putandus est ? Which having not obtain'd , how can he be suppos'd to have receiv'd the Holy Spirit ? The same also something more fully related by Nicephorus , but wholly to the same purpose . Melchiades , in his Epistle to the Bishops of Spain , argues excellently about the necessity and usefulness of the Holy Rite of Confirmation . [ What does the mystery of Confirmation profit me after the mystery of Baptism ? Certainly we did not receive all in our Baptism , if after that Lavatory we want something of another kind . Let your charity attend . As the Military order requires that when the General enters a Souldier into his list , he does not only mark him , but furnishes him with Arms for the Battel : so in him that is Baptiz'd this Blessing is his Ammunition . You have given ( Christ ) a Souldier , give him also Weapons . And what will it profit him if a Father gives a great Estate to his Son , if he does not take care to provide a Tutor for him ? Therefore the Holy Spirit is the Guardian of our Regeneration in Christ , he is the Comforter , and he is the Defender . ] I have already alledged the plain Testimonies of Optatus and S. Cyril in the first Section . I add to them the words of S. Gregory Nazianzen speaking of Confirmation or the Christian signature ; Hoc & viventi tibi maximum est tutamentum . Ovis enim quae sigillo insignita est non facilè patet insidiis ; quae verò signata non est facilè à furibus capitur . This Signature is your greatest guard while you live . For a Sheep , when it is mark'd with the Master's sign , is not so soon stollen by Thieves ; but easily if she be not . The same manner of speaking is also us'd by S. Basil , who was himself together with Eubulus confirm'd by Bishop Maximinus . Quomodo curam geret tanquam ad se pertinentis Angelus ? quomodo eripiat ex hostibus , si non agnoverit signaculum ? How shall the Angel know what sheep belong unto his charge ? how shall he snatch them from the Enemy , if he does not see their mark and signature ? Theodoret also and Theophylact speak the like words : and , so far as I can perceive , these and the like sayings are most made use of by the School-men to be their warranty for an indeleble Character imprinted in Confirmation . I do not interest my self in the question , but only recite the Doctrine of these Fathers in behalf of the Practice and Usefulness of Confirmation . I shall not need to transcribe hither those clear testimonies which are cited from the Epistles of S. Clement , Vrban the First , Fabianus and Cornelius ; the summ of them is in those plainest words of Vrban the First : Omnes fideles per manûs impositionem Episcoporum Spiritum Sanctum post Baptismum accipere debent ; All faithful people ought to receive the Holy Spirit by Imposition of the Bishops hands after Baptism . Much more to the same purpose is to be read , collected by Gratian de Consecrat . dist . 4. Presbyt . & de Consecrat . dist . 5. Omnes fideles , & ibid. Spiritus Sanctus . S. Hierom brings in a Luciferian asking , Why he that is Baptiz'd in the Church does not receive the Holy Ghost , but by Imposition of the Bishop's hands ? The answer is , Hanc observ●tionem ex Scripturae authoritate ad Sacerdotii honorem descendere , This observation for the honour of the Priesthood did descend from the authority of the Scriptures ; adding withall , it was for the prevention of Schisms , and that the Safety of the Church did depend upon it . Exigis ubi scriptum est ? If you ask where it is written , it is answered , in Actibus Apostolorum , It is written in the Acts of the Apostles . But if there were no authority of Scripture for it , totius orbis in hanc partem consensus instar praecepti obtineret , the Consent of the whole Christian World in this Article ought to prevail as a Commandment . But here is a twofold Chord , Scripture and Universal Tradition ; or rather Scripture expounded by an Universal traditive interpretation . The same observation is made from Scripture by S. Chrysostom : The words are very like those now recited from S. Hierom's Dialogue , and therefore need not be repeated . S. Ambrose calls Confirmation Spiritale signaculum quod post fontem superest , ut perfectio fiat , A spiritual Seal remaining after Baptism , that Perfection be had . Oecumenius calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Perfection . Lavacro peccata purgantur , Chrismate Spiritus Sanctus superfunditur ; utraque verò ista manu & ore Antistitis impetramus , said Pacianus Bishop of Barcinona . In Baptism our sins are cleans'd , in Confirmation the Holy Spirit is pour'd upon us ; and both these we obtain by the hands and mouth of the Bishop . And again , vestrae plebi unde Spiritus , quam non consignat unctus Sacerdos ? The same with that of Cornelius in the case of Novatus before cited . I shall add no more , lest I overset the Article , and make it suspicious by too laborious a defence : only after these numerous testimonies of the Fathers , I think it may be useful to represent that this Holy Rite of Confirmation hath been decreed by many Councils . The Council of Eliberis , celebrated in the time of P. Sylvester the First , decreed , that whosoever is Baptiz'd in his sickness , if he recover , ad Episcopum eum perducat , ut per manûs impositionem perfici possit ; Let him be brought to the Bishop , that he may be perfected by the Imposition of hands . To the same purpose is the 77. Can. Episcopus eos per benedictionem perficere debebit , The Bishop must perfect those whom the Minister Baptiz'd by his Benediction . The Council of Laodicea decreed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 · All that are Baptized must be anointed with the celestial Unction , and [ so ] be partakers of the Kingdom of Christ. All that are so , that is , are Confirm'd ; for this celestial Unction is done by holy Prayers and the invocation of the Holy Spirit : so Zonaras upon this Canon : All such who have this Unction shall reign with Christ , unless by their wickedness they preclude their own possessions . This Canon was put into the Code of the Catholick Church , and makes the 152. Canon . The Council of Orleans affirms expresly , that he who is Baptiz'd cannot be a Christian ( meaning according to the usual style of the Church , a full and perfect Christan ) nisi confirmatione Episcopali suerit Chrismatus , unless he have the Unction of Episcopal Confirmation . But when the Church had long disputed concerning the re-baptizing of Hereticks , and made Canons for and against it , according as the Heresies were , and all agreed that if the first Baptism had been once good , it could never be repeated ; yet they thought it fit that such persons should be Confirm'd by the Bishop , all supposing Confirmation to be the perfection and consummation of the less-perfect Baptism . Thus the first Council of Arles decreed concerning the Arrians , that if they had been Baptized in the Name of the Father , Son and Holy Ghost , they should not be re-baptized . Manus tantùm eis imponatur , ut accipiant Spiritum Sanctum ; that is , Let them be Confirm'd , let there be Imposition of hands , that they may receive the Holy Ghost . The same is decreed by the second Council of Arles in the case of the Bonasiact . But I also find it in a greater record , in the General Council of Constantinople ; where Hereticks are commanded upon their Conversion to be received , secundùm constitutum Officium , there was an Office appointed for it ; and it is in the Greeks Euchologion , sigillatos , primò scil . Vnctos Vnguento Chrismatis , &c. & signantes eos dicimus , Sigillum doni Spiritûs Sancti . It is the form of Confirmation used to this day in the Greek Church . So many Fathers testifying the practice of the Church and teaching this Doctrine , and so many more Fathers as were assembled in six Councils , all giving witness to this holy Rite , and that in pursuance also of Scripture , are too great a Cloud of Witnesses to be despised by any man that calls himself a Christian. SECT . IV. The BISHOPS were always , and the only Ministers of Confirmation . SAint Chrysostom asking the reason why the Samaritans , who were Baptized by Philip , could not from him and by his Ministery receive the Holy Ghost , answers , Perhaps this was done for the honour of the Apostles , to distinguish the supereminent dignity which they bore in the Church from all inferior Ministrations : but this answer not satisfying , he adds , Hoc donum non habebat , erat enim ex Septem illis , id quod magìs videtur dicendum . Vnde , meâ sententiâ , hic Philippus unus ex septem erat , secundus à Stephano ; ideo & Baptizans Spiritum Sanctum non dabat , neque enim facultatem habebat , hoc enim donum solorum Apostolorum erat . This Gift they had not who Baptized the Samaritans , which thing is rather to be said than the other : for Philip was one of the Seven , and in my opinion next to S. Stephen ; therefore though he Baptized , yet he gave not the Holy Ghost ; for he had no power so to do , for this Gift was proper only to the Apostles . Nam virtutem quidem acceperant ( Diaconi ) faciendi Signa , non autem dandi aliis Spiritum Sanctum ; igitur hoc erat in Apostolis singulare , unde & praecipuos , & non alios , videmus hoc facere . The Ministers that Baptized had a power of doing Signs and working Miracles , but not of giving the Holy Spirit ; therefore this Gift was peculiar to the Apostles , whence it comes to pass that we see the * chiefs in the Church , and no other , to do this . S. Dionys says , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , There is need of a Bishop to Confirm the Baptized , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for this was the ancient custom of the Church : And this was wont to be done by the Bishops , for conservation of Unity in the Church of Christ , said S. Ambrose ; A solis Episcopis , By Bishops only , said S. Austin ; For the Bishops succeeded in the place and ordinary Office of the Apostles , said S. Hierom. And therefore in his Dialogue against the Luciferians it is said [ That this observation for the honour of the Priesthood did descend , that the Bishops only might by Imposition of Hands confer the Holy Ghost ; that it comes from Scripture , that it is written in the Acts of the Apostles , that it is done for the prevention of Schisms , that the safety of the Church depends upon it . ] But the words of P. Innocentius I. in his first Epistle and third Chapter , and published in the first Tome of the Councils , are very full to this particular . De consignandis Infantibus , manifestum est non ab alio quàm ab Episcopo fieri licere ; nam Presbyteri , licèt s●nt Sacerdotes , Pontificatûs tamen apicem non habent : haec autem Pontificibus solis deberi , ut vel consignent , vel paracletum Spiritum tradant , non solùm consuetudo Ecclesiastica demonstrat , verùm & illa lectio Actuum Apostolorum , quae asserit Petrum & Joannem esse directos , qui jam Baptizatis traderent Spiritum Sanctum . Concerning Confirmation of Infants , it is manifest , it is not Lawful to be done by any other than by the Bishop ; for although the Presbyters be Priests , yet they have not the Summity of Episcopacy : But that these things are only due to Bishops , is ●ot only demonstrated by the custom of the Church , but by that of the Acts of the Apostles , where Peter and John were sent to minister the Holy Ghost to them that were Baptized . * Optatus proves Macarius to be no Bishop , because he was not conversant in the Episcopal Office , and Imposed hands on none that were Baptized . Hoc unum à majoribus fit , id est , à summis Pontificibus , quod à minoribus perfici non potest , said P. Melchiades : This ( of Confirmation ) is only done by the greater Ministers , that is , by the Bishops , and cannot be done by the lesser . This was the constant Practice and Doctrine of the Primitive Church , and derived from the practice and tradition of the Apostles , and recorded in their Acts written by S. Luke . For this is our great Rule in this case , what they did in Rituals and consigned to Posterity is our Example and our warranty : we see it done thus , and by these men , and by no others , and no otherwise , and we have no other authority , and we have no reason to go another way . The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in S. Luke , the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in S. Chrysostom , the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Philo , and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the chief Governour in Ecclesiasticals , his Office is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to teach such things as are not set down in Books ; their Practice is a Sermon , their Example in these things must be our Rule , or else we must walk irregularly , and have no Rule but Chance and Humour , Empire and Usurpation ; and therefore much rather , when it is recorded in Holy Writ , must this Observation be esteemed Sacred and inviolable . But how if a Bishop be not to be had , or not ready ? S. Ambrose * is pretended to have answered , Apud Aegyptum Presbyteri consignant , si praesens non sit Episcopus , A Presbyter may consign , if the Bishop be not present ; and Amalarius affirms , Sylvestrum Papam , praevidentem quantum periculosum iter arriperet qui sine Confirmatione maneret , quantum potuit subvenisse , & propter absentiam Episcoporum , necessitate addidisse , ut à Presbytero Vngerentur , That Pope Sylvester , fore-seeing how dangerous a Journey he takes who abides without Confirmation , brought remedy as far as he could , and commanded that in the absence of Bishops they should be anointed by the Priest : and therefore it is by some supposed that factum valet , sieri non debuit . The thing ought not to be done but in the proper and appointed way ; but when it is done , it is valid ; just as in the case of Baptism by a Lay-man or Woman . Nay , though some Canons say it is actio irrita , the act is null , yet for this there is a salvo pretended ; for sometimes an action is said to be irrita in Law , which yet nevertheless is of secret and permanent value , and ought not to be done again . Thus if a Priest be promoted by Simony , it is said , Sacerdos non est , sed inaniter tantùm dicitur , He is but vainly called a Priest , for he is no Priest. So Sixtus II. said , That if a Bishop ordain in another's Diocese , the Ordination is void ; and in the Law it is said , That if a Bishop be consecrated without his Clergy and the Congregation , the Consecration is null : and yet these later and fiercer Constitutions do not determine concerning the natural event of things , but of the legal and Canonical approbation . To these things I answer , That S. Ambrose his saying that in Egypt the Presbyters consign in the Bishop's absence , does not prove that they ever did Confirm or Impose hands on the Baptized for the ministery of the Holy Spirit ; because that very passage being related by S. Austin , the more general word of consign is rendred by the plainer and more particular consecrant , they consecrate , meaning the blessed Eucharist ; which was not permitted primitively to a simple Priest to do in the Bishops absence without leave , only in Egypt it seems they had a general leave , and the Bishop's absence was an interpretative consent . But besides this , consignant is best interpreted by the practice of the Church , of which I shall presently give an account ; they might in the abscence of the Bishop consign with Oil upon the top of the Head , but not in the Fore-head , much less Impose hands , or Confirm , or minister the Holy Spirit : for the case was this . It was very early in the Church that , to represent the Grace which was ministred in Confirmation , the Unction from above , they us'd Oil and Balsam ; and so constantly us'd this in their Confirmations , that from the Ceremony it had the appellation : Sacramentum Chrismatis S. Austin calls it ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so Dionysius . Now because at the Baptism of the adult Christians , and ( by imitation of that ) of Infants , Confirmation and Baptism were usually ministred at the same time ; the Unction was not only us'd to persons newly baptiz●d , but another Unction was added as a ceremony in Baptism it self , and was us'd immediately before Baptism ; and the oil was put on the top of the head , and three times was the party sign'd . So it was then , as we find in the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy . But besides this Unction with oil in Baptismal preparations , and pouring oil into the Baptismal water , we find another Unction after the Baptism was finished . For they bring the Baptized person again to the Bishop , saith S. Dionys , who signing the man with hallowed Chrism , gives him the Holy Eucharist . This they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the perfective or consummating Vnction ; this was that which was us'd when the Bishop Confirmed the Baptized person : For to him who is initiated by the most holy initiation of the Divine generation , ( that is , to him who hath been Baptiz'd , saith Pachimeres the Paraphrast of Dionysius ) the perfective Vnction of Chrism gives the gift of the Holy Ghost . This is that which the Laodicean Council calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to be anointed after Baptism . Both these Unctions were intimated by Theophilus Antiochenus . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; Every man that is born into the World , and every man that is a Champion , is anointed with oil : That to Baptism , this alluding to Confirmation . Now this Chrism was frequently ministred immediately after Baptism , in the Cities where the Bishop was present : but in Villages and little Towns where the Bishop was not present , it could not be ; but Bishops were forc'd at their opportunities to go abroad and perfect what was wanting , as it was in the example of Peter and John to the Samaritans . Non quidem abnuo hanc esse Ecclesiarum consuetudinem , ut ad eos qui longè in minoribus Vrbibus per Presbyteros & Diaconos baptizati sunt , Episcopus ad invocationem Sancti Spiritûs manum impositurus excurrat . It is the custom of the Church , that when persons are in lesser Cities baptiz'd by Priests and Deacons , the Bishop uses to travel far , that he may lay hands on them for the invocation of the Holy Spirit . But because this could not always be done , and because many Baptized persons died before such an opportunity could be had ; the Church took up a custom , that the Bishop should consecrate the Chrism , and send it to the Villages and little Cities distant from the Metropolis , and that the Priests should anoint the Baptized with it . But still they kept this part of it sacred and peculiar to the Bishop : 1. That no Chrism should be us'd but what the Bishop consecrated ; 2. That the Priests should anoint the Head of the Baptized , but at no hand the Fore-head , for that was still reserved for the Bishop to do when he Confirmed them . And this is evident in the Epistle of P. Innocent the First , above quoted . Nam Presbyteris , seu extra Episcopum seu praesenta Episcopo Baptizant , Chrismate baptizatos ungere licet , sed quod ab Episcopo suerit consecratum ; non tamen frontem ex eodem oleo signare , quod solis debetur Episcopis cùm tradunt Spiritum Paracletum . Now this the Bishops did , not only to satisfie the desire of the Baptized , but by this Ceremony to excite the votum Confirmationis , that they who could not actually be Confirmed , might at least have it in voto in desire , and in Ecclesiastical representation . This ( as some think ) was first introduc'd by Pope Sylvester : and this is the Consignation which the Priests of Egypt us'd in the absence of the Bishop ; and this became afterward the practice in other Churches . But this was no part of the Holy Rite of Confirmation , but a Ceremony annexed to it ordinarily ; from thence transmitted to Baptism , first by imitation , afterwards by way of supply and in defect of the opportunities of Confirmation Episcopal . And therefore we find in the first Arausican Council , in the time of Leo the First and Theodosius junior , it was decreed , That in Baptism every one should receive Chrism : De eo autem qui in Baptismate , quâcunque necessitate faciente , Chrismatus non fuerit , in Confirmatione Sacerdos commonebitur . If the Baptized by any intervening accident or necessity was not anointed , the Bishop should be advertis'd of it in Confirmation ; meaning , that then it must be done . For the Chrism was but a Ceremony annexed , no part of either Rite essential to it ; but yet they thought it necessary , by reason of some opinions then prevailing in the Church . But here the Rites themselves are clearly distinguish'd ; and this of Confirmation was never permitted to mere Presbyters . Innocentius III , a great Canonist and of great authority , gives a full evidence in this particular . Per frontis Chrismationem manûs Impositio designatur , quia per eam Spiritu● Sanctus per augmentum datur & robur . Vnde cùm caeteras unctiones simplex Sacerdos vel Presbyter valeat exhibere , hanc non nisi summus Sacerdos vel Presbyter valeat exhibere , idest , Episcopus conferre . By anointing of the forehead the Imposition of hands is design'd , because by that the Holy Ghost is given for increase and strength : therefore when a single Priest may give the other Unctions , yet this cannot be done but by the chief Priest , that is , the Bishop . And therefore to the Question , What shall be done if a Bishop may not be had ? the same Innocentius answers ; It is safer and without danger wholly to omit it , than to have it rashly and without authority ministred by any other , Cùm umbra quaedam ostendatur in oper● , veritas autem non subeat in essectu ; for it i● a mere shadow without truth or real effect , when any one else does it but the person whom God hath appointed to this ministration . And no approved man of the Church did ever say the contrary , till Richard Primate of Armagh commenced a new Opinion , from whence ( Thomas of Walden says that ) Wiclef borrowed his Doctrine to trouble the Church in this particular . What the Doctrine of the ancient Church was in the purest times , I have already ( I hope ) sufficiently declared ; what it was afterwards , when the Ceremony of Chrism was as much remarked as the Rite to which it ministred , we find fully declared by Rabanus Maurus . Signatur Baptizatus cum Chrismate per Sacerdotem in Capitis summitate , per Pontificem verò in Fronte ; ut priori Vnctione significetur Spiritùs Sancti super ipsum descensio ad habitationem Deo consecrandum ; in secunda quoque , ut ejus Spiritûs Sancti septiformis gratia , cum omni plenitudine sanctitatis & scientiae & virtutis , venire in hominem declaretur : Tunc enim ipse Spiritus Sanctus post mundata & benedicta corpora atque animas liberè à Patre descendit , ut unà cum sua visitatione sanctificaret & illustraret ; & nunc in hominem ad hoc venit , ut Signaculum fidei , quod in fronte suscepit , faciat cum donis coelestibus repletum , & suâ gratiâ confortatum , intrepidè & audacter coram Regibus & Potestatibus hujus seculi portare , ac nomen Christi liberâ voce praedicare . In Baptism the Baptized was anointed on the top of the Head , in Confirmation on the Forehead : by that was signified that the Holy Ghost was preparing a habitation for himself ; by this was declared the descent of the Holy Spirit , with his seven-fold Gifts , with all fulness of knowledge and spiritual understanding . These things were signified by the appendant Ceremony ; but the Rites were ever distinguished , and did not only signifie and declare , but effect these Graces by the ministry of Prayer and Imposition of Hands . The Ceremony the Church instituted and us'd as she pleas'd , and gave in what circumstances they would chuse ; and new propositions entred , and customs chang'd , and deputations were made ; and the Bishops , in whom by Christ was plac'd the fulness of Ecclesiastical power , concredited to the Priests and Deacons so much as their occasions and necessities permitted : and because in those ages and places where the external Ceremony was regarded ( it may be ) more than the inward Mystery or the Rite of Divine appointment , they were apt to believe that the Chrism or exterior Unction , delegated to the Priests Ministery after the Episcopal consecration of it , might supply the want of Episcopal Confirmation ; it came to pass that new opinions were enter●ain'd , and the Regulars , the Friers and the Jesuits , who were always too little friends to the Episcopal power , from which they would fain have been wholly exempted , publickly taught ( in England especially ) that Chrism ministred by them with leave from the Pope did do all that which ordinarily was to be done in Episcopal Confirmation . For , as Tertullian complain'd in his time , Quibus fuit propositum aliter docendi , eo● necessitas coegit aliter disponendi instrumenta Doctrinae ; They who had purposes of teaching new Doctrines , were constrain'd otherwise to dispose of the Instruments and Rituals appertaining to their Doctrines . These men , to serve ends , destroyed the Article , and overthrew the ancient Discipline and Unity of the Primitive Church . But they were justly censur'd by the Theological Faculty at Paris , and the Censure well defended by Hallier , one of the Doctors of the Sorbon ; whither I refer the Reader that is curious in little things . But for the main : It was ever call'd Confirmatio Episcopalis , & impositio manuum Episcoporum ; which our English word well expresses , and perfectly retains the use ; we know it by the common name of Bishopping of Children . I shall no farther insist upon it , only I shall observe that there is a vain distinction brought into the Schools and Glosses of the Canon Law , of a Minister ordinary , and extraordinary ; all allowing that the Bishop is appointed the ordinary Minister of Confirmation , but they would fain innovate and pretend that in some cases others may be Ministers extraordinary . This device is of infinite danger to the destruction of the whole Sacred Order of the Ministery , and disparks the inclosures , and lays all in common , and makes men supreme controllers of the Orders of God , and relies upon a false Principle ; for in true Divinity , and by the Oeconomy of the Spirit of God , there can be no Minister of any Divine Ordinance but he that is of Divine appointment , there can be none but the ordinary Minister . I do not say that God is tied to this way ; he cannot be tied but by himself : and therefore Christ gave a special Commission to Ananias to baptize and to confirm S. Paul , and he gave the Spirit to Cornelius even before he was baptized , and he ordained S. Paul to be an Apostle without the ministery of man. But this I say , That though God can make Ministers extraordinary , yet Man cannot , and they that go about to do so usurp the Power of Christ , and snatch from his hand what he never intended to part with . The Apostles admitted others into a part of their care and of their power , but when they intended to imploy them in any ministery , they gave them so much of their Order as would enable them ; but a person of a lower Order could never be deputed Minister of actions appropriate to the higher : which is the case of Confirmation , by the Practice and Tradition of the Apostles , and by the Universal Practice and Doctrine of the Primitive Catholick Church , by which Bishops only , the Successors of the Apostles , were alone the Ministers of Confirmation : and therefore if any man else usurp it , let them answer it ; they do hurt indeed to themselves , but no benefit to others , to whom they minister shadows instead of substances . SECT . V. The whole Procedure or Ritual of Confirmation is by Prayer and Imposition of Hands . THE Heart and the Eye are lift up to God to bring Blessings from him , and so is the Hand too ; but this also falls upon the People , and rests there , to apply the descending Blessing to the proper and prepared suscipient . God governed the People of Israel by the hand of Moses and Aaron : — & calidae fecêre silentia turbae Majestate manûs : And both under Moses and under Christ , when-ever the President of Religion did bless the People , he lifted up his Hand over the Congregation ; and when he blessed a single Person , he laid his Hand upon him . This was the Rite used by Jacob and the Patriarchs , by Kings and Prophets , by all the eminently Religious in the Synagogue , and by Christ himself when he blessed the Children which were brought to him , and by the Apostles when they blessed and confirmed the baptized Converts ; and whom else can the Church follow ? The Apostles did so to the Christians of Samaria , to them of Ephesus ; and S. Paul describes this whole mystery by the Ritual part of it , calling it the Foundation of the Imposition of hands . It is the solemnity of Blessing , and the solemnity and application of Paternal prayer . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; said Clement of Alexandria ; Upon whom shall he lay his hands ? whom shall he bless ? Quidenim aliud est Impositio manuum , nisi Oratio super hominem ? said S. Austin ; The Bishop's laying his hands on the People , what is it but the solemnity of Prayer for them ? that is , a prayer made by those Sacred persons who by Christ are appointed to pray for them , and to bless in his Name : and so indeed are all the Ministeries of the Church , Baptism , Consecration of the B. Eucharist , Absolution , Ordination , Visitation of the Sick ; they are all in genere Orationis , they are nothing but solemn and appointed Prayer by an intrusted and a gracious Person , specificated by a proper order to the end of the blessing then designed . And therefore when S. James commanded that the sick Persons should send for the Elders of the Church , he adds , and let them pray over them ; that is , lay their hands on the sick , and pray for them ; that is praying over them : It is adumbratio dextrae , ( as Tertullian calls it ) the right hand of him that ministers over-shadows the person for whom the solemn Prayer is to be made . This is the Office of the Rulers of the Church ; for they in the Divine Eutaxy are made your Superiors : they are indeed your servants for Jesus sake , but they are over you in the Lord , and therefore are from the Lord appointed to bless the People ; for without contradiction , saith the Apostle , the less is blessed of the greater , that is , God hath appointed the Superiors in Religion to be the great Ministers of Prayer , he hath made them the gracious Persons , them he will hear , those he hath commanded to convey your needs to God , and God's blessings to you , and to ask a blessing is to desire them to pray for you ; them , I say , whom God most respecteth for their piety and zeal that way , or else regardeth for that their place and calling bindeth them above others to do this duty , such as are Natural and Spiritual Fathers . It is easie for prophane persons to deride these things , as they do all Religion which is not conveyed to them by sense or natural demonstrations : but the Oeconomy of the Spirit and the things of God are spiritually discerned . The Spirit bloweth where it listeth , and no man knows whence it comes , and whither it goes ; and the Operations are discerned by Faith , and received by Love and by Obedience . Date mihi Christianum , & intelligit quod dico ; None but true Christians understand and feel these things . But of this we are sure , that in all the times of Mose's Law , while the Synagogue was standing , and in all the days of Christianity , so long as men loved Religion , and walked in the Spirit , and minded the affairs of their Souls , to have the Prayers and the Blessing of the Fathers of the Synagogue and the Fathers of the Church , was esteemed no small part of their Religion , and so they went to Heaven . But that which I intend to say is this , That Prayer and Imposition of Hands was the whole procedure in the Christian Rites : and because this Ministery was most signally performed by this Ceremony , and was also by S. Paul called and noted by the name of the Ceremony , Imposition of hands ; this name was retained in the Christian Church , and this manner of ministring Confirmation was all that was in the commandment or institution . But because in Confirmation we receive the Unction from above , that is , then we are most signally made Kings and Priests unto God , to offer up spiritual sacrifices , and to enable us to seek the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness of it , and that the giving of the Holy Spirit is in Scripture called the Vnction from above ; the Church of God in early Ages made use of this Allegory ▪ and passed it into an External Ceremony and Representation of the Mystery , to signifie the Inward Grace . Post inscripta oleo frontis signacula , per quae Vnguentum Regale datum est , & Chrisma perenne . We are consigned on the Fore-head with Oil , and a Royal Unction and an Eternal Chrism is given to us : so Prudentius gives testimony of the ministery of Confirmation in his time . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said S. Cyril . Preserve this Unction pure and spotless , for it teaches you all things , as you have heard the blessed S. John speaking and philosophizing many things of this holy Chrism . Upon this account the H. Fathers used to bless and consecrate Oil and Balsam , that by an External Signature they might signifie the Inward Unction effected in Confirmation . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . This Chrism is not simple or common when it is blessed , but the gift of Christ , and the presence of his H. Spirit , as it were effecting the Divinity it self ; the body is indeed anointed with visible Ointment , but is also sanctified by the holy and quickning Spirit : so S. Cyril . I find in him and in some late Synods other pretty significations and allusions made by this Ceremony of Chrisms . Nos autem pro igne visibili , qui die Pentecostes super Apostolos apparuit , oleum sanctum , materiam nempe ignis ex Apostolorum traditione , ad confirmandum adhibemus : This using of Oil was instead of the Baptism with Fire , which Christ baptized his Apostles with in Pentecost ; and Oil being the most proper matter of Fire , is therefore used in Confirmation . That this was the ancient Ceremony is without doubt , and that the Church had power to do so hath no question , and I add , it was not unreasonable ; for if ever the Scripture expresses the mysteriousness of a Grace conferred by an Exterior ministery , ( as this is , by Imposition of hands ) and represents it besides in the Expression and Analogy of any sensible thing , that Expression drawn into a Ceremony will not improperly signifie the Grace , since the Holy Ghost did chuse that for his own expression and representment . In Baptism we are said to be buried with Christ. The Church does according to the Analogy of that expression , when she immerges the Catechumen in the Font ; for then she represents the same thing which the Holy Ghost would have to be represented in that Sacrament , the Church did but the same thing when she used Chrism in this ministration . This I speak in justification of that ancient practice : but because there was no command for it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said S. Basil , concerning Chrism there is no written word , that is , of the Ceremony there is not , he said it not of the whole Rite of Confirmation ; therefore though to this we are all bound , yet as to the Anointing the Church is at liberty , and hath with sufficient authority omitted it in our ministrations . In the Liturgy of King Edward the VI. the Bishops used the sign of the Cross upon the Foreheads of them that were to be Confirmed . I do not find it since forbidden , or revoked by any expression or intimation , saving only that it is omitted in our later Offices ; and therefore it may seem to be permitted to the discretion of the Bishops , but yet not to be used unless where it may be for Edification , and where it may be by the consent of the Church , at least by interpretation ; concerning which I have nothing else to interpose , but that neither this , nor any thing else which is not of the nature and institution of the Rite , ought to be done by private Authority , nor ever at all but according to the Apostle's Rule , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , whatsoever is decent , and whatsoever is according to Order , that is to be done , and nothing else : for Prayer and Imposition of hands for the invocating and giving the Holy Spirit is all that is in the foundation and institution . SECT . VI. Many great Graces and Blessings are consequent to the worthy Reception and due Ministery of Confirmation . IT is of it self enough , when it is fully understood , what is said in the Acts of the Apostles at the first ministration of this Rite , They received the Holy Ghost ; that is , according to the expression of our Blessed Saviour himself to the Apostles , when he commanded them in Jerusalem to expect the verification of his glorious promise , they were endued with vertue from on high ; that is , with strength to perform their duty : which although it is not to be understood exclusively to the other Rites and Ministeries of the Church of Divine appointment , yet it is properly and most signally true , and as it were in some sence appropriate to this . For , as Aquinas well discourses , the Grace of Christ is not tied to the Sacraments ; but even this Spiritual strength and vertue from on high can be had without Confirmation : as without Baptism Remission of sins may be had ; and yet we believe one Baptism for the Remission of sins ; and one Confirmation for the obtaining this vertue from on high , this strength of the Spirit . But it is so appropriate to it by promise and peculiarity of ministration , that as without the Desire of Baptism our sins are not pardon'd , so without at least the Desire of Confirmation we cannot receive this vertue from on high , which is appointed to descend in the ministery of the Spirit . It is true , the ministery of the Holy Eucharist is greatly effective to this purpose ; and therefore in the ages of Martyrs the Bishops were careful to give the people the Holy Communion frequently , Vt quos tutos esse contra adversarium volebant , munimento Dominicae Saturitatis amarent , as S. Cyprian with his Collegues wrote to Cornelius ; that those whom they would have to be safe against the contentions of their adversaries , they should arm them with the guards and defences of the Lord's Fulness . But it is to be remembred that the Lord's Supper is for the more perfect Christians , and it is for the increase of the Graces receiv'd formerly , and therefore it is for Remission of sins , and yet is no prejudice to the necessity of Baptism , whose proper work is Remission of sins ; and therefore neither does it makes Confirmation unnecessary : for it renews the work of both the precedent Rites , and repairs the breaches , and adds new Energy , and proceeds in the same dispensations , and is renewed often , whereas the others are but once . Excellent therefore are the words of John Gerson , the Famous Chancellor of Paris , to this purpose . It may be said that in one way of speaking Confirmation is necessary , and in another it is not . Confirmation is not necessary as Baptism and Repentance , for without these Salvation cannot be had . This Necessity is Absolute ; but there is a Conditional Necessity . Thus if a man would not become weak , it is necessary that he eat his meat well . And so Confirmation is necessary , that the Spiritual life and the health gotten in Baptism may be preserv'd in strength against our spiritual enemies . For this is given for strength . Hence is that saying of Hugo de S. Victore ; What does it profit that thou art raised up by Baptism , if thou art not able to stand by Confirmation ? Not that Baptism is not of value unto Salvation without Confirmation ; but because he who is not Confirmed will easily fall , and too readily perish . The Spirit of God comes which way he pleases , but we are tied to use his own Oeconomy , and expect the blessings appointed by his own Ministeries : And because to Prayer is promised we shall receive what-ever we ask , we may as well omit the receiving the Holy Eucharist , pretending that Prayer alone will procure the blessings expected in the other , as well , I say , as omit Confirmation , because we hope to be strengthned and receive vertue from on high by the use of the Supper of the Lord. Let us use all the Ministeries of Grace in their season ; for we know not which shall prosper , this or that , or whether they shall be both alike good : this only we know , that the Ministeries which God appoints are the proper seasons and opportunities of Grace . This power from on high , which is the proper blessing of Confirmation , was expressed , not only in speaking with Tongues and doing Miracles , for much of this they had before they received the Holy Ghost , but it was effected in Spiritual and internal strengths ; they were not only enabled for the service of the Church , but were indued with courage , and wisdom , and Christian fortitude , and boldness , to confess the Faith of Christ crucified , and unity of heart and mind , singleness of heart , and joy in God , when it was for the edification of the Church , Miracles were done in Confirmations ; and S. Bernard , in the Life of S. Malachias , tells that S. Malchus , Bishop of Lismore in Ireland , confirmed a Lunatick child , and at the same time cured him : but such things as these are extra-regular and contingent . This which we speak of is a regular Ministery , and must have a regular effect . S. Austin said , that the holy Spirit in Confirmation was given ad dilatanda Ecclesiae primordia , for the propagating Christianity in the beginnings of the Church . S. Hierom says , it was propter honorem sacerdotii , for the honour of the Priesthood . S. Ambrose says , it was ad Confirmationem Vnitatis in Ecclesia Christi , for the confirmation of Unity in the Church of Christ. And they all say true : But the first was by the miraculous Consignations which did accompany this Ministery , and the other two were by reason that the Mysteries were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they were appropriated to the ministery of the Bishop , who is caput unitatis , the Head , the last resort , the Firmament of Unity in the Church . These effects were regular indeed , but they were incident and accidental : There are effects yet more proper , and of greater excellency . Now if we will understand in general what excellent fruits are consequent to this Dispensation , we may best receive the notice of them from the Fountain it self , our Blessed Saviour . He that believes , out of his belly ( as the Scripture saith ) shall flow Rivers of Living waters . But this he spake of the Spirit , which they that believe on him should receive . This is evidently spoken of the Spirit , which came down in Pentecost , which was promised to all that should believe in Christ , and which the Apostles ministred by Imposition of hands , the Holy Ghost himself being the expositor ; and it can signifie no less , but that a Spring of life should be put into the heart of the Confirmed , to water the Plants of God ; that they should become Trees , not only planted by the waterside , ( for so it was in David's time , and in all the Ministery of the Old TeTestament ) but having a River of living water within them to make them fruitful of goods works , and bringing their fruit in due season , fruits worthy of amendment of life . 1. But the principal thing is this : Confirmation is the consummation and perfection , the corroboration and strength of Baptism and Baptismal Grace ; for in Baptism we undertake to do our duty , but in Confirmation we receive strength to do it ; in Baptism others promise for us , in Confirmation we undertake for our selves , we ease our God-fathers and God-mothers of their burthen , and take it upon our own shoulders , together with the advantage of the Prayers of the Bishop and all the Church made then on our behalf ; in Baptism we give up our names to Christ , but in Confirmation we put our Seal to the Profession , and God puts his Seal to the Promise . It is very remarkable what S. Paul says of the beginnings of our being Christians , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the word of the beginning of Christ : Christ begins with us , he gives us his word , and admits us , and we by others hands are brought in , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it is the form of Doctrine unto which ye were delivered . Cajetan observes right , That this is a new and emphatical way of speaking : we are wholly immerged in our Fundamentals ; other things are delivered to us , but we are delivered up unto these . This is done in Baptism and Catechism ; and what was the event of it ? Being then made free from sin , ye became the Servants of Righteousness . Your Baptism was for the Remission of sins there , and then ye were made free from that bondage ; and what then ? why then in the next place , when ye came to consummate this procedure , when the Baptized was Confirmed , then he became a servant of righteousness , that is , then the Holy Ghost descended upon you , and enabled you to walk in the Spirit ; then the seed of God was first thrown into your hearts by a celestial influence . Spiritus Sanctus in Baptisterio plenitudinem tribuit ad innocentiam , sed in Confirmatione augmentum praestat ad gratiam , said Eusebius Emissenus : In Baptism we are made innocent , in Confirmation we receive the increase of the Spirit of Grace ; in that we are regenerated unto life , in this we are strengthned unto battel . Dono sapientiae illuminamur , aedificamur , erudimur , instruimur , confirmamur , ut illam Sancti Spiritûs vocem audire possimus , Intellectum tibi dabo , & instruam te in hac vitâ quâ gradieris , said P. Melchiades ; We are inlightned by the gift of wisdom , we are built up , taught , instructed and confirmed ; so that we may hear that voice of the Holy Spirit , I will give unto thee an understanding heart , and teach thee in the way wherein thou shalt walk : For so , Signari populos effuso pignore sancto , Mirandae virtutis opus , — It is a work of great and wonderful power when the holy Pledge of God is poured forth upon the people . This is that Power from on high which first descended in Pentecost , and afterward was ministred by Prayer and Imposition of the Apostolical and Episcopal hands , and comes after the other gift of Remission of sins . Vides quòd non simpliciter hoc fit , sed multâ opus est virtute ut detur Spiritus Sanctus . Non enim idem est assequi remissionem peccatorum , & accipere virtutem illam , said S. Chrysostom . You see that this is not easily done , but there is need of much power from on high to give the Holy Spirit ; for it is not all one to obtain Remission of sins , and to have received this vertue or power from above . Quamvis enim continuò transituris sufficiant Regenerationis beneficia , victuris tamen necessaria sunt Confirmationis auxilia , said Melchiades : Although to them that die presently the benefits of Regeneration ( Baptismal ) are sufficient , yet to them that live the Auxiliaries of Confirmation are necessary . For , according to the saying of S. Leo , in his Epistle to Nicetas the Bishop of Aquileia , commanding that Hereticks returning to the Church should be Confirmed with invocation of the Holy Spirit and Imposition of hands , they have only received the form of Baptism sine sanctificationis virtute , without the vertue of Sanctification ; meaning that this is the proper effect of Confirmation . For , in short , Although the newly-lifted Souldiers in humane warfare are inrolled in the number of them that are to fight , yet they are not brought to battel till they be more trained and exercised : So although by Baptism every one is ascribed into the catalogue of Believers , yet he receives more strength and grace for the sustaining and overcoming the temptations of the Flesh , the World and the Devil , only by Imposition of the Bishops hands . They are words which I borrowed from a late Synod at Rhemes . That 's the first remark of blessing , In Confirmation we receive strength to do all that which was for us undertaken in Baptism : For the Apostles themselves ( as the H. Fathers observe ) were timorous in the Faith until they were Confirmed in Pentecost , but after the reception of the Holy Ghost they waxed valiant in the Faith , and in all their spiritual combats . 2. In Confirmation we receive the Holy Ghost as the earnest of our inheritance , as the seal of our Salvation : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith Gregory Nazianzen ; we therefore call it a Seal or Signature , as being a guard and custody to us , and a sign of the Lord's dominion over us . The Confirmed person is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a sheep that is mark'd , which Thieves do not so easily steal and carry away . To the same purpose are those words of Theodoret , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Remember that holy mystagog●e , in which they who were initiated , after the renouncing that Tyrant ( the Devil and all his works ) and the confession of the true King ( Jesus Christ , ) have received the Chrism of spiritual Vnction like a Royal signature , by that Vnction , as in a shadow , perceiving the invisible grace of the most Holy Spirit . That is , Confirmation we are sealed for the service of God and unto the day of Redemption ; then it is that the seal of God is had by us , The Lord knoweth who are his . Quomodo verò dices , Dei sum , si notas ●on produxeris ? said S. Basil ; How can any may say , I am God's sheep , unless he produce the marks ? Signati estis Spiritu promissionis per Sanct●ssimum Divinum Spiritum , Domini grex effecti sumus , said Theophylact. When we are thus seal'd by the most Holy and Divine Spirit of promise , then we are truly of the Lord's Flock , and mark'd with his seal : that is , When we are rightly Confirm'd , then he desc●nds into our Souls ; and though he does not operate ( it may be ) presently , but as the Reasonable Soul works in its due time and by the order of Nature , by opportunities and new fermentations and actualities ; so does the Spirit of God ; when he is brought into use , when he is prayed for with love & assiduity , when he is caressed tenderly , when he is us'd lovingly , when we obey his motions readily , when we delight in his words greatly , then we find it true , that the Soul had a new life put into her , a principle of perpetual actions : but the tree planted by the waters side does not presently bear fruit , but in its due season . By this Spirit we are then seal'd ; that whereas God hath laid up an inheritance for us in the Kingdom of Heaven , and in the faith of that we must live and labour , to confirm this Faith God hath given us this Pledge , the Spirit of God is a witness to us , and tells us by his holy comforts , by the peace of God , and the quietness and refr●shments of a good Conscience , that God is our Father , that we are his Sons and Daughters , and shall be co-heirs with Jesus in his eternal Kingdom . In Baptism we are made the Sons of God , but we receive the witness and testimony of it in Confirmation . This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ▪ the Holy Ghost the Comforter , this is he whom Christ promis'd and did send in Pentecost , and was afterwards ministred and conveyed by Prayer and Imposition of hands : and by this Spirit he makes the Confessors bold , and the Martyrs valiant , and the Tempted strong , and the Virgins to persevere , and Widows to sing his praises and his glories . And this is that excellency which the Church of God called the Lord's seal , and teaches to be imprinted in Confirmation : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a perfect Phylactery or Guard , even the Lord's seal , so Eusebius calls it . I will not be so curious as to enter into a discourse of the Philosophy of this : But I shall say , that they who are curious in the secrets of Nature , and observe external signatures in Stones , Plants , Fruits and Shells , of which Naturalists make many observations and observe strange effects , and the more internal signatures in Minerals and Living bodies , of which Chymists discourse strange secrets , may easily , if they please , consider that it is infinitely credible , that in higher essences , even in Spirits , there may be signatures proportionable , wrought more immediately and to greater purposes by a Divine hand . I only point at this , and so pass it over , as ( it may be ) not fit for every mans consideration . And now if any man shall say , we see no such things as you talk of , and find the Confirm'd people the same after as before , no better and no wiser , not richer in Gifts , not more adorned with Graces , nothing more zealous for Christ's Kingdom , not more comforted with Hope , or established by Faith , or built up with Charity ; they neither speak better , nor live better ; What then ? Does it therefore follow that the Holy Ghost is not given in Confirmation ? Nothing less . For is not Christ given us in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper ? Do not we receive his Body and his Blood ? Are we not made all one with Christ , and he with us ? And yet it is too true , that when we arise from that holy Feast , thousands there are that find no change . But there are in this two things to be considered . One is , that the changes which are wrought upon our souls are not after the manner of Nature , visible , and sensible , and with observation . The Kingdom of God cometh not with Observation : for it is within you , and is only discerned spiritually , and produces its effects by the method of Heaven , and is first apprehended by Faith , and is endear'd by Charity , and at last is understood by holy and kind Experiences . And in this there is no more objection against Confirmation than against Baptism , or the Lord's Supper , or any other Ministery Evangelical . The other thing is this : If we do not find the effects of the Spirit in Confirmation , it is our faults . For he is receiv'd by Moral instruments , and is intended only as a Help to our endeavours , to our labours and our prayers , to our contentions and our mortifications , to our Faith and to our Hope , to our Patience and to our Charity . Non adjuvari dicitur qui nihil facit , He that does nothing cannot be said to be help'd . Unless we in these instances do our part of the work , it will be no wonder if we lose his part of the co-operation and supervening blessing . He that comes under the Bishops hands to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost , will come with holy desires and a longing Soul , with an open hand and a prepared heart ; he will purifie the House of the Spirit for the entertainment of so Divine a guest ; he will receive him with humility , and follow him with obedience , and delight him with purities : and he that does thus , let him make the objection if he can , and tell me , Does he say that Jesus is the Lord ? He cannot say this but by the Holy Ghost . Does he love his Brother ? If he does , then the Spirit of God abides in him . Is Jesus Christ formed in him ? Does he live by the laws of the Spirit ? Does he obey his commands ? Does he attend his motions ? Hath he no earnest desires to serve God ? If he have not , then in vain hath he received either Baptism or Confirmation . But if he have , it is certain that of himself he cannot do these things : he cannot of himself think a good thought . Does he therefore think well ? That is from the Holy Spirit of God. To conclude this inquiry : The Holy Ghost is promised to all men to profit withall ; that 's plain in Scripture . Confirmation , or Prayer and Imposition of the Bishops hand , is the Solemnity and Rite us'd in Scripture for the conveying of that promise , and the effect is felt in all the Sanctifications and changes of the Soul ; and he that denies these things hath not Faith , nor the true notices of Religion , or the spirit of Christianity . Hear what the Scriptures yet further say in this Mystery . Now he which confirmeth or stablisheth us with you in Christ , and hath anointed us , is God : Who hath also sealed us , and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts . Here is a description of the whole mysterious part of this Rite . God is the Author of the Grace : The Apostles and all Christians are the suscipients , and receive this Grace : by this Grace we are adopted and incorporated into Christ : God hath anointed us ; that is , he hath given us this Unction from above , he hath sealed us by his Spirit , made us his own , bored our ears through , made us free by his perpetual service , and hath done all these things in token of a greater ; he hath given us his Spirit to testifie to us that he will give us of his glory . These words of S. Paul , besides that they evidently contain in them the spiritual part of this Ritual , are also expounded of the Rite and Sacramental if self by S. Chrysostom , Theodoret and Theophylact , that I may name no more . For in this Mystery Christos nos efficit , & misericordiam Dei nobis annunciat per Spiritum Sanctum , said S. John Damascen ; he makes us his anointed ones , and by the Holy Spirit he declares his eternal mercy towards us . Nolite tangere Christos meos , Touch not mine anointed ones . For when we have this Signature of the Lord upon us , the Devils cannot come near to hurt us , unless we consent to their temptations , and drive the Holy Spirit of the Lord from us . SECT . VII . Of Preparation to Confirmation , and the Circumstances of Receiving it . IF Confirmation have such gracious effects , why do we Confirm little Children , whom in all reason we cannot suppose to be capable and receptive of such Graces ? It will be no answer to this , if we say , That this very question is asked concerning the Baptism of Infants , to which as great effects are consequent , even Pardon of all our sins , and the New birth and Regeneration of the Soul unto Christ : For in these things the Soul is wholly passive , and nothing is required of the suscipient but that he put in no bar against the Grace , which because Infants cannot do , they are capable of Baptism ; but it follows not that therefore they are capable of Confirmation , because this does suppose them such as to need new assistances , and is a new profession , and a personal undertaking , and therefore requires personal abilities , and cannot be done by others , as in the case of Baptism . The Aids given in Confirmation are in order to our contention and our danger , our temptation and spiritual warfare ; and therefore it will not seem equally reasonable to Confirm Children as to Baptize them . To this I answer , That in the Primitive Church Confirmation was usually administred at the same time with Baptism ; for we find many Records , that when the Office of Baptism was finished , and the baptized person devested of the white Robe , the person was carried again to the Bishop to be Confirmed , as I have already shewn out of * Dionysius and divers others . The reasons why anciently they were ministred immediately after one another is , not only because the most of them that were Baptized were of years to chuse their Religion , and did so , and therefore were capable of all that could be consequent to Baptism , or annexed to it , or ministred with it , and therefore were also at the same time Communicated as well as Confirmed ; but also because the solemn Baptisms were at solemn times of the year , at Faster only and Whitsuntide , and only in the Cathedral or Bishop's Church in the chief City , whither when the Catechumens came , and had the opportunity of the Bishop's presence , they took the advantage ut Sacramento utroque renascantur , as S. Cyprian's expression is , that they might be regenerated by both the Mysteries , and they also had the third added , viz. the Holy Eucharist . This simultaneous ministration hath occasioned some few of late to mistake Confirmation for a part of Baptism , but no distinct Rite , or of distinct effect , save only that it gave ornament and complement or perfection to the other . But this is infinitely confuted by the very first ministery of Confirmation in the world : For there was a great interval between S. Philip's Baptizing and the Apostles Confirming the Samaritans , where also the difference is made wider by the distinction of the Minister ; a Deacon did one , none but an Apostle and his Successor a Bishop could do the other : and this being of so universal a Practice and Doctrine in the Primitive Church , it is a great wonder that any Learned men could suffer an error in so apparent a case . It is also clear in two other great remarks of the practice of the Primitive Church . The one is of them who were Baptized in their sickness , the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , when they recovered they were commanded to address themselves to the Bishop to be Confirmed ; which appears in the XXXVIII . Canon of the Council of Eliberis , and the XLVI . Canon of the Council of Laodicea , which I have before cited upon other occasions : The other is , that of Hereticks returning to the Church , who were Confirmed not only long after Baptism , but after their Apostasie and their Conversion . For although Episcopal Confirmation was the inlargement of Baptismal grace , and commonly administred the same day , yet it was done by interposition of distinct Ceremonies , and not immediately in time . Honorius Augustodunensis tells , That when the Baptized on the eighth day had laid aside their Mitres , or proper habit used in Baptism , then they were usually Confirmed , or consigned with Chrism in the Forehead by the Bishop . And when children were Baptized irregularly , or besides the ordinary way , in Villages and places distant from the Bishop , Confirmation was deferr'd , said Durandus . And it is certain , that this affair did not last long without variety : Sometimes they ministred both together ; sometimes at greater , sometimes at lesser distances ; and it was left indifferent in the Church to do the one or the other , or the third , according to the opportunity and the discretion of the Bishop . But afterward in the middle and descending Ages it grew to be a question , not whether it were lawful or not , but which were better , To Confirm Infants , or to stay to their Childhood , or to their riper years . Aquinas , Bonaventure and some others say it is best that they be Confirmed in their Infancy , quia dolus non est , nec obicem ponunt , they are then without craft , and cannot hinder the descent of the Holy Ghost upon them . And indeed it is most agreeable with the Primitive practice , that if they were Baptized in Infancy , they should then also be Confirmed ; according to that of the famous Epistle of Melchiades to the Bishops of Spain , Ità conjuncta sunt haec duo Sacramenta , ut ab invicem , nisi morte praeveniente , non possint separari , & unum altero ritè persici non potest . Where although he expresly affirms the Rites to be two , yet unless it be in cases of necessity they are not to be severed , and one without the other is not perfect ; which , in the sence formerly mentioned , is true , and so to be understood , That to him who is Baptized and is not Confirmed something very considerable is wanting , and therefore they ought to be joyned , though not immediately , yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , according to reasonable occasions and accidental causes . But in this there must needs be a liberty in the Church , not only for the former reasons , but also because the Apostles themselves were not Confirmed till after they had received the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper . Others therefore say , That to Confirm them of Riper years is with more edification . The confession of Faith is more voluntary , the election is wiser , the submission to Christ's discipline is more acceptable , and they have more need , and can make better use of their strengths than derived by the Holy Spirit of God upon them : and to this purpose it is commanded in the Canon Law , that they who are confirmed should be perfectae aetatis , of full age ; upon which the Gloss says , Perfectam vocat fortè duodecim annorum , Twelve years old was a full age , because at those years they might then be admitted to the lower services in the Church . But the reason intimated and implied by the Canon is , because of the Preparation to it ; They must come Fasting , and they must make publick Confession of their Faith. And indeed that they should do so is matter of great edification , as also are the advantages of choice , and other preparatory abilities and dispositions above-mentioned . They are matter of edification , I say , when they are done ; but then the delaying of them so long before they be done , and the wanting the aids of the Holy Ghost conveyed in that Ministery , are very prejudicial , and are not matter of edification . But therefore there is a third way , which the Church of England and Ireland follows , and that is , that after Infancy , but yet before they understand too much of Sin , and when they can competently understand the Fundamentals of Religion , then it is good to bring them to be Confirmed , that the Spirit of God may prevent their youthful sins , and Christ by his Word and by his Spirit may enter and take possession at the same time . And thus it was in the Church of England long since provided and commanded by the Laws of King Edgar , cap. 15. Vt nullus ab Episcopo confirmari diu nimiùm detrectârit , That none should too long put off his being Confirmed by the Bishop ; that is , as is best expounded by the perpetual practice almost ever since , as soon as ever by Catechism and competent instruction they were prepared , it should not be deferred . If it have been omitted , ( as of late years it hath been too much ) as we do in Baptism , so in this also , it may be taken at any age , even after they have received the Lord's Supper ; as I observed before in the Practice and Example of the Apostles themselves , which in this is an abundant warrant : But still the sooner the better . I mean , after that Reason begins to dawn : but ever it must be taken care of , that the Parents and God-fathers , the Ministers and Masters see that the Children be catechised and well instructed in the Fundamentals of their Religion . For this is the necessary preparation to the most advantageous reception of this Holy Ministery . In Eccles●is potissimùm Latinis non nisi adultiore aetate pueros admitti videmus , vel hanc certè ob causam , ut Parentibus , Susceptoribus & Ecclesiarum Praesectis occasio detur pueros de Fide , quam in Baptismo professi sunt , diligentiùs instituendi & admonendi , said the excellent Cassander . In the Latin Churches they admit children of some ripeness of age , that they may be more diligently taught and instructed in the Faith. And to this sence agree S. Austin , Walafridus Strabo , Ruardus Lovaniensis , and Mr. Calvin . For this was ever the practice of the Primitive Church , to be infinitely careful of Catechizing those who came and desired to be admitted to this holy Rite ; they used Exorcisms or Catechisms to prepare them to Baptism and Confirmation . I said Exorcisms or Catechisms , for they were the same thing ; if the notion be new , yet I the more willingly declare it , not only to free the Primitive Church from the suspicion of Superstition in using Charms or Exorcisms , ( according to the modern sence of the word ) or casting of the Devil out of innocent Children , but also to remonstrate the perpetual practice of Catechizing Children in the eldest and best times of the Church . Thus the Greek Scholiast upon Harmenopulus renders the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the Primitive Exorcist was the Catechist : And Balsamon upon the 26. Canon of the Council of Laodicea says , that to Exorcize is nothing but to Catechize the unbelievers , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Some undertook to Exorcize , that is , ( says he ) to Catechize the unbelievers : And S. Cyril , in his Preface to his Catechisms , speaking to the Illuminati , Festinent ( says he ) pedes tui ad Catecheses audiendas , Exorcismos studiosè suscipe , &c. Let your feet run hastily to hear the Catechisms , studiously receive the Exorcisms , although thou beest already inspired and exorcized ; that is , although you have been already instructed in the Mysteries ▪ yet still proceed : For without Exorcisms ( or Catechisms ) the Soul cannot go forward , since they are Divine and gathered out of the Scriptures . And the reason why these were called Exorcisms he adds ; [ Because when the Exorcists or Catechists by the Spirit of God produce fear in your hearts , and do inkindle the Spirit as in a furnace , the Devil flies away , and Salvation and hope of Life Eternal does succeed : ] according to that of the Evangelist concerning Christ , They were astonished at his Doctrine , for his word was with power ; and that of S. Luke concerning Paul and Barnabas , The Deputy , when he saw what was done , was astonished at the Doctrine of the Lord. It is the Lord's Doctrine that hath the power to cast out Devils and work Miracles ; Catechisms are the best Exorcisms . [ Let us therefore , Brethren , abide in hope , and persevere in Catechizings ( saith S. Cyril ) although they be long , and produced with many words or discourses . ] The same also we find in * S. Gregory Nazianzen , and ‖ S. Austin . The use that I make of this notion is principally , to be an exhortation to all of the Clergy , that they take great care to Catechize all their people , to bring up Children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord , to prepare a holy seed for the service of God , to cultivate the young plants and to dress the old ones , to take care that those who are men in the World be not mere Babes and uninstructed in Christ , and that they who are children in age may be wise unto Salvation : for by this means we shall rescue them from early temptations , when being so prepared they are so assisted by a Divine Ministery ; we shall weaken the Devil's power , by which he too often and too much prevails upon uninstructed and unconfirmed Youth . For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Confirmation is the firmament of our Profession ; but we profess nothing till we be Catechized . Catechizings are our best Preachings , and by them we shall give the best accounts of our charges , while in the behalf of Christ we make Disciples , and take prepossession of Infant-understandings , and by this holy Rite , by Prayer and Imposition of hands we minister the Holy Spirit to them , and so prevent and disable the artifices of the Devil ; for we are not ignorant of his devices , how he enters as soon as he can , and taking advantage of their ignorance and their passion , seats himself so strongly in their hearts and heads . Turpiùs ejicitur quam non admittitur hostis , It is harder to cast the Devil out than to keep him out . Hence it is that the Youth are so corrupted in their Manners , so Devilish in their Natures , so cursed in their Conversation , so disobedient to Parents , so wholly given to vanity and idleness ; they learn to swear before they can pray , and to lie as soon as they can speak . It is not my sence alone , but was long since observed by Gerson and Gulielmus Parisiensis , Propter cessationem Confirmationis tepiditas grandior est in fidelibus , & fidei defensione ; There is a coldness and deadness in Religion , and it proceeds from the neglect of Confirmation rightly ministred , and after due preparations and dispositions . A little thing will fill a Child's head : Teach them to say their Prayers , tell them the stories of the Life and Death of Christ , cause them to love the holy Jesus with their first love , make them afraid of a sin ; let the Principles which God hath planted in their very Creation , the natural principles of Justice and Truth , of Honesty and Thankfulness , of Simplicity and Obedience be brought into act , and habit , and confirmation by the Holy Sermons of the Gospel . If the Guides of Souls would have their people holy , let them ●each Holiness to their Children , and then they will ( at least ) have a new generation unto God , better than this wherein we now live . They who are most zealous in this particular will with most comfort reap the fruit of their Labours , and the blessings of their Ministery ; and by the numbers which every Curate presents to his Bishop fitted for Confirmation , he will in proportion render an account of his Stewardship with some visible felicity . And let it be remembred , that in the last Rubrick of the Office of Confirmation in our Liturgy it is made into a Law , that none should be admitted to the holy Communion until such time as he could say the Catechism , and be Confirmed : which was also a Law and Custom in the Primitive Church , as appears in S. Dionysius his Ecclesiastical Hierarchy , and the matter of Fact is notorious . Among the Helvetians they are forbidden to contract Marriages before they are well instructed in the Catechism : And in a late Synod at Bourges , the Curates are commanded to threaten all that are not Confirmed , that they shall never receive the Lord's Supper , nor be married . And in effect the same is of force in our Church : For the Married persons being to receive the Sacrament at their Marriage , and none are to receive but those that are Confirmed , the same Law obtains with us as with the Helvetians or the Synodus Bituricensis . There is another little inquiry which I am not willing to omit ; but the answer will not be long , because there is not much to be said on either side . Some inquire whether the Holy Rite of Confirmation can be ministred any more than once . S. Austin seems to be of opinion that it may be repeated . Quid enim aliud est Impositio manuum nisi oratio super hominem ? Confirmation is a solemn prayer over a man ; and if so , why it may not be reiterated can have nothing in the nature of the thing ; and the Greeks do it frequently , but they have no warranty from the Scripture , nor from any of their own ancient Doctors . Indeed when any did return from Heresie , they Confirmed them , as I have proved out of the first and second Council of Arles , the Council of Laodicea , and the second Council of Sevil : But upon a closer intuition of the thing , I find they did so only to such who did not allow of Confirmation in their Sects , such as the Novatians and the Donatists . Novatiani poenitentiam à suo conventu arcent penitus , & iis qui ab ipsis tinguntur sacrum Chrisma non praebent . Quocirca qui ex hac Haeresi corpori Ecclesiae conjunguntur benedicti Patres ungi jusserunt : so Theodoret. For that reason only the Novatians were to be Confirmed upon their Conversion , because they had it not before . I find also they did confirm the converted Arrians ; but the reason is given in the first Council of Arles , quia propriâ lege utuntur , they had a way of their own : that is , as the Gloss saith upon the Canon , de Arrianis consecrat . dist . 4. their Baptism was not in the name of the Holy Trinity ; and so their Baptism being null , or at least suspected , to make all as sure as they could , they Confirmed them . The same also is the case of the Bonasiaci in the second Council of Arles , though they were ( as some of the Arrians also were ) Baptized in the name of the most Holy Trinity ; but it was a suspected matter , and therefore they Confirmed them : But to such persons who had been rightly Baptized and Confirmed , they never did repeat it . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the gift of the Spirit is an inedeleble Seal , saith S. Cyril ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Basil calls it , it is inviolable . They who did re-baptize , did also re-confirm . But as it was an error in S. Cyprian and the Africans to do the first , so was the second also , in case they had done it ; for I find no mention expresly that they did the latter but upon the fore-mentioned accounts , and either upon supposition of the invalidity of their first pretended Baptism , or their not using at all Confirmation in their Heretical Conventicles . But the repetition of Confirmation is expresly forbidden by the Council of Tarracon , cap. 6. and by P. Gregory the Second : and sanctum Chrisma collatum & altaris honor propter consecrationem ( quae per Episcopos tantùm exercenda & conferenda sunt ) evelli non queunt , said the Fathers in a Council at Toledo ; Confirmation and Holy Orders ( which are to be given by Bishops alone ) can never be annulled , and therefore they can never be repeated . And this relies upon those severe words of S. Paul , having spoken of the foundation of the Doctrine of Baptisms and Laying on of hands , he says , if they fall away , they can never be renewed ; that is , the ministery of Baptism and Confirmation can never be repeated . To Christians that sin after these ministrations there is only left a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Expergiscimini , that they arise from slumber , and stir up the Graces of the Holy Ghost . Every man ought to be careful that he do not grieve the Holy Spirit ; but if he does , yet let him not quench him , for that is a desperate case . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 · The Holy Spirit is the great conservative of the new Life ; only keep the Keeper , take ca●e that the Spirit of God do not depart from you : for the great Ministery of the Spirit is but once ; for as Baptism is , so is Confirmation . I end this Discourse with a plain exhortation out of S. Ambrose , upon those words of S. Paul , He that confirmeth us with you in Christ is God ; Repete quia accepisti signaculum spirituale , spiritum sapientiae & intellectûs , spiritum consilii atque virtutis , spiritum cognitionis atque pietatis , spiritum sancti timoris , & serva quod accepisti . Signavit te Deus Pater , confirmavit te Christus Dominus . Remember that thou ( who hast been Confirmed ) hast receiv'd the Spiritual Signature ; the spirit of wisdom and understanding , the spirit of counsel and strength , the spirit of knowledge and godliness , the spirit of holy fear : keep what thou hast receiv'd . The Father hath seal●d thee , and Christ thy Lord hath confirmed thee by his Divine Spirit ; and he will never depart from thee , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , unless by evil works we estrange him from us . The same advice is given by Prudentius , Cultor Dei , memento Te fontis & lavacri Rorem subiisse Sanctum , Et Chrismate * innotatum . Remember how great things ye have received , and what God hath done for you : ye are of his Flock and his Militia ; ye are now to sight his battels , and therefore to put on his armor , and to implore his auxiliaries , and to make use of his strengths , and always to be on his side against all his and all our Enemies . But he that desires Grace must not despise to make use of all the instruments of Grace . For though God communicates his invisible Spirit to you , yet that he is pleas'd to do it by visible instruments is more than he needs , but not more than we do need . And therefore since God descends to our infirmities , let us carefully and lovingly address our selves to his Ordinances : that as we receive Remission of sins by the washing of Water , and the Body and Blood of Christ by the ministery of consecrated Symbols ; so we may receive the Holy Ghost sub Ducibus Christianae militiae , by the Prayer and Imposition of the Bishops hands , whom our Lord Jesus hath separated to this Ministery . For if you corroborate your self by Baptism , ( they are the words of S. Gregory Nazianzen ) and then take heed for the future , by the most excellent and firmest aids consigning your mind and body with the Vnction from above , ( viz. in the Holy Rite of Confirmation ) with the Holy Ghost , as the Children of Israel did with the aspersion on the door-posts in the night of the death of the first-born of Egypt , what ( evil ) shall happen to you ? meaning , that no evil can invade you : and what aid shall you get ? If you sit down , you shall be without fear ; and if you rest , your sleep shall be sweet unto you . But if when ye have received the Holy Spirit , you live not according to his Divine principles , you will lose him again ; that is , you will lose all the blessing , though the impression does still remain till ye turn quite Apostates : in pessimis hominibus manebit , licèt ad judicium , ( saith S. Austin ; ) the Holy Ghost will remain , either as a testimony of your Vnthankfulness unto condemnation , or else as a seal of Grace , and an earnest or your inheritance of eternal Glory . THE END . A DISCOURSE OF The NATVRE , OFFICES and MEASVRES OF FRIENDSHIP . WITH Rules of conducting it . In a Letter to the most Ingenious and Excellent M rs . KATHARINE PHILIPS . Madam , THE wise Ben-Sirach advised that we should not consult with a Woman concerning her of whom she is jealous , neither with a coward in matters of War , nor with a Merchant concerning Exchange ; and some other instances he gives of interested persons , to whom he would not have us hearken in any matter of Counsel . For where-ever the interest is secular or vicious , there the ●iass is not on the side of Truth or Reason , because these are seldom serv'd by profit and low regards . But to consult with a Friend in the matters of Friendship , is like consulting with a Spiritual person in Religion ; they who understand the secrets of Religion , or the Interior beauties of Friendship , are the fittest to give answers in all inquiries concerning the respective subjects ; because Reason and Experience are on the side of interest ; and that which in Friendship is most pleasing and most useful , is also most reasonable and most true ; and a Friends fairest interest is the best Measure of the Conducting Friendships : and therefore you who are so eminent in Friendships could also have given the best answer to your own inquiries , and you could have trusted your own Reason , because it is not only greatly instructed by the direct notices of things , but also by great experience in the matter of which you now inquire . But because I will not use any thing that shall look like an excuse , I will rather give you such an account which you can easily reprove , than by declining your commands , seem more safe in my prudence , than open and communicative in my Friendship to you . You first inquire , How far a Dear and a perfect Friendship is authoriz'd by the principles of Christianity ? To this I answer ; That the word [ Friendship ] in the sence we commonly mean by it , is not so much as named in the New Testament ; and our Religion takes no notice of it . You think it strange ; but read on before you spend so much as the beginning of a passion or a wonder upon it . There is mention of [ Friendship with the world , ] and it is said to be enmity with God ; but the word is no where else named , or to any other purpose in all the New Testament . It speaks of Friends often ; but by Friends are meant our acquiantance , or our Kindred , the relatives of our Family or our Fortune , or our Sect ; something of society , or something of kindness there is in it ; a tenderness of appellation and civility , a relation made by gifts , or by duty , by services and subjection ; and I think , I have reason to be confident , that the word Friend ( speaking of humane entercourse ) is no other-ways used in the Gospels or Epistles , or Acts of the Apostles : and the reason of it is , the word Friend is of a large signification ; and means all relations and societies , and whatsoever is not enemy . But by Friendships , I suppose you mean the greatest love , and the greatest usefulness , and the most open communication , and the noblest sufferings , and the most exemplar faithfulness , and the severest truth , and the heartiest counsel , and the greatest union of minds , of which brave men and women are capable . But then I must tell you that Christianity hath new christened it , and calls this Charity . The Christian knows no enemy he hath ; that is , though persons may be injurious to him , and unworthy in themselves , yet he knows none whom he is not first bound to forgive , which is indeed to make them on his part to be no enemies , that is , to make that the word enemy shall not be perfectly contrary to friend , it shall not be a relative term and signifie something on each hand , a relative and a correlative ; and then he knows none whom he is not bound to love and pray for , to treat kindly and justly , liberally and obligingly . Christian Charity is Friendship to all the world ; and when Friendships were the noblest things in the world , Charity was little , like the Sun drawn in at a chink , or his beams drawn into the centre of a Burning-Glass ; but Christian Charity is Friendship expanded like the face of the Sun when it mounts above the Eastern hills : and I was strangely pleas'd when I saw something of this in CICERO ; for I have been so push'd at by herds and flocks of people that follow any body that whistles to them , or drives them to Pasture , that I am grown afraid of any Truth that seems chargeable with singularity : but therefore I say , glad I was when I saw Laelius in Cicero discourse thus : Amicitia ex infinitate generis humani quam conciliavit ipsa natura , contractares est , & adducta in angustum ; ut omnis charitas , aut inter duos , aut inter paucos jungeretur . Nature hath made friendships and societies , relations and endearments ; and by something or other we relate to all the world ; there is enough in every man that is willing to make him become our Friend ; but when men contract friendships , they inclose the Commons ; and what Nature intended should be every mans , we make proper to two or three . Friendship is like Rivers and the strand of Seas , and the Air , common to all the world ; but Tyrants , and evil customs , wars , and want of love have made them proper and peculiar . But when Christianity came to renew our nature , and to restore our laws , and to increase her priviledges , and to make her aptness to become religion , then it was declared that our Friendships were to be as universal as our conversation ; that is , actual to all with whom we converse , and potentially extended unto those with whom we did not . For he who was to treat his enemies with forgiveness and prayers , and love and beneficence , was indeed to have no enemies , and to have all friends . So that to your question , How far a Dear and perfect Friendship is authoriz'd by the principles of Christianity ? The answer is ready and easie . It is warranted to extend to all Mankind ; and the more we love , the better we are ; and the greater our Friendships are , the dearer we are to God. Let them be as Dear , and let them be as perfect , and let them be as many as you can ; there is no danger in it ; only where the restraint begins , there begins our imperfection . It is not ill that you entertain brave Friendships and worthy Societies : it were well if you could love , and if you could benefit all Mankind ; for I conceive that is the summ of all Friendship . I confess this is not to be expected of us in this world ; but as all our graces here are but imperfect , that is , at the best they are but tendencies to glory ; so our friendships are imperfect too , and but beginnings of a celelestial friendship , by which we shall love every one as much as they can be loved . But then so we must here in our proportion ; and indeed that is it that can make the difference ; we must be friends to all , that is , apt to do good , loving them really , and doing to them all the benefits which we can , and which they are capable of . The Friendship is equal to all the World , and of it self hath no difference ; but is differenced only by accidents , and by the capacity or incapacity of them that receive it . Nature and Religion are the bands of friendships ; excellency and usefulness are its great indearments : society and neighbourhood , that is , the possibilities and the circumstances of converse are the determinations and actualities of it . Now when men either are unnatural , or irreligious , they will not be friends ; when they are neither excellent nor useful , they are not worthy to be friends ; when they are strangers or unknown , they cannot be friends actually and practically ; but yet , as any man hath any thing of the good , contrary to those evils , so he can have and must have his share of friendship . For thus the Sun is the eye of the world ; and he is indifferent to the Negro , or the cold Russian ▪ to them that dwell under the line , and them that stand near the Tropicks , the scalded Indian , or the poor boy that shakes at the foot of the Riphean hills . But the ●luxure● of the Heaven and the Earth , the conveniency of abode , and the approaches to the North or South respectively change the emanations of his beams ; not that they do not pass always from him , but that they are not equally received below , but by periods and changes , by little in-lets and reflections , they receive what they can . And some have only a dark day and a long night from him , snows and white cattle , a miserable life , and a perpetual harvest of Cata●●hes and Consumption● ; Apoplexies and dead Palsies . But some have splendid sires , and aromatick spices , rich wines , and well-digested fruits , great wit and great courage ; because they dwell in his eye , and look in his face , and are the Courtiers of the Sun , and wait upon him in his Chambers of the East . Just so is it in friendships : some are worthy , and some are necessary ; some dwell hard by and are fitted for converse ; Nature joyns some to us , and Religion combines us with others ; Society and accidents , parity of fortune , and equal dispositions do actuate our friendships : which of themselves and in their prime disposition are prepared for all Mankind according as any one can receive them . We see thi● best exemplified by two instances and expressions of friendships and charity : viz. Alms and Prayers ; Every one that needs relief is equally the object of our Charity ; but though to all mankind in equal needs we ought to be alike in charity ▪ yet we signifie this severally and by limits , and distinct measures : the poor man that is near me , he whom I meet , he whom I love , he whom I fancy , he who did me benefit , he who relates to my family , he rather than another ; because my expressions being finite and narrow , and cannot extend to all in equal significations , must be appropriate to those whose circumstances best fit me : and yet even to all I give my Alms ; to all the world that needs them : I pray for all mankind , I am grieved at every sad story I hear ; I am troubled when I hear of a pretty Bride murthered in her bride-chamber by an ambitious and enrag'd Rival ; I shed a tear when I am told that a brave King was misunderstood , then slandered , then imprisoned , and then put to death by evil men : and I can never read the story of the Parisian Massacre , or the Sicilian Vespers , but my blood curdles , and I am disorder'd by two or three affections . A good man is a friend to all the world ; and he is not truly charitable that does not wish well , and do good to all mankind in what he can . But though we must pray for all men , yet we say special Litanies for brave Kings and holy Prelates , and the wise Guides of Souls , for our Brethren and Relations , our Wives and Children . The effect of this consideration is , that the Universal friendship of which I speak , must be limited , because we are so : In those things where we stand next to Immensity and Infinity , as in good wishes and prayers , and a readiness to benefit all mankind , in these our friendships must not be limited : But in other things which pass under our hand and eye , our voices and our material exchanges ; our hands can reach no further but to our arms end , and our voices can but sound till the next air be quiet , and therefore they can have entercourse but within the sphere of their own activity ; our needs and our conversations are served by a few , and they cannot reach to all ; where they can , ●hey must ; but where it is impossible , it cannot be necessary . It must therefore follow , that our friendships to mankind may admit variety as does our conversation ; and as by nature we are made sociable to all , so we are friendly ; but as all cannot actually be of our society , so neither can all be admitted to a special , actual friendship . Of some entercourses all men are capable , but not of all ; Men can pray for one another , and abstain from doing injuries to all the world , and be desirous to do all mankind good , and love all men ; Now this friendship we must pay to all because we can ; but if we can do no more to all , we must shew our readiness to do more good to all by actually doing more good to all them to whom we can . To some we can , and therefore there are nearer friendships to some than to others , according as there are natural or civil nearnesses , relations and societies ; and as I cannot express my friendships to all in equal measures and significations , that is , as I cannot do benefits to all alike : so neither am I tied to love all alike : For although there is much reason to love every man , yet there are more reasons to love some than others ; and if I must love because there is reason I should , then I must love more , where there is more reason ; and where there 's a special affection and a great readiness to do good and to delight in certain persons towards each other , there is that special charity and indearment which Philosophy calls Friendship ; but our Religion calls Love or Charity . Now if the inquiry be concerning this special friendship , 1. How it can be appropriate , that is , who to be chosen to it ; 2. How far it may extend , that is , with what expressions signified ; 3. How conducted ? The answers will depend upon such considerations which will be neither useless nor unpleasant . 1. There may be a special friendship contracted for any special excellency whatsoever ; because friendships are nothing but love and society mixt together , that is , a conversing with them whom we love ; now for whatsoever we can love any one , for that we can be his friend ; and since every excellency is a degree of amability , every such worthiness is a just and proper motive of friendship or loving conversation . But yet in these things there is an order and proportion . Therefore , 2. A Good man is the best friend , and therefore soonest to be chosen , longer to be retain'd ; and indeed never to be parted with , unless he cease to be that for which he was chosen . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Where vertue dwells , there friendships make , But evil neighbourhoods forsake . But although Vertue alone is the worthiest cause of amability , and can weigh down any one consideration ; and therefore to a man that is vertuous every man ought to be a friend ; yet I do not mean the severe and philosophical excellencies of some morose persons who are indeed wise unto themselves , and exemplar to others . By Vertue here I do not mean Justice and Temperance , Charity and Devotion ; for these I am to love the man , but friendship is something more than that : Friendship is the nearest love and the nearest society of which the persons are capable : Now Justice is a good entercourse for Merchants , as all men are that buy and sell ; and Temperance makes a Man good company , and helps to make a wise man : But a perfect Friendship requires something else , these must be in him that is chosen to be my friend , but for these I do not make him my privado , that is , my special and peculiar friend : But if he be a good man , then he is properly fitted to be my correlative in the noblest combination . And for this we have the best warrant in the world : For a just man scarcely will a man die ; the Syriack interpreter reads it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for an unjust man scarcely will a man die , that is , a wicked man is at no hand fit to receive the expression of the greatest friendship ; but all the Greek copies that ever I saw , or read of , read it as we do ; for a righteous man or a just man ; that is , justice and righteousness is not the nearest indearment of friendship ; but for a good man some will even dare to die , that is , for a man that is sweetly disposed , ready to do acts of goodness and to oblige others , to do things useful and profitable ; for a loving man , a beneficent , bountiful man , one who delights in doing good to his friend , such a man may have the highest friendship , he may have a friend that will die for him . And this is the meaning of Laelius , Vertue may be despised , so may Learning and Nobility ; At una est amicitia in rebus humanis de cujus utilitate omnes consentiunt ; only Friendship is that thing , which because all know to be useful and profitable , no man can despise ; that is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , goodness or beneficence makes friendships . For if he be a good man , he will love where he is beloved ; and that 's the first tie of friendship . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . That was the commendation of the bravest friendship in Theocritus , They lov'd each other with a love That did in all things equal prove . — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The world was under Saturn's reign When he that lov'd was lov'd again . For it is impossible this nearness of friendship can be where there is not mutual love ; but this is secured if I chuse a good man ; for he that is apt enough to begin alone , will never be behind in the relation and correspondency ; and therefore I like the Gentiles Litany well , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 · 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Let God give friends to me for my reward , Who shall my love with equal love regard ; Happy are they , who when they give their heart , Find such as in exchange their own impart . But there is more in it than this felicity amounts to . For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the good man is a profitable , useful person , and that 's the band of an effective friendship . For I do not think that Friendships are Metaphysical nothings , created for contemplation , or that men or women should stare upon each others faces , and make dialogues of news and prettinesses , and look babies in one anothers eyes . Friendship is the allay of our sorrows , the ease of our passions , the discharge of our oppressions , the Sanctuary to our calamities , the counsellor of our doubts , the clarity of our minds , the emission of our thoughts , the exercise and improvement of what we meditate . And although I love my friend because he is worthy , yet he is not worthy if he can do no good ; I do not speak of accidental hindrances and misfortunes by which the bravest man may become unable to help his Child ; but of the natural and artificial capacities of the man. He only is fit to be chosen for a friend , who can do those offices for which friendship is excellent . For ( mistake not ) no man can be loved for himself ; our perfections in this world cannot reach so high ; it is well if we would love God at that rate ; and I very much fear , that if God did us no good , we might admire his Beauties , but we should have but a small proportion of love towards him ; and therefore it is , that God to endear the obedience , that is , the love of his servants , signifies what benefits he gives us , what great good things he does for us . I am the Lord God that brought thee out of the land of Egypt : and does Job serve God for nought ? and he that comes to God , must believe that he is , and that he is a rewarder : all his other greatnesses are objects of fear and wonder , it is his goodness that makes him lovely : and so it is in friendships . He only is fit to be chosen for a friend who can give counsel , or defend my cause , or guide me right , or relieve my need , or can and will , when I need it , do me good : only this I add : into the heaps of doing good , I will reckon [ loving me ] for it is a pleasure to be beloved : But when his love signifies nothing but kissing my cheek , or talking kindly , and can go no further , it is a prostitution of the bravery of friendship to spend it upon impertinent people who are ( it may be ) loads to their families , but can never ease my loads : but my friend is a worthy person when he can become to me instead of God , a guide or a support , an eye , or a hand , a staff , or a rule . There must be in friendship something to distinguish it from a Companion , and a Country-man from a School-fellow or a Gossip , from a Sweet-heart or a Fellow-traveller : Friendship may look in at any one of these doors , but it stays not any where till it come to be the best thing in the world . And when we consider that one man is not better than another , neither towards God nor towards Man , but by doing better and braver things ; we shall also see , that that which is most beneficent is also most excellent ; & therefore those friendships must needs be most perfect , where the friends can be most useful . For men cannot be useful but by worthinesses in the several instances : a fool cannot be relied upon for counsel ; nor a vicious person for the advantages of vertue , nor a begger for relief , nor a stranger for conduct , nor a tatler to keep a secret , nor a pitiless person trusted with my complaint , nor a covetous man with my childes fortune , nor a false person without a witness , nor a suspicious person with a private design ; nor him that I fear with the treasures of my love : But he that is wise and vertuous , rich and at hand , close and merciful , free of his money and tenacious of a secret , open and ingenuous , true and honest , is of himself an excellent man ; and therefore fit to be loved ; and he can do good to me in all capacities where I can need him , and therefore is fit to be a friend . I confess we are forced in our friendships to abate some of these ingredients ; but full measures of friendship would have full measures of worthiness ; and according as any defect is in the foundation , in the relation also there may be imperfection : and indeed I shall not blame the friendship so it be worthy , though it be not perfect ; not only because friendship is charity , which cannot be perfect here , but because there is not in the world a perfect cause of perfect friendship . If you can suspect that this discourse can suppose friendship to be mercenary , and to be defective in the greatest worthiness of it , which is to love our friend for our friends sake , I shall easily be able to defend my self ; because I speak of the election and reasons of chusing friends : after he is chosen do as nobly as you talk , and love as purely as you dream , and let your conversation be as metaphysical as your discourse , and proceed in this method , till you be confuted by experience ; yet till then , the case is otherwise when we speak of chusing one to be my friend : He is not my friend till I have chosen him , or loved him ; and if any man enquires whom he shall chuse or whom he should love , I suppose it ought not to be answered , that we should love him who hath least amability , that we should chuse him who hath least reason to be chosen . But if it be answered , he is to be chosen to be my friend who is most worthy in himself , not he that can do most good to me ; I say , here is a distinction but no difference ; for he is most worthy in himself who can do most good ; and if he can love me too , that is , if he will do me all the good he can , or that I need , then he is my friend and he deserves it . And it is impossible from a friend to separate a will to do me good : and therefore I do not chuse well , if I chuse one that hath not power ; for if it may consist with the nobleness of friendship to desire that my friend be ready to do me benefit or support , it is not sence to say , it is ignoble to desire he should really do it when I need ; and if it were not for pleasure or profit , we might as well be without a friend as have him . Among all the pleasures and profits , the sensual pleasure and the matter of money are the lowest and the least ; and therefore although they may sometimes be used in friendship , and so not wholly excluded from the consideration of him that is to chuse , yet of all things they are to be the least regarded . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . When fortune frowns upon a man , A friend does more than money can . For there are besides these , many profits and many pleasures ; and because these only are sordid , all the other are noble and fair , and the expectations of them no disparagements to the best friendships . For can any wise or good man be angry if I say , I chuse this man to be my friend , because he is able to give me counsel , to restrain my wandrings , to comfort me in my sorrows ; he is pleasant to me in private , and useful in publick ; he will make my joys double , and divide my grief between himself and me ? For what else should I chuse ? For being a fool , and useless ? for a pretty face or a smooth chin ? I confess it is possible to be a friend to one that is ignorant , and pitiable , handsome and good for nothing , that eats well , and drinks deep , but he cannot be a friend to me ; and I love him with a fondness or a pity , but it cannot be a noble friendship . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . said Menander . By wine and mirth and every days delight We chuse our friends , to whom we think we might Our souls intrust ; but foools are they that lend Their bosom to the shadow of a friend . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Plutarch calls such friendships , the Idols and Images of friendship . True and brave friendships are between worthy persons ; and there is in Mankind no degree of worthiness , but is also a degree of usefulness , and by every thing by which a man is excellent , I may be profited : and because those are the bravest friends which can best serve the ends of friendships , either we must suppose that friendships are not greatest comforts in the world , or else we must say , he chuses his friend best , that chuses such a one by whom he can receive the greatest comforts and assistances . 3. This being the measure of all friendships ; they all partake of excellency , according as they are fitted to this measure : a friend may be counselled well enough , though his friend be not the wisest man in the world ; and he may be pleased in his society , though he be not the best natured man in the world ; but still it must be , that something excellent is , or is apprehended , or else it can be no worthy friendship ; because the choice is imprudent and foolish . Chuse for your friend him that is wise and good , and secret and just , ingenuous and honest ; and in those things which have a latitude , use your own liberty ; but in such things which consist in an indivisible point , make no abatements ; That is , you must not chuse him to be your friend that is not honest and secret , just and true to a tittle ; but if he be wise at all , and useful in any degree , and as good as you can have him , you need not be ashamed to own your friendships ; though sometimes you may be ashamed of some imperfections of your friend . 4. But if you yet enquire further , whether Fancy may be an ingredient in your choice ? I answer , that Fancy may minister to this as to all other actions in which there is a liberty and variety ; and we shall find that there may be peculiarities and little partialities , a friendship improperly so called , entring upon accounts of an innocent passion and a pleas'd fancy ; even our Blessed Saviour himself loved S. John and Lazarus by a special love , which was signified by special treatments ; and of the young man that spake well and wisely to Christ , it is affirmed , Jesus loved him , that is , he fancied the man , and his soul had a certain cognation and similitude of temper and inclination . For in all things where there is a latitude , every Faculty will endeavour to be pleased , and sometimes the meanest persons in a house have a festival : even Sympathies and natural inclinations to some persons , and a conformity of humors , and proportionable loves , and the beauty of the face , and a witty answer may first strike the flint and kindle a spark , which if it falls upon tender and compliant natures may grow into a flame ; but this will never be maintained at the rate of friendship , unless it be fed by pure materials , by worthinesses which are the food of friendship : where these are not , men and women may be pleased with one anothers company , and lye under the same roof , and make themselves companions of equal prosperities , and humor their friend ; but if you call this friendship , you give a sacred name to humor or fancy ; for there is a Platonick friendship as well as a Platonick love ; but they being but the Images of more noble bodies are but like tinsel dressings , which will shew bravely by candle-light , and do excellently in a mask , but are not fit for conversation and the material entercourses of our life . These are the prettinesses of prosperity and good-natured wit ; but when we speak of friendship , which is the best thing in the world ( for it is love and beneficence , it is charity that is fitted for society ) we cannot suppose a brave pile should be built up with nothing ; and they that build Castles in the air , and look upon friendship , as upon a fine Romance , a thing that pleases the fancy , but is good for nothing else , will do well when they are asleep , or when they are come to Elysium ; and for ought I know in the mean time may be as much in love with Mandana in the Grand Cyrus , as with the Infanta of Spain , or any of the most perfect beauties and real excellencies of the world : and by dreaming of perfect and abstracted friendships , make them so immaterial that they perish in the handling and become good for nothing . But I know not whither I was going ; I did only mean to say that because Friendship is that by which the world is most blessed and receives most good , it ought to be chosen amongst the worthiest persons , that is , amongst those that can do greatest benefit to each other ; and though in equal worthiness I may chuse by my eye , or ear , that is , into the consideration of the essential I may take in also the accidental and extrinsick worthinesses ; yet I ought to give every one their just value ; when the internal beauties are equal , these shall help to weigh down the scale , and I will love a worthy friend that can delight me as well as profit me , rather than him who cannot delight me at all , and profit me no more ; but yet I will not weigh the gayest flowers , or the wings of Butterflies against Wheat ; but when I am to chuse Wheat , I may take that which looks the brightest . I had rather see Thyme and Roses , Marjoram and July-flowers that are fair and sweet and medicinal , than the prettiest Tulips that are good for nothing : And my Sheep and Kine are better servants than Race-horses and Greyhounds : And I shall rather furnish my Study with Plutarch and Cicero , with Livy and Polybius , than with Cassandra and Ibrahim Bassa ; and if I do give an hour to these for divertisement or pleasure , yet I will dwell with them that can instruct me , and make me wise and eloquent , severe and useful to my self and others . I end this with the saying of Laelius in Cicero : Amicitia●non debet consequi utilitatem , sed amicitiam utilitas . When I chuse my friend , I will not stay till I have received a kindness ; but I will chuse such an one that can do me many if I need them : But I mean such kindnesses which make me wiser , and which make me better ; that is , I will when I chuse my friend , chuse him that is the bravest , the worthiest and the most excellent person : and then your first Question is soon answered ; To love such a person and to contract such friendships is just so authorized by the principles of Christianity , as it is warranted to love wisdom and vertue , goodness and beneficence , and all the impresses of God upon the spirits of brave men . 2. The next inquiry is How far it may extend ? that is , by what expressions it may be signified ? I find that David and Jonathan loved at a strange rate ; they were both good men ; though it happened that Jonathan was on the obliging side ; but here the expressions were , Jonathan watched for David's good ; told him of his danger , and helped him to escape ; took part with David's innocence against his Father's malice and injustice ; and beyond all this , did it to his own prejudice ; and they two stood like two feet supporting one body ; though Jonathan knew that David would prove like the foot of a Wrestler , and would supplant him , not by any unworthy or unfriendly action , but it was from God ; and he gave him his hand to set him upon his own throne . We find his parallels in the Gentile stories : young Athenodorus having divided the estate with his Brother Xenon , divided it again when Xenon had spent his own share ; and Lucullus would not take the Consulship till his younger brother had first enjoyed it for a year ; but Pollux divided with Castor his immortality ; and you know who offer'd himself to death being pledge for his friend , and his friend by performing his word rescued him as bravely . And when we find in Scripture that for a good man some will even dare to die ; and that Aquila and Priscilla laid their necks down for S. Paul ; and the Galatians would have given him their very eyes , that is , every thing that was most dear to them , and some others were near unto death for his sake : and that it is a Precept of Christian charity , to lay down our lives for our brethren , that is , those who were combined in a cause of Religion , who were united with the same hopes , and imparted to each other ready assistances , and grew dear by common sufferings , we need enquire no further for the expressions of friendships . Greater love than this hath no man , than that he lay down his life for his friends ; and this we are oblig'd to do in some Cases for all Christians ; and therefore we may do it for those who are to us in this present and imperfect state of things , that which all the good men and women in the world shall be in Heaven , that is , in the state of perfect friendships . This is the biggest ; but then it includes and can suppose all the rest ; and if this may be done for all , and in some cases must for any one of the multitude , we need not scruple whether we may do it for those who are better than a multitude . But as for the thing it self , it is not easily and lightly to be done ; and a man must not die for humour , nor expend so great a Jewel for a trifle : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : said Philo ; we will hardly die when it is for nothing , when no good , no worthy end is served , and become a Sacrifice to redeem a foot-boy . But we may not give our life to redeem another : unless 1. The party for whom we die be a worthy and an useful person ; better for the publick , or better for Religion , and more useful to others than my self . Thus Ribischius the German died bravely when he became a Sacrifice for his Master , Maurice Duke of Saxony ; Covering his Masters body with his own , that he might escape the fury of the Turkish Souldiers . Succurram perituro , sed ut ipse non peream , nisi si futurus ero magni hominis , aut magnae rei merces , said Seneca . I will help a dying person if I can ; but I will not die my self for him , unless by my death I save a brave man , or become the price of a great thing ; that is , I will die for a Prince , for the Republick , or to save an Army , as David expos'd himself to combat with the Philistin for the redemption of the host of Israel : and in this sence , that is true , Praestat ut pereat unus quàm Vnitas , better that one perish than a multitude . 2. A man dies bravely when he gives his temporal life to save the soul of any single person in the Christian world . It is a worthy exchange , and the glorification of that love by which Christ gave his life for every Soul. Thus he that reproves an erring Prince wisely and necessarily , he that affirms a fundamental truth , or stands up for the glory of the Divine Attributes , though he die for it , becomes a worthy sacrifice . 3. These are duty , but it may be Heroick and full of Christian bravery , to give my life to rescue a noble and a brave friend , though I my self be as worthy a man as he ; because the preference of him is an act of humility in me , and of friendship towards him ; Humility and Charity making a pious difference , where Art and Nature have made all equal . Some have fancied other measures of treating our friends . One sort of men say that we are to expect that our friends should value us as we value our selves : which if it were to be admitted , will require that we make no friendships with a proud man ; and so far indeed were well ; but then this proportion does exclude some humble men who are most to be valued , and the rather because they undervalue themselves . Others say that a friend is to value his friend as much as his friend values him ; but neither is this well or safe , wise or sufficient ; for it makes friendship a mere bargain , and is something like the Country weddings in some places where I have been ; where the bridegroom and the bride must meet in the half way , and if they fail a step , they retire and break the match : It is not good to make a reckoning in friendship ; that 's merchandise , or it may be gratitude , but not noble friendship ; in which each part strives to out-do the other in significations of an excellent love : And amongst true friends there is no fear of losing any thing . But that which amongst the old Philosophers comes nearest to the right , is that we love our friends as we love our selves . If they had meant it as our Blessed Saviour did , of that general friendship by which we are to love all mankind , it had been perfect and well ; or if they had meant it of the inward affection , or of outward justice ; but because they meant it of the most excellent friendships , and of the outward significations of it , it cannot be sufficient : for a friend may and must sometimes do more for his friend than he would do for himself . Some men will perish before they will beg or petition for themselves to some certain persons ; but they account it noble to do it for their friend , and they will want rather than their friend shall want ; and they will be more earnest in praise or dispraise respectively for their friend than for themselves . And indeed I account that one of the greatest demonstrations of real friendship is , that a friend can really endeavour to have his friend advanced in honour , in reputation , in the opinion of wit or learning before himself . Aurum & opes , & rura frequens donabit amicus : Qui velit ingenio cedere , rarus erit . Sed tibi tantus inest veteris respectus amici , Carior ut mea sit quàm tua famatibi . Lands , gold and trifles many give or lend , But he that stoops in fame , is a rare friend ; In friendships Orb thou art the brightest Star , Before thy fame mine thou preferrest far . But then be pleased to think that therefore I so highly value this signification of friendship , because I so highly value humility . Humility and Charity are the two greatest graces in the world ; and these are the greatest ingredients which constitute friendship and express it . But there needs no other measures of friendship , but that it may be as great as you can express it ; beyond death it cannot go , to death it may , when the cause is reasonable and just , charitable and religious : and yet if there be any thing greater than to suffer death ( and pain and shame to some are more insufferable ) a true and noble friendship shrinks not at the greatest trials . And yet there is a limit even to friendship . It must be as great as our friend fairly needs in all things where we are not tied up by a former duty , to God , to our selves , or some pre-obliging relative . When Pollux heard some body whisper a reproach against his Brother Castor , he killed the slanderer with his fist : that was a zeal which his friendship could not warrant . Nulla est excusatio si amici causâ peccaveris , said Cicero . No friendship can excuse a sin : And this the braver Romans instanced in the matter of duty to their Country . It is not lawful to fight on our friends part against our Prince or Country ; and therefore when Caius Blosius of Cuma in the sedition of Gracchus appeared against his Country , when he was taken he answered , That he loved Tiberius Gracchus so dearly , that he thought fit to follow him whithersoever he led ; and begg'd pardon upon that account : They who were his Judges were so noble , that though they knew it no fair excuse , yet for the honour of friendship they did not directly reject his motion ; but put him to death , because he did not follow , but led on Gracchus , and brought his friend into the snare : For so they preserved the honours of friendship on either hand , by neither suffering it to be sullied by a soul excuse , nor yet rejected in any fair pretence . A man may not be perjured for his friend . I remember to have read in the History of the Low-Countries , that Grimston and Redhead , when Bergenapzoom was besieged by the Duke of Parma , acted for the interest of the Queen of England's forces a notable design ; but being suspected and put for their acquittance to take the Sacrament of the Altar , they dissembled their persons , and their interest , their design and their religion , and did for the Queens service ( as one wittily wrote to her ) give not only their bodies but their souls , and so deserved a reward greater than she could pay them : I cannot say this is a thing greater than a friendship can require , for it is not great at all , but a great villany , which hath no name , and no order in worthy entercourses ; and no obligation to a friend can reach as high as our duty to God : And he that does a base thing in zeal for his friend , burns the golden thred that ties their hearts together ; it is a conspiracy , but no longer friendship . And when Cato lent his wife to Hortensius , and Socrates lent his to a merry Greek , they could not amongst wise persons obtain so much as the fame of being worthy friends , neither could those great Names legitimate an unworthy action under the most plausible title . It is certain that amongst friends their estates are common ; that is , by whatsoever I can rescue my friend from calamity , I am to serve him , or not to call him friend ; there is a great latitude in this , and it is to be restrained by no prudence , but when there is on the other side a great necessity neither vicious nor avoidable : A man may chuse whether he will or no ; and he does not sin in not doing it , unless he have bound himself to it : But certainly friendship is the greatest band in the world , and if he have professed a great friendship , he hath a very great obligation to do that and more ; and he can no ways be disobliged but by the care of his Natural relations . I said , [ Friendship is the greatest band in the world , ] and I had reason for it , for it is all the bands that this world hath ; and there is no society , and there is no relation that is worthy , but it is made so by the communications of friendship , and by partaking some of its excellencies . For Friendship is a transcendent , and signifies as much as Vnity can mean ; and every consent , and every pleasure , and every benefit , and every society is the Mother or the Daughter of friendship . Some friendships are made by nature , some by contract , some by interest , and some by souls . And in proportion to these ways of Uniting , so the friendships are greater or less , vertuous or natural , profitable or holy , or all this together . Nature makes excellent friendships , of which we observe something in social Plants ; growing better in each others neighbourhood than where they stand singly : And in Animals it is more notorious , whose friendships extend so far as to herd and dwell together , to play and feed , to defend and fight for one another , and to cry in absence , and to rejoyce in one anothers presence . But these friendships have other names less noble , they are Sympathy , or they are Instinct . But if to this natural friendship there be Reason superadded , something will come in upon the stock of Reason which will ennoble it ; But because no Rivers can rise higher than Fountains , Reason shall draw out all the dispositions which are in Nature and establish them into friendships , but they cannot surmount the communications of Nature : Nature can make no friendships greater than her own excellencies . Nature is the way of contracting necessary friendships , that is , by nature such friendships are contracted without which we cannot live , and be educated , or be well , or be at all . In this scene , that of Parents and Children is the greatest , which indeed is begun in nature , but is actuated by society and mutual endearments . For Parents love their Children because they love themselves , Children being but like emissions of water , symbolical or indeed the same with the fountain ; and they in their posterity see the images and instruments of a civil immortality : But if Parents and Children do not live together , we see their friendships and their loves are much abated , and supported only by fame and duty , by customs and religion , which to nature are but artificial pillars , and make this friendship to be complicated , and to pass from its own kind to another . That of Children to their Parents is not properly friendship , but gratitude and interest , and religion , and whatever can supervene of the nature of friendship comes in upon another account ; upon society and worthiness and choice . This relation on either hand makes great Dearnesses : But it hath special and proper significations of it , and there is a special duty incumbent on each other respectively . This friendship and social relation is not equal , and there is too much authority on one side , and too much fear on the other to make equal friendships ; and therefore although this is one of the kinds of friendship , that is of a social and relative love and conversation ; yet in the more proper use of the word , [ Friendship ] does do some things which Father and Son do not ; I instance in the free and open communicating counsels , and the evenness and pleasantness of conversation ; and consequently the significations of the paternal and filial love as they are divers in themselves and unequal , and therefore another kind of friendship than we mean in our inquiry ; so they are such a duty which no other friendship can annul : because their mutual duty is bound upon them by religion long before any other friendships can be contracted ; and therefore having first possession must abide for ever . The duty and love to Parents must not yield to religion , much less to any new friendships : and our Parents are to be preferred before the Corban , and are at no hand to be laid aside but when they engage against God : That is , in the rights which this relation and kind of friendship challenges as its propriety , it is supreme and cannot give place to any other friendships ; till the Father gives his right away , and God or the Laws consent to it ; as in the case of marriage , emancipation , and adoption to another family : in which cases though love and gratitude are still obliging , yet the societies and duties of relation are very much altered , which in the proper and best friendships can never be at all . But then this also is true , That the social relations of Parents and Children not having in them all the capacities of a proper friendship , cannot challenge all the significations of it ; that is , it is no prejudice to the duty I owe there , to pay all the dearnesse● which are due here , and to friends there are some things due which the other cannot challenge , I mean my secret , and my equal conversation , and the pleasures and interests of these , and the consequents of all . Next to this is the society and dearness of Brothers and Sisters : which usually is very great amongst worthy persons ; but if it be considered what it is in it self , it is but very little ; there is very often a likeness of natural temper , and there is a social life under the same roof , and they are commanded to love one another , and they are equals in many instances , and are endeared by conversation when it is merry and pleasant , innocent and simple , without art and without design . But Brothers pass not into noble friendships upon the stock of that relation : they have fair dispositions and advantages , and are more easie and ready to ferment into the greatest dearnesses , if all things else be answerable . Nature disposes them well towards it , but in this inquiry if we ask what duty is passed upon a Brother to a Brother even for being so ? I answer , that religion and our Parents and God and the Laws appoint what measures they please ; but nature passes but very little , and friendship less ; and this we see apparently in those Brothers who live asunder , and contract new relations , and dwell in other societies . There is no love , no friendship without the entercouse of conversation : Friendships indeed may last longer than our abode together , but they were first contracted by it , and established by pleasure and benefit ; and unless it be the best kind of friendship ( which that of Brothers in that mere capacity is not ) it dies when it wants the proper nutriment and support : and to this purpose is that which was spoken by Solomon : [ Better is a neighbour that is near , than a Brother that is far off : ] that is , although ordinarily Brothers are first possessed of the entries and fancies of friendship , because they are of the first societies and conversations ; yet when that ceases and the Brother goes away , so that he does no advantage , no benefit of entercourse ; the neighbour that dwells by me , with whom if I converse at all , either he is my enemy and does , and receives evil ; or if we converse in worthinesses and benefit and pleasant communication , he is better in the laws and measures of friendship than my distant Brother . And it is observable that [ Brother ] is indeed a word of friendship and charity and of mutual endearment , and so is a title of the bravest society ; yet in all the Scripture there are no precepts given of any duty and comport , which Brothers , that is , the descendents of the same Parents are to have one towards another in that capacity ; and it is not because their nearness is such that they need none : For Parents and children are nearer , and yet need tables of duty to be described ; and for Brothers , certainly they need it infinitely if there be any peculiar duty ; Cain and Abel are the great probation of that , and you know who said , Fratrum quoque gratia rara est : It is not often you shall see Two Brothers live in amity . But the Scripture which often describes the duty of Parents and Children , never describes the duty of Brothers ; except where by Brethren are meant all that part of mankind who are tied to us by any vicinity and indearment of religion or country , of profession and family , of contract or society , of love and the noblest friendships ; the meaning is , that though Fraternity alone be the endearment of some degrees of friendship , without choice and without excellency ; yet the relation it self is not friendship , and does not naturally infer it ; and that which is procured by it , is but limited and little ; and though it may pass into it , as other conversations may , yet the friendship is accidental to it , and enters upon other accounts , as it does between strangers ; with this only difference that Brotherhood does oftentimes assist the valuation of those excellencies for which we entertain our friendships . Fraternity is the opportunity and preliminary disposition to friendship , and no more . For if my Brother be a fool or a vicious person , the love to which nature and our first conversation disposes me , does not end in friendship , but in pity and fair provisions and assistances ; which is a demonstration that Brotherhood is but the inclination and address to friendship . And though I will love a worthy Brother more than a worthy stranger , if the worthiness be equal , because the relation is something , and being put into the scales against an equal worthiness must needs turn the balance , as every grain will do in an even weight ; yet when the relation is all the worthiness that is pretended , it cannot stand in competition with a friend : for though a friend-Brother is better than a friend-stranger , where the friend is equal , but the Brother is not : yet a Brother is not better than a friend ; but as Solomon's expression is [ There is a Friend that is better than a Brother ; ] and to be born of the same Parents is so accidental and extrinsick to a mans pleasure or worthiness , or spiritual advantages , that though it be very pleasing and useful that a Brother should be a friend , yet it is no great addition to a friend that he also is a Brother : there is something in it , but not much . But in short , the case is thus . The first beginnings of friendship serve the necessities ; but choice and worthiness are the excellencies of its endearment and its bravery ; and between a Brother that is no friend , and a friend that is no Brother , there is the same difference as between the disposition and the act or habit : a Brother if he be worthy is the readiest and the nearest to be a friend , but till he be so , he is but the twi-light of the day , and but the blossom to the fairest fruit of Paradise . A Brother does not always make a friend , but a friend ever makes a Brother and more : And although nature sometimes finds the tree , yet friendship engraves the Image ; the first relation places him in the garden , but friendship sets it in the Temple , and then only it is venerable and sacred : and so is Brotherhood when it hath the soul of friendship . So that if it be asked which are most to be valued , Brothers or Friends ; the answer is very easie ; Brotherhood is or may be one of the kinds of friendship , and from thence only hath its value , and therefore if it be compared with a greater friendship must give place : But then it is not to be asked which is to be preferred , a Brother or a Friend , but which is the better friend , Memnon or my Brother ? For if my Brother says I ought to love him best , then he ought to love me best ; * if he does , then there is a great friendship , and he possibly is to be preferred ; if he can be that friend which he pretends to be , that is , if he be equally worthy : But if he says , I must love him only because he is my Brother , whether he loves me or no , he is ridiculous ; and it will be a strange relation which hath no correspondent : but suppose it , and add this also , that I am equally his Brother as he is mine , and then he also must love me whether I love him or no ; and if he does not , he says , I must love him though he be my Enemy ; and so I must ; but I must not love my Enemy though he be my Brother more than I love my Friend ; and at last if he does love me for being his Brother , I confess that this love deserves love again ; but then I consider , that he loves me upon an incompetent reason : for he that loves me only because I am his Brother , loves me for that which is no worthiness , and I must love him as much as that comes to , and for as little reason ; unless this be added , that he loves me first : But whether choice and union of souls , and worthiness of manners , and greatness of understanding , and usefulness of conversation , and the benefits of Counsel , and all those endearments which make our lives pleasant and our persons Dear , are not better and greater reasons of love and Dearness than to be born of the same flesh , I think amongst wise persons needs no great inquiry . For Fraternity is but a Cognation of Bodies , but Friendship is an Union of Souls which are confederated by more noble ligatures . My Brother , if he be no more , shall have my hand to help him ; but unless he be my friend too , he cannot challenge my heart : and if his being my friend be the greater nearness , then Friend is more than Brother , and I suppose no man doubts but that David lov'd Jonathan far more than he lov'd his Brother Eliab . One inquiry more there may be in this affair , and that is , Whether a Friend may be more than a Husband or Wife ; To which I answer , that it can never be reasonable or just , prudent or lawful : but the reason is , because Marriage is the Queen of friendships , in which there is a communication of all that can be communicated by friendship : and it being made sacred by vows and love , by bodies and souls , by interest and custom , by religion and by laws , by common Counsels and common fortunes ; it is the principal in the kind of friendship , and the measure of all the rest : And there is no abatement to this consideration , but that there may be some allay in this as in other lesser friendships by the incapacity of the persons : if I have not chosen my friend wisely or fortunately , he cannot be the correlative in the best Union ; but then the friend lives as the soul does after death , it is in the state of separation , in which the soul strangely loves the body and longs to be reunited , but the body is an useless trunk and can do no ministeries to the soul ; which therefore prays to have the body reformed and restored and made a brave and a fit companion : So must these best friends , when one is useless or unapt to the braveries of the princely friendship , they must love ever , and pray ever , and long till the other be perfected and made fit ; in this case there wants only the body , but the soul is still a relative and must be so for ever . A Husband and a Wife are the best friends , but they cannot always signifie all that to each other which their friendships would ; as the Sun shines not upon a Valley which sends up a thick vapour to cover his face ; and though his beams are eternal , yet the emission is intercepted by the intervening cloud . But however all friendships are but parts of this ; a man must leave Father and Mother and cleave to his Wife , that is [ the dearest thing in Nature is not comparable to the dearest thing of friendship : ] and I think this is argument sufficient to prove friendship to be the greatest band in the world ; Adde to this , that other friendships are part of this , they are marriages too , less indeed than the other , because they cannot , must not be all that endearment which the other is ; yet that being the principal , is the measure of the rest , and are all to be honoured by like dignities , and measured by the same rules , and conducted by their portion of the same Laws . But as Friendships are Marriages of the soul , and of fortunes and interests , and counsels ; so they are Brotherhoods too ; and I often think of the excellencies of friendships in the words of David , who certainly was the best friend in the world [ Ecce quàm bonum & quàm jucundum fratres habitare in unum : ] It is good and it is pleasant that Brethren should live like friends , that is , they who are any ways relative , and who are any ways social and confederate should also dwell in Unity and loving society , for that is the meaning of the word [ Brother ] in Scripture [ It was my Brother Jonathan ] said David ; such Brothers contracting such friendships are the beauties of society , and the pleasure of life , and the festivity of minds : and whatsoever can be spoken of love , which is God's eldest daughter , can be said of vertuous friendships ; and though Carneades made an eloquent Oration at Rome against justice , yet never saw a Panegyrick of malice , or ever read that any man was witty against friendship . Indeed it is probable that some men , finding themselves by the peculiarities of friendship excluded from the participation of those beauties of society which enamel and adorn the wise and the vertuous , might suppose themselves to have reason to speak the evil words of envy and detraction ; I wonder not for all those unhappy souls which shall find Heaven-gates shut against them , will think they have reason to murmur and blaspheme : The similitude is apt enough , for that is the region of friendship , and Love is the light of that glorious Country , but so bright that it needs no Sun : Here we have fine and bright rays of that Celestial flame , and though to all mankind the light of it is in some measure to be extended , like the treasures of light dwelling in the South , yet a little do illustrate and beautifie the North , yet some live under the line , and the beams of friendship in that position are imminent and perpendicular . I know but one thing more in which the Communications of friendship can be restrained ; and that is , in Friends and Enemies : Amicus amici , amicus meus non est : My friends friend is not always my friend ; nor his enemy mine ; for if my friend quarrel with a third person with whom he hath had no friendships , upon the account of interest ; if that third person be my friend , the nobleness of our friendships despises such a quarrel ; and what may be reasonable in him , would be ignoble in me ; sometimes it may be otherwise , and friends may marry one anothers loves and hatreds , but it is by chance if it can be just , and therefore because it is not always right , it cannot be ever necessary . In all things else let friendships be as high and expressive till they become an Union , or that friends like the Molionidae be so the same that the flames of their dead bodies make but one Pyramis ; no charity can be reproved , and such friendships which are more than shadows , are nothing else but the rays of that glorious grace drawn into one centre , and made more active by the Union ; and the proper significations are well represented in the old Hieroglyphick , by which the Ancients depicted friendship ; In the beauties and strength of a young man , bare-headed , rudely clothed , to signifie its activity , and lastingness , readiness of action , and aptnesses to do service : Upon the fringes of his garment was written Mors & vita , as signifying that in life and death the friendship was the same ; on the forehead was written Summer and Winter , that is , prosperous and adverse accidents and states of life ; the left arm and shoulder was bare and naked down to the heart to which the finger pointed , and there was written longè & propè : by all which we know that friendship does good far and near , in Summer and Winter , in life and death , and knows no difference of state or accident but by the variety of her services : and therefore ask no more to what we can be obliged by friendship ; for it is every thing that can be honest and prudent , useful and necessary . For this is all the allay of this Universality , we may do any thing or suffer any thing that is wise or necessary , or greatly beneficial to my friend , and that in any thing , in which I am perfect master of my person and fortunes . But I would not in bravery visit my friend when he is sick of the plague , unless I can do him good equal at least to my danger ; but I will procure him Physicians and prayers , all the assistances that he can receive , and that he can desire , if they be in my power : and when he is dead , I will not run into his grave and be stifled with his earth ; but I will mourn for him , and perform his will , and take care of his relatives , and do for him as if he were alive ; and I think that is the meaning of that hard saying of a Greek Poet. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . To me though distant let thy friendship fly , Though men be mortal , friendships must not die : Of all things else there 's great satiety . Of such immortal abstracted pure friendships indeed there is no great plenty , and to see brothers hate each other is not so rare as to see them love at this rate . The dead and the absent have but few friends , say the Spaniards ; but they who are the same to their friend 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , when he is in another Country , or in another World , these are they who are fit to preserve the sacred fire for eternal sacrifices , and to perpetuate the memory of those exemplar friendships of the best men which have filled the world with history and wonder : for in no other sence but this can it be true that friendships are pure loves , regarding to do good more than to receive it . He that is a friend after death , hopes not for a recompense from his friend , and makes no bargain either for fame or love ; but is rewarded with the conscience and satisfaction of doing bravely : but then this is demonstration that they chuse Friends best who take persons so worthy that can and will do so . This is the profit and usefulness of friendship ; and he that contracts such a noble Union , must take care that his friend be such who can and will ; but hopes that himself shall be first used , and put to act it . I will not have such a friendship that is good for nothing , but I hope that I shall be on the giving and assisting part ; and yet if both the friends be so noble and hope and strive to do the benefit , I cannot well say which ought to yield , and whether that friendship were braver that could be content to be unprosperous so his friend might have the glory of assisting him ; or that which desires to give assistances in the greatest measures of friendship : but he that chuses a worthy friend that himself in the days of sorrow and need might receive the advantage , hath no excuse , no pardon , unless himself be as certain to do assistances when evil fortune shall require them . The summ of this answer to this enquiry I give you in a pair of Greek verses . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 · 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Friends are to friends as lesser Gods , while they Honour and service to each other pay . But when a dark cloud comes , grudge not to lend Thy head , thy heart , thy fortune to thy friend . 3. The last inquiry is , How friendships are to be conducted ? that is , What are the duties in presence and in absence ; whether the friend may not desire to enjoy his friend as well as his friendship ? The answer to which in a great measure depends upon what I have said already : and if friendship be a charity in society , and is not for contemplation and noise , but for material comforts and noble treatments and usages , this is no peradventure , but that if I buy land , I may eat the fruits , and if I take a house I may dwell in it ▪ and if I love a worthy person , I may please my self in his society : and in this there is no exception , unless the friendship be between persons of a different sex : for then not only the interest of their religion , and the care of their honour , but the worthiness of their friendship requires that their entercourse be prudent and free from suspicion and reproach . And if a friend is obliged to bear a calamity , so he secure the honour of his friend ; it will concern him to conduct his entercourse in the lines of a vertuous prudence , so that he shall rather lose much of his own comfort , than she any thing of her honour ; and in this case the noises of people are so to be regarded , that next to innocence they are the principal . But when by caution and prudence and severe conduct a friend hath done all that he or she can to secure fame and honourable reports ; after this , their noises are to be despised ; they must not fright us from our friendships , nor from her fairest entercourses ; I may lawfully pluck the clusters from my own Vine , though he that walks by , calls me thief . But by the way ( Madam ) you may see how much I differ from the morosity of those Cynicks who would not admit your sex into the communities of a noble friendship . I believe some Wives have been the best friends in the world ; and few stories can out-do the nobleness and piety of that Lady that suck'd the poysonous , purulent matter from the wound of our brave Prince in the holy Land , when an Assasine had pierc'd him with a venom'd arrow . And if it be told that women cannot retain counsel , and therefore can be no brave friends ; I can best confute them by the story of Porc●a , who being fearful of the weakness of her sex , stabb'd her self into the thigh to try how she could bear pain ; and finding her self constant enough to that sufferance , gently chid her Brutus for not daring to trust her , since now she perceived that no torment could wrest that secret from her , which she hoped might be intrusted to her . If there were not more things to be said for your satisfaction , I could have made it disputable whether have been more illustrious in their friendships , men or women ? I cannot say that Women are capable of all those excellencies by which men can oblige the world ; and therefore a female friend in some cases is not so good a counsellor as a wise man , and cannot so well defend my honour ; nor dispose of reliefs and assistances if she be under the power of another : but a woman can love as passionately , and converse as pleasantly , and retain a secret as faithfully , and be useful in her proper ministeries ; and she can die for her friend as well as the bravest Roman Knight ; and we find that some persons have engag'd themselves as far as death upon a less interest than all this amounts to : such were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as the Greeks call them , the Devoti of a Prince or General , the Assasines amongst the Saracens , the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 amongst the old Galatians : they did as much as a friend could do . And if the greatest services of a friend can be paid for by an ignoble price , we cannot grudge to vertuous and brave women that they be partners in a noble friendship , since their conversation and returns can add so many moments to the felicity of our lives : and therefore though a Knife cannot enter as far as a Sword , yet a Knife may be more useful to some purposes , and in every thing , except it be against an enemy . A man is the best friend in trouble , but a woman may be equal to him in the days of joy : a woman can as well increase our comforts , but cannot so well lessen our sorrows : and therefore we do not carry women with us when we go to fight ; but in peaceful Cities and times vertuous women are the beauties of society and the prettinesses of friendship . And when we consider that few persons in the world have all those excellencies by which friendship can be useful and illustrious , we may as well allow women as men to be friends ; since they can have all that which can be necessary and essential to friendships , and these cannot have all by which friendships can be accidentally improved ; in all some abatements will be made ; and we shall do too much honour to women if we reject them from friendships , because they are not perfect : for if to friendships we admit imperfect men , because no man is perfect ; he that rejects women does find fault with them because they are not more perfect than men ; which either does secretly affirm that they ought and can be perfect , or else it openly accuses men of injustice and partiality . I hope you will pardon me that I am a little gone from my undertaking , I went aside to wait upon the women and to do countenance to their tender vertues : I am now return'd , and , if I were to do the office of a guide to uninstructed friends , would add the particulars following : Madam , you need not read them now , but when any friends come to be taught by your precept and example how to converse in the noblest conjurations , you may put these into better words and tell them , 1. That the first Law of friendship is , they must neither ask of their friend what is Undecent ; nor grant it if themselves be ask'd . For it is no good office to make my friend more vicious or more a fool ; I will restrain his folly , but not nurse it ; I will not make my groom the officer of my lust and vanity . There are Villains who sell their souls for bread , that offer sin and vanity at a price : I should be unwilling my friend should know I am vicious ; but if he could be brought to minister to it , he is not worthy to be my friend : and if I could offer it to him , I do not deserve to clasp hands with a vertuous person . 2. Let no man chuse him for his friend whom it shall be possible for him ever after to hate ; For though the society may justly be interrupted , yet love is an immortal thing , and I will never despise him whom I could once think worthy of my love . A friend that proves not good , is rather to be suffered , than any enmities be entertained : and there are some outer offices of friendship and little drudgeries in which the less worthy are to be imployed , and it is better that he be below stairs than quite thrown out of doors . 3. There are two things which a friend can never pardon , a treacherous blow and the revealing of a secret , because these are against the Nature of friendship ; they are the adulteries of it , and dissolve the Union ; and in the matters of friendship , which is the marriage of souls , these are the proper causes of divorce : and therefore I shall add this only , that secrecy is the chastity of friendship , and the publication of it is a prostitution and direct debauchery ; but a secret , treacherous wound is a perfect and unpardonable Apostasie . I remember a pretty apologue that Bromiard tells , A Fowler in a sharp frosty morning having taken many little birds for which he had long watched , began to take up his nets ; and nipping the birds on the head laid them down . A young Thrush espying the tears trickling down his cheeks by reason of the extreme cold , said to her Mother , that certainly the man was very merciful and compassionate that wept so bitterly over the calamity of the poor Birds : But her Mother told her more wisely , that she might better judge of the mans disposition by his hand than by his eye ; and if the hands do strike treacherously , he can never be admitted to friendship , who speaks fairly and weeps pitifully . Friendship is the greatest honesty and ingenuity in the world . 4. Never accuse thy friend , nor believe him that does ; if thou dost , thou hast broken the skin : but he that is angry with every little fault , breaks the bones of friendship . And when we consider that in society and the accidents of every day , in which no man is constantly pleased or displeased with the same things , we shall find reason to impute the change unto our selves ; and the emanations of the Sun are still glorious , when our eyes are sore : and we have no reason to be angry with an eternal light , because we have a changeable and a mortal faculty . But however , do not think thou didst contract alliance with an Angel , when thou didst take thy friend into thy bosom ; he may be weak as well as thou art , and thou mayest need pardon as well as he , and That man loves flattery more than friendship , who would not only have his friend , but all the contingencies of his friend to humour him . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Theog . 5. Give thy friend counsel wisely and charitably , but leave him to his liberty whether he will follow thee or no : and be not angry if thy counsel be rejected : For advice is no Empire , and he is not my friend that will be my Judge whether I will or no. Neoptolemus had never been honoured with the victory and spoils of Troy if he had attended to the tears and counsel of Lycomedes , who being afraid to venture the young man , fain would have had him sleep at home safe in his little Island ▪ He that gives advice to his friend and exacts obedience to it , does not the kindness and ingenuity of a friend , but the office and pertness of a School-master . 6. Never be a Judge between thy friends in any matter where both set their hearts upon the victory : If strangers or enemies be litigants , whatever side thou favourest , thou gettest a friend , but when friends are the parties thou losest one . 7. Never comport thy self so , as that thy friend can be afraid of thee : for then the state of the relation alters when a new and troublesome passion supervenes . ODERVNT quos METVVNT . Perfect love casteth out fear , and no man is friend to a Tyrant ; but that friendship is Tyranny where the love is changed into fear , equality into empire , society into obedience ; for then all my kindness to him also will be no better than flattery . 8. When you admonish your friend , let it be without bitterness ; when you chide him , let it be without reproach ; when you praise him , let it be with worthy purposes and for just causes , and in friendly measures ; too much of that is flattery , too little is envy : if you do it justly , you teach him true measures ; but when others praise him , rejoyce , though they praise not thee , and remember that if thou esteemest his praise to be thy disparagement , thou art envious , but neither just nor kind . 9. When all things else are equal , prefer an old friend before a new . If thou meanest to spend thy friend , and make a gain of him till he be weary , thou wilt esteem him as a beast of burden , the worse for his age : But if thou esteemest him by noble measures , he will be better to thee by thy being used to him , by trial and experience , by reciprocation of indearments , and an habitual worthiness . An old friend is like old wine , which when a man hath drunk , he doth not desire new , because he saith the old is better . But every old friend was new once ; and if he be worthy , keep the new one till he become old . 10. After all this , treat thy friend nobly , love to be with him , do to him all the worthinesses of love and fair endearment , according to thy capacity and his ; Bear with his infirmities till they approach towards being criminal ; but never dissemble with him , never despise him , never leave him . * Give him gifts and upbraid him not , ‖ and refuse not his kindnesses , and be sure never to despise the smallness or the impropriety of them . Confirmatur amor beneficio accepto : A gift ( saith Solomon ) fasteneth friendships . For as an eye that dwells long upon a Star must be refreshed with lesser beauties and strengthened with greens and Looking-glasses , lest the sight become amazed with too great a splendor ; So must the love of friends sometimes be refreshed with material and low Caresses ; lest by striving to be too divine it become less humane : It must be allowed its share of both : It is humane in giving pardon and fair construction , and openness and ingenuity , and keeping secrets ; it hath something that is divine , because it is beneficent ; but much because it is eternal . POSTSCRIPT . MADAM , IF you shall think it fit that these Papers pass further than your own eye and Closet , I desire they may be consign'd into the hands of my worthy friend Dr. Wedderburne : For I do not only expose all my sickness to his cure , but I submit my weaknesses to his censure ; being as confident to find of him charity for what is pardonable , as remedy for what is curable : But indeed , Madam , I look upon that worthy man as an Idea of Friendship ; and if I had no other notices of Friendship or conversation to instruct me than His , it were sufficient : For whatsoever I can say of Friendship , I can say of His ; and as all that know Him reckon Him amongst the best Physicians , so I know Him worthy to be reckoned amongst the best Friends . TWO LETTERS TO PERSONS Changed in their RELIGION . The First to a Gentlewoman Seduced to the Church of Rome . The other to a Person Returning to the Church of England . Volo Solidum Perenne . THE FIRST LETTER . M. B. I WAS desirous of an opportunity in London to have discoursed with you concerning something of nearest concernment to you ; but the multitude of my little affairs hindred me , and have brought upon you this trouble to read a long Letter ; which yet I hope you will be more willing to do , because it comes from one who hath a great respect to your person , and a very great charity to your soul. I must confess I was on your behalf troubled when I heard you were fallen from the Communion of the Church of England , and entred into a voluntary , unnecessary Schism , and departure from the Laws of the King and the Communion of those with whom you have always lived in charity ; going against those Laws in the defence and profession of which your Husband died ; going from the Religion in which you were Baptized , in which for so many years you lived piously and hoped for Heaven ; and all this without any sufficient reason , without necessity or just scandal ministred to you : and to aggravate all this , you did it in a time when the Church of England was persecuted , when she was marked with the Characterisms of her Lord , the marks of the Cross of Jesus , that is , when she suffered for a holy cause and a holy conscience , when the Church of England was more glorious than at any time before ; Even when she could shew more Martyrs and Confessors than any Church this day in Christendom ; even then when a King died in the profession of her Religion , and thousands of Priests , learned and pious men , suffered the spoiling of their goods rather than they would forsake one Article of so excellent a Religion : So that seriously it is not easily to be imagined that any thing should move you , unless it be that which troubled the perverse Jews , and the Heathen Greek , Scandalum crucis , the scandal of the Cross. You stumbled at that Rock of offence , You left us because we were afflicted , lessened in outward circumstances and wrapped in a cloud : But give me leave only to remind you of that sad saying of the Scripture , that you may avoid the consequent of it ; They that fall on this stone , shall be broken in pieces ; but they on whom it shall fall , shall be grinded to powder . And if we should consider things but prudently , it is a great argument that the sons of our Church are very conscientious and just in their perswasions , when it is evident , that we have no temporal end to serve , nothing but the great end of our souls ; all our hopes of preferment are gone , all secular regards ; only we still have Truth on our sides , and we are not willing with the loss of Truth to change from a persecuted to a prosperous Church , from a Reformed to a Church that will not be reformed ; lest we give scandal to good people that suffer for a holy conscience , and weaken the hands of the afflicted ; of which if you had been more careful , you would have remained much more innocent . But I pray , give me leave to consider for you , because you in your change considered so little for your self ; What fault , what false doctrine , what wicked and dangerous Proposition , what defect , what amiss did you find in the Doctrine and Liturgy and Discipline of the Church of England ? For its Doctrine , It is certain it professes the belief of all that is written in the Old and New Testament , all that which is in the three Creeds , the Apostolical , the Nicene , and that of Athanasius , and whatsoever was decreed in the four General Councils , or in any other truly such ; and whatsoever was condemned in these , our Church hath legally declared it to be Heresie . And upon these accounts above four whole Ages of the Church went to Heaven ; they baptized all their Catechumens into this Faith , their hopes of Heaven was upon this and a good life , their Saints and Martyrs lived and died in this alone , they denied Communion to none that professed this Faith. This is the Catholick Faith , so saith the Creed of Athanasius ; and unless a company of men have power to alter the Faith of God , whosoever live and die in this Faith , are intirely Catholick and Christian. So that the Church of England hath the same ▪ Faith without dispute that the Church had for 400 or 500 years ; and therefore there could be nothing wanting here to Saving Faith , if we live according to our belief . 2. For the Liturgy of the Church of England , I shall not need to say much , because the case will be every evident ; First , Because the disputers of the Church of Rome have not been very forward to object any thing against it , they cannot charge it with any evil : 2. Because for all the time of King Edward the Sixth , and till the Eleventh year of Queen Elizabeth , your people came to our Churches , and prayed with us , till the Bull of Pius Quintus came out upon temporal regards , and made a Schism by forbidding the Queen's Subjects to pray as by Law was here appointed , though the Prayers were good and holy ; as themselves did believe . That Bull enjoyned Recusancy , and made that which was an act of Rebellion , and Disobedience , and Schism , to be the character of your Roman Catholicks . And after this , what can be supposed wanting in order to Salvation ? We have the Word of God , the Faith of the Apostles , the Creeds of the Primitive Church , the Articles of the four first General Councils , a holy Liturgy , excellent Prayers , perfect Sacraments , Faith and Repentance , the Ten Commandments , and the Sermons of Christ , and all the Precepts & counsels of the Gospel . We teach the necessity of good works , and require and strictly exact the severity of a holy life ; We live in obedience to God , and are ready to die for him , and do so when he requires us so to do ; We speak honourably of his most holy Name , we worship him at the mention of his Name , we confess his Attributes , we love his Servants , we pray for all men , we love all Christians , even our most erring Brethren : We confess our sins to God and to our Brethren whom we have offended , and to God's Ministers in cases of Scandal or of a troubled Conscience : We communicate often , we are enjoyned to receive the holy Sacrament thrice every year at least : Our Priests absolve the penitent , our Bishops ordain Priests , and Confirm baptized persons , and bless their people and intercede for them ; and what could here be wanting to Salvation ? what necessity forced you from us ? I dare not suspect it was a Temporal regard that drew you away , but I am sure it could be no Spiritual . But now that I have told you , and made you to consider from whence you went ; give me leave to represent to you , and tell you whither you are gone , that you may understand the nature and conditions of your change : For do not think your self safe , because they tell you that you are come to the Church ; You are indeed gone from one Church to another , from a better to a worse , as will appear in the induction , the particulars of which before I reckon , give me leave to give you this advice : If you mean in this affair to understand what you do , it were better you enquired what your Religion is , than what your Church is ; For that which is a true Religion to day , will be so to morrow and for ever ; but that which is a holy Church to day , may be heretical at the next change , or may betray her trust , or obtrude new Articles in contradiction to the old , or by new interpretations may elude ancient Truths , or may change your Creed , or may pretend to be the Spouse of Christ when she is idolatrous , that is , adulterous to God : Your Religion is that which you must , and therefore may competently understand ; You must live in it , and grow in it , and govern all the actions of your life by it ; and in all questions concerning the Church , you are to chuse your Church by the Religion , and therefore this ought first and last to be enquired after . Whether the Roman Church be the Catholick Church , must depend upon so many uncertain enquiries , is offered to be proved by so long , so tedious a method , hath in it so many intrigues and Labyrinths of Question , and is ( like a long line ) so impossible to be perfectly streight , and to have no declination in it when it is held by such a hand as yours , that unless it be by material enquiries into the Articles of the Religion , you can never hope to have just grounds of confidence . In the mean time you can consider this ; if the Roman Church were the Catholick , that is , so as to exclude all that are not of her communion , then the Greek Churches had as good turn Turks as remain damned Christians ; and all that are in the communion of all the other Patriarchal Churches in Christendom , must also perish like Heathens ; which thing before any man can believe , he must have put off all reason , and all modesty , and all charity . And who can with any probability think that the Communion of Saints in the Creed is nothing but the Communion of Roman Subjects , and the Article of the Catholick Church was made up to dispark the inclosures of Jerusalem , but to turn them into the pale of Rome , and the Church is as limited as ever it was , save only that the Synagogue is translated to Rome , which I think you will easily believe was a Proposition the Apostles understood not . But though it be hard to trust to it , it is also so hard to prove it , that you shall never be able to understand the measures of that question , and therefore your Salvation can never depend upon it . For no good or wise person can believe that God hath tied our Salvation to impossible measures , or bound us to an Article that is not by us cognoscible , or intends to have us conducted by that which we cannot understand . And when you shall know that Learned men , even of the Roman party , are not agreed concerning the Catholick Church that is infallibly to guide you ; Some saying that it is the Virtual Church , that is , the Pope ; Some , that it is the Representative Church , that is , a Council ; Some , that it is the Pope and the Council , the Virtual Church , and the Representative Church together ; Some , that neither of these , nor both together are infallible ; but only , the essential Church , or the diffusive Church is the Catholick , from whom we must at no hand dissent ; you will quickly find your self in a wood , and uncertain whether you have more than a word in exchange for your Soul , when you are told you are in the Catholick Church . But I will tell you what you may understand , and see and feel , something that your self can tell whether I say true or no concerning it . You are now gone to a Church that protects it self by arts of subtilty and arms , by violence and persecuting all that are not of their minds , to a Church in which your are to be a Subject of the King so long as it pleases the Pope : In which you may be absolved from your Vows made to God , your Oaths to the King , your Promises to Men , your duty to your Parents in some cases : A Church in which men pray to God , and to Saints in the same Form of words in which they pray to God , as you may see in the Offices of Saints , and particularly of our Lady : a Church in which men are taught by most of the principal Leaders to worship Images with the same worship with which they worship God and Christ , or him or her whose Image it is , and in which they usually picture God the Father , and the holy Trinity , to the great dishonour of that Sacred mystery , against the doctrine and practice of the Primitive Church , against the express doctrine of Scripture , against the honour of a Divine Attribute , I mean , the Immensity and Spirituality of the Divine Nature ; You are gone to a Church that pretends to be Infallible , and yet is infinitely deceived in many particulars , and yet endures no contradiction , and is impatient her children should enquire into any thing her Priests obtrude . You are gone from receiving the whole Sacrament to receive it but half ; from Christ's Institution to a humane invention , from Scripture to uncertain Traditions , and from ancient Traditions to new pretences , from Prayers which ye understood to Prayers which ye understand not , from confidence in God to rely upon creatures , from intire dependence upon inward acts to a dangerous temptation of resting too much in outward ministeries , in the external work of Sacraments and of Sacramentals . You are gone from a Church whose worshipping is Simple , Christian and Apostolical , to a Church where mens consciences are loaden with a burden of Ceremonies greater than that in the days of the Jewish Religion ( for the Ceremonial of the Church of Rome is a great Book in Folio ) greater I say than all the Ceremonies of the Jews contained in Leviticus , &c. You are gone from a Church where you were exhorted to read the Word of God , the holy Scriptures from whence you found instruction , institution , comfort , reproof , a treasure of all excellencies , to a Church that seals up that Fountain from you , and gives you drink by drops out of such Cisterns as they first make , and then stain , and then reach out . And if it be told you that some men abuse Scripture , it is true ; For if your Priests had not abused Scripture , they could not thus have abused you : But there is no necessity they should , and you need not , unless you list ; any more than you need to abuse the Sacraments or decrees of the Church , or the messages of your friend , or the Letters you receive , or the Laws of the Land ; all which are liable to be abused by evil persons , but not by good people and modest understandings . It is now become a part of your Religion to be ignorant , to walk in blindness , to believe the man that hears your Confessions , to hear none but him , not to hear God speaking but by him , and so you are liable to be abused by him , as he please , without remedy . You are gone from us , where you were only taught to worship God through Jesus Christ , and now you are taught to worship Saints and Angels with a worship at least dangerous , and in some things proper to God ; For your Church worships the Virgin Mary with burning Incense and Candles to her , and you give her Presents , which by the consent of all Nations used to be esteemed a Worship peculiar to God , and it is the same thing which was condemned for Heresie in the Collyridians , who offered a Cake to the Virgin Mary ; A Candle and a Cake make no difference in the worship ; and your joyning God and the Saints in your worship and devotions , is like the device of them that fought for King and Parliament , the latter destroys the former . I will trouble you with no more particulars , because if these move you not to consider better , nothing can . But yet I have two things more to add of another nature , one of which at least may prevail upon you , whom I suppose to have a tender and a religious Conscience . The first is , That all the points of difference between us and your Church are such as do evidently serve the ends of Covetousness and Ambition , of Power and Riches ; and so stand vehemently suspected of design , and art , rather than truth of the Article , and designs upon Heaven . I instance in the Popes power over Princes and all the World ; His power of dispensation , The exemption of the Clergy from jurisdiction of Princes , The doctrine of Purgatory and Indulgences which was once made means to raise a portion for a Lady , the Neece of Pope Leo the Tenth ; The Priests power advanced beyond authority of any warrant from Scripture , a doctrine apt to bring absolute obedience to the Papacy : But because this is possibly too nice for you to suspect or consider , that which I am sure ought to move you , is this : That you are gone to a Religion in which ( though through God's grace prevailing over the follies of men , there are , I hope and charitably suppose , many pious men that love God and live good lives , yet ) there are very many doctrines taught by your men , which are very ill friends to a good life . I instance in your Indulgences and Pardons , in which vicious men put a great confidence , and rely greatly upon them . The doctrine of Purgatory which gives countenance to a sort of Christians who live half to God and half to the world , and for them this doctrine hath found out a way that they may go to Hell and to Heaven too . The Doctrine that the Priests absolution can turn a trifling Repentance into a perfect and a good , and that suddenly too , and at any time , even on our death-bed , or the minute before our death , is a dangerous heap of falshoods , and gives licence to wicked people , and teaches men to reconcile a wicked debauched life , with the hopes of Heaven . And then for Penances and temporal satisfaction , which might seem to be as a plank after the shipwrack of the duty of Repentance , to keep men in awe and to preserve them from sinking in an Ocean of Impiety , it comes to just nothing by your doctrine ; for there are so many easie ways of Indulgences and getting Pardons , so many Con-fraternities , Stations , priviledg'd Altars , little Offices , Agnus Dei's Amulets , Hallowed devices , Swords , Roses , Hats , Church-yards , and the fountain of these annexed Indulgences the Pope himself , and his power of granting what , and when , and to whom he list ; that he is a very unfortunate man that needs to smart with penances ; and after all , he may chuse to suffer any at all , for he may pay them in Purgatory if he please , and he may come out of Purgatory upon reasonable terms , in case he should think it fit to go thither : So that all the whole duty of Repentance seems to be destroyed with devices of men that seek power and gain , and find error and folly ; insomuch that if I had a mind to live an evil Life , and yet hope for Heaven at last , I would be of your Religion above any in the world . But I forget I am writing a Letter : I shall therefore desire you to consider upon the Promises , which is the safer way . For surely it is lawful for a man to serve God without Images ; but that to worship Images is lawful , is not so sure . It is lawful to pray to God alone , to confess him to be true , and every man a lyar , to call no man Master upon Earth , but to rely upon God teaching us ; But it is at least hugely disputable and not at all certain that any man , or society of men can be infallible , that we may put our trust in Saints , in certain extraordinary Images , or burn Incense and offer consumptive oblations to the Virgin Mary , or make Vows to persons , of whose state , or place , or capacities , or condition we have no certain revelation . We are sure we do well , when in the holy Communion we worship God and Jesus Christ our Saviour ; but they who also worship what seems to be Bread , are put to strange shifts to make themselves believe it to be lawful . It is certainly lawful to believe what we see and feel ; but it is an unnatural thing upon pretence of faith to disbelieve our eyes , when our sense and our faith can better be reconciled , as it is in the question of the Real Presence , as it is taught by the Church of England . So that unless you mean to prefer a danger before safety , temptation to unholiness before a severe and a holy Religion : Unless you mean to lose the benefit of your Prayers by praying what you perceive not , and the benefit of the Sacrament in great degrees by falling from Christ's institution , and taking half instead of all : Unless you desire to provoke God to jealousie by Images , and Man to jealousie in professing a Religion in which you may in many cases have leave to forfeit your faith and lawful trust : Unless you will still continue to give scandal to those good people with whom you have lived in a common Religion , and weaken the hearts of God's afflicted ones : Unless you will chuse a Catechism without the Second Commandment , and a Faith that grows bigger or less as men please , and a Hope that in many degrees relies on men and vain confidences , and a Charity that damns all the World but your selves : Unless you will do all this , that is , suffer an abuse in your Prayers , in the Sacrament , in the Commandments , in Faith , in Hope , in Charity , in the Communion of Saints , and your duty to your Supreme , you must return to the bosom of your Mother the Church of England from whence you have fallen , rather weakly than maliciously ; and I doubt not but you will find the Comfort of it all your Life , and in the Day of your Death , and in the Day of Judgment . If you will not , yet I have freed mine own Soul , and done an act of Duty and Charity , which at least you are bound to take kindly , if you will not entertain it obediently . Now let me add this , That although most of these Objections are such things which are the open and avowed doctrines or practices of your Church , and need not to be proved as being either notorious or confessed ; yet if any of your Guides shall seem to question any thing of it , I will bind my self to verifie it to a tittle , and in that too which I intend them , that is , so as to be an Objection obliging you to return , under the pain of folly or heresie , or disobedience , according to the subject matter . And though I have propounded these things now to your consideration , yet , if it be desired , I shall represent them to your eye , so that even your self shall be able to give sentence in the behalf of Truth . In the mean time give me leave to tell you of how much folly you are guilty in being moved by such mock-arguments as your men use when they meet with women and tender consciences and weaker understandings . The first is ; Where was your Church before Luther ? Now if you had called upon them to speak something against your Religion from Scripture , or right Reason , or Universal Tradition , you had been secure as a Tortoise in her shell ; a Cart pressed with Sheaves could not have oppressed your cause or person ; though you had confessed you understood nothing of the mysteries of succession doctrinal or personal . For if we can make it appear that our Religion was that which Christ and his Apostles taught , let the Truth suffer what Eclipses or prejudices can be supposed , let it be hid like the holy fire in the captivity ; yet what Christ and his Apostles taught us , is eternally true , and shall by some means or other be conveyed to us ; even the enemies of Truth have been conservators of that Truth by which we can confute their Errors . But if you still ask where it was before Luther ? I answer , it was there where it was after ; even in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament ; and I know no warrant for any other Religion : And if you will expect I should shew any Society of men who professed all the doctrines which are now expressed in the Confession of the Church of England ; I shall tell you it is unreasonable ; because some of our Truths are now brought into our publick Confessions that they might be oppos'd against your Errors ; before the occasion of which there was no need of any such Confessions , till you made many things necessary to be professed , which are not lawful to be believed . For if we believe your superinduc'd follies , we shall do unreasonably , unconscionably , and wickedly ; but the questions themselves are so useless , abstracting from the accidental necessity which your follies have brought upon us , that it had been happy if we had never heard of them more than the Saints and Martyrs did in the first Ages of the Church . But because your Clergy have invaded the liberty of the Church , and multiplied the dangers of damnation , and pretend new necessities , and have introduc'd new Articles , and affright the simple upon new pretensions , and slight the very institution and the Commands of Christ and of the Apostles , and invent new Sacramentals , constituting Ceremonies of their own head , and promise grace along with the use of them , as if they were not Ministers but Lords of the Spirit , and teach for doctrines the commandments of men , and make void the Commandment of God by their tradition , and have made a strange Body of Divinity ; therefore it is necessary that we should immure our Faith by the refusal of such vain and superstitious dreams : but our Faith was completed at first , it is no other than that which was delivered to the Saints , and can be no more for ever . So that it is a foolish demand to require that we should shew before Luther a Systeme of Articles declaring our sence in these questions : It was long before they were questions at all ; and when they were made questions , they remained so , a long time ; and when by their several pieces they were determined , this part of the Church was oppressed with a violent power ; and when God gave opportunity , then the yoke was broken ; and this is the whole progress of this affair . But if you will still insist upon it , then let the matter be put into equal balances , and let them shew any Church whose Confession of Faith was such as was obtruded upon you at Trent : and if your Religion be Pius Quartus his Creed at Trent , then we also have a question to ask , and that is , Where was your Religion before Trent ? The Council of Trent determined , That the Souls departed before the day of Judgment enjoy the Beatifical Vision . It is certain this Article could not be shewn in the Confession of any of the ancient Churches ; for most of the Fathers were of another opinion . But that which is the greatest offence of Christendom , is not only that these doctrines which we say are false were yet affirmed , but that those things which the Church of God did always reject , or held as Uncertain , should be made Articles of Faith , and so become parts of your Religion ; and of these it is that I again ask the question which none of your side shall ever be able to answer for you : Where was your Religion before Trent ? I could instance in many particulars , but I shall name one to you , which because the thing of it self is of no great consequence , it will appear the more unreasonable and intolerable that your Church should adopt it into the things of necessary belief , especially since it was only a matter of fact , and they took the false part too . For in the 21. Sess. Chap. 4. it is affirmed , That although the holy Fathers did give the Sacrament of the Eucharist to Infants , yet they did it without any necessity of salvation , that is , they did not believe it necessary to their salvation : Which is notoriously false , and the contrary is marked out with the black-lead of every man almost that reads their Works ; and yet your Council says this is sine controversiâ credendum , to be believed without all controversie ; and all Christians forbidden to believe or teach otherwise . So that here it is made an Article of Faith amongst you , that a man shall neither believe his reason nor his eyes : and who can shew any Confession of Faith in which all the Trent-doctrine was professed and enjoyned under pain of damnation ? And before the Council of Constance , the doctrine touching the Popes power was so new , so decried , that as Gerson says , he hardly should have escaped the note of Heresie that would have said so much as was there defined : So that in that Article which now makes a great part of your belief , where was your Religion before the Council of Constance ? And it is notorious that your Council of Constance determined the doctrine of the Half-communion with a Non obstante to Christ's institution , that is , with a defiance to it , or a noted , observed neglect of it , and with a profession it was otherwise in the Primitive Church . Where then was your Religion before John Hus and Hierom of Prague's time , against whom that Council was convened ? But by this instance it appears most certainly that your Church cannot shew her Confessions immediately after Christ , and therefore if we could not shew ours immediately before Luther , it were not half so much ; For since you receded from Christ's Doctrine , we might well recede from yours ; and it matters not who or how many or how long they professed your doctrine , if neither Christ nor his Apostles did teach it : So that if these Articles constitute your Church , your Church was invisible at the first ; and if ours was invisible afterwards , it matters not ; For yours was invisible in the days of light , and ours was invisible in the days of darkness . For our Church was always visible in the reflections of Scripture , and he that had his eyes of Faith and Reason might easily have seen these Truths all the way which constitute our Church . But I add yet farther , that our Church before Luther was there where your Church was , in the same place and in the same persons : For divers of the Errors which have been amongst us reformed , were not the constituent Articles of your Church before Luther's time ; for before the last Councils of your Church a man might have been of your Communion upon easier terms ; and Indulgences were indeed a practice , but no Article of Faith before your men made it so , and that very lately , and so were many other things besides . So that although your men cozen the credulous and the simple by calling yours The old Religion , yet the difference is vast between Truth and their affirmative , even as much as between old Errors and new Articles . For although Ignorance and Superstition had prepared the Oar , yet the Councils of Constance and Basil , and Trent especially , were the Forges and the Mint . Lastly , If your men had not by all the vile and violent arts of the world stopped the mouths of dissenters , the question would quickly have been answered , or our Articles would have been so confessed , so owned and so publick , that the question could never have been asked ; But in despite of all opposition , there were great numbers of professors who did protest and profess and practise our doctrines contrary to your Articles ; as it is demonstrated by the Divines of Germany in Illyricus his Catalogus testium veritatis , and in Bishop Morton's Appeal . But with your next objection you are better pleased , and your men make most noise with it . For you pretend that by our confession Salvation may be had in your Church , but your men deny it to us ; and therefore by the confession of both sides you may be safe , and there is no question concerning you ; but of us there is great question , for none but our selves say that we can be saved . I answer , 1. That Salvation may be had in your Church , is it ever the truer because we say it ? If it be not , it can add no confidence to you , for the Proposition gets no strength by our affirmative . But if it be , then our authority is good or else our reason ; and if either be , then we have more reason to be believed speaking of our selves ; because we are concerned to see that our selves may be in a state of hope ; and therefore we would not venture on this side if we had not greater reason to believe well of our selves than of you . And therefore believe us when it is more likely that we have greater reason , because we have greater concernments , and therefore greater considerations . 2. As much charity as your men pretend us to speak of you , yet it is a clear case our hope of your Salvation is so little , that we dare not venture our selves on your side . The Burger of Oldwater being to pass a River in his journey to Daventry , bad his man try the ford ; telling him he hoped he should not be drowned , for though he was afraid the River was too deep , yet he thought his Horse would carry him out , or at least the Boats would fetch him off . Such a confidence we may have of you , but you will find that but little warranty , if you remember how great an interest it is that you venture . 3. It would be remembred that though the best ground of your hope is not the goodness of your own faith , but the greatness of our charity ; yet we that charitably hope well of you , have a fulness of assurance of the truth and certainty of our own way ; and however you can please your selves with Images of things , as having no firm footing for your trifling confidence , yet you can never with your tricks out-face us of just and firm adherencies ; and if you were not empty of supports , and greedy of bulrushes , snatching at any thing to support your sinking cause , you would with fear and trembling consider the direct dangers which we demonstrate to you to be in your Religion , rather than flatter your selves with collateral , weak , and deceitful hopes of accidental possibilities , that some of you may escape . 4. If we be more charitable to you than you are to us , acknowledge in us the beauty and essential form of Christian Religion , be sure you love as well as make use of our charity : But if you make our charity an argument against us , remember that you render us evil in exchange for good ; and let it be no brag to you that you have not that charity to us ; For therefore the Donatists were condemned for Hereticks and Schismaticks , because they damn'd all the world , and afforded no charity to any that was not of their Communion . 5. But that our charity may be such indeed , that is , that it may do you a real benefit , and not turn into Wormwood and Coloquintids , I pray take notice in what sence it is that we allow Salvation may possibly be had in your Church . We warrant it not to any , we only hope it for some ; we allow it to them as to the Sadduces in the Law , and to the Corinthians in the Gospel who denied the Resurrection ; that is , till they were sufficiently instructed , and competently convinced , and had time and powers to out-wear their prejudices and the impresses of their education and long perswasion . But to them amongst you who can and do consider and yet determine for error and interest , we have a greater charity , even so much as to labour and pray for their conversion , but not so much fondness as to flatter them into boldness and pertinacious adherencies to matters of so great danger . 6. But in all this affair , though your men are very bold with God and leap into his Judgment-seat before him , and give wild sentences concerning the Salvation of your own party and the Damnation of all that disagree ; yet that which is our charity to you , is indeed the fear of God , and the reverence of his judgments . We do not say that all Papists are certainly damn'd , we wish and desire vehemently that none of you may perish . But then this charity of judgment relates not to you , nor is derived from any probability which we see in your doctrines that differ from ours : But because we know not what rate and value God puts upon the Article ; It concerns neither you nor us to say , this or that man shall be damn'd for his opinion : For besides that this is a bold intrusion into that secret of God which shall not be opened till the day of Judgment ; and besides that we know not what allays and abatements are to be made by the good meaning and the ignorance of the man ; all that can concern us is to tell you that you are in error , that you depart from Scripture , that you exercise tyranny over souls , that you leave the Divine institution , and prevaricate God's Commandment , that you divide the Church without truth and without necessity , that you tie men to believe things under pain of damnation which cannot be made very probable , much less certain ; and therefore that you sin against God and are in danger of his eternal displeasure . But in giving the final sentence as we have no more to do than your men have , yet so we refuse to follow your evil example ; and we follow the glorious precedent of our Blessed Lord ; who decreed and declared against the crime , but not against the Criminal before the day . He that does this , or that , is in danger of the Council , or in danger of judgment , or liable and obnoxious to the danger of Hell fire : So we say of your greatest Errors , they put you in the danger of perishing ; but that you shall or shall not perish , we leave it to your Judge ; and if you call this Charity , it is well , I am sure it is Piety and the fear of God. 7. Whether you may be saved , or whether you shall be damned for your errors , does neither depend upon our affirmative not your negative , but according to the rate and value which God sets upon things . Whatever we talk , things are as they are , not as we dispute , or grant , or hope ; and therefore it were well if your men would leave abusing you and themselves with these little arts of indirect support . For many men that are warranted , yet do eternally perish ; and you in your Church damn millions who I doubt not shall reign with Jesus eternally in the Heavens . 8. I wish you would consider , that if any of our men say Salvation may be had in your Church , it is not for the goodness of your new Propositions , but only because you do keep so much of that which is our Religion , that upon the confidence of that we hope well concerning you . And we do not hope any thing at all that is good of you or your Religion as it distinguishes from us and ours . We hope that the good which you have common with us may obtain pardon directly or indirectly , or may be an Antidote of the venome , and an Amulet against the danger of your very great Errors : So that if you can derive any confidence from our concession , you must remember where it takes root ; not upon any thing of yours , but wholly upon the excellency of ours : You are not at all safe , or warranted for being Papists ; but we hope well of some of you , for having so much of the Protestant : and if that will do you any good , proceed in it , and follow it whithersoever it leads you . 9. The safety that you dream of , which we say to be on your side , is nothing of allowance or warranty , but a hope that is collateral , indirect and relative . We do not say any thing whereby you can conclude yours to be safer than ours ; for it is not safe at all , but extremely dangerous : We affirm those errors in themselves to be damnable , some to contain in them Impiety , some to have Sacriledge , some Idolatry , some Superstition , some practices to be conjuring and charming and very like to Witchcraft , as in your hallowing of Water , and baptizing Bells , and exorcising Demoniacks ; and what safety there can be in these , or what you can fancy we should allow to you , I suppose you need not boast of . Now because we hope some are saved amongst you , you must not conclude yours to be safe ; for our hope relies upon this : There are many of your Propositions in which we differ from you , that thousands amongst you understand and know nothing of ; it is to them as if they were not ; it is to them now as it was before the Council , they hear not of it . And though your Priests have taken a course that the most ignorant do practise some of your abominations most grosly , yet we hope this will not be laid upon them who ( as S. Austin's expression is ) cautâ sollicitudine quaerunt varitatem , corrigi parati cum invenerint ; do according as they are able warily and diligently seek for Truth , and are ready to follow it when they find it ; men who live good lives , and repent of all their evils known and unknown . Now if we are not deceived in our hopes , these men shall rejoyce in the eternal goodness of God , which prevails over the malice of them that misguide you : But if we be deceived in our hopes of you , your guides have abus'd you , and the blind leaders of the blind will fall together . For , 10. If you will have the secret of this whole affair , this it is . The hopes we have of any of you , ( as it is known ) principally relies upon the hopes of your repentance . Now we say that a man may repent of an error which he knows not of ; as he that prays heartily for the pardon of all his sins and errors known and unknown ; by his general repentance may obtain many degrees and instances of mercy . Now thus much also your men allow to us ; these who live well , and die in a true , though but general , repentance of their sins and errors even amongst us , your best and wisest men pronounce to be in a savable condition . Here then we are equal , and we are as safe by your confession as you are by ours . But because there are some Bigots of your faction , fierce and fiery , who say that a general repentance will not serve our turns , but it must be a particular renunciation of Protestancy ; these men deny not only to us but to themselves too , all that comfort which they derive from our Concession , and indeed which they can hope for from the mercies of God. For be you sure we think as ill of your Errors as you can suppose of our Articles ; and therefore if for Errors ( be they on which side it chances ) a general repentance will not serve the turn without an actual dereliction , then flatter not your selves by any thing of our kindness to your party ; for you must have a particular , if a general be not sufficient . But if it be sufficient for you , it is so for us , in case we be in error as your men suppose us ; but if it will not suffice us for remedy to those Errors you charge us with , neither will it suffice you ; for the case must needs be equal as to the value of repentance and malignity of the error : and therefore these men condemn themselves and will not allow us to hope well of them : But if they will allow us to hope , it must be by affirming the value of a general repentance ; and if they allow that , they must hope as well of ours as we of theirs : But if they deny it to us , they deny it to themselves ; and then they can no more brag of any thing of our concession . This only I add to this consideration ; That your men do not , cannot charge upon us any doctrine that is in its matter and effect impious ; there is nothing positive in our doctrine , but is either true or innocent ; but we are accus'd for denying your superstructures : Ours therefore ( if we be deceived ) is but like a sin of omission ; yours are sins of commission in case you are in the wrong ( as we believe you to be ) and therefore you must needs be in the greater danger than we can be supposed , by how much sins of omission are less than sins of commission . 11. Your very way of arguing from our charity is a very fallacy , and a trick that must needs deceive you if you rely upon it . For whereas your men argue thus ; The Protestants say we Papists may be saved ; and so say we too ; but we Papists say that you Protestants cannot , therefore it is safest to be a Papist : Consider that of this argument , if it shall be accepted , any bold Heretick can make use , against any modest Christian of a true perswasion . For , if he can but out-face the modesty of the good man , and tell him he shall be damn'd ; unless that modest man say as much of him , you see impudence shall get the better of the day . But it is thus in every error . Fifteen Bishops of Jerusalem in immediate succession were circumcised , believing it to be necessary so to be : with these other Christian Churches who were of the uncircumcision did communicate : Suppose now that these Bishops had not only thought it necessary for themselves , but for others too ; this argument you see was ready ; You of the uncircumcision who do communicate with us , think that we may be saved though we are circumcised ; but we do not think that you who are not circumcised can be saved , therefore it is the safest way to be circumcised : I suppose you would not have thought their argument good , neither would you have had your children circumcised . But this argument may serve the Presbyterians as well as the Papists . We are indeed very kind to them in our sentences concerning their Salvation ; and they are many of them as unkind to us . If they should argue so as you do , and say , You Episcopal men think we Presbyterians , though in errors , can be saved , and we say so too : but we think you Episcopal men are Enemies of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ ; and therefore we think you in a damnable condition ; therefore it is safer to be a Presbyterian : I know not what your men would think of the argument in their hands , I am sure we had reason to complain that we are used very ill on both hands for no other cause but because we are charitable . But it is not our case alone ; but the ●ld Catholicks were used just so by the Donatists in this very argument , as we are used 〈◊〉 our men . The Donatists were so fierce against the Catholicks , that they would re-baptize all them who came to their Churches from the other : But the Catholicks , as knowing the Donatists did give right Baptism , admitted their Converts to Repentance , but did not re-baptize them . Upon this score , the Donatists triumphed , saying , You Catholicks confess our Baptism to be good , and so say we : But we Donatists deny your Baptism to be good ; therefore it is safer to be of our side than yours . Now what should the Catholicks say or do ? Should they lie for God and for Religion , and to serve the ends of Truth say , the Donatists Baptism was not good ? That they ought not . Should they damn all the Donatists , and make the rent wider ? It was too great already . What then ? They were quiet , and knew that the Donatists sought advantages by their own fierceness , and trampled upon the others charity ; but so they hardned themselves in error , and became evil , because the others were good . I shall trouble you no further now , but desire you to consider of these things with as much caution , as they were written with charity . Till I hear from you , I shall pray to God to open your heart and your understanding , that you may return from whence you are fallen , and repent , and do your first works . Which that you may do , is the hearty desire of Your very affectionate Friend and Servant , JER . TAYLOR . THE SECOND LETTER : Written to a Person newly Converted to the CHURCH of ENGLAND . Madam , I Bless God I am safely arrived where I desired to be after my unwilling departure from the place of your abode and danger : And now because I can have no other expression of my tenderness , I account that I have a treble Obligation to signifie it by my care of your biggest and eternal interest . And because it hath pleased God to make me an Instrument of making you to understand in some fair measure the excellencies of a true and holy Religion , and that I have pointed out such follies and errors in the Roman Church , at which your understanding being forward and pregnant , did of it self start as at imperfect ill-looking Propositions , give me leave to do that now which is the purpose of my Charity , that is , teach you to turn this to the advantage of a holy life , that you may not only be changed but converted . For the Church of England whither you are now come is not in condition to boast her self in the reputation of changing the opinion of a single person , though never so excellent ; She hath no temporal ends to serve which must stand upon fame and noises ; all that she can design , is to serve God , to advance the honour of the Lord , and the good of Souls , and to rejoyce in the Cross of Christ. First , therefore I desire you to remember that as now you are taught to pray both publickly and privately , in a Language understood , so it is intended your affections should be forward , in proportion to the advantages which your prayer hath in the understanding part . For though you have been often told and have heard , that Ignorance is the mother of devotion ; you will find that the proposition is unnatural and against common sense and experience ; because it is impossible to desire that of which we know nothing , unless the desire it self be fantastical and illusive : it is necessary that in the same proportion in which we understand any good thing , in the same we shall also desire it ; and the more particular and minute your notices are , the more passionate and material also your affections will be towards it : and if they be good things for which we are taught to pray , the more you know them , the more reason you have to love them . It is monstrous to think that devotion , that is , passionate desires of religious things , and the earnest prosecutions of them , should be produced by any thing of ignorance or less perfect notices in any sence . Since therefore you are taught to pray , so that your understanding is the Precentor or the Master of the Quire , and you know what you say ; your desires are made humane , religious , express , material ( for these are the advantages of Prayers and Liturgies well understood ) be pleased also to remember , that now if you be not also passionate and devout for the things you mention , you will want the Spirit of prayer , and be more inexcusable than before . In many of your Prayers before ( especially the publick ) you heard a voice , but saw and perceived nothing of the sence ; and what you understood of it was like the man in the Gospel that was half blind , he saw men walking like Trees , and so you possibly might perceive the meaning of it in general ; You knew when they came to the Epistle , when to the Gospel , when the Introit , when the Pa● , when any of the other more general periods were ; but you could have nothing of the Spirit of prayer , that is , nothing of the devotion and the holy affections to the particular excellencies which could or ought there to have been represented : But now you are taught how you may be really devout , it is made facil and easie , and there can want nothing but your consent and observation . 2. Whereas now you are taken off from all humane confidences , from relying wholly and almost ultimately upon the Priests power and external act , from reckoning prayers by numbers , from forms and out-sides ; you are not to think that the Priests power is less , that the Sacraments are not effective , that your prayers may not be repeated frequently : But you are to remember , that all outward things and Ceremonies , all Sacraments and Institutions work their effect in the vertue of Christ , by some moral Instrument : The Priests in the Church of England can absolve you as much as the Roman Priests could fairly pretend ; but then we teach that you must first be a penitent and a returning person , and our absolution does but manifest the work of God , and comfort and instruct your Conscience , direct and manage it : You shall be absolved here , but not unless you live an holy life ; So that in this you will find no change but to the advantage of a strict life ; we will not flatter you and cozen your dear Soul by pretended ministeries , but we so order our discourses and directions that all our ministrations may be really effective . And when you receive the holy Sacrament of the Eucharist , or the Lord's Supper , it does more good here than they do there ; because if they consecrate rightly , yet they do not communicate you fully ; and if they offer the whole representative Sacrifice , yet they do not give you the whole Sacrament ; only we enjoyn that you come with so much holiness , that the grace of God in your heart may be the principal , and the Sacrament in our hands may be the ministring and assisting part . We do not promise great effects to easie trifling dispositions , because we would not deceive , but really procure to you great effects ; and therefore you are now to come to our offices with the same expectations as before , of pardon , of grace , of sanctification ; but you must do something more of the work your self , that we may not do less in effect than you have in your expectation ; We will not , to advance the reputation of our power , deceive you into a less blessing . 3. Be careful that you do not flatter your self , that in our Communion you may have more ease and liberty of life : For though I know your pious Soul desires passionately to please God and to live religiously , yet I ought to be careful to prevent a temptation , lest it at any time should discompose your severity : Therefore as to confession to a Priest ( which how it is usually practised among the Roman party , your self can very well account , and you have complain'd sadly , that it is made an ordinary act , easie and transient , sometime matter of temptation , oftentimes impertinent , but ) suppose it free from such scandal to which some mens folly did betray it , yet the same severity you 'l find among us : For though we will not tell a lie to help a sinner , and say that is necessary which is only appointed to make men do themselves good ; yet we advise and commend it ; and do all the work of Souls to all those people that will be saved by all means , to devout persons , that make Religion the business of their lives ; and they that do not so in the Churches of the Roman Communion , as they find but little advantage by periodical confessions , so they feel but little awfulness and severity by the injunction . You must confess to God all your secret actions , you must advise with a holy man in all the affairs of your Soul , you will be but an ill friend to your self if you conceal from him the state of your spiritual affairs . We desire not to hear the circumstance of every sin , but when matter of justice is concerned , or the nature of the sin is changed , that is , when it ought to be made a Question ; and you will find that though the Church of England gives you much liberty from the bondage of innumerable Ceremonies and humane devices , yet in the matter of holiness you will be tied to very great service , but such a service as is perfect freedom , that is , the service of God and the love of the holy Jesus , and a very strict religious life : For we do not promise Heaven , but upon the same terms it is promised us , that is , Repentance towards God , and Faith in our Lord Jesus : and as in Faith we make no more to be necessary than what is made so in holy Scripture , so in the matter of Repentance we give you no easie devices , and suffer no lessening definitions of it , but oblige you to that strictness which is the condition of being saved , and so expressed to be by the infallible Word of God ; but such as in the Church of Rome they do not so much stand upon . Madam , I am weary of my Journey , and although I did purpose to have spoken many things more , yet I desire that my not doing it may be laid upon the account of my weariness ; all that I shall add to the main business is this . 4. Read the Scripture diligently , and with an humble spirit , and in it observe what is plain , and believe and live accordingly . Trouble not your self with what is difficult , for in that your duty is not described . 5. Pray frequently and effectually ; I had rather your prayers should be often than long . It was well said of Petrarch , Magno verborum fraeno uti decet cum superiore colloquentem . When you speak to your Superior , you ought to have a bridle upon your tongue , much more when you speak to God. I speak of what is decent in respect of our selves and our infinite distances from God : But if love makes you speak , speak on , so shall your prayers be full of charity and devotion , Nullus est amore superior , ille te coget ad veniam , qui me ad multiloquium ; Love makes God to be our friend , and our approaches more united and acceptable ; and therefore you may say to God , The same love which made me speak , will also move thee to hear and pardon : Love and devotion may enlarge your Litanies , but nothing else can , unless Authority does interpose . 6. Be curious not to communicate but with the true Sons of the Church of England , lest if you follow them that were amongst us , but are gone out from us ( because they were not of us ) you be offended and tempted to impute their follies to the Church of England . 7. Trouble your self with no controversies willingly , but how you may best please God by a strict and severe conversation . 8. If any Protestant live loosely , remember that he dishonours an excellent Religion , and that it may be no more laid upon the charge of our Church , than the ill lives of most Christians may upon the whole Religion . 9. Let no man or woman affright you with declamations and scaring words of Heretick , and Damnation , and Changeable ; for these words may be spoken against them that return to light , as well as to those that go to darkness ; and that which men of all sides can say , it can be of effect to no side upon its own strength or pretension . THE END . THREE LETTERS WRITTEN TO A GENTLEMAN That was tempted to the Communion of the ROMISH CHURCH . The First Letter . SIR , YOU needed not to make the Preface of an excuse for writing so friendly , and so necessary a Letter of Inquiry . It was your kindness to my person which directed your addresses hither ; and your duty which ingag'd you to inquire some-where . I do not doubt but you , and very many other ingenious and conscientious persons , do every day meet with the Tempters of the Roman Church , who like the Pharisees compass Sea and Land to get a Proselyte ; at this I wonder not ; for as Demetrius said , by this craft they get their living : but I wonder that any ingenious person , and such as I perceive you to be , can be shaken by their weak assaults : for their batteries are made up with impossible propositions , and weak and violent prejudices respectively ; and when they talk of their own infallibility , they prove it with false Mediums ( say we ) with fallible Mediums as themselves confess ; and when they argue us of an Uncertain Faith , because we pretend to no infallibility , they are themselves much more Uncertain , because they build their pretence of infallibility upon that which not only can , but will deceive them : and since they can pretend no higher for their infallibility than prudential motives , they break in pieces the staff upon which they lean , and with which they strike us . But Sir , you are pleased to ask two Questions . 1. Whether the Apostles of our Blessed Lord did not Orally deliver many things necessary to Salvation which were not committed to writing ? To which you add this assumentum , [ in which because you desire to be answered , I suppose you meant it for another Question ] viz. whether in those things which the Church of Rome retains , and we take no notice of , She be an Innovator , or a conserver of Tradition ; and whether any thing which she so retains was or was not esteemed necessary ? The answer to the first part , will conclude the second . I therefore answer , that whatsoever the Apostles did deliver as necessary to Salvation , all that was written in the Scriptures : and that to them who believe the Scriptures to be the word of God , there needs no other Magazine of Divine truths but the Scripture . And this the Fathers of the first and divers succeeding Ages do Unanimously affirm . I will set down two or three , so plain that either you must conclude them to be deceivers , or that you will need no more but their testimony . The words of S. Basil are these , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. Every word and every thing ought to be made credible , or believ'd by the testimony of the Divinely-inspired Scripture : both for the confirmation of good things , and also for the reproof of the evil . S. Cyril of Jerusalem , Catech. 12. Illuminat . saith , Attend not to my inventions , for you may possibly be deceiv'd : but trust no word unless thou dost learn it from the Divine Scriptures : and in Catech. 4. Illum . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. For it behoves us not to deliver so much as the least thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , of the Divine and holy mysteries of Faith without the Divine Scriptures , nor to be moved with probable discourses : Neither give credit to me speaking , unless what is spoken be demonstrated by the Holy Scriptures . For that is the security of our Faith , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which is derived not from witty inventions , but from the demonstration of Divine Scriptures . Omne quod loquimur debemus affirmare de Scripturis Sanctis : so S. Hierom in Psal. 89. And again , Hoc quia de Scripturis authoritatem non habet , eâdem facilitate contemnitur quâ probatur , in Matth. 23. Si quid dicitur absque Scripturâ auditorum cogitatio claudicat . So S. Chrysostom in Psal. 95. Homil. Theodoret Dial. 1. cap. 6. brings in the Orthodox Christian saying to Eranistes : Bring not to me your Logismes and Syllogismes , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , I rely only upon Scriptures . I could reckon very , very many more , both elder and later : and if there be any Universal Tradition consigned to us by the Universal Testimony of Antiquity , it is this , that the Scriptures are a perfect repository of all the Will of God , of all the Faith of Christ : and this I will engage my self to make very apparent to you , and certain against any opposer . Upon the supposition of which it follows , that whatever the Church of Rome obtrudes as necessary to Salvation , and an Article of Faith that is not in Scripture , is an Innovation in matter of Faith , and a Tyranny over Consciences : which whosoever submits to , prevaricates the rule of the Apostle , commanding us , that we stand fast in the liberty , with which Christ hath set us free . To the other Question ; Whether an Ecclesiastical Tradition be of equal authority with Divine ? I answer Negatively : And I believe I shall have no adversary in it , except peradventure some of the Jesuited Bigots . An Ecclesiastical Tradition , viz. a positive constitution of the Church delivered from hand to hand ; is in the power of the Church to alter : but a Divine is not . Ecclesiastical Traditions in matters of Faith there are none , but what are also Divine ; as for Rituals Ecclesiastical descending by Tradition , they are confessedly alterable : but till they be altered by abrogation , or desuetude , or contrary custom , or a contrary reason or the like , they do oblige by vertue of that Authority whatsoever it is that hath power over you . I know not what Mr. G. did say , but I am confident they who reported it of him , were mistaken : He could not say or mean what is charged upon him . I have but two things more to speak to . One is , you desire me to recite what else might impede your compliance with the Roman Church ? I answer , Truth and Piety hinder you . For you must profess the belief of many false propositions , and certainly believe many Uncertain things , and be uncharitable to all the world but your own party , and make Christianity a faction , and you must yield your reason a servant to man , and you must plainly prevaricate an institution of Christ , and you must make an apparent departure from the Church in which you received your Baptism and the Spirit of God , if you go over to Rome . But Sir , I refer you to the two Letters I have lately published at the end of my Discourse of Friendship ; and I desire you to read my Treatise of the Real Presence : and if you can believe the doctrine of Transubstantiation , you can put off your reason and your sense , and your religion , and all the instruments of Credibility when you please : and these are not little things ; In these you may perish : an error in these things is practical ; but our way is safe , as being upon the defence , and intirely resting upon Scripture , and the Apostolical Churches . The other thing I am to speak to is , the report you have heard of my inclinations to go over to Rome . Sir , that party which needs such lying stories for the support of their Cause , proclaim their Cause to be very weak , or themselves to be very evil Advocates . Sir , be confident , they dare not tempt me to do so , and it is not the first time they have endeavoured to serve their ends by saying such things of me . But I bless God for it ; it is perfectly a Slander , and it shall , I hope , for ever prove so . Sir , if I may speak with you , I shall say very many things more for your confirmation . Pray to God to guide you ; and make no change suddenly : For if their way be true to day , it will be so to morrow ; and you need not make haste to undo your self . Sir , I wish you a setled mind and a holy Conscience ; and that I could serve you in the capacity of Your very Loving Friend and Servant in our Blessed Lord , JER . TAYLOR . Munday , Jan. 11. 1657. THE SECOND LETTER . SIR , I Perceive that you are very much troubled ; and I see also that you are in great danger ; but that also troubles me , because I see they are little things and very weak and fallacious that move you . You propound many things in your Letter in the same disorder as they are in your Conscience : to all which I can best give answers when I speak with you ; to which because you desire , I invite you , and promise you a hearty endeavour to give you satisfaction in all your material inquiries . Sir , I desire you to make no haste to change , in case you be so miserable as to have it in your thoughts : for to go over to the Church of Rome is like death , there is no recovery from thence without a Miracle ; because Unwary souls ( such are they who change from us to them ) are with all the arts of wit and violence strangely entangled and ensur'd , when they once get the prey . Sir , I thank you for the Paper you inclosed . The men are at a loss , they would fain say something against that Book , but know not what . Sir , I will endeavour if you come to me , to restore you to peace and quiet ; and if I cannot effect it , yet I will pray for it , and I am sure , God can . To his Mercy I commend you and rest Your very affectionate Friend in our Blessed Lord , JER . TAYLOR . Febr. 1. 1657 / 8. THE THIRD LETTER . SIR , THE first Letter which you mention in this latter of the 10 th of March , I received not ; I had not else failed to give you an answer ; I was so wholly unknowing of it , that I did not understand your Servant's meaning when he came to require an answer . But to your Question which you now propound , I answer . Quest. Whether without all danger of Superstition or Idolatry we may not render Divine worship to our Blessed Saviour , as present in the Blessed Sacrament or Host , according to his Humane Nature in that Host ? Answ. We may not render Divine worship to him ( as present in the Blessed Sacrament according to his Humane Nature ) without danger of Idolatry : Because he is not there according to his Humane Nature , and therefore , you give Divine worship to a Non Ens , which must needs be Idolatry . For Idolum nihil est in mundo , saith S. Paul , and Christ as present by his Humane Nature in the Sacrament is a Non Ens ; for it is not true , there is no such thing . He is present there by his Divine power , and his Divine Blessing , and the fruits of his Body , the real effective consequents of his Passion : but for any other Presence , it is Idolum , it is nothing in the world . Adore Christ in Heaven ; for the Heavens must contain him till the time of restitution of all things . And if you in the reception of the Holy Sacrament worship him whom you know to be in Heaven ; you cannot be concerned in duty to worship him in the Host ( as you call it ) any more than to worship him in the Host at Nostre Dame when you are at S. Peter's in Rome : for you see him no more in one place than in another ; and if to believe him to be there in the Host at Nostre Dame be sufficient to cause you to worship him there , then you are to do so to him at Rome , though you be not present : for you believe him there ; you know as much of Him by Faith in both places , and as little by sense in either . But however , this is a thing of infinite danger . God is a jealous God : He spake it in the matter of external worship , and of Idolatry ; and therefore do nothing that is like worshipping a mere creature , nothing that is like worshipping that which you are not sure it is God : and if you can believe the Bread when it is blessed by the Priest is God Almighty , you can if you please believe any thing else . To the other parts of your Question , viz. Whether the same body be present really and Substantially , because we believe it to be there ; or whether do we believe it to be there because God hath manifestly revealed it to be so , and therefore we revere and adore it accordingly ? I answer , 1. I do not know whether or no you do believe Him to be there really and Substantially . 2. If you do believe it so , I do not know what you mean by really and Substantially . 3. Whatsoever you do mean by it , if you do believe it to be there really and Substantially in any sence , I cannot tell why you believe it to be so : you best know your own reasons and motives of belief ; for my part , I believe it to be there really in the sence I have explicated in my Book ; and for those reasons which I have there alledged ; but that we are to adore it upon that account , I no way understand . If it be Transubstantiated and you are sure of it : then you may pray to it , and put your trust in it ; and believe the Holy Bread to be coeternal with the Father , and with the Holy Ghost . But it is strange that the Bread being consecrated by the power of the Holy Ghost , should be turn'd into the substance and nature of God , and of the Son of God : if so , does not the Son at that time proceed from the Holy Ghost , and not the Holy Ghost from the Son ? But I am ashamed of the horrible proposition . Sir , I pray God keep you from these extremest dangers . I love and value you , and will pray for you and be , Dear Sir , Your very affectionate Friend to serve you , JER . TAYLOR . March 13. 1657 / 8 THE END . THE TABLE . THough the whole Volume consists of divers Tractates of several Titles ; yet because one course or order of numbers runs through all the pages till you come to pag. 1070 , where begins the Discourse of Confirmation , and a new account of 70 pages more , reaching to the end of all : therefore it was not necessary to trouble this Index with the several Titles of the Books and Discourses . Where then the number of the page has the letter [ b ] with it , ( as it has for no more then 70 of the last pages ) the Reader is referred to the Book of Confirmation and the Discourse of Friendship , &c. But where the number of the page hath not that letter with it , he is directed to the rest of the Volume . Note also that [ n ] stands for the marginall number , and [ ss . sect . § . ] stands for the Section , in those parts of the Volume that are so divided . A. Absolution . OF the forms of it that have been used , page 838 , num . 53. In the Primitive Church there was no judicial form of absolution in their Liturgies , 837 , n. 50 , 52. and 838 , n. 54. Absolution of sins by the Priest can be no more then declarative , 834 , n. 41. and 841 , n. 58. The usefulness of that kind of absolution , 841 , n. 59. Judicial absolution by the Priest is not that which Christ intended in giving the power of remitting and retaining sins , 837 , n. 50. and 841 , n. 60. Absolution Ecclesiastical , 835 , n. 44. Attrition joyned with Priestly absolution is not sufficient for pardon , 842 , n. 62 , 64.830 , n. 33. The Priest's power to absolve is not judicial ▪ but declarative onely , 483. A Deacon in the ancient Church might give absolution , 484. The Priest's act in cleansing the Leper was but declarative , 483 , 486. The promise of Quorum remiseritis is by some understood of Baptism , 486. Absolution upon confession to a Priest does not make Attrition equal to Contrition , 842 , n. 62 , 64. The severity of the Primitive Church in denying absolution to greater criminals was not their doctrine , but their discipline , 805 , n. 21. Accident . What is the definitive notion of it , 236 , sect . 11. Acts. The usuall acts of repentance , 845 , n. 74. To communicate in act or desire are not terms opposite , but subordinate , 190 , sect . 3. What repentance single acts of sin require , 646 , n. 43. A single act of sin is cut off by the exercise of the contrary vertue , 647 , n. 45. A single act of vertue is not sufficient to be opposed against a single act of Vice , 647 , n. 46. How a single act of sin is sometimes habitual , 648 , n. 49 , 50. Some acts of sin require more then a moral revocation or opposing a contrary act of vertue in repentance , 648 , n. 50. Single acts of sin without a habit give a denomination , 641 , n. 25. Book of Acts Apostles . Chap. 13.48 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 explained , 780 , n. 28. and 835 , n. 44. Adam . Concupiscence is not wholly an effect of his sin , 752 , n. 11. How we can be liable to the punishment of his sin , when we were not guilty of it , 752 , n. 12. How we are sinners in Adam , ibid. The effect of his fall upon his posterity , 870 , 874. That mankind by the fall of Adam did not lose the liberty of will , 874. The sin of Adam is not in us properly and formally a sin , 876. His sin to his posterity is not damnable , 877. Of the Covenant God made with Adam , 914. The Law of works onely imposed on him , 587 , n. 1. What evil we really had from Adam's fall , 748 , n. 14. The following of Adam cannot be original sin , 764 , n. 28. The fall of Adam lost us not heaven , 748 , n. 3 , 4. Whether if Adam had not sinned , Christ had been incarnate , 748 , n. 4. Adam was made mortal , 779 , n. 4. Those evils that were the effects of Adam's fall are not in us sins properly inherent , 750 , n. 8. His sin made us not heirs of damnation , 714 , n. 22. nor makes us necessarily vicious , 717 , n. 39. Adam's sin did not corrupt our nature by a physical efficiency , 717 , n. 40. nor because we were in his loins , 717 , n. 41. nor because of the decree of God , 717 , n. 42. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . What it signifieth , 617 , n. 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The meaning and use of the word , 635 , n. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . What latitude of signification it hath , 809 , n. 39. Aelfrick . Who lived in England about A. D. 996. determines against Transubstantiation , 266 , n. 12. Aerius . How he could be an heretick , being his errour was not against any fundamental article , 150 , ss . 48. He was never condemned by any general Council , 150 , ss . 48. The heresie of the Acephali what it was , 151 , ss . 48. Aggravate . No circumstance aggravates sin so much as that of the injured person , 614 , n. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The use of that word in the Scripture , 639 , n. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The meaning and use of the word , 638 , n. 14. Alms. Are a part of repentance , 848 , n. 81. How they operate in order to pardon , ibid. It is one of the best penances , 860 , n. 114. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . What the word signifieth , 617 , n. 21. and 619 , n. 26. S. Ambrose . He was both Bishop and Prefect of Milane at one time , 160 , ss . 49. His testimony against transubstantiation , 259 , 260 , 261 , § . 12. and 300. His authority for confirmation by Presbyters considered , 19 , b. 20 , b. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The notion of the word , 809 , n. 38. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The importance of the word , 617 , n. 122. Angels . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 1 Cor. 11.10 . explained , 58. § . 9. Of worshipping them , 467. Antiquity . The reverence that is due to it , 882. Apostle . Whence that name was taken , 48 , § . 4. Bishops were successours of the Apostles , ibid. In what sense they were so , 47 , § . 3. Saint James called an Apostle because he was a Bishop , 48 , § . 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( in Ep. to Philip. 2.25 . ) does not signifie Messenger , but Apostle , 49 , § . 4. That Bishops were successours in their office to the Apostles was the judgement of antiquity , 59 , § . 10. St. James Bishop of Jerusalem was not one of the twelve Apostles , 48 , § . 4. Apostles in Scripture called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 85 , § . 23. That the Canons of the Apostles so called are authentick , 89 , § . 24. Of the Canons that go under their names , 981 , n. 9. The Apostles were by Christ invested with an equal authority , 308. S. Peter did not act as having any superiority over the other Apostles , 310 , § . 10. c. l. 1. Arius . His preaching his errours was the cause why in Africk Presbyters were not by Law permitted to preach , 128 , § . 37. How the Orthodox complied with the Arians about the Council of Ariminum , 441. How his heresie began , 958 , n. 26. The opinion of Constantine the Great concerning the heresie of Arius , 959 , n. 26. How the opposition against his heresie was managed , 958 , 959 , 960 , n. 26 , ad 36. Art. How much it changes nature , 652 , n. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The signification of the word , 665 , n. 18. and 637 , n. 8. Athanasius . The questions and answers to Antiochus under his name are spurious , 544. He intended not his Creed to be imposed on others , 963. Concerning his Creed , ibid. n. 36. His Creed was first written in Latine , then translated into Greek , 963 , n. 36. Attrition . What it is , 842 , n. 63. and 828 , n. 25. The difference between it and contrition , ibid. Attrition joyned with absolution by the Priest that it is not sufficient , demonstrated by many arguments , 830 , n. 33. Attrition joyned with confession to a Priest and his absolution , is not equal to contrition , 842 , n. 62 , 64. S. Augustine . He was employed in secular affairs at Hippo as well as Ecclesiastical , 161 , § . 49. His authority against Transubstantiation , 261 , 262 , § . 12. Of his rule to try traditions Apostolical , 432. Gratian quotes that out of him that certainly never was in his writings , 451. He prayed for his dead mother when he believed her to be in heaven , 501 , 502. The doctrine of the Roman Purgatory was no article of faith in his time , 506. The Purgatory that Augustine sometimes mentions is not the Roman Purgatory , 507 , 508. His authority in the matter of Transubstantiation , 525 , His zeal against the Pelagians was the occasion of his mistake in interpreting ( Rom. VII . 15 . ) 775 , n. 18. His inconstancy in the question , whether concupiscence be a sin , 913. Austerity . Of the acts of austerity in Religion , of what use they are , 955 , n. 18. Authority . That is most effectual which is seated in the Conscience , 160 , § . 49. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . What the Apostle means by it ( Tit. III. 11 . ) 780 , n. 30. and 951 , n. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . What it signifieth , 689 , n. 5. B. Baptism . THE doctrine of Infant-Baptism relieth not upon tradition onely , but Scripture too , 425 , 426. S. Ambrose , S. Hierome and S. Augustine , though born of Christian parents , were not baptized till they were at full age , 425. The reason why the Church baptizeth Infants , 426. An answer to that saying of Perron's , That there is no place of Scripture whereby we can certainly convince the Anabaptists , 426. The validity of the baptism of hereticks is not to be proved by tradition without Scripture , 426 , 427. Of the salvation of unbaptized Infants that are born of Christian parents , 471. Of the Scripture & Liturgy in an unknown tongue , 471. The promise of quorum remiseritis is by some understood of Baptism , 486. Of the pardon of sins after baptism , 802 , n. 7. Saint Cyprian and S. Chrysostome's testimony for Infant-baptism , 760 , n. 21 , 22. The principle on which the necessity of Infants baptism is grounded , 426 , and 718 , n. 42. Sins committed after it may be pardoned by repentance , 802 , n. 8 , 9. It admits us into the Covenant of repentance , 803 , n. 10. If we labour not under the guilt of original sin , why in our infancy are we baptized ? That objection answered , 884. The state of unbaptized Infants , 897. The difference between this Chrism and that of Confirmation , 20 , b. The difference between Baptism and Confirmation as to the use , 26 , b. Of the change made in us by it , 28 , b. With Baptism Confirmation was usually administred , 29 , b. Berengarius . The Pope forced him to recant his errour about Transubstantiation in the Capernaitical sense , 191 , § . 3. and 299. Bind . What it means in the promise of Christ , 736 , 45 , 46 , 47. and 486. Bishop . The benefits that England has received in several ages from the Bishops Order ; Ep. dedic . to Episcop . asserted . They were the Apostles successors , 48 , § . 4. In what sense they were so , 47 , § . 3. Saint James called an Apostle because he was a Bishop , 48 , § . 4. The Angel mentioned in the Epistles to the Seven Churches , in the Apocalypse , means the Bishop , 57 , § . 9. That Bishops were successors in their office to the Apostles , was the sense of Antiquity , 59 , § . 10. The office of a Bishop was not inconsistent with that of an Evangelist , 69 , § . 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Tit. 1.5 . signifies Bishop , and not mere Presbyter , 71 , § . 15. The authority and text of S. Hierom against the Prelacy of Bishops considered , 77 , § . 21. Those Presbyters mentioned Act. 20.28 . in those words [ in quos Spir. Sanctus vos posuit Episcopos ] were Bishops , and not mere Presbyters , 80 , § . 21. Concerning the testimony of S. Hierome taken out of his Commentary in Ep. ad Tit. usually urged against the sole authority of Bishops , 77 , § . 21. per tot . and § . 44. and pag. 144. In what sense it is true that Bishops were not greater then Presbyters , 83 , § . 21. Bishops in Scripture are styled Presbyters , 85 , § . 23. Mere Presbyters in Scripture are never styled Bishops , 86 , § . 23. A Presbyter did once assist at the ordaining of a Bishop , 98 , § . 31. Pope Pelagius not lawfully ordained Bishop according to the Canon , 98 , § . 31. Why a Bishop cannot be made per saltum , 101 , § . 31. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had the Ordination of a Bishop , but not the Jurisdiction , 102 , § ▪ 32. Novatus was ordained by a Bishop without the assistance of other Clergy , 104 , § . 32. A Bishop may ordain without the concurrence of a Presbyter in the Ceremony , 105 , § . 32. Concerning Ordination in the Reformed Churches performed without Bishops , 105 , § . 32. He could suspend or depose alone without the presence of a Presbyter , 116 , 117 , § . 36. The latitude or extent of the Bishop's power , 120 , § . 36. It encroaches not upon the royal power , ibid. What persons are under the Bishop's jurisdiction , 123 , § . 36. In the Primitive Church Presbyters might not officiate without the licence of the Bishop , 127 , § . 37. The Bishop for his acts of judicature was responsible to none but God , 145 , 146 , § . 44. The Presbyters assistence to the Bishop was never necessary , and when practised , was voluntary on the Bishop's behalf , 147 , § . 44. In all Churches where a Bishop's seat was there was not always a College of Presbyters , onely in the greater Churches , 146 , § . 44. One Bishop alone without the concurrence of more Bishops could not depose a Presbyter , 147 , § . 44. A Church in the opinion of Antiquity could not subsist without Bishops , 148 , § . 45. The African Christians of Byzac chose to suffer martyrdome rather then hazard the succession of Bishops , 149 , § . 45. In the first Council of Constantinople he is declared an heretick , though he believe aright , that separates from his Bishop , 151 , § . 48. The great honour that belongs to Bishops , 153 , § . 48. It was not unlawful for Bishops to take secular employments , 157 , § . 49. Christian Emperours allowed appeals in secular affairs from secular tribunals to that of the Bishop , 160 , § . 49. They used in the Primitive Church to be Embassadours for their Princes , 161 , § . 49. The Bishop might do any office of piety though of secular burthen , 161 , § . 49. By the Law of God one Bishop is not superiour to another , and they all derive their power equally from Christ , 309. When Bellarmine was to answer the authority of Fathers brought against the Pope's universal Episcopacy , he allows not the Fathers to have a vote against the Pope , 310 , c. 1. § . 10. Saint Cyprian affirms that Pope Stephen had not a superiority of power over Bishops that were of forrein Dioceses , 310. Saint Gregory Bishop of Rome reproveth the Patriarch of Constantinople for calling himself universal Bishop , 310. If a secular Prince give a safe conduct , the Romanists teach , it binds not the Bishop who is under him , 341. Socrates his censure of their judicial proceedings in the Primitive Church , 994 , n. 17. Body . Berengarius maintained in Rome , That by the power of God one body could not be in two places at one time , 222 , § . 9. How a body is in place , 226 , § . 11. What a body is , 236. One body cannot at the same time be in two places , 236 , § . 11. and 241. A glorified body is subject to the conditions of locality as others are , in S. Augustine's opinion , 237 , § . 11. Aquinas affirmeth that the body of Christ is in the Elements , not after the manner of a body , but a substance . This notion considered , 238 , § . 11. That consequence , That if two bodies may be in one place , then one body may be in two places , considered , 243 , § . 11. When our Lord entred into an assembly of the Apostles , the doors being shut , it does not infer that there were two bodies in one place , 245 , § . 11. Two bodies cannot be in one place , 245 , § . 11. The Romanists absurdities in explicating the nature of the conversion of the Elements into the Body of Christ , 247 , § . 11. C. Canons . THat the Canons of the Apostles so called are authentick , 89 , § . 24. Carnality . What it is in Scripture , 724 , n. 53. Of the use of the word Carnal in Scripture , 774 , n. 16. Catechizing . The excellent use of Catechizing Children , 30. b. Exorcism in the Primitive Church signified nothing but Catechizing , 30. b. Certainty . It may be where is no evidence , 686 , n. 72. Charity . The great Charity of the Protestant Church in England , 460. The uncharitableness of that of Rome , ibid. Charity gives being to all vertues , 650 , n. 56. Children . How God punisheth the fathers upon the Children , 725. God never imputes the father's sin to the child so as to inflict eternal punishment , but temporal onely , 725 , n. 56. This he does onely in very great crimes , 725 , n. 59. and not often , 726 , n. 60. and before the Gospel was published , not since , 726 , n. 62. Rules of deportment for those Children who fear a curse descending upon them from their sinful parents , 738 , n. 93. The state of the unbaptized , 897. Chorepiscopi . They had Episcopal Ordination , but not Jurisdiction , 102 , § . 32. The institution of them , what ends it served , 142 , § . 43. Christ. The Romanists teach that Christ , being our Judge , is not fit to be our Advocate , 329 , c. 2. § . 9. The Article of Christ's descent into hell omitted in some Creeds , 440. We are by him redeemed from the state of spiritual infirmity , 779 , n. 27. Christian. The sum of Christian Religion , 445. Upon what motives most men imbrace that Religion , 460. Chrysostome . His notion of a sinner , 760 , n. 22. His testimony for Infant-baptism , 760 , n. 21 , 22. Church . Neither it alone nor the Presbyters in it had power to excommunicate , before they had a Bishop set over them , 82 , § . 21. Mere Presbyters had not in the Church any jurisdiction in causes criminal , otherwise then by substitution , ibid. No Church-presidency ever given to the Laiety , 114 , § . 36. Whether secular power can give prohibitions against the power of the Church , 122. § . 36. A Church in the opinion of Antiquity could not subsist without Bishops , 148 , § . 45. The Church did always forbid Clergy-men to seek after secular imployments , 157 , § . 49. and to intermeddle with them for base ends , 158 , § . 49. The Church prohibiting secular imployment to Clergy-men does it gradu impedimenti , 159 , § . 49. The Canons of the Church do as much forbid houshold-cares as secular imployment , 160 , § . 49. Lay-Elders never had authority in the Church , 165 , § . 51. What the Church signifieth , 382 , 383. Wicked men are not true members of it , 383. In what sense Saint Paul calls the Church the pillar and ground of truth , 386 , 387. What truth that is of which the Church is the pillar , 387. Whether the representative Church be infallible , 389. The word Church is never used in Scripture for the Clergy alone , 389. Of the meaning of that of our Lord , Tell the Church , 389. Of the notes of the Church , 402. Scripture is more credible then the Church , 407. Some rites which the Apostles injoyned , the Christian Church does not now practise , 430. The Primitive Church affirmed but few things to be necessary to salvation , 436. The Roman is not the Mother of all Churches , 449. The authority of the Church of Rome they teach is greater then that of the Scripture , 450. When , in the question between the Church and the Scripture , they distinguish between authority quoad nos & in se , it salves not the difficulty , 451. Eckius's pitiful Argument to prove the authority of the Church to be above the Scripture , 451. The Church is such a Judge of Controversies , that they must all be decided before you can find him , 1012. Success and worldly prosperity no note of the true Church , 1018. Clemens Alexandrinus ▪ His authority against Transubstantiation , 258 , § . 12. In Vossius his opinion he understood not original sin , 759 , n. 20. Clergy . The word Church never used in Scripture for the Clergy alone , 389. Clinicks . Objections against the repentance of Clinicks , 678 , n. 57. and 677 , n. 56. and 679 , n. 64. Heathens newly baptized , if they die immediately , need no other repentance , ibid. The objection concerning the Thief on the Cross answered , 681 , n. 65. Testimonies of the Ancients against the repentance of Clinicks , 682 , n. 66. The way of treating sinners who repent not till their death-bed , 695 , n. 25. Considerations to be opposed against the despair of Clinicks , 696 , n. 29. What hopes penitent Clinicks have according to the opinion of the Fathers of the Church , 696 , 697 , n. 30. The manner how the ancient Church treated penitent Clinicks , 699 , n. 5. The particular acts and parts of repentance that are fittest for a dying man , 700 , n. 32. The practice of the Primitive Fathers about penitent Clinicks , 804. The repentance of Clinicks , 853 , n. 96. Colossians . Chap. 2.18 . explained , 781 , n. 31. Commandment . Of the difference between S. Augustine and S. Hierome in the proposition about the possibility of keeping God's Commandments , 579 , n. 30. Communicate . To doe it in act , or desire , are not terms opposite , but subordinate , 190 , § . 3. Commutations . When they were first set up , 292. Amends may be made for some sins by a commutation of duties , 648 , 68. Comparative . Instances in Texts of Scripture wherein comparative and restrained negatives are set down in an absolute form , 229 , § . 10. Concupiscence . It is not a mortal sin till it proceeds farther , 776 , n. 20. It is an evil , but not a sin , 734 , n. 84. It is not wholly an effect of Adam's sin , 752 , n. 11. Natural inclinations are but sins of infirmity , 789 , n. 50. Where it is not consented to , it is no sin , 752 , n. 11. and 765 , n. 30. and 767 , n. 39. and 898 , 907 , 909 , 911 , 912 , 876. The natural inclination to evil that is in every man is not sin , 766 , n. 32. It is not original sin , 911. The inconstancy of S. Augustine about it , 913. Confession . According to the Roman doctrine , Confession does not restrain sin , and quiets not the Conscience , 315 , § . 2. c. 2. A right confesfession according to the Roman Doctrine is not possible , 316 , § . 3. The seal of Confession they will not suffer to be broken , if it be to save the life of the Prince or the whole State , 343 , c. 3. § . 2. The Roman doctrine about the seal of Confession is one instance of their teaching for doctrines the commandments of men , 473. Nectarius abolished the custome of having sins published in the Church , 474 , 488 , 492. That the seal of confession is broken among them upon divers great occasions , 475. Whether to confess all our great sins to a Priest be necessary to salvation , 477. Of the harmony of Confession made by the Reformed , 899. Nothing of auricular confession to a Priest in Scripture , 479. There is no Ecclesiastical Tradition for auricular confession , 491. Auricular confession made an instrument to carry on unlawful plots , 488 , 489. Father Arnold , Confessor to Lewis XIII . of France , did cause the King in private confession to take such an oath as did in a manner depose him , 489. Auricular confession leaves behind it an eternal scruple upon the Conscience , 489. Auricular confession is an instance of the Romanists teaching for doctrines the commandments of men , 477. Confession is a necessary act of repentance , 830 , n. 34. It is due to God , 831. Why we are to confess sins to God , who knoweth them before , 832 , n. 37. What properly is meant by it , ibid. Auricular confession whence it descended , 833 , 41. Confession to a Priest is no part of contrition , ibid. The benefit of confessing to a Priest , 834. Rules concerning the practice of confession , 854 , n. 100. Shame should not hinder confession , 855 , n. 104. A rule to be observed by the Minister that receiveth confession , 856 , n. 105. Of confessing to a Priest or Minister , 857 , n. 109. Confession in preparation to the Sacrament , 857 , n. 110. Confirmation . It was not to expire with the age of the Apostles , 53 , § . 8. Photius was the first that gave the power of Confirmation to Presbyters , 109 , § . 33. The words Signator consignat in those Texts of the Fathers that are usually alledged against Confirmation by Bishops alone signifie Baptismal unction , 110 , § . 33. The great benefit and need of the rite of Confirmation in the Church , Ep. ded . to that Treatise , pag. 2. The Latine Church would have sold the title of Confirmation to the Greek , but they would not buy it , Ep. ded . pag. 5. The Papists hold Confirmation to be a Sacrament , and yet not necessary , 3. b. That it is a Divine Ordinance , 3 , 4. b. Of the necessity of Confirmation , 8. b. That the Apostle in the Epistle to the Hebrews , speaking of laying on of hands , meaneth Confirmation , and not Absolution , nor Ordination , 10 , 11. b. It was to continue down to all ages of the Church , 13 , 14. b. Confirmation proved by the Testimony of the Fathers , and the practice of the Primitive Church , 15. b. Of the authority of S. Ambrose and Pope Sylvester alledged to prove that Confirmation may be administred by Presbyters , 19 , 20 , ss . 4. b. The difference between the Chrism of Confirmation and Baptism , 20. b. Friers , Regulars and Jesuites did in England challenge by Commission from the Pope a power of administring Confirmation , though they were but Presbyters , 21. b. The difference as to the use between Confirmation and Baptism , 26. b. The blessings and graces usually conveyed by Episcopal Confirmation , 25 , 26. b. The Ceremonies of it , 24 , 25. b. Of the change made in us by it , 28. b. Confirmation was usually administred at the same time with Baptism , 29. b. The reason was , because few were then baptized but adult persons , ibid. The Apostles were not confirmed till after they had received the Sacrament of our Lord's Supper , 30. b. Whether Confirmation be administred more opportunely in infancy or in our riper years , 29 , 30. b. Whether it can be administred more then once , 32. b. On what account the Primitive Christians did confirm hereticks reduced and reconciled , 32. b. Conscience . That authority is most effectual which is seated there , 160 , § . 49. The Church of Rome arrogates to her self an Empire over Consciences , 461. The niceties that every Ideot must trouble his Conscience with that worships Images in the way of the Romanists , 548. How the religious man's Conscience is intangled by some modern errours that are allowed , Pref. to Discourse of Repentance . The contention between the flesh and conscience no sign of Regeneration , 781 , n. 31. How to know which prevails in this contention , ibid. Consequent . The manner of the Scripture is to include the consequent in the antecedent , 679 , n. 62. Consignare . Of the sense of that word in the ancient Church , 20. b. Contrition . A description of Contrition , 829 , n. 28 , 29. The efficacy of it in repentance , 670 , n. 61. What it is , 821 , n. 5. The difference between it and Attrition , 828. It must not be mistaken for a single act , 829 , n. 31. 1 Corinth . Chap. 11. v. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 explained , 58 , § . 9. and 11.29 . Eateth and drinketh unworthily explained , 218 , § . 8. and 898. and 6.12 . expl . 619 , n. 23. and 10.23 . ibid. and 2.14 . expl . 723 , n. 53. and 785 , n. 44. and 11.27 . expl . 814 , n. 59. 2 Corinth . Chap. 15.21 . expl . 712 , n. 15. and 12.21 . expl . 803 , n. 12. and 1.21 , 22. Now he which confirmeth us , and hath anointed and sealed , expl . 28. b. Corporal Austerities . Or penances , 858 , n. 111. They are not simply necessary , ibid. Corporal Afflictions are not of repentance , 846 , n. 75. How they are to be used , 846 , 847 , n. 76 , 77. The Primitive Christians did not believe them simply necessary , 847 , n. 78 , 79. Covenant . Reasons why with a Covenant of works God began this intercourse with man , 575. The opposition between the new and old Covenant is not in respect of faith and works , 588 , n. 7. Councils . Presbyters had not the power of voting in them , 136 , § . 41. That of Basil was the first in which Presbyters in their own right were admitted to vote , 136 , § . 41. Presbyters , as such , did not vote in that first Oecumenical Council , Act. 15. p. 137 , § . 41. The people had de facto no vote in that Council , ibid. The sixth Canon of the Council of Sevil objected and explained , 147 , § . 44. Aërius was never condemned by any general Council , 150 , § . 48. In the first council of Constantinople he is declared an heretick that believes right , but separates from his Bishop , 151 , § . 48. The Ephesine Council did decree against enlarging Creeds , 290 , c. 1. § . 2. The Council of Trent decreed a Proposition in matter of fact that was past , 290. c. 1. § . 2. The Council of Trent binds all its subjects to give to the Sacrament of the Altar the same worship which they give to God himself , 267 , § . 13. The Council of Constance decreed the half Communion with a non obstante to our Lord's institution , 302 , c. 1. § . 6. The authority of a general Council against publick prayers in an unknown tongue , 304. The Council of Eliberis and the Synod of Francford were against the worship of Images , 306. The Council of Chalcedon did by decree give to the Bishop of Constantinople equal privileges with Rome , 310. A Pope accused in the Lateran Council for not being in Orders , 325 , c. 2. § . 7. Even among the Romanists the authority of general Councils is but precarious , 391. Hard to tell which are General Councils , 392 , 393. The last Lateran Council is at Rome esteemed a general Council , but in France and Germany none at all , 392. General Councils not infallible , 392. Instances of General Councils that have been condemned by the succeeding , 393. How to know which are General Councils , 393. It cannot be known who have voices in Councils , who not , 394. The Laiety were sometime admitted to vote in Councils , 394 , 395. What if two parties call each their Council ? 395. How shall the decision be in a Council , if the Bishops be divided in their opinions ? 395. Who hath power to call a general Council , 395. Of a general Council confirmed by the Pope , 395. A general Council in many cases cannot have the Pope's confirmation , 396. Whether the Pope be above a Council , 396. The Divinity of the H. Ghost was not decreed in the Council of Nice , 424. The questions that arose in the Council of Nice were not determined by Tradition , but Scripture , 425. How many of the Orthodox did begin to comply with the Arians about the Council of Ariminum , 441. The definitions of general Councils were not so binding in the Primitive Church , 441. The Councils of Nice and Chalcedon did decree against enlarging Creeds , ibid. Lindwood , in the Council of Basil , made an appeal in the behalf of the King of England against the Pope , 511. What passed in the Lateran Council concerning Transubstantiation , 519. Neither Transubstantiation nor any thing else was in the Lateran Council decreed , 519. The same Council that decreed Transubstantiation made Rebellion the duty of subjects , 520. Of the second Council of Nice and that of Francford and the Capitular of Charles the Great , 540 , 541. Of the testimony of the Eliberitane Council against Images , 538. Of the Council of the Apostles held at Jerusalem , mentioned Act. 15. p. 948 , n. 3. Of Councils Ecclesiastical , 948 , § . 6. per tot . Concilium Sinuessanum a forged one , 991 , n. 9. Reasons why decrees of Councils in defining controversies lay no obligation , 986 , 987 , 988 , 989 , ad fin . sect . Saint Augustine teacheth , that the decrees of general Councils are as much subject to amendment as the letters of private Bishops , 991 , n. 8. The Roman Council under Pope Nicholas II. defined the Capernaitical sense of Transubstantiation , 992 , n. 10. Gregory Nazianzen's opinion concerning Episcopal Councils in his time , 993. Creed . The Ephesine Council did decree against enlarging Creeds , 290 , c. 1. § . 2. The Apostles Creed was necessary to be believed , not necessitate praecepti , but medii , 438. No new Articles , as necessarily to be believed , ought to be added to the Apostles Creed , 438 , 446. The Article of Christ's descent into Hell omitted in some Creeds , 440. What stir it made in the Primitive Church to add but one word to the Creed , though it were done onely by way of Explication , 440. The Fathers complained of the dismal troubles in the Church upon enlarging Creeds , 441. The addition to the Creed at Nice produced above thirty explicative Creeds soon after , 441. The Councils of Nice and Chalcedon did decree against enlarging Creeds , 441. They did not forbid onely things contrary , but even explicative additions , 441 , 442. The imperial Edict of Gratian , Valentinian and Theodosius considered , and the argument from it answered , 443. The sense of that Article in the Creed , I believe the holy Catholick Church , 448. The Romanists have corrupted the Creed by restraining that Article to the Roman Church , 448. The end of making Creeds , 942 , n. 7. and 960 , n. 30. They are the standard by which Heresie is tried , 957 , n. 22. The article of Christ's descent into Hell was not in the ancient copies of the Creed , 943 , n. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . How this word is sometimes used in Scripture , 885 , 887 , 888 , 889 , 902. Saint Cyprian . His authorities alledged in behalf of the Presbyters and people's interest in governing the Church answered , 145 , 146 , § . 44. He did ordain and perform acts of jurisdiction without his Presbyters , ibid. A Text of Saint Cyprian contrary to the Supremacy of Saint Peter's successors , 155 , § . 48. His authority against Transubstantiation , 258 , § . 12. The Sermons de coena Domini , usually imputed to him , are not his , but seem to be the works of Arnoldus de Bona villa , 680 , n. 64. and 259 , § . 1● . He affirms that Pope Steven had not superiority of power over Bishops of forrein Dioceses , 310. When Pope Stephen decreed against Saint Cyprian in the point of rebaptizing hereticks , Saint Cyprian regarded it not , nor changed his opinion , 399. Saint Cyprian against Purgatory , 513 , 514. His testimony for Infant-baptism , 760 , n. 21 , 22. He for his errour about rebaptization was no heretick , but his Scholars were , 957 , 958 , n. 22. When Pope Stephen excommunicated him , Saint Cyprian was thought the better Catholick , 957 , n. 22. Cyril . His testimony alledged , that the bread in the Eucharist is not bread , answered fully , 229 , § . 10. His testimony against the worship of Images , 306. D. Damnation . HOW this word and the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are sometimes used in Scripture , 885 , 898 , 902. Deacon . He might in the ancient Church give absolution , 484. Death . How to treat a dying man being in despair , 677 , n. 56. In Spain they execute not a condemned criminal till his Confessour give him a bene discessit , 678 , n. 56. Deathbed-repentance . How secure and easie some make it , 567. Delegation . Saint Paul made delegation of his power , 163 , § . 50. Other examples of like delegation , 164 , § . 50. Demonstration . Silhon thinks a moral Demonstration to be the best way of proving the immortality of the soul , 357. Demonstration is not needful but where there is an aequilibrium of probabilities , 362. Probability is as good as demonstration , where there is no shew of reason against it , 362. Of moral demonstration , what it is , 368 , 369. Despair . A caution to be observed by them that minister comfort to those that are nigh to despair , 852 , n. 95. and 677. Considerations to be opposed against the despair of penitent Clinicks , 696 , n. 29. Devil . The manner of casting him out by exorcism , 334 , c. 2. § . 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The use of the word , 635 , n. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Of the use and signification of those words , 903. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The meaning thereof , 639 , n. 15. Diocese . Episcopal Dioceses in the primitive notion of them had no subordination and distinction of Parishes , 140 , § . 43. Which was first , a particular Congregation , or a Diocese , 141 , § . 43. Dionysius Areopagita . His authority against Transubstantiation , 266 , § . 12. His testimony against Purgatory , 513 , 514. Disputing . Two brothers , the one a Protestant , the other a Papist , disputed to convert one another , and in the event each of them converted the other , 460. Division . Of the Divisions in the Church of Rome , 403. Doctrine . Oral tradition was not usefull to convey Doctrines , 354 , 355 , 358. What is meant by that reproof our Lord gave the Pharisees , of teaching for doctrines the commandments of men , 471 , 472. The Romanists doctrine about the seal of Confession is one instance of their teaching for doctrines the commandments of men , 473. Durandus . His opinion in the question of Transubstantiation , 520. E. Ecclesiastes . Chap. 5.2 . And let not thy heart be hasty to utter any thing before God explained , 2. n. 8 , 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . What it signifies , 637 , n. 10. Education . The force of it in the choice of Religion , 1018 , 1019. Elections . Against popular elections in the Church , 131 , § . 40. How it came to pass that in the Acts of the Apostles the people seem to exercise the power of electing the Seven Deacons , 131 , § . 40. The people's approbation in the choice of the superiour Clergy was sometimes taken , how , and upon what reason , 132 , § . 40. England . The difference between the Church of England and Rome in the use of publick prayers , 328 , c. 2. § . 8. The character of the Church of England , 346. The great charity of the Protestant Church in England , 460. Upon what ground we put Roman Priests to death , 464. Lindwood in the Council of Basil made an appeal in behalf of the King of England against the Pope , 511. When Image-worship first came in hither , 550. Ephesians . Chap. 2. v. 3. by nature children of wrath explained , 722 , n. 50. Chap. 2.5 . dead in sins explained , 909. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Of the signification of it , 900. Ephrem Syrus . His authority against Transubstantiation , 259 , 260 , 261 , § . 12. and 300. Epiphanius . His testimony against Transubstantiation , 259 , 260 , 261 , § . 12. and 300. His authority against the worship of Images , 306. The testimony against Images out of his Epistle , 536. He mistook and misreported the Heresie of Montanus , 955 , n. 18. Equivocation . The Romanists defend Equivocation and mental reservation , 340 , c. 3. § . 1. Evangelist . What that office was , 69 , § . 14. That office was not inconsistent with the office of a Bishop , ibid. Eucharist . The real presence of Christ is not to be searched into too curiously as to the manner of it , 182 , § . 1. The Pope forced Berengarius to recant in the Capernaitical sense , 191 , § . 3. and 299. The meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 199 , § . 4. That Sacrament does imitate the words used at the Passeover , as well as the institution it self , 201 , § . 5. Scotus affirmed that the truth of the Eucharist may be saved without Transubstantiation , 234 , § . 11. Some have been poisoned by receiving the Sacrament of the Eucharist , 249 , ss . 11. The wine will inebriate after consecration , therefore it is not bloud , 249 , § . 11. The Marcossians , Valentinians and Marcionites , though they denied Christ's having a body , yet used the Eucharistical Elements , 256 , § . 12. The Council of Trent binds all its subjects to give to the Sacrament of the Altar the same worship which they give to the true God , 267 , § . 13. To worship the Host is Idolatry , 268 , § . 13. They that worship the Host are many times , according to their own doctrine , in danger of Idolatry , 268 , 269 , § . 13. Lewis IX . pawned the Host to the Sultan of Egypt , upon which they bear it to this day in their Escutcheons , 270 , § . 13. The Primitive Church did excommunicate those that did not receive the Eucharist in both kinds , Pref. to Diss. pag. 5. The Council of Constance decreed the half Communion with a non obstante to our Lord's institution , 302 , c. 1. § . 6. Authorities to shew that the half Communion was not in use in the Primitive times , 303 , c. 1. § . 6. Of their worshipping the Host , 467. Of Communion in one kind onely , 469 , 470. The word Celebrate , when spoken of the Eucharist , means the action of the people as well as the Priest , 530. The Church of God gave the Chalice to the people for above a thousand years , 531. The Roman Churche's consecrating a Wafer is a mere innovation , 531 , 532. The Priest's pardon anciently was nothing but to admit the penitent to the Eucharist , 839 , n. 54. Of the change that is made in us by it , 28. b. The Apostles were confirmed after , 30. b. Eusebius . His testimony against Transubstantiation , 259 , 260 , 261 , § . 12. and 300. and 524. Excommunication . Neither the Church nor the Presbyters in it had power to excommunicate before they had a Bishop set over them , 82 , § . 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Sometimes it was put to signifie Ecclesiastical repentance , 830 , n. 34. Exorcisms . Their exorcisms have been so bad that the Inquisitors have been fain to put them down , 333 , § . 10. The manner of their casting out Devils by exorcism , 334 , c. 2. § . 10. They give Exorcists distinct ordination , 336. Exorcism in the Primitive Church signified nothing but Catechizing , 30. b. Ezekiel . Chap. 18. v. 3. explained , 726 , n. 61. F. Faith. THE folly of that assertion , Credo , quia impossibile est , when applied to Transubstantiation , 231 , § . 11. To make new Articles of faith that are not in Scripture , as the Papists do , is condemned by the suffrage of the Fathers , Pref. to Diss. pag. 4 , 5. The Church of Rome adopts uncertain and trifling propositions into their faith , 462. The doctrine of the Roman Purgatory was no arricle of faith in Saint Augustine's time , 506. What faith is , and wherein it consists , 941 , n. 1. New Articles cannot by the Church be decreed , 945 , n. 12. Faith is not an act of the understanding onely , 949 , n. 9. By what circumstances faith becomes moral , 950 , n. 9. The Romanists keep not faith with hereticks , 341. Instances of doctrines that are held by some Romanists to be de fide , by others to be not de fide , 398. What makes a point to be de fide , 399. What it is to be an Article of faith , 437. Some things are necessary to be believed that are not articles of faith , 437. The Apostles Creed was necessary to be believed , not necessitate praecepti , but medii , 438. No new articles as necessary to be believed ought to be added to the Apostles Creed , 438 , 446. The Pope hath not power to make Articles of faith , 446 , 447. Upon what motives most men imbrace the faith , 460. The faith of unlearned men in the Roman Church , 461. Fasting . It is one of the best Penances , 860 , n. 114. Father . How God punisheth the Father's sin upon the Children , 725. God never imputes the Father's sin to the Children so as to inflict eternal punishment , but onely temporal , 725 , n. 56. This God doth onely in punishments of the greatest crimes , 725 , n. 59. and not often , 726 , n. 60. but before the Gospel was published , 726 , n. 62. Fathers . When Bellarmine was to answer the authority of some Fathers brought against the Pope's universal Episcopacy , he allows not the Fathers to have a vote against the Pope , 310 , c. 1. § . 10. No man but J. S. affirms that the Fathers are infallible , 372 , 373 , 374. The Fathers stile some hereticks that are not , 376. Of what authority the opinion of the Fathers is with some Romanists , 376 , 377. They complained of the dismal troubles in the Church that arose upon enlarging Creeds , 441. They reproved pilgrimages , 293 , 496. The Primitive Fathers that practised prayer for the dead thought not of Purgatory , 501. They made prayer for those who , by the confession of all sides , were not then in Purgatory , 502 , 503. The Roman doctrine of Purgatory is directly contrary to the doctrine of the Fathers , 512. A Reply to that Answer of the Romanists , That the writings of the Fathers do forbid nothing else but picturing the Divine Essence , 550 , 554. In what sense the ancient Fathers taught the doctrine of original sin , 761 , n. 22. How the Fathers were divided in the question of the beatifick vision of souls before the day of Judgement , 1007. The practice of Rome now is against the doctrine of S. Augustine and 217 Bishops , and all their Successours for a whole age together , in the question of Appeals to Rome , 1008. One Father for them the Papists value more then twenty against them : in that case how much they despise them , 1008. Gross mistakes taught by several Fathers , ibid. The writings of the Fathers adulterated of old and by modern practices , 1010. particularly by the Indices Expurgatorii , 1011. Fear . To leave a sin out of fear is not sinful , but may be accepted , 785 , n. 37. Figure . Ambiguous and figurative words may be allowed in a Testament humane or Divine , 210 , § . 6. A certain Athenian's enigmatical Testament , ibid. The Lamb is said to be the Passeover , of which deliverance it was onely the commemorative sign , 211 , § . 6. How many figurative terms there are in the words of institution , 211 , 212 , § . 6. When the figurative sense is to be chosen in Scripture , 213 , § . 6. Flesh. The law of the flesh in man , 781 , n. 31. The contention between it and the Conscience no sign of Regeneration , 782 , n. 32. How to know which prevails in the contention , 782 , n. 5. Forgiving . Forgiving injuries considered as a part or fruit of Repentance , 849 , n. 83. Free-will . How the necessity of Grace is consistent with this doctrine , 754 , n. 15. That mankind by the fall of Adam did not lose it , 874. The folly of that assertion We are free to sin , but not to good , 874. Liberty of action in natural things is better , but in moral things it is a weakness , 874. G. Galatians . CHap. 5.15 , 16 , 17 , 18. explained , 782 , n. 32. and Chap. 5.24 . He that is in Christ hath crucified the flesh with the affections explained , 794 , n. 58. and Chap. 5.17 . The spirit lusteth against the flesh explained , 810 , n. 40. Gelasius Bishop of Rome was the authour of the Book de duabus naturis , contra Eutychetem , 265 , § . 12. His words about Transubstantiation considered . Genesis . Chap. 6. v. 5. Every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart onely evil explained , 720 , n. 47. and Chap. 8. v. 21. The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth explained , 721 , n. 48. H. Ghost . The Divinity of the Holy Ghost was not decreed at Nice , 424. The procession of the Holy Ghost may be proved by Scripture without Tradition , 427 , 428. What is the sin against the Holy Ghost , 810 , n. 43. Final impenitence proved not to be the sin against the Holy Ghost , 811 , n. 42. That the sin against the Holy Ghost is pardonable , 812 , n. 48. In what sense it is affirmed in Scripture that the sin against the Holy Ghost shall not be pardoned in this world , nor in the world to come , 812 , n. 52 , 53. Glory . Concerning the degrees of eternal glory , 968 , n. 5. God. Of his power to doe things impossible , 233 , § . 11. Ubiquity an incommunicable attribute of God's , 237 , § . 12. and 241. To picture God the Father or the Trinity is against the Primitive practice , 307. The Romanists teach that the Pope hath power to dispense with all the laws of God , 342. No man is tempted of God , 737 , n. 90. Gospel . The difference between it and the Law , 574. Of the possibility of keeping the Evangelical Law , 576. What is required in the Gospel , 588 , n. 9. It is nothing else but faith and repentance , 599 , n. 1 , 2. The righteousness of the Law and Gospel how they differ , 673 , n. 46. Grace . Pope Adrian taught that a man out of the state of Grace may merit for another in the state of Grace , 320 , 321. The Romanists attribute the conveying of Grace to things of their own inventing , 337 , § . 11. They teach that the Sacraments do not onely convey Grace , but supply the defect of it , 337. To be in the state of Grace is of very large signification , 643 , n. 31. The just measures and latitude of a man's being in the state of Grace , 643 , n. 32. How it works , 679. n. 52. ad 56. What it signifieth to be in the state of Grace , 643 , n. 31. There is a transcendent habit of Grace , and what it is , 685. n. 68. How the necessity of Grace is consistent with the doctrine of Free-will , 754 , n. 15. By the strengths of mere Nature men cannot get to heaven , 885. Greek . Photius was the first authour of the Schism between the Greek and Latine Church , 109 , § . 33. The Greek Church receive not the Article of Transubstantiation , Ep. Ded. to Real Pres. 175. The Greek Church disowns Purgatory , 297. The opinion of the Greek Church concerning Purgatory , 510. Gregory . Gregory Bishop of Rome reproved the Patriarch of Constantinople for calling himself Universal Bishop , 310. Guilt . It cannot properly be traduced from one person to another , 902 , 915. Against that notion , That guilt cleaveth to the nature , though not to the person , 910. H. Habits . A Single act of sin without a habit gives a denomination , 641 , n. 25. Sins are damnable that cannot be habitual , 641 , n. 24. A sinful habit hath a guilt distinct from that of the act , 659 , n. 1. Sinful habits require a distinct manner of repentance , 669 , n. 31. Seven objections against that Assertion answered , 675 , n. 51. Of infused habits , 676. The method of mortifying vicious habits , 690 , 691 , n. 9 , 10. How and in what cases a single act may be accounted habitual , 648 , n. 50. Of sinful habits and their threefold capacity , 659 , n. 4. 'T is not true to affirm , That every reluctancy to an act of vertue that proceeds from the habit of the contrary vice , if it be overcome , increases the reward , 661 , n. 6. ad 9. A vicious habit adds many degrees of aversation from God , 669 , n. 9. Evil habits do not only imply a facility , but a kind of necessity , 662 , n. 11. A vicious habit makes our repentances the more difficult , 663 , n. 14. A vicious habit makes us swallow a great sin as easily as the least , 664 , n. 15. It keeps us always out of God's favour , 665 , n. 18. A sinful habit denominates the man guilty , though he exert no actions , 666 , n. 23. Smaller sins , if habitual , discompose our state of Grace , 667 , n. 24. Habitual concupiscence needs pardon as much as natural , 667 , n. 26. Saint Augustine endeavours to prove that a sinful habit has a special sinfulness distinct from that of evil actions ; and Pelagius did gainsay it , 667 , n. 26. Every habit of vice is naturally expelled by a habit of vertue , 669 , n. 34. Though to extirpate a vicious habit by a contrary habit is not meritorious of pardon , yet it is necessary in order to the obtaining pardon , 670 , n. 36. To oppose a habit against a habit is a more proper and effectual remedy , then to oppose an act of sorrow or repentance against an act of sin , 670 , n. 38. In re morali there is no such thing as infused habits , 676 , n. 53. Hands . Of laying on of hands in absolution , 838 , n. 54. Imposition of hands was twice solemnly had in repentance , 840 , 841 , n. 57. Heathen . Their practice in their hymns and prayers to their gods , pag. 3 , n. 11. They could not worship an Image terminativè , 338. The Heathens did condemn the worship of Images , 546. Heaven . In a natural state we cannot hope for Heaven , 737 , n. 85. Epistle to the Hebrews . Chap. 6. v. 1 , 2. Of the foundation of laying on of hands explained , 10 , 11 , b. That the Apostle there , in speaking of the laying on of hands , means Confirmation , and not either Absolution or Ordination , 10 , 11 , b. Chap. 9.28 . expl . 712 , n. 15. Chap. 7.27 . expl . 712. n. 17. Chap. 5.23 . explained , 712. Chap. 6.4 , 5 , 6. explained , ibid. Chap. 10.26 . explained , 809 , n. 36. Hell. The Article of Christ's descent into Hell was not in the ancient copies of the Creed , 943 , n. 8. Heresie . How Aërius could be an Heretick , seeing his errour was against no fundamental doctrine , 150 , § . 48. The notion of Heresie was anciently more comprehensive then now it is , ibid. In the first Council of Constantinople he is declared an heretick that believes right , but separates from his Bishop , 151 , § . 48. The Heresie of the Acephali what it was , ibid. A Son or Wife they absolve from duty , if the Father or Husband be heretical , 345. The Pope takes upon him to depose Kings not heretical , 345. The Fathers style some hereticks that are not , 376. An heretical Pope is no Pope , 401. What Popes have been heretical , ibid. and 402. The validity of Baptism by hereticks is not to be proved by Tradition without Scripture , 426 , 427. Divers hereticks did worship the picture of our Lord , and were reproved for it , 545. Pope John XXII . caused those to be burned for hereticks that made pictures of the Trinity , 555. The Primitive Church did confirm hereticks reconciled , 32. b. The nature and differences of Heresie , 947 , 948. and 964 , 965 , & seq . Of the heresie of the Encratites & Gnosticks , 949 , n. 8. Of such heresies as are named such in the N. Testament , 948 , n. 6. It is not an errour of the understanding onely , 949 , n. 8. How an errour becomes evil in genere morum , 950 , n. 9. A mere errour of the understanding is no sin , 950 , n. 10. What addition it is that makes errour become heresie , 950 , n. 10. No man is an heretick against his will , 951 , n. 12. The title of Heresie was sometimes given upon very slight grounds , 953 , n. 17. Of the ancient Catalogues of Heresie , 955 , n. 18 , 19. Of rebaptizing Hereticks , 957 , 958 , 968. Ambition the cause of many heresies , 1022. Hosea . Chapter 6. v. 7. explained , 711. I. Saint James . HE was called an Apostle because he was a Bishop , 48 , § . 4. Saint James Bishop of Jerusalem was not one of the 12 Apostles , 48 , § . 4. Epist. of Saint James . Chap. 2. v. 10. Whosoever shall keep the whole , and yet offends in one point , is guilty of all , explained 649 , n. 55. Chap. 1.13 . explained , 737 , n. 90. Idolatry . To worship the Host is Idolatry , 268 , § . 13. They that worship the Host are many times , according to their own doctrine , in danger of Idolatry , 268 , 269 , § . 13. The distinction of material and formal Idolatry hath no place in practical Divinity , 269 , § . 13. The worshipping of Images is Idolatry , 337 , § . 12. and not to be excused by that distinction of terminativè & relativè , 338 , c. 2. § . 12. The devices that the Romanists use to excuse the Idolatry of their worshipping Images , 547. The niceties that every Idiot must trouble his conscience with that worships Images the Popish way , 548. Jeremiah . Chap. 2. v. 13. digged for them cisterns explained , 332. Saint Jerome . Concerning his testimony taken out of his Comment upon Titus usually brought against the sole authority of Bishops , 77 , § . 21. per tot . and ss . 44. and pag. 144. The Bishop for his acts of Judicature was responsible to none but God , 145 , 146 , § . 44. The Presbyter's assistance to the Bishop was never necessary , and when practised was voluntary on the Bishop's part , 147 , § . 44. Ignorance . Where it self is no sin , the action flowing from it is no sin neither , 795 , n. 64. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The meaning of it , 199 , § . 4. Images . The worship of Images was brought in by the first Hereticks , 306. Saint Cyril and Epiphanius against the worship of Images , 306. The Council of Eliberis and the Synod of Francford were against the worship of Images , 306. The doctrine of Image-worship was not held for Catholick either in France or Germany for almost 1000 years after Christ , 307. The worship of them is such Idolatry as no distinction of theirs can excuse , 337 , 338 , c. 2. § . 12. Heathens could not worship an Image terminativè , 338. Of the testimony of the Eliberitan Council against Images , 538. Of the second Council of Nice and that of Francford and the Capitular of Charles the Great , 540 , 541. The testimony of Epiphanius out of his Epistle translated by Saint Hierome against the worship of Images , 536. The worship of them came from a very infamous original , viz. Simon Magus , 445. The Jews never objected the worship of Images against the Primitive Christians , 546. In that part of the Thalmud written about A. D. 200. the Jews object nothing against the Christians for worshipping Images , but in that which was written about A. D. 1000. or 1100. they do , 546. The devices that the Romanists use to excuse the Idolatry of Image-worship , 547. The niceties that every Idiot must trouble his conscience with that worships Images the Popish way , 548. When Image-worship came first into England , 550. What gave the Iconoclasticks the first occasion , 1017. Impossible . Of God's power to doe things impossible , 233 , § . 11. Why should not the many impossibilities be a bar against the belief of the Trinity as well as Transubstantiation ? 242 , § . 11. The Roman doctrine of Transubstantiation is impossible , and implies contradictions , 301. Arguments to prove that perfect obedience to God's Law is impossible , 576 , 577. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 809 , n. 39. A limited signification of it , 839 , n. 39. Imputare . What the word signifies , 886. Of our justification by imputation of Christ's righteousness , 901 , 902. The sense and meaning of Imputation in the matter of imputed righteousness by Christ , 903. Index Expurgatorius . The Caution the King of Spain gave in the first making that kind of Index , 289 , c. 1. § . 1. Indulgences . When they were first set up , 291. Some of their own Writers confess that there is no direct warrant for them neither in the Fathers nor Scripture , 291. There is nothing of Indulgences in Pet. Lombard , nor in all Gratian , 291. The meaning of their Article of Indulgences , 291 , c. 1. § . 3. Mayron and Durandus disputed against Indulgences , 291. Cardinal Cajetan's opinion of Indulgences , 291 , c. 1. § . 3. The mischief of them , 292. At first they could not agree what the penitent or purchaser got by it , 292 , 293. Indulgences imployed to raise a portion for the Pope's Niece , 292. Of their Indulgences , 318 , 316 , c. 2. § . 3. What is the use of so many hundred thousand years of pardon , 317. The many difficulties about them , 319. They make not the multitude of Masses less necessary , 320 , c. 2. § . 4. Good life undermin'd by their doctrine of Indulgences , 320. Venial sins hinder the fruit of Indulgences , 320. Pope Adrian taught that a man out of the state of Grace may merit for another in the state of Grace , 320 , 321. When the doctrine of Indulgences was first brought into the Church , 495. Villains have been hired by Indulgences to commit murther , 497. A strange unintelligible Indulgence given by two Popes about the beginning of the Council of Trent , 498. Some considerations upon the practice of Indulgences , 498. Infallibility . Of the Pope's Infallibility , 995 , sect . 7. per tot . Neither Irenaeus nor Saint Cyprian believed the Pope's Infallibility , 1001. Concerning that text Matth. 16.18 . Tu es Petrus , & super hanc petram , 996 , 997. Of that text Matth. 16.19 . tibi dabo claves , 996. Instances of such actions of divers ancient Popes as were not very consistent with an opinion of the infallible chair , 997. Perron's phansy upon Tu es Petrus turned against himself , 998. Saint Paul was Bishop of the Church of Gentiles at Rome , how then comes the Infallibility by right of succession from Saint Peter ? 999. Divers Popes were Hereticks and impious , as Zepherinus , 1003. Pope Innocent III. argued ridiculously when he was in Cathedra , 1003. Pope Honorius was condemned in the sixth General Synod , and that condemnation ratified in the eighth , ibid. When Sixtus IV. appointed a festival for the immaculate Conception and offices for it , the Dominicans would not receive it , and it is not at this day received , 1004. Alexander III. in a Council condemned Pet. Lombard of Heresy , from which sentence without repentance , or leaving his opinion , after 36 years he was absolved by Innocent III. 1005. Infallible . The Romanists hold the Scripture for no infallible rule , 381. No man affirms , but J.S. that the Fathers are infallible , 373 , 374 , 375. Whether the representative Church be infallible , 389. General Councils not infallible , 392. Bellarmine confesseth that for 1500 years the Pope's judgement was not held infallible , 453. Infants . What punishment Adam's sin can bring upon Infants that die , 714 , n. 29. It was the general opinion of the Fathers before Saint Augustine , that Infants unbaptized were not condemned to the pains of Hell , 755 , 756 , n. 16 , 17. The reason on which the Baptism of Infants is grounded , 718 , n. 42. Infirmity . What is the state of Infirmity , 771 , n. 3. It excuses no man , ibid. That state which some men call a state of Infirmity is a state of sin and death , 777 , n. 26. What are sins of infirmity , 789 , n. 47. Sins of infirmity consist more in the imperfection of obedience , then in the commission of any evil , 790 , n. 51. A sin of infirmity cannot be but in a small matter , 791 , n. 54. What are not sins of infirmity , 792 , n. 55. Violence of passion excuseth none under the title of sins of infirmity , 792 , n. 56. Sins of infirmity not accounted in the same manner to young men as to others , 793 , n. 59. The greatness of the temptation doth not make sin excusable upon the account of sins of infirmity , 793 , n. 60. The smallest instance if observed ceases to be a sin of infirmity , 794 , n. 61. A man's will hath no infirmity , 794 , n. 62. Nothing is a sin of infirmity but what is in some sense involuntary , 794 , n. 63. Sins of inculpable ignorance are sins of infirmity , 794 , n. 64. There is no pardonable state of infirmity , 797 , n. 98. Job . Chap. 31. v. 18. explained , 721. Gospel of Saint John. Chap. 3. v. 5. Vnless a man be born of water and of the holy Spirit explained , 5 , 6 , b. Chap. 6. v. 53. Vnless ye eat the flesh of the Son of God and drink his bloud , 8 , b. Chap. 8. 47. He that is of God heareth God's word , 679 , n. 62. Chap. 9.34 . Thou wast altogether born in sin , and dost thou teach us ? 721 , n. 49. Chap. 14.17 . The world cannot receive him explained , 785 , n. 37. Chap. 20.23 . Whosoever's sins ye remit explained , 816 , n. 66. 1. Epistle of Saint John. Chap. 5. v. 17. There is a sin not unto death explained , 643 , n. 31. and 809 , 810. Chap. 3.9 . He that is born of God sinneth not , nor can he , explained , 810. Chap. 1.9 . If we confess our sins , God is faithful to forgive our sins , explained , 830 , n. 34. Chap. 5.7 . The Father , the Word and the Spirit , and these three are one , explained , 967 , n. 4. Irenaeus . He mentions an impostor that essayed to counterfeit . Transubstantiation long before the Roman Church decreed it , 228 , § . 10. Isaiah . Chap. 53. v. 10. explained , 712 , n. 15. Judgment . That of man and God proceed in several methods , and relie upon different grounds , 614 , 615 , n. 15. Jurisdiction . Mere Presbyters had not in the Church any Jurisdiction in causes criminal otherwise then by delegation , 82 , § . 21. What persons are under that of Bishops , 123 , § . 36. Justice . God's Justice and Mercy reconciled about his exacting the Law , 580. Justification . Of our Justification by imputation of Christ's righteousness , 901 , 902. Guilt cannot properly and really be traduced from one person to another , 902 , 915. Of the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 903. K. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . WHat it signifieth , 636 , n. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Of that word and its use , 638 , n. 12. Keys . Wherein that kind of power consisteth , 841 , n. 58. Kings . The Episcopal power encroacheth not upon the Regal , 120 , § . 36. The seal of Confession the Romanists will not suffer to be broken to save the life of a Prince or the whole State , 343 , c. 3. § . 2. An excommunicate King , the Romans teach , may be deposed or killed , 344 , c. 3. § . 3. The Pope takes upon him to depose Kings that are not heretical , 345. The Roman Religion no friend to Kings , 345. Their opinions so injurious to Kings are not the doctrines of private men onely , 345. Father Arnald , Confessor to Lewis XIII . of France , did cause that King in private confession to take such an oath as did in a manner depose him , 489. L. Laiety . NO Ecclesiastical presidency ever given to the Laiety , 114 , § . 36. The Oeconomus of the Church might not be a Lay-man , 164 , § . 50. The Laiety sometime admitted to vote in Councils , 394 , 395. Lay-Elders never had authority in the Church , 165 , § . 51. Latin. Photius was the first authour of the Schism between the Greek and Latin Church , 109 , § . 33. Law. The Papists corrupted the Imperial Law of Justinian in the matter of Prayers in an unknown Language , 304 , c. 1. § . 7. The difference between the Law and Gospel , 574. Of the possibility of keeping the Law , 576. Arguments to prove that perfect obedience to God's Law is impossible , 576 , 577 , n. 15. ad 19. In what sense it is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 574. It s severity made the Gospel better received , ibid. Difference between it and the Gospel , 673 , n. 46. and 574 , 575. and 580 , 581. Of the difference between Saint Augustine and Saint Hierome concerning the possibility of keeping the Law of God , 579 , n. 30 , 31. In what measures God exacteth it , 580 , 581. His mercy and justice reconciled about that thing , 580 , 581. To keep the Law naturally possible , but morally impossible , 580 , n. 34. No man can keep the Law of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but he may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 585 , n. 50. The Law of works imposed on Adam onely , 587 , n. 1. The state of men under the Law , 778. A threefold Law in man , flesh or members , the mind or conscience , the spirit , 781 , n. 29. The contention between the Law of the flesh and conscience is no sign of Regeneration , but the contention between the Law of the flesh and spirit is , 782 , n. 31. The Law of Moses and of the Gospel were not impossible of themselves , but in respect of our circumstances , 580 , n , 33. All that which was insupportable in Moses's Law was nothing but the want of Repentance , ibid. Laws indirectly occasion sin , 771 , n. 6. Lawful . Every thing that is lawful , or the utmost of what is lawful , not always 〈◊〉 to be done , 856 , 857. Life . The necessity of good life , 799 , n. 25. The natural evils of man's life , 734 , n. 82. Loose . What in the promise of Christ is signified by binding and loosing , 836 , n. 45 , 46 , 47. Saint Luke . Chap. 22.25 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 explained , 153 , § . 48. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that Text what it meaneth , ibid. 154. Chap. 15.7 . explained , 801 , n. 5. Chap. 11.41 . explained , 848. Chap. 13.14 . explained , 786 , 40. Lukewarmness . How it comes to be a sin , 673 , n. 47. M. Malefactors . BEing condemned , by the customs of Spain , they are allowed respite till their Confessor supposeth them competently prepared , 678 , n , 56. Man. The weakness and frailty of humane nature , 734 , n. 82. in his body , soul and spirit , 735 , n. 83. and 486. Mark. Chap. 12.34 . explained , 780 , n. 26. Chap. 12.32 . explained , 809. Justin Martyr . His testimony against Transubstantiation , 258 , § . 12. and 522 , 523. His testimony against Purgatory , 513 , 514. Mass. A Cardinal in his last Will took order to have fifty thousand Masses said for his soul , 320. Indulgences make not the multitude of Masses less necessary , 320 , c. 2. § . 4. Pope John VIII . gave leave to the Moravians to have Mass in the Sclavonian tongue , 534. Saint Matthew . Chap. 26.11 . Me ye have not always explained , 222 ▪ § . 9. Chap. 28.20 . I am with you always to the end of the world explained , ibid. Chap. 18.17 . Dic Ecclesiae explained , 389. Chap. 15.9 . teaching for doctrines the commandments of men , 471 , 472 , 477. Chap. 5.19 . one of the least of these Commandments , 615 , 616 , n. 18. Chap. 5.19 . explained , ibid . n. 18. Chap. 5. v. 22. explained , 622 , n. 34. Chap. 12.32 . explained , 810. Chap. 15.48 . explained , 582 , n. 40 , 43. Chap. 5.22 . shall be guilty of judgement , 621 , n. 34. Mercy . God's Mercy and Justice reconciled about his exacting the Law , 580. Merit . Pope Adrian taught , that one out of the state of Grace may merit for another in the state of Grace , 320 , 321. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The difference between them , 596 , n. 1. Millenaries . Their opinion how much it spread and prevailed in the ancient Church , 976 , n. 3. Miracles . The miraculous Apparitions that are brought to prove Transubstantiation proved to be false by their own doctrine , 229 , § . 10. Of those now-adays wrought by the Romanists , 452. The Dominicans and Franciscans brought Miracles on both sides , in proof both for and against the immaculate Conception , 1019. Of false Miracles and Legends , 1020. Miracles not a sufficient argument to prove a doctrine , ibid. Canus his opinion of the Legenda Lombardica , ibid. The Pope in the Lateran Council made a decree against false Miracles , 1020. Montanus . His Heresie mistaken by Epiphanius , 955 , n. 18. Moral . The difference between the Moral , Regenerate and Prophane man in committing sin , 782 , n. 33. and 820 , n. 1. Mortal Sin. Between the least mortal sin and greatest venial sin no man can distinguish , 610 , n. 2. Mortification . It is a precept , not a counsel , 672 , n. 44. The method of mortifying vicious habits , 691 , n. 10 , 11. The benefits of it , 690. n. 6. Mysterie . The real presence of Christ in the Eucharist , like other mysteries , is not to be searched into as to the manner of it too curiously , 182 , § . 1. N. Nature . OF the use of that word in the controversie of Transubstantiation , 251 , § . 12. By the strength of it alone men cannot get to heaven , 885. The state of nature , 770 , n. 1 , 2. c. 8. § . 1. What the phrase [ by nature ] means , 723 , n. 48. By it alone we cannot be saved , 737 , n. 86. The use of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 767 , n. 35. Necessity . Of that distinction , Necessitas praecepti , and medii , 8. b. There is in us no natural necessity of sinning , 754 , n. 15. Nicolaitans . The authour of that Heresie vindicated from false imputations , 953 , n. 17. Novatians . Their doctrine opposed , 802 , n. 8. A great objection of theirs proposed , 806 , n. 24. and answered , 807 , n. 26. O. Obedience . ARguments to prove that perfect obedience to God's Law is impossible , 576 , 577 , n. 15. ad 19. Obstinacy . Two kinds of it , the one sinful , the other not so , 951 , n. 10. Opinion . A man is not to be charged with the odious consequents of his opinion , 1024. Sometimes on both sides of the Opinion it is pretended that the Proposition promotes the honour of God , ibid. How hard it is not to be deceived in weighing some Opinions of Religion , 1026. Ordination . Pope Pelagius not lawfully ordained Bishop according to the Canon , 98 , § . 31. A Presbyter did once assist at the ordaining a Bishop , ibid. Ordo and gradus were at first used promiscuously , 98 , § . 31. How strangely some of the Church of Rome do define Orders , 99 , § . 31. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had Episcopal Ordina●ion , but not Jurisdiction , 102 , § . 32. Presbyters could not ordain , 102 , § . 32. The Council of Sardis would not own them as Presbyters who were ordained by none but Presbyters , 103 , § . 32. Novatus was ordained by a Bishop without the assistance of other Clergy , 104 , § . 32. A Bishop may ordain without the concurrence of a Presbyter in the Ceremony , 105 , § . 32. Concerning Ordination in the Reformed Churches without Bishops , 105 , § . 32. Saint Cyprian did ordain and perform acts of jurisdiction without his Presbyters , 145 , 146 , § . 44. A Pope accused in the Lateran Council for not being in Orders , 325 , c. 2. § . 7. The Romanists give distinct Ordination to their Exorcists , 336. Origen . His authority against Transubstantiation , 258 , § . 12. Original sin . In what sense it is damnable , 570. How that doctrine is contrary to the Pelagian , 571. Some Romanists in this doctrine have receded as much from the definitions of their Church as this Authour from the English , and without offence , 571. Original sin is manifest in the many effects of it , 869. The true doctrine of Original sin , 869 , 870 , 896. The errours in that Article , 871. There are sixteen several and famous opinions in the Article of Original sin , 877. Against that Proposition , Original sin makes us liable to damnation , yet none are damned for it , 878 , n. 5. 879 , n. 6 , 7. The ill consequence of the mistakes in this doctrine , 883 , 884. If Infants are not under the guilt of original sin , why are they baptized ? That objection answered , 884. The difficulties that Saint Augustine and others found in explicating the traduction of original sin , 896. The Authour's doctrine about Original sin . It is proved that it contradicts not the Ninth Article of the Church of England , 898 , 899. Concupiscence is not it , 911. Whether we derive from Adam original and natural ignorance , 713 , n. 22. Adam's sin made us not heirs of damnation , ibid. nor makes us necessarily vicious , 717 , n. 37. Adam's sin did not corrupt our nature by a natural efficiency , 717 , n. 39. nor because we were in the loins of Adam , 717 , n. 40. nor because of the will and decree of God , 717 , n. 41. Objections out of Scripture against this doctrine answered , 720 , n. 46. ( Vid. Sin. ) The Authour affirmeth not that there is no such thing as original sin , 747 , 748 , n. 1. He is not singular in his doctrine , 762 , n. 24 , 26. The want of original righteousness is no sin , 752 , n. 10. In what sense the ancient Fathers taught the doctrine of Original sin , 761 , n. 22. With what variety the doctrine of Original sin was anciently taught , 761 , n. 23. How much they are divided amongst themselves who say that Original sin is in us formally a sin , 762 , n. 25. Original sin damneth not , 756 , n. 16. The sum of the doctrine of Original sin , 757 , n. 5. Clemens Alexandrinus in the opinion of Vossius understood not Original sin , 759 , n. 20. P. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . WHat it signifieth , 617 , n. 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . What it and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifie , 809 , n. 37. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The signification of it , 617 , n. 21. Pardons . Of Pardons , 316 , 318 , c. 2. § . 3 , 4. What is the use of so many hundred thousand years of pardon , 317. The many follies about Pardons , and the difficulties , 319. Wherein the pardon of sin doth consist , 484 , 485. At the day of Judgement a different pardon is given from what we obtain in this world , 501. Several degrees of pardon of sin , 839 , n. 54. As our repentance is , so is our pardon , 839. Mistakes about Pardon and Salvation , 789 , n. 45. Some sins called unpardonable in a limited sense , 806 , n. 22. What is our state of pardon in this life , 814 , n. 57. and 816. In what manner and to what purpose the Church pardoneth Penitents by the hand of a Priest , 838 , 839 , n. 54. The usefulness of pardon by a Priest , 841 , n. 59. Parishes . When the first division of them was , 139 , § . 43. Episcopal Dioceses in the Primitive notion of them had no subordination nor distinction of Parishes , 140 , § . 43. Which was first , a particular Congregation , or a Diocese , 141 , § . 43. Passions . What they are , 870. How the Will and Passions do differ , and where they are seated , ibid. They do not rule the will , 871. Their violence excuseth not under the title of sins of infirmity , 792 , n. 56. Make it the great business of thy life to subdue thy Passions , 795 , n. 67. A state of passion is a state of spiritual death , 793 , n. 58. A Passion in the soul is nothing but a peculiar way of being affected with an object , 825 , n. 19. The Passions are not immediately subject to commandment , 826 , n. 19. From what cause each Passion flows , ibid. Passeover . The Eucharist does imitate the words used at the Passeover , as the institution is a Copy of that , 201 , § . 5. The Lamb is said to be the Passeover , of which deliverance it was onely the commemorative sign , 211 , § . 6. Peace . Truth and Peace compared in their value , 883. All truth is not to be preferred before it , 882 , 962. Pelagian . How the doctrine of Original sin , as here explicated , is contrary to the Pelagian , 571. Saint Augustine's zeal against the Pelagians made him mistake [ Rom. 7.15 , 19. ] pag. 775 , n. 18. Of that Heresie , 761 , n. 23 , 24. How it is mistaken , 761 , 762 , n. 23. Pelagius's Heresie not condemned by any General Council , 961 , n. 31. Penances . Of corporal austerities , 858 , n. 111. A rule for the measure of them , 860 , n. 114 , 115. Which are best , and rather to be chosen , 860 , n. 114. Fasting , Prayer and Alms are the best penances , 860 , n. 115. They are not to be accounted simply necessary , or a direct service of God , 860 , n. 116. People . Against popular Elections in the Church , 131 , § . 40. How it came to pass that in the Acts of the Apostles the people seem to exercise the power of electing the Seven Deacons , 131 , § . 40. The people's approbation in the choice of the superiour Clergy was sometimes taken , how , and upon what reason , 132 , § . 40. The people had de facto no vote in the first Oecumenical Council , 137 , § . 41. Perfection . How Christian perfection and supererogation differ , 590 , 591 , n. 16. Perfection of degrees , and of state , 582 , n. 41. ad 48. How perfection is consistent with repentance , 582 , n. 47. § . 3. per tot . Wherein perfection of state consisteth , 583 , n. 47. Perfection in genere actûs , 584. what it is , 584. The perfection of a Christian is not the supreme degree of action or intention , 585 , n. 47. It cannot be less then an entire Piety perfect in its parts , 585 , n. 48. The perfection of a Christian requires increase , 589 , n. 13. and 583 , n. 44. Philippians . Chap. 1. v. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that Text discussed , 87 , § . 23. Chap. 2. 12 , 13. Work out your salvation with fear explained , 676 , n. 55. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . What these words in Saint Paul's style do import , 767 , n. 38. and 781. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The use of that word , 723 , and 767 , n. 35. Picture . Divers Hereticks did worship the Picture of our Lord , and were reproved for it , 545. A reply to that answer of the Romanists , That the writings of the Fathers do forbid nothing else but picturing the Divine Essence , 550 , 554. Against the distinction of picturing the Essence , and the Shape , 550 , 554. Pope John caused those to be burned for Hereticks that made Pictures of the Trinity , 555. Pilgrimages . They are reproved by the ancient Fathers , 293 , 496. Place . Picus Mirandula maintained at Rome , that one body by the power of God could not be in two places at one time , 222 , § . 9. How a spirit is in place , 236 , § . 11. How a body is in place , ibid. One body cannot at the same time be in two places , 236 , § . 11. and 241. A glorified body is subject to the conditions of locality , as others are , according to Saint Augustine's opinion , 237 , § . 11. Ubiquity is an incommunicable attribute of God's , 237 , § . 11. and 241. The device of potential and actual Ubiquity helps not , 237 , § . 11. Three natural ways of being in a place , 237 , § . 11 ▪ Of being in a place Sacramentaliter , 239 , § . 11. Bellarmine holds that one body may be in two places at once , which Aquinas denieth , 239 , § . 11. That one body cannot be at once in two distant places , 236 , and 241 , § . 11. That consequence , If two bodies may be in one place , then one body may be in two places , denied , 243 , § . 11. Against Aristotle's definition of place , 244 , § . 11. When our Lord entred into an assembly of the Apostles , the doors being shut , it does not infer that there were two bodies in one place , 245 , § . 11. Two bodies cannot be in one place , 245 , § . 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The true notion of it , 636 , n. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . How it differs from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 724 , n. 53. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The meaning of it , 636 , n. 5. Pope . A Text of Saint Cyprian's contrary to their Supremacy over the Bishops that succeed other Apostles , 155 , § . 48. The authority of a Pope against publick Prayers in an unknown tongue , 304. The Apostles were from Christ invested with an equal authority , 308. By the Law of Christ one Bishop is not superiour to another , and they all derive their power equally from Christ , 309. When Bellarmine was to answer the authority of Fathers brought against the Pope's universal Episcopacy , he allows not the Fathers to have a vote against the Pope , 310 , c. 1. § . 10. Saint Cyprian affirms , that Pope Stephen had not a superiority of power over Bishops that were of forrein Dioceses , 310. Saint Gregory Bishop of Rome reproved the Patriarch of Constantinople for calling himself Universal Bishop , 310. Saint Peter did not act as having any superiority over the Apostles , 310 , c. 1. § . 10. There is nothing in Scripture to prove that the Bishop of Rome succeeds Saint Peter in that power he had , more then any other , 310. Pope Victor and Pope Stephen were opposed by other Bishops , 310. The Council of Chalcedon did by decree give to the Bishop of Constantinople equal priviledges with Rome , 310. A Pope accused in the Lateran Council for not being in Orders , 325 , c. 2. § . 7. It is held ominous for a Pope to canonize a Saint , 333 , c. 2. § . 9. The Romanists teach , the Pope hath power to dispense with all the Laws of God , 342. He hath power , as the Romanists teach , to dispose of the temporal things of all Christians , 344. He is to be obeyed , according to their doctrine , though he command Sin , or forbid Vertue , 345. He takes upon him to depose Princes that are not heretical , 345. The greatness of the Pope's power , 345. Sixtus Quintus did in an Oration in the Conclave solemnly commend the Monk that kill'd Henry III. of France , 346 , c. 3. § . 3. Of the Pope's confirming a General Council , 395. A General Council in many cases cannot have the Pope's Confirmation , 396. Whether the Pope be above a Council , 396. When Pope Stephen decreed against Saint Cyprian in the point of rebaptizing Hereticks , Saint Cyprian regarded it not , nor changed his opinion , 399. Sixtus V. and some other Popes were Simoniacal , 401. A Simoniacal Pope is no Pope , ibid. An Heretical Pope is no Pope , ibid. What Popes have been heretical , 401 , 402. What Popes have been guilty of those crimes that disannul their authority , 400 , 401 , 402. The Pope hath not power to make Articles of Faith , 446 , 447. Of his Infallibility , 995 , § . 7. per tot . He , the Romanists teach , can make new Articles of Faith and new Scripture , 450. The Roman Writers reckon the Decretal Epistles of Popes among the Holy Scriptures , 451. Bellarmine confesseth that for 1500 years the Pope's judgment was not esteemed infallible , 453. A strange unintelligible Indulgence given by two Popes about the beginning of the Council of Trent , 498. An instance of a Pope's skill in the Bible , 505. Lindwood , in the Council of Basil , made an appeal in behalf of the King of England against the Pope , 511. The same Pope that decreed Transubstantiation made Rebellion lawful , 520. When the Pope excommunicated Saint Cyprian , all Catholicks absolved him , 957 , n. 22. Some Papists hold that the Popedome is separable from the Bishoprick of Rome : how then can he get any thing by the title of Succession ? 999. Divers ancient Bishops lived separate from the Communion of the Roman Pope , 1002. The Bishops of Liguria and Istria renounced subjection to the Patriarchate of Rome , and set up one of their own at Aquileia , ibid. Divers Popes were Hereticks , 1003. Possible . Two senses of it , 580 , n. 34. Prayer . The practice of the Heathens in their prayers and hymns to their gods , 3 , n. 11. Against them that deny all Set forms of Prayer , 2 , n. 6. & seq . Against those that allow any Set forms of prayer but those that are enjoyned by Authority , 13 , n. 51. Prescribed forms in publick are more for the edification of the Church then the other kind , 14 , n. 56. ad 65. The Lord's Prayer was given to be a Directory , not onely for the matter of prayer , but the manner or form too , 19 , n. 75. The Church hath the gift of Prayer , and can exercise it in none but prescribed Forms , 18 , n. 69 , 70. Our Lord gave his Prayer to be not onely a Copy , but a prescribed Form , 19 , n. 78. The practice of the Primitive Church in this matter , 21 , n. 86. Whether the Primitive Church did well in using publick prescribed Forms of Prayer , and upon what grounds , 25 , n. 97. An answer to that Objection , That Set forms limit the Spirit , 30 , n. 116. That Objection , that Ministers may be allowed a liberty in their Prayers as well as their Sermons , answered , 32 , n. 129. What in the sense of Scripture is praying with the Spirit , 9 , n. 37. and 47. The Romanists teach , that neither attention nor devotion are required in our prayers , 327 , c. 2. § . 8. Of the Scripture and Liturgy in an unknown tongue , 471. A Pope gave leave to the Moravians to have Mass in the Sclavonian tongue , 534. Of Prayer as a fruit or act of Repentance , 848 , n. 80. It is one of the best penances , 860 , n. 114. Those testimonies of the Fathers that prove Prayer for the dead do not prove Purgatory , 295. The opinion and practice of the ancient Church in the language of publick Prayers , 303 , 304. The Papists corrupted the Imperial law of Justinian in the matter of Prayers in an unknown tongue , 304 , c. 1. § . 7. The authority of a Pope and General Council against publick Prayers in an unknown tongue , 304. The difference between the Church of England and Rome in the use of publick Prayer , 328 , c. 2. § . 8. Prayer for the dead . The Primitive Fathers that practised it did not think of Purgatory , 501. Saint Augustine prayed for his dead Mother , when he believed her to be a Saint in Heaven , 501 , 502. The Fathers made prayers for those who by the confession of all sides were not then in Purgatory , 502 , 503. Communicantes & offerentes pro sanctis proved to mean prayer , and not thanksgiving onely , 502. Instances out of the Latin Missal where prayers are made for those that were dead , and yet not in Purgatory , 505. The Roman doctrine of Purgatory is directly contrary to the doctrine of the ancient Fathers , 512. Preach . Presbyters in Africk by Law were not allowed to preach , upon occasion of Arius preaching his errours , 128 , § . 37. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Presbyter . Tit. 1.15 . it signifies Bishop , and not mere Presbyter , 71 , § . 15. Presbyters in Jerusalem were something more then Presbyters in other Churches , 97 , § . 21. Those Presbyters mentioned Act. 20.28 . in these words [ in quo Spir. Sanctus vos posuit Episcopos ] were Bishops , and not mere Presbyters , 80 , § . 21. Neither the Church nor the Presbyters in it had power to excommunicate before they had a Bishop set over them , 82 , § . 21. Mere Presbyters had not in the Church any jurisdiction in causes criminal otherwise then by delegation , 82 , § . 21. In what sense it is true that Bishops are not greater then Presbyters , 83 , § . 21. Bishops in Scripture are styled Presbyters , 85 , § . 23. Apostles in Scripture styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 85 , § . 23. Mere Presbyters in Scripture are never called Bishops , 86 , § . 23. A Presbyter did once assist at the ordaining a Bishop , 98 , § . 31. Presbyters could not ordain , 102 , § . 32. The Council of Sardis would not own them as Presbyters who were ordained by none but Presbyters , 103 , § . 32. A Bishop may ordain without the concurrence of a Presbyter , 105 , § . 32. Photius was ●he first that gave the power of Confirmation to Presbyters , 109 , § . 33. The Bishop alone could suspend or depose without the presence of a Presbyter , 116 , 117 , § . 36. In the Primitive Church they might not officia●e without the licence of the Bishop , 127 , § . 37. In Africk Presbyters were not by Law permitted to preach , upon occasion of Arius preaching his errours , 128 , § . 37. They had not the power of voting in Councils , 136 , § . 41. The Council of Basil was the first in which they in their own right were admitted to vote , 136 , § . 41. They , as such , did not vote in that first Oecumenical Council held Acts 15. pag. 137 , § . 41. Saint Cyprian's authority , alledged in behalf of the Presbyters and people's interest in the government of the Church , answered , 145 , 146 , § . 44. Saint Cyprian did ordain and perform acts of jurisdiction without his Presbyters , ibid. The Presbyter's assistence to the Bishop was never necessary , and when practised was voluntary on the Bishop's part , 147 , § . 44. In all Churches where a Bishop's seat was , there was not always a College of Presbyters , onely in the greater Churches , 146 , § . 44. One Bishop alone , without the concurrence of more Bishops , could not depose , 147 , § . 44. Presbyters at first had no distinct Cure , 136 , § . 50. The signification of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 165 , § . 51. There were some Presbyters of whom it was not required to preach , 167 , § . 51. Priest. What the Penitentiary Priest was , and by whom taken away , 473 , 474 , 492 , 493. That the Priest's power to absolve is not judicial , but declarative onely , 483. Whether to confess all our greater sins to a Priest be necessary to salvation , 477. The Priest's act in cleansing the Leper was but declarative , 483 , 486. Celebrate , when spoken of the Eucharist , means the action of the people as well as the Priest , 530. Whether Confirmation may be administred by Presbyters , 19 , 20 , 21. b. What is the power of Priests in order to pardoning sin , 838. Of the forms of Absolution given by the Priest , 838. Absolution of sins by the Priest can be no more then declarative , 834 , n. 41. and 841. Confession to a Priest is no part of Contrition , 833 , n. 41. The benefit of confessing to a Priest , 834 , n. 43. Auricular confession to a Priest whence it descended , 833 , n. 41. Of confessing to a Priest or Minister , 857. Absolution by a Priest is not that which Christ intended by the power of remitting and retaining sins , 841 , n. 60. Attrition joyned with the Priest's Absolution is not sufficient for pardon , 842 , n. 62 , 64. Primitive . Traditions now held that are contrary to the Primitive Traditions , 453 , 454. Principle . First Principles are not necessary in all Discourses , 356. Probable . That any probable opinion may safely be followed , 324 , c. 2. § . 7. The ill consequents of that doctrine , 325. What makes an opinion probable , 324 , c. 2. § . 7. It is no excuse for them to say , This is the opinion but of one Doctor , 325 , c. 2. § . 7. Instances to shew that to follow the opinion of a probable Doctor will make the worst sins seem lawful , 326. Demonstration is not needful but where there is an aequilibrium of probabilities , 362. Probability is as good as Demonstration where is no shew of reason against it , 362. Prohibitions . Whether the Secular power can give them against the Ecclesiastical , 122 , § . 36. Prophane . The difference in committing sin between the prophane , moral , and regenerate man , 782. Proverb . A Proverb contrary to truth is a great prejudice to a man's understanding , 798. Avoid all Proverbs by which evil life is encouraged , ibid. Psalms . The meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Council of Laodicea , 23 , n. 91 , 92. Psalm 51.5 . explained , 721 , n. 49. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . What the word signifieth , 724 , n. 53. Punishment . The guilt being taken away , there can remain no obligation to punishment , 294. God punisheth not one sin with another , 859 , n. 112. The least sin more evil then the greatest punishment , 618 , n. 24. We should by our choice make that temporal punishment penitential that God inflicts , 859 , n. 113. An instance of that practice out of Eusebius , ibid. Purgatory . An account of some false Propositions , without which the doctrine of Purgatory cannot be maintained , 294. The guilt being taken away , there can remain no obligation to punishment , 294. Simon Magus had the first notion of Purgatory , 294. Those testimonies of the Fathers that prove Prayer for the dead do not prove Purgatory , 295. The Fire of purgation that the Fathers speak of is not the Romanists Purgatory , 295. Those silly Legends upon which they ground Purgatory , 296 , c. 1. § . 4. The Greek Church disowns Purgatory , 297. The authority of Fathers against it , 297 , c. 1. § . 4. When the doctrine of Purgatory was first brought into the Church , 495. Of Purgatory , and the testimonies of Roffensis and Pol. Virgil against it justified , 500. The Primitive Fathers that practised prayer for the dead thought not of Purgatory , 501. The Fathers made prayers for those who by the confession of all sides were not then in Purgatory , 502 , 503. Instances out of the Latine Missal where prayers were made for those that were dead , and yet not in Purgatory , 505. The doctrine of the Roman Purgatory was no Article of Faith in Saint Augustine's time , 506. The testimony of Otho Frisingensis against Purgatory considered , 509. The opinion of the Greek Church concerning Purgatory , 510. The Roman doctrine of Purgatory is directly contrary to the faith of the ancient Fathers , 512. The testimony of Saint Cyprian , Saint Dionysius , Saint Justin Martyr against Purgatory , 513 , 514. Q. Questions . IN those about the immaculate Conception Tradition is equally pretended on both sides , 435. Those that arose in the Council of Nice were not determined by Tradition , but Scripture , 425. Sundry Questions ; as , Whether the practice of the Primitive Fathers , denying Ecclesiastical repentance to Idolaters and Murtherers and Adulterers , and them onely , be warrantable , 805. Whether we derive from Adam original and natural ignorance , 713 , n. 22. Whether Attrition with Absolution pardoneth sin , 842. Whether it be possible to keep the Law , 579. Whether Perfection be consistent with Repentance , 579 , c. 1. ss . 3. per tot . Whether sinful Habits require a distinct manner of Repentance , 652. Whether every single deliberate act of sin put the sinner out of God's favour , c. 4. ss . 2. per tot . Whether disobedience that is voluntary in the cause , but not in the effect , is to be punished , 719 , n. 44. and 785. Whether if Adam had not sinned , Christ had been incarnate , 771. and 748 , 4. How we are to understand the Divine Justice in exacting an impossible Law , 580 , n. 32. Since God imposeth not an impossible Law , how does it consist with his wisedom to impose what in justice he does not exact ? 581 , n. 35. If so many acts of sin taken singly and alone do damn , how can any man be saved ? 642 , 643 , n. 28. Whether one is bound to repent of his sin as soon as he hath committed it , 653. and 654 , n. 7 , 8. & sequ . R. Real Presence . THis , like other Mysteries , is not to be searched into too curiously as to the manner of it , 182 , § . 1. Reason . The power of it in matters of Religion 230 , 231 , § . 11. It is the best Judge of Controversies , 1014. Reason and authority are not things inconsistent , 1015. The variety of mens understandings in apprehending the consequent of things , as in the instances of Surge , Petre , macta & comede ▪ and the trial between the two Missals of Saint Ambrose and Saint Gregory , 1016. Reformed . Concerning Ordination in the Reformed Churches performed without Bishops , 105 , § . 32. Of the harmony of Confessions set out by the Reformed Churches , 899. Regenerate . The falseness of that proposition , That natural corruption in the Regenerate still remains , and is in them a sin , 876. The state of unregenerate men , 773. Between the regenerate and the wicked person there is a middle state , 774 , n. 29. An unregenerate man may be convinced of and clearly instructed in his duty , and approve the Law , 780. An unregenerate man may with his will delight in goodness , and delight in it earnestly , 781. The contention between the Flesh and the Conscience no sign of Regeneration , but onely the contention between the Flesh and the Spirit , 781. The difference between the Regenerate , Profane , and Moral man , in their sinning , 782 , n. 33. Whence come so frequent sins in regenerate persons , 783. How sin can be consistent with the regenerate estate , 783 , n. 35. Unwillingness to sin no sign of Regeneration , 784 , n. 36. An unregenerate person may not onely desire to doe things morally good , but even spirituall also , 784 , n. 37. The difference between a regenerate and unregenerate man , 786 , 787. An unregenerate man may leave many sins not onely for temporal interest , but out of reverence of the Divine Law , 785 , n. 39. An unregenerate man may doe many good things for Heaven , and yet never come there , 786 , n. 40. An unregenerate man may have received the Spirit of God , and yet be in a state of distance from God , 786 , n. 41. It is not the propriety of the regenerate man to feel a contention within him concerning the doing good or evil , 788 , n. 43. The regenerate man hath not onely received the Spirit of God , but is wholly led by him , 788. n. 44. Arguments to prove that St. Paul ( Rom. 7. ) speaks not of the Regenerate man , 773 , n. 10. Religion . If it be seated onely in the understanding , not accepted to Salvation , 780. The character and properties of perfect Religion , 583 , 584 , n. 44. ad 48. Remission of Sin. What is the power of remitting and retaining sin , 836 , n. 47. Repentance . The Roman doctrine about Repentance , 312 , c. 2. § . 1. They teach that Repentance is not necessary till the article of death , 312. Their Church enjoyns not the internal , but the external ritual Repentance , 313. What Contrition is , 314. The Church of Rome makes Contrition unnecessary , 314. According to the Roman doctrine Confession does not restrain sin , and satisfies not the Conscience , 315 , c. 2. § . 2. The Roman Doctors prevaricate in the whole Doctrine of Repentance , 321. What the Penitentiary Priest was , and by whom taken away , 473 , 474 , 492 , 493. The Controversie between Monsieur Arnauld & Petavius about Repentance , 568. The Covenant of Repentance when it began , 574 , 575. How Repentance and Perfection Evangelical are consistent , Chap. 1. ss . 3. per tot . n. 47. That Proposition rejected , That every sinner must in his Repentance pass under the terrours of the Law , 587. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how they differ , 596 , 597. All that was insupportable in Moses's Law was onely the want of this , 580 , n. 33. Of the notion of Repentance when joyned with Faith , 599 , n. 1. It is a whole change of state and life , 597. The parts of it , 599 , n. 9. and 820 , n. 2. The difference between the Repentance preached to the Jews and the Gentiles , 601 , n. 5 , 6 , 7. It may be called Conversion , 602 , n. 10. Repentance onely makes sins venial , 622 , n. 34. What Repentance single acts of sin require , 646 , n. 43. A general Repentance when sufficient , 647 , n. 47. Some acts of sin require more then a moral revocation , or opposing a contrary act of vertue in Repentance , 648 , n. 50. That Proposition proved , That no man is bound to repent of his sin instantly after the committing it , 654. The danger of deferring Repentance , 654 , 655. Deferring Repentance differs but by accident from final impenitence , ibid. How the severities of Repentance were retrenched in several Ages , 804 , n. 14 , 15 , 16. The severity of the Primitive Church in denying Absolution to greater Criminals upon their Repentance , was not their Doctrine , but their Discipline , 805 , n. 21. Repentance of sinful Habits to be performed in a distinct manner , 669 , n. 31. Seven Objections against that Proposition answered , 675. Objections against the Repentance of Clinicks , 678 , n. 57. and 677 , n. 56. and 679 , n. 64. Heathens newly baptized , if they die immediately , need no other repentance , ibid. The Objection concerning the Thief on the Cross answered , 681 , n. 65. Testimonies of the Ancients against death-bed repentance , 682 , n. 66. The manner of repentance in habitual sinners who begin Repentance betimes , 687 , n. 1. The manner of repentance by which habitual sins must be cured in them who return not till old age , 691 , n. 12. The way of treating sinners who repent not till their death-bed , 695 , n. 25. Considerations shewing how dangerous it is to delay Repentance , 853 , n. 98. and 695 , n. 25. Considerations to be opposed against the despair of penitent Clinicks , 696 , n. 29. What hopes penitent Clinicks have , taken out of the Writings of the Fathers of the Church , 696 , 697 , n. 30. The manner how the Ancient Church treated penitent Clinicks , 699 , n. 5. The particular acts and parts of Repentance that are fittest for a dying man , 700 , n. 32. The penitent ( in the opinion of the Jewish Doctors ) preferred above the just and innocent , 801. The practice of the Primitive Fathers about penitent Clinicks , 804. The practice of the ancient Fathers excluding from repentance murtherers , adulterers and idolaters , 804 , 805. Penitential sorrow is rather in the understanding then the affections , 823 , n. 12. Penitential sorrow is not to be estimated by the measures of sense , 823 , n. 15. and 824 , n. 17. A double solemn imposition of hands in Repentance , 840 , n. 57. As our Repentance is , so is our pardon , 846. A man must not judge of his Repentance by his tears , nor by any one manner of expression , 850 , n. 99. He that suspects his Repentance should use the suspicion as a means to improve his Repentance , 850. Meditations that will dispose the heart to Repentance , 851 , n. 88. No man can be said truly to have grieved for sin , which at any time after remembers it with pleasure , 851 , n. 92. The Repentance of Clinicks , 853 , n. 96. Sorrow for sin is but a sign or instrument of Repentance , 853 , n. 99. That Repentance preached to the Jews was in different methods from that preached to the Gentiles , 601 , n. 6 , 7. Two kinds of Conversion ; one the same with Repentance , the other different from it , 602 , n. 10. The synonymal terms by which Repentance is signified in Scripture , 602 , n. 11 , 12. Every relapse after Repentance makes the sin less pardonable , 815 , n. 11 , 61 , 64. Repentance is not true , unless the sinner be brought to that pass , that he seriously wishes he had never done the sin , 827 , n. 21. The method and progression of Repentance , 827 , n. 22. The method of Repentance in the Primitive Church , 832 , 833. The usual acts of Repentance what they are , 845 , n. 74. Tertullian's description of Repentance , 848 , n. 80. The penitent must take care that his Repentance injure not his health , 852 , n. 94. and 858 , n. 112. Restitution . Considered as a part of Repentance , 849 , n. 84. No Repentance is entire without Restitution , where it is required , 648 , n. 50. Book of the Revelation . Chap. 19. v. 9. Blessed are they that are called to the marriage of the Lamb explained , 679 , n. 62. Righteousness . What was the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees , 673 , n. 45. The Righteousness of the Law and Gospel how they differ , 673 , n. 46. Romanists . The arts by which they have managed the Article of Transubstantiation , Ep. Ded. to Real pres . 174. It is acknowledged by them that Transubstantiation cannot be proved out of Scripture , 187 , § . 2. and 298. They and the Non-conformists have always in England encreased alternately , as the State minded the reducing either , Pref. to Diss. pag. 2 , 3. They make Propositions which are not in Scripture to be Articles of Faith , which is condemned by the Fathers , Pref. pag. 4 , 5. The Character of the Roman Catholick Religion as it is professed by the Irish , Pref. to Diss. pag. 6 , 7 , 8. Where the Doctrine of the Roman Church is to be found , 313 , c. 2. § . 1. How that Church abuseth Contrition , 314. The Roman Doctors prevaricate in the whole Doctrine of Repentance , 321. They teach , the habit of the sin is not a distinct evil from the act of it , 322. That one man may satisfie for the sins of another , is their Doctrine , 322 , c. 2. § . 6. They hold , that habits of sin are no sins , 322 , c. 2. § . 6. It is no excuse for them to say , This is the opinion but of one Doctor , 325 , c. 2. § . 7. They teach , that neither Attention nor Devotion are required in our Prayers , 327 , c. 2. § . 8. The difference between the Church of England and Rome in the use of publick Prayers , 328 , c. 2. § . 8. They teach the Invocation of Saints , 329 , 332. and that with the same style as they pray to God , ibid. They teach , that Christ , being our Judge , is not fit to be our Advocate , 329 , c. 2. § . 9. They interpret the Blessed Virgin to be the Throne of Grace , 329. Of their Exorcisms , 333 , § . 10. They attribute the conveying of Grace to things of their own inventing , 337 , § . 11. The Sacraments , they teach , do not onely convey Grace , but supply the defect of it , 337. They teach Lying and Equivocation , 340. They teach that a man may steal or lie for a good end , 341 , c. 3. § . 1. They keep no Faith with Hereticks , 341. They teach the Pope hath power to dispense with all the Laws of God , 342. The seal of Confession they will not suffer to be broken , to save the life of a King or the whole State , 343 , c. 3. § . 2. The Pope hath power , as they teach , to dispose of the temporal things of all Christians , 344. An Excommunicate King , they teach , may be deposed or killed , 344 , c. 3. § . 3. A Son or Wife they absolve from their duty to Husband or Father , if the Husband or Father be heretical , 345. Their Religion no friend to Kings , 345. Their Opinions so injurious to Kings are not the Doctrines of private men onely , 345. They have no Tradition to assure them the Epistle to the Hebrews is Canonical , 361. Of what Authority the opinion of the Fathers is with some Romanists , 376 , 377. They hold the Scripture for no infallible Rule , 381 , § . 1. Even among them the Authority of General Councils is but precarious , 391. The great uncertainties the Romanists do relie upon , 397 , 400. Instances of some Doctrines that are held by some Romanists to be de fide , by others not to be de fide , 398. Of the Divisions in the Church of Rome , 403. The Character of the Church of Rome , 403. Neither the Church of Rome , nor the Fathers , nor School-men , are agreed upon the definition of a Sacrament , 404. The Romanists by their doctrine of Tradition gave great advantage to the Socinians , 425. They impute greater virtue to their Sacramentals then to their Sacraments , 429. The Romanists have corrupted the Creed in that Article of the Catholick Church , by restraining it to the Roman , 448. The Roman is not the Mother of all Churches , 449. They teach that the Pope can make new Articles of Faith and new Scripture , 450. The Authority of the Church of Rome , they teach , is greater then that of the Scripture , 450. Their Writers reckon the Decretal Epistles of the Popes among the Holy Scriptures , 451. Of the Miracles wrought now-a-days by the Romanists , 452. The uncharitableness of that Church , 460. That Church arrogates to her self an Empire over Consciences , 461. The Church of Rome imposes Articles of her own devising , as necessary to Salvation , 461. The faith of unlearned men in the Roman Church , ibid. The Church of Rome adopts uncertain and trifling Propositions into their Faith , 462. Upon what ground we put Roman Priests to death , 464. The dangers in which they are that live in the Roman Communion , 466 , 467. Of their worshipping the Host , 467. Their doctrine about the seal of Confession is one instance of their teaching for doctrines the Commandments of men , 473 , 477. Divers other instances wherein they teach for doctrines the Commandments of men , 494. The Roman Churche's consecrating a Wafer is a mere Innovation , 531 , 532. That Church would have sold the Rite of Confirmation to the Greek , but they would not buy it , Ep. Ded. to the Treatise of Confirmation , pag. 5. They teach that Confirmation is a Sacrament , and yet hold it not necessary , 3. b. Epistle to the Romans . Chap. 5. v. 12. ad 19. explained , 887 , 888 , 889 , 900 , 901 , 903. Chap. 5. v. 12. largely explained , 885 , 887 , 888 , 889. Chap. 6.23 . The wages of sin is death explained , 621 , n. 33. Chap. 6.13 , 20. explained , 667 , n. 27. Chap. 7.23 . explained , 723 , n. 52. Chap. 7.14 . explained , 671 , n. 40. Chap. 6.7 . explained , 672 , n. 44. Chap. 7.7 . explained , 689 , n. 5. Chap. 5.12 . explained , 709 , 710. Chap. 5.13 , 14. explained , 710 , n. 7 , 11. Chap. 7.23 . explained , 773 , and 772. Chap. 7.15 , 19. explained , 772 , 773. Saint Augustine restrained the words of this Apostle , ( Rom. 7.15 . ) to the matter of Desires and Concupiscence , and excluded all evil actions from the meaning of that Text , 775 , n. 18. Reasons against that Interpretation given by that Father , 776 , n. 19. Chap. 7.9 . explained , 777 , n. 26. Chap. 8.7 . explained , 781 , n. 31. Chap. 7.22 , 23. explained , 781 , n. 31. Chap. 5.10 . explained , 818 , n. 77. Rosary . What it is , 328. S. Sabbath . THE observation of the Lord's day relieth not upon Tradition , 428. The Jewish and Christian Sabbath were for many years in the Christian Church kept together , 428. Sacraments . The Sacraments , as the Romanists teach , do not onely convey Grace , but supply the defect of it , 337. The Romanists cannot agree about the definition of a Sacrament , 404. They impute greater virtue to their Sacramentals then to the Sacraments themselves , 429. The Church of God used of old to deny the Sacrament to no dying penitent that desired it , 696. Of Confession to a Priest in preparation to the Sacrament , 857. Saints . The Romanists teach and practise the Invocation of Saints , 329 , 332. and that with the same confidence and in the same style as they do to God , ibid. They do not onely pray to Saints to pray for them , but they relie upon their merits , 330. They have a Saint for every malady , 330. It is held ominous for a Pope to canonize a Saint , 333 , c. 2. § . 9. Of the Invocation of Saints , 467. Salvation . The Primitive Church affirmed but few things to be necessary to Salvation , 436. What Articles the Scripture proposeth as necessary to Salvation , 436 , 437. The Church of Rome imposeth Articles of her own devising as necessary to Salvation , 461. Of the Salvation of unbaptized Infants that are born of Christian parents , 471. 1. Book of Samuel . Chap. 2. v. 25. explained , 812 , 813 , n. 51. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . What it meaneth in the style of the New Testament , 724 , n. 53. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 767 , 781. Satisfaction . One may , according to the Roman doctrine , satisfie for another man's sin , 322 , c. 2. § . 6. The use of that word in Classical Authours , 844 , 845 , n. 72. It was the same with Confession , 845 , n. 72. What it signified in the sense of the Ancients , 844 , and 832 , n. 34. The Ancients did not believe Satisfaction simply necessary to the procuring pardon from God , 847. Schism . Photius was the first Authour of the Schism between the Greek and Latin Church , 109 , § . 33. What Schism is , 149 , § . 46. The whole stress of Religion Schismaticks commonly place in their own distinguishing Article , 459. Scripture . To make new Articles of Faith that are not in Scripture , as the Papists do , is condemned by the suffrage of the Fathers , Pref. to Diss. pag. 4 , 5. Christ and his Apostles made use of Scripture for arguments , and not Tradition , 353. An answer to that Objection , Scripture proves not it self to be God's Word , 353. An answer to that Objection , Tradition is the best Argument to prove the Scripture to be the Word of God , therefore it is a better Principle , 354. The Romanists hold the Scripture for no Infallible Rule , 381. Whether the Scripture be a sufficient Rule , 405 , 406 , 407. In what case the Scripture can give testimony concerning it self , 406. Scripture is more credible then the Church , 407. To believe that the Scripture contains not all things necessary to Salvation , is a fountain of most Errours and Heresies , 409. The doctrine of the Scripture's sufficiency proved by Tradition , 410. Some of the Fathers by Tradition mean Scripture , 410 , 411 , 412. Things necessary to Salvation are in the Scripture easie and plain , 418. Scripture is the best Interpreter of Scripture , 419. Tradition is necessary , because Scripture could not be conveyed to us without it , 424. The Questions that arose in the Nicene Council were not determined by Tradition , but Scripture , 425. The Romanists by their doctrine of Tradition give great advantage to the Socinians , 425. That the Doctrine of the Trinity relieth not upon Tradition , but Scripture , 425. That the Doctrine of Infant-baptism relieth not upon Tradition onely , but Scripture , 425 , 426. The validity of the Baptism of Hereticks is not to be proved by Tradition without Scripture , 426 , 427. The procession of the Holy Ghost may be proved by Scripture without Tradition , 427 , 428. What Articles the Scripture proposeth as necessary to Salvation , 436 , 437. The Romanists teach , that the Pope can make new Articles of Faith and a new Scripture , 450. The Authority of the Church of Rome , as they teach , is greater then that of the Scripture , 450. When in the Question between the Church and the Scripture they distinguish between Authority quoad nos and in se , it salves not the difficulty , 451. The Romanists reckon the Decretal Epistles of Popes among the Holy Scriptures , 451. Eckius his pitiful Argument to prove the Authority of the Church to be above the Scriptures , ibid. Variety of Readings in it , 967. n. 4. As much difference in expounding it , 967 , n. 5. Of the several ways taken to expound it , 971 , 972 , 973. Of expounding it by Analogy of Faith , 973 , 974 , n. 4. Saint Basil's testimony for Scripture against Tradition , which Perron endeavours to elude , vindicated , 982 , 983. Nothing of Auricular Confession in Scripture , 479. The manner of it is to include the Consequents in the Antecedent , 679 , n. 52. Secular . Whether this Power can give Prohibitions against the Ecclesiastical , 122 , § . 36. It was not unlawful for Bishops to take Secular Imployment , 157 , § . 49. The Church did always forbid Clergy-men to seek after Secular imployments , 157 , § . 49. and to intermeddle with them for base ends , 158 , § . 49. The Church prohibiting secular imployment to Clergy-men does it in gradu impedimenti , 159 , § . 49. The Canons of the Church do as much forbid houshold cares as secular imployment , 160 , § . 49. Christian Emperours allowed Appeals in secular affairs from secular Tribunals to that of the Bishop , 160 , § . 49. Saint Ambrose was Bishop and Prefect of Milain at the same time , 161 , § . 49. Saint Austin's condition was somewhat like at Hippo , 161. § . 49. Bishops used , in the Primitive Church , to be Embassadours for their Princes , 161 , § . 49. The Bishop or his Clerks might doe any office of Piety , though of secular burthen , 161 , § . 49. If a Secular Prince give a safe conduct , the Romanists teach it binds not the Bishops that are under him , 341. Sense . If the doctrine of Transubstantiation be true , then the truth of Christian Religion , that relies upon evidence of sense , is questionable , 223 , 224 , § . 10. The Papists Answer to that Argument , and our Reply , 224 , § . 10. Bellarmine's Answer , and our Reply upon it , 226 , § . 10. If the testimony of our Senses be not in fit circumstances to be relied on , the Catholicks could not have confuted the Valentinians and Marcionites , 227 , § . 10. The Touch the most certain of the Senses , ibid. Signat . That word , as also Consignat , in those Texts of the Fathers that are usually alledged against Confirmation by Bishops alone , signifies Baptismal Unction , 110 , § . 33. Vid. 20. b. Sin. Venial sins hinder the fruit of Indulgences , 320. The Papists teach , the habit of the sin is not a distinct evil from the act of it , 322. Of the distinction of sins , mortal , and venial , 329 , c. 2. § . 6. It destroys holy life , ibid. That one may satisfie for the sins of another , is the Roman doctrine , 322 , c. 2. § . 6. That habits of sins are no sins , held by them , 322 , § . 6. The Pope is to be obeyed , according to the doctrine of the Romanists , though he command sin , 345. Nectarius abolished the custom of having sins published in the Church , 474 , 488 , 492. Wherein the pardon of sin doth consist , 484 , 485. Between the least mortal and the greatest venial sin no man can distinguish , 610 , n. 2. The folly of that assertion , We are free to sin , but not to good , 874. The falseness of that Proposition , That natural Corruption in the regenerate still remains , and is in them a sin , 876. How these words , Sin and Sinner , are sometimes used in Scripture , 712 , n. 16.885 , 898 , 902. Sins are not equal , 611 , n. 5. How they are made greater or less , ibid. No sin is venial , 613 , n. 9 , 10. The smallest sins are destructive of our friendship with God , 614 , n. 12. The Doctors of the Roman Church do not rightly define venial sins , ibid. The smallest is against Charity , 618 , n. 24. The smallest sin is a turning from God , 619 , n. 26. The smaller the sin , the less excusable , if done with observation , 619 , 620 , n. 27. Sins differ in degree , but not in their essential order to punishment , 621 , 622 , n. 33. Among the Ancients the distinction of sins into mortal and venial meant not a distinction of kind , but degree , 627 , 625 , n. 44. Some sins destroy not holiness , 626 , n. 45. The distinction of sins into mortal , and venial , cannot have influence on us to any good purposes , 626 , n. 46. Whether every single act of sin put the sinner out of God's favour , 640 , n. 22. Single acts of sin without a habit give a denomination , 641 , n. 25. Sins are damnable that cannot be habitual , 641 , n. 24. Single acts of mortal sin displease God , and are forbidden , but are not a state of death , 642 , n. 29. What repentance single acts of sin require , 646 , n. 43. How a single act of sin sometimes is habitual , 648 , n. 49. The word Sin often in Scripture used for the punishment of sin , 711 , n. 15. Leaving of sin the best sign of hating it , 829. How sin can be consistent with the regenerate state , 783. He that leaves a sin out of fear may be accepted , 785. The violence of the temptation doth not in the whole excuse sin , 793. Of the pardon of sins after Baptism , 802. Some sins styled unpardonable , but in a limited sense , 806 , n. 22. 814 , n. 57 , 59. God punishes not one sin with another , 859 , n. 112. One sin may cause or procure another , ibid. Every sin is directly against God's Law , and therefore is damnable , 617 , n. 21. The least sin more evil then the greatest punishment , 618 , n. 24. He that commands another man to sin is not guilty of that man's sin , but of his own command , 640 , n. 20. What sins are damnable in the single act , 640 , sect . 2. per tot . There is no natural necessity of sinning lies upon any man , 755 , n. 15. The Principles by which sin pollutes the manners of men , 727 , n. 66. The sinner's unwillingness to sin does not always lessen his sin , but aggravate it sometimes , 784 , n. 36. There is in us no natural necessity of sinning , 754 , n. 15. The whole nature of mankind in its universal capacity cannot be guilty of sin , 765 , n. 29. The natural inclination to evil that is in every man is not sin , 766 , n. 32. What kind of inclination to evil is sin , ibid , n. 33. How we are sinners in Adam , 752 , n. 12. Sins of Infirmity . Of them , Chap. 8. per tot . That which some men call a state of infirmity is a state of sin and death , 779. Sins Venial . No sin is properly venial , 613 , n. 9 , 10. Venial sins distinguished into such as are venial by the imperfection of the Agent , or the smalness of the matter , or venial in the whole kind , 620 , n. 28. That no sins are venial in their nature or whole kind , 620 , n. 31. No sins are venial but by Repentance , 626 , n. 44.622 , n. 34. The absurdity of the Roman Doctrines concerning venial sins , 624 , n. 39. The inconveniences following from the doctrine of venial sins , 623 , n. 35. The Roman Doctors do not rightly define venial sins , 614 , n. 12. It is not safe to enquire into the veniality of a sin before we commit it , 627 , n. 57 , 53. What sins are venial cannot be known to us , 627 , n. 47. We should have judged some sins venial , if it had not been otherwise revealed in Scripture , 627 , n. 48. Sins that we account in their nature venial , by their multitude become damnable , 629 , n. 52. The means of expiating venial sins appointed by some Roman Doctors , 631 , n. 57. Sins are made greater or less by complication , 612 , n. 6 , 7. Three degrees of venial sins , 628 , n. 28. That distinction opposed , 620 , n. 28 , 29. & sequ . The mischief that is consequent to the distinction of sins into Mortal , and Venial , 610 , and 623 , n. 36. & sequ . What Repentance is to expiate venial sins , 630 , 631 , 632 , n. 56 , 57 , 58. & sequ . There is some degree of veniality in every sin , till it come to an unpardonable estate , 626 , n. 44. Venial means either actually pardoned , or onely pardonable , 626 , n. 44. Sins are venial in relation to the state of Grace and Repentance , 628 , n. 47. Sinner . How every sinner is God's enemy , 602 , n. 11. God is ready to forgive all and the greatest sinners , 801 , n. 5. How the word Sinner is sometimes used in Scripture , 712 , n. 16. and 885 , 898 , 902. Saint Chrysostome's notion of a Sinner , 760 , n. 22. Sorrow . Concerning it as it is a fruit of Repentance , 845 , n. 74. Rules concerning sorrow as it is a part of Repentance , 859. A Caution to those that minister comfort to such as are afflicted with immoderate sorrow for their sins , 852 , n. 95. Sorrow for sin is but a sign or instrument of Repentance , 853 , n. 99. Cautions concerning the measure of this sorrow , 860. Penitential sorrow is rather in the understanding then in the affections , 823 , n. 12. There is no Repentance without sorrow , 821 , n. 50.828 , n. 24. Penitential sorrow is odium rather then dolor , 823 , n. 12. We must not account of our sorrow in repentance by the measure of sense , but Religion , 823 , n. 15. External expressions of sorrow and the like are not necessary to the integrality of Repentance , 824 , n. 17. The usefulness of sensual sorrow in Repentance , 826 , n. 20. Of that device , to be sorrowful that they cannot sorrow , 827 , n. 22. Directions to a Penitent when he finds not his sorrow proportionable to his desires of Repentance , 850 , n. 88. Penitential sorrow should be rather natural and constant , then solemn , 851 , n. 89. Soul. That Proposition , Anima est tota in toto , & tota in qualibet parte corporis , in what sense it is true , 242 , § . 11. Silhon thinks a moral demonstration to be the best way of proving the immortality of the Soul , 357. Aristotle believed the Soul of man to be divine , and not of the body , 718 , n. 41. There is no difference between the inferiour and superiour faculties of the Soul , 728 , n. 68. and 825 , n. 19. The frailty of man's Soul , 734 , n. 83. Spirit . Whether the ordinary gifts of the Spirit be immediate infusions of faculties and abilities , or an improvement of our natural powers and means , 4 , n. 15. ad 34. How the Holy Spirit did inspire the Apostles and Writers of the New Testament as to the very words , 8 , n. 32. What , in the sense of Scripture , is praying with the Spirit , 9 , n. 37. and 47. What a Spirit is as to nature , 236 , § . 11. How a Spirit is in place , 236 , § . 11. The Holy Spirit perfects our Redemption , 1. b. The Spirit of God , 1. b. The frailty of the spirit of man , 735 , n. 83. The rule of the Spirit in us , 782. To have received the Spirit is not an inseparable propriety of the regenerate , 786. What the Spirit of God doth in us , 787. The regenerate man hath not onely received the Spirit of God , but is wholly led by him , 788. Sublapsarians . Their Doctrine in five Propositions , 872. It is not much better then the Supralapsarian , 873. Against this way , 886 , n. 8. Substance . What a Substance is , 236 , § . 11. Aquinas says that the Body of Christ is in the Elements , not after the manner of a Body , but a Substance : this Notion considered , 238 , § . 11. Succession . Of the succession of Bishops , 402 , 403. Supererogation . How it and Christian perfection differ , 590 , 591 , n. 16 , 17. What it is , 786. Superlative . This is usually exprest by a synonymal word by an Hebraism , 909. Supralapsarians . Their Doctrine , 871. T. Tears . A Man by them must not judge of his Repentance , nor by any other one way of expression , 850 , n. 86. Temptation . Every temptation to sin , if overcome , increases not the reward , 661 , n. 7. No man is tempted of God , 737 , n. 86. The violence of a temptation doth not in the whole excuse sin , 743. Testament . In a humane or Divine Testament figurative words may be admitted , 210 , § . 6. A certain Athenian's aenigmatical Testament , 210 , § . 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . What they were , 835 , n. 44. Theodoret. His words about Transubstantiation considered , 264 , 265 , § . 12. Theology . The power of Reason in matters of Theology , 230 , 231 , § . 11. It findeth a medium between Vertue and Vice , 673. Thief on the Cross. Why his Repentance was accepted , 681 , n. 65. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . What that word means , 637 , n : 10. 1. Epistle to Timothy . Chap. 4. v. 8. explained , 860 , n. 114. Chap. 5. v. 22. explained , 808 , n. 31. Chap. 5.17 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 explained , 152 , § . 48. and 166 , § . 51. Chap. 3.15 , 16. the pillar and ground of truth explained , 386 , 387. Chap. 1.5 , 6. explained , 949 , n. 8. 2. Epistle to Timothy . Chap. 2. v. 4. explained , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 162 , § . 49. Epistle to Titus . Chap. 5.15 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 explained , 780 , n. 30. Tradition . Christ and his Apostles made use of Scripture for arguments , not Tradition , 353. An answer to that Objection , Tradition is the best argument to prove the Scripture to be the word of God , therefore it is a better Principle then that , 354. Oral Tradition was useful to convey matter of fact onely , not Doctrines , 354 , 355 , 358. Oral Tradition a very uncertain means to convey down a Doctrine , 356. The Romanists have no Tradition to assure them the Epistle to the Hebrews is Canonical , 361. The doctrine of the Scriptures sufficiency proved by Tradition , 410. Some of the Fathers by Tradition mean Scripture , 410 , 411 , 412. What Tradition is , and what the word meaneth , 420 , § . 3. When and in what case Tradition is an useful Topick , 421. It is necessary in the Church , because the Scripture could not be conveyed to us without it , 424. The Questions that arose in the Council of Nice were not determined by Tradition , but Scripture , 425. The Tradition urged by the Ancients was not oral , 425. The Romanists by their doctrine of Tradition gave great advantage to the Socinians , 425. The doctrine of the Trinity relieth not upon Tradition , but Scripture , 425. That the doctrine of Infant-baptism relieth not upon Tradition onely , but Scripture too , 425 , 426. The validity of Baptism by Hereticks is not to be proved by Tradition , without Scripture , 426 , 427. The Procession of the Holy Ghost may be proved by Scripture without Tradition , 427 , 428. The observation of the Lord's Day relieth not upon Tradition , 428. Instances wherein oral Tradition has failed in conveyance , 431. Saint Augustine's Rule to try Apostolical Traditions , 432. Some Traditions , said to be Apostolical , have proceeded from the testimony of one man alone , and he none of them , 432. Of the means of proving a Tradition to be Apostolical , 433. Of Vincentius Lirinensis his Rule to discern Apostolical Tradition , 434. In the Question about the immaculate Conception Tradition is equally pretended on both sides , 435. Traditions now held that are contrary to the Primitive Traditions , 453 , 454. There is no Ecclesiastical Tradition for Auricular Confession , 490. Of what use Tradition is in expounding Scripture , 976. It is no sufficient medium to end Controversies , 976 , sect . 5. per tot . It was pretended by the Arians and divers other hereticks , as well as the Orthodox , 977 , n. 3. The report of Tradition was uncertain even in the Ages Apostolical , 978 , n. 4. Tradition could not be made use of to determine the Controversie about Easter between the Churches of the East and West , because both sides pretended it , 979 , n. 7. What Tradition it was the Fathers used to appeal to , 979 , n. 8. Transubstantiation . The arts by which the Romanists have managed this Article , Ep. Ded. to Real Pres. 174. It is acknowledged by the Romanists , that this doctrine cannot be proved out of Scripture , 187 , § . 2. and 298. How many figurative terms there are in the words of Institution , 211 , 212 , § . 6. If this doctrine be true , then the truth of Christian Religion , which relieth upon the evidence of Sense , is questionable , 223 , 224 , § . 10. The Papists Answer to that Argument , with our Reply , 224 , § . 10. Bellarmine's Answer , and a Reply upon it , 226 , § . 10. If the testimony of our Senses in fit circumstances be not to be relied on , the Catholicks could not have confuted the Valentinians and Marcionites , 227 , § . 10. Irenaeus mentions an Impostour that essayed to counterfeit Transubstantiation long before the Roman Church decreed it , 228 , § . 10. The miraculous Apparitions that are brought to prove Transubstantiation are proved to be false by their own doctrine , 229 , § . 10. Picus Mirandula offered to maintain in Rome this Thesis , Paneitas potest suppositare corpus Domini , 230 , § . 11. How many ways the words of Christ , Hoc est corpus meum , may be verified without Transubstantiation , 230 , 231 , § . 11. The folly of that assertion , Credo , quia impossibile est , when applied to Transubstantiation , 231 , § . 11. Stapleton , to confute the Lutheran Consubstantiation , uses arguments drawn from the absurdity and unreasonableness of the opinion , 231 , § . 11. Scotus affirmed that the truth of the Eucharist may be saved without Transubstantiation , 234 , § . 11. Thomas Aquinas acknowledged more difficulties in it then in the whole Creation , 234 , § . 11. Why may not Transubstantiation be believed notwithstanding the many impossibilities , as well as the Trinity ? this Objection answered , 242 , § . 11. The absurdities of Transubstantiation , 246 , 247 , § . 11. The absurdities of the Romanists in explicating the nature of the conversion of the Elements into the Body of Christ , 247 , § . 11. The true Notion of the word Transubstantiation , 250 , § . 12. and 251. Of the ground of that slander cast upon the Primitive Christians , that they did in their religious solemnities eat the flesh of a Child , 254 , § . 12. Perron affirms , that by their doctrine the Romanists are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 254 , § . 12. Tertullian against Transubstantiation , 256 , 257 , 258 , § . 12. and 300. The authority of Origen , Justin Martyr , Clem. Alexandrinus and S. Cyprian against Transubstantiation , 258 , § . 12. The authority of Eusebius , S. Ephrem Syrus , Epiphanius , Macarius , Gregory Nazianzen , Saint Ambrose , Saint Chrysostome , against it , and Saint Augustine , 259 , 260 , 261 , 262 , § . 12. The Council of C P. against it , 262 , § . 12. The words of Theodoret considered , 264 , 265 , § . 12. The words of Galesius , 265 , § . 12. The authority of Suidas and Hesychius against Transubstantiation , 265 , 266 , § . 12. The authority of Dionysius Areopagita against Transubstantiation , 266 , § . 12. The question of Transubstantiation was disputed amongst the Catholicks themselves A. D. 880.266 , § . 12. and 299. In England , till Lanfrank's time , it was lawful to believe Transubstantiation , or reject it , 266 , § . 12. Aelfric , Abbot of Saint Albans , in his Saxon Homily , determines on the Protestants side in the Question of Transubstantiation , 266 , § . 12. The words of the Gloss upon the Canon-law against it , 266 , 267 , § . 12. Scotus affirms it was not de fide before the Lateran Council , 267 , § . 12. The Lateran Council did not determine Transubstantiation . How the word and doctrine grew into credit , 267 , § . 12 , 299 , c. 1. § . 5. Pe● . Lombard's Argument against Transubstantiation , 299 , c. 1. § . 5. Strange questions appendant to that doctrine , 301 , c. 1. § . 5. The Roman doctrine of Transubstantiation is impossible , and implies contradictions , 301. The testimonies of Scotus , Odo Cameracensis , ( by mistake quoted Ocam ) Roffensis , Biel , Lombard , in the question of Transubstantiation vindicated and made good , 517 , 518. What passed in the Lateran Council concerning Transubstantiation , 519. Neither this Article nor any thing else was decreed in the Lateran Council , 519. The same Pope or Council that made Transubstantiation an Article of Faith , made Rebellion and Treason to be the duty of Subjects , 520. The opinion of Durandus in the Article of Transubstantiation , 520. This consequence is good , It is not common bread , therefore it is bread , 206 , 523. The testimony of Eusebius against Transubstantiation , 524. The authority of St. Austin in the question of Transubstantiation , 525. Concerning the words of Transubstantiation , 969 , n. 6. Of Berengarius when he was condemned by Pope Nicolas , 993. Trinity . Why the many impossibilities should not be as well an objection against the belief of the Trinity , as against the belief of Transubstantiation , 242 , § . 11. To picture God the Father or the Trinity is against Primitive practice , 307. A Reply to that Answer of the Romanists , that the Writings of the Fathers do forbid nothing else but picturing the Divine Essence of God the Father and the Holy Trinity , 550 , 554. Pope John XXII . caused those to be burnt for Hereticks that made Pictures of the Trinity , 555. Truth . The value of it , and that it is to be preferred before some degrees of Peace , 882. Truth and Peace compared in their value , 883. U. Venial sin . BEtween the least mortal and the greatest venial sin no man can distinguish , 610 , n. 2. Vid. tit . Sin in S. Vertue . An act of sorrow for the committing sin is an imperate act of the contrary vertue , 684 , n. 68. As of the pleasantness of the sin much is to be imputed to the habit , so would vertue be pleasant and easie if it were made habitual , 688 , n. 2. What vertue was in the opinion of the ancient Philosophers , 770 , c. 8. n. 1. The difference of vertues is in relation to their objects , 649 , n. 56. Theology findeth a medium between Vertue and Vice , 673. Blessed Virgin. The Romanists interpret the Blessed Virgin to be the Throne of Grace , 329. The Lady's Psalter composed by Bonaventure , 332 , § . 9. Her Psalter , 328. A Rosary what it is , ibid. The manner of their prayers to her , 331. Vnderstanding . Religion , if it be seated onely in the Understanding , not accepted to salvation , 780. Of the duty of submitting the Understanding to humane authority , 952 , n. 12. Voluntary . Whether disobedience that is voluntary in the cause , but not in the effect , is to be punished , 719 , 720 , n. 45. Unwillingness to sin no sign of Regeneration , 783 , 784. W. Will. WHen it is that it serves for the deed , 593 , n. 23. A man's Will hath no infirmity , 794 , n. 62. The Will is not moved necessarily by the Understanding , ibid. Between the Will and the inferiour appetite there is in nature no real distinction , 825 , n. 19. The sinner's unwillingness to sin does not always lessen the sin , but sometimes increase it , 784 , n. 36. No act of the Will can destroy the will , 755 , n. 15. and 765 , n. 29. How the necessity of Grace is consistent with the doctrine of Free-will , 754 , n. 15. Of Free-will , 730. How the Will of man is depraved , 754 , n. 15. Works . Reasons why with a Covenant of Works God began his entercourse with man , 575. The Covenant of works when it began , 573 , 584. Reasons shewing the justice of that dispensation of God's beginning his entercourse with man by the Covenant of Works , 576. The Law of Works imposed on Adam onely , 587. Worship . The Council of Trent binds all its subjects to exhibit to the Sacrament of the Altar the same worship which they give to the true God , 267 , § . 13. To worship the Host is Idolatry , 268 , § . 13. They that worship the Host , according to their own doctrine , are many times in danger of Idolatry inevitably , 268 , 269 , § . 13. Heathens could not worship an Image terminativè , 338. The Romanists worship the Cross terminativè , 338. The worship of Images is Idolatry , 337 , 338. Of worshipping the Host , 467. Of worship of Angels , 467. Of the worship of Images , 468. Vid. Tit. Images . Divers Hereticks did worship the Picture of our Lord , and were reproved for it , 545. Y. Young. SIns of Infirmity not accounted to young men as to others , 793. Z. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . OF the importance of that word , 638 , n. 14. To the Title of Baptism adde , Of baptizing Infants , 1040 , 1041 , sect . 18. per tot . ERRATA . PAGE 2. line 35. for wave , reade have . 4. l. 13. reade ever more . l. 15. r. and it is . 6. l. 33. r. mutual concurse . 19. l. 5. r. bind . 22. l. 11. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 23. l. 11. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 23. margin , l. 18. r. ad Sect. 88.24 . l. 4. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 26. l. 19. r. in the principle . l. 22 , 23. r. ( who are not — Rulers are ) 28. l. 57. r. into the judgement . 35. l. 45. r. Adde to this . Epist. before Episc. p. 2. l. 28. dele are . 46. l. 11. r. procellosissimae . 51. l. 18. r. were of the number . 57. l. 33. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 79. l. 44. r. than Ecclesiae . 90. l. 58. for hath , r. have . 101. l. 32. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ibid. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 122. l. 5. r. preside . 133. l. 3. f. r quinque , r. quique . 135. l. 10. r. blundering . 152. l. 47. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . l. 52. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 162. l. 6. r. Sicut . 165. l. 60. r. Aërians . 167. l. 51. r. distinct . 182. l. 42. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 184. l. 59. r. impossible . 185. l. 38. r. suspects . 190. l. 38. r. ineffective . 191. l. 8. r. confutation . l. 39. r. instrumenta . 193. l. 53. r. Banquet . 208. l. 55. r. Tropical . 211. l. 49. r. body . 218. l. 15. r. corradere . l. 57. r. Statues . 222. l. 60. r. conversing . 232. l. 62. r. exitum . 236. l. 57. r. in thesi . 268. l. 46. r. Hoc est corpum meum . Pref. to Dissuasive , p. 3. l. 30. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 314. l. 24. r. weakens and. 320. l. 4. r. or no. 322. l. 53. r. is the true . 328. l. 51. r. fil'd upon . 352. l. 43. r. hath proved . 356. l. 52. r. is it reasonable — ? 397. l. 41. r. conciliariter . 431. l. 43. r. baptized . 438. l. 9. r. for no more . 466. l. 37. r. infinite . 469. l. 45. r. Sacrament . 472. l. 20. r. publick . 487. l. 47. r. judge . 515. l. 55. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 518. l. 18. r. change . 524. margin , l. 24. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 525. l. 10 , 11. for satisfaction , r. falsification . 529. l. 46. r. no difference . 534. l. 34. r. that made Hebrew . 553. l. 32. for many , r. man. l. 40. r. & nulli . 572. l. 28. r. may be bold . 579. l. 59. r. dispassionate . 580. l. 16. r. impossible . 596. l. 50. r. same chapter . 617. l. 21. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 626. l. 46. r. unavoidable . 632. marg . l. 1. r. See chap. 8.676 . l. 44. r. is so far . 713. l. 28. r. inflicted . 728. l. 61. for Ninth , r. Tenth . 735. l. 24. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 855. l. 39. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 872. l. 39. r. Nemo est tam prope tam proc●lque nobis . 873. l. 14. r. chiefs . 903. l. 29. for healed , r. treated . 904. l. 3. r. treated like . 952. l. 19. for subscribe , r. prescribe . 960. l. 43. r. Damasus . 969. l. 7. r. higher . 975. l. 13. r. reviews . 982. l. 9. for useless , r. useful . 998. l. 3. r. causally . THE END . Books Printed and Reprinted for Richard Royston , at the Angel in Amen-corner . Written by Dr. JER . TAYLOVR . THE Great Exemplar of Sanctity and Holy life according to the Christian Institution ; Described in the History of the Life and Death of the ever-Blessed JESUS CHRIST , the Saviour of the World. With Considerations and Discourses upon the several parts of the Story ; and Prayers fitted to the several Mysteries . In three Parts . In Folio . Ductor Dubitantium ; or , The Rule of Conscience in all her general measures ; Serving as a great Instrument for the determination of Cases of Conscience . In Folio . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . A Course of Sermons for all the Sundays of the Year . Fitted to the great Necessities , and for the supplying the wants of Preaching in many parts of this Nation . With a Supplement of Eleven Sermons preached since His MAJESTIE's Restauration . Whereunto is adjoyned a Discourse of the Divine Institution , Necessity , Sacredness , and Separation of the Office Ministeriall . With Rules and Advices to the Clergy . In Folio . The Rules of Holy Living and Dying , in 8o. The Golden Grove , in 12. being a choice Manuall of Prayers . The Worthy Communicant , ( Printed for John Martin ) in 8o. Written by Dr. HENRY HAMMOND , in IV Volumes . Vol. I. A Collection of Discourses chiefly Practicall . In a large Folio , newly printed . Vol. II. A Collection of Discourses in Defense of the Church of England . 1. Against the Romanists . 2. Against other Adversaries . Vol. III. A Paraphrase and Annotations upon all the Books of the New Testament . Vol. IV. A Paraphrase and Annotations upon the Books of the Psalms . A Paraphrase and Annotations upon [ the Ten first Chapters of ] the Proverbs , M S. ΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΑ . The Works of KING CHARLES the Martyr : With a Collection of Declarations , Treaties , and other Papers concerning the Differences betwixt His said MAJESTY and His Two Houses of Parliament . The Works of the Pious and profoundly-Learned M r Joseph Mede , sometime Fellow of Christ's College in Cambridge ; in a large Folio . The Christian Sacrifice . 12. Advice to a Friend . 12. By the Authour of the Devout Christian. Reflexions upon the Devotions of the Roman Church , in large Octavo , New. A Friendly Debate between a Conformist and a Non-conformist , the first and second Parts , in Octavo . Animadversions upon a Book intituled , Fanaticism Fanatically Imputed to the Catholick Church by Dr. Stillingfleet , and written by a Person of Honour . New. Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A71177-e11100 Colos. 3. Tortura T●rti , p. 142. Camb. Annal. A. D. 1560. 2 Chron. 29. Apoc. 15. Exod. 15. Psal. 145. Jer. 1● . 6 , 7 ▪ a De Spir. Sanct. c. 27. b D● celebratione Missarum c. cu● Mat●h . c In gemma anum l. 1 c 86. d De D●vin . Offic. e Super Act. 20 Vna autem Sabba . hi. f L. 8. c. 17. * Mystagog . Catechis . 5. H●m . 6. in 1 Epist. ad Tim. In Comment . a Apologeta . 14 b Ep. 59. ad Paulin. c Ep. 1. d De dogmat . Eccles. cap. 30. e L. 1. de vocat . g●nt . c. 4. f In Commen● . Institut . Cleric . ● . 1. c. 32. 1 Tim. 2. Epist. 59. ad Paulin. q. 5. De instit . Cleric . lib. 1. c. 32. Acts and Monuments , pag. 1385. pag. 1608 , 1565. pag. 1840. pag. 1844. & alibi . Pag. 1848 , 1649 , 1840. Contra haeres c. 7. Num. 6.23 * Directory . Notes for div A71177-e16730 Isocrat . in Panathen . Eccles. 5.2 . Alex. ab Alex. l. 2. c. 14. Idem , l. 4 c 17. ibid. In vita Pro●res●i . Ephes. 2.8 . 1 Cor. 12.9 . 2 Cor. 4.13 . 〈◊〉 . Jud. v. 1.20 ▪ 1 Tim. 4.14 . 2 Tim. 1.6 . * So as that hereby they become not slothful and negligent in stirring up the gifts of Christ in them . But that each one by meditation , by taking heed , &c. may be careful to furnish his heart and tongue with further or other materials , &c. Preface to the Directory . Rom. 8.26 . * Eph. 5.18 , 19 ‖ Col. 3.16 . Vid. Act. 19.21 . & 16.7 , 8 , 9 , 10. Etiam Veteres Propheta disposuerunt se ad respondendum propheticé . Et vaticinia admoto plectro , aut hausto calice , dederunt . ( Gen. 44.5 . ) Scyphus quem furati estis ipse est in quo Dominus meus bibit , & in quo augurari solet , dixit Oeconomus Josephi . Et efferte psalterium , dixit Eliseus ( 2 Reg. 3.15 . ) Dominum interrogat●rus . Vid. Eras. Epist. ad Jo. Eckium Ep. l. 20. 1 Cor. 7. (a) Homil. 16. in Numer . (b) Lib. 5. cont . Eunom . c. pepenult . (c) Lib. 8. in Lucan . c. 16. Sunt ne mei ? sunt ne tui ? imò sunt gemitus Ecclesiae , aliquando in ●e , aliquando in te . August . eodem modo quo S. August . dixit Deo , Conqueror tibi Domine lachrymis Jesu Christi , de quo dictum est , Heb. 5.7 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . De extemporal● dicendi facultate . Quintil. l. 10. c. 7. Quintil. dial . de Oratorib . Quintil. 1 Cor. 14.28 . Quintil. * Quale est illud apud Tertul. de privatis Christianorum precibus , non quidem ab alio dictatis , sed à Scripturarum fontibus derivatis . Illuc suspicientes Christiani manibus expansis , quia innocui ; capit●●udo , quia non erubescimus ; denique sine monitore , quia de pectore oramus pro omnibus Imperatoribus , vitam illi● prolixam , imperium securum , domum tutam , exercitus f●rtes , senatum fidelem , populum probum , orbem qui●tu●● , & quaecunque homini● & Casaris vota sunt . 1 Cor. 4.1 ▪ 2 Chron. 29.30 . * Mat. 5.1 . Mat. 6.9 . Luke 11.2 . Proar●s . ap . Eunapium . Gal. 3.2 . Vid. Scalig. d● em●nd . temp●r . de Judeor . magn . Allelujah . * Imò totus Canon consecrationis tam similis est & ferè idem in verbis apud Graecos , Latinos , Arabas , Armenios , Syros , Aegyptios , Aethiopas , ut nisi à communi fonte , qui nisi Apostolorum non est , manare non potuerit . Vnde intelligi datur quia multum erat , ut in Epistolâ , notum illum agendi ordinem insinuaret , quem Universa per orbem servat Ecclesia , ab ipso ordinatum esse , quod nullâ morum diversitate variatur . S. Aug. ep . 118. Greg. l. 7. ep . 63. Hier. lib. contr . Pelag. * Eligo in his verbis hoc intelligere , quod omnis , vel penè omnis frequentat Ecclesia , ut precationes accipiamus dictat qu●s facimus in celebratione Sacramentorum antequam illud quod est in Domini mensa incipiat benedici ; orationes cum benedicitur , & ad distribuendum comminuitur : quam totam orationem , penè omnis Ecclesia Dominicâ oratione concludit . S. Aug. ep . 59. q. 5. ad illud Pauli , Obsecro primum omnium fieri obsecrationes . Col. 3.16 . Epist. 119. c. 18. In Theophrast . charact . Ap. Euseb. l. 7. c. 24. Et Walast . S●abo c. ●5 . de reb Eccles. Apoc. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Hesych . vide S. August . ep . 59. q. 5. in hunc locum : descripsi verba ad Sect. 86 ▪ Vt quisque de Scripturis sanctis , vel de proprio ingenio potest , provocatur in medium Deo ●anere . Tertul. Apolog. 1 Cor. 14. Horat. Ep. l. ep . 1. Epist. ad Antioch●●● . memorantur etiam in 25. Canon● Apostolorum . * De proprio ingenio ] [ de pectore ] sine monitore ] we find once in Tertullian . Altare Damascenum . S. Cyprian . ●p . 27. 1 Tim. 2.8 . Seneca , l. 5. ep . 40. Quintil. lib. 10. cap. 7. Plin. Panegyr . Trajan . dictum . Quintilian . de extemporal . facult . l. 10. c. 7. Quint. l. 10. c. 7 Idem ibid. Lucian . Rhetor. praecept . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Quint. l. 10.7 . Notes for div A71177-e28370 In Charta Edgar . Regis A. D. 485. apud Hen. Spelman . * John Speeds Hist. l. 9. c. 19. ● . 23. p. 716. ‖ I● . c. 10. n. 64. p. 747. * 1 Cor. 12.28 . Notes for div A71177-e29490 * Maximin● jussit Martyrio coronatur . Saint Platina ▪ but that is wholly uncertain . * In 1 ad Titum . Epist. 55. Simler . de rep . Helvet . fol. 148. & 172. * De doctr . Christ. lib. 1. c. 18. tract . 118. in Johan . vide etiam tract . 124 & tract . 50. in Joh. de Agon . Christ. cap. 30. de bapt . contr . D●natist . lib. 3. c. 17. * De Sacerd. lib. 3. * In 16. Matt. (a) Lib. de pudicit . (b) Epist. 27. (c) Lib. quod Christus est Deus . (d) Lib. 6. de Trinit . (e) Lib. 3. in Apocal. Luke 12.42 . Psal. 78. 1 Pet. 5.2 . Acts 20. * In lib. de eo quod deterior potiori insidiatur . * Vide Hilarium in hunc locum & pp. communiter . For the Apostle and the Bishop are all one in name and person . * In cap. 60. Isai. v. 17. Gal. 1.19 . 1 Cor. 15. * Vide Carol. Bovium in constit . Apost . Schol. Hieron . de Script . Eccl. in Jacobo . & in Galat. 1. Epiphan . hares . 78 , 79. Tract . 124. in Johan . * Vide pap . Phil. 2.25 . In hunc locum uterque & Theod. in 1 Tim. 3. Acts 13.2 , 3. Rom. 11.13 . Gal. 2.8 . In 1 cap. Gal. 2 Cor. 8.23 . Vers. 22. Vers. 23. Apocal. 2. * Doroth. Synops . * Vide Constit. Apost . per Clement . ubi quidam Johannes in Ephes● Episc. post Timoth . collocatur . Luke 10. Lib. 3. cap. 3. Eccles. hierarch . c. 5. As of Ordination . * In Trullo can . 16. Haeres . 20. Homil. 14. in Act. 6. In hunc locum Act● 13. Prophetas duplici genere intelligamus , & futura dicentes & scripturas revelantes . S. Ambros. in 1 Cor. 12. * Ephes. 4. * S. Cyprian . ad Jubajan . * Lib. 3. hist. cap. 37. * Vide August ▪ tract . 6. in 1 Epist. Johan . Acts 2.39 . Serm. de Pentecost . Heb. 6.2 . Lib. 3. hist. cap. 17. Quaest. 137. ad Orthod . Epist. 73. ad Iubajan . * Lib. 6. hist. cap. 33. * In 1. tom . Concil . (a) Lib. de Baptismo . c. 8. (b) Lib. 2. contra lit . Petil. cap. 104. & lib. 15. de Trinit . c. 26. vide etiam S. Hieron . contra Luciferianos . S. Ambros . lib. 2. c. 2. de sacramentis Epist. 3. Euseb. P. & M. ad Episc. Tusciae & Campon Isidor . Hispal de eccles . offic . lib. 2. c. 26. John 20.21 . Lib 7. de baptism . Contra Donatist . c. 43. vide etiam S. Cyprian . de Vnit. Eccles. & S. Cyril . in Joh. lib. 12. c. 55. Ephes. 4. 1 Cor. 12. (a) Lib. 1. hist. c. 12. & l. 2. c. 9. (b) Haeres . 20. (c) De script . Eccles. in M●t. vide Irenaeum l. 4. c. 63. Tertul . de praescript . * Vt puta , viduarum collegium , & Diaconorum , & coenobium fidelium , &c. Revel . 1.20 . Hebr. 13. Acts 15. 1 Cor. 11. In 1 Apocal. Ibid. In 1 Cor. 11. Epist. 162. & in Apocal. Lib. 5. c. 24. Lib. 4. c. 10. Lib. 4. c. 15. * Epist. ad Polycarp . ‖ De praescrip . Vide Aretha . in 1 Apoc. Lib. 4. c. 26. In Lucae c. 1. Epist. ad Philadelph . Lib. c. 3. Lib. de praescript . c. 36. Epist. 42. ad Cornelium . Epist. 69. Lib. 7. c. 43. de baptis . cont . Donatist . Epist. 54. De verbis Dom. serm . 24. In Ephes. 4. In 1 Corinth . 12.28 . In vers . 29. ibid. Biblioth . Phot. n. 254. Lib. 4. c. 18. Epist. 1. (a) Epist. 1. ad Sempron . (b) Homil. 26. in Evang. (c) Orat. 2. de imagin . (d) Epist. 7. (e) Habetur Can. in Novo distinct . 21. (f) In synod . Hispal . (g) Lib. 3. c. 15 super Lucam . Epist. 27. ad Lapsos . Epist. 1. Lib. 12. thes . cap. 13. Orat. de laud. Basil. Tract . prima die suae ordinat . Biblioth . SS . PP . tom . 5. in Eccles. ord . increpat . Acts 13. * Idem fere habet in Epist. ad Magnes : & Smyrnens . Lib. 4. c. 43. Cap. 44. Epist. 13. Epist. 27. Epist. 65. ad Rogatian . Epist. ●6 . Epist. ad Magnes . Quaest. Vet. & N. Testam . qu. 97. Euseb. lib. 4. c. 29. Lib. 4. c. 43. In 1 Corint . 12. De dignit . Sac●rd . cap. 2. Homil. 4. Graec. 5. lat . in 1 Tim. cap. In Tit. 1. Acts 20. * Hom. 32. in Johan . ‖ Can. 6. (a) C. 25. (b) Octavum Can. 7. (c) Epist. 2. Lib. 3. in Lucam c. 15. Lib. 3. cap. 5. Epist. ad Trall . Lib. 2. hist. cap. 1 Lib. 3. c. 11. Lib. 2. c. 22. Lib. 7. c. 46. & lib. 8. cap. ult . Epist. 2. Epist. decret . Vni● . Catech. 4. Catech. 16. Lib. 2. cont . lit ▪ Petil. c. 51. & lib. 2. cont . Crescon . c. 37. Lib. de Script . Eccles. in Jacobo . (a) Hom. 38. in 1 Cor. 15. & 33. hom . in Act. 15. (b) Haeres . 66. (c) In Galat. 1 ▪ (d) Cap. 3.3 . Hom. 3. in Act. Haeres . 78. Lib. 3. hist. c. 11 Lib. 4. cap. 22. Haeres . 66. 2 Tim. 1.6 . * 1 Tim. 1.3 , 1 Tim. 3. 1 Tim. 5.1 . 1 Tim. 5.7 . Haeres . 75. 2 Tim. 4.2 . 1 Tim. 5.20 . Verse 22. Lib. 3. c. 4. Praefat. in 1 Tim. (a) Cont. haeres . (b) Cont : Marcion . l. 5. (c) Hom. 10. in 1 Timoth. (d) In 1 Tim. 6 (e) 1 Tim. 4.5 . (f) Haeres 75. (g) Ad 1 Tim. c. 4. (h) In Pastor . part . 2. c. 11. Acts 11. In Titum & 1 Philip. & in 1 Tim. 3. Biblioth . Photii n. 254. (i) De Script . Eccles. (k) In Praef. 1 Tim. (l) De vita & mort . SS . 87 , 88. (m) Lib. 2. c. 34 2 Tim. 4.5 . In 4. Ephes. Lib. 3. hist. c. 37. Lib. 10. tripart . hist. cap. 5. Theodoret . 1 Tim. 6.14 . In Ephes. 4. Tit. 1. Advers . Jovinian . * Cap. 6. ‖ Can. 17. * Epist. 87. ad Episc. Afri● . Tit. 3.10 . Tit. 2.15 . Lib. 3. c. 4. Vbi supra . 1 Tim. 3. (a) De script . Eccles. in Tit● . (b) In Synops. (c) De vita & morte S. Sanct. (d) Lib. 38. c. 10 (e) Apud Oecum●n . in praefat . in Tit. & in 1 Timoth. 3. (f) In pastor . part . 2. c. 11. (g) Praefat. in 1 Tim. & in 2 Tim. 1. (h) In 1 Tim. 1. & in 2 Tim. 1.6 . (i) In 1 Tit. (k) Lib. 2. c. 34. (l) In Synopsis Sacr. Script . (m) Ad Paulam & Eustoch . (n) Coment . ad Titum . (o) Ibid. Lib. 4. c. 21. Acts 12. & Acts 13. Epist. ad Evagr . De Script . Eccles . & in proaem . in Mat. * Lib. 6. Epist. 371. ‖ Lib. 14. c. 39. In decret . de lib. authent . & apocryph . Lib. 3. cap. 3. * Euseb. lib. 3. cap. 4. (a) De praescript . (b) Lib. 2. cont . Parmen . (c) Epist. 165. (d) De Script . Eccles. De praescript . * De script . Eccles . lib. 3. c. 35 ▪ (a) Euseb. l. 4. c. 23. & l. 3. c. 4. (b) Origen ▪ lib. 10. in 10. Rom. (c) S. Ambrose in 4. Coloss ▪ (d) Ignatius Epist. ad Ephes. & Euseb. lib. 3. c ▪ 35. (e) Ar●tha●in 1 Apocal. (f) Epist. ad Philip. & Theod ▪ ret . ib. & 1 Tim. 3. (g) Euseb . l. 3. c. 4. apud Gallias . So Ruffin●●● read● it . In Galatia , so is intimated in Scripture , and so the Roman Martyrol . (h) Ignatiu● Epist. ad Antioch . & Euseb. lib. 3. c. 22. * In Martyrologio Roman . * Lib. 3. c. 37. Lib. 3. cap 3. Epist. 42. Vbi supra . Vbi supra apud Euseb. lib. 3. c. 23. Comment . in ep . ad Titum . Ad Nepotian . & de 7. ordin . Eccles. 2 Thess. 3.14 . Acts 15. In Act. Apost . Acts 13. Acts 20. Acts 20.4 . Verse 18. Vbi supra . Lib. 3. cap. 14. 1 Cor. 5.3 . v. 4. In Ephes. 4. Epist. ad Ant●och . * In 1 Tim ▪ 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Homil. 11. Epist ad Corin. 1 Pet. 5.1 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Chrys. in Phil. 1. In 1 Phil. Page 5● . 1 Tim. 3. In Ephes. 4. * Idem ait S. Dion●sius Ec●cl●s . hierarch . cap. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 2 Cor. 6.4 . 1 Cor. 3.5 . In 1 Phil. Ephes. 4. Epist. 59. ad Paulinum . (a) Can. 15. & 16. (b) c. 9. & alibi . (c) Post adven . Epis. Cypri . (d) Advers . Praxeam . (e) Lib. 3. c. 59. de vita Const. Ca. 4. cap. 18. de Orthod . fide . Anno Dom. 257. Epist. ad Trall . Epist. ad He●on . Lib. 7. etymolog . c. 12. Rom. 16.17 . Lib. 3. hist. c. 36 Epist. ad Ephes. Euseb. lib. 7. c. 24. Can. 6. Hist. tripart . lib. 4. c. 29. Lib. 4. c. 14. Theodoret. lib. 4. cap. 18. Epist. 11. Haeres . 75. * Epist. 59. 1 Tim. 8. Lib. 7. cap. 19. 1. lib. 8. c. ult . Apost . constitut . 2. lib. 3. hist. cap. 31. 3. lib. 9. c. 14. hist. tripart . 4. lib. 3. c. 21. 5. lib. 4. c. 20. 6. Euseb. lib. 6. c. 9. 7. Eccles. hierarch . 8. Lib. 7.12 ▪ And Sacerdos . (a) Lib. 8. c. 46. (b) Lib 3. Ep. 1. (c) Lib. 7. c. 28. (d) Lib. de baptism . (e) Epist. 69. (f) Euseb. lib. 3. c. 21. (g) Lib. 3. c. 35. (h) Epist. com . provinc . ad S. Leonem . Lib. 4. cap. 26. Lib. 7. Etymol . c. 12. Comment . in 4. Ephes. Quaest. Vet. & N. Testam . Qu. 101. In 1 Tim. 3. In 4. Ephes. Epist. 69. Can. 1. & 2. Lib. ad Parmen . De vita August . c. 4. Can. 29. Lib. 7. c. 26. Can. 3. Nicene Concil . Lib. 2. c. 1. hist. tripart . Lib. 3. tripart . c. 2. Hist. tripart . l. 11. c. 5. Lib. 7. etymol. c. 12. Per Bi●ium Paris . Can. 2. Can. 10. Lib. 5. c. 8. Epist. 52. Can. Apost . 1. & 2. Epist. Vnica . Can. 4. Can. 19. Can. 12. Can. 4. * A. D. 509. Theodoret. l. 9. cap. 44. Cap. 1 ▪ 2. Lib. 6. hist. cap. 33. A. D. 555. In libr. Pontificali . vit . Pelag . 1. Can. 9. Concil . Sardic . Epist. 3. Epist. 84. c. 4. Lib. 1. c. 12. de actis cum Felice Manich. lib. 4. Epist. 2. In 1 Tim. 3. De praescript . cap. 32. Lib. 4. cap. 23 cap. 1. S. Hieron . ad Rusticum Narbonens . apud Gratian. dist . 95. cad . ecce●ego casu● , ibid. The Nicene Creed . Haeres . 75. Eccles. hier . c. 5. Lib. 6. cap. 23 Can. 13. Tripart . Hist. lib. 2. c. 12. ex Theodoret. Can. 19. Apud Athanas Apolog. 2. epist. Presb. & Diacon . Mareotic . ad Curiosum & Philagrium . Cap. 4. Cap. 5. * Can. 6. * Can. 13. Ad Evagrium . Homil. 2. in 1. Tim. 2. Can. 37. Can. 20. Haeres . 75. Euseb. lib. 6. cap. 33. Can. 45. Cap. 19. * Cap. 9. ‖ Cap. 2. & 6. Nov●ll . constit . 6. & 123. cap. 16. Cap. 6. Can. 2. & 3. Epist. 33 ▪ De Eccles. c. 11. Danam part . 2. Isagog . lib. 2. cap. 22. Perron . repl . fol. 92. impres . 1605. Eccles. Hist. lib. 10. cap. 9. per Ruffinum . Ibid. c. 10. & apud Theodoret . l. 1. Eccles. Hist. lib. 11. cap. 6. per Ruffinum . Epist. de Chorepisc . Epist. ad Jubaian . Apud Sev. Binium in 1 tom . Concil . Homil. 18. in Act. In cap. 5. de Eccles. hierarch . * Lib. 3. hist. cap. 17. (a) De Baptism . (b) Epist. 1. cap. 3. ad Decent . (c) Epist 4. (d) Epist. 88. (e) Epist. ad Episc . German . (f) Lib. 3. Ep. 9 (g) Apud Gratian . de consecrat . dist . 5. can . ut jejuni . (h) Ibid. can . ut Episcopi . (i) Concil . Hespal . can . 7. Vide Anast 1. biblioth . ●rae●at . in Can. 8. Synodi . Vide Optatum lib. 2. S. Bernard . in vita S. Malachiae . Surium . tom . 1. in F●br . Dial. adv . Lucifer . Caus. 11 q. 3. can . Quod praedecessor . In Ephes. 4. Quest. 101. Vet. & N. Testam . Basileae . Lib. 3. Epist. 26 Can. 52. Can. 2. Can. 20. Can. 1. Epist. 1. ad Dicent . cap. 3. Epist. ad Trall . Lib. 3. Epist. 9. Lib. 4. cap. 63. Lib. 6. hist. c. 26 Can. 10. Lib. 2. adv . Parmen . Lib. 6. hist. c. 26 Homil. 7. in Jerem. Can. 69. Can. 25. Hist. tripart . lib. 1. cap. 12. De dignit . sacerdot . c. 2. Cap. 3 Cap. 4. Ep. ad Ephes. * Apologia pro Ignatio . (a) Lib. 3. hist. c. 30. (b) De Script . Eccles. (c) Apud Euseb . quem Latinè reddidit . Can. 56. * Ideus videre est apud Damasum . Ep. de Chorepiscopis . Can. 19. Can. 20. Epist. ad Nepotian . Lib. 5. cap. 28. Can. 33. Can. 5. Can. 59. Can. 4. Can. 9. Can. 13. & 14. Epist. 10. Epist. 11. Epist. 12. Epist. 65. Epist. 55. Tripart . hist. lib. 10. cap. 3. Ibid. cap. 4. Advers . Vigilant . Epist. 53. Tripart . hist. lib. 3. cap. 9. Tripart . hist. lib. 1. c. 12. Can. 4. Ann. Dou● . 397. Cap. 2. Can. 8. Can. 10. Act. 4. can . 83. Post epist. Archimandritarum ad Concilium pro Dioscori rehabilitatione . Concil . Ephes. c. 5. Cap. 15. de corrept . & gratiâ . * Can. 55. Vbi suprà cap. 3. Cap. 15. ibid. Novel . constit . 123. c. 11. 2 Corinth . 2.9 . Vbi supra . Can. 9. Tripart . hist. lib. 10. cap. 9. Tripart . Hist. lib. 5. c. 35. S. Ambrose Epist . lib. 2. Epist. 13. In verbo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Tripart . Hist. lib. 7. cap. 12. Can. 39. Theodoret. lib. 4. cap. 5. Epist. ad Philadelph . Lib. de dignit . Sacerd. cap. 2. Lib. 10. Eccles ▪ hist. c. 2. Lib. 10. Eccles ▪ hist. cap. 19. Theodor. lib. 5. c. 18. Euseb. lib. 6. cap. 25. Homil. 83. in 26. Matth. In 3. partis Supplem . q. 22. a. 5. Vide Aug. ep . 75. & Gratian. dist . 24. q. 2. c. Si habet , sed ibi [ Princeps ] non inseritur , sed tantùm in glossâ ordinariâ . Vide the book of Order of Excommun . in Scotland , & the Hist. of Scotland . Admonit . 2. p. 46. Knox his exhortation to England . Epist. ad Smyrn . Can. Apost . 32. Can. 5. Act. 4. De baptism . De coronâ milit . c. 3. vide S. Chrysost. hom . 11. in 1 Tim. & S. Hieron . dial . adv . Lucif . Can. 6. Can. 9. Can. 8. part . 2. Act. 14. Epist. 86. Dist. 95. cap. Ecce ego . 1 Can. 40. 2 Epist. ad Ephes. 3 c. 24. Lib. 5. c. 22. Ad Rustic . Narbon . dist . 95. can . Ecce ego . Can. 12. An. Dom. 589. Cap. 32. Can. 26. vide Zonaram in hunc Canonem ▪ Videatur Concil . Carthag . Graec. can . 36.38 . & 41. & Balsam . ibid. & apologia 2. Justini Martyris . Vide Concil . Epaun . c. 5. & Venet. c. 10. Can. 41. Can. 42. * Can. 38. ‖ Can. 5. Can. 6. Can. 31. 1 Tit. v. 5. Epist. ad Antioch . Can. 13. Epist. 61. & 62 Hieron . ad Nepotian . Lib. 1. offic . cap. 44. Tripart . hist. lib. 5. cap. 32. Epist. 68. Homil. 3. in Act. Epist. 120. lib. 3. de Sacerd. * Lib. 2 de offic . Epist. 84. c. 5. Can. 4. Tripart . hist. lib. 3. cap. 9. Act. 11. Tripart . hist. lib. 2. c. 12. Theodor. lib. 4. c. 5. Socrat. lib. 5. c. 21. In Ephes. 4. Lib. 3. hist. c. 11. Tripart . hist. lib. 10. c. 14. Vide dist . 63. per tot . Gratian . Epist. ad Solitar . Lib. 2. cap. 7. Lib. 5. cap. 23. Pro●m . in lib. de fide . Lib. 5. cap. 8. Epist. Synod . ad Clerum C. Ptanum part . 2. act . ● . part . 1. c. 32. Vide sect . 36. de simil . fere quaestione in fiue . Action . 1. Concil . Chalced. Concil . Antisiodor . can . 7. Socrat. l. 2. c. 7. Epist. 3. per Ruffinum . Heb. 13.7 . & 17. 1 Pet. 5.2 . Act. 20. Epist. 69. Lib. 3. de vita Constant. lib. de baptis . cap. 18. Epist. 32. * Acts 15.25 . Lib. 4. polit . c. 15 Can. 45. Concil . Carthag . 3. Eccles. Hist. lib. 10. cap. 17. Lib. 2. cap. 8. Athanas. Episc. ad vitam solitar . agentes . Lib. 2. hist. c. 17. Apud Binium . tom . 1. Concil . * Euseb. lib. 6. cap. 43. Apolog. c. 37. Lib. 2. contr . Parmeniam . Lib. 5. cap. 29. & 30. Vide Baron . A.D. 39. n. 10. & B. Rhenan . in notit . provinc . Imperial . in descript . Illyrici . * Can. 17. ‖ Can. 38. Can. 6. Lib. 5. ca. 23. Action . 7. Epist. ad Leon . 1. Episc. Rom. Haeres . 86. * Concil . Chalced . act . 16. * Theodoret. lib. 5. c. 28. Apud . S. Hieron . haeres . 69. Lib. 4. c. 12. Encom . Cyprian . Sozom. lib. 5. c. 18. Vide apud . Euseb . lib. 5. c. 22. Can. 56. Can. 6. * Lib. 5. c. 16. * Lib. 5. c. 4. Jus Graeco . Rom. p. 89. Vide Baron . An. Dom. 205. n. 27. * Lib. 4. c. 25. G●miad . apud Hieron . Iohan. de Trittenheim de script . Eccles. Epist. ad Philadelph . Lib. 10. Eccl. hist. Apud Euseb. lib. 6. cap 33. In 1 Cor. 12. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Epiphan . haeres . 66. n. 6. Possidod . in vitâ S. Aug. cap. 8. Socrat. lib. 5. cap. 21. Lib. 4. cap. 15. * Lib. 4. Epist. 2. (a) In 1. Philip. (b) in 1 Philip . (c) in 1 Philip . (d) in 1 Philip . (e) lib. 2. contr . Parmen . (f) in 1 Tim. 3. & in 1 Phil. Lib. 2. c. 11. Concil . Antio●h . c. 9. Epist. 1. ad Jacobum Fratrem Domini . vide Concil . Chalced. act . 1. in epist Theod. & Valentin . Imp. in Epist. ad Titum . cap. 1. Epist. ad Antioch . Epist. 21. Ad Trullian . Ad Magnes . Epist. 6. Epist. 19. Epist. 18. in 1. ad Titum . Jus Graco Rom. pag. 556 * Epist. 65. Epist. 55. ibidem . Epist. 52. Epist. 72. In 1 Tim. 3. 1 Tim. 1. Vbi suprà . In Isai. 3. Can. 6. Can. 20. Can. 23. Epist. ad Tral . Epist. ad Philadelph . Epist. 27. & alibi . * Epist. 69. vide Concil . Byzacenum . An. Dom. 504 & Su●ium die 1 Januar. & Baron . in A. D. 504. Epist. 2 advers . Lucifer . cap. 4. Epist. ad Magnes . Ad Ephes. S. Cyprian ▪ ep . 55. Epist. 69. Act. 4. ●aeres . 75. Can. 6. lib. 2. decret . cap. 226. lib. 18. ca. 45. Eccle. hist. lib. 8. cap. 5. Etymol . Vt suprd . Can. 12. Epist. 3. Can. 10. Graec. Epist. 1. ad Jacobum . Apocal. 1. 1 Cor. 4. John 10. In Titum . Matth. 20. Mark 10. Luke 22. Matth. 23.8 , 9 , 10. Ephes. 4. Luke 22. John 13. * In locis ubi supra . Gen. 1. Psal. 110. Psal. 2. Homil. 6. in Isai. S. Bern. lib. 10. de considerat . Lib. 19. de civit . Dei. c. 19. De Vnitat . Eccles. Acts 15. Rom. 12. Hebr. 13. Lib. 3. cap. 23. Epist. ad Greg. Nyssen . Theodoret. lib. 5. ca. 9. Theodoret. lib. 4. cap. 9. Theodor. lib. 1. c. 4. &c. 5. Athanas. Apolog . 2. Epist 17 , 18.19 . apud S. Augustin . In Psal. 13. apud Baron . An. Dom. 58. n. 2. 1 Thess. 5.13 . Epist. 65. Epist. decret . Epist. ad Heron. Vrban . ibid. Epist. ad M●gnes . 1 Cor. 6. In hunc locum . Vide etiam August . de opere Monarch . ca. 29. Can. 7. Latin. Vide Zonar ▪ in Can. Apostol . Concil . Chalced. Act. 15. can . 3. Can. 14. Epist. 66. Vide Synod . Roman . sub Sylvestr . c. 4. Concil . Chalced. c. 26. & Zonar . ibid. Justin. Martyr Apolog. 2. Apud Burchard . lib. 2. decret . cap. 99. Part. Act. 15. Can. 7. Can. 20. Epist. ad Ephes. * Sozom. lib. 1. cap. 9. Tripart . hist. lib. 7. cap. 8. S. August lib. 6. Confess . cap. 4. Epist. 110. Epist. 147. De opere Monach . cap. 29. Tripart . hist. lib. 4. cap. 25. Lib. 10. cap. 6. ibid. Lib. 11. cap. 8 ▪ ibid. Lib. 5. Epist. Ambrose 33. Euseb. lib. 8. cap. 1. Epist. 84. In 1 Cor. 6. 2 Tim. 2.4 . Eccles. hierar . c. 5. 2 Tim. 4. v. 9 ▪ & 12. Phil. 2. v. 25 , 26. Epist. ad Antioch . Can. 56. Epist. 9. Eiist . 31. & 39. haeres . 68. Concil . Hispal . cap. 6. Socrat. lib. 7. cap. 37. Concil . H●spal . ubi supra . Epist. ad Jacob . Fratr . Dom. De 7. Ordin . Eccles. Epist. 13. ad Valent. Epist. ad So. litar . Suidas in vltâ Leontii . Can. 9. A. D. 453. Novell . constit . 123. Lib. 7. epist. 66. * Tertull. Apol. c. 33. S. Ambros . in 1 Tim. 5.1 . & lib. 1. de offic . c. 20. S. August . lib. 3. contra Crescon . & Epist. 137. 1 Tim. 5.17 . * Sect. 48. lib. 5. cap. 22. Rom. 16. 1 Epist. cap. 3. Cap. 3. adv . haereses . Cap. 14. Notes for div A71177-e122020 1 Cor. 7. Neand. synops . Chron. pa. 203. In Mat. 26. Biblioth . Sixt. Senensis l. 4. tit . Johannes Ferus . Tonstal de Eucharist . l. 1. pa. 46. Cyrill in Joh. l. 4. c. 13. Epist. 77. * Dum enim sacramenta violantur , ipse cujus sunt sacramenta violatur , S. Hieron . in 1 Malac. Lib. 4. Inst. c. 7. Sect. 32. De Missae Sacrific , Heb. 8.2 . 1 John 2.8 . John 15.1 . John 6.55 , 6 , 32. Luke 16.12 . Concil . Trident. sess . 4. sub Julio 3. 1551. Can. 8. Rom. 2.29 . John 1.47 . Lib. 1. Eucha . c. 14. Sect. respondeo apud . Decretum de SS . Euchar. Sacra . Can. 1. L. 1. Euchar. c. 2. Reg. 3. Col. 2.9 . Col. 2.17 . Col. 2.17 . * Dial. de iii. car . unig . Eccles. hist. Eccle. Gallic . l. 4. p. 604 , 605. & Comment . de statu relig . & reip . sub Carolo 9. A.D. 1561. & Thuanum , hist. l. 28 ▪ ad eundem annum . * See Bp. Rid●ley's answer to Curtops first argument in his disp . at Oxford , Fox Martyrol . p. 1451. v●t . edit . Vide infrà Sect. 12. * Dupliciter verò sanguis Christi & caro intelligitur , spiritualis illa , atque Divina , de quâ ipse dixit , Caro mea verè est cibus , &c. vel caro & sanguis , quae crucifixa est , & qui militis effusus est lanceâ : In Epist. Ephes. c. 1. Concil . Trid. decretum de SS . Euchar. Sacram . Can. 8. Anathematis . Tom. 3. disp . 46. Sect. 3. Cap. 1. contr . captiv . Babylon . In 4. Sent. q. 6. lit . f. Veritas Eucharistiae sine Transubstantiatione salvari potest . Scotus in 4. dist . 11. q. 3. Bellarmin . de Euch. l. 3. c. 23. Sect. Secundò dicit . Vide infra Sect. 11. n. 19. Lect. 40. in Can. Missa . Tom. 9. Tract . 16. Loc. com . l. 3. c. 3. fund . 2. Lib. de Euchar. cap. 5. * Vers. 27. Rev. 2.7 . & 17. L. 1. Euch. c. 7. Sect. respond●o verba . * De communione sub utraque specie . (a) In Canon . (b) Epist. 7. ad Bohem. (c) Artic. 15. (d) Part. 3. q. 80. art . 8. (e) Lib. de commun . sub unâ specie . (f) Concord . Evang. c. 59. (g) Tom. 2. de sacram . c. 91. (h) Lib. 9. c 8. Ejusdem sententia sunt Aeneas Sylvius dial . contr . Tabor . Alensis part . 4. q. 11. ●em . 2. a. 4. Lindan●● , Gaspar Sager●● & alii . (i) Epist. 2. ad Bohem. Ver. 53. (a) Lib. 4. de Miss . myster . c. 21. (b) In 3. c. 3. dis 216. n. 50. (c) Tom. 8. tr ▪ 24. Clem. Rom. l. 8. c. 20. constit . Apost . Eccles. hierarch . cap. ult . Gennadi●● cap. 52. de dogmat . Eccles. cap. de Sabbatho Sancto Paschatis . S. Cyprian . Epist. 59. ad Fiduc . Concil . Tolet. 2. c. 11. S. August . Epist. 93. & 106. Innocentius papa ibid. Paulinus Episc. Nolanus A. D. 353. Epist. 12. ad Severum . Paulinus de infantibus ait : Pura salutiferis imbuit ora cilis . Hic mos duravit ad tempora Ludovici Pii , & Lotharii , ait Beat. Rhenan . in Tertul. de Cor. Milit. L. 1. Euchar. c. 7. Sect. respondio commu●m . Beda in 1 Cor. 10. citat . Augustini Serm. ad Infantes . S. John 6.63 ▪ L. 3. de Euchar . c. 37. L. 1. Euchar. cap. 6. Sect. 2. ex dubitatione . Ibid. cap. 11. resp . ad 5. arg . In Levit. l. 2. c. 1. 7. Verse 54. Tract . 26. in Johan . Cajetan . in Joh. 6. 1 Cor. 11. 8. Tertul. de ●esur . carn . c. 37. Ser. 6.4 . temp . Septembr . post consecrat . In Miss . vol. pro quacunque necessitate . * Del Euchar. pa. 165. Gallic . (a) Tom. 3. in 3. disp . 204. n 3. (b) Ibid. disp . 64. sect . 1. (c) Lib. 3. de Euchar. c. 9. Origen . in Lect. ● . 10 . hom . 7. De Sacrament . l. 5. c. 4. In Lucam . l. 6. c. 8. Tract . 25. in Joh. Tract . 26. In Joh. 6. L. 3. Eccles. Theol. contra Marcel . Ancyran . M.S. S. Hieron . Psal. 147. Clem. Alex. l. 1. padag . c. 6. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . S. Basil in Psal. 33. Ver. 47. & 29. & 64. Verse 51. In Allegoriis . In libro , Pejorem insidiari meliori . Allegoriis . Supra . De Euchar. l. 1. c. 7. & ad alios patres . Aug. in Psal. 98. Gratianus ex Augustino de consecrat . dist . 2 Sect. utrum . Lugduni 1541. Prosper Sent. 339. sed verba sunt S. Augustini . De consecrat . dist . 2. c. 55. Gloss. panis est in altari . De Euchar. l. 3. c. 19. * Pompt . Cathol . ser. 3. heb . sanct . Contr. haeres . l. 5. L. 1. c. 8. Euchar . Sect. sequitur argumentum . De Spir. S. c. 27. L. 7. Ep. 63. Bellar. l. 1. de Euch. c. 11. Sect. respondeo cum . 1 Cor. 14 , 15 ▪ 16 , 17. 1 Cor. 10. In regulis moralibus . Epist. ad Caecilium . * Respons . ad Nod. Gordium . Apol. 2. L. 8. contr . Celsum . L. 4. de fide , cap. 14. Vide Ambrosium Catharinum in integro quem scripsit libro hac de 〈◊〉 . L. 3. de Trin. c. 4. * The Divine Institution of the office ministerial . Sect. 7. Archiep. Caesar. Tractat. varii disp . de neces . correct . Theol. Schol. D● Euch. l. 1. c. 11. Tractat. varii . * in 4. Sentent . Scaliger de emendatione tempor . l. 6. Sect. 5. (a) Lib. ad● . Judaos . (b) Ep. ad H●bidiam . (c) In Joh. 12. (d) Dial. 1. c. 8 ▪ L. 1. de Euch. chap. 10. Sect. parro . 4. (a) 1 Pet. 2.19 . (b) Exod. 8.19 . In c. 15. Mat. De consecrat . dist . 2. c. qui● . * Ejusdem sententiae sunt , Ocham , Petrus de A●iacho , Cameracensis , Antisiodorensis in 4. l. sent . dist . 13. Roffensis , cap. 4. contra captiv . Babyl . Maldonat . Barradius in Evangel . L. 2. e●am . myst . Calvin . c. 1. Sect. 4. Objectio . L. 1. Euch. c. 11. Sect. ad id vero . * In 4. qu. 6. * Numb . 1. Sect. 5. Vide Pichere● . Doct. Sorbon . in 26. Matth. * Lib. 4. Evang. hist. vers . 456. Atque ●it , hic sanguis populi delicta remittet , Hunc potate meum ] instead of Hoc potate merum : nam veris credite dictis , Posthac nonunquam vitis gustabo liquorem , Donec regna patris melioris munera vitae In nova me rursus con●●dent surgere vina . L. 10. c. 10. de Euchar. Sect. sed addo arg . L. 8. Biblioth . Vide Bezam in Annot. in hunc locum . Regul . moral . 21. 1 Cor. 10.16 . * L. 17 de Civ ▪ Dei cap. 5. 1 Cor. 11.28 . & 26. L. 1. c. 14. de Euchar. L. 83 Quast . 21. Just. Mart. Apol. 2. L. 4. c. 57. * De Euch ▪ l. 3. c. 19 ▪ L. 8. adv . Celsum . * Tertul adv . Marcion . l. 4 ▪ c. 40. Bellar. l. 4. Euch. c. 14. Sect. si rursus objicia● . Cyprian ep . 76 ▪ Dial. 2. contr ▪ Nestor . Catech. mystag . 4. Maximus . Accacius in Gen. 2. Graec. ●aren . in Pentateuch . L. 2. adv . Jovin . Dial. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . (a) Sent 4. dist . 11. q. 3. (b) Ibid. q. 1. (c) Ibid. q 6. & Centilog . Theol. con . l. 4. q. 6. (d) Ibid. q. 6. ar . 1. (e) Canon . missa lect . 40. H. * Apol. 4.6 . Gen. 41.26 , 27. & 40.12 , 18. & 17.10 . Exod. 12.11 . * Nemo recordatur nisi quod in praesentiâ non est positum , S. August . in Psal. 37. * Haec n● Sacramenta sunt , in quibus non quid sint , sed quid ostendant semper attenditur , quoniam signa sunt rerum aliud existentia , aliud significantia . August . l. 3. contr . Max. c. 22. Sacramentum dicitur sacrum signum , sive sacrum secretum . Bern. Serm. d● coen . Dom. * 1 Cor. 14.2 . Gen. 17.10 . Rom. 4.11 . Gen. 49. Deut. 33. Lib. 20. contr . Faustum Manich . c. 21. In Levit. q. 57. In apoc . c. 14. v. 8. L. 1. Euch. c. 11. Sect. Quadam citantur ▪ * See Brerely Liturg. Tract . 4. Sect. 8. Glossa in c. si per negligentiam dist . 2. de consecrat . in hac verba [ De sanguine ] ait De sanguine , i. e. de sacramento sanguinis . Sanguis n. Christi à corpore Christi separari ●on valet , ergo nec stillare nec fl●tere potest . (a) See Brerely Liturg. Tract . 4. Sect. 8. (b) Concord . in eum locum . (c) Salmer . in 1 Cor. 11. Gregor . de Valent . l. 1. de Missa c. 3. Sect. igitur . Tom. 3. disp . 47. Sect. 4. Sect. exampla tertiae . Ruard Tapper in art . 13. * Dico quòd figura corporis Christi est ibi , sed figura corporis Christi , non est ibi figura corporis Christi Holcot . in 4. sent . quaest . 3. (d) Anselm , Lombard , Thomas , Lyran , Gorran , Cajetan , Dion . Carth. Catharinus , Salmeron , Bened. Justinian , Sa. in 1 Cor. 11. & innumeri alii . (e) Dial. 1. c. 8. Tract . 26. in S. Johan . In S. Johan . 6.49 . * Vide infra Sect. 12. n. 22. & n. 32. &c. & Sect. 10. n. 6. De Euch. l. 1. c. 13. Sect. 1 ▪ 1 Cor. 11.26 . Opusc. Tom. 2. Tract . 2. de Euch. c. 5. In Mat. 15. L. 8. de Trinit . De Coena Dom. aut quicunque author est . Super Exod. de agno Pasc. L. 21. de Civit. Dei c. 25. Serm. 2. de verb. Apost . L. 1. Euch. c. 14 Sect Respond . apud Augusti●ium . * De Serm. de verb. Apost . Pauli supr . ‖ Tract . 26. in Joh. vid. etiam . Bellarmine l. 1. Euch. c. 14. Sect. respondeo S. August . Tract . 59. in Joh. L. 1. de Euch. c. 11. Sect. ad tertiam dico . V. 16 , 17. Sect. 5. n. 6. L. 1. Euch. c. 12. Sect. sed tota difficultas . C. 10. v. 16. 1 Cor. 11.29 , 27 V. 29. V. 27. In 1 Cor. 11. 1. S. Mat. 15.17 . L. 1. Euch. c. 14 Sect. Resp. cum Algero . Sect. 5. n. 9. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Aristot. l. 3. de anim . cap. 12. * Sect. 3. n. 6. De consecrat . dist . 2. c. Si per negligentiam . Glos. ibid. * In 3. t. 3 d. 195 ▪ n. 46. In cap. 15. S. Mat. S. Mat. 15.17 . Ep. ad Guitard . Categor . c. 5. S. Joh. 16.7.14.2 . Mat. 26.11 . Acts 3.21 . Philip. 3.20 . Lib. 1. Euch. c. 1● . Sect. Respondeo Argumentum . S. Joh. 16.28 . Epist. ad Dardan . * Lib. 11. in Jon. c. 3. ‖ Lib. 4. de incarnat . c. 1. * Lib. 2. ad Thras●●undum c. 7. Apol. p. 65. Tract . 50. in Johan . Heb. 9.24 . 2 Cor. 5.6 , 8. Phil. 1.23 . & 3.20 . Coloss. 3.1 , 2. S. Joh. 14.16 . & 16.7 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Arist. l. 8. Phys. ● . 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . S. Basil . ep . 43. ‖ 1 S. Joh. 1. v. 1 , 2 , 3. Supplic . Romani Martyr . Prudent . Lucret. l. 1. In Serm. apud Bed. in 1 Cor. 10. Sed haec verba citantur ab Algero l. 1. de Sacram. c. 5. ex Serm. de verbis Domini . Bellarm. l. 1. Euch. c. 14. Sect. Jam ad Petrum Martyrem . L. Luk. 24.39 . Quod videtur corpus est : quod palpatur corpus est . S. Ambros. in S. Luc. 4. L. 1. de Euch. c. 14. Sect. Resp. ad Calvinum . L. 1. de Euch. c. 14. Sect. Respondent nonnulli . L. de anim● cap. 17. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Aristot. de animâ , l. 3. t. 152. L. de animâ c. 87 , &c. S. Austin . c. 33. de verâ religione . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Arist. l. 3. de anim . l. 165. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Id. ibid. Aquin. part . 1. q. 1. ● 8. ad 2. Gu●● . Malmesbur . de Gestis Regum Anglorum l. 3. Irenae . l. 1. c. 9. Sum. Theod. part . 4. q. 11. memb . 2. art . 4. Sect. 3. L. 4. contr . haeres . c. 34. Psal. 22. homil . 16. 83. Homil. upon S. Mat. Juven . Sat. 14.2 . Prompt . Cath. 〈◊〉 . ● . hebd . Sanct. Sect. 3. in haec verba . Hoc est corpus meum . 2 Thess. 3.2 . * Orat. 51. Theodor. dial . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Tertull. contr . Praxeam . c. 10.79 . vet . & Nov. Testam . De natur . Deor . l. 1. Plato in Cratylo . Quaest. in Phys. l. 3. q. 4. Sent. 4. dist . 11. q. 3. tit . b. 3. q. 75. art . 2. ad . 3. * Sent. 4. dist . 11. q. 1. L. 3. Euch. c. 2. Sect. ult . Aristot. lib. 1 posterior . c. 6. & l. 2. cap. 10. Metaph . lib. 6. c. 4. Idem significatur per ipsum nomen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; quod abit cum substantiâ , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , receptum scilicet in subjecto . Accidens quod accidit . Plaut . Amphitr . act . 2. sc. 1. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Plotin . l. de anim . apud Euseb. praepar . Evang. l. 15. * Quomodo erit Solsplendore privatus ? vel quomodo erit splendor , nisi Sol sit à quo defluat ? Ignis verò quomodo erit calore careus ? vel calor undo manabit nisi ab igne ? Cyril . Alex. l. 1. in 1. c. Joh. * Serm. Dom. monte . c. 9. ‖ In Psal. 86. Ep. 57. * Tract . 31. in Johan . Dial. 2. Lib. de essent . Divinit . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Stob. tit . 3. Super Decret . 3. part de consecrat . d. 2. cap. Quid sit . In Decret . de concil . dist . 2. ubi pars in Glossâ . In Thom. tom . 3. disp . 51. * Corpus Christi est multiplicatum ad omne punctum hostiae , Tho. Waldens . tom . 2. c. 55. Multiplicatio corporis Christi facta est substantialitèr ad omne punctum hostiae . Id. In 4. Sent. l. 44. q. 2. art . 2. q. 3. Lib. 3. Euch. c. 3. Sect. Quidam tamen : Ibid. Sect. Adde quod . Euch. l. 3. c. 3. Sect. Sed haec ratio . &c. 4. Sect. Sed media via . Substantias enim facis , quibus loca assignas , Tertul. c. 41. contr . Hermog . Euch. l. 3. c. 4. Sect. Respondeo dupliciter potest intelligi , &c. (a) De ve●â Christi prae●entiâ . l. 1. c. 12. (b) Cont. Arium . d●sp . inter opera S. Athanas . (c) De Spir. S. l. 1. c. 22. (d) De Spir. S. l. 1. c. 7. (e) De Spir. S. l. 1. (f) De Spir. S. Quod non sit creatura . (g) Cont. Maxim . Arian . ep . l. 4. c. 31. (a) In S. Mat. hom . 33. (b) Lib. 10. de Trinit . (c) Ad Marcel . de 4. quaest . (d) Tract . 30. in Johan . (e) Disp. contr . Sab. Ar. Phot. (f) Lib. 2. ad Thrasim. c. 17. (g) Homil. invent . crucis . Acts 7.55 . Acts 9.3.22.6 . Bellar. de Euch. l. 3. c. 3. Sect. 1. Confirmatur . L. 3. Euch. c. 3. Sect. ad hoc argumentum . In 4. dist . 44. q. 2.2.2 . Lucr. l. 1. Arist. l. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Lucret. l. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . S. Basil. Seleuc. homil . in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . De Euch. l. 3. c. 5. Sect. Secund● observandum . * Quod non possit alterum sine altero intelligi , quemadmodum neque aqua sine humectatione , neque ignis sine calore . Irenae . l. 2. c. 14. * Bellar. de Euch. l. 3. c. 7. Sect. Ad secundum Petr. L. 3. Euch. c. 5. Sect. Secundo obser . * Ibid. c. 7. Sect. Deinde etiam . * Paschasius Diaconus Eccles . Rom. A.D. 500. l. 1. de Spir. S. cap. 12. S. Mat. 28.2 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Arist. l. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Chap. 20.19 . Num. 28. Vide Boeth . in Praedicam . Aristot. Bellarm. Euch. l. 3. c. 10. Sect. respondeo corpus . Suarez . in 3. Tho. 9.76 . art . 7. Disp. 53. Sect. 4. Quomodo potest Deus alibi esse vivus , alibi mortuus ? Lact. l. 1. c. 1. * Id Categ . cap. de substant . In S. Joh. 9. * Sola enim mutari transformarique in se possunt , quae habent unius materiae commune subjectum . Boeth . de duab . nat . Christi . * In 4. d. 11. q. 3. Sect. 5. ‖ Theor. 1.2 . Bellarm. de missa l. 1. c. 27. Sect. 3. propositio . L. 3. de Euch. cap. ult . Sect. ad tertiam . Scotus 4. dist . 11. q. 3. Faven . in 4. disp . 35. c. 6. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Arist. Metaph. lib. 4. cap. 4.1 . * In Lev. c. 1. (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Arist. l. 3. de anim . c. 12. (b) Est enim hic color , & sapor qualitas & quantitas , cùm nihil in alterutro sit coloratum , & sapidum , quantum & quale . Innocent . 3. de offic . Missae . l. 3. c. 21. * Bellar. l. 3. c. 10. de Euch. Sect. Respondeo corpus . * See Article 28. of the Church of England . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Suid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Georg. Alex. vit . Chrys. c. 55. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Chrys. vit . Author anon . Id. in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & reliquis observare est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Suidas . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Suidas . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Author vitae Chrysost. anon . c. 52. & de corpore Chrysostomi dixit , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Oecumen . in 1 Pet. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Clem. Alex. strom . 4. Idem l. 3. Paedag. c. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Chapt. 5. In 3. disp . 50. Sect. 3. Theoph. in S. Luc. 24. & in S. Joh. 6. Vide Sect. 11. u. 34. Ad Dardanum . Serm. de Vnit. Vide infra . n. 30. Hom. 83. in S. Mat. Hom. 60. & 6. ad Antioch . pop . Homil. 88. in S. Mat. ad Cler. Const. De instit . Cler. l. 11. c. 31. Orat. Catech. 37 ▪ (a) L. 4. de Sacram . & lib. de iis qui initiantur myster . c. 9. (b) Lib. 2. in Johan . c. 42. (c) Ad infantes apud Bedam in 1 Cor. 10. Lib. de Bap. Legat. pr. Christian . Cap. 9. L. 2. Euch. c. 25. Sect. Hic veró . De haer . l. 8. v. Indulgentia . Sum. l. 8. c. 23. De Euch. l. 3. c. 23. Sect. Vnum tamen . Discourse modest . p. 13. Lib. 4. S●nt . dist . 11. lit a. In 3. Tho. to . 3. disp . 183. c. 1. n. 1. Lib. 3. de Euch. c. 1. S. Andrea Annal. to . 1. A. Ep. 44. num . 4. Diacosion Mart. fol ▪ 3 ▪ S. Ignatius . Tertullian adv . Marcion . l. 4. c. 40. Heb. 1. v. 1. Lib. 5. cont . Marcion . c. 8. Lib. 3. c. 19. Art. 12. S. 9. (a) De verâ praes . clas . 1. p. 19. (b) Lib. 3. Euch. c. 20. (c) In 1 Cor. 11. (d) Du Sacr. de la Mes. c. 17. (e) In Irenae . l. 4. c. 34. (f) De Transub . l. 2. c. 3. (g) T. 3. in 3. disp . 180. n. 21. Origen . Justin Mart. Clemens Alexandrinus paed . l. 2. c. 2. S. Cyprian . A. D. 190. Maximus . Eusebius . Lib. ● de monst . evang . c. 1. Lib. 1. c. ult . S. Ephrem . De sacris Antioch . legibus apud Phot. l. 1. eo . 229. Scotus Jesuita exponit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cognoscitur , contra sensum loci . S. Epiphan . in Ancorato . Macarius . homil . 27. S. Greg. Naz. orat . 2. in Pasc. S. Ambros. l. 4. de Sacram. c. 5. C. 4. Ibid. De consec . dist . 2. panis est . In 1 Cor. 11. De offic . l. 1. c. 48. Lib. de initiat . c. 9. S. Chrysost. Ep. ad Caesar. cont . haeres . Apollinarii citat . per Damascen . & per collect . sent . pp. contrà Severianos edit . per Turrian . Hom. 11. in S. Mat. S. August . Ep. ad Bonif● ▪ * In Psal. 98. In Psal. 3. ‖ Cont. Adimant . c. 12. ‖ Lib. 10. contr . Faustum Manich. c. 2. * De consecrat . d. 2. Lib. 3. c. 15 , 16. A.D. 754. of 338. B.B. Vide Concil . general . tom . 3. p. 599. edit . Rom. * In Apolog. & orat . funebr . pro Gorg. ‖ Mystag . Catech . 5. De Euch. l. 2. c ▪ 15. Nemo est sui ipsius imago . S. Hila● . lib. de Synod . Quod simile est non est illud cui est simile . S. Athanas . contr . hypocr . Mel●ti . Vbi suprd . De consecrat . d. 2. c. Hoc est quod . Theodoret. Alphons . à Castro de haeres . Eutych . Dial. 1. c. 8. Dial. 2. c. 24. Gelasius de duabus naturis cont . Eutychetem & Nestorium . Isidorus Hisp. l. 1. de offic . c. 18. L. 20. in Levit. c. 8. Fulgentius . In Gen. 49. In Eccles. hier . c. 3. Dionys. Eccles. hier . c. 3. A.D. 880. Apparat. tit . Johannes cognomento Sapiens . 1599. A.D. 1571. Antwerp . Osbernus vitâ Odonis . * Capgrave calls him Abbot of S. Albans . Malmesb. saith , he was of Malmesbury . A.D. 996. De consecrat . d. 2. Hoc est Lug●uni . 1518. * Sess. 13. c. 5. Tantum ergo Sacramentum adoremus cernui . Hymn . in M●ss . L. 4. de Euch. c. 29 Tom. 2. in 3. Thom. disp . 65. Sect. 1. De vanit . Sci●n . c. 3. Concil . Trid. Sess. 22. can . 9. Ledesmo ait Sacerdotem isto Canone probiberi clarâ voce eloqui verba consecrationis descriptor : quâ vis linguâ non legendis — * Vide Bonavent . in 3. dist . 24. a. 1. q. 1. Bishop Andrews Resp. ad apolog . Bellarm . p. 7. * Vide Theodoret quaest . 55. in Genes . & q. 11. in Levit. ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Theodoret q. in Gen. q. 55. De Spir. S. l. 3. c. 12. L. 4. c. 3. de la Cene du Signeur . A.D. 745. Notes for div A71177-e172790 1 Cor. 6.4 . Phil. 2.14 . Contra Hermogen . De vera fide & Moral . reg . 72. c. 1. & reg . 80. c. 22. Epist. Pasch. 2. De incarn . Christi . Lib. 2. cap. de Origen . error . Lib. 7. contra Celsum . Can. competimus de consecr . dist . 2. in 1 Cor. 11. Notes for div A71177-e174030 Eccles. 11.6 . De unit . Eccles. cap. 6. * Ecclesia ex sacris & canonicis Scripturis ostendenda est , quaeque ex illis ostendi non potest Ecclesia non est , S. Aug. de unit . Eccle. c. 4. & c. 3. Ibi quaeramus Ecclesiam , ibi decernamus causam nostram . * Lib. Canon . discip . Eccles. Angl. & injunct . Regin . Elis. A.D. 1571 Can. de Concionatoribus . Dat. 3. Calen. Mart. Thessalonicae . (a) Quod sit metrum & regula , ac scientia credendorum . Summae de Ecclesia , l. 2. c. 203. (b) Novum Symbolum condere solum ad Papam spectat , quia est caput ▪ fidei Christianae , cujus authoritate omnia quae ad fidem spectant firmantur & roborantur . q. 59. a. 1. & art . 2. sicut potest novum symbolum condere , ita potest novos articulos supra alioe multiplicare . (c) Papa potest facere novos articulos fidei , id est , quod modo credi oporte●t , cum sic prius non oporteret . In cap. cum Christus . de haret . n. 2. (d) Papa potest inducere novum artic●lum fidei . In idem . (e) Super 2. Decret . de jurejur . e. nimis . n. 1. (f) Apud Petrum Ciezum ● . 2. instit . per. cap. 69. * Johannes Clemens aliquot solia Theodoreii laceravit & abjecit in focum , in quibus contra transubstantiationem praeclare disseruit . Et cum non ita pridem Origenem excuderent , totum illud caput sextum Johannes & quod commentabatur Origenes omis●runt , & mutilum ediderunt librum propter eandem causam . * Six●us S●●nensis epist. dedicat . ad Pium Quin. laudat Pontificem in haec ve●●a : expurgari & emaculari curasti omnium Catholicorum Scriptorum , ac praecipue veterum patrum scripta . Index expurgator . Madrii . 1612. in indice libror. e●purgatorum . pag 39. Gal. 1.8 . Part. 2. act . 6. c. 7. De potest . Eccles . Concil . 12. De concil . author . l. 2. c. 17. Sect. 1. Sess. 21. c. 4. Part. 1. Sum. tit . 10. c. 3. In art . 18. Luther . * Intravit u● vulp●s , regna●vit ut leo , moriebatur ut canis , de eo saepi●●● dictum . Tertul. 1. ad Martyr . c. 1. S. Cyprian . lib ▪ 3. Ep. 15. apud Pamelium 11. Concil . Nicen. 1. can . 12. Conc. Ancir . c. 5. Concil . Laodicen . c. 2. S. Basil. in Ep. canonicis habentur in Nomocanone Photii , can . 73. * Communis opinio D. D. tam Theologorum , quam Canonicorum , quod sunt ex abundantia meritorum quae ultra mensuram demeritorum suorum sancti sustinuerunt , & Chri●sti , Sum. Angel. v. Indulg . 9. * Lib. 1. de indulgent . cap. 2. & 3. (a) In 4. l. sen. dist . 19. q. 2. (b) Ibid. dist . 20. q. 3. Vbi supra . In lib. 4. sent . Verb. Indulgentiae . Vt quid non praevides tibi in die judicii , quando nemo poterit per alium excusari , vel defendi ; sed ûnusquisque sufficiens onui erit sibi ipsi : Th. a Kempi● l. 1. de imit . c. 24. (a) Homil. 1. in ep . ad Philem. (b) Serm. de Marty . ib. (c) Serm. 1. de Advent . Ezek. 18.22 . * Neque ab iis quos sanas lente languor abscedit , sed illico quem restituis ex integro convulescit ; quia consummatum est quod facis , & perfectum quod largiris , S. Cyprian . de coena Domini : vel potius Arnoldus . P. Gelasius d. vincul . anathem . negat poenam deberi culpae , si culpa corrrigatur . * Delet gratia finalis peccatum veniale in ipsa dissolutione corporis & animae . Hoc ab antiquis dictum est . Albert. Mag. in compend . Theolog. verit . l. 3. c. 13. Art. 18. cont . Luther . Invent. rerum l. 8. c. 1. (a) Haeres . 75. (b) Cateches . mystag . 5. (c) De ritibus , lib. 2. c. 35. Innocent . P. de Coeleb . Missar . cap. cum Martha . Apologia confessionis Augustanae expresse approbat clausu●am illam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Deus dei ei pacatam quietem , ad vitam , resurrectionem . * Lib. 6. Bibl ▪ Sanct. annot . 345. Bernardum excusandum arbitror ob ingentem numerum illustrium Ecclesiae Patrum , qui ante ipsum huic dogmati authoritatem suo testimonio visi sunt praebuisse ; praeter citatos , enumerat , S. Jacobum Apostolum , Irenaeum , Clementem Romanum , Augustinum , Theodoretum , Oecumenium , Theophylactum , & Johannem , 22. pontif . Rom. quam sententiam non modo do●uit , & declaravit , sed ab omnibus teneri mandavit , ut ait Adrianus P. in 4. lib. sent . in fine quaest . de sacram . confirmationis . Euchirid . c. 69. lib. 21. de civit . Dei cap. 26. Lib. 8. Chron. cap. 26. * Haec descripsimus , ut tamen in iis nulla velut Canonica constituatur authoritas . l. de 8. quaest . Dulcitii . c. 1. Dist. 3. exem . 4. Exempl . 60. Histor. Lomb. Legend . 185. Deut. 18.11 , &c. Isai. 8.19 . Vide Maldonat . in 16. cap. S. Lucae . Ad Demetrian . sect . 16. Eccles. hier . c. 7. Quaest. & respons . ad orthod . qu. 5. Just●●o imputat . (a) De bono mortis c. 4. (b) In Psal. 2. Homil. 22. Orat. 5. in Plagum grandinis & ●●at . 42. in Pascha . de Eccles . dogmat . c. 79. In Eccles. c. 11. Epist. 59. Rev. 14.13 . John 5.24 . (a) In 4. lib. sent . d. 11. q. 3. (b) Ibid. q. 6. (c) Lect. 40. in can . missa . (d) Cap. 1. contr . captiv . Babyl . (e) De Euchar. l. 3. cap. 23. sect . Secundo dicit . * Venêre tum quidem multa in consultationem , nec decerni tamen quicquam aperiè potuit . Platina in vita Innocen . III. * Apud Suar. Tom. 3. disp . 46. sect . 3. * Loc. com . l. 2. c. com . fund . 2. L. 3. de Euch. cap. 23. sect . ●num tamen . Sum. l. 8. c. 20. Discurs . modest . pag. 13. Lib. 4. sent . dist . 11. lit . a. * A.D. MCLX. * A. D. MCCXV . * A. D. MCCLXX . secund . Buchol . sed secundum Volaterranum MCCCXXXV . In lib. 4. sent . dist . 11. qu. 1. sect . Propter tertium . De haeres . lib. 8. Verlo Indulgentia . Cap. Ego Berengarius de Consecrat . dist . 2. Adver . Marcion . l. 4. c. 40. * A letter to a friend touching Dr. Taylor , Sect. 4. n. 26. p. 10. which if the Reader please for his curiosity or his recreation to see , he shall find this pleasant passage , of deep learning and subtle observation ( Dr. Tay. had said that Roffensis and P. V. affirm , that whoso searcheth the Writings of the Greek Fathers , shall find that none , or very rarely any one of them ever makes mention of Purgatory . ) Whereas Pol. Virgil affirms no such thing ; nor doth Roffensis say , That very rarely any one of them mentions it , but only , that in these Ancient Writers , he shall find none , or but very rare mention of it . If this man were in his wits when he made this answer ( an answer which no man can unriddle , or tell how it opposes the objection ) then it is very certain , that if this can pass among the answers to the Protestants objections , the Papists are in a very great strait , and have very little to say for themselves : and the letter to a friend was written by compulsion , and by the shame of confutation ; not of conscience or ingenuous perswasion . No man can be so foolish , as to suppose this fit to be given in answer to any sober discourse ; or if there be such pitiful people in the Church of Rome , and trusted to write Books in defence of their Religion ; it seems they care not what any man says or proves against them ; if the people be but cosen'd with a pretended answer ; for that serves the turn , as well as a wiser . Lib. 8. cap. 1. de inven . rerum . Ego vero Origin●m quod m●i est muneris quaeritans non reperio ante fuisse , quod sciam , quum D. Gregorius ad suas stationes id praemii proposuerit . Quapropter in reparum perspicuâ , utar testimonio Johannis Roffensis Episcopi , qui in eo opere quod nuper in Lutherum scripsit , sic de ejusmodi veniarum initio prodit . Multos fortasse movit indulgentiis istis non usque adeò fidere , quod earum usus in Ecclesiâ videatur recentior , & admodum serò apud Christianos repertus . Quibus ego respondeo , non certò constare à quo primum tradicoeperint . Fuit tamen nonnullus earum usus ( ut aiunt ) apud Romanos vetustissimus , quod ex stationibus intelligi potest & subiit . Nemo certe dubitat orthodoxus an purgatorium sit , de quo tamen apud priscos nonulla vel quam rarissime fiebat mentio . Sed & Gracis ad hunc usque diem , non est creditum esse : quamdiu enim nulla fuerat de purgatorio cura , nemo quaesivit Indulgentias ; nam ex il●o pendet omnis indulgentiarum existimatio : si tollas purgatorium , quorsum indulgentiis opus erit ? coeperunt igitur indulgentiae postquam ad purgatorii cruciatus aliquandiu trepidatum est . Lib. 4. verb. Indul . vide etiam lib. 12. lil . purgatorium . E. W. Truth will out . cap. 3. pag. 23. Vers. 6. Contr. hares . lib. 12. tit . purgator . Jo. Medina de poenit . tract . 6. q. 6. Cod. de oratione . Bellar. de purgat . lib. 2. cap. 5. Vide missam in commemorationem omnium defunctorum . Confess . lib. 9. cap. 12. & 13. Letter pag. 11. n. 31. * But then it is to be remembred , that they made prayers , and offered for those who by the confession of all sides never were in Purgatory : so we find in Epiphanius , Saint Cyril , the Canon of the Greeks , and so ( viz. that they offered ) is acknowledged by their own Durantus . Disswasive , pag. 27. line 30. &c. Lib. 2. de ritibus cap. 35. Lib. 1. Epist. 9. Lib. 6. biblioth . Annot. 47. Haeres . 75. Letter pag. 10. Truth will out ▪ pag. 25. In Psal. 36. Conc. 2. To. 8. p. 120. A. L. p. 11. Mysta . Catech ▪ 5. Biblioth . Sanct. l. 6. Annot. 345 Sect. Jacob. Apostolus . Basilii 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ab Andrea Masio ex Syrineo conversa . Eccles. hier . Cap. 7. in theoria . Naz. in funus Caesari●o● at . 10. Missa latina Antiqua edit . Argentinae . 1557. pag. 52. De cura pro mortuis , cap. 4. De verbis Apostoli Serm. 17. Sacramentarium Gregor . antiquum . * Vide M●ssal . Roman . Paris 1529. Cap. cum Marthae . Extrav . de celebrat . Missarum in Glossâ . * Missale Rom. in decreto Concil . Trid. restit . in festo S. Leonis . Letter to a friend , pag. 12. And these are the words of Senensis concerning Pope John 22. and Pope Adrian . Annot. 345. Enchirid. cap. 68 , 69. 1 Cor. 3. Tale aliquid etiam post hanc vitam fieri incredibile non est , & utrum ita sit quari potest . * E.W. pag. 28. De octo Quaest ▪ Dulcit . Qu. 3. S. Aug. de civit . Dei , lib. 21 ▪ cap. 26. De C. Dei. lib 21. c. 13. Ibid. Purgatorias autem poenas nullas futuras opinetur , nisi ante illud ultimum tremendumque judicium . Cap. 16. In Psal. 6. * De C. D. lib. 16. c. 24. & lib. 20. c. 25. Aug. tom . 9. de vanitate saecul● , c. 1. & de consolatione mortuorum Serm. 2. cap. 1. De Dogmat. 6. Eccles. cap. 79. Aut Augustini aut Gennadii . Contra Pharis . tit . 8. In exposit . precationis missae . Advers . haeres . lib. 12. tit . Purgatorium . In Cathol . Romano pacifico 9. de purgat . Esse quippe apud inferos locum purgationum in quo salvandi vel tenebristantum ●fficiantur , vel expiationis ●●gne decequantur quidam asserunt . Post hoc ●pparuit eidem presbytero columna quaedam jubaris immensi , cujus claritas altra communem solis valentiam coruscare videbatur , de coelo usque ad terram porrecta , per quam anima quaedam Angelico ductu ad sydera contendebat . Sciscitante verò presbytero , quidnam hoc esset ? Respondit alter , ipsa est anima Constantini quondam Judicis & domini Turritani , haec autem per novem annos ventis & pluviis & algoribus semper exposita à die exitus sui usque nunc in stillicidio domus suae constitit , ibique suorum excessuum poenas luit : sed qui misericors & liberalis in pauperes extitit , & judicium injuriam patientibus fecit , insuper etiam de malis quae commisit confessa & poenitens à corpore exivit , idcircò misericordiam à Deo cons●cuta , hodiernâ die meretur ab omnibus malis liberari , &c. Haec & multa alia sacerdos ille vidit & audivit de secretis alterius vitae . * S. Greg. M. lib. 13. in J●bum . c. 15. c. 17. * Cum constat quod apud inferos justi non in locis poenalibus , sed in superiori quietis sinu tenerentur , magna nobis oberitur quaestio quidnam sit quod B. Job . asserit . Lib. 4. Dialog . c. 39. Cap. 46. In summa sacram . Eccles. n. 110. Decis . cas . conscient . part . 1. lib. 1. c. 6. n. 10. The Letter pag. 14. Biblioth . lib. 6. Annot. 259. Lib. 2. p. 186. De purgatori● lib. 1. c. 15. Sect. Ad secundum dico . Bellar. lib. 1. c. 11. Sect. . de Mahumitanis . * In 1 Cor. 3. * Lib. 1. de purgat . c. 5. Sect. ex Graecis . Sap. 3. v. 6. Lib. 12. tit . purgatorium . Se● Binius tom . 4. Concil . Art. 18. contr . Luther . * disp . 11. Qu. 1. punctum . 1. Sect. 5. De locis animarum post mortem . * Lib. 8. adv . hares . tit . Indulgentiae . Ad D●metrian . Sect. 16. & Sect. 22. * Pag. 17. * Pag. 32. Donec aev● temporalis fine completo ad aeternae vel mortis vel immortalitatis hospitia dividamur . Ibid. Sect. 16. Serm. de lapsis . Confiteantur singulis vos fratres delictum suum , dum adhuc qui d●liquit in saeculo est , dum admitti confessio ejus potest , dum satisfactio , & remissio facta per sacerdotes apud Dominum grata est . S. Dionys. Pag. 32. Justin Martyr resp . ad Quest. 75. Pag. 33. Pag. 33. E. W. pag. 36. * Lib. de baptis . c. 25. & 26. lib. de confirmat . c. 5. l. 3. de Euchar . c. 6. P. 36. line 29. De bono mortis cap. 4. Pag. 34. S. Greg. Nazianz . orat . 15. in plagam grandinis . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . In Psalm . Homil. 22. vide etiam homil . 26. De Virgin. Letter . p. 18. P. 18. Lib. 3. de Euchar . c. 23. Sect. Secund● dicit . Vbi supra . Contra Captiv . Babyl . c. 1. Tom. 9. tract . 16. p. 108. p. 110. Lib. 1. de Euchar . c. 34. Pag. 37. vide Letter . p. 18. Pag. 38. See also the letter to a friend , p. 19. Vbi supra . Innocent . de offic . Mis. part . 3. cap. 18. Cap. cum Martha in gloss . Extrav . de celebr . miss . Vbi supra . E. W. pag. 37 Pag. 37. L●tter to a friend . pag. 18. Ad liberandum terram sanctam de manibus impiorum . Extrav . de Jud●is & Saracenis . Cum sit . Vide pr●fat . Later . Concil . secundum p. Crab. Vide Matth. Paris , ad A.D. 1215. & Naacteri generat . 41. ad eundem annum . Et Sabellicum E●●●ad . 9. lib. 6. & Godfridum Monachum ad A. D. 1215. Tract . 16. tom . 9. p. 110. Lib. 3. de Euchar . c. 23. Sect. Vnum tamen . Scotus negat doctrinam de conversion● & transubst . esse antiquam . Henriquez lib. 8. c. 23. in Marg. ad liter . h. Summ● . l. 8. c. 23. p. 448. lit . C. in Marg. Lib. 3. de Euchar . cap. 13. Letter . p. 21. In priorem Epist . ad Corinthios citante etiam Salm●ron . tom . 9. tract . 16. p. 1087PUNC ; Videat lector Picherellum exposit : ve●borum institutionis coena Domini , & ejusdem dissertationem de Missâ . 1615. 1 Pet. 3.21 . A. D. 1547. A propositione ter●i● adjecti ▪ ad propositio nem secundi adjecti va●et consequentia , si subjectum supponat realiter . Reg. Dialect . Vide sect . 5. n. 10. Of Christ● real presence and spiritual . Pag. 296. Oratio 2. in Pascha . * Sic solemus loqui : sicut panis est vita corporis : ita verbum Dei est vita animae . Non scil . eundem conversionis aut nutriendi modum connotando , sed similem & analogicum effectum utriusque nutrimenti observando . Lib. 4. c. 34. & lib. 5. c. 2. A. L. Demonstr . Evang. l. 1. c. ult . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . The Apostle received a command according to the constitution of the N. T. to make a memory of this sacrifice upon the Table by the symbols of his body and healthful blood . ) So the words are translated in the Dissuasive . But the letter translates them thus . Seeing therefore we have received the memory of this sacrifice to be celebrated in certain signs on the Table , and the memory of that body and healthful blood , ( as is the institute of the new Testament . ) Lib. 5. c. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ] Et lib. 8. c. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ] Et Paulo post ▪ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ] [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Macarius homil . 27. * Pag. 22. Pag. ibid. * Hujus sacrificii caro & sanguis ante adventum Christi per victimas similitudinum promittebatur : in passione Christi per ipsam veritatem reddebatur , [ post ascensum Christi per sacramentum memoriae celebratur . ] lib 20. c. 21. contr . Faustum Manich . De doctr . Christ lib. 3. cap. 9. Epist. 23. P. 41. Orat. 2. in Pascha . Jam verò Paschalis participes erimus , nunc quidem adhuc typicè , tametsi apertiùs licet quam in veteri ; legale siquidem Pascha ( ne● enim dicere verebor ) figurae f●gura erat obscurior . Lib. de Synod . De Euchar. l. 2. c. 15. Sect. est ●gitur tertia . E.W. p. 42. In Ps. 33. Lib. 3. de Trin. c. 4. in fine P. Lombard dist . 11. lib. 4. ad finem li● . C. * Christs real and spiritual presence in the Sacrament against the doctrine of Transubstantiation , printed at London by R. Royston . Sess. 13. Lugduni . A.D. 1600. apud Horatium Cardon . p. 440. A.D. 1562. Vide Preface to the Disswasive , Part 1. Canon comperimus de consecrat . dist . 2. In consult . de sacra Commun . In Corinth . 11. Indignum dicet esse Domino qui aliter mysterium celebrat quam ab eo traditum est . Non enim potest devotus esse qui aliter praesumit quam datum est ab Authore . Ideóque praemonet ut secundum ordinem traditum devota mens sit accedentis ad Eucharistiam Domini : quoniam futurum est judicium , ut quemadmodum accedit unusquisque , reddat causa● in Die Domini Jesu Christi , quia sine disciplinâ traditionis & conversationis qui accedunt rei sunt corporis & sanguinis Domini . A.L. p. 4. Serm. 1. de elecmos . Disp. 5. de sacra coena . Lib. de corp . & sang . Domini cap. 15. Epist. 63. Salmer . in 11. Cor. 10. disp . 17. pag. 138. Durand . ration . Divin . offic . l. 4. c. 53. Cassand . liturg . c. 27. Sect. E●●cum mensa . Lib. 2. Chap. 3. Rule 9. E.W. p. 45. and A.L. p. 25. Recordemini quaeso ex his spiritu libus sermonibus qui lecti sunt medicinae . Reminiscamini earum quae sunt in psalmis monitionum ; proverbialia praecepta , historiae pulchritudinem , exemplaque investigate . His addite Apostolica mandata . In omnibus vero tanquam coronida , perfectionemque verba evangelica conjungite , ut ex omnibus utilitatem capientes , ad id demum convertatis & revertamini ad quod quisque jucundè est offectus , & ad quod obeundum gratiam à spiritu sancto accepit . 35. Homil. in 1 Cor. 14. chap. Pag. 25. In 1 Cor. 14. Vtiliu● dicit ( Apostolus ) paucis verbis in apertione serm●nis loqui , quod omnes intelligant , quàm prolixam orationem habere in obscuro . Imperitus enim audiens quod non intelligit , nescit finem orationis , & non respondet Amen , id est , verum , ut confirmetur benedictio . Et in haec verba Nam tu quidem bene gratia agis ] de eo dicit qui cognita sibi loquitur quia scit quid dicit , ( sed alius non aedificatur ) si utique ad Eccl●siam adificandam convenitis , ea d●bent dici quae intelligant audientes . Nam quid prodest ut lingua loquatur quam solus scit , ut qui audit , nihil proficiat . Ideò tacero debet in Ecclesiâ , ut ii loquantur qui prosunt audientibus . * S. August . in 2. Comment . in Ps. 18. Deprecati Dominum ut ab ocultis nostris mundet nos , & ab alienis par●at servis suis , quid hoc sit intelligere debemus , ut humanâ ratione non quasi avium voce cantemus . Nam & Meruli , & Psittaci , & Corvi , & Pica , & hujusmodi volucres saepe ab hominibus docentur sonare quod nesciunt . Scienter autem cantare non avi sed homini Divinâ voluntate concessum est . Et paulo post Nos autem qui in Ecclesiâ divina eloquia cantare didicimus simul etiam instare debemus esse quod scriptum est , Beatus populus qui intelligit jubilationem : proinde charissimi quod consonâ voce cantavimus , seren● etiam corde nosse ac videre debemus . ‖ Tho. Aquin. in 1 Cor. 14. Ille qui intelligit reficitur , & quantum ad intellectum & quantum ad affictum ● sed meus ejus qui non intelligit , est sine fructu refectionis . And again , quantum ad fructum devotionis spiritualis privatur qui non attendit ad ea quae orat , seu non intelligit . Lyra. Caeterum hic consequenter idem ostendit in oratione publicâ , quia si populus intelligat orationem seu benedictionem sacerdotis , melius reducitur in Deum & devotius Amen . And again , Propter quod in Ecclesiâ primitivâ benedictiones & caetera omnia lege communia * fielent in vulgari . * For of common things , that is , things in publick the Disswasive speaks , Common prayers , common preachings , common Eucharists and thanksgivings , common blessings . All these and all other publick and common things being us'd in the vulgar tongue in the Primitive ; Communia and omnia are equivalent , but Communia is Lyra's word . Homil. 1. in 8. Johan . Videat lector S. Basil. in Ascert . in 278. resp . in regul . brevior . & Cassidore . De doctrin . Christianâ lib. 2. c. 5. Ex quo factum est , ut etiam scriptura divina , quâ tantis morbis humanarum voluntatum subvenitur , ab unâ linguâ pro●ecta , qua opportunè potuit per orbem terrarum disseminari , per varias interpretum linguas longè latéque diffusa innotesceret gentibus ad salutem . Theodoret. lib. 5. de curand . Graecaffect . Nos autem verbis Apostolicae propheticaeque doctrinae inexhaustum robur manifestè ost●ndimus . Vniversa enim fa●ies terrae quantacunque soli subjicitur , ejusmodi verborum plena jam est . Hebrai verò libri non modo in Graecumidioma conversi sunt , sed in Romanam quoque linguam , Egyptiam , Persicam , Indicam , Armenicamque & Scythicam , atque adeò Sauromaticam , semelque ut dicam in linguas omnes quibus ad bunc diem nationes u●uniur . * Quamvis per se bonum sit ut officia divina celebrentur eâ linguâ quam plebs intelligat , id enim per se confert ad aedificationem , ut bene probat hic locus . Estius in 1. ep . Cor. cap. 14 Respon . ad artic pacis . Magis fore ad aedificationem Ecclesiae , ut preces vulgari linguâ conciperentur . Ex hâc doctrinâ Pauli habetur quod melius ad aedificationem Ecclesiae est orationes publicas , quae audiente populo dicuntur , dici linguâ communi Clericis & populo , quàm dici latinâ . Idem in 1 Cor. 14. Studete verba Dei , viz. Lectiones sacras distinctè & apertè ad intelligentiam & aedificationem fidelium absque omni mendacio falsitatis proferre , &c. Isa. 25.11 . Nemo autem ignorat nulli prorsus naturae , praeterquam Dei , adorationem à scripturis contribui . Thesaur . l. 2. c. 1. & alibi . Vna Natura est deitatis quam solummodo adorare opertet . Orat. de obitu Theodos. E.W. p. 57. Serm. 30. A. ● . Sirmond . Not. in Concil . Norbon . c. 13. l. 1. Concil . Gal. * Tom. 3. lit . 19. c. 157. & apud Bellarm. lib. 2. de imag . c. 9. Lib. 2. de imag . cap. 9. Sect. secundò quia haretici . In Epist. 61. & 101. ad Pammach . Syn. 7. Act. 8. Can. 9. De moribus Eccles. lib. 1. c. 34. Jam videbitis quid inter ostentationem & sinceritatem — postremo quid inter superstitionis Sirenas & portum religionis intersit . Nolite mihi colligere professores Nominis Christiani , nec professionis suae vim aut s●tentes aut exhibentes . Nolite con●ectari turbas imperitorum , qui vel in ipsâ verâ religione superstitiosi sunt , vel ita libidinibus dediti , ut obliti sint quid promiserint Deo. Novi multos esse sepulchrorum & picturarum adoratores , novi multos esse qui luxuriosissimè super mortuos vivant . Sed & illa quàm vana sint , quàm noxia , quàm sacrilega , qu●madmodum à magna parte vestrum , atque adeò penè ab omnibus vobis non observentur , alio volumine ostendere institui . Nune vos illud admoneo , ut aliquando Ecclesiae Catholicae maledicere desinatis , vituperando mores hominum quos & ipsa condemnat , & quos quotidie tanquam malos filios corrigere studet . De fide & symb . c. 7. Contr. Adimant . c. 13. * Pag. 27. Contr. Adimant . c. 13. E. W. pag. 57. Pag. 57. Loc. Theol. lib. 5. c. 4. Lib. 2. de imagin . c. 14. Sect. secundò quia . Sect. neque obstat . (a) Ad annum 794. (b) Opusc. 55. N. cap. 20. (c) Chron. aetat . 6. ad annum Christi eundem & 792. (d) ad eund . annum . (e) Lib. 4. c. 85. In annal . Vide supra . Sect. primò quia . A. D. 793. Of making of images . A. L. p. 27. Cap. 3. Diabolum seculo intulissè artifices statuarum & imaginum & omnis generis simulachrorum , Lib. 2. advers . Marc. 4. c. 22. Lib. 4. c. 22. Pag. 27. Pag. 54 , 55. Strom. l. 6. p. 687. edit . Paris . 1629. Lib. 1. de fin . bon . & malor . In cap. 3. Epist. ad Philip. bom . 10. Lib. Strom. 5. Pag. 559. Paris . 1629. Gr. Lat. Vide etiam eundem in Protreptico . pag. 41. Nobis enim est apertè vetitum fallacem ariem exercere . Non facies enim ( inquit Propheta ) cujusvis rei similitudinem . Id. Stromat . lib. 6. p. 687. Pag. 55. Pag. 181. edit G. L. Canta● . 1658. * Homil. 8. in Exod. apud Bellarm. imagin . l. 2. c. 7. Sect. sed hac . (a) L. 4. c. 31. & 32. (b) L. de idololat . cap. 5. (c) L. 3. ad Quirinum c. 59. & de exhort . martyrii . c. 1. (d) L. 15. contra Faustum c. 4. & 7. * Consult . de imagin . & simulachris . Lib. 4. degenerat . & regeneratione Adam . E. W. pag. 49. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Appendix ad Tract . de cultu imaginum in prooem . ante Cap. 1. & in Cap. 4. * Tom. 3. Comment . in 3. part . Qu. 25. art . 3. disp . 94. c. 3. Pag. 50. Martinus Delrio Vindiciae Areopag . c. 14. Comment . in Isai. c. 2. T. ● . De haeres . ad quod vult Deum paulò ab initio . haeres . 1. E. W. pag. 51. Cum ejus statuam in Jovis figuram construxissent , Helenae autem in Minervae speciem , eis thura adolebant , & libabant , & tanquam Deos adorabant , Simonianos seipsos nominantes . Theodoret haeret . fab . lib. 1. tit . Simonis haeresis in fin . * Vide Irena . lib. 1. adv . haeres . c. 23. & 24. Vbi suprà haeres . 7. * Iren. reliquam observationem circa eas similiter ut gentes faciunt , i. e. sicut caeterorum illustrium virorum imaginibus consueverunt facere . Prudenter existimavit Deos facile posse in simulachrorum stoliditate contemni . Plut. in Numâ . Aelius Lamprid . in Alexandro Severo . edit . Salmat . p. 120. De imag . c. 7. Sect. Ad primum . Synod . 7. Act. 5. Homil. 8. in Exod. Lib. 2. de imagin . S.S. Cap. 25. 1 Cor. 8.13 . * De invent . rerum l. 6. c. 13. Eo insaniae deventum est , ut haec pietatis pars par●um disserat ab imputate . Sunt enim benè multi rudiores stupidioresque qui sax as vel ligneas , seu in parieti●us pictas imag●nes colant , ron ut siguras , sed perindè ac si ipsae s●nsum aliquem habeant , & eis magis f●dant quam Christo , Po●yd . Virg. lib. 6. c. 13. de invent . rerum . Li●us Giraldus in Syntag. de Dus Gentium loquens de exc●ssu Romanae Ecclesia in negotio imaginum , praefatur , [ Satius esse ea Harpocrati & Angeronae consignare . Illud certe non praetermittam , nos dico Christianes , ut aliquando Romanos fuisse sine imaginibus in primitivâ quae vocatur Ecclesia . ] Erasmus in Catech●s● ait , usque ad aetatem Hieronymi erant probatae rel●gionis viti , qui in Templis nullam fereban● imagin●m , nec pictam , nec sculptam , nec textam , acne Christi quid●m . ] Et ibid. Vt imagines sint in Templis nulla praecepit vel humana constitutio , & ut facilius est , ita tutius quoque omnes imagines ● Templis submovere . ] Videatur etiam Cassandri consultatio ; sub hoc titulo & Masius in Josuah , cap. 8. Sic autem queritur Ludovicus Vives Comment . in lib. 8. c. ult . de civit . Dei. Divos Divasque non alitèr venerantur , quàm Deum ipsum . Non video in multis quid discrimen sit inter corum opinionem de sanctis , & id quod Gentiles putabant de Diis suis. Diodorus Siculus dixit de Mose , imaginem statuit nullam , ideo quod non crederet Deum homini similem esse , & Dion . lib. 36. Nullam effigiem in Hierosolymis habuere , quod Deum crederent ut ineffabilem , ita inaspicuum [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ] ‖ Consul . de imagin . ex Origene contr . Celsum . lib. 7. versus finem . * Epist. 49. q. 3. C. 14. C. 41. apud Bellarmin . lib. 2. de imag . S.S. c. 22. Sect. Secunda propositio . A.D. cir●iter 792. Annal. part . 1. Vide Plutarch . de ●side & Osir. * In 3. sent . dist . 9. q. 2. n. 15. Rom. 1.23 . Pag. 60. De fide & symbolo c. 7. Damasc . lib. 4. O●thod . fidei , cap. 17. E. W p. 60. Authoritas Damasceni in literâ damuat i●●as ( imagines Dei ) insipientiae & impietatis . Et eadem ●st ratio nunc de Deitate quae erat in veteri lege quoad rem figurabilem vel non secundunt se. Constat autem in veteri lege imagines Dei esse prohibitas . Videat ( si placet ) lector Lucum Fudensem adv . Albig . error . l. 2. c. 9. Tom. 4. Bibl. p. p● part . 2. Apud Nicen. Synod . 11. Act. 5 Observandum est tribus modis posse aliquid pingi . Vno modo ad exprimendam perfectam similitudinem formulae , & naturae rei ipsius . Altero modo ad historiam aliquam otulis exhibendam . Tertio potest aliquid pingi extra historiam ad explicandam naturam rei , non per immediatam & propriam similitudinem , sed analogiam , sive metaphoricas , mysticasque significationes . Bellarm. de imag . lib. 2. c. 8. Sect. pro solutione . Hoc modo pingimus Deum , ibid. Sect. Hoc modo . Lib. 2. de reliq . & imagin . S.S. cap. 8. Sect. Ego dico tria . Pujol . de adorat . disp . 3. Sect. 4. In 3. part . Tom. q. 25. a. 3. Pag. 28. De ●●ronâ mili● . De Cor. Milit. Johannes Filio●i inquit , Custodite vos ab idolis , non jam ab idololatria quasi ab officio , sed ab idolis , id est , ab ipsâ ●ffigie eorum : Indignum enim est ut imago Divini , imago idoli & mortui fiat : Si enim verbo nudo condit●o polluitur ut Apostolus docet , si quis dixerit idolothytum est , nor contigeris , multo magis ●um habitu , & ●itu , & apparatu , &c. Quid enim tam dignum Deo quàm quod indignum idolo ? Nam siut dicitis literarum i●star Dei pr●sentiam signant , atque ad●ò a●si Deum significantia Divi●●s d●gn● censentur honoribus , certè qui ea scul●sit , eisque ●ffigie● dedit , multo magis hos prom●rebatur hono●es . Et paulò post . Quo circa hujusmodi religio , Deorumque fictio non pietatis esse , sed iniquitatis invectio — Veritatis via ad eum qui verus Deus est di●●get . Ad eum verò cognoscen●um & exactissim● intelligendum nullius extra nos positae rei opem necessariam habemus — Quod si quis interrogat qu●nam ista sit ? Vniuscujusque animam esse dixerim , atque insitam illam intelligentiam , per ipsam enim selam Deus inspici , & intelligi potest . Orat. contr . Gentiles . Synod . 7. Act. 6. Concil . C.P. Can. 82. In Cap. 40. Isai. Aut quam imaginem ponetis ei , qui spiritus est , & in omnibus est , & ubique discurrit , & terram quasi pugillo continet ? Simulque irridet stultitiam nationu● , quod art●fex sive Faber aerarius , aut aurifex aut argentarius Deum sibi faciant . De fide & symb . c. 7. Tale enim simulachrum Deo n●fas est Christiano in Templo collocare , multò magis in corde nefarium est , ubi verè Templum est . Lib. de l●gat . Natur. q. 8.30 . Act 5. Pag. 734. &c. Annal. Bio●um . l. 7. In Epistolâ quam Baronius Graecè edidit Tom. 9. Annal . ad A.D. 726. in Margine . Notes for div A71177-e214480 Ep●st . 4. Lib. 3. c. 11. Heb. 13.17 . De Repub. 1. Notes for div A71177-e216690 In cap. 3. Gal. Gal. 3.24 . Gal. 3.22 . 1 Cor. 2.7 . Plato lib. 5. de leg . Demosth. contra Timocratem . Plutar. in Solon . Curius Fortunatianus Rhet. Nemo obligatur ad impossibile . Lib. 1. Dial. adv . Pelag. Rom. 8. S. Hier. lib. 2. in Gal. c. 3. Rhet. lib. 1. Seneca Ep. 67. Haeres . 59. ‖ Zabuli . S. Cypr. de oper . & ele●mos . In cap. 7. Rom. Carm. de ingratis c. 9. Epist. ad Innocent . * Lib. 2. de merit . & remiss . c. 6. lib. de Spirit & lit . c. 1. ‖ Serm. 49. de tempore . Lib. 1. dial adv . Pelag. Dial. extr . adv . Pelag. l. 3 ▪ S. August . lib. 1. Retract . c. 19. Heb. 10.28 . Rom. 8.3 . Apud Diodor Sicul. Hem. 3. inter . 19. In epistolâ ad Innocentium dictum est , multos Catholicos viros dixisse posse hominem esse sine peccato per gratiam Dei , non à nativitate sed à conversione . Mat. 5.48 . Psal. 2. Heb. 7.19 . Jam. 1.4 . Col. 4.12 . 1.28 . 1 Cor. 14.20 . Heb. 6.1 . Mat. 19.21 . Seneca . Luke 6.36 . Scriptor ad Di●gnetum . 1 Kings 8.46 ▪ Psal. 37.29 . vet . edit . Phil. 1.10 . 1 Chron. 12.33 . Acts 3.26 . 2. Pet 3.11 . Vers. 14. Vers. 9. Heb. 10.28 , 29. Horat. Serm. l. 1. Satyr . Phil. 3.13 , 14. Luke 17.7 . John 6.28 , 29. Luke 12.37 . Luke 12. Mat. 22.37 . Clem. Al●x . Strom. 5. Plautus Stich● . De spir . & lit . c. 36. Epist. ad lapsos . Concil . Arausic . 2. c. 18. Debetur merc●s bo●i● operibus : sed gratia qua non debetur praecedit ut fiant . Job 35.7 . Rom. 8.18 . Psal. 62.12 . Mat. 5.12 . 1 Cor. 3.8 . Mat. 16.27 . 2 Cor. 4.17 . 2 Thes. 1.5 . Ap●● . 3.4 . & 16.6 . Rom. 8.18 . In Matth. lib. 3. cap. 20. v. 8. 2 Cor. 8.12 ▪ Gen. 2.17 . Gal. 3.10 . Deut. 27.26 . Deut. 27.8 . Deut. 28. Lev. 26.23 , 24 , &c. Heb. 10.28 . Rom. 3. vers . 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28. Rom. 8.1 , 14 , 26 , 27 , 28. Ver. 33 , &c. Heb. 8.10 , 11 , 12. 2 Cor. 5.17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21. Acts. 2.37 , 38. Rom. 10.13 . Acts 2.21 . Rom. 10.5 , 6 , 8 , 9. 1 Cor. 15.55 , 56. Rom. 8.3 , 4. 1 Joh. 5.3 . Rom. 5.10 . Phil. 4·13 . 2 Cor. 12.9 . Matth. 7.7 . 2 Cor. 7.1 . Vide etiam Isa. 49.6 . & 53.12 . Psal. 22.23 , 24 25 , 26 , 27 , 28. Jer. 32.34 . * 21.32 . Matth. 27.3 . Heb. 12.17 . Lib. de poenit . 2 Cor. 7.11 . Homil. 9. de poenit . Lib. 2. adv . Marcion . cap. 20. Matth. 21.29 . Prov. 14. Au●on . Epigr. * Malè Metanoea usus est : verbum purum Gracum est , nec tamen eo sensu & definitione à Graecis usurpatum . Rectè igitur & face●è f●ssus est id●m Ausonius in Epigrammate de abusu hujus verbi parusa Latini , Sum Dea , cui nomen nec Cicero ipse dedit . * Heb. 6.1 . 1 Kings 8.35 . Isai. 59.20 . 2 Chron. 7.14 . Jer. 18.7 , 8 , 9. & 31.19 . 2 Tim. 2.19 . ‖ 2 Sam. 12.5 , 13. Deut. 30.2 . Jer. 3.7 . Acts 26.18 . Eph. 5.14 . Ezek. 33.12 . Luke 19.8 , 9 , 10. * De poenit . in princip . ‖ Lib. de ver . & fals . poenit . c. 8. * Lib. 6. Divin . instit . c. 13. Lib. 3. de myste . Eccles. Solil . cap. 19. Lib. 6. c. 24. In Pythag. Hie●ocl . in vers . 29. pag. 166. Edit . Lond. 1654. Noct. Att. lib. 17. c. 1. Acts 26.18 , 20 ▪ Mat. 3.8 . Acts 26.20 . James 4. Jer. 31.19 . Acts 5.31 . Gal. 3.23 . Verse 2. Acts 20.21 . 2 Pet. 3.9 , 15. John 5.44 . Strom. 2. * Mark 1.15 . ‖ Acts 26.20.2.38.3.19 . Acts 14.15 . & 26.18 . 2 Cor. 3.16 . Rom. 13.12 , 13 Eph. 5.8 . Tit. 2.14 . Acts 3.26 . Luke 22.32 . Jam. 3.20 . Mat. 13.15 . John. 12.40 . Col. 1.21 ▪ 22 ▪ Tit. 3.5 . Rom. 12.2 . Eph. 4.23 . Eph. 2.10.3.9 John 36. Jam. 1.18 . Jude . Rev. 7.14 . Heb. 10.22 , 23 Psal. 50.9 . 2 Cor ▪ 7.1 . 1 John 3.3 Gal. 2.20 Rom. 6.17 . Acts 6.7 . 1 Pet. 4.3 . Eph. 2.3 . Jam. 1.22 , 23. 1 John 3.22 . John 3.4 . 1 John 1.6 . 2 Cor. 8.21 . Col. 1.10 . 1 Cor. 15 58. 2 Tim. 3.12 . Gal. 2.20 . 1 Cor. 2.1 . 1 Thess. 1.6 John 2.6 . Eph. 2.10 . Mat. 5.19 . Luke 5.46 . John 15.14 . Ignat. ad Magnis . 1 Kings 8.35 , 36. Isa. 59.20 , 21. Ezek. 33.14 , 15 , 16. Rom. 6.6 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 18 , 19. Rom. 7.4 , 5 , 6. Rom. 13.11 , 12 , 13. 2 Cor. 7.1 , 10 , 11. 2 Cor. 5.15 , 17 ▪ Ephes. 4.22 , 23 , 24. Eph. 5.6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 15 , 16 , 17. Col. 3.1 , 2 , 3 , 5 , 8 , 9 , 10. Tit. 2.11 , 12 , 13 , 14. Heb. 12.1 , 2 , 14 , 15. Jam. 1.18 , 21 22. 2 Pet. 1.4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9. 1 Pet. 1.13 , 14 , 15 , 16. 1 Pet. 2.24 ▪ Mat. 5.19 . Luke 6.46 . John 15.14 . Rom. 12.1 , 2. Rom. 2.6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10. 1 Cor. 7.19 . 1 Cor. 18.58 . Gal. 6.15 . Gal. 5.6 . Eph. 2.10 . Phil. 1.9 , 10 , 11 1 Thess. 4.1 , 2 , 3 1 Thess. 2.11 , 12 , 13. He● . 9.4 , 5 , 9. Heb. 10.21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29. 1 Pet. 4.17 . 1 John 3.3 , 22 Apoc. 2.26 . Eph. 3.14 , &c. Col. 1.9 , &c. 1 Thess. 3.11 , 12 Heb. 13.20 , 21. Lib. 1. de amiss . gratiae cap. 13. Sect. alterum est . Horat. Serm. l. 1. Sat. 3. Mat. 23.24 . Luke 6.41 . * Ira festuca est : odium verò trabs . Aug. Lib. 3.22 . Epigr. Mart. Nihil invenies rectius recto , non magis quàm verius vero , quàm temperato temperatius , omnis in modo est virtus : modus certa mensura est . Co●stantia non habet quò procedat , non magis quàm siducia , aut veritas , aut fides . Sen. Ep. 67. * In regul . brevior . * Venialia peccata ex consensu omnium Theologorum , neque tollunt neque minuunt habitum charitatis , sed solum actum & fervorem ejus impediunt . Bellarm . de amiss . grat . c. 13. Sect. alterum est . ‖ Idem ib. cap. 11. Sect. Quartum argum . Offic. lib. ● . In resp . ad orthod . apud Justin. De amiss grat . cap. 12. Sect. Restat ultim . Pa●uvius . Homil. 35. in Lucam . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Lib. 4. de orthod . ● de cap. 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Orat. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Rom. 5.18 . Eph. 2.1 . Lib. 3. quaest . super Levit. q. 20. Rom. 7.5 . In cap. 2. Ephes. Jam. 1.15 . Vid. Com. DD. in Titum verb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * Apol. de liber . arbit . Lib. 13. c. 19. De amiss . grat . cap. 11. Sect. Assumptio probatur . Lib. 3. quaest . super Levit. q. 20. * Parad. 3. Lib. 3. Quaest. in Lev. c. 20. Lib. 50. homil . hom . 50.7 . Serm. 244. de temp . ●nchi● c. 78. Dial. 2. adv . Pelag. Homil. 8. & 13 De praecept . & Dispens . c. 14. Matth. 5.22 ▪ * Ita interpretantur hunc locum Barradius , Maldonatus , & Estius ad hunc locum : & apud vetustiores eadem sententia praevaluit . Hac enim erat mens Strabi Fuldensis qui glossam ordinariam compilavit , & Hugonis Cardinalis . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (a) Aquina● 1.2 . quaest . 87. art . 5. (b) Bellar. de amiss . gra . lib. 1. c. 14. Sect. Extu● ad . Serm. 1. de coenâ Dom. & Serm. 1. de convers . Paul● . Lib. 10. Moral , c. 14. In Para● , * Fornicator . Promiscuè sapius usurpantur fornicatio & adulterium , Enthirid . cap. 78. Enchirid. 79. August . ubi suprà . Hom. 16. 1 Cor. 11.30 . Stroma● . 4. Hom. 13. S. August . epist. 108. ad Seleu. lib. 50. hom . 42. * Idem tract . 1. in ep . Johan . Levia multa faciunt unum grande . Lib. 50. hom . hom . 50. c. 8. Hom. 1. De lapsis . Vide S. Aug. lib. 83. q. 26. & Caesar. Arelat . hom . 1. Lib. 50. hom . h. 50. c. 8. Ecclesia Romana alia excogitavit facilè , quorum nonnulla declinant aperte nimis ad superstitionem : Consiteor , tundo , conspergor , conteror , oro , Signor , edo , dono , per hac venialia pono . * Chap. of sins of infirmity . De Symb. ad Catech. lib. 1. c. 6. & lib. 50. Homil. 28. * See Chap. 7. of sins of infirmity . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * Mat. 15.19 . Mar. 7.21 . Gal. 5.16 , 19 , 20 , 21. Eph. 4.31 . &c. 5.3 , 4 , 5. 2 Tim. 3.2 , 3 , 4 , 5. Rom. 1.29 , 30 , 31 , 32. 1 Cor. 6.9 . Rev. 21.8 . 1 Pet. 4.3 , 15. Lysistrat● ▪ * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , pro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Eph. 5.4 . Tuscul. 4. John 21.8 . Eph. 4 35. Eph. 5.17 . Prov. 24.9 . 2 Tim. 3.2 . Petron. Al●x . Aphrod . in lib. de anim . Epist. 21. Gal. 5.21 . 1 Cor. 6.10 . Rev. 21.8 . 1 Cor. 6.10 . Gal. 5.21 . Ephes. 8. Rom. 8.13 . John 3.8 . Dionys. de Divin . Nomin . Eph. 5.15 , 27. Caesar. Arelat . hom . 16. Psal. 119. ult . 1 John 5.17 . Lib. de Pudicit . c. 7. De lapsis ad Anton. 52. Lib. 1. de Poenit . c. 10. Eph. 4.1 . 1 Thess. 2.16 . Paranes . ad poenitentiam . * Se● Chap. 5. Jam. 2.10 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Navarr . Compend . Manual . ca. 1. n. 31. * Vide Infidelity unmask'd , pag. 604. " It is true , the best Divines teach that a sinner is not bound to repent himself instantly of his sin , &c. De poenit . d●sp . 7. Sect. 5. n. 4● . Sic etiam Suarez . tom . 4. in 3. part . disp . 9. Sect. 4. n. 23. * Granateus . in materiâ de peccatis tract . 8. disp . 1. Sect. 1. ‖ Infidelity unmask'd , pag. 605. Ibid. pag. 607. Luke 12.35 , &c. In Psal. 114 Rev. 2.5 . 1 Cor. 12.21 . Martial . ep . 20. lib. 5. Jude 22 , 23. Nazian . Horat. lib. 1. ep . Ethic. Nicom . l. 2. c. 2. Rom. 7. Ethic. lib. 3. c. 8. Aristoph . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Aristoph . Vide S. Chrysost . epist. ad Theodor. Rom. 5.8 , 9. Jer. 13.22 , 25. Stobaeus de R●p . Serm. 41. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Theoctist . apud Stobaeum . Quantum consuetudo poterit intelliges , si videris ferasquoque convictu nostro mansuescire : ●ullique immani bestia vimsuam permanere , si hominis contubernium diu passa est . Senec. de irâ lib. 3. c. 8. Lib. 8. Confess . c. 7. &c. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Plutar● . Trinummus . Sophocles in ●edip . Enchirid. c. 8. Heb. 10. Ephes. 2.2 . Rom. 7.8.11.14 . Mumb. 15.30 . Jud. 11. 2 Pet. 2.14 . Lib. de peccat . orig . cap. 6. & 13. Rom. 6.13 , 20. Jer. 13.23 . De bono conjugat . c. 21. Rom. 7.14 , 19. &c. Rom. 8.1 , &c. Rom. 6.19 . Baruch 4.28 . In Act. 4. hom ▪ 10. Vandalic . 11. S. Basil. homil . 9. Stob. In regul . fusiùs disput . q. 6. & 55. Colos. 3.5 . Rom. 8.13 . Gal. 5.24 . Rom. 6.7 . * Rom. 6.18 . Ephes. 4 22. Col. 1.13 . & 3.5.10.12 . Titus 2.12 , 13 , 14. Heb. 10 22 , 24. 1 Pet. 2.1 , 2. & 2 Pet. 1.4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8. ‖ Rom. 3.21 . & 9.30 , 31. Gal. 2.16 . & 3.8 . Phil. 3.6 , 7. ● Pet. 1.4 . Horat. Rev. 3.15 . Luke 17.10 . John 15.14 , 15 Horat. ep . 2. l. 1. Rom. 8.26 . Habitus infusi infunduntur p●r modum acquisitorum . R●gul . Sc●olast . Phil. 2.12 , 13. * Magis operamini . Syrus . Augescite in opera . Arabs . ‖ 1 Cor. 5.7 , 8. 2 Tim. 2.21 . Jam. 4.8 . Eph. 4.22 , 23 , 24. Col. 3.9 , 10. * Ingeniis talibus vitae exitus remedium est : optimúmque est abire ei qui ad se nunquam rediturus est . Senec. de Benef. 7.10 . Psal. 51.17 . Psal. 32.6 . Homil. de p●●●it . Joh. 4.14 . 6.58 . 7.38 . 1 John 2.17 . 1 John 1.9 . Gal. 5.21 . Rom. 2.6 , 7. Psal. 34.17 . John 8.47 . Apoc. 19.9 . Serm. 181. de tempore , c. 16. * Arnoldus Abbas . * Epist. ad Letam , & ad Paulum & Sabinianum . ‖ Serm. 11. de verb. Dom. & Serm. 58. de tempore . Vide Hist. of the life of the holy Jesus . Part 2. Disc. 9. Ad Theodorum lapsum . Lib. 2. c. 14. de summo bono . c. 80. Lib. 50. Hom. 41. Serm. 5● Epist. 1. Bibl. SS . Pp tom . 3. Homil. de Divit . & Lazar● . Dan. 4.27 . Metamorp . 1● . Epigr. l. 4. ep . 84. Rom. 7.7 . Moreh Nevochin . 341. Philemon . Canon . poenit . cap. 2.1 . Horat. Andria . Act. 1. Scen. 2. Cornel. Gal. Heb. 13.16 . Horat. lib. 4. Od. 10. Serm. 28. de temp . Heb. 10.35 . Concil . Nicen. can . 13. Concil . Aguth . c. 11. Serm. 181. de temp . c. 16. In Psal. 50. Hom. 2. S. Aug. & habetur de poen . dist . 7. Jer. 13.23 . Vers. 25. Ver. 16. Vers. 21. Vers. 22. Vers. 27. Jer. 14.10 . Vers. 11 , 12. Jer. 15.19 . Vers. 21. Ecclus. 18.19 . Vers. 20. Vers. 21. Vers. 22. Psal. 119. Jer. 7. Ezek. 11.18 . Vers. 19. Vers. 20. Vers. 21. Ezek. 13.10 . Vers. 19. Ezek. 18.30 . Vers. 31. Vers. 32. Ezek. 20.43 . Isa. 5.18 . Vers. 13. Isa. 1.15 . Isa. 1.16 . Vers. 17. Vers. 18. Vers. 19. Vers. 20. Ezek. 24. Hos. 10.12 . Hos. 12.6 . Hos. 13.9 . Hos. 1.1 ▪ Isa. 55.6 . Vers. 7. Isa. 57.15 . Vers. 16. Vers. 17. Vers. 18. Vers. 19. Vers. 20. Vers. 21. Lam. 3.26 , 27. Micah 7.18 . Micah 7.19 . Eccles. 12.1 . Jer. 14.7 , 8 , 9. Jer. 15.17 . Vers. 18. Jer. 17.13 . Vers. 17. Lam. 1.20 . Vers. 15. Psal. 143. Psal. 142.9 De civit . lib. 16. c. 18. Epist. ad Trallian . Rom. 5.12 ▪ 1 Tim. 2.13 . Ver. 13 , 14. Hos. 6.7 . 1 Kings 1.21 . Zech. 14.19 . 2 Cor. 5.21 . Isa. 53.10 . Heb. 9.28 . Heb. 7.27 . Rom. 6.10 . Vers. 2 , 3. Rom. 8.3 . Luke 2.22 . Cyril . adv . Anthrop . Dial adv . Tryph. Lib. 3. Ep. 8. Lib. 6. in Julian . c. 4. * Ambros. Catharinus , Albert . Pighi●● . ‖ De verb. Apost . Serm. 14 Ezek. 18. * Ex tarditate si Dii sontes praetereant , & insontes plectant , justitiam suam non sic rectè resarciunt . Qui vult aliquid in causâ vult effectum ex istâ causâ profluentem . In cap. 5. Rom. In 5. Rom. Idem sensit Jacobus Faber in 5. Rom. Nihil nos ex Adamo trahere nisi obligationem ad mortem . Albertus Pighius controv . 1. de peccato Orig. & Ambr. Catharinus de lapsu hominis & peccato Orig. statuunt , Peccatum Originis non habere veram peccatirationem , sed esse tan●●m rèatum quo posteri primorum parentum propter transgressionem illorum primaevam sine aliquo vitio proprio & inhaere●te naturae pravitate devincti teneantur . Epist. ad Magnes . Gen. 6.5 . * V. 12. Horat Epist. 94. Gen. 8.21 . Psal. 51.5 . John 9.34 . Job 31.18 . Isa. 48.8 . Thebaid . Lib. 3. Strom. e●trem . Ephes. 2.2 , 3. Quaest. 88. John 17.12 . 2 Sam. 12.25 . Arist. Rhet. l. 1. c. 11. Lib. 4. de esu anim . Isa. 27.4 . 1 Cor. 14.20 . Mat. 18.3.19.14 . Rom. 7.23 . 1 Cor. 2.14 . Epist. 3. de morte Nepotian . Homil. 29. in 9. Gen. Ezek. 18.3 . De Monog . Lib. de pictate . Ovid. Cicero lib. 4. de Nat. Deor. L. Sancim●n . C. de poeni● . 2 Pet. 2.5 . Sen. lib. 3. Quaest. Natur. ● . 3. Job 14.14 . Lib. 4. contra Julianum . In Sophisticâ . Homines naturâ sunt mali : & non possunt induci ut justitiam colant . lib. 2. de Rep. Job 15.14 . In 50. Psal. Hom. 2. Stob. Senec. ep . 94 ▪ Catech. 9. Contra Celsum lib. 4. Cap. 3. homil . 50. Li. 17. c. 1 Lib. 6. Prooem . Fertur equis Auriga , neque audi● currus habenas . Eccles. Hier. c. 3. Part. 3. In Hortens . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Macar . hom . 2● S. Chrys. in cap. 6. Ephes. Dial. cum Tryph. Lib. 1. de nupt . & Concup . c. 23. Lib. 2. ad Julian . Ibid. Jam. 1.13 . Arist. 2. Topic. ●● . 3. 〈◊〉 . 1. c. 2. Isocrat . ep . ad Tim. Gregoras , lib. 5. c. 81. 2 Kings 23.26 Eurip. Or●st . Esdras 2.3.21.22 . Eccl. 7.29 . Ver. 20. Psal. 51.5 , 7 , 10. Psal. 14.1 , 2 , 3. V. 7. Job 14.10 , &c. Job 15.14 . V. 24. V. 31. Job 16.15 . Rom. 7.24 . 6.22 . V. 12 , 14. 1 Cor. 15.45 , &c. Ad 7. Rom. Homil. 13. Prudentius in Apotheosi . Lib. 1. advers . gentes . In cap. 7. Rom. Lib. 4. contr . Parmen . Rom. 7. 1 Cor. 15. Heb. 9.8 . & 7.27 . & 5.2 , 3. Homil. 5. Lib. 4. contra duas epist. Pelag. c. 4. De Civ . Dei. lib. 18. Lib. de h●res●● ▪ c. 18. Orat. in sanctum baptis . Quaest. 114. in cap. 5. Rom. De verb. Apost . Serm. 25. Lib. 3. decretat . tit . de bapt . & ejus ●ffectu : cap. majores . 17 Tom. 3. serm . de Nativ . B. Mariae . in Concit . const . lib. 4. dist . 4. q. 2. in 3. Thom. q. 68. Act. 1.2.11 . S. Ignatius . Dionysius Areopag . cap. 3. part . 3. Justin Martyr . Quest. 88. Quest. 88. Theophilus Antiochenus ad Autolycum . l. 2. Clemens Alexandrinus . Stromat . lib. 6. Stromat . lib 4. pag. 535. edit ▪ Morellianae . pag. 506. pag. 468. Tertullian . Lib. de animâ , cap. 39 , 40. Lib. de testimon . anim . adv . G●ntes , c. 3. De habitu muliebri , c. 1. Lib. de animâ , c. 20. Cap. 9. Cap. 21. S. Cyprian . lib. 3. Ep. 8. ad Fidum . Arnobius . In comment . in Psal. 50. S. Ambros. Lib. 6. biblioth . sanct . annot . 136. S. Chrysostom homil . 10. in Rom. Hom. 17. in 1 Cor. Ibid. hom . 29. Homil. ad Neophyt●s . Theodoret. in 5. Rom. Vide eundem ●n exposit . Psal. 50. Tom. 4. l. 5. c. 17. de amiss . gratiae & Ibid. c. 2. sect . sect . unum hoc loco . & ex hi● tribus . Lib. de Bapt. tract . 3. in cap. 5. hom . ● . Aug. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Lib. 4. Instit. c. 24. Medea apud Eurip. Rom. 5.6 . Rom. 7.7 . Rom. 7.15 , 19. V. 15. V. 18. 1 John 4.4 . Serm. 43. & 45. de tempore . Rom. 7 . 1● . Verse 23. Rom. 6.20 . Rom. 8.9 ▪ 2 Cor. 3.17 . Rom. 7.23 . Rom. 7.13 , 14. & 8.3 . 2 Cor. 3.6 , 7 , 8. Gal. 5.18 . Rom. 7.9 . Rom. 8.13 . Verse 20. John 14.23 . Rom. 8.11 . 2 Cor. 6.16 . Eph. 3.17 . & 2.22 . 2 Tim. 1.14 . Ver. 17 , 18. Gal. 2.20 . Rom. 6.11 , 12 , 14. Rom. 7.14 . Rom. 8.7 . V. 8. V. 9. V. 5. Gal. 5.24 . Rom. 8. D● resur . Dom. V. 14. 1 Cor. 3.1 , 2 , 3. Ver. 15. & 19. Serm. 43. & 45. de temp . Haeres . 64. contra Origen . Ibid. Lib. 3. c. 22. Rom. 7.15 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Ver. 18. Ver. 11. James 1.15 . Ver. 5. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Verse 18 * 1 Cor. 10.29.30 . & 4.6 . & 6 . 1● . & 13 2. Gal. 2.18 ‖ Ver. 9. Ver. 8. 9. Ver. 5.14 . 20. 23. Acts 3.26 . 1 Pet. 2.24 . Lib. de pudicit . c. 17. In cap. 7. ad Rom. (a) Lib. 1. de Baptism . & in moral . sum . 23. c. 2. & quaest . 16. quaest . expl . compend . (b) In hunc locum , & in cap 8. ad Rom. (c) Contra Julian . lib. 3. & de rectâ fide ad Regin . lib. 1. & in epist. prior . ad Successum . (d) Homil. 1. (e) In hunc locum . (f) In cap. 9. Dan. (g) In hunc locum . Gal. 5.18 . Acts 13.48 . Rom. 2.14 . 17. * Ah Hebr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 anima sensitiva . Col. 2.18 . Rom. 8.7 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grae. Hebrais 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 8.2 . Rom. 7.22 , 23. * Rom. 7.22 , 23. & 8.5 , 7 , 9. Gal. 5.16 , 17 , 18. Ver. 13. 1 John 5.4 , 5. Jam. 4.7 . 1 John 4. Eph. 6.11 , 13. Mark 9.23 . Phil. 4.13 . Eph. 3.20 . Rom. 8.13.5.37 . Jude 24. Caus. 24. q. 1. C. Schisma . 1 Cor. 2.14 . Prudent . John 14.17 . 2 Pet. 2.21 . Rom. 1.18 . 2 Cor. 5.11 . Luke 13.14 . Rom. 8.9 . Psal. 1.2 . Psal. 119.77.103 . Aug. l. de . Contin . c. 2. S. Aug. ibid. Rom. 8.14 . 13. Rom. 8.16 . Mat. 26.41 . Lib. 6.13 . De agriculturá . Gal. 5.24 . L. Auxil . Sect. in delictis●ff . de minoribus . L. Vnicâ Cod. si adversus delictum . Bibl. PP . tom . 9. p. 286. Rom. 14.1 , 10. Comoed. vet . Gr. James 4.17 . John 10.41 . A. Gellius 19 ▪ 12. & 17.15 . Enchir. c. 28. Lib. 6. contr . Julian . c. 9. S. Ambr. de poenit . l. 1. c. 2. Lib. 2. de poenit . S. Hierom. Epist . ad Ocean . Exod. 34.6 . Psal. 103. per totum & 128. Isa. 55.7 , 8. Jer. 18.7 , 8. Ezek. 18.21 , 22. & 33.11 . Dan. 4.27 . Mal. 3.7 . Joel 2.13 . Jonah 4.2 . & 3.9 . Mat. 18.15 , 16. John 20.23 . 2 Cor. 7.10 . Gal. 6.1 . Jam 1.15 , 16 , 19 , 20. 1 John 2.11 . & 1.9 . Rev. 2.5 . & 3.1 , 2 , 3 , 19 , 20. 1 John 2.2 , 3. Lib. 1. de poenit . c. 2. In solenni Petri & Pauli Ser. 3. Gemara de Synedrio , c. 11. Luke 15.7 . L. 65. D. de furtis , & l. 1. D. de Aedilitio edicto . Gal. 6.1 . James 5.15 . Acts 8.22 . Apocal. 2.16 . Ver. 5. Ver. 21. Vide Great Exemplar , Part 1. Disc. of Baptism , pag. 175. &c. 2 Cor. 12.21 . De pud●● &c. 9. Lib. 4. c. Paran . ad poenit . S. Cyprian . ep . 52. Heb. 6.4 , 5.6 . Vbi supra . (a) De poenit . (b) Can. 7. (c) Lib. 2. de poenit . c. 10. (d) Ep. 54. (e) Ep. 53. Hom. 15. in 25. cap. Levit. Stromat . lib. 2. Epist. 52. Arelat . 1. c. 23. Innocent . epist. ad Exuper . Salvian . * Sect. 4 Lib. 1. c. 9. Hae saepissime conversae ad Ecclesiam Dei confessae sunt , & secundum corpus exterminatas se ab eo , velut cupidine , &c. * Strom. 4. Apud Spartian . Epist. 54 Lib. 4. cap. 14. * Sacrificant , po●iùs legend . Epist. 31. Quos separatos à nobis derelinquimus , &c. Lib. 1. de poenit . c. 2. Prov. 20.9 . S. Ambros. lib. 2. de poenit . c. 9 ▪ Ench●r . 6. Ad Dan. 1 Tim. 5.22 . Heb. 6.4 , 5 , 6. Heb. 10.26 , 27. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Mart. Ep. l. 4 , Ep. 16. Heb. 10.26 . 1 John 3.9 . Gal. 5.17 . Dial. contr . Tryph. Mat. 12.32 . Vers. 36. Numb . 15.30 ▪ 1 Sam. 2.15 . * Vide infra numb . 66. Quaest. 71. to 2 ▪ S. Chrysost. in 1 Cor. hom . 8. In allegor . Vid. etiam Caesar . Arelat . hom . 42. quaedam ad hans rem spectantia . L. 4. Cod. Theod. ne sacrum baptisma iteretùr . 1 Cor. 11.27 . Prov. 1.23 , 26 , 28. Mat. 12.15 . Vide supra Num. 53. * Vide Cyprian . lib. 3. ep . 14. & l. 3. ep . 15. & 16. & de laps●s . Rom. 5.10 . Virg. Andriâ . Serm. 7. de tempor . 1 John 1.9 . De Abel & Cain , l. 2. c. 9. (a) Lib. 1. c. ult . (b) Cap 37. (c) Cap. 11. Psal. 36.5 . In Ep. ad Heb. h●m . 31. * In Lucae cap. 22. & Serm. 46. Collat. 20. c. 8. Cap. 33. & habetur de poenit . dist . 1. cap. 90. De poe●●it . h●in . 1. Biblioth . pp. tom . 2. Psal. 51.4 . In Psal. 135. Joshua 7.19 . 20. In 1 Cor. hom . 28. Psal. 95.2 . Acts 20.21 . * Sess. 14. c. 4. Regul . Brev. 229. Ovid. Lib. 1. Trist. ●leg . 3. Hom. 10. in Num. Regul . ●us . e●plic . & Regul . brev . 228. Enchirid. c. 6● . Jer. 7.16 . Lib. 3. de baptism . cap. 16. Tertio tomo con . Gall. c. 8. & 11. Cap. 16. & 17. Can. 4. Can. 72. Can. 11. De divers . offi● . c. 13. & 16. Lib. 3. Ep. 17. 2 Cor. 2.10 . de Consecrat . dist . 4. cap. Sanctum . Isaac Lin. tit . 1. c. 16. Can. 78. In 16. Mat. Sess. 14. c. 4. De poenit . c. 12. De lapsis . L. de degm . Eccl●s . De poenit . c. 9. Tertul. de poenit . Serm. de lapsis . Paran . ad Poenit . Hom. in die Ciner . De poenit . c. 9. Vide Ciceron . Tuscul. 4. Serm. de lapsis . De poenit . c. 9. Dan. 4. Prov , 16.6 . Ecclus. 3.30 . 1 Pet. 4.8 . Tob. 12.9 . Luke 11.41 . Vide Rule of Holy Dying , c. 2. Sect. 3. ●act . l. 6. S. Cypria● . ep●st . 8. & epist. 26. Homil. 50. c. 15. Sat. 13. Jam. 5.16 . In Psal. 36. Hom. 1. Vide Chap. 6. n. 42. Euseb. li. 6. c. ●● Notes for div A71177-e315210 Sue●on . in vi●● liber . c. 54. Instit. l. 3. c. 23. S●ct . 7 Vi●d . Grat. l. 1. p. d●gres . 4. c. 3. Disp. 18. Inst. lib. 3. cap. 23. Sect. 23. Lib. 1. ad Bonifac . c. 2. Doctr. and Pract. of Repent . Plinius Ep. 12. lib. Psal. 56. by Bp. King. * Vide August . de Gestis Pal●stin . & lib. de Natur. & grat . c. 21. opus impe●f . in Julian . l. 1. c. 54. & lib. de peccat . Orig. c. 21. 1 King. 1.21 . Zech. 14.19 . 2 Cor. 5.21 . Isai. 53.10 . Heb. 9.28 . 1 King. 1.21 . Rom. 5.12 , &c. Notes for div A71177-e329590 1 Cor. 13. Rom. 14. Ephes. 4.2 , 3. 1 Cor. 1.10 . Rom. 14. 1 Cor. 8.1 . Vers. 7. 1 Cor. 10.29 . Ibid. v. 33. Colos. 3.14 Ad Scapul . B. Bruno Berengarines è sua d●oe●eh expulit , non morti au● supplic●is corporalibus tradidit . * Clem. Alex. stromat . 1. ait Philosophiam liberam esse praestantissimam , quae scil . versatur in perspicaciter seligendis dogmatis omnium Sectarum . Polamo Alexdrimus philosophatus est , ut ait Laertius in Proaemio , unde cognominatus est , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , scil . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Commin . l. ● . c. 19. Aristoph . in Pluto . 2 Tim. 2. Notes for div A71177-e332610 * Optat. lib. 3. Matth. 16.19 . 1 John 4.2 , 15. John 20.31 . a Apol. contr . Gent. c. 47. de veland . virg . c. 1. b In exposit . Symbol . c Serm. 5. de tempore , c. 2. d In Symbol . apud Cyprian . e Omnes Orthodoxi Patres affirmant Symbolum ab ipsis Apostolis conditum , Sext. Senensis , lib. 2. bibl . 5. vide Genebr . l. 3. de Trin. * Vide Isidor . de eccl . offic . lib. 1. cap. 20. Suidan . Turnebum . lib. 2. c. 30. advers . Venant . For. in Exag . Symb. Fevardent . in Iren. lib. 1. c. 2. Contra haeres . cap. 32. * Vide Jacob. Almain . in 3. Sent. d. 25. Q. unic . Dub. 3. Pate● ergo , quod nulla veritas est Catholica ex approbatione Ecclesiae vel Papae , Gabr. Biel. in 3. Sent. Dist. 25. q. Unic . art . 3. Dub. 3. ad finem . Bellar. de laicit l. 3. c. 20. Sect. ad primam confirmationem . Lib. de veland . Virg. Euseb. l. 4. Eccles. hist. c. 5. Act. 21.20 . L. 3.32 . Eccl. Hist. 1 Tim. 1. 1 Tim. 1. * Quid igitur credulitas vel sides ? opinor sideliter hominem Christo credere , id est , fidelem Deo esse , hoc est fideliter Dei mandata servare . So Salvian . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . That 's our Religion , or Faith , the whole manner of serving God , C. de summâ Trinit . & fide Cathol . * Alieni sunt à veritate qui se obarment multitudine . Chrys. Lib. 2. Epist. 1. * Vid. Hilar. lib. 1. de Trin. Ad C●esip●● . Epist. de Fabiano lapso . * L. 4. Stromat . † L. 3. c. 26. Hist. L. 1. c. 23. L. 1. c. 24. * Simpliciter pateat vitium fortasse pusillum , Quod tegitur majus creditur esse malum . Martial . * D. Thom. l. contr . ge●t . ● . 21. * Euthym. part . 1. tit . 21. Epiphan . haeres . 64. * Philastr . 99. eos inter haereticos numerat qui spiraculum vitae in libro Genes . interpretantur animam rationalem , & non potiùs gratiam Spiritûs sancti . * Vid. S. Aug. l. 2. c. 6. de bapt . contra Do●●● . Adv. hares . c. 11 ▪ Socra . l. 1. c. 8. Lib. 1. c. 6. Cap. 7. Vide Sozomen . lib. 2. c. 18. Socrates lib. 1. cap. 26. * Non imprudenter dixit , qui curiosae explicationi hujus mysterii dictum Aristonis Philosophi applicuit Helleborus niger si crassiùs sumatur purgat & sanat . Quum autem teritur & comminuitur , suffocat . Epist. ad Epict. Evagr. l. 3. c. 14. * Vide Hosium de author . S. Script . l. 3. p. 53. & Gordon . Huntlaeum , Tom. 1. controv . 1. de ver●o Dei , cap. 19. Vid. Gretser & Tanner in colloq . Ratisbon . Eusebium fuisse Arrianum ait Perron . lib. 3. cap. 2. contre le Roy Jaques : Idem ait Origenem negasse Divinitatem silii & Spir. S. l. 2. c. 7. de Euchar. contra Duplessis . Idem cap. 5. obser . 4. ait . Irenae●●● talia dixisse quae qui hodiè diceret , pro Arriano reputaretur : Vide etiam Fisher in resp . ad 9. Quaest. Jacobi Reg. & Epiphan . in haeres . 69. 2 Pet. 2.1 . D. Tho. 22. q. 1. artic . 1. ad 3 um . Bulla Pii quarti supra forma juramenti professionis fidei , in sin . Conc. Trid. L. 10. de Trin. ad finem . Concil . tom . 4. Edit . Paris . p. 473. 2.2 ae . q. 11.10 . cap. Orthod . fidei . lib. 4. c. 18. a Super Psal. 88. & de util . cred . c. 6. b Super Isa. c. 19. & in Psal. 86. c Homil. 3. in Thes. Ep. 2. d Serm. de confess . e Miscel. 2. l. 1. tit . 46. f In Gen. ap . Struch . p. 87. g C. 6. c. 21. h Ad Antioch . l. 2. p. 918. i par . 1. q. art . * Graeci corruperunt novum Testamentum ut testantur Tertul. l. 5. adv . Marcion . Euseb. l. 5. Hist. c. ult . Irenae . l. 1. c. 29. adv . haeres . Basil. l. 2. contr . Eunomium . * Lib. 12 Confess . cap. 26. Lib. 11. de Civit. Dei c. 19. L. 3. de doctrinâ Christ. cap. 27. Hieron . in Matth. 13. * Sic Hieron . In adolescenti● prov●catus ardore & studio Scripturarum allegoricè interpretatus sum Abdiam Prophetam , cujus historiam nesciebam . De Sensu Allegorico S. Script . dixit Basilius , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . L. 20. de Civ . Dei , c. 7. praefa● . L. 19. in Isai. & in c. 36. Ezek. Bellar. l 5. de pontif . c. 3. Sect. respondeo primó . De doctri . Christian. lib. 3. In Commonit . L. 2. de doctr . Christian. c. 6. Vincent . Lirinens . in Commonitor . Epist. 118. ad Januar. De bapt . contr . Donat. lib. 4. c. 24. Lib 1. hist c. 8. * Vide Petav. in Epiph. her . 69. † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Justin. Mart. dial . ad Tryp . ●ud . † Euseb. l. 5. c ▪ ult . Can. 2. L. 5. d ▪ baptism . contr . Donat. c. 23. Lib. 1. de baptism . c. 18. De peccat . original . l. 2. c. 40. contra Pelag● . & Caelest . Cap. 29. de ●pir . Sancto . Contra Marcion De coron . milit . c. 3. & 4. Apud Euseb. l. 5. c. 24. Lib. 3. c. 4. L. 1. Stromat . L. 2. c. 39. Omnes Seniores testantur qui in Asia apud johannem Discipulum Domini convenerunt id ipsum tradidisse eis Johannem , &c. & qui alios Apostolos viderunt haec eadem ab ipsis audierunt , & testantur de ejusmedi relatione . Salmeron . disput . 51. in Rom. Lib. 5. cap. 20. Vid. Irenae . l. 3. & 4. cont . haeres . 2. Pet. 1.13 . Dialog . adv . Lucifer . De sacr . hom . continent . li. 5. c. 105. De Tradit . part . 3. c. de Author . Can. Apost . Apud Gratian. dist . 16. c. Canones . Lib 1. c. 18. de Orthod . fide . * Vid. Card. Perron . lettre ●u Sieur Casaubon . L. 3. c. 2. contr . haeres . a Orat. ad Nicen . PP . apud . Theodor. l. 1. c. 7. b In Mat. l. 4. c. 23. & in Aggaeum . De bono viduel . c. 1. d Orat. cont . Genr. e In Psal. 132. f L. 2. contra heres . tom . 1. haer . 61. g 1 Cor. 4. * Vid Optat. Milev . l. 5. adv . Parm. Baldvin . in . eundem . & S. August . in ps . 21. Expos. 2. Relect. controv . 4. q. 1. a. 3. I. 2. ad Constant . Apud Theod. l. 1. c. 7. Concord . Cathol . l. 2. c. 10. L. 2. c. 14. Concord . Cathol . Epist. Abailardi ad Heliss . conjugem . * Cusanus , l. 2. cap. 25. Concord . * Dist. 40. Can. si Papa . De laicis l. 3. c. 20. Sect. ad hoc ult . Evag. lib. 3. cap. 30. * Vid. postea de Concil . Sinvessano . Sect. 6. N. 9. Epist. 162. ad Glorium . * Vid. Concil . Chalced. act . 15. Act. ult . can . 21. * Vid. Socr. l. 2. c. 5. & Sozom . l. 3. c. 5. Gregor . in Regist. li. 3. caus . 7. ait Concilium Numidiae errâsse . Concilium Aquisgrani erra●it . De raptore & rapta dist . 20. can . de libellis . in glossa . Bellar. de conc . l. 1. c. 8. Sess. 25. Act. 2. Can. 82. L. 17. de cul . Dei , c. 20. L. 2. de bapt . Donat. c. 3. L. 2. de Conc. c. 8. Sect. respondeo inprimis . * Ibid. Sect. de Concilio autem . Dist. 20. Can. Domino Sancto . * Pro [ cùm esset in bello Persarum ] legi volunt [ cùm reversus esset è bello Persarum . ] Euseb. Chronicon . Vide Binium in notis ad Concil . Sinuessanum , Tom. 1. Concil . & Baron . Annal. Tom. 3. A.D. 303. num . 107. a L. 5. Ep. 14. ad Narsem . Comment . in Hebr. a Con. Carthag . VI. cap. 9 b Con. Afric . c Ibid. c. 102. c. 133. d Lib. 1. Eccl. Hist. c. 6. e In princ . Con. de Synod . princ . f Baronius , tom . 3. A. D. 325. n. 156. Tom. 3. ad A. D. 325. n. 62 , 63. g Panopl . lib. 2. c. 6. Dist. 34. can . omnibus . Cap. 3. a Par. 3. q. 80. a. 6. ad 3 m. b Can. 72. c Can. ego Berengar . de consecrat . dist . 2. Lib. 2. c. 8. de Concil . * Illa demum eis videntur edicta & Conciliaquae in rem suam faciunt ; reliqua non pluris aestimant quàm conventum muliercularum in textrina velthermis . Lud. Vives in Scholiis l. 20. Aug. de Civ . Dei. c. 26. 36. q. 2. c placuit . Par. 1. de election . & elect . potest . c. significasti . Athanas. lib. de Synod . Frustrà igitur circumcursitantes praet●xunt ob sidem se Synodos postulare , cùm sit Divina Scriptura omnibus potentior . Heb. 13.7 . Vid. S. August . l. 1. c. 18. de bapt . contra Donat. * So did the third Estate of France in the Convention of the three Estates under Lewis the 13th . earnestly contend against it . Epist. ad Norimberg . Patrum & avorum nostrorum tempore pauci audebant dicere Papam esse supra Concilium , l. 1. de gestis Concil . Basil. a Irenae . contra haeres . l. 3. c. 3. * Ambr. de obitu Salyri , & l. 1. Ep. 4. ad Imp. Cyp. Ep. 52. b Cyp. Ep. 55. ad Cornel. c S. Austin in Psal. contra partem Donat. d Hieron . Ep. 57. ad Damasum . e L. 2. contra Parmenian . 2. 2 ae q. 2. a. 6. ar . 6. ad 3 m. L. 4. de Rom. Pont. c. 3. sect . 1. Caus. 21. cap. à recta . q. 1.29 . dist . Anastasius 60. dist . si Papa . Tra. 50. in Joann . Li. 1. Epist. 3. De agone Christi c. 30. Epist. ad Athanas . apud Athanas . tom . 1. pag. 42. Paris . L. 10. Epist. 83 ▪ M. 4. Sent. dist . 24. a Ad Philadelph . b Sele●c . orat . 25. c L. 6. de ●●init . d De Trinitate advers . Judaeos . L. 3. Ep. 33. In 1. Ep. Joann . ● . 10. g De Trinit l 4. h L. 1. Ep. 235. * Epist. ad Philadelph . In c. 16. Matt. tract . 1. a Defens . pacis part . 2. c. 28. b Recommend . sacr . Script . Vid. Socrat. l. 1. c. 19 , 20. Sozom. l. 2. c. 14 Niceph. l. 14. c. 40. Vid. Cameracens . Qu. vespert . S. Chrysost. hom . 3. in act . Apost . De Rom. Pon● ▪ l. 4. c. 2. Sect. secunda s●ntentia . Ep. Firmiliani cont . Steph. ad Cyp. Vide etiam Ep. Cypriani ad Pompeium . Cyprian . Epist. ad Quintum fratrem . De Script . Eccles . in Fortunatian . * Vbi illa Augustini & reliquorum prudentia ? quis jam ferat crassissimae ignorantiae illam vocem in tot & tantis Patribus ? Alan . Cop. dialog . p. 76 , 77. Vide etiam Bonifac . II. Ep. ad Eulalium Alexandrinum ; Lindanum Panopsi , l. 4. c. 89. in fine ▪ Salmeron Tom. 12. tract . 68. sect ad Canonem ; Sander . de visibili Monarchia , l. 7. n. 411. Baron . Tom. 10. A. D. 878. Tract . de interdict . compos . à Theol. Venet. prop. 13. Lib. advers . Praxeam . Vid. Liberal . in breviario , cap. 22. Durand . 4. dist . 7. q. 4. Quae. de confirm . art . ult . 3. dist . 24. q. unic●· A. D. 357. n. 44. * Dist. 19. c. 9. L. 4. Ep. 2. Vid. Corranz . Sum. Concil . fol. 218. edit . Antwerp . * Cap. per venerab . qui filii sint legitimi . Dist. 15. apud Gratian. De Sacerd. barb . Vide diatrib . de act . 6. & 7 ae Synod . praefatione ad Lectorem , & Dominicum Bannes 22 ae . q. 1. a. 10. dub . 2. Picus Mirand . in exposit . theorem . 4. L. 2. c. 30. ubi ●uprà , sect . est ergó . * Vide Alphons . à Cast. l. 1. adv . haeres . c. 4. hoc lemma riden●em affabre . Vid. etiam Innocentium Ser. 2. de consecrat . Pontif. act . 7.8 ae Synodi , & Concil . 5. sub Symmadio . Vide Collat. 8. can . 12. ubi P P. judicialem sententiam P. Vigilii in causa trium Capitulorum damnârunt expressé . Extrav . comm . Extrav . grave , Tit. X. De Angelo custod ▪ fol. 59. de consecrat . dist . 3. can pronunciand ▪ gloss . verb. Nativ ▪ * Hâc in perpetuum valiturâ constitutione statuimus , &c. De reliquiis , &c. Extrav . Com. Sixt. 4. cap. 1. L. 2. de Concil . cap. 5. De Pontif. Rom. c. 14. Sect. respondeo . In 3. sent . d. 24. q. in cont . 6. dub . 6. in sine . * Proverbialiter ●lim dictum erat de Decretalibus , Malè cum rebus humanis actum esse , ex quo Decre●is alae accesse●unt ; scil . cùm Decretales post Decretum Gratiani sub nomine Gregorii noni edebantur . † De Authorit . Eccles. cap. 10. in sine . * L. 1. ca. 4. advers . haeres . edit . Paris . 1534. In seqq . non expurgantur ista verba , at idem sensus manet . * Sess. ult . a Q. 60. ad Christian. b Lib. 5. c Hom. 7. in Levit. d Hom. 39. in 1 Cor. e In c. 11. ad Heb. f In c 6. Apoc. g In 16. c. Luc. h Lib. 4. adv . Marc. i L. 2. de Cain . c. 2. k Ep. 111. ad Fortunatian . l In Psal. 138. m De exeq . defunctor . n L. 7. c. 21. o In c. 6. Apoc. p Serm. 3. de omn. sanctis . Vid. etiam S. Aug. in Enchir. c. 108. & l. 12. de civ . Dei , c. 9. & in Ps. 36. & in l. 1. retract . c. 14. Vid. insuper testimonia quae collegit Spalat . l. 5. c. 8. n. 98. de repub . Eccl. & Sixt. Senens . l. 6. annot . 345. q In oper . 90 di●rum . r Serm. de Pasch. s In 4. sent . q. 13. a. 3. t In 4. de Sacram . confirma● . De consecrat . dist . 4. c. à quodam Judaeo . In c. 10. Act. † Ep. 340. * Vid. Epist. Bonifacii II. apud Nicolinum , Tom. 2. Concil . pag. 544. & exemplar precum Eulalii apud eundem , ibid. p. 525. Qui anathematizat omnes decisores suos qui in ea causa Romae se opponendo rectae fidei regulam praevaricati sunt , inter quos tamen●fuit Augustinus , quem pro maledicto Caelestinus tacitè agnoscit , admittendo sc. exemplar precum . Vid. Doctor . Mart. de jurisdict . part . 4. p. 273. & Erasm. annot . in Hieron . praefat . in Daniel . De verbo Dei l. 3. c. 10. Sect. Dices . Strom. l. 3. & 6. Apol. Athanas. ad Constant. Vid. Baron . A. D. 553. * Vid. Baron . in Annal. L. 1. de imag . orat . 1. * Nom●can . tit . 1. cap. 3. * V. Beda de gratia Christi adv . Julianum . Greg. Arim. in 2. sent . dist . 26. q. 1 , 2 , 3. Can. 2. Euseb. l. 4. c. 23 Act. 8. vid. etiam Synod . 7. act . 4. Annot. Cyprian . super Concil . Carthag . n. 1. Vid. Ind. Expurg . Belg. in Bertram . & Flandr . Hispan . Portugal . Neopolitan . Romanum ; Junium in praefat . ad Ind. Expurg . Belg. Hasenmullerum , pag. 275. Withrington . Apolog. num . 449. * Videat Lector Andream Cristovium in Bello Jesuitico , & ●oh . Reinolds in lib. de idol . Rom. † Vid. Ep. Nicolai ad Mi●chael . Imperat. Theod. l. 2. c. 16. hist. Tom. 2. Ezek. 33. Matt. 15.10 . Joh. 5.39 . 1 Joh. 4.1 . Eph. 5.17 . Luk. 24.25 . Rom. 3.11 . & 1.28 . Apoc. 2.2 . Act. 17.11 . Lib. 3. Vid. Paulum Diaconum . In cap. 6. Johan . L. 20. c. 3. cont . Faustum Man. L. 1. c. ult . de Imagin . De reliq . SS . l. 2. c. 6. Sect. Nicolaus . L. 1. c. 8. adv . haer . Optima rati eà quae magno as sensu recepta sunt ; quorúmque exempla multa sunt ; nec ad rationem , sed ad similitudinem , vivimus . Sen. Vid. Min. Fel. Octav. * Stapleton prompt . Moral . pars aestiva , p. 627. Vid. Baron . A.D. 68. n. 22. Philostrat . l. 4. p. 485. Compend . Ced . p. 202. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isid. Pelus . Vid. L. 11. loc . Theol. cap. 6. Canus ibid. * Viz. De duo●us spur . altero ▪ decedente , alter● in vitam redeunte post viginti dies ; quam in aliis nominibus ridet Lucianus . Vide etiam argumentum Gilberti Cognati , in Annotat . in hunc Dialog . Vid. Palaeot . de Sacra sindone , par . 1. Epist. ad Lector . John 7. Cont. Fund . c. 4. Orat. 21. 2 Tim. 3. Gal. ● . * Quo comperto illi in nostram perniciem licentiore audaciâ grassabuntur . S. Aug. ep . ad Donat. Pr●cons . & Contr. ep . Fund . Ità nunc debeo sustinere & tantâ patientiâ vobiscum agere , quantâ mecum egerunt proximi mei cùm in vestro dogmate rabiosus ac caecus errarem . * Vide S. Chrysost . homil . 47. in Cap. 13. Matth. & S. August . Quaest. in cap. 13. Matt. S. Cyprian . Ep. lib. 3. Ep. 1. Theophyl . in ●3 . Matt. † S. Hieron . in cap. 13. Matth. ait per hanc ●arabolam signi●icari , nè in re●us dubi● praeceps siat ●udicium . * Illi in vos saeviant qui nesciunt cum quo labore verum inveniatur , & quàm difficilè caveantur errores . Illi in vos saeviant qui nesciunt quàm rarum & arduum sit carnalia phantasmata piae mentis serenitate superare . Illi in vos saeviant qui nesciunt quibus & suspiriis & gemitibus fiat ut ex quantulacunque parte possit intelligi Deus . Postremò , illi in vos saeviant qui nullo tali errore decepti sunt quali vos deceptos vident . S. August . Cont. Ep. Fund . * Ejusmodi fuit Hipponensium conversio , cujus quidem species decepit August . ità ut opinaretur haereticos , licèt non morte trucidandos , vi tamen coercendos . Experientia enim demonstravit eos tam facilè ad Arianismum transiisse atque ad Catholicismum , cùm Ariani Principes rerum in ea civitate potirentur . l. 3. cap. 3. De praescript . Lib. ad Quirinum . in hunc locum . ibidem . Sozom. l. 1. cap. 20. Socrates l. 1. cap. 26. Cont. Crescon . Grammat . lib. 3. cap. 50. Vid ●ntiam Epist. 158. & 159. & lib. 1. cap. 29. cont . tit . Petilian . Vide etiam Socrat. lib. 3. cap. 3. & cap. 29 Lib. 2. cap. 5. retractat . vid. Ep. 48. ad Vincent . script . post retract . & Ep. 5● . ad Boni● . a Ad Scapulam . b Lib. 3. Ep. 1. Epist. c l. 5. c. 2● . d In cap. 13. Matth. & in cap. 2. Hos. e In vit . S. Martin . f Octav. g Cont. Auxent . Arr. h 3. Sect. C. 32. i In cap. 13. Matth. hom . 4. k In Evang. Matth. l In verba Apost . fides ex auditu . * Ep. 1. ad Turbium . ● L. 1. Ep. ●2 . Apud Aug. l. 1. c. 7. cont . Ep. Parmenian . & l. 2. c. 10. cont . tit . Petilian . Apud Euseb. de vita Constant . Vide Socr. l. 7. c. 12. Vid. Cod. de haeretic . L. Manichees , & leg . Arriani , & l. Quicunque . * Apud Paulum Diac. l. 16. & l. 24. Serm. de Anathemate . * Humani juris & naturalis potestatis , unicuique quod pa●averit colere . Sed nec religioni● est cogere religionem , quae suscip● spont● debet , non vi . Tertul. ad Scapulam . * Dextera praecipuè capit indulgentia mentes ; Asperitas odium saevaque bella ●ar●● . * Exstat prudens monitum Mecaenatis apud Dionem Cassium ad ●ugustum in haec verba ; Fos vero qui in Divinis aliquid innovant odio habe , & coerce , non deorum solùm causâ , sed quia nova numina hi tales introducentes multos impellunt ad mutationem rerum : unde conjurationes , seditiones , Conciliabula exsistunt , res profecto minimè conducibiles principatui . Et legibus quoque expressum est , quod in religionem committitur in omnium fertur injuriam . Serm. 10. de verb. Apost . Resp. ad Orthodoxos . Act. 2.38 , 39. In Rom. 6. tom . 2 pag. 543. Serm. 10. de verb. Apost . c. 2.4 Instit. cap. 16. sect . 8. L. 3. Epist. 8. ad Fidum . John. 4.53 . In com●●nd . Can. 〈◊〉 . 4. De rebus Eccles. c. 26. Quidni necesse es● ( sic legit Franc ▪ Junius in notis ad Tertul. ) sponsores etiam periculo ingeri , qui & ipsi per mortalitatem destituere promissiones suas possint , & proventu malae indolis falli ? Tertul . lib. de Baptis . cap. 18. Lib. de Baptis . prope finem cap. 18. Itaque pro personae cujusque conditione ac dispositione , etiam aetate , cunctatio baptismi utilior est , praecipuè tamen circa parvulos — Fiant Christiani cum Christum nôsse potuerint . * Orat. 40. quaest . in S. Baptisma . Mark. 16.16 . Rom. 6.3 . vers . 4. vers . 5. vers . 6. 1 Pet. 3.21 . Vide Erasmum in pr●fa● . ad Annotat . in Matth. Exod. 13. John 6.53 . * Et in Serm. ad Infantes , apud V. Bedam ●n 1. Cor. 10. John 6.63 . See the disc . of the Real presence , Section 3. 2 Chro. 15.13 . Acts 2.38 , 39. 1 Cor. 12.4 , 5 , 6. 1 Cor. 12.9 , 10. 1 Cor. 15 23. 2 Cor. 13.14 . 1 Cor. 12.13 . 1 Cor. 12.13 . * See the Great Exemplar , part 1. disc . of Baptism , numb . 8 , 9 , 10. * Disc. of Baptism of Infants , versus finem , in the Great Exemplar , part 1. p. 202 , &c. Matth. 9.28 . Mar. 9.23 . Mat. 8.13 . Joh. 4.50 . Gal. 3.27 . Eph. 4.24 . L. 7. Strom. Cicero de senectute . Act. 18.14 . 2 Tim. 1.18 . De corona milit . c. 3. & de monogam . c. 10. * Ep. 66. Deut. 13. Cap. 11. Vid. Pacian . Epist. ad Sempron . 2. L. 2. c. 95. contra liter . ●etilian . Euseb. l. 5. c. 25 , 26. Aquin. 2.2 . q. 37. a. 1. Notes for div A71177-e369910 ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . De Miraculis S. Benedict . l. 1. c. 1.14 . Notes for div A71177-e370920 De Divin . Offic. l. 5. c. 17. * Vindic. Ecclesiast . Hierarch . per Franc. Hal●●er . Cap. 9. De fide & operibus . De Sacram. disp . 3. q. uni● . punct . 3.2 . Lib. 3. De sacram . * 1 John 2.8 . Catech●s . 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Tract . 80. in Joan. S. Hilar. can . 4. in ●ine . In 〈◊〉 . Ibid. Homil. 4. John 3.5 . S. Clem. Ep. 4. Constit. Apost . Ad Stephanum . * Homil. in Dominic . prim . post Ascens . ‖ Epist. 108. ad Seleucianum . * L. c. 27. John 7.39 . Chap. 7. v. 38. * Qu. 9. ad Heditiam . ‖ In Joan. tract . 22. Mark 16.16 . John 6. In Offic. Sab. Pasch. post orat . quae dicitur Data confirm . De Offa. divin . in Sabb. ● . Pasch. Seneca . All● 8. v. 14 , 15 ▪ 16 , 17. Ad Jubaian . Epist. 1. c. 3. Adv. Luciferi●n . Heb. 6.1 , 2. Symbol . Nican . & C P. 2 Pet. 1.9 . In hunc locum ▪ John 3.5 . Acts 2.38 . V. 39. Ephes. 1.13 . * Acts 19.6 . Lib. 2. cap. 57. 1 Cor. 12.29 . Acts 6.8 . 1 Cor. 12.7 . In Matthaum ▪ Tract . 6. in Canonicam Joan. circa med . & lib. 3. cont . Donatist . c. 6. Mark 16.17 . A.D. 170. A. D. 200. De Baptismo , c. 6. De Resur . carn . cap. 8. Vbi suprà de Bapt. De Praescrip● . cap. 36. A. D. 250. Epist. 73. Epist. 70. & 73. A.D. 200. Apud Euseb. l. 3. c. 17. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . A.D. 210. De Eccles. Hier. c. 2. Et cap. 4. A. D. 260. * Lib. 6. Hist. Eccles● . 43. Lib. 6. cap. 3. A. D. 320. A. D. 370. Adhort . ad S. lavacrum . In cap. 1. ad Ephes. Dial. adv Lucifer . Homil 18. in Act. Lib. 3. De Sacram . c. 2. In Hebr. 6. Lib. 3. cont . N●vat . Can. 38. Can. ●od . Habitur apud Gratian. de Consecrat . dist . 5. cap. jejun . Cap. 8. Can. 17. Can. 7. Homil. 18. in ●cta . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Cap. 5. Eccles. Hier. In Heb. 6. Q. 44. in N. T. * Contr. Parmen . lib. 7 ▪ Epist. ad Episc. Hispan . Voluit Deus dona illa admiranda non continger● Baptizati● nisi per manus Apostolo●um , ut Authoritatem testibus su● conciliar●● qu●in maximam ; quod ipsum simul ad retinendam Ecclesiae unitatem pertin●bat . Gro●ius . Videtur 〈◊〉 ●uisse peculiar● Apostol●rum munus dare Spiritum Sanctum . Isido● . Clarius in 8. A●tuum Apostolorum . * In Eph. 4. De Offic. Eccles. cap. 27. ● Qu. 1. cap. Qui vult 1. & 2 Epist. 2. de Episc ordinan●● . 1. Qu. 2. C. 〈◊〉 mul●● . Clenem . de 〈◊〉 . ●ap . ●n pl●●is . que . Qu. V. & N.T. Qu. 101. Lib. 2. cont . li●er . Petiliani , c. 104. Eccles. hier . cap. 2. Can. 48. S. Hieron . adv . Lucifer . ant●●ued . Cap. 1. De instit . C●oric . l. 1. c. 30. Heb. 6.2 . Palag . l. 3. c. 11 Heb. 7.7 . Hooke● Eccl. Pol lib. 5. Sect 66. A.D. 400. Catech. Myst. ● ▪ 3. Syn●dus 〈…〉 ▪ ap . d 〈…〉 Eccl. Gal. 〈◊〉 5. Lib. de Spir. S. cap. 17. Part. 3. qu. 72. art . 6. ad prim . Epist. 54. In o● us● . au● . de Confirmat . John 7.38 . Rom. 6.17 . V. 18. Serm. de Pentecoste . Habitur apud Gratian. de consecrat . dist . 5. c. Spiritus S. Tertul. advers . Marcion . l. 1. car . c. 3. Homil. 18. in Acta . Comment . in Cantic . c. 1 , 2. In Adhort . ad Baptis . Apud Euseb. 1 Cor. 12.7 . 2 Cor. 1.21 , 22. Lib. 4. de Fide , cap. 10. * Cap. 4. part . 3. De 〈…〉 . Epist. ●d Epis● . Hisp●n . O●do Rom cap. de D●● Sabba●● S. Pas●h . Al●um . De devin . offic . ● . 19. Vide Cassa● d●um Schol. ad Hym. 〈◊〉 . De consecrat . dist . 5. c. ut jejuni . A. D. 967. Consultationis cap. 9. Serm. 116. in ram● Palmarum . De lib. Ecclesiast . c. 26. Luke 4.32 . Acts 13.12 . * Orat. de Baptism . ‖ In Psal 68. De extermina● Schism Lib. 3. de Bapt. c. 16. Lib. 3. Haeret. Fabul . Cyril . Hieros . in Pr●catech . Apud Gratian. de Consecrat . dist . 5. cap. Dictum est , & cap. De homine . Concil . Toletan . 8. can . 7. Heb. 6.6 . Zonar . in Can. Laodicen . 48. * innovatum . Orat. in Sanctum lava crum . Lib. 2. contra lit . Pe●il . c. 104 ▪ Notes for div A71177-e385610 Martial . l. 8. Ep. 18. Prov. 27.10 . * Vt praestem Pyladen , aliquis mihi praestet Oresten . Hoc non fit verbis , Marce , ut ameris , ama . Mar. l. 6. Ep. 11. * Extra fortunam est , quicquid donatur amisis : Quas dederis , solus semper habebis opes . Mart. l. 5. ep . 43. Est tamen hoc vitium , sed non leve , sit licèt unum , Quòd colit ingrata● pauper amici●ias . Quis largitur opes veteri , fidóque sodali ? ep . 19. ‖ Non bellè quaedam faciunt duo : sufficit unus Huic operi● si visut loquar , ipse tase . Crede mihi , quamvis ingentia , Posthume , dones , Authoris pereunt garrulitate sui . ep . 53. Notes for div A71177-e390820 De potest . Eccles . cons. 12. Notes for div A71177-e392800 Ethic. definit . 26.